The nunchaku is a traditional Okinawan martial arts weapon consisting of two sticks connected at one end by a short chain or rope. The two sections of the weapon are made out of wood, while the link is a cord or a metal chain; the person who practices this weapon is referred to as nunchakuka. The nunchaku is most used in martial arts such as Okinawan kobudō and karate, its intended use is as a training weapon, since it allows the development of quicker hand movements and improves posture. Modern-day nunchaku can be made from metal, plastic or fiberglass. Toy and replica versions made of polystyrene foam or plastic are available. Possession of this weapon is illegal in some countries, except for use in professional martial art schools; the exact origin of nunchaku is unclear: adapted by Okinawan farmers from a non-weapon rice-flail implement for threshing rice. It was not a popular weapon because it was ineffective against the most used weapons of that time such as samurai swords and naginata, few historical techniques for its use still survive.

In modern times, nunchaku were popularized by actor and martial artist Bruce Lee and his martial arts student Dan Inosanto, who introduced this weapon to the actor. Further exploration of use of nunchaku and of other kobudo discipline was afforded to Bruce Lee with and by Tadashi Yamashita, who worked with Bruce Lee on and in the movie Enter the Dragon. Another popular association in modern times is the fictional character Michelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, as well as the fictional character Jay from the Ninjago franchise. Organizations including the North American Nunchaku Association, World Amateur Nunchaku Organization, Fédération Internationale de Nunchaku de Combat et Artistique, World Nunchaku Association, International Techdo Nunchaku Association teach the use of nunchaku as a contact sport; the origin of the word nunchaku is not known. One theory indicates it was derived from pronunciation of the Chinese characters 双截棍 in a Southern Fujian dialect of Chinese language.

Another derives from the definition of "nun" as "twin". Another name for this weapon is "nûchiku". In the English language, nunchaku are referred to as "nunchuks"; the origin of the nunchaku is unclear, although one popular belief is that nunchaku was a short South-East Asian flail used to thresh rice or soybeans. This gave rise to the theory that it was developed by an Okinawan horse bit, or that it was adapted from a wooden clapper called hyoshiki carried by the village night watch, made of two blocks of wood joined by a cord; the night watch would hit the blocks of wood together to attract people's attention warn them about fires and other dangers. Some propose that the association of nunchaku and other Okinawan weapons with rebellious peasants is most a romantic exaggeration. Martial arts in Okinawa were practiced by aristocracy and "serving nobles", but were prohibited among commoners. According to Chinese folklore, nunchaku are a variation of the two section staff. Ana: the hole on the kontoh of each handle for the himo to pass through—only nunchaku that are connected by himo have an ana.

Himo: the rope which connects the two handles of some nunchaku. Kusari: the chain which connects the two handles of some nunchaku. Kontoh: the top of each handle. Jukon-bu: the upper area of the handle. Chukon-bu: the center part of the handle. Kikon-bu: the lower part of the handle. Kontei: the bottom of the handle. Nunchaku consist of two sections of wood connected by a cord or chain, though variants may include additional sections of wood and chain. In China, the striking stick is called "dragon stick", while the handle is called "yang stick". Chinese nunchaku tend to be rounded; the ideal length of each piece should be long enough to protect the forearm when held in a high grip near the top of the shaft. Both ends are of equal length, although asymmetrical nunchaku exist; the ideal length of the connecting rope or chain is just long enough to allow the user to lay it over his or her palm, with the sticks hanging comfortably and perpendicular to the ground. The weapon should be properly balanced in terms of weight.

Cheaper or gimmicky nunchaku are not properly balanced, which prevents the performer from performing the more advanced and flashier "low-grip" moves, such as overhand twirls. The weight should be balanced towards the outer edges of the sticks for maximum ease and control of the swing arcs. Traditional nunchaku are made from a flexible hardwood such as oak, loquat or pasania; the wood would be submerged in mud for several years, where lack of oxygen and optimal acidity would prevent rotting and cause the wood to harden. The rope is made from horsehair; the wood is finely sanded and rubbed with an oil or stain for preservation. Today, such nunchaku are varnished or painted for display purposes; this practice tends to reduce the grip and make the weapon harder to handle, is therefore not advised for combat. Modern nunchaku can be made from any suitable material, such as wood, metal, or any plastic, fiberglass or other hard substance. Toy and practice nunchaku are covered with foam to prevent injury to the self or others.

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Andrew Letherby is an Australian former athlete who won a bronze medal in the marathon at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Letherby from Adelaide lived in Queensland, before taking up an athletics scholarship at Georgia State University in 1994, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and in 2001 married an American, with whom he moved to Boulder, where he remained based during his athletics career. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Letherby finished in third position, behind Francis Naali and Joshua Chelanga, he won a sprint finish for the bronze medal against one of the pre-race favourites, Kenya's Erick Wainaina. Other notable performances in the marathon over the next two years includes a 35th placing at the 2003 World Championships and finishing eighth at both the 2004 and 2005 Boston Marathons, his personal best in the marathon was set at the 2005 Berlin Marathon, when he finished in eight position with a time of 2:11:42. In 2006 he was the national champion in the 10,000 metres and came fifth in the marathon at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

He was 30th in the marathon event at the 2009 World Championships. Andrew Letherby at All-athletics.com

Venegono Inferiore is a comune in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 35 kilometres northwest of Milan and about 11 kilometres southeast of Varese. As of 31 December 2018, it had a population of 6,097 and an area of 5.8 square kilometres. Venegono Inferiore borders the following municipalities: Binago, Castelnuovo Bozzente, Castiglione Olona, Gornate-Olona, Lonate Ceppino, Venegono Superiore. Venegono Inferiore is named as the see of the seminary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan, one of the biggest in Italy. On the 25th of May 2014 the candidate Mattia Premazzi was elected as the mayor of the city. On the 12th of June 2019, Premazzi began his second mandate as the mayor of Venegono Inferiore, for the next 5 years, after winning the elections in May; the official site of the City Hall of Venegono Inferiore The site of the Seminary whose main location is in Venegono Inferiore The official site of the Parish SS. Giacomo e Filippo of Venegono Inferiore Live Crib of Venegono Inferiore The official site of the team "Friends of the Theater" of Venegono Inferiore Parish Youth Club "Oratorio Immacolata" of Venegono Inferiore LAAV, a Seniors Center of Venegono Inferiore

Thalassomonas is a genus of bacteria from the family Colwelliaceae. Thalassomonas bacteria can cause the coral diseases white plague. Macián, MC. "Thalassomonas viridans gen. nov. sp. nov. A novel marine gamma-proteobacterium". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 51: 1283–9. Doi:10.1099/00207713-51-4-1283. PMID 11491324. Jean, WD. "Thalassomonas agarivorans sp. nov. A marine agarolytic bacterium isolated from shallow coastal water of An-Ping Harbour and emended description of the genus Thalassomonas". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 56: 1245–50. Doi:10.1099/ijs.0.64130-0. PMID 16738099. Hosoya, S. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 59: 686–90. Doi:10.1099/ijs.0.000539-0. PMID 19329588. Olonade, Israel. "Draft Genome Sequences of Marine Isolates of Thalassomonas viridans and Thalassomonas actiniarum". Genome Announcements. 3: e00297–15. Doi:10.1128/genomeA.00297-15. PMC 4400438. PMID 25883295. Bosch, Thomas C. G.. The Holobiont Imperative: Perspectives from Early Emerging Animals.

Springer. ISBN 9783709118962

Joseph Sandars was a wealthy corn merchant based in Liverpool, UK. He played a major role in initiating development of the groundbreaking Liverpool & Manchester Railway which opened in 1830. Sandars' father called Joseph, was a corn merchant who moved to Derby from Mackworth, his mother was born Elizabeth Blakeman. He had the twins Samuel and Elizabeth. In family trees Joseph Sandars is referred to as Joseph Sandars of Taplow House, where he lived in years. Sandars entered his father's trade but at the age of 20 moved to Liverpool where he continued as a corn merchant, he traded in a partnership, firstly as Sandars & Blain and from 1826 when the partnership split up, as Sandars & Claxton and, in 1860, as Sandars & Smith. Sandars was a successful businessman as can be judged from his integration into the commercial life of Liverpool. Trade directories show that he was a member of several significant Liverpool committees, including the Corn Exchange committee, the Lyceum newsroom committee and the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Committee, all prior to the opening of the railway.

His company kept detailed records of wheat yields from multiple regions and he subsequently gave testimony to parliamentary committees on crop yields and their economic consequences. He testified during the inquiry into the affairs of Liverpool Corporation. Despite some misgivings, he asserted that "never was there an estate of such magnitude so and administered."Sandars was a Quaker with Whig and Reform tendencies in common with many of his Liverpool contemporaries and, as with many local merchants, participated in the election of Liverpool's two MPs. However, in 1824 he resigned from the Liverpool Society for the Abolition of Slavery over concerns regarding the process of emancipation, his public letter led to a strong rebuttal in the Hull Rockingham newspaper. Many of Sandars' peers were involved in the investigation of the young Liverpool woman Margaret M'Avoy about whom Sandars wrote a report "Hints to credulity", critical of claims that, although blind, she could read with the aid of her fingers.

Sandars was one of the wealthy merchants who in 1819 purchased 37 artworks from the estate of the bankrupt William Roscoe on behalf of the gallery of the Liverpool Royal Institution. The paintings formed the core of the Walker Art Gallery collection; as a merchant, Sandars was dissatisfied with the cost and speed of transport of goods between the port of Liverpool and the major industrial centre of Manchester. Movement of goods depended on canal and turnpike traffic at this time. Sandars met with engineer William James, a major advocate for railways and he was convinced by James that a project should be established to connect the two burgeoning towns. James was contracted to survey the proposed line but failed to deliver the necessary reports in a timely fashion and was replaced as engineer in 1824 by George Stephenson. Sandars played a key role in compiling the prospectus for the railway and in assembling the committee that would pilot the necessary legislation through parliament, he subsequently served as a one of four deputy chairmen from 1824 and as a director from 1826.

Sandars was director in charge of the locomotive Dart on the railway's opening on 15 September 1830. Sandars maintained an interest in their application, he continued as a director when the Liverpool & Manchester Railway merged into the Grand Junction Railway in 1845 and served on sub-committees of the London & North Western Railway formed after a further merger in 1846. While keeping a presence in Liverpool he joined with Stephenson and others in developing mining and industrial interests elsewhere, first at Snibston in Leicestershire and subsequently at Clay Cross in Derbyshire. Sandars is shown in a painting by Spiridione Gambardella along with George Stephenson and Charles Sylvester; the original artwork was destroyed by bombing in Liverpool during World War 2 and only monochrome photographs remain. During his time in Liverpool, Sandars lived in Pembroke Place. On 22 June 1812, he married Anna McKenzie Richards, of the same parish, his years are poorly documented and his history confused with that of one of his sons, another Joseph Sandars, who became MP for Great Yarmouth in 1848-52 and was involved in the Clay Cross operations.

Sandars' eldest son, died at the age of 17 in Frankfurt. He had two daughters, Eliza Rose and Anna-Louisa. Eliza Rose married Birmingham magistrate Thomas Clement Sneyd-Kynnersley in June 1834. Anna-Louisa married in June 1843 to the Rev. Clement Francis Broughton, Rector of Norbury and Vicar of Uttoxeter. At the time of Anna-Louisa's marriage, Sandars lived in Johnstone Hall, Staffordshire. In 1851 Sandars moved to Taplow House in Buckinghamshire, he may have had a London townhouse in Cleveland Row. Newspaper reports show that he attended the funeral of Robert Stephenson in 1859. Sandars himself died in London on 4 October 1860 and was buried at Taplow

Per Bertil Sundberg is a Swedish ceramic and glass artist. Until 2005 he worked at Orrefors glassworks, has subsequently been a professor at Konstfack and an independent artist. Sundberg studied at Konstfack. In 2004, he held a solo exhibition at the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, called “Greatest Hits 1983-2004”. In 2005 he received the first Form scholarship from the Swedish Visual Arts Fund. In summer 2011, a solo exhibition was dedicated to his pottery at the Gustavsberg Art Gallery in Stockholm. In November 2014, Sundberg was awarded the Swedish Visual Arts Fund Scholarship. A starting point in much of Sundberg’s artwork is nature. Animals and plants are present in unexpected juxtapositions. In his glasswork, Sundberg uses inset images in the form of decals from the old Gustavsberg porcelain factory and with properties to withstand high temperatures; the inset images contrast with one another, creating tension in the work. Sundberg uses decals in his ceramic art, as well as ceramic figurines from flea markets.

Unexpected encounters between sculpted nature and combinations of figurines take place. In some works, both in glass and ceramics, Sundberg discusses the concept of function. Is a special function associated with a particular shape? is one of the questions he investigates. Common to Sundberg’s oeuvre is the sculptural expression, which from around 2011 has become more articulated. Per B. Sundberg grew up in Huddinge, south of Stockholm, where he early showed interest in creative expression, including in textile. Sundberg applied and was accepted to the pottery division at Capellagården in Vickleby 1983-85. In the years 1985-1992 he studied glass and ceramics at Konstfack in Stockholm, with a break in 1988 to study at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle. After completing his studies Per B. Sundberg established himself as ceramic artist, he creates unique art objects or public art, since 2005 full-time in his own studio in Gustavsberg. After training at Konstfack, he and some fellow students established a glass studio on the islets Fjäderholmarna, at the inlet to Stockholm.

Here Sundberg blew glass, inter alia together with his colleagues Gunilla Kihlgren and Mårten Medbo. During the years 1994-2005, Per B. Sundberg was an employee at Orrefors glassworks, his glass art attracted international attention and purchases, including by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. During his time at Orrefors glassworks, Sundberg developed new glass techniques; the Fabula technique is based on Orrefors classic graal technique. Heat-resistant decals are pasted on a cylindrical glass blank; the glass blank is overlaid with clear glass and blown to the desired basic shape. Still hot, the object is formed using metal tools. Artistic themes are fauna, as well as celebrities; the Litograal technique is similar, in which the decals are replaced with black and white copies from comic books of a sexual nature. Sometimes Sundberg polishes windows into the subject. In connection with the transfer of ownership of the Orrefors Kosta Boda glassworks in 2005, Sundberg left Orrefors and was hired as a professor at the Konstfack Department of Design and Arts.

In parallel with the work at Konstfack, Sundberg has worked in his own studio at the old premises of the Gustavsberg porcelain factory. When operations ceased at the factory, a number of independent artists moved into the premises, including Sundberg. An important element in Sundberg’s artistic process is to use materials that others have left: clays, glazes and figurines; these form the palette of his creativity. Sundberg is looking for new expressions and to test the limits of materials. In the studio, he has developed new ceramic materials, including clays and glazes from the old factory. Sundberg combines figurines, found at flea markets, with a self-constructed foundation. A number of firings with different glazes follows. Glazes are thus part of the sculpted expression. 1988 Gallery De 20, Växjö 1996 Orrefors Museum, Orrefors 1997 Olle Olsson Hagalund Museum, Solna 2000 Gallery Kamras, Borgholm 2000 Stockholm New, New York 2003 Gallery Orrefors Kosta Boda, Stockholm 2004 “Beauty and the Beast”, Craft Council, London 2004 VIDA art gallery, Öland 2004 “Greatest Hits 1983-2004”, Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg 2005 “Concept Design”, Stockholm 2006-2011 Voices, Swedish Institute touring exhibition, France and the US 2009 Hands on, Dunkers kulturhus, Helsingborg 2009 State of Things, Stockholm 2011 Per B.

Sundberg, Gustavsberg Art Gallery, Gustavsberg 2012 Per B. Sundberg, Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall, Norway 2012 La galerie NeC nilsson et chiglien, Paris 2003 Neon chandeliers, Family housing, Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm 2005 Altarpiece and chandeliers, Church of Light, Stockholm 2006 “Something that did not turn out but someone moved in”, BUP South General Hospital, Stockholm. Collaboration with artist Cecilia Elde 2006 New coat of arms for the Swedish Riksdag, Riksdag Chamber, Stockholm. Cooperation with Ingegerd Råman 2006 Light installation, Akershus University Hospital, Lilleström, Norway. 2009 “Painting and ceramic sculpture in communication”, Tussmötegården, Stockholm. Collaboration with artist Cecilia Elde 2010 "Crystal Tree”, Helsingborg Rep