Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was an Italian physicist and pioneer of electricity and power, credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the discoverer of methane. He invented the Voltaic pile in 1799, reported the results of his experiments in 1800 in a two-part letter to the President of the Royal Society. With this invention Volta proved that electricity could be generated chemically and debunked the prevalent theory that electricity was generated by living beings. Volta's invention sparked a great amount of scientific excitement and led others to conduct similar experiments which led to the development of the field of electrochemistry. Volta drew admiration from Napoleon Bonaparte for his invention, was invited to the Institute of France to demonstrate his invention to the members of the Institute. Volta enjoyed a certain amount of closeness with the emperor throughout his life and he was conferred numerous honours by him. Volta held the chair of experimental physics at the University of Pavia for nearly 40 years and was idolised by his students.

Despite his professional success, Volta tended to be a person inclined towards domestic life and this was more apparent in his years. At this time he tended to live secluded from public life and more for the sake of his family until his eventual death in 1827 from a series of illnesses which began in 1823; the SI unit of electric potential is named in his honour as the volt. Volta was born in Como, a town in present-day northern Italy, on 18 February 1745. In 1794, Volta married an aristocratic lady from Como, Teresa Peregrini, with whom he raised three sons: Zanino and Luigi, his father, Filippo Volta, was of noble lineage. His mother, Donna Maddalena, came from the family of the Inzaghis. In 1774, he became a professor of physics at the Royal School in Como. A year he improved and popularised the electrophorus, a device that produced static electricity, his promotion of it was so extensive that he is credited with its invention though a machine operating on the same principle was described in 1762 by the Swedish experimenter Johan Wilcke.

In 1777, he travelled through Switzerland. There he befriended H. B. de Saussure. In the years between 1776 and 1778, Volta studied the chemistry of gases, he researched and discovered methane after reading a paper by Benjamin Franklin of the United States on "flammable air". In November 1776, he found methane at Lake Maggiore, by 1778 he managed to isolate methane, he devised experiments such as the ignition of methane by an electric spark in a closed vessel. Volta studied what we now call electrical capacitance, developing separate means to study both electrical potential and charge, discovering that for a given object, they are proportional; this is called Volta's Law of Capacitance, for this work the unit of electrical potential has been named the volt. In 1779 he became a professor of experimental physics at the University of Pavia, a chair that he occupied for 40 years. Luigi Galvani, an Italian physicist, discovered something he named, "animal electricity" when two different metals were connected in series with a frog's leg and to one another.

Volta realised that the frog's leg served as both a conductor of electricity and as a detector of electricity. He understood that the frog's legs were irrelevant to the electric current, caused by the two differing metals, he replaced the frog's leg with brine-soaked paper, detected the flow of electricity by other means familiar to him from his previous studies. In this way he discovered the electrochemical series, the law that the electromotive force of a galvanic cell, consisting of a pair of metal electrodes separated by electrolyte, is the difference between their two electrode potentials; this may be called Volta's Law of the electrochemical series. In 1800, as the result of a professional disagreement over the galvanic response advocated by Galvani, Volta invented the voltaic pile, an early electric battery, which produced a steady electric current. Volta had determined that the most effective pair of dissimilar metals to produce electricity was zinc and copper, he experimented with individual cells in series, each cell being a wine goblet filled with brine into which the two dissimilar electrodes were dipped.

The voltaic pile replaced the goblets with cardboard soaked in brine. In announcing his discovery of the voltaic pile, Volta paid tribute to the influences of William Nicholson, Tiberius Cavallo, Abraham Bennet; the battery made by Volta is credited as one of the first electrochemical cells. It consists of two electrodes: one made of zinc, the other of copper; the electrolyte is either sulfuric acid mixed with a form of saltwater brine. The electrolyte exists in the form 2H+ and SO42−; the zinc, higher in the electrochemical series than both copper and hydrogen, reacts with the negatively charged sulfate. The positively charged hydrogen ions capture electrons from the copper, forming bubbles of hydrogen gas, H2; this makes the copper rod the positive electrode. Thus, there are two terminals, an electric current will flow if they are connected; the chemical reactions in this voltaic cell are as follows: Zinc: Zn → Zn2+ + 2e−Sulfuric acid: 2H+ + 2e− → H2The copper does not react, but rather it functions as an electrode for the electric current.

However, this cell has some disadvantages. It is unsafe to handle, since sulfuric acid if diluted, can be hazardous; the power of the cell diminishes

Patricio Henriquez is an award-winning Quebec based filmmaker. Henriquez grew up and trained in film-making in Chile, leaving the country after Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. You don't like the truth, a film he co-directed with frequent collaborator Luc Côté won the best documentary about society award at the first Gémeaux Awards in 2011. In 1999 the last stand of Salvador Allende won the best history award at the 1999 Hot Docs Film Festival. Henriquez's film Uyghurs: Prisoners of the Absurd had its world premiere on Friday, October 10, 2014, at the Festival du nouveau cinema; the film, about the 22 Uyghur captives in Guantanamo, is his third related to controversial US policies on holding civilians, for years, in extrajudicial detention. Rushan Abbas, a refugee herself, who had become a US citizen and successful in business, had agreed to go to Guantanamo to serve as a translator, was one of the experts interviewed in the film told the Montreal Gazette why she agreed to be in Henriquez's film when she had declined other invitations

The Crawfordsville monster refers to an alleged creature reported by residents of Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1891 and subsequently identified as a flock of killdeer. The story, "among the most fantastic of all UFO reports," contributed to early theories of UFOs as airborne organisms. On September 5, 1891, the Crawfordsville Journal reported that two ice delivery men sighted "a strange phenomenon" that hovered in the air above their location, describing it as a "horrible apparition" that "filled them with dread." A similar sighting was reported by his wife. The Crawfordsville Journal described it as "about eighteen feet long and eight feet wide and moved through the air by means of several pairs of side fins, it was pure white and had no definite shape or form, resembling somewhat a great white shroud fitted with propelling fins. There was no tail or head visible but there was one great flaming eye, a sort of a wheezing plaintive sound was emitted from a mouth, invisible, it flapped like a flag in the winds as it came on and gave a great squirm as though suffering unutterable agony."

According to interviews conducted years by Crawfordsville reporter and Fortean Society member Vincent Gaddis, hundreds of residents observed the phenomenon on the following evening, with some claiming they could feel the monster's "hot breath" as it swooped over them. The Indianapolis Journal repeated the September 5th sightings, as did other newspapers across the country, including the Brooklyn Eagle, whose article attracted the attention of early paranormal investigator Charles Fort.. The Crawfordsville Postmaster was deluged with mail, reports of the sightings generated both ridicule and a number of believers. Two local men, John Hornbeck and Abe Hernley, "followed the wraith about town and discovered it to be a flock of many hundred killdeer." The Crawfordsville Journal suggested that Crawfordsville's newly installed electric lights disoriented the birds, which caused them to hover above the city. The birds' wings and white under-feathers resulted in misidentification; the monster has been adapted as a fantasy games monster under the D20-Modern gaming system, where it is classified as being an ooze-based creature that resembles an amoeba.

The myth was featured on an episode of the History Channel show MonsterQuest. Historical Profile on the Crawfordsville Monster

The 2014–15 winter transfer window for English football transfers opened on 3 January and closes on 2 February. Additionally, players without a club may join at any time, clubs below Premier League level may sign players on loan at any time, clubs may sign a goalkeeper on an emergency loan if they have no registered goalkeeper available; this list includes transfers featuring at least one Premier League or Football League Championship club which were completed after the end of the summer 2014 transfer window and before the end of the 2014–15 winter window. All players, clubs without a flag are English. Note that while Cardiff City and Swansea City are affiliated with the Football Association of Wales and thus take the Welsh flag, they play in the English football league system, so their transfers are included here. Specific

Fiona Karen Ritchie MBE is a Scottish radio broadcaster best known as the producer and host of The Thistle & Shamrock, an hour-long Celtic music program that airs weekly throughout the United States on National Public Radio. She curates ThistleRadio, a 24/7 web-based music channel devoted to new and classic music from Celtic roots and is co-author of The New York Times Best Seller Wayfaring Strangers; the radio program has won numerous awards since its inception in 1981, offering a fusion of traditional and contemporary Celtic sounds, interwoven with interviews, in-studio performances and Ritchie's own trademark commentary in her "soft Scots" dialect. Ritchie was born and raised in Scotland, where she went to the University of Stirling for her undergraduate education. While there, she was invited to spend one semester in North Carolina in the United States, and, when she first heard NPR. After graduating in Scotland she returned to North Carolina and, although pursuing post-graduate research, was hired by WFAE FM, the NPR station in Charlotte, to oversee fundraising and promotion efforts.

In her early years, Ritchie guest hosted live radio shows featuring everything from Big Band to Classical music producing and presenting many live concerts. WFAE was a new station open to new ideas and in 1981 Ritchie began a weekly hour of Celtic music for its local audience; the Thistle & Shamrock was picked up for national broadcast less than two years after this debut. The program's national following grew and it was soon established as one of NPR's most heard and best-loved music offerings. During her years based in North Carolina, Ritchie visited radio stations coast-to-coast across the US, presenting live broadcasts and events, in 1989 and 1990, travelled to 22 US cities with The Thistle & Shamrock Concert Tour. Fiona Ritchie has come full circle to create her radio programs at home in Scotland. On numerous return trips to the United States, she has visited and raised funds for NPR member stations everywhere from Louisiana to Alaska, hosted festival concerts from Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts to Chicago's Grant Park.

Along the way she has forged a strong association with the United States, made a unique contribution to the American airwaves. In the UK, Fiona Ritchie has presented numerous programs for BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 2, launching the Radio Scotland world music series "Celtic Connections" in 1993, she has produced and presented many live concert performances and broadcasts, including a musical event for Prince Charles in 2001 at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, has acted in an advisory capacity for arts organisations in the US and UK, including serving on the Scottish advisory committee for the British Council. In 2006 Ritchie launched Thistlepod, a free podcast from NPR, which ran until her radio programs became available to stream via NPR Music and Ritchie's Thistleradio website, her partnership with NPR Music gave rise to ThistleRadio in 2012, a 24/7 web-based music channel devoted to new and classic music from Celtic roots, now hosted by SomaFM internet radio. Ritchie has produced several CD compilations and authored a 2005 volume on Celtic music for the NPR Curious Listener's Guide book series.

In 2014, Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia, her major book, with CD, named after The Wayfaring Stranger folk song, was published by UNC Press. The book was co-authored by Doug Orr with a Foreword by Dolly Parton. Wayfaring Strangers appeared on the The New York Times Best Seller list in two different categories. Ritchie's awards include six World Medals from the New York Festivals International Competition for Radio Programming, a Flora Macdonald Award from St. Andrews University, which conferred upon her the degree of honorary doctorate. Hundreds of Thistle & Shamrock tapes and vinyl albums, along with concert recordings, playlists and related materials are now part of a working archive in the Scottish Heritage Center at St. Andrews University; the archive is open to anyone interested in studying the rich heritage of Celtic music. Ritchie serves on the Advisory Board of the Swannanoa Gathering folk arts workshops at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.

In 2003 the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage honoured her for "creating an on-air community, serving as a musical ambassador, connecting listeners with the best of traditional and contemporary artistry.” Ritchie was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting and traditional Scottish music. In 2016 she received the Hamish Henderson Award for Services to Traditional Music, named for the influential folklorist, poet and scholar who died in 2002; the award is presented annually to an individual who has made a substantial difference to the Scottish traditional music world. Upon receiving this honour, Ritchie was inducted into Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. Ritchie's ThistleRadio music channel on SomaFM was awarded Best Music Show: Country/Folk/Blues in the 2017 Online Radio Awards presented by the British streaming service Mixcloud. In 2018, Folk Alliance International inducted Ritchie into their Folk DJ Hall of Fame.

The Thistle & Shamrock – official site The Thistle & Shamrock via streaming audio Thistle Radio on SomaFM {https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/hall-of-fame/hamish-henderson-services-to-traditional-music-award/ "Hamish Henderson Services to Traditional Music Award"]

Alex Samizadeh is an Iranian professional footballer who plays as a striker. He has played for Bolton Wanderers and Kilmarnock. Alexander Samizadeh was born in Tehran and moved to England in December 2013. Samizadeh started his career with Bolton Wanderers, he made his first team debut on 5 April 2016, coming on as a substitute for Kaiyne Woolery at Brentford in the Football League Championship. In November 2016, Samizadeh joined National League North side Chorley on a two-month work experience loan, he scored on his debut. On 14 July 2017, Bolton announced that Samizadeh had been released and that he was joining Scottish Premiership side Kilmarnock. Samizadeh made his first appearance for the club on the same day, coming on as a second-half substitute in a Scottish League Cup match. Samizadeh was released by Kilmarnock at the end of his contract. On 14 August 2018, Samizadeh signed for Curzon Ashton and made his debut that night coming off the bench against Alfreton Town. Samizadeh played two matches.

In January 2019 he signed for scoring on his debut for the club. As of match played 26 December 2018 Alex Samizadeh at Soccerbase