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[Creeperopolis]

Edward Dando (c. 1803 – 28 August 1832) was a thief who came to public notice in Britain because of his unusual habit of overeating at food stalls and inns, and then revealing that he had no money to pay. Although the fare he consumed was varied, he was particularly fond of oysters, having once eaten 25 dozen (300) of them with a loaf and a half of bread with butter.

Dando began his thefts in about 1826 and was arrested at least as early as 1828. He would often leave a house of correction and go on an eating spree the same day, being arrested straight away and appearing in court within a few days, only to be put back in prison. On at least one occasion he was placed in solitary confinement after he stole the rations of his fellow prisoners. Most of his activity was in London, although he also spent time in Kent, much of it in the county's prisons. While in Coldbath Fields Prison in August 1832, Dando caught cholera—part of a long-running pandemic—and died.

His death, like his many exploits, was widely and sympathetically reported both in the London daily press and in local newspapers. His name entered into the public argot as a term for someone who eats excessively and does not pay. He was the subject of numerous poems and ballads. In 1837 William Makepeace Thackeray wrote a short story loosely based on Dando; this was also made into a play by Edward Stirling. Charles Dickens wrote about Dando and compared him to Alexander the Great.

[Creeperopolis]

"My Man" is an R&B and soul song recorded by American singer Tamar Braxton for her fifth studio album Bluebird of Happiness (2017). Braxton and Cory Rooney wrote the song, which was produced by Bob Robinson. It was released for digital download and streaming on April 27, 2017, as the album's lead single. "My Man" was the first single from Braxton's independent record label, Tamartian Land, created with the support of eOne Entertainment.

The lyrics concern infidelity and were based on Braxton's parents and their divorce after her father's affair. Braxton wrote the song from her mother's perspective on the relationship. Describing "My Man" as her most personal song, Braxton used one of her past relationships as additional inspiration.

Critics considered "My Man" as one of the highlights of Bluebird of Happiness and praised Braxton's vocals. It peaked at number three on Billboard's Adult R&B Songs chart and number twenty-one on the Hot R&B Songs chart. "My Man" was featured on an episode of the reality television series Braxton Family Values. Braxton's performance at the BET Awards 2017 was praised as one of the event's highlights, although some critics believed she was lip syncing. Laurieann Gibson directed the music video, which features Braxton confronting her lover and his mistress in a hotel room.

[Creeperopolis]

The 1995 Aigio earthquake struck Western Greece near the coastal city of Aigio at 03:15:48 local time on 15 June 1995. The second destructive earthquake to strike Greece in a month, it measured 6.4–6.5 on the moment magnitude scale (Mw ). It was assigned a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) and EMS-98 intensity of IX (Destructive). The horizontal peak ground acceleration reached 0.54 g and ground velocity peaked at 52 cm/s (20 in/s)—the strongest ground motion ever recorded in Greece. Fifteen minutes after the mainshock, a large aftershock struck, causing further damage to Aigio. Faulting occurred on either the Aigion fault or an unnamed offshore fault. Other faults in the region have the potential to produce earthquakes up to Mw  6.9, which poses a risk to Aigio and the surrounding Gulf of Corinth.

Monetary damages from the earthquake reached $660 million (in 1995 USD). Significant destruction occurred; the collapse of two buildings left 26 dead and up to 200 injured. In the aftermath, several countries and organizations provided disaster aid, including search and rescue and refugee assistance operations. Many countries also donated medical supplies, temporary shelter, water treatment equipment, and a ship to house survivors. The Greek government issued seismic loans to aid in the rebuilding of Aigio, though it may have encouraged the construction of taller buildings—increasing Aigio's future seismic hazard. Controversy arose over the lack of a warning for the earthquake, as several sources warned officials that a major earthquake would occur.

[Quebecshire]

I should end this at some point.

[Creeperopolis]

Coccinellidae (/ˌkɒksɪˈnɛlɪdiː/)[3] is a widespread family of small beetles. They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Britain; "lady" refers to mother Mary. Entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles to avoid confusion with true bugs. The more than 6,000 described species have a global distribution and are found in a variety of habitats. They are oval beetles with a domed back and flat underside. They are sexually dimorphic; adult females are larger than males. Many of the species have conspicuous aposematic (warning) colours and patterns, such as red with black spots, that warn potential predators that they are distasteful.

Most coccinellid species are carnivorous predators, preying on insects such as aphids and scale insects. They are also known to consume non-animal matter, including plants and fungi. They are promiscuous breeders, reproducing in spring and summer in temperate regions and during the wet season in tropical regions. Many species lay their eggs near colonies of prey, ensuring their larvae have an immediate food source. Like most insects, they develop from larva to pupa to adult. Temperate species hibernate and diapause during the winter; tropical species are dormant during the dry season. Coccinellids migrate between dormancy and breeding sites.

Since they prey on agricultural pests, most coccinellids are considered beneficial insects. Several species have been introduced outside their range as biological control agents, with varying degrees of success. Some species are pests themselves and can infest people's homes, particularly in winter. Invasive species like Harmonia axyridis pose a threat to native ones. Other threats to coccinellids include climate change and habitat destruction. These insects have played roles in folklore, religion and poetry, and are particularly popular in nursery rhymes.

[Creeperopolis]

The Kingdom of Hungary held a noble class of individuals, most of whom owned landed property, from the 11th century until the mid-20th century. Initially, a diverse body of people were described as noblemen, but from the late 12th century only high-ranking royal officials were regarded as noble. Most aristocrats claimed ancestry from chieftains of the period preceding the establishment of the kingdom around 1000; others were descended from western European knights who settled in Hungary. The lower-ranking castle warriors also held landed property and served in the royal army. From the 1170s, most privileged laymen called themselves royal servants to emphasize their direct connection to the monarchs. The Golden Bull of 1222 enacted their liberties, especially tax exemption and the limitation of military obligations. From the 1220s, royal servants were associated with the nobility and the highest-ranking officials were known as barons of the realm. Only those who owned allods – lands free of obligations – were regarded as true noblemen, but other privileged groups of landowners, known as conditional nobles, also existed.

In the 1280s, Simon of Kéza was the first to claim that noblemen held authority in the kingdom. The counties developed into institutions of noble autonomy, and the nobles' delegates attended the Diets (parliaments). The wealthiest barons built stone castles allowing them to control vast territories, but royal authority was restored in the early 14th century. In 1351, King Louis I introduced an entail system and enacted the principle of "one and the selfsame liberty" of all noblemen, but legal distinctions between true noblemen and conditional nobles prevailed. The most powerful nobles employed lesser noblemen as their familiares (retainers) but this private link did not sever the familiaris' direct subjection to the monarch. According to customary law, only males inherited noble estates, but under the Hungarian royal prerogative of prefection the kings could promote "a daughter to a son", allowing her to inherit her father's lands. Noblewomen who had married a commoner could also claim their inheritance – the daughters' quarter (that is one-quarter of their father's possessions) – in land.

Although the Tripartitum – a frequently cited compilation of customary law published in 1514 – reinforced the idea that all noblemen were equal, the monarchs granted hereditary titles to powerful aristocrats, and the poorest nobles lost their tax exemption from the mid-16th century. In the early modern period, because of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, Hungary was divided into three parts: Royal Hungary, Transylvania and Ottoman Hungary. The princes of Transylvania supported the noblemen's fight against the Habsburg dynasty in Royal Hungary, but prevented the Transylvanian noblemen from challenging their own authority. Ennoblement of whole groups of people was not unusual in the 17th century. Examples include the 10,000 hajdú who received nobility as a group in 1605. After the Diet was divided into two chambers in Royal Hungary in 1608, noblemen with a hereditary title had a seat in the upper house, other nobles sent delegates to the lower house.

After the Ottomans' defeat in the Great Turkish War in the late 17th century, Transylvania and Ottoman Hungary were integrated into the Habsburg monarchy. The Habsburgs confirmed the nobles' privileges several times, but their attempts to strengthen royal authority regularly brought them into conflicts with the nobility, who represented nearly five percent of the population. Reformist noblemen demanded the abolition of noble privileges from the 1790s, but their program was enacted only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Most noblemen lost their estates after the emancipation of their serfs, but the aristocrats preserved their distinguished social status. State administration employed thousands of impoverished noblemen in Austria-Hungary. Prominent (mainly Jewish) bankers and industrialists were awarded with nobility, but their social status remained inferior to traditional aristocrats. Noble titles were abolished only in 1947, months after Hungary was proclaimed a republic.

[Creeperopolis]

Rear Admiral William Sterling "Deak" Parsons (26 November 1901 – 5 December 1953) was an American naval officer who worked as an ordnance expert on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He is best known for being the weaponeer on the Enola Gay, the aircraft which dropped a Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. To avoid the possibility of a nuclear explosion if the aircraft crashed and burned on takeoff, he decided to arm the bomb in flight. While the aircraft was en route to Hiroshima, Parsons climbed into the cramped and dark bomb bay, and inserted the powder charge and detonator. He was awarded the Silver Star for his part in the mission.

A 1922 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Parsons served on a variety of warships beginning with the battleship USS Idaho. He was trained in ordnance and studied ballistics under L.T.E. Thompson at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia. In July 1933, Parsons became liaison officer between the Bureau of Ordnance and the Naval Research Laboratory. He became interested in radar and was one of the first to recognize its potential to locate ships and aircraft, and perhaps even track shells in flight. In September 1940, Parsons and Merle Tuve of the National Defense Research Committee began work on the development of the proximity fuze, an invention that was provided to the US by the UK Tizard Mission, a radar-triggered fuze that would explode a shell in the proximity of the target. The fuze, eventually known as the VT (variable time) fuze, Mark 32, went into production in 1942. Parsons was on hand to watch the cruiser USS Helena shoot down the first enemy aircraft with a VT fuze in the Solomon Islands in January 1943.

In June 1943, Parsons joined the Manhattan Project as Associate Director at the Project Y research laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, under J. Robert Oppenheimer. Parsons became responsible for the ordnance aspects of the project, including the design and testing of the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons. In a reorganization in 1944, he lost responsibility for the implosion-type fission weapon, but retained that for the design and development of the gun-type fission weapon, which eventually became Little Boy. He was also responsible for the delivery program, codenamed Project Alberta. He watched the Trinity nuclear test from a B-29.

After the war, Parsons was promoted to the rank of rear admiral without ever having commanded a ship. He participated in Operation Crossroads, the nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946, and later the Operation Sandstone tests at Enewetak Atoll in 1948. In 1947, he became deputy commander of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. He died of a heart attack on 5 December 1953.

[Creeperopolis]

The 1980 World Snooker Championship, officially known as the 1980 Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons, was a ranking professional snooker tournament that took place from 22 April to 5 May 1980 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The tournament was the 1980 edition of the World Snooker Championship and was the fourth consecutive world championship to take place at the Crucible Theatre since 1977. It was sanctioned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. The total prize fund for the tournament was £60,000, of which £15,000 went to the winner.

There were 53 entrants to the competition, although four later withdrew. Qualifying rounds for the tournament took place at Romiley Forum, Stockport, from 5 to 18 April 1980; at the Redwood Lodge Country Club, Bristol, from 11 to 16 April; and at Sheffield Snooker Centre from 12 to 17 April. The main stage of the tournament featured 24 players: the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings and another eight players from the qualifying rounds. Ray Edmonds, Jim Meadowcroft, Tony Meo, Cliff Wilson and Jim Wych made their Crucible debuts. The defending champion and top seed in the tournament was Terry Griffiths, who had defeated Dennis Taylor 24–16 in the 1979 final.

Griffiths lost in his first match, by 10 frames to 13 against Steve Davis. Canadian Cliff Thorburn met the 1972 champion Alex Higgins from Northern Ireland in the final, which was a best-of-35-frames match. Thorburn won the match 18–16 to become the first world champion from outside the United Kingdom in the sport's modern era. There were 11 century breaks compiled during the championship, the highest of which was 136, achieved by both Kirk Stevens and Steve Davis. The cigarette manufacturer Embassy sponsored the tournament. It received 70 hours of television coverage by the BBC in the United Kingdom, attracting 14.5 million viewers for the conclusion of the final. Coverage of the final was interrupted by the broadcast of live footage of the Iranian Embassy Siege, which caused numerous viewers to complain to the broadcaster.

[Creeperopolis]

Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189) was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189. At various points in his life, he controlled England; substantial parts of Wales and Ireland; and a large part of France (including Normandy, Aquitaine and Anjou), an area that was later called the Angevin Empire. At times, Henry also held a strong influence over Scotland and the Duchy of Brittany.

Henry became politically involved by the age of fourteen in the efforts of his mother, Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, to claim the English throne, then occupied by a cousin, Stephen of Blois. Henry's father, Geoffrey, made him Duke of Normandy in 1150, and upon his death in 1151, Henry inherited Anjou and Maine and spent some time on the Continent consolidating his rule there. His marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine brought him control of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Stephen agreed to make Henry his heir after the latter's military expedition to England in 1153, and he inherited the kingdom on Stephen's death a year later. Henry was an energetic and ruthless ruler, driven by a desire to restore the royal lands and prerogatives of his grandfather Henry I. During the early years of his reign Henry restored the royal administration in England, which had almost collapsed during Stephen's reign, and re-established hegemony over Wales. Henry's desire to control the English Church led to conflict with his former friend Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This controversy lasted for much of the 1160s and resulted in Becket's murder in 1170. Soon after his accession Henry came into conflict with Louis VII of France, his feudal overlord, and the two rulers fought what has been termed a "cold war" over several decades. Henry expanded his empire at Louis's expense, taking Brittany and pushing east into central France and south into Toulouse; despite numerous peace conferences and treaties, no lasting agreement was reached.

Henry and his wife, Eleanor, had eight children. Three of their sons would rule as king, though Henry the Young King was named his father's nominal co-ruler rather than sole monarch. As his sons grew up, Henry struggled to find ways to satisfy their desires for land and immediate power, and there was a rise in tensions over the future inheritance of the empire, encouraged by Louis VII and his son Philip II, who succeeded to the French throne in 1180. In 1173 Henry's heir apparent, "Young Henry", rebelled against his father; he was joined by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey and by their mother. Several European states allied themselves with the rebels, and the Great Revolt was only defeated by Henry's vigorous military action and talented local commanders, many of them "new men" appointed for their loyalty and administrative skills. Young Henry and Geoffrey led another revolt in 1183, during which Young Henry died of dysentery. The Norman invasion of Ireland provided lands for Henry's youngest son, John. By 1189, Young Henry and Geoffrey were dead, and Philip swayed Richard to his side, leading to a final rebellion. Decisively defeated by Philip and Richard and suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry retreated to Chinon Castle in Anjou. He died soon afterwards and was succeeded by his son Richard I.

Henry's empire quickly collapsed during the reign of his son John (who succeeded Richard in 1199), but many of the changes Henry introduced during his lengthy rule had long-term consequences. Henry's legal changes are generally considered to have laid the basis for the English Common Law, while his intervention in Brittany, Wales, and Scotland shaped the development of their societies and governmental systems. Historical interpretations of Henry's reign have changed considerably over time. Contemporary chroniclers such as Gerald of Wales and William of Newburgh, though sometimes unfavourable, generally lauded his achievements. In the 18th century, scholars argued that Henry was a driving force in the creation of a genuinely English monarchy and, ultimately, a unified Britain. During the Victorian expansion of the British Empire, historians were keenly interested in the formation of Henry's own empire, but they also criticised certain aspects of his private life and treatment of Becket. Late 20th-century historians have combined British and French historical accounts of Henry, challenging earlier Anglocentric interpretations of his reign.

[Creeperopolis]

Kingdom Two Crowns is a 2018 strategy video game developed by Thomas van den Berg and Coatsink and published by Raw Fury. It is the third entry in the Kingdom series. Players control a mounted monarch as they attempt to defend their kingdom from the Greed, a race of monsters. The monarch can recruit villagers to perform certain jobs while building defenses such as towers and walls to fend off waves of Greed attacking the kingdom at night. Kingdom Two Crowns features single-player and cooperative multiplayer modes, with cooperative play enabling two monarchs to join via a split screen.

The developers originally designed Kingdom Two Crowns as an expansion pack for Kingdom: New Lands (2016). As the expansion grew, they decided to release it as a separate game. The series' creator, van den Berg, wanted to develop a new experience centered around defending structures. The developers chose to lessen the difficulty of the previous games' roguelike mechanics, and used a pixel art style to reduce the time between drawing and implementing new designs in gameplay.

Kingdom Two Crowns was released for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One on December 11, 2018, and for iOS and Android on April 28, 2020. It received positive reviews, gaining praise for its strategic gameplay, artwork, and cooperative play, though its slow pace was criticized. The game attracted over 300,000 players within six months of launch, and was supported by Raw Fury with several updates and downloadable content.