Xu Guangqi or Hsü Kuang-ch'i known by his baptismal name Paul, was a Chinese agronomist, mathematician and writer during the Ming dynasty. Xu was a colleague and collaborator of the Italian Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Sabatino de Ursis and assisted their translation of several classic Western texts into Chinese, including part of Euclid's Elements, he was the author of the Nong Zheng Quan Shu, a treatise on agriculture. He was one of the "Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism", his current title is Servant of God. On April 15, 2011, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi announced the beatification of Xu Guangqi. Xu Guangqi is the pinyin romanization of the Standard Chinese pronunciation of Xu's Chinese name, it was written Hsü Kuang-ch‘i using the Wade–Giles system. His courtesy name was Zixian and his penname was Xuanhu. In the Jesuits' records, it is the last, used as his Chinese name, in the form "Siù Hsven Hú". At his conversion, he adopted the baptismal name Paul. In Chinese, its transcription is employed as a kind of courtesy name and the Jesuits sometimes referred to him as "Siù Pao Lò" or Ciù Paulus.

More however, they describe him as "Doctor Paul", "Our Paul", or "Paul Siu" or "Ciu". Xu Guangqi was born in Shanghai in Southern Zhili's Songjiang Prefecture on April 24, 1562, under China's Ming dynasty. At the time, Shanghai was a small walled county seat in the old quarter around the present city's Yu Garden, his family, including an older and younger sister, lived in the Taiqing Quarter at the south end of the town. Guangqi's branch of the Xus were not related to those who had passed the imperial examinations and joined Shanghai's local gentry, his father Xu Sicheng had been orphaned at age 5 and seen most of his inheritance lost to "Japanese" pirate raids and insolvent friends in the 1550s. At the time of Guangqi's birth, his father worked less south of the city wall. About half of this would have been used to feed the family, with the rest used to supplement his income from small-scale trading. By the time Guangqi was 6, the family had saved enough to send him to a local school, where a hagiographer records him piously upbraiding his classmates when they spoke of wanting to use their education for wealth or mystical power.

Instead, he advised, "None of these things is worth doing. If you want to talk about the sort of person you want to become it should be to establish yourself and to follow the Way. Bring order to the state and the people. Revere the orthodox and expose the heterodox. Don't waste the chance to be someone who matters in this world." From 1569 to 1573, the family sent Guangqi to the school at the Buddhist monastery at Longhua. It is not recorded, but this school was a separate secular and fee-based institution for families too poor to hire private tutors for their sons, his mother died on May 8, 1592, he undertook the ritual mourning period in her honor. His whereabouts over the next few years are uncertain but he seems to have failed the provincial exam at Beijing in 1594, after the mourning period was over. In 1596, he moved to Xunzhou in Guangxi to assist its prefect Zhao Fengyu, a Shanghai native who had passed the juren exams in 1555; the next year, he traveled to Beijing in the spring and passed its provincial exam, becoming a juren.

He failed to pass. He returned to Shanghai around April, turning his attention to the study of military and agricultural subjects; the next year he studied under Cheng Jiasui. He first met Matteo Ricci, the Italian Jesuit, in Nanjing in March or April 1600, he collaborated with Ricci in translating several classic Western texts—most notably the first part of Euclid's Elements—into Chinese, as well as several Chinese Confucian texts into Latin. Ricci's influence led to Xu being baptized as a Roman Catholic in 1603, his descendants remained Catholics or Protestants into the 21st century.. From 1607 until 1610, Xu was forced to retire from public office and returned to his home in Shanghai, it was during this time. He experimented with the cultivation of sweet potatoes and the nu zhen tree, he was called once more to serve the Chinese bureaucracy, where he rose to a high rank and became known late in his career as "The Minister". Yet he continued to experiment and learn of new agricultural practices while he served his office, promoting the use of wet-rice in the Northeast China.

From 1613 until 1620 he visited Tianjin, where he helped organize self-sufficient military settlements. In 1629, memorials by Xu and his fellow convert Leo Li moved the court to permit the Portuguese captain Gonçalo Teixeira-Correa to bring 10 artillery pieces and 4 "excellent bombards" across China to the capital to demonstrate the effectiveness of Western artillery. An earlier demonstration in 1623 had gone disastrously, with an exploding cannon killing one Portuguese artillerist and three Chinese observers, but on this occasion the pieces were accepted and directed to Dengzhou in Shandong; the Christian convert Ignatius Sun, a protégé of Xu's, was governor there and had been a strong advocate of modernizing China's military. Together with Captain Teixeira and his translator João Rodrigues, Sun used the pieces to train his troops to oppose the ongoing Manchu invasion. However, Sun's lenient treatment of a 1632 mutiny under Kong Yude and Geng Zhongming permitted them to capture Dengzhou, seize the artillery, establish an independent power base that eventuall

Milana Vlaović is a Croatian journalist, composer and columnist. She had finished her elementary school as well as high school in Metković, as she turned 18, she started to study at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. While she was studying, she worked as a part-time associate on Croatian Radiotelevision and conducted interviews with people from public life for magazine Pop Extra and contribution TV Best in Globus magazine; because of private reasons, she is moving to Padua for two years she lived in Valencia the next four years, she has moved to Athena for four years. In 2004, she returned to Zagreb and continued her composing and journalistic career by writing columns for different Croatian daily newspapers, such as Jutarnji list, weekly newspapers. In 2004, she graduated journalism on Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb. For many years, she was writing columns for lifestyle magazine Storybook in which she conducted broad, biographic interviews with well-known people from the world of theater, film and television.

In 2015, she finished a four-year long education from an integrative psychotherapy. Since she came back to Zagreb, she started to collaborate with various Croatian musicians. In 1990, she performed in a backup band with Tajči on the music competition Eurovision in Zagreb with the song „Hajde da ludujemo“. Representing what was Yugoslavia, they won seventh place in the competition; when she was 25, she begin to write lyrics and music for pop songs, in 2002, her song „Sasvim sigurna“, performed by Vesna Pisarović, won the Croatian music competition Dora, represented Croatia on the European music competition Eurovision where it won eleventh place. She wrote music and lyrics for six studio albums from Vesna Pisarović and Lana Jurčević, which won numerous gold and silver tirages, her songs have been awarded at numerous music festivals, such as Melodije hrvatskog Jadrana, Zlatne žice Slavonije, while her song „Prava ljubav“, performed by Lana Jurčević and Luka Nižetić, won the Croatian award „Hit of the year“ in 2006.

She is the member of Croatian Composers Society. Until now, she has published four prose works: Blato, V. B. Z. 2007. Bomboni od meda, Naklada Ljevak, 2011. Rašeljka i druge žene, EPH, 2013. Glad, HENA COM, 2016. In 2013, in collaboration with Podravka and EPH, she published her book Priče o nedjeljnom kolaču, she is the member of Croatian Writers Society

Rising Star is an Indian version of the international franchise series Rising Star, a reality television singing competition. This is the first reality television show in India. Votes can be sent through Colors TV Voot app. Popular playback singer and music director Shankar Mahadevan, actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh and playback singer Monali Thakur formed the trio of experts. Monali was replaced by Neeti Mohan in the third installment of the show; this show marked Dosanjh's television debut. The first season of the show was hosted by singer-actor Meiyang Chang and dancer-choreographer Raghav Juyal. Popular television actor Ravi Dubey took over the baton in the second season and was replaced by actor-singer Aditya Narayan in the third season; the show premiered on 4 February 2017 on Colors TV. The second season started on 20 January 2018; the third installment of the show is set to air from 16 March 2019 In contrast to other singing competition TV shows which feature a cast of celebrity judges, Rising Star features a cast of celebrity experts and considers the viewers at home the judges.

During each performance, the audience at home is able to decide in real time whether or not a contestant is sent through to the next round by using a mobile voting app. While the viewers are considered the "judges", the expert panelists may influence the vote, but with continuously decreasing percentage votes over the total public vote and not exceeding 5% of the total voting power; the auditions are the first round. As a reportage of the announced performer is shown, viewers are invited to register for voting for that specific act. Following a countdown of three seconds, the candidate has to start performing behind a screen called "the wall". With the start of the performance, the voting kicks in. Registered voters have the option of voting just "yes" or "no". Non-votes are considered "no" votes. If an expert votes "yes", another 5% is added to the tally of the contestant; the contestants see random photos of voters in their favour. The faces of panelists voting "yes" are shown in larger frames.

Once the contestant reaches 80% of "yes" votes, the wall is raised and the contestant goes to the next round of the competition. Contestants who make it through the auditions are paired by the judges to face off in a duel; the first contestant sets the benchmark for the second contestant. The second contestant sings with the wall down. If the second contestant betters the first contestant's vote total, the wall rises and the second contestant was through to the next round while the first contestant is eliminated. See also:Rising Star Color key Bannet Dosanjh became India's first Rising Star, winning Rs. 20 lakhs and the opportunity to sing in a movie under Vishesh Films banner. Maithili Thakur was declared as the first runner-up. Hemant Brijvasi was adjudged as the winner of the second season. Rohanpreet Singh and Vishnumaya Ramesh were the second runners up respectively. Aftab Singh was adjudged as the winner of the third season. Diwakar Sharma and Sanjay Satish were the second runners up respectively.

On 16 October 2016, Variety reported that Viacom18 had signed a licensing deal with Keshet International for the format rights to Rising Star. The show began airing on Colors TV from 4 February 2017

Virginia Park is a rugby ground, cricket ground and former greyhound racing stadium in Caerphilly, South Wales. It is the home ground for Caerphilly RFC; the rugby ground is accessed from Virginia Close and the cricket ground is accessed from Melville Terrace. Both roads are off the Pontygwindy Road; the name Virginia Park came from the state of Virginia in the United States because during the American Revolution the loyalist John Goodrich and his family fled to Caerphilly and settled on the Energlyn Estate that they had purchased. The main house was called Virginia House and it remained so for the next one hundred years. On 26 August 1887 a committee sitting at the Castle Hotel formed Caerphilly RFC; the ground has remained their home with the exception of a period. Known as the Virginia Park Athletic Grounds it was little more than a large field in 1887. After World War II the greyhound stadium closed and was demolished and the rugby club returned to play fixtures at Virginia Park afterwards and in the late fifties they called Virginia Park their home with the pitch being relocated to the northern section of the park.

The Stadium was known as the Constructaquote Stadium for the 2017-2018 season but for the 2018-2019 season known as the Vetro Recruitment Stadium. The greyhound stadium was located in the central area of Virginia Park. A grandstand was constructed in 1931 by the greyhound company and the opening night was on 25 May 1931; the stadium raced under the National Greyhound Racing Club rules of racing. Many other events took place there and included boxing, speedway and Powderhall foot racing in addition to being used as a venue for politicians; the stadium stopped racing under NGRC rules in 1935. The demise of greyhound racing at Virginia Park came during World War II, it was used as a storage depot for the fire brigade and a recreation area for American soldiers during the war. Media related to Virginia Park at Wikimedia Commons

Grady Hall is an American director of commercials and music videos, as well as a screenwriter and director of one-hour television series. Hall's high-profile commercial work has earned numerous industry awards, landed him at #34 on Filestage's "50 Best Commercial Directors in World." His music video work with artists such as Beck, Katy Perry, Capital Cities have drawn more than 4 billion hits collectively on YouTube, earned him a Grammy nomination, won an MTV Video Music Award. Grady Hall began his career working at Warner Bros. in syndicated television. He became a development executive for television producer Douglas S. Cramer and was a staff writer on The Outer Limits for SyFy, which filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. Hall was a founding director of the production company Motion Theory, which he helped build from a pure animation and design company into an award-winning live-action and visual effects studio; the company’s unique hybrid model and creative results caught the eye of filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Guillermo Navarro, who co-founded Mirada as Motion Theory’s feature-film visual effects arm, with Hall taking a creative leadership role in the new company and continuing to write and direct projects.

In 2010, Hall returned to TV, serving as a consulting producer and director for the debut season of Sam Raimi's Spartacus: Blood and Sand starring Lucy Lawless and Andy Whitfield. In 2013, Hall's video for Capital Cities' “Safe and Sound” was nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards, winning for Best Visual Effects; that same year, he co-directed Katy Perry’s “Roar,” the most-watched video of the year and People’s Choice Award winner. Hall left Motion Theory and Mirada in 2014 to join Partizan Entertainment, home to directors such as Michel Gondry, Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, Michael Gracey. There, he worked on high-profile campaigns for companies such as Amazon and Microsoft – directing the global launch video for the HoloLens augmented-reality viewer. By 2016, Hall transitioned into the role of independent director, taking on a wider variety of creative projects through different production companies and direct clients such as Intel and Netflix. “The Science of Selling Yourself Short” by Less Than Jake “Animal” by R.

E. M. “Take It Away” by The Used “Getting Away with Murder” by Papa Roach “Girl” by Beck “Scars” by Papa Roach “Dashboard” by Modest Mouse “Safe and Sound” by Capital Cities “Roar” by Katy Perry "Phoenix" by Olivia Holt "Wow" by Beck Motion Theory in LA Weekly Grady Hall on IMDb GradyHall.com

The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment was proposed by Congress on February 20, 1933, was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 5, 1933, it is unique among the 27 amendments of the U. S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment, as well as being the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions; the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, the result of years of advocacy by the temperance movement. The subsequent passage of the Volstead Act established federal enforcement of the nationwide prohibition on alcohol; as many Americans continued to drink despite the amendment, Prohibition gave rise to a profitable black market for alcohol, fueling the rise of organized crime. Throughout the 1920s, Americans came to see Prohibition as unenforceable, a movement to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment grew until the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified in 1933.

Section 1 of the Twenty-first Amendment expressly repeals the Eighteenth Amendment. Section 2 bans the importation of alcohol into states and territories that have laws prohibiting the importation or consumption of alcohol. Several states continued to be "dry states" in the years after the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, but in 1966 the last dry state legalized the consumption of alcohol. Nonetheless, several states continue to regulate the distribution of alcohol. Many states delegate their power to ban the importation of alcohol to counties and municipalities, there are numerous dry communities throughout the United States. Section 2 has arisen as an issue in Supreme Court cases that touch on the Commerce Clause. Section 1; the eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. Section 2; the transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress; the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution had ushered in a period known as Prohibition, during which the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal. Passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 was the crowning achievement of the temperance movement, but it soon proved unpopular. Crime rates soared under Prohibition as gangsters, such as Chicago's Al Capone, became rich from a profitable violent black market for alcohol; the federal government was incapable of stemming the tide: enforcement of the Volstead Act proved to be a nearly impossible task and corruption was rife among law enforcement agencies. In 1932, wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. stated in a letter:When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized.

I have and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has increased; as more and more Americans opposed the Eighteenth Amendment, a political movement grew for its repeal. However, repeal was complicated by grassroots politics. Although the U. S. Constitution provides two methods for ratifying constitutional amendments, only one method had been used up until that time. However, the wisdom of the day was that the lawmakers of many states were either beholden to or fearful of the temperance lobby; the Congress adopted the Blaine Act and proposed the Twenty-first Amendment on February 20, 1933. The proposed amendment was adopted on December 5, 1933, it is the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions, specially selected for the purpose. All other amendments have been ratified by state legislatures, it is the only amendment, approved for the explicit purpose of repealing a existing amendment to the Constitution. The Twenty-first Amendment ending national prohibition became effective on December 5, 1933.

The Acting Secretary of State William Phillips certified the amendment as having been passed by the required three-fourths of the states just 17 minutes after the passage of the amendment by the Utah convention. President Roosevelt issued a proclamation following the passage and certification of the amendment which stated in part the following: "I trust in the good sense of the American people that they will not bring upon themselves the curse of excessive use of intoxicating liquors to the detriment of health and social integrity; the objective we seek through a national policy is the education of every citizen towards a greater temperance throughout the nation." The end of prohibition was thought to be responsible for the creation of a half million jobs. The various responses of the 48 states is as follows:The following states ratified the amendment: Ratification was completed on December 5, 1933; the amendment was subsequently ratified by conventions in the following states: The amendment was rejected by the following state: South Carolina Voters in the following state rejec