A gremlin is a folkloric mischievous creature that causes malfunctions in aircraft or other machinery. Depictions of these creatures vary, they are described or depicted as animals with spiky backs, large strange eyes, small clawed frames that feature sharp teeth. Since World War II, different fantastical creatures have been referred to as gremlins, bearing varying degrees of resemblance to the originals; the term "gremlin" denoting a mischievous creature that sabotages aircraft originates in Royal Air Force slang in the 1920s among the British pilots stationed in Malta, the Middle East, India, with the earliest recorded printed use being in a poem published in the journal Aeroplane in Malta on 10 April 1929. Sources have sometimes claimed that the concept goes back to World War I, but there is no print evidence of this. Although their origin is found in myths among airmen, claiming that the gremlins were responsible for sabotaging aircraft, John W. Hazen states that "some people" derive the name from the Old English word gremian, "to vex", while Carol Rose, in her book Spirits, Fairies and Goblins: An Encyclopedia, attributes the name to a portmanteau of Grimm's Fairy Tales and Fremlin Beer.

An early reference to the gremlin is in aviator Pauline Gower's 1938 novel The ATA: Women with Wings, where Scotland is described as "gremlin country", a mystical and rugged territory where scissor-wielding gremlins cut the wires of biplanes when unsuspecting pilots were about. An article by Hubert Griffith in the servicemen's fortnightly Royal Air Force Journal dated 18 April 1942 chronicles the appearance of gremlins, although the article states the stories had been in existence for several years, with recollections of it having been told by Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots as early as 1940; this concept of gremlins was popularized during World War II among airmen of the UK's RAF units, in particular the men of the high-altitude Photographic Reconnaissance Units of RAF Benson, RAF Wick and RAF St Eval. The flight crews blamed gremlins for otherwise inexplicable accidents which sometimes occurred during their flights. Gremlins were thought at one point to have enemy sympathies, but investigations revealed that enemy aircraft had similar and inexplicable mechanical problems.

As such, gremlins were portrayed as being equal opportunity tricksters, taking no sides in the conflict, acting out their mischief from their own self-interest. In reality, the gremlins were a form of deflecting blame; this led folklorist John Hazen to note that "the gremlin has been looked on as new phenomenon, a product of the machine age – the age of air". Some experts believe. Author and historian Marlin Bressi stated, "Gremlins, while imaginary, played a important role to the airmen of the Royal Air Force. Gremlin tales helped build morale among pilots, which, in turn, helped them repel the Luftwaffe invasion during the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940; the war may have had a different outcome if the R. A. F. pilots had allowed Germany's plans for Operation Sea Lion to develop. In a way, it could be argued that gremlins, troublesome as they were helped the Allies win the war." Bressi noted: "Morale among the R. A. F. pilots would have suffered. It was far better to make the scapegoat a fantastic and comical creature than another member of your own squadron."

Author Roald Dahl is credited with getting the gremlins known outside the Royal Air Force. He would have been familiar with the myth, having carried out his military service in 80 Squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East. Dahl had his own experience in an accidental crash-landing in the Western Desert. In January 1942, he was transferred to Washington, D. C. as Assistant Air attaché at the British Embassy. It was there that he wrote his first children's novel, The Gremlins, in which "Gremlins" were tiny men who lived on RAF fighters. In the same novel, Dahl called the wives of gremlins "Fifinellas", their male children "Widgets", their female children "Flibbertigibbets". Dahl showed the finished manuscript to Sidney Bernstein, the head of the British Information Service, who came up with the idea to send it to Walt Disney; the manuscript arrived in Disney's hands in July 1942, he considered using it as material for a live action/animated full-length feature film, offering Dahl a contract.

The film project was changed to an animated feature and entered pre-production, with characters "roughed out" and storyboards created. Disney managed to have the story published in the December 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. At Dahl's urging, in early 1943, a revised version of the story, again titled The Gremlins, was published as a picture book by Random House.. The 1943 publication of The Gremlins by Random House consisted of 50,000 copies, with Dahl ordering 50 copies for himself as promotional material for himself and the upcoming film, handing them out to everyone he knew, including the British ambassador in Washington Lord Halifax, the US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who read it to her grandchildren; the book was considered an international success with 30,000 more sold in Australia but initial efforts to reprint the book were precluded by a wartime paper shortage. Reviewed in major publications, Dahl was considered a writer-of-note and his appearances in Hollywood to follow up with the film project were met with notices in Hedda Hopper's columns.

The film project was reduced to an animated short and cancelled in August 1943, when copyright and RAF rights could not be resolved

Don't Touch the White Woman! is a 1974 French-Italian farce, an absurdist Western set in Paris, directed by Marco Ferreri. A fictionalized version of Custer's Last Stand, set at a real building site in France. Marcello Mastroianni stars as General George Armstrong Custer. Buffalo Bill Cody portrays a charlatan media impresario. Ugo Tognazzi gives a fictional portrayal of Mitch Bouyer one of Custer's Native American scouts, who runs a business selling Native artifacts made in sweatshops by white women. Alain Cuny plays Sitting Bull who must defend his people when their apartment building homes are destroyed by the Union Cavalry; the film climaxes with the Battle of the Little Bighorn held in a large construction excavation where Les Halles market once was. Catherine Deneuve - Marie-Hélène de Boismonfrais Marcello Mastroianni - George A. Custer Michel Piccoli - Buffalo Bill Philippe Noiret - Gen. Terry Ugo Tognazzi - Mitch Alain Cuny - Sitting Bull Serge Reggiani - The Mad Indian Darry Cowl - Major Archibald Monique Chaumette - Sister Lucie Daniele Dublino - Daughter Henri Piccoli - Sitting Bull's Father Franca Bettoia - Rayon de Lune Paolo Villaggio - The CIA agent Franco Fabrizi - Tom Laurente Vedres - Mr. Freedom Blazing Saddles Revisionist Western Cultural depictions of George Armstrong Custer Don't Touch the White Woman! on IMDb Don't Touch the White Woman! at AllMovie

Helen Clark MacInnes was a Scottish-American author of espionage novels. She and her husband immigrated to the United States in 1937, when he took an academic position at Columbia University in New York, while retaining her role in the British MI6, for foreign espionage. MacInnes published her first novel during World War II, her early novels are all based in that setting, she wrote more about characters within the context of the Cold War. Helen Clark MacInnes was born on October 7, 1907 in Glasgow to Donald MacInnes and Jessica McDiarmid, had a traditional Scots Presbyterian upbringing. MacInnes graduated from the University of Glasgow in Scotland in 1928 with an MA in French and German. MacInnes continued her studies at University College, where she received a diploma in librarianship in 1931. While working as a librarian, MacInnes met the classics scholar Gilbert Highet; the pair married on September 22, 1932, moved to New York City in 1937. The pair had one child, Keith Highet, born in 1933 and became an eminent international lawyer.

In the early 1930s, MacInnes had collaborated with Highet to translate German literature, which helped finance their summer travels through Europe. These European excursions gave MacInnes exposure to locations that she used as settings for her espionage thrillers. MacInnes accepted an appointment as a special cataloguer for the Ferguson Collection at the University of Glasgow, she worked with the Dunbartonshire Education Authority to select books for county libraries. In 1932, Gilbert Highet accepted a classics teaching appointment at Oxford. While in Oxford, MacInnes performed as an amateur actress with the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Oxford Experimental Theatre. One of MacInnes’ greatest inspirations in writing on foreign affairs and espionage was her honeymoon to the European mainland, Bavaria in particular; as she and Highet witnessed the oppression of the German totalitarian regime, she swore to write against the oppressive forces of the Nazi government. MacInnes kept notes about the different governments she saw in her travels with Highet that she would refer back to when she began writing full-time.

Highet served as a British intelligence agent in MI6 in addition to working as a classical scholar. Highet continued his work with MI6 after he and MacInnes moved to the U. S. in 1937. That year he accepted an appointment as a professor and chairman of the department of classics at Columbia University in New York City; when the couple moved there permanently, MacInnes began her writing career. Highet's work in intelligence, in addition to MacInnes's own research and traveling, influenced her writing. In 1939, the couple's son was taken to hospital with a ruptured appendix. During this episode, Highet came across MacInnes's notes and commentary on Hitler's rise to power, other matters of contemporary politics, he encouraged her to use them as the basis for a novel. During the following 45 years, MacInnes wrote 21 espionage thrillers, four of which were adapted as films, her early books were set during the Second World War featuring lay people who become spies or otherwise caught up in acting on behalf of the Allied war effort.

MacInnes became a U. S. citizen in 1952. MacInnes’ first novel, Above Suspicion, was published in 1941 and remains one of her most famous works; the plot was loosely tied to her travels with Highet and his work in particular with MI6. It follows the journey of newlywed English couple Frances and Richard Myles overseas as they are charged with going “above the suspicion” of the Nazi regime to seek out the mastermind behind a magnetic underwater mine, it was adapted into a film in 1943 by MGM director Richard Thorpe, was promoted with the tagline “It happened on a honeymoon,” a parallel between MacInnes and Highet and the Myles couple. MacInnes's second novel, Assignment in Brittany, was made required reading for Allied intelligence agents who were being sent to work with the French resistance against the Nazis, it was featured on the New York Times first fiction bestseller list, in 1942. Her 1944 book, The Unconquerable, gives such an accurate portrayal of the Polish resistance that some reviewers and readers thought she was using classified information given to her by her husband.

In her books, MacInnes shifted her subject matter from World War II to the Cold War. She continued to produce about one book every two years. MacInnes’ career was not dotted with many awards, although she did win the 1966 Iona University Columbia Prize for Literature; this is most directly related to her influence in the state of New York, seeing as her first sixteen novels each spent time on the international best sellers’ list. Her husband Gilbert Highet died in 1978 and MacInnes died in New York City on September 30, 1985. MacInnes's writing reflects an affinity for Arthur Koestler and Rebecca West, as she opposed any form of tyranny and totalitarianism. MacInnes died at the age of 77, in New York Hospital, following a stroke she had suffered three weeks earlier. Many of MacInnes’ novels are continuing to be renewed for print, cementing her legacy as one of the trailblazing female international affairs novelists in the World War II and Cold War eras. Above Suspicion, made into a film of the same title Assignment in Brittany made into a film of the same title The Unconquerable called While Still We Live Horizon Friends and Lovers Rest and Be Thankful Neither Five Nor Three I and My T

Masoumeh "Masih" Alinejad-Ghomi is an Iranian journalist and political activist. Alinejad works as a presenter/producer at VOA Persian Service, a correspondent for Radio Farda, a frequent contributor to Manoto television, a contributing editor to IranWire. Alinejad is well known for her criticism of Iranian authorities, she now lives in exile in New York City, has won several awards, including a human rights award from UN Watch's 2015 Geneva Summit for Human Rights, the Omid Journalism Award from the Mehdi Semsar Foundation, a "Highly Commended" AIB Media Excellence Award. In 2019 Alinejad-Ghomi sued the Iran government in a U. S. federal court for harassment against her and her family. She released a book in 2018 called "The Wind in my Hair" that deals with her experiences growing up in Iran where she says girls "are raised to keep their heads low, to be unobtrusive as possible, to be meek". Alinejad was born as Masoumeh Alinejad, but uses the first name "Masih", the title of Jesus of Nazareth in Islam and Christianity.

Alinejad was politically active from a young age, was arrested in 1994 for producing leaflets critical of the Government. Alinejad began her career in journalism in 2001 with Hambastegi daily, worked for Iranian Labour News Agency. Papers, including Shargh, Vaghaye, Ham-Mihan, Etemad Melli, have published her articles. During the sixth and seventh parliament, Alinejad was the parliamentary reporter. In 2005, she wrote an article suggesting that government ministers had claimed they received pay cuts, they were receiving considerable sums of money as "bonuses" for everything from serving religious duties to ringing in the New Year; the article generated lots of controversy, led to her dismissal from the parliament. In 2008, she wrote a controversial article in Etemad-e Melli daily, called "Song of the Dolphins", where she compared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's followers to hungry dolphins that make sounds and perform entertaining acts to grab a morsel of food from their trainer; some people regarded the article as offensive towards the president and the people, Mehdi Karroubi, the director of the paper, had to apologise for the article.

In the summer of 2009, during her stay in the United States, Alinejad tried hard to have an interview with Barack Obama. Her visa expired, she had to return to England. While in the United States, she participated in some Iranian protests, delivered a speech in one on in San Francisco, where she said, addressing the government authorities of Iran, "We have trembled for thirty years, now it is your turn to tremble." Her interview with Voice of America was shown together with parts of the videos she had made, called "A Storm of Fresh Air". In 2010, she and a group of Iranian writers and intellectuals established "IranNeda" foundation. After the presidential election in Iran in 2009, she published a novel called "A Green Date". Alinejad graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Communications Studies. In 2014, Alinejad launched My Stealthy Freedom, a Facebook page that invites Iranian women to post pictures of themselves without a hijab; the page attracted international attention, has garnered hundreds of thousands of likes.

In 2015, the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, run by UN Watch, gave her its women's rights award for "giving a voice to the voiceless and stirring the conscience of humanity to support the struggle of Iranian women for basic human rights and equality". Alinejad has said she is not opposed to the hijab, but believes it should be a matter of personal choice. In Iran, women who appear in public without a hijab risk being arrested. Since 2015, as a contractor for the Voice of America, Alinejad hosted a weekly 15-minute primetime show, called "Tablet", produced by Saman Arbabi. "With original video from inside Iran, Tablet profiles ordinary citizens and connects them with Americans through short interviews on common themes illustrating both similar and different experiences. The program has a weekly "timeline report" tracing the development of issues such as the international women’s rights movement and relations between Washington and Tehran", the press release states. In July Iranian officials warned that anyone sending videos to Alinejad faced up to 10 years in prison.

Musa Ghazanfarabadi, the head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court told Fars News, that those sharing protest videos with Alinejad could be imprisoned for up to a decade under laws relating to cooperating with an enemy state. In 2016, Alinejad launched a boycott campaign against the 2016 women's chess world championship, held in February 2017 in Tehran, Iran; the campaign was incited by a Georgian American chess player. Paikidze refused to attend world championships in Tehran because according to the Iranian law, the players had to wear hijabs. Alinejad supported the act, co-wrote an op-ed with Asra Nomani in Washington Post. In February 2019, Masih Alinejad met with top Donald Trump administration official Mike Pompeo. US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said Secretary of State Pompeo "thanked Ms. Alinejad for her bravery and continued dedication". Alinejad said they met for 35 minutes, said "Many Iranians want an end to the Islamic Republic". Journalist Azadeh Moaveni has argued that the Trump administration has exploited Iran's feminist movement, named Alinejad as a prominent leader.

On Sept. 23, Islamic Republic security forces arrested thr

Thomas W. Reps is an American computer scientist known for his contributions to automatic program analysis. Dr. Reps is Professor of Computer Science in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, which he joined in 1985. Reps is the author or co-author of four books and more than one hundred seventy-five papers describing his research, his work has covered a wide variety of topics, including program slicing, data-flow analysis, pointer analysis, model checking, computer security, language-based program-development environments, the use of program profiling in software testing, software renovation, incremental algorithms, attribute grammars. Reps’s current work focuses on static analysis of stripped executables, methods that—without relying on symbol-table or debugging information—recover intermediate representations that are similar to those the intermediate phases of a compiler creates for a program written in a high-level language; the goal is to provide a disassembler or decompiler platform that an analyst can use to understand the workings of COTS components, mobile code, DLLs, as well as memory snapshots of worms and virus-infected code.

Reps is Co-founder of GrammaTech, Inc.. Reps has been the recipient of the following awards: ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award Packard Fellowship Humboldt Research Award Guggenheim Fellowship Horwitz, S. Reps T. and Binkley, D. "Interprocedural slicing using dependence graphs" selected as one of the 50 most influential papers from ACM PLDI, 1979-99 Institute for Scientific Information “Highly Cited Researcher" European Association for Programming Languages and Systems Best-Paper Award at ETAPS ACM Fellow European Association for Programming Languages and Systems Best-Paper Award at ETAPS ACM SIGSOFT Retrospective Impact Paper Award ACM SIGSOFT Retrospective Impact Paper Award Foreign member of Academia Europaea Ranked 8th and 4th on Microsoft Academic Search's list of most-highly cited authors in the field of Programming Languages, 23rd and 13th on its list of most-highly cited authors in the field of Software Engineering ACM SIGPLAN Programming Languages Achievement Award Website

Svetlana A. Roudenko is a Russian-American mathematician known for her work in functional analysis and partial differential equations, in particular in scattering theory and nonlinear Schrödinger equations, she is known for her mentorship of women in mathematics, is a Diversity Mentor Professor and professor of mathematics and statistics at Florida International University. Roudenko earned a master's degree in mathematics in 1996 from the Obninsk State Technical University for Nuclear Power Engineering in Russia, she completed her Ph. D. in 2002 at Michigan State University. Her dissertation, The Theory of Function Spaces with Matrix Weights, was supervised by Michael Frazier. After working as an assistant research professor at Duke University, as a visiting scholar at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Institut Henri Poincaré, Cergy-Pontoise University, she became an assistant professor at Arizona State University in 2004, she moved to George Washington University in 2010, to Florida International University as one of two new Diversity Mentor Professors in 2018.

As a graduate student at Michigan State University, Roudenko worked in the Emerging Scholars Program there, which worked with freshman calculus students to encourage students in underrepresented groups to go on to advanced study in mathematics. At George Washington University, Roudenko won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award aimed both at her work on differential equations and their applications in understanding ocean waves, air turbulence, laser focusing, medical imaging, at setting up a math circles for middle school students and summer programs for high school students, with the goal of bringing in more women to mathematics, she visited the University of California, Berkeley in 2016 and, while there, taught in math circles for elementary-school children. Under her leadership of the George Washington graduate mathematics program, its inclusion of women expanded from one or two women per year to half the program. Svetlana Roudenko publications indexed by Google Scholar