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FoAM is a Brussels-based group of designers, scientists, cooks, artists, engineers and gardeners who share an interest in taking knowledge from their respective areas of expertise and applying it in new public contexts.

FoAM was founded by Maja Kuzmanovic in 2000 as a cultural research department in Starlab. In 2001, FoAM became an independent, distributed entity with cells in Brussels and Amsterdam. Since that time, the core group of this de facto new-media think tank has included members from Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, Croatia, Lithuania, the UK, and Sweden; its larger network has attracted people from around the world.

Since 2004 FoAM has positioned itself as the only Flemish "Hybrid Reality Lab," with a primary focus on the field of hybrid reality (technologies, media and materials entangling the physical and the digital).

One concept common to many of FoAM's explorations of growth and transformation in natural/artificial worlds has been that of "responsive environments". In this way, the capacity for change in technologically enhanced spaces is gauged by observing the playful explorations between physical and digital surroundings, and the accompanying fluid dialogues between people, materials and media. As a result, a strong contrast often emerges between the aesthetics of the designed and the beauty of the grown. Such explorations extend across several media, e.g. computer generated images and sounds across and within buildings and other forms of architecture as well as self-grown biological environments. Accordingly, FoAM's creation of public media art and its study of responsive environments have required the development of an open-ended responsive media system, which enables sensor data analysis and interpretation and further perceptual modeling. Representative examples include the following:

groWorld developed out of a proposal to research historical examples of sustainable urban spaces that have focused on dynamics and diversity in the social, biological and cultural domains. Examples of such public spaces include community gardens and pocket parks, non-institutionalized plaza and street life, travelling fairs and periodic festivals. The results of the project have suggested ways in which an alternative economy can be conducted that is based on emergent trans-local actions, rather than accepting the generic, mono-cultural approach of the global free-market. One essential focus is biomimetics and its implications for growth processes in audiovisual media, textile design and human computer interaction, and the ways in which it can be applied to mixed reality installations, a-life gaming environments and smart textiles.

Lyt_A is at the same time an artwork, an instrument and a translation medium in one. It is a flexible structure that can transmit touch (i.e. haptic information) at a distance, so that when the structure is touched on one site, the touch will be visible and touchable on another. The installation consists of two identical but mirrored parts placed 100 meters away from each other on the concourse of the Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany. Placing the two structures in separate locations encourages the visitors to play with each other by manipulating the structures with their hands and bodies, and learning about each other's shapes through touch. Furthermore, the visitors' touches will remain as shape-traces in the memory of the installation. In moments of low activity, the installation brings the traces back to the surface of the structures. lyt_A's software uses the visitors' traces to create new shapes and body-forms: the traces are therefore mixed, transformed and grown, as if the visitors' touch has 'fertilized' this anorganic form that became alive and autonomous.

TRG is a "transient reality generator" and explored ideas of temporary autonomous reality and the "irreal", i.e. the tension or imbalance between tangible reality and imaginary worlds. It built on the two previous installations, TGarden and txOom. However, while TGarden was designed to allow human gestures to use video and audio as calligraphic media, and txOom extended the concept, becoming an 'irreal ecology' where media would grow based on their interaction with the participants, TRG extended the scale to infinitely large and infinitely small 'irreal universes', whose existence is highly unstable and unpredictable, where minuscule local interactions can conjure up the lives massive worlds. In this way, the project focused on mixed reality, i.e. environments containing significant virtual and physical interaction possibilities, strongly intertwined, and exploring the implications thereof in the cultural sphere.

txOom, as a project, grew out of its name, a neologism of 'texture' and 'bloom'. Initial research involved digital physics, phenomenology, biomimetics, human-computer-human interaction, and the development of experimental technologies. This research culminated in three site-specific public experiments in Torino, Great Yarmouth and Maribor, and involved a pan-European collaboration between FoAM, Time's Up, Kibla, Future Physical and the Interactive Institute. Essentially, within the framework of txOom, responsive environments were created which comprised audiovisual media and real-time media synthesis mechanisms, and which exhibited behaviors and properties similar to those of living organisms.

TGarden originated in a partnership between FoAM in Brussels and sponge in San Francisco. The project resulted in a responsive Play Space whose visitors shape the media environment around them through their movement, gesture and social interaction. TGarden was developed in collaboration with several art and technology centers (in 2001 these were: the Topological Media Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology, Ars Electronica, V2, Banff Centre for the Arts) and a number of independent artists, technologists and scientists from Europe, USA and Australia. Essentially the TGarden (with T signifying 'time' and 'topology') constituted a built space in which the movements of the visitors' bodies was used by the TGarden's nervous system (hardware and software network) to shape visual, aural and tactile media. The gestures, such as those of touching, brushing along other bodies, dancing, stretching and falling, provided the impetus for the generative processes in TGarden.

Beginning in 2004, in an effort to remedy a perceived lack of experimental media education in Belgium, FoAM, together with nadine, and okno, organized a series of workshops under the name "X.Med. K.". These workshops first began as introductory tutorials and were later expanded to range from master classes to informal gatherings. The programme allowed participants to become prolific media artists over a period of two years, encouraging the use of free media tools and the creative use of open source and free software. Workshop topics have included Max/MSP, Final Cut and DVD Studio Pro; physical computing, how to build a computer to fit people's specific needs, and the issues of environmentally sustainable media arts and design. In later workshops, after participants gained technical proficiency, they could opt for instruction from FoAM and okno in the use of real-time audiovisual systems and tools, and online collaboration tools, while in other seminars nadine has explored the artistic use of computer games and gaming engines.

Luminous Green is a series of gatherings in which FoAM "calls upon the creative sector to enrich the public debate around environmental sustainability, ethical living and eco-technology". The symposium featured prominent speakers from the fields of design, education, communication and technology, and was presented as three sessions devoted to "Change, Communication and Matter". The hands-on workshop was conceived for artists and designers with a tutorial component focusing on power generation, renewable power sources, low-power computing and audiovisual displays. The first Luminous Green workshop was led by Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan with FoAM's Maja Kuzmanovic. It was attended by Belgian and international artists and designers from the 1st to the 4th of May 2007.

FoAM's workshops, events, and other gatherings provide an opportunity for the various members to explore their self-avowed interest in food - not just in its functions as fuel and nourishment, but also its aspects that involve performance art, design-science, social celebration, and distribution as participatory economics. This interest manifests itself in various ways, ranging from thematic in-house food events to external transdisciplinary team-building to networking with food co-ops, farmers' markets, and kitchen-style chemistry labs. The resulting experimentation emphasizes molecular gastronomy and flavor pairing based on chemical constituents and incorporates nearly forgotten and/or often overlooked wild plants and herbs.

This concept of food activism has extended to public events held under the aegis of other organizations. For example, for its contribution to the "Altitude 1000" Sonic and Visual Arts Festival, held in Brussels in December 2006, FoAM chose to invite Kate Rich and Kayle Brandon, who wildcrafted their own cola from an online, open source recipe. The participants of the resulting "Cube-Cola Lab" took part in Amy Balkin's "Radical Cola Challenge" by blind-tasting Cube-Cola alongside its major market rivals (including Mecca Cola and Coca-Cola). Moreover, Cube Cola was then used as a so-called "watchlist ingredient" of the Guantanamo Libre cocktail.

FoAM's core group of collaborators currently includes two of its founding members Maja Kuzmanovic and Nik Gaffney along with Cocky Eek, Theun Karelse, Dave Griffiths and others.

= = = Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film = = =

The Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the annual film awards given by the Boston Society of Film Critics.

= = = Pointer (wireless phone) = = =

Pointer was a mobile phone network of Finnish Posti- ja telelaitos (now TeliaSonera Finland) for a short time on the 1980s. The technology was similar to usual cordless phones, which could be used on hotspots around Finland, at least to make calls. Pointer phones lacked roaming capability. A sign on the wall would show the passers-by that there was a Pointer hotspot available.

There were hotspots on mail offices and there were probably plans to build more of them. When Pointer service was published, however, the NMT phones were beginning a rapid rise in popularity and displaced the Pointer before it had time to establish.

There still exist some signs showing that there was an availability of Pointer service, e.g., in Helsinki on a wall of a mail office on the Mechelininkatu street.

= = = Don Rickles Speaks! = = =

Don Rickles Speaks! is a comedy album released in 1969 by insult comic Don Rickles. It begins with an introduction by G. Bernard Owens who tells the audience that the recording they are about to hear reveals the serious side of Rickles, and his "thoughts of people, life, philosophy." Immediately after the introduction, we hear laughter, which completely contradicts what was heard previously. In the album, Rickles is interviewed by a panel of "eminent experts" who ask him about celebrities such as Dean Martin, Johnny Carson, Kirk Douglas, Robert Goulet, and Frank Sinatra, as well as music acts such as The Electric Prunes and Snooky Lanson.

= = = Swain's Island (Newfoundland and Labrador) = = =

Swain's Island, Newfoundland, is actually a group of eight islands on the north side of Bonavista Bay, southeast of Wesleyville. All of these islands once had inhabitants but eventually all of them were resettled, mostly to Wesleyville.

The earliest island of Swain's Island to be settled were the Outer Swain's Islands which were close to good fishing grounds and provided excellent shelter for vessels. The first two settlers were English men, William Tiller and John Winsor in 1810. Other families soon followed, such as the Brentons, Mulletts, Stockleys, Dykes, and Hills. The islands' population combined in 1836 equalled 85, and by that year there was a Church of England school-chapel built on one of the islands, named Hill's Island. Swain's Island was prospering by the 1860s in its successful inshore fishery and involvement in the Labrador fishery; and by this time residents were also beginning to participate in the seal hunt.

By 1869 the population had reached 265, but people eventually began moving to the mainland to places such as Wesleyville. A ferry service had to be put in place in 1896 to take children to Wesleyville to attend school because Swain's Island could not get a teacher. The population stayed stable for a few years and then gradually deceased; the islands were completely abandoned by 1930.

Swain's Island began with the entire population being of the Church of England. Swain's Island was visited often by missionaries from Greenspond; for example, the Rev. N. A. Coster visited in June 1830 and baptized over 40 people, and Robert Dyer and Julian Moreton describes their visits to Swain's Island in their diaries and reports. The first record of a layreader, and also a teacher, was a Mr. E Churnside Bishop who began teaching and layreading in 1843. Bishop also helped organize the building of a new school which was opened in 1848. A Church of England church was built on Swain's Island and was consecrated in 1861.

The first teaching done on the islands was by a fisherman, John Feltham, who was asked by William Tiller to stay ashore rather than fish to teach his boys. Feltham agreed to this, and sometime later, in 1829, he was appointed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (S.P.G.), to be a teacher. In 1830 there were about 25 students, but this school was discontinued in 1834. The next record of school was by the teacher Edward Churnside Bishop under the Newfoundland School Society from 1843 to 1883. In 1869 a new school house was built; and the last teacher to teach at Swain's Island was Annie Alice Hall in 1901.

Swain's Island was settled because of its prime location and advantages in the various fisheries. Its entire economy, like so many other communities in Newfoundland at this time, depended upon the fisheries. In 1874 there was a peak number of fishing rooms on Swain's Island, totalling 19 altogether, in 1884 there were still 10 fishing rooms in use.

Some of the vessels in the cod fishery on Swain's Island:

Sealing nets and boats on Swain's Island:

Sealing steamer captains born on Swain's Island:

Hutchinson's Directory of 1864 lists four residents of Swain's Island:

= = = 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian) = = =

The 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian) (, ) was an infantry division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. It was the second Latvian division formed in January 1944, after its sister unit, the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) with which it formed the Latvian Legion. It was surrounded in the Courland Pocket at the end of the war where it surrendered to the Red Army.

The division was formed in January 1944, from 2 SS Infantry Brigade with the addition of a newly raised third regiment, Waffen Grenadier Regiment 46 (Latvian No. 6). Simultaneously, the designations of the two other grenadier regiments were changed from 39 and 40 to 42 and 43 respectively. The commander of the SS brigade, SS-Oberführer Hinrich Schuldt became the first commander of the division. After Schuldt was killed in action on 15 March 1944, SS-Standartenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock temporarily took command, being replaced on April 13 by SS-Oberführer Bruno Streckenbach, who led the division until the end of war.

= = = Valu (film) = = =

Valu is a 2008 comedy Marathi film directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni. The film featured in various international film festivals as The Wild Bull. It also became the first Marathi film to be selected in Rotterdam International Film Festival 2008, the Netherlands.

In the small village of Kusavde, there is a lonely misunderstood wild bull. The bull, "Valu", is actually a holy, consecrated bull which is the responsibility of the village. It is allowed to roam free and is the responsibility of the entire village. But lately, Valu becomes very aggressive and is blamed for every single act of chaos and destruction that happens in and around the village. Now, catching the bull becomes equivalent to establishing power in the village for the leaders and for those who are interested in the fringe benefits.

The film intertwines various stories of the war between the two leaders; love stories that bloom in the midst of the adventure; an amateur filmmaker who struggles to shoot a documentary; the forest officer who leads this chaos like a sacred mission along with the religious priest; the tricksters and an insane woman who seems to understand the mind of Valu.

= = = Bangers and Mash (TV series) = = =

Bangers and Mash is a British children's cartoon series originally broadcast on Children's ITV in 1989, and repeated until around 1993. The series consists of 25 five-minute episodes.

The series revolves around the adventures of two chimpanzees, Bangers and Mash, and is based on a series of children books by Paul Groves and Edward McLachlan. This series of reading books were used in schools in the 1980s. The series' narration and character voices were provided by Jonathan Kydd, and the incidental music and theme tune were written and performed by Chas & Dave.

Bangers and Mash are troublemakers and through wanting to have fun, would cause grief for others, namely making a mess or breaking something of importance, normally belonging to their parents (or Gran, who also lives with them). Like all the inhabitants of their island, they live in a house built on top of a tree (their address being No. 3 Tree Street).

Other characters of significance on the show include Bangers' and Mash's parents, their grandmother, their dog Mick, their friend Petal (who would often physically hurt them if their antics annoyed her too much), their teacher Mrs. Chum (who often resorts to the same punishment; making them write their ABC's ten times) and the local witch, Mrs. Snitchnose; a rat-like creature with a long nose with hairs coming on the end of it.

= = = Momir Rnić (handballer born 1955) = = =

Momir Rnić (born 3 February 1955 in Sečanj, Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a former Yugoslav handball player who competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics, in the 1984 Summer Olympics, and in the 1988 Summer Olympics.

In 1980 he was a member of the Yugoslav handball team which finished sixth. He played all six matches and scored seventeen goals.

Four years later he was part of the Yugoslav team which won the gold medal. He played four matches and scored one goals.

In 1988 he won the bronze medal with the Yugoslav team. He played all six matches and scored eighteen goals.

His son Momir Rnić ia also a handballer, member of Serbia national handball team.

= = = Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra = = =

The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra is a British professional symphony orchestra based in Oxford and is the Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford. It was founded in

1998 by Marios Papadopoulos as the Oxford Philomusica and was renamed the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015.

= = = George Sweet = = =

George Sweet (1844 – 1920) was an English-born Australian geologist, president of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1905.

Sweet investigated fossils in the Mansfield district for Frederick McCoy 1888-95, and was second-in-command to Sir Edgeworth David on the Funafuti expedition in 1897. He was a fellow of the Geological Society

Sweet's daughter, Georgina Sweet (1875–1946), became a zoologist and philanthropist.

= = = Cherry Hill Park = = =

"Cherry Hill Park" is a song written by Robert Nix and Billy Gilmore, arranged by Buddy Buie, James Cobb, and Emory Gordy, Jr., and produced by Buie and Bill Lowery. Its original by Billy Joe Royal was a hit in 1969 reaching #15 on both the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and the "Cash Box" chart, and #8 in Canada. It was on Royal's 1969 album "Cherry Hill Park". Buie also produced its cover version performed by the Classics IV which was released by United Artists Records in 1971. He and the Classics IV's manager Paul Cochran were two of the four owners of Studio One. The cover was actually marketed with its title combining the first two words of the original's ("Cherryhill Park").

The subject of the song is one Mary Hill, a girl who has frequents the titular Cherry Hill Park. During days she acts as a tease to the boys in the park but at night when they return to the park she gratifies them, as noted in the barely disguised suggestive lyrics. However, she "married away" to a "man with money". As a result, she stopped coming to Cherry Hill Park.

Royal came up with the song's title after a friend described seeing Cherry Hill, New Jersey on a visit to nearby Pennsylvania.

Different mixes of this song exist, some with additional background vocals in the song's bridge, others in varying lengths, the longest version available being 3:17, with an extended finale running 33 seconds longer than the common single version.

= = = Tadao Yasuda = = =

He made his professional sumo debut in March 1979 at the age of 15, after leaving junior high school. He was recruited by Kokonoe stable. In 1980 he adopted the "shikona" of Fujinomori, before switching to Takanofuji in 1984. He first reached "sekitori" status in March 1985 upon promotion to the second highest "jūryō" division, but could manage only 4 wins against 11 losses and was demoted back to the unsalaried "makushita" division. After winning promotion back to "jūryō" in January 1986 he made his debut in the top "makuuchi" division only two tournaments later in May 1986.

Takanofuji was ranked in the top division for 33 tournaments, winning one special prize for Fighting Spirit. His two gold stars for defeating "yokozuna" were both earned against Futahaguro (who, as Koji Kitao, also turned to professional wrestling). Takanofuji had the advantage of belonging to a stable that included two "yokozuna", Chiyonofuji and Hokutoumi, which under sumo regulations meant he never had to face them in tournament play. However, his height of meant he had a higher centre of gravity than was ideal for a sumo wrestler, and he seemed to struggle when promoted above the mid "maegashira" ranks. Though he managed to reach the fourth highest "komusubi" ranking in July 1990 he could not maintain the rank, winning only two bouts there. He was demoted from the top division after the September 1991 tournament and announced his retirement in May 1992. His career coincided exactly with that of his stablemate Hokutoumi, who made his debut alongside him in March 1979 and also retired in May 1992. At Takanofuji's own request, it was the previous head of Kokonoe stable, ex-"yokozuna" Kitanofuji, his long time coach, and not his successor, ex-"yokozuna" Chiyonofuji, who performed the topknot cutting at Takanofuji's official retirement ceremony or "danpatsu-shiki."

Takanofuji's most common winning "kimarite" were "yori-kiri" (force out), "hataki-komi" (slap down) and "tsuki-otoshi" (thrust over).

Reverting to his real name, he joined the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion in June 1993, making his debut in February 1994. Yasuda spent the majority of the 1990s as an undercard wrestler, primarily competing in opening matches or as the fall guy in tag team matches with wrestlers such as Shinya Hashimoto and Kensuke Sasaki, achieving little success. In late 2000, Yasuda, along with Kazuyuki Fujita, became somewhat of a pet project for Antonio Inoki, and both of them were sent to the United States to train in mixed martial arts. Yasuda returned to Japan soon after, and was victorious in his first fight against veteran Masaaki Satake at Pride 13. Yasuda's win helped further legitimise him as a pro wrestler in the eyes of Inoki, and this was rewarded with Yasuda reaching the semi finals of the 2001 G1 Climax, where he lost to Keiji Mutoh. After earning one win and one loss in MMA throughout 2001, Yasuda earned the biggest win of his career in December by choking out veteran Jerome Le Banner. His defeat of Jerome led to Yasuda's stock in New Japan skyrocketing almost overnight, and Yasuda soon found himself elevated from over the hill veteran to top title contender in early 2002. Yasuda earned the biggest win of his pro wrestling career on February 16, defeating Yuji Nagata in a tournament to win the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Yasuda held the title for 48 days, before dropping it to Nagata in April. In August 2002, Yasuda and Kantaro Hoshino formed their own faction, the Makai Club, a group of wrestlers primarily with MMA backgrounds who worshipped Antonio Inoki like a god. Yasuda was viewed as the leader of the group, and in early 2003 he partnered up with his second in command Kazunari Murakami to enter the IWGP Tag Team Championship #1 Contender Tournament. Despite losing to Jim Steele and Mike Barton in the final, an injury to Steele would give the title to shot to Murakami and Yasuda who unsuccessfully challenged Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masahiro Chono on February 16. Having retired from MMA, the aging Yasuda's position in the New Japan card began to fall again, and in late 2004 he left the promotion. After leaving New Japan, he started making sporadic appearances for ZERO-ONE and Hustle.

In October 2007 he reportedly attempted to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, using a yeontan. A friend however, interrupted the alleged attempt. He was hospitalized with fears of possible brain damage, but this proved not to be the case and he eventually made a return to wrestling. Speaking to "Tokyo Sports" Yasuda later denied attempting suicide, saying the poisoning was accidental. On January 11, 2011, Yasuda announced his retirement from professional wrestling. He wrestled his final match on February 4, 2011, in which he was defeated by Genichiro Tenryu.

Though very past his prime physically, Yasuda made his transition to mixed martial arts as a NJPW representative in March 2001. He had his debut at the PRIDE 13 against similarly retired kickboxer and karate champion Masaaki Satake. Yasuda received damage and bled from his face, but he nullified most of Satake' attacks by rushing him through sumo techniques against the ropes every time they were separated. At the end, the unanimous decision was given to Yasuda for controlling the fight.

Yasuda returned to MMA in the K-1 Andy Hug Memorial event, taking on Rene Rooze in a special rules match, but he lost via head kick KO at the third round. He would be more successful in December 2001, when he fought popular K-1 player Jerome Le Banner at an Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event: Yasuda managed to take him down and submit him by pressing his forearm against Le Banner's throat, getting the biggest win of his MMA career.

He would later lost to fellow NJPW wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita in an Universal Fighting-Arts Organization event. Yasuda then fought superheavyweight kickboxer Jan Nortje, but he had to retire from the match when he hurt a leg seriously. His last fight was a rematch against Rooze, losing the fight again, this time by TKO.

Yasuda's daughter Ayami was born in 1987 and is a model.