Appearance.

The quagga mussel shell is generally black, yellow, and/or zig-zagged. However, there is a large range of shell morphologies, including a distinct morph in Lake Erie that is pale or completely white. The shell has a rounded carina and a convex ventral side.  The quagga mussel resembles the zebra mussel, just as its namesake (quagga) resembles the zebra. The quagga mussel shell can be distinguished from the zebra mussel shell because it is paler toward the end of the hinge. It is also slightly larger than the zebra mussel, about wide, roughly about the size of an adult human's thumbnail.

Diet.

The quagga mussel is a filter feeder. It uses its cilia to pull water into its shell cavity through an incurrent siphon and it is here that desirable particulate matter is removed. Each adult mussel is capable of filtering one or more liters of water each day, where they remove phytoplankton, zooplankton, algae, and even their own veligers. Any undesirable particulate matter is bound with mucus, known as pseudofeces, and ejected out the incurrent siphon. The particle-free water is then discharged out the excurrent siphon.

Reproduction.

The quagga mussel is a prolific breeder, possibly contributing to its spread and abundance. "Dreissena" are dioecious (either male or female) with external fertilization. A fully mature female mussel is capable of producing up to one million eggs per year. After fertilization, pelagic microscopic larvae, or veligers, develop within a few days and these veligers soon acquire minute bivalve shells. Free-swimming veligers drift with the currents for three to four weeks feeding by their hair-like cilia while trying to locate suitable substrata to settle and secure byssal threads. Mortality in this transitional stage from planktonic veliger to settled juveniles may exceed 99%. In 2019 the genome of a quagga mussel from the Danube river in Austria was sequenced, revealing how larvae use a system of intercellular 'cleavage cavities' and an expanded set of aquaporin transmembrane water channels for osmoregulation in low salinity freshwater environments during the early stages of their development.

Invasive species.

North America.

Zebra mussels, the first dreissenid mussel introduced in North America, rapidly spread throughout many major river systems and the Great Lakes, causing substantial ecological and environmental impacts. The quagga mussel was first observed in North America in September 1989 when it was discovered in Lake Erie near Port Colborne, Ontario. It was not identified as a distinct species until 1991.  The introduction of both dreissenid species into the Great Lakes appears to be the result of ballast water discharge from transoceanic ships that were carrying veligers, juveniles, or adult mussels. The genus "Dreissena" is highly polymorphic and prolific with high potential for rapid adaptation attributing to its rapid expansion and colonization. Still, there are other factors that can aid in the spread of these species across North American waters, such as, larval drift in river systems or fishing and boating activities that allow for overland transport or movement between water basins. The success of overland transport of "Dreissena" species depends on their ability to tolerate periods of desiccation, and results suggest that, given temperate summer conditions, adult "Dreissena" may survive 3-5 days of aerial exposure.  Quaggas are prodigious water filterers, removing substantial amounts of phytoplankton and suspended particulate from the water. By removing the phytoplankton, quaggas in turn decrease the food source for zooplankton, therefore altering the food web. Impacts associated with the filtration of water include increases in water transparency, decreases in mean chlorophyll concentrations, and accumulation of pseudofeces. Water clarity increases light penetration causing a proliferation of aquatic plants that can change species dominance and alter the entire ecosystems. The pseudofeces that is produced from filtering the water accumulates and impacts the environment. As the waste particles decompose, oxygen is used up, water acidity increases (decreased pH) and toxic byproducts are produced. In addition, quagga mussels accumulate organic pollutants within their tissues to levels more than 300,000 times greater than concentrations in the environment and these pollutants are found in their pseudofeces, which can be passed up the food chain, therefore increasing wildlife exposure to organic pollutants (Snyder et al., 1997). Another major threat involves the fouling of native freshwater mussels. Since quaggas were discovered in Lake Michigan in 1998, plankton rings formed by the passage of storms have been eaten away by the quagga mussels, threatening the local ecosystem.  Each coin-sized quagga can filter up to a liter of water per day, stripping away the plankton that for thousands of years directly and indirectly sustained the native fish. Much of that food supply has now been sucked to the lake bottom; for every pound of prey fish swimming in the lake today, there are an estimated three or four pounds of quaggas clustering on the lake bed. "Dreissena"'s ability to rapidly colonize hard surfaces causes serious economic problems. These major biofouling organisms can clog water intake structures, such as pipes and screens, therefore reducing pumping capabilities for power and water treatment plants, costing industries, companies, and communities. Recreation-based industries and activities have also been impacted; docks, breakwalls, buoys, boats, and beaches have all been heavily colonized. Many of the potential impacts of "Dreissena" are unclear due to the limited time scale of North American colonization. Nonetheless, it is clear that the genus "Dreissena" is highly polymorphic and has a high potential for rapid adaptation to extreme environmental conditions, possibly leading to significant long-term impacts on North American waters. Also, the colonization of deeper water by "D. r. bugensis", exposes the quagga to a new range of environmental conditions and new habitats.  It causes many of the same problems (stripping life-supporting algae, damaging boats, power plants, and harbors and destroying the native mussel population) as the equally invasive zebra mussel of Russia. It is also displacing native burrowing amphipod ("Diporeia hoyi") from the deep waters of Lake Erie.  In January 2007, quagga mussels were discovered at a marina in the Nevada portion of Lake Mead, and two other lakes on the Colorado River, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu.  In 2008 the threat of quagga mussels being introduced at Lake Casitas and Westlake Lake in California from recreational boating resulted in the lakes banning the use of outside boats. As of March 2008, other lakes such as Castaic and Lake Cachuma are considering similar bans. In June 2008, the mussels were confirmed in Lake Granby, Colorado. The larva form of quagga mussels were found in the water. After 5 years of negative testing Lake Granby, Colorado has been classified as a negative waterbody for quagga mussel veligers.  Quagga mussels are now in all parts of Lake Powell on the Utah and Arizona Border. They were also suspected in Deer Creek Reservoir at the top of Provo Canyon in Utah, but this body of water has since been delisted as a quagga-suspected water after 3 years of negative testing.

Europe.

Quagga mussels are presumed to have originated in the Ukrainian section of the Black Sea and probably began to spread further into eastern Europe in the 1940s. Today they are an invasive species found throughout western Europe.  In Germany the Quagga mussels were first identified in 2005, and now populate many inland waters, such as the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, the Main, and the Rhine. They were first identified in Switzerland in 2015, and in Lake Constance in 2016, where they have since spread massively and caused considerable problems, in particular to the machinery in waterworks.  In 2014, the species was reported at Wraysbury reservoir, not far from London's Heathrow Airport in the valley of the River Thames.

Quagga mussels as prey.

In 1994, invasive species biologist Anthony Ricciardi determined that yellow perch found the invasive dreissenid species palatable. In 2004, he determined that yellow perch, over the intervening 10 years, had developed an appetite for the Quagga mussel. While this sounds like good news, the problem is that this feeding process introduces contaminants into the food chain, notably "Clostridium botulinum".  Redear sunfish, a specialized mollusc-eating fish, are now being stocked in the Colorado River drainage as a defense against the quaggas. As with the yellow perch, this predator–prey relationship could cause toxins and microorganisms to move up the food chain.  Although quaggas are edible for humans, eating them is not recommended due to the accumulation of toxins, pollutants, and microorganisms within the mussels' bodies.

The quagga mussel ("Dreissena rostriformis", also known as "Dreissena bugensis" or "Dreissena rostriformis bugensis") is a species (or subspecies) of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Dreissenidae. It has an average life span of 3 to 5 years.

Die Quagga-Dreikantmuschel ("Dreissena rostriformis bugensis") ist eine Unterart, die zur Familie der Dreikantmuscheln gehört. Teilweise wird sie auch als eigenständige Art ("Dreissena bugensis") angesehen. Ursprünglich in Zuflüssen des Schwarzen Meeres verbreitet, tritt sie in Europa und Nordamerika als Neozoon auf.


History.

2000 founding.

The company was founded in 2000 by Nicholas M. Maounis and based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Throughout much of its history, convertible arbitrage was the firm's primary profit vehicle. Maounis had prior to founding Amaranth Advisors worked at Paloma Partners as a portfolio manager covering debt securities.

2004–2005 Focus on energy trading.

During 2004-2005, the firm shifted its emphasis to energy trading by Canadian trader Brian Hunter who invested in the natural gas market. In 2005 the firm made an estimated $1 billion on rising energy prices after Hurricane Katrina curtailed production.

2006 Energy trading losses.

2005 Dec – natural gas price decline.

Amaranth Advisors' troubles began in December 2005 as natural gas prices began to decline and Amaranth Advisors portfolio was structured for the price to move in the spring months of March or April.  Hunter who was 32 years old at the time invested heavily in natural gas futures which resulted in a single week loss of $6.5 billion when prices failed to move as expected.

Sept 18th 2006 – client told of loses.

On Monday September 18, 2006 Amaranth Advisors told investors that natural gas market downturn had resulted in $3 billion of loses. Further Amaranth Advisors told investors that it was working with lenders for maintaining liquidity while also and now selling portfolio holdings "to protect our investors." Traders sold securities that could be liquidated without undermining and disrupting the energy market; these included convertible bonds and high-yield corporate debt.

Transferring energy portfolio.

The fund had up to $9 billion under management and reports indicated their losses may have exceeded 65 percent of their investment. Amaranth transferred its energy portfolio to a third party consisting of Citadel LLC and JPMorgan Chase.

October 1, 2006 Fund suspends trading.

On September 29, 2006, Amaranth's founder sent a letter to fund investors notifying them of the fund's suspension and on October 1, 2006, Amaranth hired the Fortress Investment Group to liquidate its assets.  In September 2006 Amaranth Advisors investors were informed that they could not pull their money out and that redemptions would be temporarily suspended for two months. Ten years later 90% of assets had been returned and 10% of investor assets were still frozen through December 2016.

Clients.

Amaranth Advisors' investors included pension funds, endowments, banks and brokerage firms including Institutional Fund of Hedge Funds at Morgan Stanley. Pension fund clients included San Diego County Employees Retirement Association.

Investigations.

2007 CFTC investigation.

On July 25, 2007, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Amaranth and Hunter with attempting to manipulate the price of natural gas futures. Additionally, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission charged Amaranth, Hunter and trader Matthew Donohoe with market manipulation. The CFTC and the FERC had conflicting versions of what Hunter did, and are currently competing over jurisdiction. In 2014 Hunter settled with the CFTC, paying a $750,000 fine and accepting a ban from trading all CFTC-regulated natural-gas products.

2010 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

On January 22, 2010, a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission administrative law judge ruled that Hunter violated the Commission's Anti-Manipulation Rule. Judge Carmen Cintron found that "Hunter intentionally manipulated the settlement price of the at-issue natural gas futures contracts. His trading was specifically designed to lower the NYMEX price in order to benefit his swap positions on other exchanges." The decision is subject to review by the Commission.

Legal.

In November 2007 Amaranth Advisors filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan claiming $1 billion in damages on the grounds that the bank interfered in the company's efforts to avoid collapse after natural-gas trades losses in 2006. The suit claimed that JP Morgan as Amaranth Advisors's clearing broker use their position to prevent Amaranth Advisors from derisking their exposure from its natural-gas derivatives portfolio by preventing the portfolio from being sold to first Goldman Sachs and later Citadel LLC.  In December 2012, the New York State Court of Appeals upheld an earlier dismissal of the case. During the collapse of Amaranth Advisors, Centaurus was credited as being one of the major players on the other side of their position.

Criticism.

During the week of September 11, 2006 one week before clients were notified of loses Amaranth Advisors was seeking new investors and marketing their fund as being up 25 percent for the year.  "The New York Times" reported that Amaranth Advisors said it was a multi-strategy fund though acted "like an energy and commodities fund. When it bet big on natural gas and lost, it was apparent that it was neither multistrategy nor particularly well hedged" and also that in Amaranth Advisors' case ""multistrategy" seems to have been a misnomer at the fund."

Amaranth Advisors LLC was an American multi-strategy hedge fund founded by Nicholas M. Maounis and headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. At its peak, the firm had up to $9.2 billion in assets under management before collapsing in September 2006, after losing in excess of $6 billion on natural gas futures. Amaranth Advisors collapse is one of the biggest hedge fund collapses in history and at the time (2006) largest known trading losses.

Amaranth Advisors LLC war eine US-amerikanische Investment-Gesellschaft und ein Multi-Strategie-Hedge-Fonds, der von Nicholas Maounis gegründet war und seinen Firmensitz in Greenwich, Connecticut hatte. Die Gesellschaft hatte bis zu 9 Milliarden US-Dollar zu Anlagezwecken zur Verfügung. Sie brach im September 2006 zusammen, nachdem sie mehr als 6 Milliarden US-Dollar bei Futures mit Erdgas verloren hatte. Der Verlust dieser Firma war eine der größten je bekanntgewordenen Handelsniederlagen in der Wirtschaftsgeschichte.


Plot.

A small alien spaceship is cruising around the solar system. When it reaches the vicinity of Earth, it is struck by an asteroid and crashes at night in the small town of Perry Hall. Some hunters hear the impact and alert County Sheriff Cinder. When they go investigating on their own, however, the pilot emerges and kills them with a disintegrator ray. The beast also attacks a couple in their home, and a family out for a drive.  Cinder confronts the beast with his men and some armed residents including a man named Jamie. However, the beast appears invulnerable to bullets and they lose many men to the disintegrator. The next morning, they enlist the help of an expert marksman who shoots off the disintegrator, disarming the beast. However, the marksman's son and another officer perish during the shootout.  The police department begin evacuating the town. However, they are unable to convince mayor Bert Wicker to cancel his party for governor Embry. Meanwhile, a delinquent named Drago abuses his girlfriend, who has been sleeping with Jamie. The police then arrive to give her the evacuation order, and after they leave, Drago returns and strangles the girl. When Cinder's police find out that Wicker's party is in progress, Jamie bluffs that poison gas is escaping from a nearby mine and the partygoers flee in panic. Wicker and his secretary Mary Jane, dispirited by this turn of events, stay home and begin drinking heavily.  At the office of doctor Steven Price, the beast appears and kills a few men. Price and nurse Ruth hide in the basement, and devise a trap to electrocute the beast with some frayed electrical cord. It works, and the beast flees the building. The body of Drago's girl gets discovered and taken to Price; Jamie, suspecting Drago, goes out on his dirt bike and beats him. Soon after, Cinder and his deputy Lisa discover a mutilated corpse, and the beast shows up. Lisa and Cinder make their escape, and the sheriff injures his leg in the process. Lisa takes him to her house to heal, and they have sex.  Meanwhile, Wicker and Mary Jane have gotten very drunk. Price is sent to watch over them until they can be evacuated. However, the beast gets past Price and kills Mary Jane in the basement. Her screams wake Wicker, and the beast rips his head off when he investigates. Cinder arrives afterwards, and Jamie suggests electrocuting the beast with a high-voltage coil from the local power plant. Price, thinking back to his success with the electrical trap, supports this course of action, and the sheriff drives out to the power plant with his men. There, Drago assaults Ruth and Cinder, but is stopped when Jamie shoots him with a shotgun.  Cinder and his crew return to Wicker's house and begin setting up their trap, laying metal wire between the trees and connecting it to the coil, which will discharge when they throw the circuit breakers. The beast takes them by surprise, and Jamie must hold onto the wire to keep it inside the trap. They throw the breakers, and the surge makes the beast explode, and takes Jamie with it as well. The camera pans up to the stars overhead and the film ends.

Production.

Most of the cast of "The Alien Factor" reprise their roles in "Nightbeast". "Nightbeast" features opening credit effects by Ernest D. Farino, and the creature was created by John Dods. J. J. Abrams worked on the film as a 16-year-old. Abrams became aware of Dohler from the latter's articles in a local film magazine, "Cinemagic". After Dohler and Abrams exchanged correspondence, Dohler asked Abrams if he would be interested in scoring the film. The film was shot in Baltimore, Maryland. Abrams, who lived in Los Angeles, mailed the tapes to Dohler.

Release.

"Nightbeast" was first released on DVD Sep 28, 2004, by Troma and was later released on DVD February 24, 2009 along with "Blood, Boobs & Beast", a documentary about Don Dohler's life and career.

Reception.

"TV Guide" panned the film, awarding it one out of four stars, stating, "Although the special effects (including some startling uses of gore makeup) are noteworthy, the actors aren't given much to do other than stand around and talk. The final result is disappointing". Mark L. Miller of Ain't It Cool News wrote, "All in all, "Nightbeast" is drive-in, beer-swilling, audience-heckling fun." Bill Gibron of DVD Talk rated it 2.5/5 stars and called it "an angry middle aged man's cry for attention".  It has become a cult film.  In August 2016, "Nightbeast" was featured on Rooster Teeth's "Theater Mode" web show.  "Nightbeast" was featured in a RedLetterMedia Halloween special in 2013. Among other things, the group discussed the film's similarity to Dohler's other work, hokey acting, and improved special effects. Mike Stoklasa called "Nightbeast", "just a terrible film."  "Nightbeast" is briefly seen playing on television in Panos Cosmatos' 2018 film "Mandy".

Nightbeast is a 1982 science fiction horror film directed by cult director Don Dohler. It is a remake and sequel of sorts to Dohler's first film "The Alien Factor". The story concerns a small town sheriff who must stop a rampaging alien from killing the residents of Perry Hall, Maryland.

Nightbeast – Terror aus dem Weltall ist ein Science-Fiction-Horrorfilm von Don Dohler aus dem Jahr 1982. Der Film wurde später von Troma Entertainment aufgekauft und vermarktet.


Career.

He began his studies in 1913 at the École Normale Supérieure. This was followed by a term at l’École des Hautes Études Hispaniques in Madrid where he was a delegate to the "International Committee of Allied Propaganda". From 1916 to 1919 he was a lieutenant in the French artillery. He emerged from these experiences as a confirmed pacifist.  During his time in Spain he developed a passion for Spanish civilization. After completing his national exams for the teaching of Spanish in 1920, he became a teacher at the University of Lisbon, then at the Lycée de Bordeaux, then the University of Algiers where, in 1936, he was a candidate of the Popular Front for legislative elections. He temporarily settled at the Sorbonne, where he was a professor of Spanish Language and Literature. From 1934 to 1939, he was a member of the "Comité de Vigilance des Intellectuels Antifascistes", which resulted in a brief stay at the Royallieu-Compiègne internment camp in 1941.  He remained at the Sorbonne until 1945 when he transferred to the Collège de France, where he became the chair of the department for "Languages and Literatures of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin-America", a position he held for twenty years. He was the college's Administrator from 1955 to 1965. Bataillon became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1964.  The Iberoamerican studies library at the Sorbonne has been named after him. In 1972, the Marcel Bataillon Professorship in Comparative Literature was established at the University of North Carolina. He became the second recipient of the Alfonso Reyes International Prize in 1974.

Marcel Édouard Bataillon, (Dijon, 20 May 1895 – Paris, 4 June 1977) was a French hispanicist who specialized in the philosophy and spirituality of sixteenth-century Spain.

Marcel Bataillon (* 20. Mai 1895 in Dijon; † 4. Juni 1977 in Paris) war ein französischer Romanist und Hispanist.


Background.

According to will.i.am, he had originally written the song for American recording group The Pussycat Dolls, but decided to have them use "Beep" instead, a song that was later released as the third single from their debut studio album "PCD" (2005). In addition to writing and producing "My Humps", will.i.am also engineered the track with Jason "ill-aroma" Villaroman and performed on all the instruments present on the track. will.i.am and group member Fergie are the main vocalists on the song, while the other two members, Taboo and apl.de.ap, provide background vocals. "My Humps" was recorded at two locations in California: The Stewchia in Los Feliz and Morning View Studios in Malibu. The song was finally mixed by Romanian mix engineer Șerban Ghenea. The song samples lines from Sexual Harassment's 1983 single, "I Need a Freak". In June 2011, American disc jockey Lynn Tolliver won a lawsuit that claimed James McCant committed copyright infringement and licensed the song to the group without his permission. Tolliver said the song was licensed under his name and that in 1983 McCant had agreed to pay him 75 percent of any royalties from the song. Tolliver won $1.2 million as a result. The song was back in court in 2014 over royalty issues.  "My Humps" was released as the third single from "Monkey Business" (2005), after "Don't Phunk with My Heart" and "Don't Lie". After gaining considerable airplay and strong digital downloads, Interscope Records decided to release it while "Don't Lie" was still rising up the charts. It was released as the album's third single in the United States on September 20, 2005. On November 4, 2005, a remix of the song by American rapper Lil Jon was released to digital retailers through Interscope Records. Interscope also released the single internationally on November 7, 2005, featuring the Lil Jon remix as a b-side. On November 11, 2005, an extended play was released internationally. It features the song "So Real" and the Lil Jon remix. On November 18, 2005, the song was released internationally as a CD single and maxi single.

Composition.

"My Humps" is a hip hop and dance song that is backed by an electro-influenced beat. It incorporates a compositional sample of "I Need a Freak", written by Lynn Tolliver (a.k.a. David Payton). Talia Kraines of BBC Music commented that Fergie and will.i.am "sing playfully at each other, easily creating a vision of a boy/girl break-danceoff." Kraines also noted that the song sounded like a mix between Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract" ("Forever Your Girl", 1988) and Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance" ("Raw Like Sushi", 1989). Steve "Flash" Juon of RapReviews said that Fergie's rap verse was "Khia-esque". Azeem Ahmad of musicOMH noted that the song sounded similar to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" ("Love. Angel. Music. Baby.", 2004).

Music video.

The official music video for "My Humps", directed by Fatima Robinson and Malik Hassan Sayeed, premiered on "TRL". It shows Fergie dancing with backup dancers as images of expensive items such as Louis Vuitton purses and jewelry, which is supposed to be the jewelry her men have bought her, appear on the screen. The other members of The Black Eyed Peas—apl.de.ap, Taboo, and will.i.am—sing about how much they spend on Fergie as she sings about her "humps" and "lovely lady lumps". In some vignettes Taboo, apl.de.ap, and will.i.am are behind women erotically dancing.  The video received the award for "Best Hip-Hop Video" at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards on August 31, 2006.

Critical reception.

Talia Kraines of BBC Music commended "My Humps" as the most immediate track on the album, while noting that it could sound perfect on a Gwen Stefani album. Steve "Flash" Juon of RapReviews expressed a different feeling towards the song, calling Fergie's rap a "poor man's version of "My Neck, My Back" and will.i.am.'s verses "retarded". Azeem Ahmad of musicOMH, in his review of "Monkey Business", expressed mixed feelings toward "My Humps", writing that it is "uneasy but it does seem to fit Fergie's persona while will.i.am's vocals suit him down to the ground." In the review the single on the same publication, Mark Fielding dismissed the sexual and materialistic lyrics, expressing high discontent for rhyming "drunk" with "hump"(s), "lump"(s), and "bump"(s). Despite this, Fielding pointed out the mentions of "coco pops" and "milk", calling them ludicrous yet laughable, but praised the song's production.  Kelefa Sanneh of "The New York Times" commented that the single is going "most likely to live in infamy." Bill Lamb of About.com gave the song a two and a half star rating, giving credit to its catchy appeal, but was ultimately dismissed for its "junior high level sexual titillation", "boring minimalist repetition", and "serious lack of true wit and humor." Lamb's review was notably influenced by the success of the previous album, "Elephunk" (2003), indicated by this comment "In light of the band's previous triumphs as an inventive, socially conscious hip hop group, Black Eyed Peas releasing a song that trades on obsessions with female breasts simply to have a hit song is rather depressing." He also compared the song to Ciara's "Goodies" and Kelis's "Milkshake", commending the aforementioned single for presenting "greater wit and self awareness" than "My Humps". Jason King of "The Village Voice" called "My Humps" "asinine" and commented, "[it] conjures up none of the erotic discomfiture that gave "Milkshake" and "Cameltoe" their bite." "Rolling Stone" called it "an irresistible, butt-stupid ode to Fergie's ass."

Derision and accolades.

"My Humps" is regarded by multiple critics as the single worst song ever written. "Rolling Stone" readers voted the track number one in the "20 Most Annoying Songs" list. Ryan Schreiber of "Pitchfork Media" listed "My Humps" at number three on "The 15 Worst Releases of 2005" list, writing "Like 'Who Let the Dogs Out' before it, 'My Humps' is so monumentally vacuous, slapped together and tossed-off that it truly tests the definition of'song';" and described it as a "five-minute commercial jingle." In his 2009 book "Crap Lyrics", music journalist Johnny Sharp lists "My Humps" as "the worst song lyrics in the world", describing them as "objectification of the female form to sewer-like depths".

Chart performance.

"My Humps" proved to be the most commercially successful single from "Monkey Business" (2005). Before its release as a single, "My Humps" was already charting while the previous single "Don't Lie" was still gaining traction. The song entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 on August 20, 2005 at number eighty-five and moved up to number fifty-nine in the following week, making the second largest leap on the chart for that week. It continue rising up the chart, and by the time the song was officially released as a single, it entered the top ten. On November 5, 2005, "My Humps" reached number three on the Hot 100, where it lasted for six weeks. It lasted more than nine months on the Billboard Hot 100, sixteen weeks of which were spent inside the top ten. Since the single's release, the song has sold 2,203,000 downloads and has earned a double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for mastertone sales.  "My Humps" was commercially successful in the Australasia territories. On November 21, 2005, the song debuted and peaked at number one on the Australian Singles Chart. It lasted two weeks at the top position and a total of seventeen weeks on the chart. The song shipped 70,000 copies in Australia, earning a platinum certification by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). This success was replicated in New Zealand, when it debuted on the New Zealand Top 40 at number one on November 28, 2005. It fell off the top position in the following week and reappeared at number one six weeks later.  "My Humps" proved to be a success in Europe, peaking inside the top ten in eleven countries and in the top twenty in two others, while also peaking at number two on the European Hot 100. The song experienced its greatest performance in the British Isles. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted and peaked at number three, becoming the week's "highest debut". It stalled at the position the next week until falling to number five in the following week. "My Humps" eventually sold 295,000 copies in the country, according to The Official Charts Company. The song entered the Irish Singles Chart at number three on November 17, 2005. It stalled for two more weeks at that position until rising to number one in the following week. The song spent a total of nineteen weeks on the chart.

Covers.

"My Humps" has been covered and parodied by several amateur and established acts. Australian novelist Jack Heath cited the song and its "objectification of women disguised as empowerment" as his primary inspiration for his 2005 style parody "Don't Stall". Electronic musician Peaches covered the song in 2006, altering the lyrics humorously and changing the title to "My Dumps". Canadian rock singer Alanis Morissette covered the song in 2007, seemingly as an April Fools' Day prank. In contrast to the original "My Humps", Morissette's cover is performed slowly and in the style of a ballad, with only a piano accompanying the vocal. On April 2, a video in which Morissette parodies Fergie's dancing moves in the original "My Humps" music video was added to the website YouTube. By April 3, the video was the most viewed on Technorati, and it was viewed 1.5 million times six days later. The video has been hosted on Morissette's official website. "TIME" stated that the parody proved that Morissette understands irony, in reference to her hit single, "Ironic". On April 15, Fergie confirmed to E! News that she thought that the parody was hilarious and genius. Fergie sent Alanis a cake in the shape of a derrière.  Greeting card company American Greetings parodied the song in their Christmas e-card, "Three Wise Camels", in which the camels of the Three Wise Men rap about the gifts awaiting baby Jesus, which are sitting on their humps. American rapper Afroman parodied the song for his album "Waiting to Inhale" entitled "My Chunk". His lyrics have opposite meaning: he raps about his genitals and receiving money from women because he's a pimp. Sketch-comedy show "MADtv" did a parody titled "My Slump" about George W. Bush. New Zealander comedy duo Flight of the Conchords did a parody of the song entitled "Sugarlumps" in the second-season episode "The New Cup". American deathcore band Dr. Acula recorded a cover of the song for their first extended play "Chillogy". Their cover has the members performing numerous gags and one-liners. One of the members eventually starts singing; "Pussy tit, my fuckin' little tit. All up on my clitty clit. Check it out."

"My Humps" is a song performed by American recording group The Black Eyed Peas. The song was written and produced by group member will.i.am for their fourth studio album "Monkey Business" (2005). It was released as the band's third single from the album on September 20, 2005, due in part to the strength of downloads preceding the release. Musically, "My Humps" is a hip hop and dance song that is structured as a duet between will.i.am and Fergie. The song sparked controversy because of its title and lyrics, which center on a woman who uses her breasts and buttocks to accomplish her goals.

My Humps ist ein Lied der US-amerikanischen Hip-Hop-Gruppe The Black Eyed Peas. Es erschien auf ihrem vierten Album "Monkey Business".


Early life and training.

Born in April 1957 in Pforzheim, Germany, at the edge of the Black Forest, Maier was raised in a family of architects and attended a Waldorf school as a child. From there he headed to Paris, where he trained at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.

Career.

Maier's early professional experience includes designing for several fashion and luxury goods houses in France, Italy, and Germany, including Guy Laroche, Sonia Rykiel, where he designed men's wear for eight years, and Revillon, where he spent four years as creative director. For nine years, Maier was a women's ready-to-wear designer at Hermès, where he also designed some leather goods and accessories. By 1999, he quit all his contracts and moved to Florida.

Bottega Veneta, 2001–2018.

Maier was appointed by Tom Ford to become the Creative Director at Bottega Veneta in June 2001, when the company was acquired by Kering, formerly Gucci Group.  During his time at Bottega Veneta, Maier presided over an extensive but deliberate expansion of the brand. He presented his first collection, which consisted solely of accessories, in September 2001, just a few months after being hired.  In the first two years, he oversaw the opening of Bottega Veneta flagship stores in London, Paris, Milan, and New York, and added a small selection of women's and men's ready-to-wear pieces to the seasonal presentations. Among the product categories that Bottega Veneta now offers, in addition to women's and men's ready-to-wear collections, are accessories, fine jewelry, furniture, seating, tabletop, desktop, luggage, porcelain, eyewear, fragrance and watches. Maier helped found an artisan school, La Scuola della Pelleteria, in Vicenza in 2006. In addition, St. Regis Hotels in Rome, Florence and Park Hyatt Hotel in Chicago offer Bottega Veneta suites.  In 2014, Maier and Bottega Veneta partnered with the Japanese publication "Casa BRUTUS" and launched an initiative to raise awareness of the potential destruction of numerous significant Modernist buildings in Japan due to economics, politics and the preparation for the 2020 Summer Olympics.  Under Maier's leadership, Bottega Veneta tripled its revenues and exceeded $1 billion in revenues for the first time in 2012 before revenues fluctuated for the following years. By 2017, Saint Laurent overtook Bottega Veneta as Kering's second-biggest source of revenue; Kering announced Maier's resignation on 13 June 2018.

"Tomas Maier".

Tomas Maier established his eponymous swimwear label in 1997, with business partner Andrew Preston, and an online boutique was launched in 1998. Since then, five eponymous stores have opened in Palm Beach, Bal Harbour, East Hampton, and NYC. The collection is sold at over 100 stores in more than 30 countries around the world. On 19 November 2013, Kering announced it is investing in Tomas Maier's own label to "infusing it with the capital needed to ramp up expansion, including the addition of more company-owned boutiques"., the private label generated about $10 million in revenue annually from swimwear, knitwear, and jersey.  In 2018, Tomas Maier teamed up with Japanese casual wear retailer Uniqlo for a one-time-only resort-focused collection.

Personal life.

Maier moved to Florida in 1999.

Tomas Maier (born 1957) is a German-born designer. From 2001 to 2018, he served as Creative Director at Italian luxury lifestyle brand Bottega Veneta, subsidiary of Kering.

Tomas Maier (* 1957 als "Thomas Maier" in Pforzheim) ist ein deutscher Modedesigner. Er arbeitete bis 2018 in Florida für seine eigene, nach seinem vollen Namen benannte Modefirma und war von 2001 bis 2018 als Chefdesigner für Bottega Veneta tätig.


Mike Watson, Baron Watson of Invergowrie

Michael Watson, Baron Watson of Invergowrie

Early life.

Watson was born in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, but his family moved to Invergowrie, Perth and Kinross when he was very young. He was educated at Invergowrie Primary School, the High School of Dundee and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, graduating with a B.A. Hons in Economics and Industrial Relations in 1974.  Prior to entering politics Watson worked as a tutor/organiser for the Workers' Educational Association and in the trade union movement, for the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs (ASTMS) and the Manufacturing, Science and Finance union (MSF).

Political career.

Watson was elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom as Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Central at a by-election in 1989, following the death of Bob McTaggart MP. He was re-elected in the 1992 election and represented that constituency until it was abolished in 1997. He sought the nomination from the Labour party to run for the Govan seat at the 1997 election, but after initially winning the nomination by one vote, he lost a re-run to Mohammad Sarwar.  On 6 November 1997, he was created a Life peerage as Baron Watson of Invergowrie, of Invergowrie in Perth and Kinross.  In 1999 Lord Watson was elected to the Scottish Parliament to represent the Glasgow Cathcart constituency and was re-elected in 2003. On 20 July 1999 Watson announced his intention to introduce the "Protection of Wild Mammals" bill as a member's bill to the Scottish Parliament to outlaw fox hunting. The bill passed a vote 83–36 on 13 February 2002 and received Royal Assent on 15 March, becoming the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 and becoming law on 1 August. This was a precursor to the Hunting Act 2004 banning fox hunting in England and Wales.  When Jack McConnell became First Minister in 2001, Watson entered the Scottish Executive as Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport. He left the Executive in 2003, having lost his position in a reshuffle after the 2003 election. He subsequently became deputy convener of the enterprise and culture committee.  On 15 November 2004, Watson was charged with wilful fire raising, and the Labour whip was withdrawn from him in the Holyrood and Westminster parliaments. On 1 September 2005 he admitted the offence and resigned from the Scottish Parliament. Watson was also expelled from the Labour Party when the sentence was announced. After serving a prison sentence he was released in May 2006.  In January 2007 Watson was appointed as an Associate Director with Caledonia Consulting, while also attending the House of Lords on a regular basis. Watson was re-admitted to membership of the Labour Party in July 2012, after a vote of the National Executive Committee. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn appointed Watson as the Labour spokesman on education in the Lords.

Fire-raising conviction.

On 15 November 2004, Lord Watson was charged with two counts of "wilful fire raising" after a private reception at Edinburgh's Prestonfield Hotel following the Scottish Politician of the Year awards on 11 November. The first alleged that he set fire to a curtain in the hotel's reception, and the second that he set fire to a curtain in the hotel's Yellow Room. On being charged, the Labour whip was suspended in the Holyrood and Westminster parliaments.  After initially registering not guilty pleas to both charges on 23 August 2005, he changed his plea on 1 September to guilty on the first count, and had a not guilty plea accepted on the second charge.  On the same day that Lord Watson admitted his guilt, he resigned from the Scottish Parliament. He resigned as a director of Dundee United Football Club. It was not possible for a life peer to resign from the House of Lords at that time and there was no provision for peers convicted of criminal offences to be stripped of their titles. Such legislation was last proposed following the conviction of Jeffrey Archer for perjury in 2001, but rejected.  On 22 September 2005, Lord Watson was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment. Sheriff Kathrine Mackie justified the sentence, stating that there was both "a significant risk of re-offending" and that Lord Watson offered no explanation. She also told Lord Watson that consumption of alcohol "neither excuses nor fully explains your behaviour". The sentence was reduced from 20 months to 16 because Watson had pleaded guilty before the case reached trial. Watson appealed against his sentence on 23 March 2006 but the appeal judges refused to cut the term, and he was returned to prison. After serving half of his sentence (eight months), he was released on 23 May 2006.

Views on Jeremy Corbyn.

In an interview with The House magazine in March 2017, Lord Watson was asked whether Labour could win a UK general election under Jeremy Corbyn. He said: "Probably not. There are trends there that suggest we're not getting through and the result in Copeland certainly suggested that, so it will be difficult to turn that around. But we shouldn't underestimate the extent to which the government can get into difficulties over the European Union exit negotiations. It's not going to be anything approaching plain sailing for them."

Michael Goodall Watson, Baron Watson of Invergowrie (born 1 May 1949), is a British Labour Party politician. He has served in three legislatures in the United Kingdom and served as Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport in the Scottish Executive Cabinet.

Michael Goodall Watson, Baron Watson of Invergowrie, bekannt als Mike Watson (* 1. Mai 1949 in Cambuslang) ist ein schottischer Politiker und ehemaliges Mitglied der Labour Party.


Early life and career.

McNeil was educated at the co-educational, Roman Catholic Our Lady's High School, Cumbernauld before training as a graphic illustrator at Glasgow College of Building and Printing. She was President of the National Union of Students Scotland from 1986 to 1988 and was subsequently an organiser for GMB Scotland, representing NHS, hospitality and factory staff.  An active member of the Labour Party since her time in the student movement, McNeill was also an executive committee member of the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly and a campaigner for devolution throughout the 1980s and 1990s.  During her first term as an MSP, McNeill graduated from Strathclyde Law School after a period combining legislating and night school.

Political career.

McNeill was elected Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Kelvin in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election. In the 1999–2003 Parliament, she served as vice-chair of the Scottish Parliament Labour Group.  McNeill was re-elected as an MSP in 2003 and was appointed convener of the Justice Committee. She led parliamentary consideration of:  McNeill's committee also led consideration of reforms to the High Court amongst many other subjects and convened the first ever inquiry into the Crown and Procurator Fiscal Service, and helped deliver justice for asbestos victims in the Court of Session. In 2005, she was awarded the Equality Network's Friend for Life award for her work on the committee ensuring the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and Gender Recognition Act 2004 legislation passed at the British Government level were compliant with existing Scottish legislation. Later, her committee won Committee of the Year at the 2006 Scottish Politician of the Year Awards.  McNeill, a former band manager, was convener of the Cross Party Group on Contemporary Music. The group worked with key figures in the Scottish live music industry to launch the Scottish Live Music Manifesto and publish a Live Music Code of Conduct and Live Music Agreement, to improve protection for bands and young musicians from unscrupulous venues, agents and promoters.  McNeill was a staunch opponent of the Iraq War and campaigned for the right of protesters to picket the 2003 Scottish Labour Party Conference, which took place at the SECC in her own constituency.  On 2 July 2005, McNeill was a demonstrator in a Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh when the 31st G8 summit met at Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire.  As Convener of the Cross Party Group on Palestine, she was a United Nations observer at the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. Later in 2006, she visited Lebanon in the aftermath of the war there.  In 2007, McNeill narrowly retained the Glasgow Kelvin seat with a reduced majority in the wake of public opposition to the national Labour government's invasion of Iraq, a policy she opposed. Following the election, she was appointed Scottish Labour Spokesperson for Children and Early Years and subsequently Spokesperson for Europe, External Affairs and Culture.  McNeill lost Glasgow Kelvin in 2011 but was elected on the Glasgow regional list in 2016. She is currently the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Equalities, Housing and Social Security. In addition to this, she is Deputy Convenor of the Social Security Committee, a new committee created in response to the increase in devolved powers given by the Scotland Act 2016. She is also a substitute member for the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee and the Local Government and Communities Committee.

Local Campaigning.

From 1999 until 2011, McNeill corresponded with 15,000 constituents by letter or at meetings and surgeries.  McNeill has campaigned on the need for more affordable and social housing, and better regulation of housing in multiple occupation.  On the environment, McNeill has campaigned for more effective steps to increase recycling take-up and reduce energy usage.  On transport and planning, McNeill has called for better regulation of the bus industry, improvements to the Glasgow Subway, a more locally accountable planning system and improving local sports facilities. She has supported successful campaigns to grant Fair Trade status to the City of Glasgow and restore the Kelvingrove Park bandstand.  On crime, McNeill has sought better safety in Glasgow's city centre and the extension of community protections to its West End.  McNeill also unsuccessfully campaigned against the downgrading of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill and the Queen Mother's Hospital, including raising a 1,600-signature petition. However, children's services at what became West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital closed in 2015 and their responsibilities were taken up by the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.

Political positions and views.

Since her student days, McNeill has had a strong interest in defence and foreign policy issues. She opposes the replacement of Trident with a new nuclear weapons system, opposes the holding of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and has spoken out in favour of the rights of asylum seekers and new migrants. She continues to speak out, both in parliament and at public demonstrations, on the need for Middle East peace.  McNeill remains a supporter of many student campaigns, including the successful campaign to elect Israeli dissident Mordechai Vanunu as Rector of Glasgow University and takes a keen interest in the welfare of students across the many further and higher institutions located in Glasgow.

Personal life.

McNeill is married to Joseph Cahill, an advocate, who is a former police officer and Deputy Procurator Fiscal.

Pauline Mary McNeill (born 12 September 1962) is a Labour politician and a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow regional list since 2016, having previously represented the Glasgow Kelvin constituency from 1999 to 2011. In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election she stood but was not elected, however she returned to Parliament at the following election in 2016.

Pauline McNeill (* 12. September 1962) ist eine schottische Politikerin und Mitglied der Labour Party. McNeill besuchte die "Our Lady’s High School" in Cumbernauld und das "Glasgow College of Building and Printing", an dem sie Abschlüsse in Druckdesign und Graphischer Gestaltung erwarb. Anschließend ging sie an die Universität von Strathclyde und schloss im Fachbereich Jura ab. In den Jahren von 1986 bis 1988 war McNeill Vorsitzende der nationalen Studentenvereinigung und dann bis 1999 Regionalleiterin der Gewerkschaft GMB.


Education and early career.

Born in Minnesota, Kegan attended Dartmouth College, graduating "summa cum laude" in 1968. He described the civil rights movement and the movement against the Vietnam War as formative experiences during his college years. He took his "collection of interests in learning from a psychological and literary and philosophical point of view" to Harvard University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1977.

"The Evolving Self".

In his book "The Evolving Self" (1982), Kegan explored human life problems from the perspective of a single process which he called "meaning-making", the activity of making sense of experience through discovering and resolving problems. "Thus it is not that a person makes meaning, as much as that activity of being a person is the activity of meaning-making", Kegan wrote. The purpose of the book is primarily to give professional helpers (such as counselors, psychotherapists, and coaches) a broad, developmental framework for empathizing with their clients' different ways of making sense of their problems.  Kegan described meaning-making as a lifelong activity that begins in earliest infancy and can evolve in complexity through a series of "evolutionary truces" (or "evolutionary balances") that establish a balance between self and other (in psychological terms), or subject and object (in philosophical terms), or organism and environment (in biological terms). Each evolutionary truce is both an "achievement of" and a "constraint on" meaning-making, possessing both strengths and limitations. Each subsequent evolutionary truce is a new, more refined, solution to the lifelong tension between how people are connected, attached, and included ("integrated" with other people and the world), and how people are distinct, independent, and autonomous ("differentiated" from other people and the rest of the world).  Kegan adapted Donald Winnicott's idea of the holding environment and proposed that the evolution of meaning-making is a life history of holding environments, or "cultures of embeddedness". Kegan described cultures of embeddedness in terms of three processes: confirmation (holding on), contradiction (letting go), and continuity (staying put for reintegration).  For Kegan, "the "person" is more than an individual"; developmental psychology studies the evolution of cultures of embeddedness, not the study of isolated individuals. "One of the most powerful features of this psychology, in fact, is its capacity to liberate psychological theory from the study of the decontextualized individual. Constructive-developmental psychology reconceives the whole question of the relationship between the individual and the social by reminding that the distinction is not absolute, that development is intrinsically about the continual settling and resettling of this very distinction."  Kegan argued that some of the psychological distress that people experience (including some depression and anxiety) are a result of the "natural emergencies" that happen when "the terms of our evolutionary truce must be renegotiated" and a new, more refined, culture of embeddedness must emerge.  "The Evolving Self" attempted a theoretical integration of three different intellectual traditions in psychology. The first is the humanistic and existential-phenomenological tradition (which includes Martin Buber, Prescott Lecky, Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Ludwig Binswanger, Andras Angyal, and Carl Rogers). The second is the neo-psychoanalytic tradition (which includes Anna Freud, Erik Erikson, Ronald Fairbairn, Donald Winnicott, Margaret Mahler, Harry Guntrip, John Bowlby, and Heinz Kohut). The third is what Kegan calls the constructive-developmental tradition (which includes James Mark Baldwin, John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, William G. Perry, and Jane Loevinger). The book is also strongly influenced by dialectical philosophy and psychology and by Carol Gilligan's psychology of women.  Kegan presented a sequence of six evolutionary balances: incorporative, impulsive, imperial, interpersonal, institutional, and interindividual. The following table is a composite of several tables in "The Evolving Self" that summarize these balances. The "object" (O) of each balance is the "subject" (S) of the preceding balance. The process of emergence of each evolutionary balance is described in detail in the text of the book; as Kegan said, his primary interest is the ontogeny of these balances, not just their taxonomy.  The final chapter of "The Evolving Self", titled "Natural Therapy", is a meditation on the philosophical and ethical fundamentals of the helping professions. Kegan argued, similarly to later theorists of asset-based community development, that professional helpers should base their practice on people's existing strengths and "natural" capabilities. The careful practice of "unnatural" (self-conscious) professional intervention may be important and valuable, said Kegan; nevertheless "rather than being the panacea for modern maladies, it is actually a second-best means of support, and arguably a sign that the natural facilitation of development has somehow and for some reason broken down". Helping professionals need a way of evaluating the quality of people's evolving cultures of embeddedness so as to provide opportunities for problem-solving and growth, while acknowledging that the evaluators too have their own evolving cultures of embeddedness. Kegan warned that professional helpers should not delude themselves into thinking that their conceptions of health and development are unbiased by their particular circumstances or partialities. Kegan acknowledged the importance of Thomas Szasz's "suggestion that mental illness is a kind of myth", and he said that we need a way to address what Szasz calls "problems in living" while protecting clients as much as possible from the helping professional's partialities and limitations.  "The Evolving Self" has been cited favorably by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ronald A. Heifetz, Ruthellen Josselson, and George Vaillant. Despite the book's wealth of human stories, some readers have found it difficult to read due to the density of Kegan's writing and its conceptual complexity.

"In Over Our Heads".

Kegan's book "In Over Our Heads" (1994) extends his perspective on psychological development formulated in "The Evolving Self". What Kegan earlier called "evolutionary truces" of increasing subject–object complexity are now called "orders of consciousness". "In Over Our Heads" explores what happens, and how people feel, when new orders of consciousness emerge, or fail to emerge, in the domains of parenting (families), partnering (couples), working (companies), healing (psychotherapies), and learning (schools). He connects the idea of orders of consciousness with the idea of a hidden curriculum of everyday life. Kegan repeatedly points to the suffering that can result when people are presented with challenging tasks and expectations without the necessary support to master them.  In addition, Kegan now distinguishes between "orders of consciousness" (cognitive complexity) and "styles" (stylistic diversity). Theories of style describe ""preferences about" the way we know, rather than "competencies" or "capacities" in our knowing, as is the case with subject–object principles". Kegan's writing in this book continues the same combination of detailed storytelling and theoretical analysis found in his earlier book, but presents a "more complex bi-theoretical approach" rather than the single subject–object theory he presented in "The Evolving Self".  In the last chapter of "In Over Our Heads", titled "On Being Good Company for the Wrong Journey", Kegan warns that it is easy to misconceive the nature of the mental transformations that a person needs or seeks to make. Whatever the virtues of higher orders of consciousness, no one should expect us to master them when we are not ready or when we are without the necessary support; and we are unlikely to be helped by someone who assumes that we are engaged at a certain order of consciousness when we are not. He ends the book with an epilogue on the value of passionate engagement and the creative unpredictability of human lives.  "In Over Our Heads" has been cited favorably by Morton Deutsch, John Heron, David A. Kolb, and Jack Mezirow.

"Immunity to Change".

Kegan's next book, "How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work" (2001), co-authored with Lisa Laskow Lahey, jettisons the theoretical framework of his earlier books "The Evolving Self" and "In Over Our Heads" and instead presents a practical method, called the "immunity map", intended to help readers overcome an "immunity to change". An immunity to change is the "processes of dynamic equilibrium, which, like an immune system, powerfully and mysteriously tend to keep things pretty much as they are".  The immunity map continues the general dialectical pattern of Kegan's earlier thinking but without any explicit use of the concept of "evolutionary truces" or "orders of consciousness". The map primarily consists of a four-column worksheet that is gradually filled in by individuals or groups of people during a structured process of self-reflective inquiry. This involves asking questions such as: "What are the changes that we think we need to make?" "What are we doing or not doing to prevent ourselves (immunize ourselves) from making those changes?" "What anxieties and big assumptions does our doing or not doing imply?" "How can we test those big assumptions so as to disturb our immunity to change and make possible new learning and change?"  Kegan and Lahey progressively introduce each of the four columns of the immunity map in four chapters that show how to transform people's way of talking to themselves and others. In each case, the transformation in people's way of talking is a shift from a habitual and unreflective pattern to a more deliberate and self-reflective pattern. The four transformations, each of which corresponds to a column of the immunity map, are:  In three subsequent chapters, Kegan and Lahey present three transformations that groups of people can make in their social behavior, again from a lesser to greater self-reflective pattern:  "Immunity to Change" (2009), the next book by Kegan and Lahey, revisits the immunity map of their previous book. The authors describe three dimensions of immunity to change: the change-preventing system (thwarting challenging aspirations), the feeling system (managing anxiety), and the knowing system (organizing reality). They further illustrate their method with a number of actual case studies from their experiences as consultants, and they connect the method to a dialectic of three mindsets, called socialized mind, self-authoring mind, and self-transforming mind. (These correspond to three of the "evolutionary truces" or "orders of consciousness" in Kegan's earlier books.) Kegan and Lahey also borrow and incorporate some frameworks and methods from other thinkers, including Ronald A. Heifetz's distinction between technical and adaptive learning, Chris Argyris's ladder of inference, and a reworded version of the four stages of competence. They also provide more detailed guidance on how to test big assumptions.  The revised immunity map worksheet in "Immunity to Change" has the following structure: (0) Generating ideas. (1) Commitment (improvement) goals. (2) Doing / not doing. (3) Hidden competing commitment (and worry box). (4) Big assumption. (5) First S-M-A-R-T test: Safe, Modest, Actionable, Research stance (not a self-improvement stance), Testable.  The immunity to change framework has been cited favorably by Chris Argyris, Kenneth J. Gergen, Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, and Tony Schwartz.

"An Everyone Culture".

The book "An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization" (2016) was co-authored by Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey, Matthew L. Miller, Andy Fleming, and Deborah Helsing. The authors connect the concept of the "deliberately developmental organization" with adult development theory and argue that creating conditions for employees to successfully navigate through the transitions from socialized mind to self-authoring mind to self-transforming mind (described in Kegan's earlier works) "has a business value", at least in part because they expect demand for employees with more complex mindsets "will intensify in the years ahead".

Criticism.

Adult education professor Ann K. Brooks criticized Kegan's book "In Over Our Heads". She claimed that Kegan fell victim to a cultural "myopia" that "perfectly reflects the rationalist values of modern academia". Brooks also said that Kegan excluded "the possibility of a developmental trajectory aimed at increased connection with others", which is contradicted by Ruthellen Josselson's statement that Kegan "has made the most heroic efforts" to balance individuality and connection with others in his work.  In an interview with Otto Scharmer in 2000, Kegan expressed self-criticism toward his earlier writings; Kegan told Scharmer: "I can go back and look at things I've written and think, ugh, this is a pretty raw and distorted way of stating what I think I understand much better now."  Psychologists Michael Basseches and Michael Mascolo's 2009 book "Psychotherapy as a Developmental Process", which Kegan called "the closest thing we have to a 'unified field theory' for psychotherapy", stated that Basseches and Mascolo "embrace both Piagetian models of psychological change and their organization into justifications of what constitutes epistemic progress (the development of more adequate knowledge)", but they rejected theories of global developmental stages, such as Kegan's earlier writings, in favor of a more finely differentiated conception of development that focuses on "the emergence of specific skills, experiences, and behavioral dispositions over the course of psychotherapy as a developmental process".

Robert Kegan (born August 24, 1946) is an American developmental psychologist, author, and consultant. He was the William and Miriam Meehan Professor in Adult Learning and Professional Development at Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he taught for forty years until his retirement in 2016. Additionally he was the Educational Chair for the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education and the Co-director for the Change Leadership Group. He is a licensed psychologist and practicing therapist, has lectured widely to professional and lay audiences, and consults in the area of professional development and organization development.

Robert Kegan (* 1946) ist ein US-amerikanischer Entwicklungspsychologe und Autor. Er war Professor für Erwachsenenbildung und berufliche Entwicklung an der Harvard Graduate School of Education, wo er vierzig Jahre lang bis zu seiner Emeritierung im Jahr 2016 unterrichtete. Er ist zugelassener Psychologe und praktizierender Therapeut, hat zahlreiche Vorträge vor Fach- und Laienkreisen gehalten und ist Berater auf dem Gebiet der beruflichen Weiterbildung.


Causes.

The abandonment of the controlled economy provoked a frightful economic catastrophe. Prices soared and the rate of exchange fell. The Republic was condemned to massive inflation and its currency was ruined. In Thermidor, Year III, "assignats" were worth less than 3 percent of their face value. Neither peasants nor merchants would accept anything but coin. The debacle was so swift that economic life seemed to come to standstill.  The insurmountable obstacles raised by the premature reestablishment of economic freedom reduced the government to a state of extreme weakness. Lacking resources, it became almost incapable of administration, and the crisis generated troubles that nearly brought its collapse. The "sans-culottes", who had unprotestingly permitted the Jacobins to be proscribed, began to regret the regime of the Year II, now that they themselves without work and without bread.

The insurrection.

A pamphlet, published in the evening of 30 "Floreal" (19 May 1795) and entitled "Insurrection of the People to obtain bread and reconquer their right", gave the signal for the movement. This pamphlet, which was known as "The Plan of Insurrection", provided the popular agitators with definite objectives, the first of which was expressed in a single word: Bread! Its political aims were expounded at greater length: the putting into practice of the Constitution of 1793, the election of a legislative assembly which should take the place of the Convention, the release of the imprisoned patriots. The people were asked to march in a body to the Convention on 1 Prairial. There can be no doubt about the preparation of the insurrection by the "sans-culottes" leaders. As early as 29 Germinal (18 April), had reported a plot to the Convention. As for the deputies of the Left, their attitude on the first of "Prairial" showed that they looked favorably on the movement, yet they did nothing to organize or direct it.

First round.

Early on 1 "Prairial" the tocsin was sounded in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and in the Jardin des Plantes. Once more, as in October 1789, it was the women that took the initiative and brought their menfolk into action after them. In the Faubourg du Nord (Saint-Denis) they called the men out from the workshops at 7 o'clock in the morning. There were food riots and assemblies of women at bakers' shops in "Popincourt", "Gravilliers", and "Droits de l'Homme". As they marched, they compelled women in shops and private houses, and other riding in carriages, to join them. They reached the "Place du Carrousel", in front of the "Tuileries", at 2 o'clock; pinned to their hats, bonnets, and blouses were the twin slogans of the rebellion, "Du Pain et la Constitution de 1793". Thus equipped, they burst into the assembly-hall, but were quickly ejected. They returned with armed groups of the National Guard an hour later.  Meanwhile, a general call to arms had been sounded in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; men quickly armed and prepared to follow the women to the Tuileries. A similar movement began in the "Faubourg Saint-Marcel" and in the central sections. In some cases, a minority of insurgents forced the doors of the armories, distributed arms to their comrades, and compelled their commanders to lead them to the Convention.  The second invasion of the Tuileries quickly followed. A deputy, Jean-Bertrand Féraud, who opposed their entry, was struck down and his head was severed and paraded on a pike. This time the women were amply supported by armed citizen of the rebellious sections, though few battalions broke into the building in full strength. Yet the demonstrators were in sufficient numbers and their weapons sufficiently imposing to reduce the majority to silence and to encourage the small remnants of deputies of the Mountain, The Crest ( "la Crête de la Montagne" ), to voice their principal demands – the release of the Jacobin prisoners, steps to implement the Constitution of 1793, and new controls to ensure more adequate supplies of food. These were quickly voted and a special committee was set up to give them effect. But the insurgents, like those of "Germinal", lacked leadership and any clear program or plan of action. Having achieved their immediate objective, they spent hours in noisy chatter and speech-making. This gave the Themidorian leaders time to call in the support of the loyal sections – with "Butte des Moulins (Palais-Royal), Museum (Louvre), and Lepeletier" at their head – and insurgents were driven out the Tuileries.

Second day.

The armed rebellion continued the next day. From 2 o'clock in the morning, the call to arms had sounded in the "Quinze Vingts". The tocsin tolled before 10 o'clock in "Fidelite (Hotel de Ville)" and "Droits de l'Homme". In these two sections and in "Arcis, Gravilliers, and Popincourt" illegal assemblies were held. The three sections of the "Faubourg Saint-Antoine" sprang to arms and marched on the Convention, led by Guillaume Delorme, a wheelwright and captain of the gunners of "Popincourt". Supported by some sections of the center, they appeared on the "Place du Carrousel" at 3:30 in the afternoon, loaded guns and trained them on the Convention. General Dubois, who commanded the Convention forces, had 40,000 men under him; the insurgents may have numbered 20,000. It was the largest display of military force drawn up for battle that had been seen in Paris since the Revolution began. But no shots were fired: when the Convention's gunners and "gendarmerie" deserted to the opposing side, the insurgents failed to follow up the advantage. Towards evening negotiations began; petitioners were received at the bar of the Assembly, repeated their demands for bread and the Constitution of 1793 and received the presidential embrace. Lulled by vain hopes of promises to be fulfilled, the insurgents thereupon retired to their various sections.

The defeat.

But the Convention was determined to make an end of the business. On the morning of 3 Prairial regular army units were mustered, in addition to the "jeunesse dorée" and battalions of the western Sections, and preparations were made to enclose the "Faubourg Saint-Antoine" within a ring of hostile forces. The "jeunesse" made a premature sortie into the "faubourg" and was forced to retreat, and "Saint-Antoine" workers rescued from the police one of the assassins of "Féraud" on his way to execution. But, during the night, the Government overcame the resistance of most of the other insurgent Sections; and, on the 4 Prairial, the "faubourg" was called upon to hand over "Féraud's" murderers and all arms at its disposal: in the event of refusal it would be declared to be in a state of rebellion and all Sections would be called upon to help to reduce it by force of arms or to starve it into surrender. Meanwhile, an army under General Menou prepared to advance against the rebels.  Their situation was hopeless; yet some attempt was made in other Sections to bring them relief. In "Poissonnière" Étienne Chefson, a cobbler and old soldier of the "armée révolutionnaire", was later arrested for trying to organize building workers of the rues "d'Hauteville" and "de l'Échiquier" to march to the help of the "faubourg"; in "Arcis" and in "Finistère", there were shouts, even after the battle was lost. But no material support was forthcoming; and the "faubourg" surrendered, a few hours later, without a shot being fired. The movement was totally crushed.

Reaction.

This time, the repression was thorough and ruthless. It struck both at the leaders – or presumed leaders – of the insurrection itself and at the potential leaders of similar revolts in the future: to behead the "sans-culottes" once and for all as a political force it was thought necessary to strike at the remnants of Jacobins in the Convention and in the Sectional assemblies and National Guard. Twelve deputies were arrested, including six that had supported the demonstrators' demands on 1 Prairial. On 23 May (4 Prairial), a Military Commission was set up for the summary trial and execution of all persons captured with arms in their possession or wearing the insignia of rebellion. The Commission sat for ten weeks and tried 132 persons; nineteen of these, including six deputies of the Mountain, were condemned to death.  The murderers of Feraud, the "gendarmes" who had gone to over to rioters, and the deputies Romme, Duquesnoy, Goujon, Duroy, and Bourbotte were all lumped together in the same category. The condemned deputies, wishing both to demonstrate their inviolable liberty and to challenge their accusers, attempted to kill themselves before being conducted to the scaffold. The first three were successful. Soubrany died as he reached the "guillotine"; the others were executed alive. This 'heroic sacrifice' put the'martyrs of Prairial' in the pantheon of the popular movement. But it highlighted the insoluble contradiction of their position. On 1 Prairial the most lucid of them understood the trap which was set up for them and consciously walked into it.  The Sections were invited to hold special meetings on 24 May to denounce and disarm all suspected 'terrorists' and Jacobin sympathizers. The result was a massive toll of proscriptions, in which the settling of old scores played as large a part as the testing of political orthodoxy. By the 28 May the "Gazette française" already put their number at 10,000; and the eventual total of arrested and disarmed must have been considerably larger, as, in several Sections, all former members of Revolutionary Committees, all soldiers of the "armée révolutionnaire" were arrested or disarmed irrespective of any part they may have played in the events of Germinal or Prairial. The precedent thus established was to be followed on more than one occasion during the Directory and Consulate.  Why were the Parisian "sans-culottes" defeated in May 1795? Partly it was for lack of a clear political program and plan of action; partly through the weakness of the deputies of the Mountain; partly through political inexperience and the failure to follow up an advantage once gained; partly, too, through the correspondingly greater skill and experience of the Convention and its Committees and the support that these were able to muster – even without the active intervention of the regular army – from the "jeunesse dorée" and the merchants, civil servants, and monied classes of the western Sections. But, above all, the "sans-culottes" failed to secure and maintain in Prairial, as they had in the great "journées" of 1789–1793, the solid alliance of at least the radical wing of the bourgeoisie. When this faltered and failed, their movement for all its breadth and militancy, was reduced to a futile explosion without hope of political gains.

The insurrection of 1 Prairial Year III was a popular revolt in Paris on 20 May 1795 against the policies of the Thermidorian Convention. It was the last and one of the most remarkable and stubborn popular revolts of the French Revolution. After their defeat in Prairial, the "sans-culottes" ceased to play any effective part until the next round of revolutions in the early nineteenth century. To a lesser extent, these movements are also important in that they mark the final attempt of the remnants of the Mountain and the Jacobins to recapture their political ascendancy in the Convention and the Paris Sections; this time, though they gave some political direction to the popular movement which arose in the first place in protest against worsening economic conditions, their intervention was timorous and halfhearted and doomed the movement to failure.

Der Prairialaufstand fand vom 1. bis 4. Prairial des Jahres III. nach dem französischen Revolutionskalender (20. bis 23. Mai 1795) in Paris nach dem Sturz Robespierres und der Machtübernahme der Thermidorianer statt. Es handelte sich um einen der letzten großen Volksaufstände der französischen Revolution und hatte neben politischen vor allem soziale Hintergründe.


Early years.

During the majority of his childhood, Daniel Wass played for Copenhagen-suburb-club BK Avarta, but was in 2006 scouted by Brøndby and promptly switched sides. After a year of playing for youth teams within the club, he joined the first team.

Club career.

Brøndby.

Wass made his debut for the Brøndby Danish Superliga team in the 2007–08 season by then-manager Tom Køhlert. He played half of the matches that season but had to withdraw later on due to injury.  Following his recovery from injury Wass secured his place as right defender in the 2008–09 season playing in 28 games from a possible 33, helping Brøndby to reach third place in the Superliga, Brøndby's best position since their second place in the 2005–06 season.  Brøndby manager Kent Nielsen felt Wass should spend gain further developing at another club, so Brøndby chose to loan him out to Fredrikstad, a medal-competing side from Norway. On 21 August 2009, Wass made his debut in a 4–1 loss against Rosenborg and on 1 November 2009, Wass started and played the full 90 minutes scoring in a 5–0 win over Lyn. When the board of Fredrikstad FK signed a new manager, new coach Tom Nordlie informed Wass that he had no interest in an offensive right defender. As a result of that, Wass received no more than three games before returning to Brøndby in December 2009. For the remainder of the 2009–10 season, Wass played more games for Brøndby, securing his place in the starting eleven.  The season of 2010–11 proved to show Wass' importance for the Brøndby squad when he was selected as first-choice right back for the first 19 games. In February, during the three-month winter break in the Superliga between December and March, Wass announced he would not be renewing his contract with Brøndby. From the beginning of January there had been rumours of Wass' summer transfer to Benfica. Wass did not comment on the rumours. In March 2011, with 14 matches of the season remaining, the attacking force of Wass was recognised, with Coach Henrik Jensen subsequently pushing the player up to right midfielder/winger. In his final matches for the club, Wass scored three goals, helping Brøndby to gain their third successive third place.

Transfer to Benfica and loan to Evian.

On 20 May 2011, Wass announced that he had signed a five-year contract with Benfica. However, on 22 July 2011, he was loaned out to Evian Thonon Gaillard F.C. without taking part in any official games for Benfica. Upon moving to Evian, Wass joined Danish countrymen Stephan Andersen, Christian Poulsen and Thomas Kahlenberg. In the four months after joining Evian, Wass was kept out of the first team under Bernard Casoni, who preferred Brice Dja Djédjé, while Wass stated his intention to return to his parent club. On 15 October 2011, he made his debut, playing in right midfield, making an impact when he provided assist for Yannick Sagbo in a 2–1 loss against Saint-Étienne. Several weeks later, Wass scored in two consecutive games against Lorient and Rennes. He scored his third goal of the season in a 2–1 loss against Toulouse. Under new manager Pablo Correa, who succeeded Casoni, Wass secured a place in the first team, mostly being used as left-back, with Sidney Govou taking his former position in right midfield. After months of being kept out of the first team, he returned again, playing in left-back, due to Fabrice Ehret. Wass kept his place in the first team towards the end of the season when Guillaume Lacour took his position as left back, this time returning to the right midfield position. Two games before the end of the season, Wass scored his fourth goal in a 2–1 win over Ajaccio.

Transfer to Evian.

On 20 June 2012, Wass signed with Evian on a permanent basis for a €2.5 million transfer fee. On 12 August 2012, in the opening game of the season against Girondins de Bordeaux, Wass scored a free kick in a match that ended in a 2–3 loss for Evian. Like in the previous season, Wass played in various positions in defence and midfield. On 26 January 2013, Wass scored a further goal against Ajaccio in a 1–1 draw.

Celta de Vigo.

On 22 June 2015, Wass joined Celta on a four-year contract.  Wass scored a goal and assisted another in a 2–2 draw against Real Madrid.

Valencia.

On 10 July 2018, Wass joined Valencia CF on a four-year deal.

International career.

Wass made his Danish international debut against England in 2011.  In May 2018, Wass was named in Denmark's preliminary 35-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. However, he did not make the final 23.

Personal life.

Wass is cousin of Nicki Bille Nielsen.

Daniel Wass (; born 31 May 1989) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a utility player for Spanish club Valencia. He can play as a left-back, right-back, midfielder, and attacking midfielder.

Daniel Wass (* 31. Mai 1989 in Gladsaxe) ist ein dänischer Fußballspieler. Er steht beim spanischen Erstligisten FC Valencia unter Vertrag.


Early life.

Ragsdale was born on a farm in Jamestown, North Carolina the third child of John Sinclair Ragsdale and Emily Jane Idol. John was an officer in the Civil War, a teacher in the Flint Hill School, and later a state legislator.  Virginia documented her early years in a paper titled "Our Early Home and Childhood", writing:

Study.

As a junior, Ragsdale entered Salem Academy, and graduated in 1887 as valedictorian with an extra diploma in piano. Ragsdale attended Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she earned her B.S. in 1892. She was active in student life, establishing a Y.M.C.A. on campus, expanding collegiate athletics, and contributing to the formation the Guilford's Alumni Association.  Ragsdale was awarded the first scholarship from Bryn Mawr College for the top scholar Guilford College. She studied physics at Bryn Mawr College, obtaining an A.B. degree in 1896. She was elected European fellow for the class of 1896, but waited a year before traveling, working as an assistant demonstrator in physics and mathematics graduate student at Bryn Mawr.  Together with two of her colleagues (including Emilie Martin), she spent 1897-98 abroad at the University of Göttingen, attending lectures of Felix Klein and David Hilbert. After her return to the United States, she taught in Baltimore for three years until a second scholarship, by the Baltimore Association for the Promotion of University Education of Women, permitted her to return to Bryn Mawr college to complete her Ph.D. under the direction of Charlotte Scott.  Her dissertation, "On the Arrangement of the Real Branches of Plane Algebraic Curves," was published in 1906 by the American Journal of Mathematics. Her dissertation addressed the 16th of Hilbert's problems, for which Ragsdale formulated a conjecture that provided an upper bound on the number of topological circles of a certain type. Her result is called the Ragsdale conjecture; it was an open problem for 90 years until counterexamples were derived by Oleg Viro (1979) and Ilya Itenberg (1994).

Career.

After completing her degree, Ragsdale taught in New York City and Dr. Sach's School for Girls until 1905. She was head of the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr from 1906–11, and a reader for Charlotte Scott from 1908–10. Ragsdale returned to North Carolina in 1911 to accept a mathematics position at Woman's College in Greensboro (now known as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). She remained there for almost two decades and served as department head from 1926–1928. She encouraged the school to buy a telescope, and the math department to add statistics to the curriculum.  In 1928, she retired from teaching in order to care for her mother's health and help manage the family farm. After the death of her mother in 1934, she built a house at Guilford College, where she spent her last years gardening, working with furniture, working on family genealogy, holding book clubs, and visiting with students. Upon her death, she donated her house to Guilford College, where it housed the faculty, alumni, and visitors. In 1965 President of Guilford Grimsley Hobbs moved into Ragsdale's hous, and it has been the home of the college's president ever since.

Virginia Ragsdale (December 13, 1870 – June 4, 1945) was a teacher and a mathematician specializing in algebraic curves. She is most known as the creator of the Ragsdale conjecture.

Virginia Ragsdale (* 13. Dezember 1870 in Jamestown, North Carolina; † 4. Juni 1945) war eine US-amerikanische Mathematikerin, die wichtige Beiträge zur Lösung von Hilberts 16. Problem lieferte.


Plot.

In Detroit three friends, Sonny (50 Cent), Dave (Brett Granstaff) and Vincent (Ryan Phillippe), plan out a detailed heist of $5 million dollars worth of diamonds. Their plans turn deadly when Vincent betrays the others, shooting Sonny and Dave (who dies on the spot). Sonny manages to survive and seeks revenge by teaming up with the most dangerous mob boss in town (Bruce Willis) to retrieve the money from the heist.  Biggs, the mob boss sends Petey (one of his henchmen) and Sonny to retrieve $2 million buried in a cemetery. They get the money and Petey puts the money in the trunk of his car. But Petey accidentally shoots himself. Sonny brings Petey's body to the Butcher. He follows Mia to the fence's home and threatens him. The fence runs to Vincent saying that he has to clean up his mess because he left Sonny alive as a loose end. Vincent kills him.  Biggs inquires about Petey and Sonny. Sal interrogates Ivan to death trying to find out information on Petey. Sonny heads to the church where the pastor asks, "do you believe in free will? the idea that you are free to make your own choices in this world?". Sonny replies "of course", the pastor continues, "then how could you make a choice between right and wrong if god did not offer the two extremes?". Vincent seeks John's help to close on the Sonny loose end. Sonny visits the cemetery and Dave's grave.  Sonny visits the Prison where Vincent's father is and he asks if there is anything you want me to ask your son before I kill him? Mia is attacked in her home by the owner of the diamonds demanding his diamonds back. Vincent visits Mia and finds her dead body.  Sal and Tony interrogate another Russian who says "the black man took the money that's all I see, he took it." After the Russian dies in interrogation, Biggs says "I think he was telling the truth".  Vincent meets with Saunders in the prison, who extorts him for $100,000 in protection money to protect his father. Vincent visits his father who divulges that he knows that Sonny is alive and he visited him. He tells his son "Big men make big moves, are you a big man?".  Sonny takes some of Biggs' $2 million and puts it into a Teddy Bear and then into a Box. Then, Sonny goes to Biggs and falsely claims that Vincent has his money. John arranges a meeting with Vincent and Biggs. Biggs demands his money; and there is a shootout with many casualties. Sonny chases Vincent but is eluded by him. The owner of the diamonds breaks into Vincent's home and confronts him as he is packing away his money, but he kills him. Sonny ambushes Vincent just as he is about to open his car door. Sonny dowses him in oil and asks Vincent to dig his own grave. Vincent confesses that he was forced to kill Sonny and Dave because Saunders had threatened to kill his father; and that he needed all of the money to get out of trouble. Sonny spares his life. In the next scene, pans to the prison where Vincent's father is and he is murdered by another inmate. Dave's girlfriend receives the package with the Teddy bear with the money put there by Sonny. Sonny takes the money from the locker and quips "An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. As i was not my brother's keeper, neither was I his killer. I could live with the fact that Vincent was still alive. Question was, could he?" Sonny drives off - cut to credits.

Production.

Filming began in November 2010 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "Set Up" is the first film in a $200 million deal with the production companies Cheetah Vision and George Furla's Hedge Fund Film Partners. Grindstone Entertainment Group and Lionsgate will distribute the film in the United States and Canada.

Setup is a direct-to-video action thriller heist film directed by Mike Gunther and written by Gunther and Mike Behrman. It stars 50 Cent, Bruce Willis and Ryan Phillippe.

Set Up ist ein Heist-Movie, bei welchem Mike Gunther Regie führte und dessen Drehbuch er zusammen mit Mike Behrman verfasste. Hauptdarsteller sind Bruce Willis, Ryan Phillippe und 50 Cent. Der Film wurde am 20. September 2011 in den USA direkt auf DVD und Blu-ray veröffentlicht.


The theory.

GTTM focuses on four hierarchical systems that shape our musical intuitions. Each of these systems is expressed in a strict hierarchical structure where dominant regions contain smaller subordinate elements and equal elements exist contiguously within a particular and explicit hierarchical level. In GTTM any level can be small-scale or large-scale depending on the size of its elements.

The structures.

I. Grouping structure.

GTTM considers grouping analysis to be the most basic component of musical understanding. It expresses a hierarchical segmentation of the piece into motives, phrases, periods and still larger sections.

II. Metrical structure.

Metrical structure expresses the intuition that the events of a piece are related to a regular alternation of strong and weak beats at a number of hierarchical levels. It is a crucial basis for all the structures and reductions of GTTM.

III. Time-span reduction.

Time-span reductions (TSRs) are based on information gleaned from metrical and grouping structures. They establish tree structure-style hierarchical organizations uniting time-spans at all temporal levels of a work. The TSR analysis begins at the smallest levels, where metrical structure marks off the music into beats of equal length (or more precisely into attack points separated by uniform time-spans) and moves through all larger levels where grouping structure divides the music into motives, phrases, periods, theme groups and still greater divisions. It further specifies a “head” (or most structurally important event) for each time-span at all hierarchical levels of the analysis. A completed TSR analysis is often called a time-span tree.

IV. Prolongational reduction.

Prolongational reduction (PR) provides our "psychological" awareness of tensing and relaxing patterns in a given piece with precise structural terms. In time-span reduction, the hierarchy of less and more important events is established according to rhythmic stability. In prolongational reduction, hierarchy is concerned with relative stability expressed in terms of continuity and progression, the movement toward tension or relaxation, and the degree of closure or non-closure. A PR analysis also produces a tree-structure style hierarchical analysis, but this information is often conveyed in a visually condensed modified "slur" notation.  The need for prolongational reduction mainly arises from two limitations of time-span reductions. The first is that time-span reduction fails to express the sense of continuity produced by harmonic rhythm. The second is that time-span reduction—even though it establishes that particular pitch-events are heard in relation to a particular beat, within a particular group—fails to say anything about how music flows across these segments.

More on TSR vs. PR.

It is helpful to note some basic differences between a time-span tree produced by TSR and a prolongational tree produced by PR. First, though the basic branching divisions produced by the two trees are often the same or similar at high structural levels, branching variations between the two trees are often observed as one travels further down towards the musical surface.  A second and equally important differentiation is that a prolongational tree carries three types of branching: strong prolongation (represented by an open node at the branching point), weak prolongation (represented by a filled node at the branching point) and progression (represented by simple branching, with no node). Time-span trees do not make this distinction. All time-span trees branches are simple branches without nodes. (Although time-span tree branches are often annotated with other helpful comments.)

The rules.

Each of the four major hierarchical organizations (grouping structure, metrical structure, time-span reduction and prolongational reduction) is established through rules, which are divided into three categories:

III. Time-span reduction rules.

Time-span reduction rules begin with two segmentation rules and proceed to the standard WFRs, PRs and TRs.

A generative theory of tonal music (GTTM) is a theory of music conceived by American composer and music theorist Fred Lerdahl and American linguist Ray Jackendoff and presented in the 1983 book of the same title. It constitutes a "formal description of the musical intuitions of a listener who is experienced in a musical idiom" with the aim of illuminating the unique human capacity for musical understanding.

Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Lehrdahl und Jackendoff wurde durch Leonard Bernsteins "Charles Eliot Norton Lectures" 1973 an der Universität Harvard angeregt, in der er die Teilnehmer dazu aufforderte, eine „musikalische Grammatik“ zu entwickeln, die die einzigartige menschliche Fähigkeit zu musikalischem Verständnis auf wissenschaftliche Weise erklärt, vergleichbar mit Noam Chomskys revolutionärer Generativen Transformationsgrammatik. Im Gegensatz zu Analysemethoden, die bis dahin entwickelt worden waren, versucht die GTTM, sich an den geistigen Vorgängen zu orientieren, durch die der Zuhörer ein unbewusstes Verständnis der Musik entwickelt (Fokus auf hierarchische Strukturen). Dabei orientieren sie sich an einem „idealen“ Zuhörer mit musikalischem Verständnis und der Fähigkeit, musikalische Objekte wiederzuerkennen und Strukturen zu abstrahieren. Es wurde versucht, eine Synthese der Ansichten und Methoden der zeitgemäßen Linguistik mit den Einsichten der modernen Musiktheorie zu erreichen.