Chairman

The chairman or chairwoman, or simply the chair, sometimes known as chairperson, is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chair presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. When the group is not in session, the officer's duties often include acting as its head, its representative to the outside world and its spokesperson. In some organizations, this position is also called president (or other title), in others, where a board appoints a president (or other title), the two different terms are used for distinctly different positions.

Terminology

Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairperson, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, moderator, facilitator, and convenor. The chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker.

The term chair is sometimes used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist. It is commonly used today, and has been used as a substitute for chairman since the middle of the 17th century, with its earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary dated 1658-9, only four years after the first citation for chairman.

Rail fastening system

A rail fastening system is a means of fixing rails to railroad ties (United States) or sleepers (international). The terms rail anchors, tie plates, chairs and track fasteners are used to refer to parts or all of a rail fastening system. Various types of fastening have been used over the years.

History and overview

The earliest wooden rails were fixed to wooden sleepers by pegs through holes in the rail, or by nails. By the 18th century cast iron rails had come into use, and also had holes in the rail itself to allow them to be fixed to a support. 18th century developments such as the flanged rail and fish bellied rail also had holes in the rail itself; when stone block sleepers were used the nails were driven into a wooden block which had been inserted into a recess in the block. The first chair for a rail is thought to have been introduced in 1797 which attached to the rail on the vertical web via bolts.

By the 1820s the first shaped rolled rails had begun to be produced initially of a T shape which required a chair to hold them; the rails were held in position by iron wedges (which sometimes caused the rail to break when forced in) and later by wooden wedges, which became the standard. In the 1830s Robert L. Stevens invented the flanged 'tee' rail (actually a distorted I beam), which had a flat bottom and required no chair; a similar design was the contemporary bridge rail (of inverted U section with a bottom flange and laid on longitudinal sleepers); these rails were initially nailed directly to the sleeper.

Chair (sculpture)

Chair is a public artwork designed as an advertisement by Bassett Furniture, located at the intersection of Martin Luther King Ave. and V. Street S.E., in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States of America. Chair was originally surveyed as part of the Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! survey in 1994. It was once considered the world's largest chair, but has been overtaken by works like Broken Chair in Geneva and the temporary The Writer on Hampstead Heath in London.

Description

The chair, which stands 19 1/2 feet high, is a detail-to-detail replica of a Duncan Phyfe style chair. Painted brown with a white and brown striped "cushion", the chair is entirely made of aluminum. Weighing between 4,000 and 4,600 pounds, the chair sits on a concrete base.

Acquisition

The chair was built in 1959 by Virginia-based furniture maker Bassett Furniture. The concept for the chair came from Charles Curtis, of the Curtis Brothers Furniture company, as a clever way to bring customers to their family showroom which was located on the grounds where the chair is currently placed.

Airó

Airó is a Portuguese parish, located in the municipality of Barcelos. The population in 2011 was 913, in an area of 3.02 km².

References

Air (Agua de Annique album)

Air is the debut album of the band Agua de Annique formed by the former The Gathering vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen. The album is a pop/rock oriented album and was released in 2007. Anneke van Giersbergen also plays piano on the album.

Track listing

All tracks by Anneke van Giersbergen except where noted

There is an animated video of the song "Day After Yesterday" which can be viewed on their official site. There is also a video for the cover song "Come Wander With Me," which was released as a download-single in 2008.

Personnel

External links

Air (singer)

AIR is a name under which Kōji Kurumatani (車谷浩司) releases his songs. He started AIR two months after SPIRAL LIFE broke up in April 1996. His work is noted for lyrics that take on social issues and politics, and can be classified as alternative rock.

Discography

Singles

Albums