title: Matthias Politycki

texts:
<mask> (born in Karlsruhe on May 20, 1955) is a German novelist and poet. He studied in Munich and Vienna and obtained a PhD in philosophy in 1987. His first novel Aus Fälle/Zerlegung des Regenbogens. Ein Entwickelungsroman. (Drop Outs / Disassembling the Rainbow. An Entwickelungsroman) appeared that same year. His breakthrough came in 1997 with Weiberroman (Novel of Women) and in 2008 with his cruise ship satire In 180 Tagen um die Welt (Around the World in 180 Days).His lifetime passion to travel to foreign countries also influences his perception of his own culture, and provides a source of new ideas for his writing. <mask>'s London for Heroes. The Ale Trail – an ale tale emerged from his excursions to London's East End pubs while he was Writer in Residence at Queen Mary University of London in 2009. His books have been translated into French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. His Next World Novella (Jenseitsnovelle) was translated by Anthea Bell, OBE and published by Peirene Press in 2011. <mask> has completed numerous book tours, including at the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference in August 2012 and the Belfast Festival at Queen's in October 2014. His collected poems were published by Hoffmann und Campe in 2018.He has won numerous awards including the Ernst-Hoferichter-Preis in 2009. Life
<mask> grew up in Munich and began writing aged sixteen when he was disappointed in love. He achieved his school-leaving certificate (Abitur) in 1974 at the Maria-Theresia-Gymnasium. His military service was with 541 Infantry Battalion in Neuburg an der Donau in 1974/75. He completed a training exercise as a military reserve in 1977, but from then on he refused further active duty. He was officially recognized as a conscientious objector on 21 December 1977. From 1975 to 1987, he studied German literature, philosophy, theatre- and communication studies at the Universities of Munich and Vienna and graduated in 1981 with a Magister degree.In 1987, he completed his PhD with Walter Müller-Seidel in Munich. His dissertation on Nietzsche as a subtle interpreter of the influence of tradition and contemporary value-ideals was entitled Umwertung aller Werte? Deutsche Literatur im Urteil Nietzsches. <mask> taught for three semesters as a tenured assistant professor at the Munich Insitut für Deutsche Philologie. His career as a freelance writer began in earnest in 1990, although he continued as a freelance editor for Munich Publishers C.H. Beck until 1999. He encouraged dialogue among writers, literary editors and critics as organizer of the annual "Untitled" conferences from 2000 to 2005 at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps.In 2011, he was curator of the Munich Literature Festival. <mask> is a member of the PEN Centre Germany and the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg in Hamburg. He lives in Hamburg and Munich. Literary work

Novels and short stories
<mask>'s first novel in 1987 Aus Fälle / Zerlegung des Regenbogens. Ein Entwickelungsroman. (Drop Outs / Disassembling the Rainbow. An Entwickelungsroman) was experimental and echoed the writing style of Arno Schmidt and James Joyce.He was described as a "form-fixated avant-gardist". By the early 1990s, his sights were set on a "new readability" of German literature. He argued that "literature must be like rock music". After Weiberroman in 1997, <mask> acknowledged his identity as a writer from the "Generation of 1978" (Reinhard Mohr) that he distinguished from the 1968 Movement with its strong protest tradition. His book was described as a cult novel; it is regarded as a key text of Postmodern literature in Germany. After five months in the Caribbean, his constant quest to explore the experience of a clash between familiar and foreign cultures emerged in his 2005 Cuba novel, Herr der Hörner (Lord of the Horns). This was the tale of an enlightened European's fight for survival in a culture influenced by archaic rituals.The story was a "search for the exotic" as much as about the will to resist the belief-system of Palo (religion) and Santería religions, and a "culmination of Nietzsche's admired 'Dionysian worldview'". In 2006, Hapag-Lloyd invited <mask> to become a writer-in-(non)-residence on board its luxury passenger ship MS Europa. Ten years after his best-selling Weiberroman, <mask> matched its success with his 2008 picaresque novel In 180 Tagen um die Welt. This is the story of a "modern Simplicissimus" who describes "the rituals of the rich and the super-rich". His Next World Novella gives a poignant insight into the mind of his protagonist, an expert in Chinese studies Hinrich Schepp. Schepp's story begins with the discovery that his wife, Doro, suffered a fatal stroke while editing his manuscript. Her constant fear of death – the 'beyondness' of things (jenseits) – compels him to reassess their life together.However, he realizes, too late, that her eloquent criticisms of his forgotten manuscript also bring to light her hidden perception of their married life. As critic Rebecca Morrison explains, <mask> "leavens his grim tale with playful teasing of his reader's expectations". In his 2013novel Samarkand Samarkand, the carefully honed plot, which took about twenty-five years to create, shifts attention to the year 2026. The scene is set in legendary Samarkand, where Alexander Kaufner, a mountain ranger and frontier runner, embarks on a quest to find a mysterious cult place, a second Samarkand somewhere hidden high up in the mountains. The novel evolves a dark dystopia of the free West on the brink of collapse due to the aggression of Greater-Russia and the fundamentalist alliances of the Caliph of Baghdad. Kaufner's mission is to save the Western world from destruction. The critic Martin Halter commented that "Samarkand Samarkand is an immensely eloquent, oriental and vivid travelogue and adventure story that penetrates to the heart of darkness."Among <mask>'s literary role models – Laurence Sterne, Diderot, Gottfried Benn and Vladimir Nabokov – he recently acknowledged Ernest Hemingway as an important influence for the "simplicity and reduction" of his own writing style. Essays
<mask>'s new hybrid genre of non-fictional literature became evident in 2015 with his 42,195, an autobiographical book about marathon running. His Schrecklich schön und weit und wild (Fearsomely Beautiful and Far and Wild) in 2017 was described as a "mix of philosophical essay and autobiographical field report" about "the past, present and future of travel". <mask>'s prolific newspaper articles are collected in two essay editions (1998 and 2007). He has voiced his view of the novel in German literature as an orientation map to the world in Relevanter Realismus, published as Was soll der Roman? (What Purpose for the Novel?) and, more focused on the growing controversy with other cultures, Weißer Mann – was nun?(What Now – White Man?). His standpoint on writing, which he compared to marathon running, was illustrated in a plenary lecture at the German Germanistentag in 2016. Programmatically entitled "Reduktion & Tempo", his talk was published in the Göttinger Sudelblätter (2017). Poetry
Politycki presented all of his many poetry collections on stage. In 1996–1997, he went on tour with Robert Gernhardt and their common lyrical program Wein, Weib und Gesang (Wine, Women and Song); in 2004–2005 he joined Hellmuth Opitz and Steffen Jacobs with Frauen. Naja. Schwierig (Women.Well Now. Difficult). Publisher Uwe Wittstock described him as "the greatest living linguistic gourmet among German poets". <mask>'s collected poetry edition Sämtliche Gedichte 2017–1987 was awarded NDR Book of the Month in June 2018. It is a collection of previously published monographs, sporadically released poems as well as a new poem cycle and contains an afterword by Wolfgang Frühwald. Awards
<mask>'s first novel Aus Fälle / Zerlegung des Regenbogens won the Civitas-Literaturpreis in 1987 and the Bayerischer Staatsförderpreis for literature in 1988. In 2009, he received the Ernst-Hoferichter-Preis of the city of Munich.He was awarded the Preis der LiteraTour Nord in 2010. In 2014, he became Writer in Residence in Osaka to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of the town-twinning of Hamburg and Osaka. That same year, he was Artist in Residence in St Moritz. He received the travel scholarship Literarischer Landgang of the Literaturbüro Oldenburg in 2015. As a recipient of a travel stipend of the Deutscher Literaturfonds and Sylt Foundation, in 2017 he travelled in Cambodia on the trail of the Khmer Rouge. In 2018, Schrecklich schön und weit und wild received the ITB BuchAward of the Internationale Tourismus Börse (ITB) Berlin. His excursion to China in September 2018 was as Writer in Residence on the invitation of the Shanghai Writers' Association.He accepted a new invitation from the Chinese Writers' Association and the Lu Xun Academy as Writer in Residence in Beijing in 2019. Publications
<mask>'s works have been translated into English, Irish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. Available in English: Next World Novella. (2011). (Tr from the German: Anthea Bell). Peirene Press London. Sphärenmusik, Music of the Spheres, Ceol na Sféar.Ausgewählte Gedichte – Selected Poems – Rocha Dánta. (2011). (Tr English Hans-Christian Oeser; Gaelige/Irish Gabriel Rosenstock). Coiscéim Dublin. Novels and short stories
 Meine Reise zum Tadsch Mahal (2018). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. .
 Samarkand Samarkand (2013). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. .
 Freischwimmer.Drei Erzählungen (2011). Svato Verlag, Hamburg. Mit 11 farbigen Linolschnitten von Svato Zapletal. Jenseitsnovelle (2009). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. . In 180 Tagen um die Welt. Das Logbuch des Herrn Johann Gottlieb Fichtl (2008).marebuchverlag, Hamburg. Herr der Hörner (2005). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. Das Schweigen am andern Ende des Rüssels (2001). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. Ein Mann von vierzig Jahren (2000). Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich.Weiberroman (1997). Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich. Der böse Einfluß der Bifi-Wurst. Ein End- und ein Nachspiel (1996). Verlag Ulrich Keicher (=Roter Faden 44), Warmbronn. Taifun über Kyoto (1993). Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Hamburg.Sonnenbaden in Sibirien. Dreiseitige Geschichten (1991). Verlag Ulrich Keicher (=Roter Faden 30), Warmbronn. Aus Fälle / Zerlegung des Regenbogens. Ein Entwickelungsroman (1987). Weismann Verlag, Munich. Poetry
 Sämtliche Gedichte 2017–1987 (2018).Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. . Dies irre Geglitzer in deinem Blick. 111 Gedichte. (2015). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. .
 Ägyptische Plagen. Gebirg und Wüste Sinai. 13 Gedichte.(2015). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. .
 Dieser schwüle Nachmittag damals. Vier Sorten Schmerz (Dreizehn Gedichte mit dreizehn Knispels ("Schokoküsse") von Felix Droese). (2015). Limitierter Privatdruck. Carl-Walter Kottnik, Hamburg. London für Helden.The Ale Trail – Expedition ins Bierreich (2011). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. . Die Sekunden danach. 88 Gedichte (2009). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. .
 Ratschlag zum Verzehr der Seidenraupe. 66 Gedichte (2003). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg.Die zwei Arten, den Caipirinha zu bestellen. Ein Gedicht (2000). Verlag Ulrich Keicher (limitierter Sonderdruck), Warmbronn. Jenseits von Wurst und Käse. 44 Gedichte (1995). Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Hamburg. Die Wahrheit über Kaffeetrinker.Ein Gedicht (1993). Verlag Ulrich Keicher (limitierter Sonderdruck), Warmbronn. Im Schatten der Schrift hier. 22 Gedichte (1988). Weismann Verlag, Munich. Essays
 Haltung finden. Warum wir sie brauchen und trotzdem nie haben werden.(2019). Mit Andreas Urs Sommer. J.B. Metzler, Heidelberg. Literatur und Politik nach 1968 und in der Gegenwart. Ein Vortrag. (2019). Verlag Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn.Schrecklich schön und weit und wild. Warum wir reisen und was wir dabei denken (2017). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. Reduktion & Tempo. Als Erzähler unterwegs im 21. Jahrhundert (2017). Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen.42,195. Warum wir Marathon laufen und was wir dabei denken (2015). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. Vom Verschwinden der Dinge in der Zukunft. Bestimmte Artikel 2006–1998 (2007). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. Marietta – die Idee, der Datensatz und der Strohhut.Schreiben und Schreiben-Lassen im Internet (2000). Franz Steiner Verlag (=Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz, Abhandlung No 1/2000 der Klasse der Literatur), Stuttgart. Die Farbe der Vokale. Von der Literatur, den 78ern und dem Gequake satter Frösche (1998). Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich. Editorship and miscellaneous
 Das Gedicht. Nr.20. Das Beste aus 20 Jahren – und für die nächsten 20 Jahre (2012). Jubiliäumsausgabe, mit A. Leitner. Weßling. .
 London, Signale aus der Weltmaschine (2011). Corso Verlag, Hamburg. .
 Marietta / Ein Mann von vierzig Jahren (1999) Dokumentation des ZDF-Projekts "Novel in Progress" auf der Homepage von Aspekte ZDF. CD Rom. ZDF Online / Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich (et al.).Hundert notwendige Gedichte. Und ein überflüssiges (1992) Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Hamburg, Zurich. Non-fiction books
 Umwertung aller Werte? Deutsche Literatur im Urteil Nietzsches (1989). De Gruyter, Berlin. Der frühe Nietzsche und die deutsche Klassik. Studien zu Problemen literarischer Wertung (1981).Münchner Hochschulschriften, Straubing. Audio books
 42,195. Warum wir Marathon laufen und was wir dabei denken (Hörbuch, gelesen von <mask>cki). (2015). erlesen.TV GmbH. Samarkand Samarkand (Sprecher: <mask>cki). (2013).Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. London für Helden. The Ale Trail (Mit Peter Lohmeyer und Colin Soleman) (2011). Verlag Antje Kunstmann, Munich. Jenseitsnovelle (Mit Nina Petri) (2009). Radioropa/Technisat, Daun. Das Schiff.Erlebnisse einer Weltreise mit <mask> (2008). Hörbuch von Wolfgang Stockmann, Logbuchtexte und Erzähler: <mask>cki. Verlag Antje Kunstmann, Munich. Des Teufels Amulett (2007). Münchner Frühling Verlag, Munich. Frauen. Naja.Schwierig (Mit Hellmuth Opitz und Steffen Jacobs) (2005). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. Das Schweigen am andern Ende des Rüssels (2001). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. Ein Mann von vierzig Jahren (2000). Hörbuch Hamburg/Deutschlandradio, Hamburg. References

External links
  Official website of <mask>cki (mainly in German, but also containing videos and some examples of literary translations in English).Bibliography by and about <mask> in the catalogue of the German National Library. Short biography and information about literary works by <mask> at Literaturport. Short biography and reviews of literary works by <mask> at Perlentaucher. <mask> on the Literaturportal Bayern (Projekt der Bayerische Staatsbibiothek). <mask> reads from London für Helden on YouTube. Official YouTube channel of <mask>. 1955 births
Living people
German male novelists
German male poets
20th-century German non-fiction writers
20th-century German novelists
20th-century German poets
20th-century German male writers
21st-century German non-fiction writers
21st-century German novelists
21st-century German poets
21st-century German male writers
Writers from Karlsruhe

masks:
Matthias Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Matthias Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Politycki
Matthias Politycki
Politycki
Matthias Polity
Matthias Polity
Matthias Politycki
Matthias Polity
Matthias Polity
Matthias Politycki
Matthias Politycki
Matthias Politycki
Matthias Politycki
Matthias Politycki
Matthias Politycki


title: Helen Vernet

type: original

texts:
<mask> (1875–1956) was the first woman in the history of horse racing in Great Britain to be granted a license to legally carry out business as a bookmaker on a racecourse. Early life
<mask> is thought to have been born on 12 June 1875. She was the daughter of Arthur Bryden (d. 1897), a solicitor, of Broxmore House, Whiteparish, Wiltshire, and his wife Rosa Matilda, daughter of Sir Arthur Percy Cuninghame-Fairlie, 10th Baronet. In 1891 the family were living in Beauchamp Place. Reportedly, Vernet inherited £8,000 following the death of her father in 1897. When she was 21, she married Armyn Littledale Thornton, a stockbroker by profession on 2 November 1896. When she came of age, and having this capital of her own, she quickly developed a taste for gambling and a fondness for going to the racetrack as often as she could.Vernet was not yet a skilled enough operator of the kind she was later to become, gradually dissipating most of her inheritance in the process of her activities. Apparently, this was not a happy union from the outset, as the marriage ended in annulment in January 1905. As the marriage was annulled, in accordance with Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, both parties were free to marry again. Later in 1905 Vernet married another stockbroker, <mask>. She started divorce proceedings against him in November 1923, but they had lived separately for well over a decade. Bookmaking
At this time, Tote pool betting was not yet a feature of British racecourses, and the rough and tumble of the betting ring was very much a male preserve and socially out of bounds to the opposite sex. <mask> had noticed that many women wanted to bet.The problem was that for those women in the Tattersalls enclosure and grandstand areas wanting to place a small wager, the only available bookmakers were to be found along the rails. And, because entry to such enclosures on a racecourse was more expensive than entry to the general public enclosures, bookmakers along the Tattersalls rails were less inclined to accept small bets, often refusing to accept stakes of less than a pound. Vernet began collecting small bets from women friends and acquaintances sometime between 1911 and 1912, in the members’ enclosure at race meetings throughout the home counties. Unfortunately, as word got around and demand for her services visibly increased, her illegal and unlicensed activities soon came to the attention of the authorities. She was duly "warned off", the procedure whereby a person of proven dubious character is banned from attending official racecourse meetings in Britain for a set period of time. Because word of her activities had got around, she was recruited by bookmaker Arthur Bendir, who had been running the Ladbrokes bookmaking firm since 1902. Under his direction, in 1913, Ladbrokes had established an office in the heart of London's Mayfair; the intention was to provide horse race betting for an elite clientele drawn from the ranks of the British aristocracy and upper classes who frequented the nearby exclusive gentlemen's clubs, including White's, Boodle's, the Carlton, the Athenaeum and the Royal Automobile Club.It was thought that because of Vernet's family social connections, she would be well placed to discreetly attract upper-crust female racegoers and then, by association, their equally well-heeled partners. During the First World War racing became less busy and in November 1914 Vernet became involved in the newly formed Volunteer Motor Mobilization Corporation (VMMC), organising motorcades to take wounded soldiers to convalescent hospitals or to the countryside. She was the VMMC’s honorary secretary, working out of the Ladbrokes offices on Old Burlington Street. The VMMC sourced cars that could be borrowed for outings for the injured soldiers. In the first six months of operation, the VMMC helped over 26,000 men, and was supported by patrons including the King, Edward VII. In 1919, racing took off once again and Vernet returned to bookmaking. Prior to 1961 and the Gaming and Betting Act that allowed off-course betting shops, all betting on an up-front cash basis was restricted to the racecourses.However, betting on the basis of a previously agreed credit settlement between the bookmaker and the client was not, an arrangement that was appropriate to the planned clientele. In his 1985 autobiography The Life and Secrets of a Professional Punter, Alex Bird, renowned British professional horse race punter of the post-war 1940s and 50s, profiled both Ladbrokes and Mrs Verney (as he called her) as follows ... In the late 1940s I did not think about opening an account with Ladbrokes. Their form was in a different league to the rest of the bookmaking world. They were not involved in the competitiveness of the ring. Their clients were mainly members of the aristocracy and without calling the odds, Ladbrokes representatives like Mrs Verney, a grey-haired dignified woman who looked about seventy if she was a day, were merely there to accept bets for very large amounts, without any fuss. Mrs Verney stood by the rails at Newmarket and no one would ever have guessed that in the hurly burly of the racetrack, she was taking bets.While other bookmakers shouted out their odds she hardly ever spoke. Under the guidance and tutelage of her mentor, Arthur Bendir, Vernet was made a partner in the firm in 1928 and was paid a reputed £20,000 per year in salary and commission as Ladbrokes' on-course rails representative. In 1939 she was living in Hove, Sussex. While never one to hoard money, she enjoyed an elegant and comfortable lifestyle that afforded Vernet the opportunity to eventually settle at 49 Eaton Place in London's Belgravia, and holiday regularly on the French Riviera where she liked to gamble at the casino tables. But nevertheless, she insisted on working almost until her death in 1956 at the age of 80, even to the extent of attending race meetings in a wheelchair pushed by her assistant, Alf Simmons, due to the crippling effects of arthritis. Death
<mask>t died on 30 March 1956 and while she did not die penniless, she did not die wealthy either. Given her taste for expensive living, and a love of taking chances, when she obtained money, she spent it, living life to her available means, if not occasionally above it.While there are apparently no photographs of <mask> in the public domain there is however a Punch cartoon of her, drawn by George Belcher, that dates from the mid-1930s. It depicts her and an accompanying male clerk ready to do business on some unnamed racecourse – the caption reads: "To see her standing on the rails – One woman in a world of males – Serene, as you hand your choice both ways – Far older than the odds she lays." Further reading

References

External links
 Legal interpretation (circa 1913) of the Betting Houses Act of 1853
 BBC announcement on the introduction of the Betting and Gaming Act of 1961
 Daily Telegraph newspaper article on the history of Royal Ascot
 Book review of "Ascot - The History" by Sean Magee

Bookmakers
1876 births
1956 deaths

masks:
Helen Monica Mabel Vernet
Helen Vernet
Robert Vernet
Helen Vernet
Helen Verne
Helen Vernet


title: Philip Arps

texts:
<mask> is a New Zealand white supremacist best known for being jailed after publicly sharing the livestream of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. His most recent arrest related to death threats made during the Convoy 2022 New Zealand protests. Before 2019
Prior to March 2019, <mask> was a Christchurch businessman, who owned a 'Nazi-themed insulation company' and had more than 30 previous criminal convictions for indecent assault, guns, drugs, burglary, and fraud. Conflicting statements on Daniel Laws shooting, 1998

In August 1998 a flatmate of Arps, Daniel Laws, was non-fatally shot by police when committing an offenses while high on dextromethorphan and carrying a shotgun. Arps made conflicting statements to two different press organisations. Indecent assault conviction, 1999
Amongst his earlier convictions, a news report published in 2019 included reference to "an indecent assault on a woman in 1999". Bankruptcy, 2001
Another news report in 2019, written after Arps' most prominent offending, described him as having been "previously made bankrupt in 2001".Offensive behaviour at Al Noor mosque, 2016

In 2016, Arps was charged with, and pled guilty to, 'offensive behaviour' for being part of a group that delivered pigs' heads and offal to a Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch. The mosque was collecting food donations to send to Fiji in the aftermath of Cyclone Winston and the animal remains were left in a box marked "Fiji". In a video of the crime taken by the offenders, Arps and another man give Nazi salutes and Arps says, "White power ... Bring on the cull." He was fined $800. Christchurch mosque shootings, 2019

On 15 March 2019 there was a mass shooting in Christchurch targeting Muslims. The livestream of the shooting was quickly classified by David Shanks of the Office of Film and Literature Classification as 'objectionable' under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 making it a criminal offense to possess or distribute it, and police took action against 13 people in relation to the video. Arps sent the video to 30 people, describing it as  'awesome' , and asked a friend to modify it by adding cross-hairs and a  'kill count.'When he was arrested he told police that he "could not give a fuck, mate" about the shooting victims. He was found guilty of distributing objectionable material. At one of his court appearances, Arps distributed copies of the 'Holocaust Handbooks' series by German holocaust denier Germar Rudolf to journalists and the public. In June 2019, <mask> was sentenced to 21 months in jail, with Massey University distinguished professor Paul Spoonley describing him as 'an unrepentant, hardcore white supremacist'. At his sentencing Judge Stephen O'Driscoll described Arps as "remorseless". <mask> himself agreed. His pre-sentencing report included matters that gave the judge "real concern", including Arps comparing himself to Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer of Nazi Germany.Arps filed the first of two unsuccessful appeals against his sentence on the day he received it. While in prison he received death threats and was isolated for 23 hours a day. His sentencing and unsuccessful appeals were later referenced by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack as part of its paper on hate crime. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the shootings received a question from the public, asking whether Arps knew the shooter. The Commission reported "no evidence the individual knows <mask>s or that there was any other connection between them." Release on bail and subsequent charges
Arps was released on bail in January 2020. In August 2020 he was arrested and appeared in court after visiting a home brew store next door to Linwood Mosque.Charges were dropped, but in December he returned to court and a new condition was added to his release, preventing him from coming within 100m of the Linwood Islamic Centre. New bail-related charges were filed against Arps on January 8 2021. The Department of Corrections said, "The breach is in relation to failing to comply with the requirements of electronic monitoring." He was arrested again in March 2021, accused of sending obscene messages to a probation officer. Police opposed bail, but it was granted. On 18 February 2022 Arps appeared in the Christchurch District Court, again charged with breaching his release conditions. He refused to wear a mask or take a rapid COVID test, and told the court he was unvaccinated.A New Zealand flag was draped over his shoulder during his appearance. (He had been in court five days earlier on a separate matter relating to the Convoy 2022 New Zealand protest - see "Public execution" arrest, 2021 below.) <mask> was accused of abusing probation officers and failing to charge his GPS tracker. He was remanded on bail with the trial set to resume on June 16. "White supremicist" complaint
<mask> was called a "white supremacist" in a television piece filmed by Newshub journalist Patrick Gower and broadcast on 30 June 2019. He submitted a complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority on the grounds that this label was "inaccurate and unbalanced". The BSA found that "we do not consider the issue of whether Mr Arps is a ‘white supremacist’ to be a controversial issue" and that Gower's words were "clearly a statement of analysis and opinion".Arps's complaint was not upheld. Activity after 2019

"Public execution" arrest, 2022
Arps was arrested in Picton on 11 February 2022 while travelling north to join the Convoy 2022 New Zealand protest in Wellington. According to media reports he had told people at a Christchurch petrol station that was on his way to a "public execution", and that  “I’ve been promising it, I’ll see you in seven to 10 years”. He also reportedly threatened to kill members of the public and police. He was charged with threatening to kill and using offensive language. Three days later, on Monday 14, he was granted bail with conditions including a ban on entering the greater Wellington area. His next hearing was scheduled for 22 April.Additional reading
 ARPS AND MEDIAWORKS TV LTD – 2019-073B (7 MAY 2020)
 R v Arps 2019 NZDC 11547
CA469/2019 2019 NZCA 592
CRI-2019-409-000079 2019 NZHC 2113
Arps v New Zealand Police
CRI-2020-409-000011 2020 NZHC 706
BENEFICIAL INSULATION INSTALLS GUARANTEED LIMITED (2442734) Registered
Addressing Hate Crime in New Zealand: A Separate Offence? (login required)
Hate speech and hate crime related legislation

References

1970s births
Living people
White supremacists
People from Christchurch
New Zealand businesspeople
New Zealand criminals
Holocaust deniers
Year of birth missing (living people)

masks:
Philip Neville Arps
Arps
Arps
Arps
Philip Arp
Arps
Arps


title: Rachida Dati

texts:
<mask> (; ; born 27 November 1965) is a French politician who served as Member of the European Parliament, representing Île-de-France. Prior to her election, she held the cabinet post of Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice. She was a spokesperson for Nicolas Sarkozy during the French presidential election of 2007. After his victory, Sarkozy appointed her to his Government on 18 May 2007. She was elected mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris on 29 March 2008. Early life and education
<mask> was born on 27 November 1965 in Saint-Rémy, Burgundy to a Moroccan father, a bricklayer named Mbarek, and an Algerian mother, named Fatima-Zohra. She was the second child of twelve in an impoverished family, and she spent her childhood in Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy.Even though Dati was raised in a devout Islamic environment, she attended Catholic schools; <mask>'s own personal religious beliefs have been described as "unclear. She studied at the University of Burgundy, where she received a master's degree in Economics, and at Panthéon-Assas University, where she received a  Law degree. Career

Early beginnings
At the age of sixteen, Dati started working as a paramedical assistant. She then worked for three years as an accountant at Elf Aquitaine while at university. After meeting Jean-Luc Lagardère in 1990, <mask> entered the audit management team of Matra Nortel communication. She later spent a year in London at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the records management and archiving department. In 1994, she was an auditing supervisor and secretary-general of the bureau of urban development studies at Suez (then Lyonnaise des Eaux).From 1995 to 1997, she worked as a technical advisor at the legal management division of the Ministry of Education. In 1997, <mask> was admitted to the École nationale de la magistrature, a public educational institution which offers courses necessary to become a magistrate. Upon leaving in 1999, she became a legal auditor at the Bobigny tribunal de grande instance (high court). She went on to become judge for collective procedures at the  in Péronne and eventually an assistant to the attorney general of the Évry tribunal. Career in politics
In 2002, <mask> became Nicolas Sarkozy's advisor, working for him on an anti-delinquency project. In 2006, she joined the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. On 14 January 2007, she was named spokesperson for Sarkozy on the day he was chosen as UMP candidate for the presidential elections of April 2007.After Sarkozy's victory on 6 May 2007, she was appointed Minister of Justice. Her rationalization of the court system was publicly opposed by judicial professionals. Later on, it was recognised by the French Court of Auditors as one of the most ambitious reforms of the judicial institution. When the Sarkozys' marriage began to break up, <mask> frequently went on official presidential trips to accompany Nicolas Sarkozy. On 23 January 2009, Sarkozy announced that <mask> would take the second position on the UMP candidate list for Île-de-France constituency in the European Parliament election in June 2009, to which she was elected. She left her post as minister after being elected as a European deputy. Career in the private sector
Soon after she left the government, in summer 2009, <mask> switched to law, becoming a junior magistrate and assistant prosecutor.She also founded a consulting company called "La Bourdonnais consultant," which she had to dissolve at the beginning of 2010 to be able to resume the profession of lawyer, which she had to do by special dispensation (like other former magistrates). She sits on the editorial board of the French version of the Huffington Post, where she writes a weekly column about women's issues. On the local level, <mask> is the Mayor of the 7th district of Paris and Member of Paris City Council. On 9 February 2013, <mask> announced she was a candidate for mayor of Paris in the 2014 local elections but she later withdrew because "the press has already chosen Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet". Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2019
A member of the European People's Party group in the European Parliament, <mask> served on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and on the parliament's delegations for relations with the Mashreq countries, to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean, and for relations with the Arab Peninsula. In parliament, <mask> was the Parliament's rapporteur on several texts dealing with countering terrorism and the prevention of radicalisation and recruitment of European citizens by terrorist organisations. Following the Charlie Hebdo shooting in 2015, she drafted a report into how to prevent the radicalisation of young Europeans.Her parliamentary work also included dealing with the prison systems and conditions in the European Union, and finding solutions to face the migration crisis with an EU common list of safe countries of origin. In the UMP's 2012 leadership election, <mask> endorsed Jean-François Copé. In the Republicans’ 2017 leadership election, Dati endorsed Laurent Wauquiez. In early 2019, she announced her plan to run for the Paris municipal election in 2020. Controversy
In early 2009, <mask> received an anonymous death threat accompanied by a 9mm-calibre bullet. Soon after <mask> left the government in 2009 to stand for the European Parliament, she was hired by the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance as a legal adviser. In 2019, France's financial prosecutor launched an investigation into consulting fees she received from the alliance.In December 2013, French media reported that <mask> had received payments from French energy utility GDF-Suez. In early 2014, the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz asked parliamentary services to look into conflict-of-interest concerns, but the inquiry was interrupted by the 2014 election campaign. At the same time, the French high authority for transparency in public life, France's anti-corruption watchdog, also opened a file on the case. In August 2021, <mask> was charged by France's financial crime unit with passive corruption and benefiting from abuse of power. on 27 September 2021, Arte TV reported how caviar diplomacy led to the rejection of the Aserbaidjan political prisoners report by the European Parliament in 2013. The rejection was due to bribed EU parliamentarians, and <mask> also stood out as one of the leading voices to reject the truth about a flawed democracy in Azerbaijan. Her Italian college Luca Volonté has already been sentenced for accepting bribes.Volontè received 2.4M Euro as bribes froma 30M bribe fund of the Aserbaidjan fund to thwart EU guidelines by bribing its institutions. Other activities
 PlaNet Finance, Member of International Advisory Board

Personal life
In September 2008, Dati announced that she was pregnant and would be a single mother. She revealed her pregnancy to a group of reporters who questioned her about mounting rumours. "I want to remain careful, because . . . I am still in the risky stage. I am 42", she was quoted as saying.Her daughter, Zohra, was born in early 2009. As the name of the father was not revealed, many names circulated in gossip magazines. However, in 2012, she started legal action against Dominique Desseigne, the chief executive of Groupe Lucien Barrière a casino market leader in France, Switzerland and Europe, to recognise paternity. In December 2012, a French court ordered Desseigne to undergo a paternity test to see if he fathered <mask>'s child. After Desseigne refused to undergo the test, a French court decision of 7 January 2016 ruled that Desseigne was indeed the father. In November 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. Distinctions
 : Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (April 2010)
  Two Sicilian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis I

References

External links

1965 births
Living people
People from Saint-Rémy, Saône-et-Loire
French Ministers of Justice
French people of Moroccan descent
French people of Algerian descent
MEPs for Île-de-France 2009–2014
MEPs for Île-de-France 2014–2019
21st-century women MEPs for France
Union for a Popular Movement MEPs
University of Burgundy alumni
French city councillors
Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni
The Republicans (France) MEPs
Women government ministers of France
Female justice ministers
BBC 100 Women
Mayors of an arrondissement of Paris

masks:
Rachida Dati
Rachida Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati
Dati


title: Rodney Mullen

texts:
<mask> (born August 17, 1966) is an American professional skateboarder who practices freestyle skateboarding and street skateboarding. He is considered the most influential street skater in the history of the sport, being credited for inventing numerous tricks, including the flatground ollie, kickflip, heelflip, impossible, and 360-flip. As a result, he has been called the "Godfather of Street Skateboarding". <mask> won his first world skateboard championship at the age of 14; over the following decade, he won 34 out of 35 freestyle contests, thus establishing the most successful competitive run in the history of the sport. Over the following years, he transitioned from freestyle to street skateboarding, adapting his accumulated freestyle skills to street and inventing or expanding upon additional tricks in the process, such as primo slides, dark slides, and casper slides. Mullen has appeared in over 20 skateboarding videos and has co-authored an autobiography, entitled The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself, with writer Sean Mortimer. Early life
Mullen was born in Gainesville, Florida.As a child, Mullen slept in boots designed to correct a severe pigeon-toe condition. Despite <mask>'s condition, "He had an incredible dexterity with his feet," said Phil Chiocchio, former owner of the Florida skatepark, Sensation Basin. Mullen began skateboarding at the age of ten, on New Years Day of 1977, after a neighborhood friend introduced him to a skateboard. He promised his strict father that he would cease skateboarding the first time he became seriously injured:

My dad wouldn't let me have a skateboard. He thought I'd get hurt and never get good, and the culture was bums, and I'd turn into one. He was a dentist, but before that he was military, and there were times you'd call him, 'Sir.' New Year's Day he had a drink and felt better, and the skate shop was open.I learned to skate in our garage. We lived in the country in Florida, it was sort of farmish, and there was no cement anywhere else. Vert skating was the kind of skating that was done in pools, where you could get airborne and be weightless. The other style, which is what I did, was called free style, which was tricks you could do on flat ground. Mullen practice in the garage of the family home while wearing a comprehensive protective pads setup, a precaution that was part of the deal with his father. He also spent time with his sister's surfer friends who skated on weekdays. He became obsessed with the skateboard and practiced for many hours on a daily basis.Professional skateboarding

In 1978, even though he had owned a skateboard for only just over a year, Mullen placed fifth in the Boy's Freestyle category at the US Open Championships at Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida. Skateboard manufacturer Bruce Walker saw his performance and sponsored Mullen through Walker Skateboards from 1978 to 1980. Mullen's biggest influence in skateboarding at the time was a Walker professional skateboarder, Jim McCall, who was coached in his early years by Walker (Walker also coached a young Kelly Slater). Mullen was also influenced in a positive manner by professional skateboarders from Florida including Ed Womble, George McClellan, Clyde Rodgers, Tim Scroggs, and Kelly Lynn. In later years, Mullen was coached by Barry Zaritsky (also known as "SIO Barry"), who owned a company called SiO Safety Shorts. When his family moved to a farm in a remote part of Florida, Mullen began perfecting his flat ground techniques in the family garage; he has said that the isolation and lack of terrain naturally guided him towards freestyle skateboarding. Mullen cites July 1979–August 1980 as his "most creative time," a time when he was predominantly a loner who counted the cows of the family farm as his best friends.<mask> then proceeded to win thirty successive amateur competitive victories in the late 1970s, mostly in his home state of Florida, culminating in a win at the Oceanside Nationals in June 1979. In 1980, the 14-year-old <mask> entered the Oasis Pro competition, defeating the world champion, Steve Rocco. At Oasis Skatepark Mullen also spotted a 12-year-old skater who "introduced himself as Tony Hawk." Recalled Mullen, "Before Tony was sponsored, before anybody knew anything about him, he made an impression on me," and the two would go on to become good friends. Bones Brigade
Shortly thereafter, Mullen turned professional as a member of the renowned Bones Brigade team sponsored by Powell Peralta, based on the recommendation by Powell Peralta rider and fellow Floridian skateboarder Tim Scroggs of Mullen to company co-founder Stacy Peralta, whom Mullen highly admired. Mullen competed voraciously throughout the 1980s, often frustrating competitors and judges with his consistency and progressive ability. Like most skaters at the time, Mullen skated a mix of styles, including some vert, before skateboarding became more clearly delineated, as skaters who were more freestyle-oriented gravitated toward street and those who had skated more transition, bowls, and pools went into vert.Mullen enrolled in the chemical engineering program at the University of Florida, leaving during his senior year prior to completing his degree in order to take over management of World Industries with fellow Bones Brigade team member and company co-founder Steve Rocco. Invention of the flatground ollie
Among his most significant contributions to the evolution of modern skateboarding, <mask>llen adapted the ollie, first pioneered by Alan Gelfand on vert (where Gelfand would scoop off the back trucks to obtain more air off the wall, but without popping the tail of the skateboard in the process), to flat ground. This ability to pop the board off of the ground and drag it upward into the air, gaining significant altitude and air time, allowed ollieing onto rails and obstacles and opened the door to more complex flip tricks and other flat ground tricks. The invention of this trick alone, even apart from the numerous other tricks that he has invented and his design work, has ranked <mask> as one of the most important skateboarders of all time. In response to the praise that he has received for the flat ground ollie, Mullen stated in August 2012:

The origins of ollies—a guy named Alan Gelfand did it on vert…I had for a long time done a really simple movement, which was—it was just a transfer trick…and there are a ton of tricks where I needed to get to this side [demonstrates going from standing regular on his board to standing on the nose]. It's a transfer trick—I'd been doing that since the late seventies, so that I could, in turn, do things like this [demonstrates going from standing on the nose to a nose-stand and then landing back on his skateboard]. When I saw him [Gelfand] do it on the wall, I immediately—I'm thinking, the mechanics of it:  how do you get your board off the ground—how would you get your board off the ground like he did off the wall, 'cause I'm stuck on flat ground, not weightless.... [T]he first ones I did took about, I don't know, five, ten minutes....I realized, that's just the same motion I've been doing for years—it's a see-saw motion; that's how ollies work…it's just a punch and a little hop; and the real key to it was dragging your foot and leveling it out, which brings the board up.... In a back-handed way, people credit me with—in the documentary, Stacy [Peralta]'s Bones Brigade documentary, credit me with the importance of the ollie that gave the foundation for street skating, which is just skateboarding today, all that; and to me it was like, "Yeah, but, it's not a big deal." Took me ten minutes, fifteen, half an hour, an hour; and the next thing you know, you're getting 'em this high, and that's what laid the foundation for everything else. So, in a sense, the biggest innovation for street skating, which is what they credit me for—it's not a big deal! Throughout the 1980s, he invented the majority of skating's ollie and flip tricks, including the flat ground ollie, the kickflip, the heelflip, the 360-flip, and many others. These tricks are now considered essential building blocks of both modern vert skateboarding and street skateboarding. World Industries
In early 1989, <mask> left the Bones Brigade to join World Industries as a principal investor with longtime friend and former rival, Steve Rocco, in the formation of the very first skateboarder-owned company—professional skateboarder, Mike Vallely, later joined the company for a brief period of time.Mullen and Rocco had embarked on a very risky venture, as Powell Peralta was an established company and Rocco's upstart company had been struggling at the time. World Industries would later develop into the distribution company, Dwindle Distribution, which is the world's largest skateboard manufacturer in the 21st century. Transition to street and Plan B
As the popularity of freestyle skateboarding declined, <mask> was urged to transform his style to join the street skating trend that was becoming increasingly popular at that time; however, <mask> was very reluctant due to a fear of compromising his integrity, whereby the foundation of his skateboarding would be "sold out." Such pressure is alluded to in the World Industries video, Rubbish Heap, in which <mask>'s sequence ends with team member, Jeremy Klein, deliberately breaking his freestyle skateboard (which is also the first recorded focus of a skateboard) and then handing him a note from Rocco, accompanied by a street skateboard deck, in which the end of freestyle is declared. In 1991, <mask> joined the high-profile skateboarding team, Plan B Skateboards. Mike Ternasky, the owner of Plan B, influenced <mask> to transition from freestyle to street skating, and showcased his skills in the 1992 Plan B video, Questionable. His segment begins with traditional freestyle tricks executed on flat ground, but quickly transitions into Mullen skateboarding across public terrain to shift into street skating tricks and lines.<mask>'s video part signified a major transformation in relation to both his career and his skateboarding. Ternasky filmed <mask> as he sequenced tricks and mixed flip tricks with grinds and boardslides, while he also negotiated obstacles. <mask> also introduced two newly invented tricks in Questionable, the kickflip underflip and the Casper slide. <mask>'s Questionable performance might have marked the beginning of a new era in street skateboarding. His reluctant transition from freestyle to street skateboarding was a symbol that legitimized the technical direction street skating had taken over the previous few years. <mask> focused on the progression of this transition in subsequent Plan B videos, including 1993's Virtual Reality, in which Mullen showcases the newly mastered trick, the darkslide. <mask>'s participation in Plan B dissolved after Ternasky was killed in a car crash on May 17, 1994.<mask> later explained, "He was such a great person. He would lift you so high and that is why Plan B was what it was. And it was clear once Mike was gone that it was never the same." A-Team and Enjoi
In 1997, <mask> started company, the A-Team—along with Marc Johnson, Gershon Mosley, Dave Mayhew, and Chet Thomas—with the intention of forming a "super team." When A-Team folded in 2000, <mask> made the transition from company founder to company rider for Enjoi Skateboards. Former Maple rider, Marc Johnson, founded Enjoi Skateboards and also recruited riders Chris Cole and Bobby Puleo, with Jerry Hsu for the team. Stance erasure
As a result of injuries accrued over many years riding in a fixed regular stance, from 2007 onward Mullen made a conscious effort to "erase" his riding stance, re-learning tricks (and in many cases learning new tricks he was unable to do previously riding regular) goofy and endeavoring to re-learn riding a skateboard neutrally in the absence of any preferential "natural stance."In an interview with Tony Hawk, <mask> explained that he had developed problems in his right hip joint, with scar tissue having built up in his joint over years as a result of habitually hyper-extending his leg (e. g., doing the splits, a danger inherent in practicing riskier tricks such as darkslides) while skating. <mask> stated that through extensive stretching and the use of blunt objects he was able to break up the scar tissue in order to restore range of motion. <mask> further explained in an interview at Germany's Bright tradeshow in 2011:

For me, it was a grinding to a halt, until I could barely walk really…  I took about a couple of years, a year-and-a-half of breaking myself apart; pretty medievally. And as I did so, I realized that that was helping me unravel my stance; and so now, I've just been investigating, or pushing myself to try to, to, take apart my stance so that I no longer have one. And so it's not just doing everything switch, because everybody does whatever switch. It's to have no stance at a physical level. And so even what you did in your regular, native stance, it feels…new.2014–present
The Almost company celebrated its 10th anniversary with an event at the Berrics indoor skate complex in early March 2014, and <mask> attended the venue for the first time. As part of the celebration, <mask> completed an interview with the Berrics that is titled "A Beautiful Mind," in which <mask> explained his current relationship with skateboarding: "Because we all have that fear of judgment…yeah, that's true. I'm like that—I'm afraid of being judged. I don't necessarily want to be seen in public sucking, getting older; but, what I keep inside, that joy of feeling what I do, rolling around, playing around—that's something I'm going to do as long as I can. That's who I am…who I am." The first video footage of <mask> skateboarding in nine years was published on Tony Hawk's RIDE YouTube channel in July 2014. <mask> appears in the video skateboarding at musician Ben Harper's residence and Harper also performs a single trick at the video's conclusion.The part was filmed by Ben Fordham of the Gracias L.A. brand, which released the Gracias Skateboarding Volumen Uno video in 2014 that also features <mask>. Together with other members of the Almost team, <mask> appeared in a June 2015 photo retrospective of the Almost brand that was shot and curated by skateboard photographer Seu Trinh. Mullen was part of the Globe brand's "EUTrippin'" 2015 European tour, alongside other team members including Mark Appleyard and Haslam. Other ventures

<mask> vs. Daewon
Around 1997, <mask> also initiated discussions with friend and fellow professional skateboarder, Daewon Song, to plan the video <mask> vs. Daewon, released in 1997, which featured the two skaters "competing" with their respective video parts.. The concept developed into a series and, , three "rounds" have been produced. Tensor
Around 2000, <mask> engaged in the development of his own skateboard truck design, a concept that would later become the foundation for the company Tensor. In 2000, <mask> filed for a United States Patent in support of his innovative work in the area and submitted the following abstract to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

A skateboard having one or more truck

masks:
John Rodney Mullen
Rodney Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Rodney Mu
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Rodney
Mullen
Rodney
Mullen
Mullen


title: Rodney Mullen

texts:
 assemblies configured to eliminate undesired ride characteristics such as hanger-jiggle and wheel bite, without sacrificing the skateboard's steering responsiveness.Each truck assembly includes an axle assembly with a ring-shaped hanger that is confined on a kingpin using a pair of bushings, at least one of which includes an annular flange that projects into an annular gap defined between the hanger and the kingpin. This prevents the hanger from moving laterally relative to the kingpin and thereby eliminates undesired ride characteristics such as hanger-jiggle and wheel bite. In a separate feature of the invention, the skateboard truck assembly further incorporates a low-friction slider plate that enhances the rider's performance of certain maneuvers and at the same time protects other components of the truck assembly from undue wear. A subsequent advertisement was released, entitled "The Patented Tensor Design." Tensor recruited team riders such as Daewon Song, Chris Cole, Chris Haslam, Salman Agah, Ryan Sheckler, Kanten Russell, and Gailea Momolu. , the Tensor team consists of <mask>, along with Daewon Song, Ronnie Creager, Enrique Lorenzo,Manny Santiago, Zered Bassett, Felipe Ortiz, and Joey Brezinski. Almost and Dwindle Distribution

Mullen subsequently left Enjoi to co-found Almost Skateboards with Daewon Song, who had been unable to find success with the two preceding deck companies that he had founded, Deca and Artefact.Mullen and Song proceeded to recruit Cooper Wilt (a former Artefact rider), Chris Haslam (a former Deca and Artefact rider), Greg Lutzka, and Ryan Scheckler to form the initial basis of the company. After years of success and controversy, Steve Rocco decided to sell World Industries. In 2002, World Industries, under the holding name "Kubic Marketing," was sold to Globe International for US$46 million. Its owner Rocca and Mullen, a principal investor, both became instant multimillionaires. Kubic's management remained intact, and Mullen began working for Globe under the Dwindle Distribution brand. , Mullen remains the co-owner and a team rider for the Almost brand; his role at Almost also includes research and development on new designs and technologies, including Impact Support, Double Impact, and Uber Light. The Uber Light design was a collaborative effort between Mullen and the CL Composites company, utilizing a design that consists of "a deck inside a deck," whereby, "The internal carbon fiber foam deck is ultra light and nearly as stiff as metal.It acts like rebar, or a skeleton embodied by a standard 7-ply layup. It also vastly improved the lateral rigidity. The deck wears, slides, and looks like a normal 7-ply, but it's lighter and has a supernatural pop that lasts far longer than any normal deck." <mask> also contributes to the design of experimental and composite deck constructions for Dwindle's other brands, such as Blind and Darkstar. Video game appearances
<mask>'s popularity grew in 2000 when he made his first appearance in the Tony Hawk's video game series. <mask> has since appeared in various titles of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series including:

 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
 Tony Hawk's Underground
 Tony Hawk's Underground 2
 Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
 Tony Hawk's Project 8
 Tony Hawk'sProving Ground
 Tony Hawk'sRide
 Tony Hawk'sPro Skater HD
 Tony Hawk'sPro Skater 1 + 2
In 2019, he also voiced Jace Skell in the video game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Books
In 2015, <mask> wrote the foreword to the Dwindle and Globe history book Unemployable: 30 Years of Hardcore, Skate and Street reflecting upon his twenty-year involvement with those companies.In 2003, <mask> wrote and released his autobiography, The Mutt:  How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself. Public speaking
<mask> has completed numerous public speaking engagements and has been invited to present on topics such as his personal life, skateboarding, innovation, creation, and the concept of community. The Lemelson Center at MIT invited <mask> to visit the center, a part of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History to discuss invention and innovation from within the context of American society. The Lemelson Center exchanged ideas and views with <mask> about skateboarding, in addition to the manner in which creativity and innovation can contribute to the development of an improved society. <mask> was invited by the Sapling Foundation, as part of its TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) public speaking series, to present at the University of Southern California (USC) in June 2012. <mask>'s talk was entitled, "How Context Shapes Content", and featured his perspectives on the manner in which the street-based context of skateboarding influences his practice, in addition to his view of the skateboarding community, whereby he compared the community to the open source and hacking movements. <mask> also spoke about resilience and creativity in a talk entitled "Getting Back Up" at the Pop!Tech "Sparks of Brilliance" event in October 2013.In the first half of 2014, <mask> was invited by the O'Reilly Media technology company to present at its "Strata" and "Velocity" conferences, both of which were held in Santa Clara, California. <mask>'s Strata presentation in February 2014 was titled "The Art of Good Practice" and consisted of an analysis of the nuanced way in which skateboarders practice their craft. <mask> then presented the "Build on a Bedrock of Failure" keynote in June 2014, in which he spoke of the way that "failure, pain, injury, recovery" are "embedded in the very notion of what it is to be a skateboarder." Film
In December 2010, <mask> stated in an interview that he was preparing to film a part for the upcoming Almost video, although he did not appear in the 2012 video, 5-Incher. In the 2011 Bright tradeshow interview, <mask> stated, "At first, I just wanted to be able to be alright and walk okay and run. And then it was like, okay, skate again and now it's like 'Yeah, I can do something new!'. So, if I can do that, then I'll film.If I can't, then I'll keep my skating private." Both the skateboard media and in responses from Almost indicate that a full part from Mullen is scheduled for release following 5-Incher—<mask> was in attendance at the premiere of 5-Incher. Awards, accolades and influence

In 2002, <mask> won the Transworld Skateboarding Readers' Choice Award for Skater of the Year. In 2003, he was voted as the all-time greatest action sports athlete on the Extreme Sports Channel's Legends of the Extreme countdown. Transworld also included Mullen in its "30 Most Influential Skaters of All Time" list, released in December 2011 and he was elected into the third position, behind Tony Hawk (second) and Mark Gonzales (first). In May 2013, <mask> was an inductee of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame and was present at the award ceremony that was held in Anaheim, California. Fellow professional skateboarder Steve Caballero and musician Ben Harper shared their experiences of Mullen prior to the presentation of the award, and Caballero credited Mullen with changing the "face" of skateboarding.Professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez identified Mullen as one of his "top ten" professional skateboarders in July 2013. Rodriguez explained his selection on his personal website: If you really wanna know Gonz [Mark Gonzales]  and <mask> pretty much innovated damn near everything in street skateboarding. <mask> has always had the most mind-boggling most difficult tricks on top of having invented 50, 60, who knows how many tricks. Just about every modern day flat ground trick that we are doing today he invented. Transworld has characterized him as possibly the most significant skater of all time, "<mask>llen built the house skateboarding lives in. After inventing the flatground ollie—in itself perhaps the most influential trick ever—he went on to unveil kickflips, backside flips, heelflips, 360 flips, double flips, impossibles, darkslides, and onward. Without <mask>, skateboarding would still be in the dark ages."Anthony Pappalardo of The RIDE Channel unequivocally stated, "From almost singled-handedly creating the entire vocabulary of flip-based tricks to revolutionizing the boards below our feet, <mask>llen is the biggest influence on modern skateboarding." In Transworld Skateboarding "Skater's Favorite Skater" video series, both Tony Hawk and Daewon Song have cited <mask>llen as their favorite skater. Trick invention
Mullen has been credited with inventing the following tricks (years included):

Godzilla rail flip (1979)
540 shove-it (1979)
50/50 Saran wrap (1979)
50/50 Casper (1980)
Helipop (1980)
Gazelle flip (1981)
No-handed 50/50 (1981)
No-handed 50/50 kickflip
Kick flip (1982)
Heel flip (1982)
Double heelflip
Impossible (1982)
Sidewinder (1983)
360 flip (1983)
Switch 360 flip
360 pressure flip (1983)
Casper 360 flip (1983)
Half-cab kickflip (1983)
50/50 sidewinder (1983)
One-footed ollie (1984)
Backside flip (Backside 180 Kickflip) (1984)
Ollie Nosebone (1986)
Ollie finger flip (1986)
Ollie Airwalk (1986)
Frontside heel flip shove-it (1988)
Helipop heel flip (1990)
Kickflip underflip (1992)
Half-cab kickflip underflip (1992)
Casper slide (1992)
Half flip darkslide
Handstand flips

Reflections and perspectives
Mullen has publicly stated that an identification of his favorite skateboarders is an "endless" task. However, he has provided examples such as Chris Haslam, Bryan Herman, Paul Rodriguez, Antwuan Dixon, and Eric Koston. In 2010 Mullen stated that "skating is one of the greatest blessings I could have," but also expressed concern about the popularity of skateboarding "big stuff" due to the physical toll that it takes on the bodies of professional skateboarders: "So I think it is unhealthy and uncool… I see great skaters and their ankles and knees are ruined." Mullen expanded upon his perspective of skateboarding during his Lemelson Foundation interview:

Skateboarding is as much, or more, an art of mode of expression than it is a sport. What skateboarding has given me is precisely that: a form of expression that drew me to it, and, in so doing, I was able to express and be who I wanted to be through it, in a sense.And establish myself within a community that were all essentially outsiders like myself. And by doing that, it gave me a place, a sense of belonging and, in the end, I was able to contribute, at a foundational level, a lot of the tricks that the entire community uses to express themselves. Which, again, is one of the beauties of skateboarding, is that we all draw from the same pool, and give back; so that others can do the same and keep expounding. Very much like an open source community. During his attendance at the Biarritz international skateboard festival, <mask> was interviewed in relation to a used Mike Carroll skateboard deck from Carroll's time with the Plan B company. <mask> reflected on the personal influence of Plan B founder Mike Ternasky during the interview: "I miss Mike. And the day Jacob called me and goes, "Mike's dead."—I replayed that so many times…and how instrumental that was in driving me forward in a way that kind of honoring what he gave me: A second chance. And how real that is. And it goes back to Stacy [Peralta]'s film—it's not what you do; it's what makes you do what you do, is the thing that has to be protected and nurtured. As long as that's there, intact…you can do anything." In a June 2014 interview at O'Reilly Media's Velocity conference, <mask> stated that he does not believe that skateboarding can be categorized as a "sport". <mask> further explained that the self-expressive element of skateboarding shows that it is an art form, while the community element of skateboarding—whereby sharing of ideas occurs—distinguishes it as a "lifestyle" or "philosophy". <mask> also shared his perspective on goals and failure during the interview: "You focus so much on your failures and your weaknesses, it has a…paralyzing effect, where you're dwelling on stuff.For example, having goals: sometimes I have lofty goals, my friends do—we all do, we all have goals. But, if you fix yourself to that goal, and you don't see anything else on the horizon—which is natural, 'cos that what it takes, we all have that in our personality…but, sometimes, if you attach that to a goal that is out of your reach, and you continue to fail, it will just grind you into nothing. And if you dwell on that, it can end you." <mask>s says, "Just the enjoyment of doing what you want to do, all the way through—that's the beauty of skateboarding, that so many people actually never find their whole lives. And that's what skateboarding's given me:  I can't wake up—I can't wait to wake up in the morning to try something new; a lot of times I can't sleep because I can't wait to try something new… and how many people never really experience that feeling, often; and that's why I skate." Personal life
, Mullen resides in California with his girlfriend, Lori Guidroz. He describes himself as "juvenile" who prefers to skate during the night and on his own.He says, "Any eyes on me—a late-night street sweeper, some dude texting in his parked car, the homeless guy talking to himself—make me feel uncomfortable when I skate. Everyone expects me to do certain things. It puts a ceiling on your progress. You're blocked by your pride. To get good, you have to throw your board around and fall." <mask>'s interests extend beyond skateboarding and include mathematics, physics, engineering, and music. It has been publicly revealed that <mask> owns a pair of high-powered audio speakers, each weighing around , through which he plays a diverse range of music, including Sabaton and Beethoven: "Me and my neighbors, we have an understanding…and so I sit perfect, you know, triangle at the front.You sit there with the remote and you turn it up, just when it starts to hurt, and hit one more and then go like [presses his hands to his ears] that, and then you just feel it in your whole body for a while, as long as you can take it. And then you 'arrgh! ', and then you turn it off you know and [hold his hand to his heart and breathes heavily], and then I go skate [laughs]. It's awesome, but only if I'm really usually, like, just sometimes when you really need it, you know?" In 2013 musicians Ben Harper and Lee Hartney revealed a close friendship with <mask> and described the skateboarder as a "brother". <mask> has also assisted Harper to learn skateboarding, as the musician has undertaken intensive practice in the fifth decade of his life. <mask> has spoken publicly about his spiritual beliefs, explaining in 2010: "The term religion bums me out.I can't go to church, I've got issues. I've got issues of non-conformity built into me…It's a personal thing and I get so scared about talking about it in public. This guy at HBO once said to me, 'Your skating is like a prayer.' That was the coolest thing anyone's ever said to me. That's what it is for me." References

Further reading

1966 births
Living people
American skateboarders
Freestyle skateboarders
University of Florida alumni
People from Gainesville, Florida
American collectors
Artist

masks:
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Rodney Mullen
Rodney
Rodney Mu
Rodney
Rodney Mu
Rodney Mu
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen
Mullen


title: John Horse

texts:
<mask> (c. 1812–1882), also known as Juan Caballo, Juan Cavallo, <mask> (with spelling variations) and Gopher <mask>, was of mixed ancestry (African and Seminole Indian) who fought alongside the Seminoles in the Second Seminole War in Florida. He rose to prominence in the third year of what was to become a seven-year war when the first generation of Black Seminole leaders was largely decimated and the primary Seminole war chief, Osceola (Asi Yahola), fell into the hands of the American military commander, General Thomas Sydney Jesup. <mask> had been fighting alongside Osceola and acting as his interpreter by this time. When they were seized while under a flag of truce during negotiations with Jesup's emissary, Florida militia general Joseph Hernandez, <mask> found himself imprisoned along with Osceola and other members of his band at Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos), the old Spanish fort that formerly defended St. Augustine, the colonial capital of Spanish Florida. <mask> gained his initial fame for joining with a Mikasuki brave named Wildcat (Coacoochee), the son of the Mikasuki chief, King Phillip Emathla, in executing a daring escape from the fort which, until then, had been believed by American forces to be unbreachable. Wildcat and <mask> formed an alliance and went on to lead the remnants of the shattered Seminole bands, including members of the Mikasuki, Tallahassee, Appalachee and Yamassee bands (many of different ethnic backgrounds in what was by then a highly mixed grouping of Indians and Africans) to safety in the south-central part of Florida, ahead of Jesup's forces. In the Battle of Lake Okeechobee on Christmas Day in 1837, Halpatta Tustanagi (Chief Alligator), an ally of the captured Osceola, and the Seminole medicine man Abiaka (Sam Jones) led the escaping Seminole with Wildcat and <mask> Horse playing leading roles in holding off the assault of Zachary Taylor, then in hot pursuit.They successfully effected the escape of most of the fleeing Seminole who had joined with them by crossing Lake Okeechobee to take refuge in the Everglades. They fought Jesup himself on the Loxahatchee River the following January 1838, although the privations and losses they had suffered since their early victories in 1835 and 36 had taken their toll. Although General Jesup was wounded in the fight, the Seminole were forced to flee again. Offered a promise of peace and a new life west of the Mississippi with his family, <mask> finally agreed to surrender, although Wildcat refused to come in at that time and fought on until around 1840 when <mask> was brought back to Florida from his exile in Indian Territory. <mask> brought the offer of peace to Wildcat, contingent on his surrender and agreement to exile in Indian Territory, and Wildcat, by now the leading war chief of the remaining Seminole, finally accepted removal to the Territory (in present-day Oklahoma) which had been set aside for the eastern Indians in the early 1830s by Congress. Other bands still held out though and the war continued until August 14, 1842, when Colonel William J. Worth, finally declared "victory" and left the remaining fighters to their own devices deep in the Florida Everglades.<mask>, who was the son of a slave mother and an Indian father, was nominally a slave under both American and Seminole law until finally being freed by the American military for his service to the army in Florida after his return there at the military's request. He was later officially set free of any Seminole claims on his person by Chief Micanopy, titular head of all the Seminole bands, for his service to the Indians. When the Africans living among the Seminole continued to face threats of re-enslavement in their new home, thanks to the connivance of some American officials (despite Jesup's decree emancipating all surrendering escaped African slaves), <mask> would once again join forces with his old comrade, Wildcat, to lead a group of disaffected Seminole and former slaves across the Rio Grande to northern Mexico where they were granted land by the Mexican government in 1850 and where the Seminole blacks could finally be assured of their freedom, Mexico having abolished legal slavery in the 1820s. <mask> served as a captain in the Mexican army during this period and, after 1870, briefly with the US Army again as a scout. He disappeared several years later when, by now an old man, he made a trip to Mexico City to plead for reaffirmation of the land grant to his people which local Mexican landowners were seeking to overturn. It is generally thought that <mask> died in the course of this final errand to Mexico City. Early life and education

<mask>, called Juan as a child, was born around 1812 in Florida.He was a Seminole slave of Spanish, Seminole, and African descent. He lived initially in the region that came to be called Micanopy after the last head chief of the Florida Seminole in north central Florida. <mask> assumed the surname of his father and nominal owner, the Seminole trader Charley Cavallo, his surname "<mask>" being believed to have been a translation of Cavallo (or Caballo, the Spanish word for horse). His mother was likely of pure African descent, a slave acquired by Charley Cavallo in his travels. Charley was, himself, of possibly mixed descent (Indian-Spanish parentage.). The young <mask> also had a sister, Juana (sometimes spelled "Wannah" or "Warner" in some sources). Not much is known about Charley Cavallo although it does not appear that he treated either of his two mixed-race children as slaves.The War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain in the year <mask> is thought to have been born. At that time he and Juana were probably living with their mother in one of the black settlements affiliated with, and under the jurisdiction of, the Alachua band of Oconee Seminole along the Suwannee River. When the American General Andrew Jackson invaded the area, he scattered the tribal peoples and their black allies in the region, destroying settlements and seizing blacks from among the Seminole for removal to the north to be returned to plantation slavery. <mask> was probably displaced with his family by these actions since he first enters the historical record some years later as a young adolescent in the Tampa area. <mask> spent his formative years among the Oconee Seminole, living like other Indian boys, learning to hunt and fish and developing tracking skills. He also became proficient with bow and arrow and with a rifle, developing a reputation in later life as a keen marksman with a steady hand in combat. Unlike many of his fellows, however, he also learned to read and write and acquired linguistic skills in English, Spanish and the Hitchiti tongue spoken by the Oconee and many other Seminole bands.We can presume that he was also conversant with Muscogee, the tongue of the Upper Creek Indians from whom the great Seminole war chief, Osceola hailed because, in his adult years, he would be one of Osceola's main translators when dealing with the Americans (though Osceola, himself, spoke some English). Seminole Wars

The First Seminole War (1817–1818) occurred during <mask>'s childhood and the youngster, along with his sister and mother, was probably among those displaced blacks who fled south of the Suwannee River toward Tampa Bay. There young <mask> grew into adolescence and came into contact with American soldiers who had established an outpost, Fort Brooke, in the region with the formal annexation of Florida after the success of Jackson's incursions. <mask> first enters the written record in a short narrative by the officer in charge, Major George M. Brooke, who discovered the young Seminole black had been swindling his personal cook by selling him the same land turtle, or tortoise (a so-called "gopher"), multiple times for the major's personal mess. Discovering the young boy's fraud, Brooke opted for leniency and let <mask> go on condition he make good on the missing turtles which he apparently did. This began a lifelong relationship between <mask> and the American military and vouchsafed him his nickname in later life, Gopher <mask>. He would go on to fight against the American army, on the side of his fellow Seminole, and, eventually, to work with the Americans.During the Second Seminole War of 1835 to 1842, which began when American settlers pressured for Indian removal to free up their lands for white settlement, <mask> served as what would be called, today, a field officer on the Indian side. At first a translator for the Indian leaders (since few of them spoke English while their black allies did), he also became a lower level war chief. Because of his facility with languages and quickness of mind, <mask> eventually found himself in the midst of the Seminoles' negotiations with the U. S. Army as the war dragged on and open battles in the field gave way to guerrilla tactics and a long war of attrition. In the spring of 1838, after several pitched battles, <mask> finally decided the fight against the Americans was unwinnable and surrendered to US troops. This may have been prompted by the loss of his first wife, a Seminole woman said to have been a daughter of Chief Holatoochee, a brother or nephew of the chief Micanopy. The blacks in the war received promises of freedom if they would cease fighting as Indian allies and accept resettlement in the newly established Indian Territory west of the Mississippi. <mask> was later granted papers freeing him a second time by General William J.Worth for the services he subsequently rendered to the U.S. Army in the latter days of the Second Seminole War in Florida, as both translator and scout. But his initial decision to give up fighting had been in response to the offer of a prior general, Thomas Sydney Jesup, who had made the first promise of general freedom to all escaped slaves and their children willing to surrender and accept removal. Thus <mask>'s claim to freedom from slavery would rest on at least two legal claims, via decisions by two different American military officers. This would eventually be important as events unfolded a few years later in the west. Unfortunately, <mask>'s second wife and their children, who were removed to Indian Territory with him, did not gain freedom through his later service and had only the earlier declaration by Jesup to fall back on, thus remaining at risk from the increasingly aggressive activities of slave catchers in the new Indian Territory. With other Seminole, <mask> was shipped across the Gulf of Mexico from Tampa Bay to New Orleans and north from there by way of the Mississippi to Indian Territory. There he and his family joined with the other Seminole and Black Seminole who had accepted removal to take up residence at one of two locations assigned to the Seminole inside the Creek area.<mask> quickly rose as a leader among the Black Seminole because of his friendly relations with the Americans, his experience as a leader in the fighting, his linguistic skills and decisive cleverness. Life in Indian Territory

New conflicts and old issues
In the new territory, <mask> worked sporadically for the army as an interpreter and, sometimes, as an intermediary for the officers and the Indian leaders. Asked to help persuade the remaining Indian fighters in Florida to surrender and relocate to Indian Territory as he and others had done, he returned to Florida in 1839 to act as go-between with one of the last Seminole war chiefs, Coacoochee (Wild Cat), eventually convincing his old friend to accept the inevitable and come in, too. <mask> was sent back to Indian Territory in 1842, as part of a group of about 120 other exiles, once the army felt he had done what they needed. In Indian Territory again, the exiled Seminole leadership finally voted freedom for <mask>, too, around the year 1843 in light of his services to the Seminole during their lengthy war. At the time the main chief, Micanopy (Mico Nuppa), had nominal ownership over him. It was Micanopy, in concert with his council, who finally granted the black warrior his freedom from any claims of enslavement against him which the tribe still had.Thus <mask> had been freed three times: by Jesup's original declaration, by General Worth who was Jesup's last successor (for services rendered), and by the Seminole leadership. Only the first of these actions applied to <mask>'s second wife, Susan (daughter of the black leader July) and their children, however, and that action would soon come into serious question. Conflict arose in the Territory because the transplanted Seminole had been placed on land allocated to the Creek Indians since the U.S. government had failed to recognize the tribal distinctions between the two peoples (the Seminole were a loose amalgam of Creek bands which had detached themselves from the Creek Indian federation a century earlier and relocated to then Spanish Florida, although they had continued to maintain ethnic and some kinship ties with their northern Creek brethren in Georgia, Alabama and part of the Carolinas). Because the Creek had adopted the American institution of chattel slavery while the Seminole had not done the same (they lived in very different ways), the presence of free blacks among the Seminole on Creek land and under the nominal sovereignty of the Creek tribal council, caused friction between the two groups. The free blacks threatened the Creek slave-holding status quo, because their very existence tempted the Creeks' own slaves to challenge their status, and provided a tempting target for Creek and affiliated groups seeking to acquire more slaves. Creek slavers and those from other Indian groups, and some whites, soon began raiding the Black Seminole settlements to kidnap and enslave anyone they could get their hands on, and <mask> quickly became a focal point for organizing resistance to these encroachments as well as lead spokesman for his fellow Black Seminoles. In one case, when some slavers succeeded in capturing Dembo Factor,  a veteran of the Seminole War, <mask> Horse and his on-again, off-again ally, Coacoochee (Wild Cat), who had hopes of succeeding Micanopy as leader of all the Seminole and who opposed living under the Creek, protested.The Army, responding to their concerns, demanded and got Factor's release but neither they nor the Creek tribal council pursued charges of kidnapping against the suspected slavers. The slave raids continued as tensions mounted. Seeking a solution

In 1844 <mask> traveled to Washington, D.C. with a delegation of Seminole including Coacoochee to argue for a separate land grant for the Seminole on the grounds that they were and had been a separate people for at least a hundred years. Failing to secure the backing they needed, they returned to Indian Territory, but <mask> traveled once more to Washington, this time on his own (acting as servant to an officer's brother) to lobby General Jesup to live up to his earlier promises. Jesup was sympathetic and probably felt a

masks:
John Horse
John Cowaya
John
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John
Horse
John
John Horse
John
John Horse
Horse
John
John Horse
John
John Horse
John
John Horse
John Horse
Horse
Horse
John Horse
Horse
Horse
Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John Horse
John
John Horse
Horse