The financial position of the United States includes assets of at least $269.6 trillion (1576% of GDP) and debts of $145.8 trillion (852% of GDP) to produce a net worth of at least $123.8 trillion (723% of GDP). GDP in Q1 decline was due to foreclosures and increased rates of household saving. There were significant declines in debt to GDP in each sector except the government, which ran large deficits to offset deleveraging or debt reduction in other sectors.

As of 2009, there was $50.7 trillion of debt owed by US households, businesses, and governments, representing more than 3.5 times the annual gross domestic product of the United States. As of the first quarter of 2010, domestic financial assets totaled $131 trillion and domestic financial liabilities $106 trillion. Tangible assets in 2008 (such as real estate and equipment) for selected sectors totaled an additional $56.3 trillion.

Net worth (or equity)

Net worth is the sum of assets (both financial and tangible) minus liabilities for a given sector. Net worth is a valuable measure of creditworthiness and financial health since the calculation includes both financial obligations and the capacity to service those obligations.

The net worth of the United States and its economic sectors has remained relatively consistent over time. The total net worth of the United States remained between 4.5 and 6 times GDP from 1960 until the 2000s, when it rose as high as 6.64 times GDP in 2006, principally due to an increase in the net worth of US households in the midst of the United States housing bubble. The net worth of the United States sharply declined to 5.2 times GDP by the end of 2008 due to declines in the values of US corporate equities and real estate in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis and the global financial crisis. Between 2008 and 2009, the net worth of US households had recovered from a low of 3.55 times GDP to 3.75 times GDP, while nonfinancial business fell from 1.37 times GDP to 1.22 times GDP.

The net worth of American households and non-profits constitutes three-quarters of total United States net worth – in 2008, 355% of GDP. Since 1960, US households have consistently held this position, followed by nonfinancial business (137% of GDP in 2008) and state and local governments (50% of GDP in 2008). The financial sector has hovered around zero net worth since 1960, reflecting its leverage, while the federal government has fluctuated from a net worth of -7% of GDP in 1946, a high of 6% of GDP in 1974, to -32% of GDP in 2008.

Estimated financial position, Q1 2014
 Some figures are missing land and nonproduced nonfinancial assets.

Gross domestic assets, and related gain (or loss), at end of 2011

SOURCE: Federal Reserve Bank Z-1 Flow of Funds Statement, End of 2011 Accounts

Gross domestic income for 2010

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2010 Accounts

Gross domestic expense for 2010

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2010 Accounts

Debt

The Federal Reserve issues routine reports on the flows and levels of debt in the United States. As of the first quarter of 2010, the Federal Reserve estimated that total public and private debt owed by American households, businesses, and government totaled $50 trillion, or roughly $175,000 per American and 3.5 times GDP.

Interest payments on debt by US households, businesses, governments, and nonprofits totaled $3.29 trillion in 2008. The financial sector paid an additional $178.6 billion in interest on deposits.

In 1946, the total US debt-to-GDP ratio was 150%, with two-thirds of that held by the federal government. Since 1946, the federal government's debt-to-GDP ratio has since fallen by nearly half, to 54.8% of GDP in 2009. The debt-to-GDP ratio of the financial sector, by contrast, has increased from 1.35% in 1946 to 109.5% of GDP in 2009. The ratio for households has risen nearly as much, from 15.84% of GDP to 95.4% of GDP.

In April 2011, International Monetary Fund said that, "The US lacks a "credibility strategy" to stabilise its mounting public debt, posing a small but significant risk of a new global economic crisis.

Financial sector

In 1946, the US financial sector owed $3 billion of debt, or 1.35% of GDP. By 2009 this had increased to $15.6 trillion, or 109.5% of GDP.

Most debt owed by the US financial sector is in the form of federal government sponsored enterprise (GSE) issues and agency-backed securities. This refers to securities guaranteed and mediated by federal agencies and GSEs such as Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, among others. This group also includes the mortgage pools that are used as collateral in collateralized mortgage obligations. The proportion of financial sector debt owed in the form of GSE and federally related mortgage pools has remained relatively constant – $863 million or 47% of total financial sector debt in 1946 was in such instruments; this has increased to 57% of financial sector debt in 2009, although this now represents over $8 trillion.

Bonds represent the next largest part of financial sector debt. In 1946, bonds represented 6% of financial sector debt, but by 1953 this proportion had risen to 24%. This remained relatively constant until the late 1970s; bonds fell to 14% of financial sector debt in 1981. This coincided with Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker's strategy of combating stagflation by raising the federal funds rate; as a result the prime rate peaked at 21.5%, making financing through credit markets prohibitively expensive. Bonds recovered in the 1980s, representing approximately 25% of financial sector debt throughout the 1990s; however, between 2000 and 2009, bonds issued by the financial sector had increased to 37% of financial sector debt, or $5.8 trillion.

Bonds and GSE/federal agency-backed issues represent all but 12% of financial sector debt in 2009.

Households and non-profits

In 1946, US households and non-profits owed $35 billion of debt or 15.8% of GDP. By 2009 this figure had risen to $13.6 trillion or 95.4% of GDP. Home mortgage debt in 1946 represented 66.5% of household debt; consumer credit represented another 24%. By 2009, home mortgage debt had risen to 76% of household debt and consumer credit had fallen to 18.22%. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the 2008 financial crisis was caused by "unsustainable levels of household debt." The ratio of debt to household income rose by about one-third from 2000 to 2007. The US currently has the twelfth highest debt to GDP ratio among advanced economies.

Nonfinancial business

In 1946, US nonfinancial businesses owed $63.9 billion of debt or 28.8% of GDP. By 2009 this figure had risen to $10.9 trillion or 76.4% of GDP.

State and local governments

In 1946, US state and local governments owed $12.7 billion of debt or 5.71% of GDP. By 2009 this figure had risen to $2.4 trillion or 16.5% of GDP.

In 2016, state and local governments owed $3 trillion and have another $5 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

State and local governments have significant financial assets, totaling $2.7 trillion in 2009. In 2009, these included $1.3 trillion in credit market debt (that is, debt owed by other sectors to state and local governments). These figures do not include state and local retirement funds. State and local retirement funds held $2.7 trillion in assets at the end of 2009.

Federal government

In 1946, the federal government owed $251 billion of debt or 102.7% of GDP. By 2009 this figure had risen to $7.8 trillion, but the federal government's debt-to-GDP ratio had fallen to 54.75%.

The federal government held $1.4 trillion in assets at the end of 2009. This is more than double the assets held by the federal government in 2007 ($686 billion), mainly due to the acquisition of corporate equities, credit market debt, and cash. The federal government held $223 billion in corporate equity at the beginning of 2009; this had fallen to $67.4 billion at the end of that year.

These figures do not include federal government retirement funds. Federal government retirement funds held $1.3 trillion in assets at the end of 2009.

These figures also do not include debt that the federal government owes to federal funds and agencies such as the Social Security Trust Fund. It also does not include "unfunded liabilities" to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare either as debt or accounting liabilities. According to official government projections, the Medicare is facing a $37 trillion unfunded liability over the next 75 years, and the Social Security is facing a $13 trillion unfunded liability over the same time frame.

Negative real interest rates
Since 2010, the U.S. Treasury has been obtaining negative real interest rates on government debt. Such low rates, outpaced by the inflation rate, occur when the market believes that there are no alternatives with sufficiently low risk, or when popular institutional investments such as insurance companies, pensions, or bond, money market, and balanced mutual funds are required or choose to invest sufficiently large sums in Treasury securities to hedge against risk. Lawrence Summers, Matthew Yglesias and other economists state that at such low rates, government debt borrowing saves taxpayer money, and improves creditworthiness. In the late 1940s through the early 1970s, the US and UK both reduced their debt burden by about 30% to 40% of GDP per decade by taking advantage of negative real interest rates, but there is no guarantee that government debt rates will continue to stay so low. In January, 2012, the U.S. Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association unanimously recommended that government debt be allowed to auction even lower, at negative absolute interest rates.

Derivatives

Figures of total debt typically do not include other financial obligations such as derivatives. Partly this is due to the complexities of quantifying derivatives – the United States Comptroller of the Currency reports derivative contracts in terms of notional value, net current credit exposure, and fair value, among others.

The number commonly used by the media is notional value, which is a base value used to determine the size of the cash flows exchanged in the contract. Fair value (or market value) is the value of the contract either on the open market or as it is appraised by accountants. Fair value can be positive or negative depending on the side of the contract the party is on. Credit exposure is defined as the net loss which holders of derivatives would suffer if their counterparties in those derivatives contracts defaulted.

The notional value of derivative contracts held by US financial institutions is $216.5 trillion, or more than 15 times US GDP.

The fair value of US-held derivatives contracts in the first quarter of 2010 was $4,002 billion (28.1% of GDP) for positions with positive values (known as "derivatives receivables"), and $3,886 for positions with negative values (27.3% of GDP). Interest rate derivatives form by far the largest part of US derivative contracts by all measures, accounting for $3,147 billion or 79% of derivatives receivables.

The measure preferred by the Office of the Comptroller is net current credit exposure (NCCE), which measures the risk to banks and the financial system in derivatives contracts.  The net current credit exposure (NCCE) of American financial institutions to derivatives in the first quarter of 2010 to $359 billion or 2.5% of GDP, down from $800 billion at the end of 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis, when it stood at 5.5% of GDP. The difference between the market value of US derivatives and the credit exposure to the financial system is due to netting – financial institutions tend to have many positions with their counterparties that have positive and negative values, resulting in a much smaller exposure than the sum of the market values of their derivative positions. Netting reduces the credit exposure of the US financial system to derivatives by more than 90%, as compared to 50.6% at the beginning of 1998.

Derivatives contracts are overwhelmingly held by large financial institutions. The five largest US banks hold 97% of derivatives by notional value; the top 25 hold nearly 100%. Banks currently hold collateral against their derivative exposures amounting to 67% of their net current credit exposure.

Foreign debt, assets, and liabilities

Foreign holdings of US assets are concentrated in debt. Americans own more foreign equity and foreign direct investment than foreigners own in the United States, but foreigners hold nearly four times as much US debt as Americans hold in foreign debt.

15.2% of all US debt is owed to foreigners. Of the $7.9 trillion Americans owe to foreigners, $3.9 trillion is owed by the federal government. 48% of US treasury securities are held by foreigners. Foreigners hold $1.28 trillion in agency- and government sponsored enterprise-backed securities, and another $2.33 trillion in US corporate bonds.

Foreigners hold 24% of domestic corporate debt and 17% of domestic corporate equity.

Sectoral financial balances

Economist Martin Wolf explained in July 2012 that government fiscal balance is one of three major financial sectoral balances in the U.S. economy, the others being the foreign financial sector and the private financial sector. The sum of the surpluses or deficits across these three sectors must be zero by definition. In the U.S., a foreign financial surplus (or capital surplus) exists because capital is imported (net) to fund the trade deficit. Further, there is a private sector financial surplus due to household savings exceeding business investment. By definition, there must therefore exist a government budget deficit so all three net to zero. The government sector includes federal, state and local. For example, the government budget deficit in 2011 was approximately 10% GDP (8.6% GDP of which was federal), offsetting a capital surplus of 4% GDP and a private sector surplus of 6% GDP.

Wolf argued that the sudden shift in the private sector from deficit to surplus forced the government balance into deficit, writing: "The financial balance of the private sector shifted towards surplus by the almost unbelievable cumulative total of 11.2 per cent of gross domestic product between the third quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2009, which was when the financial deficit of US government (federal and state) reached its peak...No fiscal policy changes explain the collapse into massive fiscal deficit between 2007 and 2009, because there was none of any importance. The collapse is explained by the massive shift of the private sector from financial deficit into surplus or, in other words, from boom to bust."

Economist Paul Krugman also explained in December 2011 the causes of the sizable shift from private deficit to surplus: "This huge move into surplus reflects the end of the housing bubble, a sharp rise in household saving, and a slump in business investment due to lack of customers."

See also
 Economy of the United States – discusses U.S. national debt and economic context
 FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
 History of the U.S. public debt – a table containing historical debt data
 National debt by U.S. presidential terms
 Proposed bailout of U.S. financial system (2008)
 United States federal budget – analysis of federal budget spending and long-term risks
 Starve the beast (policy)

General:
 Balance of payments
 Government budget deficit
 Public debt – a general discussion of the topic

International:
 Global debt
 List of countries by current account balance
 List of public debt – list of the public debt for many nations, as a percentage of the GDP.

Notes

External links
United States
 U.S. Congressional Budget Office
 Office of Management and Budget
 Death and Taxes: 2009 A graphical representation of the 2009 United States federal discretionary budget, including the public debt.
 United States – Deficit versus Savings rate from 1981 Historical graphical representation of the 12 month rolling Fiscal deficit versus the Savings rate of the United States. (since 1981)

Derivatives, the great unknown with respect to its impact on the total US cumulative debt
 190K Derivative burden per US person

 German Households Owe More Than Greece's Do, a non-US case of the Cumulate Debt Per Person reference frame.

References

Fiscal policy
United States federal budgets
Economy of the United States
Government finances in the United States
Debt


The sambuca () was a ship-borne siege engine which was invented by Heracleides of Tarentum and was first used unsuccessfully by Marcus Claudius Marcellus during the Roman siege of Syracuse in 213 BC.

Polybius describes usage of the machine:
As well as these vessels he had eight quinqueremes in pairs. Each pair had had their oars removed, one on the port and the other on the starboard side, and then these had been lashed together on the sides thus left bare.  On these double vessels, rowed by the outer oars of each of the pair, they brought up under the walls some engines called "Sambucae", the construction of which was as follows: A ladder was made four feet broad, and of a height to reach the top of the wall from the place where its foot had to rest; each side of the ladder was protected by a railing, and a covering or pent-house was added overhead.  It was then placed so that its foot rested across the sides of the lashed-together vessels, which touched each other with its other extremity protruding a considerable way beyond the prows.  On the tops of the masts pulleys were fixed with ropes: and when the engines were about to be used, men standing on the sterns of the vessels drew the ropes tied to the head of the ladder, while others standing on the prows assisted the raising of the machine and kept it steady with long poles.  Having then brought the ships close in shore by using the outer oars of both vessels they tried to let the machine down upon the wall.  At the head of the ladder was fixed a wooden stage secured on three sides by wicker-shields, upon which stood four men who fought and struggled with those who tried to prevent the sambuca from being made to rest on the battlements.  But when they have fixed it and so got above the level of the top of the wall, the four men unfasten the wicker shields from either side of the stage, and walk out upon the battlements or towers as the case may be; they are followed by their comrades coming up by the sambuca, since the ladder’s foot is safely secured with ropes and stands upon both the ships.  This construction has got the name "sambuca" or "harp" for the natural reason, that when it is raised the combination of the ship and ladder has very much the appearance of such an instrument.

They were used again unsuccessfully during the siege of Chios. This may have been the siege conducted by Philip V of Macedon in 201 BC, but neither source specified the date.

A different design of machine, also called a sambuca, was used unsuccessfully by Mithridates VI of Pontus in his attack on Rhodes in 88 B.C.

The engine was built upon two ships lashed together and consisted of towers between which an assault bridge was hoisted. Mithridates' sambuca had rams and projectiles as part of its offensive battery. During its deployment but before it could be successfully employed to transport soldiers, it fell.  With it, fell the fortunes of the eastern wave against Rhodes, the Pontic king withdrawing. Fifteen years later, Mithridates again used a siege engine, in his unsuccessful attack on Cyzicus. Later classical sources confuse the sambuca for a ship-mounted siege tower.  Vegetius used the term sambuca as the name given to the assault ramp mounted on a siege tower.

The name sambuca, is derived from the musical instrument sambuca which it was said to resemble.

See also

 :Category:Ancient weapons

References

Ancient Greek military equipment
Navy of ancient Rome
Roman siege engines
Second Punic War


Uremic pericarditis is a form of pericarditis. It causes fibrinous pericarditis.  The main cause of the disease is poorly understood.

Signs and symptoms
Fibrinous pericarditis is an exudative inflammation. The pericardium is infiltrated by the fibrinous exudate. This consists of fibrin strands and leukocytes. Fibrin describes an amorphous, eosinophilic (pink) network. Leukocytes (white blood cells; mainly neutrophils) are found within the fibrin deposits and intrapericardic. Vascular congestion is also present. Inflammatory cells do not penetrate the myocardium (as is seen with other presentations of pericarditis), and as a result, this particular variant does not present with diffuse ST elevation on ECG (a classic sign of pericarditis known as stage I ECG changes which are seen with other causes) because the inflammatory cells do not penetrate the myocardium.  To naked eye examination, this pathology is referred to as having a "Bread and Butter Appearance".

Pathology
Uremic pericarditis is associated with azotemia, and occurs in about 6-10% of kidney failure patients. BUN is normally >60 mg/dL (normal is 7–20 mg/dL). However, the degree of pericarditis does not correlate with the degree of serum BUN or creatinine elevation. The pathogenesis is poorly understood.

Treatment
Uremic pericarditis is effectively treated with hemodialysis and can resolve the symptoms and decrease the size of any pericardial effusion, if present.

References

External links

Pericardial disorders


The Checker Aerobus is an automobile manufactured on two different wheelbases by the Checker Motors Corporation from 1962 until 1977. Meant primarily to serve as an airport shuttle, as indicated by the name, it is an extended version of the iconic Checker Marathon. A total of 3,568 Checker Aerobuses of all versions were built.

Technical Specifications
It was offered as seven- (including the tailgate) or nine-door station wagon (A12W), and as a six- or eight-door sedan (A12E) The shorter wheelbases seated 9 people, while the longer models seated 12 people and their luggage.

Unlike the standard Marathon (which used a Continental straight-six), early cars used Chrysler's A318 V8 (5.2 L), originally with 190 hp and later 200 hp. At the same time as the Marathon switched a Chevrolet straight-six in 1965, the Aerobus switched to Chevrolet's  small-block engine, with  at 4,400 rpm. This was in a lesser state of tune than the 250 hp unit used in the regular Marathons, with lower 8:1 compression and a two-barrel rather than a four-barrel carburetor. Top speed was around . The rear wheel cutouts were radiused, unlike the sedans.

Standard equipment for 1966 included three-speed manual transmission, power brakes, windshield washer, and a front stabilizer bar.  For 1969, the bigger 350 engine (5.7 L) took over, with 200 hp. Output climbed to  for 1971, or 155 hp SAE net.

By 1974, intended to be the last year for the Aerobus as Checker ended production of the station wagons, the power was increased to , using a four-barrel carb instead of the two-barrel seen in the Marathons. Available only with an automatic and with standard power steering, top speed for a 1974 is .

Special Models

Convoy
Marketing material mentioned a special prisoner transport version of the Aerobus called the Convoy ("a twelve passenger security van"). The front passenger seat was rear-facing for a guard, and there was a security screen between the front compartment and the rear. Three bench seats were arranged in the rear, two along the side and one forward facing. No evidence exists of any Convoys actually being sold.

Ambulance
An artist rendering of a possible Aerobus Ambulance shows that Checker was interested in catering to the medical transport market. The depiction shows a short wheelbase station wagon (six-door) body, with the rear most doors closed off with extended rear fenders. The advertisement included a coupon to mail back to the company with expressed interest. As there is no record of any ambulance being built, it appears that there was little interest.

Aerobus 15
After building no Aerobus models in 1975, Checker realized that there still was a market for extended Marathon based vehicles. The Aerobus 15 was the result, being based on the long-wheelbase standard Marathon A12E sedan (with a 9-inch longer rear door). This allowed room for jump-seats ahead of the last row of seating, increasing the carrying capacity to 15 people. Additionally, the rear-axle was of a heavy-duty truck style with 8-lugs. A total of 60 were built in 1976, and a further 47 were built in 1977.

End of Production
Production of the short-wheelbase versions, always considerably lower than the longer ones, ended with the 1969 model year. The final Aerobus 15 models ended production in 1977 and no further extended length Checkers were produced.

References

External links

 The Internet Checker Taxicab Archive

Aerobus
Sedans
Station wagons


Conviction is a 2010 American biographical legal drama film directed by Tony Goldwyn, written by Pamela Gray, and starring Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell. The film premiered on September 11, 2010, at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the US on October 15, 2010.

Plot
Betty Anne Waters' life revolves around her brother Kenneth, who is now in prison for murder. Despite Kenny's knack for getting in trouble, they have always been close. After the murder of Katherina Reitz Brow on May 21, 1980, in Ayer, Massachusetts, Kenny is initially taken in for questioning by Sergeant Nancy Taylor, but released. Two years later, based on new testimony from two witnesses, Kenny is arrested and tried. The evidence presented at Kenny's trial is entirely circumstantial, but he is convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The three main witnesses against him are Sergeant Taylor, his ex-wife Brenda, and ex-girlfriend Roseanna.

Three years later, Betty Anne lives with her husband, Rick and two sons, Richard and Ben. She is frantic that she has not heard from Kenny, who calls her every week from prison, and finally discovers that he tried to commit suicide. Betty Anne decides to go back to school and become a lawyer so she can exonerate him, but her husband is skeptical and unsupportive, and eventually they split up and later divorce. As Betty Anne struggles with being a working mother attending law school, flashbacks reveal that her mother was callous and uncaring, forcing Kenny and Betty Anne to fend for themselves. The two were very close, but frequently got into trouble, and were eventually taken away from their mother and sent to separate foster homes.

Betty Anne continues to visit Kenny in prison, working in a bar while going to school, but her busy schedule causes her to miss a planned outing with her sons, who decide they would be better off living with their father. Struggling in school, demoralized and exhausted, Betty Anne stops going to classes, until a friend from school, Abra, comes to her house and prods her to just get up, get dressed, and get back to class.

In a study group, Betty Anne learns about the new field of DNA testing and realizes that this could be the key to overturning Kenny's conviction, as only blood types had been matched at the time of the trial. She contacts attorney Barry Scheck from the Innocence Project. The backlog of cases will mean waiting at least 18 months unless she can pass the bar exam and find the blood evidence from Kenny's trial herself to have it tested. She passes the bar exam and begins working hard to get her brother out of jail. At first she is stonewalled, then told the evidence was destroyed, but she refuses to give up, and she and Abra embark on an odyssey to recover any evidence that might still be stored away somewhere.

In the process, Betty Anne learns that Nancy Taylor was fired from the police department for fabricating evidence in another case, which deepens Betty Anne's suspicions about Kenny's conviction and the evidence presented at trial. She is told that the evidence has been moved to the courthouse but after 10 years it was destroyed. Refusing to give up, she and Abra travel to Ayer and personally ask the courthouse supervisor to look through the records and the evidence is found. The DNA results come back and establish that the blood was not Kenny's. Betty Anne and Kenny are overjoyed anticipating his release, but Martha Coakley, of the District Attorney's office, refuses to vacate the conviction, claiming that there was still enough evidence to convict Kenny as an accomplice. Kenny is convinced that no matter what, the authorities will find a way to keep him in prison to avoid admitting their mistake. Betty Anne is heartbroken again, but refuses to give up after Scheck advises her that their discovery not only proves Kenny's innocence, but also that the main witnesses against him were lying.

Betty Anne, Abra, and Scheck visit the other two main trial witnesses, Kenny's ex-wife and his ex-girlfriend. Both tearfully confess that Sergeant Taylor coerced them into perjuring themselves at Kenny's trial. With an affidavit from Kenny's ex-wife and the DNA evidence, Kenny's conviction is vacated and he is freed from prison in June 2001. Betty Anne is able to persuade his daughter, Mandy, whom he had not had any contact with since she was a small child, that he never stopped trying to reach out to her while he was in prison. He is able to reconnect with his daughter, and is reunited with his sister and her sons.

The epilogue states that Betty Anne continues to work at the bar as well as with the Innocence Project to prevent wrongful convictions. She also won a major settlement against the Ayer police department for Kenny's conviction although Nancy Taylor (whom she also won the settlement against) was never charged because of the statute of limitations had expired. The real killer of Katherina Brow has never been found.

Cast

Production
Production began in February 2009, in Dexter, Michigan. Filming also took place in Ann Arbor, Howell, Pinckney, Chelsea and Ypsilanti. In Ypsilanti, filming took place in the historic Depot Town at a restaurant called Sidetrack Bar & Grill. In Howell, filming took place at the Livingston County Courthouse, along Dearborn Street at Cole's Elevator, and at the Howell Village Market (formerly Sefa's Super Market). The script was written by Pamela Gray. The poster was released June 21, 2010. Many scenes were also shot in Jackson Mi.  Some at the previous site of the Jackson Citizen Patriot newspaper and The current Jackson County Courthouse.

Music
The film score was composed by composer Paul Cantelon.

The end title song is "Heaven & Hell" by Cantelon's band, Wild Colonials. The song is a re-recording of the track that first appeared on their debut album, Fruit of Life and was released as a stand-alone single at the time of the film's release.

Reception
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 67% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 191 reviews, with an average score of 68%. The critical consensus reads "Less compelling – and more manipulative – than it should be, Conviction benefits from its compelling true story and a pair of solid performances from Swank and Rockwell." Another review aggregator Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, indicating "generally positive reviews".

Martha Coakley, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who was portrayed in the film, commented after seeing a pre-screening on October 12, 2010, that it was a compelling film but there were legal inaccuracies and temporal exaggerations. Family members of Katharina Brow, the murder victim, have criticized the film company and Hilary Swank for failing to consult the family on the movie's depiction of their mother. Kenny died in September 2001, six months after his exoneration, due to a head injury he sustained in an accident.

Accolades

See also
 List of wrongful convictions in the United States
 "Testilying"

References

Further reading

External links

 Conviction at The Numbers

2010 films
2010 biographical drama films
American biographical drama films
Films about miscarriage of justice
Films about lawyers
Fox Searchlight Pictures films
American films based on actual events
Films directed by Tony Goldwyn
Films set in Rhode Island
Films shot in Michigan
Films scored by Paul Cantelon
Films set in 2001
2010 drama films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films


The Sunshine Coast Daily is an online newspaper specifically serving the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland, Australia. It is owned by News Corp Australia. It was originally founded as a print newspaper, however since 2020 the publication is only available in digital forms.

In 2008, the circulation of the Sunshine Coast Daily was 21,604 Monday to Friday and 34,716 on Saturday. In 2015, those figures were down to 12,200 Monday to Friday and just under 18,000 on Saturday.

There were also a number of community publications attached to the newspaper, the Caloundra Weekly, Maroochy Weekly, Nambour Weekly, and Buderim Chronicle. The Sunshine Coast Daily was also responsible for producing the Caboolture News, Noosa News, and Bribie Weekly. These had all been closed by News Limited by mid-2020.

History

1980-1988 Provincial Newspapers Queensland Ownership
On 7 July 1980, Provincial Newspapers Queensland used the presence it had been building up on the Sunshine Coast through the purchase of various weeklies in the 1970s, combined with the 1964 purchase of the Nambour Chronicle (another local Sunshine Coast newspaper) to launch a new publication, published from Maroochydore, the Sunshine Coast Daily. The Sunshine Coast Daily steadily became a strong performer, building its circulation to 21,052 by September 1992 in a region with a population of 125,000. It gave fierce competition to the long-established Brisbane daily, the Courier Mail. The success of the Sunshine Coast Daily acquisition was reflective in Provincial Newspaper Queensland's annual net profit. In 1985 its annual net profit increased from $1,919,000 in 1980 to $4,510,000. In 1987–88, its final year of operation as Provincial Newspaper's Queensland, profit was $4million.

1999-2016 Australian Regional Media and 2016-present NewsCorp Ownership
In June 2016, the sale of Australian Regional Media to News Corp was approved by 99.94% of shareholders who voted, not including News Limited and its associated shareholders. In June 2016, Australian Regional Media was sold to News Corp Australia for $36.6 million.

NewsCorp Attempted Sale of Regional Newspapers 2020
In May 2020, due to the already challenged regional newspaper sector suffering from significant declines in advertising spend before the COVID-19 crisis and even more significant advertising booking cancellations caused by the pandemic, NewsCorp Australia to enter discussions to sell their regional newspaper publication.

NewsCorp was in discussion with Australian Community Media to reach an agreement on the sale of the portfolio of more than 100 regional and community newspapers. However, on 12 May 2020, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said the talks with Australian Community Media had failed to result in a sale.

Digitisation
On 28 May 2020, NewsCorp announced that there were to be significant job cuts to restructure the company towards the digitisation of regional newspapers. On 27 June 2020, the final print Sunshine Coast Daily was published. Many long-time local residents were disappointed in the action saying that the paper had been a “source of community connection for generations, documenting both small and large events in [people’s] lives”. Local publications including the Caloundra Weekly and Nambour Weekly ceased as part of this restructure.

As of 2020, The Sunshine Coast Daily has three major online platforms: website, app and digital edition.

Website
The website follows the same format as the former print version. All members of the public can access the titles and blurbs of the major news articles of the day on the website however access to the articles on the website are only accessible to people who purchase the unlimited digital access Sunshine Coast Daily subscription. The subscription rate is $1 a week for the first four weeks and $7 a week thereafter. This subscription allows users unlimited digital access on any device, access to apps and unrestricted digital access to the Courier Mail.

App
In September 2016, the Sunshine Coast Daily launched an app for readers to access major news stories online rather than in print. The app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. It is compatible with ioS and Android. There have been multiple updates to the app since its production in 2016 which have allowed users to access the major articles of the day from their smart device.

Digital Edition
The Digital Edition of the Sunshine Coast Daily is an online flip book. It was launched in 2016 and aims to replicate the print version of the publication. When the digital edition was initially launched it was a four-page interactive digital edition highlighting major stories as they would have appeared in paper. As of July 2020, due to positive feedback from locals, the digital edition is sixteen pages and also features nation and world news, puzzles, horoscopes, shares, TV guides and cartoons.

Organisation
The editor of the Sunshine Coast Daily is Nadja Fleet. She has been the Editor in Chief at the Sunshine Coast Daily since 2017 and currently resides on the Sunshine Coast.

Headquarters
The Sunshine Coast Daily Headquarters were located in Maroochydore, Queensland on Newspaper Place and Dalton Drive. As of June 2020, due to the significant decline in revenue due to COVID-19, employees of the Sunshine Coast Daily were being moved out of the headquarters as it was announced that NewsCorp Australia were to lease the space.

Circulation
The readership of the print Sunshine Coast Daily increased in the early 2000s to 2014. From 2014 to the introduction of the online-only paper, the news publication had seen a steady decline in readership.

The weekly Monday-Friday print Sunshine Coast Daily decreased from 45,000 to 42,000 from March 2014 to March 2015 and the readership of the weekend (Saturday) print Sunshine Coast Daily decreased from 46,000 to 37,000 from March 2014 to March 2015

The reasons for this decline in circulation is because of competition from other media and because newspapers represent a “mature” industry approaching its end. Furthermore, population declines, closure of major industries in regional areas and reductions in editorial space  may have also contributed to the decline in readership.

Controversies
A controversy faced by the Sunshine Coast Daily was the front-page sniper shot depiction targeted at Anastasia Palaszczuk in 2019. This dispute was taken to the Australian Press Council that concluded that the Sunshine Coast Daily apology and the fact that the publication removed the image from its digital platforms and published letters to the editor that were critical of the page resolved the issue.

Reputation
The Sunshine Coast Daily has won the following awards:

See also
 List of newspapers in Australia

References

External links

Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Newspapers published in Queensland
APN Australian Regional Media
Daily newspapers published in Australia
Online newspapers with defunct print editions


Jay Steven Smith (born June 21, 1961) is an American college basketball coach. He currently serves in an administrative role for the men's basketball team at the University of Michigan. He was a former head coach at Grand Valley State University (1996–97) and Central Michigan University (1997–2006). He has also been an assistant coach at the University of Michigan and the University of Detroit.

Playing career
, Smith still reigns as the all-time scorer in Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA)  basketball history, after a head-spinning 2,841-point career at Mio-Au Sable High School in Mio, Michigan. Of note, this was before the three-point shot. There is a road named after him in Mio, "Jay Smith Drive". In April 2019, Smith was named Michigan's "Retro Mr. Basketball 1979" by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM). Michigan's Mr. Basketball was not formally given out until 1981, so the BCAM went back and named a "Retro Mr. Basketball" for every year from 1920 through 1980. Smith set the Michigan single-season scoring record with 952 points in the 1978–79 season. His record was surpassed in the 1984–1985 season by Mark Brown of Hastings High School, who scored 969 points. (Brown's 2,789 points are second all-time in state history to Smith) Smith's 952 points are still the third most all-time in a single-season in state history. Smith played one year of college basketball at Bowling Green State University, before transferring and playing the final three years of his career at Saginaw Valley State University.

Coaching career
Smith began his coaching career at Kent State University in 1984, earning a master's degree in Sport's Administration in 1986. In 1989, Smith left for the University of Michigan, the reigning Division 1 National champions, to join Steve Fisher's staff in Fisher's first full-season as head coach at Michigan. He returned to Ann Arbor in July 2019, accepting a role as  director of player personnel and development, joining first-year head coach Juwan Howard's staff. Smith helped recruit Howard and the rest of the Fab Five, a group of five freshmen that led Michigan to appearances in the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Championship games.

Smith returned to the assistant coaching ranks in 2008, joining Ray McCallum's staff at the University of Detroit Mercy, where he spent eight seasons.

Head Coaching Career

Grand Valley State University
Smith's took his first head coaching job in 1996, leading Grand Valley State University to 23–6 record, winning the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships and a berth into the NCAA Men's Division II basketball tournament. Smith left GVSU after one season, becoming the head coach at Central Michigan University.

Central Michigan University
Smith took over a CMU team that had not had a winning record since 1988 and had not made the NCAA Tournament since 1987. By his fourth season in Mount Pleasant, Smith led the Chippewas to the Mid-American Conference Western Division title, their first since 1987 and Smith won MAC coach of the year honors. In March 2003, the Chippewas would win their first MAC Tournament Championship since 1987, defeating Kent State 77–67. The win gave the Chippewas an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, their first since 1987. The Chippewas defeated sixth-seeded Creighton in the first round, 79–73, earning their first NCAA Tournament win since 1975.  Center Chris Kaman was awarded conference player of the year as well as defensive player of the year for his efforts. Kaman was selected with the 6th overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Following the 2003 season, Smith was never able to find success again at CMU, compiling  20–66 record over the next three seasons. Smith shocked the CMU community in May 2006, when he abruptly resigned as head coach, citing a desire to spend more time with his family.

Kalamazoo College
In June 2016, Smith returned to the head coaching ranks, taking over the program at Kalamazoo College.

Personal life
Smith is married with two children. His son, Cooper, played for him at Kalamazoo College during the 2018–19 season. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in June 2018 and underwent successful surgery in September 2018 and managed to coach the full season.

Head coaching record

References

External links
 Kalamazoo profile
 U of M Profile
 All-time greats: Mio's Jay Smith still reigns as state's all-time scoring king

1964 births
Living people
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Bowling Green Falcons men's basketball players
Central Michigan Chippewas men's basketball coaches
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Detroit Mercy Titans men's basketball coaches
Grand Valley State Lakers men's basketball coaches
Kalamazoo Hornets men's basketball coaches
Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball coaches
Michigan Wolverines men's basketball coaches
Saginaw Valley State Cardinals men's basketball players


The Taoudeni Basin is a major Sedimentary basin in West Africa, named after the Taoudenni village in northern Mali. It covers large parts of the West African craton in Mauritania and Mali. It is of considerable interest due to its possible reserves of oil. In addition to its economic importance, the basin contains scientifically important fossils from the Late Mesoproterozoic and Early Neoproterozoic eras, which correspond to a time interval known as the Boring Billion.

Description
The Taoudeni is the largest sedimentary basin in Northwest Africa, formed during the Middle to Late Proterozoic. It continued to subside until the Middle Paleozoic, when Hercynian deformation and uplift occurred. It contains up to  of Late Precambrian and Paleozoic sediments. Exploratory drilling since the 1980s has found indications of petroleum in the Late Precambrian, Silurian and Late Devonian formations.

Sediments are thicker in the western half of the basin.

Petroleum geology

The government of Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, is eager to create an oil industry. Companies that have been exploring in the area include Baraka Petroleum, Sonatrach, Eni, Total S.A., Woodside and CNPC.

However, the remote location and harsh environment of the Sahara Desert would make extraction expensive.

References

External links

Sedimentary basins of Africa
Geology of Algeria
Geology of Mali
Geology of Mauritania
Landforms of Algeria
Landforms of Mali
Landforms of Mauritania
Proterozoic Africa
Paleozoic Africa


The 2003 Meteor Music Awards were hosted by comedian Dara Ó Briain. It was the third edition of Ireland's national music awards. Actors Colin Farrell, Colm Meaney, and Stephen Rea were among the presenters.

Performances
There were performances on the night from the ill-fated Irish pop group Six who performed the song "After the Gold Rush", Tom Jones, The Thrills, B2K, Alabama 3, Samantha Mumba, Westlife, and Sinéad O'Connor.

Nominations
For 2003 nominees, see here.

List of winners
 Best Irish Group: U2
 Best Irish Female Singer: Carly Hennessy
 Best Irish Males Singer: Mundy
 Best Folk/Traditional Act: John Spillane
 Best Irish Album: Mic Christopher, Skylarkin'
 Best Irish Dance Act: Luke Thomas
 Best Pop Act: Westlife
 Best Radio DJ: Ian Dempsey
 Best Country/Roots Artist: Jerry Fish
 Best Irish New Act: The Thrills
 Best International Group: Coldplay
 The Flaming Lips
 Foo Fighters
 Oasis
 The Strokes
 Best International Male: Eminem
 David Gray
 Chris Martin
 Bruce Springsteen
 Robbie Williams
 Best International Female: Avril Lavigne
 Norah Jones
 Alicia Keys
 Kylie Minogue
 Shakira
 Best International Album: Red Hot Chili Peppers, By the Way
 Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
 Robbie Williams, Escapology
 The Streets, Original Pirate Material
 Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
 The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
 Best Visiting Live Performance: Red Hot Chili Peppers for Lansdowne Road, 2002
 Alabama 3
 Coldplay
 Prince
 Paul Simon
 The Streets
 Hope for 2003 Award: Rubyhorse
 Lifetime Achievement Award: Bob Geldof
 Humanitarian Award: Bono
 The Industry Award: Phil Coulter

References

External links
 Official site
 MCD Promotions
 List of winners through the years
 Photos

Meteor Music Awards
Meteor Awards
Meteor Awards


Dané van Niekerk ( , ; born 14 May 1993) is a South African cricketer born in Pretoria and educated at Hoërskool Centurion. A right-handed batter and leg break bowler, she played for South Africa in Test matches, One Day Internationals (ODI) and Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) between 2009 and 2021, and was captain of the side between 2016 and 2021. She was the first bowler for South Africa to take 100 wickets in WODIs. On 16 March 2023, she announced her retirement from international cricket.

Domestic and T20 career
She played domestically for Highveld Women and Northerns Women before becoming one of the first two South African women (along with Marizanne Kapp) to be included in the Eastern Province cricket team academy (men's team).

In 2015, she took part of the inaugural season of the Australian Women's Big Bash League playing for the Melbourne Renegades.

In November 2018, she was named in the Sydney Sixers' squad for the 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season. In September 2019, she was named in the Devnarain XI squad for the inaugural edition of the Women's T20 Super League in South Africa. In 2021, she was drafted by Oval Invincibles for the inaugural season of The Hundred. She was the highest run-scorer in the women's Hundred tournament with 259 runs.

In April 2022, she was bought by the Oval Invincibles for the 2022 season of The Hundred.

In the inaugural season of the Women's Premier League in 2023, van Niekerk was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore at the price of 30 Lakhs. In March 2023, it was announced that she had signed for Sunrisers for the upcoming season, between May and August. During her stint with Sunrisers, she became captain of the side.

International career
She was selected as part of the South Africa national women's cricket team for the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup in Australia, becoming a regular presence in the squad.   She played in the 2013 Women's Cricket World Cup, as well as representing South Africa at the Women's World Twenty20 in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016.

Bowling leg-spin, she made her debut at 16 years of age in March 2009, during the World Cup match against the West Indies at Newcastle. In her second match, she took 3/11 as South Africa beat Sri Lanka in Sydney to claim 7th place in the tournament. Through the years she has developed into an all-rounder and became a T20I opening batter.

In January 2013, she became the first South African woman to take an international hat-trick, finishing with 5/28 in an ODI match against the West Indies. A month later she scored her first ODI half century with a 55 not out during a World Cup match against Pakistan.  She shared a partnership of 128 runs with Marizanne Kapp, the highest South African partnership for the 6th wicket.

In January 2014 against Pakistan, van Niekerk took her second ODI five-wicket haul with 5/17.  She was the first South African woman player to achieve two five-wicket hauls in ODIs. Later that year, facing Pakistan at the Women's World T20I, she scored 90 not out in a 163 run unbroken partnership with Lizelle Lee, which is the second highest individual score in T20I by a South African woman and the second highest partnership in all women's T20I history.

On 21 June 2016, she was appointed as South Africa women's captain for all forms (Test, ODI and T20I) following Mignon du Preez's decision to step down as captain.

In February 2017, during the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier, she became the seventh player to reach 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets in WODIs. She also became the first player for South Africa to take 100 wickets in WODIs.

She went on to become the first ever bowler (male or female) to take four wickets in international cricket history without conceding a single run and also set the record for recording the best bowling figures for South Africa in Women's World Cup history. She also became the leading wicket taker during the 2017 ICC Women's World Cup tournament with 15 scalps.

In December 2017, she was named as one of the players in the ICC Women's ODI Team of the Year.

In March 2018, she was one of fourteen players to be awarded a national contract by Cricket South Africa ahead of the 2018–19 season. In October 2018, she was named as the captain of South Africa's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. Ahead of the tournament, she was named as the star of the team and one of the players to watch. She was the joint-leading wicket-taker for South Africa in the tournament, with six dismissals in four matches.

In February 2019, during the first WODI against Sri Lanka Women, she scored her first century in a WODI match In the process, she also became the fourth cricketer for South Africa Women to score 2,000 runs in WODIs, and became the fourth woman to achieve the double of reaching 2,000 runs and taking 100 wickets in WODIs.

In August 2019, she was named the Women's Cricketer of the Year at Cricket South Africa's annual award ceremony. In January 2020, she was named as the captain of South Africa's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. On 23 July 2020, van Niekerk was named in South Africa's 24-woman squad to begin training in Pretoria, ahead of their tour to England.

Personal life
In July 2018, she married her teammate Marizanne Kapp.

References

Further reading

External links

1993 births
Living people
Eastern Province women cricketers
Loughborough Lightning cricketers
Melbourne Renegades (WBBL) cricketers
Northerns women cricketers
South Africa women One Day International cricketers
South Africa women Test cricketers
South Africa women Twenty20 International cricketers
South Africa women's national cricket team captains
South African women cricketers
Cricketers from Pretoria
Sydney Sixers (WBBL) cricketers
Women's One Day International cricket hat-trick takers
Surrey Stars cricketers
South African LGBT sportspeople
LGBT cricketers
Lesbian sportswomen
Oval Invincibles cricketers
Royal Challengers Bangalore (WPL) cricketers
Adelaide Strikers (WBBL) cricketers
Sunrisers women's cricketers
21st-century South African LGBT people
Wisden Cricketers of the Year


In probability theory and statistics, the law of the unconscious statistician, or LOTUS, is a theorem which expresses the expected value of a function  of a random variable  in terms of  and the probability distribution of .

The form of the law depends on the type of random variable  in question.  If the distribution of  is discrete and one knows its probability mass function , then the expected value of  is

where the sum is over all possible values  of . If instead the distribution of  is continuous with probability density function , then the expected value of  is

Both of these special cases can be expressed in terms of the cumulative probability distribution function  of , with the expected value of  now given by the Lebesgue–Stieltjes integral

In even greater generality,  could be a random element in any measurable space, in which case the law is given in terms of measure theory and the Lebesgue integral. In this setting, there is no need to restrict the context to probability measures, and the law becomes a general theorem of mathematical analysis on Lebesgue integration relative to a pushforward measure.

Etymology
This proposition is (sometimes) known as the law of the unconscious statistician because of a purported tendency to think of the identity as the very definition of the expected value, rather than (more formally) as a consequence of its true definition. The naming is sometimes attributed to Sheldon Ross' textbook Introduction to Probability Models, although he removed the reference in later editions. Many statistics textbooks do present the result as the definition of expected value.

Joint distributions
A similar property holds for joint distributions, or equivalently, for random vectors. For discrete random variables X and Y, a function of two variables g, and joint probability mass function :

In the absolutely continuous case, with  being the joint probability density function,

Special cases
A number of special cases are given here. In the simplest case, where the random variable  takes on countably many values (so that its distribution is discrete), the proof is particularly simple, and holds without modification if  is a discrete random vector or even a discrete random element.

The case of a continuous random variable is more subtle, since the proof in generality requires subtle forms of the change-of-variables formula for integration. However, in the framework of measure theory, the discrete case generalizes straightforwardly to general (not necessarily discrete) random elements, and the case of a continuous random variable is then a special case by making use of the Radon–Nikodym theorem.

Discrete case
Suppose that  is a random variable which takes on only finitely or countably many different values , with probabilities . Then for any function  of these values, the random variable  has values , although some of these may coincide with each other. For example, this is the case if  can take on both values  and  and .

Let  enumerate the possible distinct values of , and for each  let  denote the collection of all  with . Then, according to the definition of expected value, there is

Since a  can be the image of multiple, distinct , it holds that

Then the expected value can be rewritten as

This equality relates the average of the outputs of  as weighted by the probabilities of the outputs themselves to the average of the outputs of  as weighted by the probabilities of the outputs of .

If  takes on only finitely many possible values, the above is fully rigorous. However, if  takes on countably many values, the last equality given does not always hold, as seen by the Riemann series theorem. Because of this, it is necessary to assume the absolute convergence of the sums in question.

Continuous case
Suppose that  is a random variable whose distribution has a continuous density . If  is a general function, then the probability that  is valued in a set of real numbers  equals the probability that  is valued in , which is given by

Under various conditions on , the change-of-variables formula for integration can be applied to relate this to an integral over , and hence to identify the density of  in terms of the density of . In the simplest case, if  is differentiable with nowhere-vanishing derivative, then the above integral can be written as

thereby identifying  as possessing the density . The expected value of  is then identified as

where the equality follows by another use of the change-of-variables formula for integration. This shows that the expected value of  is encoded entirely by the function  and the density  of .

The assumption that  is differentiable with nonvanishing derivative, which is necessary for applying the usual change-of-variables formula, excludes many typical cases, such as . The result still holds true in these broader settings, although the proof requires more sophisticated results from mathematical analysis such as Sard's theorem and the coarea formula. In even greater generality, using the Lebesgue theory as below, it can be found that the identity

holds true whenever  has a density  (which does not have to be continuous) and whenever  is a measurable function for which  has finite expected value. (Every continuous function is measurable.) Furthermore, without modification to the proof, this holds even if  is a random vector (with density) and  is a multivariable function; the integral is then taken over the multi-dimensional range of values of .

Measure-theoretic formulation
An abstract and general form of the result is available using the framework of measure theory and the Lebesgue integral. Here, the setting is that of a measure space  and a measurable map  from  to a measurable space . The theorem then says that for any measurable function  on  which is valued in real numbers (or even the extended real number line), there is

(interpreted as saying, in particular, that either side of the equality exists if the other side exists). Here  denotes the pushforward measure on . The 'discrete case' given above is the special case arising when  takes on only countably many values and  is a probability measure. In fact, the discrete case (although without the restriction to probability measures) is the first step in proving the general measure-theoretic formulation, as the general version follows therefrom by an application of the monotone convergence theorem. Without any major changes, the result can also be formulated in the setting of outer measures.

If  is a σ-finite measure, the theory of the Radon–Nikodym derivative is applicable. In the special case that the measure  is absolutely continuous relative to some background σ-finite measure  on , there is a real-valued function  on  representing the Radon–Nikodym derivative of the two measures, and then

In the further special case that  is the real number line, as in the contexts discussed above, it is natural to take  to be the Lebesgue measure, and this then recovers the 'continuous case' given above whenever  is a probability measure. (In this special case, the condition of σ-finiteness is vacuous, since Lebesgue measure and every probability measure are trivially σ-finite.)

References

Theory of probability distributions
Statistical laws


Franz Anton Dorotheus Cramer or François Cramer (12 June 17721 August 1848) was an English violinist and conductor who was Master of the King's/Queen's Musick from 1834 until his death.

He was born in either Mannheim or London, the son of Wilhelm Cramer and the brother of Johann Baptist Cramer.  He was no doubt his father's pupil.  Next to nothing seems to be known about his activities or compositions, yet he was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1834, by King William IV, succeeding Christopher (or Christian) Kramer, who was no relation.

The king died in 1837, and Cramer continued as Master of the Queen's Musick to Queen Victoria.  He did not contribute any music to her coronation, leading The Spectator to complain that he had been allowed "to proclaim to the world his inability to discharge the first, and the most grateful duty of his office — the composition of a Coronation Anthem".

He died in 1848 aged 76, and was succeeded by George Frederick Anderson.

The only composition of Cramer's that has survived is a Capriccio (Album Leaf) for violin, which is in manuscript in the British Museum.

Sources

External links
 Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed. 1954
 Answers.com

1772 births
1848 deaths
English classical violinists
British male violinists
English composers
English conductors (music)
British male conductors (music)
English people of German descent
Masters of the Queen's Music
Masters of the King's Music
Male classical violinists


Mathias Kneißl) [in English: "Kneissel"], known as Robber Kneissl (in German Räuber Kneißl, in Austro-Bavarian Raiba Kneißl), (4 August 1875 in Unterweikertshofen – 21 February 1902) was a German outlaw, poacher and popular antihero in the Bavarian folklore of the Dachau district when the Kingdom of Bavaria was part of the Second Reich. Chased by scores of green-uniformed rural policemen, who were already widely considered to be corrupt and who were further disliked for being Franconians who could not speak the local Upper Bavarian dialect, Kneissl became a folk hero to the local population because of his repeated humiliations of the police. According to German forensic scientist Mark Benecke, Mathias Kneissl never saw himself as a Robin Hood figure and was, in reality, "just a man who went astray with no way of getting back."

Early life
Mathias Kneissl was born on 4 August, 1875, as the eldest of six children of a poor innkeeper. In 1886 his parents, who were later described as having "unknown origins" and as, "ill-tempered", purchased the mill at Sulzemoos Schacher. The mill was "a strategically remote location", and was often used as a secret meeting place for local criminals.

When he was 12 years old, a school report card wrote about Kneissl, "He is not totally devoid of gifts, but he is lazy beyond imagination. He never pays attention, his output doesn't exist. It is useless to scold him or punish him. He has no love of school whatsoever."

Career
Kneissl then began accompanying his brothers at an early age while poaching. At age 16 he was imprisoned for the first time, because members of his family were suspected of cattle raiding. His father was arrested for plundering the pilgrimage shrine of Herrgottsruh at Friedberg in 1892 and died soon after while in police custody in the town of Dachau. Soon after, Kneissl's mother was also arrested and imprisoned for poaching and her sons began to skip school in favor of similarly poaching instead.
six years.

After serving his sentence, he was released in February 1899 and worked as a carpenter in Nußdorf am Inn. After six months Kneissl was dismissed by his master, because his colleagues refused to work with him any longer. Due to his bad reputation, he was unable to find another job.

For two years, Kneissl was pursued by the police. After his accomplices were arrested, he continued committing armed robberies on his own. An attempt to arrest him occurred on 30 November 1900 in Irchenbrunn Altomünster. In a massive gun battle, two policemen were injured so badly that they subsequently died. Three months later, in March 1901, Kneissl was captured at Geisen Egenhofen by 60 policemen. During the preceding gunfight, Kneissl was seriously injured by a bullet in the abdomen.

Trial
Between 14 and 19 November 1901 Kneissl was placed on trial at Augsburg. He was charged with two murders, attempted murder, as well as armed robbery and extortion. At his trial, which was followed by the media with great attention, Kneissl said, "As my bad luck would have it I had to go to the same school right up to my 17th year, just because Pastor Endl could not stand me and kept harassing me. Many of my friends left school long before I learned as much as the others. For the final exams, I was the only one told to do a calculation on the blackboard. I didn't want to do it. I don't accept unfairness. I will not bow even if it kills me."

Kneissl confessed to most of the charges, but denied an intent to kill against the two policemen who were shot by him. However, the court found him guilty of murder, premeditated bodily harm with fatal consequences, extortion and for aggravated robbery.

The Court then sentenced him to receive the death penalty for murder and 15 years imprisonment on the other charges. Sentenced on a Monday, Kneissl allegedly sarcastically remarked: "Well, that's a good start of a week."

Judge Anton Rebholz appealed by letter to the Ministry of Justice, which confirmed Kneissl's death sentence. Kneissl was awakened shortly after seven o'clock on the morning of 21 February 1902. He was then executed via guillotine. The executioner was Franz Xaver Reichhart.

Legacy
Kneissl was already a legendary figure in his own lifetime. The people, especially the small farmers of Bavaria saw in his outlaw life something revolutionary, a rebellion against the authorities. Even in recent times the Kneissl legend remains popular. Musical examples include the songs "Kneissl" by Georg Ringsgwandl (1993) and "Schachermüller-Hiasl" by Schandmaul (2016).

Three German films are based on his life story: Mathias Kneissl by Reinhard Hauff (1971), The Proud and Sad Life of Mathias Kneissl by Oliver Herbrich (1980) and  by Marcus H. Rosenmüller (2008).

References

Further reading
Räuberhauptmann Kneißl vor dem Schwurgericht In: Hugo Friedländer: Interessante Kriminal-Prozesse von kulturhistorischer Bedeutung. 1911–1921, vol. 2, pp. 192–221.
Wilhelm Lukas Kristl: Das traurige und stolze Leben des Mathias Kneißl—Bayerns großer Kriminalfall". Munich, 1957.
Marlene Reidel (illustration), Wilhelm Lukas Christl: Der Räuber Kneißl. Ebenhausen near Munich, 1966.
Manfred Böckl: Mathias Kneißl - Der Raubschütz von der Schachermühle, Dachau, 1998.
Michael Farin: Polizeireport München 1799-1999. 2001,
Oliver Herbrich: Mathias Kneißl - Theo Berger. Volkshelden wider Willen'' (German language) Fiction - Non-Fiction Film Edition, 2018.

1875 births
1902 deaths
People from Dachau (district)
German folklore
Criminals from Bavaria
German people convicted of murdering police officers
German outlaws
People executed for murdering police officers
People convicted of murder by Germany
People executed by the German Empire
People executed by Germany by guillotine
Executed people from Bavaria
20th-century executions by Germany


The sambuca (also sambute, sambiut, sambue, sambuque, or sambuke) was an ancient stringed instrument of Asiatic origin. The term sambuca is also applied to a number of other instruments.

Original
The original sambuca is generally supposed to have been a small triangular ancient Greek harp of shrill tone.,  probably identical with  and , the Greek form being  or .

Eusebius wrote that the Troglodytae invented the sambuca, while Athenaeus wrote that the writer Semus of Delos said that the first person who used the sambuca was Sibylla, and that the instrument derives its name from a man named Sambyx who invented it.
Athenaeus also wrote that Euphorion in his book on the Isthmian Games mentioned that Troglodytae used sambuca with four strings like the Parthians. He also add that the Magadis was an ancient instrument, but that in latter times it was altered, and had the name also changed to that of the sambuca.

The sambuca has been compared to the siege engine of the same name by some classical writers; Polybius likens it to a rope ladder; others describe it as boat-shaped. Among the musical instruments known, the Egyptian enanga best answers to these descriptions, which are doubtless responsible for the medieval
drawings representing the sambuca as a kind of tambourine, for Isidore of Seville elsewhere defines the symphonia as a tambourine.

The  is mentioned in the Bible ( verses 5 to 15). In the King James Bible it is erroneously translated as "sackbut".

Other Instruments

During the Middle Ages the word "sambuca" was applied to:
 a stringed instrument, about which little can be discovered
 a hurdy-gurdy, a hand-cranked stringed musical instrument from the Middle Ages, sometimes called a sambuca or sambuca rotata
 a wind instrument made from the wood of the elder tree (sambūcus).

In an old glossary article on  (flute), the sambuca is said to be a kind of flute:

Isidore of Seville describes it in his Etymologiae as:

In a glossary by Papias of Lombardy (c. 1053), first printed at Milan in 1476, the sambuca is described as a cithara, which in that century was generally glossed "harp":

In Tristan und Isolde (bars 7563-72) when the knight is enumerating to King Marke all the instruments upon which he can play, the sambiut is the last mentioned:

A Latin–French glossary has the equivalence Psalterium = . During the later Middle Ages  was often translated "sackbut" in the vocabularies, whether merely from the phonetic similarity of the two words has not yet been established.

The great Boulogne Psalter (11th Century) contains many fanciful instruments which are evidently intended to illustrate the equally vague and fanciful descriptions of instruments in the apocryphal letter of Saint Jerome,  ("to Dardanus"). Among these is a , which resembles a somewhat primitive sackbut without the bell joint. In the 19th Century it was reproduced by Edmond de Coussemaker, Charles de la Croix and Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, and has given rise to endless discussions without leading to any satisfactory solution.

Fabio Colonna created the pentecontachordon, a keyboard instrument which he called a sambuca.

References

Attribution

Lost and extinct musical instruments
String instruments


Sueños de Cabaret (English Cabaret Dreams) is the second cover album by Mexican pop singer Daniela Romo after 1994's La Cita. It was released in 2008.

History
The album was produced by Guillermo Gil. With the use of her great voice and interpretive mastery Daniela presents 11 contemporary themes carried to the atmosphere of the fifties that are decked with the sound of the orchestra and the sensual sound of the cabaret.

Track listing
Tracks:
 Abuso
 Mía
 Intocable
 Tú de que vas
 Qué manera de quererte
 Mi credo
 No Podrás
 Mujer contra mujer
 Color Esperanza
 Víveme
 Pensar en ti

Covered Singers
 Pedro Infante
 Aleks Syntek
 Franco De Vita
 Gilberto Santa Rosa
 Pepe Aguilar
 Cristian Castro
 Mecano
 Diego Torres
 Laura Pausini
 Luis Miguel

Credits
 Juan Barbosa → Production Assistant
 Agustin Bernal → Double Bass
 Beto Dominguez → Guitar, Percussion, Percussion Arrangement
 Moisés Garcia → Trumpet
 Güicho Gil → Mastering
 Guillermo Gil → Producer
 Memo Gil → Guitar, Mixing, Percussion Arrangement, Recording
 Héctor Martínez → Concept, A&R
 Tono Peregrino → Chorus
 Raul Rodrigo → Graphic Design
 Paco Rosas → Guitar (Electric)
 Pancho Ruiz → Producer, Chorus
 Abel Sanchez → Sax (Alto)
 Uriel Santana → Photography
 Mario Santos → Piano, Arranger, Producer

References

2008 albums
Daniela Romo albums


Egmont is a former New Zealand electorate, in south Taranaki. It existed from 1871 to 1978.

Geographic coverage
Egmont is the old name of the mountain that is the Taranaki landmark of Mount Taranaki. A village north of the mountain is also called Egmont.

History
This rural electorate was formed in 1871. Mount Egmont, after which it is named, was confiscated from Māori by the New Zealand Government under the powers of the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863, following the Second Taranaki War.

William Gisborne was the first elected representative in 1871, elected unopposed. He was a minister in the third Fox Ministry and resigned from Parliament when the government fell on 10 September 1872. Harry Atkinson won the resulting 1872 by-election. He held the electorate until 1891, when he resigned. During this time, he was Premier on four occasions.

Atkinson's resignation caused the 1891 by-election, which was won by Felix McGuire. He held the electorate until 1896, when he (successfully) stood for the Hawera electorate instead. He was succeeded by Walter Symes from 1896 until 1902, when he (successfully) stood for Patea. The next representative was William Thomas Jennings from 1902 until 1908, when he (successfully) stood for Taumarunui.

Bradshaw Dive was elected in 1908 and held the electorate for one term. He was defeated in 1911 by Thomas Mackenzie, who resigned in 1912. Charles Wilkinson won the resulting 1912 by-election and retired in 1919. He was succeeded by Oswald Hawken, who won the 1919 election, but was defeated in 1928 by Wilkinson coming out of his retirement. This time, Wilkinson held the electorate until 1943, when he retired for good.

The electorate was then held by three members of the National Party; Ernest Corbett (1943–57), William Sheat (1957–66) and Venn Young (1966–78).

Egmont was abolished in 1978, and was replaced by the Waitotara electorate.

Members of Parliament
Egmont was represented by twelve Members of Parliament:

Key

Election results

1931 election

1928 election

1912 by-election

1905 election

1899 election

1893 election

1891 by-election

1890 election

Notes

References

Historical electorates of New Zealand
Politics of Taranaki
1870 establishments in New Zealand
1978 disestablishments in New Zealand


The Hyades Stream (or Hyades moving group) is a large collection of scattered stars that also share a similar trajectory with the Hyades Cluster. In 1869, Richard A. Proctor observed that numerous stars at large distances from the Hyades share a similar motion through space.  In 1908, Lewis Boss reported almost 25 years of observations to support this premise, arguing for the existence of a co-moving group of stars that he called the Taurus Stream (now generally known as the Hyades Stream or, following Olin J. Eggen who assumed that it was a vestige of an initially more massive cluster which had partly evaporated, the Hyades Supercluster).  Boss published a chart that traced the scattered stars' movements back to a common point of convergence.

Eggen's argument that groups of this type are in fact cluster remnants has been debated. It has been noted that because such phenomena may also be the result of other dynamical mechanisms. Famaey B, et al. report that about 85% of stars in the Hyades Stream have been shown to be completely unrelated to the original cluster on the grounds of dissimilar age and metallicity; their common motion is attributed to tidal effects of the massive rotating bar at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.  Among the remaining members of the Hyades Stream, the exoplanet host star Iota Horologii has recently been proposed as an escaped member of the primordial Hyades Cluster.

References


Talvikki Ansel is an American poet. She was chosen as a winner by James Dickey, for the Yale Younger Poets Series in 1996.

Life
She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1985, and Indiana University Bloomington.  Her poems have appeared in the anthologies New Young American Poets (Southern Illinois University, 2000) and The Pushcart Prize XXVI, and in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, The Journal, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and Shenandoah.

She teaches at the University of Rhode Island.

Awards
 Lannan Foundation resident, Marfa, Spring 2006.
Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing, from Stanford University
Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship.

Works
 World, The Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2001
 Bird Calls, Blackbird, Spring 2002
 Swallows, Blackbird, Spring 2002
 Seed Savers, Poetry Magazine, January/February 2007
 Mycorrhizae, Poetry, Volume CLXXXVI, Number 3 June 2005
 Tree List, Prairie Schooner, Mar 22, 2003
 Or Stay Again, Prairie Schooner, Mar 22, 2003
 Blue Collection, Prairie Schooner, Mar 22, 2003

Books
 My Shining Archipelago, Yale University Press, 1997. ,
 Jetty Lincoln, Neb.: Zoo Press, 2003. ,

Reviews
With admirable economy, the title Jetty announces two significant features of Talvikki Ansel's second book: the liminal vantage-point of the narrators of these poems and the curious ways in which the human world intersects with the natural.

References

External links
Where Poetry Outgrows Hobby Status, BILL SLOCUM, The New York Times, June 22, 1997

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Mount Holyoke College alumni
Indiana University Bloomington alumni
Stegner Fellows
University of Rhode Island faculty
American women poets
20th-century American poets
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American poets
21st-century American women writers
American women academics


The 2001 Meteor Music Awards was the first edition of Ireland's national music awards. A total of twenty-five awards were presented at the ceremony.

Winners
The list of winners list is located here.

Best Selling Irish Pop/Rock Album – Male Artist:  Ronan – Ronan Keating
Best Selling Dance Act: Morcheeba
Best Selling Irish Album – Female Artist: The Diamond Mountain Sessions – Sharon Shannon
Best Irish Newcomer: JJ72
Best Selling International Album – Male Artist:  White Ladder – David Gray
Best Selling Irish Rock Group – Album: All That You Can't Leave Behind – U2
Music Industry Award: Louis Walsh
Hope for 2001: Relish
Best Selling Pop Group – Album: Coast to Coast – Westlife
Best Selling Irish Single – Male Artist: "Maniac 2000" – Mark McCabe
Best Rock DJ: Dave Fanning – RTÉ 2fm
Lifetime Achievement Award: Christy Moore
Best Selling Irish Single – Female Artist: "Gotta Tell You" – Samantha Mumba
Best Selling Irish Video: D'Mother – D'Unbelievables
Best International Songwriter: David Gray
Hot Press Album of the Year: Red Dirt Girl – Emmylou Harris
Best Irish Song/Band: U2
Humanitarian Award: Elton John Foundation
Best Irish Songwriter: Bono/The Edge
Best International Female – Album: The Greatest Hits – Whitney Houston
Best Selling International Group – Album: 1 – The Beatles
Best Selling International Single – Male Artist: "Stan" – Eminem
Best Selling International Single – Female Artist: "Can't Fight the Moonlight" – LeAnn Rimes
Best Selling International Single – Group: "The Bad Touch" – Bloodhound Gang
Best Selling Irish Album – Male Artist: Faith & Inspiration – Daniel O'Donnell

References

External links
 Official site
 MCD Promotions
 List of winners through the years

Meteor Awards
Meteor Awards
Meteor Music Awards


Shirley Ellis (born 1952; married name Morgan) is a Welsh former sportswoman who played cricket as an all-rounder and field hockey for the Welsh national team.

She appeared in five One Day Internationals (ODIs) for Young England in the 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup. In her first match, she became the first woman cricketer to open both the batting and bowling in an ODI. Overall, she took two wickets and scored 62 runs, with a high score of 30. She played domestic cricket for Sussex and West of England.

Ellis her first appearance for the Welsh hockey team in 1971, aged nineteen. In 1973 she took part in the Welsh Ladies' tour of the West Indies, from which she emerged top scorer with 17 goals.

References

External links

1952 births
Living people
Date of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Welsh women cricketers
English women cricketers
Young England women cricketers
Sussex women cricketers
West women cricketers
Welsh female field hockey players


Yvonne Golland is an English former cricketer who played as a bowler. She appeared in three One Day Internationals for Young England in the 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup, scoring 17 runs and taking two wickets. She played domestic cricket for West Midlands.

References

External links

Living people
Date of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
English women cricketers
Young England women cricketers
West Midlands women cricketers
Year of birth missing (living people)


Vindictus is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by devCAT, an internal studio of Nexon.  The story follows the player character joining a group of mercenaries and going on a series of missions to battle monsters.  The gameplay has players exploring dungeons, fighting monsters, and upgrading their characters.

It was originally released on January 21, 2010 as Mabinogi Heroes () in South Korea, and then later in North America and other regions as Vindictus.  It is a prequel to devCAT's previous MMORPG Mabinogi set in the same world, although the two games have very different gameplay.  Vindictus is a live service game with new content being added in free updates over time.  On release the game received generally positive reception, particularly for its combat.

Gameplay

Vindictus features hack and slash combat where players can perform a variety of attacks, combos, and specials moves while dodging or blocking enemy attacks.  The combat also has a physics system where players can pickup and attack with various objects, grapple and throw enemies, and destroy parts of the environment.  Unlike other MMORPGs, Vindictus does not have an open world.  Instead, players start in a central hub town, and can select combat missions from a list.  New missions are unlocked as the player levels up and progresses through the story.  Missions will typically have the player progress through several rooms of a themed dungeon fighting monsters and avoiding traps, and then end with a boss fight.  Most missions can be played in a group of 1-4 players, with some raid missions allowing groups of 8 or more players.  In the hub town between missions players can upgrade their equipment, learn new skills, and complete side quests for NPCs.

Instead of creating a custom character and selecting a class, Vindictus has preset characters with unique appearances and abilities.  For example, Lann is a male fighter who dual wields melee weapons, and Evie is a female magician who casts spells in combat.  At launch the game had only 3 playable characters, but over 20 additional characters have been added in updates since then.  Players select one of these existing characters to play as, but have some freedom to customize their appearance with different clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc.  Some characters can swap between two different weapon types with distinct gameplay and abilities.  For example, Evie can either wield a staff to cast long range magic spells, or equip a battle scythe and use a mixture of spells and melee attacks.

Plot
Vindictus is a prequel to Mabinogi, set in the same world several hundred years earlier.  The lore is inspired by Celtic mythology.  The story is primarily told through visual novel segments with the player character talking to different NPCs in the game's towns to progress the plot.  Some major story moments also have animated cutscenes and voice acting.

The story of Vindictus is released episodically with new content being added over time.  These episodes are grouped into larger seasons.  In season 1 the player character is a new member of the crimson blade mercenaries, who get caught up in a war between humans and fomors.  Season 2 has the player travel to the island town of Malina and join a group of treasure hunters called the coffer chasers.  Season 3 takes the player to the underground city Berbhe, as they investigate everyone losing their memories of the previous seasons.  Season 4 is a direct continuation of season 3 as the player and their allies continue to face new threats.

Development
Vindictus was developed in the Source engine.  Director Eun-Seok Yi explained in an interview that they chose the Source physics engine as "a way of making the entire world feel more realistic and interactive."

Vindictus is a prequel to the MMORPG Mabinogi which was also developed by devCAT.  A 3rd game in the series titled Mabinogi II: Arena was also in development, but canceled in 2014.

In 2015 an update was released for Vindictus containing artwork from Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.  Nexon removed the image and apologized, saying “It was a major mistake not checking the source of the image.”

Release
Vindictus was originally released in South Korea on January 21, 2010. In North America Vindictus launched as an open beta on September 15, 2010 followed by the full release one month later.  The game was originally distributed through Nexon's website, and was later released on Steam in 2012. From 2011 to 2015 the game was also released in Europe, Australia, and other parts of Asia, although some of those regional versions have since been shut down, or merged with the North American server.

Reception

Vindictus received "generally favorable" reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

John Bedford of Eurogamer rated Vindictus 7/10 praising the game's graphics, combat, and controls saying that the "combat is enhanced by a targeting and camera system that puts many a mainstream release to shame," but criticized its microtransactions.  Mike Splechta from GameZone also praised the combat calling Vindictus "a huge advancement in free-to-play MMOs," but complained about repetition in the dungeons which "constantly recycle rooms from previous areas."

Vindctus won awards at the 2010 Korea Game Awards for its planning/scenario, graphics, character, and sound while also receiving the "Popular Game Award" and "Grand Prize" for a total of 6 awards won.

References

External links

 (North America)

Official Vindictus Wiki

2010 video games
Active massively multiplayer online games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Free-to-play video games
Hack and slash role-playing games
Nexon games
Source (game engine) games
Video games based on Celtic mythology
Video games developed in South Korea
Video games featuring female protagonists
Windows games
Windows-only games


Hugo Llorens (born September 7, 1954) is a retired American diplomat.  He is a former U.S. Special Chargé d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, (2016–17) and United States Ambassador to Honduras (2008–2011). In his 36-year career he was posted to numerous countries spanning 6 continents. In 2002–2003, he joined the White House staff and served as Director of Andean Affairs advising the President and National Security Advisor on issues pertaining to Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.

Background
Born in Cuba in 1954, Llorens came to the United States at the age of seven
 in April 1962 as part of Operation Peter Pan.

Education
Llorens earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in 1977. He then went on to receive a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England in 1980. In 1997 he was awarded a Master of Science in National Security Studies from the National War College.

Pre-State Department career
Llorens worked as an Assistant Treasurer at the Chase Manhattan Bank, International Division, New York City, before joining the United States Department of State in 1981.

Diplomatic career
Llorens served as Deputy Director of the Office of Economic Policy and Summit Coordination in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, in which capacity he "contributed to the launch of the historic Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations in 1998". From 1999 to 2002 Llorens served for three years as Principal Officer at the United States Consulate General in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. During his tenure in Vancouver he created a novel Law Enforcement Hub and opened FBI, Secret Service, ATF, DEA and legacy Customs and Immigration offices at the Consulate.  The establishment of the Hub led to a significant enhancement of U.S. and Canadian coordination in the fight against organized crime and terrorism.  Llorens was also the senior U.S. official in British Columbia during the January 1, 2000 arrest of Millennium Bomber Ahmed Ressam in Washington state.

In 2002 and 2003, he served in Washington, D.C., as Director of Andean Affairs at the National Security Council. There he was the principal advisor to the President and National Security Advisor on issues pertaining to Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. As National Security Council Director he drafted and managed inter-agency coordination for a new U.S. policy approach on Colombia (NSPD-18) in the wake of the election of President Uribe. Llorens also managed the successful official visits to Washington of President Toledo (Peru), President Sanchez de Lozada (Bolivia), President Uribe (Colombia), and President Gutierrez (Ecuador).

Following his tenure on the White House staff, Llorens was Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, until July 2006. In Argentina he was a lead player in Bush Administration efforts to assist Argentina restore political stability and recover from a massive economic and financial crisis caused by the collapse of the Peso Convertability scheme.  Beginning September 2006, Llorens served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Madrid.  In Spain he worked closely with U.S. and Spanish military and defense authorities to ensure that Spain served as an effective logistical hub for U.S. military aircraft supplying military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2008, President George W. Bush nominated Llorens to be U.S. Ambassador to Honduras.  He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2008 and in August was sworn-in by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Llorens presented his credentials as Ambassador to the government President Manuel Zelaya Rosales on September 19, 2008. In describing the looming Honduran political crisis, Llorens publicly declared - in reference to President Manuel Zelaya's planned referendum on a proposed constitutional assembly - that:

In Honduras, Llorens dealt with the first major international crisis faced by the incoming Obama Administration.  He worked with all political factions in seeking to resolve the political tensions caused by President Zelaya's attempt to hold a referendum to modify the Honduran constitution.  Nevertheless, he opposed the Honduran military's removal by force of the democratically elected government on June 18, 2009.  On the instruction of Secretary of State Clinton, Llorens stayed on in Honduras as the only remaining foreign Ambassador in Honduras following the military coup.  During the coming months he supported the holding of free elections that resulted in National Party standard bearer Pepe Lobo assuming the presidency, and ensure the restoration of the constitutional order. Llorens's role was harshly criticized by those who supported the military's removal of Zelaya.

Llorens diplomatic dispatches released by Wikileaks, caused some controversy in Honduras as Llorens made the case to Washington policymakers that while Zelaya's actions had precipitated the crisis, the United States, as was the case with the broad international community, needed to oppose the illegal and unconstitutional manner in which the seating president was removed from office.

At the conclusion of his three-year term in Honduras, Llorens returned to Washington in 2011 as Ambassador-in-Residence at the National War College.  At National, Llorens taught the art and science of "grand strategy" to the elite student body of senior military officers and civilian officials, and led an initiative to strengthen the leadership curriculum at the school.  In 2012, he was assigned to Kabul, Afghanistan as Assistant Chief of Mission (ACOM), an Ambassadorial-ranked position.  As the ACOM, Llorens served as the Chief Operating Officer of the largest Embassy in the world.  As such, Llorens had oversight of all administrative and security operations at the Embassy, and directed the critical political, political-military, and reconciliation portfolios.  In 2013, Llorens was assigned to Sydney, Australia where he was the Principal Officer to this high profile diplomatic mission.  In Australia he was the senior officer responsible for managing the logistics of President Obama's successful participation in the 2015 G-20 Summit held in Brisbane.  During his time in Sydney, Llorens was known for his strong advocacy of clean energy, innovation, and the expansion of trade and investment links in the Asia Pacific.  He also hosted visits by Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Kerry, and several dozen senior Congressional and military delegations.

In 2016, Secretary Kerry asked Ambassador Llorens to return to Afghanistan and lead the Embassy in Kabul.  As the Special Charge D'Affaires, Llorens was the senior U.S. diplomat in Kabul directing the largest Embassy in the world with a staff of more than 8,500 U.S., Afghan and Third Country Nationals representing 22 U.S. government agencies.  In Afghanistan, Llorens managed ties with the National Unity Government led by President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah.  He also was the key U.S. civilian official in Afghanistan during the transition between the Administrations of President Obama and Trump.  Llorens also worked closely with U.S. and NATO military counterparts, and senior Trump Administration officials, including Secretary of State Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Mattis, and National Security Advisor McMaster in developing a new and more robust policy approach on Afghanistan and South Asia formally enunciated by President Trump on August 17, 2017.  Llorens completed his Mission in Kabul in late November 2017 and retired from the U.S. Foreign Service on December 31, 2017.

Mr. Llorens has earned numerous awards for distinguished performance, including eight Superior Honor and five Meritorious Honor Awards.  He is a past recipient of the Cobb Award for excellence in the promotion of U.S. business, was runner-up for the Saltzman Award for distinguished performance in advancing U.S. international economic interests, and was nominated for the James Baker Award for superior performance by a Deputy Chief of Mission.  In June 2019, German President Steinmeier awarded Ambassador Llorens the Order of Merit for his unswerving support for the German diplomatic delegation in the wake of the May 31, 2017 bombing of the German Embassy in Kabul Afghanistan.  He speaks Spanish, Tagalog, and some French.

Ambassador Llorens currently lives with his wife Lisett in their home in Marco Island, Florida.  He is the CEO of an international consulting firm (Ambassador Hugo Llorens and Global Partners LLC).  He also teaches, does public speaking, serves on advisory boards of private companies, and is writing the first of several books.  In his free time, Llorens is a passionate tennis player and avid fly fisherman (salt and freshwater).

Selected works
 Kirby Smith and Hugo Llorens (1998), "Renaissance and Decay: A Comparison of Socioeconomic Indicators in Pre-Castro and Current-Day Cuba", Cuba in Transition: Volume 8: Papers and Proceedings of the 8th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), Miami, Florida, August 6–8, 1998

Footnotes

United States Department of State officials
Ambassadors of the United States to Honduras
Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni
Living people
American people of Cuban descent
1954 births
Hispanic and Latino American diplomats
Ambassadors of the United States to Afghanistan
21st-century American diplomats


The Daily Mercury is an online newspaper which serves the Mackay region in Queensland, Australia. Print edition was later revived with a publication on Friday only.

The newspaper is printed by Mackay Printing and Publishing and is owned by News Corp Australia.

History
The Daily Mercury ran from 1866 to 1905 as the Mackay Mercury and South Kennedy Advertiser. From 1887 the paper was issued under the name Mackay Mercury until 1906 when the Daily Chronicle was absorbed by the paper and it was renamed the Daily Mercury.

Along with many other regional Australian newspapers owned by NewsCorp, the Daily Mercury ceased print editions in June 2020 and became online-only publication. The print edition was revived in late August, 2021 as a weekly, Friday-only edition.

Editors

 ?? - May 2011: David Fisher
 May 2011 - ??: Jennifer Pomfrett
 ?? - ??: Jennifer Spilsbury
 ?? - ??: Jon Ortlieb
 November 2014 - ?? : Meredith Papavasiliou
 ?? - June 2018: Rowan Hunnam
 June–September 2018: Melanie Plane and Cas Garvey (acting)
 September 2018 - November: Paul McLoughlin
 November 2018 - January 2019: Melanie Plane (acting)
 January 2019 – Present: Rae Wilson

Digitisation
The papers have been digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program  of the National Library of Australia.

See also
 List of newspapers in Australia

References

External links

Mackay, Queensland
Newspapers published in Queensland
Newspapers established in 1867
APN Australian Regional Media
Daily newspapers published in Australia
Newspapers on Trove
Online newspapers with defunct print editions


Wellington is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Region of Queens Municipality .

References
 Wellington on Destination Nova Scotia

Communities in the Region of Queens Municipality
General Service Areas in Nova Scotia