Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life"; as of December 2019, Kickstarter has received more than $4.6 billion in pledges from 17.2 million backers to fund 445,000 projects, such as films, stage shows, journalism, video games, technology and food-related projects. People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards or experiences in exchange for their pledges; this model traces its roots to subscription model of arts patronage, where artists would go directly to their audiences to fund their work. Kickstarter launched on April 28, 2009, by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, Charles Adler; the New York Times called Kickstarter "the people's NEA". Time named it one of the "Best Inventions of 2010" and "Best Websites of 2011". Kickstarter raised $10 million funding from backers including NYC-based venture firm Union Square Ventures and angel investors such as Jack Dorsey, Zach Klein and Caterina Fake.

The company is based at 58 Kent Street in Greenpoint, housed in part of the former Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory. Andy Baio served as the site's CTO until November 2010. Lance Ivy has been Lead Developer since the website launched. On February 14, 2013, Kickstarter released; the app was aimed at users who create and back projects and was the first time Kickstarter had an official mobile presence. On October 31, 2012, Kickstarter opened projects based in the United Kingdom, followed by projects based in Canada on September 9, 2013, Australia and New Zealand on November 13, 2013, the Netherlands on April 28, 2014, Ireland and Sweden on September 15, 2014, Germany on April 28, 2015, France and Spain on May 19, 2015, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland on June 16, 2015, Singapore and Hong Kong on August 30, 2016, Mexico on November 15, 2016 and Japan on September 12, 2017. In July 2017, Strickler announced his resignation. Kickstarter is one of a number of crowdfunding platforms for gathering money from the public, which circumvents traditional avenues of investment.

Project creators choose a minimum funding goal. If the goal is not met by the deadline, no funds are collected; the kickstarter platform is open to backers from anywhere in the world and to creators from many countries, including the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, France, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Mexico. Kickstarter applies a 5% fee on the total amount of the funds raised, their payments processor applies an additional 3–5% fee. Unlike many forums for fundraising or investment, Kickstarter claims no ownership over the projects and the work they produce; the web pages of projects launched on the site are permanently archived and accessible to the public. After funding is completed and uploaded media cannot be edited or removed from the site. There is no guarantee that people who post projects on Kickstarter will deliver on their projects, use the money to implement their projects, or that the completed projects will meet backers' expectations. Kickstarter advises backers to use their own judgment on supporting a project.

They warn project leaders that they could be liable for legal damages from backers for failure to deliver on promises. Projects might fail after a successful fundraising campaign when creators underestimate the total costs required or technical difficulties to be overcome. Asked what made Kickstarter different from other crowdfunding platforms, co-founder Perry Chen said: "I wonder if people know what the definition of crowdfunding is. Or, if there’s an agreed upon definition of what it is. We haven’t supported the use of the term because it can provoke more confusion. In our case, we focus on a middle ground between commerce. People are offering cool stuff and experiences in exchange for the support of their ideas. People are creating these mini-economies around their project ideas. So, you aren’t coming to the site to get something for nothing. We focus on creative projects—music, technology, design and publishing—and within the category of crowdfunding of the arts, we are ten times the size of all of the others combined."

On June 21, 2012, Kickstarter began publishing statistics on its projects. As of December 4, 2019, there were 469,286 launched projects, with a success rate of 37.45%. The total amount pledged was $4,690,286,673; the business grew in its early years. In 2010 Kickstarter had $27,638,318 pledged; the corresponding figures for 2011 were 11,836 funded projects and $99,344,381 pledged. On February 9, 2012, Kickstarter hit a number of milestones. A dock made for the iPhone designed by Casey Hopkins became the first Kickstarter project to exceed one million dollars in pledges. A few hours a new adventure game project started by computer game developers, Double Fine Productions, reached the same figure, having been launched less than 24 hours earlier, finished with over $3 million pledged; this was the first time Kickstarter raised over a million dollars in pledges in a single day. On August 30, 2014, the "Coolest Cooler", an icebox created by Ryan Grepper, became the most funded Kickstarter project in history, with US$13.28 millio

Sir William Leighton was a British shipowner and merchant who served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1806. Leighton's family was from County Durham in the North East of England and he moved to London around 1779 following his father's death. Leighton worked as a coal merchant shipping coal from the port of Newcastle, was based at Newcastle's Coal Exchange. Leighton was a prominent shipowner who owned Borrowdale and Golden Grove, three of the ships of the First Fleet, which transported convicts to the British colony of New south Wales. Leighton owned several ships that were sent as military transports to the British Province of Quebec with contracts from the British Navy; because of his maritime interests, Leighton served on various shipping committees. Leighton was a member of the Livery company of the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights, he was created an alderman in the City of London's Billingsgate ward in 1799, before his resignation as an alderman in 1821. He was subsequently elected one of the Sheriffs of the City of London in 1803.

In 1806, Leighton was proclaimed Lord Mayor of London, knighted on 1 May that year. Leighton was listed as one of the governors of Christ's Hospital in 1825. Leighton died at Kemnal House in Kent, in 1826, he had lived in Charlton

The Klann linkage is a planar mechanism designed to simulate the gait of legged animal and function as a wheel replacement, a leg mechanism. The linkage consists of the frame, a crank, two grounded rockers, two couplers all connected by pivot joints, it was developed by Joe Klann in 1994 as an expansion of Burmester curves which are used to develop four-bar double-rocker linkages such as harbor crane booms. It is categorized as a modified Stephenson type III kinematic chain; the proportions of each of the links in the mechanism are defined to optimize the linearity of the foot for one-half of the rotation of the crank. The remaining rotation of the crank allows the foot to be raised to a predetermined height before returning to the starting position and repeating the cycle. Two of these linkages coupled together at the crank and one-half cycle out of phase with each other will allow the frame of a vehicle to travel parallel to the ground; the Klann linkage provides many of the benefits of more advanced walking vehicles without some of their limitations.

It can step over curbs, climb stairs, or travel into areas that are not accessible with wheels but does not require microprocessor control or multitudes of actuator mechanisms. It fits into the technological space between axle-driven wheels. Klann linkage work on the basis of kinematics, it converts the rotatory motion to linear motion, looks like an animal walking. This animation show the working of klann mechanism; the Klann mechanism uses six links per leg, whereas the Jansen's linkage developed by Theo Jansen uses eight links per leg, with one degree of freedom. In US Patent 6,260,862 there is a set of coordinates for an example leg: Wheel Linkage Leg mechanism Mondo Spider Jansen's linkage Chebyshev linkage and Chebyshev's Lambda Mechanism Leg mechanism Klann Linkage In Phun on YouTube Animation of the linkage's climbing ability Legs, mk2 on YouTube Clear side-on view of linkage in motion Son of Mr Crabby - CamBam made Klann linkage walking crab robot on YouTube Mechanicalspider Mechanisms101 Mondo Spider Walking Beast Crabfu

The Persian Gulf Online Organization is a non-governmental entity consisting of a network of volunteers across the globe dedicated to promoting the name Persian Gulf against the fictitious name "Arabian Gulf" in the Persian Gulf naming dispute. Its members live in several countries around the world. PGO's members' efforts are undertaken via the internet. On their website, current news about the Persian Gulf, articles, bibliographies about the Persian Gulf and other information can be found. Javad Fakharzadeh has written some letters to British Airways which stated that the "historically correct" name of the waters is the Persian Gulf. Two weeks British Airways acknowledged their mistake of using "Arabian Gulf" and provided written guarantees that their onboard displays would be corrected. PGO has sent similar letters to the Army News, had struggled with National Geographic about the naming of the gulf. After that, the Government of Iran became involved in this too, Iranian government agents in Europe and US contacted National Geographic, wanting to use the same name of the Persian Gulf according to its history.

In October 2018, the WIPO as an agency of the UN registers Persian Gulf in official certificate based on the Lisbon Agreement. According to this agreement based on international law, no country, government, or organization can use another name to refer to the Persian Gulf. PGO was established in 1999 by Mohammad Ala, a Persian professor, was represented by Pejman Akbarzadeh, another member of the organization, in Amsterdam and Tehran from 2002 to 2006. Many other notable Iranians contributed in this organization. Javad Fakharzadeh is the co-founder of the organization, he is an advisory board member of CASMII. Shahram Mostarshed, an anti-war activist and a member of the Green party of California, is one them, along with another campaign organization, Iranians for International Cooperation. Daniel Pourkesali is a board member of this organization. In January 2004, PGO offered Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to adopt a new national day in Iran with the name of "National Persian Gulf's Day".

It was approved by the government in July 2005 and since a new national day added to official Persian calendar. PGO had offered the government to publish Persian Gulf stamps. Persian Gulf Studies Center The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies United Nations parssea.org persiangulfstudies.com iran-heritage.org Official website

Makamaka Rural LLG is a local-level government of Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. 01. Bai'awa 02. Midino 03. Iarame 04. Pem 05. Magabara 06. Tapio 07. Mukawa 08. Bogaboga 09. Ginada 10. Irikaba 11. Wabubu 12. Dabora 13. Banapa 14. Menapi 15. Pora 16. Abuaro 17. Giwa 18. Koiyabagira 19. Kwagila 20. Biniguni 21. Wapon 22. Borovia 23. Pumani 24. Bemberi 25. Gurukwaia 26. Mapouna OCHA FISS. "Papua New Guinea administrative level 0, 1, 2, 3 population statistics and gazetteer". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9. United Nations in Papua New Guinea. "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9

Captain Nigel Croker is a fictional character from the TV programme Mile High. He was played by Christopher Villiers when the series ran between 2004 and 2005. There were plans for Mile High to return. Whilst flying back from Spain, Nigel suffers a heart attack whilst on approach to a London airport; the flight attendants pull him out of the cockpit, Janis Steel and Lehann Evans attempt to resuscitate him as the plane lands, but as Nigel had not armed the speed brake for landing, the aircraft overshoots the runway killing Lehann and two passengers. Nigel survives the accident as mentioned at the end of the episode. Nigel Croker has had many relationships, most of which appear in the final episode, when his ex-wife invites them to their villa in Spain. Nigel Croker and Janis Steel go back a long way. In Series 2 they get back together after Nigel was kicked out by his wife Denise Croker. In series 2, episode 11, Nigel invites a passenger into the cockpit who turns out to be an undercover journalist.

The incident ends up in the newspaper which lands all the crew of the flight in trouble the purser, Janis Steel. Nigel blames Janis who loses her job without knowing Nigel had blamed her. At the end of the episode, Marco Bailey tells Janis that Nigel and Will O'Brien had set her up, causing her to dump Nigel. Towards the end of Series 2, Nigel starts a relationship with Flight Attendant Lorna Newbold. Janis is jealous and mocks Nigel. Nigel, realising that Lorna is too good for him, dumps her, leaving her heart broken and deciding she no longer wants to fly. In the final episode, Nigel invites Lorna to his villa in Spain, unaware that all of his former lovers are there, after being invited by his ex-wife, Denise. Lorna tells everyone that she loves Nigel. At the end of the episode it is revealed by Janis that Nigel and Lorna are still together after his heart attack