French Resistance | Wikipedia audio article
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French Resistance
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
The French Resistance (French: La Résistance) was the collection of French movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the Maquis in rural areas), who, in addition to their guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of underground newspapers, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines. The men and women of the Resistance came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, aristocrats, conservative Roman Catholics (including priests), and also citizens from the ranks of liberals, anarchists and communists.
The French Resistance played a significant role in facilitating the Allies' rapid advance through France following the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, and the lesser-known invasion of Provence on 15 August, by providing military intelligence on the German defences known as the Atlantic Wall and on Wehrmacht deployments and orders of battle. The Resistance also planned, coordinated, and executed acts of sabotage on the electrical power grid, transport facilities, and telecommunications networks. It was also politically and morally important to France, both during the German occupation and for decades afterward, because it provided the country with an inspiring example of the patriotic fulfillment of a national imperative, countering an existential threat to French nationhood. The actions of the Resistance stood in marked contrast to the collaboration of the French regime based at Vichy, the French people who joined the pro-Nazi Milice française and the French men who joined the Waffen SS.
After the landings in Normandy and Provence, the paramilitary components of the Resistance were organised more formally, into a hierarchy of operational units known, collectively, as the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). Estimated to have a strength of 100,000 in June 1944, the FFI grew rapidly and reached approximately 400,000 by October of that year. Although the amalgamation of the FFI was, in some cases, fraught with political difficulties, it was ultimately successful, and it allowed France to rebuild the fourth-largest army in the European theatre (1.2 million men) by VE Day in May 1945. Marcel Marceau; a famous mime named Bip was also in the French Resistance. His father was taken captive and was taken to a concentration camp by the nazis. He became part of the French Resistence. To help free kids he pretended to take Boy Scouts on a hike and then hike to Switzerland for safety. He is also proclaimed to be the founder of the floss dance. He would use it in his mime shows.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Universal - HD (Sneak Peek) Gameplay Trailer
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas by Rockstar Games
Five years ago, Carl Johnson escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas, a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs and corruption. Where filmstars and millionaires do their best to avoid the dealers and gangbangers.
Now, it's the early 90's. Carl's got to go home. His mother has been murdered, his family has fallen apart and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster.
On his return to the neighborhood, a couple of corrupt cops frame him for homicide. CJ is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets.
Rockstar Games brings its biggest release to mobile yet with a vast open-world covering the state of San Andreas and its three major cities -- Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas -- with enhanced visual fidelity and over 70 hours of gameplay.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas features:
• Remastered, high-resolution graphics built specifically for mobile including lighting enhancements, an enriched color palette and improved character models.
• Enhanced for the iPhone 5 series and iPad 4th Gen and above with dynamic detailed shadows and real-time environmental reflections.
• Physical controller support for all Made-for-iOS controllers.
• Cloud save support for playing across all your iOS devices for Rockstar Social Club Members.
• Dual analog stick controls for full camera and movement control.
• Three different control schemes and customizable controls with contextual options to display buttons only when you need them.
Languages Supported: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese.
*To listen to your custom playlist, simply create a playlist titled GTASA, launch the game, and select the radio station MIXTAPE.
For optimal performance, we recommend re-booting your device after downloading and closing other applications when playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Mobile Version developed by War Drum Studios
wardrumstudios.com
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*** PLEASE NOTE: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is only supported on the following devices: iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPod Touch 5th gen, iPad 2, 3rd and 4th gen, iPad Air, iPad Mini and iPad Mini with Retina Display.***
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Charles de Gaulle | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:06:10 1 Early life
00:06:20 1.1 Childhood and origins
00:08:22 1.2 Education and intellectual influences
00:11:46 2 Early career
00:11:55 2.1 Officer cadet and lieutenant
00:16:33 2.2 First World War
00:16:43 2.2.1 Combat
00:20:16 2.2.2 Prisoner
00:22:37 2.3 Between the wars
00:22:46 2.3.1 Early 1920s: Poland and staff college
00:25:30 2.3.2 Mid-1920s: ghostwriter for Pétain
00:28:15 2.3.3 Late-1920s: Trier and Beirut
00:31:34 2.3.4 1930s: staff officer
00:33:56 2.3.5 Early 1930s: proponent of armoured warfare
00:38:05 2.3.6 Late-1930s: tank regiment
00:40:44 3 Second World War: the Fall of France
00:40:56 3.1 Early war
00:43:20 3.2 The Battle of France: division commander
00:47:51 3.3 The Battle of France: government minister
00:50:56 3.4 The Battle of France: Briare and Tours
00:55:16 3.5 The Battle of France: Franco-British Union
00:57:27 3.6 Flight with Edward Spears
00:58:58 4 Second World War: leader of the Free French in exile
00:59:11 4.1 Appeal from London
01:03:50 4.2 Leader of the Free French
01:10:56 4.3 De Gaulle and Pétain: rival visions of France
01:17:33 4.4 De Gaulle's relations with the iAnglo-Saxons/i
01:23:48 4.5 Plane sabotage
01:24:51 4.6 Algiers
01:26:31 4.7 Preparations for D-Day
01:32:30 4.8 Return to France
01:41:59 5 1944–1946: Provisional Government of Liberated France
01:46:03 5.1 Curbing the Communist Resistance
01:47:44 5.2 The Provisional Government of the French Republic
01:51:12 5.3 Tour of major cities
01:53:11 5.4 The legal purges (Épuration légale)
01:58:28 5.5 Winter of 1944
02:02:08 5.6 Visit to the Soviet Union
02:06:24 5.7 Strasbourg
02:08:36 5.8 The Yalta Conference
02:10:27 5.9 President Truman
02:13:09 5.10 Victory in Europe
02:16:02 5.11 Confrontation in Syria and Lebanon
02:18:34 5.12 The Potsdam Conference
02:19:27 5.13 New elections and resignation
02:23:53 6 1946–1958: Out of power
02:28:27 6.1 1958: Collapse of the Fourth Republic
02:33:20 7 1958–1962: Founding of the Fifth Republic
02:36:45 7.1 Algeria
02:39:52 7.2 Assassination attempts
02:40:51 7.3 Direct presidential elections
02:42:20 8 1962–1968: Politics of grandeur
02:43:00 8.1 Thirty glorious years
02:46:05 8.2 Fourth nuclear power
02:50:45 8.3 NATO
02:56:21 8.4 European Economic Community (EEC)
03:05:23 8.5 Recognition of the People's Republic of China
03:08:13 8.6 Visit to Latin America
03:09:25 8.7 US dollar crisis
03:11:20 9 Second term
03:13:09 9.1 Empty Chair Crisis
03:14:26 9.2 Six-Day War
03:17:25 9.3 Nigerian Civil War
03:19:11 9.4 iVive le Québec libre!/i
03:21:12 9.5 Official visit to Poland
03:22:05 9.6 May 1968
03:25:36 10 Later life
03:25:46 10.1 Retirement
03:27:24 10.2 Personal life
03:29:31 10.3 Death
03:33:22 11 Legacy
03:33:31 11.1 Reputation
03:36:10 11.2 Relationships with other political leaders
03:46:55 12 Honours and awards
03:47:05 12.1 French
03:47:41 12.2 Foreign
03:51:17 12.3 Medals
03:52:13 12.4 Memorials
03:52:44 13 Works
03:52:53 13.1 French editions
03:55:06 13.2 English translations
03:57:30 14 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
Listen on Google Assistant through Extra Audio:
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Speaking Rate: 0.7478624904957046
Voice name: en-GB-Wavenet-A
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl də ɡol] (listen); 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led the French Resistance against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to establish democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers by President René Coty. He was asked to rewrite the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year, a position he was reelected to in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969. He was ...
My Friend Irma: Psycholo / Newspaper Column / Dictation System
My Friend Irma, created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard, is a top-rated, long-run radio situation comedy, so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated to films, television, a comic strip and a comic book, while Howard scored with another radio comedy hit, Life with Luigi. Marie Wilson portrayed the title character, Irma Peterson, on radio, in two films and a television series. The radio series was broadcast from April 11, 1947 to August 23, 1954.
Dependable, level-headed Jane Stacy (Cathy Lewis, Diana Lynn) began each weekly radio program by narrating a misadventure of her innocent, bewildered roommate, Irma, a dim-bulb stenographer from Minnesota. The two central characters were in their mid-twenties. Irma had her 25th birthday in one episode; she was born on May 5. After the two met in the first episode, they lived together in an apartment rented from their Irish landlady, Mrs. O'Reilly (Jane Morgan, Gloria Gordon).
Irma's boyfriend Al (John Brown) was a deadbeat, barely on the right side of the law, who had not held a job in years. Only someone like Irma could love Al, whose nickname for Irma was Chicken. Al had many crazy get-rich-quick schemes, which never worked. Al planned to marry Irma at some future date so she could support him. Professor Kropotkin (Hans Conried), the Russian violinist at the Princess Burlesque theater, lived upstairs. He greeted Jane and Irma with remarks like, My two little bunnies with one being an Easter bunny and the other being Bugs Bunny. The Professor insulted Mrs. O'Reilly, complained about his room and reluctantly became O'Reilly's love interest in an effort to make her forget his back rent.
Irma worked for the lawyer, Mr. Clyde (Alan Reed). She had such an odd filing system that once when Clyde fired her, he had to hire her back again because he couldn't find anything. Useless at dictation, Irma mangled whatever Clyde dictated. Asked how long she had been with Clyde, Irma said, When I first went to work with him he had curly black hair, then it got grey, and now it's snow white. I guess I've been with him about six months.
Irma became less bright as the program evolved. She also developed a tendency to whine or cry whenever something went wrong, which was at least once every show. Jane had a romantic inclination for her boss, millionaire Richard Rhinelander (Leif Erickson), but he had no real interest in her. Another actor in the show was Bea Benaderet.
Katherine Elisabeth Wilson (August 19, 1916 -- November 23, 1972), better known by her stage name, Marie Wilson, was an American radio, film, and television actress. She may be best remembered as the title character in My Friend Irma.
Born in Anaheim, California, Wilson began her career in New York City as a dancer on the Broadway stage. She gained national prominence with My Friend Irma on radio, television and film. The show made her a star but typecast her almost interminably as the quintessential dumb blonde, which she played in numerous comedies and in Ken Murray's famous Hollywood Blackouts. During World War II, she was a volunteer performer at the Hollywood Canteen. She was also a popular wartime pin-up.
Wilson's performance in Satan Met a Lady, the second film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's detective novel The Maltese Falcon, is a virtual template for Marilyn Monroe's later onscreen persona. Wilson appeared in more than 40 films and was a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show on four occasions. She was a television performer during the 1960s, working until her untimely death.
Wilson's talents have been recognized with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for radio at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard, for television at 6765 Hollywood Boulevard and for movies at 6601 Hollywood Boulevard.
Wilson married four times: Nick Grinde (early 1930s), LA golf pro Bob Stevens (1938--39), Allan Nixon (1942--50) and Robert Fallon (1951--72).
She died of cancer in 1972 at age 56 and was interred in the Columbarium of Remembrance at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.
Dragnet: Big Escape / Big Man Part 1 / Big Man Part 2
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a dragnet, meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Dragnet debuted inauspiciously. The first several months were bumpy, as Webb and company worked out the program's format and eventually became comfortable with their characters (Friday was originally portrayed as more brash and forceful than his later usually relaxed demeanor). Gradually, Friday's deadpan, fast-talking persona emerged, described by John Dunning as a cop's cop, tough but not hard, conservative but caring. (Dunning, 210) Friday's first partner was Sergeant Ben Romero, portrayed by Barton Yarborough, a longtime radio actor. After Yarborough's death in 1951 (and therefore Romero's, who also died of a heart attack, as acknowledged on the December 27, 1951 episode The Big Sorrow), Friday was partnered with Sergeant Ed Jacobs (December 27, 1951 - April 10, 1952, subsequently transferred to the Police Academy as an instructor), played by Barney Phillips; Officer Bill Lockwood (Ben Romero's nephew, April 17, 1952 - May 8, 1952), played by Martin Milner (with Ken Peters taking the role for the June 12, 1952 episode The Big Donation); and finally Frank Smith, played first by Herb Ellis (1952), then Ben Alexander (September 21, 1952-1959). Raymond Burr was on board to play the Chief of Detectives. When Dragnet hit its stride, it became one of radio's top-rated shows.
Webb insisted on realism in every aspect of the show. The dialogue was clipped, understated and sparse, influenced by the hardboiled school of crime fiction. Scripts were fast moving but didn't seem rushed. Every aspect of police work was chronicled, step by step: From patrols and paperwork, to crime scene investigation, lab work and questioning witnesses or suspects. The detectives' personal lives were mentioned but rarely took center stage. (Friday was a bachelor who lived with his mother; Romero, a Mexican-American from Texas, was an ever fretful husband and father.) Underplaying is still acting, Webb told Time. We try to make it as real as a guy pouring a cup of coffee. (Dunning, 209) Los Angeles police chiefs C.B. Horrall, William A. Worton, and (later) William H. Parker were credited as consultants, and many police officers were fans.
Most of the later episodes were entitled The Big _____, where the key word denoted a person or thing in the plot. In numerous episodes, this would the principal suspect, victim, or physical target of the crime, but in others was often a seemingly inconsequential detail eventually revealed to be key evidence in solving the crime. For example, in The Big Streetcar the background noise of a passing streetcar helps to establish the location of a phone booth used by the suspect.
Throughout the series' radio years, one can find interesting glimpses of pre-renewal Downtown L.A., still full of working class residents and the cheap bars, cafes, hotels and boarding houses which served them. At the climax of the early episode James Vickers, the chase leads to the Subway Terminal Building, where the robber flees into one of the tunnels only to be killed by an oncoming train. Meanwhile, by contrast, in other episodes set in outlying areas, it is clear that the locations in question are far less built up than they are today. Today, the Imperial Highway, extending 40 miles east from El Segundo to Anaheim, is a heavily used boulevard lined almost entirely with low-rise commercial development. In an early Dragnet episode scenes along the Highway, at the road to San Pedro, clearly indicate that it still retained much the character of a country highway at that time.
Words at War: Faith of Our Fighters: The Bid Was Four Hearts / The Rainbow / Can Do
Wanda Wasilewska (21 January 1905 -- 29 July 1964) was a Polish and Soviet novelist and communist political activist who played an important role in the creation of a Polish division of the Soviet Red Army during World War II and the formation of the People's Republic of Poland.
She had fled the German attack on Warsaw in September 1939 and taken up residence in Soviet-occupied Lviv and eventually the Soviet Union.
Wasilewska was born on 25 January 1905 in Kraków, Austria-Hungary. Her father was Leon Wasilewski, a Polish Socialist Party politician. She studied philosophy at the Warsaw University and Polish language and Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. After she graduated she remained at her alma mater and passed her doctorate exams in 1927. While studying she started cooperation with the Union of Socialist Youth and Society of Workers' Universities.
Soon after she finished her studies she started working as a school teacher and a journalist for various left-wing newspapers, among them Naprzód, Robotnik, Dziennik Popularny and Oblicze Dnia. She also became the chairperson of the Płomyk and Płomyczek monthlies for children, where she introduced Soviet propaganda. Although she was often criticised for her radical left-wing opinions, she joined the PPS instead of the communist party, where she was soon promoted to a member of the main party council. In her early political career she supported an alliance of all the left-wing parties with the communists against the ruling Sanacja. She was also an active supporter of many strikes in Poland. During one of the demonstrations in Kraków she met Marian Bogatko, whom she later married.
After the Polish defeat in the Polish Defensive War of 1939 and the partition of Poland into Soviet and German occupied zones, she moved to Lviv where she automatically became a Soviet citizen. The Gestapo — acting at the request of the NKVD — helped to transfer her daughter and her furniture from Warsaw to Lviv.[1] She became a member of various communist organisations uniting local Polish and Ukrainian communists. She was also a journalist for the Czerwony Sztandar (Red Banner), a Soviet propaganda newspaper printed in Polish language. In early 1940, Joseph Stalin awarded her a seat in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. She also became the chair of the Dramatic Theatre in Lviv. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union Wasilewska fled advancing Nazi army and joined the Red Army as a war correspondent and a functionary of the Political Commandment (Politupravleniye) of the Red Army. She held the military rank of a colonel.[2] She was also one of the founders (together with Jerzy Putrament) of the Nowe Widnokręgi monthly.
After consultations with Stalin (and most probably by his direct order) she became the head of the newly formed Związek Patriotów Polskich (Society of Polish Patriots), a Soviet-created provisional government that was to control Poland. In 1944 she also became the deputy chief of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN), another provisional government which was also sponsored by the Soviet Union and opposing the Polish government in exile as the legal government of Poland. She favoured the incorporation of Poland as a republic of the Soviet Union.
After most of Poland was occupied by the Red Army she decided to stay in the Soviet Union. She also became involved in a relationship with Ukrainian playwright Oleksandr Korniychuk, with whom she moved to Kiev.
Although both her Russian and Ukrainian language abilities were very limited, she remained a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union for several decades. She did not return to public life, however. She died on July 29, 1964 in Kiev. She is buried in the Baikove Cemetery.
She was triple recipient of the Stalin prize for literature (1943, 1946, 1952). During the life of Joseph Stalin she was considered a classic writer of Soviet literature and her works were included into the school curriculum throughout the Soviet Union, but she was almost completely forgotten after his death.
Mauritius | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Mauritius
00:02:34 1 Etymology
00:03:56 2 History
00:04:35 2.1 Dutch Mauritius (1638–1710)
00:05:24 2.2 French Mauritius (1715–1810)
00:08:23 2.3 British Mauritius (1810–1968)
00:17:39 2.4 Independence (since 1968)
00:22:24 2.5 Republic (since 1992)
00:25:37 2.6 Truth and Justice Commission
00:26:33 3 Geography
00:28:00 3.1 Mauritius Island
00:30:06 3.1.1 Districts of Mauritius Island
00:30:22 3.2 Rodrigues
00:30:58 3.3 Outer Islands
00:31:07 3.3.1 Agelega
00:31:46 3.3.2 St. Brandon
00:32:10 3.4 Biodiversity
00:35:31 3.5 Environment and climate
00:37:35 3.6 Territorial dispute
00:37:44 3.6.1 Chagos Archipelago
00:39:53 3.6.1.1 Permanent Court of Arbitration
00:45:06 3.6.1.2 International Court of Justice
00:45:41 3.6.2 Tromelin
00:46:03 4 Politics
00:46:35 4.1 Parliament
00:48:27 4.2 Government
00:49:19 4.3 Military
00:49:58 4.4 Foreign relations
00:51:16 4.5 Legal system
00:53:10 5 Demographics
00:53:57 5.1 Ethnic groups
00:54:34 5.2 Religion
00:55:35 5.3 Languages
00:57:38 5.4 Largest urban centres
00:57:47 5.5 Health
00:57:57 5.6 Education
00:59:24 6 Economy
01:01:49 6.1 Tourism
01:02:32 6.2 Transport
01:03:41 6.3 Financial services
01:04:08 6.4 Information and communication technology
01:04:48 7 Culture
01:04:57 7.1 Art
01:05:16 7.2 Architecture
01:06:54 7.3 Literature
01:07:35 7.4 Music
01:07:53 7.5 Cuisine
01:08:13 7.6 Holidays and festivals
01:09:02 7.7 Sports
01:10:06 8 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Mauritius ( (listen); French: Maurice), officially the Republic of Mauritius (French: République de Maurice), is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) off the southeast coast of the African continent. The country includes the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, 560 kilometres (350 mi) east of Mauritius, and the outer islands of Agaléga and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues form part of the Mascarene Islands, along with nearby Reunion island. The area of the country is 2,040 km2 (790 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Port Louis. The island is widely known as the only known home of the dodo, which along with several other avian species, was made extinct by human activities relatively shortly after the island's settlement.
Formerly a French colony (1715–1810), Mauritius became a British colonial possession in 1810 and remained so until 1968, the year in which it attained independence. The British Crown colony of Mauritius once included the current territories of Mauritius, Rodrigues, the outer islands of Agaléga, St. Brandon, Chagos Archipelago, and Seychelles. The Mauritian territories gradually devolved with the creation of a separate colony of Seychelles in 1903 and the excision of the Chagos Archipelago in 1965. The sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is disputed between Mauritius and the United Kingdom. The UK excised the archipelago from Mauritian territory in 1965, three years prior to Mauritian independence. The UK gradually depopulated the archipelago's local population and leased its biggest island, Diego Garcia, to the United States. Access to the Chagos Archipelago is prohibited to casual tourists, the media, and its former inhabitants. Mauritius also claims sovereignty over Tromelin Island from France.
The people of Mauritius are multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual. The island's government is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system, and Mauritius is highly ranked for democracy and for economic and political freedom. The Human Development Index of Mauritius is the highest in Africa. Along with the other Mascarene Islands, Mauritius is known for its varied flora and fauna, with many species endemic to the island.
Mauritius is the only country in Africa and outside of South Asia where Hinduism is the majority religion. The administration uses English as its main language.
You Bet Your Life: Secret Word - Sky / Window / Dust
Julius Henry Groucho Marx (October 2, 1890 -- August 19, 1977) was an American comedian and film and television star. He is known as a master of quick wit and widely considered one of the best comedians of the modern era. His rapid-fire, often impromptu delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers and imitators. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show You Bet Your Life. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar, and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the world's most ubiquitous and recognizable novelty disguises, known as Groucho glasses, a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache.
Groucho Marx was, and is, the most recognizable and well-known of the Marx Brothers. Groucho-like characters and references have appeared in popular culture both during and after his life, some aimed at audiences who may never have seen a Marx Brothers movie. Groucho's trademark eye glasses, nose, mustache, and cigar have become icons of comedy—glasses with fake noses and mustaches (referred to as Groucho glasses, nose-glasses, and other names) are sold by novelty and costume shops around the world.
Nat Perrin, close friend of Groucho Marx and writer of several Marx Brothers films, inspired John Astin's portrayal of Gomez Addams on the 1960s TV series The Addams Family with similarly thick mustache, eyebrows, sardonic remarks, backward logic, and ever-present cigar (pulled from his breast pocket already lit).
Alan Alda often vamped in the manner of Groucho on M*A*S*H. In one episode, Yankee Doodle Doctor, Hawkeye and Trapper put on a Marx Brothers act at the 4077, with Hawkeye playing Groucho and Trapper playing Harpo. In three other episodes, a character appeared who was named Captain Calvin Spalding (played by Loudon Wainwright III). Groucho's character in Animal Crackers was Captain Geoffrey T. Spaulding.
On many occasions, on the 1970s television sitcom All In The Family, Michael Stivic (Rob Reiner), would briefly imitate Groucho Marx and his mannerisms.
Two albums by British rock band Queen, A Night at the Opera (1975) and A Day at the Races (1976), are named after Marx Brothers films. In March 1977, Groucho invited Queen to visit him in his Los Angeles home; there they performed '39 a capella. A long-running ad campaign for Vlasic Pickles features an animated stork that imitates Groucho's mannerisms and voice. On the famous Hollywood Sign in California, one of the Os is dedicated to Groucho. Alice Cooper contributed over $27,000 to remodel the sign, in memory of his friend.
In 1982, Gabe Kaplan portrayed Marx in the film Groucho, in a one-man stage production. He also imitated Marx occasionally on his previous TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.
Actor Frank Ferrante has performed as Groucho Marx on stage for more than two decades. He continues to tour under rights granted by the Marx family in a one-man show entitled An Evening With Groucho in theaters throughout the United States and Canada with piano accompanist Jim Furmston. In the late 1980s Ferrante starred as Groucho in the off-Broadway and London show Groucho: A Life in Revue penned by Groucho's son Arthur. Ferrante portrayed the comedian from age 15 to 85. The show was later filmed for PBS in 2001. Woody Allen's 1996 musical Everyone Says I Love You, in addition to being named for one of Groucho's signature songs, ends with a Groucho-themed New Year's Eve party in Paris, which some of the stars, including Allen and Goldie Hawn, attend in full Groucho costume. The highlight of the scene is an ensemble song-and-dance performance of Hooray for Captain Spaulding—done entirely in French.
In the last of the Tintin comics, Tintin and the Picaros, a balloon shaped like the face of Groucho could be seen in the Annual Carnival.
In the Italian horror comic Dylan Dog, the protagonist's sidekick is a Groucho impersonator whose character became his permanent personality.
The BBC remade the radio sitcom Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel, with contemporary actors playing the parts of the original cast. The series was repeated on digital radio station BBC7. Scottish playwright Louise Oliver wrote a play named Waiting For Groucho about Chico and Harpo waiting for Groucho to turn up for the filming of their last project together. This was performed by Glasgow theatre company Rhymes with Purple Productions at the Edinburgh Fringe and in Glasgow and Hamilton in 2007-08. Groucho was played by Scottish actor Frodo McDaniel.
Dragnet: Homicide / The Werewolf / Homicide
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a dragnet, meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Dragnet debuted inauspiciously. The first several months were bumpy, as Webb and company worked out the program's format and eventually became comfortable with their characters (Friday was originally portrayed as more brash and forceful than his later usually relaxed demeanor). Gradually, Friday's deadpan, fast-talking persona emerged, described by John Dunning as a cop's cop, tough but not hard, conservative but caring. (Dunning, 210) Friday's first partner was Sergeant Ben Romero, portrayed by Barton Yarborough, a longtime radio actor. After Yarborough's death in 1951 (and therefore Romero's, who also died of a heart attack, as acknowledged on the December 27, 1951 episode The Big Sorrow), Friday was partnered with Sergeant Ed Jacobs (December 27, 1951 - April 10, 1952, subsequently transferred to the Police Academy as an instructor), played by Barney Phillips; Officer Bill Lockwood (Ben Romero's nephew, April 17, 1952 - May 8, 1952), played by Martin Milner (with Ken Peters taking the role for the June 12, 1952 episode The Big Donation); and finally Frank Smith, played first by Herb Ellis (1952), then Ben Alexander (September 21, 1952-1959). Raymond Burr was on board to play the Chief of Detectives. When Dragnet hit its stride, it became one of radio's top-rated shows.
Webb insisted on realism in every aspect of the show. The dialogue was clipped, understated and sparse, influenced by the hardboiled school of crime fiction. Scripts were fast moving but didn't seem rushed. Every aspect of police work was chronicled, step by step: From patrols and paperwork, to crime scene investigation, lab work and questioning witnesses or suspects. The detectives' personal lives were mentioned but rarely took center stage. (Friday was a bachelor who lived with his mother; Romero, a Mexican-American from Texas, was an ever fretful husband and father.) Underplaying is still acting, Webb told Time. We try to make it as real as a guy pouring a cup of coffee. (Dunning, 209) Los Angeles police chiefs C.B. Horrall, William A. Worton, and (later) William H. Parker were credited as consultants, and many police officers were fans.
Most of the later episodes were entitled The Big _____, where the key word denoted a person or thing in the plot. In numerous episodes, this would the principal suspect, victim, or physical target of the crime, but in others was often a seemingly inconsequential detail eventually revealed to be key evidence in solving the crime. For example, in The Big Streetcar the background noise of a passing streetcar helps to establish the location of a phone booth used by the suspect.
Throughout the series' radio years, one can find interesting glimpses of pre-renewal Downtown L.A., still full of working class residents and the cheap bars, cafes, hotels and boarding houses which served them. At the climax of the early episode James Vickers, the chase leads to the Subway Terminal Building, where the robber flees into one of the tunnels only to be killed by an oncoming train. Meanwhile, by contrast, in other episodes set in outlying areas, it is clear that the locations in question are far less built up than they are today. Today, the Imperial Highway, extending 40 miles east from El Segundo to Anaheim, is a heavily used boulevard lined almost entirely with low-rise commercial development. In an early Dragnet episode scenes along the Highway, at the road to San Pedro, clearly indicate that it still retained much the character of a country highway at that time.