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A colossal force in the entertainment industry, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) is best known for bringing decades of fantasy and fun to families through its amusement parks, television series, and many classic live-action and animated motion pictures. Beginning in 1984, Disney enjoyed an enormous creative and financial renaissance, due to the leadership of CEO Michael Eisner; the success of such subsidiaries as Touchstone Films, Hollywood Pictures, The Disney Studios, Buena Vista Distribution, The Disney Channel, and Buena Vista Home Video; the sales of Disney consumer products through The Disney Stores and a multitude of licensing arrangements; and a recommitment to excellence in the making of original feature-length animated films. Under Eisner's reign, Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, a $19 billion deal that increased the company's stature enormously. Adding to the theme parks, cruise ships, professional sports teams, and dozens of other businesses owned by the company, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC gave Disney the power of broadcasting and the ability to meld entertainment content with programming. During the late 1990s, the company was aggressively building a presence on the Internet and adopting a concerted approach to international expansion.
Walt Disney, the company's founder, was born in Chicago in 1901. His appeal to the greater United States is said to have had roots in his humble, middle-class upbringing. Disney's father, Elias, moved the family throughout the Midwest seeking employment. Young Disney grew up in a household where hard work was prized: feeding the family's five children left little pocket change for amusement. Walt Disney began working at the age of nine as a newspaper delivery boy. His father instructed him and his siblings in the teachings of the Congregational Church and socialism.
Drawing provided an escape for Disney, and at the age of 14 he took his work on the road and enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute. His art was temporarily put on hold when he joined the Red Cross at age 16 to serve as an ambulance driver at the end of World War I. In 1919 he returned to the United States and found work as a commercial artist. Together with Ub Iwerks, another artist at the studio, Disney soon formed an animated cartoon company in Kansas City.
In 1923, following the bankruptcy of this company, Disney joined his brother Roy O. Disney in Hollywood. By the time he arrived on the West Coast, word came from New York that a company wanted to purchase the rights to a series of Disney's live-action cartoon reels, ultimately titled Alice Comedies. A distributor named M.J. Winkler offered $1,500 per reel, and Disney joined her as a production partner.
A series of animated films followed on Alice's heels. In 1927 Disney started a series called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which met with public acclaim. The distributor, however, had the character copyrighted in its own name, so Disney earned only a few hundred dollars. It was while pondering the unfairness of this situation on a California-bound train that Disney first thought of creating a mouse character named Mortimer. He changed the name to Mickey Mouse, drew up some simple sketches, and went on to make several Mickey Mouse films with his brother Roy, using their own money.
On the third Mickey Mouse film, Disney decided to take a bold step and add sound to Steamboat Willie. The cartoon was synchronized with a simple musical background. The process provided some of the first technical steps in film continuity: music was played at two beats a second and the film was marked every 12 frames as a guide to the animator, and later an orchestra.
Film distributors laughed at Disney's idea. Finally one, Pat Powers, released Steamboat Willie in theaters. Audiences loved what they saw and heard, and suddenly Disney was a hit in the animation business. In 1935 the New York Times called Mickey Mouse "the best-known and most popular international figure of his day." Meanwhile, Disney suffered criticism from observers who judged him to be a cartoonist of only mediocre ability. (Iwerks was responsible for the actual design of Mickey Mouse and the other characters.) Disney was, however, given credit for his ability to conceptualize characters and stories.
The Mickey Mouse projects brought in enough cash to allow Walt Disney to develop other projects, including several full-length motion pictures and advances in Technicolor film. Disney's first full-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, opened in 1937 to impressive crowds and led to a string of Disney hits, including Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940, Dumbo in 1941, Bambi in 1942, and Saludos Amigos in 1943.
Around 1940 Disney decided to tackle live-action films, first with The Reluctant Dragon and to a greater extent with 1946's Song of the South. Meanwhile, during World War II, Disney lent his characters to the war effort, making shorts, including one in which Minnie Mouse showed U.S. homemakers the importance of saving fats. After the war, Walt Disney Productions was back in business with live-action features including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Living Desert was released in the early 1950s by Disney's new distribution company, Buena Vista, to tremendous box office success.
During the 1950s, as Americans began to spend more time at home watching television for entertainment, Disney's studio took full advantage of the small screen revolution. In 1954, the "Disneyland" television series premiered. The show included an introduction by Walt Disney and incorporated film clips from Disney productions with live action and coverage of Disneyland. Some four million people tuned in each week. Disney also made a national folk hero out of Davy Crockett when he devoted a three-part program to coverage of his life. Within a matter of weeks, U.S. boys could not live without coonskin caps and other Crockett merchandise, all of which earned Disney a fortune. Crockett's popularity led to the era of the Disney live-action adventures that included the 1950s hits The Great Locomotive Chase, Westward Ho, Old Yeller, and The Light in the Forest.
In October 1955 The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on the ABC television network. The hour-long show aired at 5 p.m. weekdays and made television history. Six years later, his groundbreaking Sunday night color TV show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (later changed to The Wonderful World of Disney), began its 20-year run on NBC. At the same time, Disney was making stars out of Fred MacMurray, Hayley Mills, and Dean Jones in such movies as The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Pollyanna, and The Parent Trap. In 1964 Disney's Mary Poppins became one of the top-grossing films of all time.
Disney required professionalism of his staff and demanded the highest-quality Technicolor available, and as a result his live-action films topped competitors in both creativity and technical standards. He also had his hand in several other projects, including Audio-Animatronics (automatically controlled robots) and a Florida amusement complex that eventually became Walt Disney World, complementing California's vacation hot spot, Disneyland.
On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of lung cancer. Shortly after Disney's death, his brother Roy issued an optimistic statement pledging that Walt Disney's philosophy and genius would be carried on by his employees.
But no one could match Walt Disney's keen story sense or enthusiasm, and the studio floundered through most of the 1970s despite several strong CEOs, including E. Cardon "Card" Walker, who had joined the company as a traffic boy in 1938. The studio did manage a few successes during this period, including Blackbeard's Ghost, with Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette, and the 1969 release The Love Bug, which became the year's biggest box office hit. Other popular releases of the late 1960s and early 1970s included The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and several live-action features.
But a run of box office disappointments followed in the mid-1970s before The Rescuers proved successful. Pete's Dragon, an experimental film combining human and animated characters, followed. Progress was slow but steady for the Disney studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s as well. The studio released three new live-action movies: The World's Greatest Athlete, Gus, and The Shaggy D.A. Return from Witch Mountain, a sequel to the popular mystery-fantasy Escape to Witch Mountain, premiered in 1978. A risky science fiction venture titled The Black Hole cost $20 million to produce but was lost in the amazing success of Star Wars, an all-time box office record-breaker. CEO Ron Miller brought in new directors and younger writers who produced such films as Watcher in the Woods and the computer-generated Tron, but achieved only mild success in the face of competition from other movie studios.
In 1983, beginning with the release of Mickey's Christmas Carol, Disney's fortunes finally began to look up. A string of successful movies followed, including the Arctic adventure Never Cry Wolf and a production of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. That same year the company also began marketing a family-oriented pay-TV channel called the Disney Channel, which quickly became the fastest-growing channel on cable television.
Corporate raider Saul Steinberg attempted a hostile takeover of the company in 1984. Disney ultimately bought Steinberg's 11.1 percent holding in the company for $325.4 million. A number of lawsuits were filed by shareholders against both Disney and Steinberg's Reliance Group Holdings, charging that Disney's managers had attempted to secure their positions and had lowered the value of the stock. The suits were settled in 1989 when the two companies jointly agreed to pay shareholders $45 million.
Shortly after its purchase of 18.7 percent of Disney's stock, the Bass family of Texas supported the Disney board's hiring of Michael Eisner from Paramount Pictures to be Disney's new CEO and Frank Wells to be president.
Eisner, responsible for such Paramount blockbusters as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Beverly Hills Cop, immediately began to emphasize Touchstone Films, a subsidiary devoted to attracting adult movie audiences. Commentators began to note that Eisner, like Walt Disney, had the ability to predict and deliver movies people wanted to see. The 1985 release of Down and Out in Beverly Hills helped Touchstone build momentum, which it increased with Outrageous Fortune, Tin Men, Ruthless People, and other hits. In Eisner's first four years as CEO, Disney surged from last place to first in box office receipts among the eight major studios.
Eisner also set out to take full advantage of expanding markets such as cable television and home video. Disney signed a long-term deal with Showtime Networks, Inc., giving the cable service exclusive rights to Touchstone and other Disney releases through 1996. In addition, Eisner bought KHJ, an independent Los Angeles TV station; sought new markets for old Disney productions through television syndication; and began to distribute such TV shows as The Golden Girls.
Certain Disney classics, including Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella, were released on videocassette during the late 1980s. Eisner protected the value of the films by limiting the availability of the tapes. He also scheduled the re-release of many other films for the late 1980s and early 1990s, by which time a new generation of children would be ready to see the films in the theater once again. Disney's revenues soon began to increase, averaging an improvement of approximately 20 percent annually during the second half of the 1980s.
In 1989 Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened near Orlando, Florida, on the grounds of Walt Disney World. Despite its name, the park was not a collaboration between the two studios; Disney purchased the rights to include attractions based on MGM films. Euro Disney, of which Disney owned 49 percent, opened outside of Paris, in Marne-la-Vallée, on April 12, 1992; and Tokyo Disneyland, licensed though not owned by Disney, regularly drew phenomenal crowds in a powerful consumer market. Plans were made to open a second Disney-MGM Studios park, on a site adjacent to Euro Disney, in the mid-1990s.
In the early 1980s the parks were responsible for about 70 percent of the company's revenue. Although they continued to be a crucial part of the company, the theme parks found competition with Disney's newer projects, including hotel expansions, home video distribution, and Disney merchandising, which together in 1991 garnered an impressive 28 percent of fiscal revenues. Virtually as important, perhaps more so given their unrealized potential, were Disney's international operations--evident not only in Japan and France, but throughout much of Europe, the former Soviet Union, South America, and China--which contributed 22 percent of total revenues in 1991.
Meanwhile, Touchstone remained healthy. Hollywood Pictures, Disney's newest film-producing arm, also began making more films in the late 1980s. Disney continued to score hits with Three Men and a Baby, Good Morning Vietnam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and others. Most importantly, production costs, though constantly rising, were held by Disney in 1989 to an average of $15 million per movie, compared to an industry average of more than $23 million.
The 1990s, termed the "Disney Decade" by the company, promised to witness perhaps the most dramatic changes and accomplishments of Disney's more than half-century history. The combined talents of Eisner, President Frank Wells, and studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg caused a rush of excitement as the decade began. By the second quarter of 1991, the studio, under Katzenberg's strong leadership, had surpassed the theme parks in profitability, leading the company to commit to a record-high 25 new films in 1992. By far the greatest highlight of 1991 was Disney's 30th feature-length animated film, Beauty and the Beast. Amid a troubled year and a depressed economy, during which corporate net income plummeted by 23 percent and Disney, despite the success of its studio, experienced its first year with no growth since 1984, this film--nominated for best picture and winner of Academy Awards for best original score and best original song--provided much welcomed relief. Beauty, like its 1989 Oscar-winning predecessor The Little Mermaid, shattered previous records for the most successful opening of an animated film. It quickly became the highest-grossing picture of its genre.
Although Disney was notorious for undercutting its Hollywood competitors, it, too, was forced to pay exorbitant amounts for top creative talent. Both Bernard Weinraub, in a New York Times article, and Eisner, in the company's 1991 annual report, reported that Disney was going to try to stem the flow of high production costs for big-budget films and instead offer films with appealing storylines and engaging characters. According to Ron Grover, Katzenberg himself began pushing for such a redirection in early 1991. Presumably, films like the modestly budgeted 1990 sleeper Pretty Woman were expected in the future.
Disney's next forays--its creation, for example, of Hyperion Press and Hollywood Records for stakes in the publishing and adult music industries--were expected to further strengthen its reputation as an entertainment giant. Yet, here too, it became increasingly cautious. In August, the company revealed that its Imagineering division, responsible for theme park design, was laying off up to 400 of its employees. Further news that Euro Disney's profitability for its first year was in serious doubt indicated to some that Disney might be struggling. However, Disney's overseas investment was less than $200 million, "a fraction of the total," according to Stewart Toy. "And whether or not there's a profit, Walt Disney gets 10 percent of ticket sales and 5 percent of merchandise sales."
During the latter half of the 1990s, Disney grew at a prolific rate, but by the decade's end there was little cause to celebrate. The remainder of the Disney Decade was pocked with troubling developments that shook the foundation of the Disney empire, prompting some experts to suggest the previously unimaginable: that the omnipotent Disney name was losing its market appeal. The tumultuous period began with tragedy, when Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994. The fatal accident left Eisner without his most trusted aide and left Disney without a president, a title Katzenberg reportedly coveted. Two days after the helicopter crash, Katzenberg approached Eisner about the job, but his bid to become president was rebuffed. Katzenberg responded by leaving Disney, departing on decidedly unfriendly terms. An acrimonious feud between Eisner and Katzenberg erupted that became litigious. Upon his departure, Katzenberg was given the equivalent of ten year's pay, but the former studio head wanted considerably more cash. He filed a lawsuit against Disney, demanding $580 million in compensation.
Against the backdrop of a sordid legal battle, whose ugly details became the stuff of headlines, Eisner prepared to add a new dimension to Disney's operations. In 1994, Eisner attempted to buy the NBC television network from General Electric Company, but the deal fell through because General Electric reportedly wanted to retain ownership of 51 percent of the network. Eisner pressed ahead, determined to buy a television network. His search ended in 1995 when Disney announced its head-turning merger with Capital Cities/ABC, a $19 billion deal that gave Disney control over television stations, radio stations, cable networks, and legions of other properties. Applauded by industry pundits as a strategically sound move, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC married the vast content collection controlled by Disney to the expansive broadcasting capabilities of the ABC network, exponentially increasing the might of what, after the transaction was completed in 1996, stood as a more than $20 billion entertainment conglomerate.
The late 1990s saw Eisner steer Disney in several other strategically important directions. The growth of the Internet presented the company's chairman and CEO with another opportunity to disseminate Disney's entertainment content to the public. In 1998, Disney acquired Starwave, which maintained ESPN.com and Mr. Showbiz, as well as other web sites, and purchased 43 percent of Infoseek, acquiring the rest of the Internet search engine company in 1999. In January of that year, the company launched the GO Network Web portal. Other additions to the company's operations included the opening of the 540-acre Animal Kingdom park in Florida, the Disney version of a zoo, and the launching of an 875-stateroom cruise ship christened the Disney Magic, to be followed by the debut of a sister ship, the Disney Wonder. Eisner also acquired two professional sports clubs, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a professional hockey team, and Major League Baseball's Anaheim Angels. Concurrent with the numerous acquisitions he presided over, Eisner endeavored to expand Disney's geographic reach. During the late 1990s, the company collected roughly 20 percent of its revenue from overseas business--too low of a percentage from Eisner's viewpoint. China and India were considered to be high-growth markets.
The scope and scale of Disney's properties by the late 1990s represented an impressive list of businesses that few companies in the world could equal. The additions to the Disney portfolio during the latter half of the decade turned an already sprawling empire into a multifaceted entertainment conglomerate of mind-boggling proportions, but no matter the size of a company, success depended on execution. As it became evident during the court proceedings to resolve Katzenberg's lawsuit, Disney's massive revenue-generating, profit-making engine was sputtering inefficiently. The details delineating the company's problems were divulged because of the nature of the Katzenberg case. Eisner, who had the opportunity to settle his former studio chief's compensation claim for $100 million, decided not to give in without a fight, believing the demand for as much as $580 million was preposterously high. It was a decision he later regretted. In court, Eisner learned that Katzenberg had negotiated a contract with Wells during the 1980s. A passage in the contract, as published by the Financial Times on June 4, 1999, read: "It is, of course, obvious but nonetheless worth pointing out that many of these pictures still have substantial revenues forthcoming from ancillary markets which continue to accrue to Jeffrey's benefit. ... Of course, some of these will continue 'forever' in the sense that even if he should leave one day, there would be an arbitrated amount as to future income from the pictures." The inclusion of the word "forever" in the contract struck a crippling blow to Eisner's hope of leaving the courtroom victorious.
Because the amount of Katzenberg's claim depended on the future profit potential of certain facets of the Disney enterprise, company lawyers were inclined to paint a bleak picture of the company's financial health at the end of the 1990s and its prospects for the years ahead. Despite the incentive to underestimate the company's financial might, it became obvious to onlookers that all was not right in the Magic Kingdom. The theme parks were performing well, but nearly every other aspect of the company's business suffered from disappointing results. ABC was at the top of the list, hobbled by low ratings and rising costs, including the $9.2 billion spent for ABC and ESPN to acquire the rights for the NFL through 2008. Internationally, the company was not making headway, notoriously evident in two cinematic failures. Mulan, the Chinese-themed animation film, generated a paltry $1.3 million during its run in China. The release of Hercules in India fell decidedly flat and actually led to a loss of $14,000. On the whole, the last year of the decade signaled a depressing end to the 20th century for Disney. For the first nine months of 1999, excluding the income gained from an asset sale, operating income was down 17 percent, net income dropped 26 percent, and earnings per share fell 27 percent.
The Katzenberg compensation claim was settled for a reported $200 million, although both parties refused to divulge the amount. More significant to industry observers than the exact dollar amount of the settlement was the information revealed during the proceedings, prompting some analysts to cast a wary eye toward the entertainment behemoth. Some critics charged that Eisner's autocratic leadership inhibited efficiency and progress, but the most threatening diagnosis struck at the company's fundamental strength. Some industry experts contended that "age compression," the theory that youths of the late 1990s emulated teenage behavior at an earlier age than in decades past, was draining the strength of the Disney name. Rebellion against the wholesome Disney image was the result, reducing the size of Disney's target audience. "They've never gotten past the problem that their core audience is girls 2 to 8 and their moms," a former, unnamed, Disney executive explained in the September 6, 1999 issue of Fortune magazine. Sociological intricacies aside, the future financial health of Disney depended on the ability of the company to reap the rewards inherent in its operations, on its effectiveness in churning out profits from a powerful entertainment machine that looked good on the outside but internally was suffering. The continued attraction of the Disney name in the 21st century represented the foundation upon which the company's return to soaring profits would be built.
Disney's finances improved in 2000, with a 9 percent increase in total revenues and an impressive 39 percent jump in net income. The boost in growth was due particularly to the success of the ABC Network and ESPN. Parks and Resorts also had an impact on growth, achieving record results for the sixth consecutive year. Creatively, Disney had a positive year, with the premier of The Emperor's New Groove, as well as the Broadway premier of its musical Aida. But the success of 2000 would be short-lived.
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. immediately impacted Disney's financial situation. The hardest hit were Disney's Parks and Resorts, as vacation travel came to a halt. The recession that followed the attacks did not help matters. The suffering economy, coupled with a drop in ratings, led to a dramatic decrease in advertising rates for Disney's Media Networks, and in particular, the ABC Network. By 2001's end, Disney suffered a staggering $158 million loss in net income. Also contributing to a loss of income was a costly acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide, Inc. (FFW), for $5.3 billion.
In reaction to troubled times, Disney implemented a number of cost-cutting measures. Such measures included decreasing operations at Disney parks; cutting its annual investment in live-action films; and minimizing Internet operations. Additionally, Disney cut approximately 4,000 employees from its payroll. On a more positive note, Disney's Monsters, Inc. premiered at this time, quickly becoming a top 20 film for the studio.
Revenues for 2002 dropped slightly below those for 2001; yet, largely because of Disney's cost-cutting measures, the company's net income jumped to $1.2 billion. The year 2002 also witnessed creative successes for Disney, with the releases of Peter Pan: Return to Neverland and Lilo & Stitch. The latter, in particular, was hugely successful. The Walt Disney Studios reaped large rewards in 2003, becoming the first in history to exceed over $3 billion in worldwide box office sales. Contributing to this success were the premieres of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Bringing Down the House,; Finding Nemo, and Brother Bear.
But the mood was partly spoiled by turmoil within the company, between CEO Eisner and board members Roy E. Disney (son of Roy O. Disney) and Stanley Gold. Conflict came to the fore when Eisner pushed the board to deny the reelection of Disney to the board, claiming the latter, at age 72, was required to retire. In response, Gold resigned from the board, urging other board members to oust Eisner.
Eisner's difficulties did not lessen in 2004. For one, Pixar Animation Studios, creator of such hits as Toy Story and Finding Nemo, chose to look for another distributor. The end of the 12-year relationship between the two--spawned by Pixar's longstanding battles with Eisner over issues of control and money--was anticipated to further damage Disney's financial situation. Also in 2004, cable giant Comcast Corporation placed an unsolicited $54 billion bid to acquire the Walt Disney Company, which the latter refused, but which spread doubt concerning the company's future. Uncertainty seemed to surround Disney, even within its movie division. The 2004 movies The Alamo and Home on the Range yielded poor box office earnings, especially considering their high price tags (The Alamo alone cost $100 million). In the face of such difficulties and general dissatisfaction among certain board members, Eisner was forced to cede chairmanship, with some members desiring to see his resignation as CEO.
Principal Subsidiaries: ABC, Inc.; A&E Network (37.5%); Anaheim Sports; Buena Vista Home Video; Buena Vista International; Buena Vista Internet Group; Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.; Buena Vista Television; Childcraft Educational Corp.; The Disney Channel; The History Channel; Disney Consumer Products International, Inc.; Disney Development Co.; The Disney Store, Inc.; EDL Holding Co.; Euro Disney S.C.A. (49%); E! Entertainment Television (39.5%); ESPN (80%); Fairchild Publications; Hyperion; Infoseek Corporation; KHJ-TV, Inc.; Lake Buena Vista Communities; Lifetime Entertainment Services (50%); Miramax Films; Reedy Creek Energy Services, Inc.; Touchstone Films; Touchstone Television; Walt Disney Attractions; Walt Disney Imagineering; Walt Disney Pictures and Television; WCO Parent Corp.; WED Transportation Systems, Inc.
Principal Divisions: Broadcasting; Creative Content; Theme Parks; Resorts; Sports.
Principal Competitors:DreamWorks SKG; Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.; Liberty Media Corporation; Lucasfilm Ltd.; MGM; Microsoft Corporation; NBC Universal; Six Flags, Inc.; Sony Corporation; AOL Time Warner Inc.
Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966), was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, and philanthropist. He was the son of parents Flora and Elias Disney, and had three brothers and one sister. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Walt became one of the most well-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately US $30 billion.
Walt Disney is particularly noted for being a successful storyteller, a hands-on film producer, and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created a number of the world's most popular animated properties, including the one many consider Disney's alter ego, Mickey Mouse. He is also well-known as the namesake of the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States.
Walt Disney's ancestors emigrated from Gowran, County Kilkenny in Ireland. Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1906 the family moved to a farm near Marceline, Missouri.
When the family arrived in Kansas City, Elias Disney purchased a newspaper route for the Kansas City Star. Disney later recalled that they would deliver the paper in the heat of summer and during the dead of winter.
According to the Kansas City Public School District records, Disney began attending the Benton Grammar School in 1910, and graduated on June 8, 1911, being held back a year so that Ruth could go with him. In 1915 Disney enrolled in weekend classes at the Kansas City Art Institute.
In 1917 Disney began his freshman year at McKinley High School in Chicago, Illinois and began taking night courses at the Chicago Art Institute. Disney dropped out of high school at 16 so he could join the Army.
He moved into Kansas City to begin his artistic career.
At Kansas City Film Ad, Disney and Iwerks worked on primitive animated advertisements for local movie houses. Disney was fascinated by the possibilities inherent in animation.
In 1922, he started a small company called Laugh-O-Grams which began by selling short animated films to local companies in Kansas City.
When Disney arrived in Los Angeles, he had $40 in his pocket and an unfinished cartoon in his suitcase. Disney sent an unfinished print to New York distributor Margaret Winkler, who promptly wrote back to him. She wanted a distribution deal with Disney for more live-action/animated shorts based upon Alice's Wonderland.
Disney looked up his brother Roy, who was recovering from tuberculosis in a Los Angeles veteran's hospital. Virginia Davis (the live-action star of Alice?s Wonderland) and her family were relocated at Disney's request from Kansas City to Hollywood, as were Iwerks and his family. This was the beginning of the Disney Brothers' Studio.
In 1925, Disney hired a young woman named Lillian Bounds to ink and paint celluloid. Disney then began to take her out on dates, their first being the Broadway show, No, No, Nanette.
The new series, "Alice Comedies," was reasonably successful, and featured both Dawn O'Day and Margie Gay as Alice after Virginia Davis? The new series, "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit", was an almost instant success, and the Oswald character, first drawn and created by Iwerks, became a popular property. The Disney studio expanded, and Walt hired back Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng from Kansas City.
Disney declined Mintz's offer and lost most of his animation staff. The defectors became the nucleus of the Winkler Studio, run by Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler. When that studio went under after Universal assigned production of the Oswald shorts to an in-house division run by Walter Lantz, Mintz focused his attentions on the studio making the "Krazy Kat" shorts, which later became Screen Gems, and Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng marketed an Oswald-like character named Bosko to Leon Schlesinger and Al Michaels to NBC Sports for their Sunday night NFL coverage, the Walt Disney Company reacquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC Universal in 2006.
After having lost the rights to Oswald, Disney had to develop a new "star". The mouse was originally named "Mortimer", but later christened "Mickey Mouse" by Lillian Disney.
Mickey's first animated short produced was Plane Crazy, which was, like all of Disney's previous works, a silent film. After failing to find distributor interest in Plane Crazy or its follow-up, The Gallopin' Gaucho, Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie. A businessman named Pat Powers provided Disney with both distribution and Cinephone, a sound-synchronization process. Disney himself provided the vocal effects for the earliest cartoons and performed as the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1937. Although both series were successful, the Disney studio was not seeing its rightful share of profits from Pat Powers, and in 1930 Disney signed a new distribution deal with Columbia Pictures.
Iwerks was growing tired of the temperamental Disney, especially as he was doing the majority of the work, and so was lured by Powers into opening his own studio with an exclusive contract. Iwerks would return to Disney in 1940 and, in the studio's research and development department, would go on to pioneer a number of film processes and specialized animation technologies.
Eventually, Disney was able to find a number of people to replace Iwerks. The Van Beuren cartoon studio attempted to cash in on this success by creating a specific process, making these the first commercial films presented in this new process. The first color Symphony was Flowers and Trees, which won the first Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1932.
In 1932, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse, whose series was moved into color in 1935 and soon launched spinoff series for supporting characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. His doctors said that he had to get away for a while, so he and his wife went on a Caribbean cruise and then traveled to Washington, D.C.
When Lilly Disney became pregnant again, Disney told his sister in a letter that he did not care what gender the child was, just as long as they were not disappointed again. A few years later the Disneys adopted a second daughter, Sharon Mae Disney, born on December 21, 1936. When the rest of the film industry learned of Disney's plans to produce an animated feature-length version of Snow White, they dubbed the project "Disney's Folly" and were certain that the project would destroy the Disney studio. He employed Chouinard Art Institute professor Don Graham to start a training operation for the studio staff, and used the Silly Symphonies as a platform for experiments in realistic human animation, distinctive character animation, special effects, and the use of specialized processes and apparatus such as the multiplane camera.
All of this development and training was used to elevate the quality of the studio so that it would be able to give the feature the quality Disney desired. To acquire the funding to complete Snow White, Disney had to show a rough cut of the motion picture to loan officers at the Bank of America, who gave the studio the money to finish the picture. The success of Snow White allowed Disney to build a new campus for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which opened for business on December 24, 1939. The inexpensive Dumbo was planned as an income generator, but during production of the new film, most of the animation staff went on strike, permanently straining the relationship between Disney and his artists.
By the late 1940s, the studio had recovered enough to continue production on the full-length features Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, which had been shelved during the war years, and began work on Cinderella.
During 1949, Disney and his family moved to a new home on a large piece of property in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles, California. With the help of his friends Ward and Betty Kimball, owners of their own backyard railroad, Disney developed the blueprints and immediately set to work creating a miniature live steam railroad for his backyard.
On a business trip to Chicago in the late-1940s, Disney drew sketches of his ideas for an amusement park where he envisioned his employees spending time with their children. Disney spent five years of his life developing Disneyland and created a new subsidiary of his company, called WED Enterprises, to carry out the planning and production of the park. A small group of Disney studio employees joined the Disneyland development project as engineers and planners, and were dubbed Imagineers.
When describing one of his earliest plans to Herb Ryman (who created the first aerial drawing of Disneyland to present to the Bank of America for funds), Disney said, "Herbie, I just want it to look like nothing else in the world. Entertaining his daughters and their friends in his backyard and taking them for rides on his Carolwood Pacific Railroad had inspired Disney to include a railroad in the plans for Disneyland. Treasure Island (1950) became the studio's first all-live-action feature, and was soon followed by such successes as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (in CinemaScope, 1954), The Shaggy Dog (1959), and The Parent Trap (1961). Disney began hosting a weekly anthology series on ABC named Disneyland after the park, where he showed clips of past Disney productions, gave tours of his studio, and familiarized the public with Disneyland as it was being constructed in Anaheim, California. In 1955, he debuted the studio's first daily television show, the popular Mickey Mouse Club, which would continue in many various incarnations into the 1990s.
Production on the short cartoons had kept pace until 1956, when Disney shut down the shorts division.
These productions were all distributed by Disney's new subsidiary, Buena Vista Distribution, which had assumed all distribution duties for Disney films from RKO by 1955. Disneyland, one of the world's first theme parks, finally opened on July 17, 1955, and was immediately successful. and eventually evolved into what is today known as The Wonderful World of Disney, which continued to air on ABC until 2005, when it ceased as a regular series, due in part to premium pay-cable rights currently held by the Starz! movie network. Since 2005, Disney features have been split between ABC, the Hallmark Channel, and Cartoon Network via separate broadcast rights deals. It currently airs periodically, with features such as the December 2005 revivial of Once Upon a Mattress.
The TV series and book Our Friend the Atom (1956, together with Heinz Haber) were produced as part of an effort by the Eisenhower administration to enhance the image of nuclear energy. After decades of trying, Disney finally procured the rights to P.L. Mary Poppins, released in 1964, was the most successful Disney film of the 1960s and featured a memorable song score written by Disney favorites the Sherman Brothers. The same year, Disney debuted a number of exhibits at the 1964 New York World's Fair, including Audio-Animatronic figures, all of which were later integrated into attractions at Disneyland and a new theme park project to be established on the east coast, which Disney had been planning ever since Disneyland opened.
Walt Disney first showed interest in ski resorts with his investment in Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in the 1930s. The project was eventually canceled due to heavy protest from many environmental organizations, most notably the Sierra Club. The 1970s saw yet another set of Disney plans for a ski resort, in Independence Lake near San Francisco.
In 1964, Walt Disney Productions began quietly purchasing land in central Florida west of Orlando in a largely rural area of marginal orange groves for Disney's "Florida Project." Disney and his brother Roy then announced plans for what they called "Disney World."
Disney's involvement in Disney World ended in late 1966; after many years of chain-smoking, he was diagnosed with cancer in his left lung. He was checked into the St. Joseph's Hospital across the street from the Disney Studio lot and his health began to deteriorate, causing him to suffer cardiac arrest.
Walter Elias Disney died on December 15, 1966, ten days after his 65th birthday. He was cremated on December 17, 1966 at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. Roy Disney continued to carry out the Florida project, insisting that the name be changed to Walt Disney World in honor of his brother. Disney died just three months after the Magic Kingdom opened for business in 1971.
There has been a long-standing urban legend that after his death, Disney was cryogenically frozen so he may be revived at a later date. In fact, Disney was cremated, and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA.
A similar myth has sprung up that shortly after his death, top Disney executives were shown a film that Disney made shortly before his death, that basically outlines the company's strategies for the next five (or ten) years.
After giving his dedication for Walt Disney World, he then asked Lillian Disney to join him. Roy died from a cerebral hemorrhage in December, the day he was due to open the Disneyland Christmas parade.
When the second phase of the Walt Disney World theme park was built, EPCOT was translated by Walt Disney's successors into EPCOT Center, which opened in 1982. As it currently exists, Epcot is essentially a living world's fair, a far cry from the actual functional city that Disney had envisioned. In 1992 Walt Disney Imagineering took the step closer to Walt's vision and dedicated Celebration, Florida, a town built by the Walt Disney Company adjacent to Walt Disney World, that harkens back to the spirit of EPCOT.
Today, Walt Disney's animation/motion picture studios and theme park have developed into a multi-billion dollar television, motion picture, vacation destination and media corporation that carries his name. The Walt Disney Company today owns, among other assets, five vacation resorts, eleven theme parks, two water parks, thirty-nine hotels, eight motion picture studios, six record labels, eleven cable television networks, and one terrestrial television network.
Traditional hand-drawn animation, with which Walt Disney built the success of his company, no longer continues at the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio. After a stream of financially unsuccessful traditionally-animated features in the late-1990s and early 2000s, the two satellite studios in Paris and Orlando were closed, and the main studio in Burbank was converted to a computer animation production facility. The DisneyToons studio in Australia, which produced lower-budget traditionally animated films, at first appeared to survive the purge, but its closing was announced in July 2005.
Disney devoted substantial time in his later years funding The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), which was formed in 1961 through a merger of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute, which had helped in the training of the animation staff during the 1930s. CalArts moved onto the Valencia campus in 1971.
Lillian Disney devoted much of her time after her husband died to pursuing CalArts and organized hundreds of fund raising events for the university in her late husband's honor (as well as funding the Walt Disney Symphony Hall).
Among many awards, Walt Disney holds the record for having the most Academy Awards.
Barrier, Michael (1999). ISBN 0-8128-8514-7.
Schickel, Richard, and Dee, Ivan R. (1967, 1985, 1997). ISBN 1-56663-158-0.
Sherman, Robert B. and Sherman, Richard M. (1998) "Walt's Time: From Before to Beyond" ISBN 09646059 .
1901: Walt Disney, the company's founder, is born.
1919: With Ub Iwerks, Disney forms Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists.
1923: The distributor M.J. Winkler purchases Disney's Alice Comedies for $1,500 per reel; Disney creates Disney Bros. Studios with his brother Roy.
1924: M.J. Winkler Productions debuts the Alice Comedy Series, with the film Alice's Day at Sea, in theaters.
1928: Mickey Mouse is "born"; Disney releases Steamboat Willie, its first film with sound.
1937: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first full-length animated film, debuts.
1940: Pinocchio and Fantasia are released.
1955: The Mickey Mouse Club debuts; Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.
1966: Walt Disney dies of lung cancer.
1971: Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida; Roy O. Disney dies.
1982: EPCOT Center opens on the grounds of Walt Disney World.
1983: The first foreign Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, opens.
1984: Michael Eisner is named Disney's new CEO; Disney releases Splash under its new label, Touchstone Pictures.
1989: Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opens near Orlando, Florida.
1992: Euro Disney (later named Disneyland Paris) opens.
1996: Disney acquires television station Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion; Radio Disney debuts.
1998: Animal Kingdom opens in Walt Disney World, Florida.
1999: Disney Cruise Line begins operations with the Disney Magic.
2001: Disney's California Adventure opens next to Disneyland; Disney acquires Fox Family Worldwide for $5.3 billion.
2003: Roy E. Disney--son of Roy O. Disney, last of the founding family associated with the company--and Stanley Gold quit the Disney board and start Save Disney.com in an attempt to oust CEO Michael Eisner.
This web site and associated pages are not associated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The Walt Disney Company and has no official or unofficial affiliation with The Walt Disney Company.


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The Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus is the UK’s only spiny mammal and populations are in decline. They are under recorded locally. We want to learn more about our local population. They can live up to 10 years old but the average is 2-3 years. Hedgehogs are native to Britain and their diet is made up of worms, slugs, beetles and caterpillars. They usually begin hibernation in November that lasts until spring but often wake up during the winter and return to hibernation if its cold. Hibernation time for hedgehogs depends on the weather.
Identification: Has thousands of 2.5mm spines covering the head and back. Grey-brown fur covers the face, chest, belly, throat and legs. Weighs up to 2kg. Has small black eyes and a pointed brown furry face. Commonly found in woodland, gardens, farmlands, grassland.
To discover more about Hedgehogs visit the Mammal Society.

industry_corpus2: Agriculture & Fisheries


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industry_corpus2: Finance & Economics


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If I slept poorly the night prior to my check ride, the night following the ride was even worse. Exhausted, I dragged myself into work the next morning. A headache throbbed obstinately in my temple all day as my brain enacted a sit-down strike in protest of inadequate rest.
Tom called mid morning in full blown coach mode. "I just talked to Ken. He said you're an excellent pilot, your knowledge is good, and that you fly your airplane very well. He said your VOR approach into Le Roy was flawless, even while partial panel. You need to get right back on the horse and finish this up. Ken offered to fly with you tomorrow night to knock out those last two approaches. If we fly tonight, I will sign you off to take the test tomorrow and we'll have to submit a new application through IACRA. If we do that, you can call Ken in the morning and he'll meet with you tomorrow afternoon to wrap things up."
My head throbbed as I contemplated this. I was exhausted and knew from prior experience that flying without adequate rest was rarely worthwhile or confidence inspiring. But I appreciated the encouragement I was receiving from Tom and Ken. Also, Tom was right. I needed to get back on the horse and so I agreed to meet him at Le Roy that night.
En route to Le Roy, the Warrior bucked and shuddered in rough, clear air. The visibility was unlimited, but the winds were variable and I noticed my wind correction angle varying continuously since departing Williamson.
I called five miles out from Le Roy and advised that I would overfly the airport to peek at the windsock. This was answered by another aircraft orbiting nearby.
"We just flew over the field, but could not see the sock."
"We just installed a new one, it should be down there," I responded. It was funny how easily I slipped back into "we" when talking about my home of the previous seven years. The other aircraft abandoned its search for the windsock and simply chose to enter downwind for runway 10. Not wanting to fly against this traffic, I also entered downwind for 10 behind him.
From the pattern, I could see the windsock and it was clear to me that the wind favored runway 28. I shared this with my new friend and we both transitioned to a runway 28 pattern. While I was flying the base leg of the pattern, I provided the visitor with progressive taxi instructions to get where he needed to go on the ground.
I landed smoothly in less crosswind than I expected and taxied to the fuel pump. "Hey Cherokee," called the other pilot on the radio, "where's the fuel pump?"
"I'm parked right in front of it," I responded.
"Boy, that's some crosswind we had on final, huh?"
After I fueled Warrior 481, the other aircraft taxied over and took on fuel. The pilot was concerned that he did not have a Detroit sectional chart (which is where Le Roy and Rochester are charted), so I gave him one of mine. He eventually departed, pleased with his experience at the Le Roy Airport.
The experience bolstered my damaged confidence in myself as an aviator.
Tom arrived right on time and we talked through what had happened on my check ride the previous evening. He understood the logic that led to my Great Brain Fart O' Failure, but also made sure that I understood why it was wrong (believe me, I got it). Then we flew both approaches at Rochester from the previous night and I received a fresh check ride endorsement in my logbook.
I returned home around 10:00 pm, filled out a new IACRA application, and text-messaged Tom that it was ready for his approval. Just before 11:00, Tom responded that the he had signed the application and gave me marching orders to call Ken first thing in the morning.
I went to bed and proceeded to not sleep until sometime after 2:00 am.
I can only assume that Tom sent these messages in an order adhering to established English syntax and that they were scrambled somehow by the phone, but who knows?
Ken answered his phone immediately when I called him at 8:30. I opened with, "I hope this is a civilized hour to call..." Ken chuckled and affirmed that it was. We made plans to meet at four o' clock that afternoon.
I was back at the Rochester Air Center, having let down through turbulent air. Wind was gusting from the northeast at 10 to 19 knots. Conditions were certainly rougher than they had been on Tuesday.
In counterpoint to the turbulent atmosphere, I was finally calm inside. And this is how the experience of earning my instrument rating reminded me of graduate school. In the final weeks leading to my dissertation defense, I worked twenty hour days, seven days a week. As I adjusted to that lifestyle, I found myself in a curious zone of frosty mental acuity fueled by a significant amount of anxiety and determination that countered a very lean mixture of sleep. I realized that I felt much the same way as I waited for Ken.
And so it was that when Ken entered the lobby, I knew that I was ready for him.
Because the wind was out of the northeast, we decided that we would fly the RNAV runway 7 and the ILS runway 4 approaches. I had prior experience with the ILS, but had never flown the RNAV 7 before. Aloft, the Warrior was buffeted by both wind gusts and thermals, but I held my course and altitude like a pro. The RNAV 7 approach was flown as near to perfect as I could have ever hoped to have flown it.
After the low approach to runway 7, we were vectored around for the ILS approach to runway 4. I briefed the approach plate and set up my instruments, talking through what I planned to use as primary means for identifying fixes and what I was putting into place as a back-up. Heck, I even remembered the timer.
During this time, my right eye began to itch and burn. Initially, I forced it to stay open and tears rolled down my right cheek to an extent that Ken noticed them. I closed my right eye in an effort to soothe it, grateful that my gaze was inside the cockpit where depth perception was not needed.
Soon enough, we were established on the ILS for runway 4.
"Stay under the hood until we reach 200' above the threshold," Ken reminded.
"Warrior 481, we have a turbojet aircraft on final for runway 4 behind you. Break off your approach and circle to land runway 7." I glanced at the circling minimums shown on the approach plate and noted that we were 100' above them. I sidestepped the runway 4 approach course and arrested the airplane's descent at the circling minimum descent altitude.
At that point, Ken had me remove the Foggles and complete the landing on runway 7.
Someone had obviously greased that runway before our arrival; it was the smoothest landing I had made in weeks. "Really good," Ken commented, momentarily breaking from his stoic examiner's demeanor.
Taxiing back to the 300 ramp, my cheek still damp from an aggrieved eye, I noted to Ken that I had my right eye closed for much of the ILS approach. He smiled, "did it with one eye tied behind your back, eh?"
Once the prop shuddered to a stop and the landing checklist was complete, Ken asked, "the trip you want to take this weekend, that's in this airplane?"
When I acknowledged that it was, he extended his hand, "well then, you'll be able to do it as an instrument rated pilot."
Back inside Rochester Air Center, we completed the paperwork. Ken defaced my current pilot certificate and handed me a new temporary certificate while delivering the apparently mandatory decree that it was a license to learn.
I was grateful to both Ken and Tom for their support and encouragement to get right back on the horse after the brain fart that derailed my check ride two days earlier. I was also happy with myself that, after Tuesday's experience, I came back and flew those approaches not just competently, but truly to the best of my ability.
Afterward, Ken and I sat and talked for over an hour, swapping flying stories. I could not have asked for a better way to detox from my self-induced stress of the past week.
Friday night and Saturday morning, I pored over weather forecasts between Rochester, NY and Knoxville, TN in preparation for our vacation. Marginal VFR was expected, with 3000' foot ceilings forecast that would present relatively easy approaches for a newly minted instrument pilot. But the likelihood of thunderstorms ahead of an advancing cold front in addition to strong headwinds that would place us in the clouds for nearly six hours (versus a typical 4.5 hour en route time) reduced my enthusiasm for making the trip in the Warrior. When combined with a week of poor rest, I decided that it was not a good day to fly to Tennessee with Kristy and The Bear on board.
"That's OK, Daddy, we can fly in the clouds some other time," assured The Bear.
And so I did take the trip to Knoxville as an instrument rated pilot. I just did it in the Honda instead of the Piper. Technology and aviation prowess aside, making good decisions is ultimately what instrument flying is all about.
I have heard it said that pursuing an instrument rating is akin to graduate school for aviators.
I can say with some certainty that, at the end of the process, I felt much as I did after defending my doctorate in chemistry, though maybe not for the reasons that might be expected.
I counted the passage of time with each thump of an anxious heart as I waited in the Rochester Air Center's unfamiliar lobby for the examiner who would assess my petition to join the fraternity of cloud busters. Intellectually, I was ready. I had the knowledge, could fly the airplane, and it was Tom's expert opinion that the rating was easily within my reach.
However, in the previous two days, both scheduled instrument practice sessions with Darrell were undone by weather, first by a 2000' scattered layer that prevented flying practice approaches while VFR and then by a line of thunderstorms that threatened to overrun Le Roy. I was prepared for the check ride, but not emotionally ready for it.
Anxiety-induced lack of sleep detracted even further from my confidence.
Despite the nerves and uncertainty, I wanted to complete the check ride before a July 27 flying trip with the family to Tennessee, where expanded weather capability had the potential to reduce the risk of being stranded. Obviously, I was only interested in a slight expansion of my weather envelope; approaches down to minimums with the family on board as a low time instrument pilot do not fall into the "good idea" category for me at this time.
Ken arrived punctually, shook my hand politely, and we dove into "paperwork". Since my first check ride in 2002, the portion of that paperwork actually involving paper was largely eliminated in favor of the FAA's clunky IACRA (Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application) website. Though I had meticulously organized the information that Ken would want to see (like marking important logbook pages with Post-It notes), I did not come prepared with my IACRA password.
"I'm going to phone a friend," I told Ken as I called Kristy to look up my password.
"Ok, but once you use that lifeline, you won't have it any more," Ken remarked. I smiled, envisioning a harried phone call placed to Kristy from the cockpit of the airplane while executing an approach.
With IACRA presenting a bland, satisfied facade, we jumped into the hypothetical cross country flight that I had planned for Ken.
As I researched the flight, I found that a preferred IFR route existed, though it contained an arrival procedure (STAR) at the destination involving a a minimum altitude of 11,000'. While possible to fly in my ship, this seemed like an unreasonable altitude for a Piper Warrior on a hot summer's day. Instead, I located a TEC (Terminal En Route Control) to my destination that made significantly more sense to fly. I suspected that a part of what Ken wanted to see was my recognition that these routes existed and some sound logic behind my ultimate selection.
Ken and I talked through my choice of route and looked at weather data together. Was there a legal requirement that I file an alternate airport? No, the terminal forecasts were not sufficiently poor for that. But there were Sigmets for thunderstorms as well as thunderstorm warnings in the terminal area forecast at the time of arrival. Would I make the flight IFR?
"No, the convective forecast is outside my comfort zone." Ken nodded and continued to use the scenario to further probe my book knowledge. Satisfied, he announced that it was time to fly.
The thumping in my chest resumed.
Darrell had already told me that I would like Ken, that he was reasonable and easy-going. Darrell was right; Ken was terrific, a seasoned aviator with a breadth of experience in professional and personal flying.
So why did I feel like David Gilmour's "earthbound misfit" every time I opened my mouth? The simple answer is lack of sleep and inadequate confidence.
Climbing away from Rochester while under the hood, I requested an ATC-assigned hold at the Geneseo VOR. I was assigned to hold southeast on Victor 147. After glancing at the en route chart and noting that this airway used Geneseo's 153° radial, I sketched the hold on my kneeboard and made the proper entry. At one point, Ken appeared to be concerned that I was leaning too much on the moving map of the Garmin 430W, so he "failed" it with Post-It notes. If anything, I tightened up my flying of the holding pattern.
When Ken announced that we would do unusual attitude recoveries next, I knew that I had performed a satisfactory holding maneuver. We did two recoveries. For the first one, a descending spiral, my airspeed indicated well into the yellow arc and was climbing rapidly when I resumed control of the airplane. I was thankful to Ray for always reinforcing the notion of looking at the airspeed indicator first in those situations. The recoveries went well and Ken asked for a steep turn course reversal with a return to the hold.
Next, we began a simulated VOR-A approach into Le Roy. While descending from the initial approach fix, Ken pointed to the vacuum gauge and asked what it would mean if the reading there suddenly went to zero.
"I would lose my attitude and directional gyros," I answered.
"Yup," he replied while covering those instruments with more of his ever-versatile Post-It notes. At this stage, my confidence was beginning to build and I nailed the approach, partial panel and all.
Next, we flew the RNAV 25 approach into Rochester. Rochester vectored us onto the approach just outside of the final approach fix, TUNLE. I was told "VFR altitude [my] discretion" and cleared for the approach. I even demonstrated a function on the Garmin 430W that Ken, an experienced user of the device, did not know about. I crossed TUNLE at the appropriate altitude, reduced power, and flew the approach magnificently. One of my greatest fears prior to the check ride was inadvertently going below a minimum altitude, but the approach went quite well despite the gusty conditions. I was proud of it and my confidence continued to grow.
Upon reaching the missed approach point, I added power and followed the missed approach instructions previously issued by Rochester.
"I can't count that approach," Ken commented as we climbed away.
This was code for "you just failed."
My heart fell as I processed the implications. Rochester provided vectors around the south side of the airport to set us up for the third planned approach, an ILS onto runway 28, as Ken explained what I had done wrong.
While Rochester was vectoring us to intercept the RNAV 25 approach just outside the final approach fix (FAF), I descended to the minimum crossing altitude altitude for the FAF before fully establishing myself on the approach. There was a logic behind what I did in the moment, but it was a false logic.
In other words, I had a brain fart. Lack of rest and a bad case of nerves were likely contributing factors. On the bright side, it was a mistake that I will never make again.
Ken had no choice but to fail me. After all, in actual instrument conditions, altitude is life.
As I processed that I had just busted my check ride, I lost enough focus that my performance on the ILS 28 approach was unacceptably sloppy. Rochester Approach barked at me when my distraction resulted in missing an assigned heading. I do not have a track record of failure, particularly in aviation, and did not manage this bad news well.
Somehow, I centered myself on the localizer at the decision altitude, pulled off the Foggles at Ken's prompting, and squeaked the airplane nicely onto runway 28.
Ken explained the next steps. I would need to go back to Tom for additional training, receive a fresh sign off from him in my logbook to finish the check ride, and go on another date with the always-exciting IACRA system to generate a new application. Then, of course, I would need to take Ken back into the sky and demonstrate that I really did know what I was doing. The good news was that I would only need to fly those two approaches - I passed every other area of emphasis Ken threw at me and would not be retested on those items.
We stood talking on the 300 ramp at Rochester while some magnificent thunderheads in the distance were highlighted in crimson by the setting sun. I took the menacingly lovely vista as a prompt to head home.
I landed at Williamson-Sodus after sunset. I was frustrated with myself and discouraged. As I gloomily pushed the Warrior back into her hangar, my neighbor Bob wandered over to check on me.
"You've been gone over seven hours! How did it go?"
"I have to go back and redo part of it," I told him glumly.
He made a face. "Oh...sorry to hear that."
Sunset over Sodus and Little Sodus Bays. And, an hour afterward, night currency restored after a week's lapse.
Eight thousand five hundred feet above seal level, Warrior 481 and I droned home above a bed of downy condensate, weaving languidly around the larger build ups.
After many hours of instrument training, looking out the window again scratched a deeply held itch.
My iPad now routinely goes along for the ride, serving up aeronautical data via ForeFlight.
In earlier posts, I reported a recurrent issue with the iPad overheating and protectively shutting itself down. I have since taken to placing the iPad on my left leg where it is less likely to experience direct sunlight. I have not had an issue since.
The Stratus continues to work well, riding along in the middle of the back seat and drawing in ADS-B weather and GPS position data without any heat issues whatsoever.
When I sold my beloved iFly 700 in lieu of the iPad / ForeFlight / Stratus combination, I had some initial remorse, but the set-up is serving me well. Now that ForeFlight has added "distance rings", a feature that the iFly incorporated that allowed for facile, at a glance, distance measurement, I no longer miss the iFly (though I wish that ForeFlight logged GPS tracks or that CloudAhoy would work with Stratus).
From some distance out, it was obvious that some heavy cells were popping up around Rochester. I appreciated the early warning provided by ADS-B. Syracuse approach warned of isolated cells as well and, as I drew closer to home, my eyes confirmed the cells depicted by ForeFlight. Crossing south of Sodus Bay, the large cell parked offshore was visibly discharging electrical energy into the surface of Lake Ontario. Despite its proximity, there was no precipitation or wind gust near Williamson (though I did detect a shift in wind direction as I monitored the AWOS inbound) and I landed without issue.
The large cell hovered just north of the Williamson-Sodus Airport as I tucked Warrior 481 back into her hangar.
I realize that the ADS-B weather data provided by Stratus is delayed, a look at the recent past that should not be used in an attempt to thread between closely spaced cells. But one of the greatest causes of anxiety (at least, for me) while airborne comes from uncertainty of what lies ahead and the situational awareness afforded by ForeFlight and Stratus has been invaluable on my last few flights.
The sense of community among aviators is an amazing thing. A love of airplanes and flight can create an instant bond between strangers, drawing them together to swap tales at any of the thousands of airports dotting the nation. It is a connection so strong that, within minutes of landing at a new-to-me airport, I can almost instantly engage in an enthusiastic conversation with complete strangers. This sense of community is one of my favorite aspects of flying.
What newcomer would feel welcome by a sight like this? I appreciate that fences help keep deer off the airport and protect airplanes from the criminal element, but they are deleterious to public relations.
Perhaps that is why, after her first trip to the airport with me, my mother remarked with surprise, "wow, airplane people are just like boat people!" This was my mother's way, in southeast Michigan vernacular, of saying, "wow, I had no idea that pilots were so open and friendly!" Boaters are notoriously friendly and it is not just because they get to drink beer while exercising their avocation (at least, I would like to think so).
Pilots are very friendly too, once you get past the intimidating fence.
Enter Amber Nolan, the self-styled "JetHiking Gypsy", a professional travel writer and non-aviator who had the audacity to challenge those fences with a big smile, a lot of enthusiasm, and an ambitious objective. Amber's goal is to "hitchhike" across all 50 states by general aviation while documenting her adventures. Along the way, she is learning that the pilot community is very welcoming of anyone interested in flying. As an "outsider", she is gaining unique insight into the aviation community.
In my opinion, the JetHiking Gypsy has a unique podium to create bridges between the flying community and the general public through her tales of general aviation adventure and camaraderie. From a public relations perspective, I think her mission is a positive one for general aviation, an opportunity for non-flyers to understand what aviators and general aviation are really about. Arguably, taking to the sky with the Gypsy is a better excuse to fly than the average $100 hamburger run.
When Ray from Le Roy told me that Amber was looking for a ride from Rochester, NY to Saratoga Springs, NY, I was more than willing to volunteer my time and ship for all the reasons cited above. And, selfishly, the destination was a new one for me and I was craving an excuse for a short excursion out of the immediate area. I emailed an offer to help that included a link to this blog and an open invitation to Internet-stalk me before accepting a ride.
Suitably vetted as a volunteer pilot, the biggest challenge was waiting out the spate of IFR weather and thunderstorms that has dominated Rochester skies for the past two weeks. On the morning of July 5, we met at the Williamson-Sodus Airport for departure. Coincidentally, it was the very place where she experienced her first general aviation flight. In fact, Amber's entire cross country odyssey began from the Rochester airport in July of 2012.
We did some aerial sightseeing over Chimney Bluffs before climbing over some scattered clouds for a direct flight to Saratoga Springs. Amber shared some of her stories of travelling the world as a writer and I shared some of my favorite flying destinations (we had Jekyll Island, GA in common).
The time passed quickly and, before long, we dropped back down through a hole in the clouds and approached Saratoga County Airport. After so much focus on instrument training and flying in circles, it was a treat to fly someplace new outside of the immediate Rochester area.
At Saratoga County, we met Mike, the pilot of a Cessna 180 who had previously offered to fly Amber across the state line into Vermont. Walking into the FBO, the Gypsy was greeted as a celebrity with a shout of "hey, it's the All Fifty States Girl!" While the line staff hung on her every word, I chatted a bit with Mike who had some interesting aviation experience beyond mine. It was a great morning of flying and aviation community. That afternoon, Amber reached state number twenty-nine by landing in Basin Harbor, VT.
I have always tried to do my part for aviation PR by giving rides to anyone willing to entertain the idea. That is most definitely a one person at a time approach. Through her writing, Amber stands to reach a much broader cross section of the general public than I ever could. When she is done, I think she will have an amazing story to tell, one that will be good for general aviation. I wish her the very best of luck in her quest and am looking forward to reading all about it.
Nearing the IFR check ride, a final hurdle remained in place: the dual (flown with an instructor) IFR cross country flight of 250+ nautical miles with different types of approaches flown at three airports. For me, the challenge of reaching this milestone lay neither in the planning nor the execution, but in finding an appropriate day to make the flight.
To my mind, the ideal day would feature a thick stratus layer starting at 800 feet above ground level allowing for some actual IFR flight in a relatively benign atmosphere. In other words, the ideal weather would be crummy, but not too crummy; thunderstorms need not apply. Unfortunately, like much of the country east of the Mississippi, Rochester has suffered a soaking from an abysmal weather pattern generating a near continuous threat of thunderstorms.
Our first scheduled attempt was Tuesday, June 25. I was worried about forecast thunderstorm activity, but we decided to re-assess closer to the planned departure time. I departed Williamson in Warrior 481 bound for Le Roy to meet Tom. On the way, I flew through a light rain shower that I first saw depicted on my moving map by Foreflight/Stratus before my eyeballs confirmed its presence. The let down into Le Roy was chock full of bumps and burbles, but this did not stand in the way of punctuality. I shut down at precisely the appointed 9:00 meeting time.
Plan A: 279 nautical miles.
My flight plan was meticulously crafted the previous Saturday while riding the train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central in NYC. I was very proud of this plan, which had us flying from Le Roy to the Geneseo VOR, to Elmira for an ILS approach, to Jamestown via the Elmira and Wellsville VORs for an RNAV approach, then back to Geneseo via the LANGS intersection to fly the VOR-A back into Le Roy.
Because it was our first time together in nearly three months, Tom and I did some review and went over the plan in detail. We briefed and filed it. Forecast convective activity along the route inspired a go/no-go debate. We hemmed, we hawed. When the office shuddered in a sudden squall, Tom and I ran outside and tied down Warrior 481. We sought inspiration from the local sky, despite knowing that the view would not be relevant to our planned route of flight. In the end, we came to a consensus that the risk of embedded thunderstorms was simply too high for comfort. My IFR flight plan expired without any clearance granted.
It was a turbulent return to Williamson with a ground speed of 144 knots at 3000'. Had we gone, it would have been a rough ride and later viewing of the radar showed thunderstorm activity all along the planned route and, at times, right over the intended destinations. We made a good choice.
A second attempt, Sunday June 30, was foiled by a broken ceiling of 600 feet over Williamson, preventing me from departing VFR to meet Tom at Le Roy. I noted with irony that it was exactly the sort of weather I had in mind for getting my IFR ticket in the first place.
In lieu of flying, I washed and waxed the Warrior. It was exercise of a different sort.
Forecasts improved for the evening of July 2 in that thunderstorms were absent from the terminal area forecasts, though there was still an active convective outlook advisory. Low weather was nonetheless anticipated across the route of flight. We concluded that it just might meet my idealized "crummy, but not too crummy" criterion.
Moist air off of Lake Ontario was pushing south such that a 600' ceiling persisted over the shoreline and impacted the Williamson-Sodus airport. Tom, as keen to complete the cross country as I, offered to make the long drive from his house to Williamson.
As I waited for him, I realized that my beloved original plan no longer made sense if we were flying from Williamson rather than Le Roy. I hastily crafted a new plan: Williamson to the Geneseo VOR, to Buffalo for an ILS approach, to Jamestown for a VOR approach, back to the Geneseo VOR via LANGS intersection, and an RNAV approach (LPV!) into Williamson. When Tom arrived, we reviewed the plan, briefed it with Flight Service, and filed it.
Sitting in Warrior 481, the moment of truth came and I called clearance delivery on my cell phone. As the flight specialist put me on hold to contact Rochester Clearance, Tom looked me in the eye and warned, "if he comes back with anything other than 'cleared as filed', do not think - write." As it turned out, we were cleared as filed and received a release time ten minutes hence with a void time ten minutes after that. It was a perfect window with the airspace over Williamson owned by me for all of ten minutes.
We departed Williamson in four miles of visibility and entered the cloud base at 400'. We contacted Rochester departure who responded with, "November 21481, radar contact, 1.5 miles south of the Williamson-Sodus airport. There are no other aircraft within twenty miles of you."
I tuned the Geneseo VOR and intercepted the 060° radial while climbing to 4000'. At altitude, we were passing in and out of the clouds, but we were more in than out. Foreflight and Stratus showed some intense precipitation just to the left of our course and Rochester suggested a 20° course correction to the west.
It was the first deviation of many.
Rochester was juggling deviations for several commercial flights and one lone Warrior plowing through the cumulus.
"The area around Geneseo is developing some very heavy precipitation," Rochester reported, then provided a vector that would avoid Geneseo. I set up the #1 Nav to intercept the next airway that would take us to Buffalo while Tom monitored our bearing from Geneseo on the #2.
The world outside our windows varied from the absolute white of a blank canvas, to towering canyons of cotton candy, to neutral grey accompanied by streaks of moisture streaming over the windscreen. Through it all, my scan was solid and our heading and altitude remained true. I was amazed by my blase reaction to my first significant flight through real weather.
On initial contact with Buffalo, the controller warned us that our planned sojourn to Jamestown might be unwise as thunderstorms were beginning to pop just south of the field. We decided to re-assess the situation after flying the ILS at Buffalo, but I began to seek an alternative to Jamestown that would provide a VOR approach that met the required diversity in approaches. Dunkirk had a VOR approach for runway 24 that looked like it would meet the need. I was thankful for Foreflight, which made this process comparatively easy to accomplish because of the way it organized and presented a voluminous amount of aeronautical data.
Vectored onto the ILS by Buffalo, the cockpit of the airplane darkened as we descended deeper into the murk. I intercepted the glidslope, centered the needles, started the timer, and configured the airplane for a stable 500 foot/minute descent. Glancing outside, some fuzzy gray buildings could be just seen passing underneath, but no runway. Then, about two miles out, I got a visual on the runway. I returned my gaze to the instruments and flew the approach to the 200' decision altitude before breaking off on the missed approach.
Climbing back into the clouds, Buffalo departure advised that Jamestown still looked like an undesirable destination, so we amended our clearance to Dunkirk. As luck would have it, a direct run to Dunkirk from Buffalo put us right down the throat of the approach. My approach there was a bit sloppy because I had not briefed that particular plate until we were en route, but it was passable.
After the low approach, I was preparing to enter the published hold when Buffalo cleared us direct to Williamson-Sodus. "You do not want to go near Geneseo right now," the controller informed us as he eschewed the last vestiges of my original flight plan.
We enjoyed several minutes of clear air over a fluffy undercast while surrounded by cumulus gorgeously accented in golden highlights by the setting sun. Through it all, the Buffalo and Rochester controllers took excellent care of us as we worked as full partners in finding suitable deviations to get us home. Having the ADS-B weather displayed on Foreflight, even knowing that it was less current than what the controllers saw on their screens, provided an excellent visual representation of the very detailed reports of heavy precipitation given to us over the radio. I was glad to have it.
During the relatively calm flight back to Williamson from Dunkirk, Tom said, "you couldn't have asked for a better training experience than this." Indeed. It was no sterile, canned training experience, but an immersive lesson on managing real world weather deviations. I was reminded of a recent, excellent post by Frank Van Haste on this very topic. Unlike my prior actual instrument time in which we chose higher altitudes that deliberately put us in the clouds, this flight could not have been conducted any other way but IFR. And, it met the "crummy, but not too crummy" goal - even if conditions were actually crummier than we anticipated. At least the thunderstorms were in isolated pockets amenable to circumnavigation. We never experienced any significant rough air, which suggests that we never came particularly close to the convective activity dotting the airspace around us.
Closer to Rochester, more isolated buildups necessitated a deviation well north of the city toward Lake Ontario. Briefly, I saw the Port of Rochester pass below through a hole in the clouds. In the post-sunset gloom, we literally swam through a grey murk with water flowing over Warrior 481's recently waxed skin.
Williamson was still IFR, though the ceiling was higher than when we departed. The GPS-generated glideslope led us down through the grey until we broke out from the cloud base to see the runway lighting shining merrily from a dusky landscape as rain pelted the windscreen.
The landing was no greaser, but a solid, good landing that inspired Tom to quip, "and after all that, you just had to show off!"
Once the Warrior was put to bed for the night, Tom and I were walking back to the clubhouse in the light rain when he gave me a shove. "You did frikkin' awesome tonight!"
I count that as one of the best compliments on my flying that I have ever received.
We logged 3.0 hours total with 2.6 in actual IFR conditions. When I asked Tom what we needed to do next, his response was that I needed to take my check ride.
Over breakfast with my daughter the following morning, I asked, "do you know what I did last night, Little Bear?"
"I flew inside the clouds."
Her eyes grew large and she gaped for a moment. "Wow! Will you take me into the clouds with you?"

industry_corpus2: Aerospace


text:
Snowy Hydro Limited operates in Australia’s Southern Alps. It provides renewable energy and energy-related products & manages critical water flows. It is also involved in implementing a range of community initiatives.
As the organisation emerged from a semi-government business, it needed to shed its ‘silo thinking’ and embrace a culture of innovation where proactive behaviour was encouraged.
Although senior leaders had a clear vision of the organisation, the larger workforce of 400 employees did not share or have a sound understanding of the direction of the business.
A 360 ‘inside-out’ approach was taken, guiding individuals across the entire organisation through a process of personal mastery and goal alignment & then using this as a basis to apply similar principles to their own leadership and organisational development (leadership mastery).
Financial Performance: 8% year-on-year growth in earnings.
Safety: Lost Time injuries reduced from 22 per year to 0.5 per year.
Cultural Improvement: 42% improvement in Cultural index.
Industrial Relations: Zero days lost to industrial relations issues over 10 years.
Environmental Factors: Neither performance nor environment impacted by 1-in-500 year fire, 1-in-500 year drought and 1-in-500 year water inflow.

industry_corpus2: Power & Energy


text:
The Dial Type Wrench provides an excellent solution for many applications. Accurate to 1% of the reading from 20% of full scale to full scale clockwise and counterclockwise, the Dial Type Wrench is the most accurate torque wrench family. The Dial Type Wrench is the only wrench that is not affected by the hand-hold position on the wrench.
Extremely Accurate - Precise model is accurate within 1% of reading from 20% of full scale to full scale.
Length (including extension handle): 67-3/4"

industry_corpus2: Manufacturing


text:
Las Vegas | Hot Read Sports - Nothing but sports 24/7!!
http://charlotteskitchendiary.com/tag/ccc/feed/ Hot Read Sports | Nothing but sports 24/7!!

industry_corpus2: Sports


text:
Dream Capital Advisors, LLC is a Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) located in Lincolnshire, Illinois. We are independent, fee-only investment firm. We provide portfolio and investment advice for clients such as individuals and small businesses.
Dream Capital shall review the client’s present financial situation and issue a written analysis and report of recommendations in accordance with the client’s goals and objectives.
After meeting with you we will create a customized equity and diversified portfolio that reflect your investment objectives.
Bob Cook worked 19 years at the Northern Trust in Chicago. He was a portfolio and mutual fund manager.
We have been managing personal trusts and individual wealth for more than 25 years.


text:
I love helping out with my kids’ classroom parties. The problem is, my kids usually forget to tell me until the last minute (or I forget to jot them down in my calendar) so I am scrambling at the last minute to whip up something that doesn’t look like I just threw it together (even though that’s exactly what I’m doing). My go-to recipe for these last-minute classroom treat “emergencies” is cake mix cookies. They only require 3 ingredients and are easy to tailor to any theme. Today, I’m sharing my latest version – these super easy Easter cake mix cookies.
Even though regular homemade cookies don’t take a ton of time, when you’re really short on time, these cake mix cookies will save you precious minutes! You only need 3 ingredients – cake mix, canola or vegetable oil, and eggs. Since these were Easter cookies, I used carrot cake mix.
You mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon and then scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet. I use a cookie scoop because apparently I’m a kitchen diva (and I was slightly obsessed with Pampered Chef at one point in my life). In fact, I actually have two cookie dough scoops, a small and a medium. I used the medium scoop because I needed the cookies to be large enough to hold the decorations I had planned for them. You should get 24 cookies out of one box of cake mix if you scoop the right amount for each cookie.
The cookies need to bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes, then they come out looking like this.
After they cool, you can frost them. I used whipped cream cheese frosting because 1) it’s easy to spread and 2) to me carrot cake just screams for cream cheese frosting.
Finally, to add the “wow” factor (for an elementary-school audience) and to go ahead and pile on the sugar as long as we’re making dessert and not a snack or meal, top each cookie with a peep.
Load them up on a platter or in a storage container and voilá – you’ve made enough Easter-themed treats for an entire classroom full of kids in under half an hour!
You could also top the cookies with jelly beans, if you prefer. You just might want to layer on the frosting a little thicker so that they stay in place.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oil, and eggs. Mix well.
Transfer to wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, frost each cookie with whipped frosting. Then, top each cookie with one peep.
So very cute and I’m always looking for quick but still impressive ideas. This is perfect for our family Easter get together.

industry_corpus2: Subject Education


text:
Founded in July 2014, Beijing Roborock Technology Co., Ltd. (Roborock) specializes in the research, development, and production of robotic home cleaners and other cleaning appliances.
Roborock’s HQ is in Beijing, with R&D and branch offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen—where our engineers, designers, scientists, and manufacturing experts collaborate closely throughout development and testing. We strive to create innovative products addressing various household problems, making life more comfortable with the development of cutting-edge technology.
Even though (or perhaps because) the home robotics industry is so new, many products coming to market that don’t showcase the true potential of the industry. At Roborock, our team is committed to showing the world what’s possible when you have a robot to help you at home.
Our team comes from companies like Microsoft, Huawei, Baidu, Foxconn, and other industry giants. We have diverse educational backgrounds and experience in different fields like algorithm development, electronic engineering, mechanical structure design, and manufacturing. Our vision is to create truly functional and durable products, helping people enjoy a life made possible by high technology.
We uphold the values of positivity, integrity, exploration, and cooperation.
We are down-to-earth and reject gimmicks.
We explore the unknown without limitations.
We pursue our ideals without compromise.
We stay true to our vision, working hand in hand.
In July 2014, our company was established.
In September 2014, we received the investment from Xiaomi and became a member enterprise of Xiaomi ecological chain.
In September 2016, Mi Home Robotic Vacuum Cleaner, our very first product, was launched, which has become the bestselling robotic cleaner in China.
On March 27, 2017, Mi Home Robotic Vacuum Cleaner was marketed in Taiwan, selling 15,000 units in one month with a turnover of NTD 130 million.
On September 19, 2017, we launched our second product. The Roborock Robotic Vacuum Cleaner, crowdfunding over CNY 10 million in 4 hours.

industry_corpus2: Technology & Research


text:
Duke sofa is soft full premium leather welcomes you to relax and wind down in its embrace. With sleek cut and modern design, it will certainly be a center of attraction in your home. Combine them with our wide range of industrial design furniture for an even more charming look.
Duke leather CAT10 is made from 100% full genuine leather in every part of the sofa, it has a consistent color display and is elegant in its construction.


text:
They have come in all shapes since 1968 and often have had a cult like following. A stretched Citation VII Cabin at heart the Citation Sovereign boast better field performance than it’s much vaunted brother the Citation X. While it doesn’t boast the speed, if it's economy looking for then you’ve hit the jackpot.
Sovereign (s/n 154) checks all these boxes - the aircraft is ideally suited for European and American executives, alike, with its custom designed 7 passenger interior it is ideal for the executive who doesn’t require an entourage. Check out the aircraft and all its features here then call us to discuss pricing and delivery details.


text:
Our curriculum is ever-changing and we are increasingly using research to improve our practice. The English curriculum is carefully devised so that students revisit key ideas and make links within and across the subject area. Every learning journey includes the questions and resources needed for students to build on previous experience. Learning is planned as a sequence of steps, which might include reading, speaking or writing. Every teacher and every student brings to the class a unique set of life experiences, skills, knowledge and understanding. We see the teacher as the artisan: adapting each stage to ensure that all students receive appropriate support and challenge. We continually assess and adapt our teaching to fill gaps and create the opportunity to think deeply and share ideas. We encourage exploration and discovery by using open-ended questioning. We use progress data to identify any cause for specific additional teaching; further support might then come from the class teacher or learning support assistant, within a lesson, or occasionally a group of students are offered a series of booster lessons. In this way we plan to meet the needs of all students.
The literary works we study are at the very heart of our curriculum. They lead us to places we have not seen and experiences we may never have. Students learn that words carry power; they can make us angry, laugh and cry. We see. We think. We wonder. We feel. Like detectives solving a mystery, we learn the skills to visualise, summarise, predict, link, question, clarify, evaluate and explore the effect of a text on the reader. We find regular opportunities to enrich students' vocabulary by exploring language in context. Students learn to create and communicate effectively and, in doing so, put a little of themselves into the mix: by finding a voice.
We provide differentiated resources to support and extend students' learning, both at home and in other subjects; for example the Linking Literacy Passport and Vocabulary Booklet. We provide students with the tools to support independent learning at all stages of their learning journey.
Our curriculum includes many opportunities for personal development and independent learning. For example, challenge home learning gives students choice, and the time to purposefully practise something they have found difficult or need to commit to memory. Preparing students for the Year 6 SATs gives us the opportunity to endure. Students are taught how to revise and to work towards the tests. All students are encouraged to do their very best and take pride in their personal achievements - no matter what level of challenge they are facing.
We are not afraid to explore challenging texts and challenging issues. We study a wide range of modern and classical texts, which engage and inspire. Students are given suggestions to guide them when reading a challenging text. Students are given a safe environment to feel 'stuck' and experience the deep learning associated with becoming 'unstuck'. Students are encouraged to find their own paths and to read for pure enjoyment; we know this can mean different things to different people at different times. We recognise that academically successful students read for many hours each week. We continue to develop and improve our school library to support this.
Wisdom: Life is not always clear-cut - hero or pirate?
Creation: Utopia: What would you include?
We also contribute to an understanding of British values by studying classic texts written, for example, by Shakespeare and Chaucer.
Hope & Friendship : by discovering that friendship leads to hope; a true friend can help us through difficult times. This is evident in many texts we study, eg "The Butterfly Lion and Treasure Island"


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California-based classic death dealers Necrot unleashed the fetid fruits of their Blood Offerings full-length on June 9th via Tankcrimes and on cassette in partnership with Sentient Ruin Laboratories. The eight-tracks comprising Blood Offerings were captured by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer (Vastum, Graves At Sea), mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Nails, Gatecreeper), and will come sheathed in the unholy cover craftings of Marald Van Haasteren (Bolt Thrower, Baroness).
Blood Offerings orders are currently available. The limited vinyl edition comes as a foil-stamped, gatefold deluxe LP available in four color variants: 150 in purple splatter, 350 in gold splatter, 500 in black, and 1000 in gold.
Necrot will embark on the month-long Make America Death Again Tour with Denmark-based death metal tyrants, Undergang, running from June 30th through July 29th. The band will also make their way to Europe this fall for a journey that will include stops at Bloodshed and Graveland Fests. Further details to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

industry_corpus2: Film & Entertainment


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Sarah the Printmaker – On Etsy!
We now have an Etsy Store!
You can buy Card Collections – 6 Images for the Value Price of $12.95.
Visit https://www.etsy.com/shop/SarahAngstArt to see all 9 Collections!
Purchase your favorite collection today!

industry_corpus2: Others