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5,182,162 | New York State Route 430 | 1,137,762,089 | State highway in Chautauqua County, New York, US | [
"Limited-access roads in New York (state)",
"State highways in New York (state)",
"Transportation in Chautauqua County, New York"
]
| New York State Route 430 (NY 430) is a state highway located entirely within Chautauqua County, New York, in the United States. Its western terminus is located at the Pennsylvania state line near the hamlet of Findley Lake in the town of Mina. The eastern terminus is located in the city of Jamestown at a junction with NY 60 and NY 394. NY 430 is ceremoniously designated as the Senator Jess J. Present Memorial Highway in honor of Jess Present, a New York State Senator from Jamestown.
Municipalities NY 430 runs through include (from west to east) the villages of Sherman and Mayville, the hamlet of Maple Springs, the village of Bemus Point and the city of Jamestown. Besides NY 60, NY 430 intersects with NY 76 in Sherman and NY 394 in Mayville. It meets the Southern Tier Expressway (Interstate 86 or I-86 and NY 17) multiple times: in Sherman via NY 76, twice in Bemus Point (once by way of a short expressway designated as the unsigned NY 954J and also via an interchange located southwest of NY 954J), and in Jamestown via Strunk Road. NY 430 also runs along the east side of Chautauqua Lake, and services both Long Point State Park and Midway Park.
The portion of NY 430 east of Mayville was originally designated as part of NY 17 in 1924; the remainder was originally designated as New York State Route 75 as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. NY 75 was renumbered to NY 430 c. 1932. NY 430 was extended eastward to its current terminus in Jamestown in the late 1970s after NY 17 was realigned onto a newly completed section of the Southern Tier Expressway between Bemus Point and Jamestown.
## Route description
West of Mayville, NY 430 is a largely rural route connecting Erie, Pennsylvania, (via Pennsylvania Route 430 or PA 430) to Mayville via Sherman; however, east of Mayville, the route is a primary arterial serving the northern and eastern shores of Chautauqua Lake.
### Western Chautauqua County
NY 430 begins at the Pennsylvania state line in rural western Chautauqua County as a continuation of PA 430, which begins roughly 13 miles (21 km) to the west in Erie. The route proceeds eastward as a county-maintained, state-numbered highway through the westernmost portion of the town of Mina to the hamlet of Findley Lake, a small community located at the northern tip of the lake of the same name. Here, the New York State Department of Transportation assumes maintenance of the route at a junction with NY 426. NY 430 briefly overlaps with NY 426 through the community and past the northern tip of the waterbody that gives the hamlet its name. The two routes split at the eastern edge of the community.
While NY 426 leaves NY 430 to follow the eastern edge of the lake southward toward French Creek, NY 430 continues to the northeast, passing through the hamlet of Mina and over the Southern Tier Expressway (I-86 and NY 17) on its way to the town of Sherman and the village of the same name. Within the village of Sherman, NY 430 becomes Main Street and intersects NY 76 west of the village center. The two routes overlap for a single block before separating at the heart of the village, with NY 76 continuing southward to an interchange with the Southern Tier Expressway just outside the village and, farther south, to its southern terminus at NY 474 in Clymer. NY 430, however, exits Sherman to the east before turning northward to parallel an old railroad bed northward into the town of Chautauqua.
At the hamlet of Summerdale, NY 430 curves to the northeast, generally following the former rail line into Mayville, a village situated at the northwestern tip of Chautauqua Lake. In the center of the village, NY 430 intersects NY 394 at an intersection that once was the eastern terminus of NY 430. Now, however, NY 430 continues northeast past NY 394 and out of Mayville.
### Chautauqua Lake
East of Mayville, NY 430 parallels the northern and eastern shoreline of Chautauqua Lake, providing access to several lakeside residences and communities along the route. Roughly halfway down the length of the lake in Ellery, NY 430 passes both Midway State Park, a local amusement park, and Long Point State Park. South of Long Point, NY 430, a two-lane undivided roadway up to this point, becomes a limited-access highway as it approaches Bemus Point. NY 430 exits from the road soon after while the expressway heads south as NY 954J for another 1.62 miles (2.61 km) to exit 10 on the Southern Tier Expressway.
NY 430, once more a surface road, becomes county-maintained again as it heads southwest on Lakeside Drive to Bemus Point, a village located at the narrowest point of Chautauqua Lake between Mayville and Jamestown. Due to the narrow width of the lake at Bemus Point, a ferry once ran from the end of Lakeside Drive to the North Harmony hamlet of Stow; however, it has since been replaced with the Chautauqua Lake Bridge on the Southern Tier Expressway farther south. NY 430, however, turns southeast at Main Street and connects to the aforementioned expressway at the eastern end of the Chautauqua Lake Bridge by way of an interchange near the southern edge of Bemus Point.
Past the exit, NY 430 becomes state-maintained again as it parallels both the Southern Tier Expressway and Chautauqua Lake into the town of Ellicott, where NY 430 meets I-86 and NY 17 one final time at exit 11 (via Strunk Road). NY 430 continues eastward into the city of Jamestown, where it becomes Fluvanna Avenue. Within the city, NY 430 turns southward from Fluvanna Avenue onto Washington Street and heads toward downtown. The eastern terminus of NY 430 comes at an intersection with NY 394 westbound (West 5th Street). The state highway is signed to the next block with West 4th Street where NY 394 heads east and NY 60 turns from Washington Street onto West 4th Street.
## History
When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, what is now NY 430 between Mayville and Jamestown was designated as part of NY 17. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, this section of NY 17 was left unchanged while a previously unnumbered roadway leading from NY 17 in Mayville to Findley Lake via Sherman was designated as NY 75. When U.S. Route 62 (US 62) was extended into New York c. 1932, NY 75 was reassigned to what had been designated as NY 62 as part of the 1930 renumbering. The original NY 75 was renumbered to NY 430.
NY 430 remained unchanged until the late 1950s when the route was extended westward to the Pennsylvania state line to connect to the new PA 430, an east–west highway leading to Erie. In the late 1970s, NY 17 was rerouted onto the new Southern Tier Expressway (STE) from Bemus Point to Jamestown. Its former at-grade alignment between the two locations became an eastward extension of NY 430. At the time, the portion of the STE between Sherman and Bemus Point was under construction, resulting in a temporary overlap between NY 17 and NY 430 from Mayville to modern NY 954J. Work began c. 1981 on the segment of the STE between Findley Lake and Sherman. The entirety of the Findley Lake–Bemus Point section of the expressway was completed by 1985 as a realignment of NY 17; the former section of NY 17 connecting the STE to NY 430 became NY 954J. In Jamestown, NY 430 formerly continued east on Fluvanna Avenue to end at NY 60; it was changed to its current routing in the 2010s. In 2005, the entirety of NY 430 was ceremoniously designated as the "Senator Jess J. Present Memorial Highway" in honor of Jess Present, a New York State Senator from Jamestown.
## Major intersections
## See also
- State highways in Chautauqua County, New York |
4,552,696 | California State Route 174 | 1,171,613,168 | Highway in California | [
"Grass Valley, California",
"Roads in Nevada County, California",
"Roads in Placer County, California",
"State highways in California"
]
| State Route 174 (SR 174) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. The two-lane 13-mile (21 km) highway in the western Sierra Nevada, added to the state highway system in 1933, connects Interstate 80 in Colfax with SR 20/SR 49 in Grass Valley, crossing the Bear River next to a 1924 concrete arch bridge. The majority of the route is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System, but local residents have blocked its designation due to property right concerns.
## Route description
State Route 174 begins at exit 135 of I-80 in Colfax. Immediately after crossing I-80, the route turns right on Auburn Street and right again on Central Street, which bypasses downtown; a business route follows Auburn Street, Grass Valley Street, and Main Street through downtown. SR 174 follows the old Lincoln Highway (US 40) north out of downtown to Rollins Lake Road, where the present state highway turns northwest along the Colfax Highway. It then crosses the Bear River from Placer County into Nevada County on a 1987 bridge, with the old 1924 bridge preserved for non-motorized traffic. The land flattens out as SR 174 curves north and west through the Empire Mine State Historic Park into Grass Valley. Turning west on Colfax Avenue, the state highway passes under the SR 20/SR 49 freeway before ending just beyond at Auburn Street, the former surface routing of SR 49.
SR 174 is not part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. SR 174 is eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System, but it is not officially designated as a scenic highway by the California Department of Transportation.
## History
The Capital Construction Company began improving the county road between Colfax (on Route 37, signed as US 40) and Grass Valley (on Route 17) under contract on September 29, 1931, and completed the work by mid-September 1932. The state legislature placed it on the state highway system in 1933 as an extension of the existing Nevada City-Downieville Route 25. In the 1964 renumbering, the highway received a signed designation, State Route 174.
Local residents created the Colfax Highway Association in 1967 at the Peardale firehouse, about halfway between the two ends, in order to preserve the rural nature of the road. When the 21-foot (6.5 m) wide 1924 concrete arch bridge that took SR 174 across the Bear River on the county line was set for replacement in the late 1980s, the group successfully lobbied to preserve it for non-motorized traffic. The association also pushed for Nevada County's Gold Country Stage bus service to add a route along the highway to Colfax, which was agreed to in late 1998 and still runs as Route 12, connecting downtown Grass Valley with Colfax's Amtrak station. After a request by Nevada County in 1988, the state legislature designated the part of SR 174 in unincorporated Nevada County (between the county line and the Grass Valley city limits) as eligible for the State Scenic Highway System in 1991. In 1999, the Colfax Highway Association attempted to get the route officially declared a State Scenic Highway. They argued that the designation would "protect the scenic character and rural flavor of the highway". A newly formed group, Concerned Citizens for 174, opposed the designation because it would restrict the property rights of residents along the highway, for instance requiring them to use "natural colors". The opposition was successful, and SR 174 remains eligible for State Scenic Highway status but is not a State Scenic Highway.
## Major intersections
## See also |
39,595,312 | Sense8 | 1,167,491,106 | American science fiction television series | [
"2010s American LGBT-related drama television series",
"2010s American science fiction television series",
"2015 American television series debuts",
"2018 American television series endings",
"Bisexuality-related television series",
"English-language Netflix original programming",
"Gay-related television shows",
"LGBT speculative fiction television series",
"LGBT-related television shows",
"Lesbian-related television shows",
"Male bisexuality in fiction",
"Serial drama television series",
"Television series about dysfunctional families",
"Television series created by J. Michael Straczynski",
"Television series produced in Seoul",
"Television shows about telepathy",
"Television shows filmed in California",
"Television shows filmed in India",
"Television shows filmed in Kenya",
"Television shows filmed in Los Angeles",
"Television shows set in Amsterdam",
"Television shows set in Belgium",
"Television shows set in Berlin",
"Television shows set in Chicago",
"Television shows set in Iceland",
"Television shows set in Italy",
"Television shows set in London",
"Television shows set in Los Angeles",
"Television shows set in Mexico City",
"Television shows set in Mumbai",
"Television shows set in Nairobi",
"Television shows set in Paris",
"Television shows set in San Francisco",
"Television shows set in Scotland",
"Television shows set in Seoul",
"Television shows set in São Paulo",
"Transgender-related television shows",
"Works by The Wachowskis"
]
| Sense8 (a play on the word sensate /ˈsɛnseɪt/) is an American science fiction drama streaming television series created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski for Netflix. The production companies behind Sense8 included the Wachowskis' Anarchos Productions (replaced by Lana and her wife's Venus Castina Productions in the second season), Straczynski's Studio JMS, and Georgeville Television, with Unpronounceable Productions having been set up specifically for the show.
The show's first season introduced a multinational ensemble cast, with Aml Ameen, Bae Doona, Jamie Clayton, Tina Desai, Tuppence Middleton, Max Riemelt, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, and Brian J. Smith portraying eight strangers from different parts of the world who suddenly discover that they are "sensates": human beings who are mentally and emotionally linked. Freema Agyeman, Terrence Mann, Anupam Kher, Naveen Andrews, and Daryl Hannah also star. In the second season Toby Onwumere replaces Ameen. The show explores issues related to identity, sexuality, gender, and politics that its creators felt had been rarely addressed on television. Its central theme is an embrace of empathy across difference.
All episodes of the first season of Sense8 were written by the Wachowskis and Straczynski; in the second season, Lilly Wachowski took a break from the show, and the episodes were written by just Lana Wachowski and Straczynski, with the exception of the series finale which was written by Lana, David Mitchell, and Aleksandar Hemon. Most episodes were directed by the Wachowskis (or just Lana in the second season), with the remainder being divided between their frequent collaborators James McTeigue, Tom Tykwer, and Dan Glass. Sense8 was filmed almost entirely on location in a multitude of cities around the world.
The first season, consisting of 12 episodes, became available for streaming on Netflix on June 5, 2015, and was met with generally favorable critical reception. It was praised for its representation of LGBTQ characters and themes, winning the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series. It was also recognized with a Location Managers Guild award for its use of locations as an integral part of the story, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.
The second season began with a two-hour Christmas special in December 2016, with the remaining 10 episodes released in May 2017. However, the following month Netflix announced that they had cancelled the series, which had ended with a cliffhanger in expectation of a third season, then under negotiation. In response to criticism of the cancellation, especially with an unresolved story, Netflix produced a two-and-a-half-hour series finale that was released on June 8, 2018. The season was overall met with positive critical reception and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One Hour), and two nominations by the GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series for the season proper and series finale, respectively.
## Plot
The story of Sense8 begins when the psychic connection of eight strangers of a variety of walks of life from different parts of the world is "birthed" by a woman called Angelica, who kills herself to avoid capture by a man called "Whispers". The eight discover that they form a cluster of "sensates": human beings who are mentally and emotionally linked, can sense and communicate with one another, and can share their knowledge, language and skills.
In the first season, the eight—Capheus, Sun, Nomi, Kala, Riley, Wolfgang, Lito, and Will—are shown trying both to live their everyday lives and to figure how and why they are connected. Meanwhile, a sensate named Jonas, who was involved with Angelica, comes to their aid, while the sinister Biologic Preservation Organization (BPO) and Whispers, a high-ranking sensate inside BPO, attempt to hunt them down.
In the second season, the eight have grown accustomed to their connection and help one another daily. They learn more about sensates and how to use (and temporarily suspend) their powers as well as the history and goals of BPO and Angelica's involvement with it. They also meet other sensates, not all of whom are friendly. At the same time, Jonas attempts to both aid them and look after himself after being captured by Whispers, who is now involved in a cat-and-mouse game with Will, each trying to outsmart the other.
In the series finale, the cluster and the people closest to them meet up in person to save Wolfgang who has been captured by BPO. To that end, the cluster has kidnapped Whispers and Jonas to use them as a bargaining chip and source of information, respectively. The heroes discover the personal motivations of the two men and Angelica, meet potential allies (both sensates and normal humans), and deal with the Chairman of BPO, who launches a global attack against sensates and their allies.
## Cast
### The August 8th cluster
- Aml Ameen (season 1) / Toby Onwumere (season 2) as Capheus "Van Damn" Onyango, a matatu driver in Nairobi who is trying to earn money to buy HIV/AIDS medication for his mother.
- Bae Doona as Sun Baek, daughter of a powerful Seoul business executive and a burgeoning star in the underground kickboxing world.
- Jamie Clayton as Nomi Marks, a trans woman hacktivist and blogger living in San Francisco with her girlfriend Amanita.
- Tina Desai as Kala Dandekar, a university-educated pharmacist and devout Hindu in Mumbai who is engaged to marry a man she learns to love.
- Tuppence Middleton as Riley "Blue" Gunnarsdóttir, an Icelandic DJ living in London who is trying to escape a tragic past.
- Max Riemelt as Wolfgang Bogdanow, a Berlin locksmith and safe-cracker who has unresolved conflicts with his late father and participates in organized crime.
- Miguel Ángel Silvestre as Lito Rodriguez, a closeted actor of Spanish background living in Mexico City with his boyfriend Hernando.
- Brian J. Smith as Will Gorski, a Chicago police officer haunted by an unsolved murder from his childhood.
### Other regulars
- Freema Agyeman as Amanita "Neets" Caplan, Nomi's girlfriend, who later becomes an ally for the new sensates.
- Terrence Mann as Milton Bailey "Whispers" Brandt, a sensate who turned against his own kind and who is a high-ranking member of an organization determined to neutralize sensates, known as the Biologic Preservation Organization (BPO).
- Anupam Kher as Sanyam Dandekar, Kala's loving father, a chef and restaurant owner.
- Naveen Andrews as Jonas Maliki, a sensate from a different cluster who wants to help the newly born cluster of sensates.
- Daryl Hannah as Angelica "Angel" Turing, a sensate from the same cluster as Jonas, who becomes the "mother" of the new sensates' cluster as she activates their psychic connection.
## Episodes
### Season 1 (2015)
### Season 2 (2016–18)
## Production
### Conception and development
According to the Wachowskis, the origins of Sense8 date back several years before the announcement of the show to "a late-night conversation about the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us". When deciding to create a television series, Lana chose to brainstorm ideas with Straczynski because of his extensive experience working with the format, by inviting him to her house in San Francisco. After several days of discussion, they decided on creating a show that would explore the relationship between empathy and evolution in the human race, necessitating filming on location in several countries over the world. The title of the show was thought up by Lana on their second day of brainstorming, as a play on the word sensate and the notion of eight main characters.
On October 2, 2012, Variety first reported the existence of the show. The Wachowskis and Straczynski had written three hour-long spec scripts, and were attempting to shop them around. Their first meeting with potential buyers was with Netflix. The Wachowskis and Straczynski talked to them about subjects such as gender, identity, secrecy, and privacy. Netflix announced that they had ordered a 10-episode first season for the series on March 27, 2013, which during filming was extended to 12. Straczynski and the Wachowskis mapped out five seasons worth of stories for the series from the beginning, including the series' final episode. Lilly Wachowski, after completing her gender transition, decided to take some time off and did not return as writer or director for the second season, although she remained active as co-creator.
Producer Roberto Malerba has disclosed that the first season had an average budget of about \$4.5 million per episode, and the second season \$9 million per episode.
### Writing
Initial writing for the first season was split between the Wachowskis and Straczynski. The show was transformed when they decided to limit the storytelling, with the exception of the opening scene of the first episode, to the perspective of the eight characters. Lana Wachowski, a trans woman, has written her first transgender character in her career in the series: Nomi Marks. For that she partly used her own experiences. Jamie Clayton, who plays Nomi, has provided the example of a scene where a young Nomi is bullied by boys in a gym shower, as a scene that was based on experiences from Lana's life. Freema Agyeman, who plays Nomi's girlfriend Amanita, has shared that her character was based heavily on Lana's wife, Karin Winslow.
Unlike the first season, where the Wachowskis and Straczynski split the number of scripts in half and worked remotely from each other, writing for the second season was performed by Lana and Straczynski by collaborating inside a shared writers' room. David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon worked as additional writers on the second season and were credited as "consultants". They spent a week in September 2015 with Lana, Straczynski, and script supervisor Julie Brown, proposing to them situations to be further developed by Lana and Straczynski. Later, once filming began, Lana did a lot of rewrites on a daily basis as she got inspired by the locations, actors, and so on, even on the set. When the series finale special was announced, Lana, Mitchell, and Hemon returned as writers.
### Casting
On June 20, 2014, Deadline Hollywood announced the cast of the eight lead characters, along with Freema Agyeman, Naveen Andrews, Daryl Hannah, Alfonso Herrera, Eréndira Ibarra, and Terence Mann. For the roles of those characters living outside of America, the filmmakers wanted to assemble a cast of international actors that matched the nationality of their respective characters, if possible. For example, Doona Bae, Tina Desai, and Max Riemelt are from Seoul, Mumbai, and Berlin like their respective characters. Jamie Clayton is a trans woman like the character she plays. In November, Deadline Hollywood wrote than Christian Oliver had joined the cast as a recurring villain.
On April 26, 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Aml Ameen abruptly left production a couple of episodes into filming of the second season over a conflict with Lana Wachowski that started during the table read for the season and progressively got worse. Subsequent to Ameen's departure, the role of Capheus was recast to Toby Onwumere after a seven-day auditioning process. Earlier in April, Kick Gurry revealed he had been cast in the second season. In May, Deadline Hollywood reported Ben Cole had been cast as Todd, a sensate who would rather be "normal". In September, Sylvester McCoy reportedly revealed he filmed three or four episodes of the second season.
### Filming and cinematography
To properly tell the international aspects of the story, filming for Sense8 took place almost entirely on location around the globe. In the first season, filming took place in nine cities located in eight countries: Berlin, Chicago, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Nairobi, Reykjavík, San Francisco, and Seoul. Production began on June 18, 2014, in San Francisco. The writers wanted to feature an event in each city. They were able to schedule the Pride scenes with its Dykes on Bikes on the Dyke March in San Francisco, the Fourth of July fireworks celebration in Chicago, and the Ganesha Chaturthi Hindu festival in Mumbai. Filming wrapped in Iceland on January 21, 2015. By the end of the shooting, the filmmakers had completed 100,000 miles (160,000 km) of flight time, or four times around the globe.
For the second season, production credited 16 cities located in 11 countries for having been part of the filming. The major locations they filmed in include all of the first season's except Reykjavík, and the following new ones: Amsterdam, Argyll, Chippenham, Los Angeles, Malta, Positano, Redwoods, and São Paulo. Production start for the main unit of the second season was given an expected date of March 2016, but a separate shoot involving the principal actors began on December 30, 2015, in Berlin, to capture footage during the Christmas holidays. Main unit filming resumed in Berlin in the middle of March 2016. In São Paulo, they filmed unrehearsed in front of a crowd of millions in its 20th Gay Pride Parade. In Amsterdam, they were the first production to film in the Rijksmuseum. On September 19, 2016, with the completion of the Malta shoot, filming for the second season came to an end. Overall, the cast and crew flew in excess of 250,000 miles (400,000 km) to complete the season. Filming for the series finale took place in Berlin, Brussels, Naples, and Paris. Production began in Berlin on October 2, 2017. In Paris, they filmed a four-minute fireworks show near the Eiffel Tower. Filming wrapped in Berlin on November 12, 2017.
Netflix required the production to shoot with 4K resolution cameras to make the look of the show future-proof. During the first season, cinematographer John Toll, once again collaborating with the Wachowskis after Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending, personally handled the cinematography in San Francisco, Chicago, London, Iceland, and Seoul. In the second season he handled the majority of the locations. Additional cinematographers worked with the rest of the directors in the remaining locations. James McTeigue worked with Danny Ruhlman, and Tom Tykwer worked with Frank Griebe and Christian Almesberger. Toll returned as cinematographer for the series finale, teaming up again with Lana.
Toll's cinematography in the third episode of the second season was recognized with a nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One Hour) during the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
### Directing
The show's directors were attached to locations instead of episodes and with several countries appearing in every episode, in reality none of them has a singular director. During the first season, the Wachowskis were responsible for directorial duties in scenes shot in Chicago, San Francisco, London, and Iceland. McTeigue worked on the Mexico City and Mumbai parts along with some in Reykjavík, and Tykwer helmed Berlin and Nairobi. Dan Glass made his directorial debut in the Seoul part of the story. In total, the Wachowskis were credited for directing seven episodes, McTeigue and Tykwer two each, and Glass one.
In the second season, Lana Wachowski took over many of the filmmaking aspects of the show. Production sound mixer Stevie Haywood recounted Lana's directing style was to use two cameras as the default setup, and develop the shot over "enormously long takes" which could last up to fifteen to twenty minutes. McTeigue returned as director for Mexico City, and Tykwer for the Nairobi parts. According to Glass, in the second season he directed the second unit in Seoul, and he also did some directing in Berlin. Overall, six episodes of the second season, including the Christmas special and series finale, credit Lana as director, three credit McTeigue, and Tykwer and Glass get credited each in one.
### Effects and post-production
Seoul unit director Dan Glass and Jim Mitchell were the visual effects supervisors of the first season. The season had a total VFX shot count of about 1200. An in-house VFX team was established in Chicago which completed over 700 shots. The major external VFX vendors were Locktix VFX (160–180 shots), Technicolor VFX (over 100 shots), and Encore VFX. Because of the series' tight budget and timeline the production made the decision to do most of the effects, including the telepathy scenes, in-camera and only enhance them digitally where appropriate. Technicolor provided dailies and worked with cinematographer John Toll and the Wachowskis to color grade the show. Technicolor finished the show in 4K and delivered both 2K and 4K masters.
In the second season, the visual effects supervisors were Dan Glass and Ryan Urban. Technicolor were again responsible for managing dailies and color grading the show, while their VFX department delivered over 600 shots for the first 11 episodes, and an additional 109 for the series finale. Sense8 was edited in the Wachowskis' headquarters in Chicago, Kinowerks, by Joe Hobeck and Joseph Jett Sally in the first season and by Sally and Fiona Colbeck in the second.
### Music and title sequence
The score of Sense8 was composed by Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, with additional contributions by Gabriel Isaac Mounsey, and recorded by the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. Each season's score was written up to a year and a half before filming began, enabling the production to play it back to the actors before shooting a scene. A soundtrack album for the first season was released digitally by WaterTower Music on May 5, 2017. It includes 10 tracks by Klimek and Tykwer. For the second season, Klimek and Tykwer provided the editorial team with about 10 "mother" themes, each with a length of over five minutes, before filming began. In the Christmas special episode "Happy F\*cking New Year", a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is featured, which was arranged by Gary Fry and recorded by the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, with the lead vocalist being Daniel Martin Moore. The episode also featured a Matstubs remix of "I'd Love To Change The World".
The theme music of Sense8 was picked by the Wachowskis from the two hours of original music Tykwer and Klimek had written. The show received a nomination for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music during the 68th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. For the series almost two-minute long title sequence, Karin Winslow rented a car and with the help of a camera assistant traveled in the eight featured countries of the first season and captured over a hundred shots. "My directive from Lana was to go out and describe each country by what you see; find the nuances, find the food, find what people are doing, get a feel for the place," said Winslow. For the second season, and again for the finale, some of the footage was replaced by new shots.
### Cancellation and future
On June 1, 2017, Netflix announced they had cancelled the series after two seasons. Later that month, Chief Content Officer of Netflix Ted Sarandos during his talk on Produced By Conference, commented that the show was cancelled because its audience, despite being very passionate, was not large enough to support the high production costs. As a response to the cancellation, fans created online petitions, called Netflix, and tweeted \#RenewSense8 and other hashtags, in an attempt to bring back the show. On June 29, 2017, the official social media accounts of the show posted a letter by Lana Wachowski which announced the release of a two-hour special for 2018. The special was released on June 8, 2018.
Netflix billed the second special in their announcement as the series finale, but Lana left open the future of Sense8 past the special's release. On August 5, 2017, during a Facebook Live with Lana and the cast about the show's revival, Lana joked that because she believed that the fans of the show would go and create more fans, she was writing the entire third season. A few days later, Brian J. Smith said during an interview that he believed if "a truly eyebrow-raising amount of people" watched the special, they would make more. Conversely, shortly after the special's release, executive producer Grant Hill said that they followed Netflix's directive to design it as the series finale, and that there have not been any talks about the possibility of another revival.
Straczynski and Hemon have shared some hints about the character trajectories that were planned for the third season and beyond.
## Reception
### Critical reception
Critical reception of the first season of Sense8 has been generally favorable. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator website, reported a 71% critical approval rating with an average rating of 6.25/10 based on 62 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Some of the scenarios border on illogical, but the diverse characters and the creative intersections between their stories keep the Wachowskis' Sense8 compelling." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the season is assigned a score of 64 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Sense8 continued to be positively received in its second season. Rotten Tomatoes indexed 15 reviews for the early released Christmas special, and reported an 87% critical approval rating for it, with an average rating of 6.88/10. The website assigned the following consensus to the special: "Sense8 serves up a heaping helping of yuletide queerness and sci-fi slyness in this narratively messy but richly felt special." Based on 28 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes assigned the 10 episodes that followed the special a critical approval rating of 93%, with an average rating of 7.57/10. The critical consensus reads, "Sense8 maintains its stunning visuals, Wachowski wackiness, and great heart — though its individual characters deserve more development." On Metacritic, the season was assigned a score of 73 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Rotten Tomatoes also collected 28 reviews for the series finale, and calculated a 93% critical approval rating, and an average rating of 7.15/10. The finale's critical consensus reads, "A hard fought coda to a beloved series, Sense8'''s epilogue exemplifies its strange, sensual, somewhat silly delights."
In a report released by Netflix, it was discovered that at least 70% of the viewers that watched up to the third episode ended up watching the entire first season, and Straczynski was told there are people that watch it "straight through – three, four, six times." In another report released by Netflix, Sense8 was listed among the shows whose viewers tend to heavily binge-watch their first seasons, rather than savoring their episodes by watching them at a slower pace. Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos praised the success of Sense8 in the up-and-coming French and German markets but also globally. Vice president of international series for Netflix Erik Barmack has named Sense8 one of the most popular Netflix series in the Brazilian market. Less than three days after the premiere of the first season, Variety reported that it had been pirated more than half a million times, regardless of the series' digital distribution. Netflix also placed the second season of Sense8 at fifth place on their list for the year 2017 about couples where one of the two cannot resist the urge to watch, and ends up watching episodes ahead of their significant other.
Former Colombian President and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Juan Manuel Santos heavily referenced Sense8 in a speech he made in April 2019 during the graduation ceremony of students of the University of Los Andes who participated in the Ser Pilo Paga program. Santos recited the basic premise of the show about the fictional species Homo sensorium who can feel empathy for one another, and expressed his wish and belief that one day humanity will be the same, "united in diversity and tolerance".
Critics and writers such as David Barr Kirtley have commented on the influence of Theodore Sturgeon's novel More Than Human on Sense8, even calling it, "the Theodore Sturgeon adaptation we always wanted."
### Accolades
## Marketing
The red carpet premiere of Sense8 took place on May 27, 2015, in San Francisco's AMC Metreon, where the first three episodes were previewed. Starting in the middle of July 2015, Netflix Brazil released a series of documentary shorts called Sense8: Decoded. Inspired by Sense8 and directed by João Wainer, the shorts briefly touch upon subjects such as psychiatry, feminism, being transgender and Buddhism. Later in the month, Netflix released a music track titled Brainwave Symphony on Spotify. To produce it they subjected eight strangers to a series of various stimuli and they recorded their individual brainwaves using EEG sensors. After extracting a melody from each of them they arranged them in a way to produce a track which mirrors the escalating action of the season. In early August 2015, Netflix made available Sense8: Creating the World'', a half-hour streaming television documentary, shot around the world, about the making of the first season of the series.
On May 3, 2016, publicity stills of the ongoing production of the second season were posted online, accompanied by a short message by Lana Wachowski introducing the \#Road2Sense8 hashtag under which new pictures would be posted. On December 3, 2016, the Christmas special episode was screened at São Paulo's Comic Con Experience, in advance of its Netflix premiere on December 23. The second episode of the second season was screened out of competition during the Series Mania festival in Paris, on April 18, 2017. On April 23, a screening of the second and third episodes took place in Chicago's Music Box Theatre, in a benefit for the American Civil Liberties Union, followed by Lana Wachowski taking questions from the audience, and again on April 26, in the red carpet premiere of the second season, at New York City's AMC Lincoln Square.
Several screenings of the series finale took place prior to its release on Netflix, on June 8, 2018. The first screening took place in The Music Box Theatre in Chicago, on May 25, as a benefit for EMILY's List, followed by a Q&A session with Lana and select cast members. The second screening took place in the Latin America Memorial in São Paulo, on June 1, with several cast members attending. The red carpet premiere followed in ArcLight Hollywood, in Los Angeles, on June 7. Linda Perry made a guest appearance to perform "What's Up?". Netflix organized an event for the fans on the day of the special's release, June 8, in Posillipo, in Naples, where a big portion of the special was filmed. Among other things, fans could try a slice of a special "Sense8" pizza that was created by famous pizza maker Gino Sorbillo with the help of the cast. |
41,200,578 | Urinothorax | 1,153,203,195 | Presence of urine in the fluid-filled cavity that surrounds the lungs | [
"Diseases of pleura",
"Urinary system"
]
| Urinothorax (pl. urinothoraces) is defined as urine in the fluid-filled cavity that surrounds the lungs. It is usually caused by obstructive uropathy. It is mainly diagnosed by analyzing the pleural fluid. Treatment involves treating the underlying condition, which typically results in resolution of the urinothorax. It is an extremely rare cause of pleural effusion.
## Signs and symptoms
The characteristics of people affected by urinothorax are poorly defined. Urological symptoms tend to occur, while the respiratory symptoms are typically nonexistent or mild. Difficulty breathing, occurring in moderate to large pleural effusions, is the most common respiratory symptom. Other symptoms include fever, abdominal pain, chest pain, and reduced urination. It typically occurs within hours of the causative condition.
## Causes
Urinothorax is usually caused by obstructive uropathy. The obstructive uropathy may be at the urinary bladder or urethral level. Obstructive causes have been caused by prostate disease, kidney cyst, retroperitoneal fibrosis, and supernumerary kidney. Traumatic cases tend to occur on one side, while obstructive cases tend to be bilateral. In cases caused by urinoma, the urinothorax is usually on the same side of it. Rarely, it can be on both sides or on the opposite side of the urinoma. It can also be caused by renal biopsy, kidney transplantation, lithotripsy, failed tube nephrostomy, or cancer of the urinary tract.
## Mechanism
Injury to the urinary tract can result in collections of fluid known as a urinoma. It has the smell of normal urine. The urine arrives in the pleural space either retroperitoneally (under the peritoneum), or via the retroperitoneal lymphatics. Urine can reach the pleural space either directly or indirectly. It can reach directly, by going through pores in the thoracic diaphragm due to a pressure gradient, or by a rupture of a urinoma releasing the contents into the pleural space. It can also reach indirectly, when a urinoma drains into the pleural space via linkage between the lymphatics of the retroperitoneal and pleural regions.
## Diagnosis
Due to the main symptoms typically being urological rather than respiratory, the condition requires exclusion of other conditions and the identification of specific symptoms before diagnosis. Pleural fluid analysis is one way to diagnose the condition. The pleural fluid is most often straw-colored, and it has a distinct smell like ammonia. The fluid usually has a nucleated cell count between 50 and 1500 per cm<sup>3</sup>. The pH of the fluid is usually between 5 and 7. Primary factors for diagnosing urinothorax by pleural fluid include low protein and high lactate dehydrogenase content. Low glucose levels and acidity are also described, but are not reliable ways to diagnose or rule out urinothorax. The most important chemical diagnostic factor of the fluid is that the ratio of creatinine to serum is more than 1 and usually more than 10.
Abdominal ultrasonography and CT scan can help diagnose the underlying condition of the genitourinary tract. If other methods prove inconclusive, an accurate diagnosis can be made by a technetium-99m kidney scan, which shows albumin labeled with 99Tc that translocates into the pleural space from the genitourinary tract.
## Treatment
Treatment mainly consists of treating the underlying disorder of the genitourinary tract. It requires a multidisciplinary team that includes a pulmonologist and urologist. A nephrostomy tube or Foley catheter can be used to relieve any underlying obstruction. Any injuries are repaired. When the underlying disorder is addressed, the urinothorax rapidly resolves. Thoracic surgery is usually not needed, especially if respiratory symptoms are minimal or nonexistent. Pleurodesis is also ineffective. A chest tube can be used to drain urine from the pleural cavity.
## Prognosis
Urinothoraces typically resolve spontaneously without recurring after the underlying urinary tract disorder is treated.
## Epidemiology
Urinothorax remains a rare, possibly under-diagnosed, differential in the case of transudative pleural effusion. There were only 58 reported cases up until January 2006. In the literature, there are under 100 reported cases. |
17,363,577 | Washington State Route 409 | 1,060,729,607 | Washington state highway in Wahkiakum County | [
"State highways in Washington (state)",
"Transportation in Wahkiakum County, Washington"
]
| State Route 409 (SR 409) is a short Washington state highway in Wahkiakum County. The highway runs north from the Wahkiakum County Ferry on Puget Island to SR 4 in the county seat of Cathlamet over a distance of 3.84 miles (6.18 km). The route connects Westport, Oregon, which is served by the county ferry, and Cathlamet. The highway was referred to as Secondary State Highway 12F (SSH 12F) from 1943 until 1964.
SR 409 crosses the Cathlamet Channel on the Julia Butler Hansen Bridge, completed in August 1939. The bridge is named after former U.S. representative Julia Butler Hansen, who served from 1960 until 1974 representing the third congressional district including Wahkiakum County.
## Route description
SR 409 goes on a 3.84 miles (6.18 km) route north from the northern ferry dock of the Wahkiakum County Ferry on Puget Island, to SR 4, also referred to as the Ocean Beach Highway, in the county seat of Cathlamet. The route connects Westport, Oregon, which is served by the county ferry, and Cathlamet. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) found in 2007 that, on average, more than 2,800 motorists utilize the road daily south of the northern terminus in Cathlamet, making the highway the second busiest state route in the county, after SR 4 at Boege Road, which more than 4,100 motorists utilize daily.
SR 409 originates at the ferry dock on Puget Island which serves as the northern end of the Wahkiakum County Ferry. From the dock, the road travels north past the island's interior, before turning northwest to parallel the Cathlamet Channel. After intersecting Little Island Road, the highway immediately turns onto the Julia Butler Hansen Bridge spanning over the Cathlamet Channel. Once SR 409 exits off the bridge in Cathlamet, it becomes Front Street. Later, after intersecting River Street and Columbia Street, the highway becomes Main Street, the designation used from the intersection point to SR 4.
### Ferry
The year-round Wahkiakum County Ferry, designated Wahkiakum, runs from Westport, Oregon to the southern terminus of SR 409 at Puget Island. The ferry connects SR 409 to a road that connects to U.S. Route 30, which runs 477.02 miles (767.69 km) across Oregon; Wahkiakum County began running the ferry in 1962, on a route from Westport to Puget Island. The ferry travels more than eighteen trips per day, and runs from 5:00 am to 10:15 pm and holds up to nine vehicles. The ferry costs 50¢ for foot passengers, \$1 for bicycles, \$2 for motorcycles, and \$3 for passenger cars and other vehicles under 20 feet (6.1 m). Vehicles over 20 feet (6.1 m) cannot travel on the ferry; motorhomes, large trucks and trailers are allowed on the ferry for a fare determined by length. Frequent Traveler Tickets can be purchased for \$40 (22 trips) and \$75 (44 trips) for vehicles under 20 feet (6.1 m). The first ferry launched in June 1925, when Walter Coates bought two ferries and began to operate them on two different routes, including the current one and a route from Puget Island to Cathlamet. The county later replaced the Puget Island – Cathlamet route with the Puget Island – Cathlamet Bridge in 1939.
## History
### Bridge (1925–1939)
In June 1925, Walter Coates began a ferry service across the Cathlamet Channel, from Puget Island to Cathlamet. The original ferry was later replaced by the Cathlamet, which could load cars. In 1932, Coates sold the ferry service, fearing that the newly completed Ocean Beach Highway, soon to be SR 4, would press drivers to the competing Astoria–Megler Ferry. In 1939, the year the Julia Butler Hansen Bridge opened, ferry service ceased on the Puget Island – Cathlamet run.
The Julia Butler Hansen Bridge, which currently carries the route of SR 409, which will be designated in 1964, from Puget Island to Cathlamet, opened in August 1939. The bridge, initially named the Puget Island – Cathlamet Bridge, was later renamed to honor Julia Butler Hansen, who served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1939 until 1960, and U.S. representative for the third congressional district from 1960 until 1974.
Lacey V. Murrow, R. W. Finke and Clark H. Eldridge designed the bridge, which spanned 2,433 feet (742 m) and consisted of four steel spans when first constructed. Steel comprises the majority of the truss bridge's structure. President Franklin D. Roosevelt commenced the five-day celebration of the bridge's opening with a ribbon cutting, remotely controlled from the White House via telegraph.
### Designation (1943–present)
After a reconstruction of the Primary and Secondary Highways in 1943, the road that later became SR 409 was established as Secondary State Highway 12F (SSH 12F). SSH 12F became SR 409 in 1964 during the 1964 highway renumbering, in which the WSDOT replaced the previous system of Primary and Secondary Highways with a new system called State Routes, which is still in use today.
## Major intersections |
15,716,827 | Anonymous (hacker group) | 1,173,057,051 | Decentralized hacktivist group | [
"4chan",
"Anonymity",
"Anonymity pseudonyms",
"Anonymous (hacker group)",
"Anti-cult organizations",
"Articles containing video clips",
"Cyberattack gangs",
"Cyberattacks",
"Cybercrime in the United States",
"Hacker groups",
"Hacking in the 2000s",
"Hacking in the 2010s",
"Hacking in the 2020s",
"Hacktivists",
"Information society",
"Intellectual property activism",
"Internet culture",
"Internet memes",
"Internet trolling",
"Internet vigilantism",
"Internet-based activism",
"Organizations established in 2003"
]
| Anonymous is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology.
Anonymous originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an "anarchic", digitized "global brain" or "hivemind". Anonymous members (known as anons) can sometimes be distinguished in public by the wearing of Guy Fawkes masks in the style portrayed in the graphic novel and film V for Vendetta. Some anons also opt to mask their voices through voice changers or text-to-speech programs.
Dozens of people have been arrested for involvement in Anonymous cyberattacks in countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, India, and Turkey. Evaluations of the group's actions and effectiveness vary widely. Supporters have called the group "freedom fighters" and digital Robin Hoods, while critics have described them as "a cyber lynch-mob" or "cyber terrorists". In 2012, Time called Anonymous one of the "100 most influential people" in the world. Anonymous' media profile diminished by 2018, but the group re-emerged in 2020 to support the George Floyd protests and other causes.
## Philosophy
> The philosophy of Anonymous offers insight into a long-standing political question that has gone unanswered with often tragic consequences for social movements: what does a new form of collective politics look like that wishes to go beyond the identity of the individual subject in late capitalism?
Internal dissent is also a regular feature of the group. A website associated with the group describes it as "an Internet gathering" with "a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives". Gabriella Coleman writes of the group: "In some ways, it may be impossible to gauge the intent and motive of thousands of participants, many of who don't even bother to leave a trace of their thoughts, motivations, and reactions. Among those that do, opinions vary considerably."
Broadly speaking, Anons oppose Internet censorship and control and the majority of their actions target governments, organizations, and corporations that they accuse of censorship. Anons were early supporters of the global Occupy movement and the Arab Spring. Since 2008, a frequent subject of disagreement within Anonymous is whether members should focus on pranking and entertainment or more serious (and, in some cases, political) activism.
> We [Anonymous] just happen to be a group of people on the Internet who need—just kind of an outlet to do as we wish, that we wouldn't be able to do in regular society. ...That's more or less the point of it. Do as you wish. ... There's a common phrase: 'we are doing it for the lulz.'
>
> <div class="templatequotecite">
>
> — <cite>Trent Peacock, 'Search Engine: The Face of Anonymous, February 7, 2008.</cite>
>
> </div>
Because Anonymous has no leadership, no action can be attributed to the membership as a whole. Parmy Olson and others have criticized media coverage that presents the group as well-organized or homogeneous; Olson writes, "There was no single leader pulling the levers, but a few organizational minds that sometimes pooled together to start planning a stunt." Some members protest using legal means, while others employ illegal measures such as DDoS attacks and hacking. Membership is open to anyone who wishes to state they are a member of the collective; British journalist Carole Cadwalladr of The Observer compared the group's decentralized structure to that of al-Qaeda: "If you believe in Anonymous, and call yourself Anonymous, you are Anonymous." Olson, who formerly described Anonymous as a "brand", stated in 2012 that she now characterized it as a "movement" rather than a group: "anyone can be part of it. It is a crowd of people, a nebulous crowd of people, working together and doing things together for various purposes."
The group's few rules include not disclosing one's identity, not talking about the group, and not attacking media. Members commonly use the tagline "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us." Brian Kelly writes that three of the group's key characteristics are "(1) an unrelenting moral stance on issues and rights, regardless of direct provocation; (2) a physical presence that accompanies online hacking activity; and (3) a distinctive brand."
Journalists have commented that Anonymous' secrecy, fabrications, and media awareness pose an unusual challenge for reporting on the group's actions and motivations. Quinn Norton of Wired writes that: "Anons lie when they have no reason to lie. They weave vast fabrications as a form of performance. Then they tell the truth at unexpected and unfortunate times, sometimes destroying themselves in the process. They are unpredictable." Norton states that the difficulties in reporting on the group cause most writers, including herself, to focus on the "small groups of hackers who stole the limelight from a legion, defied their values, and crashed violently into the law" rather than "Anonymous’s sea of voices, all experimenting with new ways of being in the world".
## History
### 4chan raids (2003–2007)
The name Anonymous itself is inspired by the perceived anonymity under which users post images and comments on the Internet. Usage of the term Anonymous in the sense of a shared identity began on imageboards, particularly the /b/ board of 4chan, dedicated to random content and to raiding other websites. A tag of Anonymous is assigned to visitors who leave comments without identifying the originator of the posted content. Users of imageboards sometimes jokingly acted as if Anonymous was a single individual. The concept of the Anonymous entity advanced in 2004 when an administrator on the 4chan image board activated a "Forced_Anon" protocol that signed all posts as Anonymous. As the popularity of imageboards increased, the idea of Anonymous as a collective of unnamed individuals became an Internet meme.
Users of 4chan's /b/ board would occasionally join into mass pranks or raids. In a raid on July 12, 2006, for example, large numbers of 4chan readers invaded the Finnish social networking site Habbo Hotel with identical avatars; the avatars blocked regular Habbo members from accessing the digital hotel's pool, stating it was "closed due to fail and AIDS". Future LulzSec member Topiary became involved with the site at this time, inviting large audiences to listen to his prank phone calls via Skype. Due to the growing traffic on 4chan's board, users soon began to plot pranks off-site using Internet Relay Chat (IRC). These raids resulted in the first mainstream press story on Anonymous, a report by Fox station KTTV in Los Angeles, California in the U.S. The report called the group "hackers on steroids", "domestic terrorists", and an "Internet hate machine".
### Encyclopedia Dramatica (2004–present)
Encyclopedia Dramatica was founded in 2004 by Sherrod DeGrippo, initially as a means of documenting gossip related to LiveJournal, but it quickly was adopted as a major platform by Anonymous for parody and other purposes. The not safe for work site celebrates a subversive "trolling culture", and documents Internet memes, culture, and events, such as mass pranks, trolling events, "raids", large-scale failures of Internet security, and criticism of Internet communities that are accused of self-censorship to gain prestige or positive coverage from traditional and established media outlets. Journalist Julian Dibbell described Encyclopedia Dramatica as the site "where the vast parallel universe of Anonymous in-jokes, catchphrases, and obsessions is lovingly annotated, and you will discover an elaborate trolling culture: Flamingly racist and misogynist content lurks throughout, all of it calculated to offend." The site also played a role in the anti-Scientology campaign of Project Chanology.
On April 14, 2011, the original URL of the site was redirected to a new website named Oh Internet that bore little resemblance to Encyclopedia Dramatica. Parts of the ED community harshly criticized the changes. In response, Anonymous launched "Operation Save ED" to rescue and restore the site's content. The Web Ecology Project made a downloadable archive of former Encyclopedia Dramatica content. The site's reincarnation was initially hosted at encyclopediadramatica.ch on servers owned by Ryan Cleary, who later was arrested in relation to attacks by LulzSec against Sony.
### Project Chanology (2008)
Anonymous first became associated with hacktivism in 2008 following a series of actions against the Church of Scientology known as Project Chanology. On January 15, 2008, the gossip blog Gawker posted a video in which celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise praised the religion; and the Church responded with a cease-and-desist letter for violation of copyright. 4chan users organized a raid against the Church in retaliation, prank-calling its hotline, sending black faxes designed to waste ink cartridges, and launching DDoS attacks against its websites.
The DDoS attacks were at first carried out with the Gigaloader and JMeter applications. Within a few days, these were supplanted by the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), a network stress-testing application allowing users to flood a server with TCP or UDP packets. The LOIC soon became a signature weapon in the Anonymous arsenal; however, it would also lead to a number of arrests of less experienced Anons who failed to conceal their IP addresses. Some operators in Anonymous IRC channels incorrectly told or lied to new volunteers that using the LOIC carried no legal risk.
During the DDoS attacks, a group of Anons uploaded a YouTube video in which a robotic voice speaks on behalf of Anonymous, telling the "leaders of Scientology" that "For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind—for the laughs—we shall expel you from the Internet." Within ten days, the video had attracted hundreds of thousands of views.
With more than 10 thousand followers on their IRC server waiting for instructions, they felt they had to come up with something, and got the idea of a worldwide protest. Because they both wanted to use a symbol or image to unify the protests, and because all protesters were supposed to be anonymous, it was decided to use a mask. Due to shipment problems caused by the short amount of time to prepare, they improvised and called all the costume and comic book-shops in the major cities around the world, and found that the only mask available in all the cities was the Guy Fawkes mask from the graphic novel and film V for Vendetta, in which an anarchist revolutionary battles a totalitarian government. The suggestion of the choice of mask was well received. On February 10, thousands of Anonymous joined simultaneous protests at Church of Scientology facilities in 142 cities in 43 countries. The stylized Guy Fawkes masks soon became a popular symbol for Anonymous. In-person protests against the Church continued throughout the year, including "Operation Party Hard" on March 15 and "Operation Reconnect" on April 12. However, by mid-year, they were drawing far fewer protesters, and many of the organizers in IRC channels had begun to drift away from the project.
### Operation Payback (2010)
By the start of 2009, Scientologists had stopped engaging with protesters and had improved online security, and actions against the group had largely ceased. A period of infighting followed between the politically engaged members (called "moralfags" in the parlance of 4chan) and those seeking to provoke for entertainment (trolls). By September 2010, the group had received little publicity for a year and faced a corresponding drop in member interest; its raids diminished greatly in size and moved largely off of IRC channels, organizing again from the chan boards, particularly /b/.
In September 2010, however, Anons became aware of Aiplex Software, an Indian software company that contracted with film studios to launch DDoS attacks on websites used by copyright infringers, such as The Pirate Bay. Coordinating through IRC, Anons launched a DDoS attack on September 17 that shut down Aiplex's website for a day. Primarily using LOIC, the group then targeted the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), successfully bringing down both sites. On September 19, future LulzSec member Mustafa Al-Bassam (known as "Tflow") and other Anons hacked the website of Copyright Alliance, an anti-infringement group, and posted the name of the operation: "Payback Is A Bitch", or "Operation Payback" for short. Anons also issued a press release, stating:
> Anonymous is tired of corporate interests controlling the internet and silencing the people’s rights to spread information, but more importantly, the right to SHARE with one another. The RIAA and the MPAA feign to aid the artists and their cause; yet they do no such thing. In their eyes is not hope, only dollar signs. Anonymous will not stand this any longer.
As IRC network operators were beginning to shut down networks involved in DDoS attacks, Anons organized a group of servers to host an independent IRC network, titled AnonOps. Operation Payback's targets rapidly expanded to include the British law firm ACS:Law, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, the British nightclub Ministry of Sound, the Spanish copyright society Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, the U.S. Copyright Office, and the website of Gene Simmons of Kiss. By October 7, 2010, total downtime for all websites attacked during Operation Payback was 537.55 hours.
In November 2010, the organization WikiLeaks began releasing hundreds of thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables. In the face of legal threats against the organization by the U.S. government, Amazon.com booted WikiLeaks from its servers, and PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa cut off service to the organization. Operation Payback then expanded to include "Operation Avenge Assange", and Anons issued a press release declaring PayPal a target. Launching DDoS attacks with the LOIC, Anons quickly brought down the websites of the PayPal blog; PostFinance, a Swiss financial company denying service to WikiLeaks; EveryDNS, a web-hosting company that had also denied service; and the website of U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, who had supported the push to cut off services.
On December 8, Anons launched an attack against PayPal's main site. According to Topiary, who was in the command channel during the attack, the LOIC proved ineffective, and Anons were forced to rely on the botnets of two hackers for the attack, marshaling hijacked computers for a concentrated assault. Security researcher Sean-Paul Correll also reported that the "zombie computers" of involuntary botnets had provided 90% of the attack. Topiary states that he and other Anons then "lied a bit to the press to give it that sense of abundance", exaggerating the role of the grassroots membership. However, this account was disputed.
The attacks brought down PayPal.com for an hour on December 8 and another brief period on December 9. Anonymous also disrupted the sites for Visa and MasterCard on December 8. Anons had announced an intention to bring down Amazon.com as well, but failed to do so, allegedly because of infighting with the hackers who controlled the botnets. PayPal estimated the damage to have cost the company US\$5.5 million. It later provided the IP addresses of 1,000 of its attackers to the FBI, leading to at least 14 arrests. On Thursday, December 5, 2013, 13 of the PayPal 14 pleaded guilty to taking part in the attacks.
### 2011–2012
In the years following Operation Payback, targets of Anonymous protests, hacks, and DDoS attacks continued to diversify. Beginning in January 2011, Anons took a number of actions known initially as Operation Tunisia in support of Arab Spring movements. Tflow created a script that Tunisians could use to protect their web browsers from government surveillance, while fellow future LulzSec member Hector Xavier Monsegur (alias "Sabu") and others allegedly hijacked servers from a London web-hosting company to launch a DDoS attack on Tunisian government websites, taking them offline. Sabu also used a Tunisian volunteer's computer to hack the website of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, replacing it with a message from Anonymous. Anons also helped Tunisian dissidents share videos online about the uprising. In Operation Egypt, Anons collaborated with the activist group Telecomix to help dissidents access government-censored websites. Sabu and Topiary went on to participate in attacks on government websites in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, and Zimbabwe.
Tflow, Sabu, Topiary, and Ryan Ackroyd (known as "Kayla") collaborated in February 2011 on a cyber-attack against Aaron Barr, CEO of the computer security firm HBGary Federal, in retaliation for his research on Anonymous and his threat to expose members of the group. Using a SQL injection weakness, the four hacked the HBGary site, used Barr's captured password to vandalize his Twitter feed with racist messages, and released an enormous cache of HBGary's e-mails in a torrent file on Pirate Bay. The e-mails stated that Barr and HBGary had proposed to Bank of America a plan to discredit WikiLeaks in retaliation for a planned leak of Bank of America documents, and the leak caused substantial public relations harm to the firm as well as leading one U.S. congressman to call for a congressional investigation. Barr resigned as CEO before the end of the month.
Several attacks by Anons have targeted organizations accused of homophobia. In February 2011, an open letter was published on AnonNews.org threatening the Westboro Baptist Church, an organization based in Kansas in the U.S. known for picketing funerals with signs reading "God Hates Fags". During a live radio current affairs program in which Topiary debated church member Shirley Phelps-Roper, CosmoTheGod hacked one of the organization's websites. After the church announced its intentions in December 2012 to picket the funerals of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, CosmoTheGod published the names, phone numbers, and e-mail and home addresses of church members and brought down GodHatesFags.com with a DDoS attack. In August 2012, Anons hacked the site of Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi in retaliation for the Parliament of Uganda's consideration of an anti-homosexuality law permitting capital punishment.
In April 2011, Anons launched a series of attacks against Sony in retaliation for trying to stop hacks of the PlayStation 3 game console. More than 100 million Sony accounts were compromised, and the Sony services Qriocity and PlayStation Network were taken down for a month apiece by cyberattacks.
In July 2011, Anonymous announced the launch of its social media platform Anonplus. This came after Anonymous' presence was removed from Google+. The site was later hacked by a Turkish hackers group who placed a message on the front page and replaced its logo with a picture of a dog.
In August 2011, Anons launched an attack against BART in San Francisco, which they dubbed \#OpBart. The attack, made in response to the killing of Charles Hill a month prior, resulted in customers' personal information leaked onto the group's website.
When the Occupy Wall Street protests began in New York City in September 2011, Anons were early participants and helped spread the movement to other cities such as Boston. In October, some Anons attacked the website of the New York Stock Exchange while other Anons publicly opposed the action via Twitter. Some Anons also helped organize an Occupy protest outside the London Stock Exchange on May 1, 2012.
Anons launched Operation Darknet in October 2011, targeting websites hosting child pornography. In particular, the group hacked a child pornography site called "Lolita City" hosted by Freedom Hosting, releasing 1,589 usernames from the site. Anons also said that they had disabled forty image-swapping pedophile websites that employed the anonymity network Tor. In 2012, Anons leaked the names of users of a suspected child porn site in OpDarknetV2. Anonymous launched the \#OpPedoChat campaign on Twitter in 2012 as a continuation of Operation Darknet. In attempt to eliminate child pornography from the internet, the group posted the emails and IP addresses of suspected pedophiles on the online forum PasteBin.
In 2011, the Koch Industries website was attacked following their attack upon union members, resulting in their website being made inaccessible for 15 minutes. In 2013, one member, a 38-year-old truck driver, pleaded guilty when accused of participating in the attack for a period of one minute, and received a sentence of two years federal probation, and ordered to pay \$183,000 restitution, the amount Koch stated they paid a consultancy organization, despite this being only a denial of service attack.
On January 19, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice shut down the file-sharing site Megaupload on allegations of copyright infringement. Anons responded with a wave of DDoS attacks on U.S. government and copyright organizations, shutting down the sites for the RIAA, MPAA, Broadcast Music, Inc., and the FBI.
In April 2012, Anonymous hacked 485 Chinese government websites, some more than once, to protest the treatment of their citizens. They urged people to "fight for justice, fight for freedom, [and] fight for democracy".
In 2012, Anonymous launched Operation Anti-Bully: Operation Hunt Hunter in retaliation to Hunter Moore's revenge porn site, "Is Anyone Up?" Anonymous crashed Moore's servers and publicized much of his personal information online, including his social security number. The organization also published the personal information of Andrew Myers, the proprietor of "Is Anyone Back", a copycat site of Moore's "Is Anyone Up?"
In response to Operation Pillar of Defense, a November 2012 Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, Anons took down hundreds of Israeli websites with DDoS attacks. Anons pledged another "massive cyberassault" against Israel in April 2013 in retaliation for its actions in Gaza, promising to "wipe Israel off the map of the Internet". However, its DDoS attacks caused only temporary disruptions, leading cyberwarfare experts to suggest that the group had been unable to recruit or hire botnet operators for the attack.
### 2013
On November 5, 2013, Anonymous protesters gathered around the world for the Million Mask March. Demonstrations were held in 400 cities around the world to coincide with Guy Fawkes Night.
Operation Safe Winter was an effort to raise awareness about homelessness through the collection, collation, and redistribution of resources. This program began on November 7, 2013 after an online call to action from Anonymous UK. Three missions using a charity framework were suggested in the original global spawning a variety of direct actions from used clothing drives to pitch in community potlucks feeding events in the UK, US and Turkey. The \#OpSafeWinter call to action quickly spread through the mutual aid communities like Occupy Wall Street and its offshoot groups like the open-source-based OccuWeather. With the addition of the long-term mutual aid communities of New York City and online hacktivists in the US, it took on an additional three suggested missions. Encouraging participation from the general public, this operation has raised questions of privacy and the changing nature of the Anonymous community's use of monikers. The project to support those living on the streets while causing division in its own online network has been able to partner with many efforts and organizations not traditionally associated with Anonymous or online activists.
### 2014
In the wake of the fatal police shooting of unarmed African-American Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, "Operation Ferguson"—a hacktivist organization that claimed to be associated with Anonymous—organized cyberprotests against police, setting up a website and a Twitter account to do so. The group promised that if any protesters were harassed or harmed, they would attack the city's servers and computers, taking them offline. City officials said that e-mail systems were targeted and phones died, while the Internet crashed at the City Hall. Prior to August 15, members of Anonymous corresponding with Mother Jones said that they were working on confirming the identity of the undisclosed police officer who shot Brown and would release his name as soon as they did. On August 14, Anonymous posted on its Twitter feed what it claimed was the name of the officer involved in the shooting. However, police said the identity released by Anonymous was incorrect. Twitter subsequently suspended the Anonymous account from its service.
It was reported on November 19, 2014, that Anonymous had declared cyber war on the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) the previous week, after the KKK had made death threats following the Ferguson riots. They hacked the KKK's Twitter account, attacked servers hosting KKK sites, and started to release the personal details of members.
On November 24, 2014, Anonymous shut down the Cleveland city website and posted a video after Tamir Rice, a twelve-year-old boy armed only with a BB gun, was shot to death by a police officer in a Cleveland park. Anonymous also used BeenVerified to uncover the phone number and address of a police officer involved in the shooting.
### 2015
In January 2015, Anonymous released a video and a statement via Twitter condemning the attack on Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people, including eight journalists, were fatally shot. The video, claiming that it is "a message for al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and other terrorists", was uploaded to the group's Belgian account. The announcement stated that "We, Anonymous around the world, have decided to declare war on you, the terrorists" and promises to avenge the killings by "shut[ting] down your accounts on all social networks." On January 12, they brought down a website that was suspected to belong to one of these groups. Critics of the action warned that taking down extremists' websites would make them harder to monitor.
On June 17, 2015, Anonymous claimed responsibility for a Denial of Service attack against Canadian government websites in protest of the passage of bill C-51—an anti-terror legislation that grants additional powers to Canadian intelligence agencies. The attack temporarily affected the websites of several federal agencies.
On October 28, 2015, Anonymous announced that it would reveal the names of up to 1,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan and other affiliated groups, stating in a press release, "You are terrorists that hide your identities beneath sheets and infiltrate society on every level. The privacy of the Ku Klux Klan no longer exists in cyberspace." On November 2, a list of 57 phone numbers and 23 email addresses (that allegedly belong to KKK members) was reportedly published and received media attention. However, a tweet from the "@Operation_KKK" Twitter account the same day denied it had released that information The group stated it planned to, and later did, reveal the names on November 5.
Since 2013, Saudi Arabian hacktivists have been targeting government websites protesting the actions of the regime. These actions have seen attacks supported by the possibly Iranian backed Yemen Cyber Army. An offshoot of Anonymous self-described as Ghost Security or GhostSec started targeting Islamic State-affiliated websites and social media handles.
In November 2015, Anonymous announced a major, sustained operation against ISIS following the November 2015 Paris attacks, declaring: "Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. You should know that we will find you and we will not let you go." ISIS responded on Telegram by calling them "idiots", and asking "What they gonna to [sic] hack?" By the next day, however, Anonymous claimed to have taken down 3,824 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts, and by the third day more than 5,000, and to have doxxed ISIS recruiters. A week later, Anonymous increased their claim to 20,000 pro-ISIS accounts and released a list of the accounts. The list included the Twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, The New York Times, and BBC News. The BBC reported that most of the accounts on the list appeared to be still active. A spokesman for Twitter told The Daily Dot that the company is not using the lists of accounts being reported by Anonymous, as they have been found to be "wildly inaccurate" and include accounts used by academics and journalists.
In 2015, a group that claimed to be affiliated with Anonymous, calling themselves as AnonSec, claimed to have hacked and gathered almost 276 GB of data from NASA servers including NASA flight and radar logs and videos, and also multiple documents related to ongoing research. AnonSec group also claimed gaining access of a Global Hawk Drone of NASA, and released some video footage purportedly from the drone's cameras. A part of the data was released by AnonSec on Pastebin service, as an Anon Zine. NASA has denied the hack, asserting that the control of the drones were never compromised, but has acknowledged that the photos released along with the content are real photographs of its employees, but that most of these data are already available in the public domain.
### 2016
The Blink Hacker Group, associating themselves with the Anonymous group, claimed to have hacked the Thailand prison websites and servers. The compromised data has been shared online, with the group claiming that they give the data back to Thailand Justice and the citizens of Thailand as well. The hack was done in response to news from Thailand about the mistreatment of prisoners in Thailand.
In late 2017, the QAnon conspiracy theory first emerged on 4chan, and adherents used similar terminology and branding as Anonymous. In response, anti-Trump members of Anonymous warned that QAnon was stealing the collective's branding and vowed to oppose the theory.
A group calling themselves Anonymous Africa launched a number of DDoS attacks on websites associated with the controversial South African Gupta family in mid-June 2016. Gupta-owned companies targeted included the websites of Oakbay Investments, The New Age, and ANN7. The websites of the South African Broadcasting Corporation and a political parties Economic Freedom Fighters and Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF were also attacked for "nationalist socialist [Nazi] rhetoric and politicising racism."
### 2020
In February 2020, Anonymous hacked the United Nations' website and created a page for Taiwan, a country which has not had a seat at the UN since 1971. The hacked page featured the Flag of Taiwan, the KMT emblem, a Taiwan Independence flag, and the Anonymous logo along with a caption. The hacked server belonged to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
In the wake of protests across the U.S. following the murder of George Floyd, Anonymous released a video on Facebook as well as sending it out to the Minneapolis Police Department on May 28, 2020, titled "Anonymous Message To The Minneapolis Police Department", in which they state that they are going to seek revenge on the Minneapolis Police Department, and "expose their crimes to the world". According to Bloomberg, the video was initially posted on an unconfirmed Anonymous Facebook page on May 28. According to BBC News, that same Facebook page had no notoriety and published videos of dubious content linked to UFOs and "China's plan to take over the world". It gained repercussions after the video about George Floyd was published and the Minneapolis police website, which is responsible for the police officer, was down. Later, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that every computer in the region suffered a sophisticated attack. According to BBC News, the attack on the police website using DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) was unsophisticated. According to researcher Troy Hunt, these breaches of the site may have happened from old credentials. Regarding unverified Twitter posts that also went viral, where radio stations of police officers playing music and preventing communication are shown, experts point out that this is unlikely to be due to a hack attack – if they are real. Later, it was confirmed by CNET that the leaks made from the police website are false and that someone is taking advantage of the repercussions of George Floyd's murder to spread misinformation.
On June 19, 2020, Anonymous published BlueLeaks, sometimes referred to by the Twitter hashtag \#BlueLeaks, 269.21 gigabytes of internal U.S. law enforcement data through the activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets, which called it the "largest published hack of American law enforcement agencies". The data — internal intelligence, bulletins, emails, and reports — was produced between August 1996 and June 2020 by more than 200 law enforcement agencies, which provided it to fusion centers. It was obtained through a security breach of Netsential, a web developer that works with fusion centers and law enforcement. In Maine, legislators took interest in BlueLeaks thanks to details about the Maine Information and Analysis Center, which is under investigation. The leaks showed the fusion center was spying on and keeping records on people who had been legally protesting or had been "suspicious" but committed no crime.
In 2020, Anonymous started cyber-attacks against the Nigerian government. They started the operation to support the \#EndSARS movement in Nigeria. The group's attacks were tweeted by a member of Anonymous called LiteMods. The websites of EFCC, INEC and various other Nigerian government websites were taken-down with DDoS attacks. The websites of some banks were compromised.
### 2021
The Texas Heartbeat Act, a law which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, came into effect in Texas on September 1, 2021. The law relies on private citizens to file civil lawsuits against anyone who performs or induces an abortion, or aids and abets one, once "cardiac activity" in an embryo can be detected via transvaginal ultrasound, which is usually possible beginning at around six weeks of pregnancy. Shortly after the law came into effect, anti-abortion organizations set up websites to collect "whistleblower" reports of suspected violators of the bill.
On September 3, Anonymous announced "Operation Jane", a campaign focused on stymying those who attempted to enforce the law by "exhaust[ing] the investigational resources of bounty hunters, their snitch sites, and online gathering spaces until no one is able to maintain data integrity". On September 11, the group hacked the website of the Republican Party of Texas, replacing it with text about Anonymous, an invitation to join Operation Jane, and a Planned Parenthood donation link.
On September 13, Anonymous released a large quantity of private data belonging to Epik, a domain registrar and web hosting company known for providing services to websites that host far-right, neo-Nazi, and other extremist content. Epik had briefly provided services to an abortion "whistleblower" website run by the anti-abortion Texas Right to Life organization, but the reporting form went offline on September 4 after Epik told the group they had violated their terms of service by collecting private information about third parties. The data included domain purchase and transfer details, account credentials and logins, payment history, employee emails, and unidentified private keys. The hackers claimed they had obtained "a decade's worth of data" which included all customers and all domains ever hosted or registered through the company, and which included poorly encrypted passwords and other sensitive data stored in plaintext. Later on September 13, the Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) organization said they were working to curate the allegedly leaked data for more accessible download, and said that it consisted of "180 gigabytes of user, registration, forwarding and other information". Publications including The Daily Dot and The Record by Recorded Future subsequently confirmed the veracity of the hack and the types of data that had been exposed. Anonymous released another leak on September 29, this time publishing bootable disk images of Epik's servers; more disk images as well as some leaked documents from the Republican Party of Texas appeared on October 4.
### 2022
On February 25, 2022, Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous declared that they had launched a 'cyber operations' against the Russian Federation, in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The group later temporarily disabled websites such as RT.com and the website of the Defence Ministry along with other state owned websites. Anonymous also leaked 200 GB worth of emails from the Belarusian weapons manufacturer Tetraedr, which provided logistical support for Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Anonymous also hacked into Russian TV channels and played Ukrainian music through them and showed uncensored news of events in Ukraine.
#### Operation Russia
On March 7, 2022, Anonymous actors DepaixPorteur and TheWarriorPoetz declared on Twitter that they hacked 400 Russian surveillance cameras and broadcast them on a website. They call this operation "Russian Camera Dump".
Between March 25, 2022 and June 1, 2022, DDoSecrets hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes and millions of emails allegedly from the Central Bank of Russia, Capital Legal Services, All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), Aerogas, Blagoveshchensk City Administration, Continent Express, Gazregion, GUOV i GS - General Dept. of Troops and Civil Construction, Accent Capital, ALET/АЛЕТ, CorpMSP, Nikolai M. Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO), the Achinsk City Government, SOCAR Energoresource, Metprom Group LLC, and the Vyberi Radio / Выбери Радио group which were allegedly hacked by Anonymous and Anonymous aligned NB65.
#### Iranian Protests
Anonymous launched a cyber operation against the Iranian government for the alleged murder of Mahsa Amini. Anonymous launched distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks against Iran's government and state-owned websites. On September 23, 2022, a hacktivist named "Edaalate Ali" hacked Iran's state tv government channel during the middle of broadcast and released CCTV footage of Iran's prison facilities. On Sunday, October 23, 2022 that an Iranian hacker group known as "Black Reward" published confidential files and documents email system belonging to Iran's nuclear program. Black Reward announced on their Telegram channel that they have hacked into 324 emails which that contained more than a hundred thousand messages and over 50 gigabytes of files. A hacktivist group by the name "Lab Dookhtegan" published the Microsoft Excel macros, PowerShell exploits APT34 reportedly used to target organizations across the world.
#### China Protests
In response to the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China, "Anonymous OpIran" launched Operation White Paper, attacked and took down Chinese government controlled websites, and leaked some Chinese government officials' personal information.
## Related groups
### LulzSec
In May 2011, the small group of Anons behind the HBGary Federal hack—including Tflow, Topiary, Sabu, and Kayla—formed the hacker group "Lulz Security", commonly abbreviated "LulzSec". The group's first attack was against Fox.com, leaking several passwords, LinkedIn profiles, and the names of 73,000 X Factor contestants. In May 2011, members of Lulz Security gained international attention for hacking into the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) website. They stole user data and posted a fake story on the site that claimed that rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were still alive and living in New Zealand. LulzSec stated that some of its hacks, including its attack on PBS, were motivated by a desire to defend WikiLeaks and its informant Chelsea Manning.
In June 2011, members of the group claimed responsibility for an attack against Sony Pictures that took data that included "names, passwords, e-mail addresses, home addresses and dates of birth for thousands of people." In early June, LulzSec hacked into and stole user information from the pornography website www.pron.com. They obtained and published around 26,000 e-mail addresses and passwords. On June 14, 2011, LulzSec took down four websites by request of fans as part of their "Titanic Take-down Tuesday". These websites were Minecraft, League of Legends, The Escapist, and IT security company FinFisher. They also attacked the login servers of the multiplayer online game EVE Online, which also disabled the game's front-facing website, and the League of Legends login servers. Most of the takedowns were performed with DDoS attacks.
LulzSec also hacked a variety of government-affiliated sites, such as chapter sites of InfraGard, a non-profit organization affiliated with the FBI. The group leaked some of InfraGard member e-mails and a database of local users. On June 13, LulzSec released the e-mails and passwords of a number of users of senate.gov, the website of the U.S. Senate. On June 15, LulzSec launched an attack on cia.gov, the public website of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, taking the website offline for several hours with a distributed denial-of-service attack. On December 2, an offshoot of LulzSec calling itself LulzSec Portugal attacked several sites related to the government of Portugal. The websites for the Bank of Portugal, the Assembly of the Republic, and the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Development all became unavailable for a few hours.
On June 26, 2011, the core LulzSec group announced it had reached the end of its "50 days of lulz" and was ceasing operations. Sabu, however, had already been secretly arrested on June 7 and then released to work as an FBI informant. His cooperation led to the arrests of Ryan Cleary, James Jeffery, and others. Tflow was arrested on July 19, 2011, Topiary was arrested on July 27, and Kayla was arrested on March 6, 2012. Topiary, Kayla, Tflow, and Cleary pleaded guilty in April 2013 and were scheduled to be sentenced in May 2013. In April 2013, Australian police arrested the alleged LulzSec leader Aush0k, but subsequent prosecutions failed to establish police claims.
### AntiSec
Beginning in June 2011, hackers from Anonymous and LulzSec collaborated on a series of cyber attacks known as "Operation AntiSec". On June 23, in retaliation for the passage of the immigration enforcement bill Arizona SB 1070, LulzSec released a cache of documents from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, including the personal information and home addresses of many law enforcement officers. On June 22, LulzSec Brazil took down the websites of the Government of Brazil and the President of Brazil. Later data dumps included the names, addresses, phone numbers, Internet passwords, and Social Security numbers of police officers in Arizona, Missouri, and Alabama. AntiSec members also stole police officer credit card information to make donations to various causes.
On July 18, LulzSec hacked into and vandalized the website of British newspaper The Sun in response to a phone-hacking scandal. Other targets of AntiSec actions have included FBI contractor ManTech International, computer security firm Vanguard Defense Industries, and defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, releasing 90,000 military e-mail accounts and their passwords from the latter.
In December 2011, AntiSec member "sup_g" (alleged by the U.S. government to be Jeremy Hammond) and others hacked Stratfor, a U.S.-based intelligence company, vandalizing its web page and publishing 30,000 credit card numbers from its databases. AntiSec later released millions of the company's e-mails to Wikileaks.
## Arrests and trials
Since 2009, dozens of people have been arrested for involvement in Anonymous cyberattacks, in countries including the U.S., UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and Turkey. Anons generally protest these prosecutions and describe these individuals as martyrs to the movement. The July 2011 arrest of LulzSec member Topiary became a particular rallying point, leading to a widespread "Free Topiary" movement.
The first person to be sent to jail for participation in an Anonymous DDoS attack was Dmitriy Guzner, an American 19-year-old. He pleaded guilty to "unauthorized impairment of a protected computer" in November 2009 and was sentenced to 366 days in U.S. federal prison.
On June 13, 2011, officials in Turkey arrested 32 individuals that were allegedly involved in DDoS attacks on Turkish government websites. These members of Anonymous were captured in different cities of Turkey including Istanbul and Ankara. According to PC Magazine, these individuals were arrested after they attacked websites as a response to the Turkish government demand to ISPs to implement a system of filters that many have perceived as censorship.
Chris Doyon (alias "Commander X"), a self-described leader of Anonymous, was arrested in September 2011 for a cyberattack on the website of Santa Cruz County, California. He jumped bail in February 2012 and fled across the border into Canada.
In September 2012, journalist and Anonymous associate Barrett Brown, known for speaking to media on behalf of the group, was arrested hours after posting a video that appeared to threaten FBI agents with physical violence. Brown was subsequently charged with 17 offenses, including publishing personal credit card information from the Stratfor hack.
### Operation Avenge Assange
Several law enforcement agencies took action after Anonymous' Operation Avenge Assange. In January 2011, British police arrested five male suspects between the ages of 15 and 26 with suspicion of participating in Anonymous DDoS attacks. During July 19–20, 2011, as many as 20 or more arrests were made of suspected Anonymous hackers in the US, UK, and Netherlands. According to the statements of U.S. officials, suspects' homes were raided and suspects were arrested in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington DC, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, and Ohio. Additionally, a 16-year-old boy was held by the police in south London on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act 1990, and four were held in the Netherlands.
AnonOps admin Christopher Weatherhead (alias "Nerdo"), a 22-year-old who had reportedly been intimately involved in organizing DDoS attacks during "Operation Payback", was convicted by a UK court on one count of conspiracy to impair the operation of computers in December 2012. He was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. Ashley Rhodes, Peter Gibson, and another male had already pleaded guilty to the same charge for actions between August 2010 and January 2011.
## Analysis
Evaluations of Anonymous' actions and effectiveness vary widely. In a widely shared post, blogger Patrick Gray wrote that private security firms "secretly love" the group for the way in which it publicizes cyber security threats. Anonymous is sometimes stated to have changed the nature of protesting, and in 2012, Time called it one of the "100 most influential people" in the world.
In 2012, Public Radio International reported that the U.S. National Security Agency considered Anonymous a potential national security threat and had warned the president that it could develop the capability to disable parts of the U.S. power grid. In contrast, CNN reported in the same year that "security industry experts generally don't consider Anonymous a major player in the world of cybercrime" due to the group's reliance on DDoS attacks that briefly disabled websites rather than the more serious damage possible through hacking. One security consultant compared the group to "a jewelry thief that drives through a window, steal jewels, and rather than keep them, waves them around and tosses them out to a crowd ... They're very noisy, low-grade crimes." In its 2013 Threats Predictions report, McAfee wrote that the technical sophistication of Anonymous was in decline and that it was losing supporters due to "too many uncoordinated and unclear operations".
Graham Cluley, a security expert for Sophos, argued that Anonymous' actions against child porn websites hosted on a darknet could be counterproductive, commenting that while their intentions may be good, the removal of illegal websites and sharing networks should be performed by the authorities, rather than Internet vigilantes. Some commentators also argued that the DDoS attacks by Anonymous following the January 2012 Stop Online Piracy Act protests had proved counterproductive. Molly Wood of CNET wrote that "[i]f the SOPA/PIPA protests were the Web's moment of inspiring, non-violent, hand-holding civil disobedience, \#OpMegaUpload feels like the unsettling wave of car-burning hooligans that sweep in and incite the riot portion of the play." Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle concurred, stating that "Anonymous' actions hurt the movement to kill SOPA/PIPA by highlighting online lawlessness." The Oxford Internet Institute's Joss Wright wrote that "In one sense the actions of Anonymous are themselves, anonymously and unaccountably, censoring websites in response to positions with which they disagree."
Gabriella Coleman has compared the group to the trickster archetype and said that "they dramatize the importance of anonymity and privacy in an era when both are rapidly eroding. Given that vast databases track us, given the vast explosion of surveillance, there's something enchanting, mesmerizing and at a minimum thought-provoking about Anonymous' interventions". When asked what good Anonymous had done for the world, Parmy Olson replied:
> In some cases, yes, I think it has in terms of some of the stuff they did in the Middle East supporting the pro-democracy demonstrators. But a lot of bad things too, unnecessarily harassing people – I would class that as a bad thing. DDOSing the CIA website, stealing customer data and posting it online just for shits and giggles is not a good thing.
Quinn Norton of Wired wrote of the group in 2011:
> I will confess up front that I love Anonymous, but not because I think they're the heroes. Like Alan Moore's character V who inspired Anonymous to adopt the Guy Fawkes mask as an icon and fashion item, you're never quite sure if Anonymous is the hero or antihero. The trickster is attracted to change and the need for change, and that's where Anonymous goes. But they are not your personal army – that's Rule 44 – yes, there are rules. And when they do something, it never goes quite as planned. The internet has no neat endings.
Furthermore, Landers assessed the following in 2008:
> Anonymous is the first internet-based super-consciousness. Anonymous is a group, in the sense that a flock of birds is a group. How do you know they’re a group? Because they’re travelling in the same direction. At any given moment, more birds could join, leave, peel off in another direction entirely.
## Media portrayal
Sam Esmail shared in an interview with Motherboard that he was inspired by Anonymous when creating the USA Network hacktivist drama, Mr. Robot. Furthermore, Wired calls the "Omegas", a fictitious hacker group in the show, "a clear reference to the Anonymous offshoot known as LulzSec". In the TV series Elementary a hacktivist collective called "Everyone" plays a recurring role; there are several hints and similarities to Anonymous.
## See also
Memetic persona
- Luther Blissett (nom de plume)
- Crowd psychology
- John Doe
- Proteus effect
Composition
- Emergent organization
- Fourth-generation warfare
- Self-organization
- Spontaneous order
- Adhocracy
Activism
- Electronic civil disobedience
- Leaderless resistance
- Streisand effect
Other related articles
- Anti-mask laws
- Derp (hacker group)
- LulzRaft
- Securax
- RedHack
- We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists'' |
45,701,683 | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft | 1,171,151,257 | 1990 art theft in Boston | [
"1990 crimes in the United States",
"1990 in Boston",
"American Mafia events",
"Art crime",
"Crimes in Massachusetts",
"Individual thefts",
"March 1990 crimes",
"March 1990 events in the United States",
"Museum crime",
"Patriarca crime family",
"Robberies in the United States",
"Unsolved crimes in the United States"
]
| In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, 13 works of art were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Guards admitted two men posing as police officers responding to a disturbance call, and the thieves bound the guards and looted the museum over the next hour. The case is unsolved; no arrests have been made and no works have been recovered. The stolen works have been valued at hundreds of millions of dollars by the FBI and art dealers. The museum offers a \$10 million reward for information leading to the art's recovery, the largest bounty ever offered by a private institution.
The stolen works were originally procured by art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) and were intended for permanent display at the museum with the rest of her collection. Among them was The Concert, one of only 34 known paintings by Johannes Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting in the world. Also missing is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt's only seascape. Other paintings and sketches by Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Govert Flinck were stolen, along with a relatively valueless eagle finial and Chinese gu. Experts were puzzled by the choice of artwork, as more valuable works were left untouched. As the collection and its layout are intended to be permanent, empty frames remain hanging both in homage to the missing works and as placeholders for their return.
The FBI believes that the robbery was planned by a criminal organization. The case lacks strong physical evidence, and the FBI has largely depended on interrogations, undercover informants and sting operations to collect information. It has focused primarily on the Boston Mafia, which was in the midst of an internal gang war during the period. One theory holds that gangster Bobby Donati organized the heist to negotiate for his caporegime's release from prison; Donati was murdered one year after the robbery. Other accounts suggest that the paintings were stolen by a gang in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, although these suspects deny involvement despite the fact that a sting operation resulted in several prison sentences. All have denied any knowledge or have provided leads that proved fruitless, despite the offer of reward money and reduced or canceled prison sentences if they had disclosed information leading to recovery of the artworks.
## Background
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was constructed under the guidance of art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) to house her personal art collection. The museum opened to the public in 1903, and Gardner continued to expand the collection and arrange it until she died in 1924. She left the museum with a \$3.6 million endowment, and her will stipulated that the arrangement of the artwork should not be altered and that no items were to be sold from or purchased into the collection.
By the 1980s, the museum was running low on funds. This financial strain left the museum in poor condition; it lacked a climate control system and an insurance policy and was in need of basic building maintenance. After the FBI uncovered a plot by Boston criminals to rob the museum in 1982, the museum allocated funds to improve security. Among these improvements were 60 infrared motion detectors and a closed-circuit television system consisting of four cameras placed around the building's perimeter. No cameras had been installed inside the museum, as its board of trustees considered the cost prohibitive, but additional security guards were hired. Despite these security improvements, the only manner in which guards could summon police to the museum was by pressing a button at the security desk. Other area museums had fail-safe systems that required night watchmen to place hourly phone calls with the police to indicate that conditions were normal.
An independent consultant reviewed the museum's security operations in 1988 and determined that they were on par with most other museums but recommended improvements. The security director at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston also suggested security upgrades to the museum. Because of the museum's financial strain and Gardner's directive forbidding major renovations, the board of trustees did not approve these security enhancements. The board also denied a request from the security director for higher guard salaries in a bid to attract more qualified applicants. The museum's guards were paid slightly higher than minimum wage, and the museum's security flaws were an open secret among the guards.
## Robbery
### Prelude
The robbery occurred in the early hours of Sunday, March 18, 1990. The thieves were first witnessed around 12:30 a.m. by several St. Patrick's Day revelers leaving a party near the museum. The two men were disguised as police officers and parked in a hatchback on Palace Road, about a hundred feet from the side entrance. The witnesses believed them to be policemen.
The museum guards on duty that night were Rick Abath, age 23, and Randy Hestand, age 25. Abath was a regular night watchman, but March 18 was Hestand's first time on the night shift. The museum's security policy required that one guard would patrol the galleries with a flashlight and walkie-talkie while the other would sit at the security desk. When Abath took the first patrol, fire alarms sounded in several rooms, but he could not locate any fire or smoke. He returned to the security room where the fire alarm control panel indicated smoke in multiple rooms. He assumed that some type of malfunction had occurred and disabled the panel before returning to his patrol. Before completing his rounds, Abath stopped at the side entrance of the museum, briefly opening the side door and shutting it again without informing Hestand. Abath returned to the security desk around 1:00 a.m. and Hestand assumed patrol duties.
### Guards are subdued
At 1:20 a.m., the thieves drove to the side entrance, parked and walked to the side door. They rang the buzzer, which connected them to Abath through an intercom. They explained to Abath that they were police investigating a disturbance and that they must be admitted. Abath could see them on the closed-circuit television wearing what appeared to be police uniforms. He was not aware of any disturbance, but he surmised that a St. Patrick's Day reveler may have had climbed over the fence, causing someone to report it to the police. Abath admitted the men at 1:24 a.m.
The thieves first entered a locked foyer that separated the side door from the museum. They approached Abath at the security desk and asked if anyone else was in the museum. Abath radioed Hestand to return to the security desk. Abath noticed around this time that the taller man's moustache appeared to be fake. The shorter man told Abath that he looked familiar and that they may have a warrant for his arrest, demanding that Abath emerge from behind the desk to provide identification. Abath complied, leaving the desk that contained the museum's only panic button to alert police. The shorter man forced Abath against a wall, spread his legs and handcuffed him. Hestand walked into the room around this time and the taller thief turned him toward the wall and handcuffed him. With both guards handcuffed, the thieves revealed their true intentions to rob the museum and asked the guards to not cause any problems.
The thieves wrapped duct tape around the heads and eyes of the guards. Without asking for directions, they led the guards into the basement, where the guards were handcuffed to a steam pipe and workbench. The thieves examined the guards' wallets and threatened that they knew where the guards lived and told them that if they would not inform the authorities, they would receive a reward in about a year. It took the thieves less than 15 minutes to subdue the guards, which they completed at about 1:35 a.m.
### Stealing the works
The thieves' movements through the museum were recorded on infrared motion detectors. Steps in the first room they entered, the Dutch Room on the second floor, were not recorded until 1:48 a.m. This was 13 minutes after they had finished subduing the guards, perhaps waiting to ensure that police had not been alerted.
As the thieves approached the paintings in the Dutch Room, a sensor sounded that was intended to alert when patrons moved too close to artwork, and the thieves smashed the device. They removed The Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black from the wall and threw them on the marble floor, shattering their glass frames. Using a blade, they cut the canvases out of their stretchers. They also removed a large Rembrandt self-portrait oil painting from the wall but left it leaning against a cabinet. Investigators believe that the thieves may have considered it too large to transport, potentially because it was painted on wood and not canvas like the others. The thieves instead took a small postage-stamp-sized self-portrait etching by Rembrandt on display beneath the larger portrait. On the right side of the room, they removed Landscape with Obelisk and The Concert from their frames. The final piece taken from the room was an ancient Chinese gu.
At 1:51 a.m., while one thief continued working in the Dutch Room, the other entered a narrow hallway dubbed the Short Gallery on the other end of the second floor. Soon both men were in the Short Gallery, where they began removing screws for a frame displaying a Napoleonic flag, likely an effort to steal the flag. They appeared to have abandoned the effort, as some screws were not removed, and they ultimately took only the exposed eagle finial atop the flagpole. They also took five Degas sketches from the room. The last work stolen was Chez Tortoni from the Blue Room on the first floor. The museum's motion detectors did not detect any motion within the Blue Room during the thieves' time in the building. The only footsteps detected in the room that night were Abath's during the two times when he passed through the gallery on his earlier patrol.
As they prepared to leave, the thieves checked the guards again and asked if they were comfortable. The thieves then moved to the security director's office, where they took the video cassettes that contained evidence of their entrance from the closed-circuit cameras as well as the data printouts from the motion-detecting equipment. The movement data was also captured on a hard drive, which remained untouched. The frame for Chez Tortoni was left at the security director's desk. The thieves then began to remove the artwork from the museum. The side entrance doors were opened at 2:40 a.m. and again for the last time at 2:45 a.m. The robbery lasted 81 minutes.
The next guard shift arrived later in the morning and realized that something was amiss when they could not establish contact with anyone inside for admittance. They called the security director, who entered the building with his keys and found nobody at the watch desk before calling the police. The police searched the building and found the guards still bound in the basement.
## Stolen artwork
Thirteen works were stolen. In 1990, the FBI estimated the value of the theft at \$200 million and raised the estimate to \$500 million by 2000. In the late 2000s, some art dealers suggested that the total value of the stolen artwork could be \$600 million. It is considered the highest-value museum robbery in history.
The most valuable works were taken from the Dutch Room. Among these was The Concert by Dutch painter Vermeer (1632–75), one of only 34 paintings attributed to him. The painting accounts for half of the overall theft's value, estimated at \$250 million in 2015. Experts believe that The Concert may be the most valuable stolen object in the world. In the same room, the thieves targeted works by Dutch painter Rembrandt (1606–69). These include The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, his only seascape and the most valuable of his works stolen that night. Estimates have placed its value at about \$140 million. The other Rembrandt works taken were A Lady and Gentleman in Black and a small postage-stamp-sized self-portrait etching. The latter was previously stolen and returned in 1970. The thieves may have taken Landscape with Obelisk believing that it was a Rembrandt; it was long attributed to him until it was quietly credited to his pupil Govert Flinck (1615–60) a few years before the heist. The last item taken from the Dutch Room was a bronze gu about 10 inches (25 cm) tall. Traditionally used for serving wine in ancient China, the beaker was one of the oldest works in the museum, dating to the Shang Dynasty in the 12th century BC. Its estimated value is only several thousand dollars.
In the Short Gallery, five sketches by French artist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) were stolen. They were each drawn on paper less than a square foot in size and made with pencils, inks, washes and charcoal. They are of relatively little value compared with the other stolen works, worth under \$100,000 combined. Also taken was a 10-inch-tall (25 cm) French Imperial Eagle finial from the corner of a framed flag for Napoleon's Imperial Guard. There is a \$100,000 reward for information leading to the return of the finial alone. It possibly appeared to be made of gold to the thieves. Chez Tortoni by French painter Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was taken from the Blue Room; it was the only item taken from the first floor.
The eclectic mix of items has puzzled experts. While some of the paintings were valuable, the thieves passed other valuable works by Raphael, Botticelli and Michelangelo and left them undisturbed, opting to take relatively valueless items such as the gu and finial. The thieves did not enter the third floor where Titian's The Rape of Europa hung, which is among the most valuable paintings in the city. The selection of works and the thieves' rough treatment of the artwork has led investigators to believe that the thieves were not experts commissioned to steal particular works.
As Gardner's will decreed that nothing in her collection should be moved, the empty frames for the stolen paintings remain hanging in their respective locations in the museum as placeholders for their potential return. Because of the museum's low funds and lack of an insurance policy, the director solicited help from Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses to post a reward of \$1 million within three days. This was increased to \$5 million in 1997. In 2017, it was doubled to \$10 million with an expiration date set for the end of the year. This reward was extended following an outpouring of tips from the public. It is the largest bounty ever offered by a private institution. The reward is for "information that leads directly to the recovery of all of [their] items in good condition." Federal prosecutors have stated that anyone who willingly returns the items will not be prosecuted. The statute of limitations expired in 1995 as well, so the thieves and anyone else who participated in the theft cannot be prosecuted.
## Early leads and people of interest
The Federal Bureau of Investigation took immediate control of the case on the grounds that the artwork could likely cross state lines. Investigators have called the case unique for its lack of strong physical evidence. It is unknown if the thieves left DNA evidence. Although fingerprints and footprints were found at the scene, it could not be concluded whether they were from the thieves or from museum employees. The FBI has performed DNA analysis in the years following the theft as advancements in the field have grown. Some of the evidence has been lost among the agency's files. The guards and witnesses in the street described one thief as about 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) to 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) in his late 30s with a medium build, and the other as 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) to 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) in his early 30s with a heavier build.
### Rick Abath
Security guard Rick Abath was investigated at an early stage because of his suspicious behavior on the night of the theft. While on patrol, Abath briefly opened and closed a side door, a move that some believe could have been a signal to the thieves parked outside. Abath told authorities that he opened and closed the door routinely to ensure that it was locked. One of Abath's colleagues told journalists that if Abath had opened the door routinely as he maintains, supervisors would have noticed him doing so from their computer printouts and stopped the behavior. Suspicion has surrounded the museum's motion detectors, which did not detect any movement in the Blue Room (which housed Chez Tortoni) during the 81 minutes that the thieves were in the museum. The only footsteps in the room that night were Abath's during his security patrol. A security consultant reviewed the motion-detector equipment several weeks after the theft and determined they were operating correctly. Abath maintains his innocence, and the FBI agent overseeing the case in its early years concluded that the guards were too incompetent and foolish to have committed the crime.
In 2015, the FBI released a security video from the museum on the night before the theft showing Abath admitting an unidentified man into the museum to converse at the security desk. Abath told investigators that he could not recall the incident or recognize the man, and the FBI requested the public's assistance. Several former museum guards came forward and identified that the stranger was the museum's deputy security chief.
### Whitey Bulger
Whitey Bulger was one of the most powerful crime bosses in Boston during the era, heading the Winter Hill Gang. He denied involvement, and in fact dispatched his subordinates to identify the culprits because the robbery was committed within his area and he wanted to be paid tribute.
FBI agent Thomas McShane investigated Bulger to determine his involvement. He determined that Bulger's strong ties with the Boston police could explain how the thieves acquired legitimate police uniforms, or perhaps that real police were arranged to perform the heist. Bulger also had ties to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). McShane identified the act of tripping the fire alarm before the heist as a "calling card" of the IRA and of its rival Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Both organizations had agents in Boston at the time and both had previously demonstrated the capability to organize art heists. McShane's investigation of Bulger and the IRA did not produce any evidence to tie them to the theft. According to Charley Hill, a retired art and antiquities investigator for Scotland Yard, Bulger gave the Gardner works to the IRA and they are most likely in Ireland.
### 1994 letter to the museum
In 1994, museum director Anne Hawley received an anonymous letter from someone who claimed to be attempting to negotiate a return of the artwork. The writer explained that they were a third-party negotiator and did not know the identity of the thieves. They explained that the artwork was stolen to reduce a prison sentence, but as the opportunity had passed, there was no longer a motive to keep the artwork and they wanted to negotiate a return. The writer explained that the artwork was being held in a "non-common law country" under climate-controlled conditions. They wanted immunity for themselves and all others involved, and \$2.6 million for return of the artwork, which would be sent to an offshore bank account at the same time the art was handed over. If the museum was interested in negotiating, they should print a coded message in The Boston Globe. To establish credence, the writer conveyed information only known by the museum and FBI at the time.
Hawley felt this was a strong lead. She contacted the FBI, who then contacted the Globe and the coded message was printed on May 1, 1994, edition of The Boston Globe. Hawley received a second letter a few days later in which the writer acknowledged the museum was interested in negotiating, but that they had become fearful of what they perceived was a massive investigation by federal and state authorities to determine their identity. The writer explained that they needed time to evaluate their options, but Hawley never heard from the writer again.
### Brian McDevitt
Brian McDevitt was a conman from Boston who tried to rob The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York in 1981. He dressed up as a FedEx driver, carried handcuffs and duct tape, and planned to steal a Rembrandt. He was also a known flag aficionado, and fit the description of the larger robber except for his thinning red hair. These parallels to the Gardner case fascinated the FBI so they interviewed him in late 1990. McDevitt denied any involvement and refused to take a polygraph test. The FBI ran his fingerprints which did not match any of those at the crime scene. McDevitt later moved to California and conned his way into television and film writing. He died in 2004.
## Investigation of the Boston Mafia
### Merlino gang
The FBI announced significant progress in their investigation in March 2013. They reported "with a high degree of confidence" that they identified the thieves, which they believed were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England. They also felt "with that same confidence" that the artwork was transported to Connecticut and Philadelphia in the years following the theft, with an attempted sale in Philadelphia in 2002. Their knowledge of what happened after that is limited, and they requested the public's help to locate and return the artwork. In 2015, the FBI stated both thieves were deceased. Though the FBI did not publicly identify any individuals, sources familiar with the investigation said they were associated with a gang from Dorchester. The gang was loyal to Boston Mafia boss Frank Salemme and ran their operations out of an automobile repair shop run by criminal Carmello Merlino.
Merlino's associates may have gained knowledge of the museum's weaknesses after gangster Louis Royce cased it as early as 1981. He devised plans with an associate to light up smoke bombs and rush the galleries amidst the confusion. In 1982, when undercover FBI agents were investigating Royce and his associates for an unrelated art theft, they learned of their interest in robbing the Gardner Museum and warned the museum of the gang's plan. Royce was in prison at the time of the robbery. Royce shared his plan with others and believes associate Stephen Rossetti may have ordered the robbery or shared it with someone else.
#### Robert Guarente and Robert Gentile
Among those associated with the Merlino gang were Robert Guarente and Manchester, Connecticut, gangster Robert Gentile. Guarente died from cancer in 2004, but his widow Elene told the FBI in 2010 that her husband had previously owned some of the paintings. She claimed that when her husband got sick with cancer in the early 2000s, he gave the paintings to Gentile for safekeeping. Gentile denied the accusations, claiming he was never given them and knew nothing of their whereabouts. Federal authorities indicted Gentile on drug charges in 2012, likely in an attempt to pressure Gentile for information about the Gardner works. He submitted to a polygraph test which indicated he was lying when he denied any knowledge of the theft or location of the artwork. Gentile maintained he was telling the truth and demanded a retest. During the retest he said Elene had once shown him the missing Rembrandt self-portrait, to which the polygraph machine indicated he was telling the truth. Gentile's lawyer felt that the veracity of Gentile's claims were being affected by the large presence of federal agents, and requested a smaller meeting in hopes that it would get Gentile to speak honestly. In the more intimate meeting, Gentile maintained that he did not have any information.
A few days later, the FBI stormed Gentile's house in Manchester with a search warrant. The FBI found a secret ditch beneath a false floor in the backyard shed, but found it empty. Gentile's son explained that the ditch flooded a few years prior and his father was upset about whatever was stored there. In the basement, they found a copy of the Boston Herald from March 1990 reporting the theft along with a piece of paper indicating what each piece might sell for on the black market. Beyond this, no conclusive evidence was found to indicate he ever had the paintings. Gentile went to prison for 30 months on drug charges. If he knew information about the theft, at no point did he opt to share it, which would have reduced his sentence or freed him from prison. After getting out of prison, he spoke with investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian, claiming he was framed by the FBI. He explained how the imprisonment was detrimental to his finances and personal life. He also explained that the list found in his basement was written up by a criminal trying to broker return of the works from Guarente and was talking to Gentile as an intermediary. When asked about what could have been in the ditch, Gentile could not recall but believed it could have been small motors.
#### David Turner
David Turner was another associate of Merlino. The FBI began investigating him in 1992 when a source told them Turner had access to the paintings. Merlino was arrested that same year for cocaine trafficking and told authorities that he could return the paintings for a reduced prison sentence. He asked Turner to track down the paintings; Turner failed to though he heard they were in a church in South Boston. Another associate arrested in the drug sting told authorities about Turner's involvement in several break-ins, but never mentioned the Gardner heist. Based on conversations with Merlino after his release from prison in the mid 1990s, authorities gathered that Merlino never had direct access to the paintings but possibly could broker for their return.
Despite his claims of innocence, the FBI believes he may have been one of the thieves. Evidence indicates that he went to Florida to pick up a cocaine order just days before the heist, and credit card records suggest he remained there through the night of the robbery, but some investigators believe this may have been Turner's attempt at creating an alibi. The FBI thinks the other thief was his friend and Merlino associate George Reissfelder. He died in July 1991. No clues were found in his apartment or the homes of friends and relatives, but his siblings recall a painting similar to Chez Tortoni in his bedroom. Investigators believe he looks similar to the slimmer man in the police sketches.
In 1999, the FBI arrested Turner, Merlino, Rossetti, and others in a sting operation the day they planned to rob a Loomis Fargo vault. When the FBI brought Turner in for questioning, they told him they had information that he participated in the Gardner robbery, and that if he returned the paintings, they would let him go. He told the authorities he did not know who stole the paintings nor where they could be hidden. In his 2001 trial, he claimed entrapment, that the FBI let the Loomis Fargo plot proceed so they could pressure him for information about the Gardner paintings. The jury found him guilty and he was sent to prison. Turner knew Gentile through Guarente, and in 2010, wrote a letter to Gentile asking if he could call Turner's former girlfriend to assist in recovering the Gardner paintings. In cooperation with the FBI, Gentile spoke with Turner's girlfriend, and she told him that Turner wanted him to speak with two of his ex-convict friends in Boston. The FBI wanted Gentile to meet the men and send an FBI undercover agent with him, but Gentile did not want to cooperate further. Turner was freed in November 2019, one month after Stephen Rossetti. Merlino died in prison in 2005.
### Bobby Donati
Criminal Bobby Donati was murdered in 1991 in the midst of a gang war within the Patriarca crime family. His involvement in the Gardner theft was suspected after notorious New England art thief Myles J. Connor Jr. spoke with authorities. Connor was in jail at the time of the heist, but he believed Donati and criminal David Houghton were the masterminds. Connor had worked with Donati in past art heists, and claimed the two cased the Gardner Museum where Donati took interest in the finial. Connor also claimed that Houghton visited him in jail after the heist and said that he and Donati organized it and were going to use the paintings to get Connor out of jail. If this is true, they likely borrowed the idea from Connor as he returned art to reduce sentences in the past. Even though Donati's and Houghton's appearances did not fit the witness descriptions, Connor suggested they probably hired lower-level gangsters to carry out the robbery. Like Donati, Houghton also died within two years of the robbery, though from an illness rather than murder. Connor told investigators he could assist in returning the Gardner works in exchange for the museum's posted reward and his freedom. When investigators did not give into Connor's demands because of lack of evidence, he suggested they speak with criminal and antiques dealer William P. Youngworth.
Acting on Connor's lead, the FBI opened a case on Youngworth and conducted raids on his home and antique store properties in the 1990s. The raids caught the attention of journalist Tom Mashberg, who began talking with Youngworth in 1997 about the theft. One night in August 1997, Youngworth called Mashberg and told him he had proof he could return the Gardner paintings under the right conditions. That night, Youngworth picked up Mashberg from the Boston Herald offices and drove him to a warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Youngworth led him inside to a storage unit with several large cylinder tubes. He removed one painting from its tube, unfurled it, and showed it to Mashberg under flashlight. It appeared to Mashberg to be The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. He noticed cracking along the canvas and the edges were cut in a manner consistent with the museum's reports, as well as Rembrandt's signature on the ship's rudder. Mashberg wrote about his experience in the Boston Herald, leaving out details to hide Youngworth's identity and the painting's location. He reported that his "informant" (presumably Youngworth) told him the robbery was pulled off by five men and identified two: Donati was one of the robbers, and Houghton was responsible with moving the art to a safe house. The FBI discovered the location of the warehouse several months later and raided it, finding nothing.
The veracity of Youngworth's claims and the authenticity of the painting shown to Mashberg is disputed. Youngworth supplied paint chips to Mashberg, and federal authorities reported that they were indeed from Rembrandt's era, but did not match oils used for The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. The way Mashberg described the painting as being "unfurled" has also been scrutinized, as the stolen painting was covered with a heavy varnish that would not roll easily. Federal authorities and the museum began working with Youngworth after Mashberg's story was published, but Youngworth made negotiations difficult. He would not work with authorities unless his demands could be met, which included full immunity and Connor's release from jail. The authorities were skeptical of Youngworth's veracity, and only offered partial immunity. The United States attorney overseeing the case eventually ceased talks with Youngworth unless he could provide more reliable evidence that he had access to the Gardner works. Youngworth again provided a vial of paint chips, purportedly from The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and 25 color photographs of the painting and A Lady and Gentleman in Black. A joint statement from the museum and federal investigators announced that the chips were not from the stolen Rembrandts, though they did test as being from 17th century paintings and could potentially be from The Concert.
In 2014, investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian wrote to gangster Vincent Ferrara, Donati's superior during the gang war, inquiring if he had information about the Gardner theft. He received a call back from an associate of Ferrara who explained the FBI was wrong in suspecting the Merlino gang's involvement and claimed that Donati organized the robbery. The caller explained that Donati visited Ferrara in jail about three months before the theft, after the latter was charged for murder, and told Ferrara that he was going to do something to get him out of jail. Three months later, Ferrara heard news about the Gardner theft, after which Donati visited him again and confirmed to Ferrara that he was involved in the robbery. He claimed to have buried the artwork and would start a negotiation for his release once the investigation cooled down. The negotiations never occurred because Donati was murdered. Kurkjian believes Donati was motivated to free Ferrara from prison because Ferrara could protect him in the gang war. A friend of Guarente also corroborated that Donati organized the robbery, and that Donati gave paintings to Guarente when he became concerned for his own safety. Donati was close friends with Guarente. The two were seen at a social club in Revere shortly before the robbery with a bag of police uniforms.
## Explanatory notes
## General and cited references |
12,874,691 | Neila Sathyalingam | 1,158,417,757 | Singaporean classical Indian dancer, 1938–2017 | [
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"2017 deaths",
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"Performers of Indian classical dance",
"Recipients of the Cultural Medallion for dance",
"Singaporean Hindus",
"Singaporean choreographers",
"Singaporean female dancers",
"Singaporean people of Indian descent",
"Singaporean people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent",
"Sri Lankan emigrants to Singapore"
]
| Neila Sathyalingam (8 February 1938 – 9 March 2017) was a Singaporean classical Indian dancer, choreographer and instructor of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. An alumna of Kalakshetra in Madras (now Chennai) under the tutelage of Srimathi Rukmini Devi Arundale, she emigrated with her family to Singapore in 1974. In 1977 she and her husband founded the performance arts company Apsaras Arts, which has staged performances throughout the world. She was the company's artistic director and continued to teach dance.
In 1983, Neila was appointed the dance instructor and choreographer for the Indian Dance Group of the People's Association (PA)—a state board in Singapore—where she remained a resident choreographer. She was also an artistic adviser to Singapore's National Arts Council. For her contributions to dance, Neila was awarded the Singaporean Cultural Medallion in 1989. She became a Singapore citizen in 1994.
Neila's interactions with choreographers and dancers of different cultural backgrounds and traditions in Singapore inspired her to create new Indian dance steps based on classical foundations; for instance, her dance-drama Kannagi, staged for the Singapore Festival of Arts in 1998, was said to have stretched tradition to its limits and offered something to a range of audiences far wider than a traditional dance-drama would have done. Up to 2007, Neila had choreographed dance segments for the last 13 Chingay Parades, street parades held annually in Singapore as part of Chinese New Year festivities.
## Early life and education
The second of four daughters of a well-to-do dental surgeon and a housewife, Neila Balendra was born in 1938 in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). She began dancing at the age of five, and trained in the classical Indian dance traditions of Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kathakali and Manipuri at the Shanti Kumar School of Dance and the Kalaya School of Dance in Colombo. In 1954, she won the gold medal at the All-Ceylon Dance Festival and was selected to perform for Elizabeth II when the Queen visited Sri Lanka in April 1954 during her tour of the Commonwealth after acceding to the throne. Neila has said: "That was the day I decided I was going to devote my life to dance. My father wanted me to become a dental surgeon, but I refused".
At 18, she enrolled in Kalakshetra, a cultural academy located in Madras (now Chennai) which was established to preserve traditional values in Indian art and reputed to be one of the best dance institutions in India, under the tutelage of Srimathi Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–1986). She lived a regimented lifestyle, living in a thatched house with "snakes above and rats running below" and waking at 4:30am for dance practice every day. She completed her five-year course in two years, graduating with a first-class honours diploma in Bharatanatyam in 1957.
Neila met her husband, Sathyalingam Suntharalingam, at Kalakshetra. The son of a Sri Lankan politician, C. Suntharalingam, he had graduated from the University of Madras with a Sangitha Sironmani (Degree in Music) and from Kalakshetra in 1955 with a Diploma in Music, and was then teaching Indian classical music theory and the playing of the Indian drum and cymbals at the academy. After a two-year courtship, they married in 1956 and moved back to Sri Lanka where they lived in a 40-ha farm just outside Colombo. Sathyalingam then taught dance in schools while raising her children, the first of whom was born in 1957.
In May 1958, riots broke out in Sri Lanka between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities. Although the Sathyalingams received a tip-off that they had been targeted and managed to escape the violence, 80 Sinhalese rioters attacked and burned their home. Having lost their abode and all their possessions, they resettled in Colombo. In 1969 Neila returned to Kalakshetra to be trained as an instructor and to take up a postgraduate diploma course. She graduated in 1972 with a distinction and was appointed a dance teacher with Kalakshetra.
## Career in Singapore
In 1974, Neila moved to Singapore after American company Uniroyal Chemicals, for which her husband worked as an area sales manager, was posted there.
In Singapore, Neila was exposed to dancers of different cultural backgrounds and traditions, inspiring her to create new Indian dance steps based on classical foundations. In 1977, Neila and her husband founded performing arts company Apsaras Arts under the auspices of the Kamala Club, an organisation for Indian ladies promoting Indian dance and music. Starting with 20 students, the company expanded in size and significance, and has staged numerous arangetrams (dance débuts) and performances in Singapore and abroad, including Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Apsaras Arts, now based at the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre, took part in numerous arts and dance festivals worldwide, including the Asean Festival in Malaysia (1983); the Australian Youth Musical Festival (August 1983); the Hong Kong Arts Festival (1990); the World of Music, Arts and Dance (Womad) Festival in Singapore (2002); the 17th National Cultural Festival in Nong Khai, Thailand (2003); and the Indian Festival of Arts in Singapore (2003). Neila and her husband were respectively the company's artistic director and music director, and continued to teach classical Indian dance and music.
In 1983, Neila was appointed the dance instructor and choreographer for the Indian Dance Group of the People's Association (PA), where she taught Indian dance to children from lower-income families for free. She was the resident choreographer for the Indian Dance Group, which is now under the umbrella of PA Talents. She was also an artistic adviser to the National Arts Council.
Neila was awarded the Cultural Medallion for her contributions to dance in 1989. She became a Singapore citizen in 1994, her husband and children following suit in subsequent years. Also in 1994, she was honoured by Bharat Kalachar, a music and dance school in Chennai, with the Viswa Kala Bharathi, an award given to non-resident Indian artistes who have helped to propagate Indian arts in foreign lands, for her artistic contributions throughout the world.
Together with fellow Cultural Medallion holders Som Said and Yang Choong Lian, Neila was a choreographer for the Lion City Angels, a multiracial children's dance troupe formed in 1988. The group performed in the Children's Folklore Festival in France in 1995 and the International Children's Folklore Festival in Spain in 1996. Other major achievements of Neila's include the dance-drama Kannagi, staged for the Singapore Festival of Arts in 1998, and the "Fire" segment of the performance The Rhythm of Life staged by the People's Association Cultural Troupe in November 2001; the former was said to have "stretched the bounds of traditions to its limits and succeeded in offering something to a range of audiences far wider than what a traditional dance-drama would have done". Up to 2007, Neila had also choreographed dance segments for the last 13 Chingay Parades, which are street parades held annually in Singapore as part of Chinese New Year festivities.
On 14 and 15 September 2007, Neila staged at the Victoria Theatre what has been termed her "last mega-production", an Indian epic dance drama called Sivagami written by Kalki Krishnamurthy (1899–1954), which involved 65 dancers from Apsaras Arts and from India. Thereafter, she has said that she intended to "slow down" by focusing on her teaching, although she has remarked: "There is really no such thing called a swan song, and I won't like to keep still after being so active. ... I will keep dancing as long as my body will say yes to me".
## Personal life
Neila and her husband, Sathyalingam, had three daughters and a son. Of her daughters, her eldest, Mohana (born 1957), sings for Apsaras Arts' performances; while Nandana (born 1960), runs an Indian performing arts school also called Apsaras Arts in Canberra, Australia. Her daughter, Shaan (born 1962) is a legal adviser for the National Library Board of Singapore. Her younger son Skanda (born 1963) contracted encephalitis at six months and became severely mentally and physically disabled. Neila's younger sister, Anusha, who lives in Zambia, is a Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher. She died, aged 79, on 9 March 2017. |
58,127,374 | The Sky Is Pink | 1,173,405,648 | 2019 Indian film written and directed by Shonali Bose | [
"2010s Hindi-language films",
"2019 biographical drama films",
"2019 drama films",
"2019 films",
"Films about diseases and disorders",
"Indian biographical drama films",
"Indian films based on actual events",
"Medical-themed films"
]
| The Sky Is Pink is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language biographical romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Shonali Bose and produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ronnie Screwvala and Priyanka Chopra Jonas under their production companies Roy Kapur Films, RSVP Movies, and Purple Pebble Pictures, respectively, in association with Ivanhoe Pictures. The film stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim and Rohit Suresh Saraf, and is based on the true story of Aisha Chaudhary, who suffered from severe combined immunodeficiency and pulmonary fibrosis, and tells the story of her parents Aditi and Niren as they navigate their marriage while dealing with their daughter's illness. The film marked the last film of Wasim's career prior to her retirement from Bollywood.
Aditi Chaudhary approached Bose to make a film based on her daughter's life story. Although intrigued by the story, Bose instead chose to depict the parents' story from Aisha's point of view by incorporating first-person narrative, focusing on their marriage and the effect of their child's illness on their lives and relationship. Bose wrote the screenplay based on the details she gathered through interviewing both of her parents. Nilesh Maniyar wrote the additional screenplay while Juhi Chaturvedi wrote the Hindi dialogues. Principal photography took place in Mumbai, London, Delhi and the Andaman Islands. The film's soundtrack was composed by Pritam while Gulzar wrote the lyrics for the songs. The film explores themes such as death and its acceptance, motherhood, grief and the effect of the loss of a child on relationships, particularly on the parents' companionship.
The film premiered at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival on 13 September 2019 and was released worldwide on 11 October the same year. The Sky Is Pink received positive reviews, with praise for Bose's writing and direction, and the performances of the cast. However, it did not perform well commercially, grossing ₹34.41 crore at the box office against a budget of ₹24 crore. At the 65th Filmfare Awards, The Sky Is Pink received 3 nominations – Best Film (Critics), Best Actress (Chopra Jonas) and Best Supporting Actress (Wasim). The film is now available on Netflix.
## Plot
Aisha Chaudhary narrated the story of her parents Moose (her mother) and Panda (her father) from the afterlife. Aditi and Niren Chaudhary are a young couple who come from different backgrounds. The couple get married and Aditi becomes pregnant with their first child Tanya Chaudhary, who dies within months of her birth due to the severe combined immunodeficiency condition.
Aditi and Niren have a second child named Ishaan. A few years later, Aditi bore their third child, a girl named Aisha. They later learn Aisha has the same medical condition as Tanya did and are heartbroken. After the doctors in Delhi give up on Aisha's treatment, the couple go to London where they learn the disease could be treated with a very costly bone marrow transplant. Niren starts working to earn the money while also asking for crowdfunding via a radio station. After several weeks, they learn several people have donated money for Aisha's treatment. The surgery is successful but Aisha is kept under doctor's watch. Aditi decides to stay in London while Niren returns to India with his family and his son Ishaan.
Several years later, Aisha has recovered from her illness, and Niren and Aditi decide to move back to India. They move to the outskirts of Delhi and buy a large, opulent bungalow. After collapsing at a party, Aisha is diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a side-effect of the chemotherapy she underwent. With Aisha's life shortened, Aditi sets out to fulfill all of Aisha's dreams such as adopting a pet, seeing aquatic life and writing a book. As Aisha's condition worsens, Aditi grows increasingly overprotective and stressed, and suffers a psychotic breakdown and is hospitalized. Aditi does everything in her power to ensure Aisha gets to see the first copy of her book before she dies.
After the death of Aisha, Aditi and Niren's relationship is strained. While living together, they grow apart and are constantly fighting with each other. Niren is angry and leaves for London while Aditi stays in India. Aditi later goes to meet Niren in London and they reconcile by keeping the memories of Aisha.
## Cast
The cast has been listed below:
- Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Aditi 'Moose' Chaudhary; Niren's wife, Tanya, Ishaan and Aisha's mother
- Farhan Akhtar as Niren 'Panda' Chaudhary; Aditi's husband, Tanya, Ishaan and Aisha's father
- Zaira Wasim as Aisha 'Aishi' Chaudhary; Niren and Aditi's youngest daughter, Ishaan and Tanya's Younger sister
- Rohit Saraf as Ishaan 'Giraffe' Chaudhary; Niren and Aditi's eldest son, Tanya's younger brother, Aisha's elder brother.
- Vidhaan Sharma as Little Ishaan
- Manas Mittal as Anshu Tandon
- Rajshri Deshpande as Anita Tandon
- Lushin Dubey as Mrs. Tandon
- Sunil Chitkara as Mr. Chaudhary
- Nirupama Verma as Mrs. Chaudhary
- Puja Sarup as Mohini
- Gurpal Singh as RJ Arjun Gill (in London)
- Sheena Khalid as Rita
- Sudhanva Deshpande as Dr. Nirvick Gulati
- Manisha Chudasama as Santoshi Kumari, servant in Chaudhary's Delhi farmhouse
- Paras Rattan Sharda as Jeet Kumar, servant in Chaudhary's Delhi farmhouse
- Salmin Sheriff as Dr. Batliwala
- Rishi Deshpande as Tanya's doctor
- Virhi as Tanya 'Taanu' Chaudhary; Niren and Aditi's eldest daughter, Ishaan and Aisha's elder sister
- Mala Hashmi as a Christian woman
- Akshay Joshi as a store assistant
- Nargis Nandal as a pilot
- Khaleel as an orthopaedic surgeon
- Raabia Marici as Ishaan's girlfriend
## Production
### Development
The production of The Sky Is Pink started when Aisha Chaudhary's mother Aditi Chaudhary approached Shonali Bose to make a film about her daughter, who had seen the trailer of Bose's film Margarita with a Straw (2015) thirty times and was eager to watch the film, saying, "I hope I live to see this film". Aisha died of pulmonary fibrosis when she was 18, two weeks after watching the trailer; she did not live to see the film. Nine months later, Aditi Chaudhary tracked down Bose, who was living in Los Angeles. Aditi was adamant as she only wanted Bose to tell the story of her daughter. Chaudhary and Bose interacted over Skype and later, Bose personally interviewed Aditi Chaudhary and Niren Chaudhary for eight hours a day for two weeks to gather all of the details of their story. Bose said the couple "talked and cried and healed through the process of those narrations".
Bose said she was drawn towards the story because she had lost her son and so was ready to explore the subject in film and bring some of her own perspective to it. Bose, however, preferred to tell the story of Aditi and Niren, a couple, dealing with their child's illness, saying that she was more interested in the story of parents dealing with their daughter's illness and not of a death-defying "heroic teenager". Bose said she was "intrigued and inspired" by the relationship of the family, observing that they were a rare couple to stay together after the death of their child. She said she "wanted to explore what happens to a love story, to a marriage, when faced with the loss of a child", noting that her own marriage ended after the death of her son, and that four out of five marriages dissolve after a child dies. Bose wanted to make an "unusual romantic film" and the lives of Aditi and Niren fit the bill.
Bose began writing the screenplay based on the Chaudharys' story, approaching it as a "love story between two people who fell in love when they were only 16 and now at 57 are still inseparable and in love despite major tragedies that tear most couples apart". Bose chose to tell the film from Aisha's point of view, focusing on 25 years of her parents' marriage and thus incorporating the first-person narrative. Nilesh Maniyar, a longtime collaborator of Bose, had met Aditi and Niren, and wanted to make a documentary about Aisha because he felt there was more to explore. Maniyar saw Bose's film as very different than his, both projects being in different formats. Maniyar had also researched Aisha's life so Bose invited him to write the additional screenplay. Juhi Chaturvedi wrote the Hindi dialogue.
Bose wanted to stay true to the real-life events and depict them as they unfolded without fictionalizing or deflecting from real incidents. She said, "I wrote the script as close as possible to the truth. So, when deciding the look and feel of the film, I decided to stay with realism and be as authentic as possible." While writing the script, Bose met with and interviewed Aisha's family and friends. She also read Aisha's writing, including her emails to her brother and the artwork she made. Bose said she felt connected with Aisha even though they never met. Bose chose to be realistic and to avoid melodramatic and manipulative set-ups to express emotions. She said that she wanted to keep clear of melodrama and not exploit the audience by causing "overwrought emotions", instead wanting them "to feel what [the] characters feel but also give [them] space." In an interview with Scroll.in, Bose said Aditi was the main protagonist in early drafts because she was the central figure in the story, but she later strengthened Niren's role so that they were equals in the final draft.
Siddharth Roy Kapur liked Bose's previous film and had expressed his desire to work with her. After the acquisition of UTV Motion Pictures by The Walt Disney Company, Kapur was appointed managing director of The Walt Disney Company India in 2014 and produced several films under the new name. Kapur established his own company, Roy Kapur Films, in January 2017. When Bose found out about his new production house, she approached him with the script of The Sky Is Pink and Kapur chose it to be his company's first film. Kapur said he found the script wonderfully moving, told with humour, depth and feeling. As part of a first look deal with RSVP Movies, Kapur set the film there, collaborating with Ronnie Screwvala, the ex-UTV Studio head, as producers. In December 2018, Ivanhoe Pictures became involved to co-finance and co-produce the film. Mikey McCleary composed the background score of the film. Bose considers The Sky Is Pink the culmination of her Delhi trilogy, a series of unrelated films based on "mother-child relationship" and that are set in Delhi; the other first two films being Amu (2005) and Margarita with a Straw. The Sky Is Pink's title comes from a real incident that is shown in the film.
### Casting
Bose's first choice for the lead role was Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who she had in mind while writing the script. It took six months for Bose to contact Chopra Jonas, whose manager did not give her the script to read. According to Bose, Aditi Chaudhary had asked her to make a big Hindi film about her daughter but Roy Kapur initially thought it should be an independent film. He suggested Bose should get a well-known film actor first if she wanted to make the film on a bigger budget. Bose told him she wanted Chopra Jonas as Aditi and then asked him to contact her and send her a copy of the script, which he did. When Chopra Jonas read the script, she wanted to meet Bose and immediately agreed to appear in the film. She was the first actor to be cast in the film. For Aisha, Maniyar suggested Zaira Wasim, who immediately accepted the offer.
The film's casting news first appeared in the media in May 2018, suggesting Chopra Jonas, Abhishek Bachchan and Zaira Wasim had been cast in Bose's next untitled project. The media reports suggested Wasim had been cast as Aisha Chaudhary with Chopra and Bachchan playing her character's parents. A month later, media reports said Farhan Akhtar, who was also one of Bose's top choices, had replaced Bachchan and would be playing the father. Chopra Jonas confirmed her involvement in the film on 9 July 2018 by posting a picture of the script of The Sky Is Pink on her Instagram account, revealing the film's title. The official announcement followed the next day, confirming Akhtar's and Wasim's casting in the film.
The Sky Is Pink is the second film to feature Chopra Jonas and Akhtar opposite each other after Dil Dhadakne Do (2015). Bose had said Aisha's brother Ishaan was the most difficult character to cast; the casting directors auditioned hundred boys for the part. Finally, Rohit Suresh Saraf was cast after four rounds of auditions over four months. The Sky Is Pink marked the return of Chopra Jonas to Bollywood films after three years being busy with her Hollywood work. After accepting her role in the film, Chopra Jonas asked Kapur and Screwvala to join them as the producer because she believed in the film, wanted to take more responsibility for it and learn about producing from them. Kapur and Screwvala, both frequent collaborators of Chopra Jonas, who had starred in several of their films under UTV, agreed to engage Chopra Jonas as a producer, making The Sky Is Pink making the first Hindi film to be produced under her company Purple Pebble Pictures. Bose had organized workshops for the actors, who did several rehearsals before the start of filming.
### Characters
Chopra Jonas was drawn to the film because of the story and the way it was written, saying she found the treatment of a heavy subject with humour refreshing and beautiful. Chopra Jonas found her character Aditi immersive and described her as "a ferocious mom". Chopra Jonas did a lot of preparations and research before the filming and also met the real-life Aditi. Bose was opposed to Chopra Jonas meeting Aditi but Chopra Jonas was adamant the meeting must go ahead because Aditi treated the situation differently than her husband and she felt like she needed to have those difficult conversations with Aditi. According to Chopra Jonas, she was also dependent on Bose and would ask a lot of questions about the character. She learnt a lot from Bose and Aditi, and Bose's interpretation of Aditi. Chopra Jonas said, "I'm not a mother, I needed to understand from both Aditi and Shonali who have both lost their children ... where does that take you? What do you feel in your heart?" She said Aditi reminded of her of own mother and chose to channel her in Aditi. Chopra Jonas, who had no children, found the role challenging, saying the "film was scaring me in every scene" but felt the role made her experience two aspects of motherhood.
Akhtar chose to appear in The Sky Is Pink because of the story, which he found "moving and incredibly inspiring", and the people involved in the film. Akhtar also relied on Bose's vision of Niren to form his character. Akhtar was also instructed to not meet the real-life Aditi and Niren before filming; Bose did not want her actors to be influenced by or to imitate the film's subjects. Akhtar was given filmed interviews of the family for research, and also found that the research material in the form of writing and the footage helped him create his own version of Niren. Akhtar met Niren while filming; he felt he and Niren had a lot in common. Being a parent, Akhtar found easy to relate to his character; he said, "the challenge was not in feeling the kind of parental love I needed to evoke, but imagining what losing a child could potentially feel like". The actor said he chose not to over-dramatise his portrayal because "the real parents never over-dramatised their situation". Akhtar revealed that Aditi and Niren dealt with the situation in such a normal way that it would seem very abnormal to others and would invite the question of "How are they happy and smiling all the time?" He said, "They wanted to give their daughter a joyous life ... they didn't want her to be mournful and keep thinking about the end, they just wanted her to be happy as long as she was here ...It's so, so inspiring".
Like Chopra and Akhtar, Wasim was and drawn to the story of the film and said she had immediately fallen in love with it. Wasim said her character touched her heart and that she was honoured to be playing this role. Saraf described his character Ishaan as someone who becomes the pillar of the family during the tragedy. He said portraying the character was delightful because he could explore human emotions a lot more than he had before in his career. Unlike the rest of the cast, Saraf was not allowed to see the documented footage of the Chaudhary family because Bose thought he would not be able to take it well. To prepare for his character, Saraf had researched the Chaudhary family during the audition process. After his casting, he stopped his research and relied mostly on Bose's advice and the collaborative efforts of the cast, which he said enhanced his performance.
Costume designer Eka Lakhani designed the clothes for the film, which spans 25 years, during which Aditi's and Niren's looks undergo several changes as they age. These changes were mostly accomplished with make-up and hair styling. Chopra Jonas's hairstyle informs the age of her character; when her character is young, her hair is long and shortens as she ages in the film; at 50 she has short hair. Staying true to the real-life Aditi, Chopra Jonas was given a glamorous and make-up-heavy look because Aditi had made an effort to look glamorous and, throughout her 40s, her philosophy was "when life sucks, look like a million bucks". Chopra Jonas had suggested she should put on some weight and colour her hair grey to show her character's aging in the film but Bose declined her request. Bose thought it would be a cliché to show Aditi as dowdy in the later portions of the film because the real Aditi is very glamorous and likes to dress up, even in difficult times. When he is young, Akhtar's character Niren has curly hair but as he ages, he is given a moustache in the later portions of the film.
### Filming
Principal photography of The Sky Is Pink began on 8 August 2018 in Mumbai with all of its cast members. The cinematographers were Kartik Vijay and Nick Cooke, and production design was done by Aradhana Seth. The second schedule of filming began on 13 October 2018 in London. The London schedule lasted six days and concluded on 19 October 2018. Filming moved to Delhi as a part of the second schedule on 12 November 2018. The scenes were filmed at several locations in Delhi, including Chandani Chowk, which Bose specifically chose to show the culture of the locality on film. Bose said, "Delhi has a lot of character and every locality means something. You can capture its beauty in the greenery here, the charm of old Delhi – this mix is very interesting." While filming in the locality, a "sea of people" gathered to watch Chopra and Akhtar, who were filming their scenes on a terrace. The second schedule of the film was completed in the last week of November. Chopra, who was getting married on 1 December 2018, filmed her scenes up until four days before her wedding to Nick Jonas. The film's producer Siddharth Roy Kapur praised Chopra Jonas for her commitment, saying, "Priyanka has been wonderful. She will be shooting with us right till the very eve of her nuptials, which I think shows a tremendous amount of professionalism." The producers and Bose were accommodating; they created a separate "wedding approvals room" for Chopra Jonas so she could discuss her wedding preparations with her team between filming her scenes.
In February 2019, Bose announced the final schedule of filming would occur in March. The final schedule began in the Andaman Islands on 1 March 2019 and continued until 9 March 2019 when the filming wrapped. Although the filming was completed, Bose said a song was still to be filmed. The filming of the song started on 6 June 2019 in Mumbai and lasted five days. The song "Pink Gulaabi Sky" was supposed to feature as part of the plot but Bose felt it did not go with the flow of the story. The song was cut from the final film and was ultimately used for promotional purposes. Bose complimented the producers for agreeing with her decision to cut the song, saying, "When we shot the song, I thought that it was a fun number and looked lovely. Later, I was surprised to see that the makers are in sync with my view. Considering the fact that the team had spent a lot of money to shoot the song, it requires guts to take a decision like this". The filming was done over ten months. The film was edited by Manas Mittal.
## Themes and influences
The Sky Is Pink's central theme of death and its acceptance was noted by many critics. Priyanka Roy of The Telegraph noted the melancholic theme and found its treatment in the film to be completely opposite, writing that the film "recognises the pain that arises from loss but it never makes loss the centre of what it wants to say". Subhash K. Jha said the director's conscious effort to keep the "going bouncy and bright" in spite of the looming presence of death could have gone horribly wrong but that "the war-cry to stay positive" is implemented with exceeding delicacy. According to Jha, the audience feel the presence of death underlining every moment of the film and yet the dilemma of mortality is "never trivialized, glamorized or underplayed". Jha felt that Bose's narrative sparkles with a joie de vivre, adding, "There is an unstoppable gusto woven into the story's somber spirit, like a shot of rum in coke. Bracing and clarity-inducing."
Ishita Sengupta of The Indian Express said the film goes beyond the central theme of "embracing death rather than feeling betrayed by it", commenting on the restroom scene in which Aditi and Niren talk after their daughter has died and Niren suggests a move to another country as a way to deal with their daughter's death and an astounded Aditi asking what will they do about their daughter's belongings. She noted Aditi was immersed in grief while Niren had moved on, saying "it no longer remains preoccupied with the act of letting go but delves into how much to let go of, asks who decides it and—mainly—how to". Sengupta said the film closely examines the "contours of grief" and the emotions surrounding it. Sengupta appreciated of the nonlinear narrative, which according to her makes the more sombre moments happier and offsets pathos with love. Bose, having lost her son, which resulted in end of her marriage, said she wanted to explore the relationship of couples who lose a child and its effects on their lives, often leading to the end of the marriage. Sengupta noted the director does not let mourning severe the ties between Aditi and Niren, writing, "It is not acceptance that brings Aditi and Niren together but the shared promise they had extracted in youth to stay with each other come what may. They do not fall back on who they have become but on who they were." Sengupta said the characters' reconciliation at the end of the film can be taken as "wish fulfillment" of Bose's own marriage or a compromise on reality from aching adversity. This sentiment was shared by Poulomi Das of Arré, who noted the film serves as both a post-mortem of the filmmaker's own fate and an exercise in second-hand catharsis or wish-fulfillment.
According to Das, The Sky Is Pink examines the ethos of parenthood, noting the film feels less like a biopic of a dead teenager and more like an unabashed tribute to the parents, writing, "the afterlife of caregiving that depletes one while nourishing the other". She noted Bose had adopted a "curiously alternative gaze" to the dying girl template popularized by films such as My Sister's Keeper (2009) and The Fault in Our Stars (2014) to reverse conventions by focusing on the parents rather than the dying girl. A review published in Mid-Day said the film is about the resilience of parents "who move heaven and earth for the good of their children". The reviewer said, "the film smartly plays with the structure to dive audience deeper and deeper into the characters and circumstances on screen—rather than simply a plot", which makes audience emerge from "an astonishingly personal story navigating through dark spaces with reasonable hope and incredible insight".
Sonia Chopra of Sify said, "If the film's idea is to make you rethink life, it succeeds to a great extent. It also makes you think about choices and how they affect our lives. At one point, the film explores what constitutes a "right choice" and whether such a thing exists." She noted the humour and emotional pay-offs in the film while praising the director for going deeper while keeping things palatable, and said it makes us think about Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand (1971). Bose said she told her own philosophy in the film, but she did not aim to teach anyone anything, saying, "I am simply showing you certain characters with certain relationships and things that happened to them. The fact that they are absolutely real and nothing is made up, may give you food for thought and inspire you a little".
Shrishti Negi of News18 noted The Sky Is Pink's courageous and sobering portrayal of motherhood, calling Aditi a "ferociously protective mother" who uses her daughter's impending death to inspire her to live an eventful life. According to Negi, "Aditi's journey is just as crucial to the film in all its complex, transfixing and wrenching dynamics". This sentiment was echoed by Charvi Kathuria of SheThePeople, who wrote, "The movie is a subtle reminder for us to live our life to the fullest because we really don't know which day becomes our last day. Aditi knew that her daughter won't be alive for very long. She wanted her daughter to enjoy her life to the hilt."
Bose said Aditi was a tigress (in terms of her children), who "came up with a mental bucket list for her daughter and made each moment count of her remaining short life". Nishi Trivedi of Bengaluru Central University noted the significance of the "metaphorical title", writing the film's message is "live life on your own terms", adding, "The idea that you can paint the sky with the colour you want gives a deeper meaning to the title of the film". The film's title comes from a real incident involving Aditi and Ishaan. An incident [as shown in the film] where Ishaan is unfairly punished at school for painting his sky pink instead of blue. Consoling the child, Aditi tells him that everyone has their own sky and they can paint it with whichever colour they like. Sonia Chopra took note of the scene calling it a "standout" moment. Bose told an interviewer: "I found a beautiful metaphor in this real incident where a mother teaches and encourages her child to think out of the box and not be bound by society's restrictions and preconceived notions".
A review published in HuffPost took note of the colour palette used in the film, saying, "the dark shadow of death looms large over the film's bubblegum-wrapped, glossy universe". According to the reviewer, London's winters look "ominous" with the city's red Tube trains and telephone boxes popping out as "signages of gloom" in frames composed mostly of depressing greys, writing, "The frames (and the character wardrobes) light up as the film's mood progresses to become more cheerful, with dramatic reds, purples, and yellows illuminating the screen". Jha noted London to be a living character in the film.
## Soundtrack
The music soundtrack to The Sky Is Pink was composed by Pritam and the lyrics were written by Gulzar. It contains four original songs and a reprisal, with vocals performed by Arijit Singh, Antara Mitra, Arjun Kanungo, Lisa Mishra, Shashwat Singh, Jonita Gandhi and Sreerama Chandra. The soundtrack album was released on 21 September 2019 by Zee Music Company. Though not a part of the main soundtrack, the film's closing credits include a song titled "For Aisha" that was composed by Aisha Chaudhary's brother Ishaan under his band name "Memba". The song is sung by the Nooran Sisters, Naomi Wild and Evan Giia. Anvita Dutt wrote the song with Memba, Wild and Giia.
The Times of India called the album "powerful", particularly praising the composition and the spellbinding lyrics of the song "Dil Hi Toh Hai". The review also complimented the "silk-like smooth" vocals of Mitra and Singh's "slow rock-like" performance on the duet. Nair of The Hindu called it a "hummable soundtrack" that "traverses familiar territories, but is an eminently enjoyable work", and said it is Pritam's best work of 2019 to that point. Nair declared "Zindagi" to be his favorite song on the album, noting its "beautiful melody" that almost "feels like a ghazal at times".
## Marketing and release
The Sky Is Pink was one of the most anticipated Indian films of 2019. Roy Kapur had hoped for the film to be released in the first half of 2019 but in February 2019, it was announced the film would be released on 11 October 2019. The first look of the film was released on 23 July 2019. Several exclusive stills from the film were released on 8 September 2019. The first poster was released on 9 September 2019 and Chopra Jonas tweeted that the official trailer would be released the next day. Firstpost commented that the "aesthetically-pleasing poster" looked "fun-filled and refreshing." The film's trailer was released on 10 September 2019. HuffPost said the film looked like a "winner" while The New Indian Express called the trailer "heart warming", noting it "promises to be a love story high on emotional quotient with an equal amount of humour".
In July 2019, media reported The Sky Is Pink had been selected to premiere at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival. The only Asian film to be selected for "Gala Presentation", The Sky Is Pink premiered at the festival at the Roy Thomson Hall on 13 September 2019 and received a 15-minute standing ovation. The premiere was attended by 2,000 people and tickets sold out. The Chaudhary family were in the attendance at the premiere along with the cast, director and the producers. The premiere was followed by another sold-out screening at the Elgin Theatre. The film also premiered at the 24th Busan International Film Festival and the 2019 BFI London Film Festival.
The promotion of the film started in the last week of September 2019. Chopra Jonas, Akhtar, Saraf and Bose took part in the promotion of the film but Wasim, who by the time of its release had retired from acting due to her religious beliefs, did not. After promoting the film in India, Chopra Jonas promoted it in the United States by appearing on American prime time talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and the daytime talk show The View. The Sky Is Pink became the first Hindi film to be promoted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Made on a budget of ₹240 million, The Sky Is Pink was released on 11 October 2019. It received a limited release in the United States. Netflix brought the worldwide streaming rights of the film, a first for an Indian film. It became available on the platform on 11 December 2019. The film is also available on Apple TV Plus.
## Reception
### Critical response
The Sky Is Pink received positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . Devesh Sharma of Filmfare rated the film four stars out of five, lauding its ability to make viewers laugh despite its tragic undertone. He concluded, "this bitter-sweet film will make you laugh, will make you cry and will surely make you ruminate on the glorious uncertainty of life". Writing for Mid-Day, film critic Mayank Shekhar rated The Sky Is Pink three and a half stars out of five, praising Bose for telling an "astonishingly dark personal story with reasonable hope" that never felt exploitative or manipulative. He complemented the "smart" screenplay, which he felt was structured to dive viewers "deeper and deeper" into the characters and circumstances on screen. In a three and a half stars out of five review, Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com declared Chopra Jonas's "fiery performance" to be the film's highlight while also praising the performances of Akhtar, Wasim and Saraf.
Ankur Pathak of HuffPost called the film a "soul-stirring portrait of love, life and death" that is "cinematic equivalent of visiting a therapist". He singled out Chopra Jonas' "extraordinary" performance which he thought was "hard to look away from" while also noting Akhtar's "measured performance" and Wasim's "fantastic" turn. Sreeparna Sengupta of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five, calling it "a stirring watch" and noting the film scores high on the emotional quotient and the performances of its principal cast. Writing for NDTV, Saibal Chatterjee rated the film three and a half stars out of five, praised Bose for her direction and writing, and added it had been "enhanced appreciably by the presence of Chopra".
Writing for Firstpost, Anna M. M. Vetticad said The Sky Is Pink is a "moving, uncommonly calm take on grief" which is "funny, believable and heart-wrenching all rolled into one". She praised Chopra Jonas for her "remarkably controlled performance", Akhtar for a solid turn and for matching Chopra Jonas's "simmering restraint", Wasim for her "cheeriness" and for not going "over the top", and Saraf's "matured performance". Teo Bugbee of The New York Times lauded Bose for achieving a balanced tone in the film, writing, "The writer and director Shonali Bose bounces from tone to tone, livening the somber subject matter with bright hues, quippy dialogue and an ever-jubilant score". Bugbee also highlighted the appeal of the performances, particularly that of Chopra Jonas. Samira Sood of ThePrint said the film is "an emotionally wrenching yet bitingly funny exploration of family and death". Vinayak Chakraborty of Outlook rated the film three stars out of five, criticising the "flashback-driven storyline" and its runtime, which he felt was too long at nearly two and half hours. He said, however, the film still works with all of its flaws. Anupama Chopra of Film Companion found the film to be "sensitive" but highly "sanitised". She wrote "The Sky is Pink is sincere and heartfelt but it never gets raw or messy". Rajeev Masand criticised the film's "blatant manipulation" but added, "there are moments that left me with a heavy heart". Both Anupama Chopra and Masand considered Akhtar's performance to be more effective than that of the other cast members while also praising the performances of Chopra Jonas and Wasim.
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express rated The Sky Is Pink with two stars out of five, and said the film only occasionally works and that it feels "both constructed and sentimental", writing, "With the material at hand, you expect a legitimate heart-breaker but this one left me mostly unmoved". Cath Clarke of The Guardian dismissed the film as "way too saccharine" and said there are only "occasional moments ... that shine with truth". Dennis Harvey of Variety disliked The Sky Is Pink and wrote that the "somewhat bland polish on all levels doesn't much assist the raw pain that should be at this story's center". Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in also disliked the film, writing that the "attempt to be insouciant about death produces no emotional pay-offs". Ramnath found Wasim and Saraf to be "lovely"; Chopra Jonas to be "more affecting than Akhtar" but said Chopra Jonas' "perfectly made-up face and fashion-forwardness are huge distractions".
### Box office
Being an "offbeat and niche" film targeting a mature audience in big cities, commercial expectations from The Sky Is Pink were low. In an interview with Hindustan Times, trade analyst Girish Johar noted the business of the film largely relied on word of mouth, saying, "It is an upmarket film, a human drama for limited audience. It will release only in big cities and metros." The film collected ₹2.50 crore on the opening day and revenue was expected to grown the next day. The film showed 60% of growth on its second day and earned ₹4 crore. Revenue remained static on its third day, collecting ₹4 crore for an opening weekend collection of ₹10.70 crore at the domestic box office.
The Sky Is Pink faced strong competition from the Bollywood action thriller War and the comic book film Joker, both of which were doing business exceeding the expectations of the trade. The Sky Is Pink dropped over 40% on its first Monday, collecting ₹1.30 crore on its fourth day and earning ₹15.40 crore in its first week. The film collected ₹4.50 crore in its second week, and collections stood at approximately ₹20 crore after two weeks. It did not perform well at the box office. Trade Analyst Joginder Tuteja summarised the reason for the film's disappointing commercial performance, which he thought "deserved better", in an article published on Moneycontrol.com, blaming the "poor marketing" that "didn't really convey clearly what the film was all about", in addition to strong competition from other films. He also said the film's English title was its biggest problem because it was too literary and made it sound like an American and European art film. According to Bollywood Hungama, The Sky Is Pink grossed ₹23.85 crore in India and ₹10.56 crore overseas for a worldwide gross revenue of ₹344.1 million.
## Accolades |
681,197 | U.S. Route 223 | 1,167,828,494 | US Highway in Michigan and Ohio | [
"Transportation in Lenawee County, Michigan",
"Transportation in Lucas County, Ohio",
"Transportation in Monroe County, Michigan",
"U.S. Highways in Michigan",
"U.S. Highways in Ohio",
"U.S. Route 23",
"United States Numbered Highway System"
]
| US Route 223 or US Highway 223 (US 223) is a diagonal (northwest–southeast) United States Numbered Highway lying in the states of Michigan and Ohio. The southernmost section is completely concurrent with the US 23 freeway, including all of the Ohio segment. It connects US 23 in the south near Toledo, Ohio, with US 127 south of Jackson, Michigan. The highway passes through farmland in southern Michigan and woodland in the Irish Hills. Including the concurrency on the southern end, US 223 is 46.34 miles (74.58 km) in total length.
The highway designation was created in 1930 out of the southern end of US 127. Three sets of reroutings through Adrian have resulted in the creation of two different business loops through the city. A change proposed in the 1960s and implemented in the 1970s shifted the southern end of US 223 to replace M-151 and then run along the US 23 freeway between Whiteford Township, Michigan, and Sylvania, Ohio. Since the 1980s, US 223 no longer reaches Toledo, instead feeding into the freeway system for the city. Changes proposed and enacted into law in the 1990s would upgrade the highway as an Interstate Highway. Congress has designated this corridor as part of Interstate 73 (I-73), although neither state intends at this time to complete the freeway.
## Route description
US 223 starts at an interchange with State Route 51 (SR 51) and SR 184 in Sylvania on the northwest side of the Toledo, Ohio metropolitan area. US 223 runs concurrently with US 23 around two-thirds of a mile (1.0 km) to the Ohio–Michigan state line. The two highways' designations follow the freeway northward through rural farmland. At exit 5, US 223 separates from US 23 and turns west along an extension of St. Anthony Road.
The highway continues westward through the farmland as a two-lane road to the Monroe–Lenawee county line. US 223 meets its former routing and turns northwesterly along Lansing Road, crossing a branch of the Indiana & Ohio Railway. US 223 runs parallel to the Adrian & Blissfield Railroad that branches off southwest of the highway. Both the highway and rail line run northwesterly into Blissfield. The two cross while US 223 runs along Adrian Street through downtown, and the highway makes its first crossing of the River Raisin before leaving downtown. The second crossing is in Palmyra northwest of Blissfield.
US 223 returns to a due west track as it crosses a branch of the Norfolk Southern Railway, and the roadway approaches the outskirts of Adrian. The highway runs along the southern city limits for Adrian as it meets M-52. The only business loop for US 223 runs north of this intersection with M-52 into downtown Adrian while US 223 continues through a secondary business corridor south and west of town. US 223 crosses Beaver Creek and then intersects M-34 on the western city line in a residential section of Adrian. As US 223 crosses fully into the city of Adrian, it continues northwesterly, then turns due west at the intersection where it meets its business loop's western terminus. Outside of town, the highway crosses through more farmland continuing to northwestern Lenawee County.
US 223 passes out of flat farmlands into the Irish Hills region as the highway runs northeast of Manitou Beach as the roadway rounds the northern shore of Devils Lake. The Irish Hills region has gently rolling hills that transition to forests from farms. Southeast of Somerset, US 223 meets US 127 and ends. The entire highway in both Ohio and Michigan is listed on the National Highway System, a system of highways important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility.
## History
As early as 1912, the Ohio section of what is now US 223 was shown on maps as SR 54, however the road was not signed with the number at the time. The Michigan section carried two numbers when the signs were erected by July 1, 1919. The segment from Somerset to Adrian was M-80, and the remainder in Michigan was M-34. Ohio signed its highways, including SR 54, by July 1923.
When the United States Numbered Highway System debuted on November 11, 1926, these highways were all used as part of the southern end of US 127, which started in Lansing, Michigan, and ended in Toledo at the time. In 1930, US 127 south of Somerset was rerouted to replace M-14 to the state line and extended to end in Cincinnati, Ohio. The section of US 127 between Somerset and Toledo was then renumbered US 223, making the highway a spur of US 23.
The routing of US 223 was changed through Adrian in 1935, shifting the highway along different streets through town. Another change in 1942 through Adrian led to the creation of the first business loop through the city. This version of the business loop lasted until the main highway was moved a second time in 1956. With this subsequent move, the business loop designation was shifted to its current location.
Michigan first started converting US 23 into a freeway in 1957. Several years later, the state first proposed a realignment of US 223 in 1965. This change would have rerouted the highway to replace M-151 in southern Monroe County, and use the US 23 freeway to connect to Sylvania, Ohio. The Michigan State Highway Department truncated M-151 in 1965, eliminating the section that ran eastward through Samaria to US 25 south of Monroe. The remainder of the US 223 realignment change was made in 1977 when Michigan shifted its segment of US 223 over M-151 as previously proposed. Instead of running south through Ottawa Lake along Memorial Highway, US 223 continued east to the US 23 freeway and south into Ohio. The former routing has been retained as an unsigned highway.
The last major change occurred when the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) truncated US 223 at exit 234. The city of Toledo and the state proposed the change in late 1985 to simplify travel in the area. The section of US 223 from Sylvania into downtown Toledo was used for an extension of SR 51 when the change was made between 1985 and 1987.
A local regional planning group in Michigan proposed upgrading the section of US 223 through Lenawee County in 1990, citing increased congestion and accidents in the previous five years. The commission also supported upgrades to the highway because it was the main route between the Jackson and Toledo areas. Subsequent upgrades during 2000 added passing lanes near Palmyra and 6.6 miles (10.6 km) of roads were resurfaced.
## Future
`The original defined alignment of I-73 would have run along I-75 to Detroit. However, Congress amended that definition in 1995 to have a branch along the US 223 corridor to south of Jackson and the US 127 corridor north to I-75 near Grayling. From Grayling it would use I-75 to Sault Ste. Marie. Except south of Jackson, where the existing highways are two-lane roads and a section of road north of Lansing where the freeway reverts to a divided highway, this corridor is mostly a rural four-lane freeway. While there are no immediate plans to convert the section of US 127 between St. Johns and Ithaca to freeway, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) continues to purchase parcels for right-of-way to be used for future upgrades.`
MDOT included using the US 223 corridor as one of its three options to build I-73 in 2000. The others included using the US 127 corridor all the way into Ohio with a connection to the Ohio Turnpike or using US 127 south and a new freeway connection to US 223 at Adrian. MDOT abandoned further study of I-73 after June 12, 2001, diverting remaining funding to safety improvement projects along the corridor. The department stated there was a "lack of need" for sections of the proposed freeway, and the project website was closed down in 2002. According to press reports in 2011, a group advocating on behalf of the freeway is working to revive the I-73 project in Michigan. According to an MDOT spokesman, "to my knowledge, we’re not taking that issue up again." The Lenawee County Road Commission is not interested in the freeway, and according to the president of the Adrian Area Chamber of Commerce, "there seems to be little chance of having an I-73 link between Toledo and Jackson built in the foreseeable future."
In 2012, MDOT announced a construction project along the US 23/US 223 freeway in southern Monroe County what would rebuild the northbound lanes of the freeway between exits 1 and 5 in addition to improving the interchange ramps in the area. The interchange between US 223 the freeway at exit 5 will also be modified to contain a pair of roundabouts in a configuration known as a dogbone interchange.
## Major intersections
## Business loop
Business US Highway 223 (Bus. US 223) is a business route running through downtown Adrian, Michigan. It is also currently the highest numbered and signed business routing in the state of Michigan. Both Business Spur I-375 (BS I-375) and Capitol Loop currently exist but BS I-375 is not signed and the Capitol Loop, while inventoried as Connector 496 does not use that number on signs.
The current routing of Bus. US 223 marks the second time the designation has been used in the Adrian area. The first was created in 1942 when the first bypass of Adrian was constructed. This bypass was built along Cadmus Road at Treat Highway west to M-52 (Adrian Highway). US 223 then ran along M-52 to connect with the previous routing. Bus. US 223 was designated along Church, Center, Beecher and Treat streets, the former routing of US 223 through downtown. This incarnation of Bus. US 223 would survive until March 26, 1956 when another new bypass of Adrian was built. The first Bus. US 223 was deleted to allow the designation to be used on the routing of the first US 223 bypass. This first bypass became the current alignment of Bus. US 223.
In the current routing, Bus. US 223 follows M-52 (Main Street) and a former route of US 223 through downtown. The southern terminus is at US 223 at an intersection with M-52 near the southern city line. The business loop runs concurrently with M-52 north into downtown on Main Street, breaking off and running northwesterly along Church Street. From there Bus. US 223 turns westward onto Maumee Street. The route follows Maumee Street to its northern terminus, meeting US 223 again northwest of downtown Adrian.
Major intersections
## See also |
36,469,004 | Sweet Life (Frank Ocean song) | 1,164,910,707 | 2012 single by Frank Ocean | [
"2012 singles",
"2012 songs",
"Def Jam Recordings singles",
"Frank Ocean songs",
"Neo soul songs",
"Song recordings produced by Pharrell Williams",
"Songs written by Frank Ocean",
"Songs written by Pharrell Williams"
]
| "Sweet Life" is a song by American singer Frank Ocean, released as the third single from his debut studio album Channel Orange (2012). The song was written and produced by Ocean and Pharrell Williams, member of the production duo The Neptunes. The track was released on July 6, 2012, when Ocean posted a download of the song onto his Tumblr account, and it debuted on iTunes on July 12. The song features a vocal loop, warm horn sections and lush, tropical production. The song explores a disillusionment and wealth within Ladera Heights and lyrically explores a narrative of people wasting their life away on the beach and Ocean's desire not to involve himself with such a life. The song draws inspiration from Ocean's own early life.
The song received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics who praised its smooth production and the social commentary in Ocean's lyrics. Some writers described it as a highlight from the album, and it was widely compared to the work of soul singer Stevie Wonder. The track charted on the South Korea Gaon International Chart at position 124. Ocean performed "Sweet Life" during his Channel Orange tour through North America.
## Background
Following the success of Ocean's mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra, it was reported that Ocean was getting calls from several large producers wishing to collaborate with him. The Neptunes' Pharrell Williams was one of the producers who reached out to Ocean, with the two first meeting at the 2011 Coachella Music Festival. In an interview with Vibe in 2011, Williams commented the following on Ocean:
> "To me [he’s] a singer/songwriter. But his album itself is incredible. He’s super talented. To me he’s like the Black James Taylor. He’s lyrical—he’s got a great perspective and super sick melodies. I haven’t seen anybody bob and weave through chords with such catchy melodies in a long time—that’s why I liked working with him.”
Ocean accepted Williams' offer, and the two went into the studio to record songs together. After their sessions together, what they had produced was worked sonically into the rest of the album, one of the tracks becoming "Sweet Life". The song draws inspiration from the early life of Ocean, who grew up in New Orleans and who now lives in Beverly Hills. Ocean's hometown of New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina, forcing Ocean to relocate to Beverly Hills. Ocean's early upbringing and experiences with Beverly Hills shaped the themes of the song, such as his dismay with people living intentionally insulated lives. Though Williams co-wrote the song with Ocean, it has been described as deeply personal to Ocean in content. A download for the song was posted onto Ocean's personal Tumblr account on July 6, 2012 in promotion of the album. It was simultaneously posted onto his SoundCloud account. The track was released a few days following Ocean's coming out as a bisexual, which sparked additional interest in the song. Ocean performed the track during his 14 show Channel Orange tour through North America.
## Composition
"Sweet Life" is a smooth R&B track with a 1970s aesthetic. The production was described as similar to the work of Stevie Wonder, with elements of "twinkling Stevie-esque electric piano". It moves between lush jazz-funk and a cappella breakdowns, featuring a massive synth-stoked chorus and scoring similar to that of James Bond end credit theme. The track was described as impressively detailed; containing a below-the-mix vocal loop, warm horns handled by Williams, a perpetually meandering electronic keyboard line. It was noted that it still managed to feel spacious and loose, drawing inspiration from soul songs from the 70's. Live instruments were used during recording, adding a more organic sense to the sound. Ocean makes his vocal presence front center on the track, a move compared to the pomposity of musical choreographer Busby Berkeley, with lyrical influence from Joan Didion and Randy Newman. R&B singer D'Angelo and his album Voodoo was noted as another inspiration. The production was mostly handled by Williams, which has been compared to the type of lush beats found on his recording band's N.E.R.D's albums, notably their debut In Search Of.... The chord progression has been described as signature Williams, serving as a "jazzy sound bed" for Ocean's vocal performance.
The song is set in Ladera Heights, California, declared as "the black Beverly Hills" by Ocean. Ocean referring it to "the black Beverly Hills also is probably a reference to a scene in the Quentin Tarantino film, Reservoir Dogs. Ocean compares the setting to a domesticated paradise, with palm trees, pools, "whatever feels good". Placed in a tropical setting, Ocean spins a narrative of the finer pleasures of high-class living, and how they can act as blinders to life's expansiveness, with lines such as "you've had a landscaper and a housekeeper since you were born". "Sweet Life" paints a picture of nightmarish disillusionment within the lives of rich people, critiquing their lives as restless and dangerous in nature. Along with Channel Orange track "Super Rich Kids", "Sweet Life" is a commentary of aimless, money obsessed teenagers, with parallels of Bret Easton Ellis's Less than Zero. The track, much like most of Channel Orange, tells a story about seeming alienation, while also making an argument for the ways in which alienation is humorous, pathetic and at times tender. Ocean's humor is used as a veil for frustration and regret, using irony to pinpoint the absurdity in things. The composition presents a struggle by Ocean to avoid the fripperies of wealth, and serves as a "haunting meditation" on how money makes living well possible, while also noting the downsides it offers.
The track has drawn comparisons to the style of 808s & Heartbreak, a studio album by rapper Kanye West noted for its jarring use of auto-tune. West has often been noted as an influence by Ocean. Ology writer Terron R. Moore mused that unlike West, Ocean was "an inherently sad guy" and that feeling of inner loss and hopelessness appears on every track on the album, even when he's supposed to be singing about the "Sweet Life". He noted a hidden sense of despair on the song, not immediately apparent on first listen. The song also contains parallels to Ocean's own musical career, where Ocean recognizes that an album is much like a relationship: "the main track, the single, often is not the best choice." While singles are generally regarded as an album's best song, Ocean remarks that sometimes the most obvious decision holds more subtly. Jason Lipshutz of Billboard mused that Ocean took on the role of a "captain" on the track, prodding the privileged to reach for more by unraveling their lavish realities; "Why see the world, when you got the beach?" he asks rhetorically. Robert Everett-Green of The Globe and Mail stated that the track depicts dislocated lives of easy pleasure, of "keepin’ it surreal" with pills and sunshine, in music that’s supposedly all about feeling good.
## Reception
"Sweet Life" was highly praised by music critics. John Calvert of The Quietus described the song as "really big. Like R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" big. Like Superman eating a super hotdog while fighting King Kong while...ok you get the picture. If you were looking around for a high concept pitch-style descriptor, with its synth brass and Philly soul strings you might call it 'Stevie Wonder meets N.E.R.D in space'. But then that would be too simplistic a definition for the multifaceted, resolutely accomplished 'Sweet Thing'." Pitchfork's Larry Fitzmaurice labeled it a "Best New Track" and noted that "this was a week where Frank Ocean bravely invited us to learn more about his personal story; 'Sweet Life' is another reminder of how well he can structure a narrative in the musical realm." The Telegraph's Neil McCormick noted that Ocean took the R&B genre and pushed it out into strange new places, with tracks like the "blissful, jazzy jigsaw of 'Sweet Life', which seems to assemble itself from disconnected elements as it goes along." AllMusic's Andy Kellman mused that the track served as one of the album's lighter moments, and wrote that "the bright 'Sweet Life' and the relatively exuberant 'Monks,' both of which would be standouts on any N.E.R.D. album, offer more than bright coating, dealing in surrealism and sharp observations that are equally penetrating."
Greg Kot, writer for the Chicago Tribune, stated that the track "seduces like a drug dealer", with Ocean crooning over a laid-back rhythm. Prefix Magazine's David Padula commented that it "centers around a jazzy keyboard lick that dips regularly into more lush surroundings. The crisp percussion is a highlight, but the winning point is the soulful croons and general smoothness of Ocean." Mike Powell's Spin praised Ocean's writing abilities, musing "my 'TV ain't HD, that's too real', the narrator of 'Sweet Life' complains, then returns to his swimming-pool floatie. If the song wasn't so pretty — Ocean's velvety voice, soft jazzy accompaniment — you might even feel bad for him." Killian Fox of The Observer reported that the song was one of the few times on the album when Ocean was actively courting heavy radio play, describing Sweet Life as a "near-perfect distillation of every blissed-out summer jam from Stevie Wonder onwards." Amy Dawson, critic for Metro, called the composition "an irresistibly warm slice of old-school funk."
musicOMH's Laurence Green praised "Sweet Life", commenting, "and sweet it is, a joyous affirmation to living life with eyes open wide, soaking up the experiences of youth." Consequence of Sound's Harley Brown felt that Ocean did an uncanny impression of Stevie Wonder, and placed the song amongst Channel Orange's essential tracks. Nathan Slavik of the DJBooth called the vocals "appropriately sweet, softly painting a picture of a life lived in the black Beverly Hills", and commented "just in time for the weekend, expect to hear this one played at pool side barbecues nationwide." The Huffington Post*'s Alan Pyke called it one of the album's standout tracks, writing that the "bubbling keys and bass" of the track "show how captivating beats elevate Frank Ocean to best-in-class status", praising the production by Williams. Aidin Vaziri of the San Francisco Chronicle* listed the song as one of the "swoon worthy" tracks off the album, and felt that Ocean "managed to evoke the carefree feeling of Saturday mornings in front of the television watching Soul Train. The track charted on the South Korea Gaon International Chart at number 124.
## Charts |
2,203,016 | The Good Will Out | 1,173,366,275 | null | [
"1998 debut albums",
"Albums produced by Youth (musician)",
"Embrace (English band) albums",
"Hut Records albums",
"Virgin Records albums"
]
| The Good Will Out is the debut studio album by British rock band Embrace, released on 8 June 1998, by Hut, Mobetta and Virgin Records. The band formed in 1993; by 1996, they consisted of vocalist Danny McNamara, his brother, guitarist Richard McNamara, drummer Mike Heaton and bassist Steve Firth, and Tony Perrin had become their manager. A single, "All You Good Good People", was released through Fierce Panda in February 1997, attracting music media and record label interest, resulting in the band signing to Hut. Produced by the band, Dave Creffield and Youth, sessions for their debut were held at the Hook End, Whitfield Street and Metropolis studios. Other production staff included Jonny Dollar, who almost produced the album, Steve Osborne, who did additional production on one song, and Hugo Nicolson, who handled recording on another.
On release, reviewers described The Good Will Out as a Britpop album; it has since been regarded by some reviewers as a post-Britpop album. Keyboardist Mickey Dale, who would join the band during the album's touring cycle, contributed to the recordings, alongside Wil Malone and Craig Armstrong, all three of whom helped with the string sections. Two EPs, Fireworks EP and One Big Family EP, were released in mid-1997 and promoted with festival appearances and a tour of the United Kingdom. A re-recorded version of "All You Good Good People" was released as the lead single from The Good Will Out on 27 October 1997, which was promoted with a UK tour. "Come Back to What You Know" was released as the album's second single on 25 May 1998, followed by the third single "My Weakness Is None of Your Business" on 17 August 1998. Following this, the band toured the UK and Japan.
The Good Will Out received generally favourable reviews from critics, some of whom praised the high-quality songwriting and noted comparisons to the work of Oasis and the Verve. The album topped the UK chart and reached number two in Scotland. It went gold in the UK on the first day of release and was certified platinum in that territory by the end of the year. All three singles charted within the top 10 of the UK Singles Charts and Scottish Singles Charts, with "Come Back to What You Know" peaking the highest at number six in the former and number four in the latter, respectively. NME included the album on their list of the best albums of the year.
## Background
In 1993, vocalist Danny McNamara and his brother, guitarist Richard McNamara, formed Embrace in the English town of Huddersfield, initially under the name Christiania F and later the Bus Conductors. At the time, Richard was playing drums for the thrash metal band Gross Misconduct. After placing an ad in a local publication, the pair drafted Mike Heaton to play drums. Following a handful of live shows, one of which earned an unfavourable piece in Melody Maker, the band took a break from performing to focus on writing material. Their sound during this time was a mix of Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division and the early work of U2. During a performance at the Heineken Festival in Leeds, McNamara had an epiphany where he saw himself as "Ian McCullough or Bono or someone", and decided to perform as himself going forward. The day after, they scrapped all of the material that they had gathered up to that point and started again. Over the next two years, they stayed in a rehearsal room, prior to Richard McNamara finding a recording of "Retread" in Danny's set of demos. Richard McNamara felt this song was a turning point for their musical direction as he thought it sounded like no other act.
Their bassist found religion, prompting him to be replaced by Steve Firth in 1996. Around this time, the band sent demos to potential managers and eventually settled with Tony Perrin. Leading up to an appearance at the 1996 Sound City festival in Leeds, they compiled 30 copies of a demo tape that was sent out to potential labels, receiving replies from 18 of them. Three showcases were held at the Duchess of York in Leeds; the band eventually signed to major label Virgin imprint Hut Records in September 1996. They also signed with DGC Records in the United States. Embrace were already friends with the head of Hut, who was promoted to the president of Virgin around the same time. Perrin said he knew people at Geffen Records, who owned DGC; A&R staff member Tony Berg signed the band to the label. Independent label Fierce Panda Records released "All You Good Good People", with "My Weakness Is None of Your Business" as its B-side, in February 1997. It was promoted with a tour alongside the Longpigs, and caught the attention of music publications.
## Recording
Embrace, with Dave Creffield and Martin "Youth" Glover, produced The Good Will Out, which was recorded in early 1997. Jonny Dollar, who mixed "Now You're Nobody", was asked to produce the album, but declined for personal reasons. Steve Osborne did additional production on "One Big Family"; Dollar's lack of involvement allowed Osborne to work with Embrace; he had wanted to work again with a rock-centric band. The band attempted unsuccessfully to draft Steve Albini as producer, and had turned down Butch Vig previously. All the previously released tracks on the final version of the album were re-recorded during the sessions. Danny McNamara explained: "Everyone says we write songs like we're on our third or fourth album, but the early tracks still had the sound of a fledgling band so I wanted more definitive versions."
Dave Creffield and the band produced nearly all the final recordings except for "All You Good Good People" and "Come Back to What You Know" produced by Youth at Hook End Studios, near Checkendon, Oxfordshire. While Creffield handled most of the recording, Hugo Nicolson recorded "All You Good Good People" and "Come Back to What You Know"; both tracks had additional recording by Creffield. Guitars on "The Last Gas" were recorded at an unnamed studio in Nottingham. The piano on "That's All Changed Forever" was recorded at Whitfield Street Studios in London. A 24-piece orchestra at Metropolis Studios in London was recorded playing the string arrangements. McNamara thought the orchestra warming up "sound[ed] incredible", and ran into the studio's control room to have it recorded as the intro piece. He asked the orchestra to repeat what they had been doing; they could not remember and just improvised. On the second occasion the band worked with an orchestra, they had the tape rolling; the conductor can be heard filling out Musicians' Union forms. Dale described the piece as capturing the "feel" and "all the excitement and ALL the nerves in the room". "Fireworks piano was recorded at Metropolis as Dollar wanted the band to use the studio's Fazioli piano. Youth and Nicolson mixed the recordings except "Now You're Nobody". Bunt Stafford-Clark mastered the album at Townhouse Studios in London.
## Composition and lyrics
Musically, the sound of The Good Will Out has been described as Britpop and post-Britpop. It was compared to the works of Oasis and the Verve, which McNamara felt worked as "good promotion" for the release, but clarified that "90% of 'The Good Will Out' was already written when these bands weren't even successful". Consumable Online writer Sean Eric McGill avoided making analogies to either act, instead connecting to Embrace's sound to that of Queen, as he explained: "like Queen, Embrace writes finely crafted rock/pop songs that can only be described as 'huge. Wil Malone served as the conductor for a string section of the album, and Mickey Dale added keyboards to the recordings. While the album's booklet credits Dale with helping to arrange the strings, Richard McNamara said Craig Armstrong (who worked with Massive Attack at the time) had helped in that regard. The album's title is based on the proverb the truth will out, referring to being positive. It opens with the 40-second "Intro", which consists of an orchestra setting up their instruments, ending with drum hits that segue into "All You Good Good People", which also features said orchestra. Dale said "All You Good Good People" was the first time he had worked with the band; they required a string arrangement and had asked him for one. The track began originally as "Mikes Fast", and went through multiple versions before ending up in its final form. Varying tape noises can be heard, the result of the tape with Danny McNamara's vocals being fast-forwarded and rewound.
"Sweetness" (1994) by Michelle Gayle influenced "My Weakness Is None of Your Business". McNamara had Leonard Cohen-esque verses for the song for sometime and a call-and-response chorus, before writing the hook after hearing "Sweetness". The band intended holding back "Come Back to What You Know" for their second album until publicist Scott Piering heard the song and pushed for its release. McNamara said an earlier version of "One Big Family" was "a lot more chaotic", influenced by "Naked Cousin (1996) by PJ Harvey. It features Richard McNamara on lead vocals and tambourine; the group vocals consist of friends, partners, and people from the street, under the name the Bricklayers. "Higher Sights" is a power ballad in the vein of INXS, and was inspired by "You Do" (1995) by McAlmont & Butler. Danny McNamara said he wrote the song after someone told the band they "weren't [B]ritpop enough". Dale said the string players had struggled with the song as the scores were written in the wrong key; the players had to transpose the score while recording it. "Retread", a ballad, details the end of a relationship. The guitar riff was played on every guitar the band had before they settled on the final tone. "I Want the World" features the use of wah-wah pedals and feedback, and was compared to the work of Oasis. In its original form, the song sounded closer to the Jesus and Mary Chain; Richard McNamara attempted emulating Tim Burgess of the Charlatans.
"You've Got to Say Yes" was about Heaton's best friend Dean who had an "incredibly tough life", and was influenced by the work of Curtis Mayfield. Initially, the song was called "Shallow Time", had a saxophone, and a section in 6/8 time. For "Fireworks", Danny McNamara sang a soul-esque rendition, before they added their instruments. He wrote the lyrics to it while sat under a mixing desk. The intro to "The Last Gas" is a snippet from a radio show about orangutans; it includes shouting by the Bricklayers. The album's final three tracks are piano-led pieces: "That's All Changed Forever", "Now You're Nobody" and "The Good Will Out". "That's All Changed Forever" was influenced by McNamara falling in love, and the affects love has on a person's life. The chorus was inspired after the band saw Superstar, who had a song with a similar sound. The lyrics include a reference to a conversation McNamara and Dale had at Heaton's house in 1995. With "Now You're Nobody", Dale said the band took a "very Pet Sounds approach", like quieting the drum and bass parts, and adding a lot of reverb. Richard McNamara said they dismantled a music box to sample its notes for the song. "The Good Will Out" was the result of combining two separate songs, and is reminiscent of "Hey Jude" (1968) by the Beatles. It had a different verse from what ended up on the album, which Jazz Summers said was acceptable, though McNamara thought he could do better, and subsequently re-wrote it. Discussing the closing "la-la-la" section, McNamara said it was the "most emotional moment during the recording [...] Think about it, everyone understands La-la-la".
## Release and promotion
### Pre-album singles and EPs
The Fireworks EP released on 5 May 1997, featured "The Last Gas", "Now You're Nobody", "Blind" and "Fireworks". The music video for "The Last Gas" sees the band perform in a darkly-lit room, while a lyric video for "Fireworks" consists of shots of a desert landscape. Following this, Embrace went on a sold-out UK tour. The One Big Family EP released on 7 July 1997, featured "One Big Family", "Dry Kids", "You've Only Got to Stop to Get Better" and "Butter Wouldn't Melt". In the music video for "One Big Family", footage of the band performing the track is cut with shots of them at an amusement park. The band promoted it with appearances at Glastonbury, T in the Park, Phoenix, V and the Reading Festivals, as well as a three-date residency at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
The re-recorded version of "All You Good Good People" was released as a single on 27 October 1997. Two versions were released on CD: the first, dubbed the All You Good Good People EP, with "You Don't Amount to Anything – This Time", "The Way I Do" and "Free Ride", while the other included a Perfecto remix of "One Big Family", the Fierce Panda version of "All You Good Good People", as well as an orchestral version of it. The music video for "All You Good Good People", which was directed by Mary Scanton, consists of a mix of black-and-white and colour performance footage. The band went on a tour of mainland Europe, before touring the UK in November 1997.
"Come Back to What You Know" was released as a single on 25 May 1998. Two versions were released on CD: the first with "Love Is Back", "If You Feel Like a Sinner" and "Perfect Way", while the other featured live versions of "Butter Wouldn't Melt" and "Dry Kids", as well as an orchestral version of "Come Back to What You Know". The music video for "Come Back to What You Know", which was directed by Olly Blackburn, features people in different locations that meet up by its end, interspersed with clips of the band performing. Coinciding with this, the band embarked on a short four-date tour of the UK.
### Album promotion and later singles
Hut, Mobetta and Virgin Records released The Good Will Out on 8 June 1998. The album cover was photographed on Christopher Street in New York City; the shoot cost around £25,000 according to Danny McNamara. The chosen image was taken by photographer Mary Scanlon, who spent a day following the band around, during the evening. The US release, on 28 July 1998, featured a re-recorded version of "Blind" subtitled the "road version". It was promoted with an in-store performance and signing session at HMV's flagship store on Oxford Street in London. Following this, the band performed at Glastonbury Festival. They had tried to tour US, but were unable to when Geffen Records dropped them from the roster, despite "All You Good Good People" performing well at radio stations.
"My Weakness Is None of Your Business" was released as a single on 17 August 1998. The CD version included "Feelings I Thought You Shared" and "Don't Turn Your Back on Me", while the 12" vinyl version featured those two songs and the Perfecto remix of "One Big Family". An edition dubbed The Abbey Road Sessions, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, was also released with versions of "My Weakness Is None of Your Business", "Higher Sights" and "Retread". The music video for "My Weakness Is None of Your Business" consists of stop-motion movement of McNamara being assaulted in a club and thrown in the back of a car. He is then taken to the roof of a building, and it ends with a shot of him hanging of the side of it as people watch from below.
Embrace embarked on a tour of the UK in September 1998, and then Japan and played three shows in the US. Before embarking on a European tour at the end of the year, touring keyboardist Mickey Dale was made an official member. The Good Will Out EP was released on 30 November 1998, consisting of the previously released live version of "Butter Wouldn't Melt" and "Dry Kids", as well as the "road version" of "Blind". The Abbey Road Sessions Part 2 was also released with session versions of "All You Good Good People", "That's All Changed Forever" and "You've Got to Say Yes".
### Reissues and related releases
"All You Good Good People", "My Weakness Is None of Your Business", "Come Back to What You Know", "One Big Family", "Fireworks" and "The Good Will Out" were included on the band's first compilation album, Fireworks (Singles 1997–2002) (2002). "All You Good Good People", "Come Back to What You Know", "One Big Family" and the "road version" of "Blind" were included on the band's third compilation album, The Essential (2007). The band performed The Good Will Out live in its entirety for a series of shows in 2019. The London show at the Roundhouse was recorded and released as the live album The Good Will Out (Live) that same year. Firth reasoned that they had "never done a live album", funding the release of it through PledgeMusic. When asked if the studio version would be reissued, he explained that as they had large debts with their former labels, they had no financial incentive to do so: "it'd just be a vanity project really. There'd be no money in it for us". The studio version was re-pressed on vinyl, with their second studio album Drawn from Memory (2000) and their third studio album If You've Never Been (2001), in 2020.
## Critical reception
The Good Will Out was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. James Oldham of NME saw the album as a collection of "uplifting optimism that substitutes vulnerability for bravado, and heartfelt sentiment for boisterous thrills". His only complaint was the band's "not so confident [...] crazed hedonism", concluding the release was "one of the great debut albums of the past decade". Melody Maker's Mark Sutherland said after his first listen to the album, he was immediately struck "not its arrogance, but it's humility". He expanded on this by saying the band were "at their least engaging when they resemble their caricature [...] and merely endearing when pulling self-consciously 'classic' tricks". AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the album had a lot of expectation on release; it was viewed as the "heir apparent to the lad-rock throne", and one listen of the album "illustrates why -- the group ingeniously combines the anthemic hooks and monolithic roar of Oasis with the sweeping aural majesty of the Verve". He said the songs were "quite good, and they're performed passionately".
The staff at Dotmusic said the album "challenges The Verve and Oasis out to compare the size of their anthems and the sweetness of their ballads". They added that while the album, "sounds massively important, it lacks the soul of [frontman Richard] Ashcroft & co". Rolling Stone reviewer Matt Diehel said the band "drag out all the Brit-pop devices" on the album from the "obvious Beatles references [...] to Stone Roses-ish hubris". He added the band's "main problem is lack of personality". In a review for The Times, Mike Pattenden wrote that when the band "put the bluster to one side they hit a genuinely soulful note", but "when they try and rock their impact is diminished". PopMatters editor Sarah Zupko said the tracks "don't quite possess the instant hooks" that Oasis member Noel Gallagher "is a master" of. Despite this, she called it "a pretty good album of middle-of-the-road Britpop". Q writer Andrew Collins said tracks like "The Last Gas" and "All You Good Good People" were the band's "stock-in-trade" which was "rousing in short doses but punishing over an hour, chiefly due to Danny McNamara's limited voice". He noted strings were "employed relentlessly but the result is like underlining a shopping list for effect".
## Commercial performance and accolades
The Good Will Out peaked at number one in the UK and number two in Scotland. It ranked at number 52 on the UK's year-end chart for 1998. The Fireworks EP charted at number 34 in Scotland and the UK. The One Big Family EP charted at number 21 in the UK and number 22 in Scotland. "All You Good Good People" charted at number seven in Scotland and number eight in the UK. "Come Back to What You Know" charted at number four in Scotland and number six in the UK. "My Weakness Is None of Your Business" charted at number seven in Scotland and number nine in the UK.
The Good Will Out went gold on its first day of release, and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) by the end of the year. The album is ranked number 993 in All-Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd. edition, 2000). NME ranked the album at number 12 on their list of the best albums of the year.
## Track listing
All songs written by Danny McNamara and Richard McNamara.
## Personnel
Personnel per booklet, except where noted.
Embrace
- Danny McNamara – lead vocals
- Richard McNamara – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals (tracks 5 and 8)
- Mike Heaton – drums, backing vocals
- Steve Firth – bass
Additional musicians
- Mickey Dale – keyboards, string arrangements
- Wil Malone – conductor
Production and design
- Youth – producer (tracks 2 and 4), mixing (all except track 13)
- Dave Creffield – producer (all except tracks 2 and 4), additional recording (tracks 2 and 4), recording (all except tracks 2 and 4)
- Embrace – producer (all except tracks 2 and 4), design
- Steve Osborne – additional production (track 5)
- Hugo Nicolson – mixing (all except track 13), recording (tracks 2 and 4)
- Jonny Dollar – mixing (track 13)
- Bunt Stafford-Clark – mastering
- Blue Source – design
- Mary Scanlon – photography
## Charts and certifications
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Certifications |
41,695,809 | Project M | 1,169,222,563 | Mod of Super Smash Bros. Brawl | [
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"Crossover fighting games",
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"Video game mods",
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"Video games developed in the United States",
"Video games with 2.5D graphics",
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| Project M is a mod of the 2008 fighting game Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, created by the community group known as the Project M Development Team (PMDT; previously known as the Project M Back Room). It is designed to retool Brawl to play more like its two predecessors, Super Smash Bros. (1999) and Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001), in response to fan objections to Brawl's physics, slower-paced gameplay, larger use of chance elements, and mechanics of certain attacks. Project M reintroduces Dr. Mario (although as a palette swap of Mario), Mewtwo, and Roy, who were present in Melee but were cut from Brawl due to time constraints. In addition, it features a new art style for in-game menus and allows players to choose certain characters individually when they are only accessible as transformations of other ones in Brawl.
Development started in early 2010 with the goals of reworking Falco Lombardi to mechanically play like he did in Melee and increasing the accessibility of the gameplay style, but the project quickly evolved to a full-scale reworking of Brawl. The game's first demo build was released on February 7, 2011, and development continued until December 1, 2015, when the PMDT announced it would cease further development of Project M. The game has received positive comments from reviewers, amassed a player base of over 500,000, surpassed three million downloads, and been played in many professional tournaments.
## Gameplay
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which Project M modifies, is a fighting game with a battle system more similar to that of the game prior to Brawl, Super Smash Bros. Melee. Players battle in arenas of varying sizes and levels of complexity, controlling characters with a variety of play styles. They can attack one another with their own repertoires of special moves, or with a basic attack. Attacks can be avoided by jumping or using a short-lived shield move. Unlike most traditional fighting games, the Super Smash Bros. games do not include standard health gauges, but a percentage counter; there is no point at which a character is automatically knocked out from the counter getting too high, but they will be knocked farther with increasing damage. Being knocked off the screen—or falling off oneself—causes a knock-out. Players may use items for offensive purposes, such as guns and swords, or for healing purposes, such as food and heart containers. The stages, characters, and items are drawn from Nintendo's video game franchises such as Mario, Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, along with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series and Konami's Metal Gear series. The victor of a match has no standard determining factor. Rather, depending on the settings, victory may be reached, for example, by being the last player alive using a stock system, or by achieving the most KOs after a set amount of time.
Super Smash Bros. Melee, Brawl's predecessor in the Super Smash Bros. series, has a similar gameplay style, but there are major differences in areas such as control, general movement styles, and character balancing. Project M was designed to incorporate elements of Melee while still being distinctive in its own right. The designers' "about" page lists a number of aspects from Melee that they aimed to carry over, including fast-paced gameplay, "flowing, natural movement", a "great deal of control" in the player's movements, a balance of offense and defense—though they favored offense over defense slightly—and a complex system of combo attacks. The Project M development team's goal was to give Brawl more balanced gameplay, adding mechanics from Melee back into Brawl, as well as buffing characters to be about as powerful as Fox, the character near-universally considered to be the best in Melee. In addition, some characters who had been present in Melee but scrapped for Brawl were brought back. The game files can be downloaded from its official website and exported to the player's console via an SD card. Players who own an NTSC Wii can install the game without any software modifications, but they must delete all custom stages created in Brawl because of the way files are stored.
## Development
A large number of competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee players were disappointed upon the release of its sequel Brawl six-and-a-half years after the release of Melee. The general consensus among competitive players was that the latter game's developers had reworked the older battling system to better appeal to casual gamers, by making the attacks and movement of the game significantly slower in general and adding a greater degree of randomness, luck, and unpredictability, in contrast to Melee, which has more straightforward, skill-based gameplay. Of particular infamy was a new "tripping" mechanic, by which a character occasionally and randomly slips and falls when changing their direction while running.
Project M first began as a development project to rework the character Falco to play like he did in Melee. The designers' goal at the time was for the game to be accessible to newcomers and encourage people to get better at the game, which was accomplished by creating a character roster that is more balanced. The mod's first demo was announced on January 15, 2011, with a release date of late January or early February in time for the Pound 5 tournament, where it was featured. It featured 14 of the 39 characters in Brawl, as well as new stages Brawl had not included. It was later given a solid date of February 7, 2011. A patch was later created to fix the demo's bugs and fine-tune the player's control of their movement direction after being attacked.
By the release of the game's second demo in March 2011, the team's goals for the mod had expanded to a total overhaul of Brawl to better match Melee's gameplay mechanics. A newer build added 11 characters and was first playable at the Genesis 2 tournament. The second demo, released on April 15, 2012, added four new characters as well as more stages and changes in multiple characters' gameplay mechanics. Players of this second demo reported a number of bugs, but these were fixed shortly afterwards in version 2.1. A demo version numbered 2.5 was announced on September 10, 2012; it featured changes such as balance updates, aesthetic improvements, stage updates, and palette swaps for the characters. Version 2.5 was released on December 28.
Originally as part of an April Fool's Day joke, the PMDT announced that a new "Turbo mode"—inspired by a YouTube video called "Melee Impossible" that showed off powerful combos—would be featured in the upcoming version 3.0. The designers set up a Turbo Tuesday video series showing off the mode with various characters, such as Mario and Ike, once a week. A 2.6 demo was announced on June 26, 2013, and it was released on July 17, 2013. The designers hoped to feature the Turbo mode in this update, but it was not ready in time. The designers added a "Clone Engine" to the game that allowed them to make the character Roy, whose only appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series at the time was in Melee. They designed Roy by taking a clone of Marth and changing the clone into the desired result, along with using the same use of the engine to make the character Mewtwo, albeit with major edits to its model, due to it and Lucario having different move-sets. In order to avoid cease-and-desist letters from Nintendo, the designers explained that they would not use this engine to make new fighters who debuted in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The designers added new alternate costumes for a number of characters, including Dr. Mario, who was previously cut from Brawl, for Mario. It was given a release date of December 9, 2013 with a final character count of 41, more than any previous Super Smash Bros. game at the time. Senior designer Corey Archer stated that there would probably be only one more update before he considers Project M complete; he suggested that this update may contain new Nintendo characters.
Version 3.5 was released on November 14, 2014. This revision refines the game's user interface, adds new stages and costumes, adds a few new original musical pieces, redesigns several stages from the original Super Smash Bros. using new HD visuals, and implements new modes such as a debug mode and "All-Star Versus," a mode allowing players to use a different character on every life. A public beta of Version 3.6 was released on June 23, 2015. It added more costumes and stages, new music, a new in-game announcer, and the ability for players to choose between the modified and unmodified versions of stages before battle among other changes. This was the first non-demo version of Project M which has had a public beta before final release. Version 3.6 was officially released on August 16, 2015, and included even more additional content on top of what was present in the Beta release. Included were additional balance stages, a brand new Wario Land stage, more music, a new announcer to replace the one used in the Beta and various tweaks and fixes to bugs and errors found during the 3.6 Beta period.
On December 1, 2015, the PMDT announced it would cease further development of Project M, effective immediately, in favor of beginning development on an original project. The development team denied allegations that legal threats from Nintendo were the cause of the project's termination. According to the team's attorney and business consultant, Ryan Morrison, the decision was not made as a result of a cease-and-desist notice or legal action by Nintendo. One member of the development team stated that the mod's cancellation was to prevent future legal issues. Members of the PMDT later went on to form the game studio Wavedash Games and develop Icons: Combat Arena, a fighting game with similar mechanics to Project M.
After Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter to tournament organizer The Big House for their use of the Slippi emulator in their 2020 Melee tournament, Project M'''s official website was updated for the first time in several years, voicing support for the Smash Bros. community and linking to a mod derived from Project M, called Project+.
### Characters
Project M includes a number of adjustments and tweaks intended to make the characters from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl more balanced, as well as add touches that felt more true to their games of origin. For example, the staff felt that the character Wario in Brawl took too much influence from the WarioWare series of games and not enough from his older appearances in the Wario Land series of games, so they changed him to better reflect the Wario Land games. Mario was redesigned to be a cross between his Melee incarnation and his heavier-hitting clone from the same game, Dr. Mario. Peach was changed to make her turnip attacks more similar to Melee than in Brawl, after Brawl's advent had diminished their usefulness. Bowser, a character who was generally not considered viable for tournament play in previous games, was given armor and increased attack power and made larger. These adjustments gave him the ability to reach enemies easier while making him an easier target for opponents. Yoshi was given an improved recovery and defense. While Ganondorf's strength was changed to function closer to that of his appearance in Melee, his neutral special has also been changed to a floating descent in the air and a backhand to deflect projectiles on the ground. Additionally, the characters Mewtwo and Roy, who had been present in Melee but were cut from the cast in Brawl, were added back to the roster and given new abilities to make the previously low-tier characters more viable.
Before the project was discontinued, several newcomers were planned for addition, including Knuckles the Echidna from Sonic the Hedgehog, Lyn from Fire Emblem, and Isaac from Golden Sun. A development build containing these characters was leaked on 4chan in the aftermath of the project's discontinuation. However, Knuckles would later be added to Project M's spiritual successor, Project+.
## Reception
The Project M Development Team claimed that the 2.0 demo had received 46,000 downloads by May 23, 2012, and 100,000 by December 9, 2013. As of November 15, 2014, Project M version 3.0 has been downloaded over 920,000 times. The version 3.6 beta has been downloaded over 106,791 times, and version 3.5 has been downloaded over 615,809 times as of July 25, 2015.
Project M 2.5 was featured for a special invitation 16-person tournament at Apex 2013. Version 3.0 was featured the following year as well, but was omitted from inclusion at Apex 2015, prompting negative reactions from players.
The game has received positive attention from the media. Ryan Rigney of Wired called it the best iteration of Super Smash Bros. and felt that it successfully transforms Brawl into a serious competitive game. Similarly, Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku called it the "best Smash Bros. mod around" and remarked that it "improves the game so much, it practically seems new." Jordan Devore of Destructoid stated that it was one of the highest-quality mods he had ever seen. Zach Betka from GamesRadar called the game "beautiful" and enjoyed the presence of "many edits that will make the average Smash fan squeal."
Prior to its discontinuation, Nintendo's Miiverse Internet forum would apply an automatic ban to those who mentioned Project M'' on the grounds of it being "criminal content", including the acronym "PM". |
24,600 | Pete Best | 1,171,459,235 | British musician, former member of the Beatles | [
"1941 births",
"Beat musicians",
"English expatriates in the United States",
"English people of Irish descent",
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"Living people",
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"Musicians from Liverpool",
"People educated at Liverpool Collegiate Institution",
"People from West Derby",
"The Beatles members"
]
| Randolph Peter Best (né Scanland; born 24 November 1941) is an English musician who was the drummer of the English rock band the Beatles from 1960 to 1962. He was dismissed immediately prior to the band achieving worldwide fame and is one of several people who have been referred to as a fifth Beatle.
Best's mother, Mona Best (1924–1988), opened the Casbah Coffee Club in the cellar of the Bests' house in Liverpool. The Beatles (at the time known as the Quarrymen) played some of their first concerts at the club. The Beatles invited Best to join the band on 12 August 1960, on the eve of the group's first Hamburg season of club dates. Ringo Starr eventually replaced Best on 16 August 1962 when the group's manager, Brian Epstein, fired Best at the request of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison following the band's first recording session. Over 30 years later, Best received a major monetary payout for his work with the Beatles after the release of their 1995 compilation of their early recordings on Anthology 1; Best played the drums on 10 of the album's tracks, including the Decca auditions.
After working in several commercially unsuccessful groups, Best gave up being in the music industry to work as a civil servant for 20 years before starting the Pete Best Band.
## Early life
Best's mother, Mona Best, was born in Delhi, India, the daughter of Thomas (a major from Ireland) and Mary Shaw. Pete Best, her first child, was born on 24 November 1941 in Madras, then part of British India. Best's biological father was marine engineer Donald Peter Scanland, who subsequently died during World War II. Best's mother was training to become a doctor in the service of the Red Cross when she met Johnny Best, who came from a family of sports promoters in Liverpool who ran Liverpool Stadium, a boxing arena. During World War II, Johnny Best was a commissioned officer serving as a Physical Training Instructor in India, and was the Army's middleweight boxing champion. Soon after their marriage on 7 March 1944 at St Thomas's Cathedral, Bombay, Rory Best was born. In 1945, the Best family sailed for four weeks to Liverpool on the Georgic, the last troop ship to leave India, carrying single and married soldiers who had previously been a part of General William Slim's forces in south-east Asia. The ship docked in Liverpool on 25 December 1945.
Best's family lived for a short time at the family home, "Ellerslie" in West Derby until Best's mother fell out with her sister-in-law, Edna, who resented her brother's choice of wife. The family then moved to a small flat on Cases Street, Liverpool, but Mona Best was always looking for a large house—as she had been used to in India—instead of one of the smaller semi-detached houses prevalent in the area. The Bests moved to 17 Queenscourt Road in 1948 and remained there for nine years.
Best passed the eleven plus exam at Blackmoor Park primary school in West Derby, and was studying at the Liverpool Collegiate Grammar School in Shaw Street when he decided he wanted to be in a music group. Mona bought him a drum kit from Blackler's music store and Best formed his own band, the Black Jacks.
In 1957, Rory Best saw a large Victorian house for sale at 8 Hayman's Green and told Mona about it. The Best family claim that Mona had pawned all her jewelry to place a bet on Never Say Die, a horse that was ridden by Lester Piggott in the 1954 Epsom Derby; it won at 33–1 and she saved her winnings and in 1957 used them to buy the house. The house, built around 1860, had previously been owned by the West Derby Conservative Club and was unlike many other family houses in Liverpool as it was set back from the road and had 15 bedrooms and an acre of land. All the rooms were painted dark green or brown, and the large garden was totally overgrown. Mona later opened The Casbah Coffee Club in the house's large cellar. The idea for the club first came from Best, as he asked his mother for somewhere his friends could meet and listen to the popular music of the day. As The Quarrymen, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown played at the club after helping Mona to finish painting the walls. Chas Newby and Bill Barlow joined the Black Jacks, as did Ken Brown, but only after he had left the Quarrymen. The Black Jacks later became the resident group at the Casbah, after the Quarrymen cancelled their residency because of an argument about money.
During 1960, Neil Aspinall became good friends with the young Best and subsequently rented a room in the Bests' house. During one of the extended business trips of Best's stepfather, Aspinall became romantically involved with Mona and in 1962 a son, Vincent Roag Best, was born to Aspinall and Mona. Aspinall later became the Beatles' road manager, and denied the story for years before publicly admitting that Roag was indeed his son.
## The Beatles
In 1960, the Beatles' manager Allan Williams arranged a season of bookings in Hamburg, beginning on 17 August 1960, but complained the group did not impress him and hoped that he could find a better act.
Having no permanent drummer, Paul McCartney looked for someone to fill the Hamburg position. Best had been seen playing in the Casbah with his own group, the Black Jacks, and it was observed that he played the bass drum on all four beats in the bar, which pushed the rhythm. In Liverpool, his female fans knew him as being "mean, moody, and magnificent", which convinced McCartney he would be good for the group. After the Black Jacks broke up, McCartney persuaded Best to go to Hamburg with the band, by saying they would each earn £15 per week (equivalent to £ in 2023). As Best had passed his school exams (unlike Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, who had failed most of theirs), he had the chance to attend teacher-training college, but he decided that playing in Hamburg would be a better career move. Best had an audition in the Jacaranda Club, which Williams owned, and travelled to Hamburg the next day. Williams later said that the audition with Best was unnecessary, as the group had not found any other drummer willing to travel to Hamburg, but did not tell Best in case he asked for more money.
On their first trip to Hamburg, the group soon realised that the stage suits they wore could not stand up to the hours of sweating and jumping about on stage every night, so they all bought leather jackets, jeans and cowboy boots, which were much tougher. Best initially preferred to play in cooler short sleeves on stage, and so did not match the sartorial style of the group, even though he was later photographed wearing a leather jacket and jeans. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe were introduced to recreational drugs in Hamburg. As they played for hours every night, they often took Preludin to keep themselves awake, which they received from German customers or Astrid Kirchherr, whose mother bought them. Lennon often took four or five but Best always refused.
The Beatles first played a full show with Best on 17 August 1960 at the Indra Club in Hamburg, and the group slept in the Bambi Kino cinema in a small, dirty room with bunk beds, a cold and noisy former storeroom directly behind the screen. Upon first seeing the Indra, where they were booked to play, Best remembered it as a depressing place patronised by a few tourists, and having heavy, old, red curtains that made it seem shabby compared to the larger Kaiserkeller. As Best had been the only group member to study O-Level German at school, he could converse with the club's owner, Bruno Koschmider, and the clientele. After the Indra closed following complaints about the noise, the group started a residency in the Kaiserkeller.
In October 1960, the group left Koschmider's club to work at the Top Ten Club, which Peter Eckhorn ran, as he offered the group more money and a slightly better place to sleep. In doing so, they broke their contract with Koschmider. When Best and McCartney returned to the Bambi Kino to retrieve their belongings, they found it in almost total darkness. As a snub to Koschmider, McCartney found a condom, attached it to a nail on the concrete wall of the room, and set it alight. There was no real damage done, but Koschmider reported them both for attempted arson. Best and McCartney spent three hours in a local prison and were subsequently deported on 30 November 1960, as was George Harrison, for working under the legal age limit.
Back in Liverpool, the group members had no contact with each other for two weeks, but Best and his mother made numerous phone calls to Hamburg to recover the group's equipment. In late 1961, Mona arranged all the bookings for the group in Liverpool after they parted company with Williams.
Chas Newby, the ex-Black Jacks guitarist, was invited to play bass for four concerts, as bassist Stuart Sutcliffe had decided to stay in Hamburg. Newby played with the group at Litherland Town Hall and at the Casbah. He was shocked at the vast improvement in their playing and singing, and remembered Best's drumming to be very powerful, which pushed the group to play harder and louder. It was probably thanks to McCartney that Best developed a loud drumming style, as he often told Best in Hamburg to "crank it up" (play as loud as possible). When the group returned to Hamburg, by which time McCartney had switched to bass, Best was asked to sing a speciality number written by McCartney, "Pinwheel Twist", while McCartney played drums, but he always felt uncomfortable being at the front of the stage.
### "My Bonnie"
The reunited Beatles returned to Hamburg in April 1961. While they played at the Top Ten Club, singer Tony Sheridan recruited them to act as his backing band on a recording for the German Polydor label, produced by bandleader Bert Kaempfert, who signed the group to a Polydor contract at the first session on 22 June 1961. On 31 October 1961, Polydor released the recording "My Bonnie" (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur / My heart is only for you) which appeared on the German charts under the name "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers"—a generic name used for whoever happened to be in Sheridan's backup band. The song was later released in the UK. There was a second recording session on 23 June that year, and a third in May 1962.
### Decca and Parlophone
Brian Epstein, who had been unofficially managing the Beatles for less than a month, arranged a recording audition at Decca Records in London on New Year's Day, 1962. The group recorded 15 songs, mostly cover versions with three Lennon–McCartney songs. Best also recorded the song "Going Back Manchester" with Lennon at this time, which would later feature as a bonus track on the special edition of his album Best of the Beatles, the rights of the song belonging to Best due to a legal technicality. A month later, Decca informed Epstein the group had been rejected. All the band members were informed of the rejection except for Best. Epstein officially became the manager of the Beatles on 24 January 1962 with the contract signed in Best's house.
Epstein negotiated ownership of the Decca audition tape, which was then transferred to an acetate disc, to promote the band to other record companies in London. In the meantime, Epstein negotiated the release of the Beatles from their recording contract with Bert Kaempfert and Polydor Records in Germany, which expired on 22 June 1962. As a part of this contract, the Beatles recorded at Polydor's Studio Rahlstedt on 24 May 1962 in Hamburg as a sessions band, backing Tony Sheridan. The record producer at EMI, George Martin, met with Epstein on 9 May 1962 at the Abbey Road studios, and was impressed with his enthusiasm. He agreed to sign the Beatles on a recording contract, based on listening to the Decca audition tape, without having met them or having seen them perform live. Soon after the recording contract was signed, the Beatles performed a "commercial test" (i.e. an evaluation of a signed artist) on 6 June 1962 in Studio Two at the Abbey Road studios. The Beatles were not new to studio recording and Best's drumming had been found acceptable by Polydor in Hamburg, but Martin was alerted to Best's unsuitability for British studio work. EMI engineer Norman Smith stated in a 2006 video interview that "it was mainly down to what he was playing and not how he was playing," when "Love Me Do" was first recorded, referring to the head arrangement. Martin, however, found Best's timing inadequate and wanted to replace Best with an experienced studio session drummer for the recordings, a common practice at the time. Martin stated years later:
> I decided that the drums, which are really the backbone of a good rock group, didn't give the boys enough support. They needed a good solid beat, and I said to Brian, 'Look, it doesn't matter what you do with the boys, but on record, nobody need know. I'm gonna use a hot drummer.' Brian [Epstein] said, 'Okay, fine.' I felt guilty because I felt maybe I was the catalyst that had changed his [Best's] life...
### Dismissal
When Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison learned that Martin and the engineers preferred replacing Best with a session drummer for their upcoming recording session on 4 September 1962, they considered dismissing Best from the group. Eventually, they asked Epstein to dismiss Best from the band. Epstein agonised over the decision. As he wrote in his autobiography, A Cellarful of Noise, he "wasn't sure" about Martin's assessment of Best's drumming and "was not anxious to change the membership of the Beatles at a time when they were developing as personalities ... I asked the Beatles to leave the group as it was". Epstein also asked Liverpool DJ Bob Wooler, who knew the Beatles intimately for advice, to which Wooler replied that it was not a good idea, as Best was very popular with the fans. Part of the dilemma for Epstein that arose at that time (when the band had not yet achieved national success, but rather local status as a good band with limited income), was that Best was an asset at gigs, popular with the girl fans, and put on a good show, ensuring venues would have a solid audience. The counter-argument, however, was the larger consideration of the band's having the best music producible for record sales. John, Paul and George ultimately decided that record production was more important than having a drummer for live stage performances who was more image than substance. In the meantime, Epstein refrained from telling Best that EMI had made a recording contract with the band (orally since June and in writing at the end of July 1962) which meant that a new drummer was now inevitable. There might have been legal issues had Best known.
Epstein decided that "If the group was to remain happy, Pete Best must go." Best played his last two gigs with the Beatles on 15 August at the Cavern Club, Liverpool. He was due to play his last show on 16 August at the Riverpark Ballroom, Chester, but never turned up; Johnny Hutchinson of the Big Three was rushed in as a substitute. Epstein summoned Best to his office and dismissed him on Thursday, 16 August, ten weeks and a day after the first recording session.
Mersey Beat magazine's editor, Bill Harry, claimed that Epstein initially offered the vacant drummer position in the group to Hutchinson, whom he also managed. Hutchinson is said to have refused the job, saying, "Pete Best is a very good friend of mine. I couldn't do the dirty on him." However, McCartney and Harrison have said they wanted Ringo from the beginning after he sat in with them at shows on several occasions when Best was absent. Best says that Epstein revealed at the dismissal meeting that Ringo would become the new drummer.
Best had been good friends with Neil Aspinall since 1961, when Aspinall had rented a room in the house where Best lived with his parents. While still part of the group, Best had asked Aspinall to become the band's road manager and personal assistant. Aspinall accepted the job and bought an old Commer van for £80 (equivalent to £ in 2023). Aspinall was waiting for Best downstairs in Epstein's NEMS record shop after the dismissal meeting. The two went to the Grapes pub on Mathew Street, the same street as the Cavern Club, where the group had played. Aspinall was furious at the news, insisting to Best that he would resign from the Beatles. Best strongly advised him to remain with the group. Aspinall's relationship with Mona Best (and their three-week-old baby, Roag) was ended. At the next concert Aspinall asked Lennon why they had fired Best, to which he replied "It's got nothing to do with you, you're only the driver."
Starr had previously played with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes – the alternating band at the Kaiserkeller – and had been deputised whenever Best was ill or unable to play in Hamburg and Liverpool. Bill Harry reported Best's dismissal on the front page of Mersey Beat magazine, upsetting many Beatles fans. The group encountered some jeering and heckling in the street and on stage for weeks afterwards, with some fans shouting, "Pete forever, Ringo never!" One agitated fan headbutted Harrison in The Cavern, giving him a black eye.
As Best's replacement, Starr accompanied the band on their second recording session with EMI at Abbey Road studios on 4 September 1962. George Martin initially refused to let Starr play. He was unfamiliar with Starr and wanted to avoid any risk of his drumming not being up to par. On 11 September 1962, at the third EMI recording session, Martin used session musician Andy White on the drums for the whole session instead of Starr, as Martin had already booked White after the first session with Best. Starr played tambourine on some songs, while White played drums. Starr told biographer Hunter Davies years later that he had thought, "That's the end. They're pulling a Pete Best on me."
## Reasons for dismissal
### Drumming ability
According to Best, Brian Epstein told him he was "not a good enough drummer" and "Ringo [Starr] was the better drummer." The other Beatles – as well as producers, musicians and critics who had heard Best play with the group – confirmed this reasoning.
John Lennon said that Best was recruited only because they needed a drummer to go to Hamburg. "We were pretty sick of Pete Best, too, because he was a lousy drummer, you know? He never improved, you know? ... And we were always going to dump him when we could find a decent drummer" ... "By the time we'd rolled back from Germany we'd trained him to keep a, you know, a stick to keep going up and down at four in the bar; he couldn't do much else."
Paul McCartney stated that Best was "good, but a bit limited." McCartney remembered:
> George Martin was used to drummers being very 'in time', because all the big-band session drummers he used had a great sense of time. Now, our Liverpool drummers had a sense of spirit, emotion, economy even, but not a deadly sense of time. This would bother producers making a record. George took us to one side and said, 'I'm really unhappy with the drummer. Would you consider changing him?' We said, 'No, we can't!' It was one of those terrible things you go through as kids. Can we betray him? No. But our career was on the line. Maybe they were going to cancel our contract.
McCartney later suggested Ringo's drumming was a significant improvement over Best's.
> The truth was, we just kind of fell in love with Ringo's drumming. Ringo was in another band, and we had Pete, and we were working, and we used to see this other band. We said, "God, that drummer's good." And one night, Pete couldn't do it and Ringo sat in for him. And we all just went "[Gasp]." Behind us was this powerhouse, and this person who was like taking care of the job. And we went, "Oh dear."
George Harrison, too, recalled preferring Ringo's drumming. He said, "Ringo kept sitting in with the band. And every time Ringo sat in with the band, it just seemed like, this was it."
Starr, for his part, said, "I felt I was a much better drummer than [Best] was."
Critic Richie Unterberger described Best's drumming at the Decca audition as "thinly textured and rather unimaginative", adding that Best "pushes the beat a little too fast for comfort". Unterberger thought Starr to be "more talented". Mike Savage, the session engineer, said, "I thought Pete Best was very average and didn't keep good time. You could pick up a better drummer in any pub in London. If you've got a quarter of the group being very average, that isn't good. The drummer should be the rock. If the rock isn't good, you start thinking, no. If Decca was going to sign the Beatles, we wouldn't have used Pete Best on the record." Beatles' historian Ian MacDonald, recounting the Decca audition, said that "Best's limitations as a drummer are nakedly apparent". MacDonald notes, of the EMI recording session on 6 June that "this audition version [of "Love Me Do"] shows one of the reasons why Best was sacked: in moving to the ride cymbal for the first middle eight, he slows down and the group falters." Beatles' critic Alan W. Pollack compared the Best, Starr, and Andy White versions of "Love Me Do", and concluded that Best was "an incredibly unsteady and tasteless drummer" on his version.
After the Beatles signed a contract, EMI producer Ron Richards said, "Pete Best wasn't very good. It was me who said to [producer] George Martin he's useless. We've got to change this drummer." Martin, for his part, said, "[Best] couldn't play drums very well. I mean he couldn't keep time too well. And I was aware that the band weren't tight. They needed that sort of binding force that a good drummer should give them. So I said to [Beatles manager] Brian [Epstein] I'll get another drummer for the recording session."
Still, Martin claimed to be surprised to learn that Best had been fired from stage shows, hearing the news from Mona via telephone. He said:
> I never suggested that Pete Best must go. All I said was that for the purposes of the Beatles' first record I would rather use a sessions man. I never thought that Brian Epstein would let him go. He seemed to be the most saleable commodity as far as looks went. It was a surprise when I learned that they had dropped Pete. The drums were important to me for a record, but they didn't matter much otherwise. Fans don't pay particular attention to the quality of the drumming.
According to biographer Bob Spitz, "All Pete could do was play Fours", a style of drumming that uses kick drum notes on every quarter note to hold down the beat. Spitz's book also contains an account by engineer Ron Richards of his failed attempts to teach Best somewhat more complicated beats for different songs.
Best has said he did not believe this was the "real reason" and that it "never held up water."
In 1968, authorised Beatles biographer Hunter Davies opined that the firing of Best was "one of the few murky incidents in the Beatles' history. There was something sneaky about the way it was done." Over twenty years later, Mark Lewisohn concluded that "Despite his alleged shortcomings, it was still shabby treatment for Pete... The Beatles had had two years in which to dismiss him but hadn't done so, and now – as they were beginning to reap the rewards for their long, hard slog, with money rolling in and an EMI contract secured – he was out. It was the most underhanded, unfortunate and unforgivable chapter in the Beatles' rise to monumental power."
### Band chemistry
Epstein claimed in his autobiography that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison thought that Best was "too conventional to be a Beatle" and added that "though he was friendly with John, he was not liked by George and Paul". It has been documented, in Cynthia Lennon's book John and elsewhere, that while Lennon, McCartney and Harrison usually spent their offstage time together in Hamburg and Liverpool, writing songs or socialising, Best generally went off alone. This left Best on the outside, as he was not privy to many of the group's experiences, references and in-jokes.
A German photographer, Astrid Kirchherr, asked if they would not mind letting her take photographs of them in a photo session, which impressed them, as other groups only had snapshots taken by friends. The next morning Kirchherr took photographs on the Heiligengeistfeld, a municipal event area close to the Reeperbahn. In the afternoon, Kirchherr took them to her mother's house in Altona – minus Best, who decided not to attend. Dot Rhone, McCartney's then-girlfriend who later visited Hamburg, described Best as being very quiet and never taking part in conversations with the group.
It has been claimed that Epstein became exasperated with Best's refusal to adopt the mop-top-style Beatle haircut as part of their unified look, as he preferred to keep his quiffed hairstyle, though Best later stated that he was never asked to change his hairstyle. In a 1995 BBC Radio Merseyside interview, Kirchherr explained: "My boyfriend, Klaus Voormann, had this hairstyle, and Stuart [Sutcliffe] liked it very, very much. He was the first one who really got the nerve to get the Brylcreem out of his hair, and asking me to cut his hair for him. Pete Best has really curly hair, and it wouldn't work."
McCartney explained why Geoff Britton, one-time drummer in his subsequent band Wings, "didn't last long" in that group: "It's like in the Beatles, we had Pete Best. He was a really good drummer, but there just was something, he wasn't quite like the rest of us, we had like a sense of humour in common and he was nearly in with it all, but it's a fine line, you know, as to what is exactly in and what is nearly in. So he left the band and we were looking for someone who would fit." He told Mark Lewisohn, similarly, that when George Martin suggested "changing" their drummer the Beatles responded: "Well, we're quite happy with him, he works great in the clubs", but also that "Pete had never quite been like the rest of us. We were the wacky trio and Pete was perhaps a little more sensible; he was slightly different from us, he wasn't quite as artsy as we were."
Harrison said that "Pete kept being sick and not showing up for gigs" and admitted, "I was quite responsible for stirring things up. I conspired to get Ringo in for good; I talked to Paul and John until they came round to the idea."
### Difficulties between Mona Best and others
Before Epstein took the Beatles on, Mona had been handling most of the management and promotional work. According to promoter and manager Joe Flannery, Mona had done a great deal for the band by arranging a number of important early gigs and lending them a badly needed helping hand when they returned from Hamburg the first time, but this came at the cost of having to contend with her overbearing nature. At this crucial time in the history of the Beatles, Lennon confided to Flannery that he considered Mona "bossy like [his aunt] Mimi" and believed that she was using the Beatles only for the sake of her son Pete, though this should be weighed against the fact that the Beatles' cordial relations with Mona soon resumed. She often met them while visiting Neil Aspinall at his London home. On these occasions, the Beatles often had small gifts for her which they had acquired on their travels. For her part, Mona allowed them to use her father's military medals in the photo shoot for the Sgt. Pepper album cover.
Although Epstein's publicly stated reluctance to fire Best quickly became a matter of record in the early biographies, he had found Mona to be the cause of mounting aggravation. She had contractual ties to the band which made it difficult to dismiss Pete, by breaking the group it would nullify any contract Mona held. Meanwhile, Epstein's distaste for her interference in the Beatles' management, including her "aggressive opinions about his handling of her son's career", was obvious to everyone, and he also reportedly considered Mona a loose cannon who must not be allowed to interfere in his operations. Moreover, the very recent birth of her son Roag further complicated matters. Although Best himself was not personally responsible for this development, it may have still caused a scandal, at a crucial moment in the Beatles' career, had it become generally known, and Epstein may have been horrified at the prospect.
### Popularity
Best's popularity with fans was reportedly a source of friction, as many female fans considered him to be the band's best-looking member. Radio Merseyside presenter Spencer Leigh wrote a book chronicling Best's firing, suggesting that the other members, McCartney in particular, were jealous. In an issue of Bill Harry's Mersey Beat music publication in Liverpool, dated 31 August 1961, Bob Wooler reported on the Beatles' local musical impact and singled out Best for special praise, calling the group "musically authoritative and physically magnetic, example the mean, moody magnificence of drummer Pete Best – a sort of teenage Jeff Chandler". During the Teenagers' Turn showcase in Manchester, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison walked on stage to applause, but when Best walked on, the girls screamed. Afterwards, attentive female fans surrounded Best at the stage door, while the other members were ignored after signing a few autographs. McCartney's father, Jim McCartney, was present at the time and admonished Best: "Why did you have to attract all the attention? Why didn't you call the other lads back? I think that was very selfish of you." Lennon called the accusations of jealousy a "myth".
In 1963 on British television, Mona, with Pete present, said of his dismissal:
Mona: "From the point of clash of personalities, well, probably that may be it because Peter did have a terrific fan club, you know, compared to the others."
[Interviewer: Too good looking perhaps?]
Mona: "I'll leave that for other people to say but from my point of view we haven't come here to sort of throw any sticks and stones at the boys because there is no really hard feeling. There was at first, but as they say success is hard to come by and these things do happen but it's just the way that it was done that has annoyed us. That's all. If it had been done a bit more straightforward it would have been more to the mark."
## After the Beatles
Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison all later stated that they regretted the manner in which Best was sacked. Lennon admitted that "we were cowards when we sacked him. We made Brian do it." McCartney stated: "I do feel sorry for him, because of what he could have been on to." Harrison said: "We weren't very good at telling Pete he had to go", and "historically, it may look like we did something nasty to Pete and it may have been that we could have handled it better." Starr, on the other hand, feels he has no apology to make: "I never felt sorry... I was not involved."
Soon after Best was dismissed, Epstein attempted to console him by offering to build another group around him, but Best refused the offer. Feeling let down and depressed, he sat at home for two weeks, not wanting to face anybody or answer the inevitable questions about why he had been sacked. Epstein secretly arranged with his booking agent partner, Joe Flannery, for Best to join Lee Curtis and the All-Stars, which broke off from Curtis to become Pete Best & the All Stars. They signed to Decca Records, releasing the single "I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door", which was not successful.
### The Pete Best Combo
Best later moved to the United States along with songwriters Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington. As the Pete Best Four, and later as the Pete Best Combo (a quintet), they toured the United States with a combination of 1950s songs and original tunes, recording for small labels, but they had little success. They ultimately released an album on Savage Records, Best of the Beatles: a play on Best's name, leading to disappointment for record buyers who neglected to read the song titles on the front cover and expected a Beatles compilation. The group disbanded shortly afterwards. Bickerton and Waddington were to find greater success as songwriters in the 1960s and 1970s, writing a series of hits for the American female group the Flirtations and the British group the Rubettes. In 1996, the record label Cherry Red reissued the Pete Best Combo's recordings as a compact disc compilation. Richie Unterberger, reviewing the CD, stated that the music's "energy level is reasonably high," that Bickerton and Waddington's songwriting is "kind of catchy," and that Best's drumming is "ordinary."
American garage rock band Lyres recorded a cover version of Pete Best Combo's "The Way I Feel About You" on their 1984 album On Fyre.
## Later years
Best decided to leave show business, and by the time of Hunter Davies' authorised Beatles biography in 1968, he was not willing to talk about his Beatles association. Years later he stated in his autobiography, "the Beatles themselves certainly never held out a helping hand and only contributed to the destruction with their readily printed gossip that I had never really been a Beatle, that I didn't smile, that I was unsociable and definitely not a good mixer. There was not a single friendly word from any one of them". This culminated in a Beatles' interview published in Playboy magazine in February 1965 in which Lennon stated that "Ringo used to fill in sometimes if our drummer was ill. With his periodic illness." Starr added: "He took little pills to make him ill." Best sued the Beatles for defamation of character, eventually winning an out-of-court settlement for much less than the \$18 million he had sought.
Davies recalled that while working with the Beatles on their authorised biography in 1968, "when the subject of Pete Best came up they seemed to cut off, as if he had never touched their lives. They showed little reaction ... I suppose it reminded them not just that they had been rather sneaky in the handling of Pete Best's sacking, never telling him to his face, but that for the grace of God, or Brian Epstein, circumstances might have been different and they could have ended up [like Pete]." Best attempted suicide in the 1960s, but his mother, Mona, and his brother, Rory, prevented him from completing it.
In 1963, Best married Kathy, a Woolworth's sales clerk whom he met at an early Beatles show; they have remained married and have two daughters and four grandchildren. Best did shift work loading bread into the back of delivery vans, earning £8 a week (equivalent to £ in 2023). His education qualifications subsequently helped him become a civil servant working at the Garston Jobcentre in Liverpool, where he rose from employment officer to training manager for the Northwest of England, and remembered "a steady stream of real-life Yosser Hughes types" imploring him to give them jobs. The most he could do, he recalls, was to offer to retrain them in other fields, "which was an emotional issue for people who had done one kind of work all their lives."
Eventually, Best began giving interviews to the media, writing about his time with the group and serving as a technical advisor for the television film Birth of the Beatles. He found a modicum of independent fame, and has admitted to being a fan of his former band's music and owning their records. In 1995, the surviving Beatles released Anthology 1, which featured ten tracks with Best as drummer, including songs from the Decca and Parlophone auditions. Best received a substantial windfall – between £1 million and £4 million – from the sales, although he was not interviewed for the book or the documentaries. According to writer Philip Norman, the first time Best knew about the royalties due him for the use of those tracks "was a phone call" from Paul McCartney himself, "the one who'd been so keen to get rid of him" – the first time they'd spoken since it happened. "Some wrongs need to be righted," Paul told him. "There's some money here that's owing to you and you can take it or leave it." Best took it. However, Best asserts that it was Neil Aspinall and not McCartney who phoned him. "Paul McCartney claims he called me but he didn't," Best told The Irish Times.
The collage of torn photographs on the Anthology 1 album cover includes an early group photo that featured Best, but Best's head was removed, revealing a photo of Starr's head, taken from the Please Please Me cover photo (the missing section of the photograph appears on the cover of the album Haymans Green). A small photograph of Best can be seen on the left side of the Anthology cover. Best appeared in an advertisement for Carlsberg lager that was broadcast during the first commercial break of the first episode of the Anthology TV series on ITV in November 1995. The tag line was "Probably the Pete Best lager in the world", a variation of Carlsberg's well-known slogan.
### The Pete Best Band
In 1988, after twenty years of turning down all requests to play drums in public, Best finally relented, appearing at a Beatles convention in Liverpool. He and his brother Roag performed, and afterwards his wife and mother both told him, "You don't know it, but you're going to go back into show business." Best now regularly tours the world with the Pete Best Band, sharing the drumming with his younger brother Roag. The Pete Best Band's album Haymans Green, made entirely from original material, was released on 16 September 2008 in the US, 24 October 2008 worldwide, excluding the UK, and 27 October 2008 in the UK.
### Honours
On 6 July 2007, Best was inducted into the All You Need Is Liverpool Music Hall of Fame as the debut Charter Member. Best was presented with a framed certificate before his band performed. Liverpool further honoured Best with the announcement, on 25 July 2011, that two new streets in the city would be named Pete Best Drive and Casbah Close.
## Portrayals in media
### Film and television
Best is portrayed in several films about the Beatles. In the 1979 biopic Birth of the Beatles, for which Best was a technical advisor, he is played by Ryan Michael. In both the 1994 film Backbeat and in the 2000 television biopic In His Life: The John Lennon Story, Best is played by Liverpool native Scot Williams. The 2008 Rainn Wilson film The Rocker, about a drummer kicked out of a glam metal band through no fault of his own, was inspired by Best's termination. Best had a cameo in the movie. In 2021, filming began on Midas Man which is about the life of Brian Epstein; Best is played by Adam Lawrence.
### Theatre
BEST!, a comedy play written by Liverpool playwright Fred Lawless, was staged at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre and the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1995 and 1996. The play, which was mainly fiction, showed a scenario where after Pete Best's sacking, he went on to become a world-famous rock superstar while his ex-group struggled as one hit wonders. The play was critically acclaimed in both the Liverpool Echo and also in Spencer Leigh's 1998 book Drummed Out: The Sacking of Pete Best. Pete Best is a main character in David Harrower's 2001 play Presence, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, dramatising The Beatles' time in Hamburg.
Andrew Games portrayed Pete Best in BestBeat at the Unity Theatre in 2018. The play depicted Best's dismissal in 1962.
## Discography
### Albums
- Best of the Beatles (Savage BM 71, Released: 1965)
- Includes: "I Need Your Lovin"; "Just Wait and See"; "Casting My Spell"; "Keys to My Heart"; "Why Did You Leave Me Baby?"; "Like My Sister Kate"; "I Can't Do Without You Now"; "I'm Blue"; "Some Other Guy"; "She's Alright"; "Nobody But You"; "Last Night"; Special Edition includes bonus tracks "Need You"; "Going Back Manchester"
- The Beatle That Time Forgot [Original Version] (Phoenix PB-22, Released: 1981)
- Includes: "I'm Checking Out Now Baby"; "I'll Try Any Way"; "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)"; "How'd You Get to Know Her Name"; "She's Not the Only Girl in Town"; "If You Can't Get Her"; "More Than I Need My Self"; "I'll Have Everything Too"; "The Way I feel About You"; "Don't Play With Me (Little Girl)"; "Rock and Roll Music"; "All Aboard"
- Rebirth (Phoenix PB-44, Released: 1981)
- Includes: "I Can't Do Without You Now"; "Off the Hook"; "She's Alright"; "I Need Your Lovin'"; "Why Did You Leave Me Baby"; "High School Shimmy"; "I Wanna Be There"; "Everybody"; "Pete's Theme"; "Keys to My Heart"
- The Beatle That Time Forgot [Reissue] (Phoenix PHX 340, Released: 1982)
- Includes: "I'll Try Anyway"; "I Don't Know Why I Do (I Just Do)"; "She's Not the Only Girl in Town"; "More Than I Need My Self"; "I'll Have Everything Too"; "I'm Checking Out Now Baby"; "How'd You Get to Know Her Name"; "If You Can't Get Her"; "Rock and Roll Music"
- Back to the Beat – (1995)
- The Pete Best Combo: Beyond the Beatles 1964–1966 (1 February 1996)
- Live at the Adelphi Liverpool 1988 – (23 September 1996)
- Best (18 August 1998)
- Casbah Coffee Club 40th Anniversary Limited Edition (1999)
- The Savage Young Beatles (10 May 2004)
- Haymans Green – Released 16 September 2008 (US), August 2008 (UK) (The Pete Best Band)
### Singles
- "I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door" b/w "Why Did I Fall in Love with You" (Decca F 11929, Released: 1964)
- "Don't Play With Me (Little Girl)" b/w "If You Can't Get Her" (Happening 405, Released: 1965)
- "If You Can't Get Her" b/w "The Way I Feel About You" (Happening HA1117, Released: 1965)
- "Kansas City" b/w "Boys" (Cameo 391, Released: 1965)
- "(I'll Try) Anyway" b/w "I Wanna Be There" (Original Beatles Drummer 800, Released: 1965)
- "I Can't Do Without You Now" b/w "Keys to My Heart" (Mr. Maestro Records 711, Released: 1965)
Another "Peter Best" single, "Carousel of Love"/"Want You" (1967 – Capitol / P 2092) is not by Best, but an Australian performer with the same name. |
221,902 | Thomas Bewick | 1,157,185,830 | English engraver and natural history author (1753–1828) | [
"1753 births",
"1828 deaths",
"18th-century English male artists",
"19th-century English male artists",
"British bird artists",
"British illustrators",
"English illustrators",
"English wood engravers",
"Natural history illustrators",
"People from Mickley, Northumberland"
]
| Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 1753 – 8 November 1828) was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating children's books. He gradually turned to illustrating, writing and publishing his own books, gaining an adult audience for the fine illustrations in A History of Quadrupeds.
His career began when he was apprenticed to engraver Ralph Beilby in Newcastle upon Tyne. He became a partner in the business and eventually took it over. Apprentices whom Bewick trained include John Anderson, Luke Clennell, and William Harvey, who in their turn became well known as painters and engravers.
Bewick is best known for his A History of British Birds, which is admired today mainly for its wood engravings, especially the small, sharply observed, and often humorous vignettes known as tail-pieces. The book was the forerunner of all modern field guides. He notably illustrated editions of Aesop's Fables throughout his life.
He is "usually considered the founder of wood-engraving" as "the first to realize its full potentialities", using metal-engraving tools to cut hard boxwood across the grain, producing printing blocks that could be integrated with metal type, but were much more detailed and durable than traditional woodcuts. The result was high-quality illustration at a low price.
## Life
Bewick was born at Cherryburn, a house in the village of Mickley, Northumberland, near Newcastle upon Tyne on 10 or 11 August 1753, although his birthday was always celebrated on the 12th. His parents were tenant farmers: his father John had been married before his union with Jane, and was in his forties when Thomas, the eldest of eight, was born. John rented a small colliery at Mickley Bank, which employed perhaps six men. Bewick attended school in the nearby village of Ovingham.
Bewick did not flourish at schoolwork, but at a very early age showed a talent for drawing. He had no lessons in art. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to Ralph Beilby, an engraver in Newcastle, where he learnt how to engrave on wood and metal, for example marking jewellery and cutlery with family names and coats of arms. In Beilby's workshop Bewick engraved a series of diagrams on wood for Charles Hutton, illustrating a treatise on measurement. He seems thereafter to have devoted himself entirely to engraving on wood, and in 1775 he received a prize from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce for a wood engraving of the "Huntsman and the Old Hound" from Select Fables by the late Mr Gay, which he was illustrating.
In 1776 Bewick became a partner in Beilby's workshop. The joint business prospered, becoming Newcastle's leading engraving service with an enviable reputation for high-quality work and good service. In September 1776 he went to London for eight months, finding the city rude, deceitful and cruel, and much disliking the unfairness of extreme wealth and poverty side by side. He returned to his beloved Newcastle as soon as he could, but his time in the capital gave him a wider reputation, business experience, and an awareness of new movements in art.
In 1786, when he was financially secure, he married Isabella Elliott from Ovingham; she had been a friend when they were children. They had four children, Robert, Jane, Isabella, and Elizabeth; the daughters worked on their father's memoir after his death. At that period in his life he was described by the Newcastle artist Thomas Sword Good as "a man of athletic make, nearly 6 feet high and proportionally stout. He possessed great personal courage and in his younger years was not slow to repay an insult with personal chastisement. On one occasion, being assaulted by two pitmen on returning from a visit to Cherryburn, he resolutely turned upon the aggressors, and as he said, 'paid them both well'."
Bewick was also noted as having a strong moral sense and was an early campaigner for fair treatment of animals. He objected to the docking of horses' tails, the mistreatment of performing animals such as bears, and cruelty to dogs. Above all, he thought war utterly pointless. All these themes recur in his engravings, which echo Hogarth's attention to moral themes. For example, he shows wounded soldiers with wooden legs, back from the wars, and animals with a gallows in the background.
Bewick had at least 30 pupils who worked for him and Beilby as apprentices, the first of which was his younger brother John. Several gained distinction as engravers, including John Anderson, Luke Clennell, Charlton Nesbit, William Harvey, Robert Johnson, and his son and later partner Robert Elliot Bewick.
The partners published their History of Quadrupeds in 1790, intended for children but reaching an adult readership, and its success encouraged them to consider a more serious work of natural history. In preparation for this Bewick spent several years engraving the wood blocks for Land Birds, the first volume of A History of British Birds. Given his detailed knowledge of the birds of Northumberland, Bewick prepared the illustrations, so Beilby was given the task of assembling the text, which he struggled to do. Bewick ended up writing most of the text, which led to a dispute over authorship; Bewick refused to have Beilby named as the author, and in the end only Bewick's name appeared on the title-page, along with a paragraph of explanation at the end of the preface.
> It may be proper to observe, that while one of the editors of this work was engaged in preparing the Engravings, the compilation of the descriptions was undertaken by the other, subject, however, to the corrections of his friend, whose habits led him to a more intimate acquaintance with this branch of Natural History. – Land Birds, Preface.
The book was an immediate success when published—by Beilby and Bewick themselves—in 1797. Before its publication, Bewick illustrated Arnaud Berquin's Looking-Glass for the Mind in 1792 and J. H. Wynne's Tales for Youth in 1794 for the printer Elizabeth Newbery and in 1795 a anthology on the study of character in the Kings and Queens of England. Given the success of the 1797 publication of his bird illustrations, Bewick started work at once on the second volume, Water Birds, but the disagreement over authorship led to a final split with Beilby. Bewick was unable to control his feelings and resolve issues quietly, so the partnership ended, turbulently and expensively, leaving Bewick with his own workshop. Bewick had to pay £20, equivalent to about £20,000 in 2011, in lawyer's fees, and more than £21 for Beilby's share of the workshop equipment.
With the assistance of his apprentices Bewick brought out the second volume, Water Birds, in 1804, as the sole author. He found the task of managing the printers continually troublesome, but the book met with as much success as the first volume.
In April 1827, the American naturalist and bird painter John James Audubon came to Britain to find a suitable printer for his enormous Birds of America. Bewick, still lively at age 74, showed him the woodcut he was working on, a dog afraid of tree stumps that seem in the dark to be devilish figures, and gave Audubon a copy of his Quadrupeds for his children.
Bewick was fond of the music of Northumberland, and of the Northumbrian smallpipes in particular. He especially wanted to promote the Northumbrian smallpipes, and to support the piper John Peacock, so he encouraged Peacock to teach pupils to become masters of this kind of music. One of these pupils was Thomas's son, Robert, whose surviving manuscript tunebooks give a picture of a piper's repertoire in the 1820s.
Bewick's last wood engraving, Waiting for Death, was of an old bony workhorse, standing forlorn by a tree stump, which he had seen and sketched as an apprentice; the work echoes William Hogarth's last work, The Bathos, which shows the fallen artist by a broken column. He died after a few days' illness on 8 November 1828, at his home. He was buried in Ovingham churchyard, beside his wife Isabella, who had died two years earlier, and not far from his parents and his brother John.
## Work
### Technique
Bewick's art is considered the pinnacle of his medium, now called wood engraving. This is due both to his skill and to the method, which unlike the woodcut technique of his predecessors, carves against the grain, in hard box wood, using fine tools normally favoured by metal engravers.
Boxwood cut across the end-grain is hard enough for fine engraving, allowing greater detail than in normal woodcuts; this has largely replaced the basic woodcut since Bewick's time. In addition, since wood engraving is a relief printing technique, inked on the face, it requires only low pressure to print an image, so the blocks last for many thousands of prints, and importantly can be assembled into the same forme as the letterpress or metal type for the text, allowing both on the same page, and all the printing to be done in a single run. In contrast, copper plate engravings are an intaglio printing technique, inked in the engraved grooves, the face being wiped clean of ink before printing, so a special type of printing press applying much higher pressure is required, and images must be printed separately from the text, at far greater expense.
Bewick made use of his close observation of nature, his remarkable visual memory, and his sharp eyesight to create accurate and extremely small details in his wood engravings, which proved to be both a strength and a weakness. If properly printed and closely examined, his prints could be seen to convey subtle clues to the character of his natural subjects, with humour and feeling. This was achieved by carefully varying the depth of the engraved grooves to provide actual greys, not only black and white, as well as the pattern of the marks to provide texture. But this subtlety of engraving created a serious technical difficulty for his printers; they needed to ink his blocks with just the right amount of ink, mixed so as to be of exactly the right thickness, and to press the block to the paper slowly and carefully, to obtain a result that would satisfy Bewick. This made printing slow and expensive. It also created a problem for Bewick's readers; if they lacked his excellent eyesight, they needed a magnifying glass to study his prints, especially the miniature tail-pieces. But the effect was transformative, and wood engraving became the main method of illustrating books for a century. The quality of Bewick's engravings attracted a far wider readership to his books than he had expected: his Fables and Quadrupeds were at the outset intended for children.
Bewick ran his workshop collaboratively, developing the skills of his apprentices, so while he did not complete every task for every illustration himself, he was always closely involved, as John Rayner explains:
> some blocks would be drawn by one brother and cut by the other, the rough work would be done by pupils, who would also, if they showed aptitude, draw and finish designs—on the same principle as the schools of Renaissance painters; and we cannot ... be sure in all cases that the engravings ... are the work of Thomas Bewick from first to last, but he had a hand to a great extent in nearly all, and certainly had the last word in all of them.
#### Major works
Works using his wood engraving technique, for which he became well known, include the engravings for Oliver Goldsmith's Traveller and The Deserted Village, for Thomas Parnell's Hermit, and for William Somervile's Chase. But "the best known of all Bewick's prints" is said by The Bewick Society to be The Chillingham Bull, executed by Bewick on an exceptionally large woodblock for Marmaduke Tunstall, a gentleman who owned an estate at Wycliffe in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
#### Tail-pieces
The tail- or tale-pieces, a Bewick speciality, are small engravings chosen to fill gaps such as those at the ends of the species articles in British Birds, each bird's description beginning on a new page. The images are full of life and movement, often with a moral, sometimes with humour, always with sympathy and precise observation, so the images tell a tale as well as being at the tail ends of articles. For example, the runaway cart, at the end of "The Sparrow-Hawk", fills what would otherwise be a 5 cm (2 in) high gap. Hugh Dixon explains:
> The runaway cart is a wonderful mixture of action and danger. The boys have been playing in the cart and the horse has bolted; perhaps the dog's barking was the cause. The drawing of the wheel—an extraordinary depiction for its time—shows that the cart has gathered speed. One boy has already fallen and probably hurt himself. The others hang on shouting with fear. And why has it all happened? The carter with his tankard in his hand runs too late from the inn. Has he been distracted by the shapely girl? And is it an accident that the inn sign looks a little like a gallows?
#### Bookplates
The workshop of Beilby, Bewick, and son produced many ephemeral materials such as letterhead stationery, shop advertisement cards, and other business materials. Of these ephemeral productions, "bookplates have survived the best". Bewick's bookplates were illustrations made from engravings, containing the name or initials of the book's owner.
### Aesop's Fables
The various editions of Aesop's Fables illustrated by Bewick span almost his entire creative life. The first was created for the Newcastle bookseller Thomas Saint during his apprentice years, an edition of Robert Dodsley's Select Fables published in 1776. With his brother John he later contributed to a three-volume edition for the same publisher in 1784, reusing some pictures from the 1776 edition.
Bewick went on to produce a third edition of the fables. While convalescing from a dangerous illness in 1812, he turned his attention to a long-cherished venture, a large three-volume edition of The Fables of Aesop and Others, eventually published in 1818. The work is divided into three sections: the first has some of Dodsley's fables prefaced by a short prose moral; the second has "Fables with Reflections", in which each story is followed by a prose and a verse moral and then a lengthy prose reflection; the third, "Fables in Verse", includes fables from other sources in poems by several unnamed authors. Engravings were initially designed on the wood by Bewick and then cut by his apprentices under close supervision, refined where necessary by himself. This edition used a method that Bewick had pioneered, "white-line" engraving, a dark-to-light technique in which the lines to remain white are cut out of the woodblock.
### A General History of Quadrupeds
A General History of Quadrupeds appeared in 1790. It deals with 260 mammals from across the world, including animals from "Adive" to "Zorilla". It is particularly thorough on some of the domestic animals: the first entry describes the horse. Beilby and Bewick had difficulty deciding what to include, and especially on how to organise the entries. They had hoped to arrange the animals systematically, but they found that the rival systems of Linnaeus, Buffon and John Ray conflicted, and in Linnaeus's case at least changed with every edition of his work. They decided to put useful animals first "which so materially contribute to the strength, the wealth, and the happiness of this kingdom".
The book's coverage is erratic, a direct result of the sources that Bewick consulted: his own knowledge of British animals, the available scholarly sources, combined with George Culley's 1786 Observations on Livestock and the antique John Caius's 1576 On English Dogs. Bewick had to hand the Swedish naturalist Anders Sparrman's account of his visit to the Cape of Good Hope on Cook's expedition of 1772 to 1776, and animals from the Southern Cape figure largely in the book. It was an energetic muddle, but it was at once greeted with enthusiasm by the British public. They liked the combination of vigorous woodcuts, simple and accurate descriptions, and all kinds of exotic animals alongside things they knew.
### A History of British Birds
A History of British Birds, Bewick's great achievement and with which his name is inseparably associated, was published in two volumes: History and Description of Land Birds in 1797 and History and Description of Water Birds in 1804, with a supplement in 1821. The Birds is specifically British, but is the forerunner of all modern field guides. Bewick was helped by his intimate knowledge of the habits of animals acquired during his frequent excursions into the country. He also recounts information passed to him by acquaintances and local gentry, and that obtained in natural history works of his time, including those by Thomas Pennant and Gilbert White, as well as the translation of Buffon's Histoire naturelle.
Many of the illustrations that have most frequently been reproduced in other books and as decorations are the small tailpieces that Bewick had placed at the bottoms of the pages of the original. The worlds depicted are so small that a magnifying glass is necessary to examine their detail; each scene, as Adrian Searle writes, "is a small and often comic revelation", each tiny image giving "enormous pleasure"; Bewick "was as inventive as he was observant, as funny and bleak as he was exacting and faithful to the things he saw around him."
Bewick's biographer, Jenny Uglow, writes that
> Bewick appears to have had a faultless sense of exactly what line was needed, and above all where to stop, as if there were no pause for analysis or reflection between the image in the mind and the hand on the wood. This skill, which has made later generations of engravers pause in awe, could be explained as an innate talent, the je-ne-sais-quoi of "genius". But it also came from the constant habit of drawing as a child, the painstaking learning of technique as an apprentice ...
Bewick sometimes used his fingerprint as a form of signature, (accompanied by the words "Thomas Bewick his mark"), as well as engraving it in one of his tail-pieces as if it had clouded the tiny image of a rustic scene with a cottage by mistake. Uglow notes one critic's suggestion that Bewick may have meant we are looking at the scene through a playfully smudged window, as well as drawing our attention to Bewick, the maker. Adrian Searle, writing in The Guardian, describes the tiny work as "A visual equivalent to the sorts of authorial gags Laurence Sterne played in Tristram Shandy, it is a marvellous, timeless, magical joke."
## Tributes
Poetical tributes came to Bewick even during his lifetime. William Wordsworth began his anecdotal poem "The Two Thieves", composed in 1798, with the line "O now that the genius of Bewick were mine", in which case he would give up writing, he declared.
In 1823, Bewick's friend the Reverend J. F. M. Dovaston dedicated a sonnet to him with the lines
: Xylographer I name thee, Bewick, taught
By thy wood-Art, that from rock, flood, and tree
Home to our hearths, all lively, light and free
In suited scene each living thing has brought
As life elastic, animate with thought.
Four years after his death, his sixteen-year-old admirer Charlotte Brontë wrote a poem of 20 quatrains titled "Lines on the celebrated Bewick" which describe the various scenes she comes across while leafing through the books illustrated by him. Later still, the poet Alfred Tennyson left his own tribute on the flyleaf of a copy of Bewick's History of British Birds found in Lord Ravenscroft's library:
: A gate and field half ploughed,
: A solitary cow,
: A child with a broken slate,
: And a titmarsh in the bough.
: But where, alack, is Bewick
: To tell the meaning now?
There are numerous portraits of Bewick. In 1825, the Literary and Philosophical Society commissioned Edward Hodges Baily to sculpt a marble portrait bust of Bewick; there are several copies beside the one still at the Society itself. According to Uglow, when Bewick came to sit for the sculptor, he "stoutly refused to be portrayed in a toga. Instead he wore his ordinary coat and waistcoat with neckcloth and ruffled shirt, and even asked for some of his smallpox scars to be shown." Baily was so taken with him that he presented Bewick with a plaster model of the finished bust. A bronze copy now rests in a niche of the building that replaced his workshop in the churchyard of Saint Nicholas (see above) and still another is at the British Museum. There is also a full-length statue of him at the top left of the former chemist's shop designed by M.V.Treleaven at 45 Northumberland Street in the city.
## Legacy
Bewick's fame, already nationwide across Britain for his Birds, grew during the nineteenth century. In 1830, William Yarrell named Bewick's swan in his honour and Bewick's son Robert engraved the bird for later editions of British Birds.
The critic John Ruskin compared the subtlety of his drawing to that of Holbein, J. M. W. Turner, and Paolo Veronese writing that the way Bewick had engraved the feathers of his birds was "the most masterly thing ever done in woodcutting". His fame faded as illustration became more widespread and more mechanical, but twentieth-century artists such as Gwen Raverat continued to admire his skill, and work by artists such as Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious has been described as reminiscent of Bewick.
Hugh Dixon, reflecting on Bewick and the landscape of North-East England, wrote that
> Bewick's illustrated books, admired since they first appeared, gave him some celebrity in his own lifetime. His Memoir, published a generation after his death, brought about a new interest and a widening respect which has continued to grow ever since. The attraction to his contemporaries of Bewick's observations lay in their accuracy and amusement. Two centuries later these qualities are still recognised; but so, too, is the wealth and rarity of the historical information they have to offer.
Thomas Bewick Primary School, in West Denton in Newcastle upon Tyne, is named after him. Bewick's works are held in collections including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Newcastle's City Library has a collection of works and associated items based on the Pease Bequest which was made to the city by John William Pease in 1901. Bewick is memorialised around Newcastle and Gateshead with streets named after him, and plaques mark his former homes and workshops. |
53,535,457 | Aztecazo | 1,158,670,136 | Mexico versus Costa Rica football match 16 June 2001 | [
"2000–01 in Costa Rican football",
"2000–01 in Mexican football",
"2001 in CONCACAF football",
"2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)",
"Costa Rica national football team matches",
"FIFA World Cup qualification matches",
"June 2001 sports events in North America",
"Mexico national football team matches",
"Nicknamed sporting events"
]
| On 16 June 2001, Mexico played Costa Rica in a football match at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Mexico on the fourth matchday of the final round in the qualification process for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Mexico and Costa Rica reached the matchday with four points, both losing as visitors against the United States. Arnoldo Rivera in La Nación described the match as "crucial" as lackluster results by both teams raised doubts prior to the match. The match ended in an unprecedented loss by Mexico. The Mexicans led 1–0 at half-time, with a header by José Manuel Abundis. Costa Rica then made a comeback in the second half, with goals by Rolando Fonseca and Hernán Medford, ending the match 1–2.
The game marked the first loss suffered by Mexico in the Azteca Stadium in a FIFA World Cup qualification match. It was subsequently referred to as the Aztecazo, a name created by Costa Rican journal La Nación. Costa Rica went on to qualify to the 2002 FIFA World Cup in first place with a record 23 points. Mexico suffered a second consecutive loss in a visit against Honduras, which prompted the resignation of coach Enrique Meza.
## Background
Prior to the match Mexico had never lost a FIFA World Cup qualification match at their home Estadio Azteca. The only losses suffered by the Mexican team at the stadium were friendlies against Hungary, Brazil, Italy, Peru, Chile and Spain, between 1967 and 1981.
The previous encounter between Mexico and Costa Rica at the Estadio Azteca was a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier on November 9, 1997. The match saw the Ticos making a comeback to end the match with a 3–3 draw, cited by La Nación's José Eduardo Mora as "historic... and useless" as the draw proved to be insufficient for Costa Rica to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Prior to the match, both teams accumulated four points in the three previous matchdays of the final round. The United States, led in points because it defeated both Mexico and Costa Rica on U.S. soil. Costa Rica drew with Honduras in San José and defeated Trinidad and Tobago in Alajuela, while the Mexicans drew with the Trinidadians in Port of Spain, and defeated Jamaica at the Azteca Stadium. Doubts arose in both teams, as Costa Rica lost the 2001 UNCAF Nations Cup to Guatemala, while Mexico suffered a 4–0 defeat against England and a poor performance at the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Days before the match, Costa Rican player Hernán Medford questioned Mexico's status as the top team (or "giants") of the CONCACAF region by claiming that "Mexico are neither the giants of CONCACAF nor the invincible team of the region." In response, Rafael Márquez declared that "we speak on the pitch and not out of it, and we will see if Medford is right." Joaquín del Olmo also responded to Medford's declarations, saying that "[Medford] likes to get into controversy and to be honest it is annoying by the declarations of somebody who has eaten of us, of our country. On Saturday, on the pitch, we will talk." Medford replied with "I do not want to get into controversy. But, what do they want? To me to speak soft things? If they do not like it, they should dedicate to something else. We will see each other on the pitch."
## The match
### First half
Mexico scored early in the match. In the seventh minute, Víctor Ruiz took a corner kick and sent a cross for José Manuel Abundis to overcome Gilberto Martínez and score a header past Erick Lonnis. Abundis celebrated by lifting his jersey, showing a T-shirt that read "Profe Meza, estamos con usted" (Professor Meza, we are with you) in support of his coach, Enrique Meza.
During the first half, Costa Rica lacked coordination on its defensive line, and did not show any communication with Lonnis. Paulo Wanchope had a chance blocked by Oswaldo Sánchez. La Nación'''s Arnoldo Rivera criticized the team for their offensive shortcomings, such as leaving Wanchope alone, which Rivera deemed "an orphanhood" that hindered the team during crucial opportunities. Rolando Fonseca was subbed on for Rodrigo Cordero in the fortieth minute.
### Second half
Mexico substituted Cesáreo Victorino in the fifty-second minute. He caused difficulty for the Costa Rican side, but he was eventually covered by defenders Luis Marín and Gilberto Martínez.
During the second half, Costa Rican midfielder Wilmer López reemerged and was described as "the spark plug" of the team. Coach Alexandre Guimarães subbed on William Sunsing for Carlos Castro in the fifty-ninth minute. Sunsing's speed forced Mexican defender Duilio Davino to foul him close to the box. The free kick allowed Rolando Fonseca to score with his right foot in the seventy-second minute, drawing the match.
Hernán Medford was subbed on for Paulo Wanchope in the eightieth minute. Fonseca shot with his right foot from long distance, taking Oswaldo Sánchez by surprise. Sánchez managed to deflect the shot, only for Medford to score the second goal for the Ticos. Guatemalan referee Carlos Batres admitted on 16 March 2017 that Medford was offside when Fonseca made the shot and therefore his goal should not have been allowed. During the final minutes, Erick Lonnis made a crucial save to ensure the victory for the Costa Rican side.
### Details
## Reactions
### Professional
After the match, the press of Mexico, Costa Rica and the United States rushed into what La Nación described as "a fierce battle" to interview Hernán Medford, who was subject of controversy prior to the match and eventually scored the winning goal. A smiling Medford described the win as "a historic result" and thanked coach Alexandre Guimarães by remembering his pass that helped Medford score against Sweden at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. "Eleven years ago I scored a goal thanks to a pass by Guima, today I returned the favor to make him the manager who broke such an important record that is beating Mexico in their Azteca."
Coach Guimarães said "this is the most important triumph of my career as a manager, player and even as a mejenguero [amateur player]." He then praised his team, commenting that "we achieved something that few national teams have done. This group deserved it because of the conviction, the desires and the quality. Each one of the boys want to do something big."
Costa Rican Wílmer López called for calm, commenting that the team needed to control their emotions in order to qualify to the 2002 FIFA World Cup. "Aside from the historical that is the result, we should be careful and know that there is too much left to walk. I am happy, of course, but not in excess," López said. Goalscorer Rolando Fonseca said that "the only giant is God. Mexico is no longer the big fish," replicating the controversial claim made by Hernán Medford before the match. Forward Paulo Wanchope celebrated the victory by saying "to all the Costa Ricans that believe in us: enjoy, because we made history today and we are in a good way."
Jervis Drummond expressed that the triumph meant an enormous boost to qualify for the World Cup, "we knew of the importance that surrounded this match and we never went down arms. We knew how to respond to the early goal and we brought out the courage." Erick Lonnis described his crucial save in the last minute of the match, "I saw that the ball was falling and I chose to put my hand. My location allowed me to deflect it, thus keeping the result," Lonnis said.
On the Mexican side, coach Enrique Meza commented "I recognize their victory, they were better than us and also their speed was very important." He also commented on the negative streak of the team by saying "There is a serious problem because we have not been able to win, but I am proud of this group of players." He ended by defending his lead of the team by declaring "I always fought to be here, today I put all my effort and my knowledge of the game, it may have not been enough, but I am not going."
Forward Luis Hernández commented on the difficulty to get the Mexican fans to trust in the team again. "I think the trust in Mexico has been totally lost and it is hard to go on this way."
### Media
Costa Rican media celebrated the triumph. On June 17, newspaper La Nación published on both their website and printed issue the headline "¡Aztecazo!", depicting both Medford and Fonseca celebrating the second goal. The headline would go on to name the match. Diario Extra mocked the Mexicans with the headline "¡Quiúbole, manitos!" (What's up, dudes?).
Mexican journal Reforma noted the historical importance of the triumph for Costa Rica, and commented "as the Azteca turned into a funeral for most of the spectators and even the press, on one of the stands of the venue the Costa Rican party unleashed with more than ten thousand followers of the Central American team, who started to wave their flags and sing in gratitude to their national team." El Universal commented that "Costa Rica buried Mexico" and that "Ticos —and Medford— showed that Mexico is no longer the giant of CONCACAF."
EFE noted that when the match ended, the Costa Rican president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, who was in the stadium, went down the steps to congratulate the team. The agency also commented that "the rest of the fans, Mexicans, kept silent shocked to see their team losing and began to yell "Meza out!" and "Return the tickets!"."
The Aztecazo is regarded as one of the worst defeats in the history of the Mexico national football team. On July 25, 2013, ESPN Deportes' Alberto Hernández cited the Aztecazo as one of the ten most painful defeats in the history of the Mexican team, while Univision's Dan Fridman named it as "one of the biggest humiliations in the history of El Tri." Milenio's Jorge García included the Aztecazo on his list of "black days in Mexican sports history."
## Aftermath
Costa Rica went on to finish as leaders of the final round with a record 23 points, thus qualifying to the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Four days after the Aztecazo, Mexico was defeated in an away game against Honduras by 3–1. This new loss, which was the sixth in a row for the Mexicans, caused Enrique Meza to resign from his charge as manager. He would be replaced by Javier Aguirre, with whom the Mexicans would qualify to the World Cup as the second placed team after defeating Honduras 3–0 at the Azteca stadium.
At the 2002 World Cup, Costa Rica would be allocated in Group C. The Ticos debuted by defeating China, drew with eventual third-place Turkey and lost against eventual champions Brazil. Despite finishing with four points, Costa Rica were eliminated in the group stage, as their goal difference was insufficient against that of the Turkish team. Mexico would be allocated in Group G, along with Croatia, Ecuador and Italy. As a result of victories against the Croatians and Ecuadorians, and a draw against the Italians, Mexico topped the group. The Mexicans were then eliminated in the round of sixteen by fellow North American rival the United States.
After the Aztecazo, Costa Rica spent twelve years without a single win against Mexico. The negative streak included four games at the Azteca Stadium: two 2–0 defeats in 2005 and 2009, a 1–0 defeat in 2012 and a 0–0 draw in 2013. Costa Rica would eventually end the streak by defeating the Mexicans 2–1 at the Costa Rica National Stadium on October 15, 2013, in a result that almost left Mexico out of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Since Medford's goal in the Aztecazo, Costa Rica has failed to score again at the Estadio Azteca.
Mexico would lose two more friendlies in the Azteca stadium, against Paraguay in June 2007 and the United States in August 2012.
### Honduran Aztecazo
On September 6, 2013, Mexico would suffer their second loss at the stadium during a FIFA World Cup qualification match, this time losing against Honduras. Coincidentally, the match started with Mexico scoring in the early minutes but ultimately suffering a comeback by the Central American team. Mexican newspaper Récord also pointed out the coincidence of a goalkeeper making a mistake that resulted in the rival team scoring, as José de Jesús Corona's failure allowed Honduran player Jerry Bengtson to score, comparing it to Oswaldo Sánchez's mistaken save that resulted in Hernán Medford scoring for Costa Rica. The Honduran triumph would be known as Haztecazo, a portmanteau of Aztecazo'' and the silent pronunciation of the H in Honduras. |
14,057,440 | Not flash, just Gordon | 1,156,988,847 | British Labour Party slogan in 2007 | [
"2007 in British politics",
"2007 neologisms",
"Advertising campaigns",
"British political phrases (2000–present)",
"Flash Gordon",
"Gordon Brown",
"Political campaigns in the United Kingdom"
]
| Not flash, just Gordon was an advertising slogan and campaign used by the British Labour Party in September and October 2007. The campaign was created by advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in preparation for a speculated snap general election after Labour Party leader Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister in June. The campaign intended to win over the electorate by implicitly comparing Brown with Blair, dissociating the former from the latter's demonstrative self-presentation, and also implicitly compared Brown with Conservative Party leader David Cameron. It made Brown's perceived awkward persona a strength and his perceived lack of charisma and limited communication skills a virtue. The campaign ended after Brown said he would not call a snap election on 6 October.
## Background
### Political background
Labour Party leader Gordon Brown became prime minister on 27 June 2007, succeeding previous party leader Tony Blair. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer throughout Blair's premiership for ten years. Blair was known for his perceived charismatic personality, skilful rhetoric and communication, and usage of political spin. However, Brown was known for his perceived awkward persona. He pledged "a new era of spin-free politics" and made attempts to separate himself from Blair.
In Blair's final months in office, the official opposition party the Conservative Party had established an opinion poll lead. Its leader David Cameron was young and, like Blair, also viewed as charismatic. He was admired because of his perceived communication skills. In his first months as prime minister, Brown benefited from a polling bounce, with Labour taking the lead back from the Conservatives. Speculation grew that Brown would take advantage of his popularity and call a snap general election as early as autumn 2007 or sometime in 2008, and this speculation was encouraged by Brown's aides. In August, both major parties began searching for an advertising agency.
### Saatchi & Saatchi
Saatchi & Saatchi was founded in 1970 by brothers Charles and Maurice Saatchi. In March 1978, the brothers were appointed by the Conservative Party to run its advertising campaign in the 1979 general election, leading to the creation of the "famous" Labour Isn't Working advertising campaign, which rose the brothers from obscurity to household names. Saatchi & Saatchi continued to work for the Conservatives in the 1983 and 1987 general elections; the Conservatives won all three elections. Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative leader at the time, considered Saatchi & Saatchi her favourite advertising agency. In 1994, the brothers were removed from the agency in a shareholder rebellion.
In 1995 the brothers set up a new agency, M&C Saatchi, where they continued to work for the Conservatives until 1999. A subsidiary of the new agency was recruited by the party and continued to work for them until 2006. Saatchi & Saatchi lost much of its market when the brothers left the original agency and it lost its prominent status in the advertising industry. Several Saatchi clients dropped the original agency and employed M&C Saatchi instead. The Conservatives dropped Saatchi & Saatchi in December 1995.
## Campaign
Competing against three other agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi presented fifty posters to the party, with a favourite being selected by party officers. Designed by the agency, this poster involved an image of Brown looking modest, thoughtful, and wearing a lightly creased suit beside the advertising slogan "Not flash, just Gordon". On 12 September 2007, because of the poster, Labour and Saatchi signed a contract worth several million pounds, and the agency was given control over the party's advertising for the next general election. This was announced on the party's website in a statement by Labour's general election co-ordinator Douglas Alexander, with the poster appearing above the announcement. By 16 September, an advertising campaign for the slogan had been launched by the agency, with the poster displayed on billboards and used in political adverts in preparation for a 2007 snap election.
At the Labour Party Conference held in late September, more posters for the slogan were unveiled. However, Labour's lead in the opinion polls decreased following the Conservative Party Conference in early October. On 5 October, an opinion poll held by the News of the World had the Conservatives with a six-point lead over Labour in 83 swing seats. On 6 October, Brown publicly said he would not call a snap election in autumn. The next election would not have to be called until 2010. The slogan was subsequently disused and the posters for it were taken down.
In 2017, an article in the Prospect magazine revealed that Saatchi had drafted other campaign posters for the Labour Party, which were then shown to focus groups of swing voters in August 2007. These compared Brown with Conservative leader David Cameron, with the best received posters displaying a "Brown strength" and a "Cameron weakness", but these were not shown to the general public.
## Analysis
Saatchi & Saatchi created the slogan in preparation for a possible snap election, using it to make Brown's serious personality attractive to voters. The initial poster was the first Labour Party poster published following the Blair–Brown handover. The campaign was used by the party to win over the electorate by implicitly comparing Brown with Blair, disassociating him from Blair's demonstrative self-presentation. It put forward Brown's serious-minded approach to working in the role of prime minister, as opposed to Blair who was viewed as having worked in the role superficially. It made a virtue of Brown's perceived lack of charisma, a trait that was central to Blair's political persona, and also depicted him as truthful instead of spinful. Blair was known for his dependence on political spin as prime minister, and Brown wanted to distance himself from this dependency through the slogan. The Labour Party advertised his lack of spin as an "antidote" against the Blair era.
The slogan also implicitly compared Brown with Conservative leader David Cameron, who shared Blair's perceived superficiality. Cameron was admired because of his perceived communication skills whereas Brown was viewed as having limited communication skills, so the advertising campaign was used by the Labour Party to make this trait seem virtuous. The slogan was also used to make Brown's perceived awkward persona seem like a strength, not a weakness. Other traits that the advert intended to convey about Brown were conviction and solidity. David Stringer of NBC News said the slogan "[sought] to define [Brown] as serious and statesmanlike".
In an article for The Independent, the Campaign's Claire Beale said: "If the 'not flash' line is anything to go by, Labour's approach will be to ditch the hyperbole and focus on Brown's integrity. By implication, being 'not flash' distances Brown from the Blair era and paves the way for a rebranding of the party." Writing about Saatchi & Saatchi's employment by Labour, Andy McSmith of The Independent and Andrew Pierce of The Daily Telegraph said it was "another break" with the Blair era of the Labour Party. Trevor Beattie's advertising agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay worked for Blair in the 1997, 2001 and 2005 general elections and unsuccessfully competed with Saatchi for the contract.
The phrase was also interpreted as a reference to comic strip protagonist Flash Gordon. Philip Gould, who worked on the campaign, claimed that the slogan was a word play on the character in his 2011 book The Unfinished Revolution: How New Labour Changed British Politics Forever. Brown dismissed comparisons with the character when he was prime minister, saying he was "Just Gordon, I can assure you".
## Reception
The employment of Saatchi & Saatchi by the Labour Party surprised the advertising industry. The Campaign's Claire Beale said the original poster was "a great start" for any attempts by Saatchi to regain its 1980s prominence. The Independent's Andy McSmith echoed her opinion, saying that the poster gave Saatchi "the prospect of recapturing some of its former prominence". The slogan itself saw some success before its disuse. Brown liked the slogan. In his 2017 autobiography My Life, Our Times, he approved of the campaign.
The initial poster was well received by swing voters. Although only implied, voters found its comparison of Brown with Blair and Cameron clear. The poster took advantage of the voters' positive views of Brown in his first months as prime minister, with his awkward traits making them believe that he was truthful and straightforward, and that he did not use spin.
The campaign was perceived by Labour Party supporters and opposition parties as a skilled attempt at forming a political image for Brown while remaining in the limits of his actual personality. In response to the campaign, the Conservatives launched their own advertising campaign with posters asking "Who gets a say on the European Constitution? Not you, just Gordon", in reference to Labour's refusal to call a referendum for the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, which affected the constitutional foundations of the European Union. |
2,904,663 | Rostral migratory stream | 1,170,355,362 | One path neural stem cells take to reach the olfactory bulb | [
"Developmental neuroscience"
]
| The rostral migratory stream (RMS) is a specialized migratory route found in the brain of some animals along which neuronal precursors that originated in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the brain migrate to reach the main olfactory bulb (OB). The importance of the RMS lies in its ability to refine and even change an animal's sensitivity to smells, which explains its importance and larger size in the rodent brain as compared to the human brain, as our olfactory sense is not as developed. This pathway has been studied in the rodent, rabbit, and both the squirrel monkey and rhesus monkey. When the neurons reach the OB they differentiate into GABAergic interneurons as they are integrated into either the granule cell layer or periglomerular layer.
Although it was originally believed that neurons could not regenerate in the adult brain, neurogenesis has been shown to occur in mammalian brains, including those of primates. However, neurogenesis is limited to the hippocampus and SVZ, and the RMS is one mechanism neurons use to relocate from these areas.
## Brief history
The RMS was named and discovered by J. Altman in 1969 using <sup>3</sup>H-thymidine autoradiography in the rat brain. He traced the migration of labeled cells from the SVZ, which is situated throughout the lateral walls of the lateral ventricles, rostrally to the main olfactory bulb. He also quantitatively studied the effect of age on the size of the RMS. There is still some ongoing debate about the extent of the RMS and adult SVZ neurogenesis of new neurons in humans.
## Cell biology
### Vascular cells
Vascular cells are known to play a prominent role in regulating proliferation of adult neural precursors. In the adult subgranular zone (SGZ), dense clusters of dividing cells were found to be anatomically close to the vasculature, especially capillaries. Contacts between adult SVZ neuronal precursors and blood vessels are unusually permeable and frequently devoid of astrocyte and pericyte interferences, suggesting that blood-derived cues are gaining direct access to adult neural precursors and their progeny. The vasculature also provides the substrate for new neuron migration after injury in the adult striatum. In the RMS, vascular cells are arranged parallel to the route of the migrating cells and provide a scaffolding. Glial cells are also associated with the blood vessels; communication between these cells may be important for RMS migration, for example, in BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a growth factor that is thought to module RMS migration.
### Astrocytes
Astrocytes form gap junctions and are closely associated with the vasculature and its basal lamina in the adult SVZ and subsequently in the RMS. They may serve as an interface to modulate influences of endothelial and circulation-derived factors as well as the availability of cytokines and growth factors in this system. In addition, astrocytes derived from the neurogenic hippocampus and SVZ, but not from the non-neurogenic spinal cord, promote proliferation and neuronal fate commitment of multipotent adult neural stem cells in culture, suggesting a role in the RMS. Astrocytes express a number of secreted and membrane-attached factors both in vitro and in vivo that are known to regulate proliferation and fate specification of adult neural precursors as well as neuronal migration, maturation, and synapse formation. In the adult SVZ, astrocytes express Robo receptors and regulate the rapid migration of SLIT1-expressing neuroblasts through the RMS. Additionally, it has been proposed that the neuroblasts themselves play a role in modulating the astrocytes through Slit-Robo interactions. In the absence of Slit, astrocytic processes do not align correctly, or create the "tubes", instead running across the migrating neurons. Adult SVZ astrocytes also appear to release glutamate to regulate the survival of neuroblasts. Unique to the adult SVZ, ependymal cells lining the ventricular wall are in close association with neural precursors and their progeny, acting like a shield to protect the "neurogenic niche", a zone in which stem cells are retained after embryonic development for the production of new cells of the nervous system.
### Other glial cells
Ependymal cells actively regulate neuronal fate specification of adult neural precursors through release of Noggin. Beating of the cilia of ependymal cells appears to set up concentration gradients of guidance molecules, such as cytokines TNF-α (tumor necrosis factor) and IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor), to direct migration of neuroblasts, such as in the RMS. Microglia also actively regulate adult neurogenesis. Under basal conditions, apoptotic corpses of newly generated neurons are rapidly phagocytosed from the niche by unactivated microglia in the adult SGZ. Under inflammatory conditions, reactivated microglia can have both beneficial and detrimental effects on different aspects of adult neurogenesis, depending on the balance between secreted molecules with pro- and anti-inflammatory action. In one study, the activation of microglia and recruitment of T cells were suggested to be required for enriched environment-induced SGZ neurogenesis, suggesting a possible role in the RMS.
## Migration mechanics
Cells in the RMS are believed to move by "chain migration". These neuroblasts are connected by membrane specializations including gap junctions and adherens junctions, moving along each other towards the olfactory bulb through glial tubes. The pathway and mechanisms behind this movement are a ventriculo-olfactory neurogenic system (VONS), a glial framework, and a chemotaxic cell signalling system.
### Ventriculo-olfactory neurogenic system (VONS)
The olfactory system is made up in part of the RMS which stretches from the subventricular zone in the wall of the lateral ventricle, through the basal forebrain, to the olfactory bulb (OB). VONS is the name given to this pathway, and it consists of the subventricular zone, the RMS, the olfactory tract and the olfactory bulb. Developing neurons leave the subventricular zone and enter the RMS and travel caudally and ventrally along the undersurface of the caudate nucleus; this is referred to as the descending limb. Upon reaching the ventral side of the caudate nucleus, the neurons follow the rostral limb and travel ventrally and rostrally, entering the anterior olfactory cortex (AOC). The AOC gives rise to the olfactory tract, which ends in the olfactory bulb.
### Glial framework
Developing neurons travel toward the olfactory bulb along the RMS via glial tubes, which mark the division between the differentiated nervous tissue and the tissue with embryonic characteristics. Uniquely, the cells travel tangential to the brain surface, parallel to the pial surfaces rather than radially like most developing neurons. Neurons that migrate tangentially are typically believed to migrate independently of radial glia but in the RMS researchers believe this is not the case. Adult rat glial tubes have been observed via light and electron microscopy and described as a meshwork of astrocytic bodies and processes. They have been determined to be astrocytes based on the typical expression of GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein) and more specifically as protoplasmic astrocytes based on their morphology. Furthermore, these glial cells were found to be positive for vimentin expression, a protein commonly found in embryonic or immature glial cells. The developing neurons are identified by their expression of the cell surface molecule, a polysialylated (PSA) embryonic form of the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) called PSA-NCAM, as well as β-tubulin, a protein often found in postmitotic neuroblasts, proving the cells of RMS are committed to developing into neurons and will do so upon entry into the olfactory bulb. With the removal of NCAM, the neuroblasts scatter, proving the importance of NCAM in chain formation. The neurons form both clusters and chains along the lumen of these glial tubes. Once the developing neurons reach the core of the olfactory bulb, they detach from the RMS, which is initiated by Reelin and tenascin and move radially toward glomeruli, this migration is dependent on tenascin-R, and differentiate into subtypes of interneurons. These neurons have been studied in vivo via electrophysiology and confocal imaging.
### Cell signaling
The nature of the molecular cues involved in the correct targeting of the migrating precursors remains a question. The secretion of a chemoattractant factor by the OB appears as a possibility. Chemoattractants and repellants act on the migrating neurons by inducing changes in the growth cone to direct them. Nevertheless, tissue derived from this structure had no directive influence on the migration. On the other hand, a septum-derived secreted factor showed a repulsive effect on the SVZ cells. More recently, it has been shown that the secreted molecule SLIT shows such a repelling effect on SVZ-derived precursors. Furthermore, integrins have been demonstrated to have a regulatory influence on precursor cell chain-migration and regulation of their divisions. PSA-NCAM appears as another candidate. Mice lacking NCAM show a dramatically size-reduced OB and an accumulation of migrating precursors along the RMS. It is possible that lack of NCAM results in agitation of neuron–glia interactions, and modifications in these interactions might in turn be responsible for the inhibition of migration in the RMS. It has been demonstrated that a cross talk exists between neurons and glial cells and data in favor of an active role of PSA–NCAM in this process has been presented. The lack of PSA–NCAM on the surface of migrating precursors might alter the proliferative properties of this glial cell population, a scenario that appears reminiscent of astrogliosis occurring in neurodegenerative diseases even before any signs of neuronal damage.
## Current research
### Existence in humans
The presence of an analogous RMS in humans has been difficult to identify, possibly because the olfactory bulb is significantly less developed in humans than in rodents and thus harder to study, and much of the previous scientific work has been called into question concerning the RMS in humans. In the developing fetal brain and in young postnatal infants, chains of immature neurons typical of the RMS were observed. However, there was little evidence for the existence of a migrating chain along the SVZ or olfactory peduncle to the bulb in the adult human brain, even though there was a distinct population of adult neuronal stem cells in the SVZ. These researchers studied subjects from 0 to 84 years of age by analyzing brain sections that had been removed during surgery or during autopsies. They discovered that cells that expressed DCX (doublecortin) and PSA-NCAM are present in the brain sections taken from infants, but have disappeared by 18 months. Yet further studies indicated the presence of a small population of migrating immature neurons, which originate solely from the SVZ. These neuroblasts appear singly or in pairs without forming chains, in contrast to the elongated chains of neuroblasts observed in the rodent RMS. This suggests that the RMS is drastically reduced beyond infancy and especially into adulthood, but is not absent. However, a direct correlation between stem cell quiescence and age has not yet been defined due to a high level of variability between individuals. Thus an RMS analogous structure in the adult human brain remains highly controversial.
### Age-related decline
The extent of age-related RMS decline in humans has been the subject of significant debate. The decline of neurogenesis in and migration from the hippocampus in humans has already been well documented. Furthermore, age-related declines in the activities of SVZ stem cells, which migrate to the OB via the RMS, are in place by middle age in rodents. In elderly mice, studies showed that the population of actively dividing SVZ cells and the rate of interneuron replacement in the OB are both drastically reduced, indicating an age-related decline in neuronal proliferation and migration through the RMS. This decline was shown to be due to neuronal stem cell quiescence in the SVZ even by middle age, and not destruction, much like in the hippocampus.
### Pharmaceuticals
Another topic in current RMS research pertains to pharmaceuticals. Scientists are still trying to tackle the difficult task of administering drugs into the brain and getting them past the selective blood–brain barrier. In a recent study, researchers tested the role of the RMS in “intranasal delivery of drugs into the CNS”. In this study, the experimenters disrupted the RMS in mice, which obstructed “the uptake of intranasally administered radioligands into the CNS.” Fluorescent tracers were also used to track the medicine throughout the brain. It was found that the medicine spread to all regions of the brain, including the olfactory bulb. The study concluded that the RMS was extremely prevalent and necessary in the central nervous system in order to deliver drugs intranasally. The study also noted that this research on the RMS is not sufficient, but instead needs to be expanded. Some of the limits and capabilities of the RMS are still unknown, as well as some of the hazards of it. If drugs are to be administered into the CNS through the RMS, all of the details of the RMS must be known in order to ensure safe delivery of the drugs to the brain.
### α6β1 integrin
A study was conducted testing a specific integrin, alpha-six-beta-one, and the role it plays in the RMS. The study researched the principle that chemoattractive molecules may play an important role in neuroblast migration in the RMS. The study of this one particular integrin was conducted in mice. By using antibodies to bind to α6β1 integrin subunits, found on the neuroblasts, the researchers observed that the migration was disrupted. Furthermore, they investigated the mechanism through which α6β1 integrin functions and determined it was via the chemoattractant laminin. This was completed by injecting laminin perpendicular to the RMS and observing that doing so drew “neuroblasts away from their normal course of migration”. The researchers concluded with the idea that this research could prove useful for therapeutics purposes in that neuroblasts could potentially be drawn to locations of injury or disease. |
73,269,253 | Scaring the Hoes | 1,173,471,029 | 2023 studio album by JPEGMafia and Danny Brown | [
"2023 albums",
"Albums produced by JPEGMafia",
"Collaborative albums",
"Danny Brown (rapper) albums",
"JPEGMafia albums"
]
| Scaring the Hoes (also known as Scaring the Hoes, Vol. 1, both stylized in all caps) is a collaborative studio album by American rappers JPEGMafia and Danny Brown. It was released on March 24, 2023, through AWAL. The release featured sole production by JPEGMafia and included a sole guest appearance by independent Maryland rapper Redveil. The album had been teased for a year leading up to the release of its first single "Lean Beef Patty" on March 13, with the album's official title being announced the same day. On March 21, the title track from the album was released as a single. On July 11, an EP expansion to the album, titled Scaring the Hoes: DLC Pack, was released.
Scaring the Hoes was released to widespread critical acclaim, who praised the chemistry between JPEGMafia and Brown, as well as the production of the album. In the United States, Scaring the Hoes debuted at number 84 on the Billboard 200 alongside entering at 39 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album charted in six other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom.
## Background and recording
On March 28, 2022, JPEGMafia was invited as a guest for NTS Radio, performing in London, playing songs from artists such as Björk, Sky Ferreira, Big K.R.I.T., and Black Rob. Around the 39-minute mark of the session, he previewed the early version of the song "Burfict!", which featured Danny Brown. The duo later performed the song at Smoker's Club Fest in April 2022. Brown later confirmed that the two would release a collaborative album, saying "So yeah, Danny Brown and JPEGMafia album. Y’all just heard the first song, coming soon. Motherfuckers get ready for Peggy and Danny, bitch." The album was expected to be JPEGMafia's first release since his critically acclaimed LP!, released on October 22, 2021, as well as Brown's first album since U Know What I'm Sayin?, which was released on October 4, 2019, and also garnered critical acclaim.
On January 15, 2023, JPEGMafia shared images of Brown and himself working in the studio via Twitter and revealed that the album would be released in the same year. In episode 43 of The Danny Brown Show podcast (aired February 28, 2023), Brown invited JPEGMafia on the show to talk about the album, where they revealed the tentative album title (Scaring the Hoes, Vol. 1) and previewed the album's first single, "Lean Beef Patty". On March 13, the single was released to streaming services, alongside its music video and an announcement of the album's release date. On March 21, the title track "Scaring the Hoes" was released as the second single from the album, accompanied by a music video. Both singles were well received by critics, who praised the production and performances by the duo.
### Production and style
Scaring the Hoes was primarily produced using the Roland SP-404SX. JPEGMafia described the production process as akin to a "practice session", remarking, "this is what we would sound like in the 90s with no Pro Tools". On the album, JPEGMafia maintains his "liberal sampling philosophy", utilizing samples from soul, gospel, and 2000's music. Scaring the Hoes was described by the Rolling Stone as the opposite of chart dominant R&B crossovers. Instead, JPEGMafia and Brown created "a mashup" of experimental hip-hop. The album is characterized by its experimental and industrial sound. It embraces elements of indie and alternative rap scenes and features a "raw, almost punk edge", rejecting mainstream hip-hop conventions.
## Tour
In support of Scaring the Hoes, JPEGMafia and Brown announced a North American concert tour on April 24. The tour was scheduled to begin in Nashville, Tennessee on July 25. From there, the two embarked on a 20-city stint throughout the United States. The final show of the tour was scheduled to take place in Dallas, Texas on August 26.
## Critical reception
Scaring the Hoes was met with widespread critical acclaim. On review aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 86, based on 13 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Fred Thomas stated that Scaring the Hoes was "defiantly anti-pop", but still managed to achieve something "unexpectedly catchy and captivating." He also referred to the album as crowded, confusing, and ridiculous, but concluded that thanks to the performances from JPEGMafia and Brown, it still remained exciting. Writing for Clash, Robin Murray called it, "A nerve-jangling experience" as well as describing it as JPEGMafia and Brown's masterpiece. In a five-star review from DIY, Matthew Davies Lombardi described that the album "overdelivers time and time again".
Wesley McLean of Exclaim!, praised JPEGMafia's ability to "forge these undeniably hard, speaker-knocking instrumentals that are simultaneously muddled and grimy messes" and referred to it as "his superpower". The Guardian editor Alexis Petridis, characterized the album as "smart but chaotic, funny but disturbing" as well as describing it as a "confounding victory". Steven Loftin, in his review for The Line of Best Fit, perceived the album to be more of a showcase for JPEGMafia's production skills, complimenting the added dimension brought by Brown's energetic flow. Loftin also highlighted Brown's unique wit and tone, stating these elements contribute a significant amount of personality, sparking the energy of the album.
MusicOMH writer Justin Devlin was more critical, suggesting the duo could benefit from more polish and focus in future projects, while also acknowledging the unique and appealing "madcap chemistry" between Brown and JPEGMafia. Pete Tosiello of Pitchfork noted Brown's brisk delivery in the album, describing him as meeting "JPEGMafia's tempos with alacrity", but also criticized the mix, saying it "does not do Brown many favors". Writing for the Rolling Stone, Jeff Ihaza characterized it as being "distorted right up to the point of destruction", and also referred to it as being "scary", while stating that those traits make the album compelling.
## Track listing
Notes
- "Lean Beef Patty" interpolates "I Need a Girl (Part Two)" by P. Diddy and Ginuwine featuring Loon, Mario Winans, and Tammy Ruggeri.
- "Fentanyl Tester" interpolates "Milkshake" by Kelis.
- "Kingdom Hearts Key" interpolates "約束はいらない" by Maaya Sakamoto.
## Personnel
Credits adapted from Bandcamp and Tidal.
- Barrington "JPEGMafia" Hendricks – vocals, producer, mixing
- Daniel "Danny Brown" Sewell – vocals
- Marcus "Redveil" Morton – vocals (track 9)
- Jeff Ellis – mixing (tracks 1, 5–7, 9, 13, and 14)
- Dale Becker – mastering
- Pat Dagle – artwork
## Charts
## Release history |
44,504,196 | 220 Central Park South | 1,150,038,175 | Residential skyscraper in Manhattan, New York | [
"2010s in Manhattan",
"2019 establishments in New York City",
"59th Street (Manhattan)",
"Midtown Manhattan",
"New Classical architecture",
"Pencil towers in New York City",
"Residential buildings completed in 2019",
"Residential condominiums in New York City",
"Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan",
"Robert A. M. Stern buildings"
]
| 220 Central Park South is a residential skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, situated along Billionaires' Row on the south side of Central Park South between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. 220 Central Park South was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and SLCE Architects, with interiors designed by Thierry Despont. It is composed of two sections: a 70-story, 950-foot (290 m) tower on 58th Street, which is the 21st-tallest building in New York City, as well as an 18-story section on Central Park South, both of which contain a limestone facade. Most of the 118 apartments are duplex apartments, although some of the units have been combined to create larger units. The building has a porte-cochère, a wine cellar, private dining rooms, and various recreational facilities.
Vornado Realty Trust developed the building on the site of a rent-stabilized apartment complex constructed in 1954. While Vornado acquired the existing apartment building in 2005, a lawsuit from the existing building's tenants forced the demolition of the existing structure to be delayed to 2012. Additionally, Vornado had to settle a dispute with Extell, which owned a garage on the site and had expressed concern that Vornado's structure would block northward views of Extell's adjacent Central Park Tower. Robert A. M. Stern's designs were released in early 2014, and the plans were approved that March. Work on the base started in 2015 and most exterior work was done by the time the first residents moved into the building in 2018.
220 Central Park South contains some of the most expensive apartments in New York City, with a secretive purchasing process and many anonymous buyers. Two of the building's units have sold for over \$100 million, including a \$238 million unit purchased by billionaire hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin in 2019, the most expensive home ever sold in the United States at the time.
## Site
220 Central Park South is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just east of Columbus Circle and south of Central Park. It has frontage on 58th Street to the south and Central Park South to the north, in the middle of a city block bounded by Seventh Avenue to the east and Broadway to the west. The building carries the alternate addresses of 225-231 West 58th Street. The building sits on an "L"-shaped site covering four land lots: three on West 58th Street measuring a combined 10,030 square feet (932 m<sup>2</sup>), and a fourth lot between Central Park South and 58th Street measuring 17,578 square feet (1,633.0 m<sup>2</sup>). The site has frontage of 200 feet (61 m) along 58th Street and 75 feet (23 m) along Central Park South, with the Central Park South wing on the far eastern portion of the site.
Nearby buildings on the same block include Gainsborough Studios and 240 Central Park South to the west, as well as 200 Central Park South, the Helen Miller Gould Stable, and the firehouse of Engine Company 23 to the east. 220 Central Park South is across from the Central Park Tower, the American Fine Arts Society (also known as the Art Students League of New York building), the Saint Thomas Choir School, and the Osborne Apartments to the south. The building is close to two New York City Subway stations: the 57th Street–Seventh Avenue station of the , and the 59th Street–Columbus Circle station of the . 220 Central Park South is one of several major developments around 57th Street and Central Park that are collectively dubbed Billionaires' Row by the media. Other buildings along Billionaires' Row include 432 Park Avenue five blocks southeast, 111 West 57th Street and One57 one block southeast, and the adjacent Central Park Tower.
The previous building at the address 220 Central Park South was a 20-story structure with 125 apartments, constructed in 1954. It was developed by the J. H. Taylor Management Corporation and designed by Albert Mayer and Julian Whittlesey, all of whom had been involved with the earlier 240 Central Park South. The old 220 Central Park South was erected with a concrete frame and white-brick framework, and consisted of two "towers" connected by a promenade and garden. Real estate investor Sarah Korein ultimately came to own the old 220 Central Park South. The old building was demolished between 2012 and 2013.
## Architecture
Robert A.M. Stern Architects designed the massing and exterior of 220 Central Park South, although SLCE Architects is listed in building documents as the architect of record. The building is one of several skyscrapers designed by Stern in Manhattan, which include 15 Central Park West, a few blocks to the north; 30 Park Place in the Financial District; and 520 Park Avenue, east of Central Park. Thierry Despont designed the interior spaces. Other firms involved in construction included structural engineer DeSimone Consulting Engineers and general contractor Lendlease.
### Form
The structure is composed of two sections: a 70-story tower on 58th Street and a shorter 18-story section on Central Park South. The massing of the building is influenced by the two zoning districts that the building occupies; different height restrictions were determined by the floor area ratios for each respective zoning district. One quarter of the site is on Central Park South, while the remaining three-quarters of the lot are on 58th Street.
The main structure, on 58th Street, is 952 feet (290 m) tall, rising 70 stories above the ground. The floor slabs of the upper floors measure 53 by 128 feet (16 by 39 m), with the longer dimension extending west to east, and each of the upper floors contains an area of about 7,500 square feet (700 m<sup>2</sup>), giving the upper floors a slenderness ratio of 18:1. Due to its slenderness, the building has been characterized as part of a new breed of New York City "pencil towers". The upper floors rise above the southern section of the site, both because of the light restriction and because the position of the floor slabs would enable all the residential units to face north toward Central Park. During construction, three alternatives for the massing and twenty-three alternatives for the floor slabs were studied.
The base of the building includes a smaller section on Central Park South, called "The Villas". This section is 18 stories tall, with a deep setback above the sixth floor and several smaller setbacks on upper floors. Portions of the Villas' facade contain metal balconies in front of the windows. According to Emporis, The Villas stands 274 feet (84 m) tall. Both sections of the building share a lobby and a three-story basement.
### Facade
220 Central Park South has a limestone facade similar to other buildings by Stern such as 15 Central Park West. 220 CPS's facade of Alabama "Silver Shadow" limestone has a "marbled" appearance (in contrast to 15 CPW's more uniform Indiana limestone). The usage of limestone was intended to blend with the more traditional facades of other buildings on Central Park's perimeter. According to Stern, 220 Central Park South's design was to "belong to the family of buildings that have framed Central Park for generations". Because of 220 Central Park South's height, it was infeasible to use hand-set or precast limestone sections, so the facade was instead designed as a curtain wall with window openings. The facade contains windows with detailed designs as well as a decorative rooftop crown. The Villa is also clad with the same Alabama limestone.
### Structural features
220 Central Park South's foundation consists of three concrete "mats", each measuring 8 feet (2.4 m) thick and collectively containing over 2,200 cubic yards (1,700 m<sup>3</sup>) of concrete. The foundation "mats" sit on a layer of bedrock over 50 feet (15 m) deep, and 142 rock anchors were drilled into the bedrock and foundations to prevent overturning within the tower.
220 Central Park South's superstructure is concealed within its curtain walls. To maximize floor area, four large columns were installed along the northern side, a structural core on the southern side, and three smaller columns each on the western and eastern sides. This design was chosen over an alternative that would have placed several smaller columns on each side, but which was rejected because the developer did not want columns to be so closely spaced along the facade.
To maximize usable space on the upper floors, and thus maximize revenue from apartment sales, the mechanical equipment was placed at the base of the main tower on 58th Street. The mechanical equipment occupies six stories, each with ceiling heights of 18 to 24 feet (5.5 to 7.3 m), taking advantage of a zoning provision to maximize the tower's height. Accordingly, the mechanical equipment takes up 100 feet (30 m) of the tower's height, and the lowest condominiums in the main tower are 190 feet (58 m) above ground level. The roof of the main tower contains a slosh damper, which uses a huge tank of water to reduce vibrations. The damper weighs 1,100 short tons (980 long tons; 1,000 t).
### Interior
#### Apartments
There are 118 apartments, most of which are duplex apartments. The apartments contain features such as oak flooring, custom millwork, and marble cladding of the kitchen islands and restrooms. Sources disagree on how many apartments are within the Villas section of the building. According to 6sqft, the Villas contains 13 condominium units, while according to The New York Times, the Villas has 10 condos.
Details of interior designs are scarce; The Wall Street Journal reported in late 2018 that the building's developer, Vornado, refused to publish renderings of apartment interiors. Some of the upper floors are designed so that they contain a single unit on each floor, or units spanning multiple floors. Some of the units have been combined to create larger penthouse or duplex apartments. For example, Vornado created a four-story "mega condo" by combining the 11,000-square-foot (1,000 m<sup>2</sup>) duplex on the 50th and 51st floors with three units on the 52nd and 53rd floors.
#### Amenities
The two wings of 220 Central Park South abut a motor court with a porte-cochere, where vehicles could drop off and pick up residents and their guests. The building also has a wine cellar, an 82-foot-long (25 m) saltwater swimming pool, private dining rooms, an athletic club, a juice bar, a library, a basketball court, a golf simulator and a children's play area. In 2019, Jean-Georges Vongerichten was selected to operate a residents-only, 54-seat restaurant on the second floor.
## History
### Land acquisition and planning
In early 2005, Korein's estate placed the old building for sale. Because of the valuable air rights involved, one uninvolved broker estimated that the property would sell for as much as \$160–175 million. At the time, the building had 47 tenants in rent-stabilized apartments, and 40% of the units were vacant. The Clarett Group was interested in purchasing the old 220 Central Park South, but did not have enough money to pay for the building up front. Warren Fink, the chief investment officer of the Clarett Group, contacted Vornado CEO Steven Roth and Vornado president Michael D. Fascitelli to join in the purchase.
The old building was purchased in August 2005 by Vornado for \$136.6 million. Vornado intended to demolish the building and erect a 41-story glass tower, and served eviction notices to the building's eighty tenants in 2006. However, some of the rent-stabilized tenants refused to vacate, filing a lawsuit against Vornado. Although the New York Supreme Court initially ruled in favor of the tenants in 2008 under the grounds that a proper environmental review had not been conducted, this was overturned upon appeal in 2009. The developer ultimately settled with tenants the following year, paying between \$1.3 million and \$1.56 million each to those remaining in the building. Demolition of the existing structure began in 2012 and was completed in early 2013.
Meanwhile, Extell Development had leased the parking garage under part of the old building's site in 2006. Extell's CEO, Gary Barnett, stated that he leased the garage so that he would have enough parking for his own nearby developments. However, Extell repeatedly refused Vornado's attempts at a buyout or settlement. The dispute likely originated from the fact that Vornado's proposed building would block the views of Extell's proposed Central Park Tower development directly to the south, for which Extell had started acquiring land in 2005. The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) fined Extell in May 2012, after Vornado claimed that Extell had violated the terms of the lease because residents of the empty rental building were not the main patrons of the garage. Vornado alleged that Extell had defaulted on the lease, having supposedly violated the lease terms, even though Extell's lease ran through 2018. Extell then sued Vornado that August, claiming that Vornado had intentionally created the violation by first emptying the building of tenants. A court enjoined the eviction in July 2013, permitting Extell to continue holding the garage.
In October 2013, the two companies reached a settlement in which Vornado would give Extell \$194 million for the garage and some air rights. As part of the deal, 220 Central Park South would be shifted slightly westward and Central Park Tower would be cantilevered slightly eastward, giving the latter a direct view of Central Park. Without Central Park Tower's cantilever, 220 Central Park South would have blocked the first 950 feet (290 m) of Central Park Tower. Vornado reported the total land cost for the new building to be over \$515.4 million, or \$1,500 per square foot (\$16,000/m<sup>2</sup>).
### Construction and financing
In early 2014, the Bank of China gave Vornado a \$600 million loan for the building's construction. Robert A. M. Stern was hired to create updated designs for the building, which were approved by the New York City Department of Buildings. in March 2014. The plans called for 83 apartments to be built inside a new 69-story, 950-foot-tall (290 m) tower at the site, and an additional 10 apartments in an adjoining 10-story "Villa". Site excavation was underway by May 2014. Construction of the foundations involved manual hammering and controlled blasts to reduce damage to several nearby buildings, including some New York City designated landmarks.
As late as April 2015, there was little information on the project and the building was still planned to have 93 total apartments. However, by May 2015, the building was proposed to contain 118 apartments. By that time, about a third of the units were already in contract, representing a combined \$1.1 billion, even though public offerings had not yet started. That September, Vornado increased its Bank of China loan by \$350 million and terminated a commitment for a \$500 million mezzanine loan. Two months later, Vornado received an additional loan for the project, a \$750 million unsecured term loan from multiple lenders.
The base of the tower was under construction by late 2015. Aboveground work reached 15 stories in February 2016 and 25 stories by that May. In November 2016, Justin Casquejo, a thrill-seeking teenage free solo climber and stunt performer, hung from the not-yet-completed tower. The construction process was generally secretive, leading real estate magazine The Real Deal to report in July 2018, "It has now been two years, eight months and 28 days since Vornado Realty Trust deigned to update Wall Street on sales at 220 Central Park South." According to Roth, the lack of updates was an intentional move for "competitive reasons". Brokers and lawyers uncovered floor plans and proposed prices by reviewing an offering plan filed with the Attorney General of New York, while reporters filed Freedom of Information Act requests to recover data from the offering plan.
### Completion
Facade work was finished by September 2018. By the end of that month, approximately 83% of the condominium units were under sales contracts, and closings were scheduled through 2020. The first residents started moving into the building in late 2018, and Vornado extended its \$750 million unsecured term loan at that time, with the loan's maturity being pushed from 2020 to 2024.
By July 2019, exterior finishes were being placed on 220 Central Park South, and Vornado had repaid its full \$950 million loan to the Bank of China. Later the same year, The Wall Street Journal wrote of the building's success as a "positive sign" for an otherwise unfavorable luxury real estate market. Vornado planned to use sales income from 220 Central Park South to finance capital expenditures of its other properties. By September 2020, the last exterior pieces were put on the building. In total, 220 Central Park South cost \$1.5 billion to construct. Including hard construction costs, the building was estimated to cost \$5,000 per square foot (\$54,000/m<sup>2</sup>).
Despite a general decrease in real estate sales in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, other units at 220 Central Park South were among the most expensive sold in New York City during that time. Only thirty condominiums remained to be sold by September 2020. Although Vornado lost hundreds of millions of dollars during 2020, because of a commercial real estate downturn caused by the pandemic, the company was able to lessen the loss with revenue from the sales of units at 220 Central Park South. The building accounted for \$592 million in condominium sales in the third quarter of 2020, out of \$1.85 billion in sales in the entire borough of Manhattan during that time.
## Residents
Many of the buyers at 220 Central Park South chose to remain anonymous, purchasing units at the building through limited liability companies. According to a 2018 The Wall Street Journal article, neither Vornado nor the building's selling agent Corcoran Group were willing to divulge buyers' identities. In addition, The Real Deal reported in 2016 that the building did not have a public website, in contrast to other condominiums. Prospective buyers had to be represented by a real estate broker, who would request a questionnaire with personal questions about the buyer. If a prospective buyer's responses were deemed satisfactory, they would view a sales office, and Roth would personally interview the buyer, an unusual move for luxury condominiums. Richard Steinberg of the brokerage Douglas Elliman said, "Even if you had the money, it wasn’t guaranteed you could get a visit."
Notable confirmed buyers include executives such as Renata de Camargo Nascimento, co-owner of Brazilian construction company Camargo Correa; Albert Behler, CEO of Paramount Group; Byron Allen, CEO of Entertainment Studios; Eric Smidt, CEO of Harbor Freight Tools; finance executive Andrew Zaro; and real estate investor Richard Leibovitch. Other buyers have included billionaire hedge fund managers Daniel Och and Kenneth C. Griffin; real estate developer David Mandelbaum; musician Sting and his wife, producer and actor Trudie Styler; and billionaire pharmaceutical businessman Ge Li.
### Apartment sales
The first sales contract closed on October 24, 2018, on a unit selling for \$16.4 million. The first apartment in the Villas was sold the following year, in May 2019. The first listing for an apartment resale in the building occurred in January 2020, when Leibovitch listed his four-bedroom apartment for \$36 million, a \$10 million markup from the price at which he had purchased it. He subsequently lowered the price to \$33 million, and the unit was sold at that price in September 2021.
220 Central Park South has had some of the most expensive residential real estate transactions in New York City's history. Griffin had agreed to purchase three floors in 2015 for \$200 million, representing the city's costliest real estate purchase at the time. When Griffin finalized his purchase of a four-floor "mega condo" for \$238 million in January 2019, it became the most expensive home ever sold in the United States, despite being valued at only \$9.4 million. That December, an anonymous individual's \$100 million purchase of a duplex atop the building became the third costliest residential purchase in New York City; the deal was finalized in July 2020. In June 2021, two full-floor units at floors 60 and 61 were sold for a combined \$157.5 million to Joe Tsai, making it among the most expensive residential sales in New York City history; both units had increased significantly in price from 2020, when the units had traded for a combined \$100 million. The popularity of 220 Central Park South, compared with other Billionaires' Row buildings, was attributed to the fact that it was the only Billionaires' Row development that was directly on Central Park. In January 2022, Joe Tsai bought Daniel Och's penthouse at floor 73 for \$188 million, the second-most-expensive residential unit in the United States. |
49,098,974 | 2017 Tour de France | 1,162,307,123 | null | [
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"July 2017 sports events in Germany",
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| The 2017 Tour de France was the 104th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The 21-stage race took place across 3,540 km (2,200 mi), commencing with an individual time trial in Düsseldorf, Germany on 1 July, and concluding with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris on 23 July. A total of 198 riders from 22 teams entered the race. The overall general classification won by Chris Froome of , his third consecutive victory and fourth overall. Rigoberto Urán () and Romain Bardet () finished second and third, respectively.
Geraint Thomas () won the opening stage and became the Tour's first rider that year to wear the general classification leader's yellow jersey. Froome, who performed the best in the opening stage out of the pre-race favourites, took the lead after the fifth stage's summit finish. He held the lead until it was taken by Fabio Aru () at the end of stage twelve, where Froome lost time on the steep summit finish to Peyragudes. Froome retook the yellow jersey after the fourteenth stage and held it until the end of the race.
The points classification was won by Michael Matthews of , with teammate Warren Barguil, winner of two high mountain stages, taking the mountains classification as well as the award for most combative rider. 's Simon Yates, in seventh place overall, won the young rider classification. The team classification was won by .
## Teams
The 2017 edition of the Tour de France consisted of 22 teams. The race was the 25th of the 38 events in the UCI World Tour, and all of its eighteen UCI WorldTeams were entitled, and obliged, to enter the race. On 26 January 2017, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the four second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams that were given wildcard invitations, of which three were French-based (, and ) and one was Belgian (, which participated in the race for the first time). were initially invited to the race as , before a change of sponsorship prior to the opening day of racing. The presentation of the teams – where the members of each team's roster are introduced in front of the media and local dignitaries – took place in front of a crowd of 15,000 at the Burgplatz [de] square in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 29 June, two days before the opening stage held in the city.
Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, resulting in a start list total of 198. Of these, 49 were competing in their first Tour de France. The riders came from 32 countries. Six countries had more than 10 riders in the race: France (39), Italy (18), Belgium (16), Germany (16), the Netherlands (15), and Spain (13). The average age of riders in the race was 29.4 years, ranging from the 22-year-old Élie Gesbert () to the 40-year-old Haimar Zubeldia (). had the youngest average age while had the oldest.
The teams entering the race were:
## Pre-race favourites
In the lead up to the 2017 Tour de France, Chris Froome () was seen by many pundits as the top pre-race favourite for the general classification. His closest rivals were thought to be Richie Porte (), Nairo Quintana (), Alberto Contador (), Romain Bardet () and Fabio Aru (). The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Alejandro Valverde (), Jakob Fuglsang (), Thibaut Pinot (), Esteban Chaves (), Geraint Thomas (), Dan Martin (), Simon Yates (), and Louis Meintjes ().
Froome, who won the 2013, 2015 and 2016 editions of the Tour, had not won a race in the 2017 season prior to the Tour's start. His best result was fourth overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné, a race considered to be the warm-up for the Tour and one he has won before his three previous Tour victories. Despite this, he was thought to have one of the strongest teams in the race that would ride in total support of him. The 32-year-old Porte, who placed fifth in the 2016 Tour, won the general classification in two stage races so far in 2017, the Tour Down Under and the Tour de Romandie, and came second in the Dauphiné. Quintana, third in the 2016 Tour, placed second at the Giro d'Italia, with overalls wins at the Tirreno–Adriatico and the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana earlier in the season. The two-time winner (2007 and 2009) 34-year-old Contador came second overall in four stage races in 2017 before the Tour, Paris–Nice, the Vuelta a Andalucía, the Volta a Catalunya and the Tour of the Basque Country. Bardet, the 2016 Tour runner-up, placed sixth overall in the Dauphiné, with his best other result sixth in the one-day Classic race Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Aru started the Tour sharing leadership of the team with the Dauphiné winner Fuglsang. Aru won the Italian National Road Race Championships a week before the Tour and placed fifth at the Dauphiné.
The sprinters considered favourites for the points classification and wins on the flat or hilly bunch sprint finishes were Peter Sagan (), Marcel Kittel (), Mark Cavendish (), André Greipel (), and Alexander Kristoff (). Others expected to contend for sprint finishes included Michael Matthews (), Arnaud Démare (), Dylan Groenewegen (), John Degenkolb (), Sonny Colbrelli () and Nacer Bouhanni (). Double reigning world road race champion Sagan had won the five previous points classifications of the Tour, one away from matching Erik Zabel's record of six from 1996 to 2001. His form in the 2017 season before the Tour included winning the one-day Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne race and the points classifications in Tirreno–Adriatico, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour of California. Kittel had gained eight wins so far in 2017, as well as the general and points classifications in the Dubai Tour at the start of the season. Cavendish's season before the Tour was affected by glandular fever, missing around three months; his only success had been a stage win and the points classification at the Abu Dhabi Tour. Greipel had amassed four wins in 2017 before the Tour, including one at the Giro. Kristoff had taken six wins so far in 2017, and the points classifications at the Tour of Oman, the Étoile de Bessèges and the Three Days of De Panne.
## Route and stages
The opening stages of the 2017 Tour (known as the Grand Départ) were originally scheduled to be in London, United Kingdom; this would have been the third time the Tour had visited London, following the 2007 and 2014 editions. In September 2015, a week before this was due to be announced, Transport for London pulled out of the bid. It was later revealed that this was the decision of the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, on the grounds of cost: hosting the Grand Depart would have cost £35 million. In December 2015, the ASO announced that the Grand Départ would take place with stages based in Düsseldorf, the fourth time the Tour had begun in Germany and the first since 1987. The bid to host the Tour was only narrowly approved by the city council. The return to Germany followed a resurgence in German professional cycling. On 14 January 2016, details of the opening two stages were announced. The first stage would be a 13-kilometre (8.1 mi) individual time trial in Düsseldorf itself. The second stage would also begin in Düsseldorf. The full route was announced by race director Christian Prudhomme on 18 October 2016 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.
After the first time trial, the race left Germany during stage two, which finished in the Belgian city of Liège. Stage three headed south, and after a brief passage through Luxembourg, ended with a climb in Longwy. After a transitional stage, stage five saw the first major climb, the finish at the La Planche des Belles Filles. The next two stages headed south-west, before stage eight in the Jura Mountains, featured three categorised climbs. The ninth stage included the steep climbs of the , the Col du Grand Colombier, and, after a 42-year absence, the Signal du Mont du Chat, its summit 25 km (15.5 mi) from the finish in Chambéry. After a transfer during the rest day, stage ten took place in the Dordogne region, between Périgueux and Bergerac. Stage eleven was a transitional stage, followed by two stages in the Pyrenees. Stage twelve started from Pau and ended at the Peyragudes ski resort. The next stage was short, at 110 km (68 mi), but included three climbs before a descent finish into Foix. After leaving the Pyrenees, the riders headed north-east; stage fourteen finished with a climb towards the end of the stage. Stage fifteen featured the first appearance of the Col de Peyra Taillade, with its conclusion in Le Puy-en-Velay. Stage sixteen, the first after the final rest day, was a transitional stage, heading east, towards the Alps. Stage seventeen included the Col d'Ornon, the Col de la Croix de Fer, the Col du Télégraphe and the highest point of elevation in the race, the Col du Galibier, before a descent finish into Serre Chevalier. Stage eighteen was the final day of mountains; it had two climbs, the Col de Vars and the finishing climb, the Col d'Izoard. It was the first time the Tour finished on the 2,360 m (7,743 ft)-high mountain pass. After another transitional stage, heading south, came stage twenty, a 23 km (14.3 mi) individual time trial in Marseille. Starting at the Stade Vélodrome, the course headed around the city, designated the 2017 European Capital of Sport, before ending also at the Stade Vélodrome. The final stage began in Montgeron, which hosted the start of the first Tour, before concluding with the traditional laps of the Champs-Élysées.
There were 21 stages in the race, covering a total distance of 3,540 km (2,200 mi), 13 km (8.1 mi) shorter than the 2016 Tour. There were two time trial events, both of which were individual, a total of 36 km (22.4 mi). Of the remaining nineteen stages, eight were officially classified as flat, six as medium mountain and five as high mountain. The longest mass-start stage was stage nineteen, at 222.5 km (138 mi), and the shortest was stage thirteen, at 101 km (63 mi). For the first time since the 1992 edition, the route included all five of mainland France's mountainous regions; the Vosges, the Jura, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Alps. There were summit finishes on stage twelve to Peyragudes and stage eighteen to the Col d'Izoard. Additionally, the hilly stage three had a hilltop finish in Longwy, and stage five ended at La Planche des Belles Filles. The highest point of the race was the 2,642 m (8,668 ft)-high Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage seventeen. It was among seven hors catégorie (English: "out of category") rated climbs in the race. There were ten new start or finish locations. The rest days were after stage nine, in the Dordogne, and fifteen, in Le Puy-en-Velay.
## Race overview
### Opening stages, Vosges and Jura
The opening stage's individual time trial was won by Geraint Thomas with a time of 16 min 4 s over the 14 km (8.7 mi) course. Thomas took the yellow and green jerseys as the leader of the general and points classifications respectively. Chris Froome was the highest placed of the general classification favourites, in sixth place, sixteen seconds down. Overall contender Alejandro Valverde crashed on the wet roads and his injuries forced him to withdraw from the Tour. Marcel Kittel won stage two's bunch sprint, and with it the green jersey. Breakaway rider Taylor Phinney () took the first polka dot jersey as the leader of the mountains classification. The uphill sprint finish of stage three was won by Peter Sagan; Nathan Brown () took over the polka dot jersey. The fourth stage ended with a bunch sprint and was won by Démare, with him also taking the green jersey. There were two crashes leading up to the finish, the first was in the peloton around 1 km (0.6 mi) left and the second involved the sprinters at the end. In the sprint finish, Mark Cavendish crashed into the barriers at the side of the road, withdrawing later that day from the race from his injuries. Sagan, second in the stage, was disqualified after race officials judged that he caused Cavendish to crash, with the jury president Philippe Marien saying that he "endangered some of his colleagues seriously". The near universal opinion among commentators and former riders was that a disqualification is not justified and even senseless. André Greipel, who had criticised Sagan right after the stage, also exonerated him after watching the replays. In December 2017, Sagan was officially exonerated by cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
In the fifth stage, a group containing the overall contenders caught the last of the breakaway riders 5 km (3.1 mi) from the summit finish at the La Planche des Belles Filles. With 2.4 km (1.5 mi) remaining, Fabio Aru attacked and won with a margin of sixteen seconds over the group. Thomas lost twenty seconds on the group and lost the yellow jersey to teammate Froome. Aru took over the lead of the mountains classification. Kittel won the following two stages which ended in bunch sprints. The latter stage was decided by a photo finish, with Kittel 6 mm (0.2 in) ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen (); Kittel regained the green jersey. In stage eight, the first high mountain stage, Lilian Calmejane of attacked over the category 1 climb of Montée de la Combe de Laisia Les Molunes from a six-strong lead breakaway and soloed for 11.5 km (7.1 mi) to take the win 37 seconds ahead of second-placed and lone chaser Robert Gesink (). Calmejane put himself into the polka dot jersey. The ninth stage saw a select group of general classification favourites join Warren Barguil () after the final climb of the Mont du Chat and contest a sprint finish, won by Rigoberto Urán (). Barguil took lead of the mountains classification. Upon crossing the finish line Barguil thought he won the stage while Uran showed no visible reaction. After a few moments to review the photo finish it was revealed that Uran's 'bike throw' got him over the line first to claim the stage win as Froome sprinted hard to earn a stage podium, but more importantly four bonus seconds to extend his overall lead. Richie Porte crashed heavily taking down Dan Martin while descending the Mont du Chat within the group of overall contenders. Porte withdrew from the race and was rushed to the hospital; fortunately he was in a stable condition. Dan Martin recovered and finished strongly. The following day was the Tour's first rest day.
### Pyrenees and Massif Central
Stages ten and eleven were won from bunch sprints by Kittel, taking his total of wins at the race to five. The twelfth stage saw the overall contenders all reach the foot of the short steep climb to Peyragudes; Romain Bardet won by a margin of two seconds. Froome came seventh, 22 seconds down, and lost the overall lead to third-placed Aru. The 101 km (62.8 mi)-long stage thirteen was won by Barguil, who won the sprint after a descent from an elite group with Nairo Quintana, Alberto Contador and Mikel Landa (). The chasing group of overall contenders came in 1 min 39 s down. In the fourteenth stage, a reduced peloton contested the uphill sprint finish at Rodez, which was won by Matthews. Aru's advantage of six seconds over Froome was changed to a deficit of eighteen, after Aru came in thirty seconds down in thirtieth place and Froome was seventh, one second behind Matthews.
Stage fifteen saw 's Bauke Mollema attack a breakaway group over the top of the Col de Peyra Taillade with 31 km (19.3 mi) to go and solo to victory. In the large group containing the overall contenders, Bardet's team forced a high pace on the Peyra Taillade. A further 6 km (3.7 mi) later on the climb, Froome suffered a broken spoke, and, after receiving a new wheel from a teammate and some assistance from three other teammates, he was able to chase back up to the group. The next day was the second rest day of the race. In the sixteenth stage, the high pace set by Matthews's dropped the green jersey wearer Kittel; Matthews, who was second to Kittel in points classification, won the stage. Primož Roglič (), second behind Barguil in the mountains classification, won the following mountainous stage after a solo attack on the Col du Galibier, finishing in Serre Chevalier after a descent over a minute ahead of a four-man group containing the new top three in the general classification: Froome, Urán, and Bardet, respectively; and also Barguil. Aru dropped from second overall to fourth. Kittel crashed and withdrew from the Tour, putting Matthews in the green jersey.
### Alps and finale
The final high mountain stage of the Tour, the eighteenth, saw Barguil claim his second stage victory of the race on the summit finish at Col d'Izoard; he was initially caught by the group of overall favourites on the final climb after being the one of last survivors from the breakaway, with only Darwin Atapuma () ahead. Barguil's winning move came with 3 km (1.9 mi) remaining, passing Atapuma to win by twenty seconds. A three-way sprint for fourth place saw Bardet finish just ahead of Froome with Urán placing fifth; Bardet moved up to second overall, six seconds ahead of Urán, with Froome holding a 23-second advantage. Boasson Hagen won stage nineteen with an attack from a reduced breakaway with 2.5 km (1.6 mi) to go. Maciej Bodnar of won the 22.5 km (14.0 mi) individual time trial of the penultimate stage, setting a time of 28 min 15 s. Froome was third, six seconds down, increasing his lead in the general classification to 54 seconds. Bardet dropped to third overall after he lost over two minutes in the stage, and Urán was 31 seconds in arrears.
The final stage in Paris was won by Dylan Groenewegen in a bunch sprint on the Champs-Élysées. Froome finished the race to win his fourth Tour de France. Urán placed second overall, 54 seconds down, with Bardet 2 min 20 s behind, just one second ahead of Landa (fourth overall). Matthews won the points classification with a total of 370, 136 ahead of Greipel in second. Barguil won the mountains classification with 169 points, 89 ahead of second-placed Roglič. The best young rider was seventh-placed overall Simon Yates, who was followed by Louis Meintjes (eighth overall) in second, 2 min 6 s down. An rider won the classification for the second consecutive year, after Yates' twin brother Adam won in 2016. finished as the winners of the team classification, 7 min 14 s ahead of second-placed . Of the 198 starters, 167 reached the finish of the last stage in Paris.
## Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were four main individual classifications being contested in the 2017 Tour de France, as well as a team competition. The most important was the general classification, which was calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage. Time bonuses (time subtracted) were awarded at the end of every stage apart from the two individual time trials. The first three riders get 10, 6, and 4 seconds, respectively. For crashes within the final 3 km (1.9 mi) of a stage, not including time trials and summit finishes, any rider involved received the same time as the group they were in when the crash occurred. The rider with the lowest cumulative time was the winner of the general classification and was considered to be the overall winner of the Tour. The rider leading the classification wore a yellow jersey.
The second classification was the points classification. Riders received points for finishing among the highest placed in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints during the stage. The points available for each stage finish were determined by the stage's type. The leader was identified by a green jersey.
The third classification was the mountains classification. Points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit of the most difficult climbs first. The climbs were categorised, in order of increasing difficulty, as fourth-, third-, second-, and first-category and hors catégorie. Double points were awarded on the summit finish of the Col d'Izoard on stage 18. The leader wore a white jersey with red polka dots.
The final individual classification was the young rider classification. This was calculated the same way as the general classification, but the classification was restricted to riders who were born on or after 1 January 1992. The leader wore a white jersey.
The final classification was a team classification. This was calculated using the finishing times of the best three riders per team on each stage; the leading team was the team with the lowest cumulative time. The number of stage victories and placings per team determined the outcome of a tie. The riders in the team that led this classification were identified with yellow number bibs on the back of their jerseys and yellow helmets.
In addition, there was a combativity award given after each stage to the rider considered, by a jury, to have "made the greatest effort and who demonstrated the best qualities of sportsmanship". No combativity awards were given for the time trials and the final stage. The winner wore a red number bib the following stage. At the conclusion of the Tour, Warren Barguil won the overall super-combativity award, again, decided by a jury.
A total of €2,280,950 was awarded in cash prizes in the race. The overall winner of the general classification received €500,000, with the second and third placed riders getting €200,000 and €100,000 respectively. All finishers in the top 160 were awarded with money. The holders of the classifications benefited on each stage they led; the final winners of the points and mountains were given €25,000, while the best young rider and most combative rider collected €20,000. The team classification winners were given €50,000. €11,000 was given to the winners of each stage of the race, with smaller amounts given to places 2–20. There was also a special award with a prize of €5,000, the Souvenir Henri Desgrange, given in honour of Tour founder Henri Desgrange to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col du Galibier. This prize was won by Primož Roglič on stage seventeen.
## Final standings
### General classification
### Points classification
### Mountains classification
### Young rider classification
### Team classification
## UCI rankings
Riders from the WorldTeams competing for individually and for their teams for points that contributed towards the World Tour rankings. Riders from both the WorldTeams and Professional Continental teams also competed individually and for their nations for points that contributed towards the UCI World Ranking, which included all UCI road races. Both rankings used the same points scale, awarding points to the top sixty in the general classification, each yellow jersey given at the end of a stage, the top five finishers in each stage and for the top three in the final points and mountains classifications. The points accrued by Chris Froome moved him from twentieth to sixth in the World Tour and kept his fifth place in the World Ranking. Greg Van Avermaet () held the lead of both individual rankings. and Belgium also holding the lead of the World Tour team ranking and World Ranking nation ranking, respectively.
## See also
- 2017 in men's road cycling
- 2017 in sports
- 2017 La Course by Le Tour de France |
8,343,304 | Tri-County Mall | 1,167,574,959 | Abandoned shopping mall in Springdale, Ohio, United States | [
"1960 establishments in Ohio",
"2022 disestablishments in Ohio",
"Abandoned shopping malls in the United States",
"Shopping malls disestablished in 2022",
"Shopping malls established in 1960",
"Shopping malls in Hamilton County, Ohio",
"Tourist attractions in Hamilton County, Ohio"
]
| Tri-County Mall was a shopping mall located on State Route 747 (Princeton Pike) just south of Interstate 275 in the city of Springdale, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Originally known as Tri-County Shopping Center, it opened in 1960 and has been expanded several times in its history. The original shopping center was an open-air property featuring H. & S. Pogue Company (Pogue's) and John Shillito Company (Shillito's) as the anchor stores. An enclosed wing anchored by Sears was added in 1969, followed by the enclosure of the rest of the mall. Shillito's was later known as Shillito-Rike's, Lazarus, Lazarus-Macy's, and then just Macy's; Pogue's was consolidated with L. S. Ayres and then converted to JCPenney. A mall expansion begun in 1990 and finished in 1992 added a second level of stores and McAlpin's (sold to Dillard's in 1998) as a fourth anchor store. The mall underwent a slow decline in the 21st century, owing mainly to the center's age and increased competition and lost all of its anchors. Both JCPenney and Dillard's relocated to newer shopping centers in the 2010s, while Sears closed in 2018 and Macy's closed in 2021. The mall itself closed on May 15, 2022. It is owned by MarketSpace Capital and Park Harbor Capital.
## History
Joseph Meyerhoff, a real estate developer whose firm had built several shopping and residential properties in Baltimore, Maryland, announced plans for the Tri-County Center in 1959. The plans called for a shopping center with two Cincinnati-based department stores as the anchor stores: John Shillito Company (Shillito's) and H. & S. Pogue Company (Pogue's), positioned at the north and south ends respectively of an open-air mall concourse. Other tenants announced for the center included an S. S. Kresge Corporation dime store, a Kroger supermarket, and Gray Drug. Kenneth C. Miller was the mall's architect. Consulting firms helped select the mall's site, at the northeastern corner of Princeton Pike and Kemper Road in the suburb of Springdale, just south of the then-under construction Interstate 275 beltway, after determining that the area had the greatest potential for future suburban growth. Groundbreaking for the 75-acre (30 ha) site began in July 1959.
The mall officially opened to the public on July 21, 1960. Opening ceremonies included performances by the Princeton High School band and a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by Meyerhoff and the mayor of Springdale. At the time of opening, it consisted of 51 stores in 500,000 square feet (46,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of shop space, with parking for up to 4,000 cars. A 1960 article in The Cincinnati Enquirer described the mall as "landscaped to give the appearance of a park", while also noting that it was the largest center built by Meyerhoff at the time. Shillito's added a fourth level to its store in 1962, allowing for the store's lowest level to be dedicated to discounted merchandise; this concept, called the "basement store", also existed at their location in downtown Cincinnati.
Sears opened as the mall's third anchor store in May 1967. The 142,300-square-foot (13,220 m<sup>2</sup>), two-story store was a prototype for the chain, featuring a larger variety of merchandise and services than its typical stores of the era, including automotive repair and a restaurant. The new Sears was built to the east, and was connected to the rest of the mall by a wing of stores. Unlike the rest of the mall at the time, the expansion wing was enclosed, featuring palm trees, tropical plants, and fountains, along with antique lights and skylights. Tenants in this section of the mall included Casual Corner, Lane Bryant, Spencer Gifts, Hickory Farms, and Waldenbooks. In 1968, the rest of the formerly open-air mall was enclosed as well, featuring décor similar to the 1967 expansion. The firm of Baxter, Hodell, Donnelly, and Preston served as architects on the enclosure project.
### 1970s and 1980s
Throughout the first several years of the mall's existence, the common mall space was used to host many annual events. This included the Outdoor Living Show, which allowed mall patrons to view campers, boats, patio furniture, and outdoor grills for purchase in the summertime; Safety Town, a five-day program hosted by Springdale's police and fire department to educate young children on traffic safety; and symphony concerts every August. All of these were included in the mall's tenth-anniversary festivities in 1970, along with a number of mall-wide sales and a teen fashion show held by Shillito's.
In 1974, the Pogue's store was expanded and remodeled, featuring circular patterns on the ceilings, and different color schemes in each department. The store also gained a third story in this remodel, creating space for home furnishings and a beauty salon. Further renovations came in 1976 when the main mall entrance was redecorated in earth tones, while also adding decorative fountains and eight kiosk shops. Also in 1976, original tenant Hader Hardware moved out of the mall to a bigger store on the periphery, which had originally been a tire and automotive department for Pogue's. Monumental Properties, the name which Meyerhoff's real estate division had assumed in 1970, sold the mall to Equitable Life Insurance (now AXA Equitable Holdings) for \$34 million in 1979.
Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.) merged the John Shillito Company and the Rike Kumler Co. (Rike's) under the singular name Shillito-Rike's in 1982. This was done because executives felt that combining the two names would increase the profitability of both chains, due to Rike's having been based in nearby Dayton. Four years later, all of the Shillito-Rike's stores were further consolidated with Columbus, Ohio-based Lazarus. Another anchor change ensued in 1984 when Pogue's parent company, Associated Dry Goods, merged the chain with L. S. Ayres of Indianapolis. A food court opened off the main entrance in 1985, with nine restaurants including Baskin-Robbins, Great Steak, and Pizza Hut. The opening of this food court coincided with 25th anniversary festivities, including a raffle with a grand prize of \$7,000, a candle-lighting ceremony, and a sock hop. At the time, the mall consisted of over 983,862 square feet (91,403.8 m<sup>2</sup>) of shop space and over 94 tenants. A 1985 Cincinnati Enquirer article also noted that the mall's existence helped to draw more business and industry to the Springdale area. Throughout the 1980s, many more shopping centers were built along the intersection of Princeton Pike and Kemper Road, including Princeton Plaza, Cassinelli Square, and Beltway Plaza, the last of which was converted from an abandoned factory that formerly manufactured candy for the Kroger corporation.
### Late 1980s and 1990s
In 1987, shopping mall developers Shopco Advisory Group submitted plans to the city of Springdale to develop another mall called Springdale Town Center directly across Interstate 275, at the southwest corner of Princeton Pike and Crescentville Road. Under these plans, Springdale Town Center would include 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of mall space, with JCPenney and McAlpin's as proposed anchors. Shopco had also undergone negotiations with Elder-Beerman, Marshall Field's, and Jacobson's as prospective anchors; Shopco also agreed to a stipulation that Springdale Town Center could not have Lazarus, Sears, or L. S. Ayres as an anchor until 1999. City council rejected the plans for this mall due to concerns over heavy traffic and market saturation, but JCPenney was able to enter the Springdale area only one year later when it purchased the L. S. Ayres store at Tri-County, along with two others at Kenwood Towne Centre and Northgate Mall. The May Department Stores Company, which had acquired Associated Dry Goods in 1986, chose to close these three L. S. Ayres stores along with one in downtown Cincinnati and all locations in Kentucky due to unprofitability. JCPenney had previously conducted market research which determined the need for more shopping mall-based stores in the Cincinnati market, and analysts concluded that the acquisition of the former L. S. Ayres stores at the three malls would be strategic to the chain's expansion there. The Tri-County Mall location of JCPenney opened in mid-1988, resulting in the closure of an existing store in Hamilton.
The mall underwent an expansion in 1990, which doubled the number of shops by adding a second level atop the existing portion of the mall. The second level was connected to the existing mall by three staircases and a glass elevator. Also, a fountain was added to center court, and the food court was relocated to a larger location on the newly built upper level by Sears. The new food court was the first part of this expansion to open, doing so in May 1990. In order to attract business from nearby office workers, Tri-County's food court became the first in the United States to accept food orders by fax. Original food court tenants Pizza Hut, Great Steak, and Spinning Fork relocated to the newer food court, which also included Arby's and several local restaurants. Also as part of the expansion and renovation projects, Lazarus remodeled their store in mid-1991, creating a more open floor plan with wider aisles and less division between departments, as opposed to the previous trend of using different décor in each department. The wider floor plan was achieved by eliminating several stockrooms and nearly all of the furniture department. Following these renovations, the store's manager noted that the store was the most profitable in the chain for August and September 1991. The final part of the expansion, a two-story, 240,000-square-foot (22,000 m<sup>2</sup>) McAlpin's department store, opened as the mall's fourth anchor store one year later. It was the 100th department store to be opened by parent company Mercantile Stores Company, Inc., and it was designed by the same architectural firm that handled the mall's enclosure in the late 1960s. To add McAlpin's, mall developers had to seek approval from the Lazarus chain, which under the terms of its lease had to approve the addition of any anchor stores to the mall.
### Late 1990s and onward
Equitable Life Insurance put Tri-County and several other mall properties up for sale in December 1996, due to concerns over saturation in the American retail market. It was sold to the O'Connor Group in July 1997 for \$147 million. At the time of sale, the mall was 90 percent leased. In 1998, Dillard's acquired the Mercantile Stores Company, which resulted in all of the McAlpin's stores being rebranded as Dillard's. Blackstone Group, a real estate company based out of New York City, announced negotiations to buy the mall from O'Connor Group in 2002. Blackstone then sold the mall to Thor Equities in 2005. At the time of the sale, the mall faced increased competition from a then-recent renovations at Cincinnati Mills (later Forest Fair Village), and had not received exterior renovations since the early-1990s expansion was completed, two factors which had a negative impact on the mall's value and tenancy.
Two further anchor changes occurred under Thor Equities' ownership. Lazarus, which had been dual-branded by Federated Department Stores as Lazarus-Macy's in 2003, became just Macy's in 2005. Also, JCPenney closed its Tri-County location in 2005, and returned to the city of Hamilton with a store at the then-newly built Bridgewater Falls shopping center. One year later, the former JCPenney building underwent a major renovation, in which a new mall hallway was run through the lower level of the building, leading to a new mall entrance. The hallway was to include several new mall shops, including an Ethan Allen furniture store and a location of BJ's Restaurants. Also part of this renovation plan was new signage along Interstate 275. A joint venture of Coventry Real Estate and Developers Diversified Realty (now SITE Centers) bought the mall in May 2006.
### 2010s-2020s: Decline and possible redevelopment
After losing JCPenney, the Tri-County Mall and surrounding retail developments continued to suffer a decline in tenancy. One factor was the Great Recession, which impacted a large number of retailers that had locations within the mall. Among these were Borders Books & Music, Value City, CompUSA, and Circuit City, all of which went out of business entirely. Also, population growth had shifted northerly from the mall since the 1990s, resulting in newer retail developments which drew away tenants and shoppers from the older developments. These factors also impacted Northgate and Forest Fair malls, creating a surplus of retail space in the area. Another factor cited by analysts in the mall's decline was a curfew enacted in 2010, requiring patrons under the age of 18 to be escorted out of the mall by 4 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
In July 2013, the mall was purchased by SingHaiyi Group, a real estate company based in Singapore. Dillard's downgraded its store to an outlet store in 2013, and then closed it in 2015 in favor of a new store at Liberty Center in Liberty Township. To counter the decline in tenancy, SingHaiyi announced a renovation project in 2015, which included the addition of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Outback Steakhouse, and Men's Wearhouse on outparcels, while Shoe Dept. Encore and new food court restaurants were added. Other proposals to help maintain tenancy at the mall included a plan to convert portions to offices or other non-retail uses, while replacing the former Dillard's with a dine-in theater.
On June 4, 2018, Sears announced that its Tri-County store would close in September 2018. Despite the closure of other anchors, Macy's opened a division of its discount format Backstage at its Tri-County location in 2018. A 2017 article noted that, despite promises of renovation from the mall's developers, Tri-County had a large number of inline vacancies at the time, primarily on the main level and near the food court. The same article noted that retail analysts considered the mall "vulnerable" due to its numerous vacancies and an ongoing trend in the 21st century in the decline of shopping malls. Among the major chains to vacate the mall in the 2010s are The Limited, which closed in 2016, plus Victoria's Secret, Charlotte Russe, and Things Remembered, all in 2019.
On January 5, 2021, it was announced that Macy's would be closing on March 21, 2021, as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide which left the mall with no anchors left. The city of Springdale approved a redevelopment plan in December 2021, which will call for the demolition and reconfiguration of the mall into a series of ten-story buildings featuring retail, offices, and residences. The plan is estimated to cost \$1,000,000,000 and require re-zoning of the land. The mall was sold in March 2022 to MarketSpace Capital and Park Harbor Capital, a pair of developers from Texas. As part of their re-development plans, the mall owners announced that the building would close permanently on May 15, 2022. |
74,227 | John VII Palaiologos | 1,154,840,986 | Byzantine emperor in 1390 | [
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"1408 deaths",
"14th-century Byzantine emperors",
"Byzantine governors of Thessalonica",
"Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Ottoman wars",
"Byzantine regents",
"Eastern Orthodox monarchs",
"Palaiologos dynasty",
"People of Bulgarian-Jewish descent",
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| John VII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (Greek: Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος, romanized: Iōánnēs Palaiológos; 1370 – 22 September 1408) was Byzantine emperor for five months in 1390, from 14 April to 17 September. A handful of sources suggest that John VII sometimes used the name Andronikos (Ἀνδρόνικος), possibly to honour the memory of his father, Andronikos IV Palaiologos, though he reigned under his birth name.
Andronikos IV was the firstborn son of Emperor John V Palaiologos (r. 1341–1391), and had thus been the heir to the throne. After a failed rebellion in 1373, Andronikos IV was imprisoned and partially blinded, the same punishment possibly being carried out on John VII, then only three years old. Andronikos IV escaped in 1376 and successfully took Constantinople, ruling as emperor until 1379. John VII served as co-emperor during this time, possibly being appointed in 1377. Though deposed in 1379 by his brother Manuel II Palaiologos and their father John V, Andronikos IV never renounced his claims. To prevent further conflict, it was agreed in 1381 that Andronikos IV was to succeed John V, making John VII second-in-line to the throne.
Upon Andronikos IV's death in 1385, John VII inherited his claims. Despite the previous agreement, Manuel was seen by John V as the favoured successor. John VII rebelled against John V and successfully seized Constantinople in 1390. After just five months, Manuel succeeded in deposing his nephew with the help of the Ottomans and the Knights Hospitaller. Upon John V's death in 1391, Manuel succeeded him as emperor. Still possessing a powerful network of allies, John VII never surrendered his claim to be the legitimate emperor, and the tense relationship between him and his uncle brought the empire close to civil war several times. Though they were only honoured to a limited extent by Manuel, several agreements in regards to status and the line of succession were made between the two in order to avoid conflict, certifying that John VII remained co-emperor and was to succeed Manuel upon his death.
In 1394, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I besieged Constantinople. Manuel left the city in 1399 to travel around Western Europe in search for military aid, and entrusted John VII with serving as regent in Constantinople, overseeing its defense. Despite allegations of conspiring with the Ottomans, John VII held the city loyally for the entire duration of Manuel's three and a half years-long journey, refusing to surrender it to Bayezid. The threat to Constantinople ended with Bayezid's defeat against the Timurids at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. In the aftermath of this battle, John VII negotiated a favourable treaty with one of Bayezid's sons, Süleyman Çelebi, which ensured that the important city of Thessalonica, lost to the Ottomans in 1387 due to the actions of Manuel, was returned to imperial control. Despite John VII's loyal service, Manuel sent him away in disgrace once he returned in 1403, and the two were once more enemies. This feud proved to be brief, as they were reconciled a few months later and a new agreement was made, in which John VII was allowed to take possession of Thessalonica and was acknowledged with the full imperial title. From 1403 until his death in 1408, John VII thus ruled in Thessalonica as "Emperor of All Thessaly", with his own separate imperial court. The Thessalonians considered him an able ruler, and his work with local church affairs and improving the city's defensive structures garnered him a positive remembrance.
## Biography
### Background and early life
John VII Palaiologos was born in 1370 as the only son of Andronikos IV Palaiologos and Keratsa of Bulgaria, a daughter of Emperor Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria. Andronikos IV was the first-born son of Emperor John V Palaiologos (r. 1341–1391) and thus the legitimate heir to the Byzantine throne.
The Palaiologos dynasty, in power since 1259/1261, was often plagued by infighting, with the emperors and princes of the family often being unable to cooperate among themselves, to the detriment of the empire. The main enemy of the Byzantines at this time was the Ottoman Empire, which throughout the 14th century conquered vast swaths of former imperial territory. John V had even agreed to serve the Ottoman sultan Murad I (r. 1362–1389) as a tributary vassal. At this time, despite geopolitical adversity, Byzantine and Ottoman aristocrats were in close contact with each other.
While John was serving on an Ottoman campaign in Anatolia, as per his vassalage agreement with Murad I, Andronikos and one of Murad I's sons, Savcı Bey, co-ordinated simultaneous revolts against their fathers. The two princes were defeated, captured and imprisoned within a few months, as their fathers joined forces to put down the revolts. Andronikos and Savcı suffered harsh punishment. Savcı was blinded and beheaded by Murad I, and though the sultan ordered John V to blind his son as well, the Byzantine emperor was reluctant, only partially following through. Andronikos was only partially blinded, apparently losing just one of his eyes. Some sources suggest that Andronikos's infant son John, the later John VII, only three years old at the time, was also partially blinded in the same way. Furthermore, Andronikos lost his right of succession to the throne, with his younger brother, Manuel II Palaiologos, being designated as heir by John V instead.
Imprisoned with his family in the Prison of Anemas in Constantinople, Andronikos escaped in July 1376, together with his wife and son, to Galata, a colony of the Republic of Genoa on the other side of the Golden Horn, where he was enthusiastically received by the Genoese. The Genoese preferred Andronikos over John V, due to the latter having recently granted the island of Tenedos to their rival, the Republic of Venice, thus hurting their commercial interests. Andronikos also retained the support of a large fraction of Byzantine society, despite his rebellious actions, and successfully took Constantinople on 12 August that same year, with Genoese and Ottoman support. John V and Manuel were imprisoned, and Andronikos ruled as emperor for three years before they escaped and deposed him. During his father's reign (12 August 1376 – 1 July 1379), John VII was proclaimed co-emperor, probably in 1377. Even after being deposed, Andronikos never renounced his claim to the throne, residing in Galata and openly declaring his intentions to retake the capital.
The standoff between Andronikos and the emperors in Constantinople lasted until 1381, when an agreement was reached that Andronikos and his son John were to be John V's successors as emperors. Furthermore, Andronikos was once more recognised as junior co-emperor and was allowed to retain and use the title of basileus (emperor). Andronikos also received lands around Selymbria as an appanage in 1382.
Andronikos predeceased John V, dying on 25 or 28 June 1385. John VII inherited his father's lands around Selymbria and, as per the 1381 agreement, also inherited the right to use the title basileus, becoming a junior co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire. He also inherited his father's claim to be John V's legitimate heir. From his position as junior emperor, John VII received support from the Ottoman Empire, especially from the time of Bayezid I's accession (1389) onwards, and from the Genoese. The Genoese support did not escape the attention of John V. At some point between 1387 and 1391, John V is recorded as having complained to the Genoese that the inhabitants of Galata were acclaiming and saluting John VII as if he were the senior emperor, while denying John V the appropriate honours.
### Usurpation of the throne and reign
Despite the agreement of 1381, which explicitly stated that John VII was the legitimate successor, and Manuel having shown some rebellious tendencies himself, Manuel remained John V's favoured heir and represented John VII's main obstacle on the way to the throne. When Manuel was away campaigning in Anatolia in 1390, John VII, twenty years old, seized the moment and proclaimed himself sole emperor, laying siege to Constantinople. According to the contemporary Russian chronicler Ignatius of Smolensk, 1390 had seen a strong current of opinion in John VII's favour. John VII had secured the support of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I and the Genoese; shortly before the siege (probably in late 1389) he had even travelled to Genoa in person to rally support. As he travelled back to the Byzantine Empire by land, it is possible that John VII passed through Bulgaria, where he might also have sought the assistance of Ivan Sratsimir and Ivan Shishman, Tsars of Bulgaria in Vidin and Tarnovo, respectively.
In addition to his external allies, a large percentage of the population within Constantinople also supported John VII, and might even have approved of subtle Ottoman intervention in the succession. John entered the city on 14 April 1390, his brief siege having ended through a group of commoners opening the Gate of Charisius, without struggle, and letting him in. Though some coercion was used, before long everyone inside the city had recognised and acclaimed John VII as emperor, submitting to his rule.
There is some contemporary evidence that John VII used the name Andronikos at the time of his usurpation. Ignatius of Smolensk, eyewitness to the event, wrote that the soldiers in John VII's service shouted the acclamation "Polla ta eti Andronikou!", rather than the expected "Polla ta eti Ioannou!" and records of the registers of expenses in Galata in 1390 mention that the emperor in Constantinople at the time was Andronico Paleologo. It is possible that John VII changed his name to Andronikos upon his father's death in 1385 to honour his memory, or adopted it only in 1390, in order to avoid confusion and facilitate his usurpation of the throne. If his soldiers and the people of Constantinople were to depose an emperor named John and proclaim another of the same name, the entire affair could be conducted in bewilderment. By using the name Andronikos, any such issues would be avoided. During his actual reign as emperor, after successfully taking the throne, John VII does not appear to have used the second name, reigning under his birth name. In treaties he signed he is referred to as John, and contemporary Byzantine authors also consistently refer to him by his birth name, ignoring any second name for him.
The few activities recorded to have been conducted during John VII's brief reign suggest that he believed that he was going to rule for a long time. In June, he signed a treaty with Venice and throughout his time as emperor he issued prostagmata (imperial decisions/commands) and minted coins. John VII is also recorded to have supported the restoration of Macarius to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Macarius had been Patriarch of Constantinople during the reign of John VII's father, in 1376–1379.
John VII's reign ended in the same year as it had begun, when Manuel returned from his campaign. With the support of the Knights Hospitaller and the Ottomans, Manuel deposed John VII, who had ruled just five months, on 17 September and restored the rule of John V. After helping Manuel retake the city for his father, sultan Bayezid I forced him to live at the Ottoman court, acting as a submissive vassal.
### Governor in Selymbria and pretensions
John VII never gave up his claim to be emperor, and continued to be a powerful political player in the Byzantine Empire for years following his deposition. Sometime before 1397, possibly as early as 1390, John married Irene Gattilusio, daughter of Francesco II Gattilusio, the lord of the island of Lesbos. After John V returned to the throne, Bayezid summoned both junior co-emperors, Manuel and John VII, to join the sultan's campaigns in Anatolia. They were both forced to take part in the Ottoman subjection of Philadelphia, the last Christian city in western Anatolia. When John V died in 1391, Manuel, at Bayezid's court at the time, quickly made his way to Constantinople to pre-empt John VII claiming the throne.
John VII continued to govern Selymbria following John V's death and continued to aspire to become senior emperor following Manuel II's rise to the throne. He ruled Selymbria as a vassal of Bayezid I, which meant that he was forced to aid the sultan in further campaigns in Anatolia. According to historian John W. Barker, John VII attempted to sell his claim to the Byzantine throne to Charles VI of France. In 1397 in Selymbria, John VII supposedly entrusted the French nobles Henry of Bar and John of Nevers with negotiating with Charles VI, with John VII seeking a French castle and a generous pension in return for giving up the title. Barker's hypothesis is based on a real legal document signed on 15 July 1397, possibly at Saray rather than Selymbria, but the document itself contains no mentions of what rights John VII entrusted the French nobles with or what his exact intentions in negotiating with Charles VI were. The idea that John VII intended to sell his claims is based on premature interpretations of the document itself and notes by the nobles concerning a discussion with Francesco II Gattilusio on Lesbos, during which Gattilusio supposedly divulged what he believed John's intentions to be.
John VII's hopes of claiming the throne continued to be supported by Bayezid I, who saw him as a more promising candidate than the staunchly anti-Ottoman Manuel II. By supporting John VII, Bayezid hoped to turn the Byzantine Empire into a obedient vassal state, as it had nearly been under John V's rule. Though Bayezid was a significant ally, his overt support for John was used by Manuel II in his efforts to delegitimise John's claims. In some of Manuel II's early texts, he went as far as to claim that John's ultimate plan was to surrender Constantinople to the Ottomans.
Despite Manuel's propaganda campaign, John still enjoyed considerable support, both within the empire and among its allies. In addition to Bayezid, John continued to be supported by the Republic of Genoa, with which he had commercial connections. In addition, John was also backed by a wide network of rich Byzantine aristocrats. His wide support and wealth gave him a constant pool of resources that he could use in the feud with his uncle.
In addition to his backing by certain aristocrats and his international allies, there was also a faction within Constantinople, mainly composed of commoners, who wished to restore John VII as senior emperor, as late as 1399. This faction opposed Manuel II's rule, believing that he did not care about the empire's survival, and that he ruled as a tyrant. As John VII had been constitutionally invested with the right to succeed to the throne in 1381, they saw him as the legitimate heir, not Manuel, who was viewed as a usurper more interested in his own power than anything else. This perception of Manuel was used by John VII in his own propaganda.
### Reconciliation with Manuel II and tenure as regent
Tensions between John VII and Manuel escalated as Bayezid began to threaten to conquer Constantinople. In 1394, Bayezid laid siege to the city. Encouraged by the French knight Boucicaut, who had been placed as the leader of Constantinople's defense and who had good relations with both John VII and Manuel, the two emperors reached an agreement meant to end their dynastic feud in 1399. According to the Byzantine monk Symeon of Thessalonica, John VII's attitude towards Manuel had only changed because Bayezid had attacked his lands around Selymbria in 1397. The agreement was that Manuel adopted John VII, and that John VII in turn adopted Manuel's sons and daughters, uniting the two branches of the family. Manuel also formally acknowledged John VII as the first co-emperor, outranking Manuel's own son, John VIII Palaiologos, who then became the second co-emperor.
The agreement allowed Manuel to leave the city in a three-year long mission to travel around Europe in an attempt to secure military aid, while John was entrusted to remain in Constantinople as regent, governing the city in Manuel's absence. Though in effect having become Emperor-regent, John's responsibility was mainly the defense of Constantinople, not other matters normally handled by the emperor. Due to a lack of sources, John VII's regency in Constantinople is not well documented, and the extent of his power and how he exercised it is not entirely clear. It does not appear that the 1399 agreement was honoured by Manuel, as he sent his family (now ostensibly John's family) to his brother Theodore Palaiologos in the Morea. The only textual records that survive of John's activities in Constantinople are treaties with the Venetians and Genose, and documentation of his decision to depose Patriarch Matthew I. Matthew I had many enemies in Constantinople, for reasons not entirely clear, and the anti-Matthew faction managed to persuade John VII to depose him. He would later be restored by Manuel once he returned to Constantinople. In the Byzantine Empire, ultimate authority to appoint patriarchs rested with the emperor alone.
While besieging the city, Bayezid attempted to appeal to John VII's supporters by posing as a defender of John VII's legitimacy and offering peace on the condition that John was restored to the throne, terms that had been refused by Manuel before he left, a decision which prolonged the siege. Once Manuel had left the city, Bayezid tried to negotiate directly with John VII. Perhaps overlooking that he had supported Manuel's deposition of John VII in 1390, his own attack on John VII's lands in Selymbria in 1397, and the reconciliation between the two emperors, Bayezid seemed to still believe that he could rely on John VII to do his bidding. Shortly after Manuel's departure from Constantinople, he sent the following message to John VII from Adrianople:
> If I have indeed put the Basileus Manuel out of the city, not for your sake have I done this, but for mine. And if, then, you wish to be our friend, withdraw from thence and I will give you a province, whatever one you may wish. But if you do not, with God and his great Prophet as my witness, I will spare no one, but all will I utterly destroy.
John VII refused to surrender the city and replied defiantly to Bayezid's messenger, recorded as having said the following:
> Withdraw, report to your lord: we are in poverty and there is no great power whereunto we may flee, except to God who aids the powerless and Who overpowers the powerful. So if you wish anything, do it!
The situation grew more grim as time went on and Manuel's absence dragged on. Though Venice had promised to send military aid to lift the siege, the promised forces never arrived. Despite his forces being exhausted and the Timurids appearing in the eastern parts of his empire, Bayezid refused to abandon the siege. Throughout the six-year-long siege, the citizens of Constantinople suffered. Many of them chose to escape from the walls to personally surrender to the Ottoman forces.
Despite having refused to surrender the city, John VII maintained some connections to Bayezid. Early in January 1401, John VII was away from Constantinople, attempting to sign an agreement with Bayezid. Whatever he did, it appears to have worked momentarily as the siege was lifted for a brief period in the summer. In 1402, John VII is recorded as present on an Ottoman military expedition in the Peloponnese. On 1 June 1402, as the siege was escalating, John VII sent a letter to Henry IV of England, writing of the urgent danger threatening Constantinople. About a month after this letter was sent, Bayezid finally left the city, having to deal with the Timurids. Bayezid's defeat and capture at the Battle of Ankara on 20 July 1402, and the subsequent period of Ottoman civil war it sparked, ended the siege of Constantinople and saved the city.
The Ottoman defeat at Ankara was used by John to negotiate a treaty with one of Bayezid I's sons, Süleyman Çelebi, in which the city of Thessalonica, as well as substantial territories in Thrace and Macedonia, were returned to the Byzantine Empire. John baptised and christianised two of Bayezid's sons in 1403: İsa Çelebi and Yusuf Çelebi. İsa may have been adopted by John, and Yusuf is recorded to have continued to live in Constantinople, attested there as late as 1413.
Upon Manuel's return to Constantinople in June 1403, John returned power to him. Though some contemporary comments seem to suggest that everyone expected John VII to refuse to surrender power, John VII appears to have been content with letting go of his responsibilities after governing the Byzantine capital for three and a half years. Once Manuel returned, he reversed several of John VII's decisions, for instance disavowing a treaty John VII had arranged with the Ottomans, in which he had granted them religious and financial privileges.
### Further tensions within the imperial family
After Manuel's return in 1403, relations between him and John VII were tense once more. Since he knew that John VII could no longer rely on the support of the Ottomans, Manuel attempted to completely exclude him from the imperial hierarchy, stripping him of the title basileus and depriving him of his promised lands in Selymbria and Thessalonica. The reasons for excluding John was attributed by Manuel to rumours that John had initiated negotiations in 1402 with Bayezid concerning the surrender of Constantinople. The contemporary Castilian traveller Ruy González de Clavijo wrote that John and Bayezid had agreed that should Bayezid defeat the Timurids, John would surrender the city. It is doubtful that such an agreement was ever made, especially since John proved himself to be loyal for the duration of his tenure as regent and concluded a highly favourable treaty with the Ottoman prince Süleyman Çelebi. According to German historian Peter Wirth, it is possible that the reason for resentment again brewing up between John and Manuel after Manuel's return could be that Manuel felt that he had been ignored and left out of these important negotiations.
John was sent to the island of Lemnos, apparently in disgrace, but fled to his father-in-law Francesco on nearby Lesbos. Soon thereafter, in September 1403, John and Francesco launched a naval expedition against Thessalonica, though it appears to have had little to no result. The expedition was not some attempt to seize the city from Manuel's control, but rather to liberate it from the Ottomans, as an Ottoman garrison was still present. John VII and Francesco returned to Lesbos, where Boucicaut was also residing at the time. Together with Boucicaut, they then travelled to Constantinople at the head of an army, planning to take the city from Manuel by force.
Though they ultimately chose not to attack the city, John VII's drastic actions called for a new political agreement between the dynasts. The resulting 1403 agreement between John VII and Manuel was similar to the one they had made in 1399. As Manuel's adoptive son, John VII remained the first co-emperor and Manuel's actual son, John VIII, continued being the second co-emperor. John VII's rights to Thessalonica were also affirmed. Clavijo, present in Constantinople at the time, writes that both Manuel and John VII were designated as full emperors and that John VII was to reign alone after Manuel's death, after which he was to be succeeded by Manuel's son John VIII, who in turn would be succeeded by John VII's newly born son, Andronikos V Palaiologos. Contemporary reactions to the resolution appear to have been bitter. Clavijo wrote that he did not believe that the agreement would be respected by either emperor.
### Emperor in Thessalonica
The transfer of Thessalonica from Ottoman control to the Byzantines was overseen by Manuel's confidant, Demetrios Laskaris Leontares, who per the agreement between the two emperors handed it over to John VII. According to preserved documents signed by John VII, he probably first arrived in Thessalonica in late 1403. Though John was accompanied on the initial journey by some of Manuel's staunchest supporters, such as Leontares and Demetrios Chrysoloras, who were ordered to keep an eye on his activities, John VII immediately assumed autonomy from Constantinople. Despite their agreement and John VII's de facto autonomy, Manuel's texts state that John was "given" Thessalonica by Manuel, a phrasing which suggests that Manuel still considered himself to be John VII's superior. Though no known surviving copies exist, a detailed oath was drawn up between Manuel and John, which decided upon a well-defined border between the empires of Constantinople and Thessalonica. Some territories located nearer to Thessalonica than to Constantinople, such as Mount Athos, were kept as sworn to Constantinople.
John was invested as Despot of Thessalonica and was allowed to keep the full imperial title. While ruling Thessalonica, John VII is attested as having used the title Βασιλεύς ἀπάσης Θετταλίας, variously translated as "Emperor of Thessaly", "Emperor of All Thessaly", "Emperor of all the Thessaly" or "Emperor of all of Thessaly". Though he had assumed this new title, John VII never stopped asserting his right to be the legitimate Byzantine emperor, continuing to use the titles autokrator and basileus, identical to the titulature of Manuel. In foreign correspondence, he was addressed in the same way as his uncle. Preserved treaties with the Italian republics refer to John VII as imperador di Griesi ("Emperor of the Greeks") and lo gran imperator Caloiani imperador di Griesi ("The great emperor Kalojoannes, Emperor of the Greeks"). John's entry into Thessalonica was commemorated in a Byzantine ivory pyxis (a cylindrical box with a lid). This pyxis, today held at Dumbarton Oaks, depicts both the imperial family of John VII (including his wife Irene and his son Andronikos V) and the imperial family of Manuel II (including his wife Helena Dragaš and his son, John VIII).
At Thessalonica, John VII created his own treasury and issued his own coins with his own portrait rather than that of Manuel. He created his own imperial court and chancery, where documents were signed with his name rather than the name of Manuel. Throughout John's reign in Thessalonica, which lasted until his death in 1408, the Byzantine Empire thus experienced a period of dual rule, essentially divided into two. John's activities as emperor in Thessalonica consisted mainly of organising the city's defense and regulating local church property. He appears to have been content with his position; there are no further records of conflict between John VII and Manuel after the events of 1403.
John VII's arrival in Thessalonica meant more to the Thessalonians than simply the arrival of an emperor. Through his 1403 treaty, John VII had liberated the city from the Ottomans and once more made it into the second city of the Byzantine Empire. Though Manuel had also been involved in some of the negotiations, the majority of the credit for ensuring Thessalonica's return to imperial control has to be given to John VII. As such, his arrival in the city was not just the arrival of a new governor, but of the city's liberator. Throughout his reign in Thessalonica, the Thessalonians continued to view John VII as an able ruler. According to Symeon of Thessalonica, John VII "fortified [the city] on all sides with triremes and outer walls" and "adorned [it] with good regulations and institutions".
Shortly after arriving in Thessalonica, John VII had raised his son, Andronikos V, to co-emperor. John VII viewed Andonikos V as not just his own legitimate successor, but the future legitimate successor to the Byzantine Empire. This can be gathered from the aforementioned pyxis depicting Andronikos V more prominently than Manuel's heir, John VIII, as well as monodies composed after Andronikos V's death. One such monody states that Andronikos's parents had "regarded him gladly as their successor". Andronikos V, who was named after his grandfather Andronikos IV, was per the 1403 agreement the legitimate heir to the empire, set to be the heir to Manuel's son John VIII. Any plans for Andronikos V's future fell through when he died in 1407 at the age of seven. Some time after Andronikos V's death, John became a monk, assuming the monastic name Joseph. John VII died in Thessalonica a year after Andronikos V, on 22 September 1408, at the relatively young age of 38. With the deaths of Andronikos V and John VII, the rival imperial lineage that had been established by Andronikos IV died out.
## Legacy
John VII was positively remembered in Thessalonica. The city was often not wholly obedient to Constantinople, with its leaders often going their own way in terms of administration. To the citizens of Thessalonica, John's death was a significant blow to their autonomy. John VII's reign in Thessalonica was the last time the city served as a counter-capital of sorts to Constantinople. Manuel visited the city in 1409 and installed his young son, Andronikos, as governor. While he was met with many approving citizens, there were also many who opposed a ruler from Constantinople being imposed upon them. That the Thessalonians had enjoyed the rule of a leader with a rebellious past, who just like Manuel bore the title basileus, had probably only stimulated the city's separatist tendencies.
A praiseful passage in a eulogy of John, from the Synodikon of Thessalonica, reads:
> For our emperor John Palaiologos fought almost on his knees fiercely and courageously in defense of the Romans at a time when foreign peoples were leaning towards us [...] and when an unspeakably most powerful billow which had been raised and was threatening to destroy everything, and released the emperor from slavery and secured our safety by all possible means.
Another eulogy, this one probably written by Symeon of Thessalonica, contains this passage:
> He conducted himself in a truly orthodox manner through his entire life. He was an outstanding defender of the church and its sacred doctrines .... When waves of unheard-of violence rose up and threatened to engulf everything, he did not yield, but like a good pilot he again took control for the Romans. He recovered several cities from the hands of the barbarians, of which the first and greatest was our own Thessalonike, seeing the light of freedom after long servitude. He established his residence in our city and, neglecting nothing that was needed, he employed all means to assure our safety. He also gained many victories and triumphs over his own sufferings; the great variety of illnesses which he bore caused him to progress in virtue.
Other eulogies, as well as a similarly praiseful monody by the contemporary Byzantine author Theodore Potamios, almost give the impression that a cult of John VII was beginning to develop in Thessalonica. |
33,731,380 | Dassault Rafale | 1,172,499,050 | Multi-role combat aircraft family by Dassault | [
"1980s French fighter aircraft",
"4.5-generation jet fighters",
"Aircraft first flown in 1986",
"Canard aircraft",
"Carrier-based aircraft",
"Dassault Group aircraft",
"Delta-wing aircraft",
"Relaxed-stability aircraft",
"Twinjets"
]
| The Dassault Rafale (, literally meaning "gust of wind", or "burst of fire" in a more military sense) is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Equipped with a wide range of weapons, the Rafale is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions. The Rafale is referred to as an "omnirole" aircraft by Dassault.
In the late 1970s, the French Air Force and French Navy were seeking to replace and consolidate their existing fleets of aircraft. In order to reduce development costs and boost prospective sales, France entered into an arrangement with the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain to produce an agile multi-purpose "Future European Fighter Aircraft" (which would become the Eurofighter Typhoon). Subsequent disagreements over workshare and differing requirements led to France's pursuit of its own development programme. Dassault built a technology demonstrator which first flew in July 1986 as part of an eight-year flight-test programme, paving the way for the go-ahead of the project. The Rafale is distinct from other European fighters of its era in that it is almost entirely built by one country, involving most of France's major defence contractors, such as Dassault, Thales and Safran.
Many of the aircraft's avionics and features, such as direct voice input, the RBE2 AA active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and the optronique secteur frontal infra-red search and track (IRST) sensor, were domestically developed and produced for the Rafale programme. Originally scheduled to enter service in 1996, the Rafale suffered significant delays due to post-Cold War budget cuts and changes in priorities. There are three main variants: Rafale C single-seat land-based version, Rafale B twin-seat land-based version, and Rafale M single-seat carrier-based version.
Introduced in 2001, the Rafale is being produced for both the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations in the French Navy. The Rafale has been marketed for export to several countries, and was selected for purchase by the Egyptian Air Force, the Indian Air Force, the Qatar Air Force, the Hellenic Air Force, the Croatian Air Force, the Indonesian Air Force and the United Arab Emirates Air Force. The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria.
## Development
### Background
In the mid-1970s, the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) and French Navy (Marine Nationale) had separate requirements for a new generation of fighters to replace those in or about to enter service. Because their requirements were similar, and to reduce cost, both services issued a common request for proposal. In 1975, the country's Ministry of Aviation initiated studies for a new aircraft to complement the upcoming and smaller Dassault Mirage 2000, with each aircraft optimized for differing roles.
The Rafale aircraft development programme was the end product of efforts by various European countries for a common fighter aircraft. In 1979, Dassault-Breguet (later Dassault Aviation) joined the MBB/BAe "European Collaborative Fighter" project which was renamed the "European Combat Aircraft" (ECA). The company contributed the aerodynamic layout of a prospective twin-engine, single-seat fighter; however, the project collapsed in 1981 due to differing operational requirements of each partner country. In 1983, the "Future European Fighter Aircraft" (FEFA) programme was initiated, bringing together France, Italy, Spain, West Germany and the United Kingdom to jointly develop a new fighter, although the latter three had their own aircraft developments. French officials envisioned a lightweight, multirole aircraft that—in addition to fulfilling both air force and naval roles—it was believed, would be attractive on the export fighter market. This was in contrast to the British requirement for a heavy long-range interceptor. France also demanded a lead role, with the commensurate technical and industrial primacy, whereas the other countries were accepting of a more egalitarian programme structure.
There was little common ground between France and the other members of this project, but by 1983, the five countries had agreed on a European Staff Target for a future fighter. Nevertheless, differences persisted, and so France withdrew from the multilateral talks in July 1985 to preserve the technological independence of its fighter aircraft industry. West Germany, the UK and Italy opted out and established a new European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) programme. In Turin, on 2 August 1985, West Germany, the UK and Italy agreed to go ahead with the EFA, and confirmed that France, along with Spain, had chosen not to proceed as a member of the project. Despite pressure from France, Spain rejoined the EFA project in early September 1985. The four-nation project eventually resulted in the Eurofighter Typhoon's development.
In France, the government proceeded with its own programme. The Ministry of Defence required an aircraft capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground, all-day and adverse weather operations. As France was the sole developer of the Rafale's airframe, avionics, propulsion system and armament, the resultant aircraft was to replace a multitude of aircraft in the French Armed Forces. The Rafale would perform roles previously filled by an assortment of specialised platforms, including the Jaguar, Mirage F1C/CR/CT, Mirage 2000C/-5/N in the French Air Force, and the F-8P Crusader, Étendard IVP/M and Super Étendard in French Naval Aviation.
### Demonstration
At the same time as the multinational talks were occurring, Dassault-Breguet had been busy designing its Avion de Combat Experimental (ACX). During late 1978, prior to France's joining of the ECA, Dassault received contracts for the development of project ACT 92 (Avion de Combat Tactique, meaning "Tactical Combat Airplane"). The following year, the National Office for Aviation Studies and Research began studying the possible configurations of the new fighter under the codename Rapace ("Bird of Prey"). By March 1980, the number of configurations had been narrowed down to four, two of which had a combination of canards, delta wings and a single vertical tail-fin. The ACX project was given political impetus when the French government awarded a contract for two (later reduced to one) technology demonstrator aircraft on 13 April 1983. The government and industry would each provide half of the development cost, with first flight to take place in 1986. At the time, there was no guarantee that the effort would result in a full-scale development programme, and the aircraft remained a purely "proof-of concept" test vehicle. In an effort to harmonize design specifics with the requirements of other countries while collaboration talks were being held, Dassault sized the ACX aircraft in the 9.5 tonne range. After France decided to pull out of the multilateral talks, designers focused on a more compact size, as specified by the Air Force. The ACX programmed was renamed Rafale ("squall") in April 1985.
Construction of the Rafale A (ACX) technology demonstrator started in 1984. It had a length of 15.8 m (52 ft), a wingspan of 11 m (36 ft), and a 9.5 t (21,000 lb) empty weight. The austere aircraft lacked in major subsystems, and had the minimal cockpit systems and a fly-by-wire flight control system for the validation of the design's basic airframe-engine layout. The company desired to use the Rafale A to continue the company approach of risk reduction through incremental improvement and to test the aerodynamically-unstable delta wing-canard configuration. The aircraft was Dassault's 92nd prototype in 40 years. At the time of its construction, the aircraft had two 68.8 kN (15,500 lbf) General Electric F404 engines that were then in service with the F/A-18 Hornet, pending the availability of the Snecma M88 turbofan engines. It was rolled out in December 1985 at Saint-Cloud, and on 4 July 1986, made its first flight from the company's Istres test facility in southern France, piloted by Guy Mitaux-Maurouard. During the one-hour flight, the aircraft reached an altitude of 11,000 m (36,000 ft) and a speed of Mach 1.3. The aircraft participated in the Farnborough air show the following month.
The aircraft participated in an intensive flight test programme that saw it simulate air force and naval operations. The test vehicle flew approaches to the carrier Clemenceau, and also tested for coordination with Foch. By 1987, the aircraft had been flown by Air Force, Navy and CEV test pilots. Its port-side F404 engine was replaced with the 72.9 kN (16,400 lbf) M88 in early 1990, and the aircraft flew under the updated powerplant configuration in May 1990. The aircraft thereafter attained a speed of Mach 1.4 without the use of engine reheat, thereby demonstrating supercruise. The Rafale A was used until January 1994, and was retired after 867 sorties.
The early successful demonstration programme increased French industry and government confidence in the viability of a full-scale development programme for the Rafale. In June 1987, French prime minister Jacques Chirac declared that the government would proceed with the project. A contract for four pre-production aircraft (one Rafale C, two Rafale Ms and one Rafale B) was awarded on 21 April 1988 for a test and validation programme. There was nevertheless government uncertainty in the programme, as it was expected to cost some Ffr120 billion (1988 francs) in total development and procurement costs. Prime minister Michel Rocard was concerned about the state of the project and the failure of the previous government to secure cooperation with other countries, but stated that, "It is inconceivable that we should not be able to build the weapons necessary for our independence". France had earlier entered unsuccessful talks with Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway, about the possible collaboration on the project.
### Testing
To meet the various roles expected of the new aircraft, the Air Force required two variants: the single-seat Rafale C (chasseur, meaning "fighter") and the Rafale B (biplace, "two-seater"). Its first flight on 19 May 1991 occurred at the company's test facility in Istres. This signalled the start of a test programme which primarily aimed to test the M88-2 engines, man-machine interface and weapons, and expand the flight envelope. Due to budgetary constraints, the second single-seat prototype was never built. The aircraft differed significantly from the Rafale A demonstrator. Although superficially similar to the heavier test vehicle, the aircraft was smaller, with a length of 15.3 m (50 ft) and a wingspan of 10.9 m (36 ft). Its was less detectable by radar due to the canopy being gold-plated and the addition of radar-absorbent materials; Dassault had also removed the dedicated airbrake. The sole Rafale B two-seat preproduction aircraft, B01, made its first flight on 30 April 1993, and served as a platform for testing of weapons and fire-control systems, including the RBE2 radar and the SPECTRA electronic warfare suite.
The first of two Rafale M (maritime, "naval") prototypes, M01, made its maiden flight on 12 December 1991, followed by the second on 8 November 1993. These aircraft differed from the air force variants in having reinforced structure to allow the aircraft to operate aboard ships, and provision for a tail hook and an in-built ladder, which increased the weight of the Rafale M by 500 kg (1,100 lb) over other production variants. Since France has no land-based catapult test facility, catapult trials were carried out in mid-1992 and early 1993 at the United States Navy facility at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey. The aircraft then carried out shipboard trials aboard Foch in April 1993. The aircraft conducted landings and launches from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in July 1999. Testing showed that the aircraft had the ability to land with significant loads of unexpended ordnance.
### Production
The Rafale B was initially expected to be just a trainer, but the Gulf War showed that a second crew member was invaluable on strike and reconnaissance missions. The Air Force therefore switched its preferences towards the two-seater, and planned that the variant would constitute 60 percent of the Rafale fleet. The service originally planned to order 250 Rafales, later reduced to 234 aircraft, 95 "C" and 139 "B" models", and then to 212 aircraft. The Navy originally planned to order 86 Rafales, which was reduced to 60 by to budget cuts, 25 M single-seaters and 35 two-seat Ns. The two-seater was later cancelled.
The ACX and subsequent production Rafale was designed in a "virtual" format. Dassault used the experience and technical expertise of its sister company Dassault Systèmes, which had invented the CATIA (Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application) system, a three-dimensional computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacture (CAD/CAM) software suite that became standard across the industry. CATIA enabled digitization and efficiency improvements throughout the programme, as it implemented recently-developed processes such as digital mockup and product data management (PDM). Engineers worked directly with computers in generating 3D models of the aircraft, and took advantage of the design software in facilitating machine-tool preparation. The system consisted of 15GB databases of each of the Rafale's components, assisting with various aspects of the design, manufacture and through-life support. The computer-aided arrangement also simplified routine maintenance.
Production of the first aircraft series formally started in December 1992, but was suspended in November 1995 due to political and economic uncertainty, and resumed in January 1997 after the Ministry of Defence and Dassault agreed on a 48-aircraft (28 firm and 20 options) production run with delivery between 2002 and 2007. A further order of 59 F3 Rafales was announced in December 2004. In November 2009 the French government ordered an additional 60 aircraft to take the total order for the French Air Force and Navy to 180.
The Rafale is manufactured almost entirely in France, except for some imported non-sensitive components. Different components are produced in various plants across the country, including the fuselage in Paris, wings in Martignas, and fins in Biarritz, with final assembly taking place in Merignac near Bordeaux. Dassault carries out 60% of the work, its partner Thales 25%, and its other partner Safran 15%. The three companies rely on a network of 500 subcontractors, many of which are small and medium enterprises, providing work for 7,000 direct and indirect employees. As of 2012, each fighter took 24 months to manufacture, with an annual production rate of eleven aircraft. The Rafale was originally planned to enter service in 1995. The aircraft's development proceeded on time, on budget, and without major difficulties. However, the project needed to compete with other defense acquisition programmes for a dwindling national defense budget. This occurred in a political environment in which the chief security threat, the Soviet Union, no longer existed. The French government consequently reduced Rafale orders, which Dassault and other companies involved claimed impeded production management and led to higher costs, and delayed the entry of the aircraft into service. At one stage, French naval authorities investigated the possibility of acquiring used F/A-18s to replace the obsolete F-8 for its carriers, but the French government intended an all-Rafale fleet, and did not go ahead with the plan. Deliveries of the Rafale M were subsequently given a high priority to replace the Navy's aged F-8 fighters. In the words of a naval official, "Although we lost the battle for the F/A-18s, I guess you could say that we had at least some success by 'persuading' the government to give us initial delivery priority". The first production Rafale B took its first flight on 24 November 1998, followed by the first Rafale M for the French Navy on 7 July 1999.
### Upgrades and replacement
The Rafale has been designed with an open software architecture that facilitates straightforward upgrades. Dassault and its industry partners have therefore undertaken continuous tests and development primarily aimed at progressively improving the aircraft's sensors and avionics, and to allow additional armament integration. In 2011, upgrades under consideration included a software radio and satellite link, a new laser-targeting pod, smaller bombs and enhancements to the aircraft's data-fusion capacity. In July 2012, fleetwide upgrades of the Rafale's battlefield communications and interoperability capabilities commenced.
At one stage, French officials were reportedly considering equipping the Rafale to launch miniaturised satellites.
In January 2014, the defence ministry announced that funds had been allocated towards the development of the F3R standard. The standard includes the integration of the Meteor BVR missile, among other weapons and software updates. The standard was validated in 2018.
Development work started on the F4 standard in 2019. The design received radar and sensor upgrades that facilitate the detection of airborne stealth targets at long range, as well as improved capabilities in the helmet-mounted display. With improved communications equipment, it is also more effective in network-centric warfare. Flight tests were conducted starting in 2021 and the first F4-standard aircraft was delivered in 2023. Previous aircraft will be upgraded to the standard, with a further 30 aircraft to be ordered in 2023.
The total programme cost, as of FY2013, was around €45.9 billion, which translated to a unit programme cost of approximately €160.5 million. This figure takes in account improved hardware of the F3 standard, and which includes development costs over a period of 40 years, including inflation. The unit flyaway price as of 2010 was €101.1 million for the F3+ version.
The Rafale is planned to be the French Air and Space Force's primary combat aircraft until at least 2040. In 2018, Dassault announced the successor to the Rafale as the New Generation Fighter. This fighter aircraft, under development by Dassault Aviation and Airbus Defence and Space, is to replace France's Rafale, Germany's Eurofighter Typhoon, and Spain's F/A-18 Hornet in the 2030–2040 timeframe.
## Design
### Overview
The Rafale was developed as a modern jet fighter with a very high level of agility; Dassault chose to combine a delta wing with active close-coupled canard to maximize manoeuvrability. The aircraft is capable of withstanding from −3.6g to 9g (10.5g on Rafale solo display and a maximum of 11g can be reached in case of emergency). The Rafale is an aerodynamically unstable aircraft and uses digital fly-by-wire flight controls to artificially enforce and maintain stability. The aircraft's canards also act to reduce the minimum landing speed to 115 knots (213 km/h; 132 mph); while in flight, airspeeds as low as 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) have been observed during training missions. According to simulations by Dassault, the Rafale has sufficient low speed performance to operate from STOBAR-configured aircraft carriers, and can take off using a ski-jump with no modifications.
The Rafale M features a greatly reinforced undercarriage to cope with the additional stresses of naval landings, an arrestor hook, and "jump strut" nosewheel, which only extends during short takeoffs, including catapult launches. It also features a built-in ladder, carrier-based microwave landing system, and the new fin-tip Telemir system for syncing the inertial navigation system to external equipment. Altogether, the naval modifications of the Rafale M increase its weight by 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) compared to other variants. The Rafale M retains about 95 percent commonality with Air Force variants including, although unusual for carrier-based aircraft, being unable to fold its multi-spar wings to reduce storage space. The size constraints were offset by the introduction of Charles de Gaulle, France's first nuclear-powered carrier, which was considerably larger than previous carriers, Foch and Clemenceau.
Although not a full-aspect stealth aircraft, the cost of which was viewed as unacceptably excessive, the Rafale was designed for a reduced radar cross-section (RCS) and infrared signature. In order to reduce the RCS, changes from the initial technology demonstrator include a reduction in the size of the tail-fin, fuselage reshaping, repositioning of the engine air inlets underneath the aircraft's wing, and the extensive use of composite materials and serrated patterns for the construction of the trailing edges of the wings and canards. Seventy percent of the Rafale's surface area is composite. Many of the features designed to reduce the Rafale's visibility to threats remain classified.
### Cockpit
The Rafale's glass cockpit was designed around the principle of data fusion—a central computer selects and prioritises information to display to pilots for simpler command and control. For displaying information gathered from a range of sensors across the aircraft, the cockpit features a wide-angle holographic head-up display (HUD) system, two head-down flat-panel colour multi-function displays (MFDs) as well as a central collimated display. These displays have been strategically placed to minimise pilot distraction from the external environment. Some displays feature a touch interface for ease of human–computer interaction (HCI). A head-mounted display (HMD) remains to be integrated to take full advantage of its MICA missiles. The cockpit is fully compatible with night vision goggles (NVG). The primary flight controls are arranged in a hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS)-compatible configuration, with a right-handed side-stick controller and a left-handed throttle. The seat is inclined rearwards at an angle of 29° to improve g-force tolerance during manoeuvring and to provide a less restricted external pilot view.
Great emphasis has been placed on pilot workload minimisation across all operations. Among the features of the highly digitised cockpit is an integrated direct voice input (DVI) system, allowing a range of aircraft functions to be controlled by spoken voice commands, simplifying the pilot's access to many of the controls. Developed by Crouzet, the DVI is capable of managing radio communications and countermeasures systems, the selection of armament and radar modes, and controlling navigational functions. For safety reasons, DVI is deliberately not employed for safety-critical elements of the aircraft's operation, such as the final release of weapons.
In the area of life support, the Rafale is fitted with a Martin-Baker Mark 16F "zero-zero" ejection seat, capable of operation at zero speed and zero altitude. An on-board oxygen generating system, developed by Air Liquide, eliminates the need to carry bulky oxygen canisters. The Rafale's flight computer has been programmed to counteract pilot disorientation and to employ automatic recovery of the aircraft during negative flight conditions. The auto-pilot and autothrottle controls are also integrated, and are activated by switches located on the primary flight controls. An intelligent flight suit worn by the pilot is automatically controlled by the aircraft to counteract in response to calculated g-forces.
### Avionics and equipment
The Rafale core avionics systems employ an integrated modular avionics (IMA), called MDPU (modular data processing unit). This architecture hosts all the main aircraft functions such as the flight management system, data fusion, fire control, and the man-machine interface. The total value of the radar, electronic communications and self-protection equipment is about 30 percent of the cost of the entire aircraft. The IMA has since been installed upon several upgraded Mirage 2000 fighters, and incorporated into the civilian airliner, the Airbus A380. According to Dassault, the IMA greatly assists combat operations via data fusion, the continuous integration and analysis of the various sensor systems throughout the aircraft, and has been designed for the incorporation of new systems and avionics throughout the Rafale's service life.
The Rafale features an integrated defensive-aids system named SPECTRA, which protects the aircraft against airborne and ground threats, developed as a joint venture between Thales and MBDA. Various methods of detection, jamming, and decoying have been incorporated, and the system has been designed to be highly reprogrammable for addressing new threats and incorporating additional sub-systems in the future. Operations over Libya were greatly assisted by SPECTRA, allowing Rafales to perform missions independently from the support of dedicated Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD) platforms.
The Rafale's ground attack capability is heavily reliant upon sensory targeting pods, such as Thales Optronics's Reco New Generation/Areos reconnaissance pod and Damocles electro-optical/laser designation pod. Together, these systems provide targeting information, enable tactical reconnaissance missions, and are integrated with the Rafale's IMA architecture to provide analysed data feeds to friendly units and ground stations, as well as to the pilot. Damocles provides targeting information to the various armaments carried by the Rafale and is directly integrated with the Rafale's VHF/UHF secure radio to communicate target information with other aircraft. It also performs other key functions such as aerial optical surveillance and is integrated with the navigation system as a FLIR.
The Damocles designation pod was described as "lacking competitiveness" when compared to rivals such as the Sniper and LITENING pods; so work began on an upgraded pod, designated Damocles XF, with additional sensors and added ability to transmit live video feeds. A new Thales targeting pod, the Talios, was officially unveiled at the 2014 Farnborough Air Show and is expected to be integrated on the Rafale by 2018. Thales' Areos reconnaissance pod is an all-weather, night-and-day-capable reconnaissance system employed on the Rafale, and provides a significantly improved reconnaissance capability over preceding platforms. Areos has been designed to perform reconnaissance under various mission profiles and condition, using multiple day/night sensors and its own independent communications datalinks.
### Radar and sensors
The Rafale was first outfitted with the Thales RBE2 passive electronically scanned multi-mode radar. Thales claims to have achieved increased levels of situational awareness as compared to earlier aircraft through the earlier detection and tracking of multiple air targets for close combat and long-range interception, as well as real-time generation of three-dimensional maps for terrain-following and the real-time generation of high resolution ground maps for navigation and targeting. In early 1994, it was reported that technical difficulties with the radar had delayed the Rafale's development by six months. In September 2006, Flight International reported the Rafale's unit cost had significantly increased due to additional development work to improve the RBE2's detection range.
The RBE2 AA active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar now replaces the previous passively scanned RBE2. The RBE2 AA is reported to deliver a greater detection range of 200 km, improved reliability and reduced maintenance demands over the preceding radar. A Rafale demonstrator began test flights in 2002 and has totaled 100 flight hours as of December 2011. By December 2009, production of the pre-series RBE2 AA radars was underway. In early October 2012, the first Rafale equipped with an RBE2 AA radar arrived at Mont-de-Marsan Air Base for operational service (the development was described by Thales and Dassault as "on time and on budget"). By early 2014, the first Air Force front-line squadron were supposed to receive Rafales equipped with the AESA radar, following the French Navy which was slated to receive AESA-equipped Rafales starting in 2013.
To enable the Rafale to perform in the air supremacy role, it includes several passive sensor systems. The front-sector electro-optical system or Optronique Secteur Frontal (OSF), developed by Thales, is completely integrated within the aircraft and can operate both in the visible and infrared wavelengths. The OSF enables the deployment of infrared missiles such as the MICA at beyond visual range distances; it can also be used for detecting and identifying airborne targets, as well as those on the ground and at sea. Dassault describes the OSF as being immune to jamming and capable of providing covert long-range surveillance. In 2012, an improved version of the OSF was deployed operationally.
### Armament and standards
Initial deliveries of the Rafale M were to the F1 ("France 1") standard, which were equipped for the air-to-air interceptor combat duties, but lacked any armament for air-to-ground operations. The F1 standard became operational in 2004. Later deliveries were to the "F2" standard, which added the capability for conducting air-to-ground operations; the first F2 standard Rafale M was delivered to the French Navy in May 2006. Starting in 2008 onwards, Rafale deliveries have been to the nuclear-capable F3 standard that also added reconnaissance with the Areos reconnaissance pod, and it has been reported that all aircraft built to the earlier F1 and F2 standards are to be upgraded to become F3s.
F3 standard Rafales are capable of undertaking many different mission roles with a range of equipment, namely air defence/superiority missions with Mica IR and EM air-to-air missiles, and precision ground attacks typically using SCALP EG cruise missiles and AASM Hammer air-to-surface missiles. In addition, anti-shipping missions could be carried out using the AM39 Exocet sea skimming missile, while reconnaissance flights would use a combination of onboard and external pod-based sensor equipment. Furthermore, the aircraft could conduct nuclear strikes when armed with ASMP-A missiles. In 2010, France ordered 200 MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range missiles which greatly increases the distance at which the Rafale can engage aerial targets.
The F4 standard program was launched on 20 March 2017 by the French ministry of defence. The first F4.1 standard test aircraft was delivered in March 2023.
For compatibility with armaments of varying types and origins, the Rafale's onboard store management system is compliant with MIL-STD-1760, an electrical interface between an aircraft and its carriage stores, thereby simplifying the incorporation of many of their existing weapons and equipment. The Rafale is typically outfitted with 14 hardpoints (only 13 on Rafale M version), five of which are suitable for heavy armament or equipment such as auxiliary fuel tanks, and has a maximum external load capacity of nine tons. In addition to the above equipment, the Rafale carries the 30 mm GIAT 30 revolver cannon and can be outfitted with a range of laser-guided bombs and ground-attack munitions. According to Dassault, the Rafale's onboard mission systems enable ground attack and air-to-air combat operations to be carried out within a single sortie, with many functions capable of simultaneous execution in conjunction with another, increasing survivability and versatility.
### Engines
The Rafale is fitted with two Snecma M88 engines, each capable of providing up to 50 kilonewtons (11,000 pounds-force) of dry thrust and 75 kN (17,000 lb<sub>f</sub>) with afterburners. The engines feature several advances, including a non-polluting combustion chamber, single-crystal turbine blades, powder metallurgy disks, and technology to reduce radar and infrared signatures. The M88 enables the Rafale to supercruise while carrying four missiles and one drop tank.
Qualification of the M88-2 engine ended in 1996 and the first production engine was delivered by the end of the year. Due to delays in engine production, the Rafale A demonstrator was initially powered by the General Electric F404 engine. In May 2010, a Rafale flew for the first time with the M88-4E engine, an upgraded variant with lower maintenance requirements than the preceding M88-2. The engine is of a modular design for ease of construction and maintenance and to enable older engines to be retrofitted with improved subsections upon availability, such as existing M88-2s being upgraded to M88-4E standard. There has been interest in more powerful M88 engines by potential export customers, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As of 2007, a thrust vectoring variant of the engine designated as M88-3D was also under development.
## Operational history
### France
#### French Naval Aviation
In December 2000, the French Naval Aviation (Aéronavale), the air arm of the French Navy, received its first two Rafale M fighters. On 18 May the following year, the squadron Flottille 12F, which had previously operated the F-8 Crusader, became the first squadron to operate the Rafale after it was officially re-activated prior to the delivery of the sixth Rafale. Flottille 12F immediately participated in Trident d'Or aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle with warships from ten other nations. During the maritime exercise, the Navy tested the Rafale's avionics during simulated interceptions with various foreign aircraft, in addition to carrier take-offs and landings. After almost four years of training, the Rafale M was declared operational with the French Navy in June 2004.
The Rafale M is fully compatible with US Navy aircraft carriers and some French Navy pilots have qualified to fly the aircraft from US Navy flight decks. On 4 June 2010, during an exercise on USS Harry S. Truman, a French Rafale became the first jet fighter of a foreign navy to have its engine replaced on board an American aircraft carrier.
In 2002, the Rafales were first deployed to a combat zone; seven Rafale Ms embarked aboard Charles de Gaulle of the French Navy during "Mission Héraclès", the French participation in "Operation Enduring Freedom". They flew from the aircraft carrier over Afghanistan, but the F1 standard precluded air-to-ground missions and the Rafale did not see any action. In March 2002, the aircraft carrier was stationed in the Gulf of Oman, where its complement of Rafales undertook training operations. In June 2002, while Charles de Gaulle was in the Arabian Sea, Rafales conducted several patrols near the India-Pakistan border.
In 2016, Rafales operating from Charles de Gaulle struck targets associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS).
In December 2015, American and French military officials reportedly discussed the possibility of French naval Rafale Ms flying combat missions from a US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier as soon as January 2017. This would enable continued French Navy operations against ISIL while Charles de Gaulle undergoes its year-and-a-half-long major refit, scheduled to begin in early 2017. Although Rafales have launched and landed on U.S. carriers to demonstrate interoperability, it would be the first time they would fly combat missions from one. As many as 18 Rafale Ms could be deployed on a carrier, although some room would have to be made for French Navy support crews familiar with maintaining the Rafale, as well as for spare parts and munitions. Operation Chesapeake, a test of this interoperability, was conducted in May 2018, when 12 Rafales of Flottilles 11F, 12F, and 17F, along with nearly 350 support personnel embarked aboard USS George H.W. Bush for two weeks of carrier qualifications and exercises after conducting a month of shore based training at Naval Air Station Oceana.
#### French Air and Space Force
In April 2005, the Air Force received its first three F2 standard Rafale Bs at the Centre d'Expériences Aériennes Militaires (CEAM, i.e. the Military Air Experiment Centre) at Mont-de-Marsan, where they were tasked to undertake operational evaluation and pilot conversion training. By this time, it was expected that Escadron de Chasse (Fighter Squadron) 1/7 at Saint-Dizier would receive a nucleus of 8–10 Rafale F2s during the summer of 2006, in preparation for full operational service (with robust air-to-air and stand off air-to-ground precision attack capabilities) starting from mid-2007 (when EC 1/7 would have about 20 aircraft, 15 two-seaters and five single-seaters).
In 2007, a "crash program" upgrade on six Rafales enabled the use of laser-guided bombs in readiness for action in Afghanistan. Three of these aircraft of the Air Force were deployed to Dushanbe in Tajikistan, while the three others were Rafale Marine of the Navy on board Charles De Gaulle. The first mission occurred on 12 March 2007, and the first GBU-12 was launched on 28 March in support of embattled Dutch troops in Southern Afghanistan, marking the operational début of the Rafale. Between January 2009 and December 2011, a minimum of three Rafales were stationed at Kandahar International Airport to conduct operations in support of NATO ground forces.
On 19 March 2011, French Rafales began conducting reconnaissance and strike missions over Libya in Opération Harmattan, in support of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973; initial targets were artillery pieces laying siege around the rebel city of Benghazi. The Rafale could operate in Libya without the support of SEAD aircraft, using the onboard SPECTRA self-defence system instead. On 24 March 2011, it was reported that a Rafale had destroyed a Libyan Air Force G-2/Galeb light attack/trainer aircraft on the runway. During the deployment, Rafale destroyed multiple SAM systems of Libyan military using its geolocation feature and with a mix of different ammunition. Unlike other allied aircraft, the Rafale did not require any dedicated EW/EA aircraft for escort.
Rafales typically conducted six-hour sorties over Libyan airspace, armed with four MICA air-to-air missiles, four or six AASM "Hammer" bombs, a Thales Damoclès targeting pod and two drop tanks. Each sortie needed multiple aerial refuelling operations from coalition tanker aircraft. The AASM precision-guidance weapon system allowed the Rafale to conduct high-altitude bombing missions using bombs weighing between 125 and 1,000 kg (280 and 2,200 lb). Reportedly, Rafale crews preferred to use GPS-guided munitions with greater reliability and range. SCALP weapons were deployed on only one or two sorties, such as against a Libyan airbase at Al-Jufra. In 2011, aviation journalist Craig Hoyle speculated that the Rafale's Libyan performance is likely to impact export sales, noting that the Rafale had maintained a high operational rate throughout. Hoyle also noted that the conflict had led to several urgent operational requirements, including a lighter ground-attack munition and AASM modifications for close air support.
In January 2013, the Rafale took part in "Opération Serval", the French military intervention in support to the government of Mali against the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. The first mission was carried out on 13 January, when four Rafales took off from an airbase in France to strike rebel training camps, depots and facilities in the city of Gao in eastern Mali. Subsequent airstrikes in the following days by Rafale and Mirage fighters were reportedly instrumental in the withdrawal of Islamist militant forces from Timbuktu and Douentza. Both Rafale and Mirage 2000D aircraft used in the conflict have been based outside of North Africa, making use of aerial refuelling tanker aircraft to fly long range sorties across Algerian airspace and into Mali.
In August 2013, it was proposed that France may halve the number of Rafales to be delivered over the next six years for a total of 26 aircraft to be delivered during this period; foreign export procurements have been viewed as critical to maintain production under this proposal. While production would be slowed, France would still receive the same number of Rafales overall.
In September 2014, Rafales started reconnaissance missions over Iraq for Opération Chammal, France's contribution to the international effort to combat IS militants. Six Rafales were initially tasked with identifying IS positions in support of US airstrikes, flying from Al Dhafra Air Base, UAE. On 18 September, Rafales joined American attack operations, launching four strikes near the Northern Iraqi town of Zummar that destroyed a logistics depot and killed dozens of IS fighters. In April 2018, during the Syrian Civil War, five Rafale Bs from the Escadron de Chasse 1/4 Gascogne participated in the 2018 missile strikes against Syria. Each was loaded with two SCALP EG missiles.
### Egypt
In November 2014, Egypt was reportedly in negotiations with France to purchase 24 to 36 Rafales, subject to a financing agreement. By February 2015, the two countries were negotiating a loan from France's export credit agency to reach an export agreement for up to 24 Rafales. Egypt aimed for the deal's quick completion as to have them on display at the inauguration of the Suez Canal expansion in August 2015.
On 16 February 2015, Egypt became the Rafale's first international customer when it officially ordered 24 Rafales, as part of a larger deal, including a FREMM multipurpose frigate and missiles, worth US\$5.9 billion (€5.2 billion). The order comprised 8 single-seat models and 16 two-seaters. In July 2015, a ceremony marking Egypt's acceptance of its first three Rafales, was held at Dassault's flight test center in Istres. In January 2016, Egypt received three more Rafales. All six aircraft are two-seat models (Rafale DM) diverted from French Air Force deliveries. Egypt received the third batch of three Rafales flown by Egyptian pilots from France in April 2017; this was included the first single-seat model (Rafale EM) to be delivered to the Egyptian Air Force. Egypt took delivery of the fourth batch of two Rafale EMs in July 2017. The fifth batch, comprising the last 3 Rafale EMs, was delivered in November 2017, increasing the number in service to 14 Rafales.
In June 2016, Egypt begun negotiations with Dassault to acquire 12 additional Rafales, intending to exercise an option of the first contract. An Egyptian delegation visited France in November 2017 for negotiations. In May 2021, Egypt ordered 30 more Rafales in a contract worth \$4.5bn. On 15 November 2021, Egypt confirmed that it will receive 30 Rafale F3R between 2024 and 2026. The Egyptian Air Force is interested in buying the Rafale F4 variant once Dassault prepares it for foreign buyers.
Analysts view the relatively quick series of 84 orders from Egypt and Qatar as being influenced by the Arab Spring and uncertainty of US involvement in the Middle East.
### Qatar
The Qatar Emiri Air Force evaluated the Rafale alongside the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the Boeing F-15E, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II to replace its Dassault Mirage 2000-5 fleet. In June 2014, Dassault claimed it was close to signing a contract with Qatar for 72 Rafales. On 30 April 2015, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani announced to French President François Hollande that Qatar would order 24 Rafale with an option to buy 12 more aircraft. On 4 May, a €6.3 billion (\$7.02 billion) contract for 24 Rafales was finalised; additionally, the contract included the provision of long-range cruise missiles and Meteor missiles as well as the training of 36 Qatari pilots and 100 technicians by the French military and several Qatari intelligence officers; thus, the price can be viewed as €263M for each aircraft.
On 7 December 2017, the option for 12 more Rafales was exercised for €1.1 billion (or €92M each) while adding an additional option for 36 further fighters. The first Qatari Rafale was delivered in February 2019.
### India
The Rafale was one of the six aircraft competing in the Indian MRCA competition for 126 multirole fighters. Originally, the Mirage 2000 had been considered for the competition, but Dassault withdrew it in favour of the Rafale. In February 2011, French Rafales flew demonstrations in India, including air-to-air combat against Su-30MKIs. In April 2011, the Indian Air Force (IAF) shortlisted the Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon for the US\$10.4 billion contract. On 31 January 2012, the IAF announced the Rafale as the preferred bidder. It was proposed that 18 Rafales would be supplied to the IAF by 2015 in fly-away condition, while the remaining 108 would be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in India under transfer of technology agreements. The contract for 126 Rafales, services, and parts may have been worth up to US\$20 billion.
The deal stalled due to disagreements over local production; Dassault refused responsibility for the 108 HAL-manufactured Rafales, holding reservations over HAL's ability to accommodate the complex manufacturing and technology transfers; instead, Dassault said it would have to negotiate two separate production contracts by both companies. The Indian Defence Ministry instead wanted Dassault to be solely responsible for the sale and delivery of all 126 aircraft. In May 2013, The Times of India reported that negotiations were "back on track", with plans for the first 18 Rafales to be delivered in 2017. In March 2014, the two sides reportedly agreed that the first 18 Rafales would be delivered to India in flying condition and that the remaining 108 would be 70 percent built by HAL. By December 2014, India and France reportedly expected to sign a contract by March 2015.
In April 2015, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Paris, India requested the swift delivery of 36 Rafales in a fly-away condition. India withdrew the MMRCA tender on 30 July 2015. Then, India and France missed a July target to finalise the 36-aircraft deal. The previously agreed-upon terms in April totaled US\$8 billion for 36 aircraft costing \$200 million each, with an offset requirement of 30 percent of the deal's value to be reinvested in India's defence sector and infrastructure for Rafale operations. India insisted on a 50 percent offset and two bases, which France said would increase costs and require separate infrastructure and two sets of maintenance, training and armament storage facilities. In January 2016, the Indian government directed the Indian Navy to be briefed by Dassault on the navalised Rafale for its aircraft carriers, promoting logistics and spares commonalities between the Navy and IAF. Dassault CEO Eric Trappier stated that the Indian Navy may order up to 57 Rafales. On 23 September 2016, Defence Minister Parrikar and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian signed a €7.8 billion contract for 36 fly-away Rafales with an option for 18 more. Initial deliveries were expected by 2019, and all 36 within six years. The deal included spares and weapons such as Meteor missiles.
The Indian National Congress raised an issue over Dassault partnering with Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence, now known as Reliance Naval and Engineering Limited (R-Naval), a private company with no aviation experience, instead of the state owned HAL. Allegedly, Dassault lacked any choice and was compelled to select Reliance Defence as its partner. Rahul Gandhi alleged that it was favouritism and corruption. Both the French government and Dassault issued a press release stating it was Dassault's decision to choose Reliance Defence. Party spokesperson Manish Tewari asked for the agreement's details to be made public and questioned if there was an escalation of per-aircraft cost from ₹7.15 billion to ₹16 billion. In November 2018, Congress alleged that procurement procedures were bypassed. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case was filed in the Supreme Court for an independent probe into the Rafale procurement. On 14 December 2018, the Apex Court dismissed all petitions, stating it found no irregularities; Reliance Defence reportedly was set to receive just over 3 per cent of the ₹300 billion (equivalent to ₹400 billion or US\$5.0 billion in 2023) of offsets, contrary to the impression that it was to be the biggest beneficiary of the deal.
Around August 2017, India considered ordering 36 more Rafales amid tensions with China.
Ahead of the first Rafale's formal handover on 8 October 2019, IAF Day, the IAF accepted it at Dassault's Bordeaux facility in an event attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his French counterpart, Florence Parly; it had tail number "RB-001" to mark IAF chief-designate Air Chief Marshal R. K. S. Bhadauria's role in the buy. The first five Rafales were delivered on 27 July 2020. The last Rafale arrived in April 2022.
### Greece
In August 2020, the government of Greece announced the acquisition of 18 Rafales. Initial reports stated that ten would be the new Rafale C variant in F3-R standard with eight older Rafale in F1 and F2 standard in use with the French Air and Space Force that would be given to Greece.
In January 2021, the Hellenic Parliament ratified the agreement with Dassault for the purchase of six new built and 12 used F3-R aircraft formerly used by the Armée de l'Air at a total cost of €2.4 billion, including armaments and ground support. The inter-governmental agreement was signed on 25 January 2021 by the Defense Ministers of Greece and France. This was followed by an additional contract in March 2022 to buy the six additional Rafales, to be delivered from mid-2024. The first aircraft, a Rafale B two-seater, was delivered on 21 July 2021. On 19 January 2022, the first six Rafales landed at Tanagra Air Base where a welcoming ceremony was held.
### Future operators
#### Croatia
Croatia received a proposal for 12 used Rafales F3Rs in September 2020 as part of a bid to replace the Croatian Air Force's MiG-21s. The total package offered costs €1 billion (including weapon systems, spare parts, logistics and training), and competed with new F-16V Block 70, Israeli used F-16C/D Barak raised to ACE configuration, and Saab Gripen. On 28 May 2021, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced the purchase of 12 used Rafale F3Rs. The contract was signed on 25 November 2021.
#### Indonesia
In January 2020, the Indonesian government expressed interest in buying up to 48 Rafales to modernise the Indonesian Air Force. In February 2021, Indonesia's Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto announced that the purchase of 36 units, as part of a large procurement programme including A330 tankers and complementary American products, was planned and that funds had been secured for its finalization. On 7 June 2021, Indonesia signed a letter of intent to buy 36 Rafales and associated weapons and support.
On 20 January 2022, Prabowo Subianto confirmed, that Indonesia completed the negotiation of the contract pending activation of the formal agreement by France. On 10 February 2022, Dassault stated that Indonesia had officially signed an order for 42 Rafale F4, consisting of 30 single-seat and 12 double-seat.
The first tranche for six Rafales came into force in September 2022. On 10 August 2023, Dassault Aviation announced that a contract covering a second tranche of 18 Rafale fighters for Indonesia had come into force that day, bringing the total under contract to 24.
#### United Arab Emirates
In 2009, the United Arab Emirates Air Force was interested in an upgraded Rafale with more powerful engines and radar, and advanced air-to-air missiles. In October 2011, Dassault was confident that a US\$10 billion deal for up to 60 Rafales would be signed. However, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Union Defence Force, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in November 2011 called the French offer "uncompetitive and unworkable"; In 2010, France allegedly asked the UAE to pay US\$2.6 billion of the total cost of Rafale upgrades. Consequently, the UAE explored a purchase of the Eurofighter Typhoon or the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The newspaper La Tribune reported in February 2012, that the UAE was still considering the US\$10-billion deal for 60 Rafales. Interoperability among the Gulf air forces had renewed Qatari and Kuwaiti interest in the Rafale. In January 2013, President Hollande stated that he would discuss the Rafale during an official visit to the UAE. In December 2013, the UAE reportedly chose not to proceed with a deal for defence and security services, including the supply of Typhoons.
In September 2014, it was reported that the UAE could acquire 40 Rafales in addition to upgrading its existing Mirage 2000s. In November 2015, Reuters reported that Major General Ibrahim Nasser Al Alawi, commander of the UAE Air Force and Air Defence, had confirmed that the UAE was in final negotiations to purchase 60 Rafales. In 2019 a series of Rafale F3-R trials were conducted at Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE. On 3 December 2021, Dassault announced that the UAE had signed an order for 80 Rafale F4 in a government-to-government deal, which made the UAE the largest Rafale operator in the region and second to France. The deal makes the United Arab Emirates Air Force the first user of the Rafale F4 standard outside France.
### Potential operators
#### Bangladesh
In March 2020, La Tribune reported that France's Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, promoted the Rafale's performance to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also Minister of Defense.
#### Colombia
In June 2022, La Tribune reported Dassault made an offer for 15 fighters and 9 in option for the Colombian Air Force. Colombia was interested in used ones, but France denied, taking into consideration it already sold 24 jets to Croatia and Greece. On December 21 2022, the Colombian government announced that they had shortlisted the Rafale for a potential 16 aircraft order to replace their aging Kfir.
#### Iraq
In November 2020, Iraqi Defence Minister Jumaa Adnan stated that Iraq plans to buy Rafales for the Iraqi Air Force. In February 2022, Iraq reportedly intends to acquire 14 Rafale F4s, payable in crude oil.
#### Malaysia
The Rafale was a contender for the replacement of the Royal Malaysian Air Force's (RMAF) Mikoyan MiG-29s, with a requirement to equip three squadrons with 36 to 40 fighters with an estimated budget of RM6 billion to RM8 billion (US\$1.84 billion to US\$2.46 billion). Other competitors were the Eurofighter Typhoon, Boeing F/A-18/F Super Hornet and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. In July 2017, acquisition efforts were suspended with the RMAF looking instead to buy new maritime patrol aircraft and advanced trainers with light attack capabilities to confront the growing threat of Islamist militants in the Southeast Asian region.
#### Saudi Arabia
In February 2022, La Tribune reported that Saudi Arabia is interested in the Rafale, then reported in December 2022 that Saudi Arabia would need between 100 and 200 fighters.
#### Serbia
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, stated on 24 December 2021 that Serbia is interested in buying new Rafales to strengthen the Serbian Air Force and Air Defence. La Tribune reported in April 2022 that Serbia and Dassault are negotiating for 12 Rafales.
### Failed bids
The Rafale has been marketed for export to various countries. Various commentators and industry sources have highlighted the high cost of the aircraft as detrimental to the Rafale's sales prospects. Its acquisition cost is roughly US\$100 million (2010), while its operational cost hovers around US\$16,500 (2012) for every flight-hour. The Saab JAS 39 Gripen, in comparison, costs only US\$4,700 per flight-hour to operate. According to a 2009 article by the Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis, unlike the American government and its relationship with Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the lack of communication between the French government and Dassault has hampered a worldwide cooperative sales effort, as demonstrated by the case with Morocco in 2007.
#### Belgium
In 2009, Belgium suggested that they may buy F-35s in the 2020s to replace Belgium's 34 F-16A/B MLU fleet. An article published in Belgian newspaper L'Avenir on 19 April 2015 speculated that, if the nuclear strike role via Belgium's Nuclear sharing policy were retained in the request for proposals, Belgium would be almost forced to buy the F-35 as to maintain this role. Belgium officially launched its F-16 replacement program in March 2017, issuing requests for proposals to three European and two US manufacturers: Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Lockheed Martin, Dassault, Eurofighter GmbH and Saab Group, offering the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-35 Lightning II, Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab JAS 39 Gripen respectively. On 25 October 2018, Belgium officially selected the offer for 34 F-35As; government officials stated that it had come down to price, and that "The offer from the Americans was the best in all seven evaluation criteria". The total purchasing price for the aircraft and support until 2030 totaled €4 billion, €600 million cheaper than the budgeted €4.6 billion. In April 2020, the first F-35 contract was signed, with deliveries to begin in 2023.
#### Brazil
In June 2008, the Brazilian Air Force issued a request for information on the following aircraft: F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon, Rafale, Su-35, Gripen NG and Eurofighter Typhoon. In October 2008, the service selected three finalists for F-X2 – Dassault Rafale, Gripen NG and Boeing F/A-18E/F. On 5 January 2010, media reports stated that the final evaluation report by the Brazilian Air Force placed the Gripen ahead of the other two contenders based on unit and operating costs. In February 2011, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had reportedly decided in favour of the F/A-18. After Edward Snowden’s revelation that the NSA had been intercepting Rouseff’s private communications, in December 2013 and her ensuing fury, the Brazilian government selected the Gripen NG in a US\$5 billion deal to equip the air force.
#### Canada
The Rafale was amongst various fighters proposed to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force's McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet. In 2005, a report compiled by Canada's Department of Defence reviewing aircraft noted concerns over the Rafale's interoperability with US forces; Dassault had also been unable to confirm engine performance during cold weather conditions. In July 2010, the Canadian government announced the F-35 as the CF-18's replacement; the nation was already a partner in the Joint Strike Fighter program since 1997 and a Tier 3 partner for the F-35 since 2002. In December 2012, the Canadian government announced that the F-35 buy had been abandoned due to cost rises and that a fresh procurement process would begin. In January 2013, Dassault responded to Canada's request for information. Various aircraft were considered, including the F-35. In January 2014, Dassault offered a contract with full technology transfer, allowing Canada to perform its own support and upgrades, thereby lowering long-term service costs. In November 2018, Dassault withdrew from the competition, reportedly over interoperability and intelligence sharing requirements, particularly with the US, complicated by France's lack of involvement in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group.
#### Finland
In June 2015, a working group set up by the Finnish MoD proposed starting the HX Fighter Program to replace the Finnish Air Force's current fleet of F/A-18 Hornets. The group recognises five potential types: Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II and Saab JAS 39 Gripen E/F. In December 2015, the Finnish MoD informed Great Britain, France, Sweden and the US informing them of the launch of the HX Fighter Program to replace the Hornet fleet, which will be decommissioned by 2025, with multi-role fighters; the Rafale is mentioned as a potential fighter. The request for information was sent in early 2016; five responses were received in November 2016. In December 2021, the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti reported that several foreign and security policy sources had confirmed the Finnish Defense Forces' recommendation of the F-35 as Finland's next fighter due to its "capability and expected long lifespan".
#### Kuwait
In February 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that Kuwait was considering buying up to 28 Rafales. In October 2009, during a visit to Paris, the Kuwaiti Defence Minister expressed interest in the Rafale and said that he was awaiting Dassault's terms. Islamist lawmakers in the Kuwaiti national assembly threatened to block such a purchase, accusing the Defence Minister of lack of transparency and being manipulated by business interests. In January 2012, the French Defence Minister said that both Kuwait and Qatar were waiting to see if the UAE first purchased the Rafale and that Kuwait would look to buy 18–22 Rafales. However, on 11 September 2015, Eurofighter announced that an agreement had been reached with Kuwait to buy 28 Typhoons.
#### Singapore
In 2005, the Republic of Singapore Air Force launched its Next Generation Fighter (NGF) programme to replace its ageing A-4SU Super Skyhawks. Several options were considered and the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA) conducted a detailed technical assessment, simulations and other tests to determine the final selection. This reduced the list of competitors to the Rafale and the F-15SG Strike Eagle. In December 2005, Singapore ordered 12 F-15SGs. According to Defense Industry Daily, key reasons for the selection were that, despite the Rafale's superior aerodynamics, it had insufficient range, weapons, and sensor integration.
#### Switzerland
In February 2007, Switzerland was reportedly considering the Rafale and other fighters to replace its ageing Northrop F-5 Tiger IIs. A one-month evaluation started in October 2008 at Emmen Airforce Base, consisting of approximately 30 evaluation flights; the Rafale, along with the JAS 39 Gripen and the Typhoon, were evaluated. Although a leaked Swiss Air Force evaluation report revealed that the Rafale won the competition on technical grounds, on 30 November 2011, the Swiss Federal Council announced plans to buy 22 Gripen NGs due to its lower acquisition and maintenance costs. Due to a referendum, this purchase never happened.
In March 2018, Swiss officials named contenders in its Air 2030 program: The Rafale, Saab Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35. In October 2018, the Swiss Air Force was reportedly limited to buying a single-engine fighter for budgetary reasons. In May 2019, the Rafale performed demonstration flights at Payerne Air Base for comparison against other bids. On 30 June 2021, the Swiss Federal Council proposed to Parliament the acquisition of 36 F-35As at a cost of up to 6 billion Swiss francs (US\$6.5 billion), citing the aircraft's cost- and combat-effectiveness. However, it was later confirmed that the costs are capped for a period of just 10 years. The Liberal Greens have promised to examine the F-35's environmental impact. The Swiss anti-military group GSoA intended to contest the purchase in another national referendum supported by the Green Party of Switzerland and the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (which previously managed to block the Gripen). In August 2022, they registered the initiative, with 120,000 people having signed in less than a year (with 100,000 required).
On 15 September 2022 the Swiss National council gave the Federal council permission to sign the purchase deal, with a time limit for signing of March 2023. The deal to buy 36 F-35A was signed on 19 September 2022, with deliveries to commence in 2027 and conclude by 2030, bypassing the popular initiative.
#### Other bids
In 2002, the Republic of Korea Air Force chose the F-15K Slam Eagle over the Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and Sukhoi Su-35 for its 40 aircraft F-X Phase 1 fighter competition.
In January 2007, the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche reported that Libya sought 13 to 18 Rafales "in a deal worth as much as US\$3.24 billion". In December 2007, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi declared Libya's interest in the Rafale, but no order was placed. French Rafales later attacked targets in Libya as part of the international military intervention during the 2011 Libyan civil war.
In late 2007, La Tribune reported that a prospective US\$2.85 billion sale to Morocco had fallen through, the government selecting the F-16C/D instead. While French Defense Minister Hervé Morin labelled it as overly sophisticated and too costly, defense analysists have said that miscalculations of the DGA's offer price and hesitations over financing were detrimental to the negotiations.
In February 2009, France offered Rafales to Oman to replace its ageing fleet of SEPECAT Jaguars. In December 2012, Oman placed an order for 12 Typhoons.
## Variants
Rafale A: Technology demonstrator, first flew in 1986.
Rafale D: Dassault used this designation (D for discrète) in the early 1990s to emphasise the new semi-stealthy design features.
Rafale B: Two-seater version for the French Air and Space Force.
Rafale C: Same as Rafale B but single-seat version for the French Air and Space Force.
Rafale M: Similar to Rafale C, but with modifications to allow operations from CATOBAR - equipped aircraft carriers. For carrier operations, the M model has a strengthened airframe, longer nose gear leg to provide a more nose-up attitude, larger tailhook between the engines, and a built-in boarding ladder. Consequently, the Rafale M weighs about 500 kg (1,100 lb) more than the Rafale C. It is the only non-US fighter type cleared to operate from the decks of US carriers, using catapults and their arresting gear, as demonstrated in 2008 when six Rafales from Flottille 12F integrated into the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Air Wing interoperability exercise.
Rafale N: Originally called the Rafale BM, was a planned missile-only two-seater version for the Aéronavale. Budgetary constraints have been cited as grounds for its cancellation.
Rafale R: Proposed reconnaissance-oriented variant.
Rafale DM: Two-seater version for the Egyptian Air Force.
Rafale EM: Single-seat version for the Egyptian Air Force.
Rafale DH: Two-seater version for the Indian Air Force.
Rafale EH: Single-seat version for the Indian Air Force.
Rafale DQ: Two-seater version for the Qatar Emiri Air Force.
Rafale EQ: Single-seat version for the Qatar Emiri Air Force.
## Operators
### Current operators
Egypt
- Egyptian Air Force – 54 ordered with 24 Rafales in service as of December 2018.
France: A total of 180 have been ordered out of a planned 286, with an option for another 9. Approximately 152 are confirmed to be delivered by 2018. As of 2017, 149 had been delivered. In 2018 three Rafale will be delivered, and then in 2024 all the 28 remaining out of the 180 ordered will be delivered.
- French Air and Space Force – 102; flying units include:
- Saint-Dizier – Robinson Air Base
- Escadron de Chasse 2/4 La Fayette (2018–present) nuclear strike
- Escadron de Chasse 1/7 Provence (2006–2016) multirole fighter
- Escadron de Chasse 1/4 Gascogne (2009–present) nuclear strike
- Escadron de Transformation Rafale 3/4 Aquitaine (October 2010–present, Rafale Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) jointly operated by French Air and Space Force and French Naval Aviation)
- Mont-de-Marsan Air Base
- Escadron de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niemen (2012–present) multirole fighter
- Escadron de Chasse 3/30 Lorraine (2016–present) multirole fighter
- Escadron de chasse et d'expérimentation 1/30 Côte d'Argent (2004–present) tactics development and evaluation
- Al Dhafra Air Base, UAE
- Escadron de Chasse 3/30 Lorraine (2010–2016) multirole fighter
- Escadron de Chasse 1/7 Provence (2016–present) multirole fighter
- French Navy – 46 delivered, 41 active
- Naval Air Base Landivisiau
- Flottille 11F (2011–present) multirole carrier fighter
- Flottille 12F (2001–present) multirole carrier fighter
- Flottille 17F (2016–present) multirole carrier fighter
Greece
- Hellenic Air Force – Greece ordered 18 Rafales in 2020, and an additional six in 2021, bringing the total order number to 24. The first was delivered on 21 July 2021. A total of 15 have been delivered to the Hellenic Air Force as of June 2023.
- Tanagra Air Base
- 332nd All Weather Squadron (Hawks)
India
- Indian Air Force – 36 (28 single-seat and 8 dual-seat) aircraft ordered. with 2 kept for training missions in France. By July 2022, all 36 Rafales had been delivered.
- Ambala AFS
- No. 17 Squadron (Golden Arrows)
- Hasimara AFS
- No. 101 Squadron (Falcons)
Qatar
- Qatar Emiri Air Force – 36 ordered, all delivered. Qatar ordered 24 of the fighters in 2015, and ordered 12 more in 2018. It also has an option to order 36 more. As of November 2021, 27 were delivered. As of 2023, all aircraft were delivered.
- Dukhan / Tamim Airbase
- 1st Fighter Squadron 'Al Adiyat'
### Future operators
Croatia
- Croatian Air Force – 12 C/B F3-R Rafales on order, 10 C F3-R and 2 B F3-R. The first 8 will be delivered in 2024 and the remaining 4 in 2025.
Indonesia
- Indonesian Air Force – 42 Rafale F4s on order.
United Arab Emirates
- United Arab Emirates Air Force – 80 Rafale F4s on order
## Notable accidents
- On 6 December 2007, a French Air Force twin-seat Rafale crashed during a training flight. The pilot, who suffered from spatial disorientation, died in the accident.
- On 24 September 2009, after unarmed test flights, two French Navy Rafales returning to the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, collided in mid-air about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the town of Perpignan in southwest France. One test pilot, identified as François Duflot, died in the accident, while the other was rescued.
- On 28 November 2010, a Rafale from the carrier Charles de Gaulle crashed in the Arabian Sea. This aircraft was supporting Allied operations in Afghanistan. The pilot ejected safely and was rescued by a rescue helicopter from the carrier. Later reports said the engines stopped after being starved of fuel due to confusion by the pilot in switching fuel tanks.
- On 2 July 2012, during a joint exercise, a Rafale from the carrier Charles de Gaulle plunged into the Mediterranean Sea. The pilot ejected safely and was recovered by an American search and rescue helicopter from the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
## Specifications
## See also |
33,404,454 | Remedial Chaos Theory | 1,169,101,306 | null | [
"2011 American television episodes",
"Community (season 3) episodes",
"Television episodes about multiple time paths",
"Television episodes directed by Jeff Melman"
]
| "Remedial Chaos Theory" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American television series Community. The episode was written by Chris McKenna and directed by Jeff Melman. It originally aired on October 13, 2011 on NBC. It follows a community college study group at a housewarming party for members Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi). When Jeff (Joel McHale) throws a die to determine who will go to collect the pizza delivery from downstairs, seven different timelines unfold, showing each member of the group leaving to collect it depending on the outcome of the die—including the canonical timeline, in which Abed catches it before it lands. The episode was intended to be the third episode of the season, but was delayed by a week due to filming, editing and visual effects overrunning. As a result, "Competitive Ecology", due to be fourth, was aired third.
"Remedial Chaos Theory" is a concept episode, with each timeline showing how the group is affected by the absence of one of its members. "The Darkest Timeline" ensues when Troy leaves, causing Pierce to be shot and a fire to break out. Further episodes continued plot points from this timeline. The episode received critical acclaim, lauded by fans and critics alike as one of the best episodes of the show. It has been described as one of the best episodes of 2011 and the 2010s. McKenna received a PAAFTJ Award and an Emmy Award nomination for his work on the episode. "Remedial Chaos Theory" also received a Hugo Award nomination.
## Plot
Troy and Abed invite their study group to a housewarming party. After Abed presents his Raiders of the Lost Ark boulder diorama, the group begin playing Yahtzee. Jeff rolls a die to determine which of the group must collect the pizza delivery, numbering starting from his left. Abed claims that Jeff is creating six different "timelines" by rolling the die.
Jeff rolls so that Annie (Alison Brie) gets the pizza. As Pierce (Chevy Chase) claims he had sex with Eartha Kitt, Britta (Gillian Jacobs) is stopped from singing along to "Roxanne" (1978) by Jeff. Troy finds a gun in Annie's bag. Pierce tries to give Troy a present. Jeff hurts his head on the ceiling fan. Annie returns, calling the pizza guy a creep. Similar scenes subsequently arise when the scene is restarted, Jeff rolling a different number each time. It arises that the group thinks Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) has a baking problem and Pierce's gift is a Norwegian troll that scares Troy. Other recurring scenes include Abed catching the rolling diorama boulder, Britta smoking marijuana, and Annie inspecting Jeff's head injury.
When Shirley gets the pizza, the group let her pies burn, so she insults them and exits. When Pierce leaves, Troy unloads to Britta about Jeff making him feel immature. When Britta leaves, Pierce torments Troy with the troll; Britta returns engaged to the pizza guy. "The Darkest Timeline" arises when Troy leaves. Annie trips over the diorama boulder, flipping a table. Her gun discharges and shoots Pierce in the leg. Britta drops a joint, starting a fire. Troy returns to find the troll staring at him amid the chaos. When Abed leaves, Shirley learns Britta smoked marijuana, Troy becomes furious at Pierce, and Jeff and Annie kiss, then fight; everyone but Abed is unhappy. In a seventh timeline, Abed catches the die and exposes Jeff's plan: there are seven people and the die is six-sided, so Jeff never has to collect the pizza. The group make him do so and dance to "Roxanne". Abed suggests that Annie move into the apartment.
The end tag shows the Darkest Timeline: Shirley is an alcoholic; Pierce died; Annie was sent to a mental health ward; Jeff lost an arm in the fire; Troy lost his larynx trying to eat the troll; Britta put a blue streak in her hair. Abed makes felt goatees for the remaining group members, suggesting that they become evil and try to journey to the main timeline.
## Production
"Remedial Chaos Theory" was broadcast as the fourth episode of the third season. The episode premiered on NBC on October 13, 2011, a Thursday 8 p.m. timeslot. It was written by Chris McKenna, his sixth writing credit of the series. The writers used annotated diagrams, or "story circles", one for each character per timeline, displaying the character's actions in that timeline; series creator Dan Harmon later published images of them on Tumblr. The episode was directed by Jeff Melman.
The episode was originally intended to air as the third episode, but was delayed a week because the episode still needed to be completed, including editing, reshoots, and visual effects. Series creator Dan Harmon wrote that this was his decision, which broadcaster NBC agreed to. A number of jokes from this episode are cited in the episode "Competitive Ecology", which was the actual third episode to air due to the re-ordering. In "Competitive Ecology", Pierce mentions his Eartha Kitt story and Shirley references Britta's marijuana usage. A consequence of the re-ordering was that two consecutive episodes, "Geography of Global Conflict" and "Competitive Ecology", had similar B-plots involving Chang (Ken Jeong) and his security guard storyline. Additionally, the re-ordering meant that the episode following this, "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps", became the second episode in a row to feature seven different stories. The opening lines of "Remedial Chaos Theory", in which Britta and Annie dispute whether the apartment number is 303 or 304, is a reference to the re-ordering.
Prior to Harmon announcing that the episodes had been reordered, some fans and critics noticed inconsistencies between "Competitive Ecology" and "Remedial Chaos Theory", speculating that the final timeline shown in this episode was not the one that would be followed in future episodes. Harmon commented that the canonical timeline which other episodes continue on from is the final one shown, where Abed prevents the die from landing on a number, saying that no ambiguity was intended.
The song "Roxanne" by The Police plays briefly in several timelines and for a lengthier period in the final one. According to Harmon on audio commentary, licensing of this song used up much of the music budget for the whole third season, leading to the frequent use of "Daybreak" by Michael Haggins and Ludwig Göransson's score for the series in the season's other episodes. However, McHale later said that Harmon often purchased music if the studio refused to, and gave "Roxanne" as an example.
## Themes
"Remedial Chaos Theory" is a concept episode. Some critics commented that there was an absence of an overarching plot. Storylines play out across timelines, such as Pierce being jealous that Troy moves out of his mansion to live with Abed. Other details like Troy and Abed putting a bowl of olives by their toilet occur repeatedly.
Critics found that each timeline shows how the absence of any member of the group would significantly disrupt or affect the others, variously interpreting each timeline. The "Darkest Timeline" arises when Troy leaves the group to get the pizza. Critics have commented that this indicates that Troy is the group's linchpin, without whom the group descends into chaos, or that Troy should be the leader of the group rather than Jeff. Some critics found that Annie has a caretaker role, despite struggling to take care of herself, whilst Shirley is a mother figure as the other characters do not take responsibility for their actions. Joshua Kurp of Vulture opined that without Pierce, Jeff feels insecure about being the oldest. Others found that Troy tries to act mature around Britta, and wants Jeff to view him as an adult, but is immature when just with Abed. In regards to Abed, it was suggested that his meta-commentary on the group allows them to confront their issues. Though Jeff's consistent interruption of Britta as she tries to sing "Roxanne" initially seems like a joke on her, it is a joke at the expense of Jeff, as the rest of the group happily join in when he is the one to get the pizza. According to some critics, the group would be better off without Jeff.
Commentary was made on the episode's allusions to other media, and its usage of props. Similar to the 1993 comedy film Groundhog Day, in which a character is repeatedly woken up to the same song to indicate the same day occurring over and over again, "Remedial Chaos Theory" uses a song—"Roxanne" by The Police—to mark the start of a new timeline. The Darkest Timeline was compared to the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", in which characters battle evil versions of themselves. Annie's gun is a Smith & Wesson, which David Mello of Screen Rant reported would not discharge in the way depicted in the Darkest Timeline. Pierce's Serbian rum has a Cyrillic label reading "generic rum". Some of Abed's bedroom decorations, such as a Kickpuncher poster, were previously shown in his season one college accommodation.
Later episodes drew on plot points from "Remedial Chaos Theory", such as the Darkest Timeline, which the episode also popularized as a pop culture phrase. Evil Abed reappears briefly in the season three episodes "Contemporary Impressionists" and the finale "Introduction to Finality". In the former, Abed briefly hallucinates Evil Abed, and in the latter he begins to act as Evil Abed when it looks like he will lose Troy as a friend. The fourth season finale, "Advanced Introduction to Finality", has a storyline built around the evil characters from the Darkest Timeline invading the canonical timeline. In the end tag of that episode, Evil Troy and Evil Abed host "Troy and Abed in the Morning" with Chang and visit the "5" timeline.
## Reception
### Ratings
In its original broadcast on October 13, 2011, the episode was viewed by an estimated 3.82 million people, up 13 percent from the previous week. It had a Nielsen rating of 1.7 in the 18–49 demographic. After factoring in seven-day DVR viewership, the episode received a 2.4 rating in the 18–49 demographic.
### Critical reviews
Whilst critical reception to the first three episodes of the season were generally lukewarm, "Remedial Chaos Theory" received critical acclaim, and remains a favorite episode amongst both fans and critics. Reviews at the time include an A rating in The A.V. Club, a rating of ten out of ten in IGN and a rating of 4.5 out of five stars in TV Fanatic. Adam Quigley of /Film found it the best episode of the program up to that point. Critics praised the episode's structure and the show's return to a high-concept episode. Kelsea Stahler of Hollywood.com praised that after the first three episodes of the season, the show revisited "experimental, high-concept television laced with absurd comedy".
Aspects of the episode highlighted for praise included the attention to detail and intricacy in the alternate timelines. Emily St. James of The A.V. Club praised the episode as simultaneously "silly, moving and revelatory". The episode's end tag and Darkest Timeline scene were received positively. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly found that the episode was well-acted by each cast member. Alan Sepinwall of Hitfix praised the episode for its detailed depiction of the relationship between each of the characters in the group. Sepinwall further praised the episode's humor. Robert Canning of IGN found that the episode "told a great story, it satirized a specific aspect of pop culture and it, above all else, was full of laughs."
Later reviews of the episode were also positive. The episode ranks highly in lists of the best Community episodes. In Cory Barker's ranking for TV.com of all 110 episodes of the series, "Remedial Chaos Theory" was listed first overall, with the description "smart, narratively inventive, constantly funny, and somehow still couched in character relationships". The episode also appears in some critics' lists of the best television episodes of the year or decade. James Poniewozik of Time included it in a list of the ten best television episodes of 2011. Adam Chitwood found that the episode stood out amongst the Community episodes of the year, ranking the show fourth on his list of best television programs of 2011. Ranking it as the tenth-best television episode of the 2010s, Sadaf Ahsan of the National Post praised it as "effortlessly funny". Melanie McFarland of Salon, ranking it as the best episode of 2011, lauded it for "extraordinarily merging scientific theory, sci-fi, and reality". Gwynne Watkins of Parade reviewed the episode as "fast-moving and laugh-out-loud funny" in a list of the top 20 television episodes of the 2010s. The Ringer listed it as one of the 100 best television episodes since 2000, calling it the moment when the show shifted from a "quirky middle-of-the-lineup sitcom" to "experimental art".
### Awards and nominations
In 2012, the episode received two nominations and one award. |
2,400,044 | Cabbage looper | 1,170,000,007 | Species of moth | [
"Moths of Asia",
"Moths of Cape Verde",
"Moths of Europe",
"Moths of Japan",
"Moths of North America",
"Moths of Réunion",
"Moths of the Middle East",
"Owlet moths of Africa",
"Plusiinae",
"Taxa named by Jacob Hübner"
]
| The cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) is a medium-sized moth in the family Noctuidae, a family commonly referred to as owlet moths. Its common name comes from its preferred host plants and distinctive crawling behavior. Cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, bok choy, and broccoli, are its main host plant; hence, the reference to cabbage in its common name. The larva is called a looper because it arches its back into a loop when it crawls.
While crucifers are preferred, over 160 plants can serve as hosts for the cabbage looper larvae. The adult cabbage looper is a migratory moth that can be found across North America and Eurasia, as far south as Florida and as far north as British Columbia. Its migratory behavior and wide range of host plants contribute to its broad distribution.
The cabbage looper larva is a minor vegetable pest, especially for crucifers. While it is not significantly destructive, it is becoming difficult to manage due to its broad distribution and resistance to many insecticides. Numerous methods are being researched in order to control this species.
## Taxonomy
The cabbage looper larva is a type of cabbage worm, a general term for a Lepidopteran pest that primarily feeds on crucifers. They closely resemble each other, in that they are all smooth and green, but they are not closely related in terms of phylogeny. In fact, none of the cabbage worms bear close phylogenetic relations, as they are all from different families. The cabbage looper is a member of the family Noctuidae, one of the largest families in Lepidoptera. It is related to other vegetable pests, like the cutworm and armyworms.
## Reproduction and life cycle
### Mating
When ready to mate, cabbage loopers display by elevating their abdomen and fanning their wings. Males also fan out their abdominal hairs, open their genital claspers, and partially stick out their spermatophores. Males gradually expose more of their spermatophores as they wait for a mate. Upon interest, a potential mate examines the other's abdomen with antennae, and mating occurs if both agree. Mating on average occurs at 2am, but has been observed occurring between 12 and 4am. Mating generally occurs 3–4 days after emergence, but can occur up to 16 days afterwards. Usually, mating does not occur before the third day, as eggs are not fully developed upon emergence and require a few days to reach maturity.
Multiple matings is a mating strategy where individuals have multiple mates in their lifetime. This is in contrast to monogamy, where individuals have one mate for life. Mating multiply can be advantageous to both sexes, which is why this strategy has evolved in many species, including the cabbage looper. For female cabbage loopers, rate of oviposition increases with the number of matings, and ultimately lay more eggs total. While it was once believed that multiple matings were necessary to fertilize all eggs, evidence shows that only one mating is needed to fertilize almost all eggs. Instead, it is more likely that the spermatophore provides nutrients to the female that confers reproductive benefits. This may explain why males produce female-attracting pheromones, as females may be seeking nutrient-rich spermatophores. For male cabbage loopers, multiple matings did not affect the quality of their spermatophores, suggesting that they can maximize reproductive opportunities without decreasing fecundity.
### Sexual role reversal
Conventional mate-finding strategy involves males seeking and competing for females and females caring for offspring. In many animals, however, the opposite occurs, where the females competes for males and males care for young. This role reversal can occur for a variety of reasons: environmental conditions, timing of fertilization, and biased sex ratios. For example, male fish often provide more parental care because, after females lay their eggs, males have to ensure that their sperm fertilizes the eggs and does not get washed away. It may be beneficial for the female to lay more eggs instead of caring for the eggs, so she departs as the male fertilizes the eggs, leaving him to care for the eggs. The cabbage looper generally utilizes typical mating strategies, in that males compete for females. However, occasionally the reverse occurs, where females will seek males. This only happens under particular selection conditions, such as a shortage of males or host plants that bias the sex ratio towards females.
### Oviposition
After mating, the female seeks a host plant and lays her eggs, also known as oviposition. Oviposition actually can occur without mating, even as early as just after emergence from the pupa. However, oviposition right after emergence is futile, because the eggs do not mature in the female until the third day of adulthood, and therefore are not fertile until then. Host plant of choice for oviposition will depend on larval experience, known as learned host behavior. Moths unfamiliar with a host plant will avoid ovipositing on that plant and instead preferentially oviposit on a familiar host, even if the familiar host produces unappetizing chemicals. This demonstrates that larvae and moths develop host preferences and that the species is slow to determine whether a plant chemical is toxic, given that the larva is not immediately turned off by the unappetizing chemicals. This choice is also influenced by insect waste, also known as larval frass, as its presence serves as a chemical deterrent for potential mothers. Larval frass indicates that the site is already occupied, therefore avoiding overcrowding.
### Life cycle
#### Egg
The cabbage looper eggs are generally yellow-white in color, dome-shaped, and patterned with ridges. They are 0.6mm in diameter and 0.4mm in height, and they are usually laid singly on the underside of leaves. In one day, 40–50 females can lay 1000–2000 viable eggs. Viable eggs hatch after about three days, while unviable eggs fail to develop and collapse within that period. Eggs are mostly found on leaves that are both larger and higher on the plant. It is not clear why eggs are preferentially laid on these leaves.
#### Larva
Cabbage looper larvae are a type of cabbage worm, green in colour with a white stripe on the side. After hatching, they are green and slightly hairy, but eventually turn green and lose the hair, leaving only a few bristles. They are identified by their looping behaviour, in which they arch their body in a loop when they crawl. Larvae are generally 3–4 cm long, and can have four to seven instars within 9–14 days. Larvae initially do not consume much food but increase their consumption during their lifetime until they are consuming three times their weight daily.
#### Pupa
When they pupate, they attach to the undersides of leaves and form a silky cocoon. This stage can last 4–13 days, depending on the temperature of the environment. Male pupae are slightly larger than female.
#### Adult
The adult form is a moth with gray-brown front wings and light brown back wings. It is about 2.5 cm long and has a wingspan of 3.8 cm. Because they are nocturnal, adults spend their days protected by their host plants and begin activity 30 minutes before sunset. Males can be distinguished from females by light brown hairs that lie flat against their abdomen. Mating occurs 3 or 4 days after metamorphosis, during which 300–1400 eggs are oviposited. From egg to adulthood, the cabbage looper's life cycle is generally 24–33 days long.
## Distribution and migration
The cabbage looper can be found across North America and Eurasia, as far south as Florida and as far north as British Columbia.
Cabbage looper populations in North America migrate from Mexico to Canada, depending on the seasons. It generally overwinters in Mexico or southern California, where temperatures are above 16 °C (61 °F) even during winter. It used to be frequently found in Florida, but this has lessened due to fewer cabbage crops. As northern regions of North America grow warmer, the cabbage looper gradually moves upward, only migrating if the region is above 16 °C (61 °F). During summer, it is less commonly found in southern regions, due to high temperatures. Similar to the monarch butterfly, populations presumably migrate in groups, as there is little genetic difference between source and migrating populations.
Similar seasonal distributions were found in Europe. There, the cabbage looper can be found from England to southeastern Europe.
## Temperature
The cabbage looper migration patterns are highly temperature dependent, as temperature can impact development. It has the greatest impact on pupation, where pupae often cease to finish metamorphosis if grown at 10 °C (50 °F). Even if pupae are transferred from 10 °C to 12.7 °C (54.86 °F), they often emerge deformed, sometimes developing an extra instar. Temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) also result in physical deformations in adults, such as poor wing development. Mating and flight are negatively impacted by temperatures above 32 °C (89.6 °F) and below 16 °C, which may explain why cabbage loopers migrate to northern regions once temperatures reach 16 °C. The time between female calling and male response increases as temperature increases, but when the temperature reaches 27 °C (80.6 °F), mating increases. At the same time, oviposition and longevity decrease, with hatching almost ceasing at 32 °C. The embryo itself is actually quite resilient, as it is able to develop at 10 °C and at 40 °C (104 °F). However, although it is developed, it is unable to hatch. Temperature does not affect the pheromone-sensitive receptor neurons.
## Host plants
The cabbage looper is a generalist insect that can reside and feed on over 160 host plants. The looper's variety of hosts is partially due to the ability of its salivary glands to differentially express based on the host. For example, cabbage and tomato plants use defensive strategies involving different compounds, and the cabbage looper can combat either by upregulating the appropriate genes. The gland's high responsiveness to the diet allows for considerable flexibility in host plants. The cabbage looper's preferred hosts are crucifers such as cabbage and broccoli, because it grows faster on these plants, possibly due to nutritional or chemical differences. Tobacco can also be a host for the cabbage looper. However, it is not preferred because gummosis, a gummy substance produced by some plants, and trichomes, hair-like appendages, harm early larvae survival. Older larvae are more resistant to these defenses.
The number of caterpillars on a plant can depend on a plant's maturity. Cabbages that mature early are less attractive, whereas cabbages just beginning to head are the most attractive. Among crucifers, there generally seems to be no preference for one specific type of crucifer, like kale over cabbage or broccoli over brussels sprouts. The only apparent preference is for red cabbage – nearby double the number of caterpillars were present on the red cabbage compared to the green. This suggests that the number of caterpillars on a host plant has less to do with the species of host than with the host's height and foliage.
### Attraction to odors
Cabbage loopers detect plant odors to locate food resources and suitable host plants for laying eggs, thereby increasing their chances for survival and reproduction. Mated females respond faster to plant odors compared to their unmated female and male counterparts. This difference in response time may be a result of mated females needing host plants for both food and egg laying whereas unmated individuals mostly use host plants for food, so mated females have greater motivations to find a host plant. The cabbage looper is attracted to the floral compounds:
- phenylacetaldehyde
- methyl salicylate
- 2-phenylethanol
- benzaldehyde
- benzyl alcohol
- benzyl acetate
- methyl-2-methoxy benzoate
Although the strongest attractor is phenylacetaldehyde, the cabbage looper is more attracted to a blend of odors than phenylacetaldehyde alone.
## Pheromones
### Biosynthesis
Similar to other pheromone biosynthesis reactions, female cabbage looper pheromone production initiates with synthesis of 16 and 18-carbon fatty acids. This is followed by desaturation at C1 and chain shortening by two or four carbons. Finally, the fatty acid is reduced and acetylated to form an acetate ester. The result is a blend of different female pheromone compounds at a consistent ratio. This ratio can be highly altered by mutations in chain shortening proteins, demonstrating that the chain shortening step is important for determining the ratio of pheromones in the final blend.
As a species, the cabbage looper does not hormonally regulate pheromone production. Stage specific proteins correspond to the development of the pheromone gland. The immature gland lacks numerous enzymes crucial to pheromone biosynthesis, such as fatty acid synthetase and acetyltransferase, which is why the looper cannot produce pheromones prior to the adult stage. Upon complete development of the pheromone glands at the adult stage, pheromones are constantly produced.
### Male pheromones
- d-linalool
- m-cresol
- p-cresol
Although males engage in mate searching behavior more often than females, male cabbage loopers also produce pheromones from the hair pencils on the abdomen. Different blends of pheromones serve as competitive advantages for mating, as certain pheromone components are more appealing to females than others. Cresol is important for attractiveness to females, while linalool is found in floral odors and is believed to attract individuals searching for nutrients. Males around host plants are more attractive to females, because plant odor enhances the attractiveness of the male pheromone. This is advantageous to females because it helps with mate choice, as plant odor-enhanced males are more likely to be near a host plant. The male pheromone may also be related to food-finding behavior, as both males and females are more attracted to the male pheromone when starving. Although there is no direct evidence demonstrating that males release pheromones in response to host plant odor, it is highly possible this behavior occurs, and that the lack of evidence is due to either the choice of host plant or the experimental setup.
### Female pheromones
- cis-7-dodecenyl acetate
- cis-5-dodecenyl acetate
- 11-dodecenyl acetate
- cis-7-tetradecenyl acetate
- cis-9-tetradecenyl acetate
- dodecyl acetate
Cabbage loopers are unique in that both females and males release pheromones in order to seek a mate. Generally, females release pheromones from the tips of their abdomens, and males seek females upon detection. Females around host plants are more attractive to males, possibly because females release more pheromones in the presence of host plant odor. Although it is not clear why host plant odors incite female pheromone production, this response may help reduce time wasted spent searching for a mate and therefore increase the chance of mating. Female cabbage loopers usually attract the male, as females have more to lose by spending energy and time on searching for a mate.
#### Detection
Cabbage loopers possess olfactory receptor neurons on their antennae for detecting pheromones. The neurons are specifically located on two sensory structures called sensilla that differ in length and pore density. Male loopers have two types of neurons, and depending on which sensilla that are present, the neurons will detect female pheromones at varying sensitivities to each of the six pheromones. The neurons are most sensitive to the main component of the female pheromone blend, cis-7-dodecenyl acetate, and the male inhibitory signal, cis-7-dodecenol. The presence of cis-7-dodecenyl acetate is crucial for male response to female pheromones, as it is 80% of the entire blend. The base region of the antennae, where receptor neurons for this pheromone are located, has more sensory structures than the ends. The base region is also less likely to experience damage, showing the importance of detecting the pheromone. It is not clear why male neurons detect the inhibitory compound, as there is no evidence showing that females produce this compound. One possibility is that its presence in the female pheromone blend may be too small to be detected by scientific equipment. The inhibitory signal only elicits a response when delivered alongside female pheromones to avoid mixing signals from other species, suggesting that while it cannot be detected in the female pheromone blend, it has an important role in female detection.
These neurons are also capable of recognizing and responding to cis-7-tetradecenyl acetate and cis-9-tetradecenyl acetate. There are no specialized neurons for the other three pheromones. Instead, these minor pheromones can cross-stimulate neurons, which is why partial blends that lack one or two of the minor pheromones can still fully stimulate the male receptors.
## Enemies
### Predators
General predators like spiders, ants, and lady beetles prey on cabbage looper eggs and larvae, removing 50% of the eggs and 25% of the larvae within three days. Lady beetles consume at the highest rate. Other common predators of cabbage looper larva include Orius tristicolor, Nabis americoferus, and Geocoris pallens. Birds such as the Chickadee feed them to their babies... each parent makes 17 trips an hour to deliver their young food and most of these trips include the looper dangling from their beaks. Ref. Visual observations made by bird lovers.
### Parasites
While the cabbage looper frequently encounters parasites, its most common parasite is the tachinid fly. In one study, 90% of the parasitized larvae were due to the tachinid fly. It parasitizes most often in the late fall and winter, but it is capable of parasitizing year-round. Cabbage loopers at their third or fourth instar yield the most parasites. It is early enough in the larval stage that the maggots still have time to feed and grow before pupation can prevent parasite emergence. It is also late enough that the caterpillars are large enough to support the maggots. Fly oviposition is often triggered by the larva thrashing to repel the fly, regardless of whether the larvae are already parasitized. As a result, larvae are often overparasitized, overwhelming and killing smaller larvae. During oviposition, the mother glues the fly egg to the host. This helps the maggot burrow into the larva, where it remains until the third day. The maggot cuts a slit into the back and eats its way out of the larva.
### Diseases
The moth is susceptible to viral diseases including nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV). This is a naturally occurring virus whose natural hosts include Lepidoptera, arthropods, and Hymenoptera. From the family Baculoviridae, it is a type of Alphabaculovirus and its genome is 80–180kb long. NPVs are commonly used as pesticides for the cabbage looper. There are numerous NPVs, many of which were isolated from the cabbage looper or the alfalfa looper. NPVs vary in infectivity and virulence. For example, the AcMNPV isolates are more infectious than the TnSNPV (the SNPV/single nuclear polyhedrosis virus specific to the cabbage looper) isolates in the first instar, while the TnSNPV isolates produced more occlusion bodies, protein structures that protect the virus and increase long term infectivity. TnSNPVs are their most lethal during the third and fourth instars; they have detrimental effects such as delayed development, reduced egg production, and fewer hatched eggs. These effects are significantly diminished when the larvae are infected during the fifth instar, suggesting that the earlier infection is more effective.
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a gram-positive soil bacterium from the phylum Bacillota. It is often used as a biological insecticide for numerous insect pests, including the cabbage looper, and reduces both growth rate and pupal weight. The cabbage looper has demonstrated resistance to Bt, specifically the toxin Cry1Ac, due to an autosomal recessive allele. Although it is not entirely clear which gene causes the resistance phenotype, there is strong evidence supporting the correlation between a mutation in the membrane transporter ABCC2 and Bt resistance. Other studies with greenhouse-evolved population of Bt resistant cabbage looper demonstrate that the downregulation of the aminopeptidase N, APN1, results in its resistance.
## Genome
The cabbage looper genome is 368.2 Mb long (scaffold N50=14.2 Mb; contig N50=621.9 kb; GC content=35.6%) and includes 14,037 protein-coding genes and 270 microRNA (miRNA) genes. The genome and annotation are available at the Cabbage Looper Database. The cabbage looper genome is larger than the Drosophila melanogaster genome (180Mb) but smaller than the Bombyx mori genome (530mb). It encodes at least 108 cytochrome P450 enzymes, 34 glutathione S-transferases, 87 carboxylesterases, and 54 ATP-binding cassette transporters, some of which may be involved in its insecticide resistance. It has the ZW sex-determination system, where females are heterogametic (ZW) and males are homogametic (ZZ). Its telomeres contain (TTAGG)<sub>n</sub> repeats and transposons belonging to the non-long-terminal-repeat LINE/R1 family, similar to the silkworm.
The PiggyBac Transposon, a widely used tool for genetic engineering, was originally discovered in the cabbage looper and subsequently identified in other taxa as well.
## Interactions with humans
### Crop damage
Similar to the diamondback moth, the cabbage looper is one of the most problematic cabbage pests. The larvae eat large holes in the underside of leaves and consume developing cabbage heads. In addition, they leave behind sticky frass, contaminating the plants. They also consume the leaves of myriad host plants beyond cabbages. Although it is a damaging pest, the cabbage looper can be tolerated. For example, plant seedlings can endure the cabbage looper. However, the cabbage looper becomes more problematic once the plant begins heading. This pest's infamous reputation likely stems from its ability to easily infest a variety of crops and growing difficulty managing it, because the cabbage looper is growing resistant to biological insecticides and synthetic insecticides.
### Management
#### Sex pheromone traps
There is extensive research in cabbage looper pheromones for the goal of developing traps to catch the moth. Initial research involved isolation of the female pheromone to identify the compounds and potentially synthetically replicate the natural female pheromone. Scientists were able to develop a synthetic version that functions biologically like the natural form. The synthetic female pheromone has been used with black light traps to study cabbage looper populations in various regions of the US. Synthetic male pheromone has also been developed and was found to be effective in attracting and trapping both male and female cabbage loopers. The blend of male pheromones helped to trap females seeking mates and individuals seeking food. Further studies in Arizona showed that pheromone baited black light traps are not effective in managing the cabbage looper. The traps did capture some males, which resulted in less mating and therefore fewer eggs laid. However, the effect was not large enough to cease using insecticides, as farming standards require crops that are basically insect-free.
#### Insecticides
Scientists are actively seeking methods for controlling the cabbage looper. Known as an evolutionary arms race, scientists are constantly researching ways to control the cabbage looper while the looper evolves resistance to the management methods. Synthetic insecticides are relatively effective; however, many of them are banned for their toxicity. One exception is Ambush. Studies have shown that this pyrethroid insecticide is effective at killing cabbage looper eggs, and its usage is permitted in the US. Other studies have explored the usage of biological insecticides; for example, a polyhedrosis virus was shown to be effective. Unfortunately, managing large quantities of this virus would be difficult, so it is not a feasible option.
An effective option is to use synthetic and biological insecticides together; this method seems to both control the population and slow the development of resistance, but it still requires the usage of toxic chemicals. Currently, spraying Bacillus thuringiensis is considered to be the best option, possibly with NPV for an added benefit, but cabbage looper is growing increasingly more resistant to B. thuringiensis. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated that cabbage loopers resistant to B. thuringiensis are twice as susceptible to NPVs, which provides insight into novel biological control methods.
### Use in research
Baculovirus-insect cell expression is a technique used to produce large quantities of a desired protein. It takes advantage of the ability of Baculovirus to insert genes into its target cell and induce protein expression this gene. Numerous insect cells have been developed into cell lines, such as fruit flies, mosquitoes, and silkworms. The tissue of the cabbage looper has also been used to develop a cell line. It is particularly useful for its fast growth rate and less reliance upon insect haemolymph in the medium. The cabbage looper cell line has also been engineered to grow in serum-free media. Although serum helps insect cell growth, it is very expensive and can hinder subsequent experimental procedures. As a result, the development of the cell line to grow independently of serum means that the cell line could be used to produce viruses and proteins in a more affordable, efficient, and productive manner. |
66,570,546 | McLaren MCL36 | 1,171,366,931 | 2022 Formula One racing car built and used by McLaren | [
"2022 Formula One season cars",
"McLaren Formula One cars"
]
| The McLaren MCL36 is a Formula One car that was designed under the lead of James Key and manufactured by McLaren to compete in the 2022 Formula One World Championship. The MCL36 was built to the new 2022 generation of Formula One technical regulations, which were originally intended for introduction in 2021. The car was widely considered to exhibit conventional and unambitious engine packaging. However, it stood out for a unique suspension layout not seen on any Formula One car for nearly ten years, and was noted for its lack of porpoising and good mechanical reliability.
The car made its début at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, and was driven by Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris in their second and fourth years for the team, respectively. The car achieved two fastest laps and one podium finish over the course of the season, all scored by Norris. The MCL36 was the only car (and Norris the only driver) from outside the top three teams to finish on the podium in the 2022 season. However, the MCL36 is generally seen as a disappointment compared to its predecessor, the accomplished MCL35M, with inconsistent performance and a narrow operating window. Ricciardo's continued underperformance compared to Norris was also considered a significant contributing factor in McLaren's loss to Alpine in a season-long fight for fourth place in the World Constructors' Championship.
## Background
### Development context
McLaren's switch to Mercedes engines was meant to coincide with the new technical regulations and was therefore contracted for 2021. Planning for the new regulations started in early 2019 and active development of the car started in 2020 before the 2021 regulations change was postponed. This postponement was intended to reduce financial pressures on teams due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while teams' 2020 chassis were to be reused in 2021. Hence, McLaren's switch to Mercedes power units occurred with the MCL36's predecessor, the MCL35M.
Aerodynamic development of all teams' 2022 cars was paused from 28 March 2020 until 31 December 2020 because of the postponement of the regulatory change. McLaren restarted development in early January 2021 with aerodynamic testing. Manufacturing of some components, mainly chassis and gearbox parts, was underway by July 2021.
### Initial design and development
Key was originally hired by McLaren from Toro Rosso in early 2019, when the MCL34 had already been designed and manufactured. Although he designed the MCL35 and the MCL35M upgrade, the MCL36 was Key's first completely original car for the team. Key called the development of the 2022 car's larger and less intricate surfaces a significant departure from the more specific and detailed development allowed in previous years.
By October 2021, the car was being run on the McLaren simulator. Norris termed it "not as nice" to drive, but was hesitant to draw conclusions before the physical car was complete given the rapid progress in 2022 designs. The chassis passed FIA homologation tests in early December 2021. Key stated that McLaren's primary goal was to produce a more balanced car that performed better in low-speed corners compared to the MCL35 and MCL35M, both of which lacked low-speed performance despite good high-speed cornering.
At its launch, the car was noted for its conventional tight packaging of the engine and its reversing of the typical suspension layout: the MCL36 featured pull-rod front suspension and push-rod rear suspension, a layout not seen on any Formula One car since 2013 on the McLaren MP4-28. This change maximised the downforce produced by the Venturi and ground effects by allowing unimpeded airflow in and out of the car's air inlets, increasing the volume of air moved through the floor. The floor featured an L-shaped edge wing and a ridged underfloor which was eventually emulated by other teams, most notably on the Ferrari F1-75.
### Liveries
The MCL36 featured more vibrant, fluorescent shades of papaya orange and blue. The change was inspired after the MCL35M's one-off Gulf livery, featuring similar shades, received a very positive fan reaction. McLaren introduced a special livery in collaboration with sponsor OKX for the Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix. The livery featured new cyberpunk-themed illustrations and replaced the blue highlights with neon pink. A second special livery was used for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in collaboration with Vuse. As with the livery for the previous year's race, the car featured the artwork of an emerging artist, which on this occasion was Lebanese artist Anna Tangles.
## Competition and development history
### Pre-season
During the first three-day test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, many teams experienced porpoising on their cars (resonation of the car due to the ground effect, making the car rock rapidly) which posed a driveability and reliability issue. Uniquely, the MCL36 did not appear to exhibit any issues with porpoising, although Key said "We suffer from it a bit, but it's not a major concern or a major distraction for the drivers." The lack of porpoising was partly linked to the MCL36's edge wing (an aerodynamic component on the outer edge of the car's floor). The solution was copied by several other teams over the course of the season. During the test, the team was forced to fit the most aggressive cooling options to the car's brakes, which was not expected to be needed until the second round of testing in the more demanding Bahraini conditions.
After the first round of testing, the car was generally expected to be competitive and enable McLaren to join a group of front-running teams. However, the second test at Bahrain International Circuit in higher temperatures exposed an issue with the MCL36's brakes, preventing the team from completing any long-run tests. As the team later put it, they "simply didn't have a cooling package big enough to cope" with the hotter conditions in Bahrain. Ricciardo tested positive to COVID-19 and was required to isolate, preventing him from completing any of his test program and leaving Norris to complete the test alone. The team said they had been unable to "do any optimization" to the car at the Bahrain test.
### Opening rounds
McLaren introduced an "interim solution" to its front brake issues for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The team was disappointed in its performance, as neither car made it to the final stage of qualifying: Norris qualified thirteenth and Ricciardo eighteenth. Key said the car was performing as the team expected and the drivers were finding it a more consistent and predictable car, but that the MCL36 lacked aerodynamic and mechanical grip. Ricciardo finished fourteenth and Norris fifteenth. Ricciardo stated that he had treated the race as a test session in an attempt to recover time he had lost in the pre-season test. The result placed the team ninth in the Constructors' Championship (WCC).
No upgrades were made to the car at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as parts were delayed to prioritise the front brake cooling solution. Norris qualified eleventh and Ricciardo twelfth, but the latter started fourteenth after receiving a grid penalty. Norris finished seventh, battling for sixth place on the final lap. Ricciardo did not finish the race, retiring with undiagnosed mechanical issues. Norris improved to tenth and Ricciardo fell to nineteenth in the Drivers' Championship (WDC), while the team improved to eighth in the WCC.
The team introduced an aerodynamic upgrade to the area around the rear brakes for the Australian Grand Prix, to improve the wake produced by the tyres and diffuser. Norris qualified fourth and Ricciardo qualified seventh, and finished fifth and sixth, respectively. The team improved to fourth in the WCC, and Norris to eighth and Ricciardo to eleventh in the WDC.
The MCL36 featured a new beam wing for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Qualifying was wet, and Norris qualified third and Ricciardo sixth for the sprint. The drivers finished the sprint in fifth and sixth respectively. The race started in wet conditions, and out of the second corner, Ricciardo understeered into Sainz, ending the latter's race. Ricciardo suffered diffuser damage, and finished eighteenth. Norris made his way back up to third by the end of the first lap, but was overtaken by Leclerc and ran in fourth for most of the race, managing his gap to fifth place comfortably. In the closing laps, Leclerc bounced over a curb and had a mild collision with the barriers, allowing Norris to inherit third place. Norris improved to sixth in the WDC. The MCL36 was the only car (and Norris the only driver) from outside the top three teams (Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes) to finish on the podium in the 2022 season.
The car's front suspension was strengthened for reliability and an additional floor stay was added to minimise porpoising in upgrades introduced at the Miami Grand Prix. Norris qualified eighth and Ricciardo fourteenth for the race. During the race, Norris was involved in a collision with Pierre Gasly whose AlphaTauri AT03 had suffered steering damage. Both retired from the race. Ricciardo finished eleventh but was demoted to thirteenth by a time penalty for overtaking off-track. Norris fell to seventh in the WDC.
McLaren introduced a total of ten upgrades for the Spanish Grand Prix, which consisted of changes to various aerodynamic parts, brakes, and suspension. Ricciardo likened the Friday practice running to winter testing given the quantity of changes. Ricciardo qualified ninth, and Norris, who lost a lap time due to a track limits violation, qualified eleventh. Norris, despite suffering from tonsillitis, finished eighth. Ricciardo finished twelfth.
At the Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren ran the car with extra cooling on the front brakes and different steering geometry and rear-view mirrors to account for the nature of the Circuit de Monaco. Norris and Ricciardo qualified fifth and fourteenth respectively. In a rain affected race, Norris finished sixth and set the fastest lap, and Ricciardo finished twelfth.
### Mid-season rounds
The MCL36 was run with a track-specific aero kit to reduced load and more cooling options for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Norris qualified for the race eleventh and Ricciardo twelfth, and finished ninth and eighth respectively. Team orders were used twice in the race, first to keep Ricciardo behind Norris in the early stages and then to keep Norris behind Ricciardo in the final laps. The team's strategy was criticized for being ineffective and compromising both drivers' pace. Ricciardo fell to thirteenth in the WDC.
For the Canadian Grand Prix, McLaren updated the rear wing assembly for aerodynamic efficiency and changed the location of the floor stay for better stiffness. Norris suffered a power unit issue during qualifying which prevented him from setting a time in the second stage. He started fourteenth, while Ricciardo qualified ninth. During the first virtual safety car, Ricciardo was ninth and Norris twelfth, when McLaren attempted to double-stack a pit stop. After a slow stop for Ricciardo, the pit crew fitted the wrong tyres to Norris's car before correcting the mistake. Ricciardo exited twelfth and Norris eighteenth, and they finished eleventh and fifteenth respectively after both cars suffered brake issues in the final stages of the race.
McLaren announced ahead of the British Grand Prix that the MCL36 would not receive further major upgrades due to the budget cap. Instead, only minor technical updates would be provided. Norris qualified for the race sixth; and held fifth in the race until losing the position in the pits during the final safety car, finishing sixth. Ricciardo qualified fourteenth, but restarted twelfth after the red flag caused by Zhou Guanyu's first lap incident. A failure of the drag reduction system on his MCL36 necessitated an extra stop, and Ricciardo finished the race thirteenth. The result dropped Ricciardo to fourteenth in the WDC.
The car featured revised brake ducts and rear wing endplates beginning with the Austrian Grand Prix. Norris suffered an engine failure in the first practice session and reverted to an older engine for the rest of the weekend. He also experienced brake issues during qualifying, and he qualified fifteenth and Ricciardo sixteenth for the second sprint of the season. The two finished eleventh and twelfth respectively in the sprint, which became tenth and eleventh on the starting grid after penalties were applied for other drivers. During the race Norris was awarded a time penalty for exceeding track limits, a penalty he said cost him the chance to challenge for sixth place as he finished seventh. Ricciardo finished ninth. Ricciardo improved to twelfth in the WDC. Alpine drew level with McLaren in the WCC, but McLaren retained fourth place after the countback. McLaren remained at the Red Bull Ring after the race for a Pirelli tyre test, with Ricciardo and Norris both doing a day of testing of the 2023 tyre compounds.
McLaren introduced another substantial upgrade package for the French Grand Prix, which featured a new diffuser, underfloor, rear brake ducts, and sidepods, as well as a change to the rear wing endplate for reliability. Most significantly, the shape of the sidepods changed dramatically. Throughout the turbo-hybrid era, teams pursued a narrow sidepod that exposed as much of the floor as possible, but the 2022 regulation changes limited this design concept's potential due to the primacy of the ground effect. The new MCL36 sidepods were similar to those featured on the title-challengers, the Ferrari F1-75 and Red Bull Racing RB18, with an emphasis on managing tyre wake and the introduction of a downwashing plane that delivers air to the rear of the car. The upgrade appeared effective in qualifying; Norris qualified fifth and Ricciardo eleventh. Ricciardo started ninth after grid penalties for two drivers ahead of him, and finished the race in ninth place. Norris had a poor start, and finished seventh. The result cost McLaren fourth in the WCC, and they fell to fifth behind Alpine.
Beginning with the Hungarian Grand Prix, the MCL36 featured revised front brake cooling system and new underfloor flow conditioners designed to better engage the diffuser. Norris qualified fourth and Ricciardo ninth. Norris finished seventh and Ricciardo finished thirteenth, but was demoted to fifteenth by a five-second penalty awarded for causing a collision with Lance Stroll.
An extensive list of updates débuted at the Belgian Grand Prix. This package included a low-drag rear wing, beam wing, and rear corner assembly, an updated diffuser and floor assembly, new front suspension track rods and a new winglet in the rear corner, and a streamlined circuit-specific engine cover. The overall aim of the package was to improve aerodynamic efficiency and maximise straight-line speed to take advantage of the low downforce requirements of Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Norris qualified tenth, but was relegated to seventeenth on the grid due as the team exceeded the number of allowable power unit components. Ricciardo qualified eleventh, but was promoted to seventh on the grid due to penalties for other drivers. Both drivers were caught in DRS trains. Norris finished the race twelfth and Ricciardo fifteenth, resulting in Ricciardo falling from twelfth to thirteenth in the WDC.
At the Dutch Grand Prix, Norris qualified and finished in seventh, and Ricciardo qualified and finished in seventeenth.
### Closing rounds
The car was run in a low-downforce specification for the Italian Grand Prix. Norris and Ricciardo qualified seventh and eighth respectively, which became third and fourth respectively once grid penalties were applied to other drivers. The clutch map on Norris's MCL36 failed at the race start, forcing him to launch the car manually and costing him several positions on the first lap. He finished seventh, while Ricciardo retired after an oil leak caused a failure on his Mercedes engine. The race result meant Ricciardo moved from thirteenth to fourteenth in the WDC.
The MCL36 featured a special livery for the Singapore Grand Prix (see ). McLaren also delivered a substantial upgrade, designed to deliver performance in a conceptually new way, partly in preparation for 2023. The package was initially given only to Norris due to a shortage of parts. Aerodynamically, the upgrade included new radiator inlet and floor designs, and again shifted the sidepod design closer to that of the RB18. Internal packaging of the radiators, cooling systems, electronics, and side impact spars was also rearranged. Norris finished in fourth and Ricciardo in fifth, having qualified in sixth and sixteenth respectively; this result took fourth place in the WCC from Alpine, while Ricciardo moved up to eleventh in the WDC.
The car again featured the special livery for the Japanese Grand Prix (see ). The upgrades introduced to Norris's car in Singapore were added to Ricciardo's MCL36. Norris qualified in tenth and Ricciardo in eleventh, and both finished in those same places in the race, which was shortened by heavy rain. The team lost fourth place to Alpine in the WCC, and Ricciardo fell to twelfth in the WDC.
2021 IndyCar champion Álex Palou replaced Ricciardo for the first practice session at the United States Grand Prix, fulfilling the first of two mandatory rookie practice sessions. Both Ricciardo and Norris took part in Pirelli's 2023 tyre test in the second practice session. Norris qualified eighth and Ricciardo qualified seventeenth, but penalties for other drivers promoted Norris to sixth and Ricciardo to sixteenth. During the race, Norris's car was struck by debris from a separate incident; after the safety car ended he pitted from ninth place and rejoined the track thirteenth, but finished sixth. Ricciardo finished sixteenth.
McLaren added several track-specific features to the MCL36 at the Mexico City Grand Prix, namely an extensive cooling package and extra winglets on the rear brake ducts to improve downforce. Norris qualified eighth, and Ricciardo qualified eleventh. Ricciardo collided with Yuki Tsunoda and was issued with a ten-second penalty. However, Ricciardo was one of few drivers who used a medium to soft tyre strategy, and the additional pace this provided allowed him to finish seventh, even after his penalty was applied. Norris, who was on the medium to hard strategy, finished ninth.
Norris fell ill before the São Paulo Grand Prix, prompting McLaren to prepare Nyck de Vries as a replacement. Norris was however able to participate in the weekend, qualifying fourth for the final sprint of the season, while Ricciardo qualified fourteenth. Norris finished seventh in the sprint, but started the race sixth after penalties for other drivers, while Ricciardo finished eleventh. Ricciardo collided with Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap, which caused both to retire from the race and for Ricciardo to be awarded a three-place grid penalty for the next race. The incident also required a safety car, and after the restart Norris collided with Leclerc. Although both continued the race, Norris was awarded a five-second time penalty, although he also retired from the race with electrical issues. McLaren lost fourth to Alpine in the WCC.
The car featured a second special livery for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (see ). Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward replaced Norris for the first practice session, fulfilling the second of the two mandatory rookie practice sessions. The team tested a new floor as part of the development program for their 2023 car during free practice. Norris qualified seventh and Ricciardo qualified tenth, but the latter was demoted to thirteenth on the starting grid due to his penalty from the previous race. Norris finished sixth and set the fastest lap of the race, and Ricciardo finished ninth. McLaren finished the season fifth in the WCC, while Norris finished seventh and Ricciardo eleventh in the WDC.
The MCL36 remained at Yas Marina Circuit following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to be used in the annual post-season test. Oscar Piastri, who replaced Ricciardo for 2023, participated in the test after Alpine agreed to release Piastri from his contract early. Piastri drove the car as run in the season and completed 123 laps, while Norris tested the 2023 Pirelli compounds over 115 laps.
## Assessment and characteristics
Both drivers stated that the MCL36 did not suit their driving style or provide the characteristics they thought desirable in a racing car. Norris said that braking and cornering could be inconsistent, even from corner to corner and that the car did not perform consistently across different circuits. This inconsistency was primarily attributed to an aerodynamically weak front end, particularly noticeable in slow-speed corners. Mark Hughes said that that the MCL36 "lacked entry stability but could still suffer mid-corner understeer". The car did have sufficient pace to challenge the Alpine A522 for fourth place in the WCC, but ultimately lost, a result partly attributed to Ricciardo's persistent struggles with McLaren cars.
The MCL36 did appear to be aerodynamically efficient at tracks with lower downforce requirements and experienced very little porpoising. During set-up, there was typically a trade-off between high downforce and balance, with balance being sacrificed to achieve better laptimes with higher downforce settings. The car generally seemed competitive over a single lap in qualifying, but suffered over the course of a full race distance. This was largely credited to the car's effectiveness in heating the Pirelli tyres to their operating window, tempered by its difficulty to preserve them over longer distances. Key said he "could write a book" on the MCL36's tyre difficulties, which largely arose because the front tyres were heated very quickly: a useful trait in qualifying, it meant they degraded quickly over a race distance and complicated set-up.
The car suffered only five retirements over the course of the season, completing 91.96% of the scheduled distance, making it the third most reliable car in the 2022 season.
## Complete Formula One results
(key) |
20,542,530 | U-50-class submarine | 1,134,926,018 | Planned Austro-Hungarian Navy submarines during WWI | [
"Submarine classes",
"Submarines of the Austro-Hungarian Navy"
]
| The U-50 class was a class of four ocean-going submarines or U-boats planned for the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine or K.u.K. Kriegsmarine) during World War I. The design of the boats was based on the Project 835 design purchased from the German firm of Germaniawerft in July 1915. The Navy authorized Ganz Danubius to begin construction of the submarines in Fiume in February 1916. Only two of the planned four boats were laid down, but neither were ever launched or completed. The two incomplete submarines were scrapped after the war ended.
## Design
Austria-Hungary's U-boat fleet was largely obsolete at the outbreak of World War I, and, over the first two years of the war, the Austro-Hungarian Navy focused its efforts on building a U-boat fleet for local defense within the Adriatic. With boats to fill that need either under construction or purchased from Germany, efforts were focused on building ocean-going submarines for operation in the wider Mediterranean, outside the Adriatic.
To that end, the Austro-Hungarian Navy purchased plans for the Germaniawerft Project 835 design on 11 July 1915 in order to build under license in Austria-Hungary. The plans called for a submarine that displaced 840 t (930 short tons) surfaced and 1,100 t (1,200 short tons) submerged. The boats were to be about 241 feet (73 m) long with a beam of 20 feet 8 inches (6.30 m) and a draft of 12 feet 11 inches (3.94 m). For propulsion, the design featured two shafts, with twin diesel engines of 2,300 bhp (1,700 kW) (total) for surface running at up to 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h), and twin electric motors of 1,200 shp (890 kW) (total) for submerged travel at up to 9 knots (16.7 km/h). The U-50 class boats were designed for a crew of 33 men.
The U-50 design called for six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes—four bow tubes and two stern tubes—and carried a complement of nine torpedoes. The original design specified two 10 cm/35 (3.9 in) deck guns, which were superseded by two 120 mm/35 (4.7 in) deck guns in plans for the third and fourth boats.
## Construction
On 7 February 1916, Ganz Danubius of Fiume received authorization to build two boats of the class, U-50 and U-51. These first two boats, which comprised one-third of the six ocean-going submarines under construction in 1916, were followed by orders for U-56 and U-57 in September 1918.
Shortages of skilled shipyard workers and materials slowed construction of the boats, and as a result, neither of the first two boats was ever launched, much less completed. The second pair was cancelled before either was laid down. U-50 was 90% complete at war's end, while U-51 was only 60% complete. Both boats had been scrapped in place in 1920. |
7,668,969 | Blackstone Library | 1,152,505,935 | Library and building in the Chicago Public Library system in the United States | [
"Chicago Landmarks",
"Libraries established in 1904",
"Library buildings completed in 1904",
"Public libraries in Chicago",
"Solon Spencer Beman buildings",
"Works Progress Administration in Illinois"
]
| T. B. Blackstone Memorial Library is a building that is part of the Chicago Public Library System and is named after Timothy Blackstone. The building was designed by Chicago architect Solon S. Beman. It is now known as the Chicago Public Library – Blackstone Branch and commonly referred to as Blackstone Library, or Blackstone Branch and sometimes Blackstone for short. The Concord Granite building's two-year construction started in 1902, and it was dedicated on January 8, 1904. Blackstone Library marks the beginning of the Chicago Branch Library System as the first dedicated branch in the system. Blackstone is also the only branch of the 79-branch Chicago Public Library branch system that was constructed using private funding. The Blackstone Library was designated as a Chicago Landmark.
The building is located in Chicago's Kenwood community area in Cook County, Illinois, United States and serves the Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Oakland community areas. The branch celebrated its 100th anniversary of service in 2004. Today, the library has bronze and mahogany furnishings and has themed paintings on the rotunda ceiling. The library is equipped with custom-designed furniture and makes public Wi-Fi access available to its patrons.
## History
The library was dedicated to the memory of Timothy Beach Blackstone, President of the Chicago and Alton Railroad from 1864 to 1899, a period longer than any of his contemporaries. Blackstone, who had died on May 26, 1900, was also the founding president of the Union Stock Yards. He had owned the property on which the Blackstone Library now stands, and he donated this tract for the construction of the library after his death. The library was built on the tract through a codicil in his will, carried out by his wife, Isabella Norton Blackstone (1838–1928), after his death. Blackstone Library was his contribution to the city where he had made his fortune and stands as a monument to his generosity. Blackstone is 13,794 sq ft (1,281.5 m<sup>2</sup>) and its original cost was \$250,000 (\$ today).
Although the Blackstones lived downtown, they maintained numerous close friendships in the affluent Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods. Prior to the donation of the Blackstone Library, the Chicago Public Library System had been renting reading room spaces around the city and had been seeking stand alone branches. On January 8, 1904, Isabella Blackstone handed the keys and deed to the Timothy B. Blackstone Library to the city's Library Board members. Blackstone Library became the first branch library in the Chicago Public Library System. The building retains a Lake Park Avenue address although the neighboring section of Lake Park was moved about a half a block east several decades ago.
At least three renovations have occurred, which have expanded, renovated and updated the library. From 1938 to 1939 the new children's room annex, a Works Progress Administration project, was added at a cost of \$68,400 (\$). During this annexation one of a set of Howard Van Doren Shaw townhouses was razed. From 1977 to 1980 a major restorative renovation occurred. Blackstone was rededicated on November 18, 1980, in recognition of completion of the three years of work. There was also a 2004 renovation for the centennial.
Blackstone donated a larger James Blackstone Memorial Library (1891, opened 1893), in his father's memory to Branford, Connecticut, Blackstone's birthplace. In addition to the James Blackstone Library in Branford, there is a library named "Blackstone Library" in Blackstone, MA. The architect for both the Branford and Chicago libraries was Solon S. Beman. The Blackstone Library was designated as a Chicago Landmark by the City of Chicago on December 8, 2010.
## Service
As one of the 79 Chicago Public Library branch libraries, Blackstone Library serves the Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Oakland community areas. These communities include 17 elementary schools and 4 high schools. The 2000 census service area population was 50,084.
In 2003, the "Friends of Blackstone Branch Library" was formed, making the Blackstone Branch one of approximately 34 branches to have such a support group. The volunteer support group attempts to "serve as an advisory council for Chicago's first branch library, promote use and improvement of the library, and provide volunteer and fundraising services for Blackstone".
The Blackstone Library participates in most Chicago Public Library programs and partnerships, including Great Kids Museum Passport Program, the Monthly Adult Book Club Discussion as well as many annual events and activities. The branch also partners with neighborhood institutions such as the Hyde Park Art Center and the Smart Museum for programs and workshops. Like all branches, the library provides both free Wi-Fi access and free terminals with both internet access and printing facilities. Blackstone has 5 internet terminals requiring reservations for each session of up to one hour and 1 express terminal that does not require reservations for sessions of up to 15 minutes. Currently, patrons can use the terminals for up to two free internet sessions per day and print for a small charge per page anywhere in the Chicago Public Library system.
## Design
The building was designed by the architect Solon S. Beman and modeled after Beman's Merchant Tailors Building, the domed temple facing the lagoon in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and the Erechtheum at the Athenian Acropolis. Greek Mythology teaches that Demeter, the goddess, bestowed agriculture and civilization upon the world during Erechtheus's reign. The library's rotunda murals have thematic titles: "Labor", "Literature", "Art" and "Science".
The following is a summary of the building's features: Tiffany style dome; Marble column and walls in the rotunda and foyer; 4 overhead rotunda murals painted by Oliver Dennett Grover, mural painter for the World Columbian Exposition; 1 in (2.5 cm) square Italian marble mosaic flooring; glass-floored mezzanine; 2,800 pounds (1,300 kg) bronze plate, solid copper core outer front doors; 2 150 pounds (68 kg) lbs. bronze and glass inner doors; 12 inches (30 cm) thick granite walls; and ionic columns.
The building's adult reading room is equipped with mahogany furniture specifically designed for the space. It also contains matching built-in shelving and custom-made bronze lamps. The circulation desk area has two-tiered bronze-trimmed book stacks. The mezzanine floor is composed of glass blocks.
## Related structures and ways
Although parts of South Blackstone Avenue south of 53rd Street accommodate two-way traffic, near the library it is a northbound street that accommodates one-way traffic running north along the 1436 east block and ending immediately to the west of (behind) the Blackstone Library at 4900 south (see Kenwood map in external links below and picture to the right). The street was also named after Timothy Blackstone well after the library was built. The Blackstone Library does not bear a Blackstone Avenue address, despite its proximity. Blackstone Hotel and adjacent Blackstone Theatre (now the Merle Reskin Theatre) would also be named after Timothy Blackstone, whose mansion had stood on their site.
## Gallery |
8,740,696 | HMS Campania (1914) | 1,094,724,786 | Seaplane tender for the Royal navy | [
"1892 in Scotland",
"1892 ships",
"1918 in Scotland",
"Historic Marine Protected Areas of Scotland",
"Maritime incidents in 1918",
"Protected Wrecks of Scotland",
"Seaplane carriers of the Royal Navy",
"Ships built in Govan",
"Ships sunk in collisions",
"World War I aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom",
"World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea"
]
| HMS Campania was a seaplane tender and aircraft carrier, converted from an elderly ocean liner by the Royal Navy early in the First World War. After her conversion was completed in mid-1915 the ship spent her time conducting trials and exercises with the Grand Fleet. These revealed the need for a longer flight deck to allow larger aircraft to take off, and she was modified accordingly. Campania missed the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, but made a number of patrols with elements of the Grand Fleet. She never saw combat and was soon relegated to a training role because of her elderly machinery. In November 1918 Campania was anchored with the capital ships of the Grand Fleet when a sudden storm caused her anchor to drag. With no second anchor being laid, she hit several of the ships and the collisions punctured her hull; she slowly sank, with no loss of life.
## Early career
Originally built as a passenger liner for Cunard Line's service between Liverpool and New York in 1893, was the holder of the Blue Riband award for speed early in her career. In October 1914, she was sold to the shipbreakers Thos. W. Ward as she was wearing out.
## Purchase and conversion
The Royal Navy purchased Campania from the shipbreakers on 27 November 1914 for £32,500, initially for conversion to an armed merchant cruiser equipped with eight quick-firing 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns. The ship was converted by Cammell Laird to an aircraft carrier instead and the two forward 4.7-inch guns were removed in favour of a 160-foot (48.8 m) flying-off deck. Two derricks were fitted on each side to transfer seaplanes between the water and the two holds. The amidships hold had the capacity for seven large seaplanes. The forward hold, underneath the flight deck, could fit four small seaplanes, but the flight deck had to be lifted off the hold to access the airplanes. HMS Campania was commissioned on 17 April 1915.
The first takeoff from the flight deck did not occur until 6 August 1915 when a Sopwith Schneider floatplane, mounted on a wheeled trolley, used 130 feet (39.6 m) of the flight deck while the ship was steaming into the wind at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). The Sopwith aircraft was the lightest and highest-powered aircraft in service with the Royal Naval Air Service, and the close call in a favourable wind demonstrated that heavier aircraft could not be launched from the flight deck.
By October 1915 Campania had exercised with the Grand Fleet seven times, but had only flown off aircraft three times as the North Sea was often too rough for her seaplanes to use. Her captain recommended that the flying-off deck be lengthened and given a steeper slope to allow gravity to boost the aircraft's acceleration and the ship was accordingly modified at Cammell Laird between November 1915 and early April 1916. The forward funnel was split into two funnels and the flight deck was extended between them and over the bridge to a length of 245 feet (74.7 m), so that aircraft from both holds could use the flight deck. A canvas windscreen was provided to allow the aircraft to unfold their wings out of the wind, and a kite balloon and all of its supporting equipment were added in the aft hold. Campania now carried seven Short Type 184 torpedo bombers and three or four smaller fighters or scouts; a Type 184 made its first takeoff from the flight deck on 3 June 1916, also using a wheeled trolley. This success prompted the Admiralty to order the world's first aircraft designed for carrier operations, the Fairey Campania. The ship received the first of these aircraft in late 1917 where they joined smaller Sopwith 11⁄2 Strutter scouts. At various times Campania also carried the Sopwith Baby and Sopwith Pup.
Campania failed to receive the signal to deploy when the Grand Fleet departed Scapa Flow on 30 May 1916 en route to the Battle of Jutland, but she sailed two hours and fifteen minutes later. Even though she was slowly overtaking the fleet early in the morning of 31 May, she was ordered to return to Scapa Flow as she lacked an escort and German submarines had been reported in the area. The ship participated in some anti-submarine and anti-Zeppelin patrols, but she was later declared unfit for fleet duty because of her defective machinery and became a seaplane training and balloon depot ship. In April 1918 Campania, along with the Grand Fleet, was transferred from Scapa Flow to Rosyth.
## Sinking
On the morning of 5 November 1918, Campania was lying at anchor off Burntisland in the Firth of Forth. A sudden Force 10 squall caused the ship to drag anchor. She collided first with the bow of the nearby battleship Royal Oak, and then scraped along the side of the battlecruiser Glorious. Campania's hull was breached by the initial collision with Royal Oak, flooding her engine room and shutting off all main electrical power. The ship then started to settle by the stern, and sank some five hours after breaking free. The ship's crew were all rescued by neighbouring vessels. A Naval Board of Inquiry into the incident held Campania's watch officer largely responsible for her loss, citing specifically the failure to drop a second anchor once the ship started to drift.
The wreck of HMS Campania was initially afforded protection under the Protection of Wrecks Act, being designated in 2000. This designation was revoked in 2013 when the site was re-designated as a Historic Marine Protected Area under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. The remains of the four Campania aircraft and seven 11⁄2 Strutters that she had on board when she sank are still entombed in her wreck. |
674,838 | Jessye Norman | 1,171,866,518 | American opera singer (1945–2019) | [
"1945 births",
"2019 deaths",
"20th-century African-American women singers",
"20th-century American women opera singers",
"21st-century American singers",
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"American Protestants",
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"American operatic sopranos",
"American women memoirists",
"Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres",
"Deaths from multiple organ failure",
"Deaths from sepsis",
"Edison Classical Music Awards Oeuvreprijs winners",
"Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge",
"Glenn Gould Prize winners",
"Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners",
"Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music",
"Howard University alumni",
"Infectious disease deaths in New York (state)",
"Kennedy Center honorees",
"Musicians from Augusta, Georgia",
"Peabody Institute alumni",
"People from Croton-on-Hudson, New York",
"Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class",
"Recipients of the Legion of Honour",
"Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists",
"Sigma Alpha Iota",
"Spingarn Medal winners",
"United States National Medal of Arts recipients",
"University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni",
"Wolf Prize in Arts laureates",
"Writers from Augusta, Georgia"
]
| Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but did not limit herself to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert and recital stages, Norman was associated with roles including Beethoven's Leonore, Wagner's Sieglinde and Kundry, Cassandre and Didon by Berlioz and Bartók's Judith. The New York Times music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound", and wrote that "it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls."
Norman trained at Howard University, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Michigan. Her career began in Europe, where she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1968, which led to a contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her operatic début came as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser, after which she sang as Verdi's Aida at La Scala in Milan. She made her first operatic appearance in the U.S. in 1982 with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, when cast as Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex, and as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. She went on to sing leading roles with many other companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Paris Opera, and the Royal Opera, London. Internationally well known, she was invited to sing at the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan, at Queen Elizabeth II's 60th birthday celebration in 1986, and performed La Marseillaise to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution on July 14, 1989. She sang at the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Atlanta and for the second inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1997.
Norman sang and recorded recitals of music by Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Ernest Chausson and Francis Poulenc, among others. In 1984, she won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo, the first of five Grammy Awards that she would collect during her career. Apart from several honorary doctorates and other awards, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts, the Légion d'honneur, and was named a member of the British Royal Academy of Music. In 1990, UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar named her Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations.
## Life and career
### Early life and musical education
Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia, to Silas Norman, an insurance salesman, and Janie King-Norman, a schoolteacher. She was one of five children in a family of amateur musicians; her mother and grandmother were both pianists, and her father sang in a local choir. All siblings learned to play the piano early. Norman attended Charles T. Walker Elementary School, and proved to be a talented singer as a young child, singing gospel songs at Mount Calvary Baptist Church at the age of four. There she was greatly influenced by the singing of two women, Mrs. Golden and Sister Childs. At the age of seven she entered her first vocal competition, placing third only because of a memory slip in the second stanza of the hymn "God Will Take Care of You". She later said in interviews, "I guess He has taken care of me. That was my last memory slip in public."
When Norman was nine she was given a radio for her birthday and soon discovered the world of opera through the weekly broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, which she listened to every Saturday. She started listening to recordings of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price, both of whom Norman credited as inspiring figures in her career. She received her first formal vocal coaching from Rosa Harris Sanders Creque, who was her music teacher at A. R. Johnson Junior High School. She continued to take voice lessons privately with Ms. Sanders Creque while attending Lucy C. Laney Senior High School in downtown Augusta.
Norman studied at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Northern Michigan in the opera performance program. At the age of 16, she entered the Marian Anderson Vocal Competition in Philadelphia which, although she did not win, led to an offer of a full scholarship at Howard University, in Washington, D.C. While at Howard, studying voice with Carolyn Grant, she sang in the university chorus and as a soloist at the Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ. In 1964, she became a member of Gamma Sigma Sigma.
In 1965, along with 33 other female students and four female faculty, Norman became a founding member of the Delta Nu chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota music fraternity. In 1966, she won the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition. After graduating in 1967 with a degree in music, she began graduate studies at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and later at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which she earned a master's degree in 1968. During this time, Norman studied voice with Elizabeth Mannion and Pierre Bernac.
### Early career (1968–1979)
After graduating, Norman, like many American young musicians at the time, moved to Europe to establish herself. In 1968, she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. The following year, she began a three-year contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she first appeared as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser.
Norman performed as a guest with German and Italian opera companies, often portraying noble characters convincingly, both by appearance and by unique voice which was both flexible and powerful. Her voice range was wide, from contralto registers to dramatic soprano. In 1970, she appeared in Florence in the title role in Handel's Deborah. In 1971, she sang at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in the role of Sélika in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine. The same year, she portrayed Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, alongside Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the count at the Berlin Festival, and recorded the role with the BBC Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis. The recording was a finalist for the Montreux International Record Award competition and exposed her to music listeners in Europe and the United States.
In 1972, Norman made her first appearance at La Scala, where she sang the title role in Verdi's Aida and at The Royal Opera at Covent Garden, London, where she appeared as Cassandra in Les Troyens by Berlioz. Norman was Aida again in a concert version that same year in her first well-publicized American performance at the Hollywood Bowl for the venue's 50th anniversary celebration. This was followed by an all-Wagner concert at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts, and a recital tour of the country, after which she returned to Europe for several engagements. Norman briefly returned to the United States to give her first New York City recital as part of the "Great Performers" series in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1973.
In 1975, Norman moved to London and had no staged opera appearances for the next five years. She remained internationally active as a recitalist and soloist in works such as Mendelssohn's Elijah and Franck's Les Béatitudes. Norman returned to North America again in 1976 and 1977 to make an extensive concert tour. Norman toured Europe throughout the 1970s, giving recitals of works by Schubert, Mahler, Wagner, Brahms, Satie, Messiaen, and several contemporary American composers, to great critical acclaim.
### Mid-career (1980–1989)
In October 1980, Norman returned to the operatic stage in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss at the Hamburg State Opera in Germany. Her first operatic appearance in the United States came in 1982 at the Opera Company of Philadelphia, where she appeared as Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex, and as Purcell's Dido. On July 18 she sang Didon in a concert performance of the second part of Berlioz's Les Troyens (as Les Troyens à Carthage), conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. The performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and an audio recording exists.
Her stage debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City was on September 26, 1983, the opening night of the company's 100th-anniversary season, when she portrayed Cassandre in Berlioz's Les Troyens with Plácido Domingo as Aeneas, Tatiana Troyanos as Didon, and James Levine conducting. According to Donal Henahan, the music critic of The New York Times, "she sang grippingly and projected well, even when placed well back in the cavernous sets." The fourth performance, with the same cast, was telecast as part of the Live from the Met series. A video recording has been issued on DVD and is available for streaming at the Met Opera on Demand website. On October 12 and 17, the fifth and sixth performances in the run of nine, she sang Didon with William Lewis as Aeneas and Gwynn Cornell as Cassandre. Reviewing the October 12 performance, Edward Rothstein of The New York Times reported that "she created a Carthaginian Queen who was both regal and vulnerable. It was a subtle and affecting dramatic portrait.... Her farewell aria was fluid and seductive, suggesting in its timbre both sensuous pleasures and death." On February 8, the seventh performance of the series, she returned to the role of Cassandre, with Edward Sooter as Aeneas and Troyanos as Didon, but replaced Troyanos as Didon for act 5. On February 13, the eighth performance, she again sang Didon, with Sooter as Aeneas and Cornell as Cassandre, and on February 18, the ninth and final performance of the series, she sang both Cassandre and Didon, with Sooter as Aeneas. Regarding the last performance, The New York Times reported that "the audience gave Miss Norman a 15-minute standing ovation that brought her back to the stage more than a half dozen times." The performance was broadcast on the Metropolitan Opera Radio, and an audio recording is available.
Norman programmed recitals innovatively, including contemporary music. She commissioned the song cycle woman.life.song by composer Judith Weir, a work premiered at Carnegie Hall, with texts by Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Clarissa Pinkola Estés. In a review of a recital at Alice Tully Hall, Bernard Holland wrote in The New York Times that she "carefully gauged her seemingly limitless resources to fit the changing textures of her material". After a recital at Carnegie Hall, Allen Hughes wrote in the same paper that Norman "has one of the most opulent voices before the public today, and, as discriminating listeners are aware, her performances are backed by extraordinary preparation, both musical and otherwise."
According to Encyclopædia Britannica: "By the mid-1980s she was one of the most popular and highly regarded dramatic soprano singers in the world." She told John Gruen in an interview: "As for my voice, it cannot be categorized – and I like it that way, because I sing things that would be considered in the dramatic, mezzo or spinto range. I like so many different kinds of music that I've never allowed myself the limitations of one particular range." She was invited to sing at the second inauguration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan on January 21, 1985; she performed "Simple Gifts" from Aaron Copland's Old American Songs at the ceremony. In 1986, Norman sang God Save the Queen for Queen Elizabeth II's 60th-birthday celebration. That same year she appeared as a soloist in Strauss's Four Last Songs with the Berlin Philharmonic during its tour of the United States.
Over the years Norman expanded her talent into less familiar areas. In 1988, she sang a concert performance of Poulenc's one-act opera La voix humaine ("The Human Voice"), based on Jean Cocteau's 1930 play of the same name. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Norman produced numerous award-winning recordings, and many of her performances were televised. In addition to opera, many of Norman's recordings and performances during this time focused on art songs, lieder, oratorios, and orchestral works. Her interpretation of the Four Last Songs is especially acclaimed, as "the tonal qualities of her voice were ideal for these final works of the great Romantic German lieder tradition".
Norman also performed Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder and his one-woman opera Erwartung. In 1989, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for a performance of Erwartung that marked the company's first single-character production. It was presented in a double bill with Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, with Norman playing Judith. Both operas were broadcast nationally. That same year, she was the featured soloist with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic in the opening concert of its 148th season, which PBS telecast live. She performed at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre opening and gave a recital at the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei.
Also in 1989, Norman was invited to sing the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution on July 14. Her rendition was delivered at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, in a costume designed by Azzedine Alaïa as part of an elaborate pageant orchestrated by avant-garde designer Jean-Paul Goude. This event was the inspiration that led the South African poet Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu to write a poem titled "I Shall Be Heard" dedicated to Norman. The poem appears in Ndlovu's book of poems In Quiet Realm, the foreword to which is penned by Norman.
### Later life (1990–2019)
From the early 1990s, Norman lived in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, in a secluded estate known as "The White Gates", which was previously owned by television personality Allen Funt. She performed at Tchaikovsky's 150th Birthday Gala in Leningrad and appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the title role of Gluck's Alceste in 1990. She sang American spirituals with soprano Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall that year. The following year, she performed in a concert recorded live with Lawrence Foster and the Lyon Opera Orchestra at Notre-Dame de Paris. Norman sang Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex at the opening operatic production at the new Saito Kinen Festival in the Japanese Alps near Matsumoto in 1992. The following year, she sang the title role in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Ariadne auf Naxos. In 1994, Norman sang at the funeral of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She was again the featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic, then conducted by Kurt Masur, in a gala concert telecast for the opening of the orchestra's 153rd season in 1995. She gave a highly lauded performance as the title character of Janáček's The Makropulos Affair when it was first performed at the Met in 1996.
Norman performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Atlanta, singing "Faster, Higher, Stronger". In January 1997, she performed at the second inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, singing, "Oh freedom!". In 1998, she performed a recital at Carnegie Hall incorporating sacred music by Duke Ellington, scored for jazz combo, string quartet and piano. She sang Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa. A Christmas television program was filmed in her home town. A spring recital tour in 1999 included performances in Tel Aviv. In the following season, she appeared at the Salzburg Festival.
In 1999, Norman collaborated with choreographer-dancer Bill T. Jones in a project for New York City's Lincoln Center, called "How! Do! We! Do!" In 2000, she released an album, I Was Born in Love with You, featuring the songs of Michel Legrand. The recording, reviewed as a jazz crossover project, featured Legrand on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Grady Tate on drums. In February and March 2001, Norman was featured at Carnegie Hall in a three-part concert series. With James Levine as her pianist, the concerts were a significant arts event, replete with an 80-page program booklet featuring a newly commissioned watercolor portrait of Norman by David Hockney. In 2002, Norman performed at the opening of Singapore's Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay.
On June 28, 2001, Norman and Kathleen Battle performed Mythodea by Vangelis at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece. On March 11, 2002, Norman performed "America the Beautiful" at a service unveiling two monumental columns of light at the site of the former World Trade Center, as a memorial for the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City. In 2002, she returned to Augusta to announce that she would fund a pilot school of the arts for children in Richmond County. Classes commenced at St. John United Methodist Church in the fall of 2003. In November 2004, a documentary about Norman's life and work was directed by André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer [de] as director of photography, documenting her music as well as political and social issues. In 2006, Norman collaborated with the modern dance choreographer Trey McIntyre for a special performance during the summer at the Vail Dance Festival.
In March 2009, Norman curated Honor!, a celebration of the African-American cultural legacy. The festival honored African-American trailblazers and artists with concerts, recitals, lectures, panel discussions, and exhibitions hosted by Carnegie Hall, the Apollo Theater, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and other sites around New York City.
Norman served on the boards of directors for Carnegie Hall, City-Meals-on-Wheels in New York City, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Public Library, National Music Foundation, and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. She was a member of the board and spokesperson for the S.L.E. Lupus Foundation, and also spokesperson for Partnership for the Homeless. She served on the board of trustees of the Augusta Opera Association and of Paine College.
In March 2013, the Apollo Theater and Manhattan School of Music featured Norman in Ask Your Mama, a 90-minute multimedia show by Laura Karpman based on Langston Hughes's "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz".
In March 2014, Norman was featured at The Green Music Center Weill Hall on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California (Sonoma County), in a recital of American standards in tributes to the likes of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. In 2015, she and pianist Mark Markham presented a program of mainly Gershwin, Kern, and Rodgers and Hart at Carnegie Hall with a few art songs by Satie and Poulenc.
In April 2018, Norman was honored as the 12th recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize for her contribution to opera and the arts.
### Death and memorial
Norman suffered a spinal-cord injury in 2015. She died at Mount Sinai Morningside in Manhattan on September 30, 2019, aged 74. The cause of death was given as "septic shock and multi-organ failure secondary to complications of" the spinal cord injury. In September 2021 it was reported that Norman's brother had pursued legal action for alleged medical negligence against the doctors and hospital involved in an operation on her in 2015.
Norman's public funeral was held in her hometown of Augusta, Georgia. Actor Laurence Fishburne, sociologist Michael Eric Dyson, Carnegie Hall's Clive Gillinson, civil rights activist Vernon Jordan, and Mayor Hardie Davis spoke. Opera's J'Nai Bridges, jazz's Wycliffe Gordon, and students from Morehouse College and Spelman College, as well as Jessye Norman School of the Arts, performed.
Norman was memorialized with a gala tribute at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, on November 24, 2019. Among the speakers and performers at the public remembrance were Anna Deavere Smith; Gloria Steinem; the former Minister of Culture of France, Jack Lang; Eric Owens; The Dance Theatre of Harlem; the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Peter Gelb; and Renée Fleming.
In 2003, the Rachel Longstreet Foundation and Norman partnered to open the Jessye Norman School of the Arts, a tuition-free performing arts after-school program for economically disadvantaged students in Augusta, Georgia. Norman was actively involved in the program, including fundraisers for its benefit.
On May 6, 2014, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published Norman's memoir, Stand Up Straight and Sing!
## Honors and awards
- 1966: Winner of the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition
- 1968: First prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich
- 1973, 1976, 1977: Awarded France's Grand Prix du Disque for albums of lieder by Wagner, Schumann, Mahler and Schubert
- 1982: Gramophone Award for her recording of Strauss' Four Last Songs
- 1982: Musical America magazine's Musician of the Year.
- 1984: Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo Performance for "Ravel: Songs of Maurice Ravel"
- 1984: Commandeur de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
- 1984: France's National Museum of Natural History named an orchid for her.
- 1987: Member of the Royal Academy of Music
- 1988: Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for "Wagner: Lohengrin"
- 1989: Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for "Wagner: Die Walküre"
- 1989: Légion d'honneur (France)
- 1989: Honorary Fellow Jesus College, Cambridge
- 1990: Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations by UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
- 1991: Norman's home town, Augusta, Georgia, dedicated Riverwalk Augusta's amphitheater, named in her honor.
- 1992: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
- 1995: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
- 1996: Norman was a featured performer during the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1997: Winner of the 1997 Radcliffe Medal, presented annually by the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association to honor individuals whose lives and work have had a significant impact on society
- March 1997: Honored by New York's Associated Black Charities at the 11th Annual Black History Makers Awards Dinner for her contributions to the arts and to African-American culture
- December 1997: Kennedy Center Honors (youngest recipient in the Honors' 20-year existence)
- 1998: Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for "Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle"
- 1999: Georgia Music Hall of Fame
- 2000: Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal for her work in the fight against lupus, breast cancer, AIDS, and hunger
- 2000: Outstanding Alumnae by Howard University
- 2002: Inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame
- 2006: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2006: Edison Award (Oeuvreprijs)
- Ace Award from the National Cable Television Association for "Jessye Norman at Notre Dame"
- 2009: National Medal of Arts presented by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House in February 2010
- 2013: Spingarn Medal from the NAACP
- 2015: Wolf Prize in Arts (with Murray Perahia)
- 2018: 12th Glenn Gould Prize from the Glenn Gould Foundation
- 2018: Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal
- 2019: 8th Street in Augusta, Georgia is renamed Jessye Norman Boulevard
- 2021: The Interstate 20 and Washington Road interchange in Augusta, Georgia is renamed the Jessye Norman Memorial Interchange
### Honorary doctorates
Norman received honorary doctorates from more than 30 colleges, universities, and conservatories.
- 1982: Honorary doctorate from Howard University
- 1984: Honorary doctorate from the Boston Conservatory of Music
- 1984: Honorary doctorate from Sewanee: The University of the South
- 1988: Honorary doctorate from Harvard University
- 1989: Honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge, UK
- 1990: Honorary Doctor in Music from the Juilliard School of Music
- 1990: Honorary doctorate from Yale University
- 1996: Honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from Wesleyan University
- 2011: Honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music
- 2011: Honorary doctorate from Northwestern University
- 2013: Honorary doctorate from the University of Rochester
- 2015: Honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford, UK
- 2019: Honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston
## Repertoire
### Opera roles
Among Norman's opera roles were:
- Aida, Aida (Verdi)
- Alceste, Alceste (Gluck)
- Antonia, The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach)
- Ariadne, Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss)
- Armida, Armida (Haydn)
- Arminda, Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe (Mozart)
- Carmen, Carmen (Bizet)
- Cassandre and Didon, Les Troyens (Berlioz)
- Countess Almaviva, Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart)
- Deborah, Deborah (Handel)
- Dido, Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)
- Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni (Mozart)
- Elisabeth, Tannhäuser (Wagner)
- Elle, La voix humaine (Poulenc)
- Elsa, Lohengrin (Wagner)
- Emilia Marty, The Makropulos Affair (Janáček)
- Euryanthe, Euryanthe (Weber)
- Giulietta, The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach)
- Hélène, La belle Hélène (Offenbach)
- Idamante, Idomeneo (Mozart)
- Isolde, Tristan und Isolde (Wagner) (Act II in Concert)
- Jocasta, Oedipus rex (Stravinsky)
- Judith, Bluebeard's Castle (Bartók)
- Kundry, Parsifal (Wagner)
- Giulietta di Kelbar, Un giorno di regno (Verdi)
- Leonore, Fidelio (Beethoven)
- Madame Lidoine, Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc)
- Marguerite, La damnation de Faust (Berlioz)
- Medora, Il corsaro (Verdi)
- Pénélope, Pénélope (Fauré)
- Phedra, Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau)
- Rosina, La vera costanza (Haydn)
- Salome, Salome (R. Strauss)
- Salome, Hérodiade (Massenet)
- Santuzza, Cavalleria rusticana (Mascagni)
- Sélica, L'Africaine (Meyerbeer)
- Sieglinde, Die Walküre (Wagner)
- Third Norn, Götterdämmerung (Wagner)
- Woman, Erwartung (Schoenberg)
### Oratorios
Notable parts in oratorios and orchestral concerts included:
- (Berlioz) Les nuits d'été
- (Berlioz) Roméo et Juliette
- (Brahms) Alto Rhapsody
- (Mahler) Das Lied von der Erde
- (Mahler) Des Knaben Wunderhorn
- (Mahler) Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
- (Mahler) Kindertotenlieder
- (Mahler) Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"
- (Mahler) Symphony No. 3
- (Ravel) Shéhérazade
- (Schoenberg) Gurre-Lieder
- (R. Strauss) Four Last Songs
- (Tippett), A Child of Our Time
### Recitals
Norman performed recitals, including:
- Alban Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder, Altenberg Lieder, Jugendlieder
- Brahms: Lieder
- Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Chanson perpétuelle
- Poulenc: Mélodies
- Ravel: Chansons madécasses
- Satie: Mélodies
- Schoenberg: Brettl-Lieder
- Schubert: Lieder, Erlkönig
- Schumann: Frauen-Liebe und Leben, Liederkreis, Op. 39
- R. Strauss: Lieder
- Wagner:Wesendonck Lieder
- Hugo Wolf: Lieder
## Recordings |
65,886,499 | Augustus FitzGeorge | 1,139,634,244 | British Army officer (1847–1933) | [
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| Colonel Sir Augustus Charles Frederick FitzGeorge, (12 June 1847 – 30 October 1933) was a British Army officer and a relative of the British royal family. FitzGeorge was born in 1847 to Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, and his wife Sarah Fairbrother. His parents' marriage contravened the Royal Marriages Act 1772 and not officially recognized, thus FitzGeorge was ineligible to inherit the Dukedom of Cambridge.
FitzGeorge graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1864, and served as an officer in the British Army until his retirement in 1900. He served as an aide-de-camp, accompanied Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) during his visit to India (1875–1876), and served as private secretary and equerry to his father, who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. In his later years, FitzGeorge served as the chairman of the Cobalt Townsite Silver Mining Company and the Casey Cobalt Mining Company, and as president of the National Health League.
## Early life and family
FitzGeorge was born on 12 June 1847 at 31 Queen's Gate, South Kensington, London. He was the third and youngest son of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, and his wife, Sarah Fairbrother. FitzGeorge's two older brothers were George FitzGeorge and Adolphus FitzGeorge.
Because his parents' marriage contravened the Royal Marriages Act 1772 and not officially recognized, FitzGeorge and his brothers were ineligible to inherit the Dukedom of Cambridge from their father. Through his father, FitzGeorge was a male-line grandson of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and great-grandson of King George III. As a descendant of George III, he was a first cousin once-removed of Queen Victoria and a first cousin of Queen Mary, who was the daughter of his paternal aunt, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge.
The three sons were raised by their mother at a house at 6 Queen Street in Mayfair, while their father lived nearby at his official residence, Gloucester House at Piccadilly and Park Lane. FitzGeorge received his early education at private schools in England and Brussels.
## Military career
FitzGeorge followed in his father's footsteps by serving in the British Army. He attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was gazetted in December 1864 as an ensign into the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. On 24 January 1865, FitzGeorge transferred from the 37th Regiment of Foot to become ensign in the Rifle Brigade. While serving in the Rifle Brigade, he was stationed in Montreal with the 1st Battalion for five years, from 1865 to 1870. On 14 July 1869, he was promoted to a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade.
In 1870, FitzGeorge was appointed aide-de-camp to General Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala, Commander-in-Chief of India and served in this position from 1870 until 1875. While in India, he was part of the suite that accompanied Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) during his visit there from September 1875 until May 1876.
FitzGeorge was promoted to captain in the Rifle Brigade in November 1877, and on 20 March 1878, he transferred as a captain to the 11th Hussars, which were then stationed at Colchester Garrison. He served with the 11th Hussars at Aldershot Garrison, Cavalry Barracks, Hounslow, and Birmingham. While FitzGeorge was stationed at Aldershot, his regiment was ordered to embark for service at the Cape of Good Hope following the outbreak of the First Boer War. However, this order was cancelled soon after, and he missed his first and only opportunity for active service. In July 1881, FitzGeorge was promoted to major in the 11th Hussars. He became extra aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Alison, 2nd Baronet, who was in command of troops at Aldershot Garrison on 1 December 1883. FitzGeorge served Alison for two years. In May 1886, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the 11th Hussars. The Duke of Cambridge appointed FitzGeorge to serve as his equerry-in-waiting and private secretary on 11 August 1886. In 1888, he attained the military rank of brevet colonel in the 11th Hussars.
While his father continued to reside officially at Gloucester House, his mother lived at nearby 6 Queen Street, which FitzGeorge inherited, along with all of its furniture, following her death in 1890. By 1895, he had moved into Gloucester House to live with his father and manage his affairs. When the Duke of Cambridge relinquished his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces on 1 November 1895, FitzGeorge was reverted to half-pay, as he was no longer private secretary to the commander-in-chief position. However, he continued to serve as his father's private secretary and equerry. FitzGeorge retired from the military on 1 November 1900.
As equerry to the Duke of Cambridge, FitzGeorge accompanied his father as an attendant to significant British royal engagements, including: the funeral of his grandmother, Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, on 13 April 1889; the wedding of his cousin Princess Mary of Teck and Prince George, Duke of York, at Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, on 6 July 1893; the funeral of his aunt, Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 3 November 1897; and the funeral and funeral procession for his uncle Francis, Duke of Teck, at St George's Chapel, Windsor, on 27 January 1900.
His father served as the head of the British Army as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces from 1856 to 1895, spanning most of FitzGeorge's military career. Regarding his career in the British Army, FitzGeorge remarked, "Throughout my life, I found my parentage rather a hindrance than a help." He said that his father was so concerned with being accused of favouritism that when FitzGeorge was up for an appointment against another officer, the other officer received the appointment. Following his many travels throughout his military career, FitzGeorge claimed to have hunted every type of big-game in the world.
## Later life
The Duke of Cambridge died on 17 March 1904, and FitzGeorge and his brother Adolphus travelled by carriage in his funeral procession. Despite being the sons of the Duke of Cambridge, royal protocol relegated them to the ninth carriage in the procession, following the British royal family, official mourners, and foreign diplomats.
Following their father's death, FitzGeorge and Adolphus became active in civic and charitable activities in London. FitzGeorge was appointed the same year Knight Commander in the Royal Victorian Order (K.C.V.O.).
In December 1904, they were involved with the development of a golf course on their father's Coombe estate in Kingston Hill. The Crown had granted the estate to their father. In 1911, FitzGeorge and his brother served on an honorary committee for the Ancient Art Exhibition at Earls Court in the summer of that year. He and Adolphus also attended the dedication of an extension of the Wimbledon and Putney Commons in July 1911. FitzGeorge and Adolphus continued a longstanding family tradition of distributing gifts of blankets and flannels to the employees of the former Duke of Cambridge's Coombe estate at Christmas. When the FitzGeorge family's Coombe estate was sold in December 1932, it consisted of over 700 acres (280 ha) between Kingston Hill and New Malden, and included three golf courses: Coombe Hill, Coombe Wood, and Malden.
FitzGeorge was also engaged in several business pursuits. He served as the executive chairman of the Cobalt Townsite Silver Mining Company of Canada, which had a silver mine in Cobalt, Ontario, during the Cobalt silver rush. By the company's first annual meeting in December 1907, its mine had already shipped 117 tonnes (115 long tons; 129 short tons) of ore carrying 40,000 ounces (1,100,000 g) of silver. He also served as the chairman for the Casey Cobalt Mining Company.
In November 1913, the brothers were named as godparents (along with their cousin Queen Mary) to their great-nephew Victor FitzGeorge-Balfour, and attended his christening at Savoy Chapel. FitzGeorge-Balfour was the son of FitzGeorge's niece, Mabel Iris FitzGeorge and her husband Robert Shekelton Balfour.
On 1 February 1924, FitzGeorge sustained injuries in a vehicle accident in Kingston Hill while being driven in a taxicab. The accident occurred after the driver became ill and lost control of the vehicle, causing it to turn over onto a sidewalk. FitzGeorge was wounded by broken glass in the accident.
By 1933, FitzGeorge served as the president of the National Health League, an organization that claimed a membership of approximately 2,000 British physicians. The league was organised after ten years of planning, and in July 1933, it took issue publicly with the British Medical Association and with germ theory as the sole cause of disease. The National Health League contended that environmental factors also played a role in illness, emphasised the importance of preventive healthcare and accused the British medical establishment of operating for profit. At a meeting of health experts, FitzGeorge claimed that the British Army rejected 75 per cent of recruits for having preventable medical conditions.
## Death
FitzGeorge remained active into his later years and continued to play golf past the age of 80. He resided at 6 Queen Street in Mayfair until near his death. He died on 30 October 1933, at age 86, at a nursing home at 31 Queen's Gate in South Kensington, London. He was the last surviving son of the Duke of Cambridge, and the last surviving member of the suite that accompanied King Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) to India. FitzGeorge never married. At 86, he would have been one of the longest-living members of the British royal family, had he been recognized with the title and style of a male-line descendant of George III.
His funeral was held on 2 November 1933. The first part of the funeral service was held at Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, with the permission of King George V. King George and Queen Mary were represented by Edward Colebrooke, 1st Baron Colebrooke; Edward, Prince of Wales by his equerry Lieutenant Colonel Piers Legh; Prince Albert, Duke of York by Lieutenant Colonel Dermot McMorrough Kavanagh; and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn by Lieutenant Colonel Sir Malcolm Donald Murray. FitzGeorge was interred at Kensal Green Cemetery in Kensal Green, London.
## Honours
On 17 December 1895, Queen Victoria appointed FitzGeorge a Companion of the Order of the Bath. On 28 March 1896, she sanctioned the publication of members of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, in which FitzGeorge was named as an Esquire of the order.
After King Edward VII assumed the British throne in 1901, the Duke of Cambridge requested that FitzGeorge and his brothers be given the rank of a British peer's younger sons. King Edward did not honour this request; however, he did confer the honour of Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on FitzGeorge and his brother Adolphus the day after their father's funeral on 23 March 1904.
## Ancestry |
3,600,979 | Bleacher Creatures | 1,171,860,086 | Group of fans of the New York Yankees | [
"Culture of New York City",
"Gatherings of baseball fans",
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| The Bleacher Creatures are a group of fans of the New York Yankees who are known for their strict allegiance to the team and their fierce attitude towards opposing fans and teams. The group's nickname was coined for the first time by New York Daily News columnist Filip "Flip" Bondy during the 1990s, and then he spent the 2004 season sitting with the Creatures for research on his book about the group, Bleeding Pinstripes: A Season with the Bleacher Creatures of Yankee Stadium, which was published in 2005.
A prominent aspect of the Bleacher Creatures is their use of chants and songs. The most distinguished of these is the "roll call", which is done at the beginning of every home game. Often, the opposing team's right fielder, who stands right in front of the Creatures, is a victim of their jeers and insults. For the last two decades of the original Yankee Stadium, the Creatures occupied sections 37 and 39 of the right field bleachers. In 2009, when the Yankees' new stadium was built, they were relocated and currently sit in section 203 of the right-field bleachers. Over the years, the Creatures have attracted controversy regarding their use of inappropriate chants along with their rowdiness.
## History
In 1996, New York Daily News columnist Filip "Flip" Bondy was asked to write a story from the fans' perspective. In that regular column, he took on the persona of "the Bleacher Creature," coining the nickname in relation to the Yankee Stadium inhabitants. The term "bleacher creature" has been used in reference to dedicated fans and supporters since the early 1980s. The founding of the Yankees Bleacher Creatures is often credited to Ali Ramirez. Ramirez rang a cowbell to inspire the fans to cheer, much like Freddy Sez's efforts in the Stadium's main grandstand, during the team's limited success in the early 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, a New York Daily News article stated that Ramirez went to almost every home Yankees game for more than 20 years. Ramirez died on May 8, 1996, and was given a tribute by the Yankees front office before the May 14 game against the Seattle Mariners, a game in which Yankees pitcher Dwight Gooden threw a no-hitter. There was a plaque where he sat, in section 39, row A, seat 29 which read "This seat is taken. In memory of Ali Ramirez, 'The Original Bleacher Creature.'" A similar plaque was added to the new stadium.
Because of the rowdiness of the fans, and the fact that many families began sitting in the more affordable bleachers, alcoholic beverages were banned from the bleachers in 2000. Yankees Stadium vendor Ted Banks commented that "There wasn't any special reason for that, it just got out of hand. Those people used to get wild when Jose Canseco played for the A's. A few people threw things at Ken Griffey Jr." Canseco asked Oakland Athletics manager Tony La Russa to move him from right field due to the continued chants and jeers from the Creatures. The Yankees have instituted rules for the bleacher sections to help control potential disruption. In 2000, alcohol sales were banned throughout the bleacher sections. In addition, anti-profanity rules have been in place for fans throughout the stadium. Lonn Trost, the Yankees chief operating officer, stated the team want to foster a "fan-friendly environment".
On April 5, 2002, pitcher David Cone spent the season's home opener with the Bleacher Creatures in section 39, and even participated in their chants. After the final game played at Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008, Yankees first baseman Tino Martinez revealed that he had sat with the Creatures during the game the day before. Martinez said he wore a Yankees jacket, glasses and a hat, and that no one recognized him. In addition to former players, numerous celebrities and public figures have sat with the Creatures, including Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
In 2004, Bondy spent the season among the Creatures and wrote a book about his experience, entitling it Bleeding Pinstripes: A Season with the Bleacher Creatures of Yankee Stadium, which was published in 2005. In the blurb, Bondy called it "a unique, anthropological view of this most dedicated tribe of rooters—their rituals, their personal tribulations, their uncanny commitment to the Bronx ball club and to each other." The foreword was written by David Cone.
In 2009, the Yankees lifted the nine-year alcohol ban in the bleachers in the new Yankee Stadium, where the Bleacher Creatures were relocated to section 203. While no beer vendors come through to the bleachers, fans are permitted to purchase beer in the stadium and take them back to their seats. A few Creatures have admittedly stated they can now desist in their beer smuggling efforts, which they were able to do for years with the help of local delis who used to wrap up sandwiches with beer cans. Other sources of previous alcohol smuggling included "a guy who would sell those airline-size liquor bottles out of a bathroom stall, like a drug dealer" according to the New York Post. An April 2009 segment on ABC World News Tonight revealed that the end of the beer ban is a temporary experiment, and if things get out of hand in the section, the Yankees' management might reinstate it. As of the 2022 season, alcohol is still permitted in the bleacher sections.
## Chants and songs
A prominent aspect of the Bleacher Creatures atmosphere is their use of a variety of chants and songs used during the game that are unique to their section.
### Roll call
The Creatures' most famous and long-standing chant is known as the roll call. During one game in 1998, the fans, led by Ramirez, started chanting the name of Yankees first baseman Tino Martinez. Martinez responded to the chanting fans with a wave, shocking the cheering fans; this started the tradition of roll call where the Bleacher Creatures chant the name of each starting fielder (except the pitcher and catcher). The roll call starts in the first inning after the pitcher throws the first pitch of the game, with the Creatures chanting the names of Yankees players in the field until the players acknowledge them. Roll call has become one of the trademarks of Yankee Stadium according to sports journalists and publications. Former Yankee third baseman Scott Brosius was notorious for not responding immediately to the roll call, as other players on the diamond would. Sometimes he would even wait as long as a minute to respond, getting a kick out of the persistence of the Creatures. In Hideki Matsui's first game at the Stadium in 2003, the chant of "MAT-SU-I!" went on for approximately twenty minutes, because he did not know what was going on or how to react. In a 2009 press conference, former Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi said that "The biggest thing I miss is (the Bleacher Creatures') roll call. There's no doubt about it, it's the best thing in baseball."
#### Notable exceptions
Former or deceased members of the Yankees have been included in chants as well. In 1999, when David Wells made his first appearance at Yankee Stadium after having been traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, his name was chanted. In his tenure with the Yankees, he was the only Yankee pitcher to be included in the roll call every time he pitched. In 2001, some Creatures, led by Japanese Creature, Hiro, learned Japanese so that they could yell obscenities at former Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki. Japanese curses were chanted whenever Ichiro came to town. Ichiro was traded to the Yankees in July 2012. During his first game as a Yankee he was unaware of the roll call and did not respond to the calls. Alfonso Soriano's name was chanted when he made his first appearance after being traded to the Texas Rangers. In the 2006 home opener against the Kansas City Royals, the Bleacher Creatures chanted the name of long-time Yankee outfielder Bernie Williams, who was the designated hitter that day, right after the rest of the defensive lineup. Williams, whose future in baseball was uncertain in the offseason, was in the clubhouse at the time and did not hear the Creatures. The chants continued for around 5 minutes until Williams came out and waved. At the beginning of the 2007 season opener, the Creatures started a chant of "We want Bernie!", a reference to the fact that Williams was no longer with the team.
On May 15, 2011, the Bleacher Creatures chanted Jorge Posada's name after his recent feud with Yankee management, despite Posada not playing in the game. Posada acknowledged them from the dugout. On June 25, 2012, former Yankee center fielder Johnny Damon was greeted by a roll call chant when he returned to Yankee Stadium as a member of the Cleveland Indians. Damon, who played for the Yankees from 2006–09, acknowledged that he may have been the first Yankee player to answer the Bleacher Creature roll call with a signature pose, a tradition continued by other Yankee players, including Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, and Brett Gardner. On September 22, 2013, both Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera were included in the roll call, despite Pettitte being the starting pitcher and Rivera being a relief pitcher. When Vinny "Bald Vinny" Milano was repeatedly asked, via Twitter, whether the Creatures would still include Alex Rodriguez in the roll call around the time of his struggles and suspension in 2013, Milano insisted that A-Rod would still be part of the roll call and that no Yankee would ever be intentionally skipped.
On July 16, 2010, the Bleacher Creatures elected to not do the roll call out of respect for the recent passing of both public address announcer Bob Sheppard and principal team owner George Steinbrenner. Michael Kay of the YES Network acknowledged this during the top of the first inning during his play-by-play details of the game against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Creatures have done the call in memoriam for former players Phil Rizzuto on August 14, 2007, and Bobby Murcer at the 2008 MLB All Star Game. On June 2, 2021, the Creatures featured Lou Gehrig in the roll call for Lou Gehrig Day, which helped raise funds for the treatment and cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
### The Cowbell Man
After the death of Ali Ramirez, the original Cowbell Man, the bell was given to Milton Ousland in 1996. As the official "Cowbell Man", nobody else is authorized to use it, although it was agreed upon by the group that other Creatures could take over the duties when he couldn't attend. This agreement was reached due to the many fans who were disappointed that the tradition was not carried out at every game. The cowbell is primarily used to initiate a chant during a Yankees rally. The cowbell can be heard throughout the stadium and often on television broadcasts. Ousland stated that the cowbell is a good luck charm, with the team winning their first World Series in almost 20 years after Ousland inherited the cowbell.
### Other chants and jeers
The Creatures also have an assortment of other chants which they use at most games. Anti-obscenity laws were exercised in 2007, but are not always strictly enforced; if they are able, the Creatures will turn to the right field box seats at the completion of the roll call and chant "Box seats suck!" During the days of the bleachers' no-alcohol-sales policy; fans in the right-field box seats occasionally replied with a chant of "We've got beer!" If the Yankees are playing the Red Sox, the intensity of the Yankees – Red Sox rivalry takes hold; the Creatures then cut the 'box seats' chant short and instead chant "Boston sucks!" until that dissipates. Also, until the Red Sox won the World Series in , the Creatures would chant "1918!" and hold up signs saying "CURSE OF THE BAMBINO!" and pictures of Babe Ruth to remind the Red Sox of the last time they won a championship.
## The move to section 203
In the new stadium, the Creatures occupy section 203 of the stadium's right field bleachers. Before the start of the 2008 MLB season, several creatures publicly expressed their anger with the move out of the old stadium. Creature Vinny Milano was one of them in particular:
> As far as 39 goes next year, there is a right-field bleachers now, there will be a right-field bleachers in the new stadium. When it comes time to pay for our seats, I believe they will offer us something 'comparable' to what we have now and we're pretty much gonna be at their mercy. I have zero faith that anyone that works with or is involved with the Yankees actually cares one way or another if any of us go to the new stadium. Personally, I'm not even sure that I will make the move.
The Yankees organization did work closely with the Creatures to ensure that they sat together again, and designated a total of 136 season-ticket packages for them in section 203. The move was monitored by long-time Creature Teena Lewis, known as the "Queen of the Bleachers", and Marc Chalpin, who organized a list of about 50 Creatures to ensure they would all be sitting together again in the new stadium. Despite the Creatures' concerns over how the Yankees management would handle the move, Lewis said that, "The Yankees helped us because I calmed everybody down over the years. We behaved ourselves, took away some of the chants, and they pretty much paid us back."
Unlike section 39 in the old stadium, section 203 and the rest of the bleachers have access to the entire park. In reference to this new lack of seclusion, and the fact that beer sales are now legal in the section, New York Daily News sports columnist Filip Bondy summed up the new situation by saying, "At this new-fangled stadium, the golden liquid flows like soda and the walls are down that once protected the aristocracy from the bleacher proletariat. This is bound to create some class warfare down the road, some storming of the Legends suites." Bondy also praised the Creatures for "handling the transition with commendable grace and flexibility."
## Controversy and reception
Since the inception of the Bleacher Creatures, many people have held a negative viewpoint towards the section for their notorious attitude towards opposing fans and players, and their raucous nature in general. As a result of their rowdiness, the Creatures have been compared to soccer hooligans in Europe. Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Dan Raley called the Creatures "oblivious to the outside world. Demanding, relentless and venomous" in a 2001 article. He also claimed that "They have thrown batteries, coins and a knife at opposing players" and that "They throw punches at one another." Longtime stadium usher Michael Swann, who used to work in section 39 of the old stadium, also had a negative recollection of them:
> Some are real obnoxious people, some are real foul-mouthed people. Yankee management says if you say certain words and get out of hand, you have to go. But when we try to throw them out, management won't back us. These people won't show us their tickets. They intimidate out-of-towners with tickets into moving to seats somewhere else. They're obnoxious.
On occasion, one or more Creatures have been asked to leave the stadium by police. The bleacher beer ban in 2000 was blamed on the Creatures, which they regard as a false accusation. However, undercover New York City Police Department officers have issued tickets to different Creatures for public intoxication, both in and outside of the stadium. They have also been accused of heckling rattled musicians in high school bands, which they do not deny. In 2022, the Bleacher Creatures were blamed for garbage being thrown at Cleveland Guardians outfielder Oscar Mercado following a Yankees walk-off victory. Earlier in the game Mercado’s teammate Myles Straw had a verbal altercation with fans in the left field section As a result, the Yankees increased security around the bleachers section.
During the seventh-inning stretch, "Y.M.C.A." by the Village People is played at the stadium. For many years the Bleacher Creatures would pick a fan of the opposite team and during the singing and instead chant "Why are you gay?" instead of the original song chorus "It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.". After complaints from both fans and the Yankees, several key Bleacher Creatures agreed to discontinue the chant in 2010. Despite the agreement to end the chant, some fans stated some Creatures have continued with the song with no intervention from Yankees personnel.
Comparisons have been made between the Creatures and other fan groups, including The 7 Line Army of the New York Mets, their crosstown rivals. The Creatures have been praised for their loyalty and dedication in numerous articles and features from Filip Bondy, and in his book as well. Bryan Hoch, writing for MLB.com, stated that the Bleacher Creatures, especially roll call, "would remain part of the Stadium experience for years to come". In a 2009 segment, ABC World News Tonight called the Creatures "the most loyal fans any team could want."
## See also
- Bleacher Bums
- The 7 Line Army
- Dawg Pound |
14,206,625 | Dianna Agron | 1,173,044,743 | American actress and singer (born 1986) | [
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| Dianna Elise Agron (/ˈeɪ.ɡrɒn/ AY-gron; born April 30, 1986) is an American actress and singer. After dancing and starring in small musical theater productions in her youth, Agron made her screen debut in 2006, and in 2007, she played recurring character Debbie Marshall on Heroes and had her first leading role. In 2009, she took the role of the antagonistic but sympathetic head cheerleader Quinn Fabray on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. For her role in the series, she won a SAG Award and, as part of the cast, was nominated for the Brit Award for Best International Breakthrough Act, among other accolades.
After her breakthrough success in Glee, Agron began working more in film, first starring in the popular young adult adaptation I Am Number Four (2011) as Sarah Hart before taking on films aimed at more diverse audiences, including the 2013 mob-comedy The Family and 2015's Bare. She has also directed several short films and music videos and, in 2017, began performing as a singer at the Café Carlyle in New York City, while continuing to star in films including Novitiate and Hollow in the Land in 2017, Shiva Baby in 2020, and As They Made Us in 2022. She acted in and directed part of the 2019 anthology feature film Berlin, I Love You.
Agron is Jewish and has spoken of how her religion relates to her career. She has also been involved with significant charity work, particularly in support of LGBTQ+ rights and human rights.
## Early life
Dianna Elise Agron was born on April 30, 1986, in Savannah, Georgia, to Mary (née Barnes), a seamstress, and Ronald S. "Ron" Agron, a former general manager of Hyatt hotels. Her father was born to a Jewish family, while her mother converted to Judaism before they married. Agron has a younger brother, Jason Agron, a photographer. She is Ashkenazi Jewish, of Russian-Jewish descent; her father's family were Jewish immigrants from Novgorod-Seversky in Ukraine, and the family's original surname was Agronsky. She is distantly related to Gershon Agron and Martin Agronsky. Agron was raised in San Antonio, Texas, and Burlingame, California; her family lived in various hotels due to her father's career, but her mother made sure that Agron and her brother knew this was not the norm. Agron has said that there was always music from the 1960s and 1970s playing at their home, and that her mother sheltered her (though not her brother) from watching contemporary films and television even as a teenager, opting to let her watch mostly classic musicals because she felt they had "a certain amount of loveliness to [them]". Being exposed to the "fairytale" and "fantastical" image of Hollywood from these films influenced Agron's decision to pursue acting, while her interest in storytelling comes from seeing different lives unfold around her growing up in the "fishbowl environment" of hotels.
Agron lived in Texas from the age of two until she was nine, and took up dancing at the age of three, studying jazz and ballet, and later hip-hop dancing. She often performed in local and school musical theater productions, including as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz when she was eight. She attended Hebrew school growing up, as well as being educated at a Jewish day school through third grade. She was bullied harshly for her Jewish faith while living in Texas and noted that she assumed having police guarding their Temple was normal until the family moved to California, adding that being Jewish was a large part of her identity as a child because of how it ostracized her. When the family moved to California, Agron attended Lincoln Elementary School, Burlingame Intermediate School, and Burlingame High School in the Bay Area; she attended religious school and had her bat mitzvah at the Reform Judaism-practicing Peninsula Temple Sholom. She said that she found it much easier to make friends there than she had in Texas, though described her middle school experience as sometimes unpleasant, giving the example of a boy following her around and calling her a man when, aged thirteen, her voice dropped significantly. This gave her a complex about how her voice sounded and she avoided speaking and singing in her natural register for a long time, though she overcame this and credits it with giving her a thick skin.
In high school, Agron was on the homecoming court in both her junior and senior years, tying for homecoming queen with a friend; she has said she was not "popular" in a stereotypical sense in high school, but had many friends in different groups. She was involved in school theater, performing in Vanities and Grease as a senior, and helping with set design, costumes, and painting. Agron has broken her nose twice. The first break occurred when she was fourteen, but she did not have it repaired until it was damaged again on a day off during the Glee tour. She was also injured in a traffic collision and underwent physical therapy in high school. As a teenager, Agron was a dance teacher and worked at a local boutique, Morning Glory, where she "became enthralled with fashion". Though her mother dressed her in doll-style dresses, she began experimenting with fashion in high school. She took piano lessons and said that she came to love photography in high school, as well, where she learnt on film. When she was a teenager, her father became ill with what the family would determine was multiple sclerosis after tests proved indefinitive; Agron was not made aware of his illness until she was fifteen, when he had a stroke and began losing his cognitive and physical abilities. She spoke to Cosmopolitan about the impact of this on her family, which caused her parents' marriage to fall apart, saying the separation was devastating for her and her brother. She added that she "had to play therapist to [her] family[,] be the glue". She later said that, when her father became ill, he "lost his faith for some time" and the family stopped attending Temple.
## Career
### 2006–2008: Early career and Heroes
Agron moved to Los Angeles in 2005, attending an audition for a dance agency on the same day. She had wanted to go to New York, but instead chose Los Angeles as it was closer to her family in case she needed to support them. She was signed by the agency and told them that she wanted to be in musicals; they sent her out for music video auditions. Agron was hesitant to be in music videos, worrying that she could not be considered both a dancer and an actress, though she agreed to be in the video for Robin Thicke's "Wanna Love You Girl"; she was cut when Pharrell Williams became involved and the concept was changed. Her dance agency helped her find an acting agent and she again requested to be considered for musicals, which she was told were too outdated. When she moved to Los Angeles she also began to watch movies other than old musicals; after watching 2001 and A Clockwork Orange back-to-back she was pleasantly surprised at how much more scope there was available as an actor.
From 2006 to 2008 she appeared on television series including Shark, Close to Home, Drake & Josh, CSI: NY and Numbers. Her first film role was an uncredited appearance as a cheerleader in the 2006 remake film When a Stranger Calls. Agron told Rolling Stone that during her early career most of the film roles she was offered were horror films or nudity, and that she turned down all of these. She instead appeared in comedy films like Skid Marks and Rushers, which won the short film audience award at the 2007 Method Fest, and the action-thriller film T.K.O.. She had a recurring role in the third season of Veronica Mars as Jenny Budosh, a student in Veronica's criminology class at college who is also involved with a fraud cover-up. During her early years in Los Angeles, Agron lived in the same building as Christina McDowell and Emma Stone, which was once raided by a SWAT team, and spent time with them and other "young artists and starlets" in the neighborhood, including Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes.
In 2007 she played the main role of Harper in the Milo Ventimiglia-directed MTV series It's a Mall World, alongside Sam Huntington, for its single season. She then appeared in a recurring role for the second season of Heroes as Debbie Marshall, the mean captain of the cheerleading squad at the new school Claire Bennet attends. Initially, she read for the nice cheerleader role, as she had previously been typecast as the "nice girl", but a producer thought it would be more interesting to see her play a mean character. She said that when she was cast in the role it "helped open a lot of people's eyes to [her], as an actor", because it is different to who she is as a person. During the 2007–2008 writers' strike, when auditions stopped, Agron wrote a feature screenplay about a 28-year-old man and his relationships with different women in his life as he learns how to say "I love you", which was optioned in 2008; Agron had wanted to direct the film.
### 2009–2011: Glee, I Am Number Four and early film roles
Agron landed her breakthrough role in 2009 as Quinn Fabray on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Media journalist Jon Caramanica described the character in April 2010 as a "conniving though angelic-seeming cheerleader". Agron was the last principal actor to be cast, having won the role only days before the pilot began filming; struggling to cast Quinn, the producers were going to remove the character, but Fox wanted to keep her in the pilot and casting director Robert J. Ulrich convinced them to let him see more auditions. The producers had felt the character would be unnecessary if she could not be given more depth, though they did not initially reveal this to Agron; Ulrich told Variety that when they saw her audition, the show finally "came together". Shortly before Glee, Agron had over thirty unsuccessful auditions for a small role in a musical, and so auditioned with no expectations. In her audition she sang Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon". Before offering her the part, the production worried she would appear too innocent and asked her to come back looking sexier; she later said that this request "was like hearing nails on a chalkboard." Of Agron's casting, showrunner Ryan Murphy said: "she ruined the part for me... she humanized it. She can cry at the drop of a hat. So now her character has a conscience, a soul and great vulnerability." Agron's portrayal of Quinn was praised, and she made her musical debut at the end of the second episode, "Showmance", performing Dionne Warwick's "I Say a Little Prayer". In 2009, members of the Glee cast, including Agron, performed the national anthem before Game 3 of the World Series.
During the hiatus away from filming Glee in the summer of 2009, Agron wrote, starred in, directed, and executive-produced an unreleased short comedy film called A Fuchsia Elephant. The plot revolves around Agron's character, Charlotte Hill, who recreates her eighth birthday party with her friend Michael, played by Dave Franco, also a producer, on the day before she turns eighteen. She directed the 2010 music video for "Body" by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, and took on more film roles in 2010 and 2011 with various supporting parts, including Natalie in Burlesque and the cheerleader Samantha in Bold Native, an animal liberation terror film. Agron had played multiple "mean cheerleader" roles, and when she began to be offered more during Glee's first season she asked her team to start turning them away. Agron was positioned as a top choice for the role of Gwen Stacy in the reboot of the Spider-Man films when The Amazing Spider-Man began casting in 2010, but lost out to Emma Stone. Deadline reported there were concerns about the availability of Agron, who tested for the role just as Glee's second season began, due to having a large role on a major network show. In 2011 she tested for the part of Lois Lane in the DC Extended Universe film Man of Steel, though there were concerns that she was too young for the role; it went to Amy Adams.
During Glee's second season, Emily St. James for The A.V. Club wrote that Agron was "one of the show's best actors" but often sidelined. In the episode "Born This Way" she performed a duet with Lea Michele (as Rachel Berry) of "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story and TLC's "Unpretty". The Observer named this the best Glee cover, praising Agron's "soft and comforting vocals" and saying that as "a cult favorite of Glee fans in 2020, this one deserves all the hype even outside the show's kitschy walls." The song has been highly praised and was voted the best Glee number in a 2011 TVLine fan vote elimination bracket. Murphy has also said it was his favorite cover from the show. As a costume and extreme makeup lover, Agron has highlighted parts of this season as her favorite moments of the show, naming "The Rocky Horror Glee Show", particularly "Time Warp", and the performance of "Thriller", though she was the cause for a brief delay in filming of the latter number when she became ill in December 2010. On Glee, Quinn often sang as a soprano, which Agron said "was on the highest part of [her] vocal register that [she] can access ... but it's not where [she feels] the most confident and comfortable". Agron rarely sang in her chest voice in the first season, and in 2011 HuffPost described Quinn's singing register as falsetto. Agron suggested that Quinn having a high voice may have been her fault, as she had auditioned using a higher speaking voice to reflect her character's young age and personality, saying: "[Quinn] sees herself as having to be elite and perfect, so I didn't see her with this [Agron's] raspy voice." She struggled to maintain the affected voice in Glee's second season, and changed it for the third. In 2011, Agron wrote the Time 100 entry for her Glee co-star Chris Colfer.
Her breakthrough movie role came in the 2011 YA adaptation I Am Number Four as co-lead Sarah Hart, whom Agron described as an "artsy kid that is a little misunderstood". Agron took on the role because it was different to her Quinn character, and said that while she wanted to work during the Glee hiatus, she would not take just any project that fit in her schedule because "it's so hard as an actor to really engage with a character and a script if you don't love it". Her filming restrictions for Glee meant she almost did not get the role. The shoot got moved to the summer, when Agron was available, and she learned she got the role a few weeks before filming. Photography began in Pittsburgh in the summer of 2010, the day after the first Glee tour finished. Reviews for the film were mixed. Agron's I Am Number Four co-lead was Alex Pettyfer; after Pettyfer dropped out of playing Tom in Seventh Son in May 2011, Agron tested for the role of Alice Deane.
In the third season of Glee, Agron sang her first solo number since the first season, "Never Can Say Goodbye" by the Jackson 5. The song, which had been leaked before the episode, received positive reviews. The character's stories in this season were less well-received, with reviews employing humor to say that the writing did not provide Agron with strong material. In one story, her character was paralyzed in a car accident, but only for four episodes before she was performing again; Agron had previously said that the story, which she discussed with Murphy, would be "slow and gradual" as Quinn struggles through accepting a more challenging situation. In 2019, The Guardian termed the brief paralysis, and the related "cringe-inducing" performance of "I'm Still Standing", as the show's "defining shark-jumping moment", though critics praised Agron's acting. Speaking to MTV following the car accident episode, Agron said that she had "fun challenges" playing Quinn who "always was changing". After the third season aired, Agron appeared as a guest mentor on The Glee Project's second season episode "Actability".
Several songs performed by Agron as Quinn have been released as singles, made available for digital download, and featured on the show's soundtrack albums. Many songs performed on Glee were pop music, including several by Agron, though she was also noted as the show's easy listening vocalist, performing some Motown. "I Say a Little Prayer" charted in the UK Singles Chart at 125, and her cover of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" reached 166 on the UK Singles. These songs were released on Glee: The Music, Volume 1 (the former as an iTunes bonus track), which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media. Caramanica criticized the fact that Agron's cover of "Papa Don't Preach" was omitted from the soundtracks, writing that it was "one of the most grounded and moving covers the show has yet done". "Papa Don't Preach" was later released as a single, charting at 81 on the UK Singles, as was "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", which charted in the Canadian Hot 100 at 73, UK Singles Chart at 94 and on the Billboard Hot 100 at 95. Her cover of "Never Can Say Goodbye" reached 107 on the Billboard charts. As a featured singer in the cast of Glee, Agron and her castmates hold numerous accolades: in 2010 they won an American Music Award, and in 2011 they were collectively nominated for two Grammy Awards as well as the Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act of the year. In 2012, they received another soundtrack album Grammy nomination. By the start of the sixth season they were the most-charting (Billboard) act in history, a record held until March 2020.
### 2012–2014: The Family and music videos
Agron appeared less frequently in Glee's fourth season, being reduced to a guest star, with co-star Naya Rivera saying that she did so by choice to work on other projects; Rivera and Agron shared an argument scene in the Thanksgiving episode that Vulture said was "weirdly powerful", noting the pair "have always popped in scenes like this, and have never gotten enough of them". Agron tweeted that the scene was one of her favorites, and Murphy joked that the two characters could have a spin-off. After reducing her role on Glee, Agron became the first of the cast to "cut out on her own", playing Belle Blake in Luc Besson's ultra-violent 2013 mob comedy film The Family opposite Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Besson reportedly wrote Belle with Agron in mind, wanting her to be in the film after seeing her perform on Glee. The Irish Independent wrote that "Agron is one of the best things in the film [and] successfully grounds the more preposterous aspects of the plot". It opened to mixed reviews but, also seen as the breakout performer by the then-CEO of production company EuropaCorp, critics praised Agron's performance and she was nominated for a Women Film Critics Circle Award.
Later in 2013 she appeared in the music video for the Killers' tenth-anniversary track "Just Another Girl", portraying the lead singer, Brandon Flowers. Rolling Stone said that even with the real Flowers also appearing, "Agron shines as the video's star." She briefly appeared in the fifth season of Glee for the 100th episode, and was notably absent from "The Quarterback", the tribute episode for Cory Monteith. In 2014, Agron starred as the scorned bride in Sam Smith's "I'm Not the Only One" music video. Glamour wrote that Agron's "convincing Desperate Housewives act [shows] off some major acting skills [and] really brings Sam's heart wrenching pop-ballad to life". She also directed the music video for "Till Sunrise" by Goldroom, starring Gabrielle Haugh and her brother Jason, and worked as a photographer with Jason for the February 2014 issue of Galore magazine. In 2015, she directed a short film for the opening of designer Tory Burch's Paris flagship store; she was also selected by Burch to represent the brand at that year's Met Gala. Agron returned to Glee for its final season but did not appear in the episode "A Wedding", when Quinn's best friends get married, which was seen to be equally as unusual as missing "The Quarterback".
### 2015–2019: Independent film, singing, and directing
After Glee, Agron pursued what critic Frank Scheck would later describe as "admirably adventurous screen choices". In 2017 she said that she had "wanted to return to doing indie films [after Glee and The Family], and found a lot of solace in doing so", explaining in 2022 that she "purposely had to recalibrate after [she] was fully off of that show, and make time for [herself]... after so many years of not having any control [and] just not [being] a person in [her] own world". She played the lead role in Natalia Leite's 2015 drama film Bare, which follows Agron's character, Sarah, as she becomes romantically involved with a female drifter. The film includes a nude scene, which had been extensively discussed between Leite and Agron, taking inspiration from My Summer of Love for the tone. Agron also made her professional theater debut in 2015. Turning down a Broadway play as she wanted to create a role, she played Dahlia in McQueen at the St. James Theatre on the West End; McQueen received generally negative reviews, and, in her PhD thesis for York University, Rebecca Halliday noted that reviews were not just profusely critical towards Agron's performance but also harsh on the actress herself. Agron was unable to reprise her role for the Theatre Royal Haymarket transfer due to filming commitments. She performed the U.S. national anthem in London at Winfield House, the U.S. ambassador's residence, for Independence Day 2015, with Katherine Jenkins performing the British national anthem.
Agron relocated to New York City in 2016 and took time away from working in that year. She appeared in several films released in 2017. She had a supporting role in the Vatican II-set film Novitiate, portraying Sister Mary Grace, a foil to the harsh instruction of the Mother Superior, opposite Melissa Leo and Margaret Qualley. Agron spoke about playing a Catholic nun as a Jewish actor, saying that she was interested in exploring faith and spirituality that exist outside of her own experiences. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "in an ensemble without a weak link, special note should be made of [Agron], gently heartbreaking [in her role]", and San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle opined that as part of the ensemble, Agron, as well as Rebecca Dayan and Julianne Nicholson, "would be the highlight of any other film, the person audiences would go home talking about". Agron also portrayed Alison Miller, the lead of the drama Hollow in the Land. The film was often compared to Winter's Bone, with The New York Times saying that the "movie is not as tense [as Winter's Bone], but it gets close thanks to Ms. Agron's resolute performance and [its] hostile small town setting"; The Hollywood Reporter said that "Agron delivers a compelling turn in this atmospheric backwoods mystery."
In September 2017, Agron made her singing debut with a residency at the Café Carlyle, saying that she "missed singing publicly" and wanted to pursue this again in New York. In her set she performed music originally sung by male acts, with BroadwayWorld noting that, for possibly the first time, people would hear her sing in her preferred register; she told WWD that she saw an improvement in her vocal quality using her own register again after being uncomfortable hitting high notes for Glee. Music critic Will Friedwald described her as "a post-millennial update of Julie London"; Paul Hagen of Metrosource said that her lower range "is smooth as single malt scotch"; and Theater Pizzazz's Eric J. Grimm wrote that, "free of auto tune and songs out of her vocal range, she reveals herself to be a capable and precise singer with an appreciation for excellent lyrics." Agron returned to the Carlyle in January and February 2019, again performing a setlist "tailored for her husky register", with a larger band. This performance was advertised to feature songs by female acts, though she still sung many songs performed by men. Of the second show, Matt Smith, also Theater Pizzazz, said that Agron used minimal commentary, which "[felt] as if she's second-guessing herself", but that any lack of expression in commentary was made up for by her expression through the songs; Agron selected songs that she found romantic and playful. Smith complimented that her voice is "soothing and soulful, [and] makes the already-cozy Café Carlyle feel that much more intimate". Agron suggested that she would consider releasing an album, but not of the pop music featured on Glee.
Berlin, I Love You, an installment of the Cities of Love anthology film series, was released in 2019. Agron directed a segment in the film from a screenplay by David Vernon, as well as playing a puppeteer who reinvigorates the life of a burnt-out Hollywood star played by Luke Wilson. She was initially approached to act in the segment, and asked if she could direct it instead before being hired for both roles; filming for the segment took one day. Reception to the film was generally negative: Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that "by and large, the film feels aimless and uninspired ... the most effective sequence may be [Agron's] offering", a sentiment echoed by Jackie K. Cooper, while Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com felt it was "such a wan little embarrassment that its presence can only be explained by the fact that ... Wilson and Agron might attract a few more viewers."
### 2020–present: Return to prominence
Starting with 2020's Shiva Baby, Agron began appearing in more prominent independent films, with well-received performances; Rolling Stone also noted that most of the films or Agron's characters of this period were identifiably Jewish, in contrast to her previous roles.
Agron played Kim Beckett in Shiva Baby, a comedy set at a Jewish mourning service. The film and its cast received widespread praise, with some reviews noting the depth Agron brought to her role. The Hollywood Reporter, /Film, and Variety described her performance as "perfect" and "flawless". She then portrayed Laura Riding in the historical biopic The Laureate; telling the story of Riding's life with Robert Graves and their lovers, it premiered in 2021. In As They Made Us, directed by Mayim Bialik and released in April 2022, Agron played the lead role, Abigail, alongside Dustin Hoffman and Candice Bergen. Abigail is the daughter of Hoffman and Bergen's characters; Agron had previously played Bergen's daughter in the 2010 film The Romantics and said it was "super special" to work with her again at a different stage. The film deals with parental death, something which Agron related to due to experiences with her own father's illness. She noted that about a year before filming the project she had finally become ready to address father-daughter relationships in her work; the theme is also present in Acidman, a film Agron began working on in 2020.
In March and April 2022, Agron performed her third residency at the Café Carlyle. Reviews noted her charming commentary and ability to connect with the audience, with Front Row Center writing that her "alluring badinage is as delightful as her song." Stephen Mosher for BroadwayWorld said that her "famously husky ... whisky tenor and relaxed stylings [bring] an atmosphere of levity and love".
Acidman, a two-hander starring Agron and Thomas Haden Church, was released in 2023, as was the Hulu/Disney+ release Clock, a sci-fi horror film with Agron in the lead role. She also returned to television for the first time since Glee in 2023 to be part of the main cast of the Netflix original television show The Chosen One.
## Public image
### Image and fashion
Agron's public image and style have been described as "old Hollywood", something she has enjoyed since she was a child admiring figures including Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball and Leslie Caron. Like classic stars, Agron speaks with a Mid-Atlantic accent, and she has connected her views on keeping private to this era, saying: "I think people know too many things about actors these days ... Back in the day, you knew very little about the stars". The role of Quinn in Glee saw Agron nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Female Breakout Star in 2010, and she and other cast members were awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award for Ensemble in a Comedy Series that same year. In 2011, her roles in Glee and I Am Number Four saw Agron place on the IMDb list of top emerging stars, and the Victoria's Secret models ranked her as the sexiest smile in Hollywood. Following the death of Cory Monteith in 2013, Agron criticized the lack of privacy afforded her Glee castmates by paparazzi, though said she had come to accept this kind of treatment in exchange for the positives of being an actor. Agron has since said that the level of success Glee had when she was in her early twenties "[catapulted her] into a world [in which she was] not very equipped to, kind of, explore that coming-of-age in the public eye", adding that the sudden emergence of social media at the time did not help; she explained that she chose to travel to keep grounded. Agron was one of the most-followed and most influential celebrities on Twitter in 2012 and 2013.
Entertainment Tonight has called Agron a "fashion icon", and Vogue magazine has covered her style and taste, praising her takes on different styles and remixing fashion. She has been credited with influencing the popularity of the fishtail braid; shaggy bob; and pompadour hairstyles, and her presence at Met Galas helped popularize it to become one of New York's biggest social events. Agron describes her style as "eclectic", adding that she enjoys dressing in both feminine and masculine looks. In 2015, she said that her style and the way she presents herself are "more to the prudish side". In 2010, she appeared on the cover of GQ with Glee co-stars Michele and Monteith; after "minor controversy" following complaints that the actors were dressed too provocatively for their younger fans, Agron wrote an apology on her blog. Agron and her Glee character are referenced in the controversial 2016 song "Einstein yori Dianna Agron" by Japanese idol group HKT48, as the epitome of beauty and charm. She is also named in the liner notes of the Taylor Swift song "22", as an inspiration of the song, and some fans have speculated that Swift's song "Wonderland" also references her.
Though she became known for playing the gentile across from Jewish characters, Agron is a practicing Jew. She knows Hebrew and visited Israel to study her faith in 2016. The debate on Jewish characters being portrayed by Jewish actors became prominent in 2018 with the success of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, with a response from physiognomist Sharrona Pearl in Jewish culture magazine Tablet referring to Agron and her roles as overtly shiksa characters in debating representation. Other Jewish media have commented on Agron's Glee character, with the Jewish Women's Archive suggesting that she may have made cheerleading more visible to Jewish girls, and Agron's appearance, with Hey Alma noting that this is "something the Jewish media loves to talk about, somewhat saltily." More discussions of actors' Jewishness came with the release of Shiva Baby, which has a non-Jewish lead actress while Agron's Kim is, ironically, the only character in the film who is not considered Jewish; writer-director Emma Seligman said that Agron was excited to be involved in a Jewish movie, saying that it was "so sad to hear, but because of her looks, [Agron's] Jewishness is constantly questioned".
### Relationships
While Agron is known for keeping her romances private, she has been in several high-profile relationships. In July 2010, she began dating British actor Alex Pettyfer, her I Am Number Four co-star. Despite reported difficulties they began cohabiting in 2010. The couple had a messy break-up in February 2011, the day after the film was released, with reports that he threatened her over the phone and had a "heated confrontation" with actor Sebastian Stan, someone with whom Agron was close in early 2011. She temporarily moved to a hotel under a false name so that Pettyfer would not be able to find her, and Pettyfer was instructed not to attend an event at which she would be present. In early 2011, Agron met actor Chris Evans at an Oscars party and the two were linked in April that year; reportedly, Evans' brother Scott was a fan of Agron from Glee and supported the idea of the couple. Agron began dating Stan in June 2011; they split in December, due to Agron being unable to spend time with him while having to work on Glee, but began dating again in February 2012 and were still together in April.
It was first reported that Agron was dating Mumford & Sons guitarist Winston Marshall in July 2015, and the couple became engaged in winter 2015/16. They were married on October 15, 2016, in Morocco, with Agron wearing a Valentino Fall 2016 off-the-runway dress noted as one of the most expensive celebrity wedding dresses ever. Agron and Marshall kept their relationship private, including not posting about each other on social media. After splitting, they separated in 2019 and divorced in 2020. In 2022, Marshall said that splitting up, which they did around the same time he got sober, was painful.
In May 2023, an interview with Belgian painter Harold Ancart stated that he and Agron had been together for almost two years and live together in New York. The year prior, it was reported that an incident involving Agron and publisher Lucas Zwirner caused Ancart to suddenly cut ties with art dealer and gallery owner (and Lucas' father) David Zwirner.
Agron's sexuality has been subject to much public speculation; lesbian culture website Autostraddle reflected that Agron wearing a T-shirt reading "Likes Girls" in 2011 "was the moment that started the whole [internet] gay discourse", and a 2016 episode of IFC's Boxed In satirized Agron making ambiguous statements on the subject, something common in Celesbian culture. Her close friendship with Taylor Swift in the early 2010s led to some fans developing a long-standing theory that Swift is "secretly gay"; speculation of a relationship between the pair was common in Hollywood at the time and Agron was asked about its veracity as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2012, and by Rolling Stone in 2023.
## Activism
### Charity and advocacy
The Guardian noted in 2015 that Agron is "also known for her activism, supporting charities and advocacy groups when not acting." She is an activist for LGBT+ rights and human rights, and has said that being able to engage with large-scale charity work is one of the positives of her job. She has also given her time to charitable endeavors supporting children, including organizations like Camp Wonder and UNICEF, and has hosted and participated in various fundraisers for literacy non-profit 826LA, including emceeing the 2010 concert "Chickens in Love". Since 2012, Agron has been a GLAAD Spirit Day ambassador, and since 2014 she has been a Global Citizen Ambassador, regularly participating in the Global Citizen Festival. In politics, Agron endorsed Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, and Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.
In 2011 she attended the Trevor Project's Trevor Live! with Glee co-stars Kevin McHale and Darren Criss, and on June 2, 2012, she hosted the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco. Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith had hosted a parallel event on March 24, 2012, in New York City, auctioning off kisses to the audience; Agron did the same, raising \$5,500 for the campaign. In women's rights, Agron spoke at the 18th San Francisco Power of Choice Luncheon to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in 2013, and criticized the Supreme Court of the United States when it repealed this in June 2022. In the arts, Agron works with Platform Presents, a British organization founded by Gala Gordon to provide a platform to new talent, and is an advocate for female filmmakers: she was a jurist for the Nora Ephron Prize at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, and for the Through Her Lens grant at Tribeca in 2017 and 2018. Supporting youth causes, in 2014, Agron took part in a charity weekend as part of the Big Slick Foundation, an organization of Kansas City-related celebrities, to help raise funds for Children's Mercy Hospital, and she and other Glee stars participated in the Young Storytellers Foundation "Glee Big Show", which featured live performances of five scripts written by fifth grade students to support arts programs in public schools. In August 2014 she wrote an article for NBC News to promote United Nations (UN) International Youth Day.
Agron has prominently been a supporter of charities for refugees, particularly children, affected by war. In 2012, Agron visited the Somaly Mam Foundation's Kampong Cham center, where she met child and teenage residents, and in 2013 she promoted a campaign fundraiser benefiting the foundation. In November 2014, Agron, among many other international artists, was featured on the United Nations Children's Fund charity single "Imagine". She has raised money and advocated for War Child since 2014, particularly for Syrian refugees, and in 2016, she traveled with the UN to visit resettled Syrian refugees in Austria and Jordan. She has also supported military personnel, providing services and live entertainment to United States troops and their families as part of the December 2014 United Service Organizations tour at Bagram air field, Afghanistan, and locations in Spain, Italy, Turkey, and the UK.
### You, Me and Charlie
You, Me & Charlie (YM&C) was a curation platform launched by Agron on December 12, 2011. Along with help from several other contributors, she wrote and collected posts on subjects including music, art, fashion, and daily inspiration. The name of the website refers to Charlie, one of Agron's childhood nicknames, "her male alter ego[,] and the star of the short stories she'd write in high school". Several short films and videos created by Lexy Hulme, a dancer and friend of Agron, were also shared on the website, which accepted submissions for inspiration posts through a related Tumblr blog. The site served as inspiration for young artists, and Vanity Fair championed it as a stress reliever, saying that the site is "full of sunshine, optimism, and pretty people"; InStyle promoted how the platform spread activism, saying that "these days it seems every celebrity has an online presence [but] Agron uses social media in a truly inspired way." The idea for YM&C came from how "people really responded so well to [Agron's personal blog], so [she] just wanted to open it up and have it be more of a community". In February 2013, Agron hosted a concert for the curation blog in Los Angeles, where she performed Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It" with the band A House For Lions.
## Selected filmography
## Awards and nominations
## See also
- GQ's Glee photoshoot controversy
- "Einstein yori Dianna Agron" controversy |
21,621,375 | I-351-class submarine | 1,092,637,503 | Japanese submarine class | [
"I-351-class submarines",
"Submarine classes",
"Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy"
]
| The I-351-class submarine (伊三百五十一型潜水艦, I-san-byaku-go-jū-ichi-gata sensuikan) was a class of tanker/transport submarines built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. The IJN called this type of submarine Senho type submarine (潜補型潜水艦, Sen-Ho-gata sensuikan). The type name, was shortened to Hokyū Sensuikan (補給潜水艦, Submarine Tanker). The IJN designed these submarines to support flying boats in forward areas. By the time the first submarine was finished, this capability was no longer needed and she was converted into a tanker. That boat, I-351, was sunk on the return leg of her second voyage in 1945; the second boat, I-352, was destroyed by an American air raid before she was completed. Four additional submarines were planned, but were cancelled before they were laid down.
## Design and description
The I-351-class submarines were ordered under the 5th Fleet Replenishment Program of 1942 to support IJN flying boats in areas where there were no shore facilities and seaplane tenders could not operate. They were designed to support up to three flying boats with fuel, ammunition, water and even replacement aircrew.
These submarines had a length of 111 meters (364 ft 2 in) overall, a beam of 10.2 meters (33 ft 6 in) and a draft of 6.1 meters (20 ft 0 in). They displaced 3,512 long tons (3,568 t) on the surface and 4,290 long tons (4,360 t) submerged. They had a diving depth of 90 meters (300 ft) and a crew of 77 officers and enlisted men plus accommodations for 13 aircrew.
The boats had two propellers, each of which was driven by a 1,850-brake-horsepower (1,380 kW) diesel engine as well as a 600-shaft-horsepower (447 kW) electric motor. This arrangement gave the I-351-class submarines a maximum speed of 15.75 knots (29.17 km/h; 18.12 mph) while surfaced and 6.3 knots (11.7 km/h; 7.2 mph) submerged. They had a range of 13,000 nautical miles (24,000 km; 15,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) while on the surface and 100 nmi (190 km; 120 mi) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) while submerged. This gave them an endurance of 60 days.
The boats were equipped with four 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes in the bow and they carried four torpedoes. For surface combat they were designed to carry one 14-centimeter (5.5 in) deck gun, but this was unavailable when the submarines were under construction and three 81-millimeter (3.2 in) Type 3 mortars were substituted. The submarines were fitted with seven 25 mm Type 96 anti-aircraft guns, in two twin and three single mounts.
The I-351-class submarines were initially equipped to carry 365 long tons (371 t) of aviation gasoline, 11 long tons (11 t) of fresh water, and either sixty 550-pound (250 kg) bombs or 30 bombs and 15 aircraft torpedoes. Four of the torpedoes could be replaced by an equal number of reload torpedoes for the submarine.
## Boats
## Construction and service
Only I-351 and I-352 were actually laid down, the other four submarines were cancelled before their keels were laid.
I-351 was modified before completion into an oil tanker. The boat made one round trip from Singapore, carrying 132,000 US gallons (500,000 L; 110,000 imp gal) of aviation fuel, and was sunk on the return leg of her second trip in the South China Sea at coordinates by the American submarine Bluefish on 14 July 1945. I-352 was 90 percent complete when she was destroyed during an air raid by Boeing B-29 heavy bombers on 22 July.
## Books |
53,970,357 | Emma Ahuena Taylor | 1,129,982,075 | Public figure in Hawaii (1867–1937) | [
"1867 births",
"1937 deaths",
"American people of British descent",
"American women educators",
"Burials at Oahu Cemetery",
"Educators from Hawaii",
"Hawaii Republicans",
"Hawaii suffragists",
"Hawaiian Kingdom people of English descent",
"Hawaiian nobility",
"Historians of Hawaii",
"Native Hawaiian writers",
"People from Honolulu"
]
| Emma Ahuena Davison Taylor (November 13, 1867 – November 8, 1937) was a part-Native Hawaiian high chiefess during the 20th century. She was a cultural historian, a genealogist, and a repository of Hawaiian culture and history who wrote many articles and recollections about the past and influenced her husband, Albert Pierce Taylor, the author of the historical book Under Hawaiian Skies. She was involved in local philanthropic, historical, and civic groups and participated in the women's suffrage movement in the Territory of Hawaii, campaigning for the rights of local women to vote prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
## Early life and family
Emma Ahuena Davison was born on November 13, 1867, although her gravestone says she was born in 1866. She was the eldest daughter and second child of American pharmacist Benoni Richmond Davison—who became the superintendent of the United States Marine Hospital in Honolulu—and British-Hawaiian chiefess Mary Jane Kekulani Fayerweather. On her mother's side, she was a great-granddaughter of the British Captain George Charles Beckley and Ahia, a distant relation of the reigning House of Kamehameha. Davison's siblings included William Compton Malulani, Rose Compton, Henry Fayerweather, and Marie Hope Kekulani. Her father died in 1875 and her mother later married photographer A. A. Montano in 1877.
Davison attended St. Andrew's Priory School in Honolulu, where she was taught by the sisterhoods of the Anglican Church of Hawaii established by King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma. She later transferred to Fort Street School and became a playmate of Princess Kaʻiulani, the niece of King Kalākaua. Beginning in 1890, after finishing her education, she worked as a schoolteacher with her sister Rose at the government school in the Mānoa Valley.
She married Albert Pierce Taylor on November 5, 1902, at her mother's Mānoa residence, becoming Taylor's second wife. Taylor, originally from the United States, settled in Hawaii and worked for The Pacific Commercial Advertiser and later became the librarian for the Archives of Hawaii. He was also a writer of Hawaiian history whose most notable work is Under Hawaiian Skies. They had no children.
## Literary career
Emma Ahuena Taylor was an authority on Hawaiian history, genealogy, and language. With her mother, she planned and directed many historical pageants. Her husband's later works were greatly influenced by Taylor and her mother. In the 1920s, Taylor received a government appointment to the Hawaiian Historical and Hawaiian Folklore Commissions. The trustees of Bishop Museum and Kamehameha Schools consulted her and other Hawaiian scholars in the translation of Samuel Kamakau's seminal work Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii into English.
Taylor and her husband became officers in the Hawaiian Historical Society. In September 1930, she wrote a paper and used it to address the society's annual meeting about the history and origin of the former Royal Tombs at Pohukaina. Located in the grounds of ʻIolani Palace, the site was abandoned when the bodies of the Hawaiian royal family were moved to the Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla during the reign of Kamehameha V, leaving behind many remains of the chiefs. Because of its importance Taylor argued; "...the site of the old royal tomb should be held in veneration, and that the historic mound should be cleared and exposed to public view, surrounded by an imposing guard fence, and an appropriate tablet set up to tell passersby its profound royal history". Following this meeting, the society submitted a resolution asking Governor Walter F. Frear to put a protective fence and plaque around the sacred site, which was done on October 17, 1930. Her other scholarly publications include; "Vengeance of Pele" (1930), the "Legend of Puahuula" (1930), and "Poki — Guardian Dog of Moanalua" (1935), all of which were written for Paradise of the Pacific magazine.
The most notable characteristics of Taylor's writings were its personal touches and romantic depictions of the past, containing many vivid accounts drawn from her own life. In 1935, she wrote a series of eight weekly installments titled "Personal Recollections", in which she recounts life in Hawaii from her childhood in the 1870s until 1934, for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Eleanor H. Williamson notes:
> Her writing was personal, vivid, and poignant as she described the elegance of court life, with its picturesque and majestic emblems of royalty in the stately kahilis and feather capes, and the genteel and dignified manner of the men and women surrounding the monarch. She was a repository of information on old Hawaii and was liberal in sharing it. In her recollections she provided the color, drama, and personal stories so often absent from purely factual histories. One can almost taste the dust, smell the leis, and view old Honolulu in the mind's eye as she wrote...
## Community involvement
In 1912, she became a supporter of the women's suffrage movement. Native Hawaiian women of high societal rank like Taylor were key early campaigners for this cause. In 1917, she attended a party hosted by Emma Nakuina to honor a visiting suffragist from the mainland United States, Almira Hollander Pitman, the wife of Taylor's cousin Benjamin F. Pitman. The presence of Taylor and other upper-class Honolulu suffragists—including Wilhelmine Widemann Dowsett, president of the National Women's Equal Suffrage Association of Hawaii—and subsequent meetings with the club prompted Pitman to write to her political connections in the mainland, which helped push a bill authorizing the Territory of Hawaii with the power to legislate on the issue of women's suffrage through Congress. In 1919, a local bill to enfranchise the women of Hawaii was planned but it never passed because the following year Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, granting all women in the United States the right to vote. During World War I, Taylor and her friend Emilie Widemann Macfarlane organized knitting units on behalf of Native Hawaiian soldiers.
On September 23, 1921, Taylor wrote an article published in the Honolulu Advertiser that argued for Hawaii's recognition in a proposed Hall of Remembrance to be erected by the Woman's National Foundation in Washington, DC, honoring women from each of the then-forty-eight states. Speaking on behalf of the women of Hawaii, she advocated for Hawaii's spot in the proposed memorial, suggesting "a pillar of laval stone chiselled from the laval flows of Kilauea, be placed within this Hall of Remembrance to symbolize Hawaii" and for the recognition of the early pioneering American missionary wives, Queen Kaʻahumanu and High Chiefess Kapiʻolani. The pillar representing Hawaii was never erected.
Taylor also supported many local organizations and was the premier of Māmakakaua (the Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors), a group composed of the descendants of the high chiefs (aliʻi) from the deposed monarchy. The group hosted pageants celebrating the history and traditions of Hawaii. Other organizations she became involved include the League of Women Voters, The Outdoor Circle, and the Native Daughters of Hawaii—which she helped organized. She was also elected the first female vice-president of the Manoa Percent Republican Club.
In later life, Taylor befriended writer Beatrice Ayer Patton—the wife of General George S. Patton—who wrote The Blood of the Shark: A Romance of Early Hawaii, which was published in 1936 and loosely influenced by the exploits of Taylor's Hawaiian and British ancestors.
## Death
Richard Weinberg described her in a 1936 interview about the art and craft of Ancient Hawaii in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "Mrs. Emma Ahuena Taylor impresses one as a person who has carried a strikingly handsome, youthful appearance into maturity. Although her hair is gray and her old fashioned, black holoku sweeps the floor, her limpid brown eyes retain all the charm and fire of youth. Her carefully modulated voice recalls a day when conversation was not an neglected art."
Taylor died on November 7, 1937, and was buried next to her husband at the Oahu Cemetery. Her private notes, diaries, letters, and manuscript drafts, and those of her mother Mary Jane Montano, are now in the Hawaii State Archives. |
1,595,741 | 1918 Atlantic hurricane season | 1,152,699,719 | Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean | [
"1910s Atlantic hurricane seasons",
"1918 meteorology",
"1918 natural disasters",
"Articles which contain graphical timelines"
]
| The 1918 Atlantic hurricane season was inactive, with a total of six tropical storms developing, four of which intensified into hurricanes. Two of the season's hurricanes made Landfall in the United States, and one became a major hurricane, which is Category 3 or higher on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson scale. Additionally, there were four suspected tropical depressions, including one that began the season on June 19 and one that ended the season when it dissipated on October 19. The early 20th century lacked modern forecasting and documentation, and thus, the hurricane database from these years may be incomplete. Four previously unknown tropical cyclones were identified using records, including historical weather maps and ship reports, while information on the known storms was amended.
The strongest system of the season was the second tropical cyclone, which peaked as a Category 3 hurricane. The storm devastated southwestern Louisiana in early August, especially Cameron Parish, leaving 34 fatalities and approximately \$5 million (1918 USD) in damage. In late August, the season's third tropical storm damaged portions of coastal North Carolina, causing up to \$15,000 in damage. Although the fifth tropical storm or its extratropical remnants caused only minor impacts on land in Bermuda and Atlantic Canada, 21 people drowned after two ships were caught in the storm.
The season's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 40, below the 1911–1920 average of 58.7. ACE is a metric used to express the energy used by a tropical cyclone during its lifetime. Therefore, a storm with a longer duration will have high values of ACE. It is only calculated at six-hour increments in which specific tropical and subtropical systems are either at or above sustained wind speeds of 39 mph (63 km/h), which is the threshold for tropical storm intensity. Thus, tropical depressions are not included here.
## Timeline
## Systems
### Hurricane One
The Louisiana Hurricane of 1918
A tropical storm was first noted in cable reports from Bridgetown, Barbados, on August 1. Moving west-northwestward, the storm soon passed through the Grenadines before entering the Caribbean Sea. The cyclone gradually curved northwestward over the Caribbean and strengthened slowly. While approaching the Yucatán Channel late on August 4, the system began to intensify significantly. After reaching the Gulf of Mexico, the storm strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on the modern day Saffir–Simpson scale at 12:00 UTC on August 5. On the following day, the cyclone became a major hurricane and peaked as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 955 millibars (28.2 inHg). Around 18:00 UTC on August 6, the hurricane made landfall near Cameron, Louisiana. The system quickly weakened after moving inland, dissipating over Oklahoma about 24 hours later.
Along the coast of Louisiana, storm surge swept away homes in Creole and Grand Chenier. Strong winds were observed in southwestern Louisiana, with gusts up to 125 mph (201 km/h) at Sulphur. Very few businesses in the town remained standing, with the Union Sulphur Mines suffering \$3 million in damage. Three pilots were killed at Gerstner Field near Holmwood, while 7 hangars and 96 airplanes were destroyed. Only its Big Lake Gunnery School survived, though it required extensive repairs. In Lake Charles, debris from destroyed homes and downed electrical wires left nearly all streets impassable. Several buildings were also severely damaged or destroyed, including a synagogue, two churches, an oil corporation building, and a number of sawmills. In the Goosport Milling District, fires broke out, causing additional damage. Most of the buildings in DeQuincy and Westlake were leveled, with the latter described as "a scene of desolation." Overall, there were 34 deaths and \$5 million in damage in Louisiana.
### Hurricane Two
A tropical wave developed into the season's third tropical storm just east of the Windward Islands on August 22. While the storm passed south of Barbados, sustained winds reached 48 mph (77 km/h) from the southeast. Late on August 22, the cyclone passed through the Grenadines and entered the Caribbean. The system intensified into Category 1 hurricane while south of Haiti early on August 24 and became a Category 2 hurricane over the western Caribbean about 24 hours later. On August 25, the hurricane peaked with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 968 mbar (28.6 inHg). Late on August 25, the hurricane made landfall near Brus Laguna, Honduras. Early the following day, the storm briefly re-emerged into the Caribbean before making landfall near Monkey River Town, Belize. The cyclone quickly weakened over land and dissipated by 12:00 UTC on August 26. Due to lack of wind observations in Honduras and Belize, it is possible that the storm was below hurricane intensity during those landfalls.
### Hurricane Three
A low-pressure area developed into a tropical storm by 06:00 UTC on August 23, while located about 240 mi (390 km) east-northeast of the northern Bahamas. The storm steadily strengthened while moving northwestward, before curving to the north-northwest. Around 18:00 UTC on August 24, the cyclone intensified into Category 1 hurricane, peaking with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 km/h). The storm, moving northeastward, made landfall near Emerald Isle, North Carolina, with an estimated barometric pressure of 988 mbar (29.2 inHg), the lowest pressure in relation to the storm. While moving across coastal North Carolina, the cyclone weakened to a tropical storm early on August 25, several hours before re-emerging into the Atlantic. The system continued weakening before merging with a frontal system about 125 mi (200 km) east-southeast of New Jersey at 12:00 UTC on August 26.
Abnormally high tides and strong winds left some damage to crops, fencing, and buildings, especially at Atlantic, Ocracoke, and Harkers Island. Dozens of small boats were smashed into pieces along the beaches. A number of people were injured by airborne timbers while attempting to protect their property. It was estimated that damage did not exceed \$15,000.
### Tropical Storm Four
A low-pressure area of non-tropical origins developed into a tropical storm about 815 mi (1,310 km) east-northeast of Bermuda on August 31. The storm initially moved northwestward, before curving east-northeastward late on September 1. Over the next few days, the cyclone intensified slowly. Early on September 4, the system peaked with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 992 mbar (29.3 inHg). The storm began weakening early on September 5 and was absorbed by a frontal boundary about 640 mi (1,030 km) southeast of Newfoundland at 00:00 UTC on September 6. This storm was first added to the Atlantic hurricane database in 2008.
### Hurricane Five
A tropical storm was first detected about 570 mi (920 km) northeast of the northern Leeward Islands on September 2. The cyclone moved west-northwestward and reached hurricane status early on September 3, based on a ship observation of 81 mph (130 km/h) winds. Later that day, the storm curved northwestward. Intensifying further, the system became a Category 2 hurricane late on September 4. While passing west of Bermuda early the following day, winds of at least 60 mph (100 km/h) bring down trees and shatter windows, while many boats were swamped or blown aground. Early on September 5, the hurricane peaked with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure 972 mbar (28.7 inHg).
The storm weakened after passing Bermuda, falling to Category 1 intensity hurricane at 06:00 UTC on September 6, about 12 hours before weakening to a tropical storm. By 00:00 UTC on September 7, the system transitioned into an extratropical cyclone. The remnant extratropical storm struck Nova Scotia and Newfoundland before dissipating over the latter on September 8. A total of 21 deaths occurred in Nova Scotia after the Otokio wrecked at Sober Island and the Belle of Burgeo disappeared near Sambro Island.
### Tropical Storm Six
A tropical wave developed into a tropical storm just north of Barbados early on September 9. Later that day, the storm crossed the Windward Islands, passing between Martinique and Saint Lucia. While moving west-northwest to westward across the Caribbean, the cyclone only strengthened slightly. Early on September 11, the storm peaked with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 km/h). In real time, it was believed that the cyclone curved nearly due northward on September 12 and crossed Haiti before dissipating near Great Abaco Island on September 14. However, observations from the Greater Antilles suggest that the storm continued westward. Upon reaching the northwestern Caribbean on September 14, the storm weakened to a tropical depression, before dissipating about 170 mi (270 km) west of the Cayman Islands around 12:00 UTC.
### Tropical depressions
In addition to the six officially recognized tropical storms and hurricanes, four tropical depressions in the 1918 season have been identified. The first developed in June from a trough of low pressure in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and moved east across Florida. Although it is possible that the system attained tropical storm intensity, a lack of supporting evidence precludes its designation as such. It is thought that the tropical depression developed on June 20 and dissipated on June 23. The second depression evolved from a tropical wave on September 13 in the eastern Atlantic. It persisted until September 17, when the system was lost over the open ocean, although it is possible that the system persisted thereafter. On September 25, the third tropical depression formed in the northwestern Caribbean. It tracked northward into the eastern Gulf of Mexico and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone before dissipating on September 30. The final depression of the 1918 season developed on October 14 while situated in the southern Gulf of Mexico. While tracking northwestward, the depression experienced little change in intensity and made landfall in Louisiana three days after formation. It dissipated over land on October 19.
## See also
- 1900–1940 South Pacific cyclone seasons
- 1900–1950 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone seasons
- 1910s Australian region cyclone seasons |
17,067,748 | Discipline (Nine Inch Nails song) | 1,157,706,226 | Nine Inch Nails song | [
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"American hard rock songs",
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| "Discipline" is a song by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from their seventh studio album, titled The Slip (2008). It was released on April 22, 2008 as the only single from the album. It is the band's first single since severing its ties with Interscope Records and publishing music independently.
The MP3 download contains an embedded album art image, full lyrics, and the comment: "Go to www.nin.com May 5". Subsequently, on May 5, 2008 a new Nine Inch Nails album, The Slip, was revealed for download. "Discipline" reached number six on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 24 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, becoming Nine Inch Nails' sixth consecutive top-10 song on the former.
## Background
Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor announced in 2007 that the band had completed its contractual obligations to its record label, Interscope Records, and would no longer be working with the company. Reznor also revealed that Nine Inch Nails would likely distribute music independently. Since the announcement, Nine Inch Nails released the 36-track instrumental album Ghosts I–IV in March 2008 through Reznor's independent label The Null Corporation. After the release of Ghosts I–IV, Reznor began writing and recording what would become the next full-length album, The Slip.
During recording sessions for The Slip, Reznor sent the track "Discipline" to radio stations himself on April 22. The track was sent before the remainder of the album was completed, and less than 24 hours after the track had been mastered by Alan Moulder. On the same day, the track was also made available for download at the official Nine Inch Nails website for free, as well as multitrack files of the song for remixing. Reznor reflected on the quick turnaround by saying, "That was fun [...] you never could have done that before", referring to his past career on major record labels. "Discipline" was the first Nine Inch Nails single to be released independently via The Null Corporation.
## Composition
"Discipline" was written and composed by Reznor, who produced it with Atticus Ross and Moulder. The largely electronic instrumentation of the song has been compared to Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Giorgio Moroder. Rolling Stone magazine described the track as "the closest Reznor has ever come to disco, right down to a splashing high-hat, boosted way up in the mix". Eric Harvey of Pitchfork also compared the song to disco, saying that the song "eschews a typically monstrous chorus for an airtight industrial disco grind ventilated by an airy piano and falsetto cooing."
Lyrically, Spin magazine wrote, "As is true of nine out of every ten NIN tracks, 'Discipline' is about submission and domination". Harvey compared "Discipline" to one Nine Inch Nails's first singles, "Head Like a Hole", saying "['Discipline'] comes from a long-established and now label-free artist trying to reflexively reassert his position in the pop landscape, on his own terms. [...] 'Discipline' evinces Reznor's desire for some sort of framework [...] In relative terms, 'I need your discipline/ I need your help' is sure a long way from the nearly 20-year-old 'Head Like a Hole' refrain 'I'd rather die/ Than give you control'."
## Release and reception
"Discipline" was released on April 22, 2008, and was the first single from The Slip. The song was also the first single released from the band under Reznor's newly formed independent label, The Null Corporation. The ID3 tag of the downloadable track came with the message "Go to www.nin.com May 5", the day that The Slip would eventually be released as a free download.
"Discipline" was only made available for airplay and download; a physical release was never issued. Though no music video was created for the song either, retail versions of The Slip included a DVD featuring a live rehearsal of the song by the Nine Inch Nails live band. The rehearsal video has since been posted on the band's official Vimeo and YouTube pages. Like the entirety of The Slip, "Discipline" was released under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial share-alike license, in effect allowing anyone to use or rework the material for any non-profit purpose, as long as credit is provided and the resulting work is released under a similar license.
"Discipline" reached number six and number 24 on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks charts, respectively, earning the band their sixth consecutive top-10 song on the former. The song also charted at number nine on Billboard's "iLike Libraries: Most Added" chart, which tracks total downloads over the iLike online service.
Pitchfork's review of The Slip called the track "another solid pop song about constraint from the guy who, following Prince, brought kinky sex odes to strip-mall bars." Spin magazine's review of the album called "Discipline" "the most conventional tune" from The Slip.
## Charts |
25,099,456 | Typhoon Elsie (1989) | 1,161,620,411 | Pacific typhoon in 1989 | [
"1989 Pacific typhoon season",
"1989 disasters in the Philippines",
"Typhoons",
"Typhoons in China",
"Typhoons in Hong Kong",
"Typhoons in Vietnam",
"Typhoons in the Philippines"
]
| Typhoon Elsie, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Tasing, was one of the most intense known tropical cyclones to make landfall in the Philippines. A powerful Category 5 super typhoon, Elsie formed out of a tropical disturbance on October 13, 1989, and initially moved relatively slowly in an area of weak steering currents. On October 15, the storm underwent a period of rapid intensification, attaining an intensity that corresponds to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale. After taking a due west track towards the northern Philippines, the storm intensified further, becoming a Category 5 super typhoon hours before making landfall in Luzon. After moving inland, the typhoon rapidly weakened to a tropical storm. Once back over water in the South China Sea, wind shear prevented re-intensifcation. Elsie eventually made landfall in Vietnam on October 22 and dissipated the following day over Laos.
In the Philippines, Elsie worsened the situation already left in the wakes of typhoons Angela and Dan. Although it was stronger than the previous two, Elsie caused far less damage due to the relatively sparse population in the area of landfall. During the storm's passage, 47 people were killed and another 363 were injured. Damages throughout the country amounted to \$35.4 million and roughly 332,000 people were left homeless.
## Meteorological history
Super Typhoon Elsie, the third typhoon to impact the Philippines within a 12-day span during 1989, originated from a tropical upper tropospheric trough (TUTT) over the western Pacific Ocean in mid-October. By October 13, a tropical disturbance developed out of the system roughly 1,240 kilometres (770 mi) east-northeast of Manila, Philippines. At this time, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) began to monitor the system as a tropical depression. Located between two other TUTT cells, the disturbance's outflow was enhanced, allowing it to intensify. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert late on October 13. Early the following day, the disturbance was designated as Tropical Depression 30W as it began to stall in an area of weak steering currents between two subtropical highs.
Shortly after being declared a depression, the JTWC upgraded the system to a tropical storm, giving it the name Elsie. At the same time, the JMA also upgraded the depression to a tropical storm. By October 15, Elsie began to take a slow track to the west-northwest and intensified. Later that day, a short-wave trough passed to the north of the storm, again enhancing its outflow. This led to a period of rapid intensification, during which Elsie intensified from a tropical storm to the equivalent of a high-end Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale in a 24-hour span. The JMA also upgraded Elsie to a typhoon, though they reported a much more gradual rate of intensification. After strengthening further to Category 4 intensity, maximum winds leveled out for most of October 17.
On October 18, another period of intensification took place as the storm neared the northern Philippines. Early in the day, Elsie was upgraded to a super typhoon, a storm with winds of at least 240 km/h (150 mph). Hours before making landfall in Luzon, the storm attained its peak intensity as a Category 5 super typhoon with winds of 260 km/h (160 mph) and a barometric pressure of 898 hPa (mbar). The peak intensity of Elsie was assessed by the JMA at the same time. They reported that the typhoon attained winds of 175 km/h (109 mph) 10-minute sustained) and a minimum pressure of 915 hPa (mbar). The center of Elsie crossed the Philippine coastline at around 0300 UTC on October 19.
Rapid weakening took place as the storm moved over the mountainous terrain of northern Luzon. Roughly nine hours after crossing the coastline, Elsie was downgraded to a tropical storm. The weakened storm continued its westward track as it entered the South China Sea along a monsoonal surge. This surge also helped to keep Elsie as a tropical storm due to increased wind shear over the northern portion of the cyclone. The JMA, unlike the JTWC, did not downgrade Elsie to a tropical storm until October 21. Failing to re-intensify, Elsie eventually made landfall in central Vietnam on October 22 and degenerated into a remnant-low-pressure system early the following day. The remnants of Elsie were monitored by the JTWC on satellite imagery for a short time until the former typhoon dissipated over Laos.
## Impact and aftermath
During the storm, roughly 50,500 people sought refuge in shelters set up across the country. Throughout the Philippines, 47 people were killed by the typhoon, mostly from drowning. Sixteen of these fatalities occurred in Isabela Province, where Elsie made landfall. Heavy rains triggered several landslides across mountainous areas of the country. High winds also created deadly air-borne debris, including roofing and tree limbs. Downed power lines across the northern provinces left most of Luzon without power. Officials stated that about 61,300 homes were either damaged or destroyed by Elsie in the Philippines. In the wake of the typhoon, roughly 332,000 people were left homeless. Damages sustained by agriculture amounted to ₱105 million (\$2,253,702). In all, Typhoon Elsie killed 47 people and injured 363 others in the Philippines, and left roughly \$35.4 million in damages.
Although Elsie brushed Hainan Island in China and made landfall in northern Vietnam, little damage was reported in these regions. In addition to damages caused by Brian, Angela and Dan, roughly ¥1.9 billion (\$278.3 million) was left in damages.
Following the storm, the Red Cross and World Food Council (UNDRO) set up shelters and began assisting residents in need of food and shelter. Several thousand residents were provided food, clothing and shelter across the country in mass-feeding shelters. The UNDRO also contributed \$461,000 in funds to the Philippines. Another \$46,000 was provided by the Government of Norway and the Catholic Relief Services donated \$50,000. The Government of Japan provided \$300,000 and the Government of the United States donated \$25,000 in response to the overall effects of Elsie and the three preceding storms. Two other non-governmental organizations, the Lutheran World Federation and World Council of Churches allocated \$10,000 and \$30,000, respectively, for the Philippines.
## See also
- 1989 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Megi (2010)
- Typhoon Nesat (2011)
- Typhoon Nalgae (2011) |
253,056 | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED | 1,172,645,689 | Anime series and spinoffs | [
"2002 anime television series debuts",
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"2003 manga",
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"2005 Japanese novels",
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"Anime and manga controversies",
"Bandai Entertainment anime titles",
"Del Rey Manga",
"Gundam anime and manga",
"Kadokawa Shoten manga",
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"Shōnen manga",
"Sunrise (company)",
"TBS Television (Japan) original programming",
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| Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム, Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu Shīdo) is an anime series developed by Sunrise and directed by Mitsuo Fukuda. The ninth installment in the Gundam franchise, Gundam SEED takes place in a future calendar era, in this case the Cosmic Era. In this era, mankind has developed into two subspecies: Naturals, who reside on Earth, and Coordinators, genetically enhanced humans capable of amazing feats of intellect who emigrate to man-made orbital colonies to escape persecution by natural humans. The story revolves around a young Coordinator Kira Yamato who becomes involved in the war between the two races after a third, neutral faction's space colony is invaded by the Coordinators.
The television series was broadcast in Japan between 2002 and 2003, on the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television and MBS TV networks, beginning a broadcast partnership with the Gundam franchise. The series spawned three compilations films and was adapted into a manga as well as light novels. A sequel series, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny followed in 2004 and a followup film, titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom is scheduled for release in 2024. Merchandise has been released, including models, CD soundtracks and video games. Gundam SEED was licensed by Bandai Entertainment for broadcast in North America, and began airing in the United States and Canada in 2004. The films and the sequel were also licensed by Bandai. The manga and light novels as well as the spin-off series, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray, were licensed. Video games were released in North America. In 2011, a HD remaster of the series consisting of 48 episodes was released.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED was widely popular with the public in Japan, winning numerous awards, with high sales of the series DVD and music. It was also a critical success with writers focusing on the character development and animation especially the leads. However, similarities with previous Gundam series were noted.
## Plot
The series is the first of the Gundam franchise set in the "Cosmic Era" in which humankind is divided between normal Earth dwelling humans, known as "Naturals", and the genetically altered super-humans known as "Coordinators". The primary conflict of the story plot derives from jealous hatred by Naturals of the abilities of Coordinators, leading to hate crimes, and eventually the emigration of almost all Coordinators who flee into space to live idyllic lives on giant orbital space colonies called PLANTS of their own design. War eventually breaks out between Earth and the PLANTS. The Earth is divided between two major factions, the Earth Forces formed from most of the natural born human nations, primarily the Eurasians and the Atlantic Federation, and a natural human supremacist group known as Blue Cosmos with its slogan, "For the preservation of our blue and pure world". The Earth Forces are not a unified alliance, and infighting and mistrust exist between their various nation states. The second major Earth nation is the Orb Union, a staunchly politically neutral and isolationist nation located on small Pacific Ocean islands ruled by a hereditary monarchy and still contains Coordinator citizens.
Two major events precede the story, known as the Bloody Valentine tragedy that initiated war between the PLANTS and the Earth Forces when one of the PLANT space stations, Junius-7, is destroyed by a nuclear bomb. The second event is the counterattack by the PLANTS that buries Neutron Jammers deep into Earth's crust that halts all nuclear reactions and long range radar and radio, causing most areas of earth to go without electricity or communication, and requiring mobile suits to rely on rechargeable batteries.
The PLANTS are a technological power house, developing many new technologies that give them equal power to Earth despite their very small population. It is the invention of the Mobile Suits that give their military the edge in the beginning of the war.
The story begins in the neutral Orb Union owned space colony Heliopolis, where five advanced mobile suits for the Earth Forces war effort are developed in secret in exchange of sharing of their technical data with the neutral Orb Union military. Additionally, Heliopolis constructs a unique carrier battleship, the Archangel, to base the five mobile suits from for the Earth Forces. The colony is attacked by ZAFT forces, the military of the PLANTS, with the objective of stealing the new units. During the incursion an Orb Union student and Coordinator named Kira Yamato, upon seeing his friends in danger, pilots the GAT-X105 Strike mobile suit to fend off the invaders but the colony is critically damaged in the ensuing fight. As Heliopolis disintegrates, the survivors board the Archangel, and begin their journey to the Alliance base in Alaska. During the journey to Earth, Kira pilots the Strike to counter a series of attacks by ZAFT but is seemingly killed by his childhood friend, ZAFT soldier Athrun Zala, during one of their battles in which he also is nearly killed. Kira survives the attack and is taken by a blind priest to one of the PLANT space colonies, home to the Coordinators to recover. The Archangel arrives in Alaska but ZAFT launches a full-scale attack on the base overpowering their enemies. Unknown to ZAFT, the Earth forces knew of this attack ahead of time. They planned to sacrifice the Alaska base along with the Archangel in order to destroy ZAFT's army using a weapon of mass destruction hidden underneath the Alaska base.
Kira goes to Alaska with the ZGMF-X10A Freedom, a highly advanced, nuclear powered, and Neutron Jammer proof ZAFT mobile suit stolen by the PLANT pop star Coordinator Lacus Clyne, daughter of PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne. Using the Freedom, Kira is able to help the Archangel flee the destruction of the Alaska base. The Archangel flees to the neutral country of the Orb Union. The Archangel and a new ship, the Orb Union ship Kusanagi leave Earth for space where they then join Lacus Clyne's rebel faction and their stolen ZAFT battleship, the Eternal (meant to carry the Freedom and Justice mobile suits) to form the Three Ships Alliance with the common goal of ending the war between the Naturals and Coordinators. In the midst of the conflict, Athrun learns that Kira survived and searches for him under orders to recover the Freedom Gundam, and is given an equally powerful prototype, the ZGMF-X09A Justice. However, after learning of Patrick Zala's, Athrun's father and the radical militant faction leader of the PLANT Supreme Council, plan to commit genocide, Athrun deserts him and joins the Three Ships Alliance. In a final battle, the Earth Forces deploys nuclear weapons equipped with Neutron Jammer Canceler technology copied from stolen data on the Freedom and Justice Gundam's power systems. The Earth Forces intend to destroy the PLANT space colonies but are stopped by ZAFT's GENESIS, a super weapon microwave laser designed to commit genocide on the Naturals. The Three Ship Alliance intervenes to defeat the GENESIS weapon ending the battle. The war ultimately ends as a peace treaty is signed.
## Development
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED was directed by Mitsuo Fukuda (Future GPX Cyber Formula and Gear Fighter Dendoh) with music by Toshihiko Sahashi. A long time Gundam fan, Fukuda met the president of Sunrise in order let him work in his anime series based on the franchise, stating he had no previous experience with it. Shortly afterwards, the staff members from Sunrise believed Fukuda was worthy of directing the new Gundam anime. Fukuda conceived SEED as one of the biggest projects from his career, noting that it was difficult for him as a result as he worked consistently in his timetable. However, when the series started, Fukuda was relieved by how it had strong rating and merchandising based on it was popular. In the making of the series, Fukuda first wrote an idea for the premise and the use of mechas fighting. In order to write human drama, Fukuda conceived the idea of the struggle between two kind of races, the Naturals and the Coordinators who would be explored in the television series which was inspired by Yoshiyuki Tomino's Newtype concept from the first Gundam series. While the narrative of SEED often makes parallels with Tomino's Gundam, Fukuda wanted SEED to feature a more "modern war" setting. The producer of the series suggested using the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan as a reference to explore the concept of war. Some areas from the storyboards were scrapped because the staff found the original plot to be too violent.
The series was first announced in June 2002, while a trailer was available in September on the series' official website. A total of eight writers were in charge of the series. The characters were designed by Hisashi Hirai, while the mechanical designs were made by Kunio Okawara and Kimitoshi Yamane. Mobile Suit Gundam planning manager Koichi Inoue stated that the staff making Gundam SEED was a new and young team that would continue working with following Gundam series. Inoue, however, would work with anime based on the original Gundam series.
Fukuda stated that Gundam SEED was initially told from Kira's point of view, but deeper into the series the point of view would shift to other characters. His main focus with the series was to entertain the audience, pointing out that the drama would develop through the series in a similar vein to previous Gundam series. The first part worked on was the plot followed by action sequences, stating that the human characters were more important than the combat sequences. In retrospect, Fukuda said that Kira's wish to fight was forced upon him stemming from his desire to protect his friends. Moreover, he considered these actions as being based on Japanese thoughts.
## Media
### Anime
The series premiered in Japan on the terrestrial Tokyo Broadcasting System and Mainichi Broadcasting System networks, where it occupied the Saturday 6 pm timeslot, replacing Ultraman Cosmos. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED aired between October 5, 2002, and September 27, 2003. Each episode was streamed on the Internet the day after broadcast, for users subscribing to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone services, in Windows Media or Real format. The series was sold in Japan as thirteen DVD volumes released from March 28, 2003 to March 26, 2004. On March 26, 2004, a five-minute epilogue called After Phase: In the Valley of Stars was released on the thirteenth and final DVD of the Japanese release. A DVD box set of the series was released on February 23, 2010. A fifty-episode sequel titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny aired in Japan from October 9, 2004 to October 1, 2005, airing on the same stations as Gundam SEED. Gundam SEED Destiny takes place two years after the original series and follows Shinn Asuka, focusing mainly on his involvement in the new war.
An HD remaster edition of the series was confirmed in August 2011 although Mitsuo Fukuda stated it was leaked information and that the official information would come in the next few days. In November 2011, Bandai announced the release of the series in four Blu-ray compilations between March and December 2012. The HD version was first streamed on the Bandai Channel website in December 2011 and aired in Japan between January and November 2012.
Bandai Entertainment licensed the animation of Gundam SEED on February 15, 2004, and it began airing in the United States and Canada that same year. The English adaptation was produced in association with The Ocean Group and the English-language dub was recorded at Ocean Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The series was released on ten DVDs in bilingual format between August 10, 2004, and May 10, 2005. The epilogue was not released on the North American DVD release because it was not licensed to Bandai Entertainment by Sunrise; however, it was released on the final European DVD release. Beez Entertainment also published the series in ten DVDs from June 13, 2005 to March 6, 2006. A two part box set called the "Anime Legends Edition" was released on January 8, 2008, and March 4, 2008, with each set containing five DVDs.
On October 11, 2014 at their 2014 New York Comic Con panel, Sunrise announced they will be re-releasing all of the Gundam franchise, including Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny in North America though distribution from Right Stuf Inc., beginning in Spring 2015. On August 11, 2017 at their 2017 Otakon panel, Sunrise announced that they will be releasing the HD remaster of SEED in North America with a brand new English dub produced by NYAV Post. It was released on December 1, 2020.
### Films
A three-part film compilation of the television series has been released as Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Special Edition. Each compilation film is 90 minutes long and retells the story of Gundam SEED, with additional and altered scenes from the TV series. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny followed the same formula in four compilation films as Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Special Edition. They were released from August 27 to October 22 during 2004 in DVD format. The three films were re-released alongside the four films from Gundam SEED Destiny on February 25, 2010. Gundam SEED: Special Edition has been licensed for North America by Bandai Entertainment and was released on DVDs in English, between July 11, 2005, and November 22, 2005. A DVD box of the three films was released by Bandai on November 26, 2008 under the title of "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Complete Feature Collection".
### Soundtracks
The music from the series is composed by Toshihiko Sahashi with CDs published by Victor Entertainment. Notable artists who sang opening and ending themes for the series include Nami Tamaki, who was fourteen years old when the third opening theme was used, and T.M. Revolution, who also provided the voice for the character, Miguel Aiman, under the artist's real name, Takanori Nishikawa. Four original soundtracks were released between December 4, 2002 and December 16, 2004. They include background music, insert themes as well as some opening and ending themes. Symphony SEED -Symphonic Suit Mobile Suit Gundam SEED- is a collaboration album between Mobile Suit Gundam SEED music and the London Symphony Orchestra released on May 8, 2004 containing a total of ten tracks. A compilation DVD, featuring four music videos from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, was released on May 24, 2006 under the title Mobile Suit Gundam SEED & SEED DESTINY Clipping 4 Songs. Five character CDs with themes performed by the Japanese voice actors were released between March 21, 2003 and July 23, 2003. Two compilation albums have also been released: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED COMPLETE BEST was released on November 22, 2006, featuring thirteen tracks. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED \~ SEED DESTINY BEST "THE BRIDGE" Across the Songs from GUNDAM SEED & SEED DESTINY is a two-CD compilation of ending themes, insert and character songs from Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. All the songs from Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny by T.M.Revolution were collected in a CD titled X42S-REVOLUTION, released on March 24, 2010. The limited edition version includes a DVD with music videos from the anime series. Two other CD singles were released during 2012 featuring the new theme songs from the HD rerelease of Gundam SEED.
### Manga
A manga series was written by Masatsugu Iwase based on the events from the anime series. It was published in five tankōbon volumes from March 20, 2003 to January 21, 2005 by Kodansha. The English version was published in North America by Del Rey Manga who licensed it in January 2004 as one of their first titles, and released between April 27, 2004 and August 30, 2005. Another spin-off series is Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray, written by Tomohiro Chiba and illustrated by Kōichi Tokita, which focused on the three MBF-P0x mobile suit prototypes and their respective pilots and organizations. It was published in three tankōbon volumes from April 28, 2003 to February 26, 2004 by Kadokawa Shoten. The English release was announced by Tokyopop in December 2003. The volumes were released between May 11, 2004 and November 9, 2004. A one-volume manga titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED featuring SUIT CD (機動戦士ガンダムSEED featuring SUIT CD) was written by Yasushi Yamaguchi and released on January 22, 2005 by Kadokawa. In 2012, Kadokawa released a new manga series titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Re by Juu Ishiguchi. The manga retells the events from the television series. It was cancelled in 2015. It was collected into four tankobon volumes.
Two more side stories titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray R and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED X Astray were created. Toda Yasunari replaced Tokita as the illustrator in the former, while Tokita reprised his role in the latter. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray R follows the adventures of the Red Frame's pilot Lowe and his Junk Guild associates and interlocks with the events of the original Astray-series. It spanned four volumes published from March 20, 2003 to August 26, 2004. The English volumes published by TokyoPop were released from February 8, 2005 to November 8, 2005. Gundam SEED X Astray is about Canard Pars, who is a failed experiment from the Ultimate Coordinator program. Canard is searching for Kira Yamato, the successful Ultimate Coordinator, so that he can defeat him and prove he was not a "failure". Two volumes were published for the series in May and October, 2005. TokyoPop published its two volumes on October 31, 2006 and February 27, 2007. There was a "photo novel" side story titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray B which was illustrated by Toda Yasunari. A single volume from the series was published on August 31, 2005 and follows Gai Murakumo and his fellow Serpent Tail mercenaries.
There is yonkoma series titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Club Yonkoma that parodies the events from both Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. The comics were a joint venture between Sunrise's official Gundam SEED fan club and Newtype Japanese magazine. Kadokawa Shoten released the first publications of the yonkoma on August 8, 2005.
### Light novels
A light novel adaptation of the TV series was authored by Riu Goto. It was originally a supplement of Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko with illustrations by Ogasawara Tomofumi. The stories were eventually published in five volumes by Kadokawa Shoten with the first one in March 2003 and the fifth in January 2004. Tokyopop released the first three light novels in North America from October 11, 2005 to May 9, 2006. Two light novels volumes from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray spin-off series were also authored by Tomohiro Chiba and published by Kadokawa on September 1, 2003 and July 1, 2004.
### Video games
Video games have been released based on the anime series: Gundam Seed: Federation vs. Z.A.F.T. II for arcades, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Tomo to Kimi to Senjou de (機動戦士ガンダムSEED: 友と君と戦場で, lit. "Friends and Foes on the Battelfield") and Gundam Seed: Battle Assault for the Game Boy Advance, Gundam Seed: Federation vs. Z.A.F.T., Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny: Generation of CE, and Gundam Seed: Federation vs. Z.A.F.T. 2 Plus for PlayStation 2, A PlayStation Portable game was also released under the title of Gundam Seed: Federation vs. Z.A.F.T. Portable as well as a mobile phone game, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Phase-Act Delivery. Artdink developed the first PlayStation Vita Gundam game, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Battle Destiny (機動戦士ガンダムSEED BATTLE DESTINY). Released on June 7, 2012, the game covers events from both Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny.
Characters from Gundam SEED have been featured in Gundam crossover games. These include Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next, the SD Gundam G series and a few games from the Gundam Battle Assault series, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2, and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3. Other crossover games featuring them are games from the Super Robot Wars series as well as Another Century's Episode 3 and Another Century's Episode: R.
### Other merchandise
Guidebooks have been released for Gundam SEED such as Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Ultimate Super Encyclopedia (決定版 機動戦士ガンダムSEED超百科) on July 10, 2003. Two official guidebooks were released in Japan on July 18, 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Photos Freedom Kira (機動戦士ガンダムSEED写真集 FREEDOMキラ) and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Photos Justice Athrun (機動戦士ガンダムSEED写真集 JUSTICEアスラン) focus on Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala respectively. In the same year, a series of guidebooks with the label of "Official File" were released in Japan. A guidebook titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – All Characters Analysis (僕たちの好きなガンダムSEED 全キャラクター徹底解析編) was published on April 19, 2004, featuring an extensive analysis on the storyline and characters. A more detailed guidebook, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Perfect Archive Series (僕たちの好きなガンダムSEED PERFECT ARCHIVE SERIES), featuring articles on the characters, technology and universe was published in March 2006. An artbook titled Mobile Suit Gundam SEED RGB Illustrations (機動戦士ガンダムSEED RGB ILLUSTRATIONS) was released on July 26, 2004.
## Reception
The show has become one of the most popular of the Gundam series in Japan, enjoying high television ratings and DVD sales. In April 2004, Bandai Visual announced that one million copies of the Gundam SEED DVD had been sold in Japan, with the first volume having sold over 100,000 copies. In total, the series set a record of making eight DVDs appearing in the first eight top sales. The same record was repeated in 2016 by Mr. Osomatsu. CDs sales have also been high with the single CD from the series' first ending theme becoming one of the top-selling CDs in Japan during 2002. By July 2004, 10 million plastic Gundam SEED models had been sold worldwide.
Jerry Chu, marketing manager for Bandai Entertainment Inc., stated the response to Gundam SEED has been highly positive, having broken rating records when it first aired in Japan. Chu added that reaction in the United States was the most enthusiastic Bandai received in the last six years. According to the analyst John Oppliger of AnimeNation Gundam SEED became the first Gundam series which was widely successful not only among "Gundam fans and hardcore otaku" but also among "mainstream, casual Japanese viewers". Gundam SEED was the eighth TV Feature Award winner at the Animation Kobe Awards in 2003. It was the third winner at the Japanese Otaku Awards in 2003. It won Animage's twenty-fifth Anime Grand Prix award winner in 2002, with the characters of Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne topping the male and female anime categories, respectively. It topped the charts in the Newtype magazine reader poll during 2004. However, the show was not well received by older Japanese fans. In February 2004, Sunrise's president, Takayuki Yoshii, stated it was because Gundam SEED incorporated elements from popular live-action television dramas. On the other hand, Bandai Visual reported in April 2004 that Gundam SEED had a wide audience, including both young and older viewers.
Gundam SEED has been praised for being a stand-out in a long line of Gundam series with Anime News Network's Paul Fargo calling it "the best of the alternative timelines, but stands as one of the best Gundam titles". The story has been praised for its battle sequences as well as its character-driven scenes, neither of which were reviewed to have detracted emphasis from the other. The series was noted to "downshift" in pace from its early episodes as the main characters development began to progress along political themes, which appealed to some audiences. Early in the series, speculations were made with regard to the progress the characters' relationships. The relationship between Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala earned praise as it resulted in entertaining action scenes between their mobile suits, while in later reviews speculation arose as to whether the two would become allies.
The climax has been praised for bringing unexpected inclusions within the war, as well as revelations regarding the characters' roles. A common comment among writers was that Gundam SEED blended elements from previous Gundam series and displayed it in a fast-paced way, making it enjoyable to younger fans but still engaging older fans familiar with previous series. DVD Verdict writer Mitchell Hattaway further noted that while it used elements from other anime series, it still "drew [him] in so quickly [he] soon found [himself] wrapped up in the proceedings". Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network stated that Gundam SEED adapted the original Mobile Suit Gundam series from 1979 for a modern audience in the same way Mobile Suit Gundam 00 would adapt Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. Bamboo Dong from the same site stated that while this caused the appearance of "hardcore anti-Gundam Seed zealots" who criticized the series for these traits, it was nevertheless entertaining to watch and give anime fans a step into the "Gundam fandom".
The quality of the animation led THEM Anime Reviews' Derrick L. Tucker to call it "by-and-far the best of any Gundam Series to date". Additionally, the soundtrack was popular for bringing popular J-pop artists such as Nami Tamaki and T.M. Revolution to perform the theme songs. The casting of many talented voice actors, such as Rie Tanaka, Seki Tomokazu and Houko Kuwashima, provided the emotional depth in scenes that required it. The English dub was reviewed favorably for the most part but comparisons between the English and original Japanese dubbing revealed weaknesses in the portrayal of the characters.
In the NHK's 2018 mega "All Gundam Poll", Mobile Suit Gundam SEED was place as the third best anime in the Gundam franchise, only behind the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
### Controversy
The sixteenth episode of Gundam SEED features a scene in which Kira Yamato is seen dressing after getting out of a bed where the teenage girl Flay Allster lies sleeping naked, suggesting a sexual relationship. The Japanese Commission for Better Broadcasting reported that viewers filed complaints regarding the scene as the show was aired at 6 pm when children would be watching. Mainichi replied by mentioning it should have given more careful consideration to the episode before airing it. The scene was extended in one of the compilation films with John Oppliger noting it expanded the off-screen scene with three shots. |
64,150,963 | Sienna Shaw | 1,173,536,003 | Character in the Terrifier film series | [
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"Terrifier (film series)"
]
| Sienna Shaw is a fictional character in the Terrifier film series. Sienna first appears in Terrifier 2 (2022) as a teenager interested in cosplay who battles the enigmatic villain Art the Clown. She is portrayed by Lauren LaVera, who will reprise the role in further installments. Sienna's creator, Damien Leone, invested a lot of time into fully developing her as a character as he regretted leaving the first film's heroine Victoria Heyes underdeveloped. The character originates from an abandoned film Leone was developing in the late 2000s, featuring the concept of a Valkyrie-angel warrior attired heroine battling Art.
LaVera was the only person Leone considered for the role. LaVera spent months questioning Leone for preparation and developed a full binder of notes about Sienna—asking him who inspired the character and having him create a playlist that he believed Sienna would listen to. Leone states that LaVera is the first actor to show immense care and interest for a character he wrote, helping him further develop her. Leone describes Sienna as his favorite character that he has ever created.
The character's Halloween costume drew a significantly favorable reaction from fans—LaVera, however, was not fond of the attire as it was uncomfortable for her to wear. The outfit was not complete by the time filming began, and it did not have lining; LaVera had to wear duct tape to hold the attire together throughout the shoot and even obtained blisters. Sienna was well-received by critics and audiences, with much of the acclaim going toward her characterization and LaVera's portrayal. Sienna has been referred to as LaVera's breakthrough role and a contemporary example of the "final girl" trope.
## Appearances
### Film
The character made her cinematic debut in Terrifier 2 on October 6, 2022. In this film, Sienna (Lauren LaVera) is a teenage girl living with her widowed mother and her younger brother Jonathan following the death of their father. She has been developing cosplay for an angel-warrior character that her father created for her before his death. He also gave her a sword. Jonathan believes their father envisioned Sienna as the only person capable of defeating Art the Clown. Sienna begins having bizarre encounters with Art—both in her dreams and in real life. After engaging in a battle with Art to defend her brother, Art kills her with her father's sword before it resurrects her, and she decapitates him.
#### Future
Damien Leone has confirmed that the character will return in the confirmed Terrifier 3 and the potential Terrifier 4. In an interview with Variety, Leone stated that "Sienna is crucial to the franchise moving forward."
## Development
The conception of Sienna Shaw dates back to 2008—with Damien Leone envisioning an angel-warrior-attired heroine to battle Art the Clown for a feature-length follow-up to his directorial debut short film The 9th Circle (2008). The project got scrapped, and Leone abandoned the Sienna character concept.
Following criticism from critics and fans for ''Terrifiers (2016) underdeveloped protagonists, Leone wanted to bring back Sienna as the heroine of Terrifier 2. Leone spent three consecutive months in 2017 writing a screenplay with much of his focus on developing Sienna. He has stated that he based much of Sienna's characteristics on his two older sisters and that the character was very personal to him. Leone wrote the character with mythic religious undertones, envisioning her as a teenage girl slowly transforming into the embodiment of an Old Testament angel that is the equivalent to Art's representation of a resurrected demon.
Lauren LaVera was ultimately cast in the role; she said that Leone and actor David Howard Thornton described the dynamic between Art and Sienna as something inspired by the relationship between superhero Batman and supervillain Joker of DC Comics during a lunch shortly after her casting. Leone stated that out of all the actors he has worked with, LaVera showed the most interest and care for one of his characters—consistently questioning him about his intentions for Sienna and even journaling for the part to understand who she believed Sienna to be. LaVera had Leone make a playlist for her that he envisioned the character listening to. LaVera describes Sienna as reflecting Leone in personality.
### Valkyrie Costume
Costume designer Olga Yarlug created the angel-warrior Valkyrie costume that Sienna spends the first portion of the film building. The attire helped LaVera develop her physicality for her performance, describing it as contributing to her embodying the confidence it brings to Sienna—LaVera consciously portrayed Sienna as timid and hunched over but more confident and standing straighter up by the end of the film.
The attire was well received by fans. LaVera began receiving private messages from fans telling her that they intend to make either a costume based on it or a drag interpretation of Sienna. While liking the design and wearing it at first, LaVera did not like wearing it throughout the shoot because it was incomplete before filming began and lacked lining. She had to wear duct tape to hold it together and even developed blisters.
## Reception
Collider'''s Raquel Hollman describes Sienna as the Wonder Woman of horror films and that she provides a "supernatural element" to the final girl trope due to her resurrection after death. Hollman contrasts her with Victoria Heyes, the sole survivor of the first film—"Director Damien Leone not only gives us a final girl gone bad in Vicky, but a final girl seemingly just as powerful as her foe in Sienna." Hollman writes that while the first film is solely Art's narrative, the second film shifts the focus to Sienna and that she is Art's equivalent in that "Art and Sienna are oppositional forces who parallel each other on a spatial and spiritual level. For all the heartlessness Art holds, Sienna is a character driven by her relationships with those around her."
Writing for Fangoria, Andrew Crump writes that Sienna was the most influential heroine of 2022, writing that "When Sienna accepts her role as She Who Will Kill Art, she effectively becomes a new final girl variant. It isn't just inevitable that she and Art end Terrifier 2 together. It's destined in mythic fashion. LaVera carries that motif through with dazzling star power, ending 2022 as its greatest final girl, a serious accomplishment given that she's following up Neve Campbell and Jamie Lee Curtis. She may be the year's most influential final girl, too - the one to usher in a generation of final girls prepared to slash their slashers back."
Jeffrey Anderson of Common Sense Media describes Sienna as being a positive role model for viewers and states, "Right away, it's easy to see what a great new character Sienna is; her warrior costume is only half of it." Scott Mendelson of Forbes wrote, "Lauren LaVera makes for an agreeable and sympathetic primary target/protagonist/final girl." Writing for /Film, Matthew Bilodeau highlights LaVera's performance as bringing a sense of personality and writes that Sienna will likely become a popular character for cosplay.
Jaden Oberkrom of North Texas Daily praised LaVera, writing that her performance "immediately gets the audience invested in her character." Dakota Mayes of MovieWeb writes that "Lauren LaVera breathes life into Sienna and plays her as a final girl like no other." Writing for Comic Book Resources, writer Maddie Davis highlights the character's resurrection after death as making her notably different to prior horror heroines. Matt Donato of IGN stated, "Lauren LaVera rules as Sienna in her angel-winged fantasy armor as a final girl fighting for family, facing her demons, and screaming bloody war cries in Art's mocking face."
The character has been well-received by audiences, with LaVera recalling that she was shown the first Sienna tattoo in 2020, following the release of Terrifier 2s teaser trailer. In response to the favorable reception to her character, LaVera stated, "That's all an actor ever wants. Not so much for fans to get tattoos, even though I am honored; it's more about the fact that they feel this connection to her. They feel strength from her. They feel that they see themselves in her, and that's all an actor ever wants, to make their audience feel less alone. That's why I got into acting. I'm collecting all the pictures. I have them on my phone, all the Sienna costumes. I'm slowly compiling them, and I'll eventually make a post of them, honoring everybody that's been honoring Sienna. It's an unreal experience." |
51,876 | Pim Fortuyn List | 1,172,526,111 | Dutch political party | [
"2002 establishments in the Netherlands",
"2008 disestablishments in the Netherlands",
"Anti-Islam political parties in Europe",
"Anti-Islam sentiment in the Netherlands",
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"Conservative parties in the Netherlands",
"Counter-jihad",
"Defunct conservative parties",
"Defunct liberal political parties",
"Defunct nationalist parties in the Netherlands",
"Eurosceptic parties in the Netherlands",
"LGBT political parties",
"Liberal parties in the Netherlands",
"National liberal parties",
"Organisations based in Rotterdam",
"Political parties disestablished in 2008",
"Political parties established in 2002",
"Republican parties",
"Republicanism in the Netherlands",
"Right-wing populism in the Netherlands",
"Right-wing populist parties",
"Secularism in the Netherlands"
]
| The Pim Fortuyn List (Dutch: Lijst Pim Fortuyn, LPF) was a political party in the Netherlands named after its eponymous founder Pim Fortuyn, a former university professor and political columnist. The party was considered populist, right-wing populist and nationalist as well as adhering to its own distinct ideology of Fortuynism according to some commentators.
The LPF supported tougher measures against immigration and crime, opposition to multiculturalism, greater political reform, a reduction in state bureaucracy and was eurosceptic but differed somewhat from other European right-wing or nationalist parties by taking a liberal stance on certain social issues and sought to describe its ideology as pragmatic and not populistic. It also aimed to present itself as an alternative to the Polder model of Dutch politics and the governing style of the existing mainstream parties.
Pim Fortuyn had initially had planned to contest the 2002 general election as leader of the Livable Netherlands (LN) party. He was however dismissed as leader of LN in February 2002 due to controversial remarks he made in a newspaper interview on immigration-related issues, and instead founded LPF a few days later, taking many former LN candidates with him. After gaining support in opinion polls, Fortuyn was assassinated on 6 May 2002, nine days before the election. The party held onto its support, and went on to become the second-largest party in the election.
The LPF formed part of a coalition government with the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) as part of the first Balkenende cabinet and was granted ministerial posts. However, internal conflicts in the LPF led to the coalition's break-up and fresh elections after a few months. Following the 2003 election, the party was left in opposition. It became clear that the party was not viable without its original leader, and it went into decline until it was finally dissolved in 2008. Both Fortuyn and the LPF have had a significant influence on changing Dutch public discourse on immigration, multiculturalism, and political reform, and went on to influence politicians in both the mainstream and newer political parties.
## History
### Background
The LPF was founded by its namesake, Pim Fortuyn, a former sociology professor who had become known in the Netherlands as an author, press columnist and a media commentator. Fortuyn announced his intention to run for parliament in a television interview on 20 August 2001. An unusual aspect of this was that it was not yet clear which political party he would be a candidate for. Although he was already in contact with the Livable Netherlands (LN) party, he initially also considered running for the Christian Democratic Appeal (for whom he had briefly worked as an advisor) or creating his own list. He subsequently became a member of the LN in 2001 at the encouragement of its chairman Jan Nagel. On 25 November he was chosen as party leader for the LN. The LN functioned as the combined national extension of various movements that existed as localist alternatives to the main parties and had contested municipal elections but had never contested in national elections before. Fortuyn concluded his acceptance speech by saying the words that would become his slogan; "At your service!" Almost immediately after Fortuyn became leader, LN went from 2% in opinion polls to about 17%.
In January 2002, it was announced that Fortuyn also would head the Livable Rotterdam (LR) list for the March 2002 local elections. The official 2002 election study found that immigration and integration problems were the second most important issue for voters after issues concerning the health care system. Helped by the many speeches and interviews given by Fortuyn, immigration issues became the major topic of the national political agenda, thereby forcing other parties to react.
Until February, Liveable Netherlands had received disproportionate and generally sympathetic coverage in the media. The situation took a dramatic turn on 9 February, when Fortuyn was interviewed in de Volkskrant, one of the leading national newspapers. Against the strong advice of his campaign team, he made several controversial statements; including one that said Islam was "a backward culture", that no more asylum seekers would be allowed into the country, and, if necessary, the possible repeal of anti-racism clauses in the Dutch Constitution to protect freedom of speech. Fortuyn was dismissed as party leader the next day, and in a television interview said that the split was irreparable, although he would have preferred to remain in the party.
He founded Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) on 11 February and began assembling candidates to stand in the upcoming general election. Fortuyn also secured financial backing from several individuals involved in the property development sector. Opinion polls soon showed that he took most of LN's supporters with him, leaving LN with its original 2%, while Fortuyn soared to 17%. The local LR—which held on to Fortuyn as its leader—was hugely successful in the March 2002 local elections, as it won more than one third of the vote and became Rotterdam's strongest party, displacing the Labour Party who had governed Rotterdam since World War Two.
In the run-up to the 2002 general election, Fortuyn appeared in numerous television and radio interviews to generate publicity, and was featured in the televised leadership debates representing his new party. He was often attacked or derided as an extremist figure by other party leaders (in particular Labour leader Ad Melkert, former Prime Minister Wim Kok and GroenLinks's Paul Rosenmöller), and both Dutch and foreign media outlets compared Fortuyn to other European far-right party leaders. Fortuyn disputed the comparisons and stated that the press and other party leaders were distorting or mislabeling him and his ideas. However, polling showed rapid and growing support for the LPF, with some polls indicating that the LPF would emerge as the largest party and make Fortuyn a candidate for Prime Minister. Fortuyn himself maintained that he would not accept a cabinet position headed by another party leader and aimed to take the role of Prime Minister himself.
### Fortuyn assassination
It was reported in February 2002 that Fortuyn did not dare to appear in public owing to death threats. In March, he was attacked by pie-throwing activists at the presentation of his new book De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars (which became the bestselling book by a Dutch author in the Netherlands in 2002). Despite this, the authorities did not provide protection for Fortuyn, nor did he request protection. In various interviews, including with the BBC and Jensen!, Fortuyn expressed a concern that he would be killed or injured during the election campaign, and argued that if such an event were to happen, the media and Dutch political establishment would be to blame through creating a hostile atmosphere against him.
On 6 May, Fortuyn was assassinated outside a radio studio in Hilversum. This was the first political murder in the Netherlands for centuries (excluding the Second World War). Some claimed that by demonising Fortuyn, the political left and the media had created a climate of opinion that had made the assassination possible. Campaigning immediately stopped, and although some suggested postponing the elections, the campaign resumed (half-heartedly) after his funeral four days later. His funeral was broadcast live on television and, according to Cas Mudde, lead "to scenes of mass hysteria not seen since the Netherlands national football team won the European Championship in 1988." The murder of Fortuyn, together with that of Theo van Gogh two years later, would result in a polarisation in the political debate in the Netherlands, and subsequently changes in immigration-related policies and public discourse.
### First Balkenende cabinet (2002–2003)
The LPF decided to maintain Fortuyn's posthumous candidacy, and delayed naming a new leader until after the election. The 2002 general election proved a great success for the LPF, yielding 17% of the votes and 26 seats in the House of Representatives—by far a record number of seats in the Netherlands for a new party—to become the second largest party. LN also made it into Parliament, with two seats. The Labour Party (PvdA) and People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) saw their largest-ever losses, while the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) won large gains – later attributed in part to the fact that CDA leader Jan Peter Balkenende had remained neutral and not joined in attacking Fortuyn with other party leaders during debates. Balkenende had earlier announced that his party would follow a tougher line towards asylum seekers and tighten some of the Netherlands's immigration policies, and he later agreed with much of Fortuyn's criticism of the purple coalition and Holland's multicultural society. Some commentators claimed that the CDA was able to draw in voters who otherwise would have supported the LPF (but felt it was no longer viable without Fortuyn in charge) or that the CDA was seen as a stabilizing force after a tense election. As leader of the strongest party, Balkenende became the leading candidate for Prime Minister.
Following the election, journalist and former civil servant Mat Herben was chosen as LPF party leader as Fortuyn's successor. Together with the CDA and the VVD, the party formed part of the governing coalition, and supplied several members for the Balkenende cabinet. The party was granted four of fourteen cabinet seats, for immigration, economics, environment, health and sports, and five state secretaries. LPF member Eduard Bomhoff was appointed deputy Prime Minister. The following day after the cabinet's formation, LPF State Secretary for Social Affairs and Work Opportunity Philomena Bijlhout resigned after it was reported that she had been a member of a Surinamese militia. She was replaced by fellow LPF MP Khee Liang Phoa.
Without its original leader and lack of a clearly defined organisational structure and political experience among its members, the LPF also succumbed to highly public internal squabbles. MPs within the LPF resigned to sit as independents due to the infighting and the intense media storm following Fortuyn's death or unsuccessfully tried founding splinter parties of their own to contest in the next election. In August 2002, Herben resigned as leader and was briefly replaced by Harry Wijnschenk. Wijnschenk was subsequently ousted from his position and replaced by Herben again, but by October 2002, the break-up of the government coalition was ultimately triggered by the bickering of LPF Ministers Eduard Bomhoff and Herman Heinsbroek.
### Opposition and disintegration (2003–2006)
In the January 2003 general election, the LPF shrank to 5.7% support and gained eight seats while Balkenende and the CDA retained a majority. Following the election the LPF was exchanged for the Democrats 66 in the government coalition. The LPF found it hard to maintain support in parliamentary opposition as besides Joost Eerdmans, most of its Members of Parliament were not very visible or considered as charismatic as Fortuyn, while party leader Herben had enough work keeping the party from further infighting. The LPF also went into financial straits as many of its former financial backers left. Other commentators later claimed that the relative inexperience of some of the LPF's members and lack of internal structure hampered its ability to function as a coherent movement. As the new coalition continued most of the former coalition's policies and Balkenende stated that he agreed with some of Fortuyn's views on multiculturalism and implemented some of his policy ideas, it became increasingly difficult for the LPF to present the anti-establishment or alternative image to the government which had galvanized support for the party in the first place.
The LPF did see some success in the 2003 Dutch provincial elections in which it won 17 seats in eleven provinces, enabling it to qualify for a seat in the Senate which was taken by Rob Hessing. However, the party was beset by further internal problems and won just 2.6% of the vote in the 2004 European Parliament election, and did not win a seat. In this election, Paul van Buitenen surprisingly won two seats with his anti-corruption Europe Transparent (although it was not successful in the long term). By 2004, the LPF had fallen to a less than 1% support and disintegrated. The party had lost most of its members, and the parliamentary faction (with exception of Wien van den Brink) had declared itself independent from the party.
### List Five Fortuyn and dissolution (2006–2008)
The LPF attempted to start afresh and participated in the 2006 general election under its new name List Five Fortuyn (Lijst Vijf Fortuyn). On 25 September 2006, the party released a controversial campaign commercial which featured new leader Olaf Stuger coming down from "heaven" with a parachute and presenting himself as a "reincarnation" of Pim Fortuyn. Marten Fortuyn, brother of Pim Fortuyn, declared it "outrageous and tasteless." In the election, LVF did not receive enough votes to secure a seat with support of only 0.2%. It also lost all of its seats in the 2007 Provincial Council elections, meaning it was no longer eligible for representation in the Senate. In 2006, the party closed its office in the Hague and in July 2007 voted to dissolve itself by 1 January 2008.
## Ideology
### Fortuynism
The ideology or political style that is derived from Pim Fortuyn, and in turn the LPF, is often called Fortuynism. Observers variously saw him as a political protest targeting the alleged elitism and bureaucratic style of the Dutch purple coalitions or as offering an appealing political style. The style was characterized variously as one "of openness, directness and clearness", populism or simply as charisma. Another school holds Fortuynism as a distinct ideology, with an alternative vision of society. Some argued that Fortuynism was not just one ideology, but contained liberalism, populism and nationalism.
During the 2002 campaign, Fortuyn was accused of being on the "extreme right", although others saw only certain similarities. While he employed anti-immigration rhetoric, he was neither a radical nationalist nor a defender of traditional authoritarian values. On the contrary, Fortuyn wanted to protect the socio-culturally liberal values of the Netherlands, women's rights and sexual minorities (he was openly homosexual himself), from the "backward" Islamic culture. The LPF also won support from some ethnic minorities; one of Fortuyn's closest associates was of Cape Verdean origin while one of the party's MPs was a young woman of Turkish descent.
#### Domestic policy
Many of the LPF's policies for the 2002 general election were based on proposals put forward in Fortuyn's book De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars. The LPF campaigned on a strong law and order message at both local and national levels. The party supported cutting state bureaucracy while strengthening public services. It also wanted to revise and restrict immigration and asylum policies, particularly from Islamic societies, as well as put an end to the Dutch government's policy of pursuing multiculturalism. Instead, the party argued for compulsory policies that existing immigrants learn Dutch and become integrated while future immigration would be reduced or halted until existing immigrants had been assimilated. However, Fortuyn also maintained that asylum seekers or illegal immigrants who had been living in the Netherlands for a long period should not be deported and instead be pardoned and offered a path to citizenship if they were able to demonstrate they could assimilate into Dutch society and had not committed crimes while potential migrants would be offered financial incentives to stay in their own country. The party also supported the right to freedom of speech and took a socially liberal stance on issues such as gay rights, soft drug legalization and gender equality.
#### Foreign policy
Although the LPF was established post-9/11, Fortuyn had already developed a worldview based on the "clash between civilizations", namely between "modernity" and Islam, or Western society and Islamic culture. The LPF supported NATO, but was eurosceptic and saw the European Union as a "bureaucracy which barely interests its citizens, let alone inspires them." The party was against the euro currency (which the Netherlands had adopted in 1999), EU influence over Dutch domestic regulation, and opposed the Netherlands participating in the European Schengen agreement. Fortuyn also campaigned to reduce Dutch financial contributions to the European Union and criticised the EU for being "elite" and "technocratic". The party however did not oppose the principle of economic and political cooperation between European countries and the project of European integration in general, but rather the EU's present organization, and what it regarded as its lack of democracy, excessive bureaucracy and threat to national sovereignty. The LPF also warned that unopposed EU expansion would lead to the Netherlands becoming absorbed into a Federal Superstate in which Dutch identity would be lost. Opposing the full membership of Turkey, Albania, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, the LPF maintained that the European Union "shouldn't cross the Bosporus and the Ural". The LPF was also supportive of Israel.
## Legacy
Fortuyn's political heritage became scattered among various politicians in the Netherlands, several of whom had begun their careers in the LPF, and tried founding parties of their own, most of which were unsuccessful. These included Marco Pastors and Joost Eerdemans, founders of the One NL, Winny de Jong of DeConservatieven.nl, and Hilbrand Nawijn, leader of the Party for the Netherlands—none of which managed to win a seat in the 2003 or 2006 elections. The LPF also influenced politicians in the Flemish region of Belgium, such as lawyer and Open VLD member Hugo Coveliers who went on to found the VLOTT party based on Fortuyn's ideas, and Jean-Marie Dedecker and his Lijst Dedecker party. However, in the Netherlands the LPF became squeezed out by the tougher line on immigration and integration issues taken by mainstream politicians, such as Minister for Integration and Immigration Rita Verdonk, who had largely adopted Fortuyn's policies. By the end of the decade, former LPF supporters had mostly moved to support Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV).
In February 2006, soon before it fell out of parliament, the scholar Hans Jansen organised a conference in cooperation with the scientific committee of the LPF in the House of Representatives building that brought together several international anti-Islam figures, including Bat Ye'or, Daniel Pipes, Geert Wilders, Robert B. Spencer, Bruce Bawer, Lars Hedegaard, Ibn Warraq, Paul Beliën and Peder "Fjordman" Jensen. This movement would eventually become known as the counter-jihad movement.
Although dissolved at national level, the name Pim Fortuyn List continued to be used for a period at municipal level by local branches that split off from the LPF in Eindhoven, Boornsterhem, Westland and The Hague. As of 2018, the last remaining local party using Pim Fortuyn List were in Eindhoven and Westland which competed in the municipal elections under the names LPF Eindhoven and LPF Westland. In 2022 a new local Pim Fortuyn List enterd the municipal elections in the city of Breda winning one seat in the council.
## Election results
### House of Representatives
### European Parliament
## Leadership
- Leader
- Pim Fortuyn (14 February 2002 – 6 May 2002) (†)
- Vacant (6 May 2002 – 16 May 2002)
- Mat Herben (16 May 2002 – 28 August 2002)
- Harry Wijnschenk (28 August 2002 – 16 October 2002)
- Mat Herben (16 October 2002 – 5 October 2004)
- Gerard van As (5 October 2004 – 17 August 2006)
- Mat Herben (17 August 2006 – 30 September 2006)
- Olaf Stuger (30 September 2006 – 30 November 2006)
- Vacant (30 November 2006 – 1 January 2008)
- Chairmen
- Pim Fortuyn (14 February 2002 – 6 May 2002) (†)
- Peter Langendam (11 May 2002 – 14 May 2002)
- Ed Maas (3 July 2002 – 13 October 2003)
- Sergej Moleveld (31 August 2004 – 12 November 2004)
- Bert Snel (10 December 2004 – 1 January 2008)
- Parliamentary leaders in the Senate
- Rob Hessing (10 June 2003 – 12 June 2007)
- Parliamentary leaders in the House of Representatives
- Mat Herben (23 May 2002 – 28 August 2002)
- Harry Wijnschenk (28 August 2002 – 16 October 2002)
- Mat Herben (16 October 2002 – 5 October 2004)
- Gerard van As (5 October 2004 – 17 August 2006)
- Mat Herben (17 August 2006 – 30 November 2006)
- Lijsttrekker – General election
- Pim Fortuyn – 2002
- Mat Herben – 2003
- Olaf Stuger – 2006
- Lijsttrekker – Senate election
- Bob Smalhout – 2003
## See also
- Party for Freedom (PVV) - Party founded in 2006.
- Forum for Democracy (FvD) – Party founded in 2016
- JA21 – Offshoot of FvD founded by Eerdmans in 2021 |
35,494,660 | I Am Your Leader | 1,168,859,347 | null | [
"2012 songs",
"Cam'ron songs",
"Music videos directed by Colin Tilley",
"Nicki Minaj songs",
"Rick Ross songs",
"Song recordings produced by Hit-Boy",
"Songs written by Cam'ron",
"Songs written by Fernando Garibay",
"Songs written by Hit-Boy",
"Songs written by Nicki Minaj",
"Songs written by Rick Ross"
]
| "I Am Your Leader" is a song recorded by American rapper and singer Nicki Minaj for her second studio album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012). The song features additional rap vocals from hip hop artists Rick Ross and Cam'ron. Production of the song was handled by Fernando Garibay & Chauncey "Hit-Boy" Hollis, with writing coming from Minaj, Garibay, Hollis, Ross, and Cam'ron. Musically, "I Am Your Leader" is a midtempo hardcore hip hop and electro hop song that contains sparse beats, minimal instrumentation, repetitive, high-pitched, off-pitch synth hooks, and a booming, static bass. Lyrically, Minaj "dishes boast-heavy verses about how she’s better than all these other bitches", according to Adam Fleischer of XXL Magazine.
"I Am Your Leader" garnered praise from contemporary music critics, with the majority praising the song's production, Minaj's vocal delivery, and the appearances of Cam'ron and Ross. To promote the song, an accompanying music video for the song was released on August 24, 2012. It features Minaj inside a brightly colored playhouse dressed in eccentric clothing, while sequences show Minaj, Ross and Cam'ron in different rooms such as the bathroom, the staircase, and the dining room. Fellow rapper Tyga also makes a brief cameo appearance. Despite not being released as a single, "I Am Your Leader" peaked at number 71 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Minaj briefly performed a part of the song on The Today Show'''s summer concert series.
## Background
Following the success of Minaj's debut album, Pink Friday, Cash Money co-CEO, Brian "Birdman" Williams announced to Billboard that Minaj was aiming to release her second album within the first quarter of 2012. In November 2011, Minaj announced on Twitter that the album would be released on February 14, 2012, though it was later delayed to April 3, 2012. The album focuses on Roman Zolanski, one of Minaj's alter egos that was first featured on Pink Friday. On May 24, 2012, a poll was posted on Minaj's official website asking fans to choose the next single(s). The poll was divided into three categories: The second category asked fans to choose between "Champion", "HOV Lane", and "I Am Your Leader". "Champion" had the most votes and won the poll; "HOV Lane" came in second, and "I Am Your Leader" came in third. On June 6, 2012, Minaj announced through her official Twitter that "Champion" would be the next urban single.
## Composition
"I Am Your Leader" is a hardcore hip-hop and electro-hop song that runs for three minutes and thirty-three seconds. The production consists of a "chilled-out, humming beat punctuated on the chorus with a blunted fake-horn hook—halfway between classic-era Neptunes and Look At Me Now" according to Andrew Unterberger of Popdust. It also contains repetitive, high-pitched, off-pitch synth hooks, and a booming, static bass. "I Am Your Leader" makes use of sparse beats, frills, minimal instrumentation, and allows Minaj's rhymes to be the focal point, all of which gives the song "something of a mixtape feel" according to Joe Rivers of No Ripcord. In his review of the song, Unterberger of Popdust noted Hit-Boy's modern hip hop production, saying "Diplo and Bangladesh might have to watch their back after the up-and-comers contributions to this album." Adam Fleischer of XXL said "Nicki dishes boast-heavy verses about how she’s better than all these other bitches."
## Critical reception
"I Am Your Leader" received positive reviews from critics. Andrew Unterberger of Popdust gave it a 4-star rating, complimenting Minaj's rapping as well as the guest verses of Cam'ron and Rick Ross. However, Unterberger felt that Minaj was overshadowed by the guest verses. Andrew Hampp of Billboard echoed Unterberger's sentiments, saying "The nostalgia of Cam's return trumps the overall catchiness of the song." XXL Magazine stated that "Though many of the early songs [on the album] lack real substance, the records remain generally exciting - “I Am Your Leader,” alongside Rick Ross and Cam’ron, “Beez In The Trap” with 2 Chainz, and the triumphant “Champion” featuring Nas, Drake and Young Jeezy are all memorable moments". Joe Rivers No Ripcord praised "I Am Your Leader" along with "Beez in the Trap" for being "thrilling" and making "good use of cameos". Stephen Deusner of Paste Magazine said that "On the nursery rhyming “I Am Your Leader,” [Minaj] spits yet another dick joke like a playground jeer, slyly undermining hip-hop's traditionally male-centric braggadocio. She's not only participating in phallocentric boasting; she's also inflating the convention with a Swedish penis pump until it's just shy of bursting".
David Jeffries of Allmusic listed it as one of the best tracks on the album. Matthew Cole of Slant Magazine stated that "'I Am Your Leader' and 'Beez in the Trap' [are] two excellent tracks which manage to sound both bubbly and heavy as Minaj delivers her most effortlessly entertaining shit-talk to date". Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork called "Come On A Cone" and "I Am Your Leader" "two brilliantly off-kilter songs". Tom Ewing of The Guardian said that "On "I Am Your Leader", [Minaj] drops a couple of octaves to gleefully pompous effect". Kevin Ritchie of NOW Magazine named it the top track of the album. Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly named it one of the best tracks on the album along with "Champion".
## Promotion
### Music video
The video begins with a pink mailbox with the song's title on the front written in different fonts. It is set in an esque brightly coloured playhouse. Minaj raps her first verse in a spacious room filled with antler heads and wacky windows and is seen standing on a zebra print carpet. Minaj is then seen in a bathtub, partially clothed, wearing only Alexander McQueen “Armadillo” jewel encrusted 12-inch stiletto shoes. She wears a green, Marilyn Monroe inspired wig. This is followed by a scene with all three rappers. After the hook, Rick Ross is seen sitting on a gold banquet table reciting his rap, shirtless, while gold mannequins ascend behind him. For Cam'ron's verse the scene is located on a staircase of moving photos of the three rappers. Nicki's Young Money labelmate, Tyga also makes a brief cameo appearance in the clip.
The video garnered positive reviews from critics, noting its high energy, fun and "wackiness". MTV's Rob Markman gave the video a positive review saying, "Only in a Nicki Minaj video can you find two of rap's hardest street figures performing in such a wacky setting, but it's the juxtaposition that 'I Am Your Leader' offers which makes it so fun."
### Live performances
Minaj performed the song for the first time on The Today Show's summer concert series on August 14, 2012.
## Credits and personnel
Recording
- Recorded at: Conway Studios in Los Angeles, California.
Personnel
- Nicki Minaj – songwriting, vocals
- Rick Ross – songwriting, vocals
- Cam'ron – songwriting, vocals
- Fernando Garibay – production, songwriting
- Hitboy – production, songwriting
- Ariel Chabaz – recording, mixing
- John Rivers – recording, mastering
- Jon Sher – recording and mixing assistant
Credits adapted from Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded'' liner notes.
## Charts |
26,545,748 | Tropical Storm Olaf (1997) | 1,157,600,475 | Pacific tropical storm in 1997 | [
"1997 Pacific hurricane season",
"1997 in Mexico",
"Eastern Pacific tropical storms",
"Hurricanes in Chiapas",
"Hurricanes in Colima",
"Hurricanes in El Salvador",
"Hurricanes in Guatemala",
"Hurricanes in Oaxaca"
]
| Tropical Storm Olaf was an erratic and long-lived tropical cyclone that brought heavy rainfall to regions of Mexico, which would be devastated by Hurricane Pauline a week later. The sixteenth named storm of the 1997 season, Olaf formed on September 26 off the southern coast of Mexico. It moved northward and quickly intensified, reaching peak winds of 70 mph (110 km/h) before weakening and hitting Oaxaca as a tropical depression. In Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala, the system brought heavy rainfall, which killed 18 people and caused flooding and damage. It was originally thought that Olaf dissipated over Mexico, although its remnants continued westward for a week. It interacted with Hurricane Pauline, which caused Olaf to turn to the southeast and later to the north to strike Mexico again, finally dissipating on October 12.
## Meteorological history
The origins of Olaf were from a tropical wave first noted over Central America on September 22. It moved slowly through the eastern Pacific Ocean, and gradually developed an area of convection. Concurrently, an upper-level low-pressure area moved from the Gulf of Mexico across Mexico into the Pacific, which produced wind shear across the region; wind shear is the difference in wind speed and direction in the atmosphere, and is usually harmful to tropical cyclogenesis. The disturbance associated with the tropical wave persisted and developed outflow. This caused the upper-level low to move away from the system. On September 26, it was sufficiently organized to be classified Tropical Depression Seventeen-E, while located about 345 miles (555 km) south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec.
A few hours after developing, the depression attained tropical storm status, or winds of at least 40 mph (64 km/h). Upon doing so, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) gave it the name "Olaf". The upper-level low, which was moving away from the region, caused the storm to move northward toward the Mexican coast. Olaf quickly intensified, as evidenced by reports from a nearby ship, and the winds reached 70 mph (110 km/h) by late on September 27; the NHC anticipated further intensification to hurricane status, or winds of at least 75 mph (121 km/h). Instead, interaction with the rough terrain of Mexico caused weakening. Olaf made landfall on Salina Cruz, Oaxaca early on September 29 as a 35 mph (56 km/h) tropical depression. Within a few hours, the circulation was not evident on satellite imagery, and the NHC discontinued advisories.
Despite being considered dissipated, a re-analysis of satellite imagery indicated the circulation of Olaf persisted as turned to the west toward open waters. Early on September 30, the system reached the Pacific, and it continued westward for about a week, during which it retained some convective activity. On October 5, Olaf turned toward the east, as it interacted with the large circulation of developing Hurricane Pauline. Later that day, the NHC resumed issuing advisories, while it was located about 560 miles (900 km) southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. The system turned to the southeast, and, failing to organize, the NHC discontinued advisories on October 8. Three days later, after the remnants of Olaf turned toward the north, the NHC again resumed advisories, when it was just 70 miles (110 km) south-southwest of Tecomán, Colima. Late on October 12, the circulation of Olaf made its final landfall near Manzanillo, Colima, and it quickly dissipated. An associated area of thunderstorms moved over open waters again, but failed to redevelop.
## Impact and preparations
Prior to moving ashore, a tropical storm warning was issued from Punta Maldonado, Guerrero to Tapachula, Chiapas and the Port of Chiapas, near the Mexico–Guatemala border. When Olaf was strengthening faster than anticipated, the advisory was upgraded to a hurricane warning, although it was downgraded to a tropical storm after the intensification did not occur. Upon making its first landfall, Tropical Depression Olaf produced gusty winds and heavy rains along the southeastern coast of Mexico. The peak 24‐hour rainfall total was 6.71 inches (17.0 cm) in Juchitán de Zaragoza in Oaxaca; the highest rainfall total throughout Olaf's duration was 27.73 inches (70.4 cm) at a station called Soyalapa/Comaltepec in Oaxaca. Heavy rainfall was also reported in Guatemala and El Salvador.
Across the affected region, the heavy rainfall caused flooding, which resulted in 18 deaths. In Mexico, the flooding damaged 50,000 acres (200 km<sup>2</sup>) of coffee, corn, and other crops; in Chiapas, the coffee crop damage represented a severe cut into the yearly total. The precipitation flooded many buildings across the region, including 30 houses in the Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, when a river exceeded its banks. In mountainous regions, mudslides left dozens of small villages isolated from the outside world. Along the coast, high waves of up to 16 feet (4.9 m) forced the closure of all ports in three Mexican states, which affected thousands of fishermen. Further west, three fishing vessels were reported missing near Acapulco, prompting rescue parties. The storm also forced the closure of several airports. In its final landfall, there was no damage reported; precipitation in that region peaked at 2.96 inches (7.5 cm) in Coquimatlán, Colima.
Following the storm, the Mexican government sent food, water, and housing supplies to affected families in Oaxaca. Less than a week after Olaf moved through southern Mexico, Hurricane Pauline struck the same region with much stronger winds. Pauline caused heavier rainfall and more damage, killing at least 250 people. Some regions received 10 days of heavy rainfall.
## See also
- Other tropical cyclones named Olaf |
60,890,374 | Striking Vipers | 1,171,437,196 | null | [
"2019 British television episodes",
"Black Mirror episodes",
"British LGBT-related television episodes",
"Netflix original television series episodes",
"Television episodes about virtual reality",
"Television episodes written by Charlie Brooker",
"Television shows about video games",
"Television shows filmed in São Paulo (state)"
]
| "Striking Vipers" is the first episode of the fifth series of the anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by Owen Harris. The episode was released on Netflix, along with the rest of series five, on 5 June 2019.
The episode follows two old friends, Danny Parker (Anthony Mackie) and Karl Houghton (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), reconnecting over a virtual reality fighting game. They begin having virtual sex in the game, which affects Danny's marriage with Theo (Nicole Beharie). The episode has an all-black main cast and was filmed in Brazil. Its storyline arose from an idea about a workplace affair in virtual reality where neither co-worker knew the other's identity.
Critics identified fluidity of sexuality and gender, infidelity, love and friendship as major themes; the episode raises questions about whether Danny and Karl are gay and whether their relationship is infidelity. Reviewers were divided over whether it addressed these themes in an interesting way, and some found it inferior to series three's "San Junipero", which also shows a queer relationship in virtual reality. The acting and directing was mostly praised, though some critics found the characterisation lacking.
## Plot
Twenty-seven-year-old Danny Parker (Anthony Mackie) and his girlfriend Theo (Nicole Beharie) go to a bar and pretend to be strangers. After they return home and have sex, Danny loudly plays the fictional fighting game Striking Vipers with his friend Karl Houghton (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as their preferred characters Lance and Roxette, respectively. This wakes Theo up.
Eleven years later, Danny hosts a barbecue at his house with Theo, to whom he is married and has a five-year-old child. He has fallen out of contact with Karl, who is currently seeing a younger woman named Mariella. At the party, Karl gives Danny a birthday present: Striking Vipers X, the series' newest installment, and the virtual reality kit needed to play it. That night, the pair play the game in their respective homes, falling motionless in real life as they fully experience all sensations of Lance (Ludi Lin) and Roxette (Pom Klementieff). After a bout of fighting, which induces real pain, they fall onto each other. Karl (as Roxette) kisses Danny (as Lance), but Danny pulls away after a few seconds and they exit the game.
Over the next few weeks, Danny and Karl regularly have sex in the game in the characters' bodies, and Theo notices that Danny is becoming withdrawn and no longer has sex with her, even though they have been trying to have a baby. Theo confronts him on their wedding anniversary and asks if he is having an affair. Danny says he is not and tells Karl they need to stop playing the game.
At Danny's next birthday, Theo invites Karl to dinner as a surprise. Karl reveals to Danny that he has been unable to recreate the emotions or experiences with computer-controlled characters or other players. That night, the pair enter the game and have passionate sex. Afterwards, Karl says "I love you". Danny arranges for them to meet in real life and kiss in their normal bodies, but both of them say that there is no feeling there. Karl argues they should continue seeing each other in the game but Danny disagrees, and an ensuing fight is broken up by the police. Theo picks up Danny from the police station and is enraged at his silence about what caused the fight. Danny finally starts to admit the truth.
On July 14, as the three have agreed on an annual tradition, Danny plays Striking Vipers X with Karl while Theo goes to the bar without her wedding ring to meet a stranger.
## Production
A fifth series of Black Mirror was commissioned by Netflix in March 2018, three months after the release of series four. Initially part of series five's production, the interactive work Black Mirror: Bandersnatch increased in scope to the point where it was separated from the series and released as a standalone film; it premiered on 28 December 2018. Although previous series of the programme produced under Netflix contained six episodes, series five comprises three episodes, as the series creator Charlie Brooker viewed this as preferable to making viewers wait longer for the next series. The three episodes—"Striking Vipers", "Smithereens" and "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too"—were released on Netflix simultaneously on 5 June 2019. As Black Mirror is an anthology series, each instalment can be watched in any order. "Striking Vipers" was filmed before Bandersnatch.
### Conception and writing
The episode was written by Brooker, alongside the executive producer Annabel Jones. The initial concept was for an office cohort to spend time in a virtual reality simulation as part of a team-building exercise, where they would prepare to perform the musical Grease. As part of the exercise, each employee's identity within the simulation would be unknown. The idea was conceived for two of the employees to have an affair within the simulation. This story changed over time, and was informed by another source of inspiration: Brooker was reflecting on his days of playing the fighting game Tekken with flatmates in the 1990s, and thought there was something interesting in the "homoerotic" and "weirdly primal" nature of the situation. He thought that neighbours could confuse their gaming sessions for a sex dungeon based on the noises they made. During the writing of "Striking Vipers", a variety of fighting games were used for reference, including Dead or Alive, a series where the characters have sexually provocative appearances.
Pornography was a theme discussed by the writers. Jones said the episode relates to the question of "when porn stops being a healthy distraction and actually becomes an affair". The name "Striking Vipers", which alludes to snakes and perhaps sexual imagery, was chosen by Brooker to sound like a plausible game title. During the writing process, he nicknamed it "Man Junipero", in reference to the series three episode "San Junipero". Brooker was conflicted as to whether the relationship between Danny and Karl is accurately described as a gay relationship, saying that it is also about male friendship and the barriers to communication between men. Jones noted that Danny's character regains a younger physique by entering the game, saying that there was a broader theme about ageing and "finding your identity when you don't have those staples that you've grown up with".
In regards to the real-life kiss Danny and Karl share, Brooker thought the characters were telling the truth about experiencing a lack of excitement, but that it was different within the virtual reality game. Jones said that Danny feels relieved by the information he gets from the kiss, as he may be able to retain a stability in his marriage, but Karl feels worried over what implications it has for their virtual reality relationship. The final arrangement Theo, Danny and Karl have occurs once per year. Brooker and Jones saw this ending as both pragmatic and romantic. Jones said that Theo needs "to feel excited and loved", Danny needs "escapism and wish-fulfilment" and that Karl is "quite isolated", though the arrangement is "enough to sustain him". Brooker similarly commented that Karl's predicament is "the most bleak", while Danny and Theo's marriage "has actually been strengthened" by the arrangement—specifically, by their newfound communication about "their fantasies and needs". He saw the ending as ambiguous, rather than unreservedly happy.
### Casting and filming
"Striking Vipers" was the third Black Mirror episode to be directed by Owen Harris, after series two's "Be Right Back", and series three's "San Junipero". The episode has an all-black main cast, with Anthony Mackie as Danny, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Karl and Nicole Beharie as Theo. Beharie was a big fan of the show prior to her appearance. Within Striking Vipers X, Danny plays as Lance—portrayed by Ludi Lin—and Karl plays as Roxie—acted by Pom Klementieff. By coincidence, four of the actors played major roles in superhero films—Mackie was Falcon, Klementieff was Mantis, Abdul-Mateen was Black Manta and Lin was the Black Ranger in Power Rangers. Though the script originally called for a suburban England setting, it is set in America. It was filmed in São Paulo, Brazil, from 18 March to 18 April 2018. The production company registered 19 locations for filming and 150 production staff. For example, the final scene of the episode shows a Striking Vipers X scene on top of a skyscraper, shot near the Edifício Copan, with a former Hilton Hotel made to look disused with computer-generated imagery.
Harris found it interesting that the bromance had not been subverted often in fiction, and enjoyed the question of whether society's views on monogamy and marriage might change, like how attitudes to dating changed with the prevalence of dating apps. Harris said that the episode had a dark humour, and one of the lines which helped him understand it was Karl's "I fucked a polar bear and I still couldn't get you out of my mind", which became oft-repeated by fans. Mackie said that the filming of the scene with that line "took probably an hour longer than it was supposed to" because of how amusing the actors found it. When asked about fans, Mackie said that those who approached him would either be interested in a long conversation about the themes of the episode, or make homophobic and uninformed comments about it.
Mackie said that love was the important idea in the episode, and that the crew spoke about "what it means for people to truly care about each other". The script was written without the race of the male characters in mind. Commenting that masculinity in the black community was a contemporary discussion point, Mackie recalled that Harris talked with him very early on about the relevance of race to the characters. In response to whether Karl was gay, Harris said that sexuality is a spectrum "far broader and more complex" than "black and white". Abdul-Mateen thought that Karl felt "understood and ... seen by Danny" and that it was this that he found attractive in the relationship. He said that Karl feels loneliness underneath his external personality. Abdul-Mateen made it ambiguous whether Karl was suppressing his sexuality or was simply finding himself in a new situation, and said that they "didn't want to define exactly" what underpinned Danny and Karl's relationship.
Jones said of Danny and Karl's real-life kiss that both actors aimed to be clear that the excitement from Striking Vipers X was "not being echoed in the real world", and that the characters were relieved by this. Abdul-Mateen thought the scene was important in its depiction of two black men with "a vessel to explore their sexuality and to understand who they are". Describing the filming, he said that "shooting in the rain is never easy" and estimated it took three to four hours. Harris saw the ending as "pragmatic": they considered showing more details about whether the arrangement was succeeding in practice, but chose to leave the ambiguity. Abdul-Mateen noted that Karl has a cat at the end of the episode, which means "he has something to take care of". He thought it could imply that Karl has matured, but is still lonesome.
## Analysis
The episode is a romance, where Danny, Karl and Theo are in a love triangle. Dan Stubbs of NME and Jim Vorel of Paste characterised it as a "spiritual sequel" to "San Junipero". Stubbs saw that as in "San Junipero", the episode "finds the beauty and ugliness in a new form of romance". Writing for Vox, Alex Abad-Santos compared that in "San Junipero", Kelly and Yorkie "play semi-artificial, digital-only versions of themselves", like Danny and Karl. Stubbs and Wired's Matt Reynolds found that in "Striking Vipers", the technology is not the focus of the episode—instead its implications and the human stories are. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club analysed that the episode has humour but it is "never designed to undercut the emotional development of the characters". Sexual and gender fluidity, infidelity and love and friendship are major themes, with The Guardian's Lucy Mangan writing that "every boundary is porous". Critics identified a large number of questions posed by the episode. Louisa Mellor wrote in Den of Geek that the episode initially asks about Danny and Karl's sexual activity: "Is it cheating? Porn? Love?" It also asks if they are gay or bisexual. Commenting in Wired, Victoria Turk viewed the episode as making a case that engaging in virtual reality porn is infidelity. Tasha Robinson, a reviewer for The Verge, said that Karl's attempts to persuade Danny to keep the relationship going is "needy and manipulative" and characteristic of an "imbalanced relationship", with Karl going back and forth between "defending their virtual trysts as meaningless fun" and "claiming they mean everything and are worth any risk".
Critics explored the implications of Danny and Karl's relationship. Vorel wondered whether it was a romantic or physical connection, how Karl's choice to play a woman related to his masculinity, and whether there would still be attraction if Danny and Karl swapped characters. He called the pair "two alpha males" who feel "shock and embarrassment" when made to confront their sexualities. Michael Ahr of Den of Geek suggested that the pair could be suppressing their homosexuality or "indulging in the objectification of their avatars' hyper-sexualized appearances". Den of Geek's Alec Bojalad gave a partial answer that "there is at least some homosexual energy" but "Roxette and Lance's bodies are an essential part of the equation". Bojalad found that despite uncertainty over their sexuality, Danny and Karl "needed each other in ways they didn't fully understand because they didn't have the language for it". Abad-Santos suggested that Karl enjoys "letting Danny take control sexually". He also recalled playing Chun-Li in Street Fighter II, the only female character, as did lots of gay children because it gave them "the freedom to be someone ... who [they] could never be". Handlen said that Karl could be interpreted as a "potentially closeted trans woman ... but the text stops short of suggesting he's going to make any steps towards transitioning or understanding himself better". Vorel reviewed that the episode "chooses not to judge its characters", while The Atlantic's David Sims said it "withholds answers for most of the questions".
Some reviewers drew meaning from the technological aspect of Danny and Karl's relationship. Sims analysed that the episode raises questions about "how sexuality on the internet is continuing to evolve". Stubbs queried whether the "meat person or the avatar" is the real version of us, when "we spend our leisure time in a virtual world and our real lives wearing our work masks". He also suggested that a "virtual/real life balance" could be as fundamental as a work–life balance. Hugh Montgomery, writing for the BBC, found a "pornographic quality of computer game violence" and Abad-Santos saw "Striking Vipers" as serving to connect "video game addiction and porn addiction" as well as "violence and men's sexuality". Another perspective came from Bojalad, who wrote that the episode sees video games as "a safe, consequence-free simulation space for little boys and eventually little men to work though the complex feelings they've so often ignored". Ahr similarly described that Striking Vipers X lets the characters "shed their culturally ingrained male inhibitions and admit their devotion to each other in a way that society discourages in real life".
Critics found that Danny and Karl's sexual activity gave them what they were lacking in their real lives. According to Bojalad, Danny and Karl's younger selves have a "classic and recognizable college student dynamic". Ahr wrote that the "sudden" time skip creates an "atmosphere of disillusionment", with a "contrast between the party atmosphere of the intro and the mundane backyard barbecue". While Danny lives an "idyllic suburban life", as Stubbs put it, Vorel and Vulture's Charles Bramesco said he has a mid-life ennui. His sex with Theo is for conception, not enjoyment. In contrast, Stubbs called Karl a "rich executive living the bachelor dream"; he fits the trope of a "ladies' man" and dates younger women. Bojalad believed that Danny and Karl each wanted what the other person had: Karl's freedom or Danny's security. Mellor wrote that Danny gets "energy, abs, joint mobility" and "virility" when playing Lance, which he has been deprived of through ageing and parenthood. Additionally, she wrote that Theo has a "need for excitement in the desert of adult responsibility".
Some critics noted foreshadowing in the initial scenes, eleven years before the main story. Bojalad and Ahr both commented that Theo is aroused by Danny treating her like a stranger, a sign of her later desires to meet strangers at a bar. Reynolds interpreted that the roleplay "sets up this idea that the desire to be someone a little different is a completely human thing". Additionally, Karl's mock-humping of Danny while playing Striking Vipers was seen by Bramesco to indicate homoerotic tension. Ahr stated that early on, Theo tells Danny he should talk "more openly and frequently" to Karl, and communication between them is a central tension in the episode. The episode also makes reference to other Black Mirror instalments: it shows products made by SaitoGemu, of "Playtest", and TCKR, of "San Junipero"; and Karl's pinball machine has different gameplay modes that can be seen to reference locations from past episodes.
## Reception
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the episode holds an approval rating of 74% based on 38 reviews. The website summarises that critics found it "well-produced and thought-provoking", but that "holding back its emotional punch" makes it less powerful than similar episodes. Out of five stars, the episode received ratings of five stars from the BBC, four stars in The Independent, two stars in The Telegraph and one star in Vulture. It also attained a graded rating of an A in The A.V. Club. In positive criticism, Stubbs said it was "one of the most sensitive, emotionally affecting" instalments, with Mangan concurring that it was "one of the most tender", and Vorel opined it to be "among the series' most pitch-perfect achievements". Ahr wrote that it had a great "level of literary merit, allowing for all sorts of analysis for those willing to plumb its depths". However, in The Telegraph, Ed Power panned the script as "listless".
Critics identified various parts of the plot to be weak. Power criticised the occurrence of virtual reality "as a plot device" as overused in Black Mirror. While Vorel saw Danny and Karl's reactions to be "profoundly well-earned", and Bojalad saw their sex scenes as "surprisingly raw and powerful", Bramesco did not see a "foundation of desire" leading to the first kiss. Vorel and Robinson wanted further information about how or why people are using Striking Vipers X as a sex simulator, or why it was designed to have this functionality. Contrastingly, Stubbs opined that the initial in-game scenes were "incredibly funny" and the rest were "brilliant". Turk criticised Roxette's description of sex as "the full orchestra" for women to be "awful" and "corny", and Bramesco and the Digital Spy critics Ali Griffiths and Morgan Jeffery disliked Lance's "don't feel like a gay thing" line. Sims said that the ending was "odd" and "slightly melancholy". Turk thought Danny, Karl and Theo's once-a-year arrangement is a dated solution because it maintains Danny and Theo's "traditional hetero monogamous marriage with two kids and an annual family barbecue", rather than meaningfully integrating any change into it. Similarly, Bramesco thought that the supposedly happy ending works by "gracefully eliding" every day of the year but one.
Comparisons to "San Junipero" based on quality were largely unfavourable, such as that of The Guardian's Guy Lodge, who saw "Striking Vipers" as "hollow by comparison". Reynolds thought that the episode's themes were "explored in a more gripping way" in "San Junipero". Similarly, Bramesco reviewed the episode as a "dunderheaded thought experiment" which was like "San Junipero" but where "everything that could have gone wrong ... does so". Sims found it "nervier" and "less swooning" than the other romance episodes, lacking the "rebellious fun" of "San Junipero" but also the "tragic tinge" of "Be Right Back" and "Hang the DJ". Similarly, Power critiqued that "San Junipero" and "Hang the DJ" had "something genuinely profound" to say about love, but "Striking Vipers" does not. As such, only the former two episodes "earned" their happy ending. Griffiths and Jeffery criticised that "queerness is always neatly hidden away in virtual worlds" in Black Mirror, both in "San Junipero" and "Striking Vipers". They stated that "Striking Vipers" did not address its themes deeply enough, such as by not showing on-screen the conversation Danny has where he confesses the situation to Theo. However, Montgomery dissented, writing that "Striking Vipers" was similar to "Be Right Back" and "San Junipero" as three of "the finest and most soulful" episodes.
Critics were divided on whether the episode addressed the questions it raises to a sufficient degree. Griffiths and Jeffery said that it "never really gets to the crux of what it means for Danny to be attracted to Karl" as Roxette, and does not show enough of Karl's perspective. Lodge argued that there is a "frustratingly regressive tone" as the episode is "embarrassed and coy about its subject matter". However, Turk said that "enough was shown ... to raise the most interesting theme": that Danny and Karl are attracted to each other only when Karl is a woman. Vorel, Mellor and Robinson commented that the episode was surprisingly mature, with Bojalad summarising that it "presents a stunning example of reckoning with technology and one's own wants and desires in a mature, adult fashion". Montgomery thought it was a good premise for the show as it is "both technologically plausible and richly philosophical". Jon Paul of Syfy Wire found the topic of how black men "struggle with the energy that comes with exploring intimacy" and "suppress themselves" interesting, along with how men behave "relatively distant and neutral". He linked this to toxic masculinity. Lodge criticised that "queer desire is treated ... as a disorienting byproduct of alien technology rather than a matter of the heart" and that the implications of Karl enjoying sexual experiences in a woman's body are "glibly grazed over".
Some reviewers found the characterisation to be lacking. Reynolds wanted to "understand the characters a little more" and Handlen said the episode "never quite gets under the surface" of them. Abad-Santos went further, saying that Danny and Karl seem to "exist just to raise points and get us to the end of a thought-provoking argument, rather than as people in a meaningful story". Bramesco and Power said that, respectively, the pair had "zero demonstrated chemistry", and are not convincing with their "supposed transcendent charge". In contrast, Fiona Sturges of The Independent praised the "nuanced depiction of marriage, parenthood" and their consequent "erosion of spontaneity", and Handlen saw Danny, Karl and Theo as being given "a measure of dignity and compassion they might not have found on other shows".
Critical comments about the acting and directing were positive. Stubbs reviewed the all-black cast as further establishing Black Mirror as "a bastion of diversity ... not as a box-ticking exercise". Handlen and Mellor found the performances "solid" and "strong", respectively, with Mellor praising Danny and Roxie in particular. Handlen wrote that Abdul-Mateen "is terrific as Karl, selling the character's charm and enthusiasm and just absolutely landing the heartbreak". Ahr said that Beharie's acting was "as expressive as they come". Vorel also praised Mackie, Abdul-Mateen and Beharie. Handlen praised Harris's direction, analysing that the shots often position Danny and Karl in "traditional fighting game poses". Mellor and Sims praised the filming style and scenery of the in-game scenes, with the former commenting that Harris "successfully created two totally different textures for each world".
### Episode rankings
"Striking Vipers" ranked as follows on critics' lists of the 23 instalments of Black Mirror, from best to worst:
- 4th – Tim Molloy, TheWrap
- 13th – Aubrey Page, Collider
- 14th – Travis Clark, Business Insider
- 15th – James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly
- 16th – Morgan Jeffery and Rosie Fletcher, Digital Spy
- 17th – Matt Miller, Esquire
- 21st – Ed Power, The Telegraph
- 23rd – Charles Bramesco, Vulture
IndieWire authors ranked the 22 Black Mirror instalments excluding Bandersnatch by quality, giving "Striking Vipers" a position of 14th. Instead of by quality, Proma Khosla of Mashable ranked the episodes by tone, concluding that "Striking Vipers" was the third-least pessimistic episode of the show.
### Awards
"Striking Vipers" was nominated for three awards: an ADG Excellence in Production Design Award, a Golden Reel Award and a Producers Guild of America Award. |
16,432 | Janusz Zajdel | 1,160,341,192 | Polish writer | [
"1938 births",
"1985 deaths",
"Deaths from lung cancer in Poland",
"Janusz Zajdel",
"Polish science fiction writers",
"University of Warsaw alumni",
"Writers from Warsaw"
]
| Janusz Andrzej Zajdel (15 August 1938 – 19 July 1985) was a Polish science fiction author, second in popularity in Poland to Stanisław Lem. His major genres were social science fiction and dystopia. His main recurring theme involved the gloomy prospects for a space environment into which mankind carried totalitarian ideas and habits: Red Space Republics, or Space Labor Camps, or both. His heroes desperately try to find meaning in the world around them.
The Polish science fiction fandom award was named after him: the Janusz A. Zajdel Award. He was a trustee of World SF.
## Life
Janusz Zajdel was born 15 August 1938 in Warsaw, Poland. He studied physics at the University of Warsaw. After graduating, he worked many years as a radiological engineer and an expert on nuclear physics at the Central Laboratory of Radiological Protection in Poland. He published a number of academic works, handbooks of safety regulations, as well as educational and popular science texts.
In his spare time, he popularized science by writing science fiction. With his brother, he started a column in a Polish magazine for young people interested in science and engineering, ' (Young Technician), in which they proposed various futuristic gadgets. In 1961 Młody Technik published Zajdel's science-fiction debut, the short story "Tau Ceti" (Polish: Tau Wieloryba). Other stories by him soon appeared in several other Polish magazines.
His first book was published in 1965, a short-story anthology, Jad mantezji (The Venom of Mantesia), which included stories from Młody Technik and some others that had already appeared a year earlier in another anthology. By 1982 he had published four more collections: Przejście przez lustro (Through the Mirror, 1975); Iluzyt (1976); Feniks (The Phoenix, 1981); and Ogon diabła (The Devil's Tail, 1982).
His first novel, Lalande 21185, appeared in 1966, a year after his first short-story anthology, and was geared toward young adults. His first serious science-fiction novel was a "first contact"-type SF mystery, ' (Right of Return, 1975); but it was his novels of the late 1970s and early 1980s – Cylinder van Troffa (Van Troff's Cylinder, 1980); Limes inferior (The Lower Limit, 1982); Cała prawda o planecie Ksi (The Whole Truth about Planet Xi, 1983); '' (Out of the Shadows, 1983); and Paradyzja (Paradise: World in Orbit, 1984) – that earned him a reputation as one of the most important Polish science-fiction writers.
He was an active member of Polish and international science fiction fandom, and a Trustee of World SF. In the 1980s he was an active supporter of the Polish Solidarity movement.
On 19 July 1985 he died of lung cancer, after three years' struggle against the disease.
## Themes
Zajdel's early works, from the 1960s and early 1970s, focuses on scientific inventions and their role in space exploration, alien contact or artificial intelligence. As his writing career continued, however, his stories evolved to focus on the social aspects and often negative consequences of those inventions. Over time, a theme became increasingly visible in his works - a concern over dangers inherent in attempts to control the human society. He is also condemning human ignorance, warning against xenophobia, and asking philosophical questions about the nature of the universe, happiness and human destiny. Zajdel's works from his second period - late 1970s and 1980s - and represent the genres of social and dystopian fiction. In his works, he envisions totalitarian states and societies living under extreme forms of mass surveillance.
His works are also recognized as being a critique of the totalitarian, communist state, a reality of his life in People's Republic of Poland. Science fiction genre, with its outer-worldly, clearly fictional, and often allegorical setting and invented jargon was able to debate fundamentals of such systems with frankness that more mainstream literature would not be allowed to.
## Importance
Zajdel has been described as the second science fiction writer in popularity in Poland after Stanisław Lem. He has also been described as the writer who replaced Lem as the "top Polish SF writer", after "Lem vacated [this position] earlier of his own volition".
He is recognized as an originator of the social science fiction genre in Polish science fiction, known in Poland as the sociological speculative fiction (fantastyka socjologiczna). He has been an inspiration to a number of younger Polish science fiction authors such as Maciej Parowski and Marek Oramus.
His works have been translated into Belarusian, Bulgarian, Czech, Esperanto, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Russian and Slovenian. As of August 2015, the only work translated into English is the short story Wyjątkowo trudny teren ("Particularly Difficult Territory") that Zajdel wrote for the English language Tales from the Planet Earth anthology edited by Frederik Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull.
## Recognition
In 1973 Zajdel received an honorary award Magnum Trophaeum from the Młody Technik (Young Technician) magazine for long-term cooperation. In 1980 Zajdel received the Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts Best SF Book of the Year Award for Van Troff's Cylinder. Zajdel also received the Golden Sepulka Award two times: for Limes Inferior (1982 novel; 1983 award) and Wyjście z cienia ("Out of the Shadow") (1983 novel; 1984 award).
In 1984 Polish fantasy and science fiction fandom (associated with the Polish SF convention Polcon) decided to establish an annual award, initially named Sfinks ("Sphynx"). Janusz A. Zajdel became the first winner of this award, for his 1984 novel Paradyzja. He won the award posthumously in 1985, shortly after his death, at which time it was decided to rename the award after him, and it became known as the Janusz A. Zajdel Award.
Frederik Pohl dedicated the anthology Tales From The Planet Earth'' to Zajdel and A. Bertram Chandler.
## See also
- Koalang – term invented by Zajdel |
40,772,176 | Shickshinny Creek | 1,144,169,346 | Tributary of the Susquehanna River | [
"Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania",
"Rivers of Pennsylvania",
"Tributaries of the Susquehanna River"
]
| Shickshinny Creek (historically known as Shickohinna) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 10.1 miles (16.3 km) long and flows through Ross Township, Union Township, and Shickshinny. Its watershed has an area of 35.0 square miles (91 km<sup>2</sup>) and its tributaries include Culver Creek, Reyburn Creek, and Little Shickshinny Creek. The creek is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. A sawmill and a gristmill were built on the creek in 1802 and 1804, respectively. Several bridges have also been constructed over it. The creek was historically polluted by culm near its mouth, but agriculture was the main industry in the watershed in the early 1900s. It was historically used as a water supply.
The surficial geology near Shickshinny Creek mainly consists of urban land, fill, alluvium, alluvial terrace, alluvial fan, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Delta, Wisconsinan Bouldery Till, Wisconsinan Till, lakes, and wetlands. The lower reaches of the creek are in a water gap between Huntington Mountain and Shickshinny Mountain. A lake known as Shickshinny Lake is in the watershed and is dammed by the Shickshinny Lake Dam.
## Course
Shickshinny Creek begins in a valley in Ross Township, northwest of Sylvan Lake. It flows south for a few miles, crossing State Route 4024 and passing through two ponds. It then turns south-southwest for more than a mile, entering Union Township. At this point, the creek turns south for a short distance before turning south-southwest again and flowing through a valley known as Nevel Hollow, crossing State Route 4016 along the way. At the end of Nevel Hollow, the creek enters Shickshinny Lake, where it receives its first named tributary, Culver Creek, from the right. At the southeastern end of Shickshinny Lake, the creek flows southeast for a few miles in a valley, crossing State Route 4007. It eventually turns south for nearly a mile before turning east for a short distance. It then receives the tributary Reyburn Creek from the left and turns south, passing through the village of Koonsville and crossing Pennsylvania Route 239. The creek then turns south-southeast for approximately a mile, flowing alongside Pennsylvania Route 239 in a water gap between Huntington Mountain and Shickshinny Mountain. It enters Shickshinny and receives the tributary Little Shickshinny Creek from the right before turning east-southeast for several tenths of a mile. The creek flows through Shickshinny and crosses US Route 11 before reaching its confluence with the Susquehanna River.
Shickshinny Creek joins the Susquehanna River 172.34 miles (277.35 km) upriver of its mouth.
### Tributaries
Shickshinny Creek has three named tributaries, which are known as Little Shickshinny Creek, Reyburn Creek, and Culver Creek. Little Shickshinny Creek joins Shickshinny Creek 0.46 miles (0.74 km) upstream of its mouth. Its watershed has an area of 9.80 square miles (25.4 km<sup>2</sup>). Reyburn Creek joins Shickshinny Creek 1.68 miles (2.70 km) upstream of its mouth. Its watershed has an area of 9.52 square miles (24.7 km<sup>2</sup>). Culver Creek joins Shickshinny Creek 6.72 miles (10.81 km) upstream of its mouth. Its watershed has an area of 1.10 square miles (2.8 km<sup>2</sup>).
## Hydrology and climate
Shickshinny Creek has a low level of alkalinity. The discharge of the creek at Shickshinny was measured to be 65 cubic feet per second in April 1965. The specific conductance of the creek at that time was measured to be 60 micro-siemens per centimeter at 25 °C (77 °F). The pH was 6.2 and the concentration of water hardness was 23 milligrams per liter.
In the early 1900s, Shickshinny Creek was a clear stream until 200 feet (61 m) from its mouth. At this location, the Salem Breaker of the E.S. Stackhouse Coal Company drained into it via the abandoned Pennsylvania Canal. The creek contributed some culm to the Susquehanna River.
In April 1965, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the waters of Shickshinny Creek was once measured to be 7.2 milligrams per liter (0.0072 oz/cu ft) milligrams per liter. The concentration of bicarbonate was 7 milligrams per liter (0.0070 oz/cu ft) and the concentration of nitrogen in the form of nitrates was 0.158 milligrams per liter (0.000158 oz/cu ft). The nitrate concentration was 0.700 milligrams per liter (0.000699 oz/cu ft), the concentration of sulfate was 15.0 milligrams per liter (0.0150 oz/cu ft), and the chloride concentration was 3.5 milligrams per liter (0.0035 oz/cu ft). The concentration of sodium was measured to be 1.60 milligrams per liter (0.00160 oz/cu ft).
At the border between Union Township and Shickshinny, the peak annual discharge of Shickshinny Creek has a 10 percent chance of reaching 2,500 cubic feet per second (71 m<sup>3</sup>/s). It has a 2 percent chance of reaching 4,800 cubic feet per second (140 m<sup>3</sup>/s) and a 1 percent chance of reaching 6,200 cubic feet per second (180 m<sup>3</sup>/s). The peak annual discharge has a 0.2 percent chance of reaching 10,800 cubic feet per second (310 m<sup>3</sup>/s).
Upstream of Reyburn Creek, the peak annual discharge of Shickshinny Creek has a 10 percent chance of reaching 1,270 cubic feet per second (36 m<sup>3</sup>/s). It has a 2 percent chance of reaching 2,030 cubic feet per second (57 m<sup>3</sup>/s) and a 1 percent chance of reaching 2,440 cubic feet per second (69 m<sup>3</sup>/s). The peak annual discharge has a 0.2 percent chance of reaching 4,160 cubic feet per second (118 m<sup>3</sup>/s).
Upstream of one of its unnamed tributaries, the peak annual discharge of Shickshinny Creek has a 10 percent chance of reaching 650 cubic feet per second (18 m<sup>3</sup>/s). It has a 2 percent chance of reaching 950 cubic feet per second (27 m<sup>3</sup>/s) and a 1 percent chance of reaching 1,120 cubic feet per second (32 m<sup>3</sup>/s). The peak annual discharge has a 0.2 percent chance of reaching 2,390 cubic feet per second (68 m<sup>3</sup>/s).
The average annual rainfall is between 35 inches (89 cm) and 45 inches (110 cm). In late April 1965, the water temperature of the creek was measured to be 11.0 °C (51.8 °F).
## Geology and geography
The elevation near the mouth of Shickshinny Creek is 499 feet (152 m) above sea level. The elevation of the creek's source is between 1,200 and 1,220 feet (370 and 370 m) above sea level. In its first mile, the elevation of the creek decreases by 160 feet (49 m). From this point to its mouth, its elevation decreases at a rate of 67.1 feet per mile (12.71 m/km).
The course of Shickshinny Creek has been described as "sinuous". The creek flows through rock formations consisting of sandstone and shale. It is situated in a gorge for a mile in its lower reaches.
The Pocono Beds are found near Shickshinny Creek, on Shickshinny Mountain. The Pocono Beds are found at the same level as the creek slightly north of Shickshinny. This rock formation consists of 200 feet (61 m) of gray sandstone and brownish sandy shales. Approximately 400 feet (120 m) below the Pocono Beds is a layer of rock approximately 50 feet (15 m) thick and composed of pebbly sandstone. This may be the Mount Pleasant Formation. The Mauch Chunk Formation is also found in the watershed. Additionally, the Chemung Beds are found on parts of the creek.
In its lower reaches, the surficial geology in the vicinity of Shickshinny Creek consists of urban land highly disrupted by cut and fill, alluvium, alluvial terrace, fill, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift containing stratified sand and gravel, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Delta containing sand and gravel, Wisconsinan Bouldery Till (a glacial or resedimented till containing boulders, and bedrock consisting of sandstone and shale. The bedrock mainly occurs on the mountains in this part of the watershed. In the middle reaches of the creek, the surficial geology mainly features bedrock consisting of sandstone and shale, alluvium, and a glacial or resedimented till known as Wisconsinan Till. Some Wisconsinan Outwash and alluvial terrace is also present near Koonsville. Some patches of Wisconsinan Bouldery Till and wetlands are also present. In its upper reaches, the creek is almost entirely dominated by Wisconsinan Till, bedrock, and some lakes. However, there is a patch of alluvial fan immediately north of Shickshinny Lake and some Wisconsinan Bouldery Till and Wisconsinan Outwash not far from the creek's source.
The watershed of the tributary Little Shickshinny Creek is located in the Wyoming Coal Basin. Little Shickshinny Creek flows between Huntington Mountain and Lee Mountain. The Watsontown Axis crosses Shickshinny Creek.
The Shickshinny Creek watershed is in the Wyoming Valley. The creek is in the vicinity of Shickshinny Mountain. Glacial deposits along the lower reaches of the creek can be up to 30 feet (9.1 m) deep.
A 62-foot-deep well in the Shickshinny Creek water gap was once noted by Newport to produce 40 US gallons (150 L) of water per minute.
## Watershed
The watershed of Shickshinny Creek has an area of 35.0 square miles (91 km<sup>2</sup>). It is located in the northwestern part of Luzerne County and the northeastern part of Columbia County. The area of the portion of the watershed that is upstream of Reyburn Creek has an area of 11.97 square miles (31.0 km<sup>2</sup>). The mouth of the creek is in the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Shickshinny. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Sweet Valley.
The lower reaches of the watershed of Shickshinny Creek mostly consist of mountains. The upper reaches of the watershed consist of hills, swamps, and lakes. The communities of Muhlenburg and Shickshinny are in the creek's watershed.
A lake known as Shickshinny Lake is in the watershed of Shickshinny Creek. It has an area of approximately 129 acres (52 ha). The lake is dammed by the Shickshinny Lake Dam. The dam is 365 feet (111 m) long and 33 feet (10 m) high, with a width of 17 feet (5.2 m) at its crest. It is covered in grass on both sides, with some riprap also occurring on its north side. A 1980 inspection found its spillway to be "inadequate", but lacking "major deficiencies". However, there was some seepage and erosion.
Shickshinny Creek is the main source of flooding in Union Township and one of the main sources of flooding in Shickshinny. During the largest flood in Union Township, which occurred in June 1972, the creek's floodwaters reached a depth of 2 feet (0.61 m) above McKendree Road in Koonsville. The creek's discharge in southern Union Township approached 8,300 cubic feet per second (240 m<sup>3</sup>/s).
## History and etymology
Shickshinny Creek was entered into the Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1187507. The origin of the creek's name is unknown, but it may be an Anglicized corruption of the word Schigi-hanna, which is itself a rough translation of "fine creek".
The first sawmill in Union Township, Luzerne County was built by Isaac Benscotter in 1802. The first gristmill in the township was built on the creek by George Gregory in 1804. The Search brothers built a number of mills on Shickshinny Creek in 1858. They included a sawmill, a flour mill, a plaster mill, and a brickyard and were collectively known as the Shickshinny Mills or Search's Mills.
A turnpike was built through the Shickshinny Creek gap in 1877. A number of bridges have been constructed over the creek. A masonry arch bridge carrying Glen Ave over the creek is 32.2 feet (9.8 m) long. A concrete tee beam bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 239 over the creek was constructed in 1925. It is 33.1 feet (10.1 m) long and is situated in Union Township. A steel stringer/multi-beam or girder bridge was built over the creek in 1930 and renovated in the 2010s. It is 46.9 feet (14.3 m) long and carries Bartoli Lane. A bridge of the same type, but carrying State Route 4007, was built in Union Township in 1940. This bridge is 51.8 feet (15.8 m) long. A concrete tee beam bridge carrying that road over the creek was built in 1965. It is 35.1 feet (10.7 m) long and is also situated in Union Township.
The Shickshinny Water Company used a stream in the Shickshinny Creek watershed as a water supply in the early 1900s. Little Shickshinny Creek has been used as a water supply for Shickshinny, as well as Mocanaqua. Agriculture has been a significant industry in the watershed in the past. The streams of the watershed also power small mills.
In 1996, 3,000 US gallons (11,000 L) of oil leaked from a pipe into Shickshinny Creek, but there was no major environmental damage.
## Biology
The main stem of Shickshinny Creek is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. The tributaries Reyburn Creek and Culver Creek, as well as several unnamed streams in the watershed, also hold these designations. However, the tributary Little Shickshinny Creek is designated as a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. Wild trout naturally reproduce in Shickshinny Creek from its headwaters downstream to its mouth.
The tributary Little Shickshinny Creek is listed on the Columbia County Natural Areas Inventory. The area in its vicinity contains habitats such as a Hemlock Palustrine Forest Natural Community, a red maple swamp, a dry oak-heath forest, a highbush blueberry shrub swamp, and a reservoir.
## See also
- Paddy Run, next tributary of the Susquehanna River going downriver
- Hunlock Creek, next tributary of the Susquehanna River going upriver
- List of rivers of Pennsylvania |
7,109,072 | Every Man for Himself (Lost) | 1,171,076,241 | null | [
"2006 American television episodes",
"Lost (season 3) episodes",
"Television episodes directed by Stephen Williams (director)",
"Television episodes written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz"
]
| "Every Man for Himself" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American drama television series Lost, and the 53rd episode overall. It was directed by Stephen Williams and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It first aired on ABC in the United States on October 25, 2006. The character of Sawyer (Josh Holloway) is featured in the episode's flashbacks; on the island, his rebellious attitude causes Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) and the Others to conjure a plan to keep him in check.
"Every Man for Himself" was intended to show how Ben was a character that could manipulate even the best confidence man on the island, and if Sawyer could care for another person, as Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) is making her attempts to escape captivity. When the episode first aired, it was watched by 17.09 million American viewers. Reviews were polarized; some critics praised the writing and the cliffhanger ending, while others deemed the episode repetitive and the "outright stinker" of season 3's early episodes.
## Plot
### Flashbacks
Sawyer is in prison, trying to befriend Munson (Ian Gomez), a man who has hidden ten million dollars. He warns Munson that the warden (Bill Duke) is trying to con him out of his money. Eventually, Munson, worried that his wife will find where he has hidden the money, enlists Sawyer's help in moving the stash. Sawyer then reveals this information to the warden in exchange for a reduced sentence and a part of the money, which he puts in a bank account for Clementine Phillips, a baby that previous con victim Cassidy Phillips (Kim Dickens) has told him is his daughter. The warden sarcastically congratulates Sawyer on lying and cheating his way out of prison.
### At Hydra Island
As Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer watch, the Others carry a critically injured Colleen (Paula Malcomson), who was shot by Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) the night before. Sawyer realizes that the injury was inflicted by someone back at camp, and then devises a plan to break out from the cage; he intends to electrocute an off-guard Danny Pickett (Michael Bowen) using a puddle he created outside his cage. However, Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) overhears him via surveillance and switches off the electricity prior to visiting him. When Sawyer attempts to carry out his plan, Ben knocks him unconscious and has him carried into the Hydra station.
Sawyer wakes up to find himself strapped to a table, where Ben, Tom (M. C. Gainey) and two other Others watch over him. Sawyer is gagged before having a large hypodermic needle inserted into his chest. When Sawyer awakens, Ben and Tom come in, Tom carrying a rabbit in a cage; he shakes the cage vigorously, causing the rabbit to suddenly collapse, presumably dead. Ben informs Sawyer that they fitted him, like the rabbit, with a modified pacemaker; should his heart rate reach 140, his heart would explode. Ben threatens to implant one in Kate if Sawyer should tell her of his ordeal.
Meanwhile, Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) begs Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) to help operate on Colleen. Upon arriving at the operating theatre, Jack notices some x-rays, but Juliet informs him that they are not Colleen's. During the surgery, Jack tries to save Colleen, but she eventually dies. Later, Jack informs Juliet that there was nothing they could do with Colleen, and then asks about the x-rays, which Jack knows belong to a 40-year-old man with a very large spinal tumor, and asks whom he is there to save.
Danny, aware that the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors are responsible, takes his anger out on Sawyer by violently beating him; Sawyer refrains from fighting back. Kate pleads with him to stop; Danny ceases only after Kate admits to loving Sawyer. Afterwards, Kate notices a gap in her cage, and manages to climb through. She tries to free Sawyer, but he bitterly refuses, remembering Karl's escape and bloody capture. Kate returns to her cage, insisting that she would not abandon him, and tells Sawyer that she lied about loving him so that Danny would stop.
The next day, Ben takes Sawyer for a walk to high ground. Sawyer learns that he has no pacemaker; it was merely a con to prevent Sawyer from leaving, and Ben shows him the same rabbit from the day before, which had been merely sedated. Ben reveals to Sawyer that they are on a completely different island approximately twice the size of Alcatraz that overlooks the main island; escape is impossible. Upon asking why he was conned, Ben tells Sawyer that in order to gain a con artist's respect, they must be conned themselves.
### At the beach
Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) offers to fix Claire Littleton's (Emilie de Ravin) roof, but takes it back after Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) offers to do this himself. Desmond then uses one of Paulo's (Rodrigo Santoro) golf clubs to build a lightning rod next to Claire's hut. As a storm brews, waking up Aaron, lightning strikes the golf club instead of Claire's hut. Charlie looks on in amazement, as, again, Desmond seemed to have had a glimpse of the future.
## Production
Leading up to the episode's broadcast, showrunner Damon Lindelof asked in an interview, "Until now, Sawyer's been the No. 1 con man on the island. What happens when he meets his match?" Fellow showrunner Carlton Cuse added "Is he willing to put himself out there emotionally for another human being?". Evangeline Lilly described the scene where Kate declines to escape as a major moment to the character, saying that "due to this hillbilly she's capable of returning to her cage." Josh Holloway agreed, declaring that the episode revealed to Sawyer that "not everyone is evil". The flashbacks were shot in an actual penitentiary, the Halawa Correctional Facility, which had been previously used for the prison where Desmond was incarcerated in "Live Together, Die Alone". While some of the interns were portrayed by extras with soy ink tattoos, bikers with actual body paint were also used.
Referring to the scene in which Ben seemingly fits Sawyer with a lethal pacemaker, Michael Emerson comments
> Sadistic may be the word, but he doesn't seem to take much relish in it. He's just sort of detached, he looks at it coldly. I sometimes feel like everything to him is a sort of scientific experiment and he is interested in a dispassionate way in how the experiment runs its course. I think some day if we ever find out what his parentage is, that his parents were people of science.
He also described the events as a demonstration that "Ben has more cards than you think; ... he's a step or two ahead, one layer or two deeper than anyone else who is playing the game". The rabbit was a reference to Stephen King's On Writing, where King uses a rabbit in a cage with the number 8 written on its back as an example for the connection between reader and writer. Emerson said that part of the appeal of the scene was that "bunnies look so innocent, and the audience feels so tenderly about them you can feel nothing but beastly being mean to them". But Emerson added the rabbit in the scene had problems reacting to his attempts to scare him – "it was unfazed, it barely blinked".
When asked in an interview whether she got sick of shooting on the Hydra holding cell set, Elizabeth Mitchell responded
> I guess so. It was creepy because it was supposed to be underwater, so it was a little bit dingy but kind of great at the same time ... what I will miss is just being one on one with another actor. And then also one on two obviously when it was Michael [Emerson] because the three of us, it was almost like being on stage. We were able to really work off of each other and I thought you don't usually get that in a TV show.
## Reception
This episode attracted 17.087 million American viewers, standing as the seventh most watched program of the week.
IGN's Chris Carabott said that "now that Lost has finally wrapped up most of the loose ends from season two, the episode can shift focus to this season's mysteries." He also felt the episode "offers a healthy mix of plot and character development with a fair share of revelations thrown in for good measure." Christine Fenno of Entertainment Weekly declared herself "sold on the adrenaline-rush direction the show has taken", with praise to the flashbacks and the cliffhanger involving the reveal of the second island. Lost critic Andrew Dignan described "Every Man for Himself" as "quite the exhilarating episode, packing in enough thrills to make the 42-minutes fly by" in Slant Magazine. Ryan Mcgee of Zap2it considered "watching the con man get conned was brutally satisfying", saying that Sawyer "[ran] the whole gamut of emotions", and felt Colleen's death and the reveal of Ben's tumor "were good things, as people were already impatient by the glacial-like pace of Season 3." Writing for AOL TV, Jonathan Toomey considered "Every Man for Himself" as "an interesting episode" which set up many new elements, and while Toomey called the flashback "a little dry and 100% predictable", he liked how it related to the other events in the story "right up to the title". Mac Slocum of Filmfodder.com praised the episode for returning to the mythology, as he considered the previous episode lacked "the slack-jawed wonder I'm so accustomed to experiencing with this show". Daniel MacEachern of Television Without Pity gave the episode a grade of B−.
IGN ranked "Every Man for Himself" 70th out of all episodes of Lost, saying that it "offered plenty of food for thought." On the other hand, a similar list by Los Angeles Times ranked the episode as the tenth worst of the series, describing it as the "only outright stinker" of early season 3. Alan Sepinwall heavily criticized the episode for the repetitive and uninteresting storyline with the Others, though he praised Emerson's performance as Ben. Michael Emerson and Josh Holloway submitted this episode for consideration on their own behalf respectively in the category of "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" at the 2007 Emmy Awards, but neither was nominated. |
49,512,921 | SMS Habsburg (1865) | 1,148,961,890 | Ironclad warship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy | [
"1865 ships",
"Erzherzog Ferdinand Max-class ironclads"
]
| SMS Habsburg was the second and final member of the Erzherzog Ferdinand Max class of broadside ironclads built for the Austrian Navy in the 1860s. She was built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino; her keel was laid down in June 1863, she was launched in June 1865, and commissioning in June 1866 at the outbreak of the Third Italian War of Independence and the Austro-Prussian War, fought concurrently. The ship was armed with a main battery of sixteen 48-pounder guns, though the rifled guns originally intended, which had been ordered from Prussia, had to be replaced with old smoothbore guns until after the conflicts ended.
Habsburg saw action at the Battle of Lissa in July 1866, though she was not significantly engaged during the battle. In 1870, she was used in a show of force to try to prevent the Italian annexation of Rome while the city's protector, France, was distracted with the Franco-Prussian War, though the Italians took the city regardless. The ship's armament was revised several times in the 1870s and 1880s, before she was ultimately withdrawn from frontline service and employed as a guard ship and a barracks ship in Pola in 1886. She served in this role until 1898 when she was stricken from the naval register and broken up for scrap in 1899–1900.
## Description
Habsburg was 83.75 meters (274 ft 9 in) long overall; she had a beam of 15.96 m (52 ft 4 in) and an average draft of 7.14 m (23 ft 5 in). She displaced 5,130 long tons (5,210 t). She had a crew of 511 officers and enlisted men. Her propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller. The number and type of her coal-fired boilers have not survived, but they were vented through a single funnel located amidships. Her engine produced a top speed of 12.54 knots (23.22 km/h; 14.43 mph) from 2,925 indicated horsepower (2,181 kW).
Habsburg was a broadside ironclad, and she was armed with a main battery of sixteen 48-pounder muzzle-loading smooth-bore guns, eight guns per broadside. She also carried several smaller guns, including four 8-pounder guns and two 3-pounders. The ship's hull was sheathed with wrought iron armor that was 123 mm (4.8 in) thick on the battery and reduced to 87 mm (3.4 in) at the bow and stern.
## Service history
Habsburg was built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste. Her keel was laid down in June 1863, and she was launched on 24 June 1865. The builders were forced to complete fitting-out work quickly, as tensions with neighboring Prussia and Italy erupted into the concurrent Austro-Prussian War and the Third Italian War of Independence in June 1866. Habsburg's rifled heavy guns were still on order from Krupp, and they could not be delivered due to the conflict with Prussia. Instead, the ship was armed with old smooth-bore guns. Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, the commander of the Austrian Fleet, immediately began to mobilize his fleet. As the ships became fully crewed, they began to conduct training exercises in Fasana. On 26 June, Tegetthoff sortied with the Austrian fleet and steamed to Ancona in an attempt to draw out the Italians, but the Italian commander, Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano, refused to engage Tegetthoff. Tegetthoff made another sortie on 6 July, but again could not bring the Italian fleet to battle.
### Battle of Lissa
On 16 July, Persano took the Italian fleet, with twelve ironclads, out of Ancona, bound for the island of Lissa, where they arrived on the 18th. With them, they brought troop transports carrying 3,000 soldiers. Persano then spent the next two days bombarding the Austrian defenses of the island and unsuccessfully attempting to force a landing. Tegetthoff received a series of telegrams between the 17 and 19 July notifying him of the Italian attack, which he initially believed to be a feint to draw the Austrian fleet away from its main base at Pola and Venice. By the morning of the 19th, however, he was convinced that Lissa was in fact the Italian objective, and so he requested permission to attack. As Tegetthoff's fleet arrived off Lissa on the morning of 20 July, Persano's fleet was arrayed for another landing attempt. The latter's ships were divided into three groups, with only the first two able to concentrate in time to meet the Austrians. Tegetthoff had arranged his ironclad ships into a wedge-shaped formation, with Habsburg on the right flank; the wooden warships of the second and third divisions followed behind in the same formation.
While he was forming up his ships, Persano transferred from his flagship, Re d'Italia, to the turret ship Affondatore. This created a gap in the Italian line, and Tegetthoff seized the opportunity to divide the Italian fleet and create a melee. He made a pass through the gap, but failed to ram any of the Italian ships, forcing him to turn around and make another attempt. Habsburg was not as heavily engaged in the ensuing melee; she did not attempt to ram any Italian vessels, instead employed converging fire, though without success. During this period, the leading Italian ironclads, Principe di Carignano and Castelfidardo, opened fire at long range on Habsburg, Kaiser Max, and Salamander, though they only inflicted splinter damage on Salamander.
The battle ended after Tegetthoff's flagship, Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, rammed and sank Re d'Italia and heavy Austrian fire destroyed the coastal defense ship Palestro with a magazine explosion. Persano broke off the engagement, and though his ships still outnumbered the Austrians, he refused to counter-attack with his badly demoralized forces. In addition, the fleet was low on coal and ammunition. The Italian fleet began to withdraw, followed by the Austrians; Tegetthoff, having gotten the better of the action, kept his distance so as not to risk his success. In the course of the battle, Habsburg had fired 170 shells and had been hit 38 times in response, though she was not damaged and sustained no casualties. The Austrian fleet proceeded to Lissa and anchored in the harbor in Saint George Bay. That evening, Habsburg, Prinz Eugen, and a pair of gunboats patrolled outside the harbor.
### Later career
After returning to Pola, Tegetthoff kept his fleet in the northern Adriatic, where it patrolled against a possible Italian attack. The Italian ships never came, and on 12 August, the two countries signed the Armistice of Cormons; this ended the fighting and led to the Treaty of Vienna. Though Austria had defeated Italy at Lissa and on land at the Battle of Custoza, the Austrian army was decisively defeated by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz. As a result of Austria's defeat, Kaiser Franz Joseph was forced to accede to Hungarian demands for greater autonomy, and the country became Austria-Hungary in the Ausgleich of 1867. The two halves of the Dual Monarchy held veto power over the other, and Hungarian disinterest in naval expansion led to severely reduced budgets for the fleet. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the bulk of the Austrian fleet was decommissioned and disarmed.
In 1869, Kaiser Franz Joseph took a tour of the Mediterranean Sea in his imperial yacht Greif; Habsburg, Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, and a pair of paddle steamers escorted the Kaiser for the trip to Port Said at the mouth of the Suez Canal. The two ironclads remained in the Mediterranean while the other vessels passed through the Canal into the Red Sea in company with Empress Eugenie of France aboard her own yacht. The Austro-Hungarian ships eventually returned to Trieste in December. The following year, Habsburg was the sole Austro-Hungarian ironclad in active service, the rest having been disarmed and laid up in Pola. Following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War that summer and the withdrawal of the French garrison from Rome, the Italy seemed likely to annex the city from the Papal States. Franz Joseph decided to attempt to deter an Italian attack on Rome, and since Habsburg was the only capital ship available, she was sent to several Italian ports as a show of force in August. She left Italian waters in September at the same time the Prussians decisively defeated the French at the Battle of Sedan. With the collapse of the Second French Empire, and Franz Joseph unwilling to unilaterally attack Italy to defend Rome, the Austro-Hungarians backed down and Italy seized the city.
In 1874 Habsburg was rearmed with a battery of fourteen 7 in (178 mm) muzzle-loading Armstrong guns and four light guns. Her battery was revised again in 1882, with the addition of four 9 cm (3.5 in) breech-loading guns, two 7 cm (2.8 in) breech-loaders, a pair of 47 mm (1.9 in) quick-firing revolver guns, and three 25 mm (0.98 in) auto-cannon. Habsburg was withdrawn from service in 1886 and thereafter served as a guard ship and barracks ship in Pola. That year, these were removed and a single 26 cm (10.2 in) gun and a 24 cm (9.4 in) gun were installed. She was stricken from the naval register on 22 October 1898 and broken up for scrap in 1899–1900. |
8,188,604 | Cultural Revolution Group | 1,132,630,357 | Revolution group formed in 1966 | [
"1966 establishments in China",
"1969 disestablishments in China",
"History of the Chinese Communist Party",
"Organizations disestablished in 1969",
"Organizations established in 1966",
"Organizations in Cultural Revolution"
]
| The (Central) Cultural Revolution Group (CRG or CCRG; Chinese: 中央文革小组; pinyin: Zhōngyāng Wéngé Xiǎozǔ) was formed in May 1966 as a replacement organisation to the Central Committee Secretariat and the "Five Man Group", and was initially directly responsible to the Standing Committee of the Politburo. It consisted mainly of radical supporters of Mao, including Chen Boda, the Chairman's wife Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng, Yao Wenyuan, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Li and Xie Fuzhi. The CRG played a central role in the Cultural Revolution's first few years, and for a period of time the group replaced the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) as the de facto top power organ of China. Its members were also involved in many of the major events of the Cultural Revolution.
## Background
In January 1965, at a meeting of the Politburo, Mao Zedong called on the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to implement a "Cultural Revolution" in China. (The Oxford English Dictionary traces the English-language phrase "cultural revolution" (defined as "a sudden change in the culture of a people or society") as far back as 1929.) The meeting established a body known as the "Five Man Group" (chaired by Peng Zhen, the fifth-ranking member of the Politburo), with the aim of overseeing the beginnings of the Cultural Revolution. Of the members of the group, only Kang Sheng was a supporter of Mao. However, the group remained relatively inactive until the spring of 1966, when it censored the writings of Yao Wenyuan and of other radicals for making an academic debate on the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office into a political one (a move which Mao had started encouraging).
Unhappy over what he perceived to be an obstruction of the course of the Cultural Revolution, Mao returned to the capital in the spring of 1966, and the Central Committee formally announced the dissolution of the "Five Man Group" in its May 16 Circular:
> The Central Committee has decided to... dissolve the 'Group of Five in Charge of the Cultural Revolution', and to set up a new Cultural Revolution group directly under the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau.
The "Five Man Group" was dissolved immediately and Peng Zhen faced charges of allegedly obstructing the course of the Cultural Revolution. Soon after May 16 he was dismissed from all his offices and the control of the capital passed into the hands of followers of Mao. Chen Boda was selected by Chairman Mao to head the newly formed "Cultural Revolution Group", which would report to the Politburo Standing Committee. Consisting originally of between fifteen and twenty people, the CRG included, amongst others, Jiang Qing (the wife of Chairman Mao) as vice-chairman, Kang Sheng as the Group Adviser, Yao Wenyuan, Zhang Chunqiao, Qi Benyu, Wang Li and Xie Fuzhi. There were also several less well-known members. However, Chen Boda did not chair the CRG's meetings - this task fell to Zhou Enlai, who held a position of control over the group, and could speak on behalf of the entire group without needing to consult it.
## Role in the Cultural Revolution
The mandate given to the CRG on its formation was to guide the Cultural Revolution, and it was given many of the powers and the political prestige of the Central Committee and the Politburo. For example, when the order, on 5 September 1967, was issued instructing the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to restore order to China, it was signed by the CRG as well as the Central Committee, the State Council and the Military Affairs Commission. In addition, the CRG had theoretical control over the People's Liberation Army, although very soon army commanders wielded enough political power to often act independently of the CRG. The CRG was also given the entire Diaoyutai compound in Beijing to use at its offices. All documents from Mao were sent for approval to the CRG (as well as Lin Biao and Zhou Enlai), while other members of the Politburo Standing Committee were not sent these documents. Gradually, through examples like this, the CRG began to overtake the PSC in its political stature and importance.
Throughout the early years of the Cultural Revolution, the CRG acted as a body that directed the course the movement should take. Due to Mao's backing of the group, its orders were of significant importance. For example, after the Wuhan Incident, Jiang Qing suggested in a speech that the Red Guards should 'defend with weapons', leading to a surge in the seizure of PLA armaments by rebel groups. In addition, Wang Li and other CRG radicals (taking their cue from Jiang Qing) called for the removal of 'revisionist' elements in the PLA. The radical CRG, however, often found it had to contend with the more conservative view of how the Cultural Revolution should progress promoted by Zhou Enlai and his supporters, who were as interested in stability and the maintenance of some form of government as they were in revolution.
The CRG also had several supplementary functions. Its Art and Literature Group, headed by Jiang Qing, took over the responsibilities of the Ministry of Culture when the latter was dissolved in May 1967. Furthermore, the group worked closely with the Central Case Examination Group (CCEG), an organisation established in 1966 that investigated the alleged crimes and errors of higher-ranking members of the Party. Practically all the members of the CRG were also members of the CCEG.
The members of the CRG also had important individual roles in two of the important events of the Cultural Revolution, the Shanghai Commune and the Wuhan Incident.
### The Shanghai Commune
Two members of the CRG played a significant part in the affair over the Shanghai Commune. Due to his connections with the city (he had been secretary of the Shanghai Party Committee until July 1966), Zhang Chunqiao was dispatched from the centre in November 1966 to mediate the crisis over the siege of some worker's groups at Anting. Early in January the next year, Zhang Chunqiao was to return again to Shanghai with his CRG colleague Yao Wenyuan to lead the new order established after the fall of the old Party apparatus, and in early February he was to become head of the newly formed Shanghai Commune. However, the combination of questions over the legitimacy of the Commune's leadership, and a change in attitudes to communes in general at the centre, meant that the Shanghai Commune was to last less than a month.
### The Wuhan Incident
Despite the CRG's 1967 orders forbidding violence, in July 1967 the city of Wuhan became a battleground for two large rival rebel groups - the Million Heroes and the Wuhan Workers' General Headquarters (WWGH). The 400,000 strong WWGH was besieged by the Million Heroes, who were being supplied with weapons and manpower by the local PLA commander Chen Zaidao. When Chen ignored Zhou Enlai's orders that the siege was to be lifted, Wang Li and Xie Fuzhi were dispatched to Wuhan to resolve the crisis. On 19 July the pair instructed the PLA to switch its support from the Million Heroes to the WWGH. In the early hours of the next day however, Xie Fuzhi was arrested by the PLA while Wang Li was kidnapped by the Million Heroes and beaten. After a failed attempt by Zhou Enlai to resolve the crisis, it took a show of military force by other PLA units for Chen Zaidao to eventually surrender.
## Fall of the Cultural Revolution Group
The first two years of the Cultural Revolution witnessed a continued growth in tensions between the People's Liberation Army and the CRG, due to the PLA's gradual suppression of the CRG-backed rebel groups and Red Guards. By October 1967, the PLA had reached the peak of its ascendancy, which meant the end of the CRG. In November 1967, the Group's radical party journal, Red Flag, was ordered to stop publication. In addition, the leading members of the CRG quickly became scapegoats for the problems of the summer of 1967, when armed conflict between rebel groups, other groups and the PLA had been the norm. Individuals including Wang Li were soon connected with the "May Sixteenth Corps", a supposed group that exploited divisions in the Cultural Revolution to cause the anarchy and was plotting to seize power. Although there is evidence that Wang Li and others formed a faction within the CRG that employed the term "May Sixteenth", and that the CRG did exploit divisions in the movement, there is little evidence known to suggest a plot to seize power.
The fall of the CRG has also been attributed by some to the fact that Mao had become increasingly moderate in his view of the Cultural Revolution since February 1967, and that others (like the CRG) who were still committed to the original aims of the movement remained exposed on the left-wing while Mao moved towards the centre. Comparably, they were now far enough on the left to be considered too radical for comfort.
In September, some of the CRG radicals including Wang Li and Guan Feng were arrested on the orders of Mao, but by the end of the Cultural Revolution the new drive to eradicate 'ultra-leftists' would see the arrest of nearly all of the CRG's members (Jiang Qing would survive until the death of Mao).
After the 1967 arrest of some of its leading members, the CRG continued to play a role in the Cultural Revolution, but this was limited. For example, the remaining members were asked to attend the Twelfth Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee in October 1968, where Liu Shaoqi was officially expelled from the Chinese Communist Party. The group was never formally dissolved, but ceased to exist at some point after the CCP's Ninth Congress in the Spring of 1969. The CRG's remaining former members - including Jiang Qing and Kang Sheng - were left to fight their individual political battles in the years that followed. |
20,206,306 | The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise | 1,172,277,114 | null | [
"Parodies of Star Trek",
"Saturday Night Live in the 1970s",
"Saturday Night Live sketches"
]
| "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise" is a comedy sketch that first aired on May 29, 1976, during episode 22 of the first season of the NBC variety show, Saturday Night Live. The twelve-minute sketch was written by Michael O'Donoghue during a month-long process consulting with actor John Belushi. The sketch is a satire of the 1969 cancellation of Star Trek. The set design featured an effective replica of the bridge of the USS Enterprise. Dress rehearsal was difficult, with the writer doubting whether Belushi was able to pull off an effective parody of William Shatner's performance as Captain James Kirk. However, the result was a success, and O'Donoghue immediately congratulated Belushi after his performance and reflected that he had perfectly parodied Shatner as Kirk.
The sketch became a cult classic hit among Star Trek and science fiction fans. The 1977 book Saturday Night Live edited by Anne Beatts and John Head included a copy of a note from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry praising the comedic bit. The sketch was released on a 1985 Saturday Night Live compilation VHS that featured The Best of John Belushi, and re-released with the same title in DVD format in 2011. In his book Metapop author Michael Dunne called the comedic bit among the most well-known of all Saturday Night Live routines. The Chicago Sun-Times referred to it as an intelligent satire of Star Trek. The Los Angeles Times placed the parody among the program's top ten sketches of all-time. On the series' 40th anniversary, Tulsa World listed the sketch as one of the television show's most iconic.
The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that Belushi was flawless and captured Shatner's essence while adding simultaneously his own layer of weariness to the character. The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Tom Hanks and Elliott Gould in 2015; Gould called the sketch a favorite, while Hanks placed it among the best five of all time. In ranking every single Saturday Night Live cast member by talent in 2015, Rolling Stone called the Captain Kirk parody one of Belushi's most memorable and wrote that it was evidence of the actor's youthful innocence.
## Plot synopsis
The sensors of the starship USS Enterprise pick up a strange alien spacecraft following it in hot pursuit. Mr. Spock, played by Chevy Chase, identifies it as a 1968 Chrysler Imperial with a tinted windshield and retractable headlights. The automobile is registered to NBC, a company that, according to Spock, used to make cookies.
Captain Kirk, played by John Belushi, orders the ship to outrun the strange craft. Unable to do so, he orders phasers and photon torpedoes to destroy the craft. Unfortunately, all of the ship's equipment fails for no reason and the Enterprise's systems break down. Suddenly, Dr. Leonard McCoy, played by Dan Aykroyd, runs onto the bridge saying that the aliens are on the ship. He says they did not beam aboard, but merely walked out from behind the curtains.
It turns out that the aliens are NBC executive Herb Goodman, played by Elliott Gould, and his associate Curtis, played by Garrett Morris. They announce that the Star Trek series has been cancelled. Captain Kirk orders the crew to fire their hand phasers at the aliens but nothing happens. Mr. Spock assumes that the aliens have a type of weapons de-activator and tries to employ his famous Vulcan nerve pinch on him, but that does not work either. The executive confiscates Mr. Spock's pointed ears. Spock then mind-melds with Goodman only to discover that, as he describes it, "It was all dark and empty in there, and there were little mice in the corners. I kept bumping my head on the ceiling...!" Whereupon Kirk slaps him back to his senses.
Other NBC executives and staff show up and dismantle the Enterprise set.
Other crew members accept the cancellation, but Shatner and Nimoy try to hang on to their Star Trek personae as Kirk and Spock. However, Nimoy is eventually reduced to a sobbing, nervous wreck, and is carried off the set. Shatner remains defiantly in the Captain's chair, as Herb Goodman mentions to Shatner he got a phone call from a margarine company. Finally, the set is completely dismantled, and still in his chair, Shatner, as Captain Kirk, makes a final entry into his log recalling his previous three years of space exploration, concluding: "And except for one television network, we have found intelligence everywhere in the galaxy." Raising his hand in the Vulcan salute, he goes on, "Live long and prosper". Then he brings his fingers together, his hand still raised, and adds, "Promise".
## Production
### Writing
The twelve-minute sketch was written by Michael O'Donoghue who wanted to create a scene to showcase the acting talents of John Belushi. O'Donoghue had been the one who had initially persuaded producer Lorne Michaels to hire Belushi for the new Saturday Night Live program. O'Donoghue and Belushi recognized that the original Star Trek series itself was not a ratings success during its initial run, but had become much more successful during syndication. Belushi enjoyed the Star Trek series and wanted the part of Captain Kirk. He demonstrated his intense desire to get the role by trimming his sideburns to closely resemble Kirk's facial appearance in the original series. They worked together on the sketch for thirty days and scheduled it for the final episode of the 1976 season of the show, hosted by Elliott Gould.
### Cast
- John Belushi as Captain Kirk/William Shatner
- Chevy Chase as Mr. Spock/Leonard Nimoy
- Dan Aykroyd as Dr. Leonard McCoy/DeForest Kelley and the voice of Scotty on intercom
- Elliott Gould as Herb Goodman, NBC Executive
- Garrett Morris as Curtis, Head NBC stage crew
- Akira Yoshimura as Mr. Sulu/George Takei
- Doris Powell as Lt. Uhura/Nichelle Nichols
### Set design
The production staff had reproduced an effective-looking replica of the bridge of the USS Enterprise. As the scene began, the viewscreen of the ship depicted the USS Enterprise being pursued by a type of automobile commonly manufactured in the United States and from the time period when Star Trek was cancelled.
### Dress rehearsal
Dress rehearsal for the sketch went poorly. During rehearsal, Belushi was having difficulty correctly parodying the character of James T. Kirk as originally portrayed by actor William Shatner. Belushi had sat for several hours while being made up to look the part. Sketch writer O'Donoghue was worried that the sketch was too long and might not go over well with the audience. He knew that Belushi was a fan of Star Trek, and had previously rescued sketches that others thought would flop, but O'Donoghue was nervous that Belushi was not able to pull off a comedic performance on this occasion.
O'Donoghue complained directly to Belushi that he thought his parody of Shatner during the dress rehearsals was inadequate and needed much improvement. Further, actor Chevy Chase was annoyed that he was satirizing Leonard Nimoy as Spock; he did not like the idea of playing second-fiddle to Belushi. During all of the rehearsals, Chase attempted to attract more attention to his character's role and dominate the scene. Just prior to the on-air performance of the sketch, O'Donoghue admonished Belushi and implored him to perform an effective parody. Belushi's dress rehearsal performance had worried executives so much that they had discussed canceling the entire sketch altogether.
### Release
"The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise" first aired during episode 22 of the first season of The NBC variety show, Saturday Night Live on May 29, 1976.
Immediately upon the conclusion of the sketch, writer Michael O'Donoghue knew it was a success. He had been watching the Saturday Night Live performance from beside the set, off-camera. He felt that Belushi had performed his role as Captain Kirk perfectly. As soon as Belushi left the set, O'Donoghue went over to him and gave the actor a congratulatory hug. On reflection, after the live performance, O'Donoghue stated that Belushi had performed a perfect parody of Shatner as Kirk. Belushi felt it was one of his most satisfying performances.
In their book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, authors Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad wrote that the sketch was writer Michael O'Donoghue's signature success on the television program. In addition, they noted that the staff of Saturday Night Live felt the sketch was among the best routines on the program.
After Belushi's sudden death by drug overdose in 1982, Judith Jacklin Belushi, the actor's widow, began to think about putting together a video to commemorate him. The sketch was included on the 1985 Saturday Night Live release of 16 sketches featuring Belushi called The Best of John Belushi, produced by Lorne Michaels and Judith Jacklin Belushi, sold by Warner Home Video in VHS format.
Together, Lorne Michaels, Belushi's brother Jim Belushi, and Judith Jacklin Belushi, reviewed the actor's comedic sketches from Saturday Night Live to select what were generally considered his best works. In an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News on the 1985 VHS release, Belushi's widow commented she was not sure if her husband had a particular sketch he liked the most, but that he considered the Star Trek parody among his favorites. The Best of John Belushi edition in VHS format sold approximately 200,000 copies. It reached number three on Billboard's Top Videocassettes Sales Chart in February 1986.
The DVD edition of the collected shorts video release by Saturday Night Live was released in 2011, again under the title The Best of John Belushi.
## Themes
Writing for American Humor, academic Robert G. Pielke observed that the sketch was a very well-done, and moving, reflection on NBC management's fealty to Nielsen ratings and profit. Pielke went on to analyze the sketch and characterized it as an example of Saturday Night Live resisting conformist authority. He commented that an injustice had been wrought by NBC the company, whereas the NBC executives who came to shut down Star Trek were simply pawns in the process. He posited that the USS Enterprise crew members were against cancelling the television program because their self-worth had become tied to it. Pielke noted that within the confines of the sketch's plot itself, as each crew member realized there was no option other than cancellation, they each showed their identity and humanity.
Pielke praised the final scene of the sketch as evocative of the original series and an indictment of capitalism. He wrote that Belushi finished off the sketch with a moving rendition of the introduction to the original Star Trek series, while modifying it slightly to emphasize that NBC's greed had ended the Enterprise mission.
Mother Jones magazine additionally commented upon the key theme of satire over conflict between the critical success of Star Trek and the decision to cancel the program by the studio executives. The magazine noted that writer Michael O'Donoghue's work for the sketch was among the highest caliber scripts he had written for Saturday Night Live. Mother Jones found it ironic that in the sketch the Enterprise was defeated not by its traditional enemies such as the Klingons, but by a stupid NBC executive in charge of the network's programming schedule.
Upon re-release of the sketch on the Saturday Night Live compilation DVD titled The Best of John Belushi, Jon Corey wrote for Inside Pulse that the sketch was still one of ten best ever on Saturday Night Live. He pointed out the irony that it was not Khan Noonien Singh or the Klingons that defeated the Enterprise, but an enemy much more powerful — NBC executives. Nick Hartel reviewed the DVD release for DVD Talk, and commented that the sketch's satire succeeded because it was a surreal form of meta-comedy that dared to criticize NBC management.
The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane reflected on the sketch and Belushi's performance in 2013. Lane thought that the sketch was an effective satire of the cancellation of the series and simultaneously served as a death knell for the Star Trek franchise. He felt that viewers watching the sketch in 1976 would be hard-pressed to imagine a future, thirty-seven-years later, where Star Trek was so thoroughly ensconced within popular culture. Lane wrote that Belushi was flawless in his role parodying Shatner playing Kirk. He observed that Belushi both performed an effective parody, while simultaneously injecting his own weariness into the Kirk character. Lane wondered how the Star Trek franchise could ever come back from the total deconstruction the SNL skit presented.
The sketch had one minor error. While breaking down the set, Herb Goodman (Gould) suggested, "How about it, Curtis? You think we can sell any of this junk to Lost in Space?" Actually, CBS had cancelled Lost in Space in 1968, one year before NBC cancelled Star Trek.
## Impact on Star Trek
`The sketch became a cult classic hit among Star Trek and science fiction fans. Captain Kirk actor William Shatner was asked which Star Trek parody was his favorite: Belushi's impression of himself, or the later satire wherein Shatner appeared on Saturday Night Live in a sketch telling Star Trek fans known as Trekkies to "Get a life". Shatner said he preferred Belushi's impression to his own later appearance on the comedy television program. Shatner commented: "I like Belushi's work as Kirk better than my own".`
DeForest Kelley, the actor who portrayed physician Leonard McCoy on Star Trek, was a personal favorite of John Belushi. Belushi had offices on the same lot as Kelley. Kelley overheard Belushi discussing the Saturday Night Live parody of Star Trek with William Shatner, and mentioned to both of them that he had not yet seen the sketch. Belushi immediately escorted Kelley to his office on the lot and had him watch it on videotape.
Kelley thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Belushi's impression of Captain Kirk. He later remarked that he had trouble going back to act on the Star Trek set in a scene opposite Shatner because he could not stop laughing remembering the Saturday Night Live parody and Belushi's portrayal. Belushi later gave Kelley a signed videotape of the sketch; he had written "Live Long and Prosper" on the tape. Kelley sent the videotape to close friends when Belushi died because he did not want to hold on to the memento which brought up sad memories of his loss.
The 1977 book Saturday Night Live, edited by Anne Beatts and John Head, includes the complete script of the sketch, as well as a message from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in which he effusively praised the sketch.
Roddenberry had sent a letter to Elliott Gould on June 3, 1976, in which he thanked the actor for the parody and said he would show it to members of the Star Trek cast. Roddenberry called the sketch creatively designed with the light comedic touch necessary to pull off an effective satire. Elliott Gould later told The Hollywood Reporter that the success of the sketch inspired Roddenberry to create the first feature film version of his series: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Yoshimura, who has been a production designer on SNL for the entirety of its run, has been pressed into service to play Sulu whenever the show did a Star Trek spoof—most recently on the Season 42 episode that aired on May 6, 2017—a full 41 years after the original parody.
## Reception
In reviewing The Best of John Belushi when Saturday Night Live released the compilation to VHS in 1985, The New York Times critic Fred Ferretti highlighted Belushi's role as Captain James Kirk among the actor's memorable performances. In his 1992 book, Metapop: Self-referentiality in Contemporary American Popular Culture, author Michael Dunne called the comedic bit: "one of SNL's most famous sketches". The Los Angeles Times called the sketch one of the television program's most noteworthy of all time. In a 1999 article reflecting on the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Los Angeles Times journalist Susan Keller placed the Star Trek parody at number eight on a list of the program's top ten all-time sketches.
In a contribution to the 2001 compilation book Faith, Reason, and Political Life Today, Paul A. Cantor calls the sketch among the best of Star Trek parodies, saying it is "hysterical". A 2005 article by journalist Darel Jevens, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, called the sketch an intelligent satire of Star Trek. Reflecting on Belushi's impact 25 years after the actor's death, a 2007 Associated Press article noted that the parody of Captain Kirk, Bluto from Animal House and the Saturday Night Live Samurai were among the characters that illustrated his acting versatility.
In a 2008 article published by Huffpost TV, columnist Richard Keller characterized the sketch as one of the most well-known satires of Star Trek; the other being another Saturday Night Live episode where William Shatner appeared playing himself. Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey wrote that Belushi's performance was so nuanced and full of depth, because he was able to skillfully rely upon the depth that William Shatner had given to the character's prior portrayals. It was described by TrekMovie.com founder Anthony Pascale as "one of the best Star Trek parody sketches of all time".
Reflecting on the life of John Belushi for a 2012 article, WOMC placed the sketch among those regarded as the most well-remembered and loved performances by the actor. In his 2012 book Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History, author Robert Greenberger called the piece a classic. In a September 2013 article for The A.V. Club, Phil Dyess-Nugent described "The Last Voyage Of The Starship Enterprise" as lovable in-depth satire of Star Trek with a touching impression of Shatner that was likely the best routine from the first year of Saturday Night Live. In a subsequent review of the episode in an October 2013, Dyess-Nugent again praised the sketch, writing that it was an outstanding work both as a form of humor and a tribute to Star Trek fans.
Writing for CNN in 2014, journalist Todd Leopold commented that he appreciated the sketch, but did not place it among the program's five all-time sketches. Time magazine included the sketch in a retrospective on classic Saturday Night Live works, placing the comedic bit among the most iconic from the program's first years on television. On the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Tulsa World placed the sketch among "16 iconic skits".
In his 2015 book John Prine: In Spite of Himself, author Eddie Huffman wrote that the Captain Kirk role, along with his portrayal of Samurai warrior, and Marlon Brando as the Godfather, helped John Belushi become famous and an acting sensation. In a 2015 The Hollywood Reporter interview with actors Tom Hanks and Elliott Gould, Gould called the sketch one of his favorite, and Hanks remarked: "Oh, I think that's got to be one of the top five of all." Rolling Stone ranked every single one of the 141 cast members of Saturday Night Live in order of talent. John Belushi was ranked at number one, with Rolling Stone citing his Captain Kirk parody as evidence of his youthful innocence among his often lunatic-like performances in a 2015 article. The website Rotten Tomatoes characterized the sketch as a satire that did not lose its effectiveness with age.
## See also
- Galaxy Quest
- The Man Who Came to Be Dinner
- Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?
- Where No Fan Has Gone Before |
72,424,233 | Elisabeth Bagréeff-Speransky | 1,167,794,564 | Russian writer | [
"1799 births",
"1857 deaths",
"19th-century women philanthropists",
"19th-century women writers from the Russian Empire",
"People from the Russian Empire of Swiss descent",
"Philanthropists from the Russian Empire",
"Planta family",
"Russian emigrants to Austria",
"Salon holders from the Russian Empire",
"Writers from Saint Petersburg"
]
| Elisabeth Bagréeff-Speransky (also Elizaveta Mikhailovna Speranskaya; Russian: Елизавета Михайловна Сперанская; 5 September 1799 O.S./16 September 1799 (N.S.) – 4 April 1857) was a Russian noblewoman and writer. She was the only child of the statesman Mikhail Speransky and his English wife, Elizabeth Stephens. As her mother died when she was two months old, Speranskaya was raised by her grandmother Eliza (née Planta) Stephens and educated by her father. Her studies included history, composition, reading, literature, and languages – English, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Russian. In order to improve her delicate health, she spent her childhood in various places, including Saint Petersburg, Kyiv, and Novgorod Oblast, but she also visited her father who was exiled from the capital from 1812 to 1821. Passing the state examination to be a home teacher in 1819, she began teaching children.
In 1822, Speranskaya married Prince Alexander Frolov-Bagreev [ru], the governor of the Chernigov Governorate. The couple had three children, although the youngest died when two years old. They were not well-suited, as she was a charming, salon hostess and he was somber and taciturn. Frolov-Bagreev's failure to manage his business and their personal affairs caused a split between the couple in 1838 which remained unreconciled. She sold her jewels to repay his business debts and her father had to renegotiate Frolov-Bagreev's debts to prevent the loss of their estate at Velyka Burimka [ru] in Ukraine. Speranskaya began to travel as a means of overcoming her problems, visiting European cities, including the Dutch resort of Scheveningen, spa villages in Bavaria, Vienna and Salzburg in Austria, Lucerne in Switzerland, various places in the north of Italy. Speranskaya had begun writing in 1828, publishing stories and plays for her children and she wrote poetry on her travels.
Taking over the management of Velyka Burimka in 1842, Speranskaya built schools, orphanages, a brewery and distillery, brick works, carpentry shops, factories, and mills, and reorganized the hospital. She brought in master craftsmen to train the villagers to work in these enterprises. After four years of tiring work, the death of her surviving son, and the pending marriage of her daughter, Speranskaya traveled to Brussels, then to Basel and Geneva in Switzerland, and through Florence, Venice, and Trieste before making a pilgrimage to Egypt and the Holy Land. To prevent her new son-in-law, Prince Rodion Nikolaevich Cantacuzène [wikidata], taking over the administration of her estate, Speranskaya returned to Ukraine in 1847 and managed Velyka Burimka for the next three years until her health failed. Traveling to Vienna to seek medical treatment, she made an arrangement for her daughter and son-in-law to manage the estate and share the profits with her. Instead, they tried to sell it and managed to reduce what they owed her, knowing she was too ill to travel and contest their actions.
As a distraction from her legal and physical problems, Speranskaya revived her role as hostess to a well-known salon and began to write, publishing under the surname Bagréeff-Speransky (or Bagréeff-Speranski). Between 1852 and 1857 she wrote thirty-two books, mostly in French and German. These included religious texts, travel sketches, stories of life in the Russian Empire, novels, plays, and children's books. Her writing was popular with European audiences and gained favorable reviews from scholars like Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer and Prosper Mérimée. Elisabeth Bagréeff-Speransky died on 4 April 1857, in Vienna. She and her father were described with unfavorable caricatures in Count Leo Tolstoy's classic novel War and Peace, but modern scholarship has reviewed letters exchanged by the father and daughter which disprove Tolstoy's depiction. She was included in numerous biographical lexicons in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while in recent years interest in her life and work has been renewed.
## Early life and education
Elizaveta Mikhailovna Speranskaya was born on 16 September 1799 (N.S.) in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, to Elizabeth Jane (née Stephens) and Mikhail Speransky. Stephens was the daughter of the English woman, Eliza (née Planta) Stephens, and had moved with her mother to Russia around 1789, after the death of her father Rev. Henry Stephens. Eliza served as a governess to Countess Catherine Shuvalova, who allowed the children Elizabeth, Marianne, and Francis to live with their mother. While studying with Andrew Samborski [ru] at his summer cottage, Stephens met Mikhail Speransky in 1797. Speransky was a graduate of the Alexander Nevsky Seminary [ru] and had that year entered the civil service. The couple married at the end of 1798, but Stephens died from tuberculosis in November 1799, two months after their daughter's birth.
Speransky was distraught over his wife's death and buried himself in his work. He sent his daughter to live with a former nurse of the Stephens family who lived along the Vyborgskaya Embankment [ru], opposite Aptekarsky Island. He requested his mother-in-law's help in 1801, when he was promoted to serve as an "Assistant Minister of Justice, as Governor of Finland, as Privy Councillor, and as Secretary of State" to Alexander, the new Tsar of Russia. Eliza was in Vienna when her daughter died. Her charge, Alexandra Shuvalova [ru], had married Franz Joseph, Prince of Dietrichstein in 1797, and relocated there. In 1801, Eliza was able to return to Saint Petersburg and moved into Speransky's house to care for Speranskaya. The following year when Speranskaya's aunt Marianne married Konstantin Zlobin, Eliza's family with Speranskaya all moved into the home of Marianne's father-in-law, Vasily Zlobin [ru].
Within six months the couple were having difficulties and Vasily, who was fond of his daughter-in-law suggested a temporary separation, sending Marianne and her family to Baldone (now in Latvia) to enjoy the sulfur water spa there. By the time they returned in the autumn, Konstantin had abandoned the family. For more than a year, Vasily tried in vain to negotiate a reconciliation, although the couple did not divorce until 1810. The Stephens family moved back in with Speransky briefly, but because of Speranskaya's delicate health, they left Saint Petersburg for Kyiv (now in Ukraine), where they remained until 1809. That year Speransky bought a house in Saint Petersburg near the Tauride Garden and the family returned as Speranskaya's health had improved. Marianne died in 1811, leaving her estate Velikopolye in the Novgorod Oblast to her niece Speranskaya. In March 1812, after her father fell out of favor with the tsar, primarily because of his inability to cooperate or ingratiate himself with Russian nobility, he was sent into exile. He left a note for Speranskaya that she and her grandmother were to join him in Nizhny Novgorod, as soon as it could be arranged. Once they were reunited, Speransky developed an educational program for his daughter, teaching her history, composition, reading, literature, and various languages. She learned German by reading the Bible and Friedrich Schiller's work on Joan of Arc and also studied the works of William Shakespeare. She gained fluency in English, French, German, and Russian and learned to read Latin and write in Italian.
In late summer 1812, Speransky was separated from his daughter and sent to the Siberian border near Perm. Despite their separation, he continued to supervise Speranskaya's education. She and her grandmother were sent back to Saint Petersburg at the end of 1813, although they visited him from time to time at Perm and later when he was moved to Speranskaya's estate Velikopolye near Novgorod. Historian Marc Raeff stated that Eliza and Speranskaya brought money for him to live on in exile, and both Raeff and William Blackwood noted that when Speransky had trouble getting missives delivered to Tsar Alexander describing his penury, Speranskaya was able to deliver a letter to the emperor, who allotted her father an annual stipend. At the beginning of 1814, Speransky requested that his daughter, whom he called Lisa or Lise, should move back to Velikopolye, where he joined her later in the year. That year, Speransky returned to government service in various provincial posts. In 1815, Speransky sent Eliza to live in Kyiv, where she died at the end of the year. Speranskaya returned to Saint Petersburg, where she resided with a family friend, Maria (née Amburger) Weikard, the wife of the Shuvalova family's physician.
## Marriage and family life
Speranskaya passed the state examination to be a home teacher in 1819 and began teaching children. In 1821, Speransky returned to Saint Petersburg. Blackwood states that it was because of an inappropriate love interest between his daughter and a military officer, who historian Erik Amburger [de] identifies as Georg Weikard. The relationship was terminated but Speranskaya became despondent and attempted suicide. Speransky began to draft plans to reorganize the provincial governments for more efficiency and took charge of finding Speranskaya a suitable husband, hosting numerous social events to allow her the opportunity to mix with society. She became the companion of Maria Kochubey [ru], who treated her as if she were a daughter and Speranskaya resigned herself to allow her father to choose her husband. That year, she was appointed as a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth Alexeievna, Empress of Russia.
In August 1822, Speranskaya married Prince Alexander Frolov-Bagreev [ru], the governor of the Chernigov Governorate. Frolov-Bagreev was the nephew of Kochubey's husband, the brother of his mother, Agrafena Pavlovna Kochubey. Initially, they lived in Chernihiv, but in May 1824 the couple moved to Saint Petersburg when Frolov-Bagreev took a post in the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Empire. The couple were not well-suited, as Speranskaya's circle were intellectuals and artists while Frolov-Bagreev was a dull simpleton. He was described by Speranskaya's biographer, Victor Duret [de], as "égoïste et méfiant" (selfish and distrustful), although he exhibited polite manners. He was often silent, behaving with an air of superiority and completely ignoring his wife. Speranskaya was a charismatic and charming hostess whose salon was attended by Saint Petersburg's celebrated artists, scientists, and statesmen. Among her frequent guests were Alexander and Karl Bryullov, Nikolay Karamzin, Adam Mickiewicz, Alexander Pushkin, Ivan Turgenev, and Pyotr Vyazemsky. Pushkin remained a close friend until his death.
At the beginning of 1824, the couple had a son, whom they named Mikhail, and two years later, a daughter, Maria. During this time, Frolov-Bagreev had mismanaged funds at the bank and lost a large sum of money, which Speranskaya rectified by selling her jewels. In 1825, Tsar Alexander died and was succeeded after the Decembrist revolt by his brother, Nicholas. Speranskaya brought an English governess to help her with the children and in 1828 published her first book, Чтение для малолетних детей (Readings for Young Children) for them. She wrote other children's stories and short plays for them and began publishing stories anonymously in local newspapers. Her second son, Alexander, was born around 1830 but died when two-years old. In 1831, Speransky borrowed money and bought his daughter an estate, Velyka Burimka [ru], where she raised her children. The estate covered 92,000 acres (370 km<sup>2</sup>) and encompassed seven villages. Devastated by her son's death, Speranskaya left the Russian Empire for the first time in 1833 and traveled to the Dutch seaside resort of Scheveningen, where she wrote poetry in English and Russian.
Under the arrangement agreed upon by Speransky and his son-in-law, Frolov-Bagreev was to repay the amount which had been borrowed to purchase the estate, while also managing it. Although Speranskaya created model farms, wood distribution facilities, dispensaries, and schools to ensure the welfare of her family and community, her husband's mismanagement of the estate and failure to pay even the interest on the loans for three years found them facing foreclosure. With great difficulty, an agreement was reached by 1838 to ward off the loss of the estate, but the relationship did not survive and the couple thereafter lived separately. In early 1839, Tsar Nicholas made Speransky a count and granted him an income, but he died on 23 February (O.S.). Speranskaya asked if her son could bear the name Speransky, keep the title, and as was customary, receive her father's pension for six years, but her request was denied.
To prevent her estranged husband from seizing her father's estate, Speranskaya sent their son to a boarding school and in July traveled abroad with their daughter, on the pretext that she needed a spa cure. They went to Bavaria and stayed at Bad Kissingen and then Bad Gastein before wintering in Frankfurt. They returned to the Bavarian baths in the summer of 1840. She also took short trips to England to visit her family there and to Darmstadt in Germany. Speranskaya and her daughter then visited the Duchy of Salzburg and traveled by steamboat down the Danube to Vienna. In May 1841, they left the Austrian capital and traveled to Styria, continuing through the Illyrian Provinces to Lucerne in Switzerland and on to northern Italy. During her travels, she wrote poetry in English. They returned to Austria, staying first in Baden and then wintering in Vienna. In answer to a letter from her husband, she advised that they might return to Saint Petersburg in the summer of 1842.
## Career
### Estate manager (1842–1850)
After receiving a letter from the foreman at the Velyka Burimka estate, Speranskaya decided to go there instead, as in her absence Frolov-Bagreev had once again mismanaged it and the serfs were struggling. Traveling through Galicia, she and her daughter made their way through Podolia to Volhynia and Kyiv before arriving in Poltava near her estate. She found miserable conditions – starvation due to famine and bad harvests, as well as rampant disease, such as dysentery, scurvy and whooping cough. She immediately took measures to rectify the situation bringing in wheat, meat, and vegetables and setting up child care centers and orphanages to serve children whose parents were unable to provide for them. She bought livestock to distribute to those who had lost their animals and reorganized the village hospital, which had fallen into ruin.
Speranskaya finally returned to Saint Petersburg in August 1842 and was greeted by her son, who had become an officer in the Russian Imperial Guard. She rented a house near her son's garrison and informed her husband that since he did not want the responsibility, she was taking control of the estate at Velyka Burimka. The expense of living in Saint Petersburg and the need to provide for her estate forced Speranskaya to sell one of her father's estates near Penza and return to the south in February 1843. By hiring master craftsmen to train the local peasants as apprentices, she was able to restore the brewery and the stables, and to establish not only a brickyard, carpentry shop, distillery, forge, saltpetre factory, and a sawmill, but also windmills, watermills, and a spinning mill. She created elementary schools for children and trade workshops for teenagers who were not yet ready to work in the fields or enter professions. In February 1844 her son Mikhail was transferred to a garrison near her Ukraine estate and her daughter, whom she had educated herself, was sent to live with her father to complete her education. Mikhail died a few months later, when during an expedition in the Caucasus he tried to stop two drunken soldiers from fighting and was slashed with a sword.
Speranskaya's daughter returned to live with her and became engaged to Prince Rodion Nikolaevich Cantacuzène [wikidata] later in 1844. Her husband died from a stroke without the couple reconciling the following year. For a second time, she chose to travel to distract herself from distress over the loss of her son. She left Velyka Burimka in January 1846 to take a cure for gout at Baden bei Wien. After four months in Vienna, Speranskaya spent two months in Paris and then traveled on to Brussels, Basel, Geneva, Florence and Venice, before arriving in Trieste where her daughter was married that year on 19 November. After the wedding, Speranskaya resumed traveling, going to Egypt and Palestine. During her absence, she hired a series of administrators to take care of the estate. Accusing one of them of mismanagement, her new son-in-law, Cantacuzène, attempted to take over as steward. To prevent him doing do, she returned to Ukraine in June 1847 and resumed management. For the next two years, Speranskaya worked to restore the profitability of Velyka Burimka but her efforts impacted her health. In July 1850, she reached an agreement with her daughter whereby the Cantacuzènes could take over the estate on condition they shared the profits, while she proceeded to Vienna to seek medical treatment.
### Writer (1850–1857)
Within six months of arriving in Vienna, Speranskaya's daughter wrote to her wanting to reduce the payments due and Cantacuzène asked the emperor to allow Speranskaya to sell her estate so that she could expatriate. Although she had no intention of selling, Speranskaya was too ill to return home to fight their claims and agreed to have her income reduced. She wrote to the tsar explaining her situation and begged him to allow her to remain in Vienna. He agreed, provided the estate was not sold. Despite the tsar's intervention, she often had trouble renewing her residency permit with the Ministry of Justice in Vienna until 1854, when Alexander Gorchakov replaced the previous minister. During this time, as a distraction from her legal and physical problems, Speranskaya began to write, using a French spelling of her married surname Bagréeff-Speransky (or Bagréeff-Speranski), sometimes rendered in English as Speransky-Bagréeff. She also revived her role as hostess to a well-known salon, often attended by notables like Franz Grillparzer and Betty Paoli. She traveled to Paris and various places in Germany in 1856, visiting friends like Alfred de Falloux, Sophie Swetchine and Maria Soldan. When she returned, she offered her father's papers to the new tsar, Alexander II, who not only accepted the gift, but granted her a pension.
The first of these works was Méditations chrétiennes (Christian Meditations), written in 1852 and published in Vienna in 1853. Before her death, Bagréeff-Speransky published thirty-two works in French, German, and Russian covering a variety of genres. She wrote religious texts, travel sketches, stories of life in the Russian Empire, as well as novels, plays, and children's books. She also acted as an advisor to Korff who was preparing a biography of her father's life. Among her most popular works were Méditations chrétiennes (1853), Les pélerins russes à Jérusalem (Russian Pilgrims in Jerusalem, 1854), Les dernières heures de l'empereur Nicolas (The Last Hours of Emperor Nicholas, 1855), La vie de château en Ukraine (Life in the Ukrainian Chateau, 1857), Le Starower et sa fille (The Old Believer and His Daughter, 1857), Une Famille Toungouse (A Tunguz Family, 1857) and Les îles de la Néva à St. Pétersbourg (The Islands of the Neva in Saint Petersburg, 1858).
Les pélerins russes à Jérusalem told of her pilgrimage to Palestine, La vie de château chronicled her experiences in and around Kyiv and contained a collection of short stories, and Les îles de la Néva described the vicinity of the capital city of the Tsardom of Russia. Une Famille Toungouse related her experiences in Siberia and spoke of the customs of the Evenk people and their encounters and clashes with Christians and Cossacks who traveled to their traditional homelands, uprooting their nomadic lives. Her novel Irene focused on the benefits of education and was compared by Blackwood to the works by Maria Edgeworth. The novella "Pokritka" ("The Evicted One"), published shortly before her death, was a tragedy about an old woman being removed from her estate. Her works were reviewed favorably by scholars like Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer and Prosper Mérimée. Mérimée said that he found her works so interesting that he wanted to visit Russia.
## Death and legacy
Bagréeff-Speransky died in Vienna on 4 April 1857 from an ear infection, a severe headache, or tuberculosis, and was buried in St. Marx Cemetery. Her daughter Maria inherited the Velyka Burimka estate and lived there until her death in 1887. Celebrations in honor of the centennial of Speransky's birth were held in Saint Petersburg in 1872, and Maria, over her husband's objection, successfully asked Tsar Alexander II to have Speransky's title granted to her son, Mikhail Rodionovich Cantacuzène [ru] (born 1847). Mikhail married Elizabeth Sicard and their oldest son Mikhail became the husband of Julia Dent Grant, granddaughter of United States President Ulysses S. Grant in 1899. The estate was burned and looted by the Bolsheviks during the Ukrainian–Soviet War in 1918. When the area became Soviet Ukraine in 1919, the family fled, first to Kyiv and then abroad to Constantinople, Malta, and eventually Paris.
At the time of her death, Bagréeff-Speransky was remembered for the memoirs she had published about Russia. Both she and her father were discussed in Count Leo Tolstoy's classic novel War and Peace, (Volume II, Part III). According to scholars Raeff and Sara Dickinson, Tolstoy made an unfavorable caricature of Speransky and depicted Bagréeff-Speransky as a lonely child, who lacked her father's attention. Raeff maintained Tolstoy's depiction of Speransky was incorrect, while Dickinson emphasized that letters exchanged between father and daughter showed that even during their periods of separation, they had a close and affectionate relationship.
Dickinson noted that Bagréeff-Speransky was not included in the 1994 Dictionary of Russian Women Writers edited by Marina Ledkovsky, Charlotte Rosenthal, and Mary Zirin, possibly because she lived abroad, wrote anonymously, published infrequently, and rarely produced work in Russian. However, Bagréeff-Speransky is included in numerous earlier biographical dictionaries, such as the Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire (1858), Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1902), Nordisk familjebok (1904), and the Russian Biographical Dictionary (1901). Still earlier, Duret published Un portrait russe (A Russian Portrait, 1867) which gave a biographical account of her life and various writings, both published and unpublished. Duret edited and posthumously published her reflections and diary, written between 1845 and her death, under the title "Le livre d'une femme" ("A Woman's Book") for the first time in 1867. A review in the Magazin für die Literatur des Auslandes (Magazine for Foreign Literature, Berlin) published that year indicated that it was a work which would appeal to religious women who were self-reflective. Daniil Mordovtsev included a chapter on her in his book Русские женщины Нового времени (Russian Women of Modern Times, 1874), which covered correspondence from Bagréeff-Speransky and her father. According to Dickinson, modern scholarship is revisiting her life and works.
## Selected works |
62,767 | Radagast | 1,169,201,355 | Wizard in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth | [
"Fictional shamans",
"Literary characters introduced in 1954",
"Male characters in literature",
"Middle-earth wizards",
"The Lord of the Rings characters"
]
| Radagast the Brown is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. A wizard and associate of Gandalf, he appears briefly in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales.
His role in Tolkien's writings is so slight that it has been described as a plot device, though scholars have noted his contribution to the evident paganism in Middle-earth. He played a more significant role in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film series, where he was portrayed by Sylvester McCoy. Some aspects of his characterisation were invented for the films, but the core elements of his character - namely communing with animals, skill with herbs, and shamanistic ability to change his shape and colours - are all described in Tolkien's works. He is also a character in role-playing video games based on Tolkien's writings.
## Appearances
Unfinished Tales explains that Radagast, like the other Wizards, came from Valinor around the year 1000 of the Third Age of Middle-earth and was one of the angelic Maiar. His original name is said to have been Aiwendil, meaning bird-friend in Tolkien's invented language of Quenya. Yavanna, one of the god-like Valar, forced Radagast's fellow wizard Saruman to accept him as a companion, which, Tolkien says, may have been one of the reasons Saruman was contemptuous of him, to the point of scornfully calling him "simple" and "a fool". However, he was an ally and confidant of Gandalf, who describes him in The Hobbit as his "cousin". He was also friends with the skin-changer Beorn, something that Gandalf relied upon to get his party of Dwarves and a Hobbit accepted by a sceptical Beorn.
Radagast lived at Rhosgobel on the western eaves of Mirkwood, its name deriving from Sindarin rhosc gobel meaning "brown village". Radagast had a strong affinity for—and relationship with—wild animals. It is said he spoke the many tongues of birds, and was a "master of shapes and changes of hue". Radagast is also described by Gandalf as "never a traveller, unless driven by great need", "a worthy Wizard", and "honest".
In The Fellowship of the Ring, during the Council of Elrond, Gandalf tells of a previous encounter with Radagast. Radagast was unwittingly used by Saruman to lure Gandalf to his tower of Orthanc, where Gandalf was captured. Fortuitously, Radagast also helped rescue him by sending Gwaihir the eagle to Orthanc with news of the movements of Sauron's forces. When Gwaihir saw that Gandalf was imprisoned on the top of the tower he carried him off to safety. The only other reference to Radagast in The Lord of the Rings is after the Council of Elrond when scouts are sent out. It is reported that Radagast is not at his home at Rhosgobel.
The Silmarillion briefly summarizes the same events in Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, stating that Radagast was "the friend of all birds and beasts", and noting that he innocently helped Saruman to assemble "a great host of spies" including many birds.
## Etymology and origins
The in-fiction etymology, according to the essay "The Istari" in Unfinished Tales, is that the name Radagast means "tender of beasts" in Adûnaic, another of Tolkien's fictional languages. However, Christopher Tolkien says that his father intended to change this derivation and bring Radagast in line with the other wizard-names, Gandalf and Saruman, by associating it with the old language of the Men of the Vales of Anduin. No alternative meaning is provided with this new association; indeed, Tolkien stated that the name was "not now clearly interpretable". His title The Brown is simply a reference to his earth-brown robes; each of the wizards had a cloak of a different colour.
The name Radagast is found in Edward Gibbon's 1776–1789 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in the form "Radagaisus", the name of a Gothic king. Slavic mythology contains a god named Radegast; this has been interpreted as "welcome guest", making him the god of hospitality. Tolkien's wizard may represent an echo of this Slavic tradition, a rare source among all the diverse influences on Tolkien's writings.
Tolkien wrote that Josef Madlener's "Der Berggeist", which shows a man in a hat seated in a forest, communing with a wild deer, inspired his Gandalf and set him thinking about the wizards Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast.
## Interpretations
Radagast appears so briefly that he has been described as a plot device for Saruman's treachery, rather than a genuine character. From the clues given, that he is a "master of shapes and a changer of hues", his friendship and communication with animals, and his skill in herbs, he resembles a shaman. He has been described as "one of the most interesting enigmas in Tolkien's writings"; given the treason of Saruman, he and Gandalf are the only two wizards available to counter Sauron, but Radagast fails to answer Elrond's call.
In a letter, Tolkien wrote that Radagast gave up his mission as a Wizard by becoming too obsessed with animals and plants. He added that he did not believe that Radagast's failure was as great as Saruman's. However, Christopher Tolkien notes that Radagast might not have failed completely, as he was specifically chosen by the Vala Yavanna for a mission to protect the plants and animals.
The Tolkien scholar Patrick Curry writes that the Slavic Radegast is the pagan patron of the Czech Beskyd mountains, depicted with a bird atop his horned helmet. In his view, this suggests that Tolkien's Radagast is one of many examples of paganism in Middle-earth.
## Adaptations
### In film
In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Radagast is played by Sylvester McCoy, and is expanded far beyond his brief role in the book. McCoy stated that he saw Radagast as "very otherworldly with, as Tolkien depicts him, an empathy and kinship with nature, a Middle-earth version of St Francis of Assisi". McCoy added that while Radagast was rather absent-minded, he comes out as "a bumbling hero". As for his house, McCoy said that the idea was that the tree decided to grow right through it, and Radagast agreed that he and the tree could live together. In the film, Radagast is the first wizard to visit Dol Guldur after he realizes that an evil power has infected the wood in which he lives. He discovers that a Necromancer (who turns out to be Sauron) has taken residence in the ruined fortress. In Dol Guldur he encounters the spirit of the Witch-king of Angmar, as well as the shadow of the Necromancer himself, and escapes with the Morgul blade taken from the Witch-king. Radagast's means of transportation is a sled pulled by enormous rabbits, a concept entirely original to the movie. Radagast meets Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, and the Dwarves en route to Erebor, and tells them of his discovery in Dol Guldur. When Thorin's Company are attacked by Orcs riding Wargs, Radagast mounts his sled and provides a distraction. Later, Saruman makes contemptuous remarks about Radagast during a meeting with Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel. The writer Brian Sibley comments that the fact that Tolkien said little about Radagast gave Jackson's screenwriters freedom to make of the character what they liked. The Economist wrote that Radagast the Brown had been created from Tolkien's "sparse and bare" hints as to his character. The sled chase was filmed in the Strath Taieri glacial valley of New Zealand's South Island, strewn with real boulders.
In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Radagast appears with Gandalf in a few scenes. The two wizards investigate an empty tomb, determining that the Nazgûl are once again awake and have been summoned. Gandalf bids Radagast to go and tell Galadriel of all they find, and that the White Council must make a pre-emptive move on Dol Guldur. Inside the ruins, Gandalf confronts the Necromancer and finds that he is indeed Sauron, just as Radagast had thought.
In The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Radagast arrives in Dol Guldur as the White Council battle Sauron and the Nazgûl, and carries the wounded Gandalf on his sled.
### In games
Radagast features in computer and video games such as those from Games Workshop. He plays an expanded role in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Lord of the Rings Online, which makes him a leader in a part of Middle-earth, allowing players to interact with him. |
69,857,604 | Battle of the Blacks | 1,151,035,508 | 1169 battle between Saladin and Fatimids | [
"12th century in Egypt",
"12th century in the Fatimid Caliphate",
"Battles involving the Fatimid Caliphate",
"Battles of Saladin",
"Cairo under the Fatimid Caliphate",
"Conflicts in 1169",
"Military history of Cairo"
]
| The Battle of the Blacks or Battle of the Slaves was a conflict in Cairo, on 21–23 August 1169, between the black African units of the Fatimid army and other pro-Fatimid elements, and Sunni Syrian troops loyal to the Fatimid vizier, Saladin. Saladin's rise to the vizierate, and his sidelining of the Fatimid caliph, al-Adid, antagonized the traditional Fatimid elites, including the army regiments, as Saladin relied chiefly on the Kurdish and Turkish cavalry that had come with him from Syria. According to the medieval sources, which are biased towards Saladin, this conflict led to an attempt by the palace majordomo, Mu'tamin al-Khilafa, to enter into an agreement with the Crusaders and jointly attack Saladin's forces to get rid of him. Saladin learned of this conspiracy and had Mu'tamin executed on 20 August. Modern historians have questioned the veracity of this report, suspecting that it may have been invented to justify Saladin's subsequent move against the Fatimid troops.
This event provoked the uprising of the black African troops of the Fatimid army, numbering some 50,000 men, who were joined by Armenian soldiers and the populace of Cairo the next day. The clashes lasted for two days, as the Fatimid troops initially attacked the vizier's palace, but were driven back to the large square between the Fatimid Great Palaces. There the black African troops and their allies appeared to be gaining the upper hand until al-Adid came out publicly against them, and Saladin ordered the burning of their settlements, located south of Cairo outside the city wall, where the black Africans' families had been left behind. The black Africans then broke and retreated in disorder to the south, until they were encircled near the Bab Zuwayla gate, where they surrendered and were allowed to cross the Nile to Giza. Despite promises of safety, they were attacked and almost annihilated there by Saladin's brother Turan-Shah.
The defeat of the Fatimid troops was a watershed in the history of Egypt and the Muslim world, as it removed the main military support of the Fatimid regime and consolidated Saladin's position as the de facto ruler of Egypt. This culminated in the restoration of Sunni dominance over Egypt and the deposition of the Fatimid dynasty in September 1171. In its place, Saladin established his own Ayyubid dynasty. Some black African troops remained in Saladin's service for a few years but most who survived the massacre of 1169 fled to Upper Egypt, where they joined unsuccessful pro-Fatimid uprisings in subsequent years.
## Saladin's rise to power in Egypt
In the 1160s, the declining Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt was faced with invasions by the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, domestic turmoil, and the intervention by the powerful Sunni Muslim ruler of Syria, Nur al-Din, who sent his general Shirkuh into Egypt. The complex political and military manoeuvring that followed ended in January 1169 with the appointment of Shirkuh as vizier by the Fatimid caliph, al-Adid. When Shirkuh died shortly after, on 23 March 1169, his nephew Saladin was chosen as a compromise candidate to take his place.
Saladin's position was far from secure. Shirkuh's Syrian troops numbered a few thousand and their upkeep was uncertain. Saladin could count only on the loyalty of the Kurdish commanders affiliated with Shirkuh, whereas his Turkish commanders, envious of his rapid rise, might defect. At the same time, Saladin found himself as head of government of a nominally Isma'ili state while himself being a Sunni leading a Sunni army, as well as a subordinate of Nur al-Din, whose championship of the Sunni cause against the Shi'ite Isma'ilis was well known. Saladin's intention to abolish the Fatimid regime was evident from the start, and the various factions and power groups within the Fatimid establishment, especially within the palace, were bound to oppose him. The Fatimid caliphs, although politically virtually powerless, were important symbolic figures, sources of legitimacy, and in command of enormous financial resources.
This obliged Saladin to tread carefully at first, making a serious effort to establish good relations with al-Adid and promote a public image of harmony between the two. This displeased Nur al-Din, who mistrusted Saladin's motives and refused to recognize his new position. Nevertheless, in order to safeguard the Syrian position in Egypt and guard against yet another Crusader invasion, on 3 July 1169 Nur al-Din sent new troops to Egypt, under the command of Saladin's older brother, Turan-Shah. They arrived in Cairo on 29 July.
## Mu'tamin's conspiracy
In the meantime, Saladin gradually began distancing himself from the Fatimid regime, starting by introducing Nur al-Din's name in the Friday prayer after that of Caliph al-Adid. Al-Adid was relegated to a ceremonial role, and even publicly humiliated when Saladin entered the palace on horseback (hitherto a privilege of the caliphs). Saladin also began openly favouring his Syrian troops, awarding them military fiefs (iqta') for their upkeep, while withdrawing similar fiefs from the Fatimid commanders.
These moves aroused the opposition of the Fatimid elites, who rallied behind the black African eunuch majordomo of the caliphal palaces, Mu'tamin al-Khilafa. According to the medieval chroniclers, Mu'tamin made contact with the Crusaders, inviting them to invade Egypt. Saladin would be forced to confront them, leaving Cairo. This would allow Mu'tamin and his supporters to mount a coup to depose him, and then strike at Saladin's forces from the rear while he was facing the Crusaders. For this purpose, Mu'tamin reportedly used a Jewish messenger, who aroused suspicion in Saladin's men because his new slippers clashed with the rags he was wearing otherwise. He was arrested, and Mu'tamin's letters to the Crusaders discovered. Under torture, the messenger revealed his master's machinations.
Saladin was informed of the conspiracy, but did not act immediately. Knowing that his messenger had been intercepted, Mu'tamin for a while was cautious and did not leave the safety of the palace. On 20 August, however, he finally felt safe enough to leave Cairo for his country estate. Immediately Saladin's men seized and executed Mu'tamin, and his severed head was brought to their master.
Although the medieval sources are unanimous in reporting Mu'tamin's conspiracy, modern historians are skeptical that the conspiracy took place as described. Both M. C. Lyons and D. E. P. Jackson, as well as Lev, point out that the revelation of the messenger by his mismatched sandals is a common literary device, and the moment, following the arrival of Turan-Shah's reinforcements, was clearly opportune to settle accounts with Saladin's enemies. Other medieval sources indicate that Saladin had sought a juridical opinion which would allow him to depose and even execute al-Adid as an enemy of the faith, and his intention to move against the Fatimids is evident. Lev is convinced that whole story was nothing more than a literary invention by the later historians, who favoured Saladin, to not only justify getting rid of Mu'tamin and the black African troops as a prelude to deposing the Fatimid dynasty, but even present it as a purely defensive act on Saladin's behalf. One of Saladin's chief officials and apologists, Qadi al-Fadil, legitimized the suppression of the black African troops and their Armenian allies by couching it in religious terms, as a struggle against infidels (the Armenians) and pagans (the black Africans).
## Uprising and defeat of the black African troops
Whatever the truth, the news of Mu'tamin's murder provoked an uprising on the next day of the black African troops stationed in Cairo, who had regarded Mu'tamin as a sort of representative and champion of their interests. Black Africans (al-Sudan, also termed abid al-shira, 'bought slaves') had been long employed in Egypt as soldiers. By this time they reportedly numbered 50,000 men and formed the mainstay of the Fatimid army's infantry, along with Armenian troops. The ensuing battle was bloody, with high casualties on both sides, and lasted for two days.
The black African troops gathered in the square between the caliphal palaces and the palace of the vizier (the Dar al-Wizara), and were joined by other Fatimid troops and ordinary Cairenes. When Turan-Shah came to notify Saladin of their enemies assembling, Saladin reportedly adopted a passive attitude, waiting to see who the Caliph would support. M. C. Lyons and D. E. P. Jackson suggest that this was a tactical decision, leaving the immediate fighting to Turan-Shah while he kept himself in reserve. Together, the black Africans and their allies attacked the Dar al-Wizara, but were stopped by Turan-Shah's troops, while Saladin hastily brought his newly raised Salahiyah regiment into the fray. The clash moved to the large square between the caliphal palaces, the Bayn al-Qasrayn, where the black Africans were joined by the feared Armenian archers, while Caliph al-Adid watched from a pavilion on a tower of the palace walls.
Initially, the rebel troops seemed to prevail, pushing the Syrians back. The palace troops began throwing stones and shooting arrows on Saladin's soldiers as well, although the sources say that it is unclear whether this happened at al-Adid's command or not. Believing that the Caliph had turned against the Syrians, Turan-Shah ordered his naphtha archers (naffatin) to target the Caliph's pavilion. Before they could start firing, a messenger from al-Adid appeared at the gate of the tower where the pavilion stood, and loudly shouted out to Turan-Shah, encouraging him to fight against the "slave dogs" until they were driven out of the country. The black African troops, who believed they had been fighting in support of the Caliph, were dismayed by this public betrayal, and lost heart.
At the same time, Saladin sent some of his troops to the quarter of al-Mansura ('the Victorious'), south of the Bab Zuwayla gate, where the black Africans had their homes. There they set fire to the quarter, and attacked the black Africans' women and children. At news of this attack on their defenceless families, the black Africans broke and began retreating to the Bab Zuwayla. Saladin's reserves occupied the side streets, forcing the black Africans to retreat down the main thoroughfare and depriving them of any ability to evade via the side streets or using them to flank their pursuers. The black Africans offered only occasional resistance in isolated houses, which the pursuing Syrians often simply torched. Some Armenian archers tried to stem the Syrians' advance, but their barracks, located near the Fatimid palaces, were likewise torched, killing them all.
The black Africans did not manage to escape the city: at the market of the sword sellers, some 550 metres (1,800 ft) north of Bab Zuwayla, they found themselves hemmed in from all sides. Driven at last to Bab Zuwayla, they found its doors closed, and agreed to submit. Saladin agreed, provided they left Cairo, and granted them safe passage to Giza on the other side of the Nile. There the black Africans were attacked and killed by Turan-Shah, with only a few surviving.
## Aftermath
The conflict, known in Arabic chronicles as the "Battle of the Blacks" or "Battle of the Slaves", was, according to the historian Yaacov Lev, "[t]he single most important event in Saladin's rise to power in Egypt". In its aftermath, Saladin set about taking control of the administrative machinery and installing his Syrian followers and his immediate family in critical positions. Mu'tamin was replaced by a white eunuch, Saladin's confidant Baha al-Din Qaraqush, and all the other black African eunuchs were dismissed from palace service. Saladin's men seized the properties of the expelled black African and Armenian troops, both in Cairo and across Egypt. Saladin began billeting his own officers and troops in the vacated properties of Cairo, while the quarter of al-Mansura was levelled to the ground and later converted into a garden.
Al-Adid's unclear role in the clashes rendered him suspect in the eyes of Saladin's commanders, but for the moment he was not harmed. Deprived of any loyal troops, and closely watched over in his own palace by Qaraqush, he was now completely at Saladin's mercy. Saladin's victory paved the way for a gradual but inexorable assault on the Fatimid regime itself, that spanned the years 1170–1171. The Shi'a form of the call to prayer was changed back to the Sunni form on 25 August 1170, and public lecture sessions of the Isma'ili creed abolished. Sunnis replaced Isma'ilis in all judicial posts, including that of the chief qadi. This policy culminated on 10 September 1171, when the name of the Sunni Abbasid caliph, al-Mustadi, instead of al-Adid's, was proclaimed in the Friday prayer. The Fatimid regime was at an end, and al-Adid's death only a few days later, on 13 September 1171, after a brief illness, only sealed its demise. After al-Adid's death, the still sizeable Isma'ili community was persecuted by Saladin's new Ayyubid regime, while the members of the Fatimid family were placed under arrest in the palace, and later in the Citadel of Cairo, where they lived out their days.
Only a fraction of the black African troops escaped the events, fleeing south to Upper Egypt. Saladin tasked his uncle, Shihab al-Din al-Harimi, with pursuing them and killing them. Over the following months, Saladin continued his phasing-out of the Fatimid army units, which provoked further resistance. Fatimid troops rose in revolt in Qus under their commander, Abbas ibn Shadhi, and although they were quickly defeated, other areas of Upper Egypt remained in turmoil due to the restiveness of the Bedouin and the presence of fugitive black African soldiery.
At least some of the black African and Armenian troops may have been retained in service, however, or have been left unmolested in or near Cairo, as they are mentioned during the abortive pro-Fatimid conspiracy of 1173, when the conspirators hoped to use them to seize Cairo in Saladin's absence on campaign against the Crusaders. Following the discovery of the affair and the execution of its leaders, these troops were banished to Upper Egypt. There they soon joined the uprising of the governor of Aswan, Kanz al-Dawla, who marched on Cairo with the intention of restoring the Fatimids. The rebels were defeated in September 1174 by Saladin's brother, al-Adil. As with Mu'tamin's conspiracy, Yaacov Lev has expressed doubts on the veracity of the details reported, as the traditional account of the conspiracy rests chiefly on a letter by Qadi al-Fadl. The letter repeats the motif of a collusion with the Crusaders, which is not found in the only other major contemporary account, that of Imad al-Din al-Isfahani. Furthermore, according to Lev, the exile of rebellious pro-Fatimid troops to an already restive region such as Upper Egypt does not make sense. Lev suggests that the affair represented a purge of "harmless persons who were in no position to endanger Saladin's rule", but who were "victims of old rivalries within the civilian elite", and that Saladin was effectively manipulated into ordering their deaths.
## Assessment in historiography
The Battle of the Blacks has been interpreted differently by various modern scholars. Thus Andrew S. Ehrenkreutz, in his 1972 biography of Saladin, used the events to highlight his portrait of the Ayyubid sultan as a "ruthless careerist" (in the words of Michael Brett). Jere L. Bacharach emphasized that the opposition of the black Africans to Saladin was not driven so much by loyalty to the Fatimid dynasty, but by the fact that Saladin's army represented a different military system, reliant exclusively on cavalry, in which they had no role to play. As Bacharach comments, after the disbandment of the black African regiments, "a standing, salaried infantry would return to Egypt only with the Ottomans in 923/1517".
Bernard Lewis noted that while the clash did not have a racial background, its subsequent treatment by pro-Saladin chroniclers carries racial undertones, emphasizing the arrogance and indiscipline of the black African troops, who had frequently been involved in political intrigues in past decades and now received their just punishment. Imad al-Din, for example, writes that "whenever [the black Africans] rose against a vizier they killed him", and that "they thought that all white men were pieces of fat and that all black African men were coals". Lewis also points out that while white troops of the Fatimid army were incorporated into Saladin's forces, the black African ones were not. Even in the succeeding Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo, black Africans were employed in the army only as menial slaves, and a strict policy of segregation with the free white soldiers was in place. |
4,828,860 | WLTZ | 1,143,856,258 | NBC/CW affiliate in Columbus, Georgia | [
"1970 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)",
"Antenna TV affiliates",
"Court TV affiliates",
"Gray Television",
"NBC network affiliates",
"SagamoreHill Broadcasting",
"Television channels and stations established in 1970",
"Television stations in Columbus, Georgia"
]
| WLTZ (channel 38) is a television station in Columbus, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Gray Television, owner of ABC affiliate WTVM (channel 9), for the provision of certain services. Gray also operates Fox affiliate WXTX (channel 54) under a separate SSA with owner American Spirit Media. WLTZ's studios and transmitter are located on NBC 38 Drive off Buena Vista Road on the east side of the city. Master control and most internal operations are based at WTVM and WXTX's shared studios on Wynnton Road (GA 22) in the Dinglewood section of Columbus.
WLTZ went on the air in 1970 as WYEA-TV. An NBC affiliate from its first day on air, it had traditionally been a distant third in local news ratings in the Columbus market, despite attempts from several owners—most notably locally based insurer American Family Corporation—to improve the situation. The station aired no regular local news service at all from 1993 to 2007. In 2020, it began to air newscasts produced by WTVM.
## History
### WYEA-TV: Early years
In late 1966 and early 1967, three groups applied for television stations in Columbus, which at the time had two VHF outlets. One—Coastal Television—amended its application to specify channel 54 and received a construction permit, but it was never built. The other two, the Inland Broadcasting Company (a consortium of Georgia and Alabama residents) and Gala Broadcasting Company (led by Charles F. Grisham, owner of WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Alabama), merged their bids on the latter's application in July, opening the door for a construction permit to be issued in mid-August to what became known as the Eagle Broadcasting Company. It was obvious what the likely programming would be for the station. WTVM was a primary ABC affiliate and had first call rights on NBC programs, though CBS affiliate WRBL-TV (channel 3) also aired some NBC programming on a secondary basis.
A building permit was issued in December 1969 for a site on Buena Vista Road, and ground was broken in early May. While it was intended for the station to start in time for the 1970 World Series, and WTVM had already discontinued airing NBC programs with the start of the new season, the new station, under the call letters WYEA-TV, was not completed on time. The transmitter was not finished by that fall due to a strike at RCA, which was fabricating the antenna; as a result, WTVM had to petition to carry the World Series.
WYEA-TV began broadcasting on October 29, 1970. The station's second-floor offices suffered heavy damage in a January 1975 fire; the newsroom took water damage, and unprocessed news film was lost, but the station was back on the air within a day.
The first newscast aired by the station was a 5:30 p.m. newscast, 1st Edition News, chosen specifically to avoid the 6 p.m. broadcasts from WRBL and WTVM and counterprogram their offerings. Over the years, the station focused on counterprogramming the two larger stations and also attempted to lure viewers with personalities that left those stations. In one extreme instance, the team presenting WLTZ's evening newscast in 1976 was the same four people that had presented WTVM's News Hour in 1969.
### American Family ownership
The locally based American Family Corporation, the parent of insurer AFLAC, announced in July 1977 that it would buy Eagle Broadcasting for \$1.5 million and another \$1.7 million in assumption of debts, making WYEA-TV its first broadcasting property with intentions to add more. Under the subsidiary of American Eagle Broadcasting, American Family took ownership on March 1, 1978.
John B. Amos, president of American Family, had been looking into a media buy for some time, having analyzed a possible purchase of WRBL-TV and narrowly missing out on purchasing the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network. WYEA-TV, a station that was a distant third with only five full-time news staffers and just one newscast a day, would prove to be a challenge as the group's first property. It also faced audience erosion from a new tower that had been erected by WSFA, the NBC affiliate in Montgomery, Alabama, which had upgraded its signal to reach some parts of channel 38's viewing area. Under American Family, WYEA-TV opposed a proposed television station licensed to Albany, WJFT-TV (channel 19), which had proposed a transmitting facility that would have also covered Columbus.
Under American Family, the station briefly made a major overhaul of its local news. It adopted the name NewsCenter for its newscasts, and in 1979, it debuted the station's first-ever 11 p.m. newscast. However, many of these changes were later trimmed back for economic reasons after American Family sold the station.
### Lewis ownership
By the start of 1981, American Family owned six stations—WYEA-TV and five outlets in larger markets. Citing its audience share, market size, and signal strength, as well as its status as the least profitable station in the group, American Family opted to sell WYEA to Julius Curtis Lewis Jr., whose Lewis Broadcasting owned WJCL-TV in its headquarters of Savannah and WLTX in Columbia, South Carolina. Years later, Leroy Paul, who presided over AFLAC's broadcast division, quipped, "We learned we could never become the city's news leader on a UHF station." AFLAC would return to the Columbus market in 1989 with the purchase of WTVM.
Lewis took control on July 1, 1981; the station's 11 p.m. newscast was immediately cut, along with several staff dismissals in the news department. The station changed its call sign to WLTZ, beginning to brand itself as "Z-38", on August 31. The station had better ratings for its entertainment programming in the Columbus metro area than it did in the larger designated market area, which included counties where WRBL and WTVM were received but not WLTZ.
Under Lewis, the station briefly had the first Black anchor on Columbus television: future state senator Ed Harbison, who anchored WLTZ's evening newscast from September 1982 to August 1984. The lack of a late newscast or weekend newscasts, plus many resources their competitors had and the frequent confusion of their reporters with those from other stations, slighted the channel 38 news staff: Mick Walsh, the television writer for The Columbus Enquirer, called WLTZ "the Rodney Dangerfield of local news". In one instance, WLTZ passed on the opportunity to send a media member to witness an execution because it would have been too late on a Friday to have a story for any newscast; it was the first time that a media representative had failed to show up for an execution in Georgia since 1976. Ratings remained stubbornly low. In February 1993, four percent of Columbus metro households watched WLTZ's 6 p.m. newscast, a sharp contrast to Star Trek: The Next Generation on WXTX (15 share) and the newscasts on WRBL (18 share) and WTVM (52 share).
On November 15, 1993, station management announced the WLTZ news department would be dissolved on November 24, citing low ratings and lack of "wide market acceptance". The news came as a shock to the seven-member news staff, all but one of whom were laid off. The station had no regular local newscasts for the next 14 years. However, it did invite one of the staffers it fired, veteran Columbus newscaster Al Fleming, to produce short news breaks to air during NBC's coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Lewis announced it would sell WLTZ in 1994 to Piney Creek Broadcasting, headed by Ruth Allen Ollison, which would contract with Jack Pezold, owner of Fox affiliate WXTX, to provide its programs under a local marketing agreement (LMA). Pezold would also finance the sale for Piney Creek. The proposed transaction led to a petitions to deny by WRBL and WTVM. While the sale appeared to be "almost a done deal" by February 1995, when the FCC rejected the challenges from the competing local stations, the deal fell through that April after Congress ended a tax certificate program that encouraged the sale of broadcast stations to minorities.
### SagamoreHill ownership
Lewis kept WLTZ until 2007, when it was sold to SagamoreHill Broadcasting; it was the last television property owned by Lewis. In November 2007, the station brought back weeknight newscasts (seen at 6, 7, and 11 p.m., or 5, 6, and 10 Central) in partnership with the Independent News Network (INN) of Davenport, Iowa. Originally, the early evening shows aired in traditional half-hour formats, while the late newscast ran for 11 minutes. The Iowa-based news presenters read stories prepared by local reporters in Columbus; WLTZ also partnered with the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper for local coverage.
WLTZ converted to digital-only broadcasting February 17, 2009. That same year, the station added The CW to a subchannel after the network discontinued its relationship with Pappas Telecasting, owner of WLGA (channel 66), then the region's CW affiliate. In 2012, the station restored local news production from Columbus.
In September 2020, SagamoreHill entered into an eight-year shared services agreement with Gray to provide back-office services including master control, engineering services, and promotional services, as well as newscasts for WLTZ. On November 24, 2020, television industry website FTVLive.com reported that WLTZ had produced its final newscast on November 20 and that many employees were then laid off. WLTZ now simulcasts newscasts produced by WTVM.
## Technical information
### Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed: |
66,610,778 | 17q12 microdeletion syndrome | 1,098,610,910 | Rare genetic anomaly in humans | [
"Autism spectrum disorders",
"Chromosomal abnormalities",
"Chromosomes",
"Genetic anomalies",
"Genetics of autism",
"Kidney diseases",
"Schizophrenia"
]
| 17q12 microdeletion syndrome, also known as 17q12 deletion syndrome, is a rare chromosomal anomaly caused by the deletion of a small amount of material from a region in the long arm of chromosome 17. It is typified by deletion of the HNF1B gene, resulting in kidney abnormalities and renal cysts and diabetes syndrome. It also has neurocognitive effects, and has been implicated as a genetic factor for autism and schizophrenia.
17q12 microdeletion syndrome is not to be confused with 17q12 microduplication syndrome, caused by the addition of genetic material in the same region from which it is removed in the microdeletion, or 17q21.31 microdeletion syndrome, another name for Koolen–De Vries syndrome.
## Presentation
17q12 microdeletions have a variable phenotype, ranging from few or no symptoms to severe disability. The condition is thought to be underdiagnosed, and cases with milder phenotypes may not reach clinical attention unless they have an affected child themselves. The most characteristic symptom is renal cysts and diabetes syndrome (RCAD), also known as "type 5 diabetes", which is caused by deletion of the associated HNF1B gene in the region. RCAD is associated with kidney abnormalities and a characteristic form of diabetes that causes atrophy of the pancreas. However, some people with 17q12 microdeletions have normal renal function. RCAD is diagnosed in approximately 40% of people with 17q12 microdeletions, usually prior to age 25, while kidney abnormalities more broadly occur in approximately 85-90%.
People with 17q12 microdeletions have a characteristic facial phenotype, albeit a subtle one not usually obvious in daily life. Macrocephaly is common, along with high arched eyebrows, flattening of the malar region, and epicanthic folds. Pathological short stature is possible, and a characteristic "short and stocky" body shape occurs in many cases.
17q12 microdeletions are associated with neurocognitive and developmental involvement of variable severity. Some have mild to moderate intellectual disability; however, such impairment is not universal. Average intelligence is in the average to low average range. Speech delay is common, regardless of intellectual functioning. The most striking association between 17q12 microdeletions and neurodevelopment is the raised prevalence of autism spectrum disorder, with significant increases in both diagnosis and subclinical autistic traits. 17q12 microdeletions have been implicated as one of the major genetic causes of high-functioning autistic spectrum disorders. Schizophrenia is also a significant psychiatric complication of 17q12 microdeletion syndrome. 17q12 microdeletions are estimated to occur in approximately 1 in 1,600 people with schizophrenia, compared to an estimation of below 1 in 50,000 in the general population. Epilepsy, usually mild, occurs in approximately one-third of cases.
Reproductive system anomalies are associated with 17q12 microdeletions, particularly in females. 17q12 microdeletions have been linked to uterine malformations, most frequently Müllerian agenesis, where the uterus and part of the vaginal canal are absent.
## Causes
17q12 microdeletion syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder, where one copy of the relevant mutation is enough to cause the condition. Most cases are de novo, or spontaneous mutations that do not occur in the proband's parents; approximately 75% are de novo, while 25% are inherited. People with 17q12 microdeletions who have normal fertility have a 50% chance of passing the deletion down to their offspring. Environmental factors have not been implicated in the syndrome.
## Diagnosis
Like other chromosomal microdeletions, 17q12 microdeletion syndrome is diagnosed via fluorescence in situ hybridization. Traditional karyotyping, used to diagnose major chromosomal disorders such as aneuploidy, is rarely sensitive enough to detect microdeletions.
## Treatment
As the underlying 17q12 microdeletion is an innate genetic disorder, it cannot by itself be treated. Rather, treatment is symptomatic and supportive. The high prevalence of kidney disease indicates routine monitoring of renal function, particularly in people taking potentially nephrotoxic medications such as lithium. The comorbities involved in 17q12 microdeletion syndrome require caution in medical treatment; for instance, the increased risk of diabetes requires strict monitoring for post-transplantation diabetes mellitus in kidney transplant patients, as does the risk of weight gain and diabetes from neuroleptic drugs in those with a mental health diagnosis.
## Epidemiology
The prevalence of 17q12 microdeletion syndrome is unknown, and it is likely to be underdiagnosed. 17q12 microdeletions are estimated to occur in approximately 1 in 600 people on the autism spectrum and 1 in 1,600 with schizophrenia, but are far rarer in the general population. General prevalence is estimated to be between 1 in 14,000 and 1 in 62,500.
In addition to the increased prevalence in autism and schizophrenia, some other clinical populations have increased prevalence of 17q12 microdeletion syndrome. The condition occurs in approximately 2% of those with congenital kidney abnormalities and 3-6% of women with Müllerian agenesis. It is one of the ten most common microdeletions amongst children with idiopathic developmental delay.
## Microduplication
17q12 microduplication syndrome is far rarer than the corresponding microdeletion, estimated to occur roughly one-fifth as frequently as 17q12 microdeletion syndrome. Due to its rarity and the overlap between their phenotypes, 17q12 microduplications are usually discussed as an adjunct to microdeletions. Like the microdeletion syndrome, the microduplication syndrome has a broad phenotypic range, ranging from asymptomatic to profound disability; intellectual disability is frequently but not always more severe than the microdeletion, while physical health is often better. Epilepsy is a frequent finding. A case of sex reversal has been reported. While autism comorbid with 17q12 microduplication has been reported, it appears far rarer than in the microdeletion. Physical anomalies associated with 17q12 microduplication syndrome include syndactyly, microcephaly, epicanthic folds, and thick eyebrows or a unibrow. The 17q12 microduplication appears to have a low penetrance, as many cases are inherited from asymptomatic parents.
## See also
- Causes of autism
- Risk factors of schizophrenia |
45,483,322 | The Convict (1910 film) | 1,167,482,340 | null | [
"1910 comedy films",
"1910 films",
"1910 lost films",
"1910s American films",
"1910s English-language films",
"American black-and-white films",
"American comedy short films",
"American silent short films",
"Lost American comedy films",
"Silent American comedy films",
"Thanhouser Company films"
]
| The Convict is a 1910 American silent short comedy produced by the Thanhouser Company. The film begins with a convict walking down the road, he is spotted and it begins a wild chase with more people becoming involved in the pursuit as it continues. The convict gets in a carriage and leaps away, successfully eluding all the pursuers except for a little girl. The convict then runs to the water and takes a boat from another accomplice and the chase continues in water and on land. The convict gets ashore and escapes, taking a car and flees to town. The police are notified and set a trap, but the convict avoids the growing crowd of pursuers until he arrives at the theater. There "the convict" takes a pose under an advertisement and the pursuers understand it was all an advertising ploy, they purchase tickets and go to see the film. The film was released on September 23, 1910, it was the first part of a split-reel production that included A Husband's Jealous Wife. The film was met with positive reviews though the film is presumed lost.
## Plot
Though the film is presumed lost, a synopsis survives in The Moving Picture World from September 24, 1910. It states: "The convict is discovered stealing along a country road, glancing about for signs of danger. His stripes are discernible on that portion of his breast and on that portion of his trousers' leg not covered by the long coat he wears - which cannot conceal the stripes that tell all; hence his keen watch for passersby. Still, he does not spy a nearby farmer until too late; the cry 'prisoner loose' is raised, and a dozen rustics make after the unfortunate. Convict meets accomplice who is waiting with carriage; jumps in the carriage and the pair drives off. Baffled pursuers come up, sight a wagon, all pile within and resume pursuit. Convict jumps from carriage and drops behind boulder, accomplice driving straight on with the wagon hot after him; when the wagon has passed him by, convict comes from behind boulder, crosses road and disappears on other side - but has been seen crossing the road by a small girl who kept out of sight until the convict had disappeared, but who now rushes off to tell of her discovery. Put back on the trail by the little girl, pursuers follow their quarry to the waterside, where a second accomplice awaits the convict with a rowboat, and into which he jumps and pulls for the other side. Another rowboat sets out in pursuit. One of the pursuers telephones constables on the other side of the water to catch convict when he tries to land."
"Race of the rowboats. Nearing shore the convict finds himself hemmed in - pursuers on water and constables on land. Luckily for him, pursuers in their efforts to grab his boat overturn their own; he gets to shore, where [the] accomplice is caught though [the convict] escapes. Constable and pursuer chase him to town road, where third accomplice awaits with auto; they speed off. An automobile too happens along, allows pursuers to use his auto to chase convict's, and all enter except constable who rushes off to 'phone town police of convict's coming. Receiving the message, chief of police leaves with coppers for town end of road, across which they stretch rope and await convict's auto. As the convict dashes down Main Street new pursuers spring up at every step. Yet when he reaches the opera house he calmly walks into the entrance and, facing his pursuers, takes a dignified stand beside the billboard on which is printed: 'Latest Moving Picture - Today's Feature - STUNG! or The Convict's Escape - A Roaring Comedy Now Showing.'"
## Production
The writer of the scenario is unknown, but it was most likely Lloyd Lonergan. He was an experienced newspaperman employed by The New York Evening World while writing scripts for the Thanhouser productions. The plot is a clever advertising scheme employed by a theatre manager to draw patrons and using an elaborate series of events in order to accomplish that effect. Once "the convict" is identified and the chase begins, he receives assistance in prolonging the chase until arriving at the theatre where the crowd purchases tickets for the show. The film director is unknown, but it may have been Barry O'Neil. Film historian Q. David Bowers does not attribute a cameraman for this production, but at least two possible candidates exist. Blair Smith was the first cameraman of the Thanhouser company, but he was soon joined by Carl Louis Gregory who had years of experience as a still and motion picture photographer. The role of the cameraman was uncredited in 1910 productions. The only role in the cast which is known is for Marie Eline as the little girl. The other cast credits are unknown, but many 1910 Thanhouser productions are fragmentary. A surviving film still gives the possibility of identifying two actors.
## Release and reception
The split-reel comedy, approximately 1000 feet long with A Husband's Jealous Wife included, was released on September 23, 1910. Advertising for the film was a bit mixed as to whether or not it was a comedy or a drama, stating, "You have no idea as to how marvelously a Thanhouser can twist a story until you see this gripping dra - well, perhaps, it isn't a drama at that - or a comedy even. We hate to tip you off as to WHAT it is. When you see the picture, with its totally unlooked-for climax, you'll know why!" Bowers would later term this as more of the slapstick comedy that Edwin Thanhouser said the company would not produce. The film likely had a wide national release, known advertising theatres include Indiana, and Kansas. The film was also shown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One theater advertisement may have confused this film with another because it lists this film as a western film.
Reviews for the film were positive and focused on the novel methods used to attract the audience to the theater. The Moving Picture World stated, "A burlesque picture which becomes more thrilling as it proceeds. The convict is supposed to have escaped and the way he is chased and surrounded bodes no good for him. But somehow he manages to elude the steadily increasing army of pursuers until they are gathered around him, when he calmly shows a motion picture announcement, and the reason for all this melee, in which the whole countryside took part, becomes apparent." The requirement that the fleeing "convict" be continually assisted as a part of the plot may have been lost on The New York Dramatic Mirror reviewer. The reviewer writes, "Perhaps, in real life, things might not happen so luckily for the convict unless the carriage, the boat and the automobile were previously arranged for him. Even then, Fate might conceivably have some disagreeable card up her sleeve. In the film, at any rate, everybody bit nicely. They pursued the escaped convict in increasing crowds until he led them to the theatre he was advertising. There they all obligingly bought tickets to the show and, no doubt, enjoyed it hugely. They did if it was as good as the film is. The least interesting sections of the film are the telephone messages exchanged by agitated police officials; but they set off the livelier adventures of the convict with agreeable contrast." Walton of The Moving Picture News identified the set up and assistance to "the convict" and states,"In spite of the Thanhouser folk joining in the racket and the peculiar readiness of carriage and automobile and boat to help the gentleman in a costume, not used in this state for some two years, the audience did not 'catch on.' When the revelation came, at the door of the New Rochelle picture show, the theatre rang with laughter. We were all 'stung' and we enjoyed it."
## See also
- List of American films of 1910 |
36,448,780 | George Dewhurst (cricketer) | 1,124,855,561 | Trinidadian cricketer | [
"1894 births",
"1954 deaths",
"Pre-1928 West Indies cricketers",
"Trinidad and Tobago cricketers",
"Wicket-keepers"
]
| George Alric R. Dewhurst (31 October 1894 – 4 January 1954) was a Trinidadian cricketer who played for West Indies before the team attained Test match status. A highly regarded wicket-keeper, Dewhurst was an influential and popular member of the Trinidad and West Indian sides. In his later career, he improved substantially as a batsman. He toured England with the West Indies team in 1923 but missed the 1928 tour of England in controversial circumstances. Despite continued speculation that he would be recalled, he did not play representative cricket again.
## Early career
Dewhurst made his first-class debut for Trinidad in 1920, playing two matches against Barbados. The following season, he played twice in the Inter-Colonial Tournament, and also played both games in 1922. In the final of the latter tournament, he scored 58, his maiden first-class half-century and only his second score in double figures.
During 1923, a representative West Indian team toured England. Dewhurst was selected as wicket-keeper for the tour. He played in 15 games to score 182 runs at an average of 10.11, with one half-century: 52 against Nottinghamshire. Although not the team's official vice-captain, Dewhurst was very influential in the side. His performances as wicket-keeper were widely praised in the English press, and according to one team-mate from that tour, the bowling was difficult for a wicket-keeper to take. Despite competition from C. Piggott, whom many Trinidadians considered a superior wicket-keeper, Dewhurst secured his place as Trinidad's wicket-keeper after the tour. Many critics regarded Dewhurst as the best wicket-keeper in the West Indies.
Dewhurst continued to play for Trinidad between 1923 and 1926, although, owing to his business commitments, he was unable to play in every game. In 1926 he played against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which was touring the West Indies, for both Trinidad and a West Indies team. He passed fifty three times against the touring team, and such was his improvement as a batsman that critics suggested he could hold a place in the West Indies team for his batting alone. However, Dewhurst did not play another first-class match until 1930.
## Controversy and later career
Dewhurst occasionally captained Trinidad in the Inter-Colonial Tournament and was a candidate to captain the West Indies cricket team in England in 1928, when the two most likely men were unwilling or unable to lead the team. Dewhurst had acted as vice-captain of the West Indies team in 1926 to Harold Austin, but in the event, Karl Nunes was selected as captain. Dewhurst was also overlooked as vice-captain in favour of Vibart Wight although the latter had no captaincy experience. Dewhurst was named in the team to tour England, but he withdrew. Some newspaper reports blamed illness for his decision, others suggested business reasons. Critics believed that Dewhurst's absence adversely affected the team; the replacement wicket-keepers were not regarded as equal to Dewhurst's ability, and the vice-captain had little success. It was suggested that Dewhurst only missed the tour because he had not been chosen as vice-captain. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack noted: "The absence of Dewhurst—a member of the team of 1923—was very severely felt." However, Dewhurst was criticised in the West Indies for being unsporting by refusing to go on the tour.
After an absence from first-class cricket, Dewhurst returned to play for Trinidad in 1930 when the MCC toured the West Indies. Before the series, he was named in the press as a candidate to lead the West Indies Test team. A Barbados newspaper claimed that he was the only suitable potential captain from Trinidad. The same report suggested that, while he may not have been available for every Test, he was an ideal leader if the selectors chose different captains for the matches played on each island. During the tour, and before the Trinidad Test, the Trinidad team played the MCC. Nelson Betancourt captained in the first game and won the match; Dewhurst led in the second and was defeated. Subsequently, Betancourt was selected as captain for the Trinidad Test match. Citing "insularity and prejudice" in West Indian selection, an article in a Trinidad newspaper stated: "The selection of Betancourt in preference to Dewhurst was a pre-arranged affair, the latter being only given the leadership of the second Trinidad team in order to keep quiet a suspicious and already much chagrined public." The newspaper suggested that Dewhurst had been set up to fail when the selectors gave him a weaker team to play the MCC, that he still out-performed Betancourt in captaincy, and that the decision was based on factors other than ability.
The match between Trinidad and MCC was Dewhurst's last in first-class cricket. In 31 first-class matches, he scored 665 runs at an average of 16.21, passing fifty in six innings. He held 47 catches and made 13 stumpings. Both the Trinidad and West Indian selectors continued to leave Dewhurst out of teams. He was not chosen to tour Australia with the West Indies in 1930–31. One press report suggested "reasons are to be found in directions other than cricket", and that minds had been "poisoned". Dewhurst continued to be mentioned as a prospective selection, and even as a possibility for the West Indies captaincy, in the early 1930s, and critics still believed him to be the best wicket-keeper in the West Indies. But his lack of regular cricket was considered to count against him.
## Impact
Writing about cricket in Trinidad, historian C. L. R. James noted that Dewhurst always kept wicket "excellently", but that many Trinidadians considered Piggott a better wicket-keeper who was only left out because he was black and Dewhurst was white. James recalled that people were astonished when Piggott was not chosen to tour England in 1923. But he suggests it was not a surprise as without Dewhurst's selection, among the Trinidad representatives on the West Indian team, there would have been no players from the Queen's Park Club, the most prestigious club on the island, nor would there have been any white players. Writing in 1927, in the expectation that Dewhurst would tour England the following year, his 1923 team-mate C. R. Browne wrote that Dewhurst's "heart is as big as his body" and that his "expansive smile captures many victims". He described him as "very unassuming, but winning in appearance Dewhurst is effective in his job and inspires confidence in bowler and fieldsmen alike. Without Trinidad's skipper no West Indies Team is complete." |
8,093,742 | M-140 (Michigan highway) | 1,167,331,030 | State highway in Berrien and Van Buren counties in Michigan, United States | [
"State highways in Michigan",
"Transportation in Berrien County, Michigan",
"Transportation in Van Buren County, Michigan"
]
| M-140 is a north–south state trunkline highway in Berrien and Van Buren counties of the US state of Michigan. The highway starts in the Niles area at M-139 and runs north through Watervliet to South Haven, ending at Interstate 196/US Highway 31 (I-196/US 31). In between, it runs through farm fields and past lakes in the southwestern part of the Lower Peninsula. The trunkline is used, on average, by between 1,500 and 10,200 vehicles.
The state designated M-140 in the early 1930s over a previous alignment of US 31 when that highway rerouted through the area. M-140 was extended from Watervliet to Niles a few years later. Changes were made to the routing of the trunkline in the 1950s and 1960s. The last change was made in 1972, resulting in the modern course for the highway.
## Route description
M-140 starts at an intersection with M-139 near the St. Joseph River north of Niles and runs due north through farm fields. The trunkline jogs to the west near Steinbauer Lake before returning to the northerly course. There is another westerly jog along Pokagon Road around Riggins Lake. M-140 turns back northward and runs through the community of Berrien Center. Near Eau Claire, the highway turns bends along Maple Grove Road for about 1,000 feet (300 m) before going north on Watervliet Road. East of town, the trunkline follows Main Street eastward toward the Berrien–Cass county line. M-140 intersects the northern terminus of M-62 and curves north.
In northern Berrien County, M-140 follows Watervliet Road to an interchange with Interstate 94 (I-94). The highway continues northward along Main Street into Watervliet, running through the middle of town and intersecting Red Arrow Highway, the former US 12. North of downtown, the trunkline curves through residential neighborhoods to the northeast around the east end of Paw Paw Lake. M-140 crosses into western Van Buren County about five miles (8.0 km) north of Watervliet. The highway crosses, and parallels, the Van Buren Trail in Covert. In South Haven Township, M-140 connects the South Haven Area Regional Airport with the I-196/US 31 freeway; north of this interchange, the highway continues as Business Loop I-196.
M-140 is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) like other state highways in Michigan. MDOT's surveys in 2010 showed that the highest traffic levels along M-140 were the 10,176 vehicles daily near in Watervliet; the lowest count was 1,536 vehicles per day along Pokagon Road, on average. All of M-140 is a two-lane, undivided highway, except sections in cities like Watervliet which may have up to four lanes. No section of the trunkline has not been listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.
## History
The State Trunkline Highway System was created on May 13, 1913, by an act of the Michigan Legislature; at the time, one of the system's divisions corresponded to the initial segment of M-140. Division 5 followed a course from Niles northward to Mackinaw City that encompassed the highway between Watervliet and South Haven. In 1919, the Michigan State Highway Department (MSHD) signposted the highway system for the first time, and the future M-140 corridor was assigned to part of the original M-11. On November 11, 1926, M-11 was redesignated as part of US 31 in the state.
In 1931, the state transferred US 31 to a new routing between the St. Joseph and South Haven areas; in the process, the former route of US 31 between Watervliet and South Haven was redesignated as M-140. The highway was extended southward from Watervliet to the Niles area in late 1934 due to heavy traffic on that section. The concurrency between M-62 and M-140 was eliminated around the end of 1957 when the former highway was truncated to terminate east of Eau Claire instead of continuing west into town. In 1958, the route north of Watervliet to the county line was realigned, smoothing several sharp curves.
The construction of the I-196/US 31 freeway around the South Haven area impacted the northern terminus of M-140 in the 1960s. When it opened in 1963, BL I-196 was shown on maps as continuing north along M-140 into town to a junction with M-43. In 1972, the business loop was rerouted, and M-140 was truncated to end at the freeway interchange south of town.
## Major intersections
## See also |
33,898,563 | Ryan Van Bergen | 1,159,280,342 | American football player (born 1989) | [
"1989 births",
"American football defensive ends",
"Carolina Panthers players",
"Living people",
"Michigan Wolverines football players",
"People from Whitehall, Michigan",
"Players of American football from Las Vegas",
"Players of American football from Michigan"
]
| Ryan Charles Van Bergen, sometimes (mis)spelled Ryan VanBergen, (born March 18, 1989) is a former American football defensive end. He had signed as an undrafted free agent with the Carolina Panthers following the 2012 NFL Draft but did not make the roster for the team. He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines football team. As a fifth-year senior for the 2011 Wolverines, he was a preseason Hendricks Award watchlist candidate, and after posting at least two tackles for a loss (TFL)s in each of his final three 2011 Big Ten season games, he was recognized as a postseason honorable mention All-Big Ten Conference performer. He started at defensive tackle for the 2009 Wolverines before switching to defensive end in 2010. In 2011, he started at end, as well as tackle, and led the team in quarterback sacks and tackles for a loss. He was awarded the 2007 Detroit Athletic Club Michigan High School Male Athlete of the Year for his performances in football, basketball, and track and field.
## High school
Van Bergen attended Shadow Ridge High School in Las Vegas for his freshman year and started on the varsity football team. His family moved to Whitehall, Michigan for his sophomore season. He was the 2007 Detroit Athletic Club Michigan High School Male Athlete of the Year in recognition of his accomplishments in Football, Track & Basketball for Whitehall High School. He was a scholar in high school who maintained a 3.7 average and was a member of the National Honor Society.
In track, Van Bergen competed in the discus throw. He went undefeated during the regular season of his junior year and placed 13th at the 2006 Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) Division 2 Lower Peninsula State championships with a throw of 145 feet 11 inches (44.48 m) and 5th in the 2007 MHSAA Division 2 finals with a throw of 154 feet 7 inches (47.12 m). Entering the state finals he had been seeded 7th as a junior based on a qualifying throw of 155 feet 11 inches (47.52 m) and 9th as a senior with a throw of 151 feet 1 inch (46.05 m). He qualified with these throws as the MHSAA regional champion as both a junior and senior, while also placing in the shot put. Although Van Bergen only ran a 5.40 second 40-yard dash as a freshman, he got the time down to 4.89 prior to his senior season.
Van Bergen attended the 2005 and 2006 Michigan Summer Football Camps. He was ranked as the 8th and 18th best class of 2007 high school football defensive end by Scout.com and Rivals.com, respectively. Rivals also rated him as the 10th best high school football player in the state of Michigan. ESPN.com rated him as the 13th best tight end in the country. Van Bergen was originally a recruit of Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr.
## College
Van Bergen made one start as a redshirt freshman for the 2008 Wolverines on October 11 against Toledo. Following the 2008 season, Michigan had to replace three starting senior co-captain defensive linemen: Terrance Taylor, Tim Jamison and Will Johnson. Van Bergen started every game for the 2009 Wolverines at defensive tackle. He totaled 40 tackles, 6.5 TFs, five quarterback sacks, one fumble recovery, and four pass breakups as a redshirt sophomore in 2009. He also posted a touchdown on a fumble recovery against Wisconsin on November 14. His mid 4th quarter sack against Indiana on September 26, 2009 set up a 3rd and 23, a 4th down punt and the subsequent game-winning drive in the 36–33 victory.
As a fourth-year junior, Van Bergen started every game for the 2010 Wolverines at defensive end following the departure of defensive end Brandon Graham. He totaled 37 tackles, 8.5 TFLs, five sacks and one pass breakup in 2010. Van Bergen had two solo TFLs on November 13 against Purdue and three solo TFLs in the rivalry game against Ohio State on November 27. He achieved his first seven tackle (five solo and two assist) outing in the January 1, 2011 Gator Bowl against Mississippi State.
Van Bergen started at both defensive end and defensive tackle in 2011. He was a 2011 preseason watchlists honoree for the Hendricks Award. He was named the Big Ten Conference Co-defensive Player of the Week on November 14, 2011 for his 2.5 quarterback sack performance against the Illinois Fighting Illini on November 12. In addition to the two solo and one assist sacks, he had an assist on a TFL and achieved his second seven-tackle effort (four solo and three assist). Van Bergen also was recognized by the College Football Performance Awards as the national defensive performer of the week and defensive lineman of the week. The following week, he had two solo TFLs against Nebraska. In the regular season finale against Ohio State on November 26 he tallied seven tackles one more time (five solo and two assist), including a solo TFL and two assist TFLs. Thus, he concluded his Big Ten career with at least two TFLs in each of his last three regular season games. He was an honorable mention 2011 All-Big Ten Conference selection by both the coaches and the media for the 2011 Wolverines. Van Bergen finished among the conference leaders in several statistics: sacks/game (.42, t-9th), tackles for a loss/game (.96, t-10th) and fumbles recovered/game (.23, t-3rd).
## Professional career
Prior to the draft, the Houston Texans informed Van Bergen, that they were targeting him with their sixth round pick, but the team picked up two defensive linemen in earlier rounds (Whitney Mercilus and Jared Crick). Van Bergen signed with the Carolina Panthers minutes after the draft ended. Van Bergen's tweet actually came one minute before the National Football League tweeted Mr. Irrelevant. Van Bergen was informed by the Panthers late in the draft that "he was their No. 1 free agent target". Van Bergen was cut on August 31.
## Personal life
Van Bergen is known as a media favorite, according to AnnArbor.com's Kyle Meinke. He worked in maintenance in high school at Erdman Machine Co., an aerospace tool manufacturer. At the time of his induction into the Michigan High School Football Association Coaches Hall of Fame, he thanked several members of his extended family including his grandparents Cliff and Gloria Verschueren and Al and Doris Van Bergen. He also mentioned his brother Tyler, who was three classes behind him and went on to play football at Grand Valley State University. Tyler went on to anchor MHSAA regional champions in the 4 × 100 metres relay (2009) and 4 × 200 metres relay (2010). Their parents are Charles and Toni Van Bergen, from Hart, Michigan. His father, who was raised on a farm, is a retired United States Air Force veteran. Charles has eleven older siblings who are from the West Michigan region. |
71,305 | Zyklon B | 1,173,666,871 | Pesticide notorious for its use during the Holocaust | [
"Blood agents",
"Chemical weapons",
"Cyanides",
"German inventions",
"Infrastructure of the Holocaust",
"Pesticides"
]
| Zyklon B (; translated Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consists of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such as diatomaceous earth. The product is notorious for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder approximately 1.1 million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps.
Hydrogen cyanide, a poisonous gas that interferes with cellular respiration, was first used as a pesticide in California in the 1880s. Research at Degesch of Germany led to the development of Zyklon (later known as Zyklon A), a pesticide that released hydrogen cyanide upon exposure to water and heat. It was banned after World War I, when Germany used a similar product as a chemical weapon. Degussa purchased Degesch in 1922. Their team of chemists, which included and Bruno Tesch, devised a method of packaging hydrogen cyanide in sealed canisters along with a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such as diatomaceous earth. The new product was also named Zyklon, but it became known as Zyklon B to distinguish it from the earlier version. Uses included delousing clothing and fumigating ships, warehouses, and trains.
The Nazis started using Zyklon B in extermination camps in early 1942 to murder prisoners during the Holocaust. Tesch, as well as his deputy executive, Karl Weinbacher, were executed in 1946 for knowingly selling the product to the SS for use on humans. Hydrogen cyanide is now rarely used as a pesticide but still has industrial applications. Firms in several countries continue to produce Zyklon B under alternative brand names, including Detia-Degesch, the successor to Degesch, who renamed the product Cyanosil in 1974.
## Mode of action
Hydrogen cyanide is a poisonous gas that interferes with cellular respiration. Cyanide prevents the cell from producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by binding to one of the proteins involved in the electron transport chain. This protein, cytochrome c oxidase, contains several subunits and has ligands containing iron groups. The cyanide component of Zyklon B can bind at one of these iron groups, heme a3, forming a more stabilized compound through metal-to-ligand pi bonding. As a result of the formation of this new iron–cyanide complex, the electrons that would situate themselves on the heme a3 group can no longer do so. Instead, these electrons destabilize the compound; thus, the heme group no longer accepts them. Consequently, electron transport is halted, and cells can no longer produce the energy needed to synthesize ATP. Death occurs in a human being weighing 68 kilograms (150 lb) within two minutes of inhaling 70 mg of hydrogen cyanide.
## History
Hydrogen cyanide, discovered in the late 18th century, was used in the 1880s for the fumigation of citrus trees in California. Its use spread to other countries for the fumigation of silos, goods wagons, ships, and mills. Its light weight and rapid dispersal meant its application had to take place under tents or in enclosed areas. Research by Fritz Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry led to the founding in 1919 of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung mbH (Degesch), a state-controlled consortium formed to investigate military use of the chemical. Chemists at Degesch added a cautionary eye irritant to a less volatile cyanide compound which reacted with water in the presence of heat to become hydrogen cyanide. The new product was marketed as the pesticide Zyklon (cyclone). As a similar formula had been used as a weapon by the Germans during World War I, Zyklon was soon banned.
Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheideanstalt (German Gold and Silver Refinery; Degussa) became sole owners of Degesch in 1922. There, beginning in 1922, , Bruno Tesch, and others worked on packaging hydrogen cyanide in sealed canisters along with a cautionary eye irritant and adsorbent stabilizers such as diatomaceous earth. The new product was also labelled as Zyklon, but it became known as Zyklon B to distinguish it from the earlier version. Heerdt was named the inventor of Zyklon B in the Degesch patent application (number DE 438818) dated 20 June 1922. The Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt awarded the patent on 27 December 1926. Beginning in the 1920s, Zyklon B was used at U.S. Customs facilities along the Mexican border to fumigate the clothing of border crossers.
## Corporate structure and marketing
In 1930, Degussa ceded 42.5 percent ownership of Degesch to IG Farben and 15 percent to Th. Goldschmidt AG, in exchange for the right to market pesticide products of those two companies through Degesch. Degussa retained managerial control.
While Degesch owned the rights to the brand name Zyklon and the patent on the packaging system, the chemical formula was owned by Degussa. Schlempe GmbH, which was 52 percent owned by Degussa, owned the rights to a process to extract hydrogen cyanide from waste products of sugar beet processing. This process was performed under license by two companies, Dessauer Werke and Kaliwerke Kolin, who also combined the resulting hydrogen cyanide with stabilizer from IG Farben and a cautionary agent from Schering AG to form the final product, which was packaged using equipment, labels, and canisters provided by Degesch. The finished goods were sent to Degesch, who forwarded the product to two companies that acted as distributors: Heerdt-Linger GmbH (Heli) of Frankfurt and Tesch & Stabenow (Testa) of Hamburg. Their territory was split along the Elbe river, with Heli handling clients to the west and south, and Testa those to the east. Degesch owned 51 percent of the shares of Heli, and until 1942 owned 55 percent of Testa.
Prior to World War II Degesch derived most of its Zyklon B profits from overseas sales, particularly in the United States, where it was produced under license by Roessler & Hasslacher prior to 1931 and by American Cyanamid from 1931 to 1943. From 1929, the United States Public Health Service used Zyklon B to fumigate freight trains and clothes of Mexican immigrants entering the United States. Uses in Germany included delousing clothing (often using a portable sealed chamber invented by Degesch in the 1930s) and fumigating ships, warehouses, and trains. By 1943, sales of Zyklon B accounted for 65 percent of Degesch's sales revenue and 70 percent of its gross profits.
## Use in the Holocaust
In early 1942, the Nazis began using Zyklon B as the preferred killing tool in extermination camps during the Holocaust. They used it to murder roughly 1.1 million people in gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and elsewhere. Most of the victims were Jews, and by far the majority of murders using this method took place at Auschwitz. Distributor Heli supplied Zyklon B to Mauthausen, Dachau, and Buchenwald, and Testa supplied it to Auschwitz and Majdanek; camps also occasionally bought it directly from the manufacturers. Some 56 tonnes of the 729 tonnes sold in Germany in 1942–44 were sold to concentration camps, amounting to about 8 percent of domestic sales. Auschwitz received 23.8 tonnes, of which 6 tonnes were used for fumigation. The remainder was used in the gas chambers or lost to spoilage (the product had a stated shelf life of only three months). Testa conducted fumigations for the Wehrmacht and supplied them with Zyklon B. They also offered courses to the SS in the safe handling and use of the material for fumigation purposes. In April 1941, the German agriculture and interior ministries designated the SS as an authorized applier of the chemical, which meant they were able to use it without any further training or governmental oversight.
Rudolf Höss, commandant of Auschwitz, said that the use of Zyklon-B to murder prisoners came about on the initiative of one of his subordinates, SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) Karl Fritzsch, who had used it to murder some Russian POWs in late August 1941 in the basement of Block 11 in the main camp. They repeated the experiment on more Russian POWs in September, with Höss watching. Block 11 proved unsuitable, as the basement was difficult to air out afterwards and the crematorium (Crematorium I, which operated until July 1942) was some distance away. The site of the murders was moved to Crematorium I, where more than 700 victims could be murdered at once. By the middle of 1942, the operation was moved to Auschwitz II–Birkenau, a nearby satellite camp that had been under construction since October 1941.
The first gas chamber at Auschwitz II–Birkenau was the "red house" (called Bunker 1 by SS staff), a brick cottage converted to a gassing facility by tearing out the inside and bricking up the windows. It was operational by March 1942. A second brick cottage, called the "white house" or Bunker 2, was converted some weeks later. According to Höss, Bunker 1 held 800 victims and Bunker 2 held 1,200 victims. These structures were in use for mass-murder until early 1943. At that point, the Nazis decided to greatly increase the gassing capacity of Birkenau. Crematorium II was originally designed as a mortuary with morgues in the basement and ground-level incinerators; they converted it into a killing factory by installing gas-tight doors, vents for the Zyklon B to be dropped into the chamber, and ventilation equipment to remove the gas afterwards. Crematorium III was built using the same design. Crematoria IV and V, designed from the beginning as gassing centers, were also constructed that spring. By June 1943, all four crematoria were operational. Most of the victims were murdered using these four structures.
The Nazis began shipping large numbers of Jews from all over Europe to Auschwitz in the middle of 1942. Those who were not selected for work crews were immediately gassed. Those selected to die generally comprised about three-quarters of the total and included almost all children, women with small children, all the elderly, and all those who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be completely fit. The victims were told that they were to undergo delousing and a shower. They were stripped of their belongings and herded into the gas chamber.
A special SS bureau known as the Hygienic Institute delivered the Zyklon B to the crematoria by ambulance. The actual delivery of the gas to the victims was always handled by the SS, on the order of the supervising SS doctor. After the doors were shut, SS men dropped Zyklon B pellets through vents in the roof or holes in the side of the chamber. The victims were dead within 20 minutes. Johann Kremer, an SS doctor who oversaw gassings, testified that the "shouting and screaming of the victims could be heard through the opening and it was clear that they fought for their lives".
Sonderkommandos (special work crews forced to work at the gas chambers) wearing gas masks then dragged the bodies from the chamber. The victims' glasses, artificial limbs, jewelry, and hair were removed, and any dental work was extracted so the gold could be melted down. If the gas chamber was crowded, which they typically were, the corpses were found half-squatting, their skin discolored pink with red and green spots, with some foaming at the mouth or bleeding from their ears. The corpses were burned in the nearby incinerators, and the ashes were buried, thrown in the river, or used as fertilizer. With the Soviet Red Army approaching through Poland, the last mass gassing at Auschwitz took place on 30 October 1944. In November 1944, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, ordered gassing operations to cease throughout the Reich.
## Legacy
After World War II ended in 1945, Bruno Tesch and Karl Weinbacher of Tesch & Stabenow were tried in a British military court and executed for knowingly providing Zyklon B to the SS for use on humans. Gerhard Peters, who served as principal operating officer of Degesch and Heli and also held posts in the Nazi government, served two years and eight months in prison as an accessory before being released due to amendments to the penal code.
Use of hydrogen cyanide as a pesticide or cleaner has been banned or restricted in some countries. Most hydrogen cyanide is used in industrial processes, made by companies in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the US. Degesch resumed production of Zyklon B after the war. The product was sold as Cyanosil in Germany and Zyklon in other countries. It was still produced as of 2008. Degussa sold Degesch to Detia-Freyberg GmbH in 1986. The company is now called Detia-Degesch. Up until around 2015, a fumigation product similar to Zyklon B was in production by Lučební závody Draslovka of the Czech Republic, under the trade name Uragan D2. Uragan means "hurricane" or "cyclone" in Czech.
Subsequent use of the word "Zyklon" in trade names has prompted angry reactions in English-speaking countries. The name "Zyklon" on portable roller coasters made since 1965 by Pinfari provoked protests among Jewish groups in the U.S. in 1993 and 1999. In 2002, British sportswear and football equipment supplier Umbro issued an apology and stopped using the name "Zyklon", which had appeared since 1999 on the box for one of its trainers, after receiving complaints from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre. Also in 2002, Siemens withdrew its application for an American trademark of the word "Zyklon", which their subsidiary BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte had proposed to use for a new line of home appliances in the United States. (The firm was already using the name in Germany for one of their vacuum cleaners.) Protests were lodged by the Simon Wiesenthal Center after the trademark application was reported to BBC News Online by one of their readers. French company IPC's product names used "Cyclone" for degreasers and suffix "B" for biodegradable: "Cyclone B" was renamed "Cyclone Cap Vert" ("green cap") in 2013 after protests from Jewish groups. A rabbi said the name was "horrible ignorance at best, and a Guinness record in evil and cynicism if the company did know the history of the name of its product."
Holocaust deniers claim that Zyklon B gas was not used in the gas chambers, relying for evidence on the discredited research of Fred A. Leuchter, who found low levels of Prussian blue in samples of the gas chamber walls and ceilings. Leuchter attributed its presence to general delousing of the buildings. Leuchter's negative control, a sample of gasket material taken from a different camp building, had no cyanide residue. In 1999, James Roth, the chemist who had analyzed Leuchter's samples, stated that the test was flawed because the material that was sent for testing included large chunks, and the chemical would only be within 10 microns of the surface. The surface that had been exposed to the chemical was not identified, and the large size of the specimens meant that any chemical present was diluted by an undeterminable amount. In 1994, the Institute for Forensic Research in Kraków re-examined Leuchter's claim, stating that formation of Prussian blue by exposure of bricks to cyanide is not a highly probable reaction. Using microdiffusion techniques, they tested 22 samples from the gas chambers and delousing chambers (as positive controls) and living quarters (as negative controls). They found cyanide residue in both the delousing chambers and the gas chambers but none in the living quarters.
## See also
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- Cyanide poisoning
- Kurt Gerstein
- Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe construction
- Methyl cyanoformate |
5,528,301 | Tomorrow I Go | 1,171,469,556 | 2005 song by Ledina Çelo | [
"2005 singles",
"2005 songs",
"Dance music songs",
"English-language Albanian songs",
"Eurovision songs of 2005",
"Eurovision songs of Albania",
"Songs about marriage",
"Songs written by Pandi Laço"
]
| "Tomorrow I Go" is a song by Albanian singer Ledina Çelo composed by Adi Hila and written by Pandi Laço. The song was released as part of a CD compilation on 29 April 2005 by CMC Records. Musically, it is an English-language folk-influenced dance song that incorporates traditional Albanian sounds in the instrumentation. Lyrically, the song discusses the themes of love and marriage, while also reflecting the story a story of a woman's wedding. "Tomorrow I Go" represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv, Ukraine, after Çelo won the pre-selection competition, Festivali i Këngës 43, with the song's Albanian-language version "Nesër shkoj". The country reached the 16th place in a field of 24, gathering a total of 53 points. During her Albanian-themed performance of the song, Çelo was accompanied by four female backing violinists and a male drummer.
## Background and composition
In 2004, Ledina Çelo was announced as one of the contestants selected to compete in the 43rd edition of Festivali i Këngës, a competition to determine Albania's entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Following the competition's rules, the lyrics of the participating entries had to be in the Albanian language. Çelo took part with the song "Nesër shkoj", composed by Adrian Hila and written by Pandi Laço. For the purpose of the singer's Eurovision Song Contest participation, "Nesër shkoj" was remastered and translated to "Tomorrow I Go". Musically, it is an English-language ethnic-dance song incorporating traditional Albanian elements. Its instrumentation consists of various traditional Albanian instruments, including the tupan and çifteli. Lyrically, the song discusses the themes of love and marriage, capturing the story of a woman talking to her mother before her wedding.
## Release and promotion
"Tomorrow I Go" was initially released on 29 April 2005, as part of the Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2005 compilation album on CD through CMC Records. On 14 February 2018, the song was made available for digital download by Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH) and Broken AL Audio. An accompanying music video for the song was premiered prior to the start of the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2005.
## At Eurovision
### Festivali i Këngës
The national broadcaster of Albania, Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH), organised the 43rd edition of Festivali i Këngës to determine Albania's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The competition consisted of two semi-finals on 16 and 17 December, respectively, and the grand final on 18 December 2004, which also included Çelo being chosen to represent Albania in the contest, after the jury's votes and the televote were combined.
### Kyiv
The 50th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, and consisted of a semi-final on 19 May and the grand final three days later on 21 May 2005. According to the Eurovision rules, all participating countries, except the host nation and the "Big Four", consisting of , , and the , were required to qualify from the semi-final to compete for the final, although the top 10 countries from the semi-final progress to the final. Due to the top 11 result in the previous year, Albania automatically qualified for the contest's grand final and performed eighth, following and preceding . In the grand final, Albania finished in 16th place, being awarded a total of 53 points. During her red and black-themed performance of the song, Çelo was accompanied on stage by four female backing violinists and a male drummer dressed in traditional Albanian-inspired costumes.
## Track listing
- Digital download
1. "Nesër shkoj (Festivali i Këngës)" – 3:37
## Release history |
2,310,661 | Haunted House (video game) | 1,172,465,742 | 1982 video game | [
"1980s horror video games",
"1982 video games",
"Adventure games",
"Atari 2600 games",
"Atari 2600-only games",
"Atari games",
"Single-player video games",
"Video games developed in the United States",
"Video games set in country houses"
]
| Haunted House is a 1982 adventure video game programmed by James Andreasen for the Atari Video Computer System (later renamed Atari 2600) and published by Atari. The player controls an avatar shaped like a pair of eyes who explores a mansion seeking out parts of an urn to return to the entrance. The game world is populated by roaming enemies including vampire bats, tarantulas, and a ghost. Haunted House was among the first games to use player-controlled scrolling between large portions of the visual space.
Haunted House received positive reviews from contemporary video game publications such as The Space Gamer and Electronic Games while others, such as How to Win at Home Video Games, noted the game's difficulty and lack of intuitiveness. The game has seen several releases across consoles and formats as part of Atari compilation packages as well as follow-up games, such as Haunted House (2010) and Haunted House: Cryptic Graves (2014). Orbit Studio is set to release a new version of Haunted House as a roguelite-styled game for 2023.
Video game critics such as Christopher Buecheler of GameSpy have called Haunted House one of the earliest examples of the survival horror video game genre due to its elements of creepy themes, limited item management, and a variety of monsters. Other studies of the genre have suggested that the game lacked the specific elements that later games like Alone in the Dark (1992) and Resident Evil (1996) had to establish it as a unique game genre.
## Gameplay
Haunted House is a single-player video game in which the player's goal is to recover three pieces of a magic urn that are randomly placed throughout 24 rooms of a mansion and return them to the entrance. The items and some areas within the game are revealed to player via matches which the player can ignite and blow out. The magazine How to Win at Video Games described Haunted House as a "storyline" game, comparing its gameplay as being similar to that of Atari's previous games Superman (1979) and Adventure (1980). Tim Onosko of The Capital Times also compared Haunted House to the two previous games, describing it as an adventure game that requires players to learn rules and requirements and gathering items to reach a goal as they play.
The player has nine lives to attempt this task. The player can only collect one object at a time, and can swap between two objects by touching another one. The mansion is a set of 24 rooms between four floors. The player can traverse through different doors that ascend and descend, but none permit the player to go in both directions. Throughout the mansion, the player may encounter such enemies as vampire bats, tarantulas and a ghost, which cause the player to lose a life upon contact.
The game has nine settings of varying difficulty. For example, setting 1 has a room where walls around the room are lit by matches while all others are completely dark. Further challenges introduce locked doors, which require a master key that is also hidden within the mansion. Other difficulties add extra enemies and enemy abilities such as the bats stealing a carried item and placing it at a random location around the mansion. A scepter can be found inside the mansion as a collectable item, which prevent enemies from chasing the player on most levels of difficulty. The ghost will still give chase on higher difficulty levels regardless of whether the player has the item or not.
## Development
Haunted House was developed by Atari. It was programmed by James Andreasen, a graduate of the University of Colorado in Boulder who worked as a software engineer at MSI and Atari. Working titles for the game included Mystery Mansion and Graves Manor.
The game was developed for the company's Atari 2600 video game system, then named the Atari Video Computer System. For sound and graphics, the Atari 2600 had its Television Interface Adaptor (TIA) which authors Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost described as a programming challenge, allowing for only a relatively small number of unique features. The Atari 2600 did not allow for such services such as graphic rendering, forcing programmers to draw the entirety of each frame of the game's display. Like other games such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982), the environments in Haunted House are hard-designed and loaded into the game, and are small compared to the other games such as Pitfall! (1982) where the worlds are consistently generated by code. Haunted House was among the first video games to use player-controlled scrolling between large portions of the visual space. To save further memory for the randomly placed items in the game, the locations of the urn pieces are generated through polynomial counters, creating numbers that are counted in unusual orders.
Sound effects were common in Atari 2600 games, though the frequencies that the TIA could generate would miss most parts of the chromatic scale. Due to the limited sound, programmers at Atari would often have the system make percussion sounds, which were applied by Andreasen to create the foot step sound effects of ascent and descent in the stairway in the game among other sounds.
## Release
Haunted House was released in February 1982. The artist for the cover art and manual was Steve Hendricks. Hendricks stated that the art used within the game's manual was initially going to be the game's cover art. After receiving approval for the design, he was told by a member of Atari's marketing department that the art was going to be rejected due to the location of eyes over the chest of the person.
Haunted House was re-released in various compilation formats, such as the Atari 80 in One for Windows in 2003 and the Atari Anthology for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004. It was also released on portable devices as part of the Atari Greatest Hits release for the Nintendo DS and iOS.
## Reception
Cashbox reported the game as one of the top selling video games by July 1982. Reviews commented on the game's similarity to other titles, graphics and sound, and its difficulty. Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel of Electronic Games found the game similar to Atari's previous game Adventure (1980). The reviewers commented that it was "much more atmospheric" than Adventure, and found it to be "one of the most intriguing and novel video game cartridges to appear in some time" calling its audio and visuals excellent, while finding the scoring system a bit difficult to parse. Another review from Electronic Games, from the "1983 Software Encyclopedia" issue, gave the game a seven out of ten rating, again finding the audio and visuals as excellent while stating that the game gave the player "the spine-tingling sensation that something spooky is always about to happen". Richard A. Edwards of The Space Gamer declared that the game was among the best graphics and sound Atari had produced and could not find any drawbacks to the game.
Onosoko of The Capital Times wrote that the game's graphics were deemed as "blocky" and unimpressive, but the game itself could be challenging. A review in Video Games found that it was hard to get excited by a game predominantly played in darkness, giving it an "interest rating" of five out of ten and a "skill rating" of nine out of ten, stating that "you almost need to take notes to keep track of things in this game [...] there is no single solution to any of the [difficulty levels]". How to Win at Video Games found the game difficult and not easy to understand at first, but recommended it to audiences willing to give time to learn the game's mechanics.
In 1995, Flux magazine ranked Haunted House \#68 on their list of "Top 100 Video Games". Christopher Buecheler of GameSpy included Haunted House into the website's "Hall of Fame" in December 2002. Beucheler praised the game, stating that "in an age where most game design was "fire lasers until you die"", that the game was a noteworthy accomplishment. Brett Weiss included the game as an "honorable mention" in his book The 100 Greatest Console Video Games 1977-1987 (2014), recommending it for Adventure fans who were "hankering for something creepier".
## Legacy
Some video game critics, such as Buecheler of GameSpy and Skyler Miller of AllGame, have cited the game as being one of the earliest in the survival horror genre. Buecheler specifically noted the elements of the genre with its creepy themes, limited item management, and a variety of monsters. In her writings on the genre, Laurie N. Taylor traced the origins of the genre to Alone in the Dark (1992) and that the genre was expanded on by Resident Evil (1996) while stating that survival horror was "Like most genre definitions [...] a loose category and one unevenly applied by players, journalists, designers and scholars". Matthew Wiese in 2009 similarly said that labeling all horror-themed games as survival horror was problematic due to the term not existing prior to the release of Resident Evil (1996). In Horror Games Magazine (2003), Vim Sical and Remi Delekta found that horror required mise-en-scène, which required visual technical capabilities. Bernard Perron, in his book The World of Scary Video Games, agreed with this statement, stating that Haunted House could not have in mind the mise-en-scène of fear that would become possible in later decades and chose to regard games like Haunted House for "what they were".
Several follow-ups to Haunted House have been published. Atari released a new version of Haunted House for the PC, Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade) and the Nintendo Wii in 2010. Roland Lesterlin, the producer of the 2010 game, said that they made connections with the original game such as the pair of glowing eyes representing the player. Atari published another version of Haunted House, Haunted House: Cryptic Graves, by Italian studio Dreampainters for Windows on November 24, 2014. The game moved away from the more cartoonish look of the previous 2010 release. Digital Eclipse made a new game titled Haunted Houses featuring 3D voxel-based graphics which was included in the Atari 50 (2022) compilation release. Orbit Studio is set to release a new version of Haunted House as a roguelite-styled game for 2023. |
403,045 | Keynsham | 1,166,960,599 | Town and civil parish in Somerset, England | [
"Civil parishes in Somerset",
"Keynsham",
"Market towns in Somerset",
"Towns in Bath and North East Somerset"
]
| Keynsham (/ˈkeɪnʃəm/ KAYN-shəm) is a town and civil parish located between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. It had a population of 19,603 at the 2021 Census. It was listed in the Domesday Book as Cainesham (as it is pronounced), which is believed to mean the home of Saint Keyne.
The site of the town has been occupied since prehistoric times, and may have been the site of the Roman settlement of Trajectus. The remains of at least two Roman villas have been excavated, and an additional 15 Roman buildings have been detected beneath the Keynsham Hams. Keynsham developed into a medieval market town after Keynsham Abbey was founded around 1170. It is situated at the confluence of the River Chew and River Avon and was subject to serious flooding before the creation of Chew Valley Lake and river level controls at Keynsham Lock in 1727. The Chew Stoke flood of 1968 inundated large parts of the town. It was home to the Cadbury's chocolate factory, Somerdale, which opened in 1935 as a major employer in the town.
It is home to Memorial Park, which is used for the annual town festival and several nature reserves. The town is served by Keynsham railway station on the London-Bristol and Bristol-Southampton trunk routes and is close to the A4 road which bypassed the town in 1964. There are schools, religious, sporting, and cultural clubs and venues.
## History
### Roman Trajectus
Evidence of occupation dates back to prehistoric times, and during the Roman period, Keynsham may have been the site of the Roman settlement of Trajectus, which is the Latin word for "bridgehead." It is believed that a settlement around a Roman ford over the River Avon existed somewhere in the vicinity, and the numerous Roman ruins discovered in Keynsham make it a likely candidate for this lost settlement.
In 1877 during construction of the Durley Hill Cemetery, the remains of a grand Roman villa with over 30 rooms was discovered. However, construction of the cemetery went ahead, and the majority of the villa is now located beneath the Victorian cemetery and an adjacent road. The cemetery was expanded in 1922, and an archeological dig was carried out ahead of the interments, leading to the excavation of 17 rooms and the rescue of 10 elaborate mosaics.
At the same time as the grand Roman villa was being excavated at Durley Hill Cemetery, a second smaller villa was discovered during the construction of Fry's Somerdale Chocolate Factory. Two fine stone coffins were found, interred with the remains of a man and a woman. The villa and coffins were removed to a place near the gates of the factory grounds, and construction on the factory went ahead. Fry's built in the grounds of the factory a museum which for many years housed the Durley Hill mosaics, the coffins, and numerous other artefacts. In 2012, Taylor Wimpey, about to develop the factory site, made a detailed geophysical assessment of the area, and discovered an additional 15 Roman buildings centered around a Roman road beneath Keynsham Hams, with evidence of additional Roman buildings that had been disturbed by quarrying.
### Medieval Keynsham
According to legend, Saint Keyne, daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog (Brecon), lived here on the banks of the River Avon during the 5th century. Before settling here, she had been warned by the local King that the marshy area was swarming with snakes, which prevented habitation. St Keyne prayed to the heavens and turned the snakes to stone. The fossil ammonites found in the area were believed to be the result. However, there is no evidence that her cult was ever celebrated in Keynsham.
Some scattered archeological evidence suggests that an Anglo-Saxon settlement existed in Keynsham in the High Street area, and that in the 9th century a Minster church existed in Keynsham as well. The earliest documentary reference to Keynsham is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, (c. 980) which refers to it as Cægineshamme, Old English for 'Cæga's Hamm.' The town is also listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Cainesham." It has therefore been suggested that the origin of Keynsham's name is not, in fact Saint Keyne, but from "Ceagin (Caega)."
Around 1170, Keynsham Abbey was founded by the Victorine congregation of canon regulars. Archeological evidence suggests that the abbey was built over the site of the previous Saxon Minster church. The settlement developed into a medieval market town, and the abbey of Keynsham was given ownership of the Keynsham Hundred. The abbey survived until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, and a house was subsequently built on the site. The remains have been designated as a Grade I listed building by English Heritage.
### Stuart era
Keynsham played a part in the Civil War as the Roundheads occupied the town and also camped there for the night, using the pub now known as the Lock Keeper Inn as a guard post. During the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 the town was the site of a battle between royalist forces and the rebel Duke of Monmouth. Bridges Almshouses were built around 1685 and may have been for the widows of those killed in the rebellion.
### Post World War II
Keynsham rose to fame during the late 1950s and early 1960s when it featured in a long-running series of advertisements on Radio Luxembourg for Horace Batchelor's Infra-draw betting system. To obtain the system, listeners had to write to Batchelor's Keynsham post office box, and Keynsham was always painstakingly spelled out on-air, with Batchelor famously intoning "Keynsham – spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M – Keynsham, Bristol". This was done because the proper pronunciation of Keynsham – "Cane-sham" – does not make the spelling of Keynsham immediately obvious to the radio listener.
Since the 1950s Keynsham has become a dormitory town for Bristol and Bath. The High Street shopping area has been remodelled, and a Town Hall, Library, and Clock Tower were built in the mid-1960s.
Before the creation of Chew Valley Lake and river level controls at Keynsham Lock and weir, Keynsham was prone to flooding. The Great Flood of 1968 inundated large parts of the town, destroying the town's bridges including the county bridge over the Avon which had stood since medieval times, and private premises on Dapps Hill; the devastation was viewed by the Duke of Edinburgh. After the flood the Memorial Park, which had been laid out after World War II was extended.
### 2010s regeneration
Design work for regeneration of the town hall area was awarded by Bath and North East Somerset Council to Aedas in 2010, with the works cost stated in 2011 to be £33 million (£34 million in 2012). Realisation of the plans is hoped to "attract new business and jobs", in the aftermath of the announcement of the Cadbury Somerdale Factory closure.
In January 2012, it was announced that the Willmott Dixon Group had been appointed as contractor on the scheme. The Council's planning committee in August 2012 deferred the approval decision, pending alterations to the external appearance of the building. These were approved in October 2012, with demolition commencing in the same month. The regenerated Civic Centre area came back into use in late 2014 and early 2015.
In the latter half of the 2010s, Keynsham underwent rapid expansion with hundreds of new homes built.
## Governance
Keynsham Town Council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council's operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The town 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 town council's role includes projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, such as the village hall or community centre, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning.
Playing fields and playgrounds are provided in Memorial Park, Downfield, Kelston Road, Teviot Road, Holmoak Road and Manor Road with basketball facilities at Teviot Road and Holmoak Road and a BMX track at Keynsham Road. The Keynsham town council is also responsible for the football pitches and pavilion at Manor Road and the floodlit Multi Sport Site in Memorial Park. It also provides support for community groups organising music and cultural events. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.
The town council was formed in 1991 and consists of 15 members elected every four years. The town council is divided into three wards. As of May 2023, Keynsham East is represented by five Liberal Democrat councillors, Keynsham North has four Liberal Democrat councillors and one Green Party councillor and Keynsham South is represented by three Labour and two Liberal Democrat councillors. Keynsham has one official twin town: Libourne in France.
Formerly an urban district within the county of Somerset, between 1974 and 1996 the town became part of the larger district of Wandsdyke within the short-lived county of Avon. The town is now represented as part of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, in the ceremonial county of Somerset. Bath and North East Somerset Council was established in 1996 under the Local Government Act 1992. The town is divided into three wards on the unitary authority, Keynsham East which has two Liberal Democrat Councillors, Keynsham North, which has two Liberal Democrat councillors, Keynsham South which is represented by one Conservative and one Labour councillor.
Bath and North East Somerset provides a single tier of local government, with responsibility for almost all local government functions within its area, including local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection, recycling, cemeteries, crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. It is also responsible for education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning, although fire, police and ambulance services are provided jointly with other authorities through the Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the South Western Ambulance Service.
Bath and North East Somerset's area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in Bath, but many departments are headquartered in Keynsham. Between 1 April 1974 and 1 April 1996, it was the main town of the Wansdyke district of the county of Avon. Before 1974 the parish was part of the Keynsham Urban District.
The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the North East Somerset constituency, which is a county constituency created by the Boundary Commission for England as the successor seat to the Wansdyke Parliamentary Seat. It came into being at the 2010 general election, and is represented by the Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
## Geography
Keynsham is located where the River Chew meets the River Avon. Fishing rights for the Millground and Chewton sections of the Chew are owned by Keynsham Angling Club. The Mill Ground stretch of the River Chew consists of the six fields on the western bank from Chewton Place at Chewton Keynsham to the Albert Mill. The water is home to chub, roach, European perch and rudd, along with good numbers of gudgeon, dace and trout. Keynsham Lock on the Avon opened in 1727. Just above the lock are some visitor moorings and a pub, on an island between the lock and the weir. The weir side of the island is also the mouth of the River Chew.
Memorial Park, the northern part of which has existed as parkland since the 19th century, as shown by the ordnance Survey maps of 1864 and 1867, was formally laid out after World War II was extended after the floods of 1968. It covers 10.7 hectares (26 acres) of woodland and grass alongside the River Chew. It commemorates the war dead of Keynsham and includes facilities including two children's play areas, a skateboard park, multi-sport area, bowling green, public toilets, a bandstand and refreshment kiosk. The formal gardens within the park are adjacent to the River Chew with the Dapps Hill Woods at its western end. Part of the park is known locally as Chew Park because of its proximity to the river and another area, close to Keynsham Abbey as Abbey Park. The park received the Green Flag Award in 2008/09, and again for 2009/10.
On the outskirts of Keynsham lies Keynsham Humpy Tumps, one of the most floristically rich acidic grassland sites within the Avon area. The site is on a south-facing slope running alongside the Bristol to Bath railway line. It consists of open patches of grassland and bare rock, interspersed with blocks of scrub. It is the only site in Avon at which upright chickweed Moenchia erecta, occurs. Other locally notable plant species found here include annual knawel Scleranthus annuus, sand spurrey Spergularia rubra, subterranean clover Trifolium subterraneus and prickly sedge Carex muricata ssp. lamprocarpa. The site does not have any statutory conservation status, and is not managed for its biodiversity interest. Threats to its ecological value include the encroachment of scrub onto the grassland areas, and damage from motorcycle scrambling. Between Keynsham and Saltford, a 15 hectares (37 acres) area of green belt has been planted, with over 19,000 trees, as the Manor Road Community Woodland, which has been designated as a Nature Reserve. Nearby is the Avon Valley Country Park tourist attraction.
Along with the rest of South West England, Keynsham has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of England. The annual mean temperature is about 10 °C (50 °F) with seasonal and diurnal variations, but due to the modifying effect of the sea, the range is less than in most other parts of the United Kingdom. January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between 1 °C (34 °F) and 2 °C (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 dullest month and June the sunniest. The south west of England enjoys a favoured location, particularly in summer, when the Azores High extends its influence north-eastwards towards the UK.
Cloud often forms inland, especially near hills, and reduces exposure to sunshine. The average annual sunshine totals around 1600 hours. Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic depressions or with convection. In summer, convection caused by solar surface heating sometimes forms shower clouds and a large proportion of the annual precipitation falls from showers and thunderstorms at this time of year. Average rainfall is around 800–900 mm (31–35 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having the lightest. The predominant wind direction is from the south west.
## Demography
In the 2001 census Keynsham had a population of 15,533, in 6,545 households, of which 6,480 described themselves as White. Keynsham East Ward had a population of 5,479, Keynsham North 5,035 and Keynsham South 5,019. In each of the wards between 75 and 80% of the population described themselves as Christians, and around 15% said that they had no religion.
In 1881 the population of the civil parish was 2,482. This grew gradually until 1931 when there were 4,521, before there was a steeper rise to 1951 when there were 8,277. Over the next ten years this nearly doubled to 15,152 in 1961.
## Economy
An important industry in the town was Cadbury's chocolate factory, the Somerdale Factory. The J. S. Fry & Sons business merged with Cadbury in 1919, and moved their factory in the centre of Bristol to Keynsham in 1935. As Quakers, Cadbury's built the factory on a 228-acre (0.92 km<sup>2</sup>) greenfield site with social facilities, including playing fields and recreational sports grounds. Called Somerdale after a national competition in 1923, Keynsham Cadbury was the home of Fry's Chocolate Cream, the Double Decker, Dairy Milk and Mini Eggs, Cadbury's Fudge, Chomp and Crunchie.
On 3 October 2007, Cadbury announced plans to close the Somerdale plant by 2010 with the loss of some 500 jobs. Production was to be moved to factories in Birmingham and Poland, and in the longer term it was expected that the site would be redeveloped for housing. Labour MP for Wansdyke, Dan Norris, said "news of the factory's closure is a hard and heavy blow, not just to the workforce, but to the Keynsham community as a whole". By late 2007 campaigns to save the Cadbury's factory in Somerdale were in full swing, and one local resident started a campaign to urge English Heritage to protect the site and preserve the history of the factory.
In 2009 the US corporation Kraft made a takeover bid for Cadbury. Cadbury's were seen as iconic of British manufacturing industry, and the bid became a cause célèbre of national interest. To sweeten their case before the Monopolies Commission, Kraft made a pledge to keep the Cadbury factory at Somerdale open if they were successful in their bid for the company; and their bid was duly successful. However, within a week of completing their purchase of Cadbury, Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld released a statement announcing that Kraft were to close the factory by 2011, as originally planned by Cadbury. The stated reason for this was that it was only after the purchase had been made that Kraft realised how advanced Cadbury's plans were, but industry experts questioned this, arguing that Kraft invested so much in researching their bid for Cadbury that they should have been aware of the extent to which plans had been advanced.
## Culture
In 1969 the town was featured as the title of the fourth album Keynsham by the Bonzo Dog Band. The title was chosen in honour of Horace Batchelor, who had been referenced in previous Bonzo Dog Band recordings. In the early 1960s, Batchelor became known through his regular advertisements on Radio Luxembourg for his football pools prediction service. When giving his contact address, he would slowly spell out 'Keynsham' letter by letter, and this became an amusing feature for many young listeners.
Keynsham Festival, which started in the late 1990s, takes place in the Memorial Park each July, and attracts around 16,000 people. There is also a Victorian evening held in the town each November. This has since been renamed Keynsham Winter Festival. Keynsham and Saltford local history society was formed in 1965 and is concerned with researching and recording the history of the area.
Keynsham was chosen as the outdoor location for a dramatic story-line in the BBC One TV serial EastEnders in September 2012 with filming taking place in a cordoned-off section of the High Street.
In Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Catherine and her friends ride to ′′within view of the town of Keynsham′′.
## Transport
The town is served by Keynsham railway station on the London-Bristol and Bristol-Southampton trunk routes. It opened in 1840 and was renamed Keynsham and Somerdale in 1925. The chocolate factory had its own rail system which was connected to the main line, but the connection was taken out of use 26–27 July 1980. The station's name reverted to Keynsham on 6 May 1974. The station was rebuilt in 1985 as a joint project between British Rail and Avon County Council.
The A4 trunk road used to run through the town, but much of this traffic is now carried on the bypass, which was constructed in 1964. The bypass runs from Saltford, a village which adjoins Keynsham, to Brislington in Bristol. Keynsham is about 10 miles (16 km) from junction 1 of the M32 via the Avon Ring Road A4174 and provides a fast route to the M4 and M5.
Keynsham is on the Monarch's Way long-distance footpath which approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester.
In May 2017, the High Street was made one-way for traffic heading towards Saltford and Bath with all Bristol-bound diverted along Ashton Way. There is now no access to Temple Street from High Street with the exception of buses and taxis, all traffic for Temple Street is diverted along Ashton Way.
The town is served by 6 bus routes, 1 of which connects Bath with Bristol International Airport, another bus service runs from Ashton Way at the back of the shops to Southmead Hospital and one bus service runs to Cribbs Causeway. In numerical order:
- A4 Bath to Bristol Airport
- 17 Keynsham to Southmead Hospital
- 18 Bath to Cribbs Causeway
- 39 Bath to Bristol
- 178 Radstock to Bristol
- 349 Keynsham to Bristol
All buses towards Bristol, Southmead and Cribbs Causeway use the bus stop on Ashton Way at the back of the shops, whilst all buses towards Bath use the stop on the High Street opposite the Post Office.
## Education
State-funded schools are organised within the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset. A review of Secondary Education in Bath was started in 2007, primarily to reduce surplus provision and reduce the number of single-sex secondary schools in Bath, and to access capital funds available through the government's Building Schools for the Future programme. There are four primary schools in Keynsham, St John's Primary School, Castle Primary School, Chandag (Infants and Junior schools) and St Keyna Primary School (formed when Keynsham Primary School and 150 year old Temple Primary School merged in 2007). There are also three secondary schools: Wellsway; Broadlands; and IKB Academy.
Wellsway School is an 11–18, mixed comprehensive school which was established in 1971, by amalgamating Keynsham Grammar School and Wellsway County Secondary School both of which opened on a shared site in the mid-1950s. Most students that attend the school live in Keynsham and Saltford or the nearby villages. As of 2014, approximately 1335 students attend the school, ranging in age of 11–18, with 64% achieving 5 or more A-C grades at GCSE. Wellsway's bid for specialist school status was accepted in September 2007. In 2013 it became an academy and was the founder school of Wellsway Multi Academy Trust which later rebranded itself as Futura Learning Partner in September 2021.
Broadlands Academy became an academy in 2012. It has 430 students between the ages of 11 and 16 years.
IKB Academy opened in September 2015, and has a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) subjects. It is a studio school for pupils aged 14–19, and offers GCSEs, A Levels, and BTECs, in conjunction with weekly or fortnightly work placements.
Nearby Bath has two universities. The University of Bath was established in 1966. It is known, academically, for the physical sciences, mathematics, architecture, management and technology. Bath Spa University was first granted degree-awarding powers in 1992 as a university college (Bath Spa University College), before being granted university status in August 2005. It has schools in Art and Design, Education, English and Creative Studies, Historical and Cultural Studies, Music and the Performing Arts, and Social Sciences. The city contains one further education college, City of Bath College, and several sixth forms as part of both state, private, and public schools. In England, on average in 2006, 45.8% of pupils gained 5 grades A-C including English and Maths; for Bath and North East Somerset pupils taking GCSE at 16 it is 52.0%. Special needs education is provided by Three Ways School.
## Religious sites
Begun in 1292, the Church of England parish church of St John the Baptist, Keynsham gradually evolved until taking its present general form during the reign of Charles I, after the tower collapsed into the building during a storm in 1632. The tower, built over the north-east corner of the nave, now rises in three stages over the Western entrance and is surmounted by a pierced parapet and short crocketted pinnacles and is said to have been built from the ruins of the abbey church. The south aisle and south porch date from 1390. The chancel, then the responsibility of the abbey, was rebuilt in 1470 and further restoration was carried out in 1634–1655, following the collapse of the tower. There is a pulpit dating from 1634 and is also a screen of the same age which shuts off the choir vestry. It has been designated as a Grade II\* listed building.
A former organ is said to have stood in the church, but "had tones so mellow" that Handel bargained for it, offering a peal of bells in exchange. The offer was accepted. The musician went off with the organ and the bells were delivered. There are eight bells in total, some made by the Bilbie family of Chew Stoke, the smallest bears these lines:
> "I value not who doth me see
> For Thomas Bilbie casted me;
> Althow my sound it is but small
> I can be heard amongst you all."
St John the Baptist church is one of five churches in the Church of England Parish of Keynsham, the others being the village churches of St Michael's in Burnett and St Margaret's in Queen Charlton, the "Mission Church" in Chewton Keynsham (formerly the school building), and St Francis' Church on the Park Estate which in 2013 - 2015 underwent extensive modernisation and offers two halls for use by community groups.
There are also the Victoria and Queens Road Methodist churches, St Dunstan's Roman Catholic Church and an Elim Church. The churches work together, also with churches in Saltford, under the banner of "Churches Together in Keynsham and Saltford" and often with the strapline "More to Life".
## Sport
Keynsham Cricket Club play at the Frank Taylor Memorial Ground, their 1st XI compete in the West of England Premier League Division 2. Marcus Trescothick is the most noticeable player to have played for the club. His family remain members of the club, which incorporates over 100 senior members and 100 junior members.
Keynsham Rugby Football Club play at Crown Field. The club's most notable and tragic event occurred on 24 December 1992, when there was a fatal road accident outside the club's ground. A Ford Fiesta car ploughed into 11 people leaving the annual festive disco. One woman, 21-year-old Sarah Monnelle, died at the scene. A second person, 24-year-old rugby player Richard Barnett, died in hospital two days later from his injuries. Clive Sutton was later found guilty on a double charge of causing death by dangerous driving and sentenced to four years in prison at Bristol Crown Court.
Keynsham Hockey Club play at Wellsway School. The club currently runs 3 ladies’, 2 men's and 1 mixed team, plus 5 youth teams at various age groups for children aged 7 and upwards. The club was formerly known as Fry's Hockey Club and had existed for nearly 100 years. Fry's Hockey Club was based at Fry Club on the Somervale site for Fry's, then Cadbury's before it closed in 2012. Hockey was played at the site from the 1920s when the Fry's chocolate factory reputedly had more than 15 ladies teams. By the 1970s the club had shrunk to only two ladies' teams whose games were played only as friendlies on a Saturday using a grass pitch. Since then we have grown to our present structure
Keynsham Town F.C. were founded in 1895. They have played continuously apart from a break during World War II and moved to their current ground, the Crown Field, in 1945. They first played in the Bristol & District League and progressed through the Bristol Combination, Bristol Premier and Somerset Senior League and won the Somerset Senior Cup in 1951–52 and 1957–58. They were elected to the Western League in 1973 but were relegated three years later in 1976. Since then they have been promoted to the Premier Division three times and relegated three times. They won the Somerset Senior Cup for the third time in 2002–03 and reached the 5th round of the FA Vase in 2003–04. They currently play in the Western Football League Division 1.
There is a bowls club situated at the Memorial Park. The Fry Tennis Club has courts located within the town's Somerdale estate. Keynsham leisure centre was built in 1965 by British Gas as a gift to the town. It includes a swimming pool, gymnasium and sauna.
## Notable residents
Several notable people have been born or lived in Keynsham. The comedian Bill Bailey was raised in the town. Another entertainer Neil Forrester, who was a research assistant and became known as a cast member on The Real World: London was also a local. Celebrated children's author Mimi Thebo has been resident since 2002. Sports players from Keynsham include Mark Regan a professional rugby player and a former player at Keynsham Rugby Football Club, Luke Sutton of Lancashire County Cricket Club who played as both a wicket-keeper and batsman, Marcus Trescothick, the Somerset and England cricketer. and Judd Trump, a professional snooker player. Horace Batchelor, who sold a system for the football pools, lived in Keynsham, making the town famous by spelling its name in his regular advertisements on Radio Luxembourg. |
324,581 | Cormac McCarthy | 1,173,881,721 | American writer (1933–2023) | [
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| Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr.; July 20, 1933 – June 13, 2023) was an American writer who authored twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, spanning the Western and postapocalyptic genres. He was known for his graphic depictions of violence and his unique writing style, recognizable by a sparse use of punctuation and attribution. McCarthy is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novelists.
McCarthy was born in Providence, Rhode Island, although he was raised primarily in Tennessee. In 1951, he enrolled in the University of Tennessee, but dropped out to join the U.S. Air Force. His debut novel, The Orchard Keeper, was published in 1965. Awarded literary grants, McCarthy was able to travel to southern Europe, where he wrote his second novel, Outer Dark (1968). Suttree (1979), like his other early novels, received generally positive reviews, but was not a commercial success. A MacArthur Fellowship enabled him to travel to the American Southwest, where he researched and wrote his fifth novel, Blood Meridian (1985). Although it initially garnered a lukewarm critical and commercial reception, it has since been regarded as his magnum opus, with some labeling it the Great American Novel.
McCarthy first experienced widespread success with All the Pretty Horses (1992), for which he received both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was followed by The Crossing (1994) and Cities of the Plain (1998), completing The Border Trilogy. His 2005 novel No Country for Old Men received mixed reviews. His 2006 novel The Road won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction.
Many of McCarthy's works have been adapted into film. The 2007 film adaptation of No Country for Old Men was a critical and commercial success, winning four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The films All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and Child of God were also adapted from his works of the same names, and Outer Dark was turned into a 15-minute short. McCarthy had a play adapted into a 2011 film, The Sunset Limited.
McCarthy worked with the Santa Fe Institute, a multidisciplinary research center, where he published the essay "The Kekulé Problem" (2017), which explores the human unconscious and the origin of language. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2012. His final novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, were published on October 25, 2022, and December 6, 2022, respectively.
## Life
### Early life
Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr. was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 20, 1933, one of six children of Gladys Christina McGrail and Charles Joseph McCarthy. His family was Irish Catholic. In 1937, the family relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, where his father worked as a lawyer for the Tennessee Valley Authority. The family first lived on Noelton Drive in the upscale Sequoyah Hills subdivision, but by 1941, had settled in a house on Martin Mill Pike in South Knoxville. McCarthy later said, "We were considered rich because all the people around us were living in one- or two-room shacks." Among his childhood friends was Jim Long (1930–2012), who was later depicted as J-Bone in Suttree.
McCarthy attended St. Mary's Parochial School and Knoxville Catholic High School, and was an altar boy at Knoxville's Church of the Immaculate Conception. As a child, McCarthy saw no value in school, preferring to pursue his own interests. He described a moment when his teacher asked the class about their hobbies. McCarthy answered eagerly, as he later said, "I was the only one with any hobbies and I had every hobby there was ... name anything, no matter how esoteric. I could have given everyone a hobby and still had 40 or 50 to take home."
In 1951, he began attending the University of Tennessee, studying liberal arts. He became interested in writing after a professor asked him to repunctuate a collection of eighteenth-century essays for inclusion in a textbook. McCarthy left college in 1953 to join the U.S. Air Force. While stationed in Alaska, McCarthy read books voraciously, which he claimed was the first time he had done so. He returned to college in 1957, where he majored in English and published two stories, "Wake for Susan" and "A Drowning Incident" in the student literary magazine, The Phoenix, writing under the name C. J. McCarthy, Jr. For these, he won the Ingram-Merrill Award for creative writing in 1959 and 1960. In 1959, McCarthy dropped out of college and left for Chicago.
For purposes of his writing career, McCarthy changed his first name from Charles to Cormac to avoid confusion, and comparison, with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's dummy Charlie McCarthy. Cormac had been a family nickname given to his father by his Irish aunts. Other sources say he changed his name to honor the Irish chieftain Cormac MacCarthy, who constructed Blarney Castle.
After marrying fellow student Lee Holleman in 1961, McCarthy "moved to a shack with no heat and running water in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains outside of Knoxville". There, the couple had a son, Cullen, in 1962. When writer James Agee's childhood home was being demolished in Knoxville that year, McCarthy used the site's bricks to build fireplaces inside his Sevier County shack. While Lee cared for the baby and tended to the chores of the house, Cormac asked her to get a day job so he could focus on his novel writing. Dismayed with the situation, she moved to Wyoming, where she filed for divorce and landed her first job teaching.
### Early writing career (1965–1991)
Random House published McCarthy's first novel, The Orchard Keeper, in 1965. He had finished the novel while working part time at an auto-parts warehouse in Chicago and submitted the manuscript "blindly" to Albert Erskine of Random House. Erskine continued to edit McCarthy's work for the next 20 years. Upon its release, critics noted its similarity to the work of Faulkner and praised McCarthy's striking use of imagery. The Orchard Keeper won a 1966 William Faulkner Foundation Award for notable first novel.
While living in the French Quarter in New Orleans, McCarthy was expelled from a \$40-a-month room for failing to pay his rent. When he traveled the country, McCarthy always carried a 100-watt bulb in his bag so he could read at night, no matter where he was sleeping.
In the summer of 1965, using a Traveling Fellowship award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, McCarthy shipped out aboard the liner Sylvania hoping to visit Ireland. On the ship, he met Englishwoman Anne DeLisle, who was working on the ship as a dancer and singer. In 1966, they were married in England. Also in 1966, he received a Rockefeller Foundation grant, which he used to travel around Southern Europe before landing in Ibiza, where he wrote his second novel, Outer Dark (1968). Afterward, he returned to the United States with his wife, where Outer Dark was published to generally favorable reviews.
In 1969, the couple moved to Louisville, Tennessee, and purchased a dairy barn, which McCarthy renovated, doing the stonework himself. According to DeLisle, the couple lived in "total poverty", bathing in a lake. DeLisle claimed, "Someone would call up and offer him \$2,000 to come speak at a university about his books. And he would tell them that everything he had to say was there on the page. So we would eat beans for another week." While living in the barn, he wrote his next book, Child of God (1973). Like Outer Dark before it, Child of God was set in southern Appalachia. In 1976, McCarthy separated from Anne DeLisle and moved to El Paso, Texas.
In 1974, Richard Pearce of PBS contacted McCarthy and asked him to write the screenplay for an episode of Visions, a television drama series. Beginning in early 1975, and armed with only "a few photographs in the footnotes to a 1928 biography of a famous pre-Civil War industrialist William Gregg as inspiration", McCarthy and Pearce spent a year traveling the South to research the subject of industrialization there. McCarthy completed the screenplay in 1976 and the episode, titled The Gardener's Son, aired on January 6, 1977. Numerous film festivals abroad screened it. The episode was nominated for two Primetime Emmy awards in 1977.
In 1979, McCarthy published his semiautobiographical Suttree, which he had written over 20 years before, based on his experiences in Knoxville on the Tennessee River. Jerome Charyn likened it to a doomed Huckleberry Finn.
In 1981, McCarthy was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship worth \$236,000. Saul Bellow, Shelby Foote, and others had recommended him to the organization. The grant enabled him to travel the American Southwest to research his next novel, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West (1985). The book is violent, with The New York Times declaring it the "bloodiest book since the Iliad. Although snubbed by many critics, the book has grown appreciably in stature in literary circles; Harold Bloom called Blood Meridian "the greatest single book since Faulkner's As I Lay Dying". In a 2006 poll of authors and publishers conducted by The New York Times Magazine to list the greatest American novels of the previous quarter-century, Blood Meridian placed third, behind Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) and Don DeLillo's Underworld (1997). Some have even suggested it is the Great American Novel. Time included it on their 2005 list of the 100 best English-language books published since 1923. At the time, McCarthy was living in a stone cottage behind an El Paso shopping center, which he described as "barely habitable".
As of 1991, none of McCarthy's novels had sold more than 5,000 hardcover copies, and "for most of his career, he did not even have an agent". He was labeled the "best unknown novelist in America".
### Success and acclaim (1992–2013)
After working with McCarthy for twenty years, Albert Erskine retired from Random House in 1992. McCarthy turned to Alfred A. Knopf, where he fell under the editorial advisement of Gary Fisketjon. As a final favor to Erskine, McCarthy agreed to his first interview ever, with Richard B. Woodward of The New York Times.
McCarthy finally received widespread recognition following the publication of All the Pretty Horses (1992), when it won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It became a New York Times bestseller, selling 190,000 hardcover copies within six months. It was followed by The Crossing (1994) and Cities of the Plain (1998), completing the Border Trilogy. In the midst of this trilogy came The Stonemason (first performed in 1995), his second dramatic work. McCarthy originally conceived his next work, No Country for Old Men (2005), as a screenplay before turning it into a novel. Consequently, the novel has little description of setting and is composed largely of dialogue. A western set in the 1980s, No Country for Old Men was adapted by the Coen brothers into a 2007 film of the same name, which won four Academy Awards and more than 75 film awards globally.
In the early 2000s, while sleeping at an El Paso motel with his younger son, McCarthy imagined the city in 100 years: "fires up on the hill and everything being laid to waste". He wrote two pages covering the idea; four years later in Ireland he expanded the idea into his tenth novel, The Road. It follows a lone father and his young son traveling through a post-apocalyptic America, hunted by cannibals. Many of the discussions between the two were verbatim conversations McCarthy had had with his son. Released in 2006, it won international acclaim and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. McCarthy did not accept the prize in person, instead sending Sonny Mehta in his place. John Hillcoat directed the 2009 film adaptation, written by Joe Penhall, and starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Critics' reviews were mostly favorable: Roger Ebert found it "powerful" but lacking "emotional feeling", Peter Bradshaw noted "a guarded change of emphasis", while Dan Jolin found it to be a "faithful adaptation" of the "devastating novel".
McCarthy published the play The Sunset Limited in 2006. Critics noted it was unorthodox and may have had more in common with a novel, hence McCarthy's subtitle: "a novel in dramatic form". He later adapted it into a screenplay for a 2011 film, directed and executive produced by Tommy Lee Jones, who also starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson. Oprah Winfrey selected McCarthy's The Road as the April 2007 selection for her Book Club. As a result, McCarthy agreed to his first television interview, which aired on The Oprah Winfrey Show on June 5, 2007. The interview took place in the library of the Santa Fe Institute. McCarthy told Winfrey that he did not know any writers and much preferred the company of scientists. During the interview, he related several stories illustrating the degree of outright poverty he endured at times during his career as a writer. He also spoke about the experience of fathering a child at an advanced age, and how his son was the inspiration for The Road.
In 2012, McCarthy sold his original screenplay The Counselor to Nick Wechsler, Paula Mae Schwartz, and Steve Schwartz, who had previously produced the film adaptation of McCarthy's novel The Road. Directed by Ridley Scott, with the production finished in 2012, the film was released on October 25, 2013, to polarized critical reception. Mark Kermode of The Guardian found it "datedly naff", and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone described it as "a droning meditation on capitalism". However, Manohla Dargis of The New York Times found it "terrifying" and "seductive".
### Santa Fe Institute (2014–2023)
McCarthy was a trustee for the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), a multidisciplinary research center devoted to the study of complex adaptive systems. Unlike most members of the SFI, McCarthy did not have a scientific background. As Murray Gell-Mann explained, "There isn't any place like the Santa Fe Institute, and there isn't any writer like Cormac, so the two fit quite well together." From his work at the Santa Fe Institute, McCarthy published his first piece of nonfiction writing in his 50-year writing career. In the essay entitled "The Kekulé Problem" (2017), McCarthy analyzes a dream of August Kekulé's as a model of the unconscious mind and the origins of language. He theorizes about the nature of the unconscious mind and its separation from human language. The unconscious, according to McCarthy, "is a machine for operating an animal" and "all animals have an unconscious". McCarthy postulates that language is a purely human cultural creation and not a biologically determined phenomenon.
In 2015, McCarthy's next novel, The Passenger, was announced at a multimedia event hosted in Santa Fe by the Lannan Foundation. The book was influenced by his time among scientists; it has been described by SFI biologist David Krakauer as "full-blown Cormac 3.0—a mathematical [and] analytical novel". In March 2022, The New York Times reported that The Passenger would be released on October 25, 2022, and a second companion novel, Stella Maris, on November 22. The latter is McCarthy's first novel since Outer Dark to feature a female protagonist.
## Writing approach and style
### Syntax
McCarthy used punctuation sparsely, even replacing most commas with "and" to create polysyndetons; it has been called "the most important word in McCarthy's lexicon". He told Oprah Winfrey that he preferred "simple declarative sentences" and that he used capital letters, periods, an occasional comma, or a colon for setting off a list, but never semicolons, which he labeled as "idiocy". He did not use quotation marks for dialogue and believed there is no reason to "blot the page up with weird little marks". Erik Hage notes that McCarthy's dialogue often lacks attribution, but that "somehow ... the reader remains oriented as to who is speaking." His attitude to punctuation dated to some editing work he did for a professor of English while enrolled at the University of Tennessee; he stripped out much of the punctuation in the book being edited, which pleased the professor. McCarthy edited fellow Santa Fe Institute Fellow W. Brian Arthur's influential article "Increasing Returns and the New World of Business", published in the Harvard Business Review in 1996, removing commas from the text. He also copy edited work for physicists Lawrence M. Krauss and Lisa Randall.
Saul Bellow praised his "absolutely overpowering use of language, his life-giving and death-dealing sentences". Richard B. Woodward has described his writing as "reminiscent of early Hemingway". Unlike earlier works such as Suttree and Blood Meridian, the majority of McCarthy's work after 1993 uses simple, restrained vocabulary.
### Themes
McCarthy's novels often depict explicit violence. Many of his works have been characterized as nihilistic, particularly Blood Meridian. Some academics dispute this, saying Blood Meridian is actually a gnostic tragedy. His later works have been characterized as highly moralistic. Erik J. Wielenberg argues that The Road depicts morality as secular and originating from individuals, such as the father, and separate from God.
The bleak outlook of the future, and the inhuman foreign antagonist Anton Chigurh of No Country for Old Men, is said to reflect the apprehension of the post-9/11 era. Many of his works portray individuals in conflict with society and acting on instinct rather than on emotion or thought. Another theme throughout many of McCarthy's works is the ineptitude or inhumanity of those in authority and particularly in law enforcement. This is seen in Blood Meridian with the murder spree the Glanton Gang initiates because of the bounties, the "overwhelmed" law enforcement in No Country for Old Men, and the corrupt police officers in All the Pretty Horses. As a result, he has been labeled the "great pessimist of American literature".
### Bilingual narrative practice
McCarthy was fluent in Spanish, having lived in Ibiza, Spain, in the 1960s and later residing in El Paso, Texas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Isabel Soto argues that after he learned the language, in his novels "Spanish and English modulate or permeate each other", as it was "an essential part of McCarthy's expressive discourse". Katherine Sugg observes that McCarthy's writing is "often considered a 'multicultural' and 'bilingual' narrative practice, particularly for its abundant use of untranslated Spanish dialogue". Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera observes, "John Grady Cole is a native speaker of Spanish. This is also the case of several other important characters in the Border Trilogy, including Billy Parhnam [sic], John Grady's mother (and possibly his grandfather and brothers), and perhaps Jimmy Blevins, each of whom are speakers of Spanish who were ostensibly born in the US political space into families with what are generally considered English-speaking surnames ... This is also the case of Judge Holden in Blood Meridian."
### Work ethic and process
McCarthy dedicated himself to writing full time, choosing not to work other jobs to support his career. "I always knew that I didn't want to work", McCarthy said. "You have to be dedicated, but it was my number-one priority." Early in his career, his decision not to work sometimes subjected him and his family to poverty.
Nevertheless, according to scholar Steve Davis, McCarthy had an "incredible work ethic". He preferred to work on several projects simultaneously and said, for instance, that he had four drafts in progress in the mid-2000s and for several years devoted about two hours every day to each project. He was known to conduct exhaustive research on the historical settings and regional environments found in his fiction. He edited his own writing, sometimes revising a book over the course of years or decades before deeming it fit for publication. While his research and revision were meticulous, he did not outline his plots and instead viewed writing as a "subconscious process" which should be given space for spontaneous inspiration.
After 1958, McCarthy wrote all of his literary work and correspondence with a mechanical typewriter. He originally used a Royal but went looking for a more lightweight machine ahead of a trip to Europe in the early 1960s. He bought a portable Olivetti Lettera 32 for \$50 at a Knoxville pawn shop and typed about five million words over the next five decades. He maintained it by simply "blowing out the dust with a service station hose". Book dealer Glenn Horowitz said the modest typewriter acquired "a sort of talismanic quality" through its connection to McCarthy's monumental fiction, "as if Mount Rushmore was carved with a Swiss Army knife". His Olivetti was auctioned in December 2009 at Christie's, with the auction house estimating it would fetch between \$15,000 and \$20,000. It sold for \$254,500, with proceeds donated to the Santa Fe Institute. McCarthy replaced it with an identical model, bought for him by his friend John Miller for \$11 plus \$19.95 for shipping.
## Personal life and views
McCarthy was a teetotaler. According to Richard B. Woodward, "McCarthy doesn't drink anymore – he quit 16 years ago [i.e. in 1976] in El Paso, with one of his young girlfriends – and Suttree reads like a farewell to that life. 'The friends I do have are simply those who quit drinking,' he says. 'If there is an occupational hazard to writing, it's drinking'."
In the late 1990s, McCarthy moved to Tesuque, New Mexico, north of Santa Fe, with his third wife, Jennifer Winkley, and their son, John. McCarthy and Winkley divorced in 2006.
In 2013, a Twitter account impersonating McCarthy (@CormacCMcCarthy) was created by Scottish writer Michael Crossan, quickly amassing several thousand followers and recognition by former site owner Jack Dorsey. Five hours after the account's creation, McCarthy's publisher confirmed that the account was fake and that McCarthy did not own a computer. In 2018, another account impersonating McCarthy (@CormacMcCrthy) was created. In 2021, it was briefly marked verified following a viral tweet, after which his agent confirmed that the account was again a fake.
In 2016, a hoax spread on Twitter claiming that McCarthy had died, with USA Today even repeating the information. The Los Angeles Times responded to the hoax with the headline, "Cormac McCarthy isn't dead. He's too tough to die."
### Politics
McCarthy did not publicly reveal his political opinions. A resident of Santa Fe with a traditionalist disposition, he once expressed disapproval of the city and the people there: "If you don't agree with them politically, you can't just agree to disagree—they think you're crazy." Academic David Holloway writes that "McCarthy's writing can be read as either liberal or conservative, or as both simultaneously, depending on the politics that readers themselves bring with them to the act of reading the work".
In the 1980s, McCarthy and Edward Abbey considered covertly releasing wolves into southern Arizona to restore their decimated population.
### Science and literature
In one of his few interviews, McCarthy revealed that he respected only authors who "deal with issues of life and death", citing Henry James and Marcel Proust as examples of writers who do not. "I don't understand them ... To me, that's not literature. A lot of writers who are considered good I consider strange", he said. Regarding his own literary constraints when writing novels, McCarthy said he was "not a fan of some of the Latin American writers, magical realism. You know, it's hard enough to get people to believe what you're telling them without making it impossible. It has to be vaguely plausible." He cited Moby-Dick (1851) as his favorite novel. Along with Moby-Dick, McCarthy regarded The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Ulysses (1922), and The Sound and the Fury (1929) as "great" novels.
Socially, McCarthy had an aversion to other writers, preferring the company of scientists. He voiced his admiration for scientific advances: "What physicists did in the 20th century was one of the extraordinary flowerings ever in the human enterprise." At MacArthur reunions, McCarthy shunned his fellow writers to fraternize instead with scientists like physicist Murray Gell-Mann and whale biologist Roger Payne. Of all of his interests, McCarthy stated, "Writing is way, way down at the bottom of the list."
### Death
McCarthy died at his home in Santa Fe on June 13, 2023, at the age of 89. Stephen King said McCarthy was "maybe the greatest American novelist of my time ... He was full of years and created a fine body of work, but I still mourn his passing."
## Legacy
In 2003, literary critic Harold Bloom named McCarthy as one of the four major living American novelists, alongside Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth. Bloom's 1994 book The Western Canon had listed Child of God, Suttree, and Blood Meridian among the works of contemporary literature he predicted would endure and become "canonical". Bloom reserved his highest praise for Blood Meridian, which he called "the greatest single book since Faulkner's As I Lay Dying", and though he held less esteem for McCarthy's other novels he said that "to have written even one book so authentically strong and allusive, and capable of the perpetual reverberation that Blood Meridian possesses more than justifies him. ... He has attained genius with that book."
A comprehensive archive of McCarthy's personal papers is preserved at the Wittliff Collections, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. The McCarthy papers consists of 98 boxes (46 linear feet). The acquisition of the Cormac McCarthy Papers resulted from years of ongoing conversations between McCarthy and Southwestern Writers Collection founder, Bill Wittliff, who negotiated the proceedings. The Southwestern Writers Collection/Wittliff Collections also holds The Wolmer Collection of Cormac McCarthy, which consists of letters between McCarthy and bibliographer J. Howard Woolmer, and four other related collections.
According to J. T. Barbarese, a professor of English and writing at Rutgers University, "McCarthy was, if not our greatest novelist, certainly our greatest stylist. The obsession not only with the origins of evil, but also history. And those two themes intersect again and again and again in McCarthy's writing."
Following his death in June 2023, Hillel Italie of the Associated Press wrote that McCarthy transcended and reinvented the genre of Western novels, citing the comments of novelist James Wade and writer Rachel Kushner.
Journalist Nick Romeo wrote an essay in Scientific American demonstrating his thesis that McCarthy's work is based on his curiosity about science. |
1,159,104 | Pasir Ris MRT station | 1,171,615,552 | Mass rapid transit station in Singapore | [
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]
| Pasir Ris MRT station is an elevated Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the East West line (EWL) in Pasir Ris, Singapore. Situated along Pasir Ris Central adjacent to Pasir Ris Bus Interchange and the White Sands Shopping Mall, it is the eastern terminus of the EWL and, as of June 2021, the only MRT station within Pasir Ris. The station exterior has the characteristic dome-shaped segmented roof also seen on other elevated EWL stations.
The station opened on 16 December 1989 as the terminus of the MRT's eastern line extension. In 2016, two maintenance workers were killed on the tracks away from the station. In January 2019, it was announced that the station would become an interchange, with the opening of the Cross Island line (CRL) by 2030. The station is also planned to be the terminus for the future CRL branch extension to Punggol station in 2032, as announced in March 2020.
## History
The station was constructed as the terminus of an extension of the East West MRT line from Tanah Merah station, which in turn was part of Phase 2A of the MRT system. The contract for the construction of the stations from Changi Depot to Pasir Ris and 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) of tracks was awarded to Sato Kogyo Pte Ltd at a contract sum of S\$91.89 million (US\$ million) in March 1986. The contract also included the construction of the Tampines and Simei stations.
The station opened on 16 December 1989 as the eastern terminus of the EWL as announced by then-deputy prime minister Goh Chok Tong on 4 November that year. The opening ceremony, officiated by then-Minister of State Mah Bow Tan, included an MRT ride for Mah and four other Members of Parliament from Simei to this station. The station opening was generally well received by residents in Tampines and Pasir Ris, who were hoping for quicker rides to their workplaces in the city via the MRT.
### EWL station upgrades
Like the other elevated MRT stations, Pasir Ris station did not initially have platform screen doors installed. On 25 January 2008, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced the installation half-height platform screen doors on elevated stations to improve safety on elevated stations. The installation began at Pasir Ris station in August 2009 and the doors began operations later in November. High-volume low-speed fans were installed above the platforms of the station between 2012 and 2013 as part of a national programme to improve ventaliation at station platforms.
On 29 June 2018, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the EWL overrun viaducts would be extended by 150 metres (490 ft). A new crossover, in conjunction with the implementation of communications-based train control (CBTC), will allow faster turnarounds for trains and segregation of platforms at the terminus. The station's operations will be unaffected by the works as the enhancement works will be done away from the station itself. In March 2019, the contract for the construction of new overrun and crossover tracks was awarded to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Branch Office Singapore / Gates PCM Construction Ltd (JV). The S\$56.7 million (US\$ million) contract included the partial removal of existing overrun tracks. Construction commenced in 2019 and will be completed by mid 2024.
### Cross Island Line
On 17 January 2013, transport minister Lui Tuck Yew announced that the proposed Cross Island line (CRL) will serve the Pasir Ris area. On 25 January 2019, the LTA confirmed that Pasir Ris station will be an interchange with the CRL. The CRL station will be constructed as part of Phase 1, consisting of 12 stations between Aviation Park and Bright Hill, and was expected to be completed in 2029. On 10 March 2020, it was announced that this station will serve as the eastern terminus for the CRL extension to Punggol station. The 7.3-kilometre (4.5 mi) Punggol extension, consisting of four stations between this station and Punggol, was expected to be completed in 2031. However, the restrictions imposed on construction works due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to delays and the dates was pushed by one year to 2030 and 2032 for CRL1 and CRLe respectively.
The contract for the design and construction of Pasir Ris CRL Station and associated tunnels was awarded to a joint venture between Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co Ltd and Dongah Geological Engineering Co Ltd Singapore Branch at S\$980 million (US\$ million) on 26 April 2021. Construction was scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2021, with expected completion in 2030.
### Incident
On 22 March 2016, two SMRT maintenance trainees were run over and killed by an incoming C151 train at around 11:10 am. They were part of a team of 15 personnel tasked to investigate a possible signalling system fault, after a high voltage alarm set off. The incident took place at the track switch 150 metres (490 ft) away from the station. This led to a 2.5-hour train service disruption from 11:10 am to 1:56 pm for train services between Pasir Ris and Tanah Merah, and had affected at least 10,000 commuters.
In light of the incident, train operator SMRT Trains laid off the train driver and the assistant engineer Lim Say Heng and has disciplined the staff for their role in the incident. The operator, the director of control operations and the engineer were charged for the incident. Upon investigation, it was revealed that safety protocols were not implemented that would have prevented the train from entering the worksite. The SMRT engineer Lim, who had been responsible for "[ensuring] a safe inspection", was sentenced to four weeks' jail on 4 March 2018 after pleading guilty to causing death by negligence. On 20 July 2018, the Land Transport Authority fined the operator S\$1.9 million (US\$ million) for the incident, in addition to the Bishan tunnel flooding.
## Station details
### Location
As the name suggests, the station serves the town of Pasir Ris. The station is adjacent to the White Sands Shopping Mall and the Pasir Ris Bus Interchange, and is close to prominent landmarks such as the Pasir Ris Town Park, Pasir Ris Sports and Recreation Centre, Pasir Ris Park and the retail development of Downtown East.
The station will serve a mixed-use commercial and residential development that will integrate with the bus interchange, a polyclinic and a town plaza. The site for the development has been awarded to Phoenix Residential Pte. Ltd. & Phoenix Commercial Pte. Ltd. at a contract sum of S\$700 million (US\$ million) in March 2019.
### Services
As of June 2021, Pasir Ris is the eastern terminus of the EWL. The next station on the line is Tampines station. The official station code is EW1. The station operates between 5:28 am and 11:23 pm. Train frequencies range from 2 to 5 minutes depending on peak hours.
When the CRL Phase 1 and the Punggol extension is completed, the station will be between the Pasir Ris East and Tampines North stations on the mainline. The CRL will branch off from this station to Punggol station via Elias station, which is the next station on the branch.
### Design
Like most EWL elevated stations on the eastern segment on the line (after Kallang station), Pasir Ris station has a prominent dome-shaped roof, segmented like a caterpillar, over the platform level. The design was intended by the MRT Corporation to give the stations on the EWL an "attractive look". The station has a pink colour scheme, reflected on the doors to the restricted areas and the ceiling trunking box at the platform level of the station. |
32,285,600 | 2011 Minnesota state government shutdown | 1,143,001,940 | Government shutdown | [
"2011 government budgets",
"2011 in American politics",
"2011 in Minnesota",
"Government of Minnesota",
"Government shutdowns in the United States",
"State budgets of the United States"
]
| The 2011 Minnesota state government shutdown was a government shutdown affecting the U.S. state of Minnesota. The shutdown was the result of a fiscal dispute between the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) Governor Mark Dayton and the Republican-majority Minnesota Legislature, that was not resolved by the constitutional deadline on June 30. The Republican caucuses and their leaders demanded bigger spending cuts, and for the budget shortfall to be met without tax increases, while Dayton demanded some tax increases. The shutdown started at midnight on July 1, and ended after a budget bill was passed and signed on July 20.
During the shutdown all less important parts of the state government, that were not identified as critical services before the shutdown or in several court cases, suspended their operations. Most state government services were identified as critical or otherwise allowed to continue, so as much as 80 percent of state government spending continued. The eventual budget agreement started to form after Governor Dayton announced on July 14 that he would "reluctantly" pass the last proposal of the Republican legislative leadership before the shutdown, but with conditions. The shutdown was disruptive to the government and some Minnesotans, but its ultimate economic impact was minimal. Politically, it could have influenced the Republican electoral defeat in the 2012 state elections, although there were other factors that may have been more important.
## Background
Going into the 2010 state elections, the Minnesota government faced an approximately \$5 billion budget shortfall in the coming 2011–2013 biennium, left over from the outgoing administration of Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. The Republican Party claimed that the shortfall was a result of unsustainable increases in spending, and pledged to balance the budget without raising taxes. In the gubernatorial election, former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton campaigned pledging to close the budget deficit by increasing income taxes on the state's highest earners.
The Republicans won control of both houses of the legislature for the first time in decades, while Dayton narrowly defeated Republican candidate Tom Emmer with 44% of the vote. Many of the newly elected Republican legislators were affiliated with the Tea Party movement and had more anti-government positions than the Republican establishment. Both Dayton and Republican legislators claimed a popular mandate for their positions.
Minnesota's state government cannot operate without appropriations under law, as mandated by the Minnesota Constitution. However, state courts have determined that Priority One and Two Critical Services must continue in the event of a shutdown. Services that must remain uninterrupted to avoid a potential immediate threat to public health or safety are considered Priority One, and some additional services are designated Priority Two. Before the shutdown, a list of priority services was compiled and prepared by Minnesota Management and Budget, based on recommendations from state agencies.
Since Minnesota had divided governments for decades before 2010, a number of past budgets had brought the state close to a shutdown, and there had been one shutdown before in state history. After Governor Pawlenty and the Republican-majority House could not agree on a budget with the DFL-majority Senate in 2005, the state government went through a nine-day shutdown.
## Preceding budget negotiations
Governor Dayton formally proposed a state budget on February 15, calling for \$37 billion in state spending, necessitating cuts of about 10 percent to most state agencies. Because the state was projected to take in only about \$32 billion in taxes, the rest of the budget shortfall was covered by increases to income and property taxes for wealthier Minnesotans, as he had promised during his campaign. Meanwhile, Republican legislators, led by House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, demanded the budget be kept below \$32 billion.
As negotiations went on during the legislative session, Dayton suggested compromise budget frameworks ultimately reducing his proposed budget to \$35.8 billion, but insisted that he would go no further and that Republicans were not amenable enough to compromise. The legislature passed budget bills that balanced the budget with significant cuts to social and infrastructure services, rather than raising any taxes. They described their budget as a compromise with the DFL after the state's revenue forecast was revised upward, as it called for \$34 billion in state spending increased from \$32 billion. Dayton claimed that the impasse was the doing of "extreme right-wing" freshman Republican legislators whom he did not talk to, and that he had cordial relationships with Republican leaders. In a statement at the end of the session on May 23, Dayton said "Here I am in the middle — and they haven't moved". Republicans, including Koch and other legislative leaders, consistently insisted they would not accept a budget of over \$34 billion, citing polls suggesting public opinion was on their side. During the session, the Republican Party held a rally calling for tax cuts at the State Capitol on May 7. Protesters supporting Dayton's tax increases and opposed to the Republicans, many from public employee unions, gathered at the capitol multiple times, including at the end of the session.
By the day after the regular session ended, Dayton had vetoed all of the budget bills passed by the legislature, and said in a statement that he anticipated a shutdown would occur. Dayton did not call a special session of the legislature to further address the budget during May or June, claiming that the lack of agreement between him and Zellers and Koch would make it unproductive to do so. He remained in contact with legislative leaders, sticking by the \$35.8 billion budget he proposed late in the session, with minor changes. As the end of June approached, Koch urged the governor to call a session to pass a temporary 'lights-on' bill while a final deal was reached, but he refused to answer this proposal on the grounds that extending the budget's deadline would not serve the goal of reaching a final agreement. Since the budget impasse had not ended by the end of June 30, the shutdown began at midnight of June 30–July 1, 2011.
## Shutdown
At that time the shutdown began, all state government spending and operations not considered to be critical stopped. Suspended state services included driving tests, childcare assistance, senior and disability linkage lines, criminal background checks, and road construction. State government offices, state parks, highway rest areas, and sites run by the Minnesota Historical Society, among others, closed. The commissioner of the Department of Human Services, Lucinda Jesson, said that letters had to be sent to over 580,000 households that relied on the department for social services to notify them about the possible shutdown. More critical parts of the state government, including public safety, health care, benefit payments, and care for residents of state facilities continued. Services that were continued during the shutdown could have amounted to as much as 80 percent of state spending.
During the first days of the shutdown, many programs requested that their funding continue, especially social service organizations that relied on state funding. To hear their pleas, the courts appointed retired State Supreme Court judge Kathleen Blatz as a special master. Dayton and State Attorney General Lori Swanson also both submitted petitions to the Ramsey County District Court when the shutdown began, asking for the court to clarify whether some programs could continue. Judges Kathleen Gearin and Bruce W. Christopherson issued their rulings on July 7, finding that some programs could start again, including criminal background checks, public schools, and local government aid. Gearin complained that the governor and legislature should have been responsible for making decisions about which services could stay open. Gearin had previously heard a case from the Minnesota Zoo, which asked to remain open despite the shutdown, and another from the Canterbury Park horse racing track in Shakopee. While both pay for themselves at least during the summer, Gearin determined that only the Zoo was allowed to operate without legislative appropriations, so she allowed the Zoo to open on July 2 but ordered Canterbury Park to remain closed the same day.
## Effects
During the shutdown, some 19,000 state employees were laid off. State and federal government employees in Minnesota lost approximately \$65 million in wages over the course of the shutdown. Because of court rulings, some of the 36,000 state employees who received layoff notices leading up to the shutdown continued or returned to work during the shutdown. Laid-off employees were immediately eligible for unemployment benefits, and continued to receive health insurance, costing the state millions a week. (However, Minnesota Unemployment Insurance has a waiting week, so laid off workers were only eligible to collect unemployment for two weeks.)
In addition to the costs associated with staff, Minnesota lost some revenue during the shutdown. The Minnesota State Lottery did not sell tickets during the shutdown, which meant the state could have lost about \$1.25 million in revenue daily. Minnesota stopped selling tax stamps for cigarettes, which must be affixed to each pack before sale. The Star Tribune reported that cigarette sales would come to a halt by mid-August if no more tax stamps were issued. The state also stopped issuing liquor purchasing cards, which businesses need in order to purchase liquor from wholesalers. Many stores, bars, and restaurants renewed their liquor purchasing cards before the shutdown. However, the purchasing cards for approximately three hundred establishments expired on the first day of the shutdown, July 1. Liquor purchasing cards would have continued to expire on the first day of each month. Alcohol brand licenses expired, so MillerCoors lost their license to sell 39 brands of beer in Minnesota, and had to have them removed from shelves.
While public schools remained open during the shutdown, and teachers continued to be paid following Gearin's ruling, the shutdown interfered with their operations, and would have caused serious problems if it had continued. Teachers could not renew or receive new licenses during the shutdown, creating a backlog, and property tax levy approvals could have been delayed. No fishing, hunting, and boating licenses or new drivers' licenses were issued during the shutdown. Taxes continued to be due, but tax refunds stopped.
Services for state parks stopped, including roads, making them mostly accessible only by foot, and causing a number of problems. An official for the Department of Natural Resources told the Pioneer Press that visitors were relieving themselves on trails in Gooseberry Falls State Park, as the restrooms were closed, and that uncollected garbage attracted bears in Crow Wing State Park. Vandalism occurred at Afton State Park, where the main office was "ransacked" and a group of twelve "ripped off shingles and pieces of deck for firewood, burned additional furniture and wrote messages bragging about breaking in for free". While many state-run attractions were closed during the shutdown, institutions not part of the state government stayed open. Museums such as the Science Museum of Minnesota reported an increase in visits, as did county parks and attractions in neighboring states.
In an arson case at the former home of Governor Dayton near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, police were "investigating the possibility that someone [was] upset over last week's shutdown".
In total, about \$48 million in revenue was lost, and over \$10 million was spent on expenses related to preparing for and recovering from the shutdown. Overall, the shutdown disrupted the state government's activities, the lives of some Minnesotans (especially the most vulnerable), and private sector work such as road construction, but had minimal impact on the larger economy of the state.
## Budget agreement
For the first two weeks of the shutdown, there was little progress and neither the governor nor the Republican leaders made proposals accepted by the other side. On July 4, Republican lawmakers affirmed their commitment to not agree to a budget of over \$34 billion. Documents leaked after June 30 stated that the Republican leadership included anti-abortion provisions, a voter ID requirement, and a ban on stem cell research during the budget negotiations. Both the Republican legislative leaders and Dayton (along with DFL legislative leaders) toured Minnesota to make their case to Minnesotans. The government shutdown ended after Governor Dayton announced on July 14 that he would accept the last Republican offer before the shutdown, albeit with certain conditions.
The Republican offer called for an approximately \$35 billion budget and no tax increases, and relied on delaying the payment of some K-12 school aid and issuing bonds against future tobacco revenue to cover the remaining gap. It differed from the previous Republican proposals in several provisions, particularly increasing the K-12 per-student formula by \$50 per year to cover additional borrowing costs, adding \$10 million to the University of Minnesota budget to equalize Minnesota State Colleges and Universities cuts, and restoring funding to the Department of Human Rights and the Trade Office. Dayton's conditions were that measures on social issues such as abortion be dropped from the budget, 15 percent reductions to state employees in all agencies be dropped, and a \$500 million infrastructure construction bonding bill.
When a final agreement was reached with the Republican legislative leadership, Dayton called a special session of the legislature on July 19. The legislature met on July 20 and passed the budget bills, which were signed the same day by the governor. Most state employees returned to work on July 21, facing a backlog of unfinished work and new problems in many agencies. After the budget was passed, Dayton said he approached Republicans again after meeting with ordinary citizens—who said they wanted government services to resume and did not care how the shutdown was ended—and because he feared a worse budget deal and unease in the DFL legislative minorities. Zellers said when the deal was finalized that in his view it was "a deal that we can all be disappointed in, but a deal that is done, a budget that was balanced". His sentiments that a 'balanced' budget needed to be passed, and that both sides had something to be unhappy about, were echoed by Koch.
## Political influence
According to a MinnPost poll, Minnesotans blamed the Republican legislature more for the shutdown. Overall, 42% said Republicans in the legislature were more responsible, 21% said the DFL governor was more responsible, and 22% volunteered an answer that they were equally to blame. As expected, partisans blamed the other party more; only 10% of Republicans blamed the legislature more, and only 2% of DFLers blamed Dayton more. Following the shutdown, DFL Representative Phyllis Kahn authored a continuing appropriations bill that would prevent government shutdowns in the event of disagreements between the governor and legislature, as she had done in several past sessions. The House commissioned a policy brief from its research department, published in December 2011, that looked into what such a bill would require. The brief noted that such ideas had been considered before, including after the 2005 shutdown, and had been abandoned.
In the state elections of 2012, during which all members of the legislature (but not the governor) were up for election, the shutdown was a major campaign issue. The Republicans lost their majorities in both houses of the legislature, giving the DFL full control of the state government. Kurt Zellers and other Republican legislators said the shutdown probably was one reason for their electoral defeat. However, other national and state issues may have had more of an influence on the result. The presidential race was also on the ballot, as were the proposed Minnesota Marriage Amendment and Voter ID Amendment, which had been put on the ballot by the legislature in 2011. All of these ballot items increased the turnout of DFL-leaning voters.
After winning control of the state legislature, the DFL passed a \$38 billion budget containing the tax hikes on the wealthy that Dayton had wanted in 2011. The shutdown still was a political issue in the 2014 elections, when gubernatorial candidates Zellers and Dave A. Thompson were among the candidates for statewide office who had been Republican legislators during the shutdown. Zellers claimed having "balanced the budget without a tax increase" during the shutdown was his signature accomplishment as speaker, but he was criticised by Republican rivals and DFL leaders alike for the shutdown and for the means by which the budget was balanced. |
82,058 | Brigham Young University | 1,172,967,018 | Private university in Provo, Utah, United States | [
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| Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
BYU offers a variety of academic programs including those in the liberal arts, engineering, agriculture, management, physical and mathematical sciences, nursing, and law. It has 186 undergraduate majors, 64 master's programs, and 26 doctoral programs. It is broadly organized into 11 colleges or schools at its main Provo campus, with some colleges and divisions defining their own admission standards. The university also administers four satellite campuses, one in Jerusalem, Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., and London, while its parent organization the Church Educational System (CES) sponsors sister schools in Hawaii and Idaho. The university is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
Almost all BYU students are members of the LDS Church. Students attending BYU agree to follow an honor code, which mandates behavior in line with teachings of the church, such as academic honesty, adherence to dress and grooming standards, abstinence from extramarital sex, from same-sex romantic behavior, and from the consumption of alcohol and other drugs. Undergraduate students are also required to complete curriculum in LDS religious education for graduation regardless of their course of study. Due in part to the church's emphasis on missionary service, nearly 50% of BYU students have lived outside the United States, 65% speak a second language, and 63 languages are taught at the university regularly.
BYU's athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the BYU Cougars. All sports teams compete in the Big 12 Conference except for men's volleyball which is a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. BYU's sports teams have won a total of 12 NCAA championships and 26 non-NCAA championships. On September 10, 2021, BYU formally accepted an invitation to the Big 12 Conference and will start participating in the conference in the 2023–24 school year.
## History
### Early days
The origin of BYU can be traced back to 1862, when Warren Dusenberry started a Provo school in Cluff Hall, a prominent adobe building in the northeast corner of 200 East and 200 North. After some financial difficulties, the school was recreated in the Kinsey and Lewis buildings on Center Street in Provo, and after gaining some recognition for its quality, was adopted to become the Timpanogos branch of the University of Deseret. When financial difficulty forced another closure, on October 16, 1875, Brigham Young, then president of the LDS Church, deeded the property to trustees to create Brigham Young Academy after earlier hinting a school would be built in Draper, Utah, in 1867. Hence, October 16, 1875, is commonly held as BYU's founding date. Young had been envisioning for several years the concept of a church university. Said Young about his vision: "I hope to see an Academy established in Provo ... at which the children of the Latter-day Saints can receive a good education unmixed with the pernicious atheistic influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the country."
Classes at Brigham Young Academy commenced on January 3, 1876. Dusenberry served as interim principal for several months until April 1876, when Brigham Young's choice for principal arrived—a German immigrant named Karl Maeser. Under Maeser's direction, the school produced many successful graduates, including future U.S. Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland and future U.S. Senator Reed Smoot. The school, however, did not become a university until the end of Benjamin Cluff's term at the helm of the institution. At that time, the school was still privately supported by members of the community and was not absorbed and sponsored officially by the church until July 18, 1896. A series of odd managerial decisions by Cluff led to his demotion; however, in his last official act, he proposed to the board that the academy be named "Brigham Young University". The suggestion received a large amount of opposition, with many members of the Board saying the school was not large enough to be a university, but the decision ultimately passed. One opponent to the decision, Anthon H. Lund, later said, "I hope their head will grow big enough for their hat."
In 1903, Brigham Young Academy was dissolved and replaced by two institutions, Brigham Young High School (BY High) and BYU. The BY High class of 1907 was ultimately responsible for the giant "Y" that remains embedded on a mountain near campus. The Board elected George H. Brimhall as the new President of BYU. Under his tenure in 1904, the new BYU bought 17 acres (69,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of land from Provo called "Temple Hill". After some controversy among locals over BYU's purchase of this property, construction began in 1909 on the first building on the current campus, the Karl G. Maeser Memorial. Brimhall also presided over BYU during a brief crisis involving the theory of evolution. The religious nature of the school seemed at the time to collide with this scientific theory. Joseph F. Smith, church president at the time, settled the question for a time by asking that evolution not be taught at the school. Over time, students and faculty found a way to reconcile the factual elements of evolution with the church's teachings. Even though a few at this time described the school as little more than a "religious seminary", many of its graduates from this time would go on to great success and become well renowned in a variety of fields.
### Expansion
In 1921, Franklin S. Harris was appointed as BYU's president and was the first in this role to have a doctoral degree. Harris made several significant changes to the school, reorganizing it into a true university, whereas before, its organization had remnants of the academy days. At the beginning of his tenure, the school was not officially recognized as a university by any accreditation organization. By the end of his term, the school was accredited by all major accrediting organizations at the time. He was succeeded by Howard S. McDonald, who received a doctorate from the University of California. When he first received the position, the Second World War had just ended, and thousands of students were flooding into BYU. By the end of his stay, the school had grown nearly five times to 5,440 students. BYU did not have the facilities to handle such a large influx, so he bought part of an Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah and rebuilt it to house some of the students. The next president, Ernest L. Wilkinson, also oversaw a period of intense growth as the school adopted an accelerated building program. Wilkinson was responsible for the building of over eighty structures on the campus, many of which still stand. During his tenure, the student body increased six-fold, making BYU the largest private school at the time. The quality of the students also increased, leading to higher educational standards at the school. Finally, Wilkinson reorganized LDS Church units on campus, with ten stakes and over 100 wards added during his administration.
Dallin H. Oaks replaced Wilkinson as president in 1971. Oaks continued the expansion of his predecessor, adding a law school and proposing plans for a new School of Management. During his administration, a new library was also added, doubling the library space on campus. Jeffrey R. Holland followed as president in 1980, encouraging a combination of educational excellence and religious faith. He believed one of the school's greatest strengths was its religious nature and that this should be taken advantage of, rather than hidden. During his administration, BYU added a campus in Jerusalem, now called the BYU Jerusalem Center. In 1989, Holland was replaced by Rex E. Lee. Lee was responsible for the construction of the Benson Science Building and the Museum of Art. A cancer victim, Lee is memorialized annually at BYU during a cancer fundraiser called the Rex Lee Run. Shortly before his death, Lee resigned and was replaced in 1995 by Merrill J. Bateman.
Bateman was responsible for the construction of 36 new buildings for BYU, both on and off the campus, including the expansion of the Harold B. Lee Library. He was also one of several key college leaders who brought about the creation of the Mountain West Conference, which BYU's athletics program joined — BYU previously participated in the Western Athletic Conference. A satellite TV network also opened in 2000 under his leadership. Bateman was followed by Cecil O. Samuelson in 2003. Samuelson was succeeded by Kevin J Worthen in 2014. C. Shane Reese became BYU's 14th president on May 1, 2023.
## Campus
The main campus in Provo, Utah, sits on approximately 560 acres (2.3 km<sup>2</sup>) nestled at the base of the Wasatch Mountains and includes 295 buildings. The buildings feature a wide variety of architectural styles, each building being built in the style of its time. The grass, trees, and flower beds on BYU's campus are impeccably maintained. Furthermore, views of the Wasatch Mountains, (including Mount Timpanogos) can be seen from the campus. BYU's Harold B. Lee Library (also known as "HBLL"), which The Princeton Review ranked as the No. 1 "Great College Library" in 2004, has approximately 8.5 million items in its collections, contains 98 miles (158 km) of shelving, and can seat 4,600 people. The Spencer W. Kimball Tower is home to several of the university's departments and programs and is the tallest building in Provo, Utah, and the Marriott Center serves primarily as a basketball arena and can seat over 19,000, making it the tenth largest on-campus arena in the nation. On Sundays, nearly all of the buildings on campus are utilized to host church services.
### Museums
Several museums on campus contain exhibits from many different fields of study. BYU's Museum of Art, for example, is one of the largest and most attended art museums in the Mountain West. This museum offers research and study opportunities to students and educational programming to the general public. The Museum of Peoples and Cultures is a museum of archaeology and ethnology. It focuses on native cultures and artifacts of the Great Basin, American Southwest, Mesoamerica, Peru, and Polynesia. Home to more than 40,000 artifacts and 50,000 photographs, it documents BYU's archaeological research. The BYU Museum of Paleontology was built in 1976 to display the many fossils found by BYU's James A. Jensen. It holds many vertebrate fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and is one of the top five vertebrate fossil collections in the world from the Jurassic. The museum receives about 25,000 visitors every year. The Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum was formed in 1978. It features several forms of plant and animal life on display and available for research by students and scholars.
### Performing arts
The campus also houses several performing arts facilities. The de Jong Concert Hall seats 1282 people and is named for Gerrit de Jong Jr. The Pardoe Theatre is named for T. Earl and Kathryn Pardoe. Students use its stage in a variety of theatre experiments, as well as for Pardoe Series performances. It seats 500 people, and has quite a large stage with a proscenium opening of 19 by 55 feet (17 m). The Margetts Theatre was named for Philip N. Margetts, a prominent Utah theatre figure. A smaller, black box theater, it allows a variety of seating and staging formats. It seats 125, and measures 30 by 50 feet (15 m). The Nelke Theatre, named for one of BYU's first drama teachers, is used largely for instruction in experimental theater. It seats 280.
### Student housing
BYU has on-campus housing communities for freshmen students as well as for students 19 years and older. Single students who are freshmen have four options for on-campus housing: Heritage Halls, Helaman Halls, Riviera Apartments, and the Foreign Language Student Residence (FLSR). On-campus housing for single students 19 years old and older is available at Wyview Park, Heritage Halls, and in the Foreign Language Student Residence Halls. On-campus married students live in Wymount Terrace or Wyview Park.
Branches of the BYU Creamery provide basic food and general grocery products for students living in Heritage Halls, Helaman, Wymount, Wyview, and the FLSR. Helaman Halls is also served by a central cafeteria called the Cannon Center. The creamery, begun in 1949, has become a BYU tradition and is also frequented by visitors to the university and members of the community. It was the first on-campus full-service grocery store in the country.
### Sustainability
BYU has designated energy conservation, products and materials, recycling, site planning and building design, student involvement, transportation, water conservation, and zero waste events as top priority categories in which to further its efforts to be an environmentally sustainable campus. The university has stated "we have a responsibility to be wise stewards of the earth and its resources." BYU is working to increase the energy efficiency of its buildings by installing various speed drives on all pumps and fans, replacing incandescent lighting with fluorescent lighting, retrofitting campus buildings with low-E reflective glass, and upgraded roof insulation to prevent heat loss. The student groups BYU Recycles, Eco-Response, and BYU Earth educate students, faculty, staff, and administrators about how the campus can decrease its environmental impact. BYU Recycles spearheaded the recent campaign to begin recycling plastics, which the university did after a year of student campaigning.
## Organization and administration
BYU is a part of CES. It is organized under a board of trustees, with the president of the church (currently Russell M. Nelson) as chairman. This board consists of the same people as the Church Board of Education, a pattern that has been in place since 1939. Prior to 1939, BYU had a separate board of trustees that was subordinate to the Church Board of Education. The president of BYU, currently C. Shane Reese, reports to the Board, through the Commissioner of Education.
The university operates under 11 colleges or schools, which collectively offer 194 bachelor's degree programs, 68 master's degree programs, 25 PhD programs, and a Juris Doctor program. BYU also manages some courses and majors through the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and "miscellaneous" college departments, including Undergraduate Education, Graduate Studies, Independent Study, Continuing Education, and the Honors Program. BYU's Winter semester ends earlier than most universities in April since there is no Spring break, thus allowing students to pursue internships and other summer activities earlier. A typical academic year is broken up into two semesters: Fall (September–December) and Winter (January–April), as well as two shorter terms during the summer months: Spring (May–June) and Summer (July–August).
## Academics
### Admissions and demographics
BYU accepted 53.4 percent of the 13,731 people who applied for admission in the spring and summer terms, and fall semester of 2017. The average GPA for these admitted students was 3.86 with an average ACT of 29.5 and SAT of 1300.
Students from every state in the U.S. and from many foreign countries attend BYU. (In the 2005–06 academic year, there were 2,396 foreign students, or eight percent of enrollment.) Slightly more than 98 percent of these students are active Latter-day Saints. In 2006, 12.6 percent of the student body reported themselves as ethnic minorities, mostly Asians, Pacific Islanders and Hispanics. Also in 2020, The racial breakdown of students was 81.0% white, 7.3% Hispanic, 4.4% multi-ethnic, 3.3% international, 1.9% Asian, 1.0% unknown, 0.7% native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 0.4% Black or African American. The racial composition of students at BYU are overwhelmingly non-Hispanic white, and BYU is one of the whitest universities in the United States.
### Rankings
Brigham Young University has been highly ranked in many measurements of universities. In 2004, a National Bureau of Economic Research study on revealed preference of U.S. colleges showed BYU was the 6th most-preferred choice in the Intermountain West, between Princeton and Brown.
BYU is regularly recognized for its low-cost, high-quality education. In 2019, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education ranked BYU tied for No. 1 "Worth the Cost" college. Likewise, Forbes rated BYU No. 1 on its list of "America's Best Value Colleges 2019". U.S. News & World Report ranked BYU No. 6 in Best Value Schools in 2022 and tied for No. 79 among national universities in the country.
BYU is designated as a research university with high research activity by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Forbes magazine ranked it as the No. 1 "Top University to Work For in 2014" and as the best college in Utah.
In 2016, the university's Marriott School of Management received a No. 18 ranking by Bloomberg Businessweek for its undergraduate programs, and its MBA program was ranked by several sources: No. 25 ranking by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2018, No. 19 by Forbes in 2017, and tied for No. 30 by U.S. News & World Report for 2021. For 2020, the university's School of Accountancy, which is housed within the Marriott School, received a No. 4 ranking out of 44 graduate programs rated by U.S. News & World Report.
The BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School has a No. 29 national ranking for 2022, according to U.S. News & World Report.
### Graduation honors
Undergraduate students may qualify for graduation honors. University Honors is the highest distinction BYU awards its graduates. Administered by the Honors Program, the distinction requires students to complete an honors curriculum requirement, a Great Questions requirement, an Experiential Learning requirement, an honors thesis requirement, and a graduation portfolio that summarizes the student's honors experiences.
The university also awards Latin scholastic distinctions separately from the Honors Program: summa cum laude (top 1 percent), magna cum laude (top 5 percent), and cum laude (top 10 percent). The university additionally recognizes Phi Kappa Phi graduation honors.
### Notable research and awards
BYU is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, BYU spent \$40.7 million on research and development in 2018. Scientists associated with BYU have created some notable inventions. Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor and pioneer of the electronic television, began college at BYU, and later returned to do fusion research, receiving an honorary degree from the university in 1967. Alumnus Harvey Fletcher, inventor of stereophonic sound, went on to carry out the now famous oil-drop experiment with Robert Millikan, and was later Founding Dean of the BYU College of Engineering. H. Tracy Hall, inventor of the man-made diamond, left General Electric in 1955 and became a full professor of chemistry and Director of Research at BYU. While there, he invented a new type of diamond press, the tetrahedral press. In student achievements, BYU Ad Lab teams won both the 2007 and 2008 L'Oréal National Brandstorm Competition, and students developed the Magnetic Lasso algorithm found in Adobe Photoshop. In prestigious scholarships, BYU has produced 10 Rhodes Scholars, four Gates Scholars in the last six years, and in the last decade has claimed 41 Fulbright scholars and 3 Jack Kent Cooke scholars.
### Devotionals and forums
To provide students with opportunities for both spiritual and intellectual insight, BYU has hosted weekly devotional and forum assemblies since the school's early days. Devotionals are most common and address religious topics, often with academic perspective or insight. Devotional speakers are typically drawn from the BYU faculty and administration or LDS Church leadership, including church presidents George Albert Smith, Spencer W. Kimball, Thomas S. Monson, and Russell M. Nelson.
Several times each year the devotional is replaced by a forum, which typically addresses a more secular topic and may include a speaker from outside the BYU or Latter-day Saint community. In recent years, forum speakers have included notable politicians (e.g. Joseph Lieberman, Mitt Romney), scientists (Neil deGrasse Tyson, DJ Patil), historians (David McCullough, Richard Beeman), religious leaders (Archbishop Charles Chaput, Albert Mohler) and judicial figures (John Roberts, Thomas Griffith).
Although attendance is not required, several thousand students attend the weekly assemblies, which are also broadcast on BYUtv and archived in text, audio, and video formats on the BYU Speeches website.
### International focus
Over three quarters of the student body has some proficiency in a second language (numbering 107 languages in total). This is partially because 45 percent of the student body at BYU have been Latter-day Saint missionaries, and many of them learned a foreign language as part of their mission assignment. During any given semester, about one-third of the student body is enrolled in foreign language classes, a rate nearly four times the national average. BYU offers courses in over 60 different languages, many with advanced courses that are seldom offered elsewhere. Several of its language programs are the largest of their type in the nation, such as the Russian program. The university was selected by the United States Department of Education as the location of the national Middle East Language Resource Center, making the school a hub for experts on that region. It was also selected as a Center for International Business Education Research, a function of which is to train business employees in international languages and relations.
Beyond this, BYU also runs a very large study abroad program, with satellite centers in London, Jerusalem, and Paris, as well as more than 20 other sites. Nearly 2,000 students take advantage of these programs yearly. In 2001, the Institute of International Education ranked BYU as the number one university in the U.S. to offer students study abroad opportunities. The BYU Jerusalem Center, which was closed in 2000 due to student security concerns related to the Second Intifada and later the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, was reopened to students in the Winter 2007 semester.
A few special additions enhance the language-learning experience. For example, BYU's International Cinema, featuring films in several languages, is the largest and longest-running university-run foreign film program in the country. BYU also offers an intensive foreign language living experience, the Foreign Language Student Residence. This is an on-campus apartment complex where students commit to speak only their chosen foreign language while in their apartments. Each apartment has at least one native speaker to ensure correct language usage.
### Academic freedom issues
In 1992, the university drafted a new Statement on Academic Freedom, specifying that limitations may be placed upon "expression with students or in public that: (1) contradicts or opposes, rather than analyzes or discusses, fundamental Latter-day Saint doctrine or policy; (2) deliberately attacks or derides the church or its general leaders; or (3) violates the Honor Code because the expression is dishonest, illegal, unchaste, profane, or unduly disrespectful of others." These restrictions caused some controversy as several professors had been disciplined according to the then-new rule. The American Association of University Professors had claimed that "infringements on academic freedom are distressingly common and that the climate for academic freedom is distressingly poor." The newer rules have not affected BYU's accreditation, as the university's chosen accrediting body allows "religious colleges and universities to place limitations on academic freedom so long as they publish those limitations candidly", according to associate academic vice president Jim Gordon. The AAUP's concern was not with restrictions on the faculty member's religious expression but with a failure, as alleged by the faculty member and AAUP, that the restrictions had not been adequately specified in advance by BYU: "The AAUP requires that any doctrinal limitations on academic freedom be laid out clearly in writing. We [AAUP] concluded that BYU had failed to do so adequately."
In 2021, the Salt Lake Tribune noted the tension between faith and scholarship that has existed at the university as early as 1910, and how the recent LDS Church calls for a retrenchment has some BYU professors worried about a new wave of fideism at the university.
## Performing arts
### Dance
The BYU Ballroom Dance Company is known as one of the best formation ballroom dance teams in the world, having won the U.S. National Formation Dance Championship every year since 1982. BYU's ballroom dance team has won first place in Latin or Standard (or both) many times when they have competed at the Blackpool Dance Festival, and they were the first U.S. team to win the formation championships at the famed British Championships in Blackpool, England in 1972. The NDCA National DanceSport championships have been held at BYU for several years, and BYU holds dozens of ballroom dance classes each semester and has consequently the largest collegiate ballroom dance program in the world. In addition, BYU has a number of other notable dance teams and programs. These teams include the Theatre Ballet, Contemporary Dance Theatre, Living Legends, and International Folk Dance Ensemble. The Living Legends perform Latin, Native American, and Polynesian dancing. BYU boasts one of the largest dance departments in the nation. Many students from all different majors across campus participate in various dance classes each semester.
### Music
The Young Ambassadors are a song and dance performing group with a 50-year history at BYU. Prior to 1970 the group was known as Curtain Time USA. In the 1960s their world tour stops included Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. The group first performed as the Young Ambassadors at Expo '70 in Japan, and has since performed in over 56 nations. The royalty of Thailand and Jordan, along with persons of high office in countries such as India, have been among their audiences.
The BYU Opera Workshop gave the first North American performance of the Ralph Vaughan Williams opera The Pilgrim's Progress on April 28, 1969, directed by Max C. Golightly.
BYU's Wind Symphony and Chamber Orchestra have toured many countries including Denmark, Hong Kong, Russia, the British Isles, and Central Europe. The Symphonic Band is also an ensemble dedicated to developing the musician, but with a less strenuous focus on performance. Additionally, BYU has a marching band program called the Cougar Marching Band.
BYU has a choral program with over 500 members. The four BYU auditioned choirs include the 40-member BYU Singers, the 90-member BYU Concert Choir, the 200-member BYU Men's Chorus (the largest male collegiate choir in the U.S.), and the 190-member BYU Women's Chorus. Both the BYU Men's Chorus and BYU Singers have toured across the United States and around the globe. Each of the four groups has recorded several times under BYU's label Tantara Records.
BYU's a cappella groups, Vocal Point and Noteworthy are among the top groups in the country, both of them having been crowned International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella winners, in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Both groups release multiple music videos a year and operate under BYU's Performing Arts Management.
BYU also has a Balinese gamelan ensemble, Gamelan Bintang Wahyu.
## Athletics
BYU sponsors 21 athletic teams that compete in Division I of the NCAA, plus 6 teams that compete in extramural competition and over 50 intramural activities. All sports teams compete in the Big 12 Conference except for men's volleyball which is a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. BYU's sports teams have won a total of 12 NCAA championships and 26 non-NCAA championships. In 2021, BYU formally accepted an invitation to the Big 12 Conference and will start participating in the conference in the 2023–24 school year. Also that year, BYU's athletics program was ranked \#17 out of 293 Division I schools for overall athletics by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (Directors' Cup).
BYU's athletic teams are named the "Cougars", with Cosmo the Cougar serving as the school's mascot since 1953. The school's fight song is the Cougar Fight Song. Because many of its players serve on full-time missions for two years (men when they are 18, women when 19), BYU athletes are often older on average than other schools' players. The NCAA allows students to serve missions for two years without subtracting that time from their eligibility period. This has caused minor controversy, but is largely recognized as not lending the school any significant advantage, since players receive no athletic and little physical training during their missions. BYU has also received attention from sports networks for refusal to play games on Sunday, as well as expelling players due to honor code violations.
The university's teams and individual players have won various awards for their achievements. Its football has had seven inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame and one Heisman Trophy winner, and it won the National Championship in 1984. In basketball, BYU has had several standout basketball players including 2011 Naismith College Player of the Year Jimmer Fredette and 1981 John R. Wooden Award winner Danny Ainge.
## Student life
### Religious atmosphere
BYU's stated mission "is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life." BYU is thus considered by its leaders to be at heart a religious institution, wherein, ideally, religious and secular education are interwoven in a way that encourages the highest standards in both areas. This weaving of the secular and the religious aspects of a religious university goes back as far as Brigham Young himself, who told Karl G. Maeser when the church purchased the school: "I want you to remember that you ought not to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God."
BYU has been considered by some Latter-day Saints, as well as some university and church leaders, to be "The Lord's university". This phrase is used in reference to the school's mission as an ambassador to the world for the Church of Jesus Christ, and thus for Jesus Christ. In the past, some students and faculty have expressed dissatisfaction with this nickname, stating that it gives students the idea that university authorities are always divinely inspired and never to be contradicted. Leaders of the school, however, acknowledge that the nickname represents more a goal that the university strives for and not its current state of being. Leaders encourage students and faculty to help fulfill the goal by following the teachings of their religion, adhering to the school's honor code, and serving others with the knowledge they gain while attending.
BYU mandates that its students who are Latter-day Saints be religiously active. All applicants are required to provide an endorsement from an ecclesiastic leader with their application for admittance. Over 900 rooms on the BYU campus are used for the purposes of Church congregations. More than 150 congregations meet on BYU campus each Sunday, where "BYU's campus becomes one of the busiest and largest centers of worship in the world" with about 24,000 persons attending church services on campus.
Some 97 percent of male BYU graduates and 32 percent of female graduates have served as Latter-day Saint missionaries. In October 2012, the church announced at its general conference that young men could serve a mission after they turn 18 and have graduated from high school. Since that time many young men have elected to enroll at BYU after their mission rather than taking a hiatus during their college studies. Missionary service often lasts up to two years for young men, and up to 18 months for young women.
### Honor code
All students and faculty, regardless of religion, are required to agree to adhere to an honor code. Early forms of the CES Honor Code are found as far back as the days of the Brigham Young Academy and early school President Karl G. Maeser. Maeser created the "Domestic Organization", a group of teachers who would visit students at their homes to ensure they were following the school's moral rules prohibiting obscenity, profanity, smoking, and alcohol consumption. The Honor Code was not formally created until about 1940, and was initially used mainly for cases of cheating and academic dishonesty.
President Wilkinson expanded the Honor Code in 1957 to include other school standards. This led to what the Honor Code represents today: rules regarding chastity, dress, grooming, drugs, and alcohol. A signed commitment to live the honor code is part of the application process, and must be adhered by all students, faculty, and staff. Students and faculty found in violation of standards are warned or called to meet with representatives of the Honor Council. In certain cases, students and faculty can be expelled or lose tenure. All students, regardless of religious affiliation or Church membership, are required to meet annually with a Church or other religious leader to receive an ecclesiastical endorsement for both acceptance and continuance at the university.
#### Policies on LGBTQ students and behavior
BYU has regularly been ranked among the least LGBT-friendly schools in the United States, and its policies towards LGBTQ students have sparked criticism and protests. Historically, experiences for BYU students identifying as LGBTQIA+ have included being banned from enrolling due to their romantic attractions in the 60s, being required by school administration to undergo electroshock and vomit aversion therapies in the 1970s, having nearly 80% of BYU students reporting they'd refuse to live with an openly homosexual person in a poll in the 1990s, and a campus-wide ban on coming out until 2007. Until 2021 there were not any LGBTQIA+ – specific resources on campus, though there is now the Office of Student Success and Inclusion. Though the ban on coming out was lifted in 2007, the Honor Code still bans homosexual behavior as of 2022, and LGBTQ BYU students are at risk of expulsion for any same-sex romantic expression including hugging and handholding. Until 2021 queer students were banned from meeting together in an LGBTQ–straight alliance group on-campus. In February 2020, BYU removed the "homosexual behavior" section from its online honor code, including parts which banned "all forms of physical intimacy" between members of the same sex, however, both Paul Johnson (a general authority Seventy and commissioner of the CES) and Honor Code Office director Kevin Utt stated that, "same-sex romantic behavior is a violation of the principles of", and "not compatible" with the Honor Code.
#### Effects on sexual assault reporting
Current policy assures that victims "will not be disciplined by the university for any related honor code violation occurring at or near the time of the reported sexual misconduct unless a person's health or safety is at risk." In 2016 and 2017 the Honor Code, in light of identified potential conflicts with Title IX obligations, was extensively reviewed and updated. Criticism of past policy pointed to conflicts the policies and enforcement created for survivors of sexual assault. Beginning in 2014 and continuing through 2016, some students reported that, after being sexually assaulted or raped, they were told they would face discipline because of honor code violations for consensual sexual relationships in violation of the policy that came to light during the investigation of reported sexual assaults. Criticism has been leveled that this atmosphere may prevent other students from reporting sexual assault crimes to police, a situation that local law enforcement have publicly criticized. In response, the Victim Services Coordinator of the Provo Police Department called for an amnesty clause to be added to the Honor Code, which would not punish sexual assault survivors for past honor code violations discovered during the investigation. BYU launched a review of the practice, which concluded in October 2016. BYU announced several changes to how it would handle sexual assault reports, including adding an amnesty clause, and ensuring under most circumstances that information is not shared between Title IX Office and Honor Code Office without the victim's consent. In June 2017, the policy was further revised to affirm that "BYU strongly encourages the reporting of all incidents of sexual misconduct so that support services can be offered to victims and sexual misconduct can be prevented and stopped."
### Culture and activities
BYU was ranked by The Princeton Review in 2008 as 14th in the nation for having the happiest students and highest quality of life. The Princeton Review has also ranked BYU the "#1 stone-cold sober school" in the nation for 22 consecutive years, most likely due to students' adherence to the university's Honor Code. Additionally, according to the Uniform Crime Reports, incidents of crime in Provo are lower than the national average, with murder classified as very rare and robberies are about 1/10 the national average. In 2016, Business Insider rated BYU as the \#1 safest college campus in the nation.
Fraternities and sororities are prohibited at BYU, so most on-campus student activities and clubs are organized by the BYU Student Service Association (BYUSA), the university's official student association. Other groups such as comedy troupe Divine Comedy are sponsored by academic departments. BYU also sponsored a question-answering service known as the "100 Hour Board" where anyone with an account could ask a question, with topics ranging from academic questions to questions about relationships or church doctrine, and it was answered in 100 hours by pseudo-anonymous BYU students. In its early days, it was affiliated with The Universe. The 100 Hour Board is now scheduled for archive with its last answer being posted in 2021.
BYU's Wilkinson Center serves as the hub for entertainment on campus and includes a bowling alley, a movie theater, and an eatery. BYU's Outdoors Unlimited service provides rental and repairs for recreational equipment to help students take advantage of nearby outdoor activities like mountain biking, backpacking, rafting, and skiing.
## Media
The BYU Broadcasting Technical Operations Center is an HD production and distribution facility that is home to local independent station KBYU-TV, local classical music station KBYU-FM Classical 89, BYU Radio, BYU Radio Instrumental, BYU Radio International, BYUtv and BYU Television International with content in Spanish and Portuguese (both available via terrestrial, satellite, and internet signals). BYUtv is also available via cable throughout some areas of the United States. The BYU Broadcasting Technical Operations Center is home to three television production studios, two television control rooms, radio studios, radio performance space, and master control operations.
The university produces a weekly newspaper called The Universe (it was published daily until 2012), maintains an online news site that is regularly updated called The Digital Universe and has a daily news program broadcast via KBYU-TV. The university also has a recording label called Tantara Records which is run by the BYU School of Music and promotes the works of student ensembles and faculty.
Y Magazine is the university's alumni publication, distributed quarterly to more than 200,000 addresses. With a history that dates back to the 1920s, Y Magazine covers a wide variety of BYU activities, from student life and alumni activities to athletics and research. BYU Today is the magazine's email newsletter, distributed twice a month.
## Alumni
As of 2022, BYU has 443,426 living alumni. Alumni relations are coordinated and activities are held at the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center.
Over 21 BYU graduates have served in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, such as former Dean of the U.S. Senate, Reed Smoot (class of 1876) and former President pro tempore of the United States Senate Orrin Hatch. George Sutherland served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court between 1922 and 1938. Cabinet members of American presidents include former Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson ('26), and former United States Solicitor General, Rex E. Lee ('60). Mitt Romney, U.S. Senator, former Governor of Massachusetts, and 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee, was in the class of 1971.
BYU alumni in academia include former Dean of the Harvard Business School Kim B. Clark, two time world's most influential business thinker Clayton M. Christensen, Michael K. Young ('73), former president of the University of Washington, Matthew S. Holland, former president of Utah Valley University, Stan L. Albrecht, former president of Utah State University, and Stephen D. Nadauld, previous president of Dixie State University. The university also graduated Nobel laureate, Paul D. Boyer. Philo Farnsworth (inventor of the electronic television) received an honorary degree in 1967. Harvey Fletcher (inventor of the hearing aid) is also a graduate of the university. Four of BYU's thirteen presidents were alumni of the university. Additionally, alumni of BYU who have served as business leaders include Gary Crittenden ('76), former Dell CEO Kevin Rollins ('84), and Deseret Book CEO Sheri L. Dew.
In literature and journalism, BYU has produced several best-selling authors, including Orson Scott Card ('75), Brandon Sanderson ('00 & '05), Stephenie Meyer ('95) and Tara Westover ('08). BYU also graduated American activist and contributor for ABC News Elizabeth Smart-Gilmour. Other media personalities include award-winning ESPN sportscaster and former Miss America Sharlene Wells Hawkes ('86) and former co-host of CBS's The Early Show Jane Clayson Johnson ('90).
In entertainment and television, BYU is represented by Johnny Whitaker ('86) (best known for his role as Jody in Family Affair), Jon Heder ('02) (best known for his role as Napoleon Dynamite), YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober ('04), Golden Globe-nominated Aaron Eckhart ('94), animator and filmmaker Don Bluth ('54), Jeopardy! "Greatest of All Time" champion, Ken Jennings ('00), Academy Award-winning filmmaker Kieth Merrill ('67), and Richard Dutcher, the "Father of Mormon Cinema". In the music industry BYU is represented by lead singer of the Grammy Award-winning band Imagine Dragons Dan Reynolds, multi-platinum selling drummer Elaine Bradley from the band Neon Trees, chart-topping composer and violist Blake Allen ('10), crossover dubstep violinist Lindsey Stirling, former American Idol contestant Carmen Rasmusen, and Tabernacle Choir director Mack Wilberg.
BYU has also produced many religious leaders. Among the alumni are several Latter-day Saint General Authorities, including two Church Presidents: Ezra Taft Benson ('26), and Thomas S. Monson ('74), six Apostles (Neil L. Andersen, D. Todd Christofferson ('69), David A. Bednar ('76), Jeffrey R. Holland ('65 & '66), and Dallin H. Oaks ('54), and two General Presidents of the Relief Society, Julie B. Beck ('73) and Belle Spafford (1920).
A number of BYU alumni have found success in professional sports, representing the university in 7 MLB World Series, 5 NBA Finals, and 25 NFL Super Bowls. In baseball, BYU alumni include All-Stars Rick Aguilera ('83), Wally Joyner ('84), and Jack Morris, ('76). Professional basketball players include three-time NBA champion Danny Ainge ('81), 1952 NBA Rookie of the Year and 4-time NBA All-Star Mel Hutchins ('51), three-time Olympic medalist and Hall of Famer Krešimir Ćosić, ('73), NBA center Shawn Bradley, and consensus 2011 national college player of the year Jimmer Fredette ('11). BYU also claims notable professional football players including two-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young ('84) & J.D. ('96), Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer ('90), and two-time Super Bowl winners Jim McMahon and Kyle Van Noy. In golf, BYU alumni include two major championship winners: Johnny Miller ('69) at the 1973 U.S. Open and 1976 British Open, and Mike Weir ('92) at the 2003 Masters.
## See also
- List of colleges and universities in Utah |
24,133,330 | Kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard | 1,173,075,972 | 1991 American kidnapping case | [
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"Kidnapped American children",
"Kidnapping in the 1990s",
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| On June 10, 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard, an eleven-year-old girl, was abducted from a street while walking to a school bus stop in Meyers, California, United States. Searches began immediately after Dugard's disappearance, but no reliable leads were generated, even though several people witnessed the kidnapping. Dugard remained missing for over 18 years until 2009, when a convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido, visited the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, accompanied by two adolescent girls, who were discovered to be the biological daughters of Garrido and Dugard, on August 24 and 25 of that year. The unusual behavior of the trio sparked an investigation that led Garrido's parole officer, Edward Santos Jr. to order Garrido to take the two girls to a parole office in Concord, California, on August 26. Garrido was accompanied by a woman who was eventually identified as Dugard.
Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were arrested after Dugard's reappearance. On April 28, 2011, they pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping Dugard. Investigators revealed that Dugard had been kept in concealed tents, sheds, and lean-tos in an area behind the Garridos' house at 1554 Walnut Avenue in Antioch, California, where Phillip repeatedly raped Dugard during the first six years of her captivity. During her confinement, Dugard gave birth to two daughters, who were aged eleven and fifteen at the time of Dugard's reappearance. On June 2, 2011, Garrido was sentenced to 431 years to life imprisonment; his wife, Nancy, was sentenced to 36 years to life. Phillip is a person of interest in at least one other missing persons case in the San Francisco Bay Area.
As Garrido had been on parole for a 1976 rape at the time of her kidnapping, Dugard sued the state of California, which had taken over his parole supervision from the federal government in 1999, on account of the numerous lapses by law enforcement that contributed to her continued captivity and sexual assault. In 2010, the state of California awarded the Dugard family US\$20 million. Dugard also sued the federal government on similar grounds pertaining to Garrido's time as a federal parolee, but in a 2–1 ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed that suit because Garrido had not victimized her at the time he was placed under the supervision of the federal parole system and that as a result of this, "there was no way to anticipate she would become his victim."
In 2011, Dugard wrote an autobiography titled A Stolen Life: A Memoir. Her second book, Freedom: My Book of Firsts, was published in 2016.
## Background
### Dugard family
Jaycee Dugard's biological father, Ken Slayton, was not involved in her life, nor in the investigation that followed her kidnapping. When Dugard was seven, her mother, Terry, married a carpet contractor named Carl Probyn and gave birth to Dugard's half-sister, Shayna, in 1989. Although Dugard was close to her mother and sister, she was never close to Probyn. In September 1990, Dugard's family moved from Arcadia, California, in Los Angeles County, to Meyers, a rural town south of South Lake Tahoe, because they thought it was a safer community. At the time of the abduction, Dugard was in the fifth grade, and anticipated an upcoming field trip.
### Kidnappers
The primary offender, Phillip Greg Garrido, was born in Pittsburg, California, on April 5, 1951. He grew up in Brentwood, where he graduated from Liberty High School in 1969. Garrido's father Manuel later stated that his son had been a "good boy" as a child, but changed radically after a serious motorcycle accident as a teenager. He turned to drug useprimarily methamphetamine and LSD.
In later court testimony, Garrido admitted that he habitually masturbated in his car by the side of elementary and high schools while watching girls. In 1972 he was arrested and charged with repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl after giving her barbiturates, but the case did not go to trial after the girl declined to testify. The following year, he married his high school classmate, Christine Murphy, who accused him of domestic violence and alleged that he kidnapped her when she tried to leave him.
In 1976, Garrido kidnapped 25-year-old Katherine Callaway in South Lake Tahoe, California. He took her to a Reno, Nevada warehouse, where he raped her for five and a half hours. When a police officer noticed a car parked outside the warehouse and then a broken lock on its door, he knocked on the door and was greeted by Garrido. Callaway then emerged and asked for help. Garrido was promptly arrested.
In a 1976 court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, Garrido was diagnosed as a "sexual deviant and chronic drug abuser". The psychiatrist recommended that a neurological examination be conducted as Garrido's chronic drug use could be "responsible in part" for his "mixed" or "multiple" sexual deviations. He was evaluated by neurologist Albert F. Peterman, whose diagnostic impression was that Garrido showed "considerable evidence of anxiety and depression and personality disorder." He was convicted on March 9, 1977, and began serving a fifty-year federal sentence on June 30 of that year at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas.
At Leavenworth, Garrido met Nancy Bocanegra, the secondary offender in Dugard's kidnapping, who was visiting her uncle, another prisoner. On October 5, 1981, he and Bocanegra were married at the prison. On January 22, 1988, Garrido was released from Leavenworth to Nevada State Prison, where he served seven months of a five-years-to-life Nevada sentence. He was transferred to federal parole authorities in Contra Costa County, California, on August 26, 1988. Garrido and his wife moved to the city of Antioch and lived in the home of his elderly mother, who suffered from dementia. As a parolee, Garrido wore a GPS-enabled ankle bracelet and was regularly visited by parole officers, local sheriff's deputies, and federal agents.
## Abduction
On June 10, 1991, Dugard's mother, who worked as a typesetter at a print house, left for work early in the day. Dugard, who was eleven years old at the time, wore her favorite all-pink outfit as she walked up the hill from her house, against traffic, to catch the school bus. When she was halfway up the hill, a gray car approached her. She thought that the man driving the car was stopping to ask for directions.
The driver, Phillip Garrido, rolled down the window and tased Dugard unconscious with a stun gun before abducting her. His wife, Nancy, dragged Dugard into the car and removed her clothing, leaving only a butterfly-shaped ring that Dugard would hide from them for the next 18 years. Nancy covered Dugard with a blanket and held her down as Dugard drifted in and out of consciousness during the three-hour drive to the Garridos' property, 120 miles (190 km) away in Antioch. The only time Dugard spoke was when she pleaded that her parents could not afford a ransom. The district attorney in the Dugard case believed that Nancy had scouted Dugard as a prize for Garrido.
Probyn witnessed the abduction of his stepdaughter from within sight of their home. He saw two people in a mid-sized gray carpossibly a Mercury Monarchmake a U-turn at the school bus stop where Dugard was waiting, and a woman forcing Dugard into the car. He chased after them on a bicycle but was unable to overtake the vehicle. Some of Dugard's classmates were also witnesses to the abduction. Initial suspects included Probyn and Ken Slayton, Dugard's biological father, though they did not know each other and Slayton had only had a brief relationship with Dugard's mother in 1979, not knowing he had a child. Probyn took and passed several polygraph tests, and Slayton was also quickly cleared of suspicion. The kidnapping led to the breakup of Terry and Probyn's marriage.
## Search effort
Within hours of Dugard's disappearance, local and national media on South Lake Tahoe covered the story. Within days, dozens of local volunteers assisted in the search effort, which involved nearly every resource within the community. Within weeks, tens of thousands of fliers and posters were mailed to businesses throughout the United States. Since Dugard's favorite color was pink, the town was blanketed in pink ribbons as a reminder of her disappearance, and as a demonstration of support for her family by the community.
Terry Probyn founded a group called Jaycee's Hope, which directed the volunteer and fundraising efforts. Cassette tapes of the song "Jaycee Lee", along with T-shirts, sweatshirts, and buttons, were sold to raise money for poster materials, postage, printing, and related expenses. Child Quest International and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children were involved in the effort. A reward was offered, which was noted on the posters and fliers. The kidnapping case attracted nationwide attention and was featured on the June 14, 1991, episode of the Fox television show America's Most Wanted. The ensuing years were a continuous effort of child safety awareness, fundraising events, and candlelight vigils marking Dugard's disappearance, keeping her story in the public awareness.
## Captivity
Upon arriving at the Garridos's home in an unincorporated area of Antioch, the Garridos took Dugard, her head still covered with a blanket, behind their house, where they had constructed a series of dilapidated tents and sheds. Garrido placed Dugard inside a tiny shed that had been soundproofed. Dugard later stated in her memoir and an interview with ABC News that upon arrival, Garrido handcuffed her and left her naked in the shed, which he bolted shut, warning her that trained Doberman Pinschers outside the shed would attack her if she tried to escape. Right after the abduction, Garrido forced Dugard into a shower with him, which was the first time she had been exposed to an unclothed man. During her first week in captivity, Dugard remained in handcuffs, her only human contact being Garrido, who sometimes brought her fast food and talked to her. He provided a bucket for her to use to relieve herself. A week after the kidnapping, Garrido raped the still-handcuffed Dugard for the first time. He continued to rape her frequently, doing so at least once a week for the first three years of her captivity.
At one point, Garrido provided Dugard with a television, but she could not watch the news, and remained unaware of the search for her. Almost a month and a half after her kidnapping, by Dugard's recollection, Garrido moved her to a larger room next door, where she was handcuffed to a bed. He explained that the "demon angels" let him take her and that she would help him with his sexual problems because society had ignored him. Garrido would occasionally go on days-long methamphetamine binges he called "runs", during which he would force Dugard to keep him company by performing sexual favors and engaging in various other activities with him. Garrido made her listen out for the voices he said he could hear from the walls, and often professed a belief that he was a chosen servant of God. These binges would end with Garrido sobbing and apologizing to Dugard, alternating with threats to sell her to people who would put her in a cage.
Seven months into her captivity, Garrido introduced Dugard to his wife, Nancy, who brought the child a stuffed animal and chocolate milk and engaged in the same tearful apologies to her. Though Dugard craved the woman's approval at the time, in a 2011 ABC News interview she stated that Nancy was just as manipulative as Garrido. Dugard related that Nancy alternated between motherly concern and coldness and cruelty, expressing her jealousy of Dugard, whom she regarded as the one to blame for her predicament. She characterized Nancy, who worked as a nursing home aide, as "evil" and "twisted". When Garrido was returned to prison for failing a drug test, Nancy replaced her husband as Dugard's jailer.
The Garridos' neighbor, Patrick McQuaid, told the San Jose Mercury News that as a child he recalled meeting Dugard through a fence in the Garridos' yard soon after the kidnapping. He said that she had identified herself by the name "Jaycee" and that when asked if she lived there or was just visiting, she answered that she lived there. At that point, Garrido came out and took her back indoors. He eventually built an 8-foot-tall (2.4-meter) fence around the backyard and set up a tent for Dugard, the first time that she was allowed to walk outside since her kidnapping.
The Garridos manipulated Dugard further by presenting her, on two occasions, with kittens that would later "mysteriously vanish". When Garrido discovered that she was signing her real name in a journal that she kept about the kittens, she was forced to tear out the page with her name on it, the last time she would be permitted to say or write her name until her captivity ended eighteen years later. She was never allowed to see a doctor or dentist.
### Pregnancy and children
Almost three years into her captivity, the Garridos began to allow Dugard freedom from her handcuffs for periods, though they kept her locked in the bolted room. On Easter Sunday of 1994, they gave her cooked food for the first time. The couple informed Dugard that they believed that she was pregnant. Dugard, aged 13 at the time, had learned of the link between sex and pregnancy from television. Dugard watched television programs on childbirth in preparation for the birth of her first daughter, which occurred when Dugard was aged 14, on August 18, 1994. After the birth of her first daughter, Garrido raped Dugard less frequently, though he would nonetheless do so when he had taken drugs.
The last time Garrido raped Dugard was the day her second daughter was conceived. Her second daughter was born when Dugard was 17, on November 13, 1997. Dugard took care of her daughters using information learned from television and worked to protect them from Garrido, who continued his enraged rants and lectures.
Dugard coped with her continued captivity by planting flowers in a garden and homeschooling her daughters. At one point, Garrido informed Dugard that to pacify his wife, Dugard and her daughters were to address Nancy as their mother and that she was to teach her daughters that Dugard was their older sister. When Dugard and her daughters were eventually allowed to come into contact with other people, this fiction was continued.
Garrido operated a print shop where Dugard acted as the graphic artist. Ben Daughdrill, a customer of Garrido's printing business, claimed that he met and spoke by telephone with Dugard and that she did excellent work. During this time, Dugard had access to the business phone and an email account. Another customer indicated that she never hinted to him about her childhood abduction or her true identity. Witnesses stated Dugard was seen in the Garrido household, and sometimes answered the front door to talk to people, but never stated there was a problem or attempted to leave. While the family kept to themselves, the girls were sometimes seen playing in the secondary backyard behind the house, where Dugard's living quarters are thought to have been located.
The private area of the backyard included sheds, one of which was used as a recording studio in which Garrido recorded himself singing religious-themed and romantic country songs, two homemade tents, and what has been described as a camping-style shower and toilet. The area was surrounded by tall trees and a 6-foot (1.8-meter)-high fence. An entrance to the secondary backyard was covered by trees and a tarpaulin. Privacy was enhanced by tents and outbuildings. Electricity was supplied by extension cords. The enclosure also housed a car that matched the description of the one used in the abduction.
### Missed rescue opportunities
Law enforcement officers visited the residence at least twice but did not ask to inspect the backyard, and did not detect the presence of Dugard or her children in the areas of the property that they did inspect. These were among several missed opportunities for rescue which later led to criticism of authorities:
- Police failed to realize that Dugard had been kidnapped south of South Lake Tahoe, the same location as Garrido's 1976 kidnapping and rape of Katherine Callaway Hall.
- On April 22, 1992, less than a year after her kidnapping, a man called the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department from a gas station less than two miles from the Garridos' home, reporting that he saw Dugard inside the gas station staring intently at a missing child poster of herself. The caller then reported seeing her leave in a large yellow van, possibly a Dodge; an old yellow Dodge van was later recovered from the Garrido property that matched the description of the van given in the call. The license plate was not reported in the 1992 call. The caller, the girl, and the van were gone by the time police arrived. The caller never identified himself and the police did not pursue the matter. Contradicting this story, Dugard reported that she never left the Garrido property from the day she was kidnapped until shortly before her first child was born in August 1994.
- In June 2002, the Antioch fire department responded to a report of a juvenile with a shoulder injury that occurred in a swimming pool at the Garridos' home. This information was not relayed to the parole office, which had no record of either a juvenile or a swimming pool at the Garridos' address.
- In 2006, one of Garrido's neighbors called 9-1-1 to inform them that there were tents in the backyard with children living there and that Garrido was "psychotic" with sexual addictions. A deputy sheriff spoke with Garrido at the front of the house for about 30 minutes and left, after telling Garrido that there would be a code violation if people were living outside on the property. After Dugard was found in August 2009, the local Contra Costa County Sheriff, Warren E. Rupf, issued an apology to the victims in a news conference.
- On November 4, 2009, the California Office of the Inspector General issued a report that enumerated lapses by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that had contributed to Dugard's continued captivity. The central finding was that Garrido was incorrectly classified as needing only low-level supervision; all other lapses derived from that mistake. In his report, the inspector general detailed an instance in which a parole agent encountered a twelve-year-old girl at the home but accepted Garrido's explanation that "she was his brother's daughter and [the agent] did nothing to verify it," even though a call to Garrido's brother verified that he did not have children.
## Reappearance
On August 24, 2009, Garrido visited the San Francisco office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and left a four-page essay containing his ideas about religion and sexuality, suggesting that he had discovered a solution to problem behaviors like his past crimes. The essay described how he had cured his deviant behavior and how that information could be used to assist in curing other sexual predators by "controlling human impulses that drive humans to commit dysfunctional acts".
On the same day, Garrido traveled to the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) with Dugard's two daughters and visited its campus police office, seeking permission to hold a special event as a part of his "God's Desire" program. He spoke with special-events manager Lisa Campbell; she perceived his behavior as "erratic" and felt that the girls were "sullen and submissive." She asked Garrido to make an appointment for the next day, which he did, leaving his name in the process. Officer Ally Jacobs ran a background check and discovered that Garrido was a registered sex offender on federal parole for kidnapping and rape. Garrido and the girls returned for their appointment at 2 p.m. the following day, and Jacobs attended the meeting. The girls appeared to Jacobs to be pale as if they had not been exposed to sunlight, and she felt that their behavior was unusual. Garrido's several parole violations were a basis for an arrest, so Jacobs phoned the parole office to relay her concerns, leaving a report on voicemail.
After hearing Jacobs' recorded message, two parole agents drove to the Garridos' house later that day. Upon arrival, they handcuffed Garrido and searched the house, finding only his wife Nancy, and his elderly mother at home. The parole agents then drove him to the parole office. En route, Garrido said that the girls who had accompanied him to UC Berkeley "were the daughters of a relative" and that he had had permission from their parents to take them there. Although the parole office had previously barred Garrido from associating with minors, and Berkeley was 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Garridos' Contra Costa residence (15 miles (24 km) over the 25-mile (40 km) limit he was allowed to travel from his home without his parole agent's permission), nothing was done about these violations. After reviewing his file with a supervisor, they drove Garrido home and ordered him to report to the office again the next day to discuss his visit to UC Berkeley and to follow up on the office's concerns about the two girls.
Garrido arrived at the parole office in Concord, California, on August 26 with Nancy, the two girls, and Dugard, who was introduced as "Allissa". The parole officer decided to separate Garrido from the women and girls to obtain their identification.
Maintaining her false identity as "Allissa", Dugard told investigators that the girls were her daughters. Although she indicated that she was aware that Garrido was a convicted sex offender, she stated that he was a "changed man", a "great person", and was "good with her kids", comments that were echoed by the two girls. When pressed for details that would confirm her identity, Dugard became "extremely defensive" and "agitated", demanding to know why she was being "interrogated", and subsequently stated that she was a battered wife from Minnesota in hiding from her abusive husband. The parole officer eventually called the Concord police. Upon the arrival of a Concord police sergeant, Garrido admitted he had kidnapped and raped Dugard. Only after this did she properly identify herself as Jaycee Dugard. It was later suggested that Dugard showed signs of Stockholm syndrome.
In a 2016 ABC News interview, Dugard stated that her compassion and willingness to interact with her captor were her only means of surviving, saying, "The phrase Stockholm Syndrome implies that hostages cracked by terror and abuse become affectionate towards their captors...Well, it's, really, it's degrading, you know, having my family believe that I was in love with this captor and wanted to stay with him. I mean, that is so far from the truth that it makes me want to throw up...I adapted to survive my circumstance." She repeatedly stated that, as a survival mechanism, many victims are forced to sympathize with their captors.
Garrido and his wife were placed under arrest. An FBI special agent put Dugard on the telephone with her mother, Terry Probyn. Dugard retained custody of her children and reunited with her mother on August 27, 2009.
## Aftermath
### Reunion and afterward
Dugard's aunt, Tina Dugard, and a former business associate of the Garridos, Cheyvonne Molino, have commented that Dugard's children looked healthy. Tina said that upon her meeting them after their escape, they "always appeared and behaved like normal kids". Molino said of the times that she met them while they were captive "that in her presence the girls never acted robotically" and did not wear unusual clothing.
In the days following Dugard's return, her stepfather confirmed that Dugard and her daughters were in good health and intelligent, their reunion was going well, and they were proceeding slowly. He said Dugard had developed a significant emotional bond with Garrido, and the two daughters cried when they learned of their father's arrest. Tina Dugard reported that the daughters are clever, articulate, and curious girls.
Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said Dugard's reappearance is an important event for families of other long-term missing children because it shows that hope remains even in long-term cases. Abduction survivor Elizabeth Smart has stressed the importance of focusing on the future with a positive attitude as an effective approach to accepting what has happened. Shawn Hornbeck, another abduction survivor, also commented on the case, noting: "Coming out of what she's had to endure is like entering a new world. It's like a door has opened for her and she's emerged from a world that's black and white into one that's full of color." He opined that the reason Dugard never escaped of her own accord was that she was brainwashed. He further offered insight into post-abduction life, saying that feelings of anger are normal for survivors and that therapy can enable them to move on with their lives.
Three weeks after her release, Dugard asked for the pets that were raised in the home. On October 14, 2009, People magazine published the first verified photo of Jaycee Dugard as an adult on its cover. Dugard's memoir, A Stolen Life: A Memoir, was published on July 12, 2011, by Simon & Schuster, to positive reviews.
Dugard began animal-assisted therapy with horses, an activity she shared with her mother Terry and her sister Shayna.
### Police investigations
Following the arrest, police searched the Garrido house extensively for evidence of other crimes. Because Garrido had access to his neighbor's house, it was also searched for evidence. Police also searched the homes and business of one of Garrido's printing business clients. Police agencies from Hayward and Dublin, California, conducted searches of the Garridos' property for evidence pertaining to missing girls from those communities but did not find any. In July 2011, Hayward police announced that Garrido has not been eliminated as a suspect and is still a person of interest in the abduction case of Michaela Garecht. Garecht was kidnapped in 1988 and Hayward is 55 miles (89 kilometers) from the Garridos' Antioch home.
### Garrido's statements
On August 27, 2009, KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California, interviewed Garrido in his jail cell by telephone. During the interview, Garrido said, "In the end, this is going to be a powerful, heartwarming story" because in his version of events:
> My life has been straightened out. ... Wait till you hear the story of what took place at this house. You're going to be absolutely impressed. It's a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning, but I turned my life completely around.
Garrido repeatedly told the reporter how he "filed documents" with the FBI on August 24, 2009, which, when they were published, would cause people to "fall over backwards", and that he could not reveal more because he "had to protect law enforcement", and "what happened" ... was "something that humans have not understood well". In the interview, Garrido denied he had ever harmed Dugard's two daughters. He said their births changed his life, saying, "they slept in my arms every single night since birth. I never touched them." On August 28, 2009, FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler confirmed that Garrido had indeed left the documents with the agency, as he had claimed, but declined to discuss further details. The document, titled Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed, was eventually released by the FBI. It is about stopping schizophrenics from turning violent and controlling sounds with the human mind.
### Legal proceedings
On August 28, 2009, Garrido and his wife pled not guilty to charges including kidnapping, rape, and false imprisonment. The case was prosecuted in El Dorado County, by elected District Attorney Vern R. Pierson and Assistant District Attorney James A. Clinchard. A bail review/pre-preliminary hearing was held September 14, 2009, at the El Dorado County Superior Court in Placerville, California. At the hearing, Superior Court Judge Douglas Phimister set bail for Nancy at US\$30 million. There was a no-bail parole hold on Garrido. The judge initially kept Nancy in custody on a no-bail hold, but she was granted bail at a later date. At the September 14 hearing, Phimister also granted a request from Garrido's attorney to have a psychologist or psychiatrist appointed to conduct a confidential evaluation. Such examinations can be used by the defense to assist in case preparation, and additional mental health examinations can be ordered at subsequent phases in the proceedings. On October 29, 2009, a short hearing was held to set a date for the next pre-preliminary hearing when issues such as discovery were to be discussed. This hearing occurred on December 11, 2009. Katie Callaway Hall, whom Garrido kidnapped and raped in 1976, appeared in the courtroom at the October and December hearings. She did not speak during either proceeding.
On November 5, 2009, Phimister ordered Nancy's defense attorney, Gilbert Maines, to be removed from the case. According to a posting on the court's website, the decision occurred in a review of "confidential evidence" that has not been disclosed to the public, and details of the proceedings were kept sealed. The decision was stayed until November 30, 2009. On November 12, 2009, Phimister appointed Stephen A. Tapson as interim counsel for Nancy. Gilbert Maines appealed the decision and received a favorable ruling by the California Third District Court of Appeal on December 15, 2009. On December 22, 2009, the same court gave the El Dorado Superior Court until January 2010 to respond to the ruling. Both Gilbert Maines and Stephen Tapson appeared at the discovery hearing on December 11, 2009. A hearing was held on January 21, 2010. At that hearing, Maines was removed from the case and Tapson was appointed defense counsel for Nancy. In addition, bail, in the amount of US\$20 million, was set for Nancy.
At a press conference on February 28, 2011, Tapson said that Nancy and Phillip Garrido had both made a "full confession" in the case. The development came as lawyers for both sides reopened discussions on a possible plea deal that had the potential to obviate the need for a trial. Nancy's attorney acknowledged that she was facing "241 years, eight months to life" and that he was working for a reduced sentence in the 30-year range. He stated that the prosecutor had acknowledged that Phillip was a master manipulator and that Nancy was under both his influence and that of substances during the period of Dugard's kidnapping, so should receive some consideration while alluding to parallels with kidnap victim Patty Hearst and Stockholm syndrome.
On April 7, 2011, instead of pleading guilty, as had been expected based on the previous statements, the Garridos pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and raping Dugard, as well as other charges, in an amended grand jury indictment. Phillip's attorney, public defender Susan Gellman, alleged that the grand jury might have been selected improperly and might have acted improperly. Gellman did not elaborate on her claim in the courtroom but said outside that she had questions about the racial and geographic makeup of the grand jury that originally indicted the Garridos in September 2010. Judge Phimister noted that there were issues about the process itself before the grand jury, and also stated that the court would consider whether the grand jury acted appropriately. These developments were largely unforeseen by attorney Stephen Tapson, who represented Nancy; Tapson had said earlier that week that Phillip had made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison. Gellman was upset with Tapson for telling reporters that her client had planned to plead guilty, saying that he should only speak about his own client, Nancy. Tapson said he found out about Gellman's plans only late on April 6. Neither attorney would elaborate further on the specific concerns about the grand jury. El Dorado, California District Attorney Vern Pierson said he did not think the complaints about the grand jury would ultimately derail the case against the Garridos.
On April 28, 2011, the Garridos pled guilty to kidnapping and rape by force. On June 2, 2011, Phillip was sentenced to 431 years to life imprisonment. Nancy was sentenced to 36 years to life imprisonment. The sentences would allow Nancy to be eligible for parole in August 2029.
Phillip was imprisoned in California State Prison, Corcoran, while Nancy was incarcerated at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. Dugard did not attend the sentencing, instead sending a written message with her mother to read aloud in court.
### Settlement with the State of California
As Garrido had been on parole for a 1976 rape at the time of her kidnapping, Dugard sued the state of California, which had taken over his parole supervision from the federal government in 1999, on account of the numerous lapses by law enforcement during instances in which her captivity should have been discovered by them. In July 2010, the State of California approved a US\$20 million settlement with Dugard to compensate her for: "various lapses by the Corrections Department [that contributed to] Dugard's continued captivity, ongoing sexual assault, and mental and/or physical abuse". The settlement, part of AB1714, was approved by the California State Assembly by a 70 to 2 vote, and by the California State Senate by a 30 to 1 vote. San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Daniel Weinstein, who mediated the settlement, stated that the settlement was reached to avoid a lawsuit, which would be a: "greater invasion of privacy and greater publicity for the state". The bill was signed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on July 9.
### Lawsuit against the United States
On September 22, 2011, Dugard filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the United States of failing to monitor Phillip when he was a federal parolee. Dugard stated in her lawsuit against the federal government that parole officials should have revoked Garrido's parole and returned him to prison for any number of parole violations that preceded her abduction, including testing positive for drugs and alcohol.
On March 15, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed Dugard's civil claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). In a 2–1 decision authored by Judge John B. Owens, the court ruled that the federal government's sovereign immunity was not waived because the U.S. is only liable "in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances" under state law. In this case, because the U.S. would not be liable under California law, Dugard could not prevail on her FTCA claim. The majority's rationale was that Dugard had not been victimized by Garrido at the time he was placed under federal parole supervision, and "there was no way to anticipate she would become his victim," and thus, federal authorities in California had no duty to protect her or other members of the general public from him. Chief District Court Judge William Smith again dissented, stating that he believed that the majority misinterpreted California law, as the cases cited by the majority only involved FTCA liability in rehabilitation centers, and there were good legitimate grounds to hold the government liable.
### Parole officer breaks his silence
In November 2022, Phillip Garrido's former parole officer, Edward Santos Jr., who had retired in December 2021, broke his silence by speaking to Sacramento's KCRA-TV. Santos stated that he was not permitted to relate his version of the events that led to the arrest of the Garridos and Dugard's rescue, saying, "I wish the state of California would've allowed me to speak. I was told not to speak to anybody at all...Just keep quiet. Don't say anything and hopefully, you'll keep your job. That's the way I always felt." Santos stated he had thoroughly searched the Garridos' house and backyard, and found no trace of Dugard. He also said that his actions on the day of Phillip's arrest were key to Dugard's rescue, as he visited the Garrido home after hearing about the two young girls who were seen with Garrido on the UC Berkeley campus, and demanded to know their whereabouts. When Phillip said that they had been picked up by their father, Santos ordered Garrido to appear at Santos' office with them the following morning with their parents, and when they showed up with Nancy that morning and gave conflicting stories about the girls' identities, Santos persistently questioned them and Dugard. Santos said that had he not done this, Dugard's identity would not have been discovered. Santos insisted that he did his job, but regretted not having found Dugard when he first visited the Garrido home, and also publicly apologized to Dugard for not having spoken to her after his initial interview of her, during which he had treated her as if she were a suspect rather than a victim. The California Department of Corrections confirmed to KCRA-TV that Santos had been a parole officer with that agency, but would not confirm that he had been Phillip's parole officer, "due to safety and security issues and the multiple investigations and reviews after the arrest of the Garridos."
## In media
- Jaycee Dugard documented her life in captivity in a book, A Stolen Life: A Memoir, which she wrote as part of her therapy with Rebecca Bailey, who specializes in post-trauma family reunification. Dugard says she wrote the book, which was published in July 2011, to assist other survivors of sexual abuse. A few days before the book was released, Dugard gave her first extensive television interview taped in Ojai, California, to ABC's Diane Sawyer.
- An American crime show on the Investigation Discovery network titled Wicked Attraction aired an episode about Phillip and Nancy Garrido, which detailed Dugard's kidnapping and recovery.
- A documentary that aired in October 2009 on Channel 4 in Britain titled Captive for 18 Years: Jaycee Lee focused on the story of Dugard's kidnapping, recovery, and the beginnings of the trial including interviews with Jaycee's stepfather.
- Dugard was awarded a Lifetime Leadership honor at the third annual The DVF Awards on March 9, 2012, for her courage and her JAYC Foundation, which provides support to families dealing with abduction and other losses.
- Dugard's second book, Freedom: My Book of Firsts, was released on July 12, 2016, by Simon & Schuster. The book focuses on her life since the publication of A Stolen Life and her recovery and reintegration into the world. She was again interviewed by Diane Sawyer a few days before publication.
- The case was covered by Casefile True Crime Podcast on September 17, 2016.
## See also
- List of child abuse cases featuring long-term detention
- List of solved missing person cases |
1,564,546 | Treehouse of Horror V | 1,172,175,634 | null | [
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"Halloween television episodes",
"Parodies of films",
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"Science fiction comedy",
"Television episodes about cannibalism",
"Television episodes about education",
"Television episodes about ghosts",
"Television episodes about murder",
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"Television episodes about time travel",
"Television episodes with live action and animation",
"Television episodes written by David X. Cohen",
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]
| "Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the fifth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 30, 1994, and features three short stories titled "The Shinning", "Time and Punishment", and "Nightmare Cafeteria".
The episode was written by Greg Daniels, Dan McGrath, David Cohen and Bob Kushell, and directed by Jim Reardon. In "The Shinning", a spoof of The Shining, the Simpsons are hired as caretakers at Mr. Burns' mansion. Deprived of television and beer, Homer becomes insane and attempts to murder the family. In "Time and Punishment", a parody of Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", Homer repeatedly travels back in time and alters the future. In "Nightmare Cafeteria", Principal Skinner begins using students in detention as cafeteria food. The episode has a running gag where Groundskeeper Willie tries to help but gets stabbed in the back with an axe, killing him. This is the first Treehouse of Horror episode not to feature a wraparound segment.
In response to longstanding complaints about excessive graphic violence in the show, showrunner David Mirkin mandated that the episode contain as many disturbing and gory elements as possible. James Earl Jones features as the voice of an alternate-timeline Maggie. The episode was critically acclaimed, with "The Shinning" segment receiving the most praise.
## Plot
Marge begins to show a classic Western film as she tells the audience that the episode is deemed so scary that Congress will not allow its broadcast. Homer and Bart interrupt this screening to show the episode anyway.
In the segment "The Shinning", the Simpsons are employed as caretakers at Mr. Burns' haunted lodge while it is closed for the winter. Groundskeeper Willie discovers that Bart can read his mind, and tells Bart he has the "Shinning". The lack of cable TV and beer at the lodge, which Mr. Burns engineered to ensure hard work from the caretakers, along with the influence of a phantom Moe, causes Homer to become murderous and crazy instead. While Marge fends him off, Homer faints in horror after seeing his reflection in a mirror, so Marge locks him in the pantry to calm him down. After Homer calms down by eating snack food, Moe and a gang of ghouls force him out of the pantry to kill his family. Bart uses his "Shinning" powers to summon Willie, who abandons his portable TV in the snow to come to the family's rescue. Homer kills him and continues his pursuit of the family. Lisa shows Homer Willie's TV, and Homer's insanity abates as the family watches TV. When they become frozen stiff, the Tony Awards ceremony begins airing on the TV, and Homer's murderous impulse comes back.
In the segment "Time and Punishment", Homer accidentally turns his broken toaster into a time machine after trying to repair it. After traveling to prehistoric times, Homer remembers his father's advice about the butterfly effect but unthinkingly swats a mosquito. In the present, a toxically positive Ned now rules the world; after Homer gets the Simpsons sentenced to 're-Neducation' (a program which includes full-frontal lobotomies), he escapes and endeavors to fix his mistakes. Homer's failed attempts create a present where Bart and Lisa are giants, followed by one where the Simpsons are wealthy and Patty and Selma have died, but no one knows what donuts are (but which now fall from the sky as rain), and one where Willie tries to help Homer, but is killed by a talking Maggie. On his final trip back, Homer destroys everything in sight with a baseball bat. Homer travels back to his home, where everything is as it was except for his family having reptilian tongues, which Homer accepts as "close enough".
In the segment "Nightmare Cafeteria", Principal Skinner and Lunchlady Doris discover a common solution to both the problem of poor cafeteria food and an overcrowded detention hall: eating any child that is sent to detention. After only a few students remain, Willie tries to help Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse escape, but Skinner kills him. Milhouse, Bart, and Lisa fall off a ledge into a giant food processor, when Bart wakes up with his family in his bedroom. Marge assures him he has nothing to fear except the "fog that turns people inside out", which seeps in through the window. The family then performs "One" from A Chorus Line as the credits roll.
## Production
The showrunner David Mirkin attempted to put "as much blood and guts" into the episode as he could. This was because Mirkin was disappointed by complaints from Congress regarding the amount of violence in the show and their attempts for it to be censored. He later called it "the most [...] disturbing Halloween show ever". The opening sequence, in which Marge states the episode could not be shown and plays some live action stock footage, was also in reaction to this. Mirkin said he thinks Halloween shows can be "scary as well as fun".
This episode marked the end of the tradition of featuring humorous tombstones in the title sequence of Halloween episodes. The title sequence of this episode featured a tombstone reading "Amusing Tombstones", which was a sign that the writers could no longer devise ideas to use as humorous tombstone messages. Similar sequences were featured as introductions in all four preceding Treehouse of Horror episodes, but have not been featured since this episode.
The staff also decided against the traditional continuation of featuring wraparound segments that were featured before each story in the preceding Treehouse of Horror episodes, to allow more time for the main stories.
The first segment, "The Shinning", is a parody of the film The Shining. The film's director, Stanley Kubrick, had been a big influence on Mirkin, and was "one of the main reason[s] [he] wanted to be a director". Series creator Matt Groening admitted that he had not seen The Shining and most of the references to the film were entirely lost on him.
Groening originally pitched the idea that Homer would travel through time in "Time and Punishment". His original idea was that the time-travel would be the result of Homer simply jamming his hand in the toaster, but it was rejected by the other writers.
The first time Homer travels back in time, he was originally supposed to state "I'm the first non-fictional character to travel backwards through time". The line was later changed from "non-fictional" to "non-Brazilian". Groening was confused as to the reason for the change, since he liked the original so much. In fact, he did not even understand what the new line implied. Josh Weinstein said the line is supposed to be a non-sequitur. In Brazil, the Portuguese dub changed the line to "I'm the first non-astronaut to travel backwards through time."
In the scene where the Simpsons' house transforms into numerous objects, one of the original designs included the house being made entirely of squirrels. Layout artist Lance Wilder worked on the drawings for more than two days, but ultimately it was cut as the picture quality of standard-definition televisions of the time would have made the image unrecognizable. To ensure their work did not go to waste, some staff members have used the drawings on Christmas cards and other studio-related notices.
"Nightmare Cafeteria" was the first Simpsons story to be written by David X. Cohen. He wrote the final scene where a nightmarish fog turns the family inside out. This was inspired by an episode of the radio show Lights Out called "The Dark", which frightened Cohen as a child. A dance number was added immediately afterward in order to end the show on a lighter note. The "grade F meat" joke was written by Cohen, inspired by his cousin once seeing a box of hot dogs labeled "grade C, approved for human consumption".
## Cultural references
The voice-over in the pre-title sequence is a reference to the 1963 television series The Outer Limits. The first segment, "The Shinning", is a parody of the Stephen King novel The Shining and the Stanley Kubrick film of the same name. The basic plot of the segment is the same as the novel and there are also many references to specific moments from the film, such as the blood coming out of the elevator and Homer breaking through a door with an axe and yelling "Here's Johnny!". The segment also references John Denver Christmas specials.
The title of the second segment, "Time and Punishment", is a reference to Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel Crime and Punishment and the plot, where Homer causes major changes in the future by killing animals in the past, is a parody of the Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder". Peabody and Sherman, from the animated series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, make an appearance during Homer's time traveling sequence and when, as a side effect of Homer's antics in the past, Kang and Kodos' heads are unexpectedly replaced with those of Peabody and Sherman. The dinosaur scenes are reminiscent of Jurassic Park, and the floor morphing into a television screen is a reference to similar scenes in both Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Time Bandits.
The title of the third segment, "Nightmare Cafeteria", is a reference to the television series Nightmare Café, while the plot bears resemblance to Soylent Green. The song over the end credits is based on the song "One" from the musical A Chorus Line, while the concept of the family being turned inside out by a mysterious fog comes from an episode of the radio show Lights Out called "The Dark". "One" can briefly be heard at the end of "The Shinning", when an announcer introduces the Tony Awards on Willie's portable TV.
## Reception
### Critical reception
Since airing, "Treehouse of Horror V" has received critical acclaim. Entertainment Weekly ranked this episode as the ninth best of the entire series: "The Shinning" was described as "a parody brimming with such detail [and] comic timing" that it "ranks with the greatest of pop culture spoofs" and Grandpa's wedding advice to Homer in "Time and Punishment" was praised as "one of the most beautifully random moments in Simpsons history". They concluded that "Maybe 'Nightmare Cafeteria' doesn't shine as brilliantly, but we still think it's perfectly, well, 'cromulent.'" It ranked fifth on AskMen.com's "Top 10: Simpsons Episodes" list. The list stated that the episode "offers three completely different tales, [...] boasting a potent combination of wit and humor" that, "the laughs never end", and that it "does a great job of incorporating Halloween-themed stories with the standard Simpsons charm". IGN called the episode "the funniest Treehouse of Horror to date". In 2006, they also named it the best episode of the sixth season. Adam Finley of the weblog TV Squad called it "possibly one of the best Halloween episodes ever". Michael Passman of Michigan Daily said the episode "is largely regarded as the best, but a weak final third holds it back". Entertainment.ie named it among the 10 greatest Simpsons episodes of all time. Screen Rant called it the best episode of the sixth season and the greatest Halloween episode of The Simpsons. Consequence of Sound called it "a true benchmark of the series," ranking it the second greatest Treehouse of Horror episode of all time. In 2019, Time ranked the episode third in its list of 10 best Simpsons episodes picked by Simpsons experts.
"The Shinning" is particularly highly praised. As well as Entertainment Weekly's praise, IGN voted it first on their list of the best segments in the Treehouse of Horror series, with "Time and Punishment" coming fourth. It came ninth on the blog Noise to Signal's list of "The Ten Best Treehouse of Horror Vignettes". Adam Finley of TV Squad opined that it "could [...] be the best Treehouse of Horror segment ever" and praised the opening of "Time and Punishment." When putting together the perfect Treehouse of Horror episode, Passman of Michigan Daily included The Shinning as "a shoo-in". Empire named "No TV And No Beer Make Homer Go Crazy" the sixth-best film parody in the show's history. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "Another fine entry to the Treehouse canon". Vulture named "The Shinning" the best "Treehouse of Horror" segment ever, stating, "When you can’t think of the original without also thinking of the spoof. That’s The Shining and 'The Shinning,' easily the best Treehouse segment of all time."
James Earl Jones' guest appearance in this episode, as well as in "Treehouse of Horror" and "Das Bus", was listed seventh on IGN's "Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances" list. Jones ranked 25th on AOL's list of their favorite 25 The Simpsons guest stars. Matt Groening said that Maggie's line "It is indeed a disturbing universe" (voiced by James Earl Jones) is among his favorite lines in the show. David Mirkin said that Homer's line, "Oh I wish, I wish I hadn't killed that fish", is one of his favorites in the show, and that the alternate future in which the family is rich "breaks [his] heart every time". Homer's line "close enough" from Time and Punishment was later used in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Moebius".
Alf Clausen's musical score for this episode received an Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Dramatic Underscore— Series" in 1995.
### Ratings
In its original broadcast, "Treehouse of Horror V" finished 27th in ratings for the week of October 24–30, 1994, with a Nielsen rating of 12.2, equivalent to approximately 11.6 million viewing households. It was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following Beverly Hills, 90210.
## Legacy
"Time and Punishment" was later referenced in DC Comics' Booster Gold comic book series, where Booster Gold explains the butterfly effect by referencing this episode. Simpsons-themed metal band Okilly Dokilly based their song "Reneducation" on "Time and Punishment", in which Homer visits a dystopian future where "Flanders is the unquestioned lord and master of the world."
## See also
- Butterfly effect in popular culture
- Cannibalism in popular culture |
2,249,590 | If I Needed Someone | 1,164,554,596 | Song composed by George Harrison | [
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| "If I Needed Someone" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by George Harrison, the group's lead guitarist. It was released in December 1965 on their album Rubber Soul, except in North America, where it appeared on the June 1966 release Yesterday and Today. The song reflects the reciprocal influences shared between the Beatles and American band the Byrds. On release, it was widely considered to be Harrison's best song to date. A recording by the Hollies was issued in Britain on the same day as Rubber Soul and peaked at number 20 on the national singles chart.
Harrison wrote the song for Pattie Boyd, the English model whom he married in January 1966. The lyrics convey an ambivalent tone, however, and have invited interpretation as a message to a casual love interest. Harrison based the song's jangly guitar riff on one used by Roger McGuinn in the Byrds' adaptation of "The Bells of Rhymney". "If I Needed Someone" features prominent three-part harmony vocals and Rickenbacker twelve-string electric guitar – the instrument that the Byrds had adopted to replicate Harrison's sound in the 1964 film A Hard Day's Night. The song's use of drone and Mixolydian harmony also reflected Harrison's nascent interest in Indian classical music. Following its inclusion in the set list for the Beatles' 1965 UK tour, it became the only Harrison composition performed live by the group.
The Hollies' success with the song gave Harrison his first chart hit as a songwriter, although his criticism of their performance led to a terse exchange in the press between the two groups. Several other artists covered the track in the first year after its release, including the American bands Stained Glass and the Kingsmen. A live recording by Harrison, taken from his 1991 tour with Eric Clapton, appears on the album Live in Japan. Clapton also performed the song at the Concert for George tribute to Harrison in 2002, while McGuinn released a cover version on his 2004 album Limited Edition.
## Background and inspiration
In addition to reflecting George Harrison's interest in Indian classical music, "If I Needed Someone" was inspired by the music of the Byrds, who in turn had based their sound and image on those of the Beatles after seeing the band's 1964 film A Hard Day's Night. According to music journalist David Fricke, the composition resulted from "a remarkable exchange of influences between the Beatles and one of their favorite new bands, the Byrds". The two groups formed a friendship in early August 1965, when the Byrds were enjoying international success with their debut single, a folk rock interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", and Harrison and John Lennon attended their first shows in London. Although the concerts received unfavourable reviews in the British music press, Harrison lauded the band as "the American Beatles". In late August, the Byrds' Jim (later Roger) McGuinn and David Crosby met up with the Beatles in Los Angeles, where they discussed with Lennon and Harrison the music of Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar and American Indo-jazz pioneer John Coltrane. The meeting led to Harrison introducing the sitar on Lennon's song "Norwegian Wood", and to Crosby and McGuinn incorporating Indian influences into the Byrds' "Why" and "Eight Miles High".
Harrison likened "If I Needed Someone" to "a million other songs" that are based on a guitarist's finger movements around the D major chord. The song is founded on a riff played on a Rickenbacker 360/12, which was the twelve-string electric guitar that McGuinn had adopted as the Byrds' signature instrument after seeing Harrison playing one in A Hard Day's Night. When McGuinn told him this in Los Angeles, Harrison was appreciative of the recognition, particularly as his contributions to the Beatles were often overshadowed by those of Lennon and Paul McCartney. In late 1965, Harrison acknowledged the Byrds' influence on "If I Needed Someone" when he sent a copy of the Beatles' new album, Rubber Soul, along with a message for McGuinn and Crosby, to Derek Taylor, the Byrds' publicist. In his note, Harrison said that the riff was based on the one McGuinn had played on the Byrds' adaptation of "The Bells of Rhymney", and that the rhythm was based on the drum part in "She Don't Care About Time". McGuinn later recalled: "George was very open about it. He sent [the record] to us in advance and said, 'This is for Jim' – because of that lick [in 'The Bells of Rhymney']."
Writing in The Beatles Anthology, Harrison commented on the difficulties he faced as a nascent songwriter during the Rubber Soul period, relative to Lennon and McCartney, both of whom had been writing "since they were three years old". He said he wrote "If I Needed Someone" as a love song to Pattie Boyd, the English model whom he married soon after the song's release. The lyrics have nevertheless invited interpretation as being about a groupie or, in the words of music journalist Robert Fontenot, "some other attempt by the singer to juggle two affairs at once". Author Peter Doggett comments on Harrison's inspiration, in the context of the Beatlemania that continually encroached on the band's lifestyle: "'If I Needed Someone' may be the first pop song written from the jaded, though not quite exhausted viewpoint of a man who had women lined up outside his hotel door in every city of the world."
## Composition
### Music
As recorded by the Beatles, "If I Needed Someone" is in the key of A major, over the verses, and B minor in the middle eights (or bridges). The time signature throughout is 4/4. After its introduction, the composition consists of two verses, a bridge, three verses (the second of which serves as an instrumental break), followed by a repeat of the bridge, a further verse, and an outro. The song is in the folk rock style, but incorporates aspects of Indian music through the suggestion of drone over the main musical phrase and its partly Mixolydian harmony. Harrison uses a capo on the guitar's seventh fret, thereby transposing the D major chord shape to sound as A major.
The Mixolydian melody in the verses comprises the notes A, G, B, C and D, partly mirroring the riff, and is delivered in the same syncopated phrasing. On the fifth bar of each verse, a B melody-note sounds over a VII triad – a chord that musicologist Dominic Pedler terms a G/A "slash" polychord, similar to that used at the start of "A Hard Day's Night". The implied drone, or pedal point, in A continues under this new chord, aided by the arpeggiated bass line remaining in A. The verses retain an ascendant melodic quality due to the syncopated delivery, the three-part harmonies in the vocal arrangement, and the constant bass figure.
Over the bridges, the new key is set fully in the minor mode, avoiding the Dorian inflections present in previous Harrison songs. These sections begin on an E minor chord, which, in Roman numeral analysis, represents a v minor in the tonic of A and an iv minor in the new key. At the end of each bridge, the return to the home key is effected via an E major chord, marking the only use of the expected G note in the A major scale.
### Lyrics
Author Jonathan Gould describes "If I Needed Someone" as "a rueful rain check of a love song" and "an exercise in hypothetical romance". He comments that the melody's phrasing on the off-beat and the "drastically arpeggiated" bass line mirror the lyrical theme of "right person at the wrong time". As with much of the Beatles' songwriting on Rubber Soul, the lyrics reflect Dylan's influence, in terms of tone and content. Further to the message of the song title, Harrison offers his love only if he should happen to need "someone", and on the condition that time allows for such a relationship; he conveys his feelings in matter-of-fact terms. In Fontenot's description, the lyrics "are representative of the change in the Beatles' outlook and also of its era: tender but ambivalent". Harrison invites the woman he addresses to "Carve your number on my wall", yet offers only the possibility that he will contact her in the future.
Over the two bridges, Harrison presents a more engaged perspective. He states that he's "too much in love", but had he and his lover met "some other day", the outcome might have been different. Fontenot cites these lyrics as the reason why some commentators attach an alternative meaning to the song, whereby the singer is already in a committed relationship and is addressing another woman, with the prospect of continuing a casual encounter. In author Andrew Grant Jackson's reading, "[Harrison] was heading towards marriage with Pattie Boyd, so the lyrics address all the women of the world, saying that had he met them earlier, it might have worked out, but now he was too much in love (but give me your number just in case)." While considering that Harrison appears to be "playing his options, albeit gently", author John Kruth deems the line "Carve your number on my wall" to be "one of Rubber Soul's most enigmatic lyrics" and an evocation of the imagery in "Norwegian Wood".
## Recording
George Martin, the band's producer, described Rubber Soul as "the first album to present a new, growing Beatles to the world". Throughout the project, the Beatles increasingly experimented with sound textures. In the case of "If I Needed Someone", as with "Girl", a Lennon composition recorded at the end of the sessions, the use of a guitar capo midway along the instrument's neck introduced a brighter tone to the group's guitar sound. Their use of three-part harmonies on the song was also typical of the warmer, more mature sound they achieved on Rubber Soul.
The Beatles taped the rhythm track of "If I Needed Someone" at EMI Studios in London, in a single take, on 16 October 1965. The recording took place just before midnight at the end of a session dedicated to their next single, "Day Tripper". Harrison played his new, 1965 Rickenbacker 360/12 on the song. According to musicologist Walter Everett, the sound of Harrison's chiming guitar, combined with that of Lennon's Fender Stratocaster rhythm part, produced "the Beatles' brightest guitar sound yet", and so served as "a fitting tribute to the Byrds". Using his new Rickenbacker 4001S bass, McCartney inaugurated an ostinato-heavy style that would feature prominently on the band's 1966 recordings, particularly the song "Rain".
The group carried out their vocal overdubs during the afternoon of 18 October. Over the instrumental break and the outro, the harmonies consist of McCartney singing a third above and Lennon a tenth below Harrison's double-tracked lead vocal. During the same session, Ringo Starr added a tambourine part. Although some Beatles authors credit Martin as having played harmonium, Fontenot says this contribution is inaudible on the completed track. Jackson writes that the sound on "If I Needed Someone" was "so transcendent", in its combination of elements from the two Byrds songs and the Beatles' "soaring harmonies" and treble-rich guitar parts, that Lennon chose to use it for his Rubber Soul track "Nowhere Man". A mono mix of the song was made on 25 October, and a stereo mix on 26 October – the day the Beatles collected their MBEs from Buckingham Palace.
## Release and reception
EMI's Parlophone label released Rubber Soul on 3 December 1965, with "If I Needed Someone" sequenced as the penultimate track. In the United States – where Capitol Records typically altered the content of the Beatles' albums, reducing the number of songs and using single A- and B-sides to create further album releases – the track instead appeared on the North American album Yesterday and Today in June 1966. The song was widely considered to be Harrison's best composition to date; according to music critic Richie Unterberger, "If I Needed Someone" and "Think for Yourself", which also appeared on the UK version of Rubber Soul, were the first Harrison-written songs "to really make people sit up and notice". In his review for the NME, Allen Evans described it as "a quick-tempo up-beater" and a "more-ish track". McCartney later said he considered "If I Needed Someone" to be the first of Harrison's "landmark" songs for the group.
Beginning with the band's UK tour in December 1965, "If I Needed Someone" replaced "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", written by Carl Perkins, as Harrison's lead vocal spot in the Beatles' live shows. "If I Needed Someone" thereby became the only Harrison composition that the Beatles played in concert during their touring years of 1963–66. In addition, with the group finding it increasingly difficult to replicate their studio recordings in concert, it was one of only two Rubber Soul tracks that they performed live, the other being "Nowhere Man". In their 1966 concerts, McCartney introduced Indian-style melisma into his singing on "If I Needed Someone", similar to the vocal ornamentation he had used on the recording of Harrison's Revolver track "I Want to Tell You". In a segment subtitled "Beatlemania goes sour", the 1982 documentary The Compleat Beatles used a clip from the Beatles' ragged performance of the song, at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, as an illustration of the growing division between the band as recording artists and live performers.
In November 1995, "If I Needed Someone" was issued as the B-side of "Norwegian Wood" on a jukebox single, pressed on green vinyl. The release was part of a series of Beatles jukebox singles issued by Capitol's CEMA Special Markets division. The song was also one of the Beatles tracks that Capitol included on the compilation album The Best of George Harrison, released in 1976 following the expiration of Harrison's contract with EMI.
## Hollies version
In late October 1965, the Hollies were brought a demo of "If I Needed Someone" by their producer, Ron Richards, who had received the demo from George Martin. At this stage of their career, most of the Hollies' singles were written by outside writers, yet the band were divided about whether to record a Beatles song, given the traditional rivalry between the two groups' hometowns, Liverpool and Manchester. With Graham Nash and Allan Clarke keen to record the song, the Hollies accepted it as the follow-up to their recent hit "Look Through Any Window". The group recorded their version in three takes on 17 November 1965, in the same studio as the Beatles. Backed by the Clarke–Hicks–Nash composition "I've Got a Way of My Own", the single was released by Parlophone on 3 December, the same day as Rubber Soul.
"If I Needed Someone" was the first Harrison composition to become a chart hit, as a result of the Hollies' cover. The song peaked at number 20 in Britain, but by the group's standards at the time, it was one of their least successful singles. It also charted in Sweden, peaking at number 14 on Tio i Topp.
Many listeners perceived the single as the Hollies attempting to align themselves with the Beatles. In one of his articles covering the Beatles' concurrent UK tour, Alan Smith of the NME quoted Harrison as saying that the Hollies' version was "rubbish" and that "the way they do their records, they sound like session men who've just got together in a studio without ever seeing each other before. Technically good, yes. But that's all." Lennon also criticised their treatment of the song, having long disliked the Hollies' sound. These comments incensed Nash, who responded by saying that he was tired of Lennon's continual insults and would "back any of us boys against the Beatles musically any time". In January 1966, at a press conference following his and Boyd's wedding, Harrison laughed off a reporter's question as to whether he had invited the Hollies to the ceremony, adding that the issue had "just got out of hand".
Although he and Harrison later became "great friends", Nash attributed the single's relatively low chart position to Harrison's derision of the group's performance. Author Ian Inglis writes that the formation of Crosby, Stills & Nash – comprising Crosby from the Byrds, Nash from the Hollies, and ex-Buffalo Springfield guitarist Stephen Stills – brought the connections behind "If I Needed Someone" "full circle". Everett comments that the three-part parallel harmony singing, for which Crosby, Stills & Nash were "revered", suggests the influence of "If I Needed Someone".
## Retrospective assessment and legacy
Writing in Rolling Stone in January 2002, Greg Kot described "If I Needed Someone" as Harrison's "finest tune to date" by 1965. In the same publication, David Fricke included it in his list of the "25 Essential Harrison Performances". Fricke described the track as, variously, a "folk-rock diamond" and "the ultimate compliment" to the Byrds in its "striking blend of cool dismissal ... and crystalline riffing". Writing for Q magazine, John Harris recognised Rubber Soul as marking Harrison's "first decisive stride forward" as a songwriter, with "If I Needed Someone" suggesting for the first time that he could match the standard of Lennon and McCartney's work. Bruce Eder of AllMusic identifies the song as a "near-classic" written by Harrison during a period when his association with the Rickenbacker guitar had helped define the folk rock sound of groups such as the Byrds. In a 2002 review of Rubber Soul, for Mojo, Richard Williams admired the track as "a little gem, an early classic of power pop which lasts not a second too long".
Doug Collette of All About Jazz describes "If I Needed Someone" and "Think for Yourself" as "his most stylish tunes" and examples of Harrison's rise within the Beatles, although he highlights the guitarist's use of sitar on "Norwegian Wood" as a more creatively important contribution. In his article celebrating the 50th anniversary of Rubber Soul, Rob Sheffield identifies the album as the work on which the Beatles became true recording artists. He cites "If I Needed Someone" as one of the tracks that, in their focus on modern, independent-thinking women, presented "complex and baffling females, much like the ones the Beatles ended up with in real life".
Among Beatles biographers, Ian MacDonald recognises the song as having been influenced "far more" by Indian classical music than by the Byrds. While he views it as Harrison's "most successful song" up to 1965, MacDonald considers that the lack of contrast between the verses and the bridges renders the track "monotonous", revealing an "obstinate quality" that typifies much of Harrison's writing. Tim Riley disagrees, instead recognising that the bridge "sets things in motion" compared to the verse's "ebb and flow". In addition to admiring the group's performance, particularly the restraint Starr employs to resolve the tension created by the VII chord change, Riley describes "If I Needed Someone" as "every guitarist's hook-bound fantasy". Writing in Barry Miles' book The Beatles Diary, Peter Doggett considers it to be Harrison's best song "by far" up to that point, and he describes the group's harmony singing as "stunning" and "the tightest they'd yet achieved on record". In 2011, Rolling Stone ranked "If I Needed Someone" at number 51 in its list of the "100 Greatest Beatles Songs".
## Other versions
Aside from the Hollies, several artists covered "If I Needed Someone" soon after the Beatles recorded it. Stained Glass released the song as their first single – a version that Billboard magazine described as an "impressive debut" and "an exciting off-beat ballad". Having struggled to maintain their relevance against British Invasion bands, the Kingsmen recorded the song with an arrangement that authors Stuart Shea and Robert Rodriguez recognise as "a prototypically American response to British folk". This version, which failed to chart in the US when issued as a single, later appeared on the group's 1966 album Up and Away. Other artists who recorded it in 1966 include the Cryan' Shames, for their debut album, Sugar and Spice, and Hugh Masekela, who released it on Hugh Masekela's Next Album and went on to collaborate with the Byrds on their January 1967 single "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star".
Harrison performed "If I Needed Someone" throughout his 1991 Japanese tour with Eric Clapton, a version from which appeared on the 1992 album Live in Japan. When discussing his choice of material for the tour, which was Harrison's first since his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar, he told Billboard that the song was an obvious inclusion, given that the Beatles had played it during their only visit to Japan, in 1966. On this 1991 live version, in Inglis' description, Clapton's "looping guitar solos" complement Harrison's vocal, which is more prominent than on the Beatles' original and sung in the style of Dylan. In November 2002, a year after Harrison's death, Clapton performed the song at the Concert for George, held at London's Royal Albert Hall.
According to press announcements prior to the release in December 2002, Roger McGuinn recorded "If I Needed Someone" for inclusion on the multi-artist Harrison tribute album Songs from the Material World. The song did not appear on that release, but in 2004 McGuinn issued it as the opening track of his album Limited Edition. In his book on the making of Rubber Soul and its legacy, Kruth describes McGuinn's cover as "a supersonic reading" from the "master of the Rickenbacker twelve-string chime". In interviews to promote Limited Edition, McGuinn recalled Harrison's adaptation of the "Bells of Rhymney" riff as being "kind of a cool cross-pollination" and said that it was "a great honor to have in some small way influenced our heroes the Beatles".
Other artists who have covered "If I Needed Someone" include James Taylor and the doom metal band Type O Negative. The latter included it with "Day Tripper" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" as part of a Beatles medley on their 1999 album World Coming Down. In 2005, Nellie McKay recorded the song in the lounge jazz style for the multi-artist compilation This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul. The English folk duo Show of Hands have also covered the song, incorporating Eastern instruments such as the tabla. Their version appeared on the 2006 compilation Rubber Folk and on Harrison Covered, a Harrison tribute CD accompanying the November 2011 issue of Mojo.
## Personnel
According to Ian MacDonald, the line-up on the Beatles' recording was as follows:
The Beatles
- George Harrison – double-tracked lead vocal, lead guitar
- John Lennon – harmony vocal, rhythm guitar
- Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine
Additional musician
- George Martin – harmonium |
12,581 | Glass | 1,172,470,359 | Transparent non-crystalline solid material | [
"Amorphous solids",
"Dielectrics",
"Glass",
"Materials",
"Packaging materials",
"Sculpture materials",
"Windows"
]
| Glass is a non-crystalline solid that is often transparent, brittle and chemically inert. It has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics.
Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of the molten form; some glasses such as volcanic glass are naturally occurring. The most familiar, and historically the oldest, types of manufactured glass are "silicate glasses" based on the chemical compound silica (silicon dioxide, or quartz), the primary constituent of sand. Soda–lime glass, containing around 70% silica, accounts for around 90% of manufactured glass. The term glass, in popular usage, is often used to refer only to this type of material, although silica-free glasses often have desirable properties for applications in modern communications technology. Some objects, such as drinking glasses and eyeglasses, are so commonly made of silicate-based glass that they are simply called by the name of the material.
Despite being brittle, buried silicate glass will survive for very long periods if not disturbed, and many examples of glass fragments exist from early glassmaking cultures. Archaeological evidence suggests glassmaking dates back to at least 3600 BC in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Syria. The earliest known glass objects were beads, perhaps created accidentally during metalworking or the production of faience. Due to its ease of formability into any shape, glass has been traditionally used for vessels, such as bowls, vases, bottles, jars and drinking glasses. In its most solid forms, it has also been used for paperweights and marbles. Glass can be coloured by adding metal salts or painted and printed with vitreous enamels, leading to its use in stained glass windows and other glass art objects. The refractive, reflective and transmission properties of glass make glass suitable for manufacturing optical lenses, prisms, and optoelectronics materials. Extruded glass fibres have application as optical fibres in communications networks, thermal insulating material when matted as glass wool so as to trap air, or in glass-fibre reinforced plastic (fibreglass).
## Occurrence in nature
Glass can form naturally from volcanic magma. Obsidian is a common volcanic glass with high silica (SiO<sub>2</sub>) content formed when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly. Impactite is a form of glass formed by the impact of a meteorite, where Moldavite (found in central and eastern Europe), and Libyan desert glass (found in areas in the eastern Sahara, the deserts of eastern Libya and western Egypt) are notable examples. Vitrification of quartz can also occur when lightning strikes sand, forming hollow, branching rootlike structures called fulgurites. Trinitite is a glassy residue formed from the desert floor sand at the Trinity nuclear bomb test site. Edeowie glass, found in South Australia, is proposed to originate from Pleistocene grassland fires, lightning strikes, or hypervelocity impact by one or several asteroids or comets.
## History
Naturally occurring obsidian glass was used by Stone Age societies as it fractures along very sharp edges, making it ideal for cutting tools and weapons. Glassmaking dates back at least 6000 years, long before humans had discovered how to smelt iron. Archaeological evidence suggests that the first true synthetic glass was made in Lebanon and the coastal north Syria, Mesopotamia or ancient Egypt. The earliest known glass objects, of the mid-third millennium BC, were beads, perhaps initially created as accidental by-products of metalworking (slags) or during the production of faience, a pre-glass vitreous material made by a process similar to glazing. Early glass was rarely transparent and often contained impurities and imperfections, and is technically faience rather than true glass, which did not appear until the 15th century BC. However, red-orange glass beads excavated from the Indus Valley Civilization dated before 1700 BC (possibly as early as 1900 BC) predate sustained glass production, which appeared around 1600 BC in Mesopotamia and 1500 BC in Egypt. During the Late Bronze Age there was a rapid growth in glassmaking technology in Egypt and Western Asia. Archaeological finds from this period include coloured glass ingots, vessels, and beads. Much early glass production relied on grinding techniques borrowed from stoneworking, such as grinding and carving glass in a cold state.
The term glass developed in the late Roman Empire. It was in the Roman glassmaking centre at Trier (located in current-day Germany) that the late-Latin term glesum originated, probably from a Germanic word for a transparent, lustrous substance. Glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, funerary, and industrial contexts, as well as trade items in marketplaces in distant provinces. Examples of Roman glass have been found outside of the former Roman Empire in China, the Baltics, the Middle East, and India. The Romans perfected cameo glass, produced by etching and carving through fused layers of different colours to produce a design in relief on the glass object.
In post-classical West Africa, Benin was a manufacturer of glass and glass beads. Glass was used extensively in Europe during the Middle Ages. Anglo-Saxon glass has been found across England during archaeological excavations of both settlement and cemetery sites. From the 10th century onwards, glass was employed in stained glass windows of churches and cathedrals, with famous examples at Chartres Cathedral and the Basilica of Saint-Denis. By the 14th century, architects were designing buildings with walls of stained glass such as Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, (1203–1248) and the East end of Gloucester Cathedral. With the change in architectural style during the Renaissance period in Europe, the use of large stained glass windows became much less prevalent, although stained glass had a major revival with Gothic Revival architecture in the 19th century.
During the 13th century, the island of Murano, Venice, became a centre for glass making, building on medieval techniques to produce colourful ornamental pieces in large quantities. Murano glass makers developed the exceptionally clear colourless glass cristallo, so called for its resemblance to natural crystal, which was extensively used for windows, mirrors, ships' lanterns, and lenses. In the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, enamelling and gilding on glass vessels was perfected in Egypt and Syria. Towards the end of the 17th century, Bohemia became an important region for glass production, remaining so until the start of the 20th century. By the 17th century, glass in the Venetian tradition was also being produced in England. In about 1675, George Ravenscroft invented lead crystal glass, with cut glass becoming fashionable in the 18th century. Ornamental glass objects became an important art medium during the Art Nouveau period in the late 19th century.
Throughout the 20th century, new mass production techniques led to widespread availability of glass in much larger amounts, making it practical as a building material and enabling new applications of glass. In the 1920s a mould-etch process was developed, in which art was etched directly into the mould, so that each cast piece emerged from the mould with the image already on the surface of the glass. This reduced manufacturing costs and, combined with a wider use of coloured glass, led to cheap glassware in the 1930s, which later became known as Depression glass. In the 1950s, Pilkington Bros., England, developed the float glass process, producing high-quality distortion-free flat sheets of glass by floating on molten tin. Modern multi-story buildings are frequently constructed with curtain walls made almost entirely of glass. Laminated glass has been widely applied to vehicles for windscreens. Optical glass for spectacles has been used since the Middle Ages. The production of lenses has become increasingly proficient, aiding astronomers as well as having other application in medicine and science. Glass is also employed as the aperture cover in many solar energy collectors.
In the 21st century, glass manufacturers have developed different brands of chemically strengthened glass for widespread application in touchscreens for smartphones, tablet computers, and many other types of information appliances. These include Gorilla Glass, developed and manufactured by Corning, AGC Inc.'s Dragontrail and Schott AG's Xensation.
## Microscopic structure
The standard definition of a glass (or vitreous solid) is a solid formed by rapid melt quenching. However, the term "glass" is often defined in a broader sense, to describe any non-crystalline (amorphous) solid that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state.
Glass is an amorphous solid. Although the atomic-scale structure of glass shares characteristics of the structure of a supercooled liquid, glass exhibits all the mechanical properties of a solid. As in other amorphous solids, the atomic structure of a glass lacks the long-range periodicity observed in crystalline solids. Due to chemical bonding constraints, glasses do possess a high degree of short-range order with respect to local atomic polyhedra. The notion that glass flows to an appreciable extent over extended periods of time well below the glass transition temperature is not supported by empirical research or theoretical analysis (see viscosity in solids). Though atomic motion at glass surfaces can be observed, and a viscosity on the order of 10<sup>17</sup>–10<sup>18</sup> Pa s can be measured in glass, such a high value reinforces the fact that glass would not change shape appreciably over even large periods of time.
### Formation from a supercooled liquid
For melt quenching, if the cooling is sufficiently rapid (relative to the characteristic crystallization time) then crystallization is prevented and instead the disordered atomic configuration of the supercooled liquid is frozen into the solid state at T<sub>g</sub>. The tendency for a material to form a glass while quenched is called glass-forming ability. This ability can be predicted by the rigidity theory. Generally, a glass exists in a structurally metastable state with respect to its crystalline form, although in certain circumstances, for example in atactic polymers, there is no crystalline analogue of the amorphous phase.
Glass is sometimes considered to be a liquid due to its lack of a first-order phase transition where certain thermodynamic variables such as volume, entropy and enthalpy are discontinuous through the glass transition range. The glass transition may be described as analogous to a second-order phase transition where the intensive thermodynamic variables such as the thermal expansivity and heat capacity are discontinuous. However, the equilibrium theory of phase transformations does not hold for glass, and hence the glass transition cannot be classed as one of the classical equilibrium phase transformations in solids.
### Reputed flow
The observation that old windows are sometimes found to be thicker at the bottom than at the top is often offered as supporting evidence for the view that glass flows over a timescale of centuries, the assumption being that the glass has exhibited the liquid property of flowing from one shape to another. This assumption is incorrect, as once solidified, glass stops flowing. The sags and ripples observed in old glass were already there the day it was made; manufacturing processes used in the past produced sheets with imperfect surfaces and non-uniform thickness (the near-perfect float glass used today only became widespread in the 1960s).
A 2017 study computed the rate of flow of the medieval glass used in Westminster Abbey from the year 1268. The study found that the room temperature viscosity of this glass was roughly 10<sup>24</sup> Pa·s which is about 10<sup>16</sup> times less viscous than a previous estimate made in 1998, which focused on soda-lime silicate glass. Even with this lower viscosity, the study authors calculated that the maximum flow rate of medieval glass is 1nm per billion years, making it impossible to observe in a human timescale.
## Physical properties
### Optical
Glass is in widespread use in optical systems due to its ability to refract, reflect, and transmit light following geometrical optics. The most common and oldest applications of glass in optics are as lenses, windows, mirrors, and prisms. The key optical properties refractive index, dispersion, and transmission, of glass are strongly dependent on chemical composition and, to a lesser degree, its thermal history. Optical glass typically has a refractive index of 1.4 to 2.4, and an Abbe number (which characterises dispersion) of 15 to 100. Refractive index may be modified by high-density (refractive index increases) or low-density (refractive index decreases) additives.
Glass transparency results from the absence of grain boundaries which diffusely scatter light in polycrystalline materials. Semi-opacity due to crystallization may be induced in many glasses by maintaining them for a long period at a temperature just insufficient to cause fusion. In this way, the crystalline, devitrified material, known as Réaumur's glass porcelain is produced. Although generally transparent to visible light, glasses may be opaque to other wavelengths of light. While silicate glasses are generally opaque to infrared wavelengths with a transmission cut-off at 4 μm, heavy-metal fluoride and chalcogenide glasses are transparent to infrared wavelengths of 7 to 18 μm. The addition of metallic oxides results in different coloured glasses as the metallic ions will absorb wavelengths of light corresponding to specific colours.
### Other properties
In the manufacturing process, glasses can be poured, formed, extruded and moulded into forms ranging from flat sheets to highly intricate shapes. The finished product is brittle but can be laminated or tempered to enhance durability.
#### Corrosion resistance
Glass is typically inert, resistant to chemical attack, and can mostly withstand the action of water, making it an ideal material for the manufacture of containers for foodstuffs and most chemicals. Nevertheless, although usually highly resistant to chemical attack, glass will corrode or dissolve under some conditions. The materials that make up a particular glass composition have an effect on how quickly the glass corrodes. Glasses containing a high proportion of alkali or alkaline earth elements are more susceptible to corrosion than other glass compositions.
#### Density
The density of glass varies with chemical composition with values ranging from 2.2 grams per cubic centimetre (2,200 kg/m<sup>3</sup>) for fused silica to 7.2 grams per cubic centimetre (7,200 kg/m<sup>3</sup>) for dense flint glass.
#### Strength
Glass is stronger than most metals, with a theoretical tensile strength for pure, flawless glass estimated at 14 to 35 gigapascals (2,000,000 to 5,100,000 psi) due to its ability to undergo reversible compression without fracture. However, the presence of scratches, bubbles, and other microscopic flaws lead to a typical range of 14 to 175 megapascals (2,000 to 25,400 psi) in most commercial glasses. Several processes such as toughening can increase the strength of glass. Carefully drawn flawless glass fibres can be produced with strength of up to 11.5 gigapascals (1,670,000 psi).
## Types
### Silicate
Silicon dioxide (SiO<sub>2</sub>) is a common fundamental constituent of glass. Fused quartz is a glass made from chemically pure silica. It has very low thermal expansion and excellent resistance to thermal shock, being able to survive immersion in water while red hot, resists high temperatures (1000–1500 °C) and chemical weathering, and is very hard. It is also transparent to a wider spectral range than ordinary glass, extending from the visible further into both the UV and IR ranges, and is sometimes used where transparency to these wavelengths is necessary. Fused quartz is used for high-temperature applications such as furnace tubes, lighting tubes, melting crucibles, etc. However, its high melting temperature (1723 °C) and viscosity make it difficult to work with. Therefore, normally, other substances (fluxes) are added to lower the melting temperature and simplify glass processing.
#### Soda–lime
Sodium carbonate (Na<sub>2</sub>CO<sub>3</sub>, "soda") is a common additive and acts to lower the glass-transition temperature. However, sodium silicate is water-soluble, so lime (CaO, calcium oxide, generally obtained from limestone), along with magnesium oxide (MgO), and aluminium oxide (Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>), are commonly added to improve chemical durability. Soda–lime glasses (Na<sub>2</sub>O) + lime (CaO) + magnesia (MgO) + alumina (Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>) account for over 75% of manufactured glass, containing about 70 to 74% silica by weight. Soda–lime–silicate glass is transparent, easily formed, and most suitable for window glass and tableware. However, it has a high thermal expansion and poor resistance to heat. Soda–lime glass is typically used for windows, bottles, light bulbs, and jars.
#### Borosilicate
Borosilicate glasses (e.g. Pyrex, Duran) typically contain 5–13% boron trioxide (B<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>). Borosilicate glasses have fairly low coefficients of thermal expansion (7740 Pyrex CTE is 3.25×10<sup>−6</sup>/°C as compared to about 9×10<sup>−6</sup>/°C for a typical soda–lime glass). They are, therefore, less subject to stress caused by thermal expansion and thus less vulnerable to cracking from thermal shock. They are commonly used for e.g. labware, household cookware, and sealed beam car head lamps.
#### Lead
The addition of lead(II) oxide into silicate glass lowers melting point and viscosity of the melt. The high density of lead glass (silica + lead oxide (PbO) + potassium oxide (K<sub>2</sub>O) + soda (Na<sub>2</sub>O) + zinc oxide (ZnO) + alumina) results in a high electron density, and hence high refractive index, making the look of glassware more brilliant and causing noticeably more specular reflection and increased optical dispersion. Lead glass has a high elasticity, making the glassware more workable and giving rise to a clear "ring" sound when struck. However, lead glass cannot withstand high temperatures well. Lead oxide also facilitates solubility of other metal oxides and is used in coloured glass. The viscosity decrease of lead glass melt is very significant (roughly 100 times in comparison with soda glass); this allows easier removal of bubbles and working at lower temperatures, hence its frequent use as an additive in vitreous enamels and glass solders. The high ionic radius of the Pb<sup>2+</sup> ion renders it highly immobile and hinders the movement of other ions; lead glasses therefore have high electrical resistance, about two orders of magnitude higher than soda–lime glass (10<sup>8.5</sup> vs 10<sup>6.5</sup> Ω⋅cm, DC at 250 °C).
#### Aluminosilicate
Aluminosilicate glass typically contains 5–10% alumina (Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>). Aluminosilicate glass tends to be more difficult to melt and shape compared to borosilicate compositions, but has excellent thermal resistance and durability. Aluminosilicate glass is extensively used for fiberglass, used for making glass-reinforced plastics (boats, fishing rods, etc.), top-of-stove cookware, and halogen bulb glass.
#### Other oxide additives
The addition of barium also increases the refractive index. Thorium oxide gives glass a high refractive index and low dispersion and was formerly used in producing high-quality lenses, but due to its radioactivity has been replaced by lanthanum oxide in modern eyeglasses. Iron can be incorporated into glass to absorb infrared radiation, for example in heat-absorbing filters for movie projectors, while cerium(IV) oxide can be used for glass that absorbs ultraviolet wavelengths. Fluorine lowers the dielectric constant of glass. Fluorine is highly electronegative and lowers the polarizability of the material. Fluoride silicate glasses are used in manufacture of integrated circuits as an insulator.
#### Glass-ceramics
Glass-ceramic materials contain both non-crystalline glass and crystalline ceramic phases. They are formed by controlled nucleation and partial crystallisation of a base glass by heat treatment. Crystalline grains are often embedded within a non-crystalline intergranular phase of grain boundaries. Glass-ceramics exhibit advantageous thermal, chemical, biological, and dielectric properties as compared to metals or organic polymers.
The most commercially important property of glass-ceramics is their imperviousness to thermal shock. Thus, glass-ceramics have become extremely useful for countertop cooking and industrial processes. The negative thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) of the crystalline ceramic phase can be balanced with the positive CTE of the glassy phase. At a certain point (\~70% crystalline) the glass-ceramic has a net CTE near zero. This type of glass-ceramic exhibits excellent mechanical properties and can sustain repeated and quick temperature changes up to 1000 °C.
#### Fibreglass
Fibreglass (also called glass fibre reinforced plastic, GRP) is a composite material made by reinforcing a plastic resin with glass fibres. It is made by melting glass and stretching the glass into fibres. These fibres are woven together into a cloth and left to set in a plastic resin. Fibreglass has the properties of being lightweight and corrosion resistant, and is a good insulator enabling its use as building insulation material and for electronic housing for consumer products. Fibreglass was originally used in the United Kingdom and United States during World War II to manufacture radomes. Uses of fibreglass include building and construction materials, boat hulls, car body parts, and aerospace composite materials.
Glass-fibre wool is an excellent thermal and sound insulation material, commonly used in buildings (e.g. attic and cavity wall insulation), and plumbing (e.g. pipe insulation), and soundproofing. It is produced by forcing molten glass through a fine mesh by centripetal force, and breaking the extruded glass fibres into short lengths using a stream of high-velocity air. The fibres are bonded with an adhesive spray and the resulting wool mat is cut and packed in rolls or panels.
### Non-silicate
Besides common silica-based glasses many other inorganic and organic materials may also form glasses, including metals, aluminates, phosphates, borates, chalcogenides, fluorides, germanates (glasses based on GeO<sub>2</sub>), tellurites (glasses based on TeO<sub>2</sub>), antimonates (glasses based on Sb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>), arsenates (glasses based on As<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>), titanates (glasses based on TiO<sub>2</sub>), tantalates (glasses based on Ta<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>), nitrates, carbonates, plastics, acrylic, and many other substances. Some of these glasses (e.g. Germanium dioxide (GeO<sub>2</sub>, Germania), in many respects a structural analogue of silica, fluoride, aluminate, phosphate, borate, and chalcogenide glasses) have physico-chemical properties useful for their application in fibre-optic waveguides in communication networks and other specialised technological applications.
Silica-free glasses may often have poor glass forming tendencies. Novel techniques, including containerless processing by aerodynamic levitation (cooling the melt whilst it floats on a gas stream) or splat quenching (pressing the melt between two metal anvils or rollers), may be used to increase cooling rate, or to reduce crystal nucleation triggers.
#### Amorphous metals
In the past, small batches of amorphous metals with high surface area configurations (ribbons, wires, films, etc.) have been produced through the implementation of extremely rapid rates of cooling. Amorphous metal wires have been produced by sputtering molten metal onto a spinning metal disk.
A number of alloys have been produced in layers with thickness exceeding 1 millimeter. These are known as bulk metallic glasses (BMG). Liquidmetal Technologies sell a number of zirconium-based BMGs.
Batches of amorphous steel have also been produced that demonstrate mechanical properties far exceeding those found in conventional steel alloys.
Experimental evidence indicates that the system Al-Fe-Si may undergo a first-order transition to an amorphous form (dubbed "q-glass") on rapid cooling from the melt. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicate that q-glass nucleates from the melt as discrete particles with a uniform spherical growth in all directions. While x-ray diffraction reveals the isotropic nature of q-glass, a nucleation barrier exists implying an interfacial discontinuity (or internal surface) between the glass and melt phases.
#### Polymers
Important polymer glasses include amorphous and glassy pharmaceutical compounds. These are useful because the solubility of the compound is greatly increased when it is amorphous compared to the same crystalline composition. Many emerging pharmaceuticals are practically insoluble in their crystalline forms. Many polymer thermoplastics familiar from everyday use are glasses. For many applications, like glass bottles or eyewear, polymer glasses (acrylic glass, polycarbonate or polyethylene terephthalate) are a lighter alternative to traditional glass.
### Molecular liquids and molten salts
Molecular liquids, electrolytes, molten salts, and aqueous solutions are mixtures of different molecules or ions that do not form a covalent network but interact only through weak van der Waals forces or through transient hydrogen bonds. In a mixture of three or more ionic species of dissimilar size and shape, crystallization can be so difficult that the liquid can easily be supercooled into a glass. Examples include LiCl:RH<sub>2</sub>O (a solution of lithium chloride salt and water molecules) in the composition range 4\<R\<8. sugar glass, or Ca<sub>0.4</sub>K<sub>0.6</sub>(NO<sub>3</sub>)<sub>1.4</sub>. Glass electrolytes in the form of Ba-doped Li-glass and Ba-doped Na-glass have been proposed as solutions to problems identified with organic liquid electrolytes used in modern lithium-ion battery cells.
## Production
Following the glass batch preparation and mixing, the raw materials are transported to the furnace. Soda–lime glass for mass production is melted in glass melting furnaces. Smaller scale furnaces for specialty glasses include electric melters, pot furnaces, and day tanks. After melting, homogenization and refining (removal of bubbles), the glass is formed. Flat glass for windows and similar applications is formed by the float glass process, developed between 1953 and 1957 by Sir Alastair Pilkington and Kenneth Bickerstaff of the UK's Pilkington Brothers, who created a continuous ribbon of glass using a molten tin bath on which the molten glass flows unhindered under the influence of gravity. The top surface of the glass is subjected to nitrogen under pressure to obtain a polished finish. Container glass for common bottles and jars is formed by blowing and pressing methods. This glass is often slightly modified chemically (with more alumina and calcium oxide) for greater water resistance.
Once the desired form is obtained, glass is usually annealed for the removal of stresses and to increase the glass's hardness and durability. Surface treatments, coatings or lamination may follow to improve the chemical durability (glass container coatings, glass container internal treatment), strength (toughened glass, bulletproof glass, windshields), or optical properties (insulated glazing, anti-reflective coating).
New chemical glass compositions or new treatment techniques can be initially investigated in small-scale laboratory experiments. The raw materials for laboratory-scale glass melts are often different from those used in mass production because the cost factor has a low priority. In the laboratory mostly pure chemicals are used. Care must be taken that the raw materials have not reacted with moisture or other chemicals in the environment (such as alkali or alkaline earth metal oxides and hydroxides, or boron oxide), or that the impurities are quantified (loss on ignition). Evaporation losses during glass melting should be considered during the selection of the raw materials, e.g., sodium selenite may be preferred over easily evaporating selenium dioxide (SeO<sub>2</sub>). Also, more readily reacting raw materials may be preferred over relatively inert ones, such as aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)<sub>3</sub>) over alumina (Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>). Usually, the melts are carried out in platinum crucibles to reduce contamination from the crucible material. Glass homogeneity is achieved by homogenizing the raw materials mixture (glass batch), by stirring the melt, and by crushing and re-melting the first melt. The obtained glass is usually annealed to prevent breakage during processing.
### Colour
Colour in glass may be obtained by addition of homogenously distributed electrically charged ions (or colour centres). While ordinary soda–lime glass appears colourless in thin section, iron(II) oxide (FeO) impurities produce a green tint in thick sections. Manganese dioxide (MnO<sub>2</sub>), which gives glass a purple colour, may be added to remove the green tint given by FeO. FeO and chromium(III) oxide (Cr<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>) additives are used in the production of green bottles. Iron (III) oxide, on the other-hand, produces yellow or yellow-brown glass. Low concentrations (0.025 to 0.1%) of cobalt oxide (CoO) produces rich, deep blue cobalt glass. Chromium is a very powerful colourising agent, yielding dark green. Sulphur combined with carbon and iron salts produces amber glass ranging from yellowish to almost black. A glass melt can also acquire an amber colour from a reducing combustion atmosphere. Cadmium sulfide produces imperial red, and combined with selenium can produce shades of yellow, orange, and red. The additive Copper(II) oxide (CuO) produces a turquoise colour in glass, in contrast to Copper(I) oxide (Cu<sub>2</sub>O) which gives a dull brown-red colour.
## Uses
### Architecture and windows
Soda–lime sheet glass is typically used as transparent glazing material, typically as windows in external walls of buildings. Float or rolled sheet glass products is cut to size either by scoring and snapping the material, laser cutting, water jets, or diamond bladed saw. The glass may be thermally or chemically tempered (strengthened) for safety and bent or curved during heating. Surface coatings may be added for specific functions such as scratch resistance, blocking specific wavelengths of light (e.g. infrared or ultraviolet), dirt-repellence (e.g. self-cleaning glass), or switchable electrochromic coatings.
Structural glazing systems represent one of the most significant architectural innovations of modern times, where glass buildings now often dominate skylines of many modern cities. These systems use stainless steel fittings countersunk into recesses in the corners of the glass panels allowing strengthened panes to appear unsupported creating a flush exterior. Structural glazing systems have their roots in iron and glass conservatories of the nineteenth century
### Tableware
Glass is an essential component of tableware and is typically used for water, beer and wine drinking glasses. Wine glasses are typically stemware, i.e. goblets formed from a bowl, stem, and foot. Crystal or Lead crystal glass may be cut and polished to produce decorative drinking glasses with gleaming facets. Other uses of glass in tableware include decanters, jugs, plates, and bowls.
### Packaging
The inert and impermeable nature of glass makes it a stable and widely used material for food and drink packaging as glass bottles and jars. Most container glass is soda–lime glass, produced by blowing and pressing techniques. Container glass has a lower magnesium oxide and sodium oxide content than flat glass, and a higher silica, calcium oxide, and aluminum oxide content. Its higher content of water-insoluble oxides imparts slightly higher chemical durability against water, which is advantageous for storing beverages and food. Glass packaging is sustainable, readily recycled, reusable and refillable.
For electronics applications, glass can be used as a substrate in the manufacture of integrated passive devices, thin-film bulk acoustic resonators, and as a hermetic sealing material in device packaging, including very thin solely glass based encapsulation of integrated circuits and other semiconductors in high manufacturing volumes.
### Laboratories
Glass is an important material in scientific laboratories for the manufacture of experimental apparatus because it is relatively cheap, readily formed into required shapes for experiment, easy to keep clean, can withstand heat and cold treatment, is generally non-reactive with many reagents, and its transparency allows for the observation of chemical reactions and processes. Laboratory glassware applications include flasks, petri dishes, test tubes, pipettes, graduated cylinders, glass lined metallic containers for chemical processing, fractionation columns, glass pipes, Schlenk lines, gauges, and thermometers. Although most standard laboratory glassware has been mass-produced since the 1920s, scientists still employ skilled glassblowers to manufacture bespoke glass apparatus for their experimental requirements.
### Optics
Glass is a ubiquitous material in optics by virtue of its ability to refract, reflect, and transmit light. These and other optical properties can be controlled by varying chemical compositions, thermal treatment, and manufacturing techniques. The many applications of glass in optics includes glasses for eyesight correction, imaging optics (e.g. lenses and mirrors in telescopes, microscopes, and cameras), fibre optics in telecommunications technology, and integrated optics. Microlenses and gradient-index optics (where the refractive index is non-uniform) find application in e.g. reading optical discs, laser printers, photocopiers, and laser diodes.
### Art
Glass as art dates to least 1300 BC shown as an example of natural glass found in Tutankhamun's pectoral, which also contained vitreous enamel, that is to say, melted coloured glass used on a metal backing. Enamelled glass, the decoration of glass vessels with coloured glass paints, has existed since 1300 BC, and was prominent in the early 20th century with Art Nouveau glass and that of the House of Fabergé in St. Petersburg, Russia. Both techniques were used in stained glass, which reached its height roughly from 1000 to 1550, before a revival in the 19th century.
The 19th century saw a revival in ancient glassmaking techniques including cameo glass, achieved for the first time since the Roman Empire, initially mostly for pieces in a neo-classical style. The Art Nouveau movement made great use of glass, with René Lalique, Émile Gallé, and Daum of Nancy in the first French wave of the movement, producing coloured vases and similar pieces, often in cameo glass or in lustre glass techniques.
Louis Comfort Tiffany in America specialised in stained glass, both secular and religious, in panels and his famous lamps. The early 20th-century saw the large-scale factory production of glass art by firms such as Waterford and Lalique. Small studios may hand-produce glass artworks. Techniques for producing glass art include blowing, kiln-casting, fusing, slumping, pâte de verre, flame-working, hot-sculpting and cold-working. Cold work includes traditional stained glass work and other methods of shaping glass at room temperature. Objects made out of glass include vessels, paperweights, marbles, beads, sculptures and installation art.
## See also
- Fire glass
- Flexible glass
- Kimberley points
- Prince Rupert's drop
- Smart glass |
482,307 | Papa Stour | 1,154,800,064 | Island in the Shetland archipelago | [
"Blowholes",
"Devonian volcanism",
"Fishing communities in Scotland",
"Islands of Shetland",
"Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Shetland",
"Underwater diving sites in Scotland",
"Volcanism of Scotland"
]
| Papa Stour (Scots: Papa Stour) is one of the Shetland Islands in Scotland, with a population of under fifteen people, some of whom immigrated after an appeal for residents in the 1970s. Located to the west of mainland Shetland and with an area of 828 hectares (3.2 square miles), Papa Stour is the eighth largest island in Shetland. Erosion of the soft volcanic rocks by the sea has created an extraordinary variety of caves, stacks, arches, blowholes, and cliffs. The island and its surrounding seas harbour diverse populations of wildlife. The west side of the island is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the seas around the island are a Special Area of Conservation.
The island has several Neolithic burial chamber sites, as well as the remains of Duke Hakon's 13th-century house dating from the Norse occupation of the island. The population reached 380 or more in the nineteenth century, when a fishing station was opened at Crabbaberry in West Voe. Subsequently, there was a steady decline in population.
Today the main settlement on the island is Biggings, just to the east of which is Housa Voe from where the Snolda ferry arrives from its base at West Burrafirth on the Shetland Mainland. Crofting, especially sheep rearing, is the mainstay of island life.
Numerous shipwrecks have occurred around the coast, and the celebrated poem Da Sang o da Papa Men by Vagaland recalls the drama of the days when Papa Stour was a centre for deep-sea fishing.
## Geography
Papa Stour is located at the south western end of St Magnus Bay. 34 kilometres (21 mi) of rugged coastline is indented by numerous small embayments and four larger 'voes'. Hamna Voe (Old Norse: 'harbour bay') in the south is the most sheltered anchorage and the surrounding cliffs contain a natural rock arch. Housa Voe to the east (Old Norse: 'house bay') is less secluded but is the main harbour for the island and the ferry's embarkation point.
Brei Holm and Maiden Stack guard the harbour entrance to the south. The former is a tidal island and was a leper colony until the 18th century (although it has been suggested that many of the "lepers" there were suffering from a vitamin deficiency rather than leprosy). The latter's name relates to a story from the 14th century. Lord Thorvald Thoresson is said to have constructed the tiny house at its top, whose ruins are still visible, in order to "preserve" his daughter from men. Unfortunately for his plans, when she left she was found to be pregnant; in another version of the story, she and her fisherman sweetheart successfully eloped. West Voe, the inner part of which is called 'Robies Noust' is the main voe in the north coast, the smaller Culla Voe lying immediately to the west.
The main settlement on the island today is Biggings, which overlooks Housa Voe and is surrounded by in-bye land to the east of the hill dyke (which runs south from West Voe). To the west the island is bisected by a belt of glacial moraine about one and a half kilometres in length. Much of the rest of the area consists of a shallow stony soil that may be derived from glacial till. There is an almost complete absence of peat on the island and due to the volcanic rocks the soils are relatively fertile. The lack of peat led to 'turf scalping' for fuel and the bare areas of rock in the interior.
The highest point on the island is in the north west at Virda Field, which rises to 87 metres (285 feet). Virda is possibly from the Old Norse for 'heap of stones'.
### List of outliers
In addition to the larger islets mentioned above there are various other isles and skerries around the coast of Papa Stour. They include: Aesha Stack, Boinna Skerry, Borse Skerry, Fogla Skerry, Forewick Holm, Galti Stacks, Holm of Melby, Koda Skerry, Lyra Skerry, Skerries of Quidaness, Skerry of Lambaness, Sula Stack, Swat Skerry, The Horn, Tiptans Skerry and Wilma Skerry. The Ve Skerries lie 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the north west. They include: Helliogoblo, North Skerry, Ormal, Reaverack and The Clubb. In between Papa Stour and Ve Skerries lies the shallow bank of Papa-rof.
On 21 June 2008, Stuart Hill (AKA Captain Calamity) made a claim to the 1 hectare (2.5 acres) island of Forewick Holm (which he calls "Forvik Island"). On the basis of a marriage arrangement between King Christian of Norway and King James III of Scotland that dates to 1468, Hill argued that the island should be considered a British crown dependency, and thus not a part of the United Kingdom or of the European Union. This claim was not recognised by the United Kingdom.
## Geology
The island is composed of a variety of volcanic and sedimentary rock formations from the Devonian period. At that time the Scottish landmass formed part of the Old Red Sandstone Continent and lay some 10-25 degrees south of the equator. The accumulations of Old Red Sandstone, laid down from 408 to 370 million years ago, were created as earlier Silurian rocks, uplifted by the formation of Pangaea, eroded and then were deposited into river deltas. The freshwater Lake Orcadie existed on the edges of the eroding mountains, stretching from Shetland to the southern Moray Firth. The structure of Papa Stour is largely made up of ashes and lavas from volcanic activity associated with this period, including bands of solidified volcanic ash and lava (rhyolite), but there is also a Devonian fish bed at Lamba Banks. There are numerous large boulders deposited by Pleistocene glaciation.
Erosion of the soft volcanic rocks by the sea has created an extraordinary variety of caves, stacks, arches, blowholes, cliffs, voes and geos that are amongst the finest in Britain. The 'Hol o' Bordie' is a cave that passes right through the north-west tip of the island. It is 300 metres long and wide enough to row through. Kirstan (or Christie's) Hole in the south west is another spectacular cave, part of the roof of which collapsed in 1981. Yet another is 'Francie's Hole' close to Hamna Voe in the west. This was the favourite of John Tudor who wrote of the island in his Victorian memoirs and described the cave as:
> ...in fairyland, so exquisite is the colouring of the roof and sides and so pellucid is the water... [with] alcoves or recesses like stalls in a church.
In 1953 the spectacular headland, 'Da Horn o Papa' fell into the sea during a storm. The nearby islet of Brei Holm also has caves that can be accessed by small boats when conditions permit.
## Ecology
Otters, grey seals, killer whales and harbour porpoises are frequently seen on and around Papa Stour. Atlantic puffin, Arctic and common tern, bonxie and Arctic skua, northern fulmar, common guillemot, razorbill, curlew, wheatear, ringed plover and great black-backed gull all breed on the island, and numerous migratory species have been recorded.
There is a profusion of wild flowers, including mountain everlasting, spring squill and eyebright as well as the ubiquitous heather. The west side of the island is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the seas around Papa Stour are a Special Area of Conservation. The traditional Shetland Pony is still bred.
## History and archaeology
Human settlement of the island dates from circa 3000 BC and there are remains of several Neolithic burial chambers known as 'heel-shaped cairns'. Little is known of the pre-Celtic and Celtic eras, but when the Norse arrived it is likely they found a religious settlement as the name of the island derives from Papey Stóra meaning "Big island of the Papar" (Celtic monks), in distinction to Papa Little some 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) to the west.
### Norse period
Papa Stour is the subject of a 1299 manuscript written in Old Norse, which is the oldest surviving document from Shetland. It deals with a dramatic incident in the house of Duke Hakon Magnusson, who was later to become King Hakon V of Norway. There is a circle of stones near the beach at Housa Voe, which are the remains of a 'ting', or local assembly. This was the scene of a duel, fought and won by Lord Thorvald Thoresson, who was accused of corruption in the 1299 document and was later called 'dominus de Papay'. (The story of his unfortunate daughter is referred to above.) The remains of Duke Hakon's thirteenth-century house are still visible near Housa Voe.
### Scots rule and fishing
In 1469 Shetland came under nominal Scottish control, although the Norse 'Lairds of Norway' kept their Papa Stour estates until the 17th century. In the 16th century merchants from Bremen and Hamburg were operating a summer trading booth to buy fish from the local fleet. By the 18th century, two Scottish lairds, Thomas Gifford of Busta, and Arthur Nicolson of Lerwick, owned the island. They maintained a prosperous Haaf (Old Norse: 'deep sea') fishing industry, undertaken in the summer months using six-oared boats known as sixareens.
In addition to the leper colony on Brei Holm there may have been another at Hilla Fielle overlooking Hamna Voe. A recent archaeological survey was inconclusive but suggests the site may be much older than the supposed 18th century colony.
The island church, which overlooks Kirk Sand in the bay of Fore Wick, was founded in 1806. 300 metres from the present church there may be an older chapel site of Sneeans or Snøyans on the headland between the west end of Kirk Sand and the bay of Tusselby. It is called the 'ald kirk' by locals and referred to by the Ordnance Survey as "the site of a Romish chapel belonging to about the twelfth century". There is a tradition that the work there was interfered with by supernatural powers and that each day's work on the building was destroyed during the night. Eventually the cornerstones were moved overnight by these unearthly agencies to the present site of the church and work was re-commenced there successfully. Excavations in 2004 found little besides large blocks of rhyolite and a piece of whalebone rib, suggesting that the oral tradition may have some truth to it.
In the 19th century the Crabbaberry fishing station in West Voe was opened and the island had a population of 360 people or more. However, fuel shortages and a decline in fishing due to the introduction of steam drifters saw a fall in population from the 1870s on. At this time another duel entered the history of Papa Stour. Edwin Lindsay, an Indian army officer and the son of the 6th Earl of Balcarres, was declared insane and sent to the island in disgrace after refusing to fight in one. He spent 26 years as a prisoner before the Quaker preacher Catherine Watson arranged for his release in 1835. Lindsay's Well is a spring at the south of the island where he was allowed to bathe.
There are good examples of horizontal water mills, also known as Norse or Clack Mills, around Dutch Loch. Originally these were two story buildings with turf roofs, built into banks to give access to the upper floor where the mill-stone was sited. Inside the building there was a fixed lower millstone, and a rotating upper millstone driven by the water falling onto the paddles below. Some were still in use on Papa Stour in the early years of the 20th century, and there is still a working example of one of these mills on the Burn of Clumlie, at Troswick in the south Mainland of Shetland.
### 20th and 21st centuries
In common with many small Scottish islands, Papa Stour's population peaked in the 19th century and has experienced a significant decline since then (see e.g. Mingulay). By 1970 the island school had closed and the population had declined to sixteen 'fairly elderly' residents, but an advertisement in Exchange and Mart reversed the decline. A croft and five sheep were offered free of charge to incomers which brought a flood of applicants. By 1981 the census recorded a population of 33. However, by 2005 the population had fallen to 20 after serious discord between islanders led to several court cases. A number of people left the island and the school closed. By early 2008 the population had dropped to just nine after a family of seven left. The 2011 census recorded a usually resident population of 15 – during the decade 2001–2011 Scottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702.
Overview of population trends
### Shipwrecks
The coasts around Papa Stour have claimed numerous wrecks. In Hamnavoe, Tiptans Skerry alone has sunk Dutch, French, German and Norwegian ships.
The Aberdeen trawler Ben Doran A178, foundered on the Ve Skerries 3 miles northwest of Papa Stour, on the evening of 28 March 1930 while on her way to the village of Scalloway to land her catch. When she grounded weather conditions were fairly good but it was not until the following day that a passing trawler saw, and reported the wreck. By the time that various rescue attempts were launched by the coastguard and local volunteers (there being no lifeboat in Shetland at that time), weather conditions had deteriorated to the point where it was impossible to approach the skerries. A request had been made for the Stromness lifeboat from Orkney, only 120 miles away, to launch, but the request was made too late to be of help. All 9 crew perished in the wreck. Only 3 bodies were recovered, that of James Mitchell, which was returned to Aberdeen, and the bodies of J. Cormack and J.R. Insh, which were buried in Scalloway.
The cargo ship SS Highcliffe ran aground in fog on Forewick Holm in February 1940. On this occasion the conditions were clement and only the ship and cargo were lost. In 1967 the Aberdeen trawler Juniper ran aground in Lyra Sound at the bottom of the 60 metres (200 feet) cliffs. The 12 man crew were rescued by the Aith lifeboat, the coxswain being awarded the RNLI silver medal for this rescue.
Another shipwreck occurred on 9 December 1977 when the Aberdeen trawler Elinor Viking A278, skipper Alec Flett, foundered on the Ve Skerries. The Aith Lifeboat came to the scene but was unable to get near enough to rescue the crew because of the sea conditions. At the request of Alec Webster, Coastguard Station Officer, Lerwick, a volunteer crew in a British Airways Sikorsky S61N helicopter from Sumburgh Airport was scrambled. They managed to winch all the boat's crew to safety within hours of the grounding, despite the storm force winds. The helicopter crew later received a number of awards for bravery. There was no loss of life, but this incident prompted the building of a lighthouse on the skerries in 1979, and may also have been the example required for the formation of the present Search and Rescue helicopter unit, based at Sumburgh Airport.
## Economy & Transport
Crofting is the mainstay of island life. Sheep form the backbone of the agricultural economy but a diversity livestock are kept, including cattle, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and geese. Vegetable are grown too, often in the shelter of circular walls, such plots being known as 'planti crubs' – these were originally used to propagate kale (cabbage) seedlings and were built well away from other buildings where they would be safe from mice. The seedlings would then be transplanted to kaleyards (gardens) near the houses. Fishing is still conducted but on a relatively small scale. There is a post office at the pier, but no shop. Mains electricity only came to the island at the close of the twentieth century. The Papa Stour Project is a Christian supported housing service offering accommodation to men with drug and alcohol issues. Ferries now sail across the Sound of Papa to West Burrafirth on the Shetland Mainland. The crossing takes 45 minutes, and although the Snolda carries cars, there is only one short road on the island. For visiting yachts the four main voes provide good shelter, but the strong tides in both the Sound of Papa and to the north west require considerable care.
### Airstrip
## Culture and the arts
The Papa Stour sword dance may be of Norse origin and bears similarities to the long sword dance of the north east of England. A description of the dance appears in The Pirate by Sir Walter Scott.
The writer and journalist John Sands lived on Papa Stour and Foula for a while during the late nineteenth century. The writer, folklorist and musician, George P. S. Peterson was brought up on Papa Stour.
It is also the 'Papa' of Vagaland's poem Da Sang o da Papa men, now adopted as part of the folksong tradition, as set to music by T.M.Y. Manson. The insistent chorus chant, 'Rowin Foula Doon!', is particularly striking.
"Oot bewast da Horn o Papa,
Rowin Foula doon!
Owir a hidden piece o water,
Rowin Foula doon!
Roond da boat da tide-lumps makkin,
Sunlicht trowe da cloods is brakkin;
We maan geng whaar fish is takkin,
Rowin Foula doon!"
"Rowin Foula doon!" refers to the fishermens' practice of rowing their open fishing boat out to sea until the high cliffs of Foula were no longer visible. This entailed the boat being some 96 kilometres (60 mi) west of Papa Stour. The 'tide-lumps' are increased swells of unusual size due to the combined action of wind against tide. The resonant final image of the piece is of the fishermen being led back home to Papa by the 'scent o flooers' across the water. This is an example of Vagaland's ability to create a vivid sensual impression of a situation. An extra layer of meaning is added by the knowledge that Da Horn o Papa collapsed in a storm around the time of this poem's composition, so that it is a tribute not just to a lost way of life, but a noted geographical feature.
## See also
- List of islands of Scotland
- List of Shetland islands
- Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange who was held captive on St Kilda.
- Papa, Scotland |
307,284 | Stacy Keibler | 1,171,892,845 | American professional wrestler, dancer, and model (born 1979) | [
"1979 births",
"20th-century American actresses",
"21st-century American actresses",
"21st-century female professional wrestlers",
"Actresses from Maryland",
"American cheerleaders",
"American female dancers",
"American female models",
"American female professional wrestlers",
"American film actresses",
"American television actresses",
"Dudley Brothers members",
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"Living people",
"National Football League cheerleaders",
"Participants in American reality television series",
"Professional wrestlers from Maryland",
"Professional wrestling dancers",
"Professional wrestling managers and valets",
"Sportspeople from Towson, Maryland",
"Towson University alumni",
"WWE Hall of Fame inductees"
]
| Stacy Ann-Marie Keibler (born October 14, 1979) is an American actress and retired professional wrestler, cheerleader, dancer, and model. She is best known for her tenure with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Keibler began her professional wrestling career as a part of the Nitro Girls in WCW. She quickly moved on to a more prominent role in the company as the manager Miss Hancock. As Miss Hancock, Keibler was known for doing table dances, her relationship with David Flair, and a pregnancy angle. After WCW was purchased by the WWF (later WWE) in 2001, Keibler moved to the new company during the Attitude Era, using her real name and taking part in the Invasion storyline, also managing the Dudley Boyz. Keibler also managed Test and Scott Steiner. Before her departure from WWE in 2006, she was affiliated with The Hurricane and Rosey and nicknamed "Super Stacy."
Keibler was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars: season two, where she placed third. She has also appeared on other ABC series such as What About Brian, George Lopez, and October Road, as well as the 100th episode of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother as a bartender and on the USA Network show Psych. Keibler has also modeled, appearing in both Maxim and Stuff magazines.
Keibler is considered to be a sex symbol and is known for her unusually long legs. She has been known as both "The Legs of WCW" and "The Legs of WWE". During Keibler's time on Dancing with the Stars, judge Bruno Tonioli nicknamed her "The Weapon of Mass Seduction". Stacy Keibler was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 27, 2023.
## Early life
Stacy Ann-Marie Keibler was born on October 14, 1979, in Rosedale, Maryland, the daughter of Patricia and Gary Keibler. Beginning at the age of three, Keibler took ballet, jazz, and tap dancing classes at Jean Kettell Studio of Dance in Dundalk, Maryland. She went to St. Clement Mary Hofbauer School in Rosedale for her early schooling.
In 1990, Keibler won the title of Miss Maryland Pre-Teen, after competing for the title in Timonium, and went on to win the National Miss Pre-Teen Crown. After attending The Catholic High School of Baltimore, an all-girls school, she attended Towson University, where she studied mass communication. She attended the university on a partial scholarship and had a 3.7 grade point average (GPA). Keibler had minor parts in movies such as Pecker and Liberty Heights, as well as small modeling jobs. Keibler became a cheerleader for the Baltimore Ravens football team when she was 18.
## Professional wrestling career
### World Championship Wrestling (1999–2001)
Keibler began watching wrestling with her boyfriend at the time, Kris Cumberland. She can be seen in the crowd on an episode of Nitro in 1997 and the Starrcade 1998 pay-per-view before the television title match, dancing in an NWO Wolfpac T-shirt. In September 1999, Keibler entered a nationwide contest held by World Championship Wrestling to find a new member of the Nitro Girls dance troupe, which was organized in an attempt to boost the show's declining ratings. A total of 300 women participated in the contest; the results were decided by a series of polls on WCW's website, which narrowed down the field to eight finalists. Keibler was declared the winner of the contest on the November 8, 1999 edition of Nitro after receiving the most online votes out of the eight finalists and was given a spot on the dance troupe along with a \$10,000 prize. Her winning routine was watched by 4.4 million viewers. Keibler performed dance routines every week on WCW's flagship show Monday Nitro under the name Skye. By 2000, Keibler was appearing on WCW as a Nitro Girl, attending school full-time, and cheering for the Baltimore Ravens.
She soon accepted a larger role and became a heel valet using the stage name Miss Hancock (some weeks spelled "Handcock"), briefly serving as an associate for the tag team of Lenny Lane and Lodi dubbed Standards and Practices. Despite wearing business suits, her character was known to climb on top of the announcers' table and dance sensually. It was also during this period that she began using what would become her trademark ring entrance: slowly putting her forty-two inch legs through the second tier of ropes, pausing to let the crowd momentarily see her panties underneath her incredibly short skirts. At 5 feet 11 inches, Keibler was one of few women in professional wrestling tall enough to step over the middle of the three ropes that surround the ring.
During 2000, she dated David Flair (both on-screen and off-screen), who was already involved in an on-screen relationship with Daffney. Ms. Hancock set her eyes on Flair and ended up stealing him away from Daffney and continued to torment the woman whose boyfriend she stole, and the two would feud throughout the Summer of 2000. This led to Keibler's in-ring debut at the Bash at the Beach in a Wedding Gown match, which she lost after she removed her own gown. Hancock next briefly feuded with Kimberly Page, but the storyline ended abruptly when Page quit the company. Keibler and Flair then began a feud with the Misfits in Action stable, including a mud wrestling singles match against Major Gunns at New Blood Rising. During the match, she was kicked in the stomach, and she revealed herself to be pregnant the next night, beginning a new angle for herself and Flair. Two proposed endings to the storyline were for either Ric Flair or Vince Russo to be the father of her child. The angle, however, ended prematurely, as she revealed the pregnancy to be false, broke up with David Flair, and was taken off of television.
When Stacy returned in 2001, she dropped the name Ms. Hancock and went by her real name. On the March 12, 2001 edition of Nitro, Keibler revealed Shawn Stasiak as her "baby" and continued her role as a heel manager, siding with Stasiak. Shawn and Stacy would feud with Bam Bam Bigelow, with the evil Stacy using underhanded tactics to help Stasiak win 2 matches from a series of 3, including on the final edition of Nitro two weeks later on March 26.
### World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (2001–2006)
#### The Invasion (2001)
When WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 2001, Keibler's Time Warner contract was bought by the WWF. Stacy made her WWF television debut on the June 14, 2001 episode of SmackDown! when then-face, Shane McMahon brought her to the ring to distract then-heel, Rhyno, causing him to lose a match. Not long after this she turned into a heel character as part of The Alliance. Stacy showed herself to be an evil mean girl that had a sadistic side, as she loved watching other people's pain and misfortune, and regularly enjoyed mocking them by pointing and laughing. She originally teamed up with real-life friend, then-heel, Torrie Wilson, and the pair feuded with Trish Stratus and Lita. During this feud the four wrestlers competed in the first-ever tag team Bra and Panties Match at the Invasion pay-per-view, which Trish and Lita won by stripping Stacy and Wilson down to their bra & panties. After this she and Torrie moved on to targeting Jacqueline and were shown backstage enjoying watching Jacqueline cry over the elimination of Shadrick McGee from Tough Enough. Stacy and Torrie then defeated Jacqueline in a handicap match on Raw with help from Ivory. On the Heat before SummerSlam, Stacy along with Torrie and Ivory, brutally attacked Lita backstage by injuring her knee, with the intent of preventing her from competing against them later that night. Stacy also had a brief reunion with Shawn Stasiak, and a short alliance with Tazz, as they battled the likes of Spike Dudley and Tajiri. Stacy found it amusing how short these men were and told Torrie that their height made them lesser men. Torrie had begun dating Tajiri at this time and this caused the evil Stacy to begin an on-screen rivalry with her former friend. The feud started with a couple of mixed tag matches involving the women and included Stacy sneak attacking Torrie backstage on an episode of Raw.
#### Duchess of Dudleyville (2001–2002)
As the WCW/ECW Invasion was nearing its end, Keibler became the manager of the heel Dudley Boyz. She made her first appearance in this role on the October 1, 2001 episode of Raw, and was nicknamed the "Duchess of Dudleyville". During this time, Stacy continued to show her sadistic side as she took great pleasure in watching the likes of Torrie Wilson and Spike Dudley get driven violently through tables, and particularly enjoyed being the one to personally give the order to the Dudley Boyz to put Torrie through a table. Stacy couldn't hide her joy at seeing Torrie suffering at her feet and laughed at the sight. A few days later on Smackdown, Stacy watched with glee as the Dudley Boyz threw Spike to the outside of the ring and through a table, as commentator Michael Cole acknowledged how wicked Stacy was and called her “evil”. Torrie would return a couple of weeks later to get her revenge and gave Keibler a wedgie then pantsed her on an episode of SmackDown!. She then defeated Keibler in the first-ever lingerie match, a match wrestled in lingerie, at No Mercy. Keibler made her WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania X8 alongside The Dudleyz. Keibler's role with the Dudley Boyz came to an abrupt end during Raw after WrestleMania when she was powerbombed through a table after accidentally costing the team a match. She then set her sights on the WWE Women's Championship at Judgment Day, facing Trish Stratus in a losing effort. She faced Stratus several more times in the succeeding weeks, but she never won a match against her.
#### Mr McMahon's personal assistant (2002)
Keibler was originally drafted to the SmackDown! brand in 2002, where she immediately set her eyes on the man in charge, the heel WWE chairman, Vince McMahon. McMahon was ready to hire another attractive woman until Keibler interrupted and performed a seductive table dance in the ring to successfully become McMahon's personal assistant, as well as his on-screen mistress. She was frequently shown flirting and 'making out' with him in backstage segments. During her time alongside the boss she lied that the young rookie Randy Orton had forced himself on her, which caused Orton to be punished with a match against the mean veteran Hardcore Holly. A few weeks later she sat at ringside and enjoyed watching the rookie Orton get beaten up some more, this time by Test. She also had a personal ringside view when Triple H was ambushed in a 6 on 1 beatdown by some of McMahon's henchmen. The sadistic Stacy looked on and grinned with pleasure as Triple H was beaten and bloodied in the assault. She also continued her rivalry with Torrie Wilson during this time period, and even tried to throw Torrie off the stage on an episode of SmackDown!, but a referee saved Torrie just in time and stopped Stacy's evil plan from being a success. Her time with McMahon came to an end when Stephanie McMahon became general manager of the SmackDown! brand. Dawn Marie made her debut on SmackDown! as McMahon's legal assistant, who competed with Keibler for McMahon's affections.
#### Move to Raw and alliance with Test (2002–2003)
A key storyline for Keibler's on-screen character occurred when she left SmackDown! for Raw. Keibler made her official Raw debut on August 12, 2002, and immediately began feuding with the women there. She was given the role of being a special referee on a couple of occasions and used them as opportunities to abuse her power. Stacy liked counting quickly when her fellow bad girls were making pin attempts and counted slowly for the fan favorites. In another role as a special referee, Stacy was put in charge of a match between Test and D'Lo Brown. At the start of the match Stacy slapped D’Lo in the face and hindered his attempts to win the match with slow counts. After D'Lo argued with Stacy about her actions, he was smashed in the face by a big boot from Test, which Stacy thoroughly enjoyed watching. She then made a quick 3 count to help the villain Test win the match. This would begin the on screen pairing between her and Test which would last for the remainder of 2002 and most of 2003. She enjoyed watching him rip apart fan favourites, such as the superhero Hurricane and would also use her deviousness to help him win matches, such as when she delivered a low blow to Goldust.
As Test's on-screen marketing agent, she came up with the idea that Test should call his fans "Testicles," cut his hair, and reshape his image. This caused the gimmick to become popular with the audience and the couple switched from being villains into fan favorites in November 2002. This would be Stacy's first time as a babyface in WWE. In the spring of 2003, Test, however, became to verbally abuse Keibler, who also started managing Scott Steiner. After months of build-up, Keibler finally left Test for Steiner on the June 2 edition of Raw. Steiner defeated Test for Keibler's services at Bad Blood, and Keibler seemed happy as Steiner's new manager, as the two alluded to having more than a professional relationship. Test, however, continued to harass Keibler and Steiner until Steiner accepted a rematch with Stacy's services on the line. On the August 18 episode of Raw, Test won the match after faking a leg injury and then blindsiding Steiner with a big boot. A match was then set for Unforgiven with the stipulation that if Test won, he would not only retain Keibler's services, but would acquire Steiner's services as well. During the match, Keibler's interference backfired, and Test won the match. Steiner then turned heel by attacking Keibler after her interference in his match on the September 29 episode of Raw backfired. For a time, Test and Steiner worked as a tag team, sharing the services of Keibler as their on-screen sex slave. The storyline finally ended on the December 1 episode of Raw, when general manager Mick Foley freed Keibler from her obligatory contracts with Test and Steiner by temporarily firing them.
#### Various storylines (2003–2005)
Keibler was chosen to record a track on the album WWE Originals. She and WWE music producer Jim Johnston recorded the song "Why Can't We Just Dance?" for the album. She was then placed in a feud involving Torrie Wilson and then-babyface, Sable, both of whom had recently posed for a Playboy cover. Keibler aligned with Miss Jackie, neither of whom had posed for the magazine, claiming that they deserved to be in Playboy over Sable and Wilson. Keibler and Jackie challenged Sable and Wilson to a Tag Team Evening Gown match at WrestleMania XX, which they lost when Jackie was pinned by Wilson, and the feud was dropped afterward. Before the feud was dropped, all the performers were playing face characters at the time.
She took over the 2004 Raw Diva Search for a few weeks, which led to several tag matches against the heel gimmicks of Gail Kim, Trish Stratus, and Molly Holly and with partners Nidia and the face gimmick of Victoria. Keibler got upset victories over Kim, Stratus, and Holly. She earned a Women's Championship title match on October 11, 2004, but she was defeated by Stratus, who retained the title. Keibler also competed in the first-ever Fulfill your Fantasy Diva Battle Royal for the WWE Women's Championship at Taboo Tuesday along with Victoria, Nidia, Gail Kim, Molly Holly, Jazz, and then-champion Stratus. She was eliminated second to last after jumping over the top rope to avoid hitting the turnbuckle, followed by Holly knocking her off the apron to eliminate her.
In February 2005, Keibler began appearing in backstage segments with then-babyface, Randy Orton, and eventually became his on-screen girlfriend. When Orton challenged The Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania 21, Orton ended the relationship by hitting Stacy with an RKO, incapacitating her. He justified it by claiming he was demonstrating how ruthless he could be in order to defeat The Undertaker.
#### Super Stacy (2005-2006)
Keibler then joined forces with The Hurricane and Rosey. She became one-third of the trio as a superhero sidekick nicknamed Super Stacy, complete with her own superhero costume. She was ringside during several matches as they defended their World Tag Team Championship. During this time, Keibler feuded on-screen with then-heel, Victoria, including confrontations and a mixed-tag-team match on Raw and a singles match on Heat.
After a long tenure on Monday nights, Keibler and Christy Hemme, were moved to SmackDown! on August 25, as part of a trade that brought Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle to Raw. On SmackDown! Keibler participated in lingerie matches and bikini contests. After a short absence, Keibler began a short feud with Jillian Hall, which led to the two having a match on Velocity, which Keibler lost. This would be Keibler's final match with WWE. Keibler then asked for time off to appear on Dancing with the Stars. During this time, Keibler's WWE.com profile was moved from SmackDown! to RAW, though she never made an appearance on the brand before leaving the company. Keibler's final mention on WWE programming occurred on the March 6, 2006 episode of RAW, where she was insulted by Candice Michelle for placing third on Dancing with the Stars during Michelle's unveiling of her Playboy magazine cover. After completing her stint on Dancing with the Stars, Keibler officially parted ways with WWE in July 2006 to move on to other endeavors.
#### Sporadic Appearances & Hall of Fame Induction (2011, 2019, 2023)
After leaving WWE in July 2006, Keibler made a special guest appearance for WWE's reality show, Tough Enough in 2011. Being a former NFL Cheerleader, she helped prepare the contestants to perform publicly in Universal Studios.
On April 6, 2019, Keibler made a surprise return to induct Torrie Wilson into the WWE Hall of Fame. In 2021, WWE Network listed Keibler as one of the women who made an impact in WWE outside the ring. On March 15, 2023, Keibler was reported to be entering the WWE Hall of Fame, being confirmed on March 27, 2023. She was inducted by both Mick Foley and Torrie Wilson at the official ceremony ahead of WrestleMania 39, appearing with fellow inductees on-stage during the second night of the event.
## Modeling and acting career
As the Fitness Editor at Stuff magazine during 2005 and 2006, Keibler wrote and modeled for her own occasional column, Getting Fit with Stacy Keibler. She has appeared on the cover of that magazine twice -June 2005 and March 2006. Maxim named Keibler No. 5 in its 2006 Hot 100 issue, and No. 70 in its 2007 Hot 100. In 2008, she was named No. 89 in Maxims annual Hot 100 list.; the following year she was No. 77. In 2010, she was No. 82 and in 2011 she was No. 72. And in 2012 she was ranked 51. Keibler has declined two invitations from Playboy to pose in the nude for its magazine.
Keibler starred in a commercial for AT&T Corporation alongside Carrot Top. She also auditioned and earned a role in Big Momma's House 2, but she did not appear.
She competed in the second season of Dancing with the Stars, alongside her dance partner, Tony Dovolani. Keibler received a perfect score of 30 from the three judges for her samba dance routine in week five. This prompted judge, Bruno Tonioli, to nickname her a "weapon of mass seduction." Overall, Keibler and Dovolani received four perfect scores. Keibler was eliminated in the final episode, coming in third to Jerry Rice, who placed second in the final round of the competition, and Drew Lachey, the winner of the season. Two of the judges, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman, felt she should have at least placed second. Oddsmakers had considered her the favorite to win the competition.
Keibler has appeared on MTV's Punk'd twice. In season five Keibler took part in helping prank Triple H, which also included Stephanie McMahon. In season seven, however, Keibler was seen as a victim of a prank by her then-boyfriend, Geoff Stults.
In February 2007, Keibler began a recurring role in ABC's What About Brian. She played the role of Brian's new neighbor and love interest. This was Keibler's first major acting role, following her previous minor roles in both Bubble Boy and Pecker. Keibler guest starred on George Lopez on ABC. In the fall of 2007 Keibler appeared both in The Comebacks and on ABC's drama October Road.
In April 2008, she was named No. 64 in FHM's annual 100 Sexiest Women list. Keibler was featured in an advertisement in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. In September 2008, Keibler appeared on ABC Family's mini television series, Samurai Girl as the heel character Karen. On November 23, 2008, Keibler was named the "World's Hottest Athlete" by a sixty-four contestant bracket on InGameNow.
Keibler hosted the E! Special Maxim's Celebrity Beach Watch: 15 Hottest Bodies on September 16, 2009, and The Ultimate Spike Girl 2009 Finale on Spike TV on October 1, 2009. On January 11, 2010, Keibler appeared as "the hot bartender", a new conquest for Barney, in the How I Met Your Mother 100th episode, "Girls Versus Suits". On February 3, 2010, Keibler appeared on an episode of the USA Network show Psych. On Oct. 4, 2010, Keibler made a guest appearance in the spy comedy Chuck season 4, episode 3 titled "Chuck versus the Cubic Z" alongside guests Nicole Richie and fellow WWE alum "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Keibler played the role of CIA agent "Greta".
In 2011, Keibler hosted Call of Duty Elite's Friday Night Fights. In 2013, Keibler hosted a Lifetime show called Supermarket Superstar, where home chefs fought for their product to be sold in supermarkets. In 2014, she reprised her role as Karina in the episode "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra" of How I Met Your Mother.
## Other media
Keibler made her video game debut in WCW Backstage Assault as her Miss Hancock character. She would later appear in thirteen WWE console games, which include: WWE WrestleMania X8, WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth, WWE Crush Hour, WWE WrestleMania XIX, WWE Raw 2, WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain, WWE Day of Reckoning, WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw, WWE WrestleMania 21, WWE Day of Reckoning 2, WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006, WWE 2K22 (as downloadable content) and WWE 2K23. Keibler also appears in Dancing with the Stars, a game based on the ABC series of the same name, and the WWE SuperCard and WWE Champions mobile games.
## Filmography
<table>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<th><p>Year</p></th>
<th><p>Title</p></th>
<th><p>Role</p></th>
<th><p>Notes</p></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>1998</p></td>
<td><p>Pecker</p></td>
<td><p>Blonde on Bus</p></td>
<td><p>Uncredited</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>1999</p></td>
<td><p>Liberty Heights</p></td>
<td><p>Extra</p></td>
<td><p>Uncredited</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2001</p></td>
<td><p>Bubble Boy</p></td>
<td><p>Working Girl</p></td>
<td><p>Cameo</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2002;<br />
2011</p></td>
<td><p>WWE Tough Enough</p></td>
<td><p>Herself</p></td>
<td><p>3 episodes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2004</p></td>
<td><p>Headbangers Ball</p></td>
<td><p>Herself</p></td>
<td><p>1 episode</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2005–2006</p></td>
<td><p>Punk'd</p></td>
<td><p>Herself</p></td>
<td><p>2 episodes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2006</p></td>
<td><p>Dancing With the Stars</p></td>
<td><p>Herself</p></td>
<td><p>Placed third in season 2</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2007</p></td>
<td><p>George Lopez</p></td>
<td><p>Lindsay Cafferty</p></td>
<td><p>2 episodes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2007</p></td>
<td><p>What About Brian</p></td>
<td><p>Stephanie</p></td>
<td><p>5 episodes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2007</p></td>
<td><p>'</p></td>
<td><p>All-American Mom</p></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2008</p></td>
<td><p>October Road</p></td>
<td><p>Rory Dunlop</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "The Fine Art of Surfacing"</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2008</p></td>
<td><p>Samurai Girl</p></td>
<td><p>Karen</p></td>
<td><p>2 episodes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2009</p></td>
<td><p>In the Motherhood</p></td>
<td><p>Keli Lee</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "It Takes a Village Idiot"</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2009</p></td>
<td><p>Mayne Street</p></td>
<td><p>Herself</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "Sports Guy Mansion"</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2010;<br />
2014</p></td>
<td><p>How I Met Your Mother</p></td>
<td><p>Karina</p></td>
<td><p>2 episodes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2010–2011</p></td>
<td><p>Chuck</p></td>
<td><p>Greta/Captain Victoria Dunwoody</p></td>
<td><p>2 episodes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2011</p></td>
<td><p>Psych</p></td>
<td><p>Jessica Martino</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "Thrill Seekers and Hell Raisers"</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2011</p></td>
<td><p>Blue Mountain State</p></td>
<td><p>Thad's Wife</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "Vision Quest"</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2011</p></td>
<td><p>Fixing Pete</p></td>
<td><p>Mandy</p></td>
<td><p>Television movie</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2012</p></td>
<td><p>Dysfunctional Friends</p></td>
<td><p>Storm</p></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2012</p></td>
<td><p>Men at Work</p></td>
<td><p>Keri</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "Devil's Threesome"</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2012</p></td>
<td><p>NTSF:SD:SUV::</p></td>
<td><p>Hours</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "Time Angels"</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2013</p></td>
<td><p>Fashion Police</p></td>
<td><p>Herself</p></td>
<td><p>June 13 episode</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2013</p></td>
<td><p>The View</p></td>
<td><p>Herself/Guest Co-Hostess</p></td>
<td><p>July 18 episode</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2013</p></td>
<td><p>Supermarket Superstar</p></td>
<td><p>Herself/host</p></td>
<td><p>10 episodes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td><p>2013</p></td>
<td><p>Hollywood Game Night</p></td>
<td><p>Herself</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "Purr-ty People"</p></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td><p>2013</p></td>
<td><p>Project Runway</p></td>
<td><p>Herself/Guest Judge</p></td>
<td><p>Episode: "Let's Do Brunch"</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
### Video games
### Dancing with the Stars season 2 performances
## Personal life
Keibler's boyfriend of seven years from 1992 to 1999, Kris Cumberland, was a wrestling fan who first got her interested in wrestling, and they would sometimes go to WCW and WWF events within two hours’ drive of Baltimore. In 2000, after winning \$10,000 in the contest to become a part of the Nitro Girls, Keibler used the money to buy season tickets for the Baltimore Ravens, the team for which she cheers and was a former cheerleader. In 2000, Keibler dated David Flair during their time together in WCW.
From 2001 to 2005, Keibler dated Andrew "Test" Martin while they both worked together in the WWF/WWE. Keibler moved to Los Angeles in 2004, where she was roommates with Torrie Wilson. In June 2005, Keibler was reported to be in a relationship with actor Geoff Stults. The pair appeared together on MTV's Punk'd'', with Keibler as the recipient of the prank. Keibler and Stults were part-owners of the now defunct Hollywood Fame, a 2006 expansion franchise of the American Basketball Association. The team went defunct after only one season. Stults and Keibler split in 2010.
Keibler started dating George Clooney in July 2011. Clooney and Keibler ended their relationship in July 2013.
Keibler began dating Future Ads CEO Jared Pobre in fall 2013, though they had been friends for several years previously. They were married on March 8, 2014, in Mexico. They have two daughters and a son.
## Championships and accomplishments
- World Championship Wrestling
- Nitro Girl Search (1999)
- World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE
- WWE Babe of the Year (2004)
- WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2023) |
478,917 | Operation Slapstick | 1,152,863,498 | WW2 British military operation during the Allied invasion of Italy, 1943 | [
"1943 in Italy",
"Airborne operations of World War II",
"Conflicts in 1943",
"Italian campaign (World War II)",
"Military operations of World War II involving Germany",
"Naval battles and operations of World War II involving the United Kingdom",
"Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)",
"World War II operations and battles of the Italian Campaign"
]
| Operation Slapstick was the code name for a British landing from the sea at the Italian port of Taranto during the Second World War. The operation, one of three landings during the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943, was undertaken by airborne troops of the British 1st Airborne Division, commanded by Major-General George Hopkinson.
Planned at short notice, the mission followed an offer by the Italian government to open the ports of Taranto and Brindisi on the heel of Italy to the Allies. The airborne division was selected to undertake the mission, but at the time they were located in North Africa. A shortage of transport aircraft meant the division could not land in their traditional way by parachute and glider, and all the landing craft in the area were already allocated to the other landings: Operation Avalanche at Salerno on the western coast, and Operation Baytown at Calabria. Instead, the division had to be transported across the Mediterranean by ships of the Royal Navy. The landing was unopposed and the airborne division successfully captured the ports of Taranto, and later Brindisi on the Adriatic coast in working order.
The only German forces in the area were elements of the 1st Parachute Division (1. Fallschirmjäger Division), which engaged the advancing British in ambushes and at roadblocks during a fighting withdrawal north. Eventually, by the end of September, the British 1st Airborne Division advanced 125 miles (201 km) to Foggia. Reinforcements from two infantry divisions had by then been landed behind them, which allowed the airborne troops to be withdrawn to Taranto. Soon after, the division, minus the 2nd Parachute Brigade, sailed for England in preparation for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy.
## Background
In May 1943, the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were defeated in the North African Campaign. Two months later, the Allied powers of Great Britain and the United States successfully launched their invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky. The island being completely occupied by the end of August, the Allies next turned their attention to the invasion of Italy.
On 3 September 1943, the British Eighth Army, under the command of General Sir Bernard Montgomery, crossed the Strait of Messina from Sicily and landed in Calabria during Operation Baytown to seize the ports of Reggio and San Giovanni. The main invasion was planned for 9 September, with the U.S. Fifth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Mark Clark, landing at Salerno on the western coast in Operation Avalanche, with Naples as their immediate objective. The Allies hoped that the invasion would persuade the Italian forces to surrender. If they did, the five Italian divisions in France and the twenty-nine in the Balkans would have to be replaced by German formations. Also, if the Germans then decided to continue the fight in Italy, they would have to redeploy some of their troops engaged on the Eastern Front or on occupation duties in France.
During secret surrender negotiations with the Allies in early September, the Italian government offered to open the ports of Taranto and Brindisi on the eastern coast. German forces in that area were very weak and would be expected to withdraw rather than fight if the Allies landed there. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, quickly planned a third landing, codenamed Slapstick, to take advantage of the offer.
Slapstick was in part an operation of deception, to divert German forces away from the main Allied landings at Salerno on the same day, while also attempting to capture Taranto and Brindisi intact. The main value of Taranto was its large port. Its seizure would, with the expected capture of Naples in the west by the Americans, give the Allies supply points on both Italian coasts.
This military operation had a major political role, since the leaders of the government, including King Vittorio Emanuele III and his family, and Prime Minister Badoglio, fled from Rome to Brindisi after the surrender. Brindisi at the time was controlled only by the Italian Army, but its quick occupation by British troops secured the safety of the Italian leaders and allowed the declaration of war by Italy against Germany.
### Taranto
Taranto is the capital city of the Province of Taranto in the region of Apulia and has a large harbor. It includes the two islets of St. Peter and St. Paul, which protect the bay, called the Mar Grande ("Big Sea"), where the commercial port is located. After the unification of Italy, Taranto became the main base of the Italian Navy. The military port was located in another bay, the Mar Piccolo. In November 1940, the Royal Navy attacked the naval base in Taranto, sinking some Italian battleships.
## Prelude
### German forces
The German High Command fully expected Italy to surrender and, in preparation, had secretly established a new Army group headquarters commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel at Munich. Rommel would have six divisions transferred from the Eastern Front, two divisions from France that had just been reformed, and two parachute divisions based in Germany in his new command. However, a Russian offensive in the east prevented the release of all the units promised. Adolf Hitler came to the conclusion that, without the backing of the Italian Army, it would be impossible for the Germans to defend the whole of Italy.
In Italy, German Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring, unaware of what was happening in Germany, had been building up the strength of his forces. He was aided in this by the escape from Sicily of three divisions, which managed to cross the Strait of Messina without serious loss of men or equipment. In August, five infantry and two panzer divisions moved into northern Italy. After the loss of Sicily, Hitler amended the German plans, deciding to hold the Salerno-Naples area with five infantry divisions, while the 1st Parachute Division was ordered to the Apulia region.
Commanded by Generalmajor Richard Heidrich, the 1st Parachute Division consisted of the 1st, 3rd and 4th Parachute Regiments, with an artillery regiment, tank-destroyer, anti-aircraft, and engineer battalions, and other support units. The division was the successor of the original German airborne force, the 7th Air Division, and was highly experienced. It had spearheaded the German invasion in the west in 1940, and fought in the battles of Greece and Crete, and in the Soviet Union. Withdrawn from the Soviet Union in 1943, the division had already fought against British paratroops during operations in Sicily. However, on 9 September only three combat battalions and the headquarters were in Apulia.
### British forces
Plans were formulated on 6 September to transport the British 1st Airborne Division to Taranto from their base in North Africa. They would take advantage of the Italian surrender to capture the port and establish anti-aircraft defences. What was left of the Italian fleet still using the harbour was expected to have left beforehand. The Allies believed that the division would face only minimal opposition and would be able to overcome any resistance with the limited naval support available, as Taranto was outside the range of Allied fighter aircraft based in Sicily.
Although it had been formed in October 1941, the British 1st Airborne Division, commanded by Major-General George Hopkinson, had never before fought as a complete division. The only units with any combat experience were the 1st Parachute Brigade, which had fought with distinction as an independent brigade in North Africa and in Operation Fustian during the Allied invasion of Sicily, and the 1st Airlanding Brigade, understrength with only two battalions, which had also fought in Sicily during Operation Ladbroke. Both brigades had suffered heavy casualties in Sicily and were in no condition to undertake any further assault landings. Of the division's other brigades, the 2nd and 4th Para Brigades, were untried in battle. Also, the 2nd Parachute Brigade was the only full strength unit, as the 4th Parachute Brigade had only two battalions, with its third battalion still forming in Palestine.
There was only sufficient troop transport aircraft to support one division-sized operation, and that was allocated to the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, under Major General Matthew Ridgway, as part of the Salerno landings. As a result, the 1st Airborne Division had to be carried to Italy by sea. With no landing craft available on such short notice, the division was carried across the Mediterranean by four cruisers, HMS Aurora, HMS Penelope, HMS Dido and HMS Sirius of the Royal Navy's 12th Cruiser Squadron, accompanied by the minelayer HMS Abdiel and the American cruiser USS Boise, all commanded by Commodore W.G. Agnew. If the landing was successful, the British 78th Infantry Division in Sicily and the 8th Indian Infantry Division in the Middle East, would be sent to reinforce the airborne division, under the command of V Corps.
## Landing
Before leaving Tunisia, the 1st Airborne Division was divided into two-halves. The first half, consisting of the divisional headquarters, the 1st and 4th Parachute Brigade groups and the 9th Field Company, Royal Engineers, boarded the Royal Navy ships at Bizerta. The ships departed at 17:00 on 8 September, their decks loaded with the division's vehicles and stores. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham was concerned that the Italian battle fleet based at Taranto might sortie and attack the cruisers which would be unable to defend themselves adequately, overloaded as they were with troops and equipment. He therefore ordered the battleships HMS Howe and HMS King George V and their six escorting destroyers, commanded by Vice Admiral Arthur Power, to leave their base in Malta and join the flotilla. At 18:30 8 September, while the convoy was at sea, General Dwight D. Eisenhower broadcast the details of the Italian surrender.
To support the British landings early on 9 September, Scanzano was attacked by American B-26 Marauders from the 17th and 310th Bombardment Groups. Then, just as the Allied flotilla approached Taranto, the Italian battleships Andrea Doria and Duilio and three cruisers were observed leaving the harbour. The flotilla went to action stations, but the Italian ships just sailed past them en route to Malta to surrender in accordance with the agreement between the Allies and the Italian government. At 15:00, the flotilla reached the minefield guarding the entrance to Taranto. The destroyer HMS Javelin negotiated the minefield and entered the harbour. Two hours later, Javelin returned with an Italian harbour pilot on board. HMS Penelope and USS Boise were guided safely into the harbour and alongside the jetty, where they disembarked the troops they were carrying, while the other ships in the flotilla remained outside the port and used small ship's boats to take their soldiers ashore. The port's facilities were all in working order and were soon unloading the ships.
The first units ashore were the headquarters of the 4th Parachute Brigade and the 10th Parachute Battalion, which were directed to move inland to guard against a German attack. When the airborne division troops entered the city, they were welcomed by the Italian garrison and informed that the German forces had already departed. When the two brigades were offloaded, they passed through the city and set up defensive positions to the north. At the same time, Major-General George F. Hopkinson, established his divisional headquarters in the Albergo Europa Hotel and accepted the Italian surrender from the military governor.
After safely landing the first half of the division, the 12th Cruiser Squadron returned to Bizerta to collect the remaining troops, consisting of the 2nd Parachute Brigade, the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the Glider Pilot Regiment. The only casualties in the landing occurred on 10 September when HMS Abdiel, while manoeuvring alongside the dock, struck a mine and sank. Casualties totaled 58 killed and 154 wounded from the 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion, and 48 dead among Abdiel's crew. Abdiel was also carrying twelve 6 pounder anti-tank guns of the 2nd Anti-tank Battery, and the division's reserve ammunition supply.
Overnight, the 4th Parachute Brigade led the advance inland. By daybreak on 10 September, they had reached Massafra, where they were welcomed by the population. The next town they reached was Mottola, which was still occupied by the Germans. The Germans put up some resistance to the 156th Parachute Battalion's assault, but withdrew soon after. The division's first combat casualties resulted from this action. The wounded were evacuated to Taranto, where the 133rd (Parachute) Field Ambulance had established an 80-bed main dressing station at the Rendinella hospital.
The German paratroop rearguard tried to delay the British advance with several ambushes and roadblocks. At a roadblock beside the town of Castellaneta, Major-General Hopkinton, the 1st Airborne Division's GOC, was hit by a burst of German machine gun fire while observing the 10th Parachute Battalion's attack. He died of his wounds the following day. Hopkinson was replaced as the divisional commander by Brigadier Ernest Down, previously the commander of the 2nd Parachute Brigade.
Within 48 hours of landing at Taranto, the airborne division reached and occupied the port of Brindisi and Bari on the Adriatic coast without opposition since both cities were still under control of the italian royal army. On 11 September on the division's left, contact was made with the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, the leading unit of the British Eighth Army which had arrived in the area from Calabria. By the evening of 12 September, the 1st Airborne Division had advanced 20 miles (32 km) inland on foot.
The airborne division's next objective was now the airfield at Gioia del Colle. The Royal Air Force needed the airfield to bring in fighter aircraft from Sicily and support the landings at Salerno, which had not gone as expected. The Germans continued their withdrawal, and Gioia was reached over the night of the 16/17 September, by the 10th and 156th Parachute battalions. The Royal Air Force took over the airfield and 48 hours later, six squadrons were flying from the base in support of Allied operations. Between 20 and 24 September, the 1st Airborne Division was ordered to halt and construct defences on the approaches to Taranto, due to concerns that the Germans might launch a counterattack against the overextended unit.
The V Corps headquarters landed at Taranto on 18 September and prepared for the arrival of its two divisions. The first was the British 78th Infantry Division, which started arriving at Bari on 22 September, followed by the 8th Indian Infantry Division at Taranto the next day. On 24 September, the 1st Parachute and 1st Airlanding brigades took over the advance for the airborne division. By 27 September, they and the 78th Division reached Foggia, 125 miles (201 km) from Taranto. From there, the airborne division was withdrawn to Taranto. By November, most of the 1st Airborne Division had left for England.
## Aftermath
Operation Slapstick did not provide the diversion General Eisenhower had hoped for. The decision by Heidrich not to oppose the landings was made without reference to Kesselring's headquarters. Heidrich had expected to be confronted by an overwhelming Allied force and had withdrawn his units north, although he endeavoured to delay the Allied advance where possible by ambushes and roadblocks. The German division went on to frustrate the Allied attempt to advance on Rome during the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944. |
5,285,468 | Mac Pro | 1,172,530,222 | Series of computers by Apple Inc. | [
"Computer workstations",
"Computer-related introductions in 2006",
"Macintosh computers by product line",
"Macintosh towers",
"X86 Macintosh computers"
]
| Mac Pro is a series of workstations and servers for professionals made by Apple Inc. since 2006. The Mac Pro, by some performance benchmarks, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is one of four desktop computers in the current Mac lineup, sitting above the Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Studio.
Introduced in August 2006, the Mac Pro was an Intel-based replacement for the Power Mac line and had two dual-core Xeon Woodcrest processors and a rectangular tower case carried over from the Power Mac G5. It was updated on April 4, 2007, by a dual quad-core Xeon Clovertown model, then on January 8, 2008, by a dual quad-core Xeon Harpertown model. Revisions in 2010 and 2012 revisions had Nehalem/Westmere architecture Intel Xeon processors.
In December 2013, Apple released a new cylindrical Mac Pro (colloquially called the "trash can Mac Pro"). Apple said it offered twice the overall performance of the first generation while taking up less than one-eighth the volume. It had up to a 12-core Xeon E5 processor, dual AMD FirePro D series GPUs, PCIe-based flash storage and an HDMI port, but lacked PCIe expansion slots. Thunderbolt 2 ports brought updated wired connectivity and support for six Thunderbolt Displays. Reviews initially were generally positive, with caveats. Limitations of the cylindrical design prevented Apple from upgrading the cylindrical Mac Pro with more powerful hardware.
The 2019 Mac Pro returned to a tower form factor reminiscent of the first-generation model, but with larger air cooling holes. It has up to a 28-core Xeon-W processor, eight PCIe slots, AMD Radeon Pro Vega GPUs, and replaces most data ports with USB-C and Thunderbolt 3.
The 2023 Mac Pro carried over the design of the 2019 model and is based on the Apple M2 Ultra chip. It is the first model with an Apple silicon chip. Its introduction completed the Mac transition from Intel to Apple processors, first announced in June 2020 and started in November that year.
## Tower (2006–2012)
Apple said that an Intel-based replacement for the 2003's PowerPC-based Power Mac G5 machines had been expected for some time before the Mac Pro was formally announced on August 7, 2006, at the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). In June 2005, Apple released the Developer Transition Kit, a prototype Intel Pentium 4–based Mac housed in a Power Mac G5 case, that was temporarily available to developers. The iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook, and MacBook Pro had moved to an Intel-based architecture starting in January 2006, leaving the Power Mac G5 as the only machine in the Mac lineup still based on the PowerPC processor architecture Apple had used since 1994. Apple had dropped the term "Power" from the other machines in their lineup and started using "Pro" on their higher-end laptop offerings. As such, the name "Mac Pro" was widely used before the machine was announced. The Mac Pro is in the Unix workstation market. Although the high-end technical market has not traditionally been an area of strength for Apple, the company has been positioning itself as a leader in non-linear digital editing for high-definition video, which demands storage and memory far in excess of a general desktop machine. Additionally, the codecs used in these applications are generally processor intensive and highly threadable, which Apple's ProRes white paper describes as scaling almost linearly with additional processor cores. Apple's previous machine aimed at this market, the Power Mac G5, has up to two dual-core processors (marketed as "Quad-Core"), but lacks the storage expansion capabilities of the newer design.
Original marketing materials for the Mac Pro generally referred to the middle-of-the-line model with 2 × dual-core 2.66 GHz processors. Previously, Apple featured the base model with the words "starting at" or "from" when describing the pricing, but the online US Apple Store listed the "Mac Pro at \$2499", the price for the mid-range model. The system could be configured at US\$2299, much more comparable with the former base-model dual-core G5 at US\$1999, although offering considerably more processing power. Post revision, the default configurations for the Mac Pro includes one quad-core Xeon 3500 at 2.66 GHz or two quad-core Xeon 5500s at 2.26 GHz each. Like its predecessor, the Power Mac G5, the pre-2013 Mac Pro was Apple's only desktop with standard expansion slots for graphics adapters and other expansion cards.
Apple received criticism after an incremental upgrade to the Mac Pro line following the 2012 WWDC conference. The line received more default memory and increased processor speed but still used Intel's older Westmere-EP processors instead of the newer E5 series. The line also lacked then-current technologies like SATA III, USB 3, and Thunderbolt, the last of which had been added to every other Macintosh at that point. An email from Apple CEO Tim Cook promised a more significant update to the line in 2013.
Apple stopped shipping the first-generation Mac Pro in Europe on March 1, 2013 after an amendment to a safety regulation left the professional Mac non-compliant. The last day to order was February 18, 2013. The first-generation Mac Pro was removed from Apple's online store following the unveiling of the redesigned cylindrical Mac Pro at a media event on October 22, 2013.
### CPU
All Mac Pro systems were available with one or two central processing units (CPU) with options giving 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 cores. As an example, the 8-core standard configuration Mac Pro 2010 uses two 4-core Intel E5620 Xeon CPUs at 2.4 GHz, but could be configured with two 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 CPUs at 2.93 GHz. The 2006–2008 models use the LGA 771 socket, while the Early 2009 and later use the LGA 1366 socket, meaning either can be removed and replaced with compatible 64-bit Intel Xeon CPUs. A 64-bit EFI firmware was not introduced until the MacPro3,1, earlier models can only operate as 32-bit despite having 64-bit Xeon processors, however this only applies to the EFI side of the System, as the Mac boots everything else in BIOS Compatibility mode, and operating systems can take advantage of full 64 bit support. The newer LGA 1366 sockets utilize Intel's QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) integrated into the CPU in lieu of an independent system bus; this means the "bus" frequency is relative to the CPU chipset, and upgrading a CPU is not bottlenecked by the computer's existing architecture.
### Memory
The original Mac Pro's main memory uses 667 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMMs; the early 2008 model uses 800 MHz ECC DDR2 FB-DIMMS, the 2009 and onward Mac Pro use 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC DIMMs for the standard models, and 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC DIMMs for systems configured with 2.66 GHz or faster CPUs. In the original and 2008 models, these modules are installed in pairs, one each on two riser cards. The cards have 4 DIMM slots each, allowing a total of 32 GB (1 GB = 1024<sup>3</sup> B) of memory (8 × 4 GB) to be installed. Notably, due to its FB-DIMM architecture, installing more RAM in the Mac Pro will improve its memory bandwidth, but may also increase its memory latency. With a simple installation of a single FB-DIMM, the peak bandwidth is 8000 MB/s (1 MB = 1000<sup>2</sup> B), but this can increase to 16000 MB/s by installing two FB-DIMMs, one on each of the two buses, which is the default configuration from Apple. While electrically the FB-DIMMs are standard, for pre-2009 Mac Pro models Apple specifies larger-than-normal heatsinks on the memory modules. Problems have been reported by users who have used third party RAM with normal size FB-DIMM heatsinks. (see notes below). 2009 and later Mac Pro computers do not require memory modules with heatsinks.
### Hard drives
The Mac Pro had room for four internal 3.5" SATA-300 hard drives in four internal "bays". The hard drives were mounted on individual trays (also known as "sleds") by captive screws. A set of four drive trays was supplied with each machine. Adding hard drives to the system did not require cables to be attached as the drive was connected to the system simply by being inserted into the corresponding drive slot. A case lock on the back of the system locked the disks trays into their positions. The Mac Pro also supported Serial ATA solid-state drives (SSD) in the 4 hard drive bays via an SSD-to-hard drive sled adapter (mid-2010 models and later), and by third-party solutions for earlier models (e.g., by an adapter/bracket which plugged into an unused PCIe slot). Various 2.5-inch SSD drive capacities and configurations were available as options. The Mac Pro was also available with an optional hardware RAID card. With the addition of a SAS controller card or SAS RAID controller card, SAS drives could be directly connected to the system's SATA ports. Two optical drive bays were provided, each with a corresponding SATA port and an Ultra ATA/100 port. The Mac Pro had one PATA port and could support two PATA devices in the optical drive bays. It had a total of six SATA ports – four were connected to the system's drive bays, and two were not connected. The extra SATA ports could be put into service through the use of after-market extender cables to connect internal optical drives, or to provide eSATA ports with the use of an eSATA bulkhead connector. However, the two extra SATA ports were unsupported and disabled under Boot Camp.
### Expansion cards
The 2008 model had two PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion slots and two PCI Express 1.1 slots, providing them with up to 300 W of power in total. The first slot was double wide and intended to hold the main video card, arranged with an empty area the width of a normal card beside it to leave room for the large coolers modern cards often use. In most machines, one slot would be blocked by the cooler. Instead of the tiny screws typically used to fasten the cards to the case, in the Mac Pro a single "bar" held the cards in place, which is itself held in place by two "captive" thumbscrews that can be loosened by hand without tools and will not fall out of the case.
On the original Mac Pro introduced in August 2006, the PCIe slots can be configured individually to give more bandwidth to devices that require it, with a total of 40 "lanes", or 13 GB/s total throughput. When running Mac OS X, the Mac Pro did not support SLI or ATI CrossFire, limiting its ability to use the latest "high-end gaming" video card products; however, individuals have reported success with both CrossFire and SLI installations when running Windows XP, as SLI and CrossFire compatibility is largely a function of software.
The bandwidth allocation of the PCIe slots can be configured via the Expansion Slot Utility included with Mac OS X only on the August 2006 Mac Pro. The Early-2008 and later Mac Pros had PCIe slots hardwired as in the accompanying table.
### External connectivity
For external connectivity, the Mac Pro included five USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400 and two FireWire 800 (Late 2006 until Early 2008), respectively four FireWire 800 (Early 2009 until Mid 2012) ports. Networking was supported with two built-in Gigabit Ethernet ports. 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support (AirPort Extreme) required an optional module in the Mid 2006, Early 2008 and Early 2009 models, whereas in the 2010 model and later Wi-Fi was standard. Bluetooth also required an optional module in the Mid 2006 model, but was standard in the Early 2008 and newer models. Displays were supported by one or (optionally) more PCIe graphics cards. More recent cards featured two Mini DisplayPort connectors and one dual-link Digital Visual Interface (DVI) port, with various configurations of on-card graphics memory available. Digital (TOSlink optical) audio and analog 3.5 mm stereo mini jacks for sound in and out were included, the latter becoming available on both the front and back of the case. Unlike other Mac computers, the Mac Pro did not include an infrared receiver (required to use the Apple Remote). In Mac OS X Leopard, Front Row could be accessed on the Mac Pro (and other Macs) using the Command (⌘)-Escape keystroke.
### Case
From 2006 through 2012, the exterior of the Mac Pro's aluminum case was very similar to that of the Power Mac G5, with the exception of an additional optical drive bay, a new arrangement of I/O ports on both the front and the back, and one less exhaust vent on the back.
The case could be opened by operating a single lever on the back, which unlocked one of the two sides of the machine, as well as the drive bays. All of the expansion slots for memory, PCIe cards and drives could be accessed with the side panel removed and no tools were required for installation. The Mac Pro's Xeon processors generated much less heat than the previous 2-core G5s, so the size of the internal cooling devices were reduced significantly.
This allowed the interior to be re-arranged, leaving more room at the top of the case and doubling the number of internal drive bays. This also allowed the elimination of the large clear plastic air deflector used as part of the cooling system in the Power Mac G5. Less heat also meant less air to move out of the case for cooling during normal operations; the Mac Pro was very quiet in normal operation, quieter than the much noisier Power Mac G5, and proved difficult to measure using common sound pressure level meters. The front of the case, which has small perforated holes across its entire surface area, has caused Macintosh enthusiasts to refer to the first generation as the "cheese grater" Mac Pro.
### Operating systems
The Mac Pro comes with EFI 1.1, a successor to Apple's use of Open Firmware and the wider industry's use of BIOS.
Apple's Boot Camp provides BIOS backwards compatibility, allowing dual and triple boot configurations. These operating systems are installable on Intel x86–based Apple computers:
- Mac OS X 10.4.7 and later
- Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 32-bit & 64-bit (hardware drivers are included in Boot Camp)
- Other x86 operating systems such as Linux x86, Solaris, and BSD
This is made possible by the presence of an x86 Intel architecture as provided by the CPU and the BIOS emulation which Apple has provided on top of EFI. Installing any additional operating system other than Windows is not supported directly by Apple. Though Apple's Boot Camp drivers are only for Windows, it is often possible to achieve full or nearly full compatibility with another OS by using third-party drivers.
### Specifications
### Reception
Ars Technica reviewed the 2006 Mac Pro, calling it a solid "multiplatform device" and rating it 9 out of 10. CNET praised the design and value, although did not think it provided the flexibility of other systems. They gave it an 8 out of 10.
Sound on Sound, an audio recording technology magazine, thought it was a "great machine" for musicians and audio engineers. Architosh, an online architectural design magazine focused on mac technology, would have scored it a perfect five except for a few issues with software compatibility and the high price for FB-DIMM memory.
## Cylinder (2013)
Apple senior vice president of marketing Phil Schiller presented a "sneak peek" of the completely redesigned Mac Pro during the 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. The video revealed an overhauled case design, a polished reflective aluminum cylinder built around a central thermal dissipation core and vented by a single fan, which pulls air from under the case, through the core, and out the top of the case. The only finish available is black, though a single red-finished unit was produced with Product Red. Apple states that the cylindrical Mac Pro achieves twice the performance of the last model. The model was assembled in Austin, Texas, by Apple's supplier Flextronics on a highly automated line. The announcement six months prior to release was unusual for Apple, which typically announces products when they are ready for market. It was released on December 19, 2013.
The cylindrical thermal core was unable to adapt to changing hardware trends and left the Mac Pro without updates for over three years, leading Apple to make a rare admission of a product's failure in April 2017 when it detailed the issues surrounding the design and promised a totally redesigned Mac Pro. The design of the cylindrical Mac Pro has received mixed reviews, and has been compared to a trash can, rice cooker, R2-D2, or Darth Vader's helmet. On September 18, 2018, the Mac Pro surpassed the Macintosh Plus's production life record for an unchanged Mac model, with the Plus having remained on sale unchanged for 1,734 days. It was discontinued on December 10, 2019, after being on sale unchanged for a record 2,182 days.
### Hardware
The redesigned Mac Pro takes up less than one-eighth the volume of the immediately previous model, being shorter at 9.9 inches (25 cm), thinner at 6.6 inches (17 cm) and lighter at 11 pounds (5.0 kg). It supports one central processing unit (CPU) (up to a 12-core Xeon E5 CPU), four 1866 MHz DDR3 slots, dual AMD FirePro D series GPUs (up to D700 with 6 GB VRAM each), and PCIe-based flash storage. There is a 3× MIMO antenna system for the unit's 802.11ac WiFi networking interface, Bluetooth 4.0 to facilitate close-range wireless functions such as music transfer, keyboards, mice, tablets, speakers, security, cameras, and printers. The system can simultaneously support six Apple Thunderbolt Displays, or three 4K resolution computer monitors.
The cylindrical Mac Pro has a redesigned configuration of ports. It has a HDMI 1.4 port, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, four USB 3 ports, and combined digital Mini-TOSlink optical / analog 3.5 mm stereo mini jack for audio output. It also has a headphones mini jack (the two are distinctly selectable within the Sound System Preference panel, Output tab). There is no dedicated port for inputting audio. The system has a low-fidelity internal mono speaker. The Thunderbolt 2 ports support up to thirty-six Thunderbolt devices (six per port) and can concurrently support up to three 4K displays. This design requires two GPUs to support the seven display outputs (HDMI and six Thunderbolt). The I/O panel illuminates itself when the unit senses it has been moved to make it easier for the user to see the ports. Unlike the previous model, it has no FireWire 800 ports, dedicated digital audio in/out ports, a SuperDrive, DVI port, 3.5-inch drive bays for replaceable storage drives, or changeable internal PCIe slots. Instead, there are six Thunderbolt 2 ports to connect high-speed external peripherals, including enclosures for internal PCIe cards.
Apple's website mentions only RAM and flash storage as user-serviceable, though third party tear-downs show nearly all components can be removed and replaced. However, special tools only available from Apple are necessary for proper dismantling and reassembly. Apple has also specified mandatory and recommended tightening torque values for nearly every screw, with the most important being those securing the GPUs and CPU riser card to the thermal core. According to Apple, not tightening screws to the mandatory torque values may result in damage or malfunction. A lock switch on the aluminum housing allows for easy access to the internals, as well as fitting a security lock with its own cable, and components are secured with Torx screws. The flash storage and GPUs use proprietary connectors and are specially sized to fit into the enclosure. The CPU is not soldered to the riser card and can be replaced with another LGA 2011 socket processor, including processor options not offered by Apple. The type of RAM modules that Apple supplies with the late-2013 Mac Pro in the default configuration are ECC unbuffered (UDIMM) on the up to 8 GB modules (shown on each module as PC3-14900E). Apple offers as an optional upgrade 16 GB modules are ECC registered (RDIMM) modules (shown on each module as PC3-14900R). The higher-capacity 32 GB modules that some third-party vendors offer are also RDIMM. The UDIMM and RDIMM module types cannot be mixed. Apple publishes recommended configurations to use.
### Operating systems
Apple's Boot Camp provides BIOS backwards compatibility, allowing dual and triple boot configurations. These operating systems are installable on Intel x64-based Apple computers:
- OS X Mavericks and later
- Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 64-bit (hardware drivers are included in Boot Camp)
- Linux via Linux installers (Boot Camp does not provide Linux support in the same way it does with Windows)
### Specifications
### Reception
Reception of the new design was mixed, initially receiving positive reviews, but more negative in the long term, due to Apple's failure to upgrade the hardware specs. The performance had been widely lauded, especially handling video tasks on the dual GPU units, with some reviewers noting the ability to apply dozens of filters to realtime 4K resolution video in Final Cut Pro X. Drive performance, connected via PCIe, was also widely mentioned as a strong point. Technical reviewers praised the OpenCL API under which the machine's powerful twin GPUs and its multi-core CPU can be treated as a single pool of computing power. However, in late 2013 through early 2014, some reviewers had noted the lack of internal expandability, second CPU, serviceability, and questioned the then-limited offerings via Thunderbolt 2 ports. By 2016, reviewers started to agree that the Mac Pro was now lacking in functionality and power, it having not been updated since 2013, and it was past time for Apple to update it. Apple later revealed in 2017 that the thermal core design had limited the ability to upgrade the Mac Pro's GPUs and that a new design was under development, to be released sometime after 2017.
### Problems
On February 5, 2016, Apple identified problems with FirePro D500 and D700 GPUs manufactured between February 8, 2015 and April 11, 2015. Issues included "distorted video, no video, system instability, freezing, restarts, shut downs, or may prevent system start up." Customers who owned a Mac Pro exhibiting those issues could take their affected machine to Apple or an authorized service provider to have both GPUs replaced for free. The repair program ended on May 30, 2018. Customers who owned Mac Pros with FirePro D300 GPUs also complained about problems, but those GPUs were not included in the repair program until July 2018. Customers with FirePro GPUs not manufactured between those dates have complained of issues including overheating and thermal throttling. It is believed Apple has not enabled a satisfactory cooling fan profile in order to properly remove heat from the system. Users have had to resort to using third-party apps to manually increase the fan speed to prevent the GPUs from overheating.
## Lattice tower or rack (2019)
In April 2018, Apple confirmed that a redesigned Mac Pro would be released in 2019 to replace the 2013 model. Apple announced this new Mac Pro on June 3, 2019 at the World Wide Developers Conference. It returns to a tower design similar to the Power Mac G5 in 2003 and the first-generation model in 2006. The design also includes a new thermal architecture with three impeller fans, which promises to prevent the computer from having to throttle the processor so that it can always run at its peak performance level. The RAM is expandable to 1.5 TB using twelve 128 GB DIMMs. It can be configured with up to two AMD Radeon Pro GPUs, based on RDNA architecture, which come in a custom MPX module, which are fanless and use the chassis's cooling system. Apple's Afterburner card is a custom add-on, which adds hardware acceleration for ProRes codecs. Similar to the second generation, the cover can be removed to access the internals, which features eight PCIe 3.0 slots for expansion, making this the first Mac with six or more expansion slots since the Power Macintosh 9600 in 1997. It can also be purchased with wheels and in a rack mount configuration. Feet and wheels are not stated by Apple to be user-replaceable and require sending the machine to an Apple Store or authorized service provider, though tear-downs show the feet are simply screwed on. It was announced alongside the Pro Display XDR, a 6K display with the same finish and lattice pattern.
The 2019 Mac Pro is capable of Lights Out Management. It is also the first Macintosh computer to feature 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports equipped as standard in all configurations.
After initial reports that the Mac Pro would be assembled in China, Apple confirmed in September 2019 it would be assembled in Austin, Texas, at the same facility as the previous-generation Mac Pro, making it the sole Apple product assembled in the United States. The production was the subject of a tariff dispute with US President Donald Trump in late 2019. Trump toured the Mac Pro assembly line in November 2019.
Radeon Pro W5700X and W5500X graphics cards were added as options in April and July 2020, respectively. In August 2021, options for RDNA 2–based Radeon Pro cards (W6800X, W6800X Duo and W6900X) were added. In March 2022, Apple upgraded the base model configuration with the Radeon Pro W5500X and 512 GB SSD, replacing the Radeon Pro 580X graphics and 256 GB SSD previously offered.
The 2019 Mac Pro was discontinued in June 2023 following the announcement of the M2 Ultra Mac Pro, the first with an Apple silicon chip. The 2019 Mac Pro was the last Intel-based Mac sold by Apple.
### Design
The 2019 Mac Pro returns to a tower form factor and features a prominent lattice pattern on its front and rear. The lattice design was purportedly originally developed by Jony Ive for the Power Mac G4 Cube in 2000. It comes bundled with a new Magic Keyboard with black keys in a silver chassis, and a black Magic Mouse 2 or Magic Trackpad 2 with a silver underside.
### Reception
Initial reviews were generally positive. The only pre-release review models of the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR were provided to YouTube tech vloggers Justine Ezarik, Marques Brownlee, and Jonathan Morrison, rather than reviewers from traditional news outlets.
iFixit gave it a repairability score of 9/10, noting that every part of the machine is user-replaceable. The SSD can also be replaced via Apple official parts, but require an Apple Configurator restore to re-pair it with the T2 chip.
### Specifications
## Apple silicon (2023)
On June 5, 2023, Apple announced a Mac Pro based on the Apple M2 Ultra chip, the first model with an Apple silicon chip. Externally, the M2 Ultra Mac Pro uses the same chassis as the 2019 Intel model. Internally, it features a redesigned Apple silicon logic board that includes six internal PCIe 4.0 slots for expansion. It does not support GPUs over PCIe. The internal SSD is upgradeable, but the GPU and memory are not. According to Bloomberg'''s Mark Gurman, Apple developed a chip for the Mac Pro combining two M2 Ultra chips into one package but cancelled it because of cost and manufacturing concerns.
### Reception
The Verge'''s review of the Mac Pro praised its performance, saying it "vastly outperforms Intel models from 2019," but criticized the inability to upgrade memory and graphics cards. It also criticized the Mac Pro's \$3,000 price premium over a similarly configured Mac Studio with the same performance, with the Mac Pro's only advantage being the addition of PCIe slots.
YouTuber Marques Brownlee headlined, "Why Does the M2 Mac Pro Exist?", and found the Mac Pro and Mac Studio performed almost identically in testing despite the Mac Pro's much larger cooling system.
### Specifications
## Supported operating systems
## Mac Pro Server
On November 5, 2010, Apple introduced the Mac Pro Server, which officially replaced the Xserve line of Apple servers as of January 31, 2011. The Mac Pro Server includes an unlimited Mac OS X Server license and an Intel Xeon 2.8 GHz quad-core processor, with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM. In mid-2012, the Mac Pro Server was upgraded to an Intel Xeon 3.2 GHz quad-core processor. The Mac Pro Server was discontinued on October 22, 2013, with the introduction of the cylindrical Mac Pro. However, the OS X Server software package can be purchased from the Mac App Store. The redesigned Mac Pro released on December 10, 2019 has a rack-mount version, available in the same configurations as the standard Mac Pro for a \$500 premium. The Mac Pro Rack comes with mounting rails to mount it in a server rack, and fits in a 5 Rack Unit (or "U") space.
## See also
- Dell Precision
- Fujitsu Celsius
- HP Z
- Lenovo ThinkStation
## Explanatory notes |
1,261,533 | Pin Ups | 1,173,914,769 | 1973 studio album by David Bowie | [
"1973 albums",
"Albums produced by David Bowie",
"Albums produced by Ken Scott",
"Albums recorded in a home studio",
"Albums with cover art by Mick Rock",
"Covers albums",
"David Bowie albums",
"EMI Records albums",
"Parlophone albums",
"Protopunk albums",
"RCA Records albums",
"Rykodisc albums",
"Virgin Records albums"
]
| Pin Ups (also referred to as Pinups and Pin-Ups) is the seventh studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 19 October 1973 through RCA Records. Devised as a "stop-gap" album to appease his record label, it is a covers album, featuring glam rock and proto-punk versions of songs by British bands from the 1960s that were influential to Bowie as a teenager, including the Pretty Things, the Who, the Yardbirds and Pink Floyd.
The album was recorded from July to August 1973 at the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France following the completion of the Ziggy Stardust Tour. It was Bowie's final album co-produced with Ken Scott. Two members of the Spiders from Mars backing band contributed, guitarist Mick Ronson and bassist Trevor Bolder, while Mick Woodmansey was replaced by Aynsley Dunbar on drums. Following a surprise announcement at the end of the tour that the Spiders were breaking up, tensions were high during the sessions, which was reflected in the tracks. The album cover, featuring Bowie and 1960s supermodel Twiggy, was taken in Paris and originally intended for Vogue magazine.
Released only six months after Aladdin Sane and preceded by a cover of the Merseys' song "Sorrow" as the lead single, Pin Ups was a commercial success, topping the UK Albums Chart, but received negative reviews from critics, who criticised the songs as generally inferior to the originals. Retrospective reviewers have described it as uneven, while others believe it had a good premise, but suffered from poor execution. Bowie's biographers have noted it as an experiment in nostalgia. Some publications have regarded it as one of the best covers albums. It has been reissued numerous times and was remastered in 2015 as part of the box set Five Years (1969–1973).
## Background
By 1973, David Bowie was at his commercial peak. At the end of July, five of his six albums were in the top 40 and three were in the top 15, according to biographer David Buckley, an "unprecedented feat" for a solo artist. Bowie's most recent LP, Aladdin Sane, came out in April, but his label, RCA Records, wanted a new album by Christmas. Having just completed the Ziggy Stardust Tour, Bowie was exhausted from the extensive touring schedule. His manager at the time, Tony Defries, was negotiating for larger royalties with Bowie's music publisher and recommended he not record any new compositions until negotiations were finished. Although he had intended his next project to be an adaptation of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, he devised a record of cover versions as a "stopgap" album.
On the final day of the tour, 3 July 1973, Bowie unexpectedly announced that "this is the last show we'll ever do". Although this was later understood to mean that Bowie was retiring the Ziggy Stardust character, the announcement came as a surprise to the audience, as well as the Spiders from Mars' members Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey, who were not notified in advance of the speech. This created tension between the two and Bowie. They were further aggravated when they found out Mike Garson, who played piano on Aladdin Sane, was being paid a bigger wage than the Spiders, who were being paid the same amount as they were from before Bowie's stardom. Garson subsequently informed Woodmansey over the phone that his services were no longer required. Garson and Mick Ronson were guaranteed positions on the new album, alongside Aladdin Sane players Ken Fordham and Geoffrey MacCormack. Session drummer Aynsley Dunbar replaced Woodmansey and Bolder was invited back after bassist Jack Bruce of the band Cream declined.
## Production
### Composition
According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, Pin Ups was Bowie's tribute to bands that had inspired him as a teenager. Bowie later explained: "These are all bands which I used to go and hear play down the Marquee between 1964 and 1967. I've got all these records back at home." According to biographer Chris O'Leary, he chose the tracks by "going through a stack of 45s in his rooms at the Hyde Park Hotel before leaving for France". Musician Scott Richardson, a Pretty Things fan, convinced Bowie to cover two of their songs. Other artists selected included the Yardbirds, the Kinks, Pink Floyd and the Who, all of whom O'Leary cites as actual influences on Bowie's music. The final tracklist included the Pretty Things' "Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring Me Down", Them's "Here Comes the Night", Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play", the Mojos' "Everything's Alright", the Yardbirds' "Shapes of Things" and their rendition of Billy Boy Arnold's "I Wish You Would", the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind", the Merseys' "Sorrow", the Who's "I Can't Explain" and "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", and the Kinks' "Where Have All the Good Times Gone". Bowie had also considered re-recording his 1966 single "The London Boys" but the idea was discarded.
Rather than provide new arrangements for the tracks, the songs on Pin Ups stay true to the originals, albeit performed in glam rock and proto-punk styles. Regarding this, Bowie explained: "We just took down the basic chord structures and worked from there ... Some of them don't even need any working on – like 'Rosalyn' for example. But most of the arranging I have done by myself and Mick, and Aynsley too." Author Peter Doggett writes that only two tracks, "I Wish You Would" and "See Emily Play", contained varied arrangements from the originals.
### Recording
Pin Ups was recorded at the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France, and lasted for three weeks, from July to August 1973. Having just recorded the album Tanx there, T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan recommended the studio to Bowie. The Château had also become popularised after Elton John recorded his 1972 album Honky Château there. It was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott and marked the final collaboration between the two. O'Leary writes that rehearsing consisted of playing the band the original track a few times before recording began. Tensions were high during the sessions. Bolder, believing he was unwanted, recorded his bass parts quickly and departed. Meanwhile, Richardson recalled Ronson overworking himself: "He did everything in the studio, he tuned everybody's instruments, he worked on all the arrangements ... [he had] a tremendous burden on him"; he also grew wary of his future after the collapse of the Spiders. Scott was facing personal issues on top of pressure from his management company to leave over MainMan not paying him royalties, while Bowie had, in O'Leary's words, an "increasingly remote and truculent attitude in the studio".
A version of the Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat" was recorded during the sessions. It was never released; Bowie donated the backing track to Ronson for his 1975 solo album Play Don't Worry. The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" was also attempted during the sessions, but was left abandoned. Bowie would later cover it for the aborted Astronettes project in October 1973, while he officially covered it for 1984's Tonight. The sessions were put on hold on 16 July for the recording of Scottish singer Lulu's covers of Bowie's tracks "Watch That Man" and "The Man Who Sold the World". The Pin Ups personnel contributed to the recording, including Bowie, Ronson, Garson, Bolder and Dunbar.
Pin Ups was the first of two "1960s nostalgia" albums that Bowie had planned to release. The second would have contained Bowie covering his favourite American artists, but was never recorded. Rumoured tracks to have appeared for the project include the Stooges' "No Fun", the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" and Roxy Music's "Ladytron". Bowie also considered making a Pin Ups sequel: he had compiled a list of songs he wanted to cover, some of which showed up on his later releases of Heathen (2002) and Reality (2003).
## Artwork and packaging
The cover photo for Pin Ups reflected the theme of swinging London by featuring 1960s supermodel Twiggy, who had previously been name-checked on Aladdin Sane's "Drive-In Saturday" as "Twig the Wonder Kid". The photo was taken midway through the sessions at a Paris studio by her then-manager and partner Justin de Villeneuve; he recalled in 2010: "Twiggy and I had first heard David mention her on Aladdin Sane ... We loved the album so much I called David and asked him if he would like to do a shoot with Twiggy. He jumped at the idea." Twiggy recalled in her autobiography In Black and White that she was "really quite nervous" meeting Bowie, but "he immediately put me at ease. He was everything I could have hoped for and more". During the shoot, Bowie and Twiggy had different skin tones, partially attributed to the latter just returning from holiday in California. The problem was solved by returning Aladdin Sane make-up designer Pierre Laroche, who used make-up masks to balance the tones out. Twiggy found the final result "enigmatic and strange", later calling it one of her favourite images and "possibly the most widely distributed photograph ever taken of me." The photo was originally slated to appear in Vogue magazine. Twiggy stated that the photo was met with apprehension from Vogue, who didn't want a man appearing on their front cover, so Bowie opted to use it as the album cover instead; de Villeneuve later recalled Vogue being infuriated by the decision.
The original LP's rear sleeve featured two photos by photographer Mick Rock, one of a concert shot from the Ziggy tour and another of Bowie wearing a double-breasted suit cradling a saxophone. Bowie wrote in the book Moonage Daydream: "I chose the performance photos for the back cover as they were favourite Rock shots of mine. I also did the back cover layout with the colour combination of red writing on blue as it again hinted at Sixties psychedelia." A discarded idea for the sleeve came from photographer Alan Motz, who told Sandford that he "wanted to shoot Bowie metamorphosing into an animal". This idea would be used for Bowie's next album, Diamond Dogs (1974).
## Release
RCA issued the lead single "Sorrow", featuring a cover of Jacques Brel's "Amsterdam" as the B-side, on 12 October 1973; it had been delayed from its original release date of 28 September. The single was a commercial success, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart and stayed on the chart for 15 weeks, becoming one of his biggest hits. Pin Ups followed suit a week later on 19 October, issued with the catalogue number RS 1003, only six months after his previous album Aladdin Sane. On the album sleeve, Bowie was simply referred to as "Bowie". In America, the advertising campaign read: "Pin Ups means favourites, and these are Bowie's favourite songs. It's the kind of music your parents will never let you play loud enough!" The album's release coincided with former Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry's covers album These Foolish Things. As Ferry had recorded his album weeks before Bowie began work on Pin Ups, Ferry was annoyed at the perceived copying of his project, calling it a "rip-off". According to Sandford, he allegedly went to his label Island Records to request they file an injunction to prevent Pin Ups from being released before These Foolish Things. Instead, O'Leary writes that Bowie phoned Ferry to inform him of Pin Ups and requested permission to record a Roxy Music song. Ferry later told Buckley, "At first I was a bit apprehensive, but Bowie's record turned out to be very different. I myself was always very anxious to be different from other people ... and to forge my own furrow." In the event, both albums were released as planned and charted on the same day, 3 November 1973.
In the UK, Pin Ups came at the height of Bowie's popularity there. The album had advance copies of 150,000, which was 50,000 more than Aladdin Sane. Upon release, it spent 39 weeks on the UK Albums Chart and peaked at number one, remaining there for five weeks, matching the performance of Aladdin Sane. It brought the total number of Bowie albums concurrently on the UK chart to six. In the US, the album peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and remained on the chart for 21 weeks. O'Leary writes that Pin Ups was essentially a "new Bowie album" in America since only three of the original tracks that were released as singles had reached the top 40. Sandford writes that by Christmas 1973, the album was selling 30,000 copies a week. Upon release of the massive commercially successful Let's Dance (1983), Pin Ups returned to the UK chart again, peaking at number 57.
## Critical reception
Pin Ups received primarily negative reviews from music critics on release, with many criticising the songs as generally inferior to their original counterparts. In Rolling Stone, Greg Shaw was unfavorable, believing that all the tracks were underproduced and Bowie's vocal performance was the album's "true failure", further saying his "excessively mannered voice" was "a ridiculously weak mismatch for the material" and that they were mixed too high to give the tracks the "edge" or "punch" they need to be effective. He concludes his review by saying, "while Pin Ups may be a failure, it is also a collection of great songs, most of which are given a more than adequate, and always loving, treatment. Maybe the fairest conclusion to draw is that Bowie can't sing any other way, did the best he could, and the result isn't all that bad." In the NME, Ian MacDonald felt that by not differentiating the songs from the originals, the renditions lack value, ultimately stating the record failed to live up to expectations and predicted that "unless he puts a banger under his own behind, I can foresee nothing but artistic frustration for Bowie in the next few years." Loraine Alterman of The New York Times was also negative, saying the album "suffers from too much style and technique and not enough musical substance".
Discussing Pin Ups as a whole, Record Mirror found the album "unsatisfying, too cluttered musically and over-produced". A writer for Sounds magazine also reacted negatively, declaring that Bowie "used R&B as a prop, not a springboard". In Christgau's Record Guide, veteran critic Robert Christgau found the idea of the record good, but its overall execution subpar. On the other hand, Billboard responded positively, stating that, "there's humor in this music if you want to take it as a look back in musical time." Robert Hilburn was also positive in the Los Angeles Times. Describing it as a "light, unpretentious, high-spirited album", he hailed Pin Ups as "one of the year's most inviting albums" and one that deserves special attention.
## Legacy
Pin Ups continues to receive mixed-to-negative reactions in later decades. When reviewing the album as part of the 2015 box set Five Years (1969–1973), Pitchfork's Douglas Wolk was unfavorable. He cited sloppy execution and the overall idea "more interesting in theory", believing that all the originals were "vastly" superior and Bowie added nothing interesting to any of them. He further believed that it didn't help that the Spiders from Mars were falling apart when recording it. Bruce Eder of AllMusic similarly found the album to be out of place with Bowie's output up to that point. He continued, "Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane had established Bowie as perhaps the most fiercely original of all England's glam rockers, so an album of covers didn't make any sense and was especially confusing for American fans," further criticising the song choices as unknown. However, Eder did praise Bowie's cover of "Sorrow" as a "distinct improvement" over the original.
Bowie's biographers have given Pin Ups mixed reactions. Buckley describes it as "uneven but beloved by many". O'Leary attributes its "scattershot feel" and "lack of a coherent style" to the dysfunctional nature of its recording, while Sandford acknowledges the album's lack of originality in the song arrangements. Doggett calls Pin Ups "an exercise in Pop Art", meaning it was "a reproduction and interpretation of work by [another artist], intended for a mass audience". James Perone, on the other hand, argues that Pin Ups predated the release of covers album by other English artists, such as John Lennon with Rock 'n' Roll (1975) and Elvis Costello with Almost Blue (1981) and Kojak Variety (1995). Perone also recognises the album's musical influence, stating that Bowie's version of "Here Comes the Night" was a forerunner in the post-punk and new wave sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s, presaging songs such as Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon" (1983). Furthermore, he contests that "Here Comes the Night" foreshadowed the soul oriented directions of Young Americans (1975) and Station to Station (1976), while "See Emily Play" evokes the avant-garde experimentations of the artist's late 1970s Berlin Trilogy.
Some biographers have analysed the album as an experiment in nostalgia, which Doggett states "was already emerging as one of the dominant themes of the early seventies". Furthermore, Pegg writes that "it remains perhaps glam rock's most cogent expression of its own inherent nostalgia, an affectionate reminder of the process that had led to the charts of 1973." Meanwhile, Buckley states that the album "began an era of pop archeology" and that it "came at a time of uncertainty, a time when many cast backward glances as pop entered its first retroactive phase". In the Spin Alternative Record Guide, critic Rob Sheffield agreed, characterising the album's "Swinging London oldies" as "atrophied nostalgia".
In 2013, in a ranking of Bowie's albums up to that point, Gabriela Claymore of Stereogum placed Pin Ups at number 18 (out of 25), calling it "The only one of Bowie's '70s records you can safely call 'inessential'. She felt it was out of place coming off of Aladdin Sane, but stated, "For what it is, it's quite good". Following Bowie's death in 2016, Bryan Wawzenek of Ultimate Classic Rock ranked all of his 26 studio albums from worst to best, placing Pin Ups at number 21. He praised the song choices as "excellent", describing "Sorrow" as the highlight. However, he found that Bowie went "way, way, way over the top" on every other track. He concluded by stating: "In spite of all the effort, Pin Ups remains a slight affair." In the context of Bowie's entire career, Eder views Pin Ups as an artistic statement, in that it represented a "swan song" for the Spiders from Mars and an "interlude" between the first and second phases of his international career, with his next album Diamond Dogs being the end of his glam rock era: "It's not a bad bridge between the two, and it has endured across the decades."
Despite mixed reactions overall, some publications have praised Pin Ups as a covers album, calling it one of the finest in the genre. Pierre Perrone of The Independent and the writers of NME would classify Pin Ups as one of the best cover albums in 2013 and 2019, respectively, with the former describing it as "[t]he covers album that launched a thousand copycats." Eder states that today it is still dismissed by many as just another covers album, including Wolk, who in 2015 described it as "quick-and-sloppy".
### Reissues
Pin Ups has been reissued several times, on vinyl and other media. The album was first released on compact disc by RCA in the mid-1980s. In 1990, it was reissued by Rykodisc with two bonus tracks: a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Growin' Up" (recorded during the sessions for Diamond Dogs and featuring Ronnie Wood on guitar) and "Amsterdam", the B-side to "Sorrow". This reissue charted at number 52 on the UK Albums Chart for one week in July 1990. It was remastered in 1999 by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios for EMI and Virgin Records, and issued on CD with no bonus tracks. It was again remastered in 2015 for inclusion on the box set Five Years 1969–1973 by Parlophone and rereleased separately, in 2015–2016, in CD, vinyl and digital formats.
## Track listing
Songs marked with a \* were not recorded for the first time by the acts listed, but were popularised by them.
## Personnel
Album credits per the Pin Ups liner notes and biographer Nicholas Pegg.
- David Bowie – vocals, guitar, tenor and alto saxophone, harmonica, arrangements, backing vocals, Moog synthesiser
- Mick Ronson – guitar, piano, vocals, arrangements
- Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
- Aynsley Dunbar – drums
- Mike Garson – piano, organ, harpsichord, electric piano
- Ken Fordham – baritone saxophone
- G. A. MacCormack – backing vocals
Production
- David Bowie – producer
- Ken Scott – producer
- Dennis MacKay – engineer
- Andy Scott – engineer
## Charts and certifications
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Certifications |
6,834,030 | M-188 (Michigan highway) | 1,167,473,285 | State highway in Eaton and Ingham counties in Michigan, United States | [
"State highways in Michigan",
"Transportation in Eaton County, Michigan",
"Transportation in Ingham County, Michigan"
]
| M-188 is a 4.559-mile-long (7.337 km) state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan. It runs from Eaton Rapids to the VFW National Home for Children, southeast of town through a rural area. Approximately 1,000 vehicles each day use a highway that was first designated in the 1930s and paved in the 1940s.
## Route description
Starting in Eaton Rapids, M-188 heads eastward from the intersection with M-99/M-50 (Michigan highway) toward the Grand River. The highway follows Water Street southeasterly along the river through residential neighborhoods and exits town. M-188 turns back due east on VFW Road to run through farm fields. Near the intersection with Tucker Road, the highway turns south and then southeasterly to avoid a bend in the river. After this bend, VFW Road once again runs due east to the intersection with Waverly Road. M-188 turns south on Waverly Road, which runs along the Eaton–Ingham county line. The M-188 designation ends at the VFW National Home for Children about one mile (1.6 km) south of VFW Road.
M-188 is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) like other state highways in Michigan. As a part of these maintenance responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic that uses the roadways under its jurisdiction. These volumes are expressed using a metric called annual average daily traffic, which is a statistical calculation of the average daily number of vehicles on a segment of roadway. MDOT's surveys in 2010 showed that 986 vehicles in the city of Eaton Rapids, and 1,103 used the trunkline outside of town, traveled along the highway on average. M-188 has not been listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.
## History
M-188 was designated in late 1932, providing highway access to the VFW National Home from Eaton Rapids in southeast Eaton County. In early 1941, the trunkline was completely paved; and the highway has been unchanged since.
## Major intersections
## See also |
28,974,361 | Never Been Kissed (Glee) | 1,171,422,981 | null | [
"2010 American television episodes",
"American LGBT-related television episodes",
"Glee (season 2) episodes",
"Television episodes about bullying",
"Television episodes written by Brad Falchuk"
]
| "Never Been Kissed" is the sixth episode of the second season of the American television series Glee, and the twenty-eighth episode overall. It was written by Brad Falchuk, directed by Bradley Buecker and premiered on Fox on November 9, 2010. In "Never Been Kissed", the glee club members are assigned a boys against girls singing competition. The bullying of club member Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) intensifies, but he meets a new ally in Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss), the lead singer of a rival glee club. Puck (Mark Salling) is released from juvenile detention and forms a friendship with Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale), and football coach Sheldon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) is hurt when she learns that several of the students are visualizing her to quell their amorous moods.
The episode began a story arc about bullying which spanned the remainder of the season. It coincided with a spate of suicides among bullied youths, which reportedly gave the cast and crew additional inspiration to do their best work. Six songs were covered—four in the form of two mash-ups—and all were released as singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Critics were less enthused by the mash-ups than the other performances; Criss's cover of "Teenage Dream" was particularly well-received, and became the first Glee single to top the Billboard Digital Songs chart.
10.99 million US viewers watched "Never Been Kissed". It was one of six episodes that were submitted to the judges for Glee's nomination in the Outstanding Comedy Series category at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards. Jones received an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nomination for her work on the show, and submitted this episode for judging. Reviewers approved of her performance but were very critical of her storyline and polarized by the plotting of the bullying story, though they generally approved of the episode's Puck and Artie sub-plot.
## Plot
Glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) announces the second New Directions boys against girls singing competition. He later sees a shaken Kurt Hummel in the hallway—he had been slammed against a locker by school bully Dave Karofsky (Max Adler)—and takes Kurt to his office to recover. Kurt criticizes both the school's failure to act against homophobic bullying and the lack of challenge in the club's competition; Will decides to modify the assignment to have the teams perform songs by groups of different genders. Kurt is happier with the new spin, but the other boys are unreceptive to his ideas for their team. Puck is especially dismissive, and suggests that he go spy on the Dalton Academy Warblers, one of their competitors at the forthcoming Sectionals round of show choir competition. The girls' team decides on and sings a mash-up of "Start Me Up / Livin' on a Prayer".
Kurt visits Dalton Academy, an all-boys private school, and watches the Warblers perform "Teenage Dream". He is befriended by lead singer Blaine Anderson, who is also gay and encourages Kurt to stand up for himself. The next time he is attacked by Karofsky, Kurt confronts him in the boys' locker room, and as the argument intensifies he is kissed by Karofsky, which leaves Kurt stunned. After Kurt tells Blaine of this, he and Kurt later try to talk to Karofsky about the difficulties and confusion his homosexual feelings must be causing him, but he denies that anything happened and soon returns to bullying Kurt.
Puck has been granted early release from juvenile detention on the condition that he performs community service. He picks Artie Abrams, a paraplegic, to fulfill that service, and the two busk in the school courtyard. They sing a duet of "One Love/People Get Ready" while Puck surreptitiously intimidates their schoolmates into giving donations. He then helps Artie get back together with Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris), by setting up a double date with them and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera). Puck's caseworker Joan Martin (Michael Hyatt) had believed he was working to rehabilitate gang members, and tells him he will have to return to the detention center unless he finds an alternative type of service. Puck admits to Artie that despite his bravado, he was miserable when locked up and does not want to return; Artie convinces him to complete the required real community service and offers to tutor him in school.
Some members of New Directions, who need to cool their arousal while making out, discover that picturing football coach Sheldon Beiste is very effective. When she finds out about their technique, Beiste is deeply hurt and submits her resignation. Will attempts to convince her to stay, and gives her a friendly kiss when she admits she has never been kissed. He then invites Beiste to watch the boys' competition performance; they apologize, dedicate their mash-up of "Stop! In the Name of Love / Free Your Mind" to her, and win her forgiveness.
## Production
"Never Been Kissed" was written by series co-creator Brad Falchuk, directed by Bradley Buecker, and premiered on November 9, 2010. It launched a story arc about bullying, which Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy had been building to for a season and a half. He explained that he wanted Kurt to reach a point where he would not accept the abusive treatment he received any more, and planned to follow the developments through the rest of the year, as all of the other characters were affected. The revelation that Karofsky's antagonism stemmed from his own homosexual feelings was based on a personal acquaintance of Murphy's. After the episode had been written, a spate of suicides occurred around the nation among teenage victims of bullying, which Murphy said added extra significance to "Never Been Kissed" and "ignite[d] the cast and the crew to do their best and push themselves with the story."
The episode introduced Criss as Blaine, a gay member of a rival glee club, the Dalton Academy Warblers. In September 2010, a casting call was released for an actor to portray a "cute, charismatic, gay high school junior" who would lead a competing glee club. Criss had auditioned for Glee several times before, once for the role of Finn Hudson. The character breakdown for Blaine was the first he believed he had a chance of securing, and indeed his audition was successful. Blaine was introduced primarily as a mentor to Kurt. Criss explained, "At this point, Kurt's [sexuality] has been such a sense of discord in his life. Blaine finds [being gay] empowering. He embraces who he is, and sees Kurt [struggling with] the same things that he had to deal with, and I think he wants to impart that knowledge." Murphy described Blaine as a character with "great self-loathing" and regret for having run away from his own tormentors; he intended this to form part of his story arc for the season, as Blaine tries to set right some past mistakes. Neither he nor Criss knew whether Blaine would eventually become Kurt's boyfriend—a role originally intended for new club member Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) until the producers decided to change Sam to heterosexual and paired him with Quinn—but based on the characters' chemistry and the "immediate outcry" from fans who wanted to see them as a couple, Murphy later decided to pair them romantically.
Other recurring characters who appeared were glee club members Sam and Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.), Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), jock bully Dave Karofsky, cheerleader Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter), students Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman) and Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink), and Coach Shannon Beiste. Although Beiste's physical appearance was used as comedy in the episode, Jones was not offended; she called it hysterical, said "it serves a purpose for the message" and hoped "maybe it will make people think outside of the show." Murphy intended her storyline to highlight the fact that bullying can be damaging without necessarily being overt. He stated: "Th[e] episode is completely about accountability. If you can change any young impressionable minds and make them aware of the consequences of their actions and all different forms of cruelty, I think that’s a great, great gift." Telly Leung and Titus Makin, Jr. guest starred as Wes and David respectively, two additional members of the Dalton Academy Warblers. Hyatt guest starred as Joan Martin, Puck's probation officer.
The episode featured cover versions of "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry, "One Love/People Get Ready" by Bob Marley & the Wailers, and mash-ups of The Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" with Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer", and The Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love" with En Vogue's "Free Your Mind". All of the songs performed were released as singles, available for download, and "Teenage Dream" and "One Love/People Get Ready" are featured on the soundtrack album Glee: The Music, Volume 4. "Teenage Dream" was later also included as the opening track on the seventh soundtrack album, Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers. The background vocals of "Teenage Dream" were provided by collegiate a cappella group the Beelzebubs from Tufts University.
## Reception
### Ratings
During its original broadcast, "Never Been Kissed" was watched by 10.99 million American viewers and attained a 4.6/13 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. Its rating was a season low to that point; however, Glee was the top-rated show for the night of broadcast in all under-50 categories. It was the most-viewed scripted show of the week amongst adults 18–49, and ranked twenty-first amongst all viewers. In Australia, the episode was watched by 1.081 million viewers, a decline from previous weeks, which was attributed by David Dale of The Sydney Morning Herald to many regular viewers being away on Schoolies week. In Canada, 1.97 million viewers watched the episode, placing twelfth for the week. In the UK, the episode was watched by 2.64 million viewers (2.20 million on E4, and 438,000 on E4+1), which made it the most-watched show on cable for the week.
### Accolades
Glee was nominated in the Outstanding Comedy Series category at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards: "Never Been Kissed" was one of six episodes submitted for consideration, paired with the season's fourth episode, "Duets". Jones received an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nomination for her work on Glee's second season, and submitted her performance in the episode for final judging.
### Critical response
"Never Been Kissed" received mixed reviews from critics, who were polarized by Kurt's storyline. While CNN's Lisa Respers France thought it was Glee's best episode thus far and IGN's Robert Canning rated it 9 out of 10, which signifies an outstanding episode, Linda Holmes of National Public Radio dismissed it as "one of the most facile and emotionally inauthentic episodes the show has ever produced", and Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club deemed it a failure on "almost every level." The Huffington Post's Leah Anthony Libresco found it an "extraordinarily counterproductive" response to the string of teenage gay suicides in early 2010. Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle and James Poniewozik of Time approved of the storyline in principle—the former opined that Glee's willingness to raise mainstream awareness of such issues was "incredibly courageous", and the latter appreciated that it would span a multi-episode arc—but both were critical of its depiction in practice.
Many elements of the plot were highlighted as being problematic. Holmes felt that Karofsky's swift transition from bullying to kissing Kurt was absurd and "emotionally unsound". Libresco disapproved of Will for treating Kurt's upset as the key problem, rather than the unchecked bullying which provoked it. She found Blaine's advice to Kurt "misleading and dangerous", especially the suggestion that targeted children should be held responsible for confronting their attackers and putting themselves at risk of further injury, rather than for protecting themselves. VanDerWerff and Poniewozik were critical of Dalton Academy: the former found its tolerance unrealistic and the latter was disappointed that Glee declined to depict a flawed high school tackling bullying in favor of creating "an almost otherworldly paradise". Poniewozik also noted that the storyline was inherently flawed, as the show had previously treated bullying in a light-hearted manner, but opined that its saving grace was the focus it placed on Colfer, "probably the strongest actor with the most interesting character among the Glee kids".
Further praise for Colfer's performance came from Canning and Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack, who approved of the episode for its depiction of there being no simple solution to the bullying. Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times commented that it was testament to the writers and cast that Karofsky's kiss startled the audience as much as it did Kurt, and commended the transitioning of Karofsky from a faceless jock into "a nuanced character with a back story and hidden motives of his own." MTV's Aly Semigran wrote that, should the episode inspire a single teenager to have courage in the face of discrimination, or re-consider bullying, it would be an impressive accomplishment.
The Beiste storyline was met with criticism. Reiter questioned why Beiste was made to look to high school students to "gauge her own desirability", an element she found "hazy and creepy". Poniewozik criticized the depiction of Beiste as an object of pity, and felt that Will's behavior was worse than the students' when he acted with "amazing condescension" and kissed her. Both Poniewozik and Semigran disliked the way viewers were made complicit in Beiste's humiliation by being invited to laugh at her expense, and Holmes criticized Glee for denying Beiste dignity, with the observation that such a plot would never have been given to Kurt. VanDerWerff commented negatively on the way Glee plays up Beiste's "masculine nature" while simultaneously lecturing viewers against mocking her. She called the kiss "somehow both heartfelt and completely horrifying". Canning praised Jones in her "best performance this season", as well as Beiste's "raw and real" confession to Will.
The Puck sub-plot received generally positive reviews. Poniewozik called it the "best and most authentic of the night", with praise for Salling's performance, and Canning felt that it served well as a comical break from the episode's other storylines. Brett Berk of Vanity Fair enjoyed the additional depth given to Puck, and he, Stack and New York's Rebecca Milzoff commented positively on Puck's budding friendship with Artie.[^1] VanDerWerff deemed it the episode's "least objectionable" storyline, though wrote that the awkward inclusion of their duet, the abruptness of Artie's feelings for Brittany, and the "forced nature" of the scene in which Puck confesses that he does not want to return to juvenile detention all "conspired to keep the storyline from lifting off."
### Music and performances
Reviews of the episode's musical numbers were also mixed, with the mash-ups less favorably received than the other performances. Canning felt that the songs intruded on the storytelling. Hankinson wrote that the mash-ups were "shoehorned in [to an] already over-stuffed hour", and Emily Yahr of The Washington Post said they served "no real purpose".
BuddyTV's Jen Harper enjoyed the harmonies and simple arrangement of "One Love/People Get Ready", and Anthony Benigno of the Daily News gave it an "A", with praise for the vocals. Stack graded it "B−". He called it a "nice performance", but incongruous in context, a concern shared by Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone, who preferred Salling's rendition of "Only the Good Die Young" in the episode "Grilled Cheesus".
Perry expressed approval of the cover of her song, "Teenage Dream", through the social networking website Twitter. Harper found the choreography uncomfortable viewing, and Hanh Nguyen of Zap2it agreed that the performers appeared to be "rockin' out a bit too much to it", but felt that the song worked "remarkably well" overall. Futterman deemed it the best song of the episode, and appreciated that it was more understated than numbers performed by rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline during the show's first season. Stack went further and called the performance one of his favorites on Glee; he enjoyed the choreography and arrangement and graded it "A+". Benigno again gave the song an "A"; he called it "flawless" and an improvement on Perry's original. In December 2012, TV Guide named the rendition one of Glee's best performances.
The girls' Bon Jovi–Rolling Stones mash-up was received favorably by Stack and Milzoff—the former graded it "A", the latter called it "brash and fun", and both writers appreciated the black leather costumes. While Harper also liked the costumes and the energetic performance, she felt it "paled in comparison" to the last mash-up the girls performed, in the season one episode "Vitamin D". Futterman commented that the costumes and choreography overwhelmed the vocals, to the point of being "a little too Miley and not enough Glee". Benigno called the song a "cacophony" and gave it his lowest performance grade of the episode, a "D". He suggested that Glee had been responsible for "reviving the mashup fad", but hoped the girls' performance would serve to end it again. The boys' Supremes–En Vogue mash-up was graded "A" by Stack, who liked the combination of artists. Harper preferred the girls' costumes but felt the boys gave the better performance, while Futterman found it overly-sentimental in context, but also preferred it to the girls' song. Benigno gave it a "C", and commented, "Not quite the debacle the previous mash-up was, but given how fantastic this episode was, the sendoff should've been better."
### Chart history
All four of the cover versions featured debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, and appeared on other musical charts. On the Hot 100, the show's rendition of "Teenage Dream" debuted at number eight, and sold 55,000 downloads on its first day and a total of 214,000 copies in its first week, the best first-day and first-week sales numbers for any Glee Cast single. It was the first Glee single to top Billboard'''s Digital Songs chart, and debuted at number ten on the Canadian Hot 100. "Teenage Dream" was also the first single since the pilot's "Don't Stop Believin'" to be certified gold in the US. The other three songs on the Hot 100 were "Start Me Up / Livin' on a Prayer" at number thirty-one, which also made number twenty-two on the Canadian Hot 100; "Stop! In the Name of Love / Free Your Mind" at number thirty-eight, which also made number twenty-eight on the Canadian Hot 100; and "One Love/People Get Ready" at number forty-one, which also made number thirty-two on the Canadian Hot 100.
[^1]: |
60,303 | Youthanasia | 1,166,673,549 | null | [
"1994 albums",
"Albums produced by Max Norman",
"Capitol Records albums",
"Megadeth albums"
]
| Youthanasia is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Megadeth, released on November 1, 1994, through Capitol Records. It is stylistically similar to their previous album, Countdown to Extinction (1992). The title is a play on words, implying that society is euthanizing its youth. The cover art features an elderly woman hanging babies by their feet on a seemingly endless clothes line, a direct reference to a line in the title track.
Youthanasia received positive reviews upon its release. It was commercially successful, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, and in 1995 was certified platinum for shipping one million copies in the United States. A remixed and remastered edition featuring several bonus tracks and detailed liner notes was reissued on July 27, 2004.
## Background and recording
Megadeth's previous studio release, Countdown to Extinction, became the band's biggest commercial accomplishment, entering the Billboard 200 at number two and eventually becoming double platinum. As a result, they continually sold-out arenas across North America, in addition to developing a strong following overseas. With Youthanasia, the band moved to a more mainstream sound.
It was a time of problems and conflicts for Megadeth, that in every two weeks or so, according to frontman Dave Mustaine, there were "outrageous emotional interventions" in order to make the group a democracy. Many band meetings during this period concerned Mustaine's creative control over a "successful formula", so that the rest of the band could better exercise their creativity. Another problem was the indecision on where the recording would take place. Mustaine did not want to record in Los Angeles, so it was eventually decided to record in Phoenix, since the majority of the band resided in Arizona.
The sessions for the album initially began in Phase Four Studios (Tempe) in January 1994, after a few weeks the sessions were moved to Vintage Recorders in Phoenix and continued there into May. This studio is often the location for scenes in the Evolver video. Producer Max Norman suggested that they build a new self-dedicated studio, in cooperation with the band, Capitol and Norman's funding a modular studio was built in a warehouse in South Phoenix. Talking about the recording process, Mustaine said that Youthanasia was written solely in the studio. "We weren't playing any old, cataloged material. None of the past really influenced the new record." He mentioned that he gave "more freedom" to the other members and called the album "very much a total band effort".
Of interest is that this was hoped to be the first album recorded solely on hard drives, rather than magnetic tape. Both Norman and Mustaine were believers in being on the cutting edge of technology, Norman had long been using computers to sample, tune and comp tracks. Digidesign was working on expanding Pro Tools from a single track to multitracking and it was hoped that as many as 48 digital tracks could be synced and used to record. The computers used were mostly Macintosh Quadra and with a great effort by all, it was soon evident that magnetic tape would have to be used.
## Artwork and title
The cover art by Hugh Syme features an elderly woman hanging babies by their feet on a seemingly endless clothesline. According to bassist David Ellefson, the artwork concept was directly inspired from a line of the title track, "We've been hung out to dry". He explained that the title track "was probably the strongest representation of how we feel about the young people who listen to our music and what their future holds for them. It's like you have a choice, you can become proactive or you can choose 'Youthanasia'." The title is a combination of the words "youth" and "euthanasia". Mustaine has stated that the idea for the title stems from hearing about Jack Kevorkian, as well as the declining state of well-being of young people, specifically referring to issues like drugs, crime and violence, and a lack of parenting.
Like its previous album Countdown to Extinction, Youthanasia is the second album to not feature the band's mascot Vic Rattlehead on the front cover but on the back instead.
## Musical style
Youthanasia was not a large stylistic departure from the band's earlier recordings. According to Billboard, from the drumbeat opening of "Addicted to Chaos" to the precise instrumentation of "Train of Consequences", Megadeth delivered "trademark aggressive rage 'n' roll to powerful effect". Billboard noted that even the slower songs such as "A Tout le Monde" were tending toward "lusty explosion". Authors Pete Prown and HP Newquist opined that lyrically, Youthanasia contained more thematic variations from Megadeth. They wrote that the record was musically diverse, from the "slow-tempo acoustic lines" of "A Tout le Monde" to the "breakneck riffing" of "Train of Consequences" and "Family Tree". Q found that Megadeth's "trademark crunchy riffs, thundering drums and bitter vocals" were still present on the album, with the lyrics being more introspective.
Mike Stagno said that Youthanasia features "a more traditional type of metal". He explained that even though the music on a number of tracks remains quite heavy, it was obvious that the thrash metal is "very scarce" on this record. Stephen Thomas Erlewine agreed that Megadeth have abandoned some of the more experimental, progressive elements in their music. Similarly, Chris Ayers of Exclaim! felt that with Youthanasia, the band "eroded their brilliant thrash to mid-paced chug". According to the band's official website, "Youthanasia marked the continuing evolution of Megadeth, following the footsteps of their previous album." Speaking about the stylistic direction of the album, then-guitarist Marty Friedman stated: "We pretty much stick to our guns. It's not like we're gonna change our next album to try and follow the trend. We don't really change with the times." On the album's genre, Mustaine said: "It's been called a thrash album, it's been called a rock album, and it's even been called an alternative album. To me it can only be called a Megadeth album. That should be enough."
## Release and reception
The album was released on 1 November 1994 through Capitol Records. Promotion included the first official website for a band, "Megadeth, Arizona", described by its conceiver, Robin Sloan Bechtel, as “a virtual cybertown in cyberspace" where fans gathered in an online community that among other things offered news regarding Megadeth's new album. A special promotional copy of the album was issued with an essay by suspense novelist Dean Koontz entitled "Godzilla vs. Megadeth". A remixed and remastered edition featuring several bonus tracks and detailed liner notes was reissued on July 27, 2004.
Three singles were released from Youthanasia: "Reckoning Day", "Train of Consequences" and "A Tout le Monde". The latter would later be re-recorded with Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia under the title "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)". This version was also released as a single, and included on United Abominations (2007).
### Critical reception
The album received positive reviews upon its release. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, reviewing the album for AllMusic, commented that, compared to Countdown to Extinction the album lacks focus. However, Erlewine suggested that the album's production quality made up for that. He also commented favorably on "Train of Consequences", calling out its "jackhammer riffs". Mike Stagno of Sputnikmusic reviewed the album positively. Though noting that the album, like its predecessor, was a distinct move away from the sound heard on 1990s Rust in Peace, Stagno suggested that the lack of a fast-tempo is made up for by the catchiness of the tracks.
In a contemporary review, Q magazine wrote that Youthanasia has "greater depth and breadth than its predecessors". Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly gave a brief review of the album saying that Youthanasia would "impress, but not impact". Neil Arnold of Metal Forces named the record "the last true Megadeth opus before the mid-to-late 90s slump". He further said that the album "pales" in comparison to the previous records, but still keeps the band in their element. Paul Corio, in a retrospective review for Rolling Stone, wrote that the album features "metal-machine music" that is "calibrated to kill". He highlighted "Elysian Fields" and "Victory" as examples of Mustaine in his prime. Despite the outcry of some fans, Pete Prown called Youthanasia "more than worthy follow-up" to Countdown to Extinction. In 2014, Guitar World ranked Youthanasia at number 29 on their list of "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994".
### Sales
Youthanasia was commercially successful, debuting and peaking at number 4 on the Billboard 200, with 143,000 units sold in its first week. This marked the band's second top five album, slightly below the number two peak of Countdown to Extinction in 1992, and the band would only reach such a landmark again in 2016 with Dystopia. Several weeks after its release, the record was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping one million copies in the United States. The album also managed to enter into the top 10 in the United Kingdom and some other European countries as well. It eventually received a platinum certification from Music Canada and a silver award from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 100,000 and 60,000 copies, respectively. The singles "Train of Consequences" and "A Tout le Monde" both charted on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
## Touring and aftermath
Megadeth toured heavily in support of Youthanasia. They started the tour in November 1994, with live performances in South America. The tour continued in 1995, with a number of opening acts such as Korn, Flotsam and Jetsam and Fear Factory. During this period Megadeth also visited Europe, where they stayed for eight weeks. Ellefson shared his impressions from performing in front of European fans: "So far, the audiences have been really good and it seems to me that heavy metal and especially Megadeth are very much at the forefront of music in Europe. It seems like the attendance is better than it has ever been". The worldwide tour ended in September 1995, with the band performing at Monsters of Rock in South America with Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper as the headliners.
In the middle of 1995, the band underwent changes on the business side. Manager Ron Lafitte was hired by EMI Records and essentially disbanded his management company. Megadeth later signed with ESP Management and hired Bud Prager, a previous manager of Foreigner and Bad Company, to be the band's new creative manager. As with Max Norman before him, Prager would go on to be highly influential in shaping the direction of the band. In an interview for Hard Rock Examiner, Mustaine revealed that there was a possibility of Megadeth performing the album in its entirety in 2014, honoring the 20-year anniversary of the record's release.
## Track listing
† Songwriting credits were amended on the 2004 reissue of the album. Credits differ on earlier releases.
## Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Singles
## Certifications |
27,692,566 | Won't Back Down (Eminem song) | 1,173,133,026 | 2010 song by Eminem | [
"2010 songs",
"Eminem songs",
"Pink (singer) songs",
"Song recordings produced by DJ Khalil",
"Songs written by DJ Khalil",
"Songs written by Eminem",
"Songs written by Erik Alcock"
]
| "Won't Back Down" is a song by American rapper Eminem featuring singer Pink. It is the fourth track on his seventh studio album Recovery (2010). The track features production from Aftermath Entertainment producer DJ Khalil, who helped write the song along with Eminem, Erik Alcock, and Columbus "Rahki" Smith.
Upon the release of Recovery, the song received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised its aggressive nature and production. "Won't Back Down" charted at numbers 62, 65, 82, and 87 in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia respectively. It was used in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops and its trailer as well as the trailers for the films Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Hitman: Agent 47. Eminem performed the song on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
It was later included on Eminem's second greatest hits album, Curtain Call 2, through Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records.
## Background and composition
"Won't Back Down" was written by Eminem, DJ Khalil, Erik Alcock and Columbus "Rahki" Smith. Along with most of the songs from Recovery, "Won't Back Down" was recorded at 54 Sound and Effigy Studios in Ferndale, Michigan, with recording carried out by Mike Strange. The song is one of the few Eminem songs not in a 4:4 time signature, along with "Untitled" (also from Recovery) and "Underground" (from Relapse). Originally, the song was set to be a solo record, with Eminem singing the chorus himself. Later, Liz Rodriguez, who is also featured on Recovery's "25 to Life" and "Almost Famous", recorded the song's chorus. Eminem however, explained in an interview that after recording his vocals for the song, he decided to include Pink on the song as he "felt like she would really smash this record." Rahki co-produced the song with Khalil.
On September 12, 2022, a lyric video for Won't Back Down was released on Eminem's YouTube channel.
## Critical reception
Upon its release, "Won't Back Down" received generally positive reviews from most music critics. David Jeffries of Allmusic wrote positively of the song, describing it as a "lurching heavy metal monster" that "could be used as the lead-in to 'Lose Yourself' on any ego-boosting mixtape", but wrote more critically of the lyrics, denouncing the pop culture jokes featured throughout the song, particularly ones aimed at Michael J. Fox, calling the line "Make like Michael J. Fox in your drawers, playin' with an Etch-A-Sketch" "less effective" than other jokes aimed at him. Steve Jones of USA Today described it as "rock-tinged" and stated that Pink's appearance provides "outside star power".
## Chart performance
"Won't Back Down" charted on four national charts worldwide due to digital sales on the release of Recovery. The song reached its highest position on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 62 on the chart for the week ending of July 10, 2010, although it fell off the chart the following week. The song also charted in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, peaking at number 87, 65 and 82 on their respective national charts, although on all three the song again only appeared for one week.
## Appearances in media
A remixed version of the ESPN trailer of the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops featuring "Won't Back Down" was released on June 14, prior to the E3 Activision conference, for which he also performed. The song was also featured in the game's credits and zombie mode map "Five" as an easter egg. The official trailer for the 2011 action film, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, features "Won't Back Down". The song is also featured in TV spots for the 2015 movie Hitman: Agent 47.
Eminem has performed the song on live sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live accompanied by Lil Wayne and hypeman and D12 member Mr. Porter. Eminem wore a black jacket and a skull cap. Idolator reacted positively to Eminem's performance, stating that he proved "once again what a dynamic and energetic live performer he is on this exceptionally angry tune (even by Slim Shady standards)." He also performed the song on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
## Credits and personnel
Recording
- Recorded at: Effigy Studios in Ferndale, Michigan.
Personnel
- Eminem – vocals, audio mixing and songwriting
- DJ Khalil – producer, additional keyboards and drum programming
- Mike Strange – recording and audio mixing
- Joe Strange – engineering assistant
- Eric Alcock – guitar
- Pink – vocals
- Rahki – keyboards and additional drum programming
Notes
- Credits and recording information from Recovery's booklet.
## Charts
## Certifications |
13,131 | Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians | 1,159,672,082 | null | [
"10th-century Hungarian people",
"10th-century monarchs in Europe",
"940s births",
"997 deaths",
"Converts to Roman Catholicism from pagan religions",
"House of Árpád",
"Hungarian monarchs"
]
| Géza (c. 940 – 997), also Gejza, was Grand Prince of the Hungarians from the early 970s. He was the son of Grand Prince Taksony and his Oriental—Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian—wife. He married Sarolt, a daughter of an Eastern Orthodox Hungarian chieftain. After ascending the throne, Géza made peace with the Holy Roman Empire. Within Hungary, he consolidated his authority with extreme cruelty, according to the unanimous narration of nearly contemporaneous sources. He was the first Hungarian monarch to support Christian missionaries from Western Europe. Although he was baptised (his baptismal name was Stephen), his Christian faith remained shallow and he continued to perform acts of pagan worship. He was succeeded by his son Stephen, who was crowned the first King of Hungary in 1000 or 1001.
## Early life
Géza was the elder son of Taksony, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. His mother was his father's wife "from the land of the Cumans", according to the anonymous author of the Gesta Hungarorum. This anachronistic reference to the Cumans suggests that she was of Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian origin. The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, who listed the descendants of Grand Prince Árpád around 950, did not mention Géza. Even so, Gyula Kristó wrote that Géza was born around 940 and the emperor ignored him because of his youth. The genuine form of his name was either "Gyeücsa" or "Gyeusa", which is possibly a diminutive form of the Turkic title yabgu. Géza's father arranged his marriage with Sarolt—a daughter of a Hungarian chieftain called Gyula, who ruled Transylvania independently of the grand prince and had converted to Christianity in Constantinople. Sarolt seems to have also adhered to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, according to Bruno of Querfurt's remark on her "languid and muddled Christianity".
## Reign
Géza succeeded his father around 972. He adopted a centralizing policy, which gave rise to his fame as a merciless ruler. The longer version of his son's Life even states that Géza's hands were "defiled with blood". Pál Engel wrote that Géza carried out a "large-scale purge" against his relatives, which explains the lack of references to other members of the Árpád dynasty from around 972. Koppány, who continued to rule the southern parts of Transdanubia, is the only exception to this dearth of references. A marriage alliance between the German and Byzantine dynasties brought about a rapprochement between the two powers neighboring Hungary in 972. Géza decided to make peace with the Holy Roman Empire. First, a monk named Bruno sent by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor arrived in Hungary around 972. Hungarian "legates" were present at a conference held by the emperor in Quedlinburg in 973.
> Geyza, who was strict and cruel, acting in a domineering way, as it were, with his own people, but compassionate and generous with strangers, especially with Christians, although [he was] still entangled in the rite of paganism. At the approach of the light of spiritual grace, he began to discuss peace attentively with all the neighboring provinces ... Moreover, he laid down a rule that the favor of hospitality and security be shown to all Christians wishing to enter to his domains. He gave clerics and monks leave to enter his presence; he offered them a willing hearing, and delighted them in the germination of the seed of true faith sown in the garden of his heart.
A record on one Bishop Prunwart in the Abbey of Saint Gall mentions his success in baptising many Hungarians, including their "king". The nearly contemporaneous Thietmar of Merseburg confirms that the conversion to Christianity of the pagan Hungarians started under Géza, who became the first Christian ruler of Hungary. His baptismal name was Stephen. However, Géza continued to observe pagan cults, which proves that his conversion to Christianity was never complete. Kristó and other historians have said that the first Roman Catholic diocese in Hungary, with its seat in Veszprém, was set up in Géza's reign, but their view has not been unanimously accepted. A charter issued during his son's reign states that Géza was the founder of the Benedictine Pannonhalma Archabbey.
> [Géza] was very cruel and killed many people because of his quick temper. When he became a Christian, however, he turned his rage against his reluctant subjects, in order to strengthen this faith. Thus, glowing with zeal for God, he washed away his old crimes. He sacrificed both to the omnipotent God and to various false gods. When reproached by his priest for doing so, however, he maintained that the practice had brought him both wealth and great power.
Taking advantage of internal conflicts which emerged in the Holy Roman Empire after Emperor Otto II's death, Géza invaded Bavaria and took the fortress of Melk in 983. In 991, the Bavarians launched a counter-attack which forced Géza to withdraw Hungarian forces from the territories east of the Vienna Woods. Furthermore, he renounced the lands east of the river Leitha in his peace treaty of 996 with Henry IV of Bavaria. Géza also arranged the marriage of his son and heir Stephen to Henry IV's sister Giselle. Even before this marriage alliance, Géza convoked the Hungarian leaders to an assembly and forced them to take an oath confirming his son's right to succeed him.
## Family
Sarolt gave birth to at least three of Géza's children: Stephen, who succeeded his father on the throne, and two unnamed daughters. Sarolt survived Géza, which suggests that she was also the mother of Géza's daughters. Based on the Polish-Hungarian Chronicle, Szabolcs de Vajay wrote that the daughters' mother was Géza's alleged second wife Adelaide of Poland, but this has not been widely accepted. Adelaide is only mentioned in the Polish–Hungarian Chronicle, which describes her as the sister of Mieszko I of Poland, but specialists have often questioned her existence. The chronicle attributes Géza's conversion to Adelaide's influence.
The following family tree presents Géza's ancestry and his offspring.
- Whether Menumorut is an actual or an invented person is debated by modern scholars.
\*\*A Khazar or Pecheneg lady.
\*\*\*Samuel Aba might have been Géza's grandson instead of his son-in-law.
\*\*\*\*The Aba family descending from them still flourished in the 14th century. |
37,333,725 | Hurricane Paul (2012) | 1,172,174,228 | Category 3 Pacific hurricane in 2012 | [
"2012 Pacific hurricane season",
"Category 3 Pacific hurricanes",
"Pacific hurricanes in Mexico",
"Tropical cyclones in 2012"
]
| Hurricane Paul was a strong tropical cyclone that threatened the Baja California peninsula during October 2012. The sixteenth tropical cyclone, tenth hurricane, and fifth major hurricane of the season, Paul originated from a trough of low pressure west of the coastline of Mexico on October 13. While turning towards the north, the system quickly organized, reaching hurricane status in the morning of October 15. By that afternoon, Paul had reached its peak intensity as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS) with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 km/h), but began to weaken rapidly thereafter due to land interaction and strong wind shear. Late on October 17, Paul degenerated into a remnant low. The remnants of Paul later moved ashore along the central Baja California Peninsula, before dissipating on October 18.
Prior to the storm's arrival in Baja California Sur, hurricane watches and warnings were issued for coastal locations. Hundreds of homes were damaged across the region and damage to infrastructure was significant. Power outages also occurred across the region as a result of Hurricane Paul. A total of 400 homes were destroyed, and 300 others were flooded. Damage totaled \$15.6 million (2012 USD).
## Meteorological history
On September 28, a tropical wave emerged off the western coast of Africa. Tracking westward, the northern portion of this wave axis led to the formation of Tropical Storm Oscar on October 3 while the southern portion of the wave continued across the central Atlantic. While approaching the Lesser Antilles the following day, the disturbance lost most of its thunderstorm activity and remained poorly organized across the remainder of its trek through the Caribbean Sea and Central America. On October 10, the wave emerged into the East Pacific basin, at which time the National Hurricane Center (NHC) began monitoring the system.
Characterized with disorganized convection, a broad surface trough formed in association with the wave the same day and environmental conditions were expected to favor gradual development. Initially, upper-level winds were only marginally favorable, and although the thunderstorms remained disorganized, the NHC estimated a 50% chance for development by early on October 12. The next day, the system became better defined, and, the NHC noted that the system was on the verge of becoming a tropical cyclone. Although operationally not classified until 21:00 UTC on October 13, a post-season analysis conducted on the system revealed that it attained enough organization to be considered a tropical depression at 12:00 UTC, while positioned about 645 mi (1040 km) south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas.
Tracking westward around the southern periphery of a subtropical ridge, the depression steadily strengthened, intensifying into Tropical Storm Paul six hours after designation. On October 14, an upper-level low positioned west of the Baja California peninsula led to a break in the ridge which subsequently caused the tropical cyclone to slow and turn northward. During this change in direction, favorable atmospheric conditions allowed for a quick rate of intensification. Convective bands in association with Paul gained curvature and a central dense overcast feature became visible on satellite imagery. In addition, a series of microwave passes late in evening revealed a nearly closed eyewall. At 06:00 UTC on October 15, Paul was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane on the SSHWS while located approximately 595 mi (960 km) southwest of Cabo San Lucas. Banding features continued to become better defined to the south and east of the center while convection in the eyewall cooled to −85 °C (−121 °F). The cloud pattern became increasingly symmetrical, and an eye became intermittently visible on satellite imagery later that morning. Following an abrupt increase in satellite intensity estimates, Paul was upgraded to a Category 3 major hurricane on the SSHWS, the fifth of the season, at 18:00 UTC on October 15. Simultaneously, the hurricane also estimated to have attained its peak intensity of 120 miles per hour (195 km/h).
Upon reaching its peak intensity, the hurricane began to steadily weaken. The cold ring of thunderstorm activity surrounding the eye warmed significantly, while the eye became cloud-filled and cool. The circulation became tilted north-northeast with height, likely a byproduct of south-southwesterly wind shear, and the system was downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane at 12:00 UTC on October 16. Accelerating northwestward within deep southwesterly flow, continued unfavorable upper-level winds caused the low-level center to rapidly separate from the convective mass. At 18:00 UTC, Paul was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane; by this time, little deep thunderstorm activity remained near the center. Six hours later, the system was downgraded to a tropical storm while it passed 50 mi (80 km) west of Baja California Sur. The remainder of shower and thunderstorm activity dissipated early on October 17 and Paul was declared a post-tropical cyclone at 06:00 UTC. Following declassification, the system moved ashore Baja California Sur near Bahía Asunción while maintaining gale-force winds. On the next day, at 06:00 UTC, the remnant low-level circulation dissipated about 70 mi (110 km) northwest of Punta Eugenia, Mexico.
## Preparations
When the system first posed a threat to Mexico at 09:00 UTC on October 15, a tropical storm watch was posted for a portion of the central Baja California Peninsula. Six hours later, the watch was upgraded into a tropical storm warning, while tropical storm watches were issued to the north and south of the warning, respectively. At 21:00 UTC on October 15, the tropical storm warnings was upgraded into a hurricane warning, while a tropical storm warning was declared along the eastern side of the peninsula. Early the next day, the tropical storm warning was extended southward, to include the capital of La Paz. On the afternoon of October 16, when the threat to the area increased, a hurricane warnings was posted for the eastern side of the state. Early the next day, all hurricane warnings were dropped, as Paul had deteriorated into a tropical storm. By 15:00 UTC, all watches and warnings had been discontinued.
Prior to the arrival of Paul, activities were suspended for small craft in the ports of Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, San Carlos, Maria Magdalena, and Puerto Lopez Mateos. Moreover, all activities were closed in the port of Mazatlan. Twelve municipalities in Sonora were placed under a "green" alert, though this was quickly upgraded to a "yellow" alert, and later into an "orange" alert. A "blue" alert also declared for Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit.
On October 16, a "yellow" alert (moderate risk) was activated for Baja California Sur. State civil protection authorities brought teams from the federal electricity and water commissions to help maintain services during the storm. In addition, the state government opened 143 shelters, including 11 in the towns of Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Ciudad Constitución, and Loreto, which had a capacity of 30,617 persons. Furthermore, 125 cranes and 75 automobiles were mobilized. Statewide, 400 soldiers were deployed. Roughly 500 residents in Comondú were evacuated to shelter.
## Impact and aftermath
During its formative stages, Paul passed near Clarion Island, where winds of 58 mph (93 km/h) and gusts of 77 mph (124 km/h) were recorded. On nearby Socorro Island, 1.98 in (50 mm) of rain fell during the storm's passage.
Even though there were no reports of hurricane-force winds onshore the Baja California Peninsula (the storm weakened to a tropical storm when it made its closet approach to the region), hurricane-force winds did approach the peninsula, and there were widespread reports of gale-force winds. In Puerto Cortes, peak winds of 51 mph (82 km/h) and gusts up to 72 mph (116 km/h) were observed, as well as a peak rainfall total over 6.02 in (153 mm). Furthermore, a minimum barometric pressure of 973.4 mbar (28.74 inHg) was observed in Cabo San Lucas.
The outer rainbands of the system first brought rains to Baja California Sur on October 15, resulting in flooding. Around 30% of Baja California Sur residents were without power at the height of Paul. Across the northern portion of the state, numerous roads were destroyed, especially near Loreto, where flooding caused a 45 ft (14 m) sinkhole to form. In addition, Mexican Federal Highway 11 was damaged in five locations from La Paz to Ciudad Constitucion. In Loreto, significant destruction occurred and many residents were rendered homeless. Two creeks overflowed their banks, destroying several homes. In Mulege, 300 homes were inundated, displacing 60 individuals to shelter. Thirty light poles were downed. The Puerto San Carlos area sustained the worst flooding from the storm, due to a combination of nearly a year's worth of rainfall and storm surge, which toppled a dike. There, about 400 homes collapsed and around 40% of the town's houses received damage, forcing 300 people to seek shelter. In San Ignacio, 30 automobiles were swept away and power was lost to the city.
Across the city of La Paz, damage to roads was estimated at MX\$200 million (US\$15.6 million). In all, approximately 1,000 dwellings were damaged in relation to Hurricane Paul; many other homes across the region were left without electricity and running water. A total of 495 people were taken to shelters, including 93 in Ciudad Insurgentes and 300 in San Carlos. Overall, 5,000 families or 16,000 people were directly affected by the hurricane.
Elsewhere, in Sonora light rain was recorded. In the aftermath of the storm, the Mexican navy activated a plan to provide aid. A total of 130 troops toured the damaged areas via six vehicles. A state of emergency was declared for four municipalities in Baja California Sur. By October 18, 95% of all water, power, and road services had been restored. Roughly MX\$2 million (\$156,000 2012 USD) was spent to help rebuild businesses lost due to the storm.
## See also
- Hurricane Otis (2005)
- Hurricane Pauline (1968)
- Timeline of the 2012 Pacific hurricane season
- Tropical cyclones in 2012 |
22,841,263 | PSR B1937+21 | 1,170,969,929 | Pulsar in the constellation Vulpecula | [
"Hypothetical planetary systems",
"Millisecond pulsars",
"Pulsars",
"Vulpecula"
]
| PSR B1937+21 is a pulsar located in the constellation Vulpecula a few degrees in the sky away from the first discovered pulsar, PSR B1919+21. The name PSR B1937+21 is derived from the word "pulsar" and the declination and right ascension at which it is located, with the "B" indicating that the coordinates are for the 1950.0 epoch. PSR B1937+21 was discovered in 1982 by Don Backer, Shri Kulkarni, Carl Heiles, Michael Davis, and Miller Goss.
It is the first discovered millisecond pulsar, with a rotational period of 1.557708 milliseconds, meaning it completes almost 642 rotations per second. This period was far shorter than astronomers considered pulsars capable of reaching, and led to the suggestion that pulsars can be spun-up by accreting mass from a companion.
The rotation of PSR B1937+21, along with other millisecond pulsars discovered later, are very stable in their rotation. They are capable of keeping time as well as atomic clocks. PSR B1937+21 is unusual in that it is one of few pulsars which occasionally emits particularly strong pulses. The flux density of the giant pulses emitted by PSR B1937+21 are the brightest radio emission ever observed. These properties of PSR B1937+21, and its unexpected discovery, are credited with helping revitalize research on pulsars.
## Background
The first pulsar was discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell and her PhD supervisor Antony Hewish using the Interplanetary Scintillation Array. Shortly after the discovery of pulsars, Franco Pacini and Thomas Gold independently suggested that pulsars are highly magnetized rotating neutron stars, which form as a result of a supernova at the end of the life stars more massive than about 10 times the mass of the Sun. The radiation emitted by pulsars is caused by interaction of the plasma surrounding the neutron star with its rapidly rotating magnetic field. This interaction leads to emission "in the pattern of a rotating beacon," as emission escapes along the magnetic poles of the neutron star. The "rotating beacon" property of pulsars arises from the misalignment of their magnetic poles with their rotational poles.
## Discovery
In the late 1970s, the radio source 4C21.53 captured the attention of radio astronomers, "because of its anomalously high level of interplanetary scintillation." As interplanetary scintillation is associated with compact radio sources, the interplanetary scintillation observations suggested that 4C21.53 might be a supernova remnant, but a pulsar survey carried out at Arecibo Observatory in 1974 by Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor in the region did not discover a pulsar associated with 4C21.53. With the lack of success in finding a pulsar in the region, other explanations for the scintillation were explored, including suggestion of entirely new classes of objects. After realizing in 1982 that previous searches for a pulsar in the region of 4C21.53 were not sensitive to periods short enough to produce the observed scintillation, Don Backer initiated a search in the area that would be sensitive to a wide range of pulse periods and dispersion measures, including very short periods. The initial search plan was to sample at a rate of 500 Hz, which would have been insufficiently fast to detect a pulsar spinning at 642 Hz. To simplify the search apparatus, Backer's then student, Shri Kulkarni, sampled as quickly as was possible, and time averaged the signal over a period of 0.4 milliseconds, thus effectively sampling at 2500 Hz. As a result, Backer et al. determined in November 1982 that the source was a pulsar rotating every 1.558 milliseconds, a rate far beyond anything that astronomers studying pulsars had expected.
## Characteristics
### Age and spin down rate
When Backer et al. reported their finding in November 1982, they found that the rotation period of PSR B1937+21 was increasing at a rate of 3 seconds per second. Pulsars are expected to slow over time, as the energy that they emit is ultimately drawn from the rotational energy of the pulsar. Using the initially observed values for the period and spin down rate, and assuming a minimum period of 0.5 milliseconds for pulsars, the maximum age for PSR B1937+21 was found to be about 750 million years old. The estimate of the minimum possible period is obtained from the centrifugal break-up limit, which is the rotational period at which the centrifugal force and the self-gravity of the pulsar are equal. The value of the minimum rotational period depends upon the neutron star equation of state, with different models giving values between 0.3 and 1 millisecond, which corresponds to a rotation frequency of 1-3 kilohertz. There may be mechanisms such as gravitational radiation which keep the pulsar from reaching this absolute limit, but pulsars can spin no faster.
An age of no more than 750 million years for the PSR B1937+21 was at odds with the observations of the region in other wavelengths. No optical supernova remnant, nor bright x-ray source, had been observed in the vicinity of the PSR B1937+21. If PSR B1937+21 was that young, it would not have had time to move far from the site at which it formed. As neutron stars are formed as the result of supernova explosions, evidence of the explosion should be nearby for a young pulsar. If it was that young, it would also be expected to still be hot, in which case the thermal radiation from PSR B1937+21 would be observable at x-ray wavelengths. Venkatraman Radhakrishnan and G. Srinivasan used the lack of observed supernova remnant to argue that PSR B1937+21 had not formed with such a fast period, but instead had been "spun up" by a companion star which essentially gave the pulsar its angular momentum, a mechanism now generally used to explain millisecond pulsars. They also made a theoretical estimate of the necessary spin down rate to be 1 seconds per second. Backer et al. revised their estimate of the upper limit of the spin down rate just a month after the initial discovery, to 1 seconds per second, but the currently measured value is more nearly in line with the theoretical estimate, at 1.05 seconds per second. The age of PSR B1937+21 was also later determined to be 2.29 years, a value which is consistent with the observational evidence.
The companion which is supposed to have spun-up PSR B1937+21 is no longer present, making it one of few millisecond pulsars which does not have a stellar mass companion. The generally high occurrence of companions to millisecond pulsars is to be expected, considering a companion is necessary to spin-up millisecond pulsars to their short periods. However, millisecond pulsars do not actively accrete matter from a companion, but instead need to have only done this at some time in the past, and thus the lack of companion for PSR B1937+21 is not seen as a being in disagreement with the spin-up model. Possible mechanisms for creating isolated millisecond pulsars include evaporation of the donor star or tidal disruption of the system.
### Pulses
During one period of rotation for PSR B1937+21, there are two peaks observed, known as the pulse and interpulse. PSR B1937+21 is unusual among pulsars in that it occasionally produces pulses far brighter than an average pulse. Until 1995, the sole other pulsar known to produce giant pulses was the Crab pulsar, and by 2006, there were 11 pulsars that had been observed to produce giant pulses out of more than 1500 known pulsars. The giant pulses of PSR B1937+21 were first observed in 1984, shortly after its discovery, but difficulty in observing single pulses of PSR B1937+21 due to its fast period meant that the pulses were not studied in more depth until a decade after they were first observed. In more recent follow up observations, more giant pulses have been found. These giant pulses have been observed to occur at the trailing edge of both the pulse and interpulse. The duration of these giant pulses is short compared to the period of the pulsar, lasting on the order of 10 nanoseconds. The flux density of observed pulses is somewhat variable, but has been observed to be as high as 6.5×10<sup>−22</sup> W m<sup>−2</sup>Hz<sup>−1</sup> (6.5×10<sup>4</sup> janskys). The brightness temperature of a pulse with such high flux density and such low duration exceeds 5 kelvins, making the pulses of PSR B1937+21 the brightest radio emission ever observed. PSR B1937+21 is intrinsically the most luminous millisecond pulsar. In addition to the radio pulses observed, pulses have been detected at x-ray wavelengths, which show the same pulse and interpulse pattern.
## Evidence for companions
After the discovery of planetary mass companions around PSR B1257+12 in 1990 by Aleksander Wolszczan, data for PSR B1937+21 and other pulsars were analyzed for the presence of similar companions. By 1994, an upper limit of about one thousandth of the mass of Earth was determined for any companion of PSR B1937+21 within 2 astronomical units. In 1999, Aleksander Wolszczan reported variations in the times of arrival of pulses from PSR B1937+21, as well as previous analysis by Tokio Fukushima which suggested that these timing variations could be caused by a dwarf planet around the pulsar. The data were consistent with a companion having a mass similar to Ceres and located at 2.71 astronomical units from the pulsar, but data over a longer period of time are required in order to verify the proposed companion. More recent observations have not detected any regular periodic signal associated with this companion, but argue that the slight variations in pulse arrival times are consistent with an asteroid belt having a total mass less than 0.05 that of the Earth, but acknowledge that the detection of periodicity in pulse timing variations associated with individual asteroids is necessary to confirm the possible asteroid belt.
## Significance
Until the discovery of PSR J1748-2446ad in 2006, which spins 716 times per second, PSR B1937+21 was the fastest spinning neutron star known. At the time of its discovery, PSR B1937+21 extended the range of periods observed in pulsars by a factor of 20, it also extended the range of magnetic fields observed by a factor of 100, with a magnetic field of 4.2 gauss (42 kT).
As the first discovered millisecond pulsar, PSR B1937+21 "sparked a 'theory frenzy'" by providing a new laboratory in which to study pulsars, neutron stars more generally, and perhaps even some other astrophysical problems such as gravitational waves.[^1] For instance, as the density required to spin at such high rates are comparable to nuclear densities, the fastest spinning millisecond pulsars are important in understanding how matter behaves at such densities. The initially high estimate of the spin down rate was also intriguing, as it implied a signal that could be directly detected by gravitational wave detectors, but the actual spin down rate put the expected signal below the sensitivity of current detectors. The currently accepted value spin down rate corresponds to a change in the rotational period of 1.5 Hz over the course of one million years. The stability of rotation of PSR B1937+21 is of the same order of the stability of the best atomic clocks, and is thus a tool used in establishing ephemeris time.
The discovery of B1937+21 launched "extensive pulsar surveys at all major radio observatories" and "happened to revitalize pulsar astronomy at a time when most people thought the field was moribund."
[^1]: |
38,333,522 | Mary Greyeyes | 1,159,336,139 | Canadian World War II servicewoman | [
"1920 births",
"2011 deaths",
"20th-century Canadian women",
"Canadian Indigenous military personnel",
"Canadian female military personnel",
"Canadian military personnel from Saskatchewan",
"Canadian military personnel of World War II",
"Canadian people of Cree descent",
"Canadian women in World War II",
"Cree people",
"First Nations history",
"First Nations in Saskatchewan",
"First Nations women"
]
| Mary Greyeyes Reid (November 14, 1920 – March 31, 2011) was a Canadian World War II servicewoman. A Cree from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, she was the first First Nations woman to enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces. After joining the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC) in 1942, she became the subject of an internationally famous army publicity photograph, and was sent overseas to serve in London, England, where she was introduced to public figures such as George VI and his daughter Elizabeth. Greyeyes remained in London until being discharged in 1946, after which she returned to Canada.
## Early life
Mary Greyeyes was born November 14, 1920, in the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation reserve in Marcelin, Saskatchewan. She had ten siblings: six sisters and four brothers. She was raised by her widowed grandmother, Sarah Greyeyes.
When she was five years old, Greyeyes was sent to the St. Michael's residential school in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. The school only taught students up to grade 8, but Greyeyes managed to obtain additional tutoring in later years from a nun at the school, attending evening lessons while helping with cooking and cleaning during the day. She was known for her eagerness for knowledge.
## Canadian forces
### Enlistment
The Muskeg Lake Cree Nation reserve had been heavily impacted by the Great Depression, and by the early 1940s there was little work for youth on the reserve. Greyeyes' favourite brother, David Greyeyes, left the reserve in search of work to help support the family, and in 1940, David enlisted in the Canadian Army. Greyeyes subsequently decided to do the same, seeing enlistment as a valuable chance to expand her own knowledge and experience.
In June 1942, Greyeyes travelled to Regina in order to take the test for enlistment. The Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service and the women's division of the Royal Canadian Air Force both required that new recruits be "a British subject, of white race", but recruitment for the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC) was open to citizens of "any of the United Nations" and all races. Although Greyeyes worried that her grade 8 certification from the residential school would be inadequate, she passed the CWAC test and was accepted.
Upon completing the test, Greyeyes became the first First Nations woman to join the Canadian Armed Forces.
### Photograph
Shortly after enlisting, Greyeyes became the subject of an army publicity photograph that showed her kneeling in her army uniform to receive a "blessing" from a man dressed in Plains Cree Chief regalia.
During the war, Canadian MLA and public relations officer Louis LeBourdais often visited the training bases with photographers to take pictures of new CWAC recruits for newspaper publication. In June 1942, not long after she had enlisted, Greyeyes was approached and asked to participate in a photo-shoot to encourage more women to join the army. Harry Ball, a Cree man and World War I veteran from the Piapot First Nation, was convinced to pose for the photo in Plains Chief regalia. He was not an actual Chief himself at the time, though he would become one later, and had never met Greyeyes before. Ball had to cobble together his apparel from borrowed items. In return for the photo-shoot, which was staged on Piapot land, Ball was paid \$20, while Greyeyes received a free lunch and a new uniform.
The photograph appeared in the Winnipeg Tribune and the Regina Leader-Post, and soon spread overseas to England, appearing in multiple British newspapers.
For decades, the photo would be identified only by a caption reading "Unidentified Indian princess getting blessing from her chief and father to go fight in the war". It was only around 1995 that the record was finally corrected, when Greyeyes's daughter-in-law, Melanie Fahlman Reid, learned that the photo hung in the Canadian War Museum with the incorrect caption. Reid, who had discussed the photo personally with Greyeyes, provided a more accurate explanation of the photograph from her mother-in-law's recollection.
### Service and overseas work
Although officially integrated as part of the Canadian Army, CWAC did not train its members for combat roles, instead training women to support the war efforts through cooking, laundering, and clerical work. Greyeyes was sent overseas to Aldershot, England, to work at the Aldershot Base Laundry. She disliked her position there, and requested a transfer. Her superior tried to sabotage her transfer by writing the false statement "Does not speak English" on Greyeyes' papers, but she was granted her transfer anyway and went to work as a cook in the war centre at London. The Canadian Military Headquarters, in London was at 2–4 Cockspur Street next to Canada House.
As a result of the "Indian princess" photo, Greyeyes became famous in London as "the Indian" who had joined the army in support of the Empire and its colonies, receiving letters from strangers offering to marry her. She was even introduced to King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and Princess Elizabeth. Greyeyes was photographed with a number of public figures.
Although Greyeyes sometimes encountered racism while in service – once resulting in her boarding outside the barracks – she found her overall army experience a positive one, later commenting that her wartime years had been "the best days of her life". She enjoyed the publicity she gained from being in the famous photo. Her love of learning was often noticed by others. One of her fellow corps members later recalled that Greyeyes was "a lovely young woman ... who spent much of her spare time reading and studying literature."
### Second photo-shoot
According to an interview with her daughter-in-law, Mary Greyeyes was approached by government officials for a second publicity photo towards the end of the war. It was an election year, and Indigenous people did not have the right to vote in Canadian elections at the time, but Indigenous veterans from World War II were being offered the choice to give up their treaty rights and Indian status in return for voting rights. Greyeyes was urged to visit a polling station and have her picture taken while voting. Instead of agreeing to the photo-shoot this time, she pointed out the unfairness of the voting laws:
> So Mary says to them, she says, "Can my mom vote?" And they said, "No, she didn't fight in the war." She said, "Well, what about my cousins over there, can they vote?" And they said no. They said, "C'mon Mary, you gotta come, we've got the photographer." And she said, "All those years, I said nothing. Now I'm saying no."
It was only in 1960 that all First Nations people were granted the right to vote in Canadian federal elections.
## Post-war life
When the war ended, Greyeyes continued working in London until she was discharged in 1946. Afterwards, she returned to Canada and went back to the Muskeg Lake reserve to spend time with family. She met her future husband, Alexander Reid, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They moved to Victoria and had two children. Greyeyes worked as a restaurant cook in Victoria, later finding employment as an industrial seamstress when the family moved to Vancouver in the 1960s.
In August 1994, Greyeyes attended a reunion of over 400 CWAC members in Vermilion, Alberta. She received a pension from the Department of Veterans Affairs for her wartime service. In 2003, in recognition that post-war benefits had been poorly managed and delivered to Indigenous servicemen and women, the Canadian government paid compensation packages to Greyeyes and other surviving Indigenous veterans.
## Death
Greyeyes died on March 31, 2011, in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was 90 years old. Greyeyes was buried on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation reserve. |
5,746,718 | Jacobson v. United States | 1,148,738,615 | 1992 US Supreme Court case on entrapment | [
"1992 in United States case law",
"Sex case law",
"United States Supreme Court cases",
"United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court",
"United States entrapment case law"
]
| Jacobson v. United States, 503 U.S. 540 (1992), is a case decided by the United States Supreme Court regarding the criminal procedure topic of entrapment. A narrowly divided court overturned the conviction of a Nebraska man for receiving child pornography through the mail, ruling that postal inspectors had implanted a desire to do so through repeated written entreaties.
It was the first time the court had considered an entrapment case from outside the realm of controlled-substance enforcement, or one involving conduct that had only recently been criminalized. By relying exclusively on whether the defendant had a predisposition to commit the crime, the court appeared to have finally resolved a lingering issue in its previous decisions on the subject.
The decision was seen as a rare triumph for defendants before a conservative court that frequently sided with prosecutors. Guidelines for federal law enforcement agents were changed in its wake, and it was described as having brought entrapment "back from the dead."
## Background of the case
### US anti-child pornography legislation and early cases
Until the late 1970s, there were no federal laws specifically addressing the production, distribution or possession of child pornography, and it was readily available to those who sought it. While some was imported from European countries where it was produced, there was also a domestic industry.
Media exposés and popular outrage led Congress to pass by unanimous vote the Sexual Exploitation of Children Act of 1977, which criminalized the production and sale of child pornography. This act was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on February 6, 1978. The legislation was supported by a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in New York v. Ferber, , that images of children need not meet legal definitions of obscenity to be prohibited by the government, since the state's interest in protecting children from harm trumped First Amendment rights in this instance.
Shortly thereafter, an update to the SEOC Act, the Child Protection Act of 1984, made it illegal to purchase pornographic materials depicting minors through the mail, or possess them, on the grounds that it encouraged child sexual abuse. While popular with voters, civil liberties advocates warned that the expanded scope of these laws could result in prosecutions of entirely innocent people who had little or nothing to do with the child-porn industry, such as parents taking photos or videos of their children in the nude. Nevertheless, investigators forged ahead and had, by the mid-1980s, shut down almost all domestic child-porn production. The government itself was thereafter the biggest marketer, in the form of materials it created to tempt buyers.
### Investigation and arrest of Keith Jacobson
In January 1985 inspectors for the United States Postal Service (USPS) in the Great Plains states began "Project Looking Glass", a sting operation under the newly enacted Child Protection Act of 1984, which made it illegal to send pictures of nude minors through the mail, even for noncommercial purposes (previously, only those who intended to resell them could be prosecuted). Ray Mack, the inspector in charge, meant it to be primarily an intelligence-gathering operation, a way to keep tabs on producers and distributors. It sent mail to those it had known to have ordered such materials while they were legal. Among them were Keith Jacobson, a bachelor 56-year-old U.S. Army retiree turned farmer living with his elderly parents in Newman Grove, Nebraska, who would later describe himself as bisexual although he said he had never had relations with men. Jacobson had, the previous year, ordered two magazines entitled Bare Boys I and Bare Boys II from Electric Moon, an adult bookstore in San Diego, California, that had been raided and shut down.
USPS investigators decided to send him a letter from a fictitious organization, the "American Hedonist Society", which supposedly sought to lobby for "the right to read what we desire, the right to discuss similar interests with those who share our philosophy, and finally that we have the right to seek pleasure without restrictions being placed on us by outdated puritan morality." Included was a questionnaire attempting to gauge the respondent's interest in various paraphilias, including pedophilia and ephebophilia. Jacobson indicated an "above average" interest in the latter, especially between males, but also stated he was opposed to the former. The USPS decided he was not a promising target and left him alone.
But some time later, Calvin Comfort, a "prohibited mailing specialist" for the region, found Jacobson's name in another file, and the government decided to try again, this time as part of an operation aimed at purchasers. In May 1986, they sent him mail from another fictitious organization, "Midlands Data Research", which was for those who "believe in the joys of sex and the complete awareness of those lusty and youthful lads and lasses of the neophite [sic] age". Jacobson confessed to them that he was "interested in teenage sexuality", asked for more information and that his name be kept confidential. This led to Jacobson getting mail from the "Heartland Institute for a New Tomorrow" (HINT), "an organization founded to protect and promote sexual freedom and freedom of choice. We believe that arbitrarily imposed legislative sanctions restricting your sexual freedom should be rescinded through the legislative process." Jacobson seemed to sympathize, writing in response that sexual freedom and freedom of the press were under attack by "right-wing fundamentalists".
Along with a thank you note from "Jean Daniels" of HINT also came a supposed list of others in the area with similar interests as possible pen pals. But Jacobson never wrote to any of them. So Comfort, under the pseudonym "Carl Long", wrote back using a technique called "mirroring", claiming to have interests calculated to be similar to those believed held by Jacobson, and specifically, to be equally interested in depictions of sex acts between young boys. Jacobson said he, too, liked "good looking young guys (in their late teens and early 20s) doing their thing together". Neither Jacobson nor Comfort made any more explicit reference to pornographic materials and Jacobson stopped writing back after two letters. With no evidence that he had ever watched or possessed any child pornography, the USPS again dropped its efforts against him.
Those were renewed in March 1987 when the United States Customs Service sent similar exploratory material, supposedly from Canada, to Jacobson and others on the USPS's list, and he responded, placing an order that was never filled. A catalog from a "Far Eastern Trading Company" was sent instead, along with other written material bemoaning the infringement of sexual freedoms. This time Jacobson ordered a publication called Boys Who Love Boys, which the catalog said featured "11 and 14 year old boys" who "get it on in every way imaginable. Oral, anal and heavy masturbation. If you love boys," it further read, "you will be delighted with this".
On June 16, 1987, Jacobson received a card in his mail telling him to go to the post office and pick up the envelope that supposedly contained Boys Who Love Boys. Comfort observed him doing so and got a search warrant for his home on that basis. He was arrested shortly thereafter, 26 months after the postal inspectors had first contacted him.
## Lower court proceedings
### Criminal trial
Jacobson was indicted on one count of knowingly receiving through the mails sexually explicit material depicting a minor in September. At trial in federal court, his attorney, George H. Moyer, noted his exemplary military service record, including a Bronze Star, service in Korea and Vietnam War and lack of a civilian criminal record beyond a drunken-driving conviction in 1958. He raised the entrapment defense.
Jacobson testified that he had been "shocked and surprised" by the contents of the Bare Boys collections when he received them, as he had not expected the photos to depict very young boys: "I thought these were a nudist type publication. Many of the pictures were out in a rural or outdoor setting. There was – I didn't draw any sexual connotation or connection with that".
The jury convicted him in April 1988. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment, suspended to two years' probation and 250 hours of community service, which he discharged by painting a school bus and working at a library. He had to sell his share of the family farm to his sister to pay his legal bills, and was fired from his job driving a school bus in Newman Grove even though there was no evidence he had ever approached children sexually. He lowered his profile, often driving to more distant communities to run routine errands. Nonetheless, his hometown supported him. "Any of us could be caught up in such a sting," the Newman Grove local newspaper editorialized.
### Appeals
A panel of three appellate judges heard the case for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. On January 12, 1990, Senior Judge Gerald Heaney and Chief Judge Donald Lay overturned the conviction on the grounds that the government had insufficient grounds to believe that Jacobson was likely to purchase the material it was offering to him. Judge George G. Fagg said in dissent that his colleagues had "declared war on the government's power to initiate undercover investigations" and that reasonable suspicion need not be present for such operations to take place.
He would carry the day after federal prosecutors appealed for an en banc rehearing by the entire court, reiterating that point for an eight-judge majority and saying that unless Jacobson could demonstrate that a specifically protected right had been violated by the investigation, the conviction should stand. The majority also rejected the entrapment defense, arguing that the postal investigators had merely provided Jacobson with opportunities to purchase child pornography and not sought to affect his predisposition (an important element in entrapment under U.S. law) to do so in any way.
Lay and Heaney were the sole dissenters, and wrote separate opinions based upon two different grounds. The former argued that Jacobson had not in fact shown "predisposition" toward breaking the law throughout his life, since the only known prior purchases and basis for belief by prosecutors, were purchases he had made at a time this was a legal act; Lay therefore concluded that without evidence of prior disposition to break the law in this way, he had been entrapped. The latter's dissent was similar to the original panel opinion, arguing that the government had no reasonable belief that Jacobson would purchase child pornography. He also called investigative tactics sufficiently outrageous to justify reversal: "In my view, the government's investigation and prosecution of Jacobson amount to the deliberate manufacture of a crime that would never have occurred but for the Postal Service's overzealous efforts to create it".
## Supreme Court case
### Certiorari petition
John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court supposedly picked Jacobson's case out of a pile of "hopeless" certiorari petitions. After reading it, Justice Byron White made an argument moving and persuasive enough that Justices Harry Blackmun, Thurgood Marshall, and Stevens changed their minds and agreed to accept it. Regardless of how certiorari was granted, arguments before the Court were limited by the grant to the single issue in question, of whether as a matter of law, Jacobson had been entrapped.
### Entrapment in federal prosecutions
The entrapment defense at the federal level exists entirely in case law. Federal courts first recognized entrapment in Woo Wai v. United States, 223 F 412 (9th Circuit 1915), and the Supreme Court followed suit in Sorrells v. United States, .
The Sorrells court grounded the entrapment defense in what has since been called the "subjective" test, in which the prosecution must overcome it by showing the defendant had a "predisposition" to commit the crime in any event. In Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369 (1958), Felix Frankfurter, in a concurrence, had argued instead for an "objective" standard, which focuses instead on the conduct of the law enforcement personnel involved and whether the crime would have occurred without their involvement, a call repeated by other justices in later decisions. While the majority of states have chosen to use the objective method, the Supreme Court has held firm to the former.
### Briefings and pre-hearing public awareness
Jacobson's case attracted some national media attention. Civil liberties advocates including the ACLU supported him, worried over what they saw as dangerous growth in government police powers during the Reagan and Bush administrations, when law enforcement were alleged to have cracked down on drugs as well as pornography distribution at the behest of the Religious Right. Operation Looking Glass, the USPS claimed, had netted 147 convictions, but only 35 where evidence was found that the offenders had either been involved in producing child pornography or molested children. Critics claimed that the government was exaggerating the child-porn problem at best and contributing to it at worst, possibly by introducing some consumers to material they might never have developed a taste for otherwise.
It was the subject of a 60 Minutes segment, in which Jacobson told Mike Wallace, after pausing for several seconds and looking downward, that he broke down and ordered Boys Who Love Boys because he wanted to see just what it was that he was being so heavily solicited to buy. A postal inspector also admitted to the show that since it had successfully put most child-porn producers out of business, it was now going after consumers with material of its own.
Interested parties on both sides filed amici. A group of conservative Republicans in both houses of Congress, including Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, Henry Hyde and Rick Santorum, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children both argued for affirming the conviction, pointing to the invaluable nature of undercover investigations in fighting child pornography, worrying that requiring reasonable suspicion beforehand could make such operations impossible. Americans for Effective Law Enforcement said there had been no entrapment and that reasonable suspicion was not required before starting investigations such as Looking Glass. The American Civil Liberties Union, its Nebraska chapter and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers weighed in on Jacobson's behalf.
### Arguments
Moyer, who had never argued before the Supreme Court, continued to represent Jacobson (who was in the audience). In his brief and at oral argument, he said that a mere stated interest in sex among young men did not rise to a level of proving predisposition, that the government should have had evidence in hand that Jacobson was actually willing to break the law to do so. (Kenneth Starr, then Solicitor General, had maintained in the government's brief opposing certiorari that his prior purchase of the Bare Boys magazines was all the proof it needed, even if the action were legal at the time.) Pressed on other undercover investigative techniques, he admitted that a government-run pawn shop would be a permissible way to apprehend thieves despite a lack of evidence of predisposition because the crimes might well have occurred prior to any contact with the government or its operatives.
During oral argument, Justice Antonin Scalia responded to this by suggesting that some interests a person might express, such as recreational drugs, signified a willingness to violate social norms regardless of whether the conduct was illegal or not. Paul Larkin, who appeared for the government, had to admit to that there was no case law on entrapment where something that had previously been permitted was now prohibited. At one point, trying to argue that Jacobson did not have access to the defense of entrapment by estoppel (where the government persuades an actor that it is legal to do something, only to prosecute them for it), Scalia told Larkin he'd lost him.
### Decision
By a 5–4 margin, the justices reversed the conviction, agreeing that Jacobson had been entrapped, on April 6, 1992. It has since been reported that this was one of the rare cases where the decision changed after arguments. The original poll of the justices showed a 7–2 majority for affirmance, with only White and Stevens holding out. But White argued persuasively for reversal to his fellow Justices, and Blackmun and Clarence Thomas, who had replaced Marshall, changed their minds. It has been suggested that Thomas, who later established a reputation for allowing wide latitude to law enforcement similar to other contemporary Republican appointees, was especially sensitive at that time to Jacobson's situation due to the sexual harassment allegations raised by Anita Hill during his own recent confirmation hearings.
Justice David Souter later provided the swing vote, and opinions that White and Sandra Day O'Connor had already begun drafting had to be rewritten to reflect the changed outcome of the case.
#### Majority
White, reiterating what he had written in Ferber, acknowledged that child pornography was a social evil and that the government could use undercover investigations to enforce laws against it. After reviewing the previous cases on entrapment, he said that the more than two years in which investigators had tried to get Jacobson to buy various child-porn offerings had suggested he did not have a predisposition to do so: "... (I)t is our view that the Government did not prove that this predisposition was independent, and not the product of the attention that the Government had directed at petitioner since January, 1985".
Since the Bare Boys purchases were legal at the time, they did not prove that he was willing to break the law to acquire such materials. "... (E)vidence that merely indicates a generic inclination to act within a broad range, not all of which is criminal, is of little probative value in establishing predisposition", he wrote. "Evidence of predisposition to do what once was lawful is not, by itself, sufficient to show predisposition to do what is now illegal, for there is a common understanding that most people obey the law even when they disapprove of it". He also noted that, at trial, the prosecution had not challenged Jacobson's assertion that he did not know the magazines would contain pictures of minors until he received it.
Furthermore, he suggested, the appeals to political action he received may have given him reasons other than prurient interest to order the material, indeed even suggested he had a duty to order them as a way of taking a stand:
> ... (T)he strong arguable inference is that, by waving the banner of individual rights and disparaging the legitimacy and constitutionality of efforts to restrict the availability of sexually explicit materials, the Government not only excited petitioner's interest in sexually explicit materials banned by law, but also exerted substantial pressure on petitioner to obtain and read such material as part of a fight against censorship and the infringement of individual rights ... The evidence that petitioner was ready and willing to commit the offense came only after the Government had devoted 21⁄2 years to convincing him that he had or should have the right to engage in the very behavior proscribed by law.
White also dismissed the notion that his responses to the surveys he was sent proved he was willing to order child porn illegally, saying they only indicated "a predisposition to view photographs of preteen sex and a willingness to promote a given agenda by supporting lobbying organizations ... petitioner's responses hardly support an inference that he would commit the crime of receiving child pornography through the mails". He noted that twice before the Court had suggested that an individual's private fantasies are not the government's business, even if it has a strong interest in proscribing the enactment of those fantasies.
"When the Government's quest for convictions", he concluded, "leads to the apprehension of an otherwise law-abiding citizen who, if left to his own devices, likely would have never run afoul of the law, the courts should intervene."
#### Dissent
O'Connor made two arguments for the dissenting justices: that predisposition was proven by the fact that Jacobson had ordered materials both times he was actually solicited, and that the Court had usurped the jury's rightful role in deciding whether he was entrapped. She also expressed fears that the court had so broadened the definition of predisposition as to make it a viable defense in almost any case.
She began by stating what was, to the minority, the most relevant aspect of the case.
> Keith Jacobson was offered only two opportunities to buy child pornography through the mail. Both times, he ordered. Both times, he asked for opportunities to buy more. He needed no Government agent to coax, threaten, or persuade him; no one played on his sympathies, friendship, or suggested that his committing the crime would further a greater good. In fact, no Government agent even contacted him face to face.
She noted also that Jacobson had written, in a note included with his order, that he would be doing more business with the company later and that he wanted to "(b)e discreet in order to protect you and me".
The majority, she said, had so greatly expanded the government's burden of proof in undercover sting operations as to make future such investigations untenable:
> ... (A)fter this case, every defendant will claim that something the Government agent did before soliciting the crime "created" a predisposition that was not there before. For example, a bribetaker will claim that the description of the amount of money available was so enticing that it implanted a disposition to accept the bribe later offered. A drug buyer will claim that the description of the drug's purity and effects was so tempting that it created the urge to try it for the first time. In short, the Court's opinion could be read to prohibit the Government from advertising the seductions of criminal activity as part of its sting operation, for fear of creating a predisposition in its suspects.
She scoffed at White's claim that the calls to activism were possibly instrumental in creating a predisposition to offend: "The most one finds is letters advocating legislative action to liberalize obscenity laws, letters which could easily be ignored or thrown away ... Nor did the Government claim to be organizing a civil disobedience movement, which would protest the pornography laws by breaking them." It was up to the jury, she said, to decide what Jacobson meant when he said on the stand that he wanted to see "what all the trouble and hysteria was about", and they had done so.
In Part II, she accused her colleagues of redefining predisposition so that it had to include an awareness that the action to be undertaken was illegal, despite the fact that the CPA did not include specific intent to receive child pornography as an element of the crime. "The elements of predisposition," she said, "should track the elements of the crime". The Bare Boys purchases were not, she argued, as dispositive of that as the majority claimed. Her last sentences responded to White's, saying that there was no question that the jury had been properly instructed on entrapment law and thus, their decision that Jacobson could not claim entrapment should be allowed to stand.
## Aftermath
### Reaction
New York Times''' reporter Linda Greenhouse described the initial verdict as "an anomaly, an extreme misuse of Government power in which an innocent person was led to commit a manufactured crime" and thus not likely to signal a shift back in favor of defendants after a period that had seen a move away from the liberalism of the Warren and Burger Courts towards a more law-and-order–oriented Court. Editorialists at newspapers around the country – the Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post – praised the court's decision, as did Jacobson's hometown paper, the Omaha World-Herald. Columnists on both sides of the political spectrum, from Clarence Page to William Safire joined in celebrating his turn of fate and criticizing the excessive zeal of the postal inspectors. Civil liberties advocates savored what they felt was an overdue triumph against the overreach of law enforcement during the preceding decade. "... (W)hen the State gets behind a moral panic, no one is safe," wrote Bob Chatelle of the political issues committee of the National Writers' Union, pointing to other zealous prosecutions of people with no demonstrable interest in child pornography who had nevertheless fallen afoul of newer laws by taking or possessing pictures of naked children with no apparent sexual content.
Others pointed to what they called the horrific cost of Project Looking Glass. Among its other targets had been another middle-aged Nebraska farmer, Bob Brase, of Shelby. Like Jacobson, his name had been on the mailing list of a porn distributor, and despite neither having a criminal record nor any interest in child porn he was relentlessly solicited, including letters from the same "Carl Long". Finally he ordered a videotape and was arrested and indicted. No other prohibited material was found in his house, either.
Just before he was to be arraigned, he drove into a field and shot himself, leaving behind a wife and two children. His was one of four suicides by Looking Glass targets. Critics wondered if these suicides, which investigators had said they expected, were worth it. In 1999, Comfort also took his own life, citing despondency over the stresses of his job.
### Legacy
Jacobson, opined Paul Marcus, a law professor at William & Mary three years later, "brought entrapment back from the (almost) dead." He noted that in its wake, courts were much more willing to allow, and sometimes agree with, entrapment defenses than they had been beforehand. Influential sitting judge Richard Posner had used similar language a year before, writing in an opinion that it had "breathed new life" into the defense. Most significantly, he said, appeals courts were now considering it in cases where the defendant had seemed willing to commit the crime, examining predisposition closely in cases where they would have previously rejected it out of hand.
Despite vows by prosecutors and heads of federal law enforcement agencies that the decision would not change the way they did undercover operations, there were some noticeable, at least at the federal level. Later versions of the Attorney General's Guidelines on FBI Undercover Operations, widely emulated by other federal agencies, show some changes in language from those published before Jacobson. "Entrapment should be avoided", became "entrapment must be avoided", and investigators were told it must be apparent to them that the activity they were investigating was illegal, rather than just corrupt. A definition of entrapment was included that used the same language as the decision.
Authors Joyce Murdoch and Deb Pryce say another effect of the case was a softening of the Court's attitude towards the gay community. Jacobson was the first such person to come before the Court to receive even the slightest empathy from it, and even a few years earlier his case might have been doomed from the start on that basis alone.
### Subsequent lower-court jurisprudence
Jacobson remains the Court's current standard on the issue as it has not considered an entrapment case since. Similar sting operations continue to be widely used against all types of targets and in new ways. Most significantly, the rise of the Internet has led to operations where investigators pose as minors of either sex in chat rooms, trying to entice online predators to come meet them in person and have sex. When they do, they are arrested. These operations have become popular viewing on Dateline NBC's "To Catch A Predator" segments and other television shows.
Most such operations are over very quickly and result in guilty pleas, but entrapment is sometimes alleged, and a protracted investigation of a Florida man led to the first Internet entrapment case to be considered at the appellate level. Writing for a Ninth Circuit majority (the arrest occurred in California) in Poehlman v United States, 217 F3d 692 (9th Cir 2000), Judge Alex Kozinski reversed the conviction, saying the defendant had met the Jacobson'' standard and shown that the idea of crossing state lines to have sex with a minor had been implanted only after extensive email correspondence with an undercover FBI agent. In 2014 a case resulting from a sting operation was ruled by a Federal court to have been "cut from whole cloth" by ATF operatives and to have constituted as entrapment by the ATF; the case was thrown out.
### Other analysis and commentary
Kenneth Lord notes that the decision did not address the subjective vs. objective test question at all. He observes that the decision adds two new strictures as part of its general rule that prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was predisposed to commit the crime prior to any contact by government agents:
- Conduct by the defendant which was legal at the time but later made illegal does not suffice to prove predisposition, and
- The defendant's predisposition must be evaluated based on his or her conduct prior to the commencement of any investigation.
But beyond that, it makes no effort to address the subjective vs. objective question, nor does its discussion of intent delve into the matter of specific vs. general intent. Some appeals courts, however, have developed more specific entrapment tests on their own.
University of Arizona law professor Gabriel J. Chin points out that the entire federal entrapment defense rests on statutory construction, which allows for the possibility that Congress could simply repeal or modify it so that operations implanting suggestion of criminal activity such as the one that ensnared Jacobson were specifically authorized by law. Since the majority had shown such distaste for it, how, he wondered, would it rule on the constitutionality of such a law if it were to be challenged?
## See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 503
- List of United States Supreme Court cases
- Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
- List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court |
70,864,816 | Potion (song) | 1,171,886,317 | 2022 single by Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa and Young Thug | [
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| "Potion" is a song by Scottish disc jockey Calvin Harris, English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa and American rapper Young Thug from Harris's sixth studio album, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 (2022). The song was written by Harris, Lipa, Young Thug, Jessie Reyez and Maneesh Bidaye, with the production completed by Harris. It was released as the lead single from the album for digital download and streaming in various countries by Sony on 27 May 2022. The song combines dance, disco, EDM, and pop music to create a laidback atmosphere, accompanied by 1970s-style instrumentation of bongos, electric guitars and pianos. Its lyrics center around the essence of a potion that promises a good summer experience.
"Potion" garnered a warm reception from music critics for its music, production and Lipa and Young Thug's vocal performances. The song reached number 16 on the UK Singles Chart and achieved a silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in the UK. It peaked at number 31 on the Canadian Hot 100 and number 71 the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as entering the top 50 in several countries, such as Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. The psychedelic music video premiered on Harris's YouTube channel on 27 May 2022. It was designed to combine a 1960s liquid light show with a contemporary setting and displays the journey of Lipa and Young Thug stranded in a tropical island in a purple ocean.
## Background and composition
In April 2022, Harris announced his forthcoming studio album Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 to be released mid-year, as a continuation of his fifth album, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 (2017). Harris previewed the album's lead single "Potion" on the social media platform TikTok on 24 May. In the preview, he showcased the development of the instrumental and a FaceTime call with Lipa, who had agreed to contribute her vocals. The song was released for digital download and streaming in various countries by Sony on 27 May 2022 as the lead single from Harris's sixth studio album Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 (2022). Marking Harris and Lipa's second collaboration following the release of "One Kiss" (2018), he elaborated, "It's an honour to work with Dua and Thug again [...] They're both such dynamic artists who have contributed so much to today's musical landscape."
"Potion" was written by Harris (Adam Wiles), Lipa, Young Thug (Jeffery Williams), Jessie Reyez and Maneesh Bidaye, with the production completed by Harris. The song is composed in the key of D major and time signature of common time with a tempo ranging from 76 to 100 beats per minute. It follows in the chord progression of Em<sup>9</sup>-Fm-Gmaj<sup>7</sup>-Gmaj<sup>9</sup>-Em<sup>7</sup>-Fm-G<sup>6</sup>-Gmaj<sup>7</sup>-F in the intro and Bm<sup>7</sup>-B<sup>7</sup>-Gmaj<sup>7</sup>-Em-Fm<sup>7</sup>-Bm<sup>7</sup> throughout. The vocal range in the song spans from a low note of A<sub>4</sub> to a high note of G<sub>5</sub>. "Potion" is a laidback dance, disco, EDM and pop song. The instrumental has a 1970s-inspired tone, which includes bongo, electric guitar and piano sounds. The song is anchored by a "steamy hook from Lipa, a nimble verse from Thug, a snaking bassline", disco and retro beats, rhodes riff, "seductive" chorus, and synth-heavy groove. The lyrics of the song encapsulate the essence of a potion that promises a good summer experience. In the chorus, Lipa sings about, "Late night conversations, electric emotions/ Sprinkled with a little bit of sex and it's a potion [...] Late night bodies aching, mental stimulation/ Sprinkled with a little bit of sex appeal and it's a moment."
## Critical reception
Upon its release, "Potion" generally garnered a positive reception from music critics. Paolo Ragusa from Consequence highlighted Lipa and Young Thug's vocals as well as Harris's production in the song as a demonstration of his competence to "work with any kind of artist to accomplish his vision". Dylan Green for Pitchfork also complimented Harris's "well-engineered" production, which he described as "sturdy enough to house a steamy Lipa hook and a nimble verse from Thug". Samantha Reis of We Rave You labeled the song as a "hot and sensual" song, showcasing Harris' ability to effortlessly create his "especially ones that manage to perform equally bombastically on radio and on the dancefloor". Rachel Narozniak from Dancing Astronaut commended Lipa's "inimitable mezzo-soprano" and Young Thug's "flair" also feeling the song to be a "seamless continuation of the Funk Wav [Bounces Vol. 1] sound". Chris Deville for Stereogum commented that the song "taps right back into the first volume's fun beachside vibe". Isabel von Glahn of Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) noted the song's "electrifying vibes", with Lipa and Young Thug complementing the sound perfectly, making it an "ideal summer pop track".
Starr Bowenbank from Billboard described the song as "sultry", with Lipa exuding a simmering sensuality, predicting it to be a "sweltering, soon-to-be hit that's primed for dominating party playlists". Katie Bein from the same publication characterised the song as a "summer jam", commenting that it fuses "Santana vibes with a lounge mood". Alex Gonzalez of Uproxx labeled the song as "funky", aligning with the "disco and synth-pop sounds of Lipa's Future Nostalgia" that is "edgy enough to serve as a bridge to her next". In reviewing the album Funk Wav Bounces Vol.2, Ryan Bulbeck from Renowned for Sound found "Potion" to "effectively encapsulate the records direction". Izzy Sigston for The Line of Best Fit regarded the song to be "the perfect potion for a unwinding on a sticky summer evening". Maura Johnston of Rolling Stone believed Lipa and Young Thug to "dissemble the art of seduction" on the song. While Hannah Mylrea from NME described it as a "sultry, carefree jam", Arwa Haider for Financial Times labeled the song as "tuneful" and "intoxicating". However, Ben Devlin of MusicOMH rendered the song as "nice" but opined that it "seems to lack impact". Owen Myers from Pitchfork viewed the song as Lipa's "weakest [...] underwhelming post-Future Nostalgia singles".
## Commercial performance
In the United Kingdom, "Potion" reached number 16 on the UK Singles Chart in the issue dated 3 June 2022, remaining on the ranking for 12 consecutive weeks. In September 2022, the song received a silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shifting more than 200,000 units in the UK. In Australia, it peaked at number 32 on the ARIA Singles Chart and at number 35 on the New Zealand Singles Chart in New Zealand. In Canada, "Potion" reached number 31 on the Canadian Hot 100 and entered the top 50 on the CHR/Top 40 and Hot AC rankings, respectively. In the United States, the song debuted and peaked at number 71 the US Billboard Hot 100 in the issue dated 11 June 2022. It also reached the top 40 on the Adult Top 40 and Mainstream Top 40 charts, respectively. Reaching the top 10 in Croatia and Ireland, "Potion" reached the top 50 in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. Furthermore, the song peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Global 200 ranking, having spent a total of nine weeks on the chart.
## Music video
An official music video for "Potion" premiered to Harris' official YouTube channel on 27 May 2022. The video was directed by Emil Nava, with whom Harris has established a longstanding partnership. Kris Smale of The Mill was enlisted to color-grade the video, with the aspiration to incorporate a "1960s liquid light show into a digital and contemporary setting". At the opening of the psychedelic video, a camera is panning towards a tropical island in an ocean, gradually transitioning from a purple sunset ambiente to a darker twilight setting. Following that, Lipa is showcased singing the song from an overturned vintage car situated against a backdrop displaying a brightly illuminated sunset. Then, the singer and a troupe of dancers are seen dancing and walking down a hallway lit with neon lights. The appearance of Young Thug follows after that, where he can be seen performing alongside a band of four women in a setting adorned with shades of pink and red. As the video closes, a shot of Lipa leaning her head against Harris's shoulder can be seen. Reis from We Rave You commented that the video replicates the concept of the song and the "Funk Wav Bounces Project itself". Tomás Mier for Rolling Stone highlighted Lipa's appearance as "magically sexy" in the video.
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## Release history |
3,333 | The Birth of a Nation | 1,172,184,269 | 1915 film by D. W. Griffith | [
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| The Birth of a Nation, originally called The Clansman, is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play The Clansman. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken.
The Birth of a Nation is a landmark of film history, lauded for its technical virtuosity. It was the first non-serial American 12-reel film ever made. Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over the course of several years—the pro-Union (Northern) Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy (Southern) Camerons. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an intermission, and it was the first American-made film to have a musical score for an orchestra. It pioneered closeups and fadeouts, and it includes a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras (another first) made to look like thousands. It came with a 13-page Souvenir Program. It was the first motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson, his family, and members of his cabinet.
The film was controversial even before its release, and it has remained so ever since; it has been called "the most controversial film ever made in the United States" and "the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history". Lincoln is nevertheless portrayed positively, albeit a friend of the South, atypical of a narrative that promotes the Lost Cause ideology. The film has been denounced for its racist depiction of African Americans. The film portrays its black characters (many of whom are played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive toward white women. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is portrayed as a heroic force, necessary to preserve American values, protect white women, and maintain white supremacy.
Popular among white audiences nationwide upon its release, the film's success was both a consequence of and a contributor to racial segregation throughout the U.S. In response to the film's depictions of black people and Civil War history, African Americans across the U.S. organized and protested. In Boston and other localities, black leaders and the NAACP spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to have it banned on the basis that it inflamed racial tensions and could incite violence. Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him to produce Intolerance the following year.
In spite of its divisiveness, The Birth of a Nation was a huge commercial success across the nation—grossing more than any previous motion picture—and it profoundly influenced both the film industry and American culture. The film has been acknowledged as an inspiration for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, which took place only a few months after its release. In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
## Plot
### Part 1: Civil War of United States
Phil, the elder son of the Stonemans (a Northern family), falls in love with Margaret Cameron (the daughter of a Southern family), during a visit to the Cameron estate in South Carolina. There, Margaret's brother, Ben, idolizes a picture of Elsie Stoneman, Phil's sister. When the Civil War arrives, the young men of both families enlist in their respective armies. The younger Stoneman and two of the Cameron brothers are killed in combat. Meanwhile, a black militia attacks the Cameron home and is routed by Confederate soldiers, who save the Cameron women. Leading the final charge at the Siege of Petersburg, Ben Cameron earns the nickname of "the Little Colonel", but is also wounded and captured. He is then taken to a Union military hospital in Washington, D.C.
During his stay at the hospital, he is told that he will be hanged. Working there as a nurse is Elsie Stoneman, whose picture he has been carrying. Elsie takes Cameron's mother, who had traveled there to tend her son, to see Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Cameron persuades him to pardon Ben. When Lincoln is assassinated, his conciliatory postwar policy expires with him. In the wake of Lincoln's death, Elsie's father and other Radical Republicans are determined to punish the South.
### Part 2: Reconstruction
Stoneman and his protégé Silas Lynch, a psychopathic mulatto head to South Carolina to observe the implementation of Reconstruction policies. During the election, in which Lynch is elected lieutenant governor, blacks stuff the ballot boxes, while many whites are denied the vote. The newly elected members of the South Carolina legislature are mostly black.
Inspired by observing white children pretending to be ghosts to scare black children, Ben fights back by forming the Ku Klux Klan. As a result, Elsie breaks up with him. While going off alone into the woods to fetch water, Flora Cameron is followed by Gus, a freedman and soldier who is now a captain. He tells Flora he desires to marry her. Uninterested, she rejects him, but Gus keeps insisting. Frightened, she flees into the forest, pursued by Gus. Trapped on a precipice, Flora warns Gus she will jump if he comes any closer. When he does, she leaps to her death. While looking for Flora, Ben sees her jump and holds her as she dies. He then carries her body to the Cameron home. In response, the Klan hunts down Gus, tries him, finds him guilty, and lynches him.
After discovering Gus' murder, Lynch orders a crackdown on the Klan. He also secures the passing of legislation allowing mixed-race marriages. Dr. Cameron is arrested for possessing Ben's Klan regalia, now considered a capital crime. He is rescued by Phil Stoneman and a few of his black servants. Together with Margaret Cameron, they flee. When their wagon breaks down, they make their way through the woods to a small hut that is home to two former Union soldiers who agree to hide them.
Congressman Stoneman, Elsie's father leaves to avoid being connected with Lynch's crackdown. Elsie, learning of Dr. Cameron's arrest, goes to Lynch to plead for his release. Lynch, who lusts after Elsie, tries to force her to marry him, which causes her to faint. Stoneman returns, causing Elsie to be placed in another room. At first Stoneman is happy when Lynch tells him he wants to marry a white woman, but he is then angered when Lynch says that it is Elsie he wishes to marry. Elsie breaks a window and cries out for help, getting the attention of undercover Klansman spies. The Klan gathered together, with Ben leading them, ride in to gain control of the town. When news about Elsie reaches Ben, he and others go to her rescue. Lynch is captured while his militia attacks the hut where the Camerons are hiding. However, the Klansmen, with Ben at their head, save them. The next election day, blacks find a line of mounted and armed Klansmen just outside their homes and are intimidated into not voting.
Margaret Cameron marries Phil Stoneman and Elsie Stoneman marries Ben Cameron.
## Cast
Credited
- Lillian Gish as Elsie Stoneman
- Mae Marsh as Flora Cameron, the pet sister
- Henry B. Walthall as Colonel Benjamin Cameron ("The Little Colonel")
- Miriam Cooper as Margaret Cameron, elder sister
- Mary Alden as Lydia Brown, Stoneman's housekeeper
- Ralph Lewis as Austin Stoneman, Leader of the House
- George Siegmann as Silas Lynch
- Walter Long as Gus, the renegade
- Wallace Reid as Jeff, the blacksmith
- Joseph Henabery as Abraham Lincoln
- Elmer Clifton as Phil Stoneman, elder son
- Robert Harron as Tod Stoneman
- Josephine Crowell as Mrs. Cameron
- Spottiswoode Aitken as Dr. Cameron
- George Beranger as Wade Cameron, second son
- Maxfield Stanley as Duke Cameron, youngest son
- Jennie Lee as Mammy, the faithful servant
- Donald Crisp as General Ulysses S. Grant
- Howard Gaye as General Robert E. Lee
Uncredited
- Harry Braham as Cameron's faithful servant
- Edmund Burns as Klansman
- David Butler as Union soldier / Confederate soldier
- William Freeman as Jake, a mooning sentry at Federal hospital
- Sam De Grasse as Senator Charles Sumner
- Olga Grey as Laura Keene
- Russell Hicks
- Elmo Lincoln as ginmill owner / slave auctioneer
- Eugene Pallette as Union soldier
- Harry Braham as Jake / Nelse
- Charles Stevens as volunteer
- Madame Sul-Te-Wan as woman with gypsy shawl
- Raoul Walsh as John Wilkes Booth
- Lenore Cooper as Elsie's maid
- Violet Wilkey as young Flora
- Tom Wilson as Stoneman's servant
- Donna Montran as belles of 1861
- Alberta Lee as Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln
- Allan Sears as Klansmen
- Dark Cloud as General at Appomattox Surrender
- Vester Pegg
- Alma Rubens
- Mary Wynn
- Jules White
- Monte Blue
- Gibson Gowland
- Fred Burns
- Charles King
## Production
### 1911 version
There was an uncompleted, now lost, 1911 version, titled The Clansman. It used Kinemacolor and a new sound process; one reason for this version's failure was the unwillingness of theater owners to purchase the equipment to show it. The director was William F. Haddock, and the producer was George Brennan. Some scenes were filmed on the porches and lawns of Homewood Plantation, in Natchez, Mississippi. One and a half reels were completed.
Kinemacolor received a settlement from the producers of Birth when they proved that they had an earlier right to film the work.
The footage was shown to the trade in an attempt to arouse interest. Early movie critic Frank E. Woods attended; Griffith always credited Woods with bringing The Clansman to his attention.
### Inspiration
Many of the fictional characters in the film are based on real historical figures. Abolitionist U.S. Representative Austin Stoneman is based on the Reconstruction-era Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania. Ben Cameron is modeled after Leroy McAfee. Silas Lynch was modeled after Alonzo J. Ransier and Richard Howell Gleaves.
### Development
After the failure of the Kinemacolor project, in which Dixon was willing to invest his own money, he began visiting other studios to see if they were interested. In late 1913, Dixon met the film producer Harry Aitken, who was interested in making a film out of The Clansman; through Aitken, Dixon met Griffith. Like Dixon, Griffith was a Southerner, a fact that Dixon points out; Griffith's father served as a colonel in the Confederate States Army and, like Dixon, viewed Reconstruction negatively. Griffith believed that a passage from The Clansman where Klansmen ride "to the rescue of persecuted white Southerners" could be adapted into a great cinematic sequence. Griffith first announced his intent to adapt Dixon's play to Gish and Walthall after filming Home, Sweet Home in 1914.
Birth of a Nation "follows The Clansman [the play] nearly scene by scene". While some sources also credit The Leopard's Spots as source material, Russell Merritt attributes this to "the original 1915 playbills and program for Birth which, eager to flaunt the film's literary pedigree, cited both The Clansman and The Leopard's Spots as sources." According to Karen Crowe, "[t]here is not a single event, word, character, or circumstance taken from The Leopard's Spots.... Any likenesses between the film and The Leopard's Spots occur because some similar scenes, circumstances, and characters appear in both books."
Griffith agreed to pay Thomas Dixon \$10,000 (equivalent to \$ in ) for the rights to his play The Clansman. Since he ran out of money and could afford only \$2,500 of the original option, Griffith offered Dixon 25 percent interest in the picture. Dixon reluctantly agreed, and the unprecedented success of the film made him rich. Dixon's proceeds were the largest sum any author had received [up to 2007] for a motion picture story and amounted to several million dollars. The American historian John Hope Franklin suggested that many aspects of the script for The Birth of a Nation appeared to reflect Dixon's concerns more than Griffith's, as Dixon had an obsession in his novels of describing in loving detail the lynchings of black men, which did not reflect Griffith's interests.
### Filming
Griffith began filming on July 4, 1914 and was finished by October 1914. Some filming took place in Big Bear Lake, California. Griffith took over the Hollywood studio of Kinemacolor. West Point engineers provided technical advice on the American Civil War battle scenes, providing Griffith with the artillery used in the film. Much of the filming was done on the Griffith Ranch in San Fernando Valley, with the Petersburg scenes being shot at what is today Forest Lawn Memorial Park and other scenes being shot in Whittier and Ojai Valley. The film's war scenes were influenced after Robert Underwood Johnson's book Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War, The Soldier in Our Civil War, and Mathew Brady's photography.
Many of the African Americans in the film were portrayed by white actors in blackface. Griffith initially claimed this was deliberate, stating "on careful weighing of every detail concerned, the decision was to have no black blood among the principals; it was only in the legislative scene that Negroes were used, and then only as 'extra people'." However black extras who had been housed in segregated quarters, including Griffith's acquaintance and frequent collaborator Madame Sul-Te-Wan, can be seen in many other shots of the film.
Griffith's budget started at US\$40,000 (equivalent to \$ in ) but rose to over \$100,000 (equivalent to \$ in ).
By the time he finished filming, Griffith had shot approximately 150,000 feet of footage (approximately 36 hours of film), which he edited down to 13,000 feet (just over 3 hours). The film was edited after early screenings in reaction to audience reception, and existing prints of the film are missing footage from the standard version of the film. Evidence exists that the film originally included scenes of white slave traders seizing blacks from West Africa and detaining them aboard a slave ship, Southern congressmen in the House of Representatives, Northerners reacting to the results of the 1860 presidential election, the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, a Union League meeting, depictions of martial law in South Carolina, and a battle sequence. In addition, several scenes were cut at the insistence of New York Mayor John Purroy Mitchel due to their highly racist content before its release in New York City, including a female abolitionist activist recoiling from the body odor of a black boy, black men seizing white women on the streets of Piedmont, and deportations of blacks with the title "Lincoln's Solution". It was also long rumored, including by Griffith's biographer Seymour Stern, that the original film included a rape scene between Gus and Flora before her suicide, but in 1974 the cinematographer Karl Brown denied that such a scene had been filmed.
### Score
Although The Birth of a Nation is commonly regarded as a landmark for its dramatic and visual innovations, its use of music was arguably no less revolutionary. Though film was still silent at the time, it was common practice to distribute musical cue sheets, or less commonly, full scores (usually for organ or piano accompaniment) along with each print of a film.
For The Birth of a Nation, composer Joseph Carl Breil created a three-hour-long musical score that combined all three types of music in use at the time: adaptations of existing works by classical composers, new arrangements of well-known melodies, and original composed music. Though it had been specifically composed for the film, Breil's score was not used for the Los Angeles première of the film at Clune's Auditorium; rather, a score compiled by Carli Elinor was performed in its stead, and this score was used exclusively in West Coast showings. Breil's score was not used until the film debuted in New York at the Liberty Theatre but it was the score featured in all showings save those on the West Coast.
Outside of original compositions, Breil adapted classical music for use in the film, including passages from Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber, Leichte Kavallerie by Franz von Suppé, Symphony No. 6 by Ludwig van Beethoven, and "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner, the latter used as a leitmotif during the ride of the KKK. Breil also arranged several traditional and popular tunes that would have been recognizable to audiences at the time, including many Southern melodies; among these songs were "Maryland, My Maryland", "Dixie", "Old Folks at Home", "The Star-Spangled Banner", "America the Beautiful", "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", "Auld Lang Syne", and "Where Did You Get That Hat?". DJ Spooky has called Breil's score, with its mix of Dixieland songs, classical music and "vernacular heartland music" "an early, pivotal accomplishment in remix culture." He has also cited Breil's use of music by Wagner as influential on subsequent Hollywood films, including Star Wars (1977) and Apocalypse Now (1979).
In his original compositions for the film, Breil wrote numerous leitmotifs to accompany the appearance of specific characters. The principal love theme that was created for the romance between Elsie Stoneman and Ben Cameron was published as "The Perfect Song" and is regarded as the first marketed "theme song" from a film; it was later used as the theme song for the popular radio and television sitcom Amos 'n' Andy.
## Release
### Theatrical run
The first public showing of the film, then called The Clansman, was on January 1 and 2, 1915, at the Loring Opera House in Riverside, California. The second night, it was sold out and people were turned away. It was shown on February 8, 1915, to an audience of 3,000 people at Clune's Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.
At the New York premiere, Dixon spoke on stage when the interlude started halfway through the film, reminding the audience that the dramatic version of The Clansman appeared in that venue nine years previously. "Mr. Dixon also observed that he would have allowed none but the son of a Confederate soldier to direct the film version of The Clansman."
The film's backers understood that the film needed a massive publicity campaign if they were to cover the immense cost of producing it. A major part of this campaign was the release of the film in a roadshow theatrical release. This allowed Griffith to charge premium prices for tickets, sell souvenirs, and build excitement around the film before giving it a wide release. For several months, Griffith's team traveled to various cities to show the film for one or two nights before moving on. This strategy was immensely successful.
### Change of title
Dixon had seen a screening of the film for an invited audience in New York in early 1915, when the title was still The Clansmen. Struck by the power of the film, he told Griffith that The Clansmen was not an appropriate title, and suggested that it be changed to The Birth of a Nation. The title was changed before the March 2 New York opening. However, the title was used in the press as early as January 2, 1915, while it was still referred to as The Clansman in October.
### Special screenings
#### White House showing
The Birth of a Nation was the first movie shown in the White House, in the East Room, on February 18, 1915. (An earlier movie, the Italian Cabiria (1914), was shown on the lawn.) It was attended by President Woodrow Wilson, members of his family, and members of his Cabinet. Both Dixon and Griffith were present. As put by Dixon, not an impartial source, "it repeated the triumph of the first showing".
There is dispute about Wilson's attitude toward the movie. A newspaper reported that he "received many letters protesting against his alleged action in Indorsing the pictures [sic]", including a letter from Massachusetts Congressman Thomas Chandler Thacher. The showing of the movie had caused "several near-riots". When former Assistant Attorney General William H. Lewis and A. Walters, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, called at the White House "to add their protests", President Wilson's private secretary, Joseph Tumulty, showed them a letter he had written to Thacher on Wilson's behalf. According to the letter, Wilson had been "entirely unaware of the character of the play [movie] before it was presented and has at no time expressed his approbation of it. Its exhibition at the White House was a courtesy extended to an old acquaintance." Dixon, in his autobiography, quotes Wilson as saying, when Dixon proposed showing the movie at the White House, that "I am pleased to be able to do this little thing for you, because a long time ago you took a day out of your busy life to do something for me." What Dixon had done for Wilson was to suggest him for an honorary degree, which Wilson received, from Dixon's alma mater, Wake Forest College.
Dixon had been a fellow graduate student in history with Wilson at Johns Hopkins University and, in 1913, dedicated his historical novel about Lincoln, The Southerner, to "our first Southern-born president since Lincoln, my friend and collegemate Woodrow Wilson".
The evidence that Wilson knew "the character of the play" in advance of seeing it is circumstantial but very strong: "Given Dixon's career and the notoriety attached to the play The Clansman, it is not unreasonable to assume that Wilson must have had some idea of at least the general tenor of the film." The movie was based on a best-selling novel and was preceded by a stage version (play) which was received with protests in several cities—in some cities it was prohibited—and received a great deal of news coverage. Wilson issued no protest when the Evening Star, at that time Washington's "newspaper of record", reported in advance of the showing, in language suggesting a press release from Dixon and Griffiths, that Dixon was "a schoolmate of President Wilson and is an intimate friend", and that Wilson's interest in it "is due to the great lesson of peace it teaches". Wilson, and only Wilson, is quoted by name in the movie for his observations on American history, and the title of Wilson's book (History of the American People) is mentioned as well. The three title cards with quotations from Wilson's book read:
> "Adventurers swarmed out of the North, as much the enemies of one race as of the other, to cozen, beguile and use the negroes... [Ellipsis in the original.] In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority, except its insolences."
>
> "... The policy of the congressional leaders wrought...a veritable overthrow of civilization in the South... in their determination to 'put the white South under the heel of the black South.'" [Ellipses and underscore in the original.]
>
> "The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the southern country." [Ellipsis in the original.]
In the same book, Wilson has harsh words about the abyss between the original goals of the Klan and that into which it evolved. Dixon has been accused of misquoting Wilson.
In 1937, a popular magazine reported that Wilson said of the film, "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." Wilson over the years had several times used the metaphor of illuminating history as if by lightning and he may well have said it at the time. The accuracy of his saying it was "terribly true" is disputed by historians; there is no contemporary documentation of the remark. Vachel Lindsay, a popular poet of the time, is known to have referred to the film as "art by lightning flash."
#### Showing in the Raleigh Hotel ballroom
The next day, February 19, 1915, Griffith and Dixon held a showing of the film in the Raleigh Hotel ballroom, which they had hired for the occasion. Early that morning, Dixon called on a North Carolina friend, Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy. Daniels set up a meeting that morning for Dixon with Edward Douglass White, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Initially Justice White was not interested in seeing the film, but when Dixon told him it was the "true story" of Reconstruction and the Klan's role in "saving the South", White, recalling his youth in Louisiana, jumped to attention and said: "I was a member of the Klan, sir". With White agreeing to see the film, the rest of the Supreme Court followed. In addition to the entire Supreme Court, in the audience were "many members of Congress and members of the diplomatic corps", the Secretary of the Navy, 38 members of the Senate, and about 50 members of the House of Representatives. The audience of 600 "cheered and applauded throughout."
#### Consequences
In Griffith's words, the showings to the president and the entire Supreme Court conferred an "honor" upon Birth of a Nation. Dixon and Griffith used this commercially.
The following day, Griffith and Dixon transported the film to New York City for review by the National Board of Censorship. They presented the film as "endorsed" by the President and the cream of Washington society. The Board approved the film by 15 to 8.
A warrant to close the theater in which the movie was to open was dismissed after a long-distance call to the White House confirmed that the film had been shown there.
Justice White was very angry when advertising for the film stated that he approved it, and he threatened to denounce it publicly.
Dixon, a racist and white supremacist, clearly was rattled and upset by criticism by African Americans that the movie encouraged hatred against them, and he wanted the endorsement of as many powerful men as possible to offset such criticism. Dixon always vehemently denied having anti-black prejudices—despite the way his books promoted white supremacy—and stated: "My books are hard reading for a Negro, and yet the Negroes, in denouncing them, are unwittingly denouncing one of their greatest friends".
In a letter sent on May 1, 1915, to Joseph P. Tumulty, Wilson's secretary, Dixon wrote: "The real purpose of my film was to revolutionize Northern sentiments by a presentation of history that would transform every man in the audience into a good Democrat... Every man who comes out of the theater is a Southern partisan for life!" In a letter to President Wilson sent on September 5, 1915, Dixon boasted: "This play is transforming the entire population of the North and the West into sympathetic Southern voters. There will never be an issue of your segregation policy". Dixon was alluding to the fact that Wilson, upon becoming president in 1913, had allowed cabinet members to impose segregation on federal workplaces in Washington, D.C. by reducing the number of black employees through demotion or dismissal.
### New opening titles on re-release
One famous part of the film was added by Griffith only on the second run of the film and is missing from most online versions of the film (presumably taken from first run prints).
These are the second and third of three opening title cards that defend the film. The added titles read:
> A PLEA FOR THE ART OF THE MOTION PICTURE:
>
> We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue—the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word—that art to which we owe the Bible and the works of Shakespeare and If in this work we have conveyed to the mind the ravages of war to the end that war may be held in abhorrence, this effort will not have been in vain.
Various film historians have expressed a range of views about these titles. To Nicholas Andrew Miller, this shows that "Griffith's greatest achievement in The Birth of a Nation was that he brought the cinema's capacity for spectacle... under the rein of an outdated, but comfortably literary form of historical narrative. Griffith's models... are not the pioneers of film spectacle... but the giants of literary narrative". On the other hand, S. Kittrell Rushing complains about Griffith's "didactic" title-cards, while Stanley Corkin complains that Griffith "masks his idea of fact in the rhetoric of high art and free expression" and creates a film that "erodes the very ideal" of liberty that he asserts.
## Social impact
### KKK support
Studies have linked the film to greater support for the KKK. Glorifying the Klan to approving white audiences, the film became a national cultural phenomenon: merchandisers made Ku Klux hats and kitchen aprons, and ushers dressed in white Klan robes for openings. In New York there were Klan-themed balls and, in Chicago that Halloween, thousands of college students dressed in robes for a massive Klan-themed party.
### Anti-black violence
When the film was released, riots broke out in Philadelphia and other major cities in the United States. The film's inflammatory nature was a catalyst for gangs of whites to attack blacks. On April 24, 1916, the Chicago American reported that a white man murdered a black teenager in Lafayette, Indiana, after seeing the film, although there has been some controversy as to whether the murderer had actually seen The Birth of a Nation. Over a century later, a Harvard University research paper found that "[o]n average, lynchings in a county rose fivefold in the month after [the film] arrived." The mayor of Cedar Rapids, Iowa was the first of twelve mayors to ban the film in 1915 out of concern that it would promote race prejudice, after meeting with a delegation of black citizens. The NAACP set up a precedent-setting national boycott of the film, likely seen as the most successful effort. Additionally, they organized a mass demonstration when the film was screened in Boston, and it was banned in three states and several cities.
A 2023 study found that roadshow showings of the film were associated with a sharp spike in lynchings and race riots.
## Contemporary reception
### Critical response
The New York Times gave the film a quite brief review, calling it "melodramatic" and "inflammatory", adding that: "A great deal might be said concerning the spirit revealed in Mr. Dixon's review of the unhappy chapter of Reconstruction and concerning the sorry service rendered by its plucking at old wounds." Variety praised Griffith's direction, claiming he "set such a pace it will take a long time before one will come along that can top it in point of production, acting, photography and direction. Every bit of the film was laid, played and made in America. One may find some flaws in the general running of the picture, but they are so small and insignificant that the bigness and greatness of the entire film production itself completely crowds out any little defects that might be singled out."
Burns Mantle in the New York Daily News noted "an element of excitement that swept a sophisticated audience like a prairie fire in a high wind", while the New York Tribune said it was a "spectacular drama" with "thrills piled upon thrills". The New Republic, however, called it "aggressively vicious and defamatory" that was a "spiritual assassination. It degrades the censors that passed it and the white race that endures it".
### Box office
The box office gross of The Birth of a Nation is not known and has been the subject of exaggeration. When the film opened, the tickets were sold at premium prices. The film played at the Liberty Theater at Times Square in New York City for 44 weeks with tickets priced at \$2.20 (). By the end of 1917, Epoch reported to its shareholders cumulative receipts of \$4.8 million, and Griffith's own records put Epoch's worldwide earnings from the film at \$5.2 million as of 1919, although the distributor's share of the revenue at this time was much lower than the exhibition gross. In the biggest cities, Epoch negotiated with individual theater owners for a percentage of the box office; elsewhere, the producer sold all rights in a particular state to a single distributor (an arrangement known as "state's rights" distribution). The film historian Richard Schickel says that under the state's rights contracts, Epoch typically received about 10% of the box office gross—which theater owners often underreported—and concludes that "Birth certainly generated more than \$60 million in box-office business in its first run".
The film held the mantle of the highest-grossing film until it was overtaken by Gone with the Wind (1939), another film about the Civil War and Reconstruction era. By 1940 Time magazine estimated the film's cumulative gross rental (the distributor's earnings) at approximately \$15 million. For years Variety had the gross rental listed as \$50 million, but in 1977 repudiated the claim and revised its estimate down to \$5 million. It is not known for sure how much the film has earned in total, but producer Harry Aitken put its estimated earnings at \$15–18 million in a letter to a prospective investor in a proposed sound version. It is likely the film earned over \$20 million for its backers and generated \$50–100 million in box office receipts. In a 2015 Time article, Richard Corliss estimated the film had earned the equivalent of \$1.8 billion adjusted for inflation, a milestone that at the time had only been surpassed by Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009) in nominal earnings.
### Criticism
Like Dixon's novels and play, Birth of a Nation received considerable criticism, both before and after its premiere. Dixon, who believed the film to be entirely truthful and historically accurate, attributed this to "Sectionalists", i.e. non-Southerners who in Dixon's opinion were hostile to the "truth" about the South. It was to counter these "sinister forces" and the "dangerous... menace" that Dixon and Griffiths sought "the backing" of President Wilson and the Supreme Court.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protested at premieres of the film in numerous cities. According to the historian David Copeland, "by the time of the movie's March 3 [1915] premiere in New York City, its subject matter had embroiled the film in charges of racism, protests, and calls for censorship, which began after the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP requested the city's film board ban the movie. Since film boards were composed almost entirely of whites, few review boards initially banned Griffith's picture". The NAACP also conducted a public education campaign, publishing articles protesting the film's fabrications and inaccuracies, organizing petitions against it, and conducting education on the facts of the war and Reconstruction. Because of the lack of success in NAACP's actions to ban the film, on April 17, 1915, NAACP secretary Mary Childs Nerney wrote to NAACP Executive Committee member George Packard: "I am utterly disgusted with the situation in regard to The Birth of a Nation ... kindly remember that we have put six weeks of constant effort of this thing and have gotten nowhere." W. E. B. Du Bois's biographer David Levering Lewis opined that "... The Birth of a Nation and the NAACP helped make each other", in that the NAACP campaign in one sense served as advertising for the film, but that it also "... mobilized thousands of black and white men and women in large cities across the country... who had been unaware of the existence of the [NAACP] or indifferent to it."
Jane Addams, an American social worker and social reformer, and the founder of Hull House, voiced her reaction to the film in an interview published by the New York Post on March 13, 1915, just ten days after the film was released. She stated that "One of the most unfortunate things about this film is that it appeals to race prejudice upon the basis of conditions of half a century ago, which have nothing to do with the facts we have to consider to-day. Even then it does not tell the whole truth. It is claimed that the play is historical: but history is easy to misuse." In New York, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise told the press after seeing The Birth of a Nation that the film was "an indescribable foul and loathsome libel on a race of human beings". In Boston, Booker T. Washington wrote a newspaper column asking readers to boycott the film, while the civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter organized demonstrations against the film, which he predicted was going to worsen race relations. On Saturday, April 10, and again on April 17, Trotter and a group of other blacks tried to buy tickets for the show's premiere at the Tremont Theater and were refused. They stormed the box office in protest, 260 police on standby rushed in, and a general melee ensued. Trotter and ten others were arrested. The following day a huge demonstration was staged at Faneuil Hall. In Washington D.C, the Reverend Francis James Grimké published a pamphlet entitled "Fighting a Vicious Film" that challenged the historical accuracy of The Birth of a Nation on a scene-by-scene basis.
Both Griffith and Dixon in letters to the press dismissed African-American protests against The Birth of a Nation. In a letter to The New York Globe, Griffith wrote that his film was "an influence against the intermarriage of blacks and whites". Dixon likewise called the NAACP "the Negro Intermarriage Society" and said it was against The Birth of a Nation "for one reason only—because it opposes the marriage of blacks to whites". Griffith—indignant at the film's negative critical reception—wrote letters to newspapers and published a pamphlet in which he accused his critics of censoring unpopular opinions.
When Sherwin Lewis of The New York Globe wrote a piece that expressed criticism of the film's distorted portrayal of history and said that it was not worthy of constitutional protection because its purpose was to make a few "dirty dollars", Griffith responded that "the public should not be afraid to accept the truth, even though it might not like it". He also added that the man who wrote the editorial was "damaging my reputation as a producer" and "a liar and a coward".
### Audience reaction
The Birth of a Nation was very popular, despite the film's controversy; it was unlike anything that American audiences had ever seen before. The Los Angeles Times called it "the greatest picture ever made and the greatest drama ever filmed". Mary Pickford said: "Birth of a Nation was the first picture that really made people take the motion picture industry seriously". The producers had 15 "detectives" at the Liberty Theater in New York City "to prevent disorder on the part of those who resent the 'reconstruction period' episodes depicted."
The Reverend Charles Henry Parkhurst argued that the film was not racist, saying that it "was exactly true to history" by depicting freedmen as they were and, therefore, it was a "compliment to the black man" by showing how far black people had "advanced" since Reconstruction. Critic Dolly Dalrymple wrote that, "when I saw it, it was far from silent... incessant murmurs of approval, roars of laughter, gasps of anxiety, and outbursts of applause greeted every new picture on the screen". One man viewing the film was so moved by the scene where Flora Cameron flees Gus to avoid being raped that he took out his handgun and began firing at the screen in an effort to help her. Katharine DuPre Lumpkin recalled watching the film as an 18-year-old in 1915 in her 1947 autobiography The Making of a Southerner: "Here was the black figure—and the fear of the white girl—though the scene blanked out just in time. Here were the sinister men the South scorned and the noble men the South revered. And through it all the Klan rode. All around me people sighed and shivered, and now and then shouted or wept, in their intensity."
### Sequel and spin-offs
D. W. Griffith made a film in 1916, called Intolerance, partly in response to the criticism that The Birth of a Nation received. Griffith made clear within numerous interviews that the film's title and main themes were chosen in response to those who he felt had been intolerant to The Birth of a Nation. A sequel called The Fall of a Nation was released in 1916, depicting the invasion of the United States by a German-led confederation of European monarchies and criticizing pacifism in the context of the First World War. It was the first feature-length sequel in film history. The film was directed by Thomas Dixon Jr., who adapted it from his novel of the same name. Despite its success in the foreign market, the film was not a success among American audiences, and is now a lost film.
In 1918, an American silent drama film directed by John W. Noble called The Birth of a Race was released as a direct response to The Birth of a Nation. The film was an ambitious project by producer Emmett Jay Scott to challenge Griffith's film and tell another side of the story, but was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1920, African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux released Within Our Gates, a response to The Birth of a Nation. Within Our Gates depicts the hardships faced by African Americans during the era of Jim Crow laws. Griffith's film was remixed in 2004 as Rebirth of a Nation by DJ Spooky. Quentin Tarantino has said that he made his film Django Unchained (2012) to counter the falsehoods of The Birth of a Nation.
### Influence
In November 1915, William Joseph Simmons revived the Klan in Atlanta, Georgia, holding a cross burning at Stone Mountain. The historian John Hope Franklin observed that, had it not been for The Birth of a Nation, the Klan might not have been reborn.
Franklin wrote in 1979 that "The influence of Birth of a Nation on the current view of Reconstruction has been greater than any other single force", but that "It is not at all difficult to find inaccuracies and distortions" in the movie.
## Modern reception
### Critical response
Released in 1915, The Birth of a Nation has been credited as groundbreaking among its contemporaries for its innovative application of the medium of film. According to the film historian Kevin Brownlow, the film was "astounding in its time" and initiated "so many advances in film-making technique that it was rendered obsolete within a few years". The content of the work, however, has received widespread criticism for its blatant racism. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote:
> Certainly The Birth of a Nation (1915) presents a challenge for modern audiences. Unaccustomed to silent films and uninterested in film history, they find it quaint and not to their taste. Those evolved enough to understand what they are looking at find the early and wartime scenes brilliant, but cringe during the postwar and Reconstruction scenes, which are racist in the ham-handed way of an old minstrel show or a vile comic pamphlet.
Despite its controversial story, the film has been praised by film critics, with Ebert mentioning its use as a historical tool: "The Birth of a Nation is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil."
According to a 2002 article in the Los Angeles Times, the film facilitated the refounding of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915. History.com states that "There is no doubt that Birth of a Nation played no small part in winning wide public acceptance" for the KKK, and that throughout the film "African Americans are portrayed as brutish, lazy, morally degenerate, and dangerous." David Duke used the film to recruit Klansmen in the 1970s.
In 2013, the American critic Richard Brody wrote The Birth of a Nation was:
> ... a seminal commercial spectacle but also a decisively original work of art—in effect, the founding work of cinematic realism, albeit a work that was developed to pass lies off as reality. It's tempting to think of the film's influence as evidence of the inherent corruption of realism as a cinematic mode—but it's even more revealing to acknowledge the disjunction between its beauty, on the one hand, and, on the other, its injustice and falsehood. The movie's fabricated events shouldn't lead any viewer to deny the historical facts of slavery and Reconstruction. But they also shouldn't lead to a denial of the peculiar, disturbingly exalted beauty of Birth of a Nation, even in its depiction of immoral actions and its realization of blatant propaganda. The worst thing about The Birth of a Nation is how good it is. The merits of its grand and enduring aesthetic make it impossible to ignore and, despite its disgusting content, also make it hard not to love. And it's that very conflict that renders the film all the more despicable, the experience of the film more of a torment—together with the acknowledgment that Griffith, whose short films for Biograph were already among the treasures of world cinema, yoked his mighty talent to the cause of hatred (which, still worse, he sincerely depicted as virtuous).
Brody also argued that Griffith unintentionally undercut his own thesis in the film, citing the scene before the Civil War when the Cameron family offers up lavish hospitality to the Stoneman family who travel past mile after mile of slaves working the cotton fields of South Carolina to reach the Cameron home. Brody maintained that a modern audience can see that the wealth of the Camerons comes from the slaves, forced to do back-breaking work picking the cotton. Likewise, Brody argued that the scene where people in South Carolina celebrate the Confederate victory at the Battle of Bull Run by dancing around the "eerie flare of a bonfire" implies "a dance of death", foreshadowing the destruction of Sherman's March that was to come. In the same way, Brody wrote that the scene where the Klan dumps Gus's body off at the doorstep of Lynch is meant to have the audience cheering, but modern audiences find the scene "obscene and horrifying". Finally, Brody argued that the end of the film, where the Klan prevents defenseless African Americans from exercising their right to vote by pointing guns at them, today seems "unjust and cruel".
In an article for The Atlantic, film critic Ty Burr deemed The Birth of a Nation the most influential film in history while criticizing its portrayal of black men as savage. Richard Corliss of Time wrote that Griffith "established in the hundreds of one- and two-reelers he directed a cinematic textbook, a fully formed visual language, for the generations that followed. More than anyone else—more than all others combined—he invented the film art. He brought it to fruition in The Birth of a Nation." Corliss praised the film's "brilliant storytelling technique" and noted that "The Birth of a Nation is nearly as antiwar as it is antiblack. The Civil War scenes, which consume only 30 minutes of the extravaganza, emphasize not the national glory but the human cost of combat. ... Griffith may have been a racist politically, but his refusal to find uplift in the South's war against the Union—and, implicitly, in any war at all—reveals him as a cinematic humanist."
### Accolades
In 1992, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. The American Film Institute recognized the film by ranking it \#44 within the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list in 1998.
### Historical portrayal
The film remains controversial due to its interpretation of American history. University of Houston historian Steven Mintz summarizes its message as follows: "Reconstruction was an unmitigated disaster, African-Americans could never be integrated into white society as equals, and the violent actions of the Ku Klux Klan were justified to reestablish honest government". The South is portrayed as a victim. The first overt mentioning of the war is the scene in which Abraham Lincoln signs the call for the first 75,000 volunteers. However, the first aggression in the Civil War, made when the Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in 1861, is not mentioned in the film. The film suggested that the Ku Klux Klan restored order to the postwar South, which was depicted as endangered by abolitionists, freedmen, and carpetbagging Republican politicians from the North. This is similar to the Dunning School of historiography which was current in academe at the time. The film is slightly less extreme than the books upon which it is based, in which Dixon misrepresented Reconstruction as a nightmarish time when black men ran amok, storming into weddings to rape white women with impunity.
The film portrayed President Abraham Lincoln as a friend of the South and refers to him as "the Great Heart". The two romances depicted in the film, Phil Stoneman with Margaret Cameron and Ben Cameron with Elsie Stoneman, reflect Griffith's retelling of history. The couples are used as a metaphor, representing the film's broader message of the need for the reconciliation of the North and South to defend white supremacy. Among both couples, there is an attraction that forms before the war, stemming from the friendship between their families. With the war, however, both families are split apart, and their losses culminate in the end of the war with the defense of white supremacy. One of the intertitles clearly sums up the message of unity: "The former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright."
The film further reinforced the popular belief held by whites, especially in the South, of Reconstruction as a disaster. In his 1929 book The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln, Claude Bowers treated The Birth of a Nation as a factually accurate account of Reconstruction. In The Tragic Era, Bowers presented every black politician in the South as corrupt, portrayed Republican Representative Thaddeus Stevens as a vicious "race traitor" intent upon making blacks the equal of whites, and praised the Klan for "saving civilization" in the South. Bowers wrote about black empowerment that the worst sort of "scum" from the North like Stevens "inflamed the Negro's egoism and soon the lustful assaults began. Rape was the foul daughter of Reconstruction!"
### Academic assessment
The American historian John Hope Franklin wrote that not only did Claude Bowers treat The Birth of a Nation as accurate history, but his version of history seemed to be drawn from The Birth of a Nation. Historian E. Merton Coulter treated The Birth of a Nation as historically correct and painted a vivid picture of "black beasts" running amok, encouraged by alcohol-sodden, corrupt and vengeful black Republican politicians. Franklin wrote as recently as the 1970s that the popular journalist Alistair Cooke in his books and TV shows was still essentially following the version of history set out by The Birth of a Nation, noting that Cooke had much sympathy with the suffering of whites in Reconstruction while having almost nothing to say about the suffering of blacks or about how blacks were stripped of almost all their rights after 1877.
Veteran film reviewer Roger Ebert wrote:
> ... stung by criticisms that the second half of his masterpiece was racist in its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and its brutal images of blacks, Griffith tried to make amends in Intolerance (1916), which criticized prejudice. And in Broken Blossoms he told perhaps the first interracial love story in the movies—even though, to be sure, it's an idealized love with no touching.
Despite some similarities between the Congressman Stoneman character and Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, Rep. Stevens did not have the family members described and did not move to South Carolina during Reconstruction. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1868. However, Stevens's biracial housekeeper, Lydia Hamilton Smith, was considered his common-law wife, and was generously provided for in his will.
In the film, Abraham Lincoln is portrayed in a positive light due to his belief in conciliatory postwar policies toward Southern whites. The president's views are opposite those of Austin Stoneman, a character presented in a negative light, who acts as an antagonist. The assassination of Lincoln marks the transition from war to Reconstruction, each of which periods has one of the two "acts" of the film. In including the assassination, the film also establishes to the audience that the plot of the movie has historical basis. Franklin wrote the film's depiction of Reconstruction as a hellish time when black freedmen ran amok, raping and killing whites with impunity until the Klan stepped in is not supported by the facts. Franklin wrote that most freed slaves continued to work for their former masters in Reconstruction for the want of a better alternative and, though relations between freedmen and their former masters were not friendly, very few freedmen sought revenge against the people who had enslaved them.
The depictions of mass Klan paramilitary actions do not seem to have historical equivalents, although there were incidents in 1871 where Klan groups traveled from other areas in fairly large numbers to aid localities in disarming local companies of the all-black portion of the state militia under various justifications, prior to the eventual Federal troop intervention, and the organized Klan continued activities as small groups of "night riders".
The civil rights movement and other social movements created a new generation of historians, such as scholar Eric Foner, who led a reassessment of Reconstruction. Building on W. E. B. DuBois' work, but also adding new sources, they focused on achievements of the African American and white Republican coalitions, such as establishment of universal public education and charitable institutions in the South and extension of suffrage to black men. In response, the Southern-dominated Democratic Party and its affiliated white militias had used extensive terrorism, intimidation and even assassinations to suppress African-American leaders and voting in the 1870s and to regain power.
## Legacy
### Film innovations
In his review of The Birth of a Nation in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Jonathan Kline writes that "with countless artistic innovations, Griffith essentially created contemporary film language... virtually every film is beholden to [The Birth of a Nation] in one way, shape or form. Griffith introduced the use of dramatic close-ups, tracking shots, and other expressive camera movements; parallel action sequences, crosscutting, and other editing techniques". He added that "the fact that The Birth of a Nation remains respected and studied to this day—despite its subject matter—reveals its lasting importance."
Griffith pioneered such camera techniques as close-ups, fade-outs, and a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras made to look like thousands. The Birth of a Nation also contained many new artistic techniques, such as color tinting for dramatic purposes, building up the plot to an exciting climax, dramatizing history alongside fiction, and featuring its own musical score written for an orchestra.
### Home media and restorations
For many years, The Birth of a Nation was poorly represented in home media and restorations. This stemmed from several factors, one of which was the fact that Griffith and others had frequently reworked the film, leaving no definitive version. According to the silent film website Brenton Film, many home media releases of the film consisted of "poor quality DVDs with different edits, scores, running speeds and usually in definitely unoriginal black and white".
One of the earliest high-quality home versions was film preservationist David Shepard's 1992 transfer of a 16mm print for VHS and LaserDisc release via Image Entertainment. A short documentary, The Making of The Birth of a Nation, newly produced and narrated by Shepard, was also included. Both were released on DVD by Image in 1998 and the United Kingdom's Eureka Entertainment in 2000.
In the UK, Photoplay Productions restored the Museum of Modern Art's 35mm print that was the source of Shepard's 16 mm print, though they also augmented it with extra material from the British Film Institute. It was also given a full orchestral recording of the original Breil score. Though broadcast on Channel 4 television and theatrically screened many times, Photoplay's 1993 version was never released on home video.
Shepard's transfer and documentary were reissued in the US by Kino Video in 2002, this time in a 2-DVD set with added extras on the second disc. These included several Civil War shorts also directed by D. W. Griffith. In 2011, Kino prepared a HD transfer of a 35 mm negative from the Paul Killiam Collection. They added some material from the Library of Congress and gave it a new compilation score. This version was released on Blu-ray by Kino in the US, Eureka in the UK (as part of their "Masters of Cinema" collection) and Divisa Home Video in Spain.
In 2015, the year of the film's centenary, Photoplay Productions' Patrick Stanbury, in conjunction with the British Film Institute, carried out the first full restoration. It mostly used new 4K scans of the LoC's original camera negative, along with other early generation material. It, too, was given the original Breil score and featured the film's original tinting for the first time since its 1915 release. The restoration was released on a 2-Blu-ray set in the UK and US by the BFI and Twilight Time, alongside a host of extras, including many other newly restored Civil War-related films from the period.
### In popular culture
- The Birth of a Nation's reverent depiction of the Klan was lampooned in Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles (1974).
- Ryan O'Neal's character Leo Harrigan in Peter Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon (1976) attends the premiere of The Birth of a Nation and realizes that it will change the course of American cinema.
- Clips from Griffith's film are shown in
- Robert Zemeckis's Forrest Gump (1994), where the footage is meant to portray the titular character's ancestor and namesake Nathan Bedford Forrest
- The closing montage of Spike Lee's Bamboozled (2000), along with other footage from demeaning portrayals of African Americans in early 20th century film
- Lee's BlacKkKlansman (2018), where Harry Belafonte's character Jerome Turner speaks about its role in the lynching of Jesse Washington as the modern Ku Kluk Klan led by Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace) screens it as propaganda.
- Director Kevin Willmott's mockumentary C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) portrays an imagined history where the Confederacy won the Civil War. It shows part of an imagined Griffith film, The Capture of Dishonest Abe, which resembles The Birth of a Nation and was supposedly adapted from Thomas Dixon's The Yankee.
- In Justin Simien's Dear White People (2014), Sam (Tessa Thompson) screens a short film called The Rebirth of a Nation which portrays white people wearing whiteface while criticizing Barack Obama.
- In 2016, Nate Parker produced and directed the film The Birth of a Nation, based on Nat Turner's slave rebellion; Parker clarified:
> I've reclaimed this title and re-purposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America, to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change.
- Dinesh D'Souza's 2016 political documentary Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party depicts President Wilson and his cabinet viewing The Birth of a Nation in the White House before a Klansman comes out of the screen and into the real world. The film is meant to accuse the Democratic Party and the American political left in covering up its past support of white supremacy and continuing it through welfare policies and machine politics. The title of D'Souza's 2018 film The Death of a Nation is a reference to Griffith's film, and like his previous film is meant to accuse the Democratic Party, and historical American left-wing of racism.
- The 2019 feature film I Am Not a Racist is a comedy that uses The Birth of a Nation's original material, changing its order and creating new contexts and new dialogues to mock the movie and to criticize racism.
- In 2019, Bowling Green State University renamed its Gish Film Theater, which was named for actress Lilian Gish, after protests alleging that using her name is inappropriate because of her role in The Birth of a Nation.
## See also
- List of American films of 1915
- List of films and television shows about the American Civil War
- List of films featuring slavery
- List of highest-grossing films
- List of racism-related films
- Lost Cause of the Confederacy
- Racism against African Americans
- Racism in the United States
- Tom Rice (film historian) |
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| Drakengard 2, known in Japan as is an action role-playing video game developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix in Japan and Ubisoft in all other territories for the PlayStation 2. It is the second entry in the Drakengard series, set after the events of the original Drakengard: the story revolves around Nowe, a boy raised by the dragon Legna, fighting against a tyrannical faction of knights, encountering characters from the previous game and becoming entangled in the fate of the world.
Like the original, Drakengard 2 combines on-foot hack and slash with aerial combat stages and role-playing mechanics. The previous game's producer, writer and character designer returned to their respective roles. The game was designed as a more mainstream game in light of the previous game's dark aesthetic and story. The game sold 206,000 copies by the end of 2005. Western reviews praised the story, but gave mixed opinions about the graphics and widely criticized the gameplay. A spin-off from the series, Nier, was released in 2010, while a third entry in the series, Drakengard 3, was released in December 2013 in Japan and May 2014 in North America and Europe.
## Gameplay
As with the original Drakengard, the game is split into chapters and subdivided into ground-based and airborne missions. The story of the game dictates which missions come when during the initial playthrough and how they play out, though as the player progresses, new remixed versions of the various playable levels called "free missions" are unlocked, which allow the player to go through the missions with the story elements removed. The player can jump between the game world's self-contained areas via a world map unlocked after the first chapter. In between the various chapters and missions, the player builds up their characters using experience points earned in battle: the characters' weapons and abilities, and the abilities of the player's dragon, can be gradually improved. The player's view of the world is through a fixed camera, which tracks the player's progress across the player area. Collectables in the form of weapons and items such as armor and health points and items needed to progress within the level are also available for the player to seek out. The game features Normal, Hard, and Expert difficulty levels, and there are multiple weapons and items to collect throughout the levels.
Combat in the game is similar to its predecessor, with the main series of missions beginning after an opening tutorial. The game features ground-based hack-and-slash gameplay and aerial combat. In ground combat, the player controls multiple characters, switching between them via the pause menu in order to use their different weapons. The characters use physical attacks using character weapons for short-range battle, while magical attacks are used for long-range attacks and groups of enemies. The magical attacks vary between the playable characters. Weapons, characters and magical abilities leave up and grow stronger as the player gains experience points in combat: weapons have a four-level cap.
Aerial gameplay puts the main character atop his dragon, which is guided round by the player to attack enemy formations and large structures on the ground or enemies and airships in the sky. The player can also jump between the dragon and the ground during ground-based missions. The dragon has the ability to launch two types of fireballs: a homing variety that deals damage to single enemies, and a widespread attack which does higher damage to groups. Alongside this, the dragon can perform a special attack called "Dragon Overdrive", which kills many normal enemy units outright and deals high damage to stronger units and bosses. The dragon also gains experience and levels up through combat, dealing more damage in its attacks as it grows stronger. It also evolves and grows stronger at points directly linked to the game's narrative.
## Story
### Setting and characters
Drakengard 2 takes place in an unnamed land nearly two decades after the events of Drakengard: originally said to take place after the game's first ending, it was later retconned so it took place in an isolated timeline following events similar to Drakengard. In the original game, two powers, the Empire and the Union, were engaged in a religious war over the Seals, magical bindings tied to a chosen Goddess of the Seal that kept dark entities known as the Watchers from appearing in the mortal world and destroying humanity. Caught up in the conflict were Caim and Angelus, a human and a dragon who had made a pact (a magical ritual that linked their souls), and fought to try to keep both the Seals and the Goddess safe. Though they ultimately failed, Angelus became the new seal, averting the end of the world. Eighteen years later, the Seals are protected by the Knights of the Seal, who eventually grow to become a dominating force in the land.
The game's main character is Nowe (ノウェ, Nōe), a Knight of the Seal who possesses superhuman powers. Nowe's companion is Legna (レグナ, Reguna), a dragon who helped raise Nowe and was involved in the events of 18 years before. Accompanying Nowe on his journey is Manah (マナ, Mana), the main antagonist of the first game who now seeks to free the people from the oppression of the Knights; Eris (エリス, Erisu), a female Knight of the Seal and Nowe's childhood friend; and Urick (ユーリック, Yūrikku) a former Knight who made a pact with the Grim Reaper in exchange for his mortality. The main villain of the game is Gismor (ジスモア, Jisumoa), leader of the Knights of the Seal. Returning from the first game are Caim (カイム, Kaimu), the previous game's main protagonist; Angelus (アンヘル, Anheru), the current Goddess of the Seal; and Seere (セエレ, Sēre), once a companion to Caim and now the Hierarch of the Union. Minor characters include the guardians of the Seals, Zhangpo (ザンポ, Zanpo), Hanch (ハンチ, Hanchi) and Yaha (ヤハ, Yaha), and Oror (オロー, Orō), who helped raise Nowe.
### Plot
The game begins with Nowe becoming a fully-fledged Knight of the Seal. During his first mission, Nowe begins to doubt the ethics of the Knights' methods, as the seals require human sacrifices to remain strong. During a second mission to ensure the protection of the seal in the District of Soul Flame, Nowe encounters Manah, who kills the guardian Zhangpo and destroys the seal. Manah is sentenced to be burnt at the stake, but uses her magic to escape. After returning from the mission, Nowe is poisoned by Gismor, who reveals that he killed Nowe's adoptive father Oror. Surviving and escaping with Legna, Nowe is pursued by the Knights, including Eris, who wishes to persuade him to return. Nowe and Legna eventually rejoin Manah and join her on her quest to destroy the seals and, in her mind, free the people from the Knights' oppression. On their way to the second seal, Manah shows Nowe the true horror of the Knights' deeds, fully winning him over. The two then fight and kill Lieutenant Hanch, destroying the seal in the District of Hallowed Water. After this, they are joined by Urick, a former Lieutenant of the Knights, to rout a group of bandits. Attacked by the Knights, they are unexpectedly saved by Caim, who is also working to destroy the seals and free his dragon Angelus from the pain of being the Goddess Seal. After taking down Lieutenant Yaha and destroying the seal in the District of Precious Light, Manah is captured by the Knights and sentenced to death. Nowe manages to rescue her and heads for the seal in the District of Shining Life, which was once guarded by Urick before he fled in fear when Caim attacked the district. Urick and Nowe face off against Caim, who mortally wounds Urick before being driven off. Urick dies content and the seal is destroyed.
Nowe and Manah head for the final seal in the District of Heavenly Time, guarded by Gismor himself. Nowe and Gismor battle, and Gismor is wounded again, transforming into a shadow-like being and using Eris to block Nowe's final attack. Believing Eris dead, Nowe and Manah pursue Gismor, but are met by Seere, who unsuccessfully tries to stop them. When they confront Gismor, he reveals himself to be a vindictive survivor of the Empire from eighteen years before. Defeated, Gismor destroys the final seal himself, releasing Angelus from her imprisonment. After Seere reveals the true consequences of Manah's actions, Nowe and Legna pursue Angelus. When they find her, they find that Angelus has been driven mad by the pain of being the final seal. Caim asks them to kill her, and as she dies, he and Angelus share a final moment together before fading away. With the seals destroyed, the world begins to fall into chaos and Manah is driven mad by the memories of her actions eighteen years before. Legna then takes Nowe to the floating fortress of the Holy Dragons, where they hear a prophecy concerning Nowe: according to the prophecy, Nowe is a New Breed created to aid the dragons in their war against the Watchers. Nowe reunites with Eris, who has been healed by Seere, and frees Manah from her madness. Legna then takes the three to the Promised Land, a dragon stronghold that holds the Bone Casket, an object given to the dragons by, and imbued with the power of, the Watchers, that can speed up Nowe's evolution into the New Breed. It is also where Seere has gone to initiate a new Goddess of the Seal. The game has three endings, each achieved on a separate playthrough.
- Ending A: The group arrive in the Promised Land and Legna prepares to enact the prophecy, but Nowe instead chooses to find a new Goddess. Legna calls the Holy Dragons to battle, but Seere leads an army of Golems against them. With everything seeming lost, Manah and Nowe share a final kiss, which triggers Nowe's transformation into the New Breed. Nowe and Legna do battle, and Legna is killed. Eris then reveals that she is to become the new Goddess. Eris is initiated, and although the world is restored, Nowe and Manah feel sad that no other solution could be found.
- Ending B: When they arrive, Legna reveals Eris' fate to become the new Goddess, and Nowe chooses to follow Legna's plan. But upon trying to enter the Casket, it rejects him and fuses with Manah. Legna and Nowe battle Manah, who sacrifices herself to destroy the Bone Casket's power. Nowe, Legna and Eris then lead the Holy Dragons in their war against the Watchers.
- Ending C: Events proceed as in Ending B, but when the Casket attacks Manah, she manages to overpower and absorb it. Legna summons the Holy Dragons and events proceed as in Ending A. After Legna's defeat and the destruction of the Bone Casket, both the Watchers and the dragons fade, leaving the world safe and humans free to create a new future for themselves.
## Development
Drakengard 2 was announced in December 2004. Producer Takamasa Shiba and character designer Kimihiko Fujisaka returned to the team, alongside actor Shinnosuke Ikehata, who voiced the dragon Angelus and its partner Caim in the previous game. The original director, Yoko Taro, originally proposed a space adventure involving dragons, but this was vetoed at an early stage. Yoko was not involved in creating the narrative as he had been in Drakengard, being mostly tied up with another project, though he was able to observe the project's progress. He and Drakengard 2's director Akira Yasui suffered from creative differences, with the result that Yoko termed their relationship on the project as a "love-hate" story in a 2013 interview concerning the series. Their relationship inspired one of the stories created for an in-game weapon. Yoko was eventually brought on fairly late in the game's production to act as video editor for the CGI cutscenes and trailers. The CGI cutscenes were created by Studio Anima. The game's cast featured multiple film and television actors, including Ryo Katsuji, Saki Aibu, Koyuki and veteran actor Yoshio Harada. Shiba commented at the time that he felt they had gathered a very good voice cast for the game.
One of the decisions Yasui made was to make Drakengard 2 far more colorful than the previous game, wanting to do something that was the "opposite" of Drakengard. In contrast to the previous game, the game contained far less of the mature themes found in the original. Shiba, speaking in a 2013 interview, said that the reason for this was that Square Enix, the company's Japanese publisher, wanted that aspect toned down to make a more mainstream game. It was designed to keep some dark aesthetics from its predecessor, with the previous game's theme of immorality as one of the key character and narrative themes, as well as themes of war and death. Other themes explored were love and hate, and the ambivalence represented in the world's prevalent factions (the Knights of the Seal, and the Cult of Watchers). Highlighted aspects of the story were the father-son relationship between Nowe and Legna, and how Manah had matured since the events of Drakengard. To promote the game in Japan, Fujisaka created a light-toned joke advertisement under the name Angelegna, referring to the original names of the two dragon characters. While Square Enix published the title in Japan, they entered an agreement with developer and publishing company Ubisoft to publish the title overseas. Ubisoft also handled the game's localization.
### Character design
One of the main concepts for main protagonist Nowe was surpassing one's father. For the fight between Nowe and Legna, special gameplay functions and mechanics needed to be created for Nowe. Shiba had mixed feelings about the final fight between Legna and Nowe, which he saw as a drastic change from both the first game and the series mechanic of the protagonist riding a dragon. Shiba ended up writing their dialogue to emphasize their relationship and the difficulty of them fighting each other, paralleling earlier scenes between Caim and Angelus. The deaths of Caim and Angelus was intended to be "short and ruthless", but Yasui had it changed to the more sentimental version present in the game. Dialogue from Caim for the scene was cut from the game due to it clashing with his previous portrayal as a mute. Urick was created to be the supportive "big brother" of the party.
Although the main characters were designed by Fujisaka, the character Legna, previously known as the "Black Dragon", was designed by Taro Hasegawa, who was also monster designer for both Drakengard and Drakengard 2. In addition to designing the characters, Fujisaka drew the character portraits used for character dialogue boxes during in-game cutscenes, a feature he initially objected to. Nowe, in contrast to the other protagonists of the Drakengard series, was designed around the concept of a stereotypical hero. Nowe was one of Fujisaka's favorite characters to design, although Shiba was less enthusiastic. Manah's redesign in Drakengard 2 reflected both her evolved personality and her more traditional depiction as a fantasy heroine. Elements of their designs were taken from Caim and Furiae, representing "passing the torch" between characters. Because of Legna's different roles in Drakengard and Drakengard 2, his design and movements were altered for his second incarnation. Eris's design was inspired by Casca, a character from Berserk: while he tried not to copy any parts of Casca's design, Fujisaka tried to convey it using aspects of her personality. He also tried to balance this part of her depiction with a tender and more feminine side. Another idea he had in mind was the image of an honors student. Her dance-like fighting style was generally suggested by the game's staff. Caim's redesign was meant to represent his status as a wanderer.
### Music
Drakengard 2's soundtrack was composed by Ryoki Matsumoto and Aoi Yoshiki, with supervision by Nobuyoshi Sano, who worked on the music of Drakengard and acted as Sound Director for the game. The CGI cutscenes were scored by Masashi Yano. Due to criticism of his work on the first game, Sano was asked by Shiba to bring in outside help for the second game's soundtrack: Matsumoto was brought in because of his work on the songs "Yuki no Hana" and "Tsuki no Shizuku", and, Yoshiki was brought on at Matsumoto's request. The soundtrack was designed to be a fusion of J-pop and conventional video game music, and to evoke the emotions of the various characters and the feeling of battle. The game's theme song in Japan, "Hitori", was sung by Mika Nakashima, who also worked as a sound producer. The theme song for the game's English release was "Growing Wings", a localized version of the first game's theme song sung by Kari Wahlgren.
## Reception
Drakengard 2 sold well in Japan. The game was considered a hit in Japan by Ubisoft, selling 100,000 units in its first week, and reaching sales of 170,000 units by the end of the month, becoming the second best-selling game of June behind Sega's GBA port of Mushiking: King of the Beetles. It eventually sold just over 206,000 copies by the end of 2005. The game was eventually re-released as part of Square Enix's Ultimate Hits series, re-releases of high-selling titles. Drakengard 2 received a score of 30/40 from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. The game received "average" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.
The story received mixed to positive reviews. IGN's Ed Lewis said it "admirably [continued] the bizarre and fantastically medieval world that was established in the original game.", while GameSpot's Greg Meuller called it "Interesting [...] with plenty of twists and turns". Eurogamer's Simon Parkin cited the story as being very good, though he found Nowe "a little nauseating to watch as the weighty, dark (and pretty good) plot unfolds", and VideoGamer.com's Adam Jarvis called the story "one of the highlights of the package". The 1UP reviewer called the "clear undercurrent of "maybe the good guys are the bad guys,"" one of the main reasons to keep playing the game. In contrast, the reviewer for GameTrailers called it "a cookie-cutter RPG plot" where players could "predict nearly every plot twist the game throws at [them].",
The graphics received mixed reviews. Lewis called them "more interesting than the first game, but marginally so", and Meuller called them "dated", with environments seeming "bland and drab, and the enemies [looking] generic". The GameTrailers reviewer praised the character animations, but cited the environments as bland and felt that there were too few FMVs and too many game engine-driven cutscenes, which he described as "awful". Parkin criticized the game's graphic capacities, commenting that players would "stop watching the main screen instead fixing upon the little map in the corner to guide your character towards hostile red dots that only materialize polygonal just seconds before you lock swords.", while Jarvis said that it had not improved from the previous game and called the colors "very murky, drab and dark". 1UP said that the graphics "[don't] hold up to the visual quality of Cavia's other titles like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex [or] Naruto: Uzumaki Ninden".
The gameplay was universally criticized. Parkin called the battle gameplay "lightweight" and the balance between ground and aerial combat poor despite a good character leveling system, while Lewis described it as being without strategy, with the game "just dumping in more boring enemies to wade through". GameTrailers said that there was "nothing new here.", while Meuller called it "dull at best and frustrating at worst". 1UP said that the combat was "almost sickening to look at.", though he cited the RPG elements as a redeeming feature. Jarvis simply called the gameplay "Same old, same old", citing it as a major fault of the game.
## Legacy
In September 2013, the game was given an honorable mention among Kotaku's Tim Rogers as one of the best games on the PS2. Rogers gave praise to the game's parry mechanic and atmosphere. In the year of its release in Japan, the game received a novelization written by Emi Nagashima under her pen name of Jun Eishima. Yoko and Shiba teamed up again to create another game in the series, but that eventually developed into Nier, a spin-off from the first game's fifth ending. After Nier's release, Cavia was absorbed into AQ Interactive, then Yoko left to become a freelance. An attempt by Shiba to begin development of a third Drakengard game at AQ Interactive were unsuccessful. Drakengard 3 was eventually unveiled in 2013, with Shiba, Yoko and Fujisaka returning to their former roles and the story being set before the original game. Both Shiba and Yoko have voiced their willingness to continue the series on next-generation consoles if there were sufficient sales and funds, while Yoko also expressed interest in making a second spin-off, although he did not specify whether it would be set in the world of Nier or not. |
1,860,374 | Feedback arc set | 1,172,626,747 | Edges that hit all cycles in a graph | [
"Computational problems in graph theory",
"Directed graphs",
"Graph theory objects",
"NP-complete problems"
]
| In graph theory and graph algorithms, a feedback arc set or feedback edge set in a directed graph is a subset of the edges of the graph that contains at least one edge out of every cycle in the graph. Removing these edges from the graph breaks all of the cycles, producing a directed acyclic graph, an acyclic subgraph of the given graph. The feedback arc set with the fewest possible edges is the minimum feedback arc set and its removal leaves the maximum acyclic subgraph; weighted versions of these optimization problems are also used. If a feedback arc set is minimal, meaning that removing any edge from it produces a subset that is not a feedback arc set, then it has an additional property: reversing all of its edges, rather than removing them, produces a directed acyclic graph.
Feedback arc sets have applications in circuit analysis, chemical engineering, deadlock resolution, ranked voting, ranking competitors in sporting events, mathematical psychology, ethology, and graph drawing. Finding minimum feedback arc sets and maximum acyclic subgraphs is NP-hard; it can be solved exactly in exponential time, or in fixed-parameter tractable time. In polynomial time, the minimum feedback arc set can be approximated to within a polylogarithmic approximation ratio, and maximum acyclic subgraphs can be approximated to within a constant factor. Both are hard to approximate closer than some constant factor, an inapproximability result that can be strengthened under the unique games conjecture. For tournament graphs, the minimum feedback arc set can be approximated more accurately, and for planar graphs both problems can be solved exactly in polynomial time.
A closely related problem, the feedback vertex set, is a set of vertices containing at least one vertex from every cycle in a directed or undirected graph. In undirected graphs, the spanning trees are the largest acyclic subgraphs, and the number of edges removed in forming a spanning tree is the circuit rank.
## Applications
Several problems involving finding rankings or orderings can be solved by finding a feedback arc set on a tournament graph, a directed graph with one edge between each pair of vertices. Reversing the edges of the feedback arc set produces a directed acyclic graph whose unique topological order can be used as the desired ranking. Applications of this method include the following:
- In sporting competitions with round-robin play, the outcomes of each game can be recorded by directing an edge from the loser to the winner of each game. Finding a minimum feedback arc set in the resulting graph, reversing its edges, and topological ordering, produces a ranking on all of the competitors. Among all of the different ways of choosing a ranking, it minimizes the total number of upsets, games in which a lower-ranked competitor beat a higher-ranked competitor. Many sports use simpler methods for group tournament ranking systems based on points awarded for each game; these methods can provide a constant approximation to the minimum-upset ranking.
- In primatology and more generally in ethology, dominance hierarchies are often determined by searching for an ordering with the fewest reversals in observed dominance behavior, another form of the minimum feedback arc set problem.
- In mathematical psychology, it is of interest to determine subjects' rankings of sets of objects according to a given criterion, such as their preference or their perception of size, based on pairwise comparisons between all pairs of objects. The minimum feedback arc set in a tournament graph provides a ranking that disagrees with as few pairwise outcomes as possible. Alternatively, if these comparisons result in independent probabilities for each pairwise ordering, then the maximum likelihood estimation of the overall ranking can be obtained by converting these probabilities into log-likelihoods and finding a minimum-weight feedback arc set in the resulting tournament.
- The same maximum-likelihood ordering can be used for seriation, the problem in statistics and exploratory data analysis of arranging elements into a linear ordering, in cases where data is available that provides pairwise comparisons between the elements.
- In ranked voting, the Kemeny–Young method can be described as seeking an ordering that minimizes the sum, over pairs of candidates, of the number of voters who prefer the opposite ordering for that pair. This can be formulated and solved as a minimum-weight feedback arc set problem, in which the vertices represent candidates, edges are directed to represent the winner of each head-to-head contest, and the cost of each edge represents the number of voters who would be made unhappy by giving a higher ranking to the head-to-head loser.
Another early application of feedback arc sets concerned the design of sequential logic circuits, in which signals can propagate in cycles through the circuit instead of always progressing from inputs to outputs. In such circuits, a minimum feedback arc set characterizes the number of points at which amplification is necessary to allow the signals to propagate without loss of information. In synchronous circuits made from asynchronous components, synchronization can be achieved by placing clocked gates on the edges of a feedback arc set. Additionally, cutting a circuit on a feedback arc a set reduces the remaining circuit to combinational logic, simplifying its analysis, and the size of the feedback arc set controls how much additional analysis is needed to understand the behavior of the circuit across the cut. Similarly, in process flowsheeting in chemical engineering, breaking edges of a process flow diagram on a feedback arc set, and guessing or trying all possibilities for the values on those edges, allows the rest of the process to be analyzed in a systematic way because of its acyclicity. In this application, the idea of breaking edges in this way is called "tearing".
In layered graph drawing, the vertices of a given directed graph are partitioned into an ordered sequence of subsets (the layers of the drawing), and each subset is placed along a horizontal line of this drawing, with the edges extending upwards and downwards between these layers. In this type of drawing, it is desirable for most or all of the edges to be oriented consistently downwards, rather than mixing upwards and downwards edges, in order for the reachability relations in the drawing to be more visually apparent. This is achieved by finding a minimum or minimal feedback arc set, reversing the edges in that set, and then choosing the partition into layers in a way that is consistent with a topological order of the resulting acyclic graph. Feedback arc sets have also been used for a different subproblem of layered graph drawing, the ordering of vertices within consecutive pairs of layers.
In deadlock resolution in operating systems, the problem of removing the smallest number of dependencies to break a deadlock can be modeled as one of finding a minimum feedback arc set. However, because of the computational difficulty of finding this set, and the need for speed within operating system components, heuristics rather than exact algorithms are often used in this application.
## Algorithms
### Equivalences
The minimum feedback arc set and maximum acyclic subgraph are equivalent for the purposes of exact optimization, as one is the complement set of the other. However, for parameterized complexity and approximation, they differ, because the analysis used for those kinds of algorithms depends on the size of the solution and not just on the size of the input graph, and the minimum feedback arc set and maximum acyclic subgraph have different sizes from each other.
A feedback arc set of a given graph $G$ is the same as a feedback vertex set of a directed line graph of $G$. Here, a feedback vertex set is defined analogously to a feedback arc set, as a subset of the vertices of the graph whose deletion would eliminate all cycles. The line graph of a directed graph $G$ has a vertex for each edge of $G$, and an edge for each two-edge path in $G$. In the other direction, the minimum feedback vertex set of a given graph $G$ can be obtained from the solution to a minimum feedback arc set problem on a graph obtained by splitting every vertex of $G$ into two vertices, one for incoming edges and one for outgoing edges. These transformations allow exact algorithms for feedback arc sets and for feedback vertex sets to be converted into each other, with an appropriate translation of their complexity bounds. However, this transformation does not preserve approximation quality for the maximum acyclic subgraph problem.
In both exact and approximate solutions to the feedback arc set problem, it is sufficient to solve separately each strongly connected component of the given graph, and to break these strongly connected components down even farther to their biconnected components by splitting them at articulation vertices. The choice of solution within any one of these subproblems does not affect the others, and the edges that do not appear in any of these components are useless for inclusion in the feedback arc set. When one of these components can be separated into two disconnected subgraphs by removing two vertices, a more complicated decomposition applies, allowing the problem to be split into subproblems derived from the triconnected components of its strongly connected components.
### Exact
One way to find the minimum feedback arc set is to search for an ordering of the vertices such that as few edges as possible are directed from later vertices to earlier vertices in the ordering. Searching all permutations of an $n$-vertex graph would take time $O(n!)$, but a dynamic programming method based on the Held–Karp algorithm can find the optimal permutation in time $O(n2^n)$, also using an exponential amount of space. A divide-and-conquer algorithm that tests all partitions of the vertices into two equal subsets and recurses within each subset can solve the problem in time $O(4^n/\sqrt{n})$, using polynomial space.
In parameterized complexity, the time for algorithms is measured not just in terms of the size of the input graph, but also in terms of a separate parameter of the graph. In particular, for the minimum feedback arc set problem, the so-called natural parameter is the size of the minimum feedback arc set. On graphs with $n$ vertices, with natural parameter $k$, the feedback arc set problem can be solved in time $O(n^44^kk^3k!)$, by transforming it into an equivalent feedback vertex set problem and applying a parameterized feedback vertex set algorithm. Because the exponent of $n$ in this algorithm is the constant $4$, independent of $k$, this algorithm is said to be fixed-parameter tractable.
Other parameters than the natural parameter have also been studied. A fixed-parameter tractable algorithm using dynamic programming can find minimum feedback arc sets in time $O(2^r m^4\log m)$, where $r$ is the circuit rank of the underlying undirected graph. The circuit rank is an undirected analogue of the feedback arc set, the minimum number of edges that need to be removed from a graph to reduce it to a spanning tree; it is much easier to compute than the minimum feedback arc set. For graphs of treewidth $t$, dynamic programming on a tree decomposition of the graph can find the minimum feedback arc set in time polynomial in the graph size and exponential in $O(t\log t)$. Under the exponential time hypothesis, no better dependence on $t$ is possible.
Instead of minimizing the size of the feedback arc set, researchers have also looked at minimizing the maximum number of edges removed from any vertex. This variation of the problem can be solved in linear time. All minimal feedback arc sets can be listed by an algorithm with polynomial delay per set.
### Approximate
The best known polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the feedback arc set has the non-constant approximation ratio $O(\log n\log\log n)$. This means that the size of the feedback arc set that it finds is at most this factor larger than the optimum. Determining whether feedback arc set has a constant-ratio approximation algorithm, or whether a non-constant ratio is necessary, remains an open problem.
The maximum acyclic subgraph problem has an easy approximation algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio of $\tfrac12$:
- Fix an arbitrary ordering of the vertices
- Partition the edges into two acyclic subgraphs, one consisting of the edges directed consistently with the ordering, and the other consisting of edges directed oppositely to the ordering.
- Return the larger of the two subgraphs.
This can be improved by using a greedy algorithm to choose the ordering. This algorithm finds and deletes a vertex whose numbers of incoming and outgoing edges are as far apart as possible, recursively orders the remaining graph, and then places the deleted vertex at one end of the resulting order. For graphs with $m$ edges and $n$ vertices, this produces an acyclic subgraph with $m/2+n/6$ edges, in linear time, giving an approximation ratio of $\tfrac12+\Omega(n/m)$. Another, more complicated, polynomial time approximation algorithm applies to graphs with maximum degree $\Delta$, and finds an acyclic subgraph with $m/2+\Omega(m/\sqrt{\Delta})$ edges, giving an approximation ratio of the form $\tfrac12+\Omega(1/\sqrt{\Delta})$. When $\Delta=3$, the approximation ratio $8/9$ can be achieved.
### Restricted inputs
In directed planar graphs, the feedback arc set problem is dual to the problem of contracting a set of edges (a dijoin) to make the resulting graph strongly connected. This dual problem is polynomially solvable, and therefore the planar minimum feedback arc set problem is as well. It can be solved in time $O(n^{5/2}\log n)$. A weighted version of the problem can be solved in time $O(n^3)$, or when the weights are positive integers that are at most a number $N$, in time $O(n^{5/2}\log nN)$. These planar algorithms can be extended to the graphs that do not have the utility graph $K_{3,3}$ as a graph minor, using the fact that the triconnected components of these graphs are either planar or of bounded size. Planar graphs have also been generalized in a different way to a class of directed graphs called weakly acyclic digraphs, defined by the integrality of a certain polytope associated with their feedback arc sets. Every planar directed graph is weakly acyclic in this sense, and the feedback arc set problem can be solved in polynomial time for all weakly acyclic digraphs.
The reducible flow graphs are another class of directed graphs on which the feedback arc set problem may be solved in polynomial time. These graphs describe the flow of control in structured programs for many programming languages. Although structured programs often produce planar directed flow graphs, the definition of reducibility does not require the graph to be planar.
When the minimum feedback arc set problem is restricted to tournaments, it has a polynomial-time approximation scheme, which generalizes to a weighted version of the problem. A subexponential parameterized algorithm for weighted feedback arc sets on tournaments is also known. The maximum acyclic subgraph problem for dense graphs also has a polynomial-time approximation scheme. Its main ideas are to apply randomized rounding to a linear programming relaxation of the problem, and to derandomize the resulting algorithm using walks on expander graphs.
## Hardness
### NP-hardness
In order to apply the theory of NP-completeness to the minimum feedback arc set, it is necessary to modify the problem from being an optimization problem (how few edges can be removed to break all cycles) to an equivalent decision version, with a yes or no answer (is it possible to remove $k$ edges). Thus, the decision version of the feedback arc set problem takes as input both a directed graph and a number $k$. It asks whether all cycles can be broken by removing at most $k$ edges, or equivalently whether there is an acyclic subgraph with at least $|E(G)|-k$ edges. This problem is NP-complete, implying that neither it nor the optimization problem are expected to have polynomial time algorithms. It was one of Richard M. Karp's original set of 21 NP-complete problems; its NP-completeness was proved by Karp and Eugene Lawler by showing that inputs for another hard problem, the vertex cover problem, could be transformed ("reduced") into equivalent inputs to the feedback arc set decision problem.
Some NP-complete problems can become easier when their inputs are restricted to special cases. But for the most important special case of the feedback arc set problem, the case of tournaments, the problem remains NP-complete.
### Inapproximability
The complexity class APX is defined as consisting of optimization problems that have a polynomial time approximation algorithm that achieves a constant approximation ratio. Although such approximations are not known for the feedback arc set problem, the problem is known to be APX-hard, meaning that accurate approximations for it could be used to achieve similarly accurate approximations for all other problems in APX. As a consequence of its hardness proof, unless P = NP, it has no polynomial time approximation ratio better than 1.3606. This is the same threshold for hardness of approximation that is known for vertex cover, and the proof uses the Karp–Lawler reduction from vertex cover to feedback arc set, which preserves the quality of approximations. By a different reduction, the maximum acyclic subgraph problem is also APX-hard, and NP-hard to approximate to within a factor of 65/66 of optimal.
The hardness of approximation of these problems has also been studied under unproven computational hardness assumptions that are standard in computational complexity theory but stronger than P ≠ NP. If the unique games conjecture is true, then the minimum feedback arc set problem is hard to approximate in polynomial time to within any constant factor, and the maximum feedback arc set problem is hard to approximate to within a factor of $\tfrac12+\varepsilon$, for every $\varepsilon>0$. Beyond polynomial time for approximation algorithms, if the exponential time hypothesis is true, then for every $\varepsilon>0$ the minimum feedback arc set does not have an approximation within a factor $\tfrac76-\varepsilon$ that can be computed in the subexponential time bound $O(2^{n^{1-\varepsilon}})$.
## Theory
In planar directed graphs, the feedback arc set problem obeys a min-max theorem: the minimum size of a feedback arc set equals the maximum number of edge-disjoint directed cycles that can be found in the graph. This is not true for some other graphs; for instance the first illustration shows a directed version of the non-planar graph $K_{3,3}$ in which the minimum size of a feedback arc set is two, while the maximum number of edge-disjoint directed cycles is only one.
Every tournament graph has a Hamiltonian path, and the Hamiltonian paths correspond one-for-one with minimal feedback arc sets, disjoint from the corresponding path. The Hamiltonian path for a feedback arc set is found by reversing its arcs and finding a topological order of the resulting acyclic tournament. Every consecutive pair of the order must be disjoint from the feedback arc sets, because otherwise one could find a smaller feedback arc set by reversing that pair. Therefore, this ordering gives a path through arcs of the original tournament, covering all vertices. Conversely, from any Hamiltonian path, the set of edges that connect later vertices in the path to earlier ones forms a feedback arc set. It is minimal, because each of its edges belongs to a cycle with the Hamiltonian path edges that is disjoint from all other such cycles. In a tournament, it may be the case that the minimum feedback arc set and maximum acyclic subgraph are both close to half the edges. More precisely, every tournament graph has a feedback arc set of size $\tbinom{n}{2}/2-\Omega(n^{3/2})$, and some tournaments require size $\tbinom{n}{2}/2-O(n^{3/2})$. For almost all tournaments, the size is at least $\tbinom{n}{2}/2 - 1.73n^{3/2}$. Every directed acyclic graph $D$ can be embedded as a subgraph of a larger tournament graph, in such a way that $D$ is the unique minimum feedback arc set of the tournament. The size of this tournament has been defined as the "reversing number" of $D$, and among directed acyclic graphs with the same number of vertices it is largest when $D$ is itself an (acyclic) tournament.
A directed graph has an Euler tour whenever it is strongly connected and each vertex has equal numbers of incoming and outgoing edges. For such a graph, with $m$ edges and $n$ vertices, the size of a minimum feedback arc set is always at least $(m^2+mn)/2n^2$. There are infinitely many Eulerian directed graphs for which this bound is tight. If a directed graph has $n$ vertices, with at most three edges per vertex, then it has a feedback arc set of at most $n/3$ edges, and some graphs require this many. If a directed graph has $m$ edges, with at most four edges per vertex, then it has a feedback arc set of at most $m/3$ edges, and some graphs require this many. |
26,260,430 | French cruiser D'Estrées | 1,145,440,637 | French protected cruiser of the 1890s | [
"1897 ships",
"Destrées-class cruisers",
"Ships built in France",
"World War I cruisers of France"
]
| D'Estrées was the lead ship of her class of protected cruisers built for the French Navy in the late 1890s. The class was ordered as part of a construction program directed at strengthening the fleet's cruiser force at a time the country was concerned with the growing naval threat of the Italian and German fleets, and were intended to serve overseas in the French colonial empire. D'Estrées was armed with a main battery of two 138 mm (5.4 in) guns, was protected by an armor deck that was 38 to 43 mm (1.5 to 1.7 in) thick, and was capable of steaming at a top speed of up to 20 to 20.5 knots (37.0 to 38.0 km/h; 23.0 to 23.6 mph).
D'Estrées served in the Northern Squadron after her completion in 1899 before being transferred to the Atlantic Training Division in 1902. She remained in the unit for the next several years. At the start of World War I in August 1914, the ship was initially assigned to the 2nd Light Squadron, but was quickly transferred to reinforce the Syrian Division for operations against the Ottoman Empire. D'Estrées bombarded Ottoman positions along the Syrian coast and helped to enforce a blockade there. She was moved to the Red Sea in 1916, where she patrolled for German commerce raiders for the rest of the war, though she saw no further action. After the war, she was sent to French Indochina, where she spent the remainder of her career. D'Estrées was struck from the naval register in 1922 and broken up.
## Design
In the 1880s and 1890s, factions in the French Navy's officer corps argued over the types of cruiser that best served France's interests. Some argued for a fleet of small but fast protected cruisers for commerce raiding, another sought ships useful for patrolling the country's colonial possessions, while another preferred vessels more suited to operations with the home fleet of battleships. The two cruisers of the D'Estrées class were ordered under the construction program of 1896 at the behest of the colonialists for use in the French overseas empire.
D'Estrées was 95 m (311 ft 8 in) long overall, with a beam of 12 m (39 ft 4 in) and a draft of 5.39 m (17 ft 8 in). She displaced 2,428 long tons (2,467 t). Her crew numbered 235 officers and enlisted men. The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers. Steam was provided by eight coal-burning Normand-type water-tube boilers that were ducted into two widely-spaced funnels. Her machinery was rated to produce 8,500 indicated horsepower (6,300 kW) for a top speed of 20 to 20.5 knots (37.0 to 38.0 km/h; 23.0 to 23.6 mph). She had a cruising range of 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
The ship was armed with a main battery of two 138 mm (5.4 in) Modèle 1893 45-caliber guns. They were placed in individual pivot mounts with gun shields, one forward and one aft on the centerline. These were supported by a secondary battery of four 100 mm (3.9 in) guns, which were carried in sponsons. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried eight 47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and two 37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder guns. Armor protection consisted of a curved armor deck that was 38 to 43 mm (1.5 to 1.7 in) thick.
## Service history
Destrées was built at the Arsenal de Rochefort in Rochefort, France; her keel was laid down in March 1897 and she was launched on 27 October 1897. The ship was completed in 1899, less her armament, and thereafter underwent sea trials and received her armament at the Arsenal. After her trials she was sent to Brest in February 1900, where she joined the Northern Squadron, which at that time, consisted of two pre-dreadnought battleships, four older ironclads, two armored cruisers, and the protected cruiser Guichen, among other smaller vessels. She took part in the squadron maneuvers in June and July that year, which were held off Cherbourg.
She was assigned to the Atlantic Training Division in 1902, along with the armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc and the protected cruiser Châteaurenault. During that period, she operated on the Newfoundland station, serving along with the cruisers Tage, Suchet, and Descartes. The next year, she was transferred to the Atlantic Squadron, which had previously been amalgamated with the Northern Squadron. At that time, the unit consisted of three protected cruisers: D'Estrées, Tage, and Troude. Later that year, D'Estrées was relieved by the new protected cruiser Jurien de la Gravière, while Tage was replaced by the armored cruiser Dupleix. In 1908, the Naval Division of the Atlantic was amalgamated with the Northern Squadron, and D'Estrées was transferred to that command. By that time, the squadron consisted of eight armored cruisers and four other protected cruisers. That year, D'Estrées was sent to patrol the West Indies.
### World War I
At the start of World War I in August 1914, D'Estrées was stationed in the English Channel as part of the 2nd Light Squadron, which at that time consisted of the armored cruisers Marseillaise, Amiral Aube, Jeanne d'Arc, Gloire, Gueydon, and Dupetit-Thouars. The unit was based in Brest and along with D'Estrées, the squadron was strengthened by the addition of several other cruisers over the following days, including the armored cruisers Kléber and Desaix, the protected cruisers Châteaurenault, Lavoisier, Friant, and Guichen, and several auxiliary cruisers. The ships then conducted a series of patrols in the English Channel in conjunction with a force of four British cruisers. On 25 August, many of the cruisers were detached for other purposes, and D'Estrées was reassigned to the Division de Syrie (Syrian Division) in the eastern Mediterranean.
On 31 January 1915, French naval forces in the region were reorganized as the 3<sup>e</sup> Escadre (3rd Squadron). In late April, fears that the Ottoman Empire was planning an attack on the Suez Canal prompted the French to send D'Estrées, the protected cruiser D'Entrecasteaux, and Jeanne d'Arc to Port Said to reinforce the warships supporting the land defenses of the canal. No attack materialized, and the ships were sent to bombard Ottoman positions along the coast to force them to disperse their units rather than make attacks on the Suez Canal. D'Estrées and Jeanne d'Arc shelled fuel depots at Alexandretta and Mersina and a factory in Jaffa in May. D'Estrées attacked the German consulate in Alexandretta on 13 May after the local Ottoman official refused to lower the German flag at the building. She destroyed a fuel depot the next day. They also bombarded the German consulates in the first two cities, along with the one in Haifa. D'Estrées, in pursuit of an Ottoman merchant vessel, stopped in Baniyas on 18 May after the steamer fled into the port. D'Estrées sent a boat into the harbor to search for the vessel, and after the French came under fire from Ottomans ashore, D'Estrées bombarded the town, destroying part of it.
Vice Admiral Louis Dartige du Fournet, the commander of the unit, declared a blockade of the coast on 25 June. D'Estrées was assigned to patrol duty in company with the armored cruiser Amiral Charner and the pre-dreadnought Jauréguiberry. D'Estrées assisted in the evacuation of some 4,000 Armenians, who were fleeing the Armenian genocide, from Antakya on 12 and 13 September. Amiral Charner, Guichen, Desaix, and the seaplane tenders Foudre and HMS Anne also contributed to the evacuation effort. As additional forces arrived in the region, the French reorganized the squadron into two divisions, D'Estrées being assigned to the 3rd Squadron on 8 November.
On 20 September 1916, the ship was transferred to the Red Sea, based at Jeddah. She remained there on patrol duty for the rest of the conflict; during this period, she also escorted convoys from French Madagascar to French Somaliland through May 1917. She also patrolled off the island of Socotra. In November, she joined the hunt for the German commerce raider SMS Wolf, which was known to be operating in the Indian Ocean. She was sent to the Maldives, where she learned that civilians there had seen Wolf and the captured Japanese steamer SS Hitachi Maru, but by that time, the German raider and her prize were gone. In 1918, D'Estrées was replaced by the cruiser Du Chayla.
### Postwar career
After the war, the ship was refitted at La Ciotat and was sent to French Indochina, where she remained for the rest of her active career. She was struck from the naval register in October 1922 and was sold to ship breakers two years later. |
18,931,926 | O' Horten | 1,164,632,809 | null | [
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| O' Horten is a 2007 internationally co-produced comedy-drama film written and directed by Bent Hamer. The film's title character Odd Horten is a habit-bound train driver, who is about to retire. On the day of his retirement he ends up in an unexpected situation, and is forced to reconsider his life. As in other films by Hamer, the themes are loneliness and old age, and the courage to take chances. O' Horten has been described as a film without a strong plot or a clear chronology.
The film's main cast consists mainly of senior Danish and Norwegian actors, including Bård Owe, Espen Skjønberg, and Ghita Nørby. There are also several cameos from various well-known Norwegians, such as ski jumper Anette Sagen in her first film role. The music was composed by John Erik Kaada. Generally well received by critics, it was chosen for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. Skjønberg was awarded an Amanda Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
## Plot
Odd Horten is an overcautious 67-year-old man about to retire after forty years as a train driver on the route between Oslo and Bergen. As he awakes, he goes through a meticulous daily routine, as he prepares for his second-to-last time driving the train to Bergen. When he gets there, he makes small talk with Svea, who owns the boarding house where he stays when there and whom he now may never see again.
Back in Oslo, his colleagues throw him a farewell party, but Odd—a timid man—is uncomfortable with the attention. As the party moves to a co-worker's apartment, he ends up getting accidentally locked out. He climbs up a scaffold, trying to reach the apartment window, and ends up in a young boy's room. The boy asks him to stay and wait for him to fall asleep, but Odd falls asleep first. He oversleeps in the unfamiliar room and arrives too late for the train he was to drive on his final working day. He is left standing on the platform without any fixed points in his life, with nothing but a life of emptiness stretching out before him.
A number of scenes then follow whose exact sequence is unclear. Odd goes to visit his mother at the retirement home, which only makes him more unhappy: his mother is senile and spends her days staring emptily out the window, and the visit reminds him of his own impending old age. While Odd is at a restaurant, police come in and arrest the cook. At the shop where he normally buys his pipe tobacco, he learns that the owner has died. He decides to sell his boat, leading to misadventures when the buyer, who works at an airport, asks Odd to meet him there inside the secure zone. Odd goes to the local swimming pool, but his shoes were removed when the facility closed; as he is leaving, he finds a pair of red high-heeled boots and walks away in them.
By chance he then runs into another man his age, the far more spontaneous Trygve Sissener, who has fallen asleep in the snow-covered street. The two spend the evening in conversation over a few drinks at Sissener's house, and Odd is led to realisations about his own life. It emerges that his mother—a free-spirited woman—was a ski jumper, but Odd himself never had the courage to try the sport. He now feels as if he has let her down, by never having the courage to seize the day and try new things.
In the early morning Sissener suggests the two go driving blindfolded. The stunt goes surprisingly well, but as Sissener pulls over the car, he dies. Odd is now left with responsibility for Sissener's dog and with an urgency to live life to the fullest. He makes his way up to the Holmenkollen ski jump, where he sees a vision of his mother as a young woman, doing the jump. He comes to a decision and starts to do the ski jump. Odd, for the first time no longer wearing his railwayman's jacket, rides the train to Bergen, where Svea is happily waiting for him on the platform.
## Main cast
- Bård Owe as Odd Horten: The "O" in O' Horten stands for "Odd". The name "Odd" is a quite common boys' name in Norway, and does not carry the same meaning as the English word "odd", though the film and the character's bizarre qualities have been pointed out by some. Though not intentionally meant as a pun, Hamer himself has said: "I know the meaning of the word in English, and that doesn't hurt". Born in Norway, Owe has spent most of his professional career in Denmark, where he is known to a contemporary audience primarily from Lars von Trier's The Kingdom. His career, however, goes all the way back to Carl Theodor Dreyer's classic Gertrude from 1964. Owe has also done much theatre and television work, yet after acting in over thirty films, this was his first leading role.
- Espen Skjønberg as Trygve Sissener: Trygve lives alone in one of the finer parts of Oslo, and when he meets Odd he is happy to have someone to share a few drinks with. Skjønberg has been a presence in Norwegian theatre and film since 1945, and debuted on film as a child, as early as 1937. He has received several awards, among them an honorary Amanda in 2004.
- Ghita Nørby as Mrs. Deinboll: Mrs. Deinboll works at the store where Odd buys his tobacco. Nørby is a well-established actress in Denmark, where she has been referred to as "the first lady of Danish theatre". She had also worked in Norway prior to O' Horten; in 1996 she played the role of Marie Hamsun in the film Hamsun.
- Henny Moan as Svea: Henny Moan plays the part of the old lady who owns the boarding house where Odd lives when he is in Bergen. There is a special connection between the two. Moan has acted in films since 1955, and at the time O' Horten was made, she had just retired from a long career at the theatre.
- Bjørn Floberg as Flo
- Kai Remlov as Steiner Sissener
- Per Jansen as Train driver
- Bjarte Hjelmeland as Conductor
- Trond Viggo Torgersen as Opsahl
- Anette Sagen as Young Vera Horten
## Production
The film contains several cameos from well-known actors and other celebrities, made possible by Hamer's high standing as a director. His previous film was the international production Factotum, based on the novel by Charles Bukowski, starring Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, and Marisa Tomei. Some of the appearances are relatively brief; Nørby, for instance, is on screen for less than three minutes, while the well-known Norwegian entertainer Trond Viggo Torgersen appears for only 59 seconds. Before the film's première on Boxing Day 2007, a pre-screening was held for journalists on 22 December. This was followed by dinner, attended by all the protagonists, at the restaurant Valkyrien in Oslo, where Odd Horten is also a regular customer in the film.
Among the more original castings was Anette Sagen, the world's leading female ski jumper, in her first film role. Sagen, 22 at the time, played the part of 70-year-old Owe's ski jumping mother, although in a younger incarnation. Hamer had already considered Sagen for the role, when he ran into her by chance at the Holmenkollen Ski Museum. Without knowing to whom he was talking, Hamer mentioned that he was shooting a film in this location, and was planning to ask Anette Sagen to be in it. The reason the theme of ski jumping was chosen was that Hamer's own mother performed the sport, and the film has been described as a tribute to all female ski jumpers. Sagen herself had also earlier been involved in a controversy over women's access to professional venues and competitions. Incidentally, Sagen and Owe are also both from the Norwegian town of Mosjøen.
The two lonely old men make part of a recurring theme in Hamer's films, as seen also in Eggs (1995) and Kitchen Stories (2003). However, Hamer himself has described the film as equally much about women; "the women who once gave birth to these men". He also cites a great fascination with trains as an inspiration for the film's setting, and claims that he had long wanted to make a film with this theme.
## Reception
Norwegian newspapers Verdens Gang and Dagbladet both gave the film five out of six points. Verdens Gang's Jon Selås called it "a little film about living" and praised it for its "applied existential philosophy". Dagbladet's Vegard Larsen had certain objections to a few unnecessary scenes, but nevertheless found that the film had met the high expectations created by Hamer's previous films. Aftenposten'''s Ingunn Økland, on the other hand, felt O' Horten failed to live up to the director's best work, and gave it only four points. She nevertheless pointed out the good qualities in the film, in particular the filming and the soundtrack by John Erik Kaada.
Foreign reviewers also gave the film generally positive reviews; Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter called it a "Warm story from frigid Norway". Variety's Alissa Simon wrote that it "lacks the fully developed characters and tightly constructed narrative of his more poignant and substantial Kitchen Stories", but that it "nevertheless provides a warm and gently humorous divertissement". She also found the production and score excellent. James Rocchi, writing for Cinematical, chose to highlight Bård Owe's performance, and his "warm demeanor" and meticulous "capacity for double-takes". Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum compared Owe to Jack Nicholson's Warren Schmidt in the film About Schmidt. Like others, she also used Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki as a reference to describe Hamer's particular cinematic style.
O' Horten was picked for the Un Certain Regard-section of the Cannes Film Festival. Here it was praised by one reviewer as "deliciously funny" in a festival that contained few happy stories. This marked the fourth time that Hamer was represented at Cannes, which makes him one of only two Norwegians to accomplish this feat. This instance, however, marked a step up for Hamer, as his previous appearances had been in the slightly less prestigious Directors' Fortnight-category. At the festival, the film was picked for international distribution by the distribution company Sony Pictures Classics. Hamer also won the Norwegian Film Critics' Award in 2008, thereby becoming the first director to win this award three times. At the Amanda Awards that year, O' Horten'' was nominated for a number of awards – including "Best Film" and "Best Direction" – but won only two: "Best Sound" and "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" for Espen Skjønberg.
In spite of good critical reception, the film did not perform very well at the box office, with only about 35,000 tickets sold domestically. Hamer expressed some disappointment with this, while hoping that the DVD-release would fare better. Internationally, the film did somewhat better, and was sold to forty countries. By early August 2009, the film had in fact been seen by more people in the United States than in Norway.
## Soundtrack
The soundtrack to the film was fully composed by Norwegian pop/experimental singer Kaada. |
1,963,578 | Will Champion | 1,173,608,693 | English drummer (born 1978) | [
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| William Champion (born 31 July 1978) is an English musician and songwriter best known as the drummer and backing vocalist of the rock band Coldplay. Raised in Southampton, he learned a variety of instruments during his childhood, being influenced by Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Cave and traditional Irish folk. His energetic drumming style is based on prioritising the song's essential elements and he occasionally takes lead vocal duties during live performances.
Champion has a 2:1 degree in anthropology from University College London, where he completed Coldplay's line-up with Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland and Guy Berryman. The band signed with Parlophone in 1999, finding global fame through the release of Parachutes (2000) and following records. He has won seven Grammy Awards and nine Brit Awards as part of Coldplay. Having sold more than 100 million albums worldwide as of 2021, they are the most successful group of the 21st century.
## Early life
William Champion was born on 31 July 1978 in Southampton, Hampshire, England, being the second child of archaeology lecturers Timothy and Sara Champion. He was raised in the Highfield suburb of the city, close to the University of Southampton, where his parents worked. He studied at Portswood Primary School while secondary education was held at Cantell School and Peter Symonds College. During his youth, Champion played cricket for Chandler's Ford CC along with his older brother; they attended Highfield Church regularly. He commented that music was "constantly on the stereo at home", which included listening to "anything from Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Nick Cave to traditional Irish folk", and performed in a group called Fat Hamster.
His upbringing influenced him to start lessons on multiple instruments, including violin and piano from the age of eight, guitar at 12, and eventually bass and tin whistle. However, Champion did not always enjoy the sessions: he was not able to read music and the songs were played from memory instead: "I watched my teacher's hand on the piano, memorized it, and ended up doing it myself". Despite performing drums at school and with a neighbour's kit, he was not interested in the instrument yet either. He did work experience at Nuffield Theatre's box office and backstage when he was 14 years old.
Champion's education continued in University College London, where he attained a 2:1 degree in anthropology and met Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland and Guy Berryman, eventually forming Coldplay. He worked as a doorman at a bar ran by Ricky Gervais while studying. Years later, he said that his experience in other instruments helped with coordination and offered a different perspective on drumming, being an important part of his style: "Knowing the difference between the major and minor key is very important too, and I was lucky to learn all that before I was playing drums. That has more to do with the feel of a song [and what's right for it] instead of knowing how to play powerfully for a second".
## Career
### Coldplay
Champion was the last performing member to join the band in 1998. He explained that Martin, Buckland and Berryman came to his house because a roommate had a drum kit and was a good drummer, but he had not turned up, "so I just said I would give it a go". They recorded the session and he was eventually invited to the ensemble in spite of not having substantial prior experience. In 1999, he was temporarily sacked from the group by Martin over heated discussions regarding his abilities as a drummer: "Three days later, the rest of us were feeling miserable, [...] we asked him to come back. They made me have lots of vodka and cranberry juice in remembrance of what a nasty piece of work I was being". The incident became an inspiration for "Trouble", which was written as an apology to him.
In Coldplay, Champion is often regarded as the rationality of the band, with Martin saying "When I think of him, I think of something heavy and granite-like. Like the base of a statue. Without that, the thing topples". While answering questions from fans, other members added that he "does have a very sensible head on his shoulders and when it comes to making decisions he is really good at putting valid points across and keeping everyone focused. He frequently has the casting vote and his decision can sometimes override the consensus". They often praise his multi-instrumentalism as well, describing him as a "human jukebox". Although Buckland and Berryman have taken part in backing vocals, Champion has remained the most prominent, as shown during the Viva la Vida Tour (2008–10), when he performed "Death Will Never Conquer". His version of the song was included on LeftRightLeftRightLeft (2009). Lead vocals are also heard on "The Goldrush", released as a B-side of "Life in Technicolor II". Additionally, the drummer played an acoustic rendition of "In My Place" featured on Live in Buenos Aires (2018).
### Other projects
Champion guested on a-ha keyboardist Magne Furuholmen's debut album, Past Perfect Future Tense (2004), along with Berryman. In 2011, the drummer was part of a video for the Beat for Peace campaign, which "called on global leaders to take urgent diplomatic action" and "prevent all out conflict returning to Sudan". He also made a guest appearance as one of the Red Wedding musicians in the "Rains of Castamere" episode from Game of Thrones, which aired on 2 June 2013. In the following year, he contributed to Brian Eno and Karl Hyde's collaborative album, Someday World (2014). Champion is known to support food and wine magazine Noble Rot as well, becoming an investor in their namesake restaurants. In 2017, he visited the University of Southampton to talk with music students about composing, studio recording, live performances and managing stardom. Along with Buckland, the drummer assisted Jodie Whittaker in her cover of "Yellow" for BBC's Children in Need album in 2019. Moreover, he has guested on DrumathonLIVE, a charity event focused on raising money for children's mental health. In 2023, he received an honorary degree as Doctor of Music from the University of Southampton.
## Musical style
### Equipment
Champion's first drum kit was a Yamaha 9000. Since A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), however, he uses a customized maple set with a 22"x16" bass drum, 13"x9" rack tom, 16"x15" floor tom, various snare drums and Zildjian cymbals (20" K Heavy ride, brilliant finish; 18" A Custom Medium crash [x2] and 14" K Custom Dark hi-hats). The drumheads are Remo coated ambassadors and he plays with Pro-Mark's hickory wood 5A drum sticks. Champion also owns Yamaha hardware, a Roc-N-Soc drum throne, two electronic drum pads and one electronic percussion pad. Noted for an energetic drumming style, he mentioned not being confident enough to play loud or heavy at first, which became part of his performance: "That is my trademark – Wait, keep waiting" and "at the last moment possible come in and steal the limelight at the end".
### Influences
When questioned on which Coldplay songs he thinks are his technical or "feel-wise" best, Champion commented being most proud of tracks where everything is boiled down to the essentials, citing "Viva la Vida" as an example: "It's just a kick drum, a bell and a little bit of timpani here and there, but it's so simple [...] We tried so many different things with that, four-beats, rock beats, everything – but nothing worked. It was a case of you've got to strip absolutely everything away to its very, very bare minimum. There are so many intricacies on the violins, the melodies and everything, I just felt it have to be simple with no frills, just support the song". He has cited Ginger Baker (Cream), John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) as some of his favourite drummers, receiving compliments from the latter in return.
## Personal life
According to The Times, Champion has an estimated wealth of £113 million as of May 2022. He is a lifelong fan of Southampton F.C. and has owned a seasonal ticket for many years. His parents, Tim and Sara, used to DJ as Champion Tunes at local pubs, the latter died from cancer in 2000. Her funeral was arranged for the same day Coldplay had to shoot the music video for "Yellow", which is why only Martin appeared on it. Their debut album, Parachutes, was later dedicated to her. In 2003, he married teacher Marianna Dark, becoming the first band member to wed. They have three children and live in the Hampstead area of Camden, London.
When questioned about fame, Champion said he loves that after playing stadiums around the world, he can "disappear" back to his children (who are studying Suzuki method violin) and wife (who sings in Brian Eno's private choir). This "skill " was subject of a sketch by British comedian Nish Kumar in Live at the Apollo. The drummer also commented that his favourite non-musical activity is cooking, and he often dances with Dark at their house. Her backing vocals were included in the title track of Everyday Life (2019), becoming Champion's favourite piece of music from the album. During the Music of the Spheres World Tour (2022–24), he made drawings for the cities visited on his drums.
## Discography
### With Coldplay
- Parachutes (2000)
- A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
- X&Y (2005)
- Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008)
- Mylo Xyloto (2011)
- Ghost Stories (2014)
- A Head Full of Dreams (2015)
- Everyday Life (2019)
- Music of the Spheres (2021)
### Solo credits
- Past Perfect Future Tense (2004) – drummer
- Someday World (2014) – drummer
## See also
- List of people associated with University College London
- List of British Grammy winners and nominees
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of highest-grossing live music artists
- List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
- List of Billboard Hot 100 number-ones by British artists |
44,896,275 | Italian cruiser Stromboli | 1,169,657,147 | Protected cruiser of the Italian Royal Navy | [
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| Stromboli was a protected cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) built in the 1880s. She was the second member of the Etna class, which included three sister ships. She was named for the volcanic island of Stromboli, and was armed with a main battery of two 254 mm (10 in) and a secondary battery of six 152 mm (6 in) guns, and could steam at a speed of around 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). Her career was relatively uneventful; the only significant action in which she took part was the campaign against the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900. She returned to Italy in 1901 and spent the rest of her career in reserve or as an ammunition ship, apart from a brief stint in active service in 1904. Stromboli was stricken from the naval register in 1907 and sold for scrapping in 1911.
## Design
The four ships of the Etna class were designed in Italy as domestically produced versions of the British-built cruiser Giovanni Bausan. The Italian government secured a manufacturing license from the British firm Armstrong Whitworth, but the design was revised by the Italian naval engineer Carlo Vigna. These cruisers were intended to serve as "battleship destroyers", and represented a temporary embrace of the Jeune École doctrine by the Italian naval command.
Stromboli was 283 feet 6 inches (86.4 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 42 feet 6 inches (13 m). She had a mean draft of 19 feet (5.8 m) and displaced between 3,373–3,474 long tons (3,427–3,530 t). Her crew numbered 12 officers and 296 men. The ship had two horizontal compound steam engines, each driving a single propeller, with steam provided by four double-ended cylindrical boilers. Stromboli was credited with a top speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) from 6,252 indicated horsepower (4,662 kW). She had a cruising radius of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
The main armament of the ships consisted of two Armstrong 254 mm (10 in), 30-caliber breech-loading guns mounted in barbettes fore and aft. She was also equipped with a secondary battery of six 152 mm (6 in), 32-caliber, breech-loading guns that were carried in sponsons along the sides of the ship. For anti-torpedo boat defense, Stromboli was fitted with five 57 mm (2.2 in) 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns and five 37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder Hotchkiss guns. The ship was also armed with four 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes. One was mounted in the bow underwater and the other three were above water. She was protected with an armor deck below the waterline with a maximum thickness of 38 mm (1.5 in). The conning tower had 13 mm (0.5 in) worth of armor plating.
## Service history
Stromboli was laid down at the Venetian Arsenal in Venice on 27 September 1883 and her finished hull was launched on 4 February 1886. Following the completion of fitting-out work, she was commissioned into the Italian fleet on 21 March 1888. She was present during a naval review held for the German Kaiser Wilhelm II during a visit to Italy later that year. Stromboli and her sisters Vesuvio and Ettore Fieramosca participated in the 1893 naval maneuvers as part of the Active Squadron. On 1 October 1893, she was assigned to the 3rd Department, which was stationed in Venice; she remained there through the following year. Later in 1894, the ship took part in the annual fleet maneuvers in the 1st Division of the Active Squadron, along with the ironclad battleship Re Umberto and the torpedo cruiser Goito. Beginning on 14 October, the Italian fleet, including Stromboli, assembled in Genoa for a naval review held in honor of King Umberto I at the commissioning of the new ironclad Re Umberto. The festivities lasted three days.
Stomboli and Ettore Fieramosca next participated in the 1896 naval maneuvers as part of the Active Squadron. During this period, she was assigned to the Flying Squadron, along with the armored cruiser Marco Polo and the protected cruiser Liguria. The ships were tasked as a training squadron and were also responsible for responding to any crises that might arise. Stromboli joined the 2nd Division of the active fleet in 1897, which also included the ironclad Andrea Doria, the armored cruiser Marco Polo, the protected cruisers Etna and Liguria, and the torpedo cruisers Urania, Partenope, and Caprera.
In 1899 Stromboli was deployed to the Far East. She was joined by Vesuvio and Ettore Fieramosca, sent there in 1900 to assist the Eight-Nation Alliance in putting down the Boxer Uprising in China. All three ships were assigned to the Cruising Squadron in Chinese waters in 1901. That year, Stromboli returned to Italy and was placed in reserve, before returning to active service in 1904. That year she was in active service for seven months; she spent the rest of the year with a reduced crew, as was standard practice in the Italian fleet at the time. She later served as an ammunition ship before being struck from the Navy List on 21 March 1907 and sold for scrap in 1911. |
986,944 | Hurricane Carla | 1,167,416,205 | Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 1961 | [
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"September 1961 events in the United States"
]
| Hurricane Carla was the most intense tropical cyclone landfall in Texas in the 20th century. The third named storm of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season, Carla developed from an area of squally weather in the southwestern Caribbean Sea on September 3. Initially a tropical depression, it strengthened slowly while heading northwestward, and by September 5, the system was upgraded to Tropical Storm Carla. About 24 hours later, Carla was upgraded to a hurricane. Shortly thereafter, the storm curved northward while approaching the Yucatán Channel. Late on September 7, Carla entered the Gulf of Mexico while passing just northeast of the Yucatán Peninsula. By early on the following day, the storm became a major hurricane after reaching Category 3 intensity. Resuming its northwestward course, Carla continued intensification and on September 11, became what would today be classified as a Category 4 hurricane. Later that day, Carla weakened slightly but was still a large and intense hurricane when the storm made landfall near Port O'Connor, Texas. It weakened quickly inland and was reduced to a tropical storm on September 12. Heading generally northward, Carla transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on September 13, while centered over southern Oklahoma. Rapidly moving northeastward, Carla's remnants reached the Labrador Sea, Canada and dissipated on September 17, 1961.
While crossing the Yucatán Channel, the outer bands of Carla brought gusty winds and severe local flooding in western Cuba and the Yucatán Peninsula, though no damage or fatalities were reported. Although initially considered a significant threat to Florida, the storm brought only light winds and small amounts of precipitation, reaching no more than 3.15 in (80 mm). In Texas, wind gusts as high as 170 mph (270 km/h) were observed in Port Lavaca. Additionally, several tornadoes spawned in the state caused notable impacts, including a violent F4 tornado near Galveston, Texas, resulting in 200 buildings severely damaged, of which at least 60 were destroyed, 8 deaths and 200 injuries. The aforementioned tornado is one of only two violent tornadoes ever recorded in a hurricane, with wind speeds in the tornado nearly 50% greater than Carla's peak intensity. Throughout the state, Carla destroyed 1,915 homes, 568 farm buildings, and 415 other buildings. Additionally, 50,723 homes, 5,620 farm buildings, and 10,487 other buildings suffered damage. There were 34 fatalities and at least \$300 million (1961 USD) in losses in Texas alone. Several tornadoes also touched down in Louisiana, causing the destruction of 140 homes and 11 farms and other buildings, and major damage to 231 additional homes and 11 farm and other buildings. Minor to moderate damage was also reported to 748 homes and 75 farms and other buildings. Six deaths and \$25 million in losses in Louisiana were attributed to Carla. Heavy rainfall occurred in several other states, especially in Kansas, where flash flooding severely damaged crops and drowned 5 people. Overall, Carla resulted in \$325.74 million in losses and 43 fatalities.
## Meteorological history
As early as September 1, a tropical disturbance – an area of convective activity – was observed tracking westward across the Caribbean Sea within the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Around that time, an anticyclone was situated over the western Caribbean Sea at the upper-tropospheric levels. Surface charts indicate that a low-level circulation was developing early on September 3. Thus, it is estimated that a tropical depression – a tropical cyclone with sustained winds with winds of less than 39 mph (63 km/h) – developed about 175 miles (282 km) northwest of Barranquilla, Colombia at 1200 UTC. Initially, the center of circulation remained difficult to locate on surface charts due to lack of data. At San Andrés, winds shifted west at about 12 mph (19 km/h), while barometric pressures dropped to 1,007 mbar (29.7 inHg). The Weather Bureau Office in Miami, Florida issued its first bulletin at 1600 UTC on September 4, while the depression was centered about 250 miles (400 km) east-southeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios, Nicaragua.
It is estimated that sustained winds reached 45 mph (72 km/h) at 1200 UTC on September 5, thus the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and was named Carla, while located just northeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios. A reconnaissance aircraft flight reported that Carla was continuing to intensify, with surface winds of 50 mph (80 km/h). Radars reported an unusually large tropical cyclone, with convective bands extending about 520 miles (840 km) outward from the center. Around 0000 UTC on September 6, Carla passed near Swan Island, which reported a barometric pressure of about 995 mbar (29.4 inHg) and wind gusts of 60 mph (97 km/h) from the southwest. Based on observations obtained by a reconnaissance aircraft at 1100 UTC on September 6 – namely a barometric pressure of 982 mbar (29.0 inHg) – a bulletin issued by the Weather Bureau an hour later indicated that the storm had "probably reached hurricane intensity". According to post-season analysis, Carla reached hurricane status at that time.
Shortly after becoming a hurricane on September 6, Carla curved northward in the northwestern Caribbean Sea. At 1200 UTC on September 7, the storm intensified into a Category 2 hurricane while located east-northeast of Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico (actual use of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which was developed in 1971, was not in effect). Shortly thereafter, Carla crossed the Yucatán Channel and entered the Gulf of Mexico. A strong high-pressure area forced Carla to resume its original northwesterly course. Early on September 8, the storm strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane while located just north of the Yucatán Peninsula. Thus, Carla was the third major hurricane of the season. Carla was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane early on September 10, while approaching the Gulf Coast of the United States. Operationally, at 0000 UTC on September 11, Carla strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane while located in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Six hours later, the storm reached its maximum sustained wind speed of 175 mph (282 km/h). However, a 2018 reanalysis concluded that Carla did not reach Category 5 intensity, and in fact only had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (233 km/h), and this has been officially incorporated into HURDAT.
Late on September 11, Carla reached its minimum barometric pressure of 931 mbar (27.5 inHg). Later that day, the storm struck Matagorda Island, Texas (seven miles south of Port O'Connor) with winds of 145 mph (233 km/h). Carla rapidly weakened inland, and degenerated to a Category 2 hurricane on September 12, while passing just east of Port Lavaca. Six hours later, the storm was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane near Shiner, shortly before being downgraded to a tropical storm between Taylor and Coupland. Beginning late on September 12, the storm curved just east of due north. After reaching Oklahoma early on September 13, Carla transitioned into an extratropical cyclone while located over rural Johnston County. The extratropical remnants of Carla moved rapidly northeastward and brought heavy rainfall to some areas of the Great Plains and Midwestern United States. By September 14, it entered Canada near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It then continued swiftly northeastward across Ontario, Quebec, and Labrador, before the remnants dissipated over the Labrador Sea on September 17.
## Preparations
Occurring a year after Hurricane Donna, officials in the Florida Keys took precautions to brace for potential impact from the storm. The United States Navy flew their planes out of Key West, while Coast Guardsmen evacuated Alligator Reef Light, American Shoal Light, and Sombrero Key Light. Ships docked at Key West sailed out to sea to ride out the squalls. On the morning of September 7, a hurricane watch was issued from the entire coast of Louisiana eastward to Apalachicola, Florida. On September 8, a hurricane watch was issued along the southwest coast of the state from Vermilion Bay westward. It was later extended westward to include the entire coast of Texas, and eastward to Apalachicola, Florida. A portion of the hurricane watch from Aransas Pass, Texas to Grand Isle, Louisiana was upgraded to a hurricane warning at 1600 UTC on September 9. An estimated 500,000 people fled the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, making it the largest evacuation in the history of the United States, at the time. Further, at least half of those people were from Texas. In small towns along the coast of Texas, 90–100% of their populations evacuated, while 20% of people left the larger cities. Many in Galveston stayed due to protection from the Galveston Seawall.
## Impact
Carla spawned 21 tornadoes, the largest hurricane-related tornado outbreak on record at the time. However, it was overwhelmingly surpassed by Hurricane Beulah in 1967, which spawned at least 120 tornadoes. Throughout its path, 43 fatalities and about \$325.74 million in damage were attributed to Carla. Most of the impact occurred in Texas, where the storm made landfall as a large and strong Category 4 hurricane.
### United States
#### Texas
Abnormally high tides and storm surge was reported along the coast of Texas, reaching at least 10 feet (3.0 m) above mean sea level at many coastal areas between Sabine Pass and Port Aransas. The highest tide reported was 18.5 feet (5.6 m) at Port Lavaca, with large wave heights including 12.6 feet (3.8 m) in Matagorda, 10.9 feet (3.3 m) in Port Aransas, 10.8 feet (3.3 m) in Freeport, 10.1 feet (3.1 m) in Texas City, and 10 feet (3.0 m) in Galveston and Sabine. Because the storm was a Category 4 hurricane at landfall, Carla produced strong winds, especially near its path. The strongest sustained winds include 115 mph (185 km/h) in Matagorda, 110 mph (180 km/h) in Victoria, and 88 mph (142 km/h). Additionally, the highest wind gust observations include 175 mph (282 km/h) in Port Lavaca, 160 mph (260 km/h) in Matagorda, and 150 mph (240 km/h) in Aransas Pass, Austwell, Edna, Port Aransas, and Victoria. Carla produced heavy rainfall in Texas, peaking at 17.48 inches (444 mm) in Bay City. Other significant precipitation totals include 16.49 inches (419 mm) at Scholes International Airport at Galveston, 14.94 inches (379 mm) in Downtown Galveston, 13.05 inches (331 mm) in Wharton, 12.55 inches (319 mm) in Liberty, 12.47 inches (317 mm) in Dickinson, 11.81 inches (300 mm) in Flatonia, 10.59 inches (269 mm) in Columbus, 8.75 inches (222 mm) in Hallettsville, and 8.9 inches (230 mm) in Smithville.
The most significant property damage occurred between Port Arthur and Corpus Christi. Port O'Connor, lying nearest to the location of Carla's landfall, was virtually destroyed. In Columbus, the "Ranch Drive-In" theater is destroyed by the storm and was never reopened after 6 years of operation. In Victoria, the highest sustained wind speed was 110 mph (180 km/h), while gusts reached 150 mph (240 km/h). About 4,260 homes were damaged, with around 500 severely damaged or destroyed. 43 businesses and 26 public buildings were also significantly impacted. Damage in the city of Victoria reached \$10 million. Of the 21 tornadoes spawned by Carla, eight of them in Texas caused significant impact. On September 11, an F2 tornado near Bay City destroyed two radio towers and damaged several buildings. An F3 tornado injured three people and caused the destruction of one house and impacted three others in Jacksonville, resulting in \$25,000 in damage. Another F3 tornado in Channelview, located east of Houston, injured 22 people, destroyed 18 homes and six commercial buildings, damaged 40 additional homes, and caused \$200,000 in damage. In the early morning hours of September 12, a violent F4 tornado moved across Galveston Island along a 1-mile long, 100-yard-wide path (it crossed into Galveston Bay as well), severely damaging 200 buildings, of which 60-75 were destroyed, and causing eight deaths and 200 injuries. This was the first of only two known violent tornadoes ever spawned by a hurricane with the other one happening during Hurricane Hilda in 1964. A few hours later, an F3 tornado in the area destroyed six houses and extensive, but lesser, damage. In Hardin, another F3 tornado damaged six homes. Several structures sustained impact during yet another F3 tornado in Fulbright. The final tornado occurred during the late afternoon hours of September 13 in Latex. It caused F2 damage, two injuries, and resulted in \$2,500 in losses after damaging two houses and three garages.
Then little-known newsman Dan Rather reported live from the weather bureau building in Galveston during the storm, live on-site storm coverage that would be imitated by later reporters. This marked the first live television broadcast of a hurricane. Rather also alerted the public of the size of Carla in a way that "literally changed the way the world sees hurricanes", according to a fellow reporter. Broadcasting live at the Weather Bureau Office in Galveston, Rather asked a meteorologist to outline the Gulf of Mexico on a transparent sheet of plastic. He then held the map over the black and white radar screen, which put the size of Carla into perspective, saying that Carla was the size of the Gulf of Mexico. CBS was so impressed with Rather's work that he was offered the position of correspondent. Throughout Texas, Carla destroyed 1,915 homes, 568 farm buildings, and 415 other buildings. Additionally, 50,723 homes, 5,620 farm buildings, and 10,487 other buildings suffered damage. There were 460 injuries according to the American Red Cross, though the Monthly Weather Review listed a slightly higher number, 465. The storm caused 34 fatalities in Texas. Causes of death include 20 people drowning, eight from tornadoes, four electrocutions, and one heart attack. Overall, damage in the state was "conservatively" estimated at \$300 million. A breakdown of damage indicates \$200 million incurred to property and \$100 million to crops, mostly from unharvested rice and lesser impact to cotton and citrus.
#### Louisiana
In southeastern Louisiana, abnormally high tides lashed the coast, though no beach erosion was reported. Rainfall was heavy, peaking at 13.9 inches (350 mm) in Many. Other observed precipitation totals include 5.6 inches (140 mm) in Baton Rouge, 5.57 inches (141 mm) in Morgan City, 4.25 inches (108 mm) in Shreveport, 3.16 inches (80 mm) in New Orleans, 2.25 inches (57 mm) in Lafayette, 2.19 inches (56 mm) in Alexandria, 2.1 inches (53 mm) in Jonesboro and West Monroe, and 1.37 inches (35 mm) in Lake Charles. In the western portions of Louisiana, sustained winds peaked at 44 mph (71 km/h) and gusts reached 55 mph (89 km/h). Only minor damage occurred, limited to roofs, glass, and downed tree limbs. Winds caused a local river to reach 1 foot (0.30 m) above flood stage. The 11 tornadoes spawned by Carla in Louisiana destroyed 140 homes and 11 farm and other buildings, while causing major damage to 231 additional homes and 11 farm and other buildings. Additionally, 748 homes and 75 farm and other buildings suffered minor to moderate damage. Six fatalities and 199 injuries occurred, mostly related to the tornadoes. Damage in Louisiana totaled to about \$25 million. A breakdown of losses include \$6 million to agriculture, \$5 million to buildings, \$4 million to boats and beach property, \$3 million to roads and bridges, \$5 million to oil platforms just offshore, and \$2 million in miscellaneous damage.
#### Oklahoma
Carla and its remnants brought heavy rainfall and strong winds to portions of Oklahoma. About 2–8 inches (51–203 mm) of rain fell in Grant, Tillman, Washita Counties. Heavier amounts of at least 5 inches (130 mm) fell in Atoka and Pushmataha County. Precipitation in the state peaked at 7.68 inches (195 mm) in Kingfisher. More than 140 city blocks were flooded with up to 6 feet (1.8 m) in residential areas of Kingfisher and up to 3 feet (0.91 m) in business areas. 225 homes and buildings in the city suffered water damage. Throughout the state, damage in other areas included 90 homes and buildings in Tulsa, 50 homes each in El Reno and Oklahoma City, and 10 homes in Pawnee. Additionally, water inundation washed out several bridges and highways in northeastern parts of the state, leaving roads impassable. Sustained winds between 30 and 55 mph (48 and 89 km/h) and gusts up to 70 mph (110 km/h) were recorded in Oklahoma. Winds injured two people due to airborne debris. Winds and rain combined severely disrupted electrical and telephone services and caused \$670,000 in damage, with \$600,000 to property and \$70,000 to crops.
#### Illinois
The storm dropped precipitation amounts of 7 inches (180 mm) throughout northwestern Illinois, with a peak of 8.18 inches (208 mm) in Mount Carroll. Thus, Carla is the second-wettest tropical cyclone in Illinois, behind only Hurricane Audrey in 1957. Additionally, up to 6.29 inches (160 mm) fell in 24 hours. Severe local flooding occurred, especially in the northern portions of the state. Heavy property and agricultural damage occurred. Streets and basements were reported to have flooded, while bridge approaches and a few small bridges were washed out. Precipitation of 2.5–3.5 inches (64–89 mm) in Chicago flooded about 60 viaducts and 1,000 basements. After the Chicago River rose 5 feet (1.5 m), the lock gate to Lake Michigan was opened to release excess water. However, the abrupt onrush of water resulted in about \$75,000 in damage to boats at Wilmette Harbor.
#### Elsewhere in the United States
Winds in Key West reached 30 mph (48 km/h), while much of Florida reported rainfall from the outer bands of Carla. In Kansas, 4 to 7 inches (100 to 180 mm) of rain in only 6 hours caused flash flooding. With a peak amount of 8.52 inches (216 mm) in Haddam, Carla was the rainiest tropical cyclone in Kansas, until being surpassed by Hurricane Paine in 1986 as well as Tropical Storm Frances in 1998. Severe crop damage occurred, especially in areas of Chautauqua and Shawnee Counties and to the south of the Kansas River. Many highways were left impassable due to water inundation. A family of 4 drowned after their car was swept off a road near Waverly. A fifth fatality occurred after a car with one occupant was swept into a tributary of the Marmaton River near Fort Scott. The storm persistently produced winds of 35 to 50 mph (56 to 80 km/h), causing further agricultural damage.
In Nebraska, rainfall peaked at 5.68 inches (144 mm) in Hubbrell, making Carla the rainiest tropical cyclone in the state. Heavy precipitation also fell in Missouri, especially in Brookfield, Lee's Summit, and Pleasant Hill. The maximum rainfall total in Missouri was 9.34 inches (237 mm) in Concordia. One fatality was reported in Missouri, though the cause of death is unknown. Rainfall in Iowa peaked at 9.03 inches (229 mm) near Chariton, making Carla the rainiest tropical cyclone in the state. Up to 8 inches (200 mm) of rain fell in a 12-hour period in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, mostly between Cheboygan and Grand Rapids. However, the Weather Prediction Center indicated precipitation amounts of 6.07 inches (154 mm) in Boyne Falls. Regardless, Carla is the wettest tropical cyclone in the history of Michigan. Despite, the rainfall, flooding in Michigan was relatively minimal, limited to a washed out dam in Traverse City. Precipitation in Wisconsin reached 7.58 inches (193 mm) in Brodhead, causing Carla to rank as the wettest tropical cyclone in the state. Precipitation peaks in other states include 4.44 inches (113 mm) in Alabama, 5.48 inches (139 mm) in Arkansas, 6.37 inches (162 mm) in Mississippi, and 3.6 inches (91 mm) in Indiana.
### Elsewhere
In Cuba, broadcasts reported severe flooding near Pinar del Río, and in Los Colomas and Punta de Cartas. Offshore Honduras on Swan Island, a rainfall amount of 3.89 inches (99 mm) was reported along with wind gusts up to 60 mph (97 km/h). The remnants of Carla brought tropical storm force winds to some areas of Canada. In Ontario, gusty winds caused power outages in the Clarkson–Port Credit area. Electrical services were are disrupted in New Brunswick, due to winds up to 80 mph (130 km/h) in Saint John. Winds of 57 mph (92 km/h) lashed Halifax in Nova Scotia, thus the Halifax Public Gardens closed for threat of falling trees and branches.
## Aftermath
Shortly after the storm, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, a lifelong resident of Texas, toured the devastation in the state and met with officials from 18 different counties, remarking that "as always, Texans are arising to a challenge... We have suffered hurricane, tornado, and floods, but we in Texas are a bold and brave people." After his report to President John F. Kennedy and Congress, \$55 million was approved in aid for Texas, though Kennedy later requested an additional \$65 million. President Kennedy issued a disaster declaration for Texas, allowing all jurisdictions in the state to apply for public assistance. The president also declared 6 parishes in Louisiana a disaster area. Helicopters deployed 88 United States Marines to Galveston to patrol devastated areas. A United States Navy task force composed of medical and construction work teams was also sent to the area. Members of the United States National Guard assisted refugees in returning to their homes and worked to prevent looting. Owing to the hurricane's intensity and destruction, the name Carla was retired and will never again be used for an Atlantic hurricane; the name was replaced by Carol in 1965.
## See also
- List of Category 4 Atlantic hurricanes
- Hurricane Harvey (2017) – A Category 4 hurricane that was the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas since Carla; tied for the costliest tropical cyclone ever recorded worldwide |
12,382,527 | Kassina senegalensis | 1,150,034,541 | Species of frog | [
"Amphibians described in 1841",
"Amphibians of Africa",
"Kassina",
"Taxa named by André Marie Constant Duméril",
"Taxa named by Gabriel Bibron",
"Taxonomy articles created by Polbot"
]
| Kassina senegalensis, also known as the Senegal running frog, along with many other common names, is a species of frog native to much of Africa. It is a small and solidly-built species with large eyes. Most of the body is greyish-black, but there are brown bands and spots on certain parts. They can be found in many types of habitats, such as shrublands, grasslands, and wetlands, at elevations as high as 2,000 metres (1.2 mi). Their breeding occurs in water, where eggs are laid in various locations and fertilised one by one. They eat a variety of arthropods and secrete peptides from their skin to avoid becoming prey themselves. Their population is assumed to be very large and not in any immediate danger.
## Taxonomy
Kassina senegalensis was first described in 1841 by André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron as Cystignathus senegalensis. Their description came from specimens that had been collected from ponds in Senegal, sent to them by an individual identified only as Mr. Heudelot. The genus Cystignathus was split into several new genera in 1853 by Charles Frédéric Girard, with senegalensis ending up as the only species of the newly erected genus Kassina. Six other species names, four alternate combinations, and eight proposed subspecies of this species have all been subsequently synonymised with the latest accepted name.
## Description
Senegal running frogs are relatively small and stocky. The vomer teeth of the upper mouth are arranged in two small groups. The tongue is heart-shaped. The Eustachian tube is quite small, and the eardrums are indistinct from the layer of skin covering them. Its four unwebbed fingers ordered from shortest to longest are its first, second, fourth, and third digits. The toes are also unwebbed. The eyes are large and somewhat protruding, while the head is shaped like an equilateral triangle, rounded at the tip. The entire body is smooth. In colour, Kassina senegalensis is greyish black, with brown longitudinal bands and spots of the same colour on various locations of the body, including the ears and eyes. They range in size from 35 to 40 millimetres (1.4 to 1.6 in). Males are a little smaller than females, and they have chocolate-coloured vocal sacs that can grow nearly twice their normal size during calls.
Kassina senegalensis eggs are about 3 millimetres (0.12 in) in diameter; this includes the jellylike membrane that covers them. Identification of tadpoles can be difficult, as there is much variation among them, a trait shared with other species in the genus Kassina. They grow up to 75 millimetres (3.0 in) long, with wide fins and humped backs.
## Distribution and habitat
Kassina senegalensis is found over a large portion of Africa, from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia and Somalia in the east, all the way south to South Africa. Its presence is uncertain in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Togo. In the northern parts of its distribution, specifically Kenya and Tanzania, the relationship between its range and that of its relative Kassina somalica is not well understood. It is found in many different habitats, including savannas (both humid and dry), montane grasslands and shrublands, wetlands, and artificial environments (such as pastures and canals). They can be found at elevations as high as 2,000 metres (1.2 mi).
## Behaviour and ecology
### Reproduction and life cycle
Kassina senegalensis can breed in both temporary and permanent sources of water, although due to their relatively long growth time, these are usually permanent or semi-permanent. Males call to attract females. The clasping male initiates the female's egg laying with their cloacae kept about 2 millimetres (0.079 in) apart. The male stays behind the female to fertilize eggs one at a time as the pair frequently moves to lay between one and fifteen eggs at each position. They are laid at a depth between 1 and 6 centimetres (0.39 and 2.36 in), quickly sinking to the bottom. A total of about 600 eggs are laid, which hatch after around six days. The presence of fish in breeding ponds shortens mating periods, whereas many other frog species avoid breeding in such conditions. All tested frog species, K. senegalensis included, immediately stopped breeding activity when the catfish species Clarias gariepinus is introduced. They take 50–60 days to complete metamorphosis.
### Diet
In a study of K. senegalensis frogs in Cameroon, this species was identified as a generalist forager that primarily consumed Orthoptera insect species (36%), ants (24%), and spiders (10%). There was no clear size preference for prey.
### Skin secretion
Senegal running frogs secrete the peptide Kassinakinin S from their skin, which induces the release of histamine from mast cells. Potential predators that consume this peptide experience painful inflammation that allows other secretory products to enter their bloodstream.
## Conservation
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has rated K. senegalensis as a least-concern species, citing its extensive range and tolerance of many different habitats. It is unclear whether this species' large estimated population has significantly changed in recent years. On a local scale, Senegal running frogs may be affected by particularly severe habitat degradation. They are also sometimes traded internationally as pets, but not at a high enough level to be of special concern, according to the IUCN. Throughout its range, it is found in many ecologically protected areas.
## Note |
65,522,018 | Spendius | 1,153,047,620 | Anti-Carthaginian rebel general active 241–238 BC | [
"Ancient mercenaries",
"Mercenary War",
"Military of Carthage",
"People executed by crucifixion",
"Place of birth unknown"
]
| Spendius (died late 238 BC) was a former Roman slave who led a rebel army against Carthage, in what is known as the Mercenary War. He escaped or was rescued from slavery in Campania and was recruited into the Carthaginian Army during the First Punic War at some point prior to 241 BC. Spendius's date of birth is unknown, as are most details of his activities prior to his coming to prominence as a mutineer in 241 BC. After the First Punic War, Carthage attempted to pay its soldiers less than the full amount due to them before demobilising them. Spendius faced death by torture if he were returned to Roman authority and took a dim view of the increasingly warm relationship between Carthage and Rome. He came to the fore as a member of the army most vocal in resisting Carthaginian efforts to settle the dispute. When the disagreement broke down into a full-scale mutiny in late 241 BC he was elected co-general with the African Mathos by his fellow mutineers. Mathos spread the news of the mutiny to the main African settlements under Carthaginian suzerainty and they rose in rebellion. Provisions, money and 70,000 reinforcements poured in. For four years Spendius led a rebel army against Carthage, in what is known as the Mercenary War, with mixed success.
In 238 BC Spendius led 40,000 men against the Carthaginian general Hamilcar, keeping to the higher and rougher terrain due to the Carthaginian superiority in cavalry and elephants, and harassed the Carthaginian army. His army became trapped in a pass or mountain range known as the Saw. Pinned against mountains and with their food exhausted, the rebels ate their horses, their prisoners and then their slaves, hoping that Mathos would sortie to rescue them. Eventually, the surrounded troops forced Spendius to parley with Hamilcar, but on a thin pretext Hamilcar took Spendius and his lieutenants prisoner. The rebels then attempted to fight their way out in the Battle of the Saw and were massacred to a man. Spendius and his colleagues were crucified in view of the rebel-held city of Tunis. Mathos ordered a large-scale night attack, which captured a senior Carthaginian general and a visiting delegation of 30 Carthaginian notables. They were tortured and then nailed to the crosses previously occupied by Spendius and his colleagues. Later that year the surviving rebels were crushed at the Battle of Leptis Parva.
## Background
Spendius was a Roman slave from Campania who escaped from his slavery, or was rescued from it; the ancient historian Polybius described him as a "slave deserter from the Romans". He was recruited into the Carthaginian Army during the First Punic War (264–241 BC) at some point prior to 241 BC. Spendius's date of birth is unknown, as are most details of his activities prior to his coming to prominence as a mutineer in 241 BC.
## End of the First Punic War and mutiny
In 241 BC the First Punic War between Carthage and Rome ended after 23 years. The Romans had defeated a Carthaginian fleet attempting to lift the blockade of its last strongholds on Sicily. With their relief effort repulsed, the Carthaginian Senate accepted defeat and ordered their commander on Sicily, Hamilcar Barca, to negotiate a peace treaty with the Romans, on whatever terms he could obtain. Instead, Hamilcar left Sicily in a rage, convinced that the surrender was unnecessary. The negotiation of the treaty and the subsequent evacuation of the Carthaginian army of 20,000 men from Sicily was left in the hands of Gisco. Not wishing the freshly idle soldiers to combine for purposes of their own, Gisco split the army into small detachments based on their regions of origin. He sent these back to Carthage one at a time. He anticipated they would be promptly paid the several years' back pay they were owed and hurried on their way home.
The Carthaginian authorities decided to instead wait until all of the troops had arrived and then attempt to negotiate a settlement at a lower rate. Meanwhile, as each group landed it was billeted inside the city of Carthage where the advantages of civilisation were appreciated to the full after up to eight years under siege. This "tumultuous licentiousness" so alarmed the city's authorities that before the full 20,000 had arrived they were relocated to Sicca Veneria (modern El Kef), 180 kilometres (110 mi) away, even though a significant portion of their arrears had to be paid before they would go. Freed of their long period of military discipline and with nothing to do, the men grumbled among themselves and refused all attempts by the Carthaginians to pay them less than the full amount due. It was at this point that a junior officer named Mathos came to prominence as one of the most outspoken of the 20,000-strong army; he was totally opposed to anything less than full payment, including the fulfilment of all verbal promises.
The leading Carthaginian negotiator was their senior general in Africa, Hanno. Over the previous ten years he had led a series of campaigns which greatly increased the area of Africa controlled by Carthage. Hanno was rigorous in squeezing taxes out of the newly conquered territory in order to pay for both the war with Rome and his own campaigns. Half of all agricultural output was taken as war tax, and the tribute previously due from towns and cities had been doubled. These exactions were harshly enforced, causing extreme hardship in many areas. A large part of the army, possibly the majority, were from Carthage's North African possessions and were, to a greater or lesser degree, dissatisfied with Carthage's treatment of its African subjects. These non-Carthaginian North Africans were deeply dissatisfied with Hanno's attitude towards tax raising and may also have believed that once the army was paid off and they returned home there would have been no obstacle to Carthage continuing, or even increasing, its exactions. Mathos became the recalcitrant spokesman for this group. He was vocally supported by Spendius, who faced death by torture if he were returned to Roman authority. The treaty which ended the war required Carthage to return all "Roman deserters" and Spendius took a dim view of the increasingly warm relationship between Carthage and Rome; he allied with Mathos and roused the non-African soldiery to refuse all Carthaginian efforts to settle the dispute.
In mid- or late September 241 BC, frustrated by the Carthaginian negotiators' attempts to haggle, all 20,000 troops marched to Tunis, 16 km (10 mi) from Carthage. Panicking, the Senate agreed to payment in full. The mutinous troops responded by demanding even more. Gisco, who had a good reputation with the army, was brought over from Sicily in late 241 BC and despatched to the camp with enough money to pay most of what was owed. He started to disburse this, with promises that the balance would be paid as soon as it could be raised. The discontent seemed to have abated until Spendius and Mathos stirred up the North African contingent with a vision of the Carthaginians wreaking vengeance on them once their comrades had been sent home and their discipline broke down. A riot broke out, dissenters were stoned to death, and Spendius and Mathos were jointly declared generals by the mutineers. After further, fruitless, negotiations Gisco and his staff were taken prisoner and his treasury was seized.
Mathos sent messengers to the main African settlements under Carthaginian suzerainty with the news that a formed, experienced, anti-Carthaginian army now existed in the heart of its territory and many cities and towns rose in rebellion. Provisions, money and reinforcements poured in; eventually an additional 70,000 men according to the ancient historian of Rome, Polybius, although many would have been tied down in garrisoning their home towns against Carthaginian retribution. Almost all of Carthaginian Africa joined the mutineers. The pay dispute had become a full-scale revolt, the Mercenary War, threatening Carthage's existence as a state.
## War
### Against Hanno
Hanno, as the commander of Carthage's African army, took the field. Most of the Africans in his force remained loyal; they were accustomed to acting against their fellow Africans. His non-African contingent had remained quartered in Carthage when the army of Sicily was expelled, and also remained loyal. The few troops still in Sicily were paid up to date and redeployed with Hanno, and money was raised to hire fresh troops. An unknown number of Carthaginian citizens were incorporated into Hanno's army. By the time Hanno assembled this force, the rebels had already blockaded the major Carthaginian port cities of Utica and Hippo (modern Bizerte); Spendius was in charge of operations around Utica, Mathos around Hippo.
In early 240 BC Hanno set off with the army to relieve Utica; he took with him 100 elephants and a siege train. Hanno stormed Spendius's camp in the Battle of Utica and his elephants routed the besiegers. Hanno's army took over the camp and Hanno himself entered the city in triumph. However, Spendius regrouped the battle-hardened veterans of the Sicilian army in the nearby hills and, not being pursued, led them back to Utica. The Carthaginians were accustomed to fighting the militias of the Numidian cities, who once broken would scatter in all directions; they were still celebrating their victory when Spendius counter-attacked. The Carthaginians fled, with great loss of life, losing their baggage and siege trains. For the rest of the year Hanno skirmished with Spendius's force, repeatedly missing opportunities to bring it to battle or to place it at a disadvantage; the military historian Nigel Bagnall writes that Hanno showed his "incompetence as a field commander".
### Against Hamilcar
At some point during 240 BC the Carthaginians raised another, smaller, force, of approximately 10,000. It included deserters from the rebels, 2,000 cavalry, and 70 elephants. This was placed under the command of Hamilcar, who had commanded the Carthaginian forces on Sicily for the last six years of the First Punic War. The rebels held the line of the Bagradas River with 10,000 men commanded by Spendius. Hamilcar would need to force a crossing if he were to gain access to open country where he could manoeuvre. He did so by a stratagem, and Spendius was reinforced by an additional 15,000 men drawn from the force laying siege to Utica, which the rebels had renewed. The rebel army of 25,000 moved to attack Hamilcar in the Battle of the Bagradas River. What happened next is unclear: it seems Hamilcar feigned a retreat and the rebels broke ranks to pursue; it is not recorded if this was ordered by Spendius or was against his wishes. The Carthaginians turned in good order and counter-attacked, routing the rebels, who suffered losses of 8,000 men.
Hamilcar was appointed joint commander of the Carthaginian army, alongside Hanno, but there was no cooperation between the two. While Hanno manoeuvred against Mathos to the north near Hippo, Hamilcar confronted various towns and cities which had gone over to the rebels, bringing them back to Carthaginian allegiance with varying mixtures of diplomacy and force. He was shadowed by a superior-sized rebel force commanded by Spendius, which kept to rough ground for fear of Hamilcar's cavalry and elephants, and harried his foragers and scouts. South west of Utica Hamilcar moved his force into the mountains in an attempt to bring the rebels to battle, but was surrounded. The Carthaginians were only saved from destruction when a Numidian leader, Naravas, who had served with and admired Hamilcar in Sicily, swapped sides with his 2,000 cavalry. This proved disastrous for the rebels, and in the resulting battle Spendius's army was defeated, losing 10,000 killed and 4,000 captured.
### Truceless War
Since leaving Carthage, Hamilcar had treated rebels he had captured well and offered them a choice of joining his army or free passage home. He made the same offer to the 4,000 captives from the recent battle. Spendius perceived this generous treatment as the motivation behind Naravas's defection and feared the disintegration of his army; he was aware that such generous terms would not be extended to him personally. To remove the possibility of any goodwill between the sides, he had 700 Carthaginian prisoners, including Gisco, tortured to death: they had their hands cut off, were castrated, their legs broken and were thrown into a pit and buried alive. Hamilcar, in turn, killed his prisoners. From this point, neither side showed any mercy, and the unusual ferocity of the fighting caused Polybius to term it the "Truceless War". Any further prisoners taken by the Carthaginians were trampled to death by elephants.
At some point between March and September 239 BC the previously loyal cities of Utica and Hippo slew their Carthaginian garrisons and joined the rebels. The people of Utica offered their city to the Romans, who declined. The rebels previously operating in the area moved south and laid siege to Carthage.
Having a clear superiority in cavalry, Hamilcar raided the supply lines of the rebels around Carthage. In mid-239 BC he was joined by Hanno and his army, but the two men disagreed as to the best strategy and operations were paralysed. Unusually, the choice of supreme commander was put to a vote of the army – possibly only the officers – and Hamilcar was elected; Hanno left the army. In early 238 BC the lack of supplies forced Mathos and Spendius to lift the siege of Carthage. They fell back to Tunis, from where they maintained a more distant blockade.While Mathos maintained the blockade, Spendius led 40,000 men against Hamilcar. As in the previous year, they stayed to the higher and rougher terrain and harassed the Carthaginian army. After a period of campaigning, the details of which are not clear in the sources, Hamilcar trapped the rebels in a pass or mountain range known as the Saw. Pinned against mountains and with their food exhausted, the rebels ate their horses, their prisoners and then their slaves, hoping that Mathos would sortie from Tunis to rescue them. Eventually, the surrounded troops forced Spendius to parley with Hamilcar, but on a thin pretext Hamilcar took Spendius and his lieutenants prisoner. The rebels then attempted to fight their way out in the Battle of the Saw and were massacred to a man.
Hamilcar then marched on Tunis and laid siege to it in late 238 BC. The city was difficult to access from both the east and the west, so Hamilcar occupied a position to the south with half the army, and his deputy Hannibal was to the north with the balance. The rebel leaders taken captive prior to the Saw, including Spendius, were crucified in full view of the city. Mathos ordered a large-scale night attack, which surprised the Carthaginians, who suffered many casualties. Hannibal's camp was overrun and they lost much of their baggage. In addition, Hannibal and a delegation of 30 Carthaginian notables who were visiting the army were captured. They were tortured and then nailed to the crosses previously occupied by Spendius and his colleagues. Hamilcar abandoned the siege and withdrew to the north.
## Aftermath
Despite the siege being lifted, few supplies were getting through and Mathos decided that the situation was untenable. He led the army 160 km (100 mi) south to the wealthy port city of Leptis Parva (just south of the modern city of Monastir, Tunisia). The Carthaginian Senate encouraged reconciliation between Hanno and Hamilcar, and they agreed to serve together. The pair marched after them with an army totalling perhaps 25,000 including every Carthaginian citizen of military age. On this occasion Hanno and Hamilcar cooperated well and the rebels were forced into a succession of unsuccessful skirmishes as the Carthaginians attempted to wear them down. Mathos, rather than wait to be besieged, decided to meet the Carthaginians in open battle in mid-to-late 238 BC. Battle was given eight to ten weeks after the two armies first engaged near Leptis Parva, and the rebels were crushed, with few losses to the Carthaginians. In a change of policy, prisoners were taken, which probably helped to ensure that there was no desperate last stand. Captives were sold into slavery. Mathos was also captured, and he was dragged through the streets of Carthage and tortured to death by its citizens.
## Notes, citations and sources |
30,474,074 | On the Floor | 1,173,884,572 | 2011 single by Jennifer Lopez | [
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| "On the Floor" is a song recorded by American singer Jennifer Lopez for her seventh studio album, Love? (2011). Featuring American rapper Pitbull, it was released by Island Records on February 8, 2011, as the lead single from the album. "On the Floor" was written by Kinnda "Kee" Hamid, AJ Junior, Teddy Sky, Bilal "The Chef" Hajji, Pitbull, Gonzalo Hermosa, Ulises Hermosa, along with the song's producer RedOne. It is a pop song combining techno, Latin, dance-pop and house music and with a common time tempo of 130 beats per minute. Lopez recorded a Spanish-language version of the song titled "Ven a Bailar" (English: "Come to Dance"), which includes additional lyrical contributions from Julio Reyes Copello and Jimena Romero.
The song's development was motivated by Lopez's Latin heritage and pays homage to her career-beginnings as a dancer. Interpolated within the song are recurrent elements of the 1982 Bolivian composition "Llorando se fue" written by Gonzalo and Ulises Hermosa of Los Kjarkas, a composition that gained notoriety when it was covered by Kaoma in their 1989 single "Lambada". Lopez described "On the Floor" as an evolution of her classic sound and as something which sounded very current. The debut and release of "On the Floor" coincided with Lopez's appointment as a judge on the tenth season of US reality TV show American Idol, as well as several other product endorsement deals. American Idol also provided a platform to debut the single's music video, as well as the stage for Lopez's first live performance of the song.
Editors from BBC Music and Los Angeles Times drew comparisons to Lopez's debut single, "If You Had My Love" (1999) and follow-up single "Waiting for Tonight" (1999). In the United States, it was Lopez's first single in four years to garner airplay, and has sold 3.8 million copies, earning a triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was ranked by Billboard as the eleventh-biggest hit of 2011 on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 chart. "On the Floor" finished in first in Austria, Finland, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and other countries.
A music video was directed by TAJ Stansberry and choreographed by Frank Gatson Jr, with fans being given the chance to vote for their preferred ending for the video. The completed clip premiered simultaneously on Vevo and during the March 3, 2011 episode of American Idol. It depicts a Los Angeles underground club culture where Lopez portrays a "queen of the nightclub", among other characters. The video received critical acclaim for its lavish production, styling, and choreography, all of which critics felt highlighted Lopez's skills as a dancer. "On the Floor" sold over eight million copies worldwide in 2011, making it the best-selling single of that year by a female artist.
## Background
Lopez's seventh studio album Love? (2011) was conceived in late 2007 and early 2008. During that time frame, under contract to Epic Records, Lopez released "Louboutins", a song written and produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, as the project's lead single. However upon release, the song failed to garner enough airplay to chart, despite topping the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Lopez subsequently left Epic Records, citing that she had fulfilled her contractual obligations and now wished to release Love? under a new label. Upon signing with The Island Def Jam Music Group, Lopez continued working with The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, in addition to collaborating with new producers such as RedOne. It was not until January 2011 that Lopez teased the media about the new lead single for Love?. In a tweet on her Twitter account, Lopez posted: "I see u @RedOne_Official! We're making BIG things happen 'On the Floor' this new year!!!". Subsequently, on January 16, 2011, an unfinished snippet of "On the Floor" leaked online, labelled as a RedOne production and featuring rap vocals from Pitbull. It is the second time that Lopez and Pitbull have collaborated on a song, the first being "Fresh Out the Oven", the 2009 buzz single which reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart.
According to the Los Angeles Times's Gerrick D. Kennedy, a full-length unfinished version of "On the Floor" leaked online over the same weekend in time for Lopez's new L'Oreal commercial, which premiered during the telecast of the 68th Golden Globe Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The timing of the leak also coincided with Lopez's debut on judges panel for season ten of American Idol. Lopez confirmed the single's title as "On the Floor" during the red carpet ceremony at The Golden Globes, before appearing the following day on the radio show On Air with Ryan Seacrest for the song's US premiere. The final version of the song was uploaded to Ryanseacrest.com, where the site's editor, Sadao Turner, revealed that the final master of the song was different from the previously leaked and unfinished version. "On the Floor" made its debut in the United Kingdom, on January 28, 2011 when it was played by DJ Scott Mills on his radio show, Ready for the Weekend. Benji Eisen from AOL Music stated that Lopez had used "genius marketing and branding" by synchronizing the digital release of "On the Floor" with the premiere of its music video on American Idol. It was added to the B-playlist on the UK's biggest mainstream radio station, BBC Radio 1, on March 16, 2011.
When talking about "On the Floor", during an interview with MTV, Lopez said that she wanted a song that would evolve her sound, "it feels like me today, which I like. It's not something that you hear and you're like, 'That's not her,' but you also go, 'Is that her? I like that. It's new,' and that's what I wanted. I wanted it to be very me, but I wanted it to be me not from my first album or my second album, but for today." Additionally, Lopez felt a strong connection to "On the Floor" because it captured both sides of her career, singing, and dancing, "The minute RedOne played it for me, I made him play it 20 times in a row, and I just sat there at the board and I kept listening to it and listening to it ... Because I really feel like, emotionally, I connected to it, but also because of how much I love to dance and how much that's always been such a big part of who I am since I started. Since I was a little girl, I just totally connected with the idea of getting out there."
## Composition
"On the Floor" is an up-tempo pop and dance-pop song combining elements of Latin, house and techno music. Featured artist Pitbull starts the song with a rap introduction while the melody interpolates elements of the Los Kjarkas composition, "Llorando se fue", popularized by Kaoma's 1989 hit single "Lambada". "On the Floor" was written in the time signature of common time, set at a tempo of 130 beats per minute and in the key of E minor by Bilal "The Chef" Hajji, Kinnda Hamid, Gonzalo Hermosa, Ulises Hermosa, Achraf "AJ Junior" Janussi, Nadir "RedOne" Khayat", Pitbull and Teddy Sky. Lopez's vocal range spans from A3 to B4 while the melody uses a simple chord progression of E minor–C major–G major–B minor. The song was adapted in Spanish as "Ven a Bailar" which featured additional lyrics by Julio Reyes Copello and Jimena Romero.
"On the Floor" was produced by RedOne with additional vocal production by Kuk Harrell. Josh Gudwin joined Harrell to record the vocals whilst the whole composition was recorded and engineered by RedOne, Christopher "TEK" O'Ryan and Trevor Muzzy at Cove Studios in New York and Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles. O'Ryan, RedOne and Harrell also edited Lopez's vocals while the latter two also arranged vocals for the final track, with Harrell also providing background vocals. All instruments and programming were carried out by RedOne with the exception of the accordion which was tasked to Alessandro Giulini. Pitbull appears courtesy of Mr. 305, Polo Grounds Music and RCA Records. His vocals were recorded by Al Burna at Al Burna Studios in Davie, Florida and At El Studios Indamix in Dominican Republic. Final mixing was carried out by Muzzy.
According to Idolator and Gerrick Kennedy from the Los Angeles Times, "On the Floor" is reminiscent of Lopez's single, "Waiting for Tonight" (1999). Kennedy elaborated on the comparisons, stating that "listeners haven't heard this dance-electro-pop side of Lopez since 1999... much of her back catalog flirts with more gritty urban-pop sounds." Editors for the New York Daily News made some comparisons between "On the Floor" and another RedOne production, Kat DeLuna's 2010 single, "Party O'Clock". DeLuna's song contains the lyrics "Party in Ibiza, Party in New York/All the way to Africa/Love in the Caribbean/On my way to Vegas" whereas Lopez sings the nearly identical line, "Brazil, Morocco/London to Ibiza/Straight to L.A. New York/Vegas to Africa."
## Critical reception
"On the Floor" garnered universal acclaim from music critics. Rolling Stone called the song "music worth getting lost in". Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times agreed, calling "On the Floor" the standout track from Love? Wood said, "On the Floor" "returned Lopez to the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100" but added that the rest of the album was unlikely to match its success. The Houston Chronicle's Joey Guerra concurred with his following critics, nothing that "On the Floor" was one of the four standout moments on the album, typyifying the "aggressively sexual anthems that are likely to soundtrack the summer." Comments echoed by The Observer's Hermione Hoby read, "the song ['On the Floor'] was a particular triumph."
In his article for the Los Angeles Times, Gerrick Kennedy said the song is a "sweat-inducing, sticky dance floor track" which was "vintage J.Lo" and catchier than either of her previous releases, "Louboutins" or "Fresh Out the Oven". Although Kennedy praised the song's overall appeal, he commented that RedOne had produced more inventive "pop gems" with the likes of Lady Gaga and that Pitbull's appearance was a "throwaway verse." In her review for AOL Music's Radio Blog, Nadine Cheung commented that Lopez "reinforces her renaissance woman status." Nick Levine from Digital Spy called "On the Floor" a song that The Black Eyed Peas would have been "proud to have released". Levine's review agreed with others that the song was a "welcome comeback for Lopez," and praised the use of a "not so-subtle" sample with the "Latin-tinged electro-housy" production. Overall, he said that the production was "the antithesis of classy", and although not original "there's no denying that this gets the job done."
Not all of the reviews were positive, with some critics citing a lack of originality. In his review of Love?, BBC Music's Alex Macpherson said that "On the Floor" was a predictable recording from Lopez as it was "not too dissimilar to the supreme millennial house of 'Waiting for Tonight' (1999)". He went on to describe "On the Floor," and album track "Papi," as "apparent distillations of the trashy Miami house aesthetic that dominates pop these days." Ken Capobianco from The Boston Globe described "On the Floor" as quite generic.
The single also drew comparisons to "Party O'Clock," a 2010 single by American singer Kat DeLuna, also produced by RedOne. In a statement issued to the New York Daily News, DeLuna said "It's cool that artists like J.Lo are inspired by my musical sound and style. ... Jennifer helped pave the way for Latinas like myself. I love her", and insisted that there wasn't an issue. DeLuna also noted Lopez as someone who inspired her, and paved the way for someone like her to perform. Following previews of the music video for "On the Floor," DeLuna changed her mind about how she felt with the claims of copying. In another interview with the New York Daily News, several days after the first, she said "I've seen this before, where the more established artist tries to take the vision and artistic ideas away from an emerging artist and assumes no one will notice because of their bigger shadow,... Luckily, my loyal fans and the power of the Internet have let the 'Kat' out of the bag." Lopez was interviewed about the issue on Hispanic-American entertainment program ¡Despierta America!. Lopez replied "What? Really? I'm not aware of that...", and when pressed by the presenter a second time, insisted she had not heard rumors of the comparisons.
### Accolades
"On the Floor" received two International Dance Music nominations for Best Latin/Reggaeton Track and Best Commercial/Pop Track. The song was nominated at the 2012 Swiss Music Awards for Best International Hit. The Spanish version "Ven a Bailar" received two nominations at the 2012 Billboard Latin Music Awards for Vocal Duet Song of the Year and Latin Pop Song of the Year. "On the Floor" was recognized by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in their Most Performed Songs list for the year. "Ven a Bailar" was also recognized at the 20th ASCAP Latin Music Awards at the Pop Category. It received a Broadcast Music Award at the Pop Awards and the London Awards. At the 2011 Premios Juventud ceremony, the duo received a nomination for La Combinación Perfecta (The Perfect Combination) for the song.
She got nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song ("On the Floor"), the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Female ("On the Floor"), MuchMusic Video Award for International Video of the Year – Artist ("On the Floor") with Pitbull.
### Impact
In 2022, "On The Floor" was sampled by British drill rappers A1 x J1 and Tion Wayne for their single "Night Away (Dance)". The song was released on March 3, 2022, and debuted at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart two weeks later.
## Chart performance
### North America
"On the Floor" made its chart debut in Canada, during the week beginning February 12, 2011. It debuted at number eighty-six on the Canadian Hot 100, despite not being released until February 22, 2011, thus becoming the first release from Love? to receive airplay recognition. Neither the album's Epic Records buzz single ("Fresh Out the Oven", which also features Pitbull), nor the previous lead single "Louboutins" charted on US Billboard Charts. In the chart week dated April 16, 2011, "On the Floor" became Lopez's fourth Canadian chart-topper, and highest-charting single in nine years following "If You Had My Love" (1999), "Love Don't Cost a Thing" (2001) and "Jenny from the Block" (2002). In the United States, "On the Floor" made its chart debut on the Hot Dance Club Songs, at number twenty-six. Additionally it debuted on the US Pop Songs chart at number forty, marking Lopez's first appearance on pop airplay charts since 2007. The single went on to make its Billboard Hot 100 debut at number nine, becoming the highest debuting Hot 100 single of Lopez's career. "On the Floor" became Lopez's tenth top-ten hit on the Hot 100, of which, six have featured other artists. Billboard's Gary Trust reported that it was Lopez's highest peaking chart position since her 2006 feature on LL Cool J's "Control Myself," although it was actually in 2003 when Lopez last released a top-ten peaking single as a lead artist ("All I Have" with LL Cool J). The full single was not released until February 22, almost one month after it was uploaded to YouTube and serviced to radio, despite a remix EP being available before hand. Keith Caulfield from Billboard noted that Island Def Jam Music's strategy of delaying the release was unusual as fellow pop contemporaries, such as Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, "released their singles to digital retailers at about the same time they were serviced to radio and streaming sites." The single's release was synchronized with the debut of the music video on season ten of American Idol, resulting in first week sales of 170,000 copies and a Hot Digital Songs chart position of number three. The Spanish version of the song also became a success on Latin radio stations where it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart.
As a direct result, Kaoma's 1989 single "Lambada" re-entered the charts after more than two decades, making its digital chart debut at number three on the Billboard World Digital Chart. In the week following the music video's debut, "On the Floor" experienced a 31% increase in sales, which totaled 232,000 copies, and landed the song at number two on the Hot Digital Songs chart, as well as number five on the Hot 100. "On the Floor" thus became Lopez's seventh top-five hit in the United States. It is the first single since "So What" (2008) by Pink to debut in the top-ten of the Hot 100, and then climb up the chart in its second week. Just over a month after release "On the Floor" had sold over 600,000 copies in the United States, according to USA Today's Bill Keveney. Keveney, attributed Lopez's commercial comeback to product endorsement deals with L'Oreal and Gillette, also noting her appointment as a judge on American Idol a contributing factor in the growth of her popularity. During the week ending May 8, 2011, "On the Floor" rose from number seven to a new peak of number three on the Hot 100. By March 28, 2011, "On the Floor" reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, becoming her fifth consecutive US dance chart topper, with three coming from her album Love?, including "Fresh Out the Oven" (with Pitbull) and "Louboutins" (2009). "On the Floor" brings Lopez's US dance number ones total to nine singles since she launched her career in 1999. Since then, it has been certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of three million copies. As a result of Lopez's first televised performance of the song on May 5, 2011, "On the Floor" logged 175,000 digital sales that week (up 25% on the previous week), earning Lopez the "Digital Gainer" title that week. Consequently, "On the Floor" reached a new peak of number three on the Hot 100 and number five on the US Pop Songs chart, becoming her highest-charting single commercial single as a lead artist, as well as her most successful airplay hit on contemporary hit radio, since 2002's "Jenny from the Block". By April 2012, the song has sold 3.49 million downloads in the US alone. A year later in April 2013, it was reported that "On the Floor" had sold 3.8 million downloads in the United States.
### Europe and Oceania
Globally, "On the Floor" topped 37 national single charts and has sold 11 million copies as of June 2017. On the Slovakia Airplay chart, the single debuted at number sixteen, before peaking at number one where it remained for two weeks beginning on March 7, 2011. It returned to the top of the chart in the first week of April 2011, after dipping to number two at the end of March, and made a third return to number one in the third week of April. In total, "On the Floor" spent a total of seven weeks at number one. It also topped both the Flemish and Wallonian single charts in Belgium. On the Flanders Ultratop 50, "On the Floor" peaked at number one, remaining there for four weeks. Meanwhile, on the Wallonia Ultratop 50, the single remained at number one for four weeks, before dropping to number four and then returning to number one for a fifth week. In both territories, it is Lopez's first number one single in Belgium. The Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) certified the single gold, for selling 15,000 copies. In Finland, "On the Floor" debuted at number one, giving Lopez her third number one in the country, behind "Love Don't Cost a Thing" (2001) and her debut single "If You Had My Love" (1999). Selling platinum with over 12,000 copies, "On the Floor" was the second-best-selling single of 2011 in Finland and in total it spent nine weeks at number one, making it Lopez's longest-serving number-one, as well as her longest-charting single in the country.
"On the Floor" also reached number one in Spain (fifteen weeks), Germany (six weeks) and France (one week). In Spain, "On the Floor" reached number one on March 13, 2011, where it remained for fifteen weeks. Consequently, the single was certified Triple Platinum, by the Productores de Música de España (PROMUSICAE), for shipments of 120,000 copies. It was also certified 2× Platinum by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI), in Germany, for shipping 600,000 copies. In Italy, "On the Floor" entered the Italian Singles Chart at number four before ascending to the summit, where it would remain for four weeks. It is Lopez's fourth Italian number-one, and first English-language single to reach number one since "Get Right" (2005), though Spanish single "Qué Hiciste" reached number one in 2007. The Federation of the Italian Music Industry (FIMI) certified "On the Floor" Multi-Platinum for shipping 60,000 copies. The single experienced similar success in Sweden and Switzerland, where it respectively spent three and five weeks at the top of the countries' singles charts. In Sweden it is Lopez's first number one single, whereas in Switzerland it is her second, following 2007's "Qué Hiciste". In both countries the single was certified Double Platinum, shipping 40,000 copies in Sweden and 60,000 copies in Switzerland. As of July 26, 2011 "On the Floor" had official sales of 1.41 million copies.
In Australia, "On the Floor" debuted at number ten, becoming Lopez's first top-ten single in the country since 2005's "Get Right". It has since reached number one, becoming her second Australian chart topper, and first in nearly twelve years since 1999's "If You Had My Love". It was certified 4× platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 280,000 copies. It reached number two in New Zealand, and was certified double-Platinum for sales of 30,000 copies. In Ireland, "On the Floor" debuted at number twelve on the Irish Singles Chart on March 10, 2011. It continued a steady climb to the top spot, spending two weeks at number two before finally reaching number one on April 14, 2011. In the United Kingdom, "On the Floor" was added to playlists on mainstream radio in March 2011. On April 3, 2011, "On the Floor" made its UK Singles Chart debut at number one, becoming Lopez's third chart-topper in that country. Overall it is Lopez's twelfth UK top-five hit, and topped the UK Digital Songs chart after logging first week sales of 130,000 copies – the highest first week sales for Lopez in the UK. "On the Floor" also debuted at the top of the R&B Singles Chart. It remained at number one for two weeks, becoming the only single by Lopez to do so. The song was the biggest selling R&B / hip hop single of 2011 in the UK. As of May 2012, "On the Floor" had sold 822,056 copies, becoming Lopez' biggest-selling single in the UK.
### Globally
By the end of 2011, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) noted that "On the Floor" had sold over 8.4 million copies worldwide, making it the best selling single by a female artist.
## Music video
### Background and development
The music video for "On the Floor" was filmed on January 22–23, 2011, with TAJ Stansberry serving as the director and Frank Gatson as the choreographer. Lopez told MTV News that for the video she was holding an open casting call to find club kids, "[We want] those kids who go to the club and they dance all night and that's all they care about? It's just about having a good time, getting all sweaty, and it's all about the music and leaving it on the dance floor. I don't want to say what the video is, but that's the type of dancers. We're doing a big casting call..." Meanwhile, Gatson said that Lopez wanted a post-2AM Los Angeles club vibe for the video. He said,
> "[We're trying to create a vibe] that's so amazing. [It's like] everybody had some watermelon and the watermelon made them high, it gave them a little buzz — but a good buzz, a real magical buzz, a dance buzz, a buzz that makes you feel like fried chicken, so she just wants everybody to have a good old time... The club must have this vibe, where you get on the floor and everybody's bringing it", he added. "We've seen so many club videos, but we want to see a club video with a vibe unique to Jennifer Lopez."
Just prior of the casting call and video shoot, Stansberry expressed his views to MTV News on the concept for the video – originality. "Originality, being you. This song is about being who you want. It's about letting loose. There's no explanation. This is this underground video, this underground party." During the video shoot, MTV interviewed Lopez about the concepts for the video. Lopez described some of the characters she played, telling MTV that in one scene "I play one character where she kind of runs this party, acts like she's kind of over it, but at the same time loves it and loves this kind of underground kind of party dance culture,... So I got to be wild and crazy, and at the same time I got to be sexy and sweet too." The video makes use of product placement, including BMW, Swarovski and Crown Royal, according to Tanner Stransky from Entertainment Weekly. Stransky also noted the "unintentional placement" of fake eyelashes and wigs, weaves, and other hair-extending products.
Lopez later confirmed in an interview On Air with Ryan Seacrest, that the completed music video would premiere jointly on season ten of American Idol and on Vevo on March 3, 2011. Fans could vote between three alternative endings through Idol's official website. Lopez said the idea behind giving fans the choice was to give them a chance to see what she experienced. "You get to do what I do,... Like, I go in there with my videos and I start editing and picking all the shots I like and the things that I like and what I feel the best kind of feeling for the record is. You guys get to do that. We picked two different ones and we weren't sure." The alternative endings included three varying scenes: in the first, the video ends with a close-up of Lopez's face in the silver lace catsuit; the second ends with a shot of dancers defying gravity on the walls and ceiling, while the final ending ends with a shot of Lopez on the dance floor in her harem pants. The first ending was the one used in the final video.
### Synopsis
The clip begins with Lopez's arrival at a club in a black BMW, one example of the product placement used throughout the video. As the music begins, she puts on a pair Swarovski crystal earrings before the camera switches to inside the club. where it descends from the ceiling amongst the Las Vegas-style crystal chandeliers. Choreographer Frank Gatson Jr. called the club, "the best dance party in town," where Lopez played several different characters. Both the scenery and artist were styled to pay homage to her background as a professional dancer, she said she wanted the video to "introduce people to a new J.Lo-ration of party people". In one scene, she plays a dominant queen of the party who watches from above, on a balcony surrounded by servants. When portraying this character, Lopez was styled with "a big beehive bun, gold gladiator heels and a glittery gold gown with Gaga-esque detailing in its high collar and leaves." The 'queen' character "dangles lazily on a couch" and "regally oversees a crowd of people getting down on the dancefloor." In another scene, Lopez wears a silver crystal and lace skin-tight catsuit, designed by Lebanese fashion designer Zuhair Murad, as she dances against a "gold cardio barre" before proceeding to shake her "money maker," according to the Los Angeles Times. Spliced in between these scenes, she is seen dressed in black harem pants and a bikini top, as she walks through the crowd to mount a circular stage on the Las Vegas-style dancefloor. MTV's Kelly Carter and AOL's Khawlhring Sawmteii described the final scenes as Lopez "tearing up the floor," and "breaking it down 'fly-girl' style."
### Reception
The music video was welcomed with critical acclaim from music critics, praising the expensive finish, arrangement, Lopez's sense of fashion and the overall execution. Based on a preview of the video, Entertainment Weekly's Tanner Stransky said the clip brought together a flawless realness with an expensive set-up, things that are "very important elements in the pop music world and to the old Lopez that everyone knew and loved." Following its full premiere, Stransky added that the video was "sexy and sultry." Kyle Anderson from MTV's Newsroom agreed, noting the "gorgeous and exquisite execution," particularly praising Lopez's "incredible hairstyles" and the "gorgeous club interiors [set design]." Anderson ended his review by stating that the premiere of the song's music video almost overshadowed the episode of American Idol in which it was shown.
AOL's Benji Eisen called "On the Floor" a "comeback of sorts" for Lopez, particularly noting its clever cross-promotion with Idol and Lopez's multiple product endorsement deals. He applauded Lopez for moving on from her previous lack of commercial success in recent years. The sex appeal in the video for "On the Floor" was likened to that last displayed by Lopez in the video for 2002's "I'm Gonna Be Alright". A reviewer from the Daily Express said "Jennifer Lopez once told us in a song that 'I'm Gonna Be Alright' and now she's proved it... The curves she displayed when she recorded the hit video nine years ago have been replaced by a leaner, fitter look [in 'On the Floor']." Matthew Perpetua from Rolling Stone agreed with comparisons to Lopez's earlier work: "Basically, this is classic Lopez tweaked for 2011... visuals that update late-Nineties bling with a high fashion wardrobe nearly as eccentric as that of Rihanna and Lady Gaga." As a result of the video's premiere, the online traffic at Lopez's official Vevo account increased by 1000%, and as of October 9, 2022, has received over 2 billion views on YouTube. In the space of two weeks, the video was viewed over thirty million times on Lopez's official Vevo page, according to USA Today.
## Live performances
On May 5, 2011, Lopez and Pitbull took the stage of American Idol to perform "On the Floor" for the first time. The performance consisted of her breaking two dancers out of glass boxes, an elaborate dance routine and two appearances from Pitbull. Initially he appeared from the crowd, but for his second appearance, he arrived at the back of the stage via a moving staircase. Lopez was dressed in a "glimmering ensemble" while the set included lasers and pyrotechnics. According to Adam Graham from MTV, the performance was taped prior to the episode of Idol, made apparent by what Graham called "sloppy editing." According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lopez pretaped the performance due to a perceived danger of flying shards of glass from the earlier part of the routine. The performance was praised by Caryn Ganz from Yahoo! Music, who complimented all of the element of the performance. Ganz said "[everything from the] lush production values to her own high energy dancing and live vocals ... This performance maxed out what an artist can do in such a medium – awesome lighting, high-impact video footage, a strong feature from Pitbull, excellent staging, solid choreography, a bit of pyro, and a ton of warmth and personality." An editor from Rap-Up magazine agreed, saying that "Lopez showed the contestants how its done, commanding the stage during her smashing performance."
The duo reprised their performance at KIIS-FM's Wango Tango music festival in Los Angeles, on May 14, 2011. Lopez wore a shiny gold catsuit for the performance, which did not go as planned when halfway through the performance her microphone failed. She continued performing for 20 seconds, before realising that she had lost sound. According to lifestyle website Female First, Lopez proceeded to dance, and urged the audience to sing along. At the end of the performance, Lopez addressed the crowd straight after the performance, saying "We ain't gonna let that get us down, right? Nobody keeps mama down." After Pitbull informed her of the malfunction, she turned to the band asking them to start from the beginning so that she could perform the song again.
On June 11, 2011, Lopez flew to the United Kingdom to promote "On the Floor," first appearing at Capital FM's Summertime Ball. Later that day, she appeared at the finale of the second series of So You Think You Can Dance to reprise the performance. Wearing a skin-tight catsuit, Lopez descended from the ceiling in an illuminated heart before proceeding to perform the song, which included her dropping to her knees during the chorus. Lopez reprise the performance on X Factor (France) on June 14, 2011, and German game-show Wetten, dass..? on June 18.
Lopez later performed the song as part of her medley during the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards on August 20, 2018, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
The song was featured in Lopez's setlist during the Super Bowl LIV halftime show.
## Formats and track listings
- CD single
1. "On the Floor" – 3:51
2. "On the Floor" (Low Sunday Club Remix) – 6:22
- Digital download
1. "On the Floor" – 3:51
- Digital download (Spanish Version)
1. "Ven a Bailar (On the Floor)" – 4:52
- Digital download (EP)
1. "On the Floor" (Radio Edit) – 3:51
2. "On the Floor" (CCW Club Mix) – 6:26
3. "On the Floor" (Ralphi's Jurty Club Vox) – 8:43
4. "On the Floor" (music video) – 4:27
- Digital download (Remixes)
1. "On the Floor" (CCW Radio Mix) – 3:44
2. "On the Floor" (Low Sunday "On the Floor" Radio Edit) – 3:51
3. "On the Floor" (Ralphi's Jurty Radio Edit) – 3:57
4. "On the Floor" (Mixin Marc & Tony Svejda LA to Ibiza Radio Edit) – 3:16
5. "On the Floor" (CCW Club Mix) – 6:26
6. "On the Floor" (Low Sunday "On the Floor" Club) – 6:22
7. "On the Floor" (Ralphi's Jurty Club Vox) – 8:43
8. "On the Floor" (Mixin Marc & Tony Svejda LA to Ibiza Mix) – 6:40
9. "On the Floor" (CCW Dub Mix) – 6:07
10. "On the Floor" (Low Sunday "On the Floor" Dub) – 6:37
11. "On the Floor" (Ralphi's Jurty Dub) – 8:43
12. "On the Floor" (Mixin Marc & Tony Svejda LA to Ibiza Dub) – 5:36
## Credits and personnel
Credits taken from CD single, "On the Floor" contains interpolations of the Los Kjarkas composition: "Llorando Se Fue", written by Gonzalo Hermosa and Ulises Hermosa.
Recording
- Cove Studio (New York)
- Henson Recording (Los Angeles)
- Al Burna Studios (Davie, Florida)
- Et Al Indamix (Dominican Republic)
Personnel
- Alessandro Giulini – accordion
- Josh Gudwin – vocal recording
- Bilal Hajji – songwriter
- Kinda Hamid – songwriter
- Kuk Harrell – vocal arranger, vocal editor, vocal producer, vocal recording
- Gonzalo Hermosa – songwriter
- Ulises Hermosa – songwriter
- Achraf "AJ Junior" Janussi – songwriter
- Trevor Muzzy – audio mixer, recording engineer
- Nadir "RedOne" Khayat – producer, songwriter, vocal arranger, vocal editor, vocal producer, instruments and programming, recording engineer
- Jennifer Lopez – lead vocalist, backing vocalist
- Chris "TEK" O'Ryan – vocal editor, recording engineer
- Armando "Pitbull" Perez – rap vocalist, songwriter
- Geraldo "Teddy Sky" Sandell – songwriter
- Low Sunday (Bart Schoudel & Ron Haney) – additional production for remix
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## Release history
## See also
- Billboard Top Latin Songs Year-End Chart
- List of Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in 2011
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2011 (Canada)
- List of number-one dance airplay hits of 2011 (U.S.)
- List of number-one dance singles of 2011 (U.S.)
- List of number-one hits of 2011 (France)
- List of number-one hits of 2011 (Italy)
- List of number-one pop hits of 2011 (Brazil)
- List of number-one R&B hits of 2011 (UK)
- List of number-one singles from the 2010s (UK)
- List of number-one singles of 2011 (Australia)
- List of number-one singles of 2011 (Finland)
- List of number-one singles of 2011 (Spain)
- List of number-one singles of 2011 (Sweden)
- List of Polish Dance Chart number-one singles of 2011
- List of Romanian Top 100 number ones of the 2010s
- List of Ultratop 50 number-one singles of 2011 |
45,629,011 | Traci Lords: Underneath It All | 1,079,112,941 | Book by Traci Lords | [
"2003 non-fiction books",
"American autobiographies",
"Biographies about actors",
"Biographies about musicians",
"Biographies about writers",
"Books about singers",
"Traci Lords"
]
| Traci Lords: Underneath It All is an autobiography by American actress and singer Traci Lords, first published on July 8, 2003 by HarperCollins. It was reissued as a paperback on June 29, 2004, with an additional chapter and photos. The book primarily details Lords' career in the adult film industry, when she appeared underage in dozens of pornographic films and became one of the most notable pornstars of the 1980s. It also chronicles her childhood, transition to mainstream films and musical career.
Traci Lords: Underneath It All received positive response from critics and was a commercial success. It debuted at number thirty-one on The New York Times Best Seller list. However, the book met with criticism from adult film industry insiders, some of whom accused Lords of lying.
## Summary
Lords was born Nora Louise Kuzma in Steubenville, Ohio. Her parents divorced when she was 7-years-old due to her father's abusive behavior, and she moved with her mother and three sisters to her great-grandmother's house. When she was 10, she was raped by a sixteen-year-old acquaintance. At the age of 12, Kuzma moved with her mother and sisters to Lawndale, California, along with her mother's boyfriend Roger, who was a cocaine dealer. She began attending Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California. At 14, she became pregnant by her high school boyfriend. Searching for a job in order to get money for an abortion, Kuzma was introduced to Roger's friend Lynn for whom she started working as a babysitter. Lynn offered to help her solve her job problems by getting her a fake driver's license ID. Her new ID, with the name of Kristie Elizabeth Nussman, stated she was 22 rather than 15. She ran away from home and ended up on the streets of Hollywood where she landed a job as a nude model. After appearing in a nude centerfold in Penthouse magazine (she was only 15 when the photos were taken), Kuzma became nationally known as Traci Lords. From there she appeared in numerous adult films and magazines until authorities discovered she had been a minor and started an extensive investigation of all her co-workers.
## Writing and development
Lords first talked about her plans to write a book during an interview with Ross Shafer on April 18, 1988. Later, in July, it was confirmed that a book entitled Out of the Blue: The Traci Lords Story was in development. However, the project was shelved due to problems with the publishing deal. On November 4, 2000, when Lords was a guest on The Howard Stern Show, she was again asked about the book but said she had no intentions of putting it out at that time.
## Release and promotion
Traci Lords: Underneath It All was first released in 2003 by HarperCollins. The paperback version of the book was released on June 29, 2004 with an additional chapter and photos. Lords promoted the book on numerous talk shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live. In her interview with Oprah, she explained she was not trying to deny her past: "I found you can run, but you cannot hide."
## Critical response
The book received relatively positive reviews from critics. Susan Carpenter, writing in the Los Angeles Times, called the book "a luridly fascinating, if horrifying, tell-all, from her birth in an eastern Ohio steel town to her present-day life as an actress and recording artist who is happily married in L.A." Amanda Tyler of USA Today commented: "Lords' story of personal redemption is so immersed in genuine emotion and beaming with soulful resiliency that the reader will walk away with nothing but respect for her and her remarkable journey." Bill Zwecker, who reviewed the book for Chicago Sun-Times, noted: "'Graphic' is said to be quite the understatement for the memoirs former under-age porn star Traci Lords has penned." John Patterson of The Guardian wrote: "It has porn's typical, irreversible-nosedive trajectory: fake IDs, serious money, major narcotics - the lowest, stickiest rung on stardom's ladder - followed by exposure (of entirely the wrong sort), disgrace, and rehabilitation."
Despite the favorable reviews, the book met with criticism from adult film industry insiders, some of whom accused Lords of lying. Co-workers from that time such as John Leslie, Ron Jeremy, Ginger Lynn and Tom Byron said they never saw her use drugs and insisted she was always fully aware of her actions. One of her co-workers from that time, Christy Canyon, said about Lords' autobiography, "I think her book could have been fabulous, except that she was lying throughout the whole thing."
Lords sister, Rachel Kuzma, wrote Los Angeles Times in response to an article they published about Lords book, where she criticized the fact checking of the publisher of the book, various criticisms of Lords and her truthfulness, the veracity of various statements in the book and that she believed the book was "misleading and self-aggrandizing."
## Publication history |
530,187 | Theme Park (video game) | 1,169,111,812 | 1994 video game | [
"1994 video games",
"3DO Interactive Multiplayer games",
"Amiga 1200 games",
"Amiga CD32 games",
"Amiga games",
"Amusement park simulation games",
"Atari Jaguar games",
"Bullfrog Productions games",
"Classic Mac OS games",
"Construction and management simulation games",
"DOS games",
"Domark games",
"Electronic Arts franchises",
"Electronic Arts games",
"FM Towns games",
"Games commercially released with DOSBox",
"IOS games",
"Krisalis Software games",
"Nintendo DS games",
"Ocean Software games",
"PlayStation (console) games",
"PlayStation Network games",
"Sega CD games",
"Sega Genesis games",
"Sega Saturn games",
"Single-player video games",
"Super Nintendo Entertainment System games",
"Video game remakes",
"Video games developed in the United Kingdom",
"Video games scored by Russell Shaw",
"Video games set in amusement parks",
"Video games with oblique graphics"
]
| Theme Park is a construction and management simulation video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1994. The player designs and operates an amusement park, with the goal of making money and creating theme parks worldwide. The game is the first instalment in Bullfrog's Theme series and their Designer Series.
Development took about a year and a half, with the team aiming for as much realism as possible. Certain features, including multiplayer, were dropped. Over 15 million copies were sold, and ports for various games consoles were released, most in 1995. Theme Park received generally positive reviews. Reviewers praised the gameplay and humour, but criticised console ports for reasons such as lack of save or mouse support. The game received a Japanese localisation (in addition to normal Japanese releases), Shin Theme Park, released in 1997 for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, and remakes for the Nintendo DS and iOS, released in 2007 and 2011 respectively. Theme Hospital is Bullfrog's thematic successor to the game, and two direct sequels followed: Theme Park World (known as Sim Theme Park in some territories) and Theme Park Inc (also known as SimCoaster).
## Gameplay
Starting with a free plot of land in the United Kingdom and a few hundred thousand pounds, the player must build a profitable amusement park. Money is spent on building rides, shops, and staff, and earned through sale of entry tickets, merchandise, and refreshments. Shops available include those selling foodstuff (such as ice creams) or soft drinks, and games such as coconut shies and arcades. Their attributes can be customised, which may affect customers' behaviour: for example, affecting the flavour of foods (e.g. by altering the amount of sugar an ice cream contains) may affect customers' enticements to return. Facilities such as toilets, and items that enhance the park's scenery (such as trees and fountains) can be purchased. Over thirty attractions, ranging in complexity from the bouncy castle and tree house to more complicated and expensive rides such as the roller coaster and Ferris wheel are available. Also available as rides are shows (called 'acts') with themes such as clowns and mediaeval. Certain rides, such as roller coasters, require a track to be laid out. The ride complement varies between platforms: for example, the PlayStation version is missing the mediaeval and dolphin shows. Rides require regular maintenance: if neglected for too long they will explode. Depending on the platform, it is possible to tour the park or the rides.
Visitors arrive and leave via a bus. The entry price can be set, and loans can be taken out. The player starts with a limited number of shops, rides, and facilities available. Research must be carried out to purchase others. Research can also make rides more durable, staff more efficient, and buses larger with increased capacity. The topic of research and how much funding goes into it is determined by the player.
Staff available for employment include entertainers, security guards, mechanics, and handymen. Lack of staff can cause problems, including messy footpaths, rides breaking down, crime, and unhappy visitors. If visitors become unhappy, thugs may come to vandalise the park by committing offences such as popping balloons, stealing food, and beating up entertainers. Occasionally, wages and the price of goods must be negotiated; failure to reach an agreement results in staff strikes or loss of shipment.
Theme Park offers three levels of simulation: the higher difficulties requiring more management of aspects such as logistics. For example, at full level, the player must manage research, negotiations, stocks, and shares. On sandbox, the game does not involve those aspects. The player can switch mode at any time. Game time is implemented like a calendar: at the end of each year, the player is judged on that year's performance against rivals. Game speed can be adjusted, and staff can be moved by the player. Cash awards may be earned for doing well, and trophies may be awarded for achievements such as having the longest roller coaster.
The goal is to increase the park's value and available money so that it can be sold and a new lot purchased from another part of the world to start a new theme park. Once enough money has been made, the player can auction the park and move on to newer plots, located worldwide and having different factors affecting gameplay, including the economy, weather, terrain and land value. The Mega Drive and SNES versions feature different settings (e.g. desert and glacier) depending on the park's location.
## Development
Peter Molyneux stated that he came up with the idea of creating Theme Park because he felt the business genre was worth pursuing. He said that Theme Park is a game he had always wanted to create, and wanted to avoid the mistakes of his earlier business simulation game, The Entrepreneur: he wanted to create a business simulation game and make it fun so that people would want to play it. In an interview, he explained that the primary reason he created Theme Park was because he wanted players to create their dream Theme Park. Another reason is he wanted players to understand the kind of work running one entails. The three difficulty settings enable players to choose the desired depth: simply having fun creating a theme park, or making all the business decisions too. Molyneux stated that the most difficult part to program was the visitors' behaviour.
The story was originally to have the player play the role of a nephew who had inherited a fortune from his aunt, to be spent only on the world's largest and most profitable theme park. The graphics were drawn and modelled using 3D Studio. Molyneux stated that each person takes about 200 bytes of memory, enough for them to have their own personality. The team travelled the world visiting theme parks and taking notes, and sound effects were sampled from real parks. Molyneux explained that they were going for as much realism as possible. There was to be a feature where a microphone is placed on a visitor and so the player could hear what they were saying, and multiplayer support was dropped two weeks prior to release because of a deadline. Multiplayer mode would have let players send thugs to other parks.
Theme Park took roughly a year and a half to develop. Much of the code was used in Theme Hospital, and an animation editor was improved by Theme Hospital's designer and producer Mark Webley, who dubbed it The Complex Engine. Artist Gary Carr did not think the game was a good idea, and disliked the art style. Molyneux wanted him to create a colourful style to appeal to a Japanese market, but Carr disagreed and left Bullfrog. Carr later retracted his beliefs and, in 2012, stated that he considered the game a classic. In 1994, Molyneux was developing both Theme Park and Magic Carpet. The game was mostly complete by January 1994 and scheduled for release on 28 March, but this was pushed back to June, and then August. Theme Park sold over 15 million copies, and was extremely popular in Japan (the Japanese PlayStation version sold 85 thousand copies within weeks), as well as Europe. Theme Park did not sell well in the United States; Molyneux hypothesised that this was because the graphics are too childish for American audiences. The game is the first instalment in Bullfrog's Designer Series, and it was intended for the series to use Theme Park's engine and for each instalment to have three simulation levels. The PC version was sponsored by Midland Bank.
The PlayStation port was developed by Krisalis Software, and released in 1995. The Mega CD port features CD soundtrack, and was developed by Domark and released in the same year. Bullfrog developed the Mega Drive port, which was mostly complete by April 1995, and the Sega Saturn port, released in November 1995. Other ports include the Amiga CD32, Atari Jaguar, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Macintosh. Mark Healey handled the graphics for the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System versions. The graphics were completed in three days. The PC version was released on gog.com on 9 December 2013.
## Reception
Theme Park received critical acclaim. The gameplay, graphics, and addictiveness in particular were well received. A reviewer of Edge commented that the game is complex, but praised the detail and addictiveness. PC Gamer's Gary Whitta was highly impressed with the game: he eulogised the fun factor and compared it to that of SimCity 2000. He also praised the "gloriously cartoony" graphics and "exceptional" soundtrack. Theme Park was named as the PC Gamer June 1994 Game of The Month. Computer and Video Games's reviewer complimented the "cute" graphics, and described the game as "fun" and "feature-packed". The visitors' and ride animations were complimented by French magazine Joystick.
The Jaguar version was noted by critics as having problems such as slowdown and lack of a save option, although some liked the graphics and gameplay. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly commented that the game itself is great fun, but that the Jaguar conversion had confusing menus and dithered text which is excessively difficult to read. GamePro echoed these criticisms and further stated that the Jaguar version suffers from frustrating slowdown. They summarised that "Ocean didn't work hard enough to make Theme Park look and sound good on the Jaguar". A reviewer for Next Generation took the reverse position, saying that the Jaguar conversion "is seamless" and the game itself was mediocre. Their elaboration was that "slow gameplay and confusing layouts keep it from ever achieving the addictiveness of the other 'god' games, and most players will find themselves bored before they've even run through all of the options". German magazine Atari Inside's reviewer complimented the addictiveness, but the lack of save opportunities was criticised, and a reviewer from ST Computer believed the game's complexity and colourful graphics assured it of being long and attractive. Mega Fun's main criticism of the Jaguar version was its inability to save in-game.
The Saturn version was noted as being mostly faithful to the PC original. Sam Hickman of Sega Saturn Magazine praised it for retaining the original intro, music, speech samples, and features of the PC version (all of which had been left out of most previous console versions), although a reviewer from the Japanese magazine of the same name criticised the lack of mouse support. Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviewer held a similar opinion to that of Hickman by commending the Saturn version for being a comprehensive port of the PC original, and also applauded the addictive simulation gaming of Theme Park, calling it "SimCity with a playful spirit". Mean Machines Sega's reviewer compared it to the Mega Drive version, citing the save function and variety of entertainers as major improvements over that version. A Next Generation critic lauded the game's "simple interface", "infectious gameplay", and "realistic business fundamentals", but felt the Saturn's "near-perfect" conversion of the PC original was commendable but unexciting, and expressed regret that there were no upgrades or additions. GamePro gave a terse joint review of the Saturn and PlayStation versions, commenting: "You decide every detail, right down to the roller coaster's speed. Simple graphics and sounds offer up little treats to keep the game interesting. Overlapping menu systems force you to read the manual".
Critics had similar opinions of other versions. Mean Machines Sega described the game as "the most complex Megadrive game ever created", and eulogised playability and longevity, but criticised the behaviour of the handymen. CU Amiga praised the addictiveness of the Amiga version, and called the game "colourful". The visuals were likewise commended by Jeuxvideo.com on the PC and Macintosh versions, and the British humour was complimented as well. German magazine Mega Fun compared the SNES version to the Mega Drive version, and said the SNES version had better controls and music, creating atmosphere. Reviewing the PlayStation version, Maximum said that the game "is probably one of the best sim games around. It manages to strike a balance between in-depth game play and personality, which you don't get with the more brow-furrowing games of this genre", although the only improvement being a view option was cited as a disappointment. Next Generation reviewed the 3DO version of the game, and stated that "it's cute, but we're waiting for 3DO's Transport Tycoon". In their review of the Macintosh version of the game, they believed that players would think of it when they visit Disneyland.
### Accolades
In 1997, Theme Park appeared jointly with Theme Hospital at No. 61 on PC Gamer's list of top 100 games. In 2004, Theme Park was inducted into GameSpot's list of the greatest games of all time. In 1995, Total! ranked the game 36th on their Top 100 SNES Games. In 1996, GamesMaster rated the Sega Saturn version 6th in its "The GamesMaster Saturn Top 10."
## Re-releases
A Japanese remake of Theme Park, titled Shin Theme Park (新テーマパーク, Shin Tēma Pāku, lit. New Theme Park) was released on 11 April 1997 by Electronic Arts Victor for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. This version is different from other releases in Japan; the game's style and visuals are changed. The game was remade for the Nintendo DS by EA Japan. It was released in Japan on 15 March 2007 with releases in the US and Europe on 20 and 23 March, respectively. New features of the game are the user interface, which was designed to fit the stylus functionality of the DS platform, and bonus rides/shops exclusive to certain properties, such as a tea room themed on an AEC Routemaster bus for England, Japanese dojo-style bouncy castle for Japan, a Coliseum-themed pizza parlour for Italy, a La Sagrada Familia-themed paella restaurant for Spain etc. The remake is based on the DOS version. The game differs from the original in that the game provides four different advisers. Theme Park was remade for iOS in 2011. Items can only be placed on designated places, and the game relies on premium items. Rides can cost up to \$60 (£46) in real money, and for this reason the game was not well received.
## See also
- Parkitect
- RollerCoaster Tycoon
- Planet Coaster |
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