Wednesday, December 5, 2007


The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), serving as both a federal criminal investigative body and a domestic intelligence agency. At present, the FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes, making the FBI the de-facto lead law enforcement agency of the United States government. The motto of the bureau is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity".
In fiscal year 2006, the FBI's total budget was approximately $8.7 billion, including $495 million in program increases to enhance counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, cyber crime, information technology, security, forensics, training, and criminal programs.
Established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), the FBI did not receive its current name until 1935.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the FBI also has 56 field offices located in major cities throughout the United States, 400+ resident agencies in smaller cities and towns across the nation, and more than 50 international offices called "Legal Attaches" in U.S. embassies worldwide.

FBI Academy
FBI Laboratory
Criminal Justice Information Services
Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU)
Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG)
Counterterrorism Division (CTD)
Law Enforcement Bulletin Unit (LEBU)
Hostage Rescue Team (HRT)
Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)
National Security Branch (NSB)
List of FBI Directors
List of FBI Field Offices
Notable operations

  • COINTELPRO
    Crime statistics

    • NIBRS
      Uniform Crime Reports
      Most wanted

      • FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
        FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
        J. Edgar Hoover
        W. Mark Felt
        Joseph L. Gormley
        FBI portrayal in the media Mission and priorities
        The FBI's mandate is established in Title 28 of the United States Code (U.S. Code), Section 533, which authorizes the Attorney General to "appoint officials to detect... crimes against the United States." of those who are suspected of terrorism (something it had supposedly not done since the 1970s).
        The FBI's chief tool against organized crime is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The FBI is also charged with the responsibility of enforcing compliance of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 and investigating violations of the act in addition to prosecuting such violations with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI also shares concurrent jurisdiction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
        Information obtained through an FBI investigation is presented to the appropriate US Attorney or Department of Justice (DOJ) official, who decides if prosecution or other action is warranted.

        Legal authority
        With the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1870, the Federal government began to take on some law enforcement responsibilities, which had been primarily handled at the state and local levels. The Department of Justice was tasked carry out these duties, concerning the Interstate Commerce Act. At first, the Attorney General informally hired some detectives, recruiting them from other Federal departments with detective forces. When a law was passed in 1908, forbidding this practice, Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte moved to organize a formal Bureau of Investigation.

        History
        The FBI is headquartered at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., with 56 field offices and the National Transportation Safety Board in investigating airplane crashes and other critical incidents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the only other agency with the closest amount of investigative power. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the FBI maintains a role in most federal criminal investigations.
        The FBI is organized in the following manner.

        National Security Branch

        • Counterintelligence Division
          Counterterrorism Division
          Directorate of Intelligence
          Criminal Investigations Branch

          • Criminal Investigative Division
            Cyber Division
            Law Enforcement Services Branch

            • Criminal Justice Information Services Division
              Critical Incident Response Group
              Laboratory Division
              Office of International Operations
              Office of Law Enforcement Coordination
              Operational Technology Division
              Training & Development Division
              Administration Branch

              • Administrative Services Division
                Facilities & Logistics Services Division
                Finance Division
                Records Management Division
                Security Division
                office of the Chief Information officer

                • Information Technology Operations Division
                  office of IT Policy & Planning
                  office of IT Program Management
                  office of IT Systems Development Organization

                  Main article: List of FBI Directors BOI and FBI directors
                  While the exact process and details are classified, the process of becoming an employee of the FBI is arduous. At a minimum, FBI employees require a Top Secret (TS) security clearance, and in many instances, employees need a higher level, TS/SCI clearance. Special Agents candidates also have to pass a rigorous Physical Fitness Test (PFT) that includes a 300-meter run, one-minute sit-ups, maximum push-ups, and a 1.5-mile run. There is also a random drug test all FBI personnel have to pass in order to become an agent. In addition to the drug test, there is a polygraph test personnel have to pass, with questions including possible drug use. After potential special agent candidates are cleared with TS clearance and the Form SF-312 non-disclosure agreement is signed, they attend the FBI training facility located on Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Candidates spend approximately 21 weeks at the FBI Academy, where they receive over 500 classroom hours and over 1000 simulated law enforcement hours to train. Upon graduation, new FBI Special Agents are placed all around the country and the world, depending on their areas of expertise. Professional support staff works out of one of the many support buildings the FBI maintains. However, any Agent or Support staff member can be transferred to any location for any length of time if their skills are deemed necessary at one of the FBI field offices or one of the 400 resident agencies the FBI maintains.
                  As of October 31, 2006, the FBI had a total of 30,762 employees. That includes 12,659 special agents and 18,009 support staff, such as intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, information technology specialists, and other professionals.

                  Hiring process
                  The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin is published monthly by the FBI Law Enforcement Communication Unit, However, the vast majority of Federal government publications covering these topics are published by the Office of Justice Programs agencies of the United States Department of Justice, and disseminated through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.

                  FBI Publications

                  Crime statistics

                  Main article: Uniform Crime Reports Uniform Crime Reports

                  Main article: National Incident Based Reporting System National Incident Based Reporting System

                  Main article: FBI portrayal in the media Media portrayal
                  The FBI has endured public criticism and internal conflict in the past decade. As the FBI attempts to modernize technologically to take on a greater counter-terrorism role, there have been times where the FBI is scrutinized.
                  Most of the recent controversies in the FBI have been involved with "terrorist" organizations or "operational" mishaps. In the early and late 1990s, its role in the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents caused an uproar in how tactics where handled. During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, the FBI was also criticized for its investigation on the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. It has recently settled a dispute with Richard Jewell, who was a private security guard at the venue, along with the media organizations,

                  Criticism

                  See also

                  State Bureau of Investigation State level organizations

                  Bundeskriminalamt, Austria
                  Bundeskriminalamt, Germany
                  Central Bureau of Investigation, India
                  Royal Canadian Mounted Police
                  Canadian Security Intelligence Service
                  Serious Organised Crime Agency (UK)
                  Federal Agency of Investigation (Mexico)
                  Australian Federal Police
                  Policia Federal Argentina
                  Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
                  National Bureau of Investigation (Philippines) Similar agencies of other nations

                  Edwin Atherton left the service and founded Atherton & Dunn private investigations firm
                  Richard Miller (first FBI Special Agent to be convicted of espionage)
                  Moses Powell (first black man to train FBI agents in hand-to-hand combat)

Tuesday, December 4, 2007


Sarah Lois Vaughan (nicknamed "Sassy" and "The Divine One") (March 27, 1924, Newark, New JerseyApril 3, 1990, Los Angeles, California) was an American jazz singer, described as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century [1].

Early life
Vaughan spent the remainder of 1943 and part of 1944 touring the country with the Earl Hines big band that also featured baritone Billy Eckstine. Vaughan was hired as a pianist, reputedly so Hines could hire her under the jurisdiction of the musicians' union (American Federation of Musicians) rather than the singers union (American Guild of Variety Artists), but after Cliff Smalls joined the band as a trombonist and pianist, Sarah's duties became limited exclusively to singing. This Earl Hines band is best remembered today as an incubator of bebop, as it included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist Charlie Parker(playing tenor saxophone rather than the alto saxophone that he would become famous with later) and trombonist Benny Green. Gillespie also arranged for the band, although a recording ban by the musicians union prevented the band from recording and preserving its sound and style for posterity.
Eckstine left the Hines band in late 1943 and formed his own big band with Gillespie leaving Hines to become the new band's musical director. Parker came along too, and the Eckstine band over the next few years would host a startling cast of jazz talent: Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Art Blakey, Lucky Thompson, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon, among others.
Vaughan accepted Eckstine's invitation to join his new band in 1944, giving her an opportunity to develop her musicianship with the seminal figures in this era of jazz. Eckstine's band also afforded her first recording opportunity, a December 5, 1944 date that yielded the song "I'll Wait and Pray" for the Deluxe label. That date led to critic and producer Leonard Feather to ask her to cut four sides under her own name later that month for the Continental label, backed by a septet that included Dizzy Gillespie and Georgie Auld.
Band pianist John Malachi is credited with giving Vaughan the moniker "Sassy", a nickname that matched her personality. Vaughan liked it and the name (and its shortened variant "Sass") stuck with colleagues and, eventually, the press. In written communications, Vaughan often spelled it "Sassie".
Vaughan officially left the Eckstine band in late 1944 to pursue a solo career, although she remained very close to Eckstine personally and recorded with him frequently throughout her life.

Early Solo Career: 1945 - 1948
The musicians union ban pushed Musicraft to the brink of bankruptcy and Vaughan used the missed royalty payments as an opportunity to sign with the larger Columbia record label. Following the settling of the legal issues, her chart successes continued with the charting of "Black Coffee" in the Summer of 1949. During her tenure at Columbia through 1953, Vaughan was steered almost exclusively to commercial pop ballads, a number of which had chart success: "That Lucky Old Sun", "Make Believe (You Are Glad When You're Sorry)", "I'm Crazy to Love You", "Our Very Own", "I Love the Guy", "Thinking of You" (with pianist Bud Powell), "I Cried for You", "These Things I Offer You", "Vanity", "I Ran All the Way Home", "Saint or Sinner", "My Tormented Heart", and "Time", among others.
Vaughan also achieved substantial critical acclaim. Vaughan won Esquire magazine's New Star Award for 1947. Vaughan won awards from Down Beat magazine continuously from 1947 through 1952 and from Metronome magazine from 1948 through 1953. A handful of critics disliked her singing as being "over-stylized," reflecting the heated controversies of the time over the new musical trends of the late 40's. However the critical reception to the young singer was generally positive.
Recording and critical success led to numerous performing opportunities, packing clubs around the country almost continuously throughout the years of the late 1940s and early 1950s. In the Summer of 1949, Vaughan made her first appearance with a symphony orchestra in a benefit for the Philadelphia Orchestra entitled "100 Men and a Girl." Around this time, Chicago disk jockey Dave Garroway coined a second nickname for Vaughan, "The Divine One", that would follow her throughout her career. In 1951, Vaughan made her first tour of Europe.
With improving finances, in 1949 Vaughan and Treadwell purchased a three-story house on 21 Avon Avenue in Newark, occupying the top floor during their increasingly rare off-hours at home and relocating Vaughan's parents to the lower two floors. However, the business pressures and personality conflicts lead to a cooling in the personal relationship between Treadwell and Vaughan. Treadwell hired a road manager to handle Vaughan's touring needs and opened a management office in Manhattan so he could work with clients in addition to Vaughan.
Vaughan's relationship with Columbia Records also soured as Vaughan became dissatisfied both with the commercial material she was required to record there and lackluster financial success of her records. A set of small group sides recorded in 1950 with Miles Davis and Benny Green are among the best of her career, but those were isolated moments in her Columbia ouvre. Frank Sinatra would face similar issues at the conclusion of his Columbia contract around the same time. As with Sinatra, Vaughan needed a change of setting that would give her talents the environment to fully blossom.

Stardom and The Columbia Years: 1948 - 1953
In 1953, Treadwell negotiated a unique contract for Vaughan with Mercury Records. Vaughan would record commercial material for the Mercury label and more jazz-oriented material for Mercury's subsidiary EmArcy label. Vaughan was paired with producer Bob Shad and their excellent working relationship resulted in strong commercial and artistic success. Vaughan's first recording session for Mercury was in February of 1954 and she stayed with the label through 1959. After a stint at Roulette Records from 1960 to 1963, Vaughan returned to Mercury for an additional time from 1964 to 1967.
Vaughan's commercial success at Mercury began with "Make Yourself Comfortable", recorded in the Fall of 1954. Other hits followed, including: "How Important Can It Be" (with Count Basie), "Whatever Lola Wants", "The Banana Boat Song", "You Ought to Have A Wife" and "Misty". Vaughan's commercial success peaked in 1959 with "Broken Hearted Melody", a song she considered "corny", that nonetheless became her first gold record and a regular part of her concert repertoire for years to come. Vaughan was reunited with Billy Eckstine for a series of duet recordings in 1957 that yielded the hit "Passing Strangers". Vaughan's commercial recordings were handled by a number of different arrangers and conductors, the primary leaders being Hugo Peretti and Hal Mooney.
The jazz "track" of her recording career also proceeded apace, backed either by her working trio or various assemblages of illustrious jazz figures. One of her favorite albums of her whole career was an album recorded in December of 1954 featuring a sextet that included Clifford Brown. The album In the Land of Hi-Fi was recorded at a pair of October 1955 sessions featuring a 12-piece band that was led by Ernie Wilkins and included J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, and Cannonball Adderley augmenting Vaughan's working trio. In 1958 Vaughan recorded the album No Count Sarah with members of the Count Basie Orchestra, minus Basie, who was under contract with another record company.
Performances from this era often found Vaughan in the company of a veritable who's who of jazz figures from the mid-1950s during a schedule of almost non-stop touring. Vaughan was featured at the first Newport Jazz Festival in the Summer of 1954 and would star in subsequent editions of that festival at Newport and in New York City for the remainder of her life. In the Fall of 1954, Vaughan performed at Carnegie Hall with the Count Basie Orchestra on a bill that also included Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Lester Young and the Modern Jazz Quartet. That autumn, Vaughan made another brief and highly successful tour of Europe. In early 1955, Vaughan set out on a "Big Show" tour, a grueling succession of start-studded one-nighters that included Count Basie, George Shearing, Errol Garner and Jimmy Rushing. In the 1955 New York Jazz Festival on Randalls Island, Vaughan shared the bill with the Dave Brubeck quartet, Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, and the Johnny Richards Orchestra
Although the professional relationship between Vaughan and Treadwell was quite successful through the 1950s, their personal relationship finally reached a breaking point at some time in 1958 and Vaughan filed for a divorce. Vaughan had entirely delegated financial matters to Treadwell, and despite stunning figures reported through the 1950s about Vaughan's record sales and performance income, at the settlement Treadwell said that only $16,000 was left. The couple evenly divided that amount and the personal assets and terminated their business relationship.

Sarah Vaughan The Mercury Years: 1954 - 1958
The exit of Treadwell from Vaughan's life was also precipitated by the entry of Clyde "C.B." Atkins, a man of uncertain background that Vaughan met while while on tour in Chicago and married on September 4, 1958. Although Atkins had no experience in artist management or music, Vaughan wished to have a mixed professional/personal relationship like the one she had with Treadwell. Vaughan made Atkins her personal manager, although, she was still feeling the sting of the problems she had with Treadwell and initially kept a slightly closer eye on Atkins. Vaughan and Atkins moved into a house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Vaughan's contract with Mercury Records ended in late 1959 and she immediately signed on with Roulette Records, a small label owned by Morris Levy, one of the backers of the Birdland in New York where Vaughan had frequently appeared. Roulette's roster also included Count Basie, Joe Williams, Dinah Washington, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross and Maynard Ferguson, among others.
Vaughan began recording for Roulette in April 1960, making a string of strong large ensemble albums arranged and/or conducted by Billy May, Jimmy Jones, Joe Reisman, Quincy Jones, Benny Carter, Lalo Schifrin and Gerald Wilson. Surprisingly, Vaughan also had some success in 1960 on the pop charts with "Serenata" on Roulette and a couple of residual tracks from her Mercury contract, "Eternally" and "You're My Baby". Vaughan made a pair of intimate vocal/guitar/double bass albums of jazz standards: After Hours (1961) with guitarist Mundell Lowe and double bassist George Duvivier and Sarah Plus Two (1962) with guitarist Barney Kessell and double bassist Joe Comfort.
Vaughan was incapable of having biological children, so in 1961 Vaughan and Atkins adopted a daughter, Debra Lois. However the relationship with Atkins was difficult and violent and Vaughan filed for divorce in November of 1963 after a series of strange incidents. Vaughan turned to two friends to help sort out the financial wreckage of the marriage: John "Preacher" Wells, a childhood acquaintance and club owner, and Clyde "Pumpkin" Golden, Jr. Wells and Golden found that Atkins' gambling and profligate spending had put Vaughan around $150,000 in debt and the Englewood Cliffs house was ultimately seized by the IRS for nonpayment of taxes. Vaughan retained custody of the adopted child and Golden essentially took Atkins place as Vaughan's manager and lover for the remainder of the decade.
Around the time of her second divorce, she also became disenchanted with Roulette Records. Roulette' finances were even more deceptive and opaque than usual in the record business and its recording artists often had little to show for their efforts other than some excellent records. When her contract with Roulette ended in 1963, Vaughan returned to the more familiar confines of Mercury Records. In the Summer of 1963, Vaughan went to Denmark with producer Quincy Jones to record four days of live performances with her trio that would be released on the album Sassy Swings the Tivoli that is an excellent example of Vaughan's live show from this period. Vaughan made her first appearance at the White House for President Johnson in 1964.
Unfortunately, the Tivoli recording would be the brightest moment of her second stint with Mercury. Changing demographics and tastes in the 1960s left jazz artists with shrinking audiences and inappropriate material. While Vaughan retained a following large and loyal enough to maintain her performing career, the quality and quantity of her recorded output dwindled even as her voice darkened and her skill remained undiminished. At the conclusion of her Mercury deal in 1967 she was left without a recording contract for the remainder of the decade.
In 1969 Vaughan terminated her professional relationship with Golden and relocated to the west coast, settling first into a house near Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles and then into what would end up being her final home in Hidden Hills.

The Sixties
Vaughan met Marshall Fisher after a 1970 performance at a casino in Las Vegas and Fisher soon fell in to the familiar dual role as Vaughan's lover and manager. Fisher was another man of uncertain background with no musical or entertainment business experience. However, unlike some of Vaughan's earlier associates, he was a genuine fan of Vaughan's and was devoted to furthering Vaughan's career.
The seventies also heralded a rebirth in Vaughan's recording activity. In 1971, Bob Shad, who had worked as a producer with Vaughan during her contract with Mercury Records, asked Vaughan to record for his new record label, Mainstream Records. Basie veteran Ernie Wilkins arranged and conducted her first Mainstream album, A Time In My Life in November 1971. In April of 1972, Vaughan recorded a collection of ballads written, arranged and conducted by Michel Legrand. Arrangers Legrand, Peter Matz, Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson teamed up for Vaughan's third Mainstream album, Feelin' Good. Vaughan also recorded Live in Japan, a live album in Tokyo with her trio in September of 1973.
During her sessions with Legrand, Bob Shad presented "Send In The Clowns", a Stephen Sondheim song from the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, to Vaughan for consideration. The song would become Vaughan's signature, replacing the chestnut "Tenderly" that had been with her from the beginning of her solo career.
Unfortunately, Vaughan's relationship with Mainstream soured in 1974, allegedly in a conflict precipitated by Fisher over an album cover photograph and/or unpaid royalties . This left Vaughan again without a recording contract for three years.
In December 1974, Vaughan played a private concert for the United States President Gerald Ford and French president Giscard d'Estaing during their summit on Martinique.
Also in 1974, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas asked Vaughan to participate in an all-Gershwin show he was planning for a guest appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. The arrangements were by Marty Paich and the orchestra would be augmented by established jazz artists Dave Grusin on piano, Ray Brown on double bass, drummer Shelly Manne and saxophonists Bill Perkins and Pete Christlieb. The concert was a success and Thomas and Vaughan repeated the performance with Thomas' home orchestra in Buffalo, New York, followed by appearances in 1975 and 1976 with symphony orchestras around the country. These performances fulfilled a long-held interest by Vaughan in working with symphonies and she made orchestra performances without Thomas for the remainder of the decade.
In 1977, Vaughan terminated her personal and professional relationship with Marshall Fisher. Although Fisher is occasionally referenced as Vaughan's third husband, they were never legally married. Vaughan began a relationship with Waymond Reed, a trumpet player 16 years her junior who was playing with the Count Basie band. Reed joined her working trio as a musical director and trumpet player and became Vaughan's third husband in 1978.
In 1977, Tom Guy, a young filmmaker and public TV producer, followed Vaughan around on tour, interviewing numerous artists speaking about Vaughan and capturing both concert and behind-the-scenes footage. The resulting sixteen hours of footage was pared down into an hour-and-a-half documentary, Listen To The Sun, that aired on September 21, 1978 on New Jersey Public Television, which was never commercially released.
In 1977 Norman Granz, who was also Ella Fitzgerald's manager, signed Vaughan to his Pablo Records label. Vaughan had not had a recording contract for three years, although she recorded a 1977 album of Beatles songs with contemporary pop arrangements for the Atlantic Records label that was eventually released in 1981. Vaughan's first release for Pablo was I Love Brazil, which was recorded with an all-star cast of Brazilian musicians in Rio de Janeiro in the fall of 1977 and led to a Grammy nomination.
The Pablo contract would ultimately result in five albums. In the Spring of 1978, Vaughan recorded How Long Has This Been Going On? with a quartet that included pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, double bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Louis Bellson. In the fall of 1979, Vaughan recorded material for two Duke Ellington Songbook albums. In the Spring of 1981, Vaughan recorded the album Send In The Clowns with the Count Basie orchestra playing arrangements primarily by Sammy Nestico and including a second recording of what had become her signature song. Her contract concluded in March of 1982 with Crazy and Mixed Up, another quartet album featuring Sir Roland Hanna on piano, Joe Pass on guitar, Andy Simpkins on double bass and Harold Jones on drums.
Vaughan and Waymond Reed divorced in 1981.

Rebirth in the Seventies
Vaughan remained quite active as a performer during the 1980s and began receiving awards recognizing her contribution to American music and status as an important elder stateswoman of Jazz. In the Summer of 1980, Vaughan received a plaque on 52nd Street outside the CBS building commemorating the jazz clubs she had once frequented on "Swing Street" and which had long since been demolished and replaced with office buildings.
A performance of her symphonic Gershwin program with the New Jersey Symphony in 1980 was broadcast on PBS and won her an Emmy Award in 1981 for "Individual Achievement - Special Class". She was reunited with Michael Tilson Thomas for slightly modified version of the Gershwin program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the CBS Records recording, Gershwin Live! won Vaughan the Grammy award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female. In 1985 Vaughan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1988 Vaughan was inducted into American Jazz Hall of Fame.
After the conclusion of her Pablo contract in 1982, Vaughan did only a limited amount studio recording. Vaughan made a guest appearance in 1984 on Barry Manilow's 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe, an odd album of original pastiche compositions that featured a number of established jazz artists. In 1984 Vaughan participated in one of the more unusual projects of her career, The Planet is Alive, Let It Live a symphonic piece composed by Tito Fontana and Sante Palumbo on Italian translations of Polish poems by Karol Wytola, the future Pope John Paul II. The recording was made in Germany with an English translation by writer Gene Lees and was released by Lees on his own private label after the recording was turned down by the major labels. In 1986, Vaughn sang two songs, "Happy Talk" and "Bali Ha'i", in the role of Bloody Mary on an otherwise stiff studio recording by opera stars Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras of the score of the Broadway musical South Pacific, while sitting on the studio floor.
Vaughan's final complete album was Brazilian Romance, produced and composed by Sergio Mendes and recorded primarily in the early part of 1987 in New York and Detroit. In 1988, Vaughan contributed vocals to an album of Christmas carols recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with the Utah Symphony Orchestra and sold in Hallmark Cards stores. In 1989, Quincy Jones' album Back on the Block featured Vaughan in a brief scatting duet with Ella Fitzgerald. This was Vaughan's final studio recording and, fittingly, it was Vaughan's only formal studio recording with Fitzgerald in a career that had begun 46 years earlier opening for Fitzgerald at the Apollo.
Vaughan is featured in a number of video recordings from the 1980s. Sarah Vaughan Live from Monterrey was taped in 1983 or 1984 and featured her working trio with guest soloists. Sass and Brass was taped in 1986 in New Orleans and also features her working trio with guest soloists, including Dizzy Gillespie and Maynard Ferguson. Sarah Vaughan: The Divine One was featured in the American Masters series on PBS.
In 1989, Vaughan's health began to decline, although she rarely betrayed any hints in her performances. Vaughan canceled a series of engagements in Europe in 1989 citing the need to seek treatment for arthritis in the hand, although she was able to complete a later series of performances in Japan. During a run at New York's Blue Note jazz club in 1989, Vaughan received a diagnosis of lung cancer and was too ill to finish the final day of what would turn out to be her final series of public performances.
Vaughan returned to her home in California to begin chemotherapy and spent her final months alternating stays in the hospital and at home. Toward the end, Vaughan tired of the struggle and demanded to be taken home, where she passed away on the evening of April 3, 1990 while watching a television movie featuring her daughter.
Vaughan's funeral was at the First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Newark, which was the same congregation she grew up in but which had relocated to a new building. Following the ceremony, a horse-drawn carriage transported her body to its final resting place in Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Late career
Although Vaughan is usually considered a "Jazz Singer," she avoided classifying herself as such. Indeed, her approach to her "Jazz" work and her commercial "Pop" material was not radically different. Vaughan stuck throughout her career to the jazz-infused style of music that she came of age with, only rarely dabbling in rock-era styles that usually did not suit her unique vocal talents. Vaughan discussed the label in an 1982 interview for Down Beat:
"I don't know why people call me a jazz singer, though I guess people associate me with jazz because I was raised in it, from way back. I'm not putting jazz down, but I'm not a jazz singer. Betty Bebop (Carter) is a jazz singer, because that's all she does. I've even been called a blues singer. I've recorded all kinds of music, but (to them) I'm either a jazz singer or a blues singer. I can't sing a blues - just a right-out blues - but I can put the blues in whatever I sing. I might sing 'Send In the Clowns' and I might stick a little bluesy part in it, or any song. What I want to do, music-wise, is all kinds of music that I like, and I like all kinds of music."
While Vaughan was a proficient at scatting, the improvisatory aspect of her art was focused more on ornamentation, phrasing and variation on melodies, which were almost always jazz standards. Perhaps her most noticeable musical mannerism was the creative use of often widely "swooping" glissandi through her wide entire vocal range, which was most sonorous in a dark chest register that grew deeper as she aged. Vaughan approached her voice more as a melodic instrument than a vehicle for dramatic interpretation of lyrics, although the expressive qualities of her style did accentuate lyrical meaning and she would often find unique and memorable ways of articulating and coloring individual key words in a lyric.
During her childhood in the 30s, Vaughan was strongly attracted to the popular music of the day, much to the consternation of her deeply-religious father. Vaughan was certainly influenced by the gospel traditions that she grew up with in a Baptist church, but the more radically melismatic elements of those influences are less obvious than they would be in later generations of singers in the R&B and hip-hop genres. Vaughan was certainly influenced by (and an influence on) her friend and mentor, Billy Eckstine, which is obvious in the numerous duet recordings they made together. However, since there are no recordings of Vaughan prior to her joining Eckstine in the Earl Hines band (and, unfortunately, no recordings of her with the Hines band) it is difficult to know with any certainty what stylistic nuances she absorbed during the critical first years of her performing career.
Perhaps because of the individuality of her style, she has rarely been overtly imitated by subsequent generations of singers. Unlike other mid-century singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra or, later, Aretha Franklin, there are no prominent singers whose style is an obvious direct reflection of Vaughan's. However, even in death Vaughan retains a loyal following and attracts new fans through her recorded legacy, most of which remains in commercial release.
While Vaughan frequently performed and recorded with large ensembles, her live performances usually featured her accompanied by a piano-led working trio. The membership of this trio changed frequently over the years, although some of her "favorites" stayed with her for extended periods of time and often returned for multiple stints. Even in large-ensemble situations, this trio was often used as the rhythm section to provide continuity. Aside from economy, the trio configuration was flexible and adaptable to differing performing conditions and to Vaughan's improvisatory whims. This minimal instrumentation also provided a minimum of distraction from Vaughan's unique styling and rich vocal timbre.

Style and Influence
Vaughan was married three times: George Treadwell (1946-1958), Clyde Atkins (1958-1961) and Waymond Reed (1978-1981). Being unable to have biological children, Vaughan adopted a baby girl (Debra Lois) in 1961. Debra worked in the 1980s and 1990s as an actress under the name Paris Vaughan.
Sarah Vaughan's personal life was a jumble of paradoxes. She had a mercurial personality and could be extremely difficult to work with (especially in areas outside of music), but numerous fellow musicians recounted their experiences with her to be some of the best of their career. None of her marriages was successful, yet she maintained close long-running friendships with a number of male colleagues in the business and was devoted to her parents and adopted daughter. Despite effusive public acclaim, Vaughan was insecure and suffered from stage fright that was, at times, almost incapacitating Vaughan was also a life-long smoker, which almost certainly contributed to her premature death from lung cancer at the age of 66.

Selected albums
In 2004-2006, New Jersey Transit paid tribute to Miss Vaughan in the design of its new Newark Light Rail stations. Passengers stopping at any station on this line can read the lyrics to one of her signature songs, Send in the Clowns, along the edge of the station platform.
On March 27, 2003, initiated by Susie M. Butler, the cities of San Francisco and Berkeley, California, signed a proclamation making March 27 "Sarah Lois Vaughan Day" in their respective cities.

Monday, December 3, 2007


This article is about the physical-geographic term. For places named "Valley" see Valley (disambiguation).
In geology, a valley is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.
The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys. Most valleys belong to one of these two main types or a mixture of them, at least with respect of the cross section of the slopes or hillsides.

River valleys
A valley carved by glaciers, or glacial valley, is normally U-shaped. If we can see the valley, it means the glacier that formed it is no longer there. When the ice recedes or thaws, the valley remains, often littered with small boulders that were transported within the ice. Floor gradient does not affect the valley's shape, it is the glacier's size that does. Continuously flowing glaciers - espec. in the ice age - and large sized glaciers carve wide, deep incised valleys.
Examples of U-shaped valleys are found in every mountainous region that has experienced glaciation, usually during the Pleistocene ice ages. Most present U-shaped valleys started as V-shaped before glaciation. The glaciers carved it out wider and deeper, simultaneously changing the shape. This proceeds through the glacial erosion processes of (glaciation) and abrasion, which results in large rocky material (glacial till) being carried in the glacier. A material called boulder clay is deposited on the floor of the valley. As the ice melts and retreats, the valley is left with very steep sides and a wide, flat floor. A river or stream may remain in the valley. This replaces the original stream or river and is known as a misfit stream because it is smaller than one would expect given the size of its valley.
Other interesting glacially-carved valleys are the

Side valleys of the Austrian river Salzach for their parallel directions and hanging mouths.
Some Scottish glens full with bushes and flowers.
That of the St. Mary River in Glacier National Park in Montana, USA. Glacial valleys
Depending on the topography, the rock types and the climate, a lot of transition forms between V-, U- and plain valleys exist. Their bottoms can be broad or narrow, but characteristic is also the type of valley shoulder. The broader a mountain valley, the lower its shoulders are located in most cases. An important exception are canyons where the shoulder almost is near the top of the valley's slope. In the Alps - e.g. the Tyrolean Inn valley - the shoulders are quite low (100-200 meters above the bottom). Many villages are located here (esp. at the sunny side) because the climate is very mild: even in winter when the valley's floor is completely filled with fog, these villages are in sunshine.
In some stress-tectonic regions of the Rockies or the Alps (e.g. Salzburg) the side valleys are parallel to each other, and additionally they are hanging. The brooks flow into the river in form of deep gorges or waterfalls. Usually this fact is the result of a violent erosion of the former valley shoulders. A special genesis we find also at arêtes and glacial cirques, at every Scottish glen, or a northern fjord.

Transition forms and valley shoulders
A hanging valley is a tributary valley with the floor at a higher relief than the main channel into which it flows. They are most commonly associated with U-shaped valleys when a tributary glacier flows into a glacier of larger volume. The main glacier erodes a deep U-shaped valley with nearly vertical sides while the tributary glacier, with a smaller volume of ice, makes a shallower U-shaped valley. Since the surfaces of the glaciers were originally at the same elevation, the shallower valley appears to be 'hanging' above the main valley. Often, waterfalls form at or near the outlet of the upper valley.

Valley Hanging valleys
Usually the bottom of a main valley is broad - independent of the U or V shape. It typically ranges from about one to ten kilometres in width and is commonly filled with mountain sediments. The shape of the floor can be rather horizontal, similar to a flat cylinder, or terraced.
Side valleys are rather V than U-shaped; near the mouth clammies are possible if it is a hanging valley. The location of the villages depends on the across-valley profile, on climate and local traditions, and on the danger of avalanches or landslides. Predominant are places on terraces or alluvial fans if they exist.
Historic siting of villages within the mainstem valleys, however, have chiefly considered the potential of flooding.

Hollows

California Central Valley (United States)
Copper Canyon
Danube Valley (Eastern Europe, Wachau, Iron Gate)
Death Valley (United States)
Glen Coe (Scotland)
Grand Canyon (United States)
Great Glen (Scotland)
Great Rift Valley (from Jordan to the Red Sea and Lake Victoria)
Indus Valley (Pakistan)
Loire Valley with its famous castles (France)
Napa Valley (United States)
Okanagan Valley (Canada)
Upper Rhine Valley (an old graben system) (France)
Rhone Valley from the Matterhorn to Grenoble and Lyon (France)
Rio Grande Valley (United States)
Shenandoah Valley (United States)
Sonoma Valley, California, USA
Valley of the Kings (Egypt)
Valley of the Sun (Phoenix, Az, US)
San Fernando Valley (United States)
Santa Clara Valley, perhaps better known as "Silicon Valley" (United States)
South Wales Valleys (Wales)
Valley of Mexico (Mexico), also known as "El Valle de México" see Mexico city Famous valleys

Main article: Rift valley Extraterrestrial valleys

Canyon, Vale, Gorge, Channel, Gully
Clammy, Cliff, Glacial landforms, Side valley
Geography, Geomorphology, Geodynamics, Glaciology
List of landforms, List of mountain ranges
Geological features of the solar system, List of Lunar valleys
Martian mountains, Lineaments on Europa, Geologic features on Titan, (escarpments and ruptures).

Sunday, December 2, 2007


The Firth of Tay (Scottish Gaelic: Linne Tatha) is a firth in Scotland between the council areas of Fife, Perth and Kinross, the City of Dundee and Angus, into which Scotland's largest river in terms of flow, the River Tay empties.
Two bridges span the firth, the Tay Road Bridge and the Tay Rail Bridge.

Firth of Tay Towns and villages along the coast

Balmerino
Broughty Ferry
Dundee
Invergowrie
Monifieth
Newburgh
Newport-on-Tay
Tayport

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Cocoa pod
Cacao (Theobroma cacao) is a small (4–8 m tall (15-26 ft)) evergreen tree in the family Sterculiaceae (alternatively Malvaceae), native to the deep tropical region of the Americas. There are two prominent competing theories about the origins of the original wild Theobroma cacao tree. One group of proponents believe wild examples were originally distributed from southeastern Mexico to the Amazon basin, with domestication taking place both in the Lacandon area of Mesoamerica and in lowland South America. Recent studies of Theobroma cacao genetics seem to show that the plant originated in the Amazon and was distributed by man throughout Central America and Mesoamerica. Its seeds are used to make cocoa and chocolate.
The bush is today found growing wild in the low foothills of the Andes at elevations of around 200–400 m (650-1300 ft) in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. It requires a humid climate with regular rainfall and good soil. It is an understory tree, growing best with some overhead shade. The leaves are alternate, entire, unlobed, 10–40 cm (4-16 in) long and 5–20 cm (2-8 in) broad.
The flowers are produced in clusters directly on the trunk and older branches; they are small, 1–2 cm (1/2-1 in) diameter, with pink calyx. While many of the world's flowers are pollinated by bees (Hymenoptera) or butterflies/moths (Lepidoptera), cacao flowers are pollinated by tiny flies, midges in the order Diptera. The fruit, called a cacao pod, is ovoid, 15–30 cm (6-12 in) long and 8–10 cm (3-4 in) wide, ripening yellow to orange, and weighs about 500 g (1 lb) when ripe. The pod contains 20 to 60 seeds, usually called "beans", embedded in a white pulp. Each seed contains a significant amount of fat (40–50% as cocoa butter). Their most important active constituent is theobromine, a compound similar to caffeine.
The scientific name Theobroma means "food of the gods". The word cacao itself derives from the Nahuatl (Aztec language) word cacahuatl, learned at the time of the conquest when it was first encountered by the Spanish. Similar words for the plant and its by-products are attested in a number of other indigenous Mesoamerican languages.

History of cultivation
Cacao beans constituted both a ritual beverage and a major currency system in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations. At one point the Aztec empire received a yearly tribute of 980 loads (xiquipil in nahuatl) of cacao, in addition to other goods. Each load represented exactly 8000 beans.
In some areas, such as Yucatán, cacao beans were still used in place of small coins as late as the 1840s.

Pests