Joseph E. Atkinson was a Canadian newspaper editor and activist. Under his leadership the Toronto Star became one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Canada. Atkinson amassed a considerable fortune holding the controlling interest in the paper he edited. After his death, control of the paper passed to the trustees of the Atkinson Foundation, a major Canadian charity. Atkinson was born near Newcastle, Ontario in 1865, his early life was difficult, creating conditions which would lead to his social activism. His father died when he was six months old, his mother, when he was thirteen. At about the age of 16, while working at the post office, he began to sign his name as "Joseph E. Atkinson" though he had been given no middle name at birth. Looking for a better job, Atkinson hoped to become a banker, but through his post office work he found out about a job opening at the Port Hope Times, a weekly newspaper in Port Hope, Ontario, he joined the paper at age 18 collecting accounts. When the Times started publishing daily, Atkinson became a reporter.

In October 1888, he jumped to The Toronto World and a few months joined the Globe, one of the newspapers which would become The Globe and Mail. After two years, he became a position he held for seven years. Atkinson became managing editor of the Montreal Herald in 1897. Joseph E. Atkinson married in Toronto on April 18, 1892 to Elmina Ella Susannah Elliott of Oakville, Ontario. Like her husband, Elliott Akinson was a member of the staff of the Toronto Globe. Under the nom-de-plume of "Madge Merton" she worked as a journalist for the Montreal Herald and the Toronto Daily Star. In Henry James Morgan's Types of Canadian Women, he describes "Mrs. Atkinson contrives without loss of interest to give dignity to woman's work in journalism." In 1899, Atkinson was asked to become managing editor of the Montreal Star the largest English-language newspaper in Canada. The paper's conservative viewpoint clashed with Atkinson's liberal beliefs. While he was considering the offer, in December 1899, Atkinson was asked by a group of supporters of Wilfrid Laurier, the Liberal prime minister of Canada, if he would become publisher of the Toronto Evening Star.

The group included William Mulock, Peter Charles Larkin and Timothy Eaton. Mulock and most other members of the group wanted the paper to be the voice of the Liberal Party, but Atkinson refused to take the job on those terms and insisted that he be given full control over newspaper policy and that the Star be run in the best interests of the paper, not the Liberal Party. Atkinson travelled to Ottawa and appealed to Laurier for support. Atkinson insisted that 40 percent of his salary be paid in stock at par value and that he be given the opportunity to become majority owner. After some initial opposition, the ownership group accepted those terms; the group took ownership of the paper on December 13, 1899. Shareholders formally approved the hiring of Atkinson five days with his employment backdated to start December 13. Atkinson's name first appeared in the masthead of the December 21 edition, his task was to save a failing newspaper, competing in a conservative city with six daily newspapers. Atkinson succeeded in turning the fortunes of the paper around and by 1913 it had the largest circulation of any Toronto newspaper.

He continued to run the Star until his death in 1948, at the age of 82. Atkinson had two children: Joseph S. Atkinson became the paper's publisher in 1948 and continued until 1966, he was the board's chair and President of the Joseph E. Atkinson foundation. Ruth Atkinson Hindmarsh married one the paper's managers, Harry C. Hindmarsh and was a member of her father's foundation. Archer, William L.. Joe Atkinson's Toronto Star: The Genius of Crooked Lane. Montreal. Cranston, J. H.. Ink on my fingers. Toronto: The Ryerson Press. Vincent, Trista. "Manufacturing Concern". Ryerson Review of Journalism. Retrieved 6 January 2011. Atkinson Foundation The Joseph E. Atkinson story, archived from the original on 2012-04-19, retrieved 2015-01-08 Fighting Words: The Social Crusades of Joseph E. Atkinson on YouTube

Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté is a prominent Mandé kora player and jeli from Bamako, Mali. He is the 71st generation of kora players in his family and a son to Sidiki Diabaté. Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté known as "Madou," was born on September 23, 1982 in Bamako, Mali, he is a Muslim and he's the youngest son of the late Sidiki Diabaté and Mariam Kouyaté. He is part of the seventy-first generation of kora players in his family, his family griots. "Jali" is the Mandingo word for the repository musician and storyteller of Mande's ancient oral tradition, transmitting history and culture from generation to generation, from father to son. "Mandé," used to describe Madou and his family, is a broad cultural designation of several ethnic groups in West Africa, including the Mandinka, Sarakole and Dyula, residing in Gambia, Guinea, the northern regions of Ivory Coast, the western regions of Burkina Faso. The kora, arguably the most complex chordophone in African music, is a 21-stringed bridge-harp from West Africa.

Madou, tutored by his father, began playing an eight-stringed kora at the age of three. From ages three to six, Madou accompanied his parents at weddings and baptisms, among other ceremonies, he played his first concert at the age of six at the Centre Culturel Français of Bobodioulasso, Burkina Faso with his father. In 1992, at age of ten, Madou made his first European tour, he continued to accompany his father up until Sidiki's last performance in 1996 at the Festival Printemps des Cordes, or the Spring Festival of Strings, in Dakar. Although Madou has followed in the steps of his father, his style has been susceptible to new techniques and innovations. Today, he claims that his older brother, Toumani Diabaté, a distinguished kora player, is his master, helping him to understand the endless potential of the kora. Since 1997, Madou has been playing lead kora with some of the most important West African singers and musicians, including Kandia Kouyaté, Baaba Maal, Salif Keita, among others, he has performed at more than forty festivals and over one thousand concerts throughout Africa, North America and Australia.

Madou can play the balafon and tamani of West African descent. Madou is renowned for his extensive knowledge of traditional kora repertoire and command of both jazz sensibilities and foreign influences, his style is associated with the "Jazz Manding" music movement developing Mali today. While Madou prides himself on preserving the tradition and legacy of the kora, he is known for having diverged from his father's style, inspired by afro-Latin groups like the Rail Band in addition to his brother's music. In 2004, Madou received a degree in music in Bamako, Mali. Madou now resides in with his wife, singer Safiatou Diabaté; the Diabaté family has produced 72 generations of kora players and jalis, the Malian counterpart of griots, or West African historians. A jali transmits the ancient oral history of western Africa through poetry and praise songs, like the Diabaté family, they are also musicians. Madou's father, the late Sidiki Diabaté, is known as "The King of Kora." Sidiki was from The Gambia, where much of griot culture is said to originate.

Sidiki migrated to Mali during the years between World War II and 1961. His songs’ nationalist message became a powerful voice in the call for Independence. "Kaira," one of Sidiki's more popular songs, shares its name with a collective of young jalis in the Kita region of western Mali. Although the group was banned by the colonial French, the song remained popular and encouraged support for the Malian branch of the African Democratic Rally, led by the first president of independent Mali, Modibo Keita. Sidiki Diabaté played an important role in the preservation of Malian and Mandé history and culture. Sidiki performed with L'Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali, who performed Mandingo music and was one of West Africa's first national acoustic bands, they received the first prize at the Festival des Arts Nègres in Dakar in 1966, a gold-medal at the Pan-African Cultural Festival at Algiers in 1969. Sidiki was featured as a soloist on the first recording to feature the kora exclusively; the recording, called "Ancient Strings," brought together Mali's most respected korists.

Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté's brother, Toumani Diabaté, is a part of the family's growing musical legacy. Toumani was the first kora player to win a Grammy Award in 2006 and he has collaborated with musicians from all over the world, including Taj Mahal and Roswell Rudd. Toumani has led many bands, including the Symmetric Orchestra, which mixes both modern western and traditional Malian styles; the Symmetric Orchestra is a large "big band" ensemble whose sound is reminiscent of Mali's path-forging national and municipal orchestras of the 1960s and 70s. The band features traditional Malian instruments. Toumani comments, "The Symmetric Orchestra reflects the spirit of Mali's new democracy since 1992 – a spirit of equality, creativity. There's a public in Mali today -- griot music -- but not the griot milieu. With the Symmetric, they feel free to enjoy this music without the obligations of tradition, and this gives us the freedom to present the t

David John Mordaunt is a former English cricketer and expeditioner. Mordaunt was a right-handed batsman, he made his first-class debut in 1958 for Sussex in the game against Oxford University, scoring 96 in the second innings, when he was caught trying to hit his fourth six, which would have given him a century on debut. From 1958 to 1960, Mordaunt played 19 first-class matches for Sussex as an amateur, his final match for the county coming against Gloucestershire in the 1960 County Championship, he scored 586 runs for Sussex at a batting average of 24.41, with five half-centuries and highest score of 96. With the ball he took 19 wickets at a bowling average of 28.89, with a single five wicket haul of 5 for 42. Mordaunt left Sussex at the end of the 1960 season, he played his final first-class match in 1964 for Marylebone Cricket Club against Ireland. With the MCC he toured North America in 1959, South America in 1964-65, North America again in 1967. In 1964 Mordaunt joined the minor county Berkshire, made his Minor Counties Championship debut against Devon.

From 1964 to 1974, he played. He made his List A debut for Berkshire against Somerset in the 1st round of the 1965 Gillette Cup, scoring 60, including four sixes off the bowling of Bill Alley, winning the man of the match award, he played three further one-day matches for the county, against Hertfordshire in the 1st round of the 1966 Gillette Cup, against Gloucestershire in the 2nd round of the same tournament, against Hertfordshire in the 1976 Gillette Cup. In his four one-day matches he scored 144 runs at an average of 36.00, with two half-centuries and a highest score of 60. With the ball he took three wickets at an average of 44.00, with best figures of 3/24. Mordaunt was educated at Wellington College and was a prominent schoolboy cricketer. Between 1955 and 1957 he served in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, he became a schoolteacher in Oxford in 1958. He returned to Wellington College in 1963 to teach mathematics, he was a noted expeditioner, leading three Royal Geographical Schools Expeditions to the Arctic and, in 1983, a Royal Geographical Society expedition through Nepal to the base of Annapurna.

He married Dr Catharine Hilary Mayne in 1990. Mordaunt's grandfather, Gerald Mordaunt, his great-grandfather, John Mordaunt, both played first-class cricket. David Mordaunt at Cricinfo David Mordaunt at CricketArchive Lists of matches and detailed statistics for David Mordaunt