Robert Peter Williams is an English singer-songwriter and entertainer. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1989 to 1995, but achieved greater commercial success with his solo career, beginning in 1997. Williams has released seven UK number one singles and eleven out of his twelve studio albums have reached number one in the UK, he is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom and the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom–four albums in the top 60–and in 2006 he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1.6 million tickets of his Close Encounters Tour in a single day. Williams has received a record eighteen Brit Awards—winning Best British Male Artist four times, two awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music and the 2017 Brits Icon for his "lasting impact on British culture", three MTV European Music Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s".

According to the British Phonographic Industry, Williams has been certified for 19.9 million albums and 7.2 million singles in the UK as a solo artist. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold 75 million records worldwide. Williams topped the 2000–2010 UK airplay chart, his three concerts at Knebworth in 2003 drew over 375,000 people, the UK’s biggest music event to that point. In 2014, he was awarded the freedom of his home town of Stoke-on-Trent, as well as having a tourist trail created and streets named in his honour. After a fifteen year hiatus from the group, he was re-united with Take That on 15 July 2010, co-writing and performing lead vocals on their album Progress, which became the second fastest-selling album in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century at the time; the subsequent stadium tour, which featured seven songs from Williams's solo career, became the biggest-selling concert in UK history, selling 1.34 million tickets in less than 24 hours.

In late 2011, Take That's frontman Gary Barlow confirmed that Williams had left the band for a second time to focus on his solo career, although the departure was amicable and that Williams was welcome to rejoin Take That in the future. He has since performed with Take That on three separate television appearances, has collaborated with Barlow on a number of projects—including the West End musical The Band. Williams was born on 13 February 1974 in Stoke-on-Trent, England, his parents and Peter Williams, ran a pub called the Red Lion in Burslem, before his father became the licencee at the Port Vale FC Social Club. His maternal grandfather was hailed from Kilkenny. Williams attended St Margaret Ward Catholic School in Tunstall, before attending dance school UKDDF in Tunstall, he participated in several school plays, his biggest role was that of the Artful Dodger in a production of Oliver!, the musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. In 1990, the sixteen-year-old Williams was the youngest member.

According to the documentary Take That: For the Record, his mother read an advertisement seeking members for a new boy band and suggested that he try out for the group. He met fellow member Mark Owen on the day of his audition/interview with Nigel Martin-Smith. Although the majority of the group's material was written and performed by Gary Barlow, Williams performed lead vocals on their first Top Ten hit "Could It Be Magic", "I Found Heaven", "Everything Changes". However, he had conflicts with Martin-Smith over the restrictive rules for Take That members, he began drinking more alcohol and dabbling in cocaine. In November 1994, Williams's drug abuse had escalated. According to the documentary For the Record, he was unhappy with his musical ideas not being taken by lead singer Barlow and Martin-Smith. Barlow explained in interviews. Noting Williams' belligerent behaviour and poor attendance at rehearsals, worried that he might drop out during the group's upcoming tour and Barlow took their concerns to Martin-Smith.

During one of the last rehearsals before the tour commenced, the three confronted Williams about his attitude and stated they wanted to do the tour without him. He agreed to quit and left the group in July 1995. Despite the departure of Williams, Take That completed their Nobody Else Tour as a four-piece, they disbanded on 13 February 1996, Williams's 22nd birthday. Shortly afterwards, Williams was photographed by the press partying with the members of Oasis at Glastonbury Festival. Following his departure, he became the subject of talk shows and newspapers as he acknowledged his plans to become a solo singer, he was spotted partying with George Michael in France. However, a clause in his Take That contract prohibited him from releasing any material until after the group was dissolved, he was sued by Martin-Smith and forced to pay $200,000 in commission. After various legal battles over his right to a solo career, Williams succeeded in getting released from his contract with BMG. On 27 June 1996, Williams signed with Chrysalis Records.

In 2006 he released a cover version of the song Louise from The Human League. By March 2009, Williams had shown interest in rejoining Take That.

The 1908 United States presidential election in Oklahoma took place on November 3, 1908. All 46 states were part of the 1908 United States presidential election. Voters chose 7 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for vice president; this was the first presidential election Oklahoma participated in, as it had become the 46th state on November 16, 1907. Democratic Nominee William Jennings Bryan won Oklahoma by a 4.66% margin of victory. Oklahoma became a reliably Democratic state, with the party nominee winning 10 out of the first 15 elections held in the state. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson became the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state. Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist candidate, won 8.52% of the vote, demonstrating the strength of the Socialist movement in Oklahoma at this point in the state's history. Debs would go on to improve this performance in 1912, winning around twice as much of the percentage of the vote in Oklahoma

Bluetongue Brewery was an Australian brewery owned by SABMiller. The brewery had a capacity of 100 million litres per annum, supplied beer to all Australian states. On 23 January 2014, it was announced that Bluetongue would be phased out and discontinued as a brand. Bluetongue Brewery was founded in 2003 by four Hunter Valley businessmen, Philip Hele OAM, Bruce Tyrrell AM, Ian Burford and Paul Hannan in Cameron Park, Hunter Valley. In 2005 they sold a 50% share in the brewery to interests associated with John Singleton. In December 2007 the consortium sold the brewery to Pacific Beverages, a joint venture between Coca-Cola Amatil and SABMiller. In November 2010 the company opened a $120M brewery in the Central Coast suburb of Warnervale to produce and package the Bluetongue premium beer brands; the brewery, the second largest in New South Wales had the initial capacity of 50 million litres per annum. In 2012, Coca-Cola Amatil sold their 50% share in Pacific Beverages to SABMiller, who had acquired Carlton & United Breweries.

On 23 January 2014, SABMiller announced. 64 staff at the Warnervale brewery were told by Carlton and United Breweries they would lose their jobs towards the middle of the year and that the brewing equipment would be relocated to its Yatala brewery in Queensland with the remaining assets to be sold off. Bluetongue Premium Lager Bluetongue Pale Ale Bluetongue Premium Light Bluetongue Original Pilsener Bluetongue Black Ale (4.7% alc/vol Bluetongue Vintage Ale 2005 Bluetongue Alcoholic Ginger Beer Other beers brewed: Bondi Blonde Bruers Bright Hunters Old/Hunters Resort Black Ale Bluetongue Brewery owned the sponsorship rights to the Central Coast Stadium in Gosford, New South Wales however withdrew its sponsorship in February 2014. Australian pub Beer in Australia List of breweries in Australia Bluetongue Brewery Website

Bi-Coastal is the sixth studio album released in 1980 by Australian singer and songwriter Peter Allen. The album is Allen's most successful and was produced by David Foster who wrote many of its songs; the hit "Fly Away" by Japanese artist Mariya Takeuchi, was co-written by Foster and Carole Bayer Sager. The title tune co-written by Foster and Tom Keane is said to be about Allen's sexuality, who came out as gay after his marriage with Liza Minnelli ended. "Fly Away" peaked at number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and was his only North American hit as a singer. The album has become a classic with lovers of west coast pop music not because of the songs but for the use of musicians like Toto, Steve Lukather, Jay Graydon and others; the album peaked at number 123 on the Billboard 200. The title track "Bi-Coastal" peaked at number 79 on the Billboard Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. Australian version "Fly Away" "Bi-Coastal" "I Don't Go Shopping" "One Step Over the Borderline" "Simon" "I Still Call Australia Home" "I Could Really Show You Around" "Somebody's Angel" "Hit in the Heart" "Pass this Time" "When this Love Affair is Over" International version "One Step Over the Borderline" "Fly Away" "Bi-Coastal" "I Don't Go Shopping" "Hit in the Heart" "I Could Really Show You Around" "Somebody's Angel" "Simon" "Pass this Time" "When this Love Affair is Over" Peter Allen – piano, keyboards David Foster – piano, keyboards Steve George – backing vocals Gary Grant – trumpet Jay Graydon – guitar Ed Greene – drums Larry Hall – trumpet Gary Herbig – saxophone Jerry Hey – trumpet Ralph Humphrey – drums Kim Hutchcroft – trombone Tom Keane – piano, keyboards Steve Lukather – guitar Dave McDaniels – bass Eugene Meros – saxophone Richard Page – backing vocals Jeff Porcaro – drums Mike Porcaro – bass Lon Price – saxophone Bill Reichenbach Jr. – trombone Carlos Vega – drums David Williams – guitar Larry Williams – saxophone Richie Zito – guitar

Thomas Heberer, Ph. D. is a Senior Professor of Chinese Society at the University Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He studied Social Anthropology, Political Science, Chinese Studies in Frankfurt, Göttingen and Heidelberg. In 1977 he completed his Ph. D. at the University of Bremen on the Mass Line concept of the Chinese Communist Party. The same year he went to China, where he worked as a translator and reader for the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing for more than four years. During that time he witnessed the post-Cultural Revolution events in China and the gradual development of reform policies there. Heberer worked from 1983 to 1985 as a research fellow with the Oversea's Museum in Bremen, where he was put in charge of the Chinese Collection and established the museum’s permanent China exhibit, he was appointed as a research fellow at the Institute of Geography of the University of Bremen and carried out a research project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, on the development of the private economic sector in China.

This project was followed by his habilitation thesis on the role of the individual economic sector of urban and social development in China. In 1989 he received the venia legendi, or authorization to lecture, in Political Science at the University of Bremen. From 1991 to 1992, Heberer was a professor of Chinese Economic Studies at the University for Applied Sciences in Bremen. From 1992 to 1998, he was a professor of political science with a focus on East Asian politics at the University of Trier. From 1998 to 2013, he was a professor of political science with a focus on East Asia at the University of Duisburg-Essen's Institute of East Asian Studies. Upon his retirement in February 2013 he was appointed a Senior Professor of Chinese Politics and Society by the university president. Heberer has held visiting professor roles at: Seoul National University and in Taiwan in 1997. Heberer’s thinking has been shaped by sociologists such as James Scott, Pierre Bourdieu, Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault.

At the same time, his oeuvre is influenced by his field research, a product of his anthropological studies. Field research, is the most crucial tool for understanding societies from within, he conducted his first field research in 1981 on the issue of Chinese nationalities’ policies and development policies in ethnic minority areas among the Yi, one of the largest ethnic minorities in China, in the Liangshan Mountains in Southwestern Sichuan province. Since he has continuously worked on various aspects of Yi society and has been involved in creating academic and public awareness for the Yi minority. In 1998 he hosted the “Second International Yi Conference” at the University of Trier, in 2006 he organized a major exhibition on the history, culture and society of the Yi at the Duisburg Historical Museum. In 2000/2001 he collected 250,000 Deutsche Mark among several German institutions for establishing a primary school for Yi minority children in Meigu County including a scholarship program. Throughout the following decades, Heberer continued his dedicated field research, extending it into the areas of behavior of social actors and institutional change and investigating such diverse topics as the development of China’s private sector, rural urbanization and social change, the political and social role of private entrepreneurs in China and Vietnam, the diffusion of intellectual ideas into politics, environmental governance, the agency of local cadres.

Most he has been concerned with the political participation and organizational behavior of social groups in China. In the process, he has further developed the sociological concept of “strategic groups” in the context of both local cadres and entrepreneurial groups in China. In addition, he is concerned with social and policy innovations in China, with critical junctures of authoritarian systems. Most he is working on new patterns of political representation and new political representative claims from a comparative perspective. Thomas Heberer is on the editorial board of a number of renowned international academic journals, including the International Journal of Political Science & Diplomacy, The China Quarterly, the Journal of China in Comparative Perspective, the European Journal of East Asian Studies, the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, the Journal of Chinese Governance, the Chinese Political Science Review, the Internationales Asienforum, the International Journal of Political Science & Diplomacy, the journal 国外理论动态/Foreign Theoretical Trends, etc.).

He is co-founder of the “Association of Social Science Research on China” and was for quite some years on the Advisory Board of the Europe-China Academic Network of the European Commission. Heberer has authored or co-authored more than 38 books and has edited or co-edited 21 volumes in German and Chinese, his articles have been published in many international journals and volumes in a total of ten languages. Among his more recent and major English monographs are: Private Entrepreneurs in Vietnam. Social and Political Functioning of Strategic Groups. China Studies published for the Institute for Chinese Studies, University of Oxford, Leiden 2003.

The lug sail, or lugsail, is a fore-and-aft, four-cornered sail, suspended from a spar, called a yard. When raised the sail area overlaps the mast. For "standing lug" rigs, the sail remains on the same side of the mast on both the port and starboard tacks. For "dipping lug" rigs, the sail is lowered to be brought around to the leeward side of the mast in order to optimize the efficiency of the sail on both tacks; the lug sail is evolved from the square sail to improve. Square sails, on the other hand, are symmetrically mounted in front of the mast and are manually angled to catch the wind on opposite tacks. Since it is difficult to orient square sails fore and aft or to tension their leading edges, they are not as efficient upwind, compared with lug sails; the lug rig differs from the gaff rig fore-and-aft, whose sail is instead attached at the luff to the mast and is suspended from a spar, attached to, raised at an angle from, the mast. Lug sails are divided into three types: balanced lug and dipping lug.

Dipping lug: This is a loose-footed sail whose yard is designed to be lowered, "dipped", sufficiently to bring the sail around to the leeward side of the mast when tacking to allow the sail to achieve a shape, not influenced by the mast pressing into it. This reduces wear of the canvas. Standing lug: The sail and yard remain on one side of the mast and the tack of the sail is set close to the mast; when the wind blows onto the side of the mast where the sail is mounted, it deforms the sail over the mast. The standing lug differs from the balanced rig. On a standing lug the yard extends past the mast, but the foot of the sail, which may be loose-footed, does not. Balanced lug: The sail has both a yard and a boom, which both extend past the mast and remain on the same side of the mast on either tack. A junk rig is similar to a balanced lug. Whereas a standing lug may be tacked conventionally by moving the sail across the vessel, as the wind crosses the bow, a dipping lug must be brought around to the leeward side by a multi-step procedure: Hauling in the sheets to get the sail over the boat.

Lowering the halyard so that the peak of the sail can be reached, yet the yard is free of interfering with the rest of the boat. Gathering the after part of the sail and bringing it around forward of the mast. Bringing the peak down and passing it under the luff of the sail to the new leeward side. Bringing the halyard to windward aft of the mast. Shackling on the sheets and bringing the sail aft. Rehoisting the sail and sheeting in; this procedure is necessary for gybing a dipping lug. This action can be completed expeditiously on a larger boat with four hands. On smaller boats, the sail is lowered and the mast unstepped to allow the sail to be moved beneath it to the other side and the mast to be re-stepped and the sail raised. There are other ways to gybe a lugsail; some methods use a downhaul to the forward end of the spar so that a sharp downward tug on the line will pull dip the forward end around the aft side of the mast. The procedure, which may be feasible only on smaller sails, is to: lower the yard sufficiently to allow the dip swap the sail tack and tug the yard downhaul move the halyard to windward rehoist and sheet in.

The Beer Luggers, which have the tack of the sail set to a small bowsprit where untacking it is difficult, will have the lazy sheet forward of the luff of the sail and will use it haul the whole sail around its own luff, leaving the old working but now lazy sheet again forwards around the luff of the sail. On larger luggers, like the Fifie, large dipping lug sails were possible only with the introduction of steam-powered capstans to facilitate with dipping. Block reports that the rig was used in Europe from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries for small fishing vessels and other coasters because of their good performance to windward; this popularity extended to the French chasse-marée fishing boats. Lug rigs are used on certain small sailing craft, like the International Twelve Foot Dinghy, a dinghy, the SCAMP, a pocket cruiser. and the Oz Goose 12ft sailing dinghy. There are several lug rigged boat classes of long history that have been raced more or less continuously for a century.

One example is the balance lug rigged Lymington Scow that has become developed in continuous racing since 1905. Lugger Junk rig known as the Chinese lugsail Tanja sail, a type of sail from Nusantara archipelago "Lug Rigs for Small Sailboats" by John C. Harris "Lugsail setup and performance articles" by Michael Storer