J. Hallett and Son, founded in 1904, was for most of the 20th century South Australia's most important brickmaking firm.

Job Hallett[link]

Its founder, Job H. Hallett (pronounced "jobe") (1855–27 October 1940) was born in Somerset, the son of Thomas Hallett (1820–1871) and Caroline Hallett (nee Eves)(1824?–1913) of Kingsbury Episcopi.^[1] and sailed to Adelaide in 1877. He started work on a farm in Riverton but having some experience in brickmaking (his father's trade), was soon in Hindmarsh working for Tom Sherring and T.T. Brown.^[2]

In 1889 Job started his own brickworks in Chief Street Brompton^[2] with some assistance from Charles Willcox. In 1904 he took his eldest son, Thomas into partnership.^[2]

The firm's first big order came in 1903, to supply the bricks to build the School of Mines and Industries (now the University of South Australia) on North Terrace in the city of Adelaide. Hallett used his prosperity to expand the business, acquiring seven other brickyards in the suburbs of Brompton and Hindmarsh over the next few years, and in 1910 formed the company J. Hallett & Son Ltd.

Expansion continued. The company acquired the Federal brickworks in Thebarton and installed brickmaking machinery. Two Hoffman kilns were built at new highly-mechanised yards at Thebarton and Welland, and smaller plants were bought or built at Gawler, Blackwood, Magill, and Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula.^[3] By the time of Job's death, the company's main plants were located in Thebarton, Welland and Port Lincoln. It was the largest brickmaking business in South Australia, employing 170 men.^[2] Halletts retained their identity until the 1960s when the company was absorbed by the Nubrik Hallett group (now Austral Bricks) and moved their main operations to Golden Grove. The company's Welland brickworks was demolished in 1993. The Hoffman kiln at Thebarton survives as part of the Brickworks Market.

Job Hallett was an active Freemason and was at one stage a councillor for the City of Hindmarsh. He was married to Caroline Jane Hallett and left five sons Thomas, Jack, Geoffrey, Charles ("Charlie") and George, one daughter, Nancy (Mrs N.L. Sellars), and ten grandchildren.^[4][2]

Thomas Hallett[link]

Thomas Hallett was councillor for the ward of Brompton in the Hindmarsh Municipal council from 1907 to 1910 or perhaps later.^{[citation needed]}

He was chairman of directors of Littlehampton Brick Co. Ltd. from at least 1945,^[5] (This factory is among the oldest in South Australia, but apart from its refractory bricks, not a large supplier due to the distance from Littlehampton to Adelaide.)^{[citation needed]} Note that Mr. H. G. Willcox, a son of Charles Willcox, was a director of this company.^[5]

References[link]

1. ^ Nick Gould Family History accessed 16 February 2011
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Death of Mr Job Hallett The Advertiser 1 November 1940 p.19 accessed 15 February 2011
3. ^ Anthony Moore, Brickmakers in South Australia 1836-1936, Department of Architecture (Working Paper No. 8), University of Adelaide, 1981, pp. 135-144
4. ^ Death Notices The Advertiser 28 October 1940 p.8 accessed 15 February 2011
5. ^ ^{a b} Littlehampton Brick Ltd. The Advertiser Friday 7 September 1945 p.2 accessed 17 February 2011

Further reading[link]

West Torrens Historical Society:

• http://webcat.wtcc.sa.gov.au/hipres/images/lhimages/t875-1.jpg
• http://webcat.wtcc.sa.gov.au/hipres/images/lhimages/t875-1a.jpg
• http://webcat.wtcc.sa.gov.au/hipres/images/lhimages/t875-1b.jpg
• http://webcat.wtcc.sa.gov.au/hipres/images/lhimages/t875-1c.jpg
• http://webcat.wtcc.sa.gov.au/hipres/images/lhimages/t875-1d.jpg
• http://webcat.wtcc.sa.gov.au/hipres/images/lhimages/t875-1e.jpg
• http://webcat.wtcc.sa.gov.au/hipres/images/lhimages/t875-2.jpg
• http://webcat.wtcc.sa.gov.au/hipres/images/lhimages/t875-2a.jpg

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2008)

The Marwar Hall at Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur, India

Hall in religious buildings : prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, in Kairouan, Tunisia

A hallway at the Royal York Hotel

Hallway during and after construction in an apartment building in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

An outdoor passageway near the Alamo

In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, so that today the hall of a house is the space inside the front door through which the rooms are reached....

This:

• Deriving from the above, a hall is often the term used to designate a British or Irish country house.
• In later medieval Europe, the main room of a castle or manor house was the great hall.
• Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a passage, corridor, or hallway.
• In a medieval building, the hall was where the fire was kept. With time, its functions as dormitory, kitchen, parlour and so on were divided off to separate rooms or, in the case of the kitchen, a separate building.

On the same principle:

• Many buildings at colleges and universities are formally titled "_______ Hall", typically being named after the person who endowed it, for example, King's Hall, Cambridge. Others, such as Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, commemorate respected people. Between these in age, Nassau Hall at Princeton University began as the single building of the then college. In medieval origin, these were the halls in which the members of the university lived together during term time. In many cases, some aspect of this community remains.
• At colleges in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Hall is the dining hall for students, with High Table at one end for fellows. Typically, at "Formal Hall", gowns are worn for dinner during the evening, whereas for "informal Hall" they are not.
• Many Livery Companies (e.g., in the City of London) have a Hall that is their headquarters and meeting place.

Similarly:

• A hall is also a building consisting largely of a principal room, that is rented out for meetings and social affairs. It may be privately or government-owned, such as a function hall owned by one company used for weddings and cotillions (organized and run by the same company on a contractual basis) or a community hall available for rent to anyone.
• In religious architecture, as in Islamic architecture, the prayer hall is a large room dedicated to the practice of the worship.^[1] (example : the prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia)

Following a line of similar development:

• In office buildings and larger buildings (theatres, cinemas etc.), the entrance hall is generally known as the foyer (the French for fire-place). The atrium, a name sometimes used in public buildings for the entrance hall, was the central courtyard of a Roman house.

Firehall (London, Ontario) in 1923

References[link]

1. ^ Stanford Anderson and Colin St. John Wilson, The Oxford companion to architecture, Volume 1, Oxford University Press, 2009, page 477

Look up Hall or hall in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Michael Shermer
Shermer on the Skeptics Society Geology Tour on June 8, 2007.
Born	Michael Brant Shermer (1954-09-08) September 8, 1954 (age 57) Glendale, California, USA
Residence	Altadena, California, USA
Occupation	Academic historian of science and editor
Title	Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic and Adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University
Religion	None (Agnostic)
Website
www.michaelshermer.com

Michael Brant Shermer, PhD (born September 8, 1954 in Glendale, California, USA) is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic,^[1] which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members.^[2] Shermer also engages in debates on topics pertaining to pseudoscience and religion in which he promulgates the need for scientific skepticism.

Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family (now ABC Family) television series Exploring the Unknown. Since April 2001, he has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column. Shermer states he was once a fundamentalist Christian, but converted from a belief in God during his graduate studies, and has described himself as an agnostic,^[3] nontheist,^[4][5] atheist^[6][7] and advocate for humanist philosophy^[8] as well as the science of morality.^[9] He has expressed reservations about such labels, however, as he sees them being used in the service of "pigeonholing", and prefers to simply be called a skeptic.^[6]

Early life, education and career[link]

Shermer was born on September 8, 1954,^[10] and raised in Southern California.^[11] His parents divorced when he was four.^[10] Both of his parents remarried, his mother to a man with three children, who became Shermer's stepsiblings, and his father to a woman with whom he had two daughters, Shermer's half-sisters. His father would later die of a heart attack in 1986, and his mother of brain cancer in 2000.^[12]

Although Shermer went to Sunday school, he says that neither his biological nor stepparents or siblings were religious nor non-religious, as they did not hold much discussion on the topic, and did not attend church nor pray together. In 1971, at the beginning of his senior year in high school, Shermer announced he was a born again Christian, which came about through the influence of his best friend, George. For the next seven years he would evangelize door-to-door as part of his profoundly held beliefs.^[12]

He graduated from Crescenta Valley High School in 1972. He began his undergraduate studies at Pepperdine University, initially majoring in Christian theology, later switching to psychology.^[11] He completed his bachelor's degree in psychology/biology at Pepperdine in 1976.^[13]

Shermer's graduate studies in experimental psychology at California State University, Fullerton, led to many after-class discussions with professors Bayard Brattstrom and Meg White. These,^[14] along with his studies in ethology and cultural anthropology, led to him to question his religious beliefs, and by mid-way through his graduate training, he removed the Christian ichthys that he had been wearing around his neck.^[12][14] Shermer completed his master's degree from California State University in experimental psychology in 1978.^[13]

Shermer began competitive bicycling in 1979, and spent a decade in the sport. During the course of his cycling, Shermer worked with cycling technologists in developing better products for the sport. During his association with Bell Helmets, a bicycle-race sponsor, Shermer advised them on design issues regarding their development of expanded-polystyrene for use in cycling helmets, which would absorb impact far better than the old leather "hairnet" helmets used by bicyclists for decades. Shermer advised them that if their helmets looked too much like motorcycle helmets, in which polystyrene was already being used, and not like the old hairnet helmets, that no serious cyclists or amateur would use them. This suggestion led to their first model, the V1 Pro, which looked like a black leather hairnet, but functioned on the inside like a motorcycle helmet. In 1982, Shermer worked with Dr. Wayman Spence, whose small supply company, Spenco Medical, adapted the gel technology Spence developed for bedridden patients with pressure sores into cycling gloves and saddles to alleviate the carpal tunnel syndrome and saddle sores suffered by cyclists.^[15]

During the decade in which he raced long distances, he helped to found the 3,000-mile nonstop transcontinental bicycle Race Across America (along with Lon Haldeman and John Marino), in which he competed five times (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989), was assistant race director six years, and executive race director seven years.^[16] An acute medical condition is named for him: "Shermer's neck" is pain in and extreme weakness of the neck muscles found among long-distance bicyclists. Shermer suffered the condition during the 1983 Race Across America.^[17] Shermer's embrace of scientific skepticism crystallized during his time as a cyclist, explaining, "I became a skeptic on Saturday, August 6, 1983, on the long climbing road to Loveland Pass, Colorado"^[18] after months of training under the guidance of a "nutritionist" with an unaccredited Ph.D. After years of practicing acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, negative ions, rolfing, pyramid power, fundamentalist Christianity, and "a host of weird things" (with the exception of drugs) to improve his life and training, Shermer stopped rationalizing the failure of these practices.^[19] Shermer would later produce several documentaries on cycling.^[16]

Shermer earned his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University in history of science in 1991 (with his dissertation titled "Heretic-Scientist: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Evolution of Man: A Study on the Nature of Historical Change").^[13] Shermer later based a full-length, 2002 book on his dissertation: In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History.^[20]

Before starting the Skeptics Society, Shermer was a professor of the history of science at Occidental College, California. Since 2007, Shermer has been an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University.^[13][21][22]

Skeptics Society and Caltech Lecture Series[link]

In 1992 Shermer started the Skeptics Society, which produces Skeptic magazine and currently has over 55,000 members.^[23] In addition, the group organizes the Caltech Lecture Series which offers speakers on a wide range of topics relating to science, psychology, social issues, religion/atheism, skepticism, etc. Past speakers include Stephen Jay Gould, Jared Diamond, Donald Johanson, Julia Sweeney, Richard Dawkins, Philip Zimbardo, Steven Pinker, Carol Tavris, David Baltimore, Lisa Randall, Daniel Dennett, Tim Flannery, Lawrence Krauss, Michio Kaku, Susan Blackmore, Christof Koch, Alison Gopnik, Ursula Goodenough, Edward Tufte, Bjorn Lomborg, Sam Harris, Jeff Schweitzer and many others. The lectures occur on Sunday afternoons, and are open to the public for a nominal fee.^[24]

Published works[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer, 2008.

Shermer is the author of several books that attempt to explain the ubiquity of irrational or poorly substantiated beliefs, including UFOs, Bigfoot, and paranormal claims. In 1997 he wrote Why People Believe Weird Things, which explores a variety of "weird" ideas and groups (including cults), in the tradition of the skeptical writings of Martin Gardner. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2002. From the Introduction:

So we are left with the legacy of two types of thinking errors: Type 1 Error: believing a falsehood and Type 2 Error: rejecting a truth. ... Believers in UFOs, alien abductions, ESP, and psychic phenomena have committed a Type 1 Error in thinking: they are believing a falsehood. ... It's not that these folks are ignorant or uninformed; they are intelligent but misinformed. Their thinking has gone wrong.

— Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, 1997, 2002, Introduction

In How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science, Shermer explored the psychology behind the belief in God. In its introduction Shermer wrote "Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population, believed in God. Not only is God not dead as Nietzsche proclaimed, but he has never been more alive."

In early 2002, Shermer's Scientific American column introduced Shermer's Last Law, the notion that "any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God." Shermer's Last Law is a spin on Clarke's Third Law.

In 2002, Shermer and Alex Grobman wrote their book Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? which examined and refuted the Holocaust denial movement. This book recounts meeting various denialists and concludes that free speech is the best way to deal with pseudohistory.

Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown was released in 2005. Then his 2006 book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design, marshals point-by-point arguments supporting evolution, sharply criticizing Intelligent Design. This book also argues that science cannot invalidate religion, and that Christians and conservatives can and should accept evolution.

In June 2006, Shermer, who formerly expressed skepticism regarding the mainstream scientific view on global warming, wrote that, in view of the accumulation of evidence, the position of denying global warming is no longer tenable.^[25]

The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics was released in 2007. In it Shermer reports on the findings of multiple behavioral and biochemical studies that address evolutionary explanations for modern behavior.

In February 2009, Shermer published The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History, a 25-hour audio lecture.

In May 2011, Shermer published The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.

Media appearances and lectures[link]

Shermer has appeared on several television shows and documentaries. In addition, he appears regularly at conferences and other speaking engagements.^{[citation needed]}

Shermer appeared as a guest on Donahue in 1994 to respond to Bradley Smith's and David Cole's Holocaust denial claims, and in 1995 on The Oprah Winfrey Show to challenge Rosemary Altea's psychic claims. Shermer made a guest appearance in a 2004 episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!, in which he argued that events in the Bible constitute "mythic storytelling," rather than events described literally. His stance was supported by the show's hosts, who have expressed their own atheism. The episode in question, The Bible: Fact or Fiction?, sought to debunk the notion that the Bible is an empirically reliable historical record. Opposing Shermer was Paul Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University.^[26]

Shermer made several appearances on NBC's daytime paranormal-themed show The Other Side in 1994 and 1995. After getting to know that show's producers, he made a formal pitch to their production company for his own skepticism-oriented reality show whose aim would be to present points of view of both believers and skeptics. His proposals were not fruitful, but several years later, one of the executives of that company went to work for the then-newly formed Fox Family Channel, and impressed with Shermer's show treatment, requested he pitch it to the network. The network picked up the series, Exploring the Unknown, of which Shermer became a producer and cohost. The series, which was budgeted at approximately $200,000USD per episode, was viewed by Shermer as a direct extension of the work done at the Skeptics Society and Skeptic magazine, and would enable Shermer to reach more people. The equivocal title was chosen so as to not tip off guests or viewers as to the skeptical nature of the show.^[27] Various segments from Exploring the Unknown can be found on Shermer's YouTube channel.^[28]

Shermer has been a speaker at all three Beyond Belief events from 2006 to 2008. He also spoke at the 2006 TED Conference on "Why people believe strange things."^[29]

Shermer is a frequent guest on Skepticality, the official podcast of Skeptic.^{[citation needed]}

On August 21, 2010, Dr. Shermer was honored with an award recognizing his contributions in the skeptical field, from The IIG during its 10th Anniversary Gala.^[30]

[edit] Exploring the Unknown

The following are segments Shermer's 1999 Fox Family TV series, Exploring the Unknown.

• "Michael Shermer and Out of Body Experiences"^[31]
• "Michael Shermer on How to Fake UFO Photographs"^[32]
• "Michael Shermer on Spoonbending"^[33]
• "Michael Shermer Firewalking Across Hot Coals"^[34]
• "Michael Shermer Tests the Polygraph and Lie Detection, Part 1"^[35]
• "Michael Shermer Tests the Polygraph and Lie Detection, Part 2"^[36]
• "Michael Shermer Learns the Art of Con Games, Part 1"^[37]
• "Michael Shermer Learns the Art of Con Games, Part 2"^[38]
• "Michael Shermer Decodes the Bible Code"^[39]
• "Michael Shermer Explores Graphology/Handwriting Analysis, Part 1"^[40]
• "Michael Shermer Explores Graphology/Handwriting Analysis, Part 2"^[41]
• "Michael Shermer Remote Viewing Experiment Part 1"^[42]
• "Michael Shermer Remote Viewing Experiment Part 2"^[43]

Other television and film appearances[link]

• August 1983 news segment on Shermer bicycling in Race Across America^[44]
• Unsolved Mysteries, James Van Praagh segment, 1994
• The Phil Donahue Show, 1994
• "The Power of Belief", ABC News, 1998
• Politically Incorrect, December 22, 2000
• 20/20, December 5, 2003
• Dennis Miller, May 19 and May 20, 2004
• "The Bible: Fact or Fiction?", Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, 2004^[26]
• The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis, 2004
• The Eyes of Nye on "Pseudoscience", 2005
• The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, October 4, 2006
• "Doomsday 2012", Decoding the Past, 2007
• Larry King Live, July 13, 2007 and January 24, 2008
• Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, 2008
• "Does God Have a Future?", Nightline, ABC, March 23, 2010^[45]
• "What Were You Thinking?", Dateline NBC, April 25, 2010^[46]
• "Did You See That?", Dateline NBC, July 16, 2010^[47]
• The Colbert Report, July 11, 2011
• Paranormal Challenge, Linda Vista Hospital, August 26, 2011

Radio and Web appearances[link]

• Coast to Coast AM, September 1, 2007
• Mr. Deity and the Skeptic YouTube, September 15, 2009^[48]
• Skepticality^{[episode needed]}
• Coast to Coast AM, May 21, 2011 ^[49]
• KGO May 25, 2011

Personal life[link]

Shermer lives in Altadena, California, on the edge of a cliff in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains atop which Mount Wilson stands.^[50]

Politically, Shermer has described himself as a libertarian.^[51]

List of books by Shermer[link]

• Sport Cycling: A Guide to Training, Racing, and Endurance 1985 ISBN 0-8092-5244-9
• Cycling: Endurance and Speed (Sportsperformance) 1987 ISBN 0-8092-4775-5
• Teach Your Child Science 1989 ISBN 0-929923-08-1
• Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. (1997, 2nd Revision edition 2002) ISBN 0-8050-7089-3
• Teach Your Child Math and Mathemagics 1999 ISBN 0-7373-0134-1
• The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense 2001 ISBN 0-19-514326-4
• How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science 2001 ISBN 0-613-35413-3
• The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience (ed.) 2002 ISBN 1-57607-653-9
• Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? 2002 ISBN 0-520-23469-3
• In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History 2002 ISBN 0-19-514830-4
• The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule 2004 ISBN 0-8050-7520-8
• Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown 2005 ISBN 0-8050-7708-1
• Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks 2006 ISBN 978-0-307-33840-2
• Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design 2006 ISBN 978-0-8050-8121-3
• The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics 2007 ISBN 978-0-8050-7832-9
• The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History 2009 audio lecture
• The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths 2011 ISBN 978-0-8050-9125-0

[edit] List of Skeptic columns published in Scientific American

See also[link]

• James Randi

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Michael Shermer on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Official website
• Official YouTube Channel
• Skeptic.com – Official website of The Skeptics Society
• Skepticality – Official podcast of The Skeptics Society
• Michael Shermer at the Internet Movie Database

Media[link]

• Multimedia files featuring Michael Shermer
• “Michael Shermer's Baloney Detection Kit”, Richard Dawkins Foundation, YouTube Channel, June 22, 2009
• On strange beliefs, Ted Talks, February 2006
• The pattern behind self-deception, TED Talks, February 2010
• Real Detroit Weekly Interview, February 7, 2007
• Skeptiko Audio Interview: Darwin, Evolution and Creativity, February 14, 2007
• Is Christianity Good for the World? – Debate with Dinesh D'Souza at the Oregon State University Socratic Club on October 15, 2007, part 1
• Is Christianity Good for the World? – Debate with Dinesh D'Souza at the Oregon State University Socratic Club on October 15, 2007, part 2
• Michael Shermer interviewed about The Mind of the Market, The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour
• Video of an hour-long interview/discussion with Shermer by John Horgan on Bloggingheads.tv
• “Michael Shermer debates Jonathan Wells on Evolution v. Intelligent Design” at the Cato Institute, Part 1 of 7, YouTube, taped October 12, 2006, posted May 11, 2008
• “Michael Shermer visits the Kentucky Creation Museum", YouTube, March 15, 2009
• “The Nightline Face-Off: Does God Have a Future? (1 of 12)”, ABC News.com/YouTube, Taped March 14, 2010, Posted May 23, 2010
• Michael Shermer debates John Lennox on God on YouTube (October 29, 2008)
• "Michael Shermer visits Sydney", Maynard, September 28, 2011

David Ignatius
Born	(1950-05-26) May 26, 1950 (age 62) Cambridge, Massachusetts
Occupation	Novelist, Journalist, Analyst
Language	English
Nationality	American
Education	St. Albans School Harvard College Kings College, Cambridge
Genres	Suspense, Espionage fiction, Thriller
Notable work(s)	Body of Lies, Agents of Innocence, The Increment
Spouse(s)	Dr. Eve Thornberg Ignatius

David R. Ignatius (May 26, 1950), is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. He also co-hosts PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues at Washingtonpost.com, with Newsweek 's Fareed Zakaria. He has written eight novels, including Body of Lies, which director Ridley Scott adapted into a film. He has received numerous honors, including the Legion of Honor from the French Republic, the Urbino World Press Award from the Italian Republic, and a lifetime achievement award from the International Committee for Foreign Journalism.

Personal life[link]

Ignatius was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[1] His parents are Nancy Sharpless (née Weiser) and Paul Robert Ignatius, a former Secretary of the Navy (1967–69), president of The Washington Post, and former president of the Air Transport Association.^[2][3] He is of Armenian descent on his father's side, with ancestors from Harput, Elazığ, Turkey;^[4][5] his mother, a descendant of Puritan minister Cotton Mather, is of German and English descent.^[6]

Ignatius was raised in Washington, D.C., where he attended St. Albans School. He then attended Harvard College, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1973. Ignatius was awarded a Frank Knox Fellowship from Harvard University and studied at Kings College, Cambridge University, where he received a diploma in economics.^[7]

He is married to Dr. Eve Thornberg Ignatius, with whom he has three daughters.^[7]

Career[link]

Journalism[link]

After completing his education, Ignatius was an editor at the Washington Monthly before moving to the Wall Street Journal, where he spent 10 years as a reporter. At the Journal, Ignatius first covered the steel industry in Pittsburgh. He then moved to Washington where he covered the Justice Department, the CIA, and the Senate. Ignatius was the Journal’s Middle East correspondent between 1980 and 1983, during which time he covered the wars in Lebanon and Iraq. He returned to Washington in 1984, becoming the Journal's chief diplomatic correspondent. In 1985 he received the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting.

In 1986, Ignatius left the Journal for the Washington Post. From 1986 to 1990, he was the editor of the “Outlook” section of the Post . From 1990 to 1992 he was the paper’s foreign editor, and oversaw the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. From 1993 to 1999, he served as the Post’s assistant managing editor in charge of business news. In 1999, he began writing a twice-weekly column in the Post on global politics, economics and international affairs.

In 2000, he became the executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He returned to the Post in 2002 when the Post sold its interest in the Herald Tribune. Ignatius continued to write his column once a week during his tenure at the Herald Tribune, resuming twice-weekly columns after his return to the Post. His column is syndicated worldwide by The Washington Post Writers Group. The column won the 2000 Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary and a 2004 Edward Weintal Prize. In writing his column, Ignatius frequently travels to the Middle East and interviews leaders such as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese military organization Hezbollah.

Ignatius’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, Talk Magazine and The Washington Monthly.

Ignatius's coverage of the CIA has been criticized as being defensive and overly positive. Melvin A. Goodman, a 42-year CIA veteran, Johns Hopkins professor, and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy has called Ignatius "the mainstream media’s apologist for the Central Intelligence Agency," citing^[8][9] as examples Ignatius's criticism of the Obama administration for investigating the CIA's role in the use of torture in interrogations during the Iraq War,^[10] and his charitable defense of the agency's motivations for outsourcing such activities to private contractors.^[10] Columnist Glenn Greenwald has levied similar criticism against Ignatius^[11] and has dubbed him "the CIA's spokesman at The Washington Post".^[12]

On a number of occasions, however, Ignatius criticized the CIA and the U.S. government's approach on intelligence.^[13] He was also critical of the Bush administration's torture policies.^[14]

Novels[link]

In addition to his career as a journalist, Ignatius is also a successful novelist. He has written seven novels in the suspense/espionage fiction genre, which draw on his experience and interest in foreign affairs and his knowledge of intelligence operations. Reviewers have compared Ignatius to classic spy novelists such as Graham Greene. Ignatius’s novels have also been praised for their realism; his first novel, Agents of Innocence, was at one point described by the CIA on its website as "a novel but not fiction."^[15] His 1999 novel The Sun King, a re-working of The Great Gatsby set in late-20th-century Washington, is his only departure from the espionage genre.^{[citation needed]}

His 2007 novel Body of Lies was adapted into a film by director Ridley Scott. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has acquired the rights to Ignatius’s seventh novel, The Increment.^{[citation needed]}

BloodMoney, a spy thriller set in Pakistan, is his latest novel.

Other[link]

In 2006, he wrote a foreword to the American edition of Moazzam Begg’s Enemy Combatant, a book about the author’s experiences as a detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In 2008, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, and Ignatius published America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy, a book that collected conversations, moderated by Ignatius, between Brzezinski and Scowcroft. Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times named it one of the ten best books of 2008.^[16]

Ignatius has been trustee of the German Marshall Fund since 2000. He is a member of the Council of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London and has been a director of its U.S. affiliate since 2006. He has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1984. From 1984 to 1990, he was a member of the Governing Board of St. Albans School.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011, Ignatius held a contest for Washington Post readers to write a spy novel. Ignatius wrote the first chapter and challenged fans to continue the story. Over eight weeks, readers sent in their versions of what befalls CIA agents Alex Kassem and Sarah Mancini and voted for their favorite entries. Ignatius chose the winning entry for each round, resulting in a six-chapter Web serial. Winners of the subsequent chapters included: Chapter 2 "Sweets for the Sweet" by Colin Flaherty; Chapter 3: "Abu Talib" by Jill Borak; Chapter 4. "Go Hard or Go Home" by Vineet Daga; Chapter 5: "Inside Out" by Colin Flaherty; and Chapter 6: "Onward!" by Gina 'Miel' Ard.^[17]

Controversy[link]

2009 Davos incident[link]

At the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ignatius moderated a discussion including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Israeli President Shimon Peres, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. As the December '08-January '09 conflict in Gaza was still fresh in memory, the tone of the discussion was lively.^[18] Ignatius gave Erdoğan 12 minutes to speak, and gave the Israeli President the final 25 minutes to respond.^[18] Erdoğan objected to Peres' tone and raised voice during the Israeli President's impassioned defense of his nation's actions. Ignatius gave Erdoğan a minute to respond, and when Erdoğan went over his allocated minute, Ignatius repeatedly cut the Turkish Prime Minister off, telling him and the audience that they were out of time and that they had to get to a dinner.^[19] Erdoğan seemed visibly frustrated as he said to the President of Israel, "When it comes to killing, you know well how to kill."^[18] Ignatius put his arm on Erdoğan's shoulder and kept telling him that his time was up. Erdoğan then gathered his papers and said, "I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak."^[19] Erdoğan then got up from his chair and walked off the stage while the other discussion panelists were still seated, but Amr Moussa stood up to shake his hand as he left. At that point the discussion ended.

Five minutes after the discussion ended, Peres called Erdoğan to apologize for any misunderstanding.^[18] Erdoğan later told reporters that he was not upset with Peres, rather he was upset with Ignatius for failing to moderate the discussion impartially, by giving Peres 25 minutes to speak while earlier giving Erdoğan only 12 minutes and then just another minute to respond to Peres.^[18] Erdoğan returned to Istanbul a day later to a hero's welcome at the airport.^[20]

Writing about the incident, Ignatius said that he found himself “in the middle of a fight where there was no longer a middle.” Because the Israel-Palestinian conflict provokes such heated emotions on both sides of the debate, Ignatius concluded, it was impossible for anyone to be seen as an impartial mediator. Ignatius wrote that his experience elucidated a larger truth about failure of the United States’ attempt to serve as an impartial mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “American leaders must give up the notion that they can transform the Middle East and its culture through military force,” Ignatius wrote, and instead “get out of the elusive middle, step across the threshold of anger, and sit down and talk” with the Middle Eastern leaders.^[21]

Prosecution of Mubarak[link]

In May 2011, Ignatius said: "What’s needed in Egypt and the other Arab countries that have suffered from dictatorship is a sense that the rule of law will prevail, with safeguards against vindictive prosecution".^[22]

Works[link]

• Agents of Innocence: A Novel. W. W. Norton & Company. 1987. ISBN 0-393-02486-5. 
• Siro. Farrar Straus Giroux. 1991. ISBN 0-374-26506-2. 
• The Bank of Fear. Avon Books (Mm). 1995. ISBN 0-380-72280-1. 
• A Firing Offense. Random House Value Publishing. 1999. ISBN 0-517-36839-0. 
• The Sun King. Random House Value Publishing. 1999. ISBN 0-8129-9243-1. 
• Body of Lies: A Novel. W. W. Norton & Company. 2008. ISBN 0-393-33158-X. 
• America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy. Basic Books; First Trade Paper Edition edition. 2009. ISBN 0-465-01801-7. 
• The Increment: A Novel. W. W. Norton & Company. 2010. ISBN 0-393-33831-2. 
• Bloodmoney: A Novel of Espionage. W. W. Norton & Company. 2011. ISBN 978-0-393-07811-4. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile at The Washington Post Writers Group
• Column archive at The Washington Post
• Column archive at The Daily Star
• Column archive at The Harvard Crimson
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• David Ignatius on Charlie Rose
• David Ignatius at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about David Ignatius in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Video: David Ignatius discusses how he helped Leonardo DiCaprio prepare for the Body of Lies film.
• Video (and audio) of debate/discussion with David Ignatius at Bloggingheads.tv

LL Cool J
LL Cool J in 2010.
Background information
Birth name	James Todd Smith
Also known as	L.L. Cool J, Ladies Love Cool James, Luv, Cool J, LL, The G.O.A.T., Jack the Ripper, Mr. Smith, Uncle LL
Born	(1968-01-14) January 14, 1968 (age 44) Bay Shore, New York, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, Actor
Instruments	Vocals, turntables
Years active	1984–present
Labels	Def Jam, Violator
Associated acts	Z-Trip, Dr. Dre, L.A. Posse, Keith Murray, Timbaland, G-Unit, D12, Young MC, DMX, 50 Cent, Method Man
Website	llcoolj.defjam.com

James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), better known as LL Cool J (an abbreviation for Ladies Love Cool James^[1]), is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor from Bay Shore, New York. He is known for romantic ballads such as "I Need Love", "Around the Way Girl" and "Hey Lover" as well as pioneering hip-hop such as "I Can't Live Without My Radio", "I'm Bad", "The Boomin' System", and "Mama Said Knock You Out". He has released thirteen studio albums and two greatest hits compilations, including 2008's Exit 13, the last for his record deal with Def Jam Recordings. He has also appeared in numerous films, and currently stars as NCIS Special Agent Sam Hanna on the CBS crime drama television series NCIS: Los Angeles.

As he grew older, Smith found a way to escape the effects of his abuse, and his bullying attitude: hip-hop music. He fell in love with it at the age of nine, and by 11 he was writing lyrics and making his own songs with some DJ equipment his grandmother gave him to stop him riding motorcycles or doing karate.^[2] Before too long, LL was an established member of the Hip-Hop community in his area. He gained notoriety through his many rap battles against well-established MCs, including the battle against Chicken and Porn that rocketed him to fame.^[3]

Influenced by Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, funk legend Rick James, Kurtis Blow, and pioneers Run-DMC, LL started to create his own rap style.

Music career[link]

[edit] Radio (1985)

Radio was released to critical acclaim, both for production innovation and LL's powerful rap.^[4] "I Can't Live Without My Radio" and "Rock the Bells" were singles that helped the album go platinum with 1,500,000 sales.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Bigger and Deffer (1987)

In 1987, he released Bigger and Deffer which included "I Need Love". Also featured on the album was "Go Cut Creator Go", which pays homage to the DJ. The album sold about 2,300,000 copies.^{[citation needed]} In 1998, The Source Magazine named it as one of the top 100 albums ever.^[5] "I Need Love" was the second single from LL Cool J's second album, Bigger and Deffer. The song, released in the fall of 1987, reached No. 1 on the R&B/Hip Hop charts, No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart. The single won a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap – Single in 1987.^[2] "I Need Love" was ranked No. 13 on the 100 Greatest Rap Songs.^[3]

[edit] Walking with a Panther (1989)

LL Cool J's third album was 1989's Walking with a Panther. The album featured the singles "Going Back to Cali", "I'm That Type of Guy", "Jingling Baby", and "Big Ole Butt" and went platinum with 1,100,000 sales.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Mama Said Knock You Out (1990)

As an answer to people saying that his music had become too soft due to the inclusion of several ballads on his previous album, LL Cool J released Mama Said Knock You Out. The album was fully produced by Juice Crew producer Marley Marl, one of the premier producers in the hip-hop industry at the time. Mama Said Knock You Out contained three singles, "The Boomin' System", "Around the Way Girl", and the title track, which he performed during an episode of MTV Unplugged. It was also featured in the film The Hard Way. The album went on to sell over 2,700,000 copies.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 14 Shots to the Dome (1993)

After acting in The Hard Way and Toys, LL Cool J released 14 Shots to the Dome. The album had three singles ("How I'm Comin'", "Back Seat" and the strangely titled "Pink Cookies in a Plastic Bag Getting Crushed by Buildings") and guest-featured labelmates Lords of the Underground on "NFA-No Frontin' Allowed". The album went gold.

[edit] Mr. Smith (1995)

LL Cool J starred in In the House, an NBC sitcom, before releasing Mr. Smith (1995), which went on to sell over two million copies. Its singles included "Doin' It" (that samples "My Jamaican Guy" by Grace Jones) and "Loungin" (that samples "Who Do You Love?" by Bernard Wright). Another of the album's singles, "Hey Lover", featured Boyz II Men sampling Michael Jackson's "The Lady in My Life," which eventually became one of the first hip hop music videos to air on VH1^{[citation needed]}. The song also earned him a Grammy Award. Yet another single from the album, "I Shot Ya Remix", included vocal work by Foxy Brown.

[edit] Phenomenon (1997)

In 1997, he released the album Phenomenon. The singles included "Phenomenon" and "Father". The official second single from Phenomenon was "4, 3, 2, 1," which featured Method Man, Redman & Master P and introduced DMX and Canibus.

[edit] G.O.A.T. (2000)

In 2000, LL Cool J released the album G.O.A.T., which stood for the "greatest of all time." It debuted at number one on the Billboard album charts,^[6] and went platinum. LL Cool J thanked Canibus in the liner notes of the album, "for the inspiration".

[edit] 10 (2002)

LL Cool J's next album 10 from 2002, was his 9th studio (10th overall including his greatest hits compilation All World), and included the singles "Paradise" (featuring Amerie), "Luv U Better", produced by The Neptunes and the 2003 Jennifer Lopez duet, "All I Have". The album reached platinum status.

[edit] The DEFinition (2004)

LL Cool J's 10th album The DEFinition was released on August 31, 2004. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard charts. Production came from Timbaland, 7 Aurelius, R. Kelly, and others. The lead single was the Timbaland-produced "Headsprung," which peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single was the 7 Aurelius – produced, "Hush," which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 10.

[edit] Todd Smith (2006)

LL Cool J's 11th album, Todd Smith, was released on April 11, 2006. It includes collaborations with 112, Ginuwine, Juelz Santana, Teairra Mari and Freeway. The first single was the Jermaine Dupri produced "Control Myself" featuring Jennifer Lopez. They shot the video for "Control Myself" on January 2, 2006 at Sony Studios, New York. The second video, directed by Hype Williams, was "Freeze" featuring Lyfe Jennings.

[edit] Exit 13 (2008)

LL Cool J performing in Wilmington, Delaware in August 2008.

LL Cool J in concert at the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix, Arizona.

In July 2006, LL Cool J announced details about his final album with Def Jam recordings, the only label he has ever been signed to. The album is titled Exit 13. The album was originally scheduled to be executively produced by fellow Queens rapper 50 Cent.^[7] Exit 13 was originally slated for a fall 2006 release, however, after a 2 year delay, it was released September 9, 2008 without 50 Cent as the executive producer. Tracks that the two worked on were leaked to the Internet and some of the tracks produced with 50 made it to Exit 13.

LL Cool J partnered with DJ Kay Slay to release a mixtape called "The Return of the G.O.A.T.". It was the first mixtape of his 24 year career and includes freestyling by LL Cool J in addition to other rappers giving their rendition of his songs. A track entitled "Hi Haterz" was leaked onto the internet on June 1, 2008. The song contains LL Cool J rapping over the instrumental to Maino's "Hi Hater". He toured with Janet Jackson on her Rock Witchu tour, only playing in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, and Kansas City.

[edit] NCIS: No Crew Is Superior (2009)

In September 2009, LL Cool J released a song about the NCIS TV series. It is a single and is available on iTunes. The new track is based on his experiences playing special agent Sam Hanna. "This song is the musical interpretation of what I felt after meeting with NCIS agents, experienced Marines and Navy SEALs," LL Cool J said. "It represents the collective energy in the room. I was so inspired I wrote the song on set."^[8]

[edit] Touring and Collaborations (present)

In March 2011 at South by Southwest, LL Cool J was revealed to be Z-Trip's special guest at the Red Bull Thre3Style showcase. This marked the beginning of a creative collaboration between the rap and DJ superstars. The two took part in an interview with Carson Daly where they discussed their partnership^[9]. Both artists have promised future collaborations down the road, with LL Cool J calling the duo "organic"^[10] One early track to feature LL's talents was Z-Trip's remix of British rock act Kasabian's single "Days Are Forgotten", which was named by influential DJ Zane Lowe as his "Hottest Record In The World"^[11] and received a favorable reception in both Belgium and the United Kingdom. In January 2012, the pair released the track "Super Baller" as a free download to celebrate the New York Giants Super Bowl victory. The two have been touring together since 2011, with future dates planned through 2012 and beyond.

Acting career[link]

While LL Cool J first appeared as a rapper in the movie Krush Groove (performing "I Can't Live Without My Radio"), his first acting part was a small role in a high school football movie called Wildcats. He continued to pursue acting, landing the role of Captain Patrick Zevo in the 1992 film Toys.^[12] In 1995, when he landed his own television sitcom, In the House. He starred as an ex-Oakland Raiders running back who finds himself in financial difficulties and is forced to rent part of his home out to a single mother and her two children.

In 1998 he had a role in the film Halloween H20. In 1999's Deep Blue Sea, he played the wise-cracking cook on a top-secret sea base besieged by genetically enhanced sharks. He received rave review for his role as Dwayne Gittens, an underworld boss, nicknamed "God" in In Too Deep. Later that year, he had a starring role in Any Given Sunday, in which he played Julian Washington, the talented but selfish running back on the dysfunctional Miami Sharks. Since then, LL Cool J has appeared in a variety of films, such as the 2002 remake of Rollerball, Deliver Us from Eva, Mindhunters, and S.W.A.T..

Stuttgart/Germany 2001

In 2005, he returned to television in a guest starring role on the Fox medical drama House as a death row inmate felled by an unknown disease.

LL Cool J also appeared as Queen Latifah's love interest in the 2006 movie Last Holiday.

He also guest starred on 30 Rock in the 2007 episode "The Source Awards" as the hip hop producer Ridiculous, who Tracy Jordan fears is going to kill him.

LL Cool J appeared in Sesame Street's 39th season where he introduced the word of the day, "Unanimous", in episode 4169 (Sept. 22, 2008) and performing "The Addition Expedition" in episode 4172 (Sept. 30, 2008).

LL Cool J is currently a series regular on the CBS police procedural NCIS: Los Angeles, a spin-off of NCIS (which itself is a spin-off of the naval legal drama JAG). He portrays NCIS Special Agent Sam Hanna, an ex–Navy SEAL who is fluent in Arabic and an expert on West Asian culture. The series debuted in autumn of 2009, but the characters were introduced in an April 2009 crossover episode on the parent show.

LL Cool J appeared in a cameo role, where he is credited with being the product lead of Google's Gmail Tap, an April Fool's Day joke launched by the Gmail team, purporting to bring a Morse code keyboard to the platform.