B. J. Thomas

Billy Joe "B.J." Thomas (born August 7, 1942) is an American popular singer. He is particularly known for his hit songs of the 1960s and 1970s, which appeared on the pop, country, and Christian music charts. His best-known recording is the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head".

Career

Thomas was raised in and around Houston, Texas, graduating from Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg. Before his solo career, he sang in a church choir as a teenager, then joined the musical group The Triumphs. During his senior year he made friends with Roy Head of Roy Head and The Traits. The Traits and the Triumphs held several Battle of the Bands events in the early 1960s.

In 1966, B.J. Thomas and The Triumphs released the album I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Pacemaker Records). It featured a hit cover of the Hank Williams song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". The single sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. The follow-up single, "Mama", peaked at No. 22. In the same year, Thomas released a solo album of the same name on the Scepter Records label.

BJ

Abbreviation

Organizations

Sport

People

Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc, trading as Ben & Jerry's, is a company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. It was founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, United States, and operates nowadays globally as a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch Unilever conglomerate. Its headquarters is in South Burlington, Vermont, with its main factory in Waterbury, Vermont.

History

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were childhood friends from New York. While Greenfield finished college, he found himself unable to make his way into medical school. Cohen dropped out of school. In 1977 Cohen and Greenfield completed a correspondence course on ice cream making from Pennsylvania State University's Creamery. Cohen has severe anosmia, a lack of a sense of smell or taste, and so relied on "mouth feel" and texture to provide variety in his diet. This led to the company's trademark chunks being mixed in with their ice cream. On May 5, 1978, with a $12,000 investment, the two business partners opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in downtown Burlington, Vermont. In 1979, they marked their anniversary by holding the first-ever free cone day, now an international annual celebration.

Barney & Friends

Barney & Friends is an American children's television series aimed at children from ages 1 to 8, created by Sheryl Leach and produced by HIT Entertainment. It premiered on PBS Kids on April 6, 1992. The series features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomorphic tyrannosaurus rex who conveys educational messages through songs and small dance routines with a friendly, optimistic attitude. Production of new episodes ceased in 2009, although reruns of the series were still shown on several PBS stations in following years. From 2005 until 2015 reruns aired on Sprout. A revival of the series is set for a 2017 launch.

Origin and development

Barney was created in 1987 by Sheryl Leach of Dallas, Texas. She came up with the idea for the program while considering TV shows that she felt would be educational and appeal to her son. Leach then brought together a team who created a series of home videos, Barney and the Backyard Gang, which also starred actress Sandy Duncan in the first three videos. Later, Barney was joined by the characters Baby Bop, B.J., and Riff.

United States military aircraft designation systems

The United States Military Aircraft Designation System was first designed in 1919 when the US Army's Aeronautical Division became the United States Army Air Service. Before this aircraft were put into service under their manufacturers' designations.

History

United States Army Air Service 1919 to 1924

During this period Type Designations used by the United States Army Air Service were allotted, using two or three letters, which were an abbreviation of the aircraft's purpose. Examples include GA for Ground Attack aircraft; NO for Night Observation aircraft and NBS for Night Bombardment, Short Distance aircraft.

Army aviation 1924 to 1962

From 1924 to 1947 the Air Service, United States Army Air Corps, United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force used a designation system based on mission category, with each model in a category numbered sequentially. In 1947, the designation system was extensively overhauled, with several categories being dispensed with, and others renamed For instance, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star (Pursuit) was redesignated as F-80 (Fighter), while the A-26 medium bomber/attack aircraft was redesignated as the B-26, reusing the designation, the Martin B-26 having retired in the meantime.

Boeing 7J7

The Boeing 7J7 was a short- to medium-range airliner proposed by American aircraft manufacturer Boeing in the 1980s. It would have carried 150 passengers and was touted as the successor to the successful Boeing 727. It was initially planned to enter service in 1992. This was intended as a highly fuel-efficient aircraft employing new technologies, but it was cancelled when the price of oil dropped during the 1980s.

Design and development

The 7J7 was planned to include advanced technology and electronics, such as:

The sum of all these features promised better fuel consumption by more than 60% compared to any existing large passenger aircraft technology at the time. "Efficiency" was the key theme. The 7J7 was to have a twin-aisle (2+2+2) seating configuration, giving an unprecedented wide and spacious cabin for its class, with no passenger more than one seat from an aisle.

Bu Ju

Bu Ju (Chinese: 卜居; Pinyin: Bǔ Jū; English: Divination) is a short work anthologized in the Chu Ci (楚辭 Songs of Chu, sometimes called The Songs of the South). Although traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan, there is little likelihood that he is the author. (Hawks 2011 [1985]: 203) Rather, "Bu ju" is a biographical or pseudobiographical account of an incident in Qu Yuan's life, mostly in prose, but with a short, incidental verse ascribed to be a quote from Qu Yuan. The anecdotal story tells of how Qu Yuan visited a Great Diviner to resolve some of his moral dilemmas, by means of plastromancy or by casting yarrow stalks. However, in the end the diviner excuses himself on the grounds that in a case such as this one, divination would be of no help.

See also

References