The Agri Decumates or Decumates Agri were a region of the Roman Empire's provinces of Germania Superior and Raetia. The only ancient reference to the name comes from Tacitus' book Germania; however the geographer Claudius Ptolemy does mention "the desert of the Helvetians" in this area. The meaning of Decumates has been the subject of much contention. According to the English Classicist Michael Grant, the word refers to an ancient Celtic term indicating the political division of the area into "ten cantons." Another theory is. According to Tacitus, the region was populated by the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii, but soon Germanic and Gaulish settlers arrived. Tacitus writes that: I should not reckon among the German tribes the cultivators of the tithe-lands, although they are settled on the further side of the Rhine and Danube. Reckless adventurers from Gaul, emboldened by want, occupied this land of questionable ownership. After a while, our frontier having been advanced, our military positions pushed forward, it was regarded as a remote nook of our empire and a part of a Roman province.

Under the Flavian and emperors, Romans took control and settled the region. They built a road network for military communications and movements, improved protection from invading tribes using the region to penetrate into Roman Gaul provinces. Frontier fortifications were constructed along a line running Rheinbrohl—Arnsburg—Inheiden—Schierenhof—Gunzenhausen—Pförring; the larger Roman settlements were Sumolecenna, Civitas Aurelia Aquensis, Lopodunum. and Arae Flaviae. Romans controlled the Agri Decumates region until the mid-3rd century, when the emperor Gallienus evacuated it before the invading Alemanni and the secession of much of the Western Roman Empire under the "usurper and ruler" Postumus; the Emperor Aurelian may have had the region reoccupied during the Roman resurgence of the late 3rd century under the so-called "military" emperors. If this did occur, re-establishment of Roman rule was brief. After the Emperor Probus' death, the region was given up and the Alemanni took control. Germanic peoples have continuously inhabited the region since then.

However, Roman settlements were not abandoned. There is evidence the Roman way of life continued well into the 5th century, much as Roman patterns continued in neighboring Gaul long after the Western Roman Empire's collapse. J. G. F. Hind has suggested the former Roman inhabitants of the Agri Decumates were to be found from the 3rd to the 5th centuries in the Decem Pagi— "ten cantons"— having transferred west of the Rhine, to the region between the Rhine and the Saar, between Mainz and Metz. Grant, Michael, A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names, New York: H. W. Wilson, ISBN 0-7607-4134-4 Strayer, Joseph R. Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 1, New York: Scribner, ISBN 0-684-18276-9 Jankuhn, Herbert.

A gang signal is a visual or verbal way gang members identify their affiliation. This can take many forms including hand signs and colored clothing. Many of these slogans and hand signs, have become part of popular culture; the wearer favors, or is in, that particular gang. With symbols, graffiti is a large symbol displayed on trains. "Throwing up" a gang sign with the hands is one of the most known and obvious forms of "claiming" or stating the gang one is affiliated with. It is used in many situations where other identifiers may not be possible or appropriate, it can show that a gang member is in the area to "do business" as opposed to just passing through; these signs are made by formation of the fingers on one or both hands to make some sort of symbol or letter. It can serve to relay more specific information, such as what set they represent within a larger gang or in which activities they are taking part. Individual letters can be used to tell stories when flashed in rapid succession, each representing a word beginning with that letter.

These signs, because they are displayed only when wanted, are the most consistent across various areas. Many of these hand signals are quite close to other common hand signs, this can cause confusion among gang members, non-gang members, anti-gang authorities. Another identifier that can be displayed only when desired is a gang handshake, which includes some component of the gang hand signs and/or other hand and finger symbols. Clothing is a strong signal; the clothing gangs wear allows rival gangs to identify, friend and, foe. For example, the uniforms for many Hispanic gangs are standard and recognizable. Gangs such as the Latin Kings would wear long white T-shirts, baggy pants, either a bandana or a hat, sometimes both. Black gang members are more individualistic with their clothing; the gang would wear a specific clothing and certain accessories that would match their crew's colors. Examples include the Bloods, whose gang colour is red, the Crips, who wear blue. Most gang members wear Levi's.

Bandanas can be worn in various types of ways. This is done by gang members to signify; the most popular bandana colors are red, black, white and yellow. It is worn on the left or right back pockets of gang members. Gang colors

Batu Uban is a residential neighbourhood at the eastern coast of Penang Island in Malaysia, about 6.7 km south of the centre of George Town, Penang's capital city, adjacent to the Gelugor suburb. Founded by ethnic Minangkabaus in the early 18th century, Batu Uban is regarded as the oldest Malay settlement on Penang Island. Since the late 20th century, Batu Uban has been urbanised, with residential high-rises now dotting the neighbourhood. Batu Uban means grey hair rock in Malay; the area was said to have been named after a sea boulder, covered in dried grass, off the coast of what is now Batu Uban. The establishment of Batu Uban is credited to two ethnic Minangkabaus from Sumatra - Haji Muhammad Salleh and Jenaton Raha Labu. In 1734, Haji Muhammad Salleh and his followers landed at the area and built a mosque named Masjid Jamek; the fishing village they founded was centred around the mosque. In 1749, Dato' Jenaton Raja Labu from Pagarruyung was granted a 100-acre site at Batu Uban by the Sultan of Kedah, as a reward for his assistance in thwarting a Siamese invasion of Kedah.

Jenaton and about 90 followers travelled to Batu Uban, cultivated the land into coconut and sugar cane plantations. Jenaton was said to have contributed to the propagation of Islam within this new settlement; the founding of Batu Uban between 1734 and 1749 by the Minangkabaus makes it the oldest Malay settlement on Penang Island, predating Captain Francis Light's arrival on the island in 1786. However, it was only in the late 20th century when Batu Uban began to witness significant development; the completion of the Penang Bridge north of Batu Uban in the 1980s and subsequently, the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway along the coast of Batu Uban, heralded the development of Batu Uban as an affluent residential neighbourhood. Rapid Penang bus routes 301, 302, 303 and 304 include stops along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, which forms the western limits of the Batu Uban neighbourhood; these routes link Batu Uban with George Town to the north and other southerly destinations on Penang Island, such as Bukit Jambul, Bayan Baru, Bayan Lepas and Batu Maung.

In addition, Batu Uban, situated south of the cross-strait Penang Bridge, is accessible for motorists from the mainland Malay Peninsula as well. Penang Island's sole public university, Universiti Sains Malaysia, is located northwest of the Batu Uban neighbourhood; the university was ranked fifth within Malaysia by the QS World University Rankings as of 2016

Oliver Spencer-Wortley known as Oliver Spencer is an English composer and songwriter. He is the brother of Classical Crossover tenor Thomas Spencer-Wortley Oliver studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music. In June 2011 he signed a global publishing deal with Music Sales Group, he is a director at the independent record label Cove Records. He helped arrange his brother's album for him, is said to be responsible for the creativity of it. Prolific as a composer and arranger, his most famous arrangement is the Monday Night Football Theme for ESPN, recorded in Abbey Road Studios, he has written for many brands including the NFL, NBA, Microsoft, M&M's, Detroit Pistons, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, documentaries including Lincoln's Last Day, The Real Mad Men of Advertising, The Spy in the Hanoi Hilton. Additional arrangements have featured in The Sleepy Hollow and Man in the High Castle, he extensively works for APM Music in the USA. He did an orchestral arrangement of "Two Less Lonely People in the World" for Air Supply's latest album Lost in Love Experience, "Somebody to Love" for violinist Assia Ahhatt.

He has programmed on albums including Il Volo's Buon Natale: The Christmas Album and Celine Dion's Encore un Soir. He has a large catalogue of music in libraries such as KPM, APM Music, Universal Music and Hitpoint; as part of The Spencer Brothers, he co-produced his brother's album with 17x Grammy Award-winning producer Humberto Gatica at Lionshare Studios, Los Angeles. The Spencer Brothers run Cove Music, an independent music company specializing in album production and artist development, they work on projects with long time David Foster engineer and mixer, Jorge Vivo. Official Site

"The Man From Ironbark" is a poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson. It is written in the iambic heptameter, it was first published in The Bulletin on 17 December 1892. The poem relates the experiences of a native man from the Bush, who reacts badly to a practical joke sprung on him by a mischievous barber from Sydney. While making his displeasure known, A peeler man who heard the din came in to see the show; the barber confesses that he was playing a joke, the bushman, returns to Ironbark, due to his accounts of his Sydney experiences, "flowing beards are all the go". There are obvious echoes in the poem of the urban legend of the murdering barber - fictionalised in the penny dreadful The String of Pearls which featured the notorious Sweeney Todd. Ironbark was the earlier name for a town in the Central West region of New South Wales. In 2004, a representative of The Wilderness Society posed as "The Ghost of the Man from Ironbark", a reference to the poem, to campaign for the protection of the remaining Ironbark woodlands in New South Wales and Queensland.

"The Man from Ironbark" – full text of the book The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses on Project Gutenberg Australia