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Donnie Brasco
Joseph Dominick Pistone (born September 17, 1939) is an American former FBI special agent who worked undercover as Donnie Brasco between September 1976 and July 1981, as part of an infiltration primarily into the Bonanno crime family under the tutelage of Anthony Mirra and later Dominick Napolitano, and to a lesser extent the Colombo crime family, two of the Five Families of the Mafia in New York City. Pistone was an FBI agent for 17 years, from 1969 until he resigned in 1986. The evidence collected by Pistone led to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions of Mafia members, and some responsible for his infiltration were also killed by other mobsters. Pistone was a pioneer in long-term undercover work. The FBI's former director, J. Edgar Hoover, who died in 1972, did not want FBI agents to work undercover because of the danger of agents becoming corrupted. Nonetheless, Pistone's work later helped convince the FBI that using undercover agents in lieu of relying exclusivel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The two-county Erie–Meadville combined statistical area, Erie metropolitan area had a population of 270,876 in 2020. Erie is about from Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, from Cleveland, and from Pittsburgh. The city was named for the Native Americans in the United States, Native American Erie people who lived in the area until the mid-17th century. Its nicknames include "Gem City", a reference to its fine natural harbor, the "Gem of the Great Lakes"; and more recently, "Flagship City", from a City marketing, local marketing effort to play up the homeport of Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship USS Niagara (1813), ''Niagara''. Manufacturing continues to play a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It has 1,832,147 residents as of 2025 across a total area of . Catanzaro is the region's capital. Calabria is the birthplace of the name of Italy, given to it by the Ancient Greeks who settled in this land starting from the 8th century BC. They established the first cities, mainly on the coast, as Greek colonisation, Greek colonies. During this period Calabria was the heart of Magna Graecia, home of key figures in history such as Pythagoras, Herodotus and Milo of Croton, Milo. In Roman times, it was part of the ''Regio III Lucania et Bruttii'', a region of Roman Italy, Augustan Italy. After the Gothic War (535–554), Gothic War, it became and remained for five centuries a Byzantine empire, Byzantine dominion, fully recove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gemology
Gemology or gemmology is the science dealing with natural and artificial gemstone materials. It is a specific interdisciplinary branch of mineralogy. Some jewellery, jewelers (and many non-jewelers) are academically trained gemologists and are qualified to identify and evaluate gems. History Rudimentary education in gemology for jewellers and gemologists began in the nineteenth century, but the first qualifications were instigated after the National Association of Goldsmiths of Great Britain (NAG) set up as an Education Committee for this purpose in 1908. The committee emerged as a distinct branch of NAG (named the Gemmological Association) in 1931, shortly after the incorporation of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). In 1938 the branch was renamed as the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, before being incorporated in 1847. The organisation is now an educational charity and accredited awarding body with its courses taught worldwide. The first US graduate of Gem-A' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backstory
A backstory, background story, background, or legend is a set of events invented for a plot, preceding and leading up to that plot. In acting, it is the history of the character before the drama begins, and is created during the actor's preparation. Usage As a literary device, backstory is often employed to lend depth or believability to the main story. The usefulness of having a dramatic revelation was recognized by Aristotle, in ''Poetics''. Backstories are usually revealed, partially or in full, chronologically or otherwise, as the main narrative unfolds. However, a story creator may also create portions of a backstory or even an entire backstory that is solely for their own use. Backstory may be revealed by various means, including flashbacks, dialogue, direct narration, summary, recollection, and exposition. Recollection Recollection is the fiction-writing mode whereby a character calls something to mind, or remembers it. A character's memory plays a role fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Undercover Operation
A covert operation or undercover operation is a military or police operation involving a covert agent or troops acting under an assumed cover to conceal the identity of the party responsible. US law Under US law, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) must lead covert operations unless the president finds that another agency should do so and informs Congress. The CIA's authority to conduct covert action comes from the National Security Act of 1947. President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12333 titled ''United States Intelligence Activities'' in 1984. This order defined covert action as "special activities", both political and military, that the US Government could legally deny. The CIA was also designated as the sole authority under the 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act and in Title 50 of the United States Code Section 413(e). The CIA must have a "Presidential Finding" issued by the President in order to conduct these activities under the Hughes-Ryan amendment to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4.7 million inhabitants, including 1.2 million in and around the capital city of Palermo, it is both the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean Sea. Sicily is named after the Sicels, who inhabited the eastern part of the island during the Iron Age. Sicily has a rich and unique culture in #Art and architecture, arts, Music of Sicily, music, #Literature, literature, Sicilian cuisine, cuisine, and Sicilian Baroque, architecture. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe, and one of the most active in the world, currently high. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate. It is separated from Calabria by the Strait of Messina. It is one of the five Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulldozer
A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large tractor equipped with a metal #Blade, blade at the front for pushing material (soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock) during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, though specialized models riding on large Heavy equipment#Traction: Off-the-road tires and tracks, off-road tires are also produced. Its most popular accessory is a #Ripper, ripper, a large hook-like device mounted singly or in multiples in the rear to loosen dense materials. Bulldozers are used heavily in large and small scale construction, road building, mining and quarrying, on farms, in heavy industry factories, and in military applications in both peace and wartime. The word "bulldozer" refers only to a motorized unit fitted with a blade designed for pushing. The word is sometimes used inaccurately for other heavy equipment such as the generally similar Loader (equipment), front-end loader designed for carrying material rather than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18-wheeler
A semi-trailer truck (also known by a wide variety of other terms – see below) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called a ''fifth wheel''. Other terms There are a wide variety of English-language terms for a semi-trailer truck, including: American English: *Semi-trailer *Semi-truck *Truck & trailer *Semi *Big rig *Tractor-trailer *Eighteen-wheeler British English: * Articulated lorry * Artic (short for articulated lorry) * Juggernaut *Heavy Goods Vehicle/HGV Canadian English: *Transport truck *Transfer truck Regional configurations Europe The main difference between tractor units in Europe and North America is that European models are cab over engine (COE, called "forward control" in the United Kingdom), while the majority of North American trucks are "conventional" (called "normal control" or "bonneted" in the UK). European trucks, whether str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonville Jacksonville Consolidation, consolidated in 1968. It was the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020, and became the 10th List of United States cities by population, largest U.S. city by population in 2023. Jacksonville straddles the St. Johns River in the First Coast region of northeastern Florida, about south of the Georgia state line ( to the urban core/downtown) and north of Miami. The Jacksonville Beaches communities are along the adjacent Atlantic coast. The area was originally inhabited by the Timucua people, and in 1564 was the site of the French colony of Fort Caroline, one of the earliest European settlements in what is now the continental United States. Under B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Office Of Naval Intelligence
The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serves as the Federal Government's premier source of maritime intelligence. Since the First World War, ONI's mission has broadened to include real-time reporting on the developments and activities of foreign navies; protecting maritime resources and interests; monitoring and countering transnational maritime threats; providing technical, operational, and tactical support to the U.S. Navy and its partners; and surveying the global maritime environment. ONI employs over 3,000 military and civilian personnel worldwide and is headquartered at the National Maritime Intelligence Center in Suitland, Maryland. History Despite playing an active and decisive role in the American Civil War, in the following years the U.S. Navy fell into precipitous d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, while cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values. The term sociocultural anthropology is commonly used today. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological anthropology, Biological (or physical) anthropology studies the biology and evolution of Human evolution, humans and their close primate relatives. Archaeology, often referred to as the "anthropology of the past," explores human activity by examining physical remains. In North America and Asia, it is generally regarded as a branch of anthropology, whereas in Europe, it is considered either an independent discipline or classified under related fields like history and palaeontology. Etymology The abstract noun ''wikt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Daily News
The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format, and reached its peak circulation in 1947, at 2.4 million copies a day. it was the eleventh-highest circulated newspaper in the United States. For much of the 20th century, the paper operated out of the historic art deco Daily News Building with its large globe in the lobby. Today's ''Daily News'' is not connected to the earlier ''New York Daily News (19th century), New York Daily News'', which shut down in 1906. The ''Daily News'' is owned by parent company Daily News Enterprises. This company is owned by Alden Global Capital and was formed when Alden, which also owns news media publisher Digital First Media, purchased then-owner Tribune Publishing in May 2021 and then separated the ''Daily News'' from Tribune to form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
