title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Lon Kruger, former head coach at Kansas State, took over the program before the 1990–91 season. Despite the probation he inherited, Kruger slowly brought the team to increased success and reached the NIT semifinals in his second year as coach. In 1993–94, the pieces fell into place for Florida to have their best season ever at that time. Behind Andrew DeClercq and Dametri Hill, the Gators went to their first Final Four following a dramatic victory over UConn where Donyell Marshall missed two free throws with no time on the clock to force overtime, where the Gators eventually prevailed. They lost to Duke in the national semifinal, 70–65. The next year, they returned to the NCAA tournament, but were eliminated in the first round. Kruger's final season in 1995–1996 resulted in a losing record, and he left to coach at Illinois.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Florida's Athletic Director, Jeremy Foley, looking for a young coach with a proven track record, hired 30-year-old Billy Donovan, then at Marshall, as Kruger's replacement. His recruiting prowess was evident early, bringing future NBA star Jason Williams with him from Marshall and having early recruiting classes with future NBA players Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, and Matt Bonner, among others. The Gators made the NCAA tournament every year from 1999 to 2007, a nine-year streak that is the school record, and the sixth-longest NCAA Tournament streak.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Donovan's first two seasons at Florida proved to be the two worst during his tenure at Florida. The Gators posted a two-year win–loss record of 27–32, missing postseason play entirely in his first season, and losing in the first round of the NIT in his second season. These were the last losing records that the Gators suffered until 2014–15.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: In his third season, however, Donovan's Gators finished the season with an overall record of 22–9, and earned the No. 6 seed in the West Regional of the 1999 NCAA tournament. The Gators defeated Penn and Weber State to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in Phoenix, where they were upset by No. 10 seed Gonzaga.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Donovan took his Gators on a memorable run during his fourth season in Gainesville. The Gators finished the season 29–8, including winning a share of the SEC championship. In the 2000 SEC tournament, however, the Gators were upset in the second round by Auburn. Florida received the No. 5 seed in the East Regional of the 2000 NCAA tournament, and swept through the region by beating Butler, Illinois, Duke, and Oklahoma State to reach the Final Four. In the national semifinals, Florida knocked off North Carolina to advance to their first NCAA national championship game, before losing to heavily favored and top seeded Michigan State.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Over the next five years the Gators went to the NCAA Tournament every year, but they found themselves upset victims five straight times in the first or second round. In the 2001 NCAA tournament, Florida received the No. 3 seed in the South Region. They defeated No. 14 Western Kentucky in the first round, but they were then upset by the No. 11 seed, Temple.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The following year, in 2002, the Gators received the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region of the 2002 NCAA tournament. They were knocked off in the first round by No. 12 seed Creighton. The 2003 Florida Gators finished the season 24–7, and received the No. 2 seed in the South Region of the 2003 NCAA tournament. The Gators easily defeated Sam Houston State in the first round, but were then upset by No. 7 seed Michigan State in the second round. In 2004, the Gators were the No. 5 seed in the East Rutherford Regional of the 2003–2004 NCAA tournament, but were upset in the first round by the No. 12 seed, Manhattan.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The 2004–05 team had the distinction of being the first to garner an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, when it defeated Kentucky in the 2005 SEC tournament championship. The Gators subsequently received the No. 4 seed in the Syracuse Regional of the 2004–2005 NCAA tournament. They knocked off the No. 13 seed, Ohio in the first round, but lost to No. 5 seed Villanova in the second round.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The 2005–06 team began the season unranked and went on a 17–0 winning streak for the best start in school history, surprising many with a young (four sophomores and one junior) but selfless squad following the graduation of David Lee and the departures of Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson to the NBA. The trio accounted for 60 percent of their offense in 2005. The team faded late in the regular season, losing its last 3 games in February and entering the postseason with a 24–6 record, yet still managed to win its second consecutive SEC tournament championship.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The Gators entered the 2006 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as a No. 3 seed with a 27–6 record, and ranked No. 10 by the AP. They beat No. 14 seed South Alabama and No. 11 seed Milwaukee to advance to the Minneapolis regional. There, the Gators defeated the No. 7 seed Georgetown Hoyas and upset the No. 1 seed Villanova Wildcats 75–62 to avenge their loss in the previous year's tournament and move on to their second Final Four under Donovan.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Florida defeated the upstart George Mason Patriots, the No. 11 seed from the Washington, D.C. regional, by a score of 73–58 in the national semifinals in Indianapolis. On April 3, 2006, the Gators defeated the UCLA Bruins 73–57 in the national final to win the school's first men's basketball NCAA Championship. The University of Florida Athletic Association then purchased the floor used in Indianapolis for the Final Four, and installed it in the O'Connell Center.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The Gators returned all five starters from their 2006 championship team to begin the 2006–07 basketball season ranked as the preseason No. 1 in both major media polls, a first for the Gators. The Gators locked up the SEC Championship relatively early in the 2006–07 season and were in possession of a 24–2 record before going on a late-February 1–3 skid that mirrored their 0–3 run a year earlier. For the second season in a row, the losses in February would be their last. Florida closed out Kentucky on Senior Night to end the regular season 26–5, and won their third straight SEC tournament championship with relative ease, beating , , and Arkansas 77–56.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Florida entered the 2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, and they advanced to the Final Four after wins in the regional against No. 5 seed Butler and No. 3 seed Oregon. In a rematch of the 2006 title game, the Gators again eliminated the UCLA Bruins in the national semifinal. Florida defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 84–75, in a rematch of a game they won 86–60 three months earlier, to become the first team since the 1991–92 Duke Blue Devils to win back-to-back national championships and the first college team ever to repeat as national champions with the same starting line-up. The University of Florida also has the distinction of being the only school in NCAA history to have won both the basketball and football national championships in the same season (won the football championship in January 2007, which was the 2006 season) and the only school in NCAA history to win a combined four national championships in three seasons (football in 2006 and 2008 and basketball in 2006 and 2007).


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Following the 2006–07 season, three of the Gators' starting five were drafted among the first ten picks in the first round of the 2007 NBA draft: Al Horford (third), Corey Brewer (seventh) and Joakim Noah (ninth). Taurean Green and Chris Richard were both selected in the second round. Also during this season, Donovan passed Sloan as the winningest coach in school history.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: In the aftermath of the Gators second NCAA championship, Donovan accepted the head coaching position for the NBA's Orlando Magic on May 31, 2007. On June 3, however, it was disclosed that Donovan asked to be released from his contract with the Magic, which was announced when he was reintroduced as the Gators head coach on June 7.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The Gators failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and 2009. The Gators were eliminated by UMass in the semi-finals of the 2008 National Invitation Tournament. The following season, the Gators were eliminated by Penn State in a quarter-final game of the 2009 National Invitation Tournament. In 2010, the Gators received an invitation to the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament as a No. 10 seed, but they were eliminated in the first round by No. 7 seed BYU in double overtime.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: In the 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, the Gators were the No. 2 seed in the Southeast region after winning the SEC Championship, after being defeated in the 2011 SEC men's basketball tournament championship game to Kentucky, and finishing with a 26–7 record. They played their two first games in Tampa, Florida. In the Second Round of the Tournament, Florida beat No. 15 seed, UC Santa Barbara Gauchos. In the third round, the Gators defeated the No. 7 seed, the UCLA Bruins to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in New Orleans. On March 24, 2011, the Gators got some revenge by defeating the No. 3 seed, BYU, who had knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament the year before, by a score of 83–74 in overtime to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2007. Their tournament run ended there as they were stunned in the Regional Final against No. 8 seed Butler in overtime.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: In the 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, the Gators were the No. 7 seed in the West Region after losing in the 2012 SEC men's basketball tournament semifinals to Kentucky, finishing with an overall record of 23–10. Florida defeated the No. 10 seed, Virginia, and the No. 15 seed, Norfolk State, to advance to the Sweet 16 in Phoenix. They defeated No. 3 seed Marquette in an upset to advance to the Elite Eight, but their run ended when they were defeated by the No. 4 seed, Louisville, 72–68, after blowing a 65–54 lead with 8:14 remaining in the game.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The 2012–13 Gators finished the regular season with an overall record of 24–6, and won the SEC Championship with a conference record of 14–4. During the regular season, Billy Donovan notched his 400th career win as the head coach of the Gators over Missouri. After losing in the final of the 2013 SEC men's basketball tournament to Mississippi, they entered the 2013 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as the No. 3 seed in the South Region. Florida defeated the No. 14 seed Northwestern State 79–47 in the first round, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen after soundly beating the No. 11 seed, Minnesota, 78–64. The Gators then defeated Florida Gulf Coast, No. 15 seed, in the Sweet Sixteen 62–50. But once again, their run ended in the Elite Eight, this time against fourth seeded Michigan, who handily defeated the Gators, 79–59. The Gators became the first team since the expansion of the tournament in 1951 to lose in the Elite Eight in three consecutive seasons.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Florida is the only program in the nation to have advanced as far as the Elite Eight in each of those seasons from 2011–2013.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The 2013–14 Gators finished the SEC regular season with an 18–0 record in conference play, the first SEC team to ever accomplish the feat, after the SEC re-expanded to an 18-game regular season schedule prior to the 2012–13 season. In doing so, the Gators won their seventh SEC championship, and their third in four seasons. The Gators then beat the Kentucky Wildcats for the third time in the season to claim their fourth SEC Tournament championship title.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: By claiming the SEC tournament, the Gators earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and were selected as the No.1 overall seed, and were placed in the South Regional. The Gators' school record win streak reached 30 as they defeated their first four tournament opponents by double digits, finally breaking through in the Elite 8 with a 62-52 win over Dayton to advance to the Final Four as the only remaining No.1 seed. In the national semifinals, Florida faced Connecticut, which had been the last team to defeat them back on December 2, 64–65. The Gators got off to a quick start and built a 16–4 lead, but the Huskies were able to catch up and led 25–22 at halftime in a defensive battle. The Gators continued to struggle to score in the second half and suffered their third (and worst) loss of the season, 53–63.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The team's program-best 36–3 record resulted in many individual honors. Billy Donovan was named the SEC's Coach of the Year for the third time. Senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin was named Southeastern Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year, the SEC Tournament MVP, and the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA South region. Senior center Patric Young was named the Defensive Player and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith was named Sixth Man of the Year, and senior guard Casey Prather was named to the All-SEC First Team.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The 2014–15 Gators finished the season 16–17, 8–10 in SEC play to finish in a tie for eighth place. They did not participate in a postseason tournament for the first time in 17 years. The woeful season included losses to in-state rivals Miami and Florida State, and three losses to SEC champion Kentucky. The Gators' 63.7 points-per-game were their lowest in the 19-year coaching tenure of Billy Donovan. After the season, Donovan accepted an offer to coach the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder. He would leave Florida as far and away the winningest coach in program history. He led the Gators to 14 NCAA tournament appearances, six SEC regular season titles (four outright, two shared) and four SEC Tournament championships–in all three cases, more than all other coaches in program history combined.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: On May 7, 2015, former Louisiana Tech head coach Mike White was hired to coach the Gators, succeeding Billy Donovan. White played point guard at Ole Miss and later served as an assistant there for seven seasons. He is a native of the state of Florida and had led Louisiana Tech to three straight conference titles.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: In his first season at the helm, he led Florida to a 21–15 record and a berth in the NIT Tournament, defeating North Florida and Ohio State in the first two rounds before losing to eventual-NIT champion George Washington in the quarterfinal. White's second Gator squad was the best of his tenure, as Florida went 24–7, finished 2nd in the SEC standings, and earned a #4 seed in the 2017 NCAA tournament. They reached the Elite Eight on a three point buzzer beater by guard Chris Chiozza to beat Wisconsin, then were upset one game short of the Final Four by SEC rival South Carolina, 77–70.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Florida earned invitations to four straight NCAA tournaments and won at least one game in each appearance under White (not counting the 2020 NCAA tournament, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). However, after 2017, they earned a decreasing number of wins each season, were never a serious contender for SEC championships, and had a 10-15 record in games played in March. After a disappointing 2021-22 season in which Florida did not earn a berth in the NCAA tournament, White left to become the head coach at Georgia.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: On March 18, former San Francisco head coach Todd Golden was named Florida's new head basketball coach.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The Florida Gators have won two NCAA national championships, which is tied for 9th all-time among Division I schools. The Gators won two national championships in 2005–06, and 2006–07 under Billy Donovan. That was the first time any team had won back-to-back national championships since Duke did it in 1991–92, and no Division I men's team has accomplished this since. In addition, the Gators became the first school to ever win a national championship in football and basketball in both the same calendar year and the same academic year (the Gators' football team defeated Ohio State in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game).


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The Gators have won four SEC Tournament championships, all under Billy Donovan, including three in a row from 2005-2007.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Though the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament is given to the conference tournament winner, the SEC declares the team with the best record in the regular season the "official" conference champion. The Gators have won a total of seven official (regular season) SEC championships. Norm Sloan won the first one during the 1988–89 season, and Billy Donovan has won the other six, including the 2006–07 season in which the Gators also won the SEC Tournament championship and NCAA national championship, and three in a four-year span from 2011–2014.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The 2013–14 squad became the first team in SEC history to have an 18–0 regular season conference record.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Florida has appeared in the NCAA tournament 22 times. Their combined record is 48–20. However, their appearances in 1987 and 1988 have been vacated by the NCAA making their official record 45–18. They were NCAA National Champions in 2006 and 2007.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The Gators have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) eleven times. Their combined record is 14–13.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The Florida Gators have been to five Final Fours, which is tied for 17th all time among Division I schools.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Lon Kruger took the Gators to their first one in 1994. Florida received the No.3 seed in the East Region (played in Miami). The Gators swept through the region with victories over 14th seeded James Madison, 11th seeded Pennsylvania, 2nd seeded Connecticut and punched their ticket to their first ever Final Four by knocking off the upstart, 9th seeded Boston College. But the Gators then lost to Duke in the national semifinals.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Billy Donovan took them back six years later in 2000, winning the East Region (played in Syracuse, New York) as the No.5 seed. To get to the Final Four, Florida first had to survive a tough test from 12th seeded Butler in the first round in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Trailing 68–67 with time running out, the Gators won on a last second shot by Mike Miller. After that initial test, Florida ran through the rest of the region, easily defeating 4th seeded Illinois, top seeded Duke, and 3rd seeded Oklahoma State to reach the Final Four, where they defeated North Carolina in the semifinals, but lost to Michigan State in the national championship game.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Donovan would get Florida back to the Final Four in 2006, winning the Minneapolis Regional as the No.3 seed with victories over 14th seeded South Alabama, 11th seeded UW-Milwaukee, 7th seeded Georgetown and top seeded Villanova in the Regional Final. The Gators proceeded to knock off upstart George Mason (who won the Washington, D.C. Regional as the No.11 seed) in the semifinals and then handily defeated UCLA in the championship game for their first ever national championship.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: The next year, Donovan's Gators would make it not only back to back Final Fours, but back to back national championships as well. They received the top seed in the St. Louis Regional, and defeated 16th seeded Jackson State, 9th seeded Purdue, 5th seeded Butler and 3rd seeded Oregon in the Regional Final to earn a trip to their 4th Final Four. There, they dispatched UCLA in the semifinals and then Ohio State in the title game.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Over the next decade, Florida reached the doorstep of the Final Four several times but were usually turned away. From 2011–2014, the Gators made four consecutive trips to the Elite Eight. Florida held late leads in the first two of them, but could never finish the game and lost each time, first to Butler, then to Louisville, before Michigan blew them out in their third straight Elite 8. Florida finally broke through against Dayton in their fourth straight Regional final appearance and moved on to play eventual 2014 national champions Connecticut in the Final Four, where they were defeated 63–53. After a two year absence from the NCAA Tournament, Mike White got them back to the Elite Eight in 2017, where the Gators were again defeated, this time by SEC rival South Carolina.


title: Florida Gators men's basketball

text: Donovan's 2004 recruiting class won two consecutive NCAA championships in 2006 and 2007. The group nicknamed themselves "the 04s" (pronounced "oh-fours") since they enrolled at Florida in 2004. They were known for their camaraderie on and off the court, as Brewer, Green, Horford and Noah were roommates during their entire time in college. All five starters and sixth man Chris Richard later played professionally. All of them, except Humphrey, were selected in the 2007 NBA draft. Brewer, Horford and Noah were selected in the top 10, while Richard and Green were selected in the second-round.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic American hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent high sign, the Sands was the seventh resort to open on the Strip. During its heyday, it hosted many famous entertainers of the day, most notably the Rat Pack and Jerry Lewis.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The hotel was established in 1952 by Mack Kufferman, who bought the LaRue Restaurant which had opened a year earlier. The hotel was opened on December 15, 1952 as a casino and hotel with 200 rooms. The hotel rooms were divided into four two-story motel wings, each with fifty rooms, and named after famous race tracks. Crime bosses such as Doc Stacher and Meyer Lansky acquired shares in the hotel and attracted Frank Sinatra, who made his performing debut at Sands in October 1953. Sinatra later bought a share in the hotel himself. In 1960, the classic caper film "Ocean's 11" was shot at the hotel, and it subsequently attained iconic status, with regular performances by Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., Red Skelton and others, who performed regularly in the hotel's world-renowned Copa Room.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: In 1966, Sands opened a 500-room tower. In 1967, Sands became the first of several Las Vegas hotels to be purchased by Howard Hughes. Its final owners were Sheldon Adelson, Richard Katzeff, Ted Bernard, Irwin Chafetz, and Jordan Shapiro. After buying out his partners, Adelson shut it down to build a brand new resort. On November 26, 1996, the Sands was imploded and demolished, and The Venetian built in its place.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The LaRue Restaurant was established in December 1950 by Billy Wilkerson. The following year, Mack Kufferman bought LaRue, with plans to build a hotel & casino. Kufferman failed to gain a gaming license, and his shares in the project were sold to Jake Freedman. Numerous sources state that organized crime figures Meyer Lansky and Joseph "Doc" Stracher; illegal bookmakers like Mike Shapiro, Ed Levinson, and Sid Wyman; as well as Hyman Abrams and Jack Entratter were involved in the financing of Sands and had shares in it. Lansky and his mob assumed ownership of the Flamingo Hotel after the murder of Bugsy Siegel in 1947, and Lansky and New York mobster Frank Costello also had business interests in the Thunderbird Hotel and El Cortez Club in Downtown Las Vegas.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: Construction began on Sands Hotel in early 1952, built to a design by Wayne McAllister. Trousdale Construction Company of Los Angeles was the general contractor. Initially the Nevada Tax Commission rejected Freedman's request for a gambling license due to his connections with known criminals. Freedman had initially intended naming the hotel "Holiday Inn" after the film of the same name starring Bing Crosby, but after noticing that his socks became so full of sand decided to name it Sands. The tag line would be "A Place in the Sun", named after a recently released film starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, and quite suitable to the hot desert location of Las Vegas. The hotel was opened on December 15, 1952 as a casino with 200 rooms, and was established less than three months after the opening of another prominent landmark, Sahara Hotel and Casino. The opening was widely publicized, and the hotel was visited by some 12,000 people within a few hours. At the inauguration were 146 journalists and special guests such as Arlene Dahl, Fernando Lamas, Esther Williams, and Terry Moore. Every guest was given a Chamois bag with silver dollars, and Sands ended up losing $200,000 within the first eight hours. Danny Thomas, Jimmy McHugh and the Copa Girls, labelled "the most beautiful girls in the world", performed in the Copa Room on opening night, and Ray Sinatra and his Orchestra were the initial house band. Thomas was hired to perform for the first two weeks, but strained his voice on the second night and developed laryngitis, and was replaced with performers such as Jimmy Durante, Frankie Laine, Jane Powell, the Ritz Brothers, and Ray Anthony.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: Jack Entratter, who was formerly in charge of the New York nightclub, the Copacabana, became the hotel's manager. Entratter made many show business friends during his time at the nightclub; he was able to use these connections to sign performers for the Sands Copa Room. Entratter was also able to offer entertainers an additional incentive to perform at the Sands. Headlining stars received "points", or a percentage of ownership in the hotel and casino. Entratter's personally selected "Copa Girls" wore $12,000 worth of costumes on the hotel's opening night; this surpassed the salary of the Copa Room's star, Danny Thomas.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: In the early years, Freedman and his wife Carolyn were one of its attractions, wearing "matching white, leather outfits, replete with identical cowboy boots and hats". Freedman offered Carolyn's father Nathan a 5% stake in Sands but he declined the offer.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: Lansky and Costello brought the Sands to Frank Sinatra's attention, and he began staying at the hotel and gambling there during breaks from Hollywood, though some sources state that he was not a hardcore gambler. Sinatra earned a notoriety for "keeping his winnings and ignoring his gambling losses", but the mobsters running the hotel were not too concerned because Sinatra was great for business. He made his debut performing at the hotel on October 4, 1953, after an invitation by the manager Jack Entratter.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: Sinatra typically played at Sands three times a year, sometimes a two-week stint, which "brought in the big rollers, a lot of oil money from Texas". The big rollers left Vegas when Sinatra did, and other performers were reluctant to perform after him, feeling intimidated.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: Entratter replaced Freedman as the president of the Sands Hotel following his death from heart surgery on January 20, 1958. Freedman's last wife Sadie subsequently lived in a suite in the Belmont Park wing into the mid 1960s until her death. Sinatra, who had attempted to buy a share in the hotel soon after first visiting in 1953, but was denied by the Nevada Tax Commission, was now granted permission to buy a share in the hotel, due to his phenomenal impact upon business in Las Vegas. His share, variously described as from 2 to 9%, aided Freedman's wife in paying off her husband's gambling debts.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: In 1955, limited integration came to heavily segregated Las Vegas when the Sands first allowed Nat King Cole to stay at the hotel and perform. Sinatra noticed that he never saw Cole in the dining room, always eating his meals in solitude in his dressing room. When he asked his valet George to find out why, he learned that "Coloreds aren't allowed in the dining room at the Sands". Sinatra subsequently stated that if blacks were not permitted to eat their meals in the dining room with everybody else he would see to it that all of the waiters and waitresses were fired, and invited Cole to dine with him the following evening. Cole was allowed permission into the casino, as was another black performer, Harry Belafonte, who took a more aggressive approach by walking into the casino on his own accord and sitting at a blackjack table, which was not challenged by the bosses. Belafonte became the "first black man to play cards on the Las Vegas Strip."


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: Sammy Davis Jr. was instrumental in bringing about a general change in policy. When the Will Mastin Trio began performing at Sands in 1958, Davis informed Entratter that his father and uncle must be allowed permission to stay at Sands while he was performing there. Entratter granted them permission but continued his objection to admitting other black guests. In 1961, an African-American couple entered the lobby of the hotel and were blocked by the security guard, witnessed by Sinatra and Davis. Sinatra told the guards that they were his guests and let them into the hotel. Sinatra subsequently swore profusely on the phone to Sands executive Carl Cohen at how ridiculous the situation was, and the following day, Davis approached Entratter and demanded that Sands begin employing blacks. Shortly afterwards the hotel changed its policy and it began hiring black waiters and busboys and permitting blacks entry into the casino.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: In the late 1950s, Senator John F. Kennedy was occasionally a guest of Sinatra at the Sands. Arguably the hotel's biggest claim to fame was a three-week period in 1960 during the filming of "Ocean's 11", after which it attained iconic status. During that time, the movie's stars Sinatra, Dean Martin, Davis, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford performed on stage together in the Copa Room. The performances were called the "Summit at the Sands" and this is considered to be the birth of the Rat Pack.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: When Howard Hughes purchased the hotel in the mid-1960s for $14.6 million, the architect Martin Stern Jr. designed a 500-room circular tower, which opened in 1967. The tower was built by R. C. Johnson and Associates General Contractors. The hotel became a Las Vegas landmark. Hughes grew particularly annoyed every time the Rat Pack were in his hotel, due to a hatred of Frank Sinatra which stemmed from the fact that he had been in love with Ava Gardner in the 1950s and she had run off to marry Sinatra. The ill feeling was reciprocated by Sinatra. Hughes plotted to oust Sinatra from the Sands for good, and asked Robert Maheu to draw up a plan shortly after the new hotel opened in 1967. The hotel imposed restrictions on what Sinatra could gamble in the casino, to just $3,000 a night. Under previous management, Sinatra had no limits on the amount of credit extended to him by the Sands casino. His IOUs, chits or "markers" were torn up at the end of Sinatra's engagements because he was considered to be good for business—bringing the hotel more monetary value than the worth of his gambling losses. Hughes put a stop to this system, telling Jack Entratter to inform Sinatra of the new policy; Entratter did not do so because he was afraid.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: Fuming, Sinatra began what "The Los Angeles Times" describes as a "weekend-long tirade" against the "hotel's management, employees and security forces." The FBI report says the incident began when Mia Farrow lost $20,000 at the Sands casino. Sinatra bought $50,000 in chips and made an attempt to win the money back. He lost this sum within a short period of time. Sinatra then asked for credit, which was denied. It culminated when Sinatra reportedly drove a golf cart through the window of the coffee shop where casino manager Carl Cohen was seated and began "screaming obscenities and anti-Semitic remarks" at Cohen. Sinatra reportedly punched Cohen, a heavily built man, who responded with a smack in the mouth, bloodying Sinatra's nose and knocking two of his teeth out. As a result, Sinatra never performed at the Sands again while Hughes owned it, and began performing at Caesars Palace. A number of the staff were not disappointed to see Sinatra leave the Sands. Numerous employees had been humiliated or intimidated over the years, including a busboy Sinatra tripped while he was carrying a tray with dishes. After Sinatra left, the mobsters pulled out of the Sands and gradually left Vegas in the 1970s. In the 1970s, it became associated with the likes of Wayne Newton and Liberace. At this time, some 30% of the performers at Sands were Italian Americans. Frank Gagliardi became the drummer for the house orchestra in 1964, starting a twelve-year tenure.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: In 1968, Hughes stated that he intended to expand Sands into a 4,000-room resort, but his plans did not materialize. In 1983, Hughes' company, the Summa Corporation, sold the Sands to the Pratt Corporation, but subsequently bought it back as they were unable to make a profit. MGM Grand, Inc. bought the hotel along with the neighboring Desert Inn in 1988 for a total of $167 million, and the property became known as the MGM Sands. The next year, MGM sold it for $110 million to Las Vegas Sands, a new company formed by the owners of The Interface Group, including Sheldon Adelson, Richard Katzeff, Ted Cutler, Irwin Chafetz and Jordan Shapiro. The same year, it was licensed by the Nevada Gaming Commission, and Adelson became a casino magnate. In the early 1990s, Adelson built the Sands Expo, a convention centre.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: In its final years, the Sands became a shadow of its former self — a throwback to the old days — and it ultimately could not compete with the newer and more exciting mega-resorts that were being built on the Strip. However, a 1990s travel guide stated that the hotel gardens and pool area still retained the ambiance of the classic Sands days. The decision was eventually made by its final owner, Sheldon Adelson, to shut it down and to build a brand new resort. The last dice in the casino was rolled by Bob Stupak just after 6:00p.m. on June30, 1996. On November26, 1996, it was imploded and demolished, much to the dismay of longtime employees and sentimentalists. Footage of the demolition also appeared in the closing credits of "The Cooler". The climactic plane crash in 1997's "Con Air" ended with the aircraft crashing into the soon-to-be-demolished Sands' lobby.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: On May 3, 1999, the new $1.5 billion megaresort The Venetian opened where the Sands had formerly been, a 35-story hotel with 3,036 rooms, covering an area of . It became the largest AAA Five-Diamond landmark in North America.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: Wayne McAllister designed the original $5.5 million Sands Hotel, an exotic-looking terracotta red-painted modern hotel with a prominent "porte cochere" at the front, surrounded by a zig-zag wall ornamented with tiled planters. The hotel is arguably most associated with its high sign, made iconic with photographs of the Rat Pack standing underneath it. The name "Sands", written in elegant italics, featured a high letter "S", and the name was sprawled across an egg crate grill, cantilevered from a pillar. The sign was receptive to the light and shadow of the desert, and during night time it was lit up, glowing neon red. It was the tallest sign on the strip for a number of years. Beneath "Sands" was the tagline "A Place in the Sun", written in smaller capital letters. Below that was the billing of the names of the performers appearing at Sands, very often photographed displaying names such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr. and Red Skelton in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Author Alan Hess wrote that the "sleek Modernism of the Sands leaped past the Flamingo to set a higher standard of sophistication for Las Vegas. For the first time, the sign was an integral part of the architectural design."


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The "porte-cochère" of the hotel featured three great sharp-edged pillars jutting out in front of the glass-fronted building, angling down into the ground, which resembled fins. The two-story glass walled entry was bordered by a wall of imported Italian marble, and above the entrance area was a horizontal plane with copper lights suspended from the beams. Rather than being polished, the marble was unusual in that it was rough and grained. Natural and stained cork was used throughout the building. A.J. Leibling of "The New Yorker" described the hotel in 1953: "The main building of the Sands is a great rectangular hall, with the reception desk in one corner, slot machines along one long wall and a bar and cocktail lounge, complete with Latin trio, along the opposite wall. In the middle is a jumble of roulette and craps tables and 21 layouts." The casino, of substantial size, was accessed by three sets of terrazzo stairs, and was lit by low-hanging chandeliers. The bar featured bas-reliefs with a Western theme, including cowboys, racing wagons and Joshua trees, designed by Allan Stewart of Claremont College, California. The Garden Room restaurant overlooked the hotel's pool and landscaped grounds.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The 200 guest rooms of the original hotel were divided into four two-story motel wings, each with fifty rooms, and named after famous race tracks. They were set out in a hacienda style, and surrounded by a half-moon shaped pool. The suites were luxuriously designed. Plush blue carpets and ivory colored chairs with white ceilings were the norm in the early days. An electric tram service, often attended by pretty showgirls, took the guests to their rooms. A 14-story tower commenced construction in late 1965, and was opened in 1967. It existed until November 1996 when it was demolished.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The steam room of the hotel was a place of relaxation and good jest. It became a great place for socializing between the stars after 5 pm, including the Rat Pack, and Jerry Lewis, Steve Lawrence and Don Rickles. On one occasion they were having problems with the TV in the massage room, which was blurry and out of focus. Sinatra yelled "Move back, move back", and the television was thrown into the pool. Manager Entratter permitted such activities, knowing that if he scolded Sinatra and asked him to pay damages he would not perform at Sands again.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The Copa Room was the showroom of Sands, named after the famed Copacabana Club in New York City. It contained 385 seats, designed in a Brazilian carnival style. Some of the more famed singers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. had to sign contracts to ensure that they headline for a given number of weeks a year. Performers were extremely well paid for the period. It was common for some of them to be paid $25,000 per week, playing two shows a night, six days a week, and once on a Sunday for two to three weeks.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The greatest names in the entertainment industry graced the stage of the Copa Room. Notable performers included Judy Garland, Lena Horne (one of the first black performers at the hotel, billed as "The Satin Doll"), Jimmy Durante, Dean Martin, Pat Cooper, Shirley MacLaine, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Shecky Greene, Martin and Lewis, Danny Thomas, Bobby Darin, Ethel Merman, Rich Little, Louis Armstrong, Jerry Lee Lewis, french singer Edith Piaf, Nat King Cole, Robert Merrill, Wayne Newton, Red Skelton, and "The Copa Girls". Hollywood celebrities such as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor, Yul Brynner, Kirk Douglas, Lucille Ball and Rosalind Russell were often photographed enjoying the headline acts.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: A number of notable albums were recorded in the Copa Room. Among them are Dean Martin's "Live At The Sands - An Evening of Music, Laughter and Hard Liquor", Frank Sinatra's "Sinatra at the Sands", and Sammy Davis, Jr.'s "The Sounds of '66" and "That's All!". "The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands", a CD released in 2001, features Martin, Sinatra and Davis in a live performance at the hotel recorded in September 1963. "Live at the Sands" is an album featuring Mary Wilson, formerly of The Supremes. Morrissey's B-side track, "At Amber" (1990), takes place at the Sands Hotel, and recounts its by-then aging and somewhat seedy atmosphere. Much of the musical success of the Copa Room is credited to the room's band leader and musical conductor Antonio Morelli. Morelli not only acted as the band leader and musical conductor for the Copa Room during the hotel's Rat Pack heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, but he also served in that role on hundreds of recorded albums by those same entertainers who graced the stage of the Copa. Often the festivities would carry over after hours to Morrelli's home in Las Vegas, nicknamed "The Morelli House", which was eventually relocated and sanctioned an historical landmark by the State of Nevada.


title: Sands Hotel and Casino

text: The Silver Queen Lounge was another performing venue at Sands, with nightly acts starting at 5:00 pm and running until 6:00 am. It was particularly popular with the emerging rock 'n' roll crowd. The Sands is where Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys performed the rock 'n' roll-song "Hound Dog", seen by Elvis Presley. After Presley saw that performance at The Sands, he decided to record the song himself, and it became a hit for him. Roberta Linn and the Melodaires and Gene Vincent were also regular performers.


title: Queen Mab

text: Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet", where "she is the fairies' midwife". Later, she appears in other poetry and literature, and in various guises in drama and cinema. In the play, her activity is described in a famous speech by Mercutio published originally in prose and often adapted into iambic pentameter, in which she is a miniature creature who performs midnight pranks upon sleepers. Being driven by a team of atomies, she rides her chariot over their noses and "delivers the fancies of sleeping men". She is also described as a midwife to help sleepers "give birth" to their dreams. Later depictions have typically portrayed her as the Queen of the Fairies.


title: Queen Mab

text: Shakespeare may have borrowed the character of Mab from folklore, but this is debated and there have been numerous theories on the origin of the name. A popular theory holds that Mab derives from Medb (pronounced "Maive" or "Meave"), a legendary queen from 12-century Irish poetry; however, scholar Gillian Edwards notes “little resemblance” between the two characters. There is marked contrast between the formidable warrior Medb and the tiny dream-bringer Mab.


title: Queen Mab

text: Other authors such as Wirt Sikes argued that Mab comes from the Welsh "mab" ("child" or "son"), although critics noted the lack of supporting evidence. Thomas Keightley suggested a connection to Habundia or Dame Habonde, a goddess associated with witches in medieval times and sometimes described as a queen.


title: Queen Mab

text: A more likely origin for Mab's name would be from Mabel and the Middle English derivative "Mabily" (as used by Chaucer) all from the Latin "amabilis" ("lovable"). Simon Young contends that this fits in with fairy names in British literature of the time, which tended to be generic and monosyllabic. "Mab" was a nickname for a low-class woman or prostitute, or possibly for a haglike witch. Similarly, "queen" is a pun on "quean," a term for a prostitute.


title: Queen Mab

text: After her first literary reference (as far as we can tell by examining the surviving literature) in "Romeo and Juliet", she appears in works of 17th-century poetry, notably Ben Jonson's "The Entertainment at Althorp" and Michael Drayton's "Nymphidia". In Poole's work "Parnassus", Mab is described as the Queen of the Fairies and consort to Oberon, emperor of the Fairies.


title: Queen Mab

text: Queen Mab appears in Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility. The horse Willoughboy gifts to Marianne is named Queen Mab. When she declines his gift, he tells her “When you leave Barton to form your own establishment in a more lasting home, Queen Mab shall receive you. (Volume I, chapter XII).


title: Queen Mab

text: "Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem" (1813) is the title of the first large poetic work written by the famous English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822).


title: Queen Mab

text: Herman Melville's epic American novel "Moby-Dick" (1851) includes a chapter titled "Queen Mab", and it describes a dream by Stubb, Captain Ahab's second mate.


title: Queen Mab

text: In J. M. Barrie's "The Little White Bird" (1902), Queen Mab lives in Kensington Gardens and grants Peter Pan – who has learned he is a boy, and thus can no longer fly – his wish to fly again.


title: Queen Mab

text: American philosopher George Santayana wrote a short piece titled "Queen Mab" which appeared in his 1922 book "Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies". This particular soliloquy considers English literature as an indirect form of self-expression in which the English writer "will dream of what Queen Mab makes other people dream" rather than revealing him or herself.


title: Queen Mab

text: Queen Mab is invoked in novels by Elizabeth Goudge, where she describes "Little Things" (based on a collection of tiny objects assembled by a relative and bequeathed to Goudge) such as tiny tea sets, and miniature gnomes, and a tiny sculpture of Queen Mab in her coach, in "A City of Bells" and "The Scent of Water".


title: Queen Mab

text: In Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files" series, Queen Mab of The Winter Court (also known as 'The Queen of Air and Darkness') is an important recurring character with mysterious motives. Ruler of the Unseelie Sidhe, Mab lives in a dark castle of ice located in the fey worlds of The Nevernever and generally is considered to be incredibly cruel, cold, and a maker of unbreakable pacts.


title: Queen Mab

text: Queen Mab is one of the three ancient Fae queens, sister to Maeve, and Mora, in Sarah J. Maas's "Throne of Glass" series.


title: Queen Mab

text: Queen Mab is a recurring supporting character in the "Hellboy" comic book series. She is portrayed as the queen over the Irish fairies known as the


title: Queen Mab

text: Tuatha Dé Danann and is married to Dagda. Despite watching Hellboy for much of his life they only meet once, in "Helllboy: the Wild Hunt".


title: Queen Mab

text: She appears as Mrs. Mabb in Susanna Clarke's story of the same name in The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories stealing the affections of the Reynard-like Captain Fox from the heroine Venetia Moore, who must then rescue him from captivity.


title: Queen Mab

text: Queen Mab briefly appears in Neil Gaiman’s "The Sandman" comic book series. She instructs her courtier, the faerie Cluracan, to interfere in some mortal political affairs that “would not be a good thing for Faerie.”


title: Queen Mab

text: In Stephen and Owen King’s book "Sleeping Beauties", under the alias Evie Black, the main antagonist of the book suggests she is the one being addressed in the Queen Mab speech by Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet".


title: Queen Mab

text: In Andrzej Sapkowski's short story "Złote popołudnie" ("The Golden Afternoon"), which is a postmodern retelling of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", the Queen of Hearts is revealed to be really Queen Mab.


title: Queen Mab

text: In Kate Quinn's 2021 novel "The Rose Code," which revolves around Bletchley Park during World War II, one of the three main characters, Mabel Churt, has nicknamed herself Mab after reading Mercutio's speech in "Romeo and Juliet."


title: Queen Mab

text: In "King's Quest VII", Queen Mab is one of several gods, demigods, and other powerful beings, who are kidnapped by the main villainess who threatens the world with destruction, and the viewpoint characters' mission is to rescue them and restore ecological balance.


title: Queen Mab

text: Queen Mab is a recurring character players can catch and use in battle in the JRPG series "Shin Megami Tensei" and related titles developed by Atlus


title: Queen Mab

text: The composer Hector Berlioz wrote a "Queen Mab" scherzo in his Romeo et Juliette symphony (1839). Hugh Macdonald describes this piece as "Berlioz's supreme exercise in light orchestral texture, a brilliant, gossamer fabric, prestissimo and pianissimo almost without pause... The pace and fascination of the movement are irresistible; it is some of the most ethereally brilliant music ever penned."


title: Queen Mab

text: The song by the British rock band Queen "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke", based on a painting by Richard Dadd and included in the album "Queen II", mentions Queen Mab and many other characters such as Oberon and Titania.


title: Queen Mab

text: The music video for the British pop band Duran Duran's "Night Boat" features singer Simon Le Bon reciting portions of Mercutio's monologue describing Queen Mab in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".


title: Cher Ami

text: Cher Ami (French for "dear friend", in the masculine) was a male homing pigeon who had been donated by the pigeon fanciers of Britain for use by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I and had been trained by American pigeoners. He is famous for delivering a message from an encircled battalion despite serious injuries during the Meuse-Argonne offensive in October 1918.


title: Cher Ami

text: On October 3, 1918, Major Charles White Whittlesey and more than 550 men were trapped in a small depression on the side of the hill behind enemy lines without food or ammunition. They were also beginning to receive friendly fire from allied troops who did not know their location. Surrounded by the Germans, many were killed and wounded and only 194 men were still alive and not captured or wounded by the end of the engagement. Because his runners were consistently intercepted or killed by the Germans, Whittlesey began dispatching messages by pigeon. The pigeon carrying the first message, "Many wounded. We cannot evacuate." was shot down. A second bird was sent with the message, "Men are suffering. Can support be sent?" That pigeon also was shot down. The artillery batteries supporting Whittlesey's men attempted to provide a "barrage of protection" for Whittlesey's men on the northern slope of the Charlevaux Ravine, but believed Whittlesey was on the southern slope of the ravine, resulting in a barrage inadvertently targeting the battalion. "Cher Ami" was dispatched with a note, written on onion paper, in a canister on his right leg,


title: Cher Ami

text: As Cher Ami tried to fly back home, the Germans saw him rising out of the brush and opened fire. After several seconds, he was shot down but managed to take flight again. He arrived back at his loft at division headquarters 25 miles (40 km) to the rear in just 25 minutes, helping to save the lives of the 194 survivors. He had been shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, and had a leg hanging only by a tendon.


title: Cher Ami

text: Cher Ami became the hero of the 77th Infantry Division. Army medics worked to save his life. When he recovered enough to travel, the now one-legged bird was put on a boat to the United States, with General John J. Pershing seeing him off.


title: Cher Ami

text: The pigeon was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal with a palm Oak Leaf Cluster for his heroic service in delivering 12 important messages in Verdun. He died at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 13, 1919, from the wounds he received in battle and was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931. He also received a gold medal from the Organized Bodies of American Racing Pigeon Fanciers in recognition of his service during World War I.


title: Cher Ami

text: In November 2019, he became one of the first winners of the Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery, bestowed on him posthumously at ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.


title: Cher Ami

text: To American school children of the 1920s and 1930s, Cher Ami was as well known as any human World War I hero. Cher Ami's body was later mounted by taxidermist Nelson R. Wood at the National Museum of Natural History. When the Smithsonian requested information about Cher Ami, the Signal Corps reported they could not find any war record of Cher Ami being the pigeon "which carried the message from The Lost Battalion." Listing the known details of the bird, the Army, without explanation, described Cher Ami as "he" and the Smithsonian's label reflected the bird's sex as a cock bird. In 2021, the National Museum of American History, together with the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian's National Zoo, had DNA samples from Cher Ami analyzed which concluded the bird is a cock bird. Since 1921, Cher Ami has been on display at the Smithsonian Institution. He is on display with Sergeant Stubby, the (presumed) Boston Terrier mascot of the US Army's 102nd Infantry, in the National Museum of American History's "Price of Freedom" exhibit.


title: Facility management

text: Facility management or facilities management (FM) is a professional management discipline focused on the efficient and effective delivery of logistics and other support services related to real property and buildings. It encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality, comfort, safety and efficiency of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology, as defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The profession is certified through Global Facility Management Association (Global FM) member organizations.


title: Facility management

text: The term, "facilities management" was coined in the 1960s by IBM alumnus and Electronic Data Systems founder Ross Perot, in reference to network management of IT systems, and soon expanded to include all elements of commercial space management.


title: Facility management

text: Facility management as integral to the processes of strategic organizational planning was represented during a 1979 conference sponsored by Herman Miller. Following the meeting, the furniture manufacturer opened the Facility Management Institute (FMI), with its headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan.


title: Facility management

text: The National Facility Management Association (NFMA) was formed in 1980, separating the overall profession from a single enterprise. In 1982, the NFMA expanded to form the International Facility Management Association (IFMA)


title: Facility management

text: In 1986, the first professional FM organization was launched in the UK, as the Association of Facility Managers (AFM).


title: Facility management

text: Professional FM as an interdisciplinary business function has the objective of coordinating demand and supply of facilities and services within public and private organizations. The term "facility" (pl. facilities) means something that is built, installed or established to serve a purpose, International Facility Management Association (IFMA), 1998 which, in general, is every "tangible asset that supports an organization". Examples include: real estate property, buildings, technical infrastructure, HVAC, lighting, transportation, IT-services, furniture, custodial, grounds maintenance and other user-specific equipment and appliances.


title: Facility management

text: In April 2017, the International Organization for Standardization published the ISO 41011:2017 standard for facility management, defining it as the "organizational function which integrates people, place and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business." The ISO definition was formally adopted by BIFM in August 2017.


title: Facility management

text: A management system standard for facilities management has also been developed by ISO and published as ISO 41001:2018.


title: Facility management

text: Its two broad areas of operation are commonly referred to as "hard FM" and "soft FM". The first refers to the physical built environment with a focus on work space and building infrastructure. The second covers the people and the organization and is related to work psychology and occupational physiology.


title: Facility management

text: According to the IFMA: "FM is the practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization. It integrates the principles of business administration, architecture, and the behavioral and engineering sciences." In a 2017 global job task analysis, IFMA identified eleven competencies of facility management as:


title: Facility management

text: The Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management, formerly the British Institute of Facilities Management, adopted the European definition and through its accredited qualification framework offers career path curriculum ranging from school leaver level through to master's degree level that is aligned with the European Qualifications framework.


title: Facility management

text: FM may also cover activities other than business services: these are referred to as non-core functions and vary from one business sector to another. FM is also subject to continuous innovation and development, under pressure to reduce costs and to add value to the core business of public or private sector client organizations.


title: Facility management

text: Facility management is supported with education, training, and professional qualifications often coordinated by FM institutes, universities, and associations. Degree programs exist at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Facility Management has been a recognised academic discipline since the 1990s. Initial FM research work in Europe started in universities in the UK, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries, where academies funded research centers and began to establish courses at Bachelors, Masters, and PhD levels.


title: Facility management

text: Early European FM research centers include the Centre for Facilities Management (CFM), founded in Glasgow in 1990; the Centre for People and Buildings at Delft University of Technology; and Metamorphose at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The University of Moratuwa Faculty of Architecture in Sri Lanka has offered a BSc. degree in Facilities Management since 2006.


title: Facility management

text: In 2018, 50 universities and research institutions were represented in EUROFM. The German Facility Management Association (GEFMA) has certified 16 FM study programs and courses at universities and universities of applied sciences in Germany.


title: Facility management

text: As of 2021, the IFMA accredits university degree programs the United States, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, and the Netherlands.


title: Facility management

text: Facilities managers (FMs) operate across business functions. The main priority of an FM is keeping people alive and safe. Facility managers need to operate at two levels:


title: Facility management

text: The FM department in an organization is required to identify, analyze, evaluate, control, and manage many environment and safety-related issues. Failure to do so may lead to unhealthy conditions leading to employees falling sick, injury, loss of business, prosecution, and insurance claims. The confidence of customers and investors in the business may also be affected by adverse publicity from safety lapses.


title: Facility management

text: The threat from fire carries one of the highest risks to loss of life, and the potential to damage property or shut down a business. The facilities management department will have in place maintenance, inspection, and testing for all of the facility's fire safety equipment and systems, keeping records and certificates of compliance.


title: Facility management

text: Protection of employees and the business often comes under the control of the facilities management department, particularly the maintenance of security hardware. Manned guarding may be under the control of a separate department.


title: Facility management

text: Maintenance, testing, and inspection schedules are required to ensure that the facility is operating safely and efficiently in compliance with statutory obligations, to maximize the life of equipment, and to reduce the risk of failure. The work is planned, often using a computer-aided facility management (CAFM) system. Building maintenance includes all preventative, remedial, and upgrades works required for the upkeep and improvement of buildings and their components. These works may include disciplines such as painting and decorating, carpentry, plumbing, glazing, plastering, and tiling.


title: Facility management

text: Cleaning operations are often undertaken out of business hours, but provision may be made during times of occupations for the cleaning of toilets, replenishing consumables (such as toilet rolls, soap) plus litter picking and reactive response is scheduled as a series of periodic (daily, weekly and monthly) tasks.


title: Facility management

text: The facilities management department has responsibilities for the day-to-day running of the building; these tasks may be outsourced or carried out by directly employed staff. This is a policy issue, but due to the immediacy of the response required in many of the activities involved the facilities manager will often require daily reports or an escalation procedure.


title: Facility management

text: Some issues require more than just periodic maintenance, for example, those that can stop or hamper the productivity of the business or that have safety implications. Many of these are managed by the facilities management "help desk" that staff is able to be contacted either by telephone or email. The response to help desk calls is prioritized but may be as simple as too hot or too cold, lights not working, photocopier jammed, coffee spills, or vending machine problems.


title: Facility management

text: Help desks may be used to book meeting rooms, car parking spaces, and many other services, but this often depends on how the facilities department is organized. Facilities may be split into two sections, often referred to as "soft" services such as reception and post room, and "hard" services, such as the mechanical, fire, and electrical services.


title: Facility management

text: All organizations should have a continuity plan so that in the event of a fire or major failure the business can recover quickly. In large organizations, it may be that the staff move to another site that has been set up to model the existing operation. The facilities management department would be one of the key players should it be necessary to move the business to a recovery site.


title: Facility management

text: In many organizations, office layouts are subject to frequent changes. This process is referred to as churn, and the percentage of the staff moved during a year is known as the "churn rate". These moves are normally planned by the facilities management department using a computer-aided design (CAD) system. In addition to meeting the needs of the business, compliance with statutory requirements related to office layouts include:


title: Facility management

text: Consideration may also be given to vending, catering, or a place where staff can make a drink and take a break from their desk.


title: Facility management

text: Since 2009, Global FM has sponsored an annual World Facilities Management Day, "World FM Day". The theme for the 2022 World FM Day (22 May 2022) was "leading a sustainable future"; the purpose of the day is " to recognise and celebrate the vital work that workplace and facilities managers and the wider industry contributes to business worldwide".


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: Megan Cavanagh (born November 8, 1960) is an American actress, who is best known for portraying Marla Hooch in "A League of Their Own" and the voice of Judy Neutron in "" and "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius".


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: Cavanagh was born November 8, 1960, in Chicago, the daughter of Jim and Rita. Raised in River Forest along with her four siblings, Cavanagh went to Oak Park and River Forest High School, graduating at 16 in 1977. She attended Rosary College in River Forest (now Dominican University), graduating in January 1982.


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: Cavanagh made her film debut in Penny Marshall's "A League of Their Own" starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Lori Petty. Film critic Vincent Canby of the "New York Times" praised the film writing ""A League of Their Own" is one of the year's most cheerful, most relaxed, most easily enjoyable comedies. It's a serious film that's lighter than air, a very funny movie that manages to score a few points for feminism in passing." He went on to list Cavanagh as among "the excellent supporting players", as did film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum of the "Chicago Reader".


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: Following her film debut, Cavanagh was cast in two Mel Brooks' comedies. The supporting roles were Broomhilde in "" (1993) and Essie in "" (1995). Other films include supporting roles in "For Richer or Poorer" (1997) starring Tim Allen, Kirstie Alley, and Jay O. Sanders, and Disney's "That Darn Cat" starring Christina Ricci and Doug E. Doug.


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: Cavanagh was featured in the short-lived second season of "Bob" (1993) and played the recurring role of Trudy McHale, who married Al Borland in the series finale, on the sitcom "Home Improvement" starring Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson and Earl Hindman (1998–99).


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: She reprised the role of Judy Neutron in "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius" and several TV movies including "The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour", "Jimmy Neutron: Win, Lose and Kaboom", and "The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 2: When Nerds Collide". She also voiced Slog in "Tak and the Power of Juju" and Hilary Higgenbottom in "The Mighty B!".


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: She appears in the American sitcom Friends as Luisa the ex-classmate of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Monica (Courteney Cox) who works for animal control. She is only in one episode.


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: Cavanagh makes an appearance in Season 3, Episode 4 of Will and Grace entitled "Girl Trouble." She plays Terry.


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: Cavanagh returned to the stage in 2004 as Earth Mother in . Theater critic Patricia Reardon wrote, "...you won't find a funnier, more satisfying way to spend an evening than with the four rollicking ladies of Menopause The Musical."


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: In 2009, Cavanagh performed the medium Madame Arcati in "High Spirits", a musical with a book, lyrics, and music by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray, based on the play "Blithe Spirit" by Noël Coward. 42nd Street Moon's production was staged at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St in San Francisco, and was well received. San Francisco theater critic Chad Jones writes, "On Broadway, [Angela] Lansbury is said to be divine in the role, but 42nd Street Moon has a real secret weapon here: Megan Cavanagh...Cavanagh is hilarious and heartfelt."


title: Megan Cavanagh

text: Cavanagh was an original member (1984–1987) of the professional theatre troupe New Age Vaudeville (formerly the Comedy Cabaret) founded by Richard O'Donnell and Amy McKenzie. An Actor's Equity (AEA) theatre troupe, the Comedy Cabaret landed a summer residence at Peninsula Players in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, where it developed works for a predominantly tourist trade and then relocated to their winter home in Chicago at CrossCurrents. Throughout her tenure, Megan Cavanagh (who thus earned her Actors' Equity union card) starred in numerous productions including the cult-hits "An Evening with Elmore & Gwendolyn Putts - The Neighbors Next Door" and "The TV Dinner Hour" (the latter featured IO Theater founder Del Close). Rick Kogan of the "Chicago Tribune" hailed both productions as "Among the most polished and clever productions of the season, a pair of devilishly inventive and challenging shows that won over critics and audiences".


title: Michael Bacall

text: Michael Bacall (born Michael Stephen Buccellato; April 19, 1973) is an American screenwriter and actor, known for having co-written the films "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World", "21 Jump Street", and "Project X".


title: Michael Bacall

text: Bacall was born in Los Angeles, California to a family of Sicilian descent. He acted in movies and television from an early age.


title: Michael Bacall

text: Turning to writing in the 2000s, he co-wrote and co-starred in "Manic". As of 2007, Bacall has sold a number of scripts to major studios, including "Psycho Funky Chimp" and "In Search of Captain Zero".


title: Michael Bacall

text: In June 2007, New Line announced that Bacall would be writing a feature adaptation of the documentary "The King of Kong". He co-wrote the adaptation of the Canadian graphic novel series "Scott Pilgrim", "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World", with its director, Edgar Wright.


title: Beleriand

text: In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium, Beleriand was a region in northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his work "The Silmarillion", which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales of Nordic literature. Beleriand also appears in the works "The Book of Lost Tales", "The Children of Húrin", and in the epic poems of "The Lays of Beleriand".


title: Beleriand

text: At the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, Beleriand was broken in the War of Wrath by the angelic beings, the Maiar, against the demonic Morgoth (a Vala fallen into evil). As the inhabitants of Beleriand, including masterless Orcs, beasts of Angband, Elves, Men and Dwarves, fled, much of Beleriand sank in the sea. Only a small section of East Beleriand remained, and was known thereafter as Lindon, in the Northwest of Middle-earth of the Second and Third Age. Other parts of East Beleriand survived into the Second Age, but were completely destroyed along with the island kingdom of Númenor. Fulfilling a prophecy, the graves of Túrin Turambar and Morwen survived as the island Tol Morwen. Likewise, a part of Dorthonion became Tol Fuin, and Himring became an island.


title: Beleriand

text: Originally, the name Beleriand belonged only to the area around the Bay of Balar, but in time, the name was applied to the entire land. Beleriand was originally inhabited by Elves, and later also by Men and Dwarves. To the west and south it had a long shore with the Great Sea Belegaer, to the north were the highland regions of Hithlum, Dorthonion and the hills of Himring, to the east the Ered Luin reached nearly to the sea. The land of Nevrast in the northwest was sometimes considered part of Beleriand. In the far north were the Iron Mountains (Ered Engrin), containing Morgoth's fortresses of Thangorodrim and Angband.


title: Beleriand

text: The River Sirion, the chief river of Beleriand, running north to south, divided it into West and East Beleriand. Crossing it east to west was a series of hills and a sudden drop in elevation known as Andram, the Long Wall. The river sank into the ground at the Fens of Sirion, and re-emerged below the Andram at the Gates of Sirion. To the east of the Long Wall, was the River Gelion and its six tributaries draining the Ered Luin, in an area known as Ossiriand, "Land of Seven Rivers".


title: Beleriand

text: In volume IV of the "History of Middle-earth" are the early maps of Beleriand, then still called Broseliand, showing the elevation of the land by use of contour lines.


title: Beleriand

text: In the northwest of Beleriand was a region called "Lammoth", "the Great Echo". The "Silmarillion" explains it is so named because it is where Morgoth and Ungoliant fled after the darkening of Valinor and Morgoth's theft of the Silmarils. Ungoliant lusted for the Silmarils and attacked Morgoth to get them; he let out a great cry, heard across the land. In "Unfinished Tales", the name instead refers to the acoustic properties of the location and the natural reverberations they cause.


title: Beleriand

text: The Mouths were the refuge of the remnants of Eldar and Edain of Beleriand after the Nírnaeth Arnoediad and the Sack of Menegroth (the Thousand Caves). The first rulers of this region were Tuor of the Edain and Idril of Gondolin. Their son Eärendil Half-elven, married the Half-elven Elwing, Dior's daughter. Eärendil and Elwing's sons, Elros and Elrond, were born in Arvernien.


title: Beleriand

text: Doriath is the realm of the Sindar, the Grey Elves of King Thingol in Beleriand. Among the First Age events that occurred in Doriath is the tale of Beren and Lúthien from "The Lays of Beleriand", parts of "The Children of Húrin" and "The Silmarillion".


title: Beleriand

text: The Falas was the realm of Círdan the Shipwright and his Sindarin Elves in the years of Starlight and the First Age of Sun. They lived in two havens, Eglarest at the mouth of the River Nenning, and Brithombar at the mouth of the River Brithon. The Havens were besieged during the First Battle of Beleriand. When the Havens were later destroyed, Círdan's people fled to the Mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar.


title: Beleriand

text: Gondolin was a secret city of Elves in the north of Beleriand, built by Turgon and his Elves, and hidden from the Dark Lord Morgoth by mountains. Its destruction is told in "The Fall of Gondolin".


title: Beleriand

text: Hithlum is the region north of Beleriand near the icy Helcaraxë. It was separated from Beleriand proper by the Ered Wethrin mountain chain, and was named after the sea mists which formed there at times: "Hithlum" means "Mist-shadow". Hithlum was subdivided into Mithrim, where the High Kings of the Noldor had their halls, and Dor-lómin, later a fief of the House of Hador. Hithlum was cold and rainy, but quite fertile.


title: Beleriand

text: When the Sons of Fëanor went east after Thingol became aware of the Kinslaying, a great fortress was built on the hill of Himring in northeast Beleriand. It was the chief stronghold of Maedhros, from which he guarded the northeastern border region that became known as the March of Maedhros. To the east was Maglor's Gap and Ered Luin; to the west the Pass of Aglon, which Curufin and Celegorm guarded. It was the only fortress to survive the Dagor Bragollach. But in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears the Hill of Himring was taken over by the soldiers of Angband. After the Drowning of Beleriand during the War of Wrath, the peak of Himring (also called "Himling", a typographic error) remained above the waves as an island.


title: Beleriand

text: Nargothrond ("The great underground fortress on the river Narog") was the stronghold built by Finrod Felagund, delved into the banks of the river Narog in Beleriand. It was a hidden place from the forces of Morgoth, Finrod established it in the early years of the First Age.


title: Beleriand

text: Finrod ruled Nargothrond until he joined Beren in his quest for the Silmaril, and the regency passed to Orodreth. Later, Túrin Turambar came to Nargothrond, persuading the people to fight openly against Morgoth, leading to its sack by the army of the dragon Glaurung. Glaurung used Nargothrond as his lair; he was killed by Túrin, after which the caves were claimed by the Petty-dwarf Mîm, until he was killed by Húrin, Túrin's father.


title: Beleriand

text: Nevrast ("Hither Shore", as opposed to Aman) is a coastal region in the north of Beleriand; its city was Vinyamar. It was the centre of Turgon's Elven kingdom until people left for Gondolin. The land was then abandoned until Tuor came there, guided by Ulmo; from a cliff, Tuor became the first Man in Middle-earth to see the sea.


title: Beleriand

text: Ossiriand ("Land of Seven Rivers") was the most easterly region of Beleriand during the First Age, between the Ered Luin and the river Gelion. The Seven Rivers were the Gelion which ran from north to south, and its six tributaries flowing from the Ered Luin, named (from north to south) the Ascar, the Thalos, the Legolin, the Brilthor, the Duilwen, and Adurant. Ossiriand was a green and forested land. It was the only part of Beleriand that survived the War of Wrath, becoming known as Lindon, where Gil-galad and Círdan ruled.


title: Beleriand

text: Dor Daedeloth ("Land of the Shadow of Dread") far to the north, lay around the fortress of Angband and the Ered Engrin. It was here that the Orcs and other creatures of Morgoth lived and bred. The march of the Noldor early in the First Age was halted there, when Fëanor was mortally wounded by Balrogs. The Noldor then encircled the land, starting the Siege of Angband.


title: Beleriand

text: Beleriand had many different names in Tolkien's early writings, including Broceliand, a name borrowed from medieval romance, Golodhinand, Noldórinan ("valley of the Noldor"), Geleriand, Bladorinand, Belaurien, Arsiriand, Lassiriand, and Ossiriand (later used as a name for the easternmost part of Beleriand).


title: Russell Kane

text: Russell Kane (born Russell David Anthony Grineau; 19 August 1975) is an English writer, comedian, and actor. He has 4 times been nominated at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, winning the Best Comedy Show award in 2010. Although known mainly for stand-up comedy, for television, he has presented "Big Brother's Big Mouth" (2007), "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here - Now" (2009-2011), "Freak Like Me" (2010), "Geordie Shore: The Reunion" and "Britain Unzipped" (2012), "Live at the Electric" (2013), "Stupid Man, Smart Phone" (2016),


title: Russell Kane

text: Kane was born to David and Julie Grineau in Enfield, North London and brought up in Essex, where he still lives. He studied English at Middlesex University and graduated with a degree in Media Writing.


title: Russell Kane

text: In 2004, Kane won the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year, and in the same year he was runner-up to Nick Sun in "So You Think You're Funny". In 2005, he joined Ray Peacock, Russell Howard and Reginald D. Hunter on the national Paramount "Edinburgh and Beyond" tour. He was a roving reporter alongside Annie Mac, for the live music event "Guerrilla Gig", which aired on BBC Three in March 2006. In July 2006, he wrote and presented travelogues for the newly launched Five US.


title: Russell Kane

text: In August 2006, Kane performed his debut comedy show "The Theory of Pretension" at the Edinburgh Fringe, where he was nominated for a "best newcomer" Edinburgh Comedy Award. He presented "Big Brother's Big Mouth" on E4 and Channel 4 in June 2007.


title: Russell Kane

text: In 2008, Kane was the host of BBC Radio 2's "Out to Lunch" from series 4 onwards. He presented a Sunday afternoon show on the relaunched Q Radio digital radio station. Later the same year, he took his stand-up show "Gaping Flaws" to Glasgow and the Edinburgh Festival, earning 2008 Best Comedy Show Nominee at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. He also wrote an hour-long play, "The Lamentable Tragedie of Yates's Wine Lodge" based on his own creation of Fakespeare. On 20 November 2008, Kane performed at the Hammersmith Apollo for the BBC's "Live at the Apollo".


title: Russell Kane

text: In 2009, kane returned to Edinburgh with a stand-up show entitled "Human Dressage", which was nominated for 2009 Best Comedy Show Edinburgh Comedy Award for the second time. Kane appeared on the presenting team of the 2009 ITV2 spin-off show "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here - Now", which he co-hosted with Laura Whitmore and Joe Swash. Two contestants that year were Gino D'Acampo and Katie Price. He returned to Australia for the show in 2010 and 2011.


title: Russell Kane

text: In April 2010, while appearing on the Australian TV show "Good News Week", Kane made a joke centred on autistic children, prompting an apology from the network and criticism from the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities. Later that year, Kane appeared live in Cardiff, along with his impressionist and comedienne wife Sadie Hasler, who preceeded his act. Kane was narrator and presenter "Freak Like Me" on BBC Three during the winter of 2010.


title: Russell Kane

text: In August 2011, he appeared for the first time on the BBC Radio Four comedy panel game "Just a Minute", which he won. In November 2011, he won a "Children in Need" edition of "Celebrity Mastermind", with the specialist subject "The Life and Novels of Evelyn Waugh". On 5 July 2011 and 27 March 2012, he presented "Geordie Shore: The Reunion" for MTV.


title: Russell Kane

text: His debut novel, "The Humorist", was published by Simon & Schuster in April 2012. In 2012, he co-presented "Britain Unzipped" with Greg James on BBC Three, which was renamed "Unzipped" for series 2. He was the presenter of the BBC Three show "Live at the Electric", which ran for three series, and co-hosted the 2013 chat show "Staying In" with Greg James.


title: Russell Kane

text: In March 2018, Kane started hosting the BBC Radio 4 series "Evil Genius". This programme is an exploration of famous people in contemporary history.


title: Russell Kane

text: Kane married fellow comedian Sadie Hasler in 2010. They met while studying at Middlesex University. They divorced nine months later. He married hair and makeup artist Lindsey Cole in 2014. They had met when Cole had attended one of his shows and later connected through social media. They have one daughter.


title: Russell Kane

text: In 2015 it was revealed that Kane had been lying about his age, claiming to be five years younger than his true vintage.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: Helle Crafts (; born Helle Lorck Nielsen; July 7, 1947 – November 19, 1986) was a Danish flight attendant who was murdered by her husband, Eastern Air Lines pilot Richard Crafts. Her death led to the state of Connecticut's first murder conviction without the victim's body.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: Helle Nielsen married Richard Crafts in 1975 and settled with him in Newtown, Connecticut, United States. Helle continued working as a flight attendant while raising their three children. In 1986, Helle began to suspect that Richard was engaged in extramarital sexual activity, and confronted him about suspicious long-distance phone calls, which angered Richard. Helle met with a divorce attorney and hired a private investigator, Keith Mayo, who snapped photos of Richard kissing another flight attendant outside her New Jersey residence.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: On November 18, 1986, friends dropped Helle off at the couple's Newtown residence after she had worked a long flight from Frankfurt, West Germany. She was never seen again. That night, a snowstorm hit the area. The next morning, Richard said he was taking Helle and their children to his sister's house in Westport. When he arrived, Helle was not with him. Over the next few weeks, Richard gave Helle's friends a variety of stories as to why they were unable to reach her: that she was visiting her mother in Denmark, that she was visiting the Canary Islands with a friend, or that he simply did not know her whereabouts. Helle's friends were aware that Richard had a volatile temper and grew concerned. Helle had told some of them, "If something happens to me, don't assume it was an accident." On December 1, the private investigator Keith Mayo reported her missing to the Newtown Police. Richard Crafts was known to local law enforcement for his work as a volunteer police officer in Newtown, and in 1986 Crafts was working as a part-time police officer in the nearby town of Brookfield. According to Mayo, Newtown Police initially dismissed his concerns, saying that Helle would probably return.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: Mayo, convinced that Richard Crafts was involved in Helle's disappearance, but unable to persuade local police to investigate him for murder, took his findings to the county prosecutor, who eventually referred the case to the Connecticut State Police. On December 26, while Richard was vacationing with his children in Florida, troopers searched his home. Inside, they found pieces of carpet taken from the master bedroom floor. The family's nanny recalled that a dark, grapefruit-sized stain had appeared in an area of the carpet, which was later missing. There was also a blood smear on the side of the bed mattress. The forensic investigation was led by Henry Lee, who at the time was an investigator for the state police.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: Richard's credit card records showed several unusual purchases around the time Helle vanished, including a freezer that was not found in the house, bed sheets, a comforter, and the rental of a woodchipper. Among papers provided to a private investigator by Richard was a receipt for a chainsaw; the chainsaw was later found in Lake Zoar covered in hair and blood which matched Helle's DNA. A key piece of evidence was provided by Joseph Hine, a local man who worked for the town of Southbury and drove a town snowplow in the winter. On the night of November 18, hours after Helle had been last seen, Hine was plowing the roads during the snowstorm when he noticed a rental truck, with a woodchipper attached, parked close to the shore of Lake Zoar.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: It was only after the search of the Crafts' house that Hine reported what he had seen. He led detectives to the location, where they examined the water's edge and found many small pieces of metal and some of human tissue, including the crown of a tooth, a fingernail covered in pink nail polish, bone chips, 2,660 bleached blonde human hairs, and O type blood, which was the same type as that of Helle Crafts. This led the police to conclude the remains had likely been fed through the woodchipper Richard had been seen towing. Additionally, a chainsaw that contained traces of blonde human hair was found under water. Though the serial number marking on the chainsaw was scrubbed away, the investigators restored the number in the laboratory. The serial number on the tool was traced to the retailer, whose records confirmed that Richard Crafts had purchased the chainsaw. Investigators concluded that Richard struck Helle in the head with something blunt at least twice, staining the carpet with blood, then kept her body in the freezer for hours until she was frozen solid. He then cut her apart with the chainsaw, and then put the pieces through the woodchipper, probably projecting her fragmented remains into the truck and then shoveling them out onto the shore.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: A prosecution for homicide requires an official determination of the death of the alleged victim; typically this is done by identification of a body, which was not available in this case. With the help of a forensic dentist, the tooth crown found on the water's edge was positively matched to Helle's dental records. On this evidence, the Connecticut State Medical Examiner's Office issued a death certificate on January 13, 1987; Richard was immediately arrested. In preparation for trial, state medical examiner H. Wayne Carver obtained a pig carcass that was fed through a woodchipper. The shape of, and marks on, the pig's bone chips after this process were similar to the shape of Helle's bone fragments, strengthening the hypothesis that Richard had used a woodchipper to dispose of his wife's body.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: Richard Crafts' murder trial began in May 1988 in New London, where it was moved due to extensive local publicity. The case went to the jury after 54 days. On July 15, 1988, the 17th day of jury deliberations, a single juror—the only juror in favor of acquittal—refused to continue with deliberations, and the judge declared a mistrial. A second trial in Norwalk ended in a guilty verdict on November 21, 1989. Richard was sentenced to serve 50 years in prison. On January 30, 2020, Richard was released from prison and sent to live at a halfway house in Bridgeport. Richard was released early because of “statutory good time,” which allows huge chunks of jail time to be lopped off sentences for good behavior and jailhouse jobs. Crafts's maximum release date was listed by the State Department of Correction (DOC) as August 1, 2020.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: The special edition DVD of the 1996 film "Fargo" contains a statement that the film was inspired by the Crafts case, particularly the very end of the film where a character is killed and their body is put through a woodchipper.


title: Murder of Helle Crafts

text: In "", an episode of "", the investigation into the missing wife of a plastic surgeon leads to a successful conviction without a corpse, under the theory that the body was dissolved in sulfuric acid in the bathtub, and the bones dumped out of the husband's single-engine aircraft.


title: 1971 Indian general election

text: General elections were held in India between 1 and 10 March 1971 to elect members of the 5th Lok Sabha. They were the fifth general elections since independence in 1947. The 27 Indian states and union territories were represented by 518 constituencies, each with a single seat. Under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, the Indian National Congress (R) led a campaign which focused on reducing poverty and won a landslide victory, overcoming a split in the party and regaining many of the seats lost in the previous election.


title: 1971 Indian general election

text: During her previous term, there had been internal divisions in the Indian National Congress between Indira Gandhi and the party establishment, especially Morarji Desai. In 1969, she was expelled from the party, causing a split. Most of the Congress MPs and grassroots support joined Gandhi's INC(R) faction, which was recognised by the Election Commission as being the successor to the previous party. 31 MPs who opposed Gandhi formed Indian National Congress (Organisation) party.


title: 1971 Indian general election

text: The Second Indira Gandhi government, formed in November 1969 and dissolved in March 1971, was the first minority government in independent India. After the split, the INC(R) held 221 seats in the 523-seat parliament, 41 seats short of a majority. However, Gandhi and her cabinet remained in power by relying on outside support from the Communists who had 42 seats and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which had 26 seats, giving the government a total of 289 seats, a comfortable majority and far more than the minimum of 262 seats required for a majority. Knowing that her minority government would eventually fall, on 27 December 1970, President V.V. Giri dissolved the Lok Sabha at the recommendation of Gandhi.


title: 1971 Indian general election

text: INC(O) formed a pre-poll alliance with Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP), Praja Socialist Party (PSP), the Swatantra Party and Bharatiya Jana Sangh BJS and several other regional parties opposed to the INC(R). They agreed to field one candidate against the INC(R) candidate in every constituency in order to defeat Gandhi's party.


title: 1971 Indian general election

text: Despite the split, the ruling faction gained votes and seats to win a strong majority, while the Grand Alliance was badly trounced and lost more than half of their seats.


title: 1971 Indian general election

text: On 12 June 1975, the Allahabad High Court invalidated the result in Gandhi's constituency on the grounds of electoral malpractices. Instead of resigning, Indira Gandhi called a state of emergency, suspending democracy and outlawed political opposition. After democracy was restored in 1977, the opposition Congress faction formed a coalition of parties called the Janata Party, which inflicted the Congress' first electoral defeat.


title: The Gift of Fear

text: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence is a nonfiction self-help book (Dell Publishing 1997, republished with new epilogue 1998) written by Gavin de Becker. The book demonstrates how every individual should learn to trust the inherent "gift" of their gut instinct. By learning to recognize various warning signs and precursors to violence, it becomes possible to avoid potential trauma and harm.


title: The Gift of Fear

text: "The Gift of Fear" spent four months on "The New York Times" Bestseller List, was a #1 National Bestseller, and has been published in 14 languages. The book has been endorsed by a wide variety of celebrities including Marcia Clark, Carolyn Hax, Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, David Mamet, and others who have referred to the book in interviews.


title: The Gift of Fear

text: For more than a decade, it has regularly been the #1 bestselling book in the English language on Violence in Society, Abuse, and Safety. De Becker is also listed on Amazon's Top 100 Self Help authors. "The Gift of Fear" was selected for the book, 50 Psychology Classics.


title: The Gift of Fear

text: By finding patterns in stories of violence and abuse, de Becker seeks to highlight the inherent predictability of violence. The book explores various settings where violence may be found—the workplace, the home, the school, dating—and describes what de Becker calls pre-incident indicators (PINS). By noticing PINS (events and behaviors that often precede violence), individuals can better predict violence before it occurs and, therefore, take the necessary precautions and actions to stay safe. "The Gift of Fear" also describes de Becker's MOSAIC Threat Assessment Systems, which have been employed by various celebrities and government agencies to predict and prevent violence.


title: The Gift of Fear

text: Described by "The Boston Globe" as a "how-to book that reads like a thriller", "The Gift of Fear" spent four months on "The New York Times" bestseller list and was a #1 US bestseller.


title: The Gift of Fear

text: In 2008, Oprah Winfrey dedicated an hour-long show to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the publication of the book. In the last year of her show, she dedicated two hour-long shows to de Becker's work in domestic violence.


title: 1981 NBA draft

text: The 1981 NBA draft was the 35th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on June 9, 1981, before the 1981–82 season. The draft was broadcast in the United States on the USA Network. In this draft, 23 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. The first two picks in the draft belonged to the teams that finished last in each conference, with the order determined by a coin flip. The Dallas Mavericks won the coin flip and were awarded the first overall pick, while the Detroit Pistons were awarded the second pick. The remaining first-round picks and the subsequent rounds were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season. A player who had finished his four-year college eligibility was automatically eligible for selection. Before the draft, five college underclassmen announced that they would leave college early and would be eligible for selection. The draft consisted of 10 rounds comprising the selection of 223 players.


title: 1981 NBA draft

text: The Dallas Mavericks used their first pick to draft 1980 Naismith College Player of the Year Mark Aguirre from DePaul University. Aguirre, who had just finished his junior season in college, became the second underclassman to be drafted first overall, after Magic Johnson in 1979. The Detroit Pistons used the second overall pick to draft Isiah Thomas, a sophomore guard from Indiana University. Thomas had just won the 1981 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship with Indiana and was named as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The New Jersey Nets used the third pick to draft another underclassman, Buck Williams, from the University of Maryland. Williams went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award and was also selected to the All-Star Game in his rookie season. This draft marked the first time that the first three selections were college underclassmen. Danny Ainge, the 1981 Wooden College Player of the Year, was selected in the second round with the 31st pick by the Boston Celtics. Ainge had been playing professional baseball since 1979 with the Toronto Blue Jays in the Major League Baseball (MLB) while also playing college basketball at Brigham Young University. He reportedly preferred to continue his baseball career, but the Celtics successfully persuaded him to play basketball instead. He is one of only twelve athletes who have played in both the NBA and MLB.


title: 1981 NBA draft

text: Prior to the day of the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of picks between the teams.