Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed in 1851 and 1852 and in the collection of Tate Britain in London. It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark; the work encountered a mixed response when first exhibited at the Royal Academy, but has since come to be admired as one of the most important works of the mid-nineteenth century for its beauty, its accurate depiction of a natural landscape, its influence on artists from John William Waterhouse and Salvador Dalí to Peter Blake and Ed Ruscha. The painting depicts Ophelia singing while floating in a river; the scene is described in Scene VII of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude. The episode depicted is not seen onstage, as in Shakespeare's text it exists only in Gertrude's description. Out of her mind with grief, Ophelia has been making garlands of wildflowers, she climbs into a willow tree overhanging a brook to dangle some from its branches, a bough breaks beneath her.

She lies in the water singing songs, as if unaware of her danger. Her clothes, trapping air, have allowed her to temporarily stay afloat, but "her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay" down "to muddy death". Ophelia's death has been praised as one of the most poetically written death scenes in literature. Ophelia's pose—her open arms and upwards gaze—also resembles traditional portrayals of saints or martyrs, but has been interpreted as erotic; the painting is known for its depiction of the detailed flora of the river and the riverbank, stressing the patterns of growth and decay in a natural ecosystem. Despite its nominal Danish setting, the landscape has come to be seen as quintessentially English. Ophelia was painted along the banks of the Hogsmill River near Tolworth, Greater London. Barbara Webb, a resident of nearby Old Malden, devoted much time to finding the exact placement of the picture, according to her research, the scene is located at Six Acre Meadow, alongside Church Road, Old Malden.

Millais Road is now nearby. Millais' close colleague William Holman Hunt was at the time working on his The Hireling Shepherd nearby; the flowers shown floating on the river were chosen to correspond with Shakespeare's description of Ophelia's garland. They reflect the Victorian interest in the "language of flowers", according to which each flower carries a symbolic meaning; the prominent red poppy—not mentioned by Shakespeare's description of the scene—represents sleep and death. At an early stage in the painting's creation, Millais painted a water vole—which an assistant had fished out of the Hogsmill—paddling next to Ophelia. In December 1851, he showed the unfinished painting to Holman Hunt's relatives, he recorded in his diary, "Hunt's uncle and aunt came, both of whom understood most gratifyingly every object except my water rat. The male relation, when invited to guess at it, eagerly pronounced it to be a hare. Perceiving by our smiles that he had made a mistake, a rabbit was hazarded. After which I have a faint recollection of a dog or a cat being mentioned."

Millais painted the water vole out of the final picture, although a rough sketch of it still exists in an upper corner of the canvas hidden by its frame. In keeping with the tenets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which he was a member, Millais used bright colours, gave high attention to detail and faithful truth to nature; this rendition of Ophelia is the epitome of the PRB style. Millais utilizes bright, intense colours in the landscape to make the pale Ophelia contrast with the nature behind her. All this is evident in the vivid attention to detail in the brush and trees around Ophelia, the contouring of her face, the intricate work Millais did on her dress. Millais produced Ophelia in two separate stages: He first painted the landscape, secondly the figure of Ophelia. Having found a suitable setting for the picture, Millais remained on the banks of the Hogsmill River in Ewell—within a literal stone's throw of where fellow Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt painted The Light of the World—for up to 11 hours a day, six days a week, over a five-month period in 1851.

This allowed him to depict the natural scene before him. Millais encountered various difficulties during the painting process, he wrote in a letter to a friend, "The flies of Surrey are more muscular, have a still greater propensity for probing human flesh. I am threatened with a notice to appear before a magistrate for trespassing in a field and destroying the hay... and am in danger of being blown by the wind into the water. The painting of a picture under such circumstances would be greater punishment to a murderer than hanging." By November 1851, the weather had turned snowy. Millais oversaw the building of a hut "made of four hurdles, like a sentry-box, covered outside with straw". According to Millais, sitting inside the hut made him feel like Robinson Crusoe. William Holman Hunt was so impressed by the hut. Ophelia was modelled by artist and muse Elizabeth Siddal 19 years old. Millais had Siddal lie clothed in a full bathtub in his studio at 7 Gower Street in London; as it was now winter, he placed oil lamps under the tub to warm the water, but was so intent on his work that he allowed them to go out.

As a result, Siddal caught a severe cold, her father sen

Race The World is a Chinese reality television series that aired on Jiangsu Television in 2016 that features twelve contestants that formed teams of two in a race around the world to win a grand prize of ¥500,000 and a lifetime usage of an Infiniti Q50L. Joe Cheng and Ariel Lin were the winners of Race The World. Race The World drew on the format of the series The Amazing Race, with tasks and obstacles similar to Detours and Blind Detours, Yields and Head-to-Heads included in the show, included themes of the Olympic Games to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics, airing the same year as The Amazing Race China 3 which had a similar theme. Like The Amazing Race, the show featured teams of two in a race around the world to win a grand prize. Teams had to complete various challenges to receive clues sealed in a relay race baton to reach an end point. Unlike The Amazing Race, the teams of two were shuffled every two legs with the goal of testing different partner dynamics during the run of the series with contestants choosing their partners much like The Amazing Race 29.

The team that completed all of the challenges in a leg and reached the final destination first would win 100 points. When subsequent teams reached the final destination, they would earn one less point for every two minutes they finished behind the lead team. After nine legs, the eight individuals with the most points would remain in the Race with the four individuals with the lowest scores eliminated; the teams would reshuffle for the final time to complete the final legs. On March 3, 2016, the cast and premise of the show were announced in a press conference. Filming for the series ended on May 14 in Nanjing. After filming ended, contestant Baron Chen was discovered traveling to Taiwan to receive medical treatment for a torn cruciate ligament; the following month, Chen's agent threatened a lawsuit with the show's production company over delayed insurance compensation. After Leg 1 ended, Sheng Yilun discovered that he had lost his passport and was unable to compete in the United States legs. Harry Yuan was brought in as a substitute so all racers could compete with a partner but was not eligible for the grand prize.

The cast of Race The World consisted of Chinese celebrities including Taiwanese actor and model Baron Chen, Taiwanese model and singer Joe Cheng, Taiwanese actress Evonne Hsieh, Hong Kong actor Leon Lai, Taiwanese actress and singer Ariel Lin, short track speed skater Wang Meng, actor Daddi Tang, pop singer and actor Vision Wei, gymnast Li Xiaopeng, professional pool player Pan Xiaoting and model Sheng Yilun, actress and singer Zhu Zhu. Li Xiaopeng competed on the first season of The Amazing Race China with his wife Li Anqi in 2014. Harry Yuan competed on the second season of the Race with his sister in 2015. A year Joe Cheng and Evonne Hsieh competed on separate teams on The Amazing Race China 4. Infiniti, which served as a sponsor on the Chinese Amazing Race, served as the primary sponsor of Race The World and provided all of the cars during the legs. A red score indicates that the contestant was eliminated after failing to obtain enough points to move onto the final legs.. A maroon score means.

Matching colored symbols indicate teams who worked together during part of the leg. An orange + indicates. A red +, blue +, green +, teal +, black + indicates the team that received bonus points, while a red −, blue −, green −, olive −, black − indicates the team that lost and received a 5-point deduction. A yellow < indicates the team who had to stop racing for twenty minutes. A > indicates. A green ▷ means that a team could travel in a car instead of a taxi for a leg. A purple ↇ means. Airdate: April 8, 2016 Beijing, China Great Wall of China Beijing Beijing Finish LineTasksBefore the Race began, contestants had to randomly choose a baton with colored paper inside; the contestants with matching paper would be paired up on the Starting Line. At the start of the Race, teams would have their hands tied and had to complete two track and field and two gymnastics challenges. After walking over a balance beam, jumping over three hurdles, tumbling across a mat, jumping rope ten times with a third person, teams would receive their first clue.

At the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China, each team member had to complete one of four martial arts tasks to receive their next clue: breaking 17 boards with one punch, cracking an egg with a whip, blowing out ten candles at once with one swing of nunchucks, cutting an 88 grams slice of bread using a sword with team members eating any incorrectly cut bread After three attempts, teams had to enter another station or wait for another turn. At the Olympic Sports Centre, one team member had to pull their partner into the air using a pulley system; the team member in the air had to toss colored rings onto pylons to form the Olympic rings and receive their next clue. Airdate: April 15, 2016 Beijing to Los Angeles, United States Los Angeles Los Angeles Newhall or Los Angeles Los Angeles Finish LineTasksAt Athena Parking, teams would be p

The 1943 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season marked the inaugural season of the circuit. Since the only organized ball for women in the country was softball, the league created a hybrid game which included both softball and baseball; the league underwent a name change during the season. But midway through the 1943 season, the name was changed to the All-American Girls Baseball League; the AAGPBL incorporated baseball rules. The new league started with four teams, the Kenosha Comets, Racine Belles, Rockford Peaches and South Bend Blue Sox; the teams competed through a 108-game schedule, while the first Scholarship Series faced first-half winner Racine against Kenosha, second-half champ, in a Best of Five Series. The strong pitching led to low batting averages, as the league hit a collective.230 average with Racine topping the chart. Just one player, Rockford's Gladys Davis, reached the.300 mark. Only 72 home runs were batted for the four teams. Ten of these homers came from the bat of Eleanor Dapkus with Racine.

Kenosha pitcher Helen Nicol won the Triple Crown with 31 wins, 220 strikeouts and a 1.81 earned run average, led the league in winning percentage, consecutive wins, complete games and innings pitched. The best individual pitching performance on the year came from Rockford's Olive Little, who hurled the first no-hitter in league history. In the final series, Racine blanked Kenosha in three games to win the first title of the league. Irene Hickson led the Belles with a.417 average, while pitchers Mary Nesbitt, Joanne Winter and Helen Nicol were credited with a win a piece. The AAGPBL drew 176,000 fans during its inaugural season, which assured the league would continue the following year. Josephine D'Angelo – Fewest strikeouts in a season: three times in 358 at bats Shirley Jameson – Most consecutive games stealing a base: 18 Margaret Stefani – Most consecutive games without striking out: 57 Mildred Warwick – Most consecutive games batting a hit: 13 Dorothy Wind – Most hits batted in a single game: six 1943 Major League Baseball season AAGPBL Official Website AAGPBL League history AAGPBL Rules of play AAGPBL Records Baseball Historian files Baseball Reference Bullpen entry The Diamond Angle profiles and interviews SABR Projects – Jim Sargent articles YouTube videos