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3,831,912 | East Side Access | 1,168,159,410 | Railroad public works project in New York City | [
"Buildings and structures in Manhattan",
"Buildings and structures in Queens, New York",
"East River",
"Grand Central Terminal",
"Immersed tube tunnels in the United States",
"Long Island City",
"Long Island Rail Road",
"Midtown Manhattan",
"Passenger rail transportation in New York (state)",
"Railroad tunnels in New York City",
"Railway lines opened in 2023",
"Transportation projects in New York City",
"Tunnels completed in 1989",
"Underground commuter rail"
]
| East Side Access (ESA) is a public works project in New York City that extended the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) two miles from its Main Line in Queens to the new Grand Central Madison station under Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan's East Side. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) project was originally scheduled to open in 2009 but was delayed by more than a decade. The new station and tunnels opened with limited service to Jamaica station in Queens on January 25, 2023, and full service began on February 27, 2023. The estimated cost of the project rose nearly threefold from US\$3.5 billion to US\$11.1 billion as of April 2018, making it one of the world's most expensive underground rail-construction projects.
The new LIRR terminal contains eight tracks and four platforms in a two-level station 100 feet (30.5 m) below street level. It was built in conjunction with several other LIRR expansion projects, including an additional track along parts of the Main Line. The project was intended to remove or reduce the need for subway transfers for a large number of riders with jobs on the east side of Manhattan. Previously, the only Manhattan stop for trains from Long Island was Penn Station, on the west side of the island.
East Side Access was based on transit plans from the 1950s, though an LIRR terminal on Manhattan's East Side was first proposed in 1963. The planned LIRR line was included in the 1968 Program for Action of transit improvements in the New York City area. Lack of funds prevented the construction of any part of the connection other than the 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River. Plans for the LIRR connection were revived in the late 1990s. The project received federal funding in 2006, and construction began the following year. The tunnels on the Manhattan side were dug from 2007 to 2011, and the connecting tunnels on the Queens side were completed in 2012. Afterward, work began on other facilities related to the line, such as new platforms at Grand Central, ventilation and ancillary buildings, communication and utility systems, and supporting rail infrastructure in Queens. The project's completion was delayed several times during construction.
## History
### Origins
The East Side Access project was based on regional planning proposals that were first brought up in the 1950s. In March 1954, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) issued a \$658 million construction program. The proposal included a tunnel for the Second Avenue Subway, which would cross the East River between 76th Street in Manhattan and Astoria in Queens before continuing onto the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Main Line in Queens. The 76th Street tunnel proposal resurfaced in 1963, though the location of the tunnel was changed several times thereafter. In 1965, the NYCTA finally decided to build the subway tunnel at 63rd Street.
The first proposals to bring LIRR service to a terminal in eastern Midtown Manhattan arose in 1963. To facilitate planning for this terminal, a third track was added to the plans for the 63rd Street subway tunnel in April 1966. The track would serve LIRR trains to east Midtown, alleviating train traffic into Penn Station on Manhattan's west side while integrating the LIRR with the subway. A fourth track was added to the plans in August 1966 after it was determined that LIRR trains would be too large to run on subway tracks. This amendment increased the number of LIRR tracks to two, and provided segregated tracks for the LIRR and the subway.
In February 1968, the NYCTA's parent company, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), released the Program for Action, which proposed numerous improvements to subway, railway, and airport service in the New York metropolitan area. The plan included a new LIRR terminal at a proposed Metropolitan Transportation Center at Third Avenue and 48th Street in East Midtown. It also included connections to Grand Central Terminal, with a new northern entrance leading to the center, and the Second Avenue Subway, among other transit services. The new LIRR line was to branch off from existing lines in Sunnyside, Queens, and enter Manhattan using the new two-level 63rd Street Tunnel. The upper level was to be used by the New York City Subway's 63rd Street lines and the lower level was to be used by the LIRR. According to renderings of the transportation center, the mezzanine would be placed above four island platforms and eight tracks, which would be split evenly across two levels, similar to the present terminal under Grand Central.
Construction on the project began in 1969. Four 38-foot-square (12 m) prefabricated sections of the 63rd Street Tunnel were constructed under the East River, the first of which was delivered in May 1971. That first section was lowered into place on August 29, 1971, and the last section was lowered on March 14, 1972. The double-deck, 3,140-foot (960 m) tunnel under the East River was "holed through" on October 10, 1972, with the separate sections of tunnels being connected. The estimated cost of the project was \$341 million, and the MTA applied for \$227 million in Federal funds.
Plans to build the Manhattan terminal in the Turtle Bay neighborhood were opposed by residents who feared it would change the neighborhood and bring traffic congestion; they suggested it be built at Grand Central instead. MTA officials countered that there were too many rail lines at Grand Central, and that adding the LIRR would further strain the Lexington Avenue Line. If it were on Third Avenue, passengers would have been more inclined to use the Second Avenue Subway, which was partially under construction at the time. On April 16, 1973, a Federal directive directed New York State to consider expanding and modernizing Grand Central before building the new terminal under Third Avenue.
Preliminary planning for the Metropolitan Transportation Center had been completed by January 1975. Due to continued opposition to the Transportation Center, a "Grand Central Alternative" was published in September 1976. It called for the LIRR to use Grand Central Terminal's lower level instead. In 1977, the MTA's board of directors voted to use Grand Central as the terminal for the proposed LIRR route.
### Plans stalled
Due to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, the LIRR project was canceled long before the tunnel was completed. The New York Times noted that the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel was still under construction by 1976, even though "officials knew that the tunnel would never be used." Richard Ravitch, the MTA chairman, said that to stop the work was impossible or so costly as to make it impractical subsequent to the construction of the subway portion." The lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel was completed along with the upper subway level. The western end of the tunnel lay dormant under Second Avenue at 63rd Street for three decades. By the time that construction on the LIRR tunnel level stopped, the tunnel was built for a distance of 8,600 feet (2,600 m). The 8,600-foot "tunnel to nowhere" was completed "largely for structural reasons — to support the subway tunnel above."
The 63rd Street subway line and LIRR tunnel were completed as far as 29th Street in Long Island City, Queens, with the subway level of the tunnel opening in 1989. The LIRR tunnel remained unused beneath the subway tracks. In 1994, work began to extend the 63rd Street subway tunnel east to connect to the Queens Boulevard subway line; the LIRR tunnel was also extended east, under 41st Avenue in Queens to the west side of Northern Boulevard in Queens. The subway connector was opened to full-time F train service in December 2001.
### Plans revived
Plans were made in 1995 to bring LIRR service to East Midtown, although MTA officials declared that the LIRR East Side connection would not be completed within the next generation. In 1997, U.S. Senator Al D'Amato started asking for federal money to connect the LIRR to Grand Central. New York Governor George Pataki had previously proposed completing the project, but D'Amato's support increased the likelihood that construction would actually begin. At the time, if everything went favorably, the LIRR link could open by 2010. By that time, the LIRR was the busiest commuter railroad in the United States, with an average of 269,400 passengers each weekday in 1999. As of 1998, there were almost 1.77 million jobs in Manhattan, including an increasing number of white-collar "office" jobs in East Midtown. Penn Station on the West Side was operating at capacity due to a complex track interlocking and limited capacity in the East River Tunnels.
In 1999, the MTA proposed a \$17 billion five-year capital budget. This budget included a \$1.6 billion LIRR connection to Grand Central, as well as several subway extensions. The project's final environmental impact assessment (FEIS) was released in March 2001. The FEIS reviewed two key options for bringing LIRR service to Grand Central. The first option was to connect the tunnels to the existing lower level at Grand Central, while the second option was to build an entirely new station underneath it. The MTA ultimately recommended the second option because it was cheaper and less disruptive to Metro-North service. After reviewing the FEIS for two months, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) gave the project a favorable "Record of Decision"—i.e., approved it.
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, the MTA said it would accelerate the construction of East Side Access. LIRR president Kenneth J. Bauer said, "The incident of September 11 shows the importance of East Side Access to a greater degree. If something happened at the East River tunnel, you wouldn't be able to run trains to Penn Station." The MTA and Governor Pataki supported East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway, both of which involved building new railroad infrastructure on the East Side. In 2002, Congress allocated \$132 million for infrastructure projects in New York State, including \$14.7 million for East Side Access. A final design for the project was approved in 2002, and the first properties for it were acquired in 2003.
In 2004, some business owners in Midtown announced their opposition to a proposed 16-story ventilation building at 50th Street east of Madison Avenue. They said that the building would cause pollution and that it could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Catholic Archbishop Cardinal Edward Egan of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York worried about the effect on St. Patrick's Cathedral, which faced Fifth Avenue with its back on Madison Avenue north of 50th Street. At first, MTA officials held fast to their plans, but after continued opposition, they reduced the size of the building and moved the structure's cooling towers.
### Construction progress
Funding for MTA capital projects such as East Side Access, the Second Avenue Subway, and the 7 Subway Extension were included in the Rebuild and Renew Transportation Bond Act of 2005. As part of this act, the state would take on \$2.9 billion in debt to issue bonds to fund these projects. Voters ultimately approved the bond issue by a margin of 55% to 44%. The federal government committed to provide \$2.6 billion to help build the project by signing a full funding grant agreement in December 2006. The construction contract for a 1-mile (1.6 km) tunnel in Manhattan westward and southward from the dormant lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel to the new 100-foot-deep (30 m) station beneath Grand Central Terminal was awarded in July 2006. The contract went to Dragados/Judlau, a joint American–Spanish venture whose American headquarters were in College Point, Queens, close to the East Side Access site. The total contract award was \$428 million and used two large tunnel boring machines. After Hurricane Sandy flooded the East River Tunnels between Queens and Penn Station in 2012, officials prioritized the construction of East Side Access so that LIRR trains could be diverted to Grand Central, allowing the East River Tunnels to be renovated.
#### Manhattan side
Work on the Manhattan side included building a new 8-track train station with storage tracks extending to 38th Street. North of the station, the tunnels would connect to the 63rd Street Tunnel's lower level. The new station would be housed in two gigantic caverns blasted out of the Manhattan schist rock formation under the station. A three-level structure was being built in each cavern, with one 1,020-foot-long (310 m) train platform and two tracks each on the top and bottom levels. A passenger concourse was being constructed between each cavern's upper and lower levels. An upper-level concourse, accessed by a series of stairs, elevators, and escalators, would replace ten tracks on the west side of Metro-North's Madison Yard. The cavern structure is located under the Park Avenue Viaduct, which surrounds Grand Central Terminal, while the storage tracks are located under the Park Avenue Tunnel, which is located south of Grand Central Terminal.
The track connections from the new station to the 63rd Street Tunnel were excavated using tunnel boring machines. The first machine was delivered in May 2007. Dragados/Judlau created a launch chamber for the tunnel boring machines under Second Avenue at 63rd Street in Manhattan using a controlled drill-and-blast method, then assembled and launched each 640-ton machine. The first tunnel boring machine was launched westbound then southbound from the 63rd Street Tunnel in September 2007, and it reached Grand Central Terminal in July 2008. The second machine began boring a parallel tunnel in December 2007 and had completed its tunnel at 37th Street on September 30, 2008. Geocomp Corporation was hired to monitor the boring, using a battery of instruments to record vibration, ground settlement and any tilting or drift suffered by the tunnel boring machines. The instruments include inclinometers, extensometers, seismographs, observation wells, dynamic strain gauges, tilt meters and automated motorized total stations with prismatic targets. The tunnel boring machines bored an average of 50 feet (15 meters) per day. Cross-connections between the tunnels were created under Park Avenue, between 49th and 51st Streets, by controlled drill-and-blast. The work began in mid-July 2008 and required between six and eight months to complete.
In April 2008, the MTA awarded Dragados/Judlau another contract. The \$506 million contract was for excavating caverns for the three-level platform structures, mezzanine, escalators, passageways, and track crossovers. The MTA gave Gramercy Group Inc. the \$38.9 million contract to reconfigure part of Madison Yard in March 2009. In September 2009, the MTA awarded Yonkers Contracting Company a \$40.8 million contract to demolish a building at 47 East 44th Street and construct a ventilation plant & concourse entrance on the building site, along with constructing a station entrance at an existing office tower at 245 Park Avenue (at East 46th Street). Smaller contracts for electrical installations and structural repairs were also awarded in 2008. In 2010, the New York City Business Integrity Commission found that a subcontractor for the East Side Access project was involved with an organized crime family. The subcontractor, who had been hired to haul away the dirt from the excavation process, was replaced.
In July 2011, after the tunnel boring machines finished drilling through the Grand Central station box, they were left in place under 38th Street and Park Avenue, as it was more economical than disassembling them in Queens and selling them for scrap, which could have added \$9 million to the project's final cost. The next step in construction was to make cast-in-place concrete sections to create the tunnel lining. Each tunnel was 22 feet (7 meters) in diameter, with an average depth of 140 feet (43 m) beneath street level.
In September 2014, the MTA opened a 2,400-square-foot (220 m<sup>2</sup>) pocket park, at 48 East 50th Street between Madison and Park Avenues, created along with a \$97 million ventilation facility at that location. The pocket park, known as 50th Street Commons, has a capacity of 100 people standing, or 40 people sitting down. The park, containing abundant greenery along a granite backdrop with tables and chairs, was meant to reduce noise pollution from the ventilation facility, which also served as an emergency exit.
On October 26, 2015, a 1,920-square-foot (178 m<sup>2</sup>) seating area in Grand Central Terminal's lower-level dining concourse was closed in order to build structural framework that would allow for the construction of stairways and escalators between the concourse and new LIRR station. This was deemed a major milestone in the construction of East Side Access by Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, President of MTA Capital Construction. On November 10, 2015, a groundbreaking ceremony was held to celebrate the emergence of the project into Grand Central Terminal.
On January 27, 2016, the final major contract for the construction of East Side Access was awarded to Tutor Perini Corporation. The contract was for the construction of four railroad platforms and eight tracks for the new Grand Central Terminal. The first tracks inside the 63rd Street Tunnel were laid in September 2017. The pre-cast platforms inside Grand Central Terminal were completed in May 2018, followed by the completion of the tracks in August 2018. The MTA also started installing escalators between the lower concourse and the platform mezzanine. Beginning in April 2018, the MTA began conducting site tours of the project; it had given 35 tours by September 2018. In advance of the planned deconstruction of 270 Park Avenue above East Side Access, the MTA and 270 Park Avenue's owner JPMorgan Chase signed an agreement in July 2019, in which JPMorgan agreed to ensure that the deconstruction of 270 Park Avenue would not disrupt the timeline of East Side Access.
#### Queens side
Previous work extending subway service through the upper level of the 63rd Street Tunnel to lines in Queens also extended the lower level to a point west of Northern Boulevard, across from the Sunnyside Yard. Work in Queens included extending the tunnel under Northern Boulevard and boring four tunnels under Sunnyside Yard. This was a particularly delicate and expensive task because of the elevated BMT Astoria Line and the underground IND Queens Boulevard Line directly above. The existing tunnel bellmouth west of Northern Boulevard was expanded to serve as the staging area for the Manhattan work, bringing in workers, equipment and supplies, and bringing out the muck and debris from excavation. A temporary narrow-gauge railway and a conveyor belt system were constructed behind the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) and through the 63rd Street Tunnels to the Queens bellmouth. Due to its shape, the Queens work site was nicknamed the "Q-tip".
Pile Foundation Construction Company built an \$83 million cut structure, which extends the tracks under Northern Boulevard into the Sunnyside Yard. It created an area that served as the launch chamber for soft-bore Queens tunnels that would connect the 63rd Street line to the main LIRR branches, and an interlocking and emergency exit and venting facility. The cut was then covered with a deck. In August 2009, Perini Corp. was awarded a \$144 million contract to reconfigure the Harold Interlocking railway junction, increasing its capacity to accommodate trains bound for Grand Central Terminal, and to construct new yard lead tracks to allow trains to enter the storage yards. Smaller contracts for structural work, environmental monitoring, and data measurement were also awarded. Some Amtrak buildings in Sunnyside Yard were demolished to make room for the East Side Access portals in Queens.
In September 2009, the MTA awarded Granite-Traylor-Frontiere Joint Venture a \$659.2 million contract to use two custom-built 500-ton slurry TBMs to create the tunnels connecting the LIRR Main Line and the Port Washington Branch to the 63rd Street Tunnel under 41st Avenue. The four tunnels, with precast concrete liners, total 2 miles (3.2 km) in length. The contract included a \$58 million option to dig three tunnel pits and three emergency shafts and to complete an open cut. The TBMs, which could dig through several types of earth, were the first such machines to be used in the New York City area.
The two TBMs began digging on the Queens side in April 2011. On December 22, 2011, breakthrough was achieved in Tunnel "A" of the four Queens tunnel drives from the 63rd Street Tunnel bellmouth. By July 25, 2012, all four Queens tunnel drives were complete. In April 2014, contracts were awarded for the final modifications for the tunnels, as well as for communication systems.
The project also added two bypass tunnels for Amtrak trains within Harold Interlocking. While eastbound Amtrak trains to New England would be able to go through the interlocking without crossing the paths of East Side Access trains, westbound Amtrak trains to Penn Station would use tracks that intersected East Side Access tracks. East Side Access trains to Grand Central came from the east and would diverge to the northwest while Amtrak trains to Penn Station came from the north and would continue west, so the final environmental impact statement called for a bypass for westbound trains. Around \$295 million was allocated for the bypass in 2011, and work on this project started in 2013. However, by October 2015, the tunnels were behind schedule because Amtrak and the MTA could not cooperate on track access schedules. These delays ultimately raised construction costs by almost \$1 billion as of April 2018, and in a report that month, the MTA attributed the delays to a lack of cooperation on Amtrak's part. The work at Harold Interlocking also included the installation of a microprocessor-based signal system, replacing the old track circuit-based signal system.
In July 2018, workers started realigning tracks to make way for the construction of the Queens tunnel portal, which was the final major contract not underway at the time. The realignment of the three westbound Main Line and Port Washington Branch tracks, as well as the construction of a new eastbound Main Line track to replace an existing track, were completed by the end of summer 2018. The last major construction contract—\$60 million to move tracks in Harold Interlocking and build a tunnel portal structure for Tunnel B/C—was awarded to Skanska in October 2018. Work on the tunnel structure was expected to run from mid-2019 to mid-2021. Work on the Midday Storage Yard also progressed, and by 2019, tracks were being laid in the storage yard. The portal for Tunnel B/C was completed by early 2021, and the yard was 99 percent complete by that May.
### Final work and opening
By May 2021, finishes were being placed in the station; the third rail, signals, and other right-of-way equipment were being tested. On October 31, 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul rode the first passenger test train through the East Side Access tunnels to Grand Central Terminal. In May 2022, MTA chairman Janno Lieber announced that the project was still scheduled for completion by the end of the year, and Hochul announced that the new station would be named "Grand Central Madison". More extensive tests of operation and safety features (e.g., the positive train control system) were underway and were expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
By late 2022, there were concerns that the project's completion could be delayed to March 2023. At the time, the MTA had not yet activated the Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System, which would automatically activate the brakes of oversized trains that attempted to enter the tunnels. In addition, mass-transit ridership declined significantly following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and the LIRR's passenger numbers had not completely recovered more than two years later. Large amounts of office space in Midtown Manhattan were still vacant, although MTA officials expressed optimism that the completion of East Side Access would attract office workers back to Midtown. The LIRR received operational control of the Grand Central Madison station on December 9, 2022, upon which the station and tracks became subject to Federal Railroad Administration regulations. The Grand Central Madison station remained unopened two weeks later; MTA chairman Janno Lieber attributed the delays to a single ventilation fan that could not exhaust enough air.
At the end of December 2022, the MTA postponed the station's opening to January 2023. Early the next month, Lieber indicated that the station's opening could be postponed further to February 2023. Non-revenue shuttle trains began running on January 11, 2023, and the FRA said on January 19 that the LIRR had finished installing ACSES equipment in the tunnels. On the evening of January 23, 2023, it was announced that the station would open on January 25; the station opened as scheduled on that date, with the first train leaving Jamaica at 10:45 a.m. The initial "Grand Central Direct" service ran only between Jamaica and Grand Central Madison, with trains alternatively skipping or serving all intermediate stops. On February 8, 2023, the MTA announced that it would implement full service on February 27, with 296 daily trains operating to or from Grand Central Madison.
## Route
Extending between Sunnyside Yard in Queens and Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, the East Side Access project created an LIRR branch from its Main Line through new track connections at Harold Interlocking within Sunnyside Yard, and through the lower level of the existing 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River. A storage yard adjacent to Sunnyside Yard is also being built, connecting to the 63rd Street Tunnel via a loop. In Manhattan new tunnels begin at the western end of the 63rd Street Tunnel at Second Avenue, curving south under Park Avenue and entering a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central. Excluding storage tunnels, the project is about 4 miles (6.4 km) long, consisting of 5,500 ft (1,700 m) of new route in Queens, 8,600 ft (2,600 m) of preexisting route under the 63rd Street Tunnel, and 7,200 ft (2,200 m) of new route in Manhattan.
On the Queens side, four tunnels merge into two tracks and enter the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel. Three of them (Tunnels A, B/C, and D) connect to the busy Harold Interlocking, splitting off the Main Line. A fourth tunnel on a lower level connects to the Midday Storage Yard. The Midday Storage Yard, located to the northwest of the existing Sunnyside Yard, comprises 33 acres (13 ha) and will contain 24 storage tracks once completed. Tutor Perini is constructing the \$291 million yard just south of the existing Harold Interlocking.
The line fans out into a bi-level station under Grand Central Terminal with eight tracks, four on each level. South of the station, the four tracks on each level merge into two 1,700-foot-long (520 m) storage tracks, with one in each cavern on each level. These storage tracks, which extend under Park Avenue south to 38th Street, are long enough to store one 1,020-foot-long (310 m), 12-car train. The storage tracks were not part of the original proposal, as they were added in a 2008 modification to the plans for East Side Access.
The project also included the construction of several ventilation plants. One is located at 44th Street, near the Yale Club of New York City, while another is located at 50th Street east of Madison Avenue. Ventilation facilities are also located on Park Avenue at 38th Street and at 55th Street, as well as on 63rd Street at York Avenue and at 2nd Avenue.
## Station
The new LIRR terminal at Grand Central, located 14 stories below ground, has 350,000 square feet (33,000 m<sup>2</sup>) with four platforms and eight tracks, plus a new retail and dining concourse with 25 retail spaces. There are two caverns containing one platform and two tracks on each of two levels; a mezzanine is located between the two platform levels. The LIRR terminal is accessed via stairwells, 22 elevators, and 47 escalators connecting to the existing food court at the lower level of Grand Central. The number of elevators in this terminal exceeds the 19 escalators in the remainder of the LIRR system combined.
The MTA originally planned to build and open additional entrances at 44th, 45th, 47th, and 48th Streets. The station connects to existing entrances at Grand Central North. The LIRR station also contains entrances at 335 Madison Avenue, near the southeast corner with 44th Street; at 270 Park Avenue and 280 Park Avenue near 47th and 48th–49th Streets, respectively; and at 347 Madison Avenue, on the east side of the avenue at 45th Street. An entrance on 46th Street between Lexington and Park Avenue was also built, connecting with Grand Central North. The MTA later announced its intent to defer construction of an entrance at 48th Street because the owner of 415 Madison Avenue wanted to undertake a major construction project on the site. The MTA also connected the new station to the existing 47th Street cross-passage. The escalators are up to 180 feet (55 m) long and descend more than 90 feet (27 m). The escalators and elevators are among the few privately operated escalators and elevators in the entire MTA system.
## Service changes
Trains to Grand Central run 20 hours a day. In 2015, plans called for 24 trains per hour to run to Grand Central during peak morning hours, with an estimated 162,000 passenger trips to and from Grand Central on an average weekday.
Bilevel rail cars, such as the LIRR's DM30AC and C3 fleet, cannot serve Grand Central because their loading gauge is too large for the tunnel. Although M3 electric multiple units can fit in the 63rd Street Tunnel, the fleet is not compatible with the new line's safety and signaling systems. As a result, when East Side Access opened, about 22 percent of the LIRR's fleet was unable to serve Grand Central Madison.
### Timetable overhaul
In anticipation of the completion of East Side Access and related projects, in 2022, the MTA overhauled LIRR timetables for the first time in more than 30 years. On June 2, 2022, the MTA released draft timetables that LIRR president Catherine Rinaldi pronounced "revolutionary", saying, "In one stroke, we are increasing service by 40%." The public was invited to comment on the proposed changes at a virtual public meeting on July 13, 2022; after hundreds of people registered to speak, two more such meetings were added. These meetings notwithstanding, MTA officials said in December that the late-June draft would be implemented when Grand Central Madison opened for full service.
The revised timetables proposed a substantial increase in reverse-peak and off-peak service on most branches. This included half-hourly off-peak service on the Main Line to and from Ronkonkoma (increased from hourly) and hourly off-peak service on the West Hempstead Branch (increased from bihourly). Additionally, due to the simultaneous completion of the Main Line Third Track project, reverse-peak service gaps of over 90 minutes along the Main Line were eliminated. Additionally, most branches received service to both Manhattan terminals, with a considerable increase in the total number of trains to and from Manhattan during peak hours. The inconsistent service patterns of most branches were also restructured into simpler patterns with western zones (closer to New York City) and eastern zones (away from New York City). The draft timetables called for more evenly spaced trains.
The timetables were also designed to accommodate repairs to the East River Tunnels to Penn Station following damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The reduction of tunnel capacity (from four to three operational tunnels) during renovation, resulting in the need to share additional track space with Amtrak and NJ Transit, was cited as a reason for reduction in service to Penn Station in the draft timetables. As of 2022, renovation work was expected to begin no earlier than 2024 and take about three years to complete.
#### Critical reception
These changes have met generally positive reception for introducing additional flexibility to peak commuters, especially those traveling to the East Side, and facilitating the development of job centers on Long Island for reverse commuters. In the June 2022 MTA board meeting, chairman Janno Lieber described increased reverse-peak service as having a "potential boom to Long Island's economy".
Some proposed service changes were not well received. The new timetables have been criticized for greatly reducing the amount of through service to Atlantic Terminal and not sufficiently augmenting peak service, with some stations even seeing a slight reduction in peak service. Additionally, reconfiguration of the track layout of Jamaica station will require Brooklyn-bound riders to perform up-and-over transfers to a new Platform F; this has been criticized as being much less convenient than cross-platform transfers, especially for disabled customers. Riders have also criticized the elimination of timed connections at Jamaica, which will no longer be built into the schedule; the MTA claims that this change will reduce delays and allow more trains to run. Some have stated that poorly-timed connections, especially to and from Brooklyn shuttles, could lengthen their daily commutes by over 20 minutes. Diesel branches are also not slated to see considerably increased service, as noted by one blogger. Despite this backlash, Lieber urged customers to "give it a chance" and declared that the MTA was "making no apologies" for the proposed service plan.
On September 28, 2022, following backlash from customers, the MTA announced the restoration of three express trains serving Penn Station on the Port Washington Branch, which were initially cut from the draft timetables. The February 2023 timetables were likewise met with mixed reception, with some commuters anticipating newfound flexibility, and others criticizing the MTA for not responding to community feedback on the draft timetables. In particular, riders on the Oyster Bay Branch (a diesel-only branch) expressed concerns that the new schedules had eliminated direct transfers at the Jamaica station, thereby lengthening their commutes.
### Implementation of changes
A shuttle service, Grand Central Direct, operated between Grand Central Madison and Jamaica between January 25 and February 26, 2023. Grand Central Direct trains ran hourly during rush hours in the peak direction stopping at Woodside. Midday and weekend trains operated half-hourly, with one train making stops at Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, and Woodside, and one train running nonstop between Jamaica and Grand Central. On weekdays, the first train left Jamaica at 6:17 a.m., with the last train leaving Grand Central at 8:04 p.m.. Trains ran on weekends between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
On February 8, 2023, the MTA announced that new timetables featuring full service to Grand Central Madison would come into effect on February 27, which were largely unchanged from the draft timetables released in June 2022. Full service was implemented as scheduled on February 27, 2023. After full service was implemented, many riders reported that their trains were delayed and overcrowded. In particular, almost all commuters traveling to or from Brooklyn—who constituted 8 to 12 percent of morning rush-hour riders—had to transfer at Jamaica. These commuters reported that the new schedules either did not give them enough time to transfer, or forced them to wait for long periods. In addition, although the MTA had predicted that 40 percent of riders would travel to Grand Central Madison, only 30 percent ended up doing so. In response to these complaints, the MTA added trips and lengthened existing trains to and from Brooklyn, and they also lengthened trains to and from Penn Station.
## Impact
A primary goal of the project was to reduce travel time for LIRR passengers traveling to the East Side of Manhattan. The MTA expected passengers to save about 40 minutes during a typical round trip by using Grand Central Madison instead of Penn Station. Shortly after Grand Central Madison opened, a reporter for Gothamist wrote that transferring from there to the Grand Central–42nd Street station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line () took 10 to 12 minutes on foot via escalators, roughly the same amount of time it took to travel from 34th Street–Penn Station to Grand Central–42nd Street using the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and 42nd Street Shuttle.
The project was expected to add passengers on the already overcrowded IRT Lexington Avenue Line and on surface bus routes on the East Side; but to reduce the load on rush-hour E train service between Pennsylvania Station and Midtown East and 7 train service across the East River.
In April 2023, the MTA detailed the effects of the opening of the station on subway ridership. Many fewer people traveled on the subway between the East Side and Penn Station: 31 percent fewer weekday trips between Grand Central and Penn Station, a 34 percent decline on the E train between the East 53rd Street corridor and Penn Station, and 42nd Street Shuttle ridership declined as well. But ridership on the subway from Grand Central to Upper Manhattan increased by 10 percent and ridership from Grand Central to Union Square, by 18 percent.
LIRR customer satisfaction, which stood at 81 percent before East Side Access opened, decreased to 68 percent by May 2023, in part because of the loss of direct service to Atlantic Terminal and the discontinuation of timed transfers at Jamaica, an MTA study found. In particular, satisfaction among Atlantic Branch riders had been halved, from 82 percent to 41 percent.
## Controversies
### Costs and construction delays
The project's estimated cost has increased from \$3.5 billion when first proposed to \$4.3 billion in 1999, \$5.3 billion in 2003, \$6.3 billion in 2004, \$7.2 billion in 2008, \$8.4 billion in 2012, and either \$9.7 billion or \$10.8 billion in 2014. By 2017, the projected cost was either \$12 billion or \$10.2 billion, making it the most expensive construction project of its type in the world by either measure. The MTA budgeted a total of \$10.178 billion to the project over five 5-year capital programs, up to and including the 2015–2019 capital program. Of these, 27% are federal funds and the other 73% are local funds. As of November 2017, the MTA had spent \$7.397 billion of the available funding. As of April 2018, the project was expected to cost \$11.1 billion, an increase from a previous estimate of \$10.2 billion. The project had \$10.3 billion in funding, which allowed construction to continue through 2020. The state legislature had to approve an additional \$798 million to allow construction to be completed, but this had not been approved by late 2019.
The completion date for the project has also been pushed back multiple times. Once planned to be operational by 2009 at a cost of \$4.3 billion, East Side Access was then rescheduled to open in 2017, 2016, 2018, 2019, September 2023, and then either December 2023 or late 2023. However, by April 2018, the MTA was looking to start passenger service in December 2022, at an estimated cost of \$11.1 billion. As of July 2020, the MTA had a "target revenue service" date of May 2022 (whereupon construction would be essentially complete), while the line was planned to open to the public in December 2022. The timeline was only slightly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. The opening was ultimately postponed to January 25, 2023.
In 2012, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT)'s Inspector General announced that it wanted an audit done on the project, after the USDOT learned of the fourteen-year delay in the completion date and the more-than-100% cost increase. In 2015, the USDOT's Deputy Principal Assistant Inspector General for Auditing and Evaluation, Joseph W. Come, testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets. Come said that several New York City transportation projects also experienced significant delays and cost overruns. This was due to a variety of factors, such as fraud, poor management, and a lack of oversight.
The New York Times reported in 2017 that the project was slated to become the most expensive of its kind in the world. With an estimated cost of \$12 billion, or about \$3.5 billion per mile (\$2.2 billion per kilometer) of new tunnel, the East Side Access tunnels were seven times as expensive as comparable railroad tunnels in other countries. Over the years, the projected cost of East Side Access had risen by billions of dollars due to unnecessary expenses. Contractors for the MTA were paid more than those working in other cities, even though that provided no construction benefits. Planning for East Side Access cost more than \$2 billion, and planning for MTA projects in general also made up more of the cost than in other cities' projects. In addition, politicians and trade unions had forced the MTA to hire more workers than were needed. In 2010, an accountant had found that the project was hiring 200 extra workers, at a cost of \$1,000 per worker per day, for no apparent reason. The bidding process for MTA construction contracts also raised costs because, in some cases, only one or two contractors would bid on a project. Similar construction projects in New York City, such as the Second Avenue Subway and 7 Subway Extension, had been more expensive than comparable projects elsewhere for the same reasons, even though other cities' transit systems faced similar, or greater, problems compared to the MTA. Other delays were attributed to the fact that dozens of contracts, some of which conflicted with each other, were bid out separately. Cost increases also occurred due to changing the design while construction was underway; ordering components that were the wrong size; failing to cooperate with other transit agencies in Sunnyside Yard; and making infeasible construction-timeline estimates.
In a bid to lower costs and reduce delays, in September 2018, the LIRR hired Arthur R. Troup, who previously held senior positions with Atlanta's and Washington, D.C.'s rapid transit systems, to lead the East Side Access project.
### Incidents and accidents
Several major accidents occurred during construction, and East Side Access has been cited for numerous safety violations. In late 2011, a construction worker died after a tunnel collapsed. In October 2014, a contractor who was digging wells on the Queens side accidentally punctured the subway tunnel underneath, grazing an F train with passengers inside.
## Associated projects
### Arch Street Yard and Shop Facility
The Arch Street Yard and Shop is in Long Island City, near the Hunterspoint Avenue station. The yard itself has been in use since at least 1910. The Arch Street Facility includes tracks that were built on the right-of-way of the LIRR's former North Shore Branch. Although the branch formerly extended west to what is now the Gantry Plaza State Park on the East River shoreline, the Arch Street Facility's storage tracks only extend as far as 11th Street, several blocks away from the river.
The LIRR planned a maintenance facility in the yard as part of the East Side Access project. The building was completed in either December 2004 or June 2005. The \$80.4 million facility was built using a mix of federal and non-federal funds. The LIRR had built the Arch Street Facility in advance so it could test its then-new M7 cars. When the MTA planned the facility in 2002, it had anticipated that East Side Access would open in 2011 and that the Arch Street Shop could be used to maintain the LIRR fleet. It was thought that the Hillside Facility would not be able to maintain the expanded LIRR fleet on its own. However, after the East Side Access project was repeatedly delayed, the Arch Street Facility was ultimately leased and licensed for other uses.
Just south of the Arch Street Yard, the Montauk Cutoff connected the Main Line to the Montauk Branch until it was decommissioned in 2015. As part of East Side Access, a portion of the cutoff was demolished to make room for the Midday Storage Yard.
### New Sunnyside station
A new LIRR train station in Sunnyside on the west side of Queens Boulevard and Skillman Avenue along the Northeast Corridor (which the LIRR uses to get into Pennsylvania Station) has been proposed, which would provide one-stop access for area residents to Midtown Manhattan. The station would have two side platforms and one island platform, all of which would be able to accommodate 12-car trains. In its 2015–2019 capital program, the MTA had budgeted \$76.5 million for the construction of such a station with a proposed start date in January 2021, but then delayed any work until after the completion of East Side Access.
### Capacity increase
The East Side Access project, along with several readiness-improvement projects, will allow the LIRR to run 24 more twelve-car trains during rush hours. This will boost its rush-hour passenger capacity from 300,000 to 425,000 daily commuters, a 45% increase.
#### Main Line third track
Related to the MTA's East Side Access project is its long-planned widening of the two-track LIRR Main Line by adding a third track. Completion of Main Line third track construction was assumed during East Side Access project planning and referenced in the original East Side Access environmental impact statement as necessary to support service level increases caused by adding service to and from Grand Central. The MTA has said that it considers the Main Line third track an "essential" project to support East Side Access, and that the Main Line third track will "complement the East Side Access megaproject, which is doubling the LIRR's capacity into Manhattan."
The third track's construction was deferred indefinitely by the MTA in 2008 due to budget constraints. In January 2016, Governor Cuomo and the MTA announced plans to restart construction of the Main Line third track. In December 2017, the LIRR awarded a contract for the project to the consortium 3rd Track Constructors for \$1.8 billion. A groundbreaking ceremony for the third track project was held on September 5, 2018. The third track opened in several phases and was completed by October 2022.
#### Readiness projects
Five "readiness projects" are also under construction across the LIRR system to handle the expanded peak-hour service planned when East Side Access opens. Together, they are expected to cost \$495 million.
The largest of these projects is at Jamaica station, where the MTA is re-configuring track layouts, installing high-speed switches, and adding a new Platform F for the Atlantic Branch. The changes will allow the Atlantic Branch to function as a high-frequency shuttle service to Atlantic Terminal, and most trains from Long Island will proceed to either Long Island City station, Penn Station, or Grand Central via the Main Line. The first phase of the project, including the new platform, was completed in 2021 at a cost of \$380 million.
Another project will add train storage capacity at two LIRR stations. A 1,700-foot (520 m) siding near Massapequa station on the Babylon Branch will be used to store trains that originate or terminate at the station, enabling more peak-hour service to and from Penn Station/Grand Central. It was originally planned for completion in April 2019, though was delayed until June 2021. The MTA is also extending Track 2 on the Port Washington Branch, which ends as a pocket track east of Great Neck station, eastward by 1,200 feet (370 m) so it can store two trainsets. Additionally, a new bridge was built at Colonial Road near the station; it opened in May 2016 and replaced a 114-year-old span. The construction of the pocket track was originally scheduled for completion in December 2018 at a total cost of \$45.2 million. However, the completion date was pushed back several times; as of November 2021, a tentative completion date of August 2022 was announced, though construction is still underway as of November 2022 and is now expected to be complete by the end of the month.
Finally, the MTA planned to expand two yards. The MTA expanded the rail yard along the Main Line/Ronkonkoma Branch next to Ronkonkoma station, increasing the number of tracks in the yard from 12 to 23. The project was budgeted for \$128 million. Construction started in July 2017 and the expanded yard went into service in late 2020. Additionally, the Port Washington Yard, next to Port Washington station on the Port Washington Branch, was planned to be expanded to store two more ten-car trains. As of 2017, construction was scheduled to begin in late 2020 or early 2021 at a cost of \$500,000. However, this project met significant community opposition, primarily because of proposed reduction of parking spaces near the station. As of September 2022, the MTA has not come to an agreement with the Town of North Hempstead, resulting in the project being postponed indefinitely.
### New railcars
The LIRR also purchased up to 160 M9 cars to handle the increased passenger traffic expected with the opening of East Side Access. They are being paid for with federal grant money attached to the project. Although the MTA had ordered the M9s as early as 2013, the contract was delayed several times. As of June 2022, the delivery of M9s was almost three years behind schedule, reportedly due to supply chain issues and labor shortages. Only 132 of 202 cars in the base order have yet been delivered, and the additional 160 M9As did not arrive before the opening of East Side Access. The MTA thus reintroduced about 100 of the older M3 cars (which first entered service the mid-1980s) to provide the advertised additional service. The M3s are slated to remain in service at least until the remaining M9s for fleet expansion are delivered.
### Penn Station Access
Redirecting LIRR trains from Penn Station to Grand Central Terminal frees up tracks and platforms at Penn. This new capacity, as well as track connections resulting from the East Side Access project, allows Metro-North Railroad trains on the New Haven Line to run to Penn Station via Amtrak's Hell Gate Bridge. Four new local Metro-North stations in the Bronx are planned as part of this project, at Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester, and Hunts Point. The MTA is constructing a second connection from the Metro-North's Hudson Line to Penn Station using Amtrak's West Side Line in Manhattan. The Penn Station Access project will provide direct rides from Connecticut, Westchester County, the Lower Hudson Valley, and the Bronx to West Midtown; ease reverse-commuting from Manhattan and the Bronx to Westchester County, the Lower Hudson Valley, and Connecticut; and provide transportation service to areas of the Bronx without direct subway service. In December 2021, it was announced that the project would be completed in 2027, several years later than initially proposed.
## See also
- Center City Commuter Connection, a similar tunnel opened in Philadelphia in 1984 to connect two previously separate rail terminals
- Fulton Center, another MTA Capital Construction project
- Gateway Program (Northeast Corridor), a proposed railroad expansion project on the west side of Manhattan
- History of Grand Central Terminal, more details about the history of Grand Central Terminal
- Lower Manhattan–Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project, a formerly proposed LIRR project
- North–South Rail Link, a set of proposals for a similar project in Boston
- Second Avenue Subway, another MTA Capital Construction project, whose Phase I entered service on January 1, 2017
- 7 Subway Extension, a completed MTA Capital Construction project |
10,747,318 | David Bridges | 1,164,007,572 | English association football player | [
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"Cambridge United F.C. players",
"Chelmsford City F.C. players",
"England men's semi-pro international footballers",
"English Football League players",
"English men's footballers",
"FK Rīga players",
"Histon F.C. players",
"Kettering Town F.C. players",
"King's Lynn Town F.C. players",
"Living people",
"Men's association football midfielders",
"National League (English football) players",
"People from Huntingdon",
"Southern Football League players",
"St Neots Town F.C. players",
"Stevenage F.C. players"
]
| David Stephen Bridges (born 22 September 1982) is an English former professional footballer. He played as a midfielder.
Bridges started his career with local club Cambridge United, progressing through the club's youth system and eventually breaking into the first-team in 2001. He spent three seasons at Cambridge, before being released at the end of the 2003–04 season after failing to agree terms on a new contract. Bridges had a brief spell in Latvia playing for FK Rīga, before returning to England to play four games for Braintree Town in January 2005. He joined Histon in March 2005, playing for the club until the end of the season. He left Histon at the end of the season, and subsequently earned himself a one-year contract to rejoin Cambridge United in July 2005. He played regularly for the club for two seasons, but was released again in 2007.
Bridges then joined Kettering Town ahead of the 2007–08 season, helping the club achieve promotion from the Conference North to the Conference Premier in his first season at the club. At the end of the season he rejected a contract offer from Kettering and joined Stevenage on a free transfer. In his first season at the Hertfordshire club, he helped the team to FA Trophy success, as well as helping the club earn promotion to the Football League for the first time in the club's history the following season. He was also part of the squad that helped Stevenage earn back-to-back promotions during the 2010–11 season. Ahead of the 2011–12 season, Bridges re-joined Conference Premier club Kettering Town. He left the club after one season, and spent a year at Chelmsford City, before signing for Bury Town in May 2013. He had a brief spell at Brackley Town, before spending two seasons combining playing and coaching at King's Lynn Town.
He initially announced his retirement from playing in May 2016 and joined St Neots Town as first-team coach a year later, where he began playing again for the 2017–18 season. He left St Neots Town in August 2018, taking up the position of head of coaching at League Two club Lincoln City. Bridges also earned one cap for the England C team.
## Early life
Born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, Bridges attended St Peter's School in Huntingdon.
## Club career
### Cambridge United
Bridges played for local team Cambridge United, whom he joined at the age of eight, and he progressed through the club's youth system before signing his first professional contract in February 2002. He broke into the first-team towards the end of the 2001–02 season, making his debut as a substitute in a 1–0 defeat to Huddersfield Town at the Abbey Stadium on 16 March 2002. He played six further games in the same season, scoring his first goal for Cambridge in a 2–1 home victory against Tranmere Rovers on 13 April 2002. Bridges played regularly in the opening half of the 2002–03 season, playing 25 times and scoring once in a 3–0 victory against York City. A "persistent" ankle injury cut his run in the first-team short, and he did not play from February through to the remainder of the season. He returned to the first-team in a 1–0 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers on 14 October 2003, and played a further 22 times for the club throughout the 2003–04 season. Bridges left Cambridge at the end of the season after failing to agree a contract extension. On leaving Cambridge, Bridges said "I was offered a contract that was almost a kick in the teeth after the time I had been at the club when players were coming in from all over the place who did not care about the club. They were getting paid five or six times what I was offered, and I thought it was probably time to move on". During his three seasons with the club, Bridges made 55 appearances in all competitions, scoring four times.
### Journeyman
Bridges trialled at a number of clubs before the start of the 2004–05 season, including Chesterfield and Northampton Town, without successfully securing a deal. He also spent the majority of the close season in the United States training with two professional American football clubs, before realising it was not financially viable to move to America on a permanent basis. Bridges struggled to find a club ahead of the 2004–05 season, and took up an offer to play for FK Rīga in Latvia. He suffered a fractured foot just ten days after signing for the club, and did not make any appearances for the Latvian club. Despite the injury, he spent three months in Latvia before returning to England to "assess his options". After returning to England in November 2004 for rehabilitation at Lilleshall, he began part-time training with Cambridgeshire club Histon in January 2005.
He signed for Braintree Town on a short-term contract shortly after training with Histon, making his debut for the club in a 2–1 home victory against Slough Town a day after joining the club. He suffered a foot injury in a 3–1 away victory at Hendon, which proved to be his last game for the club; he played four times for Braintree, all of which were victories. A month later, Bridges joined Histon on a short-term basis, making his debut for the club in March 2005, playing the whole match in a 3–1 home win against Tiverton Town. He scored once for Histon in a 3–0 home victory against Solihull Borough on 18 April 2005. Bridges made 11 appearances for Histon and helped the club achieve promotion to the Conference South in his two months at the club. He left Histon at the end of the season, and subsequently earned himself a one-year contract to re-join his former employers, Cambridge United, following a successful trial at the club. Bridges said he "did not hesitate in joining Cambridge for a second time" when he was eventually offered a full-time contract in June 2005.
### Return to Cambridge
During the 2005–06 season, Bridges was a regular in the centre of Cambridge's midfield. He made his second debut for Cambridge in a 1–0 defeat at Forest Green Rovers, and scored in the following two games against both Hereford United and Accrington Stanley. Bridges played 40 times during the season, scoring seven goals from midfield. He was voted the club's Player of the Year award at the end of that season, as well as earning a one-year contract extension in May 2006.
He continued playing regularly under new manager Jimmy Quinn in the 2006–07 season. He scored his first goal of the season in a 3–0 home win against Gravesend & Northfleet in November 2006, and scored again two weeks later in the club's 2–1 away win at Southport at Haig Avenue. After Cambridge's 2–0 home defeat to St Albans City in December, Bridges did not feature in the first-team for two months. He returned to the first-team in Cambridge's 3–0 win against Woking on 27 January 2007, and scored his third of the season in a 2–1 away victory against Stafford Rangers. He played 31 games during the season, scoring three times. Bridges was released by Cambridge in May 2007 as they made wholesale changes to their playing squad. During his second spell at Cambridge, Bridges made 71 appearances in all competitions over two seasons, scoring ten times.
### Kettering Town
Two months later, Bridges joined Conference North club Kettering Town on a one-year deal. Bridges made his debut for Kettering in late August 2007, starting in the club's 3–2 away victory against Worcester City. He scored his first goal for the club in the following game, doubling Kettering's lead in a victory against Tamworth. He played regularly for the Northamptonshire club throughout Kettering's 2007–08 league season, scoring 11 goals in 27 appearances to help Kettering earn promotion to the Conference Premier.
### Stevenage
He was offered a new contract by manager Mark Cooper, which was rejected, as he opted to join his former Kettering team-mates Craig Westcarr and Gary Mills in signing for Stevenage on 13 May 2008. Bridges suffered a knee injury during pre-season and subsequently missed the first half of the 2008–09 season. He eventually made his debut for the Hertfordshire club in a 1–1 draw against Oxford United on 20 December 2008, scoring Stevenage's goal with an "unstoppable drive from outside the area". Bridges scored three goals in the club's successful FA Trophy run that season, scoring in 4–0 victories against both Burton Albion and Forest Green Rovers, as well as scoring the winner in Stevenage's 3–2 home win against Ebbsfleet United in the first leg of the semi-final. His season was cut short when he suffered an injury in a 1–1 draw against Oxford United at Broadhall Way, a game in which he scored Stevenage's goal, but ultimately missed the rest of the season. Bridges made 19 appearances during the club's 2008–09 season, scoring six times.
Bridges returned from injury at the start of the 2009–10 season, starting in a 0–0 draw against Barrow at Holker Street on 15 August 2009. He scored his first goal of the season in a 2–0 victory over Ebbsfleet United on 12 December 2009, and followed this up by scoring twice against Vauxhall Motors in the FA Trophy. He scored his eighth goal that season in a 1–0 victory over York City, the final league match of the club's 2009–10 season, as Stevenage earned promotion as Conference Premier champions. Bridges played 38 times during the season, scoring eight goals from midfield. He missed the first three games of the 2010–11 season as a result of the red card he received in the FA Trophy 2010 FA Trophy Final. He made his first appearance of the 2010–11 season in Stevenage's 1–1 draw away to Aldershot Town, coming on as a 38th-minute substitute. He suffered an ankle injury in training that ruled him out of first-team action for a month, returning to the first-team as a second-half substitute in Stevenage's 2–0 home defeat to Wycombe Wanderers, but admitted he was "not fully fit". He scored his only goal of the season in Stevenage's 3–1 away victory against Port Vale on 22 February 2011. Bridges played 24 games in all competitions, helping Stevenage earn promotion to League One in their first Football League season.
### Return to Kettering
Bridges re-joined Conference Premier club Kettering Town on 1 August 2011, signing a two-year deal with the club. He joined Kettering on a free transfer, having been out of contract at Stevenage – "I got injured at the back end of last season and I was out of contract and because of all the deals that needed to be sorted at Stevenage, I wasn't a priority and I had to wait. There comes a time when you can't wait any longer and I needed to sort my future out so here we are". Bridges made his Kettering Town debut in a 2–0 away win at Lincoln City on 10 September 2011, the club's first away victory of the season. After making just five appearances for Kettering, Bridges was transfer-listed by new manager Mark Stimson on 29 September. Despite being transfer-listed due to Kettering's financial problems, Bridges continued to play in the first-team, and he scored his first goal for the club in a 2–2 draw against Ebbsfleet United, scoring from close range to give the club an initial one-goal lead. Bridges was forced to take training following the departure of Stimson, with only six other Kettering players turning up to train due to unpaid wages. Despite the off-field problems, he remained ever-present for the remainder of the season, playing 38 times in all competitions, and scoring his third and final goal of the season in a 1–1 home draw with Barrow on 21 April 2012. Kettering were relegated, finishing bottom of the league, and faced a further relegation due to entering a Company Voluntary Arrangement. Bridges had one-year remaining on his contract at Kettering, but left in July 2012, calling the season the "worst of his career".
### Chelmsford City
In August 2012, Bridges signed for Conference South club Chelmsford City on a free transfer. He made his debut for the club in a 3–2 home win over Bromley on 25 August 2012. Bridges scored his first goal for Chelmsford in the club's 2–2 draw with East Thurrock United in the FA Cup on 20 October 2012, with a shot through a crowded penalty area after East Thurrock had failed to clear a corner. It took Bridges seven months to score his first league goal, netting on the hour mark in a 6–0 home victory over Farnborough on 18 March 2013, a game in which he also assisted two other goals. It proved to be his only league goal of the season, in which Chelmsford would once again make the Conference South play-offs, but ultimately fall short. They lost 2–1 on aggregate in the semi-finals to Salisbury City, with Bridges playing in both games. He made 36 appearances in all competitions during the season, scoring two goals.
### Later career
Shortly after the end of the 2012–13 season, Bridges signed for Isthmian League Premier Division club Bury Town on a free transfer. On joining Bury Town, Bridges said – "I'm good friends with Adam Tann and Craig Parker and they couldn't say enough good things about the club. They told me that the players are really well looked after and the club is full of good honest people". He left Bury Town in December 2013 due to the club's financial problems, and subsequently joined Brackley Town of the National League North in January 2014. Bridges made his debut for Brackley on 11 January 2014, coming on as an 87th-minute substitute in a 3–1 victory over Gainsborough Trinity. He made 15 appearances during the second half of the 2013–14 season whilst at Brackley, scoring two goals.
Bridges left Brackley in the summer and signed for King's Lynn Town of the Northern Premier League on 28 May 2014. On securing the signing of Bridges for the season, manager Gary Setchell stated "I'm probably very, very fortunate I've stumbled across Bridgo when he's got a lot going on outside of football, business wise". Whilst out injured, and having already obtained his UEFA 'B' coaching badge, Bridges was made first-team coach at the club in February 2015. He combined the role alongside continuing to play in the first-team. King's Lynn were moved into the Southern League Premier Division for the 2015–16 season and Bridges played regularly in the King's Lynn team during the campaign, making 39 appearances in all competitions. Bridges retired from playing in May 2016 to "concentrate on his successful business ventures and spend time with his family". On his retirement, manager Setchell said "David will be missed by a lot of people at the football club but I totally understand his decision to call it a day on his fantastic playing career and pursue his business interests and spend more time with his young family."
Having been retired from playing for over a year, Bridges appeared for St Neots Town of the Southern League Premier Division, the club he was also first-team coach, in a 1–0 away loss against AFC Rushden & Diamonds in a Southern Combination Challenge Cup match on 3 October 2017. He ended up playing 25 times during the 2017–18 season, his final season playing, scoring five goals, including two in his final appearance as St Neots won the Huntingdonshire Senior Cup.
## International career
Bridges was named in the England C team, who represent England at non-League level, in January 2006, for a friendly against Italy C, staged at Cambridge's Abbey Stadium, his home ground at the time. He came on as a 73rd-minute substitute as England C won the match 3–1 in front of a crowd of 2,711.
## Style of play
Deployed predominantly as a central midfielder throughout his career, Bridges also played across all of the midfield areas. Manager Graham Westley said that Bridges is a player with "a lot of off-the-ball intelligence" and that he "reads the game well".
## Coaching career
Bridges gained experience coaching whilst playing at Kettering Town, taking training sessions in January 2012 in the absence of a first-team manager. He gained his UEFA B Licence during his time playing at King's Lynn Town and became the club's first-team coach in February 2015, staying in the role for a year-and-a-half whilst also playing.
In May 2017, he took up his first coaching-only role when he joined St Neots Town of the Southern League Premier Division as first-team coach. Bridges left St Neots in order to become head of coaching at League Two club Lincoln City on 13 August 2018. He spent over two years at Lincoln, before being appointed as a coach educator for the Professional Footballers' Association in February 2021.
## Personal life
He supports Manchester United.
## Career statistics
### International
## Honours
Histon
- Southern Premier League: 2004–05
Kettering Town
- Conference North: 2007–08
Stevenage
- FA Trophy: 2008–09; runner-up: 2009–10
- Conference Premier: 2009–10
- League Two play-offs: 2010–11
St Neots Town
- Huntingdonshire Senior Cup: 2017–18 |
30,692,824 | Ed Westcott | 1,104,773,628 | American photographer (1922–2019) | [
"1922 births",
"2019 deaths",
"Manhattan Project people",
"Military personnel from Tennessee",
"Oak Ridge, Tennessee",
"People from Chattanooga, Tennessee",
"People from Nashville, Tennessee",
"People from Oak Ridge, Tennessee",
"Photographers from Tennessee",
"United States Army Corps of Engineers personnel",
"United States Army personnel of World War II"
]
| James Edward Westcott (January 20, 1922 – March 29, 2019) was an American photographer who was noted for his work with the United States government in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.
As one of the few people permitted to have a camera in the Oak Ridge area during the Manhattan Project, he created the main visual record of the construction and operation of the Oak Ridge production facilities and of civilian life in the enclosed community of Oak Ridge.
## Early life and career
Ed Westcott was born on January 20, 1922, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of Jamie and Lucille Westcott, and moved to Nashville with his family as a child. After Ed expressed an interest in photography, his father saved for a year to buy him a Foth Derby camera that cost \$25. The gift of that camera in the Depression year of 1934 started young Ed on the path to his future career. During his teenage years, he got into the business of developing film for friends and neighbors and worked in several Nashville portrait studios.
In 1941, he joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as a photographer in the Corps' Nashville District. His job for the Corps sent him around the region to create photographic documentation of several dams, a site in Tennessee that later became a prisoner-of-war camp, and the airport and other facilities at Fort Campbell on the Tennessee–Kentucky border.
## Photographer for the Manhattan Project and its aftermath
In December 1942, the Army Corps transferred the 20-year-old Westcott to the Clinton Engineer Works at the then-secret Oak Ridge site. He later recalled that:
> By November 1942, work was nearing completion on army camps, air bases, dams and enemy internment camps in seven southern states where I photographed many areas for site selection and construction progress reports for the US Corps of Engineers. I was one of the last of the 10 cameramen to leave the Nashville District office of the Corps of Engineers and the only one to accept a transfer with the engineers. Having a choice of a project in Alaska or a new job starting near Knoxville that would take a predicted five years to complete, I selected Knoxville.
Westcott was the 29th employee hired for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, where he was to work as an official government photographer from 1942 to 1966. During much of World War II he was employed by the Roane-Anderson Company, under contract to the Army Corps. As well as photographing the construction and mechanical workings of the X-10, K-25, Y-12, and S-50 production facilities, he photographed civilian activities in Oak Ridge for the community's Army-sponsored weekly newspaper, the Oak Ridge Journal. All of Westcott's wartime photos were produced with either a Speed Graphic or an 8×10 Deardorff view camera.
Some of his images were among the photos that were distributed to news media with the announcement of the first atomic bomb and the secret project that created it. In the weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, prints of 18 of his photographs were made in secrecy in preparation for the announcement. The photographs were declassified and distributed as part of the press kit. He also processed film taken by the damage assessment teams in his laboratory in Oak Ridge. It took three days to print them; armed guards protected the darkroom.
In June 1945, Westcott became an Army employee again, and in the post-war years he transitioned to employment with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) after its formation in 1946. In 1966 he was assigned to the AEC headquarters near Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, where he worked for the AEC and its successor agencies (the Energy Research and Development Administration and Department of Energy) until retiring in 1977. He photographed nuclear power stations all over the United States.
During Westcott's 35-year professional career, his assignments included creating photographic documentation of many notable people, including Manhattan Project scientists J. Robert Oppenheimer, Arthur Compton, Glenn Seaborg, Vannevar Bush, Ernest O. Lawrence, and James Bryant Conant, U.S. Army Generals Leslie Groves, Maxwell Taylor and Kenneth Nichols, Admiral Hyman Rickover, Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, U.S. Senators Estes Kefauver and Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee and Robert A. Taft of Ohio, Tennessee Valley Authority director and AEC chairman David Lilienthal, and seven or eight U.S. Presidents.
Westcott's February 1946 photo portrait of Oppenheimer is highly regarded for depicting the Manhattan Project scientific director as a man weary from the tremendous weight of his experience. When he met with Oppenheimer, Westcott learned that the physicist wanted a cigarette but lacked the change to buy some. After Westcott gave him the money he needed, Oppenheimer bought his cigarettes and lit one. Westcott then captured the image of the physicist sitting next to a fireplace mantel in the Oak Ridge Guest House holding the freshly lighted cigarette in his hand.
In spite of the informality suggested by the cigarette, University of Tennessee photography professor Baldwin Lee points out that the photo was carefully planned and posed. According to Lee, Westcott instructed Oppenheimer to sit "slightly askance" and to lean forward slightly, and then he took the photograph from a low vantage point that "makes the viewer physically look up at the man", thus enhancing the subject's perceived importance. Lee's critique also notes that Oppenheimer's gaze does not appear to be directed anywhere in the room, but instead is aimed at "something very distant and something only he can see."
## Exhibits and publications
Much of Ed Westcott's photographic work was classified when it was first created, and some of it remained classified for many years, but access to his work is now largely unrestricted. About 5,000 negatives are archived by the National Archives in Washington, DC. His photographs have been widely reproduced, often without naming him as the photographer, in publications and exhibits about the Manhattan Project.
The first museum exhibition devoted to Westcott's work was organized by the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge in 1981, entitled "Oak Ridge Seen 1943–1947: 20 Photographs by Edward Westcott". In 2005, the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville mounted an exhibition of his photos, entitled "Through the Lens of Ed Westcott: A Photographic History of World War II's Secret City". The American Museum of Science and Energy and the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge both have exhibits devoted to Westcott and his work, in addition to displaying his photos as part of exhibits on the city's history. A selection of works from the Ewing Gallery exhibit is now a touring museum exhibit.
A photograph of an Oak Ridge supermarket that Westcott created in 1945, "Tulip Town Market, Grove Centre", was featured by the National Archives as part of a 2005–2006 exhibit named "The Way We Worked". Collections of Westcott's Oak Ridge photographs have been published in the catalog to the Ewing Gallery exhibit (University of Tennessee, 2005; ) and in the book Oak Ridge by Ed Westcott (Arcadia Publishing, 2005; , ). A photo by Westcott of shift change at Y-12 during the Manhattan Project, blown up to 20 feet (6.1 m) by 50 feet (15 m), is displayed on the wall of the cafeteria at the Y-12 National Nuclear Security Complex.
## Personal life
Westcott resided in Oak Ridge. He was married to Esther Seigenthaler Westcott for 56 years before her death. They had five children. His grandson Phil works as a photographer in Alaska for the National Park Service, documenting the effects of global warming. In 2005, Westcott suffered a stroke that impaired his speech. The Oak Ridge Kroger Marketplace shopping center, which opened in 2014, is named the "Westcott Center" in his honor.
Westcott died on March 29, 2019, in Oak Ridge, at the age of 97.
## Gallery |
39,905,881 | The Blackest Beautiful | 1,166,126,995 | null | [
"2013 albums",
"Epitaph Records albums",
"Letlive albums"
]
| The Blackest Beautiful is the third studio album by American rock band Letlive. It was released by Epitaph Records on July 9, 2013. Recorded between June 2012 and January 2013, the album used four drum sessions, and went through ten recording engineers before settling on Stephen George. The drums were recorded with session musician Christopher Crandall, in the absence of the band having a permanent drummer at the time. The album incorporated a variety of music styles based on its members, including punk rock, funk, and soul; it was mastered and mixed to have a "more human" and "organic" sound.
Although the album was not expected to sell well because it was streamed for free prior to release, it still debuted in the United States at number 74 on the Billboard 200 and number six on the Hard Rock Albums chart, with nearly five thousand copies sold. The band toured the United Kingdom and Ireland to support the album, and joined other bands on tours across the United States. Critics welcomed the album, praising its crisp production and forward-thinking sound within post-hardcore, with Metacritic giving an aggregate rating of "universal acclaim".
## Background
Jason Aalon Butler, the band's front-man and remaining founding member, described the group's first releases, extended play Exhaustion, Saltwater, And Everything In Between (2004) and debut album Speak Like You Talk (2005), as "educational experiences" in writing whole songs rather than "cool bits" for songs. Music journalist Andrew Kelham wrote that the era these "raw hardcore punk" records were produced in was plagued by "potential [that] was never realised as an ever-revolving door of musicians cause the band to limp through Jason's late teens and early twenties." With the second album, Fake History, the band felt they found their "signature sound". In 2008, when performing as a substitute opening support band for Bring Me the Horizon's show in Los Angeles, they caught the attention of Brett Gurewitz, owner of Epitaph Records, who later signed the band and re-released their second album in 2011.
## Recording and production
In 2010, Letlive began writing on the third album. Butler said that their writing approach changed in comparison to their previous releases, as they were now doing most of it while on tour. During pre-production, the band listened to styles and ideas that, according to Butler, changed the way they looked at the songs they had initially written. The styles were their most expansive to date, and came from the diversity of their members: Butler had involved himself in the punk rock skateboarding culture when he was eleven, but had also been influenced by his father, who was in a soul band.
When they began recording in studio in June 2012, the band's members felt little pressure to complete the album as they could deliver something similar to their previous album "if you've delivered once already, why would it be a problem to do it again? We are the band that made those records [...] so there's really no problem in that regard." Guitarist Jeff Sahyoun said he did not even think back on Fake History when they were producing The Blackest Beautiful. However, as they progressed through it, there were elements that were not clicking, and the performances lacked the same bite in comparison to their Fake History demos. Butler said that this "almost sent the band crazy". He said he required a specific environment when he sings as his performance puts him in a vulnerable state.
During a tour where they supported Underoath in October, they brought their studio equipment with them, which allowed them to record on the road. Butler said "It was like we'd have a pop up studio in a bathroom in South Florida or in the woods off the highway in Wyoming." In December, the band felt they were done with recordings; Butler said "there was absolutely nothing left to try", and walked away from the project. The band had recorded the drums on four occasions. They finished recording at a static studio in January 2013.
Although there was increasing demand from fans, the band took their time with mixing and producing. Butler said the pressure was more rooted in giving the fans an album they deserve rather than meeting the expectations of the band. He said it was "one of the hardest processes I've endured as a human being, not just as an artist, but ever." Because Fake History was perceived by fans as sounding overproduced, the band strove for an "organic and authentic" sound that was "very human" and that reflected the sound of their live performances. They took "an analogue route", where they used the test mix of the album as it "spoke to them" in its raw energy. After going through ten sound engineers, they went with Stephen George, whom Sahyoun said "just added little diamonds and made it pop", so the album sonically reminded them of their influences.
During the recording sessions, drummer Anthony Rivera left the band. Butler said the departure was an "amicable split": "sometimes you simply need more than what the artist lifestyle gives you, and that's fine". Chris Crandall replaced Rivera for the studio sessions, and Loniel Robinson, a drum tech from the band Of Mice and Men replaced Crandall following the album release.
## Artwork and packaging
When the band was creating the album art, they intended to create something provocative and captivating and so they experimented with how "black and white American flags could represent "a much bigger idea of the sterilization that we are experiencing." The title is a play on the saying "Black is beautiful" and how it acts as an opposition to everything that society is saying otherwise.
## Composition
### Music
The Blackest Beautiful was described as a post-hardcore record, much like its predecessors, from "screaming rage to tight, sophisticated harmonies to frenzied funky riffing to emotively melodic parts". Mike Diver of Clash considered it a pop record with clear, melodic structure, while others grouped it with punk rock, soul, and funk, as well as displaying 'glimpses' of other music styles including Afrobeat, electronica and jazz. The incorporation of funk music has been noted by critics. Stephen Hill described the album as "find[ing] the space between DC Hardcore and Stax funk". James McMahon described the album as being "dragged through the civil rights movement, through 80s New York block parties, through the birth of hip-hop, funk, jazz and soul." Terry Bezer in Front found that the album has 'as much in common with funk as punk' and wrote in Metal Hammer that the album features 'the musical dexterity and reckless abandon of razor-edged funk'. Letlive's ferocity and use of dynamics have led critics to draw comparisons to rock bands Glassjaw, At the Drive-in, Refused, Black Flag and Deftones. Bezer cited three albums as primary influences on The Blackest Beautiful: Raised Fist's Veil of Ignorance and its "tempo changes, fury and non-stop fire"; Prince's Love Symbol Album and funk style; and Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation Of Millions for its confrontational and "fight for what's right" lyrics. Butler said that there was a poetic play in their combination of melody and chaos on the album: "I think the best way for us as musicians to get people to listen is to appeal to them. Appeal to the natural rhythm of the head bob, the beating of the heart, the tap of the foot; just find that area and utilize it properly and say something."
The album's lead single, "Banshee (Ghost Fame)", was described as an "unholy collision of Refused and Rage Against the Machine". "White America's Beautiful Black Market" was a "rock rap crossover affair", a protest song about the relationship between the corporations and the United States government, as they are "sucking the dicks of corporations". "Empty Elvis" was described as "condensing Glassjaw's whole career into three mouth-foamingly [sic] exciting minutes". "That Fear Fever" fused rock, pop and metal. "Virgin Dirt" was described as a "post-rock epic". The tracks "Younger" and "The Dope Beat" were listed as examples of the band's "staggering dynamics, brain-burrowing melodies and intelligent production tricks". "Pheromone Cvlt" showed the band's "blend of deranged hardcore and aching soul"; Bezer wrote that the track possesses 'Prince levels of funked up cool'. "27 Club" was a "blistering seven-minute epic" about living life either selflessly or selfishly, with "rampages from Hendrix riffs to reggae".
### Lyrics
The album's lyrics are described as 'politically, socially and personally conscious', incorporating themes such as corporate greed, racism and growing up in a broken home. Butler says it is "an ode to the disenfranchised and disaffected youth" and about accepting that we will never be perfect. Some of the lyrics reflect on his early life where he had to raise his sister and grow up at the same time. He added ambiguity to the lyrics to "facilitate" ideas for the listeners. Freeman said that the lyrics "reveal just how self-aware he is, which is a good counterpoint to those who feel that his constant vocalizing equates to selfishness."
"Banshee (Ghost Fame)" describes the differences between music as an art form and as an industry. "The Priest and Used Cars" talks about clockwork theory and how it put the fear of death into Butler when he was younger. "Pheromone Cvlt" is about a one-night stand Butler had, telling the woman the following morning that he loved her but later realizing that was a lie, the song acting as his "apology" to the woman. In an intro before playing the song at the Electric Ballroom, Butler described the song; "Imagine yourself in bed, lying next to someone that believes that you're in love with them. And then imagine walking up in the middle of the night while they're asleep and feeling compelled to write a song about how you don't know what the fuck it means to be in love. Imagine turning around in your bedroom, and looking at your bed that lies in the corner of your room and that person is still sleeping, and you want to wake that person up and you wanna tell that person your sorry for saying all the things that you said to make them believe that you were in love with them. That's kinda where I'm at right now it's um... It's a very difficult thing for me to tell this person that, "I'm sorry. I don't–I never loved you to begin with and I'm sorry that I told you that I did." Instead of telling that person exactly how I feel, I wrote a song instead, and I'm playing in front of about 1,200 people at the Electric Ballroom. So maybe, maybe she'll just hear about the song and understand that I'm sorry. I don't know."". Butler commented how the lyrics of "27 Club" focus on "when people assume I'm pumped full of drugs or a Christian. I'm misidentified all the time".
## Release and promotion
The album was initially announced in Rock Sound for a summer 2013 release; later specified to be July 9, 2013. A few weeks prior to its release, the album was streamed online for free. Although Butler acknowledged that the strategy would mean the album would not sell well, he said "It's not about how many people it reaches but that it makes them feel something."
The band toured the United Kingdom and Ireland in October, playing songs from both Fake History and The Blackest Beautiful. Many of the dates were sold out; London's date was met with such high demand that it was upgraded to a larger venue from the Camden Underworld to the Electric Ballroom. At Clwb Ifor Bach, Quench magazine writer Jack Glasscock said that they are "without doubt, the most exhilarating live band around" with their primal and engaging front-man Butler, Kerrang! writer David McLaughlin gave the show a five out of five "K's". He said, "No longer just a spectacle, to be gasped at in almost voyeuristic fascination wondering what might happen next, letlive. are now about songs, feeling, performance".
In November and December, the band returned to the United States where they supported Every Time I Die with Code Orange Kids.
In February and March 2014, the band supported Bring Me the Horizon for their Sempiternal album, joining groups Of Mice & Men and Issues on The American Dream Tour. From April to May, they co-headlined a tour with Architects for their album Lost Forever // Lost Together, with support from Glass Cloud and I The Mighty. On August 26, they and Architects supported A Day To Remember at a postponed event at the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena.
## Reception
### Critical reception
The album received an aggregate score of 86/100 at Metacritic, based on 12 reviews, signifying "universal acclaim". Kerrang! editor James Mcmahon gave the album five out of five "K"s, classing The Blackest Beautiful as a "classic", praising the inclusion of producers Kit Walters and Stephen George. He wrote: "What The Blackest Beautiful certainly is, though, is the sound of letlive. right here and right now. And right now, letlive. sound amazing. Get Down." Metal Hammer writer Stephen Hill gave the album a nine out of ten, saying "it's hard to pick out highlights when every track sounds so fresh, joyous and casually rule-book torching" and that "this is the kind of album that changes people's lives". Chris Hidden of Rock Sound also gave a nine out of ten, calling it a "bold record" and highlighting its fusion of "staggering dynamics, brain-burrowing melodies and intelligent production".
Fred Thomas of AllMusic noted how the album is "technically dazzling and soulfully delivered aggression". Tom Doyle of This Is Fake DIY wrote that the album is a "punch in the gut to whatever expectations you might have about letlive." Channing Freeman of Sputnikmusic said while the songs lack the same immediacy in comparison to those on Fake History, they have more longevity. Although Mike Diver of Clash Music liked the album overall, he said that "Pheromone Cvlt" was "placid" and "Virgin Dirt" was "losing sting".
However, Dave Simpson, writing for The Guardian, criticized the album's "adolescent, cliched lyrics", especially from the track "The Priest and Used Cars".
### Media picks
End of Year awards
## Chart performance
The album debuted in the United States at number 74 on the Billboard 200 and number six on Hard Rock Albums, selling nearly five thousand copies. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number 62.
## Track listing
## Personnel
letlive.
- Jason Aalon Butler – lead vocals
- Ryan Jay Johnson – bass, backing vocals
- Jean Francisco Nascimento – guitar, keyboard
- Jeff Sahyoun – guitar, backing vocals
Additional personnel
- Christopher Crandall – drums, percussion
Staff
- Kit Walters – producer
- Stephen George – mixing
- Jonathan Weiner – Album artwork and layout
## Chart performance |
1,838,526 | Dreamlover (song) | 1,167,182,318 | 1993 single by Mariah Carey | [
"1990s ballads",
"1993 singles",
"1993 songs",
"Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles",
"Columbia Records singles",
"Contemporary R&B ballads",
"Mariah Carey songs",
"Music videos directed by Diane Martel",
"Pop ballads",
"RPM Top Singles number-one singles",
"Song recordings produced by Walter Afanasieff",
"Songs written by Dave Hall (record producer)",
"Songs written by Mariah Carey",
"Songs written by Walter Afanasieff",
"Sony Music singles"
]
| "Dreamlover" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter and record producer Mariah Carey, released on July 27, 1993 by Columbia, as the lead single from the singer's third studio album, Music Box (1993). Its lyrics were written by Carey, with music composed by Carey and Dave Hall, and was produced by Carey, Walter Afanasieff and Hall. The song incorporates a sample of the hook from "Blind Alley" by the Emotions—previously used in "Ain't No Half-Steppin'" (1988) by Big Daddy Kane—into its melody and instrumentation. "Dreamlover" marked a more pronounced attempt on Carey's part to incorporate hip hop into her music, as was seen in her decision to work with Hall, who had previously produced What's the 411? (1992) by Mary J. Blige. This was partly in light of the mixed reception to her previous studio effort Emotions (1991), which featured gospel and 1960s soul influences. Lyrically, the song pictures a protagonist calling for a perfect lover, her "dreamlover," to whisk her away into the night and not "disillusion" her like others in the past.
"Dreamlover" received positive reviews from contemporary music critics, many of whom praised the song's incorporated sample, as well as Carey's carefree vocal style. The song was the first of several of her lead singles that sampled older tunes as a musical bed, as seen in "Fantasy" (1995), "Honey" (1997), "Heartbreaker" (1999), and "Loverboy" (2001). It was a global success, becoming Carey's seventh chart topper on the US Billboard Hot 100, remaining there for eight weeks. It peaked at number one in Canada and Panama, and became a top-ten hit in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
Carey performed "Dreamlover" live on several televised talk shows around the world, including The Arsenio Hall Show in September 1993, the British music chart program Top of the Pops, and the 1993 Music Fair in Japan. In 1999, following the release of Carey's Rainbow, the song was included in the Mariah Carey Homecoming Special, and her appearance on The Today Show. Additionally, "Dreamlover" was featured in the set-lists of most of her succeeding tours, making its debut on the Music Box Tour (1993). The song was included on Carey's compilation albums, \#1's (1998), Greatest Hits (2001), and \#1 to Infinity (2015). The European B-side "Do You Think Of Me" is included in the compilation album The Rarities (2020).
The song's music video was filmed by Diane Martel in Copake, New York, in June 1993. It includes an appearance by Carey's dog Jack, and shows Carey dancing in a flowerbed and field, swimming in a large pond, boarding a hot air balloon, and dancing alongside several shirtless male dancers. According to author Chris Nickson, the video's carefree setting harmonized well with the song's soft instrumentation. Due to the song's strong radio airplay and extended charting, the video received frequent play on several music video channels throughout the summer of 1993.
## Background
Carey's debut studio album made a strong impact on pop music, but the singer became interested in altering her sound and branching out into other genres for her second studio effort, Emotions (1991). Columbia allowed her to take more control over her musical direction, enabling her to change the musical genre, melodies, and production style. Carey worked with many new musicians and producers on the album; Walter Afanasieff was the only holdover from her debut. Emotions contained influences from gospel, R&B and soul music as well as from 1950s, 60s, and 70s balladry. While the album was praised by some as being more mature and raw, it failed to reach the critical or commercial heights of her debut effort, selling fewer units and failing to introduce Carey into new markets. Columbia decided to return Carey to the same genre as her debut album and have her produce a more commercial and radio-friendly record. Their plans were to tone down Carey's vocals and soften the album's production to create a contemporary pop record. Carey and Afanasieff agreed to the change and began writing and recording material for her third studio effort, Music Box (1993).
## Recording
While recording Music Box, Carey began to alter her songwriting style and genre choices, most notably in "Dreamlover". The song is different from anything she had recorded on her previous album, as it leans on R&B and light hip-hop influences. While searching for new record producers for the album, Carey came across Dave Hall, a New York native who was known from his work on Mary J. Blige's debut album, What's the 411? (1992). Carey wanted to incorporate a sampled loop from an older song into "Dreamlover", her second song to do so. The pair reviewed several older tunes and melodies, and chose "Blind Alley", performed by The Emotions in 1972. This song had previously been sampled in Big Daddy Kane's "Ain't No Half-Steppin'", which led Mariah to use the sample for Dreamlover.
`In an interview with Fred Bronson, Carey described working with Hall:`
> "I wanted to do something that had a happy feeling, something that was more open and released, and that's really not Dave. It's very anti what he's about. So he said, 'Oh, you want to do that happy stuff? All right, all right.' He was not into doing it. Then we started listening to a lot of different and old loops and we used the 'Blind Alley' loop and I started singing the melody over it."
Although Carey had heard the hook used in several other songs over the years, she felt her use of the sample was done in a more innovative way. "We built the song from there and I wrote the lyrics and the melody and Dave ended up liking it," she continued. After having completed the song, Hall complimented Carey's work ethic and form of writing, calling her a "perfectionist" and "very professional." He explained that they incorporated the hook, a melody, and the sample into the song over the course of one night. The song's title was not added until the end of production. Hall said Carey works in a unique fashion, usually developing the song's instrumentals and hook prior to the lyrics and title. Carey describes the songwriting process:
> "The way I usually work is I do an untitled song. We'll grab the hook, whether sampled or created, and use it as the working title. I wrote the verses first, as well as the melody and the inclusion of several instrumentals. Sometimes I'll have an idea for a lyrics. If I'm collaborating with someone, I'll direct them in the direction that I'm going chord wise, because I get all these melody ideas and then I lose them if I don't have someone really good with the keyboard with me. That's why I tend to collaborate because I lose the ideas by the time I figure out the chord. All these melody ideas just go."
When Carey's fiancé at the time, Tommy Mottola, came to hear the song in the studio, he had mixed feelings. He approached Walter Afanasieff and asked him to add some additional instrumentation and flavor. Afanasieff changed the song at the production level, altering the way in which the hook sample was incorporated into the song, as well as adding several new instruments. He described the changes to Bronson in an interview:
> "Mariah and Dave did this loop thing which was new to us pop producers at the time. Their version of 'Dreamlover' was missing a lot of stuff. The spirit of the song was up but it wasn't hitting hard enough. I re-worked the drums, organ and keyboard. The organ and hi-hat part I changed made it a bit more swinging and a little bit more driving. I put a whole new shade of colors to it."
## Composition and lyrics
"Dreamlover" is a mid-tempo pop and R&B track with hip hop influences. The song begins at a moderate pace of 100 beats per minute before moving to a "pop-rock groove" of the same tempo after the introduction. It has the sequence of Fmaj<sub>7</sub>–Gm<sub>7</sub>–Fmaj<sub>7</sub>–Gm<sub>7</sub> as its chord progression. Carey's vocal range spans three octaves and seven semitones from the low note of F<sub>3</sub> to the high note of C<sub>7</sub>.
The song was written and produced by Carey and Hall, with additional work done by Afanasieff, who added a slightly altered instrumentation. "Dreamlover" samples the hook and a musical loop from "Blind Alley" by R&B group The Emotions. The sampling provides a "backbone" for the instrumentation and production, as well as being inter-looped in the bridge. Carey uses a whistle register to introduce the first verse.
In his review, Jozen Cummings from PopMatters described the song as "pure, frothy pop." Cummings felt Afanasieff's usage of the Hammond B3 organ added "an old school vibe" to "Dreamlover", as it harmonizes with the "extremely catchy musical hook." Cummings describes the theme of the lyrics:
> "... the lyric is a description of, and a call for, the mythic Dreamlover; someone to take her away, to 'rescue' her. Fluffy-seeming stuff, to be sure (and possibly cringe-inducing for some folk), but very possibly also an expression of the simplest of romantic dreams: to find the 'right' person; someone who makes you feel taken care of, loved, safe."
Cummings called the second verse's first lines "Don't want another pretender / To disillusion me one more time / Whispering words of forever / Playing with my mind" an "interesting mix of innocence and very grown-up cynicism and world-weariness." Wayne Robins from Newsday compared the vocals to "Motown and Philly soul singing," while praising Afansieff's inclusion of the Hammond B-3 for the way the "riffs provide a nice organic contrast to the synthesizers that dominate the record."
## Critical reception
"Dreamlover" earned widely positive reviews from music critics, many of whom praised its production, the sampling of the hook, and the vocals. In reference to the common criticism that Carey over-sings and over-uses her upper registers, Cummings wrote "truth is, she is never crass in the use of her amazing instrument. On 'Dreamlover', especially, she keeps a close, tasteful rein on the acrobatics." Ron Wynn from AllMusic called it personal and intense. He enjoyed Carey's more mature vocal style on the album, as well as the usage of the hook and the instrumentation. J. D. Considine from The Baltimore Sun called its melody "breezy", while The Buffalo Newss reviewer described it as "a sassy, pop rocker with a dance beat". Larry Flick from Billboard said it is "direct, unfussy, and profoundly pretty". He added, "The production is elegant but appealingly simplistic. Mariah's openhearted singing is up front, where it belongs, with a funky snare and kick-drum just a subtle half-step behind. The gliding, devotional pledge culminates in a lovely vocals-only tagline." Troy J. Augusto from Cashbox named it Pick of the Week, stating that Carey "tones down the vocal histronics [sic] here, her seductive, captivating voice flowing smoothly and beautifully on this sprite, sparsely produced love song". David Browne from Entertainment Weekly felt the singer's soft singing and lack of volume was hurtful to the song, saying she "lost herself." He thought the hook was catchy, but overly familiar. In 2018, the magazine noted the track's "glorious, frolicking-in-cutoffs groove." Blogger Roger Friedman from Fox News named "Dreamlover" and "Vision of Love" Carey's best, calling them "the original hits."
Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report said that the song is "a pop delight." In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton noted, "This new track debuts strongly then, and being far more catchy and original than most Mariah Carey material may well breach the Top 10 at least." Chris Roberts from Melody Maker praised Carey, who "sings with consummate power, grace and range over a Janet-swing lagoon of a track, both languorous and sassy." Alan Jones from Music Week gave it four out of five and named it Pick of the Week, deeming it as "an ultra-commercial, hook-laden and impeccably sung confection" that "starts with a supersonic screech and ends with an a capella tag." He added further, "In between, Carey exercises more restraint than usual in the vocal gymnastics department to great effect, proving that sometimes less is more." Jeff Silberman from The Network Forty described it as "a delicious midtempo pop gem, bolstered by in-the-pocket instrumentation, Carey's pristine vocals and a velvet production sound". A reviewer from People Magazine felt that "with its appealing girlish playfulness, it’s the kind of breezy pop she excels at." Tom Moon from The Philadelphia Inquirer called the song "irresistibly bubbly". The Plain Dealer noted that it "starts out with one of those upper-register vocal runs that can make dogs howl and shatter glassware in neighboring states." In an retrospective review, Pop Rescue stated that Carey's vocals "are confident, strong, and also perfectly partnered to this chilled out track", adding it as "wonderful" song. While reviewing Butterfly (1997), Rich Juzwiak of Slant Magazine praised the song's incorporation of the "Blind Alley" hook, saying it was done "as sweetly as possible."
Entertainment Weekly listed the song as one of "The 100 Greatest Moments in Rock Music: The 90s"; it was their top pick for 1993. "Dreamlover" received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
## Chart performance
"Dreamlover" was Carey's seventh number one single on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart in its sixth week and stayed there for eight consecutive weeks (September 5 to October 30, 1993)—her longest stay at the time. It replaced "Can't Help Falling in Love" by UB40, and was later replaced by Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." It spent 26 weeks in the top 40 and was ranked number eight on the Hot 100 1993 Year-End Charts and 20 on the Decade-End Charts. The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on September 22, 1993, denoting shipments of over one million units throughout the United States. It sold 935,000 units domestically. "Dreamlover" holds the joint title of the highest debuting song on the Billboard Pop Songs chart, entering the chart at number 12 on the week dated August 14, 1993, being tied by Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" in 2014. In Canada, "Dreamlover" became Carey's fifth number one single on the Canadian RPM Singles Chart, debuting at number 60 on the chart during the week of August 14, 1993. Three weeks later, the song reached the chart's number one position; it spent six consecutive weeks at the top and a total of 21 weeks on the singles chart. On the RPM Year-End Charts, "Dreamlover" finished at number two.
"Dreamlover" entered the Australian Singles Chart at number 41 during the week of August 23, 1993, eventually reaching a peak of number seven and spending a total of 21 consecutive weeks on the chart. The song was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting shipments of over 35,000 units throughout the country. In New Zealand, "Dreamlover" reached a peak position of number two on the New Zealand Singles Chart and spent sixteen weeks fluctuating on the chart. The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) certified the song gold for shipments of 7,500 units in the country. On the Dutch Top 40, "Dreamlover" debuted at number 36 during the week of August 28, 1993. After attaining a peak of number nine, the song dropped off the top 40 after a chart run of 13 weeks. On the yearly charts, the song finished at number 69. In Switzerland the song peaked at number thirteen and spent sixteen weeks on the singles chart. On the UK Singles Chart, "Dreamlover" reached its peak position of number nine during the week of September 4, 1993. It spent a total of ten weeks on the chart, exiting on October 23, 1993. Sales in the United Kingdom are estimated at 150,000 units.
## Music video and remixes
The accompanying music video for "Dreamlover" was directed by Diane Martel and filmed in Copake, New York in June 1993. It was published on Mariah Carey's official YouTube channel in November 2009. The video has amassed more than 35 million views as of September 2021. It features scenes of Carey swimming in a small pond by a waterfall, boarding a colorful hot air balloon, and dancing alongside several shirtless male dancers. As the video begins, Carey is swimming underwater while wearing clothing. She is soon gasping for air and climbing into a flower bed above. As she frolics and rolls in a field, scenes of Carey boarding a hot air balloon are intercut. Her dog Jack makes an appearance, as he follows her through the field and pond. After a short interval of dancing alongside several male dancers, Carey leaves with her dog as the video concludes. After filming the video, Carey revealed that the water was so cold that she refused to swim until the director, Martel, dived in first. Author Chris Nickson felt the video captured the song's soft and relaxed nature: "The casual feel, almost like clips from home movies edited together, captured the song's off-the-shoulder airiness." The video received heavy rotation on several music video channels, which added to the song's chart performance. On August 7, 2020, the music video was re-released in a remastered form, in HD quality.
"Dreamlover" marked the first time Carey was given creative control over remixing her songs. She enlisted David Morales to create the Def Club Mix; it was the first of Carey's remixes to use re-recorded vocals. An officially-released live version of "Dreamlover", derived from the television special Here Is Mariah Carey (1993), is available. "Dreamlover" B-side track ("Do You Think of Me") was written and produced by Carey, Afanasieff, Cory Rooney, and Mark Morales. Kelefa Sanneh from The New York Times complimented the remix, writing "[It] is a revelation: after a long percussion break, he isolates a few of Ms. Carey's ad-libs; her ultrafalsetto vocals sound spookier than all of Basement Jaxx's sound effects combined."
On August 7, 2020, along with the celebration of the 30th-anniversary of her debut studio album Mariah Carey (1990), as well as Carey celebrating 30 years in the music industry, the song was released as an eleven-track extended play, titled Dreamlover EP, which contains the remixes from the US CD maxi-single, as well as previously unreleased remixes, including 'Def Club Mix Edit', 'Def Club Mix Edit 2005', 'Theo's Club Joint' and 'Bam Jam Soul'. Her live performances at Madison Square Garden for the TV special Fantasy: Mariah Carey at Madison Square Garden (1995), and at Proctor's Theatre for the TV special Here Is Mariah Carey (1993), were also included on the EP.
## Live performances
Carey performed "Dreamlover" on several telecasts in the United States and throughout Europe. She performed the song live on The Arsenio Hall Show with "Hero" as a two-piece set-list. Carey performed "Dreamlover" at British music program Top of the Pops, the Dutch program Platendaagse, and the Japanese program Music Fair. In a promotional effort for her seventh studio album Rainbow, Carey filmed a FOX special titled The Mariah Carey Homecoming Special, a mini-concert filmed at her old high school in Huntington, New York. It was aired on December 21, 1999. "Dreamlover" served as one of the opening numbers. The song was performed on June 1, 2003, at The Today Show as part of a three-song set alongside "Yours" and "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" as a promotion for Carey's 2002 album, Charmbracelet.
Following the televised appearances, Carey performed the song live on several of her tours. In the Daydream World Tour she performed it in front of a backdrop showing footage from the song's video. On her Music Box Tour and Butterfly World Tour, the song served as the fifth song of the set-list. Carey performed alongside several female back-up dancers who mimicked her light dance routines. Carey used a similar presentation on the Rainbow World Tour. On Carey's Charmbracelet and The Adventures of Mimi tours, three male backup dancers were featured on stage, with the three female background vocalists behind them. On the latter tour, Carey's wore a black bikini, with a matching cape and Christian Louboutin pumps. She mixed the song with an instrumental remix of Mtume's song "Juicy Fruit." Following the release of her twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009), Carey embarked on the Angels Advocate Tour. It was her first tour that did not regularly feature the song, as it was only performed on a few select dates. In addition, Carey sang the song as a part of her Las Vegas residency, \#1 to Infinity, which chronicles the singer's 18 US Hot 100 number-one hits. For the performance, she donned a sequined white dress, and entered the stage in a pink convertible car. At the end of the performance, she stands atop a stage fan, while her skirt blows in the wind, as an homage to Marilyn Monroe. On Carey's Caution World Tour, "Dreamlover" served as the second song of the set-list.
## Track listing and formats
- Austrian CD maxi-single
1. "Dreamlover" – 3:53
2. "Dreamlover" (Def Club Mix) – 10:43
3. "Dreamlover" (Eclipse Dub) – 4:52
- European 7" vinyl
1. "Dreamlover" – 3:53
2. "Do You Think of Me" – 4:46
- European/UK CD maxi-single
1. "Dreamlover" – 3:53
2. "Do You Think of Me" – 4:46
3. "Someday" – 3:57
- US CD maxi-single
1. "Dreamlover" (Album Version) – 3:53
2. "Dreamlover" (Def Club Mix) – 10:43
3. "Dreamlover" (Def Instrumental) – 6:20
4. "Dreamlover" (USA Love Dub) – 7:10
5. "Dreamlover" (Eclipse Dub) – 4:52
6. "Dreamlover" (Def Tribal Mix) – 6:41
- Dreamlover EP'''
1. "Dreamlover" (Def Club Mix Edit) – 4:04
2. "Dreamlover" (Def Club Mix) – 10:46
3. "Dreamlover" (Def Club Mix Edit 2005) – 4:23
4. "Dreamlover" (Def Tribal Mix) – 6:42
5. "Dreamlover" (Eclipse Dub) – 4:53
6. "Dreamlover" (USA Love Dub) – 7:11
7. "Dreamlover" (Theo's Joint Club) – 4:35
8. "Dreamlover" (Bam Jam Soul) – 4:27
9. "Dreamlover" (Def Instrumental) – 6:22
10. "Dreamlover" (Live at Madison Square Garden – October 1995) – 3:54
11. "Dreamlover" (Live at Proctor's Theater, NY – 1993) – 3:57
## Credits and personnel
These credits were adapted from the Music Box liner notes.
"Dreamlover" was recorded at Right Track Studios, New York, and mixed at Sony Music Studios, New York.
- Mariah Carey – co-producing, songwriting, vocals
- Dave Hall – co-producing, songwriting, synthesizer
- Walter Afanasieff – co-producing, songwriting, organ
- Bob Ross – engineering
- Ren Klyce – programming
- Mick Guzauski – mixing
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Decade-end charts
### All-time charts
## Certifications and sales
## See also
- List of Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one singles of 1993
- List of number-one dance singles of 1993 (U.S.) |
44,436,606 | The Boat Race 1932 | 999,428,851 | null | [
"1932 in English sport",
"1932 in rowing",
"1932 sports events in London",
"March 1932 sports events",
"The Boat Race"
]
| The 84th Boat Race took place on 19 March 1932. Held annually, the Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames. The race was umpired by former Oxford rower Harcourt Gilbey Gold on a shortened because of repairs to Putney Bridge. Cambridge won by five lengths, the largest winning margin for three years, in a time of 19 minutes 11 seconds, their ninth consecutive victory. The win equalled the record victorious streaks of Oxford between 1861 and 1869, and 1890 and 1898, and took the overall record to 43–40 in their favour.
## Background
The Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing competition between the University of Oxford (sometimes referred to as the "Dark Blues") and the University of Cambridge (sometimes referred to as the "Light Blues"). The race was first held in 1829, and since 1845 has taken place on the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course on the River Thames in southwest London. The rivalry is a major point of honour between the two universities; it is followed throughout the United Kingdom and, as of 2014, broadcast worldwide. Cambridge went into the race as reigning champions, having won the 1931 race by 2+1⁄2 lengths, and led overall with 42 victories to Oxford's 40 (excluding the "dead heat" of 1877).
Oxford were coached by H. R. Barker (who rowed for the Dark Blues in the 1908 and 1909 races) and John Houghton Gibbon (who had participated in the 1899 and 1900 races, and umpired the previous year's race). Cambridge's coaches were F. E. Hellyer (who had rowed for the Light Blues in the 1910 and 1911 races), J. A. MacNabb (rowed in the 1924 race) and Peter Haig-Thomas (four-time Blue for Cambridge between 1902 and 1905). The race was umpired by Harcourt Gilbey Gold, former Dark Blue president for the 1900 race and four-time Blue, rowing in each race between 1896 and 1899.
The start of this year's race was moved to the University of London Boat Club, approximately 400 yards (370 m) further upstream. After discussion between the umpire, the two boat club presidents, the coaches Haig-Thomas and Gibbon, and a representative of the Port of London Authority, the course was shortened to avoid potential eddies around temporary buttresses erected by Putney Bridge which was undergoing repair. As noted by former Oxford rower E. P. Evans, writing in The Manchester Guardian, "no comparisons of times with previous races can be made, because the points on the course will be different". It was the first time since the 1863 race that the event was not conducted between the University Stone and Mortlake.
Cambridge were considered to be favourites to win the race: according to Evans, they had "a command of their boat" although Oxford had "acquired more 'drive' from the coaching of Colonel J. H. Gibbon". The rowing correspondent for The Times stated that the Cambridge crew were "the steadiest and best combined crew since that of 1924", while Oxford were "not remarkable for good form" and "not very well together in their blade nor very long nor very steady."
## Crews
The Cambridge crew weighed an average of 12 st 2.75 lb (77.3 kg), 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) per rower more than their opponents. Oxford saw four rowers return to the crew with Boat Race experience. Cambridge's crew also contained four participants who had taken part in the event previously, including bow David Haig-Thomas and number six Harold Rickett. Two participants in the race were registered as non-British, both of whom rowed for Cambridge: Lewis Luxton and William Sambell were Australian.
## Race
Cambridge won the toss and elected to start from the Surrey station, handing the Middlesex side of the river to Oxford. Weather conditions were favourable, with bright sunshine, little wind and calm water, and umpire Gold started the race at 10:30 a.m. Oxford made the quicker start, marginally out-rating the Light Blues and led by a quarter-length by the end of the Fulham Wall. They extended this lead to one third of a length by the time the crews passed the Mile Post. Cambrdige increased their stroke rate and drew level by the Crab Tree pub, and spurting at Harrods Furniture Depository they led by half a length.
As the crews passed below Hammersmith Bridge, Cambridge drew clear and held a two-length lead by the Doves pub. In rough water along Chiswick Reach, Oxford struggled and at Chiswick Steps they were eleven seconds behind the Light Blues. Despite a spurt from the Dark Blues, Cambridge passed under Barnes Bridge five lengths ahead. They held that lead to pass the finishing post in a time of 19 minutes 11 seconds, the largest winning margin since the 1929 race. It was their ninth consecutive victory and the first time in the history of the race that Cambridge had equalled the successful winning streaks of Oxford between 1861 and 1869, and 1890 and 1898. |
2,434,298 | Missouri Route 144 | 1,158,412,335 | State highway in Missouri | [
"State highways in Missouri",
"Transportation in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri"
]
| Route 144 is a 2.956-mile-long (4.757 km) state route in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. Its western terminus is at Route 32 near the village of Millers. The route travels southeastward toward Hawn State Park. The road then turns east and ends at Bauer Road and Park Drive, inside the state park. The route was designated in 1972, and has kept the same alignment since.
## Route description
In Ste. Genevieve County of eastern Missouri, Route 144 begins at Route 32 in Millers. The route intersects Miller Switch Road and bends south. It heads south-southeast through rural land, crossing Janca Creek and approaching Hawn State Park. The road then enters into forests as it heads toward the park. Upon reaching Hawn Park Road, Route 144 turns eastward and parallels the northern boundary of the park. The route enters the park and turns east-northeastward before reaching its eastern terminus at Bauer Road. The road continues into the park as Park Drive. In 2012, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) calculated 152 vehicles traveling near the western terminus. This is expressed in terms of annual average daily traffic (AADT), a measure of traffic volume for any average day of the year.
## History
The short road was designated by 1972, from Route 32 to the Hawn State Park entrance. It was already paved in concrete, and has not been altered as of 2013.
## Major intersections |
12,551,953 | 2008 British Grand Prix | 1,125,517,738 | Formula One motor race held in 2008 | [
"2008 Formula One races",
"2008 in British motorsport",
"British Grand Prix",
"July 2008 sports events in the United Kingdom"
]
| The 2008 British Grand Prix (officially the 2008 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 6 July 2008 at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, England. It was the ninth race of the 2008 Formula One World Championship. The race was held over 60 with a practice and qualifying round preceding the race.
Heikki Kovalainen started from pole position alongside Mark Webber in second and Kimi Räikkönen in third on the . On the first corner, Lewis Hamilton rose from fourth on the grid to second overtaking Webber and Räikkönen. Hamilton shadowed Kovalainen for the early stages of the race, until he took the lead on lap five. The race was won by Hamilton, racing for McLaren Mercedes ahead of Nick Heidfeld for BMW Sauber in second and Rubens Barrichello third in a Honda. Räikkönen made the fastest lap of the race on lap 18. Hamilton's drive was widely acclaimed as one of Formula One's finest wet-weather drives.
Of the 20 drivers competing, 13 finished the race, with eight receiving world championship points. Hamilton's win tied him for the lead of the Drivers' Championship, alongside Felipe Massa and Räikkönen. In the Constructors Championship, Ferrari's lead was reduced to 14 points over BMW Sauber, with McLaren a further 10 behind.
## Background
The 2008 British Grand Prix was held on 6 July 2008 at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, England. The grand prix was contested by 20 drivers, in 10 teams of two. The teams, also known as "constructors", were Scuderia Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes, Renault F1, Honda Racing F1, Force India-Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Toyota F1, Red Bull Racing-Renault, WilliamsF1-Toyota and Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari.
Before the race, Ferrari driver Felipe Massa led the Drivers' Championship with 48 points, BMW driver Robert Kubica trailed by two points, and Massa's teammate Kimi Räikkönen was third on 43 points. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was fourth with 38 points, 10 points ahead of Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari led with 91 points, BMW Sauber were second with 74 points, and McLaren were third with 58 points. Red Bull Renault were in fourth with 24 points, one point ahead of Toyota in fifth. Ferrari were the dominant team prior to the race: their drivers had won five out of eight races, including finishes at the Bahrain, Spanish, and in the previous race, the . Kubica had performed consistently for BMW Sauber, only failing to score once, and had won his first race four weeks earlier at the .
Despite wins for Hamilton at the Australian and , he was facing pressure approaching Silverstone. He had fallen from first to fourth in the Drivers' Championship after failing to score in the previous two races. At the Canadian Grand Prix, he had after making contact with a stationary Raikkonen who was waiting at a red light in the pit lane. This led to a ten-place grid penalty for the following race at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours where he failed to score after receiving a controversial for overtaking Sebastian Vettel by missing a chicane. After the race he responded angrily and to the negative press coverage he had been receiving, saying: "There's nothing you can do that can distract me. You can keep on giving me penalties, whatever you want. I'll keep battling, and trying to come back with a result." However, he remained upbeat about his likelihood of winning the championship and was "confident" going into the weekend.
Three days of testing took place at the Silverstone circuit, from 25 to 27 June. Massa set the fastest time on the first day with a 1:20.188, 0.3 faster than Heikki Kovalainen, but was unable to escape the track after suffering a mechanical failure with 30 minutes to go which forced the session to be red-flagged. Kovalainen improved on the second day to go fastest with a 1:20.015. Strong winds caused Giancarlo Fisichella to crash heavily at Becketts corner; he was uninjured, although medical checks meant he was unable to do further testing in the afternoon. On the third and final day, Hamilton set the quickest time with a 1:19.170, over 0.6 seconds ahead of second-fastest Timo Glock.
Before the race, the FIA announced that Donington Park had been awarded a ten-year contract to host the British Grand Prix from 2010, providing major renovations were completed. The British Racing Drivers' Club, owners of the Silverstone circuit, were disappointed with the announcement stating that development plans for the circuit had been progressing well. They were also critical of the timing of the announcement, being made on the weekend the circuit celebrated its 60th anniversary of hosting the British Grand Prix. Also before the race, Red Bull driver David Coulthard announced he was to retire at the end of the season, saying: "My decision was taken earlier this year and is based on a desire to stop while I am still competitive". He also explained the timing of his retirement saying "the decision to make this announcement at the British Grand Prix should be an obvious one for all to understand, as I have achieved two of my F1 victories at Silverstone and I am a member of the British Racing Drivers' Club, which hosts this event."
## Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions were held before the race held on Sunday. Two of the practice sessions were held on Friday, both lasting 90 minutes; and one on Saturday morning, lasting an hour. Massa was fastest in the first session, with a time of 1:19.575, despite a crash forcing him to miss the last 30 minutes. Fernando Alonso's Renault engine failed, leaving slippery oil on the racing line at Stowe corner. Massa approached the corner and lost control of his car, spinning off the circuit colliding with the barriers. He was unhurt, but his car was too damaged to continue. The session was stopped for 18 minutes to recover his car and cover the oil with cement dust. This left track conditions difficult, and nobody could beat Massa's time in the remainder of the session. It finished with Massa ahead of Kovalainen and Hamilton by less than one-tenth of a second; Raikkonen and Kubica were fourth and fifth-fastest, respectively.
In the second session, Kovalainen was fastest, over half a second ahead of Red Bull driver Mark Webber, Hamilton, and Webber's teammate David Coulthard. Massa missed the first half of the session as his car was still being repaired, and was eighth-fastest. Both Toyota drivers had problems: Timo Glock stopped on the track with a clutch problem; and Jarno Trulli crashed heavily at Stowe after a problem with his rear wing, although he was not hurt. Alonso set the fastest time in the final practice session, which took place in damp conditions following rain earlier in the morning. Early laps were attempted on extreme wet tyres, but the track dried throughout the session, prompting a move to intermediate wet tyres and, with around 20 minutes left, a further switch to dry tyres. Webber finished the session in second place, a quarter of a second slower than Alonso, and Kovalainen was third fastest ahead of Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel.
The qualifying session on Saturday afternoon was split into three rounds. The first lasted 20 minutes and eliminated the cars which finished the session 16th or lower. The second lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars which finished in positions 11 to 15. The final round of qualifying determined the order of the top ten drivers. Cars which competed in the final session of qualifying were not allowed to refuel before the race, and so they carried more fuel than in the previous sessions.
Kovalainen took his first Formula One pole position with a time of 1:21.049, half a second faster than anyone else. Webber would start alongside him on the front row, the Red Bull team's best qualifying result to date, and Räikkönen would start from third. Hamilton qualified fourth, opting for a more conservative approach to his second flying lap after he had pushed too hard on his first run and slid into the gravel. Nick Heidfeld was fifth quickest for BMW Sauber, ahead of Alonso, Alonso's teammate Nelson Piquet Jr., and Vettel. Championship leader Massa could only qualify ninth after a slow tyre change in the final session left him unable to record a second timed lap.
Kubica did not set a time in the final session due to a technical problem with his car, meaning he started from tenth; the first race all season he had qualified behind teammate Heidfeld. Webber's teammate David Coulthard qualified eleventh for his final British Grand Prix, narrowly missing out on the last part of qualifying, and blamed problems with his car earlier in the day which had reduced his practice time. Sébastien Bourdais was thirteenth splitting the two Toyota cars of Glock and Trulli. Kazuki Nakajima was the slowest of the cars to make the second round of qualifying, and would start the race fifteenth. Both Honda drivers failed to get past the first stage of qualifying, but were ahead of Rosberg in eighteenth, who had suspension problems. Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella finished in the last two positions for Force India.
### Qualifying classification
## Race
There was persistent rain in the morning, leaving standing water on the track, although it had abated by the time the race began. The track temperature was 16 °C (61 °F) and the air temperature was 15 °C (59 °F). All drivers chose to start on the intermediate wet tyres. Rosberg started from the pit lane after a number of set-up changes.
The front three drivers (Kovalainen, Webber and Räikkönen) all struggled for grip off the start, allowing Hamilton to edge ahead into the first corner. Kovalainen who had the better line, however, retook the lead after brushing tyres with Hamilton, who tucked in behind his teammate. A number of drivers struggled with the standing water on the first lap: Webber spun coming onto the Hangar straight, falling from fourth to last place; Massa spun going into Bridge, where he was passed by everyone except Webber; and Coulthard and Vettel ended up in a gravel trap after a collision, forcing them both to retire and bringing out the safety car, which was deployed for one lap and pulled off into pit-lane on lap two.
Alonso showed good early pace, passing Piquet and Heidfeld on laps two and three respectively, and setting the fastest time of any driver on laps four and five. Massa spun for the second time during his third lap, dropping him to the back of the field. Hamilton shadowed Kovalainen closely for several laps, and passed him going into Stowe on lap five. Hamilton quickly extended his lead over Kovalainen, and there was already a six-second gap by the tenth lap when Kovalainen spun and was passed by Räikkönen. However, as the track dried, Räikkönen showed the better pace—particularly in the last two sectors—and the gap was under a second by the time they both pitted on lap 21.
McLaren gave Hamilton a new set of intermediate wet tyres; in contrast, Ferrari gambled that the track would continue to dry and refuelled Räikkönen without changing his tyres. Despite his pit stop being longer by half a second, Hamilton exited just in front of Räikkönen (Heidfeld briefly took the lead until his pitstop the following lap). McLaren were vindicated in their decision almost immediately: the rain returned and Räikkönen was unable to find grip, falling back from Hamilton by up to eight seconds a lap. By lap 27, Kovalainen and Heidfeld had caught the struggling Räikkönen. As Kovalainen overtook Räikkönen, Heidfeld passed them both to take second place. On the same lap, Fisichella spun out and retired; his Force India teammate Sutil had already retired after a spin on lap 11. After being passed by Kubica and Piquet, Räikkönen finally pitted for fresh tyres on lap 30, dropping him to eleventh place.
Kubica overtook Kovalainen for third place, shortly before Kovalainen pitted for the second time. Despite the rain getting heavier he opted for a new set of intermediate tyres. Both Kubica and Glock left the track and rejoined; however Glock lost a place to his teammate Trulli. On lap 37, both Hondas elected to change onto the extreme wet-weather tyres, Button queuing behind his teammate in the pitlane while waiting to be serviced. Nelson Piquet Jr. spun off the track and beached his car in a gravel trap, ending his race, while in separate incidents within a few moments of each other Hamilton, Kubica, and Massa all lost control of their cars and travelled over the grass before rejoining the track, without any damage. Räikkönen also spun off on the same lap again rejoining the circuit without damaging the car. Hamilton, leading the race by around 30 seconds, made a pitstop to change tyres and take on fuel on lap 38, opting for a new set of the intermediate wet-weather tyres, as the weather forecast predicted the rain would ease. Second-placed driver Heidfeld pitted the following lap, opting for the same tyre choice as Hamilton. The gap between the two leaders was 36 seconds. Kimi Räikkönen spun off in his Ferrari for the second time in as many laps, again though he avoided contact with the barriers and was able to rejoin the track.
With 20 laps of the race remaining, Rubens Barrichello on the extreme wet weather tyres was around nine seconds a lap quicker than the majority of the field and quickly moved his way up to fourth place by passing Kovalainen and Alonso. Robert Kubica retired from the race after losing control of his car and ending up beached in a gravel trap. Nico Rosberg ran into the back of eighth-placed Timo Glock as he attempted to overtake. The collision damaged Rosberg's front wing, and he was forced to make a pit-stop to change it. By now the rain had stopped, but the track surface was still wet. Barrichello caught and passed Trulli and Heidfeld for second place, however a refuelling problem at his earlier pit stop meant that he would need to stop again. He built up a twenty-second gap over Heidfeld before making his pit stop on lap 47, opting to change to the intermediate wet weather tyres. He rejoined in third place, behind Heidfeld. Kovalainen passed Alonso for fifth place at the Bridge corner. Trulli then pitted, promoting Kovalainen to fourth. Felipe Massa spun on the exit of Woodcote corner, managing to recover without any damage. A few moments later Mark Webber made a similar error at the same location. The following lap saw a spin from Kovalainen, which allowed Alonso and Räikkönen to get past while he recovered to the circuit.
Massa, the last car on the road still running in 13th position, spun for the fifth time during the race. He continued without any damage, and made a pit stop the following lap for new tyres and fuel. The final few laps saw a battle for fourth place, as first Räikkönen and then Kovalainen passed Alonso. Hamilton crossed the finish line on lap 60 to win the Grand Prix by 68 seconds from Nick Heidfeld in second. The margin of victory was the largest since the 1995 Australian Grand Prix. Rubens Barrichello finished in third position for Honda's best finish of the 2008 season. Kimi Räikkönen finished in fourth ahead of Kovalainen and Alonso. Räikkönen had also set the fastest lap in the early stages of the race, the sixth consecutive race in which he had done so. Jarno Trulli finished in seventh position, and Kazuki Nakajima finished the race in eighth.
### Race classification
## Post-race
The top three finishers appeared on the podium to receive trophies and took part in the subsequent press conference. Hamilton commented on the difficult conditions, comparing them to the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, and the limited visibility: "I couldn't see through my visor, so through turn one and two I had to clean visor, put it up and back down again. I had to do that on every lap especially when it was rained. I couldn't see anything. It was so extreme, so tough, a real mental challenge." He also thanked the fans for their support.
Heidfeld said it was vital to make the correct tyre decisions, and also spoke about the challenging weather: "The most difficult moments in the race were when cars were overtaking me who had been lapped, but were just on better tyres for the conditions at that time. There was so much water and I couldn't see where it was lying." Barrichello, who took his first podium since the 2005 United States Grand Prix, described it as a "perfect race". He said that after he switched to extreme wet tyres, he was "passing people from inside to outside, it was just magic".
After the race, Hamilton tied with Massa and Räikkönen for the lead of the Drivers' Championship all on 48 points. Kubica dropped behind Räikkönen and Hamilton but remained two points behind the championship leaders, with Heidfeld remaining fifth. In the Constructors' Championship, BMW reduced Ferrari's lead to 14 points. McLaren made up six points on BMW, although they were still 10 points behind.
## Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings
Constructors' Championship standings
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
## See also
- 2008 Silverstone GP2 Series round |
35,515,136 | Tuvalu at the 2012 Summer Olympics | 1,095,065,156 | null | [
"2012 in Tuvaluan sport",
"Nations at the 2012 Summer Olympics",
"Tuvalu at the Summer Olympics by year"
]
| Tuvalu competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which was held from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The country's participation at London marked its second appearance in the Summer Olympics since its debut at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The delegation consisted of three competitors: two short-distance runners, Tavevele Noa and Asenate Manoa, and one weightlifter, Tuau Lapua Lapua. All three qualified for the games through wildcard places because they did not meet the qualification standards. Lapua was the flag bearer for the opening ceremony while Manoa carried it at the closing ceremony. Noa and Manoa failed to advance beyond the preliminary rounds of their events although the latter established a new national record for the women's 100 metres, while Lapua placed 12th in the men's featherweight (62 kilogram) weightlifting competition.
## Background
The 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom are Tuvalu's second Summer Olympics following its debut in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. No Tuvaluan athlete had ever won a medal at the Olympic Games. Tuvalu participated in the London Summer Games from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The delegation consisted of sprinters Tavevele Noa and Asenate Manoa and weightlifter Tuau Lapua Lapua. The team trained with the sports coaching faculty at the University of Central Lancashire and with the Preston Harriers Athletics Club in the 100-day period before the Games. Lapua was selected as the flag bearer for the opening ceremony while Manoa carried it at the closing ceremony.
## Athletics
Tavevele Noa was the sole male athletic competitor to compete for Tuvalu at the London Olympics at the age of 20. He had not taken part in any previous Olympic Games. Noa qualified for the Games by using a wildcard after competing in an event on Tuvalu's main island and was selected to take part in the men's 100 metres dash. In an interview before the Games he said he was looking to competing in the Olympics and felt nervous but aimed to establish a new personal best time. Noa was drawn in the second heat of the preliminary round on 4 August, finishing sixth out of seven runners, with a time of 11.55 seconds. He finished 72nd out of 76 overall and did not advance to the later stages after being 3⁄4 of a second slower than the slowest athlete in his heat who progressed. After his event he stated: "My race was not good, my aim was to get 10 seconds. The start of my race was good but then when I reached 60 meters, I let it down."
At the age of 20 years and 73 days, Asenate Manoa was the youngest athlete to represent Tuvalu at the London Games. She had previously participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Manoa qualified for the Games by using a wildcard because her fastest time of 13.82 seconds, recorded on 21 June 2011 in Apia, Samoa, was 2.44 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for her event, the women's 100 metres sprint. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph before the Games she said she had been nervous taking part in Beijing but was looking forward to participating in London. Manoa was drawn in the second heat of the preliminary round, finishing seventh out of eight runners, with a time of 13.48 seconds. Her time established a new Tuvaluan national record in the displicine. He finished 73rd overall out of 78 competitors, and was unable to progress into the first round after finishing 1.48 seconds slower than the slowest athlete in her heat who made the later stages. She was pleased with her performance, saying that she felt she could run quicker: "I know what I need to work on, in order for me to go faster and get another National Record. I hope everyone in Tuvalu is proud of me."
### Key
### Men
### Women
## Weightlifting
Tuau Lapua Lapua participated on Tuvalu's behalf in the men's featherweight (62 kilogram) weightlifting competition. He was the oldest person to represent Tuvalu at age 21 and had not participated in any previous Olympic Games. Lapua qualified for the games by earning a wildcard place based on his performance at the 2012 Oceania Weightlifting Championships in Apia, Samoa. Before his event he said that he was delighted to compete in the competition and wanted to make Tuvalu proud. His event took place in 31 July, and included 14 athletes in total. During the event's snatch phase, Lapua was given three attempts. He successfully attempted to lift over 90 kilograms of weight in his first two attempts, but did not achieve this objective on the third attempt. Lapua then attempted 130 kilograms during the clean and jerk phrase of the event, successfully lifting it in all three of his attempts. Overall, the combination of Lapua's highest scores in snatch (108) and clean and jerk (135) yielded a score of 243 points and 12th place.
## See also
- Tuvaluan records in athletics
- Tuvalu at the Olympics |
37,601,107 | Chris Pappas (Neighbours) | 1,165,450,335 | Fictional character in Neighbours | [
"Fictional Greek people in television",
"Fictional LGBT characters in television",
"Fictional gay men",
"Fictional mechanics",
"Fictional personal trainers",
"Male characters in television",
"Neighbours characters",
"Television characters introduced in 2010"
]
| Chris Pappas is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by James Mason. Mason originally read for the role of Andrew Robinson, before he was called back to audition for Chris three days later. He was told during the audition that the character would be gay. He began filming his first scenes in October 2009, and he made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 25 February 2010. Executive producer Susan Bower said the character was created because of requests from young viewers in the Neighbours website's online forums. The character's sexuality storyline was also based on the real life experiences of the show's writers. Chris became the first prominent, regular male homosexual character in the show's twenty-five-year history. He was the second ongoing homosexual character overall, following Lana Crawford's (Bridget Neval) introduction in 2004.
Chris is introduced as a high school student, who befriends the soap's other teen characters and becomes captain of the school's basketball team. He briefly dates Summer Hoyland (Jordy Lucas), before revealing that he is gay. Chris struggles with his sexuality and the reactions of his friends, family and teammates. Writers explored the issue of homophobia when Chris is confronted by a homophobic customer while working at the local garage. The character was given a love interest in nurse Aidan Foster (Bobby Morley), and they formed Neighbours' first gay couple. Chris was central to a coward punch storyline in 2014, which was a topical issue in Australia at the time. Producers also established a relationship between him and Nate Kinski (Meyne Wyatt), and he fathered a child with his friend Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell), shortly before his exit which aired on 27 March 2015. He made a cameo appearance on 6 November 2015 and reprised his role for the show's final episodes in 2022.
Bower expected Chris's coming out storyline to receive criticism and some media commentators called it "an obvious ratings grab". Mason and the show's script producer defended the storyline, saying that it was not a ploy to boost ratings and that it explored how Chris's coming out affected the people around him. Television critics and LGBT websites have given the character and his storyline development a positive reception. In 2012, Mason earned a nomination for the Logie Award for Most Popular New Male Talent.
## Creation and casting
Neighbours' executive producer Susan Bower said the creation of the character and his storyline was a result of requests from young viewers in the Neighbours website forums. Bower said that Chris's coming out storyline was also based on the real life experiences of the shows writers.
Mason's agent got him an audition with Neighbours and he originally read for the role of Andrew Robinson. The part was given to Jordan Patrick Smith, but an offer to play the role of Chris arrived three days later. Mason told Matt Akersten of SameSame that he was okay with knowing Chris would be gay. The character is Mason's first major television role. He began filming his first scenes in October 2009, before making his on-screen debut in February 2010. Bower later revealed that two-thirds of the boys who auditioned for the role of Chris backed out when they discovered the character was gay, which she said was "disappointing, but not surprising." Mason said that he was "really excited to get an opportunity like this" and added the writers had helped him out as the script was coming straight from their experiences. Bower praised Mason, saying that he "does a wonderful job."
In October 2010, the ATV News Network reported that the Neighbours writers and producers were unsure how to keep Chris connected to Ramsay Street. ATV said that the writer were "stumped" as to what to do with the character and his story. At the time, Mason was still filming for the show, but ATV reported that it was not known if he would be given a new contract. However, in January 2011, a Network Ten spokesperson told SX News that Mason's role would be expanded from April and he and Chris will get more screen time. Chris will be seen taking on "issues that every gay teenager does." On becoming a regular cast member, Mason told Channel 5, "I love it. The more time I spend on Neighbours, the more I feel part of the show. And I'm learning all the time. The thing about this industry is it's very hard to find stable work, so to have stability, I'm extremely grateful."
## Development
### Coming out
Neighbours had featured a few short-term or minor male gay characters before for plot points or small story arcs, but Chris was the first male gay character to be given a prominent role. The first minor male gay characters to appear were Andrew MacKenzie (John Morris) and Alf Taylor (Frank Bren) in 1994. The following year a gay schoolteacher, Andrew Watson (Chris Uhlman), became the victim of a dismissal campaign by his pupils. Hairdresser Gino Esposito (Shane McNamara) was often hinted at being gay.
Mason has said that there have been a few hints about Chris's sexuality along the way and in August 2010, Chris finally revealed that he is gay to his girlfriend, Summer. TV Week described Chris as being "deeply conflicted" over his decision to tell her about his sexuality. Mason said "It's hard for Chris because he has a girlfriend who he's been with for some time. To try and tell someone in this situation would be really difficult". Summer initially takes the news well and plays it down, but when fellow student Natasha Williams (Valentina Novakovic) discovers that one of her classmates is gay, she goes out of her way to find out who it is and expose them. Mason said that she does not realise that "what she sees as a game is someone else's life".
Mason has said he was nervous about filming Chris's coming out. Describing the scene, he said "I did have to stand up in front a group of people and tell them [as my character], I was gay. That was a little intimidating". The actor felt that the storyline had been handled in a realistic manner and said that it shows that coming out is a difficult thing to do. Mason also spoke to a friend about his coming out experience to gain information about how long it took him to come out and how people reacted. The storyline follows Chris's struggle with his sexuality and depicts the reactions of his friends and family. It also deals with the issue of homophobia in sport. The Australian gay and lesbian newspaper, SX News said "Chris is the captain of the school basketball team, but once word he's gay gets out to the other teams it turns nasty for him".
Previous same-sex storylines in the show had led to criticism from conservative groups. Bower has said that she expects this storyline to come under fire, saying "I do believe homophobia is still alive and well, and I have no doubt that we will get complaints about it". Australian LGBT website SameSame said the story had attracted attention from some media commentators, who called it "an obvious ratings grab and an attempt to out-gay rival soap, Home and Away". However, script producer, Emma Steele defended the storyline and said that it is not a "ploy to grab ratings". Steele said that she is "particularly proud" of the way Chris's storyline had been handled and she added "It was something we wanted to do for a while because it's a story that affects so many people and in so many different ways. It wasn't just Chris's story. I think it's interesting to see how [his sexuality] affected his friends and his relationships with them too".
Mason said he hoped that his storyline would "draw in viewers in a responsible way" and the feedback would stay positive. Mason added that he would like to see Chris happy in the future and hopes the viewers will warm to him. He added "I know it's quite a sensitive topic, but I think the difference between his and the last encounters they've had is that we're looking more in-depth into more than just a "gay kiss". We go more into the relationships, how it affects people around". Steele backed this up, saying "We wanted gay to be part of Chris's character, not Chris to be the gay character. He's not your typical gay stereotype that some TV shows like to play up. He's on the basketball team, he's had a girlfriend for a time, and I think the show does a good job of portraying the way his character is discovering who he really is".
### Relationship with Aidan Foster
In October 2010, Mason stated that a romantic interest for Chris could be introduced in the future. He said that it was not confirmed, but there was a chance that Chris would find someone. Mason admitted that he would find it "awkward" if he had to perform a male kissing scene. The following year, Mason revealed that the writers had plans for a romance for Chris on their radar and a few weeks later it was announced that Bobby Morley had joined the cast as Aidan Foster, a love interest for Chris. Aidan and Chris formed the serial's first gay couple. Bower called the storyline "a natural progression" for Chris, noting that he needed to meet someone at some stage. Bower told Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy that Chris's romance will be handled in a sensitive way and will be treated within the character. She explained "Chris is a naturally shy person – he is not a person who either flaunts his sexuality or his heart. So it will be done according to that character. And it may not be a full-on relationship. The character that Bob is playing is older and further down the track with his relationship testing, so it will be a relationship story rather than a gay male romance." Mason said that Chris and Aidan's relationship would have a slow build up.
Chris meets Aidan when he is brought into the hospital following a "vicious beating". Aidan provides a source of kindness and support for Chris. He later takes his car to the local garage to be serviced and flirts with Chris, who is initially unaware of what is going on. Lucas Fitzgerald (Scott Major) attempts to help Chris by asking Aidan if he is gay or straight, which leads to embarrassment for them all. The appearance of Chris' father, George (Lliam Amor), makes the situation worse and when Aidan asks Chris out for a drink, he turns him down. Mason told an Inside Soap writer "George is only just starting to accept that his son is gay, so when Aidan invites Chris for a drink, Chris turns him down out of fear of what his dad will think." Chris becomes intrigued by Aidan, but he also unsure what to do as he has never had a boyfriend before and it is all new to him. Natasha urges Chris to "face his fears" and she decides to play matchmaker at a barbecue they are all attending. Chris bonds with Aidan, but he thinks he missed his chance when Aidan goes on a date with someone else. Mason revealed that this leads to some new tension between the characters.
Aidan and Chris later arrange a date, which turns into "a complete disaster". Chris is initially anxious and on edge, until he realises Aidan is having fun and he relaxes. However, Natasha then calls Chris to help with a problem and he has to leave Aidan, who assumes Chris has set the whole thing up to get out of the date. Aidan and Chris go out on another date, which marks the beginning of their relationship and Neighbours''' first ever gay couple. On 9 April 2012, Aidan and Chris shared their first on-screen kiss. The couple, who had not shown any sign of physical affection until that point, shared "a rather passionate embrace" during a house party. Morley told TV Week's Andrew Mercado that Chris and Aidan share the intimate moment as any other couple would do. Morley thought the kiss was just as awkward as any other kiss he had previously performed, but he and Mason spent a lot of time and effort into getting it right for their characters. Chris and Aidan's kiss marked the serial's first male gay kiss in its twenty-seven-year history. Bower had previously promised that it would not be "sensationalist or token" and the low-key scene earned praise from viewers on social networking sites.
Morley took a break from Neighbours in mid-2012, which led the writers to improvise an on-screen break up for Aidan and Chris. The break up occurs after Aidan learns Chris has not told his parents that they are in a relationship. Mason said that Chris is fine with his friends knowing about his relationship, but it is different story when it comes to his parents. His father has not always made things easy for him in the past, so he does not give him and his mother a chance to get to know Aidan. When Chris' parents throw him a birthday party at Lassiters Lake, he decides not to invite Aidan. However, Aidan learns about the party from Andrew and he feels "hurt and humiliated" by Chris' actions, so he ends their relationship. Mason said, "That's when the gravity of the situation hits Chris, and he's left in shock. He thinks, 'How did it come to this?'. Things really seemed to be falling into place with Aidan." Chris then learns that his parents would have accepted the relationship and he realises that he has lost Aidan due to an assumption.
Chris and Aidan get back together, but after a few weeks, Chris breaks up with Aidan for good. Chris ends the relationship over Aidan's dishonesty. Chris learns that he has agreed to keep Andrew's epilepsy diagnosis a secret and he has also been suspended from the hospital. When Aidan gets into a fight and hides it, Chris becomes "exasperated enough" to break up with him. Mason said Chris still loved Aidan, so it was tough on them both. Aidan makes a "desperate suggestion" that they move in together, but Chris realises that it would be a bad idea. Mason stated, "Chris is a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, so I don't think he'll be wallowing in self-pity for long." He added that he would miss Morley, as he had enjoyed working with him during the storyline.
### Homophobia and attack
A homophobia storyline was implemented for the character in September 2011, when Chris meets Warren Burrell (Tony Rickards), a homophobic customer at the garage. Warren makes his prejudice against gay people clear to Chris, which leaves him unsure how to respond, as he has never met an adult who speaks about gay people in the way Warren does. Chris tells his boss, Lucas Fitzgerald, about Warren, but he is disappointed when Lucas does not do anything about it. Of Chris's situation, Mason explained "It was very confronting for him. And because the guy wasn't pointing his remarks directly at Chris, Lucas didn't understand why Chris was so offended. At first, he didn't have an appreciation of how deep those comments hurt Chris." The storyline divided the opinions of viewers with some understanding why Lucas would not want to confront Warren, while others were on Chris's side. Mason was pleased that the audience was discussing the storyline and he admitted to appreciating both sides of the conversation. He said, "Lucas wasn't there when the customer was saying these things, so he didn't understand Chris's point of view. However, as the story went along, we saw Lucas change and his respect for Chris grew." Mason added the storyline was about showing understanding for where a person is coming from and being willing to change your ideas.
Two months later, Warren returns to the garage and Lucas shows his support for Chris by defending him. Chris soon meets and befriends Warren's son, Blake Burrell (Oliver Edwin). When Warren learns they are friends, he decides to put a stop to the situation. Warren threatens to kill Chris unless he stops spending time with Blake. Mason thought it was a shame that Chris and Blake could not continue their friendship because of Warren and his views. It soon becomes clear someone is spying on Chris, but whether it is Warren or someone else is not clear. Mason added something big would happen, which might not end well for Chris. Shortly after, Chris is beaten unconsciousness while he is working alone at the garage. Warren is the initial suspect, as he was the last customer at the garage before the attack. Speaking to an Inside Soap columnist, Mason revealed that the scenes were filmed in such a "suspenseful way" that the audience does not see who the attacker is. They see someone reach for a wrench in the dark and come up behind Chris and strike him. Lucas finds Chris on the ground, and at the hospital, he is treated for cuts, bruises, painful ribs and trauma from being kicked around. The character was shown to be reluctant to report the attack to the police, although he is certain that Warren was responsible. Mason told the columnist, "Chris is embarrassed to admit that he was bashed for being gay." Lucas does some investigating and realises that Warren may not have been the assailant. He thinks that Chris was attacked as a warning to himself over plans for a future development on the site of the garage.
### Scotty Boland
Shortly after Georgia Brooks's (Saskia Hampele) boyfriend Scotty Boland (Rhys Uhlich) was introduced, Chris is shocked to realise that Scotty "may have a romantic interest in him." During a charity camp-out, which has been organised by Georgia, Scotty visits Chris' tent during the night and says something that makes Chris believe he is making a romantic advance towards him. Mason commented that the storyline has "a serious side" because everyone believes Scotty is straight, especially his girlfriend. He also said that there would be some funny moments in the lead up to the big revelation. Not long after the camp-out incident, Scotty lets his attraction to Chris get the better of him and he tries to kiss Chris. Uhlich explained that "There's no mistaking this as Scotty hitting on Chris. He's really put it out there now, but Chris doesn't go for it. So he kicks Scotty out of the house, but even then Scotty doesn't realise what the kiss means." A shocked Chris then confides in his housemate Kyle Canning (Chris Milligan) about the kiss and they decide that they need to tell Georgia. However, they soon learn that Scotty has proposed to Georgia and decide to remain silent to stop her from having her heart broken.
### Relationship with Hudson Walsh
In mid-2013, a new love interest for Chris was introduced in the form of competitive swimmer Hudson Walsh (Remy Hii). Chris is initially cautious about dating Hudson so soon after Aidan. Hii commented, "Chris is trying to keep his cards close to his chest, but by the same token, Hudson is also a new guy to this neighbourhood and isn't quite sure who he can be open to and show his true colours to." Chris ends their potential relationship after discovering that Hudson has been taking steroids to help him train. But then Hudson tells him that he has stopped taking the steroids and asks for a second chance. Mason said Chris is still fragile after Aidan and he does not want to get hurt, so he is "pretty hard" on Hudson, but neither one of them are happy that things between them have ended so soon. When Chris comes home to find Hudson in his house, he thinks Hudson broke in and they argue, until Kyle tells him he let Hudson in. Chris suddenly realises how much Hudson means to him and apologises. The couple have a romantic dinner and they kiss for the first time.
### Coward punch
In September 2014, Chris was the focus of a coward punch storyline. During Kyle and Georgia's joint bucks and hen night, Chris was forced to eject a drunk Josh Willis (Harley Bonner) from The Waterhole when he caused a scene. Shortly after, Josh returned and hit Chris with a coward punch, causing him to fall and hit his head on a rock. Kyle and Georgia found Chris unconscious and he was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. Mason was pleased to be given the storyline, explaining that it was a topical issue in Australia at the time. He said "The whole moral of the story is that one little mistake can have really dire consequences. I like to think that we can use this story to really educate people and get the word out there that this is something really serious that we're battling against at the moment." Mason thought that Chris might be able to forgive Josh in the future, but it would be "a long process", and he would have to deal with the fact that his life had changed forever due to the attack first. Mason added that Chris would have difficulties accepting that someone like Josh attacked him.
Chris faced further trouble when he suffered a sudden seizure. Mason explained that many things had changed for Chris since the attack and the seizure compounded his fear that he will be struggling for the rest of his life. Chris was also worried that he had developed epilepsy like Andrew did, but doctors informed him that the seizure was a temporary symptom of his brain injury. Chris was kept in hospital overnight, which meant his romantic plans with his partner Nate Kinski (Meyne Wyatt) were put on hold. However, Nate turned up at the hospital and Mason said, "The two of them just cuddle, and for the first time Chris realises this is a serious relationship." Nate then told Chris he loved him for the first time.
### Departure and return
After five years in the role, Mason decided to leave Neighbours and Chris departed on 27 March 2015. Chris's exit storyline saw him decide to be a full-time father to his child with Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell), and move to New York. When Nate told Chris that he did not want to move to New York, they decided to end their relationship. Wyatt commented "It's been a long time coming. Chris has decided that he wants to go to New York and Nate is staying in Erinsborough." Chris departed Erinsborough with Lucy. On 6 November 2015, Chris and Lucy made a cameo appearance to announce the birth of their daughter.
On 7 May 2022, Dan Seddon of Digital Spy reported that Mason was reprising his role for the show's final episodes to be broadcast later in the year.
## Storylines
After being scammed by Andrew Robinson and Harry Ramsay into buying a manual on how to win a girlfriend, Chris befriends them and Summer Hoyland. Chris joins the basketball team and is later elected captain. He also begins dating Summer, which makes Harry jealous. Andrew gets Chris fired from his job as a lifeguard at the local swimming pool when he throws a party that gets out of control. To make things up to Chris, Andrew helps him get a job at the local gym. Summer becomes annoyed when Chris forgives Andrew so easily and then allows himself to be influenced by him into skipping school. Chris also ends up in a fight with Kyle Canning when he defends Andrew. Michael Williams (Sandy Winton) becomes concerned about Chris's behaviour and Chris later tells him he is confused about Andrew, leading Michael to realise Chris is gay. When Michael's daughter, Natasha, spreads a rumour that a Year 11 student is gay, several people believe it is Summer. The rumours start to affect Chris and he comes out to his class. When Andrew realises Chris has feelings for him and is annoyed.
Chris is suspended from school when he gets into a fight with a rival basketball captain. When his parents find out about the fight and that he is gay, they throw Chris out and he stays with Summer. She later breaks down and reveals that she is struggling with his sexuality. Chris reassures her that it is not her fault he is gay and their friendship becomes stronger. Chris befriends Natasha and helps her and Summer to make up when they fall out. After receiving lower grades than expected, Chris reconsiders attending university. He gets a job at Fitzgerald Motors, upsetting his father, George, who wants him to go to university. To keep George happy, Chris begins attending TAFE. A customer, Warren Burrell, makes derogatory comments about gay people and makes Chris feel uncomfortable. Warren's son, Blake, befriends Chris and apologises for his father. Warren witnesses them playing pool and warns Chris to stay away from Blake. Chris is later attacked while working and Lucas takes him to the hospital, but Chris leaves before getting his x-rays. He later collapses and Rhys Lawson has to perform emergency surgery to get Chris breathing again.
Nurse Aidan Foster is assigned to look after Chris. Chris later turns down Aidan's offer of a drink; but Natasha encourages him to spend time with Aidan. Chris becomes jealous when Aidan goes on a date with another guy and eventually manages to ask Aidan out. Chris and Aidan begin dating. Aidan encourages Chris to tell his parents about them, but Chris admits that he is struggling to and worries how his father will react. Chris chooses not to invite Aidan to his birthday party, which is hosted by his family, and Aidan breaks up with him. Chris tells his parents about his relationship and they assure him that they would have accepted it. During a car journey to the city, Chris and his friends find Sophie Ramsay (Kaiya Jones) hiding in the boot of his car. Andrew pressures Chris into allowing Sophie to sit on Summer's lap. An argument between Andrew and Natasha breaks out and when Andrew bumps Chris' arm, he loses control of the car and crashes. Chris blames himself for the accident and Andrew's father, Paul (Stefan Dennis), tries to sue him. The police fine Chris and he loses his license for six months. Chris and Aidan get back together and Chris moves into 26 Ramsay Street.
Chris becomes frustrated with Aidan when he does not confide in him about his feelings or accept help from him. When Aidan goes back on his promise to be more open and honest, Chris breaks up with him. Chris suffers a flashback to the crash and damages a Lassiter's car. Ralphie Mahone (Daniel Bowden) fixes the car and in return, he asks Chris to rework some vehicles for him. Chris comes clean to Lucas, who calls the police. Ralphie threatens Chris, but Mason Turner (Taylor Glockner) intervenes and gets rid of Ralphie. Georgia Brooks's boyfriend, Scotty, makes sexual advances towards Chris. When Georgia finds out, she starts avoiding Chris, but they later make up. Chris befriends Amber Turner (Jenna Rosenow) when he sees she is being bullied. Amber develops a crush on Chris and he is forced to tell her that nothing will ever happen between them. Chris begins dating competitive swimmer Hudson Walsh (Remy Hii). Chris breaks up with Hudson when he learns that he is taking performance-enhancing drugs. Chris and Hudson later get back together. Hudson confesses to running down Amber's ex-boyfriend Robbo Slade (Aaron Jakubenko). He apologises to Chris and then refuses to see him again.
When he has trouble sleeping, Chris gets a prescription for sleeping pills. Kyle and his grandmother, Sheila (Colette Mann), later find Chris collapsed in the garden and Karl tells Chris to stop taking the sleeping pills. Chris ignores his advice and starts sleepwalking. Chris also has a series of one-night stands and gets two warnings at work from his new boss, Danni Ferguson (Laura McIntosh). Chris is arrested when he punches Josh Willis, who spoke to a journalist about Chris and Hudson's relationship. Kate Ramsay (Ashleigh Brewer) drives Chris to the prison, so he can see Hudson and sort things out. Hudson tells Chris that he cut off contact as he needed time to prepare himself for prison. Chris asks Hudson to give their relationship another go and he agrees. Chris keeps Hudson's incarceration a secret from his parents, so he is angered when Sonya Rebecchi (Eve Morey) inadvertently reveals his secret to his mother, Patricia (Katerina Kotsonis). When Patricia is later arrested for theft, Chris learns that she is a gambling addict and Sonya knew.
Chris's knee is badly injured when Danni's ex-boyfriend Stephen Montague (Damian Hill) attacks him. He undergoes surgery and the flirts with nurse Will Dempier (Christian Heath) when he suffers a reaction to the analgesic. Chris becomes frustrated when Hudson is not there for him, and questions how he can be in a relationship and feel so alone. He decides to ask Will out for a drink, but later cancels. Chris collapses due to complications from his surgery and is readmitted to hospital. He apologises to Will for cancelling on him and then tells him about Hudson. During Chris's next visit to Hudson, he appears distracted and when Hudson asks him if he is seeing someone else, Chris hesitates and Hudson breaks up with him. Chris tells Hudson about Will and how lonely he is. Hudson does not want Chris to date him out of guilt, and they say goodbye. Chris spends some time with Will and they begin dating, but the relationship ends when Will's dog, Napoleon, bites Kyle's dog Bossy, and Will refuses to accept responsibility or apologise.
Chris befriends Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell) and she asks him to father her child, to which Chris replies that he needs time to decide. Chris meets Nate Kinski and they arrange to go a picnic for their first date. Chris is shocked when Nate attacks a drunk guy for harassing Paige Smith (Olympia Valance), but Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne) convinces him to give Nate a second chance. When Chris asks Nate to open up about his time in the army and Afghanistan, Nate gets physical with him. Nate promises that it will not happen again and asks Chris not to push him about opening up until he is ready. During Georgia and Kyle's joint hen and bucks night, Chris is punched by an unseen assailant and he hits his head. Kyle and Georgia find him and he is rushed to hospital, and placed in an induced coma. Josh later confesses to punching Chris. When Chris wakes up, he struggles to remember words and his right side is weakened. Chris is allowed leave from the hospital to attend Georgia and Kyle's wedding. After he is discharged from hospital, Nate becomes Chris's carer. Chris decides to return to work at the garage but is unable to do the work and is sent home. Chris later suffers a seizure and is admitted to hospital. He is forced to quit his job as he can no longer handle the workload due to his injuries. Josh's mother, Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou), offers Chris a job as a trainee manager at Lassiter's Hotel, which Nate persuades him to accept.
Lucy returns and Chris rejects her offer of being father to her child when Nate confesses he does not want children; however, Chris changes his mind when Nate supports him. Nate later helps Chris and Lucy see that they need to think the idea through more thoroughly, and they draw up a contract detailing how their child will be raised. When they learn that they are both carriers of spinal muscular atrophy, Chris tells Lucy that she should find another donor. But when Chris sees how down Lucy is, he changes his mind and they go ahead with the insemination. A couple of weeks later, Lucy calls Chris to tell him that she is pregnant. Chris plans to visit New York for the scan, but Nate confesses he is banned from the States for overstaying his visa there previously. Toadfish Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney) agrees to help lift the ban, but Nate misses a meeting and Chris accuses him of not taking it seriously. Lucy returns for a visit and Chris decides he wants to split his time between Erinsborough and New York when the baby comes, although Nate is against this idea. Nate realises that they want different things, and they break-up. Chris then decides to move to New York with Lucy and leaves after a farewell party at The Waterhole. A few months later, Amber contacts Chris and Lucy via video call after learning that they have had a daughter. Chris and Lucy introduce her to Annie, and Chris asks Amber to say hello to Nate for him.
## Reception
For his portrayal of Chris, Mason was nominated for the Most Popular New Male Talent accolade at the 2012 Logie Awards. In 2014, Mason won the Soap Extra Award for Most Topical Storyline for Chris' coward punch storyline with Josh Willis. The character's inclusion in Neighbours and his storyline has received a positive reaction from the public, television critics and LGBT websites. Chris's coming out episode, which was broadcast on 10 August 2010, was seen by 679,000 viewers in Australia. David Knox of Citysearch Melbourne said that the inclusion of Chris in the show is "a positive step with its juvenile audience". Knox added that following the "gay kiss scandal" on Home and Away, "the test for Neighbours will be not just the coming out, but whether he remains in the show after this storyline subsides". Of Chris, SX News said "One could simply dismiss the gay character as simply just another plot line, but there's no denying its significance, especially with a show as enduring and mainstream as Neighbours. If anything, it's a small reflection of the changing attitudes in society". They also praised Neighbours for focusing on Chris's coming out and the issue of homophobia, instead of letting Chris "explode out of the closet and leave Ramsay Street glittering in sequins".
The ATV News Network said the Chris's coming out should be praised for the way it has been handled. They added that the decision to play it out at a school would have viewers in a similar situation identifying with the storyline. Alan McKee, a university film and television professor, said that usually subscription television channels take risks in portraying storylines like Chris's. He added "Commercial TV is not about risk taking, it is about entertainment for the broadest possible audience. But attitudes have changed and commercial networks like to reflect that". Holy Soap said Chris's most memorable moment was "Announcing to his entire class that he was gay." Anthony D. Langford from website, AfterElton said he found it "humorous" that Neighbours emphasizes what a gentleman Chris is compared to Andrew. He said "It's like they're almost saying if you're a nice guy who's not all over your girlfriend you must be gay. But on television that's usually the case". Langford hoped that Chris would not vanish and that he would not be relegated to monitoring the relationship between Andrew and Summer and not having a romance of his own.
Langford later said that Neighbours is doing a "fairly decent job" with Chris's coming out story. He wished that viewers got to see more of Chris's thoughts and feelings and less of how his situation affected the people around him. Langford added "I do like that Chris isn't a perfect kid. Many shows tend to make gay teens near saints. Instead, he's a fairly average kid who makes mistakes and messes up, like starting a fight at a basketball game. In July 2011, Langford revealed that he had seen some comments from people thinking that Lucas and Chris should be paired up. He opined that there is not a hint of romance between the two and wondered why people assumed that if a gay character shares a scene with another guy, they must get together. Langford revealed that he liked Chris and Lucas's mentor and mentee relationship as it is. The writer also commented on the introduction of Chris's father and said that he was "delighted" that Chris was finally getting his own drama, that was "pretty realistic." He added "It's nice to see the father/son dynamic play out. I have the feeling that a lot of Chris's dad's issues stem from the fact that his son is gay and I hope the show will delve into those unresoved issues."
Sarah Ellis writing for Inside Soap said "I'd love to see Chris with a boyfriend – he's the nicest guy in Erinsborough!" In 2011, Mason revealed that he has had a positive reaction to his character from viewers and he has been receiving mail from people who have had similar experiences, who appreciate what Neighbours is doing. He added "What's interesting is that a lot of feedback has been about the fact the character's coming out wasn't a "warm and fuzzy" experience, that there were rough spots. They appreciated the authenticity of the story, and I think that comes from the character and storylines being based on other people's real life experiences." Cameron Adams of the Herald Sun branded Chris Erinsborough's token gay. He added "Good on Neighbours for not having their gay character flouncing around in a midriff top listening to Britney Spears." Inside Soap's staff said that they could not wait to see how Chris would get on with Aidan. They added that it was "high time he had a boyfriend". Of the Chris and Scotty storyline, Melinda Houston from The Sun-Herald wrote "Good on Neighbours'' for not just having an ongoing gay character but using him to explore some interesting issues. |
7,989,933 | Kekal | 1,157,992,471 | Indonesian metal band | [
"Avant-garde metal musical groups",
"Christian anarchists",
"Death metal musical groups",
"Electronic music groups",
"Indonesian black metal musical groups",
"Indonesian hard rock musical groups",
"Indonesian heavy metal musical groups",
"Indonesian musical trios",
"Indonesian progressive rock groups",
"Musical groups established in 1995",
"Musical groups from Jakarta",
"Political music groups",
"Progressive metal musical groups",
"Thrash metal musical groups"
]
| Kekal (sometimes stylized as KEKAL) is a heavy metal and electronic music band formed in 1995 in Jakarta, Indonesia. According to AllMusic, Kekal was one of the first heavy metal bands from Indonesia to make international inroads, and according to sociologist of heavy metal, Keith Kahn-Harris, was one of the few extreme metal bands from Southeast Asia to ever make more than a minimal impression on the global scene. Founded by two musicians known simply Yeris and Newbabe, the band underwent some shifts in lineup in its early years, but emerged with a consistent lineup of three key-members, guitarist/vocalist Jeff Arwadi, bassist Azhar Levi Sianturi, and guitarist Leo Setiawan. Frequently labeled as black metal, progressive metal, and avant-garde metal, Kekal plays a very diverse range of music styles within the frame of metal and rock, incorporating many other music genres such as ambient, electronic, jazz fusion, and progressive rock. Over the course of its career, Kekal has transitioned from a heavy metal-based style to a more experimental and electronic sound.
Throughout its entire career, the band has released thirteen full-length studio albums, four EPs, several compilations and contributions to various collaborative albums, and in 2004 engaged in a successful European mini-tour. As of 12 August 2009, all key-members have officially left Kekal, but continue to contribute material. Though the band currently has no official members, former members of the band contributed to six more studio albums so far, sometimes anonymously, including their twelfth studio album Quantum Resolution in 2020, and their thirteenth album Envisaged in 2022.
## History
### Early years (formation to 2002)
The early history of Kekal started out in 1990, when 16-year-old musician Jeff Arwadi formed a self-styled "punkish thrash metal" band called Obliteration with some of his high school friends, but Jeff quit this group in 1991 to better learn guitar. Kekal was officially formed on 15 August 1995, by two friends, simply named under pseudonyms Yeris and Newbabe (the latter revealed years later as Newin Atmarumeksa), as a more straightforward extreme metal band. The name Kekal was coined by Newbabe, and is Indonesian for 'Immortal' or 'Eternal'. The band was intended as a one time project, and recruited a vocalist known simply as "Harry" to help record a four-song demo tape. This demo began to circulate and caught the attention of future guitarist Leo, who had gained experience in a Metallica and Megadeth cover band.
In June 1996, Azhar Sianturi joined Kekal and the band recorded its official demo, entitled Contra Spiritualia Nequitiae, using the songwriting and production talents of Jeff Arwadi, who was also a member of the group Inner Warfare. According to Jeff, the demo was recorded in his bedroom with only a Fostex X-28 4-track tape recorder and \$2 karaoke microphone. With the help of underground tape trading circles and local fanzines, the demo soon caught the attention of the metal scene outside Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and few record labels began offering deals. Later that year Leo Setiawan joined the band, and in April 1997 Kekal began to record its self-produced debut album, Beyond the Glimpse of Dreams, released in 1998. The album was licensed to and released by two record labels, allowing for Kekal to be known internationally, especially in the underground metal circles around Europe and North America. Harry left the band after this recording, and the remaining trio released Embrace the Dead the next year. Jeff has expressed disappointment with this album, both in the stylistic direction, which was intentionally designed to appeal to a more mainstream audience, and in the recording sessions, which would inspire the title of the band's next album, The Painful Experience. The following year the band contributed to a Living Sacrifice tribute album with a cover of that band's song "Mind Distant". In October 2001, the band's third album, The Painful Experience, was released. Leo Setiawan left the band before the recording sessions and moved to Melbourne, Australia, but he was still listed on the album credits as a guitarist due to his contribution on the album's songwriting and general concept. In 2002, the band was reduced to a duo, and collaborated with the Dutch band Slechtvalk to record a split album entitled Chaos & Warfare, and also recorded a cover of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" for the compilation album Brutal Christmas: The Season in Chaos.
### International scene (2003–2006)
`In 2003, with the absence of Leo as a guitarist, the remaining members Jeff and Azhar Levi recorded a cover song "Dance Macabre" for a well received Cradle of Filth tribute album entitled Covered in Filth, and shortly after they released the highly progressive and experimental 1000 Thoughts of Violence which was also well received, being rated eight out of ten by Rock Hard and was regarded as a highlight of the year 2003 by Powermetal.de. A best-of collection of works and re-recordings of Kekal entitled Introduce Us to Immortality was also released that year. Also that year, Kekal received notice by the Antwerp-based radio show "Psych Folk" Radio on Radio Centraal, being referred to in that show's programs on progressive music in Indonesia. The success of 1000 Thoughts of Violence was followed up by a two-week European mini-tour, arranged and promoted by the band's record label in Europe at the time, Fear Dark. In March 2004, the band played a string of shows in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden, and was featured in the Dutch magazine Aardschok. That year also saw the release of Spirits of the Ancient Days, a collection of early Kekal demo songs. `
Upon return to Indonesia, Kekal was back in the studio to record a fifth album Acidity which included guest musician Didi Priyadi on guitars, as well as playing some local shows with him as an additional live guitarist. Acidity was released in 2005 and was an official reunion album for the band, which marked the return of Leo, and a vocal contribution by founding member Newbabe. Acidity was well received, and Kekal was again noted by "Psych Folk" Radio. In 2006, the band started recording their sixth album, The Habit of Fire. In 2006, Jeff leaked two cover songs, "The Prow", originally by Voivod, and "Juices Like Wine", originally by Celtic Frost, both of which were recorded in 2005.
### Jeff's move to Canada (2006–2008)
In 2006, right after the recording of The Habit of Fire, founding member Jeff Arwadi moved to Canada while the rest of the members were in Indonesia, leaving the band unable to play shows and do touring. At the same time they left their longtime record label Fear Dark and status of the band was in question. After few months of uncertainty and rumors of break-up went around among their fans, they all decided to remain together and to keep the band only as a studio project. They quickly signed licensing deals with two record labels to release The Habit of Fire in 2007. The album was received very well and was named CD of the Month by UK's music technology magazine Sound on Sound, as well as being nominated as The Best Avantgarde Metal Album in 2007 by Metal Storm. In 2007, Jeff leaked another cover tune, "Redemption", that originally was planned as part of a Johnny Cash tribute album by Open Grave Records, a project that was ultimately shelved. Later in 2007, Jeff announced on the band's Myspace blog that a new Kekal album was on the way, which he had been working on all by himself. It was revealed later on that the new album was entitled Audible Minority, and it was meant to be released officially on 25 December 2008 as two versions: a free download and a limited edition Digipak with total 11 songs including a cover of the A-ha song "Locust". Unfortunately the Digipak version was never released, and the album ended up being offered only as a free download instead.
### Departure of band members (2009)
In March 2009, Azhar Levi decided to step down from Kekal. Jeff Arwadi said that although this closed a door, Kekal would continue as a musical unit in a "new era" of the band's history. On 12 August 2009, Jeff announced that he and Leo had left Kekal, and that the name would continue but without active members. He said that, as well as unspecified personal reasons, he decided to leave the band because, after being closer to nature and in a less densely populated city in Canada, he was unable to continue to make dark and angry metal music which he did in the past with Kekal. Shortly after, Kekal put up an offer of three albums for free download on its website, including its best-selling album to date, 1000 Thoughts of Violence.
Many of its fans perceived that Kekal had technically split-up/disbanded at the moment band leader Jeff announced his departure from the band, despite the fact that Kekal as an institution still existed and the institution itself was not affected by any founding member leaving. To end the confusions among the fans, the band issued a statement posted on its official Facebook page: "KEKAL IS NOT DEAD!!!! When Jeff left Kekal it doesn't mean the band is dead!" The band's MySpace and Facebook pages are still active and currently being moderated mainly by volunteers from the band's Street Team members, as well as Azhar and Jeff themselves.
### Current activity (2010–present)
`On 13 January 2010, Kekal announced that a new album was in the works, and that former members Jeff, Leo, and Levi were all contributing. Then, on 15 February, Jeff posted a music video on his YouTube channel for an, at that time, untitled new album. The music video was for a song entitled "Tabula Rasa", which was also released for streaming. On 23 June 2010, the band announced on its Myspace and Facebook that it would release its eighth album entitled 8 in late 2010, and that further details would be forthcoming.`
On 15 August 2010, a remastered, limited-edition version of the band's second album, Embrace the Dead, was released as a free-download for up 1000 downloads in celebration of the band's 15-year anniversary.
Kekal's newest album, 8, was made available for pre-order on 22 December 2010 by Whirlwind Records, which included an offer of free shipping within Europe up to 24 December. The album was released on 23 January 2011.
On 2 March 2011, Jeff Arwadi announced on the Kekal Facebook page that he and Leo were recording new music, and said that another album would probably be released sometime in 2012. On 2 April, Kekal announced that a download-only EP would be released in June or July, and would contain two brand new tracks recorded in 2011, as well as separate guitar and vocal tracks of "Tabula Rasa" for the purpose of remixing by the general public. On 26 April, Jeff uploaded a music video for the song "Futuride" from the upcoming EP, which was promised to be released in July. The official release date for the album, 10 July 2011, was announced over Facebook on 23 June 2011. The title of the EP was Futuride EP, and three tracks from the album were made available for public use under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. On 24 February 2012, Kekal announced the title of its ninth studio album, Autonomy, and the album was released on 19 December 2012, first as a limited, hand-numbered deluxe-edition double-CD with the 2008 album Audible Minority (which was previously never released on CD) added as a bonus disc. On 29 June 2013, Autonomy was released by Indonesian netlabel Yes No Wave Music as a free digital download, but restricted to Indonesian market only.
On 19 March 2013 Kekal released a surprise EP, Unsung Division EP, announced the 10th full-length Kekal album, Multilateral, would be released in 2015, and the possibility of a second EP in late 2013 or 2014. The Unsung Division EP consisted of songs originally written for the 2015 album, but removed as the "some compositions turned out to be a bit out-of-place with the rest of the album's general concept," according to Arwadi. In 2017, the band announced a new album for 2018, entitled Deeper Underground.
## Music
### Style
Although mainly known as a progressive metal and avant-garde or experimental metal band, Kekal has stylistic origins in extreme metal, particularly black metal, but even with its debut album the band demonstrated a unique style. Beyond the Glimpse of Dreams featured a varied sound of black and death metal and incorporated a range of vocal styles such as high pitched black metal shrieks, death growls, and female singing. On Embrace the Dead, Kekal used a combination of black metal with death, classic, and doom metal elements and included hints of Gothic and dark wave. The third album, The Painful Experience, saw the band fusing its black metal style with progressive metal and included elements of thrash, classic, and power metal. Mark Allan Powell described that most of the band's songs were midtempo to fast with a heavy, guitar-driven style, though the band incorporated "certain elements of variety into the sound." In a 2001 interview, Jeff expressed ambivalence to what style the band was described as, as long as it was "metal". On its fourth, highly technical album, 1000 Thoughts of Violence, the band plunged into ultra-progressive experiments, The album was noted for switching between raging intensity and more mellow passages, such as the song "Violent Society", which even included a hip-hop passage. Powermetal.de noted that the band had become more progressive and lost some of its toughness and aggression. "Psych Folk" Radio viewed the album favorably, mentioning that 1000 Thoughts of Violence "is a possibility to invite progressive rock listeners to take the challenge to open up their perspectives." In March 2004, Aardschok Magazine described the band's albums as a mix of black, heavy, and progressive metal, being grounded in the extreme metal scene.
On its well received fifth album, Acidity, Kekal used double bass drum blasts and saw the band incorporating styles such as electronic, black metal, progressive metal, progressive rock, classic rock, indie rock, psychedelic rock, trip hop, jazz, ambient, and avant-garde. Jeff Arwadi responded to the "avant-garde" label in an interview with Ultimate Metal.com: "For us, avant-garde is not a classification of music. It is a state of being, a state of becoming... ...once your music can be classified easily, I don't think the word progressive or avant-garde fits. So that's why we mention in our bio that 'avant-garde' is an ideal state for us, and not a classification." On the next album, The Habit of Fire, the band maintained its use of various music styles such as electronica, ambient, and jazz fusion, but began to shed its black metal roots and introduced atmospheric soundscapes and an industrial vibe. Pop Matters described the album as mixing black metal, noise rock, progressive rock, and jazz fusion. With the 2010 album 8, the first album by the band without any active members, Metal Hammer Germany noted that the band was now far away from its early black metal days. Powermetal.de described the band as avant-garde tinged post-rock, with the album being predominantly electronic, but stated that "experimental" was the simplest description of the album. The reviewer, Björn Backes, made comparisons to The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers and noted the use of "weird" arrangements, post-rock mood swings and alternative guitar sound. Sonic Seducer called the album simply avant-garde and described the band as loving triplets, polyrhythms, and complex beats.
### Influences
Kekal has identified itself with the punk rock and early 1980s metal scenes, and considers itself a "street-progressive" band that is aesthetically more akin to Sonic Youth or The Mars Volta than to technically oriented bands like Dream Theater. The band claims roots in 1980s forms of heavy metal as pioneered by bands like Iron Maiden, Bathory, Trouble, Helloween, Celtic Frost, Sodom, Death, and Massacre. Dimebag Darrell and Quorthon have also been cited as influences.
Currently, Kekal has cited an influence from many styles of music and now lists a large host of artists as an inspiration, including A-ha, Amebix, Autechre, Björk, Black Sabbath, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Camel, Celtic Frost, Cocteau Twins, Chick Corea, The Cure, Miles Davis, Depeche Mode, Discharge, Duran Duran, Gazebo, Godflesh, Iron Maiden, Joy Division, Killing Joke, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Mantronix, Massive Attack, Curtis Mayfield, Merzbow, Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery, Gary Moore, Napalm Death, Outkast, Pan Sonic, Paradise Lost, Parliament, Pet Shop Boys, Pink Floyd, The Police, Portishead, Radiohead, Red Snapper, Return to Forever, Rush, Sonic Youth, Squarepusher, Talk Talk, Tangerine Dream, Amon Tobin, Trouble, and Voivod.
### Songwriting and recording techniques
Jeff has stated that starting from the album The Painful Experience they incorporated their own approach to record drum tracks in the studio which they call "hybrid drums", a mix of real-time performance and software-based matrix programming. He also mentioned the efficiency of using the hybrid drumming compared with getting a drummer: "About the drummer, it is still very hard to find a right drummer because Kekal music is ranging from very extreme-metal with blast beats and fast double-kicks, to powerful rock beats that demand steady tempo, and to some polyrhythmic playing and time-signature shifts in the characteristics of jazz and prog drumming. We would need 2 or 3 kinds of drummer for Kekal. That's why the best thing for the recording is to make the hybrid drumming." In other interview, Jeff mentioned the process of recording of The Habit of Fire, starting from collecting samples and creating MIDI information, then manipulating the sounds to create what he called the 'skeleton'. Then riffs, MIDI-triggered instruments, synthesizers, and melodies would be added and the structure re-arranged once again. Once the song structure was set, the guitars would be re-recorded, then bass and drum tracks would be put on top, then vocals. Jeff also mentioned during the interview about the 2011 Futuride EP, that he has experimented with additive synthesis on the recent songs he has recorded and uses guitars to counterbalance the sounds generated by the additive synthesis.
## Ethics and ideological stance
### Kekal and anarchism
Kekal claims to have practiced anarchism since the beginning of its career, which in their own words "translates to non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian approach to self-governing/self-managing", including voluntary contribution, free association and a strong DIY ethic. Kekal never grants copyrights of the band's recording masters to any record labels (since 2010 all the music have been published through Creative Commons license) and has 100% artistic control over music, production and artwork. Kekal has recorded and produced most of its albums in its own studio/workstation, manages the band itself, does its own photo sessions, and designs its own album artwork and covers. As Jeff stated, "So far, we've been known as an independent band who never want to get signed by record label, to maintain our independency and control over our artistic freedom, and also to own our recording masters and copyright.. Instead of band signing, we always prefer to license our finished albums to record labels."
### Kekal and Christianity
Kekal has been described by AllMusic as one of the first black metal bands to profess Christian beliefs. However, the band has stated on its Facebook page that as an institution it is not a Christian metal band and does not endorse any particular religion or ideology. Known to have fans from different religious backgrounds, and with the majority of their listeners being non-Christians, the band has always maintained that it is about music, life, and universality, and stands against any form of elitism and exclusivism in today's culture. In a 2020 interview with Metal Storm, Jeff Arwadi explained in details regarding why he does not see Christian metal as something that makes sense to him: "It started from the religious circles, from the organized youths' fellowships within the church scene because they wanted the kids to listen mainly to the music that is "safe" for them, and depending on the level of tolerance of each organization, some would restrict these kids to listen to anything that has "Christian" content only, so it's how the branding came about. Then later on, as these kids were looking around for any music with the Christian content, some players within the music industry started to see how they could also create the box, which they could also play around and make good chunks of money by keeping as many people as possible within that box by signing "Christian bands", either real or posers, of various genres exclusively as "the safe alternative to these kids" and kept them away from listening to other bands that they perceive as "harmful", and built the exclusive scene instead of reaching out. It is very easy for them to market within a specific target audience who only listen to one particular type of music out of fear, especially if the number of people within the religious belt is large enough to exploit, like in the U.S. for example, where so-called "Christian bands" could make a living just from playing in churches and youth summer camps across the country. It's pretty much like an alternative world that is disconnected to the main one. I found it to be silly and tragic at the same time, but it's how the whole religious business works over there." In another interview, Jeff added his point on Kekal's stance as a band: "...we are non-conformists, musical anarchists. We hate being trendy and we never try to be the same with the rest of the scene. People can love us or hate us, I don't care."
The band's lyrical material for the 2020 album entitled Quantum Resolution has many Gnostic Christian references from the Nag Hammadi library writings such as Gospel of Thomas, also another noncanonical scripture known as Gospel of Mary, and the recognition regarding the world and this material universe as holographic or projection.
Jeff Arwadi, in particular, has expressed his belief in Christianity that is not a religion. During the 2017 interview, he considered himself as a Christian Anarchist, and mentioned that he personally opposes the concept of religion, its dogma and hierarchical structure of authority within the church organization. The lyrics on the song called "Rotten in The House" reflect his opposition, which he describes in a 2018 interview: "Oftentimes, people choose to involve deeply into religion not because they want spiritual growth, but just to get away from the life of misery that they experience everyday, an escapism, so that they can 'reverse' their experience to become somewhat 'positive' for them and even 'empower' them. It's almost the same as the use of drugs in order to make you relax, to 'help' you get a good sleep, get high and forget all the problems for a moment. But the danger is also present, like in drugs, religion could become an addictive agent. Its application could gradually damage human sanity, common-sense and conscience." Søren Kierkegaard is cited as a big influence in shaping his concept of faith and spirituality. In one interview, Jeff clarified that for him personally, faith is something that drives the human life, and, just like diet and exercise, does not have to be associated with religion whatsoever.
## Members
Former members
- Jeff Arwadi (Altera Enigma, Armageddon Holocaust, Doctor D, Excision, Inner Warfare) – guitar, vocals, programming, drum machine, samples & loops (1995–2009)
- Azhar Levi Sianturi (Mournphagy) – bass, vocals (1996–2009)
- Leo Setiawan – guitar (1996–2001, 2005–2009)
- Harry – vocals (1995–1998)
- Newin "Newbabe" Atmarumeksa – bass, vocals (1995–1996, 2004–2005)
- Yeris – guitar, vocals (1995–1996)
Guest musicians
- Didi Priyadi (Happy Day, In Memoriam) – session and live guitar, live vocals
- Kenny Cheong (Altera Enigma, Soundscape) – fretless bass
- Jason DeRon (Paramaecium, Altera Enigma, inExordium) – guitar
- Doctor D (Armageddon Holocaust, Doctor D, Bealiah) – vocals, noises and samples, programming
- Safrina Christina (Excision) – vocals, keyboards, programming
- Hans Kurniawan (Inner Warfare) – keyboard
- Habil Kurnia – keyboards, engineering, mixing
- Julie – female vocals
- Hana – female vocals
- Vera – female vocals
Timeline
- Note: As of 8 August 2009, Kekal has no active members, but former members continue to record and contribute content for the band.
## Discography
- Beyond the Glimpse of Dreams – 1998
- Embrace the Dead – 1999
- The Painful Experience – 2001
- 1000 Thoughts of Violence – 2003
- Acidity – 2005
- The Habit of Fire – 2007
- Audible Minority – 2008
- 8 – 2010
- Autonomy – 2012
- Multilateral - 2015
- Deeper Underground - 2018
- Quantum Resolution - 2020
- Envisaged - 2022
## See also
- List of Indonesian rock bands |
24,218,325 | How the Scots Invented the Modern World | 1,125,126,292 | Book by Arthur L. Herman | [
"2001 in the United States",
"2001 non-fiction books",
"21st-century history books",
"American non-fiction books",
"Books about economic history",
"History books about Scotland",
"History books about civilization",
"History books about the late modern period",
"Scottish Enlightenment",
"Three Rivers Press books"
]
| How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It (or The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots invention of the Modern World) is a non-fiction book written by American historian Arthur Herman. The book examines the origins of the Scottish Enlightenment and what impact it had on the modern world. Herman focuses principally on individuals, presenting their biographies in the context of their individual fields and also in terms of the theme of Scottish contributions to the world.
The book was published as a hardcover in November 2001 by Crown Publishing Group and as a trade paperback in September 2002. Critics found the thesis to be over-reaching but descriptive of the Scots' disproportionate impact on modernity. In the American market, the trade paperback peaked at \#3 on The Washington Post bestseller list, while in the Canadian market it peaked at \#1.
## Background
At the time of publication, the author was the coordinator of the Western Civilization Program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The book grew out of a class topic at the Smithsonian regarding intellectual life in Edinburgh in the 18th century. Herman was impressed by the fact that so many prominent individuals who had a significant impact on modernity had come from such a specific geographic location and time-frame.
Herman had only once been to Scotland as a teenager when his father, a professor, spent a semester at Edinburgh University. Though born and raised in the Midwestern United States, his ancestry traces back to Norway; there are no Scots in his ancestral background of whom he is aware.
## Synopsis
The book is divided into two parts. The first part, Epiphany, consists of eight chapters and focuses on the roots, development, and impact of the Scottish Enlightenment on Scotland and Great Britain. The roots come from an appreciation for democracy and literacy that developed from the Scottish Reformation, when John Knox brought Calvinist Presbyterianism to Scotland. He preached that God ordained power into the people and that it was for the people to administer and enforce God's laws, not the monarchy. For common people to understand God's laws they had to be able to read the Bible, so schools were built in every parish and literacy rates grew rapidly, creating a Scottish-oriented market for books and writers.
Though they each resented one another, the English and Scots joined in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain; the English wanted the Scots controlled and the Scots realized they could not match English power. The Scots immediately benefited from a centralized government that paid little attention to it—for example, inexpensive imports reduced the impacts of famines and allowed a Scottish culture to flourish. Herman calls the Scottish Enlightenment "more robust and original" than the French Enlightenment and that the product of the "Scottish school" was that humans are creatures of their environment, constantly evolving and trying to understand itself via social sciences.
The defeat of the 1745 Jacobite rising decimated the antiquated social structure based around clans lorded over by chieftains. This liberalized the Scottish way of life by allowing citizens to own land and keep the profits instead of giving all profits to the chieftains who owned all the land. Their literate foundation allowed the Scots to become economically literate and take advantage of trade. Edinburgh and Glasgow became epicenters of intellectual thought. There existed in Scotland a clergy who believed that a moral and religious foundation was required for, and compatible with, a free and open sophisticated culture, which moderated hardline conservatives. Herman presents biographies of Francis Hutcheson, Henry Home (Lord Kames), Robert Adam, Adam Smith, and others to illustrate the Scottish development.
The second part, Diaspora, focuses on the impacts of Scots on events, the world, and industries. Most Scots immigrants in the American colonies sympathized with the British during the American Revolutionary War but those who did fight in the militias were the most capable because many were the same refugee families from the 1745 Jacobite rising. Herman claims that the Scottish School of Common Sense influenced much of the American declaration of independence and constitution.
After Great Britain lost the American colonies, a second generation of Scottish intellectuals saved Britain from stagnation and reinforced a self-confidence that allowed the country to manage a world empire during the Victorian era. Scottish colonial administrators, like James Mill, were instrumental in formulating the idea of the civilizing mission, which posited that Europeans should take over indigenous cultures and run their society for their own good, as part of "the white man's burden". Herman claims that Sir Walter Scott invented the historical novel, giving modernity a "self-conscious antidote", and gave literature a "place as part of modern life".
In science and industry Herman states that James Watt's steam engine "gave capitalism its modern face, which has persisted down to today". It permitted business to choose its location, like in cities close to inexpensive labor, and it was Scots who rectified negative impacts industry had, i.e. the public health movement. Scots' contribution to modern society is illustrated with biographies of Scots like Dugald Stewart, John Witherspoon, John McAdam, Thomas Telford, and John Pringle, among others.
## Style
Herman wrote the book for an American audience which may not have been very familiar with Scottish history. He provides a historical overview and short biographies of the most prominent Scots. The historical approach uses the Great Man Theory, that a historical narrative can be told through the lives of a few prominent figures. Regarding this approach Michael Lynch of The Globe and Mail wrote, the biographies "reveal subtle but important links between these figures and their ideas, which Herman seeks to characterize, with some success, as a coherent body of distinctively 'Scottish' thought."
One reviewer noted the book's "almost complete dependence on secondary sources". Herman provides a section, at the end of the book, listing sources used and suggestions for further reading on each chapter. In this section, he notes that some of the most influential sources consulted included the works of Scottish historians Bruce Lenman, John Prebble, Thomas Devine, and Duncan Bruce, amongst others.
## Publication history
The book was published by Random House's Crown Publishing Group. The hardcover was released on November 27, 2001 and the trade paperback, published by the Three Rivers Press imprint, was released on September 24, 2002. In the US market the hardcover spent 3 weeks on The Washington Post bestseller list peaking at \#5 followed by a 14-week run by the trade paperback, peaking at \#3. In the Canadian market, the trade paperback spent 80 weeks on The Globe and Mail bestseller list, peaking at \#1.
The British version re-titled the book The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots invention of the Modern World and released in the UK market by Fourth Estate, a HarperCollins imprint. It was long-listed by the 2002 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.
## Reception
Regarding the title and thesis, that the people of Scotland invented the modern world, nearly every reviewer commented on it, some calling it "provocative", a "hyperbole", "absurd" and "pandering to prejudice".
In The Scotsman, Graham Leicester writes that the "overblown rhetoric invites a sceptical reaction. But I suggest we just accept this extraordinary compliment graciously." It was likely influenced by Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization and the result of a marketing strategy. Several reviewers found that Herman was successful in proving that Scots did have a disproportionate impact on modernity. Herman continued this type of theme with his next book, To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World, published in 2004.
Critics found the book well-written and scholarly but with an over-reaching thesis. The reviewer for the National Review defended Herman's use of the word "invented", writing that it has "an older meaning: to discover and understand. The [Scots] did not, like a number of their French counterparts, seek to construct a new world ... they instead tried to understand certain traditions and institutions that had spontaneously arisen in the course of man's work, but that were still misunderstood even by many intelligent observers." In The Scotsman, reviewer George Kerevan wrote that Herman may have successfully proven his thesis but does not satisfactorily account for "why Scotland?"
Irvine Welsh accused Herman of neglecting or down-playing some of the unfavourable actions by Scots, like the Highland Clearances, prominence in the slave trade, and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. The reviewer for The National Interest noted that Herman's study falls short of explaining why the Scottish Enlightenment ended and why "Scotland had declined into a backwater by the end of the 19th century".
## See also
- Scottish inventions and discoveries |
40,093,322 | Durga Shakti Nagpal | 1,172,154,183 | Indian bureaucrat (born 1985) | [
"1985 births",
"Indian civil servants",
"Indian government officials",
"Indian women civil servants",
"Living people",
"People from Agra"
]
| Durga Shakti Nagpal (born 25 June 1985) is an Indian bureaucrat and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre and 2010 batch. She came into public view after launching a massive drive against corruption and illegal sand mining within her jurisdiction of Gautam Budh Nagar as Joint Magistrate. In July 2013, she was suspended by the Akhilesh Yadav led Government of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly demolishing an illegal mosque wall in Kadalpur village near Jewar, which resulted in severe opposition as it was perceived to be based on flimsy grounds. There was a growing demand from various political parties, associations of Indian bureaucrats, and by the general public on online social media for her suspension to be revoked. Her suspension was revoked by the Government of UP on 26 September 2013 and she was transferred to Kanpur Dehat.
Durga Nagpal was appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, Radha Mohan Singh on 14 January 2015. From July 2019 to March 2021, she worked as the Deputy Secretary in the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. On 31 March 2023, she got her first posting as District Collector and District Magistrate (DM) of Banda in UP.
## Background
Durga Nagpal was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh on 25 June 1985. Her father is a retired government officer who was awarded the President's Medal for distinguished service at the Delhi Cantonment Board. Her grandfather was a police officer who was murdered in 1954 while on duty in Sadar Bazaar, Delhi. She graduated from the Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University in 2007 with an undergraduate degree in computer engineering. She obtained an All India Rank of 20 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination in 2009, after which she joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). In her first attempt to pass the civil service exam, she was accepted into the Indian Revenue Service, but chose to take the UPSC exam another time.
## Family
She is married to Abhishek Singh, who is an IAS officer of 2011 batch. She met Singh while preparing for the UPSC examinations in 2009. Abhishek Singh is also an actor and has worked in movies.
Presently he is suspended by the Government of UP led by Yogi Adityanath since 7 February 2023.
## Career
Nagpal began her career in the Punjab cadre of the IAS. She joined the Mohali district administration in June 2011, and served there for fourteen months. As a trainee IAS officer in Punjab, she exposed a land scam in Mohali.
In August 2012, she moved to the Uttar Pradesh (UP) cadre as the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Noida, after marrying Abhishek Singh. She was later appointed as the Joint Magistrate in Gautam Budh Nagar. She came into public notice after acting against the "sand mafia" in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh by forming special investigation teams to stop the illegal sand-mining in the Yamuna and Hindon river banks. Under her leadership, the administration confiscated 24 dumper trucks and 300 trolleys used in illegal operations, and arrested 15 people who were fined ₹20 million (US\$250,467).
### Crackdown on illegal mining
Most of the sand-mining activity in the NCR region, comprising Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Faridabad (Haryana) and Delhi, is illegal as no environment impact assessment (EIA) has been carried out, and it is estimated that about 250 to 350 truckloads of sand is illegally dredged every day. The cost of this sand varies from ₹1 billion (US\$13 million) per month to ₹5 billion (US\$63 million) per annum. According to environmentalists and engineers, the massive amount of mining is responsible for soil-erosion and changing the natural flow of the Hindon and Yamuna, which shifted its course by about 500 metres toward east and posed a threat to flood embankments in six sectors of Noida. A "Special Mining Squad" was established by the Noida district administration to curb sand mining and was expected to succeed, but high demand of sand for increased construction activity, police inaction and the political nexus with the "sand mafia" has ensured that various rules to safeguard the environment are regularly flouted.
After receiving many complaints of dredging in the Yamuna and Hindon rivers banks, the UP Chief Minister's office in Lucknow asked the GB Nagar district administration to prevent further illegal activity. Nagpal, as the SDM, oversaw a large operation to stop illegal sand mining in the district, and used surprise and secrecy to arrest illegal miners and to confiscate their machinery. On 23 July 2013, Nagpal had said that she would take strict action against dredgers engaged in illegal mining, adding that such activity could affect the environment adversely. Since April 2013, the Uttar Pradesh Police had filed 17 FIRs and the Chief Judicial magistrate had ordered the arrest of illegal sand miners in 22 cases. From April to June 2013, the police had impounded 297 vehicles and machinery used for illegal mining and collected Rs 8,234,000 in fines. Under Nagpal, a joint operation involving the revenue, police and transport departments was launched and villages of Asgarpur, Nangla Wajidpur, Gulavli, Kambakshpur, Jaganpur Chaproli were monitored. On 25 July, the government transferred the mining officer of the GB Nagar district Ashish Kumar, who was assisting Nagpal, to Bulandshahr. Before being transferred, Kumar survived three attempts on his life, the last one was on 9 February 2013. Nagpal was also targeted on 26 April 2013, during a visit to the Kasna police station. These attacks were attributed to the "sand mafia" operating in the district.
On the night of 29 July 2013, the Gautam Buddha Nagar police arrested 15 persons and confiscated 26 vehicles in the district and registered seven cases, some of which were in Dankaur and Greater Noida areas.
### Suspension
Nagpal was suspended on 28 July 2013, a day after she allegedly demolished a wall of an under-construction mosque in Kadalpur village, in the Rabupura area of Jewar. The construction of the mosque had not been cleared by the state government. Whether Nagpal was actually involved in the demolition of the wall, and whether she was justified in her actions even if she was, are disputed. Her supporters and most of the media sources claim that Nagpal did not order the demolition of the wall and was not even present at the site when the incident happened. According to them, she was targeted due to her campaign against illegal sand-mining, and allegations of Nagpal's involvement in the demolition are false. However, there are other sources which quote residents of Kadalpur village claiming that Nagpal personally supervised the demolition of the wall.
On 16 August, Nagpal submitted her reply to the chargesheet filed by the UP government, in which she declared herself innocent and said that her action was within the rules of service and as per the directions of the Supreme Court. On 28 August, Noida district magistrate Ravikant Singh, who backed Nagpal's actions, was transferred from his post and was put on a wait list.
### Suspension revoked
Nagpal, accompanied by her husband Abhishek Singh, met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on 21 September 2013 for the first time since her suspension. Her suspension was revoked by the UP government on 22 September 2013, and she joined as Joint Magistrate of Kanpur (Rural) on 5 October 2013.
### Targeting of Family
On 11 October 2014, Nagpal's husband, Abhishek Singh, also a bureaucrat was suspended. Abhishek Singh was the SDM (Sub Divisional Magistrate) in Mahawan, Mathura, was suspended by the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, for allegedly treating a teacher, Fauran Singh, in an inhuman manner. Abhishek Singh denies the charges, while the government refuses to elaborate further on what inhuman actions he was guilty of.
## Reactions to her suspension
### Public
The administrative actions and subsequent suspension of Nagpal received widespread attention in India. She was widely praised for making efforts to clean up the corruption in the Indian political system. References were made with the Hindu goddess Durga for taking action against the politically well-connected sand-mining mafia and real estate barons. According to Surinder S. Jodhka, professor and chair at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems in Jawaharlal Nehru University, the protest after Nagpal's suspension are due to the growing discontent within India's growing middle-class with criminalisation in politics. Due to the public protests, the UP government had to engage in damage control, highlighting its welfare schemes and announcing that it is considering to set up a task force to check illegal mining.
Kiran Bedi and large number of people on social media like Facebook and Twitter protested against the IAS officer's suspension. Several serving and retired IAS officers like former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) N. Vittal, former cabinet secretaries T. S. R. Subramanian and Naresh Chandra, and former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai came out in support of Nagpal, calling her actions bold and courageous, and asked the Chief Secretary to revoke her suspension. The All India IAS Association, a national body of IAS officers, termed the government's actions "wrong" and believes that Nagpal was suspended due to her stringent actions which hurt the sand-mafia. It has demanded immediate revocation of her suspension, and called the incident "demoralising" for young IAS officers. The collective voicing of these concerns by the state's IAS officers was deemed unusual and surprised the ruling Samajwadi Party. Senior officers have attributed this backlash to the general feeling of discontentment in the officer cadre, which they say is due to increasing political interference in public administration. On 1 August, in a rare act, thousands of IAS officers filed a petition to the Department of personnel and training, demanding intervention by the Central government to direct the UP government to revoke Durga's suspension.
On 5 August 2013, reacting to the suspension of Nagpal, the National Green Tribunal ordered a pan-India suspension of all sand mining activity carried without a license from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
### Political parties
Since Nagpal's suspension came to public view, it has been alleged that ex-Samajwadi Party leader Narendra Bhati (later joined BJP), who had cabinet-minister rank as the then chairperson of the UP State Agro Industrial Corporation Limited, was responsible for getting her abruptly suspended because he was frustrated by Nagpal's drive against illegal mining. Bhati was later recorded on video boasting about getting the officer suspended within 40 minutes. Other leaders of the Samajwadi party such as Azam Khan and Naresh Agarwal had issued statements supporting the suspension order.
The then opposition parties in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party accused the state government of ignoring the rule of law and protecting criminals. The former president of the BJP Nitin Gadkari criticised the action as "... fanning communal and caste-based sentiments" and "harassing a good officer for vote bank politics..." The BJP in Uttar Pradesh asked the state's then Governor BL Joshi to intervene and revoke the suspension.
On 2 August 2013, the Indian National Congress condemned the suspension order and said that public reactions of Samajwadi Party leaders supporting the suspension order, indicated that those orders were dictated by the sand mining mafia. However, it also criticised the "arbitrary demolition" of the mosque's wall. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, demanding fair treatment of the officer.
### State government
The Samajwadi Party government said in a statement that Nagpal was suspended for demolishing a mosque's wall and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav justified the order saying that Nagpal's actions "lacked foresight and disturbed communal harmony" and she was suspended due to "administrative compulsion to ease communal tension". This was later refuted by reports that the area had not reported any communal tension. The Station Officer of Rabupura police station said that since the demolition took place in night, most residents were not even aware of the incident. The demolition was reportedly executed in compliance to Supreme Court orders forbidding construction of illegal religious structures on public land. The court, in a judgement passed in 2009 had ruled that "no new temples, mosques, churches and gurdwaras can be constructed on public parks, public streets and public spaces" and "the ban must be enforced even if it gave rise to a law and order problem."
According to the report on the demolition incident submitted by Ravikant Singh, District Magistrate (DM) of Greater Noida to the UP government, Nagpal did not demolish a wall of any religious structure, in fact there was no religious structure in place. The construction of the wall had just begun, and on being warned by Ms. Nagpal of the structure being constructed on government land, the local residents decided to dismantle the constructed wall themselves. The report called Nagpal's actions "blemish-free". The report also says that there was no communal tension or the possibility of any clashes between religious communities. The UP government appointed a committee to verify the DM's report.
After the IAS officers' association protested on 29 July, Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary said that the suspension order would be reviewed, but despite the assurances, no decision has been taken. After the suspension, Nagpal was attached to the Board of Revenue in Lucknow, the state capital.
### Kadalpur
The residents of Kadalpur village however challenged the anti-corruption narrative in the media, and say that the suspension order was justified. They even threatened to protest if she is reinstated. They said that the mosque was being built on gram sabha land and they had got the panchayat's approval, adding that they were unaware about seeking permission for it. The construction of the mosque was started in 2011, hence they questioned the delayed response of the authorities. Stressing on Nagpal's "high-handedness" and getting the police to demolish it, they said they requested more time to obtain the construction permission, which she rejected. On the District Magistrate's report to the UP government, they claimed that he did not contact them or any of the panchayat officials. They said that donations for the construction of temples and mosques were given by everyone, and they aim to re-build the mosque. Dhirendra Singh, spokesperson for the Uttar Pradesh Congress party, said that the villagers were not aware of the Supreme Court rulings and it was the duty of the administration to direct them into getting permission and at least stop the construction temporarily. The majority of the villagers are Muslims and the rest are Hindus, and there is a minimal threat for communal violence there.
A month later the villagers said they felt cheated by the UP government since permission to build it was still not given; they blamed the Samajwadi Party leaders for unnecessarily punishing her. They said that the party leaders should have got them permission to build the mosque at that time, preventing this incident from happening.
### Public-interest litigations
The suspension order of Nagpal was challenged in the Allahabad High Court on 30 July 2013 through a Public interest litigation (PIL). The petition was filed by social activist Nutan Thakur at the Lucknow bench of the court. It also requested the court to direct the central government to ask the state governments to prevent harassment of those officers who have ordered action against illegal construction of religious places, and illegal mining. On 1 August, the court ruled that the suspension is not a matter of a PIL, and the officer should directly approach the court. It however praised her work in preventing illegal sand mining and ordered both the central and the state government to report how they are tackling illegal mining and what security is being provided to the officers engaged in stopping it.
On 8 August, the Supreme Court of India accepted a PIL filed by an advocate M. L. Sharma. The PIL sought to dismiss all charges against Nagpal and argued that Nagpal was suffering hardship for following the court's rulings in 2009 and 2010 regarding demolition of illegal religious structures. On 16 August, the court refused to accept the PIL, questioning the standing of the lawyer, but saying that "it may entertain the petition if she (Nagpal) herself approaches the court." The court also sought an explanation from the UP government for arresting Kanwal Bharti, a scholar who allegedly wrote a post on Facebook in support of Nagpal. The central government had passed an advisory notification based on an earlier order of the court which said that a person cannot be arrested for posting objectionable comments on social networking sites without taking permission from a high-ranking police official.
### Intervention by central government
On 31 July, the central government said that they are awaiting a detailed report on her suspension from the state within 15 days. The Minister of State for Personnel V. Narayanasamy, during a meeting with a delegation from All India IAS Officers' Association assured that justice will be done to Ms. Nagpal. He later assured that both version of the incident will be taken into account before reaching a decision. As per the All India Services (Discipline And Appeal) Rules, 1969, the UP government cannot keep her under suspension for more than 90 days, pending disciplinary proceedings, without the consent of Central Government.
On 5 August 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the central government had asked the UP government to provide details of the case. On 19 August, associations of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) met with the Secretary of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) S K Sarkar and demanded that the central government should modify the rules related to suspension of bureaucrats by state governments, as those rules were widely abused. The three associations want the central government instead of various state governments to have the authority to suspend any All India Services officer.
On 20 August, the central government decided not to intervene in the suspension of Nagpal, as she did not appeal or challenge the suspension order given by the Uttar Pradesh government. Since Nagpal's suspension on 27 July, the centre had issued three reminders to the UP government, seeking a detailed report. On 4 August, the UP government had sent a report on Nagpal's suspension to the DoPT and had served a chargesheet to Nagpal, which deemed her actions as unwarranted and in violation of rules. |
66,916,599 | Russ Island | 1,085,271,245 | Island in California | [
"Islands of Napa County, California",
"Islands of Northern California",
"Islands of Solano County, California",
"San Pablo Bay"
]
| Russ Island is a mostly-submerged island in the Napa River, in Napa and Solano Counties, California. It was reclaimed in the late 19th century, and spent many years as productive farmland; in the 1950s, however, it was purchased by the Leslie Salt Company, and deliberately submerged to serve as an evaporation pond for salt production. The company allowed parts of it to be used for duck hunting. By the 1990s, it was acquired by the California Department of Fish and Game, who turned it into a wildlife preserve, and allowed it to return to marshland; it is now managed as part of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area, and is open to hunting, fishing, birdwatching, photography and hiking activities.
## Geography
Russ Island is located in the Napa River, upstream of San Pablo Bay (an embayment of San Francisco Bay). Its north end is in Napa County and its south end is in Solano County. Russ Island is bounded to east by the Napa River, beyond which is the city of American Canyon. To its southeast, on the other side of the Napa River, is Vallejo. To its south is South Slough (beyond which is Knight Island) and to its southwest is China Slough (beyond which is Island No. 2). To its west is Devils Slough, beyond which is Little Island; to its north is Napa Slough, beyond which are Coon Island and Edgerley Island.
The United States Geological Survey measured its elevation as 3 ft (0.91 m) in 1981. However, it is mostly flooded: in 1998, it was described as "marshy with tall tulles and mud flats, making it impossible to use a wheeled vehicle".
## History
### Initial settlement and farming
An official 1876 map of Napa County shows many islands of the Napa River in their present locations, albeit divided by levees and sloughs along different boundaries than they would later come to have. The land currently comprising Russ Island was shown, on this map, divided between a number of landowners: Harper & Langstaff, L.A. Bly, J.W. Pearson & Co., H.H. Gray, S. Gracy, H.S. King, F. Oppenheim, and J. Hughes. By 1895, the only landowners on the island were shown as L.A. Bly, W.J. Little, and C.E. Davis. By 1902, a United States Geological Survey map shows Russ Island as one mostly contiguous island, but covered in marsh and crossed by numerous sloughs; by 1916, USGS maps show it as being almost fully surrounded by levees. On the 1916 survey, as well as a 1942 survey, it is mislabeled as nearby "Knight Island"; however, by 1949 the error was corrected, and it is shown as "Russ Island" in all maps thereafter.
In 1914, Frank E. Knight was leasing the island from the Z. Russ & Sons Company and the Russ Investment Company. In May of that year, Russ's workers entered the island "for the purpose of repairing the levees, promising to protect [Knight]'s interests there"; Knight alleged that "the work was so done that the levees were partially destroyed, the sluice gates ruined and the wharves demolished". Knight subsequently filed a lawsuit against Russ in January 1916, seeking damages of \$26,500 (\$ in ).
In 1921, Russ Island was one of the "better known" of multiple islands lying in "an area of very fertile delta lands lying in the triangle whose points are Vallejo, Napa and Ignacio, which is bounded on the west by the Nama River, and on the northeast by Sonoma Creek, and other sloughs". The area, at the time, was not "traveled by any through country or State road"; a city engineer of nearby Vallejo proposed to build a highway through the area.
In 1926, a large plot of Harding grass was "doing well" on the island; by November 1926, it was "doing exceptionally well".
### Incinerator proposal
In April 1932, the Napa Fertilizer and Reduction Company (whose partners included one William N. Russ) planned to acquire a 25-year garbage disposal contract with the City and County of San Francisco; it proposed to construct a garbage incinerator on Russ Island.
The project met with vocal resistance from the Napa Chamber of Commerce, which passed a resolution opposing the project the same month. The Napa County Fish, Game and Forest Protective Association, which also passed resolutions to the same effect, "opposed the plan as being detrimental to hunting and fishing and to the general good of the county". In May, the city attorney of county seat Napa wrote a resolution urging the county's Board of Supervisors to disallow construction of the incinerator, which was passed unanimously by the city council. Ultimately, they "firmly refused" the construction of the plant, declaring themselves "opposed to the idea of garbage and refuse being shipped into this county in great quantities". The project was blocked, but would be "revived" in 1934 when "it became known that Commandant Yancey S. Williams of Mare Island Navy Yard had been asked the attitude of the government toward establishment of the project". In response, directors of the Vallejo Chamber of Commerse "ordered a letter of protest sent to the Napa supervisors".
### Sheep and cattle ranching
In 1945, the entirety of Russ Island (comprising some 3,600 acres (1,500 ha)) was offered for sale for \$190,000 (\$ in ); the posting advertised "rich, level soil, well drained [...] perfect climate, no stock pests or cattle rustlers can approach ranch". By 1946, William W. "Tiny" Naylor, a restaurateur from Beverly Hills, owned Russ Island, as well as nearby Little Island. At the time, the property was leased by the Crivelli Brothers, who used it to plant oats, barley and vetch. Two years later, two cattlemen of Napa Valley (Andrew Pelissa and John Hale) purchased the island from Naylor, for approximately \$185,000 (\$ in ). The transaction was completed in July 1948. Pelissa and Hale ran sheep and cattle ranches on the island (as well as on other lands in Napa and Modoc counties). Hubert Fruehauf, a farmer who took a "leading role in Napa County agriculture from the standpoint of both crop production and legislation", also leased Russ Island in the 20th century.
In 1948, a rented monoplane crashed on the island, killing one passenger and critically injuring another. The incident was subsequently investigated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The next year, another crash would occur, when a training aircraft from nearby Hamilton Field "plunged into an oatfield". The pilot, 2nd Lieutenant William Ocker, was ejected from the cockpit and killed instantly. The passenger, 1st Lieutenant Williard A. Smith, was seriously injured; he was freed from the wreckage by local farm workers who were out hunting pheasant.
In November 1951, an agreement was reached for Pelissa to sell the island for \$600,000 (\$ in ) to S.J. Pringle, who was "acting as an agent for an undisclosed principal". According to the title company, it was "the largest single price ever paid for a tract in the county's history".
### Salt production
In May 1952, the island was sold to the Leslie Salt Company, at the time "the largest salt producer on the West Coast and possibly the largest solar evaporation operation in the world". It was one of several islands in the Napa River purchased by the company (the total purchase included Edgerly Island, Little Island, Knight Island, Banty Island, Island No. 2, and part of Island No. 1). Leslie planned to flood and dike the islands to develop them into salt ponds; the entire project was projected to cost \$3,500,000 (\$ in ), and be ready for the first harvest in 1958. The salt was to be carried on barges down the Napa River, and primarily used in chemical plants. During the 1950s, this project was carried out, and Russ Island became a salt evaporation pond.
In September 1953, Russ Island was one of several areas added to the Napa Marshes waterfowl management area. Robert Lassen, supervisor of game for the district, said: "The Leslie Salt people have given the unattached hunter a big break in allowing the Department of Fish and Game to come in and manage their Napa marshes for hunting [...] there will be no limit on the number of hunters allowed into the Department-controlled area and no trespassing will be permitted elsewhere". Duck hunting on the island proved successful: in 1957, the Napa Duck Club had blinds set up there, and in 1959 Ed Hale wrote for the Napa Journal that "it was no trick at all to get our limit of ten bull cans".
In 1991, Russ Island continued to be operated by Leslie Salt. However, within several years, salt harvesting operations on the islands would cease.
### Wildlife area
In the 1990s, the California Department of Fish and Game began acquiring the areas which now comprise the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area, including Russ Island. In 2003, the DFG purchased the Napa Plant Site from Leslie Salt (now a part of Cargill). In the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area Land Management Plan, Russ Island is referred to as Napa River Unit Ponds 4 and 5. The area is "regularly used by hunters, fisherman, [sic] bird watchers, photographers, and hikers". |
59,811,191 | Bury a Friend | 1,173,490,900 | 2019 single by Billie Eilish | [
"2019 singles",
"2019 songs",
"Billie Eilish songs",
"Electropop songs",
"Interscope Records singles",
"Number-one singles in Sweden",
"Song recordings produced by Finneas O'Connell",
"Songs about diseases and disorders",
"Songs about monsters",
"Songs about suicide",
"Songs written by Billie Eilish",
"Songs written by Finneas O'Connell"
]
| "Bury a Friend" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and the third single from her debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019). It was released on January 30, 2019, and serviced to US alternative radio stations on February 19, 2019, through Darkroom and Interscope Records. The song was described as synth-pop, electronica, electropop and industrial in press reviews, for which hip hop beats, percussion, and a synthesizer provide minimalist instrumentation. Within the dark and violent lyrics, Eilish sings from the perspective of a monster under someone's bed. Her vocals are subtle and treated with layers of vocal effects. Eilish wrote the song with its producer, Finneas O'Connell.
"Bury a Friend" received generally positive reviews from music critics, several of whom praised its dark nature and lyrics. The song was also likened to the music of Marilyn Manson, Lorde and Kanye West. It attained commercial success, including reaching number one in Sweden and Latvia. The song further peaked within the top ten in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded it a triple platinum certification.
Michael Chaves directed the music video for "Bury a Friend", which was uploaded to Eilish's YouTube channel at the same time as the song's first release. The video depicts Eilish singing under the bed of British rapper Mehki Raine (known as Crooks at the time), who provides uncredited vocals on the song, being pulled by black gloves, and walking through a rundown apartment. Critics noted the video's horror elements. Eilish promoted the song by performing it live at venues in 2019, including Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Glastonbury Festival and during her When We All Fall Asleep Tour. It was also included on the setlist of her 2020 Where Do We Go? World Tour and her 2022 Happier Than Ever, The World Tour.
## Background and development
On January 29, 2019, Billie Eilish formally announced the release of When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and also revealed that she would release a single the next day at 9 AM (PT). She further posted a 16-second teaser of the song, featuring her singing while being grabbed and pushed by gloved hands. "Bury a Friend" was eventually released on the scheduled date, having premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show as the day's World Record. Eilish further made an appearance on Annie Mac's Future Sounds show on BBC Radio 1 to discuss the track. It was serviced to US alternative radio stations on February 19, 2019, by Darkroom and Interscope Records. "Bury a Friend" was written by Eilish along with her brother Finneas O'Connell, while production was solely handled by the latter. The song was mastered by John Greenham and mixed by Rob Kinelski, with both also serving as studio personnel.
The creation of the song took place in Chicago, which Eilish and her brother were visiting for a Lollapalooza performance. They attended a studio with a "shuffle beat" in mind, with Eilish drawing a black monster to show her brother what she wanted the song to sound like. Eilish desired to hear her name at the beginning of the track, for which she texted rapper Calvin (known as Mehki Raine); he ultimately sent Eilish a phone recording for her to use. The singer discovered the rapper on social media due to him repeatedly tagging pictures of himself with the caption "Where's Billie at?" on her Instagram comments. She decided to make him her acquaintance and the two soon became friends.
## Composition and lyrical interpretation
Eilish credited the song for setting the tone for When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, stating: "I immediately knew what it was going to be about, what the visuals were going to be, and everything in terms of how I wanted it to be perceived". "Bury a Friend" has been described as a synth-pop, electronica, electropop and industrial track in press reviews. Suzy Exposito of Rolling Stone called it "goth-R&B" reminiscent of Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar (1996). The song is moderately fast at 120 beats per minute (BPM), and is written in the key of G minor. Its minimalist instrumentation features a hip hop and "galloping" beat similar to Kanye West's "Black Skinhead" (2013). "Rumbling" percussion, "scattered" synth melodies, screams, and a screeching recording of an orthodontist shaving off Eilish's dental brace attachments are also included. Charlie Harding of Vox pointed out "a broken song form with strange alternate verses and a bridge placed untraditionally after a verse, rather than immediately following a penultimate chorus. The effect is destabilizing, and yet still accessible to the average listener". The melody presented during the chorus has been likened to the Doors' "People Are Strange" (1967), and sonically described as "innocuous as a childhood rhyme", contrasting the rest of the song.
According to Eilish, the track's "dark" and "violent" lyrics are written from the perspective of "the monster under your bed. Anything could be the monster — it could be someone you love so much that it’s taking over your life. I think love and terror and hatred are all the same thing". Laura Dzubay of Consequence of Sound interpreted: "[Eilish] assumes the position of a monster there to haunt somebody (a lover or herself [...])." The Michigan Daily's Samantha Cathie thought the fact that the singer was "hat[ing] herself" mirrored in the lines: "Like I wanna drown, like I wanna end me” and "Honestly I thought that I would be dead by now". Eilish asks several questions during the song's refrain: "What do you want from me? Why don’t you run from me? Why aren’t you scared of me? Why do you care for me? When we all fall asleep, where do we go?". Further lyrics include: "Step on the glass, staple your tongue/ Bury a friend, try to wake up/ Cannibal class, killing the son/ Bury a friend, I wanna end me". The singer's "soft" vocals in "Bury a Friend" range between the notes of F#<sub>3</sub> and B♭<sub>4</sub>. They are treated with layers of vocal effects, and a "playful trickery [is used] in each hook". Eilish described the track as a "near-whispered sing-song duet between [her] and a distorted version of herself". It ends with an instrumental part of "Ilomilo", which follows on When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?; the latter in turn begins with a lyrical reference to "Bury a Friend". Elaborating on the matter in an interview with MTV, O'Connell stated that the two songs were only referencing each other for the purpose of making the album "cohesive", and that they were not linked in any other way.
## Critical reception
Upon release, "Bury a Friend" received generally positive reviews from music critics. Several publications saw the song as her best single, as well as a highlight of When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. It was likened to Lorde's "Royals" (2013), as well as its production to that on West's Yeezus (2013). Thomas Smith of NME saw "Bury a Friend" as "a sizeable middle finger to anyone who expected a twinkly ballad befitting to her lone EP, 2017's Don't Smile at Me", as well as a "statement" for "vocalising the uncertainties and inquisitions of a generation ready to make their mark". DIY's Lisa Wright labelled the song "intoxicating and intriguing – aka exactly what you want from a new star". Chloe Gilke of Uproxx praised the "full of bizarre, screechy flourishes and dips into the nightmarish" and claimed that "somehow the song’s lyrics are just as specific and creepy". Similarly, an editor for The Music Network commented on the song's "sinister [nature] in name and "lyric" and claimed that it is "unsettling", despite there being "something tranquil and thoughtful about it". The Independent's Roisin O'Connor praised "Bury a Friend" as "excellent", and also noted its "imperious" and "anthemic quality". She further commented on the successful use of Eilish's "formula": "murmuring in cool low tones over a pulsing beat". In a lukewarm review, Samantha Cantie of The Michigan Daily saw the song as "slightly disappointing". She wrote: "[A] letdown is her seeming embrace of making an abnormal creation because it’s cool, as opposed to creating something with the beauty of sound as a priority", and elaborated, stating: "The track is choppy, cutting from different melodies quite quickly – these melodies bump, but they’re fleeting". Joe Coscarelli noted an "odd structure" and "nightmare lyrics".
## Commercial performance
"Bury a Friend" attained commercial success. It debuted at number 74 on the US Billboard Hot 100 before moving 60 places to number 14 with 29.1 million streams and 18,000 downloads sold in its first full week of tracking, becoming Eilish's highest peak on the chart at the time, before being surpassed by "Bad Guy" (2019). The song also became the singer's first number one on a Billboard radio airplay chart, topping the US Alternative Songs chart in May 2019. This made Eilish only the tenth solo woman in a lead role to reach number one in the chart's three-decade history. In the United Kingdom, "Bury a Friend" reached number six, making it Eilish's first top ten in the country. The song has further peaked at number one in Sweden and Latvia, and within the top ten in countries such as New Zealand, Australia and Canada. It has been awarded several certifications, most notably triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
## Music video
An accompanying music video for "Bury a Friend" was uploaded to Eilish's official YouTube channel on January 30, 2019. It was directed by Michael Chaves in the span of a day. The clip contains horror elements, which have led to it being regarded by reviewers as "creepy" and "haunting". Eilish explained: "I had this idea where I’m naked. Like an abduction-type thing, completely not in control, just a helpless body, and people putting syringes up my arms and in my neck. That’s one of people’s biggest fears—needles—and that’s what I’ve been doing recently: honing in on people’s fears".
The video begins in a hotel at night. Mehki Raine awakens from a nightmare and goes back to sleep, while Eilish, hiding under his bed, slowly rises to watch him sleep. The singer then walks outside the room slowly before she is pulled and prodded by hands covered with black latex gloves. Eilish is then injected with syringes, and she attempts to run. Eilish's attempts don't work, and she is stabbed with more and more needles until she finally falls to her knees as black twitches under her skin and Eilish slinks back under the bed, her eyes turning all black. Critics have likened the visual to works released by Alice Glass, Chris Cunningham and Floria Sigismondi. Others compared it to the films Suspiria (2018) and Get Out (2017), the television series The Haunting of Hill House, and Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining.
## Live performances and other usage
Eilish performed the song on BBC Radio 1 in February 2019, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in March. For the latter performance, the singer sang on a dark, smoke-filled stage and "summon[ed] a large cloth that swung behind her, casting a monster-like shadow while she bent over backwards". She wore a baggy black sweater and shorts, alongside a neon green frowny face print". In April, May and June, Eilish performed the track at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, and the Glastonbury Festival, respectively. She later sang it during Pukkelpop in August, and included "Bury a Friend" on the setlist of her When We All Fall Asleep Tour (2019) and Where Do We Go? World Tour (2020) tours. "Bury a Friend" was further added to Eilish's Happier Than Ever, The World Tour (2022).
The song was featured in the television series The Society. Kaitlin Reilly noted similarity between the lyrics and the series' plot. Zeds Dead remixed "Bury a Friend" to acclaim from Billboard's Kat Bein, who included it in her 12 Best Billie Eilish Remixes list. She stated that the remix takes the original song and "runs it through a few sonic filters [while] [m]oody ambience gives way to fat bass synths [...] [,] old-school dubstep wub-dubs [and] [...] drums [which] kick up in a slow-down UK garage style in the later half". In October 2021, a remix of "Bury a Friend" by Chris Avantgarde was used in the Zombies reveal trailer for Call of Duty: Vanguard. The track was further included in the pilot episode of Dickinson on Apple TV+, the fifth episode of the fourth season of Netflix's Big Mouth, in the 2021 film Sing 2, and in the 2022 film Kimi.
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal.
- Billie Eilish – vocals, songwriter
- Finneas O'Connell – producer, songwriter
- John Greenham – mastering engineer, studio personnel
- Rob Kinelski – mixing, studio personnel
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## See also
- List of number-one singles of the 2010s (Sweden)
- List of number-one singles and albums in Sweden
- List of top 10 singles in 2019 (Australia)
- List of top 10 singles in 2019 (Ireland)
- List of UK top-ten singles in 2019
## Note |
554,793 | Third Anglo-Maratha War | 1,173,768,474 | War between British East India Company and the Maratha | [
"1817 in India",
"1818 in India",
"Conflicts in 1817",
"Conflicts in 1818",
"Wars involving British India",
"Wars involving the British East India Company",
"Wars involving the Maratha Empire",
"Wars involving the United Kingdom"
]
| The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an invasion of Maratha territory by British East India Company troops, and although the British were outnumbered, the Maratha army was decimated. The troops were led by Governor General Hastings, supported by a force under General Thomas Hislop. Operations began against the Pindaris, a band of Muslim mercenaries and Marathas from central India.
Peshwa Baji Rao II's forces, supported by those of Mudhoji II Bhonsle of Nagpur and Malharrao Holkar III of Indore, rose against the East India Company. Pressure and diplomacy convinced the fourth major Maratha leader, Daulatrao Shinde of Gwalior, to remain neutral even though he lost control of Rajasthan.
British victories were swift, resulting in the breakup of the Maratha Empire and the loss of Maratha independence. Several minor battles were fought by the Peshwa's forces to prevent his capture.
The Peshwa was eventually captured and placed on a small estate at Bithur, near Kanpur. Most of his territory was annexed and became part of the Bombay Presidency. The Maharaja of Satara was restored as the ruler of his territory as a princely state. In 1848 this territory was also annexed by the Bombay Presidency under the doctrine of lapse policy of Lord Dalhousie. Bhonsle was defeated in the battle of Sitabuldi and Holkar in the battle of Mahidpur. The northern portion of Bhonsle's dominions in and around Nagpur, together with the Peshwa's territories in Bundelkhand, were annexed by British India as the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories. The defeat of the Bhonsle and Holkar also resulted in the acquisition of the Maratha kingdoms of Nagpur and Indore by the British. Along with Gwalior from Shinde and Jhansi from the Peshwa, all of these territories became princely states acknowledging British control. The British proficiency in Indian war-making was demonstrated through their rapid victories in Khadki, Sitabuldi, Mahidpur, and Satara.
## The Marathas and the British
The Maratha Empire was founded in 1674 by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj the Bhosle dynasty. Shivaji Maharaj's capital was located at Raigad. Shivaji Maharaj successfully defended his empire from attacks by the Mughal Empire and his Maratha Empire went on to defeat and overtake it as the premier power in India within few decades. A key component of the Maratha administration was the council of eight ministers, called the Ashta Pradhan (council of eight). The senior-most member of the Ashta Pradhan was called the Peshwa or the Pant Pradhan (prime minister).
### Growing British power
While the Marathas were fighting the Mughals in the early 18th century, the British held small trading posts in Mumbai, Madras and Calcutta. The British fortified the naval post of Mumbai after they saw the Marathas defeat the Portuguese at neighbouring Vasai in May 1739. In an effort to keep the Marathas out of Mumbai, the British sent envoys to negotiate a treaty. The envoys were successful, and a treaty was signed on 12 July 1739 that gave the British East India Company rights to free trade in Maratha territory. In the south, the Nizam of Hyderabad had enlisted the support of the French for his war against the Marathas. In reaction to this, the Peshwa requested support from the British, but was refused. Unable to see the rising power of the British, the Peshwa set a precedent by seeking their help to solve internal Maratha conflicts. Despite the lack of support, the Marathas managed to defeat the Nizam over a period of five years.
During the period 1750–1761, British defeated the French East India Company in India, and by 1793 they were firmly established in Bengal in the east and Madras in the south. They were unable to expand to the west as the Marathas were dominant there, but they entered Surat on the west coast via the sea.
The Marathas marched beyond the Indus as their empire grew. The responsibility for managing the sprawling Maratha empire in the north was entrusted to two Maratha leaders, Shinde and Holkar, as the Peshwa was busy in the south. The two leaders did not act in concert, and their policies were influenced by personal interests and financial demands. They alienated other Hindu rulers such as the Rajputs, the Jats, and the Rohillas, and they failed to diplomatically win over other Muslim leaders. A large blow to the Marathas came in their defeat on 14 January 1761 at Panipat against a combined Muslim force that gathered defeating Marathas led by the Afghan Ahmad Shah Abdali. An entire generation of Maratha leaders lay dead on the battlefield as a result of that conflict. However, between 1761 and 1773, the Marathas regained the lost ground in the north.
### Anglo-Maratha relations
The Maratha gains in the north were undone because of the contradictory policies of Holkar and Shinde and the internal disputes in the family of the Peshwa, which culminated in the murder of Narayanrao Peshwa in 1773. Raghunathrao was ousted from the seat of Peshwa due to continuing internal Maratha rivalries. He sought help from the British, and they signed the Treaty of Surat with him in March 1775. This treaty gave him military assistance in exchange for control of Salsette Island and Bassein Fort.
The treaty set off discussions amongst the British in India as well as in Europe because of the serious implications of a confrontation with the powerful Marathas. Another cause for concern was that the Bombay Council had exceeded its constitutional authority by signing such a treaty. The treaty was the cause of the start of the First Anglo-Maratha War. This war was virtually a stalemate, with no side being able to defeat the other. The war concluded with the treaty of Salabai in May 1782, mediated by Mahadji Shinde. The foresight of Warren Hastings was the main reason for the success of the British in the war. He had destroyed the anti-British coalition and created a division between the Shinde, the Bhonsle, and the Peshwa.
The Marathas were still in a very strong position when the new Governor General of British controlled territories Cornwallis arrived in India in 1786. After the treaty of Salabai, the British followed a policy of coexistence in the north. The British and the Marathas enjoyed more than two decades of peace, thanks to the diplomacy of Nana Phadnavis, a minister in the court of the 11-year-old Peshwa Sawai Madhavrao. The situation changed soon after Nana's death in 1800. The power struggle between Holkar and Shinde caused Holkar to attack the Peshwa in Pune in 1801, since the Peshwa sided with Shinde. The Peshwa Baji Rao II fled Pune to safety on a British warship. Baji Rao feared loss of his own powers and signed the treaty of Bassein. This made the Peshwa in effect a subsidiary ally of the British.
In response to the treaty, the Bhonsle and Shinde attacked the British, refusing to accept the betrayal of their sovereignty to the British by the Peshwa. This was the start of the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1803. Both were defeated by the British, and all Maratha leaders lost large parts of their territory to the British.
### Maratha-Hyderabad Relations
In 1762, Raghunathrao allied with the Nizam due to mutual distrust and differences with Madhavrao Peshwa. The Nizam marched towards Poona, but little did he know that Rughunathrao was going to betray him. In 1763, Madhavrao I along with Raghunathrao defeated Nizam at Battle of Rakshasbhuvan and signed a treaty with the Marathas. In 1795, he was defeated by Madhavrao II's Marathas at the Battle of Kharda and was forced to cede Daulatabad, Aurangabad and Sholapur and pay an indemnity of Rs. 30 million. A French general, Monsieur Raymond, served as his military leader, strategist and advisor.
The Battle of Kharda took place in 1795 between Nizam and Maratha Confederacy, in which Nizam was badly defeated. Governor General John Shore followed the policy of non-intervention despite that Nizam was under his protection. So this led to the loss of trust with the British. This was the last battle fought together by all the Maratha chiefs under leadership of Bakshibahaddar Jivabadada Kerkar. Maratha forces consisted of cavalry, including gunners, bowmen, artillery and infantry. After several skirmishes Nizams infantry under Raymond launched an attack on the Marathas but Scindia forces under Jivabadada Kerkar defeated them and launched a counterattack which proved to be decisive. The rest of the Hyderabad army fled to the fort of Kharda. The Nizam started negotiations and they were concluded in April 1795.
### The British East India Company
The British had travelled thousands of miles to arrive in India. They studied Indian geography and mastered local languages to deal with the Indians. At the time, they were technologically advanced, with superior equipment in several critical areas to that available locally. Chhabra hypothesizes that even if the British technical superiority were discounted, they would have won the war because of the discipline and organization in their ranks. After the First Anglo-Maratha war, Warren Hastings declared in 1783 that the peace established with the Marathas was on such a firm ground that it was not going to be shaken for years to come.
The British believed that a new permanent approach was needed to establish and maintain continuous contact with the Peshwa's court in Pune. The British appointed Charles Malet, a senior merchant from Bombay, to be a permanent Resident at Pune because of his knowledge of the languages and customs of the region.
## War preparations
The Maratha Empire had partly declined due to the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Efforts to modernize the armies were half-hearted and undisciplined: newer techniques were not absorbed by the soldiers, while the older methods and experience were outdated and obsolete. The Maratha Empire lacked an efficient spy system, and had weak diplomacy compared to the British. Maratha artillery was outdated, and weapons were imported. Foreign officers were responsible for the handling of the imported guns; the Marathas never used their own men in considerable numbers for the purpose. Although Maratha infantry was praised by the likes of Wellington, they were poorly led by their generals and heavily relied on Arab and Pindari mercenaries. The confederate-like structure that evolved within the empire created a lack of unity needed for the wars.
At the time of the war, the power of the British East India Company was on the rise, whereas the Maratha Empire was on the decline. The British had been victorious in the previous Anglo-Maratha war and the Marathas were at their mercy. The Peshwa of the Maratha Empire at this time was Baji Rao II. Several Maratha leaders who had formerly sided with the Peshwa were now under British control or protection. The British had an arrangement with the Gaekwad dynasty of the Maratha province of Baroda to prevent the Peshwa from collecting revenue in that province. Gaekwad sent an envoy to the Peshwa in Pune to negotiate a dispute regarding revenue collection. The envoy, Gangadhar Shastri, was under British protection. He was murdered, and the Peshwa's minister Trimbak Dengle was suspected of the crime.
The British seized the opportunity to force Baji Rao into a treaty. The treaty (The Treaty of Pune) was signed on 13 June 1817. Key terms imposed on the Peshwa included the admission of Dengle's guilt, renouncing claims on Gaekwad, and surrender of significant swaths of territory to the British. These included his most important strongholds in the Deccan, the seaboard of Konkan, and all places north of the Narmada and south of the Tungabhadra rivers. The Peshwa was also not to communicate with any other powers in India. The British Resident Mountstuart Elphinstone also asked the Peshwa to disband his cavalry.
### Maratha planning
The Peshwa disbanded his cavalry, but secretly asked them to stand by, and offered them seven months' advance pay. Baji Rao entrusted Bapu Gokhale with preparations for war. In August 1817, the forts at Sinhagad, Raigad, and Purandar were fortified by the Peshwa. Gokhale secretly recruited troops for the impending war. Many Bhils and Ramoshis were hired. Efforts were made to unify Bhonsle, Shinde, and Holkar; even the mercenary Pindaris were approached. The Peshwa identified unhappy Marathas in the service of the British Resident Elphinstone and secretly recruited them. One such person was Jaswant Rao Ghorpade. Efforts were made to secretly recruit Europeans as well, which failed. Some people, such as Balaji Pant Natu, stood steadfastly with the British. Several of the sepoys rejected the Peshwa's offers, and others reported the matter to their superior officers. On 19 October 1817, Baji Rao II celebrated the Dassera festival in Pune, where troops were assembled in large numbers. During the celebrations, a large flank of the Maratha cavalry pretended they were charging towards the British sepoys but wheeled off at the last minute. This display was intended as a slight towards Elphinstone and as a scare tactic to prompt the defection and recruitment of British sepoys to the Peshwa's side. The Peshwa made plans to kill Elphinstone, despite opposition from Gokhale. Elphinstone was fully aware of these developments thanks to the espionage work of Balaji Pant Natu and Ghorpade.
Maratha powers were estimated at 81,000 infantry, 106,000 horse or cavalry and 589 guns. Of these the Peshwa had the highest number of cavalry at 28,000, along with 14,000 infantry and 37 cannon. The Peshwa headquarters was in Pune. Holkar had the second largest cavalry, amounting to 20,000, and an infantry force supplemented with 107 artillery units. Shinde and Bhonsle had similar numbers of cavalry, artillery and infantry. Holkar, Shinde and Bhonsle were headquartered in Indore, Gwalior and Nagpur respectively. The Afghan leader Amir Khan was located in Tonk in Rajputana and his strength was 12,000 cavalry, 10,000 infantry and 200 guns. The Pindaris were located north of the Narmada valley in Chambal and Malwa region of central India. Three Pindari leaders sided with Shinde, these were Chitu, Karim Khan and Wasil Mohammad. They led horsemen with strengths of 10,000, 6,000 and 4,000 but most were armed only with spears. The rest of the Pindari chiefs, Tulsi, Imam Baksh, Sahib Khan, Kadir Baksh, Nathu and Bapu were allied with Holkar. Tulsi and Imam Baksh each had 2,000 horsemen, Kadir Baksh, 21,500. Sahib Khan, Nathu and Bapu had 1,000, 750 and 150 horsemen.
### British planning
The East India Company viewed the killing of their envoy, Gangadhar Shastri, as definitive intent by the Peshwa to undermine British control over the Maratha, and operations were commenced in order to place the entire region effectually into the possession of the Company. Although some regard the war as a mopping-up operation of the earlier Second Anglo-Maratha war, historians note the fact that the British assembled the largest army they had ever at that time organised in India indicated the importance the British placed on defeating the Maratha. The army, numbering roughly 120,000 men, consisted of the Grand Army or Bengal Army under the command of the Marquess of Hastings, and the Army of the Deccan under General Hislop. This included over 60 battalions of Native Infantry, multiple battalions derived from British regiments, numerous sections of cavalry and dragoons, in addition to artillery, horse artillery and rocket troops, all armed with the most modern weapons and equipped with highly organised supply lines.
This massive force quickly induced Shinde, who was secretly planning with the Peshwa and the Nepal Ministry to form a coalition against the British, into coming to terms with the British. In early November 1817, he was forced to enter into a treaty in which he ceded all his armed forces and major forts. Amir Khan disbanded his army on condition of being guaranteed the possession of the principality of Tonk in Rajputana. He sold his guns to the British and agreed to prevent predatory gangs from operating from his territory. By these actions, the British kept two major allies of the Maratha out of the war before any hostilities had begun.
## Major events of the war
### Conflict in Pune and the pursuit of Baji Rao II
The war began as a campaign against the Pindaris, but the first battle occurred at Pune where the Peshwa, Baji Rao II, attacked the under-strength British cantonment on 5 November 1817. The Maratha forces comprised 20,000 cavalry, 8,000 infantry, and 20 artillery guns whereas the British had 2,000 cavalry, 1,000 infantry, and eight artillery units. What followed was the Battle of Khadki where the Maratha were initially successful in creating and exploiting a gap in the British lines, but were soon nullified by the advance of the British infantry, which firing volley after volley, caused the Maratha to retreat in a matter of four hours. The British soon claimed victory with the loss of 86 men compared to the 500 Maratha killed.
While Pune was surrendered to the British, the Peshwa and his forces fled first to Purandar and then toward the city of Satara. His commander-in-chief Bapu Gokhale organised the retreat to guard the Peshwa in flight. The Peshwa then fled to the town of Koregaon where the Battle of Koregaon (also known as the battle of Koregaon Bhima) took place on 1 January 1818 on the banks of the river Bhima, north west of Pune. Captain Stauton arrived near Koregaon along with 500 infantry, two six-pounder guns, and 200 irregular horsemen. Only 24 of the infantry were of European origin; they were from the Madras Artillery. The rest of the infantry was composed of Indian sepoys employed by the British. A fierce battle ensued that lasted the entire day. Streets and guns were captured and recaptured, changing hands several times. Although Baji Rao's commander Trimabkji killed Lieutenant Chishom, the Marathas were forced to evacuate the village and retreated during the night. The British lost 175 men and about a third of the irregular horse, with more than half of the European officers wounded. The Marathas lost 500 to 600 men.
After the battle the British forces under general Pritzler pursued the Peshwa, who fled southwards towards Karnataka with the Raja of Satara. The Peshwa continued his flight southward throughout the month of January. Not receiving support from the Raja of Mysore, the Peshwa doubled back and passed General Pritzler to head towards Solapur. Until 29 January the pursuit of the Peshwa had not been productive. Whenever Baji Rao was pressed by the British, Gokhale and his light troops hovered around the Peshwa and fired long shots. Some skirmishes took place, and the Marathas were frequently hit by shells from the horse artillery. There was, however, no advantageous result to either party. On 7 February General Smith entered Satara and captured the royal palace of the Marathas. He symbolically raised the British flag.
On 19 February, General Smith got word that the Peshwa was headed for Pandharpur. General Smith's troops attacked the Peshwa at Ashti en route. During this battle, Gokhale died while defending the Peshwa from the British. The Raja of Satara was captured along with his brother and mother. The death of Gokhale and the skirmish at Ashti hastened the end of the war. By 10 April 1818, General Smith's forces had taken the forts of Sinhagad and Purandar. Mountstuart Elphinstone mentions the capture of Sinhagadh in his diary entry for 13 February 1818: "The garrison contained no Marathas, but consisted of 100 Arabs, 600 Gosains, and 400 Konkani. The Qiladar was a boy of eleven; the garrison was treated with great liberality; and, though there was much property and money in the place, the Qiladar was allowed to have whatever he claimed as his own."
On 3 June 1818 Baji Rao surrendered to the British and negotiated the sum of ₹ eight lakhs as annual maintenance. Baji Rao obtained promises from the British in favour of the Jagirdars, his family, the Brahmins, and religious institutions. The Peshwa was sent to Bithur near Kanpur. While the downfall and banishment of the Peshwa was mourned all over the Maratha Empire as a national defeat, the Peshwa contracted more marriages and spent his long life engaged in religious performances and excessive drinking.
### Conflict with the Pindaris
The Pindaris, who were mostly cavalry armed with spears, came to be known as the Shindeshahi and the Holkarshahi after the patronage they received from the respective Maratha leaders. The major Pindari leaders were Chitu, Karim Khan, and Wasil Mohammad and their total strength was estimated at 33,000. The Pindaris frequently raided villages in Central India and it was thought that this region was being rapidly reduced to the condition of a desert because the peasants were unable to support themselves on the land. In 1815, 25,000 Pindaris entered the Madras Presidency and destroyed over 300 villages on the Coromandel coast. Other Pindari raids on British territory followed in 1816 and 1817 and therefore Francis Rawdon-Hastings wanted the Pindaris extinguished.
In opposition to what the British forces expected as they entered the region in late 1817, they found that the Pindaris had not devastated the area. In fact the British found a super-abundance of food and forage, especially grain, which added immensely to the security of their supplies. The Pindaris were attacked, and their homes were surrounded and destroyed. General Hislop from the Madras Residency attacked the Pindaris from the south and drove them beyond the Narmada river, where governor-general Francis Rawdon-Hastings was waiting with his army. With the principal routes from Central India being occupied by British detachments, the Pindari forces were completely broken up, scattered in the course of a single campaign. Being armed only with spears, they made no stand against the regular troops, and even in small bands they were unable to escape the ring of forces drawn around them.
The Pindari forces proved unable to counter the British and the Pindari chiefs were soon reduced to the condition of hunted outlaws. Karim and Chitu had still 23,000 soldiers between them but such a force was no match for the armies that surrounded them. In whatever direction they turned they were met by British forces; defeat followed defeat. Many fled to the jungles, while others sought refuge in the villages, but were killed without mercy by local villagers who had not forgotten the sufferings inflicted upon them by the Pindaris. All the leaders had surrendered before the end of February 1818 and the Pindari system and power was brought to a close. They were removed to Gorakhptir where they obtained grants of land for their subsistence. Karim Khan became a farmer on the small estate he received beyond the Ganges in Gorakpur. Wasil Mohammed attempted to escape, and after he was found Mohammed committed suicide by imbibing poison. Chitu, another Pindari warrior, was hunted by John Malcolm from place to place until he had no followers left. He vanished into the jungles of Central India in 1819 and was killed by a tiger.
### Events in Nagpur
Mudhoji Bhonsle, also known as Appa Saheb, consolidated his power in Nagpur after the murder of his cousin, the imbecile ruler Parsoji Bhonsle, and entered into a treaty with the British on 27 May 1816. He ignored the request of the British Resident Jenkins to refrain from contact with Baji Rao II. Jenkins asked Appa Saheb to disband his growing concentration of troops and come to the residency, which he also refused to do. Appa Saheb openly declared support for the Peshwa, who was already fighting the British near Pune. As it was now clear that a battle was in the offing, Jenkins asked for reinforcements from nearby British East India Company troops. He already had about 1,500 men under Lieutenant-Colonel Hopentoun Scott. Jenkins sent word for Colonel Adams to march to Nagpur with his troops. Like other Maratha leaders, Appa Shaeb employed Arabs in his army. They were typically involved in holding fortresses. While they were known to be among the bravest of troops, they were not amenable to discipline and mostly armed with only matchlocks and swords. The total strength of the Marathas was about 18,000.
The British Residency was to the west of the Sitabuldi Fort located close to Nagpur. The British East India Company troops occupied the north end of the hillock associated with the fort. The Marathas, fighting with the Arabs, made good initial gains by charging up the hill and forcing the British to retreat to the south. British commanders began arriving with reinforcements: Lieutenant Colonel Rahan on 29 November, Major Pittman on 5 December, and Colonel Doveton on 12 December. The British counterattack was severe and Appa Saheb was forced to surrender. A force of 5,000 Arabs and Hindustanis however remained secured within the walls of Nagpur with the British laying siege to the city from 19 December. Attempts by the British to breach the walls failed with the loss of over 300 men, of which 24 were Europeans. The British agreed to pay the defenders 50,000 rupees to abandon Nagpur, which they did on 30 December. A treaty was signed on 9 January 1818. Appa Saheb was allowed to rule over nominal territories with several restrictions. Most of his territory, including the forts, was now controlled by the British. They built additional fortifications on Sitabuldi.
A few days later Appa Saheb was arrested. He was being escorted to Allahabad when he escaped to Punjab to seek refuge with the Sikhs. They turned him down and he was captured once again by the British near Jodhpur. Raja Mansingh of Jodhpur stood surety for him and he remained in Jodhpur, where he died on 15 July 1849 at 44 years of age.
### Events in Holkar
The Court of Holkar, based at Indore, was at this time practically nonexistent. The dynasty was headed by 11-year-old Malhar Rao Holkar III under the regency of his dead father's mistress Tulsi Bai Holkar. Tulsi Bai was executed by her own troops in December 1817 for allying with the British; soon after, the British advanced into Holkar's territory, encountering his army about 40 km north of Indore at the Battle of Mahidpur.
The battle of Mahidpur between Holkar and the British was fought on 21 December 1817, lasting from midday until 3:00 am. Lieutenant General Thomas Hislop was commander of the British forces which came in sight of the Holkar army at about 9:00 am. The British lost around 800 men but Holkar's force was destroyed, with about 3,000 killed or wounded. These losses effectively knocked the Holkar out of the conflict and broke the power of the Holkar dynasty. The Battle of Mahidpur also proved to be a major setback for the Marathas as well. Henry Durand wrote, "After the battle of Mahidpur not only the Peshwa's but the real influence of the Mahratta States of Holkar and Shinde were dissolved and replaced by British supremacy." The remnants of Holkar's army were pursued across the territory by the British, suffering further casualties in small-scale skirmishes. Holkar was captured and his ministers made overtures of peace, and on 6 January 1818 the Treaty of Mandeswar was signed; Holkar accepted the British terms in totality. Large quantities of spoils of war was taken by the British, which remained an acrimonious issue for many years afterwards. Holkar came under British authority as a puppet prince subject to the advice of a British Resident.
## Operations against remaining Maratha forces
By mid 1818, all of the Maratha leaders had surrendered to the British. Shinde and the Afghan Amir Khan were subdued by the use of diplomacy and pressure, which resulted in the Treaty of Gwalior on 5 November 1817. Under this treaty, Shinde surrendered Rajasthan to the British and agreed to help them fight the Pindaris. Amir Khan agreed to sell his guns to the British and received a land grant at Tonk in Rajputana. Holkar was defeated on 21 December 1817 and signed the Treaty of Mandeswar on 6 January 1818. Under this treaty the Holkar state became subsidiary to the British. The young Malhar Rao was raised to the throne. Bhonsle was defeated on 26 November 1817 and was captured but he escaped to live out his life in Jodhpur. The Peshwa surrendered on 3 June 1818 and was sent off to Bithur near Kanpur under the terms of the treaty signed on 3 June 1818. Of the Pindari leaders, Karim Khan surrendered to Malcolm in February 1818; Wasim Mohammad surrendered to Shinde and eventually poisoned himself; and Setu was killed by a tiger.
During the last stages of the conflict, from 1818 to 1819, British military operations switch to capturing Maratha-held forts which were still holding out under the command of their qiladars. On February 27, 1818, British forces under the command of Sir Thomas Hislop approached Thalner Fort, assuming it was friendly; the fort's qilidar, Tulsiram Mama, ordered his troops to fire on the British, outraging Hislop who laid siege to the fort. After ordering several bombardments against the fort walls, he personally led a storming party which captured the fort and overwhelmed its garrison (which was composed mostly of Arab soldiers). Mama was tried and executed for perfidy, and was hung on a nearby tree. Other forts in the region, such as Naralla Fort and Malegaon Fort were gradually captured and occupied by the British. At Malegaon Fort, the British encountered unexpectedly strong resistance from the fort garrison, which led them to bring in a 2,600-strong reinforcement force consisting of a mixture of infantry and artillery, after which a storming party captured the fort.
In early 1819, almost all of the forts had been taken, with the lone holdout being Asirgarh Fort, which was under the command of qiladar Jeswant Rao Lar. In March of that year, a massive British contingent lay siege to Asirgarh, capturing and occupying the town next to the fort to serve as a temporary base of operations. The 1,200-strong garrison was subject to constant artillery bombardments before the British launched an assault, which led to the fort's capture on 9 April. With the capture of Asirgarh Fort, the British victory was complete and all military operations ceased.
## Aftermath
The war left the British, under the auspices of the British East India Company, in control of virtually all of present-day India south of the Sutlej River, either through direct British rule, or through princely states. The famed Nassak Diamond was seized by the Company as part of the spoils of the war. The British acquired large chunks of territory from the Maratha Empire and in effect put an end to their most dynamic opposition. The terms of surrender Malcolm offered to the Peshwa were controversial amongst the British for being too liberal: The Peshwa was offered a luxurious life near Kanpur and given a pension of about 80,000 pounds. A comparison was drawn with Napoleon, who was then confined to a small rock in the southern Atlantic and given a small sum for his maintenance. Trimbakji Dengale was captured after the war and was sent to the fortress of Chunarin Bengal where he spent the rest of his life. With all active resistance over, John Malcolm played a prominent part in capturing and pacifying the remaining fugitives.
The Peshwa's territories were absorbed into the Bombay Presidency and the territory seized from the Pindaris eventually became the nucleus of the Central Provinces of British India. The princes of Rajputana were effectively reduced to feudal lords who accepted the British as the paramount power. Thus Hastings redrew the map of India to a state which remained more or less unaltered until the time of Lord Dalhousie. The British recognised Pratap Singh (Raja of Satara), a direct descendant of Shivaji as the ceremonial head of the Maratha Confederacy. Raghuji Bhonsle III, then not even ten years old, was appointed as the ruler of Nagpur under British guardianship. The Peshwa adopted a son, Nana Sahib, who went on to be one of the leaders of the Rebellion of 1857. After 1818, Mountstuart Elphinstone reorganized the administrative divisions for revenue collection, thus reducing the importance of the Patil, the Deshmukh, and the Deshpande.
The new government felt a need to communicate with the local Marathi-speaking population; Elphinstone pursued a policy of planned standardization of the Marathi language in the Bombay Presidency starting after 1820.
## See also
- Maratha Empire
- First Anglo-Maratha War
- Second Anglo-Maratha War |
49,078,723 | No More Parties in LA | 1,157,035,229 | null | [
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| "No More Parties in LA" (often stylized as "No More Parties in L.A.") is a song by American rapper Kanye West from his seventh studio album, The Life of Pablo (2016), featuring vocals from fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was produced by West and Madlib, who began the recording in 2010. The beat was originally offered to Freddie Gibbs before being given to West and Lamar by Madlib. The song was released as the third promotional single from the album as part of West's GOOD Fridays series on January 18, 2016.
A hip hop track, the song heavily samples Walter "Junie" Morrison's "Suzie Thundertussy". It also includes samples of Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Give Me My Love", Larry Graham's "Stand Up and Shout About Love", and Ghostface Killah's "Mighty Healthy". In the lyrics, West reflects on Hollywood culture and the experience of fame, while Lamar recounts the beginning of a relationship. "No More Parties in LA" received universal acclaim from music critics, many of whom lauded West's verse. They often appreciated his lyricism and others complimented Lamar's verse, while a few reviewers highlighted the song's sampling. Reappraisal towards it in reviews of The Life of Pablo was also positive; critics generally praised the production.
"No More Parties in LA" was ranked as one of the best tracks of 2016 by multiple publications, including HipHopDX and Pitchfork. The song charted at number 3 and 39 on the US Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and UK R&B Chart, respectively. It was certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in August 2018. Yasiin Bey referenced the song with his freestyle "No More Parties in SA" in January 2016. A remix of the song was shared by Freddie Gibbs that same month, while Sporting Life later released his remix in February 2017.
## Background and development
From 2013 to 2014, Kendrick Lamar supported West on The Yeezus Tour. He co-wrote West's single "All Day", which was released in March 2015. "No More Parties in LA" marked the first ever collaboration between Lamar and West. On February 16, 2016, shortly after the release of The Life of Pablo, West revealed that they have 40 unreleased songs together. He continued, stating that he and fellow rapper Young Thug also having 40 songs amounted to a "40/40 club!!!"
In 2010, West launched his weekly free music series GOOD Fridays for his fifth studio album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which was released that same year. For the album's series, 15 tracks were released. "Real Friends" was released as a promotional single on January 8, 2016, launching the return of West's GOOD Fridays series for his then-upcoming album SWISH. At the end of the song, a snippet of "No More Parties in LA" was included. The track was later released as part of the series.
The song samples American bassist Larry Graham's "Stand Up and Shout About Love", resulting in him, Tina Graham, and Sam Dees receiving writing credits on "No More Parties in LA". By using Larry Graham's recording, West had sampled the music of Canadian rapper Drake's uncle. Drake responded by uploading a photo to his Instagram that showed a vinyl copy of the recording's parent album One in a Million You (1980). In reference to the track, the rapper captioned the photo: "FEW MORE PARTIES IN LA." "No More Parties in LA" also samples American rapper Ghostface Killah's "Mighty Healthy", for which the rapper, Herb Rooney, Mathematics, and Highleigh Crizoe received writing credits. The sample marked the second time that West had sampled the recording, with the first being on his single "New God Flow" in 2012.
## Recording
West and American musician Madlib began production on the song in 2009, starting to record it during the sessions for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, then known as Good Ass Job. In 2010, Madlib told LA Weekly he had given five beats to West. As part of a special featurette included on the DVD version of 2014 Stones Throw Records documentary Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton, West rapped lyrics that were later used for "No More Parties in LA". He originally performed the lyrics when working with Madlib, whom West spoke about collaborating with during the featurette. He recalled: "I could paint the scene of how I felt sitting there with Madlib, working on these tracks, and just hearing the textures." After West recounted collaborating with him, he said that he "might have to get some more Madlib beats for the next projects".
Explaining the contributions to the song's production with a tweet, West confirmed he put together the intro while Madlib crafted the main backdrop. West's wife Kim Kardashian revealed via Twitter that he had arrived at the studio in Italy and finished recording the track one day prior to its release, admitting her husband wrote 90 of the lines on the plane there. He worked on the final mix with record producer Noah Goldstein in the studio, who engineered the track. During an interview with the Red Bull Music Academy on May 23, 2016, Madlib revealed that he made the beat to the song on an iPad. Madlib also mentioned that when sampling a recording by a musician, he will look through the entirety of its parent album to find samples. He also admitted West "waited too long" due to various samples being ultimately used for Madlib and rapper Freddie Gibbs' second collaborative studio album Bandana (2019). However, Freddie Gibbs told Peter Rosenberg in July 2019 that the song's beat was originally intended for him but West and Lamar "just got on it before I did", after Madlib sent them the beat. Madlib explained to him that he gave around 100 beats to the two of them and they "rapped over a bunch of stuff", though the song was the only one West and Lamar decided to release.
## Composition and lyrics
Musically, "No More Parties in LA" is a hip hop track, with soul elements. It was described as reminiscent of West's earlier works by numerous music journalists. According to Mojo's Bauer Xcel, the song features an abstract beat. The song is heavily based around samples of "Suzie Thundertussy", written and performed by Walter "Junie" Morrison. As well as being sampled in the song's production, the recording is utilized for vocal samples. The recording is combined with samples of the lyrics "Shake that body / Party that body" from an a capella version of "Mighty Healthy", written by Rooney, Mathematics, Crizoe, and its performer Ghostface Killah. For the song's intro, samples are used of "la-dee-da-das" from "Give Me My Love" (1977), written and performed by Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Samples of vocals from "Stand Up and Shout About Love", written by Larry and Tina Graham alongside Dees and performed by Larry Graham, are used for the song's bridge, interrupting West's rapping at the 5:32 mark. West briefly raps alongside Lamar at the start of the song, who performs the first verse and adds to the backdrop. Layers of production drop out after the verse, being followed by West performing the chorus. West raps for the song's remainder, with him contributing a 90-bar verse. The song closes with sound effects of crowd cheers from the basketball video game NBA Jam (2010).
Throughout "No More Parties in LA", West reflects on a variety of aspects of Hollywood culture and experiencing fame. Lamar chronicles the beginning of a relationship; he references American singer-songwriter Erykah Badu in one line, using her for a sexual verb. Meanwhile, West name-drops fellow artists Lauryn Hill, Cam'ron, and André 3000. West mentions a Pablo character in certain lyrics of the song that he claims to "feel like", though does not explicitly state who the character is. With the references to it, West offers an introduction of the Pablo character of The Life of Pablo. Prior to the song's bridge, he calls out his cousin for stealing his laptop, continuing the subject of his theft that the rapper previously mentioned on "Real Friends".
## Release and artwork
"No More Parties in LA" missed its original scheduled Friday release date of January 15, 2016. Kardashian apologized on West's behalf and explained that this was due to him not finishing the song in time because of a Yeezy Season 3 fitting in Italy. After her explanation, West subsequently announced that the song was to be released "very very extremely soon". "No More Parties in LA" was released via SoundCloud as the second promotional single for SWISH's GOOD Fridays series on Monday January 18, 2016. The song's title was often stylized as "No More Parties in L.A.". West's seventh studio album The Life of Pablo was released on February 14, 2016, including "No More Parties in LA" as the seventeenth track.
Alongside West's announcement of the song's release, he tweeted the song's cover art. Similarly to that of "Real Friends", the artwork displays a younger version of West than him in 2016. On it, West is shown at a social gathering with his family. The artwork was described by Capital Xtra as a "throwback picture".
## Critical reception
"No More Parties in LA" was met with universal acclaim from music critics, who mostly complimented West's verse. Matthew Ramirez of Pitchfork directed praise towards West's lyrical content, remarking that his "ability to connect to listeners" makes "the problems and lifestyles of the very, very rich" feel relatable. Ramirez continued, analyzing how the song passes "in the blink of an eye" with Lamar's "monster" verse and Madlib's "painterly" beat "reinforces how revitalized Kanye is after a spotty 2015", concluding by noting "an air of the unfiltered rawness of 'old Kanye'". NME author Leonie Cooper expressed a similar sentiment, lauding the song for being "doused with an old school soul vibe" and "vintage class", attributing both to Madlib's production while highlighting the sampling of "Stand Up and Shout About Love". Cooper preferred West's performance to Lamar's, admitting that despite the latter's "strong opening" in which he "eloquently airs some impressively mucky musings", West "shines" and she was not surprised by this due to the song being "his track first and foremost". She specifically appreciated West's smooth delivery and his lyricism, complimenting his storytelling.
David Drake from Rolling Stone commented that in comparison to West's output from the time period of his sixth studio album Yeezus (2013), the song "suggests a return to the more tasteful and on-brand Kanye" of his 2010 GOOD Friday releases, analyzing it as doing so "with its autobiographical narrative and comfort-food soul sample". Comparing West and Lamar's verses, he said "Kanye is the more effective and affecting: Kendrick is abstract" while elaborating by opining that Lamar's performance "could as easily be symbolic as personal" but West's verse "meanwhile, is packed with the kind of simultaneous relatable, everyday arrogance and self-effacement that made his earliest work resonate". Reviewing "No More Parties in LA" for DIY, Tom Connick appreciated the sampling of "Stand Up and Shout About Love", and he observed that as Lamar is "out there taking the boastful crown", West takes happiness in remaining real. In Digital Spy, Lewis Corner stated the song features West and Lamar "spitting lyrical over hard beats and a soulful, hazy backdrop", praising the sampling of "Suzie Thundertussy" in particular. Writing for Billboard, Mitchell Peters viewed the song as demonstrating West's "effortless rap skills over a smooth beat". Spin's Kyle McGovern referenced the delayed release by labeling the song "worth the wait", with him branding it as "stunning" and complimenting Lamar's "masterful" verse.
In reviews of The Life of Pablo, critical commentary towards "No More Parties in LA" was similarly positive. For The Line of Best Fit, Tom Thorogood wrote that the song's beat having the allowance "to ride out" makes for an impressive result. David Edwards from Under the Radar commented that the song "swings and spins around" the "Suzie Thundertussy" sample, describing it as "cracking the lid open on the dark, sordid underbelly of the city". AllMusic writer David Jeffries viewed the combination of Lamar's vocals, Madlib's production, and the samples of Morrison and Graham as being supportive of "a smooth, rolling soul song they never could've imagined". Xcel felt that Madlib's "suitably abstract beat" enables West and Lamar to trade verses on the song. At The Guardian, Alexis Petridis noted the "funny, smart" track for being among "wh[er]e there are great lines and verses" on the album. Reviewing The Life of Pablo for Spin, Greg Tate voiced strongly positive feelings towards West's performance on the song by calling it "the only duet-cut" on which he "displays enough oomph" for another artist not to be needed.
### Accolades
Reactor 105.7 FM ranked "No More Parties in LA" as the 78th best song of 2016. The track was voted in at number 66 on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll for that year with 8 mentions, being tied for the position with 9 other songs. Pitchfork named the track as the 32nd best song of 2016, with Raymond Cummings noting its potential to be "Kanye West's most urgently scatterbrained banger" while praising the performances of West and Lamar. On the Reader's Poll for the Top 50 Songs of 2016 that was conducted by the publication, "No More Parties in LA" was placed at number 16 from the readers' votes. The track was listed by HipHopDX as the 13th best song of the year. Its highest positioning was given by Treblezine, who ranked "No More Parties in LA" the seventh best song of 2016. West's verse was listed among the 20 best verses of 2016 by Complex, with Ross Scarano describing his performance as "a long verse that unwinds with the energy of Forrest Gump realizing he doesn't need those leg braces" and also noting the verse as showing him being "spiteful, funny, candid, paternal, drugged out and [...] lusty". Jack O'Keeffe from Bustle wrote in a 2016 article that if West wants to win Best Rap Performance at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, then the song may be "his best shot" at winning the award. It was ultimately nominated in no categories whatsoever at the ceremony in 2017, which Sam Rullo of the publication viewed as a snub.
## Commercial performance
Following the release of The Life of Pablo, "No More Parties in LA" debuted at number three on the US Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. The song lasted for three weeks on the chart. On August 15, 2018, "No More Parties in LA" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of 500,000 certified units in the United States. Prior to the album's release, the song reached number 45 on the Mexico Ingles Airplay chart. It only spent one week on the chart. In the United Kingdom, the song peaked at number 133 on the UK Singles Chart. The song further reached number 39 on the UK R&B Chart.
## In popular culture
Under his real name of Yasiin Bey, fellow rapper Mos Def posted a freestyle to West's website entitled "No More Parties in SA" in reference to "No More Parties in LA" on January 20, 2016. On the freestyle, Bey raps multiple claims of innocence. The freestyle was recorded as part of a voice message, after Bey was detained at Cape Town International Airport for allegedly trying to leave South Africa with an unofficial "world passport". Bey posted the full message to West's Twitter page, calling him "a real friend". On January 27, 2016, Freddie Gibbs shared his remix of the song, titled "Cocaine Parties in L.A". Speaking of using the song's beat for the remix, Freddie Gibbs commented that he "had to show [West and Lamar] how to do it". Lyrically, the remix focuses on the drug trade.
In March 2016, West's sister-in-law Kendall Jenner named the track as her favorite song from the album. West released a sweatshirt inspired by The Life of Pablo in May 2016 that reads "LOS ANGELES" in a triangular pyramid-shaped graphic on the front, while it features "NO MORE PARTIES IN LA" in red script on the back. Erykah Badu responded to Lamar's name–drop of her in it in July 2016, tweeting a photograph of the two of them at the 2013 BET Awards and writing, "[he] ain't called me since y'all made up some s[hi]t about us being in the trailer makin' out so he missed his award." American record producer Sporting Life shared his "Golf Master" remix of the song on February 16, 2017. Morrison's sampled vocals are looped up for the remix while West's vocals are filtered down to a whisper, and it adds dreamy keys. On October 5, 2017, fellow rapper Asher Roth freestyled over the song.
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from West's official website.
Recording
- Mixed at Larrabee Studios, North Hollywood, CA
Personnel
- Kanye West – songwriter, production
- Madlib – songwriter, production
- Kendrick Lamar – songwriter, vocals
- John Watson – songwriter
- Walter Morrison – songwriter
- Herbert Rooney – songwriter
- Ronald Bean – songwriter
- Highleigh Crizoe – songwriter
- Ghostface Killah – songwriter
- Larry Graham – songwriter
- Tina Graham – songwriter
- Sam Dees – songwriter
- Malik Yusef – songwriter
- Noah Goldstein – engineer
- Andrew Dawson – engineer
- MixedByAli – engineer
- Manny Marroquin – mixer
- Chris Galland – assistant mixer
- Ike Schultz – assistant mixer
- Jeff Jackson – assistant mixer
## Charts
## Certifications |
9,830,345 | George Washington Cullum | 1,140,853,352 | American military engineer and writer (1809–1892) | [
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"1892 deaths",
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"Military personnel from New York City",
"People of New York (state) in the American Civil War",
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"Union Army generals",
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| George Washington Cullum (25 February 1809 – 28 February 1892) was an American soldier, engineer and writer. He worked as the supervising engineer on the building and repair of many fortifications across the country. Cullum served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, primarily in the Western Theater and served as the 16th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy. Following his retirement from the Army, he became a prominent figure in New York society, serving in many societies, and as vice president of the American Geographical Society. The society named the Cullum Geographical Medal after him.
## Birth and early years
Cullum was born in New York City on 25 February 1809, to Arthur and Harriet Sturges Cullum. He was raised in Meadville, Pennsylvania. His father worked as a lawyer and an agent of a land company. Cullum attended the United States Military Academy, from 1 July 1829 to 1 July 1833, when he graduated third in the Class of 1833. He designed the Independent Congregational Church at Meadville and it was built in 1835–1836. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
## Pre-Civil War service
Cullum was appointed to the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a brevet second lieutenant on 1 July 1833. He served as the assistant engineer for Fort Adams in 1833. The following year Cullum served as the assistant to the chief engineer at Washington D. C., where he remained for two years. He was then involved in inspections of Forts Severn and Madison in Annapolis, Maryland, before returning to work on Fort Adams.
Cullum was promoted to second lieutenant on 20 April 1836. He supervised construction of the facilities on Goat Island until 1838. On 7 July 1838, he was made a captain. Cullum then supervised construction of Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut and the lower battery at Fort Griswold in nearby Groton until 1855. He also supervised a number of other projects on the East Coast from 1840 to 1864, including the repairs of sea walls at Deer, Lovells and Rainsford islands; the construction of Forts Warren, Independence, Winthrop and Sumter; the building of cadet barracks at West Point; and the construction of the United States Assay building. He later superintended engineering works on the western rivers.
Cullum was an instructor of practical military engineering at West Point from 1848 to 1851. He then served as director of the Sappers, Miners and Pontoniers at West Point. Cullum published the forerunner of his Biographical Register in 1850. He took two years leave of absence from 1850 to 1852 for health reasons, and traveled throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the West Indies while recuperating. Cullum then returned to West Point, and taught there until 1855. When Robert E. Lee, at the time superintendent of West Point, went on a vacation to Virginia, Cullum served as acting superintendent of the Academy from 5 July to 27 August 1853.
In 1848, he introduced a type of bridge pontoon, which was used in the Mexican–American War. Cullum published Description of a System of Military Bridges, With India-Rubber Pontons in 1849.
## Civil War and later military service
On 9 April 1861, Cullum was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and shortly after to colonel. He served as an aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott from 1 April 1861 to 1 November 1861. At the same time he was a member of the United States Sanitary Commission. Cullum was promoted to a Major in the Corps of Engineers, before becoming chief engineer of the Department of the Missouri on 19 November 1861, where he remained until 11 March 1862. Cullum then was chief engineer for the Department of the Mississippi until 11 July.
During the time, he was also the chief of staff for Henry Halleck. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers on 1 November 1861. From 2 December 1861 to 6 February 1862, Cullum was on the board that inspected the defenses of St. Louis and the board that inspected the condition of the Mississippi Gun and Mortar Boat Flotilla. He travelled to Cairo, Illinois, where he commanded operations auxiliary to various armies in the field and also managed the defense of the District of Cairo. From February to March, he surveyed the Confederate defenses at Columbus, Kentucky.
On 6 February 1862, the Union Army under then Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Henry, and ten days later, on 16 February, they captured Fort Donelson. With these victories, his forces took about 12,000 to 15,000 Confederate prisoners. The army was unprepared to handle this many prisoners and scrambled to find places to house them. Cullum sent many prisoners to St. Louis before he received War Department instructions to direct 7,000 prisoners to Camp Douglas near Chicago. Cullum was chief engineer at the Siege of Corinth.
For the rest of the Civil War, Cullum inspected or built defenses at: Cairo, Illinois; Bird's Point, Missouri; Fort Holt, Kentucky; Columbus, Kentucky; Island Number Ten; New Madrid, Missouri; Corinth, Mississippi; Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; Winchester, Virginia; Martinsburg, West Virginia; Boston Harbor; Nashville, Tennessee; the Potomac aqueduct; Baltimore; and Washington, D.C. He served on boards concerning Timby's Revolving Iron Tower, proposed military bridges, and Army Corps of Engineers officers being considered for promotion. In 1862, Cullum was appointed Chief Engineer of Halleck's armies in the Department of the Missouri.
He was Superintendent of West Point from 1864 to 1866. On 8 March 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Cullum to be appointed to the grade of brevet major general, USA, to rank from 13 March 1865. He was mustered out of the volunteers on 1 September 1866. In 1867, Cullum published the first edition of his Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy, covering all graduates from the founding of West Point to the class of 1840. The New York Times wrote that "We know of no single contribution to the military history of the Nation so rich in invaluable data and so essential to the future historian or student of American history."
## Later life and death
Cullum retired from active service 13 January 1874, with the permanent rank of colonel and the brevet rank of major general, and returned to New York City. Following his retirement, he married Elizabeth Hamilton, sister of Major General Schuyler Hamilton and the wealthy widow of Major General Henry W. Halleck.
Cullum was vice-president of the American Geographical Society, president of the Geographical Library Society of New York and a member of the board of managers of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. He was also a member of the Farragut Monument Association, a delegate to the 1881 conferences of the Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations and of the International Geographical Conference, a corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and a member of the American Historical Society and the American Academy. Cullum died on 28 February 1892 in New York City, of pneumonia. He is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Cullum left part of his fortune for the continuance of his Biographical Register and for an award of the American Geographical Society "to those who distinguish themselves by geographical discoveries or in the advancement of geographical science", known as the Cullum Geographical Medal. He also left \$250,000 to West Point, "to be used for construction and maintenance of a memorial hall at West Point to be dedicated to the officers and graduates of the U.S. Military Academy". The building is now known as Cullum Hall. Cullum also left \$100,000 for a hall for the American Geographical Society.
## Dates of rank
## Publications
- Description of a System of Military Bridges, With India-Rubber Pontons (1849)
- Systems of Military Bridges (1863)
- Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy (1867; third edition, 1891–1910)
- Campaigns and Engineers of the War of 1812–15 (1879)
- Struggle for the Hudson (in the Narrative and Critical History of America, 1887)
- Fortification and Defenses of Narragansett Bay (1888)
- Feudal Castles of France and Spain
## See also
- List of American Civil War generals (Union)
- Cullum Number (U.S. Military Academy)
- List of Superintendents of West Point |
272,964 | Black-footed cat | 1,171,114,013 | Small wild cat native to Southern Africa | [
"Felids of Africa",
"Felis",
"Mammals described in 1824",
"Mammals of Botswana",
"Mammals of Namibia",
"Mammals of South Africa",
"Mammals of Southern Africa",
"Taxa named by William John Burchell"
]
| The black-footed cat (Felis nigripes), also called the small-spotted cat, is the smallest wild cat in Africa, having a head-and-body length of 35–52 cm (14–20 in). Despite its name, only the soles of its feet are black or dark brown. With its bold small spots and stripes on the tawny fur, it is well camouflaged, especially on moonlit nights. It bears black streaks running from the corners of the eyes along the cheeks, and its banded tail has a black tip.
The first black-footed cat known to science was discovered in the northern Karoo of South Africa and described in 1824. It is endemic to the arid steppes and grassland savannas of Southern Africa. It was recorded in southern Botswana, but only few authentic records exist in Namibia, in southern Angola and in southern Zimbabwe. Due to its restricted distribution, it has been listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2002. The population is suspected to be declining due to poaching of prey species for human consumption as bushmeat, persecution, traffic accidents, and predation by herding dogs.
The black-footed cat has been studied using radio telemetry since 1993. This research allowed direct observation of its behaviour in its natural habitat. It usually rests in burrows during the day and hunts at night. It moves between 5 and 16 km (3.1 and 9.9 mi) on average in search of small rodents and birds. It feeds on 40 different vertebrates and kills up to 14 small animals per night. It can catch birds in flight, jumping up to 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) high, and also attacks mammals and birds much heavier than itself. A female usually gives birth to two kittens during the Southern Hemisphere summer between October and March. They are weaned at the age of two months and become independent after four months of age at the latest.
## Taxonomy and phylogeny
The scientific name Felis nigripes was used by the British explorer William John Burchell in 1824 when he described the species based on skins of small, spotted cats that he encountered near Litákun (now known as Dithakong), in South Africa. Felis (Microfelis) nigripes thomasi was proposed as a subspecies by the South African mammalogist Guy C. Shortridge in 1931, who described black-footed cat skins collected in Griqualand West that were darker than those of the nominate subspecies. When the British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock reviewed cat skins in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London, he corroborated that the black-footed cat is a Felis species.
The validity of a subspecies was doubted as no geographical barriers matching the observed differences exist between populations. In 2017, the IUCN Cat Specialist Group revised felid taxonomy and noted that the black-footed cat is most probably a monotypic species.
### Phylogeny and evolution
Phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear DNA from all Felidae species revealed that their evolutionary radiation began in Asia in the Miocene around . Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all Felidae species indicates that they radiated at around .
The black-footed cat is part of an evolutionary lineage that is estimated to have genetically diverged from the common ancestor of all Felis species around , based on analysis of their nuclear DNA. Analysis of their mitochondrial DNA indicates a genetic divergence of Felis species at around . Both models agree on the jungle cat (F. chaus) having been the first Felis species that diverged, followed by the black-footed cat.
Fossil remains of the black-footed cat have not been found. It possibly migrated during the Pleistocene into Africa. This migration was possibly facilitated by extended periods of low sea levels between Asia and Africa.
The following cladogram shows the phylogenetic relationships of the black-footed cat as derived through analysis of nuclear DNA:
## Characteristics
The black-footed cat has tawny fur that is entirely covered with black spots. Its head is darker than the rest of the body but paler above the eyes. Its whiskers are white, and its ears bear grizzled dark brown hairs. On the neck and back, some spots are elongated into stripes. The spots form transverse stripes on the shoulders. The forelegs and the hind legs bear irregular stripes. Its tail is confusedly spotted. The underparts of the feet are black or dark brown. The throat rings form black semi-circles that vary in colour from dusky brown to pale rufous and are narrowly edged with rufous. Some individuals have a pure white belly with a tawny tinge where it blends into the tawny colour of the flanks. The ears, eyes and mouth are lined with pale off-white. Two black streaks run from the corners of the eyes across the cheeks. Individuals vary in background colour from sandy and pale ochre to dark ochre. In the northern part of its range, it is lighter than in the southern part, where its spots and bands are more clearly defined. The three rings on the throat are reddish brown to black, with the third ring broken in some individuals. The black bands are broad on the upper legs and become narrower towards the paws. The 25 to 30 mm (0.98 to 1.18 in) long guard hairs are gray at the base and have either white or dark tips. The underfur is dense with short and wavy hair. The fur becomes thicker and longer during winter. The pupils of the eyes contract to a vertical slit, like in all Felis species. They are light green to dark yellow.
The black-footed cat is the smallest cat species in Africa. Females measure 33.7–36.8 cm (13.3–14.5 in) in head and body length with a 15.7 to 17 cm (6.2 to 6.7 in) long tail. Males are between 42.5 and 50 cm (16.7 and 19.7 in) with a 15–20 cm (5.9–7.9 in) long tail. Its tapering tail is about half the length of the head and body. Its skull is short and round with a basal length of 77–87 mm (3.0–3.4 in) and a width of 38–40 mm (1.5–1.6 in). The ear canal and the openings of the ears are larger than in most Felis species. The cheek teeth are 22–23 mm (0.87–0.91 in) long and the upper carnassials 10 mm (0.39 in) long. It has small pointed ears ranging from 45 to 50 mm (1.8 to 2.0 in) in females and 46 to 57 mm (1.8 to 2.2 in) in males. The hindfoot of females measures maximum 95 mm (3.7 in) and of males maximum 105 mm (4.1 in). Its shoulder height is less than 25 cm (9.8 in). Females weigh between 1.1 to 1.65 kg (2.4 to 3.6 lb) and males 1.6 and 2.45 kg (3.5 and 5.4 lb).
The African wildcat (Felis lybica) is almost three times as large as the black-footed cat, has longer legs, a longer tail and mostly plain grey fur with less distinct markings. The serval (Leptailurus serval) resembles the black-footed cat in coat colour and pattern, but has proportionately larger ears, longer legs and a longer tail.
## Distribution and habitat
The black-footed cat is endemic to Southern Africa; its distribution is much more restricted than other small cats in this region. Its range extends from South Africa northward into southern Botswana, where it was recorded in the late 1960s. It has also been recorded in Namibia, extreme southern Angola and southern Zimbabwe. It is unlikely to occur in Lesotho and Eswatini. It inhabits open, arid savannas and semi-arid shrubland in the Karoo and the southwestern Kalahari with short grasses, low bush cover, and scattered clumps of low bush and higher grasses. The mean annual precipitation in this region ranges from 100–500 mm (3.9–19.7 in). In the Drakensberg area, it was recorded at an elevation of 2,000 m (6,561 ft 8 in).
## Behaviour and ecology
The black-footed cat is nocturnal and usually solitary, except when females care for dependent kittens. It spends the day resting in hollow termite mounds and dense cover in unoccupied burrows of South African springhare (Pedetes capensis), aardvark (Orycteropus afer), and Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis). It digs vigorously to extend or modify these burrows for shelter. After sunset, it emerges to hunt. It seeks refuge at the slightest disturbance and often uses termite mounds for cover or for bearing its young. When cornered, it defends itself fiercely. Due to this habit and its courage, it is called miershooptier in parts of the South African Karoo, meaning 'anthill tiger'. A San legend claims that a black-footed cat can kill a giraffe by piercing its jugular. This exaggeration is intended to emphasize its bravery and tenacity.
Unlike most other cats, it is a poor climber, as its stocky body and short tail are thought not to be conducive for climbing trees. However, one black-footed cat was observed and photographed resting in the lower branches of a camelthorn tree (Vachellia erioloba).
A female roams in an average home range of 6.23–15.53 km<sup>2</sup> (2.41–6.00 sq mi) in a year, and a resident male in an area of 19.44–23.61 km<sup>2</sup> (7.51–9.12 sq mi). The range of an adult male overlaps the ranges of one to four females. It uses scent marking throughout its range. Receptive females were observed spraying urine up to 41 times in a stretch of 685 m (2,247 ft). They sprayed less frequently during pregnancy. Other forms of scent marking include rubbing objects, raking with claws, and depositing faeces in visible locations. Its calls are louder than those of other cats of its size, presumably to allow calls to be heard over relatively large distances. When close to each other, however, it uses quieter purrs or gurgles; when threatened, it hisses and growls. Adults move an average of 8.42 ± 2.09 km (5.23 ± 1.30 mi) per night in search of prey. It is difficult to survey because of its highly secretive nature; moreover, it tends to move fast without using roads or tracks like other cats. In South Africa, a density of 0.17/km<sup>2</sup> (0.44/sq mi) was estimated in Benfontein near Kimberley during 1998 to 1999, that fell to 0.08/km<sup>2</sup> (0.21/sq mi) during 2005 to 2014. Farther south, in the Nuwejaarsfontein area, the estimated number of individuals during 2009 to 2014 was 0.06/km<sup>2</sup> (0.16/sq mi). These were probably exceptionally high densities, as both areas feature good weather and management conditions, while the number of individuals in less favourable habitats could be closer to 0.03/km<sup>2</sup> (0.078/sq mi).
### Hunting and diet
The black-footed cat hunts at night irrespective of the weather, at temperatures from −10 to 35 °C (14 to 95 °F). It attacks its prey from the rear, puts its forepaws on its flanks and grounds the prey using its dewclaws. It employs three different ways of hunting: "fast hunt", "slow hunt", and "sit and wait" hunt. In a fast hunt, it moves at a speed of 2 to 3 km/h (1.2 to 1.9 mph) and chases prey out of vegetation cover. During a slow hunt, it stalks the prey at a speed of 0.5 to 0.8 km/h (0.31 to 0.50 mph), meandering cautiously through the grass and vigilantly checking its surroundings while turning its head side to side. It moves between 5 and 16 km (3.1 and 9.9 mi) on average in search of small rodents and birds, mostly moving in small circles and zig-zagging among bushes and termite mounds. In a "sit and wait" hunt, it waits for the prey motionlessly in front of a rodent den, sometimes with closed eyes. Its ears keep moving, and it opens the eyes as soon as it hears a sound.
Due to its small size, the black-footed cat hunts mainly small prey such as rodents and small birds, but also preys on Cape hare (Lepus capensis), being heavier than itself. Its energy requirement is very high, with about 250 to 300 g (9 to 11 oz) of prey consumed per night, which is about a sixth of its average body weight. In 1993, a female and a male black-footed cat were followed for 622 hours and observed hunting. They caught vertebrates every 50 minutes and killed up to 14 small animals in a night. They killed shrews and rodents by a bite in the neck or in the head and consumed them completely. They stalked birds quietly, followed by a quick chase and a jump up to a height of 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) and over a distance of 2 m (6 ft 7 in), also catching some in the air. They pulled them down to the ground and consumed small birds like Cape clapper lark (Mirafra apiata) and spike-heeled lark (Chersomanes albofasciata) without plucking. They plucked large birds like northern black korhaan (Afrotis afraoides), ate for several hours, cached the remains in hollows and covered them with sand. Neonate springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) lambs keep hiding quietly in a hollow or under a bush for the first few days of their lives. A male pounced on a lamb resting in the grass, but abandoned the hunt after the lamb got up on its feet. It later scavenged the carcass of a recently deceased lamb weighing nearly 3 kg (6.6 lb). It consumed around 120 g (0.26 lb) meat in each of several bouts of eating, starting from the thighs, making its way from the lower back through the flanks to the neck; later it opened up the chest and fed on the inner organs. Insects like harvester termites, grasshoppers and moths constituted about 2% of the prey mass consumed.
Altogether 54 prey species of the black-footed cat were identified, with the gerbil mouse (Malacothrix typica) being among its most important prey. Its average prey weighs 24.1 g (0.85 oz) with small mammals constituting the most important prey class, followed by larger mammals weighing more than 100 g (3.5 oz) and small birds. It is able to satisfy its daily water requirements through its diet, but drinks water when available.
### Reproduction and life cycle
In captivity, male black-footed cats become sexually mature at the age of nine months, and females at the age of seven months. Their oestrus lasts around 36 hours, and gestation lasts 63 to 68 days. The female gives birth to up to two litters per year during the Southern Hemisphere summer between October and March. The litter size is usually one or two kittens, in rare cases also four kittens.
Wild female black-footed cats observed in the wild were receptive to mating for only five to ten hours, requiring males to locate them quickly. Males fight for access to the female. Copulation occurs nearly every twenty to fifty minutes.
Kittens weigh 60 to 93 g (2.1 to 3.3 oz) at birth; they are born blind and relatively helpless, although they are able to crawl after just a few hours. Their eyes open at three to ten days, and their deciduous teeth break through at the age of two to three weeks. Within one month, they take solid food, and are weaned at the age of two months. Their permanent teeth erupt at the age of 148 to 158 days.
Captive females were observed trying to shift their kittens to a new hiding place every six to ten days after a week of their birth, much more frequently than other small cats. They are able to walk within two weeks and start climbing at three weeks. In the wild, kittens are born in South African springhare burrows or hollow termite mounds. From the age of four days onward, the mother leaves her kittens alone for up to 10 hours during nights. At the age of six weeks, they can move fast and frequently leave the den. Kittens and independent subadults are at the risk of falling prey to other carnivores such as black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), caracal (Caracal caracal) and nocturnal raptors. They become independent after three to four months and tend to stay within their mother's home range. Captive black-footed cats lived for up to 15 years and three months.
### Diseases
Both captive and free-ranging black-footed cats exhibit a high prevalence of AA amyloidosis, which causes chronic inflammatory processes and usually culminates in kidney failure and death. Wild black-footed cats are susceptible to transmission of infectious diseases from domestic dogs and cats.
## Threats
Known threats include methods of indiscriminate predator control, such as bait poisoning and steel-jaw traps, habitat destruction from overgrazing, declining South African springhare populations, intraguild predation, diseases, and unsuitable farming practices. Several black-footed cats have been killed by herding dogs. The majority of protected areas may be too small to adequately conserve viable sub-populations.
## Conservation
The black-footed cat is listed on CITES Appendix I and is protected throughout most of its range including Botswana and South Africa, where hunting is illegal.
### Field research
The Black-footed Cat Working Group carries out a research project at Benfontein Nature Reserve and Nuwejaarsfontein Farm near Kimberley, Northern Cape. In November 2012, this project was extended to Biesiesfontein Farm located in the Victoria West area. Between 1992 and 2018, 65 black-footed cats were radio-collared and followed for extended periods to improve the understanding about their social organisation, sizes and use of their home ranges, hunting behaviour and composition of their diet. Camera traps are used to monitor the behaviour of radio-collared black-footed cats and their interaction with aardwolves (Proteles cristatus).
### In captivity
The Wuppertal Zoo acquired black-footed cats in 1957, and succeeded in breeding them in 1963. In 1993, the European Endangered Species Programme was formed to coordinate which animals are best suited for pairing to maintain genetic diversity and to avoid inbreeding. The International Studbook for the Black-footed Cat was kept in the Wuppertal Zoo in Germany. As of July 2011, detailed records existed for a total of 726 captive cats since 1964; worldwide, 74 individuals were kept in 23 institutions in Germany, United Arab Emirates, US, UK, and South Africa.
Several zoos reported breeding successes, including Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, Brookfield Zoo, and Philadelphia Zoo.
The Audubon Nature Institute's Center for Research of Endangered Species is working on advanced genetics involving cats. In February 2011, a female kept there gave birth to two male kittens – the first black-footed cats to be born as a result of in vitro fertilization using frozen and thawed sperm and frozen and thawed embryos. In 2003, the sperm was collected from a male and then frozen. It was used to fertilize an egg in 2005, creating embryos that were thawed and transferred to a surrogate female in December 2010. The female carried the embryos to term and gave birth to two kittens. The same center reported that on 6 February 2012, a female black-footed cat kitten, Crystal, was born to a domestic cat surrogate after interspecies embryo transfer. |
69,558,461 | Julius Morgan | 1,145,473,617 | Executed by electric chair in Tennessee | [
"1890s births",
"1916 crimes in the United States",
"1916 deaths",
"20th-century executions by Tennessee",
"20th-century executions of American people",
"American people convicted of rape",
"Executed African-American people",
"People executed by Tennessee by electric chair",
"People executed for rape",
"People from Arkansas"
]
| Julius Morgan (c. 1894 – July 13, 1916) was an American criminal who was the first prisoner executed by the electric chair in Tennessee, after being convicted for the rape of a twenty-year-old woman. He claimed to have served one year in an Arkansas prison for assault before escaping to Tennessee. Morgan unsuccessfully sought clemency from the Tennessee Supreme Court and Governor Thomas Clarke Rye before admitting his guilt at his execution.
## Background
Julius Morgan claimed to be twenty-two years old in 1916, and came to Tennessee from Arkansas. Morgan stated that he had been convicted for the assault of a woman in Arkansas in 1913, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison. He escaped from prison one year into his sentence, but was recaptured before escaping again and moving to Tennessee.
Morgan was working with his brother in law and uncle at a farm in Dyer County. Morgan was accused of criminally assaulting Laura Sullivan on February 1, 1916, near Dyersburg, Tennessee. The crime occurred when the woman, described in news reports as a "20 year-old white girl" who was selling "toilet articles", came to a house where Morgan was working. Morgan pursued the woman and assaulted her in the street. He was captured about twelve hours later in Maury City. The sheriff of Dyer County moved Morgan to Jackson to protect him from a mob of vigilantes who planned to lynch him.
## Trial and petitions for clemency
Morgan appeared in court with three lawyers and was granted a change of venue to Memphis. On March 27, 1916, Morgan was being held in the Memphis Tennessee jail, The Memphis Tennessee Sheriff, Reichman ordered guards to protect Morgan from lynch mobs. He was convicted of the crime of rape on April 3, and a motion for a new trial was denied.
The Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation on September 27, 1913, making the electric chair the official method of execution in the state and required all executions to be held in Nashville. The legislation was signed into law by Governor Ben W. Hooper.
By June 1916 the Tennessee Supreme Court had affirmed the decision to execute Morgan. After the Supreme Court refused to overturn the death penalty, Morgan attempted to gain clemency from the governor. These attempts culminated in a visit by Governor Thomas Clarke Rye on July 10, 1916. Morgan talked to Rye about his crime, but Rye made no promise to grant clemency. Several people had asked the Governor to grant clemency including the Nashville "Colored Men's Branch of the YMCA, but the Governor did not grant clemency.
## Execution
Morgan was singing songs with religious leaders before being moved to the penitentiary to await execution. At 5:00 pm on July 12, 1916, he was led to an automobile for transport while hundreds of people gathered to see him transported.
On July 13, 1916, Morgan had a last meal of watermelon at the penitentiary. Morgan's head was then shaved and he was strapped into the electric chair at 4:38 am. At 4:41 am a guard flipped the switch and sent the electricity to the chair. The first jolt of electricity did not kill Morgan and the electricity was sent to the chair a second time. Morgan was pronounced dead by a doctor at 4:45 am.
Morgan admitted to his guilt before his execution. "I was good once. Then I went to drinking bootleg whiskey and when the showdown come-it got me."
His body was delivered to his mother in Arkansas. Since his execution there have been one hundred-thirty prisoners put to death using the electric chair in Tennessee.
## See also
- List of most recent executions by jurisdiction
- List of people executed in Tennessee |
63,649,475 | 2 Park Avenue | 1,166,287,146 | Office building in Manhattan, New York | [
"1928 establishments in New York City",
"Midtown Manhattan",
"Murray Hill, Manhattan",
"New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan",
"Office buildings completed in 1928",
"Office buildings in Manhattan",
"Park Avenue"
]
| 2 Park Avenue is a 28-story office building in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The structure, along the west side of Park Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets, was designed by Ely Jacques Kahn and was developed by Abe N. Adelson from 1926 to 1928. The building, known for its facade of brick and colored architectural terracotta, is a New York City designated landmark.
The facade of the first three stories is made of stone and largely contains storefronts, except for a central entrance on Park Avenue. The lower section of the building occupies nearly its entire lot, and the building contains setbacks at the 11th, 18th, and 25th stories. The facade contains a polychrome color scheme above the 16th floor, including colored terracotta tiles manufactured by Léon-Victor Solon. The design of the vaulted main lobby dates to the 1970s, when decorations such as a mural by Winold Reiss were added. Office tenants over the years have included the Boy Scouts of America, as well as various textiles, clothing, media, and financial firms.
The site had been occupied by the Park Avenue Hotel since the 1870s. Developer Henry Mandel bought the hotel in 1925 in conjunction with a nearby development; he sold the site to Adelson, who erected the building and issued bonds to fund the project. The Continental Bank and Trust Company took over the building in foreclosure in 1935, and real-estate firm Webb and Knapp acquired it in 1953. After several sales in the 1960s, Sheldon Lewis Breitbart bought 2 Park Avenue's leasehold in 1962. Breitbart renovated the lobby after buying the building outright in 1976. Bernard H. Mendik acquired the building in 1986 after several of the building's limited partners accused Breitbart of impropriety. Mendik merged his company in 1997 with Vornado Realty Trust, which sold the building in 2003 to a German firm. Morgan Stanley Real Estate has owned 2 Park Avenue since 2007.
## Site
2 Park Avenue occupies the eastern section of a city block in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 32nd Street on the south, Park Avenue on the east, and 33rd Street on the north; the city block extends westward to Madison Avenue. The building's land lot has a total area of 40,500 sq ft (3,760 m<sup>2</sup>). It measures 197.5 ft (60.2 m) from north to south and 205 ft (62 m) from west to east. Entrances to the New York City Subway's 33rd Street station are directly outside the building's northeast and southeast corners. The building is on the same block as 29 East 32nd Street to the west. Other nearby buildings include the Hotel Grand Union to the southwest, Madison Belmont Building to the northwest, 4 Park Avenue to the north, and 3 Park Avenue to the northeast.
The adjacent portion of Park Avenue slopes upward from south to north. The site was part of the 18th-century estate of merchant Robert Murray. In the 1860s, after the Park Avenue Tunnel was built, the segment of Fourth Avenue between 34th and 40th Streets was renamed Park Avenue, while the avenue's name south of 34th Street remained unchanged. Fourth and Park Avenues in Murray Hill had been developed with upscale residences by the 1870s.
The site had previously been occupied by the Park Avenue Hotel, which was built in 1878 by dry-goods businessman Alexander Turney Stewart and was originally a hotel for "working girls". This building was seven stories high and had an internal courtyard. Despite being destroyed in a 1902 fire that killed 17 people, the hotel was rebuilt and continued to operate for two decades. The New York Times described the hotel as "one of the most popular hostelries in New York City" when it was in operation.
## Architecture
2 Park Avenue was designed by Ely Jacques Kahn in the Art Deco style. It rises 28 or 29 stories and measures about 350 ft (110 m) to its roof. The lower section of the building occupies nearly its entire lot, but there is a light court facing west toward the adjacent building. On the western side of the building, there is a setback along 32nd and 33rd Street on the 11th story. There is a setback on all sides at the 18th story, above the tops of the western wings. The building has another setback at the 26th story; the top three stories are treated as a penthouse. The building's height was intended to maximize profit; since elevators and other service areas took up a significant part of the rentable area on upper stories, it would have been unprofitable to build a taller structure.
### Facade
The western elevation of the facade, on Park Avenue, is divided into nine bays along each of the 1st through 17th stories and seven bays on each of the 18th through 25th stories. Generally, the two outermost bays are designed similarly to each other, and the central bays share a common design that contrasts with the outer bays. The northern and southern elevations are each divided into ten bays along each of the 1st through 17th stories. The easternmost seven bays are divided into two outer bays and five central bays (similar in design to the facade on Park Avenue), while the westernmost three bays are again different in design. These taper to six bays on the 18th through 25th stories.
The facade contains a polychrome color scheme above the 16th floor, which Kahn said was inspired by the texture of fabric. Kahn's friend Léon-Victor Solon designed the polychrome terracotta panels. These consisted of red, yellow, green, and blue panels with glazing, and black panels with a luster finish. According to Kahn's biographer Jewel Stern, Solon had been selected because he was "the nation's leading authority on architectural polychromy". At the time of the building's completion, few buildings used colored terracotta panels on facades, though such panels were characteristic of Kahn's work during the 1920s. Kahn had wanted to include decorative forms in the building's design, but typical sculpted ornamentation was difficult to see from the street. Unlike traditional decorations (which were applied to a completed curtain wall) the terracotta panels on 2 Park Avenue's facade are part of the curtain wall itself.
#### Base
The main entrance is recessed within the central bay. The floors of the vestibule are paved in travertine. The main entrance to the lobby consists of two revolving bronze doors flanked by single bronze doors; all are decorated with geometric motifs. Above these is an ornate bronze transom bar, as well as a semicircular window. The transom contains motifs relating to machines, designed in a style resembling Frank Lloyd Wright's work. The mosaic ceiling was intended to evoke the design of a tapestry, with blue, black, and red tesserae as well as gold accents. The walls on either side are made of polished gray marble and originally contained light sconces. The side walls each contain a bronze door with an illuminated sign above it. The south wall also has a bronze tenant directory and the north wall contains a second door leading to the storefronts.
At the bottom of the 1st story is a water table made of granite. The 1st through 3rd stories are clad with tan stone, which blends in with the brick on the upper stories. The 1st and 2nd stories contain double-height openings, divided by vertical stone piers. The 1st story includes storefronts made of metal and glass, above which are horizontal spandrels made of cast iron. Panels were installed in front of these spandrels at some point in the 20th century before being removed. Each 2nd-story window is composed of a large central window between a pair of smaller sash windows, except in the central bay on Park Avenue, which contains four sash windows separated by triangular piers. There is a cyma reversa molding above these windows. On the 3rd story, the outermost two bays each contain two sash windows. The central bays are separated from each other by wide triangular piers; each bay has four narrow sash windows separated by flat pilasters.
The lowest three stories on Park Avenue, 32nd Street, and 33rd Street are similar, with minor exceptions. On 33rd Street, there is a secondary entrance in the fifth bay from east, with bronze and glass doors. An unused service entrance is placed on 32nd Street as well. The westernmost two bays on 32nd Street contain vehicular loading docks with roller shutters.
#### Upper stories
The upper stories are clad with brick. On all three elevations, at the 4th through 15th stories, each of the outer bays has two rectangular windows per floor, which are separated by flat pilasters. The flat brick surfaces of the outer bays contrast with the central bays' textured surfaces. Furthermore, the bricks in the outer bays are lighter in tone than with the bricks in the central bays, providing more visual contrast.
On all three elevations, each of the central bays contains four windows on each floor. The windows of each bay are separated vertically by narrow brick pilasters and horizontally by darker-brick spandrels, which are textured to resemble woven fabric. The spandrels alternately contain narrow brick headers, which project from the wall, and wider brick stretchers, which are flush with the wall. Furthermore, each four-window bay is separated by triangular brick piers, which are supported by stone corbels on the 3rd story and rise to the 17th story. At the setbacks, the brick piers are topped by blue terracotta panels. On the north and south elevations, the westernmost three bays are also faced with brick and divided by triangular piers, but there are only three windows per bay.
Between the 16th story and the roof are polychrome terracotta panels, designed with several geometric and abstract motifs. In the center bays, the spandrels above the 15th and 16th stories contain superimposed geometric motifs in red, yellow, green, and blue. The panels above the 17th story are treated as an attic section, with different designs above the central and outer bays. The central windows are topped by projecting yellow bars, while the brick piers are topped by blue terracotta. In the outermost bays, the 16th- and 17th-story windows are interspersed with horizontal bands of orange and yellow. Above the 17th story, the outer bays contain red, blue, and black bands (from bottom to top), each with vertical yellow bars. The outer panels above the 17th story contain curving shapes, the only curved motifs used in any of the terracotta panels.
Above the 18th to 22nd stories, there is a blue-on-yellow spandrel above each of the windows in the central bays. The outer bays contain horizontal orange-and-yellow bands between the windows on each story. The spandrels between the 24th and 25th stories contain geometric motifs in red, yellow, green, and blue, while the windows in the outer bays are interspersed with horizontal bands of orange and yellow. Above the 25th story, the central and outer bays are topped by ornament similar to that above the 17th story. The main difference is that the outer bays contain incisions above the 25th story. The top three stories are decorated similarly to the 16th and 17th and the 24th and 25th floors, except that the outer bays also have colored terracotta.
### Interior
#### Ground level and lobby
The main entrance to the building is from Park Avenue, though the building also has entrances from 32nd and 33rd Streets, all connected via passageways. There was also an entrance from the subway station in the basement. The lobby's design largely consisted of bronze, marble, and mosaic tiles, arranged in overlaid geometric motifs. The passageway from Park Avenue contained travertine floors. Each of the walls consisted of a tall gray-marble wainscoting, above which was a gilded plaster frieze with motifs such as plants, chevrons, volutes, prisms, and column shapes. Octagonal bronze-and-glass chandeliers, with cantilevered glass panels, were initially suspended from the ceiling via metal rods. The Park Avenue lobby intersects a vaulted north-south passageway connecting 32nd and 33rd Streets. The north-south passageway originally had multi-tiered chandeliers, each containing eight bronze pendants. The north-south passageway contained an arch leading back to Park Avenue, which was topped by a colorful tympanum. The lights, mailbox, and radiator grilles were decorated similarly to the rest of the lobby.
In the 1950s, many of these decorations were replaced, while the ceiling was painted white. During a renovation in the 1970s, a Winold Reiss mural of New York City's skyline and Sabino glass chandeliers were added to the lobby. The mural came from a Longchamps restaurant at 59th Street and Madison Avenue, while the chandeliers came from a Simpsons department store in Toronto, Ontario. The ceiling was also painted blue. Originally, there were also nine storefronts at ground level.
#### Other interior spaces
Below street level are freight and loading platforms. Each of the lowest floors spans 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m<sup>2</sup>). Above the 17th-story setback, each of the floors are 22,500 sq ft (2,090 m<sup>2</sup>). Though 2 Park Avenue could accommodate both offices and showrooms, its developers also wanted the ability to lease the space to manufacturers if there were not enough office or showroom tenants. At the time of the building's construction, up to 25 percent of the space could be used for manufacturing. Consequently, 2 Park Avenue's floor slabs contained a high floor–load capacity, and it also included freight elevators and other services.
The building contains 26 elevators. At ground level, the elevators are clustered where the passageways from each entrance intersect. On the remaining stories, there are mechanical rooms surrounding each elevator bank. The superstructure used 10,000 short tons (8,900 long tons; 9,100 t) of steel. The 1st through 17th stories are divided by piers, which are spaced 21 to 22 feet (6.4 to 6.7 m) apart at their centers; at the rear of each story, the piers are spaced more closely. The ceilings measured 12 feet (3.7 m) high, providing large work spaces for industrial tenants. The work spaces above the 17th story were generally shallower, accommodating office tenants. On the 20th floor is a business center with a coworking space, 74 offices, and meeting rooms.
## History
The developer Henry Mandel acquired the lots on the eastern side of Fourth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Street in 1923 under the name "One Park Avenue Corporation". He intended to erect an office building on the site. Since the house numbering system reset at the southern end of Park Avenue, buildings between 32nd and 34th Streets originally had Fourth Avenue addresses. Park Avenue was extended southward from 34th to 32nd Street in 1924, but controversies over the renaming continued until 1930. The site of the Park Avenue Hotel had long been difficult to redevelop because it faced a streetcar depot across Park Avenue, which was demolished to make way for 1 Park Avenue.
### Development
Mandel bought the old Park Avenue Hotel in May 1925, with plans to build 2 Park Avenue, a 35-story office building, on the site. He immediately started planning for the new development, even though the hotel continued to operate under a lease that did not expire until 1927. Mandel wanted to connect 1 and 2 Park Avenue via an underpass that also provided access to the subway. The Park Avenue Hotel site was sold again in April 1926, this time to Abe N. Adelson, who formed the Two Park Avenue Corporation to develop the building. That September, the Park Avenue Hotel closed and all its furnishings were sold off.
Ely Jacques Kahn was hired to develop alternative plans for an industrial building or an office building, since the owners did not know what to develop on the site. Kahn's firm Buchman and Kahn created four separate sketches of the building in four months. The first sketch, scheme A, called for a base with multiple setbacks and a central tower with a pyramidal roof. Scheme B was a variation of scheme A with diagonal corners and without a pyramidal roof. Schemes C and D also depicted a central tower above a base with multiple setbacks, but the setbacks in scheme D were simpler than those in scheme C. The final plans called for a much simpler massing without a tower. Buchman and Kahn filed plans for a building at 2 Park Avenue, to cost \$4 million, in October 1926. The structure was to be designed in the Art Deco style, making it one of the first office buildings in Manhattan to be designed in that style. To maximize usable space, Kahn designed the structure as a nearly square block with large floor areas and a light court in the rear.
Solon and Kahn created mockups of the facade's terracotta panels using plaster and cardboard boxes. The Federal Terra Cotta Company then created full-sized mockups of the panels to see how they looked from 250 feet (76 m) away. Though Adelson doubted the effectiveness of these designs, consulting architect Raymond Hood reassured the developer of Kahn's expertise. Halley, Knox & Koenig provided a \$1.25 million mortgage on the site in December 1926. The following month, S. W. Straus & Co. provided \$9 million in permanent financing including a \$6.5 million first mortgage. Straus had also tried to convince Kahn to tone down the colorful design, but Kahn replied that his panels would be less expensive than traditional sculptured decoration. Straus established the Park Avenue and 33rd Street Corporation, which would issue \$6.5 million in sinking fund bonds, secured by the land and building.
Steel contractors Shroder & Koppel began erecting the steel superstructure at the end of March 1927, at which point over one-fifth of the building was leased. That July, the New York Building Congress gave craftsmanship awards to many workers who were involved in construction. By November 1927, the building was nearly fully leased. Two months later, the Two Park Avenue Corporation hosted a dinner in which it presented a ceremonial cup to Adelson, honoring his involvement in the building's development.
### 1920s to 1940s
When the building was completed, its storefronts were occupied by Seward National Bank, Block, Maloney & Co., and the Bloomsburg Silk Mill. Several dry goods and textiles merchants occupied the lower floors, including Mills & Gibb. Among the largest tenants were Peierle, Buhler & Co. and Robert Reis & Co., which each occupied three full floors. On the 17th floor were the national headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America. Occupants of the 18th through 25th stories included the United States Leather Company, the Building Trades Employers' Association, and advertising firm Gardiner & Wells. The Building Trades Employers' Association, which occupied the entire 25th floor, sought to name the building the "New York Builders' Exchange". The top two floors were the offices of Buchman & Kahn, the building's own architects. The Tammany Hall political organization also temporarily leased space at 2 Park Avenue while its permanent home at 44 Union Square was being completed.
The Straus National Bank and Trust Company placed a \$2.5 million second mortgage on the property in July 1929. At the time, the building's brokers cited 2 Park Avenue as being fully rented. The same year, real-estate developer Robert W. Phillips cited 2 Park Avenue as one of several successful tall buildings that had been recently developed. Among the building's tenants in the early 1930s were the Royal Typewriter Company, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, shirt manufacturer Cluett Peabody & Company, several leather companies, and several handkerchief manufacturers. By February 1934, the Continental Bank and Trust Company sought to foreclose on the \$6.5 million first mortgage from S. W. Straus & Co. At the time, 8,000 individuals owned \$8.175 million in outstanding bonds on the building, over two-thirds of which agreed on a reorganization plan. The building was auctioned in August 1934 and Continental took over the building that month. In the nine months after the reorganization, 2 Park Avenue had \$225,000 in net profit.
Hunter College officials leased three and a half floors at 2 Park Avenue in February 1936, after Hunter's existing building burned down, and the college added several classrooms and study halls to the space within three weeks. Hunter continued to lease space at 2 Park Avenue for several years. Other tenants during the 1940s included the Bibb Manufacturing Company, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, the United States Mission to the United Nations, and a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board. In particular, the United Nations mission's presence led The New York Times to characterize 2 Park Avenue as "our global embassy on Park Avenue". In 1947, Two Park Avenue Building Inc. refinanced the building with a \$4.76 million mortgage, replacing the original first mortgage.
### 1950s to 1970s
Bankers Trust leased some space in the 1950s, as did the Free Europe Committee. Real-estate firm Webb and Knapp acquired control of 2 Park Avenue in April 1953, paying off a \$2.7 million mortgage. That November, the Connecticut Life Insurance Company provided a \$6.75 million mortgage loan for 2 Park Avenue to Webb and Knapp. During the 1950s, the building was 98 percent occupied by companies in a variety of trades. These included the Boy Scouts, the Blue Shield Association, Chase Manhattan Bank, the Empire City Savings Bank, the Federal Housing Administration, Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance, and Radio Free Europe. The law firm of Herrick Feinstein also leased some space in 1957 and stayed for over half a century, while publisher W. A. Benjamin leased space in the 1960s. Over a five-year period in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the building underwent a \$3 million renovation, which included automating 16 manually operated elevators.
By 1960, Webb and Knapp was struggling financially and had sold off a partial ownership stake in 2 Park Avenue and several of its other buildings. William Zeckendorf, the chairman of Webb and Knapp, subsequently testified that the building was sold in June 1959 to Chicago businessman Henry Crown, with a caveat that Zeckendorf had to buy it back if certain criteria were met. Crown asked Zeckendorf to buy back the building in January 1961, and Zeckendorf hired Samuel Lemberg to buy 2 Park Avenue, which Lemberg then sold to Joseph Lubin. In June 1962, Sheldon Lewis Breitbart of the Breitbart Corporation bought 2 Park Avenue's leasehold from a limited partnership, Two Park Avenue Company. The next month, Breitbart sold the leasehold for \$8.35 million back to Two Park Avenue Company. One of Zeckendorf's trustees, Mortimer M. Caplin, sued Zeckendorf in 1967, alleging the transactions were part of a trend of mismanagement. Caplin dropped his complaints against the 2 Park Avenue transactions in 1972 in return for a \$35,000 settlement.
Breitbart bought the land and building outright in 1976, paying \$4 million to Ann L. Goldstein and Barbara Goldsmith. The next year, Breitbart hired Kwan Lau and Beverly Birks to renovate the lobby with Art Deco decorations that were popular in the mid-20th century. During that decade, 2 Park Avenue's tenants included publisher E. P. Dutton, the editorial offices of Harper's Magazine, and the offices of Esquire magazine. In addition, the building's retail tenants included French restaurant La Coupole.
### 1980s and 1990s
The lawyer Alan E. Bandler secretly bought a share in the building's ownership in 1982 after Breitbart had refused to allow Bandler's associate, Julien Studley, buy an ownership stake. Bandler and Studley bought more shares in 2 Park Avenue over the next two years, but Breitbart also refused to acknowledge that the men were partial owners. In an attempt to gain total ownership of the building, Bandler and Studley convinced some of the building's 1,040 limited partners to file a class action lawsuit against Breitbart, on the basis that he had paid "unauthorized and excessive management fees" to himself and to his wife Barbara. The New York Supreme Court ruled in Breitbart's favor, but acting Court of Appeals justice Francis Pecora reversed the Supreme Court's decision. The appeals court ruled that Breitbart had to pay \$6 million in damages, forced Breitbart to resign as the building's general partner, and appointed John Bower as a receiver to sell the property. Bandler alleged that Breitbart should not be allowed to sell 2 Park Avenue unless Breitbart recognized Bandler's ownership stake.
Bower hired the Williams Real Estate Company, which recommended that the building be sold immediately so the limited partners could receive capital gains tax relief. The building was sold at auction in December 1986 to a syndicate of Bernard Mendik and EF Hutton for \$151 million. Despite not providing documentation for his work, Bower was paid \$7.7 million for his role in the receivership proceedings, or about \$4,000 an hour. This was about 70 times higher than the next-largest payment for a receivership proceeding in New York state. This represented five percent of the total sale price, the maximum allowed under state law. Breitbart appealed the award in February 1988, prompting the weekly newspaper Manhattan Lawyer to publish three articles about the transaction. The state appellate division vacated Bower's fee that June, but Pecora restored it that August without holding a hearing. After another appeal in December 1988, the appellate division reduced the payment to \$5 million, citing the "complex nature and extremely high quality of the service rendered"; this was still 40 times higher than the next-largest payment to a receiver in New York.
In the 1990s, the building contained the headquarters of New York Newsday, the New York City edition of Long Island daily newspaper Newsday. The American Place restaurant also opened in the building at that time. Despite the early-1990s economic downturn, 2 Park Avenue and Mendik's other properties remained over 95 percent occupied because of what Crain's New York described as Mendik's "reputation for quality management". In 1996, Mendik announced that he would form a real estate investment trust to control seven of his properties in Midtown Manhattan, including 2 Park Avenue. This move would allow Mendik to raise up to \$220 million. The next year, Mendik announced his company would merge with Steven Roth's Vornado Realty Trust, giving Vornado control of 2 Park Avenue and Mendik's other properties. By the late 1990s, the neighborhood was a hub for publishing companies, and Matthew Bender & Company and Times Mirror Company occupied 2 Park Avenue.
### 2000s to present
A branch of cheese restaurant Artisanal opened in the building in 2001, and Hartford Financial Services moved to the building that year after being displaced in the September 11 attacks. Vornado placed the building for sale in May 2003; at the time, it was 99 percent leased. That August, German firm SEB Immobililien-Investment GmbH agreed to buy the building for \$157 million. Its tenants at the time included the Tribune Company (succeeded by the Bonnier Corporation), Simplicity Pattern, New York Community Trust, and United Way of New York City. Several tenants also leased space in the mid-2000s, including life-insurance company Penn Mutual and fragrance company Coty Inc. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated 2 Park Avenue and the nearby 404 Fifth Avenue as official city landmarks on April 18, 2006. L&L Holding and General Electric Pension Trust bought 2 Park Avenue the same year for \$450 million and refinanced the building in an all-cash transaction. Morgan Stanley Real Estate paid \$519 million for a majority stake in the building in early 2007.
Cushman & Wakefield took over leasing at the building in 2010. Among the major office tenants in the early 2010s were fashion firm Kate Spade New York as well as British Airways, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the North Shore-LIJ Health System, and Gilt Groupe. The building's commercial tenants included Europa Café, Crumbs Bake Shop, and Pret a Manger, which faced competition from food trucks on Park Avenue. The building's manager requested in 2011 that the New York City Department of Transportation create a no-idling zone outside 2 Park Avenue; he claimed that food-truck owners had caused thousands of dollars in damage, resulting in complaints from tenants. By 2014, the building was fully leased after clothing company Talbots leased some retail space. Other tenants in the mid-2010s included textiles firm Delta Galil Industries and technology firm The Trade Desk.
## Reception
Of all buildings that Ely Jacques Kahn designed, 2 Park Avenue received the most attention from architectural critics. Near the building's completion, Solon brought Michael A. Mikkelson of Architectural Record, to see the building. Mikkelson thought the building began "a new chapter in the history of sky-scraper design". The visit also prompted Mikkelson to publish a 22-page "Portfolio of Current Architecture" in April 1928, featuring 2 Park Avenue exclusively. When the building was completed, architectural critic Lewis Mumford praised the building's facade, massing, and interior, in spite of his general disdain toward skyscrapers. Mumford said the form and facade combined to create "the boldest and clearest note among all our recent achievements in skyscraper architecture". Architectural Record described the building's lobby as "probably the most impressive in the country".
The photographer Cervin Robinson took an image of 2 Park Avenue, with the Empire State Building behind it, for his 1975 book Skyscraper Style: Art Deco New York. This led Paul Goldberger of The New York Times to describe the scene as one of several that "deserve to become classics". When the building's lobby was renovated in 1977, Goldberger wrote: "It is all bright, shiny and full of enthusiasm for Art Deco", criticizing only the blue ceiling. Architectural historian Anthony W. Robins described 2 Park Avenue as containing one of the "most striking Art Deco facades" in New York City. According to writers Jewel Stern and John A. Stuart, 2 Park Avenue was "the project that confirmed Kahn's reputation as a modernist".
## See also
- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets |
22,476,055 | Lavochkin La-152 | 1,143,276,437 | Soviet jet fighter prototype | [
"1940s Soviet fighter aircraft",
"Aircraft first flown in 1946",
"Lavochkin aircraft",
"Mid-wing aircraft",
"Single-engined jet aircraft"
]
| The Lavochkin La-152, (USAF reporting name - Type 4), and its variants, was a jet fighter prototype designed and manufactured by the Lavochkin Design Bureau (OKB) shortly after the end of World War II. Derived from the Lavochkin La-150, the 152 used several different engines, but the program was canceled as other fighters with more powerful engines and swept wings showed more promise.
## Design and development
### Izdeliye 152
Following the limited success of the 150, drastic changes were introduced to improve performance and ease of maintenance. The RD-10 engine, rated at 8.8 kN (2,000 lb<sub>f</sub>) of thrust, was moved to the front of the nose and its cowling formed the bottom of the forward fuselage. This position minimized thrust losses due to the length of the intake duct and allowed the engine to be changed much more easily than its predecessor. The cockpit was widened and moved to a position over the mid-set wings, even with the engine's exhaust nozzle. The pilot's seat back was armored and he was protected by an armor plate to his front and a bulletproof windscreen. Three fuel tanks were positioned ahead of the cockpit and one behind it with a total capacity of 620 kilograms (1,370 lb) of fuel. The removable, mid-mounted wings used several different laminar flow airfoils over their span. Each wing had a single spar, slotted flaps and ailerons. The tricycle undercarriage retracted into the fuselage, which meant that the aircraft had a very narrow ground track. The aircraft was armed with three 23-millimeter (0.91 in) Nudelman-Suranov NS-23 autocannon, two on the starboard side of the aircraft's nose and the other on the port side. Each gun had 50 rounds of ammunition.
The 152 made its first flight on 5 December 1946 and the manufacturer's trials completed on 23 June 1947. State acceptance trials commenced on 12 July, but the prototype crashed on the eighth flight when the engine failed on approach. The maximum speed attained by the 152 before its crash was only 840 kilometers per hour (520 mph).
### Izdeliye 154
The Lavochkin OKB decided to improve the performance of the 152 in late 1946 by replacing the RD-10 engine with a more powerful Lyulka TR-1 turbojet of 12.3 kN (2,800 lb<sub>f</sub>) thrust. The design work was completed in September 1947, and construction began of a prototype shortly afterward, but the engine was not yet ready for testing and the project was canceled. The only other significant difference from the 152 was that each cannon was furnished with 75 rounds of ammunition.
### Izdeliye 156
Meanwhile, the OKB had been developing two afterburning versions of the RD-10 to increase the engine's power. The more successful model was only 100 millimeters (3.9 in) longer and weighed an additional 31 kilograms (68 lb) more than the original engine. Its power, however, was increased by an additional 3.3 kN (740 lb<sub>f</sub>), over 30% more thrust. This engine was designated the izdeliye YuF by the bureau and was fitted into an aircraft 152 prototype in November 1946, initially designated as the 150D (Dooblyor - Second). This was changed to Aircraft 156 the following month.
In addition to the more powerful engine, the aircraft now had an ejection seat, additional cockpit armor, and a revised canopy. More importantly, it was fitted with new wings with a greater span and more surface area; they also had a new airfoil designed to delay Mach tuck. The area of the tailplane and the vertical stabilizer was also increased. Two prototypes were built and the first one was completed in February 1947 and made its first flight on 1 March. The second prototype joined the manufacturer's trials later that month. One of these aircraft participated in the Tushino flypast on 3 August 1947, where it was given the USAF reporting name of Type 5. The additional power increased the aircraft's top speed by 40–70 km/h (25–43 mph) over the 152. The second prototype began state acceptance trials on 9 September and demonstrated a maximum speed of 905 km/h (562 mph) at an altitude of 2,000 meters (6,560 ft). It could reach 5,000 meters (16,400 ft) in four minutes using afterburner. The aircraft was rejected by the Soviet Air Forces when the trials were concluded on 28 January 1948. The report said that the YuF engine was required more work before it was ready for production, the aircraft had problems with longitudinal stability, excessive stick forces from the ailerons and elevators, and the undercarriage was troublesome. Lavochkin consequently canceled the program.
### Izdeliye 174TK
An experimental version of Izdeliye 156 was built in 1947 under the name of Izdeliye 174TK (Tonkoye Krylo - thin wing). It had a very thin, straight wing of 6% thickness, believed to be the thinnest yet flown in the world, and an imported Rolls-Royce Derwent V engine, rated at 15.6 kN (3,500 lb<sub>f</sub>), mounted in the nose. The three NS-23 cannon had to be repositioned on the bottom of the nose to accommodate the engine. It was first flown in January 1948 and had a top speed of 970 km/h (600 mph) at sea level. It reached an altitude of 5,000 meters in only 2.5 minutes, but even these impressive gains over the 156 were inferior to the swept-wing Lavochkin La-160 that had flown nine months earlier and the program was canceled.
## Variants
- Izdeliye 154 - A second 152 airframe with a Lyulka TR-1 turbojet. Canceled due to delays with the engine.
- ''Izdeliye 156 - Originally known as Aircraft 152D. A modified 152 with a YuF engine, an afterburning version of the RD-10.
- Izdeliye'' 174TK - A thin-wing version of the 156 with a Rolls-Royce Derwent engine, but performance was already overshadowed by the lower-powered Aircraft 160 so further development abandoned.
## Specifications (Izdeliye 156)
## See also |
54,261,251 | No Good Deed (2017 film) | 1,172,193,084 | null | [
"2010s American films",
"2010s English-language films",
"2010s superhero films",
"2017 action comedy films",
"2017 black comedy films",
"2017 films",
"2017 short films",
"20th Century Fox films",
"American action comedy films",
"American black comedy films",
"American drama short films",
"Deadpool (film series) films",
"Depictions of Stan Lee on film",
"Films directed by David Leitch",
"Films shot in Vancouver",
"Films with screenplays by Paul Wernick",
"Films with screenplays by Rhett Reese",
"Metafictional works",
"Self-reflexive films",
"Short films based on Marvel Comics",
"Superhero black comedy films"
]
| No Good Deed is a 2017 American superhero short film featuring the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. The film was directed by David Leitch from a script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, with Ryan Reynolds starring as Deadpool. In No Good Deed, Wade Wilson tries to save an old man from a mugger, but fails because he takes the time to change into his Deadpool costume first.
Shortly before the release of the 2017 film Logan, its theatrical runtime was extended by several minutes. This was due to the addition of a Deadpool short film playing before Logan in place of a traditional post-credits scene. The short was filmed in December 2016 and serves as a tease for the feature film Deadpool 2, but is not a trailer for that film. It plays into Deadpool's characteristic humor in several ways, being based on an absurd premise that would not work in a feature film, having fourth wall-breaking references to Logan, making fun of the character Superman, and featuring a cameo by Stan Lee in one version.
No Good Deed was originally released by 20th Century Fox in front of Logan on March 3, 2017, and an alternate version of the short was released online by Reynolds the following day. Responses to the short praised it as a tease for Deadpool 2 and for showing that Leitch understands the character ahead of directing that film. Its humor was also highlighted by many critics.
## Plot
Wade Wilson comes across an old man being mugged in an alley, and races to change into his Deadpool costume before he helps the man. As Wilson struggles to get dressed in a nearby phone booth, the man is shot. Wilson emerges, wearing his costume, only to find the man dead and the mugger long gone.
## Cast
- Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool
- Stan Lee as himself
## Production
David Leitch directed a scene featuring Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool in December 2016, which was believed to be intended as a post-credits scene for the 2017 film Logan. This was meant to tease the film Deadpool 2, which Leitch had been hired to direct a month earlier. However, this report was denied by Reynolds, Logan director James Mangold, and star Hugh Jackman. After Logan's runtime was extended by three minutes shortly before its release, there was new speculation that a post-credits scene had been added to tease an upcoming X-Men film, but Mangold denied this again, saying that he wanted to "make a movie that begun and ended on its own terms. There was nothing else to say, because we had said it." Instead, a Deadpool scene was shown as a teaser for Deadpool 2 before Logan, confirmed to be the scene directed by Leitch in December 2016. It was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, writers of the Deadpool films.
After the initial release, Reese quickly clarified that the scene was not intended to be an official trailer for Deadpool 2, with none of its footage meant to appear in that film, instead being a standalone short film that serves as a "tonal tease" for Deadpool 2. Two slightly different versions of the short were created, with the intention of giving "theater-goers and internet users slightly different treats." For the online release, Reynolds simply titled the short No Good Deed. That version of the short sees Stan Lee make a cameo appearance as himself.
The short parodies Superman, with John Williams' theme from the 1978 film playing as Wilson changes in the booth. It was noted that Leitch's "icy blue" cinematography differed from the style that director Tim Miller used for the first Deadpool, on which Wernick said "every director brings their take to the material" and they were embracing and writing to his style. The writers wanted the opening of the short to feel like the opening of Logan, "so if you were going to see Logan and the first shot came up, you would think it's gonna be Hugh [Jackman] in the hoodie, and then when it turns out to be Deadpool you realize what's going on." They described the short as an absurd one-off "that's probably something that doesn't fit into a movie. It wouldn't work in the logic of a movie, but Deadpool affords us the opportunity to break rules ... the tone can be more absurd if we feel like it's funny. That was our goal there." The short makes several references to Logan: it is set in front of a theater that is showing the film; a poster for the film is seen in the alley; and Deadpool does an impersonation of Jackman's natural Australian accent. At the end of the short, an apparent book report summarizing Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and seemingly written by Deadpool is quickly shown in a text crawl. This was interpreted to be an allusion to Logan and that film's focus on older characters.
## Release
No Good Deed was shown in front of Logan in North American theaters beginning March 3, 2017, distributed by 20th Century Fox. The short was only approved for theatrical release in India as intended because the view of Reynolds' buttocks in the short, as Wilson changes into his Deadpool costume, is blurred by the telephone booth windows. Reynolds released the online version of the short on YouTube on March 4, with the video description "Wade and the other girls from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants plan a trip to Cabot Cove." Within 48 hours, the video had been viewed over 12 million times. When Deadpool 2 was released to home media in August 2018, No Good Deed was included in the bonus extras under Deadpool's Fun Sack 2.
## Reception
Chris Cabin at Collider called the short film "dark, funny, and just a bit punkish", and compared it to a Saturday Night Live skit. He thought it was a smart move from Fox to release "a taste of what [fans] love" about the first film to abate fears and rumors following the replacement of Miller with Leitch. Cabin also said it was impressive and clever that the studio managed to keep the short a surprise for general audiences to discover at the theater. Matt Rooney at JoBlo.com called the teaser great, and "a great way to keep the buzz going for" Deadpool 2 despite not actually revealing anything about that film. Matthew Monagle of ScreenCrush said the short proves that the first Deadpool was "not a one-hit wonder for Reynolds and company", and praised its jokes. He also noted its release with Logan as another connection being made by Fox between its X-Men films and Deadpool, pointing toward future crossovers between the two. The Verge's Andrew Liptak said the short was "a fun one", noting the visual gags in the background and the Stan Lee cameo, and saying, "At the very least, [this shows that] we can expect the same irreverent humor in" Deadpool 2 as was in the first film.
Writing for Screen Rant, Alex Leadbeater felt, regardless of the short's connections to Logan and Deadpool 2, it "ultimately is a good slice of Deadpool fun." Leadbeater also praised the alternate online release, as pirated versions of the theatrical showings had already appeared online and the extra scenes in the official online version were incentive for fans to watch the official release over the illegal ones. Trent Moore of Blastr called the short "a fun little scene", and said that Leitch "certainly seems to have a solid grasp of the irreverent tone that makes the character work so well." Jacob Hall at /Film said the short was a "fun little surprise" and compared it to Marvel Studios' Marvel One-Shots. He added that there is "not much to judge quite yet, but [Leitch] does showcase a strong eye for comedy" in the footage, and particularly noted the "ridiculously depressing and dilapidated" setting. Corey Chichizola of CinemaBlend said the short is "certainly cool enough to whet the palate for any X-Men fans", and particularly noted the "strong blue tint, which is in stark juxtaposition to the very bright and yellow world of Deadpool. With a new director stepping behind the camera, perhaps this was a choice that we'll see in" Deadpool 2.
There was speculation among fans that the murdered old man in the short could be Ben Parker, the uncle of Marvel character Spider-Man who is killed by a mugger as part of that hero's origin story. The speculation noted the way the old man is killed in the short, and the fact that he is carrying Ben & Jerry's ice cream. In response to this, Leitch "coyly" said, "That's a really interesting question", adding, "I think that people should continue to theorize who that old man was." |
69,686,431 | Ichizu/Sakayume | 1,146,306,745 | null | [
"2021 songs",
"Anime songs"
]
| "Ichizu" / "Sakayume" (一途/逆夢, lit. "The Only Way"/"Contradictory Dream"), is a Japanese double A-side single by King Gnu. It was released on December 29, 2021, by Sony Music Labels (Ariola Japan). Both songs served as theme songs for the 2021 MAPPA film Jujutsu Kaisen 0, with "Ichizu" serving as the opening theme and "Sakayume" as the ending theme. They were performed by King Gnu, who aimed the theme songs to focus on the chaotic relationship between the leads, Yuta Okkotsu and Rika Orimoto, with "Ichizu" having a strong starting point and "Sakayume" being more melancholic.
While the songs were released together, a Blu-ray video was also released featuring more singles from the band. They have appeared in several charts from Billboard Japan. Critical response was also favorable due to how both themes capture Yuta and Rika's tragic relationship, with "Ichizu" standing out due to its speed.
## Background
In November 2021, Toho revealed that King Gnu would be providing the theme "Ichizu" (一途, lit. "The Only Way") to the then-upcoming MAPPA anime film Jujutsu Kaisen 0 in December. An instrumental version would be released separately. Director Taichi Kimura explained the combined rock elements into a "sophisticated world." The song was released fully on December 1, 2021, at the 2021 FNS Song Festival 1st Night. It was pre-revealed on December 10, 2021, and the music video premiered on the same day. It was King Gnu's first music video in which the director, known as Perimetron, was not involved in the production.
In late December before the film's premiere, the staff revealed that King Gnu would also provide the ending theme "Sakayume (逆夢, lit. "Contradictory Dream"). The two songs were released together in a CD featuring an artwork of the character Yuta Okkotsu. An alternate Blu-ray containing several more tracks from the same band was also released on December 29, 2021, instead featuring an artwork of Rika Orimoto, a cursed skeleton that follows Yuta. There were three versions of the single released; a regular version; a first press limited version; and a limited edition, which contained footage from a performance held in November of the previous year.
## Overview
"Ichizu" places focus on the relationship between the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 protagonists Yuta and Rika. Vocalist and guitarist Daiki Tsuneta wrote "Ichizu". There was pressure to make the "ideal masterpiece" that the audience have been waiting for. However, they found it fitting for the franchise. The artists added there a fast sense of gale and rage colored with chorus and harmony which carries the main tune that returns to the first rugged melody. It goes back to the strong impression of being stoic. The music video was made by Taichi Kimura, who aimed to fuse the rugged nature of rock with a sophisticated world.
"Sakayume" was digitally released as a surprise on December 24, 2021. According to King Gnu, it conveys a sad voice and a gentle and rocky melody as seen in its refrain a calm background music. While the focus of the themes is that of Yuta and Rika's relationship, Human Tokyo also commented that there seems to be a commentary on the characters of Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. Just like Yuta and Rika, this duo originally had a stable relationship, but a tragedy explored in flashbacks led to their downfall. As a result, the website claimed that "Sakayume" is the opposite of dreams people tend to have. The music video was directed by the artist "Perimetron's Osrin", who wanted to give the audience a different perspective from the same band It was released on January 5, 2022.
Eriko Ishii mentioned that the single package "is a high-speed rock tune with a lot of words and the other is a moist ballad". He pointed out and reaffirmed King Gnu's appeal of "coexistence of avant-garde and classic, aristocratic elegance and enthusiasm on the verge of riot." Music writer Tsutomu Matsumoto describes it as "a love song that is so fiercely straight and can no longer be considered catastrophic, even if you look back on the long history of J-POP."
## Track listing
## Live performances
## Critical response
Rocking On stated that "Sakayume" does a good job at explaining Yuta and Rika's chaotic relationship based on certain lyrics that focus on the former's predicament regarding his love for the latter. GameScored agreed, citing "Ichizu" as one of the most standing musical themes in the Jujutsu Kaisen series in general. GamerFocus and Cinepremiere found both themes remarkable.
## Sales
"Ichizu", which was pre-delivered on December 10, 2021, was downloaded 29,545 times on the Billboard Japan Songs Chart released on December 15. It reached 2nd place and recorded 22nd place in streaming with 4,163,066 playbacks. In other indicators, "Ichizu" made its debut in 4th place overall, reaching 10th place for video playback, 18th place for Twitter, and 29th place for radio. In the chart for the following week, it had risen from 4th to 3rd overall with 3rd for download, 4th for streaming, 2nd for video playback, and 2nd for radio.
"Sakayume", which was pre-delivered on December 24 when the movie was released, is the top download on the chart released on December 29, 2021, with 28,308 downloads. It also recorded 45th place in streaming and debuted in 12th place overall. In the chart of the week following the release of the physical CD, "Ichizu" sold 47,292 copies and became the No. 1 single, No. 1 in streaming with 9,696,001 playbacks, and No. 1 in video playback with 2,098,622 playbacks, winning a total of three No. 1s. It was the first from the band (as of January 2022) to take the overall lead. The next week, "Sakayume" moved up from 12th place to 3rd place overall, which was driven by No. 1 in downloads, marking 24,637 downloads. The following week, "Sakayume", which was released on January 5 as a MV, ranked first in download for three weeks in a row and second in streaming to second overall. "Ichizu" also achieved a one-two finish with 3rd place for download and 1st place for streaming. "Sakayume" won No. 1 in streaming with 10,032,427 streams on the chart the following week, and King Gnu achieved a streaming one-two finish again with the 1st and 2nd places swapping.
On March 16, 2022, "Ichizu" surpassed 100 million total streaming views.
### Certification and sales |
856,976 | Pirin National Park | 1,160,603,921 | National park in Bulgaria | [
"1962 establishments in Bulgaria",
"Geography of Blagoevgrad Province",
"National parks of Bulgaria",
"Natura 2000 in Bulgaria",
"Pirin",
"Protected areas established in 1962",
"Tourist attractions in Blagoevgrad Province",
"World Heritage Sites in Bulgaria"
]
| Pirin National Park (Bulgarian: Национален парк "Пирин"), originally named Vihren National Park, encompasses the larger part of the Pirin Mountains in southwestern Bulgaria, spanning an area of 403.56 square kilometers (155.82 sq mi).
It is one of the three national parks in the country, the others being Rila National Park and Central Balkan National Park. The park was established in 1962 and its territory was expanded several times since then. Pirin National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. The elevation varies from 950 meters (3,120 ft) to 2,914 meters (9,560 ft) at Vihren, Bulgaria's second highest summit and the Balkans' third.
The park is situated in Blagoevgrad Province, the nation's southwesternmost region, on the territory of seven municipalities: Bansko, Gotse Delchev, Kresna, Razlog, Sandanski, Simitli, and Strumyani. There are no populated places within its territory. Two nature reserves are located within the boundaries of Pirin National Park: Bayuvi Dupki–Dzhindzhiritsa and Yulen. Bayuvi Dupki–Dzhindzhiritsa is among the oldest in Bulgaria, established in 1934 and is included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme. The whole territory is part of the network of nature protection areas of the European Union, Natura 2000.
Pirin is renowned for its 118 glacial lakes, the largest and the deepest of them being Popovo Lake. Many of them are situated in cirques. There are also a few small glaciers, such Snezhnika, located in the deep Golemiya Kazan cirque at the steep northern foot of Vihren, and Banski Suhodol. They are the southernmost glaciers in Europe.
Pirin National Park falls within the Rodope montane mixed forests terrestrial ecoregion of the Palearctic temperate broadleaf and mixed forest. Forests cover 57.3 percent of the parks area and almost 95 percent of them are coniferous forests. The average age of the forests is 85 years. Bulgaria's oldest tree, Baikushev's pine, is located in the park. With an approximate age of about 1,300 years, it is a contemporary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state in 681 CE. The fauna of the Pirin National Park is diverse and includes 45 species of mammals, 159 species of birds, 11 species of reptiles, 8 species of amphibia, and 6 species of fish.
## History and park administration
Pirin National Park was established on 18 November 1962 in order to preserve the natural ecosystems and landscapes along with their plant and animal communities and habitats. Originally named Vihren National Park, the protected area initially covered 67.36 km<sup>2</sup>. Its territory was expanded several times until it reached its current area of 403.56 km<sup>2</sup> in 1999. In 1983, Pirin National Park was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as an area of outstanding natural importance. By the Constitution of Bulgaria, the park is exclusively state-owned.
According to the classification of the International Union for Conservation of Nature the park falls within management category II (national park) with main objective protecting functioning ecosystems while allowing human visitation and its supporting infrastructure. The entire territory of the park is included in the European Union network of nature protection areas Natura 2000. Pirin National Park is listed as an important bird and biodiversity area by BirdLife International.
Pirin National Park is managed by a directorate subordinated to the Ministry of Environment and Water of Bulgaria based in the town of Bansko at the northern foothills of the mountain. As of 2004, the park administration had 92 employees. There are two visitor and information centres located in Bansko and Sandanski. The park is divided in six sectors: Bayuvi Dupki with office in Razlog, Vihren with office in Bansko, Bezbog with office in Dobrinishte, Trite Reki and Kamenitsa, both with office in Sandanski, and Sinanitsa with office in Kresna.
## Geography
### Overview
Pirin National Park encompasses much of the homonymous mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria, which forms part of the Rila–Rhodope Massif. To the north it is divided from the Rila mountain range by the Predel Saddle and mountain pass at 1140 m elevation, to the east reaches the valley of the river Mesta, including the Razlog Valley, to the south the Paril Saddle (1170 m) forms the border with the Slavyanka mountain range, and to the west reaches the valley of the river Struma. The park is situated entirely in Blagoevgrad Province in the municipalities of Bansko (36.6% of the park's territory), Gotse Delchev (4.9%), Kresna (14.9%), Razlog (10.2%), Sandanski (30.7%), Simitli (2.3%) and Strumyani (0.4%).
### Relief and geology
The tectonics of the Pirin is primarily the result of Precambrian, Hercynian, alpine and tectonic movements and events. The modern relief of Pirin was shaped in the Pleistocene (2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago) when the mountain was subjected to alpine glaciation related to the global cooling. This glaciation passed in parallel with that of the Alps. The limits of the glaciers reached 2200–2300 m. All glacial forms in the mountain range are within the borders of Pirin National Park.
The Pirin mountain range is divided into three sections: northern, middle and southern, with the northern one being the highest and containing all glacial formations and lakes. The park covers the northern section, itself divided into two zones. The northern zone consists of the steep marble Vihren ridge with the three highest summits in the mountain: Vihren (2914 m), Kutelo (2908 m) and Banski Suhodol (2884 m), as well as the ridge Koncheto (2810 m). The southern zone consists of granite ridges and includes Pirin's fourth highest summit Polezhan, at 2851 m. There are more around 60 summits above 2600 m.
The relief of Pirin National Park is alpine and highly fragmented and is characterized with steep slopes, high ridges and deep river valleys. The highest point is Vihren at an elevation of 2914 m, the second highest summit in Bulgaria and the third one in the Balkan Peninsula, while the lowest elevation in the park is at 950 m near Bansko. Nearly 60% of the park's area is situated above 2000 m. The distribution of the territory of the park by elevation is as follows: up to 1000 m – 1.64 km<sup>2</sup> (0.4%), 1000–1600 m – 51.09 km<sup>2</sup> (12.7%); 1600–2000 m – 121.08 km<sup>2</sup> (30.0%); 2000–2500 m – 198.31 km<sup>2</sup> (49.1%); above 2500 m – 31.45 km<sup>2</sup> (7.8%). The inclination of the park's territory is steep — more than 90% the total area is classified as steep (21–30°) or very steep (above 31°).
Geologically Pirin is a massive anticline formed by metamorphic rocks — gneiss, biotite and crystalline schists, amphibolite, quartzite and marble. Paleozoic granitoid rocks are found in restricted areas in the outskirts of Pirin National Park. Granitoid rocks from the Upper Cretaceous form two distinct plutons: Northern Pirin and Bezbog. The Central Pirin pluton covers the southern reaches of the park and is dated to the Upper Oligocene. The granitoid rocks cover 55% of the park's territory.
### Climate
Pirin falls within the continental Mediterranean climate zone and due to its elevation the higher sectors have Alpine climate. The climate is influenced by Mediterranean cyclones mainly in late autumn and in winter, bringing frequent and high rainfall, and by the Azores anticyclone in summer, making the summer months hot and dry. The relief has a crucial influence on the climate. Pirin has three elevation climate zones — low between 600 and 1000 m (16% of the total area), middle between 1000 and 1800 m (40%) and high above 1800 m (44%). The temperature decreases with the elevation, which is more visible in summer. The mean annual temperature is around 9–10 °C in the lower, 5–7 °C in the middle and 2–3 °C in the higher elevation. The coldest month is January with average temperature varying between −5 and −2 °C. The hottest month is July with temperature averaging 20 °C at 1600 m and 15 °C at 2000 m. Temperature inversions, i.e. increase in temperature with height, are observed in 75% of the winter days.
The annual precipitation is 600–700 mm in the lower elevation zones and 1000–1200 mm in the higher ones. The rainfall occurs mostly in winter and spring, while summer is driest season. The air humidity is 60–75% in August and 80–85 % in December. In winter the precipitation is mainly snow, varying from 70–90% at the lower elevations to 100% at higher. The average number of days with snow cover varies from 20–30 to 120–160. The highest thickness of the snow cover reaches 40–60 cm at 1000–1800 m in February and 160–180 cm above 1800 m in March (190 cm on Vihren). In some winters the snow thickness can reach 250–350 cm. Avalanches occur frequently in winter.
### Hydrology
The territory of Pirin National Park is almost equally divided between the basins of the rivers Struma (206.06 km<sup>2</sup> or 51.1%) and Mesta (197.50 km<sup>2</sup> or 48.9%). The watershed follows the main ridge of the mountain in direction north-west to south-east. Pirin is the source of 10 tributaries to the Struma, the largest one being Sandanska Bistritsa, and another 10 to the Mesta. The rivers are short, steep and with high water volume. They form numerous waterfalls which are generally not as high as those in Rila or the Balkan Mountains. The highest one is Popinolashki waterfall, measuring some 12 m. The average annual discharge of the park's rivers is 355,6 million m<sup>3</sup>, of them 188,5 million m<sup>3</sup> flow to the Struma and 167,1 million m<sup>3</sup> to the Mesta. The discharge from the park per square kilometre is 2.3 times larger than Pirin's average and 5.6 times larger than Bulgaria's average.
The landscape is dotted with 118 permanent glacial lakes, conventionally divided into 17 groups, such as Popovo Lakes, Kremenski Lakes, Banderishki Lakes, Vasilashki Lakes, Valyavishki Lakes, Chairski Lakes, Vlahini Lakes or Tipitski Lakes. The largest of them is Popovo Lake with 123,600 m<sup>2</sup>, which makes it Bulgaria's fourth largest glacial lake. With a depth of 29.5 m, it is also Pirin's deepest lake and Bulgaria's second. Situated at an elevation of 2710 m the Upper Polezhan Lake is the highest one in the mountain and in the country.
Another remnant from the last Ice Age are two small glaciers. Snezhnika is located in the deep Golemiya Kazan cirque at the steep northern foot of Vihren and is the southernmost glacier in Europe. Banski Suhodol Glacier is larger and situated a bit to the north below Koncheto Ridge.
## Biology
### Ecosystems and forests
Pirin National Park falls within the Rodope montane mixed forests terrestrial ecoregion of the Palearctic temperate broadleaf and mixed forest. The plant communities in the park can be classified into several main groups: communities found around bodies of water; bush communities of the subalpine zone; grasslands, including meadows, subalpine and alpine pastures; forest communities; rock communities; and communities of secondary character, which are a result of human activity.
Forests cover 231.10 km<sup>2</sup> or 57.3% of the park's total area. Of them 95% are coniferous forests and 5% are deciduous forests. The mean age of the forest is 85 year. Around 34.3% of the wooded territory is covered with trees above 140 years. The oldest tree in Bulgaria, the 1300–year Baikushev's pine of the species Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii), is found in the park and is a contemporary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state in 681 AD.
There are 16 tree species; of them three are Balkan endemic taxa with limited areal — the Bulgarian fir (Abies borisii-regis), Macedonian pine (Pinus peuce) and Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii). The largest area is occupied by dwarf mountain pine (Pinus mugo) – 59.62 km<sup>2</sup>, Macedonian pine (Pinus peuce) – 54.15 km<sup>2</sup>, Norway spruce (Picea abies) – 23.79 km<sup>2</sup>, European beech (Fagus sylvatica) – 10.98 km<sup>2</sup> and Bosnian pine – 8.93 km<sup>2</sup>. The Macedonian and the Bosnian pines in Pirin National Park constitute respectively 42% and 52% of their total area in Bulgaria.
### Flora
The flora of the park is diverse and is characterized with high endemism due to the combination of southern geographic latitude and high elevational variation. The varied relief creates various ecological environments for plants, further diversified by the dominant rock types which form siliceous and calcareous terrain on the territory of the park. Lakes and streams also diversify the conditions creating wetland habitats for hygrophyte species.
Non-vascular plants constitute the least researched part of Pirin's flora. The least studied of them are the algae with 165 species, including two endemics. The largest concentration of algae species is found in Popovo and Kremenski lake groups. The Bryophytes, including mosses, are represented by 329 known species. The number of lichen species is 367, or 52% of Bulgaria's total diversity. Of them 209 species are found in the coniferous forests and 156 — on calcareous terrain.
The vascular plants in Pirin National Park include 1315 species of 94 families and 484 genera, or approximately 1/3 of Bulgaria's flora. The flora has largely preserved its indigenous character. The number of vascular plant species is expected to grow in case of future detailed research, especially at lower elevations. The species are divided almost equally to representatives of the sub-Mediterranean and Circumboreal floristic regions. The number of species included in the Red Book of Bulgaria is 114. There are 18 species endemic to the park and another 17 are restricted only to Bulgaria, which makes a total of 35 Bulgarian endemic species. The park is also home to 86 Balkan endemic species.
The endemic species restricted to the park are: Pirin poppy (Papaver degenii), Pirin meadow-grass (Poa pirinica), Urumov oksitropis (Oxytropis urumovii), Kozhuharov oksitropis (Oxytropis kozuharovii), Banderishka lady's mantle (Alchemilla bandericensis), Pirin lady's mantle (Alchemilla pirinica), Kelererova asineuma (Asyneuma kellerianum), Pirin sandwort (Arenaria pirinica), Pirin sedge (Carex pirinensis), Pirin fleabane (Erigeron vichrensis), David mullein (Verbascum davidoffii), lesser Pirin fescue (Festuca pirinica), Pirin hogweed (Heracleum angustisectum), Yavorkova rattle (Rhinanthus javorkae), Pirin thyme (Thymus perinicus), Daphne domini, Daphne velenovskyi.
### Fauna
The vertebrate fauna of Pirin National Park consists of 229 species. The number of mammal species is 45. The distribution of the mammalian species by order is as follows: Insectivora – 5, Chiroptera – 16, Lagomorpha – 3, Rodentia – 7, Carnivora – 9 and Artiodactyla – 4. The European snow vole is a relict species. Among the species of highest conservation value are brown bear, gray wolf, wildcat, European pine marten, wild boar, red deer, roe deer and Balkan chamois. The small mammals, especially rodents and bats, are not fully studied in the whole territory of the park.
The total number of bird species is 159. Of them 91, or 57%, are passerine. Three species are relict — boreal owl, white-backed woodpecker and Eurasian three-toed woodpecker. The park's rarest residents are lesser spotted eagle with a single nesting pair, booted eagle, golden eagle with 2 to 5 pairs, short-toed snake eagle with two pairs, saker falcon, peregrine falcon with three pairs, western capercaillie, hazel grouse, rock partridge, corn crake, Eurasian woodcock and stock dove.
There are 11 reptile and 8 amphibian species. There are Central European species (fire salamander, yellow-bellied toad, smooth snake), Palearctic (common toad, European green toad, common frog), Euro-Siberian (European tree frog, common European viper, grass snake, viviparous lizard), Irano-Turanian (marsh frog), Southern European (agile frog), Euro-Mediterranean (European green lizard), Mediterranean (common wall lizard) and Balkan (Erhard's wall lizard).
The ichthyofauna includes 6 fish species: common minnow, European eel (considered extinct), western vairone, brown trout, rainbow trout and brook trout. The limited number of species is determined by the high elevation of the park. The glacial lakes, streams and upper river courses are inhabited by few fish species. The western vairone is known only from the Kremenski lakes and might in fact represent a new undescribed species.
The number of identified invertebrate species in Pirin National Park is 2091, which is 40% of the estimated 4500 species to inhabit the park. They are poorly researched and there is not enough data to assess the qualitative and quantitative parameters even of the main populations of endemic and relict species. There are 218 endemic, 176 relict and rare 294 species.
The Araneae are represented by 321 species, or 35% of Bulgaria's total. The spiders prefer the north-eastern slopes and are most diverse in the coniferous forests. There are 36 species of Myriapoda, or 20% of Bulgaria's total. They are distributed mainly in the forests and are less frequent in the sub-Alpine and the Alpine zones. The Mollusca are 89 species and represent 27% of the nation's total (excluding the marine molluscs). Only 2% of Bulgaria's Ephemeroptera are found in the park — two species. The number of Orthopterida species is 63, or around 30% of the nation's total. The highest diversity is found in the valleys of the rivers Banderitsa and Damyanitsa. The Plecoptera are represented by 40 species, forming 40% of Bulgaria's diversity. There are 323 Heteroptera species, or 32% of the ones known in Bulgaria. They are most diverse in the northern parts of the park, in the Bayuvi Dupki–Dzhindzhiritsa Reserve. The Coleoptera are 639 species and this number it is estimated to raise to 1800–1900. The Neuropterida are 25 species, or 20% of Bulgaria's total diversity. There are 36 Hymenoptera species, found mainly at lower elevations. The Trichoptera are 59 species, or 24% of Bulgaria's total. The Lepidoptera are 449, including 116 butterflies and 333 moths. Some of the most spectacular butterflies are the mountain Apollo (Parnassius apollo), clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne), false Eros blue (Polyommatus eroides), mountain Alcon blue (Phengaris rebeli), large blue (Phengaris arion), scarce tortoiseshell (Nymphalis xanthomelas), Titania's fritillary (Boloria titania), eastern large heath (Coenonympha rhodopensis), Cynthia's fritillary (Euphydryas cynthia), etc.
## Recreation
Pirin National Park is a popular tourist destination. The park's main information center is in Bansko and houses an interactive exhibit on the park's forests, allowing visitors to acquaint themselves with facts about the park's vegetation and wildlife. There is also a 30-seat projection room with multimedia equipment. As of 2002 on the territory of the park there were 1837 beds, including 885 in mountain refuges, 214 in hotels, 124 in bungalows and 615 in premises belonging to different departments of the state administration. Some of the refuges include Bezbog, the largest and most modern one; Banderitsa, constructed in 1915 by order of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, and Vihren.
There are 20 marked hiking trails in the park. Trail No. 1 is part of the E4 European long distance path and crosses the park following the itinerary Predel Refuge–Yavorov Refuge–Vihren Refuge–Tevno Lake–Pirin Refuge–Popov Grasslands. The most challenging hiking trail follows the top of the Koncheto ridge at an elevations of approximately 2,810 m, between the peaks Banski Suhodol (2,884 m) and Kutelo (2,908 m). The north-western side of Koncheto is almost vertical and 300–400 m deep, while the south-western side is less steep (approximately 30 degrees) but reaches 800 m in depth.
## Development and Environmental Risks
There are many factors which threaten the ecosystems in the park. Rock quarries, wildland arson, industrial and illegal logging, poaching, excessive trail use, vehicle access, and most notably the ski resorts have put the park under significant threat.
There has been a steady development of skiing infrastructure since the early nineties along the northeast of the range, most notably in the town of Bansko, which has become an international winter resort. In 2003, a large forested portion of the Todorka peak and the nearby ridges were cleared to begin the construction of the resort which today has 13 ski lifts and 75 km of slopes. The expansion of the resort took place even though the park legislature strictly forbids such activity in the park's limits. Since the building started, Bansko has experienced severe flooding of the Glazne river, due to the intervention.
In December 2017, the Bulgarian government, without warning changed the legislature of the park so that commercial logging and construction of roads and buildings within 50% the park is made legal. This sparked a wave of protests against the continuous tampering with the world heritage site, which have continued throughout February and March 2018. The protests were supported by Ska Keller who is vice-president of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament. In November 2017, the World Wide Fund for Nature and other local NGOs filed a lawsuit against the Bulgarian Ministry of the Environment and Water as they deemed that plans for development of the area violated environmental regulations.
## See also
- Geography of Bulgaria
- Pirin
- List of protected areas of Bulgaria
- List of mountains in Bulgaria
- List of World Heritage Sites in Bulgaria |
35,537,563 | Impressive Instant | 1,168,390,869 | 2001 song by Madonna | [
"2000 songs",
"2001 singles",
"Madonna songs",
"Song recordings produced by Madonna",
"Song recordings produced by Mirwais Ahmadzaï",
"Songs written by Madonna",
"Songs written by Mirwais Ahmadzaï",
"Techno songs"
]
| "Impressive Instant" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her 2000 studio album Music. Originally intended to be the fourth single of the album, the release was cancelled due to a disagreement between Madonna and her recording company. Finally Warner Bros. released it in the United States as a promotional single on September 18, 2001. Written and produced by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï, the track is bright and uplifting in its content and composition. It was the first song that Madonna and Ahmadzaï worked on and recorded. Ahmadzaï had to work separately on his laptop to generate the sound elements which Madonna wanted in the song, since it was difficult to generate the music in the recording studio. "Impressive Instant" has been described as a club-savvy acid techno, pop-trance, electropop and electro house stomper containing futuristic keyboard lines, with Madonna's vocals being distorted and robotic. Backed by laser noises and synths, the song's lyrics deal with love at first sight, and contains somewhat absurd, nonsensical lyrics.
"Impressive Instant" was met with positive critical reception. Many reviewers called it a highlight of the album and praised Ahmadzaï's production of the track. Released only in the US, it was a popular dance hit, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and staying atop for two consecutive weeks. The track became Madonna's 27th number-one song on this chart, the most for any artist. It was her 36th top-ten song on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play tally and her seventh consecutive chart topper. During the promotional tours for Music, Madonna performed the song in a neo-Western setting at New York and London. It was further performed at the 2001 Drowned World Tour as part of the punk section, with Madonna accompanied by dancers wearing gas masks. The performance was generally received as a highlight of the concert.
## Background and release
By 2000, Madonna was dating director Guy Ritchie, and was pregnant with their child. Wanting to distract herself from the media frenzy surrounding this news, she concentrated on the development of her eighth studio album, Music. Thrilled by the commercial success of her 1998 Ray of Light album, she was keen on getting back to the studio to record new material. She was then introduced to French DJ and producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï by her manager Guy Oseary. Madonna instantly liked his pitch-shifting, pulverizing rhythms and his utilization of acid bass in his songs. One of their collaborations was "Impressive Instant" which was described by Madonna as "downright silly". She explained that they "were working on that song and I thought, 'Oh, fuck it, let's just have fun', Life would be such a drag if we were deep and probing all the time."
The song was intended to be released as the fourth single off Music but Warner Bros., Madonna's recording company, wanted "Amazing" to be the next single. The singer felt that "Amazing" was similar to her previous single "Beautiful Stranger" (1999), and wanted the futuristic "Impressive Instant". In an interview with Russian channel Radio Monte Carlo 102.1 FM, remixer Peter Rauhofer explained that Warner Bros. did plan to move forward with the release of "Amazing" without Madonna's help since she was busy preparing for the Drowned World Tour. They planned to promote the single with a music video created from the live performance of "Amazing" on the tour, so Madonna removed the song from the set list.
## Recording and mixing
The recording sessions for Music began in January 2000 at Sarm West Studios, Notting Hill, London. The first song that Madonna and Ahmadzaï worked on was "Impressive Instant", since it was almost complete on the demo that he had sent to the singer. Feeling that Madonna's ideas for the track and the composition would be difficult to create in Sarm West, Ahmadzaï wanted to return to Paris and work there on his own computer. "There are a lot of chopped vocal tracks on 'Impressive Instant'... That was impossible to do in the studio. It doesn't make sense to rent a place like Sarm just to have me work on ten seconds of music all day, using only the one computer," he added. Within the first ten days, they had recorded the backing vocals and acoustic guitars on a Sony 48-track and transferred it to a Logic Audio workstation, using the converters of TC Electronic Finalizer.
In Paris, Ahmadzaï worked obsessively to complete the recording of "Impressive Instant", applying his characteristic sound mangling. He used the Antares Auto-Tune plug-in set for the pitch correction. The audio processor kept the characteristic of Madonna's vocals, and she sang a little out of tune and vibrato. A Nord Lead synthesizer created the LFO sweeps at the beginning, panning from its left and right, which created the backdrop of the track. The bass was subdued and did not contain any music in high or mid-range. Instead of using a Minimoog synthesizer, Ahmadzaï used a Korg Prophecy analog-modelling synthesizer which added a different texture to the song. Madonna's voice was processed through an Eventide 3000 harmonizer, finally adding effects from audio filters and E6400 emulator. Also, Ahmadzaï added his characteristic stuttering sounds to the song, explaining:
> I did all that stuttering in Logic. It's very, very complicated, slice by slice. You have to experiment a lot to make it work. I put Auto-Tune on individual syllables. Sometimes I use 40 tracks of audio just on one vocal track. Each has a different level and treatment, and then I do a composite. I couldn't do this with a normal analog studio setup. The starting and stopping thing, it's an idea I've had for awhile [sic].
The final task was to create a breakdown using Auto-Tune and the Nord Lead synthesizer, applying its echo function. In total Ahmadzaï worked for 15 days on the track, finally handing it to mixing engineer Mark "Spike" Stent. With Keyboard magazine Ahmadzaï explained that the recorded version was almost the same to the final mixed track present for Music. For "Impressive Instant", Stent and Ahmadzaï tried to mix it first from the Sony digital tracks but failed to get the original sound of the demo due to the compression that was present. So Stent included the music from Ahmadzaï's Yamaha 02R mixer, including the bass, loops, and the kick. Along with mixing the track at Olympic Studios, London, the mastering was done by Tim Young at Metropolis Studio. Other engineers working on the track included Mark Endert, Sean Spuehler, Tom Hannen and Tim Lambert.
## Music and lyrics
Larry Flick from Billboard described "Impressive Instant" as a "club-savvy stomper" containing futuristic keyboard lines, with Madonna's vocals changing from "distorted, robotic lines" to "playful, child like chants". The song is a mixture of acid techno, pop-trance, electropop and electro house. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, "Impressive Instant" is set in the time signature of common time with a moderately fast tempo of 123 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of C major with Madonna's vocals ranging from A<sub>3</sub> to A<sub>4</sub>. The song follows a basic sequence of Am–G–Am–G–Am as its chord progression.
Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, explained that "Impressive Instant" began with the equalizer turned down, so that the amount of treble is very less initially. Madonna's vocals are heavily processed and is accompanied by a crackling sound, which has a "tactile roughness" therefore making the mix sound "like a musical sandpaper", Rooksby wrote. The vocals are often isolated and are backed by laser noises and an octave bass. A "burbling" synth arrives at the 2:30 mark, and then the chorus of "I'm in a trance" is repeated, ending the song with a solo vocal phrase.
The song has lyrics like "I like to singy, singy, singy, Like a bird on a wingy, wingy, wingy", as electronic keyboard riffs and dance beats swirl the whole composition. Lyrically, "Impressive Instant" deals with love at first sight ("You're the one that I've been waiting for / I don't even know your name") and according to O'Brien, is "an abstract world of nonsense lyrics, disco balls and glitz". It also talks about being in a trance and comparison with various cosmic phenomena in lines like "Cosmic systems in a twine, astral bodies drip like wine", but ultimately returns to the subject of dance. DJ Peter Rauhofer was commissioned to remix the track by Warner Bros. Records in April 2001; he transformed the song from techno to progressive house.
## Critical reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic listed "Impressive Instant" as a top track from the album. In a review of the album, Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani hailed it as "a joyous composition". Michael Hubbard of musicOMH called the song "pure pop genius," saying the track "steals the show". Gary Crossing from Dotmusic described the track as a "Sexy, bass-heavy monster of a floor-filler with cheesy synths, robotic voices and whispers aplenty" while complimenting the line "I like to singy singy singy". This view was shared by Victoria Segal from NME who complimented Ahmadzaï's production technique and blending disco sounds with vocoder effects. Barry Walters from Rolling Stone called the song "improvisional", and described it as "[roaring] like a rock rocket ship, then [purring] while a digitally tweaked [Madonna] squeaks". David Browne from Entertainment Weekly felt that the verses of "Impressive Instant" has Madonna's "dippiest lyrics in ages", and also complimented Ahmadzaï's fusion of hard disco beats and contorting vocals. Greg Kot from Chicago Tribune credited Madonna for paying homage to dance music with "Impressive Instant" and explaining that:
> Though Madonna is often overshadowed by her producers, she has her moments, and she is never more inspired than on the so-silly-it's-great 'Impressive Instant', yet another homage to the music that leaves her and legions of followers 'spinning, baby, out of control'. She deserves credit for allowing her latest interpretation of that music to be bent, folded and so lovingly mutilated by her collaborators, and when she chirps, 'I like to singy singy singy/Like a bird on a wingy wingy wingy', I can envision discos from Stockholm to Sacramento going bonkers with her.
Gary Mullholland from The Guardian felt that Madonna's indomitable persona was mostly hidden beneath the layers of electronic and vocoder effects, except in songs like "Impressive Instant" with the lines like "'I like to singy singy singy', making the first half of Music interesting. BBC's John Hand noticed Ahmadzaï's "quirky" influence in the production of the track; he also called it a club and dancey song. Michael Paoletta from Billboard found "Impressive Instant" as "vibrant and uplifting in tone". Alex Pappademas from Spin noted the difference of Madonna's endeavors with Ray of Light and its introspective mood and the fun-filled, joyous nature of songs like "Impressive Instant" in Music. The Village Voice's Ben Dellio complimented the alliteration and the elastic bassline of the song, saying that it would have been a better album opener than the title song. Ben Greenbank from Sputnikmusic gave a mixed review, saying that although "Impressive Instant" and "Runaway Lover" from Music were decent songs, they did not have anything special about them. In 2019, Queerty listed "Impressive Instant" as one of the "14 most bizarre, most batshit crazy songs ever recorded" by the singer. Samuel R. Murrian from Parade ranked it at number 99 on his list of Madonna's 100 greatest songs, calling it a "bizarre, trance-inducing electronic symphony".
## Chart performance
"Impressive Instant" was not released commercially and was not promoted to radio; therefore it did not appear on any sales or airplay charts of Billboard. It was released to dance clubs as a promo-only single with remixes by Peter Rauhofer on September 18, 2001. The song debuted on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart at number 25 on the issue dated October 27, 2001, becoming the "Hot Shot Debut" of the week. The next week, it moved 13 places to number 12 on the chart. The following week, it entered the top-ten at number four. On the Billboard issue dated November 17, 2001, "Impressive Instant" reached the top of the chart, becoming Madonna's 27th number-one song on this chart, the most for any artist. It was the artist's 36th top-ten song on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play tally and her seventh consecutive chart topper, dating from "Nothing Really Matters" in 1999, followed by "Beautiful Stranger" (1999), "American Pie" and "Music" in 2000, and "Don't Tell Me" and "What It Feels Like for a Girl" in 2001.
## Live performances
Madonna first performed "Impressive Instant" during the promotional tours for Music. The first of these, was on November 5, 2000, at Roseland Ballroom in New York City, and the other on November 29, 2000, at Brixton Academy in London. Accompanying musicians performing with Madonna included Ahmadzaï on guitar and longtime backing singers Niki Haris and Donna De Lory. Roseland's secondary stage was used for the performance and was decked as a neo-Western wonderland, with bales of hay, yellow-lit horseshoes and silver cacti throughout the lobby and entrance. The stage was draped in an American flag. As the music started, the flag lifted to reveal a white Ford pickup truck from which Madonna emerged, singing "Impressive Instant". Bare-chested male dancers encircled her, as she posed on the hood of the truck and danced. The vocoder effects on Madonna's voice was removed for the live performance, which Jennifer Vineyard from Rolling Stone felt made the singer's vocals sound "less ridiculous". A similar performance was enacted at Brixton Academy.
When Madonna embarked on her Drowned World Tour in 2001, "Impressive Instant" was added as the second song in the set list. The costumes were designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, and had varied accessories like spiked dog collars, Swarovski crystal-encrusted bracelets and tattered tops. Madonna opened the show with the punk section, wearing tattered black garments and a tartan kilt and belting out the first song, "Drowned World/Substitute for Love". As the song ended, she started with "Impressive Instant", accompanied by her dancers wearing gas masks and encased in rolls of black mesh, chasing the singer around the stage. According to Stuart Lenig, author of the book The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock, Madonna merged choreography with narrative in the performance, as she and her dancers crossed the stage. The 1984-style robotic movements denoted fascism with the dancers stalking and then trying to grope Madonna; in the end one dancer dressed as a robot grabbed a big hosepipe and thrust it between the singer's legs, as it emitted fog towards the audience. Lenig deduced this an act of achieving orgasm or urination towards the crowd. Santiago Fouz-Hernández, one of the authors of the book, Madonna's Drowned Worlds, found similarities with Madonna's exploration of lesbian culture from her earlier work, in the performance of "Impressive Instant". The placement of the fogging machine between her legs were seen as symbolism for phallus and ejaculation, and an example of the singer's insistence on portraying masculinity.
Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of Madonna: An Intimate Biography, gave a positive review of the performance saying that "defiance being a rock attitude, and one embraced by Madonna, she didn't hesitate in wanting her public to know that she hasn't mellowed over the years". Casper Llewellyn Smith from The Daily Telegraph felt that with the performance of the song, the Drowned World show "picked up pace". In a review for Los Angeles Times, critic Greg Kot said that the "ballistic" response of the audience to the performance of "Impressive Instant" and another song "Candy Perfume Girl" confirmed the crowd's satisfaction regarding the show. A similar review was given by Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine, who described the performance as a "virulent and possessive dance routine", which set the tone for the whole show. Alex Needham from NME compared the performance with those by The Royal Ballet. Todd Ramlow from PopMatters criticized Madonna's vocals onstage feeling that she sounded flat during the lower notes of the song. The electronic effects used was received negatively by Ramlow, who felt that the singer should have opted for the addition of backing vocalists. The performance of the song on August 26, 2001, at The Palace of Auburn Hills, outside of Madonna's hometown of Detroit was recorded and released in the live video album, Drowned World Tour 2001 on November 13, 2001.
## Track listing and formats
- U.S. promo 12" single (PRO-A-100771)
1. "Impressive Instant" (Peter Rauhofer's Universal Club Mix) – 9:39
2. "Impressive Instant" (Peter Rauhofer's Drowned World Dub) – 8:25
- U.S. promo 12" single (PRO-A-100773-A)
1. "Impressive Instant" (Peter Rauhofer's Universal Dub) – 6:41
2. "Impressive Instant" (Peter Rauhofer's Universal Radio Mixshow Mix) – 5:32
3. "Impressive Instant" (Peter Rauhofer's Drowned World Dub Part 2) – 7:25
- Both of the above 12" Singles were released also in the U.S. with a PROMOTIONAL CD-R counterpart with the same catalog numbers.
## Credits and personnel
### Management
- Recorded at Sarm West Studios, Notting Hill, London
- Mixed at Olympic Studios, London
- Mastered at Metropolis Studios, London
- Webo Girl Publishing, Inc., Warner Bros. Music Corp (ASCAP), 1000 Lights Music Ltd, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI)
### Personnel
- Madonna – songwriter, vocalist, producer
- Mirwais Ahmadzaï – songwriter, producer, programming, keyboards
- Mark "Spike" Stent – recording, mixing
- Tim Young – mastering
- Jake Davis – Pro Tools
- Mark Endert – engineer
- Sean Spuehler – engineer
- Tom Hannen – assistant engineer
- Tim Lambert – assistant engineer
Credits and personnel adapted from Music album liner notes.
## Charts
## See also
- List of number-one dance singles of 2001 (U.S.) |
67,604,906 | 2021 EFL League Two play-off final | 1,170,272,536 | Association football match | [
"2021 English Football League play-offs",
"2021 sports events in London",
"EFL League Two play-off finals",
"May 2021 sports events in the United Kingdom",
"Morecambe F.C. matches",
"Newport County A.F.C. matches"
]
| The 2021 EFL League Two play-off Final was an association football match which was played on 31 May 2021 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Morecambe and Newport County. The match determined the fourth and final team to gain promotion from EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, to League One for the 2021–22 season. The top three teams of 2020–21 EFL League Two gained automatic promotion, while the clubs placed from fourth to seventh in the table took part in the 2021 English Football League play-offs.
The match was played in front of 9,083 spectators in sunny conditions, with Bobby Madley as the referee. Goalless after 90 minutes, the game went into extra time. A minute into the second period of additional time, John O'Sullivan was brought down by Ryan Haynes and the referee awarded Morecambe a penalty which Carlos Mendes Gomes converted to give his side the lead. The match ended 1–0 to Morecambe who were promoted to League One, the third tier of English football, for the first time in the club's history.
## Route to the final
Morecambe finished the regular 2020–21 season in fourth place in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system, one place and five points ahead of Newport County. Both therefore missed out on the three automatic places for promotion to EFL League One and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the fourth promoted team. Morecambe finished one point behind Bolton Wanderers (who were promoted in third place), two behind Cambridge United (promoted in second) and four behind Cheltenham Town (who were promoted as champions).
Newport County's opponents for their play-off semi-final were Forest Green Rovers and the first match of the two-legged tie was held at Rodney Parade in Newport on 18 May 2021. Matt Dolan put the home side ahead in the 31st minute with a left-footed strike from around 25 yards (23 m) after Josh Sheehan had played him the ball. Ten minutes into the second half, Forest Green Rovers' Aaron Collins missed an opportunity to score with a header. A minute later, his brother Lewis Collins doubled Newport County's lead, running on to a long goal kick to shoot past Luke McGee, the Forest Green Rovers goalkeeper. No further goals were scored and the match ended 2–0. The second leg was played five days later at The New Lawn, Forest Green Rovers' home ground in Nailsworth. Ebou Adams gave Forest Green the lead after seven minutes when he headed in Nicky Cadden's cross, and Collins made it 2–0 within a minute after he volleyed in a Baily Cargill cross. Eight minutes into the second half, Cadden's free kick crept in at the far post to make it 3–0 and give Forest Green the lead in the tie on aggregate. Kevin Ellison then became the oldest goalscorer in play-off history when his 70th minute strike from 25 yards (23 m) went into the Forest Green net off the underside of the crossbar. Six minutes later, Joss Labadie scored for Newport County from a Ryan Haynes cross to make it 4–3 on aggregate before a Jamille Matt goal three minutes from full time levelled the tie and sent the match into extra time. With one minute remaining in the second period of extra time, Nicky Maynard scored for Newport County to end the match 4–3 to Forest Green Rovers, but 5–4 on aggregate to Newport County who progressed to the final.
Morecambe faced Tranmere Rovers in the semi-final, with the first leg taking place at Prenton Park in Tranmere on 20 May 2021. Nathaniel Knight-Percival gave Morecambe the lead in the 15th minute when he deflected in a cross from Liam McAlinden but the home side equalised four minutes later when Peter Clarke scored with a header. A minute into stoppage time in the first half, McAlinden converted Cole Stockton's cross to restore Morecambe's lead. After a goalless second half, the match ended 2–1. The second leg was held three days later at the Globe Arena in Morecambe. Aaron Wildig put Morecambe ahead after nine minutes with McAlinden providing the assist. Eight minutes into the second half, James Vaughan scored from a David Nugent header to make it 1–1. The match ended without further goals and Morecambe progressed to the final with a 3–2 aggregate victory.
## Match
### Background
This was Morecambe's first appearance in the play-off final, having played once before in the League play-offs in 2010 where they lost to Dagenham & Redbridge 7–2 on aggregate in the semi-final. They had played in League Two since gaining promotion from the Football Conference in the 2006–07 season through the play-offs and had never played in the third tier of English football in their history. Newport County were making their second play-off final appearance, having been defeated 1–0 by Tranmere Rovers in the 2019 EFL League Two play-off final. They had played in the fourth tier of English football since being promoted from the Conference via the play-offs in the 2012–13 season, beating Wrexham 2–0 in the final at Wembley. During the regular season, Newport won both meetings between the teams, winning 2–1 at Rodney Parade in December 2020 and 3–1 at the Globe Arena the following March. Carlos Mendes Gomes and Stockton were Morecambe's top scorers during the regular season with 15 goals each. Tristan Abrahams and Pádraig Amond were joint-highest scorers for Newport County, with eight goals each. Bobby Madley was the referee for the match, assisted by Geoffrey Liddle and David Hunt, while the fourth official was Craig Hicks.
### Summary
The match kicked off around 3 p.m. on 31 May 2021 in sunny conditions with 9,083 spectators. Two minutes in, Mendes Gomes was fouled and a quickly-taken free kick resulted in him shooting wide of the Newport County goal. In the eighth minute, Mickey Demetriou launched a long throw-in into the Morecambe penalty area but the ball was caught by goalkeeper Kyle Letheren. Samuel Lavelle's looping header was then saved by Newport County goalkeeper Tom King. In the 13th minute, Scot Bennett's header from another Demetriou throw-in rolled just past the outside of the post. Letheren brought Bennett down but no penalty was awarded by Madley. Liam Shephard then struck a shot following another Demetriou throw-in, but the ball hit one of his teammates who was in an offside position. Midway through the half, Labadie's shot was blocked and Sheehan's subsequent strike was saved by Letheren, before the players took a drinks break. In the 32nd minute, Amond's shot from the edge of the Morecambe penalty area went wide before Sheehan's curling strike was also off-target. With three minutes of the half remaining, Aaron Lewis kicked the ball on the volley but his shot went over the Morecambe bar. In the 43rd minute, Mendes Gomes passed to Liam Gibson whose shot was on target but cleared by Shephard. Two minutes into first-half stoppage time, a shot from Bennett took a deflection off Yann Songo'o but the ball went just wide of the Morecambe goal, and Demetriou headed off-target from the resulting corner before the half was brought to a close with the score at 0–0.
Neither side made any changes to their personnel during the interval. Four minutes into the second half, Labadie passed to Collins whose deflected shot was saved by Letheren. In the 60th minute, Sheehan's shot from distance was saved and two minutes later Mendes Gomes made a clearance before Amond was able to shoot. Midway through the second half, Newport County made the first change of the game, making a double substitution with Ryan Taylor and Anthony Hartigan replacing Lewis and Dolan. Collins then saw his overhead kick from Demetriou's throw-in go over the Morecambe crossbar before Ryan Cooney's long-range shot was saved by King, and then the teams took their second-half drinks break. In the 75th minute, Morecambe made their first substitution of the afternoon with McAlinden being replaced by Brad Lyons. With eleven minutes of regular time remaining, Shephard's shot from 20 yards (18 m) was on target but saved by Letheren. A minute later, Maynard came on to replace Amond for Newport County, before Wildig's corner was headed over by Lavelle. Ellison then came on with four minutes of regular time remaining, replacing Collins for Newport County. In second-half stoppage time, Haynes took a free kick which was saved by Letheren before the full-time whistle was blown, and with the game goalless, it headed into extra time.
Before the first period of extra time kicked off, Morecambe substituted Wildig off and replaced him with John O'Sullivan. Two minutes in, Morecambe's Stockton headed Cooney's cross wide and four minutes later, Labadie became the first player of the match to be shown a yellow card after he fouled Songo'o. Just before half-time, Maynard's cross found Labadie but his shot went over the crossbar from close range and the half ended with score still at 0–0. Morecambe made one further change, with Kelvin Mellor replacing Gibson. A minute into the second period of extra time, O'Sullivan was brought down by Haynes and the referee awarded Morecambe a penalty which Mendes Gomes converted to give his side the lead. In the 111th minute, Newport County made another substitution with Priestley Farquharson coming on for Haynes before Hartigan's shot went over the Morecambe crossbar. Mendes Gomes was then replaced by Alex Kenyon for Morecambe. After three minutes of stoppage time, the final whistle was blown with Morecambe winning 1–0 and securing promotion to League One for the first time in their history.
### Details
## Post-match
Winning goalscorer Mendes Gomes said "I worked all my life for moments like this ... If I was writing a story, probably it would be this way. I knew that penalty would mean a lot if I put it in and I just tried to stay as calm as possible." His captain, Lavelle, noted that "League One is unheard for Morecambe. I can’t describe it ... It’s one of the best days of my life." Their manager, Derek Adams, admitted the match was disappointing, suggesting "It was a difficult game, there wasn't a lot of good play in the match ... I think today it was all about Morecambe. I was never nervous. It was in the stars, it was our day."
His counterpart Mike Flynn blamed the referee for his side's failure, saying, "It went wrong with two very very bad refereeing decisions that have cost us at Wembley despite us dominating the game." However, Flynn congratulated his opposition: "Congratulations to Morecambe, they've had an outstanding season and they have a group of players that never know when they are beaten." |
20,646,605 | Rikku | 1,172,855,850 | Fictional character in the Final Fantasy series | [
"Characters designed by Tetsuya Nomura",
"D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character winners",
"Female characters in video games",
"Fictional bodyguards in video games",
"Fictional bounty hunters",
"Fictional chemists",
"Fictional explorers in video games",
"Fictional fairies and sprites",
"Fictional female engineers",
"Fictional female mechanics",
"Fictional knife-fighters",
"Fictional professional thieves",
"Fictional vehicle operators",
"Final Fantasy X",
"Final Fantasy characters",
"Square Enix protagonists",
"Teenage characters in video games",
"Video game characters introduced in 2001"
]
| Rikku is a character in the Final Fantasy series, created by Tetsuya Nomura. Rikku first appears in Final Fantasy X as one of its protagonists, where she accompanies her cousin Yuna and others on a journey to defeat the monster Sin. Rikku again appears as a protagonist in the game's direct sequel, Final Fantasy X-2. In that game, she, Yuna, and new friend Paine journey to find missing FFX protagonist Tidus.
Square originally planned to make Rikku the protagonist of her own game, but the developer canceled the idea. In order to make a game revolving around a group of female heroes, Final Fantasy X-2's protagonists became Yuna, Paine, and Rikku. To reflect the changing social mores between game titles, Rikku wears much more casual and minimal clothing in X-2 than the games' predecessor.
Rikku generally received a positive reception, with her X-2 design receiving praise for its attractiveness. Some critics have considered her attire to be fan service, and her character development thin. Most fans, however, have expressed positive views of her cheerful and bubbly personality. The character has appeared on many lists of fans' favorite Final Fantasy characters.
## Concept and creation
Rikku first appeared in Final Fantasy X. Tetsuya Nomura designed her as a 15-year-old Al Bhed girl. She is Cid's daughter and Brother's younger sister. After the game's release, the video game press reported that she might get her own game, code-named "Rikku Version", but was later confirmed to not be in the works. Rikku, along with Yuna, were the leads of Final Fantasy X-2 and were the only characters from Final Fantasy X to appear. Developers chose her in order to create a game that centered on women. Tetsu Tsukamoto, the designer of Final Fantasy X-2's "alternate" costumes, explained that Rikku's outfit was the product of a cultural change in Spira, the world Rikku inhabits. The staff also wished to make that cast seem more physically active.
Rikku is voiced by Tara Strong in English and by Marika Matsumoto in Japanese. Strong was offered an audition by Final Fantasy X casting director Jack Fletcher. Before her audition, the Fletcher gave Strong recordings of the Japanese version of Rikku and a description of the character. Many of Strong's lines ended with "you know" in order to match the English dub with the character's mouth movements, particularly to end the sentence with a vowel sound. They decided to make this a vocal tic for her.
## Appearances
Rikku first appears in Final Fantasy X as one of its protagonists. She helps Tidus when he first arrives as a stranger in Spira, but then she disappears during an attack from the monster Sin. Upon meeting Tidus again at the Moonflow, she becomes the last character to join her cousin Yuna's entourage of guardians. Rikku's attitude is somewhat childish but is mostly quite cheerful and positive. She does occasionally suffer from instances of anxiety. This feeling originates from being attacked by a fiend on a beach when she was young; her brother then tried to destroy it with a Thunder spell, but he missed and electrocuted her instead. Cid's sister married Braska, which makes Braska Rikku's uncle. This relationship also makes Rikku Yuna's cousin. Rikku wishes to prevent Yuna from going through with her summoner pilgrimage as she will die in the process of defeating Sin. Rikku returns in Final Fantasy X-2 once again as a protagonist, now 17 years old. She is also the one who convinces Yuna to leave the land of Besaid and go on a journey along with their new friend Paine. Rikku convinces Yuna by showing her a mysterious sphere featuring a person resembling Yuna's lost love, Tidus.
Rikku appears in the game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call as a playable character. Her appearance resembles a chibi-esque version of her Final Fantasy X-2 character. She also appears alongside Yuna and Paine in Kingdom Hearts II as a miniature fairy version of herself wearing modified versions of her X-2 attire. The game Itadaki Street Special features a miniature Rikku also in her X-2 outfit, along with Yuna and Paine. Rikku also appears as a character in the game World of Final Fantasy.
### Merchandise
Rikku, along with characters Paine and Yuna, received a series of singles performed by Marika Matsumoto in a collection called "Final Fantasy X-2 Vocal Collection - Rikku". The three characters also had figurines produced by Play Arts. They were the first figurines Play Arts produced in-house.
## Reception
Rikku has received generally positive reception since appearing in Final Fantasy X and X-2. Final Fantasy fans voted her the 13th best female Final Fantasy character. Famitsu readers ranked her as one of the best video game characters. She has been identified as one of the most attractive female characters in and outside of the series by IGN, Play, UGO, and G4TV readers. Complex identified her outfit as the main reason to play Final Fantasy X-2. Houston Press expressed disappointment that the story of Final Fantasy X focused so much on Tidus, noting how much more interesting the relationship between Rikku and Yuna was. Game Informer identified her as a character they would like to be around due to an abundance of positive energy. Digitally Downloaded enjoyed her character as well, noting she was their ideal rogue and praised her for her uplifting attitude. They also found her a highlight of Final Fantasy X and hoped to see her in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
Game Informer was critical of the sexualization of Rikku, noting her as being underage. Digitally Downloaded noted that her outfit in Final Fantasy X-2 was fan service. They also noted, however, that it was story-related as it demonstrated the liberation of her society from restrictive rules between games. Despite enjoying her "bubbly personality" in the face of hardships, they felt that there was not much depth to her character, and that people were too focused on her outfit. CNET felt Rikku was a highly underrated character, though noting that she was mostly known for her outfit and "being scared" than her engineering prowess.
Tara Strong was awarded "Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance — Female" for her portrayal of Rikku by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Game Informer identified Rikku as one of Strong's most notable roles. |
5,878,985 | Star Wars Episode I: Obi-Wan's Adventures | 1,168,349,281 | 2000 video game | [
"2000 video games",
"Action-adventure games",
"Game Boy Color games",
"Game Boy Color-only games",
"HotGen games",
"LucasArts games",
"Side-scrolling video games",
"Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace video games",
"THQ games",
"Video games developed in the United Kingdom",
"Video games with isometric graphics"
]
| Star Wars Episode I: Obi-Wan's Adventures is a video game that chronicles the events of the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace from the character Obi-Wan Kenobi's perspective. It is the result of an agreement made in 2000 between the two video game publishers LucasArts and THQ. The agreement allows THQ to turn LucasArts licenses into games for the hand held console Game Boy Color, the first being Obi-Wan's Adventures. THQ published the game and HotGen developed it. It was released on December 6, 2000.
The story of Obi-Wan's Adventures is set in the middle of a conflict in the Galactic Republic; the antagonistic Trade Federation and the evil Sith Lord are planning to take control of the galaxy. In the game, the player operates the character Obi-Wan Kenobi as he fights the forces of the Trade Federation which culminates in a battle against Darth Maul. His weapons include a lightsaber, a blaster, and use of the Force . Since its release, Obi-Wan's Adventures has received mixed reviews. The game has been criticized for its visuals and controls, but praised for its sound design and creative levels.
## Gameplay
Obi-Wan's Adventures is an isometric action-adventure video game with side-scrolling sections. Set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy, the game takes place in a time when the fictional Galactic Republic is in imbalance as a result of the antagonistic Trade Federation and the evil Sith Lord's plans to take over. In the game, the player controls the Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi, a young Jedi apprentice, during the events of the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
There are a total of nine levels in Obi-Wan's Adventures that can be played with different difficult-settings. Obi-Wan is attacked by the Trade Federation's droids, bounty hunters, and other evil critters during his travels, and the player is able to control his lightsaber and blaster to defeat them. Both close- and long-range combat are available in the battles with the Federation's forces. The player can also take advantage of Obi-Wan's connection to the Force as a weapon. In order to do this, the player hits the "A" key to zoom in on the target and then hits "A" again to blow the enemy away. The power of the Force is limited and eventually runs out. To power up, the player accumulates Force pellets that can be obtained on the different levels. The Force is not only used as weapon, but also to get through the levels by moving objects that are in the way.
## Plot
The game begins with the Trade Federation's blockade of the planet Naboo. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan are assigned by the Jedi Council as part of a mission to officiate the dispute and reach a settlement with the Federation leaders. When they reach the Federation's ship on Naboo, however, they find out that the Federation is not interested in negotiations and is secretly allied with the leader of the Sith, the Jedi Order's enemies; together, they plan to invade Naboo and take control of the galaxy by killing all Jedi. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are attacked by Federation droids, but manage to escape. They head to Theed, the capital of Naboo, to warn the unprepared inhabitants about the imminent attack.
During their journey to the city, the two Jedi cross Naboo's swamps and are assaulted by invading troops sent by the Federation. After delivering the warning, they travel to the planet Coruscant to talk with the Jedi Council. They are attacked by more Federation troops after arriving, but the two Jedi are able to defeat them. Jedi Grandmaster Yoda instructs Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to return to Naboo and help Queen Amidala and her people defeat the Federation. Upon reaching Theed, the Jedi set out to liberate the city. To get around the Federation's droids, they manage to infiltrate the city by going through a secret entrance to the ancient catacombs, but are discovered and forced to battle the droids on their way through.
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon discover that Amidala has been captured by the Federation and will soon have to sign a treaty handing control to them. Before heading to the Queen's palace to initiate an attack, they free captured citizens on the streets of Theed. The Jedi infiltrate the palace and manage to free the Queen, ruining the Federation's plans. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon then encounter the Sith apprentice Darth Maul. Qui-Gon is mortally wounded in the battle, but Obi-Wan manages to kill Maul in retaliation. As a result, Obi-Wan's quest to become a Jedi Knight is completed.
## Development
In 2000, the two video game publishers LucasArts and THQ announced an agreement that would allow THQ to turn LucasArts licenses into games for the hand held console Game Boy Color. THQ had previously published the Game Boy Color game Star Wars: Yoda Stories, and began work on their second Star Wars-licensed product, Obi-Wan's Adventures, thereafter as part of the agreement with LucasArts. It was a port of the then upcoming game Star Wars: Obi-Wan, which was planned to be released for personal computers (PC) but was later canceled. Obi-Wan's Adventures was first announced to the public in September 2000.
THQ hired the third-party Game Boy developer HotGen to develop the game, which they described as "the most authentic Star Wars adventure on the Game Boy Color system." Mark Fisher, director of product development at HotGen, commented on the game: "THQ has a solid hold on the Game Boy Color market, and we look forward to collaborating with them on Star Wars: Obi-Wan's Adventures. Millions of Star Wars fans will have the opportunity to interact with their favorite characters in a brand new Star Wars adventure just in time for the holidays." Obi-Wan's Adventures was released in stores on December 6, 2000.
## Reception
The game has received mixed reviews from critics, with an aggregate score of 62.33% on GameRankings. Marc Nix of IGN gave it a 5/10 rating and commented that "murky visuals and slothful control destroy any hope of greatness in this game." The visuals were also criticized by an editor of 1UP.com, who stated that "you couldn't even see what the hell you were doing half the time in the game." Matt Paddock of Game Vortex commented that Obi Wan's Adventures "will be a must-buy for Star Wars freaks (and there's more than a few), but flawed control and lack of depth make for a generally average experience."
Kevin Cheung of The Sydney Morning Herald said the game "loses out badly in the graphics department", commenting that on the "tiny LCD screen the characters look like a garbled confusion of black pixels. It takes a healthy imagination to see the lasers bouncing off one's lightsabre. What's worse is that it's not always obvious where the exit passage is, which is frustrating after a slog through a tough level." In addition, Tim Wapshott of The Times said that "despite some rather good storyline screens, the graphics generally lack colour and the music is repetitive and tedious."
Nix praised the game's sound design, describing it as "far and away above what would be expected on the Game Boy Color." He noted, for example, that "there are individual sounds of the lightsaber swinging back and forth — cutting left will sound differently than the backswing or upswing of the third stroke against an enemy." Samantha Craggs of The Electric Playground praised Obi-Wan's Adventures for its interesting gameplay and the use of the lightsaber. She commented: "There are quite a few things to like about this game. For one thing, you can't underestimate the feeling of moving across the floor wielding a deadly lightsaber. Also, the levels are interesting. [...] In [one level], Obi-Wan is actually in a boat, going through the Naboo swamp, while battle droids shoot at him from the banks. While you're essentially fighting the same enemies in the same manner, there are enough twists in the level designs to interest you in continuing." |
7,470,733 | Voliminal: Inside the Nine | 1,148,360,074 | null | [
"Slipknot (band) video albums"
]
| Voliminal: Inside the Nine is the third video album by American heavy metal band Slipknot. Released December 5, 2006 by Roadrunner Records, the 2-disc DVD set features an 84-minute movie created by band member Shawn "Clown" Crahan. The set also includes live performances, music videos from songs on the band's third studio album, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), and the first unmasked interviews with all of the band members. The movie featured footage recorded from the recording of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) through the end of the tour in support of the album spanning a total of 28 months. The DVD was promoted on various websites for the weeks leading up to its limited theatrical release. Critical reception of the album was mixed. Dawn wrote the album has "a raw sound" calling it "an audible treat for thrash and speed metal fans"; however, Billboard would tell fans to "save your cash for the band's next tour". Voliminal would be certified gold, platinum, and double platinum in Australia, the United States, and Canada respectively.
## Conception and recording
The initial idea for the DVD came to percussionist Shawn Crahan three weeks before the band entered The Mansion in 2003, where they would work on their third studio album, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). Crahan received help from the band's record label, Roadrunner, which supplied them with tapes, camera cleaning equipment and funds to hire people to operate the cameras when Crahan himself couldn't. Recording began when Slipknot entered The Mansion and continued until they had finished touring in 2005, reportedly covering 28 months of the band's time together. Crahan's intentions were to capture as many different Slipknot situations as he could, so when the opportunity to produce a DVD came, he would be in a position to begin work immediately. When the footage was being shot, Crahan began making little tests of the footage and revealed them to his fellow bandmates, judging their reactions to help him establish areas of interest from them. The whole recording process produced over 300 60-minute tapes of footage.
## Production and promotion
Similarly to the editing process of their previous DVD Disasterpieces, Crahan watched and analysed all the footage recorded for the DVD; however, in contrast to Disasterpieces, this DVD intended to show a previously unseen side to the band. During an interview in 2006, guitarist Mick Thomson explained that, with the DVD, the band intended to "bring something new". He went on to add "[there's] more backstage stuff, getting to see more inside stuff as opposed to just a concert performance." Crahan explained how he wanted to allow the viewer in on more of their time instead of just their performance, recalling a moment when the band were in Australia. He included the footage in the film, explaining, "So I go down to Australia and I go ‘Jesus, there’s bats in the air.’ I’m going to film it and share it with you because it’s part of our lives together. But most bands and people don’t want to share that side of it and I think that’s wrong." Throughout the movie, whenever the band members appear unmasked, their faces are blurred, whereas on the second disc, during the interviews, they are completely revealed. When questioned on the subject during an interview on The Sauce in 2007, Crahan explained that when the band perform, the masks are always a part of their show and footage of them unmasked is blurred to represent this, further adding: "We chose to blur it because, it's really an intrusion. [...] That's our safe place and I kind of broke the veil a little bit by grabbing a camera and trying to show everybody those kinds of things that go on."
Prior to the release of the DVD, a promotional website was launched which featured two short teaser videos. Also, for the five weeks prior to its release, five short teaser videos were released through the Roadrunner Records website respectively. The DVD was released on December 5, 2006, and was premiered in 22 separate theatres across the United States. Following the release of the DVD, a music video for the song "The Blister Exists" was released, the video featured footage from Voliminal: Inside the Nine and was of the same style as the movie.
The DVD is rated R16 in New Zealand for graphic violence, sexual references and offensive language.
## Reception
Critical reception for Voliminal was mixed. The newspaper Dawn called the DVD "an audible treat for thrash and speed metal fans", he went on to compliment drummer Joey Jordison, stating that he "structures his beats and percussions in a very traditional thrash set-up, almost as well as (dare I say it) the great Dave Lombardo of Slayer fame". Ultimate Guitar called the DVD "behind-the-scene action in an unorthodox format, complete with choppy editing and absolutely no specific chronology". They would go on to state though the DVD "only gives partial attention to the music", "The best moment in the 2-disc collection comes during a chat with Corey Taylor, who shares his feelings about everything from his less-than-perfect relationship with his father to the obstacles that the band faced in its early days". TuneLab wrote "Slipknot takes a unique approach to their latest film, as they turn what could have been a mundane video of live footage and band antics into a rather peculiar and extremely interesting movie". The "scatterbrained and choppy" style of Voliminal "[will cause] the viewer to feel like he or she is "outside looking in", rather than being truly involved with the band's happenings". Reviewing for Blogcritics, Chris Beaumont wrote "[he] was enthralled and bored by the documentary". He went on to state, "the best part is watching them perform", despite the audio being "near unlistenable", "these guys know their way around the stage...this shows the whole package". Reviewing for Billboard, Christa Titus criticized the DVD, writing that it "randomly [strings] footage from concerts and the usual backstage antics with images of pigeons and overflowing toilets, then tossing in whatever visual effects struck M. Shawn Crahan's fancy while he edited it." She concluded "Save your cash for the band's next tour...that's where you'll get your money's worth". Film School Rejects's Cole Abaius wrote of the DVD, "[Except fans], probably no one else will purchase or enjoy this DVD". He added that with no narration, "the images are left to speak for themselves", only "some just don’t speak loudly enough". Despite the mixed reviews, Voliminal was certified gold in Australia, platinum in the United States, and double platinum in Canada. The album peaked at the fifth spot on Billboard's Music Video charts, and remained on the chart for 10 weeks.
## Contents
The first disc of Voliminal: Inside The Nine is an 84-minute movie constructed of a mixture of live performance, backstage and studio footage. The film was shot on handheld digital cameras and features rapid edits between footage which follows no chronological order. Throughout the movie, there are also ten "rabbit holes", nine of which feature additional footage for each band member respectively.
Interviews
The second disc includes interviews with all nine members of the band, which are the first formal interviews of Slipknot to be released without their masks, excluding members' appearances outside of Slipknot.
The Concert
- "(sic)" (The Eurockeenes Festival 2004)
- "The Blister Exists" (WFF 2004)
- "Eyeless" (WFF 2004)
- "Vermilion" (TMF Awards 2004)
- "Duality" (Summer Sonic 2005)
- "The Heretic Anthem" (Summer Sonic 2005)
- "Pulse of the Maggots" (Summer Sonic 2005)
- "Before I Forget" (Summer Sonic 2005)
- "People = Shit" (Summer Sonic 2005)
Music videos
- "Duality"
- "Vermilion"
- "Vermilion Pt. 2"
- "Before I Forget"
- "The Nameless"
## Personnel
Aside from their real names, members of the band are referred to by numbers zero through eight.
- (#0) Sid Wilson – turntables
- (#1) Joey Jordison – drums, mixing
- (#2) Paul Gray – bass, backing vocals
- (#3) Chris Fehn – percussion, backing vocals
- (#4) Jim Root – guitars
- (#5) Craig Jones – samples, media
- (#6) Shawn Crahan – percussion, backing vocals, editing
- (#7) Mick Thomson – guitars
- (#8) Corey Taylor – vocals
- Neil Zaugg – producer, editor
- Corey Brennan – management
- Scott Kaven – visual effects, fly on the wall
- Michael Boland – package design
- Monte Conner – A&R
- David Rath – project coordinator
- Ben Kim – menu design
- Chuck Close – authoring
- Tommy Dalton – foley, damage control audio
- Jean-Luc Cohen – sound design
- Tom Hutten – audio mastering
- Paul Hickey – director of photography
- Bobby Tongs – videography
- George Christ – videography
- Jon Van Allen – videography
- Michael Ericson – videography
- Steve Faust – gaffer
- Cory Doss – grip
- Dale Cowdin – audio
- Jennifer Chiodo – makeup
## Certifications |
488,480 | HMS King George V (1911) | 1,136,830,060 | King George V-class battleship | [
"1911 ships",
"King George V-class battleships (1911)",
"Ships built in Portsmouth",
"World War I battleships of the United Kingdom"
]
| HMS King George V was the lead ship of her class of four dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. She spent the bulk of her career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets, often serving as a flagship. Aside from participating in the failed attempt to intercept the German ships that had bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in late 1914, the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive action of 19 August, her service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.
After the war, King George V became flagship of the Home Fleet and then of the Reserve Fleet before she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet in late 1920. The ship evacuated refugees during the Great fire of Smyrna in September 1922 before returning home at the beginning of 1923. King George V was reduced to reserve and used as a training ship until late 1926 and was sold for scrap later in the year in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.
## Design and description
The King George V-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Orion-class battleship. King George V had an overall length of 594 feet 4 inches (181.2 m), a beam of 89 feet 1 inch (27.2 m) and a draught of 28 feet 8 inches (8.7 m). She displaced 25,420 long tons (25,830 t) at normal load and 27,120 long tons (27,560 t) at deep load; by 1918, the ship's deep displacement had increased to 28,422 long tons (28,878 t). Her crew numbered 869 officers and ratings upon completion and 1,114 in 1916.
The ships of the King George V class were powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam provided by 18 Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower (20,000 kW) and were intended to give the battleships a speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). During her sea trials on 4 November 1912, King George V reached a maximum speed of 22.4 knots (41.5 km/h; 25.8 mph) from 33,022 shp (24,625 kW). She carried enough coal and fuel oil to give her a range of 5,910 nautical miles (10,950 km; 6,800 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
### Armament and armour
Like the Orion class, the King George Vs were equipped with 10 breech-loading (BL) 13.5-inch (343 mm) Mark V guns in five hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, all on the centreline. The turrets were designated 'A', 'B', 'Q', 'X' and 'Y', from front to rear. Their secondary armament consisted of 16 BL 4-inch (102 mm) Mark VII guns. Eight of these were mounted in the forward superstructure, four in the aft superstructure, and four in casemates in the side of the hull abreast of the forward main gun turrets, all in single mounts. Four 3-pounder (1.9 in (47 mm)) saluting guns were also carried. The ships were equipped with three 21-inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 14 torpedoes were provided.
The King George V-class ships were protected by a waterline 12-inch (305 mm) armoured belt that extended between the end barbettes. Their decks ranged in thickness between 1 inch (25 mm) and 4 inches with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were 11 inches (279 mm) thick, and the turrets were supported by 10-inch-thick (254 mm) barbettes.
### Modifications
A fire-control director was installed on the roof of the spotting top in 1914, before the start of the war in August; her original pole foremast was reinforced by flanged girders to stiffen it and allow it to bear the weight of the director. By October 1914, a pair of 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft (AA) guns had been added. The torpedo nets were removed in 1915–1916. Approximately 80 long tons (81 t) of additional deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland and a medium-length rangefinder was added atop the conning tower. Around the same time, the ship was modified to use a kite balloon. By April 1917, the 4-inch guns had been removed from the hull casemates as they were frequently unusable in heavy seas. The casemates were plated over and some of the compartments were used for accommodations. That same year, the spotting top was enlarged and the foremast was fitted with full-sized tripod legs to handle the additional weight. Her stern torpedo tube was removed in 1917–1918 and flying-off platforms were fitted on the roofs of 'B' and 'Q' turrets during 1918.
## Construction and career
King George V, named after the reigning King of Great Britain, George V, was the first ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. The ship was initially going to be named Royal George, but was renamed in 1910. She was laid down at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth on 16 January 1911 and launched on 9 October. She was completed just over a year later, in November 1912, at a cost of £1,961,096 and was commissioned on 16 November. King George V was assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron, commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir George Warrender, and was the squadron flagship by 18 February 1913. She was later joined by her three sister ships and they represented the Royal Navy during the celebrations of the re-opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in Kiel, Germany, 23–30 June 1914, held in conjunction with Kiel Week. Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine and her sons visited King George V on 24 June, followed by Kaiser Wilhelm II the next day. An "at home" was held on board on the 26th to which all the notables of Kiel were invited, with Admiral Warrender's wife, Maude, acting as hostess. On 29 June, Warrender hosted a lunch for many of the senior admirals of the Imperial German Navy, including Großadmiral (Grand Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz, and Admirals Friedrich von Ingenohl and Carl von Coerper.
### First World War
Between 17 and 20 July 1914, King George V took part in a test mobilisation and fleet review as part of the British response to the July Crisis. Arriving in Portland on 25 July, she was ordered to proceed with the rest of the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow four days later to safeguard the fleet from a possible surprise attack by the Imperial German Navy. In August 1914, following the outbreak of the First World War, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, and placed under the command of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. Repeated reports of submarines in Scapa Flow led Jellicoe to conclude that the defences there were inadequate and he ordered that the Grand Fleet be dispersed to other bases until the defences be reinforced. On 16 October the 2nd BS was sent to Loch na Keal on the western coast of Scotland. The squadron departed for gunnery practice off the northern coast of Ireland on the morning of 27 October and her sister Audacious struck a mine, laid a few days earlier by the German auxiliary minelayer SS Berlin. Thinking that the ship had been torpedoed by a submarine, the other dreadnoughts were ordered away from the area, while smaller ships rendered assistance. In late November 1914, King George V developed problems with her condensers, even though she had just returned from a refit. This forced the ship to be withdrawn from operations while her port condenser had its tubes replaced, which took until 12 December.
#### Bombardment of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby
The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans for a German attack on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in mid-December using the four battlecruisers of Konteradmiral (Rear-Admiral) Franz von Hipper's I Scouting Group. The radio messages did not mention that the High Seas Fleet with fourteen dreadnoughts and eight pre-dreadnoughts would reinforce Hipper. The ships of both sides departed their bases on 15 December, with the British intending to ambush the German ships on their return voyage. They mustered the six dreadnoughts of the 2nd Battle Squadron, including King George V and her sisters Ajax and Centurion, and stood with the main body in support of Vice-Admiral David Beatty's four battlecruisers.
The screening forces of each side blundered into each other during the early morning darkness of 16 December in heavy weather. The Germans got the better of the initial exchange of fire, severely damaging several British destroyers, but von Ingenohl, commander of the High Seas Fleet, ordered his ships to turn away, concerned about the possibility of a massed attack by British destroyers in the dawn's light. A series of miscommunications and mistakes by the British allowed Hipper's ships to avoid an engagement with Beatty's forces.
#### 1915–1916
Retubing of the ship's starboard condenser took from late December to 4 January 1915. Jellicoe's ships, including King George V, conducted gunnery drills on 10–13 January west of the Orkneys and the Shetland Islands. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's battlecruisers, but the fleet was too far away participate in the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank the following day. On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North Sea, during which it conducted training manoeuvres. Another such cruise took place on 16–19 March. On 11 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a patrol in the central North Sea and returned to port on 14 April; another patrol in the area took place on 17–19 April, followed by gunnery drills off Shetland on 20–21 April.
The Grand Fleet conducted sweeps into the central North Sea on 17–19 May and 29–31 May without encountering any German vessels. During 11–14 June, the fleet conducted gunnery practice and battle exercises west of Shetland and more training off Shetland beginning on 11 July. The 2nd BS conducted gunnery practice in the Moray Firth on 2 August and then returned to Scapa Flow. On 2–5 September, the fleet went on another cruise in the northern end of the North Sea and conducted gunnery drills. Throughout the rest of the month, the Grand Fleet conducted numerous training exercises. The ship, together with the majority of the Grand Fleet, conducted another sweep into the North Sea from 13 to 15 October. Almost three weeks later, King George V participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney during 2–5 November and repeated the exercise at the beginning of December. Warrender was relieved by Vice-Admiral Sir Martyn Jerram on 16 December.
The Grand Fleet sortied in response to an attack by German ships on British light forces near Dogger Bank on 10 February 1916, but it was recalled two days later when it became clear that no German ships larger than a destroyer were involved. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. Another sweep began on 6 March, but had to be abandoned the following day as the weather grew too severe for the escorting destroyers. On the night of 25 March, King George V and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support Beatty's battlecruisers and other light forces raiding the German Zeppelin base at Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British and German forces had already disengaged and a strong gale threatened the light craft, so the fleet was ordered to return to base. On 21 April, the Grand Fleet conducted a demonstration off Horns Reef to distract the Germans while the Imperial Russian Navy relaid its defensive minefields in the Baltic Sea. The fleet returned to Scapa Flow on 24 April and refuelled before proceeding south in response to intelligence reports that the Germans were about to launch a raid on Lowestoft, but only arrived in the area after the Germans had withdrawn. On 2–4 May, the fleet conducted another demonstration off Horns Reef to keep German attention focused on the North Sea.
#### Battle of Jutland
In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet, composed of sixteen dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts and supporting ships, departed the Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Hipper's five battlecruisers. Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. In response the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet.
On 31 May, King George V, under the command of Captain Frederick Field, was the lead ship of the battle line after deployment. She fired two salvoes for a total of nine common pointed, capped shells at the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger about 19:17, but had to turn away at 19:22 to avoid an attack by destroyers and then had to turn to avoid the ships of the 1st Light Cruiser and 2nd Cruiser Squadrons. That was the only time that the ship fired her guns during the battle.
#### Subsequent activity
The Grand Fleet sortied on 18 August to ambush the High Seas Fleet while it advanced into the southern North Sea, but a series of miscommunications and mistakes prevented Jellicoe from intercepting the German fleet before it returned to port. Two light cruisers were sunk by German U-boats during the operation, prompting Jellicoe to decide to not risk the major units of the fleet south of 55° 30' North due to the prevalence of German submarines and mines. The Admiralty concurred and stipulated that the Grand Fleet would not sortie unless the German fleet was attempting an invasion of Britain or there was a strong possibility it could be forced into an engagement under suitable conditions. Vice-Admiral Sir John de Robeck relieved Jerram on 3 December.
In April 1918, the High Seas Fleet again sortied, to attack British convoys to Norway. They enforced strict wireless silence during the operation, which prevented Room 40 cryptanalysts from warning the new commander of the Grand Fleet, Admiral Beatty. The British only learned of the operation after an accident aboard the battlecruiser SMS Moltke forced her to break radio silence to inform the German commander of her condition. Beatty then ordered the Grand Fleet to sea to intercept the Germans, but he was not able to reach the High Seas Fleet before it turned back for Germany. The ship was present at Rosyth, Scotland, when the High Seas Fleet surrendered there on 21 November and she remained part of the 2nd Battle Squadron through 1 March 1919.
### Postwar activities
By 1 May, King George V had been assigned to the 3rd Battle Squadron and was serving as the flagship for Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Oliver, commanding both the Home Fleet and the squadron; he had assumed command on 22 March. On 1 November, the 3rd Battle Squadron was disbanded and King George V was transferred to the Reserve Fleet at Portsmouth. She was still Oliver's flagship, although he was now commander of the Reserve Fleet. The ship was relieved as the flagship of the Reserve Fleet by Orion on 14 September 1920 and began a refit in preparation for her assignment to the 4th Battle Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet.
King George V recommissioned on 31 October and sailed for the Mediterranean. In February 1921, together with the dreadnought Benbow and several destroyers, she conducted training exercises in the Sea of Marmara. While passing between Mytilene and the Turkish mainland during the night of 2/3 September 1922, the ship struck an uncharted rock that flooded one of her boiler rooms. The Rear-Admiral of the squadron was forced to transfer his flag to the dreadnought Marlborough and King George V had to transfer some crewmen to bring the former ship up to strength at Smyrna, Turkey. She was present during the Great Fire of Smyrna in mid-September and evacuated 130 refugees to Malta on 16 September as she proceeded there for permanent repairs.
In January 1923, the ship returned home and became a gunnery training ship at Devonport. She was relieved of that duty in November and King George V was reduced to reserve. She was then assigned to the training establishment HMS Impregnable. On 28 September 1926, the ship was taken out of service and was listed for disposal on 1 December to meet the tonnage limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty. Later that month, King George V was sold to the Alloa Shipbreaking Company and arrived at Rosyth on 27 January 1927 to be broken up. |
29,783,146 | Fading (song) | 1,166,127,925 | null | [
"2010 songs",
"2010s ballads",
"Contemporary R&B ballads",
"Pop ballads",
"Rihanna songs",
"Song recordings produced by Kuk Harrell",
"Songs written by Polow da Don"
]
| "Fading" is a song by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna from her fifth studio album, Loud (2010). The song was written by Darnell Dalton, Jamal Jones, Lamar Taylor, Quinton Amey and William Hodge, with production by Kuk Harrell, Willy Will, Veronika Bozeman and Jones under his production moniker Polow da Don. Originally, the song sampled Irish instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Enya's "One by One", though this was later removed post-album release. Lyrically, the song is about leaving a man in a relationship. After Loud had strong digital download sales in the United Kingdom, "Fading" charted at number 187 on that country's singles chart in November 2010. The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised da Don's production, but one critic criticized Rihanna for copying herself and failing to create something different. Some critics also compared it to one of Rihanna's previous singles, "Take a Bow". The song has also been performed on select dates of the Loud Tour (2011).
## Background and composition
Recording sessions for Loud began in February 2010, and continued for six months, overlapping with Rihanna's Last Girl on Earth Tour and during the production of her debut feature film, Battleship. At the beginning of March 2011, Rihanna asked fans to help her select her next single, following the release of "S&M". Via Twitter, fans were asked to choose from "Cheers (Drink to That)", "Man Down", "California King Bed" or "Fading". The most popular choice would have its video filmed at the end of March 2011. On March 12, 2011, it was confirmed that fans had selected "California King Bed" as the next single to be released from the album in the United States. In August 2011, a new version of "Fading" was unveiled sans the Enya sample. The original version, however, is still playable on the album's Japan edition in some music streaming services including Last.fm and Spotify.
"Fading" was written by Darnell Dalton, Jamal Jones, Lamar Taylor, Quinton Amey and William Hodge, with production by Kuk Harrell, Willy Will, Veronika Bozeman and Jones under his production moniker Polow da Don. The song was recorded by Sandy Vee at The Bunker Studio's in Paris, France in 2010. Musically, the song features a piano and violin led instrumental whilst lyrically, "Fading" is about the female protagonist leaving her boyfriend because she feels that they have become distant and their relationship has faded. The lyrics of the song feature Rihanna adopting a vocal diction which urges her boyfriend to leave and walk away from the relationship, "Go on, be gone/ Bye bye so long/ Can't you see we're fading away". As noted by Emily Mackay of NME, the song is reminiscent of one of the singer's previous songs about a relationship gone awry, "Take a Bow", in lyrical content and musicality.
## Critical reception
Upon Loud's release, multiple music critics wrote about "Fading" as part of their review, many of whom praised the production of the song. Emily Mackay of NME wrote about the song as part of an overall review of the album, writing "A weird baroque pop opening, violin stabs and treated vocals, builds slowly into a rolling and shuddering beat and soft, sad-toned piano. Mesfin Fekadu of The Boston Globe called the track "exceptional" and compared the lyrical content to that of one of Rihanna's previous singles "Take A Bow", writing that Rihanna is skilled at putting out songs about being the woman in a relationship who leaves the man, as she does in "Fading". Jon Pareles of The New York Times praised Polow da Don's production of the song, writing "'Fading' strategizes with long and short elements—sustained choruses and staccato verses, edgeless keyboard chords, and notes that are suddenly truncated—to capture the ambivalence of a failing romance." Melissa Maerz of Rolling Stone commented that the singer manages to remain "serene" on the song, even with the sampling of Enya's "One by One", and added that "maybe the good girl gone bad is getting better?", in reference to Rihanna's third studio album title, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007).
Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly simply wrote of "Fading" that the song, a "walk away ballad", is a "gorgeously synthesized moment of sweet defiance". David Driver of Sputnikmusic wrote that "Fading", along with "California King Bed", are both "well-done, soulful ballads" and that they are "completely free" of the sulky tones which could be found on some compositions on Rihanna's previous album, Rated R (2009). Colin Gentry of 4Music also noted in his review that the song communicates a passionate expression of grief to the listener. Ryan Burleson of Consequence of Sound wrote that the song was one of the best on the album, commenting that it stands out "sonically". Burleson added that it is "a hopeful, piano and string-based R&B" song, and compared to the work of late 1990s artists such as Aaliyah and Faith Evans. Ryan Dombell of Pitchfork Media criticized "Fading" as well as Rihanna herself, for copying "[her] own lightweight R&B formula so much it's redundant".
## Chart performance
Upon the release of Loud, "Fading" charted in three territories. The song debuted at number 37 on the South Korea Gaon International Chart for the issue dated November 14, 2010. The following week, it fell to number 79. "Fading" charted at number 187 on the UK Singles Chart for the issue dated November 27, 2010. The song was more successful on the UK R&B Chart, where it peaked at number 34 in the same chart issue. In the United States, "Fading" peaked at number 42 on the R&B/Hip-hop Digital Songs chart on December 3, 2010.
## Live performances
Though the song has never been performed live as part of a televised performance, the song was featured on the set list of select dates of the Loud Tour. Rihanna performed the song on June 6 and 7, 2011, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where the song was featured near the end of the set. As noted by Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Sun, after performing a selection of ballads from the singer's repertoire, including "Unfaithful", "Hate That I Love You" and "California King Bed", Rihanna re-appeared on stage wearing a rainbow colored feathered coat, denim bra and short shorts to perform "What's My Name?", "Rude Boy", "Fading", "Don't Stop the Music" and "Take a Bow".
## Credits and personnel
Credits and personnel adapted from the liner notes of Loud.
Locations
- Recorded at No Excuses Recording Studios, Santa Monica, California; The Bunker Studios, Paris, France
- Mixed at Ninja Club Studios, Atlanta, Georgia.
Personnel
- Rihanna – vocals
- Ester Dean – background vocals
- Quintin Amey, Alex Gazaway – songwriting
- Polow da Don– production
- Kuk Harrell, Josh Gudwin and Marcus Tovar – vocal recording
- Kuk Harrell – vocal production
- Veronika Bozeman – additional vocal production
- Damien Lewis – additional/assistant engineering
- Phil Tan at The Ninja Beat Club, Atlanta, GA – mixing
- Sandy Vee at The Bunker Studios, Paris – recording
## Charts |
25,427,977 | Battle of Richmond, Louisiana | 1,172,636,465 | Battle of the American Civil War | [
"1863 in Louisiana",
"Battles of the American Civil War in Louisiana",
"Battles of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War",
"June 1863 events",
"Madison Parish, Louisiana",
"Union victories of the American Civil War",
"Vicksburg campaign"
]
| The Battle of Richmond was fought on June 15, 1863, near Richmond, Louisiana, during the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. Major General John George Walker's division of Confederate troops, known as Walker's Greyhounds had attacked Union forces in the Battle of Milliken's Bend and the Battle of Lake Providence earlier that month in hopes of relieving some of the pressure on the Confederate troops besieged in Vicksburg, Mississippi. While both of Walker's strikes were failures and the Confederates withdrew to Richmond, Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant still viewed the presence of Walker's men at Richmond to be a threat. On June 14, the Mississippi Marine Brigade and the infantry brigade of Brigadier General Joseph A. Mower were sent to attack the Confederates at Richmond.
The next morning, the two Union brigades joined forces. Confederate scouts greatly overestimated the Union strength, informing Walker that the Union had 7,000 or 8,000 men. Having at most 3,000 men, Walker deployed the 18th Texas Infantry Regiment and Edgar's Texas Battery in a forward position, with the rest of his force behind Roundaway Bayou and its single bridge. The Union advance was led by the Mississippi Marine Brigade and the 5th Minnesota Infantry Regiment. An attack by the 18th Texas Infantry drove in the Union skirmishers, but the Confederates were eventually forced to withdraw behind Roundaway Bayou. An hour-long artillery duel followed. After Walker learned that his supply wagons and ambulances were safely out of the area, he ordered his men to burn the bridge and withdraw. Union troops burned the town of Richmond, but did not pursue Walker's men, who withdrew to Delhi. Walker's men continued to operate in the area until July. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4.
## Background
During the American Civil War, control of the Mississippi River was a major strategic concern. One of the keys to controlling the river was the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The town of Richmond, Louisiana, lay along the Confederate supply line bringing food from the west to Vicksburg. This supply line was cut by Union troops commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant during the Vicksburg campaign. On May 18, Grant's forced reached Vicksburg and began the Siege of Vicksburg. Confederate president Jefferson Davis urged Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith, the commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department (which was in charge of the territory west of the Mississippi River), to use some of his troops to attack Union positions in Louisiana and reduce the pressure on Vicksburg.
The Trans-Mississippi effort to reduce pressure on Vicksburg was led by Major General Richard Taylor and primarily utilized the division of Major General John George Walker, which was commonly known as Walker's Greyhounds. Walker's men were repulsed on June 7 in the Battle of Milliken's Bend, and two other Confederate thrusts, an abortive expedition to Young's Point, and the Battle of Lake Providence, accomplished little. Walker's men camped at Richmond after the attacks. One of Walker's three brigades was still returning from a movement down the Ouachita River, and the other two were greatly reduced in strength by disease. According to historian Richard Lowe, Walker had only about 1,500 Confederates in the area, but historian Ed Bearss rejects this figure, instead suggesting that Walker had about 3,000 men. Grant viewed the presence of the Confederates at Richmond to be a threat, and on June 14 sent 1,200 men from Brigadier General Joseph A. Mower's infantry brigade and 1,300 men of the Mississippi Marine Brigade on a strike against the Confederate position.
## Battle
Mower's brigade was coming from Duckport, Louisiana, while the Mississippi Marine Brigade, under the command of Brigadier General Alfred W. Ellet, was moving from Milliken's Bend. The two forces met at a road junction on the morning of June 15, where they were observed by Confederate pickets. The Confederate scouts over-estimated the Union strength, and informed Walker that he was facing 7,000 or 8,000 Union soldiers. Walker responded by deploying the 18th Texas Infantry Regiment and Edgar's Texas Battery 1 mile (1.6 km) closer to the Union advance, sending the divisional supply wagons and ambulances towards Monroe, Louisiana, and positioned the rest of his force behind Roundaway Bayou, where it covered the sole bridge across the bayou to the town of Richmond. The 18th Texas Infantry was positioned in a ditch with its right flank on Walnut Bayou. The position was strong, but was susceptible to being outflanked on the left.
Ellet's brigade, accompanied by the 5th Minnesota Infantry Regiment, led the Union advance. The Union troops encountered Confederate fire, and a request was sent to Mower to bring up artillery. The 18th Texas Infantry charged, and drove in the Union skirmishers, but met the main Union line and was forced to withdraw. Aware that the Union forces outnumbered his forced and worried that he would be outflanked, the commander of the 18th Texas Infantry ordered his men to withdraw across the bayou. The Union batteries were brought up, and Edgar's battery and the Union artillery engaged in an artillery duel for an hour, delaying the Union advance. Mower grew impatient and sent most of his brigade to the right, but found that the bayou could not be crossed. Walker learned that his wagons were safely out of the area, so he ordered his men to retreat from the bayou and burn the bridge. The Union infantry was halted at the burned bridge, but a cavalry force waded the bayou and while pursuing captured roughly 25 Confederate stragglers. The Union forces rebuilt the bridge and entered Richmond, burning the town to the ground.
## Aftermath
Mower's brigade suffered casualties of one killed and eight wounded, while Ellet's brigade had another three men wounded. Walker lost five men killed and 25 captured. Mower and Ellet did not pursue the Confederates to Monroe, and instead withdrew from the area: Ellet back to Milliken's Bend, and Mower to Young's Point via Milliken's Bend. Ellet's men were back at Milliken's Bend by that night, while Mower's men returned to their camps on June 16. Walker's men withdrew to Delhi, Louisiana, and were joined by the brigade of Brigadier General James Camp Tappan along the way. After recuperating at Delhi for several days, Walker's men undertook a campaign against a series of cotton plantations leased by Union businessmen. The Confederate forces disrupted a number of these plantations, and captured hundreds of African American plantation workers, who were returned to slavery. Other Confederate troops captured a small Union camp in the Battle of Goodrich's Landing on June 29, but were driven off the next day. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4. On July 11, Walker began shifting his men to Monroe; they were soon ordered into south Louisiana. |
12,385,031 | Herron Gymnasium | 1,162,976,013 | Former gymnasium at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA | [
"Buildings and structures demolished in 1986",
"Buildings and structures of Miami University",
"Demolished buildings and structures in Ohio",
"Former National Register of Historic Places in Ohio",
"National Register of Historic Places in Butler County, Ohio"
]
| Herron Gymnasium was a gymnasium and classroom building on the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio. Later known as Van Voorhis Hall, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in November 1979. Originally conceived in 1893, it was constructed in 1897 and named for John W. Herron, a Miami alumnus and Cincinnati judge. It was Miami University's first gymnasium, and would serve as the main recreational center until the construction of Withrow Court in 1932, which led Herron to become a women's gym. Except for an interlude during World War II when it served as a Navy barracks, it served as a women's gym until the construction of "New Herron" (now Phillips Hall) in 1962. In the late 20th century its use diminished to AFROTC and men's intramural sports, and the gymnasium was demolished in 1986 and replaced with a parking lot.
## History
The idea for a gymnasium first came about at an 1893 meeting of Miami University's board of trustees. John W. Herron, an 1845 Miami graduate and Cincinnati lawyer who served as president of Miami's Board of Trustees (and eventually became the facility's namesake), served alongside two other men on a committee to plan the facility's construction. In February 1893, the school received \$2,500 (approximately \$67,000 adjusted for inflation) from the state to furnish the gymnasium. After planning throughout 1896, Miami finally built the gymnasium in 1897, naming it after Herron, who was so modest that he refused to have his name adorn the building; the building's exterior instead read "The Miami Gymnasium".
The building, a rectangular, two-story Romanesque revival-styled building with a truss roof, was constructed by F.E. Townsend, an architect selected by John Herron from nearby Hamilton, and was the school's first gymnasium. The first recorded game at Herron Gymnasium was a 1904 basketball game between the university team and some amateur players. The amateurs won, 13 to 8. Despite that game being the first one officially recorded, the Student notes that women's basketball became organized as early as 1902, between students at the Ohio State Normal School (later to become Miami's College of Education) and regular Miami female students, though it does not specify where the games were played.
In 1923, the building was moved 522 feet east to facilitate construction of Ogden Hall, a new dormitory. Its final site was near the present-day Roudebush Hall, along Oxford's High Street. Herron Gymnasium's remains formed one of Miami's urban legends, that benefactor Laura Louise Ogden Whaling wished for a wall to be built around Ogden Hall to keep it private. Rumors abounded that Miami built the wall, but underground. However, the underground wall was simply an original part of the Herron foundation.
The gym was coeducational until 1931, when it became a women's gym due to the construction of Withrow Court, which was a male-only gym. After the change, students petitioned the board of trustees to rename the building Herron Hall, which they approved in June 1932. The building was used continuously as a women's gym until 1962, except for a brief time during World War II when the gym served as barracks for the Navy Radio School that operated at Miami.
In 1962, Miami constructed a new women's recreational facility and transferred the Herron Hall name to that building, which would later be renamed Phillips Hall in honor of Margaret Phillips, director of women's physical education at Miami for over 40 years. The gym then became known as Van Voorhis Hall or Old Herron. The new namesake of this gym was Thomas Van Voorhis, Miami's longtime director of intramural sports. After 1962, the building was primarily used by Miami's AFROTC program and men's intramural sports. Until the building's demolition, it also held a yearly student art show.
Van Voorhis Hall was added under its original name to the National Register of Historic Places in November 1979, but was ordered to be demolished by an 8–1 vote from the board of trustees in 1986. The former gym was replaced with a parking lot near the current site of Roudebush Hall, the university's administration building. Van Voorhis' daughter noted in a letter to the school that the gym, then Miami's oldest academic building "...stuck out like a sore thumb", and said her father would have wished to see it torn down. Sergio Sanabria, a Miami architecture professor, disagreed and called the push to demolish the building "irresponsible" as it was still structurally sound and the cost of renovation would have been comparatively inexpensive. Other faculty said that Herron served as an important part of Miami's identity as the coaching classes held there played a protracted role in developing the Cradle of Coaches at Miami.
## Facilities
Herron Gymnasium consisted of two floors and a basement. The first floor held two classrooms and the chapels for the YWCA and YMCA, as well as offices, bathrooms, and dressing rooms. The gym took up the entire second floor, and had an elevated track.
## Gallery |
30,818,597 | Judas (Lady Gaga song) | 1,171,555,226 | 2011 single by Lady Gaga | [
"2010 songs",
"2011 singles",
"Big Freedia songs",
"Christianity in popular culture controversies",
"Cultural depictions of Judas Iscariot",
"Depictions of Jesus in music",
"Interscope Records singles",
"Lady Gaga songs",
"Music video controversies",
"Music videos directed by Laurieann Gibson",
"Religious controversies in music",
"Song recordings produced by RedOne",
"Songs based on the Bible",
"Songs involved in plagiarism controversies",
"Songs written by Lady Gaga",
"Songs written by RedOne"
]
| "Judas" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga, recorded for her second studio album, Born This Way (2011). It was released by Interscope Records on April 15, 2011, as the second single from the album. Written and produced by Lady Gaga and Nadir "RedOne" Khayat, it is an electro house song about a woman in love with a man who betrayed her. It embodies the incidents that have haunted Gaga in the past, and its core meaning refers to the negative parts of her life that she cannot escape. Gaga has further explained that the song was also about honoring one's inner darkness in order to bring oneself into the light. The artwork for the single was designed by Gaga in Microsoft Word. In spite of a polarizing impact on several religious groups, the song was generally well received by critics, who linked the song to "Bad Romance" with some noting it should have been the album's lead single.
The song has a similar sound to Gaga's previous RedOne-produced tracks, including "Poker Face", "LoveGame", "Bad Romance", and "Alejandro". It contains three distinct hooks and a house-influenced break down. Gaga explained that the lines spoken during the breakdown talk about her as beyond redemption, regarding the traditional views of what a woman should be. "Judas" initially had a strong sales opening, but was less successful commercially in comparison to Gaga's previous singles. The song reached the top ten of the charts in twenty-one countries. It is certified Diamond in France.
A music video for the song was filmed in April 2011, co-directed by Gaga and Laurieann Gibson and co-starring Norman Reedus. It has a Biblical storyline where Reedus played Judas Iscariot and Gaga played Mary Magdalene. The video portrays them as modern day missionaries going to Jerusalem. It included the Biblical story of Judas betraying Jesus, and ended with Gaga as Magdalene getting stoned to death. Before its release, the Catholic League condemned Gaga for the use of religious imagery and her role in the video. However, the video was generally praised by critics and nominated for two awards at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. Gaga has performed "Judas" on a number of television shows, including The Graham Norton Show, Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America's "Summer Concert Series", and some of her concert tours, such as the Born This Way Ball, artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball and Las Vegas residency Enigma.
On May 28, 2021, a bounce cover by American rapper Big Freedia was released as the first single of the tenth anniversary edition of Born This Way.
## Background
"Judas" was revealed as the name of the second single in Gaga's interview for Vogue. Gaga confirmed the release of "Judas" as the second single, on Ryan Seacrest's radio show on February 14, 2011, and also revealed RedOne as the co-producer of the song. At the 53rd Grammy Awards, RedOne told MTV News that if the previous single, the title track from Born This Way, polarized people, "Judas" was expected to shock them more. On the talk show Last Call with Carson Daly, Gaga explained to the host that "Judas" was about always falling in love with the wrong man over and over again. "'Judas' is a very, very dark song. It's rad", she added. With MSN Canada, Gaga revealed the metaphors and the meaning behind the song:
> 'Judas' is a metaphor and an analogy about forgiveness and betrayal and things that haunt you in your life and how I believe that it's the darkness in your life that ultimately shines and illuminates the greater light that you have upon you. Someone once said to me, 'If you have no shadows then you're not standing in the light.' So the song is about washing the feet of both good and evil and understanding and forgiving the demons from your past in order to move into the greatness of your future. I just like really aggressive metaphors—harder, thicker, darker—and my fans do as well. So it is a very challenging and aggressive metaphor, but it is a metaphor.
Gaga further elaborated on the inspiration behind the song as walking towards the light force in her life and peering towards the devil in the back, while clutching onto the source of the light. "I sing about what a holy fool I am, and that although moments in my life are so cruel and relationships can be so cruel I'm still in love with Judas. I still go back again to those evil things," she said. During her interview with Google, Gaga added to the song's meaning as honoring one's inner darkness in order to bring themselves into the light. One has to learn to forgive themselves in order to move on with their life. With Popjustice she clarified that she has a lot of things that have haunted her from her past, including her choices, men, drug abuse, being afraid to go back to New York, confronting old romances. Hence "Judas" represented something that was not good for her, something she could not escape. Gaga said: "I keep going back and forth between the darkness and the light in order to understand who I am."
## Composition
Garibay said that "Judas" sounded similar to many of Gaga's previous singles, like "Poker Face", "LoveGame", "Bad Romance", and "Alejandro". According to Jocelyn Vena of MTV, "Judas" finds Gaga in a similar territory music-wise but vocally she is in completely new territory; according to Popjustice, in the verses and pre-chorus, Gaga hurls herself into a decadent half-sung, half-rapped Jamaican Patois style." Jason Gregory of Gigwise called the song a "heavy slice of electro-house of the highest order". The song contains three hooks, and begins with Gaga singing the line "Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, I'm in love with Judas", accompanied by building synths. This is followed by a thumping electronic beat, as Gaga sings, "Judas/ Juda-a-ah/ Gaga". The utterance of these words are reminiscent of the opening verse in "Bad Romance". Gaga's vocals are partially spoken, and at times have a Caribbean accent. The first verse follows as: "When he comes to me I am ready/ I'll wash his feet with my hair if he needs/ Forgive him when his tongue lies through his brain/ Even after three times, he betrays me/ I'll bring him down, a king with no crown." The tone lightens up on the song's chorus, which is influenced by '80s pop in its melody, as the beat picks up a bit and Gaga sings, "I'm just a holy fool/ Oh, baby, it's so cruel/ But I'm still in love with Judas, baby."
After the second verse and chorus, the song features a break down influenced by house music. Gaga chants the lines in the same way she does in the middle of "Born This Way". Then she sings, "I wanna love you/ But something's pulling me away from you/ Jesus is my virtue, Judas is the demon I cling to, I cling to." In this section, Gaga's vocals drew comparison to that of Rihanna's by Matthew Perpetua of Rolling Stone. He also added that her voice sounded less dark and dramatic and was full of "bubbly sweetness". Popjustice wrote that the breakdown sounded like tribal-techno, and the whole song was "a turbo-charged electrogothic wrongness anthem". Dan Martin from NME wrote that the breakdown was in the dubstep genre with the chorus being "pure-pop". There were some similarities and influences of "Bad Romance" in the song, which Gaga said was deliberate. She explained that while sometimes it is important for her to push herself in new directions, she did want her characteristic sound to be imbibed in her records. "I wanted ['Judas'] to be an evolution from where I’ve been before but in terms of the formula I wanted there to be something about 'Judas' that reminded people of what I’ve done in the past," she added. According to the sheet music published on Musicnotes.com, the song is written in the time signature of common time, and is composed in the key of C minor with a tempo of 131 beats per minute. Gaga's voice ranges from the tonal nodes of B<sub>3</sub> to E<sub>5</sub> and the song follows a basic sequence of A–Fm<sub>7</sub>–Cm–B–Cm as its chord progression.
Gaga had posted some of the lyrics of the song in February 2011, and next month she revealed more lyrics for "Judas" in the Google interview. Gaga also confirmed that the song was influenced by the Biblical Judas Iscariot. According to Popjustice, lyrically on the surface "Judas" is a song about being double-crossed and contemplating revenge, but being repeatedly drawn to awfulness. The middle eight of the song, with the lyrics "But in the cultural sense I just speak in future tense. Judas kiss me if offenced, or wear an ear condom next time", talks about Gaga being beyond the ability to redeem herself, in terms of the traditional views of what a woman is supposed to be. "But I don't want to redeem myself, because in the cultural sense I believe that I'm just before my time. And if you don't like it, wear an ear condom," she explained. The main portion of the song is about Gaga in private and the middle eight is about Gaga in public, two themes that are explored elsewhere on the parent album too.
## Artwork and release
In the 42nd episode of Gaga's web video series, called Transmission Gagavision, it was revealed that the single's accompanying cover artwork was designed by Gaga in Microsoft Word and featured a black background with the word "Judas" written in red capital letters in Impact font. Below it was a red Christian cross with a heart in the middle. Gaga photographed the design on her computer screen using her cellular telephone "for texture," which resulted in visible pixels on the letters and cross, as well as a faint reflection of her face and hands holding the phone, to appear on the cover. The episode showed Gaga sitting in a meeting with her creative team Haus of Gaga, discussing the specifics of her album release. Scattered around Gaga were a number of photographs, which were speculated by MTV as something "Judas"-related. On one photo the word "Judas" was printed with a cross on it. Jocelyn Vena from MTV felt that the artwork could have easily appeared in director Baz Luhrmann's version of Romeo + Juliet (1996).
On the 41st episode of Transmission Gagavision, Gaga announced that the song was going to be released soon. She added the abstract message along with the announcement: "Let the cultural baptism begin. If they were not who you were taught they would be, would you still believe?" "Judas" was scheduled to be sent to mainstream airplay on April 19, 2011, and digital retailers on the same day, but after the track was leaked to the internet, its release was brought forward to April 15, 2011. This was done to counteract the pre-release leaks. Before the release, Gaga tweeted about the single, saying: "#PawsUpForJudas! I've learned love is like a brick, you can build a house or sink a dead body." On April 15, 2011, hours before the song was played on radio she again tweeted: "Even After Three Times He Betrays Me," she wrote, harking back to the song's lyrics about love and betrayal. In the United Kingdom, the song premiered on The Capital FM Network on April 15, 2011, during their program Home Run. Gaga addressed the leak in the 43rd episode of Transmission Gagavision, likening it to a disembodiment, saying, "A slow death! Just put me out of my f---ing misery, just put that sh-- out. They were tearing [the song] limb for limb. First it was the arm of the song, then the liver...."
## Critical reception
"Judas" was generally well received by most music critics. Jonathan Van Meter from Vogue gave the song a positive review, saying the song sounded like it was written for The Ronettes, but was set to a "sledgehammering" dance beat. MTV's James Dinh noted that the song was very similar in its composition to "Bad Romance". Popjustice also compared it to "Bad Romance" describing it as "a highly evolved, Titanium-plated 'Bad Romance' from the year 2511 travelling half a millennium back in time to save music from a tidal wave of 'in the club'-obsessed pop drivel, and that's 'Judas'." Kevin O'Donnel from Spin felt that the song sounded like a rowdy, industrial-disco banger, and described Gaga's performance as "insanely over the top: She alternates between rapping, a robotic monotone, and a crow-like squawk — before gliding into a more conventional chorus that hews closer to 'Bad Romance'." He complimented the primal energy of the music of "Judas," and felt that the breakdown was one of the weirdest moments to hit the pop music scene in 2011. Slant Magazine's Eric Henderson noted that the disconnection and deviation from Gaga's previous single "Born This Way" was more pronounced with "Judas". Musically he felt that "Judas" had the same "glitter-jackhammer level as 'Born This Way', though the big anthemic chords are almost inverted—not unlike Inner City's Big Fun vs. Good Life. It's a good twin, evil twin thing." Henderson continued that the song conjured the imagery of a disturbed vision of hell, and in a warped sense the song seemed more forward-thinking to him and less of a message, "than the 'gay = great' equation at the heart of 'Born This Way'."
Amos Barshad from New York declared that the song reminded him of being drunk and dancing in a remote discothèque in Berlin. NME's Dan Martin was of the opinion that "Judas" was the song that Gaga should have come back with. But he understood why she did not choose it as the lead single from Born This Way, given the fact that the song was characteristic of Gaga's music. Pointing the same thing, Matthew Perpetua from Rolling Stone wrote that the song played to Gaga's established musical sensibilities. He added that although "Judas" certainly had its own charms and "at least three insanely catchy hooks it leans hard on Gaga's signature moves." Maura Johnston of The Village Voice summarized the song as a twin of "Bad Romance" describing its "instantly memorable wordless vocalizing, a pummeling beat, lyrics about a romance that is, well, bad." Digital Spy's Robert Copsey gave the song five out of five stars, commending the "blasphemously camp" chorus and comparing it to be worthy of Eurovision – "a Scooch-meets-Lordi affair that, unsurprisingly, takes a few listens to get your head around." Mark Lepage from The Gazette praised the song and understood that as Gaga's music has progressed, so has her themes and inspirations, indicated by the conflicted relationship she has with the character Judas in the song. Rick Fulton, while writing in the Daily Record, compared it to "'Like a Prayer' on steroids" and gave it three out of five points. NME called the song "Gaga's worst single so far" in November 2011.
## Plagiarism allegations
On August 4, 2011, Rebecca Francescatti, a Chicago-based songwriter, filed a lawsuit against Gaga and Interscope for allegedly ripping off the song "Juda" from her album, It's All About You. According to NBC Chicago, the bassist that worked on the song with Gaga, Brian Gaynor, also plays for Francescatti. A copy of the lawsuit revealed Francescatti seeks a cut from the profits "Judas" has earned, on a song that "copied and incorporated substantial, original portions" of the work.
In June 2014, the lawsuit was dismissed without trial by a Federal Judge in an act of Summary Judgment in Chicago, stating, in part, "The differences [between the songs "Juda" and "Judas"] so outweigh the purported similarities between the melodies that they cannot be said to be even remotely similar", "We agree with Defendants that the songs do not have common lyrics, the themes are different, and they do not sound at all alike musically," and "Thus, we find the similarity of expression to be, quite clearly, 'totally lacking'. The (two songs) are so utterly dissimilar that reasonable minds could not differ as to a lack of substantial similarity between them."
## Chart performance
After its release to the digital outlets and radio, Billboard theorized that "Judas" would need to sell between 350,000 and 400,000 copies in two and a half days, and make a large number of radio listener impressions through the end of the airplay tracking period on April 19, 2011, in order to debut at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song debuted at number 30 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart with 1,405 detections on 118 of the Pop Songs panel's 132 reporting stations, translating to an opening audience of 13.6 million. For the issue dated April 30, 2011, "Judas" debuted at number four on Hot Digital Songs chart with 162,000 copies sold. It debuted at its peak position of number ten on the Hot 100—Gaga's third debut in the top 10—and started at number 48 on the Radio Songs chart with 26 million audience. The next week "Judas" dropped two places on the Hot 100, while selling 156,000 downloads (down 4%) in its first full week at retail. However, on Radio Songs, "Judas" jumped from number 48 to number 36 (34 million impressions, up 29%), while also moving up to number 19 on the Pop Songs chart, reaching a peak of number 15 to date. "Judas" also debuted on the Hot Dance Club Songs Chart at number 38, and on Adult Pop Songs at number 40, for the issue dated May 14, 2011. It has since reached the top of the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan, "Judas" has sold one million copies digital downloads in the US as of February 2019.
In Canada, "Judas" debuted at number nine on the Canadian Hot 100 with three days of sales, entering the Digital Songs chart of Canada at number five with 16,000 copies sold. The next week it moved up one position to its peak of number eight, while becoming the greatest gainer on the chart in terms of airplay. The song moved from number 66 to number 23 on the Canadian Hot 100 Airplay chart, with a 161% increase in audience. In the United Kingdom, "Judas" debuted at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart on April 17, 2011, with 20,729 copies. The next week it moved to number nine. The song debuted at number nine on the French Singles Chart with 5,719 copies of the single, and has since reached a peak of seven. In New Zealand, "Judas" debuted at number 13 on the New Zealand Singles Chart on April 18, 2011, and also debuted at number six on the ARIA Singles Chart of Australia, which became its peak there. "Judas" was certified platinum in Australia by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for shipment of 70,000 copies of the single. In Ireland and Finland, "Judas" achieved a top-five debut at positions four and three respectively. Other top-ten debuts happened at Belgium (Wallonia), Norway and Spain. In Japan "Judas" debuted at number seven on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart. The song debuted and peaked at number 23 in the German Singles Chart, ending her consecutive top-ten placings in that charts since her debut "Just Dance".
## Music video
### Development
The music video for "Judas" was filmed on April 2–3, 2011, and was directed by Gaga and her then choreographer, Laurieann Gibson. The singer's stylist Thierry Mugler and creative director Nicola Formichetti announced on the coming Monday that the filming for the clip was over. The cast included Norman Reedus as Judas, while Gaga played the part of Mary Magdalene and Rick Gonzalez as the Jesus-like character. Gibson and Gaga wanted to make sure the video's direction was perfect—so they directed it themselves. Gibson explained that while working with Nick Knight on the music video for "Born This Way", they had felt that the ideas presented did not execute in a way they wanted. But with the music video of "Judas", the whole idea and the inspiration was clear enough. They had initially approached a director, but the dates did not work out with him, so Gaga's manager asked her and Gibson to direct the video instead. With MTV News, Gibson explained that there was a "groundbreaking" message in the clip, which might "shock" the audience.
Gibson said she took a moment before agreeing, as she had just wrapped up work on Gaga's Monster Ball HBO special but she could not resist in the end. "It's a phenomenal video: really powerful, really impactful," she added. With The Hollywood Reporter, Gibson explained that within the video they created a new Jerusalem. The team had two different views about the storyline and hence there were much debates about the content to be included. The shock value in the video was purposefully added, but ultimately the story was about oppression; and about following one's heart and the glory of being free.
With NME magazine Gaga revealed that the video involved motorbikes and a death sequence. She also described the portrayal of her character as being "beyond repentance", which evolved from the continuous media accusations towards her that "[she's] trashy. or pretentious or this and that. [The video] is my way of saying 'I've crossed the line, I won't even try to repent. Nor should I'." Forgiveness and destiny also played a part in the video, and Gaga wanted to portray a Federico Fellini-esque story with apostles being revolutionaries in a modern-day Jerusalem. They are led to Jesus, by Gaga as Magdalene. Although initially reported to be premiered during an episode of the tenth season of American Idol, the music video premiered on May 5, 2011, on E! News at 7 pm.
### Synopsis
The video opens with a motorcycle gang cruising down a freeway, wearing studded leather jackets. The motorcycle gang are the Twelve Apostles who followed Jesus, including Judas. Gaga as Mary Magdalene clutches onto a Jesus-like figure (Rick Gonzalez) who wears a golden crown of thorns. Among the riders is Judas (Norman Reedus), who crosses Gaga's bike as she looks meaningfully towards him. The gang passes under a flyover, when the song starts. They reach their rustic hideout called "Electric Chapel" where Gaga dances wearing a red sarong and a bikini top with crosses covering her nipples. Gaga's character watches curiously as the wily Judas enters the biker club and immediately gets involved in a brawl. While trying to protect Jesus from the fights she attempts to warn him about his apostle's impending betrayal, but becomes hypnotized by Judas' allure. The storyline is interspersed with choreographed dance sequences and close-ups of Gaga with stark imagery, including artistic eye make-up, which was compared to the Egyptian Eye of Horus. Her flowing blonde hair is accented by a red bandana, blue leather top and puffy white dress in different parts of the clip. The blue top worn by Gaga displays the Sacred Heart, a depiction of what Jesus is said to have revealed as a symbol of his love for humanity. During the second verses, Gaga points towards Peter during the line "Build a house", and towards herself during "Or sink a dead body".
After the second chorus, in a climatic sequence, the singer holds a gun up to Judas' mouth, and a stick of red lipstick bursts out and smears his lips. The scene portrays Gaga's choice to refuse to shoot Judas through the heart. As the breakdown ends, the music stops and Gaga is seen in a bathtub with Jesus and Judas, washing their feet and cleaning it with her hair. The sequence is interspersed with Gaga standing lonely on a rock as waves engulf her, the scene being reminiscent of Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and Jesus marching towards his fatal destiny. The music restarts and Judas is shown pouring beer in the bathtub. Next Jesus is shown standing on a stage, surrounded by his supporters, the setting being inspired by scaffoldings present around newly constructed buildings in New York. Gaga kneels in front of Jesus and tries to explain something to him, but he places his palm on her head as Judas looks on. After Judas delivers the fateful kiss upon Jesus' cheeks, marking him for his death, Gaga falls on the ground with a silent, anguished cry. The video ends with the death of neither Judas nor Jesus, but of Gaga as she's stoned to death by the crowd.
### Reception
Before its release, the Catholic League's president William Anthony Donohue criticized the music video for its portrayal of Gaga as Mary Magdalene. He spoke exclusively to HollywoodLife.com about Gaga's focus on Judas and Mary Magdalene, calling her "increasingly irrelevant" compared to people with "real talent", and attacked her for seemingly purposefully debuting the song and video close to Holy Week and Easter. Gaga noted in an interview with E! that the video was not meant to cause controversy in any way, jokingly adding "the only controversial thing about this video is that I'm wearing Christian Lacroix and Chanel in the same frame". After its release, the Catholic League released a statement clarifying that they did not find the clip to be anti-Catholic, although Gaga toyed with religious iconography in it.
Jason Lipshutz from Billboard described it as a "motorcycle mayhem meets biblical betrayal." MTV News' James Montgomery called the video as a pure pop clip, "albeit one that looks great and is sure to earn the ire of a few folks on the religious right." He added that "Judas" is, at its sacred heart, an artistic explosion contained within the confines of a traditional pop clip. Christian Blauvelt from Entertainment Weekly did not like the video at first, calling it her weakest effort to date and attributing it to Gibson's choreography and the literal storyline. However, he admitted that after watching the video a few times, he became fond of it. Tris McCall from The Star-Ledger felt that there was neither anything blasphemous about the video, nor anything too daring about it. McCall explained that the dancing in the video is a "pleasure to watch", but would have been better if the camera work was more professional. According to him, the only eye-catching prop in the video was the gun that turned into a lipstick. Matthew Perpetua from Rolling Stone was certain that the video would offend some Christians for its irreverent and highly sexualized take on Jesus Christ; he also said that Gaga interpreted the Biblical story in her own style.
Oscar Moralde from Slant Magazine complimented the production of the video by calling it "visually stunning", while adding that "'Judas' is the work of a repertory, not a revolutionary. It takes familiar swatches from Gaga's palette (the leather-and-chain aesthetic of "Telephone"; the plaintive, tear-stained camera stare of "Bad Romance") and puts them all together for a competently executed work." Phil Fox Rose, while reviewing the video for The Washington Post, gave it a positive review stating that he found it "moving, both artistically and spiritually." He then went on to explain how the religion related accusations against Gaga were completely biased. VH1 found that the video was inspired by Madonna's "Like a Prayer", the films Our Lady of the Assassins, The Wild Angels and Romeo + Juliet, and the American television series Lost. NME named 'Judas' the fourth worst music video ever, describing it as "an attempt to jump on the Madonna/Catholicism bandwagon that so incredibly misjudged it's quite comical."
At the 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards, Gaga won the Best International Artist Video award for "Judas". The song's music video also received two nominations at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, in the categories of Best Choreography and Best Art Direction; however, the video won neither at the award show, losing to Beyoncé's "Run The World (Girls)" in Best Choreography, and Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" in Best Art Direction.
## Live performances
On April 17, 2011, Gaga performed "Judas" at a nightclub called Kennedy Lounge, in Tampa, Florida, after her Monster Ball show in the city's St. Pete Times Forum. Gaga performed "Judas" live on television for the first time on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on April 28, 2011. She was accompanied by a string of male dancers, wearing black monk-like garments, by her side. The song was performed as a dance-filled number, with Gaga singing the lines while wearing a blue latex ensemble. According to James Dinh from MTV, the "choreography [of the performance] seemingly more difficult than in her usual performances, the singer showcased her best high-energy moves." As the music came to a close, she struck a pose before planting a kiss on the cheek of DeGeneres, who playfully replicated her stance. At the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Gaga sang the song for French television show Le Grand Journal. Wearing a gold-embellished ensemble, a red hood and a black-and-white hairstyle, Gaga performed an energetic version of the song accompanied by her male dancers, on a stage in front of the Mediterranean Sea. She explained to host Michel Denisot that the inspiration behind her look was the religious imagery and fashion portrayed in the "Judas" music video. "I've been wearing very romantic, very biblical arrangements, and I always throw in some punk rock for good measure," Gaga added.
"Judas" was performed by Gaga on The Graham Norton Show on May 13, 2011, and two days later on Radio 1's Big Weekend in Carlisle, Cumbria. "Judas" was the final song of the setlist, and she finished her performance by taking a bow with her dancers and musicians, as confetti rained on the crowd. Gaga sang "Judas" on the season finale of Saturday Night Live on May 21, 2011, after performing the piano version of "The Edge of Glory". She was dressed in a black shiny top and knee high boots, with a metallic headgear. On May 27, 2011, Gaga also performed the song on Good Morning America as a part of their "Summer Concert Series". She wore a black sheer dress with a gold bejewelled jacket, and gold-studded bikini top and bottom. The stage was filled with steam billowing out of controlled machines. Gaga performed "Judas" on the X Factor in Paris on June 14, 2011, as a medley with "The Edge of Glory". The performance started with Gaga playing a keytar for "The Edge of Glory", wearing a fringed coat as well as a teal wig. She then removed the keytar and fringed coat, revealing a lingerie outfit which included a thong, and transitioned into "Judas". A medley of "Judas" and "Born This Way" was the closing performance on the Paul O'Grady Live show. Ryan Love of Digital Spy had a preview of the show's recording, and felt that this was the best performance of the two songs by Gaga.
"Judas" was part of the setlist of the Born This Way Ball (2012–2013) concert tour. After a speech about betrayal and loyalty, Gaga performed the track atop a turret of the big castle prop. The song contained elements of the DJ White Shadow Remix. On the tour's venue in Manila, Philippines, Gaga faced threats of incarceration and lawsuits from nearly 200 Christians from the Biblemode Youth Philippines organization. The group marched to protest about her "blasphemous" music, taking particular offense to the song "Judas", which they asserted as demeaning Jesus Christ. Responding to the protests, Gaga said in an official statement, "I'm not a creature of your government, Manila" and performed "Judas". Following the controversy, Roman Catholic legal authorities greenlit the concerts for May 21, 2012, and the following Tuesday, restricting nudity and acts deemed vulgar from the performance.
In 2014, "Judas" was added to the setlist of Gaga's ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour, where she performed it wearing a bondage-inspired black leather outfit. The song is also performed on the singer's 2018–2020 Las Vegas residency show, Enigma. Gaga wears an armor-like bodysuit with light-up panels, and plays on a guitar during "Judas".
## Track listing
Digital download
1. "Judas" – 4:09
German CD single
1. "Judas" – 4:10
2. "Born This Way" (Twin Shadow Remix) – 4:19
Judas – The Remixes, Pt. 1
1. "Judas" (Goldfrapp Remix) – 4:42
2. "Judas" (Hurts Remix) – 3:57
3. "Judas" (Mirrors Une Autre Monde – Nuit) – 6:14
4. "Judas" (Guéna LG Club Remix) – 7:41
5. "Judas" (John Dahlbäck Remix) – 6:01
6. "Judas" (Chris Lake Remix) – 5:09
7. "Judas" (R3HAB Remix) – 4:56
Bonus track single
1. "Judas" (Thomas Gold Remix) – 5:32
Judas – The Remixes Part 1
1. "Judas" (Goldfrapp Remix) – 4:42
2. "Judas" (Hurts Remix) – 3:56
3. "Judas" (Mirrors Une Autre Monde – Nuit) – 6:14
4. "Judas" (Guéna LG Club Remix) – 7:40
Judas – The Remixes Part 2
1. "Judas" (Röyksopp's European Imbecile Mix) – 3:51
2. "Judas" (John Dahlbäck Remix) – 6:00
3. "Judas" (Chris Lake Remix) – 5:09
4. "Judas" (R3HAB Remix) – 4:56
5. "Judas" (Mirrors Une Autre Monde Mix – Jour) – 4:17
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Born This Way.
### Recording
- Recorded at Gang Studios (Paris)
- Mixed at Henson Studios (Los Angeles)
- Mastered at Oasis Mastering (Burbank, California)
### Personnel
- Lady Gaga – vocals, songwriter, producer, background vocals
- Nadir "RedOne" Khayat – songwriter, producer, vocal editing, vocal arrangement, background vocals, audio engineering, instrumentation, programming, recording
- Trevor Muzzy – recording, vocal editing, audio engineering, instrumentation, programming, audio mixing
- Dave Russell – additional recording
- Gene Grimaldi – audio mastering
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications and sales
## Release history
## See also
- List of Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles in 2011
- List of Billboard Dance Club Songs number ones of 2011 |
27,047,635 | Gurdon Bill Store | 1,145,449,422 | null | [
"Buildings and structures in New London County, Connecticut",
"Commercial buildings completed in 1818",
"Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut",
"Ledyard, Connecticut",
"National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut"
]
| The Gurdon Bill Store is located in Ledyard, Connecticut. In 1818, the land for the store was purchased by Gurdon Bill and his partner, Philip Gray. In 1819, Gray sold his interest in the store for \$500. Bill operated the store until his death in 1856 and the store is believed to have made its final transaction in 1868. It has not been used since it was sold to the Congregational Society in 1875, retaining its historical integrity. The store is an 18-by-30-foot (5.5 by 9.1 m) by 1+1⁄2-story gable-roofed clapboarded structure built upon fieldstone and stone blocks. It has some unusual architecture in the form of a pent-roof and three-part window shutters. Clouette describes the store as "the best preserved early 19th-century store known in Connecticut." The Gurdon Bill Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 12, 1982.
## Design
The Gurdon Bill Store is named for Gurdon Bill, who was born in 1784. The land was originally purchased by Bill and his partner, Philip Gray, in 1818. Clouette notes that four years later, Bill was the sole owner of the property; a record from 1819 says Gray sold his interest in the store to Bill for \$500. Bill continued to run the store until shortly before his death in 1856. At age 21, Bill went to Plainfield Academy and later went on to work with various merchants before setting up the store in North Groton, later incorporated as Ledyard, Connecticut. Clouette notes a brief passage of the store out of the Bill family, soon reacquired, before it was sold to the Congregational Society in 1875. The Congregational Society has made limited use of the store, preserving its historical integrity. Local historians speculate that the store's final transaction was made in 1868; afterwards the store was boarded up and left essentially unused.
Built in 1818, the Gurdon Bill Store is a 18 feet (5.5 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m) 1+1⁄2-story clapboarded store. The walls extend higher up than the ceiling to an attic for additional storage space. The wood-shingled gable roof also has a smaller pent roof on the front facade that projects about 1 foot (0.30 m) beyond the wall, which is unusual in New England architecture. The foundation of the store is built upon fieldstone and has stone blocks above the ground; the store has a full cellar. The main facade has two large twelve-by-twelve light sliding sash windows on the left side that can be covered with three-part batten shutters. The main door is a Dutch door with a plain frame and to its right is a smaller six-by-six sash window without a batten shutter. The rear facade is plain and devoid of any windows. The north end of has four windows, two for the attic, and the south end has only two windows for the attic, all with six-over-six sash.
The interior consists of one large room on the south end, from the main entrance, and two smaller connecting rooms on the north. The walls of the main room have wide-board horizontal panels and a large L-shaped counter running parallel to the south and west walls. Behind the counter are tiers of pine shelving and on the west wall are built-in drawers with simple wooden pulls and open bins on the bottom. The east wall has a plank bench. The two connected rooms on the north are similar with both having "plastered walls, a narrow beaded board for pegs or hooks, simple sliding shutters on the windows, beaded post casings, and brick diagonal fireplaces."
## Importance
Clouette writes, "The Gurdon Bill Store is the best preserved early 19th-century store known in Connecticut. There are earlier store buildings and more elegant ones, but it would appear that the Bill Store is unique in retaining so many of its original features intact, particularly in the interior." It was submitted to the National Historic Register of Places under criteria A for being a "country store" which supplied items that local farmers needed, but could not produce or manufacture. The building also was submitted for its well-adapted and well-preserved architectural integrity. The store also has an unusual pent-roof and three-part window shutters, the purpose of which is not entirely known.
Locally, the Gurdon Bill Store was rumored to have been a tavern or an inn, although no evidence or record indicates such a use, and it was apparently a waystation for stagecoaches. A historical marker in the immediate vicinity ties the Gurdon Bill store to the birthplace of Samuel Seabury, America's first Episcopal bishop. No conclusive evidence for this claim exists.
## See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in New London County, Connecticut |
327,446 | Weybridge | 1,173,175,124 | Town in Surrey, England | [
"Borough of Elmbridge",
"Populated places on the River Thames",
"Towns in Surrey",
"Weybridge, Surrey"
]
| Weybridge (/ˈweɪbrɪdʒ/) is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around 17 mi (27 km) southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as Waigebrugge and Weibrugge in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the River Wey, which flows into the River Thames to the north of the town centre. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Bronze Age. During the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, Weybridge was held by Chertsey Abbey.
In the 1530s, Henry VIII constructed Oatlands Palace to the north of the town centre, which he intended to be the residence of his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. He married Catherine Howard there in July 1540 and the palace remained a royal residence until the Civil War. The buildings were demolished in the early 1650s and a new mansion, Oatlands House, was constructed to the east of Weybridge later the same century. Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany owned the mansion in the 18th century.
The town began to expand beyond its medieval footprint in the early 19th century, catalysed by the initial breakup of the Oatlands House estate, the enclosure of Weybridge Heath and the opening of the railway station in 1838. The developer, W. G. Tarrant, was responsible for the construction of housing on St George's Hill in the first half of the 20th century.
The world's first purpose-built racing circuit was constructed at Brooklands in 1907. The track hosted the first British Grand Prix in 1926 and was used by Malcolm Campbell to develop his final land speed record car, Campbell-Railton Blue Bird. Throughout the 20th century, Brooklands was an important location for the aerospace industry and aircraft developed and tested there included the Sopwith Camel, the Wellington bomber and the Hurricane fighter. Vickers established a factory at the circuit in 1915 and aircraft manufacturing continued at the site until 1988.
## Toponymy
The first written records of a settlement at Weybridge date from the 7th century, when its name is given as Waigebrugge and Weibrugge. It appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Webrige and Webruge and in subsequent surviving documents as Waibrigge and Wabrigge (12th century) and Wybrugge and Weybrugge (13th century). The name simply means "Bridge over the River Wey".
Oatlands is first recorded in 1383 as Otelands, which may indicate that the area was used for the cultivation of oats. The earliest written record of Brooklands is from 1548, when it appears as Brokeland. The name probably means "marshy land". St George's Hill appears to have acquired its current name in the early 17th century. It is recorded as Le Bery in 1337 and Oldebury in 1548. The previous name may derive from the Old English word burh, which might reference the Iron Age earthworks on the hill.
## Geography
### Location and topography
Weybridge is in northwest Surrey, approximately 17 mi (27 km) southwest of central London. The town centre is close to the confluence of the River Wey and the River Thames, but the settlement also includes St George's Hill and Brooklands, to the south. The highest point in Weybridge is 78 m (256 ft) above ordnance datum, but the low-lying areas close to the rivers are only 10–20 m (33–66 ft) above sea level.
Neighbouring settlements include Shepperton to the north, Walton-on-Thames to the east, Wisley to the south and Addlestone to the west.
### Geology
The rock strata on which Weybridge sits were deposited in the Cenozoic. The Bagshot Sands are the main outcrop to the south of the town and at Brooklands. From the centre of Weybridge northwards towards the Thames, the surface geology is dominated by river gravels.
Overlying the Bagshot Sands at St George's Hill is a cap of Bracklesham Clay, which was used for brickmaking in the 19th century. Ironstone, containing 33-48% iron(III) oxide, is also found on the Hill, along with a capping of chert gravels, thought to have been deposited by a former course of the River Wey.
## History
### Early history
The earliest evidence of human occupation in Weybridge is from the Bronze Age. A number of weapons, including socketed axe heads, a rapier, and a palstave, were retrieved from the River Wey close to the Wey Bridge in 1912. At least fifty cinerary urns dating from the same period were found in the area in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Three of the urns were recovered from a barrow during building work on the Silvermere estate (south of St George's Hill) and were found to contain bones and charcoal.
A copper-alloy bucket, now held by the British Museum, was discovered during the construction of the Brooklands racetrack in 1907. It is thought to have originated in northern Italy in the late Bronze or early Iron Age and similar vessels have been found in Austria, Belgium and Germany. During the Iron Age, there was a fort on St George's Hill. It covered an area of around 14 acres (5.7 ha) and was protected by a rampart and ditch. Most traces of the fort were destroyed by housebuilding in the first half of the 20th century. Remains of a roundhouse and archaeological evidence of iron workings were discovered in the triangle of land between the railway lines in 1981.
There is not thought to have been a significant Roman presence in Weybridge, but 68 bronze coins of the late 3rd and early 4th centuries were found at Brooklands in 1907. Much of the hoard, which included nummi from the reigns of Diocletian (284–305 CE), Maximian (286–305), Constantius I (305–306) and Galerius (305–311), was donated to the British Museum.
### Governance
There are three separate entries for Weybridge in Domesday Book. The first area of land described was held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux as tenant-in-chief and Herfrid of Throwley as lesser tenant. It included 16 acres (6.5 ha) of meadow and woodland for five swine with a value of £5 per annum. The other two entries list areas belonging to Chertsey Abbey, totalling a further 16 acres of meadow, land for four swine and ploughland for 11⁄2 plough teams. None of the entries records a church or a mill in the settlement.
There are only sporadic surviving references to Weybridge in the following centuries. A chapel is mentioned in a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander III in 1176 and a later document shows that Chertsey Abbey had sold the advowson to Newark Priory by 1200. By 1262, the Priory had obtained a license that confirmed its rights to appoint a priest, to hold church property and to collect tithes from the local residents. In 1284 the village was held by Geoffrey de Lucy as a lesser tenant of Chertsey Abbey.
Following the dissolution of the monasteries, Weybridge was held by the Rede family for three years, before passing to the Crown in 1537. In June of the same year, Henry VIII began to construct Oatlands Palace by expanding an existing late-medieval manor house located to the north of the town centre. Some of the stone used in the construction of the foundations was taken from the demolition of Chertsey Abbey. Henry had intended that the palace would become the residence of his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, but the marriage was annulled after six months. The king married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, at Oatlands, but rarely visited thereafter. Following Henry's death the palace remained a possession of the Crown until the Commonwealth, when the contents were sold and the buildings demolished. Only a side entrance gate and adjoining sections of walls, which date from c. 1545, remain.
Reforms during the Tudor period reduced the importance of manorial courts and the day-to-day administration of towns such as Weybridge became the responsibility of the vestry of the parish church. The Weybridge vestry oversaw the distribution of poor relief and the maintenance of local roads. In the 1840s, responsibility for poor relief was transferred to the Chertsey Board of Guardians of the Poor. Local drainage and highways boards were established in the 1860s and in the 1870s a burial board was created to purchase land for new cemeteries.
The Local Government Act 1888 transferred many administrative responsibilities to the newly formed Surrey County Council and was followed by an 1894 Act that created the Weybridge Urban District Council (UDC). Initially the council met at the National school, but moved to Aberdeen House at the junction of High Street and Baker Street in 1908. As a result of the Local Government Act 1929, the UDCs of Weybridge and Walton were combined in 1932. The unified council was merged with the Esher UDC to form Elmbridge Borough Council in 1974.
### Transport and communications
The name "Weybridge" suggests that there has been a bridge over the River Wey in the area since Anglo-Saxon times. During the Elizabethan period, the bridge was a wooden structure, 240 ft (73 m) long and 5.25 ft (1.60 m) wide and was maintained by Elizabeth I in her capacity as lord of the manor. The structure was rebuilt in 1808 on 13 wooden arches. The present bridge dates from 1865 and is constructed from brick, iron and stone. A second bridge, downstream of the first, was completed in 1945 and now carries the A317.
Both the Thames and the Wey have been used for transport since ancient times. By the 14th century, there was a wharf at Weybridge used for shipment of timber and, in 1463, Thomas Warner was given permission to build a dock on his land, which became known as the "Crown Wharf". In 1537, materials for the construction of Oatlands Palace were transported to Weybridge by river. The River Wey Navigation was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1651. Twelve locks (including two flood locks) and 9 mi (14 km) of new cuts were constructed between the Thames and Guildford. Thames Lock was rebuilt in concrete in the 1930s, but like all the locks on the Wey, it was originally turf sided.
The earliest locks on the upper Thames were built in the 17th century, following the establishment of the Oxford-Burcot Commission. However, efforts to improve the stretch of the river through Weybridge did not start until the following century. In 1789, a flash lock was installed at Sunbury, but was replaced by a pound lock in 1812. Shepperton Lock opened the following year. The construction of the locks regulated the flow of the river and increased its depth, facilitating navigation and maintaining an adequate head of water to power mills.
The River Thames through Weybridge was further improved when the Desborough Cut was opened in 1935. The 100 ft wide (30 m) navigable channel bypasses a three-mile (4.8 km) meander and was primarily designed to increase the flood capacity of the river. Construction of the cut created the 45 ha (110-acre) Desborough Island, the entirety of which is in Weybridge.
The London and Southampton Railway Company opened the station at Weybridge in May 1838. Initially the station had two platforms and was in a deep cutting between St George's Hill and Weybridge Heath. The typical journey time to London was around an hour and, by 1841, a mail train was stopping daily. A junction was created to the west of the station in 1848, when the line to Chertsey was constructed. Additional tracks on the main line through the station were added in 1885 and 1902. The lines through the station were electrified in 1907, although steam locomotives continued to haul long-distance express services through Weybridge until 1967. The goods yard was closed in 1964 and signal boxes in the local area were shut in March 1970, when control of the lines was transferred to Surbiton Panel Box. An arson attack in January 1987, resulted in the destruction of the 1904 station building.
A manual telephone exchange opened in Weybridge in 1912 and was replaced in 1954 by an automated facility in Heath Road, which had sufficient capacity for 2500 lines.
### Residential development
Although Weybridge was still only a small village in the early 18th century, a high proportion of the residents were members of the aristocracy. In 1724, the rector noted that it was increasingly becoming a place for "gentile retirement" and recorded eighteen upper-class families living in the area. The settlement was dominated by two estates: Portmore Park, to the north west of the centre, was the seat of the Colyear family, the Earls of Portmore; Oatlands Park, to the east, had been built on the former deer park belonging to Oatlands Palace and was purchased by Prince Frederick, the Duke of York and Albany, in 1790.
Towards the end of the 18th century, Weybridge was beginning to expand beyond its medieval footprint. In 1800, Weybridge Heath, an area of common land to the south east of the village centre, was enclosed. The Act of Inclosure enabled the Duke of York to purchase almost the whole of St George's Hill and to add it to the Oatlands Estate. Four years later, Hanger Hill, one of the roads running across the heath, was laid out and plots alongside it were sold for housebuilding.
The Duke of York sold Oatlands Park in 1824, but the new owner, Edward Hughes Ball Hughes, was forced to lease the house and the surrounding 900 acres (360 ha) to Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere, three years later. The remainder of the Oatlands estate was sold in stages between 1828 and 1846. Housebuilding began almost as soon as the land was released, stimulated in part by the opening of Weybridge railway station in 1838. The majority of the houses in Oatlands village were completed by 1859. Oatlands Park House was sold to the developer W. G. Tarrant in 1909.
The west side of Weybridge High Street was developed when the Portmore Park estate was broken up in 1880s. The estate, approximately covering the area between the High Street and the River Wey, had been established by Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk in the 1670s. It was purchased by the Locke King family in 1861, who sold the land for residential development in the final decades of the 19th century.
St George's Hill was developed by W. G. Tarrant, who bought 936 acres (379 ha) of land from the Edgerton family in 1911. A year later he began the construction of the Tennis and Golf Clubs and published a series of promotions in the Surrey Herald to advertise the houses that he intended to build. Strict covenants were imposed on the development and the minimum size of each property was fixed as one acre (0.40 ha). Construction was interrupted by the First World War, but resumed shortly afterwards, continuing until the start of the Great Depression in the late 1920s.
The first council housing in the town was built by the Weybridge UDC between 1923 and 1927, when 160 houses were constructed on the Old Palace Gardens estate. Following the end of the Second World War, the Weybridge and Walton UDC built over 1000 houses in the two towns.
### Brooklands
Brooklands, the first purpose-built motor-racing circuit in the world, opened in 1907. Constructed on farmland to the south of Weybridge, the concrete track was designed by Capel Lofft Holden and had a total length of 2.75 mi (4.43 km). The first races for motorcars took place in July 1907 and for motorcycles in February the following year. Both attracted a large number of entrants from across Europe and by 1911, the British Automobile Racing Club had established a programme of regular race meetings.
Motor racing ceased for the duration of the First World War and did not resume until 1920. The first two British Grands Prix took place at the circuit in 1926 and 1927. The JCC 200 Mile race also took place at the circuit from 1921 to 1928, and again in 1938. In the early 1930s, Malcolm Campbell developed the Campbell-Railton Blue Bird, his final land speed record car, at Brooklands. Racing ceased for a second time at the outbreak of the Second World War.
Brooklands also played a key role in the development of the British aeronautical industry. In 1907, the aviation pioneer, A. V. Roe, performed the first flight by a British-built aeroplane at the circuit shortly after it opened in 1907. By 1912, several flying schools had been established at Brooklands and the Vickers company began manufacturing aircraft in 1915. The Sopwith Camel was among several aircraft developed at Brooklands during the First World War.
Aircraft manufacture continued during the 1920s and 1930s. Among those working at the Vickers factory was Barnes Wallis, who was involved in designing the Wellesley and the Wellington bombers. The Hawker Aircraft company opened a factory at Brooklands in 1935 and began building prototypes of the Hurricane fighter. Aircraft manufacture intensified during the Second World War and new factories, warehouses and hangars were rapidly built, encroaching onto the racing circuit. The track was breached near Byfleet to improve access for deliveries to the site and a large workshop was cut into the concrete at the north end. Following the end of hostilities in 1945, the track was considered to be in such poor condition that a resumption of motor racing was ruled impossible.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, the manufacturers based at Brooklands started to transition towards the production of civilian airliners. Vickers began producing the VC series of aircraft with the VC1 Viking in 1945. The VC10 was launched in 1964, by which point the company had been nationalised as the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Increasingly BAC began to refocus manufacturing at Brooklands to the production of aircraft parts, with final assembly elsewhere. Components of the British-built Concordes were manufactured at the site in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1977, BAC merged with Hawker-Siddeley to form British Aerospace and the combined entity began to run down the Brooklands site. Aerospace manufacturing finally ceased in Weybridge in 1988.
### Commerce and industry
Although no mill is mentioned in the Weybridge entries in the Domesday book, watermills appear to have played an important role in the economy of the area since at least the early modern period. The earliest record of a mill in the town is from 1693, when a paper mill was built at the confluence of the Wey and Thames.
Ironstone was quarried from Weybridge Heath and St George's Hill, although the dates of these workings are uncertain. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, iron was smelted at a mill on Whittet's Ait and there is reference to iron and steel manufacture taking place at two mills in Byfleet in 1760. The Whittet's Ait mill appears to have been used as a "Brass Wire Mill" in the 1760s and the machinery required for iron smelting had been fitted by 1769.
A mill for grinding malt was built on the Wey upstream of Thames Lock in around 1819, but had fallen into disrepair by 1830. In 1842 a new mill for extracting vegetable oil from seeds was built on the same site and the Whittet's Ait mill was also being used for the same purpose by the 1930s. In the 1970s, Whittet's Ait was the site of a solvent refinery.
For much of the 20th century, Weybridge was a centre for the aerospace industry. The Lang Propeller Works was established on Whittet's Ait in 1913 and, in 1915, the Vickers company took over the Itala motor works at Brooklands. The circuit was also the base for several other aircraft manufacturers including Avro, Sopwith and Blériot.
As of 2021, the European headquarters of Sony and the UK headquarters of Procter & Gamble are at Brooklands.
### Weybridge in the world wars
At the start of the First World War, Weybridge became a training base for the 244 Motorised Transport Company, an army unit of mechanics and drivers operating as part of the 19th Divisional Supply Column. The company served throughout the war in the Gallipoli and Balkans campaigns. There were two military hospitals in Oatlands. Barnham Lodge opened as a 35-bed hospital in 1915 and, by 1917, a small operating theatre was in use and the facility was being run by the British Red Cross. Oatlands Park Hotel was requisitioned in 1916 as a hospital for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and was primarily used to treat "medical & tuberculosis cases and limbless men".
Ethel Locke King, the chair of the Chertsey branch of the Red Cross, was instrumental in establishing 15 hospitals in the local area during the First World War. She also organised a rest station for troops at Weybridge railway station. In January 1918, Locke King became a Dame Commander of the British Empire.
The presence of the Vickers aircraft factory made Weybridge an obvious target for enemy bombing during the Second World War. The defence of the town was coordinated by the 3rd Surrey Battalion of the Home Guard and five platoons of the C company were stationed at Brooklands. The local civil defence headquarters were established at the UDC offices in Aberdeen House and the council built a large air raid shelter at the Churchfields Recreation Ground. Serious bombing began in the local area in August 1940 and by December of that year 97 residents had died and 1300 houses had been damaged.
A devastating air raid took place on the Vickers plant in September 1940, when 83 people were killed. A 500 lb (230 kg) bomb landed on the floor of the factory, but failed to explode. Five men of the Royal Canadian Engineers successfully removed the bomb from the building before it exploded. Lieutenant John Patton was subsequently awarded the George Cross for his role in the incident. Later in the war, 19 V-1 flying bombs landed in the Weybridge and Walton area.
## National and local government
### UK parliament
The town is in the parliamentary constituency of Runnymede and Weybridge and has been represented at Westminster since May 2019 by Conservative Ben Spencer. Between 1997 and 2019, the constituency was represented by Philip Hammond, who was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Hammond of Runnymede in 2020.
### County council
Councillors are elected to Surrey County Council every four years. The majority of the town is in the "Weybridge" electoral division, but areas to the east of the centre are in the "Walton South and Oatlands" and "Hersham" electoral divisions.
### Borough council
Weybridge is divided between three wards, each of which elect three councillors to Elmbridge Borough Council. The three wards are "Oatlands and Burwood Park", "Weybridge Riverside" and "Weybridge St George's Hill".
Between 1966 and 2009, the Borough of Elmbridge was twinned with Rueil-Malmaison in northern France.
## Demography and housing
Across the South East Region, 28% of homes were detached houses and 22.6% were apartments.
## Transport
### Bus
Weybridge is linked by a number of bus routes to surrounding towns and villages in north Surrey and south west London. Operators serving the town include Arriva, Diamond Bus, the East Surrey Rural Transport Partnership and Falcon Buses.
### Train
Weybridge railway station is to the south of the town centre. It is managed by South Western Railway, which operates all services. Trains run to London Waterloo via Clapham Junction and to Woking.
### River navigations
The non-tidal section of the River Thames is navigable between Lechlade in Gloucestershire and Teddington Lock. The navigation authority is the Environment Agency. The River Wey is navigable from Weybridge to Godalming and the navigation authority is the National Trust.
### National cycle route
National Cycle Route 4, which links London to Fishguard, passes through Weybridge.
### Long-distance footpaths
The Thames Path runs along the south bank of the River Thames, to the north of the town centre.
## Public services
### Utilities
Weybridge received its first drinking water supply in 1869, when the West Surrey Water Company was formed. The water was abstracted from the Thames at Walton, where it was filtered and then pumped to a storage reservoir on St George's Hill. In 1960, the company became part of the Woking and District Water Company. Today, Affinity Water is responsible for supplying the town with drinking water.
The first wastewater treatment works in the town was built at Brooklands Farm in 1895. The works were principally a series of sewage lagoons, but were upgraded in 1939 to filter beds, which were considered less conspicuous to enemy aircraft. The present works, in the triangle formed by the railway lines to the west of Weybridge station, were opened in 1973. Treated water is discharged into the River Wey.
The Walton upon Thames and Weybridge Gas Company was incorporated in 1869. It was taken over by the Wandsworth Gas Company in Oct 1936.
In 1890, Weybridge became the first town in Britain to have electric street lighting using incandescent filament bulbs. The power station in Church Walk was capable of generating 70 kW and operated for six years before its closure in 1896. In 1902, a new station was opened in Thames Street with an initial installed capacity of 180 kW, which had risen to 700 kW by the time of its closure 20 years later. From 1922, electricity was supplied to the town by the Twickenham and Teddington Electricity Supply Company.
### Emergency services
Weybridge Fire Brigade was formed 1874 and was initially equipped with a horse-drawn, manual engine with leather hoses. In 1881 the brigade moved to new building in Balfour Road and a steam-driven fire engine was purchased in 1902. In 1921, the Weybridge brigade was made responsible for attending fires in Cobham. The merger of Weybridge and Walton UDCs in 1933, resulted in the fire brigades of the two towns being combined into one single unit. Weybridge Police Station opened 1908 and closed in 1968.
In 2021, the fire authority for Weybridge is Surrey County Council and the statutory fire service is Surrey Fire and Rescue Service. Ambulance services are run by the South East Coast Ambulance Service. The local police force is Surrey Police and the nearest police station to the town is at Esher.
### Healthcare
Weybridge Cottage Hospital was opened in 1889 in Balfour Road on land belonging to Ethel Locke King. It was replaced in 1928 by a new facility on the site of Vigo House in Church Street. The hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and in the early 1960s, an additional wing was constructed. In 1999, a new hospital was opened adjacent to the old, which was subsequently demolished. In July 2017, the building was destroyed by fire, most probably caused by an electrical fault.
The nearest hospital with an A&E is St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, 4.8 km (3.0 mi) from Weybridge. As of 2021, the town has two GP practices, both of which are housed in the Health Centre on Church Street.
## Education
### Early schools
The first recorded school in Weybridge was a Dame School for 12 children, founded c. 1650 in Baker Street. A charity school for poor children was founded in Weybridge in 1732 by Elizabeth Hopton and was incorporated into a new Parochial School in 1813. A second small parochial school was founded on the Oatlands estate in 1862 and was enlarged in 1874 to accommodate 201 children.
### Maintained schools
There are several Primary Schools in Weybridge. St Charles Borromeo Catholic Primary School was founded in Heath Road in 1881. It educates around 210 pupils aged from 4 to 11. Cleves School, in Oatlands Avenue, became an academy in November 2010. St James Church of England Primary School is in Grotto Road.
Heathside School, in Brooklands Lane, is a co-educational secondary school for students aged 11 to 18. It opened in 1966.
### Independent school
St George's College Junior School is a coeducational Catholic school for pupils aged 3 to 11. It moved from the main school campus in Addlestone to Thames Street in 2000. The site, to the north of Weybridge town centre, had previously been occupied by a school for girls, founded in 1898 by the nuns of Les Dames de St Maur.
### Further education
Brooklands College opened in 1951 as the Brooklands Technical College. Its Weybridge campus is built around the former Brooklands House, a Grade II-listed building, which was once the home of the Locke-King family. The mansion was originally constructed in 1860, but was rebuilt by the architect, Reginald Blomfield, in a Queen Anne style in 1891.
Brooklands College merged with Spelthorne College in Ashford in 2007. It now operates across two campuses and educates over 1,600 students. Higher education courses are offered in association with Oxford Brookes and Kingston Universities.
## Places of worship
### Early church
There is no mention of a church at Weybridge in the Domesday Book and the first record of a place of worship is in 1175, in which a chapel in the town is listed as a dependent of Chertsey Abbey. During the Reformation, several valuable items, including chalices and a paten were seized from the Weybridge church by the King's commissioners. The font was buried under the floor of the building at around the same time, possibly to prevent it being confiscated.
Major renovations to Weybridge church were carried out in 1722, including the construction of a south aisle. The congregation increased in size in the first half of the 19th century, as the population of the town expanded. By the middle of the century, it was clear that a larger building was required and so the church was demolished in 1848 and replaced by the present St James'. A portion of a fresco from the old church was saved and is held by Elmbridge Museum.
### St James' Church
The Anglican parish church of St James was built in 1848 to replace the earlier church. It was designed by the architect John Loughborough Pearson in the Early English Gothic Revival style. It is constructed of coursed rubble stone with a plain tiled roof. The broach spire was completed in 1855 and the south aisle was added in 1864. The chancel is decorated in red and gold mosaics, containing more than 20 types of marble. In 1875, the church was given a ring of eight bells, cast by Taylor of Loughborough. They were re-hung on a new steel frame in 1989.
Several monuments were rescued from the medieval church and were reinstalled in St James'. The oldest is a sculpture of three skeletons, dating from around 1450, which appears to commemorate a man and two women. There are two brasses dating from the reign of Elizabeth I, which record the members of two prominent local families.
### St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church
A Catholic Chapel was built on Weybridge Heath in the 1830s for the private use of the Taylor Family and was dedicated to St Charles Borromeo in November 1835. The chapel is constructed from brick, plastered to resemble Bath Stone and has a central dome with towers to the east and west. Following his abdication in 1848, Louis Philippe, King of France, moved with his family to Claremont, Esher. He attended mass at the chapel until his death in 1850. He and ten other members of his family were buried in the crypt, but their bodies were subsequently returned to France for reinterment.
A church adjoining the chapel was designed by the architect, Alfred Edward Purdie, and built in 1880. It served as the local Catholic Church until the congregation moved to the newly constructed Christ the Prince of Peace Church in 1989. The church was sold to the World Mission Korean Presbyterian Church in 1993 and a restoration project was awarded funding by English Heritage in 2005.
### Christ the Prince of Peace Catholic Church
Christ the Prince of Peace Catholic Church opened in Advent 1989, succeeding St Charles Borromeo and the demolished St Martin de Porres. The benches, statues and the crucifix over the altar were recovered from the old churches and installed in the new church.
### Weybridge United Reformed Church
The Nonconformist community in Weybridge traces its origins to 1855, when Congregational services were conducted in a hired cottage in Thames Street for a short period. Five years later, Benjamin Scott, the Chamberlain of the City of London began to hold open-air services in the town.
The foundation stone of Weybridge United Reformed Church was laid on 4 July 1864 by John Remington Mills. The church, designed in the mixed style by John Tarring, was opened the following year. The building is constructed of rubble masonry, dressed with ashlar, and has a square tower with a hexagonal spire. Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner described the appearance of the church as "ferocious".
### St Mary Oatlands
St Mary Oatlands was founded as a chapel in the Parish of Walton-on-Thames in 1867, but two years later, became a church with its own parish. Extensions to the original structure include the tower, built in 1905, and the Chapel of the Resurrection, built in 1920.
### Weybridge Methodist Church
Weybridge Methodist Church was designed by the architect, Josiah Gunton, and the foundation stone was laid in June 1900. The adjacent Hayfield Hall was built in 1937. The church was severely damaged by fire in 1977, but was reopened in 1980.
### North West Surrey Synagogue
The first Jewish congregation in Weybridge began meeting in the late 1930s in Finnart House, a school for Jewish boys. North West Surrey Synagogue was founded there in 1968, but moved to new premises in Princes Road in 1981. Four years later, the congregation relocated to its current home, Horvath Close, named in honour of one of the founding members, Imre Horvath. In 2021, the synagogue is affiliated to the Movement for Reform Judaism.
## Culture
### Art
The Thames at Weybridge painted by J. M. W. Turner in 1805–6 is held by the Tate. The Elmbridge Museum collection includes works by Charles Claude Houssard (1884–1958), Edwin Lock (active 1929–1961), and Nancy Wallis. Guildford House Gallery holds two riverside views of Weybridge by Winifred Schofield (d. 2000). Brooklands Museum holds a number of artworks that reference the area's motor racing and aviation heritage.
### Literature
Several authors have lived in Weybridge. The writer George Meredith moved to the town with his first wife in 1849. Whilst living at Weybridge he wrote The Shaving of Shagpat: An Arabian Entertainment, his first work of fiction, which was published in 1856. He moved to Box Hill in 1868. Following the Dreyfus affair, the French novelist Émile Zola (1840–1902) was exiled to England from July 1898 to June 1899, during which time he lived at the Oatlands Park Hotel. The novelist E. M. Forster (1879–1970) lived at 19 Monument Green from 1904 until 1912, during which he wrote all six of his novels. A plaque recording his residence in Weybridge was installed on the outside wall of his former home in the 1980s. The novelist Warwick Deeping lived on Brooklands Lane from 1918 until his death in 1950.
The town is mentioned in several works of literature. Chapter 12 of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds (1897) is entitled "What I saw of the destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton". During the chapter, an armoured Martian is disabled by an artillery shell and collapses into the River Thames. In John Wyndham's novel The Kraken Wakes (1953), the main characters are stopped in their attempt to reach Cornwall on a dinghy through a flooded England in the "Staines-Weybridge area". In Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988), Weybridge is referred to by one of Saladin Chamcha's interrogators as his place of residence.
### Music
The rock band, You Me at Six, was formed in Weybridge in 2004. Four members of the group attended Brooklands College. Amateur choirs rehearsing and performing regularly in the town include the Treble Clef Choir for ladies' voices and the Weybridge Male Voice Choir.
## Sport and leisure
### Cricket
Weybridge Cricket Club was formed in 1924, by the merger of two existing clubs, the oldest of which was founded before 1870. Cricket is thought to have been played on Weybridge Green since at least 1814. In 1921, the UDC improved the ground by levelling the surface and the surrounding banking.
Weybridge Vandals Cricket Club traces its origins to two clubs formed in the early 20th century. Brownacres Cricket Club was founded in 1938, but changed its name to University Vandalls CC in 1953. In 1975, it merged with the Olinda CC, which had been formed in 1924.
### Golf
St George's Hill Golf Course was designed by the architect Harry Colt and the first 18 holes opened in 1913. The course was constructed on land owned by W. G. Tarrant, who intended the course to complement the surrounding housing development. The original club house was burnt down in March 1920 and was replaced the same year. The future Edward VIII was president of the club from 1934 to 1935 and his brother the future George VI was also a member. The German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, visited the club in 1937. A second 18-hole course, also designed by Colt, was opened in 1929, but was reduced to nine holes in 1946.
Silvermere Golf Course was designed by Neil Coles and Brian Huggett and opened in 1976. The 18-hole course surrounds Silvermere Lake, where Barnes Wallace tested prototypes of his bouncing bomb. Both the 17th and 18th holes require golfers to play the ball across the surface of the lake.
### Rowing
Weybridge Rowing Club was founded in 1881 and moved to its current premises, adjacent to Thames Lock, in 1910. Women were first admitted as members in 1910. Weybridge Ladies Amateur Rowing Club was founded by Amy Gentry in 1926. Weyfarers Rowing Club for recreational rowers was founded in September 2000.
The Weybridge Community Regatta, organised by Weybridge Rowing Club, takes place on the Desborough Cut each summer. The club has hosted the Weybridge Silver Sculls head since 1956. The race takes place on a 3,000 m (3,300 yd) course on the Thames. The Weybridge Veterans' Head is held each year in March and includes events for juniors as well as veterans.
### Rugby
Weybridge Vandals RFC was founded in 1932 for members of the University of London. It was initially known as "London University Vandals RFC" and played its home matches at Motspur Park. A vulture taking off with wings raised was adopted as the club symbol. The club moved to the premises of a former private zoo on Desborough Island in 1932 and, in 2003, changed its name to Weybridge Vandals RFC to reflect the location of its home ground.
### Shooting
Weybridge Rifle and Pistol Club was opened in 1901. Initially the range was at Brooklands Farm, but relocated in 1906 to allow for the construction of the racing circuit. In 2021, the club has a 100-yard outdoor range for .22 calibre rifles and a 25-yard outdoor air gun range.
### Tennis
St George's Hill Lawn Tennis Club was opened in 1913. It covers 16 acres (6.5 ha) and has 33 courts, of which 13 are grass courts. It also offers four squash courts and facilities for badminton and table tennis.
Weybridge Lawn Tennis Club, in Walton Lane, offers five outdoor courts.
## Tourist attractions
### Brooklands Museum
As aircraft manufacture at Brooklands began to decline in the 1970s, BAC closed the factory buildings on the west side of the runway and the area was redeveloped for light industry, offices and retail units. The corporation also vacated a 40-acre (16 ha) site at the northern end of the former finishing straight, 30 acres of which became the Brooklands Museum. The museum, which opened in 1991, has preserved several historic buildings including the 1911 Ticket Office, the 1932 Aero Clubhouse and a 100 m (110 yd) section of track. A wide range of vintage aircraft, racing cars and motorcycles is on display, including Concorde G-BBDG, a Wellington Bomber and a 1927 Delage 15-S8 Grand Prix racing car.
### London Bus Museum
The London Bus Museum traces its origins to the mid-1960s, when the London Bus Preservation Group was formed by a number of private heritage vehicle owners. Eight years later, the group purchased a former factory in Cobham, Surrey, which was converted to a museum, opening in 1974. In 2011, the museum moved to a newly constructed building on the Brooklands Museum site. Around 30 buses dating from the 1820s to the 1970s are on public display at any one time, around two thirds of which are owned by the London Bus Preservation Trust and the remainder by private individuals. Entry to the museum is via a combined ticket with the Brooklands Museum.
### Mercedes-Benz World
The German car manufacturer, Daimler AG, purchased the former Brooklands runway and the adjacent strips of land in 2002. The northern half of the site was redeveloped into a tourist attraction, Mercedes-Benz World, which was opened in October 2006. The southern half was handed to Elmbridge Borough Council and became the Brooklands Community Park. As part of the work to construct the new attraction, the section of the motor racing circuit adjacent to the railway was restored and a new car park and entrance to the Brooklands Museum were provided. Among the exhibits at Mercedes-Benz World are a number of historic racing and road cars and the attraction offers racing simulators and driving experiences.
## Notable buildings and landmarks
### Memorial to Gerrard Winstanley
The memorial to Gerrard Winstanley, located close to the railway station, was unveiled in December 2000. It commemorates the radical leader of the Diggers or True Levellers, a group of 17th-century religious dissidents, who set up an encampment on St George's Hill. The group began to cultivate the common land on the hill in April 1649, encouraging others to join them and declaring their intention to reclaim enclosed land. The group published several pamphlets and their philosophy has been compared to agrarian socialism and modern anarchism. Following harassment from local landowners and threats of legal action, the Diggers relocated to Little Heath, Cobham that August, but had been driven from the land by April 1650.
### Oatlands Park Hotel
Following the demolition of Oatlands Palace in the mid-17th century, the surrounding hunting park passed through a series of owners until it was inherited by Henry Clinton, 7th Earl of Lincoln in 1716. Clinton remodelled the estate, creating a new garden in 1725 and constructing a new house to the east of the town centre in 1725. The property was purchased by Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany in around 1790. Four years later, much of the house was destroyed by fire and a new mansion, Oatlands Park, was designed by Henry Holland on the same site. It was built in the Italianate style using yellow London stock bricks, but the original entrance gateway, designed in the mid-18th century by William Kent, was retained.
The Duke of York sold Oatlands Park to Edward Hughes Ball Hughes in 1824, following the death of his wife four years earlier. Hughes was responsible for remodelling the house in 1827, but financial problems forced him to lease the estate to William Egerton, 1st Baron Egerton a year later. The land was sold in 1846 and, in 1856, Oatlands Park became a hotel, when the west wing was added by the architect, Thomas Henry Wyatt.
The 10 ha (25-acre) Broad Water, also known as Broadwater Lake, is located between the Oatlands Park Hotel and the River Thames. It is shown as a cruciform canal on a 1737 plan of the Oatlands estate by the cartographer, John Roque, and is thought to have been enlarged to its current form by 1770. Today, the 1.2 km long (0.75 mi) lake runs in a shallow arc from west to north east and is fed by springs close to St George's Junior School. It was constructed as a trompe-l'œil and its east end appears to flow under Walton Bridge, which in fact spans the River Thames. A new footpath along the northern bank of the lake was opened in 2017.
### Ship Hotel
Parts of the Ship Hotel on Monument Green are thought to date from the 16th century. Its original name, the Ship Inn, may derive from "shippin" meaning a cattle shed. In the mid-18th century, the inn was used for meetings of the manorial courts and during the Napoleonic Wars, it served as a recruiting centre for the army.
### War memorial
The war memorial, designed by J. Hatchard Smith, was erected in 1923 at the south end of Monument Hill. It consists of a square column, on which a statue of a soldier is standing at ease. A total of 224 people who died in the First World War, Second World War and Korean War are commemorated.
### Yool Memorial
The stone drinking fountain at the junction of Hanger Hill and Princes Road was commissioned from the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association in 1896. It commemorates Henry Yool, a local benefactor and former vice-chairman of Surrey County Council. Originally erected on Weybridge Hill, the memorial was moved to its current location in 1971.
### York Column
The York Column on Monument Green originally stood at Seven Dials in central London. The sundial pillar was commissioned by Thomas Neale in the 1690s to form the centrepiece of his housing development near Covent Garden. The monument was dismantled in 1777 and the stones were purchased by the architect, James Paine, who lived in Addlestone. In 1822 the column was erected on Monument Green in Weybridge as a memorial to the Duchess of York, who had lived at Oatlands House and who had died two years previously. The badly weathered dialstone was not reinstalled on the monument and can be seen adjacent to Weybridge Library.
## Parks and open spaces
### Brooklands Community Park
The 24 ha (59-acre) Brooklands Community Park was opened in 2006 on land donated by Daimler AG to Elmbridge Borough Council. The formal recreation areas, which include a children's playground, multi-use games area, skatepark and an off-road cycle course, total approximately 2 ha (4.9 acres). The remainder of the park is naturalised dry-acid grassland, which provides a habitat for plants including hoary cinquefoil and yellow rattle, as well as butterfly species such as the small copper and common blue. Brooklands Parkrun takes place at the Community Park on Saturday mornings.
### Churchfields recreation ground
Churchfields recreation ground was opened by Weybridge Council in 1908, on land donated by John Lyle.
### Monument Green
Monument Green is an area of common land at the north end of the High Street, surrounding the junction between Thames Street and Monument Hill. In the 18th century, it was known as the "Bull Ring" and bull-baiting is thought to have taken place there. In the early 19th century, the village pump was located on the western side, in front of the Ship Hotel. The York Column was erected in the centre of the green in 1822. Most of the houses in the surrounding area were constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
### Weybridge Heath
Weybridge Heath, to the south of the town centre, was reserved for the use of local residents under the Inclosure Act 1800. Some 16.6 ha (41 acres) are owned by Elmbridge Borough Council.
### Whittet's Ait
Whittet's Ait is an island between the River Wey and River Wey Navigation in the north of Weybridge. It is named after the owner of the former oil seed mill, which was sited next to Thames Lock. Elmbridge Borough Council acquired the publicly accessible open land on the ait in 2000, to protect it for recreational use.
## Notable residents
- Thomas Hopsonn (1643–1717) – Vice-admiral, moved to Weybridge in 1702. He built Vigo House and is buried in St James' Church.
- David Colyear, 1st Earl of Portmore (c. 1656-1730) – army officer and Governor of Gibraltar, lived at Portmore Park
- Fanny Kemble (1809–1893) – author, actor and anti-slavery campaigner, lived at Eastlands, Brooklands Road
- Benjamin Scott (1814–1892) – Chamberlain of the City of London, lived at Heath House (now named Lorimar House), founded the Congregational chapel (now Weybridge United Reformed Church)
- George Fergusson Wilson (1822-1902) – industrial chemist, lived at Weybridge from 1863 until his death
- Lionel Smith Beale (1828-1906) – physician and microscopist, lived in Weybridge from 1885 to 1904
- Elizabeth Dawes (1864-1954) – classical scholar and teacher, lived and taught in Weybridge from 1889 until her death
- George May, 1st Baron May (1871-1946) – financial expert and civil servant, lived at Eyot House
- Frank Finlay (1926-2016) - actor, lived at Weybridge at time of his death.
- John Fozard (1928-1996) – aeronautical engineer and designer of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, lived at St George's Hill
- Colin Davis (1927–2013) – conductor, was born in the town.
- John Lennon (1940-1980) – musician, lived at Kenwood, St George's Hill from 1964 to 1968
- Cliff Richard (b. 1940) - singer, had his main home for some years in Weybridge, which he shared with his manager Bill Latham and the latter's mother.
- Ringo Starr (b. 1940) – musician, lived at St George's Hill from 1965 to 1968
- Theo Paphitis (b. 1959) – businessman, entrepreneur and TV personality
- Bernie Nolan (1960-2013) - singer of group The Nolans and actress, lived in Weybridge.
## See also
- Grade II\* listed buildings in Elmbridge
- Geology of Surrey |
48,731,652 | Sam Coonrod | 1,171,594,980 | American baseball player (born 1992) | [
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"Arizona League Giants players",
"Augusta GreenJackets players",
"Baseball players from St. Louis",
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"New York Mets players",
"Philadelphia Phillies players",
"Richmond Flying Squirrels players",
"Sacramento River Cats players",
"San Francisco Giants players",
"San Jose Giants players",
"Southern Illinois Salukis baseball players",
"St. Lucie Mets players",
"Syracuse Mets players",
"Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox players"
]
| Samuel Timothy Coonrod (born September 22, 1992) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies.
Coonrod was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Carrollton, Illinois. He played high school baseball at Carrollton High School, where he helped his team win a state championship his senior season and became the first player in school history to have his jersey number retired. After high school, Coonrod spent three years playing college baseball with the Southern Illinois Salukis of the Missouri Valley Conference. He also played for two collegiate summer baseball teams: the Quincy Gems in 2012 and the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in 2013.
The Giants selected Coonrod in the fifth round of the 2014 MLB Draft. He spent the 2014 season with the Arizona League Giants, and continued to rise through the Giants' farm system before making his major league debut in 2019. He struggled during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, allowing more than one run per inning pitched and recording a 9.82 earned run average in 18 games. Coonrod was traded during the offseason, and began 2021 in the Phillies' bullpen.
## Early life
Coonrod was born on September 22, 1992, to Tim and Karen Coonrod in St. Louis, Missouri, and was raised in Carrollton, Illinois. Growing up, he was a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB), and attended many of the team's home games at Busch Stadium. He was a shortstop and pitcher for the baseball team at Carrollton High School, posting a career 16–3 win–loss record and a 1.82 earned run average (ERA), with six saves and 212 strikeouts in 119 innings pitched. During his senior season in 2011, Coonrod posted an 11–0 record, including five no-hitters, a 1.35 ERA, and 113 strikeouts in 62 innings pitched. He additionally helped lead the team to a state championship title. In 2015, Coonrod became the first Carrollton baseball player to have his jersey number retired.
## College career
Dan Callahan, the coach at the time for the Southern Illinois Salukis of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), recruited Coonrod after watching him play at the State Journal-Register Baseball Classic. Coonrod was credited with the win in his college baseball debut, pitching two innings in the Salukis' 4–2 victory over North Florida on February 18, 2012. Coonrod pitched in 18 games and 64 innings in his freshman season at SIU, posting a 3–5 record, a 4.64 ERA, and 54 strikeouts. That summer, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Quincy Gems of the Prospect League, going 2–1 with a 1.80 ERA in three games started and striking out 18 batters in 20 innings pitched.
The following season, Coonrod returned to the Salukis as a starting pitcher. He recorded at least one strikeout per start until February 23, 2013, when he walked a career-high six batters in four innings against Jacksonville State. The following month, on March 22, Coonrod struck out a career-high nine batters in seven innings against Indiana State, an outing that coach Ken Henderson said was "the best he's been all year". He faced Indiana State again in the second game of the 2013 MVC Tournament, giving up three runs and taking the loss in a 5–0 shutout. Coonrod finished his sophomore season with a 3–6 record, a 4.29 ERA, and 68 strikeouts in 15 starts and 79+2⁄3 innings. That summer, he played for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod Baseball League. His Red Sox coach, Scott Pickler, had previously coached Coonrod's future MLB teammates Joe Panik and Buster Posey during their respective times in the Cape Cod League. He pitched in 8 games and 16+2⁄3 innings with the Red Sox, posting a 1–1 record and 4.86 ERA. Coonrod credited his time with the Red Sox for helping him "mature as a player and be able to handle failure".
As a junior in 2014, Coonrod was one of four Salukis named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete first team. He posted a 2.87 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 84+2⁄3 innings and 15 games started, in addition to maintaining a 3.48 grade-point average. In three seasons of college baseball, Coonrod posted an 8–17 record, a 3.86 ERA, and 199 strikeouts in 228+1⁄3 innings pitched.
## Professional career
### Draft and minor leagues
On June 6, 2014, the San Francisco Giants selected Coonrod in the fifth round, 148th overall, of the 2014 MLB Draft. He was assigned to the Rookie Arizona League Giants, pitching in 15 games and starting in five, and earning his first professional win against the Arizona League Rangers. He recorded 1–0 record in 2014, with a 3.90 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 27+2⁄3 innings. In 2015, Coonrod was assigned to the Single-A Augusta GreenJackets of the South Atlantic League, earning his first win on May 21 in a 6–0 shutout of the Asheville Tourists. On July 27, Coonrod was named the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week, following a win against the Hickory Crawdads. In his final season start with the GreenJackets on September 6, 2015, Coonrod struck out nine batters in five innings, the second-highest that season, in a 4–2 victory over the Charleston RiverDogs. He finished the season with a 7–5 record and 3.14 ERA in 23 games and 111+2⁄3 innings.
Coonrod opened the 2016 season with the Class A-Advanced San Jose Giants of the California League, pitching at the front of the starting rotation. After going 5–0 with a 0.57 ERA and holding his opponents to a .179 batting average in his first month with San Jose, Coonrod was named the California League Player of the Month for May 2016. In June, Coonrod was one of four San Jose Giants named to the 2016 California League All-Star team. That same month, he was promoted to the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels of the Eastern League, with whom he went 3–2 with a 3.12 ERA in his first eight starts. For the 2016 season, Coonrod posted a combined 9–6 record, 2.55 ERA, and 94 strikeouts in 24 games and 141 innings with San Jose and Richmond.
Entering the 2017 season, Keith Law of ESPN ranked Coonrod the eighth-best prospect within the Giants system. He spent the season with the Flying Squirrels, going 4–11 with a 4.69 ERA and 94 strikeouts in 24 games and 103+2⁄3 innings. Coonrod missed most of the 2018 season so that he could recover from Tommy John surgery. He returned from rehab at the end of the season to pitch in 10 games for San Jose, posting a 5.40 ERA.
Coonrod began the 2019 season with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, posting a 7.00 ERA in 18 innings. Despite being used as a starting pitcher for most of his career, the River Cats used Coonrod as a reliever.
### San Francisco Giants (2019–2020)
He was called up to the Giants on May 26, 2019, and made his MLB debut the same day, throwing a perfect eighth inning, including his first major league strikeout, in a 6–2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. He recorded his first MLB win on July 23, pitching in the 13th inning of the Giants' 5–4 win against the Chicago Cubs. He retired three of the Cubs' top hitters—Javier Báez, Kris Bryant, and Anthony Rizzo—in what ended up being the final inning. He finished the season with a 5–1 record, a 3.58 ERA, and 20 strikeouts in 33 games and 27+2⁄3 innings with the Giants. Coonrod traveled between the River Cats and Giants a total of five times in 2019. The third time that he was called up to the Giants, on July 22, he told The Telegraph, "I was thinking, man I don't want to go back down again. I want to stay up the rest of the year."
During the 2020 season, Coonrod became the subject of attention when he became the only player on either team not to kneel ahead of the playing of "The Star Spangled Banner" before the Giants' game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a gesture done ahead of some games to indicate support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Coonrod justified his decision by saying that, as a Christian, he "can't kneel before anything besides God".
> "I'm a Christian, like I said, and I just can't get on board with a couple of things that I have read about Black Lives Matter. How they lean towards Marxism and they've said some negative things about the nuclear family. I just can't get on board with that."
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said that he spoke with Coonrod after the incident, and that the pitcher would engage in conversations with others about issues of racial justice. Later that season, Coonrod recorded his first major league save, pitching a scoreless ninth inning in a 4–1 win over the Diamondbacks. In his final appearance of the season, on September 25, 2020, Coonrod gave up a walk-off home run to Trent Grisham of the San Diego Padres, causing the Giants to lose 6–5. The following day, Coonrod was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right shoulder strain, keeping him out for the remainder of the season. In 2020, Coonrod posted a 0–2 record and a 9.82 ERA in 18 games and 14+2⁄3 innings.
### Philadelphia Phillies (2021–2022)
On January 9, 2021, the Philadelphia Phillies acquired Coonrod from the Giants in exchange for right-handed pitcher Carson Ragsdale. Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi clarified shortly afterwards that the trade was made for "clear and obvious baseball reasons" and was unrelated to Coonrod's comments about the Black Lives Matter movement. The Phillies, who were in the process of rebuilding their bullpen under new president Dave Dombrowski, made a point to acquire power pitchers like Coonrod and José Alvarado. While Coonrod's velocity made him a strong contender for a bullpen position, there were some concerns about his control. Going into the regular season, Coonrod was placed in competition for a bullpen position with left-handed reliever JoJo Romero. Although their statistics were nearly identical throughout spring training, manager Joe Girardi chose Coonrod over Romero because the former threw more strikes. Romero was optioned to the minor leagues on March 28, giving Coonrod a place on the Phillies roster.
Coonrod pitched two scoreless innings in his Phillies debut, a 5–3 win against the New York Mets on April 6, 2021. On April 28, after Cardinals reliever Génesis Cabrera struck both Bryce Harper and Didi Gregorius with pitches, Coonrod began to scream at the Cardinals' dugout and had to be escorted off the field by catcher Andrew Knapp. He said later, "It's just like, once you hit somebody in the face, you kind of need to make sure you don't hit the next guy." On April 30, Coonrod pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his first save with the Phillies in a 2–1 win over the Mets. An elbow injury sent Coonrod to the injured list on June 25; a month later, he blamed the injury on a new slider that he had been trying out, inspired by Trevor Bauer. Coonrod was activated off of the injured list on August 25.
On April 14, 2022, Coonrod was placed on the 60-day injured list with a shoulder strain. He was activated on August 15. Coonrod made 12 appearances for Philadelphia in 2022, struggling to a 7.82 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 12.2 innings pitched.
On January 30, 2023, Coonrod was designated for assignment by the Phillies after the signing of Josh Harrison was made official.
### New York Mets
On February 6, 2023, Coonrod was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets. On April 6, Coonrod was placed on the 60-day injured list with a high-grade lat strain. After pitching 9+1⁄3 rehab innings for the Single–A St. Lucie Mets and Triple–A Syracuse Mets, Coonrod was activated from the injured list on August 14.
## Pitcher profile
Although he has been primarily used as a reliever in his major league career, Coonrod's experience as a starting pitcher gives him an expanded pitch repertoire. In 2020, he used five different pitches, with his primary two being a sinker that averaged 97.9 mph (157.6 km/h) and a four-seam fastball that averaged 98.7 mph (158.8 km/h). He ranked fifth among all pitchers in four-seam fastball velocity for the season, and has been capable of pitching up to 101 mph (163 km/h). Coonrod fills out the rest of his pitching repertoire with an 89 mph (143 km/h) changeup, an 89 mph (143 km/h) slider, and an 82 mph (132 km/h) curveball.
Despite praise for Coonrod's speed, his coaches have noted that difficulty maintaining control and focus on the mound have limited him. Kapler said that the key to turning Coonrod into an elite reliever is "getting in the zone and staying in the zone", rather than the quality of his pitches. After being traded to the Phillies, Coonrod saw an increase in his pitch control, which he attributed to the relatively higher humidity in Philadelphia and in the new spring training location of Clearwater, Florida. He told reporters that the humid weather in those places "helps me with what I throw, the sink and the changeup". Coonrod also said that his Phillies teammate Brandon Kintzler helped him improve his pitching technique going into the 2021 season, particularly with regards to his sinker.
## Personal life
Coonrod married his girlfriend Kara Kimball on November 24, 2017, in Fenton, Missouri. He continues to lift weights and practice pitching during the offseason by using the gymnasium at St. John's Elementary School in Carrollton. |
1,844,138 | Spice Up Your Life | 1,173,679,095 | 1997 single by Spice Girls | [
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| "Spice Up Your Life" is a song by British girl group the Spice Girls from their second studio album, Spiceworld (1997). The song was co-written by the group with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard, at the same time as the group was shooting scenes for their 1997 film Spice World, while production was handled by the latter two. It is a dance-pop song, with influences of Latin rhythms such as salsa and samba. The song's theme reflects the group desire to "write a song for the world" while the lyrics has been labeled as dance oriented with a self-promoting message.
Released as the album's lead single in October 1997, it received an extensive worldwide promotional campaign that included a series of appearances on television programmes and presentations at award shows. The song received mixed reviews from critics, obtaining divisive opinions for its production and lyrical content. Despite the lukewarm critical reception, the song was a commercial success. It debuted atop the UK Singles Chart, becoming the group's fifth consecutive number one in the United Kingdom and has since been certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It performed similarly on the music charts in the rest of Europe and Oceania, while in the United States, the song did not perform as well as their previous releases, peaking at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.
An accompanying music video, directed by Marcus Nispel, features the group in a futuristic setting, inspired by the 1982 film Blade Runner, controlling every aspect of society in a dark post apocalyptic cityscape. The song has been regularly included on the setlists in most of the group's concerts and presentations, most notably their performance at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London. It was also used in the 2023 film Barbie.
## Background
In May 1997, the Spice Girls went on a promotional visit to the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France, where they announced their then-upcoming movie Spice World (1997). The group began shooting scenes for the movie in June. Meanwhile, Virgin Records started the first marketing meetings for the promotional campaign for their second album Spiceworld, which was set to be released in November 1997. No song had been written for the album at this point, so the Spice Girls had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were shooting the movie. Between takes and at the end of each filming day, the group usually went straight into a mobile recording studio set up in a Winnebago, which followed them between film sets. Their schedule was physically arduous with logistical difficulties, as Melanie Brown commented in her autobiography: "doing the two full-time jobs at the same time took its toll and within a couple on weeks, exhaustion set in".
For the album, the Spice Girls worked with the same songwriting teams and producers from their debut studio album, Spice (1996). But during the recording of the Spiceworld tracks, the group was so busy with the filming schedule that the quality of their musical contributions became more erratic and piecemeal. Andy Watkins, of the production duo Absolute, co-writers of "Who Do You Think You Are" remembered: "We'd sit there literally all day long and quite often we wouldn't even get them at all." Eliot Kennedy, who co-wrote "Say You'll Be There" with the group, worked on a couple of backing tracks for Spiceworld, but decided not to get involved in the album after hearing from the other teams about the complications of the recording schedule.
## Writing and recording
In May 1997, the Spice Girls did a promotional trip to North America in support of their second single "Say You'll Be There", which included a performance on the Mexican television show Siempre en Domingo in Acapulco. According to Emma Bunton, their visit to Mexico was the inspiration behind the song's "Latin feel". The song was written by the Spice Girls with the songwriting team Richard "Biff" Stannard and Matt Rowe. In an interview with Music Week, Stannard commented about their initial ideas for the song: "We were talking about Bollywood films, the colours and how the Spice Girls could present themselves. It was a matter of how do we get everything in to one song?" Rowe recalled about the chaotic experience of the recording process of "Spice Up Your Life":
> It had been booked in, that they were coming in to record their next single, and write it, with us. It was at Whitfield Street Studios and there was going to be an MTV crew there filming them as they did this, which there was. Well, how on earth can you possibly do this? You can't write and record a song in half-an-hour with a film crew watching.
The session was interrupted constantly, with label executives entering the building, phoning the group, or throwing things through the window. Eventually, when the producers ordered the filming crew to leave the room, the group managed to finish the song. The vocal recording was completed the same day, and instead of taking turns, the five members went inside the isolation booth and recorded the chorus together. Brown commented that for this reason the final mix sounds "spontaneous and full of energy".
### "Spice Invaders"
"Spice Up Your Life" was already finished and ready to be released, but nothing was recorded for the B-side; every other song available had been used in Spice and the group needed a new track for their next single. A session with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins—the songwriters and production duo known as Absolute—was booked. Because of the limited time and the scarce creative inspiration during the filming of Spice World, Virgin told Absolute to make anything they liked. The duo created "Spice Invaders" by placing four microphones and telling the group to talk about anything they wanted. The conversation was recorded and as Wilson later described it, a "hideous bubblegum" backing track was added to the recorded session. Watkins and mix engineer Jeremy Wheatley, finished the track during the night. It received mixed opinions from music critics. El Hunt of NME placed it at number eight on his list of "The 10 Best Spice Girls Songs", characterizing it as "an absolute train wreck of a pop song", he called it an "under-appreciated gem" and praised Brown's delivery. The Evening Standard's Jessie Thompson commented that the song "represents everything they were loved for". On the contrary, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian placed "Spice Invaders" at the bottom of his 2018 ranking of the Spice Girls' whole catalog, describing it as "the sound of a group who could, by this point, get away with anything".
## Composition and lyrics
Musically, "Spice Up Your Life" is an uptempo dance-pop song, with influences of Latin rhythms such as salsa and samba. Critics noted that the song incorporates an infectious melody and "haunting" harmonies, mixed with a piano hook and a "relentless" drum beat, that creates a carnival atmosphere. It is written in the key of F minor, with a time signature set on common time, and moves at a fast tempo of 126 beats per minute. The song is constructed in a verse-pre-chorus-chorus form, opening with an introduction, which consists on the repeated use of the word "la". The first verse, pre-chorus and chorus follows, using a simple chord progression of Fm–C7. The same pattern occurs leading to the second chorus. At the end of the song, a spoken bridge precedes the third chorus, and then closes by repeating the chorus for a fourth time.
Lyrically, "Spice Up Your Life" have been described as an "international rally cry" by Music Week, aimed at a global audience. Melanie C commented about the inspiration behind the song's theme: "We always wanted to do a carnival tune and write a song for the world". Some critics considered the song to be an example of branding or "sloganeering", while the lyrical content has been labeled as dance oriented ("Slam it to the left / If you’re having a good time / Shake it to the right / If you know that you feel fine"), with a self-promoting message ("Every boy and girl / Spice up your life"). The song includes mentions of different dance styles during the bridge ("Flamenco / Lambada / But hip-hop is harder / We moonwalk the foxtrot / Then polka the salsa / Shake Shake Shake haka"), and lyrics in Japanese, Spanish and German at the end of each chorus ("Hai, si, ja"). The lines "Yellow man in Timbuktu / Colour for both me and you" during the second verse have received criticism for its racist connotation. El Hunt from NME called it "regrettable", while The Irish Times and The Guardian referred to them as "woeful lyrics".
## Release and promotion
The promotional campaign for the release of "Spice Up Your Life" began the last week of September 1997, when the song started to receive airplay across Europe. On 6 October, the Spice Girls officially unveiled all the tracks from Spiceworld in a press conference in Granada, Spain. The same week, they appeared on the British television programmes Talking Telephone Numbers, GMTV, and The Big Breakfast. The single was originally going to be released in the United Kingdom on 6 October 1997, but the date was delayed for a week in an attempt to displace Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997"—a tribute to Princess Diana, who had died two months before—from the top position.
"Spice Up Your Life" was commercially released in the UK on 13 October 1997, in two single versions. The first one, released in cassette and CD maxi single format, included two radio mixes, one from record producer Mark "Spike" Stent, and another from American DJ David Morales, an instrumental version of the song, and the B-side "Spice Invaders". The second version, released in a digipak, contained three tracks: the Stent radio mix, a club mix by David Morales, and a remix by house production team Murk. In the United States, Virgin Records America sent the song to radios on 1 October and the single to record stores on 21 October. The American edition, released in both cassette and CD maxi single format, featured the same track listing as the first UK version.
On 12–13 October 1997, the group performed songs from Spiceworld including "Spice Up Your Life" in a two-night concert in Turkey, as part of a sponsorship deal organized by Pepsi. Following the concerts, the Spice Girls made a couple of weeks of promotion in Singapore, Thailand, India, Hong Kong and Japan, and attended the Bambi Awards in Germany. In November, they appeared at a charity event in South Africa, taped a special concert for Antena 3 in Spain, and did promotion in Italy, France, the Netherlands, and the UK. In December they traveled to Brazil for a press conference, and then to the US to made televised appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, while UPN released a one-hour special dedicated to the group titled Too Much Is Never Enough. During January 1998, while promoting the album and the release of their movie Spice World, the group appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and The Oprah Winfrey Show, and were featured on the cover of Vogue magazine.
## Critical reception
"Spice Up Your Life" received mixed reviews from music critics, with the Latin-inspired production garnering divisive opinions. Andy Gill of The Independent called it a "pseudo-salsa [...] pop pastiche", while the staff of the Miami Herald considered it "a condescending dud". In a similar review, David Browne of Entertainment Weekly described it as a "ha-cha-cha slice of tropical-boat-cruise frivolity". George Varga of The San Diego Union-Tribune believed that the song "does for Latin music what Hanson has done for death metal". Conversely, Newsday's Scott Schinder was pleased with the track, referring to it as a "silly but irresistible uplift". The Sun-Sentinel's Sean Picolli described it as a "salsa-lite hootenanny". The staff of Smash Hits gave it a positive review, calling it a "maraca-shaking Latino aceness" that features a "totally fab chorus". Charlie Porter of The Times called it "fantastic" but described it as "a chorus in search of a good verse". Critic Ian Watson from the Melody Maker was less enthusiastic, commenting that the song's production and instrumentation have a "black magic feel" that evokes depictions of the Mardi Gras and the Day of the Dead, he added that the introduction "sounds almost demonic" and that it resembles the "chant of a dance that goes on for all eternity". The song drew comparisons to the work of other artists. The staff of the Contra Costa Times noticed that the song have shades of Gloria Estefan. The Daily Record went even further, considering that it was a rehash of Estefan's '80s music, labeling it a "throwaway Latinstyle song". Melissa Ruggieri of the Richmond Times-Dispatch believed that the song was a copy of Miami Sound Machine's "Conga", and added that it had a "zingy mariachi-flavored rhythm and infectious chorus chant", while Ann Powers of The New York Times said that it "skates over Latin hip hop from Lisa Lisa to the Lambada". The Dallas Morning News noted influences of ABBA, Bananarama and Bow Wow Wow in the song, and added that it "doesn't quite reach the pop heights of 'Wannabe'". Jim Sullivan of The Boston Globe concurred about the ABBA reference, while describing the song as an "audio Benetton ad".
Some reviewers were critical of the lyrical content. NME's Dele Fadele called "Spice Up Your Life" "the poppermost pop single ever invented", and remarked about its "nonsense lyrics" saying that it represented "the Spice Girls' message of peace to the world". Kevin Courtney of The Irish Times commented that the song "is peppered with the usual 'girl powaaah' cliches", and added that it has "absolutely woeful lyrics". Writing for the Associated Press, David Bauder dismissed it as a song "written by a focus group who told them to add a Latin flavor". The Telegram & Gazette's Craig S. Semon enjoyed the song's melody and harmonies but criticised the lyrical content, commenting that the Spice Girls were "concerned more with shaking hips than moving social consciousness". Larry Flick of Billboard magazine was mixed on the track. Although he described it as "insanely catchy and devilishly fun", he did not considered it a real song, calling it "just a festive cha-cha groove and a lyrical command to add some 'spice' to your life by way of countless dance moves". David Wild of Rolling Stone magazine's had a similar opinion, he called the song "a global call to arms and legs with a distinct carnivallike flavor and a message of Up With Spice People positivity". The Hartford Courant's music critic Roger Catlin called the lyrics during the verses "goofy", and described "Spice Up Your Life" as a combination of "savvy Latin rhythms and a self-promoting lyric of dizzy Esperanto". Chicago Sun-Times critic Jim DeRogatis was unimpressed with the lyrics, yet when comparing it to Aqua's "Barbie Girl", he found that its "unifying sentiment is more admirable".
Retrospective reviews have been generally positive. AllMusic's critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, commented that the song added Latin rhythms that "consolidates and expands the group's style". On Billboard's 2017 list of the "100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time" it ranked at number 62. On behalf of the publication, Joe Lynch commended the song's "unquenchable energy" and lauded its "joyous samba rhythms and irresistible [...] refrain". Anne T. Donahue of Vulture.com felt that "it kept its energy up to the end and left us wanting more". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian believed that it has a "certain raw energy that powers it along". The Evening Standard reviewer Luke Abrahams described "Spice Up Your Life" as an "instant, wild, chaotic and nonsensical classic", he believed that it "captured the sheer might, power and energy" of the Spice Girls. Will Stroude of Attitude named it the best of the group's single releases, characterizing it as an "unapologetically brash banger which perfectly encapsulates the Spice Girls' bolshy philosphy [sic]". On a 2018 ranking of the group's songs, NME writer El Hunt praised the song for its "haunting harmonies and chaotically plunking piano hooks", and called the "nonsensical bridge" the best part of the song.
## Commercial performance
Upon its release as a single, "Spice Up Your Life" debuted on 19 October 1997 atop the UK Singles Chart, with 321,000 copies sold in its first week. This made the Spice Girls the first act to reach number one with their first five singles, and the first to debut at the top of the chart four times in a row. The song spent one week at number one, 12 weeks in the top 40, and 15 weeks in the top 75, ending at the 10th position on the 1997 year-end chart. It was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales and streams of 1,200,000 units in December 2022. As of October 2017, it had sold 887,000 copies and had been streamed 4.5 million times in the UK.
"Spice Up Your Life" was commercially successful in the rest of Europe. It reached number three on the Eurochart Hot 100, topping the charts in Hungary, Iceland and Romania, while peaking inside the top five in Belgium (both the Flemish and Walloon charts), Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, and inside the top 15 in Austria and Germany. The song was also a radio hit across the continent, reaching the top position of the European Radio Top 50 for three weeks, topping the airplay charts in the Benelux region, Italy and Scandinavia, and peaking inside the top five in the German-speaking countries, Hungary, Spain, and the UK. The song debuted on the Official New Zealand Music Chart at number two on 26 October 1997, where it stayed for four consecutive weeks. It remained on the chart for 15 weeks in total, and was certified platinum by the Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) for sales of 10,000 units in October 1997. "Spice Up Your Life" debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 17 on 26 October 1997, peaking two weeks later at number eight, and remaining on the chart for 20 weeks. It was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for selling 70,000 units in 1997.
"Spice Up Your Life" had moderated success in North America. On 27 October 1997, the song debuted on the Canadian RPM singles chart at number 46, later reaching a peak position of number 17 in its fifth week. It fared better on the Canadian Singles Chart, where it peaked at number two. In the US, "Spice Up Your Life" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 32 on 8 November 1997, at the time it was the group's lowest debut in the country. The song received little support from radio programmers, peaking at number 72 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, but it did better at retail, reaching number 11 on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart, peaking at number 18 on the Hot 100 in its fourth week. The song reached number four on the Hot Dance Club Play chart, but only had moderate success on other formats, reaching number 22 on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart, number 27 on the Rhythmic Top 40, and number 37 on the Mainstream Top 40. It received a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 500,000 copies on 13 January 1998. New remixes by American house musician Ralphi Rosario released during the group's 2007–08 The Return of the Spice Girls Tour, reached number 17 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart in July 2008.
## Music video
The music video for "Spice Up Your Life" was directed on 6 September 1997 by Marcus Nispel in a two-day shoot located in New York City. It was edited at Red Car Inc in Los Angeles, and included visual effects by Craig Price. The video features the group in a futuristic setting, inspired by the 1982 film Blade Runner, controlling every aspect of society in a dark post apocalyptic cityscape. Nispel came up with the concept based on a sketch that was faxed to him signed "Ginger Spice". He recalls: "I looked at what Disney did to Times Square in NYC and tried to imagine how the Spice Girls would transform it, as their career seemed to have no limits—at the time." The group was not consulted about the concept. According to Brown's autobiography, they wanted a carnival party theme, but were too tired to fight about it with the label, and ended up with a concept linked to the theme of world domination. Brown commented: "It wasn't right. I don't think any of us liked it much, even though we enjoyed making it. I still can't understand what's going on in it half the time." The music video and a half-hour special with behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot, exclusively premiered on MTV in September 1997.
The video shows the Spice Girls in a spaceship going through a dark rainy city, looking at themselves on various billboards, while shoots of rooms, bars and a prison with televisions plays the videos for "Say You'll Be There" and "Wannabe", and also broadcast live footage of the group inside the spaceship. The girls then zoom aimlessly around the city, between buildings, on flying surfboards. The scenes are interspersed with shoots of each group member in different activities, such as Brown doing turntablism with bright flashing lights and a large rotating fan, Beckham posing on top of a platform while photographers takes pictures of her, Bunton in a room surrounded with neon-blue balloons, Melanie C winning a boxing match and Halliwell giving a speech at a press conference to a crowd of journalists. The video won the award for Best Video at the 1998 Edison Music Awards, and was nominated for British Video of the Year at the 1998 Brit Awards, and for Best Special Effects at the 1997 Music Video Production Association (MVPA) Awards.
On 13 October 2022, the Spice Girls released a new, alternative, version of the "Spice Up Your Life" video, using previously unused visual from the original video shoot.
## Live performances
"Spice Up Your Life" had its television premiere in the UK on 27 September 1997, on the BBC's The National Lottery Live programme, which attracted more than nine million viewers. The song was subsequently performed many times on television, including Top of the Pops, An Audience with..., All That, Hit Machine, and MuchMusic's Intimate and Interactive. The Spice Girls have performed the song in several award ceremonies throughout 1997, including the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, the MTV Europe Music Awards, the Premios Amigo, the Premios Ondas the Billboard Music Awards, and the Channel V Music Awards. In October 1997, the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" as the eleventh song of their first live concert at the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. The performance was broadcast on Showtime in a pay-per-view concert special titled Spice Girls in Concert: Wild!, and was later included in the VHS and DVD release Girl Power! Live in Istanbul.
The group performed the song in November 1997, as part of their setlist for the Two Nations in Concert charity event held in Johannesburg, South Africa, presented by the Nations Trust foundation. The song was also used during the final segment of their 1997 film, Spice World. In the scene, the group performed it at London's Royal Albert Hall, surrounded by the media and thousands of fans, while the rest of the supporting cast can be seen dancing and singing during the show. At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the end of the show as part of their setlist for winning the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. The Spice Girls performed the song on 12 August 2012 at the Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London in a medley with "Wannabe". They arrived onstage on glittering London cabs decorated with their individual trademark emblems. During the event, they ascended onto the roofs of the cabs and proceeded to race around the stadium whilst singing and dancing.
The Spice Girls have performed the song on their four tours, the Spiceworld Tour, the Christmas in Spiceworld Tour, the Return of the Spice Girls Tour, and the Spice World – 2019 Tour. For the Spiceworld Tour, during their performance of "Spice Up Your Life", the group dressed in re-imagined outfits of the group's signature look, designed by British stylist Kenny Ho. The performance at the tour's final concert can be found on the video: Spice Girls Live at Wembley Stadium, filmed in London, on 20 September 1998, and released on VHS around two months later. In the Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–2008), the group performed "Spice Up Your Life" as the opening song of the show. It started with the screens above the stage displaying an introductory film, which featured five little girls—Spice Girls' look-alikes—opening a magic box, dancing and talking about their wish to be world-famous. Old headlines about them flash up—the last one announcing the end of the group. Then the group appeared standing motionless in five ascending platforms, dressed in tight bronze and copper coloured outfits made by Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli. During the encore, the group closed the show performing a remix version of the song, each dressed in a glittery outfit of a different colour. At the end, a cannon exploded showering the stage with pieces of paper strips, while flags from different countries flashed across the backdrop screens. As they left the stage, the words "Mission accomplished" appeared on the screens. For the Spice World – 2019 Tour, the group performed it as the opening song of the show. Each member dressed in updated versions of their 90s looks, designed by Gabriella Slade, including Brown in a leopard print catsuit, and a floor-length gown adaptation of Halliwell's 1997 Union Jack dress.
## Formats and track listings
- UK/European/Taiwanese CD1, Italian/Japanese/South African/Thai/US CD
1. "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Mix) – 2:53
2. "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Radio Mix) – 2:48
3. "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Instrumental) – 2:53
4. "Spice Invaders" – 3:38
- UK/European/Taiwanese CD2, Australian/Brazilian CD
1. "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Mix) – 2:53
2. "Spice Up Your Life" (Murk Cuba Libre Mix) – 8:05
3. "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Carnival Club Mix) – 11:30
- European 2-track/French CD
1. "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Mix) – 2:53
2. "Spice Invaders" – 3:38
- Digital EP 1
1. "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Radio Mix) – 2:50
2. "Spice Up Your Life" (Murk Spider Beats) – 3:42
3. "Spice Up Your Life" (Murk Cuba Libre Mix) – 8:06
4. "Spice Up Your Life" (Murk Sugar Cane Dub) – 8:40
5. "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Drums & Dub Mix) – 11:09
- Digital EP 2
1. "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Mix) – 2:55
2. "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Carnival Club Mix) – 11:30
3. "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Beats) – 5:53
4. "Spice Invaders" – 3:38
5. "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Instrumental) – 2:54
- UK/Australian/US Cassette (Side 2 is the same as Side 1)
1. A1: "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Mix) – 2:53
2. A2: "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Radio Mix) – 2:48
3. A3: "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Instrumental) – 2:53
4. A4: "Spice Invaders" – 3:38
- UK 12"
1. A1: "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Carnival Club Mix) – 11:30
2. B1: "Spice Up Your Life" (Murk Cuba Libre Mix) – 8:05
3. B2: "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Beats) – 5:51
4. C1: "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Drums & Dub Mix) – 11:07
5. D1: "Spice Up Your Life" (Murk Sugar Cane Dub) – 8:38
6. D2: "Spice Up Your Life" (Murk Spider Beats) – 3:41
- US 12"
1. A1: "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Carnival Club Mix) – 11:30
2. A2: "Spice Up Your Life" (Murk Cuba Libre Mix) – 8:05
3. B1: "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Mix) – 2:53
4. B2: "Spice Up Your Life" (Stent Radio Instrumental) – 2:53
5. B3: "Spice Up Your Life" (Morales Radio Mix) – 2:48
- US Promotional CD-R (Remixed By Ralphi Rosario)
1. "Spice Up Your Life" (Vocal Mix) – 9:08
2. "Spice Up Your Life" (Dub) – 8:36
3. "Spice Up Your Life" (Radio Edit) – 3:38
## Credits and personnel
Credits of "Spice Up Your Life" adapted from the booklet of Spiceworld:
- Spice Girls – lyrics, vocals
- Matt Rowe – lyrics, producer, keyboards and programming
- Richard Stannard – lyrics, producer
- Adrian Bushby – recording engineer
- Mark "Spike" Stent – audio mixing
- Paul "P. Dub" Walton – assistant
- Pete Davis – additional programming
- Jake Davies – additional engineering
Credits of the b-side and the remixes adapted from the liner notes of the "Spice Up Your Life" CD singles UK CD1, UK CD2, UK 12" single and US promotional CD-R:
"Spice Invaders"
- Spice Girls – lyrics, vocals
- Absolute – lyrics, production
- Jeremy Wheatley – audio mixing
"Murk Cuba Libre Mix", "Sugar Cane Dub" and "Spider Beats"
- Murk – remixing
- Cesar Soobe – recording engineer
- Leo Herrera – assistant
- Ed Calle – flute
- Arana – percussion
- Paquito Hechavarría – piano
- Lester Mendez – programming
- Oscar Gaeton – additional production
- Ralph Falcon – additional production
"Stent Radio Mix" and "Radio Instrumental"
- Mark "Spike" Stent – audio mixing
"Morales Radio Mix", "Carnival Club Mix", "Beats" and "Drums and Dub Mix"
- David Morales – producer, remixing
- Dave 'EQ3' Sussman – recording engineer
- Bashiri Johnson – percussion
- Joey Moskowitz – keyboards programming
- Alec Shantzis – keyboards programming
"Vocal Mix", "Dub" and "Radio Edit"
- Ralphi Rosario – programming, remixing
- Craig J. Snider – programming, remixing
- Mark B. Christensen – mastering
- Peter Nelson – executive producer
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## Release history |
12,001,013 | Here Come the Nice | 1,162,322,551 | null | [
"1967 singles",
"1967 songs",
"Immediate Records singles",
"Psychedelic pop songs",
"Small Faces songs",
"Songs about drugs",
"Songs written by Ronnie Lane",
"Songs written by Steve Marriott"
]
| "Here Come the Nice" is a song by English rock band Small Faces. Written by guitarist Steve Marriott and bass guitarist Ronnie Lane, it was released as a single on 2 June 1967, through Immediate Records. The song, which was the band's debut on Immediate, was their first promoted release of 1967, following feuds with Decca Records. It marked a distinct turning point for Small Faces' career, being their first single to deliberately venture into psychedelia, though they had previously done that on a few album tracks for Decca. The song's subject regarding a drug dealer somehow bypassed the BBC censors, who did not ban it, which resulted in the song managing to chart at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart during the summer of 1967. The song received mostly good reviews from music critics, with many positively noting the change of genres.
The song is also known for its distinct outro, which was done through electro-mechanical studio processes, similar to how the band would experiment with flanging on their follow-up single "Itchycoo Park", which was released shortly after. Nonetheless, "Here Come the Nice" became one of Small Faces' best known recordings and, although it failed to chart within the top 10 in the United Kingdom, the song ultimately led the band to continue producing psychedelic songs for the rest of their career. Despite not charting on either the Billboard Hot 100 or the Cashbox Top 100, the song was eventually included on the United States-only album There Are But Four Small Faces, released approximately ten months afterward, and was also included on the soundtrack of Peter Whitehead's Tonite Let's All Make Love in London in 1968.
## Background and development
By 1967, popular musical genres had started changing, and Small Faces' initially strong mod following had begun decreasing as a result. Psychedelic drugs had become popular among both various subcultures and bands. Small Faces had by now been introduced to LSD, during a party at their residence on 11 May 1966, the same day as the release of their debut studio album Small Faces. On that day, the Beatles manager Brian Epstein, a regular visitor to the band, along with The Moody Blues' drummer Graeme Edge visited Small Faces at their residence, located at 22 Westmoreland Terrace in Pimlico, following a meeting with Edge at Decca Studios in West Hampstead.
At the residence, Epstein passed orange slices on a plate around to the various band members, who all accepted them, with the exception of drummer Kenney Jones. Keyboardist Ian McLagan recalled that the band's reaction to the drug varied; he states that while Lane overlooked the river River Thames, Marriott planned on going to Manchester to visit his girlfriend. However, Marriott apparently had a bad trip under the drug and eventually Small Faces, along with Mick O'Sullivan, took Marriott to Euston railway station where he went on a train to Manchester. Although they had a negative first impression of the drug, it became an important factor for the band's music.
Small Faces had begun composing new music, including some psychedelic tracks. These included "That Man", "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow", "(Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me?", "Green Circles" and "My Way of Giving". However, during the composing time, they began to grow bitter with their record label Decca Records along with Manager Don Arden, who the band felt cheated them. The reason was because although he had given them a salary of £20 a week, along with accounts at Carnaby Street clothing stores, Small Faces failed to see income from performances or royalties from any of their singles. The two final straws came when their parents confronted Arden, to which he responded that the Small Faces were using drugs, and when the band heard "My Mind's Eye" on the radio, which was a demo they would sent in to Arden, not hoping to release it.
However, hope came when Andrew Loog Oldham's label Immediate Records decided to buy Small Faces' contract for £25 000 from Decca, which was announced on 11 February 1967 in a New Musical Express article. With Immediate, Small Faces were granted unlimited studio time and finally got the royalties they needed. Small Faces still owed Decca one more song, which eventually was released with "I Can't Make It", a song that they made no attempt in promoting; it stalled at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart.
## Composition and recording
The title "Here Come the Nice" comes from the comedian Lord Buckley monologue, "Here Comes Da Nazz". Marriott had first heard the phrase in 1965 when he, original keyboardist Jimmy Winston and Winston's girlfriend spent time together at her apartment. According to McLagan, Marriott had an extremely Catholic taste of music, deriving inspiration from several artists and sources, and he also says that Buckley "rapped" it. He further states that "Nazz" was slang for Jesus. The song features a line which alludes to drug use; "He makes me feel like no-one else could, He knows what I want, He's got what I need, He's always there if I need some speed." The phrase "speed" is a synonym for the central nervous system stimulant drug Amphetamine. However, in a 2014 interview with Uncut, McLagan stated that it refers to Methadrine, an alternate form of Methamphetamine, which McLagan said was one of "all kinds of chemicals" they were using, with him wanting to express about what drugs were being used by him at the time. The song also references a dealer in the opening verse, which McLagan admitted was written as a nod towards them.
Although it was called a psychedelic pop song by AllMusic critic Lindsay Planer, Hewitt and Hellier identified it as a "swaggering soul-pop" record that contains trademarks of their earlier music. Bruce Eder of AllMusic attributes this to the increased amount of studio time that they had received after signing Immediate, which eventually "loosened" their sound. For the song, McLagan had purchased a Hammond M102 specifically to record it, drawing inspiration from Booker T. Jones' playing on Booker T. & the M.G.'s 1962 single "Green Onions". Small Faces recorded the song during sporadic sessions at Olympic Studios between 8 and 12 May 1967, with Eddie Kramer and Glyn Johns assisting as studio engineers. Marriott and Lane handled production of the song.
"Here Comes the Nice" has also been noted for its innovative ending – instead of the customary fade out, it uses a combination of studio effects to simulate the inevitable "come-down" from the speed "high". The effect was created by editing two elements together – the first element was created by using the variable speed control on the master tape recorder to slow down the playback of the song's final chord, which slides down rapidly in pitch before an abrupt cut to the second element, a sequence of crashing, chaotic sounds created by striking and strumming on resonating piano strings. The mono and stereo mixes of the song differ slightly in the timing of the effect, with the 'pitch drop' effect coming in slightly earlier on the mono mix than in the stereo mix. Jones attributes this to "their four arses sitting down together on the keys of an old upright".
## Release and commercial performance
Although "Here Come the Nice" was first announced as a single through New Musical Express and Melody Maker in their 27 May 1967 issues, "Green Circles" was initially announced by Melody Maker to most likely become the band's debut Immediate single, scheduled to eventually be released later that same month. This was a contrast from initial plans, when either "Something I Want to Tell You" or "(Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me?" were planned to become their debut singles on Immediate. However, when May 1967 eventually came, NME listed "Green Circles" as the B-side of "Here Come the Nice", while Melody Maker correctly listed "Talk to You" as the B-side. On 26 May of that year, "Patterns", backed by "E Too D", was released by Decca Records. The release was only conceived by Decca in order to capitalize on Small Faces' success, along with deliberately attempting to hinder the band's chart success with "Here Come the Nice". The song, comparable to the music they made in 1966, was quickly publicly denounced by Small Faces; similarly to "I Can't Make It", they did not promote it. "Here Come the Nice" was eventually released as a single on 2 June 1967; this time "Green Circles" was replaced by "Talk to You". It was the Small Faces' first single to be released through Immediate Records, which most likely made it susceptible of release; under the stricter Arden, it is likely that the track would not have been issued as a single since it contained subtle drug references, alluding to the incident with their parents; however Andrew Loog Oldham at Immediate had no problems with the song's release. The song features several references to the band's dealer, through lyrics such as "He's got what I need, he's always there if I need some speed". The release of "Here Come the Nice" came to be a tense moment for Small Faces, as the BBC had banned "I Can't Make It" for unknown reasons, which led to a sense of uncertainty regarding the single. However, the single managed to bypass the censors, something that Hewitt and Hellier attributed to guilt, while Jones believed it slipped through Mary Whitehouse.
In doing this, "Here Come the Nice" managed to reach the UK Singles Chart, entering on 14 June 1967 at a position of 37; it peaked at number 12 on 11 July. The song spent nine weeks on the chart, six of which it appeared in the top 20. It did better in other pop magazines, including Melody Maker, where it reached number 8, Disc & Music Echo where it reached number 10, which it also did in New Musical Express. In Europe, the single further reached number 24 on the West German Media Control chart and number 28 on the Dutch Top 40 during that same summer. Like all the band's singles prior to "Itchycoo Park" (1967), it did not chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 nor the Cashbox Top 100, although Billboard had predicted for the song to reach the Hot 100. The United States issue of the single was delayed because of issues with distribution along with the American master tape being an alternate take. The single would eventually be released through United Artists Records a month later in July 1967.
"Here Come the Nice" was not included on any of Small Faces' three British studio albums, although the B-side "Talk to You" was released on their second album (also titled Small Faces) about two weeks after the single was released. In the US however, following the huge chart success of "Itchycoo Park", previous singles released in the United Kingdom and some tracks from the album were issued on the North American exclusive album There Are But Four Small Faces on 17 March 1968. In the UK, the song first appeared on an LP when it was included on the soundtrack of Tonite Lets All Make Love in London on 18 July 1968. The film was made by Peter Whitehead, who Small Faces had previously worked with when making promotional films for their 1967 songs "Just Passing", "Itchycoo Park" and their 1968 song "Lazy Sunday". Nonetheless, "Here Come the Nice" became a staple on most compilation albums released by Small Faces, and was included as the opening track of the double album The Autumn Stone in 1969. The song was later utilized as the title track of a Small Faces box set that details their material recorded between 1967 and 1969.
## Critical reception
The song was met with mostly positive feedback from music critics, who liked the direction the band took. In the magazine's 3 June 1967 issue, New Musical Express critic Derek Johnson stated that unlike previous singles, it is more subdued with a good melody along with great harmonies, noting the blues influenced sound, while also liking the ending to the song. Chris Hayes from Melody Maker said that the song had a great chance of reaching the top 10, noting McLagan's organ, while simultaneously noticing the band members have retained their personalities, despite a shift in genres. When reviewing singles for Disc & Music Echo, fellow musician Lulu stated that while she initially thought it was a female singing, she liked the innovative ending and called the track a better song than "Patterns", but thought it sounded similar to a track from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). Peter Jones of Record Mirror thought the song has a "[l]ight-edged vocal line", which then builds up to "Marriott bluesily selling over the group backing". He did, however, find the song less commercial than Small Faces' previous records, but thought it has clever lyrics.During a blindfold test for Melody Maker, guitarist Jimi Hendrix heard the song. Despite initially thinking it had a female vocalist, he liked them and realized it was Small Faces. He stated that the drumming, beat and backing vocals were great and spoke of a "Mrs. Miller trick" regarding the tempo. Hendrix considered the song to be a step up from material recorded in 1966, and wanted to write with them, despite being unsure on whether or not the song would be a hit. However, not all reviews of the songs were positive. When Allan Clarke of the Hollies reviewed the single through Disc & Music Echo he negatively noted that Marriott seemed to write the same type of music all the time, and longed for a change in their music. He ended by stating that it was nothing remarkable.
Upon release in the US, the single also garnered primarily positive reviews. Billboard magazine had incorrectly predicted it to reach the Billboard Hot 100, noting the soul influence on the song. In Cash Box magazine it is described as "a tempting tune that could catch sales fire via wide-spread pop spinning". They note the "off-beat" opening chords of the song and states that it transforms into a "mid-tempo song" that features a great group backing while praising Marriott's vocal input. The review ends by stating that "Here Come The Nice" is an "English influence on an r&b song".
## Legacy
Retrospectively, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called "Here Come the Nice", along with "Itchycoo Park" and "Tin Soldier", the best singles the band recorded. Lindsay Planer considered the track a "druggy ditty", noting the influences of psychedelic and baroque pop on it. Rolling Stone critic David Fricke called the song a "Motown-like concision". Dave Swanson of Ultimate Classic Rock labelled it "a wonderful little song", noting the nods to drug dealers. He later added it on his list of the top ten songs by them at number seven, stating that it was a "psychedelic yet soulful" song. Small Faces themselves have stated mixed opinions regarding the song. While Jones stated that it was recorded and released during a time period in which their compositions became meaningful, he "bracketed" the song together with "Tin Soldier" due to them having similar arrangements. McLagan thought it was odd that the BBC did not ban it, while stating dismay with the ending, which he called "crap". "Here Come the Nice" might have inspired the naming of Keith Emerson's band the Nice. Upon signing with Immediate, Marriott suggested for the band the Little People to change their name to the Nice, which Oldham turned down, considering it rubbish. Marriott would occasionally also shout "Here Come the Nice" in the presence of Oldham, further adding to the speculation.
Nonetheless, "Here Come the Nice" marked a gap between Small Faces' earlier music, while not fitting in with either category. "Here Come the Nice" can be marked a starting point of Small Faces career as studio musicians, as both practical and unpractical sound effects would become common in almost all later songs Small Faces recorded, most notably "Itchycoo Park", which became one of the first pop records to feature a flanging effect applied to it. According to Jones, the great reception of the single also led Small Faces further into psychedelia, which also would become common on almost all later records. The subtle drug references have led to both the Rich Kids recording "Here Come the Nice" that features Midge Ure and Glen Matlock for the B-side of their single "Marching Men" in 1978, and Noel Gallagher performing the song live with Paul Weller.
## Personnel
Personnel according to the liner notes of Here Comes The Nice: Immediate Years box set 1967–69.
- Steve Marriott – lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
- Ronnie Lane – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Ian McLagan – piano, hammond organ, backing vocals
- Kenney Jones – drums, percussion
## Charts
## See also
- Small Faces discography
- Songs about illegal drug use |
63,772,137 | Waiting for a Train (Jimmie Rodgers song) | 1,157,132,612 | Song by Jimmie Rodgers | [
"1929 singles",
"1929 songs",
"1970 singles",
"Gene Autry songs",
"Jerry Lee Lewis songs",
"Jimmie Rodgers songs",
"Johnny Cash songs",
"Songs about trains",
"Songs written by Jimmie Rodgers",
"Victor Talking Machine Company singles"
]
| "Waiting for a Train" is a song written and recorded by Jimmie Rodgers and released by the Victor Talking Machine Company as the flipside of "Blue Yodel No. 4" in February 1929. The song originated in the nineteenth century in England. It later appeared in several song books, with variations on the lyrics throughout the years.
Rodgers, who was familiar with the tune, reworked it with producer Ralph Peer. Complementary to Rodgers' characteristic blues guitar, the recording session featured a jazz combo the singer found while visiting a bar in Atlanta, Georgia, just before the recording session.
It became one of Rodgers' most popular songs, as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 made the composition relatable to everyday life during the Great Depression. Rodgers became the best selling act of the year. Since then, "Waiting for a Train" has been recorded by several other artists. Boxcar Willie, who also sang I'll Fly Away, recorded this song.
## Origins
The origins of the song were traced by D. K. Wilgus, a music scholar and professor at UCLA, to a mid-nineteenth-century broadside ballad printed by Catnach Press in London, entitled "Standing on the Platform", with the subtitle "Waiting for the train". The song recounted the story of a man who met a woman at a railway station, who later falsely accused him of assaulting her. Modified versions of the ballad appeared in diverse songbooks of the era, such as Billy Newcomb's San Francisco Minstrels' Songster (1868), Billy Cottons Ethiopian Songster (1870), a sheet music published by S. Brainard Sons (1870) and Coming Through the Rye (1871). In the 1880s, a version called "Wild and Reckless Hobo" was published. In July 1909, the request of a reader for a complete version of a poem was published in the Railroad Man's Magazine. The man only knew the first two verses:
The request was not replied to, but the magazine printed the poem as "10,000 Miles From Home" five years later in 1914. Sociologists Guy Benton Johnson and Howard W. Odum collected verses of the song during their field research of black culture in the Southern United States in the late 1910s. The composition was also traditionally known as "Danville Girl". The earliest known recording of the song was made by George Reneau as "Reckless Hobo" on February 24, 1925, and released by Aeolian-Vocalion Records. In 1929, Prince Albert Hunt released it as "Waltz of the Roses" on Okeh Records.
## Recording
Jimmie Rodgers started singing his own version of the song around early 1925. He later received a suggestion to record it in 1928. Rodgers could only remember some of the words to the song. Since he was only able to play only a few chords on the guitar, he could not use the original tune. He and producer Ralph Peer rewrote the lyrics to the song to fit Rodgers' guitar skills. The composition was at the time in the public domain, but with the changes in the lyrics and music, Peer decided he would be able to copyright it under Rodgers' name. It was written in a six-line stanza. "Waiting for a Train" told the story of a man, now turned a hobo, as he struggled to return to his home. He is found by a brakeman while riding through Texas, and thrown off of the boxcar to continue on foot. The recording introduced Rodgers' trademark train whistle. Rodgers produced the sound on the back of his throat by mixing a yodel with a whistle.
Rodgers arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, a week before his recording session for the Victor Talking Machine Company was scheduled. While experiencing the night life of the city at a speakeasy, Rodgers encountered a jazz combo composed of Dean Bryan (guitar), C. L. Hutchinson (cornet), James Rikard (clarinet), George MacMillan (bass fiddle) and John Westbrook (steel guitar). Rodgers invited the group to join him in his upcoming session after trying out some songs with their backing. In addition to Rodgers' characteristic blues guitar sound, the participation of the combo known as the Westbrook Conservatory Entertainers on "Waiting for a Train" gave the song a "jazz-flavored" sound. After the train whistle, Rodgers sang the first verse and followed with his signature yodel. Then a dixieland-style breakdown composed of cornet and clarinet joined in, with a long clarinet solo featured. Rodgers followed with his guitar, accompanied by the steel guitar, both playing in the style of a twelve-bar blues. The October 22 session took place between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., and yielded the recordings of "Waiting for a Train" and "I'm Lonely and Blue". The recording of "Waiting for a Train" was done in four takes, with the final one being selected as the master.
It was paired with a song from a later session, "Blue Yodel No. 4", and was released on February 8, 1929, with the catalog number V-40014. It was copyrighted on March 23. On the record pressing, "Waiting for a Train" was assigned to V-40014-B. Victor added "A" and "B" at the end of the catalog number to differentiate the sides. Before the 1930s, the songs contained in a record would be referred to as "sides", and promoted together equally. The names of the compositions were published with letters of the same size and font by record companies, accompanied by the catalog number of the releases. Reviewers of the time commonly mentioned both sides of the record without focusing on a particular song.
The disk sold 365,000 copies upon its release, and became Rodgers' second-best-selling recording, behind the pairing of "Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)" / "Away Out in the Mountain". The Victor Talking Machine Company sound engineers later discovered that the strong sound of the bass fiddle on the original recording damaged the grooves as it was played. Victor re-dubbed the track, and later issues featured the bass sound cut in half.
## Reception
The composition became popular as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in October led on to the Great Depression. The themes depicted on it became commonplace in the lives of unemployed Americans. In respect to Rodgers' role, critic Dave Marsh has pointed out: "it was Rodgers—far more than Woody Guthrie—who was the true voice of the Depression". In November 1929, Rodgers starred in the short The Singing Brakeman, by Columbia Pictures. Filmed on the Victor lot in Camden, New Jersey, the film depicted Rodgers singing in a railroad restaurant. It opened with "Waiting for a Train". Rolling Stone later considered the film to be "one of the first-ever country music videos" and remarked upon Rodgers' understanding of the importance of trains as the subject of songs in the genre.
Reviews of Rodgers' concerts that included the song at the time remarked it to be among the numbers which "proved most popular", and remarked its appeal to the audiences. Others referring to his blues guitar on the performances concluded that Rodgers "plays as entertainingly as he sings".
Rodgers became the best-selling country act of 1929. Other labels started to look for artists that sounded like him to replicate his success. Though it was at the time already considered a traditional song, Prince Albert Hunt claimed that Rodgers copied his record. "Waiting for a Train" was first covered by Ed Jake West on the American Record Corporation label, followed by Riley Puckett on Columbia Records. In May 1929, Gene Autry released his own cover of the song, with singer Frankie Marvin providing the whistle sound. His producer, Art Satherley talked to him about not recording any more Rodgers covers. Since Autry had been covering many of Rodgers' songs soon after their release, Satherley felt he was becoming an imitator. The singles sold poorly, and he advised Autry to find better material.
### Legacy
Buddy Jones recorded it in 1940, and Wilf Carter in 1941. Ernest Tubb released it on Decca Records in 1948. Based on the aggregate score of 73 by operators, disk-jockeys and record dealers, Billboard deemed Tubb's version on its scale as "good".
Robert Johnson's step-sister, Annye, remembered Rodgers as their favorite country singer. Johnson played "Waiting for a Train", and imitated Rodgers' yodel. Johnny Cash included it in his album Blood, Sweat and Tears. On May 10, 1962, Cash appeared at Carnegie Hall. A fan of Rodgers', Cash designed a concept show based around him. Rodgers' daughter lent him one of her fathers' costumes to wear during the appearance. Cash ordered the lights of the concert hall to be turned off, so he could be only illuminated during his entrance by a lantern that belonged to Rodgers. Following a Rodgers' signature move, Cash walked to a chair on the center of the stage, and put his knee on it. He opened with "Waiting for a Train". George Harrison cited Rodgers as one of his early influences, and credited the pairing of "Blue Yodel No. 4" and "Waiting for a Train" owned by his father as the first guitar recordings he heard. Harrison would musically quote part of "Waiting for a Train" in his track "Rocking Chair in Hawaii" on his final album Brainwashed.
Jim Reeves released it as the flip-side to his single "Am I Losing You" in 1956, and then included it in his 1962 album The Country Side of Jim Reeves. Furry Lewis re-recorded it as "Dying Hobo". It featured his own version of the yodel, and it was released on the Blue Horizon label in 1969. Merle Haggard recorded his own version for his 1969 tribute album Same Train, a Different Time. Jerry Lee Lewis released a version of it on Sun Records in 1970. Lewis started to play the song during his childhood upon request of his father, Elmo, and kept performing it as part of his frequent set numbers. On his version, he replicated Rodgers' yodel. It peaked at eleven in the Hot Country Singles chart in 1971.
## Chart performance
### Jerry Lee Lewis
## See also
- List of train songs |
16,337,176 | Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic | 1,153,062,053 | 2008 English fantasy movie directed by Vadim Jean | [
"2000s British comedy television series",
"2000s British television miniseries",
"2008 British television series debuts",
"2008 British television series endings",
"British fantasy comedy films",
"British fantasy television series",
"Discworld films and television series",
"English-language television shows",
"Films based on fantasy novels",
"Films set on fictional planets",
"Sky UK original programming",
"Television shows based on British novels",
"Television shows set in the United Kingdom"
]
| Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic is a fantasy-comedy two-part British television adaptation of the bestselling novels The Colour of Magic (1983) and The Light Fantastic (1986) by Terry Pratchett. The fantasy film was produced for Sky1 by The Mob, a small British studio, starring David Jason, Sean Astin, Tim Curry, and Christopher Lee as the voice of Death. Vadim Jean both adapted the screenplay from Pratchett's original novels, and served as director.
Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic was broadcast on Sky One, and in high definition on Sky 1 HD, on Easter Sunday (23 March) and 24 March 2008. The first part drew audiences of 1.5 million, with the second part attracting up to 1.1 million viewers. The film was well received by fans, but drew mixed reviews from critics, who generally praised the acting talent of the all-star cast, but criticised the film's script and direction.
The production is the second adaptation of Pratchett's novels as a live-action film, following the successful release of Hogfather on Sky 1 over Christmas 2006. A third adaptation, Going Postal, followed in 2010 with more planned for the future.
## Plot
The plot of the adaptation largely follows the first two Discworld novels, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. The story follows the misadventures of Rincewind, a wizard who is expelled from Unseen University after spending 40 years failing to learn even the most basic magic. In fact, Rincewind's head holds one of the eight spells from the Octavo, the most powerful spellbook in the Discworld, and he has been unable to learn others because "they were afraid to be in the same head" as the Octavo spell. Rincewind is forced by the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork to act as a local guide for Twoflower, a property insurance salesman and the Discworld's first tourist, who is visiting Ankh-Morpork, and Twoflower's luggage, which is made from Sapient Pearwood and can run on its own legs.
After a misunderstanding over an insurance policy causes the owner of the inn where Twoflower and Rincewind are staying to commit arson, the pair flee the city. They proceed across the disc, encountering a variety of mythical creatures, most of which lead to near-death experiences for Rincewind. Fortunately for Rincewind, the Octavo spell in his head precludes him from actually dying, resulting in several comic encounters with Death. Meanwhile, a significant power struggle is occurring within the Unseen University. Narrator Brian Cox explains that "in the competitive world of wizardry, the way to the top is via dead men's pointy shoes... even if you have to empty them yourself". The power-hungry wizard Ymper Trymon (Tim Curry) plans to become Archchancellor. Trymon assassinates several faculty members but is thwarted by the incumbent Archchancellor, Galder Weatherwax, and his superior magical knowledge of the Octavo. Trymon knows there is no point in deposing the Archchancellor until he learns how to control the Octavo, which is growing increasingly restless as Rincewind (and the spell in his head) moves further away from Ankh-Morpork and into greater danger.
Rincewind and Twoflower are eventually washed rimwards to the kingdom of Krull, which lies on the very rim of the disc, where they are taken prisoner. The astronomers and "astrozoologists" of Krull have for many years attempted to determine the sex of Great A'Tuin, and are on the verge of launching a space vehicle to carry a pair of "chelonauts" on a new mission over the rim of the disc. Unaware of this, Rincewind and Twoflower take the place of the two chelonauts and 'escape' to the spacecraft, which they accidentally launch, catapulting them off the rim. The prospect of losing the eighth spell in this fashion prompts the Octavo to act, causing A'Tuin to perform a barrel roll to recapture Rincewind, landing the pair near the centre of the disc. Watching the Octavo's restlessness, the Archchancellor reveals his intention to use the Rite of AshkEnte to ask Death about the Octavo and also about a large red star that has recently appeared in the sky. Now knowing all he needs, Trymon throws Weatherwax from the Tower of Art and becomes Archchancellor in his place.
The red star grows steadily larger, and the worried people of Ankh-Morpork mob the Unseen University because the wizards appear unable to save the disc from it. Trymon learns from Death that all eight spells of the Octavo must be said together at the solstice to save the disc from destruction and that Great A'Tuin is flying towards the red star for a purpose that Death says is " NOTHING TO DO WITH ME ." Tryon dispatches a group of mercenaries, led by Herrena, to capture Rincewind and retrieve the eighth spell, along with a force of wizards. Meanwhile, Rincewind and Twoflower encounter Cohen the Barbarian (87 years old and retired), and Twoflower rescues Bethan, a human sacrifice in a druid ritual. A battle between the wizards and Rincewind leaves Twoflower in a coma; Rincewind rescues him from Death's door, and Cohen in turn rescues Rincewind and Twoflower from Herrena and the mercenaries.
The four take a ferry to Ankh-Morpork, where the populace is rioting because the star is now larger than the disc's own sun. Trymon assembles the senior wizards of the University, and orders them to unchain the Octavo. When they release the spellbook, Trymon steals it and locks the wizards in its chamber. Rincewind releases them and they follow Trymon to the top of the Tower of Art, afraid that he will attempt to say the spells and that they will destroy his mind (and the rest of the world). Trymon, however, says the first seven spells successfully and gains near-ultimate power, and turns the wizards to stone. Rincewind fights Trymon, who is eventually killed, returning the spells to the Octavo. Rincewind expunges the eighth spell from his head, completing the set, and reads the entire spellbook.
The red star is finally revealed as a world-turtle breeding ground: the Octavo spells prompt several eggs orbiting the star to hatch into juvenile discworlds, which follow Great A'Tuin as it returns to deep space. The narrator tidies up a few loose ends: the Octavo is eaten by the luggage, which Twoflower donates to Rincewind. Rincewind, now able to learn new spells with the departure of the 8th spell from his head, re-enrolls at Unseen University. Cohen and Bethan decide to get married (despite the 60 year age difference), with Cohen celebrating by commissioning some Din Chewers, made from troll's teeth (pure diamond). Twoflower presents them with a dozen gold coins as a wedding gift. Although Twoflower, who comes from the Counterweight Continent where gold is extremely common, considers this a small sum Rincewind comments that in Ankh-Morpork a dozen gold coins is enough to buy a small kingdom. Twoflower returns home on a ship and Rincewind returns to the Unseen University with the Luggage happily following.
### Differences from original texts
Although the film generally remains true to the original novels, several scenes and characters were removed or merged with others to bring the script to a reasonable length. Noting that "there wasn't time for everything", the producers cut completely the scene in the Temple of Bel-Shamharoth and the associated plotline about the significance of the number eight; Director Vadim Jean defended the decision, saying "we could have gone there, but we went to the Wyrmberg instead. There [were] time constraints and we could have gone one way or the other, so we went the whole hog on just one." The scenes in the Wyrmberg were themselves shortened and simplified, reducing the character of Li!ort to a cameo and losing the characters of K!sdra, Greicha and Hrun completely.
The inter-wizard rivalry at Unseen University, by contrast, was expanded and spread out throughout the film, while in the novels the sequences are short and mainly found in The Light Fantastic. This established Trymon as a more easily recognisable antagonist.
To avoid the necessity of explaining the deus ex machina in detail, the Octavo in the film simply causes A'Tuin to roll to recapture Rincewind, whereas in the novel, a complicated "change spell" returns him to the disc. The creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions which invade reality at the end of The Light Fantastic, and Rincewind's fight in the Dungeon Dimensions themselves, are completely omitted, and Trymon is simply driven mad by reading the Octavo spells at the end of the film version. Galder Weatherwax is also killed by Trymon in the film version, whereas, in the books, he is killed by accidentally summoning the Luggage instead of Rincewind.
In the book, Rincewind never attempted suicide, whereas in the film version, he tries to take his own life by jumping into the river Ankh. His circumstances of spotting the Luggage are additionally different: in the book he spots it while sitting in the Broken Drum, while in the film he spots it while being carried up from the River Ankh on an empty pallet.
In the book, Twoflower was toothless and wore dentures. In the film, Twoflower's teeth were his own.
## Production
The adaptation was produced by The Mob, with Rod Brown, Ian Sharples, Elaine Pyke and Sarah Conroy credited as producers. Vadim Jean continued his involvement with the film as director.
### Adaptation
The Colour of Magic is the second live-action adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, following the highly successful Hogfather, which was broadcast over Christmas 2006 to an audience of 2.6 million. After the success of Hogfather, Pratchett was easily persuaded to release the rights for The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. Vadim Jean was employed to adapt the two literary works into a three-hour, two-part screenplay. While Pratchett was given "carte blanche" to "turn up whenever [he] wanted", he was happy to see a more liberal interpretation of his first two works than he had been for Hogfather. Speaking to Sky Magazine, Pratchett said that, "There [was] not so much emotional baggage... riding on The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. It was just this book of mine that suddenly started selling incredibly well". Jean's main challenge was to streamline the plot and remove the many tangents that are a feature of Pratchett's work, without destroying the appeal of the books. Jean said that "there [was] a real danger, with this story, that one could strip out the 'Pratchett-ness'... I had to fight to keep [it] in". Pratchett was pleased with the final script, saying "it wasn't the slaughter job I thought it would have to be", and "[we've managed] to keep the soul... it's still recognisably [the same] book".
### Filming
Filming took place at Pinewood Studios for the interior scenes of the Wyrmberg, the Octavo room in the Unseen University, and for exterior shots of Ankh-Morpork and the Broken Drum. Pinewood's exterior water tank, the largest in Europe, was also employed for the scenes where Rincewind and Twoflower are washed towards the edge of the world. These sequences, as well as being the most challenging to film, were also one of the most physically exhausting for the cast. Background shots of Niagara Falls were also taken, and digitally merged with the bluescreen film shot at Pinewood, location shots taken on a river in Wales, and CGI sequences of A'Tuin and the Discworld. Digitally combining all this material together in a believable fashion was, according to Jean, "the toughest week of the shoot". All the digital effects and CGI for the film were provided by Fluid Pictures, a small digital effects group based in Soho.
Jean, who had adapted and directed Hogfather in 2006, was keen to return to some of the locations used in that film to provide continuity. The scenes in the Great hall of the Unseen University were filmed in the crypt of the Guildhall in the City of London, and Dorney Court (Dorney, Buckinghamshire), the same Tudor/Victorian country home was used for Death's house, as had been seen in Hogfather, appears again here. This time around, Jean was able to film more extensive panoramic shots in the latter location, thanks to The Colour of Magic's larger budget. Other filming locations included Anglesey and Snowdonia for exterior shots, Gloucester docks as the docks of Ankh-Morpork, and the Royal Courts of Justice as the Patrician's Palace.
### Effects
When choreographing the various fight sequences in the film, Jean sought to maintain the atmosphere and humour of the Discworld while still creating an exciting action sequence. Jean explained that "the tone of all these fights is the tone of Discworld... it has a kind of chaos to it... there are very few set pieces, it's more about the chaos and the humour". Although all the fight sequences were carefully controlled for safety, some were choreographed to be more haphazard than others; each fighter was also given their own style for variety and humour. Liz May Brice (Herrena) noted the contrast in the ferry fight sequence, saying "the way we've done the fight, he [Cohen the Barbarian] is almost [winning] by mistake... it's sort of fun, whereas [Herrena] is very deliberate".
The inverted fight between Rincewind and Liessa in the Wyrmberg, by contrast, was the most meticulously choreographed sequence in the film. In addition to the need to add CGI backdrops to every shot, hanging upside down from wires whilst fighting proved to be what David Jason described as "a nauseous experience". The sequence had to be filmed in very short bursts as "all of the actors and stunt people could only manage around four to five minutes before they wanted to [vomit]". Karen David, who played Liessa, pulled several stomach muscles during the filming, and Jason described the experience as like "being hung upside-down like the last chicken at Sainsbury's... I wouldn't do that again in a hurry".
## Casting
David Jason was the first actor to be cast for the production, as it had always been his desire to play Rincewind in a film adaptation of The Colour of Magic. Jason had mentioned in an interview some fifteen years previously that, of all the parts available, the character of Rincewind was the one he coveted the most. Jason describes the wizard as "just such an amusing, endearing character... I always kept this idea in my head that one day I [would] play Rincewind". Jason's appointment to the role, announced in April 2007, drew mixed reactions, with comments ranging from "terrible choice" to "brilliant". A common criticism was that Jason, at 68, was too old to play a character who is, according to the books, middle-aged.
From the day Jason was cast, rumours began to fly that a major American actor would be cast alongside him to bolster the film's international appeal. On 31 July 2007 it was revealed that Sean Astin, world-famous for his part in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, had been signed for the role. Before filming started, Sean had to ask his agent just who "Dave Jason" was and left the video store with two large bags of David Jason's back catalogue to watch. The casting of Tim Curry as Trymon and Christopher Lee as the voice of Death was revealed at the same time. The choice of Astin as Twoflower was criticised by some fans, who had anticipated that the tourist would be Asian. Pratchett responded to this criticism in an open letter, where he noted that he had only described Twoflower as "exotically foreign" until Interesting Times. The choice of Lee to replace Ian Richardson, who had voiced Death in Hogfather, was more widely accepted; Lee had previously voiced the part in the animated adaptations of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters.
The part of the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Havelock Vetinari, was not revealed until the premiere of The Colour of Magic, where Jeremy Irons, billed as a "guest star", was revealed to have played the role. A small number of Pratchett fans were invited to participate as extras in the mob scenes towards the end of the film, and the bar fight in the Mended Drum.
Several members of the cast previously had roles in Sky One's previous adaptation of Pratchett's novel Hogfather, including David Jason as Albert, Nigel Planer as Mr. Sideney, and Stephen Marcus as Banjo. And Nicolas Tennant, who previously had played Corporal ‘Nobby’ Nobbs. Pratchett himself had also made a cameo in Hogfather as The Toymaker. Nigel Planer had also previously contributed his voice to Discworld audiobooks, as well as the computer games Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? and Discworld Noir.
### Principal cast
- David Jason as Rincewind, a failed wizard and the main protagonist.
- Sean Astin as Twoflower, the Discworld's first tourist.
- Tim Curry as Trymon, the power-hungry senior wizard at the Unseen University and the main antagonist.
- Christopher Lee as the voice of Death.
- Jeremy Irons as Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork.
- David Bradley as Cohen the Barbarian, the most famous barbarian in the Discworld, now 'retired'.
- Laura Haddock as Bethan, a druid sacrifice, who falls in love with Cohen.
- James Cosmo as Galder Weatherwax, the incumbent Archchancellor of the Unseen University.
- Nicholas Tennant as Head Librarian of the Unseen University, who is turned into an orangutan during the events of the film.
- Karen David as Liessa, a dragonlady from the Wyrmberg.
- Liz May Brice as Herrena, a mercenary who is employed to capture Rincewind.
- Nigel Planer as the Arch-Astronomer of Krull.
- Richard Da Costa as The Luggage.
- Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Lumuel Panter.
- Miles Richardson as Zlorf, the leader of the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild.
- James Perry as Kring, the enchanted sword.
- Stephen Marcus as Broadman, the bartender at the Broken Drum.
Terry Pratchett appears in a cameo role, playing Astrozoologist \#2 in the opening and closing scenes of the film. Richard Woolfe, the director of programming at Sky One, also appears as the Alchemist.
## Release and reception
A teaser trailer, released in late February 2008, featured principal cast members, including Rincewind, Twoflower, Trymon and the Arch-Astronomer of Krull, attempting to describe octarine, the 'colour of magic'. The teaser concludes with the film's tagline: "a pigment of your imagination". Two more trailers were released in March 2008, containing a more complete synopsis, with narration by Brian Cox. The trailers formed part of a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign in partnership with Amazon.com and Borders Books. In addition to conventional adverts in national newspapers and banner ads on sites including MSN.com and Yahoo!.com, Sky launched a viral marketing campaign, and established a bluetooth hotspot at Victoria station, London, where fans could download video clips and ringtones to mobile phones.
The film was premiered at the Curzon Cinema, London, on 3 March 2008; the event was covered in several major newspapers after David Jason, somewhat inebriated, got into the wrong limousine by mistake when departing from the premiere.
The film was released in two parts, breaking at roughly the same place as the literary versions of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, although some scenes (such as Trymon's murder of the Archchancellor) were moved across the break for dramatic effect. The first part, concluding with Rincewind and Twoflower falling off the edge of the disk in the Krullian spaceship, was broadcast on Easter Sunday (23 March 2008), at 6pm GMT on Sky1 and Sky 1 HD. The second part was broadcast on the same channels at 6pm the following day (Easter Monday). Viewing audience for the first part reached 1.5 million, 8% of the viewing total. The second part of the film attracted an average audience of 967,000, peaking at 1.1 million during the 15 minute block from 7:15 pm.
The film was generally well received by critics, with The Times believing it to be "better than Sky's previous Discworld adaptation Hogfather". The Scotsman admitted that it was a "good-looking production that proper fans probably appreciated", but criticised the film for being "far too long... with leaden direction and script". The Times agreed, saying that "It looked good, in an over-glossy, Hallmark Productions kind of way, although every now and again the budget... looked stretched".
Pratchett himself said he was "very pleased" with the casting and production of the film, although he admitted that seeing his literary work adapted for the screen was "very bad for me: it's like I'm wandering around on the inside of my own head".
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 3 November 2008.
In the United States and Canada, it is premiering as The Color of Magic on the Ion channel.
The North American DVD was released on 14 July 2009. The version available on Netflix is the original British presentation. |
68,317,604 | Dutch invasion of Saint Helena | 1,173,042,964 | Successful occupation of Saint Helena | [
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| The Dutch invasion of Saint Helena took place in January 1673, capturing the South Atlantic island from the English East India Company (EIC). The Dutch had previously settled the island but abandoned it for their colony at modern-day Cape Town. The Cape proved an inferior anchorage so the Dutch took advantage of the Third Anglo-Dutch War to seize Saint Helena, with little resistance from the EIC garrison.
The EIC governor, Anthony Beale, escaped to Brazil with a number of soldiers and slaves. He sent word of the loss of the island by sloop, which met with a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Richard Munden. Munden decided to retake the island and in May landed a force under Lieutenant Richard Keigwin. A bombardment by Munden's squadron persuaded the Dutch to surrender. Keigwin was left on the island as governor with an increased garrison. The invasion was the last occasion that the island was taken by a foreign power.
## Background
Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic, was discovered by the Portuguese explorer João da Nova in 1502. English, Portuguese and Dutch sailors visited the islands throughout the next century. A Dutch settlement was established around 1645 but was gone by 1651, being abandoned in favour of the settlement at Cape Town in Southern Africa. An English East India Company (EIC) expedition, sent on the orders of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, landed on Saint Helena on 5 May 1659 and established a fort, the Castle of St John. After the Stuart Restoration in 1660 the fort was renamed James Fort in honour of James, Duke of York, and the settlement that had grown nearby as Jamestown. In the following years Saint Helena proved valuable to the East India Company as an anchorage and source of supplies for the company's vessels.
## Dutch invasion
The Dutch found the Cape inferior as a harbour compared to Saint Helena. The Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–74) provided an opportunity to reclaim the island. A Dutch Navy expedition under Jacob de Gens, left the Cape in late 1672. In January 1673 the Dutch landed at Lemon Valley to the west of Jamestown. They attempted to advance up the steep ravine but were driven back by English settlers who threw down rocks from higher ground. The Dutch reboarded their vessels and landed further to the west, overpowering a defending English force and reaching the higher land. By some accounts treachery may have played a part in the English defeat. The governor of Saint Helena, Anthony Beale, spiked the garrison's guns (which were more numerous than those brought by the Dutch), spoiled the gunpowder and transferred several valuable items onto his ship before escaping to Colonial Brazil. The island was left in possession of the Dutch, who garrisoned the fort, which they renamed Good Fortune.
## Recapture by English forces
Beale hired a sloop in Brazil and sent a number of soldiers and slaves away in it to warn English vessels that the island had been lost. The sloop met with a Royal Navy and EIC expedition under Captain Richard Munden who had been sent to reinforce the garrison of Saint Helena. Munden, whose squadron included the frigate HMS Assistance decided, without receiving any direct orders, to retake the island.
Munden sailed to Fisher's Valley at the east of the island, where a stream ran to Prosperous Bay from Diana's Peak. The stream fell down a 150 feet (46 m) high vertical rockface close to the shore. One of Beale's slaves, Black Oliver, knew a route up this cliff face and on 4 May, he and a party of Munden's men, led by Assistance's lieutenant Richard Keigwin, were landed here after dark. One of Keigwin's men, named Tom, was the first to climb, carrying a rope that was used to haul up the rest of the party. The following men's shouts of "hold fast, Tom!" led to this location's modern name of Hold Fast Tom. The location would have been unassailable if defended by the Dutch but they had no men to spare for its defence. Keigwin's party now had access to high land which overlooked the interior of the fort and would render it indefensible.
Whilst Keigwin's party was starting its climb Munden sailed to the fort and began to bombard it. For a long while, as he waited for the rest of his squadron to arrive, Munden took the brunt of the fort's response in a single vessel. The Dutch surrendered at 6 pm on 5 May, before the arrival of Keigwin's men. Munden discovered that Dutch ships were expected to arrive in the coming days and left the Dutch flag flying from Sugar Loaf Hill as a ruse of war. He was able to capture most of a convoy that arrived in the port.
## Aftermath
The EIC sent regular troops to reinforce the garrison of Saint Helena and later that year organised a feudal militia from the settlers to defend the island. The 1673 invasion was the last time the island was captured by a foreign power.
Upon his return to England Munden received a knighthood for his actions on Saint Helena. He remained in the navy on convoy duties until his death in England in 1680 at the age of 39. Keigwin remained on the island as governor, before being transferred to India. He rose to higher military and political rank but fell out with the EIC's hierarchy and was recalled. He led a revolt against the EIC in December 1683 and seized power as unofficial governor of Bombay, serving for almost a year before surrendering, upon receiving a pardon. He was later appointed to command Assistance and died in 1690 during an assault on Basseterre, Saint Kitts. The location of his landing in Prosperous Bay is still known as Keigwin's Rock. Black Oliver was granted his freedom for his actions in the recapture of Saint Helena and was given a tract of land, the modern estate of Walbro near Hutt's Gate; he was later hanged for involvement in a mutiny. Many of the soldiers in Munden's expedition were also granted land on Saint Helena and settled there. |
3,705,490 | Mortal Kombat | 1,173,119,363 | Video game series and multimedia franchise | [
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"Fiction about murder",
"Fighting video games by series",
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| Mortal Kombat is a media franchise centered on a series of fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992.
The original Mortal Kombat arcade game spawned a franchise consisting of action-adventure games, a comic book series, a card game, films, an animated TV series, and a live-action tour. Mortal Kombat has become the best-selling fighting game franchise worldwide and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
The series has a reputation for high levels of graphic violence, including, most notably, its fatalities, which are finishing moves that kill defeated opponents instead of knocking them out. Controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat, in part, led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) video game rating system. Early games in the series were noted for their realistic digitized sprites and an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the Mortal Kombat development team was acquired by Warner Bros. Entertainment and reestablished as NetherRealm Studios.
## Gameplay
The original three games and their updates, Mortal Kombat (1992), Mortal Kombat II (1993), Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), and Mortal Kombat Trilogy (1996), are 2D fighting games. The arcade cabinet versions of the first two used a joystick and five buttons: high punch, low punch, high kick, low kick, and block; Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates added a sixth "run" button. Characters in the early Mortal Kombat games play virtually identically to one another, with the only major differences being their special moves. Through the 1990s, the developer and publisher Midway Games kept their single-styled fighting moves with four attack buttons for a different array of punches, kicks and blocks. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was the first Mortal Kombat game in which the characters could move in three dimensions, and Mortal Kombat 4 was the first to use 3D computer graphics. From Deadly Alliance to Mortal Kombat: Deception, characters had three fighting styles per character: two unarmed styles, and one weapon style. While most of the styles used in the series are based on real martial arts, some are fictitious. Goro's fighting styles, for example, are designed to take advantage of the fact that he has four arms. For Armageddon, fighting styles were reduced to a maximum of two per character (generally one hand-to-hand combat style and one weapon style) due to the sheer number of playable characters. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe dropped multiple fighting styles for most characters in favor of giving each character a wider variety of special moves 2011's Mortal Kombat returned to a single 2D fighting plane, although characters are rendered in 3D; unlike previous Mortal Kombat games, each of the controller's four attack buttons corresponds to one of the character's limbs, the buttons thus becoming front punch, back punch, front kick and back kick ("front" indicates the limb that is closer to the opponent, and "back" indicates the limb that is farther away from the opponent).
Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon feature "Konquest", a free-roaming action-adventure mode. Both games include distinct minigame modes such as "Chess Kombat", an action-strategy game. Two other bonus minigames, "Puzzle Kombat" inspired by Puzzle Fighter and "Motor Kombat" inspired by Mario Kart, feature super deformed versions of Mortal Kombat characters. The games contain various unlockable content and hidden cheats.
### Finishing moves
One of the most notable features of the Mortal Kombat series is its brutal and gruesome finishing moves, known as "Fatalities". The basic Fatalities are finishing moves that allow the victorious characters to end a match by murdering their defeated, defenseless opponent. Usually Fatalities are exclusive to each character, the exception being Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which instead features Kreate-A-Fatality, a feature that allows players to perform their own Fatalities by conducting a series of violent moves chosen from a pool that is common to all characters.
Other finishing moves in the various Mortal Kombat games include Animalities (introduced in Mortal Kombat 3), in which the victor turns into an animal to violently finish off the opponent; Brutality (introduced in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) which consists of bashing the opponent into pieces with a long combo of hits; and Stage Fatalities/Death Traps (introduced in the original Mortal Kombat Pit Stage where the victor can uppercut their opponent off of the platform into a bed of spikes below, later made more difficult in Mortal Kombat II by requiring a character-specific button sequence) utilizing parts of certain stages to execute a lethal finishing move (such as a pool of acid). Mortal Kombat: Deception added the Hara-Kiri, a move that allows the loser to perform a suicidal finishing move, giving way to a potential race between both players to see if the winner can finish off their opponent before they can kill themselves.
There are two non-violent finishing moves in the series, which were introduced in Mortal Kombat II as a satire to controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat: Friendship moves, which result in a display of friendship towards the enemy instead of slaughter, and Babalities, which turn the opponent into a baby.
## Plot
The series takes place in a fictional universe consisting of numerous realms which, according to in-game backstories, were created by an ancient, eternal, and ethereal pantheon of preternatural divine beings, known as the Elder Gods. The Mortal Kombat: Deception manual described six of the realms as: "Earthrealm, home to such legendary heroes as Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, and Jax Briggs, and under the protection of the Thunder God Raiden; Netherrealm, the fiery depths of which are inhospitable to all but the most vile, a realm of demons and shadowy warriors such as Quan Chi and Noob Saibot; Outworld, a realm of constant strife which Emperor Shao Kahn claims as his own; Seido, the Realm of Order, whose inhabitants prize structure and order above all else; the Realm of Chaos, whose inhabitants do not abide by any rules whatsoever, and where constant turmoil and change are worshiped; and Edenia, which is known for its beauty, artistic expression, and the longevity of its inhabitants." The Elder Gods decreed that the denizens of one realm could only conquer another realm by defeating the defending realm's greatest warriors in ten consecutive martial arts tournaments, called Mortal Kombat.
The first Mortal Kombat game takes place in Earthrealm (Earth) where seven different warriors with their own reasons for entering the tournament with the prize being the continued freedom of their realm under threat of a takeover by Outworld. Among the established warriors were Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade. With the help of the thunder god Raiden, the Earthrealm warriors were victorious, and Liu Kang became the new champion of Mortal Kombat. In Mortal Kombat II, unable to deal with his minion Shang Tsung's failure, Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn lures the Earthrealm warriors to Outworld for a do-over, winner-take-all tournament, where Liu Kang eventually defeats Shao Kahn. By the time of Mortal Kombat 3, Shao Kahn merged Edenia with his empire and revived its former queen Sindel in Earthrealm, combining it with Outworld as well. He attempts to invade Earthrealm, but is ultimately defeated by Liu Kang once more. After the Kahn's defeat, Edenia was freed from his grasp and returned to a peaceful realm, ruled by Princess Kitana. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4, features the fallen elder god Shinnok attempting to conquer the realms and kill Raiden. He is defeated by Liu Kang.
In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the evil sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung join forces to conquer the realms, killing series protagonist Liu Kang in the process. By Mortal Kombat: Deception, after several fights, the sorcerers emerge victorious; having killed most of Earthrealm's warriors until Raiden steps forth to oppose them. The Dragon King Onaga, former ruler of Outworld, returned to merge all realms back together, but was eventually defeated by the game's protagonist, Shujinko.
In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the titular catastrophe begins. Centuries before the first Mortal Kombat, Queen Delia foretold the realms would be destroyed because the power of all of the realms' warriors would rise to such greatness that it would overwhelm and destabilize the realms, triggering a destructive chain of events. King Argus had his sons, Taven and Daegon put into incubation and so one day they can be awakened to save the realms from Armageddon by defeating a firespawn known as Blaze. In the end, Shao Kahn is the one who defeats Blaze and wins the war, causing Armageddon.
The crossover Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe does not share continuity with the other games. After the simultaneous defeats of both Shao Kahn and the alien warlord Darkseid in the DC Universe causes both villains to fuse into the entity "Dark Kahn", both the Mortal Kombat and DC Universes begin to merge. This brings the warriors and heroes into conflicts after suffering bouts of uncontrollable rage. The heroes and villains of both universes repeatedly battle each other, believing each other to be responsible for the catastrophe, until only Raiden and Superman remain. The two confront Dark Kahn and team up to defeat their common foe. After Dark Kahn's defeat, the two realms defuse, with Shao Kahn and Darkseid trapped in each other's universes to face eternal imprisonment.
In the 2011 Mortal Kombat soft reboot, the battle of Armageddon culminated in only two survivors: Shao Kahn and Raiden. On the verge of death by the former's hand, the latter sent visions to his past self in a last-ditch attempt to prevent this outcome. Upon receiving the visions, the past Raiden attempts to alter the timeline to avert Armageddon amidst the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, during the original game. His attempts to alter history mean that events play out differently to the original series. While he succeeds in preventing Shao Kahn's victory with help from the Elder Gods, he accidentally kills Liu Kang in self-defense and loses most of his allies to Queen Sindel; leaving Earthrealm vulnerable to Shinnok and Quan Chi's machinations.
Mortal Kombat X sees Shinnok and Quan Chi enacting their plan, leading an army of undead revenants of those that were killed in Shao Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm. A team of warriors led by Raiden, Johnny Cage, Kenshi Takahashi, and Sonya Blade oppose them, and in the ensuing battle, Shinnok is imprisoned within his amulet and various warriors are resurrected and freed from his control, though Quan Chi escapes. Twenty-five years later, the sorcerer resurfaces alongside the insectoid D'Vorah to facilitate Shinnok's return. A vengeful Scorpion kills Quan Chi, but fails to stop him from freeing Shinnok. To combat him, Cassie Cage, daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, leads a team composed of the next generation of Earthrealm's heroes in defeating him. With Shinnok and Quan Chi defeated, Liu Kang and Kitana's revenants assume control of the Netherrealm while Raiden taps into Shinnok's amulet.
Mortal Kombat 11 and its expansion, Aftermath, sees the architect of time and Shinnok's mother, Kronika, working to alter the timeline following her son's defeat and Raiden's tampering with her work. In doing so, she brings past versions of the realm's heroes to the present, aligning herself with some while the rest work to defeat her. After nearly killing Liu Kang a second time, Raiden discovers Kronika has manipulated them into fighting across multiple timelines as she fears their combined power. Despite her interference and attacks by her minions, Raiden gives Liu Kang his power, turning him into a god of fire and thunder so he can defeat Kronika. In the Aftermath expansion, it is revealed that Liu Kang inadvertently destroyed Kronika's crown, the item needed to restart the timeline. Her defeat also revives Shang Tsung, who was absent in the base game due to his imprisonment by Kronika. To recover the crown, Liu Kang sends Shang Tsung and other Earthrealm heroes back in time to obtain it before Kronika, though Shang Tsung manipulates events so that he comes into possession of the crown. At the end, either Liu Kang or Shang Tsung becomes the Keeper of Time, depending on the player's choice (who they want to fight with in the final battle) and the outcome of the battle.
## Characters
Through its iterations, the series has featured scores of player characters, some of them becoming mainstays, such as Baraka, Cassie Cage, Cyrax, Ermac, Fujin, Goro, Jade, Jax, Johnny Cage, Kabal, Kano, Kenshi, Kintaro, Kitana, Kung Lao, Li Mei, Liu Kang, Mileena, Motaro, Nightwolf, Noob Saibot, Quan Chi, Raiden, Rain, Reptile, Scorpion, Sektor, Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Sheeva, Shinnok, Sindel, Skarlet, Smoke, Sonya Blade, Stryker, Sub-Zero and Tanya. Among them are Earth's humans and cyborgs, good and evil deities, and denizens of Outworld and other realms.
Starting with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which featured several DC Universe heroes and villains, all subsequent games have included guest characters such as Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Kratos from the God of War franchise (exclusively for PlayStation 3), Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise, the Alien, Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, the Predator, the Terminator, RoboCop, Spawn and Omni-Man from Image Comics, John Rambo, Homelander from The Boys, and the Joker, who was previously in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and Peacemaker, both from DC Comics.
## Development
### Origins
Mortal Kombat started development in 1991 with four people: Ed Boon (programming), John Tobias (art and story), John Vogel (graphics), and Dan Forden (sound design). According to Mortal Kombat actors Richard Divizio and Daniel Pesina, the first game began as a ninja-themed project by John Tobias (a young new employee of Midway Games at the time) and them as well as Carlos Pesina, however their pitch to Tobias' boss Ed Boon was rejected by the management of Midway. Midway was approached to create a video game adaptation of the then-upcoming 1992 film Universal Soldier, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Tobias imagined a fighting game featuring a digitized version of Van Damme. Intending to make a game "a lot more hard edge, a little bit more serious, a little bit more like Enter the Dragon or Bloodsport" than contemporary cartoonish fighting games, Tobias and Boon decided to continue their project even after the deal to use the Bloodsport license fell through. The first of Mortal Kombat characters, Johnny Cage (Daniel Pesina), became "a spoof on the whole Van Damme situation." Divizio credits himself with convincing Tobias to go back to the original idea and trying again.
It was the success of Capcom's Street Fighter II: The World Warrior that convinced Midway Games to let the team produce their own arcade fighting game, the genre chosen by Tobias for his game as to let him use as large digitized sprites as possible, but there was not much influence by Street Fighter II on the project. According to Tobias, who cited 1984's Karate Champ as an inspiration, they intentionally worked on making a game different from Capcom's title in every way. Besides the digitized characters that differentiated it from its contemporaries' hand-drawn ones, one stark difference was in the very high amount of blood and violence. Capcom's senior director of communications later compared Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat by asking if the interviewer preferred the "precision and depth" of Street Fighter or the "gore and comedy" of Mortal Kombat and also stated that the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat rivalry was considered similar to the Coke and Pepsi rivalry in the 1990s.
John Tobias said that his inspirations for the game's story and characters came from Chinese mythology and some of the stories and rumored events about the Shaolin monks. Regarding the film Big Trouble in Little China, Tobias wrote that although the film "kind of Americanized my obsession for supernatural kung fu films from China, it was not my biggest influence. My biggest influences came from Tsui Hark films -- Zu Warriors & The Swordsman. We had to get them from bootleggers in Chicago's Chinatown." In 1995, he said about their general process of designing characters for the series: "First we figure out the type, like she or he and will she/he be big or small. Then we'll get the theme of the characters, like ninja or robot. Then we'll design the costume, and while doing that we create the storyline and how s/he fits into the universe. Then we'll find an actor that kinda resembles our character." Tobias' writing and artistic input on the series ended around 2000 following the release of Mortal Kombat 4. In 2012, he said: "I knew exactly what I was going to do with a future story. A few years ago, I [wrote] a sort of sequel to the first MK film and an advancement to the game's mythological roots."
The title Mortal Kombat was the idea of pinball designer Steve Ritchie, following difficulties trademarking the original title of Mortal Combat. Since then, the series often intentionally misspells various words with the letter "K" in place of "C" for the hard C sound. According to Boon, during the Mortal Kombat games' development they usually spell such words correctly, only making the substitution when one of the developers suggests it.
### Graphics
The characters of the original Mortal Kombat and its initial sequels were created using digitized sprites mostly based on filmed actors, as opposed to hand-drawn graphics. Mortal Kombat games were known for their extensive use of palette swapping, which was used for the ninja characters; many of the most popular characters have originated as palette swaps. In the first game, the male ninja fighters were essentially the same character; only the colors of their attire, fighting stance, and special techniques mark a difference. Later games added further ninjas based on the same model, as well as several female ninja color swap characters initially also using just one base model. All of them gradually became very different characters in the following installments of the series. Eventually, Mortal Kombat 4 brought the series into 3D, replacing the digitized fighters of previous games with polygon models animated using motion capture technology.
### Hidden content
Most Mortal Kombat games include secret characters, secret games, and other Easter eggs. The original Mortal Kombat was the first fighting game to introduce a secret fighter in Reptile, reached if the player fulfilled an obscure set of requirements. Future games would continue the trend of hidden characters. There is a hidden game of Pong in Mortal Kombat II, and Mortal Kombat 3 includes a hidden game of Galaga. Many extras in the series have only been accessible through very challenging, demanding, and sometimes coincidental requirements. The Mega Drive/Genesis versions contain a unique finisher, named "Fergality". The Sega CD version contained an additional code (known as the "Dad's Code"), which changed the names of the fighters to that of characters from the classic BBC comedy series Dad's Army.
Some Easter eggs originated from in-jokes between members of the development team. One example is "Toasty", which found its way into the game in the form of a small image of sound designer Dan Forden, who would appear in the corner of the screen during gameplay (after performing an uppercut) and yell the phrase "Toasty!", originating from him saying "you're toast". This egg was the key to unlocking the hidden character Smoke when it happened in the Portal stage in Mortal Kombat II. In Mortal Kombat 4, Forden would say "Toasty! 3D!" after Scorpion did his burn Fatality, a reference to the fact that it is the first 3D game of the series. "Toasty!" is found in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, appearing randomly after the character pulls off a chain of hits, though the picture of Forden was removed for that title, but brought back for the 2011 Mortal Kombat game. Yet another private joke was the hidden character Noob Saibot, who has appeared in various versions of the game starting with Mortal Kombat II. The character's name derived from two of the series' creators' surnames, Ed Boon and John Tobias, spelled backwards. In addition, a counter for ERMACS on the game's audits screen (ERMACS being short for error macros), was interpreted by some players as a reference to a hidden character in the original Mortal Kombat. The development team decided to turn the rumor into reality, introducing Ermac in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 as an unlockable secret character. The hidden character Mokap, introduced in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, is a tribute to Carlos Pesina, who played Raiden in Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II and has served as a motion capture actor for subsequent titles in the series.
## Games
### Main series
The original Mortal Kombat game was released by Midway in arcades during October 1992, and has been ported to several console and home computer systems, with early ports released by Acclaim Entertainment. The sequel, Mortal Kombat II, was released for arcades in 1993, featuring an increased roster and improved graphics and gameplay, then ported to the numerous home systems in 1993–1995, released again by Acclaim. Mortal Kombat 3 followed in 1995 in both arcade and home versions. Mortal Kombat 3 received two updates which expanded the number of characters and other features from the game: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, released that same year in arcades, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, released for home consoles the following year. The following game, Mortal Kombat 4, was released in 1997, and marked the jump of the series to 3D rendered graphics instead of the digitized 2D graphics used in previous games. Mortal Kombat 4 was ported to the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Microsoft Windows. Mortal Kombat 4 was the last Mortal Kombat game released for arcades. Its updated version titled Mortal Kombat Gold was released for the Dreamcast in 1999.
At this point that the series started being targeted at consoles only, with Mortal Kombat 4 being the last game in the series to be released for the arcades. Also the series' naming scheme changed to favor the use of sub-titles instead of numbered installments, beginning with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance in 2002. Deadly Alliance was released initially for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. Deadly Alliance was also the first Mortal Kombat game to feature fully 3D gameplay, where up to Mortal Kombat 4 the gameplay had stayed in a 2D plane; this trend would continue for the following two games.
The next sequel was 2004's Mortal Kombat: Deception, released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. Its port for the PlayStation Portable, Mortal Kombat: Unchained, was released in 2006. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was published in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and in 2007 for the Wii.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a non-canonical crossover fighting game between the Mortal Kombat franchise and DC Comics, was released in 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
A ninth game in the series, a reboot titled Mortal Kombat, was developed by the former Midway Games, now known as NetherRealm Studios. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011, and was ported to the PlayStation Vita in 2012 and Microsoft Windows in 2013. Downloadable content became a feature of games in the series at this time. Its first sequel, Mortal Kombat X, was released in 2015 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows, and marked a return to numbered sequels. This was paired with the first Mortal Kombat game for tablet and smartphone, Mortal Kombat Mobile. A follow-up, Mortal Kombat 11, was released in 2019 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows. A sequel to Mortal Kombat 11, Mortal Kombat 1, is set for release in 2023.
### Spin-off games
Besides the fighting games, there are three action-adventure titles that work as spin-offs from the Mortal Kombat storyline. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero was released in 1997 for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64; its story is focused on the first incarnation character of Sub-Zero and is focused in the timeline before the first Mortal Kombat game. The next action game was Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, released in 2000 for the PlayStation, starring Major Jackson Briggs in his mission to destroy the Black Dragon. Both games were critically panned (although the reception of Mythologies was more mediocre). Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, developed by Midway Studios Los Angeles, was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, starring Liu Kang and Kung Lao and telling an alternate version of the events between the first and second Mortal Kombat games. A similar game entitled Mortal Kombat: Fire & Ice, which was to star Scorpion and again Sub-Zero, was canceled when the developers of Shaolin Monks "couldn't do it in time and under budget". On October 18, 2022, Mortal Kombat: Onslaught was announced; it is a role-playing game scheduled for a 2023 release for Android and iOS. NetherRealm said it will be a cinematic experience and also it will be loyal to its core visceral nature.
## Other media
### Films
#### Animated
An animated prequel to 1995's Mortal Kombat film, titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, was released direct-to-video in the same year as the live-action film.
A series of direct-to-video films titled Mortal Kombat Legends began in 2020 as a co-production between Warner Bros. Animation and either Studio Mir or Digital eMation. The first, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, was released in April 2020, as the first R-rated Mortal Kombat film. The second film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, was released in August 2021. The third film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, was released on October 11, 2022. A fourth film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match, is set to release in 2023.
#### Live-action
Mortal Kombat was adapted into two major motion pictures, Mortal Kombat (1995) and Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997), both released by New Line Cinema. The first film was released on August 18, 1995, grossing \$23 million on its first weekend. Despite mixed reviews from critics, Mortal Kombat became a financial success, grossing approximately \$70 million in the U.S. and over \$122 million worldwide; the film gained a cult following amongst fans of the video game series with Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Bridgette Wilson, Talisa Soto and Christopher Lambert starring, and its success launched the Hollywood career of its director, Paul W. S. Anderson. Mortal Kombat Annihilation was directed by John R. Leonetti with Shou and Soto as the only two returning from the first film. The film received a poor reception by critics, grossing \$36 million in the U.S. and \$51 million worldwide.
In 2010, director Kevin Tancharoen released an eight-minute short film titled Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, made as a proof of concept for Tancharoen's pitch of a reboot film franchise to Warner Bros. Pictures. Tancharoen later confirmed that the unofficial short featured the writing of Oren Uziel, who at the time was rumored to be writing the screenplay for a third Mortal Kombat film. In September 2011, New Line and Warner Bros. announced that Tancharoen had signed on to direct a new feature-length film from a screenplay written by Uziel, with the intention of aiming for an R rating. Shooting was expected to begin in March 2012 with a budget of well under \$100 million (projected at between \$40–50 million) and a release date of 2013, but was ultimately delayed due to budget constraints. Tancharoen quit the production in October 2013.
A reboot, Mortal Kombat (2021), was released on April 23, 2021 to mixed reviews, grossing over \$84 million worldwide from theaters while also releasing simultaneously on the streaming service HBO Max. Production restarted on a reboot in 2015 when James Wan joined to produce and director Simon McQuoid joined the following year. The script was written by Greg Russo and David Callaham with Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, and Hiroyuki Sanada starring. A sequel is in development with McQuoid returning as director and Jeremy Slater set to write the screenplay.
- Cole Young was introduced as the protagonist of the 2021 film and had not featured in a Mortal Kombat game at the time.
### Print media
#### Comics
A number of Mortal Kombat comic books are based on the video game series, including the official Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II comic, books created by Tobias and advertised in the attract modes on early versions of the first two games. In 1994, Malibu Comics launched a licensed Mortal Kombat comic book series, spawning two six-issue series (Blood and Thunder and Battlewave), along with several miniseries and one-shot special issues dedicated to specific characters, until its publication ended in August 1995. Two more comics were also made as tie-ins for Mortal Kombat 4 and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and a new miniseries titled Blood Ties was published prior to the release of Mortal Kombat X in 2015.
#### Novels
Jeff Rovin penned a novelization of the first Mortal Kombat game, which was published in 1995 in order to coincide with the release of the film, though the novel did not follow the film plot. Novelizations of both Mortal Kombat film were written by Martin Delrio and Jerome Preisler. Two paperback novels by C. Dean Andersson entitled Mortal Kombat: Reptile's World and Shango's Thunder were written but never published due to the publishing company not securing the rights from Midway.
### Music
Mortal Kombat: The Album, a techno album based on the first game, was created for Virgin America by Lords of Acid members Praga Khan and Oliver Adams as The Immortals in 1994. Its iconic theme "Techno Syndrome", incorporating the "Mortal Kombat!" yell first shown in the Mortal Kombat commercial for home systems, was released in 1993 as a single and was used as a theme music for the Mortal Kombat film series. Each film had their own soundtracks (including the hit and award-winning compilation album Mortal Kombat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), as had the second video game (Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack). The 2011 video game saw the release of Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors, a new soundtrack album featuring electronic music by various artists.
### Television
#### Animated
An animated series titled Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm was released in 1996. It ran for one season.
#### Live-action
In 1998, Mortal Kombat: Conquest was released. It lasted one season. In 2010, Warner Premiere ordered a web series inspired by the Rebirth short, titled Mortal Kombat: Legacy and also directed by Kevin Tancharoen. The series' first season was released for free on YouTube starting in April 2011, promoted by Machinima.com, and the second season arrived in 2013.
In 2014, Blue Ribbon Content had been developing a live-action series that was to tie in with Mortal Kombat X for a planned 2016 release, titled Mortal Kombat: Generations. The series, however, was not released.
### Stage show
A stage show titled Mortal Kombat: Live Tour was launched at the end of 1995, expanded to 1996, and featured Mortal Kombat characters in a theatrical display on stage.
### Collectible card games
Brady Games produced the collectible card game Mortal Kombat Kard Game in 1996. Score Entertainment's 2005 collectible card game Epic Battles also used some of the Mortal Kombat characters.
## Reception
### Sales
Mortal Kombat has been one of the most successful fighting game franchises in video game history, previously only trailing Bandai Namco's Tekken, Capcom's Street Fighter, and Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. As of 2021, it has surpassed the competitor fighting game franchises in worldwide lifetime series sales. It generated more than \$4 billion by the late 1990s and \$5 billion in total revenue by 2000. A particularly successful game was Mortal Kombat II, which had unprecedented opening week sales figures never seen before in the video game industry, for the first time beating the box office numbers of summer hit films. The Mortal Kombat games, however, have not been localized in Japan after the Super Famicom release of Mortal Kombat II, due to content guidelines against depictions of blood, gore and dismemberment (Tobias blaming their "very americanized" character design).
Mortal Kombat games have sold more than 6 million units by 1994 and 26 million by 2007, and the figure has exceeded 30 million by 2012. As of 2022, the franchise had sold about 79 million units.
### Ratings, reviews, and awards
The 2008 edition of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition awarded the Mortal Kombat series with seven world records, including "most successful fighting game series". The franchise holds ten world records in the 2011 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, including the "largest promotional campaign for a fighting video game" (Mortal Kombat 3), "highest grossing film based on a beat ‘em up video game" (Mortal Kombat 1996), and "most successful video game spin-off soundtrack album" (Mortal Kombat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
Numerous publications described it as one of the most important and also most violent series in the history of video games; in 2011, the staff of GameSpy wrote "its place in fighting game history is undeniable". In 2009, GameTrailers ranked Mortal Kombat as the ninth top fighting game franchise as well as the seventh bloodiest series of all time. In 2012, Complex ranked Mortal Kombat as 37th best video game franchise overall, commenting on its "legendary status in video game history". Mortal Kombat as a series was also ranked as the goriest video game ever by CraveOnline in 2009 and by G4tv.com in 2011; including it on their list of the goriest games, Cheat Code Central commented that "Mortal Kombat had enough gore to simultaneously offend a nation and change gaming forever."
## Legacy and cultural impact
According to IGN, during the 1990s "waves of imitators began to flood the market, filling arcades with a sea of blood from games like Time Killers, Survival Arts, and Guardians of the Hood. Mortal Kombat had ushered in an era of exploitation games, both on consoles and in arcades, all engaging in a battle to see who can cram the most blood and guts onto a low-res screen." Notable Mortal Kombat clones, featuring violent finishing moves and/or digitized sprites, included Bio F.R.E.A.K.S., BloodStorm, Cardinal Syn, Catfight, Eternal Champions, Kasumi Ninja, Killer Instinct, Mace: The Dark Age, Primal Rage, Street Fighter: The Movie, Tattoo Assassins, Thrill Kill, Ultra Vortek, Way of the Warrior, and Midway's own War Gods. John Tobias commented: "Some of the copycat products back then kind of came and went because, on the surface level, the violence will attract some attention, but if there's not much to the product behind it, you're not going to last very long."
In a 2009 poll by GamePro, 21% of voters chose Mortal Kombat as their favorite fighting game series, ranking it third after Street Fighter and Tekken. In 2012, Capcom's Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono said he is getting a lot of requests for Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat and understands why people want it, "but it's easier said than done. Having Chun Li getting her spine ripped out, or Ryu's head bouncing off the floor...it doesn't necessarily match." In 2014, martial artist Frankie Edgar opined Mortal Kombat has been far superior to Street Fighter.
The series and its characters are also referenced in the various other works of popular culture, such as in the title of Powerglove's debut album Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man and the Workaholics episode "Model Kombat". According to Complex in 2012, "Years ago, Mortal Kombat became a phenomenon far outside gaming circles alone. Its name has become recognizable enough to be name dropped on sitcoms (Malcolm in the Middle and Married... with Children), found in movies (Christian Slater plays Mortal Kombat 4 in Very Bad Things), and used as part of cultural studies (see Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins' book From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games)." It was also featured in the film The Doom Generation. The name "Mortal Kombat" was even given to a dangerous illegal recreational drug that was introduced and caused multiple fatalities in early 2014.
In 2012, Tobias said: "If you look at any other pop culture phenomenon—like if you look at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for instance—it became popular at the time right around when Mortal Kombat became popular, and it had its highs and lows, and here they are once again talking about a major motion picture. That's because of its place in pop culture. It's always there for someone to pick up, polish off, blow the dust off of it, and re-release it. And Mortal Kombat will always be that way. It'll be around 50 years from now."
### Competitive play
Fighting games have been a popular genre among tournaments since the late 1990s. Mortal Kombat has its place in some of the world's biggest fighting game tournaments including Evo and Combo Breaker, as well as many local and online tournaments around the world. Since the 2011 Mortal Kombat game was released, the game has been one of the most popular games at these events. Between 2014 and 2017, the game was mostly absent from the tournament scene, due to NetherRealm Studios being focused on their Injustice series as their top priority; Mortal Kombat games returned to Combo Breaker in 2018.
### Controversies
The series was subject of a major video game controversy and several court cases, largely related to its extremely violent content, especially in relation to the original game which paved a way for the introduction of the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) game rating system in 1994 as well as the Australian Classification Board. Various games in the series, as well as advertisements for them, have been censored or banned in a number of countries. According to SuperData Research CEO Joost van Dreunen, "Because of the obvious rift between gamers on the one hand and adult society on the other, Mortal Kombat set the tone for what constituted gamer culture."
In Germany, every Mortal Kombat game was banned for ten years from its release until 2015. Mortal Kombat (2011) is also banned in South Korea, and was banned in Australia until February 2013. Mortal Kombat 11 is banned in Indonesia, Japan, China and Ukraine.
## See also
- List of best-selling video game franchises
- DC Universe
- List of fighting games
- Happy Tree Friends
- Violence and video games
- List of controversial video games
- Video game controversies |
584,369 | James Strang | 1,171,509,866 | American Mormon leader (1813–1856) | [
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| James Jesse Strang (March 21, 1813 – July 9, 1856) was an American religious leader, politician and self-proclaimed monarch. He served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1853 until his assassination.
He claimed in 1844 to have been appointed to be the successor of Joseph Smith as leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), a faction of the Latter Day Saint movement. Strang testified that he had possession of a letter from Smith naming him as his successor, and furthermore reported that he had been ordained to the prophetic office by an angel. His organization is claimed by his followers to be the sole legitimate continuation of the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith fourteen years before.
A major contender for leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints during the 1844 succession crisis after Smith's killing, Strang urged other prominent LDS leaders like Brigham Young and Sidney Rigdon to remain in their previous offices and to support his appointment by Joseph Smith. Brigham and the members of the Twelve Apostles loyal to him rejected Strang's claims, as did Rigdon, the highest-ranking officer of the church. This divided the Latter Day Saint movement. During his 12 years tenure as Prophet, Seer and Revelator, Strang reigned for six years as the crowned "king" of an ecclesiastical monarchy that he established on Beaver Island in the US state of Michigan. Building an organization that eventually rivaled Young's in Utah, Strang gained nearly 12,000 adherents at a time when Young claimed 50,000. After Strang was killed in 1856 most of his followers rallied under Joseph Smith III and joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Strangite church has remained small in comparison to other branches.
Similar to Joseph Smith, who was alleged by church opponent William Marks to have been crowned King in Nauvoo prior to his death, Strang taught that the chief prophetic office embodied an overtly royal attribute. Thus its occupant was to be not only the spiritual leader of his people, but their temporal king as well. He offered a sophisticated set of teachings that differed in many significant aspects from any other version of Mormonism, including that preached by Smith. Like Smith, Strang published translations of two purportedly ancient lost works: the Voree Record, deciphered from three metal plates reportedly unearthed in response to a vision; and the Book of the Law of the Lord, supposedly transcribed from the Plates of Laban mentioned in the Book of Mormon. These are accepted as scripture by his followers, and the Church of Jesus Christ in Christian Fellowship , but not by any other Latter Day Saint church. Although his long-term doctrinal influence on the Latter Day Saint movement was minimal, several early members of Strang's organization helped to establish the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which became (and remains) the second-largest Mormon sect. While most of Strang's followers eventually disavowed him due to his eventual advocacy of polygamy, a small but devout remnant carries on his teachings and organization today.
In addition to his ecclesiastical calling, Strang served one full term and part of a second as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, assisting in the organization of Manitou County. He was also at various times an attorney, educator, temperance lecturer, newspaper editor, Baptist minister, correspondent for the New York Tribune, and amateur scientist. His survey of Beaver Island's natural history was published by the Smithsonian Institution, remaining the definitive work on that subject for nearly a century, while his career in the Michigan legislature was praised even by his enemies.
While Strang's organization is formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the term "Strangite" is usually added to the title to avoid confusing them with other Latter Day Saint bodies carrying this or similar names. This follows a typical nineteenth-century usage where followers of Brigham Young were referred to as "Brighamites," while those of Sidney Rigdon were called "Rigdonites," followers of Joseph Smith III were called "Josephites", and disciples of Strang became "Strangites".
## Childhood, education and conversion to Mormonism
James Jesse Strang was born March 21, 1813, in Scipio, Cayuga County, New York. He was the second of three children, and his parents had a good reputation in their community. James' mother was very tender with him as a consequence of delicate health, yet she required him to render an account of all his actions and words while absent from her. In a brief autobiography he wrote in 1855, Strang reported that he had attended grade school until age twelve, but that "the terms were usually short, the teachers inexperienced and ill qualified to teach, and my health such as to preclude attentive study or steady attendance." He estimated that his time in a classroom during those years totaled six months.
But none of this meant that Strang was illiterate or simple. Although his teachers "not unfrequently turned me off with little or no attention, as though I was too stupid to learn and too dull to feel neglect," Strang recalled that he spent "long weary days ... upon the floor, thinking, thinking, thinking ... my mind wandered over fields that old men shrink from, seeking rest and finding none till darkness gathered thick around and I burst into tears." He studied works by Thomas Paine and the Comte de Volney, whose book Les Ruines exerted a significant influence on the future prophet.
As a youth, Strang kept a rather profound personal diary, written partly in a secret code that was not deciphered until over one hundred years after it was authored. This journal contains Strang's musings on a variety of topics, including a sense that he was called to be a significant world leader the likes of Caesar or Napoleon and his regret that by age nineteen, he had not yet become a general or member of the state legislature, which he saw as being essential by that point in his life to his quest to be someone of importance. However, Strang's diary reveals a heartfelt desire to be of service to his fellow man, together with agonized frustration at not knowing how he might do so as a penniless, unknown youth from upstate New York.
At age twelve, Strang was baptized a Baptist. He did not wish to follow his father's calling as a farmer, so he took up the study of law. Strang was admitted to the bar in New York at age 23 and later at other places where he resided. He became county Postmaster and edited a local newspaper, the Randolph Herald. Later, in the midst of his myriad duties on Beaver Island, he would find time to found and publish the Daily Northern Islander, the first newspaper in northern Michigan.
Strang, who once described himself as a "cool philosopher" and a freethinker, became a Baptist minister but left in February 1844 to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He quickly found favor with Joseph Smith, though they had known each other only a short time, and was baptized personally by him on February 25, 1844. On March 3 of that year he was ordained an Elder by Joseph's brother Hyrum and sent forthwith at Smith's request to Wisconsin, to establish a Mormon stake at Voree. Shortly after Strang's departure, Joseph Smith was murdered by an anti-Mormon mob in Carthage, Illinois.
## Succession claim and notable early allies
After Smith's assassination, Strang claimed the right to lead the Latter Day Saints, but he was not the only claimant to Smith's prophetic mantle. His most significant rivals were Brigham Young, president of Smith's Twelve Apostles, and Sidney Rigdon, a member of Smith's First Presidency. A power struggle ensued, during which Young quickly disposed of Rigdon in a Nauvoo debate. Young would reject offers to debate with Strang for the next three years before leading his followers to Utah while Rigdon led a smaller group to Pennsylvania. As a newcomer to the faith Strang did not possess the name recognition, more prominence in calling, enjoyed by his rivals, so his prospects of assuming Smith's prophetic mantle appeared shaky at first. But this did not dissuade him. Though the Quorum of Twelve quickly published a notice in the Times and Seasons of Strang's excommunication, Strang insisted that the laws of the church prevented excommunication without a trial. He equally asserted that the Twelve had no right to sit in judgment on him, as he was the lawful President of the church. He began to attract several Mormon luminaries to his side, including Smith's brother William Smith (an Apostle in Smith's church), Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith and William Marks, president of the Nauvoo Stake.
Strang rested his claim to leadership on an ordination by an angel at the very moment Joseph Smith died (similar to the ordination of Smith), requirements that he claimed were set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants that the President had to be appointed by revelation and ordained by angels, and a "Letter of Appointment" from Smith, carrying a legitimate Nauvoo postmark. This letter was dated June 18, 1844, just nine days before Smith's murder. Smith and Strang were some 225 miles (362 km) apart at the time, Strang offered witnesses to affirm that he had made his announcement before news of Smith's demise was publicly available. Strang's letter is held today by Yale University. Every aspect of the letter has been disputed by opposing factions, including the postmark and the signature however the postmark is genuine and at least one firm (Tyrell and Doud) hired to analyse the document and compare it to Smith's known letters concluded that it was likely to have been authored by Smith. They concluded "A brief observation of these four documents indicates that the education and word usage was consistent with the theory that all four documents were authored by one individual."
There have been several conflicting claims about the authenticity of the letter. One disaffected member of Strang's church claimed to have received a confession from Strang's law partner, C. P. Barnes, that he had fabricated the Letter of Appointment and the Voree Plates. Another member of the Brighamites claimed years after Strang's death to have forged the letter himself and mailed it to Strang as a prank. There are no reliable first hand statements, however, by witnesses or insiders that question the validity of the letter.
Strang's letter convinced several eminent Mormons of his claims, including Book of Mormon witnesses John and David Whitmer, Martin Harris and Hiram Page. In addition Apostles John E. Page, William E. M'Lellin, and William Smith, together with Nauvoo Stake President William Marks, and Bishop George Miller, accepted Strang. Joseph Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, and three of his sisters accepted Strang's claims. According to the Voree Herald, Strang's newspaper, Lucy Smith wrote to one Reuben Hedlock: "I am satisfied that Joseph appointed J.J. Strang. It is verily so." According to Joseph Smith's brother William, all of his family (except for Hyrum and Samuel Smith's widows), endorsed Strang.
Also championing Strang was John C. Bennett, a physician and libertine who had a tumultuous career as Joseph Smith's Assistant President and mayor of Nauvoo. Invited by Strang to join him in Voree, Bennett was instrumental in establishing a so-called "Halcyon Order of the Illuminati" there, with Strang as its "Imperial Primate." Eventually, as in Nauvoo, Bennett fell into disfavor with the church and Strang expelled him in 1847. His "order" fell by the wayside and has no role in Strangism today, though it did lead to conflict between Strang and some of his associates.
## From monogamist to polygamist
About 12,000 Latter Day Saints ultimately accepted Strang's claims. A second "Stake of Zion" was established on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, where Strang moved his church headquarters in 1848. Strang's church had a high turnover rate, with many of his initial adherents, including all of those listed above (with the exception of George Miller, who remained loyal to Strang until death), leaving the church before his demise. John E. Page departed in July 1849, accusing Strang of dictatorial tendencies and concurring with Bennett's furtive "Illuminati" order. Martin Harris had broken with Strang by January 1847, after a failed mission to England. Hiram Page and the Whitmers also left around this time.
Many defections, however, were due to Strang's seemingly abrupt "about-face" on the turbulent subject of polygamy. Vehemently opposed to the practice at first, Strang reversed course in 1849 and became one of its strongest advocates, marrying five wives (including his original spouse, Mary) and fathering fourteen children. Since many of his early disciples viewed him as a monogamous counterweight to Brigham Young's polygamous version of Mormonism, Strang's decision to embrace plural marriage proved costly both to him and his organization. Strang defended his new tenet by claiming that, far from enslaving or demeaning women, polygamy would liberate and "elevate" them by allowing them to choose the best possible mate based upon any factors which were deemed important by them. Rather than being forced to wed "corrupt and degraded sires" due to the scarcity of more suitable men, a woman could marry the man who she believed was most compatible to her, the best candidate to father her children and give her the finest possible life, even if he had multiple wives.
At the time of his death, all four of Strang's current wives were pregnant, and he had four posthumous children.
Strang and his first wife Mary Perce separated in May 1851, though they remained legally married until Strang's death. His second wife, Elvira Eliza Field disguised herself at first as "Charlie J. Douglas," Strang's purported nephew, before revealing her true identity in 1850. Strang's fourth wife, Sarah Adelia Wright, ironically, decades after Strang's death, Sarah divorced her second husband, Dr. Wing, due to his interest in polygamy. Strang's last wife was Phoebe Wright, cousin to Sarah.
Sarah Wright described Strang as "a very mild-spoken, kind man to his family, although his word was law." She wrote that while each wife had her own bedroom, they shared meals and devotional time together with Strang and life in their household was "as pleasant as possible." On the other hand, Strang and Phoebe Wright's daughter, Eugenia, wrote in 1936 that after only eight months of marriage, her mother had "begun to feel dissatisfied with polygamy, though she loved him [Strang] devotedly all her life."
## Theological contributions
### Publications
Like Joseph Smith, James Strang reported numerous visions, unearthed and translated allegedly ancient metal plates using what he said was the Biblical Urim and Thummim, and claimed to have restored long-lost spiritual knowledge to humankind. Like Smith, he presented witnesses to authenticate the records he claimed to have received. Unlike Smith, however, Strang offered his plates to the public for examination. The non-Mormon Christopher Sholes—inventor of the typewriter and editor of a local newspaper—perused Strang's "Voree Plates", a minuscule brass chronicle Strang said he had been led to by a vision in 1845. Sholes offered no opinion on Strang's find, but described the prophet as "honest and earnest" and opined that his followers ranked "among the most honest and intelligent men in the neighborhood." Strang published his translation of these plates as the "Voree Record," purporting to be the last testament of Rajah Manchou of Vorito, who had lived in the area centuries earlier and wished to leave a brief statement for posterity. Strangites assert that two modern scholars have affirmed that the text on the plates appears to represent a genuine, albeit unknown, language. This assertion has not been verified by independent sources, however. The Voree Plates disappeared around 1900, and their current whereabouts are unknown.
Strang also claimed to have translated a portion of the "Plates of Laban" described in the Book of Mormon. This translation was published in 1851 as the Book of the Law of the Lord, said to be selected from the original Law given to Moses and mentioned in 2 Chronicles 34:14–15. Republished in 1856, expanded with inspired notes and commentary, this book served as the constitution for Strang's spiritual kingdom on Beaver Island, and is still accepted as scripture by Strangites. One distinctive feature (besides its overtly monarchial tone) is its restoration of a "missing" commandment to the Decalogue: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Strang insisted that versions of the Decalogue found in Bibles used by other churches—including other Latter Day Saint churches—contain only nine commandments, not ten.
Strang received several other revelations, which while never formally added to his church's Doctrine and Covenants, are nevertheless accepted as scripture by his followers. These concerned, among other things, Baptism for the Dead, the building of a temple in Voree, the standing of Sidney Rigdon, and an invitation for Joseph Smith III, eldest son of Joseph Smith, to take a position as Counselor in Strang's First Presidency. "Young Joseph" never accepted this calling and refused to have anything to do with Strang's organization. Strang also authored The Diamond, an attack on the claims of Sidney Rigdon and Brigham Young, and The Prophetic Controversy, ostensibly for Mrs. Martha Coray, co-author with Lucy Mack Smith of The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother. Coray, a partisan of Brigham Young's, had challenged "the vain usurper" to provide convincing evidence of his claims, and Strang obliged in this open letter addressed to her. Coray's reaction has not been preserved.
### Distinctive dogmas
Some of Strang's teachings differed substantially from those of other Latter Day Saint leaders, including Joseph Smith. For instance, Strang rejected the traditional Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, together with the Mormon doctrine of the "plurality of gods." A monotheist, he insisted that there was only one eternal God in all the universe, Father, and that "progression to godhood" (a doctrine allegedly taught by Joseph Smith toward the end of his life) was impossible. God had always been God, said Strang, and He was only one Person, not three persons, according to the doctrine of the traditional Christian Trinity. Jesus Christ was presented as the natural-born son of Mary and Joseph, who was chosen from before all time to be the Savior of mankind but he had to be born as an ordinary mortal from two human parents (rather than being the offspring of either the Father or the Holy Spirit) in order to fulfill his Messianic role. In essence, Strang claimed that the earthly Christ was "adopted" as God's son at birth, and he was fully revealed to be such during the Transfiguration. After proving himself to God by living a perfectly sinless life, he was enabled to provide an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of men, prior to his resurrection and ascension.
Furthermore, Strang denied the belief that God could do all things, and he insisted that some things were as impossible for Him as for us. Thus, he saw no essential conflict between science and religion, and while he never openly championed evolution, he did state that God's ability to use His power was limited by the matter which He was working with and it was also limited by the eons of time which were required to "organize" and shape it. Strang spoke glowingly about a future generation of people who would "make religion a science," to be "studied by as exact rules as mathematicks." "The mouth of the Seer will be opened," he prophesied, "and the whole earth enlightened."
Musing at length on the nature of sin and evil, Strang wrote that of all of the things that God could give to man, He could never give him experience. Thus, if "free agency" was real, said Strang, humanity must be given the opportunity to fail and learn from its own mistakes. The ultimate goal for each human being was to willingly conform oneself to the "revealed character" of God in every respect, preferring to do good rather than preferring to do evil not out of fear of punishment and not out of any desire for rewards, but preferring to do good solely "on account of the innate loveliness of undefiled goodness; of pure unalloyed holiness."
### Practices
Strang strongly believed in the sanctity of the seventh-day Sabbath, and he enjoined it in lieu of Sunday; the Strangite church continues to observe this tradition. He advocated baptism for the dead, and practiced it to a limited extent in Voree as well as on Beaver Island. He also introduced animal sacrifice–not as atonement for sin, but as a part of Strangite celebration rituals. Animal sacrifices and baptisms for the dead are not currently practiced by the Strangite organization, but belief in each is still required by it. Strang attempted to construct a temple in Voree, but he was prevented from completing its construction due to the poverty and lack of cooperation which existed among his followers. No "endowment" rituals which are comparable to those in the Utah LDS and the Cutlerite churches appear to have existed among his followers. Eternal marriage formed a part of Strang's teaching, but he did not require it to be performed in a temple (as is the case in the LDS church). Thus, such marriages are still contracted in Strang's church in the absence of any Strangite temple or any "endowment" ceremony. Alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea were all prohibited, just as they were in many other Latter Day Saint denominations. Polygamy is no longer practiced by Strang's followers, but belief in its correctness is still affirmed by them.
Strang allowed women to hold the Priesthood offices of Priest and Teacher, unique among all Latter Day Saint factions during his lifetime. He welcomed African Americans into his church, and he ordained at least two of them to its eldership. Strang also mandated the conservation of land and resources, requiring the building of parks and the retention of large forests in his kingdom. He wrote an eloquent refutation of the "Solomon Spalding theory" of the Book of Mormon's authorship, and defended the ministry and teachings of Joseph Smith.
## Coronation and troubled reign on Beaver Island
Strang claimed that he was required to occupy the office of king as it is described in the Book of the Law of the Lord. He insisted that this authority was incumbent upon all holders of the prophetic office from the beginning of time, in similar fashion to Smith, who was secretly crowned as "king" of the Kingdom of God before his murder. Strang was accordingly crowned in 1850 by his counselor and Prime Minister, George J. Adams. About 300 people witnessed his coronation, for which he wore a bright red flannel robe which was topped by a white collar with black speckles. His crown was made of tin, rather than gold, and it is described in one account as being "a shiny metal ring with a cluster of glass stars in the front." Strang also sported a breastplate and carried a wooden scepter. His reign lasted six years, and the date of his coronation, July 8, is still mandated as one of the two most important dates in the Strangite church year (the other being April 6, the anniversary of the founding of Joseph Smith's church).
Strang never claimed to be the king of Beaver Island itself, nor did he claim to be the king of any other geographical entity. Instead, he claimed to be king of his church, which he considered the true "Kingdom of God" which was prophesied in Scripture and destined to spread itself over all the earth. Nor did Strang ever say that his "kingdom" supplanted United States sovereignty over Beaver Island. However, since his sect was the main religious body on the isle, claiming the allegiance of most of its inhabitants, Strang often asserted his authority on Beaver, even over non-Strangites—a practice which ultimately caused him and his followers a great deal of grief. Furthermore, he and many of his disciples were accused of forcibly appropriating property and revenue on the island, a practice which earned him few friends among the non-Mormon "gentiles."
On the other hand, Strang and his people lived in apprehension of what their non-member neighbors might do next. Some Strangites were beaten up while they were going to the post office in order to collect their mail, and some of their homes were robbed and even seized by "gentiles" while Strangite men were away. On July 4, 1850, a drunken mob of fishermen vowed to kill the "Mormons" or drive them out, only to be awed into submission when Strang fired a cannon (which he had secretly acquired) at them. Competition for business and jobs added to tensions on the island, as did the increasing Strangite monopoly on local government, made sure after Beaver and adjacent islands were first attached to Emmet County in 1853, then later organized into their own insular county of Manitou in 1855.
As a result of his coronation, along with lurid tales which were being spread by George Adams (who had been excommunicated by Strang a few months after the ceremony), Strang was accused of treason, counterfeiting, trespassing on government land, and theft, along with other crimes. He was brought to trial in Detroit, Michigan, after President Millard Fillmore ordered US District Attorney George Bates to investigate the rumors about Strang and his colony. Strang's successful trial defense brought him considerable favorable press, which he used as leverage when he ran for, and won, a seat on the Michigan state legislature as a Democrat in 1853. Facing a determined effort to deny him this seat due to the hostility of his enemies, he was permitted to address the legislature in his defense, after which the Michigan House of Representatives voted twice (first unanimously, then a second time by a 49–11 margin) to allow "King Strang" to join them.
In the 1853 legislative session, Strang introduced ten bills, five of which passed. The Detroit Advertiser, on February 10, 1853, wrote of Strang: "Mr. Strang's course as a member of the present Legislature, has disarmed much of the prejudices which have previously surrounded him. Whatever may be said or thought of the peculiar sect of which he is the local head, I take pleasure in stating that throughout this session he has conducted himself with the degree of decorum and propriety which have been equaled by his industry, sagacity, good temper, apparent regard for the true interests of the people, and the obligations of his official oath." He was reelected in 1855, and did much to organize the upper portion of Michigan's lower peninsula into counties and townships. Strang ardently fought the illegal practice of trading liquor to local Native American tribes due to the common practice of selling them diluted liquor mixed with various contaminants at a high price. This made him many enemies among those non-Strangite residents of Beaver and nearby Mackinac Island who profited mightily from this illicit trade.
## Assassination
As with Joseph Smith before him, James Strang had problems with excommunicated or disaffected members who often became anti-Mormons and/or even conspired against him. One of the latter, Thomas Bedford, who had been flogged for engaging in adultery with another member's wife, blamed Strang for the flogging and sought revenge. Another, Dr. H.D. McCulloch, had been excommunicated for drunkenness and other alleged misdeeds, after previously enjoying Strang's favor and several high offices in local government. These men conspired against Strang along with the Mormons' enemies who were living in Mackinac, two of whom were Alexander Wentworth and Dr. J. Atkyn. Pistols were procured, and the four conspirators began several days of target practice while they finalized the details of their murderous plan.
Although Strang apparently knew that Bedford and the others were gunning for him, he openly challenged them in his newspaper, The Northern Islander, writing, "We laugh with bitter scorn at all these threats," just days before his murder. Strang refused to employ a bodyguard or carry a firearm or any other type of weapon.
On Monday, June 16, 1856, Strang was waylaid around 7:00 PM on the dock at the harbor of St. James, the chief city on Beaver Island, by Wentworth and Bedford, who shot him in the back. All of this was carried out in full view of several officers and men who were stationed on the USS Michigan, a US Naval vessel which was docked in the harbor. Nobody aboard the ship made any effort to either warn or aid the intended victim.
Strang was hit three times: one bullet grazed his head, another bullet lodged in his cheek and a third bullet lodged in his spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. One of the assassins then savagely pistol-whipped the victim before running aboard the nearby vessel with his companion, where both claimed sanctuary. Some accused Captain McBlair of the Michigan of being complicit in, or at least of having foreknowledge of, the assassination plot, though no hard evidence to support their accusation was ever forthcoming. The "King of Beaver Island" was taken to Voree, where he lived for three weeks, dying on July 9, 1856, at the age of 43. After refusing to deliver Bedford and Wentworth to the local sheriff, McBlair transported them to Mackinac Island, where they were given a mock trial, fined \$1.25, released, and then feted by the locals. None of the plotters was ever punished for his crimes.
## Death of a kingdom
While Strang lingered on his deathbed in Voree, his enemies in Michigan were determined to extinguish his Beaver Island kingdom. On July 5, 1856, on what Michigan historian Byron M. Cutcheon later called "the most disgraceful day in Michigan's history," a drunken mob of "gentiles" from Mackinac and elsewhere descended upon the island and forcibly evicted every Strangite from it. Strang's subjects on the island—approximately 2,600 persons—were herded onto hastily commandeered steamers, most after being robbed of their money and other personal possessions, and unceremoniously dumped onto docks along the shores of Lake Michigan. A few of them moved back to Voree, while the rest scattered across the country.
Strang refused to appoint a successor, telling his apostles to take care of their families as best they could, and await divine instruction. While his supporters endeavored to keep his church alive, Strang's unique dogma which required his successor to be ordained by angels made his church unappealing to Latter Day Saints who were expecting to be led by a prophet. Lorenzo Dow Hickey, the last of Strang's apostles, emerged as an ad-hoc leader until his death in 1897, followed by Wingfield W. Watson, a High Priest in Strang's organization (until he died in 1922). However, neither of these men ever claimed Strang's office or authority.
Left without a prophet to guide them, most of Strang's followers (including all of his wives) departed from his church in the years after his murder. Most of them later joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which was established in 1860. However, a few Latter Day Saints continue to carry on Strang's mission. Strang's last and most important revelation, The Book of the Law of the Lord states that a prophet president is "...only necessary for the establishment of the rest of God, and bringing everlasting righteousness on earth. A lesser degree of the Priesthood has frequently stood at the head of the people of God on earth" (p. 251). Consequently, instead of believing that Strang's demise and his refusal to appoint a successor are failures, they believe that they are maintaining the pure faith and awaiting the appearance of a new successor who will take the place of their fallen founders. They believe that their position is bolstered by revelations which were given by Smith and Strang in which they stated that the condemnation of the church is prophetic and a sign of general apostasy.
Today, there are several groups and individual Strangite disciples who operate autonomously. One of these groups is a corporate church which is led by a Presiding High Priest, Bill Shepard, who claims that he does not have Joseph Smith or James Strang's authority or priesthood office. Another group, which is led by Samuel West, claims that the first faction is in error, and it also claims that by incorporating in 1961, it lost its identity as a faithful continuation of Strang's organization. This second group claims that it is the sole true remnant of James Strang's church. Missionary work is no longer emphasized by Strangites (as it is by the LDS and many other Latter Day Saint sects), because they tend to believe that after the murder of three prophets (Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and James Strang) God closed His dispensation to the "gentiles" of the West. Consequently, Strang's church has continued to dwindle until the present day. The current membership of the corporate church comprises around 300 persons, while the Samuel West group claims to have several thousand members in the US and Africa.
While proving to be a key player in the 1844 succession struggle, Strang's long-term influence on the Latter Day Saint movement was minimal. His doctrinal innovations had little impact outside his church, and he was largely ignored until recent historians began to reexamine his life and career. Even the county (Manitou) which he had fought to establish was abolished by the Michigan legislature in 1895, removing the last tangible remnant of Strang's temporal empire. Of all of his efforts, Strang's most vital (albeit unintended) one was his contribution to the Latter Day Saint religion which turned out to provide some of the impetus behind the creation of the Reorganized Church, which became a major rival of the Utah-based LDS Church and other Latter Day Saint groups—including his own.
## See also
- List of homicides in Michigan
- List of assassinated American politicians |
34,136,083 | Jill Marsden (EastEnders) | 1,173,790,416 | UK soap opera character, created 2001 | [
"British female characters in television",
"EastEnders characters",
"Fictional British police detectives",
"Police misconduct in fiction",
"Television characters introduced in 2001"
]
| DCI Jill Marsden is a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sophie Stanton. She made her first appearance on 5 March 2001 investigating the shooting of Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), which was part of the whodunit storyline "Who Shot Phil?". Marsden returned in 2002, 2003 and 2009 (for another whodunit storyline, "Who Killed Archie?"). She returned on 5 January 2012 for her third whodunit storyline, "Who's Stalking Phil?", departing four months later on 10 May 2012. Marsden returned for two episodes on 17 August 2012 to conclude the latter storyline. On 16 July 2015, she returned for part of the "Who Killed Lucy Beale?" whodunit storyline.
When she was brought back in 2009, Marsden's feelings were explored in a segment of the BBC EastEnders homepage entitled "Marsden's Video Diaries", documenting the character's thoughts about the storyline in which she was involved. Marsden's relationship with Phil has been explored since her first appearance, with the BBC describing their relationship as a "romance in negative...her ultimate dream is that some day she'll get [Phil] behind bars" and the Daily Mirror's Tony Stewart calling her Phil's "arch enemy".
The character has been criticised by police detectives who felt that Marsden's habit of discussing investigation details with suspects (as her colleagues accepted bribes) did not properly represent their profession. In response, the BBC said it had sought advice from a police consultant for storylines involving Marsden.
## Storylines
### 2001–2003
Jill Marsden first appears on Albert Square in March 2001, having been assigned as the chief police detective in charge of investigating the shooting of local hardman Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden). She identifies the five main suspects: Phil's stepson Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), ex-business partner Dan Sullivan (Craig Fairbrass), sworn enemy Steve Owen (Martin Kemp), love rival Mark Fowler (Todd Carty), and former girlfriend Lisa Shaw (Lucy Benjamin). After Marsden interrogates each of the suspects behind Phil's shooting, it is eventually transpired in April 2001 that Lisa was the culprit. However, Phil gradually forgives Lisa and decides to frame Dan for the crime instead. He plants the gun, which Lisa took from Steve's office, in Dan's possession and enables for Marsden and her colleagues to arrest Dan for shooting Phil. A couple of months later, however, Dan is acquitted due to lack of evidence. Marsden later arrests local housewife Little Mo Slater (Kacey Ainsworth) for the attempted murder of her husband Trevor Morgan (Alex Ferns). Little Mo claims self-defence, since she has been a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Trevor. The trial ends, with Trevor's treatment of Little Mo revealed. In 2003, local resident Sonia Jackson (Natalie Cassidy) visits Marsden with evidence that Phil killed his ex-girlfriend Lisa. Marsden sets up a honey-trap for Phil in order to obtain a confession from him, with PC Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny) and DI Dominic Price (Paul Brennen) aiding her in the case; however, this fails when Kate falls in love with Phil and Marsden fires her. Marsden arrests Phil, but with insufficient evidence and no confession he is released. It later emerges that Lisa is safe and well, and Phil is innocent. This forces Marsden to let Phil off the hook, but she later arrests him for armed robbery; Phil's arch-rivals Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) and his illegitimate son Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman) have worked together to set him up for the crime in revenge for what he did to their beloved family member, Sharon (Letitia Dean).
### 2009–2010
Marsden reappears on Albert Square in 2009 when Phil's villainous uncle, Archie (Larry Lamb), is murdered on Christmas Day 2009. She arrives on the scene when several people claim that Archie's partner-in-crime, Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), had killed him - though but Marsden waits before questioning her, and decides to interrogate the Mitchells first. She makes a televised appeal for witnesses and later interviews Phil, but he is provided an alibi by his new girlfriend Shirley Carter (Linda Henry). A few days later, a red fingernail is found at the scene of the murder; Marsden visits the female locals, checking their hands. When Marsden notices Shirley's best-friend Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison) is at a vulnerable state over the matter, she questions Heather about Christmas Day and Heather accidentally tells Marsden that Phil wasn't there. Marsden interviews Phil and later visits his home, asking to see the clothes he was wearing on Christmas Day. Shirley shows her a clean shirt; Marsden closes the laundrette, hoping anyone with blood-stained clothes will not be able to wash them. After a tip-off, Marsden arrests Phil's sister Sam (Danniella Westbrook) for the murder; Sam has accused her and Phil's mother, Peggy (Barbara Windsor), for killing Archie. Later on, Marsden confirms that she was there to talk to Peggy; she had been questioning Peggy and Sam at the police station. Peggy is released without charge; however, Sam is detained for jumping bail. Marsden visits Janine, who insists that people will say anything to get her in trouble. She asks Janine why she was out in the cold on Christmas Day, and asks if Janine knows where Archie's laptop as it had gone missing.
On 18 January, Marsden arrests Ian after Janine told her that Ian took advantage of her, stole Archie's laptop, which had a recording of them having sex on it, and dumped it in the canal. Ian refuses to talk, but when Marsden shows him CCTV footage of him dumping the laptop, and then shows him the recovered laptop, he admits visiting Archie on Christmas Day; claiming that Archie was threatening him and that he merely visited him to delete the recording. Ian denies murdering Archie, but Marsden is unconvinced and later charges him. A couple of days later, Janine tells Marsden she saw Ian leave the Queen Victoria on Christmas Day but the bust of Queen Victoria was on the bar after he left. Marsden places Janine at the scene, but she also denies murdering Archie. Marsden tells Ian that although the murder charge will be dropped, he will still be charged with burglary and theft of Archie's laptop. She and DC Wayne Hughes (Jamie Treacher) attend Archie's funeral, watching people's reactions in the hope of a new lead. Peggy returns to Archie's grave; when Marsden asks why, she explains that she didn't believe him when he said his cancer had returned.
The following week, Archie's daughter Ronnie (Samantha Womack) spots Marsden talking to her ex-boyfriend Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) about Archie's murder; Jack tells Ronnie that he was fishing for information. With no new leads, Marsden's boss threatens to take her off the case. She reviews the suspects and decides to question Jack, since he is asking more questions than he has answered. In the café, Marsden and Hughes discuss new information she has obtained - ensuring that she is overheard. Chinese whispers-style rumours circulate, ending with the certainty that Marsden would arrest Ronnie. Ronnie sees Marsden in the Square, and a struggle ensues. She knocks Marsden down, prompting her to arrest Ronnie - who is later charged with assaulting a police officer; Ronnie is subsequently released on bail. Marsden suspects Ronnie further, saying that she has now shown her true colours. Later, Marsden witnesses fellow policewoman DC Jasmine Field (Karen Ascoe) entering the pub with other officers to arrest a suspect; frightened, Ronnie leaves Walford. Marsden is suspicious when Jasmine arrests Jack's stepmother, Dot (June Brown), for assaulting her granddaughter Dotty (Molly Conlin).; earlier on, Dot slapped Dotty after she insulted her and wish that she had died at the hands of her father and Dot's criminal son - Nick (John Altman). Shortly after Dot is taken into custody, though later released without charge, Jack accuses Marsden for unnecessarily sending am uniformed officer to arrest Dot and unsettle the locals; he later realizes there was no new information.
Janine tells Marsden that Ronnie has fled, but Marsden finds her at the Queen Vic. Marsden remarks that a new forensic profile has been found, and DNA screening of white males will shortly begin. After Hughes accepts a bribe from Jack to make the DNA samples disappear, Marsden receives an anonymous tip-off. The police search Janine's flat, finding the engagement ring that went missing the night of Archie's murder, and Janine is arrested; she is later released for lack of evidence. The police are again called with a warrant to arrest Jack's nephew Bradley (Charlie Clements), after his ex-lover Becca Swanson (Simone James) told Marsden that Bradley had attacked Archie on Christmas Day. Marsden spots him when his phone rings; two officers chase Bradley to the roof, where he stumbles and falls to his death. The investigation ends, since the police believe that Bradley had killed Archie; however, his killer was actually Bradley's estranged wife Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) - who later confesses the murder to her father-in-law Max (Jake Wood).
### 2012
In January 2012, Ian's one-time lover Denise Fox (Diane Parish) gives Marsden a letter that incriminates Phil in the death of a homeless man - who is reported to have died after Phil torched the car lot in an insurance scam in 1994; she adds that Phil also murdered his ex-fiance, Stella Crawford (Sophie Thompson), and Marsden thanks Denise for the information. Marsden arrives in Walford and begins trailing Phil. She asks Denise not to tell Phil that she is in town, wanting to ensure Phil's imprisonment. Marsden then targets Phil's son, Ben (Joshua Pascoe), interviewing him about Stella's death. Ben was abused by Stella and finds Marsden's questions distressing; however, she continues to press him. After a falling-out with Phil Ben changes his statement, telling Marsden that Phil told Stella to jump off a building or he would push her. Marsden then arrests Phil for murder, and Ben reveals he was stalking him. She informs Phil's partner, Shirley, that he has been charged with Stella's murder. Ben pleads with Marsden to keep his statement a secret from the Mitchells, but she tells him he must accept that his father will learn about Ben's involvement in his arrest eventually. After discovering Ben's lies about his father, Ian then passes this information on to Marsden and Ben is arrested. On the day Phil release, he helps Ben hide his involvement in Heather's murder; Marsden tells Phil at the police station she will contact him about Ben's accusations. The charges against Ben are dropped; Marsden visits Phil, taunting him that he will eventually slip up and further implies that Ben may ultimately bring him to justice
In August, Marsden reappears when Ben confesses Heather's murder. She does not believe his confession, thinking it is another lie to get attention from Phil. However, Ben is arrested and charged with the murder after Marsden helps fellow policeman DS Luke Crisp (Rufus Wright) convince Ben's best-friend, Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick), to implicate him as Heather's killer.
### 2015
In July 2015, Phil learns that Marsden is aiding her colleague DI Samantha Keeble (Alison Newman) with investigating the murder of Ian's daughter Lucy (Hetti Bywater); her father and the Beale family were earlier informed that Marsden would be coordinating with the case. When Phil answers the door that Marsden is knocking outside his house, he is shocked and appalled when she wants to speak to Ben about Lucy's murder. Phil slams the door in her face and then attempts to delay Marsden so Ben can flee Walford, but Ben is eventually arrested.
## Development
### Characterisation
Nicknamed the "female sleuth" by the Daily Record, Marsden's profile on the EastEnders website describes her as "fearless, [a] no-nonsense copper and the scourge of Walford’s criminal fraternity." The East Anglian Daily Times described Marsden as "tough", Ian Hyland from The Mirror called her "scary" and Nancy Banks-Smith from The Guardian characterised her as "strict". Naomi Mcelroy described Marsden as a "curly-haired copper", but said as a detective she was "rubbish"; Polly Hudson from The Daily Mirror similarly opined, saying she was "useless" (as did Mcelroy), and stated that Marsden was "making a right pig's ear" of investigating Archie's (Lamb) murder. The Daily Mirror's Tony Stewart characterised her as "vindictive".
### Introduction, 2002 and 2003 returns
Marsden first appeared on 5 March 2001 in the "Who Shot Phil?" storyline. In the whodunit storyline the five main suspects were Dan Sullivan, Steve Owen, Lisa Shaw, Ian Beale and Mark Fowler. A source in the Daily Record said, "Sooner or later the truth will out. But until then there's going to be a lot of probing going on." She left on 27 March 2001 after unsuccessfully identifying the shooter (who turned out to be Lisa). In 2002 she appeared in January, April and from 14 November to 6 December. In November, when Marsden returns, the police suspect that Phil has murdered his ex-wife Lisa. The Daily Mirror said, "They are the words Phil Mitchell has heard many times before. 'You're nicked', baldy. Intrepid DCI Marsden may not be a Jane Tennison, but she's nabbed her prime suspect. "I've got some good news for you, Phil," she says, after arresting him on suspicion of murder. "The police in Portugal found your jacket. Unfortunately for you, it's covered in blood. Mrs Fowler's blood..." In 2003, Marsden returned in March July, August, November and for a longer stint in December.
### Who Killed Archie? and 2012 returns
In November 2009, it was reported that Stanton would reprise her role as Jill. Digital Spy forum members had previously pointed out that her return was hinted at in a photo on the official EastEnders website and in a feature ("Script Peek") where Phil is quoted as saying, "I know exactly what makes her tick" before adding "I've wriggled off her hook so many times. She's already picturing me standing in the dock" in the 29 December episode. Marsden returned to investigate the murder of Archie Mitchell. A source told Digital Spy, "Marsden has a score to settle with Phil. She was never far behind Phil when he put a foot out of place all those years ago and she's back with a vengeance...With so many people in the frame for Archie's murder, Marsden has a difficult job on her hands if she wants to pin it on Phil." Of her return she said, "It came completely out of the blue, and knocked me for six."...I really thought Marsden was no more. It was a really great surprise because I’d just finished a year’s run at the National Theatre, appearing in a new play called England People Very Nice – so it couldn’t have come at a better time." She returned on 28 December 2009.
Although Stanton did not know who murdered Archie, she guessed that it could be Stacey Slater (which turned out to be correct). Speaking of this, she said that Sophie was one of the few to correctly guess it was Stacey. "I had an epiphany about a week before the live episode. It was a memory of the whole Who Shot Phil? storyline, and how there were eight different suspects, including some really hard blokes, and it turned out to be Lisa. I knew DCI Marsden wasn’t going to get the culprit, because of a couple of scenes of the following episode we’d shot in December, and I thought that narratively, Stacey was the only person who the audience would forgive, and who could get away with it. That was my theory and it turned out to be right!" Naomi Mcelroy from The Sunday Mirror thought that Marsden could be Archie's killer. Marsden left on 22 February 2010, and returned on 5 January 2012. She returned after Phil is framed for Kevin Wicks' (Phil Daniels)'s death and that of a homeless man, who died accidentally in a car-lot fire (part of an insurance scam). According to Inside Soap the police would begin questioning Phil's former fiancée Stella Crawford's death, teasing Marsden's return: "The investigation is set to bring Phil face to face with his old nemesis, DCI Marsden – and this time she'll stop at nothing to put the bad boy permanently behind bars". Digital Spy reported that Marsden re-opens the investigation into Stella's death, "suspecting that all is not what it seems". Finally, Marsden returned for two single episodes on 17 August 2012.
### Who Killed Lucy Beale?
In July 2015, it was revealed that Stanton would be reprising her role as Marsden for the continuation of the Who Killed Lucy Beale? storyline. Whilst viewers know Bobby Beale is the culprit, Marsden, Samantha Keeble and Cameron Bryant will reportedly make an arrest for the murder, arresting an innocent suspect.
## Related media
The BBC used viral promotion on the EastEnders homepage to further develop the storyline of Who Killed Archie?, with Marsden the main character in the nine videos. A new section ("Marsden's Video Diaries") was launched, encompassing events on the show from 25 December 2009 onwards in diary style from Marsden's point of view. Insight was provided on the character's thoughts and feelings on the events surrounding her each week, beginning with the introduction: "Christmas Day. I should be at home with my feet up eating a mince pie and watching the Doctor Who Christmas special. Instead, I’ve been called into work. Murder. A bloody one too. The victim, one Archibald Mitchell. Not the first time a Mitchell's ruined my night. Still, if this leads to Phil Mitchell all wrapped up in Walford nick by New Years day, might be the best present I’ve ever had." On the videos Marsden discussed evidence, suspects she had brought in and her relationship with Phil.
During the next three video diaries, Marsden talks about the suspects and the evidence against them. In episode three it is Ronnie, Peggy and Sam; in episode four she talks about Janine Butcher, and in episode five she discusses Ian's motives. Towards the end of the series (in episode seven), Marsden's boss threatens to fire her if she does not capture the culprit: "I’ve got to get someone. I’ve got to pin this on someone. Every address in the immediate area door-stopped. Five suspects questioned, one arrest. Nothing. They tell me nothing. Mitchell, the ex wife, the daughter, Beale, Butcher, [Jack] Branning, I’m getting closer, I just need time. Of course my boss is putting pressure on. Says I’m losing my touch, That he'll take the case of me. This is my case. Somebody's going down for it and it ain’t going to be me." In the penultimate episode, Marsden announces that the DNA results have come through; this is aired on EastEnders. The final episode of Marsden's Video Diaries aired on 19 February 2010, three days before Marsden's departure in 2010. In this episode ("Case Closed"), the Lionel Richie song "Hello" plays as the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline replays with the focus on Marsden. The BBC described the episode: "DCI Marsden's caught Archie's killer – or she's collared someone for it at least. But Hello!? Was it Phil she was looking for? Don't tell us you didn't spot the latent chemistry between this pair. Shirley must have been livid. We wouldn't like to surmise what the DCI planned to do with Phil if she got him behind bars. But we do hope this is one Endless Love that will be revisited..."
### Marsden's Video Diaries episodes
## Reception
When Marsden returned in December 2002, Ian Hyland of The Mirror said he disliked the "smouldering" sexual tension between Phil and Marsden. Jo Atkison of the Western Mail discussed the Marsden-Kate-Phil storyline, saying, "Betrayal with a capital B is the order of the day in the Square this week. It's the cop Kate plot I'm interested in. To shop or not to shop is a dilemma that Kate finds hard to cope with as she waits for the confession that will nail Phil for good". In an interview with the East Anglian Daily Times, Stanton remarked that she was frequently asked to have her photo taken due to her role in EastEnders.
Real-life police detectives criticised the portrayals of detectives Marsden and her colleague DC Wayne Hughes in the show, saying that viewers who see them talking to residents about the case and accepting bribes may believe that the police operate that way in reality. The BBC insisted that a police consultant was used, adding that "this is heightened fiction and all the things that we show might not always represent real life." A spokesperson said, "We always have a police consultant on shows like this that we go to before casting." Jane Simon and Brian Mclver described Marsden as having an "appetite for making random arrests". Simon added, "While the list of suspects includes the entire northern hemisphere, it's time for DCI Marsden to make another of her daily arrests. Like a Formula One pit stop, she has got it down to a fine art." Kevin O'Sullivan of the Sunday Mirror commented on the "Who Killed Archie?" storyline: "Despite widespread apathy, Albert Square's Cockney rabble trundle on with the life-sapping saga of Who Killed Archie? Who gives a toss? While potential murderers Phil, Ian, Bradley (Charlie Clements) and the gang hint furtively at their guilt, the absurd DCI Marple – sorry Marsden – keeps arresting bunny-boiler Ronnie without a shred of evidence. "I've spent 20 years building a career on hunches," bragged Miss Marsden. Yeah, and you've made it all the way to Walford nick. A real high flyer!"
In 2015, Laura-Jayne Tyler from Inside Soap bemoaned Marsden's return, saying "Can someone please explain to us why DCI Marsden is now in charge of the Lucy Beale case? She couldn't catch a bus, let along a killer."
## See also
- List of EastEnders characters (2001) |
51,256,265 | Merry-Go-Round (Ayumi Hamasaki song) | 1,054,700,266 | 2013 single by Ayumi Hamasaki | [
"2013 singles",
"2013 songs",
"Avex Trax singles",
"Ayumi Hamasaki songs",
"Songs written by Ayumi Hamasaki"
]
| "Merry-Go-Round" is a song recorded by Japanese recording artist Ayumi Hamasaki, featuring a rap section delivered by Japanese artist Verbal, for the singer's fifteenth studio album Colours (2014). It was released worldwide in six different formats on December 25, 2013 by Avex Trax, Avex Taiwan, and Avex Entertainment Inc. It was also Hamasaki's first physical release in three years since her EP–single L (2010), and her first double A-side single, alongside the track "Feel the Love", since "Moon" and "Blossom" that same year. The track was written by Hamasaki, whilst production was handled by Japanese musician and long-time collaborator Max Matsuura with the assistance of M-Flo; this marks Hamasaki's first single to be produced with another producer outside of Matsuura. Musically, "Merry-Go-Round" is an electronic dance song that includes guitars and synthesizers in its instrumentation.
Upon its release, "Merry-Go-Round" received favorable reviews from music critics. The majority of them praised the composition, production, and Hamasaki's vocal performance, whilst others also highlighted the track as one of the best entries on Colours. Charting together with "Feel the Love", it underperformed in Japan, reaching number five on the Oricon Singles Chart, and was her first single to miss the top spot since her single "Daybreak" twelve years earlier. Two accompanying music videos were shot by Luis Hernandez and Satoru Yokoyama, which featured Hamasaki in Los Angeles, California at the top of a skyscraper, and her with another man; the Yokoyama version also included an appearance with Verbal. To promote the single, Hamasaki performed the track on her 2013–2014 Countdown live tour.
## Background and composition
On October 24, 2013, it was confirmed through Japanese publication Natalie that Hamasaki would release a double A-side single titled "Feel the Love"/"Merry-Go-Round", and would serve as the singer's first physical release in three years since her EP–single L (2010). It was also her first double A-side single, alongside the track "Feel the Love", since "Moon" and "Blossom" that same year. The recording was written by Hamasaki, whilst production was handled by Japanese musician and long-time collaborator Max Matsuura with the assistance of Japanese group M-Flo; this marks Hamasaki's first single to be produced with another producer instead of a sole production by Matsuura. Musically, "Merry-Go-Round" is an electronic dance song. It was composed by Japanese musicians Jeb, Unico, alongside M-Flo, and featured backing vocals by Japanese vocalist Yuta Nakano; it also features synthesizers, acoustic and electric guitars, and keyboards in its instrumentation. "Merry-Go-Round" was one of the only tracks on Hamasaki's fifteenth studio album Colours to have been recorded in Japanese language, containing minor phrases in English.
## Release
"Feel the Love"/"Merry-Go-Round" was released in six different formats on December 25, 2013 by Avex Trax, Avex Taiwan, and Avex Entertainment Inc. worldwide, and served as the lead single and double A-side release from her album Colours. The CD release featured the two original recordings and the original instrumental versions, plus a remix for "Feel the Love" by DJ Hello Kitty and Blasterjaxx. The CD and DVD format incorporated the same track list, but also included the video clips to "Feel the Love" and "Merry-Go-Round". A limited edition CD and DVD format was distributed through Hamasaki's fan club website TeamAyu, and included the same track list on both discs alongside a bonus interview with Hamasaki on the latter DVD disc. The digital EP incorporates the same tracks. To promote the single's release date on Christmas Day and during Hamasaki's Countdown live tour for New Year's Day in 2014, Avex Trax distributed three music cards featuring the same content; the first was a promotional shot from the single's photoshoot, whilst the latter two celebrated Christmas and New Years with her signature AyuPan character design.
## Reception
Upon its release, "Merry-Go-Round" received favorable reviews from music critics. A staff member of Japanese music magazine CD Journal complimented M-Flo's contribution towards the single, and praised the overall production of the track. Alongside this, a separate review for her album Colours selected it as one of the best tracks. Dato from KKbox.com was generally positive towards the composition by Tetsuya Komuro, but criticized the generic and "brainwashing" production for portraying an electronic sound. However, he selected it as one of his recommended tracks from the album. Similarly, a member from Mojim.com praised the "charming" and "dance floor"-inspired production and commended its overall composition; the review also complimented Verbal's vocal performance.
Charting together with "Feel the Love", the track underperformed in Japan. It debuted at number five on the Oricon Singles Chart, selling 30,385 units in its first week. It became her first single to miss the top spot since her recording "Daybreak" twelve years earlier, and one of her lowest first-week sales in her career. It fell to number 16 the following week, selling 4,704 units, and eventually lasted for six weeks on the chart. By the end of 2014, it sold 37,366 units. Both singles reached number seven on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart in Japan, and stayed there for three weeks.
## Promotion
Two music videos were shot for the single by Luis Hernandez and Satoru Yokoyama, respectively. Hernandez's version opens with busy streets and the dawn of Los Angeles, California. Hamasaki begins singing the song on top of a skyscraper, whilst several intercut scenes of people walking around Los Angeles during a time lapse are shown. She is then seen painting a picture of an unidentified man, who raps Verbal's part. It then shows intercut scenes of traffic, a carousel and couple standing near a bridge. Several parts of these scenes are revised throughout the entire video, which ends with Hamasaki again on top of the skyscraper. For Yokoyama's video, only shots featuring Verbal were only filmed, alongside scenes of him walking through a city in Japan, and residing in a neon-lit club. Parts of Hernandez's version, with the scenes of Hamasaki painting a man and scenes of Los Angeles city and public, were removed in order to merge the first video and Verbal's appearance together. This version premiered one week before the album's release on July 2, and was included on the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of Colours.
To promote the single, Hamasaki performed the track on her 2013–2014 A Countdown Live show at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo. It was included on the track list for the live DVD, released on April 30, 2014. On June 18, 2014, weeks prior to the release of Colours, Hamasaki released a non-stop megamix album entitled EDMA, which included the track and other songs from Colours.
## Track list and formats
- CD single
1. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) – 5:22
2. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) – 5:09
3. "Feel the Love" (DJ Hello Kitty Remix) – 5:25
4. "Feel the Love" (Blasterjaxx Remix) – 5:30
5. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) [Instrumental] – 5:22
6. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) [Instrumental] – 5:09
- CD and DVD single
1. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) – 5:22
2. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) – 5:09
3. "Feel the Love" (DJ Hello Kitty Remix) – 5:25
4. "Feel the Love" (Blasterjaxx Remix) – 5:30
5. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) [Instrumental] – 5:22
6. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) [Instrumental] – 5:09
7. "Feel the Love" (Music video)
8. "Merry-Go-Round" (Music video)
- Music Cards
1. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) – 5:22
2. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) – 5:09
3. "Feel the Love" (DJ Hello Kitty Remix) – 5:25
4. "Feel the Love" (Blasterjaxx Remix) – 5:30
5. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) [Instrumental] – 5:22
6. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) [Instrumental] – 5:09
- Digital EP
1. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) – 5:22
2. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) – 5:09
3. "Feel the Love" (DJ Hello Kitty Remix) – 5:25
4. "Feel the Love" (Blasterjaxx Remix) – 5:30
5. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) [Instrumental] – 5:22
6. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) [Instrumental] – 5:09
- US digital single
1. "Feel the Love" (Original mix) – 5:22
2. "Merry-Go-Round" (Original mix) – 5:09
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the CD liner notes of "Feel the Love"/"Merry-Go-Round".
Recording and management
- Recorded and mixed at Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, California in 2013. Management by Avex Trax.
Credits
- Ayumi Hamasaki – vocals, songwriting, backing vocals
- Yuta Nakano – backing vocals
- Mitsunori Ikeda – arrangement, programming
- Tachytelic – arrangement, programming
- Jaycen Joshua – mixing
- Jeb – composition
- Unico – composition
- M-Flo – composition, production
- Verbal – rapping, songwriting
- Gori Kumamoto – photography
- Max Matsuura – production
- Luis Hernandez – music video director
- Satoru Yokoyama – music video director
## Charts and sales
### Weekly charts
### Sales
## Release history |
27,540,718 | Park51 | 1,161,622,658 | Proposed Islamic community center in Manhattan, New York | [
"Aftermath of the September 11 attacks",
"Freedom of expression in the United States",
"Islam and politics",
"Islam-related controversies in North America",
"Mosque-related controversies",
"Proposed buildings and structures in New York City",
"Proposed mosques",
"Religious buildings and structures in Manhattan"
]
| Park51 (originally named Cordoba House) is a development originally envisioned as a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The developers hoped to promote an interfaith dialogue within the greater community. Due to its proposed location, two blocks from the World Trade Center site of the September 11 attacks, the proposed building was widely and controversially referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque".
The project would replace an existing 1850s Italianate building that was damaged in the attacks. The original design was by SOMA Architects principal Michel Abboud, who wrestled for months with the challenge of making the building fit naturally into its lower Manhattan surroundings. He felt it should have a contemporary design, but also look Islamic. His design included a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare area, bookstore, culinary school, art studio, food court, and a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks. It also included a prayer space for the Muslim community that would accommodate 1,000–2,000 people.
In late September 2011, a temporary 4,000-square-foot (370 m<sup>2</sup>) Islamic center opened in renovated space at the Park51 location. In summer 2014, it was announced that there would instead be a 3-story museum with a prayer space, as well as condos, at 49-51 Park Place. The plans were changed again in September 2015 when the owner announced a 667-foot (203 m) 70-story luxury condominium building at the site. In May 2016, financing was secured for a 43-story condominium building with room for an Islamic cultural museum adjacent to it.
The condominium building, called 45 Park Place, started construction in 2017 and was nearly completed by 2019. Construction of the Islamic cultural space, slated to contain 16,000 square feet (1,500 m<sup>2</sup>) of space and measure 71 feet (22 m) tall at 51 Park Place, had not begun as of 2023.
## Background and 2010 controversy
Plans to build what was then called "Cordoba House" were reported in The New York Times in December 2009, at a location that was already in use for Muslim worship. Early response to the project was not pronounced, and one libertarian commentator provided positive coverage. The plans were reviewed by Manhattan Community Board 1 in May 2010, at which time they attracted some national media attention. The project's organizers stated that it was intended to be "a platform for multi-faith dialogue, striving to promote inter-community peace, tolerance and understanding; locally in New York City, nationally in America, and globally." They said that it was modeled on the noted Manhattan Jewish Community Center at 76th Street and Amsterdam Ave. The proposal triggered an intense nationwide controversy. Protests were sparked by a campaign launched by conservative bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert B. Spencer, founders of the group, Stop Islamization of America, who dubbed the project the "Ground Zero mosque", and a national controversy ensued.
Some opponents argued that the building itself would serve as a "victory memorial" to Islam. Others objected to its proximity to the site of the September 11 attacks, its scale, sources of funding, or expressed concern that the project's name was intended as a reference to the 8th century Umayyad conquest of Visigothic Córdoba.
Supporters argued that arguments against the building are based on the notion that Islam, rather than Islamic radicals, was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The New York Times reported that Muslim religious facilities previously existed at the World Trade Center itself before the attacks. Supporters argued the First Amendment protects the rights of the developers. They furthered argued that two positive opportunities exist with the project proceeding and coming to fruition: one, for Muslims can demonstrate peaceful Islamic values; and two, for Americans to reassert their commitment to tolerance and diversity.
Opponents cited polls showing that most Americans, including most residents of New York State and New York City, though not most residents of Manhattan, opposed it. Most Americans in 2010 did, however, believe the Park51 developers had a legal right to proceed with the project.
## Naming of the project
The project was originally called Cordoba House, then renamed Park51, in reference to the street address on Park Place. Later, the Imam leading the project introduced some ambiguity by again referring to the project as "Cordoba House". The Park51 website then clarified that Park51 is the community center, while Cordoba House is the "interfaith and religious component of the center".
Cordoba Initiative said the name "Cordoba House" was meant to invoke 8th–11th century Córdoba, Spain, which they called a model of peaceful coexistence among Muslims, Christians, and Jews. According to The Economist, the name was chosen because Muslims, Jews, and Christians created a center of learning in Córdoba together. The name was criticized; for example, Newt Gingrich said that it was "a deliberately insulting term" that symbolizes the Muslim conquerors' victory over Christian Spaniards, and noted that the Muslims had converted a Cordoba church into the third largest mosque in the world. Similarly, Raymond Ibrahim, an outspoken critic of Islam and former associate director of the Middle East Forum, said the project and name were not "a gesture of peace and interfaith dialogue" but were "allusive of Islamic conquest and consolidation" and that Americans should realize that mosques are not "Muslim counterparts to Christian churches" but rather, "are symbols of domination and centers of radicalization". The opposition to Park51 believes that Islam builds mosques on "conquered territory" as symbols of "territory" and "conquest".
Park51 is often referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque". Since it is neither located directly on the former World Trade Center site, Ground Zero, nor primarily a mosque, some news media have advised against the use of this term. The Associated Press suggested several alternate terms including "mosque 2 blocks from WTC site", "Muslim (or Islamic) center near WTC site", "mosque near ground zero", and "mosque near WTC site". Cordoba Initiative says the building is not strictly a mosque. Anushay Hossain in The Huffington Post criticises the use of the name Ground Zero mosque, and says it is "Not a mosque but an Islamic Community Center". Jean Marbella in The Baltimore Sun says the building is closer to a YMCA center than a house of worship.
## History
### Site use
#### Before 2001
45–47 Park Place was constructed between 1857 and 1858, in the Palazzo style architecture.
The stone-faced building, designed by Daniel D. Badger, was originally constructed for a shipping firm of a prominent New York shipping magnate. Its Italian palazzo style was a throwback to a prior time of European grandeur, and was intended to evoke images of economic might. The building is an example of the "store and loft" structures that were prevalent in the dry goods warehouse districts of Lower Manhattan.
The building was one of only a few stand-alone structures in southern Tribeca that were nominated – but never designated – as individual landmarks, during an effort in the 1980s to create a Tribeca historic district. In September 1989, the Commission had held public hearings and considered the building for landmark status, but it never acted on the matter, and the building was "calendared" ever since. By August 2010, city building records reflected that out of a group of 29 buildings that had been proposed for historic landmark designation in 1989, including 45–47 Park Place, twenty-three had been deemed landmarks and six were pending. The pending applications included 45–47 Park Place. At that point, New York City had more than 11,000 landmarked buildings.
Muslims had a presence in Lower Manhattan for many years prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks. At least two mosques existed near the World Trade Center, and several designated Muslim prayer rooms existed within the World Trade Center buildings.
#### September 11, 2001, attacks
During the September 11 attacks, the five story building at 45–47 Park Place, between West Broadway and Church Street, was severely damaged. When United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center, part of the plane's landing gear, engine and fuselage came out the north side of the tower and crashed through the roof of 45–47 Park Place, and through two of its floors. The plane parts destroyed three floor beams, and severely compromised the building's internal structure. The damage was not immediately noticed during an exterior assessment. It was later discovered during an interior assessment. In April 2013, the New York Police Department announced that surveyors inspecting the building had discovered a 17-inch (43 cm) wide piece, five feet (1.5 m) long airplane part complete with Boeing identification number wedged in an 18-inch (46 cm) wide alley between 51 Park and 50 Murray Street. Initially officials thought it was part of the landing gear but Boeing confirmed it was the trailing edge flap actuation support structure of an airplane flap from a Boeing 767, the type of jet which hit both towers. A photograph of the piece initially showed a rope around it. Police said the rope was used by an officer who lassoed it to see the identification number. Boeing could not say which specific plane it was from.
#### 2001–2009
The 45–47 Park Place building, located about two blocks (600 feet or 180 meters) north of the World Trade Center site, was owned by Stephen Pomerantz and his wife Kukiko Mitani and leased to the Burlington Coat Factory. For years, Mitani attempted to sell the building, at one point asking for \$18 million. It lay abandoned until its purchase in July 2009. For several months thereafter, the building was used as an overflow prayer space for up to 450 Muslims, with services led by Feisal Abdul Rauf, an Imam based at the al-Farah mosque in nearby TriBeCa.
### Purchase and investors
In July 2009, the real estate company and developer Soho Properties purchased the building and property at 45–47 Park Place for \$4.85 million in cash. Soho Properties' Chairman and CEO, Sharif El-Gamal, initially planned to build a condominium complex at the site, but was convinced by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's idea for a community center with a prayer space. El-Gamal's partner is Nour Mousa, the nephew of Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League. The investors in the transaction were the Cordoba Initiative, a tax-exempt foundation with assets of \$20,000, and the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), also a non-profit organization. At the time, Rauf was founder, CEO, and Executive Director of Cordoba Initiative, and founder and CEO of ASMA, and his wife, Daisy Khan, was the ASMA Executive Director. In the Cordoba Initiative's first five years, from 2004–08, it raised less than \$100,000. Both organizations were run out of the same New York office. The two foundations proposed to use the property as the site for a \$100 million community center modeled after NYC's Jewish Community Centers and YMCAs. They were working on the project with El-Gamal, their co-developer.
The 49–51 Park Place half of the "45–51" parcel was still owned by the utility Con Edison (Con Ed). Soho Properties paid an additional \$700,000 to assume a \$33,000-a-year lease with Con Ed, for its adjacent attached former sub-station. The plan was to build the facility on the site of the two buildings, as the lease for 49–51 Park Place was expire in 2071. The two buildings were connected internally, with common walls having been taken down. El-Gamal informed Con Ed in February 2010 that he wanted to exercise his purchase option on the lease. Although the price was reportedly estimated at \$10–\$20 million, El-Gamal said the cost "is not an issue". The sale was to be reviewed by the New York Public Service Commission, where it might face a vote by a five-member board controlled by the New York governor's office.
The specific location of the planned facility, "where a piece of the wreckage fell", so close to the World Trade Center, was a primary selling point for the Muslims who bought the building. Rauf said it "sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11" and "We want to push back against the extremists."
### Planned facilities
While the media widely described the center as a mosque, and the protests were against the mosque, the Initiative's official blog portrayed it as a community center with prayer space, making comparisons to the YMCA or Jewish Community Center. The Initiative said that some services planned for Park51 such as the restaurant and performance center, disqualify it from being a mosque. Daisy Khan, Imam Rauf's wife and partner, in August 2010 also said:
> We insist on calling it a prayer space and not a mosque, because you can use a prayer space for activities apart from prayer. You can't stop anyone who is a Muslim despite his religious ideology from entering the mosque and staying there. With a prayer space, we can control who gets to use it.
The official website for the facility had said it would include "a mosque, intended to be run separately from Park51 but open to and accessible to all members, visitors and our New York community". By September 2010, the word mosque had been replaced with "prayer space". In an interview in July 2010, lead developer of the project Sharif el-Gamal had supported the inclusion of a mosque as needed by the New York Muslim community.
The Muslim prayer space is planned to occupy two floors of the 13 story building. Besides the prayer space, the Initiative's plan includes a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare services, art exhibitions, bookstore, culinary school, and a food court serving halal dishes.
El-Gamal said he wanted the building to be energy-efficient and transparent, most likely with a glass façade. The project envisions the demolition of two buildings at 45–47 Park Place and Broadway which were damaged on 9/11. They would be replaced by a glass and steel 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m<sup>2</sup>) structure with a new address, 45–51 Park Place. A number of commentators stated that the builders planned either the groundbreaking or opening date to coincide with anniversaries of the September 11 attacks. Khan said in a July 2010 conversation with Media Matters for America that such assertions were "absolutely false" and that the construction timeline had not been determined; furthermore, those making such assertions have no proof of their claims. However, in a May 2010 Associated Press interview Khan said that the Initiative may plan for groundbreaking to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
Khan also said that it was anticipated that 1,000 to 2,000 Muslims would pray at the prayer center every Friday, once it was completed.
Khan said the project is intended to foster better relations between Islam and Americans. Explaining the choice of location, she said, "We decided we wanted to look at the legacy of 9/11 and do something positive." She added that her group represents moderate Muslims who want "to reverse the trend of extremism and the kind of ideology that the extremists are spreading". Pointing to the fact that ordinary Muslims have been killed by Muslim extremists all over the world, Khan also said about the center, "For us it is a symbol ... that will give voice to the silent majority of Muslims who suffer at the hands of extremists. A center will show that Muslims will be part of rebuilding Lower Manhattan."
### Community board advisory vote
On May 25, 2010, the local community board backed part of the plans for Cordoba House to be built on the site in a non-binding advisory vote of 29-to-1, with 10 abstentions. The endorsement related only to "the important community facilities [the project] will provide", and the resolution indicated that the board "takes no position regarding the religious aspects or any religious facilities associated with either the Cordoba Initiative or the Cordoba House Project". The board's chairwoman, Julie Menin, supported deletion of references to the building as a mosque and interfaith center that were in an earlier draft of the resolution, saying: "I personally was uncomfortable with the language that talked about the religious institution. I believe it's not the purview of a city agency to be weighing in on the siting of any religious institution, be it a mosque, synagogue, or church."
The meeting where the vote was held was contentious. Some of the speakers supporting the project were Muslims who lost family members in the attacks, and were booed by protesters. Some non-Muslim relatives of 9/11 victims also spoke in support, but other family members objected to the project, claiming the location is insensitive.
### Landmark status declined and litigation
As the controversy grew New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission agreed to reconsider the 1980s landmark application which it had not acted on previously. On August 3, 2010, it voted 9–0 against granting landmark status and historic protection to the building. That cleared the way for it to be demolished, and the new Cordoba House to be built in its place.
The following day, Timothy Brown, a firefighter who survived 9/11, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan asking the court to nullify the Commission's decision. He praised 45–47 Park Place, quoting the Commission's own description of it as "a fine example of the Italian Renaissance-inspired palazzi" that flourished in the mid-19th century in the area. The suit was filed on his behalf by the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative public interest firm.
On July 10, 2011, Justice Paul G. Feinman of the New York State Supreme Court dismissed Brown's case, writing that the firefighter was "an individual with a strong interest in preservation of the building", but added that he lacked any special legal standing regarding its fate. Adam Leitman Bailey, the lawyer who represented the Islamic center's developer pro bono, called the decision "a victory for America" and said, "Despite the tempest of religious hatred, the judge flexed our Constitution's muscles enforcing the very bedrock of our democracy." Jack Lester, a lawyer for Brown, said, "We believe the brave men and women who risked their lives have standing to preserve the monuments and historic buildings at ground zero."
### Revised plans
On September 21, 2011, Park51 was opened to the public as 4,000 square feet (370 square metres) of renovated space in the Burlington Coat Factory building hoping to replace the building "in several years time". Visitors were able to view 160 portraits of immigrant children living in New York during the exhibit called "NYChildren", and a modest carpeted prayer room is located in the lower level.
In August 2011, The New York Times reported that Sharif El-Gamal, the project's developer, was quietly proceeding with efforts to move Park51 forward, embracing a "slower, more deliberate and more realistic approach" than before. However, in April 2014, Sharif El-Gamal announced his plans to demolish the current building and replace it with a three-story museum of Islamic culture. He hired French architect Jean Nouvel.
In late August 2014, the Times announced that the original mosque plans would not proceed. Instead, a three-story Islamic museum with a prayer space and condos would be built at 49-51 Park Place. At the time, the proposal for the updated mosque was the location of a Con Edison building, though Con Edison subsequently sold the structure. The buildings on the two lots have not been torn down yet, however.
In September 2015, it was reported by Bloomberg that the owner of the site now instead planned to build a 667-foot (203 m), 70-story luxury condominium building at the site to take advantage of the growing residential real estate market in lower Manhattan. In addition to the 70-story condo at 45 Park Place, El-Gamal planned a three-story Islamic museum at 51 Park Place.
On May 19, 2016, Sharif El-Gamal secured Sharia-compliant financing for 45 Park Place, which was now a 43-story, 665-foot (203 m) building. A \$174 million loan was secured from a consortium let by Malayan Banking Bhd., and an additional \$45 million in financing came from Saudi Arabia. When the project was approved in 2017, it included some of Manhattan's most expensive condominiums, with prices ranging from \$1.92 million for a one-bedroom unit to \$39-41 million for each of the two duplex penthouses. According to The New York Times, El-Gamal said that he hoped the building's features, such as 11-foot-high (3.4 m) ceilings and full-height windows, would attract tenants. The apartment building was close to topping out by early 2019. In April 2019, a month before the scheduled topping-out, The Real Deal reported that El-Gamal had \$10 million in unpaid bills.
Meanwhile, El-Gamal submitted his revised plans for the Islamic cultural space at 51 Park Place in 2017, in conjunction with the development of 45 Park Place. The cultural center would be a 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m<sup>2</sup>) space measuring 71 feet (22 m) tall. The space had yet to start construction as of December 2019.
## Controversy
Prominent opponents and supporters of the project were found among the families of the 9/11 victims, the American and worldwide Muslim communities, and local and national politicians, making it a divisive political campaign issue in the 2010 midterm elections. The controversy over the project coincided with unexpected protests of mosque projects in other states, leading to concerns that relations between Muslims and non-Muslims within the US were deteriorating.
Donald Trump made an offer to purchase the Park51 property for \$6 million to stop its construction, saying that "I am making this offer as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse".
### Funding
Imam Abdul Rauf promised to identify all financial backers of Park51. Developer Sharif El-Gamal had stated that they will refuse money from groups such as the government of Iran and Hamas as well as any other "organizations that have un-American values". The New York Post stated that initially Imam Abdul Rauf said the project would be funded entirely by the Muslim American community, though later he told London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that he would seek funding from Muslim and Arab nations. The latter story was also reported by NBC.
Claudia Rosett, a journalist with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a weekly columnist for Forbes, questioned the source of the funding for the project. Some U.S. politicians such as Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, an Independent Democrat, and Republicans Peter King and Rick Lazio, asked for an investigation of the group's finances, especially its foreign funding, despite the fact that fundraising for the project had not yet begun. King said: "The people who are involved in the construction of the mosque are refusing to say where their [\$100 million] funding is going to come from." Lazio said: "Let's have transparency. If they're foreign governments, we ought to know about it. If they're radical organizations, we ought to know about it."
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, called for transparency in the funding of the project, suggesting foreign sources could imply an ulterior agenda. Reza Aslan responded to Dr. Jasser's demand by saying that it was "absurd" to assume that overseas funding must necessarily involve extremism. He also said that it would be acceptable to demand mosques to be transparent about funding if the same was also demanded of a Catholic church or a Jewish temple.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "Where does [the money] come from?' I don't know. Do you really want every time they pass the basket in your church, and you throw a buck in, they run over and say, ' ... where do you come from? ... Where did you get this money?' No." The TV news anchor Rick Sanchez said: "...if you start going into who is giving money to whom ... you have to go to my church. You have got to go to Rome and start asking where the money is going into Rome. And you have to go to the Mormons and ask them, well, what are they doing with their money?"
Vogel and Russonello cite claims that donations "totaling \$900,000, that the government of Qatar and a foundation run by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal have made to nonprofits or projects headed by Feisal Abdul Rauf" are involved. They further explore the funding of the project's opponents.
On the side of opponents to the project, fundings come from the Fairbrook Foundation, the umbrella organization of pro-Israel activists Aubrey & Joyce Chernick.
### Abdul Rauf's views of the project
Abdul Rauf, a Kuwaiti-American Sufi Muslim, was the chief proponent of the project until he was replaced in January 2011. Some U.S. politicians and others voiced concerns about his views. Others, including The Economist, have described him as "a well-meaning American cleric who has spent years trying to promote interfaith understanding".
In an interview on September 8, 2010, Abdul Rauf was asked if he would have done anything differently had he known the controversy would erupt. His answer: "If I knew this would happen, this would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn't have done it. My life has been devoted to peacemaking."
### Effects on recruitment of radical Islamists
Counterterrorism analysts have noted that the developing controversy over Park51 has provided a "recruitment opportunity" for radical Islamist groups. According to Evan Kohlmann, the senior partner in the New York-based security firm Flashpoint Global Partners, "[t]he reaction is, at least on the part of extremists, fairly gleeful – that America is playing into our hands, that America is revealing its ugly face, and that even if it doesn't further radicalize people in the Middle East, there's no doubt that it will radicalize a kind of a key constituency that al-Qaida and other extremists are seeking to covet [sic], seeking to court, which is the small number of homegrown extremists here in the United States".
Newsweek quotes a Taliban operative as explicitly connecting increased opposition to the project with increased support for the Taliban's cause. "By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor," the Taliban operative stated. "It's providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support."
### Documentary
In 2012, filmmaker David Osit produced a documentary about the Park51 controversy, specifically following the story through the experiences of developer Sharif El-Gamal. The film aired on PBS in the fall of 2013.
## Public opinion
### Polls
Polls showed that the majority of Americans, New York State residents, and New York City residents opposed building the center near Ground Zero, although a plurality of Manhattanites supported construction. In July 2010, the majority of Americans were opposed to the Islamic center. By a margin of 54–20%, American adults were opposed to a mosque being built near Ground Zero, a national Rasmussen Reports poll found that month. Furthermore, according to an August 10–11 Fox News poll, 64% of Americans (a majority of each of Democrats (56–38%), Republicans (76–17%), and Independents (53–41%)) thought it would be wrong to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center so close to Ground Zero, and 30% felt it would be appropriate.
A CNN poll conducted August 6–10, 2010, found that Americans opposed the Park51 project by a margin of 68–29%. A majority of each of Democrats (54–34%), Republicans (82–17%), and Independents (70–24%) were opposed. An Economist/YouGov national poll taken the week of August 19, 2010 confirmed these findings. Overall, this poll found that Americans opposed the Park51 project by a margin of 57.9–17.5%, with 24.5% undecided on the question. Democrats (41.0–28.0%), Republicans (88.3–1.7%) and Independents (57.6–21.3%) were opposed to the project according to this poll.
In addition, by a margin of 52–31% New York City voters opposed the construction, according to a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll carried out in June 2010. At the same time, 46% of Manhattanites supported it, while 36% opposed it. Opposition was strongest in Staten Island, where 73% opposed it while only 14% supported it. A higher percentage of Republicans (82%) than Democrats (45%) opposed the plan.
A Marist Poll taken July 28 – August 5, 2010 showed a similar city-wide margin of registered voters against it (53–34%, with 13% unsure), although those in Manhattan supported it, reversing the figures: 53% to 31%, with 16% unsure. An updated Marist poll in September 2010 showed that support for Park51 had grown, with 41% in favor and 51% opposed. Support among African Americans, liberals, Democrats, and residents of the Bronx had increased. Manhattanites remained supportive.
Statewide, by a margin of 61–26% New Yorkers opposed the community center's construction at that location, according to another poll in August 2010, by Siena Research Institute, whose poll question wording was criticized by a writer at Slate magazine. A majority of both Republicans (81%) and Democrats (55%) were opposed to it, as were conservatives (85%), moderates (55%), and liberals (52%). Among New York City residents, a margin of 56–33% opposed it.
Some polls tried to gauge public opinion of Muslims' right to build Park51 near ground zero. The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll of New York State residents released August 31, 2010 found a 54–40 percent majority of voters agreeing 'that because of American freedom of religion, Muslims have the right to build the mosque near Ground Zero'. A Fox News national poll taken August 10–11, 2010 found that 61% felt that the project developers had a right to build a mosque there (a majority of Democrats (63–32%), Republicans (57–36%), and Independents (69–29%)). The Economist/YouGov poll taken the week of August 19, 2010 concurred that Democrats (57.5–24.9%) and Independents (62.3–25.2%) believed Muslims had a "constitutional right" to build a mosque at the site, but found that Republicans (31.8–53.2%) did not believe that Muslims had such a right. The poll found that 50.2%, overall, supported the constitutional right to build at the site, 32.7% were opposed and 17.1% had no opinion.
The Economist/YouGov poll also noted that 52% of Americans believe that "Muslims should be able to build mosques in the United States wherever other religions can build houses of worship", as opposed to 34% who believe that "there are some places in the United States where it is not appropriate to build mosques, though it would be appropriate to build other houses of worship" and 14% who believe "mosques should not be permitted anywhere in the United States".
### Opposition
The prospect of building a mosque close to Ground Zero was offensive to some opponents of the construction project, since the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks were muslims. Some opponents suggested that Park51 was a "victory marker for Islamic extremists".
#### 9/11 families
Some relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks said they found the proposal offensive because the perpetrators who committed the attacks did so in the name of Islam. A number said that it was not an issue of freedom of religion, property rights, or racism, but rather one of sensitivity to the families of those killed, in choosing the specific location of the center.
A group of victims' relatives, 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America, called the proposal "a gross insult to the memory of those who were killed on that terrible day". Debra Burlingame, a co-founder of the group whose brother died in the attacks, said:
> This is a place which is 600 feet [180 m] from where almost 3,000 people were torn to pieces by Islamic extremists ... it is incredibly insensitive and audacious ... for them to build a mosque ... so that they could be in proximity to where that atrocity happened ... The idea that you would establish a religious institution that embraces the very shariah law that terrorists point to as their justification for what they did ... to build that where almost 3,000 people died, that is an obscenity to me.
Sally Regenhard, whose son was a firefighter who was killed in the attacks, and who has testified before Congress on 9/11, said that the center would be "sacrilege on sacred ground", and that "People are being accused of being anti-Muslim and racist, but this is simply a matter of sensitivity." Former NY Fire Department Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose son Jim was killed, said: "I don't want to have to go down to a memorial where my son died on 9/11, and look at a mosque," adding "this is all about location, location, location. It's not about religious freedom ... be sensitive to the families." Michael Burke, whose brother died, wrote: "Freedom of religion or expression and private property rights are not the issues ... Decency is; right and wrong is ... [M]any believe that their "rights" supersede all other considerations, like what is respectful, considerate, and decent. A mosque ... steps from Ground Zero in a building damaged in the attacks is ... astoundingly insensitive".
C. Lee Hanson, whose son, daughter-in-law, and baby granddaughter were killed, felt that building a tribute to Islam so close to the World Trade Center site would be insensitive: "The pain never goes away. When I look over there and I see a mosque, it's going to hurt. Build it someplace else." Rosemary Cain, whose son was killed, called the project a "slap in the face", and said "I think it's despicable. That's sacred ground", and "I don't want a mosque on my son's grave". Nancy Nee, whose brother was killed, said: "It's almost like a trophy. The whole thing just reeks of arrogance at this point."
Evelyn Pettigano, who lost a sister, said: "I don't like it. I'm not prejudiced ... It's too close to the area where our family members were murdered." Dov Shefi, whose son Haggai was killed, said: "the establishment of a mosque in this place ... is like bringing a pig into the Holy Temple. It is inconceivable that in all the city of New York, this site was specifically chosen." Cindy McGinty, whose husband was killed, said she hoped that officials would keep an eye on the funding source for the project, adding: "Why did they pick this spot? Why aren't they being more sensitive? I don't trust it." Barry Zelman, whose brother was killed, said: "We can say all Muslims did not do this, which is true. But they [terrorists] did it in the name of that religion. You wouldn't have a German cultural center on top of a death camp."
Rosaleen Tallon-DaRos, whose brother died, urged that the mosque not be put on that site, as did Tim Brown, a New York City firefighter who survived the attack. Maureen Basnicki, a Canadian whose husband Ken died, questioned the message of the mosque and said that "this all adds hurt and insult to our injuries."
#### Muslims
The building of an Islamic community center near Ground Zero has been criticized by some Muslims. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community does not directly oppose the building of a mosque near ground zero but views that the sentiments of non-Muslims should not be unduly hurt. They state that there are other places where mosques can be built and they do not see why that particular location has been chosen. The head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mirza Masroor Ahmad in London, stated that:
> If a mosque is built at the proposed site, then the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community would like to see churches, synagogues, Hindu places of worship and places of worship of all other religions also built near Ground Zero. That would be a good example of how from an act of evil and terror has emerged unity and peace.
Muslim neoconservative journalist Lulu Schwartz (then known as Stephen Schwartz), Executive Director of the non-profit Center for Islamic Pluralism, said that building the center two blocks from Ground Zero was inconsistent with the Sufi philosophy of simplicity of faith and sensitivity towards others and disregarded the security of American Muslims. Another criticism concerned what Schwartz described as Abdul Rauf's radical and suspect associations.
Another founding member of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, Zuhdi Jasser, who is also the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a group of Muslim professionals in the Phoenix Valley of Arizona, strongly opposed the project, saying:
> For us, a mosque was always a place to pray ... not a way to make an ostentatious architectural statement. Ground Zero shouldn't be about promoting Islam. It's the place where war was declared on us as Americans." ... American freedom of religion is a right, but ... it is not right to make one's religion a global political statement with a towering Islamic edifice that casts a shadow over the memorials of Ground Zero. ... Islamists in 'moderate' disguise are still Islamists. In their own more subtle ways, the WTC mosque organizers end up serving the same aims (as) separatist and supremacist wings of political Islam.
Neda Bolourchi, a Muslim whose mother died in 9/11, said: "I fear it would become a symbol of victory for militant Muslims around the world."
Authors Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah, board members of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said:
> New York currently boasts at least 30 mosques so it's not as if there is pressing need to find space for worshipers. [W]e Muslims know ... [this] mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith, ... as Fitna, meaning "mischief-making" that is clearly forbidden in the Koran. ... As Muslims we are dismayed that our co-religionists have such little consideration for their fellow citizens, and wish to rub salt in their wounds and pretend they are applying a balm to soothe the pain.
Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, while noting that blaming all Muslims for 9/11 was "ridiculous", said:
> I don't think the Muslim leadership has fully appreciated the impact of 9/11 on America. They assume Americans have forgotten 9/11 and even, in a profound way, forgiven 9/11, and that has not happened. The wounds remain largely open ... and when wounds are raw, an episode like constructing a house of worship – even one protected by the Constitution, protected by law – becomes like salt in the wounds.
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, general manager of Al-Arabiya television, also criticized the project in a column titled "A House of Worship or a Symbol of Destruction?" in the Arab daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, saying:
> Muslims do not aspire for a mosque next to the September 11 cemetery ... the mosque is not an issue for Muslims, and they have not heard of it until the shouting became loud between the supporters and the objectors, which is mostly an argument between non-Muslim US citizens!
Rima Fakih, the first Muslim-American crowned Miss USA as Miss USA 2010, opposed the project on the grounds of it being insensitive to families of 9/11 victims, telling Inside Edition:
> I totally agree with President Obama with the statement on the constitutional rights of freedom of religion. [But] it shouldn't be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.
#### Politicians
A number of American politicians spoke out against the Park51 project. Arizona Senator John McCain, the Republicans' 2008 presidential nominee, said that it "would harm relations, rather than help", while his running mate Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, wrote on Twitter that "Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate" [sic]. Other critics included Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate; Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson; Maine Senator Olympia Snowe; Idaho Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo; Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson; and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. North Carolina congressional candidate Ilario Pantano said, "It is about ... territorial conquest. This mosque is a Martyr–Marker honoring the terrorists".
Former House Speaker Republican Newt Gingrich said: "It's not about religion and is clearly an aggressive act that is offensive." Commenting on the project's name, he wrote:
> "Cordoba House" is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors, who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world's third-largest mosque complex ... every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest.
Newt Gingrich would say "There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia."
Gingrich also decried the proposed Islamic center as a symbol of Muslim "triumphalism," and said that building the center near the site of the 9/11 attacks "would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum." Commenting on what Gingrich said, The Economist claimed that "Like Mr bin Laden, Mr Gingrich is apparently still relitigating the victories and defeats of religious wars fought in Europe and the Middle East centuries ago. He should rejoin the modern world, before he does real harm."
New York Republicans who criticized the plan included former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who called it a "desecration; Nobody would allow something like that at Pearl Harbor ... Let's have some respect for who died there and why they died there." Congressman Peter King, then the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, called it "offensive to so many people." Other opponents included former New York Governor George Pataki and former Congressman Rick Lazio. Gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino said, "The vast majority of New Yorkers and Americans have rejected their idea. If a bridge was their intent, why jam it down our throats? Why does it have to be right there?" He said that if he were elected Governor of New York, he would use the power of eminent domain to stop construction of the center and instead build a war memorial in its place.
New York Republican Congressional candidate George Demos also objected. He said that the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, the only religious structure destroyed in the 9/11 attacks, should be rebuilt before moving forward on building an Islamic center in the area, and called for an investigation into the project's financing.
New York City Council Member Dan Halloran became the first elected official in New York City to publicly criticize the project, "If we want a nation of peace," said city councilman Dan Halloran, whose cousin died on 9/11, "then peace comes with understanding. And they need to understand that this is sacred ground to New Yorkers."
Paul Sipos, a member of Manhattan Community Board 1, said:
> If the Japanese decided to open a cultural center across from Pearl Harbor, that would be insensitive. If the Germans opened a Bach choral society across from Auschwitz, even after all these years, that would be an insensitive setting. I have absolutely nothing against Islam. I just think: Why there?
A Republican political action committee, the National Republican Trust Political Action Committee, a Washington-based organization, created a television commercial attacking the proposal, saying "we Americans will be heard".
Democratic Independent Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman indicated that he felt the project should be halted, pending further evaluation of its impact on the families and friends of 9/11 victims, project's sponsors' intentions, and their sources of funding.
New York Democratic Assemblyman of District 92 and Attorney-General-candidate Richard Brodsky said it was, "offensive to me ... raises concerns and bad memories and needs to be dealt with on a human level. The murder wasn't an Islamic crime, but it was a crime committed in the name of Islam by people most Muslims reject."
Senate Majority Leader Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada said, "it is time to bring people together, not a time for polarization, and I think it would be better off for everyone if it were built somewhere else." Jim Manley, a spokesperson for Reid earlier had said, "The First Amendment protects freedom of religion ... Senator Reid respects that, but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else."
Democratic National Committee chairman, former Democratic Presidential Candidate, and 79th Governor of Vermont Howard Dean called the project "a real affront to people who lost their lives" and wrote "the builders have to be willing to go beyond what is their right and be willing to talk about feelings whether the feelings are 'justified' or not." Dean also argues that most people opposed "are not right-wing hate mongers".
Democratic Representative Michael E. McMahon of New York's 13 District provided a written statement:
> We have seen very clearly in the past weeks that building a mosque two blocks from ground zero will not promote necessary interfaith dialogue, but will continue to fracture the faiths and citizens of our city and this country. As such, I am opposed to the construction of the Cordoba Center at the currently-proposed location and urge all parties to work with local community leaders to find a more appropriate site.
Democratic Representative Steve Israel of the 2nd District in New York said in Newsday, "While they have a constitutional right to build the mosque, it would be better if they had demonstrated more sensitivity to the families of 9/11 victims. I urge them to do so before proceeding further."
Democratic Representative Tim Bishop of New York's 1st District also disagrees with the location, "As a New Yorker, I believe Ground Zero is sacred ground and should unite us. If the group seeking to build the mosque is sincere in its efforts to bring people together, I would urge them to seek an alternative location which is less divisive. I dispute the wisdom of building at that location, not the constitutional right."
#### Organizations
New York City fireman Tim Brown opposed the project, saying: "A mosque ... that's using foreign money from countries with shariah law is unacceptable, especially in this neighborhood". Brown allied with the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), a conservative law firm founded by Pat Robertson that champions the rights of Christians to build and worship freely. Brown sought to pressure Abdul Rauf to disclose fully the project's funding sources. Peter Ferrara, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union (not to be confused with the ACLU), observed: "The Cordoba Mosque was the third largest mosque complex in the world ... built on the site of a former Christian church, to commemorate the Muslim conquest of Spain. This perpetuated a cultural Muslim practice of building mosques on the sites of historic conquests."
More than 20,000 people signed an online petition for the Committee to Stop the Ground Zero Mosque, and unsuccessfully lobbied the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to give the location landmark status, which would have added a major hurdle to construction.
Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said "putting a mosque ... very close to Ground Zero is unacceptable. ... Even though the vast majority of Muslims ... condemned their actions on Sept. 11, 2001, it still remains a fact that the people who perpetrated the 9/11 attack were Muslims and proclaimed they were doing what they were doing in the name of Islam." Bill Rench, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church which is located near the proposed mosque site, also spoke out against its construction.
The Zionist Organization of America opposes the construction of Park51 due to its location, and questions about Abdul Rauf. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, parent organization of the Museum of Tolerance Los Angeles and the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, also opposes the location of the planned Park51. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) originally opposed building Park51 near the former World Trade Center and advocated for Park51 to be built in a different location. The ADL reversed this position in 2021, saying they "were wrong, plain and simple."
Speaking in his capacity as a "spokesperson for the conservative Tea Party political movement", Mark Williams called it a monument to the terror attacks. He characterized the proposed religious facilities at the site as a place which would be used for "terrorists to worship their monkey god". Williams would be expelled from the National Tea Party Federation two months after making this remark, for racially inflammatory remarks regarding a later and unrelated controversy.
The Dove World Outreach Center also held a protest against the building of Park51.
#### Others
Writing in the National Review, political blogger Daniel Pipes stated his opposition to the construction of any Islamist institution anywhere although he did not object to a truly moderate Muslim institution in proximity to Ground Zero.
Notable British comedian and internet personality Pat Condell criticized the construction of Park51 in a video entitled "No mosque at Ground Zero" where he claimed that it was representative of Islamic triumphalism and that the United States was soon on the verge of Islamization and having its freedoms trimmed, as Europe has.
Similarly, political commentator Charles Krauthammer also criticized the construction, saying that it could potentially serve as a breeding ground for Islamic extremism.
On August 9, 2010, Greg Gutfeld stated that he planned on constructing New York City's first Islamic-friendly gay bar next to the proposed center. He stated that "As an American, I believe they have every right to build the mosque. ... Which is, why, in the spirit of outreach, I've decided to do the same thing." He insisted that "this is not a joke," and further stated that the project was "an effort to break down barriers and reduce deadly homophobia in the Islamic world."
### Support
Project supporters have argued that the Park51 building would not be visible from the World Trade Center site, and that some victims and victims' families have expressed support for the Park51 project, as well as acknowledging the fact that victims of the 9/11 attacks also included Muslims.
#### 9/11 families
Some relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks expressed support for the project. Colleen Kelley, who lost her brother William on 9/11, says, the "irony in the debate over the section of the building that would house a mosque is that one might assume that God (the same God to Jews-Christians-Muslims) would be pleased with any type of effort that involves prayer and service to others."
Orlando Rodriguez and Phyllis Schaefer Rodriguez, whose son died in the attack, say they "support the building of the Islamic community center in lower Manhattan" and "feel that it would honor our son and other victims".
Herb Ouida, whose son Todd died, said: "To say that we're going to condemn a religion and castigate a billion people in the world because they're Muslims, to say that they shouldn't have the ability to pray near the World Trade Center – I don't think that's going to bring people together and cross the divide."
Marvin Bethea, a former EMS worker who was forced to retire in 2004 because of breathing problems caused by working at the 9/11 site, believes racism is a factor in the controversy, He said "even though my life has changed, I don't hate the Muslims. Especially being a black man, I know what it's like to be discriminated against. I've lived with that."
Donna O'Connor, whose pregnant daughter died on 9/11, expressed the opinion that "This building will serve as an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans ... recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent."
Ted Olson, former Solicitor General in the George W. Bush administration, whose wife, television commentator Barbara Olson, died in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, has expressed support for the rights of the Park51 organizers to construct the new site. In remarks on MSNBC, Olson said "we don't want to turn an act of hate against us by extremists into an act of intolerance for people of religious faith."
Bruce Wallace, whose nephew died as he rushed in to help the victims, says "the media seems eager to trumpet the feelings of those hurt by the idea of the center. They mostly ignore my feelings and those, like me, who feel the center is an important step for Americans."
Judith Keane, whose husband was killed on 9/11, says "To punish a group of Americans who live in peace for the acts of a few is wrong. The worst atrocities in history found their base in fear of those who were different."
Talat Hamdani, whose son was a first responder in the rescue effort and died in 9/11, co-wrote an article supporting the center in the interest of pluralism. She has also criticized the argument about sensitivity arguing that it was more about the legality of the situation and "our rights as Americans. We are protected under the Constitution. There is freedom of religion." Implying that the ban could be the thin edge of the wedge she said "You know, if it's one faith today, it's going to be another faith tomorrow. That is scary. And to scapegoat the Muslims for the acts of a foreign terrorist, that is – that is hatred." She went on "... if that argument is valid, then, by that token, Timothy McVeigh's actions also makes all Christians terrorists. So, that is wrong."
The anti-war group September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, released a statement in support of the center, saying "we believe that welcoming the Center, which is intended to promote interfaith tolerance and respect, is consistent with fundamental American values of freedom and justice for all," adding it will be "an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans stand against violence, intolerance, and overt acts of racism and that we recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent".
Terry Rockefeller, whose sister was killed, said: "this doesn't insult her at all. This celebrates the city she loved living in. It is what makes America what we are."
Sue Rosenblum, of Coral Springs, Florida, whose son Josh was killed in the WTC attacks on 9/11, said in reference to the planned center: "What are we teaching if we say you can't build here? That it's OK to hate? This is a country based on freedom of religion."
#### Politicians
On August 13, 2010, in a speech at the annual White House Iftar dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, President Barack Obama acknowledged the right of Muslims to build the Islamic center. Obama said, "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances." Obama clarified the next day that he was only speaking of legal rights and "was not commenting ... on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there".
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly endorsed the project, saying that Ground Zero was a "very appropriate place" for a mosque, because it "tells the world" that the U.S. has freedom of religion for everyone. Responding to opposition, he said:
> The government should never, never be in the business of telling people how they should pray, or where they can pray. We want to make sure that everybody from around the world feels comfortable coming here, living here, and praying the way they want to pray.
"Democracy is stronger than this," he added. Remarking on opposition to the center's location, he said: "To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists. We should not stand for that." Responding to a question about the pain the project was causing some family members, he said:
> I don't see an enormous number of people. I was at a fundraiser ... maybe 50 ... people who had lost [family] members. 100% in that room kept saying, 'please keep it up, keep it up'. ... our relatives would have wanted this country, and this city, to follow and actually practice what we preach.
Bloomberg was asked if he was satisfied that "he is indeed a man of peace given his background where he's supposedly supported Hamas, blamed the U.S. for 9/11 attacks?" The mayor responded:
My job is not to vet clergy in this city. ... Everybody has a right to their opinions. You don't have to worship there. ... this country is not built around ... only those ... clergy people that we agree with. ... . It's built around freedom. That's the wonderful thing about the First Amendment – you can say anything you want.
Community Board 1 Financial Committee Chairman Edward "Ro" Sheffe opined: "it will be a wonderful asset to the community." New York City Councilwoman Margaret Chin said: "The center is something the community needs".
Additional New York politicians supported the proposal. These included Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who said "I'll do everything I can to make sure this mosque does get opened", and U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler, who stated that "the government has no business deciding". Other supporters included New York State Senator Daniel Squadron, New York City Comptroller John Liu, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
Nadler remarked that "a mosque in the Pentagon ... hasn't drawn any criticism", despite the Pentagon also being a target of the 9/11 attacks. What is referred to as the "Pentagon mosque" is, more precisely, a non-denominational chapel which was built and dedicated in 2002 in honor of Pentagon employees and passengers of American Airlines Flight 77 who died in the September 11 attack. Daily Muslim prayer sessions are held there weekday afternoons, and weekly Muslim services are led by an imam from a local mosque every Friday, which means the room can be considered a mussallaah, a sacred space where Muslims "consistently perform their mid-day prayer when they do not have access to a mosque". This Muslim use of the Pentagon facility has drawn no complaints.
Orrin Hatch, a Republican Senator from Utah, voiced support of the project on religious freedom grounds. Hatch is a Mormon and cited an instance where a neighborhood tried to prevent a Mormon temple from being built.
Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.) published a statement of support on August 20, 2010 to his campaign website defending the Cordoba House's planned Islamic community center. Congressman Paul attributed the controversy over the community center to Islamophobia and neo-conservatives who disregard their commitment to the First Amendment and property rights to agitate voters.
Representative Keith Ellison, the U.S.'s first Muslim congressman, supported the center's location on the basis of the First Amendment and religious tolerance, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick also voiced support, saying: "The sooner we separate the peaceful teaching of Islam from the behavior of terrorists, the better for all of us."
Mark McKinnon, a former advisor to Republican President George W. Bush, criticized Republican opposition to the project: "And here we are, reinforcing al Qaeda's message that we're at war with Muslims." Another former Bush aide, speechwriter and policy advisor Michael Gerson, agreed that prohibiting the center would "undermine the war on terrorism":
> The militants hope, above all else, to provoke conflict between the West and Islam – to graft their totalitarian political manias onto a broader movement of Muslim solidarity. America hopes to draw a line that isolates the politically violent and those who tolerate political violence – creating solidarity with Muslim opponents and victims of radicalism.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, a founding member and leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said of the planned Cordoba House: "We have to build everywhere," and "In every area we have, (as) Muslim(s), we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer." Zahar also said "We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church and Israelis are building their holy places."
Former US President Bill Clinton also supported Park51, after noting that many Muslims were also killed on September 11. He suggested that the developers could have avoided controversy if they dedicated the center to the Muslim victims of the attacks.
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura gave his support to Park51, arguing that the First Amendment allows for a mosque to be built near Ground Zero. Ventura also argued that denying the right for a mosque to be built near Ground Zero would be similar to removing churches from Oklahoma City, where the Oklahoma City bombing occurred (the deadliest act of terrorism in the United States prior to 9/11), if Timothy McVeigh, the man who perpetrated the attack, was a Christian. Ventura also demanded that opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque should be ignored because "people need to remember, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should be written in stone. You cannot subject them to the popularity. They are there to protect unpopular things, like the First Amendment. The First Amendment is to protect unpopular speech simply because popular speech doesn't need to be protected. It's as simple as that. And you can't, you know, bend the Constitution to the blowing winds of whatever polls might say, otherwise it's a worthless, useless document which in many ways they're turning it to that anyway."
#### Organizations
Ibrahim Hooper, Communications Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), charged that the controversy was "manufactured" by "bigots". He also asserted that only a vocal minority was complaining. And Nihad Awad, CAIR's Executive Director, said that the opinion of Republican Congressman Peter King "should not be considered, because his ideas are extreme". Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek journalist and CNN host, also strongly supported the project, and returned a prestigious award he received in 2005 from the Anti-Defamation League, saying he was "personally and deeply saddened" by their opposition towards the project. He wrote: "...Rauf, is a moderate Muslim clergyman. He has said one or two things about American foreign policy that strike me as overly critical – but it's stuff you could read on The Huffington Post any day. On Islam, his main subject, Abdul Rauf's views are clear: he routinely denounces all terrorism – as he did again last week, publicly."
The Muslim Public Affairs Council also supported the project.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a U.S. Jewish civil rights group that had spoken out against anti-Muslim bigotry, denounced what it saw as bigoted attacks on the project. Its head opined that some of those who oppose the project are "bigots", and that the plan's proponents have every right to build the center at that location. Nevertheless, the group recommended selecting a different location, and appealed to the builders to consider the sensitivities of the victims' families, saying that building the community center at that site would unnecessarily cause more pain for families of some victims of 9/11. As a consequence of their statement, Fareed Zakaria, the winner of the ADL's 2005 Hubert Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize has returned the prize and the prize money.
The Jewish political group J Street also supported the construction on religious freedom grounds.
The New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union supported it as well, citing principles of religious freedom. The Interfaith Alliance also supported the project, while indicating that it agreed with the need for transparency as to who is funding the project.
A petition circulated by the liberal political action committee Votevets.org garnered 14,000 signatures in support of the center, including 450 war veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and 4,000 veterans from wars from other eras.
#### Academia
Mark R. Cohen, professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, opined that "The presence of ... mosques like the one planned near Ground Zero, which will be an educational center as well as a place of prayer, is one good way of transcending ... ignorance."
Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis, of the University of North Texas Jewish Studies Program said that when it comes to the issue of freedom to practice religion in a private sphere, such as on a piece of private property in Lower Manhattan, freedom of religion is virtually inviolate.
Boston University Department of Religion professor Stephen Prothero spoke out against the arguments that Cordoba House should not be built near Ground Zero.
Padraic O'Hare, professor of Religious and Theological Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations at Merrimack College, argued that prayer leads to peace: "Build a Muslim house of prayer near Ground Zero? ... Hand me the shovel."
During a CNN interview, Reza Aslan, a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, defended Imam Abdul Rauf as "cited by government's sources in the United States as one of America's most pluralistic peace promoting religious leaders in the country". He defended the center as an "American-Muslim" center similar to the Jewish center built close to it.
#### Others
During the 2010 US Open tennis tournament Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi said, "For me, as a Muslim, that's what makes America the greatest country in the world – freedom of religion, freedom of speech. If the mosque is built, I think it's a huge gesture to all the Muslim community out there in the world. I would really appreciate it."
## See also
- Islamic Cultural Center of New York
- Abbey Mills Mosque – A similar proposal to expand a mosque in London.
- Politics and sports#Tennis |
31,669 | Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution | 1,172,437,373 | 1913 amendment establishing the direct election of senators | [
"1912 in American law",
"1912 in American politics",
"1913 in American law",
"1913 in American politics",
"Amendments to the United States Constitution",
"Federalism in the United States",
"History of voting rights in the United States",
"Progressive Era in the United States",
"United States Senate"
]
| The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established the direct election of United States senators in each state. The amendment supersedes Article I, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which senators were elected by state legislatures. It also alters the procedure for filling vacancies in the Senate, allowing for state legislatures to permit their governors to make temporary appointments until a special election can be held.
The amendment was proposed by the 62nd Congress in 1912 and became part of the Constitution on April 8, 1913, on ratification by three-quarters (36) of the state legislatures. Sitting senators were not affected until their existing terms expired. The transition began with two special elections in Georgia and in Maryland, then in earnest with the November 1914 election; it was complete on March 4, 1919, when the senators chosen by the November 1918 election took office.
## Text
> The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
## Background
### Original composition
Originally, under Article I, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, each state legislature elected its state's senators for a six-year term. Each state, regardless of size, is entitled to two senators as part of the Connecticut Compromise between the small and large states. This contrasted with the House of Representatives, a body elected by popular vote, and was described as an uncontroversial decision; at the time, James Wilson was the sole advocate of popularly electing the Senate, but his proposal was defeated 10–1. There were many advantages to the original method of electing senators. Prior to the Constitution, a federal body was one where states effectively formed nothing more than permanent treaties, with citizens retaining their loyalty to their original state. However, under the new Constitution, the federal government was granted substantially more power than before. Having the state legislatures elect the senators reassured anti-federalists that there would be some protection against the federal government's swallowing up states and their powers, and providing a check on the power of the federal government.
Additionally, the longer terms and avoidance of popular election turned the Senate into a body that could counter the populism of the House. While the representatives operated in a two-year direct election cycle, making them frequently accountable to their constituents, the senators could afford to "take a more detached view of issues coming before Congress". State legislatures retained the theoretical right to "instruct" their senators to vote for or against proposals, thus giving the states both direct and indirect representation in the federal government. The Senate was part of a formal bicameralism, with the members of the Senate and House responsible to completely distinct constituencies; this helped defeat the problem of the federal government being subject to "special interests". Members of the Constitutional Convention considered the Senate to be parallel to the British House of Lords as an "upper house", containing the "better men" of society, but improved upon as they would be conscientiously chosen by the upper houses of state legislatures for fixed terms, and not merely inherited for life as in the British system, subject to a monarch's arbitrary expansion. It was hoped they would provide abler deliberation and greater stability than the House of Representatives due to the senators' status.
### Issues
According to Judge Jay Bybee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, those in favor of popular elections for senators believed two primary problems were caused by the original provisions: legislative corruption and electoral deadlocks. There was a sense that senatorial elections were "bought and sold", changing hands for favors and sums of money rather than because of the competence of the candidate. Between 1857 and 1900, the Senate investigated three elections over corruption. In 1900, for example, William A. Clark had his election voided after the Senate concluded that he had bought votes in the Montana legislature. But conservative analysts Bybee and Todd Zywicki believe this concern was largely unfounded; there was a "dearth of hard information" on the subject. In more than a century of legislative elections of U.S. senators, only ten cases were contested for allegations of impropriety.
Electoral deadlocks were another issue. Because state legislatures were charged with deciding whom to appoint as senators, the system relied on their ability to agree. Some states could not, and thus delayed sending senators to Congress; in a few cases, the system broke down to the point where states completely lacked representation in the Senate. Deadlocks started to become an issue in the 1850s, with a deadlocked Indiana legislature allowing a Senate seat to sit vacant for two years. The tipping point came in 1865 with the election of John P. Stockton (D-NJ), which happened after the New Jersey legislature changed its rules regarding the definition of a quorum and was thus elected by plurality instead of by absolute majority.
In 1866, Congress acted to standardize a two-step process for Senate elections. In the first step, each chamber of the state legislature would meet separately to vote. The following day, the chambers would meet in "joint assembly" to assess the results, and if a majority in both chambers had voted for the same person, he would be elected. If not, the joint assembly would vote for a senator, with each member receiving a vote. If no person received a majority, the joint assembly was required to keep convening every day to take at least one vote until a senator was elected. Nevertheless, between 1891 and 1905, 46 elections were deadlocked across 20 states; in one extreme example, a Senate seat for Delaware went unfilled from 1899 until 1903. The business of holding elections also caused great disruption in the state legislatures, with a full third of the Oregon House of Representatives choosing not to swear the oath of office in 1897 due to a dispute over an open Senate seat. The result was that Oregon's legislature was unable to pass legislation that year.
Zywicki again argues that this was not a serious issue. Deadlocks were a problem, but they were the exception rather than the norm; many legislatures did not deadlock over elections at all. Most of those that did in the 19th century were the newly admitted western states, which suffered from "inexperienced legislatures and weak party discipline ... as western legislatures gained experience, deadlocks became less frequent." While Utah suffered from deadlocks in 1897 and 1899, they became what Zywicki refers to as "a good teaching experience", and Utah never again failed to elect senators. Another concern was that when deadlocks occurred, state legislatures were unable to conduct their other normal business; James Christian Ure, writing in the South Texas Law Review, notes that this did not in fact occur. In a deadlock situation, state legislatures would deal with the matter by holding "one vote at the beginning of the day—then the legislators would continue with their normal affairs".
Eventually, legislative elections held in a state's Senate election years were perceived to have become so dominated by the business of picking senators that the state's choice for senator distracted the electorate from all other pertinent issues. Senator John H. Mitchell noted that the Senate became the "vital issue" in all legislative campaigns, with the policy stances and qualifications of state legislative candidates ignored by voters who were more interested in the indirect Senate election. To remedy this, some state legislatures created "advisory elections" that served as de facto general elections, allowing legislative campaigns to focus on local issues.
### Calls for reform
Calls for a constitutional amendment regarding Senate elections started in the early 19th century, with Henry R. Storrs in 1826 proposing an amendment to provide for popular election. Similar amendments were introduced in 1829 and 1855, with the "most prominent" proponent being Andrew Johnson, who raised the issue in 1868 and considered the idea's merits "so palpable" that no additional explanation was necessary. As noted above, in the 1860s, there was a major congressional dispute over the issue, with the House and Senate voting to veto the appointment of John P. Stockton to the Senate due to his approval by a plurality of the New Jersey Legislature rather than a majority. In reaction, the Congress passed a bill in July 1866 that required state legislatures to elect senators by an absolute majority.
By the 1890s, support for the introduction of direct election for the Senate had substantially increased, and reformers worked on two fronts. On the first front, the Populist Party incorporated the direct election of senators into its Omaha Platform, adopted in 1892. In 1908, Oregon passed the first law basing the selection of U.S. senators on a popular vote. Oregon was soon followed by Nebraska. Proponents for popular election noted that ten states already had non-binding primaries for Senate candidates, in which the candidates would be voted on by the public, effectively serving as advisory referendums instructing state legislatures how to vote; reformers campaigned for more states to introduce a similar method.
William Randolph Hearst opened a nationwide popular readership for direct election of U.S. senators in a 1906 series of articles using flamboyant language attacking "The Treason of the Senate" in his Cosmopolitan magazine. David Graham Philips, one of the "yellow journalists" whom President Teddy Roosevelt called "muckrakers", described Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island as the principal "traitor" among the "scurvy lot" in control of the Senate by theft, perjury, and bribes corrupting the state legislatures to gain election to the Senate. A few state legislatures began to petition the Congress for direct election of senators. By 1893, the House had the two-thirds vote for just such an amendment. However, when the joint resolution reached the Senate, it failed from neglect, as it did again in 1900, 1904 and 1908; each time the House approved the appropriate resolution, and each time it died in the Senate.
On the second national legislative front, reformers worked toward a constitutional amendment, which was strongly supported in the House of Representatives but initially opposed by the Senate. Bybee notes that the state legislatures, which would lose power if the reforms went through, were supportive of the campaign. By 1910, 31 state legislatures had passed resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment allowing direct election, and in the same year ten Republican senators who were opposed to reform were forced out of their seats, acting as a "wake-up call to the Senate".
Reformers included William Jennings Bryan, while opponents counted respected figures such as Elihu Root and George Frisbie Hoar among their number; Root cared so strongly about the issue that after the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment he refused to stand for re‐election to the Senate. Bryan and the reformers argued for popular election through highlighting flaws they saw within the existing system, specifically corruption and electoral deadlocks, and through arousing populist sentiment. Most important was the populist argument; that there was a need to "Awaken, in the senators ... a more acute sense of responsibility to the people", which it was felt they lacked; election through state legislatures was seen as an anachronism that was out of step with the wishes of the American people, and one that had led to the Senate becoming "a sort of aristocratic body—too far removed from the people, beyond their reach, and with no special interest in their welfare". The settlement of the West and continuing absorption of hundreds of thousands of immigrants expanded the sense of "the people".
Hoar replied that "the people" were both a less permanent and a less trusted body than state legislatures, and moving the responsibility for the election of senators to them would see it passing into the hands of a body that "[lasted] but a day" before changing. Other counterarguments were that renowned senators could not have been elected directly and that, since a large number of senators had experience in the House (which was already directly elected), a constitutional amendment would be pointless. The reform was considered by opponents to threaten the rights and independence of the states, who were "sovereign, entitled ... to have a separate branch of Congress ... to which they could send their ambassadors." This was countered by the argument that a change in the mode in which senators were elected would not change their responsibilities.
The Senate freshman class of 1910 brought new hope to the reformers. Fourteen of the thirty newly elected senators had been elected through party primaries, which amounted to popular choice in their states. More than half of the states had some form of primary selection for the Senate. The Senate finally joined the House to submit the Seventeenth Amendment to the states for ratification, nearly ninety years after it first was presented to the Senate in 1826.
By 1912, 239 political parties at both the state and national level had pledged some form of direct election, and 33 states had introduced the use of direct primaries. Twenty-seven states had called for a constitutional convention on the subject, with 31 states needed to reach the threshold; Arizona and New Mexico each achieved statehood that year (bringing the total number of states to 48), and were expected to support the motion. Alabama and Wyoming, already states, had passed resolutions in favor of a convention without formally calling for one.
## Proposal and ratification
### Proposal in Congress
In 1911, the House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution 39 proposing a constitutional amendment for direct election of senators. The original resolution passed by the House contained the following clause:
> The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators shall be as prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof.
This so-called "race rider" clause would have strengthened the powers of states over senatorial elections and weakened those of Congress by overriding Congress's power to override state laws affecting the manner of senatorial elections.
Since the turn of the century, most blacks in the South, and many poor whites, had been disenfranchised by state legislatures passing constitutions with provisions that were discriminatory in practice. This meant that their millions of population had no political representation. Most of the South had one-party states. When the resolution came before the Senate, a substitute resolution, one without the rider, was proposed by Joseph L. Bristow of Kansas. It was adopted by a vote of 64 to 24, with four not voting. Nearly a year later, the House accepted the change. The conference report that would become the Seventeenth Amendment was approved by the Senate in a 42 to 36 vote on April 12, 1912, and by the House 238 to 39, with 110 not voting on May 13, 1912.
### Ratification by the states
Having been passed by Congress, the amendment was sent to the states for ratification and was ratified by:
1. Massachusetts: May 22, 1912
2. Arizona: June 3, 1912
3. Minnesota: June 10, 1912
4. New York: January 15, 1913
5. Kansas: January 17, 1913
6. Oregon: January 23, 1913
7. North Carolina: January 25, 1913
8. California: January 28, 1913
9. Michigan: January 28, 1913
10. Iowa: January 30, 1913
11. Montana: January 30, 1913
12. Idaho: January 31, 1913
13. West Virginia: February 4, 1913
14. Colorado: February 5, 1913
15. Nevada: February 6, 1913
16. Texas: February 7, 1913
17. Washington: February 7, 1913
18. Wyoming: February 8, 1913
19. Arkansas: February 11, 1913
20. Maine: February 11, 1913
21. Illinois: February 13, 1913
22. North Dakota: February 14, 1913
23. Wisconsin: February 18, 1913
24. Indiana: February 19, 1913
25. New Hampshire: February 19, 1913
26. Vermont: February 19, 1913
27. South Dakota: February 19, 1913
28. Oklahoma: February 24, 1913
29. Ohio: February 25, 1913
30. Missouri: March 7, 1913
31. New Mexico: March 13, 1913
32. Nebraska: March 14, 1913
33. New Jersey: March 17, 1913
34. Tennessee: April 1, 1913
35. Pennsylvania: April 2, 1913
36. Connecticut: April 8, 1913
With 36 states having ratified the Seventeenth Amendment, it was certified by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan on May 31, 1913, as part of the Constitution. The amendment has subsequently been ratified by:
37. Louisiana: June 11, 1914
38. Alabama: April 11, 2002
39. Delaware: July 1, 2010 (after rejecting the amendment on March 18, 1913)
40. Maryland: April 1, 2012
41. Rhode Island: June 20, 2014
The Utah legislature rejected the amendment on February 26, 1913. No action on the amendment has been completed by Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, Alaska or Hawaii. Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states at the time of the amendment's proposal, and have never taken any official action to support or oppose the amendment since achieving statehood.
## Effect
The Seventeenth Amendment altered the process for electing United States senators and changed the way vacancies would be filled. Originally, the Constitution required state legislatures to fill Senate vacancies.
According to Judge Bybee, the Seventeenth Amendment had a dramatic impact on the political composition of the U.S. Senate. Before the Supreme Court required "one man, one vote" in Reynolds v. Sims (1964), malapportionment of state legislatures was common. For example, rural counties and cities could be given "equal weight" in the state legislatures, enabling one rural vote to equal 200 city votes. The malapportioned state legislatures would have given the Republicans control of the Senate in the 1916 Senate elections. With direct election, each vote represented equally, and the Democrats retained control of the Senate.
The reputation of corrupt and arbitrary state legislatures continued to decline as the Senate joined the House of Representatives in implementing popular reforms. Bybee has argued that the amendment led to complete "ignominy" for state legislatures without the buttress of a state-based check on Congress. In the decades following the Seventeenth Amendment, the federal government was enabled to enact progressive measures. However, Schleiches argues that the separation of state legislatures and the Senate had a beneficial effect on the states, as it led state legislative campaigns to focus on local rather than national issues.
New Deal legislation is another example of expanding federal regulation overruling the state legislatures promoting their local state interests in coal, oil, corn and cotton. Ure agrees, saying that not only is each senator now free to ignore his state's interests, senators "have incentive to use their advice-and-consent powers to install Supreme Court justices who are inclined to increase federal power at the expense of state sovereignty". Over the first half of the 20th century, with a popularly elected Senate confirming nominations, both Republican and Democratic, the Supreme Court began to apply the Bill of Rights to the states, overturning state laws whenever they harmed individual state citizens. It aimed to limit the influence of the wealthy.
### Filling vacancies
The Seventeenth Amendment requires a governor to call a special election to fill vacancies in the Senate. It also allows a state's legislature to permit its governor to make temporary appointments, which last until a special election is held to fill the vacancy. Currently, all but four states (North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin) permit such appointments. The Constitution does not set out how the temporary appointee is to be selected.
### First direct elections to the Senate
Oklahoma, admitted to statehood in 1907, chose a senator by legislative election three times: twice in 1907, when admitted, and once in 1908. In 1912, Oklahoma reelected Robert Owen by advisory popular vote.
Oregon held primaries in 1908 in which the parties would run candidates for that position, and the state legislature pledged to choose the winner as the new senator.
New Mexico, admitted to statehood in 1912, chose only its first two senators legislatively. Arizona, admitted to statehood in 1912, chose its first two senators by advisory popular vote. Alaska, and Hawaii, admitted to statehood in 1959, have never chosen a U.S. senator legislatively.
The first election subject to the Seventeenth Amendment was a late election in Georgia held June 15, 1913. Augustus Octavius Bacon was however unopposed.
The first direct elections to the Senate following the Seventeenth Amendment being adopted were:
- In Maryland on November 4, 1913: a class 1 special election due to a vacancy, for a term ending in 1917.
- In Alabama on May 11, 1914: a class 3 special election due to a vacancy, for a term ending in 1915.
- Nationwide in 1914: All 32 class 3 senators, term 1915–1921
- Nationwide in 1916: All 32 class 1 senators, term 1917–1923
- Nationwide in 1918: All 32 class 2 senators, term 1919–1925
### Court cases and interpretation controversies
In Trinsey v. Pennsylvania (1991), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit was faced with a situation where, following the death of Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania, Governor Bob Casey had provided for a replacement and for a special election that did not include a primary. A voter and prospective candidate, John S. Trinsey Jr., argued that the lack of a primary violated the Seventeenth Amendment and his right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Third Circuit rejected these arguments, ruling that the Seventeenth Amendment does not require primaries.
Another subject of analysis is whether statutes restricting the authority of governors to appoint temporary replacements are constitutional. Vikram Amar, writing in the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, claims Wyoming's requirement that its governor fill a senatorial vacancy by nominating a person of the same party as the person who vacated that seat violates the Seventeenth Amendment. This is based on the text of the Seventeenth Amendment, which states that "the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments". The amendment only empowers the legislature to delegate the authority to the governor and, once that authority has been delegated, does not permit the legislature to intervene. The authority is to decide whether the governor shall have the power to appoint temporary senators, not whom the governor may appoint. Sanford Levinson, in his rebuttal to Amar, argues that rather than engaging in a textual interpretation, those examining the meaning of constitutional provisions should interpret them in the fashion that provides the most benefit, and that legislatures' being able to restrict gubernatorial appointment authority provides a substantial benefit to the states.
### Reform and repeal efforts
Notwithstanding controversies over the effects of the Seventeenth Amendment, advocates have emerged to reform or repeal the amendment. At the beginning of President Barack Obama's administration in 2009, four sitting Democratic senators left the Senate for executive branch positions: Obama himself (President), Joe Biden (Vice President), Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State), and Ken Salazar (Secretary of the Interior). Controversies developed about the successor appointments made by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and New York governor David Paterson. New interest was aroused in abolishing the provision for the Senate appointment by the governor. Accordingly, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Representative David Dreier of California proposed an amendment to remove this power; senators John McCain and Dick Durbin became co-sponsors, as did Representative John Conyers.
Some members of the Tea Party movement argued for repealing the Seventeenth Amendment entirely, claiming it would protect states' rights and reduce the power of the federal government. On March 2, 2016, the Utah legislature approved Senate Joint Resolution No. 2 asking Congress to offer an amendment to the United States Constitution that would repeal the Seventeenth Amendment. As of 2010, no other states had supported such an amendment, and some politicians who had made statements in favor of repealing the amendment had subsequently reversed their position on this.
On July 28, 2017, after Republican senators John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against the Health Care Freedom Act, which would have repealed the Affordable Care Act, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee endorsed the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment. He claimed that senators chosen by state legislatures "will work for their states and respect [the Tenth Amendment]", and also that direct election of senators is a major cause of the "swamp".
In September 2020, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska endorsed the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
## General and cited references
- Wendy J. Schiller and Charles Stewart III (May 2013), The 100th Anniversary of the 17th Amendment: A Promise Unfulfilled?, Issues in Governance Studies, Number 59 May 2013 |
3,974,477 | Azerbaijan at the 2006 Winter Olympics | 1,115,482,296 | null | [
"2006 in Azerbaijani sport",
"Azerbaijan at the Winter Olympics by year",
"Nations at the 2006 Winter Olympics"
]
| Azerbaijan sent a delegation to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy from 10–26 February 2006. The nation was making its third appearance at a Winter Olympics. The Azerbaijani delegation consisted of two athletes, an ice dancing team of American-born Kristin Fraser and Russian-born Igor Lukanin. They finished the competition in 19th place. As of the conclusion of these Olympics, Azerbaijan has never won a Winter Olympics medal.
## Background
The National Olympic Committee of the Azerbaijani Republic was created in 1992 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 1 January 1993. Azerbaijan has sent delegations to every Olympics since the 1996 Summer Olympics, first entering the Winter Olympics in Nagano in 1998. While the nation has won many medals in the Summer Olympics, they have never won a medal in the Winter Olympics. The Azerbaijani delegation to Turin consisted of a single ice dancing team, Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin. Teymur Jafarov, an assistant of the National Olympic Committee, carried the flag for the closing ceremony.
## Figure skating
Kristin Frasier is from in Montclair, New Jersey, while Igor Lukanin was born in Yekaterinburg, Russia. They had previously, as a team, represented Azerbaijan at the 2002 Winter Olympics. At the time of the Turin Olympics, Frasier was 25 years old, and Lukanin was 30 years old. The ice dancing event took place over three phases, each held on a separate days. There were 24 teams taking part in the competition. On 17 February, in the compulsory dance, the Azerbaijanis scored 27.27 points. Two nights later, they scored 43.83 points in the original dance, while the following evening they scored 77.14 points in the free dance. Their combined score of 148.24 points put the Azerbajiani team in 19th place.
Key: CD = Compulsory Dance, FD = Free Dance, OD = Original Dance |
63,844,526 | 1993 Women's Cricket World Cup final | 1,159,801,695 | Cricket match | [
"1993 Women's Cricket World Cup",
"1993 in English cricket",
"1993 in New Zealand cricket",
"England women's national cricket team matches",
"New Zealand women's national cricket team matches",
"Women's Cricket World Cup finals"
]
| The 1993 Women's Cricket World Cup Final was a one-day cricket match between England and New Zealand played on 1 August 1993 at Lord's in London, England. It marked the culmination of the 1993 Women's Cricket World Cup, the fifth edition of the tournament. England won the final by 67 runs, clinching their second World Cup title; their first since the inaugural tournament in 1973. It was England's third appearance in a World Cup final, while New Zealand made their debut at this stage of the tournament.
New Zealand remained unbeaten through the round-robin league stage of the tournament, while England only lost once: to New Zealand. They finished first and second in the league to qualify directly for the final. New Zealand were considered slight favourites for the final. The New Zealand captain, Sarah Illingworth, won the toss, and opted to field first. England scored patiently throughout most of their innings; Jan Brittin and Carole Hodges had a partnership of 85, before runs were added more quickly towards the end, led by 38 runs from 33 balls by Jo Chamberlain. England finished on 195 for five. In their response, New Zealand regularly lost wickets. The dismissal of Debbie Hockley just before the tea interval was identified as a key moment for England, who eventually bowled New Zealand out for 128 to secure victory. Chamberlain was named as player of the match, for her all-round performance.
## Background
The 1993 Women's Cricket World Cup was the fifth Women's Cricket World Cup. The first had been held in 1973, pre-dating the first men's Cricket World Cup by two years. The 1993 tournament featured eight teams; Australia, Denmark, England, India, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand and the West Indies. It took place between 20 July and 1 August, featuring 29 matches over 13 days. England had won the first World Cup on home soil, before Australia won each of the next three, beating England in the 1982 and 1988 finals.
## Route to the final
Each team played seven matches during the round-robin stage of the tournament, facing each other once. The top two teams would progress directly to the final. England started their campaign against Denmark. Aided by a hat-trick from Carole Hodges—both the first by an Englishwoman in international cricket, and the first at any Women's World Cup—England won by 239 runs; at the time, the second-biggest winning margin in Women's One Day International cricket. In their second match, they faced New Zealand, who only managed to score 127 runs batting first. However, in response, New Zealand enacted five run outs to help secure a 25-run victory. The New Zealand captain, Sarah Illingworth recalled: "As captain that day I felt as if I knew what was going to happen before it did in the field. [It was the] best fielding performance I’ve ever been involved in." The English cricket writer, Raf Nicholson, blamed England rather than praised New Zealand, saying that England "threw away the game with five suicidal run-outs and unnecessary slogging in between". England subsequently beat Ireland by 162 runs—during which Hodges and Helen Plimmer both scored centuries for England—and narrowly defeated India, who had only needed four runs to win when their last batter was dismissed. Their results meant that England had to beat Australia to give themselves a realistic chance of reaching the final. England scored 208 for five; aided by another century from Hodges, and then five wickets by Gill Smith helped England to bowl Australia out for 165. England convincingly won their final two group matches; a four-wicket win over the West Indies, with more than 13 overs remaining, and a 133-run win over the Netherlands.
New Zealand opened their tournament against Ireland, achieving a seven-wicket win after restricting the Irish to 82 for six from their reduced allocation of 39 overs. After beating England in their second match, New Zealand secured another large victory, defeating Denmark by nine wickets after bowling them out for 93 runs. New Zealand's bowlers dominated again in the next match: Jennifer Turner took five wickets and conceded only five runs as the Netherlands were bowled out for 40, at the time the third-lowest score in Women's One Day Internationals. During New Zealand's next match, a seven-wicket win over the West Indies, Julie Harris took New Zealand's first hat-trick in Women's One Day Internationals. In their penultimate group match, New Zealand were restricted to 154 runs by India, but three run outs and economic bowling helped them to a 42-run victory. New Zealand faced Australia in their final group match: victory would ensure them a place in the final, but a loss would leave Australia, England and New Zealand all on the same number of points, and run rate would have to be used to determine which teams reached the final. No such tie-breaker was needed; New Zealand bowled Australia out for 77 runs, which as of 2020 remains their lowest total in Women's One Day Internationals. New Zealand reached their target without loss to win by ten wickets. Having won all of their matches, New Zealand finished top of the league on 28 points, while England finished second with 24 points.
## Match
### Summary
The final was played on a "clear and bright" day at Lord's cricket ground in London. Although Lord's is famously described as "the home of cricket", it was only the third time that a women's One Day International had been played at the ground. At the time of the match, women were not allowed to be members of the Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC; who owned the ground), nor were they allowed in the pavilion. The BBC made a late schedule change to broadcast the match live on Grandstand, where it attracted 2.5 million viewers. The match began at 10:45 BST, and was played in front of a crowd of around 5,000 people, who were all on one side of the ground, as the MCC kept the other side closed.
The New Zealand captain, Illingworth, won the toss and chose to field first. Jan Brittin and Wendy Watson opened the batting for England; Watson was dropped in the first over, but only added five runs before being bowled by Sarah McLauchlan. That wicket brought Hodges to the crease: Brittin and Hodges were the leading run-scorers during the tournament, and Alan Lee of The Times described their partnership as "accomplished and assured" as they patiently put on 85 runs together. During her innings, Brittin became the first player to score 1,000 runs in Women's World Cup matches. Brittin was dismissed 15 minutes before lunch, caught at mid-wicket by Karen Gunn off the bowling of McLauchlan for 48 runs, leaving England 96 for two. After the wicket, Hodges and Plimmer scored 18 runs in just under 10 overs before both were dismissed in quick succession: Hodges was stumped by Illingworth off the bowling of Catherine Campbell for 45, while Plimmer was run out for 11. Their wickets brought Jo Chamberlain and Barbara Daniels in to bat. The pair played more positively, working the ball into gaps in the field and taking quick singles. Chamberlain was dropped when she had scored seven runs: in all, New Zealand dropped four catches during the final, in stark contrast to the excellent fielding that had earned them plaudits during the group stage. Chamberlain scored 38 runs from 33 deliveries before missing the ball while aiming a big shot at the Tavern Stand, and being bowled by Julie Harris. She was given a standing ovation by the MCC members as she walked off the pitch. Daniels and Karen Smithies added another 20 runs in the final few overs to take England to 195 for five: they scored 81 of their 195 runs from the last 12 overs.
New Zealand opened the batting with Penny Kinsella and Debbie Hockley; England started with the medium pace bowling of Clare Taylor at one end, and the off spin of Hodges at the other. Writing for The Guardian, Mike Selvey said that the use of Hodges "at a stroke [rendered] Debbie Hockley both moribund and, with helmet, grill and armguard, faintly ridiculous." Kinsella was the first wicket to fall, caught behind by Jane Smit off the bowling of Taylor for 15. Hockley and Kirsty Bond then built a partnership, taking the score on to 51 for one before Chamberlain was introduced into the bowling attack, and Bond was soon "brilliantly caught by Suzy Kitson at gully", according to Martin Williamson of ESPNcricinfo. Hockley and Maia Lewis began to rebuild the New Zealand innings, but after adding nine runs in seven overs, the left-handed Chamberlain hit the stumps with a right-arm throw to run out Hockley for 24, a moment identified as the turning point of the match by both Selvey and Taylor. Tea was taken after 30 overs of the New Zealand innings. Shortly thereafter two more wickets fell: Illingworth was caught and bowled by Smithies for 4, while Emily Drumm was caught by Chamberlain off the bowling of Smith for a duck. From 55 for one, New Zealand had collapsed to 71 for five. Lewis and Gunn added 39 runs together, but once Lewis was dismissed for 28, trapped leg before wicket by Smith, New Zealand subsided, and were bowled out for 128. England won by 67 runs, and secured their second World Cup title.
### Scorecard
- Toss: New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first
- Result: England won by 67 runs
Umpires:
- Valerie Gibbens and Judith West
Key
- \* – Captain
- – Wicket-keeper
- c Fielder – Indicates that the batsman was dismissed by a catch by the named fielder
- b Bowler – Indicates which bowler gains credit for the dismissal
- c & b Bowler – Indicates that the batsman was dismissed by a catch by the bowler
## Aftermath
Chamberlain was selected as the player of the match: in The Times, Lee said that "she did all but everything", praising her batting, bowling and fielding performances alike. In The Guardian, Selvey said that she had put in an "unstinting all-round performance". The consensus was that New Zealand had been overwhelmed by their nerves in the final; one of the New Zealand players, Campbell said "We weren't very experienced at finals, and we choked." Throughout the group stage, New Zealand had never had to chase more than 96 runs, so their middle and lower order batters had not had much match practice in English conditions. Before the match, England's women had received a good luck message from the England men's team, who had just lost the Ashes to Australia. Smithies, speaking after the victory, aimed a good-natured dig at them; "Perhaps they could learn a few things from this."
England's victory gave women's cricket unprecedented coverage in the English press; it was featured in all the national newspapers, and was even on the front pages of some. There was an item on the win in the BBC Evening News. The England captain, Smithies, reflected that the response surprised her; "It changed my life completely for about six months ... It lit up women's cricket again."
In amongst all the plaudits were a few notes of caution; Lee suggested that "This final illustrated the athleticism of the game and the status to which it can aspire; what is needed now is firmer and more enterprising administration." Former England player Sarah Potter said "Progress has been held back by lack of hard cash and column inches, and buckets of male condescension." England failed to reach another World Cup final until 2009, when they once again beat New Zealand. New Zealand faced Australia in the final in both 1997 and 2000; losing the first and winning the second. |
4,050,027 | Catholic Church in Afghanistan | 1,173,573,440 | null | [
"Afghanistan–Italy relations",
"Catholic Church in Afghanistan"
]
| The Catholic Church in Afghanistan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Prior to August 2021, there were very few Catholics in this overwhelmingly Muslim country—just over 200 attend Mass in its only chapel—and freedom of religion has been difficult to obtain in recent times, especially under the new Taliban-led Afghan government.
Earlier Christians in Afghanistan were members of the historical Church of the East or the Armenian Apostolic Church, and there had been no sustained Catholic presence in Afghanistan until the 20th century. In 1921, the Italian embassy in Kabul was allowed to build the first and only legal Catholic chapel to serve foreigners working in the capital, but not open to local nationals. On 16 May 2002, Pope John Paul II established a mission sui iuris for Afghanistan with Giuseppe Moretti as its first superior, presently Giovanni M. Scalese. In 2004, the Missionaries of Charity arrived in Kabul to carry out humanitarian work. Following the 2021 Taliban offensive, the Catholic Church ceased to have a functioning presence in Afghanistan.
## History
### Before Afghan Independence
Legend from the apocryphal Acts of Thomas and other ancient documents suggests that Thomas the Apostle preached in Bactria, which is today northern Afghanistan. The Nestorians planted Christianity in the area, and there were historically nine bishops and dioceses in the region, including Herat (424-1310), Farah (544-1057), Kandahar, and Balkh. This early establishment of Christianity was overcome by the Muslim conquests in the 7th century, though the territory was not substantially controlled by Muslims until the 9th and 10th centuries. In 1581 and 1582 respectively, the Jesuits Antonio de Montserrat of Spain and Bento de Góis of Portugal were warmly welcomed by the Islamic Emperor Akbar, but there was no lasting Jesuit presence in the country.
### 20th century
The Kingdom of Italy was the first country to recognise the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919. On January 1, 1933, Egidio Caspani inaugurated the provisional chapel. His appointment was a personal request of Pope Pius XI to the Barnabite Superior General. Caspani had been the Rector of the Barnabite Seminary in Rome. To accompany him on this journey one of his students was ordained and sent with him, not publicly as a priest, but as his Diplomatic Courier and assistant Chancellor at the Embassy. Thus Ernesto Cagnacci also began this new mission in Kabul. "At the time the Catholic residents numbered in the hundreds, the majority of them in the capital, members of embassies or contractors employed by the Government of Afghanistan; others were dispersed throughout the country and were generally technicians and specialized workers, that lent their skills to the construction of various public works that marked the progress of the country." In addition to his pastoral work, Caspani kept detailed notes of the politics, culture and geography of the land. These observations were later published in an Italian volume published in collaboration with Cagnacci entitled, "Afghanistan, crocevie dell'Asia". Over the years a number of Barnabites have served as chaplains. After Caspani there was: Giovanni M. Bernasconi, 1947–1957; Raffaele Nannetti, 1957–1965; and Angelo Panigati, 1965 - 1990.
### Soviet invasion period and Taliban insurgency
Pope John Paul II called for a "just solution" to the Soviet–Afghan war in the 1980s. Giuseppe Moretti first came to Afghanistan in 1977, and stayed until he was shot when the Italian embassy was attacked in 1994 and was forced to leave the country. From 1990 to 1994 he was the only Catholic priest in the country. After 1994, only the Little Sisters of Jesus were allowed to remain in Afghanistan, as they had been there since 1955 and their work was well known. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Catholic Relief Services sent clothing, food and bedding to returning refugees and internally displaced persons. They also bought school supplies for children returning to school.
### Post-Taliban
With the fall of the Taliban, Pope John Paul II requested that Moretti return to Afghanistan. The first Mass in 9 years was celebrated on January 27, 2002, for members of the International Security Force and various members of foreign agencies. On May 16, 2002, a mission sui iuris was created for all of Afghanistan. There is only one functioning chapel in the country, in the Italian Embassy in Kabul. Projects of the new mission include a "Peace School" for 500 students that began construction in August 2003 and will be to "European standards". Three religious sisters also work with those who have mental disabilities in the capital city, teaching those with cerebral palsy how to go to the toilet and how to eat on their own. The small community went through a period of crisis during the kidnapping on May 17, 2005, of Clementina Cantoni, a member of CARE International, by four gunmen in Kabul as she walked to her car. Sisters from the Missionaries of Charity had their house blessed on May 9, 2006, and have already started taking in street children. There had been fears that their distinctive blue and white habit would make them stand out and be harassed by Muslims, but their institute is generally respected. Jesuit Relief Services has also applied to join the growing number of religious institutes in the country. Jesuit Refugee Services has recently opened a technical school in Herat for 500 students including 120 girls.
There have been efforts made to start inter-religious dialogue; the Islamist head of the Afghan Supreme Court Fazul Shinwari attended the inauguration of the mission and expressed a desire to meet with the Pope.
The Catholic community in Afghanistan is mainly made of foreigners, especially aid workers, and no Afghans are known to be currently part of the Church, mainly due to great social and legal pressure not to convert to non-Islamic religions. Some Afghans have converted while overseas, but they keep it secret when they return. Two Christian groups, Church World Service and Norwegian Church Aid, were accused of proselytizing while doing aid work in Afghanistan, which they denied, and 1,000 Afghans protested in Mazar-i-Sharif and burned the pope in effigy. Despite this, the community has grown from only a few sisters to a full Sunday Mass of around 100. Church attendance dipped in 2012 due to security concerns and less emphasis on religion among the foreigners in Afghanistan in recent years.
Relations with the new democratic government of Afghanistan have been positive, such as Afghan President Hamid Karzai attending Pope John Paul II's funeral and congratulating Pope Benedict XVI on his election.
The papal nuncio to neighboring Pakistan visited Afghanistan in 2005 and held a Mass in the Italian Embassy Chapel to an overflowing crowd, and Catholic officials hope that official diplomatic ties and a public Catholic church will be possible in the future.
### Taliban governance resumes
In the wake of the 2021 Taliban offensive, the Catholic community in Afghanistan ceased to exist. Father Giovanni Scalese, the head of the Mission sui iuris of Aghanistan, left the country with several Missionaries of Charity nuns and others who were under the nuns' care during the Taliban takeover. Several Jesuits and other religious were present in Kabul during the collapse of the Republic of Afghanistan, and there is little public information about whether any have remained in the country.
## Mission sui iuris
The Mission sui iuris of Afghanistan (Latin: Missio sui juris Afghanistaniensis) is independent mission and a jurisdiction of the Catholic Church, immediately subject to the Holy See, covering the whole territory of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It is a “particular church”— that is to say, a portion of the people of God – likened to a Diocese (Can. 368). By the law itself, it possesses juridical personality (Can. 373). It was established by the Holy See and entrusted to the care of the Order of Clerics Regular of Saint Paul – Barnabites (CRSP). It is presided by an Ecclesiastical Superior (Latin: Superior ecclesiasticus), who acts as the Local Ordinary (Can. 134 §2).
## Foreign military
Members of foreign militaries (notably on NATO mission) are served by chaplains embedded within their units. In 2009, 17,000 soldiers from the United States stationed in eastern Afghanistan were served by 6 Catholic priests, including Catholic chaplains from other countries. Some bases had weekly Masses, while remote posts had Mass every 60 to 90 days.
## See also
- Catholic Church by country
- Christianity in Afghanistan
- Protestantism in Afghanistan
## Sources and external links
- GCatholic, with Google map and - satellite photo
[ ](Category:Catholic_Church_in_Afghanistan "wikilink") [Afghanistan–Italy relations](Category:Afghanistan–Italy_relations "wikilink") |
2,585,735 | If It's Lovin' that You Want | 1,172,072,397 | 2005 single by Rihanna | [
"2005 singles",
"2005 songs",
"Music videos directed by Marcus Raboy",
"Reggae fusion songs",
"Rihanna songs",
"Songs written by Jean-Claude Olivier",
"Songs written by KRS-One",
"Songs written by Makeba Riddick",
"Songs written by Samuel Barnes (songwriter)",
"Songs written by Scott La Rock"
]
| "If It's Lovin' That You Want" is a song by Barbadian singer Rihanna from her debut studio album, Music of the Sun (2005). It was written by Samuel Barnes, Scott La Rock, Makeba Riddick, Jean-Claude Oliver, Lawrence Parker, and produced by Poke & Tone. It was released on August 16, 2005, as the second and final single from the album. The lyrics revolve around "basically telling a guy, 'If it's lovin' that you want, you should make me your girl because I've got what you need".
The song received mixed reviews from music critics, many of whom praised and criticised Rihanna's vocal performance; its composition was also complimented. "If It's Lovin' that You Want" achieved moderate success around the world, reaching the top forty in few European countries, while reaching the top ten in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. In the United States, the song failed to match the commercial success of Rihanna's previous single, "Pon de Replay", peaking at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It managed, however, to reach number nine on the Pop Songs chart. The song's accompanying music video, directed by Marcus Raboy, was shot on a beach in California, and features the singer enjoying several activities, such as dancing and riding jet skis with her friends.
## Background and composition
Following the release and commercial success of "Pon de Replay", the lead single from Music of the Sun and Rihanna's debut in the music industry, "If It's Lovin' that You Want" was released as the second single from the album. In an interview with MTV News, Rihanna explained the lyrical meaning behind the song, saying "The song is basically telling a guy, 'If it's lovin' that you want, you should make me your girl because I've got what you need".
Musically, is a reggae song with R&B influence, reinforcing Rihanna's "tropical reggae signature". According to the digital music sheet published at musicnotes.com, "If It's Lovin' that You Want" is written in the key of A-flat major and is set in common time with a moderate dance groove with a metronome of 98 beats per minute. Rihanna's vocal range in the song spans from the low note of F<sub>3</sub> to the high note of G<sub>5</sub>. A sequel to the song titled "If It's Lovin' That You Want – Part 2", which features rap vocals by Cory Gunz, was included as a bonus track on Rihanna's sophomore album, A Girl Like Me (2006). The song was written by Samuel Barnes, Scott LaRock, Makeba Riddick, Jean-Claude Oliver, Lawrence Parker and was produced by the latter two under their production name, Poke & Tone of Trackmasters." "If It's Lovin' that You Want" contains interpolations from the composition "The Bridge Is Over", as performed by Boogie Down Productions, and written by Scott La Rock and Lawrence Parker.
## Critical reception
The song was met with generally mixed reviews from music critics, who both praised and criticised Rihanna's vocal performance. Bill Lamb of About.com wrote that although the singer provides "simple, pleasant vocals", her voice sounds "too light" and "thin". Lamb continued to comment about the song, writing that although the song is "pleasurable" and "summery" to listen to and is not "offensive", it fails to re-capture the "killer hook of 'Pon de Replay'". However, A. Vishnu of The Hindu had contrasting opinions with regard to Rihanna's vocal performance, writing the song further "exposes her versatility and vocal range". A reviewer for Billboard praised the song's composition and beat, writing "['If It's Lovin' that You Want'] reinforces Rihanna's tropical reggae signature with an itchy hook that, albeit monotonous, cannot miss." A reviewer of Take40 and Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times were brief in their reviews of "If It's Lovin' that You Want", with the former writing that the song is more "low-key" compared to Rihanna's previous release, "Pon de Replay", and the latter simply writing that it is a "pretty good" song.
## Chart performance
"If It's Lovin' that You Want" peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100, failing to match the commercial success of Rihanna's previous single, "Pon de Replay", only peaking within the top ten of three national charts. In Australia, the song debuted and peaked on the Australian Singles Chart at number 9 on February 6, 2006. The song fell one position the following week to number ten, but managed to peak at number 9 again in its third week. In total, the song spent two non-consecutive weeks at number 9 and fourteen weeks on the chart. In New Zealand, the song debuted at number 12 on the New Zealand Singles Chart on December 19, 2005. During "If It's Lovin' that You Want"'s first four weeks of charting, it fluctuated in the top twenty, but managed to peak at number 9 in its fifth week for one week. In total, the song spent 12 weeks on the chart.
In Europe, "If It's Lovin' that You Want" debuted on the Austrian Singles Chart at number 40 on December 16, 2005. During the song's first five weeks on the chart, it struggled to stay inside the top forty, but in its sixth week, managed to peak at number 31 for one week, and spent a total of 11 weeks on the chart. In Switzerland, the song debuted at number 25 on December 18, 2005, and peaked at number 19. The song spent a total of 12 weeks on the chart. In The Netherlands, the song debuted at number 76 on February 4, 2006, and peaked at number 13 the following week. The song spent a total of 7 weeks on the chart. In the Flanders region of Belgium, the song debuted at number 50 December 31, 2005, but dropped out of the chart the following week, but re-entered the chart at number 38 on January 21, 2006, and peaked at number 25 the following week. The song spent a total of 10 weeks on the chart. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted and peaked on the UK Singles Chart at number 11 on December 10, 2005, and dropped out of the Official UK Top 40 after five weeks on the chart.
## Music video
The music video for the song was shot on a stretch of beach on the coast of California in Malibu and directed by Marcus Raboy on August 9, 2005. In an interview with MTV News, Rihanna spoke about the development of the shoot for the video, saying "The water was so cold ... but oh my gosh, we had so much fun ... We were bumping each other off the Jet Skis and just had a ball". During the interview, the singer elaborated further upon the content of the video and the meaning behind it, saying "This video is about having fun, giving off the vibe of the Caribbean ... we did some mermaid-looking stuff down on the sand ...and I'm just [performing] to the camera as if it were my boyfriend. Now we're going to do [some scenes with] the Tiki torches. It's going to be incredible". The dance routines in the video were choreographed by noted choreographer Fatima Robinson.
The video begins with scenes of Rihanna dancing and walking along the beach and riding jet ski's with her friends during the first chorus and continues into the first verse. Halfway through the first verse, a new scene of the singer is introduced, where she is dancing on a platform with four other female dancers, wearing a "short, flowing white skirt and a cropped tee", with the ocean as the backdrop behind her. During the second chorus, the previous scenes are intercut with each other, and continue into the second verse, where a new scene of the singer wearing a different outfit and lying on the beach, whilst also choreographing with some male extras. For the third chorus, which is repeated twice, another new scene of Rihanna is shown with four other female dancers who belly dance in the middle of a Tiki torch circle during the night.
## Track listing
- Digital download
1. "If It's Lovin' That You Want" – 3:50
- CD single
1. "If It's Lovin' That You Want" (Album Version) – 3:28
2. "If It's Lovin' That You Want" (Instrumental) – 3:20
3. "Pon de Replay" (Pon de Club Play) – 7:32
4. "If It's Lovin' That You Want" (Video) – 3:36
- Digital EP
1. "If It's Lovin' That You Want" – 3:27
2. "If It's Lovin' That You Want" (Instrumental) – 3:20
3. "Pon de Replay" (Pon de Club Play) – 7:32
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## Release history |
11,932,227 | 2007–08 Arsenal F.C. season | 1,164,517,420 | 122nd season in existence of Arsenal F.C. | [
"2007–08 Premier League by team",
"Arsenal F.C. seasons"
]
| The 2007–08 season was Arsenal Football Club's 16th season in the Premier League and their 82nd consecutive season in the top flight of English football. The club ended their Premier League campaign in third position, having led the table for two-thirds of the season. Arsenal made it into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, but were eliminated on aggregate score against Liverpool. The team exited the FA Cup in the fifth round to Manchester United and lost in the semi-finals of the League Cup to Tottenham Hotspur. This was Arsenal's first hat-trick of trophyless seasons since 1997.
Arsenal sold striker and club record goalscorer Thierry Henry to Barcelona, in the transfer window. Other departures included first team players Freddie Ljungberg and José Antonio Reyes to West Ham United and Atlético Madrid respectively; defender Bacary Sagna and striker Eduardo were the notable purchases from Auxerre and Dinamo Zagreb, respectively.
A strong start to the season saw Arsenal top the league table by September. Defeat against Sevilla in November ended a run of 28 matches undefeated and it was not until a month after did the team lose in the league for the first time, away at Middlesbrough. Arsenal extended their league lead to five points in February, but a career-threatening injury to Eduardo against Birmingham City coincided with the team going on a run of four draws in the Premier League. Manchester United soon overtook them in first and defeat to Chelsea in March moved Arsenal down in third place, where they remained at the end of the season. However, their points tally of 83 remains as the highest in the Premier League for a third-placed team under the 38 game format.
Thirty-two different players represented the club in four competitions, and there were 16 different goalscorers. Emmanuel Adebayor was Arsenal's top goalscorer in the 2007–08 season, scoring 30 goals in 48 appearances.
## Background
The previous season was a transitional period for Arsenal. The club transferred a number of first-team players such as defenders Sol Campbell and Lauren to Portsmouth and winger Robert Pires to Spanish club Villarreal. After lengthy negotiations, Ashley Cole moved to Chelsea on the final day of the summer transfer window, in exchange for £5 million and defender William Gallas. Arsenal played their home games at the newly constructed Emirates Stadium and drew their first game against Aston Villa. After a defeat by Bolton Wanderers, manager Arsène Wenger admitted that his team were unlikely to make a serious challenge for the Premier League. Despite being a young and inexperienced team, however, Arsenal reached the final of the League Cup, where they were beaten 2–1 by Chelsea. Elimination in the UEFA Champions League in the knockout stage (two-legged matches played home and away) and FA Cup in the space of four days followed – the club lost three games in succession for the first time since October 2002. Arsenal eventually finished fourth in the league, level on points with third-placed Liverpool.
## Transfers
At the end of the 2006–07 season, Arsenal transferred Fabrice Muamba to Birmingham City and released Mart Poom, who subsequently joined Watford on a free transfer. Jérémie Aliadière moved to Middlesbrough in a £2 million deal while club captain and record goalscorer Thierry Henry left to join Barcelona for a reported fee of £16 million. Henry commented that his decision to leave Arsenal was because of the departure of chairman David Dein and the uncertainty over Wenger's future. Midfielder Freddie Ljungberg and striker José Antonio Reyes departed the club in July 2007, moving to West Ham United and Atlético Madrid respectively. Other players, Arturo Lupoli, Ryan Garry and Joe O'Cearuill, left on free transfers. Defender Matthew Connolly, who joined Colchester United on loan for a six-month period, later signed for Queens Park Rangers.
Legia Warsaw goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański was the first player Arsenal recruited of the new season. Next to arrive was striker Eduardo, who signed from Dinamo Zagreb, shortly followed by French defender Bacary Sagna. Lassana Diarra was purchased on transfer deadline day from Chelsea, but later transferred to Portsmouth in January after he was frustrated at limited playing time; he said, "I read that the club [Arsenal] wanted to keep me. But when you want to keep someone, you do it by playing them. This hasn't been the case."
In
Out
Loans out
## Club
### Coaching staff
### Kit
Supplier: Nike / Sponsor: Fly Emirates
### Kit information
Nike released new kit for Arsenal this season.
- Home: The home kit from last season was unchanged.
- Away: The away kit with a design that celebrates the pioneering spirit of club legendary Herbert Chapman, and sees a return to the white away shirts worn throughout the club's history. The shirt incorporates a tonal print in a horizontal stripe, detailing many of Chapman's groundbreaking innovations which among others include the introduction of the white ball, rubber studs and numbered shirts. The Gunners legend also campaigned for Gillespie Road tube station to be changed to Arsenal tube station - the setting for the print adverts - to further promote the club's name, and was successful with its renaming in 1932. The kit with a redcurrant v-neck collar and a red currant trim to the sleeves - the hooped design another of the ideas that Chapman introduced to the club along with his inspiration for Arsenal's famous red and white shirt.
- Third: The third kit featured with hooped dark-redcurrant shirts with gold trim in side collar, dark shorts and hooped redcurrant in dark socks with gold stripes, same as the away kit to commemorate the influence and achievements of under club legend Herbert Chapman.
- Keeper: The goalkeeper kit are yellow. grey and navy blue.
### Other information
## Pre-season
## Premier League
Twenty teams competed in the Premier League in the 2007–08 season. Each team played 38 matches, two against every other team and one match at each club's stadium. Three points were awarded for each win, one point per draw, and none for defeats. At the end of the season, the top two teams qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League; teams in third and fourth needed to play a qualifier.
The provisional fixture list was released on 14 June 2007, but was subject to change in the event of clashes with other competitions, inclement weather, or matches being selected for television coverage.
### August–October
Arsenal started their league campaign at home to Fulham on 12 August 2007. A mistake by goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, "screw[ing] an attempted return pass against his own knee", allowed striker David Healy to score, just under 52 seconds. However, a late penalty scored by Robin van Persie and a goal from Alexander Hleb resulted in the team winning the match. In their next match, away to Blackburn Rovers, another error by Lehmann – this time letting David Dunn's shot slip through his fingers and into the goalnet, meant the team drew 1–1. Cesc Fàbregas scored the winning goal against Manchester City, ten minutes before the end of the match. The result was followed with what The Guardian described as a "fluent attacking display" at home to Portsmouth, on the first day of September. Arsenal faced local rivals Tottenham Hotspur after a week-long international break and went a goal behind when Gareth Bale's free-kick beat goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, past the net. Emmanuel Adebayor scored the equaliser in the second half, before Fàbregas "piloted a 30-yarder beyond Paul Robinson in the 80th minute." In stoppage time, Adebayor flicked the ball up and volleyed it into the top corner of Tottenham's goal; the result meant Arsenal went top of the league table, for the first time in the season. A week after, Adebayor scored a hat-trick (three goals) in a 5–0 win against Derby County. Van Persie scored the only goal against West Ham United on 29 September 2007 to maintain the lead at the top.
Two goals from Van Persie helped Arsenal beat Sunderland 3–2 at home, on the first weekend of October. Second half goals from defender Kolo Touré and midfielder Tomáš Rosický against Bolton Wanderers, gave the team a seventh straight victory in the league. Arsenal played Liverpool on 28 October 2007, a match billed as the "first great test" of their title credentials. Steven Gerrard gave Liverpool an early lead, from a free-kick, but as the match went on, Arsenal began to dominate possession, eventually rewarded when Fábregas equalised in the 80th minute, from a Hleb through ball.
### November–February
November began with a home match against Manchester United. Going into the match, both clubs were level on points and goal difference, at the top of the league. In the 45th minute, Gallas inadvertently scored an own goal to give United the lead, before Fábregas equalised early in the second half. Cristiano Ronaldo scored what was thought to be the winning goal, eight minutes from the end, but Arsenal equalised for the second time in the match via Gallas. The draw pleased Wenger, who after the game noted his team were "...still charge of the title race because we are top with a game in hand". A win against Reading at the Madejski Stadium on 12 November 2007 brought about Arsenal's 1,000th Premier League goal, scored by Adebayor. Reading striker Dave Kitson afterwards praised Arsenal's performance and asserted they were "the best team on the planet": "The thing that amazes you most is they are not just passing to each other – they are passing so that person can run on to the ball and then his mind is already made up what he is going to do next. It is just magic, it is unbelievable."
Late goals scored by Gallas and Rosický at home to Wigan Athletic kept Arsenal three points clear of Manchester United in the league table, at the end of November. The win at Villa Park against Aston Villa in December, moved Arsenal five points clear at the top of the league table, and provoked speculation as to whether the club could go another league season unbeaten; Wenger responded, "People will talk ... just let us play." The team played out a 1–1 draw at Newcastle United four days after and lost against Middlesbrough, ending a record of 22 league matches unbeaten. Arsenal beat Chelsea 1–0 on 16 December 2007 and needed a late goal, scored by substitute Nicklas Bendtner to win against Tottenham Hotspur. In spite of a draw at Portsmouth on Boxing Day, which moved Arsenal down to second place, a win against Everton helped the club move past Manchester United to the first-place spot.
On 1 January 2008, Eduardo and Adebayor each scored to earn Arsenal a win against West Ham United. The team dropped two points against Birmingham City, but a 3–0 victory at Fulham meant that Arsenal retained their first-place status. Goals scored by Mathieu Flamini, Adebayor and Fábregas helped Arsenal beat Newcastle United in the final week of January. The team became the first to reach 60 points in February, after winning 3–1 against Manchester City; Wenger described the feat as "phenomenal". Manchester City's defeat of Manchester United the following week meant a 2–0 win at home to Blackburn Rovers put Arsenal five points clear in first spot, with 12 matches to play.
The team then faced Birmingham City at St Andrew's. Shortly after kick-off, defender Martin Taylor was sent off and took no further part in the game, after his tackle on Eduardo. The player's challenge left the Arsenal striker with a broken leg; he was ruled out from action for the rest of the season. James McFadden scored through a free-kick in the 28th minute, before two Theo Walcott goals in the second half put Arsenal in the lead. In stoppage time, Gaël Clichy was penalised for a foul on Stuart Parnaby in the penalty area; McFadden scored Birmingham's awarded penalty to draw the match 2–2. It prompted Gallas to throw a tantrum: he attacked an advertising board situated on the side of the pitch and rested alone on the pitch, while his players headed for the dressing room. Wenger after the match called for a permanent football ban on tackler Taylor; he later retracted the comment.
### March–May
A late equaliser at home to Aston Villa preserved Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premier League to only a point. A goalless draw at Wigan Athletic, was followed by a fourth consecutive draw in the league, at home to Middlesbrough. On the same day, Manchester United moved above Arsenal, who recorded a 1–0 win against Derby County. After Gallas missed a chance to score in the first half, Sagna put Arsenal in front, heading the ball into the goal net, from a corner in the 59th minute. Didier Drogba equalised for Chelsea in the 73rd minute and nine minutes later scored the winner, from a Nicolas Anelka flick-on. The result pushed Chelsea up into second place and moved Arsenal down one; both clubs were five and six points behind Manchester United respectively at the top. At the Reebok Stadium on 29 March 2008, Arsenal played Bolton Wanderers. The team went two goals down in the first half, both scored by Matthew Taylor and lost Abou Diaby, who was sent off for a foul on Grétar Steinsson. The team's "dramatic" comeback however, in the form of a winning goal in stoppage time, secured their first league win at Bolton Wanderers' ground in six years.
A 1–1 draw against Liverpool in early April, sandwiched in between Champions League legs between both teams "disappointed" Wenger, who refused to concede winning the title. Defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford on 13 April 2008, however ended any realistic chance of overtaking the leaders, as United, the champions, needed two more wins to retain the title. Arsenal beat relegation-threatened Reading 2–0 the week after. Adebayor scored a hat-trick against Derby County on 28 April 2008, which made him the first player to score three goals, home and away against the same side in the same season. The win secured third place, pleasing Wenger who felt the team had a "great future – I believe we were really unlucky not to win something this year." Arsenal won their remaining two fixtures against Everton and Sunderland by a single goal, ending the campaign four points behind champions Manchester United.
### Match results
#### Classification
#### Results summary
#### Results by round
## UEFA Champions League
### Third qualifying round
As Arsenal finished fourth in the league the previous season, the club played a qualifying round against Sparta Prague to ensure progression into the group stages. Goals from Fàbregas and Hleb in the away leg earned a 2–0 win and a 3–0 victory at home meant Arsenal qualified for a 10th successive season in the competition.
### Group stage
The club were drawn in Group H, along with UEFA Cup holders Sevilla, Slavia Prague of the Czech Republic and Romania's Steaua București. Arsenal started their campaign in good stead, beating Sevilla 3–0 and followed the result with a 1–0 victory against Steaua București. Against Slavia Prague at the Emirates, Arsenal equalled their best ever victory in a European competition, scoring seven goals. Walcott, who scored his first two goals of the season in the match, earned the praise of manager Wenger: "Once Theo scored his first, you saw him much more. When they opened up the space, you could see his runs and pace, and the fact he is clinical in front of goal." Qualification into the knockout stages was ensured with a draw away to Slavia Prague on 7 November 2007. Defeat against Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium was Arsenal's first loss since April 2007, ending a run of 28 matches undefeated in all competitions. The result moved them down into second place, and in spite of winning their final group match against Steaua at home, Arsenal ended two points behind group winners Sevilla.
### Knockout stage
#### First knockout round
Arsenal was drawn against Champions League holders Milan in the knockout stages. In the first leg, Arsenal was held to a draw at home, with their best chance of winning the match coming in stoppage time; Adebayor headed the ball against the crossbar. A week later at the San Siro, the team produced a performance "with style, intelligence and discipline", to win the match by two goals to nil. In doing so, they progressed into the last eight and became the first English team to beat Milan, away from home.
#### Quarter-finals
In the quarter-finals, Arsenal played against fellow English club Liverpool, with the first leg at home. The two matches were played either side of a Premier League match between the two sides. Adebayor scored the first goal – he headed the ball from a corner, before Dirk Kuyt equalised three minutes later. Arsenal had a strong penalty appeal harshly turned down after Kuyt seemingly pulled Alexander Hleb in the penalty box and missed a chance to score a second goal, had Bendtner not managed to inadvertently clear Fàbregas' strike. In the return leg at Anfield, Arsenal made the better start of the two teams and took the lead when Diaby scored from a tight angle in the 13th minute. Sami Hyypiä equalised from a header before Fernando Torres received a long pass and swivelled to shoot the ball with his right foot, sending it into the top-left hand corner of Arsenal's goal. With five minutes remaining of the second half, substitute Walcott "covered some 80 yards at pace" to get past the Liverpool defenders and passed the ball for Adebayor, in the middle of the pitch to score. Touré moments after was adjudged to have fouled Ryan Babel and conceded a penalty kick; Gerrard converted the ball into the net to make the scoreline 4–3 on aggregate. In stoppage time Babel scored Liverpool's fourth, meaning they faced Chelsea in the semi-finals. Wenger in his post-match news conference questioned the "dodgy decision" to give Liverpool a penalty and commented the defeat was "not down to mental strength ... It was down to a lack of experience defensively."
## FA Cup
Arsenal entered the FA Cup in the third round, where they were drawn to play Championship opposition Burnley. Goals from Eduardo and Bendtner, in either half of the match ensured victory for a "second-string" team. Against Newcastle United a fortnight later, a 3–0 victory meant Arsenal progressed into the fifth round, where they faced Manchester United away. The match played on 16 February 2008, ended in a "embarrassingly one-sided victory" for the home team; defender Emmanuel Eboué was notably dismissed for a high challenge on Patrice Evra.
## League Cup
Arsenal began their League Cup campaign in the third round, drawn at home to Newcastle United. They made nine changes from the previous starting XI – Eduardo paired up with Bendtner in the front two. Bendtner scored the opening goal seven minutes from the end of normal time; Denílson added a second goal to ensure Arsenal's progression. Fourth-round opponents Sheffield United were easier to defeat, with Eduardo scoring a brace (two goals). The quarter-final pitted Arsenal away to Blackburn Rovers, in a match played on 18 December 2007. Diaby gave Arsenal the lead with a volley after six minutes and Eduardo extended the lead, before Roque Santa Cruz pulled a goal back for Blackburn, three minutes from the end of the first half. Santa Cruz scored the equaliser and his second of the match, heading in a cross by David Bentley. In stoppage time, Denílson was sent off for a two-footed challenge on Dunn. In spite of playing with one less player, Arsenal regained the lead. Alex Song passed the ball to Eduardo, who held off his opponent Ryan Nelsen and with minimal effort placed it past Brad Friedel. The performance prompted Wenger to assert that his team could win the cup, while opposing manager Mark Hughes commented that Arsenal's blend of young players were capable of following in the footsteps of Manchester United's fledglings, managed by Alex Ferguson.
Arsenal was drawn against Tottenham Hotspur in the two-legged semifinal. In the first leg, at the Emirates, Arsenal scored a late equaliser to even the tie at 1–1. However, a 5–1 victory for Tottenham in the return leg meant it was their first victory over their north London rivals in nine years. Wenger after the game defended his policy to play a young side, adding: "The only regret I have is to have played the players who should not have played."
## Squad statistics
[L] – Out on loan, [S] – Sold
Source:
## See also
- 2007–08 in English football
- List of Arsenal F.C. seasons |
24,174,594 | HMS Comet (H00) | 1,147,292,439 | British C-class destroyer | [
"1931 ships",
"C and D-class destroyers",
"Canadian River-class destroyers",
"Canadian River-class destroyers converted from C and D-class destroyers",
"Maritime incidents in 1936",
"Ships built in Portsmouth",
"Spanish Civil War ships"
]
| HMS Comet was a C-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. She saw service in the Home and Mediterranean Fleets and the ship spent six months during the Spanish Civil War in late 1936 in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. Comet transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in 1938 and renamed HMCS Restigouche. During World War II, she served as a convoy escort in the battle of the Atlantic, on anti-submarine patrols during the invasion of Normandy, and was employed as a troop transport after VE Day for returning Canadian servicemen, before being decommissioned in late 1945. Restigouche was sold for scrap in 1946.
## Design and construction
Comet displaced 1,375 long tons (1,397 t) at standard load and 1,865 long tons (1,895 t) at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 329 feet (100.3 m), a beam of 33 feet (10.1 m) and a draught of 12 feet 6 inches (3.8 m). She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of 36,000 shaft horsepower (27,000 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). Steam for the turbines was provided by three Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers. Comet carried a maximum of 473 long tons (481 t) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). The ship's complement was 145 officers and men.
The ship mounted four 45-calibre 4.7-inch Mk IX guns in single mounts, designated 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y' from front to rear. For anti-aircraft (AA) defence, Comet had a single QF 3-inch 20 cwt AA gun between her funnels, and two 40-millimetre (1.6 in) QF 2-pounder Mk II AA guns mounted on the aft end of her forecastle deck. The 3-inch (76 mm) AA gun was removed in 1936 and the 2-pounders were relocated to between the funnels. She was fitted with two above-water quadruple torpedo tube mounts for 21-inch torpedoes. Three depth-charge chutes were fitted, each with a capacity of two depth charges. After World War II began this was increased to 33 depth charges, delivered by one or two rails and two throwers.
The ship was ordered on 15 July 1930 from Portsmouth Dockyard under the 1929 Programme. Comet was laid down on 12 September 1930, launched on 30 September 1931, as the 14th ship to carry the name, and completed on 2 June 1932.
## Service history
After sea trials in May 1932, Comet was commissioned for service in the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, in early June. On 21 July, she was damaged in a collision with her sister Crescent at Chatham and repaired at Chatham Dockyard between 28 July and 20 August. The ship was refitted at Chatham from 20 July to 3 September 1934. Following the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, Comet was sent in August 1935 to the Red Sea with the other ships of the 2nd Flotilla to monitor Italian warship movements until March 1936.
Comet returned to the UK in April 1936 and refitted at Sheerness between 23 April and 29 June before resuming duty with the Home Fleet. In July she was deployed for patrol duties off the Spanish coast in the Bay of Biscay to intercept shipping carrying contraband goods to Spain and to protect British flagged shipping during the first stages of the Spanish Civil War. On 9 August she assisted the crew of the crippled British yacht Blue Shadow off Gijon, after the small vessel was shelled by mistake by the Nationalist cruiser Almirante Cervera. The ship was briefly placed in reserve in late 1936 while discussions were held about transferring her to the Royal Canadian Navy. Two of her sisters were chosen instead and Comet was recommissioned for service with the Mediterranean Fleet as plane guard for the aircraft carrier Glorious on 29 December.
In April 1937 she returned to Portsmouth with Glorious, and on 20 May the ship participated in the Coronation Review of the fleet at Spithead by King George VI. Four days later, Comet began a refit at Portsmouth that lasted until 18 June. The ship resumed plane guard duties for Glorious in the Mediterranean. She began a major refit at Chatham on 26 May 1938 to bring her up to Canadian specifications that included the installation of Type 124 ASDIC.
### Transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy
On 11 June she was commissioned by the RCN and renamed Restigouche, although her refit was not completed until 20 August. Restigouche was assigned to the Canadian Pacific Coast and arrived at Esquimalt on 7 November 1938. She remained there until she was ordered to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 15 November 1939 where she escorted local convoys, including the convoy carrying half of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to the UK on 10 December. Restigouche was ordered to Plymouth on 24 May 1940 and arrived there on 31 May. Upon arrival, the ship's rear torpedo tube mount was removed and replaced by a 12-pounder AA gun and the 2-pounders were exchanged for quadruple Mark I mounts for the QF 0.5-inch Vickers Mark III machine gun.
On 9 June, Restigouche was ordered to Le Havre, France to evacuate British troops, but none were to be found and the ship investigated the small port of Saint-Valery-en-Caux some 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Le Havre on 11 June. They found some elements of the 51st Infantry Division, but had not received any orders to evacuate and refused to do so. Whilst recovering her landing party, the ship was taken under fire by a German artillery battery, but she was not hit and returned fire. After returning to England, Restigouche escorted several troop convoys on the last legs of their journeys from Canada, Australia and New Zealand in mid-June. On 23 June, the ship escorted the ocean liner SS Arandora Star to St. Jean de Luz to evacuate Polish troops and British refugees trapped by the German Army in south-western France (Operation Aerial). On 25 June 1940, Restigouche, her sister , and the light cruiser HMS Calcutta were returning from St. Jean de Luz when Fraser was rammed by Calcutta in the Gironde estuary at night. Struck forward of the bridge by the cruiser's bow, Fraser was cut in half, although the rear part of the ship did not immediately sink. All but 47 of the ship's crew and evacuees were rescued by Restigouche and other nearby ships. The rear portion had to be sunk by Restigouche.
The ship was transferred to the Western Approaches Command afterwards for convoy escort duties. She sailed for Halifax at the end of August for a refit that lasted until October. Upon its completion, Restigouche remained at Halifax for local escort duties until January 1941 when she sailed for the UK where she was reassigned to the Western Approaches Command. The ship was ordered to St. John's, Newfoundland on 30 May to reinforce escort forces in the Western Atlantic. Whilst guarding the battleship Prince of Wales at Placentia Bay on 8 August, Restigouche damaged her propellers when she struck bottom and required repairs that lasted until October. She was not out of dockyard hands for very long before she was badly damaged by a storm while en route to join Convoy ON-44 on 12 December. Repairs at Greenock lasted until 9 March 1942 and her director-control tower and rangefinder above the bridge had been removed by this time in exchange for a Type 271 target indication radar.
Other changes made during the war (exactly when these occurred is unknown) included the replacement of 'A' gun by a Hedgehog anti-submarine spigot mortar, exchanging her two quadruple .50-calibre Vickers machine guns mounted between her funnels for two Oerlikon 20 mm AA guns, the addition of two Oerlikon guns to her searchlight platform, and the removal of her 12-pounder AA gun. Type 286 short-range surface search radar was also added. Two QF 6 pounder Hotchkiss guns were fitted on the wings of her bridge to deal with U-boats at short ranges. 'Y' gun was also removed to allow her depth charge stowage to be increased to at least 60 depth charges.
Restigouche was assigned to the Mid-Ocean Escort Force when her refit was finished and served with various escort groups. In April 1943 she was permanently assigned to Escort Group C4, and on 10 April she rescued 23 survivors from the Dutch cargo ship Blitar. Between August and December she was refitted, and thereafter she remained with C4 until she was transferred to 12th Escort Group in early 1944 for anti-submarine operations in the Western Approaches.
In June–July 1944, Restigouche patrolled in the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay hunting for German submarines trying to sink Allied shipping. On the night of 5–6 July, the ship and the rest of the 12th Escort Group sank three small German patrol boats off Brest. The following month, the 12th Support Group, including Restigouche, engaged three minesweepers on 12 August, without sinking any. The ship was sent to Canada for a lengthy refit later in the month. After working up in Bermuda, she arrived at Halifax on 14 February 1945 and began escorting local convoys. This lasted until the end of the war in May, after which the ship was used to transfer returning troops from Newfoundland to mainland Canada until she was paid off on 5 October. Restigouche was sold for scrap in 1946.
## Ship's bell
The Christening Bells Project at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum includes information about the baptism of babies in the ship's bell. The bell is currently held by the Royal Canadian Legion, Lantzville, British Columbia.
## Trans-Atlantic convoys escorted |
321,589 | Eurasian sparrowhawk | 1,173,645,250 | Species of bird | [
"Accipiter",
"Articles containing video clips",
"Birds described in 1758",
"Birds of Eurasia",
"Birds of prey of Eurasia",
"Birds of the Canary Islands",
"Falconry",
"Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus",
"True hawks"
]
| The Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred underparts; females and juveniles are brown above with brown barring below. The female is up to 25% larger than the male – one of the greatest size differences between the sexes in any bird species. Though it is a predator which specialises in catching woodland birds, the Eurasian sparrowhawk can be found in any habitat and often hunts garden birds in towns and cities. Males tend to take smaller birds, including tits, finches, and sparrows; females catch primarily thrushes and starlings, but are capable of killing birds weighing 500 g (18 oz) or more.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk is found throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World; while birds from the northern parts of the range migrate south for winter, their southern counterparts remain resident or make dispersive movements. Eurasian sparrowhawks breed in suitable woodland of any type, with the nest, measuring up to 60 cm (2.0 ft) across, built using twigs in a tree. Four or five pale blue, brown-spotted eggs are laid; the success of the breeding attempt is dependent on the female maintaining a high weight while the male brings her food. The chicks hatch after 33 days and fledge after 24 to 28 days.
The probability of a juvenile surviving its first year is 34%, with 69% of adults surviving from one year to the next. Mortality in young males is greater than that of young females and the typical lifespan is four years. This species is now one of the most common birds of prey in Europe, although the population crashed after the Second World War. Organochlorine insecticides used to treat seeds before sowing built up in the bird population, and the concentrations in Eurasian sparrowhawks were enough to kill some outright and incapacitate others; affected birds laid eggs with fragile shells which broke during incubation. However, its population recovered after the chemicals were banned, and it is now relatively common, classified as being of least concern by BirdLife International.
Whistles made from the bones of the Eurasian Sparrowhawk have been dated to 10,000 BCE.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk's hunting behaviour has brought it into conflict with humans for hundreds of years, particularly racing pigeon owners and people rearing poultry and gamebirds. It has also been blamed for decreases in passerine populations. The increase in population of the Eurasian sparrowhawk coincides with the decline in house sparrows in Britain. Studies of racing pigeon deaths found that Eurasian sparrowhawks were responsible for less than 1%. Falconers have utilised the Eurasian sparrowhawk since at least the 16th century; although the species has a reputation for being difficult to train, it is also praised for its courage. The species features in Teutonic mythology and is mentioned in works by writers including William Shakespeare, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Ted Hughes.
## Taxonomy
Within the family Accipitridae, the Eurasian sparrowhawk is a member of the large genus Accipiter, which consists of small to medium-sized woodland hawks. Most of the Old World members of the genus are called sparrowhawks or goshawks. The species' name dates back to the Middle English word sperhauk and Old English spearhafoc, a hawk which hunts sparrows. The Old Norse name for the Eurasian sparrowhawk, sparrhaukr, was thought to have been coined by Vikings who encountered falconry in England. English folk names for the Eurasian sparrowhawk include blue hawk, referring to the adult male's colouration, as well as hedge hawk, spar hawk, spur hawk and stone falcon.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 landmark 10th edition of Systema Naturae, as Falco nisus, but moved to its present genus by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The current scientific name is derived from the Latin accipiter, meaning 'hawk' and nisus, the sparrowhawk. According to Greek mythology, Nisus, the king of Megara, was turned into a sparrowhawk after his daughter, Scylla, cut off his purple lock of hair to present to her lover (and Nisus' enemy), Minos.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk forms a superspecies with the rufous-chested sparrowhawk of eastern and southern Africa, and possibly the Madagascar sparrowhawk. Geographic variation is clinal, with birds becoming larger and paler in the eastern part of the range compared to the western part. Within the species itself, six subspecies are generally recognised:
- A. n. nisus, the nominate subspecies, was described by Linnaeus in 1758. It breeds from Europe and West Asia to western Siberia and Iran; northern populations winter south to the Mediterranean, Northeast Africa, Arabia and Pakistan.
- A. n. nisosimilis was described by Samuel Tickell in 1833. It breeds from central and eastern Siberia east to Kamchatka and Japan, and south to northern China. This subspecies is wholly migratory, wintering from Pakistan and India eastwards through Southeast Asia and southern China to Korea and Japan; some even reach Africa. It is very similar to, but slightly larger than, the nominate subspecies.
- A. n. melaschistos was described by Allan Octavian Hume in 1869. It breeds in mountains from Afghanistan through the Himalayas and southern Tibet to western China, and winters in the plains of South Asia. Larger and longer-tailed than nisosimilis, it has dark slate-coloured upperparts, and more distinct rufous barring on the underparts.
- A. n. wolterstorffi, described by Otto Kleinschmidt in 1900, is resident in Sardinia and Corsica. It is the smallest of all the subspecies, darker on the upperparts and more barred below than the nominate subspecies.
- A. n. granti, described by Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1890, is confined to Madeira and the Canary Islands. It is small and dark.
- A. n. punicus, described by Erlanger in 1897, is resident in Northwest Africa north of the Sahara. It is very similar to nisus, being large and pale.
## Description
The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a small bird of prey with short, broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to manoeuvring through trees. Females can be up to 25% larger than males and weigh up to twice as much. Marked size difference in this direction is unusual in higher vertebrates but typical in birds of prey, and most marked in birds of prey which hunt other birds.
The adult male is 29–34 cm (11–13 in) long, with a wingspan of 59–64 cm (23–25 in) and a mass of 110–196 g (3.9–6.9 oz). He has slate-grey upperparts (sometimes tending to bluish), with finely red-barred underparts, which can look plain orange from a distance; his irides are orange-yellow or orange-red. The female is much larger at 35–41 cm (14–16 in) long, with a wingspan of 67–80 cm (26–31 in), and a mass of 185–342 g (6.5–12.1 oz). She has dark brown or greyish-brown upperparts, and brown-barred underparts, and bright yellow to orange irides. The juvenile is warm brown above, with rusty fringes to the upperparts; and coarsely barred or spotted brown below, with pale yellow eyes; its throat has dark streaks and lacks a mesial (midline) stripe.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk's pale underparts and darker upperparts are an example of countershading, which helps to break up the bird's outline. Countershading is exhibited by birds of prey which hunt birds and other fast-moving animals. The horizontal barring seen on adult Eurasian sparrowhawks is typical of woodland-dwelling predatory birds, while the adult male's bluish colour is also seen in other bird-eating raptors, including the peregrine falcon, the merlin and other Accipiters.
A study, using stuffed bird models, found that small birds are less likely to approach common cuckoos (a brood parasite) which have barred underparts like the Eurasian sparrowhawk. Eurasian reed warblers were found to be more aggressive to cuckoos which looked less hawk-like, meaning that the resemblance to the hawk (mimicry) helps the cuckoo to access the nests of potential hosts.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk's small bill is used for plucking feathers and pulling prey apart, rather than killing or cutting. Its long legs and toes are an adaptation for catching and eating birds. The outer toe is "fairly long and slender"; the inner toe and back toe are relatively short and thick. The middle toe is very long and can be used to grasp objects, while a protuberance on the underside of the toe means that the digit can be closed without leaving a gap, which helps with gripping.
The flight is a characteristic "flap-flap-glide", with the glide creating an undulating pattern. This species is similar in size to the Levant sparrowhawk, but larger than the shikra (the calls are however different); the male is only slightly larger than the merlin. Because of the overlap in sizes, the female can be confused with the similarly-sized male Eurasian Goshawk, but lacks the bulk of that species. Eurasian sparrowhawks are smaller, more slender and have shorter wings, a square-ended tail and fly with faster wingbeats. A confusion species in China is the besra, although A. n. melaschistos is considerably larger.
In Great Britain, Eurasian sparrowhawks living further north are bigger than their more southerly counterparts, with wing length (the most reliable indicator of body size) increasing by an average of 0.86 mm (0.034 in) in males, and 0.75 mm (0.030 in) in females, for each degree further north.
## Lifespan and demography
The oldest known wild Eurasian sparrowhawk lived more than two decades; it was found dead in Denmark 20 years and 3 months after having been ringed. The typical lifespan is four years. Data analysis by the British Trust for Ornithology shows that the proportion of juveniles surviving their first year of life is 34%; adult survival from one year to the next is 69%. Birds in their first year of life weigh less than adults, and are especially light in the first two months after reaching independence. There is probably high mortality, especially for young males, during this time. A study in southern Scotland suggested that the greater mortality in young male birds may be due to their smaller size and the smaller size of their prey, which means that they can "last less long between meals". Their size also means that their range of prey is restricted. It has been estimated that a female Eurasian sparrowhawk of average weight could survive for seven days without feeding – three days longer than a male of average weight.
A study of female Eurasian sparrowhawks found "strong evidence" that their rate of survival increased for the first three years of life, and declined for the last five to six years. Senescence (ageing) was the cause of the decline as the birds became older.
## Distribution and habitat
A widespread species throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World, the Eurasian sparrowhawk is resident or breeds in an estimated global range of 23,600,000 km<sup>2</sup> (9,100,000 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 1.5 million birds in 2009. Although global population trends have not been analysed, numbers seem to be stable, so it has been classified as being of least concern by IUCN. The race granti, with 100 pairs resident on Madeira and 200 pairs on the Canary Islands, is threatened by loss of habitat, egg-collecting and illegal hunting, and is listed on Annex I of the European Commission Birds Directive. It is one of the most common birds of prey in Europe, along with the common kestrel and common buzzard. The Norwegian and Albanian populations are declining and, in many parts of Europe, Eurasian sparrowhawks are still shot. However, this low-level persecution has not affected the populations badly. In the UK, the population increased by 108% between 1970–2005, but saw a 1% decline over 1994–2006. In Ireland it is the most common bird of prey, breeding even near the city centre of Dublin, where it frequents parks and large gardens.
This species is prevalent in most woodland types in its range, and also in more open country with scattered trees. Eurasian sparrowhawks prefer to hunt the edges of wooded areas, but migrant birds can be seen in any habitat. The increased proportion of medium-aged stands of trees created by modern forestry techniques have benefited Accipiter nisus, according to a Norwegian study. Unlike its larger relative the Eurasian Goshawk, it can be seen in gardens and in urban areas and will even breed in city parks if they have a certain density of tall trees.
Eurasian sparrowhawks from colder regions of northern Europe and Asia migrate south for the winter, some to north Africa (some as far as equatorial east Africa) and India; members of the southern populations are resident or disperse. Juveniles begin their migration earlier than adults and juvenile females move before juvenile males. Analysis of ringing data collected at Heligoland, Germany, found that males move further and more often than females; of migrating birds ringed at Kaliningrad, Russia, the average distance moved before recovery (when the ring is read and the bird's whereabouts reported subsequently) was 1,328 km (825 mi) for males and 927 km (576 mi) for females.
A study of Eurasian sparrowhawks in southern Scotland found that ringed birds which had been raised on "high grade" territories were recovered in greater proportion than birds which came from "low grade" territories. This suggested that the high grade territories produced young which survived better. The recovery rate also declined with increased elevation of the ground. After the post-fledging period, female birds dispersed greater distances than did males.
## Diet and predation
The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a major predator of smaller woodland birds, though only 10% of its hunting attacks are successful. It hunts by surprise attack, using hedges, tree-belts, copses, orchards and other cover near woodland areas; its choice of habitat is dictated by these requirements. It also makes use of gardens in built-up areas, taking advantage of the prey found there.
It waits, hidden, for birds to come near, then breaks cover and flies out fast and low. A chase may follow, with the hawk even flipping upside-down to grab the victim from below or following it on foot through vegetation. It can "stoop" onto prey from a great height. Ian Newton describes seven modes of hunting used by Eurasian sparrowhawks:
- Short-stay-perch-hunting
- High soaring and stooping
- Contour-hugging in flight
- Still-hunting
- Low quartering
- Hunting by sound
- Hunting on foot
The sparrowhawk bears numerous adaptations that allow it to fly at speed low to the ground and hunt in confined spaces; these include its blunted wings, which allow it to fly through narrow gaps in hedges and fences, and its long, square-edged tail, which the bird uses to aid itself in carrying out tight turns, such as those required to negotiate close stands of trees.
Male Eurasian sparrowhawks regularly kill birds weighing up to 40 g (1.4 oz) and sometimes up to 120 g (4.2 oz) or more; females can tackle prey up to 500 g (18 oz) or more. A recent study found that on average, female sparrowhawk prey were two and a half times heavier than that of the male. The weight of food consumed by adult birds daily is estimated to be 40–50 g (1.4–1.8 oz) for males and 50–70 g (1.8–2.5 oz) for females. During one year, a pair of Eurasian sparrowhawks could take 2,200 house sparrows, 600 common blackbirds or 110 wood pigeons. Species that feed in the open, far from cover, or are conspicuous by their behaviour or coloration, are taken more often by Eurasian sparrowhawks. For example, great tits and house sparrows are vulnerable to attack. Eurasian sparrowhawks may account for more than 50% of deaths in certain species, but the extent varies from area to area.
Males tend to take tits, finches, sparrows and buntings; females often take thrushes and starlings. More than 120 bird species have been recorded as prey and individual Eurasian sparrowhawks may specialise in certain prey. The birds taken are usually adults or fledglings, though chicks in the nest and carrion are sometimes eaten. Small mammals, including mice, bats, voles, squirrels, shrews, and young rabbits, are sometimes caught but insects are eaten only very rarely.
Small birds are killed on impact or when squeezed by the Eurasian sparrowhawk's foot, especially the two long claws. Larger quarry (such as doves and magpies) may not die immediately but succumb during feather plucking and eating. Victims which struggle are "kneaded" by the hawk, using its talons to squeeze and stab. When dealing with large prey species which peck and flap, the hawk's long legs help in restraining the prey. It stands on top of its prey to pluck and pull it apart. The feathers are plucked and usually the breast muscles are eaten first. The bones are left, but can be broken using the notch in the bill. Like other birds of prey, Eurasian sparrowhawks produce pellets containing indigestible parts of their prey. These range from 25 to 35 mm (0.98 to 1.38 in) long and 10–18 mm (0.39–0.71 in) wide and are round at one end and more narrow and pointed at the other. They are usually composed of small feathers, as the larger ones are plucked and not consumed.
During hunting, this species can fly 2–3 km (1.2–1.9 mi) per day. It rises above tree level mostly to display, soar above territory and to make longer journeys. A study in a forested area of Norway found that the mean size of the home ranges was 9.2 km<sup>2</sup> (3.6 sq mi) for males, and 12.3 km<sup>2</sup> (4.7 sq mi) for females, which was larger than studies in Great Britain had found, "probably due to lower land productivity and associated lower densities of prey species in the [Norwegian study area]".
A study looked at the effect on the population of blue tits in an area where a pair of Eurasian sparrowhawks began to breed in 1990. It found that the annual adult survival rate for the tits in that area dropped from 0.485 to 0.376 (the rate in adjacent plots did not change). The size of the breeding population was not changed, but there were fewer non-breeding blue tits in the population. In woodland, Eurasian sparrowhawks account for the deaths of a third of all young great tits; the two alarm calls given by great tits when mobbing a predator, and when fleeing from a nearby hawk, are within the optimum hearing range of both prey and predator; however, the high-pitched alarm call given when a distant flying Eurasian sparrowhawk is seen "can only be heard well by the tit". Research carried out in Sussex, England, found that the impact of Eurasian sparrowhawk predation on grey partridges was highest when the partridge density was lowest, while a 10-year study in Scotland found that Eurasian sparrowhawks did not select the common redshanks they predated according to the waders' size or condition, probably because of the hawks' surprise-attack hunting technique.
Another study found that the risk of predation for a bird targeted by a Eurasian sparrowhawk or Eurasian Goshawk increased 25-fold if the prey was infected with the blood parasite Leucocytozoon, and birds with avian malaria were 16 times more likely to be killed.
### Predators
Natural predators of the Eurasian sparrowhawk include the barn owl, the tawny owl, the Eurasian Goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the golden eagle, the eagle owl, the red fox, the stone marten and the pine marten.
## Breeding
The Eurasian sparrowhawk breeds in well-grown, extensive areas of woodland, often coniferous or mixed, preferring forest with a structure neither too dense nor too open, to allow a choice of flight paths. The nest can be located in the fork of a tree, often near the trunk and where two or three branches begin, on a horizontal branch in the lower canopy, or near the top of a tall shrub. If available, conifers are preferred. A new nest is built every year, generally close to the nest of the previous year, and sometimes using an old wood pigeon (A. n. melaschistos frequently uses the old nests of jungle crows) nest as a base; the male does most of the work. The structure, made of loose twigs up to 60 cm (2.0 ft) long, has an average diameter of 60 cm (24 in). When the eggs are laid, a lining of fine twigs or bark chippings is added.
During the breeding season, the adult male Eurasian sparrowhawk loses a small amount of weight while feeding his mate before she lays eggs, and also when the young are large and require more food. The weight of the adult female is highest in May, when laying eggs, and lowest in August after the breeding cycle is complete. A study suggested that the number of eggs and subsequent breeding success are dependent on the female maintaining a high weight while the male is feeding her.
Sexual maturity is reached at between 1–3 years. Most Eurasian sparrowhawks stay on the same territory for one breeding season, though others keep the same one for up to eight years. A change of mate usually triggers the change in territory. Older birds tend to stay in the same territory; failed breeding attempts make a move more likely. The birds which kept the same territories had higher nest success, though it did not increase between years; females which moved experienced more success the year after changing territory.
### Eggs
The eggs are pale blue with brown spots and each measure 35–46 mm (1.4–1.8 in) x 28–35 mm (1.1–1.4 in), and weigh about 22.5 g (0.79 oz) of which 8% is shell in a healthy egg. Usually a clutch of four or five eggs is laid. The eggs are generally laid in the morning with an interval of 2–3 days between each egg. If a clutch is lost, up to two further eggs may be laid that are smaller than the earlier eggs.
### Young
The altricial, downy chicks hatch after 33 days of incubation. After hatching, the female cares for and feeds the chicks for the first 8–14 days of life, and also during bad weather after that. The male provides food, up to six kills per day in the first week increasing to eight per day in the third and 10 per day in the last week in the nest, by which time the female is also hunting.
By 24–28 days after hatching, the young birds start to perch on branches near the nest and take their first flight. They are fed by their parents for a further 28–30 days, staying close to the nest while growing and practicing flying. At this stage they are extremely vocal, and their cries to their parents can often be heard a considerable distance away. The young hawks disperse after their parents stop provisioning them. Though they receive the same amount of food, male chicks (roughly half the size of females) mature more quickly and seem to be ready to leave the nest sooner. In a study in the Forest of Ae, south-west Scotland, it was found that 21% of nestlings over two days old died, with the causes of death being starvation, wet weather, predation and desertion by the parents. The parasite Leucocytozoon toddi can be passed from parent to nestling at the nest, possibly because of the number of birds sharing a small space, thus allowing transmission.
## Relationship with humans
### Pollutants
The Eurasian sparrowhawk population in Europe crashed in the second half of the 20th century. The decline coincided with the introduction of cyclodiene insecticides – aldrin, dieldrin and heptachlor – used as seed dressings in agriculture in 1956. The chemicals accumulated in the bodies of grain-eating birds and had two effects on top predators like the Eurasian sparrowhawk and peregrine falcon: the shells of eggs they laid were too thin, causing them to break during incubation; and birds were poisoned by lethal concentrations of the insecticides. Sub-lethal effects of these substances include irritability, convulsions and disorientation. In west Germany, around 80% of nests before the 1950s produced young, but only 54% were successful in the 1960s and '70s.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the species almost became extinct in East Anglia, where the chemicals were most widely used; in western and northern parts of the country, where the pesticides were not used, there were no declines. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds bought its Coombes Valley nature reserve in Staffordshire because it was the only Eurasian sparrowhawk breeding site left in the English Midlands.
In the UK, the use of cyclodienes as seed dressings for autumn-sown cereals was banned in 1975 and the levels of the chemicals present in the bird population began to fall. The population has largely recovered to pre-decline levels, with an increase seen in many areas, for example northern Europe. In Sweden, the population also decreased drastically from the 1950s, but recovered again once organochlorines were banned in the 1970s.
In the UK, the failure rate at the egg stage had decreased from 17% to 6% by the year 2000, and the population had stabilised after reaching a peak in the 1990s. A study of the eggs of Dutch Eurasian sparrowhawks found that contamination with Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) – a "very persistent compound" produced when DDT breaks down – continued into the 1980s, though a decline in the number of clutches with broken eggs during the 1970s suggested decreasing levels of the chemical.
Body tissue samples from Eurasian sparrowhawks are still analysed as part of the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme conducted by the UK government's Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Although the average liver concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Eurasian sparrowhawks were lower in birds that died in 2005 compared to those that died in 2004, there was not a significant or consistent decline in residues between 2000–2005.
### Conflict with humans
The Eurasian sparrowhawk's adaptation for feeding on birds has brought it into conflict with humans; in the 19th century it was described as "the great enemy of small quadrupeds and birds, and often very destructive to young chicks in poultry-yards in the breeding season" and "very destructive to partridges". Writing for gamekeepers in 1851, T. B. Johnson recommended that: "The nest of this bird should be diligently sought ... and destroyed, shooting the parent birds first, if possible."
It was written in 1870 that "The sparrowhawk is perhaps only the true enemy of the game-preserver; though at the same time it is probable that if the good and evil it does were justly weighed, the balance would be in favour of the hawk, its favourite quarry being the wood pigeon, which is now increasing to an extent injurious to agriculture." Parish records of the 18th century for Aldworth, Berkshire, in southern England, show that payments were made for 106 Eurasian sparrowhawks' heads, at the same time as efforts were being made to control the numbers of sparrows.
The species suffered heavy persecution by 18th-century European landowners and gamekeepers, but withstood attempts to eradicate it. For example, on the estate at Sandringham in Norfolk, 1,645 'hawks' were killed between 1938 and 1950, with 1,115 taken between 1919 and 1926 at Langwell and Sandside in Caithness, Scotland.
The population was able to quickly replace lost birds – there is a high proportion of non-breeding, non-territorial birds able to fill vacant territories. The habitat conserved with gamebirds in mind also suited this species and its prey; gamekeepers' more successful efforts to wipe out the Eurasian Goshawk and pine marten – predators of the Eurasian sparrowhawk – may have benefited it. The population increased markedly when this pressure was relaxed, for example during the First and Second World Wars.
In the United Kingdom, research into the effect of predators on bird populations has been "a contentious issue", with "perceived conflict between the interests of nature conservationists and those involved in game shooting". Declines in the populations of some British songbirds since the 1960s have coincided with considerable changes in agricultural practices and also large increases in the numbers of Eurasian sparrowhawks and European magpies. When the Eurasian sparrowhawk population declined because of organochlorine use, there was no great increase in the populations of songbirds. In a 1949–1979 study of 13 passerine species breeding in a 40-acre (16-hectare) oakwood at Bookham Commons, Surrey, England, none was present in significantly greater numbers when Eurasian sparrowhawks were absent from the wood.
Many studies, mostly short-term, failed to find an effect on songbird populations caused by predatory birds such as Eurasian sparrowhawks. But analysis of long-term, large-scale national data from the UK's Common Bird Census demonstrated that the declines in farmland songbird populations since the 1960s are unlikely to have been caused by increased predation by Eurasian sparrowhawks and magpies. The results of the study indicated that patterns of year-to-year songbird population change were the same at different sites, whether the predators were present or not. Another study, which examined the effects of predators – including the Eurasian sparrowhawk and introduced grey squirrel – on UK passerine populations, found that "whilst a small number of associations may suggest significant negative effects between predator and prey species, for the majority of the songbird species examined there is no evidence that increases in common avian predators or grey squirrels are associated with large-scale population declines."
Racing pigeon owners in Great Britain have said for many years that Eurasian sparrowhawks and peregrine falcons "cause serious and escalating losses" of pigeons and some have called for these birds of prey to be killed or removed from areas surrounding homing pigeon lofts.
In Scotland, a two-year study published in 2004, and funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Homing Union (SHU), found there was "no evidence that birds of prey cause major losses of racing pigeons at lofts or during races." It reported that 56% of racing pigeons were lost each year but that the proportion taken by Eurasian sparrowhawks – "often blamed for major losses" – was less than 1%, with at least 2% taken by peregrine falcons. The study was carried out by the Central Science Laboratory; researchers worked with SHU members who provided data, information on pigeon rings found at peregrine falcon nests and pigeon carcasses.
From January to April 2009, the Scottish Government conducted a trial translocation of Eurasian sparrowhawks from around racing pigeon lofts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock, Stirling and Dumfries. The trial, which cost £25,000, was supported by the Scottish Homing Union, representing the country's 3,500 pigeon fanciers. The experiment was originally scheduled for early in 2008 but was postponed because it would have impinged on the birds' breeding season. It was criticised by the government's own ecological adviser, Dr Ian Bainbridge, the government body Scottish Natural Heritage and organisations including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The findings, released in January 2010, showed that only seven Eurasian sparrowhawks had been removed from the area from five pigeon lofts. One hawk returned twice to the area of the loft, while new birds began to visit two other lofts. The report found that "The quantity and quality of the observational data collected meant that it was impossible to draw any firm conclusions" and the government stated that "no further research involving the trapping or translocation of raptors" would take place, while the SHU maintained that it was "very optimistic that licensed trapping and translocation could at last provide some protection."
Eurasian sparrowhawks are an effective urban adapter species in the UK and are thus non-threatened, however, recent search has suggested that they are prone to colliding with man-made structures such as buildings when hunting.
### Falconry
The Eurasian sparrowhawk has been used in falconry for centuries and was favoured by Emperor Akbar the Great (1542–1605) of the Mughal Empire. There is a tradition of using migrant Eurasian sparrowhawks to catch common quail in Tunisia and Georgia, where there are 500 registered bazieri (sparrowhawkers) and a monument to bazieri in the city of Poti. Eurasian sparrowhawks are also popular in Ireland. At Cap Bon in Tunisia, and in Turkey, thousands are captured each year by falconers and used for hunting migrant common quails. Although they were formerly released at the end of the season, many are now kept because of the scarcity of migrants.
In 17th century England, the Eurasian sparrowhawk was used by priests, reflecting their lowly status; whereas in the Middle Ages, they were favoured by ladies of noble and royal status because of their small size. The falconer's name for a male Eurasian sparrowhawk is a "musket"; this is derived from the Latin word musca, meaning 'a fly', via the Old French word moschet.
"An austringer [falconer] undertaking to train a sparrowhawk should be in no doubt that he is taking on one of the most difficult hawks available." A female Eurasian sparrowhawk is considered a bad choice for a novice and the male is very difficult and demanding, even for an experienced handler. They have been described as "hysterical little hawks" but are also praised as courageous and providing "sport of the highest quality". Philip Glasier describes Eurasian sparrowhawks as "in many ways superior to hunting with a larger short-wing [hawk]" and "extremely hard to tame". They are best suited for small quarry such as common starlings and common blackbirds but are also capable of taking common teal, Eurasian magpies, pheasants and partridges. A 19th century author remarked that this species was "the best of all hawks for landrails", now known as corn crakes. In 1735, the Sportsman's Dictionary noted that "... she will serve in the winter as well as in the summer, and will fly at all kind of game more than the falcon. If a winter sparrowhawk prove good, she will kill the pye, the chough, the jay, woodcock, thrush, black-bird, fieldfare, and divers[e] other birds of the like nature."
### In culture
In Slavic mythology, the sparrowhawk, known as krahui or krahug, is a sacred bird in Old Bohemian songs and lives in a grove of the gods. Holy sparrowhawks perch on the branches of an oak tree that grows from the grave of a murdered man, and "publish the foul deed". In some areas of England, it was believed that the common cuckoo turned into a Eurasian sparrowhawk in winter. The name Spearhafoc (later Sparhawk, Sparrowhawk) was in use as a personal name in England before the Norman conquest in 1066.
In 1695, John Aubrey wrote in his Miscellanies:
> Not long before the Death of King Charles II a sparrow-hawk escaped from the Perch, and pitched on one of the Iron Crowns of the White Tower, and entangling its string in the Crown, hung by the heels and died. T'was considered very ominous, and so it proved.
The musket, or musquet, originally a kind of crossbow bolt, and later a small cannon, was named after the male Eurasian sparrowhawk because of its size. The British Gloster Aircraft Company named one of their Mars series craft the Sparrowhawk.
In William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mrs Ford greets Robin, Falstaff's page, with the words "How now, my eyas musket", eyas musket meaning a lively young man (an eyas is a hawk nestling). The British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes wrote a poem entitled "A Sparrow-Hawk" which refers to this species. Hermann Hesse mentioned this bird in his book Demian and the bird is also referred to in One Thousand and One Nights by Richard Francis Burton:
> Good sooth my bones, wheneas they hear thy name
> Quail as birds quailed when Nisus o'er them flew
The Eurasian sparrowhawk was written about by Alfred, Lord Tennyson:
> A sparhawk proud did hold in wicked jail
> Music's sweet chorister, the Nightingale
> To whom with sighs she said: 'O set me free,
> And in my song I'll praise no bird but thee.'
> The Hawk replied: 'I will not lose my diet
> To let a thousand such enjoy their quiet.'
It also appears in Tennyson's Idylls of the King. |
38,755,509 | The Shortest Way with the Dissenters | 1,162,755,594 | 1702 political pamphlet by Daniel Defoe | [
"1702 books",
"Dissent",
"Pamphlets",
"Works by Daniel Defoe"
]
| The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church is a pamphlet written by Daniel Defoe, first published anonymously in 1702. Defoe was prompted to write the pamphlet by the increased hostility towards Dissenters in the wake of the accession of Queen Anne to the throne.
The pamphlet is written in the same style as the Tory publications that attacked Dissenters, and at the time of publication it was assumed by some to be a genuine vindication of their views. However, others believed the pamphlet to have been satire—a view that is shared by many modern scholars. The pamphlet raised embarrassing questions about the handling of the issue by the Tory ministry, and led to Defoe's arrest for seditious libel. His imprisonment, during which he fell into bankruptcy, was to have a lasting influence on his subsequent writings. In the years after his release, Defoe published several pamphlets that attempted to explain its purpose and his own views.
## Background
In 1702, King William III died, and Queen Anne succeeded to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. She was markedly less tolerant than William of the device known as "occasional conformity", whereby Dissenters could qualify as members of the Church of England—and thereby hold public office—by attending a church service once a year. Defoe was supportive of religious freedom, though he was critical of the device and considered it hypocrisy. He had written against it in a pamphlet entitled An enquiry into occasional conformity: Shewing that the dissenters are no way concern'd in it (1698).
In the same year, hostility towards Dissenters increased. A bill against occasional conformity was passed through the House of Commons and debated in the Lords. Figures such as Henry Sacheverell, a high church clergyman, warned against Dissenters assuming positions of political power. His lead was followed by the Tory press, who published a number of sermons and pamphlets making similar arguments. In December, Defoe published his own pamphlet, The Shortest Way, assuming the same stylistic conventions as the Sacheverell and the Tory publications.
## Synopsis
The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church is a pamphlet consisting of twenty-nine pages. It opens with the fable of the Cock and the Horses. The Cock, lacking any perch in the stable, is forced to rest on the ground and in fear of the Horses moving around and stepping on him, advises: "Pray, Gentlefolks! let us stand still! for fear we should tread upon one another!” The speaker then applies this to the contemporary situation, with the Cock representing the Dissenters.
The next section accuses the Dissenters of involvement with various notorious and hideous events of the past century, including the English Civil War and Monmouth's Rebellion. The accusations become increasingly sinister, and at points the speaker directly addresses the Dissenters ("You have butchered one King! deposed another King! and made a Mock King of a third!"). A brief history is given of how past monarchs—from James I to William III—have treated the Dissenters; in the opinion of the speaker, it is too leniently.
The major section comprises a series of arguments for why the Dissenters should be treated favourably ("They are very numerous", "That this is a time of war"). The speaker denounces each in turn and offers several counter-arguments, each gradually escalating in their severity. A vision is given of what will happen to the Church of England if it is not defended against the Dissenters. The pamphlet ends with a rallying call to action against the Dissenters in defence of the church ("Now let us crucify the Thieves.")
## Genre and style
The Shortest Way has traditionally been classified as a satire, although this has been disputed by scholars. Miriam Laurenbaum has suggested that it is instead a form of hoax or "banter", and that Defoe does not use many of the features necessary for it to be considered a true satire. Paul Alkon describes the critical tradition surrounding the work as "asking mainly whether it is inadequate irony, deficient satire, or misused impersonation." Ashley Marshall suggests that "The Shortest-Way is best understood not as insufficiently ironic but as a counterfeit, an intentional fake not meant to be decoded."
The difficulty for Defoe's contemporaries in assessing whether the work was ironic was the proximity of the speaker's voice to that of the High Anglicans whose views are being ridiculed. The pamphlet mixes both real observation and fabrication, and assumes the rhetorical style of his target. Defoe uses and imitates the language and metaphor of fanatical churchmen, particularly Sacheverell's sermons; the speaker's comparison of the Dissenters to vipers is one that Sacheverell often made. Although The Shortest Way does not parody the genre of the Anglican sermon, it does deploy some of the same structures; the initial Aesopic fable of the Cock and the Horses is expanded upon in a way that parallels the use of a biblical quotation to initiate a sermon.
## Reception and legacy
Upon its publication, The Shortest Way provoked immediate and passionate reactions from both sides of the debate. Some made use of it as a genuine vindication of the anti-Dissenter opinion, although speculation later occurred over whether it was ironic. The pamphlet generated a great deal of publicity over the handling of the issue by the Tory ministry. This resulted in the issuing of a warrant by the High Tory Secretary of State for the Southern Department, the Earl of Nottingham, for the arrest of Defoe on the charge of seditious libel, the order being given to "... make Strict and diligent Search for Daniel Fooe and him having found you are to apprehend and seize together with his Papers for high Crime and misdemeanours and to bring him before me ..."
Defoe was finally imprisoned on 21 May 1703, after avoiding his summons and evading capture. He was fined, made to stand in the pillory on three occasions and remained in prison until November; in the meantime, his business affairs sank into ruin. The whole affair left a lasting impression on him, which can be felt in his writings. In the years following his arrest and release, Defoe made several attempts to explain The Shortest Way and his own viewpoint. Amongst the series of explanatory pamphlets doing this are An Explanation of a Late Pamphlet, Entituled, The Shortest Way... (1703) and A Dialogue Between a Dissenter and the Observator (1703). The suspected involvement of the Tory Speaker of the House, Robert Harley, in obtaining the release of Defoe is credited as the beginning of their professional relationship, in which Defoe worked as a propagandist for Harley, after he succeeded Nottingham as Secretary of State in 1704.
Modern scholarly reception has considered The Shortest Way in negative terms, as a failed satire, or as using irony so slight as to be undetectable. Alternately, the anonymous pamphlet may have been a counterfeit intended to be believed under the assumption that the true author would not be discovered. Such a conclusion cites the contemporary reaction to the work, how it failed to deliver its objectives and also caused its author such problems. If critics have offered praise, it is the extent to which Defoe managed to impersonate the style of his subjects, so as to be indistinguishable from them. The Shortest Way is frequently contrasted with another work of irony in the eighteenth century, which is considered to have succeeded in its use of the device, Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal (1729). |
46,225,433 | Alto's Adventure | 1,172,941,525 | 2015 video game | [
"2015 video games",
"Android (operating system) games",
"Articles containing video clips",
"Endless runner games",
"IOS games",
"Indie games",
"Nintendo Switch games",
"Noodlecake Games games",
"PlayStation 4 games",
"Single-player video games",
"Snowboarding video games",
"Video games developed in Canada",
"Video games with gender-selectable protagonists",
"Windows games",
"Xbox One games"
]
| Alto's Adventure is a 2015 endless runner snowboarding video game developed by Team Alto and published by Snowman (iOS) and Noodlecake Studios (Android). The player-character automatically moves to the right of the screen through procedurally generated landscapes. The player taps the screen to jump and perform tricks (backflips), and works towards goals, competitive high scores, and upgrades. Snowman, a Toronto-based, three-person indie development team, previously worked on productivity apps before Alto's Adventure. The game was made to emulate the ethereal atmosphere of snowboarding, and was inspired by Ski Safari (2012), Tiny Wings (2012), Jetpack Joyride (2011), Journey (2012), Monument Valley (2014), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000), and Windosill (2009).
The game was released on February 19, 2015, initially for iOS devices. In September that year, Snowman announced that Alto's Adventure would launch on Android and Kindle Fire. The game was released for Android on February 11, 2016. On July 8, 2016, the game was released for the Windows platform.
According to review score aggregator Metacritic, the game received universal acclaim from critics. Reviewers praised its art style and sense of atmosphere but criticized its gameplay as unoriginal. Pocket Gamer awarded the game their Gold Award. A sequel, Alto's Odyssey, was released in 2018.
## Gameplay
Alto's Adventure is a side-scrolling endless runner snowboarding game. The player character moves automatically through procedurally generated landscapes towards the right side of the screen and the player can only control when to jump. The player taps the screen once to jump and holds the screen while the player character is midair to perform tricks. While the character moves across the landscape, the player can complete some of the game's 180 goals, though they are given only three at a time. Goals include such things as traveling a set distance, rescuing runaway llamas, crossing dangerous gaps, grinding across rooftops of villages, and outsmarting the mountain elders. The player receives awards from completing goals, and can also collect coins that can be used to purchase upgrades. Players perform tricks in quick succession, or combos, to earn points towards a competitive high score. The game also tracks distance traveled and trick combos. Later in the game, players can use a wingsuit, which changes some elements of the game. The environments of Alto's Adventure change in lighting as time passes through the cycle of the day, and incorporate various weather effects. Player progress syncs between iPads and iPhones over iCloud, and the game uses Game Center leaderboards.
## Development
Alto's Adventure was built in collaboration between Snowman, an indie development studio based in Toronto, and lead artist and programmer Harry Nesbitt, based in Devon, England, a collaboration known as Team Alto. Nesbitt has since gone on to found the studio Land & Sea to encompass a growing team of developers that continue to support the game and its sequel.
The developers intended the game to "capture the flow and feeling of snowboarding" and the way "everything else sort of just disappears" when "in rhythm with the mountain", unlike other snowboarding games. Team Alto also sought to address how other mobile games emphasize video game console-type elements with on-screen controls, which Snowman's co-founder Ryan Cash felt were largely not designed with the mobile platform in mind.
Alto's Adventure was inspired by Journey (2012), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000), and Windosill (2009). Snowman's co-founders, Ryan Cash and Jordan Rosenberg, wanted to bring the essence of the Tony Hawk games of their youth into Alto's Adventure, including "fun, positive goals" and an "easy to learn, hard to master" trick system. They avoided goals from other endless runners that they considered negative, uninteresting, or repetitive. As inspired by Monument Valley (2014), the developers chose to charge above average for the game as a trade-off for not including offsets like in-game advertisements or in-app purchases. Team Alto has said any new content would be as an expansion along the lines of Monument Valley's "Forgotten Shores". The game was released for iOS on February 19, 2015.
A port for Android and Kindle Fire was announced in September later that year. The app was released for those platforms on February 11, 2016. Team Alto collaborated with Noodlecake Studios to make the Android port. Additionally, unlike the iOS version, which is launched as a "premium app" (which requires the user to pay \$2.99 to download), the Android version is free to download. In an interview with The Verge, Ryan Cash of Snowman explained that their decision to make the Android Alto's Adventure free is due to iOS and Android being on a "completely different ecosystem", and mainly because of the bigger piracy issues on Android apps. Additionally, he said that those using the Android port will have the same experience as those playing Alto's in the iOS.
On August 4, 2019, Team Alto announced that Alto's Adventure, alongside its sequel Alto's Odyssey, would be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 13, 2020, as part of The Alto Collection. A Nintendo Switch version was released on November 26, 2020.
On March 25, 2022, Team Alto released an expansion for Apple Arcade titled Alto's Adventure: Spirit Of The Mountain. This version included the base game, plus new goals, abilities, and a new character named Pitu.
## Reception
The game received "universal acclaim", according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic. Reviewers had high praise for its art style and aesthetics but criticized its gameplay as unoriginal. Pocket Gamer awarded the game their Gold Award.
The Verge's Andrew Webster wrote that the game was a "supremely laid back" and "incredibly relaxing experience". He wrote that this "next great iPad game" was already one of his mobile favorites, and is set apart from others by its "style" and "achingly beautiful" mountain landscape. Webster found Alto's Adventure to be part art game and part "fun little time waster", and compared it to a combination of Sword & Sworcery and Tiny Wings. TouchArcade's Jared Nelson likened its art style to Journey and its gameplay to Ski Safari. While he did not find the game challenging, he enjoyed the "incredible" visuals: "tons of tiny details", like the character animations and changes in lighting and weather, contributed. Nelson also characterized TouchArcade readers' impressions as "highly positive".
Eric Ford, also of TouchArcade, found the gameplay "basic" as well—"not much here that truly innovates within the genre"—but felt that the game was worth experiencing for its "excellent visual style and soundtrack". He, too, compared the gameplay to Ski Safari and wrote that while the game's power-ups, quest objectives, currency, and score were "pretty standard", the trick system was praiseworthy and gave even easy tricks a sense of "accomplishment". Ford was not enticed by the available upgrades and wrote that he played not for the upgrades but for the game's "whole look and feel" that was made to feel like more than a game with its "awesome", "mellow", and "soothing" soundtrack. Ford added that the game earned "its hype" from its "amazing art style and visual effects" rather than from its gameplay. He was impressed with how much the dynamic weather changed the feel of the game even while the gameplay went unchanged. Ford predicted that players would respond to Alto's Adventure either in appreciation of its "sheer amount of artistic integrity and nuanced visuals," or in disappointment by its similarity to previous endless runners.
Harry Slater of Pocket Gamer thought the game was "pretty special" and "among the best on the App Store". He thought its "stunningly simple" gameplay to be a "compulsive and engaging experience" and "bloody good fun", though he found its core mechanics unoriginal. Eli Cymet of GameZebo said he wanted to live in the game's world and praised its "total, uncompromising dedication to the atmosphere" and how every choice felt "made to preserve experiential authenticity."
## Sequel
A sequel, Alto's Odyssey, was released for iOS in February 2018 and Android in July 2018. It keeps the same gameplay as the original, this time set in a desert with three biomes. |
23,817,539 | Food power | 1,145,059,207 | Use of agriculture as a means of political control | [
"Commercial policy",
"Food politics"
]
| In international politics, food power is the use of agriculture as a means of political control whereby one nation or group of nations offers or withholds commodities from another nation or group of nations in order to manipulate behavior. Its potential use as a weapon was recognised after OPEC’s earlier use of oil as a political weapon. Food has a major influence on political actions of a nation. In response to acts of food power, a nation usually acts in the interest of its citizens to provide food.
Food power is an integral part of the politics of food. The idea of food power is used in embargoes, employment, and food politics. In order for a nation to utilize food power effectively, the nation must effectively apply and display scarcity, supply concentration, demand dispersion, and action independence. The four main nations that export enough agriculture to be able to exert food power are the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. On the smaller scale, particularly in some African countries, food power has been used as a weapon by opposing sides in internal wars and conflicts against their own people.
## Historical background
There are four nations in the world that export enough agriculture to exert this hypothetical food power: the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Forced to rely on these nations in times of shortage, food-importing countries may face food crises if needed supplies are withheld. But while political leaders in food-importing countries have expressed misgivings over their dependence, food-exporting nations generally do not withhold food, as agricultural producers in these nations press their governments to continue to export.
## Policy
Food politics are the political aspects of the production, control, regulation, inspection and distribution of food. The politics can be affected by the ethical, cultural, medical and environmental disputes concerning proper farming, agricultural and retailing methods and regulations. Food power is an integral part of the politics of food.
“Food is a weapon”, stated Earl Butz, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, in 1974. OPEC's use of oil as a political weapon brought on the possibility for America to use food as a tool against other states and to further the US's goals. There are alternative uses of food power as well. An importer can refuse to continue import unless political concessions are made. This would have the same effects that an exporter refusing to export would have. An example of this would be American reduction of the Cuban sugar quota. In simple terms, the demand concentration (one importer being the dominant buyer) and supply dispersion (several exporters competing to sell the same product) an importer can try to use this exchange politically to their favor; this is especially effective if the exporter has little else so export (low action independence).
### Food power and food security
Food security and food power are not the same thing. However, they are often directly related. Food security is when all people of a region at all times have enough food for an active, healthy life. Food power is related when a government, company, leader, country etc. takes this security away in order to get something in return. Many countries employ the exploit of food power to threaten another country's food security. A country's welfare correlates directly with the welfare of its people therefore each country wants to have an appropriate supply of food for its citizens. This want, however, can easily be used as leverage in the politics of food, demonstrating food power.
### Food power and embargoes
An embargo is not the same as Food Power, however, food power can be used in an embargo. In fact, embargoes that do not involve food in their list of restricted items often fail. For example, on August 20, 1914 the Allied Powers began an embargo on important items that were normally shipped to Germany. However, the embargo was not complete nor effective until food was added to the list of restricted materials. Food has the real power. After food was introduced the blockade began to strangle Germany's economy because they were dependent on imports for food. Because the Allied Powers used the power of food in their embargo, Germany was forced to resort to desperate measures and eventually failed despite them.
In the early 1980s, the United States posed a grain embargo upon the Soviet Union. This was an attempt by the US to utilize food power, however, it was not confirmed. The Soviets thus imported grain from different suppliers, leading to an increase in grain imports during that time period, only at a higher cost. Another unsuccessful embargo food power attempt was imposed by the UN Security Council in 1990 upon Iraq.
Another example of an embargo is the United States embargo against Cuba. This is still an ongoing embargo, and, due to the declining situation and health of Cuba's people, the embargo has been subject to much protest.
## Employment
### Structural conditions
Food power can only be used effectively if certain structural conditions apply:
1. Scarcity: If demand is high and supply is limited the value of a given commodity increases. The price often reflects the potential of the goods as a weapon; as it indicates the importance attached to it. Example: If a consumer is prepared to pay a high price for monetary terms he may also be willing to pay a high price in political concessions.
2. Supply Concentration: Supply should only be in the hands of few producers/ sellers, as this makes possible for limited competition, price fixes, or potentially a monopoly.
3. Demand Dispersion: Allows sellers to play the consumers against each other as well as increase prices or make terms conditional. This favors the use of economic goods food as a weapon.
4. Action Independence: In order to ensure affectivity the seller/producer most control his own assets. Either the seller/producer must be able to control the production process, perhaps through governmental control over companies carrying out the production), or he must have access to means on the other dimensions to ensure that he can maintain or extend control over his assets.
The four conditions listed above MUST be simultaneously present in order to turn an economic asset food into a political instrument. This does not necessarily mean that the asset will be used whenever the four conditions above are present. Such a decision would be considered only if there were further conditions, for example, the nature of a given conflict and judgment, goals, alternative means, and judgment of utility.
### Employment as an economic weapon
There are several uses for employing economic weapons against one country or another. One use for using economic weapons would concern the seller/buyer bargaining on the conditions of a business contract. This would include price, transportation, timetable for consignment and payment, etc. Although this is an example of the successful application of food power, it is not a political objective. Another use concerns the economic objectives other than these relating to the transaction of goods; to the general economic policy of the buyer. This would be balance of payments, general problems, such as inflation or taxation and land holding. What distinguishes this from the first is the fact that there is no link between the conditions laid down and the transfer of product. The conditions refer to the economic realm of life. A political use would be one concerning the buyer’s foreign and defense policies. Many believe there is a moral threshold between economy and politics, making the use of economic means for political gains questionable. Examples of the use of economic weapons for political aims are boycotts against certain countries as well as the buying of votes in the UN. A fourth purpose pertains to the basic assumption of the third category: the governments no longer accept each other as legitimate. The economic goals are no longer seen as a means of influencing an opposite government but rather to stimulate opposition and achieve the overthrow or capitulation of the government.
### United States
During the time the United States was the most dominant in all areas like military, energy, exports, etc. Food Power was not really thought about. However, since some of those powers have since diminished, the power of food has come to the surface. In the realm of food, The United States remains at the top, unchallenged. The United States has the position of being the largest producer and exporter of food. While other nations, predominantly developing nations but even some of the richest oil-exporting nations, are beginning to have food shortages and becoming more and more dependent on imported food from the United States, giving it more and more power. This allows the United States to expect friendly behavior from the countries that import American food. It is also likely that the United States would have some form of influence over these countries. Even some of the poorest OPEC countries have become dependent on U.S. wheat. Therefore, there is a possibility that the United States could restrict its food exports for political purposes. The United States could use this Food power as a means of exerting pressure on OPEC countries. Food power will be most effective in times of food shortage or famine because this is when those countries that have some dependence on the United States are most desperate.
The U.S. frequently uses its economic power in order to punish other countries. One of the ways the U.S. does this is by holding back on exporting food. Reasons for the punishment of another country vary; however, they can be broken down into two main groups: Foreign containment objective and market development/humanitarian objectives. The foreign containment objective tends to punish those countries who are threatening to the U.S. An example of such a threat would be countries under other forms of government. More examples related to the containment objective would be no aid to communist countries, socialist governments, countries who support radical regimes, regimes with an inadequate democracy who are too weak to be anti-communist (effectively), and countries who will not accept U.S. agreements. An example of market development and humanitarian objectives would fall under a category of countries that are trying to compete with the U.S. economically. The U.S. will execute foreign aid punishments to countries trying to nationalize property of U.S. companies, countries who want to take over functions by U.S. companies, and countries trying to initiate nationalistic economic policies.
The U.S. has modified its stance since the 1970s, when the State Department and the CIA issued reports exploring the potential of food embargoes. Congressional Bill H.R. 5426, the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, removed agricultural export sanctions applied to Libya, Sudan, and North Korea (agricultural trade with Cuba remained under some restrictions) and gave Congress veto power over unilateral presidential actions in this regard.
### Africa
Food politics in Africa differs from the cases in North America and Europe in that there is a case of small scale food power in Africa, particularly in Sudan. Some experts say that the cases of famine and food insecurity in Africa are due to inconsistent output of food production and the downward spiral of the interaction between population growth and environmental sustainability. But upon closer inspection, it is revealed that nature is not the only catalyst for Africa’s numerous food insecurity issues.
#### Sudan
Famine is shaped by generally two theories. The first is FAD, Food Availability Decline. This is the result of a drought, a war, or some other drastic change to the agricultural system. This is the natural cause for famine. The other theory deals primarily with the population’s ability to access or become entitled to food. In this case, food power makes itself known on a small scale, as opposing political forces in Sudan compete for the votes of the people by instigating or encouraging the famine.
For example, Sudan’s famine in the 1980s was completely intentional, and was only a pawn for a varied collection of different elites to improve their political and economic statuses. These political parties weren’t the only beneficiaries, though. Merchants were also known to hoard grain and buy livestock at inappropriately low prices when the famines shifted the terms of trade. Western Sudanese merchants during the famine of 1987 were described as heartless because they refused to sell grain to needy villages in Darfur at reasonable prices. Ergo, the Sudanese Famine was another example of food power in which food was and used as a policy, and which completely ignored the needs of the people and fostered the political and power-hungry intentions of opposite warring forces in the country.
The famine in Sudan in 1998 was a humanitarian disaster caused mainly by human rights abuses, as well as drought and the failure of the international community to react to the famine risk with adequate speed. The worst affected area was Bahr El Ghazal in southwestern Sudan. In this region over 70,000 people died during the famine.
## See also
- List of countries by real population density based on food growing capacity |
71,882,915 | Samuel Plata | 1,161,621,123 | Bolivian politician (born 1970) | [
"1970 births",
"21st-century Bolivian politicians",
"Aymara politicians",
"Bolivian people of Aymara descent",
"Bolivian politicians of indigenous peoples descent",
"Bolivian trade unionists",
"Living people",
"Mechanics (people)",
"Members of the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies from La Paz",
"Movimiento al Socialismo politicians",
"People from Ingavi Province"
]
| Samuel Plata Plata (born 9 November 1970) is a Bolivian auto mechanic and politician who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from La Paz, representing circumscription 22 from 2010 to 2015. Born in a peasant community in the Altiplano plateau, Plata scaled the ranks of traditional leadership, serving as president of the Chuncarcota school board, mallku of his Aymara township, and finally, jach'a mallku cantonal of the three ayllus in the Urinsaya Marka, the sector's highest indigenous authority. Plata's prominent local presence led regional peasant sectors to nominate him as their representative in the Legislative Assembly, with the Movement for Socialism sponsoring his successful candidacy for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.
## Early life and career
Samuel Plata was born on 9 November 1970, one of ten children born to Daniel Plata and Manuela Plata, a peasant family native to Chuncarcota de Machaca, situated on western La Paz's Altiplano plateau. Together with his siblings, Plata was raised practicing subsistence farming, even as he simultaneously attended the local primary school, where he excelled as a student. As his own school only ran up to fifth grade, Plata continued his studies one town over in Conchacollo de Machaca and later in the municipal capital, San Andrés de Machaca, a two-and-a-half hour bike trek he made daily.
As a teenager, Plata moved to El Alto, where he studied to become an auto mechanic. He practiced that profession at various workshops in the city and did maintenance on heavy machinery for private companies. During this time, Plata became active in local community leadership, participating in events and meetings convened by the Villa Exaltación neighborhood council. By age 17, Plata had risen to become the organization's secretary of relations.
Even as Plata's presence in El Alto grew, he maintained links to his indigenous community, collaborating with social organizations to organize sporting events and other activities for the town. Over time, Plata's visits became more frequent, and by 2003, he had re-settled in Chuncarcota, where he was elected president of the town's school board. The following year, Plata was named mallku, an indigenous authority charged with leading and representing the community before the municipal government and other institutions. By 2005, Plata had risen to become jach'a mallku cantonal, the highest indigenous authority of the sector, representing the three ayllus that make up the Urinsaya Marka.
## Chamber of Deputies
### Election
In the leadup to the 2009 general election, Plata was put forward by his community to run for the region's seat in the Chamber of Deputies. He faced nine other pre-candidates for the nomination, each representing their respective municipalities. After a public event in the Taraco Municipality where each contestant presented their proposals and initiatives, Plata was finally selected from among the contenders to represent the Ingavi Province on the ballot. He registered his candidacy with the Movement for Socialism, with whom he won the election by an overwhelming margin.
### Tenure
Once in the Legislative Assembly, Plata was selected to chair La Paz's parliamentary delegation in his first year. He served in different committees within the Government, Defense, and Armed Forces Commission for two non-consecutive years and was a member of the Constitutional Development and Legislation Committee for three, chairing said body as its secretary in his final two years in office. Upon the conclusion of his term, Plata was not nominated for reelection and was unable to contest local office due to a controversial ruling by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal stating that outgoing legislators did not meet residency requirements because their primary residence had been La Paz for the past two years. Plata was among the many legislators who protested the decision, presenting in his final days in office a bill to suspend electoral authorities who "put at risk" the rights of Bolivian citizens to participate in politics.
#### Commission assignments
- Constitution, Legislation, and Electoral System Commission
- Constitutional Development and Legislation Committee (2011–2012; Secretary: 2013–2015)
- Government, Defense, and Armed Forces Commission
- Defense, Armed Forces, Borders, and Civil Defense Committee (2012–2013)
- Public Security Committee (2010–2011)
## Electoral history |
3,281,734 | Teddy Sheean | 1,169,580,333 | Royal Australian Navy sailor | [
"1923 births",
"1942 deaths",
"Australian World War II recipients of the Victoria Cross",
"Australian military personnel killed in World War II",
"Deaths due to shipwreck at sea",
"Military personnel from Tasmania",
"Royal Australian Navy personnel of World War II",
"Royal Australian Navy sailors"
]
| Edward "Teddy" Sheean, VC (28 December 1923 – 1 December 1942) was a sailor in the Royal Australian Navy during the Second World War. Born in Tasmania, Sheean was employed as a farm labourer when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in April 1941. Following training at HMAS Derwent and the Flinders Naval Depot, he was posted to Sydney, where he joined the newly commissioned corvette HMAS Armidale in June 1942. Sheean served aboard Armidale as she took part in escort duties along the eastern Australian coast and in New Guinea waters. In October he transferred with the ship to Darwin, where Armidale was tasked with assisting Australian operations in Timor.
On 29 November 1942, Armidale set out for an operation to Betano, Timor, along with HMAS Castlemaine. The two ships were attacked by Japanese aircraft along the way, and were subsequently late in arriving at their destination, missing a planned rendezvous with HMAS Kuru. While returning to Darwin, the pair encountered Kuru south of Betano and it was decided by Castlemaine's commanding officer—as the senior officer—that Armidale and Kuru should make for Betano. The two ships took different routes to Betano, during which both vessels came under aerial assault. During a subsequent confrontation with thirteen Japanese aircraft on 1 December, Armidale was struck by two torpedoes and a bomb, and began to sink; the order to abandon ship was given. After helping to free a life-raft, Sheean was wounded by two bullets. He made his way to the aft Oerlikon 20 mm cannon and began to fire on the Japanese aircraft to protect those in the water. Sheean managed to shoot down one of the Japanese bombers, but was killed when Armidale sank. Many of the survivors credited their lives to Sheean and he was posthumously mentioned in despatches, this award was later cancelled on 1 December 2020 when upgraded to the Victoria Cross for Australia.
Consideration was given to awarding Sheean the Victoria Cross for Australia (VC) and, in 1999, the RAN submarine HMAS Sheean was named in his honour. An inquiry in 2013 recommended that he not be awarded the VC. A 2019 inquiry recommended in favour of the award, but was rejected by the Government. Another inquiry held during 2020 recommended that Sheean be awarded the VC, and this was accepted by the Government. Queen Elizabeth II approved the award on 12 August 2020.
## Early life
Sheean was born in Lower Barrington, Tasmania, on 28 December 1923, the youngest of fourteen children to James Sheean, a labourer, and his wife Mary Jane (née Broomhall). Soon after his birth, the Sheean family moved to Latrobe, where he was educated at the local Catholic school. Following the completion of his schooling, Sheean gained casual employment working on several farms in the vicinity of Latrobe and Merseylea.
## Second World War
On 21 April 1941, Sheean enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve. He had followed in the steps of five of his brothers who had already joined the armed forces—four in the Australian Army and one in the Royal Australian Navy—for service in the Second World War. Sheean was initially posted to the Hobart naval base HMAS Derwent for training, where he gained a period of seafaring experience aboard HMAS Coombar, an auxiliary minesweeper, from 17 to 31 December. On finishing his initial training course, Sheean was attached to the Flinders Naval Depot in Western Port, Victoria, for further instruction from 11 February 1942.
Completing his course at the Flinders Naval Depot, Sheean was posted to the Garden Island naval base HMAS Penguin in Sydney Harbour on 11 May. During his time with Penguin, he was berthed on HMAS Kuttabul, a Sydney ferry requisitioned for use as a barracks ship. Granted a period of leave later that month, he returned home to Tasmania. While he was on leave, Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour and sank Kuttabul on 31 May. Returning to Sydney eleven days after the raid, Sheean joined the newly commissioned Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Armidale as an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun loader.
Leaving Sydney Harbour in late August 1942, Sheean served aboard Armidale as she carried out "relatively uneventful" escort duties along the North Queensland, Port Moresby and Milne Bay coasts over the subsequent two months. During October, Armidale was ordered to Darwin. Setting sail, she arrived on 7 November and was detailed to assist in the Australian operations in Timor.
### Sinking of Armidale
On 24 November 1942, the evacuation of the 2/2nd Australian Independent Company from Timor along with 150 Portuguese people was approved by the Allied Land Forces Headquarters. In response to this, Commodore Cuthbert Pope, the Naval Officer-in-Charge Darwin, organised an operation utilising HMA Ships Kuru, Castlemaine and Armidale. The operation was to involve the three ships undertaking two voyages each, the first to take place on the night of 30 November/1 December and involve a trip to Betano, Timor, in which the ships were to land 50 fresh Dutch guerrillas in the area along with supplies, and simultaneously withdraw 190 Dutch soldiers as well as the 150 Portuguese refugees. The second excursion was to be carried out on the night of 4/5 December, and entail the extraction of the 2/2nd Independent Company.
At 22:30 on 28 November 1942, Kuru set sail for Betano. Kuru was scheduled to arrive at approximately 20:30 on 30 November, where she was to unload the supplies on board and embark the Portuguese refugees, which were to transfer to Castlemaine once she arrived along with Armidale two hours later. However, Kuru hit bad weather during her voyage and arrived at Betano three hours late. Armidale—with two Dutch Army officers, 61 Netherlands East Indies troops and three Australian Army soldiers aboard—and Castlemaine set sail from Darwin at 01:42 on 29 November. At approximately 09:15 on 30 November, while 190 kilometres (100 nmi) from their destination, the two ships were attacked by a single Japanese aircraft. Having missed with several bombs, the aircraft flew off in the direction of Timor an hour later. Fearing that their discovery by this aircraft would jeopardise the mission, Castlemaine's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Philip Sullivan, ordered evasive action and signalled Darwin for further orders. A signal returned decreeing that the operation must proceed and a party of fighter aircraft were to be dispatched as protective cover.
Continuing in their voyage, Armidale and Castlemaine were attacked twice more by air, each time by a formation of bombers that bombed and machine-gunned the ships. Despite this, neither ship suffered damage or casualties and both arrived at Betano at 03:30 on 1 December, however there was no sign of Kuru. Having made sure that Kuru was not in the bay, the two corvettes decided to abandon the mission and sailed south in order to return to Darwin. Kuru's commanding officer, Lieutenant John Grant, had loaded 77 of the Portuguese refugees as well as one critically injured Australian soldier on board the ship and set sail at around 02:00 on 1 December from Betano, fearing he had missed the rendezvous with the other two ships. While approximately 110 kilometres (59 nmi) south of Betano, Armidale and Castlemaine sighted Kuru, and the three ships closed by dawn.
Following the transfer of passengers from Kuru to Castlemaine, the former received orders that she was to return to Betano that evening "and do the job tonight". At this time, a formation of Japanese aircraft was spotted and Kuru sailed for cover. Assessing the situation, Sullivan—as senior officer—decided that Armidale would accompany Kuru in order to unload the former's passengers at Betano while Castlemaine returned to Darwin. Armidale and Kuru assumed separate routes to Betano, and at approximately 13:00 Armidale was attacked by a party of five Japanese bombers; the explosives, however, fell wide of their target. At 13:58, Armidale reported that she was under attack from "nine bombers, four fighters" over the Timor Sea.
Armidale undertook evasive action, manoeuvring frantically to avoid the aerial attack. However, at 15:15, the vessel was struck by two air-launched torpedoes, one hitting her port side and the other colliding with the engineering spaces, before a bomb exploded aft. Armidale listed sharply to port at this stage, and the order was given to abandon ship. As the crew leapt into the sea, they were strafed by the attacking aircraft. Sheean—after assisting to free a life-raft—was hit by two bullets from one of the aircraft, wounding him in the chest and back. Scrambling across the deck, he strapped himself into the aft Oerlikon 20 mm cannon and began shooting at the fighters in an effort to protect some of the sailors already in the sea. Subject to the fire from Sheean's Oerlikon, the Japanese aircraft were kept at bay and were unable to effectively strafe those in the water.
With Armidale rapidly sinking, Sheean continued to fire and managed to shoot down one of the Japanese bombers. He damaged a further two aircraft before Armidale's stern was engulfed by the sea. Despite this, Sheean maintained his fire as the water rose above his feet, and remained firing as he "disappeared beneath the waves". Sheean's crewmates later testified to witnessing tracers rising from beneath the water's surface as Sheean was dragged under.
## Legacy
Sheean was among 100 of the original 149 people on board HMAS Armidale at the time of the attack who were killed during the ship's sinking and its aftermath. Many of the survivors attributed their lives to Sheean. For his "bravery and devotion when HMAS Armidale was lost", Sheean's actions were recognised with a posthumous Mention in Despatches, awarded on the recommendation of Armidale's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander David Richards, and announced in a supplement to The London Gazette on 29 June 1943. However, many held the opinion that Sheean's gallantry, devotion to duty and self-sacrifice were worthy of the Victoria Cross, with author Robert Macklin stating his "actions were in the highest tradition of the Australian military" and comparing them with those of Vietnam War Victoria Cross recipient Kevin Wheatley.
On 1 May 1999, the submarine was launched by Ivy Hayes—sister of Teddy Sheean—named in the ordinary seaman's honour. Sheean was subsequently commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 23 February 2001, and was the first Royal Australian Navy vessel to be named in honour of a naval rating. Carrying the motto "Fight On", the vessel was one of six Collins-class submarines entered into service. A painting depicting Sheean's final moments is held by the Australian War Memorial. His home town of Latrobe commemorates his life via the Sheean Walk and Teddy Sheean Memorial, opened in 1992. In 2003, the Australian Navy Cadets established a training ship at Tewantin, Queensland, called NTS Sheean in his honour.
### Victoria Cross for Australia
In 2001 a Bill was introduced into the Australian Senate to have three awards of the Victoria Cross for Australia made, one being to Sheean. The Bill came as part of a campaign by the then-leader of the Australian Labor Party and Federal Opposition, Kim Beazley, to secure more rights for war veterans. However, it was subsequently rejected by the Liberal Government.
In 2011, at the direction of the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Senator David Feeney, the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal opened an inquiry into thirteen cases of unresolved recognition for past acts of gallantry. Among the group were eleven naval personnel, including Sheean. Known as the 'Valour Inquiry', the Tribunal was directed to determine if the individuals were unduly overlooked for recognition at the time of their actions and, if so, whether late awards were appropriate. The inquiry lasted two years and included 166 submissions from 125 individuals and organisations, before the Tribunal reported its findings in January 2013. In the case of Sheean, the Tribunal found that there was no manifest injustice with the award of the Mention in Despatches, and that there was no new evidence to support the consideration of Sheean for the Victoria Cross for Australia. If Sheean had lived, they reported, he might have been recommended for either the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal or the Distinguished Service Medal instead, but neither medal could be awarded posthumously in 1942. The Tribunal recommended that the RAN perpetuate the use of Sheean as the name of a major combatant vessel.
The Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal panel conducted an inquiry during 2019 to consider whether Sheean should be awarded the Victoria Cross. It recommended in July that year that he be awarded the medal. This recommendation was rejected by Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds in May 2020 on the grounds that the panel had not presented any new evidence to support its recommendation. Reynolds' decision was endorsed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Mark Sullivan, the head of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal subsequently wrote to Reynolds to complain that she had misrepresented the panel's findings and misled the Senate. Sullivan stated in his letter that the panel had found new evidence to support its recommendation despite not being required to do so. In response to Sullivan's letter, Tasmanian Veterans Affairs Minister Guy Barnett and federal Senator Jacqui Lambie called for the decision to not award the medal to be reconsidered. Federal Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese also wrote that Sheean should be awarded the Victoria Cross. The Chief of the Defence Force General Angus Campbell strongly advised the government to not award Sheean the medal.
In June 2020, Morrison commissioned another expert panel to examine whether Sheean should be awarded the Victoria Cross. On 10 August 2020, Morrison accepted the findings of the panel and recommended the Queen posthumously award Sheean the Victoria Cross for Australia. The Queen approved the award on 12 August. An investiture ceremony was held on 1 December 2020 at Government House in Canberra. Governor-General General David Hurley presented the award to Sheean's nephew, Garry Ivory. Sheean's medal was the first VC awarded to a Royal Australian Navy crew member. |
5,069,516 | HIV/AIDS | 1,173,574,844 | Spectrum of conditions caused by HIV infection | [
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| Infection with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), a retrovirus, can be managed with treatment but without treatment can lead to a spectrum of conditions including AIDS (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome).
Effective treatment for HIV-positive people (people living with HIV) involves a life-long regimen of medicine to suppress the virus, making the viral load undetectable. There is not yet a vaccine nor a cure. An HIV-positive person on treatment can expect to live a normal life, and die with the virus, not of it.
An HIV-positive person who has an undetectable viral load as a result of long-term treatment has effectively no risk of transmitting HIV sexually.
Without treatment the infection can interfere with the immune system, and eventually progress to AIDS, sometimes taking many years. Following initial infection an individual may not notice any symptoms, or may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. During this period the person may not know that they are HIV-positive, yet be able to pass on the virus. Typically, this period is followed by a prolonged incubation period with no symptoms. Eventually the HIV infection increases the risk of developing other infections such as tuberculosis, as well as other opportunistic infections, and tumors which are rare in people who have normal immune function. The late stage is often also associated with unintended weight loss. Without treatment a person living with HIV can expect to live for 11 years. Early testing can show if treatment is needed to stop this progression and to prevent infecting others.
HIV is spread primarily by unprotected sex (including anal and vaginal sex), contaminated hypodermic needles or blood transfusions, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. Some bodily fluids, such as saliva, sweat, and tears, do not transmit the virus. Oral sex has little to no risk of transmitting the virus.
Ways to avoid catching HIV and preventing the spread include safe sex, treatment to prevent infection ("PrEP"), treatment to stop infection in someone who has been recently exposed ("PEP"), treating those who are infected, and needle exchange programs. Disease in a baby can often be prevented by giving both the mother and child antiretroviral medication.
Recognized worldwide in the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS has had a large impact on society, both as an illness and as a source of discrimination. The disease also has large economic impacts. There are many misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, such as the belief that it can be transmitted by casual non-sexual contact. The disease has become subject to many controversies involving religion, including the Catholic Church's position not to support condom use as prevention. It has attracted international medical and political attention as well as large-scale funding since it was identified in the 1980s.
HIV made the jump from other primates to humans in west-central Africa in the early-to-mid 20th century. AIDS was first recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1981 and its cause—HIV infection—was identified in the early part of the decade. Between the first time AIDS was readily identified through 2021, the disease is estimated to have caused at least 40 million deaths worldwide. In 2021, there were 650,000 deaths and about 38 million people worldwide living with HIV. An estimated 20.6 million of these people live in eastern and southern Africa. HIV/AIDS is considered a pandemic—a disease outbreak which is present over a large area and is actively spreading.
The United States' National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Gates Foundation have pledged \$200 million focused on developing a global cure for AIDS. While there is no cure or vaccine, antiretroviral treatment can slow the course of the disease and may lead to a near-normal life expectancy. Treatment is recommended as soon as the diagnosis is made. Without treatment, the average survival time after infection is 11 years.
## Signs and symptoms
There are three main stages of HIV infection: acute infection, clinical latency, and AIDS.
### Acute infection
The initial period following the contraction of HIV is called acute HIV, primary HIV or acute retroviral syndrome. Many individuals develop an influenza-like illness or a mononucleosis-like illness 2–4 weeks after exposure while others have no significant symptoms. Symptoms occur in 40–90% of cases and most commonly include fever, large tender lymph nodes, throat inflammation, a rash, headache, tiredness, and/or sores of the mouth and genitals. The rash, which occurs in 20–50% of cases, presents itself on the trunk and is maculopapular, classically. Some people also develop opportunistic infections at this stage. Gastrointestinal symptoms, such as vomiting or diarrhea may occur. Neurological symptoms of peripheral neuropathy or Guillain–Barré syndrome also occur. The duration of the symptoms varies, but is usually one or two weeks.
Owing to their nonspecific character, these symptoms are not often recognized as signs of HIV infection. Even cases that do get seen by a family doctor or a hospital are often misdiagnosed as one of the many common infectious diseases with overlapping symptoms. Thus, it is recommended that HIV be considered in people presenting with an unexplained fever who may have risk factors for the infection.
### Clinical latency
The initial symptoms are followed by a stage called clinical latency, asymptomatic HIV, or chronic HIV. Without treatment, this second stage of the natural history of HIV infection can last from about three years to over 20 years (on average, about eight years). While typically there are few or no symptoms at first, near the end of this stage many people experience fever, weight loss, gastrointestinal problems and muscle pains. Between 50% and 70% of people also develop persistent generalized lymphadenopathy, characterized by unexplained, non-painful enlargement of more than one group of lymph nodes (other than in the groin) for over three to six months.
Although most HIV-1 infected individuals have a detectable viral load and in the absence of treatment will eventually progress to AIDS, a small proportion (about 5%) retain high levels of CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells (T helper cells) without antiretroviral therapy for more than five years. These individuals are classified as "HIV controllers" or long-term nonprogressors (LTNP). Another group consists of those who maintain a low or undetectable viral load without anti-retroviral treatment, known as "elite controllers" or "elite suppressors". They represent approximately 1 in 300 infected persons.
### Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is defined as an HIV infection with either a CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell count below 200 cells per μL or the occurrence of specific diseases associated with HIV infection. In the absence of specific treatment, around half of people infected with HIV develop AIDS within ten years. The most common initial conditions that alert to the presence of AIDS are pneumocystis pneumonia (40%), cachexia in the form of HIV wasting syndrome (20%), and esophageal candidiasis. Other common signs include recurrent respiratory tract infections.
Opportunistic infections may be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites that are normally controlled by the immune system. Which infections occur depends partly on what organisms are common in the person's environment. These infections may affect nearly every organ system.
People with AIDS have an increased risk of developing various viral-induced cancers, including Kaposi's sarcoma, Burkitt's lymphoma, primary central nervous system lymphoma, and cervical cancer. Kaposi's sarcoma is the most common cancer, occurring in 10% to 20% of people with HIV. The second-most common cancer is lymphoma, which is the cause of death of nearly 16% of people with AIDS and is the initial sign of AIDS in 3% to 4%. Both these cancers are associated with human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8). Cervical cancer occurs more frequently in those with AIDS because of its association with human papillomavirus (HPV). Conjunctival cancer (of the layer that lines the inner part of eyelids and the white part of the eye) is also more common in those with HIV.
Additionally, people with AIDS frequently have systemic symptoms such as prolonged fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen lymph nodes, chills, weakness, and unintended weight loss. Diarrhea is another common symptom, present in about 90% of people with AIDS. They can also be affected by diverse psychiatric and neurological symptoms independent of opportunistic infections and cancers.
## Transmission
HIV is spread by three main routes: sexual contact, significant exposure to infected body fluids or tissues, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding (known as vertical transmission). There is no risk of acquiring HIV if exposed to feces, nasal secretions, saliva, sputum, sweat, tears, urine, or vomit unless these are contaminated with blood. It is also possible to be co-infected by more than one strain of HIV—a condition known as HIV superinfection.
### Sexual
The most frequent mode of transmission of HIV is through sexual contact with an infected person. However, an HIV-positive person who has an undetectable viral load as a result of long-term treatment has effectively no risk of transmitting HIV sexually. The existence of functionally noncontagious HIV-positive people on antiretroviral therapy was controversially publicized in the 2008 Swiss Statement, and has since become accepted as medically sound.
Globally, the most common mode of HIV transmission is via sexual contacts between people of the opposite sex; however, the pattern of transmission varies among countries. As of 2017, most HIV transmission in the United States occurred among men who had sex with men (82% of new HIV diagnoses among males aged 13 and older and 70% of total new diagnoses). In the US, gay and bisexual men aged 13 to 24 accounted for an estimated 92% of new HIV diagnoses among all men in their age group and 27% of new diagnoses among all gay and bisexual men.
With regard to unprotected heterosexual contacts, estimates of the risk of HIV transmission per sexual act appear to be four to ten times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries. In low-income countries, the risk of female-to-male transmission is estimated as 0.38% per act, and of male-to-female transmission as 0.30% per act; the equivalent estimates for high-income countries are 0.04% per act for female-to-male transmission, and 0.08% per act for male-to-female transmission. The risk of transmission from anal intercourse is especially high, estimated as 1.4–1.7% per act in both heterosexual and homosexual contacts. While the risk of transmission from oral sex is relatively low, it is still present. The risk from receiving oral sex has been described as "nearly nil"; however, a few cases have been reported. The per-act risk is estimated at 0–0.04% for receptive oral intercourse. In settings involving prostitution in low-income countries, risk of female-to-male transmission has been estimated as 2.4% per act, and of male-to-female transmission as 0.05% per act.
Risk of transmission increases in the presence of many sexually transmitted infections and genital ulcers. Genital ulcers appear to increase the risk approximately fivefold. Other sexually transmitted infections, such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, and bacterial vaginosis, are associated with somewhat smaller increases in risk of transmission.
The viral load of an infected person is an important risk factor in both sexual and mother-to-child transmission. During the first 2.5 months of an HIV infection a person's infectiousness is twelve times higher due to the high viral load associated with acute HIV. If the person is in the late stages of infection, rates of transmission are approximately eightfold greater.
Commercial sex workers (including those in pornography) have an increased likelihood of contracting HIV. Rough sex can be a factor associated with an increased risk of transmission. Sexual assault is also believed to carry an increased risk of HIV transmission as condoms are rarely worn, physical trauma to the vagina or rectum is likely, and there may be a greater risk of concurrent sexually transmitted infections.
### Body fluids
The second-most frequent mode of HIV transmission is via blood and blood products. Blood-borne transmission can be through needle-sharing during intravenous drug use, needle-stick injury, transfusion of contaminated blood or blood product, or medical injections with unsterilized equipment. The risk from sharing a needle during drug injection is between 0.63% and 2.4% per act, with an average of 0.8%. The risk of acquiring HIV from a needle stick from an HIV-infected person is estimated as 0.3% (about 1 in 333) per act and the risk following mucous membrane exposure to infected blood as 0.09% (about 1 in 1000) per act. This risk may, however, be up to 5% if the introduced blood was from a person with a high viral load and the cut was deep. In the United States, intravenous drug users made up 12% of all new cases of HIV in 2009, and in some areas more than 80% of people who inject drugs are HIV-positive.
HIV is transmitted in about 90% of blood transfusions using infected blood. In developed countries the risk of acquiring HIV from a blood transfusion is extremely low (less than one in half a million) where improved donor selection and HIV screening is performed; for example, in the UK the risk is reported at one in five million and in the United States it was one in 1.5 million in 2008. In low-income countries, only half of transfusions may be appropriately screened (as of 2008), and it is estimated that up to 15% of HIV infections in these areas come from transfusion of infected blood and blood products, representing between 5% and 10% of global infections. It is possible to acquire HIV from organ and tissue transplantation, although this is rare because of screening.
Unsafe medical injections play a role in HIV spread in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007, between 12% and 17% of infections in this region were attributed to medical syringe use. The World Health Organization estimates the risk of transmission as a result of a medical injection in Africa at 1.2%. Risks are also associated with invasive procedures, assisted delivery, and dental care in this area of the world.
People giving or receiving tattoos, piercings, and scarification are theoretically at risk of infection but no confirmed cases have been documented. It is not possible for mosquitoes or other insects to transmit HIV.
### Mother-to-child
HIV can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy, during delivery, or through breast milk, resulting in the baby also contracting HIV. As of 2008, vertical transmission accounted for about 90% of cases of HIV in children. In the absence of treatment, the risk of transmission before or during birth is around 20%, and in those who also breastfeed 35%. Treatment decreases this risk to less than 5%.
Antiretrovirals when taken by either the mother or the baby decrease the risk of transmission in those who do breastfeed. If blood contaminates food during pre-chewing it may pose a risk of transmission. If a woman is untreated, two years of breastfeeding results in an HIV/AIDS risk in her baby of about 17%. Due to the increased risk of death without breastfeeding in many areas in the developing world, the World Health Organization recommends either exclusive breastfeeding or the provision of safe formula. All women known to be HIV-positive should be taking lifelong antiretroviral therapy.
## Virology
HIV is the cause of the spectrum of disease known as HIV/AIDS. HIV is a retrovirus that primarily infects components of the human immune system such as CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. It directly and indirectly destroys CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells.
HIV is a member of the genus Lentivirus, part of the family Retroviridae. Lentiviruses share many morphological and biological characteristics. Many species of mammals are infected by lentiviruses, which are characteristically responsible for long-duration illnesses with a long incubation period. Lentiviruses are transmitted as single-stranded, positive-sense, enveloped RNA viruses. Upon entry into the target cell, the viral RNA genome is converted (reverse transcribed) into double-stranded DNA by a virally encoded reverse transcriptase that is transported along with the viral genome in the virus particle. The resulting viral DNA is then imported into the cell nucleus and integrated into the cellular DNA by a virally encoded integrase and host co-factors. Once integrated, the virus may become latent, allowing the virus and its host cell to avoid detection by the immune system. Alternatively, the virus may be transcribed, producing new RNA genomes and viral proteins that are packaged and released from the cell as new virus particles that begin the replication cycle anew.
HIV is now known to spread between CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells by two parallel routes: cell-free spread and cell-to-cell spread, i.e. it employs hybrid spreading mechanisms. In the cell-free spread, virus particles bud from an infected T cell, enter the blood/extracellular fluid and then infect another T cell following a chance encounter. HIV can also disseminate by direct transmission from one cell to another by a process of cell-to-cell spread. The hybrid spreading mechanisms of HIV contribute to the virus' ongoing replication against antiretroviral therapies.
Two types of HIV have been characterized: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the virus that was originally discovered (and initially referred to also as LAV or HTLV-III). It is more virulent, more infective, and is the cause of the majority of HIV infections globally. The lower infectivity of HIV-2 as compared with HIV-1 implies that fewer people exposed to HIV-2 will be infected per exposure. Because of its relatively poor capacity for transmission, HIV-2 is largely confined to West Africa.
## Pathophysiology
After the virus enters the body, there is a period of rapid viral replication, leading to an abundance of virus in the peripheral blood. During primary infection, the level of HIV may reach several million virus particles per milliliter of blood. This response is accompanied by a marked drop in the number of circulating CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells. The acute viremia is almost invariably associated with activation of CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells, which kill HIV-infected cells, and subsequently with antibody production, or seroconversion. The CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell response is thought to be important in controlling virus levels, which peak and then decline, as the CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell counts recover. A good CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell response has been linked to slower disease progression and a better prognosis, though it does not eliminate the virus.
Ultimately, HIV causes AIDS by depleting CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells. This weakens the immune system and allows opportunistic infections. T cells are essential to the immune response and without them, the body cannot fight infections or kill cancerous cells. The mechanism of CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell depletion differs in the acute and chronic phases. During the acute phase, HIV-induced cell lysis and killing of infected cells by CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells accounts for CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell depletion, although apoptosis may also be a factor. During the chronic phase, the consequences of generalized immune activation coupled with the gradual loss of the ability of the immune system to generate new T cells appear to account for the slow decline in CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell numbers.
Although the symptoms of immune deficiency characteristic of AIDS do not appear for years after a person is infected, the bulk of CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell loss occurs during the first weeks of infection, especially in the intestinal mucosa, which harbors the majority of the lymphocytes found in the body. The reason for the preferential loss of mucosal CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells is that the majority of mucosal CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells express the CCR5 protein which HIV uses as a co-receptor to gain access to the cells, whereas only a small fraction of CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells in the bloodstream do so. A specific genetic change that alters the CCR5 protein when present in both chromosomes very effectively prevents HIV-1 infection.
HIV seeks out and destroys CCR5 expressing CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells during acute infection. A vigorous immune response eventually controls the infection and initiates the clinically latent phase. CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells in mucosal tissues remain particularly affected. Continuous HIV replication causes a state of generalized immune activation persisting throughout the chronic phase. Immune activation, which is reflected by the increased activation state of immune cells and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, results from the activity of several HIV gene products and the immune response to ongoing HIV replication. It is also linked to the breakdown of the immune surveillance system of the gastrointestinal mucosal barrier caused by the depletion of mucosal CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells during the acute phase of disease.
## Diagnosis
HIV/AIDS is diagnosed via laboratory testing and then staged based on the presence of certain signs or symptoms. HIV screening is recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force for all people 15 years to 65 years of age, including all pregnant women. Additionally, testing is recommended for those at high risk, which includes anyone diagnosed with a sexually transmitted illness. In many areas of the world, a third of HIV carriers only discover they are infected at an advanced stage of the disease when AIDS or severe immunodeficiency has become apparent.
### HIV testing
Most people infected with HIV develop specific antibodies (i.e. seroconvert) within three to twelve weeks after the initial infection. Diagnosis of primary HIV before seroconversion is done by measuring HIV-RNA or p24 antigen. Positive results obtained by antibody or PCR testing are confirmed either by a different antibody or by PCR.
Antibody tests in children younger than 18 months are typically inaccurate, due to the continued presence of maternal antibodies. Thus HIV infection can only be diagnosed by PCR testing for HIV RNA or DNA, or via testing for the p24 antigen. Much of the world lacks access to reliable PCR testing, and people in many places simply wait until either symptoms develop or the child is old enough for accurate antibody testing. In sub-Saharan Africa between 2007 and 2009, between 30% and 70% of the population were aware of their HIV status. In 2009, between 3.6% and 42% of men and women in sub-Saharan countries were tested; this represented a significant increase compared to previous years.
### Classifications
Two main clinical staging systems are used to classify HIV and HIV-related disease for surveillance purposes: the WHO disease staging system for HIV infection and disease, and the CDC classification system for HIV infection. The CDC's classification system is more frequently adopted in developed countries. Since the WHO's staging system does not require laboratory tests, it is suited to the resource-restricted conditions encountered in developing countries, where it can also be used to help guide clinical management. Despite their differences, the two systems allow a comparison for statistical purposes.
The World Health Organization first proposed a definition for AIDS in 1986. Since then, the WHO classification has been updated and expanded several times, with the most recent version being published in 2007. The WHO system uses the following categories:
- Primary HIV infection: May be either asymptomatic or associated with acute retroviral syndrome
- Stage I: HIV infection is asymptomatic with a CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell count (also known as CD4 count) greater than 500 per microlitre (μl or cubic mm) of blood. May include generalized lymph node enlargement.
- Stage II: Mild symptoms, which may include minor mucocutaneous manifestations and recurrent upper respiratory tract infections. A CD4 count of less than 500/μl
- Stage III: Advanced symptoms, which may include unexplained chronic diarrhea for longer than a month, severe bacterial infections including tuberculosis of the lung, and a CD4 count of less than 350/μl
- Stage IV or AIDS: severe symptoms, which include toxoplasmosis of the brain, candidiasis of the esophagus, trachea, bronchi, or lungs, and Kaposi's sarcoma. A CD4 count of less than 200/μl
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also created a classification system for HIV, and updated it in 2008 and 2014. This system classifies HIV infections based on CD4 count and clinical symptoms, and describes the infection in five groups. In those greater than six years of age it is:
- Stage 0: the time between a negative or indeterminate HIV test followed less than 180 days by a positive test.
- Stage 1: CD4 count ≥ 500 cells/μl and no AIDS-defining conditions.
- Stage 2: CD4 count 200 to 500 cells/μl and no AIDS-defining conditions.
- Stage 3: CD4 count ≤ 200 cells/μl or AIDS-defining conditions.
- Unknown: if insufficient information is available to make any of the above classifications.
For surveillance purposes, the AIDS diagnosis still stands even if, after treatment, the CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell count rises to above 200 per μL of blood or other AIDS-defining illnesses are cured.
## Prevention
### Sexual contact
Consistent condom use reduces the risk of HIV transmission by approximately 80% over the long term. When condoms are used consistently by a couple in which one person is infected, the rate of HIV infection is less than 1% per year. There is some evidence to suggest that female condoms may provide an equivalent level of protection. Application of a vaginal gel containing tenofovir (a reverse transcriptase inhibitor) immediately before sex seems to reduce infection rates by approximately 40% among African women. By contrast, use of the spermicide nonoxynol-9 may increase the risk of transmission due to its tendency to cause vaginal and rectal irritation.
Circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa "reduces the acquisition of HIV by heterosexual men by between 38% and 66% over 24 months". Owing to these studies, both the World Health Organization and UNAIDS recommended male circumcision in 2007 as a method of preventing female-to-male HIV transmission in areas with high rates of HIV. However, whether it protects against male-to-female transmission is disputed, and whether it is of benefit in developed countries and among men who have sex with men is undetermined.
Programs encouraging sexual abstinence do not appear to affect subsequent HIV risk. Evidence of any benefit from peer education is equally poor. Comprehensive sexual education provided at school may decrease high-risk behavior. A substantial minority of young people continues to engage in high-risk practices despite knowing about HIV/AIDS, underestimating their own risk of becoming infected with HIV. Voluntary counseling and testing people for HIV does not affect risky behavior in those who test negative but does increase condom use in those who test positive. Enhanced family planning services appear to increase the likelihood of women with HIV using contraception, compared to basic services. It is not known whether treating other sexually transmitted infections is effective in preventing HIV.
### Pre-exposure
Antiretroviral treatment among people with HIV whose CD4 count ≤ 550 cells/μL is a very effective way to prevent HIV infection of their partner (a strategy known as treatment as prevention, or TASP). TASP is associated with a 10- to 20-fold reduction in transmission risk. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with a daily dose of the medications tenofovir, with or without emtricitabine, is effective in people at high risk including men who have sex with men, couples where one is HIV-positive, and young heterosexuals in Africa. It may also be effective in intravenous drug users, with a study finding a decrease in risk of 0.7 to 0.4 per 100 person years. The USPSTF, in 2019, recommended PrEP in those who are at high risk.
Universal precautions within the health care environment are believed to be effective in decreasing the risk of HIV. Intravenous drug use is an important risk factor, and harm reduction strategies such as needle-exchange programs and opioid substitution therapy appear effective in decreasing this risk.
### Post-exposure
A course of antiretrovirals administered within 48 to 72 hours after exposure to HIV-positive blood or genital secretions is referred to as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). The use of the single agent zidovudine reduces the risk of an HIV infection five-fold following a needle-stick injury. As of 2013, the prevention regimen recommended in the United States consists of three medications—tenofovir, emtricitabine and raltegravir—as this may reduce the risk further.
PEP treatment is recommended after a sexual assault when the perpetrator is known to be HIV-positive, but is controversial when their HIV status is unknown. The duration of treatment is usually four weeks and is frequently associated with adverse effects—where zidovudine is used, about 70% of cases result in adverse effects such as nausea (24%), fatigue (22%), emotional distress (13%) and headaches (9%).
### Mother-to-child
Programs to prevent the vertical transmission of HIV (from mothers to children) can reduce rates of transmission by 92–99%. This primarily involves the use of a combination of antiviral medications during pregnancy and after birth in the infant, and potentially includes bottle feeding rather than breastfeeding. If replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe, mothers should avoid breastfeeding their infants; however, exclusive breastfeeding is recommended during the first months of life if this is not the case. If exclusive breastfeeding is carried out, the provision of extended antiretroviral prophylaxis to the infant decreases the risk of transmission. In 2015, Cuba became the first country in the world to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
### Vaccination
Currently there is no licensed vaccine for HIV or AIDS. The most effective vaccine trial to date, RV 144, was published in 2009; it found a partial reduction in the risk of transmission of roughly 30%, stimulating some hope in the research community of developing a truly effective vaccine.
## Treatment
There is currently no cure, nor an effective HIV vaccine. Treatment consists of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which slows progression of the disease. As of 2010, more than 6.6 million people were receiving HAART in low- and middle-income countries. Treatment also includes preventive and active treatment of opportunistic infections. As of July 2022, four people have been successfully cleared of HIV. Rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy within one week of diagnosis appear to improve treatment outcomes in low and medium-income settings and is recommend for newly diagnosed HIV patients.
### Antiviral therapy
Current HAART options are combinations (or "cocktails") consisting of at least three medications belonging to at least two types, or "classes", of antiretroviral agents. Initially, treatment is typically a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) plus two nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). Typical NRTIs include: zidovudine (AZT) or tenofovir (TDF) and lamivudine (3TC) or emtricitabine (FTC). As of 2019, dolutegravir/lamivudine/tenofovir is listed by the World Health Organization as the first-line treatment for adults, with tenofovir/lamivudine/efavirenz as an alternative. Combinations of agents that include protease inhibitors (PI) are used if the above regimen loses effectiveness.
The World Health Organization and the United States recommend antiretrovirals in people of all ages (including pregnant women) as soon as the diagnosis is made, regardless of CD4 count. Once treatment is begun, it is recommended that it is continued without breaks or "holidays". Many people are diagnosed only after treatment ideally should have begun. The desired outcome of treatment is a long-term plasma HIV-RNA count below 50 copies/mL. Levels to determine if treatment is effective are initially recommended after four weeks and once levels fall below 50 copies/mL checks every three to six months are typically adequate. Inadequate control is deemed to be greater than 400 copies/mL. Based on these criteria treatment is effective in more than 95% of people during the first year.
Benefits of treatment include a decreased risk of progression to AIDS and a decreased risk of death. In the developing world, treatment also improves physical and mental health. With treatment, there is a 70% reduced risk of acquiring tuberculosis. Additional benefits include a decreased risk of transmission of the disease to sexual partners and a decrease in mother-to-child transmission. The effectiveness of treatment depends to a large part on compliance. Reasons for non-adherence to treatment include poor access to medical care, inadequate social supports, mental illness and drug abuse. The complexity of treatment regimens (due to pill numbers and dosing frequency) and adverse effects may reduce adherence. Even though cost is an important issue with some medications, 47% of those who needed them were taking them in low- and middle-income countries as of 2010, and the rate of adherence is similar in low-income and high-income countries.
Specific adverse events are related to the antiretroviral agent taken. Some relatively common adverse events include: lipodystrophy syndrome, dyslipidemia, and diabetes mellitus, especially with protease inhibitors. Other common symptoms include diarrhea, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Newer recommended treatments are associated with fewer adverse effects. Certain medications may be associated with birth defects and therefore may be unsuitable for women hoping to have children.
Treatment recommendations for children are somewhat different from those for adults. The World Health Organization recommends treating all children less than five years of age; children above five are treated like adults. The United States guidelines recommend treating all children less than 12 months of age and all those with HIV RNA counts greater than 100,000 copies/mL between one year and five years of age.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended the granting of marketing authorizations for two new antiretroviral (ARV) medicines, rilpivirine (Rekambys) and cabotegravir (Vocabria), to be used together for the treatment of people with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. The two medicines are the first ARVs that come in a long-acting injectable formulation. This means that instead of daily pills, people receive intramuscular injections monthly or every two months.
The combination of Rekambys and Vocabria injection is intended for maintenance treatment of adults who have undetectable HIV levels in the blood (viral load less than 50 copies/ml) with their current ARV treatment, and when the virus has not developed resistance to a certain class of anti-HIV medicines called non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INIs).
Cabotegravir combined with rilpivirine (Cabenuva) is a complete regimen for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection in adults to replace a current antiretroviral regimen in those who are virologically suppressed on a stable antiretroviral regimen with no history of treatment failure and with no known or suspected resistance to either cabotegravir or rilpivirine.
### Opportunistic infections
Measures to prevent opportunistic infections are effective in many people with HIV/AIDS. In addition to improving current disease, treatment with antiretrovirals reduces the risk of developing additional opportunistic infections.
Adults and adolescents who are living with HIV (even on anti-retroviral therapy) with no evidence of active tuberculosis in settings with high tuberculosis burden should receive isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT); the tuberculin skin test can be used to help decide if IPT is needed. Children with HIV may benefit from screening for tuberculosis. Vaccination against hepatitis A and B is advised for all people at risk of HIV before they become infected; however, it may also be given after infection.
Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis between four and six weeks of age, and ceasing breastfeeding of infants born to HIV-positive mothers, is recommended in resource-limited settings. It is also recommended to prevent PCP when a person's CD4 count is below 200 cells/uL and in those who have or have previously had PCP. People with substantial immunosuppression are also advised to receive prophylactic therapy for toxoplasmosis and MAC. Appropriate preventive measures reduced the rate of these infections by 50% between 1992 and 1997. Influenza vaccination and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine are often recommended in people with HIV/AIDS with some evidence of benefit.
### Diet
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued recommendations regarding nutrient requirements in HIV/AIDS. A generally healthy diet is promoted. Dietary intake of micronutrients at RDA levels by HIV-infected adults is recommended by the WHO; higher intake of vitamin A, zinc, and iron can produce adverse effects in HIV-positive adults, and is not recommended unless there is documented deficiency. Dietary supplementation for people who are infected with HIV and who have inadequate nutrition or dietary deficiencies may strengthen their immune systems or help them recover from infections; however, evidence indicating an overall benefit in morbidity or reduction in mortality is not consistent.
People with HIV/AIDS are up to four times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who are not tested positive with the virus.
Evidence for supplementation with selenium is mixed with some tentative evidence of benefit. For pregnant and lactating women with HIV, multivitamin supplement improves outcomes for both mothers and children. If the pregnant or lactating mother has been advised to take anti-retroviral medication to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, multivitamin supplements should not replace these treatments. There is some evidence that vitamin A supplementation in children with an HIV infection reduces mortality and improves growth.
### Alternative medicine
In the US, approximately 60% of people with HIV use various forms of complementary or alternative medicine, whose effectiveness has not been established. There is not enough evidence to support the use of herbal medicines. There is insufficient evidence to recommend or support the use of medical cannabis to try to increase appetite or weight gain.
## Prognosis
HIV/AIDS has become a chronic rather than an acutely fatal disease in many areas of the world. Prognosis varies between people, and both the CD4 count and viral load are useful for predicted outcomes. Without treatment, average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype. After the diagnosis of AIDS, if treatment is not available, survival ranges between 6 and 19 months. HAART and appropriate prevention of opportunistic infections reduces the death rate by 80%, and raises the life expectancy for a newly diagnosed young adult to 20–50 years. This is between two thirds and nearly that of the general population. If treatment is started late in the infection, prognosis is not as good: for example, if treatment is begun following the diagnosis of AIDS, life expectancy is \~10–40 years. Half of infants born with HIV die before two years of age without treatment.
The primary causes of death from HIV/AIDS are opportunistic infections and cancer, both of which are frequently the result of the progressive failure of the immune system. Risk of cancer appears to increase once the CD4 count is below 500/μL. The rate of clinical disease progression varies widely between individuals and has been shown to be affected by a number of factors such as a person's susceptibility and immune function; their access to health care, the presence of co-infections; and the particular strain (or strains) of the virus involved.
Tuberculosis co-infection is one of the leading causes of sickness and death in those with HIV/AIDS being present in a third of all HIV-infected people and causing 25% of HIV-related deaths. HIV is also one of the most important risk factors for tuberculosis. Hepatitis C is another very common co-infection where each disease increases the progression of the other. The two most common cancers associated with HIV/AIDS are Kaposi's sarcoma and AIDS-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Other cancers that are more frequent include anal cancer, Burkitt's lymphoma, primary central nervous system lymphoma, and cervical cancer.
Even with anti-retroviral treatment, over the long term HIV-infected people may experience neurocognitive disorders, osteoporosis, neuropathy, cancers, nephropathy, and cardiovascular disease. Some conditions, such as lipodystrophy, may be caused both by HIV and its treatment.
## Epidemiology
HIV/AIDS a global pandemic. As of 2016, approximately 36.7 million people worldwide have HIV, the number of new infections that year being about 1.8 million. This is down from 3.1 million new infections in 2001. Slightly over half the infected population are women and 2.1 million are children. It resulted in about 1 million deaths in 2016, down from a peak of 1.9 million in 2005.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected. In 2010, an estimated 68% (22.9 million) of all HIV cases and 66% of all deaths (1.2 million) occurred in this region. This means that about 5% of the adult population is infected and it is believed to be the cause of 10% of all deaths in children. Here, in contrast to other regions, women comprise nearly 60% of cases. South Africa has the largest population of people with HIV of any country in the world at 5.9 million. Life expectancy has fallen in the worst-affected countries due to HIV/AIDS; for example, in 2006 it was estimated that it had dropped from 65 to 35 years in Botswana. Mother-to-child transmission in Botswana and South Africa, as of 2013, has decreased to less than 5%, with improvement in many other African nations due to improved access to antiretroviral therapy.
South & South East Asia is the second most affected; in 2010 this region contained an estimated 4 million cases or 12% of all people living with HIV resulting in approximately 250,000 deaths. Approximately 2.4 million of these cases are in India.
During 2008 in the United States approximately 1.2 million people aged ≥13 years were living with HIV, resulting in about 17,500 deaths. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that in that year, 236,400 people or 20% of infected Americans were unaware of their infection. As of 2016 about 675,000 people have died of HIV/AIDS in the US since the beginning of the HIV epidemic. In the United Kingdom as of 2015, there were approximately 101,200 cases which resulted in 594 deaths. In Canada as of 2008, there were about 65,000 cases causing 53 deaths. Between the first recognition of AIDS (in 1981) and 2009, it has led to nearly 30 million deaths. Rates of HIV are lowest in North Africa and the Middle East (0.1% or less), East Asia (0.1%), and Western and Central Europe (0.2%). The worst-affected European countries, in 2009 and 2012 estimates, are Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Moldova, Portugal and Belarus, in decreasing order of prevalence.
## History
### Discovery
The first news story on the disease appeared on May 18, 1981, in the gay newspaper New York Native. AIDS was first clinically reported on June 5, 1981, with five cases in the United States. The initial cases were a cluster of injecting drug users and gay men with no known cause of impaired immunity who showed symptoms of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), a rare opportunistic infection that was known to occur in people with very compromised immune systems. Soon thereafter, a large number of homosexual men developed a generally rare skin cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). Many more cases of PCP and KS emerged, alerting U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a CDC task force was formed to monitor the outbreak.
In the early days, the CDC did not have an official name for the disease, often referring to it by way of diseases associated with it, such as lymphadenopathy, the disease after which the discoverers of HIV originally named the virus. They also used Kaposi's sarcoma and opportunistic infections, the name by which a task force had been set up in 1981. At one point the CDC referred to it as the "4H disease", as the syndrome seemed to affect heroin users, homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and Haitians. The term GRID, which stood for gay-related immune deficiency, had also been coined. However, after determining that AIDS was not isolated to the gay community, it was realized that the term GRID was misleading, and the term AIDS was introduced at a meeting in July 1982. By September 1982 the CDC started referring to the disease as AIDS.
In 1983, two separate research groups led by Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier declared that a novel retrovirus may have been infecting people with AIDS, and published their findings in the same issue of the journal Science. Gallo claimed a virus which his group had isolated from a person with AIDS was strikingly similar in shape to other human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLVs) that his group had been the first to isolate. Gallo's group called their newly isolated virus HTLV-III. At the same time, Montagnier's group isolated a virus from a person presenting with swelling of the lymph nodes of the neck and physical weakness, two characteristic symptoms of AIDS. Contradicting the report from Gallo's group, Montagnier and his colleagues showed that core proteins of this virus were immunologically different from those of HTLV-I. Montagnier's group named their isolated virus lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV). As these two viruses turned out to be the same, in 1986, LAV and HTLV-III were renamed HIV.
### Origins
The origin of HIV / AIDS and the circumstances that led to its emergence remain unsolved.
Both HIV-1 and HIV-2 are believed to have originated in non-human primates in West-central Africa and were transferred to humans in the early 20th century. HIV-1 appears to have originated in southern Cameroon through the evolution of SIV(cpz), a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that infects wild chimpanzees (HIV-1 descends from the SIVcpz endemic in the chimpanzee subspecies Pan troglodytes troglodytes). The closest relative of HIV-2 is SIV (smm), a virus of the sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys atys), an Old World monkey living in coastal West Africa (from southern Senegal to western Ivory Coast). New World monkeys such as the owl monkey are resistant to HIV-1 infection, possibly because of a genomic fusion of two viral resistance genes. HIV-1 is thought to have jumped the species barrier on at least three separate occasions, giving rise to the three groups of the virus, M, N, and O.
There is evidence that humans who participate in bushmeat activities, either as hunters or as bushmeat vendors, commonly acquire SIV. However, SIV is a weak virus which is typically suppressed by the human immune system within weeks of infection. It is thought that several transmissions of the virus from individual to individual in quick succession are necessary to allow it enough time to mutate into HIV. Furthermore, due to its relatively low person-to-person transmission rate, SIV can only spread throughout the population in the presence of one or more high-risk transmission channels, which are thought to have been absent in Africa before the 20th century.
Specific proposed high-risk transmission channels, allowing the virus to adapt to humans and spread throughout society, depend on the proposed timing of the animal-to-human crossing. Genetic studies of the virus suggest that the most recent common ancestor of the HIV-1 M group dates back to c. 1910. Proponents of this dating link the HIV epidemic with the emergence of colonialism and growth of large colonial African cities, leading to social changes, including a higher degree of sexual promiscuity, the spread of prostitution, and the accompanying high frequency of genital ulcer diseases (such as syphilis) in nascent colonial cities. While transmission rates of HIV during vaginal intercourse are low under regular circumstances, they are increased manyfold if one of the partners has a sexually transmitted infection causing genital ulcers. Early 1900s colonial cities were notable for their high prevalence of prostitution and genital ulcers, to the degree that, as of 1928, as many as 45% of female residents of eastern Kinshasa were thought to have been prostitutes, and, as of 1933, around 15% of all residents of the same city had syphilis.
An alternative view holds that unsafe medical practices in Africa after World War II, such as unsterile reuse of single-use syringes during mass vaccination, antibiotic and anti-malaria treatment campaigns, were the initial vector that allowed the virus to adapt to humans and spread.
The earliest well-documented case of HIV in a human dates back to 1959 in the Congo. The virus may have been present in the U.S. as early as the mid-to-late 1950s, as a sixteen-year-old male named Robert Rayford presented with symptoms in 1966 and died in 1969. In the 1970s, there were cases of getting parasites and becoming sick with what was called "gay bowel disease", but what is now suspected to have been AIDS.
The earliest retrospectively described case of AIDS is believed to have been in Norway beginning in 1966, that of Arvid Noe. In July 1960, in the wake of Congo's independence, the United Nations recruited Francophone experts and technicians from all over the world to assist in filling administrative gaps left by Belgium, who did not leave behind an African elite to run the country. By 1962, Haitians made up the second-largest group of well-educated experts (out of the 48 national groups recruited), that totaled around 4500 in the country. Dr. Jacques Pépin, a Canadian author of The Origins of AIDS, stipulates that Haiti was one of HIV's entry points to the U.S. and that a Haitian may have carried HIV back across the Atlantic in the 1960s. Although there was known to have been at least one case of AIDS in the U.S. from 1966, the vast majority of infections occurring outside sub-Saharan Africa (including the U.S.) can be traced back to a single unknown individual who became infected with HIV in Haiti and brought the infection to the U.S. at some time around 1969. The epidemic rapidly spread among high-risk groups (initially, sexually promiscuous men who have sex with men). By 1978, the prevalence of HIV-1 among gay male residents of New York City and San Francisco was estimated at 5%, suggesting that several thousand individuals in the country had been infected.
## Society and culture
### Stigma
AIDS stigma exists around the world in a variety of ways, including ostracism, rejection, discrimination and avoidance of HIV-infected people; compulsory HIV testing without prior consent or protection of confidentiality; violence against HIV-infected individuals or people who are perceived to be infected with HIV; and the quarantine of HIV-infected individuals. Stigma-related violence or the fear of violence prevents many people from seeking HIV testing, returning for their results, or securing treatment, possibly turning what could be a manageable chronic illness into a death sentence and perpetuating the spread of HIV.
AIDS stigma has been further divided into the following three categories:
- Instrumental AIDS stigma—a reflection of the fear and apprehension that are likely to be associated with any deadly and transmissible illness.
- Symbolic AIDS stigma—the use of HIV/AIDS to express attitudes toward the social groups or lifestyles perceived to be associated with the disease.
- Courtesy AIDS stigma—stigmatization of people connected to the issue of HIV/AIDS or HIV-positive people.
Often, AIDS stigma is expressed in conjunction with one or more other stigmas, particularly those associated with homosexuality, bisexuality, promiscuity, prostitution, and intravenous drug use.
In many developed countries, there is an association between AIDS and homosexuality or bisexuality, and this association is correlated with higher levels of sexual prejudice, such as anti-homosexual or anti-bisexual attitudes. There is also a perceived association between AIDS and all male-male sexual behavior, including sex between uninfected men. However, the dominant mode of spread worldwide for HIV remains heterosexual transmission.
In 2003, as part of an overall reform of marriage and population legislation, it became legal for those diagnosed with AIDS to marry in China.
In 2013, the U.S. National Library of Medicine developed a traveling exhibition titled Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture; this covered medical research, the U.S. government's response, and personal stories from people with AIDS, caregivers, and activists.
### Economic impact
HIV/AIDS affects the economics of both individuals and countries. The gross domestic product of the most affected countries has decreased due to the lack of human capital. Without proper nutrition, health care and medicine, large numbers of people die from AIDS-related complications. Before death they will not only be unable to work, but will also require significant medical care. It is estimated that as of 2007 there were 12 million AIDS orphans. Many are cared for by elderly grandparents.
Returning to work after beginning treatment for HIV/AIDS is difficult, and affected people often work less than the average worker. Unemployment in people with HIV/AIDS also is associated with suicidal ideation, memory problems, and social isolation. Employment increases self-esteem, sense of dignity, confidence, and quality of life for people with HIV/AIDS. Anti-retroviral treatment may help people with HIV/AIDS work more, and may increase the chance that a person with HIV/AIDS will be employed (low-quality evidence).
By affecting mainly young adults, AIDS reduces the taxable population, in turn reducing the resources available for public expenditures such as education and health services not related to AIDS, resulting in increasing pressure on the state's finances and slower growth of the economy. This causes a slower growth of the tax base, an effect that is reinforced if there are growing expenditures on treating the sick, training (to replace sick workers), sick pay, and caring for AIDS orphans. This is especially true if the sharp increase in adult mortality shifts the responsibility from the family to the government in caring for these orphans.
At the household level, AIDS causes both loss of income and increased spending on healthcare. A study in Côte d'Ivoire showed that households having a person with HIV/AIDS spent twice as much on medical expenses as other households. This additional expenditure also leaves less income to spend on education and other personal or family investment.
### Religion and AIDS
The topic of religion and AIDS has become highly controversial, primarily because some religious authorities have publicly declared their opposition to the use of condoms. The religious approach to prevent the spread of AIDS, according to a report by American health expert Matthew Hanley titled The Catholic Church and the Global AIDS Crisis, argues that cultural changes are needed, including a re-emphasis on fidelity within marriage and sexual abstinence outside of it.
Some religious organizations have claimed that prayer can cure HIV/AIDS. In 2011, the BBC reported that some churches in London were claiming that prayer would cure AIDS, and the Hackney-based Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV reported that several people stopped taking their medication, sometimes on the direct advice of their pastor, leading to many deaths. The Synagogue Church Of All Nations advertised an "anointing water" to promote God's healing, although the group denies advising people to stop taking medication.
### Media portrayal
One of the first high-profile cases of AIDS was the American gay actor Rock Hudson. He had been diagnosed during 1984, announced that he had had the virus on July 25, 1985, and died a few months later on October 2, 1985. Another notable British casualty of AIDS that year was Nicholas Eden, a gay politician and son of former prime minister Anthony Eden. On November 24, 1991, British rock star Freddie Mercury died from an AIDS-related illness, having revealed the diagnosis only on the previous day.
One of the first high-profile heterosexual cases of the virus was American tennis player Arthur Ashe. He was diagnosed as HIV-positive on August 31, 1988, having contracted the virus from blood transfusions during heart surgery earlier in the 1980s. Further tests within 24 hours of the initial diagnosis revealed that Ashe had AIDS, but he did not tell the public about his diagnosis until April 1992. He died as a result on February 6, 1993, aged 49.
Therese Frare's photograph of gay activist David Kirby, as he lay dying from AIDS while surrounded by family, was taken in April 1990. Life magazine said the photo became the one image "most powerfully identified with the HIV/AIDS epidemic." The photo was displayed in Life, was the winner of the World Press Photo, and acquired worldwide notoriety after being used in a United Colors of Benetton advertising campaign in 1992.
Many famous artists and AIDS activists such as Larry Kramer, Diamanda Galás and Rosa von Praunheim campaign for AIDS education and the rights of those affected. These artists worked with various media formats.
### Criminal transmission
Criminal transmission of HIV is the intentional or reckless infection of a person with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Some countries or jurisdictions, including some areas of the United States, have laws that criminalize HIV transmission or exposure. Others may charge the accused under laws enacted before the HIV pandemic.
In 1996, Ugandan-born Canadian Johnson Aziga was diagnosed with HIV; he subsequently had unprotected sex with eleven women without disclosing his diagnosis. By 2003, seven had contracted HIV; two died from complications related to AIDS. Aziga was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
### Misconceptions
There are many misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. Three misconceptions are that AIDS can spread through casual contact, that sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure AIDS, and that HIV can infect only gay men and drug users. In 2014, some among the British public wrongly thought one could get HIV from kissing (16%), sharing a glass (5%), spitting (16%), a public toilet seat (4%), and coughing or sneezing (5%). Other misconceptions are that any act of anal intercourse between two uninfected gay men can lead to HIV infection, and that open discussion of HIV and homosexuality in schools will lead to increased rates of AIDS.
A small group of individuals continue to dispute the connection between HIV and AIDS, the existence of HIV itself, or the validity of HIV testing and treatment methods. These claims, known as AIDS denialism, have been examined and rejected by the scientific community. However, they have had a significant political impact, particularly in South Africa, where the government's official embrace of AIDS denialism (1999–2005) was responsible for its ineffective response to that country's AIDS epidemic, and has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths and HIV infections.
Several discredited conspiracy theories have held that HIV was created by scientists, either inadvertently or deliberately. Operation INFEKTION was a worldwide Soviet active measures operation to spread the claim that the United States had created HIV/AIDS. Surveys show that a significant number of people believed—and continue to believe—in such claims.
## Research
HIV/AIDS research includes all medical research which attempts to prevent, treat, or cure HIV/AIDS, along with fundamental research about the nature of HIV as an infectious agent, and about AIDS as the disease caused by HIV.
Many governments and research institutions participate in HIV/AIDS research. This research includes behavioral health interventions such as sex education, and drug development, such as research into microbicides for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV vaccines, and antiretroviral drugs. Other medical research areas include the topics of pre-exposure prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis, and circumcision and HIV. Public health officials, researchers, and programs can gain a more comprehensive picture of the barriers they face, and the efficacy of current approaches to HIV treatment and prevention, by tracking standard HIV indicators. Use of common indicators is an increasing focus of development organizations and researchers. |
3,017,440 | Radioland Murders | 1,163,418,654 | null | [
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| Radioland Murders is a 1994 American comedy thriller film directed by Mel Smith and executive produced by George Lucas. Radioland Murders is set in the 1939 atmosphere of old-time radio and pays homage to the screwball comedy films of the 1930s. The film tells the story of writer Roger Henderson trying to settle relationship issues with his wife Penny while dealing with a whodunit murder mystery in a radio station. The film stars an ensemble cast, including Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Scott Michael Campbell, Michael Lerner, and Ned Beatty. Radioland Murders also features numerous small roles and cameo appearances, including Michael McKean, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, George Burns (in his final film appearance), Billy Barty, and Rosemary Clooney.
George Lucas began development for the film in the 1970s, originally attached as director for Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's script, from a story by Lucas. Universal Pictures commenced pre-production and both Steve Martin and Cindy Williams had already been approached for the two leads before Radioland Murders languished in development hell for over 20 years. In 1993, Lucas told Universal that advances in computer-generated imagery from Industrial Light & Magic (owned by Lucasfilm), particularly in digital mattes, would help bring Radioland Murders in for a relatively low budget of about \$10 million, which eventually rose to \$15 million. Mel Smith was hired to direct and filming lasted from October to December 1993. Radioland Murders was released on October 21, 1994, to negative reviews from critics and bombed at the box office, only grossing \$1.37 million in the U.S.
## Plot
In 1939, a new radio network based at station WBN in Chicago, Illinois, begins its inaugural night. The station's owner, General Walt Whalen, depends on his employees to impress main sponsor Bernie King. This includes writer Roger Henderson, assistant director Penny Henderson (Roger's wife, seeking divorce), page boy Billy Budget, engineer Max Applewhite, conductor Rick Rochester, announcer Dexter Morris, director Walt Whalen, Jr. and stage manager Herman Katzenback. After King commissions rewrites on the radio scripts, the WBN writers get angry, complaining that they have not been paid in weeks.
When trumpet player Ruffles Reedy falls dead from rat poisoning, a series of events ensue. Director Walt Jr. is hanged (the mysterious killer makes it look like a suicide), and his father, the General, has the Chicago Police Department (CPD) get involved to solve the murder mysteries as the nightly radio performance continues. Katzenback is then killed after attempting to fix the main stage when the machinery malfunctions. Penny is appointed both stage manager and director due to Walt Jr. and Katzenback's deaths. Roger tries to solve the killings, greatly annoying the police, led by Lieutenant Cross.
Because Roger unfortunately appears at every crime scene just as the murders take place, he is ruled as the prime suspect. Roger and Billy Budget then theorize that announcer Dexter Morris is the next to die. Dexter ignores their warning and is fatally electrocuted. By going through private documents in WBN's file room, Roger finds that the victims all previously worked together at a radio station in Peoria, Illinois, which he then correlates into a secretive FCC scandal. King (laughing gas) and General Whalen (falls down an elevator shaft) are the next to die after Roger's warning, making the police even more suspicious.
After escaping from custody, Roger uses Billy to communicate and send scripts to Penny. When rewriting one of the programs, Gork: Son of Fire, Roger attempts to write the script with self-referential events, proving to everyone that the mysterious killer is actually sound engineer Max Applewhite. Max explains that his killings were a revenge scheme that dealt with stockholders and patents, specifically detailing his invention of television, which other scientists have copied. Max takes Roger and Penny atop the radio tower at gunpoint, but is eventually killed when a biplane shows up and guns him down. Impressed by the nightly performance, the sponsors decide to fund WBN. Roger and Penny reconcile their complex relationship and decide not to divorce.
## Cast
- Brian Benben as Roger Henderson, Ecstatic writer of WBN and husband to Penny. Much to the consternation of the police force, Roger solves the murder mystery.
- Mary Stuart Masterson as Penny Henderson: Stressed WBN secretary who is promoted to both director and stage manager after the deaths of Walt Jr. and Herman Katzenback. She initially intends to divorce Roger after mistakenly believing he was having an affair with Claudette Katzenback, but they later reconcile their relationship.
- Scott Michael Campbell as Billy Budget, WBN page boy who is used by Roger to communicate with Penny and send scripts, despite the fact that he is trying to hide from the police.
- Michael Lerner as Lieutenant Cross, Short-tempered policeman who has a vendetta against Roger.
- Ned Beatty as General Walt Whalen: Owner of WBN who commands his staff with a military-like work environment. The General dies after falling down an elevator shaft.
- Brion James as Bernie King, WBN's main sponsor who has no sense of humor. King eventually dies from laughing gas.
- Stephen Tobolowsky as Max Applewhite, WBN's sound engineer who is found to be responsible for the murders. Max dies after getting shot atop the radio tower.
- Michael McKean as Rick Rochester, WBN band conductor who despises Dexter (McKean also appeared as Benben's boss in Dream On).
- Corbin Bernsen as Dexter Morris, The station's announcer who has a smoking habit. Dexter dies of electrocution, ignoring Roger and Billy's warning.
- Bobcat Goldthwait as Wild Writer, Violent and melancholic WBN writer.
- Anita Morris as Claudette Katzenback, Famous singer and Herman's wife. Penny catches her with Roger, presumably having sex, but this appears to have been a prank Claudette created. Roger originally believes she was responsible for killings. This was Anita Morris' final acting role, as she died seven months before the film's release.
- Jeffrey Tambor as Walt Whalen Jr., The General's toupée-wearing son and show director.
- Larry Miller as Herman Katzenback: German stage manager of WBN. Herman is the third to die and is aware of Claudette's multiple affairs with other employees.
- Christopher Lloyd as Zoltan, Eccentric sound designer.
- Harvey Korman as Jules Cogley: Alcoholic writer who confirms that Ruffles' death came from poisoning.
- Dylan Baker as Detective Jasper, Cross' idiot assistant.
- Jack Sheldon as "Ruffles" Reedy, Drunk trumpet player of Rochester's band. He is the first to die.
Cameo appearances are provided by George Burns (in his final feature film, as Milt Lackey, a 100-year-old comedian), Joey Lawrence, Billy Barty, Peter MacNicol, Robert Klein, Ellen Albertini Dow, Candy Clark, Bo Hopkins (as Billy Budget's parents) and Wilbur Fitzgerald, as well as singers Rosemary Clooney and Tracy Byrd.
## Production
### Development
The genesis of Radioland Murders came from executive producer/co-writer George Lucas's obsession with old-time radio. Lucas conceived the storyline of the film during the writing phase of American Graffiti, viewing it as a homage to the various Abbott and Costello films, primarily Who Done It (1942), in which Abbott and Costello star as two soda jerks solving a murder in a radio station. Radioland Murders also shares some inspiration from The Big Clock (1948). When Universal Pictures accepted American Graffiti in 1972, Lucas also allowed the studio first-look deals for both Radioland Murders and an untitled science fiction film (which eventually became the basis for Star Wars).
Lucas eventually negotiated a deal to produce Radioland Murders for Universal shortly after the successful release of American Graffiti in late 1973. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz prepared a rough draft based on Lucas's 1974 film treatment, and Universal was confident enough to announce pre-production soon after. Lucas was set to direct with Gary Kurtz producing. In the original Huyck/Katz script, Roger and Penny were not a married couple seeking divorce, but were boyfriend and girlfriend with a love-hate relationship. Their script also included the controversy over the invention of radio.
In July 1978, Lucas revealed that Radioland Murders was still in development, and that both Steve Martin and Cindy Williams were approached for the two leads. The script was being rewritten and the planned start date was early 1979. However, throughout the 1970s to early 1990s, Radioland Murders remained in development hell. Between this time, Lucas commissioned Theodore J. Flicker to perform a rewrite. In early 1993 Lucas told Universal that advances in computer-generated imagery from Industrial Light & Magic (owned by Lucasfilm), particularly in digital mattes, would help bring Radioland Murders in for a relatively low budget of about \$10 million, which eventually rose to \$15 million.
### Pre-production
Universal agreed to greenlight Radioland Murders if Lucas would "update" the script. The Huyck/Katz script contained parodies of old-time radio that the general public in the 1970s would likely acknowledge. Universal reasoned that the script would have to be modified in an attempt to accustom audiences from the MTV Generation. Based on Ron Howard's recommendation, Lucas hired Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn (known for their work on Moonlighting) to "update" the screenplay. The shooting script was prepared by Lucas, who combined his favorite elements of the Reno/Osborn draft with the original Huyck/Katz script from the 1970s. Lucas then hired Mel Smith to direct, who recommended Brian Benben for the lead role. Lucas specifically chose Smith because he believed the British comedian/filmmaker could handle Radioland Murders' form of slapstick comedy and dark humor. Universal was adamant that the ensemble cast be filled with then-popular TV stars of the early 1990s. Christopher Lloyd agreed to make a small appearance as the eccentric sound designer Zoltan on the agreement that all of his scenes were shot in one day.
### Filming
Principal photography for Radioland Murders began on October 28, 1993 at Carolco Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina. Brief filming also took place at Hollywood Center Studios. Production designer Gavin Bocquet (Star Wars prequels, Stardust) disguised the film's limited rooms in a beehivelike structure. Larger areas, notably the exterior of the building and the transmission tower on the roof, were created or augmented with digital mattes added by visual effects supervisor Scott Squires (The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace) at Industrial Light & Magic. Following a break, in which Lucas, director Mel Smith and editor Paul Trejo reviewed the footage using the new digital Avid Technology editing system (the successor to EditDroid), the cast and crew were reassembled for a further two weeks of filming. Principal photography for Radioland Murders ended on December 23, 1993.
## Release
To market Radioland Murders, Universal attached a film trailer to The Flintstones in May 1994. The studio believed both films would specifically appeal to the Baby Boom Generation. Radioland Murders was originally set to be theatrically released in September 1994 before it was pushed back. The film was released in the United States on October 21, 1994 in 844 theaters, only grossing \$1.37 million. Ultimately the film bombed at the box office because it did not recoup its \$15 million budget. It ranks among the top ten widely released films for having the biggest second weekend drop at the box office, dropping 78.5% from \$835,570 to \$179,315.
### Critical reception
Radioland Murders received negative reviews with Rotten Tomatoes calculating approval rating based on reviews collected. Roger Ebert criticized the film for containing too much slapstick comedy instead of subtle humor. Although he praised the art direction and visual effects, Ebert believed "the movie just doesn't work. It's all action and no character, all situation and no comedy. The slapstick starts so soon and lasts so long that we don't have an opportunity to meet or care about the characters in a way that would make their actions funny." Richard Schickel, writing in Time magazine gave a mixed review, mainly criticizing the film for its fast pacing. Caryn James of The New York Times dismissed the film for trying too hard to pay homage to screwball comedy films of the 1930s.
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave a mixed reaction, feeling the filmmakers failed in attempting to woo audiences with nostalgia. Internet reviewer James Berardinelli called the film a "horrible concoction synthesizing elements of The Hudsucker Proxy and Brain Donors, and setting them in the world of David Lynch's On the Air. This film has more gags in it than anything this side of a Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker production, too few of which work."
### Year-end lists
- 1st worst – Michael Mills, The Palm Beach Post
- 1st worst – Stephen Hunter, The Baltimore Sun
- 4th worst – Desson Howe, The Washington Post
- Top 10 worst (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Top 10 worst (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Mike Mayo, The Roanoke Times
### Home media
The first Region 1 DVD release came in March 1998 by Image Entertainment. Universal Studios Home Entertainment re-released the film on DVD in August 2006. Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray on August 13, 2019 ahead of its 25th anniversary.
## See also
- Danger on the Air, a 1938 mystery-comedy film set in a radio station
- Up in the Air, a 1940 mystery-comedy film set in a radio station
- Who Done It?, a 1942 mystery-comedy film set in a radio station |
511,925 | USS Jacob Jones (DD-61) | 1,161,280,595 | American Tucker-class destroyer | [
"1915 ships",
"Cornish shipwrecks",
"Maritime incidents in 1917",
"Ships built by New York Shipbuilding Corporation",
"Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I",
"Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly",
"Tucker-class destroyers",
"World War I destroyers of the United States",
"World War I shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean"
]
| USS Jacob Jones (Destroyer No. 61/DD-61) was a Tucker-class destroyer built for the United States Navy prior to the American entry into World War I. The ship was the first U.S. Navy vessel named in honor of Jacob Jones.
Jacob Jones was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding of Camden, New Jersey, in August 1914 and launched in May of the following year. The ship was a little more than 315 feet (96 m) in length, just over 30 feet (9.1 m) abeam, and had a standard displacement of 1,090 long tons (1,110 t). She was armed with four 4-inch (10 cm) guns and had eight 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. Jacob Jones was powered by a pair of steam turbines that propelled her at up to 30 knots (56 km/h).
After her February 1916 commissioning, Jacob Jones conducted patrols off the New England coast. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Jacob Jones was sent overseas. Patrolling the Irish Sea out of Queenstown, Ireland, Jacob Jones rescued the survivors of several ships, picking up over 300 from the sunken Armed merchant cruiser .
On 6 December, Jacob Jones was steaming independently from Brest, France, for Queenstown, when she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-53 with the loss of 66 men, becoming the first United States destroyer sunk by enemy action. Jacob Jones sank in eight minutes without issuing a distress call; the German submarine commander, Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose, after taking two badly injured Jacob Jones crewmen aboard his submarine, radioed the U.S. base at Queenstown with the coordinates for the survivors. The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Dedham, Massachusetts is named for the ship.
## Design and construction
Jacob Jones was authorized in 1913 as the fifth ship of the Tucker class which, like the related O'Brien class, was an improved version of the Cassin-class destroyers authorized in 1911. Construction of the vessel was awarded to New York Shipbuilding of Camden, New Jersey, which laid down her keel on 3 August 1914. Ten months later, on 29 May 1915, Jacob Jones was launched by sponsor Mrs. Jerome Parker Crittenden (née Paulina Cazenove Jones), a great-granddaughter of the ship's namesake, Commodore Jacob Jones (1768–1850), a U.S. Navy officer during the War of 1812. As built, Jacob Jones was 315 feet 3 inches (96.09 m) in length and 30 feet 6 inches (9.30 m) abeam and drew 9 feet 8 inches (2.95 m). The ship had a standard displacement of 1,060 long tons (1,080 t) and displaced 1,205 long tons (1,224 t) when fully loaded.
Jacob Jones had two Curtis steam turbines that drove her two screw propellers, and an additional steam turbine geared to one of the propeller shafts for cruising purposes. The power plant could generate 17,000 shaft horsepower (13,000 kW) and move the ship at speeds up to 30 knots (56 km/h).
Jacob Jones' main battery consisted of four 4-inch (102 mm)/50 Mark 9 guns, with each gun weighing in excess of 6,100 pounds (2,800 kg). The guns fired 33-pound (15 kg) armor-piercing projectiles at 2,900 feet per second (880 m/s). At an elevation of 20°, the guns had a range of 15,920 yards (14,560 m).
Jacob Jones was also equipped with eight 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. The General Board of the United States Navy had called for two anti-aircraft guns for the Tucker-class ships, as well as provisions for laying up to 36 floating mines. From sources, it is unclear if these recommendations were followed for Jacob Jones or any of the other ships of the class.
## United States Navy career
USS Jacob Jones was commissioned into the United States Navy on 10 February 1916 under the command of Lieutenant Commander William S. Pye. Following her commissioning, Jacob Jones conducted training exercises off the New England coast, and then entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. On 3 Feb. 1917, the day the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, the ship nearly sank in the naval yard. Contemporary reports said it might have been an act of sabotage. Upon the United States' entry into World War I on 6 April 1917, Jacob Jones patrolled off the coast of Virginia. She sailed from Boston for Europe on 7 May with a group of destroyers that included Cassin, and arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, on 17 May.
Jacob Jones' duties at Queenstown involved patrolling and escorting convoys in the Irish Sea and making occasional rescues of survivors of sunken ships. On 8 July, Valetta was torpedoed by German submarine U-87 some 120 nautical miles (220 km) west of Fastnet Rock; Jacob Jones arrived on the scene and picked up 44 survivors of the British steamship. While escorting British steamship Dafila two weeks later, lookouts on Jacob Jones sighted a periscope, but before the destroyer could make an attack on the submarine, U-45 torpedoed and sank the steamship. Jacob Jones was able to take on 26 of Dafila's 28-member crew after the ship went down.
On 19 October, the British Armed merchant cruiser and ten destroyers, including Jacob Jones, were escorting an eastbound convoy of twenty steamers, when German submarine U-62 surfaced in the midst of the group. The submarine launched its only remaining torpedo at Orama, sinking that vessel. While sister ship Conyngham saw and depth charged U-62 (to no avail), Jacob Jones turned her attentions to rescuing Orama's survivors, gathering 309.
## Sinking
In early December, Jacob Jones helped escort a convoy to Brest, France, with five other Queenstown-based destroyers. The last to depart from Brest on the return to Ireland, Jacob Jones was steaming alone in a zig-zag pattern when she was spotted by Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose on the German submarine U-53. At 16:20 on 6 December 1917, near position , lookouts on Jacob Jones spotted a torpedo 800 yards (730 m) distant headed for the ship's starboard side. Despite having her rudder put hard left and emergency speed rung up, Jacob Jones was unable to move out of the way, and the torpedo struck her rudder. Even though her depth charges did not explode, Jacob Jones was adrift. The jolt had knocked out power, so the destroyer was unable to send a distress signal; since she was steaming alone, no other ship was present to know of Jacob Jones' predicament.
Commander David W. Bagley, the destroyer's commander, ordered all life rafts and boats launched. As the ship sank, her bow raised in the air almost vertically before she began to slip beneath the waves. At this point the armed depth charges began to explode, killing men who had been unable to escape the destroyer, and stunning many others in the water. The destroyer, the first United States destroyer ever lost to enemy action, sank eight minutes after the torpedo struck the rudder, taking with her two officers and 64 men.
Several of the crew—most notably Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Stanton F. Kalk, the officer-of-the-deck when the torpedo struck—began to get men out of the water and into the life rafts. Kalk worked in the cold Atlantic water to equalize the load among the various rafts, but died of exhaustion and exposure.
Bagley noted in his official account that about 30 minutes after Jacob Jones sank, the German submarine surfaced about two to three miles from the collection of rafts and took one of the American sailors on board. According to Uboat.net, what Rose of U-53 had done was surface and take aboard two badly injured American sailors. Rose had also radioed the American base at Queenstown with the approximate coordinates of the sinking before departing the area.
Bagley, unaware of Rose's humanitarian gesture, left most of the food, water, and medical supplies with Lieutenant Commander John K. Richards, whom he left in charge of the assembled rafts. Bagley, Lieutenant Commander Norman Scott (Jacob Jones' executive officer) and four crewmen (brought along to row), set out for aid in the nearby Isles of Scilly. At 13:00 on 7 December, Bagley's group was sighted by a British patrol vessel just six nautical miles (11 km) from their destination. The group was relieved to find that the British sloop HMS Camellia had found and taken aboard most of the survivors earlier that morning; a small group had been rescued on the night of the sinking by the American steamer Catalina.
Several men were recognized for their actions in the aftermath of the torpedo attack. Kalk (posthumously) and Bagley received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. Others honored included Chief Boatswain's Mate Harry Gibson (posthumously) and Chief Electrician's Mate L. J. Kelly, who both received the Navy Cross; and Richards, Scott, and Chief Boatswain's Mate Charles Charlesworth all received letters of commendation. Rose was awarded the Pour le Mérite and Ritterkreuz des Hohenzollerschen Hausordens mit Schwertern for this and other achievements in the tonnage war.
## Wreck located
On August 11, 2022, British deep sea divers located the wreck of the Jacob Jones off the coast of the Isles of Scilly at a depth of 377 feet (115 m). Numerous artifacts were located, including the ship's bell.
## See also
- USS Reuben James (DD-245) – a United States Navy destroyer sunk prior to the American entry into World War II.
- USS Jacob Jones (DD-130) - namesake sunk by torpedo during the Second World War |
87,896 | Dellingr | 1,144,691,280 | Norse deity | [
"Dawn gods",
"Norse gods",
"Personifications in Norse mythology",
"Æsir"
]
| In Norse mythology, Dellingr (Old Norse possibly "the dayspring" or "shining one") is a god. Dellingr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Dellingr is described as the father of Dagr, the personified day. The Prose Edda adds that, depending on manuscript variation, he is either the third husband of Nótt, the personified night, or the husband of Jörð, the personified earth. Dellingr is also attested in the legendary saga Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. Scholars have proposed that Dellingr is the personified dawn and his name may appear both in an English surname and place name.
## Attestations
### Poetic Edda
Dellingr is referenced in the Poetic Edda poems Vafþrúðnismál and Hávamál. In stanza 24 of Vafþrúðnismá, the god Odin (disguised as "Gagnráðr") asks the jötunn Vafþrúðnir from where the day comes, and the night and its tides. In stanza 25, Vafþrúðnir responds:
>
> Delling hight he who the day's father is, but
>
> night was of Nörvi born; the new and waning moons the
>
> beneficent powers created, to count the years for men.
In Hávamál, the dwarf Þjóðrœrir is stated as having recited an unnamed spell "before Delling's doors":
>
> For the fifteenth I know what the dwarf Thiodreyrir
>
> sang before Delling's doors.
>
> Strength he sang to the Æsir, and to the Alfar prosperity,
>
> wisdom to Hroptatyr.
In the poem Fjölsvinnsmál, Svipdagr asks "What one of the gods has made so great the hall I behold within?" Fjölsviðr responds with a list of names, including Dellingr. In a stanza of the poem Hrafnagaldr Óðins, the appearance of Dagr, horse, and chariot are described, and Dagr himself is referred to as "the son of Delling."
### Prose Edda
In chapter 10 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, the enthroned figure of High states that Dellingr is a god and the third husband of Nótt. The couple have Dagr, who carries the features of his "father's people", which are described as "bright and beautiful". Odin placed both Dellingr's son, Dagr, and Dellingr's wife, Nótt, in the sky, so that they may ride across it with their horses and chariots every 24 hours.
However, scholar Haukur Thorgeirsson points out that the four manuscripts of Gylfaginning vary in their descriptions of the family relations between Nótt, Jörð, Dagr, and Dellingr. In other words, depending on the manuscript, either Jörð or Nótt is the mother of Dagr and partner of Dellingr. Haukur details that "the oldest manuscript, U, offers a version where Jǫrð is the wife of Dellingr and the mother of Dagr while the other manuscripts, R, W and T, cast Nótt in the role of Dellingr's wife and Dagr's mother", and argues that "the version in U came about accidentally when the writer of U or its antecedent shortened a text similar to that in RWT. The results of this accident made their way into the Icelandic poetic tradition".
### Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks
Five riddles found in the poem Heiðreks gátur contained in the legendary saga Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks employ the phrase "Delling's doors" (Old Norse Dellings durum) once each. As an example, in one stanza where the phrase is used Gestumblindi (Odin in disguise) poses the following riddle:
>
> What strange marvel
>
> did I see without,
>
> in front of Delling's door;
>
> its head turning
>
> to Hel downward,
>
> but its feet ever seek the sun?
>
> This riddle ponder,
>
> O prince Heidrek!
>
> 'Your riddle is good, Gestumblindi,' said the king; 'I have guessed it. It is the leek; its head is fast in the ground, but it forks as it grows up.'
## Theories
Jacob Grimm states that Dellingr is the assimilated form of Deglingr, which includes the name of Dellingr's son Dagr. Grimm adds that if the -ling likely refers to descent, and that due to this Dellingr may have been the "progenitor Dagr before him" or that the succession order has been reversed, which Grimm states often occurs in old genealogies. Benjamin Thorpe says that Dellingr may be dawn personified, similarly to his son Dagr, the personified day.
Regarding the references to "Delling's door" as used in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, Christopher Tolkien says that:
>
> What this phrase meant to the maker of these riddles is impossible to say. In Hávamál 160 it is said that the dwarf Thjódrørir sang before Delling's doors, which (in view of the fact that Delling is the father of Dag (Day) in Vafþrúðnismál 25) may mean that he gave warning to his people that the sun was coming up, and they must return to their dark houses; the phrase would then virtually mean 'at sunrise.' As regarding dǫglings for Dellings in H, and Dǫglingar were the descendants of Dagr (according to SnE. 183).
John Lindow says that some confusion exists about the reference to Dellingr in Hávamál. Lindow says that "Dellingr's doors" may either be a metaphor for sunrise or the reference may refer to the dwarf of the same name.
The English family name Dallinger has been theorized as deriving from Dellingr. The English place name Dalbury (south of Derbyshire) derives from Dellingeberie, which itself derives from Dellingr.
## See also
- Ēostre, the Old English extension of the Indo-European dawn goddess |
41,333,365 | Lufsig | 1,120,941,164 | IKEA plush wolf | [
"2013 in Hong Kong",
"Fictional wolves",
"Homonymy in Chinese",
"IKEA products",
"Politics of Hong Kong",
"Stuffed toys",
"Toy animals",
"Toy controversies"
]
| Lufsig is a stuffed toy wolf sold at Swedish furniture chain IKEA. The toy, designed by German designer , is inspired by the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" as a representation of the Big Bad Wolf. The plush was sold as part of IKEA's annual Soft Toys for Education campaign, where the company donates a portion from each toy sold towards various causes. The name "Lufsig" is derived from the Swedish verb "lufsa", meaning "to lumber", and its transliterated Chinese name sounds similar to a profanity when pronounced in Cantonese.
In December 2013, the toy became a symbol of opposition to the Hong Kong government, after an incident during a town hall event where a Lufsig was thrown by a protester at Leung Chun-ying, the Chief Executive, who had been nicknamed "the wolf" by his critics. Following the incident, Lufsig experienced a surge in popularity, selling out at IKEA stores in Hong Kong, as well as in several outlets in mainland China.
## Development
Lufsig was designed by German designer , drawing inspiration from the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. The toy consists of a wolf, wearing a red checked shirt and braces, and the diminutive grandmother which fits inside the wolf's belly. Lufsig was sold as part of the company's 10th annual Soft Toys for Education campaign, where IKEA would donate a portion of the profit from their stuffed toys and accompanying storybooks sold during the holiday season to UNICEF and Save the Children.
The product was sold as "Lufsig" in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but was named "路姆西" (pinyin: Lù mǔ xi) within Mainland China. The name of the toy is an adjective form of the Swedish verb "lufsa", which means "to lumber". According to IKEA representative Carin Wengelin, the company maintains a naming schema for its products, with woven fabric products named after feminine given names, bathroom products named after Scandinavian lakes, and products for children named after animals, birds, insects or "descriptive words".
## Symbolism in Hong Kong
Leung Chun-ying, the former Chief Executive of Hong Kong, has suffered low popularity ratings since his election in 2012. Of particular criticism was the election process itself, where the new Chief Executive was chosen by the Election Committee, a group of 1200 individuals, many of whom belong to the pro-Beijing camp. The election of Leung, combined with speculation during the campaign that Leung was connected to the Communist Party of China, brought about a pro-democracy movement and protests calling for the adoption of universal suffrage in Hong Kong. His approval ratings among citizens reached a record low in December 2013. Leung's critics have nicknamed him "the Wolf", alluding to his perceived cunningness, and as a pun of his name and the Chinese word for wolf.
On 7 December 2013, during a town hall meeting, a Lufsig plush toy was thrown at Leung by an anti-government protester. Following the incident, it was also discovered that the transliteration of Lufsig's name as listed on IKEA's Mainland Chinese website, "" (pronounced as louh móuh sāi in Cantonese), could be misinterpreted as profanity; in particular, louh móuh sāi could be read as a pun on lóuh móu hāi ("", lit. "mother's vagina"), and that the expression "" (dīu néih louh móuh sāi, lit. "throw your Lufsig" or "throw a Lufsig at you"), could be a pun on the vulgar phrase "" (díu néih lóuh móu hāi), which can be translated as "fuck your mother's vagina."
Following the incident, Lufsig experienced a surge in popularity in Hong Kong; people lined up outside IKEA's three Hong Kong locations the next morning to purchase the toy, which were sold out within hours. The popularity soon extended overseas. In China, buyers flipped Lufsig dolls for a quick profit, with some Taobao sellers selling the toy for , up from the official price of in Chinese IKEA stores. In Canada, the toy went out of stock at several Toronto- and Vancouver-area IKEA stores. A Lufsig Facebook page amassed over 50,000 likes, and Lufsigs were being put up for sale in auctions for a symbolic HK\$689 – 689 being the number of votes Leung received in the election.
On 11 December 2013, Leung posted a picture of himself with a Lufsig he bought as a Christmas present for his daughter, and praised the "creativity" of Hong Kong people. IKEA called the unintended pun "unfortunate" the same day, and changed the official Chinese name to "路福西" (pronounced as "Lufuxi" in Putonghua and as "louh fūk sāi" in Cantonese), incorporating a Chinese character meaning "good fortune". |
37,143 | Chrysippus | 1,171,461,158 | Greek Stoic philosopher | [
"200s BC deaths",
"270s BC births",
"3rd-century BC Greek philosophers",
"3rd-century BC Phoenician people",
"3rd-century BC mathematicians",
"Ancient Greek ethicists",
"Ancient Greek logicians",
"Ancient Greek mathematicians",
"Deaths from laughter",
"Hellenistic-era philosophers from Anatolia",
"Philosophical theists",
"Phoenician philosophers",
"Stoic philosophers"
]
| Chrysippus of Soli (/kraɪˈsɪpəs, krɪ-/; Greek: Χρύσιππος ὁ Σολεύς, Chrysippos ho Soleus; c. 279 – c. 206 BC) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia, but moved to Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes. When Cleanthes died, around 230 BC, Chrysippus became the third head of the Stoic school. A prolific writer, Chrysippus expanded the fundamental doctrines of Cleanthes' mentor Zeno of Citium, the founder and first head of the school, which earned him the title of the Second Founder of Stoicism.
Chrysippus excelled in logic, the theory of knowledge, ethics, and physics. He created an original system of propositional logic in order to better understand the workings of the universe and role of humanity within it. He adhered to a deterministic view of fate, but nevertheless sought a role for personal freedom in thought and action. Ethics, he thought, depended on understanding the nature of the universe, and he taught a therapy of extirpating the unruly passions which depress and crush the soul. He initiated the success of Stoicism as one of the most influential philosophical movements for centuries in the Greek and Roman world.
Of his several written works, none have survived except as fragments. Recently, segments of some of his works were discovered among the Herculaneum papyri.
## Life
Of Phoenician descent, Chrysippus was the son of Apollonius of Tarsus, and he was born at Soli, Cilicia. He was slight in stature, and is reputed to have trained as a long-distance runner. While still young, he lost his substantial inherited property when it was confiscated to the king's treasury. Chrysippus moved to Athens, where he became the disciple of Cleanthes, who was then the head (scholarch) of the Stoic school. He is believed to have attended the courses of Arcesilaus and his successor Lacydes, in the Platonic Academy.
Chrysippus threw himself eagerly into the study of the Stoic system. His reputation for learning among his contemporaries was considerable. He was noted for intellectual audacity and self-confidence and his reliance on his own ability was shown, among other things, in the request he is supposed to have made to Cleanthes: "Give me the principles, and I will find the proofs myself." He succeeded Cleanthes as head of the Stoic school when Cleanthes died, in around 230 BC.
Chrysippus was a prolific writer. He is said to rarely have gone without writing 500 lines a day and he composed more than 705 works. His desire to be comprehensive meant that he would take both sides of an argument and his opponents accused him of filling his books with the quotations of others. He was considered diffuse and obscure in his utterances and careless in his style, but his abilities were highly regarded, and he came to be seen as a preeminent authority for the school.
He died during the 143rd Olympiad (208–204 BC) at the age of 73. Diogenes Laërtius gives two different accounts of his death. In the first account, Chrysippus was seized with dizziness having drunk undiluted wine at a feast, and died soon after. In the second account, he was watching a donkey eat some figs and cried out: "Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs", whereupon he died in a fit of laughter. His nephew Aristocreon erected a statue in his honour in the Kerameikos. Chrysippus was succeeded as head of the Stoic school by his pupil Zeno of Tarsus.
Of his written works, none survived except as fragments quoted in the works of later authors like Cicero, Seneca, Galen, Plutarch, and others. Recently, segments from Logical Questions and On Providence were discovered among the Herculaneum papyri. A third work by Chrysippus may also be among them.
## Study
Chrysippus had a long and successful career of resisting the attacks of the Academy and hoped not simply to defend Stoicism against the assaults of the past, but also against all possible attack in the future. He took the doctrines of Zeno and Cleanthes and crystallized them into what became the definitive system of Stoicism. He elaborated the physical doctrines of the Stoics and their theory of knowledge and he created much of their formal logic. In short, Chrysippus made the Stoic system what it was. It was said that "without Chrysippus, there would have been no Stoa".
## Logic
Chrysippus wrote much on the subject of logic and created a system of propositional logic. Aristotle's term logic had been concerned with the interrelations of terms such as "Socrates" or "man" ("all men are mortal, Socrates is a man, so Socrates is mortal"). Stoic logic, on the other hand, was concerned with the interrelations of propositions such as "it is day" ("if it is day, it is light: but it is day: so it is light"). Though the earlier Megarian dialecticians – Diodorus Cronus and Philo – had worked in this field and the pupils of Aristotle – Theophrastus and Eudemus – had investigated hypothetical syllogisms, it was Chrysippus who developed these principles into a coherent system of propositional logic.
### Propositions
Chrysippus defined a proposition as "that which is capable of being denied or affirmed as it is in itself" and gave examples of propositions such as "it is day" and "Dion is walking." He distinguished between simple and non-simple propositions, which in modern terminology are known as atomic and molecular propositions. A simple proposition is an elementary statement such as "it is day." Simple propositions are linked together to form non-simple propositions by the use of logical connectives. Chrysippus enumerated five kinds of molecular propositions according to the connective used:
Thus several types of molecular propositions, familiar to modern logic, were listed by Chrysippus, including the conjunction, the disjunction, and the conditional, and Chrysippus studied their criteria of truth closely.
### Conditional propositions
The first logicians to debate conditional statements were Diodorus Cronus and his pupil Philo. Writing five-hundred years later, Sextus Empiricus refers to a debate between Diodorus and Philo. Philo regarded all conditionals as true except those which with a correct antecedent had an incorrect consequent, and this meant a proposition such as "if it is day, then I am talking," is true unless it is day and I fall silent. But Diodorus argued that a true conditional is one in which the antecedent clause could never lead to an untrue conclusion – thus, because the proposition "if it is day, then I am talking" can be false, it is invalid. However, paradoxical propositions were still possible such as "if atomic elements of things do not exist, atomic elements exists." Chrysippus adopted a much stricter view regarding conditional propositions, which made such paradoxes impossible: to him, a conditional is true if denial of the consequent is logically incompatible with the antecedent. This corresponds to the modern-day strict conditional.
### Syllogistic
Chrysippus developed a syllogistic or system of deduction in which he made use of five types of basic arguments or argument forms called indemonstrable syllogisms, which played the role of axioms, and four inference rules, called themata by means of which complex syllogisms could be reduced to these axioms. The forms of the five indemonstrables were:
Of the four inference rules, only two survived. One, the so-called first thema, was a rule of antilogism. The other, the third thema, was a cut rule by which chain syllogisms could be reduced to simple syllogisms. The purpose of Stoic syllogistic was not merely to create a formal system. It was also understood as the study of the operations of reason, the divine reason (logos) which governs the universe, of which human beings are a part. The goal was to find valid rules of inference and forms of proof to help people find their way in life.
According to Sextus Empiricus, Chrysippus held that dogs use disjunctive syllogism, such as when using scent to pick which path to run down. This was in contrast to a tradition since Aristotle, who saw reasoning (and reasoning deductively) as man's defining aspect.
### Other logical work
Chrysippus analyzed speech and the handling of names and terms. He also devoted much effort in refuting fallacies and paradoxes. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Chrysippus wrote twelve works in 23 books on the Liar paradox; seven works in 17 books on amphiboly; and another nine works in 26 books on other conundrums. In all, 28 works or 66 books were given over to puzzles or paradoxes. Chrysippus is the first Stoic for whom the third of the four Stoic categories, i.e. the category somehow disposed is attested. In the surviving evidence, Chrysippus frequently makes use of the categories of substance and quality, but makes little use of the other two Stoic categories (somehow disposed and somehow disposed in relation to something). It is not clear whether the categories had any special significance for Chrysippus, and a clear doctrine of categories may be the work of later Stoics.
### Later reception
Chrysippus came to be renowned as one of the foremost logicians of ancient Greece. When Clement of Alexandria wanted to mention one who was master among logicians, as Homer was master among poets, it was Chrysippus, not Aristotle, he chose. Diogenes Laërtius wrote: "If the gods use dialectic, they would use none other than that of Chrysippus." The logical work by Chrysippus came to be neglected and forgotten. Aristotle's logic prevailed, partly because it was seen as more practical, and partly because it was taken up by the Neoplatonists. As recently as the 19th century, Stoic logic was treated with contempt, a barren formulaic system, which was merely clothing the logic of Aristotle with new terminology. It was not until the 20th century, with the advances in logic, and the modern propositional calculus, that it became clear that Stoic logic constituted a significant achievement.
## Epistemology
For the Stoics, truth is distinguished from error by the sage who possesses right reason. Chrysippus's theory of knowledge was empirical. The senses transmit messages from the external world, and their reports are controlled not by referring them to innate ideas, but by comparing them to previous reports stored in the mind. Zeno had defined impressions of sense as "an impression in the soul" and this was interpreted literally by Cleanthes, who compared the impression on the soul to the impression made by a seal on wax. Chrysippus preferred to regard it as an alteration or change in the soul; that is, the soul receives a modification from every external object that acts upon it, just as the air receives countless strokes when many people are speaking at once.
In the receipt of an impression, the soul is purely passive and the impression reveals not only its own existence, but that also of its cause – just as light displays itself and the elements that are in it. The power to name the object resides in the understanding. First must come the impression, and the understanding – having the power of utterance – expresses in speech the affection it receives from the object. True presentations are distinguished from those that are false by the use of memory, classification and comparison. If the sense organ and the mind are healthy – and provided that an external object can be really seen or heard – the presentation, due to its clearness and distinctness, has the power to extort the assent that always lies in our power, to give or to withhold. In a context in which people are understood to be rational beings, reason is developed out of these notions.
## Physics
Chrysippus insisted on the organic unity of the universe, as well as the correlation and mutual interdependence of all of its parts. He said, the universe is "the soul and guide of itself." Following Zeno, Chrysippus determined fiery breath or aether to be the primitive substance of the universe. Objects are made up of inert formless matter and an informing soul, "pneuma", provides form to the undifferentiated matter. The pneuma pervades all of substance and maintains the unity of the universe and constitutes the soul of the human being.
The classical elements change into one another by a process of condensation and rarefaction. Fire first becomes solidified into air; then air into water; and lastly, water into earth. The process of dissolution takes place in the reverse order: earth being rarefied into water, water into air and air into fire.
The human soul was divided by Chrysippus into eight faculties: the five senses, the power of reproduction, the power of speech, and the "ruling part" that is located in the chest rather than the head. Individual souls are perishable; but, according to the view originated by Chrysippus, the souls of wise people survive longer after their death. No individual soul can, however, survive beyond the periodic conflagration, when the universe is renewed.
There were no universals or abstract objects for Chrysippus, making him a kind of nominalist.
### Fate
For Chrysippus, all things happen according to fate: what seems to be accidental has always some hidden cause. The unity of the world consists in the chain-like dependence of cause upon cause. Nothing can take place without a sufficient cause. According to Chrysippus, every proposition is either true or false, and this must apply to future events as well:
> If any motion exists without a cause, then not every proposition will be either true or false. For that which has not efficient causes is neither true nor false. But every proposition is either true or false. Therefore, there is no motion without a cause. And if this is so, then all effects owe their existence to prior causes. And if this is so, all things happen by fate. It follows therefore that whatever happens, happens by fate.
The Stoic view of fate is entirely based on a view of the universe as a whole. Individual things and persons only come into consideration as dependent parts of this whole. Everything is, in every respect, determined by this relation, and is consequently subject to the general order of the world.
If his opponents objected that, if everything is determined by destiny, there is no individual responsibility, since what has been once foreordained must happen, come what may, Chrysippus replied that there is a distinction to be made between simple and complex predestination. Becoming ill may be fated whatever happens but, if a person's recovery is linked to consulting a doctor, then consulting the doctor is fated to occur together with that person's recovery, and this becomes a complex fact. All human actions – in fact, our destiny – are decided by our relation to things, or as Chrysippus put it, events are "co-fated" to occur:
> The non-destruction of one's coat, he says, is not fated simply, but co-fated with its being taken care of, and someone's being saved from his enemies is co-fated with his fleeing those enemies; and having children is co-fated with being willing to lie with a woman. ... For many things cannot occur without our being willing and indeed contributing a most strenuous eagerness and zeal for these things, since, he says, it was fated for these things to occur in conjunction with this personal effort. ... But it will be in our power, he says, with what is in our power being included in fate.
Thus our actions are predetermined, and are causally related to the overarching network of fate, but nevertheless the moral responsibility of how we respond to impressions remains our own. The one all-determining power is active everywhere, working in each particular being according to its nature, whether in rational or irrational creatures or in inorganic objects. Every action is brought about by the co-operation of causes depending on the nature of things and the character of the agent. Our actions would only be involuntary if they were produced by external causes alone, without any co-operation, on the part of our wills, with external causes. Virtue and vice are set down as things in our power, for which, consequently, we are responsible. Moral responsibility depends only on freedom of the will, and what emanates from our will is our own, no matter whether it is possible for us to act differently or not. This rather subtle position which attempts to reconcile determinism with human responsibility is known as soft-determinism, or compatibilism.
### Divination
Chrysippus also argued for the existence of fate based on divination, which he thought there was good evidence for. It would not be possible for diviners to predict the future if the future itself was accidental. Omens and portents, he believed, are the natural symptoms of certain occurrences. There must be countless indications of the course of providence, for the most part unobserved, the meaning of only a few having become known to humanity. To those who argued that divination was superfluous as all events are foreordained, he replied that both divination and our behaviour under the warnings which it affords are included in the chain of causation.
### God
The Stoics believed that the universe is God, and Chrysippus affirmed that "the universe itself is God and the universal outpouring of its soul." It is the guiding principle of the universe, "operating in mind and reason, together with the common nature of things and the totality which embraces all existence." Based on these beliefs, physicist and philosopher Max Bernhard Weinstein identified Chrysippus as a Pandeist.
Chrysippus sought to prove the existence of God, making use of a teleological argument:
> If there is anything that humanity cannot produce, the being who produces it is better than humanity. But humanity cannot produce the things that are in the universe – the heavenly bodies, etc. The being, therefore, who produces them is superior to humanity. But who is there that is superior to humanity, except God? Therefore, God exists.
Chrysippus spoke of God and gods interchangeably. He interpreted the gods of traditional Greek religion by viewing them as different aspects of the one reality. Cicero tells us that "he further maintained that aether is that which people call Zeus, and that the air which permeates the seas is Poseidon, and that the earth is what is known by the name of Demeter, and he treated in similar style the names of the other gods." In addition, the universe exists for the benefit of the universal god:
> We should infer in the case of a beautiful dwelling-place that it was built for its owners and not for mice; we ought, therefore, in the same way to regard the universe as the dwelling-place of the gods.
### Theodicy
In response to the question of how evil could exist in a good universe, Chrysippus replied "evil cannot be removed, nor is it well that it should be removed." Firstly, he argued, following Plato, that it was impossible for good to exist without evil, for justice could not be known without injustice, courage without cowardice, temperance without intemperance or wisdom without foolishness. Secondly, apparent evils exist as a consequent of nature's goodness, thus it was necessary for the human skull to be made from small and thin bones for reasons of utility, but this superior utility meant that the skull is vulnerable to blows. Thirdly, evils are distributed according to the rational will of Zeus, either to punish the wicked or because they are important to the world-order as a whole. Thus evil is good under disguise, and is ultimately conducive to the best. Chrysippus compared evil to the coarse jest in the comedy; for, just as the jest, though offensive in itself, improves the piece as a whole, "so too you may criticize evil regarded by itself, yet allow that, taken with all else, it has its use."
## Mathematics
Chrysippus regarded bodies, surfaces, lines, places, the void and time as all being infinitely divisible. He determined one of the principal features of the infinite set: since a man and a finger have an infinite number of parts as do the universe and a man, it cannot be said that a man has more parts than his finger, nor that the universe has more parts than a man.
Chrysippus also responded to a problem first posed by Democritus. If a cone is divided by a plane parallel to its base, are the surfaces of the segments equal or unequal? If they are equal, then the cone becomes a cylinder; if they are unequal, then the surface of the cone must be stepped. The reply of Chrysippus was that the surfaces are both equal and unequal. Chrysippus was, in effect, negating the law of excluded middle with respect to the equal and unequal, and thus he may have anticipated an important principle of modern infinitesimal calculus, namely, the limit and the process of convergence towards a limit.
Chrysippus was notable for claiming that "one" is a number. One was not always considered a number by the ancient Greeks since they viewed one as that by which things are measured. Aristotle in his Metaphysics wrote, "... a measure is not the things measured, but the measure or the One is the beginning of number." Chrysippus asserted that one had "magnitude one" (Greek: πλῆθος ἕν), although this was not generally accepted by the Greeks, and Iamblichus wrote that "magnitude one" was a contradiction in terms.
## Ethics
Chrysippus taught that ethics depended on physics. In his Physical Theses, he stated: "for there is no other or more appropriate way of approaching the subject of good and evil on the virtues or happiness than from the nature of all things and the administration of the universe." The goal of life, said Chrysippus, is to live in accordance with one's experience of the actual course of nature. A person's individual nature is part of the nature of the whole universe, and thus life should be lived in accordance with one's own human nature as well as that of the universe. Human nature is ethical, and humanity is akin to the Divine, emanating from the primal fire or aether, which, though material, is the embodiment of reason; and people should conduct themselves accordingly. People have freedom, and this freedom consists in emancipation from irrational desires (lust, riches, position in life, domination, etc.) and in subjecting the will to reason. Chrysippus laid the greatest stress on the worth and dignity of the individual, and on the power of will.
The Stoics admitted between the good and the bad a third class of things – the indifferent (adiaphora). Of things morally indifferent, the best includes health, and riches, and honour, and the worst includes sickness and poverty. Chrysippus accepted that it was normal in ordinary usage to refer to the preferred indifferent things as "good", but the wise person, said Chrysippus, uses such things without requiring them. Practice and habit are necessary to render virtue perfect in the individual – in other words, there is such a thing as moral progress, and character has to be built up.
### On Passions
The Stoics sought to be free of the unruly emotions, which they regarded as being contrary to nature. The passions or emotions (pathe) are the disturbing element in right judgment. Chrysippus wrote a whole book, On Passions (Greek: Περὶ παθῶν), concerning the therapy of the emotions. The passions are like diseases which depress and crush the soul, thus he sought to eradicate them (apatheia). Wrong judgements turn into passions when they gather an impetus of their own, just as, when one has started running, it is difficult to stop. One cannot hope to eradicate the emotions when one is in the heat of love or anger: this can only be done when one is calm. Therefore, one should prepare in advance, and deal with the emotions in the mind as if they were present. By applying reason to emotions such as greed, pride, or lust, one can understand the harm which they cause.
## See also
- Apocatastasis
- Deixis
- History of logic
- Lazy argument
- List of unusual deaths |
43,145 | Gastrotrich | 1,165,334,511 | Phylum of microscopic animals | [
"Gastrotricha"
]
| The gastrotrichs (phylum Gastrotricha), commonly referred to as hairybellies or hairybacks, are a group of microscopic (0.06-3.0 mm), cylindrical, acoelomate animals, and are widely distributed and abundant in freshwater and marine environments. They are mostly benthic and live within the periphyton, the layer of tiny organisms and detritus that is found on the seabed and the beds of other water bodies. The majority live on and between particles of sediment or on other submerged surfaces, but a few species are terrestrial and live on land in the film of water surrounding grains of soil. Gastrotrichs are divided into two orders, the Macrodasyida which are marine (except for two species), and the Chaetonotida, some of which are marine and some freshwater. Nearly 800 species of gastrotrich have been described.
Gastrotrichs have a simple body plan with a head region, with a brain and sensory organs, and a trunk with a simple gut and the reproductive organs. They have adhesive glands with which they can anchor themselves to the substrate and cilia with which they move around. They feed on detritus, sucking up organic particles with their muscular pharynx. They are hermaphrodites, the marine species producing eggs which develop directly into miniature adults. The freshwater species are parthenogenetic, producing unfertilised eggs, and at least one species is viviparous. Gastrotrichs mature with great rapidity and have lifespans of only a few days.
## Etymology and taxonomy
The name "gastrotrich" comes from the Greek γαστήρ gaster, meaning "stomach", and θρίξ thrix, meaning "hair". The name was coined by the Russian zoologist Élie Metchnikoff in 1865. The common name "hairyback" apparently arises from a mistranslation of "gastrotrich".
The relationship of gastrotrichs to other phyla is unclear. Morphology suggests that they are close to the Gnathostomulida, the Rotifera, or the Nematoda. On the other hand, genetic studies place them as close relatives of the Platyhelminthes, the Ecdysozoa or the Lophotrochozoa. As of 2011, around 790 species have been described. The phylum contains a single class, divided into two orders: the Macrodasyida and the Chaetonotida. Edward Ruppert et al. report that the Macrodasyida are wholly marine, but two rare and poorly known species, Marinellina flagellata and Redudasys fornerise, are known from fresh water. The Chaetonotida comprises both marine and freshwater species.
## Anatomy
Gastrotrichs vary in size from about 0.06 to 3 mm (0.002 to 0.118 in) in body length. They are bilaterally symmetrical, with a transparent strap-shaped or bowling pin-shaped body, arched dorsally and flattened ventrally. The anterior end is not clearly defined as a head but contains the sense organs, brain and pharynx. Cilia are found around the mouth and on the ventral surface of the head and body. The trunk contains the gut and the reproductive organs. At the posterior end of the body are two projections with cement glands that serve in adhesion. This is a double-gland system where one gland secretes the glue and another secretes a de-adhesive agent to sever the connection. In the Macrodasyida, there are additional adhesive glands at the anterior end and on the sides of the body.
The body wall consists of a cuticle, an epidermis and longitudinal and circular bands of muscle fibres. In some primitive species, each epidermal cell has a single cilium, a feature shared only by the gnathostomulans. The whole ventral surface of the animal may be ciliated or the cilia may be arranged in rows, patches or transverse bands. The cuticle is locally thickened in some gastrotrichs and forms scales, hooks and spines. There is no coelom (body cavity) and the interior of the animal is filled with poorly differentiated connective tissue. In the macrodasyidans, Y-shaped cells, each containing a vacuole, surround the gut and may function as a hydrostatic skeleton.
The mouth is at the anterior end and opens into an elongated muscular pharynx with a triangular or Y-shaped lumen, lined by myoepithelial cells. The pharynx opens into a cylindrical intestine, which is lined with glandular and digestive cells. The anus is located on the ventral surface close to the posterior of the body. In some species, there are pores in the pharynx opening to the ventral surface; these contain valves and may allow egestion of any excess water swallowed while feeding.
In the chaetonotidans, the excretory system consists of a single pair of protonephridia, which open through separate pores on the lateral underside of the animal, usually in the midsection of the body. In the macrodasyidans, there are several pairs of these opening along the side of the body. Nitrogenous waste is probably excreted through the body wall, as part of respiration, and the protonephridia are believed to function mainly in osmoregulation. Unusually, the protonephridia do not take the form of flame cells, but, instead, the excretory cells consist of a skirt surrounding a series of cytoplasmic rods that in turn enclose a central flagellum. These cells, termed cyrtocytes, connect to a single outlet cell which passes the excreted material into the protonephridial duct.
As is typical for such small animals, there are no respiratory or circulatory organs. The nervous system is relatively simple. The brain consists of two ganglia, one on either side of the pharynx, connected by a commissure. From these lead a pair of nerve cords which run along either side of the body beside the longitudinal muscle bands. The primary sensory organs are the bristles and ciliated tufts of the body surface which function as mechanoreceptors. There are also ciliated pits on the head, simple ciliary photoreceptors and fleshy appendages which act as chemoreceptors.
## Distribution and habitat
Gastrotrichs are cosmopolitan in distribution. They inhabit the interstitial spaces between particles in marine and freshwater environments, the surfaces of aquatic plants and other submerged objects and the surface film of water surrounding soil particles on land. They are also found in stagnant pools and anaerobic mud, where they thrive even in the presence of hydrogen sulfide. When pools dry up they can survive periods of desiccation as eggs, and some species are capable of forming cysts in harsh conditions. In marine sediments they have been known to reach 364 individuals per 10 cm<sup>2</sup> (1.6 sq in) making them the third most common invertebrate in the sediment after nematodes and harpacticoid copepods. In freshwater they may reach a density of 158 individuals per 10 cm<sup>2</sup> (1.6 sq in) and are the fifth most abundant group of invertebrates in the sediment.
## Behaviour and ecology
In marine and freshwater environments, gastrotrichs form part of the benthic community. They are detritivores and are microphagous: they feed by sucking small dead or living organic materials, diatoms, bacteria and small protozoa into their mouths by the muscular action of the pharynx. They are themselves eaten by turbellarians and other small macrofauna.
Like many microscopic animals, gastrotrich locomotion is primarily powered by hydrostatics, but movement occurs through different methods in different members of the group. Chaetonotids only have adhesive glands at the back and, in them, locomotion typically proceeds in a smooth gliding manner; the whole body is propelled forward by the rhythmic action of the cilia on the ventral surface. In the pelagic chaetonotid genus Stylochaeta, however, movement proceeds in jerks as the long, muscle-activated spines are forced rhythmically towards the side of the body. By contrast, with chaetonotids, macrodasyidans typically have multiple adhesive glands and move forward with a creeping action similar to that of a "looper" caterpillar. In response to a threat, the head and trunk can be rapidly pulled backwards, or the creeping movement can be reversed. Muscular action is important when the animal turns sideways and during copulation, when two individuals twine around each other.
## Reproduction and lifespan
Gastrotrich reproduction and reproductive behaviour has been little studied. That of macrodasiyds probably most represents that of the ancestral lineage and these more primitive gastrotrichs are simultaneous hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female sex organs. There is generally a single pair of gonads, the anterior portion of which contains sperm-producing cells and the posterior portion producing ova. The sperm is sometimes packaged in spermatophores and is released through male gonopores that open, often temporarily, on the underside of the animal, roughly two-thirds of the way along the body. A copulatory organ on the tail collects the sperm and transfers it to the partner's seminal receptacle through the female gonopore. Details of the process and the behaviour involved vary with the species, and there is a range of different accessory reproductive organs. During copulation, the "male" individual uses his copulatory organ to transfer sperm to his partner's gonopore and fertilisation is internal. The fertilised eggs are released by rupture of the body wall which afterwards repairs itself. As is the case in most protostomes, development of the embryo is determinate, with each cell destined to become a specific part of the animal's body. At least one species of gastrotrich, Urodasys viviparus, is viviparous.
Many species of chaetotonid gastrotrichs reproduce entirely by parthenogenesis. In these species, the male portions of the reproductive system are degenerate and non-functional, or, in many cases, entirely absent. Though the eggs have a diameter of less than 50 μm, they are still very large in comparison with the animals' size. Some species are capable of laying eggs that remain dormant during times of desiccation or low temperatures; these species, however, are also able to produce regular eggs, which hatch in one to four days, when environmental conditions are more favourable. The eggs of all gastrotrichs undergo direct development and hatch into miniature versions of the adult. The young typically reach sexual maturity in about three days. In the laboratory, Lepidodermella squamatum has lived for up to forty days, producing four or five eggs during the first ten days of life.
Gastrotrichs demonstrate eutely, each species having an invariant genetically fixed number of cells as adults. Cell division ceases at the end of embryonic development and further growth is solely due to cell enlargement.
## Classification
Gastrotricha is divided into two orders and a number of families:
Order Macrodasyida Remane, 1925 [Rao and Clausen, 1970]
- Family Cephalodasyidae Hummon & Todaro, 2010
: \*Genus Cephalodasys Remane, 1926
: \*Genus Dolichodasys Gagne, 1977
: \*Genus Megadasys Schmidt, 1974
: \*Genus Mesodasys Remane, 1951
: \*Genus Paradasys Remane, 1934
: \*Genus Pleurodasys Remane, 1927
- Family Dactylopodolidae Strand, 1929
: \*Genus Dactylopodola Strand, 1929
: \*Genus Dendrodasys Wilke, 1954
: \*Genus Dendropodola Hummon, Todaro & Tongiorgi, 1992
- Family Lepidodasyidae Remane, 1927
: \*Genus Lepidodasys Remane, 1926
- Family Macrodasyidae Remane, 1926
: \*Genus Macrodasys Remane, 1924
: \*Genus Urodasys Remane, 1926
- Family Planodasyidae Rao & Clausen, 1970
: \*Genus Crasiella Clausen, 1968
: \*Genus Planodasys Rao & Clausen, 1970
- Family Redudasyidae Todaro, Dal Zotto, Jondelius, Hochberg et al., 2012
: \*Genus Anandrodasys Todaro, Dal Zotto, Jondelius, Hochberg et al., 2012
: \*Genus Redudasys Kisielewski, 1987
- Family Thaumastodermatidae Remane, 1927
- Subfamily Diplodasyinae Ruppert, 1978
- Genus Acanthodasys Remane, 1927
- Genus Diplodasys Remane, 1927
- Subfamily Thaumastodermatinae Remane, 1927
- Genus Hemidasys Claparède, 1867
- Genus Oregodasys Hummon, 2008 =(Platydasys Remane, 1927)
- Genus Pseudostomella Swedmark, 1956
- Genus Ptychostomella Remane, 1926
- Genus Tetranchyroderma Remane, 1926
- Genus Thaumastoderma Remane, 1926
- Family Turbanellidae Remane, 1927
: \*Genus Desmodasys Clausen, 1965
: \*Genus Dinodasys Remane, 1927
: \*Genus Paraturbanella Remane, 1927
: \*Genus Prostobuccantia Evans & Hummon, 1991
: \*Genus Pseudoturbanella d'Hondt, 1968
: \*Genus Turbanella Schultze, 1853
- Family Xenodasyidae Todaro, Guidi, Leasi & Tongiorgi, 2006
: \*Genus Chordodasiopsis Todaro, Guidi, Leasi & Tongiorgi, 2006
: \*Genus Xenodasys Swedmark, 1967
- Incertae sedis
: \*Genus Marinellina Ruttner-Kolisko, 1955
Order Chaetonotida Remane, 1925 [Rao and Clausen, 1970]
Suborder Multitubulatina d'Hondt, 1971
- Family Neodasyidae Remane, 1929
: \*Genus Neodasys Remane, 1927
Suborder Paucitubulatina d'Hondt, 1971
- Family Chaetonotidae Gosse, 1864
- Subfamily Chaetonotinae Kisielewski, 1991
- Genus Arenotus Kisielewski, 1987
- Genus Aspidiophorus Voigt, 1903
- Genus Caudichthydium Schwank, 1990
- Genus Chaetonotus Ehrenberg, 1830
- Genus Fluxiderma d'Hondt, 1974
- Genus Ichthydium Ehrenberg, 1830
- Genus Halichaetonotus Remane, 1936
- Genus Heterolepidoderma Remane, 1927
- Genus Lepidochaetus Kisielewski 1991
- Genus Lepidodermella Blake, 1933
- Genus Polymerurus Remane, 1927
- Genus Rhomballichthys Schwank, 1990
- Subfamily Undulinae Kisielewski 1991
- Genus Undula Kisielewski 1991
- Family Dasydytidae Daday, 1905
: \*Genus Anacanthoderma Marcolongo, 1910
: \*Genus Chitonodytes Remane, 1936
: \*Genus Dasydytes Gosse, 1851
: \*Genus Haltidytes Remane 1936
: \*Genus Ornamentula Kisielewski 1991
: \*Genus Setopus Grünspan, 1908
: \*Genus Stylochaeta Hlava, 1905
- Family Dichaeturidae Remane, 1927
: \*Genus Dichaetura Lauterborn, 1913
- Family Muselliferidae Leasi & Todaro, 2008
: \*Genus Diuronotus Todaro, Kristensen & Balsamo, 2005
: \*Genus Musellifer Hummon, 1969
- Family Neogosseidae Remane, 1927
: \*Genus Neogossea Remane, 1927
: \*Genus Kijanebalola Beauchamp, 1932
- Family Proichthydiidae Remane, 1927
: \*Genus Proichthydium Cordero, 1918
: \*Genus Proichthydioides Sudzuki, 1971
- Family Xenotrichulidae Remane, 1927
- Subfamily Draculiciterinae Ruppert, 1979
- Genus Draculiciteria Hummon, 1974
- Subfamily Xenotrichulinae Remane, 1927
- Genus Heteroxenotrichula Wilke, 1954
- Genus Xenotrichula Remane, 1927 |
35,512,782 | São Tomé and Príncipe at the 2012 Summer Olympics | 1,002,252,514 | null | [
"2012 in São Tomé and Príncipe",
"Nations at the 2012 Summer Olympics",
"São Tomé and Príncipe at the Summer Olympics by year"
]
| The African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, held from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's fifth appearance at the Olympics since its debut in 1996. Two track and field athletes, Christopher Lima da Costa and Lecabela Quaresma were selected to the team by wildcard places, without having qualified at any sporting event. Quaresma was selected as flag bearer for the opening and closing ceremonies. Neither of the two athletes progressed beyond the first round of their respective events.
## Background
São Tomé and Príncipe participated at five Summer Olympic games from its debut in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and its appearance at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The highest number of São Tomé and Príncipe athletes participating in a summer games is three in the 2008 games in Beijing, China. No São Tomé and Príncipe athlete has ever won a medal at the Olympics. Two track and field athletes from São Tomé and Príncipe were selected to compete in the London games: Christopher Lima da Costa in the men's 100 m and Lecabela Quaresma in the women's 100 m hurdles.
## Athletics
Christopher Lima da Costa was the only male athlete representing São Tomé and Príncipe at the London Olympics. He had not previously competed at any Olympic games. He competed in the men's 100 metres race on August 4, competing against six other athletes in the first heat. He finished the race in 11.56 seconds (his personal best), finishing last of the seven entrants. Kilakone Siphonexay of Laos placed directly ahead of da Costa (11.30 seconds) in a heat led by Bruno Rojas of Bolivia (10.62 seconds). The Santomean athlete placed 73rd of the 75 athletes, and therefore did not advance to later rounds.
Lecabela Quaresma competed on behalf of São Tomé and Príncipe at the London Olympic Games in the women's 100 metre hurdles. Quaresma became affiliated with sports organizations in Portugal and was 22 years old at the time of her competition at the London Olympics. She had not previously competed at any Olympic Games. Quaresma competed against seven other athletes in the second heat on August 6. Quaresma finished the race in 14.54 seconds, finishing last out of the six finishing athletes. She ranked behind Anastassiya Pilipenko of Kazakhstan (13.77 seconds) in a heat led by Beate Schrott of Austria (13.09 seconds) and Eline Berings of Belgium (13.46 seconds). Of the 46 finishing athletes, Quaresma placed 42nd and did not advance to later rounds. |
22,878,772 | Battle off Texel | 1,055,462,145 | Part of the First World War | [
"Conflicts in 1914",
"Naval battles of World War I involving Germany",
"Naval battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom",
"North Sea operations of World War I",
"October 1914 events"
]
| The Battle off Texel, also known as the Action off Texel or the Action of 17 October 1914, was a naval battle off the coast of the Dutch island of Texel during the First World War. A British squadron, comprising one light cruiser and four destroyers on a routine patrol, encountered the German 7th Half Flotilla of torpedo boats which was en route to the British coast to lay mines. The British forces attacked and the outgunned German force attempted to flee and then fought a desperate and ineffective action against the British force, which sank all four German boats.
The battle resulted in the loss of the German torpedo boat squadron and prevented the mining of busy shipping lanes, such as the mouth of the River Thames. The British had few casualties and little damage to their vessels. The battle influenced the tactics and deployments of the remaining German torpedo boat flotillas in the North Sea area, as the loss shook the faith of their commanders in the effectiveness of the force.
## Background
After the opening naval Battle of Heligoland Bight, the German High Seas Fleet was ordered to avoid confrontations with larger opposing forces, to avoid costly and demoralising reverses. Apart from occasional German raids and forays by German light forces, the North Sea was dominated by the Royal Navy which regularly patrolled the area. On 16 October 1914, information about activity by German light forces in the Heligoland Bight became more definite and the 1st Division of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla (Harwich Force), consisting of the new light cruiser HMS Undaunted (Captain Cecil Fox) and four Laforey-class destroyers, HMS Lennox, Lance, Loyal and Legion was sent to investigate. At 13:50 on 17 October, while steaming northwards, about 50 nmi (58 mi; 93 km) to the south-west of the island of Texel, the 1st Division encountered a squadron of German torpedo boats, comprising the remaining vessels of the 7th Half Flotilla (Korvettenkapitän Georg Thiele in S119) SMS S115, S117, S118 about 8 nmi (9.2 mi; 15 km) ahead. The German ships were sailing abreast, about 0.5 nmi (0.58 mi; 0.93 km) apart, on a bearing slightly to the east of the 1st Division. The German ships made no hostile move against the British and made no attempt to flee; the British assuming that they had mistaken the ships for friendly vessels. The German flotilla was part of the Emden Patrol and had been sent out of the Ems River, to mine the southern coast of Britain including the mouth of the Thames but had been intercepted before reaching its objective.
The British squadron out-gunned the German 7th Half Flotilla. HMS Undaunted—an Arethusa-class light cruiser—was armed with two BL 6 inch Mk XII naval guns and seven QF 4 inch Mk V naval guns, in single mounts (most without gun shields) and eight torpedo tubes. Undaunted was experimentally armed with a pair of 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns, something most of her class lacked and at best speed could make 28.5 kn (32.8 mph; 52.8 km/h). The four Laforey-class destroyers were armed with four torpedo tubes in two twin mounts, three 4-inch guns and a 2-pounder gun. The destroyers were slightly faster than the cruiser and could make about 29 kn (33 mph; 54 km/h) at full power. The German vessels were inferior to the British in other areas, the 7th Half Flotilla was composed of ageing Großes Torpedoboot 1898 class boats and had been completed in 1904. The German boats were nearly equal in speed to the British at 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). Each of the German vessels was armed with three 50 mm (1.97 in) guns, that were of shorter range and throw-weight than the British guns. The biggest danger to the British squadron was the five 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedoes carried by each German boat.
## Battle
Upon closer approach, the German vessels realised the nearby vessels were British and scattered, while Undaunted—which was closer to the Germans than the destroyers—opened fire on the nearest torpedo boat. This German vessel managed to dodge the fire from Undaunted by changing course but lost speed and the British force caught up. To protect Undaunted from torpedo attack and to destroy the Germans as quickly as possible, Fox ordered the squadron to divide. Lance and Lennox chased S115 and S119 as Legion and Loyal pursued S117 and S118. Fire from Legion, Loyal and Undaunted damaged S118 so badly that its bridge was blown off the deck, sinking her at 15:17. Lance and Lennox engaged S115, disabling her steering gear and causing the German vessel to circle. Lennox's fire was so effective that the bridge of S115 was also destroyed but the German torpedo-boat did not strike her colours.
The two central boats in the German flotilla, S117 and the flotilla leader S119, tried to hit Undaunted with torpedoes but Undaunted outmanoeuvred the German boats and remained unscathed. When Legion and Loyal had finished off S118, they came to Undaunted's aid and engaged the two attackers. Legion attacked S117, which fired its last three torpedoes and continued to engage with gunfire. Legion pulverised S117, damaging her steering mechanism which forced her to circle before she was sunk at 15:30. At the same time, Lance and Lennox had damaged S115 to the point where only one of the destroyers was needed. Lance joined Loyal in bombarding S119 with lyddite shells. S119 managed to fire a torpedo at Lance and hit the destroyer amidships but the torpedo failed to detonate. S119 was sunk at 15:35 by gunfire from Lance and Loyal, taking the German flotilla commander down with it. S115 stayed afloat despite constant attacks from Lennox, which sent a boarding party, who found a wreck with only one German on board who happily surrendered. Thirty members of the crew were eventually rescued from the sea by the British vessels. The action ended at 16:30, with gunfire from Undaunted finishing off the abandoned hulk of S115.
## Aftermath
### Analysis
The battle was seen as a great boost of morale for the British as two days previous, they had lost the cruiser HMS Hawke to a U-boat. The effect on British morale is reflected in its inclusion in the 1915 novel The Boy Allies Under Two Flags, written by Robert L. Drake. The hospital ship Ophelia, which had been sent out to rescue survivors from the sunken boats, was seized by the British for violating the Hague Convention rules on the use of hospital ships. The loss of a squadron of German torpedo boats led to a drastic change in tactics in the English Channel and along the coast of Flanders. There were fewer sorties into the Channel and the torpedo boat force was relegated to coastal patrol and rescuing aircrew. The British received a bonus on 30 November, when a trawler pulled up the sealed chest thrown off S119 by Captain Thiele. The chest contained a codebook used by the German light forces stationed on the coast, allowing the British to read German wireless communication for long afterwards.
### Casualties
Despite the odds, no German vessel struck her colours and the flotilla fought to the end. The four ships of the German Seventh Half Flotilla were sunk by Harwich Force and over two hundred sailors were killed, including the commanding officer. Thirty-one German sailors were rescued and taken prisoner; a captured officer died of wounds soon after. Two more German sailors were later rescued by a neutral vessel. Only four British sailors were wounded and three of their destroyers were lightly damaged. Legion had one 4 lb (1.8 kg) shell hit and one man was wounded by machine-gun fire. Loyal was hit twice and had three or four men wounded. Lance had superficial machine-gun damage and the other vessels were unscathed.
## Order of battle
### Royal Navy
3rd Destroyer Flotilla (detachment), Captain Cecil H. Fox, Captain (D)
- HMS Undaunted, light cruiser acting as flotilla leader
1st division, 3rd Destroyer Flotilla
- HMS Lance, destroyer; Commander Wion de M. Egerton, division commander
- HMS Lennox, destroyer; Lieutenant-Commander Clement. R. Dane, commander
- HMS Legion, destroyer; Lieutenant-Commander Claud F. Allsup, commander
- HMS Loyal, destroyer; Lieutenant-Commander Burges Watson, commander
### German Navy
7th Torpedoboat Half-flotilla, Korvettenkapitän Georg Thiele, commander
- SMS S119, torpedo boat, flagship; Oberleutnant zur See Wilhelm Windel, commander
- SMS S118, torpedo boat; Kapitänleutnant Erich Beckert, commander
- SMS S117, torpedo boat; Kapitänleutnant Georg Sohnke, commander
- SMS S115, torpedo boat; Kapitänleutnant Hans Mushacke, commander |
9,102,249 | Jeannette Piccard | 1,162,418,564 | American balloonist, scientist, teacher and priest | [
"1895 births",
"1981 deaths",
"20th-century American Episcopalians",
"20th-century American clergy",
"20th-century American people",
"20th-century American women",
"American Episcopal priests",
"American aviation record holders",
"American balloonists",
"American women aviation record holders",
"Aviation pioneers",
"Aviators from Illinois",
"Balloon flight record holders",
"Bryn Mawr College alumni",
"Clergy from Minneapolis",
"Daughters of the American Revolution people",
"Harmon Trophy winners",
"NASA people",
"People from Chicago",
"University of Chicago alumni",
"University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development alumni",
"Women Anglican clergy",
"Women aviation pioneers"
]
| Jeannette Ridlon Piccard (/dʒəˈnɛt pɪˈkɑːr/ jə-NET pih-KAR; January 5, 1895 – May 17, 1981) was an American high-altitude balloonist, and in later life an Episcopal priest. She held the women's altitude record for nearly three decades, and according to several contemporaneous accounts was regarded as the first woman in space.
Piccard was the first licensed female balloon pilot in the U.S., and the first woman to fly to the stratosphere. Accompanied by her husband, Jean—a member of the Piccard family of balloonists and the twin brother of Auguste Piccard—she reached a height of 10.9 miles (17.5 km) during a record-breaking flight over Lake Erie on October 23, 1934, retaining control of the balloon for the entire flight. After her husband's death in 1963, she worked as a consultant to the director of NASA's Johnson Space Center for several years, talking to the public about NASA's work, and was posthumously inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1998.
From the late 1960s onwards, Piccard returned to her childhood interest in religion. She was ordained a deacon of the Episcopal Church in 1971, and on July 29, 1974, became one of the Philadelphia Eleven, the first women to be ordained priests—though the ordinations were regarded as irregular, performed by bishops who had retired or resigned. Piccard was the first of the women to be ordained that day, because at 79 she was the oldest, and because she was fulfilling an ambition she had had since she was 11 years old. When asked by Bishop John Allin, the head of the church, not to proceed with the ceremony, she is said to have told him, "Sonny, I'm old enough to have changed your nappies." In September 1976, the church voted to allow women into the priesthood, and Piccard served as a priest in Saint Paul, Minnesota, until she died at the age of 86. One of her granddaughters, Kathryn Piccard, also an Episcopal priest, said of her: "She wanted to expand the idea of what a respectable lady could do. She had the image of the street-wise old lady."
## Early life and education
Born on January 5, 1895, in Chicago, Illinois, Piccard was one of nine children born to Emily Caroline (Robinson) and John Frederick Ridlon, who was president of the American Orthopaedic Association. She had a lifelong interest in science and religion. When she was 11, her mother asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Piccard's reply—"a priest"—sent her mother running out of the room in tears.
Piccard studied philosophy and psychology at Bryn Mawr College, where in 1916 she wrote an essay titled "Should Women Be Admitted to the Priesthood of the Anglican Church?" She received her bachelor's degree in 1918 and went on to study organic chemistry at the University of Chicago, receiving her master's degree in 1919. That same year she met and married Jean Felix Piccard, who was teaching at the university.
Piccard was the mother of a house full of boys. Robert R. Gilruth, one of her students and collaborators, said later in his oral history that he remembered a breakfast he had with the Piccards in a St. Cloud, Minnesota hotel before a balloon launching, "I don't know how many there were. It seems like there was a dozen. ... I remember the youngest one took the corn flake box and dumped it on his father's head. Of course, Piccard just brushed it off his head and said, 'No, no.'" "He was very gentle. He loved his boys, and he thought boys would be boys, I guess." The Piccards had three sons of their own, John, Paul, and Donald (who would become a famous balloonist and ballooning innovator in his own right), as well as foster children. The Piccard family archive in the Library of Congress mentions correspondence from foster children whom the Piccards took in, although nothing else seems to be known about them.
The Piccards taught at the University of Lausanne from 1919 to 1926. In 1926 they returned to the United States, where Jean Piccard taught organic chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The couple lived in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania before settling in Minneapolis in 1936 when Jean Piccard joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota. She received a doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota in 1942, and a certificate of study from the General Theological Seminary in 1973.
Gilruth made a point of describing Piccard in his oral history. He said, "She was very bright, had her own doctor's degree, and was at least half of the brains of that family, technical as well as otherwise. ... She was always in the room when he was lecturing or otherwise, almost always. She was something. She was good." David DeVorkin, curator of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, wrote a history of manned scientific ballooning. In DeVorkin's view, the Piccards' "entrepreneurship and subsequent success" in ballooning was due to "their enormous persistence ... and considerable confidence, pluck, and luck".
## Stratosphere flight
### Planning and pilot's license
After Thomas G. W. Settle's record flight in the Piccards' Century of Progress, the balloon was again returned to the Piccards, who decided to fly it to the stratosphere on their own. Jean would concentrate on the science, while Jeannette would pilot the balloon. DeVorkin wrote that, "Energetic and forceful, she seemed to have a better chance of obtaining a pilot's license than Jean, who was preoccupied with restoring the gondola and balloon and convincing scientists to provide instruments to fly". She studied at Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan, under Edward J. Hill, a balloonist and Gordon Bennett Cup winner, who agreed to serve as flight director for the Piccards' planned stratospheric flight. Henry Ford offered the use of his hangar and brought Orville Wright (with his brother Wilbur, inventor of the airplane and first human to fly a heavier-than-air powered aircraft) to observe a flight of Jeannette's in 1933. Her son Don was a crew member that day and shook hands with Wright, "I was a little kid and he [paid] attention to me." On June 16, 1934, Jeannette flew her first solo flight. Later that year, the National Aeronautic Association made her the first woman licensed balloon pilot in the U.S. Auguste wrote to Jean in June 1934, "Hopefully you will make your flight ahead of other competitors. It would be nice, if the name of Piccard through Jeannette, would once more be placed on the record list of the F.A.I."
When she was interviewed near the end of her life, and asked why she had not hired a pilot and why she had decided to become a pilot herself, Jeannette replied, "How much loyalty can you count on from someone you hire?" When she was asked if she had parachute training, Jeannette said, "No ... if, on the first time you jump, you don't succeed, there's no use trying again."
### Search for funding
High altitude ballooning was a dangerous undertaking, partly because human lungs cannot function unaided over 40,000–50,000 feet (12,000–15,000 m), and partly because the lifting gas used, hydrogen, is flammable. Jeannette said later that, "The National Geographic Society would have nothing to do with sending a woman—a mother—in a balloon into danger". Longtime Piccard family backer Goodyear were reluctant to support their flight. Dow Chemical asked that their trade names and logo be removed from publicity and from the Century of Progress balloon.
Gilruth said, "I remember that Piccard was very, very hurt by the National Geographic that would not give them a dime. ... Both he and Jeanette said that they were discriminated against by the National Geographic. That's not a good word. They were not aided in any way by the National Geographic, and they felt it was not really warranted. They felt they should have gotten some help from them. ... [He] didn't say why, but they certainly didn't feel they'd been handled fairly." The Piccards struggled to gain financial support until the Grigsby-Grunow Radio Company advanced them several thousand dollars. The Detroit Aero Club and People's Outfitting Company also backed them. To supplement their sponsorship, Jeannette designed and sold commemorative stamps and souvenir programs and folders. She also raised a good deal of money by selling their story in press releases to the North American Newspaper Alliance.
### Flight
Forty-five thousand spectators came to see the Piccards off on October 23, 1934, at 6:51 am, about two hours behind schedule. Jeannette piloted the reconditioned Century of Progress, and the couple took along their pet turtle, Fleur de Lys. After a brief pre-launch ceremony, during which the Piccards received a bouquet from their sons and a small band played The Star-Spangled Banner, they lifted off from Ford Airport, assisted by airmen on the ground who pushed the gondola. Jean changed the flight path and shortened the flight time because of cloudy skies, which reduced the amount of scientific work they were able to do. Jeannette made "unplanned and impulsive maneuvres" and the Piccards failed to make complete records of their actions during the flight. The newspaper alliance had offered to pay them 1,000 if they broke the altitude record, so they jettisoned all of their sandbags, attempting to go higher. They reached 57,579 feet (17,550 m) or about 10.9 miles (17.5 km) up, travelled for eight hours on a journey over Lake Erie, and landed about 300 miles (480 km) away from Dearborn, near Cadiz, Ohio. She had to choose a landing on elm trees, realizing that meant the Century of Progress would never fly again. The balloon separated from the gondola and was ripped. Jean sustained small fractures to his ribs, left foot, and ankle. According to Jeannette's description in Time magazine: "What a mess! I wanted to land on the White House lawn."
### Legacy
Her flight set the women's altitude record, and held it for 29 years, until Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 became the first woman in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times solo in the Soviet Union's Vostok 6. According to the editors of Flying magazine, in their book Sport Flying, published by Ziff-Davis in 1976, Jeannette was "the first woman in space, a claim allowed even by Valentina Tereshkova." She was also the first woman to pilot a flight to the stratosphere, and according to her obituary in The New York Times, the first person to do so through a layer of clouds.
## Later life, death of Jean Piccard
Jean and Jeannette felt they had succeeded by reaching the stratosphere, and they became popular lecturers. They prepared brochures and souvenirs to attract attention to the flight, one titled "Who Said We Couldn't Do It." But they had developed perhaps unreasonable expectations that lucrative university positions would come to them. Both wrote to dozens of colleges and universities, aiming high—even at college presidencies, trying to secure positions, but they received only rejections. In December 1934, Jeannette wrote to Swann to ask if Jean might become a member of the chemistry staff of the Bartol Research Foundation at the Franklin Institute, and also offered her services, but was turned down. Luckily, they met a new advocate while on lecture tour to Minneapolis. Thanks to John Akerman of the department of aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota, Jean became an untenured professor in Minnesota by 1936, teaching and doing aeronautical studies until 1946 when he received tenure. During 1943, Jeannette was briefly an executive secretary at the housing section of the Minnesota Office of Civil Defense.
In 1946 until mid-1947, the Piccards were consultants to General Mills (the cereal company and dominant industry in Minneapolis) working under Otto Winzen, who Jean had met through the university. Winzen and Jean proposed a stratosphere flight with 100 cluster balloons and secured a government contract with the Navy. Featured in Navy press releases, Jean was named a project scientist responsible for gondola design and for testing the balloon film materials. But he balked, both at making weekly status reports that made him feel like a lower-level employee, and at the prospect of General Mills owning the patents to his ideas. Working as a consultant, Jeannette threatened to break off ties with the Navy and General Mills unless she was allowed to fly with Jean. Unfortunately this began a rift between General Mills and the Piccards. They were both were fired in 1947, for they were too critical of Winzen and General Mills staff.
Jean retired from the University of Minnesota when he was 68, never giving up his dream of returning to the stratosphere. DeVorkin quoted a newspaper in 1952, "to Adventurer Piccard, no gondola probing the unexplored purple twilight of the stratosphere would be complete without him and his wife in it". Jean died in 1963.
Gilruth asked Jeannette to work as a consultant at NASA. She accepted and lived in a house in Houston she shared with another woman. Jeannette spoke to the scientific community and to the public at NASA about the space program from 1964 to 1970, when Project Apollo was created and Apollo 11 made the first crewed Moon landing in 1969. Gilruth then noticed a shift in her interests, away from space and towards religion.
## Episcopal priest
### Ordination
In 1971, one year after the Episcopal Church admitted female deacons, Piccard was ordained a deacon and, on July 29, 1974, at age 79, under controversial circumstances, she was ordained a priest. In Philadelphia, at the Church of the Advocate, three retired bishops – Daniel Corrigan, former church head of domestic missions, Robert L. De Witt of the diocese of Pennsylvania, and Edward Randolph Welles II of the diocese of West Missouri – ordained eleven women priests, cheered by a large congregation. A fourth bishop, José Antonio Ramos of Costa Rica, was there but was out of his jurisdiction. All eleven women risked suspension as deacons, and the four bishops "could be suspended or deposed by a church trial court" for ignoring a church canon prohibiting retired bishops from performing "episcopal acts" unless asked by a local bishop. Five Episcopal priests objected at the point in the service when Corrigan asked if there was "any impediment" to the ordinations, one calling the ordinations a "perversion" and another calling them "unlawful and schismatical".
Piccard was the first of the eleven women ordained because she was the oldest and she was fulfilling a lifelong dream. Carter Heyward – another of the group who were known as "irregulars" and sometimes called the "Philadelphia Eleven" – became the 1974 Ms. magazine Woman of the Year. Suzanne Hiatt later said "In retrospect, to have been ordained 'irregularly' is the only way for women to have done it." Alison Cheek, Heyward, and Piccard joined in the consecration, and Piccard gave the absolution, in a celebration of the Eucharist at Riverside Church in Manhattan in November 1974. Philip McNairy of the Diocese of Minnesota, who wanted women in the priesthood, was concerned that the eleven were hurting the cause of the other women deacons, who numbered over one hundred at the time.
### Fallout, women recognized
A proposal to recognize women priests had been narrowly defeated at the triennial general convention of 1973 held in Louisville, Kentucky. John M. Allin of Mississippi, the new (as of June) presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, which had 3.1 million members at the time, called an emergency meeting of the House of Bishops in Chicago in August 1974. Jeannette told Allin, "Sonny, I'm old enough to have changed your nappies."
Harold B. Robinson, a bishop in the diocese of Western New York, and two colleagues set in motion charges accusing the three bishops of breaking their vows and violating church laws. They withdrew charges when the House of Bishops, in a carefully worded resolution that passed 129 to 9 with 8 abstentions, challenged the ordinations and decried the bishops' actions, calling them understandable but "wrong". But the church was moving in this direction already, and the general convention of 1976 held in Minneapolis voted to open the priesthood to women.
### Life as a priest
Jeannette served as a deacon or irregular at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1975 to 1977. In 1977 the Episcopal Church recognized her ordination. Kathryn Piccard, her granddaughter, who also became an Episcopal priest, was later quoted in The New York Times as saying, "She wanted to expand the idea of what a respectable lady could do. She had the image of the street-wise old lady." Jeannette became a volunteer chaplain at St. Luke's Hospital, now United Hospital, and assistant pastor to Denzil Carty at Episcopal Church on Maccubin, both in Saint Paul. From 1968 until 1981 she was an honorary member of the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary board of trustees.
Jeannette died of cancer on May 17, 1981, at the Masonic Memorial Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, aged 86.
## Honors
Jeannette received the Harmon Trophy in 1934. The National Aeronautic Association gave her a Certificate of Reward & Performance in 1935. In 1965 she received the first William Randolph Lovelace II Award from the American Astronautical Society (AAS). The University of Minnesota Alumni Association gave her an Outstanding Achievement Award in 1968 and engraved her name on their wall of honor. Graduate Women in Science, also known as Sigma Delta Epsilon, made her an honorary member "For Excellence In Scientific Research" in 1971. Hobart and William Smith Colleges gave her an honorary doctorate. She received the Robert R. Gilruth Award in 1970 from the North Galveston County Chamber of Commerce.
She was posthumously inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1998, and she and her husband were nominated to the FAI Ballooning Commission Hall of Fame. The Balloon Federation of America renamed its award the Piccard Memorial Trophy. Pat Donohue wrote Solo Flight, a one-woman play about Jeannette's life. The Bryn Mawr College Library has the Jeanette Ridlon Piccard Book Fund, which provides funds for the purchase of books on the history of religion. |
10,408,137 | 1909 Giro d'Italia | 1,156,151,508 | Cycling race | [
"1909 Giro d'Italia",
"1909 in Italian sport",
"1909 in road cycling",
"Giro d'Italia by year",
"May 1909 events in Europe",
"May 1909 sports events"
]
| The 1909 Giro d'Italia was the 1st edition of the Giro d'Italia, organized and sponsored by the italian major sport newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. The event began in Milan on 13 May with a 397 km (247 mi) first stage to Bologna, finishing back in Milan on 30 May after a final stage of 206 km (128 mi) and a total distance covered of 2,447.9 km (1,521 mi). The race was won by the Italian rider Luigi Ganna of the Atala team, with fellow Italians Carlo Galetti and Giovanni Rossignoli coming in second and third respectively.
Conceived by La Gazzetta to boost its circulation at the expense of its rival Corriere della Sera, the 1909 Giro was the first stage road race. Its eight stages, although relatively few compared to modern Grand Tours, were each much longer than those raced today. The event began with a long primarily flat stage that was won by Dario Beni. He lost the lead after the next stage to the eventual winner Luigi Ganna, who in turn lost it to Carlo Galetti after the mountainous third stage. Ganna regained the lead after the fourth stage and successfully defended it all the way to the finish in Milan, winning three stages en route. Atala won the team classification.
## Origin
The idea of holding a bicycle race around Italy was first suggested in a telegram sent by Tullo Margagni, editor of La Gazzetta dello Sport, to the paper's owner Emilio Costamagna and cycling editor Armando Cougnet. ''La Gazzettas rival, Corriere della Sera was planning to hold a bicycle race of its own, flushed with the success of its automobile race. Morgagni decided to try and hold the race before Corriere della Sera could hold theirs, and following La Gazzetta's success in creating the Giro di Lombardia and Milan–San Remo, Costamagna decided to back the idea. The inaugural Giro d'Italia bicycle race was announced on 7 August 1908 in the first page of that day's edition of La Gazzetta, to be held in May 1909. The idea of the race was influenced by the success of the French magazine L'Auto's organization of the Tour de France.
Since the newspaper lacked the necessary 25,000 lire to sponsor the race, the organizers consulted Primo Bongrani, a sympathetic accountant at the bank Cassa di Risparmio. He proceeded to solicit donations from all over Italy, and succeeded in raising sufficient money to cover the operating costs. The prize money came from a casino in San Remo after Francesco Sghirla, a former Gazzetta employee, encouraged them to contribute to the race. Even Corriere, La Gazzetta'''s rival, donated 3,000 lire.
## Rules and course
Both teams and individual riders were allowed to enter the race, which was run in eight stages with two to three rest days between each stage. Compared to modern races the stages were extraordinarily long, with an average distance of more than 300 km (190 mi), compared to the 165 km (103 mi) average stage length in the 2012 Giro d'Italia.
The route was primarily flat, although it did contain a few major ascents. The third stage contained ascents to Macerone, Rionero Sannitico, and Roccaraso. The Giro's sixth stage contained only one pass, the Passo Bracco. The seventh stage was the last to contain any major ascents: the climbs of the Colle di Nava and the ascent to San Bartolomeo.
Riders were required to sign in at checkpoints during each stage to minimize the opportunities for cheating; they were also photographed at the beginning and end of each stage, and the images compared by the judges. Riders could receive assistance when repairing their bicycles, but were not allowed to replace their machines if they became damaged during the course of the stage.
The inaugural Giro used a points system to determine the race winner. The organizers chose to have a points system over a system based around elapsed time after the scandal that engulfed the 1904 Tour de France. Another factor in the organizer's decision was that it would be cheaper to count the placings of the riders rather than clocking their times during each stage. The race leader was determined by adding up each rider's placing in each stage. Thus if a rider placed second in the first stage and third in the second stage he would have a total of five points, and whoever had the lowest points total was the leader. Under this system Luigi Ganna was declared the winner, but had the Giro been a time-based event he would have lost to the third-place finisher Giovanni Rossignoli by 37 minutes.
The winner of the general classification received a grand prize of 5,325 lire. Every rider who finished the race with more than 100 points without winning any prizes in any of the stages was given 100 lire.
## Participants
A total of 166 riders signed up to participate in the event. Twenty of the riders who entered were non-Italians: fifteen were French, two were German, one was Argentinian, one was Belgian, and one was from Trieste, which at the time was not a part of Italy. Only 127 riders started the first stage of the race, all but five of Italian descent, of whom only 49 reached the finish in Milan on 30 May. Riders were allowed to enter the race as independents or as a member of a team.
The two best-known Italians taking part in the race were Luigi Ganna and Giovanni Gerbi. Gerbi was the more successful of the two, having won the Giro di Lombardia, the Milano–Torino, and several other one-day races. Ganna had won Milan–San Remo earlier the same year – notably the first Italian winner of the race. The peloton also featured two Tour de France winners, Louis Trousselier and Lucien Petit-Breton, as well as two future Giro d'Italia winners: Carlo Galetti and Carlo Oriani.
## Race overview
The inaugural Giro d'Italia's first stage, 397 km (247 mi) from Milan to Bologna, began on 13 May 1909 at 2:53 am in front of a large crowd. 127 riders set off from the starting line outside La Gazzetta's headquarters in the Piazzale Loreto. The stage was marred by mechanical issues and crashes owing to bad weather, the first mass crash occurring before dawn less than 2 km (1 mi) from the start. Luigi Ganna, leading after the first real climb near Lake Garda, was delayed by a puncture with about 70 km (43 mi) to go and the other racers attacked, but he caught them again after they were stopped by a train crossing. The leading riders then made their way into Bologna, where Dario Beni won the stage. The second stage, 378.5 km (235 mi) long, saw the first uphill finish, into Chieti, where Giovanni Cuniolo edged out Ganna for the stage win. Ganna's second place was nevertheless high enough to make him the new race leader.
The third stage, to Naples, was 242.8 km (151 mi). Before the start, three riders were disqualified and subsequently removed from the race for taking a train during the second stage. They were caught after failing to pass through an unexpected checkpoint set up by the organizers. The start of the third stage was moved downhill after the opening descent was found to be too dangerous for the participants' brakes. The stage featured three major climbs. After the mountains Giovanni Rossignoli pursued the leader, Carlo Galetti, eventually catching him and going on to win the stage, while Galetti took the race lead away from Ganna. On the fourth stage, 228.1 km (142 mi) from Naples to the Italian capital Rome, French rider Louis Trousselier was doing well until he ran over tacks strewn on the road by spectators, and the other riders left him behind. Galetti and Ganna formed a group at the front and Ganna went on to win the stage in front of thousands of spectators, retaking the race lead by a single point.
The fifth stage was 346.5 km (215 mi) to Florence. Like the fourth, it was plagued by punctures. Luigi Ganna led until he had a flat tyre with about 10 km (6 mi) to go. A few riders passed him as he repaired it but he chased them down and won the stage. On the sixth stage, 294.4 km (183 mi) from Florence to Genoa, Carlo Galetti and Giovanni Rossignoli broke away from the leading group of seven as they neared the downhill finish, with Rossignoli winning the stage in front of a large crowd. Race leader Ganna had suffered more punctures but managed to fight his way back to finish third.
The seventh stage, 357 km (222 mi), was scheduled to run from Genoa to Turin. Massive crowds at the start led Armando Cougnet to introduce a rule forbidding riders to attack over the first few kilometers until the peloton was outside the city and the race proper could begin. There was also rumored to be close to 50,000 spectators and a bakers' strike in Turin, so Cougnet switched the finish to the city of Beinasco, about 6 km (4 mi) short of Turin. Ganna and Rossignoli led for most of the stage until about 6 km (4 mi) before the finish, when Ganna attacked and Rossignoli could not counter. Ganna's win extended his race lead over Carlo Galetti.
The eighth and final stage started in Turin, covered 206 km (128 mi), and finished in Milan in front of a crowd of more than 30,000. Ganna was amongst the leading group until he suffered a flat tyre. He managed to fight his way back until, with the leaders in sight, he had another puncture. The leading group pulled away until the race directors stopped them to let Ganna catch up. Escorted by mounted police, the riders then made their way into Milan's Arena Civica stadium for the finish. As the racers geared up for the sprint finish a police horse fell, causing a few riders to crash. Dario Beni avoided the incident and edged out Galetti for the stage win, with Ganna coming in third. Thus Ganna became the first winner of the Giro d'Italia. He and his team, Atala, also won the team classification.
## Results
### Stage results
### General classification
Forty-nine cyclists completed all eight stages. The points each received from their stage placings were added up for the general classification, and the winner was the rider with the fewest accumulated points. Ernesto Azzini won the prize for best ranked isolati rider in the general classification.
## Aftermath
The first Giro d'Italia was a great success, prompting organizers to arrange a second one for 1910. The race substantially increased La Gazzettas circulation, and the starts and finishes were attended by large audiences. Ganna's prize money helped him start his own bike factory in 1912. The newspaper ran the event through 1988, when the RCS Organizzazzioni Sportivi company was created to run it. |
56,103,656 | 2018 Milan–San Remo | 1,164,624,169 | Cycling race | [
"2018 UCI World Tour",
"2018 in Italian sport",
"2018 in road cycling",
"March 2018 sports events in Italy",
"Milan–San Remo"
]
| The 2018 Milan–San Remo (known as Milano-Sanremo presented by NAMEDSPORT\> for sponsorship reasons) was a road cycling one-day race that took place on 17 March 2018 in Italy. It was the 109th edition of the Milan–San Remo and the eighth event of the 2018 UCI World Tour.
The race was won by Vincenzo Nibali from the team, becoming the first Italian rider since Filippo Pozzato in 2006 to win La Classicissima. Nibali had attacked on the Poggio di San Remo, and managed to hold off the sprinters in the closing stages to seal victory. Caleb Ewan () led the sprinters home in second ahead of 's Arnaud Démare, the 2016 winner.
## Teams
As Milan–San Remo was a UCI World Tour event, all eighteen UCI WorldTeams were invited automatically and obliged to enter a team in the race. Seven UCI Professional Continental teams competed, completing the 25-team peloton. Each team was allowed to bring seven riders to the race, leading to a field made up of 175 riders.
## Route
As one of the sports monuments, Milan–San Remo – generally considered to be a sprinters' classic – is among the highest-rated races in professional cycling. The 2018 route was initially scheduled to be 291 km (181 mi) long, running from the Via della Chiesa Rossa in Milan to the traditional finish on San Remo's Via Roma. The final part of the race included the climbs of the Cipressa and the Poggio, which usually prove decisive for the race outcome. Also on the route, the riders also had to tackle the 35 km (22 mi) climb of the Passo dello Turchino, although it was not considered to be a key point in the race. After the Turchino, the route followed the Aurelia road along the coast from Genoa all the way to the finish in Sanremo. With a little over 50 km (31 mi) left to go, the first of the coastal climbs started with the Capo Mele, the Capo Cervo and the Capo Berta, before meeting the final two climbs leading to the finish.
The day before the race, it was announced that the race was to be lengthened to 294 km (183 mi) with a diversion after the original 100 km (62 mi) mark, at Basaluzzo.
## Pre-race favourites
Three-time world champion Peter Sagan () was considered the highest ranked favourite for the victory. Unlike others in the field, he was considered as a rider who could win both through a bunch sprint as well as a late attack on the final climb. He came into the race with good form, having finished second on three stages of Tirreno–Adriatico, a stage race held before Milan–San Remo. Michał Kwiatkowski (), the defending champion, was also considered a strong favourite, as he had won the general classification at Tirreno–Adriatico. Julian Alaphilippe (), who was third in 2017, was also counted among the favourites for the race. While Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe were considered to have to rely on a breakaway on one of the final climbs, several sprinters were counted among the favourites if a larger group reached the finish line together. 2014 winner Alexander Kristoff () was among them, as was Arnaud Démare (), who won the race in 2016, but had to withdraw from Paris–Nice due to a cold.
Other strong sprinters at the start line were Elia Viviani (), Matteo Trentin (), Edvald Boasson Hagen (), Magnus Cort (), André Greipel () and Marcel Kittel (), who took part in the race for the first time. Michael Matthews (), usually also a favourite, was not given a strong chance due to a fractured shoulder, suffered three weeks prior at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. 2015 winner John Degenkolb () missed the race due to illness, as did his teammate Giacomo Nizzolo. Fernando Gaviria () also missed the race, because of a fractured hand suffered at Tirreno–Adriatico. His teammate Philippe Gilbert, who had finished on the podium of Milan–San Remo twice before, aimed at a victory to get closer to his goal of winning all five "monument races" of cycling. More riders considered to potentially play their hand on one of the climbs before the finish were Vincenzo Nibali (), Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet (), Gianni Moscon () and Nathan Haas ().
## Race report
The race started in heavy rain in Milan. The rolling start took place at 10:13 am local time at the Via della Chiesa Rossa outside of the city. An early breakaway formed, consisting of Mirco Maestri and Lorenzo Rota (both ), Evgeny Kobernyak (), Guy Sagiv and Dennis van Winden (both ), Sho Hatsuyama (), Charles Planet (), Matteo Bono () and Jacopo Mosca (). The maximum time gap the group held was six minutes after about an hour of racing.
The peloton began to pull back on the Passo Turchino climb, cutting the break's lead to 4:30 minutes by the summit, though it extended back to five minutes as the riders reached the sea front. With the roads still wet, a crash in the field involved both Kristoff and Greipel among others. With 70 km (43 mi) of the race to go, the rain eased up. By the first of the so-called Capi climbs 50 km (31 mi) from the finish, the breakaway's lead was down to two minutes. At the Cappo Berta, with 39 km (24 mi) left, the lead had decreased further to half a minute, while the high tempo in the field distanced Marcel Kittel. Maestri attacked from the break on the descent, taking Rota, van Winden, and Bono with him. However, they were caught at San Lorenzo al Mare, 30 km (19 mi) before the finish.
As the field reached the climb of the Cipressa, more riders failed to keep contact with the field's high pace. However, no major attacks were launched. At the base of the Poggio climb, and set the tempo. Mark Cavendish () had to retire after a spectacular accident in which he hit a traffic bollard and crashed onto the road. Marcus Burghardt () led the first acceleration on the climb, with Jempy Drucker () following. Drucker moved past Burghardt but was reeled back by the squad. Krists Neilands () attacked shortly before the summit and Vincenzo Nibali reacted, leaving Neilands shortly thereafter and heading towards the finish on his own. His lead at the summit was 12 seconds. Matteo Trentin () tried to counter the attack on the descent, but was unable to do so. At the bottom of the descent, Nibali's lead was nine seconds over a larger group of riders. Alaphilippe set the pace as they tried to reach Nibali before the line, but to no avail. Nibali won the race just ahead of Caleb Ewan and Arnaud Démare, who led out the sprint from the group behind. It was Nibali's third victory in one of cycling's "monument" races, having won Il Lombardia twice before. He was also the first Italian to win the race since Filippo Pozzato in 2006.
## Post-race
Following his victory, Nibali thanked his teammates for their efforts. He described the final kilometres of the race as "endless – pure suffering." He added: "I was very cold and calculating. I knew I was working for the team. When I attacked, I knew I had to go alone, and it was that way". Second-placed Caleb Ewan stated that he was surprised to have been so close to victory. He felt that the race had gone his way, adding: "All that went wrong for us is that Vincenzo was too strong." Sixth-placed Peter Sagan congratulated Nibali on his win, saying: "He deserves it. None of us had any means against his attack."
Mark Cavendish's crash, which left him with a broken rib, caused him to miss the 2018 Commonwealth Games. André Greipel, who suffered two crashes in the last 4 km (2.5 mi) of the race, was forced to miss the rest of the spring classics season due to a broken collarbone.
## Result
Results show only the top-ten finishers. |
4,734,464 | River Brue | 1,105,700,124 | River in Somerset, England | [
"Brue catchment",
"Rivers of Somerset",
"Somerset Levels"
]
| The River Brue originates in the parish of Brewham in Somerset, England, and reaches the sea some 50 kilometres (31 mi) west at Burnham-on-Sea. It originally took a different route from Glastonbury to the sea, but this was changed by Glastonbury Abbey in the twelfth century. The river provides an important drainage route for water from a low-lying area which is prone to flooding which man has tried to manage through rhynes, canals, artificial rivers and sluices for centuries.
The Brue Valley Living Landscape is an ecological conservation project based on the Somerset Levels and Moors and managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. The valley includes several Sites of Special Scientific Interest including Westhay Moor, Shapwick Heath and Shapwick Moor. Much of the area has been at the centre of peat extraction on the Somerset Levels. The Brue Valley Living Landscape project commenced in January 2009 to restore and reconnect habitat that will support wildlife. The aim is to be able to sustain itself in the face of climate change while guaranteeing farmers and other landowners can continue to use their land profitably. It is one of an increasing number of landscape scale conservation projects in the UK.
## Course
The River Brue originates in hills to the southwest of the catchment area, close to the border with Dorset. The same hills are the locale of the sources of the River Wylye and the Dorset Stour which flow south to the English Channel. It descends quickly in a narrow valley to a point just beyond Bruton where it is joined by the River Pitt. Here it takes a meandering route through a broad, flat-bottomed valley between Castle Cary and Alhampton. By the time it reaches Baltonsborough it is only some 10 metres (33 ft) above sea level and the surrounding countryside is drained into it by way of numerous rhynes. It passes Glastonbury, where it acts as a natural boundary with nearby village of Street, before flowing in a largely artificial channel across the Somerset Levels and into the River Parrett at Burnham-on-Sea. It is joined by the North Drain, White's River (which takes the water of the River Sheppey, Cripps River (an artificial channel that connects it to the River Huntspill) and many drainage rhynes). It is connect to the River Axe through several of these channels which are controlled by sluices. It is tidal below the sluices at New Clyce Bridge in Highbridge.
Bow Bridge is a 15th-century Packhorse bridge over the River Brue in Plox, Bruton. It is a Grade I listed building, and scheduled monument. The bridge may have been built as a link between the former Bruton Abbey, and its courthouse in the High Street. The bridge was restored after floods in 1982.
The River Brue has a long history of flooding. Its lower reaches are close to sea level, and the river above Bruton drains an area of 31 square kilometres (12 sq mi) into a steep and narrow valley. In 1984 a protective dam was built 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) upstream from the town.
The valley includes several Sites of Special Scientific Interest including Westhay Moor, Shapwick Heath and Shapwick Moor. Much of the area has been at the centre of peat extraction on the Somerset Levels. Large areas of peat were laid down on the Somerset Levels, particularly in the River Brue Valley, during the Quaternary period after the ice sheets melted. The extraction of peat from the Moors is known to have taken place during Roman times, and has been carried out since the Levels were first drained. Peat extraction on the Somerset Moors continues today, although much reduced.
## History
The area is known to have been occupied since the Neolithic when people exploited the reedswamps for their natural resources and started to construct wooden trackways such as the Sweet and Post Tracks. The Sweet Track, named after the peat digger who discovered it in 1970 and dating from the 3800s BC, is the world's oldest timber trackway, once thought to be the world's oldest engineered roadway. The track was built between what was in the early 4th millennium BC an island at Westhay and a ridge of high ground at Shapwick, close to the River Brue. The remains of similar tracks have been uncovered nearby, connecting settlements on the peat bog including the Honeygore, Abbotts Way, Bells, Bakers, Westhay and Nidons trackways.
The Levels contain the best-preserved prehistoric village in the UK, Glastonbury Lake Village, as well as two others at Meare Lake Village. Discovered in 1892 by Arthur Bulleid, it was inhabited by about 200 people living in 14 roundhouses, and was built on a morass on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, bracken, rubble and clay.
The valley was used during Romano-British period when it was the site of salt extraction. At that time, the Brue formed a lake just south of the hilly ground on which Glastonbury stands. According to legend this lake is one of the locations suggested by Arthurian legend as the home of the Lady of the Lake. Pomparles Bridge stood at the western end of this lake, guarding Glastonbury from the south, and it is suggested that it was here that Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the waters after King Arthur fell at the Battle of Camlann. John Leland noted in the 16th century that the bridge had four arches, while W. Phelps in an 1839 illustration as having only two arches, one pointed, probably from the 14th or 15th century, and the other round. Excavations in 1912 found the remains of a second round arch regarded as 12th century work. The current concrete arch bridge was built in 1911 and extended in 1972. It carries the A39 road over the Brue.
### Alteration of route
Before the 13th century the direct route to the sea at Highbridge was blocked by gravel banks and peat near Westhay. The course of the river partially encircled Glastonbury from the south, around the western side (through Beckery), and then north through the Panborough-Bleadney gap in the Wedmore-Wookey Hills, to join the River Axe just north of Bleadney. This route made it difficult for the officials of Glastonbury Abbey to transport produce from their outlying estates to the Abbey, and when the valley of the river Axe was in flood it backed up to flood Glastonbury itself. Sometime between 1230 and 1250 a new channel was constructed westwards into Meare Pool north of Meare, and further westwards to Mark Moor. It then divided into two channels, one the Pilrow cut flowing north through Mark to join the Axe near Edingworth, and the other directly west to the sea at Highbridge. During monastic times, there were several fish weirs along the lower reaches of the river. They used either nets or baskets, the fishing rights belonging to the Bishop of Bath and Wells and the Abbot of Glastonbury.
### Drainage improvements
Between 1774 and 1797 a series of enclosures took place in the Brue valley between the Poldens and Wedmore. In 1794 the annual floods filled the whole of the Brue valley. Work by the Commissioners of Sewers led to the 1801 Brue Drainage Act which enabled sections at Highbridge and Cripp's Bridge to be straightened, and new feeder channels such as the North and South Drains to be constructed. In 1803 the clyse at Highbridge, which had been built before 1485, was replaced and moved further downstream.
The area around Bruton has suffered over the centuries. The earliest recorded damage was in 1768 when a stone bridge was destroyed after the river rose very rapidly. On 28 June 1917, 242.8 millimetres (9.56 in) of rain fell in 24 hours at Bruton, leaving a water mark on one pub 20 feet (6.1 m) above the normal level of the river. In 1982 extensive flooding occurred in the town, and as a result in 1984 a protective dam was built 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) upstream from the town.
### 19th, 20th and 21st centuries
The mouth of the River Brue had an extensive harbour in Roman and Saxon times, before silting up in the medieval period. It was used again as a small harbour in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in 1833 the port of Highbridge was formally opened on the river. A new wharf, known as Clyce Wharf, was built on the Huntspill side of the river mouth by 1904, and was used for the import of coal and the export of bricks and tiles and agricultural products. The port closed in 1949.
Both Galton's Canal and Brown's Canal, which were built in the early 19th century, were connected to the river. The Glastonbury Canal used the course of the River Brue from Highbridge to Cripp's Bridge, and part of the South Drain to Ashcott Corner. The Glastonbury Canal ran for just over 14 miles (23 km) through two locks from Glastonbury to Highbridge, where it entered the River Parrett and from there the Bristol Channel. The canal was authorised by Parliament in 1827 and opened in 1834. It was operated by The Glastonbury Navigation & Canal Company. Most of it was abandoned as a navigation in 1854, when a railway was built along the towpath.
During the Second World War the Brue was incorporated into GHQ Line and many pillboxes were constructed along the river. Gants Mill at Pitcombe, near Bruton, is a watermill which is still used to mill cattle feed. A 12 kilowatts (16 hp) hydroelectric turbine was recently installed at the site. There has been a mill here since the 13th century, but the current building was built in 1810.
Following summer floods of 1997 and the prolonged flooding of 1999–2000 the Parrett Catchment Project was formed, partly funded by the European Union Regional Development Fund, by 30 organisations, including British Waterways, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Countryside Agency, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Environment Agency, Kings Sedgemoor and Cary Vale Internal Drainage Board (now part of Parrett Internal Drainage Board), Levels and Moors Partnership, National Farmers Union, Sedgemoor, Somerset County Council, South Somerset District Council, Taunton Deane and Wessex Water. They aim to tackle twelve areas, which, when combined, will make a significant contribution to reducing the adverse effects of flooding. These include the conversion of arable land, adoption of the Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) approach to controlling rainwater runoff from developed areas, dredging, raising riverbanks and improving pumping facilities. Further studies of the possible beneficial effects of woodland in reducing flooding have also been undertaken.
During the winter flooding of 2013–14 on the Somerset Levels the River Brue overflowed at new year, during the rain and storms from Storm Dirk, with many residents asking for the Environment Agency to resume river dredging. On 24 January 2014, in light of the continued flooded extent of the Somerset Moors and forecast new rainfall as part of the winter storms of 2013–14 in the United Kingdom, both Somerset County Council and Sedgemoor District Council declared a major incident, as defined under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. At this time, with 17,000 acres (6,900 ha) of agricultural land having been under water for over a month, the village of Thorney was abandoned and Muchelney was cut off by flood waters for almost a month. Northmoor Green, which is more commonly known as Moorland, was also severely affected. By the end of January, 17,000 acres (6,900 ha) of agricultural land, including North Moor, Curry and Hay Moors and Greylake, had been under water for over a month. Bridgwater was partly flooded on 10 February 2014, when with 20,000 sandbags ready to be deployed. Over 600 houses were flooded, and both flooding and groundwater disrupted services including trains on the Bristol to Exeter line between Bridgwater and Taunton. Further preventative work under the title of the "Brue Catchment River Maintenance Pilot Project" has led to controversy about the need for dredging and maintenance of the river.
## Hydrology and water quality
At Bruton Dam, the nearest measuring station to the source of the river, the normal level of the river is between 0.6 metres (2 ft 0 in) and 2.08 metres (6 ft 10 in) with the highest level ever recorded being 10.7 metres (35 ft) in 2007. Within the town of Bruton at Bruton Surgery the normal level is between 0.17 metres (6.7 in) and 0.69 metres (2 ft 3 in). Further downstream at Lovington the normal level is between 0.08 metres (3.1 in) and 0.56 metres (1 ft 10 in). The furthest downstream monitoring station at Clyse Hole near Street records a normal range of 0.15 metres (5.9 in) and 0.49 metres (1 ft 7 in).
For the purposes of monitoring of water quality the Brue and Axe are considered together. In 2013 19 water bodies within the area were considered to have moderate water quality with two being poor and four good quality. Agriculture and rural land management is the largest factor affecting water quality followed by the water industry. Transport, industry and manufacturing also have an effect.
## Ecology
The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a UK conservation project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. The project commenced in January 2009 and aims to restore habitat. It aims to help wildlife sustain itself in the face of climate change while guaranteeing farmers and other landowners can continue to use their land profitably. It is one of an increasing number of landscape scale conservation projects in the UK.
The project covers an area of approximately 12,500 hectares (31,000 acres) encompassing the floodplain of the River Brue from a little east of Glastonbury to beyond the Catcott, Edington and Chilton Moors SSSI in the west. Almost a quarter of the project area is designated as Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar site. The project area accounts for almost half of the Somerset Levels and Moors Special Protection Area. The area includes land already managed for conservation by organisations including Somerset Wildlife Trust, Natural England, the Hawk and Owl Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. These include Shapwick Heath national nature reserve, Westhay Moor, Catcott Lows National Nature Reserve, Ham Wall and Shapwick Moor. There are 25 scheduled monuments and 746 Historic Environment Records in the project area including internationally important sites such at the Glastonbury Lake Village and Sweet Track. Research on the Somerset Levels and Moors has been crucial to the understanding of the natural and human history of wetlands. The project is based solely on the peat-based soils of the Somerset Moors. It does not extend on to the marine clay soils of the more westerly Levels.
The project has set out their major objectives. These include mapping and research on the Brue Valley, engagement with local government, farmers, the conservation sector and other interest community members, to produce a shared local vision. It is hoped to create larger and better connected patches of important habitats, in a way which also benefits the local economy and rural society. The project has received funding from the European Regional Development Fund (via the WAVE project), Natural England's Wetland Vision and the Viridor Credits scheme.
One of the project's goals is to protect, restore and create areas of reedbed, grazing marsh, fen, raised bog, lowland meadow, purple moor grass and rush pastures and wet woodland. Species of conservation concern (UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species) that are likely to benefit from this project include plants such as: divided sedge (Carex divisa), English sticky eyebright (Euphrasia anglica), greater water parsnip (Sium latifolium), lesser butterfly orchid (Platanthera bifolia), marsh stitchwort (Stellaria palustris) and tubular water dropwort (Oenanthe fistulosa). The flora provides a habitat for several species of invertebrates. These include moths such as the argent and sable moth (Rheumaptera hastata) and narrow bordered bee hawk-moth (Hemaris tityus). While butterfly species include the small heath (Coenonympha pamphilus), pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne) and small pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria selene). Beetles found in the valley include the lesser silver water beetle (Hydrochara caraboides) and one-grooved diving beetle (Bidessus unistriatus). There are also shining ram's-horn snails (Segmentina nitida) and shrill carder bees (Bombus sylvarum).
The River Brue and its tributaries support a population of European eels (Anguilla anguilla). Reptiles found include the European adder (Vipera berus) and grass snake (Natrix natrix). Multiple bird species include Bewick's swan (Cygnus columbianus bewickii), Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris), Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula), \*Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope), European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), gadwall (Anas strepera), grasshopper warbler (Locustella naevia), hen harrier (Circus cyaneus), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), linnet (Carduelis cannabina), marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), marsh tit (Poecile palustris), merlin (Falco columbarius), northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), peregrine (Falco peregrinus), reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), short-eared owl (Asio flammeus), skylark (Alauda arvensis), song thrush (Turdus philomelos), teal (Anas cracca), willow tit (Poecile montanus) and yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella).
Mammalian species of interest include the brown hare (Lepus europaeus), Eurasian harvest mouse (Micromys minutus), European otter (Lutra lutra) and water vole (Arvicola terrestris).
## Recreation
Anglers will find pike in excess of 20 pounds (9.1 kg), with good stocks of chub, dace, roach, bream, tench, perch, rudd, and gudgeon. There are trout in the upper reaches. There are several access points along the river suitable for canoeing, and the river has been paddled as far up as Bruton, but above West Lydford only after recent rain. There are public footpaths alongside many stretches of the river. There are also areas of the river that serve as desirable spots for wild swimming.
## Rail access
Highbridge and Burnham railway station provides access. There is further 2 miles (3.2 km) walk or cycle westwards mainly alongside the River Brue, following the approximate flat path way of the former S&DJR extension route, takes the traveller into Burnham-on-Sea. |
61,129,045 | 1992 Football League Fourth Division play-off final | 1,170,273,054 | Association football match | [
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| The 1992 Football League Fourth Division play-off Final was an association football match which was played on 23 May 1992 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Blackpool and Scunthorpe United to determine the fourth and final team to gain promotion from the Football League Fourth Division to the Third Division. The top three teams of the 1991–92 Football League Fourth Division, Burnley, Rotherham United and Mansfield Town, gained automatic promotion, while those placed from fourth to seventh place took part in play-offs. The winners of the play-off semi-finals competed for the final place in the Third Division for the 1992–93 season. Blackpool and Scunthorpe United beat Barnet and Crewe Alexandra, respectively, in the semi-finals.
The match was refereed by Keith Hackett in front of 22,741 spectators. In the 40th minute, Tony Rodwell won the ball from Scunthorpe's Paul Longden and his cross found Dave Bamber at the far post who scored through the legs of goalkeeper Mark Samways with a low header. Scunthorpe equalised in the 52nd minute. Tony Daws received a pass from John Buckley which he volleyed past Steve McIlhargey in the Blackpool goal to make it 1–1. No further goals were scored and with the score level, the game went into extra time. Both sides had chances to score in the additional period but the game headed to a penalty shootout. The first six penalties were converted, making it 3–3, before the two Scunthorpe substitutes Graham Alexander and Jason White failed to score, and Blackpool won the shootout 4–3, securing promotion to the third tier of English football.
Blackpool's next season saw them finish in eighteenth in the newly renamed Second Division (still the third tier of English football). Scunthorpe ended their following season in thirteenth position in the newly renamed Third Division (which remained the fourth tier of English football).
## Route to the final
Blackpool finished the regular 1991–92 season in fourth position in the Football League Fourth Division, the fourth tier of the English football league system, one place and four points ahead of Scunthorpe United. Both therefore missed out on the three automatic places for promotion to the Third Division and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the fourth promoted team. Blackpool finished one point behind Mansfield Town and Rotherham United (who were promoted in third and second place respectively, the latter with superior goal difference), and seven behind league winners Burnley.
Scunthorpe United's opponents for their play-off semi-final were Crewe Alexandra with the first match of the two-legged tie taking place at Gresty Road in Crewe on 10 May 1992. Craig Hignett gave Crewe the lead after six minutes with a strike from the edge of the Scunthorpe penalty area before Ian Helliwell equalised from close range eleven minutes later. He then scored his and Scunthorpe's second with a header ten minutes before half-time. In the 39th minute, Hignett's shot rebounded off the Scunthorpe goal-post and fell to Tony Naylor who scored to level the score. The second half was goalless and the match ended 2–2. The second leg was held three days later at Glanford Park in Scunthorpe. After a goalless first half, Dean Martin put the home side ahead in the 83rd minute before Ian Hamilton added a second one minute before full time to give Scunthorpe a 2–0 win and a 4–2 aggregate victory.
Blackpool faced Barnet in the other semi-final and the first match was played on 10 May 1992 at Underhill in London. Mark Carter scored from close range in the 27th minute when Carl Hoddle's shot was not gathered by Blackpool's goalkeeper Steve McIlhargey to give Barnet the lead. With the second half goalless, the match ended 1–0. The second leg took place three days later at Bloomfield Road in Blackpool. Both Dave Bamber and Mitch Cook made goal-line clearances for Blackpool after McIlhargey failed to clear crosses, but in the 41st minute, the home side took the lead. Bamber headed a corner from David Eyres back across goal for Paul Groves who scored with a header from close range. After McIlhargey had made a save to deny a diving header from Jonathan Hunt, Andy Garner doubled Blackpool's lead from the penalty spot after Mick Bodley was penalised for handball. Blackpool won the match 2–0 and progressed to the final with a 2–1 aggregate victory.
## Match
### Background
This was Blackpool's second appearance in the play-offs and their second final: they had lost to Torquay United on penalties in the 1991 Football League Fourth Division play-off final at the old Wembley Stadium. Blackpool had been relegated to the fourth tier of English football in the 1989–90 season. Scunthorpe United were participating in their fourth play-offs in five seasons but were appearing in the final for the first time. They had been relegated to the Fourth Division in the 1983–84 season. The two sides had faced one another in the 1991 Football League play-offs, with Blackpool securing a 3–2 aggregate victory. During the regular 1991–92 season, both sides won their home matches 2–1, Blackpool winning at Bloomfield Road in August 1991 and Scunthorpe victorious at Glandford Park the following December.
The referee for the match was Keith Hackett. Both sides adopted a 4–4–2 formation for the final.
### Summary
The match kicked off around 3 p.m. on 23 May 1992 at Wembley Stadium in hot conditions with 22,741 spectators in attendance. Scunthorpe made the better start, although in the 30th minute, Tony Rodwell made an opportunity for Bamber to score but he missed. In the 39th minute Hamilton sliced the ball over the Blackpool goal from around 8 yards (7.3 m) and a minute later, Blackpool took the lead. Rodwell won the ball from Scunthorpe's Paul Longden and his cross found Bamber at the far post who scored through the legs of Mark Samways with a low header. Neither side made any personnel changes at half time. In a much more open second half, Scunthorpe equalised in the 52nd minute. Tony Daws received a pass from John Buckley which he volleyed past McIlhargey in the Blackpool goal to make it 1–1. In the 68th minute, Blackpool made their first substitution of the match with Jamie Murphy coming on to replace Mike Davies. No further goals were scored and with the score level, the game went into extra time.
During the additional time, Bamber's shot passed just outside the Scunthorpe post and Samways made a save to deny a strike from Rodwell. Scunthorpe made a double-substitution at the beginning of the second half of extra time with Jason White and Graham Alexander, two 20-year-olds, coming on in place of Daws and Buckley. With no change to the scoreline after 120 minutes, the match went to a penalty shootout. The first six spot-kicks were converted, making it 3–3, before Alexander's weak shot was saved by McIlhargey. Eyres then made it 4–3 to Blackpool before White struck his penalty over the crossbar. Blackpool won the shootout 4–3 and secured promotion to the third tier of English football.
### Details
## Post-match
Bill Green, the Scunthorpe manager, described it as "a very, very sad way to lose". His counterpart, Billy Ayre, was sympathetic: "It is like judging a marathon on a 40-yard sprint ... It is not a fair way of doing it and now I can say that without it sounding like sour grapes." Bamber suggested that Blackpool were worthy winners: "We finished higher in the League ... We deserved it. Justice was done."
Blackpool's next season saw them finish in eighteenth in the newly renamed Second Division (which remained third tier of English football). Scunthorpe ended their following season in thirteenth position in the newly renamed Third Division (which remained the fourth tier of English football). |
38,675,312 | Britt Dillmann | 1,157,044,137 | German wheelchair basketball player (born 1963) | [
"1963 births",
"Forwards (basketball)",
"German women's wheelchair basketball players",
"Living people",
"Medalists at the 1988 Summer Paralympics",
"Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics",
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"Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball",
"Paralympic silver medalists for Germany",
"Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for Germany",
"Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf",
"Wheelchair basketball players at the 1988 Summer Paralympics",
"Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics"
]
| Britt Dillmann (born 4 April 1963) is a 1.0-point wheelchair basketball forward, who plays for RSV Lahn-Dill in the German wheelchair basketball league. She has also played for the national team, winning a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul. She retired soon afterwards, but staged a comeback in 2011, rejoining the national team, which went on to win the European championships, and then a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf).
## Biography
Britt Tuna was born on 4 April 1963. She played wheelchair basketball for RSV Lahn-Dill, and the German national team which won the European Wheelchair Basketball Championship in 1987. At the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, Tuna was considered to be the strongest wheelchair basketball player in her 1.0-point class. The German team went through the tournament undefeated until the final match, which they lost to the United States, 38–31. Tuna was bitter about the defeat, which she blamed on a tactical error by the German coach. She later conceded, "So habe ihr diese Niederlage noch über Jahre nachgehangen" ("I indulged in this defeat for many years").
In the early 1990s, Tuna quit basketball to focus on her work. She married, changing her surname to Dillmann, and raised three children (Jana Dillmann, Charlotte Dillmann, Valentin Joshua Dillmann). But in the summer of 2009, Dillmann felt that she had become overweight and unfit. A low-carbohydrate diet and daily exercise at the gym, in the pool, and on the handcycle, saw her weight drop by 30 kilograms (66 lb) in a year.
Dillmann then decided to try wheelchair basketball again. She retrieved her old basketball chair, now somewhat mouldy and smelly, from the basement, and sought a game with her old team, RSV Lahn-Dill. Her debut game with the seconds saw the basketball officials reaching for their rulebooks to see if the old chair, of a type they had never seen, was still legal.
Although RSV Lahn-Dill, eager to develop young players, would only let her play in the seconds, Dillmann caught the attention of national coach Holger Glinicki, who was looking for a top-notch 1.0-point player. In 2010, she rejoined the national team that she had played on before many of her new teammates were born. The team went on to win the European Championships in 2011. Dillmann's treatment contrasted with that of national teammate Gesche Schünemann. While Schünemann received endorsements and could train in the hall of RSV Lahn-Dill's Rivers Barracks, Dillmann got none, and trained outdoors.
In June 2012 she was named as one of the team that competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London. At the age of 49, she was the oldest wheelchair basketball player there. In the Gold Medal match, the team faced the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, a team that had beaten them 48–46 in Sydney just a few months before. They defeated the Australians 44–58 in front of a crowd of over 12,000 at the North Greenwich Arena to win the gold medal, the first that Germany had won in women's wheelchair basketball in 28 years. They were awarded a Silver Laurel Leaf by president Joachim Gauck in November 2012, and were again named Team of the Year for 2012. For Dillmann, the gold medal victory removed the pain of the loss 24 years before. "Das hat mich versöhnt mit Seoul" ("This has reconciled me with Seoul") she said.
## Achievements
- 1987: Gold at the European Championships (Lorient, France)
- 1988: Silver at Paralympic Games (Seoul, South Korea)
- 2011: Gold at the European Championships (Nazareth, Israel)
- 2012: Gold at the Paralympic Games (London, England)
## Awards
- 2012: Team of the Year
- 2012: Silver Laurel Leaf |
32,639,547 | The Drug in Me Is You | 1,171,873,241 | null | [
"2011 debut albums",
"Albums produced by Michael Baskette",
"Emo albums by American artists",
"Epitaph Records albums",
"Falling in Reverse albums",
"Glam metal albums",
"Hard rock albums by American artists",
"Metalcore albums by American artists",
"Pop punk albums by American artists"
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| The Drug in Me Is You is the debut studio album by American rock band Falling in Reverse. Production for the album took place following lead singer Ronnie Radke's departure from Escape the Fate in 2008. Recording took place in December 2010 and lasted until February 2011 at Paint it Black Studios in Orlando, Florida. Michael Baskette, who worked with Radke on Escape the Fate's Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, returned as the executive producer for the album, alongside former bandmate Omar Espinosa and others as additional composers and production aids in the studio. The Drug in Me Is You was released on July 25, 2011, in Europe and Japan, and on July 26, 2011, in the United States.
The album charted at number 19 on the US Billboard 200, selling 18,000 copies in its first week in the United States. It also charted internationally on the national album charts in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. By December 2019, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Upon release, The Drug in Me Is You received mixed reviews. Critics consistently noted the contrast between hardcore music and pop music on the tracks, but to mixed reception. Overall, the lyrics were viewed as being cliché while Radke's singing and return to making music were noted. In addition, critics focused on the bitter relationship between Radke and his former band, Escape the Fate, in which reviewers noticed the choice to attack the band in many of the album's tracks. The Drug in Me Is You was chosen by the Guitar World magazine as the album number 21 among the top 50 albums of 2011.
It is the only album that features founding bassist Nason Schoeffler and drummer Scott Gee.
## Background
In 2006, Ronnie Radke was involved in an altercation in Las Vegas that resulted in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Cook, eventually leading to Radke's two-year imprisonment for parole violation. Following his incarceration and forced departure from his old band, Escape the Fate, Radke formed Falling in Reverse with the help of longtime friend Nason Schoeffler, who found band members and visited Radke while he was in prison. However, Radke was unable to work with the band prior to his release on December 12, 2010. After going through a few bassists and drummers, the band prepared to record their full-length debut album. After the album finished production, bassist and founding member Nason Schoeffler and drummer Scott Gee left the band, making the album their only release with the band. Former Aiden, I Am Ghost, and The Bigger Lights drummer Ryan Seaman replaced Scott Gee and former Cellador member Mika Horiuchi took over bass for Schoeffler.
Originally conceived as a double album, the band's debut was originally going to contain one disc of post-hardcore and another with pop punk. This was eventually scrapped in favor for a single album, soon confirmed to be titled, The Drug in Me Is You. The band also confirmed that Radke's friend, Michael Baskette, who had previously worked on Blessthefall's album Witness and Escape the Fate's debut Dying Is Your Latest Fashion (which was also with Radke), would produce the album. Radke announced that the album would be released in 2011 by Epitaph Records, Radke's former label with Escape the Fate. The album was slated for a July 26, 2011 release date, with pre-orders scheduled for June 7.
## Recording and production
In December 2010, the band began composing songs together for the first time. They announced on December 20 that they would go to Orlando, Florida to record a full-length debut album over a period of two months with a tentative release date of the first quarter of 2011. The eleven song track list was released soon after. With the help of Executive Producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette, mixing and tracking for the album concluded on April 2, 2011. Speaking about working with Baskette as producer, Radke said, "The dude’s a genius, he really is. I don’t know if he’s under the radar or anything, but the guy knows what he’s doing. He’s a vocalist guy. That’s why me and him get along so well."
The Drug in Me Is You has been described as post-hardcore and pop punk. The songs also included synths, pop-choruses, and other sounds. Radke commented on the inclusion of different genres in songs, comparing different parts of the same song to the sounds of Norma Jean, Underoath, and Katy Perry. Lyrically, according to Radke, some of the songs on the album had tones of being arrogant, comparing the attitude to that commonly found in rap music. This is because Radke has cited Eminem as one of his major influences, so much so that he even included a beat made by Eminem and Dr. Dre during a breakdown on the track "Sink or Swim". In an interview, Radke's experiences were compared to Eminem's, noting that, "[Eminem] is someone who has been knocked down and knocked down, and he’s gotten back up again. Time and time again. And he’s triumphed." While the album itself was written during Radke's time in prison, he does not consider it a "Jailhouse record", though some songs that did not make the album do address a prison theme.
The lyrics for the album were all written by Radke during his imprisonment. He has often called the album a breakup record, but with a band and not a girl. Radke said that, "I would think all day, for days and days, [about] what people would want to hear. I would dissect my old album and read all the fan letters and the reasons why they loved my band and why they listened to it. And I wrote about that, but in different ways. I don’t know why these kids love the tragedies that I write about. I guess they can relate to it." Also on the writing process, Radke said that his lyrics were much more evolved than his past works and that he felt this was a high-point for the post-hardcore genre, owing success to being incarcerated and writing lyrics for two years with no other musical influences. The title, The Drug in Me Is You, came from Radke's experiences concerning his previous self-destructive behavior, which Radke explained that, "We named it that because ... It's me, looking in the mirror, saying, 'I am my own worst [enemy]. I do the worst damage to myself — more than anybody else can to do me.'"
Some things explored in the album were Radke's personal experiences, which include his mother, the corruption of Las Vegas, and his incarceration in prison due to multiple run-ins with the law involving narcotics and battery charges related to the death of Michael Cook. Radke stated that he chose not to write any songs about love because, "...I'm not going to lie ... and try to write songs on how much I love somebody. I do have love, but there will be a lot of songs about just what I’ve been through." Several songs focused on his departure from Escape the Fate after they kicked him out and replaced him with former Blessthefall singer Craig Mabbitt, with songs on the album that directly attacked both Mabbitt and Escape the Fate bassist Max Green. Prior to the album's release, Radke discussed what he intended to say about Escape the Fate on certain tracks, stating in an interview that he believed that the band's first album without Radke, This War Is Ours, was named after the conflict over Mabbitt taking over Radke's position in Escape the Fate. The band has since claimed it was not written about Radke, but he did not believe them.
## Singles and promotion
To promote the album, the band announced the dates for their first live performances, which would take place at the end of July following their debut album's release at certain locations in California, with one date scheduled in Texas on September 24, 2011. These shows were planned to be with supporting act Vampires Everywhere. However, the July dates were postponed due to issues with guitarist Jacky Vincent's immigration visa, though the band voiced intentions to make these dates up. This meant that the band's first live performances would be at the Vans Warped Tour 2011 from August 10 to 14 for five shows on the Advent Clothing Stage throughout the western United States. However, the band played a few secret shows under the name "Goodbye Graceful" on August eighth and ninth in Anaheim and Los Angeles. Following the release of the album and some Warped Tour 2011 appearances, the band announced their first headlining tour across the United States, with locations beginning in New Mexico, looping around the east coast, and concluding in Colorado. The tour will begin on September 18 and end on October 11, 2011, with support acts Eyes Set to Kill and For All Those Sleeping. The band's first supporting tour was to be a ten-show tour in November 2011 with headliners Black Veil Brides and supporting acts Aiden and Drive-A, but was canceled after Black Veil Brides dropped out when their lead vocalist Andy Biersack broke his nose. Emmure replaced Falling in Reverse on the second half of the Take A Picture, It Lasts Longer Tour with We Came As Romans and the band played an exclusive show at KROQ on November 8 to make up for the canceled shows.
The first single for the album, as well the band's first single overall, "Raised by Wolves", was released on June 10, 2011, to iTunes, though it had leaked a few weeks earlier on May 29. The track was featured on the iTunes Music Store as the "single of the week", and was available as a free download for that week. On June 21, the band released a 33-second preview of their second single, the eponymous track "The Drug in Me Is You". The full single was released three days later. The band's first music video was released for the track on June 28, and was advertised by The New York Post the week before the album's release. The album was streamed in its entirety by the band on their official website on July 15. The Drug in Me Is You was released commercially in the United States on July 26, 2011, and was promoted alongside other albums released that week including: Wu-Tang Clan's Legendary Weapons, Katherine Jenkins' From the Heart, All Shall Perish's This is Where It Ends, and others. The album's third single, "I'm Not a Vampire", was released on October 24 with an accompanying music video which features a satirical Celebrity Rehab theme, featuring Jeffree Star. On June 18, they released their fourth single, "Good Girls, Bad Guys" with an accompanying music video. Their fifth single, "Pick Up the Phone" was released on October 15, 2012, along with an iPhone 5 giveaway.
In celebration of the album becoming certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), pre-order for the vinyl edition of the album was announced, which features two previously unreleased songs titled "You're Something Else" and "I'm Not a Hero". The vinyl edition was released on January 17, 2020. A reimagined version of the song, "The Drug in Me Is You", was also released on February 13, 2020, in celebration of the album's gold certification and as a gift to fans of Falling in Reverse.
In celebration of the album's 10th anniversary, Falling in Reverse released new The Drug in Me Is You merch for sale on their official website starting July 26, 2021.
## Composition
Musically, The Drug in Me Is You has been described as post-hardcore, emo, pop punk, metalcore, glam metal, and hard rock.
## Critical reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 71, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Alison Kopki of The Aquarian Weekly called the album, a "fun listen and decent starting-off point", and it "lets Radke get some things off his chest". The track-by-track breakdown noted the songs having "fast guitars, heavy drums and shred guitar solos". Kenneth E. Oquist of Arts and Entertainment Playground gave the album a four out of a possible five score overall. Oquist noted the mix of pop and hardcore, stating, "Hardcore and pop crashed together to become hardcore pop... Much like Nine Inch Nails created the genre industrial rock, Falling in Reverse has created a unique sound..." He gave a track-by-track review of the album, particularly emphasizing "Raised by Wolves", "I'm Not a Vampire", and "Caught Like a Fly". Things pointed out included: Michael Baskette's production, the band's instrumentation, and Radke's melodies. The writer noted the repeated attacks at Escape the Fate but disliked the album's lyrical quality. The resulting score was an 8.9 out of 10 possible, with the tracks "I'm Not a Vampire", "Good Girls Bad Guys", "Pick Up the Phone", all pop tracks, being pointed out as particularly good. A Weekender correspondent noted that the album includes: "Aggressive rock... metal and electronica into this collective mix of mayhem and definitely keeps listeners wondering what will come next." Different parts of songs were complimented, such as the "immense hooks... catchy choruses... [and] vicious breakdowns", as well as Radke's lyrics being called "witty and poetic". The correspondent's review further states, "Radke has managed to imprint his dramatic personality into every aspect of 'The Drug In Me Is You.'"
Conversely, AllMusic contributor Gregory Heaney gave the album an overall score of three out of a possible five, noting that the lyrics "feel more genuinely personal than his earlier work", and that "there's a real sense of urgent catharsis at work". He concludes, "[The] combination of a tight, talented band and a tortured frontman doesn't necessarily make Falling in Reverse a revelatory band, but is does make The Drug in Me Is You a very solid album." Molly Walter of The University Leader felt the album was an attempt to recreate Escape the Fate prior to Radke's departure and noted that "he fell short big time", calling the album's music "out of date and overdone". Walter did comment on Radke's singing but felt the lyrical content was conceited, concluding the review saying, "Face it, Ronnie, you did not magically turn tragedy into melody. You’re just not king of the music scene." The Jam! gives 3.5/5 stars to The Drug in Me Is You and said, "In a world of poseurs, Ronnie Radke is the real deal. The lewd, crude and tattooed punk has survived jail, rehab and being turfed from Escape the Fate. Now he’s on the loose and up to no good with a new band — and a CD of post-hardcore anthems that render his foul-mouthed tales of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll with a mix of metalcore power and pop-punk melody. Lock up everything."
Metalholic said "'I'm back...' I can't think of a more appropriate way to flow into the second track 'Tragic Magic.' Ronnie Radke is most definitely back and he is not afraid to tell you so. This fairly slow tempo song obviously takes a few jabs at Radke's former band Escape the Fate, but overall is a solid melodic song. The third track 'The Drug in Me is You' was the second single and the band's first video and might I add a very entertaining video. 'The Drug in Me is You,' is a nicely constructed musical performance that is just flat out catchy. To me the song is about something most people can relate to, the battle you have with yourself, with your morality, with your demons. We all know that we can be our own worst enemy and the only person that you truly have to blame in many instances is yourself. 'Trying to consume, the drug in me is you and I'm so high on misery can't you see,' evokes the feeling that you are your own drug, the creator of your misery and if you need to point fingers at someone try looking in the mirror first. "If we are born to die and we all die to live, then what’s the point of living life if life just contradicts? Questions we all ask when we pick ourselves up off the floor and do the only thing we can do, try again. Life is what you make of it, if you have lost yourself, it is up to you to find your way again. I got all profound there for a second, it happens."
## Commercial performance
The Drug in Me Is You was speculated by news source Perez Hilton to sell anywhere from 17,000 to 20,000 copies in the United States during its first week of sales, placing it close behind predicted debuting chart toppers Eric Church (Chief), Kelly Rowland (Here I Am), and Joss Stone (LP1). The album ended up selling 18,120 copies in its first week in the United States, charting at number 19 on the Billboard 200. This almost exactly matched the first week sales of Escape the Fate (2010), the third album by Radke's former band, though Escape the Fate only charted at number 25, six spots lower than The Drug in Me Is You, despite equal sales. In its second week on sales, The Drug in Me is You dropped about 70% in the United States, selling 5,870 copies. This dropped the album 60 spots to number 79 on the Billboard 200, and brought total US sales for the album to around 24,000 copies.
On the Billboard charts, The Drug in Me Is You charted at number two on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart, number three on the Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, number four on the Top Independent Albums chart, and number 12 on the Top Digital Albums chart, for a total of six appearances on the US Billboard charts, including the Billboard 200. Internationally, the album charted in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 125 on the national chart, as well as number four and number 17 on the UK Top 40 Rock Albums and Top Indie Albums charts, respectively. The album also peaked at number 21 on the Australian National Charts, and number 60 on the national Canadian Albums Chart.
In December 2019, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units.
## Track listing
All tracks are written and composed by Ronnie Radke, Michael 'Elvis' Baskette and David Holdredge except where noted.
## Personnel
Credits for The Drug in Me Is You adapted from AllMusic.
Musicians
Falling in Reverse
- Ronnie Radke – lead vocals
- Jacky Vincent – lead guitar
- Derek Jones – rhythm guitar
- Ryan Seaman – drums, percussion (credit only)
- Mika Horiuchi – bass guitar (credit only)
- Nason Schoeffler – bass guitar (uncredited performance)
- Scott Gee – drums, percussion (uncredited performance)
Additional musicians
- Michael 'Elvis' Baskette – additional writing, keyboards, strings, additional vocals
- Trace Cyrus – additional writing, guitars, additional vocals, keys, percussion
- David Holdredge – additional writing, keyboards, strings, additional vocals
- Jeff Moll – additional vocals
- Bryan Ross – additional writing, guitars, drums
- Kevin Thomas – assistant engineer
- Omar Espinosa – additional writing on "Don't Mess With Ouija Boards" and "Goodbye Graceful"
Production
- Michael 'Elvis' Baskette – executive producer, recording, mixing, mastering, programming
- David Holdredge – mixing, programming, engineering
- Jeff Moll – digital editing
- Nick Pritchard – artwork, design
- Devin Taylor – photography
- Matt Grayson – photography
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## Release history |
27,387,701 | Forest cobra | 1,137,459,331 | Species of snake | [
"Naja",
"Reptiles described in 1857",
"Snakes of Africa",
"Venomous snakes"
]
| The forest cobra (Naja melanoleuca), also commonly called the black cobra and the black and white-lipped cobra, is a species of venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to Africa, mostly the central and western parts of the continent. It is the largest true cobra species with a record length of 3.2 metres (10 feet 6 inches).
Although it prefers lowland forest and moist savanna habitats, this cobra is highly adaptable and can be found in drier climates within its geographical range. It is a very capable swimmer and is often considered to be semi-aquatic. The forest cobra is a generalist in its feeding habits, having a highly varied diet: anything from large insects to small mammals and other reptiles. This species is alert, nervous and is considered to be a medically significant snake. When cornered or molested, it will assume the typical cobra warning posture by raising its fore body off the ground, spreading a narrow hood, and hissing loudly. Bites to humans are less common than from other African cobras due to various factors, though a bite from this species is a life-threatening emergency.
## Taxonomy and evolution
The forest cobra is classified in the genus Naja of the family Elapidae. Naja melanoleuca was first described by American herpetologist Edward Hallowell in 1857. The generic name Naja is a Latinisation of the Sanskrit word ' (नाग) meaning "cobra". The specific epithet melanoleuca is Ancient Greek and means "of black and white". The word melano is Greek for "black", while leuca comes from the Ancient Greek word for "white". This species is also known as the black cobra and black and white-lipped cobra.
The genus Naja was first described by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768. The species of Naja melanoleuca was first described by Edward Hallowell in 1857. The genus Naja was split into several subgenera based on various factors, including morphology, diet, and habitat. Naja melanoleuca is part of the subgenus Boulengerina, along with three other species: Naja annulata, Naja christyi, and Naja multifasciata. The subgenus is united by their restriction to central and west African forest and/or forest-edge type habitat. They are also more aquatic, preying more on aquatic animals, as well. The species within the subgenus Boulengerina show great diversity in size; from the forest cobra (Naja melanoleuca), which can attain lengths of nearly 2.7 metres (8.9 feet), to the burrowing cobra (Naja multifasciata), which usually doesn't grow larger than 0.8 metres (2.6 feet) in length.
The cladogram below illustrates the taxonomy and relationships among species of Naja:
The population on São Tomé and Príncipe was recently described as a new species, Naja peroescobari, and a recent study (based on a Multilocus genotype dataset and morphological analyses) suggests that N. melanoleuca is actually a group of five distinct species:
- Naja melanoleuca Hallowell, 1857 - central African forests: Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Angola.
- Naja subfulva Laurent, 1955 - forests and savanna woodlands in eastern, southern and central Africa: Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Angola.
- Naja peroescobari Ceríaco et al. 2017 - São Tomé and Príncipe.
- Naja guineensis Broadley et al. in Wüster et al. 2018 - Upper Guinea forests, West Africa: Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo.
- Naja savannula Broadley et al. in Wüster et al. 2018 - Savanna regions of West Africa: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon.
## Description
The forest cobra is Africa's largest cobra of the genus Naja and possibly the largest of all the true cobra (Naja) species in the world. The length of an average adult is 1.4 to 2.2 m (4.6 to 7.2 ft), and they regularly attain lengths of 2.7 m (8.9 ft), and lengths up to 3.2 m (10 ft) have been recorded in the wild. The mean body mass of the species in one survey, which did not exclude juvenile cobras per se, was reported at a mean of 509.5 g (1.123 lb) while large, mature forest cobras are known to obtain weights of up to 2,000 to 3,600 g (4.4 to 7.9 lb). Males and females grow to be similar in length, as there is no sexual dimorphism within this species. The head of this snake is large, broad, flattened and is slightly distinct from the neck. It is a slightly depressed, tapered and moderately thick bodied snake with a slender tail that is medium in length. The body is compressed dorsoventrally (where the dorsal upper scales and the ventral lower scales meet at either side of the body) and sub-cylindrical posteriorly (the tail end of the body). The forest cobra has long cervical ribs capable of expansion to form a long, wedge shaped hood when threatened. The angle between the crown of the head and the side of the head between the eye, also known as the canthus, is distinct, while the snout is rounded. Its eyes are large with round pupils.
### Scalation
Like other snake species, the forest cobra has skin covered in scales. Snakes are entirely covered with scales or scutes of various shapes and sizes, known as snake skin as a whole. Scales protect the body of the snake, aid it in locomotion, allow moisture to be retained within, and alter the surface characteristics such as roughness to aid in camouflage. The dorsal scales of the forest cobra are smooth, glossy, and strongly oblique. The colour of this species is variable, with three main colour morphs. Those from the forest or forest fringe, from Sierra Leone east to western Kenya and south to Angola are glossy black, the chin, throat, and anterior region of the belly are cream or white, with broad black cross-bars and blotches. The sides of the head are strikingly marked with black and white, giving the impression of vertical black and white bars on the lips. The second colour morph, from the west African savanna, is banded black and yellow, with a black tail, the head is brownish-yellow on top, the lips, chin, and throat are yellow. The third colour morph, from the coastal plain of east Africa, south to KwaZulu-Natal, inland to Zambia and southern Democratic Republic of Congo, is brownish or blackish-brown above, paler below, the belly is yellow or cream, heavily speckled with brown or black, and specimens from the southern part of its range have black tails. Melanistic (all black) specimens have been documented from west Africa.
The head, body and tail scalation of the forest cobra:
- Dorsal rows at midbody: 19-21
- Ventrals: 201-214
- Subcaudals: 63-72 (paired)
- Anal plate: Single
- Upper labials: 7 (8)
- Upper labials touching eye: 3 & 4
- Preoculars: 1-2
- Postoculars: 2-3
- Lower labials: 8
- Temporals:''' variable
### Venom
The venom of this cobra is a postsynaptic neurotoxin and bites result in severe neurotoxicity. Ernst and Zug et al. 1996 list a value of 0.225 mg/kg SC. According to Brown and Fry of the Australian Venom and Toxin Database, the murine intraperitoneal value is 0.324 mg/kg. The venom yield per bite ranges drastically among sources; a maximal dose of 500 mg has been recorded while another venom yield project on two individuals obtained an average dose of 571 mg (dry venom) with a maximum of 1102 mg from 59 times of milking. Signs and symptoms of envenomation include ptosis, drowsiness, limb paralysis, hearing loss, inability to speak, dizziness, ataxia, shock, hypotension, abdominal pain, fever, pallor, and other neurological and respiratory symptoms.
The forest cobra is one of the least frequent causes of snake bite among the African cobras, largely due its forest-dwelling habits but a bite by this species should be taken very seriously because it ranks as the 4th most venomous Naja (true cobra) species. The symptomology is thought to be very similar to that of the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje). Clinical experience with this species has been very sparse, and few recorded bites have been documented. Deaths from respiratory failure due to severe neurotoxicity have been reported, but most victims will survive if prompt administration of antivenom is undertaken as soon as clinical signs of envenomation have been noted. Rare cases of spontaneous recoveries without the use of specific antivenom have also been seen; however, neglecting the use of antivenom places the patient at increased risk for major morbidity and mortality. If the snake becomes cornered or is agitated, it can quickly attack the aggressor, and because a large amount of venom is injected, a rapidly fatal outcome is possible. The mortality rate of an untreated bite is not exactly known but it is thought to be quite high. The forest cobra does not spit or spray its venom.
Two cases from Liberia experienced severe neurological symptoms, including ptosis, nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, and respiratory distress. A child in Ghana died within 20 minutes after being bitten by a snake suspected to be from this species.
## Distribution and habitat
The forest cobra occurs mainly in central Africa. It has been recorded from Benin, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and northern Angola.
A snake of forest or woodland, it is the only one of Africa's cobras that will live in high forest. The forest cobras are snakes that are well adapted to many environments and the habitat of the forest cobra is strongly dependent on what part of its African range the snake originates from. Forest cobras originating in the southern African regions are typically found in savanna and grassland, but they can also be found in broken rock country. They are mainly found in the tropical and subtropical rainforest regions of west and central Africa. It also inhabits mangroves in western Africa. The banded form of forest cobra in west Africa lives in savanna and grassland (but usually along streams) and well-vegetated areas, especially riverine forest, up to latitude 14 N. The species' preferred habitat are lowland forest and moist savanna where it favors coastal thickets. This snake seems to be highly adaptable and will readily move into drier areas if it can. In western Kenya, the forest cobra has been found in wide stretched grassland areas. The population of forest cobras in Uganda are almost always found close to water. The brown colour phase occurs in coastal and high altitude forest, woodland and thicket, and grassland areas (i.e. Nyanga, Zimbabwe). Due to its secretive habits, and fondness for living in holes, it often persists in quite well-inhabited areas, common in and around many central African towns, even long after most vegetation has gone. They are also found on fruit plantations where they live in the trees. It occurs through a wide altitude range, from sea-level to forested mountains at 2,800 metres (9,200 feet) above sea level.
## Behavior
The forest cobra is an agile, diurnal species that climbs well and is one of the most aquatic of the true cobras of the genus Naja''. It is terrestrial, but it is a fast, graceful climber, known to ascend trees to a height of 10 m (33 ft) or more. It is quick moving and alert. It swims well and readily takes to the water; in some areas its main diet is fish and could be regarded as semi-aquatic. Although it is active mostly during the day (diurnal) in uninhabited areas, it can also be active by night (nocturnal) where it goes into urban areas. When not active, it takes cover in holes, brush piles, hollow logs, among root clusters or in rock crevices, or in abandoned termite mounds at forest fringe or clearings. In certain areas, it hides along river banks, in overhanging root systems or bird holes, and in urban areas will hide in junk piles or unused buildings. When agitated, it rears up to a considerable height and spreads a long, narrow hood. It can strike quickly, to quite a long distance, and if molested and cornered, it will rush forward and make a determined effort to bite. It is an alert and agile species of cobra. Some authorities believe it is one of the most dangerous African snakes to be kept as many captive forest cobras are described to be particularly aggressive when handled. This species is not able to "spit" its venom.
### Diet
Forest cobras will feed on a wide variety of prey, including amphibians, fish, other snakes, monitor lizards and other lizards, bird eggs, rodents, and other small mammals. It has been recorded as taking mudskippers, and in west Africa, one specimen had eaten a Gifford's giant shrew, an insectivore with a smell so noxious, most other snakes would not touch it.
### Reproduction
This is an oviparous species. In the summer, females will lay between 11 and 26 smooth white eggs, each roughly 3 to 6 cm (1.2 to 2.4 in). The eggs stick together in a bunch. The eggs are laid in hollow trees, termite mounds, holes in the ground or females will make their own nests. Before mating, a pair of will "dance", raising their heads a foot or more off the ground and moving to and fro. This may continue for an hour before mating takes place, when the male presses his cloaca (the chamber into which the reproductive, urinary, and intestinal canals empty) against that of the female. Female forest cobras may stand guard and are irritable and aggressive during the breeding period. A female is liable to attack without provocation, with potentially fatal consequences for passersby if her nest is near a footpath. Hatchlings are born completely independent and are usually 22 to 25 cm (8.7 to 9.8 in) in length, although some sources claim that hatchlings may measure up to 47 cm (19 in) Incubation period is anywhere from 55 to 70 days (or over 80 days in one captive study) at temperatures of 27–30 °C (81–86 °F). These snakes are known to have a long lifespan. One captive specimen lived for 28 years, which was the record for the longest lived venomous snake in captivity, but another specimen held at the Melbourne Zoo in Australia turned 35 on 1 September 2014. |
1,123,403 | 2000 Hungarian Grand Prix | 1,173,091,120 | 12th round of the 2000 Formula One season | [
"2000 Formula One races",
"2000 in Hungarian sport",
"August 2000 sports events in Europe",
"Hungarian Grand Prix"
]
| The 2000 Hungarian Grand Prix (formally the XVI Marlboro Magyar Nagydj) was a Formula One motor race held on 13 August 2000, at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary, attended by 120,000 spectators. The race was the twelfth of seventeen in the 2000 Formula One World Championship and the 18th in Hungary. Mika Häkkinen, driving a McLaren-Mercedes, won the 77-lap race after starting third. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher finished second after qualifying on pole position in the one-hour qualifying session the day before the race. Häkkinen's teammate David Coulthard finished third.
Before the race, Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship from Häkkinen, while Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship from McLaren. Häkkinen overtook Schumacher and Coulthard at the start and led every lap save the first round of pit stops. He won by eight seconds, with Schumacher holding off Coulthard for second. The win, Häkkinen's third of the season and his 17th in Formula One, moved him to the World Drivers' Championship lead for the first time in 2000, two points ahead of Schumacher and six points ahead of Coulthard, while McLaren took the World Constructors' Championship lead from Ferrari by one point with five of the season's races remaining.
## Background
On 13 August 2000, the 3.975 km (2.470 mi) clockwise Hungaroring in Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary hosted the twelfth race of the 2000 Formula One World Championship, the 2000 Hungarian Grand Prix. Sole tyre supplier Bridgestone delivered the Soft and Extra Soft dry compound tyres to the event, the softest compounds available to teams. Entering the race, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship with 56 points, ahead of McLaren teammates Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard, who were tied for second on 54 points. Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was fourth with 46 points, while Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella was fifth with 18 points. Ferrari led the World Constructors' Championship with 102 points, four more than second-placed McLaren. Williams was third with 22 points, with Benetton fourth with 18 points. BAR were sixth with 12 points.
Following the on 30 July, teams prepared for the event by testing on circuits similar to the Hungaroring. Six teams tested at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo from 3 to 5 August. McLaren test driver Olivier Panis finished the first day ahead of Häkkinen. Pedro Diniz's Sauber car had an oil leak, restricting his team's testing time while the leak was rectified. Coulthard was fastest on the second day and Fisichella led on the final day. Benetton's Alexander Wurz spun and struck the tyre barrier. His car's wishbone hit his right leg, and he was taken to the circuit's medical centre before being transferred to a local hospital. Wurz was passed fit to compete in the race the day after his accident. Ferrari tested for five days at the Fiorano Circuit, focusing on car development, practice starts, aerodynamic testing and race distance simulations with test driver Luca Badoer. He was joined by Barrichello on the second day and Michael Schumacher from the fourth day onwards. Badoer and Michael Schumacher spent two more days at the circuit shaking down the Ferrari F1-2000 car.
After three consecutive retirements, including first-lap collisions in Austria and Germany reducing his points lead from 22 points to 2, Michael Schumacher stated that his objective in Hungary was to avoid any incident on the first lap and finish in a points-scoring position. He was also confident that Ferrari would perform well on the track. Despite Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo's comments to the press about Barrichello assisting Michael Schumacher's title aspirations, Barrichello revealed that he received backing from him to challenge for more victories and the championship.
The event featured eleven teams (each representing a different constructor) and two drivers, with no changes from the season entry list. Following tests, Prost's Jean Alesi was declared fit by his doctors and then by FIA medical delegate Sid Watkins in the days before the race. At the previous race, Alesi was involved in a high-speed accident with Sauber driver Diniz, suffering from abdominal pains, dizziness and vomiting. Prost had their test driver Stéphane Sarrazin ready if Alesi relapsed. Alesi said he felt ready to race again: "It took a few days before I really started to recover, but now I sleep and feel much better".
Some teams modified their cars for the event. The Hungaroring track's characteristics require teams to operate their car with a high load of aerodynamics, and special attention was paid to heat dissipation because high temperatures were recorded at the circuit. McLaren improved the aerodynamics of their MP4/15 chassis in order to increase the amount of downforce, and thus grip, produced by the bodywork. They also brought revised nose wings. McLaren additionally strengthened the steel rear suspension wishbones. BAR outfitted their cars with one-off components designed to improve the performance of the monocoque's cooling systems. Ferrari debuted an aerodynamic setup similar to that used at the , as well as a modified version of the F1-2000's chimneys. Minardi arrived with redesigned radiator intakes and exits to address temperature issues with their Fondmetal V10 engines.
## Practice
Before Sunday's race, there were two one-hour sessions on Friday and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. The Friday practice sessions took place in dry, hot weather; when clouds obscured the track, the temperature dropped, but the ambient temperature remained constant. Before any lap times were set nearly 20 minutes, 15 drivers completed out-laps to allow them to perform system checks. The track was dirty due to a lack of activity for several months, and race organisers were unable to completely clean it.
Michael Schumacher waited for other drivers to clean the dirty track before setting the first session's quickest time on his first fast lap, at 1 minute and 20.198 seconds, in the final moments of the session. He was almost six-tenths of a second faster than teammate Barrichello. Jaguar's Eddie Irvine was third fastest, ahead of Williams' Ralf Schumacher. Fisichella, BAR's Jacques Villeneuve, Jordan's Jarno Trulli, Diniz, Mika Salo of Sauber and Williams' Jenson Button completed the top ten. McLaren sat out first practice, preferring to save tyres. Several teams concentrated on testing the high downforce aerodynamic packages fitted to their cars during the session.
Coulthard set the day's fastest lap of 1:18.792 with about 15 minutes left in the second practice session; the time was half a second slower than teammate Häkkinen's pole lap at the 1999 race. Häkkinen was second, Michael Schumacher third and Barrichello fourth. Trulli was faster, finishing fifth fastest, ahead of Fisichella and Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Button. Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Irvine completed the top ten. Several drivers lost control of their cars during the session due to the low grip racing surface appearing to be problematic for racers. Arrows' Pedro de la Rosa was unhurt in an accident against the tyre wall.
The weather remained dry, hot and sunny for the two Saturday practice sessions, with no indication of rain when the third session began. With three minutes remaining in the third practice session, Barrichello set a time of 1:18.268. Coulthard was second, a thousandth of a second slower than Barrichello. Frentzen was third, ahead of Michael Schumacher in fourth and Häkkinen and Ralf Schumacher in fifth and sixth, respectively. Salo, Button, Trulli, and Fisichella completed the top ten. Three minutes in, De La Rosa almost lost control of his car at the final corner and Gastón Mazzacane's Minardi engine failed due to a differential fault.
The final practice session took place on a marginally drier but still dusty circuit than the previous session. Teams were finalising car setups and scrubbing tyres. Michael Schumacher was quicker than the day before, lapping 1:17.395 with 20 minutes of the season remaining. He was 0.630 seconds faster than second-placed Coulthard with Barrichello in the second Ferrari third. Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher, Häkkinen, Trulli, Fisichella, Salo and Diniz followed in positions four to ten. Diniz was briefly stuck at the pit lane entry as his engine stalled in first gear.
## Qualifying
During Saturday's one-hour qualifying session, each driver was limited to twelve laps, with the starting order determined by their fastest laps. The 107% rule was in force during this session, which required each driver to set a time within 107% of the fastest lap to qualify for the race. The session took place in dry and clear weather, similar to practice, but with a warmer track temperature. The warm weather made the track more slippery. Most of the faster teams used new rear tyres and front scrubbed compounds to reduce understeer when lapping quickly. Michael Schumacher qualified on pole position for the 28th time in his career, and fifth of the season, with a lap of 1:17.514, on his first fast lap midway through qualifying. Coulthard, who was 0.372 seconds slower on his third and final run, joined Michael Schumacher on the grid's front row. McLaren did not optimise Coulthard's vehicle for low fuel, and it oversteered in the circuit's first two sectors. Häkkinen, third, made considerable car setup alterations by altering the rear anti-roll bar and front torsion beams, which he tested early in qualifying to see if it improved his performance. Ralf Schumacher qualified fourth with the newer Williams qualifying engine, his season-best qualifying result. He was satisfied with revisions to his car's aerodynamics. Barrichello, fifth, had car handling difficulties and said Coulthard prevented him from lapping faster. Frentzen, sixth, had excess oversteer in the track's final two sectors.
Fisichella qualified seventh, claiming Michael Schumacher hindered his final lap. Ferrari attempted to inform Schumacher about Fisichella behind him but Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn pressed the wrong radio button and mistakenly told Barrichello. Brawn apologised for the error and Benetton technical director Pat Symonds downplayed it. Button was the slower of the two Williams drivers in eighth. Salo finished ninth, owing to cloud cover on his final run. Irvine finished tenth. Wurz, 11th, failed to reach the top-ten by two-tenths of a second after switching to his teammate Fisichella's setup. Trulli qualified 12th after experiencing oversteer that could not be corrected by car component and setup tweaks. He was ahead of Diniz in 13th, who was hindered by traffic and had car setup problems. Alesi was the faster of the two Prost drivers in 14th. De La Rosa took 15th on the soft compound tyre and was the highest qualifying Arrows driver. Villeneuve finished 16th when his BAR chassis failed to generate enough downforce. Johnny Herbert, 17th for Jaguar, spun late in qualifying and had excess oversteer. He was followed in 18th by Zonta, who lacked downforce. For his fourth run, Nick Heidfeld switched to the spare Prost AP03 car and reported excessive oversteer en route to qualifying 19th. Jos Verstappen, 20th, struggled to adapt to the high-downforce track with his Arrows car. The Minardi drivers qualified 21st and 22nd in their underpowered cars; Marc Gené outqualified teammate Mazzacane by two-tenths of a second after the latter went wide onto the grass during his fastest lap, losing nearly half a second.
### Qualifying classification
## Warm-up
The drivers took to the track in hot, sunny weather at 09:30 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) for a 30-minute warm-up session. Rainfall the night before had cleaned the circuit. Teams used the session to adjust and check their race and spare cars before the race. With ten minutes remaining, Coulthard set the pace with a lap time of 1:19.261. Michael Schumacher outpaced teammate Barrichello and behind Coulthard by 0.120 seconds in the second and third-placed Ferraris. Ralf Schumacher's Williams finished fourth. Due to traffic on his best lap, Häkkinen set the fifth-fastest time, 1.2 seconds behind teammate Coulthard. Frentzen completed the top six drivers. To clean his starting spot on the track's right-hand side, Coulthard completed one installation lap in the spare McLaren on the start-finish straight. An engine failure caused Irvine to enter the pit lane with smoke billowing from his car.
## Race
The 77-lap race was held over 306.075 km (190.186 mi) began at 14:00 local time before 120,000 spectators, (with 30,000 from Finland). The event saw hot and partially cloudy weather; the air temperature was 32 °C (90 °F) and the track temperature ranged between 34 and 44 °C (93 and 111 °F); conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race. It was warmer than the morning warm-up session, and drivers needed to drink a lot of water to cope up with the physical demands of cockpit temperatures and the circuit. Except for De La Rosa, all drivers began on the extra soft tyre compounds. Mazzacane suffered a gearbox issue and had to start in his spare car while the grid was assembling. Herbert also intended to drive his backup car because his regular car suffered a leak that was repaired before the start. Coulthard made a slow poor start on the dirty inner part of the start-finish straight. His teammate Häkkinen had more momentum than Michael Schumacher and turned right to pass him on the inside for the lead at the 180-degree first corner while near the right-hand side kerb. Michael Schumacher slowed to avoid colliding with Häkkinen and avoided retiring from the opening lap for the third successive race.
Ralf Schumacher's attempts to pass Coulthard for third on the inside the opening two turns were unsuccessful. Villeneuve and De La Rosa collided into the chicane and both cars (which lacked mechanical grip) sustained damage. Villeneuve made a pit stop for a new front wing assembly followed by De La Rosa for a new set of tyres since he sustained a left rear puncture. At the first lap's conclusion, Häkkinen led from Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Barrichello, and Frentzen. Michael Schumacher was close behind Häkkinen but not close enough to overtake him for the lead. Häkkinen began to pull away gradually from Michael Schumacher, increasing his lead to 3.5 seconds by the eighth lap. Fisichella in seventh had poor brake balance and slid wide onto the grass at the first corner on lap eight due to a lack of grip. In order to prevent a collision, Button slowed slightly. Irvine used this incident to pass Button for seventh position on the short straight into the second corner. Fisichella fell to 14th place. On lap 12, Fisichella ran wide into a gravel trap and was passed by Herbert for 13th. Fisichella took his first pit stop for brake repairs three laps later and rejoined the track in 19th. On that lap, Alesi became the race's first retirement after a series of pit stops by mechanics failed to repair a broken left-rear suspension that had been exacerbated by a change in wheel alignment.
Häkkinen had a seven-second lead over Michael Schumacher by lap 19. Coulthard was three seconds behind Michael Schumacher owing to an incorrect tyre pressure setting and was pulling away from Ralf Schumacher. Heidfeld became the race's second retirement when his car failed due to a drop in battery voltage after a pit stop after completing 22 laps. Three laps later, Irvine made his first pit stop from seventh and fell to 11th. At the end of lap 27, Brawn asked Michael Schumacher to enter the pit lane for the first of two scheduled stops, which lasted 7.3 seconds. He rejoined the track in fifth, behind his teammate Barrichello. On the 29th lap, Barrichello relinquished third to teammate Michael Schumacher at the first corner. Barrichello entered the pit lane on the 30th lap and completed the stop in 6.7 seconds. He returned to the circuit in sixth, ahead of Ralf Schumacher, whose own pit stop was hampered by a jammed wheel nut.
Race leader Häkkinen, whose drink battle failed roughly a third of the way into the race and became exhausted, made a seven-second pit stop on lap 31 for a new set of tyres, falling behind teammate Coulthard. Häkkinen reclaimed the race lead after Coulthard's 6.9-second pit stop for fuel and tyres on the following lap. Coulthard returned to the track in third, behind Michael Schumacher but ahead of Schumacher's teammate Barrichello. Häkkinen set the race's fastest lap, a 1:20.028 on lap 33, as he continued to pull away from Michael Schumacher. Fisichella retired on the 36th lap as his car became difficult to drive owing to bargeboard damage. Coulthard on a new set of tyres, lapped faster and was two seconds behind Michael Schumacher by lap 37 as Schumacher's cautious pace preserved his tyres since they wore quickly on the Ferrari.
When Coulthard was delayed by Genè on lap 47 and lost more than a second, Michael Schumacher increased the gap. Genè would receive a 10-second stop-go penalty for delaying Irvine's Jaguar. As he had been short-fuelled, Barrichello made his second pit stop on lap 48, lasting 8.7 seconds. Michael Schumacher and Ralf Schumacher made their pit stops on lap 51. Michael Schumacher was brought into the pit lane since slower cars were likely to impede Coulthard. On the following lap, Coulthard replied by making his second pit stop, which lasted 6.6 seconds, and rejoined the circuit in third place, close behind Michael Schumacher. Häkkinen completed his final pit stop on the 53rd lap, having built a 21-second lead over Michael Schumacher. Frentzen became the last driver to make a scheduled pit stop on lap 56. The top six in the running order at the end of lap 57, with all scheduled pit stops completed, were Häkkinen, Michael Schumacher, Coulthard, Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, and Frentzen. Herbert spun while battling Villeneuve for 13th position.
On lap 65, Diniz's car stopped between turns nine and ten due to engine failure. Herbert dropped behind Verstappen on lap 70 after spinning in front of him at the first corner. He retired two laps later with gearbox problems. Mazzacane retired on track on lap 73 with an engine failure after a visor became caught inside a radiator, causing water temperatures to rise too high. Trulli caught and passed Button for seventh on the first corner on lap 75. Button lost eighth to Irvine a lap later. A cracked engine exhaust or a throttle control issue slowing Button in the last laps, giving him less available horsepower. Häkkinen slowed his pace to lap within the 1:24 minute range, finishing first for his third victory of the season and 17th of his career in a time of 1'45:33.869, at an average speed of 173.964 km/h (108.096 mph). Michael Schumacher finished second 7.9 seconds behind, ahead of Coulthard in third. In the hot weather, Barrichello lost 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of weight and 3 L (0.66 imp gal; 0.79 US gal) of fluids after running out of water by the 40th lap. Ralf Schumacher took fifth and Frentzen completed the points scorers in sixth. Trulli, Irvine, Button, Salo, and Wurz finished one lap behind the winner. The final classified finishers Villeneuve, Verstappen, Zonta, Gené, and De La Rosa. There were six retirements during the event.
### Post-race
The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in the subsequent press conference. Häkkinen said that modifications to his car's engine caused his good start. Norbert Haug, Vice President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, complimented his victory. "Mika had a great race," he said. "His victory may have looked easy, but it was tough to achieve and in my view this was one of his best drives ever." Although he was unable to catch Häkkinen, Michael Schumacher expressed satisfaction with finishing second. He admitted to being too cautious at the start because he lost momentum and said Häkkinen would have overtaken him during the pit stops had he not done so at the start. Coulthard believed his car had balance issues prior to his first pit stop, which accounted for his lack of place. He also said that time spent behind backmarkers during the second stint hampered his attempts to overtake Michael Schumacher, but that third was the best possible result he could have achieved.
Following Ferrari's previous race victory, Brawn stated, "Our pitstops and our race strategy went well, but we just weren't quick enough.", while Di Montezemolo urged Ferrari's mechanics and engineers to focus on resolving the issue of wheel-spin and praised Häkkinen for his recent trend of good starts. Barrichello blamed his fourth-place finish on a poor qualifying performance. Ralf Schumacher and Frentzen were pleased to finish fifth and sixth, respectively. Fisichella, who retired with a brake problem, stated that the recurring issue damaged his car and forced his retirement. Gené blamed his stop-go penalty on faulty radio communication with his team, saying that he was not shown the blue flag until the last moment. Gary Anderson, Jaguar's technical director, was furious with Gené after the race, believing the Spaniard's driving cost Irvine the chance to score points. "I don't understand why the blue flags weren't waved because it was plain for all to see." said Anderson.
As a result of the race result, Häkkinen took the lead in the World Drivers' Championship for the first time in the season, with 64 points, putting Michael Schumacher two points behind him. Coulthard was third with 58 points, nine points ahead of fourth-placed Barrichello and 40 points ahead of fifth-placed Fisichella. McLaren became the new leaders of the World Constructors' Championship with 112 points, demoting Ferrari to second on 111 points. Williams in third were now six points ahead of Benetton in fourth. With Jordan's one point scored by Frentzen finishing sixth, the team passed BAR for fifth with 12 points. Despite McLaren taking the lead in both championships, team principal Ron Dennis acknowledged he expected both drivers to have the advantage in most of the five remaining races but that complacency would limit his team's chances of success.
### Race classification
Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold.
## Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings
Constructors' Championship standings
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. |
527,848 | Orlando Bosch | 1,157,515,448 | Cuban exile militant | [
"1926 births",
"2011 deaths",
"Cuban anti-communists",
"Cuban expatriates in the United States",
"Exiles of the Cuban Revolution in the United States",
"Operatives of Operation Condor",
"Opposition to Fidel Castro"
]
| Orlando Bosch Ávila (18 August 1926 – 27 April 2011) was a Cuban exile militant, who headed the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), described by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as a terrorist organization. Born in Cuba, Bosch attended medical school at the University of Havana, where he befriended Fidel Castro. He worked as a doctor in Santa Clara Province in the 1950s, but moved to Miami in 1960 after he stopped supporting the Cuban Revolution.
Between 1961 and 1968 Bosch was arrested several times in the United States for attacks directed at the Cuban government, and briefly collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was jailed in Florida in 1968 for a bazooka attack on a Polish freighter, but violated parole and fled to Venezuela in 1974 at the invitation of fellow exile militant Luis Posada Carriles. Arrested for a bombing, he was released in exchange for surrendering his munitions, and moved to Chile. The US government considered him to have been involved in multiple bombings while there. In 1976 he was arrested for an assassination attempt in Costa Rica; the US declined an extradition offer, and he was sent to the Dominican Republic.
Bosch founded CORU in 1976 along with Posada and other Cuban exiles. The group was responsible for a number of attacks in 1976, including the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. as a part of Operation Condor. CORU is also considered to be responsible for the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, a Cuban civilian airliner, on 6 October 1976 in which all 73 people on board were killed. Bosch, Posada, and two others were arrested and tried for the bombing in Venezuela. Posada escaped from prison, while Bosch was acquitted by a Venezuelan military court in 1986. The other two men, both employees of Posada, were sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Upon his return to the U.S. in 1988, Bosch was arrested for parole violations. The Justice Department, which considered him a terrorist, sought to deport him. He was allowed to stay, and later granted residency, by US President George H. W. Bush after a widespread lobbying campaign that included Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the president's son Jeb Bush. In his later years Bosch raised money to support resistance to the Cuban government, and died in Miami aged 84. He remains a controversial figure, with former US Attorney General Dick Thornburgh describing him as an "unreformed terrorist".
## Personal life
Orlando Bosch Ávila was born on 18 August 1926 in the village of Potrerillo, 240 kilometres (150 mi) east of Havana. His mother was a school teacher, and his father owned a restaurant. In 1946 Bosch enrolled in the University of Havana medical school, where he befriended the future Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Bosch was president of the medical school student body while Castro was head of the law school student body. Castro was only five days younger than Bosch. Bosch would later state that the two were close friends who frequently smoked cigars together. While they were students, both men worked against the government of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. According to a classmate of his, Bosch's fiery temperament earned him the nickname "Piro", meaning pyromaniac.
After graduating, Bosch moved to Toledo, Ohio for a paediatric internship, beginning in 1952. He then returned to Cuba to work as a doctor in Santa Clara Province. His activities included vaccinating children against polio. He also covertly organized for Castro's guerilla war against the Batista government. In 1960, however, less than one-and-a-half years after Castro overthrew Batista, Bosch stopped supporting the Cuban Revolution, and moved to Miami with his wife Myriam, a fellow medical school graduate. They took their four children with them, and soon had another child. The couple divorced ten years later, when Bosch was in prison. Bosch began working for a hospital in Coral Gables, Florida, where he held the position of assistant director.
While in Chile in the early 1970s, Bosch met Adriana Delgado, whom he married in February 1975. Adriana, his second wife, was 20 years younger than him. In 1976, the couple had a daughter. Bosch would return to the United States in 1988, despite being wanted for parole violations, saying "I have a loving wife who resides in the United States and five American children with whom I want to share the last years of my life." He died in 2011 aged 84 in a hospital in the suburbs of Miami.
## Career
Bosch had left Cuba in July 1960 after helping to organize a failed anti-Castro rebellion in the Escambray Mountains, and continued participating in anti-Castro activities after moving to Miami. Bosch helped organize the Movimiento Insurreccional de Recuperacion Revolucionaria (Insurrectional Movement of Revolutionary Recovery, MIRR), which conducted attacks on factories and sugar mills in Cuba, and claimed to be responsible for 11 bombing attacks against government property. From January to November 1962, and again in November 1963, Bosch was in contact with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). On the first occasion, Bosch was intended to help plan infiltration efforts into Cuba, and obtained supplies and safe houses for the team; on the second, Bosch sought funding for airstrikes against Cuba, which the CIA refused. A CIA memorandum from 1976 described Bosch as "General Coordinator" of the MIRR at the time of his contact with the CIA.
### Arrests in Florida and Venezuela
Bosch was soon fired from his job for keeping explosives on the hospital property, and was arrested several times for his involvement in a series of plots. The first of these was in 1964, when he was caught towing a radio-operated torpedo through rush-hour traffic. The next year, Bosch and five others were charged with smuggling bombs out of the US, after a raid by police on a house close to Orlando. In April 1966 a police roadblock found Bosch transporting bombs made with dynamite; he told them he was taking them to a "secret base where there was a boat we could use to bomb Castro." In December of the same year, he was charged with extortion. According to a report by the US Department of Justice, Bosch was involved with 30 incidents of terrorism between 1960 and 1968.
Bosch was not convicted for his activities until 1968, when he launched an attack on a Polish freighter. Standing on a bridge over Biscayne Bay, he fired a shell at the ship from a 57 mm homemade bazooka. Bosch was also charged with sending telegrams to the governments of Britain and Mexico, threatening to destroy ships from those countries. During his defense, Bosch stated that he believed the ship was headed to Cuba. Bosch was sentenced to ten years in prison; delivering the judgement, the judge stated that Bosch had "long professed the use of violence to achieve his aims in flagrant disregard of the laws of the United States". In the trial, the government described Bosch as a member of the terrorist organization Cuban Power, that claimed responsibility for "dozens of bombings and assassination attempts". Eight others, all described as members of the same group, were also convicted. Among those testifying against Bosch was FBI informant Ricardo Morales.
Bosch served four years of his sentence before being released on parole in 1972. Claude Kirk, then the Governor of Florida, was among those who advocated for Bosch to receive early parole. In June 1974 he told The Miami News that he was the head of a group called Accion Cubana, and that the organization was responsible for a series of bomb attacks on Cuban consulates in Latin America since August 1973. On 12 April 1974, he violated parole and fled to Venezuela, shortly after he was served a subpoena in a case involving a murder. He had been invited to Venezuela by Luis Posada Carriles, another Cuban exile militant who was then serving as the head of DISIP, the Venezuelan intelligence service. The same year, Bosch detonated bombs at a cultural center and at the Panamanian embassy in Caracas, in both cases just before representatives of the Cuban government were supposed to be there. The date of the attack, 12 October, was Cuba's independence day. He was released in exchange for surrendering his arsenal, and was seen soon after in Curaçao, where he said to a newsman, also a Cuban exile: "We will invade the Cuban embassies and will murder the Cuban diplomats and will hijack the Cuban planes until Castro releases some of the political prisoners and begins to deal with us."
Bosch moved to the Chilean city of Santiago, where the government of Augusto Pinochet provided a safe haven to Bosch and other anti-communists. According to a memo sent to the US by the Chilean government, he arrived on 3 December 1974, going by the alias Pedro Pena. He stayed in a military safe house, and "lived quietly as an artist". While the Cuban government stated that Bosch did not conduct anti-Castro activities while in Chile, the US government found him responsible for postal bombings of Cuban embassies in Lima, Madrid, Ottawa, and Buenos Aires. The US also accused Bosch of involvement in the August 1975 attempted assassination of Emilio Aragones, the Cuban ambassador to Argentina, and the September 1976 bombing of the Mexican Embassy in Guatemala City. In February 1976, he was arrested by the police in Costa Rica, where he was traveling under a fake Chilean passport using the alias Hector Avanzo. After his arrest, the US media reported that he had been involved in a plot to kill Henry Kissinger, then Secretary of State. The arrest resulted from Bosch's former and future colleague Posada passing information about Bosch's intentions to the CIA. When questioned, Bosch stated that his target was Andrés Pascal Allende, nephew of previous Chilean President Salvador Allende. The Costa Rican authorities offered to extradite him to the US, but the US declined.
### CORU and Flight 455
Bosch was deported to the Dominican Republic, where he founded the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), along with Posada, Gaspar Jiménez, and other Cuban exiles. The group, led by Bosch, first met in the Dominican Republic town of Bonao in June 1976, and laid plans for more than 50 bombings over the next year. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described CORU as "an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization." CORU was responsible for a number of attacks in 1976. These included a machine gun attack on the Cuban embassy in Bogotá, the assassination of a Cuban official in Mérida, the kidnapping of two Cuban embassy employees in Buenos Aires, the bombing of a Cubana airlines office in Panama City, the bombing of the Guyanese embassy in Port of Spain, and the assassination of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier, a staunch critic of the Pinochet government, in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, declassified documents showed that Letelier's assassination, part of a series that occurred during Operation Condor, was directly ordered by Pinochet. Michael Townley, an agent of Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, the Chilean secret Police, was also involved in the killing.
Bosch was invited to return to Venezuela by Orlando García, the head of security for Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez. He returned on 23 September 1976, again traveling on a fraudulent passport. Bosch was given a hotel suite for his use, a DISIP identity card using the alias "Carlos Sucre", and a Venezuelan passport. He was told that he could continue his activities, but that his targets needed to be outside Venezuela. Among those who had apartments in the same hotel were Garcia, and Morales, who had testified against Bosch in Florida, and who was now Garcia's deputy. Soon after he arrived in Venezuela, a fundraiser was held in Caracas to support his activities. According to a CIA memorandum, Bosch offered to refrain from planning attacks in the US during Andrés Pérez's forthcoming visit to the United Nations in November, if the Venezuelan government made "a substantial cash contribution to [Bosch's] organization" in return. Bosch was also reported to have stated, "Now that our organization has come out of the Letelier job looking good, we are going to try something else." After Letelier's assassination, a map of the route Letelier took to work was discovered in Bosch's office.
Several days later, Posada was reported to have stated that "we are going to hit a Cuban airplane" and "Orlando has the details." Flight 455 was a Cubana de Aviación flight departing from Trinidad to Cuba, via Barbados. On 6 October 1976, two time bombs variously described as dynamite or C-4 planted on the Douglas DC-8 aircraft exploded, killing all 73 people on board, including all 25 members of the 1975 Cuban national fencing team. Investigators from Cuba, Venezuela and the United States traced the planting of the bombs to two Venezuelan passengers, Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano, who had taken the first leg of the flight from Trinidad to Barbados. Both men were employed by Posada at a private detective agency that he ran in Caracas. Ricardo had called both Posada's office, and Bosch, soon after the explosions on the plane. CORU released a statement soon after the bombing claiming responsibility for it, and describing the explosion as having killed "57 Cuban communists" (57 of the passengers had been Cuban). Several CIA memoranda from the period implicated Bosch and Posada in the attack. According to an FBI informant, Bosch received a phone call on 6 October, in which he was told "A bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed."
A week later, Posada and Bosch were arrested on charges of masterminding the attack, and were jailed in Venezuela; Bosch's arrest occurred on 8 October 1976. Journalist Ann Louise Bardach described the arrests as becoming "a cause célèbre" for politicians in Miami, who lobbied the US government to press for Bosch and Posada's release. Miami, Hialeah, and Sweetwater announced an official "Orlando Bosch Day", and Miami Mayor Maurice Ferré met Bosch while he was imprisoned. Some years later, Otto Reich, a fellow Cuban exile and US Ambassador to Venezuela from 1986 to 1989, also lobbied the US government to push for Bosch's release. Reich argued both that Bosch was innocent, and that his safety was threatened. Bosch was also visited by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, investigating an allegation, which Bosch denied, that he had been in a room with Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. While Bosch was in prison in 1977, Miami area law enforcement officials linked Bosch to several dynamite bombings, including a blast in the offices of Mackey Airlines, after the airline announced plans to resume flights to Cuba.
The Cubana Flight case was initially placed before a civilian judge, who ruled that the court had no jurisdiction. In 1980, Bosch and the others were tried and acquitted by a military court of involvement in the bombing. Bosch and Ricardo were convicted of using false identity papers, and sentenced to four and a half months in prison, which were set against the time they had already been held. The court stated that although the flight had been brought down by a bomb, that there was insufficient evidence to prove the defendants were responsible. Bosch and the others remained imprisoned while the verdict was appealed. In 1983, another military court moved the case back to the civilian judicial system, and the trial was delayed further by Bosch and two others refusing to appear in court. In 1985, during this delay, Posada escaped from prison after bribing a guard using funds raised by the Cuban American National Foundation. Bosch's case was eventually resolved in 1986, when he was acquitted: Ricardo and Lugo were each sentenced to 20 years in prison. In total, Bosch was in prison for eleven years. He spent his time in prison writing and painting, and on multiple occasions went on hunger strikes to protest his situation.
### Later career
Reich asked for permission to grant Bosch a visa to the US on multiple occasions, the last of them in December 1987; his requests were denied. Bosch flew to Miami on 16 February 1988, despite not possessing a visa. On arrival, he was arrested for violating parole in the 1968 Polish freighter case, and also for entering the country illegally. A large campaign began demanding Bosch's release, among the leaders of which was Jorge Mas Canosa, head of the Cuban American National Foundation. Mas Canosa testified before a parole board, stating that Bosch and he had been friends for more than two decades, and that he was confident Bosch would not resume violent activities. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen advocated for Bosch's release during her successful 1988 congressional campaign, calling Bosch a patriot and a hero. Some of Bosch's militant supporters threatened to bomb the Miami office of the Immigration and Naturalization Services if Bosch was not released, though the threats were not carried out.
Despite this campaign, Bosch's application for asylum was rejected by the Justice Department in January 1989. In making his decision, Joe Whitley, at the time the Associate US Attorney General, stated that Bosch had been "resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence", and that he had "demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death." Agents of the local FBI, who investigated Bosch, stated that Bosch was considered "Miami's number one terrorist" by the FBI and other law enforcement groups. The Justice Department sought to deport him; 31 countries were asked to allow Bosch entry, but they all refused. Cuba expressed a willingness to take him, but his lawyers declined. After lobbying by Jeb Bush, then a campaign manager for Ros-Lehtinen, however, US President George H. W. Bush overruled the recommendation of the Justice Department, and ordered Bosch's release. He was allowed to return to his home in Miami, where he was required to have his phone tapped, his whereabouts monitored, to keep a visitors' log, and to not associate with militants. Though he agreed to these conditions, he did not keep a log, and stated his intention to associate with whomever he please. Two years later, he was granted US residency by the Bush administration.
After his release Bosch began working for Alberto Hernández, who succeeded Mas Canosa as chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, earning \$1,500 a month. In 1997 he was linked to the 1997 Cuba hotel bombings, in which one tourist was killed; he denied involvement, but stated that if he had, he would "still be denying it, since that's illegal in this country". He resumed painting, and used proceeds from the sales of his works to fund resistance to the Cuban government. He also formed an organization, named "Protagonist Party of the People", to raise money to buy weapons for the anti-Castro movement, violating the terms of his release in doing so. He claimed to have raised \$150,000 by 1997.
## Legacy
In his later years, Bosch remained a controversial figure. He had considerable support among Cuban exiles in the US, and his funeral saw public demonstrations of mourning. In his 2010 memoirs, Bosch denied having planned the bombing, stating that Castro had "accused me, without evidence, of being the intellectual author of the sabotage of Flight 455 and many other acts with which I had nothing to do." However, he continued to justify the bombing, saying that it was a "legitimate act of war", and that everyone on board deserved to die, because they "were all Communists." The Cuban diplomat and historian Jesús Arboleya and the American journalist John Dinges state that Bosch was responsible for the bombing. Dick Thornburgh, US Attorney General under Bush in 1988, referred to Bosch as an "unreformed terrorist", while the FBI considered CORU, which Bosch led, a terrorist organization. US diplomat Wayne Smith, an expert on Cuban affairs, also called Bosch a terrorist, and stated that he "did a disservice to the cause of democracy and freedom". Upon Bosch's release, an editorial in the New York Times accused the Bush administration of hypocrisy, stating that Bush was "squandering American credibility on issues of terrorism", and that he had protected "one of the hemisphere's most notorious terrorists." Reich's advocacy for Bosch created controversy when Reich was nominated to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs by the administration of George W. Bush in the early 2000s, and the Bush family's role in Bosch's release became an embarrassment for it in later years.
## See also
- United States and state-sponsored terrorism |
1,090,088 | Dunster | 1,171,143,695 | null | [
"Beaches of Somerset",
"Civil parishes in Somerset",
"Exmoor",
"Ports and harbours of Somerset",
"Villages in West Somerset"
]
| Dunster is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, within the north-eastern boundary of Exmoor National Park. It lies on the Bristol Channel 2.5 miles (4 km) southeast of Minehead and 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Taunton. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 817.
There are Iron Age hillforts in the area. Saxon Dunster was a parish in the Hundred of Carhampton. In the Domesday book there are four manors within the parish: Aucome (Alcombe), Avena (Avill), Stantune (Stanton) and Torre. Torre is now the site of the village of Dunster. Torre, including the castle and two watermills, was valued at 15 shillings and Aucome 20 shillings. The village grew up around Dunster Castle which was built at Torre by the Norman warrior William I de Moyon (d. post 1090) shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The castle is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. From that time it was the caput of the Feudal barony of Dunster. The castle was remodelled on several occasions by the Luttrell family who were lords of the manor from the 14th to 20th centuries. The benedictine Dunster Priory was established in about 1100. The Priory Church of St George, dovecote and tithe barn are all relics from the Priory.
The village became a centre for wool and cloth production and trade, of which the Yarn Market, built by George Luttrell (d.1629), is a relic. There existed formerly a harbour, known as Dunster Haven, at the mouth of the River Avill, but today, the coast having receded, it is now about one-half mile (0.80 km) from the village and no sign of the harbour can be seen on the low lying marshes between the village and the coast. Dunster has a range of heritage sites and cultural attractions which combine with the castle to make it a popular tourist destination with many visitors arriving on the West Somerset Railway, a heritage railway running from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard.
The village lies on the route of the Macmillan Way West, Somerset Way and Celtic Way.
## Name
The name Dunster derives from: Dun," A dun is an ancient or medieval fort" and chester, commonly indicates that the place is the site of a Roman castrum.
## History
Within two miles (3.2 km) of the village itself are several Iron Age hillforts showing evidence of early human occupation. These include Bat's Castle and Black Ball Camp on Gallox Hill, Long Wood Enclosure and a similar earthwork on Grabbist Hill.
Dunster is mentioned as a parish and Dunster Castle as belonging to William I de Moyon (alias de Moion, also de Mohun) in the 1086 Domesday Book. After the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century, he constructed a timber castle on the site as part of the pacification of Somerset. A stone shell keep was built on the motte by the start of the 12th century, and the castle survived a siege during the early years of the Anarchy. At the end of the 14th century the de Mohuns sold the castle to the Luttrell family, who continued to occupy the property until the late 20th century. During the English Civil War, Dunster was initially held as a garrison for the Royalists. It fell to the Parliamentarians in 1645 and orders were sent out for the castle to be demolished. However, these were not carried out, and the castle remained the garrison for Parliamentarian troops until 1650. Dunster is regularly home to Taunton Garrison who re-enact plays, battles, and life in the civil war. Major alterations to the castle were undertaken by Henry Fownes Luttrell who had acquired it through marriage to Margaret Fownes-Luttrell in 1747. Following the death of Alexander Luttrell in 1944, the family was unable to afford the death duties on his estate. The castle and surrounding lands were sold off to a property firm, the family continuing to live in the castle as tenants. The Luttrells bought back the castle in 1954, but in 1976 Colonel Walter Luttrell gave Dunster Castle and most of its contents to the National Trust, which operates it as a tourist attraction. It is a Grade I listed building and scheduled monument.
Dunster Priory was established as a Benedictine monastery around 1100. The first church in Dunster was built by William de Mohun who gave the church and the tithes of several manors and two fisheries, to the Benedictine Abbey at Bath. The priory, which was situated just north of the church, became a cell of the abbey. The church was shared for worship by the monks and the parishioners, however this led to several conflicts between them. One outcome was the carved rood screen which divided the church in two with the parish using the west chancel and the monks the east. The priory church is now in parochial use as the Priory Church of St George which still contains 12th and 13th century work, although most of the current building is from the 15th century. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. In 1332 it became more separated from the Abbey at Bath and became a priory in its own right. In the "Valor Ecclesiasticus" of 1535 the net annual income of the Dunster Tithe Barn is recorded as being £37.4.8d (£37 23p), with £6.13s7d ( £6.68p ) being passed on to the priory in Bath. In 1346 Cleeve Abbey built a nunnery in Dunster, but it was never inhabited by nuns and was used as a guest house. The priory was dissolved as part of the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. Dunster was part of the hundred of Carhampton, but St George's was the seat of the local deanery, overseeing the area's parish churches.
The manors of Alcombe, Stanton (or Staunton), and Avill were also mentioned as settlements in the 1086 Domesday Book.
Dunster had become a centre for woollen and clothing production by the 13th century, with the market dating back to at least 1222, and a particular kind of kersey or broadcloth became known as 'Dunsters'. The prosperity of Dunster was based on the wool trade, with profits helping to pay for the construction of the tower of the Priory Church of St George and provide other amenities. The 15th century Gallox Bridge was one of the main routes over the River Avill on the southern outskirts. The market was held in "The Shambles" however these shops were demolished in 1825 and now only the Yarn Market remains.
Dunster Beach, which includes the mouth of the River Avill, is located half a mile from the village, and used to have a significant harbour, known as Dunster Haven, which was used for the export of wool from Saxon times; however, it was last used in the 17th century and has now disappeared, as new land was laid down among the dykes, meadows and marshes near the shore. During the Second World War, considerable defences were built along the coast as a part of British anti-invasion preparations, though the north coast of Somerset was an unlikely invasion site. Some of the structures remain to this day. Most notable are the pillboxes on the foreshore of Dunster Beach. These are strong buildings made from pebbles taken from the beach and bonded together with concrete. From these, soldiers could have held their ground if the Germans had ever invaded. The beach site has a number of privately owned beach huts (or chalets as some owners call them) along with a small shop, a tennis court and a putting green. The chalets, measuring 18 by 14 feet (5.5 by 4.3 m), can be let out for holidays; some owners live in them all the year round.
## Governance
The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept to cover the council's operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council.
The village falls within the non-metropolitan district of Somerset West and Taunton, which was established on 1 April 2019. It was previously in the district of West Somerset, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and part of Williton Rural District before that. The district council is responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. The larger and most expensive local services such as education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, policing and fire services, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning are the responsibility of Somerset County Council.
As Dunster falls within the Exmoor National Park, some functions normally administered by district or county councils have, since 1997, fallen under the Exmoor National Park Authority, which is known as a 'single-purpose' authority, whose purpose is to "conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Parks" and "promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the Parks by the public", including responsibility for the conservation of the historic environment.
Dunster is the most populous area of the electoral ward Dunster and Timbercombe. The ward extends North East to the Bristol Channel and South West to Timberscombe. The total population at the 2011 Census was 1,219.
It is also part of the Bridgwater and West Somerset county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Before Brexit in 2020, it was part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament.
## Geography
Dunster Castle was positioned on a steep, 200-foot (61 m) high hill. Geologically, the hill is an outcrop of Hangman Grits, a type of red sandstone. During the early medieval period the sea reached the base of the hill, close to the mouth of the River Avill, offering a natural defence and making the village an inland port.
Nearby is the Dunster Park and Heathlands Site of Special Scientific Interest noted for nationally important lowland dry heath, dry lowland acid grassland, wood-pasture with veteran trees and ancient semi-natural oak woodland habitats. The fauna of the lowland heath includes the heath fritillary (Mellicta athalia), a nationally rare butterfly. The assemblage of beetles associated with the veteran trees is of national significance because of the variety and abundance of species.
Along with the rest of South West England, Dunster has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of England. The mean annual temperature in the area is 8.3 °C (46.9 °F) with a seasonal and diurnal variation, but due to the modifying effect of the sea the range is less than in most other parts of the UK. January is the coldest month, with mean minimum temperatures between 1 and 2 °C (34 and 36 °F). July and August are the warmest months in the region, with mean daily maxima around 21 °C (70 °F). In general, December is the month with the least sunshine and June the month with the most sun. The south west of England has a favoured location with regard to the Azores High when it extends its influence north-eastwards towards the UK, particularly in summer. Cloud often forms inland, especially near hills, and reduce the amount of sunshine that reaches the park. The average annual sunshine is about 1,600 hours. Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic depressions or with convection. In summer, convection, caused by the sun heating the land surface more than the sea, sometimes forms rain clouds and at that time of year a large proportion of the rainfall comes from showers and thunderstorms. Annual precipitation is around 800 mm (31 in). Local weather data is collected at Nettlecombe.
## Economy and demographics
The village provides a variety of shops and amenities for both local residents and visitors. These are largely situated in West Street and the high street. The village has numerous restaurants and three pubs with considerable trade being brought by tourists visiting the heritage sites and particularly the castle which attracted approximately 150,000 visitors in 2014. Although there is still some agriculture, the previous reliance on the wool trade has been replaced by service industries catering to the visitors. Both day-trippers and those staying for longer periods are catered for with shops, pubs, cafes and hotels. 52.6% of people within the parish are employed which is slightly lower than the 61.9% in England and Wales and the 65.2% in Somerset.
At the time of the 2011 census there were 817 people living in the parish. 13.2% were children up the age of 15 years. 52.3% were between 16 and 64 with 34.5 being 65 and older. This is an older population than in the rest of Somerset and England and Wales in general. In line with the rest of Somerset the majority of the population (95%) describes themselves as White British. 69.7% of the population live in property which they own, with 14.3% living in social rented accommodation and 12.9% privately rented. There is a higher proportion of people living alone than in other areas. The housing is fairly evenly divided between detached, semi-detached and terraced house, with 5.7% living in flats.
## Culture
Dunster was the birthplace of the song "All Things Bright and Beautiful" when Cecil Alexander was staying with Mary Martin, the daughter of one of the owners of Martins Bank. The nearby hill, Grabbist, was originally heather-covered before its reforestation and was described as the "Purple-headed mountain".
On the evening of 1 May each year the Minehead Hobby Horse visits Dunster and is received at the Castle. A local newspaper printed in May 1863 says "The origin professes to be in commemoration of the wreck of a vessel at Minehead in remote times, or the advent of a sort of phantom ship which entered the harbour without Captain or crew. Once the custom was encouraged, but now is much neglected, and perhaps soon will fall into desuetude." Another conjecture about its origin is that the hobby horse was the ancient King of the May. The Hobby Horse tradition begins with the waking of the inhabitants of Minehead by the beating of a loud drum. The hobby horse dances its way about the town and on to Dunster Castle.
Annually on the third Friday in August the village hosts the well known Dunster Show where local businesses and producers come together to showcase the very best that Exmoor and West Somerset has to offer. A major part of the show is the showing of livestock especially horses, cattle and sheep. The 2023 show was the 175th show. No shows were held in 2020 or 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
A more recent tradition (started in 1987) is Dunster by Candlelight which takes place every year on the first Friday and Saturday in December when this remarkably preserved medieval village turns its back on the present and lights its streets with candles. To mark the beginning of the festival on Friday at 5 pm, there is the Lantern Lighting Procession that starts on the Steep and continues through the village until all the lanterns in the streets have been lit. The procession of children and their families is accompanied by colourful stilt walkers in costumes who put up the lanterns.
The old English Christmas tradition of burning the Ashen faggot takes place at the Luttrell Arms hotel every Christmas Eve. The pub was formerly a guest house for the Abbots of Cleeve; its oldest section dates from 1443.
## Religious sites
The Priory Church of St George is predominantly 15th century with evidence of 12th- and 13th century work. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The church was started by William de Moyon during the 11th century.The tower was built by Jon Marys of Stogursey who received a contract from the parish in 1442. He was paid 13s 4d (approx. 67p) for each foot in height and £1 for the pinnacles. The work was completed in three years. Aisles were added in 1504.
The church was shared for worship between the monks of Dunster Priory and the parishioners, however this led to several conflicts between them. One outcome was the carved rood screen which divided the church in two with the parish using the west chancel and the monks the east. It was restored in 1875–77 by George Edmund Street. The church has a cruciform plan with a central four-stage tower, built in 1443 with diagonal buttresses, a stair turret and single bell-chamber windows.
## Landmarks
Dunster lies within in Exmoor National Park and has many listed buildings, including 200 Grade II, two Grade II\* and two Grade I.
The 17th century Yarn Market is a market cross which was probably built in 1609 by the Luttrell family who were the local lords of the manor to maintain the importance of the village as a market, particularly for wool and cloth. The Yarn Market is an octagonal building constructed around a central pier. The tiled roof provides shelter from the rain. The building contains a hole in one of the roof beams, a result of cannon fire in the Civil War. A bell at the top was rung to indicate the start of trading.
Nearby was an older cross known as the Butter Cross which was constructed in the late 14th or early 15th century and once stood in the High Street, possibly at the southern end of the high street, and was moved to its current location on the edge of the village possibly in 1825, however a drawing by J. M. W. Turner made in 1811 suggests it was in its present position by then. The site where the cross now stands was leveled in 1776 by workman, paid by Henry Fownes Luttrell, and it may have been on this occasion that the cross was moved. The cross has an octagonal base and polygonal shaft, however the head of the cross has been lost. It stands on a small area of raised ground on a plinth. The socket stone is 0.85 metres (2 ft 9 in) wide and 0.5 metres (1 ft 8 in) high. The surviving shaft is 1.1 metres (3 ft 7 in) high and changes from square to octagonal as it rises. There is an inscription on the northern face which says "WC, 1871, WS" recording a restoration. It is in the care of English Heritage for the state and managed by the National Trust.
Other notable buildings include the Nunnery, Dunster Watermill, Dovecote and the Priory barn, which belonged to Dunster Priory. Dunster Working Watermill (also known as Castle Mill) is a restored 18th century watermill, situated on the River Avill, close to Gallox Bridge, in the grounds of Dunster Castle. It is a Grade II\* listed building. The mill stands on a site where a mill was first recorded in the Domesday Book, but the present building was constructed around 1780. It closed in 1962 but was restored in 1979 and is still used to grind flour. The equipment is powered by two overshot wheels. It is owned by the National Trust but operated as a tourist attraction by a private company.
The Dovecote was probably built in the late 16th century. It has been designated as a Grade II\* listed building and Scheduled Monument. It is approximately 19 feet (5.8 m) high and 19 feet (5.8 m) in diameter, with walls around 4 feet (1.2 m) thick. In the 18th century the floor level and door were raised among several major alterations. The lower tiers of nest holes were blocked to protect against brown rats which had arrived in the Britain in 1720 and reached Somerset by 1760. A revolving ladder, known as a "potence", was installed to allow the pigeon keeper to search the nest holes more easily. In the 19th century two feeding platforms were added to the axis of the revolving ladder. When the ladder was installed in the 16th century the base rests on a pin driven into a beam on the floor. The head of the pin sits in a metal cup in the base of the wooden pillar, which means the mechanism has never had to be oiled. When the Dunster Castle estate was sold the dovecote was bought by the Parochial church council and opened to the public. Extensive repairs were undertaken in 1989.
The Tithe Barn was originally part of a Benedictine Dunster Priory, has been much altered since the 14th century and only a limited amount of the original features survive. In the "Valor Ecclesiasticus" of 1535 the net annual income of the Dunster Tithe Barn is recorded as being £37.4s.8d (£37.23p), with £6.13s.7d ( £6.68p ) being passed on to the priory in Bath. The Somerset Buildings Preservation Trust (SBPT) has co-ordinated a £550,000 renovation project on behalf of the Dunster Tithe Barn Community Hall Trust (DTBCHT), into a multi-purpose community hall under a 99-year lease at a pepper-corn rent, by the Crown Estate Commissioners who own the building. Funding has been obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund and others to support the work.
Conygar Tower is a folly used as a landmark for shipping. It is at the top of Conygar Hill and overlooks the village. It is a circular, 3 storey tower built of red sandstone, situated on a hill overlooking the village. It was commissioned by Henry Luttrell and designed by Richard Phelps and stands about 18 metres (59 ft) high so that it can be seen from Dunster Castle on the opposite hillside. There is no evidence that it ever had floors or a roof. It has no strategic or military significance. The name Conygar comes from two medieval words Coney meaning rabbit and Garth meaning garden, indicating that it was once a warren where rabbits were bred for food. In 1997 a survey carried out by The Crown Estate identified cracks in the walls which were repaired in 2000.
Dunster Doll Museum houses a collection of more than 800 dolls from around the world, based on the collection of the late Mollie Hardwick, who died in 1970 and donated her collection to the village memorial hall committee. Established in 1971, the collection includes a display of British and foreign dolls in various costumes. Thirty-two of the dolls were stolen during a burglary in 1992 and have never been recovered.
## Transport
Dunster railway station is on the West Somerset Heritage Railway, though the station is over a mile from the village. The station was opened on 16 July 1874 by the Minehead Railway. The line was operated by the Bristol and Exeter Railway which was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1876. The Minehead Railway was itself absorbed into the GWR in 1897. A small signal box stood at the Watchet end of the platform, but was demolished in 1926 when this was extended. In 1934 a new signal box at the opposite end of the station, brought second-hand from Maerdy, was put into use when the line from Dunster to Minehead was doubled in 1934. The GWR was nationalised into British Railways in 1948 and from 1964, when goods traffic was withdrawn on 6 July, the line was run down until it was eventually closed on 4 January 1971. The line was reopened as a heritage railway operated by the West Somerset Railway on 28 March 1976. The signal box was moved to Minehead in 1977 but the goods yard is now home to the railway's civil engineering team. It is a Grade II listed building.
Road access is via the A39 and A396. The nearest international airports would be those at Exeter or Bristol.
## Education
Dunster First School provides primary education for children from 4 to 9 years. In 2015 the school had 143 pupils. The Grade II listed building was originally constructed in the 1870s. It has since been modified and expanded and now includes a heated outdoor swimming pool. Middle education in the area is provided by Danesfield School and Minehead Middle School; while secondary education in the area is provided by West Somerset College in Minehead. |
1,935,536 | El Dandy | 1,165,001,153 | Mexican professional wrestler | [
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]
| Roberto Gutiérrez Frías (born October 2, 1962) is a Mexican retired professional wrestler and wrestling trainer, best known under the ring name El Dandy. He is the cousin of professional wrestler Juan Conrado Aguilar, known as El Texano, and the uncle of Aguilar's sons, who wrestle as El Texano Jr. and Súper Nova. While he had a retirement tour in 2014, Gutiérrez has wrestled most recently in March 2019. Gutiérrez has wrestled for most major Mexican promotions, including Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, Universal Wrestling Association, World Wrestling Association, and International Wrestling Revolution Group. In addition, he has worked for the US-based World Championship Wrestling as well as the Japanese Super World Sports and the International Wrestling Association of Japan.
During his career, starting in 1981, he has won a number of championships, including the CMLL World Middleweight Championship three times, the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, the NWA World Welterweight Championship twice, the Mexican National Featherweight Championship, Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship twice, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, Mexican National Welterweight Championship, the WWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, and the WWA World Tag Team Championship Corazón de León. He was a part of a tag team known as Los Fabulosos with Silver King and a member of the Latino World Order group in World Championship Wrestling. A 2004 match against L.A. Park was voted "Match of the Year" by readers of Box y Lucha magazine.
## Professional wrestling career
Gutiérrez began training for a wrestling career at the age of 14, training under Diablo Velazco in his hometown of Guadalajara, Jalisco. After five years of training he finally, but reluctantly, made his in-ring debut. Gutiérrez later stated that he was nervous for his debut in part because of his fear of the public. He opted to use the ring name "El Dandy", after several of the wrestlers in Guadalajara gave him the nickname due to his success with women. He made his debut as an enmascarado, or masked wrestler, teaming with Águila Solitaria against Black Indian and Chamaco Hernández. A local promoter asked Gutiérrez if he would prefer to wrestle unmasked instead, leading to Gutiérrez to lose the mask and wrestle without a mask on for the remainder of his career. At the time his family did not know he had become a professional wrestler, not until they saw him on TV against El Dorado. While the match was so well received that the fans in the arena threw money in the ring, Gutiérrez's parents were not enthused with his career choice at the time.
### Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre / Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (1981–1998)
After showing his skills in Guadalajara, representatives from Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), Mexico's largest professional wrestling promotion invited him to Mexico City to work for EMLL. Gutiérrez credited Mocho Cota and Herodes for getting him to Mexico City and also helping him out. Early in his EMLL career, Gutiérrez had to wash clothes for several wrestlers to earn enough money for food.
El Dandy won his first Championship on July 31, 1982, as he defeated El Modulo to win the Mexican National Featherweight Championship. His 175-day reign ended when Pequeño Solin defeated him on January 22, 1983. Two weeks after losing the championship, El Dandy won his first lucha de apuestas ("bet match") against El Guerrero and, as a result, El Guerrero was shaved bald. In Lucha libre a Lucha de Apuestas victory is considered more prestigious than championship wins. The following year, on December 6, El Dandy defeated Gran Cochisse in a Lucha de Apuestas, continuing his rise up the ranks of CMLL. By late 1984 El Dandy began teaming with Fuerza Guerrera and Talisman on a regular basis, forming a trio known as Los Bravos ("The Brave"). Los Bravos defeated Los Destructores (Lemús II, Tony Arce, and Vulcano) in a lucha de apuestas, winning the mask of Lemus II and the hair of Arce and Vulcano). On September 1, 1985, EMLL decided to have El Dandy defeat Américo Rocca to win the Mexican National Welterweight Championship. A total of 77 days later, El Dandy won the NWA World Welterweight Championship, and, in the process, relinquished the lower ranking Mexican National title. His 141-day reign was ended by Javier Cruz, as part of a long-running storyline feud between the two. El Dandy regained the championship on August 24, holding it for 70 days before losing it to Américo Rocca.
After competing as a welterweight for years, a weight class with a maximum limit of 78 kg (172 lb), El Dandy progressed to the middleweight division which is limited to a top weight of 87 kg (192 lb). On July 17, 1987, he defeated Kung Fu to win the NWA World Middleweight Championship. After his title win, El Dandy became involved in a storyline with another middleweight competitor, El Satánico. Kung Fu regained the championship when El Satánico helped Kung Fu cheat to win the title as part of the build up to a Lucha de Apuestas match between the two. In the lead up to the anticipated match, El Dandy defeated Satánico to win the Mexican National Middleweight Championship on September 28. Weeks later El Satánico defeated El Dandy, making him the first wrestler to pin El Satánico in a lucha de apuestas match. El Dandy's reign as Mexican National Middleweight Champion lasted 112 days until Javier Cruz won the championship.
In June 1990, El Dandy defeated Ángel Azteca to become the NWA World Middleweight Champion for a second time, holding it for 61 days until Atlantis won the title from him. The storyline between El Dandy and El Satánico was once again brought to the forefront in late 1990, with El Dandy evening the score between them by defeating El Satánico as part of the 1990 Juicio Final supercard show. The following year, El Satánico defeated El Dandy in their third overall Lucha de Apuestas, followed by El Dandy winning at the CMLL 59th Anniversary Show, to even the score at two-all in Lucha de Apuestas matches. In 1992, EMLL changed its name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL; World Wrestling Council) and created various CMLL championships. After having won both the NWA World and Mexican National championships in the middleweight division, El Dandy defeated Negro Casas to claim the recently created CMLL World Middleweight Championship. His reign was ended by Bestia Salvaje on September 4, 1992. El Dandy regained the championship in December, with his second reign as CMLL World Middleweight Champion lasting until May 1993. El Dandy had a third reign that started on October 5 and lasted until February 22, 1994, when he lost it to Javier Llanes.
Next, El Dandy moved into the light heavyweight division, defeating Jaque Mate to win the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. In 1996, El Dandy won two lucha de apuestas matches, first winning the hair of Babe Face on August 1, and then Chicago Express on September 3. The following month, on October 15, El Dandy's 681-day reign as NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion was ended by Black Warrior. While 1996 started with success, it ended with a Lucha de Apuestas loss to El Hijo del Santo in the main event of the 1996 Juicio Final show. El Dandy later competed in a tournament for the vacant CMLL World Trios Championship. Teaming up with Héctor Garza and Vampiro Canadiense, the trio defeated Apolo Dantés, Gran Markus Jr., and Fuerza Guerrera in the first round, before losing to Bestia Salvaje, Scorpio Jr., and Zumbido in the semifinals of the tournament.
### World Wrestling Association (1993, 2000–2001, 2007)
While working for CMLL, El Dandy also wrestled for the World Wrestling Association (WWA) in Tijuana, Baja California, as he was allowed to take independent bookings on days where he was not needed for CMLL shows. El Dandy and Corazón de León defeated Los Cowboys (El Texano and Silver King) to win the WWA Tag Team Championship on July 21, 1993. Their reign lasted 42 days before Los Cowboys regained the championship. El Dandy returned to WWA in 2000, teaming with Silver King to win the WWA World Tag Team Championship for a second time, defeating Los Brazos (Brazo de Oro and Brazo de Plata) on November 10, 2000. He would also defeat La Parka to win the WWA World Light Heavyweight Championship in early 2001. El Dandy ended up losing both championships on June 17, as Antifaz and La Parka won the tag team championship and Asterico won the light heavyweight title. El Dandy won the WWA World Tag Team Championship a third time, teaming up with Rey Misterio to claim the vacant title on August 27, 2007. The team later vacated the championship for undisclosed reasons.
### World Championship Wrestling (1997–2000)
In 1997, El Dandy began working for the US-based World Championship Wrestling (WCW) along with a number of other Mexican wrestlers. His WCW televised debut took place on September 28, 1997, where he and Damian lost to nWo Japan representatives The Great Muta and Masahiro Chono. His first pay-per-view (PPV) show match was as part of the 60-man battle royal main event of WCW's annual World War 3 show. He would later unsuccessfully challenge fellow Mexican luchador Juventud Guerrera for the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship in January 1998. In his next PPV match, El Dandy, La Parka, Psicosis, and Silver King lost to Chavo Guerrero Jr., Juventud Guerrera, Lizmark Jr., and Super Caló at Souled Out.
For the 1998 Slamboree show, El Dandy was one of 15 wrestlers involved in a battle royal where the winner of the match would face Chris Jericho for the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship. During his introductions, Jericho referred to El Dandy as the "winner of the Lou Ferrigno look-a-like contest". Later that year, Dandy was a member of the Latino World Order, a group of Mexican wrestlers led by Eddie Guerrero. Shortly after Guerrero's real-life car accident on New Year's Day, however, the group was forced to disband by the reformed nWo. The following year, El Dandy lost to Lenny whom he challenged for the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship. One of El Dandy's most notable moments came, not from the ring but, from an interview Bret Hart made. The heel Hart had selected El Dandy as his opponent, leading interviewer Gene Okerlund to question why Hart had selected such an easy opponent. This led to Hart respond "Who are you to doubt El Dandy?"
In early 2000, El Dandy and Silver King competed under the name Los Fabulosos. On March 21, 2000, Los Fabulosos defeated XS (Lane and Rave) in their first televised match under that name. They later ended up losing to Harlem Heat 2000 (Big T and Stevie Ray) in El Dandy's last match with WCW.
### Mexican independent circuit (2000–2019)
Returning to Mexico, El Dandy generally worked for various independent promotions all over Mexico, mixed in with stints for IWRG and AAA. On October 15, 2004, he lost the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship to L.A. Park. Five months later, El Dandy regained the championship from L.A. Park. His second reign lasted 750 days until Vangelis won the title on April 15, 2007. In April 2009, El Dandy lost a match for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship to titleholder Blue Demon Jr. Later that same year, El Dandy defeated El Signo in a 7-man steel cage lucha de apuestas match. The match also included El Fantasma, El Oriental, Super Muñeco, Villano III, and Villano IV, and saw El Dandy pin El Signo causing El Signo to be shaved bald after the match.
In 2014, El Dandy began his retirement tour, facing off against his longtime rival El Satánico in various local shows around the country. The longtime rivals split the first four matches between them, leading to "El Juicio Final" on May 18. EL Dandy won the match, which meant that El Satánico was shaved bald. 12 days later, in what was billed as his last match, El Dandy defeated Satánico one more time. While the 2014 tour was meant to be his retirement, El Dandy returned to the ring in 2015, working a CMLL match alongside Negro Casas, defeating El Satánico and Mr. Niebla. He would also work a limited schedule, with four matches in 2016, and one in both 2017 and 2019.
### International Wrestling Revolution Group (2000–2004)
After returning from his stint in WCW, El Dandy began working for the Naucalpan-based International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG). His first IWRG match took place on July 6, 2000, and saw El Dandy, Ciclon Ramirez, Kato Kung Lee, and Super Parka lose to Bombero Infernal, Dr. Cerebro, Mosco de la Merced, and Super Crazy. On February 8, 2002, he challenged Scorpio Jr. for the IWRG Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship but lost the match. While in IWRG, he defended the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship on two occasions, once against Negro Casas on July 24, 2003, and later against Blue Panther on August 31, 2003. He was one of eight wrestlers who put his hair on the line in a multi-man Lucha de Apuestas match; Suicida lost the match and his hair. On March 18, 2007, El Dandy was involved in a steel cage match where both his light heavyweight championship and the IWRG Intercontinental Welterweight Championship were on the line. In the end Fantasma de la Ópera defeated Dr. Cerebro to win the IWRG title. His last match with the group took place a week later, where Damián 666, Misterioso Jr., and Villano III defeated El Dandy, El Sagrado, and Máscara Sagrada by disqualification.
### AAA (2002–2003)
El Dandy began working for AAA, making his debut for the company on May 5, 2002. El Dandy, Perro Aguayo Jr. Máscara Sagrada, and Máscara Maligna faced off in a steel cage match where the last person in the ring would either be forced to unmask or have their hair shaved off. Neither Dandy nor Aguayo were involved in the finish, watching from outside of the ring as Máscara Maligna lost and was unmasked. Two weeks later, El Dandy defeated Perro Aguayo Jr. to win the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship. The storyline came to an end in the main event of the 2002 Verano de Escándalo show, where Dandy, Aguayo, Electroshock and El Zorro faced off in a four-way Lucha de Apuestas match. In the end, Perro Aguayo Jr. pinned El Dandy, forcing El Dandy to be shaved bald as a result. El Dandy's last match, a victory over El Hijo del Santo, took place on May 11, 2003.
## Personal life
At one point, Gutiérrez suffered a serious back injury that left him unable to perform for three months. During this difficult time, Gutiérrez contemplated suicide on more than one occasion, especially as few of his fellow wrestlers kept in contact with him. He found solace in physical therapy and has since opened a full-time practice. In early 2020, he was mentioned as a new member of the Mexico City boxing and lucha libre commission, assisting the commission in enforcing their rules and statutes.
## Reception
During El Dandy's days in EMLL, Wrestling Observer Newsletter founder Dave Meltzer stated that El Dandy was one of the "three best workers" in EMLL. In 1997, Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him at \#167 in their "top 500" for the year. Writer Matt Farmer stated that El Dandy was "highly underrated" and that he had "phenomenal matches" with Perro Aguayo Jr. during their 2002 feud. His 2004 match against L.A. Park was voted the "Match of the year" by readers of Box y Lucha magazine.
## Championships and accomplishments
- AAA
- Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- Comision National de Box y Lucha
- Mexican National Featherweight Championship (1 time)
- Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre / Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
- CMLL World Middleweight Championship (3 times)
- Copa de Oro 1994 – with Apolo Dantés
- NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA World Middleweight Championship (2 times)
- NWA World Welterweight Championship (2 times)
- Mexican National Middleweight Championship (1 time)
- Mexican National Welterweight Championship (1 time)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Ranked \#167 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the 1997 edition of PWI 500
- World Wrestling Association
- WWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- WWA World Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Corazón de León, Silver King (1) and Rey Misterio
## Luchas de Apuestas record |
69,363,341 | Alexios V of Trebizond | 1,142,077,797 | null | [
"1454 births",
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"15th-century executions by the Ottoman Empire",
"Byzantine saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church",
"Dethroned monarchs",
"Eastern Orthodox monarchs",
"Eastern Orthodox royal saints",
"Executed Byzantine people",
"Executed monarchs",
"Grand Komnenos dynasty",
"Medieval child monarchs",
"Monarchs who died as children"
]
| Alexios V Megas Komnenos (Greek: Ἀλέξιος Σκαντάριος Μέγας Κομνηνός, romanized: Alexios Skantarios Megas Komnēnos; 1454 – 1 November 1463) was very briefly Trapezuntine emperor in April 1460, succeeding his uncle John IV, until his deposition by his other uncle, David. Alexios was the son and only known child of Alexander, a brother of John IV and David. Alexander served as co-emperor with John IV but died prior to 1460, which left the young Alexios as John IV's heir. Almost immediately after Alexios's accession, David, with support of the influential Kabazites family, deposed Alexios and took the throne for himself.
Alexios was executed alongside the rest of his family by the Ottomans at Constantinople in 1463, two years after Trebizond's fall to the Ottoman Empire, after David was accused of plotting treason against the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II.
## Life
Alexios V Megas Komnenos was born in 1454 as the only known child of Alexander Megas Komnenos, a Trapezuntine co-emperor, and Maria Gattilusio, a daughter of Dorino I Gattilusio, the lord of the island of Lesbos. Alexander, who is also called Skantarios in some sources, was a son of the Trapezuntine emperor Alexios IV Megas Komnenos (r. 1417–1429) and had been his designated heir. Alexios IV was however assassinated and succeeded by Alexander's elder brother, John IV Megas Komnenos (r. 1429–1460), in 1429. Initially hostile to each other, the two brothers eventually reconciled and Alexander appears to have been named co-emperor by his brother in the 1450s, as John IV lacked sons of his own and preferred Alexander over their other brother, David. Alexander predeceased John, which left the young Alexios to be designated as John's heir.
Alexios was very briefly emperor after his uncle's death, in April 1460, but he was almost immediately deposed by his uncle, David, who thereafter took the throne for himself. David was both an adult and an experienced commander and must as such have viewed himself as a more suitable candidate. David's usurpation, mainly supported by the aristocratic Kabazites family, was so swift that some contemporary and near-contemporary sources describe David as immediately succeeding John IV. However, the contemporary historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles writes that David took the throne from his young nephew.
Alexios' life from his deposition to his death is poorly known. Conflicting accounts describe him as living in exile in Pera, in the vicinity of Constantinople, or remaining in Trebizond. Later sources state that the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, who had conquered Constantinople in 1453, at some point took the young Alexios as one of his pages. On 15 August 1461, Mehmed II conquered Trebizond, and allowed Alexios's uncle David and his family to settle near Adrianople, but in 1463, the sultan accused them of plotting treachery. Perhaps these accusations derived from Trebizond at this time having been temporarily captured by Uzun Hasan of the Aq Qoyunlu, David's brother-in-law. At this time, Alexios lived alongside David and his sons. Alexios briefly converted to Islam following the treason charges but re-converted to Christianity shortly thereafter. He was executed alongside David and David's children at Constantinople on 1 November 1463. In July 2013, Alexios, David and David's executed sons were canonized as saints by the Eastern Orthodox Church. |
51,529,589 | Hampton Down Stone Circle | 1,083,725,344 | Bronze Age construction in Dorset, England | [
"Archaeological sites in Dorset",
"History of Dorset",
"Scheduled monuments in Dorset",
"Stone circles in Dorset"
]
| The Hampton Down Stone Circle is a stone circle located near to the village of Portesham in the south-western English county of Dorset. Archaeologists believe that it was likely erected during the Bronze Age. The Hampton Down ring is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3,300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that they were likely religious sites, with the stones perhaps having supernatural associations for those who built the circles. However, it has been suggested that the site is not a stone circle at all, but is instead made up of kerbstones from a Bronze Age round barrow.
A number of stone circles were built in the area around modern Dorset, typically being constructed from sarsen stone and being smaller than those found elsewhere. The Hampton Down ring was erected on an open downland ridge overlooking the coast. It originally contained either eight or nine sarsen stones and had a diameter of 20 feet (6.5 metres) across with a track leading to it from the north. By 1908 the circle had been shifted east of its original position, with a hedge built across the site, and the number of stones increased to sixteen. By 1964 the number of stones had further increased to twenty-eight. In 1965, Geoffrey J. Wainwright oversaw an archaeological excavation which revealed the circle's original location and dimensions, after which it was reconstructed in its original location with the extraneous stones removed.
## Location
Positioned at the national grid reference 35960865, Hampton Down Stone Circle is located on the southern edge of an open downland ridge at a height of 680 feet above sea level. Located 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) north-west of Portesham on private land, it is positioned on the rim of Portesham Hill and overlooks the coast. Had the vegetation levels been low at the time of the circle's creation then it would have permitted extensive panoramic views of the coastline. The site is a scheduled monument, and thus accorded legal protection under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
## Context
While the transition from the Early Neolithic to the Late Neolithic—which took place with the transition from the fourth to the third millennium BCE—witnessed much economic and technological continuity, it also saw a considerable change in the style of monuments erected, particularly in what is now southern and eastern England. By 3000 BCE, the long barrows, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses which had predominated in the Early Neolithic had ceased being built, and were instead replaced by circular monuments of various kinds. These include earthen henges, timber circles, and stone circles. These latter circles are found in most areas of Britain where stone is available, with the exception of the island's south-eastern corner. They are most densely concentrated in south-western Britain and on the north-eastern horn of Scotland, near Aberdeen. The tradition of their construction may have lasted for 2,400 years, from 3300 to 900 BCE, with the major phase of building taking place between 3000 and 1,300 BCE.
These stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation. This suggests that they were not sites used for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence, and may have been deliberately left as "silent and empty monuments". The archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson suggested that in Neolithic Britain, stone was associated with the dead and wood with the living. Other archaeologists have suggested that the stone might not represent ancestors, but rather other supernatural entities, such as deities.
The area of modern Dorset has only a "thin scatter" of stone circles, with nine possible examples known within its boundaries. The archaeologist John Gale described these as "a small but significant group" of such monuments, and all are located within five miles (eight kilometres) of the sea. All but one—Rempstone Stone Circle on the Isle of Purbeck—are located on the chalk hills west of Dorchester. The Dorset circles have a simplistic typology, being of comparatively small size, with none exceeding 28 metres (92 feet) in diameter. All are oval in shape, although perhaps have been altered from their original form. With the exception of the Rempstone circle, all consist of sarsen stone. Much of this may have been obtained from the Valley of Stones, a location at the foot of Crow Hill near to Littlebredy, which is located within the vicinity of many of these circles. With the exception of the circle at Litton Cheney, none display evidence of any outlying stones or earthworks around the stone circle.
The archaeologists Stuart and Cecily Piggott believed that the circles of Dorset were probably of Bronze Age origin, a view endorsed by the archaeologist Aubrey Burl, who noted that their distribution did not match that of any known Neolithic sites. It is possible that they were not all constructed around the same date, and the Piggotts suggested that while they may well be Early Bronze Age in date, it is also possible that "their use and possibly their construction may last into the Middle and even into the Late Bronze Age". Their nearest analogies are the circles found on Dartmoor and Exmoor to the west, and the Stanton Drew stone circles to the north. It is also possible that the stone circles were linked to a number of earthen henges erected in Dorset around the same period.
## Description
Burl described the Hampton Down Stone Circle as a "megalithic chameleon". A photograph from 1908 showed sixteen stones as part of the monument, a number that was again recorded by the Piggotts in 1938. However, by 1964 twenty-eight stones were found to be part of the circle. As of 1939, a hedge and bank split the circle in two, from north-to-south, separating the three most westerly stones from the rest of the circle. Investigations revealed that when the field to the east of the hedge was cleared in 1964, a large number of stones had been found on the surface and had been moved to the site of the other stones. It is possible that these other stones had also once been part of a prehistoric monument, such as a long barrow or round barrow, which had once existed in the vicinity. The stones are sarsen.
Commenting on the site in 1939, the Piggotts opined that ten stones in the eastern half of the ring were likely in their original position. They expressed the view that "owing to [the stone's] rough cube-like shapes it is impossible to decide whether they are upright or recumbent". Based on what they believed to be the stones in their original position, they estimated the circle's original diameter at 35 feet (11–12 metres).
### Excavation
In 1964 the stones in the circle were disturbed by agricultural activity. It was then decided that the site would be excavated, a project which was ordered by the Ministry of Public Building and Works and carried out in May 1965 under the directorship of Geoffrey J. Wainwright. The 28 stones were moved from the site using a crane to permit the archaeologists to excavate the area beneath them.
The excavation revealed that the location of the stones was not their original prehistoric position. The original location of the circle was identified as existing a few feet to the west, under the adjacent hedge. The original circle had either eight or possibly nine sockets for stones and was oval shaped. The perimeter of the ring was defined by V-shaped ditches on its eastern and western perimeters. The maximum axis of the circle would have been approximately 20 feet (6.5 metres), making it considerably smaller than the size proposed by the Piggotts. There was a 4 feet (1.2 metre) wide track leading to the circle from the north, with Burl opining that "if this had been an avenue it was a very poor one". Three stake-holes were found at the western side of the circle, where it was joined by the track.
If used as a space for rituals, the Hampton Down circle would have only been able to accommodate a few individuals standing within it at any given time. It was also not the site of any cremation deposits, unlike some stone circles in Northern Britain. Burl suggested that the Hampton Down Stone Circle may never have been part of the prehistoric stone circle tradition, but that the stones were actually once the kerbstones of a round barrow. To support this suggestion, he noted that round barrows were known at Poole, around 20 miles (32 kilometres) to the east of the site.
The excavation yielded no finds, and thus it produced no means of reliably dating the construction of the site. Wainwright suggested that the ring was Early Bronze Age on the basis of other, dated circles in Britain. Based on his analysis of the site's stratigraphy, he argued that the stones had likely been removed from their original position amid agricultural development in the second half of the seventeenth century. According to Burl, the history of the site "illuminates the perils of superficial fieldwork". As of 2003, the Hampton Down ring was the only one of the Dorset circles to have seen excavation.
Following excavation, several stones were placed in the original sockets in order to create a reconstruction of the original circle. A fence was then erected around the circle to discourage further interference. |
22,650,532 | Welles Declaration | 1,113,233,299 | 1940 U.S. diplomatic statement condemning the Soviet occuption of the Baltic states | [
"1940 documents",
"1940 in Estonia",
"1940 in Latvia",
"1940 in Lithuania",
"1940 in international relations",
"1940 in the United States",
"Diplomatic documents",
"Estonia–United States relations",
"Latvia–United States relations",
"Lithuania–United States relations",
"Occupation of the Baltic states",
"Soviet Union–United States relations",
"United States foreign policy"
]
| The Welles Declaration was a diplomatic statement issued on July 23, 1940, by Sumner Welles, the acting US Secretary of State, condemning the June 1940 occupation by the Soviet army of the three Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – and refusing to diplomatically recognize their subsequent annexation into the Soviet Union. It was an application of the 1932 Stimson Doctrine of nonrecognition of international territorial changes that were executed by force and was consistent with US President Franklin Roosevelt's attitude towards violent territorial expansion.
The 1940 Soviet invasion was an implementation of its 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact, which contained a secret protocol by which Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR agreed to partition the independent nations between them. After the pact, the Soviets engaged in a series of ultimatums and actions ending in the annexation of the Baltic states during the summer of 1940. The area held little strategic importance to the United States, but several legations of the US State Department established had diplomatic relationships there. The United States and the United Kingdom anticipated future involvement in the war, but US non-interventionism and a foreseeable British–Soviet alliance deterred open confrontation over the Baltic states.
Welles, concerned with postwar border planning, had been authorized by Roosevelt to issue stronger public statements that gauged a move towards more intervention. Loy Henderson and other State Department officials familiar with the area kept the administration informed of developments there, and Henderson, Welles, and Roosevelt worked together to compose the declaration.
The declaration established a five-decade nonrecognition of the annexation. The document had major significance for overall US policy toward Europe in the critical year of 1940. The US did not engage the Soviet militarily in the region, but the declaration enabled the Baltic states to maintain independent diplomatic missions, and Executive Order 8484 protected Baltic financial assets. Its essence was supported by all subsequent US presidents and congressional resolutions.
The Baltic states re-established their independence in 1990 and 91.
## Background
### 19th and early 20th centuries
From the late 18th into the early 20th century, the Russian Empire annexed the regions that are now the three Baltic states as well as Finland. Their national awareness movements began to gain strength, and they declared their independence in the wake of World War I. All of the states were recognized by the League of Nations during the early 1920s. The Estonian Age of Awakening, the Latvian National Awakening, and the Lithuanian National Revival expressed their wishes to create independent states. After the war, the three states declared their independence: Lithuania re-established its independence on February 16, 1918; Estonia on February 24, 1918; and Latvia on November 18, 1918. Although Baltic states often were seen as a unified group, they have dissimilar languages and histories. Lithuania was recognized as a state in 1253, and Estonia and Latvia emerged from territories held by the Livonian Confederation (established 1243). All three states were admitted into the League of Nations in 1921.
The U.S. had granted full de jure recognition to all three Baltic states by July 1922. The recognitions were granted during the shift from the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson to the Republican administration of Warren Harding. The U.S. did not sponsor any meaningful political or economic initiatives in the region during the interwar period, and its administrations did not consider the states to be strategically important, but the country maintained normal diplomatic relations with all three.
The U.S. had suffered over 100,000 deaths during the war and pursued a non-interventionist policy since it was determined to avoid involvement in any further European conflicts. In 1932, however, U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson formally criticized the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and the resulting Stimson Doctrine would go on to serve as a basis for the Welles declaration.
### Outbreak of World War II
The situation changed after the outbreak of World War II. Poland was invaded in September 1939. The United Kingdom became involved, and the series of German victories in Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands during spring 1940 were alarming. Britain was clearly threatened, and its leadership discussed the possibility of an alliance with the Soviet Union. Under the circumstances, direct British confrontation over the Baltic states was difficult.
Roosevelt did not wish to lead the U.S. into the war, and his 1937 Quarantine Speech indirectly denouncing aggression by Italy and Japan had met mixed responses. Welles felt freer in that regard and looking towards postwar border issues and the establishment of an American-led international body that could intervene in such disputes. Roosevelt saw Welles's stronger public statements as experiments that would test the public mood towards Ameeicai foreign policy.
The secret protocol contained in the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union had relegated Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the Soviet sphere of influence. In late 1939 and early 1940, the Soviet Union issued a series of ultimatums to the Baltic governments that eventually led to the illegal annexation of the states. (At about the same time, the Soviet Union was exerting similar pressure on Finland.) About 30,000 Soviet troops entered the Baltic states during June 1940, followed by arrests of their leaders and citizens.
Elections to "People's Assemblies" were held in all three states in mid-July; the Soviet-sponsored slates received between 92.2% and 99.2% of the vote. In June, John Cooper Wiley of the State Department sent coded telegrams to Washington reporting developments in the Baltics, and the reports influenced Welles. The U.S. responded with a July 15 amendment to Executive Order 8389 that froze the assets of the Baltic states, grouped them with German-occupied countries, and issued the condemnatory Welles Declaration.
## Formulation
The Welles Declaration was written by Loy W. Henderson in consultation with Welles and Roosevelt. Welles would go on to participate in the creation of the Atlantic Charter, which stated that territorial adjustments should be made in accordance with the wishes of the peoples concerned. He increasingly served as acting Secretary of State during Cordell Hull's illnesses. Henderson, the State Department's Director of the Office of European Affairs, was married to a Latvian woman. He had opened an American Red Cross office in Kaunas, Lithuania, after World War I and served in the Eastern European Division of the State Department for 18 years.
In a conversation on the morning of July 23, Welles asked Henderson to prepare a press release "expressing sympathy for the people of the Baltic States and condemnation of the Soviet action." After reviewing the statement's initial draft, Welles emphatically expressed his opinion that it was not strong enough. In the presence of Henderson, Welles called Roosevelt and read the draft to him. Roosevelt and Welles agreed that it needed strengthening. Welles then reformulated several sentences and added others which apparently had been suggested by Roosevelt. According to Henderson, "President Roosevelt was indignant at the manner in which the Soviet Union annexed the Baltic States and personally approved the condemnatory statement issued by Under Secretary Welles on the subject." The declaration was made public and telegraphed to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow later that day.
## Text
The statement read:
> > During these past few days the devious processes whereunder the political independence and territorial integrity of the three small Baltic Republics – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – were to be deliberately annihilated by one of their more powerful neighbors, have been rapidly drawing to their conclusion.
> >
> > From the day when the peoples of those Republics first gained their independent and democratic form of government the people of the United States have watched their admirable progress in self-government with deep and sympathetic interest.
> >
> > The policy of this Government is universally known. The people of the United States are opposed to predatory activities no matter whether they are carried on by the use of force or by the threat of force. They are likewise opposed to any form of intervention on the part of one state, however powerful, in the domestic concerns of any other sovereign state, however weak.
> >
> > These principles constitute the very foundations upon which the existing relationship between the twenty-one sovereign republics of the New World rests.
> >
> > The United States will continue to stand by these principles, because of the conviction of the American people that unless the doctrine in which these principles are inherent once again governs the relations between nations, the rule of reason, of justice and of law – in other words, the basis of modern civilization itself – cannot be preserved.
## Impact
### World War II
Welles also announced that the US government would continue to recognize the foreign ministers of the Baltic countries as the envoys of sovereign governments. Meanwhile, the Department of State instructed US representatives to withdraw from the Baltic states for "consultations." In 1940, The New York Times described the declaration as "one of the most exceptional diplomatic documents issued by the Department of State in many years."
The declaration was a source of contention during the subsequent alliance between the Americans, the British, and the Soviets, but Welles persistently defended it. In a discussion with the media, he asserted that the Soviets had maneuvered to give "an odor of legality to acts of aggression for purposes of the record." In a memorandum describing his conversations with British Ambassador Lord Halifax in 1942, Welles stated that he would have preferred to characterize the plebiscites supporting the annexations as "faked." In April 1942 he wrote that the annexation was "not only indefensible from every moral standpoint, but likewise extraordinarily stupid." He interpreted any concession in the Baltic issue as a precedent that would lead to further border struggles in eastern Poland and elsewhere.
As the war intensified, Roosevelt accepted the need for Soviet assistance and was reluctant to address postwar territorial conflicts. During the 1943 Tehran Conference, he "jokingly" assured Stalin that when Soviet forces reoccupied Baltic countries, "he did not intend to go to war with the Soviet Union on this point." However,, he explained, "the question of referendum and the right of self-determination" would constitute a matter of great importance for the Americans. Despite his work with Soviet representatives in the early 1940s to forward the alliance, Welles saw Roosevelt's and Churchill's lack of commitment as dangerous.
### Postwar
The declaration linked American foreign policy towards the Baltic states with the Stimson Doctrine, which did not recognize the 1930s Japanese, German and Italian occupations. It broke with Wilsonian policies, which had supported a strong Russian presence as a counterweight to German power. During the Cold War, the Baltic issue was used as a point of leverage in American–Soviet relations.
Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, a judge of international law, described the basis of the nonrecognition doctrine as being founded on the principles of ex injuria jus non oritur:
> This construction of non-recognition is based on the view that acts contrary to international law are invalid and cannot become a source of legal rights for the wrongdoer. That view applies to international law one of "the general principles of law recognized by civilized nation." The principle ex injuria jus non oritur is one of the fundamental maxims of jurisprudence. An illegality cannot, as a rule, become a source of legal right to the wrongdoer.
Like the Stimson Doctrine, Welles's declaration was largely symbolic in nature, but it offered some material benefits in conjunction with Executive Order 8484, which enabled the diplomatic representatives of the Baltic states in various other countries to fund their operations, and it protected the ownership of ships flying Baltic flags. By establishing the policy, the executive order allowed some 120,000 postwar displaced persons from the Baltic states to avoid repatriation to the Soviet Union and to advocate independence from abroad.
The American position that the Baltic states had been forcibly annexed would remain its official stance for 51 years. Subsequent presidents and congressional resolutions reaffirmed the substance of the declaration. President Dwight Eisenhower asserted the right of the Baltic states to independence in an address to the U.S. Congress on January 6, 1957. After confirming the Helsinki Accords in July 1975, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution that it would not affect U.S. recognition of the sovereignty of Baltic states.
On July 26, 1983, on the 61st anniversary of de jure recognition of the three Baltic countries by the U.S. in 1922, President Ronald Reagan re-declared the recognition of the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The declaration was read in the United Nations as well. Throughout the 51 years that followed the 1940 occupation of the Baltic states, all U.S. official maps and publications that mentioned the Baltic states included a statement of U.S. non-recognition of Soviet occupation.
The independence movements in the states in the 1980s and the 1990 succeeded, and the United Nations recognized all three in 1991. They went on to become members of the European Union and NATO. Their development since independence is generally regarded as the most successful among post-Soviet states.
Commenting on the declaration's 70th anniversary, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described it as "a tribute to each of our countries' commitment to the ideals of freedom and democracy." On July 23, 2010, a commemorative plaque inscribed with its text in English and Lithuanian was formally dedicated in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.
## See also
- Kersten Committee |
7,330,026 | Precipice (Battlestar Galactica) | 1,053,192,108 | null | [
"2006 American television episodes",
"Battlestar Galactica (season 3) episodes",
"Television episodes written by Ronald D. Moore"
]
| "Precipice" is the second part of the third season premiere and 35th episode of the re-imagined American science fiction drama television series Battlestar Galactica. The episode was written by re-imagined creator Ronald D. Moore, and directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan. It first aired on October 6, 2006 on the Sci-Fi Channel along with the preceding episode "Occupation". In "Precipice", the Cylons respond to the suicide attack in the previous episode by rounding up over 200 civilians believed to be affiliated with the resistance, and later decide to have them executed. Meanwhile, Galactica is to send a squadron to meet with the resistance on New Caprica. Unlike most episodes, it does not include a survivor count.
Since "Occupation" revolved around the resistance, "Precipice" focused more on the New Caprica Police and Jammer's role in it. The producers also decided to release the Sharon model imprisoned on Galactica. During the writing process, Moore included references to Seinfeld and The Great Escape. The episode was seen by 2.2 million viewers and received universal acclaim from critics. In addition, Moore's writing of the episode was nominated for an Emmy and Writers Guild of America awards.
## Plot
In response to the suicide bombing of a New Caprica Police (NCP) ceremony, the Cylons order a crackdown against the insurgency. Many resistance members start to disagree about the legitimacy of the suicide bombings, but leader Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) continues to orchestrate them. Meanwhile, in an attempt to get Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) to love him, Leoben Conoy (Callum Keith Rennie) presents her with a toddler named Kacey (Madeline Parker), of whom Leoben claims Starbuck is the mother, as a result of her time on Caprica in "The Farm". Leoben leaves her alone with the toddler, but Starbuck refuses to play with her. When she leaves Kacey unattended, however, Kacey injures herself falling down the stairs. As Kacey is recovering, Starbuck has a change of heart and prays to the Lords of Kobol not to let her die.
In a move against the insurgency, the Cylons decide to have the NCP arrest 200 civilians they believe to be affiliated with the resistance. Headed by Jammer (Dominic Zamprogna), a former Galactica deckhand and resistance fighter, most of the arrests take place during the night. Those being arrested include Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch) and Cally Henderson Tyrol (Nicki Clyne). Learning of Cally's arrest, Jammer attempts to get her released by Boomer, but Boomer is unable to help. After another suicide bombing at a power station, the Cylons decide to have the prisoners executed, but require President Gaius Baltar's (James Callis) signature. When he refuses to sign, an Aaron Doral (Matthew Bennett) copy forces him to at gunpoint. Caprica-Six (Tricia Helfer) attempts to stop him, but Doral shoots her in the head. Baltar signs the document. Meanwhile, Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon) learns from Cavil (Dean Stockwell) that he only released her husband Saul (Michael Hogan) because the Cylons know he is leading the resistance. He informs Ellen that unless she tells the Cylons where the resistance leaders will be meeting next, he will imprison Saul once more. Reluctantly, Ellen discovers where the resistance plans to meet with members from the colonial fleet.
On board Galactica, Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos) appoints their Cylon prisoner Sharon Agathon (Grace Park) a Colonial officer and sends her to the planet to liaise with the resistance. When she arrives to meet with resistance members, Centurions attack, having learned of the meeting place from the intelligence Ellen provided. Simultaneously, the 200 human prisoners are being transported to a location by the Cylons and NCP. A masked Jammer, realizing they are to be executed, saves Cally by releasing her in secret and telling her to run. As she runs away, the sound of gunfire is heard.
## Production
Since the previous episode "Occupation" focused on the resistance, writer Ronald D. Moore wanted the second part to focus more on Jammer's role within the NCP, as he wanted to personalize somebody working for the police force. He also wanted to make Tigh know he's wrong with launching suicide bombers, but has to do so if he believes doing so will defeat the Cylons. This is also Tigh's principal trait and role in the series. Moore stated "why is Colonel Tigh on Galactica? Why does Adama keep him around? Because when the chips are down, and they are way down, baby, in this situation, when you are in a foxhole, who do you want next to you? You want Colonel Tigh 'cause he is gonna get your ass out of there." The scene where Baltar speaks to an imprisoned Roslin about the suicide bombings was one of Moore's favourite scenes, as he wanted the audience to be unsure who to "root for," since Baltar is the biggest Cylon collaborator among the humans, but Roslin seemingly supports the bombings.
After a Number Eight (Sharon) Cylon model was imprisoned onboard Galactica for the majority of the second season, the producers decided they needed to have her released, as they believed the storyline ran its course, and make her worthy for Adama's trust. "The swirl", a sex position Ellen Tigh uses, was a reference to Seinfeld, a comedy series Moore was a fan of. The sequence leading up to the Cylon Centurions lining up to execute the prisoners was an homage to The Great Escape, particularly the scene featuring the death of Richard Attenborough's character from the Nazis after stopping the truck he was in, and telling him to take a break, at which point he was executed.
Madeline Parker was cast as Kacey Brynn. Parker's performance impressed the producers, as they believed she was "one of the better child actors" they ever worked with, since casting them, especially at a younger age, was not easy. The one problem they had with Parker however, was filming her lying injured on the stairs. In the scene where the NCP arrest civilians at night, the idea of using night vision, which did not come from the original script, came from director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan. Real night scopes were used to ensure the authenticity of the effect. One of the main visual effects of the episode was another suicide bombing which was caught on camera. Moore stated to have "tortured the visual effects guys about [it] quite a bit," because the camera footage was in black and white and the visual quality of the explosion had to be degraded to match the footage.
Much like "Occupation", "Precipice" also features scenes filmed on the Colonial One set featuring several copies of the same Cylon models. Furthermore, Mimica Gezzan decided to shoot a 360 degree angle around the set, requiring additional digital duplication. The actors had to change their clothes between every take, which normally took as long as 30 minutes, after including time for touch ups on hair and makeup. The countryside of New Caprica was featured more towards the end of the episode. The producers found it a challenge to differentiate New Caprica from Caprica, the name of the planet New Caprica was named after following the holocaust from the miniseries, and featured extensively again during the first season, and both planets were filmed on location in temperate British Columbia forests.
## Reception
"Occupation" and "Precipice" were originally meant to be released as two separate episodes; however, the producers decided to merge them to be released as a two-hour broadcast. The reasoning was partly due to the third episode "Exodus", which became too long and split to a two-part episode, and the producers did not wish to stretch the New Caprica storyline to several weeks. The two-hour season-three premiere was first broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel in the United States on Friday, October 6, 2006 between 9 pm and 11 pm. After its original broadcast, the two-hour episode attracted a household rating of 1.8, equaling a total of 2.2 million viewers. Ratings were an increase of two per cent in total viewing from the average of the second half of the second season.
"Precipice" received positive reviews from critics. Keith McDuffee of TV Squad felt that Sharon Agathon coming to the fleet was a "surprising development" and the cliffhanger was "unbelievable", adding "are the writers actually crazy enough to mass kill so many main characters to the series? Is it possible at all that they can actually get out of this?" Eric Goldman of IGN rated the episode a "masterful" 10 out of 10, stating "watching the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica is a great reminder that this is truly still the best show on television." Ian Berriman of SFX reacted positively towards the episode, stating "Although there are a couple of great surprises in this episode – Casey, the Great Escape-homaging finale – the highlights are a fistful of fabulous face-offs: Baltar discussing the bombing with Roslin; Roslin questioning Tigh's methods; Apollo telling Adama that his plan is madness. James Callis's performance as the haggard, tortured Baltar is outstanding." Berriman rated the episode five stars out of five. Patrick Sauriol of UGO felt that although it was set a year since "Lay Down Your Burdens", it "hasn't lost a thing by jumping ahead," and that the episode, along with "Occupation", "confirm that it's still the best show on television." Sauriol graded both episodes an A-. Television Without Pity gave the episode an A+, a higher grade than the previous episode.
In 2007, the episode was nominated for a 59th Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series", but lost to HBO's The Sopranos series finale "Made in America". "Precipice" was also nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for best Episodic Drama. However, the episode lost out to the pilot episode of Big Love. |
1,853,090 | Ontario Highway 34 | 1,154,198,484 | Ontario provincial highway | [
"Ontario provincial highways"
]
| King's Highway 34, commonly referred to as Highway 34, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The route connects Highway 417 south of Vankleek Hill with Hawkesbury. It is 16.9 kilometres (10.5 mi) long, traveling through a mostly rural portion of the lower Ottawa Valley near the Ontario–Quebec border. The highway formerly continued 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Highway 417 to Highway 2 in Lancaster. However, this section was decommissioned as a provincial highway and was subsequently redesignated as Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry County Road 34.
## Route description
Highway 34 is short highway which today serves to connect the town of Hawkesbury with Highway 417. The 16.9-kilometre (11 mi) route ends at Main Street, near the Ottawa River in downtown Hawkesbury. Between these two points, with the exception of the town of Vankleek Hill, the highway traverses the rural Ottawa Valley, remaining straight in a southwest–northeast orientation except through Hawkesbury. The majority of the land use surrounding the highway is composed of commercial shops in urban areas and agricultural in rural areas, though some small woodlots exist alongside the route. Two interchanges exist along the route: at the southern terminus with Highway 417 and with Prescott and Russell County Road 17 (former Highway 17).
Like other provincial routes in Ontario, Highway 17 was maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. In 1989, traffic surveys conducted by the ministry showed that on average, 5,050 vehicles used the highway daily along the section between Highway 417 and Vankleek Hill while 16,400 vehicles did so each day along the section between Prescott and Russell County Road 17 and Hawkesbury, the highest and lowest counts along the highway, respectively.
## History
Highway 34 has a very tame history, having been assumed in 1930 and remaining unchanged between then and the highway downloads of the late 1990s, with the exception of an interchange with Highway 417 opened in late 1974.
On November 26, 1930, the Department of Highways assumed the road between Lancaster and Hawkesbury as King's Highway 34, providing a connection between Highway 2 and Highway 17 immediately west of the Ontario–Quebec border. The route was 55.7 kilometres (34.6 mi) long at the time of its assumption. On November 8, 1974, Highway 417 opened between Prescott and Russell County Road 9 (Highland Road) and the existing Highway 17 near from the Quebec border, with an interchange located at Highway 34. Highway 34 otherwise remained unchanged for over 60 years.
However, budget constraints brought on by a recession in the 1990s resulted in the Mike Harris provincial government forming the Who Does What? committee to determine cost-cutting measures in order to balance the budget after a deficit incurred by former premier Bob Rae. It was determined that many Ontario highways no longer serve long-distance traffic movement and should, therefore, be maintained by local or regional levels of government. The MTO consequently transferred many highways to lower levels of government in 1997 and 1998, removing a significant percentage of the provincial highway network. It was determined that the portion of Highway 34 south of Highway 417 had largely been supplanted by the nearby Highway 138, and no longer served long-distance traffic movement. As such, the section of Highway 34 within the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry was decommissioned as a provincial highway and transferred to that jurisdiction on January 1, 1998. It has since been redesignated as Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry County Road 34.
## Major intersections |
22,774,527 | Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld | 1,157,883,568 | German fighter ace and Knight's Cross recipient | [
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| Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld (14 July 1918 – 12 March 1944) was a Luftwaffe night fighter flying ace of royal descent during World War II. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was credited with 51 aerial victories, all of them claimed in nocturnal combat missions.
Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was born on 14 July 1918 in Salzburg, Austria and joined the infantry of the Austrian Bundesheer in 1936. He transferred to the emerging Luftwaffe, initially serving as a reconnaissance pilot in the Zerstörergeschwader 76 (ZG 76), before he transferred to the night fighter force. He claimed his first aerial victory on the night of 16 to 17 November 1940. By the end of March, he had accumulated 21 aerial victories for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 16 April 1942. He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves on 2 August 1943, for 45 aerial victories. He was promoted to Major and tasked with leading Nachtjagdgeschwader 5 (NJG 5) in January 1944, before he and his crew were killed in a flight accident on 12 March 1944.
## Personal life
Prince Egmont zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was born on 14 July 1918 in Salzburg, Austro-Hungarian Empire as a member of a cadet branch of the ruling House of Lippe. His father was Prince Alfred of Lippe-Weissenfeld (1881-1960) and his mother was born Countess Anna von Goëß (1895-1972). Egmont was the only son of four children. His sisters Carola, Sophie and Theodora were all younger than Egmont. They lived in an old castle in Upper Austria called Alt Wartenburg, which the family inherited through his mother. At birth he had a remote chance of succeeding to the throne of the Principality of Lippe, a small state within the German Empire. However, only months after his birth, Germany became a republic and all the German royal houses were forced to abdicate.
Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld in his younger years was very enthusiastic about the mountains and wildlife. From his fourteenth year he participated in hunting. At the same time he was also very much interested in music and sports and discovered his love for flying at the Gaisberg near Salzburg. Here he attended the glider flying school of the Austrian Aëro Club. He attended a basic flying course with the second air regiment in Graz and Wiener Neustadt even before he joined the military service.
Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld never married or had children. In January 1941 he became acquainted with Hannelore Ide, nicknamed Idelein. She was a secretary for a Luftgau. The two shared a close relationship and spent as much time together as the war permitted, listening to music and sailing on the IJsselmeer until his death in 1944.
## Military service
Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld joined the Austrian Bundesheer in 1936 at the age of 18, initially serving in the infantry. In the aftermaths of the 1938 Anschluss, the incorporation of Austria into Greater Germany by Nazi Germany, he transferred to the German Luftwaffe and was promoted to Leutnant in 1939. He had earned his Luftwaffe Pilots Badge on 5 October 1938 and underwent further training at Fürstenfeldbruck, Schleißheim and Vienna-Aspern. His Luftwaffe career started with the II. Gruppe (2nd group) of the Zerstörergeschwader 76 (ZG 76) before he was transferred to the night fighter wing Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 (NJG 1) on 4 August 1940. The unit was based at Gütersloh where he familiarised himself with the methods of the night fighters.
### Night fighter career
Following the 1939 aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight, Royal Air Force (RAF) attacks shifted to the cover of darkness, initiating the Defence of the Reich campaign. By mid-1940, Generalmajor (Brigadier General) Josef Kammhuber had established a night air defense system dubbed the Kammhuber Line. It consisted of a series of control sectors equipped with radars and searchlights and an associated night fighter. Each sector named a Himmelbett (canopy bed) would direct the night fighter into visual range with target bombers. In 1941, the Luftwaffe started equipping night fighters with airborne radar such as the Lichtenstein radar. This airborne radar did not come into general use until early 1942.
By the summer of 1940, the first night fighters were transferred to Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was one of the pilots included in this small detachment. As early as 20 October 1940, he had taken over command of an independent night fighter commando at Schiphol and later at Bergen. On his first encounter with the Royal Air Force (RAF) bomber, in the night of 16 to 17 November 1940, he claimed a Vickers Wellington bomber from No. 115 Squadron RAF shot down at 02:05 hours. His second victory was claimed on the night of 15 January 1941, when he shot down an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley N1521 of the Linton-on-Ouse based No. 58 Squadron RAF over the northern Netherlands, near the Dutch coast in the Zwanenwater at a nature reserve at Callantsoog. He was wounded in action on 13 March 1941, while flying Bf 110 D-2 (Werknummer 3376 – factory number) of the 4./NJG 1 with his radio operator Josef Renette when he made an emergency landing at Bergen after their aircraft was hit by the defence fire, wounding them both. Shortly after midnight on 10 April 1941, Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld claimed a No. 12 Squadron RAF Wellington over the IJsselmeer, raising NJG 1's victory score to 100. This achievement was celebrated at the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam with General Kammhuber, Wolfgang Falck, Werner Streib, Helmut Lent and others attending. On 30 June 1941 while flying Bf 110 C-4 (Werknummer 3273) on a practice intercept mission over North Holland, he collided with Bf 110 C-7 (Werknummer 2075) piloted by Leutnant Rudolf Schoenert of the 4./NJG 1 and crashed near Bergen aan Zee. On 19 June 1941 he earned his first of four references in the daily Wehrmachtbericht, a daily bulletin from the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces). By end July 1941, his number of aerial victory claims stood at eleven. Promoted to Oberleutnant he became Staffelkapitän of the 5th Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 (NJG 2—2nd Night Fighter Wing) on 1 November 1941. By the end of 1941, he had claimed a total of 15 aerial victories.
He was awarded the German Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) on 25 January 1942 and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 16 April 1942 after he had shot down 4 RAF bombers in the night of 26 to 27 March 1942, his score standing at 21 aerial victories. Promoted to Hauptmann, Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was made Gruppenkommandeur of the I. Gruppe (1st group) of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 (NJG 3—3rd Night Fighter Wing) on 15 October 1942, where he claimed two further aerial victories. He was transferred again, taking command of the III. Gruppe (3rd group) of NJG 1 on 11 June 1943. One month later he claimed his 45th aerial victory for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub) on 2 August 1943. The presentation was made by Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's headquarters in Rastenburg, present-day Kętrzyn in Poland on 10/11 August. Five other Luftwaffe officers were presented with awards that day by Hitler, Hauptmann Heinrich Ehrler, Oberleutnant Joachim Kirschner, Hauptmann Manfred Meurer, Hauptmann Werner Schröer, Oberleutnant Theodor Weissenberger were also awarded the Oak Leaves, and Major Helmut Lent received the Swords to his Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.
### Wing commander and death
After a one-month hospital stay, Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was promoted to Major and made Geschwaderkommodore of Nachtjagdgeschwader 5 (NJG 5—5th Night Fighter Wing) on 20 February 1944. He and his crew, Oberfeldwebel Josef Renette and Unteroffizier Kurt Röber, were killed in a flying accident on 12 March 1944 on a routine flight from Parchim to Athies-sous-Laon. Above Belgium, they seem to have encountered a bad weather zone with low clouds and a dense snowstorm and it was assumed that the aircraft hit the high Ardennes ground after being forced to fly lower because of ice forming on the wings. The exact circumstances of this flight may never be known, the Bf 110 G-4 C9+CD (Werknummer 720 010—factory number) crashed into the Ardennes mountains near St. Hubert where the completely burned-out wreck was found the following day. The funeral service was held in the city church of Linz on 15 March 1944. Prinz Egmont zur Lippe-Weißenfeld and Prinz Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein are buried side by side at Ysselsteyn in the Netherlands.
## Summary of career
### Aerial victory claims
According to Obermaier, Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was credited with 51 nocturnal aerial victories. Foreman, Mathews and Parry, authors of Luftwaffe Night Fighter Claims 1939 – 1945, list 50 nocturnal victory claims, numerically ranging from 1 to 50. His 49th claim is numerically labeled as his 59th victory. Mathews and Foreman also published Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, listing Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld with 47 claims, plus four further unconfirmed claims.
### Awards
- Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe in Gold
- Iron Cross (1939)
- 2nd Class (17 December 1940)
- 1st Class (17 January 1941)
- Wound Badge in Black
- German Cross in Gold on 25 January 1942 as Oberleutnant in the 5./Nachtjagdgeschwader 2
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
- Knight's Cross on 16 April 1942 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the 5./Nachtjagdgeschwader 2
- 263rd Oak Leaves on 2 August 1943 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of the III./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 |
352,567 | Made in Canada (TV series) | 1,159,809,068 | Television series | [
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"2000s Canadian sitcoms",
"2000s Canadian workplace comedy television series",
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"CBC Television original programming",
"Gemini and Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy Series winners",
"Television series about television",
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| Made in Canada is a Canadian television comedy which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2003. Rick Mercer starred as Richard Strong, an ambitious and amoral television producer working for a company which makes bad (but profitable) television shows. A dark satire about the Canadian television industry, the programme shifted into an episodic situation comedy format after its first season.
It was created by Mercer, Gerald Lunz and Michael Donovan, produced by Salter Street Films and Island Edge, and filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The programme was broadcast with Salter Street's satirical newsmagazine, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and drew its creators, writing staff, and much of its production staff from that programme; Made in Canada was filmed during the summer, and 22 Minutes during the fall. Mercer starred on both until he left 22 Minutes in 2001.
The programme received critical and popular recognition. It was particularly well-received by the industry it lampooned, attracting many guest stars. The programme received 23 national awards during its five-season run, including multiple Gemini, Writers Guild of Canada, and Canadian Comedy Awards. In the United States, Australia and Latin America, the show was syndicated as The Industry. In France, it was syndicated as La loi du Show-Biz.
## Plot
A satire of film and television production, the series revolves around fictional Pyramid Productions – a company where greed and backstabbing thrive. Pyramid produces lucrative (but terrible) television and films for the domestic and international markets, with creative decisions made by non-creative people.
Company head Alan Roy is obsessed with appearances and staying ahead of trends, whether this means owning his own cable channel or having the largest yacht at Cannes. His often-idiotic decisions lead to extra work for his employees, who must fulfill his wishes or deal with the consequences. The employees – Richard, Victor, Veronica and Wanda – manipulate each other and sabotage each other's projects to earn more money, gain promotions or work on better projects. None of them appear to have issues with breaking the law, and they seem to have no sense of morality. They generally only cooperate when they have an opportunity to destroy another company or a mutual enemy. Each episode deals with one major problem (or event), which normally does not carry over to the next episode.
Pyramid projects also provide storylines for the series, as the company's staff try to manage the inevitable complications created by the casts and crews of their film and television productions. Its cash cows are two series: The Sword of Damacles [sic], a parody of mythological adventure series such as Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Beaver Creek, a parody of Canadian period dramas such as Anne of Green Gables and Road to Avonlea. The staff also face complications with their low-budget, poorly-made films, such as Vigilante's Vengeance. Many of their movies fail; they are not produced, or go direct-to-video in foreign countries.
## Characters
- Richard Strong (Rick Mercer), the central character, is an ambitious, machiavellian employee trying to navigate, scheme and backstab his way to the CEO's chair; in the first episode, he makes his way from junior script reader to television producer by having his boss (and brother-in-law) Ray Drodge fired. Ruthless and amoral, he is better at his job than most of his colleagues. Richard has had relationships with Veronica Miller, Lisa Sutton and Siobhan Roy, but generally as an opportunity to manipulate rather than out of love. The character was partially inspired by Ian McKellen's performance in the 1995 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III. He personifies human vice, unfettered by ethics.
- Alan Roy (Peter Keleghan), the firm's CEO, is a charismatic but intellectually-questionable womanizer who often succeeds more by accident than skill and, much more often, fails miserably. He is frequently mystified that his management style – a combination of bad production ideas, offbeat health fads and half-understood slogans from management books – does not rouse office morale. Alan's career was launched with his first film, Prom Night at Horny High, which was a commercial success despite being lowbrow and indecent. (Keleghan had an early starring role in the 1983 sex comedy, Screwballs.) Keleghan described the character as a cross between Alliance Communications head Robert Lantos and The Simpsons' Mr. Burns. Producer Michael Donovan joked that Alan reflected the showrunners' impression of him.
- Veronica Miller (Leah Pinsent) is the firm's chief operating officer. Although she is generally overworked, doing the jobs of several other employees, she is still forced to do idiotic and degrading tasks for Alan. Veronica occasionally becomes fed up with her poor treatment and sabotages a project or event, which usually spurs Alan to improve her working conditions and meet her demands. The office problem-solver, she is generally an ally of Richard's in making the best of Alan's decisions but will double-cross him if necessary.
- Victor Sela (Dan Lett) is head of Pyramid's film division and a general office sycophant, willing to do almost anything Alan asks of him (no matter how demeaning). He is usually very positive about Alan's schemes. In a test, however, Victor is the least loyal.
- Wanda Mattice (Jackie Torrens), Alan's assistant, uses her influence in the day-to-day workings of the office to obtain power beyond her role in the corporate hierarchy and knows when it is to her advantage to act less intelligent. Although she frequently dresses strangely and appears frumpy, Alan is attracted to her and they frequently have sex in the office.
- Lisa Sutton (Janet Kidder) is a producer and Victor's girlfriend. Richard considers her a threat to his power, and Alan dislikes her for ignoring (or spurning) his attempts to seduce her.
- Raymond Drodge (Ron James) is a producer. Formerly the head of television development, he is fired in the pilot after Richard and Siobhan frame him for sexually harassing Siobhan. He is later rehired in a much lower position after Richard gets his old job. Due to Richard's manipulation, Raymond's marriage falls apart and he begins to believe that he is an alcoholic.
- Michael Rushton (Alex Carter) is the dimwitted, egotistical star of The Sword of Damacles.
- Siobhan Roy (Emily Hampshire), Alan's daughter, is one of the stars of Beaver Creek. Fully aware that being the boss's daughter gives her job security, she freely schemes and manipulates to get whatever she wants.
- Brian Switzer (Chas Lawther), nicknamed "Network Brian", is an executive with the television network which airs Beaver Creek and its main liaison with Pyramid.
### Notable guest stars
Most people employed in Canadian television enjoyed the programme, which created a stir in the industry and attracted a number of guest stars:
- Gordon Pinsent as Walter Franklyn, star of Beaver Creek and "Canada's most beloved actor". Pinsent returns in the last episode as a dairy mogul who buys the company. Mercer considered Pinsent's work to be a major influence on his career, and was extremely pleased to have him in the cast; during the series' production, Mercer narrated a biography of Pinsent.
- Peter Blais as Geoff, an actor who comes out and subsequently wants Parson Hubbard (his character on Beaver Creek) to be gay
- Andrew Bush as a young method actor who plays Blind Jimmy on Beaver Creek
- Mary-Colin Chisholm as an actor who plays Nurse Melissa on Beaver Creek
- Maury Chaykin as Captain McGee, a kiddie entertainer who is caught in a sex scandal
- Andy Jones as Fritz Hoffman, a German TV executive who believes that Beaver Creek is a sexier version of Dawson's Creek
- Sarah Polley as the head of the Church of Spirentology [sic] cult
- Shirley Douglas and Margot Kidder appeared as fading Hollywood actresses making guest appearances on Beaver Creek.
- Megan Follows (the real-life star of Anne of Green Gables) as Mandy Forward, the former "Adele of Beaver Creek", who returned for a reunion movie and discovered that after her previous Beaver Creek movie, Alan kept the sets up to produce a pornographic knockoff.
- Mark McKinney as Dean Sutherland, a released convict who wants to sell his story
- Don McKellar as Adam Kalilieh, an independent art film director
- Joe Flaherty as a mayoral candidate who hires Pyramid to smear his opponent
- Cynthia Dale and C. David Johnson as a husband-and-wife motivational team
- Colin Mochrie as Frank Roy: Alan's mentally-handicapped brother who, as part of an elaborate tax dodge orchestrated by Alan, is revealed as the actual Pyramid CEO.
Several Canadian media personalities made cameos as fictionalized versions of themselves, including Nicholas Campbell, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Moses Znaimer, Keifer Sutherland, Evan Solomon, Peter Gzowski, Ann Medina and Gino Empry.
## Development and writing
The series was conceived by Mercer, executive producer Gerald Lunz and Salter Street Films co-chair Michael Donovan in 1994. Lunz had launched Mercer's career, producing his one-man shows and This Hour Has 22 Minutes (the latter of which was made by Salter Street). Mercer and Lunz formed Island Edge to co-produce Made in Canada and develop other projects for Mercer.
Donovon, Lunz and Mercer wanted to satirize office politics, starring Mercer as an ambitious man manipulating his way to the top in a parody of Shakespeare's Richard III. Instead of killing his rivals, the programme's Richard would kill their careers by ruining their reputations and seizing their power. Richard would address the audience directly, breaking the fourth wall to share his plans and ambitions. Although they realized this was a risk, they felt that Mercer could connect with the audience as he had in his monologues. Mercer had established himself as the first mainstream Canadian satirist to make scathing criticisms directly, without a comedic mask.
They had considered setting the satire in the federal bureaucracy in line with Mercer's political criticism (known as the country's "unofficial opposition party"), but Mercer was not sufficiently knowledgeable about the government's inner workings. Believing that satire required a firm understanding of its targets, they set the programme in a television and film production office; this would be understood by the audience and provide many egos to lampoon. Mercer described the programme in a later interview as having a "Dilbert reality" of an office, in which some have a "suck-up kick-down philosophy". In April 1998, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) approved a six-part series without seeing a script.
The first season was cowritten by Mercer and Mark Farrell over a two-month period. They had both written for 22 Minutes and had written sketches for several years, but neither had written episodic television before. Lunz, a self-described "Shakespeare nut", guided the theme and style. Farrell, Lunz and Mercer remained the show's creative force throughout its five seasons. Other writers for the series included Paul Bellini, Alex Ganetakos and Edward Riche.
The programme shifted from a dark satire to an episodic sitcom after its first season, and addressed the audience less frequently. This was often limited to the closing line – "I think that went well" or "This is not good" – which might be given to a character other than Richard, depending on who was behind that episode's schemes. The series' working title was The Industry, which was changed to The Casting Couch and then Made in Canada.
## Production
CBC executive George Anthony, who had convinced Lunz and Mercer to come to the network years previously, recognized their talent and was firmly supportive of the production. The programme went from network approval to broadcast in a record six months. Executives ordered a thirteen-episode second season after viewing the first episode, which was unprecedented for the public broadcaster. Casting was done while scripts were still being written, and episodes were filmed out of sequence to accommodate the actors' schedules.
Filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the programme was produced by (and a parody of) Salter Street Films. It used Salter Street's real offices as its main office set during the first season, shooting primarily on evenings and weekends from 17 July to 24 August 1998. The first season was directed by Henry Sarwer-Foner (also of 22 Minutes), who had his hand in the programme's editing, scripting, and overall design. He shot with a long lens to achieve a film-like quality, and sought to give it a distinctive look. Sarwer-Foner directed 22 of the series' 65 episodes. Other directors included Michael Kennedy and Stephen Reynolds.
The programme used The Tragically Hip's "Blow at High Dough", one of Mercer's favourite songs, as its theme. The iconic Canadian band's first hit single, its title was taken from a Scottish phrase about being overambitious and taking on more than one could handle. The lyrics refer to a movie production (Speedway, starring Elvis Presley) which sweeps up a small town. Other Tragically Hip songs were featured including "Poets", "Courage", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "My Music at Work", and "Tiger the Lion".
Although Mercer took time off from 22 Minutes in January 1999 to concentrate on the second season of Made in Canada, he continued to appear in most episodes until he retired from 22 Minutes in 2001. The programme continued to film during the summer, with 22 Minutes filming in the fall. The second season began filming in June 1999 at Electropolis Studios in Halifax. CHUM Limited vice-president Moses Znaimer allowed scenes for the second-season finale to be filmed at the CHUM-City Building in Toronto for authenticity. Season four began filming on 18 June 2001.
While the first season of the series was in production, two Canadian film and television studios (Alliance Communications and Atlantis Communications) merged to create Alliance Atlantis. This merger was parodied in Made in Canada's second-season premiere, when Pyramid merges with a company called Prodigy and becomes Pyramid Prodigy. Two years later, Alliance Atlantis purchased Salter Street Films.
## Broadcast and home video
Made in Canada premiered on CBC Television on 5 October 1998, amidst Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearings on the country's broadcasting policy and Canadian content. The series aired on Monday nights at 8:30 pm, after This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Both programmes were moved to Friday in fall 2001, leading into Royal Canadian Air Farce and The Red Green Show in a CBC move to create a comedy-programming block and boost already-strong ratings.
The first two seasons were sold to PBS in 1999 for distribution in the United States as The Industry. The series was also syndicated in France, Australia and Latin America; the French name was La loi du Show-Biz.
In 2000, DVD and home-video rights to seasons one and two were acquired by Koch International. Entertainment One released the first season on DVD in Region 1 in 2002; it is currently out of print. The series was telecast on the Canadian cable channel BiteTV from 2010 to 2015.
The first and second seasons began streaming on the CBC Gem platform on 12 March 2020. In October 2022, it was announced that additional seasons would become available, with all five seasons streaming on Gem as of 2023.
## Reception
The series was popular and critically praised in Canada and the United States. The programme's 5 October 1998 premiere had 1,002,000 viewers, holding 75 percent of the audience from the lead-in This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
### Critical response
Shannon Hawkins of the Ottawa Sun wrote during its first season that Made in Canada had "all the makings of a hit", with clever dialogue, plausible characters and a storyline for anyone who fantasized about ruining their boss. Antonia Zerbisias of the Toronto Star described the programme as "scary, cynical and biting", and felt that the production took huge risks in satirizing its producers and industry moguls and its choice of title in a country which looked down on domestic productions. According to Stephen Cole of The National Post, the first season was well-scripted, funny and clever with solid performances but never found a target worthy of its "savage and cutting" satire. Cole was disappointed that the series remained a sitcom instead of taking on more compelling issues specific to the Canadian industry. Rating the first episode 9 out of 10, a TV Guide reviewer said that the programme centred on Mercer's fresh and deeply-biting "satire with a smirk" complemented with an able cast; although the audience might miss some inside jokes, it was felt that the show should hold the 22 Minutes audience. For Saturday Night, comedy critic Andrew Clark wrote that the programme created an eerily-believable universe with its casting, filming location and fictitious shows, and appreciated Mercer's ability to find a satirical line and hone it to a cutting edge.
At the beginning of its fourth season, John Doyle of The Globe and Mail called the show "addictive", switching from absurdity to brutal satire accessible to every viewer. At the end of the series, Doyle wrote that most in the industry had enjoyed its "twisted, vague versions" of real stories and scandals.
Made in Canada has been compared to Ken Finkleman's satire, The Newsroom, in which Farrell, Keleghan, and Pinsent had roles. Although they share a documentary feel and were shot in real offices, Clark noted that their lead characters are distinctly different; Richard's ambition is all-consuming, and he wages "intergenerational warfare" against the likes of Finkleman's ineffective George Findlay.
### Awards
The series was nominated for more than three dozen Gemini Awards during its five-season run, winning ten. Made in Canada was nominated for fourteen awards at the 2002 Geminis, the first time a sitcom led dramatic programmes and miniseries in nominations. Its wins included two for Best Comedy Series and three for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy.
The show won nine Canadian Comedy Awards out of twenty-six nominations, leading the nominations in 2000, 2002 and 2003. It received four Writers Guild of Canada Awards and a Directors Guild of Canada Award. After the series ended, Mercer won the 2003 Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award at the Banff Television Festival, and a 2004 National Arts Centre Award for outstanding work of the previous year.
### Reunion
A 15th-anniversary Made in Canada reunion, attended by Mercer, Keleghan, Pinsent, Lett, Torrens, Lunz, Sarwer-Foner, Riche and Farrell, was held at the Canadian International Television Festival (CITF) on 16 November 2013. The reunion included a screening, followed by a question-and-answer session. |
40,151,468 | Elkins v. United States | 1,153,152,012 | null | [
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| Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206 (1960), was a US Supreme Court decision that held the "silver platter doctrine", which allowed federal prosecutors to use evidence illegally gathered by state police, to be a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Evidence of illegal wiretapping had been seized from the home of James Butler Elkins by Portland, Oregon police officers on an unrelated search warrant, and he was subsequently convicted in federal court. Elkins appealed, arguing that evidence found by the officers should have been inadmissible under the exclusionary rule, which forbids the introduction of most evidence gathered through Fourth Amendment violations in criminal court.
In a 5–4 decision, the Court overturned the silver platter doctrine and Elkins' conviction. Associate Justice Potter Stewart wrote the majority opinion, while Associate Justices Felix Frankfurter and John M. Harlan II dissented. By giving a rationale for a broader interpretation of Fourth Amendment rights, the decision prepared the way for Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which applied the exclusionary rule to the states.
## Silver platter doctrine
The Fourth Amendment prevents most warrantless searches by law enforcement officers, and since Weeks v. United States (1914), has been enforced by the exclusionary rule, which excludes most evidence gathered through Fourth Amendment violations from criminal trials. While Wolf v. Colorado (1949) had held the amendment to apply to the states, a process known as incorporation, the exclusionary rule had explicitly not been incorporated by the decision. Evidence gathered by state law enforcement was therefore not yet bound by the same strictures as that gathered by federal law enforcement.
In Lustig v. United States (1949), Justice Felix Frankfurter coined the silver platter doctrine, ruling that evidence gathered by Fourth Amendment violations was still admissible if state police gave it to federal officials on "a silver platter"—that is, without any level of involvement by federal authorities. This doctrine nonetheless created an incentive for federal authorities to coordinate with state law enforcement in the gathering of evidence.
## Background of the case
Portland, Oregon police officers searched the home of James Butler Elkins, ostensibly for obscene material, and seized tape recordings that Elkins had made from illegal wiretaps. He was subsequently convicted in federal court of intercepting and divulging telephone communications, but appealed his federal conviction on the grounds that state police had gathered the evidence against him in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. His conviction was upheld by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals.
## Court's decision
Associate Justice Potter Stewart delivered the opinion of the court in this case, in which Chief Justice Earl Warren and Associate Justices Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and William J. Brennan, Jr. joined. Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote a dissenting opinion that was joined by Associate Justices John M. Harlan II, Charles E. Whittaker, and Tom C. Clark. Harlan also wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Whittaker and Clark.
The Court overturned the silver platter doctrine, ruling that "[e]vidence obtained by state officers during a search which, if conducted by federal officers, would have violated the defendant's immunity from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment is inadmissible". Elkins' conviction was therefore overturned. Stewart wrote that the primary purpose of the exclusionary rule was to provide a disincentive to abuses by law enforcement, stating that "[t]he rule is calculated to prevent, not to repair. Its purpose is to deter—to compel respect for the constitutional guaranty in the only effectively available way—by removing the incentive to disregard it."
Frankfurter's dissent criticized the extension of the exclusionary rule, noting that the conduct of the state police in the Elkins investigation had already been found illegal at the state level; he argued that the Court's extension of the rule would only create further confusion, and that the relation between federal and state criminal law should be governed by the principle of federalism. Harlan's dissent followed similar reasoning to Frankfurter's and argued that Elkins' conviction should be upheld.
Scholar Jacob W. Landynski called Stewart's opinion "the most thorough and convincing analysis in favor of the exclusionary rule to be found in any opinion of the Court". In giving a rationale for a broader interpretation of Fourth Amendment rights, the decision set the stage for Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which applied the exclusionary rule to the states. |
15,782 | Jane Austen | 1,172,591,102 | English novelist (1775–1817) | [
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| Jane Austen (/ˈɒstɪn, ˈɔːs-/; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are an implicit critique of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her deft use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars.
The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815), were a modest success but brought her little fame in her lifetime. She wrote two other novels—Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818—and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and the unfinished novel The Watsons.
Since her death Austen's novels have rarely been out of print. A significant transition in her reputation occurred in 1833, when they were republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series (illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering and sold as a set). They gradually gained wide acclaim and popular readership. In 1869, fifty-two years after her death, her nephew's publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced a compelling version of her writing career and supposedly uneventful life to an eager audience. Her work has inspired a large number of critical essays and has been included in many literary anthologies. Her novels have also inspired many films, including 1940's Pride and Prejudice, 1995's Sense and Sensibility and 2016's Love & Friendship.
## Biographical sources
The scant biographical information about Austen comes from her few surviving letters and sketches her family members wrote about her. Only about 160 of the approximately 3,000 letters Austen wrote have survived and been published. Cassandra Austen destroyed the bulk of the letters she received from her sister, burning or otherwise destroying them. She wanted to ensure that the "younger nieces did not read any of Jane's sometimes acid or forthright comments on neighbours or family members". In the interest of protecting reputations from Jane's penchant for honesty and forthrightness, Cassandra omitted details of illnesses, unhappiness and anything she considered unsavory. Important details about the Austen family were elided by intention, such as any mention of Austen's brother George, whose undiagnosed developmental challenges led the family to send him away from home; the two brothers sent away to the navy at an early age; or wealthy Aunt Leigh-Perrot, arrested and tried on charges of larceny.
The first Austen biography was Henry Thomas Austen's 1818 "Biographical Notice". It appeared in a posthumous edition of Northanger Abbey and included extracts from two letters, against the judgement of other family members. Details of Austen's life continued to be omitted or embellished in her nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen, published in 1869, and in William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh's biography Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, published in 1913, all of which included additional letters. Austen's family and relatives built a legend of "good quiet Aunt Jane", portraying her as a woman in a happy domestic situation, whose family was the mainstay of her life. Modern biographers include details excised from the letters and family biographies, but the biographer Jan Fergus writes that the challenge is to keep the view balanced, not to present her languishing in periods of deep unhappiness as "an embittered, disappointed woman trapped in a thoroughly unpleasant family".
## Life
### Family
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on 16 December 1775 in a harsh winter. Her father wrote of her arrival in a letter that her mother "certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago". He added that the newborn infant was "a present plaything for Cassy and a future companion". The winter of 1776 was particularly harsh and it was not until 5 April that she was baptised at the local church with the single name Jane.
George Austen (1731–1805), served as the rector of the Anglican parishes of Steventon and Deane. The Reverend Austen came from an old and wealthy family of wool merchants. As each generation of eldest sons received inheritances, the wealth was divided, and George's branch of the family fell into poverty. He and his two sisters were orphaned as children, and had to be taken in by relatives. In 1745, at the age of fifteen, George Austen's sister Philadelphia was apprenticed to a milliner in Covent Garden. At the age of sixteen, George entered St John's College, Oxford, where he most likely met Cassandra Leigh (1739–1827). She came from the prominent Leigh family; her father was rector at All Souls College, Oxford, where she grew up among the gentry. Her eldest brother James inherited a fortune and large estate from his great-aunt Perrot, with the only condition that he change his name to Leigh-Perrot.
George Austen and Cassandra Leigh were engaged, probably around 1763, when they exchanged miniatures. He received the living of the Steventon parish from the wealthy husband of his second cousin, Thomas Knight. They married on 26 April 1764 at St Swithin's Church in Bath, by license, in a simple ceremony, two months after Cassandra's father died. Their income was modest, with George's small per annum living; Cassandra brought to the marriage the expectation of a small inheritance at the time of her mother's death.
The Austens took up temporary residence at the nearby Deane rectory until Steventon, a 16th-century house in disrepair, underwent necessary renovations. Cassandra gave birth to three children while living at Deane: James in 1765, George in 1766, and Edward in 1767. Her custom was to keep an infant at home for several months and then place it with Elizabeth Littlewood, a woman living nearby to nurse and raise for twelve to eighteen months.
### Steventon
In 1768, the family finally took up residence in Steventon. Henry was the first child to be born there, in 1771. At about this time, Cassandra could no longer ignore the signs that little George was developmentally disabled. He was subject to seizures, may have been deaf and mute, and she chose to send him out to be fostered. In 1773, Cassandra was born, followed by Francis in 1774, and Jane in 1775.
According to Professor of Literature Park Honan, the atmosphere of the Austen home was an "open, amused, easy intellectual" one, where the ideas of those with whom the Austens might disagree politically or socially were considered and discussed.
The family relied on the patronage of their kin and hosted visits from numerous family members. Mrs Austen spent the summer of 1770 in London with George's sister, Philadelphia, and her daughter Eliza, accompanied by his other sister, Mrs Walter and her daughter Philly. Philadelphia and Eliza Hancock were, according to Le Faye, "the bright comets flashing into an otherwise placid solar system of clerical life in rural Hampshire, and the news of their foreign travels and fashionable London life, together with their sudden descents upon the Steventon household in between times, all helped to widen Jane's youthful horizon and influence her later life and works."
Cassandra Austen's cousin Thomas Leigh visited a number of times in the 1770s and 1780s, inviting young Cassie to visit them in Bath in 1781. The first mention of Jane occurs in family documents upon her return, "... and almost home they were when they met Jane & Charles, the two little ones of the family, who had to go as far as New Down to meet the chaise, & have the pleasure of riding home in it." Le Faye writes that "Mr Austen's predictions for his younger daughter were fully justified. Never were sisters more to each other than Cassandra and Jane; while in a particularly affectionate family, there seems to have been a special link between Cassandra and Edward on the one hand, and between Henry and Jane on the other."
From 1773 until 1796, George Austen supplemented his income by farming and by teaching three or four boys at a time, who boarded at his home. The Reverend Austen had an annual income of £200 () from his two livings. This was a very modest income at the time; by comparison, a skilled worker like a blacksmith or a carpenter could make about £100 annually while the typical annual income of a gentry family was between £1,000 and £5,000. Mr. Austen also rented the 200-acre Cheesedown farm from his benefactor Thomas Knight which could make a profit of £300 () a year.
During this period of her life, Jane Austen attended church regularly, socialised with friends and neighbours, and read novels—often of her own composition—aloud to her family in the evenings. Socialising with the neighbours often meant dancing, either impromptu in someone's home after supper or at the balls held regularly at the assembly rooms in the town hall. Her brother Henry later said that "Jane was fond of dancing, and excelled in it".
### Education
In 1783, Austen and her sister Cassandra were sent to Oxford to be educated by Mrs Ann Cawley who took them to Southampton later that year. That autumn both girls were sent home after catching typhus, from which Jane Austen nearly died. She was from then home educated, until she attended boarding school with her sister from early in 1785 at the Reading Abbey Girls' School, ruled by Mrs La Tournelle. The curriculum probably included French, spelling, needlework, dancing, music and drama. The sisters returned home before December 1786 because the school fees for the two girls were too high for the Austen family. After 1786, Austen "never again lived anywhere beyond the bounds of her immediate family environment".
Her education came from reading, guided by her father and brothers James and Henry. Irene Collins said that Austen "used some of the same school books as the boys". Austen apparently had unfettered access both to her father's library and that of a family friend, Warren Hastings. Together these collections amounted to a large and varied library. Her father was also tolerant of Austen's sometimes risqué experiments in writing, and provided both sisters with expensive paper and other materials for their writing and drawing.
Private theatricals were an essential part of Austen's education. From her early childhood, the family and friends staged a series of plays in the rectory barn, including Richard Sheridan's The Rivals (1775) and David Garrick's Bon Ton. Austen's eldest brother James wrote the prologues and epilogues and she probably joined in these activities, first as a spectator and later as a participant. Most of the plays were comedies, which suggests how Austen's satirical gifts were cultivated. At the age of 12, she tried her own hand at dramatic writing; she wrote three short plays during her teenage years.
### Juvenilia (1787–1793)
From at least the time she was aged eleven, Austen wrote poems and stories to amuse herself and her family. She exaggerated mundane details of daily life and parodied common plot devices in "stories [] full of anarchic fantasies of female power, licence, illicit behaviour, and general high spirits", according to Janet Todd. Containing work written between 1787 and 1793, Austen compiled fair copies of twenty-nine early works into three bound notebooks, now referred to as the Juvenilia. She called the three notebooks "Volume the First", "Volume the Second" and "Volume the Third", and they preserve 90,000 words she wrote during those years. The Juvenilia are often, according to scholar Richard Jenkyns, "boisterous" and "anarchic"; he compares them to the work of 18th-century novelist Laurence Sterne.
Among these works is a satirical novel in letters titled Love and Freindship [sic], written when aged fourteen in 1790, in which she mocked popular novels of sensibility. The next year, she wrote The History of England, a manuscript of thirty-four pages accompanied by thirteen watercolour miniatures by her sister, Cassandra. Austen's History parodied popular historical writing, particularly Oliver Goldsmith's History of England (1764). Honan speculates that not long after writing Love and Freindship, Austen decided to "write for profit, to make stories her central effort", that is, to become a professional writer. When she was around eighteen years old, Austen began to write longer, more sophisticated works.
In August 1792, aged seventeen, Austen started Catharine or the Bower, which presaged her mature work, especially Northanger Abbey, but was left unfinished until picked up in Lady Susan, which Todd describes as less prefiguring than Catharine. A year later she began, but abandoned, a short play, later titled Sir Charles Grandison or the happy Man, a comedy in 6 acts, which she returned to and completed around 1800. This was a short parody of various school textbook abridgements of Austen's favourite contemporary novel, The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753), by Samuel Richardson.
When Austen became an aunt for the first time aged eighteen, she sent new-born niece Fanny-Catherine Austen-Knight "five short pieces of ... the Juvenilia now known collectively as 'Scraps' .., purporting to be her 'Opinions and Admonitions on the conduct of Young Women'". For Jane-Anna-Elizabeth Austen (also born in 1793), her aunt wrote "two more 'Miscellanious [sic] Morsels', dedicating them to [Anna] on 2 June 1793, 'convinced that if you seriously attend to them, You will derive from them very important Instructions, with regard to your Conduct in Life.'" There is manuscript evidence that Austen continued to work on these pieces as late as 1811 (when she was 36), and that her niece and nephew, Anna and James Edward Austen, made further additions as late as 1814.
Between 1793 and 1795 (aged eighteen to twenty), Austen wrote Lady Susan, a short epistolary novel, usually described as her most ambitious and sophisticated early work. It is unlike any of Austen's other works. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin describes the novella's heroine as a sexual predator who uses her intelligence and charm to manipulate, betray and abuse her lovers, friends and family. Tomalin writes:
> Told in letters, it is as neatly plotted as a play, and as cynical in tone as any of the most outrageous of the Restoration dramatists who may have provided some of her inspiration ... It stands alone in Austen's work as a study of an adult woman whose intelligence and force of character are greater than those of anyone she encounters.
According to Janet Todd, the model for the title character may have been Eliza de Feuillide, who inspired Austen with stories of her glamorous life and various adventures. Eliza's French husband was guillotined in 1794; she married Jane's brother Henry Austen in 1797.
### Tom Lefroy
When Austen was twenty, Tom Lefroy, a neighbour, visited Steventon from December 1795 to January 1796. He had just finished a university degree and was moving to London for training as a barrister. Lefroy and Austen would have been introduced at a ball or other neighbourhood social gathering, and it is clear from Austen's letters to Cassandra that they spent considerable time together: "I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together."
Austen wrote in her first surviving letter to her sister Cassandra that Lefroy was a "very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man". Five days later in another letter, Austen wrote that she expected an "offer" from her "friend" and that "I shall refuse him, however, unless he promises to give away his white coat", going on to write "I will confide myself in the future to Mr Tom Lefroy, for whom I don't give a sixpence" and refuse all others. The next day, Austen wrote: "The day will come on which I flirt my last with Tom Lefroy and when you receive this it will be all over. My tears flow as I write at this melancholy idea".
Halperin cautioned that Austen often satirised popular sentimental romantic fiction in her letters, and some of the statements about Lefroy may have been ironic. However, it is clear that Austen was genuinely attracted to Lefroy and subsequently none of her other suitors ever quite measured up to him. The Lefroy family intervened and sent him away at the end of January. Marriage was impractical as both Lefroy and Austen must have known. Neither had any money, and he was dependent on a great-uncle in Ireland to finance his education and establish his legal career. If Tom Lefroy later visited Hampshire, he was carefully kept away from the Austens, and Jane Austen never saw him again. In November 1798, Lefroy was still on Austen's mind as she wrote to her sister she had tea with one of his relatives, wanted desperately to ask about him, but could not bring herself to raise the subject.
### Early manuscripts (1796–1798)
After finishing Lady Susan, Austen began her first full-length novel Elinor and Marianne. Her sister remembered that it was read to the family "before 1796" and was told through a series of letters. Without surviving original manuscripts, there is no way to know how much of the original draft survived in the novel published anonymously in 1811 as Sense and Sensibility.
Austen began a second novel, First Impressions (later published as Pride and Prejudice), in 1796. She completed the initial draft in August 1797, aged 21; as with all of her novels, Austen read the work aloud to her family as she was working on it and it became an "established favourite". At this time, her father made the first attempt to publish one of her novels. In November 1797, George Austen wrote to Thomas Cadell, an established publisher in London, to ask if he would consider publishing First Impressions. Cadell returned Mr. Austen's letter, marking it "Declined by Return of Post". Austen may not have known of her father's efforts. Following the completion of First Impressions, Austen returned to Elinor and Marianne and from November 1797 until mid-1798, revised it heavily; she eliminated the epistolary format in favour of third-person narration and produced something close to Sense and Sensibility. In 1797, Austen met her cousin (and future sister-in-law), Eliza de Feuillide, a French aristocrat whose first husband the Comte de Feuillide had been guillotined, causing her to flee to Britain, where she married Henry Austen. The description of the execution of the Comte de Feuillide related by his widow left Austen with an intense horror of the French Revolution that lasted for the rest of her life.
During the middle of 1798, after finishing revisions of Elinor and Marianne, Austen began writing a third novel with the working title Susan—later Northanger Abbey—a satire on the popular Gothic novel. Austen completed her work about a year later. In early 1803, Henry Austen offered Susan to Benjamin Crosby, a London publisher, who paid £10 for the copyright. Crosby promised early publication and went so far as to advertise the book publicly as being "in the press", but did nothing more. The manuscript remained in Crosby's hands, unpublished, until Austen repurchased the copyright from him in 1816.
### Bath and Southampton
In December 1800, George Austen unexpectedly announced his decision to retire from the ministry, leave Steventon, and move the family to 4, Sydney Place in Bath, Somerset. While retirement and travel were good for the elder Austens, Jane Austen was shocked to be told she was moving 50 miles (80 km) away from the only home she had ever known. An indication of her state of mind is her lack of productivity as a writer during the time she lived in Bath. She was able to make some revisions to Susan, and she began and then abandoned a new novel, The Watsons, but there was nothing like the productivity of the years 1795–1799. Tomalin suggests this reflects a deep depression disabling her as a writer, but Honan disagrees, arguing Austen wrote or revised her manuscripts throughout her creative life, except for a few months after her father died. It is often claimed that Austen was unhappy in Bath, which caused her to lose interest in writing, but it is just as possible that Austen's social life in Bath prevented her from spending much time writing novels. The critic Robert Irvine argued that if Austen spent more time writing novels when she was in the countryside, it might just have been because she had more spare time as opposed to being more happy in the countryside as is often argued. Furthermore, Austen frequently both moved and travelled over southern England during this period, which was hardly a conducive environment for writing a long novel. Austen sold the rights to publish Susan to a publisher Crosby & Company, who paid her £10 (). The Crosby & Company advertised Susan, but never published it.
The years from 1801 to 1804 are something of a blank space for Austen scholars as Cassandra destroyed all of her letters from her sister in this period for unknown reasons. In December 1802, Austen received her only known proposal of marriage. She and her sister visited Alethea and Catherine Bigg, old friends who lived near Basingstoke. Their younger brother, Harris Bigg-Wither, had recently finished his education at Oxford and was also at home. Bigg-Wither proposed and Austen accepted. As described by Caroline Austen, Jane's niece, and Reginald Bigg-Wither, a descendant, Harris was not attractive—he was a large, plain-looking man who spoke little, stuttered when he did speak, was aggressive in conversation, and almost completely tactless. However, Austen had known him since both were young and the marriage offered many practical advantages to Austen and her family. He was the heir to extensive family estates located in the area where the sisters had grown up. With these resources, Austen could provide her parents a comfortable old age, give Cassandra a permanent home and, perhaps, assist her brothers in their careers. By the next morning, Austen realised she had made a mistake and withdrew her acceptance. No contemporary letters or diaries describe how Austen felt about this proposal. Irvine described Bigg-Wither as somebody who "...seems to have been a man very hard to like, let alone love".
In 1814, Austen wrote a letter to her niece Fanny Knight, who had asked for advice about a serious relationship, telling her that "having written so much on one side of the question, I shall now turn around & entreat you not to commit yourself farther, & not to think of accepting him unless you really do like him. Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection". The English scholar Douglas Bush wrote that Austen had "had a very high ideal of the love that should unite a husband and wife ... All of her heroines ... know in proportion to their maturity, the meaning of ardent love". A possible autobiographical element in Sense and Sensibility occurs when Elinor Dashwood contemplates "the worse and most irremediable of all evils, a connection for life" with an unsuitable man.
In 1804, while living in Bath, Austen started, but did not complete, her novel The Watsons. The story centres on an invalid and impoverished clergyman and his four unmarried daughters. Sutherland describes the novel as "a study in the harsh economic realities of dependent women's lives". Honan suggests, and Tomalin agrees, that Austen chose to stop work on the novel after her father died on 21 January 1805 and her personal circumstances resembled those of her characters too closely for her comfort.
Her father's relatively sudden death left Jane, Cassandra, and their mother in a precarious financial situation. Edward, James, Henry, and Francis Austen (known as Frank) pledged to make annual contributions to support their mother and sisters. For the next four years, the family's living arrangements reflected their financial insecurity. They spent part of the time in rented quarters in Bath before leaving the city in June 1805 for a family visit to Steventon and Godmersham. They moved for the autumn months to the newly fashionable seaside resort of Worthing, on the Sussex coast, where they resided at Stanford Cottage. It was here that Austen is thought to have written her fair copy of Lady Susan and added its "Conclusion". In 1806, the family moved to Southampton, where they shared a house with Frank Austen and his new wife. A large part of this time they spent visiting various branches of the family.
On 5 April 1809, about three months before the family's move to Chawton, Austen wrote an angry letter to Richard Crosby, offering him a new manuscript of Susan if needed to secure the immediate publication of the novel, and requesting the return of the original so she could find another publisher. Crosby replied that he had not agreed to publish the book by any particular time, or at all, and that Austen could repurchase the manuscript for the £10 he had paid her and find another publisher. She did not have the resources to buy the copyright back at that time, but was able to purchase it in 1816.
### Chawton
Around early 1809, Austen's brother Edward offered his mother and sisters a more settled life—the use of a large cottage in Chawton village which was part of the estate around Edward's nearby property Chawton House. Jane, Cassandra and their mother moved into Chawton cottage on 7 July 1809. Life was quieter in Chawton than it had been since the family's move to Bath in 1800. The Austens did not socialise with gentry and entertained only when family visited. Her niece Anna described the family's life in Chawton as "a very quiet life, according to our ideas, but they were great readers, and besides the housekeeping our aunts occupied themselves in working with the poor and in teaching some girl or boy to read or write."
## Published author
Like many women authors at the time, Austen published her books anonymously. At the time, the ideal roles for a woman were as wife and mother, and writing for women was regarded at best as a secondary form of activity; a woman who wished to be a full-time writer was felt to be degrading her femininity, so books by women were usually published anonymously in order to maintain the conceit that the female writer was only publishing as a sort of part-time job, and was not seeking to become a "literary lioness" (i.e. a celebrity).
During her time at Chawton, Austen published four generally well-received novels. Through her brother Henry, the publisher Thomas Egerton agreed to publish Sense and Sensibility, which, like all of Austen's novels except Pride and Prejudice, was published "on commission", that is, at the author's financial risk. When publishing on commission, publishers would advance the costs of publication, repay themselves as books were sold and then charge a 10% commission for each book sold, paying the rest to the author. If a novel did not recover its costs through sales, the author was responsible for them. The alternative to selling via commission was by selling the copyright, where an author received a one-time payment from the publisher for the manuscript, which occurred with Pride and Prejudice. Austen's experience with Susan (the manuscript that became Northanger Abbey) where she sold the copyright to the publisher Crosby & Sons for £10, who did not publish the book, forcing her to buy back the copyright in order to get her work published, left Austen leery of this method of publishing. The final alternative, of selling by subscription, where a group of people would agree to buy a book in advance, was not an option for Austen as only authors who were well known or had an influential aristocratic patron who would recommend an up-coming book to their friends, could sell by subscription. Sense and Sensibility appeared in October 1811, and was described as being written "By a Lady". As it was sold on commission, Egerton used expensive paper and set the price at 15 shillings ().
Reviews were favourable and the novel became fashionable among young aristocratic opinion-makers; the edition sold out by mid-1813. Austen's novels were published in larger editions than was normal for this period. The small size of the novel-reading public and the large costs associated with hand production (particularly the cost of handmade paper) meant that most novels were published in editions of 500 copies or fewer to reduce the risks to the publisher and the novelist. Even some of the most successful titles during this period were issued in editions of not more than 750 or 800 copies and later reprinted if demand continued. Austen's novels were published in larger editions, ranging from about 750 copies of Sense and Sensibility to about 2,000 copies of Emma. It is not clear whether the decision to print more copies than usual of Austen's novels was driven by the publishers or the author. Since all but one of Austen's books were originally published "on commission", the risks of overproduction were largely hers (or Cassandra's after her death) and publishers may have been more willing to produce larger editions than was normal practice when their own funds were at risk. Editions of popular works of non-fiction were often much larger.
Austen made £140 () from Sense and Sensibility, which provided her with some financial and psychological independence. After the success of Sense and Sensibility, all of Austen's subsequent books were billed as written "By the author of Sense and Sensibility" and Austen's name never appeared on her books during her lifetime. Egerton then published Pride and Prejudice, a revision of First Impressions, in January 1813. Austen sold the copyright to Pride and Prejudice to Egerton for £110 (). To maximise profits, he used cheap paper and set the price at 18 shillings (). He advertised the book widely and it was an immediate success, garnering three favourable reviews and selling well. Had Austen sold Pride and Prejudice on commission, she would have made a profit of £475, or twice her father's annual income. By October 1813, Egerton was able to begin selling a second edition. Mansfield Park was published by Egerton in May 1814. While Mansfield Park was ignored by reviewers, it was very popular with readers. All copies were sold within six months, and Austen's earnings on this novel were larger than for any of her other novels.
Without Austen's knowledge or approval, her novels were translated into French and published in cheaply produced, pirated editions in France. The literary critic Noel King commented in 1953 that, given the prevailing rage in France at the time for lush romantic fantasies, it was remarkable that her novels with the emphasis on everyday English life had any sort of a market in France. King cautioned that Austen's chief translator in France, Madame Isabelle de Montolieu, had only the most rudimentary knowledge of English, and her translations were more of "imitations" than translations proper, as Montolieu depended upon assistants to provide a summary, which she then translated into an embellished French that often radically altered Austen's plots and characters. The first of the Austen novels to be published that credited her as the author was in France, when Persuasion was published in 1821 as La Famille Elliot ou L'Ancienne Inclination.
Austen learned that the Prince Regent admired her novels and kept a set at each of his residences. In November 1815, the Prince Regent's librarian James Stanier Clarke invited Austen to visit the Prince's London residence and hinted Austen should dedicate the forthcoming Emma to the Prince. Though Austen disapproved of the Prince Regent, she could scarcely refuse the request. Austen disapproved of the Prince Regent on the account of his womanising, gambling, drinking, spendthrift ways and generally disreputable behaviour. She later wrote Plan of a Novel, according to Hints from Various Quarters, a satiric outline of the "perfect novel" based on the librarian's many suggestions for a future Austen novel. Austen was greatly annoyed by Clarke's often pompous literary advice, and the Plan of a Novel parodying Clarke was intended as her revenge for all of the unwanted letters she had received from the royal librarian.
In mid-1815 Austen moved her work from Egerton to John Murray, a better known London publisher, who published Emma in December 1815 and a second edition of Mansfield Park in February 1816. Emma sold well, but the new edition of Mansfield Park did poorly, and this failure offset most of the income from Emma. These were the last of Austen's novels to be published during her lifetime.
While Murray prepared Emma for publication, Austen began The Elliots, later published as Persuasion. She completed her first draft in July 1816. In addition, shortly after the publication of Emma, Henry Austen repurchased the copyright for Susan from Crosby. Austen was forced to postpone publishing either of these completed novels by family financial troubles. Henry Austen's bank failed in March 1816, depriving him of all of his assets, leaving him deeply in debt and costing Edward, James, and Frank Austen large sums. Henry and Frank could no longer afford the contributions they had made to support their mother and sisters.
### Illness and death
Austen was feeling unwell by early 1816, but ignored the warning signs. By the middle of that year, her decline was unmistakable, and she began a slow, irregular deterioration. The majority of biographers rely on Zachary Cope's 1964 retrospective diagnosis and list her cause of death as Addison's disease, although her final illness has also been described as resulting from Hodgkin's lymphoma. When her uncle died and left his entire fortune to his wife, effectively disinheriting his relatives, she suffered a relapse, writing: "I am ashamed to say that the shock of my Uncle's Will brought on a relapse ... but a weak Body must excuse weak Nerves."
Austen continued to work in spite of her illness. Dissatisfied with the ending of The Elliots, she rewrote the final two chapters, which she finished on 6 August 1816. In January 1817, Austen began The Brothers (titled Sanditon when published in 1925), completing twelve chapters before stopping work in mid-March 1817, probably due to illness. Todd describes Sanditon's heroine, Diana Parker, as an "energetic invalid". In the novel Austen mocked hypochondriacs, and although she describes the heroine as "bilious", five days after abandoning the novel she wrote of herself that she was turning "every wrong colour" and living "chiefly on the sofa". She put down her pen on 18 March 1817, making a note of it.
Austen made light of her condition, describing it as "bile" and rheumatism. As her illness progressed, she experienced difficulty walking and lacked energy; by mid-April she was confined to bed. In May, Cassandra and Henry brought her to Winchester for treatment, by which time she suffered agonising pain and welcomed death. Austen died in Winchester on 18 July 1817 at the age of 41. Henry, through his clerical connections, arranged for his sister to be buried in the north aisle of the nave of Winchester Cathedral. The epitaph composed by her brother James praises Austen's personal qualities, expresses hope for her salvation and mentions the "extraordinary endowments of her mind", but does not explicitly mention her achievements as a writer.
## Posthumous publication
In the months after Austen's death in July 1817, Cassandra, Henry Austen and Murray arranged for the publication of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey as a set. Henry Austen contributed a Biographical Note dated December 1817, which for the first time identified his sister as the author of the novels. Tomalin describes it as "a loving and polished eulogy". Sales were good for a year—only 321 copies remained unsold at the end of 1818.
Although Austen's six novels were out of print in England in the 1820s, they were still being read through copies housed in private libraries and circulating libraries. Austen had early admirers. The first piece of fiction using her as a character (what might now be called real person fiction) appeared in 1823 in a letter to the editor in The Lady's Magazine. It refers to Austen's genius and suggests that aspiring authors were envious of her powers.
In 1832, Richard Bentley purchased the remaining copyrights to all of her novels, and over the following winter published five illustrated volumes as part of his Standard Novels series. In October 1833, Bentley released the first collected edition of her works. Since then, Austen's novels have been continuously in print.
## Genre and style
Austen's works implicitly critique the sentimental novels of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. The earliest English novelists, Richardson, Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett, were followed by the school of sentimentalists and romantics such as Walter Scott, Horace Walpole, Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, and Oliver Goldsmith, whose style and genre Austen repudiated, returning the novel on a "slender thread" to the tradition of Richardson and Fielding for a "realistic study of manners". In the mid-20th century, literary critics F. R. Leavis and Ian Watt placed her in the tradition of Richardson and Fielding; both believe that she used their tradition of "irony, realism and satire to form an author superior to both".
Walter Scott noted Austen's "resistance to the trashy sensationalism of much of modern fiction—'the ephemeral productions which supply the regular demand of watering places and circulating libraries'". Yet her relationship with these genres is complex, as evidenced by Northanger Abbey and Emma. Similar to William Wordsworth, who excoriated the modern frantic novel in the "Preface" to his Lyrical Ballads (1800), Austen distances herself from escapist novels; the discipline and innovation she demonstrates is similar to his, and she shows "that rhetorically less is artistically more." She eschewed popular Gothic fiction, stories of terror in which a heroine typically was stranded in a remote location, a castle or abbey (32 novels between 1784 and 1818 contain the word "abbey" in their title). Yet in Northanger Abbey she alludes to the trope, with the heroine, Catherine, anticipating a move to a remote locale. Rather than full-scale rejection or parody, Austen transforms the genre, juxtaposing reality, with descriptions of elegant rooms and modern comforts, against the heroine's "novel-fueled" desires. Nor does she completely denigrate Gothic fiction: instead she transforms settings and situations, such that the heroine is still imprisoned, yet her imprisonment is mundane and real—regulated manners and the strict rules of the ballroom. In Sense and Sensibility Austen presents characters who are more complex than in staple sentimental fiction, according to critic Keymer, who notes that although it is a parody of popular sentimental fiction, "Marianne in her sentimental histrionics responds to the calculating world ... with a quite justifiable scream of female distress."
Richardson's Pamela, the prototype for the sentimental novel, is a didactic love story with a happy ending, written at a time women were beginning to have the right to choose husbands and yet were restricted by social conventions. Austen attempted Richardson's epistolary style, but found the flexibility of narrative more conducive to her realism, a realism in which each conversation and gesture carries a weight of significance. The narrative style utilises free indirect speech—she was the first English novelist to do so extensively—through which she had the ability to present a character's thoughts directly to the reader and yet still retain narrative control. The style allows an author to vary discourse between the narrator's voice and values and those of the characters.
Austen had a natural ear for speech and dialogue, according to scholar Mary Lascelles: "Few novelists can be more scrupulous than Jane Austen as to the phrasing and thoughts of their characters." Techniques such as fragmentary speech suggest a character's traits and their tone; "syntax and phrasing rather than vocabulary" is utilised to indicate social variants. Dialogue reveals a character's mood—frustration, anger, happiness—each treated differently and often through varying patterns of sentence structures. When Elizabeth Bennet rejects Darcy, her stilted speech and the convoluted sentence structure reveals that he has wounded her:
> From the very beginning, from the first moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that the groundwork of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike. And I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.
Austen's plots highlight women's traditional dependence on marriage to secure social standing and economic security. As an art form, the 18th-century novel lacked the seriousness of its equivalents from the 19th century, when novels were treated as "the natural vehicle for discussion and ventilation of what mattered in life". Rather than delving too deeply into the psyche of her characters, Austen enjoys them and imbues them with humour, according to critic John Bayley. He believes that the well-spring of her wit and irony is her own attitude that comedy "is the saving grace of life". Part of Austen's fame rests on the historical and literary significance that she was the first woman to write great comic novels. Samuel Johnson's influence is evident, in that she follows his advice to write "a representation of life as may excite mirth".
Her humour comes from her modesty and lack of superiority, allowing her most successful characters, such as Elizabeth Bennet, to transcend the trivialities of life, which the more foolish characters are overly absorbed in. Austen used comedy to explore the individualism of women's lives and gender relations, and she appears to have used it to find the goodness in life, often fusing it with "ethical sensibility", creating artistic tension. Critic Robert Polhemus writes, "To appreciate the drama and achievement of Austen, we need to realize how deep was her passion for both reverence and ridicule ... and her comic imagination reveals both the harmonies and the telling contradictions of her mind and vision as she tries to reconcile her satirical bias with her sense of the good."
## Reception
### Contemporaneous responses
As Austen's works were published anonymously, they brought her little personal renown. They were fashionable among opinion-makers, but were rarely reviewed. Most of the reviews were short and on balance favourable, although superficial and cautious, most often focused on the moral lessons of the novels.
Sir Walter Scott, a leading novelist of the day, anonymously wrote a review of Emma in 1815, using it to defend the then-disreputable genre of the novel and praising Austen's realism, "the art of copying from nature as she really exists in the common walks of life, and presenting to the reader, instead of the splendid scenes from an imaginary world, a correct and striking representation of that which is daily taking place around him". The other important early review was attributed to Richard Whately in 1821. However, Whately denied having authored the review, which drew favourable comparisons between Austen and such acknowledged greats as Homer and Shakespeare, and praised the dramatic qualities of her narrative. Scott and Whately set the tone for almost all subsequent 19th-century Austen criticism.
### 19th century
Because Austen's novels did not conform to Romantic and Victorian expectations that "powerful emotion [be] authenticated by an egregious display of sound and colour in the writing", 19th-century critics and audiences preferred the works of Charles Dickens and George Eliot. Notwithstanding Walter Scott's positivity, Austen's work did not match the prevailing aesthetic values of the Romantic zeitgeist. Her novels were republished in Britain from the 1830s and sold steadily, but they were not best-sellers.
The first French critic who paid notice to Austen was Philarète Chasles in an 1842 essay, dismissing her in two sentences as a boring, imitative writer with no substance. Austen was almost completely ignored in France until 1878, when the French critic Léon Boucher published the essay Le Roman Classique en Angleterre, in which he called Austen a "genius", the first French author to do so. The first accurate translation of Austen into French occurred in 1899 when Félix Fénéon translated Northanger Abbey as Catherine Moreland.
In Britain, Austen gradually grew in the estimation of the literati. Philosopher and literary critic George Henry Lewes published a series of enthusiastic articles in the 1840s and 1850s. Later in the century, novelist Henry James referred to Austen several times with approval, and on one occasion ranked her with Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Henry Fielding as among "the fine painters of life".
The publication of James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869 introduced Austen to a wider public as "dear aunt Jane", the respectable maiden aunt. Publication of the Memoir spurred the reissue of Austen's novels—the first popular editions were released in 1883 and fancy illustrated editions and collectors' sets quickly followed. Author and critic Leslie Stephen described the popular mania that started to develop for Austen in the 1880s as "Austenolatry". Around the start of the 20th century, an intellectual clique of Janeites reacted against the popularisation of Austen, distinguishing their deeper appreciation from the vulgar enthusiasm of the masses.
In response, Henry James decried "a beguiled infatuation" with Austen, a rising tide of public interest that exceeded Austen's "intrinsic merit and interest". The American literary critic A. Walton Litz noted that the "anti-Janites" in the 19th and 20th centuries comprised a formidable literary squad of Mark Twain, Henry James, Charlotte Brontë, D. H. Lawrence and Kingsley Amis, but in "every case the adverse judgement merely reveals the special limitations or eccentricities of the critic, leaving Jane Austen relatively untouched".
### Modern
Austen's works have attracted legions of scholars. The first dissertation on Austen was published in 1883, by George Pellew, a student at Harvard University. Another early academic analysis came from a 1911 essay by Oxford Shakespearean scholar A. C. Bradley, who grouped Austen's novels into "early" and "late" works, a distinction still used by scholars today. The first academic book devoted to Austen in France was Jane Austen by Paul and Kate Rague (1914), who set out to explain why French critics and readers should take Austen seriously. The same year, Léonie Villard published Jane Austen, Sa Vie et Ses Oeuvres, originally her PhD thesis, the first serious academic study of Austen in France. In 1923, R.W. Chapman published the first scholarly edition of Austen's collected works, which was also the first scholarly edition of any English novelist. The Chapman text has remained the basis for all subsequent published editions of Austen's works.
With the publication in 1939 of Mary Lascelles' Jane Austen and Her Art, the academic study of Austen took hold. Lascelles analyzed the books Austen read and their influence on her work, and closely examined Austen's style and "narrative art". Concern arose that academics were obscuring the appreciation of Austen with increasingly esoteric theories, a debate that has continued since.
The period since World War II has seen a diversity of critical approaches to Austen, including feminist theory, and perhaps most controversially, postcolonial theory. The divide has widened between the popular appreciation of Austen, particularly by modern Janeites, and academic judgements. In 1994, literary critic Harold Bloom placed Austen among the greatest Western writers of all time.
In the People's Republic of China after 1949, writings of Austen were regarded as too frivolous, and thus during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966–69, Austen was banned as a "British bourgeois imperialist". In the late 1970s, when Austen's works was re-published in China, her popularity with readers confounded the authorities who had trouble understanding that people generally read books for enjoyment, not political edification.
In a typical modern debate, the conservative American professor Gene Koppel, to the indignation of his liberal literature students, mentioned that Austen and her family were "Tories of the deepest dye", i.e. Conservatives in opposition to the liberal Whigs. Although several feminist authors such as Claudia Johnson and Mollie Sandock claimed Austen for their own cause, Koppel argued that different people react to a work of literature in different subjective ways, as explained by the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer. Thus competing interpretations of Austen's work can be equally valid, provided they are grounded in textual and historical analysis: it is equally possible to see Austen as a feminist critiquing Regency-era society and as a conservative upholding its values.
### Adaptations
Austen's novels have resulted in sequels, prequels and adaptations of almost every type, from soft-core pornography to fantasy. From the 19th century, her family members published conclusions to her incomplete novels, and by 2000 there were over 100 printed adaptations. The first dramatic adaptation of Austen was published in 1895, Rosina Filippi's Duologues and Scenes from the Novels of Jane Austen: Arranged and Adapted for Drawing-Room Performance, and Filippi was also responsible for the first professional stage adaptation, The Bennets (1901). The first film adaptation was the 1940 MGM production of Pride and Prejudice starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. BBC television dramatisations since the 1970s have attempted to adhere meticulously to Austen's plots, characterisations and settings. The British critic Robert Irvine noted that in American film adaptations of Austen's novels, starting with the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice, class is subtly downplayed, and the society of Regency England depicted by Austen that is grounded in a hierarchy based upon the ownership of land and the antiquity of the family name is one that Americans cannot embrace in its entirety.
From 1995, many Austen adaptations appeared, with Ang Lee's film of Sense and Sensibility, for which screenwriter and star Emma Thompson won an Academy Award, and the BBC's immensely popular TV mini-series Pride and Prejudice, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. A 2005 British production of Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, was followed in 2007 by ITV's Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, and in 2016 by Love & Friendship starring Kate Beckinsale as Lady Susan, a film version of Lady Susan, that borrowed the title of Austen's Love and Freindship [sic].
## Honours
In 2013, Austen's works featured on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail to mark the bicentenary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice. Austen is on the £10 note issued by the Bank of England which was introduced in 2017, replacing Charles Darwin. In July 2017, a statue of Jane Austen was erected in Basingstoke, Hampshire on the 200th anniversary of her death.
## List of works
Novels
- Sense and Sensibility (1811)
- Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- Mansfield Park (1814)
- Emma (1815)
- Northanger Abbey (1818, posthumous)
- Persuasion (1818, posthumous)
- Lady Susan (1871, posthumous)
Unfinished fiction
- The Watsons (1804)
- Sanditon (1817)
Other works
- Sir Charles Grandison (adapted play) (1793, 1800)
- Plan of a Novel (1815)
- Poems (1796–1817)
- Prayers (1796–1817)
- Letters (1796–1817)
Juvenilia—Volume the First (1787–1793)
- Frederic & Elfrida
- Jack & Alice
- Edgar & Emma
- Henry and Eliza
- The Adventures of Mr. Harley
- Sir William Mountague
- Memoirs of Mr. Clifford
- The Beautifull Cassandra
- Amelia Webster
- The Visit
- The Mystery
- The Three Sisters
- A Fragment
- A beautiful description
- The generous Curate
- Ode to Pity
Juvenilia—Volume the Second (1787–1793)
- Love and Freindship
- Lesley Castle
- The History of England
- A Collection of Letters
- The female philosopher
- The first Act of a Comedy
- A Letter from a Young Lady
- A Tour through Wales
- A Tale
Juvenilia—Volume the Third (1787–1793)
- Evelyn
- Catharine, or The Bower
## Family trees
## See also
- Jane Austen's family and ancestry |
62,581,302 | Bacchi Tempel | 1,153,635,101 | Book-length poem in alexandrines by Carl Michael Bellman | [
"1783 in Sweden",
"Works by Carl Michael Bellman"
]
| Bacchi tempel öppnat vid en hjältes död ("The Temple of Bacchus opened at a Hero's Death"), commonly known as Bacchi Tempel is a song play, a long poem in two thousand alexandrines, written by Carl Michael Bellman and published by Sweden's royal printing press in 1783. The illustrator was Elias Martin. The work had been preceded by a version from 1779 titled "Bacchi Temple opened at the death of Corporal and Order Oboist Father Movitz", but had been reworked and expanded several times.
The work has probably never been performed in its entirety, but individual songs are sometimes performed by the Par Bricole society. It has been described as a curious hybrid, a combination of comic opera and mock-heroic verse, and as a not very satisfactory work, despite the "lovely" song Böljan sig mindre rör (Still'd is the hasty wave).
## Context
The songs originate in Carl Michael Bellman's performances on the theme The Order of Bacchus (Bacchi Orden), starting in 1769-1771, after which the production was largely unseen until 1777. That the production of song games, of which Bacchi Tempel was the most important, was resumed can probably be linked to the Par Bricole society at the end of the 1770s. In contrast to the previous parodies, the new social life was strictly ritualized with many participants, the style more solemn and the music more ambitious. In addition, several of the figures from Bellman's songbook Fredman's Epistles have now been identified in the cast: both Movitz and Mollberg have minor roles, while Ulla Winblad has taken on a central role as leader of the "Bacchi priestesses".
Bellman began work on what would become Bacchi Tempel soon after the news of the death of the model of his corporal Movitz in May 1779; an initial print was dedicated to the court engraver Pierre Suther [sv] at the end of the year with the hope of engaging him for an illustrated edition of the work. This failed, but later he succeeded in getting Elias and Johan Fredrik Martin to illustrate the work. In 1780, extended versions in handwriting were handed over to Elis Schröderheim and Samuel af Ugglas [sv], suggesting that the author had great ambitions with the work, possibly with the aim of improving his reputation after he was attacked by the famous critic Johan Henric Kellgren in 1778 through the derisive Mina löjen [sv] ("My Laughter"). Bellman continued to work on it, adding, among other things, long descriptions of nature in alexandrines in the style of James Thomson.
The work was advertised for sale via subscription in Stockholms Posten in September 1782, as a "poetic, comic and musical work". The announcement was aimed at "lovers of madness", which again points to ambitions. However, the work was not printed until the end of 1783, and new advertisements pointed to its suitability as a Christmas present. It was warmly reviewed in Svenska Parnassen [sv].
## Publication
Bacchi Tempel was published in 1783 by Kongliga Tryckeriet, the Swedish royal printing press in Stockholm. It was Bellman's first book. The illustrations were by the landscape painter Elias Martin; they were engraved by his brother Johan Fredrik Martin. The brothers were friends of Bellman's; Elias had studied painting, especially Hogarth's, in London, had visited and painted an ornamental Temple of Bacchus in Painshill Park at Cobham, Surrey, and had come back to Stockholm in 1780. The book had been planned as the first volume of a two-volume set; the second was to have been Fröjas Tempel ("Freya's Temple"), but it never appeared.
## Summary
The play takes place around a temple dedicated to Bacchus, the god of wine, on an island of mixed flora and fauna: there are pine trees and crows as well as parrots and almond trees. Somewhere nearby, the goddess of pleasure Fröja also has a temple. Around the temple, a celebration is being commemorated by the dead Movitz, initially by a group of supporters under the leadership of the highly pregnant Ulla Winblad. The work begins with a stormy night, but at dawn the storm passes and everything turns into rural idyll, and the readers are informed that it is Movitz who is the father of Ulla's children, and she describes how it came to be in this particular place. Then the male participants, the "brothers of the order" arrive in boats, led by the order's "grenadier" Mollberg and its sexton Trundman, and march up to the temple. When they arrive, together with barrels of drink, songs and celebrations are held in honour first of the dead, then of Trundman and the brothers, Ulla and the priests, the order's chancellor Planberg, and finally the head of the order, Janke Jensen. The rituals are interrupted from time to time by various intermezzos, but eventually fade out completely as Ulla gives birth to a new Movitz, and everything turns into a happy party.
The extended version seems to have become difficult to play; where the original version could be performed in one hour, the final one required at least two. The entire extension is due to longer monologues and additional pieces of music, making it rather static as a piece of theatre.
The added landscape depictions are partly based on the nature being painted as a picture, which, however, must at the same time be animated and linked together with the speaker's emotions. Thus, when the initial storm is portrayed by the Bacchus priestess, it is not only a storm, but also her own anxiety and terror as described, in pre-romantic style. When the storm has subsided, the priestesses' attitude to the surroundings also changes, and the now pastoral landscape instead evokes happy memories of past happiness, when Movitz with roses in his hair used to honour the wine god with song. Ulla then takes the word, and more and more excitedly she describes his memories of him, before she sees through a telescope both the love goddess in the sky and a young "nymph" named Belinda.
When the men arrive, the women quickly become more crass: they describe the "Knights of Bacchus" in ironic terms as "heroes" who, however, urinate on planks and resemble roast pigs. Sexton Trundman takes over and describes the night's storm, with words taken from Jacob Wallenberg's Min son på galejan [sv] ("My son at the galley"), possibly to add an air of authenticity.
In the closing passage, spoken by Janke Jensen, it is no longer a question of depicting nature: now a mythological tableau is painted, with Movitz on Mount Olympus together with ancient gods and heroes such as Mars, Pompey, and Hannibal. Suddenly he turns back to mortality, and goes on to portray Movitz's earthly existence as a drunkard, until he is interrupted by Ulla giving birth to his and Movitz's children, who resemble him right down to his red nose.
## Reception
The Swedish scholar Lars Lönnroth called the book "a curious hybrid of comic opera and mock-heroic poetry", and one of Bellman's "most ambitious" projects, intended, in response to Kellgren's attack, to prove that he was a serious poet. Lönnroth notes that Lennart Breitholtz [sv] "finally" gave the book a thorough scholarly examination; Breitholtz numbered it among the "most interesting literary experiments in 18th century literature".
The English biographer of Bellman, Paul Britten Austin, wrote that Bacchi Tempel was "exhausting" to read, and that while it contained "a few very beautiful lyrics", such as "the lovely Böljan sig mindre rör (Still'd is the hasty wave) with its butterfly-wing delicacy", the song play was "not a very satisfactory work". The song "Still'd is the hasty wave" was recorded in English by Martin Best in 1975.
## Songs included
- Flodens sorl och vädrens fläkt
- Böljan sig mindre rör
- Bakom dessa gröna lindar
- Uppå vattnets lugna våg
- Sälla strand, där vi nu landa
- Marsch, över allt, följ Martis spår
- Manskap, giv akt
- Hurra, se min fåla
- Skåden hit, märk och minns
- Om ödet skull' mig skicka
- Sjung mina söner alla tolv
- Sjungom systrar, Fröjas ära
- Tom är min flaska, tunnan utrunnen
- Hvem är, som ej vår broder mins?
- Bort allt vad oro gör |
30,140,605 | Geographia Neoteriki | 1,057,937,226 | Book by Grigorios Konstantas | [
"1791 non-fiction books",
"Books about cultural geography",
"Modern Greek Enlightenment",
"Modern Greek literature"
]
| Geographia Neoteriki (Greek: Γεωγραφία Νεωτερική Modern Geography) is a geography book written in Greek by Daniel Philippidis and Grigorios Konstantas and printed in Vienna in 1791. It focused on both the physical and human geography features of the European continent and especially on Southeastern Europe, and is considered one of the most remarkable works of the modern Greek Enlightenment. The authors of the Geographia Neoteriki adopted new geographical methodologies for that time, which were primarily based on personal examination of the described areas and used as sources a number of contemporary European handbooks.
The work, written in a vernacular language, also described the contemporary social developments and expressed ideas that were considered revolutionary and anticlerical, and addressed the political and economic decay of the Ottoman Empire. Geographia Neoteriki was welcomed with enthusiasm by western intellectual circles, especially in France, but on the other hand, it was largely neglected by Greek scholars.
## Background
A category of historical and geographical literature, focused on regional history and geography, emerged during the 18th century among Greek scholars. This kind of literature combined the collection of ethnographic data with a conviction in geography's moral and religious purpose. Major representatives of this field were two scholars and clerics, Daniel Philippidis and Grigorios Konstantas. They came from the village of Milies in Thessaly, modern Greece, and were nicknamed Dimitrieis, from the ancient name of their birthplace (Dimitrias). Both scholars were active members of the Greek diaspora in the Danubian Principalities, in modern Romania, where they studied and taught at the courts of the Greek Orthodox Phanariot and the Princely Academies of Bucharest and Iaşi. This environment offered in general a special attraction for ambitious and educated Greek people from the Ottoman Empire, contributing to the enlightenment of their nation. Philippidis' and Konstantas' work Geographia Neoteriki, published in Vienna in 1791, belongs to a body of contemporary texts which strove to map out the European parts of the Ottoman Empire and Greece in particular.
## Content
This work was the first and only volume by Daniel Philippidis and Grigorios Konstantas, and their intention was not only to define and describe the lands that were populated by Greeks, but also to describe the current social developments in the wider region. With this work they gave a precise delimitation of European Hellas (Greece) of that time, a few decades before the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence (1821). According to their description this area would not only include present-day Greece, but also Albania, North Macedonia and the southern half of Bulgaria, an area that included all the areas ruled by the Macedonian Kings, in addition to those of classical Greece incorporating most of the Orthodox populations of the Balkan peninsula, which was during that time under Ottoman rule.
They concluded that the 'Greek lands' are located in a privileged geographic location at the crossroads of three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa, however, as the Ottoman administration was incapable of reinforcing the rule of law, economic activity couldn't flourish. Thus, they addressed the political and economic instability of the Ottoman Empire that struggled to maintain control over different ethnicities and huge territories. As a consequence of that lack of control, many Greeks were impelled to seek protection outside the Ottoman Empire, while the ones that had not abandoned their lands, suffered under a terrible Ottoman regime, and had no educational rights.
Reflecting a new revolutionary era in the European history after the outbreak of the French Revolution, the authors expressed sharp social criticism, castigating the corruption of the church authorities, the idleness of the monasticism, and popular superstition. They also appealed for reform of the language, education, and change to the social mores as a way to overcome backwardness and to renew people's mentality with a more western view. They claimed that Greece is positioned within a Europe defined by the dynamics of political reforms from old and corrupt monarchical regimes to new republican communities. The modern innovative spirit of Geographia Neoteriki was also expressed in the use of a lively and malleable vernacular (Demotic) language with very few ties to the katharevousa, a more archaich form of Greek, which was commonly used by most Greek scholars of that time.
The book introduced a number of new ideas in the field of human geography and social organization models, that had been developed in the western world during the 18th century. Among the sources that the authors used to compose Geographia Neoteriki, were the Géographie Moderne by Nicolle de La Croix, the Géographie Ancienne, and the Géographie Moderne, which were part of the Encyclopédie Méthodique by Charles-Joseph Panckoucke. Additionally, the authors had personally examined the areas described in the work. This element served both as the work's primary organizing mode as well as the basis for their historical approach.
## Popularity
In general, Geographia Neoteriki, was welcomed with enthusiasm by western intellectual circles. Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison, professor of modern Greek in the Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes, used it as a textbook for his students. French geographer Barbie du Bocage published a review after the book's publication along with a translated passage. Moreover, travellers who published accounts during the early 19th century, frequently cited the text. François Pouqueville, William Martin Leake, Henry Holland, and Lord Byron mentioned this work, and used it as a source of information. The book also enjoyed some popularity in the non Greek regions of the Balkan peninsula, while 19th century Bulgarian authors of geographic textbooks used it as a model.
On the other hand, especially due to the vernacular language used, this work was largely neglected among the Greek scholars, especially by Adamantios Korais and Dimitrios Katartzis, and was never used as an academic work, or even as a school textbook. It was also negatively received by the Church hierarchy, as well as conservative Greek scholars, due to the vernacular language it used and the liberal views it expressed. It is worth noting that the work's linguistic form disappointed even Dimitrios Katartzis, the intellectual mentor of the two authors, while Philippidis himself, never used such vernacular style language again in his future works. However, Geographia Neoteriki inspired a number of similar geographical works published in Greece during the 19th century. |
2,246,401 | Kenneth Bainbridge | 1,172,434,541 | American physicist (1904–1996) | [
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| Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge (July 27, 1904 – July 14, 1996) was an American physicist at Harvard University who worked on cyclotron research. His precise measurements of mass differences between nuclear isotopes allowed him to confirm Albert Einstein's mass–energy equivalence concept. He was the Director of the Manhattan Project's Trinity nuclear test, which took place July 16, 1945. Bainbridge described the Trinity explosion as a "foul and awesome display". He remarked to J. Robert Oppenheimer immediately after the test, "Now we are all sons of bitches." This marked the beginning of his dedication to ending the testing of nuclear weapons and to efforts to maintain civilian control of future developments in that field.
## Early life
Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge was born in Cooperstown, New York, on July 27, 1904. He was educated at Horace Mann School in New York. While at high school he developed an interest in ham radio which inspired him to enter Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1921 to study electrical engineering. In five years he earned both Bachelor of Science (S.B.) and Master of Science (S.M.) degrees. During the summer breaks he worked at General Electric's laboratories in Lynn, Massachusetts and Schenectady, New York. While there he obtained three patents related to photoelectric tubes.
Normally this would have been a promising start to a career at General Electric, but it made Bainbridge aware of how interested he was in physics. Upon graduating from MIT in 1926, he enrolled at Princeton University, where Karl T. Compton, a consultant to General Electric, was on the faculty. In 1929, he was awarded a Ph.D. in his new field, writing his thesis on "A search for element 87 by analysis of positive rays" under the supervision of Henry DeWolf Smyth.
## Early career
Bainbridge enjoyed a series of prestigious fellowships after graduation. He was awarded a National Research Council, and then a Bartol Research Foundation fellowship. At the time the Franklin Institute's Bartol Research Foundation was located on the Swarthmore College campus in Pennsylvania, and was directed by W. F. G. Swann, an English physicist with an interest in nuclear physics. Bainbridge married Margaret ("Peg") Pitkin, a member of the Swarthmore teaching faculty, in September 1931. They had a son, Martin Keeler, and two daughters, Joan and Margaret Tomkins.
In 1932, Bainbridge developed a mass spectrometer with a resolving power of 600 and a relative precision of one part in 10,000. He used this instrument to verify Albert Einstein's mass–energy equivalence, E = mc<sup>2</sup>. Francis William Aston wrote that:
> By establishing accurate comparisons of the masses of the light particles concerned in nuclear disintegrations, particularly that of <sup>7</sup>Li, discovered by Cockcroft and Walton, he achieved a noteworthy triumph in the experimental proof of the fundamental theory of Einstein of the equivalence of mass and energy.
In 1933, Bainbridge was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, which he used to travel to England and work at Ernest Rutherford's Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. While there he continued his work developing the mass spectrograph, and became friends with the British physicist John Cockcroft.
When his Guggenheim fellowship expired in September 1934, he returned to the United States, where he accepted an associate professorship at Harvard University. He started by building a new mass spectrograph that he had designed with at the Cavendish Laboratory. Working with J. Curry Street, he commenced work on a cyclotron. They had a design for a 37-inch (940 mm) cyclotron provided by Ernest Lawrence, but decided to build a 42-inch (1,100 mm) cyclotron instead.
Bainbridge was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1937. His interest in mass spectroscopy led naturally to an interest in the relative abundance of isotopes. The discovery of nuclear fission in uranium-235 led to an interest in separating this isotope. He proposed using a Holweck pump to produce the vacuum necessary for this work, and enlisted George B. Kistiakowsky and E. Bright Wilson to help. There was little interest in their work because research was being carried out elsewhere. In 1943, their cyclotron was requisitioned by Edwin McMillan for use by the U. S. Army. It was packed up and carted off to Los Alamos, New Mexico.
## World War II
In September 1940, with World War II raging in Europe, the British Tizard Mission brought a number of new technologies to the United States, including a cavity magnetron, a high-powered device that generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field. This device, which promised to revolutionize radar, demolished any thoughts the Americans had entertained about their technological leadership. Alfred Lee Loomis of the National Defense Research Committee established the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop this radar technology. In October, Bainbridge became one of the first scientists to be recruited for the Radiation Laboratory by Ernest Lawrence. The scientists divided up the work between them; Bainbridge drew pulse modulators. Working with the Navy, he helped develop high-powered radars for warships.
In May 1943, Bainbridge joined Robert Oppenheimer's Project Y at Los Alamos. He initially led E-2, the instrumentation group, which developed X-ray instrumentation for examining explosions. In March 1944, he became head of a new group, E-9, which was charged with conducting the first nuclear test. In Oppenheimer's sweeping reorganization of the Los Alamos laboratory in August 1944, the E-9 Group became X-2.
On July 16, 1945, Bainbridge and his colleagues conducted the Trinity nuclear test. "My personal nightmare," he later wrote, "was knowing that if the bomb didn't go off or hangfired, I, as head of the test, would have to go to the tower first and seek to find out what had gone wrong." To his relief, the explosion of the first atomic bomb went off without such drama, in what he later described as "a foul and awesome display". He turned to Oppenheimer and said, "Now we are all sons of bitches."
Bainbridge was relieved that the Trinity test had been a success, relating in a 1975 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists article, "I had a feeling of exhilaration that the 'gadget' had gone off properly followed by one of deep relief. I wouldn't have to go to the tower to see what had gone wrong."
For his work on the Manhattan Project, Bainbridge received two letters of commendation from the project's director, Major General Leslie R. Groves, Jr. He also received a Presidential Certificate of Merit for his work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory.
## Postwar
Bainbridge returned to Harvard after the war, and initiated the construction of a 96-inch (2,400 mm) synchro-cyclotron, which has since been dismantled. From 1950 to 1954, he chaired the physics department at Harvard. During those years, he drew the ire of Senator Joseph McCarthy for his aggressive defense of his colleagues in academia. As chairman, he was responsible for the renovation of the old Jefferson Physical Laboratory, and he established the Morris Loeb Lectures in Physics. He also devoted a good deal of his time to improving the laboratory facilities for graduate students.
Throughout the 1950s, Bainbridge remained an outspoken proponent of civilian control of nuclear power and the abandonment of nuclear testing. In 1950 he was one of twelve prominent scientists who petitioned President Harry S. Truman to declare that the United States would never be the first to use the hydrogen bomb. Bainbridge retired from Harvard in 1975.
Bainbridge's wife Margaret died suddenly in January 1967 from a blood clot in a broken wrist. He married Helen Brinkley King, an editor at William Morrow in New York City, in October 1969. She died in February 1989. A scholarship was established at Sarah Lawrence College in her memory. He died at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts, on July 14, 1996. He was survived by his daughters from his first marriage, Joan Bainbridge Safford and Margaret Bainbridge Robinson. He was buried in the Abel's Hill Cemetery on Martha's Vineyard, in a plot with his first wife Margaret and his son Martin. His papers are in the Harvard University Archives.
## In popular culture
In the 2023 film Oppenheimer, he is portrayed by Josh Peck.
## See also
- Bainbridge mass spectrometer |
31,076,406 | I See the Light | 1,173,917,687 | null | [
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| "I See the Light" is a song written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater for Walt Disney Animation Studios' 50th animated feature film Tangled (2010). A duet originally recorded by American recording artist and actress Mandy Moore and American actor Zachary Levi in their respective film roles as main characters Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, the folk-inspired pop ballad serves as both the film's love and theme song. Lyrically, "I See the Light" describes the developing romantic relationship between Rapunzel and Flynn, and is featured as the seventh track on the film's soundtrack album.
Tangled was originally conceived by Disney animator Glen Keane. Subsequently, Walt Disney Animation Studios hired veteran Disney composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater to write the film's songs. Initially, Menken and Slater had written a more anthemic version of "I See the Light" before finally re-working it into a gentler, simpler and more folk-oriented song. Menken would later reveal that, out of Tangled's 5 songs and musical numbers, he is most proud of "I See the Light".
"I See the Light" received polarized reviews from film and music critics, who were largely ambivalent towards the song's content, questioning its originality. However, the "lantern sequence", during which "I See the Light" is performed by Rapunzel and Flynn, received high critical acclaim, with journalists and commentators praising its visuals and use of 3-D. Critically, both the song and the scene have been compared to similar romantic musical sequences from preceding Disney animated films, including "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid (1989) and "A Whole New World" from Aladdin (1992), both of which are love songs also composed by Menken.
In spite of its mixed reviews, "I See the Light" has garnered numerous awards and accolades. The song was nominated for the Academy and Golden Globe awards for Best Original Song in 2011. Subsequently, "I See the Light" won both the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Since its release, the song has been recorded and covered by various musical artists, including musical theatre performers David Harris and Lucy Durack, and classical singer Jackie Evancho.
## Background
The concept of an animated film based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Rapunzel" originated from Disney animator Glen Keane in 1996. Veteran Disney composer Alan Menken had just recently completed scoring Walt Disney Pictures' Enchanted (2007) when he received a telephone call from Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2008, who invited him to compose the music for the studio's then-upcoming animated film Tangled. Upon accepting, Menken invited frequent collaborator Glenn Slater, with whom he had previously worked on Disney's Home on the Range (2004) and the Broadway musical adaptation of The Little Mermaid (1989), to serve alongside him as his co-writing lyricist once again.
Aware that Tangled would not be "a [traditional] musical like Beauty and the Beast or [The Hunchback of Notre Dame]", on both of which Menken worked as a composer, Menken described the film as a "hybrid" because it is "far from [a] classic break into song musical." For Tangled, Menken challenged himself to come up with a different, unique sound that would differ significantly from the musical styles of his previous Broadway musical-influenced film projects and compositions. Inspired by the ongoing motif of Rapunzel's "long hair and the freedom she wanted", Menken decided to draw particular influence from the musical genre of 1960s folk rock, citing the musicianship and artistry of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell as a major source of musical inspiration.
## Writing and recording
When it came to writing the film's songs and musical numbers, Menken and Slater "looked for what is going to be an appropriate song moment for the main characters." In the specific case of "I See the Light", Menken elaborated, "The lantern song ... flows pretty much out of the sense of completion and [Rapunzel] finally sees the lanterns and has this moment. It's more of a montage number."
Menken and Slater had originally intended for "I See the Light" to sound more "anthem-like". The songwriters eventually changed their minds, deciding to re-write "I See the Light" into a gentler, more folk-oriented song. Menken spoke of the creative writing process, "we began throwing melodies up, doing songs and riffs and harmonies, and we waited for something to stick". Additionally, Menken later admitted that, out of Tangled's five songs and musical numbers, he is most proud of "I See the Light" because it "is a great moment in the film and I am very happy with the beauty and simplicity of the song."
Similarly, co-director Byron Howard also took an immediate liking towards the song. Hailing "I See the Light" as his favorite of the film's songs, Howard elaborated, "The moment [co-director Nathan Greno and I] heard Alan Menken's demo we knew that one would be a classic."
A romantic duet performed during the narrative portion of the film by its 2 main characters, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, "I See the Light" was recorded by American recording artist and actress Mandy Moore as the voice of Rapunzel and American actor Zachary Levi as the voice of Flynn Rider. While filming Tangled, Moore and Levi met to work with each other only twice, one of which was to record the vocals for "I See the Light". According to Levi, he and Moore first rehearsed the song live accompanied by the film's 80-piece orchestra before eventually being divided into separate isolation booths to record their respective lyrics, verses and harmonies individually.
## Context and scene
Occurring towards the end of Tangled, "I See the Light" takes place during the film's second act soon after Rapunzel and Flynn Rider have finally completed their grueling journey from Mother Gothel's tower to Corona, arriving in the kingdom just in time to experience its annual lantern-lighting ceremony, which Rapunzel has spent 18 years – her entire life – observing at a distance from the confinement of Gothel's tower. There the couple embarks on a boat ride to watch the ceremony as "the night sky [is] illuminated with a sea of lanterns." During the pivotal scene, described by critics as the film's "emotional peak" because "Rapunzel's dream of watching the floating lanterns seems to be reali[z]ed", the musical number both "highlights the ... flight of the lanterns" while essentially triggering Rapunzel and Flynn's "budding romance", who are gradually beginning to fall in love.
According to Marianne Paluso of the Catholic News Agency, Rapunzel, during the scene, "finally sees for herself the wondrous floating lanterns she's yearned to see her entire life". Meanwhile, the audience is shown the way in which "love ... has blossomed between" the film's 2 main characters. Commonly referred to by critics as one of Tangled's "show-stopping moments", Rapunzel and Flynn perform the romantic duet while "play[ing] off each other" as they continue to fall in love.
As a result of the song's setting, romantic context and lyrical content, several comparisons have been drawn between both the song and its corresponding scene and various romantic musical sequences from a number of preceding Disney animated feature films, the most frequently referenced of which are "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid (1989) and "A Whole New World" from Aladdin (1992), both romantic ballads also composed by Menken. One particular reviewer, Steven D. Greydanus of Decent Films Guide, drew comparisons between the scene and the musical "Nutcracker Suite" sequence from Disney's animated feature film Fantasia (1940), describing it as "a moment of visual transcendence."
Throughout the filmmaking process, Tangled's co-directors Byron Howard and Nathan Greno continued to hold the scene in particularly high regard, constantly boasting to the production team that "I See the Light" "will be the most spectacular animated sequence you've ever seen." According to Greno, the use of 45,000 floating lanterns during the scene was directly inspired by traditional Indonesian ceremonies during which people "set up rice paper lanterns and send them into the sky."
## Composition
A "dreamy" love song that embodies a "classic romantic feel", "I See the Light" is a "peppy and cheerful" romantic pop ballad accompanied by a "soaring" melody that spans a length of three minutes and forty-four seconds. Stylistically combining both classical and contemporary music with folk influences, the lyrics of the "endearing" romantic duet center around main characters Rapunzel and Flynn while describing their developing romantic relationship, which is finally beginning to allow the couple to "[see] life in a whole new way" as they "begin to connect romantically," ultimately falling in love.
According to the song's official sheet music, published by Walt Disney Music Publishing. "I See the Light" is a mid-tempo pop ballad, written in the key of C major (later changing to E♭ major) at a tempo of 104 beats per minute. Combined, Moore and Levi's vocal ranges span over 2 octaves, with Levi singing the low note of B♭<sub>2</sub> and Moore singing the high note of E♭<sub>5</sub>. In addition to vocals, the song's instrumentation also encompasses harp, acoustic guitar and orchestra.
## Reception
### Critical reception
#### Song
Musically, "I See the Light" has received polarized reviews from critics, many of whom were generally underwhelmed by the film's songs.
Catherine Jones of the Liverpool Echo reviewed "I See the Light" positively, hailing the song as a "rousing love ballad". While Jessica Dawson of Common Sense Media described "I See the Light" as a "sweet duet" between Rapunzel and Flynn. Common Sense Media's Sandie Angulo Chen called it a "great" love song. Lindsey Ward of Canoe.ca praised both Moore and Levi's vocal performance, commenting, "their work on the film's signature love ballad ... is bound to melt some hearts."
Meanwhile, several critics have reacted much less favorably towards "I See the Light". Scott Chitwood of ComingSoon.net described the song as nothing more than "pretty good". Tim McCall of The Star-Ledger reviewed "I See the Light" very negatively, describing it as both "predictable" and "the sort of thing you'd plug your ears through". McCall went on to pan Slater's lyrics, describing them as a "dull ... 20-car pileup of cliche." Time's Richard Corliss described "I See the Light" as a "generically tuneful love ballad". In another review, Corliss similarly commented, "'I See the Light' ... isn't the most inventive of Menken melodies". Questioning the song's originality, Cindy White of IGN described "I See the Light" as "unmemorable". Filmtracks.com wrote a mixed review, describing Levi's vocal performance as "conservatively appropriate" while criticizing Moore for "lacking in depth of inflection."
#### Lantern sequence
Contrastingly, the climactic musical sequence during which "I See the Light" is performed by Rapunzel and Flynn, commonly referred to as the "lantern sequence", has fared significantly better than the song itself, garnering widespread acclaim from film critics. Keith Uhlich of Time Out described the scene as "especially wonderful", while Digital Spy's Simon Reynolds similarly hailed it as one of the film's most "striking moments". Although Georgie Hobbs of Little White Lies wrote that, lyrically, "I See the Light" is "nothing special", she went on to praise the scene, describing it as a "treat ... that will clinch it for romantics and 3-D tech-heads alike." Radio Times' Alan Jones labeled the sequence one of the film's "most beautifully uplifting moments". Similarly, Christian Blauvelt of Slant Magazine highlighted the scene as one of Tangled's "few moments of otherworldly beauty". A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "A scene of paper lanterns descending through mist onto water is especially breathtaking, partly because it departs from the usual 3-D insistence on deep focus and sharply-defined images, creating an experience that is almost tactile in its dreamy softness."
The New York Post's Lou Lumenick, whose response to the film's use of 3-D was generally mixed, described "I See the Light" as "the year's best use of 3-D". Likewise, Dan Kois of Westword commented, "while Tangled's 3-D is mostly unobtrusive, the lights swooping over the audience might be the most crowd-pleasing 3-dimensional filigree I've seen yet." Rediff.com'''s Sukanya Verma praised both the scene and the song, writing, "it's the luminous imagery of ["I See the Light"], merging the reach of technology with Menken's sublime melody that produces a spectacular celluloid moment." Tasha Robinson of The A. V. Club opined, "even a falling-in-love sequence cribbed in part from The Little Mermaid is overwhelmingly magical." Colin Covert of the Star Tribune wrote, "A romantic boat-ride beneath a constellation of floating lanterns is one of the more breathtaking episodes of gratuitous beauty". MSN Movies' Glenn Kenny hailed the scene as one of "the most dazzling pieces of moving artwork executed in any animated movie, Disney or otherwise, ever."
### Accolades
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to modify the nomination rules pertaining to the Academy Award for Best Original Song after Menken's Enchanted garnered 3 separate nominations for the award in 2008, decreasing the nomination limit from 3 to only 2 from any individual film. After the release of Tangled, Menken revealed that the studio will only be submitting 1 song from the film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration for the Best Original Song award at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011 "to avoid songs canceling each other out if nominated." Menken decided upon "I See the Light" because he considers it "the heart-and-center of the film" and "seems to be the one that can break out." Additionally, several critics expected the song to win Best Original Song, including Time's Richard Corliss.
As widely anticipated, "I See the Light" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011, becoming Menken's nineteenth Academy Award nomination. Menken said of the accomplishment, "I don't take it for granted at all". However, the song ultimately lost to Randy Newman's "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3 (2010), another animated feature film released by Walt Disney Pictures, produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Previously, "I See the Light" had garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song at the 68th Golden Globe Awards in 2011, which it lost to "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" from Burlesque (2010), written by Diane Warren and performed by Cher. Lastly, "I See the Light" was nominated for Best Song at the 16th Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards in 2011, losing to "If I Rise" from 127 Hours (2010).
"I See the Light" went on to win the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Song in 2010, and the Best Song Written for Visual Media Award at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012.
Babble.com ranked "I See the Light" as one of the "Greatest ... Disney Movie Moments".
## Performances and cover versions
In celebration of the song's Best Original Song nomination, Moore and Levi performed "I See the Light" live at the 83rd Academy Awards in February 2011, accompanied by Menken himself on piano. For the performance, Moore asked that she be provided with a "show-stopping" dress, specifically requesting that it not resemble a Disney costume. To comply, fashion designer Monique Lhuillier "incorporated elements of 3 dresses Moore loved" into the final dress, resulting in a full-skirted cobalt blue gown. Moore revealed that she was feeling confident about the performance "until about 2 minutes before the show". Moore also said of the performance, "It was the most intimidating audience I performed for ... I made a point not to look at anyone ... because I was nervous."
Australian actor and singer David Harris included his rendition of "I See the Light" on his second studio album At This Stage (2011), recording the song as a duet with Australian actress Lucy Durack. Theatre People's Simon Parris wrote of Harris' version, "the gorgeous duet .. will have listeners rushing out to watch their Tangled blu-ray again." American classical singer Jackie Evancho recorded "I See the Light" for her fourth studio album Songs from the Silver Screen (2012) as a duet with American singer Jacob Evancho, her elder brother. Amazon.com'' described Evancho's rendition as a "very special duet."
## Certifications |
48,497,479 | Life Is Strange 2 | 1,168,383,240 | 2018–2019 graphic adventure video game | [
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| Life Is Strange 2 is an episodic graphic adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. Its five episodes were released between September 2018 and December 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One and later for Linux, macOS and Nintendo Switch. A main sequel in the Life Is Strange series, the game's plot features Hispanic American brothers Sean and Daniel as they travel along the US West Coast as fugitives from the police after the younger brother discovers his telekinetic abilities. In the game, which is played from a third-person perspective, Sean must make crucial decisions that will lead to different branches in the storyline, while serving as a surrogate parent for Daniel.
Following the unexpected success of the original Life Is Strange, development of the sequel started in 2016 after the team completed the retail edition of the first game. The primary creative team behind the original returned for the sequel. The team chose a road movie structure in contrast to the original game, and was inspired by films and novels like Into the Wild and Of Mice and Men. While the game features supernatural elements, the story is mostly grounded in reality, and the team used the opportunity to explore contemporary social issues such as racism, gun violence, and bigotry. The sequel development was revealed in May 2017 and free demo, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, was released in June 2018 prior to the main game in order to introduce the new setting. Square Enix External Studios worked with Dontnod for the development.
The game received generally positive reviews upon release. Critics praised the story, the relationship between Sean and Daniel, and the choice-based gameplay, while reception of the portrayed political themes was divergent. The sparse episodic release schedule and the dialogue were criticized. It received nominations for multiple year-end accolades. Dontnod stated to have shifted its focus to develop their own intellectual properties in May 2021. The series' next main game, Life Is Strange: True Colors, which was developed by Deck Nine, was released in September 2021.
## Gameplay
Life Is Strange 2 is a graphic adventure game played from a third-person view. The player takes control of a teenager named Sean Diaz (Gonzalo Martin), who is on the run with his younger brother, Daniel (Roman Dean George), following a tragic incident. Throughout the game, the two brothers encounter various non-playable characters who interact with Sean via dialogue trees. Sean must make choices during crucial moments of the game, which lead to different branches in the storyline. Sean's actions and interactions with Daniel in particular affect Daniel's morality and the state of brotherhood between the two characters. For instance, encouraging Daniel to be rude will prompt him to swear more later in the game. Daniel will grow to resent Sean if his actions do not align with his advice, and he may no longer follow Sean's lead if he is not able to maintain an adequate level of brotherhood with Daniel. Staying morally sound and being a caring and trusting brother may not always be compatible with each other in the scenarios presented in the game. The game tracks how many players selected which option and lets the player compare their choices to the rest of the player base. While the main events of the story remain the same regardless of the player's decisions, the game features several different endings.
Sean can interact with the environment and obtain objects, which can then be stored in Sean's backpack and used later. When Sean picks up an object, he will comment on them, providing players the backstory for each item and adding context to the world. Sean's backpack can also be decorated with souvenirs he collects in the world. As Sean and Daniel explore various locations, Sean can also enjoy moments of calmness at designated locations and sketch the environment around him.
## Plot
In 2016, 16-year-old Sean Diaz lives with his 9-year-old brother Daniel and father Esteban (Amador Plascencia) in Seattle, after Sean's mother Karen (Jolene Andersen) left them following Daniel's birth. The day the game begins, Sean intervenes when their neighbor Brett (Robert Shearer) harasses Daniel, inadvertently injuring Brett as a police officer passes by. Esteban arrives at the scene and is shot and killed by the officer. A sudden explosion damages the environment, and Sean flees with Daniel before more police arrive. Now fugitives, Sean aims to take them to their father's Mexican hometown of Puerto Lobos. Near Mount Rainier, the brothers are recognized by the owner of a gas station, but escape with the help of travel blogger Brody Holloway (Bolen Walker). Brody arranges a motel room for the brothers, where Daniel learns of Esteban's death and becomes angry, revealing he has latent telekinetic abilities that were the cause of the explosion in Seattle.
The brothers then spend a month at an abandoned cabin, where Sean helps train Daniel's ability. After Daniel falls ill, Sean decides to take him to their maternal grandparents, Claire (Nancy Cronig) and Stephen Reynolds (John O'Connell), in nearby Beaver Creek, Oregon. At Beaver Creek, Claire and Stephen accept the brothers, despite resenting Karen's abandonment. Daniel also befriends Chris (Chandler Mantione), an imaginative boy that lives next door, after using his powers to save him from falling from his treehouse; Chris comes to think he has superpowers. Daniel coerces Sean into breaking into Karen's old room to learn more about her. The police soon arrive on word that Sean and Daniel have been sighted in public or traced from interactions. Claire, Stephen, and Chris then help the brothers to escape.
Sean and Daniel join freighthoppers Finn (Matthew Gallenstein) and Cassidy (Sarah J. Bartholomew) traveling to California, and the four secure paying jobs at a cannabis farm in Humboldt County, California for a cultivator named Merrill (Ben Jurand). Sean spends more time with their new friends, leaving Daniel frustrated with being unable to practice his powers. One payday, Merrill discovers Daniel snooping around, resulting in Daniel revealing his powers to the others and Merrill firing them. Finn secretly coerces Daniel or Sean accepts his plan to use Daniel's powers to steal money from Merrill. The heist fails and Merrill threatens them with a shotgun. In a panic rage, Daniel destroys Merrill's house with his powers, knocking out everyone else and causing Sean's left eye to be impaled.
Sean wakes from a coma two months later under FBI custody. He finds a letter from Jacob (David Valdes), one of the farmworkers, which states Jacob found Daniel after the accident and took him to his hometown of Haven Point, Nevada. Sean escapes from custody and travels to Haven Point. There, he finds Daniel has been taken in by Lisbeth (Victoria Hansen), the leader of a religious cult who is presenting Daniel's powers as a divine gift to convert her followers. After an initial attempt to recover Daniel, Sean meets Karen, whom Jacob had also contacted for help. Sean and Karen begin to reconnect and establish a plan with Jacob to save him. They ultimately convince Daniel to come with them, but Karen may burn down the church in the process.
Sean and Daniel travel with Karen to the secluded community of Away, Arizona, where Sean makes the last arrangements to cross into Mexico. Sean befriends David Madsen (D.W. McCann), a former security officer from Arcadia Bay, Oregon, who suggests that Sean turn himself over to the authorities for a better outcome for him and Daniel. Authorities have tracked their location, but Karen allows her sons to escape by staying behind to be arrested. They arrive at the Mexico–United States barrier, which Daniel breaks open with his powers. Before they can cross, Daniel is wounded by a bullet from two vigilantes, and the group is soon captured by the local police. Daniel breaks Sean out of interrogation and the two flee to a Mexican port of entry, but find it blockaded by FBI and United States Border Patrol agents.
Sean must decide whether to surrender or attempt to cross the border, with the outcome depending on whether he raised Daniel with high or low societal morality through his past choices. If Sean chooses to surrender, he is either taken into custody while Daniel lives with Claire and Stephen before a reunion fifteen years later after Sean is released from prison, or he is killed when Daniel forces them to cross the border which causes Daniel to grow up in Puerto Lobos alone and become a career criminal. If Sean chooses to cross the border, he will cross into Mexico with help from Daniel, who then either surrenders to the FBI and lives with Claire and Stephen while Sean lives in Puerto Lobos either alone or with Cassidy or Finn, or stays with Sean in crossing the border where the brothers open a garage in Puerto Lobos like their father had and use Daniel's powers to become career criminals.
## Development
Life Is Strange 2 was developed by French developer Dontnod Entertainment, which started the game's production after it shipped the retail edition of the first game in 2016. It was decided early that the sequel would feature a cast of new characters, with director Michel Koch likening the franchise to TV series such as True Detective or American Horror Story in 2015. The development team believed that the franchise was about common people that players can relate to, and stories that are grounded in reality and reflective of the player's own experience. By introducing new characters, the team can try something different and explore different themes. According to the team, the story of Max and Chloe (the protagonists of the first game) has already been completed. David, a returning character, makes a small appearance in Episode 5. The team included him in the sequel because he always survives the events of the first game and that through him, players can discover "little hints" regarding the fate of Max and Chloe. The team avoids giving too many details about their fates, as the first game does not have a canon ending and featuring them too heavily in the story may displease fans who are heavily invested in fan fiction. David's appearance helps connect the sequel to the first game without confusing new audiences.
Unlike the first game, which is set in one place, Life Is Strange 2 is structured like a road movie. The team did not want to develop a retread of the first game, and wanted the sequel to significantly deviate from the original's formula. The team was inspired by films and novels such as Into the Wild, Stand By Me, Of Mice and Men, and On the Road. Dontnod conducted field research on the West Coast of the United States, meeting people and taking pictures. The drifters (Finn and Cassidy) featured in the game were inspired by the photography of Mike Brodie, a freighthopper who took photos of the people he had encountered throughout his journey, and his book A Period of Juvenile Prosperity. In particular, his series of photos about a child who grew up on the road served as the foundation of the game's characters who become "outcasts living on the outskirts of society". The team hoped that through exploring their stories, they can show players that there are many ways for people to live their lives.
Writing the characters was a challenge for lead writer Jean Luc-Cano. Unlike the first game, which gives an ample amount of time for characters to develop, characters in the sequel have to be introduced quickly due to the road film structure. The players must decide if they should trust these characters within a short period of time. Like the first game, animal symbolism is featured heavily in this game, as the team believed that these animal symbols and metaphors help to "[bring] something visual for players". The story was first written in French by a team led by Cano, and the script was then passed to American writer Christian Divine who helped refine its tone and accuracy.
One of the game's main themes is education: Sean must be a role model for Daniel, who will learn from Sean and follow what he does. Ultimately, Daniel's actions and personality are tied to the player's decisions throughout the game. While Daniel's telekinetic powers are not the game's focus, its inclusion allows players to understand the consequences of their actions, such as how Daniel utilizes his powers is directly linked to how Sean nurtures him. The game's ending is reflective of what Daniel learns from Sean throughout the five episodes. The team did not create a perfect ending for the characters because such an ending is often non-existent in the real world. To ensure that the educational aspect of the game is genuine, the team read books and documents produced by psychologists and sociologists to gain more insight. The team also spent an extensive amount of time developing Daniel's artificial intelligence to ensure that he is "believable, sensible, and sometimes super-cute". The developers recognised that brotherly bonding is rarely perfect and relationships between siblings can be tense. Sean, as a teenager, wants to find people around him to develop his own life and does not want his younger brother around him. Throughout the game, players need to balance Sean's personal interests, like spending time with the new characters Sean meets, with caring for Daniel. The team spent a lot of time finding the right balance to ensure that the relationship between the two brothers are not obnoxious and that players do not grow to dislike Sean as the story progresses. Cano used his own personal experience interacting with his elder brother and daughter while developing the brotherhood relationship between Sean and Daniel, as well as the educational aspect of the game.
As the story is grounded in reality, the team explored various real-world social issues such as racism, alcoholism, gun violence, and bigotry. While the game takes place in the United States, director Raoul Barbet states that these problems are universal and their depictions in the game allow players to reflect on their own experiences. He adds that the team did not want to "gamify a difficult subject", and worked to ensure that characters evolve naturally throughout the story. Superpowers were included to add a sense of urgency. The team wanted the story to inspire players to "talk more to other people when they meet someone that's different from them". They also hoped that players would ultimately feel a sense of loss when the story concludes, as they would have related to the experiences of Sean and Daniel. The team worked to show that the world is a violent one, as they believed that brotherhood between the two protagonists can develop as they face various adversities together. Homelessness is also one of the game's main themes, and the team consulted various charity organisations to ensure that its portrayal was accurate. In November 2019, Square Enix collaborated with charity Centrepoint for their We Will Be Heard campaign about awareness of services for young homeless people.
The game also introduces various gameplay improvements. Players are no longer locked in a cutscene while interacting with people or objects, and Sean can now walk around while conversing with others. The game uses Unreal Engine 4 and has improved lip syncing and facial animation compared to the original. Jonathan Morali returned to compose the score for the sequel. The music contains both original and licensed tracks. Licensed tracks include, among others, songs from Phoenix, The Streets, Sufjan Stevens, and First Aid Kit.
## Release
The developers announced that Dontnod was working on a new Life Is Strange game on 18 May 2017 via a short video. Prior to the reveal of the game, free demo game, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, was released on 25 June 2018, which served as an introduction to the new scenario and features a character from the game named Chris. The game was officially unveiled at Gamescom on 20 August 2018 by publisher Square Enix along the release date of the first episode, which adopted an episodic format similar to the first game. Microsoft announced the game's first episode to be become available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers on Xbox consoles in January 2019, with the other episodes following soon after. In March 2019, Dontnod explained the game had a more complicated development due to its road film structure, as each episode features a new set of characters and new environments. They could not reuse assets created for earlier episodes, and had to organize auditions and castings for each episode. The episodes took longer to develop when compared to the first game, resulting in a more sparse release schedule, which the team believed may have affected players' investment in the story and the characters, possibly resulting in a more muted audience response when compared to the first game. Retail editions of the game were released in Europe on 3 December 2019 and in North America on 4 February 2020. Feral Interactive released all five episodes for Linux and macOS on 19 December 2019. On 18 September 2020, Episode 1: Roads was made free for all platforms. A Nintendo Switch port was released on 2 February 2023.
## Reception
### Critical reception
The game received "generally positive reviews"—except for PC version, which was met with "mixed or average reviews"—according to review aggregator Metacritic. Its portrayal of Hispanic Americans and relation to racial issues in the US was debated in media articles.
The game's themes received generally positive reviews. In their complete season review, The Verge's Andrew Webster described the game as a powerful and compelling experience, and believed that it is a rare video game that tackles the realities of modern life. Webster described the game as a "powerful statement about American politics during a very tense time". Washington Post's Elise Favis lauded its incorporation of political themes for enriching the story and prompting players to empathize with the characters, adding that it brings "a nuance to the world and a reflection of the real lives of others in modern America". Caty McCarthy from USgamer described the game as an earnest attempt by Dontnod to explore contemporarily American social issues, but she was disappointed by its execution. She added that as the season progresses, the exploration of these issues becomes formulaic. Alistair Jones from PC Gamer believed that the game's focus on political and social issues compromised its central themes, such as family and brotherhood. Gita Jackson from Kotaku praised the game for being heartfelt, adding that in each episode, the game "pleads with you to care about the kinds of people you’d normally overlook". However, Joe Juba from Game Informer described the side characters as stereotypical, and remarked that some of the encounters were "contrived".
The game's story received generally positive reviews from critics. McCarthy remarked that the game is at its best when Daniel and Sean are bonding with each other. While she lamented that other side characters have limited roles, she was able to relate to the experiences of the two brothers and often eagerly anticipated where the story takes them. She further praised the choice-based gameplay for being "tangible", as Daniel's behaviors and actions are the embodiment of the choices Sean has made. Joshua Rivera, also from Kotaku, described the game as a "heartbreakingly accurate brotherhood simulator" due to the educational themes in the game. Ozzie Mejia from Shacknews described the education aspect of the game as its most captivating element. He praised how small choices contributed to the game's endings, and remarked that it was a significant improvement over the first game. Tom Phillips, writing for Eurogamer, also enjoyed guiding the two characters throughout the season, adding that each plot thread helps enhance and progress Daniel and Sean' relationship. According to Phillips, the game "marks a more intimate and accomplished return for a studio keen to tackle tough issues with honest characters". VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi likewise applauded the character and the setting, calling them real and interesting, but remarked that Daniel has an annoying personality. Jones, however, believed that the road trip structure rendered most of the choices made within an episode meaningless, as Sean and Daniel will move on from a location and most characters would not be seen again. He was also critical of the main gameplay mechanic being effectively out of the player's hands.
Webster enjoyed the quiet scenes featured in the game and applauded Dontnod for finding a balance between drama and peaceful moments. He added that this pacing made the game "powerful without being exhausting". Dylan Burns from IGN agreed, adding that by slowing down the story to offer times that are more contemplative, the game manages to create beautiful and memorable moments. Takahashi, however, remarked that the slow moments can be so slow that they grind the game to a halt. Jackson noted that the dialogue was a marked improvement over the first game, though it still had the original's "almost embarrassing earnestness", while Meija praised the voice cast for making the most out of a script that can occasionally be "cheesy". Juba remarked the dialogue and the performance can be "stilted" at times, though it did not stop him from caring for Sean and Daniel. He further applauded Dontnod for successfully creating relatable characters. Jones believed that the sparse episodic release format was detrimental to the game's narrative pacing, remarking that much of the story happens off-screen, and it can be difficult for players to remain engaged.
Heather Wald of GamesRadar+ said Episode 1 was a "slow start", its well-constructed moments do not "hang together particularly well". In response to Episode 2, GameStar's Maurice Weber said the episode did not have enough momentum to delight him, while having dramatic story elements and difficult decisions in the right moments. He views the success of the game's predecessor as the game's biggest issue, as it does not consistently play in its class. Writing for Game Informer, Elise Favis said Episode 3 has an explosive conclusion but "painfully stereotypical" characters and poor pacing. GameSpot's Jess McDonell said Episode 4 has exceptional character development, but its storyline feels cliche and the villain "two-dimensional". JeuxVideo said the final episode is strong and while having at least as much contemplation as interactivity, swings between pure levity and the worst of humanity.
### Sales
The PlayStation 4 version of Life is Strange 2 was the fifteenth bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 4,471 physical copies being sold.
### Accolades
## Future
In a December 2019 interview, Dontnod's developers expressed interest in the future of the franchise while noting they would opt for new characters again, but explained that the rights belong to Square Enix and that decisions on the future of the franchise lay with them. Dontnod has since shifted their focus to develop their own intellectual properties in recent years according to a May 2021 interview. The series' next main entry, Life Is Strange: True Colors, was developed by Life Is Strange: Before the Storm developer Deck Nine and was released non-episodically in September 2021. |
454,072 | Giselle | 1,167,342,313 | Romantic ballet in two acts | [
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"Ballets by Jules Perrot",
"Ballets by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges",
"Ballets by Marius Petipa",
"Ballets by Théophile Gautier",
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| Giselle (/dʒɪˈzɛl/; ), originally titled Giselle, ou les Wilis (, Giselle, or The Wilis), is a romantic ballet ("ballet-pantomime") in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first performed by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on 28 June 1841, with Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Giselle. It was an unqualified triumph. It became hugely popular and was staged at once across Europe, Russia, and the United States.
The ghost-filled ballet tells the tragic, romantic story of a beautiful young peasant girl named Giselle and a disguised nobleman named Albrecht, who fall in love, but when his true identity is revealed by his rival, Hilarion, Giselle goes mad and dies of heartbreak. After her death, she is summoned from her grave into the vengeful, deadly sisterhood of the Wilis, the ghosts of unmarried women who died after being betrayed by their lovers and take revenge in the night by dancing men to death by exhaustion (a popular theme in Romantic-era ballets). Led by Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis, they target Albrecht when he comes to mourn at Giselle's grave, but her great love frees him from their grasp. They gain their power in numbers as they effortlessly move through dramatic patterns and synchronized movements and control the stage with their long tulle dresses and stoic expressions, creating an ethereal atmosphere that builds as they gradually close in on Albrecht. By saving him from the Wilis, Giselle also saves herself from becoming one of them.
Librettists Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier took their inspiration for the plot from a prose passage about the Wilis in De l'Allemagne, by Heinrich Heine, and from a poem called "Fantômes" in Les Orientales by Victor Hugo.
Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot created the original choreography. The role of Giselle was created for Carlotta Grisi as her debut piece for the Paris public, and she was the only ballerina to dance it at the Paris Opera for many years. The traditional choreography that has been passed down to the present day derives primarily from the revivals staged by Marius Petipa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg. One of the world's most-often performed classical ballets, it is also one of the most challenging to dance.
## Synopsis
### Act I
The ballet opens on a sunny autumnal morning in the Rhineland during the Middle Ages. The grape harvest is in progress. Duke Albrecht of Silesia, a young nobleman, has fallen in love with a shy, beautiful peasant girl named Giselle, despite being engaged to Bathilde, the Duke of Courland's daughter. He disguises himself as a humble villager called "Loys" to court the enchanting and innocent Giselle, who knows nothing of his true identity. With the help of his squire, he hides his fine attire, hunting horn, and sword before coaxing her out of her house to romance her as the harvest festivities begin.
Hilarion, a local gamekeeper, is also in love with Giselle and is highly suspicious of the newcomer who has won her affections. He tries to convince her that her beau can't be trusted, but she ignores his warnings. Her mother, Berthe, is very protective of her, as she has a weak heart that leaves her in delicate health. She discourages a relationship between Giselle and Loys, thinking Hilarion would be a better match, and disapproves of her fondness for dancing, due to the strain on her heart.
A party of noblemen seeking refreshment following the rigors of the hunt arrive in the village with Bathilde among them. Albrecht hurries away, knowing he would be recognized and greeted by her, exposing him as a nobleman. The villagers welcome the party, offer them drinks, and perform several dances. Bathilde is charmed with Giselle's sweet and demure nature, not knowing of her relationship with Albrecht. Giselle is honored when Bathilde offers her a necklace as a gift before the group of nobles depart.
The villagers continue the harvest festivities, and Albrecht emerges again to dance with Giselle, who is named the Harvest Queen. Hilarion interrupts the festivities. He has discovered Albrecht's finely made sword and presents it as proof that he is really a nobleman who is engaged to another woman. Using Albrecht's hunting horn, Hilarion calls back the party of noblemen. Albrecht has no time to hide and has no choice but to greet Bathilde as his fiancée. All are shocked by the revelation, but none more than Giselle, who becomes inconsolable when faced with his deception. Knowing that they can never be together, she flies into a mad fit of grief in which all the tender moments she shared with Loys flash before her eyes. She begins to dance wildly and erratically, ultimately causing her weak heart to give out. She collapses and dies in Albrecht's arms. Hilarion and Albrecht turn on each other in rage before Albrecht flees the scene in misery. The curtain closes as Berthe weeps over her Giselle's body.
In the original version, taken up again recently by a production of the ROB, Giselle stabs herself with Albrecht's sword, which explains why her body is laid to rest in the forest, in unhallowed ground, where the Wilis have the power to summon her. Most modern versions are sanitized and have edited out the suicide.
### Act II
Late at night, Hilarion mourns at Giselle's forest grave, but is frightened away by the arrival of the Wilis, the ghostly spirits of maidens betrayed by their lovers. Many were abandoned on their wedding days, and all died of broken hearts. They, led by their merciless queen, Myrtha, dance and haunt the forest at night to exact their revenge on any man they encounter, regardless of who he may be, forcing their victims to dance until they die of exhaustion.
Myrtha and the Wilis rouse Giselle's spirit from her grave and induct her into their clan before disappearing into the forest. Albrecht arrives to lay flowers on Giselle's grave and he weeps with guilt over her death. Her spirit appears and he begs her forgiveness. She, her love undiminished unlike her vengeful sisters, gently forgives him. She disappears to join the rest of the Wilis and Albrecht desperately follows her.
Meanwhile, the Wilis have cornered a terrified Hilarion. They use their magic to force him to dance until he is nearly dead, and then drown him in a nearby lake. Then they spy Albrecht, and turn on him, sentencing him to death as well. He pleads to Myrtha for his life, but she coldly refuses. Giselle's pleas are also dismissed and he is forced to dance until sunrise. However, the power of Giselle's love counters the Wilis' magic and spares his life. The other spirits return to their graves at daybreak, but Giselle has broken through the chains of hatred and vengeance that control the Wilis, and is thus released from their powers and will haunt the forest no more. After bidding a tender farewell to Albrecht, she returns to her grave to rest in peace.
## Background
The French Revolution (1789–1799) brought sweeping changes to theatre in France. Banished were the ballets the aristocracy preferred about the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus. Instead, ballets about everyday people, real places, real time, the historical past, and the supernatural took prominence. These sorts of ballets were preferred by the burgeoning middle class.
Two ballets caused great excitement in Paris in the 1830s. In November 1831, Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable had its first performance. It featured a short ballet called Ballet of the Nuns. In this little ballet, nuns rise from their graves to dance in the moonlight. The public loved this little supernatural ballet.
In March 1832, the ballet La Sylphide debuted in Paris. This ballet is about a beautiful sylph who loves James, a young Scotsman. Tragedy occurs. After dallying in the woods, the sylph dies when her earthly lover uses a bewitched scarf to trap her. This ballet brought Marie Taglioni before the French public. She was the first to dance en pointe for artistic reasons rather than spectacle and was also the first to wear the white, bell-shaped, calf-length ballet skirt now considered an essential feature of the romantic ballet. Poet and critic Théophile Gautier attended the first performance of La Sylphide. His ideas for Giselle would show touches of La Sylphide ten years later. It would be set in a real place and in the past, for example, and would be about everyday people and supernatural women.
## Development
In an 1841 news article announcing the first performance of Giselle, Théophile Gautier recorded his part in the creation of the ballet. He had read Heinrich Heine's description of the Wilis in De l'Allemagne and thought these evil spirits would make a "pretty ballet". He planned their story for Act II and settled upon a verse by Victor Hugo called "Fantômes" to provide the inspiration for Act I. This verse is about a beautiful 15-year-old Spanish girl who loves to dance. She becomes too warm at a ball and dies of a chill in the cool morning.
Heine's prose passage in De l'Allemagne tells of supernatural young women called the Wilis. They have died before their wedding day and rise from their graves in the middle of the night to dance. Any young man who crosses their path is forced to dance to his death. In another book, the Wilis are said to be jilted young women who have died and become vampires. This is assumed to be the reason that they hate men.
Gautier thought Heine's Wilis and Hugo's fifteen-year-old Spanish girl would make a good ballet story. His first idea was to present an empty ballroom glittering with crystal and candlelight. The Wilis would cast a spell over the floor. Giselle and other dancers would enter and whirl through the room, unable to resist the spell to keep them dancing. Giselle would try to keep her lover from partnering other girls. The Queen of the Wilis would enter, lay her cold hand on Giselle's heart and the girl would drop dead.
Gautier was not satisfied with this story. It was basically a succession of dances with one moment of drama at its end. He had no experience writing ballet scenarios so he called upon Vernoy de St. Georges, a man who had written many ballet librettos. St. Georges liked Gautier's basic idea of the frail young girl and the Wilis. He wrote the story of Giselle as it is known today in three days, and sent it to Léon Pillet, the director of the Paris Opéra. Pillet needed a good story to introduce Grisi to the Paris public. He found that story in Giselle. Grisi liked it as much as Pillet did, so Giselle was put into production at once.
## First performance
The balletomanes of Paris became very excited as the opening night of Giselle approached. News reports kept their interest alive. Some reports said that Grisi had had an accident whilst other reports indicated that the conductor was ill with a tumor. Still others said that the stage hands feared for their safety.
Hopes that the ballet would be ready in May were dashed and the opening night was postponed several times. Grisi was absent for a few days and her return was delayed to protect her health. Lighting, trapdoors, and scene changes needed further rehearsals. Cuts were made in Grisi's role to spare the dancer's health. Instead of returning to her tomb at the end of the ballet, it was decided that she would be placed on a bed of flowers and sink slowly into the earth. This touch preserved the romantic mood of the Act II finale.
At last, on Monday, 28 June 1841 the curtain rose on Giselle at the Salle Le Peletier. Grisi danced Giselle with Lucien Petipa as her lover Albrecht, Jean Coralli as the gamekeeper Hilarion, and Adèle Dumilâtre as Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis. Typical of the theatrical practices of the time, Giselle was preceded by an excerpt from another production—in this case, the third act of Rossini's opera, Mosè in Egitto. In 1844 Marie Guy-Stéphan made her first appearance in the title role for the first production of Giselle in Spain. She performed in numerous works by Pepita.
In spite of the chief machinist shouting orders to his crew that could be heard by the audience, Giselle was a great success. Grisi was a sensation. Ballet-goers regarded her as another Marie Taglioni, the greatest ballerina of the period.
## Contemporary reviews and comments
Giselle was a great artistic and commercial success. Le Constitutionnel praised Act II for its "poetic effects". Moniteur des théâtres wrote that Grisi "runs [and] flies across the stage like a gazelle in love". One critic made a detailed analysis of the music in La France Musicale. He thought the Act I waltz "ravishing" and noted that the scene of Berthe's narrative was filled with "quite new" harmonic modulations. He praised other moments in Act I (especially the mad scene), and was in raptures with the music of Act II, singling out the entrance of the Wilis and the viola solo played through Giselle's last moments. He thought the flute and harp music accompanying Giselle as she disappeared into her grave at ballet's end "full of tragic beauty."
Coralli was praised for the Act I peasant pas de deux and for the "elegance" of Act II. Coralli followed a suggestion made by Gautier and picked the most beautiful girls in the company to play the peasants and the Wilis. One observer thought the selection process cruel: the almost-beautiful girls were turned away without a second thought.
Grisi and Petipa were great successes as the tragic lovers. Gautier praised their performance in Act II, writing that the two dancers made the act "a real poem, a choreographic elegy full of charm and tenderness ... More than one eye that thought it was seeing only [dance] was surprised to find its vision obscured by a tear—something that does not often happen in a ballet ... Grisi danced with a perfection ... that places her in the ranks between Elssler and Taglioni ... Her miming surpassed every expectation ... She is nature and artlessness personified."
Adam thought Petipa "charming" as both dancer and actor, and that he had "rehabilitated" male dancing with his performance. Of Dumilâtre he wrote, "... in spite of her coldness, [Dumilâtre] deserved the success she achieved by the correctness and the 'mythological' quality of her poses: perhaps this word may seem a little pretentious, but I can think of no other to express such cold and noble dancing as would suit Minerva in a merry mood, and in this respect [Dumilâtre] seems to bear a strong resemblance to that goddess."
Giselle made 6,500 francs between June and September 1841. This was twice the amount for the same time period in 1839. Grisi's salary was increased to make her the top earner among the dancers at the Opéra. Souvenirs were sold, pictures of Grisi as Giselle were printed, and sheet music arrangements were made for social dancing. The sculptor Emile Thomas made a statuette of Giselle in her Act II costume. A silk cloth was manufactured called façonné Giselle, and Madame Lainné, a milliner, sold an artificial flower called 'Giselle'. The ballet was parodied at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in October 1841.
## Music
Adolphe Adam was a popular writer of ballet and opera music in early 19th-century France. He wrote with great speed and completed Giselle in about two months. The music was written in the smooth, song-like style of the day called cantilena. This style is well known to music lovers from Bellini's opera Norma and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.
Adam used several leitmotifs in the ballet. This is a short musical phrase that is associated with a certain character, event, or idea. Adam's leitmotifs are heard several times throughout the ballet. There is a leitmotif associated with Giselle and another with Albrecht. Hilarion's motif marks his every entrance. It suggests the Fate theme in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
Another leitmotif is associated with the "he loves me, he loves me not" flower test in Act I, which is heard again in the mad scene, and in Act II when Giselle offers flowers to Albrecht. The Wilis have their own motif. It is heard in the overture, in Act I when Berthe tells the story of the Wilis, and in the mad scene. It is heard again in Act II when the Wilis make their first entrance. The hunting horn motif marks sudden surprises. This motif is heard when Albrecht is exposed as a nobleman.
The music was completely original. A critic noted, however, that Adam had borrowed eight bars from a romance by a Miss Puget and three bars from the huntsman's chorus in Carl Maria von Weber's opera Euryanthe.
One dance historian wrote:
> By no stretch of the imagination can the score of Giselle be called great music, but it cannot be denied that it is admirably suited to its purpose. It is danceable, and it has colour and mood attuned to the various dramatic situations ... As we listen today to these haunting melodies composed over a century ago, we quickly become conscious of their intense nostalgic quality, not unlike the opening of a Victorian Keepsake, between whose pages lies an admirably preserved Valentine—in all the glory of its intricate paper lace and symbolic floral designs—which whispers of a leisured age now forever past. For a brief space the air seems faintly perfumed with parma violet and gardenia. The music of Giselle still exerts its magic.
### Additions to the score
Adam's score for Giselle acquired several additional numbers over the course of its history, with some of these pieces becoming an integral part of the ballet's performance tradition.
Immediately following the first répétition générale of Giselle on the stage of the Paris Opéra, the danseuse Nathalie Fitz-James used her influence as the mistress of an influential patron of the theatre to have a pas inserted for herself into the ballet. Jean Coralli was required to quickly arrange a number for Fitz-James, which was arranged by Coralli as a pas de deux with the danseur Auguste Mabille serving as Fitz-James's partner. Coralli's original intentions were to have the ballet's composer Adolphe Adam supply the music for Fitz-James's pas, but by this time Adam was unavailable. In light of this, Coralli chose a suite by the composer Friedrich Burgmüller's titled Souvenirs de Ratisbonne to fashion music for Fitz-James's required pas. This pas de deux, which was dubbed the Pas des paysans (or Peasant pas de deux), became part of the ballet's performance tradition.
For Carlotta Grisi's performances as Giselle with the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Perrot commissioned the composer Cesare Pugni to score a new pas de cinq for the ballerina that was added to the first tableau. This pas was only retained for Grisi's performances and never performed again after her departure from St. Petersburg. Marius Petipa would also commission an additional piece for the first tableau of the ballet. This was a pas de deux from the composer Ludwig Minkus that was added to the choreographer's 1884 revival for the ballerina Maria Gorshenkova. As with Pugni's 1850 pas de cinq for Grisi, Gorshenkova's 1884 pas de deux by Minkus never became part of the performance tradition of Giselle.
Three solo variations were added to the ballet by Petipa during the latter half of the 19th century. The first was arranged in 1867 for the grand pas de deux of the second tableau for the ballerina Adèle Grantzow. The music was composed by Cesare Pugni and was based on Adolphe Adam's "he loves me, he loves me not" leitmotif. This variation has been retained in the ballet ever since.
The second variation was added by Petipa to the first tableau for the ballerina Emma Bessone's début as Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1886, and on this occasion the composer Riccardo Drigo wrote the music for the variation. The music was never used again after Bessone's departure from Russia until Agrippina Vaganova added it to the Peasant pas de deux for the Kirov Ballet's production of Giselle in 1932. The inclusion of this variation in the Peasant pas de deux remains part of the Mariinsky Theatre's performance tradition of Giselle to the present day.
The third variation added by Petipa was also composed by Drigo and has survived as one of the most beloved passages of Giselle. This variation, sometimes dubbed as the Pas seul, was arranged in 1887 for the ballerina Elena Cornalba's performance in a revival of Saint-Léon's Fiametta. Cornalba then included it for her début in Giselle in December of that year, where it has remained ever since. The variation was also danced by Cornalba's successors in the role of Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre. Cornalba's variation was first performed outside of Russia by Olga Spessivtzeva in 1924 at the Paris Opéra, and from then on all productions staged outside of Russia included the variation. There was much confusion at that time as to who was responsible for composing the music, leading many ballet historians and musicologists to credit Ludwig Minkus as the author, a misconception which still persists.
## Choreography
Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot choreographed the original version of Giselle. Perrot and Carlotta Grisi were lovers and, consequently, Perrot designed all of her dances and pantomime. Everyone in the Paris dance world knew that Perrot had created Grisi's dances and Coralli admitted it, but Perrot was given no official credit in the printed materials such as posters and programs. This was most likely done to prevent Perrot from collecting royalties on the ballet. Perrot liked bold touches and planned several rapid aerial swoops on wires in Act II for Giselle. Grisi was afraid of these swoops, therefore a stage hand was brought in to test them. He crashed face-first into the scenery and the swoops were dropped.
Cyril Beaumont writes that Giselle is made up of two elements: dance and mime. Act I features short mimed scenes, he points out, and episodes of dancing which are fused with mime. In Act II, mime has become fused entirely with dance. He indicates that the choreographic vocabulary is composed of a small number of simple steps:
- Movements: développé, grand rond de jambe
- Poses: arabesque, attitude
- Gliding steps: chasse, glissade, pas de basque, pas de bourrée
- Hopping steps: balloné, temps levé
- Turning steps: pirouette, petit tour, tour en l'air
- Leaping steps: (vertical) ballotte, entrechat, sisonne, rond de jambe en l'air sauté, (horizontal) cabriole, jeté, grande jeté, soubresaut
Beaumont speculates that the simple steps were deliberately planned to allow the "utmost expressiveness."
Parts of Giselle have been cut or changed since the ballet's first night. Giselle's Act I pantomime scene in which she tells Albrecht of her strange dream is cut and the peasant pas de deux is also slightly cut back. The Duke of Courland and his daughter Bathilde used to make their entrance on horseback, but today they walk on. In the original production they were present at Giselle's death, but now they leave the scene before she dies. The machines used to make Giselle fly and to make her disappear are no longer employed. A trapdoor is sometimes utilized to make Giselle rise from her grave and then sink into it at the end of Act II. At the end of Act II Bathilde formerly entered with the courtiers to search for Albrecht. He took a few unsteady steps toward them and then collapsed into their arms. This moment was an artistic parallel to the Act I finale when the peasants gathered about the dead Giselle. Now, Bathilde and the courtiers are cut and Albrecht slowly leaves the stage alone.
## Ethnic elements
Ethnic music, dance, and costume were a large part of romantic ballet. At the time Giselle was written, people thought of Germany when they heard a waltz because the waltz is of German origin. Giselle makes her first entrance to the music of a waltz, and the audience would have known at once that the ballet was set in Germany. Adam wrote three waltzes for Giselle: two for Giselle and one for the Wilis. He said that the "Giselle Waltz" in Act I has "all the German color indicated by the locality" and people agreed. One critic wrote: "A lovely waltz ... in the Germanic spirit of the subject".
At first, Gautier thought that some of the dancers in the waltz for the Wilis should dress in ethnic costume and dance ethnic steps. Adam put bits of French, Spanish, German, and Indian-sounding music in the waltz for this purpose. Gautier's "ethnic" idea was dropped as the ballet developed and it has not been picked up by modern producers. Today, Act II is a ballet blanc (a "white" ballet in which all the ballerinas and the corps de ballet are dressed in full, white, bell-shaped skirts and the dances have a geometric design).
## Sets and costumes
The historical period for Giselle is not indicated in the story. Paul Lormier, the chief costume designer at the Paris Opéra, probably consulted Gautier on this matter. It is also possible that Pillet had the ballet's budget in mind and decided to use the many Renaissance-style costumes in the Opéra's wardrobe for Giselle. These costumes were said to have been those from Rossini's William Tell (1829) and Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini (1838). Lormier certainly designed the costumes for the principal characters. His costumes were in use at the Opéra until the ballet was dropped from the repertoire in 1853.
Giselle was revived in 1863 with new costumes by Lormier's assistant, Alfred Albert. Albert's costumes are closer to those of modern productions than those of Lormier, and were in use at the opera until 1868. The ballet was revived again in 1924 with scenery and costumes by Alexandre Benois. He wanted to revive the costumes of the original production but dropped the idea, believing the critics would charge him with a lack of imaginative creativity.
### Sets
Pierre Luc Charles Ciceri was the chief set designer at the Paris Opéra from 1815 to 1847. He designed the sets for the first production of Giselle. Gautier was not specific about the ballet's locale, but placed it in "some mysterious corner of Germany ... on the other side of the Rhine".
Giselle was two months in rehearsal, which was a very long rehearsal time for the period. Even so, Ciceri did not have enough time to design sets for both acts and focused on the second act. The sets for the first act were actually those designed for the 1838 ballet, La Fille du Danube by Adam. An illustration from Les Beautés de l'Opera of 1845 shows Giselle's cottage with a roof of straw on the left and Albrecht's cottage on the right. The two cottages are framed by the branches of two large trees on either sides of the stage. Between the two cottages, in the distance, appears a castle and slopes covered with vineyards. Although this scene was not designed for Giselle, it has remained the model for most modern productions. Ciceri's set was in use until the ballet was dropped from the repertoire in 1853. At that time, Gautier noticed that the sets were falling apart: "Giselle's cottage has barely three or four straws on its roof."
The Act II illustration from Les Beautés shows a dark wood with a pool of water in the distance. The branches of aged trees create a tree tunnel. Beneath these branches on the left is a marble cross with 'Giselle' carved on it. From one of its arms hangs the crown of grape leaves Giselle wore as Queen of the Vintage. On the stage, thick weeds and wildflowers (200 bulrushes and 120 branches of flowers) were the undergrowth. The gas jets of the footlights and those overhead suspended in the flies were turned low to create a mood of mystery and terror.
A circular hole was cut into the backdrop and covered with a transparent material. A strong light behind this hole represented the moon. The light was occasionally manipulated to suggest the passage of clouds. Gautier and St. Georges wanted the pool to be made of large mirrors but Pillet rejected this idea because of its cost. In the 1868 revival, however, mirrors were acquired for this scene.
Adam thought Ciceri's backdrop for Act I was "not so good ... it is all weak and pale" but he liked the set for Act II: "[Ciceri's] second act is a delight, a dark humid forest filled with bulrushes and wild flowers, and ending with a sunrise, seen at first through the trees at the end of the piece, and very magical in its effect." The sunrise also delighted the critics.
## Early productions
Giselle was performed in Paris from its debut in 1841 to 1849, with Grisi always dancing the title role. In 1849, it was dropped from the repertoire. The ballet was revived in 1852 and 1853, without Grisi, then dropped from the repertoire after 1853. It was revived in 1863 for a Russian ballerina, then dropped again in 1868. It was revived almost 50 years later in 1924 for the debut of Olga Spessivtzeva. This production was revived in 1932 and 1938.
Giselle was mounted by other ballet companies in Europe and America almost immediately after its first night. The British had their first taste of Giselle with a drama based on the ballet called Giselle, or The Phantom Night Dancers by William Moncrieff, who had seen the ballet in Paris the same year. The play was performed on 23 August 1841 at the Theatre Royal, Sadler's Wells. The actual ballet was first staged in London at Her Majesty's Theatre on 12 March 1842 with Grisi as Giselle and Perrot as Albrecht. The dances were credited to Perrot and one Deshayes. This production was revived many times, once in 1884 with a Mlle. Sismondi in the role of Albrecht. This production, preceded by an operetta called Pocahontas, met with little enthusiasm.
Giselle was first performed in Russia at the Bolshoi Theatre, St. Petersburg, on 18 December 1842. Stepan Gedeonov, the Director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, sent his ballet master Antoine Titus to Paris to find a new ballet for ballerina Yelena Andreyanova. Titus chose Giselle. The Ballet Master then staged the work completely from memory in St. Petersburg. Perrot produced Giselle in St. Petersburg in 1851. He made many changes to the ballet in his years of service to the Imperial Ballet. In the 1880s, Petipa made many changes to the Perrot production.
Giselle was first staged in Italy at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 17 January 1843. The music however was not Adam's but that of Niccolò Bajetti. The dances were not the original either but those of Antonio Cortesi. It is possible that the ballet was first staged in the provincial theatres. This, however, is not known with certainty.
In 1844, American ballerina Mary Ann Lee arrived in Paris to study with Coralli for a year. She returned to the United States in 1841 with the directions for Giselle and other ballets. Lee was the first to present Giselle in the United States. She did this on 1 January 1846 in Boston at the Howard Athenæum. George Washington Smith played Albrecht. Lee danced Giselle (again with Smith) on 13 April 1846 at the Park Theatre in New York City.
In January 1911 Nijinsky danced in Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg for the Imperial Ballet, with the Tsarina Maria Feodorovna in attendance. His costume, which had been designed by Alexandre Benois and used in Paris before, caused a scandal, as he danced in tights without the then-common trousers. He refused to apologize and was dismissed from the Imperial Ballet.
The ballet was staged by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes later in 1911 at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, with Tamara Karsavina and Nijinsky as Giselle and Albrecht. Anna Pavlova danced Giselle with her own company in 1913. Alicia Markova danced the role with the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1934, and Margot Fonteyn took the role in 1937 when Markova left the company. The English loved Giselle. In 1942, for example, three different companies were dancing the ballet in London.
In a departure from the traditional Giselle, Frederic Franklin restaged the ballet in 1984 as Creole Giselle for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. This adaptation set the ballet among the Creoles and African Americans in 1840s Louisiana.
A 2012 novel by author Guy Mankowski entitled Letters from Yelena follows the journey of a principal dancer as she performs the role of Giselle in Saint Petersburg.
The 2019 South Korean TV series Angel's Last Mission: Love features a blind ballerina who is to play the title role of Giselle in a production staged by the Fantasia Ballet Company.
## General and cited references
- - See also |
43,735,775 | Brian Hill (swimmer) | 1,159,026,247 | Canadian Paralympic swimmer | [
"1982 births",
"Canadian male backstroke swimmers",
"Canadian male butterfly swimmers",
"Canadian male freestyle swimmers",
"Canadian male medley swimmers",
"Commonwealth Games competitors for Canada",
"Living people",
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"Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics",
"Medalists at the World Para Swimming Championships",
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"Paralympic medalists in swimming",
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"Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Paralympics",
"Swimmers at the 2006 Commonwealth Games",
"Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Paralympics",
"Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Paralympics",
"World record holders in paralympic swimming"
]
| Brian David Hill (born 29 December 1982) is a S13 Canadian para-swimmer who has competed in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 Summer Paralympics and the 2007 Parapan American Games. He had won five gold medals, three silver medals and 3 bronze medals in his international career. Hill started swimming as a child and competitive swimming at the age of nine. He has won the British Columbia Blind Sports Award and Athlete of the Year Award.
## Personal life
Hill was born on 29 December 1982 in Duncan, British Columbia with a genetic retinal disorder which results in only ten percent vision. Since the 2004 Summer Paralympics, he has resided in Montreal, Quebec. During his childhood, Hill's parents dug a 17-metre pool for him to swim in. "It was the first sport where I was able to train and compete with other kids at an equal level," he says. He started competitive swimming at the age of nine. Hill's girlfriend Karine Thomas is a member in Canada's Olympic synchronized swimming team. After he retires, he wants to have a culinary career.
## Career
At the age of 17, Hill participated in six events at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Australia. He won silver in the men's 100 metre butterfly in 1:02.79, finished fourth in the 100 metre backstroke in 1:10.39, sixth in the 50 metre freestyle in 27.11, eighth in the 100 metre freestyle in 59.23, eighth in the 400 metre freestyle in 4:54.96 and tenth in the 200 metre individual medley in 2:35.39. Looking back in 2008 on his results, Brian said, "Sydney Games were special because it was my first Paralympic Games and everything. The atmosphere, crowds and facilities were amazing."
At the 2004 Summer Paralympics, Hill won bronze in the 100 metre backstroke in 1:06.97, bronze in the 400 metre freestyle in 4:39.52, finished equal fourth in the 100 metre butterfly in 1:03.90, fifth in the 100 metre freestyle in 59.32, fifth in the 200 metre individual medley in 2:31.07 and 14th in the 50 metre freestyle in 28.09. About the 2004 Paralympics in Greece, Brian said in 2008 that he "was really able to feel the history of the Olympics".
At the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Hill finished ninth in the 50 metre EAD freestyle in 26.68 and ninth in the 100 metre EAD freestyle in 59.58.
Hill won five medals at the 2007 Parapan American Games including three golds and two silvers. He won gold in 100 metre butterfly where he got a time of 1:00.52. He had tied the world record time with Canadian para-swimmer Walter Wu. He had also won another two golds and two silvers. He says "I'm pretty happy with the result overall. Technically it was very good."
Before going to Beijing for his third Paralympic Games, Hill's preparation involved swimming about 120 kilometres in two weeks. Hill said, "I completed about eight to nine workouts a week and spent around 18 to 20 hours per week in the pool,".
At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, Hill finished fifth in the 100 metre backstroke in 1:05.52, 12th in the 100 metre butterfly in 1:03.25, 15th in the 100 metre freestyle in 59.80 and 17th in the 50 metre freestyle in 26.84.
At the 2009 IPC Swimming World Championships 25 m in Rio, Hill won gold in the 100 metre backstroke in a new record time of 59.30, gold in the 100 metre butterfly in a new record time of 57.04 and bronze in the 100 metre freestyle in 54.66. At the 2010 IPC Swimming World Championships, Hill finished fifth in the 100 metre backstroke in 1:04.65.
At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Hill finished seventh in the 100 metre backstroke in 1:04.97 and equal eighth in the heats 100 metre butterfly with Australia's Sean Russo in 1:01.61. In the swim-off, Russo defeated Hill with each posting times of 1:01.24 and 1:02.72 respectively.
## Achievements
In 2002, Hill won the Sport British Columbia Athlete of the Year award in the athletes with a disability category. He won again in the next year. In 2003, Hill was awarded the Blind Sports award from the British Columbia Blind Sports and Recreation Association (BCBSRA). |
241,852 | George Grossmith | 1,170,912,890 | English actor, singer, composer and writer (1847–1912) | [
"1847 births",
"1912 deaths",
"19th-century British male singers",
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"English male novelists",
"English male stage actors",
"Male actors from London",
"People from Islington (district)",
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]
| George Grossmith (9 December 1847 – 1 March 1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades. As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, three books and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines.
Grossmith created a series of nine characters in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from 1877 to 1889, including Sir Joseph Porter, in H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), the Major-General in The Pirates of Penzance (1880) and Ko-Ko in The Mikado (1885–87). He also wrote, in collaboration with his brother Weedon, the 1892 comic novel The Diary of a Nobody.
Grossmith was also famous in his day for performing his own comic piano sketches and songs, both before and after his Gilbert and Sullivan days, becoming the most popular British solo performer of the 1890s. Some of his comic songs endure today, including "See Me Dance the Polka". He continued to perform into the first decade of the 20th century. His son, George Grossmith Jr., became an actor, playwright and producer of Edwardian musical comedies; another son, Lawrence, was an actor.
## Life and career
### Early life
George Grossmith was born in Islington, London, and grew up in St. Pancras and Hampstead, London. His father, also named George (1820–1880), was the chief reporter for The Times and other newspapers at the Bow Street Magistrates' Court and was also a lecturer and entertainer. His mother was Louisa Emmeline Grossmith née Weedon (d. 1882). Over the years, Grossmith's father spent less of his time at Bow Street and more of it touring as a performer. As a young man, Grossmith was usually credited as "Jnr" to distinguish him from his father, especially when they performed together, but for most of his career, he was credited simply as "George Grossmith". Later, his actor-playwright-theatre manager son was credited as George Grossmith "Jr" rather than "III"; some sources confuse the two men.
Grossmith had a younger sister, Emily, and younger brother, Weedon. In 1855, he went to boarding school at Massingham House on Haverstock Hill in the district of Hampstead. There he studied the piano and began to amuse his friends and teachers with shadow pantomimes, and later by playing the piano by ear. His family moved to Haverstock Hill when young Grossmith was 10, and he became a day student. At the age of 12, he transferred to the North London Collegiate School in Camden Town. He was back in St. Pancras by age 13. He was an avid amateur photographer and painter as a teenager, but it was his brother Weedon who went to art school. The Grossmith family had many friends engaged in the arts, including J. L. Toole, Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, H. J. Byron, Tom Hood, T. W. Robertson, and John Hollingshead (later, the manager of the Gaiety Theatre, London).
Grossmith had hoped to become a barrister. Instead, he worked for many years, beginning in the 1860s, training and then substituting for his father as the Bow Street reporter for The Times, among other publications, when his father was on his lecture tours. Among the cases on which he reported was the Clerkenwell bombing by the Fenians in 1867. At the same time as he began reporting, he began to write humorous articles for periodicals and to participate in amateur theatrical performances. He also joined his father in his entertainments, lectures, and imitations, and began to add music to the entertainments, which his father had not done.
### Early performing career
Young Grossmith received some recognition for amateur songs and sketches at private parties and, beginning in 1864, at penny readings. He also participated in a small number of theatricals as an amateur, including playing John Chodd Jr. in Robertson's play, Society, at the Gallery of Illustration, in 1868. The after-piece was a burlesque, written by Grossmith's father, on the Dickens play No Thoroughfare. He then played the title role in Paul Pry, a comedy by Poole, also at the Gallery of Illustration, in 1870. But he and his father felt that his talents lay in "sketch" comedy rather than theatre. The younger Grossmith admired the comic pianist and entertainer John Orlando Parry, who created and performed in many of the German Reed Entertainments, and he tried to emulate Parry in developing his own sketches, consisting of humorous anecdotes, mildly satirical comment, ad lib chat, and comic songs centred on the piano.
Grossmith took to the professional stage in 1870 with a sketch called Human Oddities, written by his father, and a song called "The Gay Photographer" (that is, the "carefree" photographer). The song, with words by Grossmith's father and music by young Grossmith, concerns a photographer who broke the heart of a young lady named Miss Jenkins; so she drank his chemicals and died. In late 1870, the younger Grossmith appeared on his own with a nightly spot at the "old Polytechnic" in Regent Street, where comic sketches alternated with scientific and serious lectures for the entertainment of the public. Human Oddities and another sketch, The Yellow Dwarf, were successful for Grossmith, and he took the former work on tour for six months. An 1871 Grossmith sketch was called He was a Careful Man. Biographer Tony Joseph notes that, except for a few early pieces, nearly all of Grossmith's material was written and composed by Grossmith himself. Joseph describes the sketches as "a light-hearted sending up of various aspects of contemporary life and manners. ...he was the complete performer... as a pianist (he performed for the most part sitting at a piano)... as a raconteur... as a mimic, facial expression, timing—he had it all. A short, dapper figure, he turned his lack of inches to positive advantage, and audiences took to him everywhere."
Grossmith toured in the summer of 1871 with Mr and Mrs Howard Paul and occasionally afterwards. He and Mrs Paul would also appear together in The Sorcerer in 1877. Also in 1871, at the Polytechnic, he performed three more sketches, The Puddleton Penny Readings, Theatricals at Thespis Lodge and The Silver Wedding (including what would be one of his most popular songs, "I am so Volatile", with words by his father). On 14 February 1872, Grossmith gave a sketch parody of a penny reading at the Gaiety Theatre, London, since on Ash Wednesday, theatres refrained from presenting costumed performances out of respect for the holiday. At the time, coincidentally, the Gaiety was presenting Thespis, Gilbert and Sullivan's first collaboration. Throughout these years, Grossmith continued working at Bow Street during the day. In 1873, Grossmith married Emmeline Rosa Noyce (1849–1905), the daughter of a neighbourhood physician, whom he had met years earlier at a children's party. The couple had four children: George, an actor, playwright and theatre manager; Sylvia (1875–1932; married Stuart James Bevan in 1900); Lawrence, an actor, primarily in America; and Cordelia Rosa (1879–1943). The family lived initially in Marylebone before moving, about 1885, to Dorset Square nearby.
In 1873, Grossmith and his father began joint tours of humorous recitations and comic sketches at literary institutes and public halls, to church groups and to branches of the YMCA all over England and even in Scotland and Wales. Young Grossmith's sketches at this time included The Puddleton Penny Readings, Our Choral Society and In the Stalls. They toured almost constantly for the following three years, but they returned to see their families in London on weekends. Around this time, he met and became firm friends with Fred Sullivan, and afterwards, he met Sullivan's brother Arthur. Through Arthur Cecil, Sullivan, and some of their friends, Grossmith began to be invited to entertain at private "society" parties, which he continued to do throughout his career. Later, these parties would often occur late in the evening after Grossmith performed at the Savoy Theatre. In 1876, he collaborated with Florence Marryat, the author and reciter, on Entre Nous. This piece consisted of a series of piano sketches, alternating with scenes and costumed recitations, including a two-person "satirical musical sketch", really a short comic opera, called Cups and Saucers, which they then toured. Grossmith also took a number of engagements, including recitals at private homes. In 1877, Lionel Brough introduced another popular Grossmith song, "The Muddle Puddle Junction Porter". By then, Grossmith had become friendly with many in the music and theatre establishments, including Arthur Sullivan and impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte; and Grossmith had the opportunity to perform in Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury and other Sullivan works at charity benefits.
After entertaining professionally in sketch comedy for seven years, however, Grossmith discovered that his income decreased each year as his family and household expenses increased. He also disliked travelling. Accordingly, he was pleased when, despite his relative inexperience in legitimate theatre, he received a letter from Arthur Sullivan in November 1877 inviting him to take a part in his new piece with W. S. Gilbert: The Sorcerer.
### D'Oyly Carte years
Grossmith had appeared in charity performances of Trial by Jury, where both Sullivan and Gilbert had seen him (indeed, Gilbert had directed one such performance, in which Grossmith played the judge), and Gilbert had earlier commented favourably on his performance in Tom Robertson's Society at the Gallery of Illustration. Sullivan mentioned to Arthur Cecil, the leading tenor from the Gallery of Illustration, that he was looking for someone to play the comic title role in his new comic opera, The Sorcerer. Cecil reminded Sullivan about Grossmith, and Sullivan seized on the idea. After singing for Sullivan, upon meeting Gilbert, Grossmith wondered aloud if the role should be played by "a fine man with a fine voice". Gilbert replied, "That is exactly what we don't want." Although Grossmith had reservations about cancelling his touring engagements and going into the "wicked" professional theatre (a move that might lose him church and other engagements in the future), and Richard D'Oyly Carte's backers objected to casting a sketch comedian in the central role of a comic opera, Grossmith was hired.
Grossmith was a hit as the tradesmanlike John Wellington Wells, the title role in The Sorcerer, and became a regular member of Richard D'Oyly Carte's company. He created all nine of the lead comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas in London from 1877 to 1889, including the pompous First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Joseph Porter, in H.M.S. Pinafore (1878); Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, who is an expert at everything except "military knowledge" (1880); the aesthetic poet, Reginald Bunthorne in Patience (1881); the love-lonely Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe (1882); the sarcastic cripple, King Gama, in Princess Ida (1884); Ko-Ko the cheap tailor, elevated to the post of Lord High Executioner, in The Mikado (1885); the accursed Robin Oakapple in Ruddigore (1887); and the pathetic jester, Jack Point, in The Yeomen of the Guard (1888). On 29 January 1887, one week after the opening night of Ruddigore, Grossmith fell dangerously ill.[^1] However, by 13 February, his physicians pronounced him convalescent, and he resumed the role of Robin by 18 February. During Grossmith's absence, his understudy Henry Lytton, who would later become the principal comedian of the company, had the opportunity to perform the role in Grossmith's place.
Years later, Grossmith's obituary in The Times noted the comedian's "nimbleness, his diverting tricks, his still more diverting dignity—the dignity of a man of few inches high or round—and his incomparable power of rapid speech and singing." The Daily Telegraph wrote of his Jack Point: "Whether giving expression to poor Jack’s professional wit, or hiding a sorry heart behind light words... Mr Grossmith was master of the part he assumed." In 1883, The Times, reviewing a matinee performance of Iolanthe, wrote: "Mr. Grossmith's impersonation of the Lord Chancellor has ... become an exquisitely refined satire." On the other hand, his sketch comedy background had trained Grossmith to improvise comic business. Gilbert and the actor had an exchange during rehearsals for The Mikado about an improvised moment in which Jessie Bond pushed Grossmith, as they kneeled before the Mikado, and he rolled completely over. Gilbert requested that they cut out the gag, and Grossmith replied: "but I get an enormous laugh by it". Gilbert replied "So you would if you sat on a pork-pie."
The actor, jittery on opening nights, is depicted both on and off stage in the biographical film, Topsy Turvy. Hesketh Pearson wrote in 1935 that Grossmith injected himself with drugs to calm his nerves. and in the film he is shown injecting himself on the opening night of The Mikado. In his diary, Arthur Sullivan wrote afterwards, "All went very well except Grossmith, whose nervousness nearly upset the piece". Grossmith spoke self-deprecatingly about his own vocal prowess (Sullivan and others disagreed):
Of course, I haven't any voice to speak of, but I have a great register, and Sullivan used to amuse himself by making me sing bass in one number of an opera and tenor in another. In Ruddygore, Sir Arthur had engaged a man to play the servant, my menial, so to speak, who had an enormous bass voice, and who had to go down to the lower E flat. Singularly enough, he could go down to G, and then he dropped out entirely, and I did the [low E-flat] below. Generally the audience roared with laughter, and it absolutely brought down the house.
During his time with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Grossmith's father and mother died (in 1880 and 1882, respectively). Throughout this period, Grossmith continued to perform his sketches, often late at night after performing at the Savoy, and continued to write new sketches, such as Amateur Theatricals (1878), A Juvenile Party (1879), A Musical Nightmare (1880), and A Little Yachting (1886). He also wrote the music for Arthur Law's short comic opera, Uncle Samuel (1881), the one-act curtain raiser that preceded Patience on the Opera Comique programme. His Cups and Saucers was revived and played with Pinafore and also played by the company on tour. Other comic operas by Grossmith during these years included Mr Guffin's Elopement (1882) and A Peculiar Case (1884, both with libretti by Arthur Law) and The Real Case of Hide and Seekyll (1886). Grossmith also continued to give his "society" and other entertainments, often late at night after his performance at the Savoy. He also composed the music for another comic opera, The Great Tay-Kin and another piece, both with libretti by Arthur Law, which were performed at Toole's Theatre in 1885.
Grossmith also wrote, composed, and performed in several one-man drawing room sketches, short comic operas or monologues that were given at the Opera Comique or the Savoy Theatre in place of the companion pieces when shorter matinee programmes were playing. These works included Beauties on the Beach (1878), Five Hamlets (1878), a revival of his A Silver Wedding (1879), The Drama on Crutches (1883), Homburg, or Haunted by The Mikado (1887–88), and Holiday Hall (1888). In reviewing a matinee performance of The Drama on Crutches, The Times commented, "he not only satirizes the present tendency of fashionable amateurs to join the stage, but also parodies ... the manner of Mr. Irving and other actors of the present day, including himself. The sketch created great amusement, though of course, it depends entirely for its success upon the actor's powers of mimicry." Grossmith also performed in charity events, including as Bouncer in Cox and Box in 1879 at the Opera Comique.
In addition, Grossmith's comic song written in 1886, "See Me Dance the Polka", was extremely popular. It has been used in a number of films and has been quoted or referred to in literature and music, including in the poem/song "Polka" from Façade by Edith Sitwell and William Walton. Other songs he wrote during this period include "An Awful Little Scrub" (1880), "The Speaker's Eye" (1882), "The 'Bus Conductor's Song" (1883), "How I Became an Actor" (1883), "See Me Reverse" (1884), "The Lost Key" (1885), and "The Happy Fatherland" (1887).
### Later years
Grossmith left the D'Oyly Carte company near the end of the original run of The Yeomen of the Guard on 17 August 1889 and resumed his career entertaining at the piano, which he continued to do for more than 15 years afterwards. Despite his dislike of travelling, he toured in Britain, Ireland, and, on five occasions, North America. His drawing-room sketches included his own popular songs, such as "See Me Dance the Polka", "The Happy Fatherland", "The Polka and the Choir-boy", "Thou of My Thou", "The French Verbs", "Go on Talking – Don't Mind Me", "I Don't Mind Flies". His new sketches during this period included Modern Music and Morals (1889), On Tour; or, Piano and I (1891), A Seaside Holiday (1892), Fashionable Music (1892) and Is Music a Failure? (1892). According to The Times, "His genial satire was enjoyed even by those at whom its shafts were aimed." When he toured Scotland in the autumn of 1890, Grossmith gave a command performance for Queen Victoria at Balmoral Castle. He also composed the music for a three-act comic opera with a libretto by Gilbert, Haste to the Wedding (1892). In this piece, his son George Grossmith Jr. made his stage debut. Musically more challenging than any composition he had attempted before, this work was unsuccessful. Later, however, Grossmith said that the experience of writing with Gilbert was one of the happiest of his life. In 1892–93 he toured North America (his second tour there), writing successful new sketches, "How I Discovered America" and "Baby on the Shore" (1893).
In 1892, Grossmith collaborated with his brother Weedon Grossmith to expand a series of amusing columns they had written in 1888–89 for Punch. The Diary of a Nobody was published as a novel and has never been out of print since. The book is a sharp analysis of social insecurity, and Charles Pooter of The Laurels, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway, was immediately recognised as one of the great comic characters of English literature. The work has itself been the object of dramatisation and adaptation, including three times for television: 1964, 1979 and 2007.
Grossmith had become the most popular solo entertainer of his day, and his tours earned him far more than he had earned while performing with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He also continued to compose music, including the comic opera Castle Bang (1894) and the sketches The Ibsenite Drama (1895) and Do We Enjoy Our Holidays? (1897) and songs like "The Baby on the Shore" (1893), "Johnnie at the Gaiety" (1895), "Tommy's First Love" (1897), and "The Happy Old Days at Peckham" (1903). In 1894–95, however, Gilbert enticed Grossmith to take the role of George Griffenfeld in His Excellency, with music by Frank Osmond Carr. Also in 1897, he played briefly as King Ferdinand V of Vingolia in F. C. Burnand's His Majesty at the Savoy Theatre and made two more short London stage appearances thereafter, as Scoones in Young Mr Yarde (1898) and Lambert Simnel in The Gay Pretenders (1900). An 1896 interview of Grossmith reveals him feeling his age and considering the end of his touring career, while enjoying time spent at home with his family, dogs and antique piano collection.
Grossmith suffered from depression after the death of his wife of cancer in 1905, and his health began to fail, so that he increasingly missed engagements. He was nevertheless persuaded to continue giving his entertainments, which he did on a less frequent basis, until November 1908. The following year, Grossmith retired to Folkestone, Kent, a town that he had visited for many years, where he wrote his second volume of reminiscences, Piano and I (1910).
Grossmith died at his home in Folkestone at the age of 64. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, in the London Borough of Brent. In his will, dated 26 October 1908, Grossmith left small bequests to a variety of charities and persons; 2,000 pounds, artworks and heirlooms to each of his children (except that Lawrence did not receive a cash bequest), his son George receiving also "two silver bowls presented to him by [Gilbert, Sullivan and] Carte [and] the ivory baton with which he conducted the orchestra on the occasion of his said son's first appearance on the stage" in Haste to the Wedding; and smaller bequests to his children's spouses and his nieces, nephews, grandchildren and some cousins, with the residuary estate shared equally by his children (although the residuary estate was not large).
## Writings and compositions; legacy; recordings
Grossmith wrote numerous comic pieces for the magazine Punch, including a series of ten skits in 1884 inspired by his Bow Street experiences, which he called "Very Trying". He also wrote two memoirs, A Society Clown: Reminiscences (1888) and Piano and I: Further Reminiscences (1910). In his career, Grossmith wrote 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, and three books. He also wrote both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines throughout his career, displaying a wide range of styles.
Grossmith was followed, in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic roles, by a number of other popular performers; those who played his roles at the Savoy Theatre for an extended period of time have included Henry Lytton, Martyn Green, Peter Pratt and John Reed, among others. Over forty of the songs that Grossmith wrote or performed in his one-man shows have been recorded by baritone Leon Berger (a British Gilbert & Sullivan singer and Grossmith scholar), accompanied by Selwyn Tillett (G&S scholar) on two CDs: A Society Clown: The Songs of George Grossmith and The Grossmith Legacy. The latter also contains the recorded voice of Grossmith's son, George Grossmith Jr. Both are on the Divine Art Label. No recordings of Grossmith's voice are known to exist, although wax cylinder recording technology was available during his lifetime. Cups and Saucers was recorded by Retrospect Opera in 2016, together with F. C. Burnand and Edward Solomon's Pickwick.
### Writings
- Accessed 9 March 2008
### Portrayals
Grossmith was portrayed by Martyn Green in the 1953 film The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan and by Martin Savage in the 1999 film Topsy-Turvy. Simon Butteriss portrayed Grossmith in the 2006 television documentary A Salaried Wit: Grossmith, Gilbert and Sullivan and in the five-part 2015 15 Minute Drama "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" on BBC Radio 4. Butteriss also presents a documentary about Grossmith as a bonus disc to the 2010 Sky Arts DVD set, A Motley Pair. Many of Grossmith's songs have been recorded by baritone Leon Berger.
John Reed played Grossmith in Melvyn Morrow's one-man biographical musical A Song to Sing, O'' at the Savoy Theatre in 1981. The same role was later played in Australia by Anthony Warlow in 1987, Dennis Olsen in 1991 and by Butteriss at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton in 2003.
[^1]: Sources vary on what the illness was. Lytton wrote in his memoir that the diagnosis was peritonitis. The Times reported, "It is feared that a severe cold, caught on Friday [28 January], has turned to inflammation" ("News in Brief", The Times, 2 February 1887, p. 10). The Pall Mall Gazette, quoting Grossmith's wife, called it "a chilled liver and thorough disorganization of the digestive organs" ("The Illness of Mr Grossmith, The Pall Mall Gazette, 3 February 1887, p. 8). |
35,865,246 | Howard Bellamy (Doctors) | 1,099,743,159 | Fictional character from Doctors | [
"Doctors (2000 TV series) characters",
"Fictional British Army officers",
"Fictional British police officers",
"Fictional characters with bulimia",
"Fictional characters with psychiatric disorders",
"Male characters in television",
"Television characters introduced in 2012"
]
| Howard Bellamy is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera Doctors, portrayed by Ian Kelsey. Howard first appeared on 28 May 2012, where he is introduced as the practice manager of the fictional Mill Health Centre. Kelsey was cast in the soap following the departure of Julia Parsons (Diane Keen), the practice manager prior to Howard. He is an ex-army captain, and producers deliberately made his personality different to Julia's. Howard was based on a real person since producers had heard of a situation where somebody quit the army to become the practice manager of a doctor's surgery. Kelsey spoke to a real-life practice manager to aid his accuracy in the role.
Howard's storylines in the programme included suffering from bulimia, his on-off relationship with colleague Emma Reid (Dido Miles) and dealing with the miscarriage of their child together. After a brain aneurysm, Howard dies, and made his last appearance on 26 October 2015. Kelsey received numerous nominations at award ceremonies for his portrayal of Howard, including being longlisted for a British Soap Award for Best Actor, as well as being nominated for Best Daytime Star at the Inside Soap Awards.
## Storylines
Howard first appears when he is introduced by Heston Carter (Owen Brenman) as the new replacement of Julia Parsons (Diane Keen) as the new Practice Manager of The Mill. Howard is a last minute applicant for the job, and asks for a big salary in comparison to the other candidate, Mrs Tembe (Lorna Laidlaw). However, Howard is chosen as there is a re-accreditation at the Mill, needing someone to take charge throughout this. Howard divides opinion between the team, as Kevin Tyler (Simon Rivers) begins to like him, however Freya Wilson (Lu Corfield), Zara Carmichael (Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh) and Elaine Cassidy (Janet Dibley) dislike him in contrast to Julia. After Howard learns that Gary Lucas (Iain Fletcher), a former acquaintance from his military days, is planning to open a rival clinic nearby the Mill, Howard develops bulimia. He purchases a large amount of food, and binges all of it upon returning home, then forces himself to vomit what he ate. Colleague Emma Reid (Dido Miles) discovers Howard's eating disorder and attempts to get him help, but he makes her promise to keep it a secret if he stops.
Howard begins dating army officer Gina Williams (Victoria Pritchard), but after a short-lived relationship, Howard decides that he is more interested in Emma. Emma and Howard begin a relationship despite her being married to husband Sam (Grant Masters), since Sam allows her to see other people due to his disability. After Sam's death, the pair decide to have a "40 Day Date". The relationship later ends, but after Emma discovers that she is pregnant, they decide to become a couple again, since they want to be a family unit. At a baby scan, Ruhma Carter (Bharti Patel) is unable to find a heartbeat, and confirms that Emma has miscarried. Howard is upset, but affirms that he still wants to be with Emma, and states that he has an important question to ask her later. He steps out to get a drink, but on the way back, he collapses due to a brain aneurism. Doctors and nurses attempt to resuscitate him, but he is pronounced dead with Emma at his side. While planning his funeral, Emma reveals to Niamh Donoghue (Jessica Regan) that he had a daughter, Amelia Sullivan, whom he walked out on so that she could become accustomed to her stepfather. Emma calls Amelia, who refuses to come to his funeral.
## Casting
Kelsey's casting was announced on 7 May 2012. He was cast in replacement of Diane Keen's character Julia Parsons after the actress decided to leave the programme. In an interview with Digital Spy, Kelsey said of Doctors; "It's a lovely environment to work in, with a great cast and crew. It's quite easy to settle into something when it's such a laugh to work on! There's great banter between the cast and crew all day long. It's just a load of old mates thrown in a studio with lights and cameras, and everyone cracks on and has a laugh". Of how the role came about, Kelsey explained that he was given three different scenes at an audition, all of which showed a "different side" of Howard. He described this audition format as a "gem", since it meant that he could showcase his acting capability. Kelsey added that Howard is an extreme character and that there was pressure about taking over from Keen's role due to having "big shoes to fill". Lloyd applauded Kelsey's initial portrayal of the character, and noted that despite the first impressions that Howard gives, the audience will see he is not "quite the ramrod disciplinarian he seems", hinting that there is a lot more to his character. Lloyd expressed his excitement at the character, due to having a lot about Howard's personality to discover throughout his tenure.
## Development
### Characterisation
Howard is billed as a "confident, divorced ex-army captain", and is said to have a "highly different and strict outlook on working life" in comparison to Julia. Digital Spy reported that he "looks set to ruffle feathers at work". On Howard's BBC profile, he is described as "disciplined, highly organised and emotionally repressed". It explains that prior to his debut appearance on Doctors, Howard has a background in military, and that he worked his to becoming an officer. It notes that as practice manager, he enjoys spreadsheets and that he "would always deal with problems in the correct manner", noting the time when he suspends Al Haskey (Ian Midlane) after stalking Jas Khella (Vineeta Rishi) as an example. Despite the stern characterisation, the profile explains that when the surgery is in jeopardy, Howard is not opposed to taking risks. Digital Spy added that Howard's initial "brusque manner" will cause problems with his colleagues.
### Creation and introduction
In an interview with What's on TV, Kelsey stated that Howard was based on a real person. He explained that somebody stopped working for the army and began as a practice manager of a doctor's surgery, and within three months of him taking over the position, five of the staff members quit. The Doctors producers heard about the situation and wrote Howard's character based on it. On why Howard chose to join the National Health Service, Kelsey said that Howard "wants to get his hands mucky", as well as wanting to be in a position with leadership again. He notes that this results in Howard entering the Mill and leading his colleagues "like they're part of his old military unit", scenes he described as hilarious. Producer Peter Eryl Lloyd said that he knew the character of Howard would be disliked when he first arrived. He explained that the characters are missing Julia, which led producers to deliberately "go in a completely different direction" with her replacement. To aid his portrayal of the job position, Kelsey spoke to a real-life practice manager, who told him to both manage and manipulate each colleague differently, and that Howard's relationship with every doctor should he different. He noted that this had happened in respect to Howard's relationships with the other characters. Kelsey liked the fact that each character has a different relationship with Howard, since it meant that he could "bounce off people differently". He admitted that many of the characters are unsure about their feelings on Howard, and teased that there are "loads of different angles and routes to go down" with him. Kelsey compared the position of practice manager to that of someone running the Woolpack pub in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale, a soap he appeared in prior to appearing in Doctors. He explained that both positions include being involved in every cast member's stories, which leads to a lot of filming. When he began filming for the role, Kelsey sourced an authentic army watch and shoe polishing kit, in order to "feel right with the part". Kelsey explained that portraying the role of Howard opened his eyes to the chaos of a doctor's surgery, as well as how they are treated like a business.
### Departure
On 11 May 2015, Kelsey took to Twitter to announce his departure from Doctors, confirming that he would complete filming on 10 July of that year. He stated that he enjoyed appearing on the programme for the three years, but that it was the right time to leave. Executive producer Mike Hobson told Digital Spy he made the role of Howard "his own", and said that the cast and crew were sad for him to be heaving, adding that he was a "magnificent and an integral part of the Doctors family", as well as "a consummate professional and a pleasure to work with both on and off the screen". He added that despite his exit airing later that year, there are still "lots of exciting storylines" to air for Howard. Kelsey spoke to the Birmingham Mail about his exit storyline, describing it as dramatic. He stated that his final episode involves "a lot of blood, not necessarily [his]". Kelsey revealed that Howard will discover that Emma is pregnant with his baby, a plot he described as "one of the key storylines" that lead to his exit. He also explained that when he gave in his notice to the Doctors production team, it "put a bit of a spanner in the works". This was due to the amount of storylines that Howard was involved in at the time, and he confirmed that the writers had storylines planned for Howard until Christmas. Kelsey stated that since they wanted to include all of the planned content prior to his exit, the production team were forced to "amalgamate" the plots, meaning that both Kelsey filmed a lot, and Howard was involved in a lot of plotlines. When asked what his highlight from his tenure is, he stated that it was the friendships that he formed with cast and crew members, specifically co-stars Miles, Midlane and Chris Walker. He labelled Doctors the "most fun" set he has worked on in the span of his career, and admitted that while it was a tough decision to leave a joyful role, it was "time to go", adding: "One day I was planning on renting a house in Birmingham for a year, the next I just decided I was done." He accredited the heavy filming schedule as part of his decision to leave, describing it as the hardest schedule throughout his career, explaining: "it's the fastest I've ever had to work. Even with the preparation when you've finished doing a big day at work - you've then got to sit at home and put 15 scenes in your head for the next day." He concluded his point by saying that despite getting used to the heavy schedule, it can get "to a point where you get frazzled".
Spoilers for Howard's final episode had an embargo until the episode had aired, due to producers wanting to keep the reasoning behind his exit "top secret". In the lead up to the episode's airdate, the Doctors Twitter account tweeted cryptic messages such as "everything changes", "cancel all other appointments" and "consider this a friendly warning, you won't want to miss it." The secrecy behind the episodes was done purposely to incite hype, and for viewers to enjoy the shock twist. Prior to his exit airing, he joked that his character had died. In scenes aired on 22 October 2015, Howard dies suddenly of a brain aneurysm after he learns that Emma has miscarried, of which both storylines were kept secret until transmission. Producer Lloyd was asked how and why the scenes were kept a secret from viewers, and he stated that it took "an awful lot of cooperation from actors, directors, writers and the press", but that it was worth it for the "sudden and unexpected" shock. He then spoke about the decision to kill him off, explaining that there were numerous "different scenarios" in which he could leave, but that his death would "have the most impact and would produce many new stories with a lot of potential". He accredited this to Howard being a "big" character, as well as having "strong relationships" with every single regular character. Lloyd was asked if he had considered writing a happy ending for the pair, to which he answered yes, but admitted that he did not believe Howard and Emma's relationship could survive a miscarriage. Lloyd was also asked if he would bring in another character like Howard, to which he denied, since it would be "poor drama". He added that both Howard and Kelsey "brought something unique" to Doctors.
When asked who would be replacing Howard as practice manager, Kelsey explained that he did not know, and alleged that the production team themselves probably did not know. He explained that this was due to him not renewing his contract with the programme, and since he was "pencil lined" to film until December rather than July, they had to adapt to his exit. He continued: "As with any long-running drama, they have to plan that far ahead, because that's how it happens on these fast-moving shows. They've had to either whittle it down or make things happen quicker to get in what they want to happen with the character." He joked that he hoped one of his co-workers would get the position "so they get a job". After the announcement of his exit, Kelsey revealed that he pitched a spin-off series centred around Howard to the BBC daytime programming department. He stated that the series could have aired after Doctors, and could follow Howard as a policeman. He stated that despite the department declining the idea, he was asked to write an episode that could act as a pilot episode to the series. He wrote the episode, and it was used as an episode of Doctors instead. Kelsey stated that the episode is "like a day out with Howard as a special policeman". He stated that it was an interesting experience to write and film, since it gave him the opportunity to work with different storylines and cast members. Kelsey was also involved in the casting process for the episode, casting former Blue Murder co-star Caroline Quentin, adding that he wrote the role with her in mind.
## Reception
In a poll conducted by Digital Spy, the five main soaps in the United Kingdom, EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, and Doctors storylines were judged by viewers of the website, with the Doctors storyline of Howard's arrival coming last with 3.8% of the vote. In 2013, Kelsey was nominated for Best Comedy Performance at the 2013 British Soap Awards, and received a longlist nomination for Sexiest Male. Later that year, he was longlisted for Best Daytime Star at the Inside Soap Awards. The next year, he was longlisted for Best Actor at the British Soap Awards, and was shortlisted for Best Daytime Star at the Inside Soap Awards later that year. Then at the 2016 British Soap Awards, he was nominated for Best On-Screen Partnership alongside Reid. |
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