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206,714 | Geraldine Page | 1,169,570,528 | American actress (1924–1987) | [
"1924 births",
"1987 deaths",
"20th-century American actresses",
"Actors Studio alumni",
"Actresses from Chicago",
"Actresses from Missouri",
"Actresses from New York City",
"American film actresses",
"American stage actresses",
"American voice actresses",
"Best Actress Academy Award winners",
"Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners",
"Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Award winners",
"David di Donatello winners",
"DePaul University alumni",
"Donaldson Award winners",
"Englewood Technical Prep Academy alumni",
"Hollywood blacklist",
"Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead winners",
"Method actors",
"Methodists from Illinois",
"Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners",
"People from Chelsea, Manhattan",
"People from Kirksville, Missouri"
]
| Geraldine Sue Page (November 22, 1924 – June 13, 1987) was an American actress. With a career which spanned four decades across film, stage, and television, Page was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and four nominations for the Tony Award.
A native of Kirksville, Missouri, Page studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and with Uta Hagen and Lee Strasberg in New York City before being cast in her first credited part in the Western film Hondo (1953), which earned her her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. During the McCarthyism era, she was blacklisted in Hollywood based on her association with Hagen and did not work in film for eight years. Page continued to appear on television and on stage and earned her first Tony Award nomination for her performance in Sweet Bird of Youth (1959–60), a role she reprised in the 1962 film adaptation, the latter of which earned her a Golden Globe Award.
She earned additional Academy Award nominations for her roles in Summer and Smoke (1961) (another Golden Globe award for Best Actress - Drama), You're a Big Boy Now (1966) and Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), followed by a Tony nomination for her performance in the stage production of Absurd Person Singular (1974–75). Other film appearances during this time included in the thrillers What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969) opposite Ruth Gordon, and The Beguiled (1971) opposite Clint Eastwood. In 1977, she provided the voice of Madam Medusa in Walt Disney's The Rescuers, followed by a role in Woody Allen's Interiors (1978), which earned her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
After being inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979 for her stage work, Page returned to Broadway with a lead role in Agnes of God (1982), earning her third Tony Award nomination. Page was nominated for Academy Awards for her performances in The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) and The Trip to Bountiful (1985), the latter of which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. Page died in New York City in 1987 in the midst of a Broadway run of Blithe Spirit, for which she earned her fourth Tony Award nomination.
## Early life
Page was born November 22, 1924, in Kirksville, Missouri, the first child of Edna Pearl (née Maize) and Leon Elwin Page who worked at Andrew Taylor Still College of Osteopathy and Surgery (combined with the American School of Osteopathy, eventually to form A.T. Still University). He was an author whose works included Practical Anatomy (1925), Osteopathic Fundamentals (1926), and The Old Doctor (1932). She had one younger brother, Donald.
At age five, Page relocated with her family to Chicago. Raised a Methodist by her mother, Page was an active parishioner of the Englewood Methodist Church in Chicago, where she had her first foray into acting within the church's theatre group, appearing in a play called Excuse My Dust, then playing Jo March in a 1941 production of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. After graduating from Chicago's Englewood Technical Prep Academy, she attended the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (now at DePaul University), with the intention of becoming an actress. Page had aspirations of becoming a pianist or visual artist, but at 17 she appeared in her first amateur theatre production, and from that point, she never wavered from her desire to be a professional actress.
After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1945, Page studied acting at the Herbert Berghof School and the American Theatre Wing in New York City, studying with Uta Hagen for seven years, and then at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg. During this time, Page would return to Chicago in the summers to perform in repertory theatre in Lake Zurich, Illinois, where she and several fellow actors had established their own independent theater company. She also spent two critically successful years performing with a winter stock company called the Woodstock Players another group from Goodman who performed mostly at the Woodstock Opera House where she was singled out by critic Claudia Cassidy of The Chicago Tribune as destined to be a star to bear watching. During that time she was called "the lady with the thousand faces" for her ability to change her looks and actions to an extent that her most devoted fans were unable to recognize her. While attempting to establish her career, she worked various odd jobs, including as a hat-check girl, theater usher, lingerie model, and a factory laborer.
## Career
### Early stage and film
Page, a trained method actor, spent five years appearing in various repertory theater productions in the Midwest and New York after graduating from college. On October 25, 1945, she made her New York stage debut in Seven Mirrors, a play devised by Immaculate Heart High School students from Los Angeles. The play ran for a total of 23 performances at Blackfriars Repertory Theatre on Manhattan's Upper East Side. In February 1952, director José Quintero cast Page in a minor role in Yerma, a theatrical interpretation of a poem by Federico García Lorca, staged at Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City's Greenwich Village. Page was subsequently cast in the role of Alma in the Quintero-directed production of Summer and Smoke, written by Tennessee Williams (also staged at the Circle Theatre in 1952). Page's role in Summer and Smoke garnered her significant exposure, including a Drama Desk Award, and a profile in Time magazine.
Her official film debut and role in Hondo, opposite John Wayne, garnering her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Prior, she appeared in an uncredited role in Taxi. Speaking to a Kirksville newspaper, she said: "Actually Hondo wasn't my first movie. I had one small, but satisfactory scene in a Dan Dailey picture called Taxi, which was filmed in New York." Page was blacklisted in Hollywood after her debut in Hondo based on her association with Uta Hagen and did not work in film for nearly ten years. Her work continued on Broadway playing a spinster in the 1954–1955 production of The Rainmaker, written by N. Richard Nash; and as the frustrated wife whose husband becomes romantically obsessed with a young Arab, played by James Dean, in the 1954 production of The Immoralist, written by Augustus Goetz and Ruth Goetz and based on the novel of the same name (1902) by André Gide. Page remained friends with Dean until his death the following year and kept a number of personal mementos from the play—including several drawings by him. After Page's death, these items were acquired by Heritage Auctions in 2006. In 2015 Angelica Page revealed that her mother had an affair with Dean during the production of The Immoralist. She stated, "According to my mother, their affair went on for three-and-a-half months. In many ways my mother never really got over Jimmy. It was not unusual for me to go to her dressing room through the years, obviously many years after Dean was gone, and find pictures of him taped up on her mirror. My mother never forgot about Jimmy -- never. I believe they were artistic soul mates."
Prior to Hondo, in 1952, she appeared in a revival of Summer and Smoke in 1952 putting herself, the play, and director Jose Quintero at the beginning of the Off-Broadway scene. Page played the same role of Alma Winemiller in a 1953 radio version (opposite Richard Kiley) and a film version in 1961 opposite Laurence Harvey. Both she and Una Merkel earned acting nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively in the 34th Academy Awards in 1961. The awards, however, went to Sophia Loren for Two Women and Rita Moreno for West Side Story.
In 1959, Page earned an Emmy nomination, of Best Single Performance by an Actress, for her role in the Playhouse 90 episode "The Old Man," written by William Faulkner. She subsequently earned critical accolades for her performance in the 1959–1960 Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's Sweet Bird of Youth opposite Paul Newman, in which she originated the role of a larger-than-life, addicted, sexually voracious Hollywood legend trying to extinguish her fears about her career with a young hustler named Chance Wayne (played by Newman). For her performance, Page received her first nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, as well as the Sarah Siddons Award for her performance in Chicago. She and Newman subsequently starred in the 1962 film adaptation of the same name and Page earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film.
Geraldine Page actually won consecutive Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama in 1961 and 1962 for Summer and Smoke and Sweet Bird of Youth, respectively.
In 1963, Page starred in Toys in the Attic, based on Lillian Hellman's play of the same name, and garnered a Golden Globe nomination. She received another nomination the following year starring in Delbert Mann's Dear Heart as a self-sufficient but lonely postmistress visiting New York City for a convention, finding love with a greeting card salesman. In 1964, she starred in a Lee Strasberg-directed Broadway revival of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters playing eldest sister Olga to Kim Stanley's Masha with Barbara Baxley as the interloper Natasha. Both Shirley Knight and Sandy Dennis played the youngest sister Irina at different stages in this production.
Between 1966 and 1969, Page appeared in two holiday-themed television productions based on stories by Truman Capote: "The Christmas Memory" (for ABC Stage 67) and the television film The Thanksgiving Visitor, both of which earned her two consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Actress. In 1967, Page appeared again onstage in Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy/White Lies, a production which also included Michael Crawford and Lynn Redgrave, who were making their Broadway debuts. The same year, she appeared opposite Fred MacMurray in the Walt Disney-produced musical The Happiest Millionaire. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was critical of the film, noting: "Geraldine Page and Gladys Cooper...square off in one musical scene of socially up-staging each other that is drenched in perfumed vulgarity. But, then, the whole picture is vulgar. It is an over-decorated, over-fluffed, over-sentimentalized endeavor to pretend the lace-curtain millionaires are—or were—every bit as folksy as the old prize-fighters and the Irish brawlers in the saloon."
### Mid-career work
Page starred opposite Ruth Gordon in the thriller What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969), the third and final film in the Robert Aldrich-produced trilogy which followed What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). The film is based on the novel The Forbidden Garden by Ursula Curtiss and features Page as Claire Marrable, a recently widowed socialite, who, discovers that her husband has left her virtually nothing. The widow hires a number of unsuspecting housekeepers whom she murders one by one and robs them of their life savings in order to keep up her extravagant lifestyle. Writing for The New York Times, Vincent Canby deemed the film "an amusingly baroque horror story told by a master misogynist," and praised Page's "affecting" performance.
Page subsequently appeared in the Don Siegel-directed thriller The Beguiled (1971) opposite Clint Eastwood, playing the headmistress of a Southern girls' boarding school who takes in a wounded Union soldier. Director Siegel called Page "certainly as fine an actor as I've ever worked with. I never have gotten along better with anyone than I did with her." This was followed by a supporting role in the comedy Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also appeared in three episodes of Rod Serling's Night Gallery between 1972 and 1973. In January 1973, she returned to Broadway playing Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Maya Angelou in the two-character play Look Away, written by Jerome Kilty. Page received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (her second Tony Award nomination) for the 1975 production of Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular with Sandy Dennis and Richard Kiley.
She also had a supporting role as a charismatic Hollywood evangelist (modeled after Aimee Semple McPherson) in The Day of the Locust (1975), an adaptation of the Nathanael West novel of the same name. In 1977, she appeared as a nun in the British comedy Nasty Habits, and provided the voice role of Madame Medusa in the Walt Disney animated film The Rescuers. During this time, she also appeared on television, guest-starring in the popular series Kojak (1976) and Hawaii Five-O (1977).
Page appeared as the mother of three siblings and wife of a prominent attorney in Woody Allen's Interiors (1978). For her performance, Page was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The New York Times's Vincent Canby lauded her performance in the film, writing: "Miss Page, looking a bit like a youthful Louise Nevelson with mink-lashed eyes, is marvelous — erratically kind, impossibly demanding, pathetic in her loneliness and desperate in her anger." The following year, in November 1979, Page was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
### Later work and final performances
Page starred as Zelda Fitzgerald in the last major Broadway production of a Williams play, Clothes for a Summer Hotel in 1980, followed by a supporting role in Harry's War (1981). Page starred as the secretive nun Mother Miriam Ruth in the Broadway production of Agnes of God, which opened in 1982 and ran for 599 performances with Page performing in nearly all of them; for her role, she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
Also in 1983, Page invited the young actress Sabra Jones Strasberg to her dressing room to talk to Strasberg about how much she had liked her performance in St. Joan by Maxwell Anderson, in which Page had just seen her play the part originated by Ingrid Bergman. During this conversation, Strasberg asked her advice in forming a classic theatre based on alternating repertory. Strasberg later founded the Mirror Theater Ltd with its repertory program the Mirror Repertory, and Page accepted the role of Founding Artist in Residence. Page remained continually active in theater, appearing in numerous repertory, Broadway, and Off-Broadway productions throughout the 1980s; this included roles in a revivals of Inheritors by Susan Glaspell and Paradise Lost by Clifford Odets in 1983, Rain by John Colton (based on the short story "Miss Thompson" by W. Somerset Maugham) the following year. Further revivals followed in 1985: Vivat! Vivat Regina! by Robert Bolt (in which she played Elizabeth I), Clarence by Booth Tarkington, and The Madwoman of Chaillot (by Jean Giraudoux) in which she played the Madwoman to great acclaim).
Page earned her seventh Academy Award nomination for her performance in the dark comedy The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984). This marked a record at the time for most Academy Award nominations without a win, for which Page was tied with Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton (who themselves had also garnered seven nominations without winning). On television, Page had a supporting role in the miniseries The Dollmaker (1984), opposite Jane Fonda and Amanda Plummer. She appeared in the British horror film The Bride opposite Sting and Jennifer Beals; the drama White Nights, directed by Taylor Hackford; and opposite Rebecca de Mornay in the drama The Trip to Bountiful (all 1985), in which she played an aging Southern Texas woman seeking to return to her hometown. The role earned Page wide critical acclaim, with the Los Angeles Times referring to it as "the performance of a lifetime."
In 1986, she appeared on Broadway in The Circle by W. Somerset Maugham; during this production, Page won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Trip to Bountiful. During her acceptance speech, she thanked The Mirror Theater Ltd. Page wore her costume from The Circle, which had been designed and made by Gail Cooper-Hecht, the Mirror Theater's costume designer. She received the award from F. Murray Abraham, who, after winning his Oscar for Amadeus, also joined the Mirror Repertory Company to play the rag-picker in the Madwoman of Chaillot. Prior to winning the Academy Award, Page said to People magazine: "If I lose the Oscar this year, I'll have the record for the most nominations without ever winning... I'd love to be champion, [but the loser] doesn't have to get up there and make a fool of herself."
After winning the Academy Award, Page returned to finish her run performing in The Circle for Mirror Theater and appeared opposite Carroll Baker, Oprah Winfrey, and Elizabeth McGovern in Native Son (1986). Page followed up Native Son with a lead role opposite Mary Stuart Masterson in My Little Girl (1987). In the fall of 1986, Page asked permission to return to Broadway in a revival of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit in the role of Madame Arcati. She was cast in the role, though the production would be Page's last. She was again nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, though she did not win. A week after the Tony Awards ceremony, Page failed to appear for two performances of the play and was found dead in her Manhattan home. The show lasted several weeks more, with Page's understudy Patricia Conolly taking over her role.
## Reception and acting style
Page was trained as a method actor, and at times worked with psychoanalysts when developing her interpretations of roles. She once told the Los Angeles Times: "If I read a part and think I can connect to it, that I can touch people with it, I will do it, no matter what its size. And if I think I can't do something with a part, I won't take it." In a 1964 interview upon completing the Broadway run of The Three Sisters, Page discussed her method acting at length. When asked if she used emotional recall as a technique, she responded: "I would never shut it out. But I don't try to get one. My whole effort is to relax and keep the doors open so that there's room if one should pop up."
During her life, Page was regarded as a respected character actress. Speaking of her stage career in 1986, she said: "I used to think that by opening [night] all the work was done. Now I'm finding how much you can learn from the audience." She described acting as a "bottomless cup," adding: "If I studied for the next ninety years I'd just be scratching the surface."
## Personal life
Page was married to violinist Alexander Schneider from 1954 to 1957. On September 8, 1963, she married actor Rip Torn, who was six years her junior, in Pinal, Arizona. They had played opposite one another in Sweet Bird of Youth on Broadway and in the 1962 film. They had three children: a daughter, actress Angelica Page, and twin sons, Anthony "Tony" and Jonathan "Jon" Torn.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Page and Torn lived separately after he started dating actress Amy Wright; Torn had first met Wright in 1976 and began an affair shortly after. Page was aware of Torn and Wright's relationship, and appeared onstage opposite Wright in the 1977 Off-Broadway production of The Stronger, under Torn's direction. In 1983, Torn fathered a child with Wright. Upon the birth of the child, Page was questioned about her marriage by columnist Cindy Adams, to which she responded: "Of course Rip and I are still married. We've been married for years. We're staying married. What's the big fuss?" In spite of their separation, Page and Torn remained married until her death; her daughter described their relationship as still "close" up until Page died in 1987.
Page considered herself a gourmand, once joking: "Greedy gut is my middle name...Rip is wonderful. He does the cooking and I do the eating. I love everything but eggplant."
## Death
On June 13, 1987, Page failed to arrive at the Neil Simon Theatre for both the afternoon and evening performances of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, which had begun its run in March. At the end of the show's evening performance, the play's producer announced that Page had been found dead in her lower Manhattan townhouse. It was determined that she died of a heart attack.
On June 18, "an overflow crowd of colleagues, friends and fans," including Sissy Spacek, James Earl Jones, Amanda Plummer, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, and husband Torn attended a memorial service held at the Neil Simon Theatre.
Highlighting Page's achievements, actress Anne Jackson said "[Page] used a stage like no one else I'd ever seen. It was like playing tennis with someone who had 26 arms." Rip Torn called her "Mi corazon, mi alma, mi esposa" ("My heart, my soul, my wife") and said they had "never stopped being lovers, and ... never will." Page was cremated.
## Filmography
## Accolades
Page earned a total of seven Oscar nominations before winning her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1986 for The Trip to Bountiful. She was also a winner of two Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and one BAFTA award.
For her stage work on Broadway, Page earned a total of four Tony Award nominations, and was referred to by the New York Daily News as "one of the finest stage actors of her generation." She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979.
## In popular culture
Sarah Paulson portrayed Page in the 2017 anthology television series Feud, which chronicles the rivalry between actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on the set of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
She was also portrayed by her daughter, Angelica Page, in the stage production Turning Page. A monologue play chronicling Page's life, it was also written by her daughter: "I grew up in the center of her sparkling career," Angelica recalled. "As her only daughter I feel compelled to share her lessons and gifts with others who did and did not have the opportunity to know her magic intimately. She was a true rebel and trail blazer. A masterful woman who was ahead of her time and should not be forgotten anytime soon." The play premiered in Los Angeles in 2016, followed by performances in New York City in 2017. |
286,046 | Matangi | 1,167,387,876 | Hindu goddess | [
"Forms of Parvati",
"Hindu goddesses",
"Mahavidyas"
]
| Matangi (Sanskrit: मातङ्गी, ) is a Hindu goddess. She is one of the Mahavidyas, ten Tantric goddesses and an aspect of the Hindu Divine Mother. She is considered to be the Tantric form of Saraswati, the goddess of music and learning. Matangi governs speech, music, knowledge and the arts. Her worship is prescribed to acquire supernatural powers, especially gaining control over enemies, attracting people to oneself, acquiring mastery over the arts and gaining supreme knowledge.
Matangi is often associated with pollution, inauspiciousness and the periphery of Hindu society, which is embodied in her most popular form, known as Uchchhishta-Chandalini or Uchchhishta-Matangini. She is described as an outcaste (Chandalini) and offered left-over or partially eaten food (Uchchhishta) with unwashed hands or food after eating, both of which are considered to be impure in classical Hinduism.
Matangi is represented as emerald green in colour. While Uchchhishta-Matangini carries a noose, sword, goad, and club, her other well-known form, Raja-Matangi, plays the veena and is often pictured with a parrot.
## Iconography and textual descriptions
The Dhyana mantra (a mantra that details the form of the deity on which a devotee should meditate) of the Brhat Tantrasara describes Uchchhishta-Matangini, one of the most popular forms of the goddess. Matangi is seated on a corpse and wears red garments, red jewellery and a garland of gunja seeds. The goddess is described as a young, sixteen-year-old maiden with fully developed breasts. She carries a skull bowl and a sword in her two hands, and is offered leftovers.
The Dhyana mantras in the Purashcharyarnava and the Tantrasara describe Matangi as blue in colour. The crescent moon adorns her forehead. She has three eyes and a smiling face. She wears jewellery and is seated on a jewelled throne. She carries a noose, a sword, a goad, and a club in her four arms. Her waist is slim and her breasts well-developed.
The Dhyana Mantra of Raja-Matangi from the Purashcharyarnava describes Matangi as green in colour with the crescent moon on her forehead. She has long hair, a smiling expression and intoxicated eyes, and wears a garland of kadamba flowers and various ornaments. She perspires a little around the face, which renders her even more beautiful. Below her navel are three horizontal folds of skin and a thin vertical line of fine hair. Seated on an altar and flanked by two parrots, she represents the 64 arts. The Saradatilaka, adds to this description that Raja-Matangi plays the veena, wears conch-shell earrings and flower garlands, and has flower paintings adorning her forehead. She is also depicted wearing a garland of white lotus (here lotus signifies multi-colored world creation), similar to the iconography of goddess Saraswati, with whom she is associated with.
According to Kalidasa's Shyamaladandakam, Matangi plays a ruby-studded veena and speaks sweetly. The Dhyana Mantra describes her to be four-armed, with a dark emerald complexion, full breasts anointed with red kumkum powder, and a crescent moon on her forehead. She carries a noose, a goad, a sugarcane bow and flower arrows, which the goddess Tripura Sundari is often described to hold. She is also described to love the parrot and is embodied in the nectar of song.
The green complexion is associated with deep knowledge and is also the colour of Budha, the presiding deity of the planet Mercury who governs intelligence. Matangi is often depicted with a parrot in her hands, representing speech. The veena symbolizes her association with music.
## Legends
Matangi is often named as the ninth Mahavidya. A list contained within the prose of the Mundamala equates Vishnu's ten avatars with the ten Mahavidyas. The Buddha is equated to Matangi. A similar list in the Guhyatiguhya-Tantra omits Matangi altogether, however the scholar Sircar interprets the goddess Durga – equated to the avatar Kalki in the list – as an allusion to Matangi.
In a story from the Shakta Maha-Bhagavata Purana, which narrates the creation of all the Mahavidyas, Sati, the daughter of Daksha and wife of the god Shiva, feels insulted that she and Shiva are not invited to Daksha's yagna ("fire sacrifice") and insists on going there, despite Shiva's protests. After futile attempts to convince Shiva, the enraged Sati transforms into the Mahavidyas, including Matangi. The Mahavidyas then surround Shiva from the ten cardinal directions; Matangi stands in the northwest. Another similar legend replaces Sati with Kali (the chief Mahavidya) as the wife of Shiva and the origin of Matangi and the other Mahavidyas. The Devi Bhagavata Purana describes Matangi and her fellow Mahavidyas as war-companions and forms of the goddess Shakambhari.
The Shaktisamgama-tantra narrates the birth of Uchchhishta-Matangini. Once, the god Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi visited Shiva and his wife Parvati (a reincarnation of Sati) and gave them a banquet of fine foods. While eating, the deities dropped some food on the ground, from which arose a beautiful maiden, a manifestation of Goddess Saraswati, who asked their left-overs. The four deities granted her their left-overs as prasad, food made sacred by having been first consumed by the deity. This can be interpreted as the Uchchhishta of the deity, although due to its negative connotation the word Uchchhishta is never explicitly used in connection to prasad. Shiva decreed that those who repeat her mantra and worship her will have their material desires satisfied and gain control over foes, declaring her the giver of boons. From that day, the maiden was known as Uchchhishta-Matangini.
The Pranotasani Tantra (18th Century) and Naradpancharatra narrates that once Parvati longed to go back to her maternal house for some days and asked Shiva's permission to do so. The reluctant Shiva agreed on the condition that if she did not return in a few days, he would come to fetch her. Parvati agreed and went to her father Himalaya's place, where she stayed for many days. The lovesick Shiva went to Himavan's abode disguised as an ornament seller and sold shell ornaments to Parvati. In order to test her fidelity, the disguised Shiva asked for sex in return. The disgusted Parvati was about to curse the ornament-seller when she realizes by her yogic powers that it was none other than Shiva. She agrees to grant sexual favours but at the appropriate time. In the evening, Parvati returns to Shiva's abode disguised as a Chandala huntress. She is dressed in red and had a lean figure and large breasts and performs a seductive dance to lure him. She told Shiva that she had come to do penance. Shiva replied that he is the one gives fruit to all penance and took her hand and kissed her. Further, they made love when Shiva himself changed into a Chandala and recognized the Chandala woman as his wife. After the love-making, Parvati asked Shiva to grant her wish that her form as a Chandalini (the Chandala female form in which Shiva made love to her) might last forever as Uchchhishta-Chandalini and that her worship in this form precede his for his worship to be considered fruitful. This tale is also found in many Bengali Mangalkavyas. In these texts, however, Parvati is not explicitly identified with Matangi.
The Svatantra-tantra mentions that Matanga practised austerities for thousands of years to gain the power to subdue all beings. Finally, goddess Tripura Sundari appeared and from eyes emitted rays that produced goddess Kali, who had greenish complexion and was known as Raja-Matangini. With her help, Matanga fulfilled his desire. Matanga Tantra and many other texts including the Shyamaladandakam describe Matangi as the daughter of the sage Matanga.
Another tale is associated with the temple dedicated to Kauri-bai—an aspect of Matangi—who appeared in the low caste area of Varanasi. Kauri-bai is Shiva's sister who was obsessed with the Brahmin ways and purity and abhorred Shiva's heterodox practices like dwelling in cremation grounds, partaking of intoxicants and being in the company of ghosts and goblins. While Shiva simply ignored Kauri-bai's words at first, after his marriage his wife Parvati could not bear Kauri-bai's abusive words toward her husband and cursed Kauri-bai to be reborn in and spend her entire life within an "untouchable" area of Varanasi which Kauri-bai considered polluted. Consequently, Kauri-bai was indeed reborn in the low-caste area of Varanasi and felt very unhappy. She pleaded her brother Shiva—the Lord of Varanasi—who granted her the boon that no pilgrimage to Varanasi would be deemed complete without her worship.
## Associations
Matangi is often associated with pollution, especially left-over or partially eaten food (Uchchhishta or Ucçhishṭa, उच्छिष्ट) considered impure in Hinduism. She is often offered such polluted left-over food and is in one legend described to be born from it. Matangi is herself described as the leftover or residue, symbolizing the Divine Self that is left over after all things perish. As the patron of left-over food offerings, she embodies inauspiciousness and the forbidden transgression of social norms.
Matangi is often described as an outcaste and impure. Her association with pollution mainly streams from her relation to outcaste communities, considered to be polluted in ancient Hindu society. These social groups deal in occupations deemed inauspicious and polluted like the collection of waste, meat-processing and working in cremation grounds. In a Nepali context, such groups are collectively called Matangi, who collect waste—including human waste—and other inauspicious things, and often live outside villages. Thus she is associated with death, pollution, inauspiciousness and the periphery of ancient Hindu society. She represents equality as she is worshipped by both upper and lower caste people.
Matangi is also associated with forests and tribal peoples, who lie outside conventional Hindu society. Her thousand-name hymn from the Nanayavarta-tantra mentions lines that describe her as dwelling in, walking in, knowing and relishing the forest.
Matangi represents the power of the spoken word (Vaikhari) as an expression of thoughts and the mind. She also relates to the power of listening and grasping speech and converting it back to knowledge and thought. Besides spoken word, she also governs all other expressions of inner thought and knowledge, like art, music, and dance. Matangi presides over the middle part of speech (Madhyama), where ideas are translated into the spoken word and in her highest role, represents Para-Vaikhari—the Supreme Word manifested through speech and that encompasses knowledge of the scriptures. She is described as the goddess of learning and speech, and the bestower of knowledge and talent. She is also called Mantrini, the mistress of the sacred mantras. She also represents the word of a guru, who serves as a spiritual guide. Matangi is described as dwelling in the Throat chakra—the origin of speech—and on the tip of the tongue. She is also associated with a channel called Saraswati from the third eye to the tip of the tongue. According to David Frawley, her description as impure refers to the nature of the spoken word, which labels things and stereotypes them, thereby hindering actual contact with the soul of things. The goddess is described as one who helps a person to use words in the right way and to go beyond it to seek the soul and inner knowledge, which lie outside the demarcated boundaries of tradition.
Matangi is regarded as a Tantric form of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and the arts of mainstream Hinduism, with whom she shares many traits. Both embody music and are depicted playing the veena. They are also both said to be the Nada (sound or energy) that flows through the Nadi channels in the body through which life force flows. Both are related to rain clouds, thunder and rivers. Though both govern learning and speech, Saraswati represents the orthodox knowledge of the Brahmins while Matangi—the wild and ecstatic outcast—embodies the "extraordinary" beyond the boundaries of mainstream society, especially inner knowledge. Matangi is also associated with Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of knowledge and obstacle removal. Both are related to the elephant and learning. Matangi is also regarded as his mother. Matangi is also described as a minister of the Mahavidya goddess Tripura Sundari or Rajarajeshvari, the Queen of Queens.
## Worship
Besides the Mahavidya Bagalamukhi, Matangi is the other Mahavidya, whose worship is primarily prescribed to acquire supernatural powers. A hymn in the Maha-Bhagavata Purana asks her grace to control one's foes, while the Tantrasara says that recitation of her mantra, meditation on her form and her ritual worship gives one to the power to control people and make them attracted to oneself. Tantric sadhakas are regarded to have transcended the pollution by offering her left-over or partially eaten food (Uchchhishta) and thus overcome their ego. Worship of Matangi is described to allow her devotee to face the forbidden and transcend pollution, leading him to salvation or allowing him to gain supernatural powers for worldly goals. The Purashcharyarnava describes pleasing the goddess would result in her answering all the devotee's queries by whispering in her ear.
Matangi is often worshipped with the mantra syllable Aim, which is associated with Saraswati and is the seed-syllable of knowledge, learning, and teaching. A longer mantra is also used:
> Om Hrim Aim Shrim Namo Bhagvati Ucchishtachandali Shri Matangeswari Sarvajanavasankari Swaha
> "Reverence to adorable Matangi, the outcast and residue, who gives control over all creatures"
Her mantra may be repeated ten thousand times, repeated one thousand times while offering flowers and ghee in a fire sacrifice, or repeated one hundred times while offering water (Arghya) or while offering food to Brahmin priests. Her yantra (sacred geometric diagram), whether physically constructed or mentally envisioned, is used in worship along with the mantra. Offering certain items to a fire sacrifice—particularly those performed at cremation grounds, riverbanks, forests, or crossroads—while repeating the mantra is said to fulfill specific goals. An offering of Bael leaves is said to result in kingship; salt gives the power to control; turmeric gives the power to paralyze; neem twigs bring wealth; and an offering of sandalwood, camphor, and saffron together or a salt and honey mixture grants the power to attract people. A rice-flour bread prepared while repeating her mantra is said to give the power to attract women. It is likewise said that it is possible to make a person one's slave by feeding him or her the ashes of a crow whose stomach was stuffed with a conch and burnt in a cremation ground while repeating the goddess' mantra.
Leftover or partially eaten food (Uchchhishta) is recommended to be offered to Matangi with the devotee in the polluted Uchchhishta state, that is, having eaten but not washed, with the remains of food in the mouth and hands. An offering of leftovers to Hindu deities or being in the polluted Uchchhishta state is a taboo in mainstream Hinduism. Another taboo that is broken in Matangi worship is the offering to the goddess of a cloth stained with menstrual blood to gain the ability to attract a mate. Menstrual blood is considered polluted in almost all Hindu scriptures and menstruating women are kept away from Hindu worship and temples. The outcaste Matangi community of Nepal collect polluted substances and items related to death and bad luck such as sacrificial animal heads and clothes of the deceased, and offers them at special stones kept at crossroads called chwasas, where the Matangi "consumes" them as an offering, thereby getting rid of the pollution. The Tantrasara also advises offerings to Matangi of meat, fish, cooked rice, milk and incense at crossroads or cremations grounds in the dead of the night to overpower enemies and gain poetic talent. Oblations of Uchchhishta, cat meat and goat meat to the goddess are said to help achieve Supreme knowledge. A text proclaims Matangi's worship becomes fruitful only if the devotee reveres women as goddesses and refrains from criticizing them.
No fasts or rituals to purify oneself before worship—typical of Hindu worship—are prescribed for Matangi worship. Anyone can use any mantra for worship, even though he is not initiated or considered unfit for worshipping any other deity. A thousand-name hymn from the Nanayavarta-tantra and a hundred-name hymn from the Rudrayamala are dedicated to the goddess. The recitation of the Sanskrit alphabet, the chanting of mantras, the loud reading of the scriptures, and performance of music and dance are also described as constituting acts of her worship.
## Temples
Matangi along with the other Mahavidyas finds place in the Kamakhya Temple complex, the most important Shaktipeeth for Tantra worship. While other Mahavidyas are worshipped in individual temples, Matangi and Kamala find place in the main Kamakhya shrine along with Kamakhya, in the form of a 'yoni'.
Goddess Meenakshi of Madurai is also considered as none other than Raja Matangi. Here, She is seen as two-handed and standing, holding a parrot.
The Modh community of Gujarat worship Matangi as Modheshwari, patron deity of the Modh community. Here, Matangi is seen in a Durga-like form sitting over a lion.
Other than the above, Rajrappa Chhinnamasta shrine also has a temple dedicated to Matangi and the other Mahavidyas. There are several temples in South India where Matangi is venerated as Shyamala or Mantrini, the Prime minister of Goddess Lalita in Srikula tradition. |
9,798,409 | Theresienstadt (1944 film) | 1,172,724,422 | 1940s German propaganda film | [
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"Documentary films about Jews and Judaism",
"Holocaust films",
"Holocaust historical documents",
"Lost German films",
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]
| Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet ("Theresienstadt: A Documentary Film from the Jewish Settlement Area"), unofficially Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt ("The Führer Gives a City to the Jews"), was a black-and-white projected Nazi propaganda film. It was directed by the German Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron and the Czech filmmaker Karel Pečený under close SS supervision in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, and edited by Pečený's company, Aktualita. Filmed mostly in the autumn of 1944, it was completed on 28 March 1945 and screened privately four times. After the war, the film was lost but about twenty minutes of footage was later rediscovered in various archives.
Unlike other Nazi propaganda films, which were under the control of Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda, Theresienstadt was conceived and paid for by the Jewish Affairs department of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, at the initiative of Hans Günther. The film, which displayed supposedly happy and healthy Jews, was part of a larger Nazi program to use Theresienstadt as a tool to discredit reports of the genocide of Jews reaching the Western Allies and neutral countries. However, it was not widely distributed and did not have the opportunity to influence public opinion.
## Background
Theresienstadt was a Nazi ghetto in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia—the German-occupied Czech lands—built inside a repurposed fortified town, Terezín. Between 1941 and 1945, some 140,000 Jews were transported to the camp. Before the war, it housed about 7,000 people; during the camp's existence, the average population was about 45,000. About 33,000 died at Theresienstadt and almost 90,000 were deported to ghettos, extermination camps, and other killing centres, where they faced almost certain death.
In 1942, a Nazi propaganda film was filmed at Theresienstadt. Unlike other Nazi propaganda films, the initiative came from Hans Günther, director of the SS Central Office for the Settlement of the Jewish Question in Bohemia and Moravia, a section of the Reich Security Main Office, rather than the Reich Ministry of Propaganda of Joseph Goebbels. This was the result of a power struggle between Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich and Goebbels; Heydrich won the concession that all propaganda produced in the Protectorate would be run through a special office in the Protectorate administration. The film was probably written by Irena Dodalová [de; fr], a Czech Jewish prisoner who had run a film studio in Prague with her husband before the war. Little is known about it, since it is little mentioned in the memoirs and testimonies of Theresienstadt survivors, and was only rediscovered in fragmentary form in 1994.
In an attempt to preserve its credibility and preeminence as a humanitarian organization while reports on the mass extermination of Jews continued to reach the Western Allies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) requested to visit Theresienstadt in November 1943. On 23 June 1944, Maurice Rossel, an ICRC delegate, and two Danish officials went on a tour of Theresienstadt. In preparation for the visit, the Germans "beautified" and cleaned the camp prior to arrival and arranged cultural activities to give the appearance of a happy, industrious community. To cover up the endemic overpopulation of the camp, thousands of people were deported to Auschwitz before the arrival of the Red Cross delegation. In his report, Rossel claimed that Jews were treated well and not deported from Theresienstadt. Rossel gave copies of photographs he took during the visit to the German Foreign Ministry, which used them to claim that Jews were treated well under Nazi rule.
## Filming
Preparations for a second Theresienstadt film, again sponsored by Günther rather than Goebbels, began concurrently with the "beautification" of the ghetto prior to the Red Cross visit. Günther's Central Office, which was funded by stolen Jewish property, paid a Czech company, Aktualita, 350,000 Czech koruna (35,000 Reichsmarks) to produce the film. In December 1943, a prisoner, probably Jindřich Weil, was ordered to write a script, and he finished two drafts by March. On 20 January 1944, the Nazis filmed the arrival of a transport of Danish Jews and a welcome speech by Paul Eppstein, with a view of including it in a later film. There was no effort to complete the film before the Red Cross visit and screen it to the guests. Karel Margry, a Dutch historian who has studied the Theresienstadt propaganda films, argues that the "beautification" efforts had a higher priority, and that the propaganda would be more effective if filmed after the ghetto had been beautified.
Kurt Gerron, a leading German Jewish actor and director, had fled to the Netherlands and was deported from Westerbork to Theresienstadt in February 1944. In July, the film project was revived and Gerron was ordered to write a script, which was used in the film. While the script has traditionally been credited to Gerron, it closely adhered to Weil's draft and the dictates of the SS; his creative role was minimal. Although he is usually credited with directorship of the film, Gerron's role in the filming was more symbolic than substantial, according to Spanish film historian Rafael de España. Eyewitnesses report that Gerron was constantly urging Jews to behave as mirthfully as the Germans wished and organizing mass scenes. However, SS men oversaw the filming, and Rahm and even Günther supervised scenes. When Rahm was not present on set, Gerron had to send him detailed reports.
Filming took place over eleven days between 16 August and 11 September 1944. The assistant directors were František Zelenka, Jo Spier, and Hans Hofer [cs; de; fr]. Karel Pečený and his company Aktualita provided the cameramen, and halfway through filming, Pečený effectively took over as director. The two cameramen were Ivan Frič and Čeněk Zahradníček, assisted by Benda Rosenwein. The film's soundtrack has been credited to Jaroslav Sechura and Josef Francek. Aktualita collaborated with the German newsreel company Favoritfilm in producing the film. Prisoners of stereotypically Jewish appearance who were not obviously malnourished were chosen to appear in the film. They were given time off work for rehearsals and filming, and those unwilling to appear were threatened with harsh punishment.
On 28 October, Gerron was deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered, never seeing even a preliminary version of the film. The film was cut by Ivan Frič, who did not use Gerron's proposals for cutting or any of the scripts, but instead using the same improvised technique that he used for Aktualita's weekly newsreels. Frič had to cut the ending three times before Günther accepted it. The final cut bore little resemblance to Gerron's July script, his later editing proposal, or his creative vision for the film. In March, Aktualita sent a crew to the camp in order to collect some samples of "Jewish music", including snippets of the work of Felix Mendelssohn, Jacques Offenbach, and the children's opera Brundibár by Theresienstadt prisoner Hans Krása. The music was performed under the direction of Danish Jewish composer Peter Deutsch, who had experience with film soundtracks before the war. The SS completed the film on 28 March 1945, in time to present to the ICRC delegation that arrived on 6 April 1945.
## Content
Testimonies agree that the film ran about 90 minutes, the standard length. Survivors remember what was filmed, but not which scenes were used in the final version. Although the full film was lost, a surviving document from the editing stage lists all the sequences as they appeared in the final version, and from surviving fragments and the drawings of Jo Spier, historians have "a very good idea of the visual image of virtually every scene in the film's 38 sequences", according to Margry. Nothing survives of a scene showing the self-government's court and a different scene in a dining hall.
The film opens with the children's choir, directed by Karel Fischer, singing Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah. The Ghetto Swingers, a jazz band, plays outside, and "prominent" prisoners enjoy food and beverages on a terrace and in a sham coffee house. Various sports events are also performed. The first eight sequences of the film show only leisure activities, setting the tone for the rest of the film and casting Theresienstadt as a holiday resort. Later sections of the film focus on work, including the Jewish self-government, construction projects, craft workshops, and agriculture. H. G. Adler notes that the type of work depicted in the film was not typical of that performed by most prisoners. Fake institutions, such as a bank and various shops, are also shown. Theresienstadt medical care, including a hospital and recuperation home, makes an appearance. Family life and unstructured leisure time is depicted towards the end of the film. The final scene is of a performance of the children's opera Brundibár.
Karl Rahm insisted that the "prominent" prisoners of Theresienstadt be filmed, and pressed Gerron to include more of them in his shots. Among the "prominents" who appeared were Jo Spier, Max Friediger, Paul Eppstein, and Leo Baeck. The SS also insisted that the film's soundtrack consist exclusively of Jewish composers. According to España, the film itself is of good technical quality, and the focus on leisure activities creates an "atmosphere of a perpetual party". Margry states that the narration was "the main truth-distorting element", but nevertheless included some factual information. According to Margry, historians have exaggerated the falseness of the film. Although Theresienstadt as a whole is "a vicious work of propaganda", "the visual authenticity" of the film is greater than many commentators have written, and the film accurately depicts some elements of daily life in the ghetto. Margry argues that "the film's blatant dishonesty turns on what it did not show: the hunger, the misery, the overcrowding, the slave work for the German war economy, the high death rate, and, most of all, the transports leaving for the East".
## Aftermath
The film was not intended to be shown in Germany; the Nazi propagandists hoped to distribute it in neutral countries to counter Allied news reports about the persecution of Jews. However, by the time the film was completed on 28 March 1945, Germany's imminent defeat made this impossible. An alternative interpretation was that by the time it was completed, the film was intended for a much more select audience and narrowly focused on the cinematic portrayal of "prominent" prisoners who had in fact been murdered at Auschwitz in order to persuade the ICRC that they were still alive. Because of this more select audience, Czech film historian Natascha Drubek argues that the film was not propaganda in a true sense.
The film is known to have been screened at least three times. According to Margry, in late March or early April at Czernin Palace in Prague, the film was shown privately to a few high-ranking SS officers, including Higher SS and Police Leader for the Protectorate, Karl Hermann Frank, as well as Günther and Rahm. It was shown at Theresienstadt on 6 April to a Red Cross delegation including Otto Lehner and Paul Dunant, accompanied by Swiss diplomat Buchmüller; Frank's subordinate Erwin Weinmann was also present. Pointing to testimony that Rahm was bedridden with fever on 6 April, Drubek argues that these two screenings were in fact the same, and that Lehner and Dunant saw the film on 6 April at Czernin Palace with Frank, but not Rahm, in attendance.
On 16 April the film was shown twice at Theresienstadt, first to Benoît Musy, son of Jean-Marie Musy, a Swiss politician and negotiator with Himmler, in the company of SS officer Franz Göring. After Musy left, the film was shown to Rudolf Kastner, chairman of the Hungarian Jewish Aid and Rescue Committee; Kastner was escorted by two members of Eichmann's staff. Günther, his deputy Gerhard Günel, Rahm, and Jewish elder Benjamin Murmelstein were also present. All of those who viewed the film had access to independent reports that hundreds of thousands of Jews were being murdered at Auschwitz and there is no indication that any of them were affected by the film. At Pečený's recommendation, the SS deposited 25 crates of film footage in Favoritfilm's warehouse in Holešovice shortly before the Prague uprising broke out. The warehouse was damaged by an incendiary bomb on 7 May. Eva Strusková suggests that Günther may have ordered the film to be destroyed. There is no proof that Theresienstadt was in the warehouse, so it is possible that the film was otherwise lost.
## Historiography
In the postwar era, the film was considered lost, but continued to be the focus of discussion. The RSHA archives were burned in 1945, so the Nazis' paperwork relating to Theresienstadt was also destroyed. Less than 25 minutes of footage were later discovered in various archives. Allegedly, Přemysl Schönbach discovered fragments of the film in Mšeno in May or June 1945. He kept them in a private archive, but showed them to Vladimír Kressl, a lecturer at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 1964, which resulted in a copy of the footage being deposited into the Czechoslovak national archives that same year. Also in 1964, Schönbach provided a copy to Michael Bornkamp, a West German journalist, who subsequently used the footage in a documentary So schön war es in Terezin (It was so nice in Terezín), which was screened at the 1965 Oberhausen Film Festival. Schönbach was sentenced to a three-year suspended sentence for causing financial loss to the Czechoslovak nation. Drubek introduces a different perspective on the politically motivated use of 'found' or 'discovered' Nazi film fragments in Communist Czechoslovakia, relating it to attempts to influence West-German politics during the Cold War, so the statute of limitations for acts of murder during the war would not end in 1965.
In 1965, the Czechoslovak authorities made their own documentary based on the footage, Město darované (The Given Town), which is still used by the Terezín Ghetto Museum today. Fragments of the footage including the title sequence were discovered in a former Gestapo building in Prague by former prisoner Jiří Lauscher at an unknown date and transferred to an Israeli archive, where they were rediscovered in 1987. A speech made by Paul Eppstein was discovered in Prague in 1997. The Israeli footage was broken into 24 fragments, the shortest of which was only one frame and the longest of which was two minutes. Another important source of information on what was filmed is the sketches of Jo Spier, a Dutch Jewish illustrator who observed the filming and made 332 sketches of scenes from the camera's viewpoint. Although some critics have assumed that his sketches were made before filming, this is not the case.
According to Kurt Gerron's papers, the original title was Die jüdische Selbstverwaltung in Theresienstadt (The Jewish Self-Government in Theresienstadt); later, he used the short title Theresienstadt. Excerpts of the film discovered in the Israeli archive in 1988 revealed the official title to be Theresienstadt, with the subtitle Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet (A Documentary Film from the Jewish Settlement Area). According to Margry, the Nazis called it a "documentary film" in order to cast the film as an authentic representation of Theresienstadt life rather than staged propaganda, while the last three words imply that there were more "Jewish settlements" like Theresienstadt. It is believed that Jewish prisoners gave the film an ironic title, Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt, ("The Führer Gives a City to the Jews"), during the final months of the war, which was used as the title until 1988. The misconception about the correct title has been used in a number of analyses of Nazi propaganda by film critics.
Film historians have often claimed that the film was ordered by Goebbels, but that is not the case. Many scholars have claimed that the film was ordered after the June Red Cross visit, but it was prepared from late 1943. The earlier origin of the film discredits many theories that have been offered for why the Nazis ordered the film. It has also been claimed that Heinrich Himmler was closely involved in the production of the film and showed it to the Western Allied agents with whom he was conducting secret negotiations in late 1944. However, the only evidence suggesting that he knew of the film's existence is a letter between his secretary, Rudolf Brandt, and personal masseur, Felix Kersten, in March or April 1945.
## Legacy
The German film website filmportal.de describes the film as "one of the most cynical and despicable Nazi propaganda films". In a review of the 2002 Canadian documentary Prisoner of Paradise, which focused on Gerron's role in the film, Entertainment Weekly states that the 1944 film was "a work of propaganda so perverse one is shocked to realize that even the Nazis could have thought of it". For many years, it was assumed that the participants in the film were collaborators, and they were judged very harshly. Karel Pečený was convicted of collaborationism in 1947 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, ten years' loss of civil rights, and the nationalization of his company and other assets. Later appraisal has tempered this assessment. Margry states that Aktualita's participation was probably coerced by the SS. He notes that Frič smuggled still images out of the studio at considerable personal risk and Pečený risked his life by delaying the completion of the film until after it was no longer useful to Günther. The film has been used by Holocaust deniers to make false generalizations about the treatment of Jews by the Nazi regime. |
18,487,206 | Hollywood A.D. | 1,168,139,664 | null | [
"2000 American television episodes",
"Hollywood, Los Angeles in fiction",
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"Murder–suicide in fiction",
"Portrayals of Jesus on television",
"Television episodes about Catholicism",
"Television episodes about filmmaking",
"Television episodes about zombies",
"Television episodes directed by David Duchovny",
"Television episodes set in Los Angeles",
"Television episodes written by David Duchovny",
"The X-Files (season 7) episodes"
]
| "Hollywood A.D." is the nineteenth episode of the seventh season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on April 30, 2000. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Hollywood A.D." earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.7, being watched by 12.88 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode was met with largely positive reviews, with many critics approving of the episode's humorous nature.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, Wayne Federman, an entrepreneurial Hollywood producer and college friend of Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) picks up the idea for a film based on the X-Files, however Mulder and Scully find that the level of realism in their fictional portrayal is somewhat questionable. Meanwhile, during the filming of the movie, Mulder and Scully research the mysterious "Lazarus Bowl", an artifact that supposedly has the exact words that Jesus Christ spoke to raise Lazarus from the dead recorded on its surface.
"Hollywood A.D." was written and directed by series star David Duchovny, his second writing and directing credit after the sixth season episode "The Unnatural." The episode—written with a "self-referential" tone—features myriad guest stars, including, most notably, Garry Shandling and Téa Leoni, who portray Mulder and Scully, respectively, in the episode's fictional movie. Leoni herself was also Duchovny's then-wife. The episode itself contains several in-jokes and references deliberately placed by Duchovny.
## Plot
Walter Skinner's college friend, Hollywood producer Wayne Federman, is involved in a film project about the FBI. During Federman's research phase, Skinner gives him access to Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who are investigating the attempted murder of Cardinal O'Fallon. Federman tags along and constantly interrupts the agents. While searching the catacombs of O'Fallon's church, Mulder finds the remains of Micah Hoffman, a missing 1960s counter-culturalist. Searching Hoffman's apartment, they find bombs and counterfeiting tools, as well as a forged gospel of Mary Magdalene. Mulder and Federman return to the catacombs, finding several skeletons and pieces of the forged gospel. Federman wanders off and stumbles upon animated bones, who attempt to assemble a shattered piece of pottery. He panics and leaves the scene.
As they examine the pottery, Scully tells Mulder the story of the "Lazarus Bowl", in which the aunt of Lazarus had been making a clay bowl when Jesus Christ resurrected him. The words of Christ were then recorded in the grooves of the bowl, much like a phonograph record. Mulder brings the relic to Chuck Burks, who, after performing a sonic analysis, discovers voices in Aramaic: In one portion part of the audio, one man commands another to rise from the dead. The other contains lyrics from "I am the Walrus" by The Beatles plus an allusion to the Paul is dead urban legend.
Mulder visits O'Fallon, who admits he bought the forged gospel from Hoffman, believing it was real. Meanwhile, during Hoffman's autopsy, Scully experiences a hallucination wherein he comes back to life on the operating table and begins talking. Later, at the church, Scully has a hallucination of Hoffman in Jesus' place on a large crucifix. Mulder arrests O'Fallon for Hoffman's murder, but Hoffman walks in, unscathed. He tells the agents that while he initially created the forgeries to make money, he came to believe he was the reincarnation of Christ, and bombed the church to get rid of the "blasphemous" forgeries. Skinner suspends Scully and Mulder for four weeks because of the mix-up. Sixteen months later, O'Fallon kills Hoffman in a murder-suicide. As such, the X-File is never truly solved.
During their suspension, Mulder and Scully venture to Hollywood to view the production of Federman's film. It is revealed that Federman's movie will be called The Lazarus Bowl, with Garry Shandling playing Mulder and Téa Leoni playing Scully. After filming is done, Mulder and Scully attend a screening of the film with Skinner, but are disappointed with how the movie portrays them and the case. The agents leave the set holding hands, presumably on their way to dinner with the FBI credit card Skinner gave them after watching the movie, hinting at the continued romantic relationship between them. As they leave, the dead who were resting underneath the film set are revived and begin to dance passionately, reinforcing a theory Mulder made earlier in the episode.
## Production
### Writing and filming
"Hollywood A.D." was written and directed by series co-star David Duchovny. After receiving largely positive feedback about his last creation, sixth-season episode "The Unnatural", Duchovny approached executive producer Frank Spotnitz about the possibility of writing another. Spotnitz gave him the go-ahead and was soon given a rough copy of the script. Series creator Chris Carter was very happy with the story, calling it "a smart, [...], quirky, and intelligent idea" and he later described it as "outside the norm, even for The X-Files." After Carter approved the script, Duchovny also took on an active role in pre-production.
There was a "considerable" amount of stunt work, choreographing, and makeup required during the production of "Hollywood A.D." Two stunt doubles were hired for the scene in which Shandling and Leoni roll down a hill into a coffin, and other stunt men were cast in non-stunt related jobs, including several who were "transform[ed]" into zombies—a tedious process that took five hours to complete. The dance sequence at the end of the episode reportedly took two complete days to film. The first day was shot during active production, and the second was shot on the weekend. The latter of the two made use of chroma keying, and when the two scenes were finished, they were composited in post-production.
### Casting
Duchovny cast several of The X-Files''' technical crew in the episode: Tina M. Amedrui, the show's actual craft services woman, portrayed Tina, the craft service woman in Wayne Federman's movie. Bill Roe, the show's photography director, was cast as a vegetarian zombie. Assistant director Barry K. Thomas was cast as one of the men on the movie set, Paul Rabwin was cast as a producer, and special effects coordinator Bill Millar was cast as the movie's director. Duchovny also cast his brother, Daniel, as the assistant director. Thanks to their part in this episode, several of Duchovny's family members and friends were able to apply for their Screen Actor's Guild card, making them eligible for health insurance.
Téa Leoni, who portrayed a fictionalized version of herself portraying Scully in Wayne Federman's movie, was married to David Duchovny when this episode was filmed, a decision casting director Rick Millikan considered "clever." Duchovny also cast his friend and fellow actor Garry Shandling as a fictionalized version of himself portraying Mulder in the movie. Shandling had originally been asked to play Morris Fletcher in the sixth-season episode "Dreamland", but he was unavailable at the time. The reference to Garry Shandling having a crush on Mulder came from a recurring joke from the TV show The Larry Sanders Show, starring Shandling. (In the recurring joke, David Duchovny has a romantic interest in Shandling's character.)
The joke about Mulder wanting Richard Gere to be in The Lazarus Bowl stemmed from the fact that Duchovny's acting was often compared to Gere's. Duchovny explained: "We used to always have the joke on set that when they do the movie it's going to be Richard Gere and Jodie Foster [playing Mulder and Scully]. So I originally wrote the teaser for Richard Gere and Jodie Foster and I just started to think about it and you know, it's so much funnier with Garry and Téa." The scene featuring the movie premiere featured several uncredited celebrity cameos, including: Minnie Driver, David Alan Grier, and Chris Carter himself.
## Broadcast and reception
"Hollywood A.D." first aired in the United States on April 30, 2000. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 7.7, with a 12 share, meaning that roughly 7.7 percent of all television-equipped households, and 12 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 12.88 million viewers. The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on May 7, 2000, and received 0.80 million viewers, making it the second most watched episode that week. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Garry Shandling as Agent Mulder? Téa Leoni as Agent Scully?"
Critical reception to "Hollywood A.D." was mostly positive. The Montreal Gazette named the episode the sixth best stand-alone X-Files episode, writing that "Despite taxing our stomach for self-reflexive comedy, this David Duchovny scripted and directed episode manages to deliver some of the greatest laughs of the series." Rob Bricken from Topless Robot named "Hollywood A.D." the seventh funniest X-Files episode. Jessica Morgan from Television Without Pity gave the episode a B, slightly criticizing the dancing zombies at the end of the episode. Sarah Kendzior from 11th Hour Magazine wrote that, "My favorite [episode] this year may well be 'Hollywood A.D.', an ambitious, often ingenious and occasionally flawed sophomore effort concerning the entertainment industry, religion, and pretty much everything in between." Rich Rosell from DigitallyObsessed.com awarded the episode 5 out of 5 stars and wrote that "[the] scene from the 'movie' where Shandling/Mulder faces off against The Cigarette Smoking Pontiff, and his army of sniper zombies, is classic stuff, and earns 'Hollywood A.D.' high marks." Kenneth Silber from Space.com, while criticizing the episode for reveling in parody, noted that the episode was entertaining, writing, "'Hollywood A.D.' is a parody and, as such, will be unsatisfying to the many X-Files viewers, including this long-suffering reviewer, who'd like to see the series culminate in a dramatic, multi-episode denouement of its 'mythology arc'. Nonetheless, this episode has merit as a witty and imaginative parody."
Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a relatively positive review. He wrote, "'Hollywood A.D.' was Duchovny's nudge-nudge, wink-wink writing-directing effort for this season. [...] Duchovny did not fail to deliver an episode that truly reflected his own wit and intelligence. All the while remaining true to the spirit of the show that made him famous." Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "B+", and wrote that it "is muddled and frequently so in love with just being weird for weird’s sake that everybody forgets we need at least a little justification to pull everything together in the end." He also called it "a hard episode not to love, frankly." Handlen felt that the humor and sweetness helped to make the episode a success. He also wrote that Mulder and Scully's dynamic worked towards the episode's favor.
## In popular culture
On the "Killer Cable Snaps" episode of the popular science television series MythBusters, which aired on October 11, 2006, the possibility that audio could be transcribed onto pottery was tested (the myth received a "busted" result). Clips from "Hollywood A.D." were shown during the segment.
In a March 2021 interview with Emiko Tamagawa on the National Public Radio program "Here & Now," David Duchovny said that his 2021 novel Truly Like Lightning'' originated in research he had done about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while writing this episode. |
5,412,817 | Mount Eerie (album) | 1,160,390,741 | 2003 folk album by the Microphones | [
"2003 albums",
"Anacortes, Washington",
"Concept albums",
"Folk albums by American artists",
"K Records albums",
"The Microphones albums"
]
| Mount Eerie is the fourth studio album by American indie folk and indie rock band the Microphones, released by K Records on January 21, 2003. The album is named after the mountain Mount Erie near Anacortes, Washington, which is the hometown of Phil Elverum, the band's frontman. The album received generally positive reviews from critics, including accolades such as Pitchfork's "Best New Music" title and inclusion on Treblezine's list of "essential" psychedelic folk albums.
Mount Eerie has been described by Elverum as being about mountains, earth and space. The album is a concept album, consisting of a linear narrative spanning its five songs. Elverum establishes a metaphor for life in which he depicts the womb, birth, and through to death, in the second-last track. His lyrics depict a cast of characters, while the music includes cinematic drums, choirs and drones. Sonically, the album is a continuation of The Glow Pt. 2 (2001), the previous studio album by the Microphones.
After the release of Mount Eerie, Elverum adopted the Mount Eerie moniker, as the themes of his music had changed. The album was released along 2 EPs, The Singing from Mount Eerie and The Drums from Mount Eerie, featuring isolated tracks from the album. After its release, Elverum felt that the ending of Mount Eerie's narrative was inconclusive, leading him to release the sequel Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7 in 2007.
## Recording and background
Mount Eerie was named after the mountain Mount Erie near Anacortes, Washington. Elverum explained: "from where I grew up, the south side, [the mountain] has a pretty dramatic rock face, and so it was always looming there, especially from where I caught the school bus".
Mount Eerie was recorded between November 21, 2001, and June 10, 2002, at Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia, Washington. 2 sections of the album, labelled "Big Black Death" and "Wind / Vultures" are solely attributed to Kyle Field and Karl Blau respectively. "Wind / Vultures" was recorded at Quatro-Syncho in Trafton Lake, Washington. Elverum describes Mount Eerie as "a continuation of the sound that concludes The Glow Pt. 2", the Microphones' previous studio album. "I. The Sun" was sonically tied to the closer of The Glow Pt. 2, "My Warm Blood", using the foghorn tape sound that concludes "My Warm Blood".
Elverum used different vocalists to represent different characters because he wanted the album to be more ambiguous and theatrical. He wanted these characters to "feel and seem different". Elverum conceived the first lines for "I. The Sun" during a six-week American tour between November and October 2001. While touring Florida, the presence of the sun, and the state's "menacing" atmosphere led him to writing the chorus of the song. "I. The Sun" was heavily inspired by the soundtrack of Brazilian film Black Orpheus (1959).
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"I. The Sun" was inspired by Black Orpheus'''s soundtrack, written by Antônio Carlos Jobim (left) and Luiz Bonfá (right).
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The vocal melody for "II. Solar System" was taken from "Fall Flood" by Little Wings. Elverum used the melody due to it being stuck in his head, and noted "our friendship during that time was very freely giving and taking from each other’s ideas and notebooks." Elverum notes about "III: Universe", "the way I recorded the drums was just like, 'Well let’s see what the mic is like if it’s recorded here." Calvin Johnson was cast as the voice of the Universe due to his deep, taunting and booming voice, with Elverum stating "it could only be him I think."
For the choir of "IV: Mount Eerie", Elverum put up posters in Olympia, Washington, asking for singers. He recorded eight singers. In the section labelled "Big Black Death", referred to by Elverum as "Kyle's rap", Kyle Field wrote and sang the lyrics for the personification of death. A line from the section, “Do you see what happens?” is a reference to the 1998 film The Big Lebowski. Elverum attempted to write down all of his ideas for the album prior to recording the album. He created a chart of elements outlining what later became "I. The Sun" and the start of "II. Solar System". Another chart was used to map out the complex drum rhythms on parts of "I. The Sun". A further two charts were used to plan out the harmonies and track recordings for "III. Universe", and another with rough lyrics from "V. Universe". Some lyrics from the album were inspired or directly taken from lines in Elverum's journals, which date to late 2001.
## Music and themes
Mount Eerie is a concept album, portraying a linear storyline with distinct characters. It has been described as psychedelic folk, experimental rock, and experimental music. The lyrics heavily focus on nature and the universe, and ultimately, death. Mount Eerie represents rock in a trilogy of albums based on nature, with It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water (2000) representing water and The Glow Pt. 2 (2001) representing fire. In the album, Elverum tells of a fictitious climb up Mount Erie, Washington (stylized as Mount Eerie in the album), passing by obstacles along the way. Adam Dlugacz of PopMatters interpreted that Elverum uses the climb of Mount Eerie as metaphor for life after continuously seeing the mountain while growing up in Anacortes, Washington.
The album begins with "I. The Sun", a 17-minute long track. Eric Carr of Pitchfork described the drums as a "heart-like pulse"; they gradually build up and become more complex. The drums sweep across the stereo channels, which Carr describes as "evoking either the rising and setting of our star, or the revolution of Earth". According to Elverum, the track's first five minutes represent time in the womb, and that the section until 10:42 spans the first 24 years of life. Far into the song, vocals enter, sounding desolate and vulnerable. Once vocals enter and Phil is born, he is forcibly chased up the mountain, by a personification of Death riding on a black ship. As the song finishes, it is consumed by a wall of distortion, which Carr describes as "a deafening drone and crash of cymbals".
In "II. Solar System", Phil continues his climb. The wall of noise from the previous track is cut back into an acoustic strum, described by Carr as "delicate". The lyrics have been interpreted as a self-reflection in nature, or as isolation and worry.
On "III. Universe", different voices are prominently used to represent different characters. According to the liner notes written by Elverum, Headwaters, when Phil begins a sentence with "see me" he is speaking to the sun. This lyrical scheme is used in the first lines of "III. Universe" and in "I. The Sun". He explained, "[The 'Phil' character] says 'see me' do this and that because the sun does see it all, impartially." The track ends with a massive choir acting as the voice of the cosmos.
The title track, "IV. Mt. Eerie" acts as a climax for the album. In the start, Phil sees Death approaching, or as now fully named, the Big Black Death. Soon, Death arrives, voiced by Kyle Field. Carr describes Death's arrival as containing a "primal, percussive bloodlust". Soon, accompanying vultures appear. They rip apart Phil's flesh and he dies, signaling the end of the track.
"V. Universe" has been described as an apprehension and reflection following death. Phil obtains a greater understanding of the universe and feels his size within it. As the lyrics portray, "But Universe, I see your face / Looks just like mine / And we are open wide". A "ghostly chorus" – similar to the one used on "III. Universe" – is present, along with a "titanic bass drum". With that, Phil's journey ends.
## Release
After recording finished for Mount Eerie, Elverum moved out of his house in Olympia, Washington, went on tour, and spent a winter in Norway, writing material for Dawn (2008). After coming back, he released Mount Eerie and moved back to Anacortes, Washington, before deciding to adopt the Mount Eerie moniker. Elverum explained the name change: "when I first started recording music, I was actually singing about microphones, equipment, recording. But it had been awhile since I had done that, and I'd started singing about these weird, dark, natural themes."
Mount Eerie was released in Japan with an extended track list on December 12, 2002, under 7.e.p. On January 21, 2003, the album received its American release via K Records. Alongside the main album, two EPs, titled The Singing from Mount Eerie and The Drums from Mount Eerie were released. They feature isolated vocal and drum tracks respectively; P.W. Elverum & Sun's website noted the tracks are "intended for sampling, but not really".
After its release, Elverum felt the album was unfinished, inconclusive, and ambiguous. A 6th track, "The Universe (Conclusion)" was kept off the album due to indecision, although was included on the Japanese release of the album. He created a sequel in 2007, Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7. After receiving permission from K Records, Elverum decided to repress 5 Microphones records, including Mount Eerie. Elverum explained they were "out of print for too long". The album was repressed on August 20, 2013, by Elverum's label, P.W. Elverum & Sun.
## Reception
Mount Eerie received generally positive reviews from critics, receiving a 76/100 on review aggregate Metacritic. On its release, Eric Carr of Pitchfork gave the album the publication's "Best New Music" title, and scored it an 8.9/10. Lavina Lee of Flak Magazine called the album "a complete tragedy. Or a comedy." and criticized it for being overambitious, having "croaking" singing, and a presumptuous release. Heather Phares of Allmusic described Mount Eerie as "deeply beautiful and unnerving, as well as deeply thoughtful". In a review for PopMatters, Adam Dlugacz gave the album a positive review, especially noting that "it is in the details that Phil Elvrum's latest opus unfolds". Stylus Magazine's Ed Howard wrote that Mount Eerie makes listeners "get to travel with him [Elverum] into the uncharted next ocean of Microphones territory." A guest writer of Tiny Mix Tapes, who gave the album a perfect score, felt that "Elvrum on record is the same Elvrum in reality", and that "it's nice to know that Elvrum is lucid on both sides."
In 2019, the album was included on Treblezine's list of "essential" psychedelic folk albums. In 2020, Bandcamp Daily'' called the album "Elverum's most elemental but complex album" and highlighted the album's seamless transitions between genres.
## Track listing
## Personnel
Adopted from liner notes.
### Primary personnel
- Phil Elverum – "Phil"
- Adam Forkner – "Scary Trumpets"
- Khaela Maricich – "Close Dark Voice"
- Calvin Johnson – "Universe"
- Kyle Field – "King Dark Death"
- Karl Blau – "Wind / Vultures"
### "Chorus"
- Jenne Kliese
- Anna Oxygen
- Mirah Y.T. Zeitlyn
### "Precipice Carolers"
- Kyle Field
- Phil Elverum
- Khaela Maricich
- Phan Nguyen
- Amber Bell
- Bethany Hays Parke
- Shawn Parke
- Hollis Parke
- Dennis Driscoll
- Zach Alarcon
- Adam Forkner
## Release history |
900,511 | Hurricane Alex (2004) | 1,170,124,730 | Category 3 Atlantic hurricane in 2004 | [
"2004 Atlantic hurricane season",
"2004 natural disasters in the United States",
"Category 3 Atlantic hurricanes",
"Hurricanes in North Carolina",
"Tropical cyclones in 2004"
]
| Hurricane Alex was one of the northernmost major hurricanes on record, and whose formation marked the fifth-latest start to a season since 1954. The first named storm, the first hurricane, and the first major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season, Alex developed from the interaction between an upper-level low and a weak surface trough on July 31 to the east of Jacksonville, Florida. It moved northeastward, and strengthened to attain winds of 100 mph (160 km/h) before passing within 10 miles (16 km) of the Outer Banks coast. Alex strengthened further and reached a peak of 120 mph (190 km/h) winds while off the coast of New England, one of only six hurricanes to reach Category 3 status north of 38° N. Alex caused a scare of a hurricane-force direct hit in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which had been devastated by Hurricane Isabel less than a year earlier.
The hurricane produced light damage in the Outer Banks, primarily from flooding and high winds. Over 100 houses were damaged, while numerous cars were disabled from the flooding. Damage totaled about \$7.5 million (2004 USD). Alex produced strong waves and rip tides along the East Coast of the United States, causing one death and several injuries.
## Meteorological history
A weak surface trough, located to the west of an upper-level low, developed convection to the east of the Bahamas on July 26. A tropical wave entered the area two days later, resulting in an increase of convective organization and area. Although conditions were not favorable for tropical cyclone formation, it sped to the northwest and steadily organized, developing a surface area of low pressure on the 30th. On July 31, the system continued to organize, and developed into Tropical Depression One while located 200 miles (320 km) to the east of Jacksonville, Florida.
As the depression drifted erratically, the system remained weak due to its large circulation and lack of deep convection near the center. The center relocated to the south, closer to the center. An approaching upper-level trough lessened the shear over the system, allowing the depression to intensify into Tropical Storm Alex on August 1. The trough also caused Alex to increase its forward motion to the northeast. Deep convection continued to build over the center due to low shear and warm waters from the Gulf Stream, and Alex intensified into a hurricane on August 3 while located 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina. The cyclone continued to strengthen, and attained Category 2 status just hours after becoming a hurricane. The hurricane approached the Outer Banks of North Carolina, coming within 11 miles (18 km) of Cape Hatteras later on the 3rd. The western portion of the eyewall passed over the Outer Banks, though the center remained offshore.
Alex turned to the east-northeast after passing the Outer Banks in response to becoming embedded within the west-southwesterly flow. The hurricane briefly weakened to a Category 1, but restrengthened due to warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Water temperatures remained 3.6 °F (−15.8 °C) above normal, resulting in Alex intensifying into a 120 mph (190 km/h) major hurricane on August 5 while located 450 miles (720 km) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Due to low vertical shear and favorable conditions, Alex remained a Category 3 hurricane until passing over cooler waters late on the 5th while 290 miles (470 km) south of Newfoundland. Alex rapidly weakened, degrading into tropical storm status on August 6. Later on the 6th, Alex became extratropical while 950 miles (1,530 km) east of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and lost its identity shortly thereafter.
## Preparations
Initially, forecasters believed Alex would remain weak, and on the first advisory the storm was predicted to make landfall as a minimal tropical storm. However, when strengthening became evident, the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning from Cape Lookout to Oregon Inlet about 20 hours before hurricane conditions were experienced. In addition, a tropical storm warning existed for much of the North Carolina coastline as Alex paralleled the state.
Despite Tropical Storm Warnings, 3,500 tourists remained on the Outer Banks, though many planned to leave if Alex were to track closer or become stronger. No evacuations were ordered. Officials recommended residents to take precautions for the approaching hurricane. The National Weather Service in Morehead City issued a flash flood watch a day before the hurricane moved past the Outer Banks. The service also issued flash flooding warnings for Craven and Carteret Counties on the day of the hurricane's closest approach. In preparation for the hurricane, the Cape Lookout National Seashore was closed and evacuated. The National Park Service also closed Cape Point Campground.
## Impact
While drifting off the coast of Florida, Alex produced rip currents and strong waves along the North Carolina coast resulting in nine lifeguard rescues from the surf. Upon moving by the Outer Banks, a storm surge of up to 6 feet (1.8 m) occurred on the Pamlico Sound side of Buxton and Ocracoke Village. The flooding on Ocracoke Island was the worst since Hurricane Gloria nineteen years earlier. Elsewhere on the Outer Banks, waters rose 2–4 feet (0.61–1.22 m) above normal. Rainfall directly along the coast amounted to over 5 inches (130 mm), while Ocracoke experienced 7.55 inches (192 mm). Maximum sustained winds peaked at 88 mph (142 km/h), and gusts peaked at 115 mph (185 km/h) in Morehead City. Beach erosion was minor along much of North Carolina's coastline, with the exception of Ocracoke Island where erosion was significant.
Cape Fear experienced minor beach erosion. The erosion, combined with high waves, washed out a portion of a roadway. The heavy rainfall in the Outer Banks disabled over 200 cars and flooded nearly 500. Strong wind gusts left around 10,000 buildings without power. Many places were not restored for two to three days after the storm. Wind and storm surge damaged over 100 houses and buildings. Damage amounted to about \$7.5 million (2004 USD). Two days after the storm passed, a man drowned off of Nags Head from strong rip currents and waves. This was the only direct casualty from the storm.
Alex's outer rainbands produced heavy rainfall across Virginia, peaking at over 7 inches (180 mm) in the center of the state. The rainfall caused localized flooding, but there was no reported damage in the state. In Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, rip currents produced by the storm injured three people. A few young children had to be rescued when they were trapped by a jetty. In New Jersey, the strong surf and rip currents hospitalized at least five swimmers.
Alex's extratropical remnants sank the Pink Lady, a rowboat carrying four British rowers attempting to break the record for fastest crossing from St. John's, Newfoundland to Falmouth, Cornwall. They were rescued by a Danish cargo ship, and injuries were limited to a mild concussion and a case of hypothermia. The rowers were roughly two weeks and 370 miles (600 km) from their destination. The group had been on track to break the 1896 record of 54 days by 10 days.
## Aftermath and records
On Ocracoke Island, officials ordered for the evacuation of the thousands of tourists who stayed, believing that keeping tourists on the island would hinder cleanup efforts. The tourists were evacuated in school buses to Hatteras Island, where they could rent a car if needed. Tourists were also evacuated by ferry to Swan Quarter, in Hyde County, where they boarded school buses and were taken to nearby Washington NC to rent available cars or find accommodations. The island was re-opened to visitors on August 6, three days after the storm passed through. Evacuation was ordered again on Friday of the following week when another storm threatened to hit the Outer Banks, but did not do so. Dare County officials requested aid from the National Guard for the cleanup process. The North Carolina Department of Transportation was ready to clear the roads once the storm exited the area.
Alex marked the fifth-latest start to a hurricane season since 1954. The latest start to a hurricane season since 1954 was Hurricane Anita of the 1977 season, forming on August 29. Alex is only the second hurricane on record to have reached Category 3 strength north of 38°N latitude. The other storm was Hurricane Ellen in the 1973 Atlantic hurricane season; Alex was the stronger of the two. It is also one of only five hurricanes to be at major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) status within Canadian waters since 1950.
## See also
- Other storms of the same name
- Timeline of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season
- List of North Carolina hurricanes (2000–present)
- Hurricane Gert (2017) – Strong Category 2 hurricane that caused large swells along the East Coast of the United States and took a similar path.
- Hurricane Chris (2018) – Took a similar path along the Gulf Stream. |
3,724,595 | Project Alberta | 1,135,816,364 | Section of the Manhattan Project, active 1945 | [
"Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki",
"History of the Manhattan Project"
]
| Project Alberta, also known as Project A, was a section of the Manhattan Project which assisted in delivering the first nuclear weapons in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
Project Alberta was formed in March 1945, and consisted of 51 United States Army, Navy, and civilian personnel, including one British scientist. Its mission was three-fold. It first had to design a bomb shape for delivery by air, then procure and assemble it. It supported the ballistic testing work at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, conducted by the 216th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Project W-47), and the modification of B-29s to carry the bombs (Project Silverplate). After completion of its development and training missions, Project Alberta was attached to the 509th Composite Group at North Field, Tinian, where it prepared facilities, assembled and loaded the weapons, and participated in their use.
## Origins
The Manhattan Project began in October 1941, just before U.S. entry into World War II. Most of the project was concerned with producing the necessary fissile materials, but in early 1943, the project director, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves Jr., created the Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, under the direction of Robert Oppenheimer to design and build atomic bombs. Within the Los Alamos Laboratory, responsibility for delivery lay with its Ordnance Division, headed by Captain William S. Parsons. With the Ordnance Division, the E-7 Group was created with responsibility for the integration of design and delivery. Led by physicist Norman F. Ramsey, it consisted of himself, Sheldon Dike and Bernard Waldman.
The size of the 17-foot (5.2 m) Thin Man bomb under development at Los Alamos in 1943 reduced the number of Allied aircraft that could deliver the bomb to the British Avro Lancaster and the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, although the latter required substantial modification. Any other airframe would have had to be completely redesigned and rebuilt, or carry the bomb externally. Parsons arranged for tests to be carried at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia in August 1943. No B-29s or Lancasters were available so a 9-foot (2.7 m) scale model Thin Man was used, and dropped from a Grumman TBF Avenger. The results were disappointing, with the bomb falling in a flat spin. This indicated that a thorough test program was required.
Further testing of Silverplate B-29 aircraft and Thin Man and Fat Man bomb shapes was carried out at Muroc Army Air Field in March and June 1944. Testing shifted to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, in October. Project Y controlled the scheduling and contents of the tests, which were carried out by the Flight Test Section of the 216th Army Air Forces Base Unit as Project W-47. The tests were supervised by Ramsey until November, when Commander Frederick Ashworth became Parson's head of operations, and assumed responsibility for the test program. The test bombs were assembled by the 216th Army Air Forces Base Unit's Special Ordnance Detachment. Tests continued until the end of the war in August 1945. At first only the Ordnance Division's fuse and delivery groups were involved, but as the tests became more detailed, and live explosives were incorporated into the test bombs, other groups were drawn into the test program.
## Organization
Project Alberta, also known as Project A, was formed in March 1945, absorbing existing groups of Parsons's Ordnance (O) Division that were working on bomb preparation and delivery. These included Ramsey's delivery group, now called O-2, Commander Francis Birch's O-1 (Gun) Group, Kenneth Bainbridge's X-2 (Development, Engineering, and Tests) Group, Robert Brode's O-3 (Fuse Development) Group and George Galloway's O-4 (Engineering) Group.
Parsons became the head of Project Alberta, with Ramsey as his scientific and technical deputy, and Ashworth as his operations officer and military alternate. There were two bomb assembly teams, a Fat Man Assembly Team under Commander Norris Bradbury and Roger Warner, and a Little Boy Assembly under Birch. Philip Morrison was the head of the Pit Crew, Bernard Waldman and Luis Alvarez led the Aerial Observation Team, and Sheldon Dike was in charge of the Aircraft Ordnance Team. Physicists Robert Serber and William Penney, and US Army Captain James F. Nolan, a medical expert, were special consultants. All members of Project Alberta had volunteered for the mission.
In all, Project Alberta consisted of 51 Army, Navy and civilian personnel. Army personnel were two officers, Nolan and First Lieutenant John D. Hopper, and 17 enlisted men from the Manhattan Project's Special Engineer Detachment. Navy personnel were Parsons, Ashworth, Lieutenant Commander Edward C. Stephenson, Lieutenant (junior grade) Victor A. Miller, and eight ensigns. The remaining 17 were civilians. The 1st Technical Service Detachment, to which the personnel of Project Alberta were administratively assigned, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Peer de Silva, and provided security and housing services on Tinian.
In addition, there were three senior officers on Tinian, who were part of the Manhattan Project but not formally part of Project Alberta: Rear Admiral William R. Purnell, the representative of the Military Liaison Committee; Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, Groves' Deputy for Operations; and Colonel Elmer E. Kirkpatrick, who was responsible for base development, and was Farrell's alternate. Purnell, Farrell and Parsons became informally known as the "Tinian Joint Chiefs". They had decision-making authority over the nuclear mission.
## Tinian
Manhattan Project and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) officials agreed in December 1944 that operations would be based in the Mariana Islands, and the following month Parsons and Ashworth held a conference with USAAF officers to discuss the logistics of establishing such a base. In February 1945, Ashworth traveled to Guam bearing a letter for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz informing him of the Manhattan Project. Up to this point it had been expected that the 509th Composite Group would be based on Guam, but Ashworth was struck by the congestion in the harbor and the shortage of construction units there. USAAF suggested that he take a look at Tinian, which had two good airfields, and was 125 miles (201 km) further north, an important consideration for potentially overloaded aircraft. Ashworth toured Tinian with the island commander, Brigadier General Frederick V. H. Kimble, who recommended North Field. Ashworth agreed, and had Kimble hold them for future use.
Groves sent Kirkpatrick to supervise construction on Tinian by the Seabees of the 6th Naval Construction Brigade. Four air-conditioned Quonset huts of a type normally used for bombsight repair were provided for laboratory and instrument work. There were five warehouses, a shop building, and assembly, ordnance and administrative buildings. Ramsey overcame the problem of how to ship through the San Francisco Port of Embarkation. The port wanted a detailed list of what was being sent so it could track it to ensure delivery, but what needed to be shipped was still subject to last-minute change. He simply designated everything as a "bomb assembly kit". Three of these, one for Little Boy, one for Fat Man and one spare, were shipped to Tinian, which was now codenamed Destination O, commencing in May. Kirkpatrick arranged for everything to be shipped direct to Tinian rather than via Guam, as was usual.
To meet the schedule, the 509th Composite Group's commander, Colonel Paul Tibbets, had his ground echelon depart Wendover on 25 April, followed by his air echelon in May. The 1st Ordnance Squadron carefully packed the Pumpkin bombs and Fat Man assemblies that they had received from Project Camel, the assemblies being sets of bomb components without the fissile pit or modulated neutron initiators. Uniforms were issued to Project Alberta's civilian personnel, and Nolan administered immunization shots. A Project Alberta Advance Party was created, consisting of Sheldon Dike for Air Force liaison, Theodore Perlman for Little Boy, and Victor Miller and Harlow Russ for Fat Man. The rest of the Fat Man team prepared the "Gadget", the case-less Fat Man bomb used for the Trinity nuclear test. Parsons and Warner had decided that the combat use of the Little Boy would proceed regardless of the outcome of the Trinity test.
The Advance Party departed Los Alamos for Kirtland Field, New Mexico, by bus on 17 June. Accompanied by Major Bud Uanna and other members of the 1st Technical Service Detachment, they flew in C-54 "Green Hornets" of the 509th Composite Group's 320th Troop Carrier Squadron via the Port of Aerial Embarkation at Hamilton Field, California, and arrived on Tinian on 23 June. Sheldon Dike accompanied bombers of the 509th Composite Group's 393d Bombardment Squadron on practice bombing missions against airfields on Japanese-held Truk, Marcus, Rota, and Guguan. The rest of the Advance Party prepared the Little Boy assembly facility. They were joined on 6 July by a team under Edward B. Doll of the Fusing Group, who prepared for Pumpkin Bomb missions.
The rest of Project Alberta departed for Tinian following the successful completion of the Trinity test on 16 July. The remainder of the Little Boy assembly team arrived on 22 July, followed by Parsons, Ashworth, Purnell, Farrell and the remainder of the Fat Man assembly, Pit, Observation and Firing teams. The whole of Project Alberta was assembled on Tinian by 25 July, except for members who were couriers for bomb parts. Nolan arrived on 26 July on the cruiser USS Indianapolis, along with Major Robert Furman and Captain Charles H. O'Brien of the 1st Technical Services Detachment, with the Little Boy assembly and active material. Jesse Kupferberg and Raemer Schreiber arrived by C-54 with the remainder of the Little Boy active material and the plutonium Fat Man pit.
## Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
### Preparations
Although Project Alberta had no attack orders, it proceeded with the plan to have the Little Boy ready by 1 August 1945 and the first Fat Man ready for use as soon as possible after that. In the meantime, a series of twelve combat missions were flown between 20 and 29 July against targets in Japan using high-explosive Pumpkin bombs. Project Alberta's Sheldon Dike and Milo Bolstead flew on some of these missions, as did the British observer Group Captain Leonard Cheshire. One serious incident occurred when a Pumpkin bomb was released in the bomb bay of the B-29 Strange Cargo while it was taxiing. The bomb fell through the closed bomb bay doors onto the taxiway. The aircraft and bomb came to a halt in a shower of sparks, but fire fighters doused the plane and the bomb in foam, and the bomb did not explode. The aircraft had to be jacked up to remove the bomb.
Four Little Boy assemblies, L-1, L-2, L-5 and L-6 were expended in test drops. L-6 was used in the Iwo Jima dress rehearsal on 29 July. This was repeated on 31 July, but this time L-6 was test dropped near Tinian by Enola Gay. L-11 was the assembly used for the Hiroshima bomb. The Little Boy team had it completely assembled and ready for use on 31 July. The final item of preparation for the operation came on 29 July 1945. Orders for the attack were issued to General Carl Spaatz on 25 July under the signature of General Thomas T. Handy, the acting Chief of Staff of the United States Army, since General of the Army George C. Marshall was at the Potsdam Conference with the President. The order designated four targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki, and ordered the attack to be made "as soon as weather will permit after about 3 August."
Assembly of a Fat Man unit was a complex operation involving personnel from the HE-ME, Pit, Fusing and Firing teams. To prevent the assembly building from becoming overcrowded and thereby causing an accident, Parsons limited the numbers allowed inside at any time. Personnel waiting to perform a specific task had to wait their turn outside the building. The first Fat Man assembly, known as F13, was assembled by 31 July, and expended in a drop test the next day. This was followed by F18 on 4 August, which was dropped the next day. Three sets of Fat Man high explosive pre-assemblies, designated F31, F32, and F33, arrived on a B-29 of the 509th Composite Group and 216th Army Air Forces Base Unit on 2 August. On inspection, the high explosive blocks of F32 were found to be badly cracked and unserviceable. The other two were assembled, with F33 earmarked for a rehearsal and F31 for operational use.
### Hiroshima
In the space of a week on Tinian, four B-29s crashed and burned on the runway. Parsons became very concerned. If a B-29 crashed with a Little Boy, the fire could cook off the explosive and detonate the weapon, with catastrophic consequences. Consideration was given to evacuating the 20,000 personnel on Tinian from the island, but instead it was decided to load the four cordite powder bags into the gun breech to arm the bomb in flight.
Enola Gay took off at 02:45 (6 August), 7.5 long tons (7.6 t) overweight and near maximum gross weight. Arming of the bomb began eight minutes into the flight and took 25 minutes. Parsons, as the "weaponeer", was in command of the mission. Parsons and his assistant, Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson of the 1st Ordnance Squadron, made their way into the bomb bay of the Enola Gay along the narrow catwalk on the port side. Jeppson held a flashlight while Parsons disconnected the primer wires, removed the breech plug, inserted the powder bags, replaced the breech plug, and reconnected the wires. Before climbing to altitude on approach to the target, Jeppson switched the three safety plugs between the electrical connectors of the internal battery and the firing mechanism from green to red. The bomb was then fully armed. Jeppson monitored its circuits.
Four other members of Project Alberta flew on the Hiroshima mission. Luis Alvarez, Harold Agnew and Lawrence H. Johnston were on the instrument plane The Great Artiste. They dropped "Bangometer" canisters to measure the force of the blast, but this was not used to calculate the yield at the time. Bernard Waldman was the camera operator on the observation aircraft. He was equipped with a special high-speed Fastax movie camera with six seconds of film in order to record the blast. Unfortunately, Waldman forgot to open the camera shutter, and no film was exposed. In addition, some members of the team flew to Iwo Jima in case Enola Gay was forced to land there, but this was not required.
The mission was flown as planned and executed without significant problems. The three target-area aircraft arrived over Iwo Jima approximately three hours into the mission and departed together at 06:07. The safeties on the bomb were removed at 07:30, 90 minutes before time over target, and 15 minutes later the B-29s began a climb to the 30,000-foot (9,100 m) bombing altitude. The bomb run began at 08:12, with the drop three minutes later. Simultaneously The Great Artiste dropped its three Bangometer canisters, after which the B-29s immediately performed steep 155-degree diving turns, The Great Artiste to the left and Enola Gay to the right. The detonation followed 45.5 seconds after the drop. Primary and "echo" shock waves overtook the B-29s a minute following the blast, and the smoke cloud was visible to the crews for 90 minutes, by which time they were almost 400 miles (640 km) away. The only footage of the mushroom cloud was taken by Harold Agnew while Robert "Bob" Caron took the definitive photograph of the cloud from the tail gunner position of the "Enola Gay." Enola Gay returned to Tinian at 14:58.
### Nagasaki
Purnell, Parsons, Tibbets, Spaatz and Curtis LeMay met on Guam on 7 August, the day after the Hiroshima attack, to discuss what should be done next. Parsons said that Project Alberta would have a Fat Man bomb ready by 11 August, as originally planned, but Tibbets pointed to weather reports indicating poor flying conditions on that day due to a storm, and asked if it could be readied by 9 August. Parsons agreed to do so.
For this mission, Ashworth was the weaponeer, with Lieutenant Philip M. Barnes, USN, of the 1st Ordnance Squadron as his assistant weaponeer on the B-29 Bockscar. Project Alberta's Walter Goodman and Lawrence H. Johnston were on board the instrumentation aircraft, The Great Artiste, along with William L. Laurence, a correspondent for The New York Times. Leonard Cheshire and William Penney were on the observation plane Big Stink. Project Alberta's Robert Serber was supposed to be on board but was left behind by the aircraft commander, group operations officer Major James I. Hopkins Jr., because he had forgotten his parachute. Since Serber was the only crew member who knew how to operate the high-speed camera, the whole point of the aircraft's mission, Hopkins had to be instructed by radio from Tinian on its use.
The weather that forced the mission to be advanced by two days also dictated a change in rendezvous to Yakushima, much closer to the target, and an initial cruise altitude of 17,000 feet (5,200 m) instead of 9,300 feet (2,800 m), both of which considerably increased fuel consumption. Pre-flight inspection discovered an inoperative fuel transfer pump in the 625-US-gallon (2,370 L) aft bomb bay fuel tank, but a decision was made to continue anyway. The plutonium bomb did not require arming in flight, but did have its safeties removed 30 minutes after the 03:45 takeoff when Bockscar reached 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of altitude.
It was discovered that the red arming light on the black box connected to Fat Man was lit, indicating that the firing circuit had closed. It took Ashworth and Barnes half an hour to isolate the failed switch that had caused the malfunction and correct the problem. When the daylight rendezvous point was reached at 09:10, the photo plane failed to appear. The weather planes reported both targets within the required visual attack parameters while Bockscar circled Yakushima waiting for the photo plane because Ashworth did not want to proceed without The Great Artiste and under radio silence it was not certain that it was that aircraft that had rendezvoused with them. Finally the mission proceeded without the photo plane, thirty minutes behind schedule.
When Bockscar arrived at Kokura 30 minutes later, cloud cover had increased to 70% of the area, and three bomb runs over the next 50 minutes were fruitless in bombing visually. The commanders decided to reduce power to conserve fuel and divert to Nagasaki, bombing by radar if necessary. The bomb run began at 11:58 (two hours behind schedule) using radar; but the Fat Man was dropped visually when a hole opened in the clouds at 12:01. The photo plane arrived at Nagasaki in time to complete its mission, and the three aircraft diverted to Okinawa, where they arrived at 13:00. Trying in vain for 20 minutes to contact the control tower at Yontan Airfield to obtain landing clearance, Bockscar nearly ran out of fuel.
## Later activities
Project Alberta still had three test assemblies, F101, F102 and F103, but the damaged F32 was unserviceable, so new explosive blocks would have to be flown in from Project Camel. There were also shortages of some components, notably detonator chimneys. These were fabricated on Tinian. Seven B-29s of the 509th Composite Group flew Pumpkin bomb missions on 14 August. Word that Japan had surrendered reached Tinian the following day.
Farrell organized a mission to assess the damage done at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which included personnel from Project Alberta, the 1st Technical Service Detachment, and the 509th Composite Group. The remainder of Project Alberta began packing up. The unused F101, F102 and F103 assemblies were packed along with spare components and shipped back to Los Alamos. For security reasons, components not returned to the United States were dumped at sea.
Project Alberta's scientific and technical personnel departed Tinian for the United States on 7 September. Kirkpatrick and Ashworth remained behind to supervise the disposal of Manhattan Project property. Project Alberta was then discontinued. Most of its personnel were transferred to the new Z Division, which began moving to Sandia Base. |
3,512,824 | Hurricane Calvin (1993) | 1,170,478,153 | Category 2 Pacific hurricane in 1993 | [
"1993 Pacific hurricane season",
"Category 2 Pacific hurricanes",
"Pacific hurricanes in Mexico"
]
| Hurricane Calvin was one of three Pacific hurricanes on record to make landfall along the Mexican coast during the month of July. The fourth tropical cyclone, third named storm, and second hurricane of the 1993 Pacific hurricane season, Calvin developed from an area of convection to the south of Mexico on July 4. The following day, the system intensified into a tropical storm, which was named Calvin. Continued strengthening ensued as Calvin curved from its initial westward track northward, and was upgraded to a hurricane on July 6. Calvin eventually turned northwest, and became a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS). By July 7, Hurricane Calvin made landfall near Manzanillo at peak strength. Calvin rapidly weakened after landfall, and was a tropical storm when it reemerged into the Pacific Ocean on early on July 8. Despite this, the hurricane did not reintensify, and continued to weaken as it headed rapidly northwestward. As Calvin made a second Mexican landfall near the southern tip of Baja California peninsula late on July 8, it weakened to a tropical depression. Early on July 9, the depression dissipated shortly after entering the Pacific Ocean for a third time.
Calvin was only the third July hurricane on record to make landfall on the west coast of Mexico. Throughout the nation of Mexico, Calvin dropped heavy rainfall, especially in the southwestern portion of the country. Heavy rainfall produced flooding, which, in turn, caused mudslides. In the wake of Calvin, 37 fatalities were reported. Most of the casualties were due to flooding or car accidents. In the state of Michoacán, 700 homes were destroyed. In addition, a 15-foot (4.6 m) storm surge was reported. Many boats and shoreline structures from Acapulco to Manzanillo were damaged. Heavy seas near Lázaro Cárdenas in western Mexico caused a ship, which contained sulfuric acid, to leak. The cleanup effort took one month to complete. In all, 30,000 people were displaced by the storm. Overall, Calvin caused \$32 million (1993 US\$) in damage.
## Background
A trough steered Calvin northward to hit Mexico as a hurricane in the month of July, making Calvin one of only three Pacific hurricanes to strike the nation since HURDAT started keeping records during the 1949 Pacific hurricane season. The other ones were Hurricane Eugene in 1987 and the third storm in 1954.
## Meteorological history
Hurricane Calvin originated from an area of disturbed weather, characterized with scattered deep convection, that developed south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the second day of July. Despite the lack of concentrated convection, the system was classified using the Dvorak technique, a tool used to measure a tropical cyclone's intensity. However, during the morning hours of July 4, banding features formed on the southern semicircle of the disturbance, and it is estimated that the system attained tropical depression status at 1200 UTC while centered approximately 315 mi (505 km) southeast of Acapulco. Initially, the storm was expected to stay offshore and attain winds of 70 mph (115 km/h). Intensifying within a favorable atmospheric environment, the depression attained tropical storm status at 0000 UTC on July 5, receiving the name Calvin.
A period of rapid intensification ensued shortly thereafter, and banding-type eye formed in association with Calvin later that day. By July 5, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) was predicting winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). Later that day, the NHC reported winds of 65 mph (105 km/h). Continuing to intensify, the system was upgraded to a hurricane at 0000 UTC on July 6 while becoming the second hurricane of the season, though operationally, it was believed to have become a hurricane three hours earlier. Upon becoming a hurricane, the NHC revised their forecast and was now expecting Calvin to become a Category 3 hurricane on the SSHWS. Around this time, Hurricane Calvin was embedded within the northeastern portion of a large, monsoon-like deep-layer-mean, which stretched from the Intertropical Convergence Zone to the southwest Mexican coastline. Furthermore, Calvin was a fairly large cyclone as surface winds of 35 mph (55 km/h) were reported over 200 mi (320 km) from the storm's center.
During the late morning hours of July 6, Calvin briefly slowed down before quickly accelerating to the northwest, bringing Calvin's gale-force winds 90 mi (140 km) south-southwest of Acapulco. Later that day, the NHC upgraded Calvin into a Category 2 hurricane. At 1200 UTC on July 7, Calvin reached its peak intensity of 100 mph (160 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 966 mbar (28.5 inHg). Shortly thereafter, Calvin made landfall, approximately 40 mi (65 km) west-northwest of Manzanillo. The storm quickly weakened over land, and by the evening, it had weakened into a tropical storm. After weakening greatly due to land interaction with the mountainous terrain of Mexico, Calvin reentered the Pacific at 0000 UTC on July 8. Although initially expected to turn west, this did not occur. Instead, Calvin continued northwest, accelerating while emerging into the Gulf of California. Calvin weakened to a tropical depression late on July 8 as it made a second landfall along the extreme southern Baja California peninsula. After crossing the coast, Tropical Depression Calvin dissipated the next day atop of cold sea surface temperatures.
## Preparations
Prior to making landfall, a tropical storm warning and hurricane watch was issued for a portion of the Mexican coast on July 6. Six hours later, a hurricane warning was issued. By July 8, all hurricane warnings were discontinued. Six hours later, all hurricane watches were dropped. By 1800 UTC that day, all watches and warnings were dropped. In addition to the watches and warnings, flash floods and mudslides to occur. In Acapulco, hundreds of police and emergency workers were on stand by in advance of the storm. Meanwhile, the city's airport and ports were closed. Further south, in Oaxaca, the ports of Puerto Escondido, Puerto Ángel, Bahias de Huatulco, and Salina Cruz were closed. As a precautionary measure, the port of Zihuatanejo was also closed. In all, many sea ports were closed and airplane flights were canceled leaving many vacationers stranded. Multiple hotels were closed in the cities of Acapulco, Puerto Angel, and Huatulco. While weakening, the storm also threatened ports such as Mazatlán along the Gulf of California coast.
## Impact
Due to the storm's large size, Hurricane Calvin was responsible for heavy flooding along much of the coast of Mexico, and after moving onshore as a hurricane, two locations (El Marques, Japala Del) reported as high as 18.27 in (464 mm) of rain. The flooding led to mudslides, killing 28 people on land, with 30,000 people displaced. Most of the casualties were indirect. In all, 37 people perished due to Hurricane Calvin. Nationwide 42,063 people were evacuated from their homes. Numerous seaside restaurants were washed off their respective foundations. Banana, mango, and corn plantations were also destroyed by the strong winds. Coconut trees were reportedly brought down as well.
In Puebla, a peasant died. Inland, 16 persons were killed in the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosí, where heavy rains caused mudslides across higher elevations. In the latter, 11 deaths were reported as two rivers had overflowed their banks while in the former, five people died. Moreover, six people riding in a taxi died in Veracruz during Calvin. Across Nayarit, Calvin brought heavy rains to the state. Later in its duration, Calvin struck the Baja California peninsula, though the storm had weakened considerably by that time Offshore, three ships containing 659 immigrants were intercepted by the storm, but the ship sustained no damage.
In all, the damage from Hurricane Calvin amounted to over 100 million new pesos, or \$32 million (1993 USD). Despite the devastation, many vacationers did not alter their plans because of the hurricane.
### Oaxaca
Prior to affecting Guerrero, Hurricane Calvin was responsible for heavy rains and widespread flooding across Oaxaca. An estimated 7,000 were left homeless along the Oaxacan coast and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In addition, travel from the isthmus was cut off due to mudslides that blocked portions of the Pan-American Highway. Two rivers threatened to overflow their banks while the Benito, Juarez, and Yosocuta dams attained peak capacity and thus the gates were opened to prevent overflowing. A total of 42 communities were flooded. The cities of Tehuantepec, Salina Cruz, Juchtianm, and Tuxtepec were flooded due to extended periods of torrential rains. Across the state, the rains blocked highways and knocked out electrical, telephone, and water services. About 3,000 people took refuge to shelters and one person was killed.
### Guerrero
In Acapulco, waves of 15 ft (4.6 m) moved through the city. In several states, between 5 in (130 mm) to 10 in (250 mm) inches of rain was recorded. However, in Las Pilas, the highest rainfall total was observed, at 16.34 in (415 mm).
Prior to landfall, the storm's outer rainbands began to spread over the region, resulting in flooding. Throughout Acapulco, the storm uprooted 100 trees and caused some damage to roads. Although the city escaped significant damage, many huts were damaged and 1,600 people were left homeless. Citywide six people were killed while two other fisherman were missing. A mudslide killed a man and a son one person was reported dead after trying to save his boat from sinking. In addition, 13 boats sunk due to high waves, which impeded all maritime activity along the coast. In the city of Zihuatanejo, heavy rains flooded streets; consequently, "waist-deep" water was reported in some parts of the city. As a result, tourists were evacuated to higher ground. A total of 2,000 people were forced to abandon their homes. Two people sustained minor injuries when a tree was uprooted. Many neighborhoods throughout Acapulco were flooded. Overall, several beach communities were destroyed, almost 1,000 dwellings were destroyed, thousands of people were left homeless, and many areas remained without electricity.
Statewide, the majority of storm damage occurred over a 4 mi (6 km) stretch of road, which was situated about 25 mi (40 km) north of Acapulco. About a dozen small wood-built restaurants were swept away by high waves. At a nearby small beach resort, four cottages were damaged due to the winds and were later swept away. One two-story hotel was nearly destroyed as all that remained undamaged after the storm was a swimming pool. In a resort town situated 18 mi (29 km) northwest of the city, high waves pounded many small resorts.
### Colima
Following Calvin's closest approach to Manzanillo, the Mexican Weather Service station in the city recorded a minimum barometric pressure of 986.5 mbar (29.13 inHg), as well as 84 mph (135 km/h) surface winds as the center of Calvin passed a little to the west. The Instituto Oceanografico del Pacifico in Manzanillo reported a minimum central pressure of 994 mbar (29.4 inHg) in addition to gale-force winds. Statewide, sustained winds of 60 mph (97 km/h) were observed around 1300 UTC. Shortly thereafter, near 1545 UTC, sustained winds of 35 mph (56 km/h) with gusts up to 45 mph (72 km/h) were reported in Manzanillo. Offshore, several ships reported rough weather during Calvin's existence, with the Pacific Sandpiper reporting a maximum wave height of 44 ft (13 m).
Two fatalities occurred offshore when a trimaran capsized; two fishermen were also reported missing. A pair children were killed by a mudslide. Damage to boats and shoreline structures extended from Acapulco to Manzanillo. Electrical and water services were cut off to the city of Mazanillio. In all, 4,000 people were evacuated from their homes throughout the state. Several ports were also closed. Throughout Colima, lime and mango crops sustained \$4.3 million in damage.
### Michoacán
In the state of Michoacán, 700 homes were destroyed. Moreover, many bridges and highways were destroyed due to a 15 ft (4.6 m) storm surge. A total of 4,000 persons fled their homes in Michoacan, including 3,000 alone in Lázaro Cárdenas. Crop damage in both this state and Colima totaled to \$7 million. Numerous communities were completely evacuated.
Although initially not expected to pose a threat to the chemicals on the ship Betula, rough seas near Lázaro Cárdenas caused all 4,000 t (4,000,000 kg) of sulfuric acid to leak aboard the previously beached cargo tanker. The tow line snapped when a tug was taking it out to sea. Two of the four tanks broke off by July 7. The Mexican Navy then decided it would be best to tow the ship to shore and neutralize the battery acid that the ship contained. It was estimated that such project could take two weeks.
### Jalisco
Shortly after making its first landfall, the storm moved over a sparsely populated portion of Mexico near Puerto Vallarta. Throughout the region from Manzanillo to Puerto Vallarta, no deaths were reported. However, phones and power services were disrupted and many roads were blocked due to extensive flooding. However, further details about impact could not be obtained due to lack of communication, though some places sustained waist-high water. However, the resort city of Puerto Vallarta itself was spared, receiving just some rain and light winds. About 60 mi (95 km) south of the city, numerous coastal roads were destroyed due to mudslides. In all, 10 towns were flooded.
## Aftermath
During the aftermath of the storm, troops were called in to deliver aid to the victims of the storm. A state of emergency was declared in at least ten states in Mexico following Calvin's passage. Furthermore, Mexican officials implemented emergency measures with assistance of agencies such as the Mexican Army and the local health department in the most of the devastated areas. Civil protection authorities donated food to more than 40,000 people for three days. They distributed around 11,000 blankets, 5,000 mattresses, 8,000 sacks of sand to reinforce dikes, and an additional 20 t (20,000 kg) of food, medicine, and clothes. Many Los Angeles residents looked for ways to donate aid to the needy. Then-Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari announced that the government would channel \$11.4 million to three of the hardest-hit states. The government channeled \$2.7 million to Guerrero alone (half of which was supplied to Acapulco) for reconstruction efforts. Michoacan was also expected to receive \$4.7 million in aid while Colima was expected to acquire \$4 million.
Once the hurricane had moved away from the coast, airports quickly re-opened. Simultaneously, fishermen in Playa Azul protested that their livelihood was endangered due to fishing bans caused by the chemical spill; consequently, in Lázaro Cárdenas, 28 people were arrested while warrants for 526 others' arrest were issued for disturbing peace and blocking highways. This sparked protests from two environmental group as a well a group of Mexican artists. Also, the fisherman demanded a \$1 million compensation. Within a week after the storm, additional rains had moved into the area, leading to further damage and eight fatalities.
## See also
- List of Pacific hurricanes
- Other storms with the same name
- Hurricane Winifred (1992)
- Hurricane Eugene (1987) |
2,606,596 | Christianization of Poland | 1,172,462,414 | History of the spread of Christianity | [
"10th century in Poland",
"10th-century Christianity",
"966",
"Baptism",
"Christianization of Europe",
"History of Christianity in Poland"
]
| The Christianization of Poland (Polish: chrystianizacja Polski) refers to the introduction and subsequent spread of Christianity in Poland. The impetus to the process was the Baptism of Poland (Polish: chrzest Polski), the personal baptism of Mieszko I, the first ruler of the future Polish state, and much of his court. The ceremony took place on Holy Saturday, 14 April 966 (under the Julian pre-Gregorian calendar, equivalent to 19 April 966 Gregorian), although the exact location is disputed by historians, with the cities of Poznań and Gniezno being the most likely sites. Mieszko's wife, Dobrawa of Bohemia, is often seen as a major influence on Mieszko's decision to accept Christianity.
While the spread of Christianity in Poland took centuries to finish, the process was ultimately successful, as within several decades Poland joined the rank of established European states recognised by the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. According to historians, the baptism of Poland marks the beginning of Polish statehood. Nevertheless, the Christianization was a long and arduous process, as most of the Polish population remained pagan until the pagan reaction during the 1030s.
## Background
Before the adoption of Christianity in modern-day Poland, there were a number of different pagan tribes. Svetovid was among the most widespread pagan gods worshiped in Poland. Christianity arrived around the late 9th century, most likely around the time when the Vistulan tribe encountered the Christian rite in dealings with their neighbors, the Great Moravia (Bohemian) state.
The Moravian cultural influence played a significant role in the spread of Christianity onto the Polish lands and the subsequent adoption of that religion. In the opinion of Davies, the Christianization of Poland through the Czech–Polish alliance represented a conscious choice on the part of Polish rulers to ally themselves with the Czech state rather than the German one. In a similar fashion, some of the later political struggles involved the Polish Church refusing to subordinate itself to the German hierarchy and instead being directly subordinate to the Vatican.
### Baptism
"The Baptism of Poland" refers to the ceremony when the first ruler of the Polish state, Mieszko I, and much of his court converted to the Christian religion. Mieszko's wife Dobrawa of Bohemia, a zealous Christian, played a significant role in promoting Christianity in Poland, and might have had a significant influence on converting Mieszko himself.
The exact place of Mieszko's baptism is disputed; Most historians argue that Gniezno or Poznań are the most likely sites. However, other historians have suggested alternative locations, such as Ostrów Lednicki, or even in German Regensburg. The date of Mieszko's baptism was 14 April 966, Holy Saturday.
The ceremony was preceded by a week of oral catechism and several days of fasting. The actual ceremony involved pouring water over the segregated groups of men and women, although it is possible that their heads were immersed instead, and anointed with the chrism.
### Christianization of Poland
The baptismal mission which began in the two major cities of Gniezno and Poznań with the baptism of Mieszko and his court spread throughout the country. During the 10th and 11th centuries various ecclesiastical organs were established in Poland. This included the building of churches and the appointment of clergy. The first Bishop of Poland, Jordan, was appointed by Pope John XIII in 968. Mieszko's son Bolesław I the Brave supported Christianization missions to neighboring lands, notably the mission of future Saint Adalbert of Prague to Old Prussians, and established the Archbishopric of Gniezno in the year 1000.
Although at first the Christian religion was "unpopular and alien", Mieszko's baptism was highly influential but needed to be enforced by the state, and ran into some popular opposition, including an uprising in the 1030s (particularly intense in the years of 1035–1037). Nonetheless, by that time Poland had won recognition as a proper European state, from both the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.
Out of various provinces of today's Poland, Christianity's spread was slowest in Pomerania, where it gained a significant following only around the 12th century. Initially, the clergy came from the Western Christian European countries; native Polish clergy took three or four generations to emerge, and were supported by the monasteries and friars that grew increasingly common in the 12th century. By the 13th century Roman Catholicism had become the dominant religion throughout Poland.
In adopting Christianity as the state religion, Mieszko sought to achieve several personal goals. He saw Poland's baptism as a way of strengthening his hold on power, as well as using it as a unifying force for the Polish people. It replaced several smaller cults with a single, central one, clearly associated with the royal court. It would also improve the position and respectability of the Polish state on the international, European scene. The Church also helped to strengthen the monarch's authority and brought to Poland much experience with regard to state administration. Thus, the Church organisation supported the state, and in return, bishops received important government titles (in the later era, they were members of the Senate of Poland).
## Millennial celebrations of 1966
The preparations for the millennial celebrations begun with the Great Novena of 1957, which marked a nine years period of fast and prayer. In 1966, the People's Republic of Poland witnessed large festivities on the 1,000th anniversary of those events, with the Church celebrating the 1,000 years of Christianity in Poland, while the Communist government celebrated the secular 1,000 years of the Polish State, culminated in twice denying Pope Paul VI permission to visit Poland that year. The desire of the Communist party to separate religion from the state made the festivities a culture clash between the state and the Church. While the Church was focusing on the religious, ecclesiastical aspects of the baptism, with slogans (in Latin) like Sacrum Poloniae Millenium (Poland's Sacred Millennium), the Communist Party was framing the celebrations as a secular, political anniversary of the creation of the Polish state, with slogans (in Polish) like Tysiąclecie Państwa Polskiego (A Thousand Years of the Polish State). As Norman Davies noted, both the Church and the Party had "rival, and mutually exclusive, interpretations of [Poland's baptism] significance".
On 30 July 1966, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing issued 128,475,000 commemorative stamps honoring the millennium anniversary of the adoption of Christianity in Poland.
An anniversary parade was held in front of the Palace of Culture and Science on Parade Square on 22 July to coincide with the annual National Day of the Rebirth of Poland celebrations (set on the anniversary of the signing of the PKWN Manifesto). It was attended by Władysław Gomułka, the then First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, as well as members of the PUWP and the Polish Council of State. The parade inspector was Marshal of Poland Marian Spychalski while it was commanded by the commander of the Warsaw Military District Major General Czesław Waryszak (1919–1979). Troops of the Polish People's Army were on parade, featuring units such as the Representative Honor Guard of the LWP, the Band of the LWP (led by Colonel Lisztok), as well as cadets of military academies and other ceremonial units dressed in Polish historical military uniforms dating back to the Piast dynasty. The parade is today regarded as the largest military parade in the history of Poland.
## See also
- Catholic Church in Poland
- Lech, Czech, and Rus
- Christianization of Bohemia
- Christianization of Kievan Rus'
- Dagome Iudex
- History of Poland (966–1385)
- List of archbishops of Gniezno and primates of Poland
- Northern Crusades |
191,160 | Maximilian von Spee | 1,172,955,140 | Naval officer of the Kaiserliche Marine | [
"1861 births",
"1914 deaths",
"Captains who went down with the ship",
"Counts of Germany",
"German military personnel killed in World War I",
"German military personnel of the Boxer Rebellion",
"Immigrants to the Kingdom of Prussia",
"Imperial German Navy admirals of World War I",
"Military personnel from Copenhagen",
"Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class",
"Vice admirals of the Imperial German Navy"
]
| Maximilian Johannes Maria Hubert Reichsgraf von Spee (22 June 1861 – 8 December 1914) was a naval officer of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), who commanded the East Asia Squadron during World War I. Spee entered the navy in 1878 and served in a variety of roles and locations, including on a colonial gunboat in German West Africa in the 1880s, the East Africa Squadron in the late 1890s, and as commander of several warships in the main German fleet in the early 1900s. During his time in Germany in the late 1880s and early 1890s, he married his wife, Margareta, and had three children, his sons Heinrich and Otto and his daughter Huberta. By 1912, he had returned to the East Asia Squadron as its commander, and was promoted to the rank of Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) the following year.
After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, Spee led his squadron across the Pacific to the coast of South America. Here on 1 November, he defeated the British 4th Cruiser Squadron under Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock in the Battle of Coronel, sinking two of Cradock's cruisers and forcing his other two ships to retreat. A month later, Spee decided to attack the British naval base in the Falkland Islands, but a superior British force surprised him. In the ensuing Battle of the Falkland Islands, Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee's squadron, which included two powerful battlecruisers, destroyed the East Asia Squadron. Spee and his two sons, who happened to be serving on two of his ships, were all killed, along with about 2,200 other men. Spee was hailed as a hero in Germany, and several ships were named in his honor, including the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, which was built in the 1930s and was scuttled after the Battle of the River Plate during World War II.
## Early career
Spee was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 22 June 1861, though he was raised in the Rhineland in Germany, where his family had an estate. He joined the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in 1878 and initially served in the main German naval base at Kiel. He was commissioned an officer at the rank of Leutnant zur See (Lieutenant at Sea), and was assigned to the gunboat SMS Möwe, which was sent to western Africa. During this voyage, the Germans signed treaties with local rulers in Togo and Cameroon, creating the colonies of Togoland and Kamerun, respectively. In 1887, Spee was transferred to Kamerun where he commanded the port at Duala. He contracted rheumatic fever while there, and had to be sent back to Germany to recover, though he occasionally suffered from rheumatism for the rest of his life.
After returning to Germany in 1889, he married his wife, Margareta Baroness von der Osten-Sacken. With her he had two sons—Otto, born on 10 July 1890, Heinrich, born on 24 April 1893—and one daughter, Huberta, born on 11 July 1894. In December 1897, Spee was stationed in Germany's East Asia Squadron after it seized the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory, with its port at Qingdao. Here, he served on the staff of Vizeadmiral Otto von Diederichs. During the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900, Spee saw action at Qingdao and on the Yangtze.
After arriving back in Germany, he was promoted to the rank of Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) and assigned as the first officer aboard the pre-dreadnought battleship Brandenburg. Between 1900 and 1908, Spee held command of several ships, including the aviso Hela, the minelayer Pelikan, and finally the pre-dreadnought Wittelsbach. During this period, he was promoted to Fregattenkapitän (Frigate Captain) on 27 January 1904 and to Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea) exactly a year later; his command of Wittelsbach followed the latter promotion. In 1908, he was assigned as the chief of staff to the commander of the North Sea Station, and in 1910 he was promoted to the rank of Konteradmiral (KAdm–Counter Admiral). Spee was then assigned as the deputy commander for the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet.
## East Asia Squadron
In late 1912, Spee was given command of the East Asia Squadron, replacing KAdm Günther von Krosigk on 4 December. Spee raised his flag on the armored cruiser Scharnhorst, and departed on a tour of the southwest Pacific along with Scharnhorst's sister ship Gneisenau, during which Spee made visits to several ports, including Singapore and Batavia. Spee was promoted to Vizeadmiral the following year. Over the following year and a half, Spee met with the leaders of several East Asian countries. From 1 April to 7 May 1913, Scharnhorst took Spee to Japan to meet the Taishō Emperor. Later in the year, Spee met with Chulalongkorn, the King of Siam. In May 1914, Spee took Scharnhorst and the torpedo boat S90 on a visit to Port Arthur and then to Tianjin; Spee continued on to Beijing, where he met with Yuan Shikai, the first President of the Republic of China. He came back aboard Scharnhorst on 11 May and the ship returned to Qingdao.
Spee thereafter began preparations for a cruise to German New Guinea; Scharnhorst departed on 20 June. The two armored cruisers proceeded to Nagasaki, Japan, where they coaled in preparation for their tour. While en route to Truk in the Caroline Islands, they received news of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. On 17 July, the East Asia Squadron arrived in Ponape in the Carolines, where the ships remained while tensions steadily rose in Europe. In Ponape, Spee had access to the German radio network, and he learned of the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia on 28 July, followed shortly thereafter by the Russian mobilization—tantamount to a declaration of war—against Austria-Hungary and possibly Germany. On 31 July, word came that the German ultimatum that Russia demobilize its armies was set to expire; Spee ordered his ships' crews to prepare for war. On 2 August, Wilhelm II ordered German mobilization against Russia and its ally, France. Following Germany's violation of neutral Belgium during its invasion of France, Britain declared war on Germany.
### World War I
The East Asia Squadron consisted of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the light cruisers Emden, Nürnberg, and Leipzig. At the time, Nürnberg was returning from the west coast of the United States, where Leipzig had just replaced her, and Emden was still in Qingdao. Spee recalled his ships to consolidate his forces; Nürnberg arrived on 6 August and the three cruisers plus their colliers moved to Pagan Island in the Marianas, at that time a German colony. Emden and the liner Prinz Eitel Friedrich, which had been converted into an auxiliary cruiser, joined the squadron there on 12 August. The four cruisers, accompanied by Prinz Eitel Friedrich and several colliers, then departed the central Pacific, bound for Chile. On 13 August, Commodore Karl von Müller, captain of the Emden, persuaded Spee to detach his ship as a commerce raider. On 14 August, the East Asia Squadron departed Pagan for Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. While en route across the Pacific, Spee relaxed formalities aboard his ships, integrating the messes for officers and non-commissioned and engineering officers.
To keep the German high command informed, on 8 September Spee detached Nürnberg to Honolulu to send word through neutral countries. Nürnberg returned with news of the Allied capture of German Samoa, which had taken place on 29 August. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sailed to Apia to investigate the situation. Spee had hoped to catch a British or Australian warship by surprise, but upon his arrival on 14 September, he found no warships in the harbor. Spee decided against attacking the Allied troops ashore, since doing so would risk killing Samoans and damaging German property. On 22 September, Scharnhorst and the rest of the East Asia Squadron arrived at the French colony of Papeete. The Germans attacked the colony, and in the ensuing Battle of Papeete, they sank the French gunboat Zélée. The ships came under fire from French shore batteries but were undamaged. Fear of mines in the harbor prevented Spee from seizing the coal in the harbor. Spee then continued across the Pacific, passing through the Marquesas Islands, where his ships acquired supplies including fresh meat by barter, purchase, or confiscation. On 12 October, the squadron reached Easter Island, where it was reinforced by Leipzig, Dresden, and four more colliers. Spee's ships were off the coast of Chile by 1 November, when he learned that the British cruiser Glasgow was moored in Coronel, ostensibly alone; he decided to try to sink the ship.
#### Battle of Coronel
Glasgow was assigned to the 4th Cruiser Squadron, under Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock; as it turned out, Glasgow was joined by the armored cruisers Good Hope and Monmouth and the auxiliary cruiser Otranto. After discovering the entire squadron off Coronel, Spee decided to engage the British ships, but he delayed the action using his ships' superior speed until later in the day, when the setting sun would silhouette Cradock's ships. The German ships would meanwhile be obscured against the Chilean coast, making the task of the British gunners more difficult. At 18:07, Spee issued the order to open fire, with his two armored cruisers battling Cradock's armored cruisers and his light cruisers engaging Glasgow and Otranto. Cradock quickly detached Otranto, as she had no place in the line of battle. By 18:50, Gneisenau had disabled Monmouth and so shifted fire to Good Hope; the combined firepower of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau neutralized Good Hope by 19:23. Spee then withdrew his two armored cruisers and sent in his light cruisers to finish off Monmouth and Good Hope. The British had lost both ships and suffered more than 1,600 dead, including Cradock, though the German ships had expended around 40 percent of their ammunition supply. Spee had inflicted the first defeat on a Royal Navy squadron since the Napoleonic Wars a century earlier.
After the battle, Spee took his ships north to Valparaiso. Since Chile was neutral, only three ships could enter the port at a time; Spee took Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Nürnberg in first on the morning of 3 November, leaving Dresden and Leipzig with the colliers at Mas a Fuera. There, Spee's ships could take on coal while he conferred with the Admiralty Staff in Germany to determine the strength of remaining British forces in the region. In addition, Spee sought to counter British press reports that attempted to minimize their losses and exaggerate German casualties. A reception followed at the German Club of Valparaiso, though Spee insisted that the event be restrained in tone. He received a bouquet of flowers to celebrate the victory at Coronel; Spee replied that they would do nicely for his grave. He stated that,
> You must not forget that I am quite homeless. I cannot reach Germany. We possess no other secure harbor. I must fight my way through the seas of the world doing as much mischief as I can, until my ammunition is exhausted, or a foe far superior in power succeeds in catching me. But it will cost the wretches dearly before they take me down.
While in port, Spee received the order from the Admiralty Staff to attempt to break through to Germany. The ships remained in the port for only 24 hours, in accordance with the neutrality restrictions, and arrived at Mas a Fuera on 6 November, where they took on more coal from captured British and French steamers. Dresden and Leipzig took their turn in Valparaiso, after which the re-formed squadron continued south and rounded Cape Horn into the South Atlantic. In the meantime, the Royal Navy sent a pair of battlecruisers—Invincible and Inflexible—commanded by Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee to hunt down Spee's squadron and avenge Cradock's defeat.
#### Battle of the Falkland Islands
On the morning of 6 December, Spee held a conference with the ship commanders aboard Scharnhorst to determine their next course of action. The Germans had received numerous fragmentary and contradictory reports of British reinforcements in the region; Spee and two other captains favored an attack on the Falkland Islands to destroy the British wireless station there, while three other commanders argued that it would be better to bypass the islands and attack British shipping off Argentina. Spee's opinion carried the day and the squadron departed for the Falkland Islands at 12:00 on 6 December. The ships arrived off the Falkland Islands two days later; Gneisenau and Nürnberg were delegated for the attack. As they approached, observers aboard Gneisenau spotted smoke rising from Port Stanley, but assumed it was the British burning their coal stocks to prevent the Germans from seizing them. As they closed on the harbor, 30.5 cm (12.0 in) shells from the elderly battleship Canopus, which had been beached as a guard ship, began to fall around the German ships, which prompted Spee to break off the attack. As Spee withdrew, Sturdee quickly got steam up in his ships and sortied to chase the Germans.
By 13:20, the battlecruisers had caught up with Spee, who realized his armored cruisers could not escape the much faster battlecruisers. He ordered the three light cruisers to attempt to break away while he tried to hold off the British squadron with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Sturdee instead ordered his cruisers to chase down the fleeing German light cruisers while Invincible and Inflexible dealt with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Spee deftly maneuvered his ships, taking the leeward position; the wind kept his ships swept of smoke, which improved visibility for his gunners. This forced Sturdee into the windward position and its corresponding worse visibility. Scharnhorst straddled Invincible with her third salvo and quickly scored two hits on the British battlecruiser. The German flagship was herself not hit during this phase of the battle. Sturdee attempted to widen the distance by turning two points to the north to prevent Spee from closing to within the range of his numerous secondary guns. Spee counteracted this maneuver by turning rapidly to the south, which forced Sturdee to turn south as well to keep within range. This allowed Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to turn back north and get close enough to engage with their secondary 15 cm guns. Their shooting was so accurate that it forced the British to haul away a second time.
The British gunfire became increasingly accurate, and by 16:00, Scharnhorst had begun to list badly, while fires raged aboard the ship. Spee ordered Gneisenau to try to disengage while he turned Scharnhorst toward his attackers in an attempt to launch torpedoes at them. At 16:17, Scharnhorst capsized and sank, taking her entire crew with her, including Spee. The British, still focused on Gneisenau, made no effort to rescue survivors. Gneisenau, Leipzig, and Nürnberg were also sunk. Only Dresden managed to escape, but she was eventually tracked to the Juan Fernández Islands and sunk. The complete destruction of the squadron killed about 2,200 German sailors and officers, including both of Spee's sons; Heinrich died aboard Gneisenau, and Otto was killed aboard Nürnberg.
## Legacy
Spee was hailed as a hero in Germany and the men of the East Asia Squadron were celebrated in the press, which emphasized their bravery and refusal to surrender. In September 1917, the second Mackensen-class battlecruiser was named Graf Spee, and was christened by Spee's widow Margarete. Construction of the ship had not been completed by the time of the Armistice of 11 November 1918, and she was broken up for scrap by 1921. In 1934 Germany named the new heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee after him; as with the earlier vessel, a member of Spee's family christened the ship, this time his daughter. In December 1939, Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by her crew after the Battle of the River Plate off the coast of Uruguay. Between 1959 and 1964 the Federal German Bundesmarine operated the training frigate Graf Spee.
The wreck of Spee's flagship Scharnhorst was found off the Falklands on 5 December 2019, almost 105 years to the day after her sinking. Wilhelm Graf von Spee, head of the Graf von Spee family, called the location of the wreck "bittersweet", remarking that the family took comfort "from the knowledge that the final resting place of so many has been found, and can now be preserved, whilst also being reminded of the huge waste of life. As a family, we lost a father and his two sons on one day. Like the thousands of other families who suffered an unimaginable loss during the First World War, we remember them and must ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain." |
4,622,401 | Doedicurus | 1,171,098,367 | An extinct genus of mammals belonging to the armadillo order, Cingulata | [
"Ensenadan",
"Fossil taxa described in 1874",
"Fossils of Argentina",
"Fossils of Brazil",
"Fossils of Uruguay",
"Holocene extinctions",
"Lujanian",
"Pleistocene Argentina",
"Pleistocene Brazil",
"Pleistocene Uruguay",
"Pleistocene first appearances",
"Pleistocene mammals of South America",
"Pleistocene xenarthrans",
"Prehistoric cingulates",
"Prehistoric placental genera",
"Taxa named by Hermann Burmeister",
"Taxa named by Richard Owen",
"Uquian"
]
| Doedicurus is an extinct genus of glyptodont from South America containing one species, D. clavicaudatus. Glyptodonts are a member of the family Chlamyphoridae, which also includes some modern armadillo species, and they are classified in the superorder Xenarthra alongside sloths and anteaters. Being a glyptodont, it was a rotund animal with heavy armor and a carapace. Averaging at an approximate 1,400 kg (3,100 lb), it was one of the largest glyptodonts to have ever lived. Though glyptodonts were quadrupeds, large ones like Doedicurus may have been able to stand on two legs like other xenarthrans. It notably sported a spiked tail club, which may have weighed 40 or 65 kg (88 or 143 lb) in life, and it may have swung this in defense against predators or in fights with other Doedicurus at speeds of perhaps 11 m/s (40 km/h; 25 mph).
Doedicurus was likely a grazer, but its teeth and mouth, like those of other glyptodonts, seem unable to have chewed grass effectively, which may indicate a slow metabolism. Doedicurus existed during the Pleistocene. Before this, South America had been isolated from the rest of the world, but the formation of the Isthmus of Panama allowed North American fauna to invade South America in the Great American Interchange, including big cats, bears, proboscideans, camelids, and horses. Doedicurus seems to have inhabited the relatively cold and humid Chaco-Pampean plains of northeastern Patagonia. It may have been the latest-surviving glyptodont, with remains suggested to date to 8,000–7,000 years ago during the middle Holocene, though these dates have been questioned. It may have gone extinct due to some combination of human hunting and climate change.
## Taxonomy and evolution
The animal was first described by British paleontologist Richard Owen in 1847, the fifth glyptodont species described after Glyptodon clavipes, G. reticulatus, G. tuberculatus (now Panochthus), and G. ornatus (now Neosclerocalyptus). The type specimen was a partial tail which seemed to indicate a massive club, so Owen assigned the name G. clavicaudatus (the species name deriving from Latin meaning "club-tailed"). In 1874, German zoologist Hermann Burmeister classified it into its own genus as Doedicurus clavicaudatus, the genus name deriving from Ancient Greek δοῖδυξ "pestle" and oυρά "tail".
Doedicurus was a glyptodont, most closely related to modern armadillos, thus a member of the superorder Xenarthra (along with sloths and anteaters) endemic to South America. Glyptodonts were classified into the family Glyptodontidae. Through the 19th and 20th centuries, new species and genera were described on the basis of minute or debatable differences, and the total diversity had reached 65 genera with 220 species. In 1997, Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell in their comprehensive revision of mammal taxonomy assigned all glyptodonts to the superfamily Glyptodontoidea, which included the families Pampatheriidae, Palaeopeltidae, and Glyptodontidae. Doedicurus was classified into Glyptodontidae in the subfamily Doedicurinae, alongside Eleutherocercus, Prodaedicurus, Comaphorus, Castellanosia, Xiphuroides, Daedicuroides, and Plaxhaplous.
In 2016, ancient DNA was extracted from the carapace of a 12,000 year old Doedicurus specimen, and a nearly complete mitochondrial genome was reconstructed (76x coverage). Comparisons with those of modern armadillos revealed that glyptodonts diverged from tolypeutine and chlamyphorine armadillos approximately 34 million years ago in the late Eocene. This prompted moving them from their own family, Glyptodontidae, to the subfamily Glyptodontinae within the extant Chlamyphoridae. Based on this and the fossil record, glyptodonts would have evolved their characteristic shape and large size (gigantism) quite rapidly, possibly in response to the cooling, drying climate and expansion of open savannas.
## Description
### Teeth
Glyptodonts have hypsodont dentition, and the teeth also never stopped growing in life, so they are assumed to have fed predominantly on grass. However, they have unusual teeth compared to those of other mammals, featuring three lobes (except for the first two teeth, which have the usual two lobes). The tooth core is made of osteodentine, which is surrounded by a layer of orthodentine, and capped off by cementum instead of enamel. Some of the orthodentine became exposed over time as the cementum was worn away, producing a file-like surface to better process grass, similar to the hard dentine and cementum eventually protruding through the enamel of horse and cattle teeth.
Glyptodonts have eight cheek teeth, and, like bovines, completely lack canines and incisors. Nonetheless, Doedicurus and other large glyptodonts appear to have had a markedly reduced gape, and the teeth have relatively small grinding surfaces, which indicate they were incapable of thoroughly chewing food. This may have been caused by the increasing size of the muscles to support the head and neck as the armor in this region became heavier and heavier, displacing the chewing muscles to less mechanically efficient positions. This is odd as thoroughly grinding grass is very important in maximizing nutrient absorption, and such inefficiency could indicate a slow metabolism. The apparently strong tongue may have partially reworked and pushed incompletely chewed food into the stomach or possibly a cecum.
### Body
Doedicurus, on average, had a height of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in), an overall length of around 3.6 m (12 ft), and a weight of about 1,400 kg (3,100 lb), but an 8,000 year old specimen was calculated to have been 1,900 to 2,370 kg (4,190 to 5,220 lb), which could indicate Doedicurus grew much larger in the Holocene just before going extinct. This makes it one of the heaviest glyptodont species known, alongside Pa. intermedius, Pa. subintermedius, G. munizi, G. elongatus, and Plaxhaplous. Doedicurus had a huge domed carapace that was made of many tightly fitted scutes, somewhat similar to that of its modern-day relative, the armadillos. The carapace was firmly anchored to the pelvis but loose around the shoulder. The carapace featured a dome, which may have been a fat-filled space, similar to a camel's hump.
### Tail
Its tail was surrounded by a flexible sheath of bone, and features shallow depressions along the edges, which may have been spikes in life. The tail club could reach up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in length. Assuming a maximum strain of 0.25 (typical for vertebrates), stress exertion of 3x10<sup>5</sup> N m<sup>−2</sup> (based on what is measured in the muscles of recently dead animals), and a volume of 100 L (22 imp gal; 26 US gal) for the tail muscle, Doedicurus may have been capable of delivering a blow of about 2.5 kJ (1,800 ft⋅lbf), though this may be an underestimate. Assuming a total mass of 40 kg (88 lb) in life for the club, this would equate to a maximum velocity of 11 m/s (40 km/h; 25 mph). The tip of the tail may have reached 15 m/s (54 km/h; 34 mph). Assuming the club was 65 kg (143 lb) in life, the center of percussion (the point of impact on the club which would have exerted maximum force and minimized damage done to itself) would have been about 77 cm (2.5 ft) from the tip.
### Limbs
As with other glyptodonts and xenarthrans, the center of mass appears to have been closer to the hind limbs than the forelimbs, indicating the vast majority and in some instance nearly all of the weight was borne on the hind limbs. This might show that glyptodonts, when their weight was displaced farther tailwards, could stand on two legs, though not necessarily maintaining an erect posture. Modern xenarthrans commonly stand up in this fashion for defense, to observe, or to feed. Strong hind limbs would also have been important while accelerating the tail club and maintaining posture after getting hit.
Nonetheless, glyptodonts also had powerful forearms. Because the forelimbs did not need to bear weight, it is possible that they dug much like modern armadillos, but the carapace and spine were much more rigid than those of armadillos. Alternatively, the forelimbs may have been engaged while rotating the body to swing the tail club. Because earlier, smaller glyptodonts do not share similar weight distribution, the adoption of a bipedal stance may be related to increasing body size.
## Paleobiology
Doedicurus is thought to have been a grazer, and the high degree of hypsodonty and the breadth of the muzzle could indicate it was a bulk feeder.
Glyptodont species notably increased in size after the Great American Interchange and immigration of new mammals into the previously isolated continent, with some of the largest glyptodonts, including Doedicurus, being known from the Pleistocene following this event. This may indicate increasing gigantism was an anti-predator adaptation in response to new mammalian carnivores. There is evidence that Smilodon preyed upon Doedicurus. In the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, size dramatically increased, perhaps in response to a cooling climate (which would have reduced its metabolism, causing an increase in size) or to defend against recently immigrating human hunters.
However, the increase in armor and body mass might instead have been driven primarily by intraspecific competition in fights between Doedicurus individuals. If so, males would probably have been much more heavily built than females. Evidence of carapace fractures consistent with the force calculated for a tail club impact has been noted. The eyesight of Doedicurus may have been too poor for use of the tail club in predator defense. The accuracy needed to strike a target with the club may only have been attainable with a stationary adversary, further supporting use in ritualistic combat rather than predator defense.
## Paleoecology
Following the formation of the Isthmus of Panama about 2.8 mya, South America's long period of isolation from the rest of the world ended and it was invaded by North American species as part of the Great American Interchange. Glyptodonts would have encountered new large mammalian carnivores such as the short-faced bear, saber toothed cats such as Smilodon and Homotherium, and the jaguar. These had replaced the former endemic top predators: sebecid crocodylomorphs, madtsoiid snakes, terror birds, and the marsupial-like sparassodonts. In addition to bears and cats, other immigrants to South America include horses, camels, deer, elephants (gomphotheres), tapirs, and New World rats. Native Pleistocene South American mammals include xenarthrans, such as glyptodonts, ground sloths, anteaters, and armadillos; as well as marsupials; the large toxodonts; and native rodents such as New World porcupines.
Doedicurus is among the most commonly identified glyptodont genera of the Pleistocene, alongside Glyptodon, Neosclerocalyptus, Hoplophorus, Neuryurus, and Panochthus. Glyptodonts generally inhabited open grassland with temperate to cool climate. It appears to have been restricted to the cold, humid Chaco-Pampean plains of northeastern Patagonia. Fossils have been found in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. The Pleistocene was characterized by frequent cold/warm cycles (glacials and interglacials), and sequences in Patagonia record over 15 glacial cycles, indicated by the switch from loess (deposited during glacials) to paleosol (during interglacials). Glacials may have seen an increase in savanna, whereas interglacials (including modern day) are characterized by an expansion of rainforests.
### Extinction
Doedicurus may be the most recent-surviving glyptodont species, with the latest fossils suggested to date to about 8,000–7,000 years ago in the Pampas, though a G. claviceps specimen was contentiously dated to about 4,300 years ago. A 2019 study suggested that these Holocene ages at Pampean sites are underestimates due to contamination by humic acids, more likely dating to the Late Pleistocene.
Doedicurus, like many other megafauna around the world, went extinct in the Quaternary extinction event, which may have been caused by some combination of overhunting by humans and climate change. A butchered specimen dating to 7,500–7,000 years ago in this region on the edge of a swamp at the La Moderna site in Argentina shows that Doedicurus was hunted by the first human settlers of South America and coexisted with them for several thousand years. Because many other South American megafauna also seem to have persisted for some time following the close of the Pleistocene in this region—such as the armadillo Eutatus, the giant ground sloth Megatherium, the American horse Equus scotti, and the dog Dusicyon avus—the Pampas may have been a refuge zone provided the dating is correct, providing productive grassland which was likely in decline elsewhere on the continent. Their final demise may have been brought on or simply accelerated by human hunting.
## See also
- Megatherium
- Panochthus
- Titanis |
3,524,193 | Running to Stand Still | 1,159,790,713 | null | [
"1980s ballads",
"1987 songs",
"Folk ballads",
"Rock ballads",
"Song recordings produced by Brian Eno",
"Song recordings produced by Daniel Lanois",
"Songs about heroin",
"Songs written by Adam Clayton",
"Songs written by Bono",
"Songs written by Larry Mullen Jr.",
"Songs written by the Edge",
"U2 songs"
]
| "Running to Stand Still" is a song by rock band U2, and it is the fifth track from their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree. A slow ballad based on piano and guitar, it describes a heroin-addicted couple living in Dublin's Ballymun flats; the towers have since become associated with the song. Though a lot of time was dedicated to the lyrics, the music was improvised with co-producer Daniel Lanois during a recording session for the album.
The group explored American music for The Joshua Tree, and as such, "Running to Stand Still" demonstrates folk rock and acoustic blues influences. The song was praised by critics, many of them calling it one of the record's best tracks. It has since been included in the regular set lists of four U2 concert tours, in two different arrangements and with several possible thematic interpretations.
## Background
"Running to Stand Still" was written by U2 in the context of the heroin addiction epidemic in Dublin of the 1980s, much like "Bad" (and to some extent "Wire") had been from their 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire. Bassist Adam Clayton has referred to the song as "Bad Part II". Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott's decline and death from addiction also resonated with Clayton at the time.
Until their 2014 album Songs of Innocence, U2 had written relatively few songs directly related to their growing up in Dublin, often giving higher priority to works about The Troubles in Northern Ireland or to international concerns. When they have written about Dublin, allusions to it have often been disguised. But "Running to Stand Still" was one of those with specific Dublin connections:
> I see seven towers
> But I only see one way out
This lyric was a reference to the Ballymun flats, a group of seven local authority, high-rise residential tower blocks built in the Ballymun neighborhood of Dublin during the 1960s. Paul Hewson (later known as U2's lead vocalist Bono) had grown up on Cedarwood Road in the adjacent Glasnevin neighborhood, in a house across fields behind the towers, near his friends and future artists Fionán Hanvey (later known as Gavin Friday) and Derek Rowan (later known as Guggi). Bono had played in the towers' foundations as they were being built, then traveled in their elevators for the novel experience. Over time, poor maintenance, lack of facilities for children, transient tenancies, and other factors caused social conditions and communal ties to break down in the flats. The place began to stink of urine and vomit, and glue sniffers and used needles were common sights, as were appearances of the Garda Síochána. Guggi later lived in the towers during years that he was struggling personally with drugs. It was through his exposure to people without hope in the flats that Bono began to develop his social consciousness.
Bono may have used Ballymun as the inspiration (without any explicit lyrical references to it) for the 1980 U2 song "Shadows and Tall Trees", and later likened living in the area to some of the scenes portrayed in the 1992 Mike Newell film Into the West. Driving by there in 1987, Bono said, "See the seven tall buildings there? They're 'the seven towers.' They have the highest suicide rate in Ireland. After they discovered everywhere else in the world that you don't put people living on top of each other, we built them here."
## Writing and recording
The song's title phrase originated from Bono asking his brother how his struggling business was going, and the brother responding, "It's like running to stand still." Bono had not heard the phrase before, and he thought it expressed what heroin addiction and the effects of the drug on the body were like; a writer later described the title as a "perfect distillation of the dynamic of feeding on addiction." Bono had heard a real story about a pair of heroin addicts, a man and a woman, who lived in the Ballymun towers. Out of money and unable to pay the rent due to their habit, the man became a heroin smuggler, operating between Dublin and Amsterdam and taking enormous risks for a big payday. Bono felt the man was decent at heart but was constrained by his squalid living conditions, as well as poor choices, and Bono wanted to illustrate how these poor conditions affected their lives. The resulting lyric does not describe any of this explicitly, but instead limns the emotional atmosphere that the couple live in. In doing so, the song is not judgmental and shows sympathy for the woman. A character monologue from Wim Wenders' 1984 film Paris, Texas, was also a significant influence on Bono's writing of the song.
Although the lyrics of "Running to Stand Still" were worked on a great deal, the musical composition was essentially improvised by the band during the recording process. Guitarist the Edge began playing some piano chords during a session for another song. Producer Daniel Lanois joined in on guitar, and the rest of the group followed. This initial improvised version incorporated all the elements of the final song structure, and the sound and feel of the group playing in a room together without overdubs contributed to the track's effectiveness. Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and Elton John's "Candle in the Wind", both of which had served as end snippets for "Bad" on the Unforgettable Fire Tour, were loose inspirations. The influence of Reed's works can be felt throughout the song, as can Van Morrison to an extent. Indeed, in a published tribute following Reed's 2013 death, Bono offered "Running to Stand Still" as "red-handed proof" of the influence that Reed and the Velvet Underground had had upon U2.
The Edge overdubbed the song's slide acoustic guitar, which was "amplified through a blaster", while working on guitar compositions in a lounge next to the main studio of Windmill Lane Studios. Lanois walked into the room and, impressed by the sound of the Edge's playing, wanted to record it on the spot rather than in the studio. Lanois brought the Edge headphones and plugged his guitar directly into the microphone input of the mixing console to record it. The producer said: "The blaster was amplifying his slide guitar in a lovely way. He had honed in on this sound and sort of altered the EQs and controls so that it was pleasant to him".
## Composition and interpretation
Much of The Joshua Tree showed the band's fascination with American culture, politics, and musical forms, and while the lyrics of "Running to Stand Still" were Irish-based, the musical arrangement for it began with touches of acoustic blues and country blues that represented an idiomatic stretch for the group. Although producer Brian Eno was known for introducing European textural music into U2's sound, he also had a strong fondness for folk and gospel music. Indeed, writers have seen echoes of Bruce Springsteen's stark acoustic 1982 album Nebraska in the song's sound.
"Running to Stand Still" is a soft, piano-based ballad played in a key of D major at a tempo of 92 beats per minute. The song follows a traditional verse-chorus form. In the introduction and conclusion is a mournful slide acoustic guitar in Eno and Lanois' production that Rolling Stone called both grim and dreamy. Most of the piano part alternates between the D and G chords, an example of the Edge's longtime practice of composing around two-chord progressions. The part gives the song an elegiac feel. Accompanying the piano for much of the song is Lanois' soft playing of a so-called electric "scrape guitar", which he contributed to add texture. Soft, echoing drums from Larry Mullen Jr., enter after the second chorus. A harmonica part from Bono takes the song to its faded conclusion. Bono's vocal range in the song runs from A<sub>3</sub> to D<sub>6</sub>.
In the song, the woman's addiction and misdirected desire for transcendence are reflected in lines such as "She runs through the streets / With her eyes painted red" and "She will suffer the needle chill". Bono's lyrics evoke helplessness and frustration in the lines "You've got to cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice". The title phrase is not used until the last line of the song. This compositional technique relies upon delayed gratification and is heard in a few other popular songs, such as the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" and George Michael's "One More Try".
In the liner notes to the 20th anniversary reissue of The Joshua Tree, writer Bill Flanagan stated, "'Running to Stand Still' is for anyone who feels trapped in an impossible circumstance by overwhelming responsibility." Uncut magazine writer Andrew Mueller noted that the theme was effective in depicting "the drug as another bogus escape, another fraudulent promise that there's ever any evading the truth."
## Reception
"Running to Stand Still" earned critical praise upon The Joshua Tree'''s release, which itself received very favourable reviews and went on to become the group's best-selling album. Rolling Stone wrote, "After the first few times through [it], you notice the remarkable music... It sounds like a lovely, peaceful reverie – except that this is a junkie's reverie, and when that realization hits home, the gentle acoustic lullaby acquires a corrosive power." In Time magazine's 1987 cover story on the band, Jay Cocks wrote that "A U2 tune like 'Running to Stand Still', with a trancelike melody that slips over the transom of consciousness, insinuates itself into your dreams." The Uncut magazine Ultimate Music Guide to U2 described the character sketch in the song as one of Bono's best. The 1991 Trouser Press Record Guide, however, said that the song "has mood but no presence".
"Running to Stand Still" became a Dublin anthem of sorts, immortalizing the Ballymun towers. It has been considered by pop music writer Brent Mann as one of the more powerful songs written about drug addiction, joining the likes of Jefferson Airplane's 1967 "White Rabbit", Neil Young's 1972 "The Needle and the Damage Done", Martika's 1989 "Toy Soldiers", and Third Eye Blind's 1997 "Semi-Charmed Life".
Irish music writer Niall Stokes considers "Running to Stand Still" to be one of the most important songs on The Joshua Tree, not only on its own merits as a "mature and compelling... haunting, challenging piece of pop poetry", but also because its moral ambiguity and lack of condemnation of its characters presaged the chaotic direction the band would take a few years later with Achtung Baby and the Zoo TV Tour. Rolling Stone's 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" – which placed The Joshua Tree at 26th – said that while the album is remembered for the Edge's trademark guitar sounds and the group's spiritual quests, "Running to Stand Still" remains one of its most moving songs. This latter sentiment was echoed by the Irish Independent.
## Live performances
Throughout its live history, "Running to Stand Still" has nearly always followed "Bullet the Blue Sky", matching the order in which they appear on the album. It was first played live on the Joshua Tree Tour, with the Edge playing keyboards and Bono playing guitar, usually acoustic. During the 27 May 1987 show at Rome's Stadio Flaminio – the opener of that tour's second leg, and the first in Europe – 35,000 people sang along to the song's "Ha la la la de day" refrain, bringing a side-of-stage Brian Eno to tears. One performance of the song was captured on the 1988 filmed documentary of the tour, Rattle and Hum, but was not included on the accompanying album. A different tour performance was included on both the DVD and album Live from Paris, released in 2007. On the Lovetown Tour, during one Dublin show that was broadcast worldwide, the song segued into a verse of Ewan MacColl's classic ode to industrial bleakness, "Dirty Old Town"; this show was released in 2004 as Live from the Point Depot.
During the Zoo TV Tour, the song's performance was significantly altered. In these shows, the Edge played guitar on his Fender Stratocaster with the band on the main stage, while Bono sang the song on the B-stage with a headset microphone. Bono mimed the actions of a heroin addict, rolling up his sleeves and then pretending to spike his arm during the final lyric, after which he would sing "Hallelujah" over and over while reaching up into a pillar of white light. Writer Robyn Brothers sees the addition of the "Hallelujah" coda as indicating that while organized religion may act in the role of a sedative, a notion akin to other Zoo TV themes, the role of personal faith may still have a "desiring, affirming, and 'deterritorializing' force." At the culmination of the "Bullet the Blue Sky" to "Running to Stand Still" sequence, red and yellow smoke flares ignited at either end of the stage (an idea of U2's security chief, who was a U.S. Vietnam veteran), as the coda segued into "Where the Streets Have No Name". This arrangement and performance of "Running to Stand Still" was included in the 1994 concert film Zoo TV: Live from Sydney.
"Running to Stand Still" was not played on the PopMart Tour or Elevation Tour, but it returned to U2 concerts on the 2005 Vertigo Tour, with the original combination of the Edge on keyboards and Bono on guitar. During most of its performance on the Vertigo Tour, it once again followed "Bullet the Blue Sky" and culminated with a video clip of several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights being read. (After July 2005, it was replaced in that role and in the set list by "Miss Sarajevo".) During the 19 June 2005 show on Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday, "Running to Stand Still" included snippets of "Walk On", a song originally written for her. Author Steve Stockman felt that in this tour's uses, "Running to Stand Still" was one of the band's songs from the 1980s that had lost its original meaning and was no longer about drug-dealing in the Ballymun towers. Rather, it was now being used to develop the show's theme that a belief in faith and in human potential could overcome the bleakest and most desperate situations; in this, it fit within the Vertigo Tour's emphasis on coexistence and the ONE Campaign. This assessment agreed to by an eFestivals review, and author John Jobling has called the new interpretation an "anti-persecution paean" that was used to remove the sting of "Bullet the Blue Sky" being used to criticize American behavior during the Iraq War. In contrast, USA Today's veteran rock writer Edna Gundersen found the song's performance still established a "devastating" mood and the New York Daily News said that the group "thinned 'Running To Stand Still' to give it a new mourning". Two other U.S. reviewers remarked that the song was lesser known to audiences, with Variety saying its inclusion helped the band connect with the past while avoiding cliché. One tour performance of "Running to Stand Still" was included on the Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago DVD, during which Bono dedicated the Hallelujah coda to members of the American and British militaries fighting overseas. The song was not performed during the U2 360° Tour, with The Vancouver Sun bemoaning the absence of this "stone-cold classic of the U2 canon".
## Legacy
Future music video director Dave Meyers wrote a movie script to the song while a film student at Loyola Marymount University. The 2004 first-season episode "Running to Stand Still" of the U.S. television series Desperate Housewives was named after the song. It featured the Lynette Scavo character resorting to taking her children's ADD medication in order to cope with the overwhelming demands of her domestic life. A fifth-season episode of the U.S. television series One Tree Hill, itself named after a U2 song, was called "Running to Stand Still".
By mid-2000s, the Ballymun towers were in the process of being torn down, and the Ballymun area was the target of a €1.8 billion regeneration scheme intended to create a self-sustaining community of 30,000 people that would be more successful than the original 1960s plan. Despite their failure as housing, the towers had left a long cultural legacy, of which "Running to Stand Still" was the first and perhaps best-known exemplar; the link between the towers and the song was mentioned in some tourist books about Dublin. Former towers residents were not always happy with the song. Lynn Connolly, whose 2006 memoir The Mun: Growing Up in Ballymun detailed her raising there in the 1970s and 1980s, readily acknowledged the problems there and also wanted to get out at the time. But she later came to realize that there had been much that was good at the towers – in terms of a collective wit among residents and a helping sense of community – which had been ignored by the media. She thus wrote, "regardless of what U2 say in their song, 'Running to Stand Still', there was certainly more than one way out." In a newspaper interview, Connolly suggested that the song might have had a deleterious effect: "It doesn't take a lot of imagination to picture an unemployed person, living alone in a flat in Ballymun, listening to that song and agreeing with what their hero was saying." She further noted that some websites erroneously state that Bono grew up in Ballymun itself, and said, "Perhaps it gave him a sort of street-cred to associate himself with the estate he could see from his bedroom window in nice, safe, respectable Cedarwood Road in Glasnevin."
The Ballymun area was still so associated with "Running to Stand Still" and the drug problem of the time, that local backers of the regeneration went to pains to point out the recent progress. A Bono remark that it was dangerous to walk in Ballymun at night found a good deal of publicity. A fansite listing U2-related Dublin area sights in 2004 mentioned Ballymun's connection to the song, cautioning, "do not'' go here on foot – this is a bad area". U2's official website noted that the area was much changed now; Bono himself said "he's very proud to come from the Ballymun area"; the fansite subsequently modified its listing and said an on-foot visit to Ballymun was warranted.
## See also
- List of covers of U2 songs - Running to Stand Still |
28,476,411 | David Watts Morgan | 1,144,775,109 | Welsh politician (1867–1933) | [
"1867 births",
"1933 deaths",
"British Army personnel of World War I",
"Commanders of the Order of the British Empire",
"Companions of the Distinguished Service Order",
"King's Regiment (Liverpool) officers",
"Members of Glamorgan County Council",
"Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs",
"People from Neath Port Talbot",
"Royal Pioneer Corps officers",
"UK MPs 1918–1922",
"UK MPs 1922–1923",
"UK MPs 1923–1924",
"UK MPs 1924–1929",
"UK MPs 1929–1931",
"UK MPs 1931–1935",
"Welch Regiment officers",
"Welch Regiment soldiers",
"Welsh Labour Party MPs",
"Welsh military personnel",
"Welsh miners",
"Welsh trade unionists"
]
| David Watts Morgan, (18 December 1867 – 23 February 1933), who later in life hyphenated his name to Watts-Morgan, was a Welsh trade unionist, a Labour politician, and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1918 to 1933.
Described as "[straddling] the transition in south Wales miners' politics from Lib-Labism to socialism, but ... never fully representative of either", Morgan encouraged Rhondda miners to enlist in the army in 1914 following the outbreak of the First World War, and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his efforts. He initially served in the Welsh Regiment, before becoming a lieutenant-colonel in the Labour Corps. Morgan was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for bravery at the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, earning him the nickname "Dai Alphabet" in South Wales.
## Early life
David Watts Morgan was born in Skewen, Wales, in 1867 to Thomas and Margaret Morgan. He was educated at Skewen Elementary School until the age of eleven, when he began work as a pit boy, helping miners with the less strenuous work such as manning ventilation doors. At the age of seventeen he was employed as a coal miner in Ynyshir in the Rhondda. In 1880 Watts Morgan became a checkweighman at the newly opened National Colliery in Wattstown, a responsible position that involved tallying the weight of coal extracted by each miner when it reached the surface. During his time at Wattstown he took evening classes to become a mining engineer. He never practised once qualified, but the knowledge he gained was useful to him in his role as the leader of several mine rescues, and gave him a practical knowledge that informed his later political life.
## Trade unionism
From checkweighman Watts Morgan rose to the position of district miners' agent in 1898, becoming a member of the Rhondda Labour and Liberal Association (RLLA). Watts Morgan followed in the political Liberalism of William "Mabon" Abraham, and began speaking at RLLA meetings and banquets. In 1899 the Porth and Cymmer seat for the Glamorgan County Council (GCC) fell vacant, and Watts Morgan was seen as a viable candidate from both Liberal and Labour standpoints, but was surprisingly defeated at the by-election by local timber merchant David Jenkins. The next year Jenkins declined to stand for re-election, but the miners' district committee refused Watts Morgan time off from his agent's duties and the seat was won uncontested by colleague James Baker.
In 1902, James Baker died at the age of 41, leaving an opening in the GCC. On this occasion Watts Morgan was permitted to advance as a Labour candidate and was returned unopposed. By 1903 he was being talked of as a possible candidate for a south Wales parliamentary constituency. He joined the South Wales Miners' Federation at its inception and by 1902 he was pushing for a greater political role for the organisation. By 1908 the Federation was making great headway in the Rhondda and was substantially improving conditions for the miners. At this time Watts Morgan was Agent and District Secretary at No.1 Rhondda District under William Abraham.
A moderate leader, he worked fruitlessly alongside William Abraham to resolve the 1910–11 Cambrian Combine dispute, after the two men were shunned by the more radical miners' leaders. Although espousing Gladstonian Liberalism and opposing the affiliation of The Miners' Federation of Great Britain to the Labour Party, Watts Morgan joined the more radical and Marxist Plebs' League and sat on the board of governors for the Central Labour College.
## Military service
On 4 August 1914, Watts Morgan enlisted as a private in the 10th Battalion (1st Rhondda) of the Welsh Regiment, one of the service battalions formed as part of Kitchener's Army. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 17th Battalion (1st Glamorgan) on 7 October, and was promoted to captain on 16 January 1916. Watts Morgan was not initially sent to France, being used instead as a strong voice in the recruitment of men from the Rhondda into the British Army. He also took part in recruitment campaigns in North Wales, where his fluency in the Welsh language was invaluable. Watts Morgan regularly made known his opposition to "peace cranks" who were "insulting the boys of whom we are all so proud." In March 1915, a committee of Rhondda figures presented Morgan with a cheque for 100 guineas to mark his contribution to recruiting, and the Western Mail named him "The Organiser of Victory".
On 15 May 1916 Watts Morgan transferred to a Works Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment, he was promoted to major on 24 November 1916, and went to serve in France. The Works Battalions were absorbed by the Labour Corps (forerunner of the Royal Pioneer Corps) in 1917. Watts Morgan was three times Mentioned in Despatches, and on 4 May 1918 was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for leading his pioneer unit in a counter-attack against German forces that were breaking through British lines. The citation for this award was published on 5 July 1918 and read:
> T./Maj. David Watts Morgan, Labour Corps.
>
> For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When his camp was heavily shelled with a few N.C.O.'s and men he turned some dug-outs into a temporary dressing station and assisted the wounded in the vicinity. When shelling rendered his position untenable he brought back his men in good order. He displayed great coolness and resource.
After the armistice he commanded a demobilisation station; for his work there he received a letter of thanks from the king. Despite the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography reporting Watts Morgan being promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 8 March 1919, his retirement from the forces, the London Gazette entry of May 1919 describes him as major. Until early June 1921 he is described in The Times and London Gazette as Major D. Watts Morgan, later in the month this changed to Lieutenant-Colonel Watts Morgan. On 30 March 1920 was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for "services in connection with recruiting in South Wales".
## Member of Parliament
In February 1918, Watts Morgan was selected as the Labour candidate for the newly formed Rhondda East constituency. As one of the "patriotic" miners' leaders, the Lloyd George coalition did not run a candidate against him, therefore Watts Morgan was elected to the seat unopposed. There was evidence that some wished to run a Liberal candidate against Watts Morgan, but nothing came of it. Watts Morgan made his maiden speech in the House of Commons in April 1919, on one of his special interests, housing. He addressed the House on the state and shortage of housing in the Welsh coalfields as "the chief cause of the industrial unrest. People have been herded together, and that is the reason why there is much unrest in our district at present".
Not a regular speaker in the House, Watts Morgan busied himself with work on various committees, dealing mainly with gas, electricity, river pollution, the Home Office and the Police Council. Despite his work on private bills and his friendly relationship with Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald he was never considered for office. In the 1922 election, Watts Morgan was forced to contest his seat for the first time when he was challenged by Frederick William Heale. Watts Morgan made it clear that he would defend the interests of ex-servicemen and those injured in industry; he opposed the temperance demand for the local veto. It was a close result for a Rhondda election; Heale lost by just over 3,000 votes. The 1923 election was a different affair, with Watts Morgan defeating Conservative candidate Alfred John Orchard by nearly 13,000 votes.
Watts Morgan was a socialist and trade unionist, but he was also a strong anti-communist and opposed "the local men of Moscow", trade unionists who had embraced communism and whom he saw as extremists. In the 1929 election his main rival was well-known local Liberal Dr. R. D. Chalke, but the biggest interest came from the first communist challenger in the Rhondda, Arthur Horner. Although Watts Morgan had been unwell for the first few months of the year, he roused himself to attend the Ferndale May Day demonstration. When he discovered he was sharing the platform with Communist Party of Great Britain members, Horner, A. J. Cook and Dai Lloyd Davies, he left the stage and joined the crowd so he could heckle Horner's speech from the floor. Watts Morgan described Horner as "the emissary of the blood-stained Comintern of Russia ... working to break down the democratic Government and Trades Union organization of this country." He had little cause for concern, and was re-elected to Rhondda East by a majority of almost 9,000. A smaller turnout in the 1931 election and the absence of a Liberal candidate may have led to Horner making a considerable advance against Watts Morgan in the number of votes polled, but Watts Morgans' majority remained substantial. Watts Morgan's death in 1933 forced a by-election, which was won by William Mainwaring.
## Personal life
Watts Morgan was married twice, first to Elizabeth Williams then to Blanche Amy Morgan. Blanche was herself a strong campaigner for miners' rights, and was among a group of agents' wives who promoted the provision of pithead baths, bathing areas for the miners at the surface. She was outspoken in her views, and once supported a political rival of her husband's party, forcing Watts Morgan to make a public apology.
Watts Morgan was a keen sportsman and enjoyed playing golf and bowls. He was a member of several organisations including the Freemasons', Ivorites' and Foresters' friendly societies and was president of the Rhondda and Pontypridd district of the British Legion. A Calvinist Methodist his local place of worship was Bethlehem Church in Porth.
Watts Morgan died at his home in Porth on 23 February 1933 while still in office. He was survived by his wife, two sons, and four daughters. Thousands of people lined the route along which his funeral cortege passed on its way to his burial at Llethr Du cemetery in Trealaw. Local shops and businesses closed as a mark of respect. |
15,507,805 | SeinfeldVision | 1,158,194,028 | null | [
"2007 American television episodes",
"30 Rock (season 2) episodes"
]
| "SeinfeldVision" is the first episode of the second season of 30 Rock and the twenty-second episode of the series. It was written by the series' creator, executive producer and lead actress, Tina Fey and directed by producer Don Scardino. The episode first aired on October 4, 2007 on the NBC network in the United States.
This episode takes place in the fall of 2007, as TGS with Tracy Jordan, a fictitious sketch comedy series, is about to air its season premiere. Liz Lemon (played by Fey) is seeking closure after breaking up with her boyfriend, Floyd (Jason Sudeikis), while Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) is planning to launch a month of programming called SeinfeldVision. Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) has to deal with her obesity, which she developed over the summer. Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) becomes Tracy Jordan's (Tracy Morgan) "office wife" and Cerie (Katrina Bowden) continues to prepare for her wedding to Aris. The episode received generally positive reviews from critics and fans.
## Plot
As Liz is returning to studio 6H, the TGS with Tracy Jordan studio, she meets Jack. In his office, he tells her about a promotion he is planning to launch called SeinfeldVision, a month of programming starring Jerry Seinfeld made possible with footage from his sitcom, Seinfeld, being edited into programs. After hearing of Jack's plan, Jerry arrives at 30 Rock to confront Jack. Jack and Jerry agree to shorten the promotion to just one night.
Liz is seeking closure after breaking up with her boyfriend Floyd during the summer and a chance encounter with Jerry gives her the advice she needs, so she calls Floyd only for another woman to pick up the phone. While dealing with her problems, Liz and Jenna are invited to be Cerie's maids of honour. They accept the invitation. Cerie takes them shopping for her wedding dress, and when asked to try one on, Liz decides to buy one.
After performing in Mystic Pizza: The Musical, Jenna has become fat and is trying to distract people from noticing it, to no avail. Tracy has separated from his wife, Angie Jordan (Sherri Shepherd) and is living in his dressing room having Kenneth as his "office wife", to take care of the non-sexual acts that Tracy's wife would normally perform.
## Production
It was announced, by Fey and executive producer Lorne Michaels, at the annual Television Critics Association tour in July 2007 that Jerry Seinfeld would be appearing in the season premiere of 30 Rock. Seinfeld had only appeared in two television acting roles since his own sitcom ended in 1998. Those roles were in Mad About You and Newsradio.
The scenes featuring Jerry Seinfeld were filmed on August 20, 2007.[^1] Seinfeld wore a wig in the episode to make him look more like the character version of Jerry Seinfeld. Upon first wearing the wig, Seinfeld said "This looks weird," but his wife assured him that "That's what [he] looked like [in Seinfeld]." This episode effectively ended the story arc of Liz's relationship with Floyd, which began midway through season one. There was a joke in this episode in which Cerie's surname was revealed as Xerox, but the joke was cut. This is the first episode in which Katrina Bowden (as Cerie), Keith Powell (James "Toofer" Spurlock) and Lonny Ross (Josh Girard) receive star billing.
## Reception
"SeinfeldVision" brought in an average of 7.33 million American viewers, making 30 Rock the sixtieth most watched series of the week. When it first aired, this episode was the second highest-rated episode of the series, after "Pilot", which garnered 8.13 million viewers. This episode achieved a 3.4/9 in the key 18–49 demographic, a series high in that category. The 3.4 refers to 3.4% of all 18- to 49-year-olds in the U.S. and the 9 refers to 9% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast, in the U.S.
Jeff Labrecque of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "SeinfeldVision was a clever and ironic way to incorporate Seinfeld." Matt Webb Mitovich of TV Guide said that "['SeinfeldVision'] was a solid start to the new, fought-for season" and that it did have "some great, great moments." Despite this praise, Webb Mitovich criticised Kenneth and Tracy's "office wife" storyline saying that "we've seen this shtick before on countless other sitcoms, so it was a bit empty and filled with 'easy' jokes." Criticism was also received regarding the "striped outfit... it didn't work. No," referring to a joke involving Jenna trying to distract the TGS writers from her newly gained weight. Lisa Schmeiser of Television Without Pity graded this episode as a "B+." Rick Porter of Zap2it thought that this episode "started off [30 Rock's] second season on a pretty strong note." Porter said that this episode wasn't the best episode of 30 Rock but it was still "one of the sharpest and wittiest comedies on television." Bob Sassone of AOL's TV Squad wrote that "SeinfeldVision" "was a really funny beginning to the second season." Sassone also notes that the appearance of Seinfeld did not feel like stunt casting. He also said that the joke about Jerry being able to buy NBC for \$4 million was "one of the many reasons [he, Sassone, loves] this show." Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that this episode "proves the low-rated show's best comedy Emmy win was no undeserved fluke." Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger described this episode as "really funny" and thought that "everyone is played in a style that's believable within [the series]." Linda Stasi of The New York Post said that "the on-going story of the regulars that had me laughing so hard I almost fell out of bed." Jake Brooks of The New York Observer thought that this episode was "a rather poor 22 minutes of television (well, only [Jerry Seinfeld's] portion of it, the rest was pretty great)." Robert Canning of IGN said that "30 Rock delivers a fantastic episode to open the season. Let's hope they can also deliver an audience to keep this great show on the air." Canning also awarded this episode a rating of 9.4 out of 10. Brian Lowry of Variety said that it "neatly highlights this series' strengths and weaknesses, elevated by moments of inspiration and Alec Baldwin's brilliance and leavened by considerably-less-flattering silliness." Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times thought that "SeinfeldVision" "is mostly a reminder that even the most talented actors and writers sometimes slip under pressure." Seinfeld was criticized as using his appearance in this episode as a plug for his upcoming feature film Bee Movie''. Seinfeld, NBC and General Electric stated that this was done as metahumor.
[^1]:
Save Picture as → Right click file → Properties → Summary → Advanced → Date Picture Taken |
50,941,563 | Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no You ni) | 1,093,855,433 | null | [
"2015 singles",
"2015 songs",
"Anime songs",
"Japanese-language songs"
]
| "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (Japanese: GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") is a song recorded by Japanese rock Kisida Kyoudan & The Akebosi Rockets. It was released as the group's first single in two years by Warner Bros. Entertainment and their subsidiary label Warner Home Video on July 29, 2015. The lyrics were written by Kisida and the music and arrangement were created by the band. Musically, "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" is a rock song that features guitars, drums, and bass guitars in its instrumentation. An alternative version with different lyrics and slightly edited composition was released in January 2016, under the title "Gate II (Sekai wo Koete)".
Upon its release, it received positive reviews from music critics. Some complimented the composition, whilst the rest praised the production and commercial appeal. Commercially, the song was moderately successful in Japan, peaking at number 17 on the Oricon Singles Chart and made it their third consecutive top 20 entry. An accompanying music video featured the band singing in a warehouse, surrounded with construction tape and ornaments. To promote the single, it was used as the opening theme song for the first season of Japanese anime television series, Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri.
## Background and release
On June 13, 2015 it was confirmed through Anime News Network that Japanese group Kisida Kyoudan & The Akebosi Rockets would release a new song titled "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)", and would serve as the opening theme song to the first season of Japanese anime television series, Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri. The lyrics were written by Kisida and the music and arrangement were created by the band. Musically, it is a rock song that features guitars, drums, and bass guitars in its instrumentation. According to Japanese music magazine CD Journal, they described the rock composition as "loud" and "sharp".
It was released as the group's first single in two years by Warner Bros. Entertainment and their subsidiary label Warner Home Video on July 29, 2015. It was first released on a CD single in Japan, which included the track, a B-side song titled "Egotistic Hero", and both their respective instrumental versions. The second format was the CD and DVD single, which included the same audio track list, but also featured the full music video on the second disc. The final physical format was a special anime CD that included the track, a shortened version dubbed "TV size", and the instrumental. The digital EP included the four recordings, released only in Japan. Each format, apart from the digital release, includes three different artworks with all promotional images taken from the television series.
## Reception
Upon its release, it received positive reviews from music critics. A staff member at CD Journal was positive, complimenting the songwriting on how it holds a "sharp message" for listeners to understand. The review concluded with the reviewer labeling it "exhilarating". In a similar review, The News Hub's Can Hoang Tran said that "There are times that you may have rewound the anime to the very beginning just to listen to the theme song. I consider myself part of that group of anime let alone Gate fans." He called it one of 2015's "catchy and [energetic]" anime theme songs. Josh Piedra from The Outerhaven enjoyed the song as a "Kyoudan fan", but stated that "The opening song is a catchy one... but it still sounds like your typical mainstream J-Rock with female lead vocals."
Commercially, the song was moderately successful in Japan. It debuted at number 17 on the Oricon Singles Chart, the group's lowest entry at the time. Despite falling outside of the top 50 the following week, it lasted 10 weeks inside the top 200. As of June 2016, "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" is the group's third best selling single according to Oricon Style. It was success on Japan's Billboard competent charts, peaking at number 15 on the Japan Hot 100 chart, two on the Hot Anime chart, and number 15 on the Hot Single Sales chart.
## Music video and promotion
An accompanying music video for the single was released on July 29, 2015 through the official Japanese Warner Bros. channel on YouTube. It opens with a blurred long shot of the band sitting on a couch, and as the music starts, it has them performing in a warehouse surrounded with music gear and ornaments. Intercut shots of vocalist Ichigo surrounded with construction tape appears during the song's verses, whilst Kyoudan is seen performing the guitar during instrumental breaks on a tank. The video ends with a long shot of the group standing in the warehouse.
The singles only promotion in Japan was its inclusion as the opening theme song for the first season of Japanese anime television series, Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri. An alternative version with different lyrics and slightly edited composition was released in January 2016, under the title "Gate II (Sekai o Koete)"; This version was used for the second season of the series.
## Track listings and formats
- CD single
1. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") – 3:47
2. "Egotistic Hero" – 3:34
3. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") (Instrumental) – 3:47
4. "Egotistic Hero" (Instrumental) – 3:34
- DVD single
1. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") – 3:47
2. "Egotistic Hero" – 3:34
3. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") (Instrumental) – 3:47
4. "Egotistic Hero" (Instrumental) – 3:34
5. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") (Music video) – 3:50
- Anime edition
1. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") – 3:47
2. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") (TV size) – 1:30
3. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") (Instrumental) – 3:47
- Digital download
1. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") – 3:47
2. "Egotistic Hero" – 3:34
3. "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)" (GATE (それは暁のように);, "Gate (It Looks Like the Dawn)") (Instrumental) – 3:47
4. "Egotistic Hero" (Instrumental) – 3:34
## Personnel
Credits adapted from the CD liner notes of "Gate (Sore wa Akatsuki no you ni)".
Recording and management
- Recorded in 2015. Management and record label Warner Bros. Entertainment and Warner Home Video.
Credits
- Kishida Kyoudan – background vocals, composing, songwriting, producing, arranging
- Ichigo – vocals, background vocals, arranging, producing
- Hayapi – guitar, background vocals, arranging, producing
- Micchan – drums, background vocals, arranging, producing
- T-Tsu – guitar, background vocals, arranging, producing
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Rankings chart
## Release history |
1,123,419 | 2001 Austrian Grand Prix | 1,173,773,116 | 6th round of the 2001 Formula One season | [
"2001 Formula One races",
"2001 in Austrian motorsport",
"Austrian Grand Prix",
"May 2001 sports events in Europe"
]
| The 2001 Austrian Grand Prix (officially the Grosser A1 Preis von Österreich 2001) was a Formula One motor race held at A1-Ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria on 13 May 2001. It was the sixth round of the 2001 Formula One World Championship and the 24th Austrian Grand Prix as part of the series. David Coulthard driving for the McLaren team won the 71-lap race starting from seventh. Michael Schumacher of the Ferrari team finished second, with his teammate Rubens Barrichello third.
Going into the Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher led the World Drivers' Championship from Coulthard as his team Ferrari led McLaren in the World Constructors' Championship. Michael Schumacher won the 37th pole position of his career by setting the fastest lap time in qualifying. The Williams pair of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher overtook him at the start of the event. Montoya led the first 15 laps until Michael Schumacher attempted a pass on Montoya that put both drivers wide on lap 16. Montoya relinquished the lead to Barrichello, who held it until a pit stop on the 46th lap. Coulthard took the lead by staying on the circuit three laps longer than Barrichello. He maintained it for the rest of the race to win. Michael Schumacher finished second after Barrichello complied with team orders from Ferrari to cede the position on the final lap.
It was Coulthard's second victory of the season and the eleventh of his career. Due to the result of the race, Coulthard was left within four points of the leader of the World Drivers' Championship Michael Schumacher. Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher maintained third and fourth. Sauber's Nick Heidfeld kept fifth. Ferrari continued to lead McLaren by 18 points in the World Constructors' Championship and Williams maintained third – both Montoya and Ralf Schumacher failed to finish due to mechanical problems – with eleven races left in the season.
## Background
The 2001 Austrian Grand Prix was the 6th of the 17 motor races of the 2001 Formula One World Championship and the 24th edition of the event as part of the series. It was held at the nine-turn 4.326 km (2.688 mi) A1 Ring, Spielberg, Styria on 13 May 2001. Redesigned by Hermann Tilke to comply with FIA Grade 1 Circuit License requirements for its Formula One return in 1997, the track is of average length and provides very few low-speed sections. It allowed teams to optimise their engines and ran with little downforce. Teams also ensured that brakes and cooling systems had no excess strain put upon them because of their heavy usage over a single lap. For the Grand Prix, 11 teams (each representing a different constructor) entered two race drivers each.
Following the 2000 race, the Grand Prix organisers extended the length of the kerbs along the side of the track and the gravel traps beside it. An additional row of tyres was erected to improve driver safety. The line demoting the entry to the pit lane was moved from the entry to the final corner to the exit of turn eight. The changes were predicted to affect lap times since cars would have less on-track time and spend more time in their pit stalls.
After winning the preceding Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship with 36 points, eight ahead of David Coulthard in the leading McLaren in second. The second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello was third with 14 points and Williams' Ralf Schumacher was two points behind in fourth. With eight points, Sauber's Nick Heidfeld completed the top five in the standings. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari led with 50 points; McLaren stood in second place with 32 points. Williams were third with 18 points, as Jordan with 13 points and Sauber nine contended for fourth place.
In preparation for the race, all the teams conducted in-season test sessions at various circuits across Europe. Jaguar, Prost, Benetton, Williams and McLaren went to the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia from 1 to 3 May. Teams undertook tyre development on behalf of Michelin and Bridgestone, tested their aerodynamic packages; McLaren and Benetton developed the chassis of their MP4/16 and B201 cars. Jordan, Sauber, British American Racing (BAR) and Arrows tested at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone from 1 to 3 May, which was disrupted on the first day when Kimi Räikkönen's Sauber was caught off guard by Jordan test driver Ricardo Zonta at the exit to Becketts corner. Sauber assessed launch control for the first time. Minardi tested launch control and a revised electronics package at the Fiorano Circuit in Italy with driver Fernando Alonso, joining Ferrari who utilised the track for car development and reliability testing.
At the previous round in Spain, Coulthard stalled on the starting grid and McLaren team principal Ron Dennis accused him of "brain fade", a remark he later retracted. While Dennis publicly apologised to Coulthard, the relationship between the two was still strained; Coulthard spoke of his hope of continuing to score points in every race of the season. The Daily Telegraph columnist Sarah Edworthy said the Austrian Grand Prix was where Coulthard had to demonstrate no driver errors. His manager Martin Brundle stated Coulthard needed to prevent emotions from disrupting his consistency. Michael Schumacher said his focus was to respond to McLaren's challenge and hoped to be competitive in Austria, "Last year I got pushed out of the race at the first corner which was very disappointing. This year I hope things will go better for me. The car should be competitive, the track characteristics are similar to those of the last race in terms of performance."
## Practice
There were four practice sessions preceding Sunday's race, two each on Friday and Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions lasted an hour; the third and fourth sessions, on Saturday morning, lasted 45 minutes each. The Friday practice sessions took place in dry and overcast weather and on a slippery, dusty track. Several drivers spun during the session; all avoided damage to their cars. McLaren's Mika Häkkinen, unwell with the flu, set the first practice session's fastest lap of 1 minute and 11.751 seconds late on, almost three-tenths of a second faster than his teammate Coulthard in second. Barrichello, Räikkönen, Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Arrows driver Enrique Bernoldi, BAR's Olivier Panis, the second Arrows of Jos Verstappen and Heidfeld rounded out the session's top ten quickest drivers. Jean Alesi's Prost had an engine failure on the start/finish straight, and Jordan driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen had his running curtailed with a power steering problem.
In the second practice session, Coulthard recorded the day's fastest lap of 1 minute and 11.245 seconds on his final lap of practice. His teammate Häkkinen placed second and Barrichello was the highest-placed Ferrari in third, having been the fastest driver late in the session until both of the McLaren vehicles set their quickest laps. Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Heidfeld, Frentzen, Räikkönen and the BAR duo of Panis and Jacques Villeneuve followed in positions four through ten. Jenson Button's Benetton B201 engine failed on the approach to turn two five minutes into practice. Verstappen later spun into the final turn gravel trap and his Arrows teammate Bernoldi lost control of his car returning to the pit lane.
The Saturday morning practice sessions occurred in clear and warm weather. With a time of 1 minute and 10.094 seconds, Michael Schumacher was fastest in the third practice session, ahead of Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya, Häkkinen, Barrichello, Coulthard, Frentzen, Panis, Villeneuve and the Sauber duo of Räikkönen and Heidfeld. Bernoldi ran into the grass by locking his brakes, and Coulthard approached the final corner too quickly, causing him to drive deep into the corner's gravel trap.
Coulthard led the final practice session with a lap of 1 minute and 10.010 seconds. The Ferrari cars were second and third – Michael Schumacher ahead of Barrichello – with Schumacher leading the time sheets until Coulthard's last lap. Häkkinen, Montoya, his teammate Ralf Schumacher, Frentzen, Trulli, Heidfeld and Villeneuve completed the top ten. Verstappen's right-rear suspension failed at the double left Niki Lauda bend turn, spearing into a gravel trap and a wall beside the track. Ralf Schumacher spun through 180 degrees at the turn two; he continued driving. Later, a deer emerged from the forests and caused Montoya to slow. The deer ran through a gravel trap and left the circuit via a trackside barrier.
## Qualifying
Saturday afternoon's one hour qualifying session saw each driver limited to twelve laps, with the starting order decided by their fastest laps. During this session the 107% rule was in effect, requiring each driver to remain within 107 per cent of the fastest lap time to qualify for the race. The weather was warm and overcast with a headwind slowing drivers. As the circuit was low on grip due to a lack of usage, drivers waited for 21 minutes before driving on it, leading to heavy traffic. Notwithstanding a driver error at turn two, Michael Schumacher bettered Häkkinen's unofficial lap record from the 2000 race to take his fifth pole position of the season and the 37th of his career with a lap of 1 minute and 9.562 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Montoya who took his maiden front row start. Traffic on his final timed lap, an error on his third, and a slower pace in the final two corners put Ralf Schumacher third. Barrichello in fourth adjusted his car's downforce set-up. Trulli changed his engine after it failed during practice and he drove the final 15 minutes to take fifth. Sixth-placed Heidfeld made minor alterations to his Sauber C20 and experimented with tyre pressures. The McLaren team were seventh and eighth in its worst qualifying performance since the 1997 French Grand Prix. Coulthard in seventh could not improve his lap because of the headwind and a car balance that created oversteer. A minor loss of water pressure in his engine at turn three and on the back straight slowed his teammate Häkkinen in eighth on his final attempt.
Ninth-placed Räikkönen was slowed by Villeneuve on a timed lap and had a recurrence of gearbox shifting problems from the prior two practice sessions. Panis took tenth after confusion over tyre strategy. Frentzen in 11th accidentally engaged his pit lane limiter at his first attempt and his best lap was on his second timed run before his car's balance deteriorated. Multiple errors from an unbalanced setup and weight distribution on his BAR 003 restricted Villeneuve to 12th. Jaguar's Eddie Irvine swerved into the pit lane to avoid hitting Alesi's spun car on his first timed lap and traffic left him in 13th. His teammate Pedro de la Rosa took 14th on his second lap. Bernoldi in 15th was ahead of his teammate Verstappen 16th after a spin at the final corner, which caused Michael Schumacher to swerve into a gravel trap. Burti and Alesi qualified their Prost cars in 17th and 20th, both complaining of a lack of car grip. Alonso separated the two drivers in 18th. Benetton's Giancarlo Fisichella in 19th had a misfiring engine and he used the spare car setup for his teammate Button. Car set-up issues and an understeer left Button in 21st. Tarso Marques in the second Minardi car was the final qualifier in 22nd; he spun into a gravel trap and took the team's spare car until a rear damper fault curtailed his running.
### Qualifying classification
## Warm-up
The drivers took to the track on Sunday morning for a 30-minute warm-up session in dry weather. All drivers fine-tuned their race set-ups against the weather of the time, set laps in their spare cars and Jaguar and Williams tested their launch control systems. Both McLaren drivers improved from qualifying: Häkkinen recorded a lap of 1 minute and 11.647 seconds to go fastest. Coulthard and Frentzen were second and third and the Ferrari pair of Barrichello and Michael Schumacher fourth and fifth, the latter stopped at the exit of the pit lane with fire erupting from the rear of his car. Positions six through ten were occupied by Trulli, Räikkönen, Villeneuve, de la Rosa and Heidfeld. An engine problem prompted Villeneuve to switch into the spare BAR 003 car for the race.
## Race
The 71-lap race took place in the afternoon from 14:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00). It ran for 71 laps over a distance of 307.146 km (190.852 mi). The weather at the start was dry and clear, with the air temperature from 18 to 19 °C (64 to 66 °F) and the track temperature between 18 and 32 °C (64 and 90 °F); forecasts four days beforehand predicted rain showers and lower ambient and track temperatures. At the start, both Jordan cars of Frentzen, Trulli, Häkkinen's McLaren and Heidfeld's Sauber were stationary on the grid with launch control system faults. That prompted several drivers to swerve to prevent a pile-up. In the meantime, Montoya moved ahead of the slow starting Michael Schumacher for the lead. Ralf Schumacher then got past the Ferrari driver to move into second on the approach to turn one. Coulthard made a fast getaway, moving from seventh to fifth after Michael Schumacher held him off into first turn. At the first lap's conclusion, the safety car was deployed since track marshals were unable to clear the grid of stranded cars in time for all of the circulating drivers to come by at racing speed. Of the stalled cars, Frentzen retired with a broken gearbox, Häkkinen did a solitary exploratory lap once the safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap three before retiring and Trulli and Heidfeld began from the pit lane.
Montoya maintained the lead over his teammate Ralf Schumacher in second and Michael Schumacher in third after the safety car drove into the pit lane at lap three's conclusion. On lap four, Verstappen overtook Räikkönen and Irvine to move to sixth as he set an early fastest lap of 1 minute and 14.059 seconds because he was on a light fuel load. That same lap, Fisichella joined the list of retirees by his race engineer instructing him over the radio to enter the pit lane with a misfiring engine. Verstappen then bettered his own fastest lap to a 1-minute and 13.282 seconds on the following lap as he passed Coulthard for fifth. During the fifth lap, Trulli went into final corner's gravel trap, and Heidfeld overtook him for 18th. An attempt by Barrichello to pass his teammate Michael Schumacher on lap six almost resulted in contact at the second turn. That allowed Verstappen to challenge Barrichello; he could not overtake him. On lap seven, Panis passed Irvine for seventh and stopped a counterattack from the latter.
Two laps later, Ralf Schumacher began to lose pressure in his rear brakes and fell back from his teammate Montoya; he struggled against Michael Schumacher and Barrichello. Bernoldi passed Irvine and Villeneuve on the same lap. On lap 10, Villeneuve lined up a pass on Irvine for 10th and the two made contact halfway through the first corner, causing Villeneuve to spin and relinquish 11th place to de la Rosa. Ralf Schumacher fell to seventh before he entered the pit lane at the end of the lap to retire. This promoted Michael Schumacher into second, his teammate Barrichello third and Verstappen fourth. At this point, a higher rate of tyre degradation of his Michelin compounds slowed Montoya, allowing Michael Schumacher to close up and forming a group of cars composed of Schumacher, Barrichello, Verstappen, Coulthard and Räikkönen.
Over the next four laps, Montoya held off attempts from Michael Schumacher to overtake. On the 14th lap, Trulli was shown a black flag to inform him he had been disqualified from the race because he ignored the red light to indicate that the pit lane was closed. The top six drivers were covered by two seconds at the start of lap 16. As the field drove towards turn two, Michael Schumacher drew alongside Montoya on the right going into the turn and then steered left for the corner itself. Montoya braked later than Michael Schumacher and went off the racing line to block on the dirty part of the circuit, causing him to run into the gravel trap with the latter trapped to his left. Michael Schumacher ran wide onto some grass; he dropped to sixth and Montoya seventh. Barrichello took the lead with Verstappen second and Coulthard third. Bernoldi retired in the garage with a hydraulic system failure on lap 17 as Burti was overtaken by his teammate Alesi for 12th. Six laps later, after dropping away from Barrichello, Verstappen made the first of two pit stops, rejoining the circuit in seventh. In the meantime, Michael Schumacher set a series of fast lap times to get closer to Panis. He overtook Panis around the inside for fourth on lap 25.
On lap 26, Marques pulled off to the side of the track to retire with a gearbox failure. Two laps later, Michael Schumacher caught Räikkönen, slipstreamed him and made a pass for third place going into Gosser corner with no counter-challenge. On the same lap, Alesi overtook de la Rosa for 10th and Button got ahead of Burti for 12th on the lap after. By lap 35, Michael Schumacher set a new official track record of 1 minute and 11.179 seconds as he drew to within a second of Coulthard in second. Panis ran wide on the entry to the final corner at the end of the following lap and gave Montoya fifth. At this point, Coulthard and Michael Schumacher lapped half a second faster than race leader Barrichello as Michael Schumacher came to within a tenth of a second of Coulthard. Two more retirements occurred during this stage of the Grand Prix: Alonso had a gearbox fault on the 39th lap and Montoya stopped on an escape road with a loss of hydraulic pressure two laps later.
On the 44th lap, the first round of pit stops for the leaders began when Panis made a pit stop from fifth. He rejoined in sixth and Verstappen entered the pit lane on the next lap. Michael Schumacher and Räikkönen stopped at the end of lap 46. Coulthard led when Barrichello entered the pit lane on the next lap. Barrichello emerged in second, ahead of his teammate Michael Schumacher after the latter lost grip into the final corner and ran sideways onto dirt. Coulthard remained on the circuit for the next three laps by setting the race's overall fastest lap on lap 48 at 1 minute and 10.843 seconds to go faster on a lighter fuel load. After an eight-second pit stop, Coulthard rejoined the circuit 1.3 seconds ahead of Barrichello in second. On lap 50, de la Rosa retired from 12th with a transmission failure. Two laps later, Villeneuve took a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane during his pit stop; he kept eighth. Further down the field, Heidfeld overtook Button for 11th on the 57th lap.
By the 61st lap, Coulthard was a full second in front of Barrichello and was able to keep him out of range for an overtake notwithstanding slower traffic impeding him. Michael Schumacher was a further 1.2 seconds behind in third. Button became the Grand Prix's final retirement with fire emerging from the rear of his car and spun on his own oil at the final turn on lap 63. Six laps later, Ferrari's team principal Jean Todt invoked team orders on Barrichello to allow Michael Schumacher past and improve his teammate's status in the Drivers' Championship. Barrichello ignored repeated instructions from Todt and continued in second; he obeyed at the end of lap 71 by going wide exiting the final corner to yield second to Michael Schumacher. After finishing second in every Austrian Grand Prix since 1997, Coulthard increased his advantage to 2.1 seconds by managing his lead and crossed the start/finish line first after 71 laps to take his second victory of the season and the 11th of his career. Raikkonen secured the best finish of his season in fourth. Panis took fifth and Verstappen earned his first point of 2001 in sixth. The final finishers were Irvine, Villeneuve, Heidfeld, Alesi and Burti.
### Post-race
Out of respect for Paul Morgan, the managing director of Ilmor Engineering, who was killed in a plane crash at the Sywell Aerodrome in Northampton the day before the race, Coulthard refrained from spraying champagne on the podium. In the subsequent press conference, Coulthard spoke of the importance of driving with a heavy fuel tank, "I was able to lean the engine out early on after the first few laps and save quite a few laps of fuel as well as obviously with the safety car and that enabled us to go quite long." Michael Schumacher said he executed a manual start after a launch control system fault and that his strategy after the collision with Montoya was to wait until the pit stops, adding, "I didn't have much to lose. I could have stayed behind and wait all race until the pit stops. But then I wouldn't have had a chance to have a go to get back up to the lead, which at some stage I thought I could." Barrichello stated he began on used front tyres and unused rear compounds and believed he would have won had Coulthard not remained on track for another three laps, "It was one of those races where I had a good feeling, I had a good car, I was really driving as fast as I could behind him, but there was very little to take away and unfortunately I couldn't go to win again."
Opinions over the application of team orders within Ferrari on the final lap were mixed. Alonso called it "a strange decision" since it was early in the season and the technical director of McLaren Adrian Newey felt it went against Formula One's moral principles. Villeneuve said he was puzzled at those who expressed shock over the order due to Barrichello's status as Ferrari's second driver and the Jaguar team principal and three-time world champion Niki Lauda argued it was the correct decision because of Michael Schumacher's higher placing in the Drivers' Championship. Ferrari held a post-race meeting with senior staff to discuss the situation. Barrichello later insisted the orders had not demotivated him, "Of course, I was unhappy to be asked to move over. The one thing that makes my life difficult at Ferrari is nothing to do with the team structure or team orders, it is just the simple fact that Michael is a good driver."
The finishing order outside of the top three remained provisional because BAR lodged an appeal with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-aligned Royal Automobile Club over its belief Räikkönen overtook Panis under yellow flag conditions necessitated for Button's retirement on lap 66. It came about when the team's protest to the stewards was rejected following a review of video footage resulting in the conclusion there was no incident since it was unreported by track marshals. Craig Pollock, the BAR team owner, explained the appeal was lodged because the constructor sought clarity over the regulation preventing drivers from passing under yellow flag conditions. BAR's appeal was heard by a panel of judges at a meeting of the FIA's International Court of Appeal in Paris on 1 June. The judges upheld the stewards' original verdict and confirmed the race's original result. BAR stated their satisfaction with the result.
Michael Schumacher said he was upset about the incident with Montoya on lap 16 that forced both drivers to lose positions and vowed to speak to the Colombian, "I am a little bit upset obviously because there is no way he could make that corner. He just went off and took me with him. He had lost it anyway and all he could do was do something to me. Sooner or later I would have passed him anyway." Montoya's response was, "If he (Schumacher) thinks he has been granted by divine grace some right which allows him to overtake wherever he wants, I have news for him: he can forget it. He won't intimidate me, because I'm not psychologically fragile as other drivers." After reviewing television footage of the incident, Michael Schumacher told the press he now agreed with Montoya's perspective it was "a racing incident", adding, "It has to be said that, when you sit in the car you don't get the overview of the situation, which you can have looking from outside."
The race result saw Coulthard reduce Michael Schumacher's advantage in the Drivers' Championship to four points. Barrichello remained in third with 18 points and he extended his advantage over the fourth-placed Ralf Schumacher to six points. Heidfeld continued to round out the top five with eight points. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari retained the same 18-point gap over McLaren in second and Williams maintained third. Sauber in fifth made up three points over Jordan in fourth with eleven races left in the season.
### Race classification
Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold.
Notes:
- — Jarno Trulli was disqualified from the Grand Prix for passing a red light at the exit of the pit lane.
## Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings
Constructors' Championship standings
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. |
40,987,224 | Alien Rage | 1,150,714,371 | 2013 first-person shooter video game | [
"2013 video games",
"CI Games games",
"First-person shooters",
"Multiplayer and single-player video games",
"PlayStation 3 games",
"PlayStation Network games",
"Science fiction video games",
"Unreal Engine games",
"Video games about extraterrestrial life",
"Video games developed in Poland",
"Windows games",
"Xbox 360 Live Arcade games"
]
| Alien Rage is a 2013 first-person shooter video game for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 (through Xbox Live Arcade), and PlayStation 3 (through PlayStation Network) developed by CI Games, then known as City Interactive, using Unreal Engine 3. The game has single-player and competitive multiplayer modes. In its single player campaign, players are put in control of an elite soldier named Jack which is sent to destroy a mining facility and its aliens after they turned against and killed the humans that they had shared the facility with.
Announced as Alien Fear in April 2012, the game was renamed in May of the following year. It was released on 24 September 2013 for Windows, 18 October 2013 for the Xbox 360, and 21 October 2013 for the PlayStation 3. Alien Rage was met with mixed reviews upon release, with critics viewing the game as generic and prone to major glitches.
## Gameplay
Alien Rage is a first-person shooter, in which players fight through several linear levels, killing a variety of aliens. At the end of every few levels, players fight a larger alien in a boss fight. Players score points by killing a large number of aliens in a short period of time, or by killing them in special ways, such as by using explosions or shooting them in the head. These points can be used to upgrade the player character, for example by boosting his resistance to damage or by increasing the amount of ammunition that he is able to carry. Players are able to carry two weapons at a time, and also have a pistol with unlimited ammunition. The player character can use both human- and alien-manufactured weapons in the game, and alien weapons use a cool-down period instead of having to reload. Weapons in the game include assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, and miniguns. The game is intentionally difficult; its easiest difficulty level is called "challenging", and the next easiest difficulty level is called "hard".
The game also offers competitive multiplayer. There are two modes – deathmatch and team deathmatch – and a small number of maps. Cooperative gameplay, which was mentioned in the game's initial announcement, did not make it into the final game.
### Plot
Alien Rage takes place on an asteroid which humans and an alien species known as Vorus were jointly mining for Promethium, a highly efficient but extremely dangerous source of energy. After the Vorus turn on the humans and wipe the miners out for violating the agreement of not weaponizing Promethium as planet-cracking weapon, Jack, the player character, is sent to the mining facility to kill the aliens and destroy the facility.
## Development
Alien Rage was first announced in early April 2012, under the name Alien Fear. The game was to be developed using Unreal Engine 3 by City Interactive's Bydgoszcz Studio, and would have a cooperative gameplay (co-op) mode. The first screenshots from the game were released two months later, in June 2012. In May 2013 the game's name was changed to Alien Rage, and two months later it was announced that the game would be released on the personal computer, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on 24 September 2013. The game was eventually released on 24 September 2013 for Windows, 18 October 2013 for the Xbox 360, and 21 October 2013 for the PlayStation 3, with and ESRB rating of Mature.
## Reception
Alien Rage received average to poor reviews upon release. At Metacritic, a video game review aggregator, the Windows version of the game received an average score of 52 out of 100, based on 27 reviews, while the Xbox 360 version revived a score of 46, based on 10 reviews.
The game was heavily criticized for its lack of originality. Daniel Shannon of GameSpot remarked that "If you have played a first-person shooter made in the last 10 years, then you have already experienced most of what Alien Rage has to offer.", and continued that "You've seen these weapons before, and you've shot these enemies before". Reviewers especially took issue with the lack of creativity in level design, which Destructoid's Jim Sterling called "tedious corridors full of identical, monotonous, brainless combat encounters". Hardcore Gamer's Nikola Suprak commented that several of the levels he played through were visually indistinct from one another, before saying that "level after level of redundant action and repetitive encounters ultimately drag the game down". Critics also noted that the game had a number of technical issues. Sterling ran into two situations where glitches would not allow him to progress without restarting the level, while Sam Turner of The Digital Fix experienced dramatic drops in frame rate during gameplay, and crashed to desktop several times.
The game's multiplayer experience was received better than its single player campaign. Writing for Gaming Nexus, Jeff Kintner said that the "multiplayer is fun, if a bit repetitive". While Kintner expressed a desire for additional, objective-based, types of multiplayer, he praised the team deathmatch mode's intensity. GameSpot's Daniel Shannon also commented on the limited number of multiplayer options, but went on to say that "For what it's worth, the action is fast-paced, and the maps are well designed for a balanced multiplayer experience." |
19,088 | Malawi | 1,172,653,026 | Country in Southeastern Africa | [
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"Countries in Africa",
"East African countries",
"English-speaking countries and territories",
"Landlocked countries",
"Least developed countries",
"Malawi",
"Member states of the African Union",
"Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations",
"Member states of the United Nations",
"Republics in the Commonwealth of Nations",
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]
| Malawi (/məˈlɔːwi, məˈlɑːwi, ˈmæləwi/; or [maláwi]; Tumbuka: Malaŵi), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south and southwest. Malawi spans over 118,484 km<sup>2</sup> (45,747 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 19,431,566 (as of January 2021). Malawi's capital (and largest city) is Lilongwe. Its second-largest is Blantyre, its third-largest is Mzuzu and its fourth-largest is its former capital, Zomba. The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name for the Chewa people who inhabit the area. The country is nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa" because of the friendliness of its people.
The part of Africa now known as Malawi was settled around the 10th century by migrating Bantu groups. Centuries later, in 1891, the area was colonised by the British as the British Central African Protectorate, renamed Nyasaland in 1907. In 1953, it became a protectorate within the semi-independent Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was dissolved in 1963. In 1964, the protectorate was ended: Nyasaland became an independent country as a Commonwealth realm under Prime Minister Hastings Banda, and was renamed Malawi. Two years later, Banda became president by converting the country into a one-party presidential republic. Declared President for life in 1971, Malawi's next few decades of independence were characterized by Banda's highly repressive dictatorship. Following the introduction of a multiparty system in 1993, Banda was defeated in the 1994 general election. Today, Malawi has a democratic, multi-party republic headed by an elected president and has continued to experience peaceful transitions of power. The country's military, the Malawian Defence Force, includes an army, a navy, and an air wing. Malawi's foreign policy is pro-Western. It maintains positive diplomatic relations with most countries, and participates in several international organisations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the African Union (AU).
Malawi is one of the world's least-developed countries. The economy is heavily based on agriculture, and it has a largely rural and rapidly growing population. The Malawian government depends heavily on outside aid to meet its development needs, although the amount needed (and the aid offered) has decreased since 2000. The Malawian government faces challenges in its efforts to build and expand the economy, to improve education, healthcare, and environmental protection, and to become financially independent despite widespread unemployment. Since 2005, Malawi has developed several policies that focus on addressing these issues, and the country's outlook appears to be improving: key indicators of progress in the economy, education, and healthcare were seen in 2007 and 2008.
Malawi has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. HIV/AIDS is highly prevalent, which both reduces the labour force and requires increased government expenditures. The country has a diverse population that includes native peoples, Asians, and Europeans. Several languages are spoken, and there is an array of religious beliefs. Although in the past there was a periodic regional conflict fuelled in part by ethnic divisions, by 2008 this internal conflict had considerably diminished, and the idea of identifying with one's Malawian nationality had reemerged.
## History
### Pre-colonial history
The area of Africa now known as Malawi had a very small population of hunter-gatherers before waves of Bantu peoples began emigrating from the north around the 10th century. Although most of the Bantu peoples continued south, some remained and founded ethnic groups based on common ancestry. By 1500 AD, the tribes had established the Kingdom of Maravi that reached from north of what is now Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River and from Lake Malawi to the Luangwa River in what is now Zambia.
Soon after 1600, with the area mostly united under one native ruler, native tribesmen began encountering, trading with and making alliances with Portuguese traders and members of the military. By 1700, however, the empire had broken up into areas controlled by many individual ethnic groups. The Indian Ocean slave trade reached its height in the mid-1800s, when approximately 20,000 people were enslaved and considered to be carried yearly from Nkhotakota to Kilwa where they were sold.
### Colonial occupation
Missionary and explorer David Livingstone reached Lake Malawi (then Lake Nyasa) in 1859 and identified the Shire Highlands south of the lake as an area suitable for European settlement. As the result of Livingstone's visit, several Anglican and Presbyterian missions were established in the area in the 1860s and 1870s, the African Lakes Company Limited was established in 1878 to set up a trade and transport concern working closely with the missions, and a small mission and trading settlement were established at Blantyre in 1876 and a British Consul took up residence there in 1883. The Portuguese government was also interested in the area so, to prevent Portuguese occupation, the British government sent Harry Johnston as British consul with instructions to make treaties with local rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction.
In 1889, a British protectorate was proclaimed over the Shire Highlands, which was extended in 1891 to include the whole of present-day Malawi as the British Central Africa Protectorate. In 1907, the protectorate was renamed Nyasaland, a name it retained for the remainder of its time under British rule. In a prime example of what is sometimes called the "Thin White Line" of colonial authority in Africa, the colonial government of Nyasaland was formed in 1891. The administrators were given a budget of £10,000 (1891 nominal value) per year, which was enough to employ ten European civilians, two military officers, seventy Punjabi Sikhs and eighty-five Zanzibar porters. These few employees were then expected to administer and police a territory of around 94,000 square kilometres with between one and two million people.
That same year, slavery came to its complete cessation when Sir Harry Johnston, the Commissioner of Nyasaland made his significant effort to put an end to the trade.
In 1944, the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was formed by the Africans of Nyasaland to promote local interests to the British government. In 1953, Britain linked Nyasaland with Northern and Southern Rhodesia in what was the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, often called the Central African Federation (CAF), for mainly political reasons. Even though the Federation was semi-independent, the linking provoked opposition from African nationalists, and the NAC gained popular support. An influential opponent of the CAF was Hastings Banda, a European-trained doctor working in Ghana who was persuaded to return to Nyasaland in 1958 to assist the nationalist cause. Banda was elected president of the NAC and worked to mobilise nationalist sentiment before being jailed by colonial authorities in 1959. He was released in 1960 and asked to help draft a new constitution for Nyasaland, with a clause granting Africans the majority in the colony's Legislative Council.
### Hastings Kamuzu Banda era (1961–1993)
In 1961, Banda's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) gained a majority in the Legislative Council elections and Banda became Prime Minister in 1963. The Federation was dissolved in 1963, and on 6 July 1964, Nyasaland became independent from British rule and renamed itself Malawi, and that is commemorated as the nation's Independence Day, a public holiday. Under a new constitution, Malawi became a republic with Banda as its first president. The new document also formally made Malawi a one-party state with the MCP as the only legal party. In 1971, Banda was declared president-for-life. For almost 30 years, Banda presided over a rigidly totalitarian regime, which ensured that Malawi did not suffer armed conflict. Opposition parties, including the Malawi Freedom Movement of Orton Chirwa and the Socialist League of Malawi, were founded in exile.
Malawi's economy, while Banda was president, was often cited as an example of how a poor, landlocked, and heavily populated country deficient in mineral resources could achieve progress in both agriculture and industrial development. While in office, and using his control of the country, Banda constructed a business empire that eventually produced one-third of the country's GDP and employed 10% of the wage-earning workforce.
### Multi-party democracy (1993–present)
Under pressure for increased political freedom, Banda agreed to a referendum in 1993, where the populace voted for a multi-party democracy. In late 1993, a presidential council was formed, the life presidency was abolished and a new constitution was put into place, effectively ending the MCP's rule. In 1994 the first multi-party elections were held in Malawi, and Banda was defeated by Bakili Muluzi (a former Secretary General of the MCP and former Banda Cabinet Minister). Re-elected in 1999, Muluzi remained president until 2004, when Bingu wa Mutharika was elected. Although the political environment was described as "challenging", it was stated in 2009 that a multi-party system still existed in Malawi. Multiparty parliamentary and presidential elections were held for the fourth time in Malawi in May 2009, and President Mutharika was successfully re-elected, despite charges of election fraud from his rival.
President Mutharika was seen by some as increasingly autocratic and dismissive of human rights, and in July 2011 protests over high costs of living, devolving foreign relations, poor governance and a lack of foreign exchange reserves erupted. The protests left 18 people dead and at least 44 others suffering from gunshot wounds.
In April 2012, Mutharika died of a heart attack. Over a period of 48 hours, his death was kept secret, including an elaborate flight with the body to South Africa, where the ambulance drivers refused to move the body, saying they were not licensed to move a corpse. After the South African government threatened to reveal the information, the presidential title was taken over by Vice-President Joyce Banda (not related to the former president Banda).
In 2014 Malawian general election Joyce Banda lost the elections (coming third) and was replaced by Peter Mutharika, the brother of ex-President Mutharika. In the 2019 Malawian general election president Peter Mutharika was narrowly re-elected. In February 2020 Malawi Constitutional Court overturned the result because of irregularities and widespread fraud. In May 2020 Malawi Supreme Court upheld the decision and announced a new election was held on July 2. This was the first time an election in the country was legally challenged. Opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera won the 2020 Malawian presidential election and he was sworn in as the new president of Malawi.
## Government and politics
Malawi is a unitary presidential republic under the leadership of President Lazarus Chakwera The current constitution was put into place on 18 May 1995. The branches of the government consist of executive, legislative and judicial. The executive includes a President who is both Head of State and Head of Government, first and second Vice Presidents and the Cabinet of Malawi. The President and Vice President are elected together every five years. A second Vice President may be appointed by the President if so chosen, although they must be from a different party. The members of the Cabinet of Malawi are appointed by the President and can be from either inside or outside of the legislature.
The legislative branch consists of a unicameral National Assembly of 193 members who are elected every five years, and although the Malawian constitution provides for a Senate of 80 seats, one does not exist in practice. If created, the Senate would provide representation for traditional leaders and a variety of geographic districts, as well as special interest groups including the disabled, youth, and women. The Malawi Congress Party is the ruling party together with several other parties in the Tonse Alliance led by Lazarus Chakwera while the Democratic Progressive Party is the main opposition party. Suffrage is universal at 18 years of age, and the central government budget for 2021/2022 is \$2.4 billion from \$2.8 billion for the 2020/2021 financial year.
The independent judicial branch is based upon the English model and consists of a Supreme Court of Appeal, a High Court divided into three sections (general, constitutional, and commercial), an Industrial Relations Court and Magistrates Courts, the last of which is divided into five grades and includes Child Justice Courts. The judicial system has been changed several times since Malawi gained independence in 1964. Conventional courts and traditional courts have been used in varying combinations, with varying degrees of success and corruption.
Malawi is composed of three regions (the Northern, Central, and Southern regions), which are divided into 28 districts, and further into approximately 250 traditional authorities and 110 administrative wards. Local government is administered by central government-appointed regional administrators and district commissioners. For the first time in the multi-party era, local elections took place on 21 November 2000, with the UDF party winning 70% of the available seats. There was scheduled to be a second round of constitutionally mandated local elections in May 2005, but these were cancelled by the government.
In February 2005, President Mutharika split with the United Democratic Front and began his own party, the Democratic Progressive Party, which had attracted reform-minded officials from other parties and won by-elections across the country in 2006. In 2008, President Mutharika had implemented reforms to address the country's major corruption problem, with at least five senior UDF party members facing criminal charges. In 2012, Malawi was ranked 7th of all countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, an index that measures several variables to provide a comprehensive view of the governance of African countries. Although the country's governance score was higher than the continental average, it was lower than the regional average for southern Africa. Its highest scores were for safety and rule of law, and its lowest scores were for sustainable economic opportunity, with a ranking of 47th on the continent for educational opportunities. Malawi's governance score had improved between 2000 and 2011. Malawi held elections in May 2019, with President Peter Mutharika winning re-election over challengers Lazarus Chakwera, Atupele Muluzi, and Saulos Chilima. In 2020 Malawi Constitutional Court annulled President Peter Mutharika's narrow election victory last year because of widespread fraud and irregularities. Opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera won 2020 Malawian presidential election and he became the new president.
### Administrative divisions
Malawi is divided into 28 districts within three regions:
### Foreign relations
Former President Hastings Banda established a pro-Western foreign policy that continued into early 2011. It included good diplomatic relationships with many Western countries. The transition from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy strengthened Malawian ties with the United States. Significant numbers of students from Malawi travel to the US for schooling, and the US has active branches of the Peace Corps, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Agency for International Development in Malawi. Malawi maintained close relations with South Africa throughout the Apartheid era, which strained Malawi's relationships with other African countries. Following the collapse of apartheid in 1994, diplomatic relationships were made and maintained into 2011 between Malawi and all other African countries. In 2010, however, Malawi's relationship with Mozambique became strained, partially due to disputes over the use of the Zambezi River and an inter-country electrical grid. In 2007, Malawi established diplomatic ties with China, and Chinese investment in the country has continued to increase since then, despite concerns regarding the treatment of workers by Chinese companies and competition of Chinese business with local companies. In 2011, relations between Malawi and the United Kingdom were damaged when a document was released in which the British ambassador to Malawi criticised President Mutharika. Mutharika expelled the ambassador from Malawi, and in July 2011, the UK announced that it was suspending all budgetary aid because of Mutharika's lack of response to criticisms of his government and economic mismanagement. On 26 July 2011, the United States followed suit, freezing a US\$350 million grant, citing concerns regarding the government's suppression and intimidation of demonstrators and civic groups, as well as restriction of the press and police violence.
Malawi has been seen as a haven for refugees from other African countries, including Mozambique and Rwanda, since 1985. These influxes of refugees have placed a strain on the Malawian economy but have also drawn significant inflows of aid from other countries. Donors to Malawi include the United States, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, the UK and Flanders (Belgium), as well as international institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, the African Development Bank and UN organizations.
Malawi is a member of several international organizations including the Commonwealth, the UN and some of its child agencies, the IMF, the World Bank, the African Union and the World Health Organization. Malawi tends to view economic and political stability in southern Africa as a necessity and advocates peaceful solutions through negotiation. The country was the first in southern Africa to receive peacekeeping training under the African Crisis Response Initiative.
In October 2022, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Liberland, which caused public critics in the country.
### Human rights
As of 2017, international observers noted issues in several human rights areas. Excessive force was seen to be used by police forces, security forces were able to act with impunity, mob violence was occasionally seen, and prison conditions continued to be harsh and sometimes life-threatening. However, the government was seen to make some effort to prosecute security forces who used excessive force. Other legal issues included limits on free speech and freedom of the press, lengthy pretrial detentions, and arbitrary arrests and detentions. Societal issues found included violence against women, human trafficking, and child labour. Corruption within the government is seen as a major issue, despite the Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau's (ACB) attempts to reduce it. The ACB appears to be successful at finding and prosecuting low level corruption, but higher level officials appear to be able to act with impunity. Corruption within security forces is also an issue. Malawi had one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. In 2015 Malawi raised the legal age for marriage from 15 to 18. Other issues that have been raised are lack of adequate legal protection of women from sexual abuse and harassment, very high maternal mortality rate, and abuse related to accusations of witchcraft.
As of 2010, homosexuality has been illegal in Malawi. In one 2010 case, a couple perceived as homosexual (a cis man and a trans woman) faced extensive jail time when convicted. The convicted pair, sentenced to the maximum of 14 years of hard labour each, were pardoned two weeks later following the intervention of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In May 2012, then-President Joyce Banda pledged to repeal laws criminalising homosexuality. It was her successor, Peter Mutharika, who imposed a moratorium in 2015 that suspended the country's anti-gay laws pending further review of the same laws. On 26 June 2021, the country's LGBT community held the first Pride parade in the country's Capital City, Lilongwe.
## Geography
Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique to the south, southwest, and southeast. It lies between latitudes 9° and 18°S, and longitudes 32° and 36°E.
The Great Rift Valley runs through the country from north to south, and to the east of the valley lies Lake Malawi (also called Lake Nyasa), making up over three-quarters of Malawi's eastern boundary. Lake Malawi is sometimes called the Calendar Lake as it is about 365 miles (587 km) long and 52 miles (84 km) wide. The Shire River flows from the south end of the lake and joins the Zambezi River 400 kilometres (250 mi) farther south in Mozambique. The surface of Lake Malawi is at 457 metres (1,500 ft) above sea level, with a maximum depth of 701 metres (2,300 ft), which means the lake bottom is over 213 metres (700 ft) below sea level at some points.
In the mountainous sections of Malawi surrounding the Rift Valley, plateaus rise generally 914 to 1,219 metres (3,000 to 4,000 ft) above sea level, although some rise as high as 2,438 metres (8,000 ft) in the north. To the south of Lake Malawi lie the Shire Highlands, gently rolling land at approximately 914 metres (3,000 ft) above sea level. In this area, the Zomba and Mulanje mountain peaks rise to respective heights of 2,134 and 3,048 metres (7,000 and 10,000 ft).
Malawi's capital is Lilongwe, and its commercial centre is Blantyre with a population of over 500,000 people. Malawi has two sites listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lake Malawi National Park was first listed in 1984 and the Chongoni Rock Art Area was listed in 2006.
Malawi's climate is hot in the low-lying areas in the south of the country and temperate in the northern highlands. The altitude moderates what would otherwise be an equatorial climate. Between November and April, the temperature is warm with equatorial rains and thunderstorms, with the storms reaching their peak severity in late March. After March, the rainfall rapidly diminishes, and from May to September wet mists float from the highlands into the plateaus, with almost no rainfall during these months.
### Flora and fauna
Animal life indigenous to Malawi includes mammals such as elephants, hippos, antelopes, buffaloes, big cats, monkeys, rhinos, and bats; a great variety of birds including birds of prey, parrots and falcons, waterfowl and large waders, owls and songbirds. Lake Malawi has been described as having one of the richest lake fish faunas in the world, being the home for some 200 mammals, 650 birds, 30+ mollusk, and 5,500+ plant species.
Seven terrestrial ecoregions lie within Malawi's borders: Central Zambezian miombo woodlands, Eastern miombo woodlands, Southern miombo woodlands, Zambezian and mopane woodlands, Zambezian flooded grasslands, South Malawi montane forest-grassland mosaic, and Southern Rift montane forest-grassland mosaic.
There are five national parks, four wildlife and game reserves and two other protected areas in Malawi. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.74/10, ranking it 96th globally out of 172 countries.
## Economy
Malawi is among the world's least developed countries. Around 85% of the population lives in rural areas. The economy is based on agriculture, and more than one-third of GDP and 90% of export revenues come from this. In the past, the economy has been dependent on substantial economic aid from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other countries. Malawi was ranked the 119th safest investment destination in the world in the March 2011 Euromoney Country Risk rankings.
In December 2000, the IMF stopped aid disbursements due to corruption concerns, and many individual donors followed, resulting in an almost 80% drop in Malawi's development budget. However, in 2005, Malawi was the recipient of over US\$575 million in aid. The Malawian government faces challenges in developing a market economy, improving environmental protection, dealing with the rapidly growing HIV/AIDS problem, improving the education system, and satisfying its foreign donors that it is working to become financially independent. Improved financial discipline had been seen since 2005 under the leadership of President Mutharika and Financial Minister Gondwe. This discipline has since evaporated as shown by the purchase in 2009 of a private presidential jet followed almost immediately by a nationwide fuel shortage which was officially blamed on logistical problems but was more likely due to the hard currency shortage caused by the jet purchase. The overall cost to the economy (and healthcare system) is unknown.
In addition, some setbacks have been experienced, and Malawi has lost some of its ability to pay for imports due to a general shortage of foreign exchange, as investment fell 23% in 2009. There are many investment barriers in Malawi, which the government has failed to address, including high service costs and poor infrastructure for power, water, and telecommunications. As of 2017, it was estimated that Malawi had a GDP (purchasing power parity) of \$22.42 billion, with a per capita GDP of \$1200, and inflation estimated at 12.2% in 2017.
Agriculture accounts for 35% of GDP, industry for 19% and services for the remaining 46%. Malawi has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world, although economic growth was estimated at 9.7% in 2008 and strong growth is predicted by the International Monetary Fund for 2009. The poverty rate in Malawi is decreasing through the work of the government and supporting organisations, with people living under the poverty line decreasing from 54% in 1990 to 40% in 2006, and the percentage of "ultra-poor" decreasing from 24% in 1990 to 15% in 2007.
Many analysts believe that economic progress for Malawi depends on its ability to control population growth.
In January 2015 southern Malawi was devastated by the worst floods in living memory, stranding at least 20,000 people. These floods affected more than a million people across the country, including 336,000 who were displaced, according to UNICEF. Over 100 people were killed and an estimated 64,000 hectares of cropland were washed away.
### Agriculture and industry
The economy of Malawi is predominantly agricultural. Over 80% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming, even though agriculture only contributed to 27% of GDP in 2013. The services sector accounts for more than half of GDP (54%), compared to 11% for manufacturing and 8% for other industries, including natural uranium mining. Malawi invests more in agriculture (as a share of GDP) than any other African country: 28% of GDP.
The main agricultural products of Malawi include tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, corn, potatoes, sorghum, cattle and goats. The main industries are tobacco, tea and sugar processing, sawmill products, cement and consumer goods. The industrial production growth rate is estimated at 10% (2009). The country makes no significant use of natural gas. As of 2008, Malawi does not import or export any electricity, but does import all its petroleum, with no production in country. Beginning in 2006, the country began mixing unleaded petrol with 10% ethanol, produced in-country at two plants, to reduce dependence on imported fuel. In 2008, Malawi began testing cars that ran solely on ethanol, and initial results are promising, and the country is continuing to increase its use of ethanol.
As of 2009, Malawi exports an estimated US\$945 million in goods per year. The country's strong reliance on tobacco places a heavy burden on the economy as world prices decline and the international community increases pressure to limit tobacco production. Malawi's dependence on tobacco is growing, with the product jumping from 53% to 70% of export revenues between 2007 and 2008. The country also relies heavily on tea, sugar, and coffee, with these three plus tobacco making up more than 90% of Malawi's export revenue. Because of a rise in costs and a decline in sales prices, Malawi is encouraging farmers away from tobacco towards more profitable crops, including spices such as paprika. The move away from tobacco is further fueled by likely World Health Organisation moves against the particular type of tobacco that Malawi produces, burley leaf. It is seen to be more harmful to human health than other tobacco products. India hemp is another possible alternative, but arguments have been made that it will bring more crime to the country through its resemblance to varieties of cannabis used as a recreational drug and the difficulty in distinguishing between the two types. This concern is especially important because the cultivation of Malawian cannabis, known as Malawi Gold, as a drug has increased significantly. Malawi is known for growing "the best and finest" cannabis in the world for recreational drug use, according to a recent World Bank report, and cultivation and sales of the crop may contribute to corruption within the police force.
Other exported goods are cotton, peanuts, wood products, and apparel. The main destination locations for the country's exports are South Africa, Germany, Egypt, Zimbabwe, the United States, Russia, and the Netherlands. Malawi currently imports an estimated US\$1.625 billion in goods per year, with the main commodities being food, petroleum products, consumer goods, and transportation equipment. The main countries that Malawi imports from are South Africa, India, Zambia, Tanzania, the US, and China.
In 2006, in response to disastrously low agricultural harvests, Malawi began a programme of fertilizer subsidies, the Fertiliser Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) that was designed to re-energise the land and boost crop production. It has been reported that this programme, championed by the country's president, is radically improving Malawi's agriculture, and causing Malawi to become a net exporter of food to nearby countries. The FISP fertiliser subsidy programmes ended with President Mutharika's death; the country quickly faced food shortages again, and farmers developed reluctance to purchase fertilisers and other agricultural inputs on the open markets that remained.
In 2016, Malawi was hit by a drought, and in January 2017, the country reported an outbreak of armyworms around Zomba. The moth is capable of wiping out entire fields of corn, the staple grain of impoverished residents. On 14 January 2017, the agriculture minister George Chaponda reported that 2,000 hectares of crop had been destroyed, having spread to nine of twenty-eight districts.
### Infrastructure
As of 2012, Malawi has 31 airports, seven with paved runways (two international airports) and 24 with unpaved runways. As of 2008, the country has 797 kilometres (495 mi) of railways, all narrow-gauge, and, as of 2003, 24,866 kilometres (15,451 mi) of roadways in various conditions, 6,956 kilometres (4,322 mi) paved and 8,495 kilometres (5,279 mi) unpaved. Malawi also has 700 kilometres (430 mi) of waterways on Lake Malawi and along the Shire River.
As of 2022, there were 10.23 million mobile phone connections in Malawi. There were 4.03 million Internet users in 2022 (Datareportal). Also, As of 2022 there was one government-run radio station (Malawi Broadcasting Corporation) and approximately a dozen more owned by private enterprises.
Radio, television and postal services in Malawi are regulated by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA). Malawi television is improving. The country boasts 20 television stations by 2016 broadcasting on the country's digital network MDBNL e.g.[3] This includes Times Group, Timveni, Adventist, and Beta, Zodiak and CFC. In the past, Malawi's telecommunications system has been named as some of the poorest in Africa, but conditions are improving, with 130,000 land line telephones being connected between 2000 and 2007. Telephones are much more accessible in urban areas, with less than a quarter of land lines being in rural areas.
## Science and technology
### Research trends
Malawi devoted 1.06% of GDP to research and development in 2010, according to a survey by the Department of Science and Technology, one of the highest ratios in Africa. This corresponds to \$7.8 per researcher (in current purchasing parity dollars).
In 2014, Malawian scientists had the third-largest output in Southern Africa, in terms of articles cataloged in international journals. They published 322 articles in Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (Science Citation Index expanded) that year, almost triple the number in 2005 (116). Only South Africa (9,309) and the United Republic of Tanzania (770) published more in Southern Africa. Malawian scientists publish more in mainstream journals – relative to GDP – than any other country of similar population size. This is impressive, even if the country's publication density remains modest, with just 19 publications per million inhabitants cataloged in international journals in 2014. The average for sub-Saharan Africa is 20 publications per million inhabitants. Malawi was ranked 107th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 118th in 2019.
### Policy framework
Malawi's first science and technology policy dates from 1991 and was revised in 2002. The National Science and Technology Policy of 2002 envisaged the establishment of a National Commission for Science and Technology to advise the government and other stakeholders on science and technology-led development. Although the Science and Technology Act of 2003 made provision for the creation of this commission, it only became operational in 2011, with a secretariat resulting from the merger of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Council. The Science and Technology Act of 2003 also established a Science and Technology Fund to finance research and studies through government grants and loans but, as of 2014, this was not yet operational. The Secretariat of the National Commission for Science and Technology has reviewed the Strategic Plan for Science, Technology, and Innovation (2011–2015) but, as of early 2015, the revised policy had not yet met with Cabinet approval.
Malawi is conscious of the need to attract more foreign investment to foster technology transfer, develop human capital and empower the private sector to drive economic growth. In 2012, most foreign investments flowed to infrastructure (62%) and the energy sector (33%). The government has introduced a series of fiscal incentives, including tax breaks, to attract more foreign investors. In 2013, the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre put together an investment portfolio spanning 20 companies in the country's six major economic growth sectors, namely:
- agriculture;
- manufacturing;
- energy (bio-energy, mobile electricity);
- tourism (ecolodges);
- infrastructure (wastewater services, fiber optic cables, etc.); and
- mining.
In 2013, the government adopted a National Export Strategy to diversify the country's exports. Production facilities are to be established for a wide range of products within the three selected clusters: oilseed products, sugar cane products, and manufacturing. The government estimates that these three clusters have the potential to represent more than 50% of Malawi's exports by 2027. In order to help companies adopt innovative practices and technologies, the strategy makes provision for greater access to the outcome of international research and better information about available technologies; it also helps companies to obtain grants to invest in such technologies from sources such as the country's Export Development Fund and the Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund.
The Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund is a competitive facility, through which businesses in Malawi's agricultural and manufacturing sectors can apply for grant funding for innovative projects with the potential for making a strong social impact and helping the country to diversify its narrow range of exports. The first round of competitive bidding opened in April 2014. The fund is aligned on the three clusters selected within the country's National Export Strategy: oilseed products, sugar cane products, and manufacturing. It provides a matching grant of up to 50% to innovative business projects to help absorb some of the commercial risks in triggering innovation. This support should speed up the implementation of new business models and/or the adoption of technologies. The fund is endowed with US\$8 million from the United Nations Development Programme and the UK Department for International Development.
### Achievements
Among the notable achievements stemming from the implementation of national policies for science, technology and innovation in recent years are the:
- Establishment, in 2012, of the Malawi University of Science and Technology and the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) to build STI capacity. LUANAR was delinked from the University of Malawi. This brings the number of public universities to four, with the University of Malawi and Mzuzu University;
- Improvement in biomedical research capacity through the five-year Health Research Capacity Strengthening Initiative (2008–2013) awarding research grants and competitive scholarships at Ph.D., master's and first-degree levels, supported by the UK Wellcome Trust and DfID;
- Strides made in conducting cotton confined field trials, with support from the US Program for Biosafety Systems, Monsanto, and LUANAR;
- Introduction of ethanol fuel as an alternative fuel to petrol and the adoption of ethanol technology;
- Launch of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy for Malawi in December 2013, to drive the deployment of ICTs in all economic and productive sectors and improve ICT infrastructure in rural areas, especially via the establishment of telecentres; and
- A review of secondary school curricula in 2013.
## Demographics
Malawi has a population of over Expression error: Unexpected / operator million, with a growth rate of 3.32%, according to estimates. The population is forecast to grow to over 45 million people by 2050, nearly tripling the estimated 16 million in 2010. Malawi's estimated 2016 population is, based on most recent estimates, 18,091,575.
### Ethnic groups
Malawi's population is made up of the Chewa, Tumbuka, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni, and Ngonde native ethnic groups, as well as populations of Chinese and Europeans.
### Languages
The official language is English. Major languages include Chichewa, a Bantu language spoken by over 41% of the population, Chitumbuka (28.2%) Chinyanja (12.8%), and Chiyao (16.1%). Other native languages are Malawian Lomwe, spoken by around 250,000 in the southeast of the country; Kokola, spoken by around 200,000 people also in the southeast; Lambya, spoken by around 45,000 in the northwestern tip; Ndali, spoken by around 70,000; Nyakyusa-Ngonde, spoken by around 300,000 in northern Malawi; Malawian Sena, spoken by around 270,000 in southern Malawi; and Tonga, spoken by around 170,000 in the north.
All students in public elementary school receive instruction in Chichewa, which is described as the unofficial national language of Malawi. Students in private elementary schools, however, receive instruction in English if they follow the American or British curriculum.
### Religion
Malawi is a majority Christian country, with a significant Muslim minority. Government surveys indicate that 87% of the country is Christian, with a minority 11.6% Muslim population. The largest Christian groups in Malawi are the Roman Catholic Church, of which 19% of Malawians are adherents, and the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) to which 18% belong. The CCAP is the largest Protestant denomination in Malawi with 1.3 million members. There are smaller Presbyterian denominations like the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Malawi and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Malawi. There are also smaller numbers of Anglicans, Baptists, evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, and the Lutherans.
Most of the Muslim population is Sunni, of either the Qadriya or Sukkutu groups, with a few who follow the Ahmadiyya.
Other religious groups within the country include Jehovah's Witnesses (over 95,000), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with just over 2,000 members in the country at the end of 2015, Rastafari, Hindus, Baháʼís, (0.2%) and around 300 Jews. Atheists make up around 4% of the population, although this number may include people who practice traditional African religions that do not have any gods.
### Health
Malawi has central hospitals, regional and private facilities. The public sector offers free health services and medicines, while non-government organizations offers services and medicines for fees. Private doctors offer fee-based services and medicines. Health insurance schemes have been established since 2000. The country has a pharmaceutical manufacturing industry consisting of four privately owned pharmaceutical companies. Malawi's healthcare goal is for "promoting health, preventing, reducing and curing disease, and reducing the occurrence of premature death in the population".
Infant mortality rates are high, and life expectancy at birth is 50.03 years. Abortion is illegal in Malawi, except to save the mother's life. The Penal Code punishes women who seek illegal or clinical abortion with 7 years in prison, and 14 years for those perform the abortion. There is a high adult prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS, with an estimated 980,000 adults (or 9.1% of the population) living with the disease in 2015. There are approximately 27,000 deaths each year from HIV/AIDS, and over half a million children orphaned because of the disease (2015). Approximately 250 new people are infected each day, and at least 70% of Malawi's hospital beds are occupied by HIV/AIDS patients. The high rate of infection has resulted in an estimated 5.8% of the farm labour force dying of the disease. The government spends over \$120,000 each year on funerals for civil servants who die of the disease. In 2006, international superstar Madonna started Raising Malawi, a foundation that helps AIDS orphans in Malawi, and also financed a documentary about the hardships experienced by Malawian orphans, called I Am Because We Are. Raising Malawi also works with the Millennium Villages Project to improve education, health care, infrastructure and agriculture in Malawi.
There is a very high degree of risk for major infectious diseases, including bacterial and protozoal diarrhoea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, plague, schistosomiasis, and rabies. Malawi has been making progress on decreasing child mortality and reducing the incidences of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; however, the country has been "performing dismally" on reducing maternal mortality and promoting gender equality. Female genital mutilation (FGM), while not widespread, is practiced in some local communities.
On 23 November 2016, a court in Malawi sentenced an HIV-positive man to two years in prison with forced labour after having sex with 100 women without disclosing his status. Women rights activists asked the government to review the sentence calling it too "lenient". Some of the major health facilities in the country are Blantyre Adventist Hospital, Mwaiwathu Private Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Central, and Kamuzu Central Hospitals.
### Education
In 1994, free primary education for all Malawian children was established by the government, and primary education has been compulsory since the passage of the Revised Education Act in 2012. As a result, attendance rates for all children have improved, with enrollment rates for primary schools up from 58% in 1992 to 75% in 2007. Also, the percentage of students who begin standard one and complete standard five has increased from 64% in 1992 to 86% in 2006. According to the World Bank, it shows that youth literacy had also increased from 68% in 2000 to 75% in 2015. This increase is primarily attributed to improved learning materials in schools, better infrastructure and feeding programs that have been implemented throughout the school system. However, attendance in the secondary school falls to approximately 25%, with attendance rates being slightly higher for males. Dropout rates are higher for girls than boys, attributed to security problems during long walks to school, as girls face a higher prevalence of gender-based violence.
Education in Malawi comprises eight years of primary education, four years of secondary school and four years of university. There are four public universities in Malawi: Mzuzu University (MZUNI), Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), the University of Malawi (UNIMA) and Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST). There are also private universities, such as Livingstonia, Malawi Lakeview, Catholic University of Malawi, Central Christian University, African Bible College, UNICAF University, and MIM. The entry requirement is six credits on the Malawi School Certificate of Education, which is equivalent to O levels.
## Women in Malawi
The status of women throughout the world, including Malawi, is measured using a wide range of indices that cover areas of social, economic, and political contexts. Focusing primarily on the time period between 2010 and the current day, the status of women in Malawi will be analyzed through a range of statistical indices.
The current social status of women in Malawi is effectively estimated through indices such as female access to schooling, maternal mortality rate, and life expectancy of women from birth. These indices offer a wide lens of information on women's rights and life in Malawi. Women's access to schooling in Malawi as an index highlights how within the state, the ratio of male to female students for many age groups and for total students by gender shows women's access to schooling maintains on par with men's access. Female students in Malawi, though, see consistent declines as the age increases, signifying the failure of compulsory education amongst female students in Malawi. The life expectancy of women from birth in Malawi has seen significant growth over the past decade as the life expectancy of women in 2010 was approximately 58 years old whilst the most recent data from 2017 finds that women in Malawi's average life expectancy grew to 66 years. The maternal mortality rate in Malawi which is particularly low even when compared with states at similar points in the development process.
The economic status of women in Malawi is gauged using indices such as the inheritance rights for women, unemployment, and labour force participation for females, along with the extent of the wage gap present between men and women in the Malawian economy. The inheritance rights index gauges the ability of women to effectively own and maintain the property in comparison with their male counterparts. The current inheritance rights in Malawi are found to be equal in their dispersion between male/female children and for male/female surviving spouses. Contrary to the equality found in inheritance rights in Malawi, labour force participation and unemployment highlight the challenges for female employment in the state. The current state of female labour participation details how a higher percentage of the male population is currently employed despite the female population having a higher total employed population and a very similar unemployment rate. This gap continues with wages in Malawi as the state continues to score towards the bottom of the list when compared to states across the world. Along with their poor international ranking, the state scores poorly when compared to other sub-Saharan countries as the highest-ranked sub-Saharan state, Rwanda, scored a 0.791 on a 0–1 scale while Malawi scored 0.664.
The indices used to gauge the political status of women include political participation amongst women, access to political institutions, and female seats in the national parliament. The political participation of women in Malawi as an index is effectively captured through a myriad of sources; these sources come to similar conclusions in regards to the political participation of women. The participation of women in the national political structure has been shown to be weaker than their male counterparts due to the normalization of negative stereotypes which women are not expected to be as politically active as men. The female participation in politics is further restricted from national political structures due to the presence of gatekeepers which provide access to the resources needed to win elections and maintain seats in parliament. This limited participation is directly correlated to the limited positions which are occupied by women in the national setup. This setup, despite its commitment to equal positions for men and women, has failed to promote methods for female politicians maintaining their seats in parliament and as a result of said policies, women throughout Malawi are left without the proper structure and resources to maintain their position in the national structure. Despite the limited resources available to these female politicians, the national parliament within Malawi finds reasonable success in appointing female members to seats within the body as over 20% of the seats in parliament are held by women. Despite the limited access and resources widely available for female politicians in Malawi, the state is finding reasonable success in promoting female politicians on the national scene which works in conjunction with the positive trajectory of the social and economic indices to conclude that Malawi should expect continued growth toward gender equality.
## Military
Malawi maintains a small standing military of approximately 25,000, the Malawian Defence Force. It consists of army, navy and air force elements. The Malawi army originated from British colonial units formed before independence, and is now made up of two rifle regiments and one parachute regiment. The Malawi Air Force was established with German help in 1976, and operates a small number of transport aircraft and multi-purpose helicopters. The Malawian Navy was established in the early 1970s with Portuguese support, presently having three vessels operating on Lake Malawi, based in Monkey Bay. In 2017, Malawi signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
## Culture
The name "Malawi" comes from the Maravi, a Bantu ethnic group who emigrated from the southern Congo around 1400 AD. Upon reaching northern Lake Malawi, the group divided, with one group moving south down the west bank of the lake to become the group known as the Chewa, while the other group, the ancestors of today's Nyanja, moved along the east side of the lake to the southern section of Malawi. Ethnic conflict and continuing migration prevented the formation of a society that was uniquely and cohesively Malawian until the dawn of the 20th century. Over the past century, ethnic distinctions have diminished to the point where there is no significant inter-ethnic friction, although regional divisions still occur. The concept of a Malawian nationality has begun to form around predominantly rural people who are generally conservative and traditionally nonviolent. The "Warm Heart of Africa" nickname is not due to the hot weather of the country, but due to the kind, loving nature of the Malawian people.
From 1964 to 2010, and again since 2012, the Flag of Malawi is made up of three equal horizontal stripes of black, red, and green with a red rising sun superimposed in the center of the black stripe. The black stripe represented the African people, the red represented the blood of martyrs for African freedom, green represented Malawi's ever-green nature and the rising sun represented the dawn of freedom and hope for Africa. In 2010, the flag was changed, removing the red rising sun and adding a full white sun in the centre as a symbol of Malawi's economic progress. The change was reverted in 2012.
Its dances are a strong part of Malawi's culture, and the National Dance Troupe (formerly the Kwacha Cultural Troupe) was formed in November 1987 by the government. Traditional music and dances can be seen at initiation rites, rituals, marriage ceremonies and celebrations.
The indigenous ethnic groups of Malawi have a rich tradition of basketry and mask carving, and some of these goods are used in traditional ceremonies still performed by native peoples. Wood carving and oil painting are also popular in more urban centres, with many of the items produced being sold to tourists. There are several internationally recognised literary figures from Malawi, including poet Jack Mapanje, history and fiction writer Paul Zeleza and authors Legson Kayira, Felix Mnthali, Frank Chipasula and David Rubadiri.
### Sports
Football is the most common sport in Malawi, introduced there during British colonial rule. Its national team has failed to qualify for a World Cup so far, but have made three appearances in the Africa Cup of Nations. Football teams include Mighty Wanderers, Big Bullets, Silver Strikers, Blue Eagles, Civo Sporting, Moyale Barracks, and Mighty Tigers. Basketball is also growing in popularity, but its national team is yet to participate in any international competition.
More success has been found in netball, with the Malawi national netball team ranked 6th in the world (as of March 2021). Notably a number of players in the national team play in international leagues.
### Cuisine
Malawian cuisine is diverse, with tea and fish being popular features of the country's cuisine. Sugar, coffee, corn, potatoes, sorghum, cattle and goats are also important components of the cuisine and economy. Lake Malawi is a source of fish including chambo (similar to bream), usipa (similar to sardines), and mpasa (similar to salmon and kampango). Nsima is a food staple made from ground corn and typically served with side dishes of meat and vegetables. It is commonly eaten for lunch and dinner.
## See also
- Outline of Malawi
- Telephone numbers in Malawi |
24,193,577 | 2009 Sylvania 300 | 1,102,194,444 | null | [
"2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series",
"2009 in sports in New Hampshire",
"NASCAR races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway",
"September 2009 sports events in the United States"
]
| The 2009 Sylvania 300 was the twenty-seventh stock car race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the first in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup. It was held on September 20, 2009, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, before a crowd of 101,000 people. The 300-lap race was won by Mark Martin of the Hendrick Motorsports team after starting from fourteenth position. Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing finished second and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya was in third place.
Martin was leading the Drivers' Championship heading into the race because of a redistribution of the points-scoring system that saw him receive an additional forty points for achieving four race victories in the preceding 26 events. Montoya, who initially held the pole position by recording the fastest lap time in qualifying, was immediately passed by Tony Stewart. One lap later, Montoya reclaimed the lead. Chase for the Sprint Cup participants Hamlin and Kurt Busch were in the top ten for most of the race. Martin became the leader of the race, after the leaders made their pit stops. Martin retained the first position to win the race, his fifth of the 2009 season. There were eleven cautions and twenty lead changes among ten different drivers during the race.
The race was Martin's fifth win of the season, as well as the 40th and final win of his Cup career. After the race, Martin maintained his lead in the Drivers' Championship, thirty-five points ahead of Hamlin, who advanced to second, and equal on points with Johnson. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, thirty-nine points ahead of Toyota and eighty-one ahead of Dodge, with nine races of the season remaining. The race attracted 5.04 million television viewers.
## Background
The 2009 Sylvania 300 was the twenty-seventh of thirty-six scheduled stock car races of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the first in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup. It was held on September 20, 2009, in Loudon, New Hampshire, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, an intermediate track that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a four-turn oval track, 1.058 miles (1.703 km) long. The track's turns are banked at two to seven degrees, while the front stretch, the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at one degree.
Before the race, twelve drivers gained qualification to the Chase for the Sprint Cup; each of them had no fewer than 5,000 points and those who won races over the course of the season received an additional ten points. This was done through a redistribution of the points system. Mark Martin led the Drivers' Championship with 5,040 points by virtue of his four victories in the preceding 26 races, followed by Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson who were tied for second place on 5,030 points. Denny Hamlin, was 5,020 points, was tied with Kasey Kahne, with Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers all level with 5,010 points. Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo Montoya and Greg Biffle rounded out the top twelve with 5,000 points each. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 190 points, thirty-six points ahead of their rival Toyota in second. Dodge and Ford were tied on points in the battle for third place. Biffle was the race's defending champion.
Johnson had qualified for all six previous Chase for the Sprint Cups and spoke of his expectations, "I think we’ve got our best chance for a really exciting Chase. We’re really running well. I feel really good at the races in the Chase." Martin commented on his prospects, "I feel like a whole new person — a huge weight is off my shoulders. To make this thing is the icing and now we get to go race for the cake." Montoya was the first non-American driver to advance to the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and said he felt he was under no pressure to be in it, adding, "If I win the Cup, cool. That's it. That's not a big deal for me. I don't get any special treatment or anything. I wouldn't mind getting some but I don't."
## Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—one on Friday, and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, and the second 45 minutes. The final session lasted 60 minutes. During the first practice session, Montoya was fastest with a lap of 28.749 seconds, placing ahead of Kevin Harvick in second and Clint Bowyer in third. Stewart took fourth position, and Martin placed fifth. Kurt Busch, A. J. Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Johnson and Hamlin rounded out the top ten fastest drivers in the session.
A total of forty-five drivers were entered in the qualifier on Friday afternoon; due to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. On his second timed lap, Montoya clinched his second pole position of the season and of his career, with a track-record lap of 28.545 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Stewart. Kurt Busch qualified third and Hamlin took fourth after holding pole position for most of the season. Edwards started fifth. David Stremme was the fastest driver who was unable to advance for the Chase for the Sprint Cup in sixth. Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Labonte and Kyle Busch completed the top nine qualifiers. Jeff Gordon, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified tenth, while Kahne set the eleventh-fastest time. The two drivers who failed to qualify for the race were Derrike Cope and Dexter Bean. After the qualifier Montoya said, "You know how these races go, "If it was a 10-lap shootout, I'll say, 'Hey, we're looking good.' But it's like 200 laps, 300 laps or something, or 400, I don't even know. It's a bunch of laps. As long as I lead the last one I don't care."
On Saturday morning, Montoya was fastest in the second practice session with a 29.269 seconds lap, ahead of Truex in second, and Martin in third. Stremme was fourth quickest, and Johnson took fifth. Hamlin managed sixth. Kurt Busch, Biffle, Labonte and Kahne followed in the top ten. Of the other drivers in the Chase, Stewart was eighteenth-fastest, while Edwards ended with twenty-third-fastest time. Later that day, Montoya paced the final practice session with a time of 29.214 seconds, ahead of Truex in second and Kurt Busch in third. Martin was fourth-fastest, ahead of Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hamlin was seventh-fastest, Jeff Gordon eighth-, Harvick ninth- and Stewart tenth-fastest. Other Chase drivers included Kahne in fourteenth and Biffle in twentieth.
### Qualifying results
## Race
The race commenced at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and was televised live in the United States on ESPN. Commentary was provided by play-by-play announcer Jerry Punch, with analysis by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were sunny with the air temperature around 67 °F (19 °C). Bishop Michael Cote began pre-race ceremonies with the invocation. Universal Music Group Nashville recording artist Josh Turner performed the national anthem, and Tim Leach, Vice President of Sales, Service and Logistics for Sylvania, gave the command for drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, Tony Raines had to move to the back of the grid because of him changing his engine.
Stewart accelerated faster than Montoya off the line, getting ahead of him going into the first turn. One lap later, Montoya reclaimed the lead by passing Stewart in turn one. Stremme moved into fourth on lap three, while Hamlin passed Stewart for the second position. Vickers, who began the race in twenty-sixth, had moved up seven positions to nineteenth by lap five. By the sixth lap, Montoya had increased his lead over Stewart to 1.4 seconds. Five laps later, Jeff Gordon moved into sixth position, while Edwards passed Labonte for eighth. By lap 15, Montoya had a 2.3-second lead over Stewart. Seven laps later, Stewart had reduced Montoya's lead to 1.1 seconds.
On lap 24, Dave Blaney took his car to the garage because of an electrical problem. Seven laps later, Truex lost three positions after running seventh. On lap 37, Stewart reclaimed the lead from Montoya. On the 39th lap, Michael McDowell drove to the garage because of brake problems. During the 43rd lap, Jeff Gordon passed Hamlin for fourth position. After starting the race in twenty-third, Earnhardt moved up into fifteenth position by lap 46. Four laps later, Stremme dropped to sixth position, after being passed by Edwards and Johnson. On lap 51, Jeff Gordon passed Hamlin for the fourth position, while Mike Wallace took his car to the garage because of brake problems. By lap 56, Harvick and Labonte were running in nineteenth and twentieth, while Stewart's lead was 1.7 seconds by lap 63.
Three laps later, Kahne felt something rough on the backstretch and his car suffered an engine problem with smoke billowing from the front of his car while on the frontstretch; the issue was found to have been caused by crankshaft failure and it forced his retirement from the race. This caused the deployment of the first caution of the event during the 67th lap. During the caution, all of the leaders elected to make pit stops. Montoya reclaimed the lead during the caution and maintained it at the restart on the 75th lap. Jeff Gordon passed Martin for the seventh position on lap 79. By the 83rd lap, Montoya's lead was 1.8 seconds over Stewart. Two laps later, the second caution was given because of debris on the track at turn three. None of the leaders elected to make pit stops. Montoya maintained his lead at the restart, followed by Stewart and Hamlin.
Stewart fell to fifth after contact with Hamlin on lap 92, allowing Kurt Busch to move into second position one lap later. On lap 95, Jeff Gordon passed Truex for twelfth position. By lap 101, Montoya had a lead of 1.2 seconds. Kurt Busch managed to close the gap to Montoya by 0.7 seconds by lap 110. On the 113th lap, Jeff Gordon passed Vickers to claim eleventh. Twelve laps later, Kurt Busch claimed the lead off Montoya. Five laps later, Jeff Gordon moved up to ninth, while Newman and Vickers moved up to tenth and eleventh respectively. On lap 131, Earnhardt passed Martin for the tenth position. By lap 138, Kurt Busch had a 2.4-second lead over Montoya.
On lap 141, the third caution was given as debris was spotted on the track. During the caution, all of the leaders made pit stops. At the lap 146 restart. Montoya became the leader, ahead of Hamlin and Kurt Busch. Two laps later, Hamlin moved into first, one lap after colliding with Montoya. On lap 153, Montoya reclaimed the lead through turn four. Five laps later, Johnson passed Martin for the sixth position. Three laps later, the fourth caution was given after Erik Darnell spun sideways in turn two. Most of the leaders made pit stops. As David Ragan was entering his pit stall, the left-rear quarter of his car was struck by Kurt Busch, sending Ragan into a 180-degree backwards spin as his pit crew were about to service him. Ragan was permitted to have four tires and fuel since his pit stop complied with NASCAR standards. Kurt Busch sustained minor damage to the nose of his vehicle. Stewart became the leader at the lap 166 restart. Two laps after the restart, the fifth caution was given as a multi-car collision occurred, as Joey Logano and Elliott Sadler collided, collecting Paul Menard, Michael Waltrip, Robby Gordon and John Andretti.
Stewart led on the lap 175 restart; the sixth caution was given on the following lap as Jeff Burton spun sideways but avoided hitting anything. At the lap 181 restart, Stewart was the leader, ahead of Johnson, Newman, Earnhardt and Hamlin. On the next lap, Johnson claimed the lead through turn one, while Sam Hornish Jr. went to his garage due to oil issues. Two laps later, Earnhardt and Montoya moved up into third and fifth positions respectively. Five laps later, Montoya passed McMurray for the fourth position; Earnhardt passed Stewart for second. By the 190th lap, Johnson had a lead of three seconds, while Montoya passed Stewart for third. On lap 193, Allmendinger made contact with Stremme who spun into the wall at turn two, prompting the seventh caution. Most of the leaders made pit stops during the caution. Kurt Busch became the leader by the lap 197 restart, from Martin and Sadler.
Burton and David Reutimann moved into third and fourth respectively after passing Sadler on lap 199. Five laps later, Martin passed Kurt Busch to claim the lead. On lap 208, Jeff Gordon had fallen to fourteenth position after minor contact with Johnson, while Hamlin and Montoya moved into fourth and sixth positions respectively. Three laps later, Montoya moved into fifth after passing Reutimann. On the 219th lap, Johnson passed Sadler for the seventh position. Nineteen laps later, Johnson passed Montoya to take over fifth, while Hamlin passed Burton to claim the second position. On lap 243, green flag pit stops began, as Martin was the first to pit, handing the lead back to Kurt Busch. On lap 248, Hamlin became the new race leader after Kurt Busch came into pit road. Kevin Harvick drove to pit road due to mechanical problems twenty-one laps later.
On lap 272, Martin reclaimed the lead as the previous leaders had made their pit stops. Four laps later, the eighth caution was given because of debris on the track in turns three and four. Most of the drivers made pit stops during the caution, although Martin stayed out and remained the leader on the lap 283 restart. After the restart on the same lap, the ninth caution was given after Reutimann was battling Earnhardt for fifth position on the inside and made contact with Earnhardt, causing Earnhardt to collide with the barrier between turns three and four. At the lap 288 restart, Martin remained the leader ahead of Kurt Busch. One lap later, Montoya moved up into third after passing Hamlin and Johnson. On lap 289, Montoya passed Kurt Busch at the first turn for the second position. One lap later, Kurt Busch lost a further position when he was passed by Hamlin. On lap 292, Martin had a 1.1-second lead. Two laps later, the tenth caution came out after Allmendinger spun in turn two after he made contact with Marcos Ambrose.
Martin led on the restart on lap 298, followed by Montoya and Hamlin. He was driving on the outside lane and he placed Montoya on the inside to the bottom of the track to halt his momentum. Hamlin overtook Montoya for second during the final lap. On the same lap, Allmendinger lost control of his car at the exit of the fourth turn, and spun sideways on the frontstretch. Allmendinger's car rolled slowly backward and stopped perpendicular to the circuit. Officials waited for most of the last lap to deploy the race's eleventh and final caution, when the race leaders were in-between the third and fourth turns, because they had anticipated Allmendinger being able to drive away before the completion of the race. Allmendinger was able to restart his car just as the race leaders exited the final corner; smoke emitted from Allmendinger's spinning rear tires created visibility issues. Martin was informed of the caution by his spotter and he slowed leaving the final turn as Montoya drove to the inside of Allmendinger. The field was frozen, with the finishing order determined by where the drivers were running at the moment of caution. Thus, Martin achieved his fifth victory of the 2009 season and 40th of his career. Hamlin finished second, with Montoya in third, Johnson in fourth, and Kyle Busch in fifth. Kurt Busch, Newman, Sadler, Biffle and Bowyer rounded out the top ten finishers. There were twenty-eight lead changes among ten different drivers during the race. Montoya led four times for a total of 105 laps, more than any other driver. Martin led twice for a total of 68 laps.
### Post-race
Martin appeared in victory lane to celebrate his fifth win of the season, in front of 101,000 who attended the race. Martin also earned \$232,750 in race winnings. Martin was delighted with his victory: "Alan [Gustafson] won the race, Alan's the man. This is a dream come true. ... We still have the lotto at Talladega [Nov. 1], and [I] think we'll run OK at Martinsville. We finished [seventh] in the spring, but I don't run good there – but this is my hardest place. It's a tough place." Martin also argued that his driving did not cause the final caution: "Once you got the lead, you need to make sure you don't drive it in there and turn it sideways (and) slide it up the racetrack. I mean, how stupid would I look then?" Hamlin commented that he was at an disadvantage when restarting on the outside lane but that finishing second made him "pretty proud". Montoya was somewhat frustrated with the result, saying: "Martin just screwed me – he just stopped the car on the apex, right on the bottom, and I had nowhere to go," Montoya said. "I could have pushed him out of the way ... but I respect him a lot."
Drivers expressed their concerns over the finish of the race. Gordon said that he was not told that a caution was deployed, "I saw the caution out of the corner of my eye. I said, 'I never heard the caution' and [my spotter] said, 'That's because it didn't come out until just now,' and I was surprised by that." Johnson felt that the caution should have been brought out earlier. He said that he did not know whose fault it was but suggested that a caution alert system with a small yellow light illuminating inside the car when a caution is deployed similar to that in Formula One be implemented to avoid such situations in the future. Martin commented that Hamlin and Montoya who were behind him did not appear to be aware of the situation, adding, "I was under the impression that when a caution [was] called, the race was over. I don't think the guys [who] gave up the race behind me quit, so it caused a little bit of chaos." NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey R. Poston stated that NASCAR waited as long as possible to allow for the race to end until the caution was deployed. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice-president of competition, said that the organization disliked concluding events under caution and that they waited for as long as possible to avoid affecting the race's result.
The race result kept Martin in the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 5,230 points. Hamlin moved into second, tied on points with Johnson on 5,195, twenty points ahead of Montoya and thirty ahead of Kurt Busch. Chevrolet maintained their Manufacturers' Championship lead with 199 points. Toyota remained second with 160 points. Dodge moved to third with 118 and Ford fell to fourth with 117. There were 5.04 million television viewers. The race took three hours, nine minutes and one second to complete; because it ended under caution, no margin of victory was recorded.
Three days after the race, Joe Gibbs Racing were given penalties for Kyle Busch's car. Joe Gibbs Racing's penalty, for unauthorized alterations to the ride height of Kyle Busch's car, included a fine of \$25,000 for crew chief Steve Addington, and the loss of 25 owner and driver points for Joe Gibbs and Kyle Busch respectively. Addington was also placed on probation until December 31, 2009. The team clarified that the left-front spring on Kyle Busch's car became dislodged and this caused the car's left-front quarter to run lower than usual; it required an alteration to the vehicle's handling to compensate for the change. They accepted NASCAR decision on the problem. Kyle Busch's standing in the Drivers' Championship was unaffected.
### Race results
## Standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings
Manufacturers' Championship standings
- Note: Only the top twelve positions are included for the driver standings. These drivers qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. |
28,992,174 | Demolition of the Babri Masjid | 1,167,501,372 | 1992 religious riot in India | [
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| The demolition of the Babri Masjid was carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, India, had been the subject of a lengthy socio-political dispute, and was targeted after a political rally organised by Hindu nationalist organisations turned violent.
In Hindu tradition, the city of Ayodhya is the birthplace of Rama. In the 16th century a Mughal general, Mir Baqi, had built a mosque, known as the Babri Masjid at a site identified by some Hindus as Ram Janmabhoomi, or the birthplace of Rama. The Archaeological Survey of India states that the mosque was built on land where a non-Islamic structure had previously existed. In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to Rama at the site, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its political voice. Several rallies and marches were held as a part of this movement, including the Ram Rath Yatra led by L. K. Advani.
On 6 December 1992 the VHP and the BJP organised a rally at the site involving 150,000 people. The rally turned violent, and the crowd overwhelmed security forces and tore down the mosque. A subsequent inquiry into the incident found 68 people responsible, including several leaders of the BJP and the VHP. The demolition resulted in several months of intercommunal rioting between India's Hindu and Muslim communities, causing the death of at least 2,000 people. Retaliatory violence against Hindus also occurred in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
## Background
In Hinduism the birthplace of the deity Rama, known as "Ram Janmabhoomi", is considered a holy site. This site is often believed to be at the place where the Babri Masjid stood in the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh: historical evidence to support this belief is scarce. There is a rough scholarly consensus that in 1528, following the Mughal conquest of the region, a mosque was built at the site by the Mughal general Mir Baqi, and named the "Babri Masjid" after the Mughal emperor Babur. Popular belief holds that Baqi demolished a temple of Rama to build the mosque; historical basis for the belief is debated. Archaeological evidence has been found of a structure pre-dating the mosque. This structure has been variously identified as a Hindu temple and a Buddhist structure.
For at least four centuries, the site was used for religious purposes by both Hindus and Muslims. The claim that the mosque stood on the site of a temple was first made in 1822, by an official of the Faizabad court. The Nirmohi Akhara sect cited this statement in laying claim to the site later in the 19th century, leading to the first recorded incidents of religious violence at the site in 1855. In 1859 the British colonial administration set up a railing to separate the outer courtyard of the mosque to avoid disputes. The status quo remained in place until 1949, when idols of Rama were surreptitiously placed inside the mosque, allegedly by Hindu Mahasabha activists. This led to an uproar, with both parties filing civil suits laying claim to the land. The placement of the idols was seen as a desecration by the users of the Masjid. The site was declared to be in dispute, and the gates to the Masjid were locked.
In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to Rama at the site, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its political voice. The movement was bolstered by the decision of a district judge, who ruled in 1986 that the gates would be reopened and Hindus permitted to worship there. This decision was endorsed by Indian National Congress politician Rajiv Gandhi, then the Prime Minister of India, who sought to regain support from Hindus he had lost over the Shah Bano controversy. Nonetheless, the Congress lost the 1989 general election, and the BJP's strength in parliament grew from 2 members to 88, making its support crucial to the new government of V. P. Singh.
In September 1990, BJP leader L. K. Advani began a Rath Yatra, a political rally travelling across much of north India to Ayodhya. The yatra sought to generate support for the proposed temple, and also sought to unite Hindu votes by mobilizing anti-Muslim sentiment. Advani was arrested by the government of Bihar before he could reach Ayodhya. Despite this, a large body of Sangh Parivar supporters reached Ayodhya and attempted to attack the mosque. This resulted in a pitched battle with the paramilitary forces that ended with the death of several rioters. The BJP withdrew its support to the V. P. Singh ministry, necessitating fresh elections. The BJP substantially increased its tally in the union parliament, as well as winning a majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.
## Demolition
On 6 December 1992, the RSS and its affiliates organised a rally involving 150,000 VHP and BJP supporters at the site of the disputed structure. The ceremonies included speeches by BJP leaders such as Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti. During the first few hours of the rally, the crowd grew gradually more restless, and began raising slogans. A police cordon had been placed around the structure in preparation for attack. However, around noon, a young man managed to slip past the cordon and climb the structure itself, brandishing a saffron flag. This was seen as a signal by the mob, who then stormed the structure. The police cordon, vastly outnumbered and unprepared for the size of the attack, fled. The mob set upon the building with axes, hammers, and grappling hooks, and within a few hours, the entire structure, made from mud and chalk, was levelled.
The then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao has been often criticized for his mishandling of the situation. Rao in his book Ayodhya 6 December 1992 wrote that the demolition was a "betrayal" by the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh, who repeatedly assured to the Congress government that the mosque would be protected.
A 2009 report, authored by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, found 68 people to be responsible for the demolition of the Masjid, mostly leaders from the BJP. Among those named were Vajpayee, Advani, Joshi and Vijay Raje Scindia. Kalyan Singh, who was then the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, also faced severe criticism in the report. Liberhan wrote that he posted bureaucrats and police officers to Ayodhya, whose record indicated that they would stay silent during the mosque's demolition. Anju Gupta, a police officer who had been in charge of Advani's security on that day, stated that Advani and Joshi made speeches that contributed to provoking the behaviour of the mob. The report notes that at this time several BJP leaders made "feeble requests to the kar sevaks to come down... either in earnest or for the media's benefit". No appeal was made to the rioters not to enter the sanctum sanctorum or not to demolish the structure. It further noted: "This selected act of the leaders itself speaks of the hidden intentions of one and all being to accomplish demolition of the disputed structure." The report holds that the "icons of the movement present [that day]... could just as easily have... prevented the demolition."
### Allegations
In a March 2005 book, former Intelligence Bureau head Maloy Krishna Dhar claimed that Babri mosque demolition was planned 10 months in advance by top leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP and VHP, and criticised the manner in which the then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao handled the issue. Dhar claimed that he was directed to arrange security for a meeting between individuals from the BJP and other constituents of the Sangh Parivar, and that the meeting "proved beyond doubt that they (RSS, BJP, VHP) had drawn up the blueprint of the Hindutva assault in the coming months and choreographed the pralaya nritya (dance of destruction) at Ayodhya in December 1992".
The RSS, BJP, VHP and the Bajrang Dal leaders present in the meeting amply agreed to work in a well-orchestrated manner." Claiming that the tapes of the meeting were personally handed over by him to his boss, he asserts that he has no doubts that his boss had shared the contents with the Prime Minister (Rao) and the Home Minister (Shankarrao Chavan). The author claimed that there was silent agreement that Ayodhya offered "a unique opportunity to take the Hindutva wave to the peak for deriving political benefit."
In April 2014, a sting operation by Cobrapost claimed that the demolition was not an act of frenzied mobs but an act of sabotage planned with so much secrecy that no government agency got wind of it. It further said that the sabotage was planned several months in advance by VHP and Shiv Sena, but not jointly.
## Aftermath
### Communal violence
The destruction of the Babri Masjid sparked Muslim outrage around the country, provoking several months of inter-communal rioting in which Hindus and Muslims attacked one another, burning and looting homes, shops and places of worship. Several of the BJP leaders were taken into custody, and the VHP was briefly banned by the government. Despite this, the ensuing riots spread to cities like Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Delhi, Bhopal and several others, eventually resulting in over 2000 deaths, mainly Muslim. The Mumbai Riots alone, which occurred in December 1992 and January 1993 and which the Shiv Sena played a big part in organising, caused the death of around 900 people, and estimated property damage of around ₹ 9,000 crore (\$3.6 billion). The demolition and the ensuing riots were among the major factors behind the 1993 Mumbai bombings and many successive riots in the coming decade. Jihadi groups including the Indian Mujahideen cited the demolition of the Babri Masjid as a reason for their terrorist attacks.
### Investigation
On 16 December 1992, the Union home ministry set up the Liberhan Commission to investigate the destruction of the mosque, headed by retired High Court Judge M. S. Liberhan. After 399 sittings over sixteen years, the Commission submitted its 1,029-page report to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 30 June 2009. According to the report, the events of 6 December 1992, in Ayodhya were "neither spontaneous nor unplanned". In March 2015, the Supreme Court of India admitted a petition alleging that, with a BJP government in power, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would not pursue conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders including L. K. Advani and Rajnath Singh. The Court asked the CBI to explain its delay in filing an appeal. In April 2017, a special CBI court framed criminal conspiracy charges against Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, and several others.
### Judicial verdict
On 30 September 2020, the court acquitted all the 32 accused including L. K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and several others in the case on account of inconclusive evidence. The special court judge Surendra Kumar Yadav said, "The demolition was not pre-planned."
## International reactions
### Pakistan
In Pakistan, the government closed offices and schools on 7 December to protest against the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian ambassador to lodge a formal complaint, and promised to appeal to the United Nations and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to pressure India to protect the rights of Muslims. Strikes were held across the country, while Muslim mobs attacked and destroyed as many as 30 Hindu temples in one day by means of fire and bulldozers, and stormed the office of Air India, India's national airline, in Lahore. The retaliatory attacks included rhetoric from mobs calling for the destruction of India and of Hinduism. Students from the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad burned an effigy of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, and called for "jihad" against Hindus. In subsequent years, thousands of Pakistani Hindus visiting India sought longer visas, and in some cases citizenship of India, citing increased harassment and discrimination in the aftermath of the demolition.
### Bangladesh
Following the demolition, Muslim mobs in Bangladesh attacked and burned down Hindu temples, shops and houses across the country. An India-Bangladesh cricket match was disrupted when a mob of an estimated 5,000 men tried to storm the Bangabandhu National Stadium in the national capital of Dhaka. The Dhaka office of Air India was stormed and destroyed. 10 people were reportedly killed, 11 Hindu temples and several homes destroyed. The aftermath of the violence forced the Bangladeshi Hindu community to curtail the celebrations of Durga Puja in 1993 while calling for the destroyed temples to be repaired and investigations be held.
### Middle East
At its summit meeting in Abu Dhabi, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) strongly condemned the Babri Masjid demolition. It adopted a resolution which described the act as a "crime against Muslim holy places." Among its member states, Saudi Arabia severely condemned the act. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), home to large expatriate communities of Indians and Pakistanis, conveyed a more moderate reaction. In response, the Indian government criticised the GCC for what it regarded as interference in its internal affairs. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, condemned the demolition, and called upon India to do more to protect its Muslim population. Although its government condemned the events, the UAE experienced severe public disturbances due to the demolition of the Babri Mosque. Street protests broke out, and protesters threw stones at a Hindu temple and the Indian Consulate in Dubai. In Al-Ain, 250 kilometres (160 mi) east of Abu Dhabi, angry mobs set fire to the girls wing of an Indian school. In response to the violence, UAE police arrested and deported many expatriate Pakistanis and Indians who had participated in the violence. The Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police Force, Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, condemned the violence by foreign nationals in the country.
### United Kingdom
Several temples were attacked by Muslims in the UK in suspected acts of revenge. Attacks included petrol bombings and arson. Hindu and Sikh temples, Hindu community centres and other cultural buildings were attacked. One temple was reportedly completely destroyed by fire. Hindu and Muslims leaders appealed for peace following the attacks.
## In popular culture
Malayalam author N. S. Madhavan's short story Thiruthu is based on the Babri Masjid demolition. The Ayodhya dispute and the riots following the demolition form part of the backdrop to Antara Ganguly's 2016 novel, Tanya Tania. Lajja (Shame), a 1993 novel by Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin, was partially inspired by the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh that intensified after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The documentary Ram ke Naam (lit. 'In the name of Ram') by Anand Patwardhan examines the events preceding the demolition. The Bollywood film Mausam (2011) is based on the events surrounding the demolition. The riots that followed the demolition are an important part of the plot of several films, including Bombay (1995) set in the Bombay riots. Daivanamathil (2005) explores the repercussions of the demolition on Muslims in Kerala. Both Bombay and Daivanamathi won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration at the respective National Film Awards. The 2007 film Black Friday was based upon the 1993 Bombay bombings which were considered to be the after effect of the demolition of the mosque. |
2,545,942 | Symphony No. 5 (Nielsen) | 1,151,361,500 | Symphony composed by Carl Nielsen | [
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| Symphony No. 5, Op. 50, FS 97 is a symphony composed by Carl Nielsen in Denmark between 1920 and 1922. It was first performed in Copenhagen on 24 January 1922 with the composer conducting. It is one of two of Nielsen's six symphonies lacking a subtitle, the other being his Symphony No. 1.
The Fifth Symphony has a non-customary structure, comprising two movements instead of the common three or four. Written in a modern musical language, it draws on the theme of contrast and opposition. The post-World War I composition is also described as having elements of war.
## Composition
There is no documentation of what inspired Nielsen to write his Fifth Symphony or when he started to write it, but it is generally understood that the first movement was composed in Humlebæk during the winter and spring of 1921. He stayed at his summer house at Skagen in the early summer. At the end of July he moved to a friend's home at Damgaard to compose the cantata Springtime on Funen, and was therefore only able to resume working on the second movement of the symphony in September, during his free time from his conducting work in Gothenburg.
The whole symphony was finished on 15 January 1922, as dated on the score. He dedicated the new symphony to his friends Vera and Carl Johan Michaelsen. Having insufficient rehearsal time, the premiere took place only nine days later, conducted by the composer himself at the music society Musikforening in Copenhagen.
## Score
A work from the early 20th century, the Fifth Symphony is regarded as a modernistic musical piece. The symphony draws on all of the "deformation procedures" suggested by James Hepokoski regarding musical modernism: breakthrough deformation, introduction-coda frame, episodes within developmental space, various strophic/sonata hybrids and multi-movement forms in a single movement. Its fragmented nature, unpredictable character and sudden synchronization at the ending also point towards a self-conscious modernist aesthetic, though as in most of Nielsen’s early and middle works, non-modernist devices, including organicism and diatonicism, play some essential roles.
As written in the original 1926 edition of the score, the Fifth Symphony is scored for 3 flutes (third doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, snare drum, celesta, and strings. Some optional doublings are added in the 1950 edition of the score revised by Emil Telmányi and Erik Tuxen; these include the third flute doubling flute in G and the second bassoon doubling contrabassoon. These optional doublings are discarded in the latest 1998 Carl Nielsen Edition score, which was produced as a co-operation between the Danish Royal Library and Edition Wilhelm Hansen.
The Fifth Symphony has two movements instead of the usual four, which is the only time Nielsen used this structure. Nielsen explained jokingly in an interview that it was not difficult to write the first three movements of a symphony but by the finale most composers had run out of ideas. The work has a craggy profile as "it is littered with false climaxes at every turn". The first movement climaxes in a battle between the orchestra and a renegade snare-drummer, who can only be silenced by the full forces of his colleagues in the final bars. The second movement continues the struggle with shivers of anxiety, building through repetitions and detours to the final victorious grand explosion.
### Tempo giusto—Adagio non troppo
The first movement begins with violas softly oscillating between the C and A notes; after four bars of the single, minimally-inflected line, a pair of bassoons enters with the initial theme. The beginning has been described by Nielsen scholar Robert Simpson as like being "in outer space"; the subsequent wave-like line "appears from nowhere, as if one were suddenly made aware of time as a dimension". The very first theme ends at b. 20 with a descending scale, followed by a fortissimo interruption from violas and a subsequent horn and flute dialogue. The prominent feature of instrumental pairing does not lead to any permanent thematic or textural stability, but contrarily grows into a persistent textural sparseness.
After an emotionless string passage which encloses another brief warning from violas, woodwinds cry out amid a percussive background. While the monotonous rhythm of snare drum continues, violins respond tortuously, only to be overwhelmed by the mood of the "savage and destructively egotistical" (Simpson’s description) clarinet and flute. The turmoil continues as the bass struggles to rise from the tonic (C) to the dominant (G), invoking a new clash with the percussion; the attempt at struggle fails as the bass is foiled at G flat when the ominous violin melody is distorted and disintegrates. The huge incongruity between harmonic and melodic parameters threatens the music with fracture and collapse. After gloomy phrases from various woodwinds, the music fades, leaving a feebly pulsing D with tiny hints of percussion sounds.
An oboe triplet figure then reveals the warm theme in G major of the Adagio non troppo section, a contrast to the prior cold landscape. The texture expands contrapuntally for the first time; the tonality brightens to B major and, after a climax, wanes to G major again. The full strings are soon disturbed by an "evil" motif on woodwinds, playing the shivering element from the work's opening; tension between wind and strings intensifies as tonality shifts within instrumental groups in their respective directions. With a further clash, the music is menaced by the snare drum at a tempo (quarter note ♩=116) faster than that of the orchestra, and at its climax comes the composer's instruction to the snare drummer to improvise "as if at all costs he wants to stop the progress of the orchestra". (This instruction is not included in the 1950 edition of the score, being replaced by a written rhythmic line and instruction "cad. ad lib." after a few bars.) The warm theme eventually triumphs in a sustaining grandeur, as is affirmed by the snare drum actually joining the orchestral fanfare. When all subsides, echoes in woodwinds are heard and a solitary clarinet is left to mourn in a tragic atmosphere, recapturing ideas from the whole movement: "Who would have thought that so much could have come out of a gently waving viola line in empty space?"
### Allegro—Presto—Andante un poco tranquillo—Allegro
The second movement in four sections consists of an "exposition", a fast fugue, a slow fugue and a brief coda. The music bursts in (in B major, despite the A major key-signature), and continues with great conflicts between instruments, until a broad, calm theme is found in the slow fugue. At the close it pivots on B flat, the dominant of E flat major; various elements collide and “fall together” into an uplifting 23-bar conclusion.
This movement was portrayed by Robert Simpson as arising from the ashes and ruins left by the conflict in the first movement. In the first edition of his book he expressed hesitation over analysing this part, feeling that it either requires a very deep analysis, or should be described in the fewest possible words. Jack Lawson, founder and president of The Carl Nielsen Society of Great Britain, commented that in the second movement, the listener "inhabits a world reborn, at first calm but a world which produces new struggles and menacing dangers" and "transports the listener through the depths or above the heights of more standard musical perceptions".
## Interpretation
Though the Fifth Symphony bears no title, Nielsen affirmed that, like his previous symphonies, it presents "the only thing that music in the end can express: resting forces in contrast to active ones". In a statement to one of his students, Ludvig Dolleris, Nielsen described the symphony as "the division of dark and light, the battle between evil and good" and the opposition between "Dreams and Deeds". To Hugo Seligman he described the contrast between "vegetative" and "active" states of mind in the symphony. The symphony is widely stated to be a work about contrast and opposition.
The composer asserted that he was not conscious of the influence of World War I when he was composing the symphony, but added that "not one of us is the same as we were before the war". Simon Rattle also described the Fifth Symphony, rather than the Fourth as proclaimed by the composer, as being Nielsen's war symphony. In fact, the phrase "dark, resting forces, alert forces" can be found on the back cover of the pencil draft score. Nielsen may have considered it an encapsulation of the contrast both between and within the two movements of the symphony. Nielsen also wrote to Dolleris about the presence of the "evil" motif in the first movement of the symphony:
> Then the "evil" motif intervenes — in the woodwind and strings — and the side drum becomes more and more angry and aggressive; but the nature-theme grows on, peaceful and unaffected, in the brass. Finally the evil has to give way, a last attempt and then it flees — and with a strophe thereafter in consoling major mode a solo clarinet ends this large idyll-movement, an expression of vegetative (idle, thoughtless) Nature.
Although Nielsen asserted that the symphony is non-programmatic, he once expressed his views on it thus:
> I'm rolling a stone up a hill, I'm using the powers in me to bring the stone to the top. The stone lies there so still, powers are wrapped in it, until I give it a kick and the same powers are released and the stone rolls down again. But you mustn't take that as a programme!
## Reception
The immediate reception of the press to the symphony was generally positive, especially the first movement. Axel Kjerulf wrote that in the Adagio section, he heard a Dream giving way to a "Dream about Deeds... Carl Nielsen has maybe never written more powerful, beautiful, fundamentally healthy and genuine music than here." However, critics were more hesitant towards the second movement. In August Felsing's review, he commented that "Intellectual art is what the second part is, and it is a master who speaks. But the pact with the eternal in art which shines forth in the first part is broken here." Musicians' opinions were divided. Victor Bendix, a long-time supporter and friend, wrote to Nielsen the day after the premiere, calling the work a "Sinfonie filmatique, this dirty trenches-music, this impudent fraud, this clenched fist in the face of a defenceless, novelty-snobbish, titillation-sick public, commonplace people en masse, who lovingly lick the hand stained with their own noses' blood!"
A Swedish performance on 20 January 1924, under the baton of Georg Schnéevoigt, caused quite a scandal; the Berlingske Tidende reported that some in the audience could not take the modernism of the work:
> Midway through the first part with its rattling drums and 'cacophonous' effects a genuine panic broke out. Around a quarter of the audience rushed for the exits with confusion and anger written over their faces, and those who remained tried to hiss down the 'spectacle', while the conductor Georg Schnéevoigt drove the orchestra to extremes of volume. This whole intermezzo underlined the humoristic-burlesque element in the symphony in such a way that Carl Nielsen could certainly never have dreamed of. His representation of modern life with its confusion, brutality and struggle, all the uncontrolled shouts of pain and ignorance—and behind it all the side drum's harsh rhythm as the only disciplining force—as the public fled, made a touch of almost diabolic humour.
For decades, Nielsen's music did not win recognition outside Denmark. The first recording was in 1933: Georg Høeberg with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra for Dancord. The first live recording was produced in 1950 with Erik Tuxen conducting the same orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival. An international breakthrough was made only when Leonard Bernstein recorded the symphony with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1962 for CBS. This recording helped Nielsen's music to achieve appreciation beyond his home country, and is considered one of the finest recorded accounts of the symphony. |
20,919,234 | Yuzuru Hanyu | 1,173,805,802 | Japanese figure skater (born 1994) | [
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"Yuzuru Hanyu"
]
| Yuzuru Hanyu (羽生 結弦, Ha'nyū Yuzuru, born December 7, 1994) is a Japanese figure skater and ice show producer. He is a two-time Olympic champion (2014, 2018), a two-time World champion (2014, 2017), a four-time Grand Prix Final champion (2013–2016), the 2020 Four Continents champion, the 2010 World Junior champion, the 2009–10 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and a six-time Japanese national champion (2012–2015, 2020–2021). He has also medaled at five other World Championships, taking bronze in 2012 and 2021, and silver in 2015, 2016 and 2019, making him the only male single skater along with Jan Hoffmann to win seven world championship medals in the post-World War II era.
Having been called one of the greatest figure skaters in history by many sport writers, commentators, and skaters for his well-rounded skills, achievements, popularity, and impact on the sport, Hanyu is the first men's singles skater to achieve a Super Slam, having won all major competitions in both his senior and junior careers. He has broken world records nineteen times—the most times among single skaters since the introduction of the ISU Judging System in 2004. He is the first man to have received over 100 points in the men's short program, over 200 points in the men's free skate, and over 300 total points in competition. Upon winning his first Olympic title, Hanyu became the first Asian men's singles skater to win the Olympic gold. At nineteen years old, he was the youngest male skater to win the Olympic title since Dick Button in 1948. In 2018, he became the first man to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals since Button's back-to-back titles in 1948 and 1952. At the 2016 CS Autumn Classic International, Hanyu became the first skater in history to successfully land a quadruple loop in a competition. He is the first men's singles skater from Asia to win multiple World Championships.
In recognition of his achievements, Hanyu became the youngest recipient of the People's Honor Award, bestowed by the Prime Minister of Japan for "giving dreams and thrills to the people and hope and courage to society". He is the first figure skater to be nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award and was named the Most Valuable Skater by the inaugural ISU Skating Awards in 2020. Hanyu also has been featured in prestigious lists, such as Forbes''' 30 Under 30 Asia as well as ESPN's World Fame 100 and The Dominant 20. In 2022, Hanyu was ranked sixth in the list of most-searched athletes on Google Search worldwide. The same year, on July 19, Hanyu announced his decision to turn professional and "step away" from competitive figure skating after a 12-year long senior career, which according to Nikkei Asia "marks the end of an era" in competition.
## Early life
Yuzuru Hanyu was born on December 7, 1994, in Izumi ward, Sendai, Japan, as the second child to father Hidetoshi Hanyu, a junior high school teacher, and mother Yumi Hanyu, a former clerk at a department store. Hanyu's given name was chosen by his father, wishing that his son may "live a dignified life like a tightly drawn bowstring", symbolizing confidence, strength, and straightness. Hanyu's father was an advisor to the baseball school club and recommended the sport to his son, but Hanyu eventually decided to pursue a career in figure skating. His mother used to make the costumes in his early career, including the free skate costume for the 2010–11 season, which was designed by American figure skater Johnny Weir. In 2012, she moved with Hanyu to Toronto, Canada, and accompanied him during training, while his father and older sister, Saya, stayed in Japan.
At the age of two, Hanyu was diagnosed with asthma, a condition that gradually improved with time yet negatively affected his stamina, especially during his junior career. He began skating at the age of four at Ice Rink Sendai [ja] (formerly Konami Sports Club) in Izumi, after coach Mami Yamada had suggested him to try out the sport instead of being a nuisance during his sister's training. Yamada noted Hanyu's impatience when he first got onto the ice, but also praised him for his sincerity. Coaching him until the end of his second grade in elementary school, Yamada had to move to another prefecture and asked Shōichirō Tsuzuki [ja], former coach of Japan's first World medalist, Minoru Sano, to train Hanyu and "not put his talent to waste". Hanyu described Tsuzuki's practice sessions as particularly strict and exhausting, tempting him to skip lessons at times, but he appreciated Tsuzuki's approach to build a solid foundation of skills and focus on basic training, noting: "He placed so much emphasis on skating and the Axel jump. Perhaps that made me confident to this day that the Axel is my forte."
## Competitive skating career
### Novice and junior career (2004–2010)
Hanyu competed for the first time in the 2004–05 season, winning gold at the Japan Championships in the Novice B category, the lower of the two novice level categories. His home rink then closed due to financial issues, forcing him to switch to the Katsuyama Skating Club [ja] in Aoba ward, Sendai. The same year, Shōichirō Tsuzuki moved to Yokohama, and Nanami Abe became Hanyu's main coach and choreographer, guiding him until 2012. On weekends, Hanyu travelled three hours from Sendai to Yokohama for additional lessons at Tsuzuki's new skating club. In summer 2006, at 11 years old, Hanyu's confidence showed up when initiating a spin battle against that year's Olympic silver medalist, Stéphane Lambiel, who was known for his world-class spins. Hanyu suffered a disarming defeat, which he remembered as an important career lesson: "After competing against him, I decided to improve my spins as well. You will definitely improve, learning from [the best]." In the 2006–07 season, Hanyu won the bronze medal at the Japan Championships in the Novice A category, which earned him an invitation to the Japan Junior Championships, where he placed seventh. His home rink in Izumi ward eventually reopened in 2007 after being closed for two years. The next season, he placed first at the Japan Championships in the Novice A category and won the bronze medal at the Japan Junior Championships.
In 2008–09, Hanyu moved up to junior level and made his international debut in the ISU Junior Grand Prix at the Merano Cup in Italy, where he placed fifth. The same season, he won gold at the Japan Junior Championships, becoming the youngest male skater with 13 years to win the event. This result earned him an invitation to the Japan Senior Championships for the first time, where he placed eighth. His national junior title also qualified him for the 2009 World Junior Championships in February, where he finished 12th with an ISU personal best score of 161.77 points in the combined total. In that season, Hanyu had included the triple Axel, a jump with three and a half revolutions, in his programs for the first time, though receiving negative grades of execution (GOE) for all three attempts. The following 2009–10 season marked the beginning of an 11-year-long quest for the first Super Slam in the men's singles discipline, with wins at the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final and World Junior Championships. Hanyu placed first at both of his Grand Prix assignments, in Poland and Croatia, and entered the Final as the top qualifier, which he won with a new personal best score of 206.77 points. At Junior Nationals, he successfully defended his title from the previous season, qualifying him for the Senior Nationals, where he finished sixth. Based on his results, Hanyu was selected to compete at the 2010 World Junior Championships, winning gold after placing third in the short program and first in the free skate with a new personal best score of 216.10 points. Hanyu became the fourth and youngest Japanese man to win the junior world title. In that season, he had significantly improved the quality of the triple Axel, his most difficult technical element at that time, having landed nine jumps with positive GOE in ten attempts.
### First Olympic cycle (2010–2014)
#### 2010–11 season: International senior debut
In the 2010–11 season, Hanyu moved up to senior level at 15 years old, facing significant competition in the Japanese men's field, including Daisuke Takahashi, Nobunari Oda, Takahiko Kozuka, and Tatsuki Machida, who all had finished ahead of him at the previous Japan Championships. Hanyu skated his short program to "White Legend" from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, performed by Japanese violinist Ikuko Kawai, and used the music piece Zigeunerweisen by Pablo de Sarasate for the free skate. He gave his international senior debut at the 2010 NHK Trophy, where he landed his first successful quadruple jump at an ISU-sanctioned event; a quad toe loop. He placed fourth overall at the competition and seventh at the subsequent Rostelecom Cup, missing out on a medal at his first two senior Grand Prix events. At the 2010–11 Japan Championships, Hanyu was in second place after the short program, but faltered in the free skate and finished fourth overall. The next year, at the 2011 Four Continents Championships, he won his first medal at a main international senior competition, placing second behind Daisuke Takahashi with a new personal best score of 228.01 points. At 16 years old, Hanyu became the youngest medalist at the Four Continents Championships.
On March 11, 2011, he was skating at his home rink in Sendai when the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck his hometown and the Tōhoku region. With his house being damaged, he had to spend the following three days with his family at an evacuation center. A month later, on April 7, the water pipes at his rink burst as a result of an aftershock, known as the April 2011 Miyagi earthquake, and Hanyu was forced to move his training base to Yokohama and Hachinohe until his home rink reopened on July 24, 2011. In the meantime, he had participated in 60 ice shows across Japan, using them as an opportunity to get additional practice time and raise money for the areas affected by the disaster.
#### 2011–12 season: First world medal
In the 2011–12 season, Hanyu skated his short program to Alexander Scriabin's Étude in D-sharp minor and the free skate to a medley of Romeo + Juliet by Craig Armstrong. The choreographies were created by Nanami Abe in collaboration with Natalia Bestemianova and Igor Bobrin from Russia. Hanyu opened the season at the Nebelhorn Trophy, where he won his first gold medal at an international senior competition. During the event, he shared his career goals with the media: "My goals for the future are to land all quad jumps in competition. I would also like to learn the quad Axel. Another goal is to win the next two Olympics, or at least win medals." For the 2011–12 Grand Prix series, he was assigned to the Cup of China, where he placed fourth, and the Rostelecom Cup, which he won with one of the closest margins of 0.03 points ahead of Javier Fernández from Spain. The results qualified him for his first senior Grand Prix Final, where he finished fourth. Hanyu then won the bronze medal at the Japan Championships, earning a spot on the Japanese team for the 2012 World Championships. At his senior Worlds debut, he competed on a sprained ankle, placing seventh in the short program, but with a strong free skate he moved up to third place overall, winning the bronze medal with a new personal best score of 251.06 points. He became the youngest Japanese world medalist, finishing behind then two-time world champion Patrick Chan (gold) and Daisuke Takahashi (silver). After the competition, both skaters acknowledged Hanyu as a potential strong rival in the future.
Upon the conclusion of the 2011–12 season, Hanyu changed coaches, training with Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club (Toronto CSCC) in Canada, who had coached Korean single skater Yuna Kim to Olympic gold in 2010 among others. Hanyu's main motivation for the change were the consistent quadruple jumps performed by Orser's student Javier Fernández. According to Hidehito Ito, figure skating director of the Japan Skating Federation, the change was also necessary to "challenge" Hanyu and "raise the level [of his skating] more". The first months, Hanyu was making frequent trips to Toronto, but continued to attend high school in Sendai. After moving to Canada, he increased his on-ice training to 3–4 hours a day, up from 1–2 hours, which had been due to limited ice time in Sendai, schooling, and asthma.
#### 2012–13 season: First national senior title
In the first season at his new skating club, Hanyu teamed up with two new choreographers. His short program was created by the 2008 World champion, Jeffrey Buttle, to "Parisienne Walkways" by Gary Moore, and the free skate was choreographed by Canadian David Wilson to a medley of Riccardo Cocciante's musical Notre-Dame de Paris. The coaching change resulted in immediate success; At the 2012 Finlandia Trophy, Hanyu landed his first quadruple Salchow in international competition and won the event. In the Grand Prix series, he scored his first two world records in the short program with 95.07 points at the 2012 Skate America, where he finished second behind Takahiko Kozuka, and 95.32 points at the NHK Trophy, which he won ahead of Daisuke Takahashi. The placements qualified him for the Grand Prix Final, where he finished second behind Takahashi and beat Patrick Chan for the first time in competition. At the Japan Championships, Hanyu won his first national senior title, defeating the reigning and five-time national champion, Daisuke Takahashi, scoring an unofficial record of 285.23 points in the combined total. However, his win was not well received among spectators and officials, being booed on the podium, but Orser encouraged his student, saying: "They will come around. Just give it some time and they will come your way." After the 2013 Four Continents Championships, where he had finished second behind Canadian Kevin Reynolds, Hanyu suffered a knee injury and resumed training two weeks prior to the World Championships. An additional ankle sprain in practice forced him to compete on painkillers. Placing ninth after the short program, he fought back with a strong free skate, finishing fourth overall behind Patrick Chan (gold), Denis Ten (silver), and Javier Fernández (bronze), and earning a third spot for Japanese men at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
#### 2013–14 season: First Olympic and world title
For his first Olympic season, Hanyu returned to his short program "Parisienne Walkways" and selected Nino Rota's music from Romeo and Juliet for the free skate, choreographed by David Wilson. He launched the season with a win at the 2013 Finlandia Trophy and won silver in both of his Grand Prix events, the 2013 Skate Canada and Trophée Éric Bompard, qualifying him for the 2013–14 Grand Prix Final. At the Final, he set a new world record in the short program with 99.84 points and placed first overall ahead of Patrick Chan (silver) and Nobunari Oda (bronze), winning his first major international senior title. At the Japan Championships, Hanyu went on to win a second national title and was selected to represent the Japanese team at the 2014 Winter Olympics and World Championships. At the Winter Olympics in Sochi, he participated in the men's short program of the figure skating team event, earning ten points for Team Japan. In the individual event, he broke his world record, becoming the first skater to score above 100 points in the short program with a score of 101.45. Despite two falls in the free skate, he managed to win the event with a new Olympic record of 280.09 points in the combined total, finishing ahead of Patrick Chan (silver) and Denis Ten (bronze). With his win, Hanyu became the youngest gold medalist since American Dick Button in 1948. It was the first Olympic title for an Asian skater in the men's singles event and the second for Japan in figure skating, following Shizuka Arakawa's win in the women's event in 2006 in Turin. Hanyu concluded the season with a victory at the World Championships in Saitama, Japan, defeating compatriot Tatsuki Machida with 0.33 points and becoming the first skater to win the Olympics, Worlds, and the Grand Prix Final in the same season after Russian Alexei Yagudin in 2002–01.
### Second Olympic cycle (2014–2018)
#### 2014–15 season: Second Grand Prix Final win
After the Sochi Olympics, Hanyu's coaching team was joined by jump expert Ghislain Briand who had coached Canadian skater Elvis Stojko to Olympic silver and two world titles in the 1990s. After Stojko's retirement, Briand was convinced that he would "never have the opportunity to work with another athlete with that much talent, dedication, and passion." However, with Hanyu, Briand had eventually found a student who was open towards his unconventional training methods and analysis of figure skating jumps, stating: "Yuzu is probably the first athlete who really recognizes what I do with him. He is the perfect model and he masters his art like no one else. It sometimes makes the job easier, but his higher level also comes with many challenges."
In the 2014–15 season, Hanyu skated his short program to Frédéric Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor and selected a medley from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera for the free skate. The programs were choreographed by Jeffrey Buttle and Shae-Lynn Bourne, respectively, who created all short and free skate programs for Hanyu from 2014 onward. For Hanyu, the 2014–15 season was shaped by a series of injuries, starting with an accident in practice, where he hurt his back and was forced to withdraw from the 2014 Finlandia Trophy. In his first Grand Prix event at the Cup of China, he collided with Chinese skater Yan Han during the free skate warm-up, suffering bruises on his head and chin along with injuring his midriff, left thigh, and right leg. Despite his severe condition, he decided to compete in the free skate and managed to finish second overall behind Maxim Kovtun from Russia. At the NHK Trophy, he came in fourth, securing his place at the Grand Prix Final by one of the slimmest margins of 0.15 points. At the Final, he successfully defended his title with 34.26 points ahead of silver medalist Javier Fernández. In December, Hanyu competed at the 2014–15 Japan Championships, placing first in both segments and winning his third consecutive national title. However, he was forced to withdraw from the exhibition gala due to abdominal pain. He was diagnosed with a tubal residual disease and had to undergo surgery on his bladder, being hospitalized for two weeks and resting for another month. His series of injuries continued with a sprain of his right ankle that forced him to stay in Japan until the 2015 World Championships, where he finished second behind Fernández by less than three points. In April, Hanyu competed for the first time at the ISU World Team Trophy, placing first in both competition segments and earning 24 points to help Team Japan win the bronze medal behind Team USA (gold) and Team Russia (silver).
#### 2015–16 season: Back-to-back world records
For the 2015–16 season, Hanyu returned to his short program Ballade No. 1 and selected the soundtrack of the films Onmyōji and Onmyōji II by Shigeru Umebayashi for the free skate, portraying the Japanese philosopher and astronomer Abe no Seimei. He started the season by winning gold at the 2015 Autumn Classic, finishing 36 points ahead of silver medalist Nam Nguyen. However, in his first Grand Prix event at Skate Canada, he placed sixth in the short program after invalidating two jumping passes, finishing second overall behind Patrick Chan. Hanyu had been struggling with his short program layout throughout the previous season that included a quad toe loop and a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination in the second half. While his coach Brian Orser suggested a more "conservative" change, Hanyu decided to add another quad, stating: "I thought by the time of the Pyeongchang Olympics, you cannot win without a short program that includes two quads with difficult entries and exits—plus excellent footwork, spins, and presentation. As the reigning Olympic champion, I want to be absolutely dominant." The offensive strategy earned him a series of back-to-back world records within two weeks: At the 2015 NHK Trophy, he set new highest scores of 106.33 in the short program, 216.07 in the free skate, and 322.40 in the combined total, becoming the first skater to score above 200 and 300 points in the two segments, respectively. It was the first free skate performance of Hanyu's competitive career with all-positive grades of execution, featuring three quadruple jumps and two triple Axels. At the 2015–16 Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, he broke his own records in all three segments with 110.95 points in the short program, 219.48 in the free skate, and 330.43 overall, becoming the first man to win the Grand Prix Final for three consecutive seasons. He finished 37.48 points ahead of Javier Fernández, breaking the record of the largest victory margin at the Grand Prix Final, which was held by Evgeni Plushenko with 35.10 points in 2004. At the Japan Championships, Hanyu won his fourth consecutive national title after placing first in both segments. However, a lingering pain in his left foot worsened throughout the season, threatening his participation at the 2016 World Championships in Boston. At the event, he managed to skate another clean short program of 110.56 points, but faltered in the free skate, placing second overall behind Fernández. It was subsequently announced that Hanyu had been diagnosed with a Lisfranc injury in his left foot, forcing him off ice for two months.
#### 2016–17 season: Second world title
In the 2016–17 season, Hanyu skated to the song "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince in the short program and a medley of "Asian Dream Song" and "View of Silence" by Joe Hisaishi, titled Hope and Legacy, in the free skate. He opened the season with a win at the 2016 Autumn Classic, becoming the first skater to successfully land a quadruple loop jump in competition. After a rough performance at Skate Canada with a second-place finish behind Patrick Chan, Hanyu and Orser had a debate on the approach for the next competitions. While Orser described the performances as a "skeleton of the [planned] choreography" and pleaded to work on the "total package", Hanyu was convinced that landing his jumps was the key to a well-rounded program. The strategy paid off with a win at the NHK Trophy, surpassing the 300 mark with a total score of 301.47. At the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final in Marseille, Hanyu placed first the short program with a season's best score of 106.53. In the free skate, he made mistakes on three jumping passes, placing third in the segment, but his advantage from the short program was enough to stay in first overall, becoming the first male single skater to win four consecutive Grand Prix Finals. After contracting the flu, Hanyu was forced to withdraw from the Japan Championships, missing the event for the first time. At the 2017 Four Continents Championships, he placed third in the short program after turning his quad Salchow into a double, a jump that had caused him issues throughout the season. He fought back with a strong free skate, placing first in the segment and scoring a new season's best of 303.71 points in the combined total. However, he finished second behind American Nathan Chen by about four points, taking the silver medal for a third time. At the World Championships, Hanyu moved up from fifth place after the short program to first with a clean free skate performance that featured four quadruple jumps and two triple Axels. He scored a new world record of 223.20 points in the segment and won his second world title, finishing ahead of his compatriot Shoma Uno (silver) and Jin Boyang from China (bronze). The event marked the first time that all three medalists scored above 300 points. In July 2022, Hanyu named the free skate performance of Hope and Legacy as the one that he thought would represent him best and was the most perfectly executed of his competitive career. At the 2017 World Team Trophy, the final competition of the season, he came in seventh place after an error-filled short program, but placed first in the free skating, becoming the first skater to complete three quadruple jumps in the second half of a skating program. He contributed 18 points to the team score and won gold with Team Japan.
#### 2017–18 season: Second Olympic title
For the Olympic season, Hanyu returned to his short program Ballade No. 1 and free skate Seimei from the 2015–16 season. At the 2017 CS Autumn Classic, he scored a new world record of 112.72 points in the short program; at the Rostelecom Cup, he landed his first successful quadruple Lutz jump in international competition. However, due to mistakes, he finished second at both events behind Javier Fernández and Nathan Chen, respectively. In November, Hanyu was scheduled to compete at the NHK Trophy, but injured a lateral ligament in his right ankle after a fall on a quad Lutz in practice and was forced to withdraw from all remaining competitions of the year. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, he placed first in the short program with a new Olympic record of 111.68 points. In the free skating, he missed a jump combination and stumbled on his final triple Lutz, placing second in the segment, but it was enough to stay in first overall ahead of Shoma Uno (silver) and Javier Fernández (bronze), scoring another Olympic record of 317.85 points in the combined total. With his win, Hanyu became the first male single skater in 66 years to successfully defend his Olympic title since Dick Button in 1952. Upon the conclusion of the Olympics, Hanyu announced the quadruple Axel as his next career goal, a jump that hadn't been landed in competition until then. In order to allow his injured ankle to recover, he decided to withdraw from the World Championships, but remained first in the world standings for a fifth consecutive time at the end of the 2017–18 season.
### Third Olympic cycle (2018–2022)
#### 2018–19 season: Records in new judging system
For the 2018–19 season, Hanyu selected his programs with the thought to pay tribute to the skating idols of his childhood. His short program to "Otoñal" by Raúl Di Blasio was dedicated to American skater Johnny Weir who had used the piece for his free skate in the 2004–05 season. Hanyu's new free skate program Origin, a medley of the pieces "Art on Ice" and "Magic Stradivarius" by Edvin Marton, was a homage to Russian Evgeni Plushenko who had skated to the music in his free skate Tribute to Nijinsky in 2003–04. Regarding his program choices, Hanyu remarked: "I am satisfied that as a result [of my Olympic success] I have been released from the pressure that I have to produce results. I think and feel that I can skate for myself from now on. I want to go back to my skating origins."
Hanyu opened the season with a win at the 2018 Autumn Classic, but expressed dissatisfaction with his performances, pledging to improve in the next competitions. At the Grand Prix of Helsinki, he set highest scores in all segments under the new +5/-5 GOE judging system, earning 106.69 points in the short program, 190.43 in the free skate, and 297.12 points in the combined total. He also became the first skater to land a quad toe loop-triple Axel jump sequence in competition, winning the event by about 40 points over Michal Březina. At the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, Hanyu upped the short program record to 110.53 points, but on the following day, he re-injured his right ankle in practice after falling on a quad loop. Yet he opted to compete, aided by painkillers, and managed to place first in all segments, winning gold at both of his Grand Prix assignments for the first time. After the competition, Hanyu admitted: "I thought about withdrawing because of the injury, but it is my choice. I really wanted to skate this program in Russia." Due to the injured ligaments and tendons in his right foot, he was forced to withdraw from the Grand Prix Final and Japan Championships, taking about three weeks of rest and another month of rehabilitation. At the 2019 World Championships in Saitama, Hanyu placed third in the short program after turning his opening quad Salchow into a double, but came back with a strong free skate, becoming the first skater to surpass the 200 and 300 marks in the new judging system with 206.10 points in the free skate and 300.97 in total. However, he finished second behind Nathan Chen who bested both scores later in the event. Similar to his preparations for the Olympics, Hanyu had relied on painkillers before and during the competition to make jumping possible. Due to the injury, he was forced to withdraw from the season's final event, the World Team Trophy.
#### 2019–20 season: Achieving Super Slam
In 2019–20, Hanyu returned to the short program "Otoñal" and free skate Origin, and launched the new season with a solid win at the 2019 Autumn Classic. Brian Orser praised his student, noting that he has "never seen him at this time of the year to be so focused." In the Grand Prix series, Hanyu won his first gold medal at Skate Canada, scoring new personal bests of 212.99 in the free skate and 322.59 in the combined total. He placed first with a new largest victory margin of 59.82 points ahead of Nam Nguyen, improving his own record of 55.97 points from 2015. Hanyu expressed his satisfaction with the performance, feeling reaffirmed about the image of skating he was aiming for, and added: "For the first in a long time, I genuinely felt being able to win against myself." At the NHK Trophy, he captured another gold with a total score above 300 and more than 55 points ahead of silver medalist Kevin Aymoz. At the Grand Prix Final, Hanyu went into the short program without company due to a delayed arrival of his coach Ghislain Briand. In his performance, he missed a mandatory jump combination, placing second in the segment and trailing Nathan Chen by about 13 points. In the free skate, Hanyu landed five quadruple jumps in one program for the first time in his career, including his first attempt on a quad Lutz since 2017, but missed a planned triple Axel-triple Axel sequence, finishing second overall behind Chen by more than 43 points.
Competing at his first Japanese championships since the 2016–17 season, Hanyu placed first in the short program, 5.01 points ahead of Shoma Uno. Several jump errors in the free skate saw him place third in that segment, behind Uno and Yuma Kagiyama, and win the silver medal overall. It was Hanyu's first loss to Uno. Heading into the Four Continents Championships in Seoul, Hanyu opted to return to his Ballade No. 1 (Chopin) program and his "Seimei" program from prior seasons. Referencing the 2018 Winter Olympics which were held in Pyeongchang, Hanyu noted that while he wanted to win a gold medal once again in South Korea, he wanted to showcase and focus on his own style of figure skating even more. In the short program, Hanyu broke his previous world record with 111.82 points. Hanyu called it "the most perfect performance I've ever done." Despite errors on two of his quad attempts in the free skate, he won that segment as well, taking the gold medal overall with 299.42 points. Hanyu's victory on February 9, made him the first and only male singles skater to win all of the major ISU championship events at the junior and senior levels, a feat known as the Super Slam, previously only achieved by five other competitors in the other three skating disciplines. He was assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal, but these were canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. At the ISU Skating Awards in 2020, Hanyu was nominated for Best Costume and Most Valuable Skater for the 2019–2020 season, and proceeded to win the latter.
#### 2020–21 season: Seventh world medal
On August 28, Hanyu announced that he would skip the Grand Prix series, citing the risk of COVID-19 for himself, the competition staff, and for his fans who would gather to support him. Despite feeling "conflicted" over whether he should have competed or not as COVID-19 continued and practicing without his coaching team, Hanyu decided to compete in Japanese championships, which doubled as the final qualifier for the upcoming World Championships in Stockholm. He placed first in the short program (103.53 points) and the free skate (215.83 points) with all positive grades of execution on jumping passes and won his fifth national figure skating title with a total score of 319.36 points.
The 2021 World Championships were to be the first direct competition between Hanyu and Nathan Chen since the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final. Hanyu placed first in the short program with a solid performance, 6.02 points ahead of compatriot Yuma Kagiyama. In the free skate, Hanyu opened his program with two quadruple jumps and a triple Axel but received negative grades of execution for all three of them. Scoring 182.20 points, he placed fourth in the free skate and third overall, behind Chen and Kagiyama. It was the first competition Hanyu had placed below second since 2014. On the following day, Hanyu confirmed the report of his asthma attack by overseas media. He stated that he felt a little painful after finishing the free skate, and explained: "There were few small troubles that kept stacking up ... However, if asked whether that was what led to the huge mistake (in the free skate), I don't think it was as big of a miss as it was in terms of the miss in the score." Hanyu's placement combined with Kagiyama's qualified three berths for Japanese men at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Hanyu competed as part of Team Japan for the 2021 World Team Trophy. He placed second in both the short program and the free skate, only behind Nathan Chen. He achieved a personal season's best score in both the short program and the free skate with 107.12 and 193.76 points respectively and earned a total of 22 points to help his team take home the bronze medal.
#### 2021–22 season: Sixth national title and third Olympics
Hanyu confirmed his plans to compete in the 2021–22 Olympic season, and was scheduled to compete at the 2021 NHK Trophy and 2021 Rostelecom Cup in November for the 2021–22 Grand Prix series. On November 4, 2021, the Japan Skating Federation announced Hanyu's withdrawal from the NHK Trophy due to an injury in his right ankle ligament during a fall in practice. The JSF subsequently announced his withdrawal from the Rostelecom Cup prior to the event, but said that he would remain in consideration for the Olympic team.
Hanyu made his season debut at the 2021–22 Japan Figure Skating Championships, placing first in both the short program and free skate, winning his sixth Japanese National title, tying Takeshi Honda's record of most national titles in the last 50 years. He also attempted a quadruple Axel for the first time during the free skate, although it was downgraded to a triple Axel with a two-footed landing. Hanyu was assigned to represent Japan at the 2022 Winter Olympics and the 2022 World Championships.
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Hanyu missed his opening quadruple Salchow jump in the short program due to a hole in the ice and placed eighth with 95.15 points, qualifying him for the free skate. The score was his lowest in the segment since the 2019 World Championships. In the free skate, he fell twice in his first two opening jumps, a quadruple Axel and a quad Salchow. His quad Axel attempt is the first that was not downgraded to triple Axel. Other than these two mistakes, he delivered a clean skate, placing third in the free skate and fourth place overall with a total score of 283.21 points, behind fellow Japanese compatriot and bronze medalist Shoma Uno. Following his free skate, Hanyu confirmed in a press conference that he had re-injured his right ankle in practice the day before the free skate, but since it was the Olympics and not a normal competition, he chose to compete on painkillers instead of withdrawing. On March 1, 2022, the Japan Skating Federation announced Hanyu's withdrawal from the 2022 World Championships due to the unhealed injury.
## Professional skating career
At a press conference on July 19, 2022, Hanyu announced his decision to "step away" from competitive figure skating at amateur level and turn professional, stating that "he had achieved everything he could achieve" and would no longer "seek those kinds of evaluations." He also stated his intention to continue pursuing his "ideal skating" and dream of completing the quadruple Axel as a professional athlete. Nikkei Asia noted that Hanyu's exit from the competitive circuit "marks the end of an era". Juliet Macur of The New York Times remarked that "we may never see another skater like Yuzuru Hanyu". Numerous sports figures from and outside figure skating reacted to Hanyu's announcement with gratitude and praise, including Japanese gymnast Kōhei Uchimura, baseballer Shohei Ohtani, and tennis player Naomi Osaka.
Hanyu later opened accounts on social media, having long eschewed it for years, that are mainly managed by staff. He stated his intention to show his skating through his YouTube channel and increase opportunities for everyone to watch it, including those who are unable to attend ice shows and live overseas, but that he did not have plans to make videos about his daily life. On August 10, Hanyu live-streamed an open practice session on his channel, where he performed his past free skate programs, including a flawless performance of Seimei with the same elements as he had performed at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
In November and December 2022, Hanyu held his first ice show as a professional figure skater, titled Prologue, in Yokohama and Hachinohe. It was the first ever solo show event in figure skating, produced and directed by Hanyu in collaboration with choreographer Mikiko. Each show had a duration of 90 minutes and featured a selection of eight different programs from Hanyu, performed at the athletic level of skating competitions. His second solo show Gift was the first skating event to be held at the Tokyo Dome, one of Japan's largest and most prestigious entertainment venues, with a record ice show audience of 35,000 spectators. It was presented on February 26, 2023, with the dance group Elevenplay and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra among the guest artists. On July 14, the show was globally distributed on the streaming platform Disney+. The Repray Tour, a sequel to Gift, is scheduled with three stops across Japan from November 2023 to February 2024, marking the first time for a solo show tour to be produced in figure skating.
In March 2023, a special commemoration event of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami with the title Yuzuru Hanyu Notte Stellata was held at the Sekisui Heim Super Arena in Rifu at the 12th anniversary of the distaster. The show, produced and directed by Hanyu, featured a cast of international professional skaters as well as three-time Olympic gymnastics champion Kohei Uchimura, merging the sports of figure skating and artistic gymnastics for the first time.
## Skating technique and style
Hanyu is regarded by analysts as an accomplished skater known for his high-level technical elements as well as mature and versatile artistry. His performance is often characterized as "the perfect combination of skills, strength and elegance", tending to "[blur] rigid gender lines". According to four-time Olympic medalist Evgeni Plushenko, Hanyu had a "decided edge over other skaters in the completeness of his performance—spins, skating skills, transitions between jumps and musical interpretation". Two-time world champion Stephane Lambiel described him as "the most complete athlete in figure skating, probably ever."
Hanyu is known for his ability to generate skating speed "out of nowhere" and cover long distances with only a few strokes. At the 2021–22 Japan Championships, he managed to perform a clean short program without using consecutive crossovers and reduce the number of basic skating movements to a minimum. This is a feat that has long been considered near impossible, as stated by former competitive skater John Misha Petkevich in his book Figure Skating: Championship Techniques from 1989: "Without a doubt, crossovers are the staple of every skater. Not only are they used to negotiate corners, but they are also used to pick up speed. Skating without crossovers would be virtually unthinkable."
The ability to accelerate with a few strokes allows Hanyu to execute his jumps from a variety of difficult entries. Notable are the backward counter turn, twizzle, and spread eagle into his signature triple Axel jump. Hanyu is also known for his strong vaulting technique with minimal pre-rotation on the ice at the take-off, achieving trajectories of impressive size. With a height of 70 centimeters and covering a distance of 3.62 meters, his triple Axel was the largest measured jump in the men's short program at the 2019 World Championships. In 2018, Hanyu's triple Axel from the 2018 Winter Olympics was used as a demonstration example by the ISU for the GOE judging criteria "very good height and very good length" as well as "steps before the jump, unexpected or creative entry". Despite the complex preceding steps and big trajectory, he manages to land his jumps smoothly and increase his skating speed from take-off to landing. With the toe loop, Salchow, loop, and Lutz, Hanyu has successfully executed four different types of quadruple jumps in the course of his competitive career. He stated his preference for edge jumps, and notably featured all three types in his short program of the 2016–17 season.
Hanyu is able to execute the layback Biellmann and doughnut camel spin, which are more commonly seen in women's singles and known for their difficulty among male skaters due to the high flexibility required in spine, hips, and shoulders. Other signature moves include the layback Ina Bauer, hydroblading, and the side lunge. Overall, Hanyu's technical elements stand out for their high quality of execution, having received a total of 29 maximum scores in international competition, covering all four types of required elements in the men's singles discipline: jumps, spins, steps, and choreographic sequences. Beyond that, his elements are noted for their seamless embedding into the choreography and his movements for their precise timing with the music, the latter being awarded a perfect 10.00 in the interpretation component at the 2021–22 Japan Championships.
Hanyu's programs cover a variety of different music genres, including classical pieces, modern pop rock, musicals, and traditional Japanese music. He notably portrayed the historical Japanese figures Abe no Seimei and Uesugi Kenshin in his free skate programs at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics. He also dedicated various exhibition programs to the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and performed them as live music collaborations at shows like Fantasy on Ice among others. Hanyu is known to be involved in all aspects of his programs, from the music selection and editing process to the costume design and choreography. As his choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne stated, "He knows what costume he wants. He knows what jump order he wants. He makes a lot of the decisions on his own. You can't say 'no' to that ever. You know, with music especially, because he is going to skate with conviction."
Figure skaters Hanyu looked up to while growing up are Evgeni Plushenko and Johnny Weir. With his competitive programs for the 2018–19 season, he paid homage to the two skaters by skating to "Otoñal" by Raúl di Blasio as well as "Art on Ice" and "Magic Stradivarius" by Edvin Marton, which had been used by Weir and Plushenko, respectively, in their programs. At the press conference of the 2018 Winter Olympics, Hanyu also mentioned Stephane Lambiel, Javier Fernández, and Dick Button as the skaters who had influenced him as a skater.
## Former coaches and choreographers
Before the 2011–12 season, most of Hanyu's career was guided by Nanami Abe in Sendai. After winning bronze at the 2012 World Figure Skating Championships, he switched coaches to Brian Orser, who is known for guiding Kim Yuna to gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics. In switching, Hanyu continued to attend high school in Sendai but made frequent trips to Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club (TCSCC), where Orser works as a skating instructor. Hidehito Ito, the figure skating director at the Japanese Skating Federation, said the change was necessary to "challenge" Hanyu and "raise the level [of his skating] more". During his time at TCSCC, Hanyu was also coached by Tracy Wilson and Ghislain Briand. On his experience working as a jump specialist with Hanyu since 2014, Briand stated that he was given a lot of room: "I have to admit [Hanyu] is probably the first athlete who really recognizes what I'm doing with him." After Hanyu turned professional, Briand stated that he would continue to work with him when he was needed.
During Hanyu's junior career, all of his programs were choreographed by Nanami Abe. Starting from his 2012–2013 season, his programs were choreographed by others, with Shae-Lynn Bourne and Jeffrey Buttle as frequent collaborators. Hanyu has also worked with Canadian choreographer David Wilson for several years, including his free skate program for the 2014 Winter Olympics, before collaborated on many exhibition programs. Other choreographers for his exhibition programs include Kurt Browning, Kenji Miyamoto, and former coach Nanami Abe.
In 2021, due to travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, Hanyu started to train alone in Sendai with some remote consultation from his coaches. Despite the difficulties of training alone, Hanyu found that it had been a good opportunity to learn how to control and analyze himself, which led him not return to Canada until he turned professional and made Ice Rink Sendai his training base again. During that period none of his coaches accompanied him to any competition except the 2021 World Championships. Hanyu also opted to receive remote choreography for his programs ever since and has contributed significantly to the choreography of his programs in the 2020–21 season.
## Public life
### Endorsements and ambassadorships
Hanyu has appeared in many commercials and advertising campaigns over the years. In 2013, Hanyu, alongside fellow Japanese figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, became the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics campaign ambassador for P&G's global "Proud Sponsor of Moms" campaign. He also signed an affiliation contract with All Nippon Airways which ended when he turned professional in 2022 but he remained sponsored by the company. From February 8 to 23, 2014, Hanyu endorsed ANA's new line of flight attendant outfits, which were designed by Prabal Gurung and appeared in a TV commercial for their 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics "Hello Blue Hello Future" campaign. In September 2014, Hanyu starred in a TV commercial for Capcom's new video game Monster Hunter 4G and endorsed Lotte's Ghana milk chocolate with Mao Asada, singer Airi Matsui, and actresses Suzu Hirose and Tao Tsuchiya, in following years he also endorsed Lotte's Xylitol Whites and GUM FOR THE GAME.
Hanyu has also worked with other brands such as Ajinomoto endorsing their sport nutritional products Amino Vital and nutritional meals along with other athletes like Uta Abe, bath salts Bathclin Kikiyu, bedding products Nishikawa Sangyo co., and Phiten for their Aqua-Titanium sports socks and line of Rakuwa nylon-coated necklaces and bracelets including Hanyu's inspired 'Wings Gold' models. In 2019, Hanyu became the ambassador for Citizen in China, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as the global ambassador of the Sekkisei series by Kosé. He was later appointed as the global "muse" of the Sekkisei Miyabi brand in 2020. In October 2021, Hanyu was chosen as a face of Towa Pharmaceutical co. appearing in a TV commercial with veteran actress Tetsuko Kuroyanagi and endorsed ANA's new teleportation services "avatarin".
In 2013 and 2021, Hanyu was appointed as the model for Miyagi Prefecture Police's traffic safety poster aiming to encourage compliance with traffic rules and spread awareness of safe driving. According to an official in March 2021, Hanyu was chosen because "he embodies sportsmanship".
In June 2021, Hanyu was appointed as the ambassador of the world's first official Paralympics game The Pegasus Dream Tour, making his video game debut with his avatar appearing in the game. According to the representative of the game's developer company, Hanyu was chosen because "he is an athlete as well as a person who has artistry in his way of life".
Since April 2014, Hanyu has been acting as the tourism ambassador of Sendai and featured in the city's tourism posters as well as tourist guidebooks.
### Philanthropy
Since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Hanyu has been an advocate for and supporter of various campaigns to help earthquake victims, as he was also directly affected by the disaster, stating: "When the earthquake hit, I was on the ice at my home rink in Sendai". Shortly after the disaster, he and other skaters skated in ice shows to raise money for the victims, raising a total of more than \$150,000. He also sold his personal belongings at the show, fundraising an additional ¥2,954,323 (\$35,387). And since the disaster, Hanyu has been lending his image to the Great East Japan Earthquake Employment, Education and Health Support Organization to use for posters encouraging donations for the disaster area.
Hanyu donated his 2014 Olympic gold medal 6 million yen (\$55,000) prize money as well as his 2018 Olympic gold medal 10 million yen (\$92,000) prize money received from the Japan Skating Federation and Japanese Olympic Committee to Sendai and Miyagi Prefecture to help with the reconstruction of the disaster areas. He also has been helping his home rink Ice Rink Sendai, rendered unusable after the disaster, by donating all the royalties and part of the proceeds of his autobiography series. It was revealed, in 2023, that a total of ¥87,330,406 (\$617,000) had been donated to the rink.
In September 2014, Hanyu was appointed as the Tsunami Disaster Prevention Ambassador for one year participating in activities to spread tsunami disaster prevention public awareness. In February 2015, Hanyu became the spokesman for reconstruction efforts led by the Japanese Red Cross Society. He also lent his image as the spokesman for the Red Cross' "Hatachi no Kenketsu" donation campaign where he starred in the promotional video with patients. In April 2016, upon his request to his sponsor Phiten, drinking water was donated to the areas affected by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. In March 2019, he donated a pair of figure skates to an online charity auction which raised 7.12 million yen (\$64,000) for the disaster area reconstruction. He also collaborated with Line Corporation supervising the creation of "Yuzuru Hanyu 3.11 Smile Stamp" which went on sale with all revenues donated to the Nippon Foundation's "Special Fund for Disaster Reconstruction" to support acts for reconstruction and future disaster preparation. On August 21, 2019, a poster of Hanyu with the protagonist of the anime Yowamushi Pedal was released to promote Tour de Tohoku, an annual charity cycling event held to support the cause. He appeared in five of the nine posters being released. In 2021, marking the 10th anniversary of Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Hanyu organized the "Together, Forward" exhibition that traces his footsteps during that difficult period, revisiting the affected people and places. The exhibition is held in multiple Japanese cities in an effort to remind everyone of the importance of disaster prevention and preparation.
In cooperation with Yomiuri Shimbun, a free entry exhibition of Hanyu's photos, costumes, and medals was held offline in multiple locations in Japan in 2018 and 2022 and online in 2020. A total sum of more than 150 million yen was donated from the sales of the exhibition's official goods. Around 42 million yen was donated in 2018 to support victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and other disasters and around 27 million yen was donated in 2020 to the National Corona Medical Welfare Support Fund. The donation from the 2022 exhibition that exceeded 85 million yen was donated to the Yomiuri Light and Love Foundation which was used to create a disaster relief fund in case of any large-scale disaster that occurs in Japan in the future. In February 2023, it was announced that 10 million yen from the fund will be donated for relief and reconstruction efforts in areas affected by the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake in Turkey.
Hanyu also regularly participates in Nippon TV's annual charity program 24-Hour Television since 2014, holding special ice shows and visiting victims in disaster areas. In 2014, he held a one-night ice show to bring in donations. In 2015, he and Hey! Say! JUMP member Yuri Chinen designed "Chari-T-shirts" for the program under the slogan "To connect: a smile beyond time". The shirts were to be sold with the profits given to charity. He also visited earthquake-affected areas in Fukushima and Ishinomaki, interviewing the victims as part of the program segment.
### Film and television
Hanyu served as a judge on Japan's popular New Year's Eve music show Kōhaku Uta Gassen twice, in 2015 and 2022. He made his on-screen debut as Date Shigemura, a samurai lord, in the 2016 movie, The Magnificent Nine. In May 2023, Hanyu guested on a special episode celebrating the 48th-anniversary of the world's longest-running single-host talk show, Tetsuko's Room [ja]. Hanyu was one of the athletes featured in the 2022 Winter Olympics official documentary film Beijing 2022 released in May 2023.
Hanyu released two video albums compiling some of his competitive career performances, the first titled Time of Awakening was released on May 21, 2014, including performances till the 2014 Winter Olympics. The album became the first from an athlete to top Oricon's DVD weekly chart since its establishment in 1999 and peaked at number 3 on the Blu-ray weekly chart after selling 44,000 copies in its first week. The second album titled Time of Evolution was released on September 15, 2019, including performances from the 2015–16 season to the 2018 winter Olympics. The album became the first sports-related work to top Oricon's Blu-ray weekly chart and peaked at number 2 on the DVD weekly chart after selling over 38,000 copies in its first week.
On December 18, 2015, NHK Enterprises released the DVD of The Flowers Bloom on Ice, featuring behind-the-scenes and interviews with Shizuka Arakawa and Yuzuru Hanyu as they skate at the ice show together to support reconstruction after the 2011 Japan earthquake.
In 2018, Hanyu's first self-produced show Continues with Wings was live broadcast on TV Asahi CS and live-streamed at 66 movie theaters throughout Japan. He is also one of the lead cast members besides Stéphane Lambiel and Johnny Weir at the annual touring ice show Fantasy on Ice, having participated in all editions of the tour since its revival in 2010 with one exception, having missed the shows in 2016 due to rehabilitation from a ligament injury.
### Books and magazines
Hanyu released the first two parts of his autobiography series Blue Flames and Blue Flames II in 2012 and 2016 respectively. In 2023, the third part Blue Flames III and the fourth and final part of the series Blue Flames IV were released. As of 2023, the series has sold over 400,000 copies.
Hanyu released various photobooks cooperating with multiple publishers and photographers. His first photo book, Yuzuru, was released on October 4, 2014, selling over 23,000 copies in the first week. It ranked first in Oricon's weekly charts for photos and sport-related categories, as well as second in the chart's general books category.
On September 25, 2015, Yuzuru Hanyu Sayings was released containing pictures and quotes by the skater. The book topped Amazon's reservation sales rankings. On October 2, 2022, a second part of the book was released. On March 1, 2018, the book Live Your Dream including a collection of interviews with Hanyu from 2015 to 2018 was released. The book sold 28,000 copies ranking third in Oricon's weekly general books chart. On October 11, 2018, Yuzuru Hanyu Soul Program was released. The book includes photos and descriptions of programs performed by Hanyu. In November, 2022, Yuzuru Hanyu Amateur Era Complete Record was released. The book looks back on Hanyu's competitive skating life including press photos and competition results.
Hanyu has graced the cover of numerous Japanese sports magazines as well as famous fashion and lifestyle magazines, including An An, Aera, and Elle Japan. Hanyu's special edition of the Aera magazine The Driving Force of the Leap released in October, 2022 sold over 29,000 copies in the first week topping the Oricon's weekly general books chart.
## Personal life and education
Since Hanyu began carrying a Winnie-the-Pooh tissue box to competitions in 2010, his supporters and fans eventually made it a custom to acknowledge the end of his performances by throwing Pooh bears onto the ice instead of other kinds of stuffed toys or gifts, which has been a tradition in figure skating. Hanyu donates the bears to disadvantaged children at local hospitals and charities surrounding the arena that hosted the event.
Hanyu studied at Nanakita Elementary and Junior High School. In 2013, Hanyu graduated from Tohoku High School [ja] then entered an e-school program on Human Information Science at Waseda University. He attended the school from his training base in Canada. In August 2020, it was revealed that his graduation thesis summarizes how 3D motion capture technology could be used in figure skating, and in particular its potential for use in figure skating judging. One area of research he did is recording and analyzing his movement while doing the triple Axel jump off-ice which he hopes can be used to improve the skills of athletes and AI judging. He officially graduated from the university in September 2020, but was unable to attend the ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. In March 2021, a bulletin paper summarizing his graduation thesis was published in the Waseda Journal of Human Sciences.
On August 4, 2023, Hanyu announced his marriage to an unnamed spouse through his official social media accounts.
## Accolades and impact
Many sport writers, commentators, and skaters have made the case for Hanyu as the greatest skater in history, particularly after his second Olympic victory, for his well-rounded skills, longevity at the top in a highly competitive field, and ability to deliver under pressure. His decision to attempt the quadruple Axel at the 2022 Winter Olympics instead of taking a conservative option was seen to have strengthened his status.
Hanyu is regarded as part of the vanguard of the quad revolution in men's figure skating. He was one of the few skaters who challenged quadruple Salchow at the 2014 Olympics. He is credited as the first figure skater to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition after performing it in the short program at the Autumn Classic International in Montreal, Canada on September 30, 2016. He is also the only skater who has landed a quadruple toe loop-triple Axel sequence in competition, doing so for the first time at Grand Prix Helsinki 2018. Hanyu is also the first skater to land a quadruple toe loop-Euler-triple flip combination at Skate Canada 2019. At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Hanyu made his first attempt on the quadruple Axel in an international competition. Despite falling on the jump, he received the base value of quad Axel before being reduced for under-rotation. It was the closest quad Axel attempt in a competition until American Ilia Malinin successfully landed one at the 2022 CS U.S. Classic, who cited Hanyu as his inspiration to attempt the jump. However, in regards to the ongoing debate on jumps versus artistry in the sport, Hanyu spoke through an interpreter after his second Olympic win in 2018:
> "I believe [...] that this artistry is very much based on having the correct technique and a strong foundation at the core of everything. It is upon these that the artistry is built, and without that strong foundation and that basis in technique, it is not possible to have that full artistry required as well. [...] Of course there are some other figure skaters who perhaps place a much higher priority on the jumps themselves and they are also successful in winning in competitions through this as well. However, [sic] personally I believe that within these different difficult jumps these are used as the basis for the artistry, and this relationship is balanced, which comes together to form what is most important."
In recognition of his achievements, Hanyu has been awarded numerous accolades, including the People's Honor Award in 2018 becoming the first figure skater and the youngest recipient of the award. He was also awarded the Medal of Honour with Purple Ribbon in 2014 and 2018, and received two monuments depicting his trademark poses performed at the 2014 and 2018 Olympics in his hometown of Sendai. He was also nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year in 2019 becoming the first figure skater to be nominated for the award, and was awarded the Most Valuable Skater of the 2019–20 season at the inaugural ISU Skating Awards in 2020. In 2021, he was awarded the Azusa Ono Memorial Award, the most prestigious award that can be conferred to students and given to those recognized as a model, from Waseda University. On October 11, 2022, he was announced as a recipient of the Kikuchi Kan Prize for his accomplishments as a competitive figure skater as well as his attitude of "continuing to take on challenges".
Hanyu was featured in prestigious lists, such as Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 as well as ESPN's World Fame 100 and The Dominant 20, and has received multiple awards and ranked high in multiple lists and popularity polls from various media outlets. In 2022, he placed sixth in the list of most-searched athletes on Google Search worldwide, behind Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams (all tennis), Manti Te'o (American football), and Shaun White (snowboard).
## World records and other achievements
Throughout his career, Hanyu has broken world records nineteen times – seven times under the current +5/-5 GOE system and twelve times in the old +3/-3 GOE system. He holds the historical world record in all three competition segments: the short program, free skating, and combined total score.
## Programs
## Competitive highlights
## See also
Yuzuru Hanyu series
- Yuzuru Hanyu Olympic seasons
- Ice shows produced by Yuzuru Hanyu
- List of career achievements by Yuzuru Hanyu
- List of programs and publications of Yuzuru Hanyu
Other'
- List of Olympic medalists in figure skating
- Axel jump
- Fantasy on Ice
- The Magnificent Nine'' |
8,446,667 | Denise Phua | 1,169,589,120 | Singaporean politician | [
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"Hwa Chong Junior College alumni",
"Living people",
"Members of the Parliament of Singapore",
"National University of Singapore alumni",
"People's Action Party politicians",
"Raffles Girls' Secondary School alumni",
"Singaporean Christians",
"Singaporean disability rights activists",
"Singaporean people of Hokkien descent",
"Singaporean women in politics"
]
| Denise Phua Lay Peng (Chinese: 潘丽萍; pinyin: Pān Lìpíng) born 9 December 1959 is a Singaporean politician who has been serving as Mayor of Central Singapore District since 2014. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Kampong Glam division of Jalan Besar GRC since 2015.
Prior to entering politics, she is a full-time special needs volunteer after working in the private sector for two decades. She became the president of the Autism Resource Centre and co-founded Pathlight School.
As an MP, she has focused on developing programmes for disabled people and special needs communities in Singapore. She is a member of both the Government Parliamentary Committees (GPC) for Education and Social and Family Development.
## Early life and career
Phua attended Balestier Girls' Primary School, Raffles Girls' School and Hwa Chong Junior College before graduating from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.
She went on to complete a Master of Business Administration degree at Golden Gate University.
In a career spanning two decades, she held management positions at Hewlett-Packard and the Wuthelam Group. She then founded a regional leadership training firm, the Centre of Effective Leadership.
## Volunteer work
Her son was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. As Phua consulted professionals and did research on how to help him, she thought about how she could help other autistic children. She subsequently founded WeCAN, a charity which helps caregivers of autistic people and offers early intervention programmes for autistic preschoolers.
In 2005, Phua left the corporate world to be a full-time special needs volunteer. She and her partners sold the Centre of Effective Leadership to Right Management, a Manpower Inc. subsidiary. Phua then became president of the Autism Resource Centre. She often wrote to newspapers and government agencies on issues affecting the special needs community. She is one of the key architects behind three 5-year Enabling Masterplans for the Disabled in Singapore.
Phua is also the co-founder and former acting principal of Pathlight School, the first special school for autistic children in Singapore. The school offers mainstream curriculum and life skills education to its students. A believer in helping autistic people realise their potential and integrate into society, Phua helped develop many of the school's programmes. These include employability skills training through a student-run café, specialised vocational training, and satellite classes where Pathlight students mix with mainstream students. In four years, enrolment increased tenfold and the school attracted media attention for its impact on students.
Continuing her volunteer efforts, Phua continues to supervise two charities – Autism Resource Centre (Singapore) and Autism Association (Singapore), and two special schools – Pathlight School and Eden School.
## Political career
Phua joined the ruling PAP's Jalan Besar branch in 2004. The following year, she was appointed to the Feedback Supervisory Panel, which leads the government's Feedback Unit. In the 2006 general election, she was fielded as a PAP candidate in Jalan Besar GRC, which was contested by the Singapore Democratic Alliance. During the election campaign, she promised to make Singapore a more inclusive society by representing disabled people and special needs communities. The PAP team won Jalan Besar GRC with 69.26% of the vote.
In July 2006, the PAP formed a workgroup, headed by Phua, to explore initiatives to improve the financial security of disabled and special needs children. Phua also led a committee that drew up a five-year plan to improve services for special needs children. The PAP studied their proposals and later implemented some, such as a National non-profit Special Needs Trust Fund. Laws were also drafted to prohibit abuse of mentally disabled people and to allow parents to appoint someone to look after their disabled children after they die.
### Mayor of Central Singapore District
Phua was appointed Mayor of Central Singapore District in 2014 for a three-year term, and was reappointed for the following term in 2017. As Mayor, Phua has initiated many projects to meet the needs of her residents. These include a suite of more than 50 community programmes by the Central Singapore Community Development Council to help residents live a better life, and build a do-good district. Among them are:
- Nurture, a 40-week programme to develop confident and self-directed learners in communications and problem solving;
- In Search of Purpose talk series, to spur residents on in finding their bigger purpose in life;
- Silver Friends, a platform to bring volunteers and partners to serve the seniors through a series of silver programmes; and
- The Purple Symphony, Singapore's largest inclusive orchestra comprising musicians with and without special needs. |
90,095 | Ben Stiller | 1,172,746,633 | American actor and comedian (born 1965) | [
"1965 births",
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"20th-century American comedians",
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"Jewish American television producers",
"Living people",
"Male actors from New York (state)",
"Male actors from New York City",
"New York (state) Democrats",
"People from the Upper West Side",
"Primetime Emmy Award winners",
"Screenwriters from New York (state)",
"Television producers from New York City",
"UCLA Film School alumni"
]
| Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is the son of the comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Stiller was a member of a group of comedic actors colloquially known as the Frat Pack. His films have grossed more than \$2.6 billion in Canada and the United States, with an average of \$79 million per film. Throughout his career, he has received various awards and honors, including an Emmy Award, multiple MTV Movie Awards, a Britannia Award and a Teen Choice Award.
While beginning his acting career, Stiller wrote several mockumentaries and was offered a variety sketch comedy series titled The Ben Stiller Show, which he produced and hosted for its 13-episode run. The series ran on MTV from 1990 to 1992, earning him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Program. He then appeared on shows such as Friends, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Arrested Development.
Having previously acted in television, he began acting in films. He made his directorial debut with Reality Bites and continued directing films and often starring in them, such as with The Cable Guy (1996), Zoolander (2001), Tropic Thunder (2008), and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013). During this time he also starred in a string of successful studio comedies including There’s Something About Mary (1998), Along Came Polly (2004), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), Starsky & Hutch (2004), and Tower Heist (2011). Stiller is also widely known for multiple franchise films such as the Meet the Parents films (2000–2010), the Madagascar franchise (2005–2012), and the Night at the Museum trilogy (2006–2014).
He is known for his performances in independent films such as David O. Russell's Flirting with Disaster (1996), Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Noah Baumbach's Greenberg (2010), While We're Young (2014), and The Meyerowitz Stories (2017). In 2018 he directed the Showtime limited series Escape at Dannemora earning himself a Directors Guild of America Award and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series. In 2022 he served as a director and executive producer on the Apple TV+ series Severance earning two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series.
## Early life
Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller was born on November 30, 1965, in New York City and raised on the Upper West Side. His father, comedian and actor Jerry Stiller, was from a Jewish family that emigrated from Poland and Galicia in Central Europe. His mother, actress and comedian Anne Meara, who was from an Irish Catholic background, converted to Reform Judaism after marrying his father. While they "were never a very religious family", they celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas, and Stiller had a Bar Mitzvah.
His parents frequently took him on the sets of their appearances, including The Mike Douglas Show when he was 6. He considered his childhood unusual, stating: "In some ways, it was a show-business upbringing—a lot of traveling, a lot of late nights—not what you'd call traditional." His older sister, Amy, has appeared in many of his productions, including Reality Bites, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, and Zoolander. Stiller displayed an early interest in filmmaking and made Super 8 movies with his sister and friends.
At age 9, Stiller made his acting debut as a guest on his mother's short-lived television series, Kate McShane. In the late 1970s, he performed with the New York City troupe NYC's First All Children's Theater, playing several roles, including the title role in Clever Jack and the Magic Beanstalk. After being inspired by the television show Second City Television while in high school, Stiller realized that he wanted to get involved with sketch comedy. During his high school years, he was also the drummer of the post-punk band Capital Punishment, which released the studio album Roadkill in 1982. The band's bassist, Peter Swann, went on to become a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals, serving from 2008 until 2022. The band reunited in 2018 to release a new EP, titled This is Capital Punishment, for Record Store Day. The current status of the band is unknown.
Stiller attended The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine and graduated from the Calhoun School in New York in 1983. He started performing on the cabaret circuit as opening act to the cabaret siren Jadin Wong. Stiller then enrolled as a film student at the University of California, Los Angeles. After nine months, Stiller left school to move back to New York City. He made his way through acting classes, auditioning and trying to find an agent.
## Acting career
### Early work
When he was approximately 15, Stiller obtained a small part with one line on the television soap opera Guiding Light, although in an interview he characterized his performance as poor. He was later cast in a role in the 1986 Broadway revival of John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves, alongside John Mahoney; the production would garner four Tony Awards.
During its run, Stiller produced a satirical mockumentary whose principal was fellow actor Mahoney. Stiller's comedic work was well received by the cast and crew of the play, and he followed up with a 10-minute short titled The Hustler of Money, a parody of the Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money. The film featured him in a send-up of Tom Cruise's character and Mahoney in the Paul Newman role, only this time as a bowling hustler instead of a pool shark. The short got the attention of Saturday Night Live, which aired it in 1987 and two years later offered Stiller a spot as a writer.
In the meantime, he had a bit role in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun.
In 1989 Stiller wrote and appeared on Saturday Night Live as a featured performer. However, since the show did not want him to make more short films, he left after four episodes. He then put together Elvis Stories, a short film about a fictitious tabloid focused on recent sightings of Elvis Presley. The film starred friends and co-stars John Cusack, Jeremy Piven, Mike Myers, Andy Dick, and Jeff Kahn. The film was considered a success, and led him to develop the short film Going Back to Brooklyn for MTV; it was a music video starring comedian Colin Quinn that parodied LL Cool J's recent hit "Going Back to Cali".
### The Ben Stiller Show
Producers at MTV were so impressed with Back to Brooklyn that they offered Stiller a 13-episode show in the experimental "vid-com" format. Titled The Ben Stiller Show, this series mixed comedy sketches with music videos and parodied various television shows, music stars, and films. It starred Stiller, along with main writer Jeff Khan and Harry O'Reilly, with his parents and sister making occasional appearances.
Although the show was canceled after its first season, it led to another show titled The Ben Stiller Show, on the Fox Network in 1992. The series aired 12 episodes on Fox, with a 13th unaired episode broadcast by Comedy Central in a later revival. Among the principal writers on The Ben Stiller Show were Stiller and Judd Apatow, with the show featuring the ensemble cast of Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk. Both Denise Richards and Jeanne Tripplehorn appeared as extras in various episodes. Throughout its short run, The Ben Stiller Show frequently appeared at the bottom of the ratings, even as it garnered critical acclaim and eventually won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program" posthumously.
### Directorial debut
In the early 1990s, Stiller had minor roles in films such as Stella and Highway to Hell as well as a cameo in The Nutt House. In 1992, Stiller was approached to direct Reality Bites, based on a script by Helen Childress. Stiller devoted the next year and a half to rewriting the script with Childress, fundraising, and recruiting cast members for the film. It was eventually released in early 1994, directed by Stiller and featuring him as a co-star. The film was produced by Danny DeVito, who would later direct Stiller's 2003 film Duplex and produce his 2004 film Along Came Polly.
Reality Bites debuted as the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend and received mixed reviews.
Stiller joined his parents in the family film Heavyweights (1995), in which he played two roles, and then had a brief uncredited role in Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore (1996). Next, he had lead roles in If Lucy Fell and Flirting with Disaster, before tackling his next directorial effort with The Cable Guy, which starred Jim Carrey. Stiller once again was featured in his own film, as twins. The film received mixed reviews, but was noted for paying the highest salary for an actor up to that point, as Carrey received \$20 million for his work in the film. The film also connected Stiller with future Frat Pack members Jack Black and Owen Wilson.
Also in 1996, MTV invited Stiller to host the VH1 Fashion Awards. Along with SNL writer Drake Sather, Stiller developed a short film for the awards about a male model known as Derek Zoolander. It was so well received that he developed another short film about the character for the 1997 VH1 Fashion Awards and finally remade the skit into a film.
### Comedic work
In 1996, Stiller had a small uncredited role as Hal L., the sadistic orderly running the nursing home in the movie Happy Gilmore.
In 1998, Stiller put aside his directing ambitions to star in the Farrelly Brothers' There's Something About Mary, alongside Cameron Diaz, which became a surprise hit with a long-lasting cult following. That year, he starred in several dramas, including Zero Effect, Your Friends & Neighbors, and Permanent Midnight. He was invited to take part in hosting the Music Video awards, for which he developed a parody of the Backstreet Boys and performed a sketch with his father, commenting on his current career.
In 1999, he starred in three films, including Mystery Men, where he played a superhero wannabe called Mr. Furious. He returned to directing with a new spoof television series for Fox titled Heat Vision and Jack, starring Jack Black; however, the show was not picked up by Fox after its pilot episode and the series was cancelled.
In 2000, Stiller starred in three more films, including one of his most recognizable roles, a male nurse named Gaylord "Greg" Focker in Meet the Parents, opposite Robert De Niro. The film was well received by critics, grossed over \$330 million worldwide, and spawned two sequels. Also in 2000, MTV again invited Stiller to make another short film, and he developed Mission: Improbable, a spoof of Tom Cruise's role in Mission: Impossible II and other films.
In 2001, Stiller directed his third feature film, Zoolander, in which he also starred as Derek Zoolander. The film featured multiple cameos from a variety of celebrities, including Donald Trump, Paris Hilton, Lenny Kravitz, Heidi Klum, and David Bowie, among others. The film was banned in Malaysia (as the plot centered on an assassination attempt of a Malaysian prime minister), while shots of the World Trade Center were digitally removed and hidden for the film's release after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
After Stiller worked with Owen Wilson in Zoolander, they joined forces again for The Royal Tenenbaums.
Over the next two years, Stiller continued with the lackluster box office film Duplex, and cameos in Orange County and Nobody Knows Anything! He has guest-starred on several television shows, including an appearance in an episode of the television series The King of Queens, in a flashback as the father of the character Arthur (played by Jerry Stiller). He also made a guest appearance on World Wrestling Entertainment's WWE Raw.
In 2004, Stiller appeared in six different films, all of which were comedies, and include some of his highest-grossing films: Starsky & Hutch, Envy, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (in which he had an uncredited cameo), Along Came Polly, and Meet the Fockers. While the critical flop Envy only grossed \$14.5 million, the most successful film of these was Meet the Fockers, which grossed over \$516.6 million worldwide.
He also made extended guest appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development in the same year. In 2005, Stiller appeared in Madagascar, which was his first experience as a voice actor in an animated film. Madagascar was a massive worldwide hit, and spawned the sequels Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa in 2008 and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted in 2012.
In 2006, Stiller had cameo roles in School for Scoundrels and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny; he was executive producer of the latter. In December 2006, he had the lead role in Night at the Museum. Although not a critical favorite, it earned over \$115 million in ten days.
In 2007, Stiller starred alongside Malin Åkerman in the romantic comedy The Heartbreak Kid. The film earned over \$100 million worldwide despite receiving mostly negative reviews.
In 2008, Stiller directed, co-wrote, co-produced, and starred in the film Tropic Thunder, with Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black; Stiller had originally conceived of the film's premise while filming Empire of the Sun in 1987.
In 2009, he starred with Amy Adams in Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian, sequel to Night at the Museum.
In 2010, Stiller made a brief cameo in Joaquin Phoenix's mockumentary I'm Still Here and played the lead role in the comedy-drama Greenberg. He again portrayed Greg Focker in the critically panned but financially successful Little Fockers, the second sequel to Meet the Parents. He originally had planned to voice the titular protagonist of Megamind along with Robert Downey Jr., but later dropped out and was replaced by Will Ferrell while still remaining an executive producer and voicing a minor character in the film, a museum curator named Bernard.
In 2011, Stiller starred with Eddie Murphy and Alan Alda in Tower Heist, about a group of maintenance workers planning a heist in a residential skyscraper. He produced, directed, and starred in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which was released in 2013.
In 2018 and 2019, Stiller played Michael Cohen on Saturday Night Live for 6 episodes.
## "Frat Pack"
Stiller has been described as the "acknowledged leader" of the Frat Pack, a core group of actors who have worked together in multiple films. The group includes Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. Stiller has been acknowledged as the leader of the group because of his multiple cameos and for his consistent use of the other members in roles in films which he produces and directs. He has appeared the most with Owen Wilson (in 12 films). Of the 35 primary films that are considered Frat Pack films, Stiller has been involved with 20, in some capacity.
Stiller is also the only member of this group to have appeared in a Brat Pack film (Fresh Horses). He rejects the "Frat Pack" label, saying in a 2008 interview that the concept was "completely fabricated".
## Personal life
### Relationships and family
Stiller dated several actresses during his early television and film career, including Jeanne Tripplehorn, Calista Flockhart, and Amanda Peet.
In May 2000, Stiller married actress Christine Taylor at an oceanfront ceremony in Kauai, Hawaii. The two had met in 1999, while filming a never-broadcast television pilot for Fox called Heat Vision and Jack. Taylor and Stiller appeared together in the films Zoolander, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Tropic Thunder, Zoolander 2 and in the TV series Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Both adopted a vegetarian diet for health reasons.
After 17 years of marriage, Taylor and Stiller separated in 2017. They later reconciled after living together during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The couple live in Westchester County, New York and Manhattan and have a daughter Ella Olivia (b. 2002) and a son Quinlin Dempsey "Quinn" Stiller (b. 2005).
### Philanthropy and advocacy
In 2001, Stiller appeared as a celebrity contestant on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He won \$32,000 for his charity Project ALS, after incorrectly answering his \$250,000 question in an attempt to equal Edie Falco's \$250,000 win.
Stiller supports such charities as Declare Yourself, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation. In 2010, Stiller, together with Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Robin Williams, and others, starred in The Cove PSA: My Friend is..., in writer-director Andres Useche's effort to stop the slaughter of dolphins. He was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR on July 2, 2018.
Stiller frequently impersonates such performers as Bono, Tom Cruise, Bruce Springsteen, and David Blaine. In an interview with Parade, he commented that Robert Klein, George Carlin, and Jimmie Walker were inspirations for his comedy career. Stiller is also a self-professed Trekkie and appeared in the television special Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond to express his love of the show, as well as a comedy roast for William Shatner. He frequently references the show in his work, and named his production company Red Hour Productions after a time of day in the original series episode, "The Return of the Archons".
Stiller considers Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be his "hero", and he visited him in Kyiv in June 2022; on the same trip Stiller visited Lviv, Irpin and Makarov to bring attention to the humanitarian need of refugees in Poland and Ukraine. Russia sanctioned Ben Stiller over his Ukraine support.
### Politics
Stiller is a supporter of the Democratic Party and donated money to John Kerry's 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. In February 2007, Stiller attended a fundraiser for Barack Obama and later donated to the 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns of Democrats Obama, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton.
### Medical
Stiller was diagnosed with prostate cancer in June 2014 and was declared cancer-free in September 2014 following the surgical removal of his prostate.
## Filmography
Stiller has mostly appeared in comedy films. He is an Emmy Award winner for his television show, The Ben Stiller Show.
## Awards and honors
Stiller was awarded an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program" for his work on The Ben Stiller Show. He has been nominated twelve times for the Teen Choice Awards, and won once, for "Choice Hissy Fit" for his work in Zoolander. He has been nominated for the MTV Movie Awards thirteen times, and has won three times: for "Best Fight" in There's Something About Mary, "Best Comedic Performance" in Meet the Parents, and "Best Villain" in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story. He received the MTV Movie Awards' MTV Generation Award, the ceremony's top honor, in 2009. On March 31, 2007, Stiller received the "Wannabe Award" (given to a celebrity whom children "want to be" like) at the Kids' Choice Awards.
Princeton University's Class of 2005 inducted Stiller as an honorary member of the class during its "Senior Week" in April 2005. On February 23, 2007, Stiller received the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. According to the organization, the award is given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment. In 2011 he was awarded the BAFTA Britannia – Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy by BAFTA Los Angeles. In 2014, Stiller was nominated for Best Actor at the 40th Saturn Awards for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. On February 2, 2019, Stiller won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series for his miniseries, Escape at Dannemora.
On February 6, 2016, Stiller set the Guinness World Record for longest selfie stick (8.56 meters) at the World Premiere of Zoolander 2. |
704,652 | Kootenay River | 1,173,463,218 | River in Western Canada and the United States | [
"International rivers of North America",
"Kootenay River",
"Kootenays",
"Regional District of Central Kootenay",
"Regional District of East Kootenay",
"Rivers of Boundary County, Idaho",
"Rivers of British Columbia",
"Rivers of Idaho",
"Rivers of Lincoln County, Montana",
"Rivers of Montana",
"Rivers of the Canadian Rockies",
"Tributaries of the Columbia River"
]
| The Kootenay River or Kootenai River is a major river of the Northwest Plateau in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Kootenay River runs 781 kilometres (485 mi) from its headwaters in the Kootenay Ranges of the Canadian Rockies, flowing from British Columbia's East Kootenay region into northwestern Montana, then west into the northernmost Idaho Panhandle and returning to British Columbia in the West Kootenay region, where it joins the Columbia at Castlegar.
The river is known as the "Kootenay" in Canada and by the Ktunaxa Nation, and as the "Kootenai" in the United States and by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and Kootenai Tribe of Idaho. Fed mainly by glaciers and snowmelt, the river drains a rugged, sparsely populated region of more than 50,000 km<sup>2</sup> (19,000 sq mi); over 70 percent of the basin is in Canada. From its highest headwaters to its confluence with the Columbia River, the Kootenay falls more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) in elevation. Above its confluence with the Columbia, the Kootenay is comparable in length, drainage area, and volume but has a steeper gradient and is characterized by larger falls and rapids. Part of the lower Kootenay forms Kootenay Lake, one of the largest natural lakes in British Columbia.
The Ktunaxa (Kootenai) were the first people to live along the Kootenay River. For hundreds of years, they hunted and fished on the river, quite isolated from neighboring indigenous groups. In the 19th century, the Canadian explorer David Thompson became the first recorded European to reach the Kootenay and established trading posts throughout the region. A gold rush on the Kootenay and later silver and galena strikes in its western basins in the late 19th century drew thousands of miners and settlers to the region, who soon were followed by the arrival of railroads and steamboats. The Doukhobors, a Russian religious sect, immigrated and established a short-lived colony, Brilliant, at the Kootenay's mouth; subsequently dispersing into many settlements, they contributed to the region's timber and agricultural industries.
As with many Pacific Northwest rivers, many dams were built on the Kootenay in the 20th century to generate hydroelectricity and protect against floods and droughts. Today, over 150 kilometres (93 mi) of the river have been impounded behind five dams, and a sixth controls the level of Kootenay Lake.
## Name
The river was described with slightly different names by two groups of the local Ktunaxa (Kootenai) Indian tribes. These indigenous people who lived along the upper river knew it as aqkinmiluk, simply meaning "river". The people along the lower river called it aqkoktlaqatl, a name whose meaning is not certain. The name "Flatbow River" comes from the name the Blackfeet used to call the Ktunaxa, for their "powerful, stylish bows", and was later recorded by French-Canadian fur traders.
While searching for the ultimate source of the Columbia River, explorer David Thompson encountered Columbia Lake, where the Columbia River starts north as a small stream and the Kootenay rushes south, already a powerful river. Already knowing from earlier maps that the region included two rivers called the Columbia and the Kootenay, Thompson thought that what is now called the Columbia was the Kootenay, and he thought that he had not yet found the real Kootenay. Thence he applied the name "McGillivray’s River" to the real Kootenay in honor of his trading partners William and Duncan McGillivray. In his writings, the Columbia from Columbia Lake to the Big Bend was called the Kootenae.
The name "Kootenai" was also used by French Canadians to refer to the Ktunaxa in the 19th century. "Kootenai" is thought to be a word meaning "water people" in an Algonquian language. The river is still referred to as Kootenai in the United States, while in Canada, where two-thirds of its length and 70 percent of its drainage basin lies, the river is spelled slightly different into Kootenay.
Comparisons of various U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps from the 20th century show many misinterpretations or alternative names being applied to the segment of the river within the United States. These include "Kootanie", "Kootenie", and "Kootienay". The Geographic Names Information System of the USGS lists "Swan River" as an alternate name, although the origin of this name is uncertain. (There is, however, a Swan River further southeast in Montana.)
## Course
The Kootenay rises on the northeast side of the Beaverfoot Range of southeastern British Columbia and flows initially southeast through a marshy valley in Kootenay National Park. The river becomes significantly larger at its confluence with the Vermilion River, which is actually the larger of the two where they meet near Kootenay Crossing. The Kootenay continues southeast, receiving the Palliser River from the left, and flows south into a gorge at the confluence with the White River.
At the small town of Canal Flats the Kootenay River passes within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of Columbia Lake, the headwaters of the Columbia River, as it merges into the Rocky Mountain Trench along the eastern foothills of the Purcell Mountains. It receives the Lussier River near Skookumchuck Station of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the St. Mary and Wild Horse rivers at the historic mining town of Fort Steele, then receives the Bull River at the settlement of the same name. At Wardner, British Columbia, the Kootenay widens into the Lake Koocanusa reservoir. The Elk River, the Kootenay's longest tributary, enters Lake Koocanusa south of Elko, British Columbia.
Stretching 130 kilometres (81 mi) south and crossing the US-Canada Border, Lake Koocanusa is formed by Libby Dam east of Libby, Montana. It receives the Fisher River near the dam and turns west, forming the "Big Bend" around the Purcell Mountains towards Libby. About 15 km (9.3 mi) below Libby it drops over Kootenai Falls. The Kootenai turns northwest at Troy, and the Yaak River joins from the north. In Idaho the Moyie River enters near Moyie Springs before the river enters the gentle terrain of the Kootenai Valley and turns north, flowing past Bonners Ferry back towards the US-Canada Border.
The river re-enters Canada south of Creston, British Columbia, and flows through a marshy area called the Kootenay Flats before emptying into the 100-kilometre (62 mi)-long Kootenay Lake. The lake is also joined by the Duncan River, the river's highest-volume tributary. Near Balfour an arm of the lake branches westward to Nelson, where the Kootenay River exits the lake below Corra Linn Dam. The final westbound stretch of the river flows through a deep canyon, forming several waterfalls including Bonnington Falls, where four run-of-the river hydroelectric dams impound the river. Near Brilliant the Kootenay forms a small inland delta then enters the Columbia River near Castlegar.
## Watershed
At 50,298 square kilometres (19,420 sq mi) in size, the Kootenay river's watershed is one of the largest sub-basins of the Columbia Basin. Its drainage basin encompasses an area almost 400 kilometres (250 mi) from north to south and 250 kilometres (160 mi) from east to west, roughly defining a region of the Pacific Northwest known as the Kootenays. In Canada, the term "Kootenays" is loosely defined although the Kootenay Land District, which includes the whole region, is formally defined; the name indirectly refers to the territory of the Kootenay indigenous people spanning from the Rockies on the east and the, Selkirks and Purcells (Percells in the U.S.) on the west in southeastern British Columbia (BC), and is used to mean more the area drained by the Kootenay River, namely including the lower Canadian stretches of the Columbia from Revelstoke to the US border, and also the reaches of the upper Columbia north from Canal Flats at least as far as Golden (the Boundary Country is sometimes referred to as being part of the West Kootenay).
Over 70 percent of the Kootenay's watershed is in Canada, while the Montana and Idaho portions occupy 23 and 6%, respectively. The Kootenay is one of the few major rivers in North America that begin in one country, cross into another, and return to the first—others include the Milk River, a tributary of the Missouri River; the Souris River, a tributary of the Assiniboine River; and the Kettle River, a tributary of the Columbia River. It is the third largest tributary of the Columbia by drainage basin and discharge.
The Kootenay River is defined by rocky uplands and steep mountains, and there is relatively little flat land in the watershed. Most of the reasonably level terrain lies in the narrow Kootenay River valley from Bonners Ferry to Kootenay Lake and in parts of the Rocky Mountain Trench from Canal Flats to Lake Koocanusa. Mountain ranges in the region generally trend from northwest to southeast and define drainage patterns with their steep and dramatic vertical relief, with the exception of the Kootenay itself, which cuts westwards at its southern bend. Of the Kootenay's many tributaries, the 206-kilometre (128 mi)-long Duncan River is the largest. Hundreds of other tributaries join the river in its winding course, including the Vermilion, Cross, Palliser, White, Wild Horse, St. Mary, Elk, Fisher, Yaak, Moyie, Goat, and Slocan rivers.
Many river basins border the Kootenay—some are part of the Columbia Basin, while others drain to distant shores of the North American continent. On the south and southeast, the divide formed by the Cabinet and Whitefish ranges separate the Kootenay and Flathead River watersheds. The Flathead is a tributary of the Clark Fork River-Pend Oreille River system which borders the Kootenay watershed on the southwest. The upper Columbia River basin forms the boundary on the north, and the Kicking Horse River watershed also borders the north side of the Kootenay basin. To the southwest is the Priest River, a Pend Oreille tributary. On the east side, over the Continental Divide, the Bow River and Oldman River take rise. Both are tributaries of the South Saskatchewan River, which is part of the Hudson Bay drainage basin.
### Geology
The geologic story of the Kootenay is strongly connected to the geology of the Columbia, Selkirk, and Rocky Mountains. The mountains in much of the Kootenay River catchment are composed of Precambrian sedimentary rock of the Belt Supergroup, in turn, stratified into several subgroups with slightly different characteristics and ages. However, most of the rocks have one thing in common; the rocks are generally hard and erosion-resistant. The Rocky Mountain Trench is thought to be a partial graben, or a long narrow strip of land that has dropped in elevation over time because of parallel faults on both sides. Faults in the Kootenay River watershed trend north-northwest to south-southeast as is common in much of British Columbia. The underlying rock is generally stable and contains more outcroppings of metamorphic and igneous rock as one progresses westwards. Formations of Cambrian and Devonian rock also appear in small amounts in the U.S. portion of the Kootenay.
Bedrock composes much of the streambed in the upper and lower reaches of the Kootenay, but in the middle portion, alluvial sediments allow the river to meander over a broader valley floor. The sediments probably originated through heavy glaciation during the previous Ice Age. About 15,000 years ago, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced southwards into present-day BC, Montana, and Idaho, blocking the Kootenay River at the outlet of Kootenay Lake, which did not yet exist. Glaciers covered most of the northern Kootenay River watershed and heavily shaped the peaks and valleys one sees today. The glacier that formed Kootenay Lake caused the river to back up into an enormous body of water that stretched to Libby, Montana, near where the Libby Dam now stands, and possibly even connected to Lake Pend Oreille, which also was much enlarged at the time. Glacially deposited sediments buried the old streambed of the Kootenay River and created a natural dam where the Kootenay turns west out of Kootenay Lake. After the glaciers retreated, Kootenay Lake receded to its present level, and the Kootenay Flats were formed.
## History
### First inhabitants
The First Peoples of the Kootenay River valley (the residents at the time of European contact) were the Ktunaxa people (often referred to as Kootenai) from whom the river's name derives. Ktunaxa creation myths state that their people were created by the Quilxka Nupika (supreme being) and have always lived in the region; one reads "I have created you Kootenai people to look after this beautiful land, to honor and guard and celebrate my Creation here." However, linguistic and other evidence suggests that they are descended from Great Plains tribes that were driven out of their historic territory by the Blackfeet in the 16th century. The Ktunaxa are considered quite isolated from other Pacific Northwest and Great Plains tribes. Their language is an "isolate", which is only distantly related (if at all) to the Salishan languages spoken by tribes of the Lake Pend d'-Oreille area. They were semi-nomadic people and inhabited a large area of the Kootenay valley from the headwaters to Kootenay Lake. Four villages provided their shelter in the winter, while in the rest of the year, they traveled between fishing, hunting and berry-picking areas. The northern Ktunaxa hunted buffalo, while the southerners mainly fished. Notably, the Ktunaxa were the first tribe west of the Rockies to capture and use feral European-introduced horses for their own use.
The origin and meaning of the name "Kootenai" are uncertain. Before their discovery by Europeans, they were known as Ksanka, "people of the standing arrow". It is thought that French-Canadian fur trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company and other companies in the early 19th century were the first to refer to them as Kootenai, which means "water people" in an Algonquian language. It may also mean "deer robes," referring to their excellent skill for hunting deer. In some written records from the early 19th century, also by the French, the Ktunaxa were sometimes called the Flatbows (Arcs plats) and the river called the Flatbow River. Other inhabitants of the area included the Montana Salish (in the south), and Shuswap (in the north), but these tribes were mostly not on the main river.
### Exploration
In 1806, explorer David Thompson set out from Saskatchewan to find the source of the Columbia. He crossed over the Canadian Rockies through Howse Pass and eventually arrived on the banks of the Kootenay, which he thought to be the Columbia. Thompson traveled down the river ways but turned back when he was attacked by Native Americans. The following year, Thompson, his family, and several men made another attempt at finding the Columbia. They crossed over the Rockies at a more northerly spot and traveled down the Blaeberry River to the Columbia, eventually discovering Columbia Lake and establishing there the trading post Kootenae House. In the spring of 1808, he set off down the Kootenay River, this time reaching present-day Montana and Idaho, where he established Kullyspell House and Saleesh House, trading posts on Lake Pend Oreille and the Clark Fork, respectively. After spending a winter in Montana, he tried to reach the Columbia by traveling down the Pend Oreille River but failed in this attempt, eventually returning to Kootenae House via the Kootenay River northwards the following spring.
Through the early 19th century, Thompson continued to trade furs throughout the Kootenay region for the North West Company, and for the few years when he had a total monopoly over the Canadian fur trade west of the Rockies, he outlawed alcoholic drinks altogether. He was known to have written, "I had made it a law to myself that no alcohol should pass the mountains in my company". When two of Thompson's trading partners tried to make him take two barrels of rum to Kootanae House, Thompson "placed the two kegs on a vicious horse and by noon the kegs were empty and in pieces, the horse rubbing his load against the rocks to get rid of it ... I told them what I had done, and that I would do the same to every keg of alcohol." Of course, wine, beer, rum, and other intoxicating drinks were imported in time.
John Palliser crossed the Rockies through a pass in 1858 that led to the headwaters of the Palliser River, a tributary of the Kootenay River now named in his honor. (However, at first, his party referred to it as Palliser's River.) His expedition made it downstream to Columbia Lake but had some trouble making their way back to Alberta; the return route they had chosen proved too dangerous to negotiate. After trading for some horses and new supplies from a band of Ktunaxa, they made it back over the Rockies later that year through North Kootenay Pass near Lower and Upper Kananaskis Lakes, after traveling up the Elk River. The series of expeditions he would later lead through 1859 were to be known as the Palliser Expeditions, or officially, the British North American Exploring Expedition, which, although involved some travel west of the Rockies, was mostly limited to the east side of the Continental Divide. Palliser's earlier travels were credited for being a "vital forerunner to the European settlement of the Prairies [of central Canada], providing volumes of information on the resources of this vast region."
In September 1859, Palliser traveled into the Kootenay River valley to find a suitable path for a trade route and possibly a railroad. Instead of crossing the Rockies, as Thompson did, Palliser set out from Fort Colville, a Hudson's Bay Company trading post near Kettle Falls on the Columbia River. He then proceeded up the Pend Oreille River (noted as 'Pendoreilles') and crossed into the Kootenay River valley, which in his records was either the "Kootanie" or "Flat Bow River". Kootenay Lake was called "Flat Bow Lake". Palliser was told by Ktunaxa tribal members that a trail already existed along the Kootenay River, terminating at Columbia Lake, but was in decrepit condition (having been out of use for many years) and "entirely impracticable for horses". They re-blazed the trail for many miles and returned to Kootenay Lake by mid-October of the same year. The expedition's findings were later to become important transportation routes through the Rockies to the Kootenays area, and the trail that they followed later became the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
### Gold and silver boom
In 1863, a gold strike at the confluence of the Wild Horse and Kootenay Rivers in the East Kootenay region resulted in the Wild Horse Gold Rush in which between three and ten thousand men descended upon the area and the gold rush town of Fisherville was built; it had to be moved when it was discovered the town sat atop some of the richest deposits. Originally, the river (and the area) were known as "Stud Horse" by the early miners, but government officials changed it to Wild Horse. The new town's site was officially named Kootenai (though still known as Fisherville), also spelled Kootenay and Koutenais and also known as Wild Horse. Galbraith's Ferry was established across the Kootenay near Fort Steele to facilitate crossing by the incoming rush of prospectors and merchants. Most of the gold was mined out by 1864, in June of which one American prospector wrote that some 200 miners were arriving each day. By 1865 the peak of the rush was over, and the diggings had been found not as rich as previously believed when news arrived in 1865 of the strikes in the Big Bend of the Columbia and the bulk of the mining population moved there en masse.
Fisherville, which had a Hudson's Bay post and other businesses, continued on with a few hundred residents for a few years (most of them Chinese by the end, as was the case with many other BC gold towns also) but was eclipsed as a supply centre with the creation of nearby Fort Steele. The Chinese miners continued to work the "played-out" claims abandoned by American and Canadian miners, taking what little gold was left. Fisherville eventually was abandoned, its buildings left to ruin, and little remains of the settlement today. Other gold rushes on the Moyie and Goat Rivers, tributaries of the Kootenay, were followed by the discovery of silver and galena mines in the Kootenay Lake and Slocan Valley areas (Silvery Slocan), leading rapidly to the settlement of the region and the creation of various "silver city" boomtowns, notably Nelson, at the outlet of Kootenay Lake, Kaslo, midway up its north arm, New Denver, Silverton, Slocan City and Sandon in the 1880s and 1890s. By 1889, a smelter had been constructed close to the mouth of the Kootenay, near Revelstoke, to process ore from the mines. Serving the mines and settlers, steamer companies plied the Kootenai River from Bonners Ferry, Idaho to Nelson and to the Lardeau or "Lardo" district at the north end of Kootenay Lake, and also on the upper Kootenay River between the Cranbrook-Fort Steele area and points in Montana.
### Steamboats
When the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) finished its transcontinental line across southern British Columbia, steamboats began to ply the upper Columbia and Kootenay Rivers, carrying passengers, produce, ore, and other trade items through the region to be distributed via the CPR's line at Golden. The total run was about 500 kilometres (310 mi) long, ranging from Golden to the north to Jennings, Montana in the south, with a portage at Canal Flats. Kootenay's steamboat era was short and lasted for only about 28 years. In 1882, as part of an incentive to help navigation on the Golden-Jennings run and possibly divert water northwards to the Interior of British Columbia in order to provide flood control for a low-lying area south of Kootenay Lake, called Kootenay Flats, European adventurer William Adolf Baillie-Grohman proposed the creation of a canal between the Kootenay River and Columbia Lake. Construction of the 2-kilometre (1.2 mi)-long, 14-metre (46 ft)-broad channel was finished in 1889. The Baillie-Grohman Canal, as it was called, had one lock which was 30 metres (98 ft) long and 9 metres (30 ft) wide.
Because of the rugged terrain and rough waters on the two rivers, especially on the glacier-fed Kootenay, steamboat operation was extremely difficult and proved to be anything but cost-effective. The roughest water was in Jennings Canyon, now mostly submerged in the Lake Koocanusa reservoir behind Libby Dam. Two of the first steamers, the Duchess and the Cline, sank when transporting miners to the Wild Horse gold rush on the Kootenay. Both ships had not even reached Canal Flats when they hit rocks in the Columbia. The first steamboat to run the Kootenay was the Annerly in 1893. Later vessels, such as the Gwendoline, had mixed success. Captain Frank P. Armstrong, who had piloted several earlier steamboats on the Golden-Jennings run, was her builder and when she was about three-quarters completed, Armstrong decided to take her to Golden to complete the job. Gwendoline sailed up to the canal, which unfortunately was unusable because the gates of the lock had been dynamited due to a Kootenay flood. Armstrong was forced to portage the vessel and eventually made it to Golden. Gwendoline eventually sailed back south to Jennings to haul iron ore on the Kootenay. She was also the only ship to ever travel through the canal by proper means and made two of the only three steamboat trips through the canal.
The last ship ever to pass through the canal and one of the last on the Kootenay was the North Star, also piloted by Captain Armstrong. In 1902, Armstrong decided to take North Star to sail on the Columbia instead, finding business on the Kootenay less and less profitable as the mines in the region played out, as the CPR established its Kootenay Central Railway branch, and for a variety of other reasons. In June of that year, Armstrong took North Star to the Baillie-Grohman Canal, which was in decrepit condition. The lock was also too small to accommodate the vessel. Armstrong had two makeshift dams built to create a temporary lock 40 metres (130 ft) long, and then the forward dam was blown up so the ship could ride the surge of water ahead into Columbia Lake. The transit of North Star to Columbia Lake was the last time the canal was ever used by a steamboat and marked the end of the steamboat era on the Kootenay.
### Doukhobor settlement
In the 20th century, members of a Russian religious sect called the Doukhobors living in the plains of Saskatchewan in central Canada were facing persecution, internal problems, and land confiscation by the Canadian government. Their leader, Peter Verigin, decided to move them to British Columbia in 1909, seeking land and improved life. He chose a townsite on the north bank of the Kootenay, where it joins the Columbia, across the big river from where the present-day town of Castlegar now stands. In 1909, he purchased about 14,000 acres (57 km<sup>2</sup>) adjoining the mouth of the Kootenay River partly using funds raised by sale of farm equipment in Saskatchewan, and added to other lands acquired throughout BC, Doukhobor-owned lands ultimately totaled 19,000 acres (77 km<sup>2</sup>). There was already a small settlement on the site, called Waterloo, but Verigin renamed it Brilliant, for the "sparkling waters" of the river. The whole area was known by the name, Dolina Ooteschenie, meaning "valley of consolation". By 1913, there were already more than 5,000 Doukhobors living in the region.
When they first arrived in British Columbia, the Doukhobors began felling trees in the Kootenay River valley to build their first homesteads. They also cleared areas of level ground in order to plant orchards and fields and constructed sawmills on the Columbia and Kootenay rivers to process the logs into lumber. After more settlers began arriving, they built larger buildings that housed multiple families instead of the small cabins then typical of the region. Each larger house or dom, holding 70-100 persons each, was constructed on roughly 41-hectare (100-acre) plots of land that Verigin had divided the entire community into back in 1911. The Doukhobors then constructed a brick factory at the present-day site of Grand Forks, from where they made bricks to be used mostly in the Brilliant settlement. Brilliant was one of the first cities in the area to have running water; a reservoir was constructed to hold water from the Kootenay River and a local spring, and by 1912, each household had running water. In 1913, Verigin converted an abandoned factory in Nelson, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) up the Kootenay from Brilliant, to produce jam and marmalade. The Doukhobors then established a ferry across the Columbia River, and a suspension bridge serving the same purpose was completed in 1913. For many years, Brilliant continued to be a major center in the region's lumber industry.
However, Doukhobor views on education and the extremist actions of a Doukhobor group called the Sons of Freedom eventually spelled the end of their settlement. In the 1920s, unknown arsonists destroyed several public schools in Brilliant as an act against British Columbia law. Then in 1924, on a routine rail trip to Grand Forks, Peter Verigin and seven other people were killed by a dynamite explosion that completely destroyed the coach that he was traveling in. Pieces of battery and alarm clock indicated that this was the work of people who intentionally wanted to kill Verigin, most likely members of the Sons of Freedom, or as some historians put it, by the lover of one of Verigin's handmaidens. Over 7,000 people attended Verigin's funeral. The Doukhobor leader was buried in an elaborate tomb on a headland overlooking the city of Brilliant and the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers. Verigin was succeeded by his son, Peter P. Verigin, who arrived from Russia in 1927. Despite the economic reforms he created in response to debt to the federal government, his arrival coincided with a terrible depression and bankruptcy which caused the Doukhobors to lose most of their lands. Verigin Jr. died in 1939 and by 1963, almost all Doukhobor lands were sold to the government. Today, little remains of the former settlement at Brilliant except for Verigin's tomb. The Doukhobor suspension bridge spanning the Kootenay River still stands, and was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1995.
## Ecology
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council divides the Kootenay River watershed into six biomes: aquatic (rivers and lakes), riparian zones, wetlands, grassland/shrubs, moderately wet forest, and dry forest. The forested zones extend through the alpine and subalpine reaches of the watershed, while grasslands dominate the low terraces and plateaus surrounding the river, especially in the Lake Koocanusa area and the Montana-Idaho portion of the watershed. In the Canada portion of the watershed, an alpine meadow ecozone occupies most of the high ridges and valleys of the mountains.
In the Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin, almost half of which is part of the Kootenay River basin, there are 447 species of terrestrial vertebrates. Most of the Kootenay basin lies within the Columbia Glaciated ecoregion which encompasses much of northeastern Washington, northern Idaho, northwestern Montana and southern British Columbia. Fish fauna in the region are largely shared with those of the Columbia Unglaciated ecoregion to the south, which has about fifty species of fish and only one endemic species. There are no endemic fish within the Columbia Glaciated region itself.
Riparian vegetation is mostly found along the lower two-thirds of the Kootenay and many of the tributaries that join within the United States. The other sections of the river flow through far more rugged terrain and are characterized by braiding, low nutrient content, shifting channels and coarse sediments, making it difficult for riparian zones to be established, as is with most of its upper and lower tributaries. Wetlands are found primarily where the river broadens into a series of sloughs, side-channels, marshes and small lakes before entering Kootenay Lake. This biologically diverse area, the Kootenay Flats, once supported over 1 million migratory birds every year, before the river was diked and many of the wetlands converted to agriculture.
Naturally, the Kootenay has a high sediment content because of high erosion of glacial sediments in the mountains. Because of the steep rapids and falls between Kootenay Lake and the river's mouth, the Kootenay (with the exception of its tributary, the Slocan River) has never been a significant stream for the annual runs of Columbia River salmon. However, landlocked salmon inhabit the upper reaches of the river above and in Kootenay Lake. This is attributed to a Kootenay River flood a long time ago, before the construction of any dams on the Columbia (Columbia River dams now block salmon from reaching any of the salmon run streams above Chief Joseph Dam ) which overflowed into Columbia Lake. It was with the creation of this temporary body of water that salmon somehow managed to swim over the submerged Canal Flats and into the Kootenay, where they became trapped.
Populations of large land mammals such as caribou, moose, deer, elk, have been declining dramatically since the reintroduction of wolves. Species almost entirely gone that were once common in the area include the white-tailed jackrabbit, pygmy short-horned lizard, band-tailed pigeon and passenger pigeon. After exploitation of the Kootenay basin by fur trappers, the beaver population was nearly exterminated as well.
## Economy
Even before non-aboriginal people came to the region, the Kootenay River valley was an important path of trade and transport between the tribes of the Canadian Rockies and the Idaho Panhandle, mostly between the Ktunaxa (who practiced agriculture and aquaculture) and the Salish, Blackfeet and Pend d'Oreilles of the south and east, and with the Shuswap in the north. The physiographic continuation of the Kootenai Valley southwards from present-day Bonners Ferry, Idaho into the Pend Oreille basin via the Purcell Trench formed a natural corridor through which natives of the area could interact. The barrier formed by the Rocky Mountains to the east, however, meant that tribes of the area, especially the Ktunaxa, were economically and linguistically isolated from the Great Plains tribes (with the exception of the Shoshone, whose territory spanned both sides of the Rockies).
Logging began in the 19th century as a result of white emigration to the Kootenay region, and remains one of the primary industries of the area. In fact, much of the economy of the Pacific Northwest and Columbia Basin has historically been, and continues to be, to this day, dependent on the lumber industry. Lumber was required for the construction of buildings, forts, railroad tracks, and boats, and today is exported from the region in great amounts providing jobs and income for inhabitants of the area. Even in relatively uninhabited regions of the watershed, logging roads criss-cross the hills and mountainsides. Over 90 percent of the Kootenay basin is forested, but only about 10 percent of the area is not affected by some kind of lumber-industry development, now defined as about twenty "roadless areas" or "blocks", with 18 in the US.
To a limited extent, the Kootenay River has also been used for navigation. Commercial navigation began with steamboats in the 19th century to transport ores, lumber, passengers and other imported and exported products between the Kootenay River valley and the Canadian Pacific Railway station at Golden, British Columbia. Boat travel on the upper river ceased when a rail line was built along the Kootenay upstream of the big bend. Steamboats also operated briefly on the lower river and Kootenay Lake to service silver mines in the nearby mountains. In modern times, boats continue to ply Kootenay Lake and limited reaches of the Kootenay River.
Mining is also an important economic support of the Kootenay River area. Although originally valuable minerals such as gold and silver were unearthed, today coal is the primary resource extracted from underground. Conventional coal deposits underlie much of the East Kootenay, especially in the Elk River valley which is home to the Elk Valley Coalfield, and the Crowsnest Coalfield in the Purcell Mountains. The East Kootenay is the most important coal-producing area of British Columbia, has since 1898 produced over 500 million tons, and about 25 percent of the world's steel-making coal comes from the region. Most of the coal from the East Kootenay coalfields is exported to Japan and Korea.
Lead, zinc, copper and silver are still mined at some places in the Kootenay River basin, notably at the giant Sullivan Mine near Kimberley, British Columbia, which is the largest in the Kootenay watershed. Agriculture, however, is a much less important industry, and many of the fertile riverside lands have been flooded by the construction of dams (most notably Libby Dam in Montana, which backs water into Canada). Only about two percent of the entire Kootenay basin (1,005 square kilometres (388 sq mi) is used for agriculture, and much of that is for pasture and foraging). Crops such as oats, barley and wheat account for 62 percent of the agricultural output of the region, much of which is used locally or exported by rail. The primary agricultural region is the Kootenai Valley of northern Idaho south of Kootenay Lake.
The West Kootenay, however, is transitioning from a coal-mining to a tourism-based economy, and the rest of the Kootenay region is also starting to do so. The economy of southeastern British Columbia is becoming increasingly reliant on tourism, and several Canadian national and state parks have already been established, and several national forests in the U.S.
## River modifications
Dams, power plants and diversions of the Kootenay River, of which there are many, have been built for a variety of reasons throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The seven dams on the Kootenay serve many purposes, ranging from generation of local electricity to regulation of Columbia River flow between Canada and the United States. None provide for navigation or fish passage. In former times, the Kootenay would rise each spring and early summers with "enormous freshets that every summer flood the Kootenay River valley",. Such extreme variations are no longer common on the river below Libby Dam.
### The Falls
As early as 1898, without building a dam, the original Lower Bonnington Power Plant was generating hydroelectricity from Bonnington Falls in the Kootenay River near the confluence of the Slocan River in order to supply water to mines in Rossland, British Columbia. For Upper Bonnington, the first dam built on the river, the original goal was to improve navigation between Kootenay Lake and the Kootenay's mouth on the Columbia by drowning the dangerous Bonnington Falls rapids that also blocked fish migration, and hopefully introducing fish to the upper river by constructing a fish ladder. None of these amenities for steamboats or salmon were ever constructed — in fact, the dam ended up being built above the falls instead of below them— and Upper Bonnington Dam, when completed in 1906, only generated hydroelectric power, and has served that purpose ever since.
Commercial demand led to two more dams at the falls, these were South Slocan Dam in 1928, and Corra Linn Dam, at the rapids above Bonnington in 1932. Three of the dams are of the run-of-the-river type, the 4.5 km length of the falls is now impounded in small lakes. All except Corra Linn, which was built to raise and regulate the level of Kootenay Lake. The Kootenay Canal Generating Station, completed in 1976 by BC Hydro, has its inlet at Kootenay Lake next to Corra Linn. The canal travels several kilometers, parallel to and above the river to utilize the roughly 84-metre (276 ft) high water drop in elevation between Kootenay Lake and South Slocan, bypassing the old dams. The canal is used to generate hydroelectricity, as are the four dams.
### The Lower River
After the falls and the junction with the Slocan River the last 18 kilometres (11 mi) of the river is a gradual slope to the merger with the Columbia. In 1944 the last privately owned development Brilliant Dam was built, just 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) before the Kootenay river flows into the Columbia River at Castlegar.
### Columbia River Treaty
The Columbia Basin is noted for its spring floods, major flood years were 1876, 1894, 1948 and 1964. As recently as the mid-1960s, the upper Columbia and Kootenay rivers in British Columbia were still free-flowing and unaffected by dams and reservoirs, resulting in the 1948 Vanport Oregon flood. The uncontrolled discharge past the Canada-U.S. border created problems for electricity generation in the US, and Canada also wanted to utilize the Columbia river for the production of hydroelectric power. Negotiated in 1961 between the governments of the two countries, the Columbia River Treaty attempted to ratify these problems. Construction of the first three of the four dams authorized by the treaty—Mica, Keenleyside and Duncan—was implemented in 1964. Of the four dams, the first two are on the Columbia, the third is on the Duncan River, a tributary of the Kootenay, and the fourth Libby, on the Kootenai in Montana. However, operation of the dams has led to environmental problems in both rivers because they have caused unnatural flow fluctuations, blocked fish migration, flooded fertile agricultural land, and forced over 2,000 people to relocate.
Solely built for the purpose of regulating water flow into Kootenay Lake, Duncan Dam, the first dam built for the treaty, was raised in 1967 and increased the 25-kilometre (16 mi) long size of Duncan Lake to a reservoir 45 kilometres (28 mi) long. Because of its purpose, it has no power generation facilities. Libby Dam, the fourth and last dam built under the treaty, was completed in 1975 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The other two dams built for the treaty, Keenleyside and Mica, are both on the Columbia River. Kootenay basin reservoirs provide nearly 8.6 cubic kilometres (7,000,000 acre⋅ft) of storage which constitutes almost half of the 19.1 cubic kilometres (15,500,000 acre⋅ft) stored in Columbia River Treaty reservoirs.
### Diversion proposal
In the 1970s, it was proposed that the Kootenay River be diverted into the Columbia River (the two rivers are separated by a distance of no more than 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) near Canal Flats in the Rocky Mountain Trench in southeastern British Columbia). This would allow for the generation of increased hydroelectric power on the Columbia. It would also make easier the reclamation of the Kootenay Flats, an area south of Kootenay Lake, for agricultural purposes—spring freshets once raised the level of the lake by up to 8 metres (26 ft), inundating the lowlands around it. There were also never-implemented plans to divert part of the Kootenay enlarged Columbia River through a tunnel to the headwaters of the Thompson River in the northwest, and thence to the Fraser River valley of southwestern British Columbia.
The proposal was strongly opposed by both environmentalists as well as local residents. The economy of southeastern British Columbia is strongly dependent on tourism, with the Columbia River, including Columbia Lake and Windermere Lake, being very popular for summer swimming and boating activities. Diversion of the glacier-fed Kootenay River would have resulted in the Columbia River becoming much deeper and colder, flooding riverside communities and damaging tourism. At the opposite end of the scale, it would dry the bed of the Kootenay River downstream of Canal Flats, cutting off water supply to residents of the upper Kootenay Valley and invalidating the effectiveness of Libby Dam, whose construction was to begin in a few years. As a result, this proposed river diversion was never undertaken.
## Recreation
Many national, provincial and state parks, wilderness preserves, protected areas and national forests lie partially or wholly within the Kootenay River watershed. In Canada, these include those listed below as well as many others.
- Bugaboo Provincial Park
- Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area
- Gilnockie Provincial Park
- Goat Range Provincial Park
- Kianuko Provincial Park
- Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park
- Kootenai Falls County Park
- Kootenay National Park
- Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park
- Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Provincial Park and Protected Area
- St. Mary's Alpine Provincial Park
- Top of the World Provincial Park
- Valhalla Provincial Park
- West Arm Provincial Park
Popular Banff National Park lies just across the BC-Alberta border, Yoho National Park sits to the north, and Glacier National Park in the northeast. The U.S. portion of the watershed includes Kootenai National Forest and Kaniksu National Forest (part of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, which stretch southwards into the state).
In Kootenay National Park alone, there are over 200 kilometres (120 mi) of hiking trails, ranging from short day hikes to long backpacking trips. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are popular on the park's trails in the winter. Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, which sits right next to Kootenay in the Rocky Mountains, also has an extensive trail system affording extensive views of the surrounding ranges. Kikomun Creek Provincial Park, on the northeast shore of Lake Koocanusa, includes campgrounds and access to boat launches on the east shore of the lake. The Kootenai River Trail along the Montana section of the river, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) long, follows the river from Libby to Kootenai Falls and the well known Swinging Bridge across the Kootenai. Skattebo Reach Trail, on the lower river, is about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) long, running from Brilliant to Glade. Further downstream, five separate sites around Kootenay Lake form the Kootenay Lake Provincial Park. West Arm Provincial Park is on the impounded stretch of the Kootenay River just west of Kootenay Lake, and to the northeast of Nelson. Smaller Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, one of the more popular recreation areas in the West Kootenay, sits across the river from West Arm.
Fishing is generally good on the middle reaches of the Kootenay River and in Kootenay Lake. Westslope cutthroat trout, bull trout, kokanee salmon (the landlocked Pacific salmon), rainbow trout and white sturgeon are among the many species found in the river. Kokanee and rainbows are commonly found in Lake Koocanusa. Kootenai Falls, which drops some 90 metres (300 ft) within a run of a few hundred meters, forms a natural boundary between fishes of the upper and lower river, but Libby Dam, several kilometres upstream, is an even more formidable barrier. Fish in the Kootenay have traditionally been abundant but the construction of the dam may have led to declines in the population of sturgeon, among other fishes, because of changes in water flow. The best season for fishing is from June to November. One may fish from banks, sandbars and islands, or from boats. Because of the size and strength of the river, fishing from drift boats is easier than from the shore. Also, because the Kootenay's primary sources are glaciers, fishing conditions are quite different from most rivers in Montana and Idaho, which are fed by snowmelt. In the United States, the Kootenay, with its "exceptional" trout fishing, is considered a Blue Ribbon fishery.
Steep and strewn with rapids, the Kootenay, despite being unsuitable for commercial transportation of agricultural and mineral products, is considered an outstanding whitewater river. Whitewater rafting is popular on the Kootenay in two stretches: in Jennings Canyon between the Libby Dam in Montana and Bonners Ferry in Idaho, and in the upper reaches of the river in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia.
Rafting the middle Kootenay between Libby Dam and Bonners Ferry is best at flows of 230 to 340 cubic metres per second (8,000 to 12,000 cu ft/s). The run, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) from east to west, includes Class IV+ rapids and includes Kootenai Falls, which rarely has been run safely, in the middle of its course. In Montana, the river is rated a Class I water under the Montana Stream Access Law for recreational purposes from Libby Dam to the Montana-Idaho border. Class I represents bodies of water that are navigable and suitable for recreation.
Rafting is also popular in some of the Canadian stretches of the river, especially those near the headwaters that have the steepest gradient and the most challenging rapids. Several Canadian outfitters provide trips on the river near Kootenay National Park ranging from a few hours to several days. Canoeing in the numerous sloughs, side-channels and distributaries of the Kootenay that thread through the wetlands of the Kootenay Flats has the additional benefit of watching birds and wildlife in the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Unit and other surrounding marshes. Larger craft such as houseboats are able to travel on Kootenay and Koocanusa Lakes. Rafting and kayaking is also an activity on the swift-flowing Slocan River, the lowermost major tributary of the Kootenay, and in parts of other major Kootenay tributaries as well.
## See also
- Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
- Dewdney Trail
- List of crossings of the Kootenay River
- List of dams in the Columbia River watershed
- List of longest rivers of Canada
- List of longest streams of Idaho
- List of rivers of British Columbia
- List of rivers of Idaho
- List of rivers of Montana
- List of tributaries of the Columbia River
- Montana Stream Access Law |
2,590,398 | Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return | 1,168,629,429 | null | [
"1999 video games",
"MonkeyPaw Games games",
"Platform games",
"PlayStation (console) games",
"PlayStation Network games",
"Side-scrolling video games",
"Single-player video games",
"Sony Interactive Entertainment games",
"Video game sequels",
"Video games about pigs",
"Video games developed in Japan",
"Video games scored by Ashif Hakik",
"Video games with 2.5D graphics"
]
| Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return is a platform-adventure game developed by Whoopee Camp and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The game was released in Japan in 1999 and in other territories the following year. The game is a sequel to Tomba! and centers on the exploits of the eponymous feral child as he attempts to rescue his friend Tabby from an evil race of anthropomorphic pigs.
While Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return retains the basic game mechanics and "event" system of its predecessor, it features the additions of fully 3D environments and an assortment of collectible suits that augment Tomba's abilities. The game was received positively by critics, with particular praise going to the gameplay variety, controls, and visuals. Reception to the audio was mixed, and criticism was directed at the large number of tedious events and simplistic, repetitive boss battles. Whoopee Camp disbanded following the game's lackluster commercial performance. The game was re-released on the PlayStation Network in Japan in 2011, in Europe in 2012, and in North America in 2015.
## Gameplay
Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return is a side-scrolling platform-adventure game with RPG elements. The player controls the titular character Tomba, who must defeat the Evil Pigs and rescue his girlfriend Tabby. The game is displayed in a full three-dimensional perspective in which movement is performed on predetermined linear paths. Whenever Tomba reaches a point where additional paths intersect with his current one, a set of flashing arrows appear above his head. At that point, Tomba can move in any direction that the arrows point. Some areas allow the player to explore them in an isometric view. Signposts scattered throughout the environment can be used to save the player's progress.
Along with the ability to jump, Tomba can attack enemy characters by leaping onto and biting into their back before tossing them in a straightforward trajectory. Attacking enemies in this fashion raises a magic meter on the bottom-left corner of the screen. Tomba can also attack enemies by obtaining various weapons such as flails, boomerangs and mallets. Throughout the game, different suits that can augment Tomba's abilities or protect him can be obtained. For example, the flying squirrel suit allows Tomba to glide long distances while the pig suit allows Tomba to communicate with friendly pigs. When Tomba defeats a boss character, he can wear their robe and use special powers at the cost of some magic. Magical feathers scattered throughout the game can be used to instantly transport Tomba to any area that has previously been visited.
When Tomba interacts with a certain character or environmental element, an "event" may be initiated, in which Tomba is given a task to accomplish or an obstacle to overcome. Such events may consist of finding a lost item, rescuing a stranded character or clearing a blockade in the imminent path. Upon completing an event, the player is rewarded with "Adventure Points", which can be used to unlock specifically-marked chests. The game features an inventory system that displays the player's current collection of items and events. The game includes a total of 137 events, some of which can be unlocked by importing save data from the original Tomba!.
The player begins the game with a maximum of four health points that are represented as a series of pink squares on the upper-left corner of the screen. Tomba loses a health point if he is hit by an enemy or environmental hazard. Health points can be restored by eating fruit and lunch boxes or by using other restorative items. When all health points are depleted or if Tomba falls down a bottomless chasm, the game ends prematurely.
## Plot
Tomba – having grown into a young man since his previous adventure – receives an envelope containing his insect friend Zippo, who reports that the Evil Pigs have invaded a neighboring land and that Tomba's friend Tabby has disappeared. Tomba leaps into the sea in search of her and winds up in a fisherman village where he meets an old man named Kainen. From there he moves on to the Coal-Mining Town where Tabby's house is, but discovers that she is absent. Gran, a denizen of the Coal-Mining Town, mentions seeing Tabby travel to the Kujara Ranch by trolley, but the trolley she used to travel there returns empty. A panicking trolley worker reveals that the Evil Pigs kidnapped Tabby when she tried to protect a pendant that was given to her by Tomba as a gift. Gran explains that the Evil Pigs have cursed the entire continent, and gives Tomba a red Pig Bag that is capable of capturing the Flame Pig that has cast his spell on the mines. Tomba ventures throughout the continent gathering the rest of the Pig Bags. After Tomba captures the five Evil Pigs and lifts their spells over the land, their leader, the Last Evil Pig, reveals himself to Tomba and tempts him to find his lair. Tomba locates the Last Evil Pig in an underground area underneath the Coal-Mining Town, where the Last Evil Pig freezes time in a last-ditch effort to stop Tomba. A final battle against the Last Evil Pig ends with his capture, but he promises his eventual return. Tomba finds Tabby in the Last Evil Pig's lair and they escape the collapsing area on the back of the flying dog Baron. Following a feast at Tabby's home, Kainen may appear and reward Tomba with a tuxedo if all the events were completed. Tomba is allowed to pilot the local windmill owner's new boat to return home, but he crashes it soon after departing.
## Development and release
For Tomba! 2 The Evil Swine Return, Whoopee Camp founder Tokuro Fujiwara transferred directorial duty to Kuniaki Kakuwa, but retained his other positions in development. A fully polygonal approach was applied to the game's graphics to achieve a greater freedom in expression. This shift to three-dimensional graphics allowed for concepts that were not possible in the previous title, such as dynamic camera movement during cutscenes. Despite the change in graphics, the first game's basic systems and gameplay were preserved as to not alienate players of the previous title. Hidetaka Suehiro provided level design for the latter half of the game and set up the AI movement for the enemy characters. The music was composed by Shiina Ozawa, with a new score by Ashif Hakik being recorded for the international version. The Japanese-language version includes the voice talents of Ichirō Nagai, Satomi Kōrogi and Yuki Matsuoka among others. The game was publicly unveiled by Sony at E3 1999, and was released in Japan on October 28, 1999.
The game's introduction video in the Western releases was edited from the original Japanese version, and features different background music. The English-language voices were provided by the Actors Phantasy Company. The North American release date for the game was announced by Sony on November 11, 1999. A playable demonstration was integrated into the Jampack Summer 2K compilation CD released by PlayStation Underground. Tomba! 2 was released in North America on January 18, 2000 and in Europe on June 16, 2000. The game sold less copies than its predecessor, and Whoopee Camp was disbanded following its release, with much of its staff later transferring to Access Games. The company had been developing the PlayStation 2 title Extermination prior to its dissolution.
When an English-language distribution deal for Tomba! on the PlayStation Network was formulated between MonkeyPaw Games, Sony and Fujiwara, the involved parties elected to wait until Tomba!'''s re-release showed satisfactory sales figures before arranging the sequel's re-release. Tomba! 2 was re-released on the PlayStation Network in Japan on September 28, 2011, in Europe on December 29, 2012, and in North America on February 18, 2014. Tomba! 2's initial release on the North American PlayStation Network was that of the Japanese version; MonkeyPaw Games experienced emulation issues with the English-language version that prevented its immediate release and intended the Japanese version to be a placeholder. The English-language version of the game was released on the PlayStation Network in North America on November 5, 2015. From November 3 to November 9, those who were verified to have purchased the Japanese version were able to download the English version at no extra charge. To commemorate the release of the English version, MonkeyPaw Games created and distributed limited-edition Tomba plushie figures as part of a special promotion on Twitter from November 3 to December 25, 2015.
## Reception
Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return received generally positive reviews from critics, obtaining an aggregate score of 83% on GameRankings. While Jeremy Conrad of IGN declared the game to be an improvement over its predecessor, Sean Johnson of GameRevolution and Peter Bartholow of GameSpot deemed it as merely a polished repackaging. The quantity and variety of events was noted, and Randy Nelson of Next Generation added that the major events were better paced than those in the first game. Some, however, felt that a number of the events were tedious and time-consuming; Mark MacDonald of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine commented that "the errands outnumber the interesting puzzles by about 20 to one", and stated a preference for the game's platforming sections. Slo Mo of GamePro and Che Chou of Electronic Gaming Monthly opined that the game's challenge would be appealing to both young and mature audiences, though Shawn Smith and Chris Johnston, also of Electronic Gaming Monthly, perceived a lack of difficulty. Bartholow and Conrad remarked that some of the optional events were frustratingly difficult, with Conrad specifying the mine cart minigame as an example. Erik Engström of Hardcore Gaming 101 was disappointed by the game's more linear structure compared to the first game, but considered the quest system's organization to be more refined. The controls were commended for their responsiveness, though the multi-branched paths were said to be somewhat cumbersome to navigate. While Johnson acknowledged that this gameplay style was an interesting diversion from other action games, he and Nelson proposed that full 3D movement would have made the controls and gameplay simpler and more enjoyable. Conrad disagreed, saying that the Tomba! property's 16-bit-styled gameplay was an essential part of its charm. Bartholow commended the camera and perspectives as excellent, but he and Johnson faulted a few areas where the perspective made placing jumps or finding event-related clues difficult. The variety of items and weapons was appreciated, with Johnson considering the suits to be the game's best addition. The boss battles were criticized for their simplicity and repetitiveness. Engström negatively compared the presence of the character Zippo – who gives hints and directions pertaining to the situation – to Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, deeming him unnecessary and insulting to the player's intelligence.
The graphics were praised for their color, detail, and increased sense of size and depth over the first game; Johnson and Bartholow declared it to be one of the PlayStation's best-looking games, and both compared the visuals to a cartoon. Engström argued that the graphics were messier than those of its predecessor, though he still considered them decent for a PlayStation game and appreciated the preservation of the first game's "silly" aesthetic. Reactions to the music were mixed. Slo Mo praised the score for its atmosphere, and Engström singled out the music in the hidden magical towers as "tense and mysterious, almost a bit oppressive". Johnson and Conrad regarded the music as passable if fairly generic, though Conrad was annoyed by the "monotonous" music that plays during character conversations. Bartholow noted that the North American version's music "retains the reggae-ish timbre of the original title's music, but for the most part it isn't as repetitive or potentially annoying as the original's music". The voice-acting also saw mixed responses. Johnson and Bartholow were surprised by the competent quality of the voices, and Bartholow added that the localization was clean and complete. Conrad's assessment was middling, concluding "It's not Resident Evil (1) bad, but it still can't touch Metal Gear Solid". Smith, Engström, and Jay Fitzloff of Game Informer'' were more dismissive, with Engström and Smith respectively deriding the voice-overs as "amateurish" and "ridiculously lame", and Engström deemed Charles to be the most grating. Engström observed that the game's tone was slightly darker than its predecessor, citing the rotten appearance of the Evil Ghost Pig, the nuanced depiction of a benevolent group of pigs, and the "actually rather scary" endgame. |
11,065,446 | 2002–03 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season | 1,152,891,891 | Cyclone season in the South-West Indian Ocean | [
"2002–03 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season",
"2002–03 Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclone season",
"South-West Indian Ocean cyclone seasons",
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| The 2002–03 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season was one of the longest lasting and the third-most active season in the South-West Indian Ocean. Storms during the season impacted the Mascarene Islands, Seychelles, Madagascar, and countries in south-eastern Africa. The season began early when an unnamed tropical storm struck Seychelles in September, becoming the most damaging storm there in 50 years. The next system, Atang, was the first named storm of the season, but was only a tropical depression; it was named due to the threat to an outer island of Mauritius. Atang later struck Tanzania in a climatologically unusual area in November, resulting in unconfirmed deaths of fishermen. The first named storm to reach tropical storm intensity was Boura, which brushed the Mascarene Islands with gusty winds and rainfall. In December, Cyclone Crystal threatened to strike Mauritius but instead veered eastward, and later, Tropical Storm Delfina lasted from late December through early January 2003. Delfina damaged or destroyed thousands of houses in Mozambique and Malawi, killing 54 people.
In January 2003, Severe Tropical Storm Ebula continued the steady activity, forming in the eastern portion of the basin. Later, Tropical Storm Fari crossed southern Madagascar with heavy rains, causing flooding and mudslides that left 3,400 people homeless. In February, there were four simultaneous tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean, three of which in the basin. Cyclone Gerry formed first and the farthest west, passing just east of Mauritius and killing one person there. Cyclone Hape formed shortly thereafter, and Tropical Storm Isha formed farther east, having originated from the Australian basin. Cyclone Japhet struck southern Mozambique and produced widespread flooding in south-eastern Africa, killing 25 people. In March, Cyclone Kalunde was the strongest storm of the season, reaching 10-minute sustained winds of 215 km/h (134 mph). It struck Rodrigues while weakening, damaging 1,600 houses and causing an island-wide power outage. About a month later, a subtropical cyclone named Luma intensified south-east of Madagascar and developed an eye. Lastly, Cyclone Manou was only the sixth May tropical cyclones on record, making a rare landfall in south-eastern Madagascar, killing 89 people and destroying thousands of houses.
## Season summary
Météo-France's meteorological office in Réunion (MFR) is the official Regional Specialized Meteorological Center for the South-West Indian Ocean, tracking all tropical cyclones from the east coast of Africa to 90° E. At the beginning of the season, the MFR moved the tropical cyclone year from August 1 to July 1. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), which is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force task force that issues tropical cyclone warnings for the region, also issued advisories for storms during the season.
During the season, MFR issued advisories on 16 systems, of which 13 intensified to reach tropical storm force winds, meaning conditions were generally favorable for tropical cyclogenesis. The 13 systems with tropical storm force winds is only one short of the most such storms since the beginning of satellite-tracking in the 1967–68 season, set in the 1993–94 season. This is four more than the average of nine named storms. In this season, there were 24 days on which tropical cyclones were active, slightly above normal, but only one storm—Kalunde—remained at that intensity for more than three days. By contrast, there were 68 days in which a tropical storm was active in the basin, which is 15 days above normal. The season began early and ended late; only four seasons began earlier and four ended later than this season since the start of satellite-coverage in the basin.
In addition to the named storms and an unnamed tropical storm in September, there was one non-developing tropical depression. On December 25, Tropical Depression 05 developed in the north-eastern portion of the basin. It moved to the south and later south-east, crossing into the Australian region on December 27. A day later, the JTWC issued its last advisory.
## Systems
### Moderate Tropical Storm 01
In late August, a weak low-level circulation persisted near Diego Garcia. It was associated with a trough near the equator, and initially remained disorganized due to high wind shear. The disturbance was located at a low latitude near the equator, and a ridge extending from the eastern coast of Africa imparted a general west-south-west movement. The system was organized enough to be classified by MFR on September 5 at 3.1° S. Subsequently, the system developed more convection as its circulation became better defined. Operationally, MFR began issuing warnings on September 5 on Tropical Disturbance 01, and the next day upgraded it to a tropical depression. Post analysis from MFR indicated that the system reached peak winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) on September 6, the same day that the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) initiated advisories on it as Tropical Cyclone 01S. The storm developed banding features, but the thunderstorms were sheared away from the circulation. On September 7, the storm moved through Seychelles—an island nation in the southern Indian Ocean—before weakening. MFR discontinued advisories on September 8, and the JTWC followed suit the next day.
While moving through Seychelles, the storm produced a microburst that lasted for two hours across several islands, producing wind gusts up to 130 km/h (81 mph) on Praslin. Heavy rainfall affected Praslin, La Digue, and particularly Mahé, which reported 327.1 mm (12.88 in) in a 24‐hour period. Damage on Mahé was limited to landslides and some flooding. On Praslin, high winds damaged the roofs of over 50 houses and destroyed six homes, while the airport was also damaged. The winds damaged 50 power lines, causing an island-wide power outage. High winds also downed about 30,000 trees, which blocked roads but were quickly removed. Due to widespread tree damage, Cousin Island—a nature preserve—was closed for about two weeks, accounting for about \$50,000 (2002 USD, SR250,000 rupees) in damage. Nationwide, the storm left 375 families homeless and damaged crop fields, becoming the most damaging in the country in 50 years.
### Tropical Depression Atang
Convection persisted near a broad circulation on November 3 to the west of Diego Garcia. The system moved westward and organized due to generally favorable conditions. MFR classified it as Tropical Disturbance 02 on November 4. Two days later, the agency upgraded it to Tropical Depression 2, and shortly thereafter the JTWC initiated advisories on Tropical Cyclone 02S. At that time, the storm was moving to the south-west toward the Mauritius outer island of Agaléga, developing improved outflow. To emphasize the threat, the Meteorological Service of Mauritius named the system Atang, despite it only being a tropical depression. Late on November 6, JTWC estimated peak winds of 85 km/h (53 mph), around the same time that Atang began a slow motion to the southwest. The next day, the depression resumed a westward motion and became disorganized, with several circulations, and the JTWC and MFR both discontinued advisories. The remnants of Atang again turned to the south-west and re-intensified, prompting JTWC and MFR to re-issue advisories on November 9. By that time, the outflow improved, although it maintained multiple circulations. Atang passed near the north coast of Madagascar on November 10 after turning to the west, and that day the JTWC again discontinued advisories. After another period of re-organization, the agency again re-issued advisories on Atang on November 11 over the Mozambique Channel. The next day, the system moved inland in south-eastern Tanzania, and dissipated shortly thereafter.
In northern Mozambique, Atang produced moderate but beneficial rainfall in Cabo Delgado Province. The landfall area does not usually experience tropical cyclones, and damage in Mozambique was minimal. In Tanzania, there were unofficial reports that Atang killed several fishermen and caused heavy rainfall with wind gusts to 148 km/h (92 mph).
### Tropical Cyclone Boura
A strong area of winds near the equator developed an area of convection on November 14 to the east-north-east of Diego Garcia. It quickly developed outflow and a distinct circulation, becoming a tropical depression late on November 14. Early on November 15, MFR upgraded the system to Tropical Storm Boura, and later that day the JTWC initiated advisories on Tropical Cyclone 03S. With a ridge to the south-east, the storm moved quickly southwestward. Easterly wind shear prevented significant intensification until the circulation became established beneath the convection. On November 17, Boura intensified to reach 10-minute winds of 120 km/h (75 mph), making it a tropical cyclone. The JTWC upgraded Boura to the same intensity that day but in 1-minute winds, or the equivalent of a minimal hurricane. The cyclone intensified slightly further to peak winds of 130 km/h (81 mph).
Boura maintained its peak winds for about 18 hours, during which wind shear began to increase. The cyclone weakened as it curved more to the west, a change due to a ridge to the south. The JTWC estimated that Boura maintained peak winds of 140 km/h (87 mph). Initially, the storm retained good outflow and convection, and Boura passed just north of St. Brandon on November 19, producing 54.5 mm (2.15 in) of rainfall and wind gusts of 106 km/h (66 mph). While the storm turned to the west and northwest, it interacted with the ridge to the south to produce wind gusts of 118 and 111 km/h (73 and 69 mph) on Mauritius and Réunion, respectively. The convection gradually diminished, and on November 22 Boura weakened to tropical depression status while the JTWC discontinued advisories. The circulation continued to the northwest, devoid of convection. After turning to the north-east on November 25, Boura dissipated a day later north of Madagascar.
### Tropical Cyclone Crystal
For several days in mid-December, tropical cyclone forecast models anticipated a storm to form to the south-west of Diego Garcia, which was proven true when an area of convection formed in that area, becoming a tropical disturbance on December 21, the fourth of the season. On December 23, MFR upgraded the disturbance to a tropical depression, and later that day to Tropical Storm Crystal. The storm moved southwestward toward Mauritius due to a ridge to the south-east. Strengthening was gradual, and the JTWC upgraded Crystal to the equivalent of a minimal hurricane late on December 24. The next day, an eye developed, although dry air initially prevented much further intensification. MFR upgraded Crystal to tropical cyclone status on December 26, and that day the cyclone passed just east of St. Brandon. Subsequently, Crystal intensified quickly after the eye became clearer, reaching peak winds of 150 km/h (93 mph) on December 27. Around that time, the storm passed east of Mauritius as it turned to the south while rounding the ridge. After maintaining peak winds for about 18 hours, Crystal weakened, gradually undergoing extratropical transition. The convection diminished over the center, and Crystal weakened to tropical storm status on December 28. The next day, the JTWC and MFR discontinued advisories, labeling the storm as extratropical. The remnants continued to the south-east, dissipating on January 3 after crossing into the Australian region.
While passing just east of St. Brandon, Crystal produced wind gusts of 91 km/h (57 mph). The storm initially threatened to strike Mauritius, but effects were minimal due to the island being on the dry south-west quadrant of the storm. Crystal produced wind gusts of 91 km/h (57 mph). Rainfall reached 58.8 mm (2.31 in), although minimal precipitation occurred in northern Mauritius.
### Severe Tropical Storm Delfina
In late December, a tropical disturbance rapidly formed off the north-west coast of Madagascar. By late on December 30, MFR classified it as a tropical disturbance. The system quickly intensified while moving westward, becoming a strong tropical storm before hitting north-eastern Mozambique on December 31. Delfina weakened while moving inland, and it was no longer classifiable as a tropical cyclone by January 1. However, its remnants moved across the country and into Malawi, later looping around and crossing back over Mozambique. When the remnants reached the Mozambique Channel, they were reclassified as Tropical Disturbance 07, which moved southward over waters. It re-intensified into a tropical storm on January 8 before weakening the next day, becoming extratropical. The remnants persisted for several days, dissipating on January 14.
In both Mozambique and Malawi, Delfina dropped heavy rainfall that caused flooding. In the former country, over 18,000 houses were severely damaged or destroyed, leaving thousands homeless. The storm damaged roads and bridges, which disrupted relief efforts in the aftermath, and floods destroyed widespread areas of crops in the midst of an ongoing food shortage. Lingering flooding caused an outbreak of cholera and malaria in Mozambique, and 47 people were killed by Delfina. In Malawi, flooding was not widespread, although the storm destroyed about 3,600 houses. Delfina killed eight people in the country. Only two months after the storm struck, however, Cyclone Japhet left damage and deaths in many of the same areas that Delfina affected.
### Severe Tropical Storm Ebula
An area of convection persisted on January 6 to the south-west of Diego Garcia with an associated circulation. It moved generally southward south-west within an area of generally favorable conditions, becoming Tropical Disturbance 08 on January 7. Thunderstorms increased, and the JTWC initiated advisories on Tropical Cyclone 09S early on January 8. The next day, MFR upgraded it to Tropical Storm Ebula. Outflow became more pronounced and the storm continued to intensify. On January 10, the JTWC upgraded Ebula to the equivalent of a minimal hurricane, and estimated peak winds of 115 km/h (71 mph), just shy of tropical cyclone status. Subsequently, increased wind shear imparted weakening. After having spent much of its duration moving generally southward, Ebula turned to the south-east on January 11 due to a ridge to the south moving farther east. The thunderstorms diminished, and the JTWC discontinued advisories on January 12. That day, MFR declared that Ebula became extratropical, and the remnants dissipated on January 15.
### Severe Tropical Storm Fari
An area of convection persisted on January 20 to the east-south-east of Diego Garcia, quickly developing outflow due to minimal wind shear. It moved to the south-west and its circulation became better defined. On January 23, the MFR initiated advisories on Tropical Disturbance 09, and later that day the JTWC issued a TCFA. Subsequently, the MFR upgraded the disturbance to a tropical depression and the JTWC initiated advisories on Tropical Cyclone 11S. Shortly thereafter, the system weakened and the circulation became exposed from the deep convection. The JTWC discontinued advisories on January 24, but MFR continued tracking the disturbance as it moved to the west. After reaching an area of low wind shear, thunderstorms again increased over the center, and the JTWC re-issued advisories on January 28. By that time, the system was nearing eastern Madagascar, and later that day MFR upgraded the system to Tropical Storm Fari. Early on January 29, MFR estimated peak winds of 95 km/h (59 mph), making Fari a moderate tropical storm. Shortly thereafter, the storm made landfall on Madagascar just south of Mahanoro. Fari quickly weakened into a tropical depression while crossing the country, emerging into the Mozambique Channel early on January 30. After the storm turned to the south, the MFR and JTWC declared Fari extratropical on January 31, and the remnants dissipated on February 2.
Tropical Storm Fari struck Madagascar after the country had experienced weeks of heavy rainfall, causing widespread flooding. In the area where it moved ashore, the storm flooded crop fields that damaged most of the banana and fruit trees. The storm left landslides that isolated Marolambo and caused damage in other towns. Fari left 3,400 people homeless and caused an outbreak of conjunctivitis and diarrhea.
### Intense Tropical Cyclone Gerry
On February 5, MFR began tracking a tropical disturbance to the east of Madagascar's northern coast. The system moved to the south-west before turning to the north on February 7. By that day, the system had persistent convection around a weak circulation, located in an area of low wind shear. On February 8, the JTWC initiated advisories on Tropical Cyclone 16S, although initially the circulation was broad and exposed from the thunderstorms. The next day, MFR upgraded the depression to tropical storm status, and the Meteorological Services of Mauritius named the system Gerry. The storm turned to the south toward Mauritius and steadily intensified. On February 12, the JTWC upgraded Gerry to the equivalent of a minimal hurricane, and shortly thereafter MFR upgraded the storm to a tropical cyclone. Around that time, Gerry began undergoing rapid deepening, becoming an intense tropical cyclone early on February 13 while developing a well-defined eye and outflow. That day, the cyclone passed about 120 km (75 mi) east of Mauritius. At that time, the JTWC estimated peak 1 minute winds of 195 km/h (121 mph), and MFR estimated peak 10 minute winds of 165 km/h (103 mph). Subsequently, Gerry began weakening due to increasing wind shear, with the eye becoming disorganized. Later, the convection separated from the deepest convection, and the cyclone weakened to tropical storm status on February 14. The next day, JTWC discontinued advisories, and on February 16 MFR declared Jerry extratropical. The remnants dissipated two days later.
Early in its duration, Gerry passed just west of Tromelin Island, producing tropical storm force winds and gusts to 111 km/h (69 mph). The cyclone originally threatened to strike Mauritius directly, but due to a more east-south-easterly motion, Gerry passed more to the east. The storm forced the closure of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, along with schools and government offices. Wind gusts on Mauritius reached 144 km/h (89 mph). Gerry dropped heavy rainfall, peaking at 139.2 mm (5.48 in) at Mare aux Vacoas, and it produced high waves along the northern coast. One person was killed who was electrocuted during the storm's passage.
### Tropical Cyclone Hape
Around the same time that Tropical Storm Gerry was developing, another area of convection to its east was organizing. On February 7, the system became a tropical disturbance, and initially moved to the north. Operationally, MFR first began issuing advisories on February 9 for Tropical Disturbance 11, when the system had a small center and accompanying convection. By that time, the disturbance had turned to the south, and favorable conditions allowed for gradual development. MFR upgraded the system to tropical storm status late on February 9, although the system was not named Hape until 36 hours later. On February 10, the JTWC initiated advisories on Tropical Cyclone 17S. An eye developed on February 11, suggesting quick intensification. At 1800 UTC that day, the JTWC and MFR upgraded Hape to the equivalent of a minimal hurricane and to tropical cyclone status, respectively. By that time, the cyclone had turned to the east-north-east due to a weakness in a ridge to the north. MFR estimated that Hape reached peak 10-minute winds of 150 km/h (93 mph) on February 12, and the next day the JTWC estimated 1-minute winds of 165 km/h (103 mph). Later, the storm weakened, and it turned to the south-east when the ridge re-intensified. Outflow decreased due to interaction with Cyclone Gerry to the west, and Hape weakened to tropical storm status on February 13. On February 15, the JTWC discontinued advisories once the circulation was exposed from the deep convection. The next day, MFR followed suit after the circulation dissipated.
### Moderate Tropical Storm Isha
Widespread convection in the monsoon trough persisted across the south-eastern Indian Ocean in early February. One area was tracked by the JTWC on February 3 in the Australian basin, south-west of Indonesia. The system moved westward without development, crossing into the basin on February 8. The next day, MFR began tracking the system as a tropical disturbance. On February 11, the system turned to the south-east, due to a ridge to the north. That day, JTWC started issuing advisories on Tropical Cyclone 18S. Initially, the storm failed to intensify much due to a nearby upper-level ridge. On February 12, MFR upgraded the system to a tropical storm, and the next day the system was named Isha. Outflow became more pronounced due to minimal wind shear. The JTWC briefly estimated peak 1 minute winds of 85 km/h (53 mph), but the MFR never estimated winds above 65 km/h (40 mph). Isha weakened late on February 13 due to cooler waters, dry air, and stronger shear. On February 14, the JTWC discontinued advisories once there was little convection left, and the MFR estimated Isha dissipated the next day.
### Intense Tropical Cyclone Japhet
Cyclone Japhet developed on February 25 near the south-west coast of Madagascar, and initially moved to the north-west before turning to the southwest. With favorable conditions for development, Japhet quickly intensified in the Mozambique Channel, reaching maximum winds of 175 km/h (109 mph), sustained over 10 minutes. This made it an intense tropical cyclone, only the sixth to occur in the channel in 24 years. After stalling briefly, the cyclone turned to the northwest, weakening slightly before striking Mozambique just south of Vilankulo on March 2. Japhet slowly weakened while progressing inland, dissipating over Zambia on March 6.
Along its path, Japhet dropped heavy rainfall that caused widespread river flooding. The rains occurred after an extended drought, although excessive precipitation caused heavy crop damage, notably around where the storm moved ashore. In two provinces in Mozambique, the cyclone damaged or destroyed 25,000 houses, leaving at least 23,000 people homeless. Flooding in Zambia caused rivers to rise in Mozambique several days after the storm's passage. There were 17 deaths in Mozambique. Further inland, remnant rainfall destroyed a bridge and several houses in Zimbabwe, killing eight people.
### Intense Tropical Cyclone Kalunde
Kalunde formed on March 3 from an area of convection south-east of Diego Garcia. The system slowly intensified while drifting to the west, becoming a moderate tropical storm on March 5. Its intensification rate increased as it began a steady south-west movement. Kalunde underwent rapid deepening and developed an eye, reaching peak intensity on March 8. Around that time, MFR estimated a minimum pressure of 910 mbar (910 hPa) with winds of 215 km/h (134 mph), and the JTWC estimated peak winds of 260 km/h (160 mph); this made Kalunde the strongest cyclone of the year in the basin. It weakened after undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle, and on March 12 Kalunde passed near Rodrigues island as a weakening cyclone. Around that time, the storm turned to the south, weakening to a tropical storm on March 14 before becoming extratropical the next day. The remnants of Kalunde dissipated on March 16.
When the cyclone passed Rodrigues, it produced wind gusts estimated up to 210 km/h (130 mph), which caused an island-wide power outage. Many roads were washed out, and about 80 percent of the drinking water was contaminated. During the storm's three-day passage of the island, a total of 329.1 mm (12.96 in) of rain fell. A total of 1,600 homes were damaged, and total losses across the island amounted to \$3.15 million (2003 USD, €3.4 million).
### Subtropical Depression Luma
A large low-level circulation persisted off the south-west coast of Madagascar on April 6. On April 8, it became a subtropical depression according to MFR, and moved to the south-west before turning sharply to the south-east. That day, the JTWC briefly assessed a fair potential for development. The circulation became exposed on April 9, but when it began quickly intensifying the next day, MFR initiated advisories on Subtropical Depression Luma. By that time, the JTWC classified the system as extratropical; however, the system developed convection near the center and became more of a tropical cyclone. On April 11, Luma developed an eye in the center of the thunderstorms, prompting MFR to upgrade the storm to peak winds of 130 km/h (81 mph). At that time, the storm was in an area of weak wind shear, although increasing shear caused rapid weakening and for the eye to dissipate. Early on April 12, Luma became extratropical as it merged with an approaching cold front.
### Tropical Cyclone Manou
Late in the season in April, an area of convection formed south-west of Diego Garcia. It gradually organized, and there was a companion system to the west that also showed signs of development. The eastern system was declared Tropical Disturbance 16 on May 2, and with a ridge to the south-east it moved generally to the southwest. Early in its duration, the system affected St. Brandon and Mauritius with gusty winds. On May 4 it intensified into Tropical Storm Manou on May 4. After an initial strengthening phase, the storm weakened but later re-intensified as it approached Madagascar. Manou developed a well-defined eye and reached peak winds only 19 km (12 mi) from the eastern Madagascar coastline. It reached tropical cyclone status, at the time only one of six in the month since 1968. For about 12 hours, the cyclone stalled before turning to the south and weakening. After becoming extratropical on May 10, Manou dissipated three days later.
Manou struck Madagascar a year after Cyclone Kesiny hit the country in May 2002, representing the first known occurrence of May tropical cyclone impacts in consecutive years. When Manou struck Madagascar, it produced gusts as strong as 211 km/h (131 mph) and heavy rainfall reaching 227 mm (8.9 in) in a 15‐hour period, both at Vatomandry. Damage in the country was heaviest there, where 85% of buildings were destroyed and 23 people were killed. Manou destroyed about 24,500 houses nationwide, leaving 114,480 people homeless. The storm destroyed large areas of crops and disrupted transportation, including damaging the road between Vatomandry and Brickaville. Manou injured 85 and killed 89 people throughout Madagascar.
## Storm names
A tropical disturbance is named when it reaches moderate tropical storm strength. If a tropical disturbance reaches moderate tropical storm status west of 55°E, then the Sub-regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Centre in Madagascar assigns the appropriate name to the storm. If a tropical disturbance reaches moderate tropical storm status between 55°E and 90°E, then the Sub-regional Tropical Cyclone Advisory Centre in Mauritius assigns the appropriate name to the storm. A new annual list is used every year so no names are retired.
## Season effects
This table lists all of the tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones that were monitored during the 2002–2003 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season. Information on their intensity, duration, name, areas affected, primarily comes from RSMC La Reunion. Death and damage reports come from either press reports or the relevant national disaster management agency while the damage totals are given in 2003 USD.
\|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Seychelles \|\| \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania \|\| None \|\| Several
unconfirmed \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Mauritius \|\| Minimal \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Mozambique, Tanzania
Malawi \|\| \|\| 54 \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Madagascar \|\| Unknown \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Mauritius, Réunion \|\| Unknown \|\| 1 \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe \|\| Unknown \|\| 25 \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Rodrigues Island \|\| \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| None \|\| None \|\| None \|\| \|- \| \|\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| bgcolor=#\| \|\| Madagascar \|\| Unknown \|\| 89 \|\| \|-
## See also
- List of Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclone seasons
- Atlantic hurricane seasons: 2002, 2003
- Pacific hurricane seasons: 2002, 2003
- Pacific typhoon seasons: 2002, 2003
- North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons: 2002, 2003 |
3,131,986 | Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000 | 1,173,233,080 | null | [
"2004 greatest hits albums",
"Powderfinger albums"
]
| Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000 is a greatest hits album by Australian alternative rock band Powderfinger, released on 30 October 2004 in Australia.
The album contained tracks from Powderfinger's first four albums, as well as two previously unreleased songs, "Bless My Soul" and "Process This". "Bless My Soul" was also released as a single. On 17 February 2009, Fingerprints was released in the United States with an alternate track listing including more recent songs and discarding older songs to align with releases that had previously been released in the US. The album was released on the back of the band's success on the TV show Grey's Anatomy, which featured two songs from the album Dream Days at the Hotel Existence.
## Recording and production
Prior to the release of Fingerprints, there was some talk of the idea that a best-of album would be a mistake by the band, as they were generally seen as the "end of an artist's creative haul". Australian Music Online, publishing a Universal Music Australia press release, said these fears were not justified, and that the album would be "a Powderfinger biography that really tells the story better than anyone can on paper".
MTV Scene writer Craig Tangsley also commented on fears about the "death" of the band, stating that he spoke to Bernard Fanning about the band's death as "it's inevitable to talk when someone releases a best[-]of album". Fanning denied that the band was finished, instead claiming that Fingerprints was spawned due to a deal with the band's record label. He also assured readers that the band had another album planned.
Ciao reviewer cocoklo agreed with Universal's assessment, stating that "If there ever was a band, in my opinion, that needed a greatest hits album, it's Powderfinger". However, he noted another issue which had some influence on the production of the album; namely, the issue of which songs to include. As the band had only released five albums, they were forced to mostly include the singles they had previously released.
Throughout production stages, the album was not referred to as Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000 but rather by its alternative title, From Heavy Metal to Centenary Medal. It is unknown when the band decided on the final title of the album.
## Album and single releases
Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000 was released on 30 October 2004 in Australia, and it entered the ARIA charts on 14 November that year. It spent 17 weeks on the ARIA charts, peaking at \#2 for one week. The album was certified double platinum. "Bless My Soul", the only single released from the album, failed to chart. It did, however, appear on the Triple J Hottest 100 in 2004, at position \#9. "Process This", which was not released as a single, appeared at \#68 on the same list.
## Response
Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger, 1994–2000 was received well by reviewers. Sputnikmusic contributor Nandrucu gave the album a perfect five, describing it as "perfect way to introduce you" to the band. New song "Bless My Soul" was seen in a positive light: "it has a great opening, with neat little guitar fills popping up all over the place". However, the Nandrucu disliked "Process This", stating the song had "a try-hard feel about it".
Soulshine reviewer Dave Hardwick gave the album three stars, stating that "the cynic in me can't help asking whether that is the point", alluding to the overbearing presence of industry politics regarding the release of a best-of collection, and he complained that there was a lack of surprises in the choice of tracks. However, he agreed that the album was a good starting point for "those new to the band".
Ciao reviewer cocoklo rated the album positively. The new songs on the album were praised, with the comment "both of which are stunning", and stating that none of the songs were disappointing. The review highly recommended the album, and again stated that it was an excellent introduction to the band. Fasterlouder.com.au commentator Elissa said the album contained an excellent selection of songs that represented "essence of the band from its signature melodies", adding that "Bless My Soul" was set "to become a Powderfinger favourite".
## Track listing
Powderfinger did not include notable singles "Good-Day Ray", "The Metre", "Take Me In" or any single from their first album, Parables for Wooden Ears, instead including non-single fan favourites "Thrilloilogy", "Belter", and "Sink Low" in their place.
1. "Bless My Soul" – 4:06 (Previously unreleased)
2. "My Happiness" – 4:36 (Odyssey Number Five)
3. "Waiting for the Sun" – 3:54 (Odyssey Number Five)
4. "Pick You Up" – 4:19 (Double Allergic)
5. "Passenger" – 4:20 (Internationalist)
6. "Don't Wanna Be Left Out" – 2:12 (Internationalist)
7. "These Days" – 4:36 (Two Hands version)
8. "The Day You Come" – 3:58 (Internationalist)
9. "D.A.F." – 3:30 (Double Allergic)
10. "My Kind of Scene" – 4:37 (Odyssey Number Five)
11. "Like a Dog" – 4:20 (Odyssey Number Five)
12. "Already Gone" – 3:28 (Internationalist)
13. "Process This" – 3:22 (Previously unreleased)
14. "Belter" – 4:13 (Internationalist)
15. "Living Type" – 3:25 (Double Allergic)
16. "Thrilloilogy" – 6:10 (Odyssey Number Five)
17. "Sink Low" – 2:12 (Parables for Wooden Ears)
## US track listing
1. "My Happiness" – 4:36 (Odyssey Number Five)
2. "Lost and Running" – 3:42 (Dream Days at the Hotel Existence)
3. "Love Your Way" – 4:31 (Vulture Street)
4. "These Days" – 4:36 (Two Hands version)
5. "Waiting for the Sun" – 3:54 (Odyssey Number Five)
6. "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" – 3:20 (Vulture Street)
7. "Sunsets" – 3:49 (Vulture Street)
8. "My Kind of Scene" – 4:37 (Odyssey Number Five)
9. "Stumblin'" – 3:46 (Vulture Street)
10. "Drifting Further Away" – 3:40 (Dream Days at the Hotel Existence)
11. "Passenger" – 4:20 (Internationalist)
12. "Nobody Sees" – 4:14 (Dream Days at the Hotel Existence)
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications |
793,579 | Reculver | 1,172,063,508 | Seaside village in Kent, England | [
"Anglo-Saxon sites in England",
"Archaeological sites in Kent",
"City of Canterbury",
"Country parks in Kent",
"English Heritage sites in Kent",
"Roman fortifications in England",
"Villages in Kent"
]
| Reculver is a village and coastal resort about 3 miles (5 km) east of Herne Bay on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. It is in the ward of the same name, in the City of Canterbury district of Kent.
Reculver once occupied a strategic location at the north-western end of the Wantsum Channel, a sea lane that separated the Isle of Thanet and the Kent mainland until the late Middle Ages. This led the Romans to build a small fort there at the time of their conquest of Britain in 43 AD, and, starting late in the 2nd century, they built a larger fort, or castrum, called Regulbium, which later became one of the chain of Saxon Shore forts. Following the withdrawal of the Western Roman Empire in ca. early C4th, the Brythons again took control of the lands until Anglo-Saxon invasions shortly afterward.
By the 7th century Reculver had become a landed estate of the Anglo-Saxon kings of Kent. The site of the Roman fort was given over for the establishment of a monastery dedicated to St Mary in 669 AD, and King Eadberht II of Kent was buried there in the 760s. During the Middle Ages Reculver was a thriving township with a weekly market and a yearly fair, and it was a member of the Cinque Port of Sandwich. The settlement declined as the Wantsum Channel silted up, and coastal erosion claimed many buildings constructed on the soft sandy cliffs. The village was largely abandoned in the late 18th century, and most of the church was demolished in the early 19th century. Protecting the ruins and the rest of Reculver from erosion is an ongoing challenge.
The 20th century saw a revival as local tourism developed and there are now two caravan parks. The census of 2001 recorded 135 people in the Reculver area, nearly a quarter of whom were in caravans at the time. The Reculver coastline is within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area and a Ramsar site, including most of Reculver Country Park, which itself includes much of Bishopstone Cliffs local nature reserve. While nationally scarce plants and insects are found there, the location is also important for migrating birds and is of significant geological interest.
## History
### Toponymy
The earliest recorded form of the name, Regulbium, is in Latin and dates from the early 5th century or before, but it had its origin in a Common Brittonic word meaning "at the promontory" or "great headland". In Old English this became corrupted to Raculf, sometimes given as Raculfceastre, giving rise to the modern "Reculver". The form "Raculfceastre" includes the Old English place-name element "ceaster", which frequently relates to "a [Roman] city or walled town".
### Prehistoric and Roman
Stone Age flint tools have been washed out from the cliffs to the west of Reculver, and a Mesolithic tranchet axe was found near the centre of the Roman fort in 1960. This was probably an accidental loss, rather than suggesting a human settlement, evidence for which begins with late Bronze Age and Iron Age ditches. These indicate an extensive settlement, where a Bronze Age palstave and Iron Age gold coins have been found. This was followed by a "fortlet" built by the Romans during their conquest of Britain, which began in 43 AD, and the existence of a Roman road leading to Canterbury, about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) to the south-west, indicates a Roman presence at Reculver from then onwards. A full-size fort, or castrum, was started late in the 2nd century. This date is derived in part from a reconstruction of a uniquely detailed plaque, fragments of which were found by archaeologists in the 1960s. The plaque effectively records the establishment of the fort, since it commemorates the construction of two of its principal features, the basilica and the sacellum, or shrine, both being parts of the headquarters building, or principia:
> this [was] the first time the inscribed phrase aedes principiorum [could] be ... identified with the official shrine of [a Roman military] headquarters building, hitherto unmentioned in any inscription ... [It was] also the first certain ... application of the name basilica to [this element of the building].
These structures were found by archaeologists, together with probable officers' quarters, barracks and a bath house. A Roman oven found 200 feet (61 m) south-east of the fort was probably used for drying food such as corn and fish; its main chamber measured about 16 feet (4.9 m) by 15 feet (4.8 m) overall.
The fort was located on a low hill, beyond which a long promontory then projected north-eastwards into the sea and formed the north-eastern extremity of mainland Kent: thus it offered observation on all sides, including both the Thames Estuary and the sea lane later known as the Wantsum Channel, which lay between it and the Isle of Thanet. It was probably built by soldiers of the Cohors I Baetasiorum, originally from Lower Germany, who had previously served at the Roman fort of Alauna at Maryport in Cumbria at least until the early 180s, since tiles recovered from the fort are stamped "CIB". The Notitia Dignitatum, a Roman administrative document from the early 5th century, also records the presence of the Cohors I Baetasiorum at Reculver, then known as Regulbium. There must also have been a harbour nearby in Roman times, and, though this has not yet been found, it was probably near to the fort's southern or eastern side.
The walls of the fort originally stood about 14.8 feet (4.5 m) high and were 10 feet (3 m) thick at their base, reducing to 8 feet (2.4 m) at the top; they were reinforced internally by an earthen bank. The entrance to the fort's headquarters building faced north, indicating that the main gate was on the north side, facing the eponymous promontory and the sea. The north wall has been lost to the sea, along with the adjoining part of the east wall and most of the west wall; the east wall is most complete and includes the remains of the eastern gateway and guard post. Parts of the surviving walls are all that remains of the fort above ground, and all have suffered from stone-robbing, especially near the south-western corner. The walls were originally faced with ragstone, but very little of this remains: otherwise only the cores of the walls are visible, consisting mostly of flint and concrete and standing only 8.6 feet (2.6 m) high at their highest.
Roman forts were normally accompanied by a civilian settlement, or vicus: at Reculver this lay outside the north and west sides of the fort, much of it in areas now lost to the sea, and was extensive, perhaps covering "some ten hectares [25 acres] in all." In 1936 R.F. Jessup noted that "a Roman building with a hypocaust and tesselated [floor once] stood considerably to the northward of the fort": this structure had been observed by the 17th- to 18th-century antiquarian John Battely, and was probably "an external bath house ... relating to [an early phase of] the fort." In the same area Battely described "several cisterns" between 10 and 12 feet (3–3.7 m) square, lined with oak planks and sealed at the bottom with puddled clay. He believed that these were for storing rainwater, and noted that a Roman strigil, which would have been used in a bath house, had been found in a similar cistern at Reculver; he also observed that "such a multitude [of cisterns] has been discovered, almost in our memory, as proves that the ancient inhabitants of the place were very numerous." In the 20th century twelve wells of the Roman period were identified to the west of the fort, ten of which were square; all were cut into the hard layer of sandstone below the soft sandstone of the Thanet Beds, thus tapping into the water table. These and other 20th-century finds from the Roman period extend to 1,120 feet (341.4 m) west of the fort, and date to a period between 170 and 360, roughly coinciding with the period of occupation at the fort itself.
At least 10 infant burials have been found within the fort, all of babies, of which six were associated with Roman buildings: five sets of infant remains were found within the foundations and walls of buildings, as were coins dating from 270 to 300 AD. It was suspected that more such burials might be found in the walls of a building in the south-western area of the fort if it were excavated further. A baby's feeding bottle was also found in an excavated floor within 10 feet (3 m) of one of the infant skeletons, though it may have been unconnected with the burials. The babies were probably buried in the buildings as ritual sacrifices, but it is unknown whether they were selected for burial because they were already dead, perhaps stillborn, or if they were buried alive or killed for the purpose. A local tale subsequently developed that the grounds of the fort were haunted by the sound of a crying baby.
Towards the end of the 3rd century a Roman naval commander named Carausius, who later declared himself emperor in Britain, was given the task of clearing pirates from the sea between Britain and the European mainland. In so doing he established a new chain of command, the British part of which was later to pass under the control of a Count of the Saxon Shore. The Notitia Dignitatum shows that the fort at Reculver became part of this arrangement, and its location meant that it lay at the "main point of contact in the system [of Saxon Shore forts]". Archaeological evidence indicates that it was abandoned in the 370s.
### Medieval
By the 7th century Reculver was part of a landed estate of the Anglo-Saxon kings of Kent, possibly with a royal toll-station or a "significant coastal trading settlement," given the types and large quantity of coins found there. Other early Anglo-Saxon finds include a fragment of a gilt bronze brooch, or fibula, which was originally circular and set with coloured stones or glass, a claw beaker and pottery. Antiquarians such as the 18th-century clergyman John Duncombe believed that King Æthelberht of Kent moved his royal court there from Canterbury in about 597, and built a palace on the site of the Roman ruins. However, archaeological excavation has shown no evidence of this; Æthelberht's household would have been peripatetic, and the story has been described as probably a "pious legend". A church was built on the site of the Roman fort in about 669, when King Ecgberht of Kent granted land for the foundation of a monastery, which was dedicated to St Mary.
The monastery developed as the centre of a "large estate, a manor and a parish", and, by the early 9th century, it had become "extremely wealthy", but it then fell under the control of the archbishops of Canterbury. In 811 Archbishop Wulfred is recorded as having deprived the monastery of some of its land, and soon after it featured in a "monumental showdown" between Wulfred and King Coenwulf of Mercia over the control of monasteries. In 838 control of all monasteries under Canterbury's authority was passed to the kings of Wessex, by the agreement of Archbishop Ceolnoth in exchange for protection from Viking attacks. By the 10th century the monastery at Reculver and its estate were both royal property: they were given back to the archbishops of Canterbury in 949 by King Eadred of England, at which time the estate included Hoath and Herne, and land at Chilmington, about 23.5 miles (37.8 km) to the south-west, and in the west of the Isle of Thanet.
By 1066 the monastery had become a parish church. However, in 1086 Reculver was named in Domesday Book as a hundred, and the manor was valued at £42.7s. (£42.35). Included in the Domesday account for the manor, as well as the church, farmland, a mill, salt pans and a fishery, are 90 villeins and 25 bordars: these numbers can be multiplied four or five times to account for dependents, as they only represent "adult male heads of households". At that time, although Domesday Book records that Reculver belonged to the archbishop of Canterbury in both 1066 and 1086, in reality it must again have been lost to him, since William the Conqueror is recorded as having returned it, among other churches and properties, to the archbishop at his death. In the 13th century Reculver was a parish of "exceptional wealth", and the considerable enlargement of the church building during the Middle Ages indicates that the settlement had become a "thriving township", with "dozens of houses". In 1310 Archbishop Robert Winchelsey of Canterbury noted that the population of the whole parish in the time of his predecessor John Peckham (c. 1230–1292) had numbered more than 3,000. For this reason, and because the parish was also large geographically, he converted chapelries at Herne and, on the Isle of Thanet, St Nicholas-at-Wade and Shuart into parishes, though the church at Hoath remained a perpetual curacy belonging to Reculver parish until 1960. Records for the poll tax of 1377 show that there were then 364 individuals of 14 years and above, not including "honest beggars", in the reduced parish of Reculver, who paid a total of £6.1s.4d. (£6.07) towards the tax.
### Decline and loss to the sea
The thriving medieval township depended partly on its position on a maritime trade route through the Wantsum Channel, already present in Anglo-Saxon times and exemplified by Reculver's membership of the Cinque Port of Sandwich later in the Middle Ages. The importance of the Wantsum Channel was such that, when the River Thames froze in 1269, trade between Sandwich and London had to be carried out overland. Historical records for the channel are sparse after 1269, perhaps "because the route was so well known as to be taken for granted [in the Middle Ages], the whole waterway from London to Sandwich being occasionally spoken of as the 'Thames'". But silting and inning had closed the channel to trading vessels sailing along it by about 1460 or soon after, and the first bridge was built over it at Sarre in 1485, since ferries could no longer operate reliably across it.
Reculver was also diminished by coastal erosion. By 1540, when John Leland recorded a visit there, the coastline to the north had receded to within little more than a quarter of a mile (400 m) of the "Towne [which] at this tyme [was] but Village lyke". Soon afterwards, in 1576, William Lambarde described Reculver as "poore and simple". In 1588 there were 165 communicants – people taking part in services of holy communion at the church – and in 1640 there were 169, but a map of about 1630 shows that the church then stood only about 500 feet (152 m) from the shore. In January 1658 the local justices of the peace were petitioned concerning "encroachments of the sea ... [which had] since Michaelmas last [29 September 1657] encroached on the land near six rods [99 feet (30 m)], and will doubtless do more harm". The village's failure to support two "beer shops" in the 1660s points clearly to a declining population, and the village was mostly abandoned around the end of the 18th century, its residents moving to Hillborough, about 1.25 miles (2 km) south-west of Reculver but within the same parish.
Concern about erosion of the cliff on which the church stood, and the possible inundation of the village, had led the commissioners of sewers to install costly sea defences consisting of planking and piling before 1783, when it was reported that the commissioners had adopted a scheme proposed by Sir Thomas Page to protect the church: the sea defences had proven counter-productive, since sea water collected behind them and continued to undermine the cliff. Before this, according to John Duncombe, "the commissioners of sewers, and the occupiers who pay scots, [had] no view nor interest but to secure the level [ground], which must be overflowed when the hill is washed away." By 1787 Reculver had "dwindled into an insignificant village, thinly decked with the cottages of fishermen and smugglers."
> [At about this time,] from the present shore as far as a place called the Black Rock, seen at lowwater mark, where tradition says, a parish church once stood, there [were] found quantities of tiles, bricks, fragments of walls, tesselated pavements, and other marks of a ruinated town, and the household furniture, dress, and equipment of the horses belonging to the inhabitants of it, [were] continually found among the sands ...
In September 1804 a high tide and strong winds led to the destruction of five houses, one of which was "an ancient building, immediately opposite the public house, and had the appearance of having been part of some monastic erection". The following year, according to a set of notes written by the parish clerk John Brett, "Reculver Church and willage stood in safety", but in 1806 the sea began to encroach on the village, and in 1807 the local farmers dismantled the sea defences, after which "the village became a total [wreck] to the mercy of the sea."
A further scheme to protect the cliff and church was proposed by John Rennie, but a decision was taken on 12 January 1808 to demolish the church. By March 1809, erosion of the cliff had brought it to within 12 feet (4 m) of the church, and demolition was begun in September that year. Trinity House intervened to ensure that the towers were preserved as a navigational aid, and in 1810 it bought what was left of the structure for £100 and built the first groynes, designed to protect the cliff on which the ruined church stands. The vicarage was abandoned at the same time as the church, or a little later, and a replacement parish church was built at Hillborough, opening in 1813.
After the sea undermined the foundations of the Hoy and Anchor Inn at Reculver in January 1808, the building was taken down and the redundant vicarage was used as a temporary replacement under the same name. Although it was reported in 1800 that there were then only five or six houses left in the village, a new Hoy and Anchor Inn was built by 1809, and this was renamed as the King Ethelbert Inn by 1838. Further construction work is indicated by a stone over the doorway to the inn bearing a date of 1843, and it was later extended into the form in which it stands today, "probably ... in 1883".
Today the site of the church, including the upper part of the sea defences there, is managed by English Heritage, and the village has all but disappeared. The present appearance of the cliff below the church, a grassy slope above a large stone apron, was the work of central government and was in place by April 1867. In 2000 the surviving fragments of an early medieval cross that once stood inside the old church were used to design a Millennium Cross to commemorate two thousand years of Christianity. This stands at the entrance to the car park and was commissioned by Canterbury City Council.
### Bouncing bombs
During the Second World War, the coastline east of the village was used to test prototypes of Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb. This area was chosen for its seclusion, while the clear landmark of the church towers and the ease of recovering prototypes from the shallow water were probably also factors. Different, inert versions of the bomb were tested at Reculver, leading to the development of the operational version known as "Upkeep". This bomb was used by the RAF's 617 Squadron in Operation Chastise, otherwise known as the Dambuster raids, in which dams in the Ruhr district of Germany were attacked on the night of 16–17 May 1943 by formations of Lancaster bombers. On 17 May 2003 a Lancaster bomber overflew the Reculver testing site to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the exploit.
Two prototype bouncing bombs, about 6 feet (2 m) long and 3 feet (1 m) wide, lay in marshland behind the sea wall until about 1977, when they were removed by the Army. Other prototypes were recovered from the shoreline in 1997, one of which is in Herne Bay Museum and Gallery, a little over 3 miles (5 km) west of Reculver. Others are on display in Dover Castle and in the Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum at the former RAF Manston, on the Isle of Thanet. Part of an inert Upkeep bomb, consisting mostly of a circular end with some of its filling still adhering, was uncovered during beach maintenance work undertaken at Reculver by the Environment Agency on 29 March 2017.
## Governance
In the 10th-century charter by which King Eadred gave Reculver to the archbishops of Canterbury, the boundary of the mainland part of the estate was about the same as those for the adjoining parishes of Reculver, Hoath and Herne in the 20th century, and the estate included part of the Isle of Thanet. In 1086, Domesday Book named Reculver as a hundred, meaning that it was probably the meeting-place for the local hundred court. The hundred included Hoath and Herne, and it may also have included the neighbouring area of Thanet. In 1274–75 the local hundred was much larger: it was then named after Bleangate, in a detached part of Chislet parish, and was divided into northern and southern halves; it also included part of Thanet. By 1540 Bleangate hundred no longer included land on Thanet, its members being listed then as Sturry, Chislet, Reculver and Herne for the archaic taxes known as "fifteenths and tenths", and in 1659 they were listed as Chislet, Herne, Hoath, Reculver, Stourmouth, Sturry and Westbere. In 1808 the members of the northern half-hundred, or "Bleangate Upper", were listed as Herne, Reculver, Stourmouth and Hoath. The constable for the northern half-hundred was chosen at the court leet of the manor of Reculver, which by 1800 was usually held at Herne.
The parish was represented by two tithings – known in Kent as "borghs" – in the Hundred Rolls of 1274–75 and, 400 years later, for the purposes of the Hearth Tax, levied between 1662 and 1689. In 1274–75 they appear as Reculver borgh and Brookgate borgh; in 1663 they appear as Reculver Street borgh and Brookgate borgh, which were recorded under a parish heading for Reculver, together with Hoath borgh; and in 1673 Reculver borgh and Brookgate borgh were recorded under a heading for Herne parish, while Hoath was recorded under its own parish heading. However, borghs in Kent, and tithings generally, were related to the manorial and hundredal administration of a county, rather than to the ecclesiastical parishes in which they lay.
The parishes of Herne and, on the Isle of Thanet, St Nicholas-at-Wade were created from parts of Reculver parish in 1310, although they continued to have a subordinate relationship with their original parish into the 19th century, while Hoath remained a perpetual curacy into the 20th. Thereafter Reculver's parish boundary, enclosing an area of about 2 square miles (5 km<sup>2</sup>), remained the same for both ecclesiastical and civil purposes until 1934, and included the settlements of Hillborough, Bishopstone and Brook, now Brook Farm. The parish extended west almost to Beltinge, in Herne parish, and to Broomfield in the south-west, where the boundary with Herne parish ran along the centre of the main thoroughfare, now Margate Road; it was bounded in open country on the south-east and east by the parish of Chislet. In 1934 the civil functions of the parish were transferred to the civil parish of Herne Bay.
Reculver is in an electoral ward of the same name that includes Beltinge, Bishopstone, Brook Farm, Boyden Gate, Chislet, Hillborough, Hoath and Maypole. The ward is in the local government district of Canterbury and has one seat on Canterbury City Council; in the local elections of 2019, the seat was won by Rachel Lois Carnac, Conservative. At the national level Reculver is in the English parliamentary constituency of North Thanet, for which Roger Gale (Conservative) has been MP since 1983.
## Geography
The ruins of the Roman fort and medieval church at Reculver stand on the remnant of a promontory, a low hill with a maximum height of 50 feet (15 m), which is the "last seaward extension of the Blean Hills." Sediments laid down around 55 million years ago are particularly well displayed in the cliffs to the west. Nearby Herne Bay is the type section for the upper part of the Thanet Formation, previously known as the Thanet Beds, consisting of a fine-grained sand that can be clayey and glauconitic and is of Thanetian (late Paleocene) age. It rests unconformably on the Chalk Group, and forms the base of the cliffs in the Reculver and Herne Bay area. Above the Thanet Sand are the Upnor Formation, a medium sandstone, and the sandy clays of the Harwich Formation at the Paleocene–Eocene boundary. The highest cliffs, rising to a maximum height of about 115 feet (35 m) to the west of Reculver, have a cap of London Clay, a fine silty clay of Eocene age. The surface consists mainly of flint gravel with some areas of brickearth, both of which are glacial deposits.
Rocks such as these are easily washed away by the sea. It has been estimated that the Roman fort was originally about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the sea to the north, but the cliffs are eroding at a rate of approximately 3.3 feet (1 m) per year. Coastal erosion had washed away most of Reculver village by 1800, leading residents to re-locate to Hillborough, within Reculver parish. A plan is in place to manage this erosion whereby some parts of the coastline such as the country park will be allowed to continue eroding, and others – including the site of the Roman fort and the medieval church – will be protected from further erosion. New sea defences were built in the 1990s, including covering the beaches around the church with boulders.
The warmest time of year in Kent is in July and August, with average maximum temperatures of around 21 °C (70 °F), and the coolest is in January and February, with average minimum temperatures of around 1 °C (34 °F). Average maximum and minimum temperatures are about 0.5 °C (0.3 °F) higher than they are nationally. Locations on the north coast of Kent, like Reculver, are sometimes warmer than areas further inland, owing to the influence of the North Downs to the south. Average annual rainfall in Kent is about 728 millimetres (28.7 in), with the highest rainfall from October to January. This is lower than the national average annual rainfall of 838 millimetres (33 in). Occasional drought conditions can lead to the imposition of Temporary Use Bans to conserve water supplies, and it was announced in 2013 that a water desalination plant was to be built at Reculver to increase supplies.
## Demography
In the census of 1801 the number of people present in the parish of Reculver, enclosing an area of about 2 square miles (5 km<sup>2</sup>) and including the settlements of Hillborough, Bishopstone and part of Broomfield, was given as 252, and this figure remained roughly stable until the 20th century when a dramatic increase was recorded: in the census of 1931, the number was given as 829. But this included holidaymakers, and in 2005 the number of people at Reculver was estimated to increase to "over 1,000 at the height of the [summer] holiday season".
In the 2001 census, conducted on 29 April, the relevant census area covered 2.79 square miles (7 km<sup>2</sup>) and included only Reculver and outlying farms and houses, in which 135 people were found, almost a quarter of whom were in caravans. All were born in the United Kingdom except for three individuals from the Republic of Ireland and three from South Africa. Gender was given as 69 female and 66 male, and the age distribution was 12 individuals aged 0–5 years (8.8%), 16 aged 6–16 years (14%), 30 aged 17–35 years (22.2%), 14 aged 36–45 years (10.3%), 44 aged 46–64 years (32.5%) and 21 aged 65 years and over (15.5%). Half (67) of all the individuals recorded were described as economically active, with 58 of these having employers and nine being self-employed; none were recorded as full-time students or unemployed. Twenty-four people (17.7%) were described as retired. Of those aged 16–74 years, 14 (12.8%) were placed at the highest level for education or qualification. Christianity was the only religion represented, by 99 individuals, with 22 recorded as having no religion and 14 whose religion was not stated. From April 2001 to March 2002 the average gross weekly income of households in the electoral ward of Reculver was estimated by the Office for National Statistics as £560, or £29,120 per year; this was below the average for the south-east of England, excluding London, which was £660, or £34,320.
In the 2011 census the relevant census area was identical to the electoral ward, an area of 3.55 square miles (9 km<sup>2</sup>), and produced information for the area as a whole. Therefore, while the total resident population of the ward at the 2011 census numbered 8,845, detailed information comparable to that of the 2001 census is unavailable.
## Economy
In the Middle Ages Reculver was one of several members, or "limbs", of the Cinque Port of Sandwich: possibly originating in a loose association in the 11th century, this status was first recorded in about 1300. Like other limbs at Fordwich, Deal, Sarre and Stonar, it was then involved in maritime trade, and it shared in the Cinque Ports' duty to supply ships and men for the king's use, in return for concessions such as tax exemption. The last surviving record of Reculver as a limb of Sandwich dates from 1377, and its name is absent from Cinque Port records of 1432, probably because of "drastic coastal erosion, and the consequent silting up of the Wantsum Channel between Sarre and the North Mouth [adjacent to Reculver]." In 1220 King Henry III granted the archbishop of Canterbury a market to be held weekly at Reculver on Thursdays, and an annual fair was held there on Saint Giles's Day, 1 September.
Oysters from the "Rutupian shore" – the shoreline around Richborough, a little over 8 miles (13 km) to the south-east – were noted as a delicacy by the 1st–2nd-century Roman poet Juvenal, and in 1576 oysters from Reculver itself were "reputed as farre to passe those of Whitstaple, as Whitstaple doe surmount the rest of this shyre [of Kent] in savorie saltnesse." An enclosed area of salt water known as the Dene was leased for the breeding of oysters and lobsters in 1867; as of 2014 there is a hatchery for oysters in saltwater ponds on the eastern side of Reculver belonging to a seafood company that is based there. In May 1914, Anglo-Westphalian Kent Coalfield Ltd drilled a borehole at Reculver in search of coal, since it had found a seam of coal 48 feet (14.6 m) thick at nearby Chislet and was developing a colliery there; possible samples of coal were retrieved from the borehole at a depth of 1,129 feet (344.1 m), but it was abandoned, no workable seam having been found.
Today Reculver is dominated by static caravan parks, the first of which appeared after the Second World War. Also present are a country park, the King Ethelbert public house, which is a free house, and a nearby shop and cafe. Reculver was defined as a "key heritage area" in 2008, and there are plans for its development as a destination for green tourism. Canterbury City Council's Reculver Masterplan, adopted in 2009, envisaged the creation of 100 touring pitches in its caravan park, south-east of the Roman fort, which was then leased to the Camping and Caravanning Club. That caravan park was closed by 2015, when Canterbury City Council undertook a consultation on its incorporation into the country park.
### Community facilities
Reculver Church of England Primary School is adjacent to the church at Hillborough. The school's site also hosts Beltinge Day Nursery and Reculver Breakfast and Afterschool Club. The nearest school for older children is Herne Bay High School.
The nearest post office is in Beltinge, about 1.9 miles (3.1 km) to the west-southwest. The nearest general practitioner (GP) surgery is about 1.4 miles (2.3 km) to the south-west, between Bishopstone and Hillborough, with others in Beltinge, Herne Bay, Broomfield and St Nicholas-at-Wade. While the nearest general hospital is the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, about 2.5 miles (4 km) to the west in Herne Bay, the closest hospital with an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department is the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, about 8.2 miles (13.2 km) to the east in Margate. The nearest community centre is Reculver and Beltinge Memorial Hall, about 1.9 miles (3.1 km) to the west-southwest.
## Landmarks
### Ruined church of St Mary
The medieval towers of the ruined church of St Mary are Reculver's "most dominant features". They were added in the late 12th century to a church founded in 669, when King Ecgberht of Kent granted land to Bassa the priest for the foundation of a monastery. The church was sited near the centre of the Roman fort, and was built "almost completely from demolished Roman structures". In 692 the monastery's abbot Berhtwald was elected archbishop of Canterbury, and King Eadberht II of Kent was buried inside the church in the 760s. The church building was considerably enlarged over time, the last additions being made in the 15th century. But it retained many prominent Anglo-Saxon features, including a triple chancel arch and a stone high cross, though this had been removed by 1784.
The church was demolished in 1809, in what has been described as "an act of vandalism for which there can be few parallels even in the blackest records of the nineteenth century". Archaeological excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries established the building sequence of the church, and areas of missing wall are marked on the ground by concrete edged with flint. The ruins are now in the care of English Heritage. The sea defences protecting them were installed by Trinity House in 1810, but are now maintained by the Environment Agency. Fragments of the stone cross, and two stone columns that had been part of the church's triple chancel arch, are on display in Canterbury Cathedral.
A byname for the towers is the "Twin Sisters", and an account of how this first arose was current about a hundred years after its supposed happening in the late 15th century, but in its usual form, for example in a 19th-century travel guide, it is mostly an invention created around "pseudo-historical detail". The Ingoldsby Legends includes a re-invention of the story in which two brothers, Robert and Richard de Birchington, are substituted for the two sisters. Clive Aslet used the byname in noting that, in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Goldfinger, the villain Auric Goldfinger "lived at Reculver".
### Country park
Reculver Country Park is a nature reserve managed by Canterbury City Council and the Kent Wildlife Trust. It covers 64 acres (26 ha) and comprises a narrow strip of protected, cliff-top land about 1.5 miles (2 km) long, running from the remaining enclosure of the Roman fort west to Bishopstone Glen. Most of the cliff-top and all of the foreshore in this area are included in the Thanet Coast SSSI, the Thanet Coast and Sandwich Bay SPA and the similarly named Ramsar site; most of the Country Park is also part of the Bishopstone Cliffs local nature reserve, which covers 166.5 acres (67.4 ha) of the coastline between Beltinge and Reculver. In winter brent geese and wading birds such as sanderlings and turnstones may be seen; during the summer months the largest colony of sand martins in Kent nests in the soft cliffs, on top of which fulmars were also reported to have begun nesting in 2013, and wading curlews may be seen at any time. The grasslands on the cliff top are among the few remaining cliff-top wildflower meadows left in Kent, and are home to butterflies and skylarks. Also present are the nationally scarce hog's fennel and two species of digger wasp, Alysson lunicornis and Ectemnius ruficornis. The coastline here forms part of the "key on-land Palaeocene site in the London Basin", and is the only location in the Woolwich Beds to contain wood. The foreshore displays a "rich invertebrate and vertebrate fossil fauna ... and the section has been extensively studied over many years." The park first won a Green Flag Award in 2005, and it is estimated that over 200,000 people visit it each year, including up to 3,500 students for educational trips. Canterbury City Council's Reculver Masterplan envisages purchasing farmland to the south of the country park to replace land lost to the sea through coastal erosion.
In 2011 it was found that the shoreline in the Herne Bay area, including Reculver, had come under threat from an invasive species, the carpet sea squirt (Didemnum vexillum), also known as "marine vomit". First recorded in UK waters in 2008, the carpet sea squirt is indigenous to the sea around Japan, but it has been carried to other parts of the world, including New Zealand and the US, on boat hulls, fishing equipment and floating seaweed. Carpet sea squirt can overgrow other, sessile species, "potentially smothering species living in gravel and affecting fisheries."
### Centre for renewable energy
A visitor centre in Reculver Country Park re-opened in 2009 as the Reculver Renewable Energy and Interpretation Centre, "marking 200 years of the moving of Reculver village". The centre features a log burner fuelled by logs from the Blean woodland, solar and photovoltaic panels provide electrical power, and there are displays describing the history, geography and wildlife of the area.
## Transport
Reculver is at the end of an unclassified road, Reculver Lane, and is about 2 miles (3.2 km) by road from the nearest major junction of the A299, or Thanet Way. From Roman times there was a connection to Canterbury by road, the presence of which is reflected in parish boundaries for much of its length. An estate map of 1685 shows the Reculver end of this road as "The King's highe Way", which may have been in use until 1875, when it was reported that a public road had been diverted because of a cliff fall near Love Street Farm. Remains of a Roman road leading to the east gate of the fort have also been found, which were "substantial ... consisting of a sandstone platform [10–13 feet (3–4 m)] wide and at least [11 inches (30 cm)] deep."
In 1817 the nearest access to transport by coach was at Upstreet, about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Reculver, which lay on a route that ran between London, Canterbury and the Isle of Thanet. In 1839 coaches and vans ran daily from Herne Bay to Canterbury and on to destinations on the southern and eastern coasts of Kent, with access to the English Channel, at Deal, Dover, Sandgate and Hythe. In 1865 transport from Herne Bay was available by "fly" – a type of one-horse hackney carriage. Today, bus services calling at a stop adjacent to the King Ethelbert Inn connect Reculver with Herne Bay, Canterbury, Birchington and Margate.
The nearest railway stations are at Herne Bay, about 3.8 miles (6.1 km) to the west, and Birchington-on-Sea, about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the east. Both stations are on the Chatham Main Line, running between London's Victoria station and Ramsgate, on the south-eastern coast of the Isle of Thanet. The railway first reached Herne Bay from the west in 1861 and was extended to Ramsgate Harbour railway station by 1863, but no provision was made for public access from Reculver, although purchase of land for a station there had been envisaged and a short-lived goods station was opened in 1864. In the same year a passenger station was proposed for Reculver, primarily to serve tourists, but it was not built. In 1884 the South Eastern Railway proposed building a branch line from its station at Grove Ferry on the Ashford to Ramsgate line to join the London, Chatham and Dover Railway's Chatham Main Line at Reculver, thereby linking Canterbury and Herne Bay. The Canterbury and Kent Coast Railway Bill was presented to a select committee of MPs in January 1885: the London, Chatham and Dover Railway objected to it, particularly the junction with their main line at Reculver, so the Bill was rejected and the line was not built. Rudimentary houses were erected by the East Kent Railway company on nearby marshland in 1858 for the navvies who constructed the line through the area; these had been taken over by enginemen of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway by October 1904, when they were replaced by cottages.
There is no provision for access to Reculver from the sea, but there were maritime connections from at least the 1st century, when the Roman fort of Regulbium had a supporting harbour. The quantity and variety of coins found at Reculver dating from the 7th century to the 8th are almost certainly related to its location on a major trade route through the Wantsum Channel; there was probably still a harbour in Anglo-Saxon times, and the monastery may well have operated a "fleet of ships and its own boatyard." Details in the 10th-century charter in which King Eadred gave Reculver to the archbishops of Canterbury suggest that there was then an island immediately to the north, creating a "mini-Wantsum [Channel that] could have provided a sheltered channel for beaching and berthing ships"; the present day Black Rock beyond the shoreline may be a remnant of this island.
In the 17th century an inlet to the north-west was described as "anciently for a harber of ships, called now The Old Pen". In the 18th century there was a place for landing passengers and goods at the village, and the former name of the King Ethelbert Inn, the "Hoy and Anchor", makes reference to hoys, a local type of merchant sailing vessel. These continued to serve the coastline of northern Kent in the mid-19th century. In 1810 a canal was proposed to run from the coast between Reculver and St Nicholas-at-Wade to Canterbury, with a harbour for sea-going vessels at the northern end, which would be accessible from Reculver by a new road beginning at the inn, but none of this was built. Passenger steamships called at Herne Bay pier on their route between London and destinations along the north coast of Kent from 1832, but this service ceased in the first half of the 20th century. A travel guide of 1865 advised that
> [the] best way to visit Reculver from Margate is by means of a sailing or rowing boat ... [although] Herne Bay is by far the most convenient place to get to Reculver from, as you can be rowed to the foot of the twin towers in little more than half an hour ... [after which] we run the boat on the beach, and plant our foot on the famous "Rutupian shore," sung by Juvenal ...
Coastguards were stationed at Reculver from the mid-19th century until they were withdrawn in the mid-20th century, but the towers of the ruined church remain a landmark for mariners, both practically and through their use to mark the division between areas covered by Thames Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) and Dover MRCC.
## Religion
Early in the 19th century a new Anglican parish church was built at Hillborough, about 1.25 miles (2 km) south-west of Reculver, as a replacement for the old church of St Mary. The new church was given the same dedication to St Mary and, standing on a plot of land bought for £30, it was consecrated on 13 April 1813. A "miserable little [church] ... built in a rough and poverty-stricken style", it had a leaking roof and was already decaying by 1874, and was replaced by the present structure, begun in 1876 and consecrated on 12 June 1878.
The church begun in 1876 was designed in the Gothic Revival style by the architect Joseph Clarke, who was surveyor for the diocese of Canterbury at the time. It has seating for about 100 people, and is a "simple and relatively plain building", though it incorporates stonework from the old church at Reculver. The medieval baptismal font in the church is probably from the former chapel of All Saints, Shuart, on the Isle of Thanet, which was demolished in the 15th century. A war memorial stands at the northern edge of the churchyard, facing into the adjacent Reculver Lane, and records the names of 27 parishioners who died fighting in the First World War and the Second World War.
## Notable people
King Eadberht II of Kent was buried in the church at Reculver in the 760s. His tomb was in the south porticus of the church, adjacent to the chancel: this porticus later became part of the church's south aisle. This was traditionally believed to be the tomb of King Æthelberht I of Kent, and was "of an antique form, mounted with two spires". John Langton, a chancellor under the kings Edward I and Edward II, was also a rector of Reculver, as was Simon of Faversham, a 14th-century philosopher and theologian: he was given the position but was forced to defend it to the Pope, and died in France, either on his way to the papal curia in Avignon or after his arrival, some time before 19 July 1306.
The first recorded owner of Brook, about 0.8 miles (1 km) south-southwest of Reculver, was Nicholas Tingewick, physician to King Edward I and rector of Reculver until 1310, when he became its first recorded vicar. He was regarded as the "best doctor for the king's health", and there are more records of his medical practice than there are for "most physicians of his time." Brook subsequently passed to James de la Pine, sheriff of Kent in the early 1350s. His grandson sold it to an ancestor of Henry Cheyne, who was elected knight of the shire for Kent in 1563, and was created "Lord Cheyney" in 1572. He had sold all of his possessions in Kent by 1574 to "finance his extravagance", and Brook subsequently became the property of Sir Cavalliero Maycote, who was a leading courtier to Elizabeth I and James I. He had a "handsome monument [on the south wall of the chancel in the church at Reculver] representing Sir Cavalliero and Lady Maycote, with their nine children, all in alabaster figures, kneeling". Brook is now Brook Farm, where there is a remnant of Maycote's home in the form of a gateway, which is a "very rustic Elizabethan affair", all of brick, with mouldings.
Thomas Broke, alderman and MP for Calais in the mid-16th century, may have been a son of Thomas Brooke of Reculver, as well as being a "religious radical". Ralph Brooke, officer of arms as Rouge Croix Pursuivant and York Herald under Elizabeth I and James I, died in 1625 and was buried inside the church, where he was commemorated by a black marble tablet on the south wall of the chancel, showing him dressed in his herald's coat.
Robert Hunt, vicar of Reculver from 1595 to 1602, became minister of religion to the English colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, sailing there in the ship Susan Constant in 1606, and celebrated probably "the first known service of holy communion in what is today the United States of America on 21 June 1607." Barnabas Knell was vicar from 1602 to 1646: during the English Civil War his son Paul Knell, born in about 1615, was chaplain to a regiment of Royalist cuirassiers, to whom he preached a sermon, "The convoy of a Christian", at the siege of Gloucester in August 1643. An estate map of 1685 shows that much of the land around Reculver then belonged to James Oxenden, who spent much of his life as an MP for Kent constituencies between 1679 and 1702.
## In popular culture
Author Russell Hoban repurposes Reculver as "Reakys Over" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker. |
42,367,208 | SMS Salamander (1861) | 1,148,961,578 | Ironclad warship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy | [
"1861 ships",
"Drache-class ironclads",
"Ships built in Trieste"
]
| SMS Salamander was a Drache-class armored frigate built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1860s; she was laid down in February 1861, launched in August that year, and completed in May 1862, six months before her sister Drache. She was a broadside ironclad, mounting a battery of twenty-eight guns in gun ports along the length the hull. During the Second Schleswig War in 1864, Salamander remained in the Adriatic to protect Austria from a possible Danish attack that did not materialize. Two years later, during the Seven Weeks' War, she participated in the Austrian victory over a superior Italian fleet in the Battle of Lissa in July 1866. Immediately after the war, she was modernized with a battery of more powerful guns. Little used thereafter owing to reduced naval budgets, she was stricken from the Navy List in 1883 and hulked for use as a mine storage ship before being broken up in 1895–1896.
## Design and description
The Drache class was designed in response to the Formidabile-class ironclads bought from France by the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. They had an overall length of 70.1 meters (230 ft), a beam of 13.94 m (45 ft 9 in) and a draft of 6.8 meters (22 ft 4 in). They displaced 2,824 long tons (2,869 t) at normal load, and 3,110 long tons (3,160 t) at deep load. The ships had a horizontal steam engine that drove their single propeller using steam provided by four boilers that exhausted through one funnel. The engine produced a total of 2,060 indicated horsepower (1,540 kW) which gave the ships a speed of 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph). For long-distance travel, the Draches were fitted with three masts and barque rigged. The ships had a complement of 346 officers and crewmen.
The frigates were armed with ten 48-pounder smoothbore guns and eighteen 24-pounder rifled, muzzle-loading (RML) guns in the traditional broadside arrangement of older ships of the line. In addition, they carried a pair of landing guns, one of which was an 8-pounder and the second was a 4-pounder. They were equipped with ram bows. The Drache-class ironclads had a waterline belt of wrought iron that was 115 millimeters (4.5 in) thick.
## Service history
Salamander was laid down at Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino at its Trieste shipyard in February 1861, launched on 20 or 22 August 1861, and completed in May 1862, some six months before her sister ship Drache. During the Second Schleswig War in 1864, Salamander and Drache remained in the Adriatic to protect Austria's coastline, while a squadron was sent to the North Sea to attack Denmark. In June 1866, Italy declared war on Austria, as part of the Third Italian War of Independence, which was fought concurrently with the Austro-Prussian War. 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. Tegetthoff brought the Austrian fleet to Ancona on 27 June, in an attempt to draw out the Italians, but the Italian commander, Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano, refused to engage Tegetthoff.
### Battle of Lissa
On 16 July, Persano took the Italian fleet out of Ancona and steamed to the island of Lissa, where they arrived on the 18th. With the main fleet of twelve ironclads, 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 bases 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 Salamander on his left 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. Salamander and the other two ships of the left wing, Habsburg and Kaiser Max, attacked the leading Italian division, composed of the ironclads Principe di Carignano, Castelfidardo, and Ancona. In the ensuing close-quarters action, Salamander attempted to ram an unidentified Italian ironclad but failed to connect.
By this time, Re d'Italia had been sunk and the coastal defense ship Palestro was burning badly, soon to be destroyed by 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. As night began to fall, the opposing fleets disengaged completely, heading for Ancona and Pola, respectively. In the course of the battle, Salamander had been hit by 35 shells, but the Italians had failed to inflict serious damage on Salamander or any of the other Austrian ironclads.
### 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, Austria, which became Austria-Hungary in the Ausgleich of 1867, was forced to cede the city of Venice to Italy. 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.
The fleet embarked on a modest modernization program after the war, primarily focused on re-arming the ironclads with new rifled guns. The ship was refitted and rearmed in 1867–1868 with ten 178-millimeter (7 in) and two bronze 51-millimeter (2 in) RML guns. By 1875, the ship had been reduced to a stationary guard ship. By 1883, Salamander's wooden hull had deteriorated to the point where she was no longer seaworthy. In addition, she was infested with cockroaches, rendering her largely uninhabitable. Accordingly, she was stricken from the naval register on 18 March 1883 and converted into a naval mine storage hulk. She served in this capacity for more than a decade before being broken up for scrap in 1895–1896. |
15,268,562 | 410 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron | 1,172,686,369 | null | [
"Canadian Forces aircraft squadrons",
"RCAF training units",
"Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons"
]
| 410 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron (French: 410<sup>e</sup> Escadron d'entraînement opérationnel à l'appui tactique), nicknamed the "Cougars", is a Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft squadron currently located at Canada's primary training base for the CF-18 (Canadian Forces version of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet), at Cold Lake, Alberta. The squadron was formed during the Second World War as an RCAF squadron under the Royal Air Force (RAF), at RAF Ayr, near Prestwick, in Scotland.
The first official sortie of No. 410 Squadron was from RAF Drem, East Lothian, Scotland, on the night of 4 June 1942, when twelve Beaufighter crews took off, and it went on to become the top-scoring night fighter squadron in the RAF Second Tactical Air Force during the period between D-Day and VE-Day.
No. 410 Squadron supported the Allied forces during the Normandy Landings and the Battle of the Bulge, flew nightly patrols during this time and many of its pilots gained ace status. Two members of No. 410 Squadron, Flight Lieutenant (F/L) Currie and Flying Officer (F/O) Rose, were the first members of the RCAF to see the German V-2 rocket in flight.
The squadron was disbanded in 1964 but reformed again in 1968.
As No. 410 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron, the squadron usually trains between 20 and 22 pilots a year on the CF-18, more than any other RCAF squadron. The Canadian documentary television series Jetstream was filmed with the squadron in 2007 and showed what trainees must endure to become fighter pilots.
## Badge
Sergeant Clarence (Leslie) Elm, CD, was detailed in 1943 by Wing Commander G.H. Elms to design a 410 Squadron badge. The 410 (Cougar) Squadron badge was approved by His Majesty King George VI in 1945. No. 410 Squadron's badge depicts a cougar's face with a background decrescent (waning) moon. The cougar, a North American mountain cat, was chosen because of the speed and power of its attacks. The waning moon refers to the squadron's night operations. These two major devices are in reference to the squadron's Second World War night fighter activities, when the unit was renowned for its skill and number of victories. The squadron's motto is Noctivaga, which means "wandering by night".
## History
No. 410 Squadron was formed at RAF Ayr, near Prestwick, Scotland in June 1941, as a Royal Canadian Air Force "Article XV squadron", under Royal Air Force operational control.
### Second World War
No. 410 Squadron was the third RCAF night fighter squadron to be formed and was equipped with the Boulton Paul Defiant. In May 1942 these were replaced by the Bristol Beaufighter, and in October of the same year these were in turn replaced with De Havilland Mosquito Mk IIs, with which the first victory for the squadron was claimed. No. 410 Squadron was acknowledged as the top-scoring night fighter unit in RAF Second Tactical Air Force in the period between D-Day and VE Day, although No. 409 Squadron RCAF can now make a similar claim, on the basis that there were many victories quickly counted up during 1944 and 1945.
#### Bases
From RAF Ayr, No. 410 Squadron was moved to RAF Drem in East Lothian, but returned to RAF Ayr 10 months later. On 1 September 1942 the squadron was moved to RAF Scorton in North Yorkshire, England, but just under two months after that it was relocated to RAF Acklington in Northumberland. In 1943 the squadron was placed at RAF Coleby Grange in Lincolnshire, then moved for the sixth time to RAF West Malling in the southeast of England, and then to RAF Hunsdon, just north of London. Later it was moved to RAF Castle Camps, and then back to RAF Hunsdon. On 18 June 1944, the squadron was placed at RAF Zeals in Wiltshire, only to be moved again to RAF Colerne in Wiltshire. On 9 September 1944, No. 410 Squadron RCAF was again moved to RAF Hunsdon. Thirteen days later, the squadron was relocated back to their sixth base, RAF Coleby Grange. On 3 November 1944 the Squadron moved to RAF Amiens-Glisy in northern France. Two months later, the squadron was relocated to RAF Lille-Vendeville in northern France, the first movement of the squadron in 1945. From 5 April 1945 the Cougars were back at RAF Amiens-Glisy, and the final move of the war occurred on 9 June 1945, when the squadron relocated to RAF Gilze-Rijen in the Netherlands.
#### Operations
The first official sortie occurred on the night of 4 June 1942, when twelve crews from No. 410 Squadron took off in Beaufighters, but the two scrambles that occurred were uneventful. The first German contact occurred on the night of 6/7 September 1942, when a Beaufighter II from RAF Scorton flown by P/O R.R. Ferguson and P/O D. Creed (navigator), intercepted a Luftwaffe Ju 88. The Beaufighter was guided to the Ju 88 approximately 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Whitby on the Yorkshire coast. The attack damaged the Ju 88, but did not destroy it. Since the aircraft was not destroyed, this did not count as the squadron's first outright victory. That came on 22 January 1943, when Flight Sergeant B.M. Haight and Sergeant T. Kipling (RAF, observer), flying a Mosquito II from RAF Acklington, were credited with a Dornier Do 217, which was destroyed near Hartlepool. This was made possible because of "night readiness", the ability to fly at a moment's notice at night. By the end of the war, 75+3⁄4 victories had been claimed. The squadron flew 2,972 sorties and accumulated 28,150 hours of flight time. The squadron's victories included 75+3⁄4 destroyed, 2 probably destroyed, and 9 damaged. The squadron had the following operational casualties: 17 aircraft and 32 aircrew, of whom 10 were killed, 20 presumed dead, and two were made prisoners of war. Non-operational casualties were: 14 aircraft and 30 personnel, of whom 29 were killed, 1 injured.
##### D-Day and the invasion of Europe
Between November 1943 and May 1944, the squadron was engaged in the night defence of Britain. On 5 June 1944, No. 410 Squadron's Commanding Officer (CO), Wing Commander G.A. Hiltz, flew a four-aircraft detachment to Colerne where they provided fighter cover for the initial airborne landings. Among the pilots who flew that operation was Flight Lieutenant Charles Emanuel "Pop" Edinger, who later became an ace. On the night prior to the Normandy Landings, all of the RAF Second Tactical Air Force's night fighter squadrons were working hard to ensure safety for the landing force. During June 1944, 18 of the squadron's 22 fighters were available, the other four were out for periodic maintenance. At 01:00, the first of four patrols took off, but the patrol was uneventful, with the pilots reporting clouds at 10,000 feet. A further five patrols were flown to help cover the 4,000 ships that were part of Operation Neptune. On 7 June two of the aircraft were fired upon by friendly Lancaster bombers, who assumed they were hostile. However, No. 410 Squadron claimed its first kill when Flying Officers A. Mcleod and Bob Snowdon destroyed a Junkers Ju 188. On 12 June the squadron claimed multiple bomber kills. The Cougars shot down 14 raiders with five more probably destroyed or damaged. But the success was overshadowed by the allied invasion of Europe. From June to August 1944, the squadron was mostly occupied with nightly patrols over the beachheads to guard the Allied troops and shipping against German bombers. No. 410 Squadron's Mosquitoes brought down thirty-one German aircraft and damaged or destroyed three more, in less than 31 sorties. Then the squadron moved to France and in the next eight months added 25 "kills" and a "damaged" to its score.
##### Immediately after D-Day
For several days following D-Day, the squadron flew patrols and received credits for many kills. In one instance, Warrant Officer (W/O) W.F. Price and P/O J.G. Costello shot down two Do.217 aircraft in the space of twenty minutes. and the Cougars destroyed twelve German bombers in all. Following this success, however, it was five days before the squadron scored another kill. In the interval, the crews, still maintaining their schedule of nine sorties per night, had little to report. One night an engine in W/C Hiltz's Mosquito failed on the take-off run and the aircraft, swerving off the runway, crashed into "A" Flight dispersal. The crews escaped injury, but many buildings went up in flames. During an operation that resulted in the thirteenth kill of the period, one aircraft crashed and its crew was unable to bail out. For the next week the weather was poor, which restricted night operations. Most of the crews that did go out had to be diverted to other bases on their return. German activity had also diminished by then and the beachhead was much quieter than it had been in mid-June. On the first two nights in July there were no sorties at all. Then the weather improved and the nightly round of nine patrols was resumed.
F/L Currie and F/O Rose saw a V-2 rocket in flight on the night of 10/11 September, the first Canadian pilots to do so. While on patrol from Brussels to Antwerp and Rotterdam they saw a bright orange light directly ahead and seemingly at their own altitude, 10,000 feet (3,000 m). At first glance, Currie paid no attention to it, taking it for a bright star. Suddenly, Currie said: "It began to climb – hell it climbed!" The light appeared to go straight up so rapidly that within a few seconds it had passed out of sight. On return to base, the crew reported the sighting as a V-1 flying bomb, but their account of the spectacular rate of climb and other details aroused great interest amongst senior officers. That night, a few moments after Currie and Rose had made their sighting, a V-2 rocket crashed onto the English coast. Two nights later, F/Os Fullerton and Gallagher saw a similar ball of yellow flame streak vertically into the night sky, and in the weeks that followed there were many other reports.
##### Battle of the Bulge and the end of the war
In the middle of December, under bad weather conditions, the Nazis launched an offensive in the Ardennes. The Luftwaffe caught many squadrons off guard. No. 410 Squadron enjoyed a number of successes during this period, some of them even on Christmas Day. During the Battle of the Bulge, the entire RAF Second Tactical Air Force, including No. 410 Squadron, was on 48-hour alert.
Although the war was entering its final stages, the squadron still had to watch for anti-aircraft artillery. The fighter squadrons continued to make advances until February, while waiting for the Canadian push through the Reichwald. Although there was some aerial fighting, the major conflict with the Luftwaffe occurred when the Canadians started to cross the Rhine on 24 March 1945.
On the evening of 18 December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, Edinger made contact with a Ju 87, which he then fired upon. His navigator, C.L. Vaessen, confirmed the kill, stating that the aircraft had been hit in the starboard engine and had caught fire. The Ju 87 crashed into trees and was engulfed in flames. Flight Lieutenant Rayne Schultz had claimed his fifth kill of the war, a Ju 188, on 13/14 February 1944. After having returned from working at the Training Command, he claimed another Ju 188 on 10/11 April 1945. He claimed his final kills on 21/22 April 1945 by downing two Ju 88s near Ferrbellen.
A few days after the Squadron had moved to Lille/Vendeville, it was called upon to provide a special patrol of four aircraft as air cover for the Armistice Day ceremonies being held in Paris; no German intruders attempted to intervene. Later in the month, there was an accident at base that took the lives of two pilots who had recently joined the Cougars. F/Os H. Connelly and J. Hunt had gone up together to practice circuits and landings. As they made a circuit, preparatory to landing, the Mosquito stalled and crashed from 500 feet (150 m). A few days before Christmas 1944, there was another accident, the heaviest suffered by the squadron in terms of lives lost. For several days the airfield had been fogbound and when the sky cleared somewhat in the afternoon of 21 December, S/L Fulton, "B" Flight commander, took off for England in the squadron's Airspeed Oxford aircraft. With him were three officers and two airmen, all going on leave. Near Wrotham, Kent, the aircraft crashed and only one of its occupants survived. Killed with S/L Fulton were his navigator F/O A.R. Ayton (RAF), who had accompanied him on posting to the Cougars in October, F/L F.G. Thomson, DFC (RAF), who had arrived late in November to begin a second tour, and LACs E. Wahlers and R. Seefried. F/O W. Rumbold, another RAF navigator, was seriously injured; he had been with the Squadron for two months. The squadron was disbanded at the end of the war on 9 June 1945.
#### Wartime commanders
The first officer to command No. 410 Squadron was Squadron Leader P.Y. Davoud, who was in charge between 30 June 1941 and 4 September 1941. Wing Commander (W/C) M. Lipton took over command between 5 September 1941 and 30 July 1942 and the position was then given to W/C F.W. Hillock, between 19 August 1942 and 19 May 1943, and then to W/C G.H. Elms, who commanded No. 410 Squadron between 20 May 1943 and 18 February 1944. In the latter part of the war, W/C G.A. Hiltz was given command between 19 February 1944 and 1 April 1945. The last commander of the war was W/C E.P. Heybroek, who was in charge between 2 April 1945 until the squadron disbanded in June of that year.
#### Decorations
##### Unit awards
During the Second World War, No. 410 Squadron RCAF was awarded multiple battle honours. These honours are certified by the Canadian Air Force.
##### Individual awards
At least 12 members of the squadron were decorated during the war, with the award of 11 Distinguished Flying Crosses (DFC) and one bar to the DFC, as well as a Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM). The first DFCs went to Acting Flight Lieutenant Martin Anthony Cybulski and Flying Officer Harold Herbert Ladbrook on 9 November 1943 The citation does not mention that they had to return to base on a single engine, and with other damage to the aircraft. This was quickly followed by Flying Officers Rayne Dennis Schultz and Vernon Albert Williams on 14 January 1944. Again, the citation does not mention the severe damage to their aircraft. At the close of an action with their third Do 217, which the combat report describes as: "a long duel with the enemy pilot showing a high degree of airmanship," they were hit by return fire, including a cannon shell that destroyed much of the instrument panel and which narrowly missed the pilot. The starboard engine almost died, then recovered, but then the port engine caught fire. They managed to return to RAF Bradwell with only the starboard engine working, landing at 19:45 on 10 December 1943.
Sergeant James Norman was awarded the DFM on 26 September 1944. Squadron Leader James Dean Somerville and F/O George Douglas Robinson were awarded the DFC on 20 October 1944. F/L Charles Emanuel Edinger and F/O Charles Leo Vaessen were awarded the DFC on 5 December of the same year, for destroying two Junkers Ju 188s, one Junkers Ju 88 and one unidentified German aircraft between June and October. They subsequently claimed one further Ju 88 and one Junkers Ju 87 in December.
Flight Lieutenants Ben Erwin Plumer and William Warren Hargrove received the DFC on 15 December 1944 for shooting down a Messerschmitt Bf 110 on 6 October: F/O Dennis George Tongue was awarded the DFC on 29 December 1944, and a bar to his DFC on 2 March 1945. F/O Tongue was a member of the RAF, had been commissioned from sergeant and promoted to flying officer. On the night he won the bar to his DFC, on 25 November 1944, his pilot was A. A. Harrington of the United States Army Air Forces. They destroyed three Junkers Ju 88s, their own Mosquito having been hit by debris from the second Ju 88, and during the fight that led to the downing of the third, Tongue was also having to keep track of a further Ju 88 which was endeavouring to attack their aircraft.
F/O Donald Murdo Mackenzie was awarded the DFC on 27 February 1945, having destroyed a Ju 88 on 30 July 1944, and then two more in a single sortie on 24 December.
### 1946–1964
No. 410 Squadron was reactivated on 1 December 1946 as an air defence squadron flying de Havilland Vampire F.3 aircraft, and was re-formed from a defence role into that of a fighter role at St Hubert (Montreal), Quebec on 1 December 1948. From May 1949 to August 1951, the Blue Devils aerobatics team formed, to demonstrate the abilities of the new Vampire aircraft at formation flying. The squadron later converted to Canadair Sabres and was deployed to Europe, flying from RCAF Station North Luffenham in the UK, and then at RCAF Station Marville (No. 1 (Fighter) Wing) in France. The squadron had been the first regular force fighter unit to fly the Vampire aircraft and was the first to fly the Sabre and the first to join No. 1 (Fighter) Wing of No. 1 Air Division Europe.
When No. 445 All Weather (Fighter) [AW(F)] Squadron arrived from Canada, however, No. 410 Squadron was deactivated at Marville on 1 October 1956 and reactivated as an all-weather fighter squadron at Uplands (Ottawa), Ontario on 1 November of that year, flying Avro Canada CF-100s. When CF-100s were removed from front-line service in 1961, the CF-101 Voodoo interceptor was introduced for North American air defence. No. 410 Squadron converted to these aircraft and the squadron continued to fly Voodoos until defence cuts led to the squadron being deactivated on 31 March 1964.
### 1968 to the present-day
In 1968, No. 3 OTU (Operating Training Unit) at CFB Bagotville, tasked with training pilots and navigators for the three operational RCAF Voodoo squadrons, was later renamed No. 410 Squadron. No. 410 Squadron moved to Cold Lake, Alberta in 1982, changing aircraft to become the training unit for Canada's new CF-18 Hornet aircraft.
## Aircraft
### Second World War
No. 410 Squadron began flying the North American Harvard training aircraft and then flew the Boulton Paul Defiant from July 1941 to May 1942. The Boulton Paul Defiant was a "turret fighter" that was used as a night fighter. A problem with this aircraft was that it had no forward armament, and so it was exchanged for the Bristol Beaufighter II, long-range heavy fighter. The Beaufighter was used from April 1942 until January 1943. The Mk II used the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine which provided greater power than the original Beaufighter had had. No. 410 Squadron transitioned to the de Havilland Mosquito Mk II in November 1942, and the Squadron then used the Mosquito exclusively until the end of the war. It used the variants VI (July 1943 – September 1943), XIII (December 1943 – August 1944), and XXX (August 1944 – June 1945). All of these fighters had the same basic design—that of a low- to medium-altitude daytime tactical bomber, high altitude night bomber, pathfinder, day or night fighter, fighter-bomber, intruder, maritime strike and photo reconnaissance aircraft.
### 1946–1964
The squadron became a fighter unit in 1948, flying the de Havilland Vampire, having already flown the aircraft for two years in an Air Defence role.
No. 410 Squadron then re-equipped with the Canadair Sabre in 1951 and then with the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck in 1956.
On 20 December 1961, No. 410 Squadron became Canada's first operational CF-101 Voodoo squadron. The Voodoo was an all-weather interceptor aircraft; its primary armament was the nuclear-tipped AIR-2A Genie unguided air-to-air rockets, and was used as Canada's primary means of air defence.
### 1968 to the present-day
As a training unit, No. 410 Squadron used the Canadair CT-133 Silver Star.
No. 410 Squadron RCAF is currently equipped (2011) with the CF-18 Hornet. The first two CF-18s were formally handed over to 410 (Operational Training Unit) Squadron at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta on 25 October 1982.
## Operational training
No. 410 Squadron is now (2010) a Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft squadron located at Canada's primary CF-18 training base at Cold Lake, Alberta. In 1982, the squadron was renamed 410 Tactical Fighter (Operational Training) Squadron. It runs one fighter pilot course every year, training approximately 20 pilots. The training program consists of nine months of ground school, simulator flights, and operational flying. Students are taken from among the graduates of a Fighter Lead-In Training Course and are provided with the knowledge of basic skills in both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. Areas covered in depth include aircraft handling, instrument flight, formation flying, night flying, navigation, air-to-air refuelling, and weapons delivery and tactics.
There is also an annual Fighter Weapons Instructor Course (FWIC) run by No. 410 Squadron, and a Fighter Electronic Warfare and Advanced Radar (FEWAR) Course. The intense and highly challenging FWIC lasts for three months. Each operational CF-18 squadron and tactical radar squadron sends candidates (eight students per course) who graduate with the leadership qualities and expertise required to return to their squadrons and design tactical training programs themselves. The Advanced Radar Course is conducted in two phases: ground school at 4 Wing, Cold Lake, and a flying phase at an electronic warfare range. This three-week course is designed to allow ten pilots annually to graduate and return to their squadrons as electronic warfare experts and instructors. Since No. 410 Squadron has always had some of the most experienced CF-18 pilots in the fighter community, it is often charged with carrying out special fighter projects. The squadron conducted the operational testing and evaluation of the CF's precision guided munitions, and in 2010 was anticipating testing the use of night vision devices in the Hornet.
## Re-certification and curriculum
For the first seven years following 1982, when the CF-18 was being delivered, the squadron ran six-month full-squadron courses from which the graduating pilots formed new CF-18 squadrons. Following this initial cadre of courses, No. 410 Squadron trained CF-18 pilots at a rate of approximately 50 per year. In 1992, with the closure of three squadrons in Germany, this was reduced to 25. With the recent reduction in size of the remaining operational squadrons, No. 410 Squadron now trains approximately 20 fighter pilots annually.
At the same time as the current work mandate, No. 410 Squadron is also responsible for training and re-certifying about five former CF-18 Hornet pilots annually. These pilots are returning to the CF-18 after a ground or exchange tour. No. 410 Squadron also trains newly arrived foreign exchange officers who will be joining one of Canada's two operational fighter squadrons. As backgrounds can differ significantly, each course is tailored to the individual, based on their experience and demonstrated competencies. Areas covered in depth in the Fighter Pilot Course (FPC) include basic and advanced aircraft handling, instrument flight, formation flying, night flying, all-weather interception, air-to-air refuelling, Basic Fighter Manoeuvres (BFM – "dogfighting skills") and air combat. The latter half of each FPC comprises academic air-to-ground weapons delivery and Close Air Support (CAS), as well as advanced Air Interdiction (AI) tactics, the former usually completed during a squadron deployment to the south-western United States in the late spring and early fall, due to the significantly better weather and the sheer number of bombing ranges available.
## Fighter Operational Test and Evaluation Flight
A sub-unit of No. 410 Squadron is the Fighter Operational Test and Evaluation Flight (FOTEF), which is responsible for operational testing and evaluation. In 2010, its efforts were seen as integral to the operational effectiveness of all aspects of core and CF-18 capabilities. Some of the new systems being evaluated were Night Vision Imaging Systems (NVIS), Multi-function Information Distribution Systems (MIDS), the Advanced Multi-role Infra-Red Sensor, and the evaluation of new mission planning software and the Advanced Distributed Combat Training System. Working closely with a variety of key units across the Air Force, including the "Aerospace Engineering & Test Establishment" (AETE), FOTEF enabled the integration of newly modernized CF-18 ECP-583 R2 aircraft into the Fighter Force.
## Jetstream and air displays
The Canadian documentary television series Jetstream was filmed in 2007, showing life on the base at Cold Lake and what a trainee must endure to become a fighter pilot. The television documentary followed No. 410 Squadron's training course for the full nine months, and in that time some candidates did not graduate. The television show was given full access to the trainees' lives from ground school to graduation and was allowed access almost everywhere. The series followed six members of the Canadian Air Force's "Class of 2006" who had been selected to learn with No. 410 Squadron. The television show called the air base "fighter town", but Cold Lake has three fighter (including the 410th) squadrons that use fighter/interceptor aircraft, them being 401 Tactical Fighter Squadron and No. 409 Squadron, nicknamed "The Nighthawks". |
31,906,883 | Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum | 1,173,813,661 | 1553 book published in Lyon, France | [
"1553 books",
"16th-century Latin books",
"16th-century history books",
"Books of Christian biography",
"French biographies",
"History books about the ancient era",
"Iconography",
"Latin biographies"
]
| Prima pars Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis. (; ) or Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum for short is an iconographic collection of wood engravings authored and published by French humanist, numismatist, publisher and bookseller Guillaume Rouillé in Latin, French and Italian in 1553, in Lyon, France. The book's initial editions contain 828 portraits of mythical and historical figures, designed as medallions and each accompanied by a brief biography, listed in chronological order beginning with portraits of Adam and Eve and ending with those of renowned individuals from the mid-16th century.
The contents are divided into two parts: Prima pars () covers those who supposedly or historically lived before the birth of Christ while pars secunda () deals with those who lived during or after his lifetime. The two parts are usually bound into one book, albeit with separate pagination. The book does not mention the engraver's name; the portraits are typically attributed, however, to Piedmontese engraver Georges Reverdy [fr; it]. Rouillé did not intend his work to be a numismatic reference text although many of the portraits were based on depictions from ancient coins, emulating their artistic styles. The book instead appealed as a collection of brief, well-written and illustrated history lessons to a broader audience and became a bestseller in its era.
## Iconographic basis
Portrait books, which featured genuine or fictitious woodcut portraits of renowned individuals of different eras and places, were highly popular in the 16th-century Europe. Guillaume Rouillé, an established publisher and bookseller in Lyon by mid-century, saw an opportunity for a profitable business in the genre like many of his competitors did. Rouillé got the idea for the medallion portrait format from the 1517 book Illustrium imagines () by Renaissance humanist Andrea Fulvio, which contained 204 busts of individuals engraved in the styles of antique coins. Rouillé humorously states in his preface of Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum that he included fictitious images of individuals who were supposed to have lived before the biblical account of the Flood or the invention of the art of painting and engraving, in order not to be accused for having spread counterfeit money to the public. He admits that such portraits were drawn with the help of imagination, yet in accordance with the characteristics of the individual's deeds, customs, personality, and the region they were said to be from; likewise for the images of historical figures whose attested iconographic traces did not exist.
As for the rest, the portraits were either based on paintings and numismatic, sigillographic, and intaglio collections Rouillé and the engraver had access to—for example, Rouillé based the portrait of Alexander the Great on a Macedonian gold stater that had Athena on the obverse, mistaking her depiction for that of Alexander while getting depictions of Demetrius I of Macedon and Mithridates VI Eupator from the correct coins—or copied from earlier portrait books. The portraits of French monarchs were copied from the 1528 book Les Anciennes et modernes genealogies des Roys de France () authored by poet Jean Bouchet [fr] and the 1546 book Epitome gestorum LVIII regum Franciae () published by Balthazar Arnoullet [fr; it]. Most portraits of the early Caesars were copied from the 1534 book Imperatorum et Caesarum vitae () authored by historian Johannes Huttich [de].
Rouillé's book does not disclose the portrait engraver's identity; however, 19th-century Lyonese bibliographer Henri-Louis Baudrier [ja] attributed the portraits to Georges Reverdy from Piedmont, whose engraving skills he praised. Reverdy was a resident of Lyon at the time of the book's authorship and had gained wide recognition, having been compared to Hans Holbein the Younger. Either Reverdy modeled some of the engravings after drawings and paintings of Dutch painter Corneille de Lyon, or Reverdy and Corneille worked jointly, because the artistic style in some of the book's contemporary portraits—such as that of Marguerite de Navarre—very closely matches Corneille's.
## Contents
The work, which contains 828 medallion portraits in the initial editions, is chronologically divided into two parts: Prima pars () and pars secunda () based on the birth of Christ, which Rouillé placed in the 3,962nd year after the biblical account of the creation of the world. The individuals who supposedly or historically lived before Christ are grouped together in the first part, and each major event of their lives is given two dates: one in anno Mundi () and the other ante Christum natum (). Those who lived during Christ's lifetime or after his death are listed in the second part, which is titled Promptuarii iconum pars secunda incipit à Christo nato, perpetuam ducens seriem ad usque Christianissimũ Francorum regem Henricum hoc nomine secundum, hodie feliciter regnantem () in the initial Latin edition, which is dedicated to the French monarch. The two parts, nevertheless, are usually bound into one book, although they maintain separate pagination.
Each portrait is accompanied by a brief biographical text below it, with the individual's name in a circular inscription inside the edge of the medallion. The medallions are arranged in pairs so that two members of the same family, usually a married couple, are often displayed on the page together. Some of the biographical texts have been taken from compendia of history from the antiquity, such as Ausonius's epigrams. The first part begins with the portraits of Adam and Eve, followed by those of the patriarchs, prophets, and kings of the Old Testament—including Abraham, Noah, Jeremiah, Nimrod, and Ahab; pagan deities, creatures and heroes, like the Minotaur, Vesta, Janus, Osiris, Romulus, and Hercules; and renowned historical figures who came before Christ did, such as Zoroaster, Thales of Miletus, Julius Caesar, and Pericles.
The second part opens with a title page depicting the Nativity and deals with the biographies of individuals from Christ's time, the Roman Empire after Christ's death, Middle Ages, and Rouillé's contemporary era—the mid-16th century: Christ himself, Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate; Caligula and most of the other Roman emperors; Attila of the Huns, Islamic prophet Muhammad, post-classical writers like Dante Alighieri; Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Emperors up to Charles V; and a large number of contemporary royals, such as Edward VI of England, Marguerite de Navarre, and Catherine de' Medici. In a 1577 edition, approximately 100 more portraits—mostly those of individuals from Rouillé's era—were added to the second part and those of Hippocrates and Galen were added to the appendix.
## Publication history
The book was published in Lyon, in 1553, in three editions simultaneously: Latin, French, and Italian. Rouillé often published different language editions of what he thought would sell internationally and distributed them throughout Europe, aided by his in-law connections. He dedicated the Latin edition to Henry II of France, the Italian edition to Catherine de' Medici, and the French edition to Marguerite de Navarre; the dedications to the royals were an indirect advertising technique. Several subsequent editions in these languages were published in the following years. In the 1577 French edition, Rouillé gave a more prominence to humanists who had contributed to the European development of law and medicine in the first half of the 16th century—such as jurist François Douaren and anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius—thus paying tribute to the humanist movement of his time.
The Spanish translation, Promptuario de las medallas de todos las más insignes varones que ha habido desde el principio del mundo, was a work of Valencian theologian and translator Joan Martí Cordero [ca]. His dedication of the work, dated September 8, 1558, and written from the Université catholique de Louvain where he was a student at the time, was addressed "... al muy alto y muy poderoso señor don Carlos, por la gracia de Dios, Príncipe de las Españas ()", referring to Prince Carlos of Asturias, who was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Philip II of Spain. The Spanish edition was published in 1561 by Rouillé.
## Reception
Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum was a bestseller in its era. Although many of the book's portraits were based on depictions from ancient coins and emulated their artistic styles, Rouillé did not intend his work to be a reference text for academics or numismatists—for example, he entirely disregarded the reverse sides of the coins he used as the sources of the depictions—the book instead appealed as a collection of brief, well-written and illustrated history lessons to a broader audience. Many of the similar iconographic collections published in Europe from the mid-16th to 17th centuries referenced and copied from the work, partly because Rouillé had used a variety of diverse sources and chosen individuals based on more daring criteria than what was generally accepted at the time. Jean de Tournes, who was Rouillé's main competitor in the Lyonese publishing industry, published Insignium aliquot virorum icones (), an imitation of Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum with fewer portraits and a lower price, in 1559. It did not sell as well as Rouillé's work and no further editions were released.
Physician and numismatist Antoine Le Pois [la] mentioned Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum in his posthumous 1579 work Discours sur les médailles et gravures antiques () as one of the texts he felt more useful for their abridgements of history than the fictitious portraits they contained. Julian Sharman, the 19th-century author of The Library of Mary Queen of Scots, judged the work to be "not one of much numismatic interest", but noted that it had been "pronounced to be one of the marvels of early wood-engraving". Art historian Ilaria Andreoli commented: "Beyond any scruples of historical, archaeological and antiquarian exactitude and precision, Rouillé's ambition is [...] to speak to the eyes [...] thanks to which the reader will be able to peer into the features and hear them speak, as if they were actors' masks".
## See also |
24,485,323 | Raid on Griessie | 1,088,224,531 | Part of the Napoleonic Wars | [
"1807 in Asia",
"Conflicts in 1807",
"December 1807 events",
"Military raids",
"Naval battles involving the Netherlands",
"Naval battles involving the United Kingdom",
"Naval battles of the Napoleonic Wars"
]
| The Raid on Griessie was a British attack on the Dutch port of Griessie (later renamed Gresik) on Java in the Dutch East Indies in December 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. The raid was the final action in a series of engagements fought by the British squadron based in the Indian Ocean against the Dutch naval forces in Java, and it completed the destruction of the Dutch squadron with the scuttling of three ships of the line, the last Dutch warships in the region. The British squadron—under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew—sought to eliminate the Dutch in an effort to safeguard the trade route with China, which ran through the Straits of Malacca and were in range of Dutch raiders operating from the principal Javan port of Batavia. In the summer of 1806, British frigates reconnoitred Javan waters and captured two Dutch frigates, encouraging Pellew to lead a major attack on Batavia that destroyed the last Dutch frigate and several smaller warships. Prior to the Batavia raid however, Dutch Rear-Admiral Hartsinck had ordered his ships of the line to sail eastwards, where they took shelter at Griessie, near Sourabaya.
On the morning of 5 December 1807, a second raiding squadron under Pellew appeared off Griessie and demanded that the Dutch squadron in the harbour surrender. The Dutch commander—Captain Cowell—refused, and seized the boat party that had carried the message. Pellew responded by advancing up the river and exchanging fire with a Dutch gun battery on Madura Island, at which point the governor in Surabaya overruled Captain Cowell, released the seized boat party and agreed to surrender the ships at anchor in Gresik harbour. By the time Pellew reached the anchorage, however, Cowell had scuttled all of the ships in shallow water, and Pellew was only able to set the wreckage on fire. Landing shore parties, the British destroyed all military supplies in the town and demolished the battery on Madura. With the destruction of the force in Griessie, the last of the Dutch naval forces in the Pacific were eliminated. British forces returned to the region in 1810 with a large scale expeditionary force that successfully invaded and captured Java in 1811, temporary removing the last Dutch colony east of Africa.
## Background
In 1804, at the start of the Napoleonic Wars, a powerful French squadron operating from Batavia harbour on the Dutch island colony of Java attacked a large and valuable British merchant convoy sailing from China near the Straits of Malacca in the Battle of Pulo Aura. The French attack was a failure, but the threat posed to British trade passing through the Strait of Malacca by French or Dutch warships had been clearly demonstrated. Determined to eliminate this threat, the commander of Royal Navy forces in the Indian Ocean—Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew—ordered frigates to reconnoitre Dutch naval activity in the East Indies during the summer of 1806. The Dutch maintained a small squadron in the region under Rear-Admiral Hartsinck, principally intended to operate against pirates, consisting of three 68-gun ships of the line, three frigates and a number of smaller vessels. Despite the obsolete nature of many of these ships, they nevertheless constituted a threat to British trade and Pellew's frigates raided Dutch harbours and merchant shipping extensively during their patrols.
At the action of 26 July 1806, a Dutch convoy sailing along the southern coast of Celebes was attacked and defeated by one of Pellew's reconnaissance frigates, HMS Greyhound. Among the captured ships was the Dutch frigate Pallas and two large merchant vessels. Three months later, the frigate HMS Caroline entered Batavia harbour itself, seizing the Dutch frigate Maria Reigersbergen at the action of 18 October 1806. These successes encouraged Pellew to conduct a larger scale operation, launching a major Raid on Batavia harbour on 27 November 1806. As his large squadron sailed into the bay, the surviving Dutch ships were driven on shore to avoid capture, boarding parties under Admiral Pellew's son Captain Fleetwood Pellew completing the destruction by setting the wrecks on fire.
A number of vessels, including all of the Dutch ships of the line, had escaped the raid. Hartsinck had sought to divide his forces shortly before Pellew's attack and consequently sent a number of vessels eastwards along the Javan coast under an American-born Dutch officer named Captain Cowell. Cowell's force eventually sheltered in a protected anchorage at the town of Griessie near Sourabaya, 570 mi (500 nmi; 920 km) to the west of Batavia. There the squadron rapidly deteriorated so that one ship of the line—Kortenaar—had to be broken down into a sheer hulk and two others—Pluto and Revolutie—were disarmed, their cannon transferred into batteries on shore.
Admiral Pellew was unable to return to Java early in 1807, as his ships were dispersed on separate operations across the Indian Ocean, some deploying as far west as the Red Sea. However, during the summer responsibility for the blockade of the French island bases of Île Bonaparte and Isle de France (now Mauritius) passed from Pellew to Rear-Admiral Albemarle Bertie at the Cape of Good Hope and Pellew was once again free to concentrate against the remainder of the Dutch squadron. During the absence of his main force, Admiral Pellew had sent two frigates into Javan waters: Caroline under Captain Peter Rainier and HMS Psyche under his son Captain Fleetwood Pellew. These ships rapidly established the location and the state of the Dutch ships of the line, and then separated to raid Dutch merchant shipping, Psyche having considerable success at Semarang on 31 August when Captain Pellew destroyed two Dutch vessels, and captured three, including the Dutch 24-gun corvette Scipio, which the British renamed Samarang.
## Pellew at Griessie
When news of the Dutch whereabouts reached Admiral Pellew at Malacca, he immediately assembled a force from nearby warships, including his flagship HMS Culloden under Commander George Bell, ship of the line HMS Powerful under Fleetwood Pellew, the frigates Caroline under Commander Henry Hart and HMS Fox under Captain Archibald Cochrane, and the small vessels HMS Victor under Lieutenant Thomas Groube, HMS Samarang under Lieutenant Richard Buck, HMS Seaflower under Lieutenant William Fitzwilliam Owen, and HMS Jaseur under Lieutenant Thomas Langharne. The East Indiaman Worcester, which carried 500 men from the 30th Regiment of Foot under Lieutenant-Colonel Lockhart for any landing operations that might be required, accompanied the squadron
Sailing from Malacca on 20 November, Pellew's squadron passed along the Javan coast for 15 days, reaching Panka Point on 5 December and sending a boat under a flag of truce into Griessie with instructions for the Dutch commander to surrender his ships. Captain Cowell refused, and ordered the boat party to be arrested. He then sent a Dutch officer aboard Culloden to inform Pellew of his actions. In response, Pellew determined to attack the port and ordered that Culloden and Powerful be lightened by the removal of unnecessary stores to enable them to sail into the shallow straits. On 6 December, the British squadron moved steadily towards Griessie through the Madura Strait, coming under fire from heated cannonballs from a battery of nine cannon situated at Sambelangan on Madura Island. Returning fire with his full squadron, Pellew rapidly silenced the battery without loss or significant damage to his ships and as the squadron approached Griessie, a message from the civilian governor in Sourabaya reached Pellew, reversing Cowell's orders, releasing the captured boat party and unconditionally surrendering the ships in the harbour.
On 7 December, Pellew agreed formal terms for the surrender of Revolutie, Pluto, Kortenaar and the Dutch East Indiaman Rustloff that were anchored in Griessie. However, when British boats entered the harbour it was discovered that Cowell had issued orders for all four ships to be scuttled, their wrecks protruding from the shallow water. Unable to remove the ships, Pellew ordered their remains burnt, while British landing parties spread throughout the town, burning the military stores and destroying the cannon that had been removed from the ship. Another landing party took possession of the remains of the battery at Sambelangan and demolished it. British operations were complete by 11 December and Pellew then ordered the squadron to withdraw and return to India.
## Aftermath
The final operation of Pellew's Java campaign, completed with minimal casualties on either side, saw the eradication of the Dutch naval presence in the East Indies for the remainder of the war. With the Dutch removed, British attention turned to the French Indian Ocean islands, which were blockaded and captured during the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811. Once Mauritius had been captured, British forces returned to the East Indies, expeditionary forces overwhelming the Dutch defenders on several islands, Java falling last. By that time, Pellew was serving in the Mediterranean and British control of the Indian Ocean was assured, the British remaining in possession of the East Indies until they were returned to the Netherlands following the capture of Napoleon and the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 signed at the Convention of London. The East Indies were handed over in 1816 after Napoleons final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. |
233,082 | Burn | 1,172,520,584 | Injury to flesh or skin, often caused by excessive heat | [
"Acute pain",
"Burns",
"Hazards of outdoor recreation",
"Heat transfer",
"Medical emergencies",
"Wikipedia emergency medicine articles ready to translate",
"Wikipedia medicine articles ready to translate (full)"
]
| A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur mainly in the home or the workplace. In the home, risks are associated with domestic kitchens, including stoves, flames, and hot liquids. In the workplace, risks are associated with fire and chemical and electric burns. Alcoholism and smoking are other risk factors. Burns can also occur as a result of self-harm or violence between people (assault).
Burns that affect only the superficial skin layers are known as superficial or first-degree burns. They appear red without blisters and pain typically lasts around three days. When the injury extends into some of the underlying skin layer, it is a partial-thickness or second-degree burn. Blisters are frequently present and they are often very painful. Healing can require up to eight weeks and scarring may occur. In a full-thickness or third-degree burn, the injury extends to all layers of the skin. Often there is no pain and the burnt area is stiff. Healing typically does not occur on its own. A fourth-degree burn additionally involves injury to deeper tissues, such as muscle, tendons, or bone. The burn is often black and frequently leads to loss of the burned part.
Burns are generally preventable. Treatment depends on the severity of the burn. Superficial burns may be managed with little more than simple pain medication, while major burns may require prolonged treatment in specialized burn centers. Cooling with tap water may help pain and decrease damage; however, prolonged cooling may result in low body temperature. Partial-thickness burns may require cleaning with soap and water, followed by dressings. It is not clear how to manage blisters, but it is probably reasonable to leave them intact if small and drain them if large. Full-thickness burns usually require surgical treatments, such as skin grafting. Extensive burns often require large amounts of intravenous fluid, due to capillary fluid leakage and tissue swelling. The most common complications of burns involve infection. Tetanus toxoid should be given if not up to date.
In 2015, fire and heat resulted in 67 million injuries. This resulted in about 2.9 million hospitalizations and 176,000 deaths. Among women in much of the world, burns are most commonly related to the use of open cooking fires or unsafe cook stoves. Among men, they are more likely a result of unsafe workplace conditions. Most deaths due to burns occur in the developing world, particularly in Southeast Asia. While large burns can be fatal, treatments developed since 1960 have improved outcomes, especially in children and young adults. In the United States, approximately 96% of those admitted to a burn center survive their injuries. The long-term outcome is related to the size of burn and the age of the person affected.
## Signs and symptoms
The characteristics of a burn depend upon its depth. Superficial burns cause pain lasting two or three days, followed by peeling of the skin over the next few days. Individuals with more severe burns may indicate discomfort or complain of feeling pressure rather than pain. Full-thickness burns may be entirely insensitive to light touch or puncture. While superficial burns are typically red in color, severe burns may be pink, white or black. Burns around the mouth or singed hair inside the nose may indicate that burns to the airways have occurred, but these findings are not definitive. More worrisome signs include: shortness of breath, hoarseness, and stridor or wheezing. Itchiness is common during the healing process, occurring in up to 90% of adults and nearly all children. Numbness or tingling may persist for a prolonged period of time after an electrical injury. Burns may also produce emotional and psychological distress.
## Cause
Burns are caused by a variety of external sources classified as thermal (heat-related), chemical, electrical, and radiation. In the United States, the most common causes of burns are: fire or flame (44%), scalds (33%), hot objects (9%), electricity (4%), and chemicals (3%). Most (69%) burn injuries occur at home or at work (9%), and most are accidental, with 2% due to assault by another, and 1–2% resulting from a suicide attempt. These sources can cause inhalation injury to the airway and/or lungs, occurring in about 6%.
Burn injuries occur more commonly among the poor. Smoking and alcoholism are other risk factors. Fire-related burns are generally more common in colder climates. Specific risk factors in the developing world include cooking with open fires or on the floor as well as developmental disabilities in children and chronic diseases in adults.
### Thermal
In the United States, fire and hot liquids are the most common causes of burns. Of house fires that result in death, smoking causes 25% and heating devices cause 22%. Almost half of injuries are due to efforts to fight a fire. Scalding is caused by hot liquids or gases and most commonly occurs from exposure to hot drinks, high temperature tap water in baths or showers, hot cooking oil, or steam. Scald injuries are most common in children under the age of five and, in the United States and Australia, this population makes up about two-thirds of all burns. Contact with hot objects is the cause of about 20–30% of burns in children. Generally, scalds are first- or second-degree burns, but third-degree burns may also result, especially with prolonged contact. Fireworks are a common cause of burns during holiday seasons in many countries. This is a particular risk for adolescent males. In the United States, for non-fatal burn injuries, white males, aged \<6 comprise most cases. Thermal burns from grabbing/touching and spilling/splashing were the most common type of burn and mechanism, while the bodily areas most impacted were hands and fingers followed by head/neck.
### Chemical
Chemical burns can be caused by over 25,000 substances, most of which are either a strong base (55%) or a strong acid (26%). Most chemical burn deaths are secondary to ingestion. Common agents include: sulfuric acid as found in toilet cleaners, sodium hypochlorite as found in bleach, and halogenated hydrocarbons as found in paint remover, among others. Hydrofluoric acid can cause particularly deep burns that may not become symptomatic until some time after exposure. Formic acid may cause the breakdown of significant numbers of red blood cells.
### Electrical
Electrical burns or injuries are classified as high voltage (greater than or equal to 1000 volts), low voltage (less than 1000 volts), or as flash burns secondary to an electric arc. The most common causes of electrical burns in children are electrical cords (60%) followed by electrical outlets (14%). Lightning may also result in electrical burns. Risk factors for being struck include involvement in outdoor activities such as mountain climbing, golf and field sports, and working outside. Mortality from a lightning strike is about 10%.
While electrical injuries primarily result in burns, they may also cause fractures or dislocations secondary to blunt force trauma or muscle contractions. In high voltage injuries, most damage may occur internally and thus the extent of the injury cannot be judged by examination of the skin alone. Contact with either low voltage or high voltage may produce cardiac arrhythmias or cardiac arrest.
### Radiation
Radiation burns may be caused by protracted exposure to ultraviolet light (such as from the sun, tanning booths or arc welding) or from ionizing radiation (such as from radiation therapy, X-rays or radioactive fallout). Sun exposure is the most common cause of radiation burns and the most common cause of superficial burns overall. There is significant variation in how easily people sunburn based on their skin type. Skin effects from ionizing radiation depend on the amount of exposure to the area, with hair loss seen after 3 Gy, redness seen after 10 Gy, wet skin peeling after 20 Gy, and necrosis after 30 Gy. Redness, if it occurs, may not appear until some time after exposure. Radiation burns are treated the same as other burns. Microwave burns occur via thermal heating caused by the microwaves. While exposures as short as two seconds may cause injury, overall this is an uncommon occurrence.
### Non-accidental
In those hospitalized from scalds or fire burns, 3–10% are from assault. Reasons include: child abuse, personal disputes, spousal abuse, elder abuse, and business disputes. An immersion injury or immersion scald may indicate child abuse. It is created when an extremity, or sometimes the buttocks are held under the surface of hot water. It typically produces a sharp upper border and is often symmetrical, known as "sock burns", "glove burns", or "zebra stripes" - where folds have prevented certain areas from burning. Deliberate cigarette burns most often found on the face, or the back of the hands and feet. Other high-risk signs of potential abuse include: circumferential burns, the absence of splash marks, a burn of uniform depth, and association with other signs of neglect or abuse.
Bride burning, a form of domestic violence, occurs in some cultures, such as India where women have been burned in revenge for what the husband or his family consider an inadequate dowry. In Pakistan, acid burns represent 13% of intentional burns, and are frequently related to domestic violence. Self-immolation (setting oneself on fire) is also used as a form of protest in various parts of the world.
## Pathophysiology
At temperatures greater than 44 °C (111 °F), proteins begin losing their three-dimensional shape and start breaking down. This results in cell and tissue damage. Many of the direct health effects of a burn are caused by failure of the skin to perform its normal functions, which include: protection from bacteria, skin sensation, body temperature regulation, and prevention of evaporation of the body's water. Disruption of these functions can lead to infection, loss of skin sensation, hypothermia, and hypovolemic shock via dehydration (i.e. water in the body evaporated away). Disruption of cell membranes causes cells to lose potassium to the spaces outside the cell and to take up water and sodium.
In large burns (over 30% of the total body surface area), there is a significant inflammatory response. This results in increased leakage of fluid from the capillaries, and subsequent tissue edema. This causes overall blood volume loss, with the remaining blood suffering significant plasma loss, making the blood more concentrated. Poor blood flow to organs like the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract may result in kidney failure and stomach ulcers.
Increased levels of catecholamines and cortisol can cause a hypermetabolic state that can last for years. This is associated with increased cardiac output, metabolism, a fast heart rate, and poor immune function.
## Diagnosis
Burns can be classified by depth, mechanism of injury, extent, and associated injuries. The most commonly used classification is based on the depth of injury. The depth of a burn is usually determined via examination, although a biopsy may also be used. It may be difficult to accurately determine the depth of a burn on a single examination and repeated examinations over a few days may be necessary. In those who have a headache or are dizzy and have a fire-related burn, carbon monoxide poisoning should be considered. Cyanide poisoning should also be considered.
### Size
The size of a burn is measured as a percentage of total body surface area (TBSA) affected by partial thickness or full thickness burns. First-degree burns that are only red in color and are not blistering are not included in this estimation. Most burns (70%) involve less than 10% of the TBSA.
There are a number of methods to determine the TBSA, including the Wallace rule of nines, Lund and Browder chart, and estimations based on a person's palm size. The rule of nines is easy to remember but only accurate in people over 16 years of age. More accurate estimates can be made using Lund and Browder charts, which take into account the different proportions of body parts in adults and children. The size of a person's handprint (including the palm and fingers) is approximately 1% of their TBSA.
### Severity
To determine the need for referral to a specialized burn unit, the American Burn Association devised a classification system. Under this system, burns can be classified as major, moderate, and minor. This is assessed based on a number of factors, including total body surface area affected, the involvement of specific anatomical zones, the age of the person, and associated injuries. Minor burns can typically be managed at home, moderate burns are often managed in a hospital, and major burns are managed by a burn center. Severe burn injury represents one of the most devastating forms of trauma. Despite improvements in burn care, patients can be left to suffer for as many as three years post-injury.
## Signs of smoke inhalation
Signs of smoke inhalation includes hoarse voice, dyspnea, facial burns, singed nasal hairs, sputum which contains carbonaceous materials, Stridor and wheezing may be present in later stages.
## Prevention
Historically, about half of all burns were deemed preventable. Burn prevention programs have significantly decreased rates of serious burns. Preventive measures include: limiting hot water temperatures, smoke alarms, sprinkler systems, proper construction of buildings, and fire-resistant clothing. Experts recommend setting water heaters below 48.8 °C (119.8 °F). Other measures to prevent scalds include using a thermometer to measure bath water temperatures, and splash guards on stoves. While the effect of the regulation of fireworks is unclear, there is tentative evidence of benefit with recommendations including the limitation of the sale of fireworks to children.
## Management
Resuscitation begins with the assessment and stabilization of the person's airway, breathing and circulation. If inhalation injury is suspected, early intubation may be required. This is followed by care of the burn wound itself. People with extensive burns may be wrapped in clean sheets until they arrive at a hospital. As burn wounds are prone to infection, a tetanus booster shot should be given if an individual has not been immunized within the last five years. In the United States, 95% of burns that present to the emergency department are treated and discharged; 5% require hospital admission. With major burns, early feeding is important. Protein intake should also be increased, and trace elements and vitamins are often required. Hyperbaric oxygenation may be useful in addition to traditional treatments.
### Intravenous fluids
In those with poor tissue perfusion, boluses of isotonic crystalloid solution should be given. In children with more than 10–20% TBSA (Total Body Surface Area) burns, and adults with more than 15% TBSA burns, formal fluid resuscitation and monitoring should follow. This should be begun pre-hospital if possible in those with burns greater than 25% TBSA. The Parkland formula can help determine the volume of intravenous fluids required over the first 24 hours. The formula is based on the affected individual's TBSA and weight. Half of the fluid is administered over the first 8 hours, and the remainder over the following 16 hours. The time is calculated from when the burn occurred, and not from the time that fluid resuscitation began. Children require additional maintenance fluid that includes glucose. Additionally, those with inhalation injuries require more fluid. While inadequate fluid resuscitation may cause problems, over-resuscitation can also be detrimental. The formulas are only a guide, with infusions ideally tailored to a urinary output of \>30 mL/h in adults or \>1mL/kg in children and mean arterial pressure greater than 60 mmHg.
While lactated Ringer's solution is often used, there is no evidence that it is superior to normal saline. Crystalloid fluids appear just as good as colloid fluids, and as colloids are more expensive they are not recommended. Blood transfusions are rarely required. They are typically only recommended when the hemoglobin level falls below 60-80 g/L (6-8 g/dL) due to the associated risk of complications. Intravenous catheters may be placed through burned skin if needed or intraosseous infusions may be used.
### Wound care
Early cooling (within 30 minutes of the burn) reduces burn depth and pain, but care must be taken as over-cooling can result in hypothermia. It should be performed with cool water 10–25 °C (50.0–77.0 °F) and not ice water as the latter can cause further injury. Chemical burns may require extensive irrigation. Cleaning with soap and water, removal of dead tissue, and application of dressings are important aspects of wound care. If intact blisters are present, it is not clear what should be done with them. Some tentative evidence supports leaving them intact. Second-degree burns should be re-evaluated after two days.
In the management of first and second-degree burns, little quality evidence exists to determine which dressing type to use. It is reasonable to manage first-degree burns without dressings. While topical antibiotics are often recommended, there is little evidence to support their use. Silver sulfadiazine (a type of antibiotic) is not recommended as it potentially prolongs healing time. There is insufficient evidence to support the use of dressings containing silver or negative-pressure wound therapy. Silver sulfadiazine does not appear to differ from silver containing foam dressings with respect to healing.
### Medications
Burns can be very painful and a number of different options may be used for pain management. These include simple analgesics (such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen) and opioids such as morphine. Benzodiazepines may be used in addition to analgesics to help with anxiety. During the healing process, antihistamines, massage, or transcutaneous nerve stimulation may be used to aid with itching. Antihistamines, however, are only effective for this purpose in 20% of people. There is tentative evidence supporting the use of gabapentin and its use may be reasonable in those who do not improve with antihistamines. Intravenous lidocaine requires more study before it can be recommended for pain.
Intravenous antibiotics are recommended before surgery for those with extensive burns (\>60% TBSA). As of 2008, guidelines do not recommend their general use due to concerns regarding antibiotic resistance and the increased risk of fungal infections. Tentative evidence, however, shows that they may improve survival rates in those with large and severe burns. Erythropoietin has not been found effective to prevent or treat anemia in burn cases. In burns caused by hydrofluoric acid, calcium gluconate is a specific antidote and may be used intravenously and/or topically. Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) in those with burns that involve more than 40% of their body appears to speed healing without affecting the risk of death. The use of steroids is of unclear evidence.
Allogeneic cultured keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts in murine collagen (Stratagraft) was approved for medical use in the United States in June 2021.
### Surgery
Wounds requiring surgical closure with skin grafts or flaps (typically anything more than a small full thickness burn) should be dealt with as early as possible. Circumferential burns of the limbs or chest may need urgent surgical release of the skin, known as an escharotomy. This is done to treat or prevent problems with distal circulation, or ventilation. It is uncertain if it is useful for neck or digit burns. Fasciotomies may be required for electrical burns.
Skin grafts can involve temporary skin substitutes, derived from animal (human donor or pig) skin or synthesized. They are used to cover the wound as a dressing, preventing infection and fluid loss, but will eventually need to be removed. Alternatively, human skin can be treated to be left on permanently without rejection.
There is no evidence that the use of copper sulphate to visualise phosphorus particles for removal can help with wound healing due to phosphorus burns. Meanwhile, absorption of copper sulphate into the blood circulation can be harmful.
### Alternative medicine
Honey has been used since ancient times to aid wound healing and may be beneficial in first- and second-degree burns. There is moderate evidence that honey helps heal partial thickness burns. The evidence for aloe vera is of poor quality. While it might be beneficial in reducing pain, and a review from 2007 found tentative evidence of improved healing times, a subsequent review from 2012 did not find improved healing over silver sulfadiazine. There were only three randomized controlled trials for the use of plants for burns, two for aloe vera and one for oatmeal.
There is little evidence that vitamin E helps with keloids or scarring. Butter is not recommended. In low income countries, burns are treated up to one-third of the time with traditional medicine, which may include applications of eggs, mud, leaves or cow dung. Surgical management is limited in some cases due to insufficient financial resources and availability. There are a number of other methods that may be used in addition to medications to reduce procedural pain and anxiety including: virtual reality therapy, hypnosis, and behavioral approaches such as distraction techniques.
### Patient support
Burn patients require support and care – both physiological and psychological. Respiratory failure, sepsis, and multi-organ system failure are common in hospitalized burn patients. To prevent hypothermia and maintain normal body temperature, burn patients with over 20% of burn injuries should be kept in an environment with the temperature at or above 30 degree Celsius.
Metabolism in burn patients proceeds at a higher than normal speed due to the whole-body process and rapid fatty acid substrate cycles, which can be countered with an adequate supply of energy, nutrients, and antioxidants. Enteral feeding a day after resuscitation is required to reduce risk of infection, recovery time, non-infectious complications, hospital stay, long-term damage, and mortality. Controlling blood glucose levels can have an impact on liver function and survival.
Risk of thromboembolism is high and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) that does not resolve with maximal ventilator use is also a common complication. Scars are long-term after-effects of a burn injury. Psychological support is required to cope with the aftermath of a fire accident, while to prevent scars and long-term damage to the skin and other body structures consulting with burn specialists, preventing infections, consuming nutritious foods, early and aggressive rehabilitation, and using compressive clothing are recommended.
## Prognosis
The prognosis is worse in those with larger burns, those who are older, and females. The presence of a smoke inhalation injury, other significant injuries such as long bone fractures, and serious co-morbidities (e.g. heart disease, diabetes, psychiatric illness, and suicidal intent) also influence prognosis. On average, of those admitted to the United States burn centers, 4% die, with the outcome for individuals dependent on the extent of the burn injury. For example, admittees with burn areas less than 10% TBSA had a mortality rate of less than 1%, while admittees with over 90% TBSA had a mortality rate of 85%. In Afghanistan, people with more than 60% TBSA burns rarely survive. The Baux score has historically been used to determine prognosis of major burns. However, with improved care, it is no longer very accurate. The score is determined by adding the size of the burn (% TBSA) to the age of the person and taking that to be more or less equal to the risk of death. Burns in 2013 resulted in 1.2 million years lived with disability and 12.3 million disability adjusted life years.
### Complications
A number of complications may occur, with infections being the most common. In order of frequency, potential complications include: pneumonia, cellulitis, urinary tract infections and respiratory failure. Risk factors for infection include: burns of more than 30% TBSA, full-thickness burns, extremes of age (young or old), or burns involving the legs or perineum. Pneumonia occurs particularly commonly in those with inhalation injuries.
Anemia secondary to full thickness burns of greater than 10% TBSA is common. Electrical burns may lead to compartment syndrome or rhabdomyolysis due to muscle breakdown. Blood clotting in the veins of the legs is estimated to occur in 6 to 25% of people. The hypermetabolic state that may persist for years after a major burn can result in a decrease in bone density and a loss of muscle mass. Keloids may form subsequent to a burn, particularly in those who are young and dark skinned. Following a burn, children may have significant psychological trauma and experience post-traumatic stress disorder. Scarring may also result in a disturbance in body image. To treat hypertrophic scars (raised, tense, stiff and itchy scars) and limit their effect on physical function and everyday activities, silicone sheeting and compression garments are recommended. In the developing world, significant burns may result in social isolation, extreme poverty and child abandonment.
## Epidemiology
In 2015 fire and heat resulted in 67 million injuries. This resulted in about 2.9 million hospitalizations and 238,000 dying. This is down from 300,000 deaths in 1990. This makes it the fourth leading cause of injuries after motor vehicle collisions, falls, and violence. About 90% of burns occur in the developing world. This has been attributed partly to overcrowding and an unsafe cooking situation. Overall, nearly 60% of fatal burns occur in Southeast Asia with a rate of 11.6 per 100,000. The number of fatal burns has changed from 280,000 in 1990 to 176,000 in 2015.
In the developed world, adult males have twice the mortality as females from burns. This is most probably due to their higher risk occupations and greater risk-taking activities. In many countries in the developing world, however, females have twice the risk of males. This is often related to accidents in the kitchen or domestic violence. In children, deaths from burns occur at more than ten times the rate in the developing than the developed world. Overall, in children it is one of the top fifteen leading causes of death. From the 1980s to 2004, many countries have seen both a decrease in the rates of fatal burns and in burns generally.
### Developed countries
An estimated 500,000 burn injuries receive medical treatment yearly in the United States. They resulted in about 3,300 deaths in 2008. Most burns (70%) and deaths from burns occur in males. The highest incidence of fire burns occurs in those 18–35 years old, while the highest incidence of scalds occurs in children less than five years old and adults over 65. Electrical burns result in about 1,000 deaths per year. Lightning results in the death of about 60 people a year. In Europe, intentional burns occur most commonly in middle aged men.
### Developing countries
In India, about 700,000 to 800,000 people per year sustain significant burns, though very few are looked after in specialist burn units. The highest rates occur in women 16–35 years of age. Part of this high rate is related to unsafe kitchens and loose-fitting clothing typical to India. It is estimated that one-third of all burns in India are due to clothing catching fire from open flames. Intentional burns are also a common cause and occur at high rates in young women, secondary to domestic violence and self-harm.
## History
Cave paintings from more than 3,500 years ago document burns and their management. The earliest Egyptian records on treating burns describes dressings prepared with milk from mothers of baby boys, and the 1500 BCE Edwin Smith Papyrus describes treatments using honey and the salve of resin. Many other treatments have been used over the ages, including the use of tea leaves by the Chinese documented to 600 BCE, pig fat and vinegar by Hippocrates documented to 400 BCE, and wine and myrrh by Celsus documented to the 1st century CE. French barber-surgeon Ambroise Paré was the first to describe different degrees of burns in the 1500s. Guillaume Dupuytren expanded these degrees into six different severities in 1832.
The first hospital to treat burns opened in 1843 in London, England, and the development of modern burn care began in the late 1800s and early 1900s. During World War I, Henry D. Dakin and Alexis Carrel developed standards for the cleaning and disinfecting of burns and wounds using sodium hypochlorite solutions, which significantly reduced mortality. In the 1940s, the importance of early excision and skin grafting was acknowledged, and around the same time, fluid resuscitation and formulas to guide it were developed. In the 1970s, researchers demonstrated the significance of the hypermetabolic state that follows large burns.
## See also
- Blister
- Frostbite
- Scalding |
46,176,248 | Everybody Saves Father and The Only Girl in Camp | 1,148,372,548 | null | [
"1910 comedy films",
"1910 films",
"1910s American films",
"1910s English-language films",
"1911 comedy films",
"1911 films",
"American black-and-white films",
"American silent short films",
"Silent American comedy films",
"Thanhouser Company films"
]
| Everybody Saves Father and The Only Girl in Camp are two 1910 American silent short films produced by the Thanhouser Company. Both films were released together on a single reel on January 10, 1911. Everybody Saves Father is a comedy focusing on a father whose life is planned to be saved by a succession of his daughter's suitors. The plan of each of the three men work, foiling the attempts of the other, but a four suitor has wed the daughter whilst the scheming was done by the others. The Only Girl in Camp is a drama film focusing on the only girl in a mining town who foils an armed robbery with the use of bear traps. In 2009, The Only Girl in Camp was identified and deposited into the Library of Congress for preservation. The only known credits for the production come from film stills from the film. The reviews for Everybody Saves Father were positive, but The Only Girl in Camp was met with more or less neutral reception.
## Plots
The official synopsis for both films was published in The Moving Picture World on January 14, 1911. The first film, Everybody Saves Father is focused on Jennie Gear, a young woman whose affections are sought by many men. Jennie's father thinks his daughter is too young to be married and drives off four of her suitors. One of the men, John, concocts a plan to save his life to win the man's approval. The plan is heard by another suitor, George, who decides to hire a rowboat to save the old man himself. This is overheard by George who concocts his own rescue to foil George. The plans go through without failure as each successive suitor's plan works to the actions of the other, and Henry wins the approval of Jennie's father. However, Jennie had already married Bill in the meantime.
The second film, The Only Girl in Camp, focuses on Trapper Gates's daughter, who is the only woman in the mining camp. Three ruffians come across the camp and plan to rob the miners. The leader, Bill, announces himself as Professor Watson and says he will give a lecture on locating gold deposits in the town hall. All the miners are lured to the building, save the girl, and Bill's accomplices proceed to rob the men. She realizes that this meeting is unusual and goes to the town hall and witnesses the robbery, but has no way of reporting or stopping the three armed men. Struck with an idea, she returns home for her father's bear traps and sets them on the steps of town hall. The robbers back out of the town hall and step into the traps, where they are captured.
## Cast and production
Film historian Q. David Bowers does not cite credits for Everybody Saves Father. Though Bowers does not cite credits for The Only Girl in Camp, the rediscovered film and identification of film stills have provided credit for Frank H. Crane, William Garwood, Violet Heming and Tom Fortune. The other cast credits are unknown, but many Thanhouser productions are fragmentary. In late 1910, the Thanhouser company released a list of the important personalities in their films. The list includes G.W. Abbe, Justus D. Barnes, Frank H. Crane, Irene Crane, Marie Eline, Violet Heming, Martin J. Faust, Thomas Fortune, George Middleton, Grace Moore, John W. Noble, Anna Rosemond, Mrs. George Walters.
The writer of the scenarios 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 film director may have been Barry O'Neil or Lucius J. Henderson. The role of the cameraman was uncredited in 1910 productions though cameramen employed by the company during this era included Blair Smith, Alfred H. Moses, Jr. and Carl Louis Gregory.
## Release and reception
Everybody Saves Father and The Only Girl in Camp were released together on a single reel, approximately 1,000 feet in length, on January 10, 1911. The total length of Everybody Saves Father is approximately 450 feet long and the Only Girl in Camp is 480 feet long. Though both films were on a split reel, sometimes the films were advertised independently or listed Everybody Saves Father only. Theaters showing the one or possibly both films are known in North Carolina Indiana, Texas, Kansas, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and California. A surviving nitrate print of The Only Girl in Camp was sold on eBay in 2009. The film was purchased and deposited in the Library of Congress for preservation.
Everybody Saves Father was met with positive reviews in the trade publications. The Billboard review stated, "The comedy is distinctively American and makes a good subject. The photography is excellent and the acting clever." The Moving Picture World affirmed that it was a good lively and laughable comedy. The two reviews were also backed by The New York Dramatic Mirror's positive review of the comedy production. The publications would also review The Only Girl in Camp were more or less neutral, but The Billboard highlighted how the prop traps could not believably work and hold a man as they did in the film. The Moving Picture World and The New York Dramatic Mirror offered praise for the novelty of the production without any criticism.
## See also
- List of American films of 1910 |
23,243,433 | Sanctuary (season 2) | 1,170,052,099 | null | [
"2009 Canadian television seasons",
"2010 Canadian television seasons",
"Sanctuary (TV series)"
]
| The second season of the Canadian science fiction–fantasy television series Sanctuary premiered on Space in Canada and on Syfy in the United States on October 9, 2009, and concluded on the same channel on January 15, 2010 after 13 episodes. It continues to follow the actions of a secret organization known as the Sanctuary Network, who track down a series of creatures known as abnormals and then bring them to the Sanctuary base for refuge. Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne, Emilie Ullerup, Ryan Robbins, Agam Darshi and Christopher Heyerdahl are billed in the opening credits as the main cast.
The season starts six weeks after the conclusion of the first season, where the protagonists work to defeat the antagonistic Cabal from destroying the Sanctuary Network, but in the process Ashley Magnus (Ullerup), daughter of Sanctuary leader Helen Magnus (Tapping), dies. Later episodes involve a story arc on Big Bertha, the most dangerous abnormal on Earth.
The second season included a writing team, where as in the first there were only two writers; series creator Damian Kindler, and Sam Egan; however Egan left the series after the end of the first season. The producers wanted to expand on the Sanctuary Network by including episodes where the team visit some of their international sites as opposed to only mentioning them. The season was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia from late March to July 2009, with some scenes of the finale filmed on location in Tokyo, Japan. Anthem Visual Effects continues to produce the series' visual effects. Anthem found an exponential growth in their work, with some episodes including as many as 500 visual effects shots.
The first ten episodes were seen by an average of 1.55 million viewers in the United States, increasing to 2.2 million when time-shifted viewings were taken into account. It received generally positive reviews from critics; however, some reviewers criticized the abrupt end to the Cabal arc within the first few episodes. The introduction of the new character Kate Freelander (Darshi) was also met with mixed reactions, while there was an outpouring of fans against Ashley's demise. Season two won seven Leo Awards after its release. The season was released on a four-disc set on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on June 9, 2010 in Region 4, June 15 in Region 1, and October 4 in Region 2.
## Episodes
## Cast
### Regular cast
The second season began with the original cast from the first season. Amanda Tapping returns as series protagonist Helen Magnus, a 158-year-old English scientist who runs the Sanctuary Network. The producers intended for Magnus to be more angry and vulnerable following Ashley's death after the first three episodes. Robin Dunne returns as Will Zimmerman, a former forensic psychiatrist who has been Magnus' protégé since the pilot. After the first season, the producers made Will more confrontational towards Magnus after feeling more comfortable working with her. Christopher Heyerdahl portrays two characters: Bigfoot, an abnormal who works in the Sanctuary, and John Druitt, Magnus' former fiancé and father to Ashley. Ryan Robbins returns as Henry Foss. A recurring actor in the first season, Robbins was upgraded to a series regular in the second.
Emilie Ullerup returns as Ashley, Magnus' daughter who was written out of the series after "Eulogy". The decision to kill off the character came from an agreement between series creator Damian Kindler and the commissioning networks, as they felt this development would "have the deepest, most dramatic impact on the series and the characters." Director Martin Wood also believed that her death would add a sense of jeopardy on the show. When Ullerup first heard Ashley would be killed off, she was under the impression that her character was not well received by the fans. After the second season aired however, Ullerup noticed an outpouring from fans against Ashley's death. Following her death, the producers were willing to develop an Ashley story for the third season.
Agam Darshi joined the cast as Kate Freelander, described by Syfy as "a swindler, con artist and thief who finds herself in an uneasy alliance with Dr. Magnus after her business relationship with the Cabal goes sour." The producers intended for Kate to be an unlikeable character at first, but by the end of the season have "99 percent of the people who don't like Kate, [...] like Kate." The producers also noted that Kate would begin to prove herself by the third episode "Eulogy", and the ninth episode "Penance" would become important to Kate's evolution from "first class bitch" to a more open character when her father's death is revisited.
### Recurring cast and guest appearances
Jonathon Young returns as half-vampire Nikola Tesla. In the tenth episode, the character was "de-vamped". Kindler felt this development was a bold choice, but also believed his vampirism was the least interesting character trait against being a genius and having electricity-based powers. The producers wanted to make Tesla somewhat heroic by sacrificing that part of him. Like the first season, there were instances where Young was unavailable to shoot some of his scenes due to theatre commitments, so he was replaced by a body double. Christine Chatelain returns as Will's girlfriend Clara Griffin. Clara was killed off in the second episode; Tapping viewed the death as an "important casualty" that has resonance to the main characters. Robert Lawrenson made a recurring appearance as Declan McRae, the head of the London Sanctuary following the death of James Watson in the season one finale. The character was originally going to be introduced in "Hero", but Kindler decided it would be better for the character to be introduced earlier in the season.
The season also introduced numerous guest appearances. Babz Chula appeared as a Cabal scientist in the season premiere, a character that was originally a German male; Chula accepted Tapping's offer to appear on the show after they met at an awards ceremony. Christopher Gauthier appears as Walter and his alter-ego, "the Adjuster", in "Hero". Gauthier modeled the Adjuster's voice from Christian Bale's Batman. The scenes where Walter was worn out from the suit that is killing him mirrored Gauthier's performance because of the suit he had to wear constantly, which consisted of two sets of jogging outfits, cotton padding, and a wetsuit. Because the producers were impressed with Walter, they wanted him to return in the next season. Mandy May, the wife of director Steven A. Adelson, appears in full prosthetics as the abnormal Jack in "Fragments"; May previously appeared on the series as the face of Sally the mermaid. In the same episode, Colin Cunningham played the antagonist Gerald. Cunningham was offered a role because he was long-time friends with some of the crew members, as is the same case when it came to casting Anne Marie Loder, wife of director Peter DeLuise, as Rachel. Eureka actress Erica Cerra makes a guest appearance as the telepath Emma in "Veritas". Cerra's casting by the producers was "really easy" as it was based on her work in other science fiction productions, especially Eureka.
Tapping's former Stargate SG-1 co-star Michael Shanks guest starred as Jimmy in "Penance". Shanks had an interest in playing Jimmy because of the edginess of the character. Shanks also suggested Aleks Paunovic, actor and part-time boxer, for the part as the Diukon Duke; being a boxer fit into the character's violent nature. Paul McGillion returns as Wexford in the season finale. McGillion first appeared as Wexford in the original webisodes, and since then the producers wanted him to return. Tapping believed that placing him in the finale was "the perfect place for him." Callum Blue was cast as the finale's antagonist, Edward Forsythe, as the producers believed Blue could portray somebody who is both charming and evil. In the same episode, Sahar Biniaz was cast as Kali; Biniaz was chosen as the producers believed her physical appearance was goddess-like. Balinder Johal played a cult member; she was the first person to audition for the part, and the producers cast her as she was spiritual, calm, and soft in her appearance. Johal taught the cast how to speak Hindi in parts of the dialogue. The producers were hoping to cast David Hewlett, another Stargate alum, in a guest spot; however, this was met by scheduling issues, as he was shooting a film at the time. Despite this the producers were confident they would cast Hewlett "eventually."
## Production
### Development
Syfy officially announced the commissioning of a second season of Sanctuary in November 2008 due to the ratings success of the pilot episode, which totalled over three million viewers. Writer and executive producer Sam Egan left the series after the first season. Andrea Gorfolova, Carrie Mudd and Keith Beedie join creator Damian Kindler, director Martin Wood, and actress Amanda Tapping as the show's executive producers.
### Writing
The second season saw the introduction of a writing team; Sara Cooper, Alan McCullough and James Thorpe were hired as additional writers to Kindler. Because of the writing team, it allowed Kindler and the team to hold meetings, whereas in the first season it was just him discussing with Egan. One of the goals in writing the second season is to further explore the global Sanctuary Network, because in the Sanctuary universe abnormals can be found all around the world. Some international Sanctuary bases were mentioned in the first season, but in the second season, the producers wished to visit some of those bases. Introducing new Sanctuaries and its characters would widen the breadth of the show. They also wished to start introducing abnormals that cannot walk, including an oil-like abnormal in "End of Nights" and the fire elemental "Penance". Kindler wrote both parts of "End of Nights", "Pavor Nocturnus", "Next Tuesday", "Haunted" and the second part of "Kali". McCullough wrote "Hero", "Veritas", "Penance" and the first part of "Kali". Cooper wrote "Eulogy" and "Fragments", while Thorpe wrote "Sleepers", and co-wrote "Pavor Nocturnus" and "Haunted" with Kindler.
Following the cliffhanger of the first-season finale, Kindler worked to figure out how to conclude the story and managed to write the outlines of the first two episodes in two days. He also consulted with the writing team to look at all the problems on how to conclude the story. "Eulogy" was conceived as an important episode in the lives of the main characters following the aftermath of "End of Nights", as well as dealing with the loss of Ashley. Kindler said of the episode "it's one thing to end on a terrible tragic cliffhanger, it's another in a satisfactory manner lay all things to rest appropriately." In writing the episode Cooper was knowledgeable on "medical jargon," as she once wrote for the medical drama series House. In writing his first script "Hero", McCullough was initially concerned that it would be met by resistance from the producers because of the special effects that would be involved, but was "floored" to find out it was entirely possible because of Anthem Visual Effects. The producers were originally hesitant in including "Hero" as the fourth episode, as it was considered lighter in tone as Magnus was trying to get over Ashley's death from "Eulogy". "Pavor Nocturnus" came early in the development of the season, as Kindler wanted to show an episode about Magnus' work going "horribly wrong," and explore the opportunity to have the heroes warned that their work has consequences. Described as the "darkest, scariest, creepiest episode ever" by Tapping, it also featured scenes Kindler was never comfortable with, and did not want to show again, including the assault of naked women, and child killings.
"Fragments" was written to be in real time format. Kindler described the episode as a "nice procedural, with heart," that follows the same style as episodes of the medical drama ER, where "stuff goes down and you have to kind of follow the team in different aspects and see how they're handling the situation." The idea behind "Next Tuesday" came when Kindler and Wood noticed a rescue helicopter that was available for rent, prompting the two to come up with a "helicopter story." The episode also introduces a next level in Will and Magnus' friendship; arguments, which would create a "far more realistic thread of tension" between the two characters who "obviously love each other," and "obviously get along," which Kindler felt made a "cool character layer." This was also based on the producers themselves, who despite being good friends, often argue while producing the series.
"Sleepers" was developed because the producers wanted to do a Tesla-centric episode, as they view him as one of their favorite characters. "Haunted" rounds Druitt to "something unexpected." The producers were aware that Druitt became more insane the more he teleports, and they wanted to find an explanation why, hence the creation of the energy creature. "Kali" was designed as a somewhat "faith versus science" episode, with faith as the winning party, because any host to the macri would need a spiritual understanding to it; the cult of Kali are religious, so they would make suitable hosts, but Edward Forsythe is a believer of science, and would not make a suitable host as he does not share the cult's understanding. In the original draft, Magnus would fall ill, but that later changed to Will before the episode was filmed. Some episodes in the season originally followed a different order. "Pavor Nocturnus" was originally going to be the fourth episode, while "Hero" would become the tenth. "Sleepers" would also be in an earlier slot. However, the order changed, partially due to availability issues with Jonathon Young for "Sleepers". The writers were also working on a Bigfoot-centric episode, where he returns to his home. However, before it could be written, the networks were unhappy with the idea.
### Filming
Filming began in late March 2009, and finished on the end of July the same year. Director Martin Wood wanted to film the season in a more graphic novel style. Wood directed both parts of "End of Nights", "Hero", "Next Tuesday" and both parts of "Kali". Brenton Spencer directed "Eulogy", "Pavor Nocturnus" and "Penance". The producers felt that Spencer did "a great job" in making sense on a lot of moves he had to make, as well as understanding that the stories are important in getting things back on track in "Eulogy". The episode ended up being 17 minutes longer than usual, so much of it had to be cut. Steven A. Adelson directed "Fragments" and "Sleepers". Amanda Tapping directed "Veritas", her first directorial credit since the Stargate SG-1 episode "Resurrection" in 2004. To direct the scenes featuring Magnus, Tapping rehearsed them to decide how it would be shot, then appointed somebody to handle the cameras. Peter DeLuise directed "Haunted". Lee Wilson from Anthem Visual Effects directed a scene in "Hero", while Robbins directed a scene from "Fragments" when his character recorded Rachel's documentary.
Like the first season, much of the second was filmed on green screen sets in a studio in Burnaby, British Columbia, though also like the first season, there are more instances it was shot on practical sets and on location, most of which taking place just outside the studio. The first part of "End of Nights" had scenes filmed at a large empty warehouse. At some point, Dunne, Kindler, Tapping and Wood were sent to Tokyo to promote the series for Syfy Asia. The four decided to use the opportunity to film some scenes for the finale there, one of which was filmed in the Shibuya crossing. Filming took place just as a monsoon season was kicking in. In addition, they noticed a concert hall and took pictures of one of its angles as they deem the architecture suitable for a Tokyo Sanctuary base.
During the shoot of the first part of "End of Nights", Kindler loaned his car for a car chase sequence. A later scene involved having the car shot at by snipers. To prevent damage to the car, the bullet holes were made from visual effects. In "Pavor Nocturnus", the crew had to make the Sanctuary set ruined in a post-apocalyptic state. Set designer Bridget McGuire made the set look "horrible" overnight, but then had to clean it up for the last scene. They also "completely trashed" the street sets in the studio. "Next Tuesday" was considered a bottle episode as it was largely filmed in one set, a water tank some 14 feet deep and 70 feet long, in a studio. The episode was filmed over five 13-hour days, not including a two-day break midway through, becoming the fastest time filming a Sanctuary episode. Wood directed the episode from the water rather than dry land. The following episode "Penance" was largely filmed at a constructed city set some three and a half blocks in size, which was previously used in the superhero film Watchmen.
The Mumbai slum set in the season finale was constructed on the parking lot of the studio, which took two to three weeks to complete. The finale was filmed during one of the hottest heatwaves to hit British Columbia; Tapping found that the set was hotter than the average temperature of the actual Mumbai. Three main cameras were used, one of which was crane-operated. 60 extras were used, the highest number used in an Sanctuary episode. For the extras to be used in more than one scene, they wore many different costumes. The streeting area was also limited in size, so the streets were recycled frequently with every scene. The practical sets of the Sanctuary offices and corridors were also redesigned to look like the Mumbai Sanctuary.
### Music
Andrew Lockington was appointed the series composer in the season. The producers liked Lockington's contribution to the score as it was more heightened than it was in the first season. Lockington would also capture the emotional temper when it comes to scoring for the emotional scenes. The composer sampled several instruments from around the world to give the score a more ethnic, international feel. Some episodes feature the score taking different styles. For instance "Fragments" features a "cool Michael Mann soundtrack." In "Kali", the score adopted a more Bollywood-style theme, particularly during Will's dance sequence. In addition to the score, there were occasional instances where popular music was featured. "End of Nights" featured a track from the Toronto-based hip hop group Down with Webster.
### Effects
Anthem Visual Effects resumed their duties of producing the visual effects for the second season. The company's Lee Wilson noted that their workload for the second season "increased exponentially" over the first, with some episodes containing as many as 500 visual effects shots. The produce decided to "re-jig" the opening title sequence, which they wanted to do each year. The photograph where Magnus meets Albert Einstein changed to aviation pilot Amelia Earhart. The producers noticed that the visual effects have been made "more wondrous than we did the season before," as they were able to produce certain actions that they never tried before. The steno in "Eulogy" was designed to look adorable, harmless and bunny-like in its infancy, but more menacing when it grows up. In making the Adjuster fly in "Hero", both visual and practical effects were used; some of the simpler sequences involved Gauthier hooked up to a velocity rig, but in order to make him fly over the city skyline, a computer-generated avatar was created. The design of the coleanthropus in the same episode was based on a mix of insect and dinosaur.
The second season introduces "moving zorts," an upgraded technique the film crew used to complete the effect where Druitt teleports. The zorts were used specifically to make the sequences where the cast around Heyerdahl freeze until he leaves the screen. The producers wanted to have the camera move during those shots, as they believed it would be "way cooler to have those zorts on the move." One of the more difficult moving zorts included a "triple zort" with other characters who could teleport on the same shot in "End of Nights". The sequence was difficult for Tapping, as she had to carry a prop weighing approximately 73 pounds. A three-dimensional hologram of Rachel's office was included in "Fragments"; it was originally intended to feature the hologram throughout the episode, but because doing so would be costly, the producers decided to have one scene with the hologram, so Henry could use it as a blueprint to make an identical office with boxes. For the finale, Anthem decided to make the macri and Big Bertha look like the same creature, though Bertha would be a considerably larger creature. Some scenes involve the macri interacting with real life objects, including clothing. To make a scene where the macri enters a jacket, Wilson used fishing wire to move a sleeve slightly. Big Bertha's actions meanwhile, were largely made underwater. Anthem found that making underwater effects was difficult because there was a different style of movement. Additionally, Anthem produced a sequence where Wexford launches depth charges from his ship. The producers were looking for stock footage of the dropping depth charges, but they could not find one in high-definition.
In addition to visual effects, other forms of physical effects were produced. In "Hero", there was a scene where the camera appeared to be shot from inside a water tank. Instead, a water tank was placed between the camera and the actors, where Alka-Seltzer was placed at the bottom to simulate bubbles. Wood previously used this technique in the first-season episode "Requiem" as well as in Stargate Atlantis. The Adjuster comic books at the end of the episode were designed by artists who occasionally work for DC Comics. Dunne wore a mullet and a white eye contact lens in "Pavor Nocturnus" for Will's alternate self in a dystopian future. The vampire squid-related effects for "Next Tuesday" were made possible by visual aids. For the shots where the squid swims on the water surface, the production crew used a radio-controlled boat to mimic a wake. When the squid erupts from the water, they placed a beach ball underwater and released it to mimic the splash. To make the helicopter sway during the battles between the squid and sea scorpion, an air pump was placed below it. However, doing so added the side effect of strong currents, proving difficult for the cast to swim towards the helicopter.
The season also includes stunt work. Weeks before filming "End of Nights", Heyerdahl practiced sword fighting to be done against the hybrids in the second part. Jonathon Young performed his own stunts for "Sleepers", including being run over by a car and falling from a car. Both stunts involved harnesses and other safety measures. Young also participated in a fight scene with the other vampire characters, but he ended up injuring two of the actors. In one instance Young hit Chad Rook in the face, which caused a fang insert to puncture his lip.
## Broadcast and reception
### Broadcast and ratings
The season commenced airing on Syfy from October 9, 2009, and aired nearly every Friday night until the two-part finale "Kali" on January 15, 2010. It aired alongside the first season of Stargate Universe. The season started off with 1.85 million viewers. Ratings were up 18 per cent in terms of adults aged between 18 and 49, and 7 per cent in adults aged between 25 and 54 compared to the average of the first season. After "Sleepers" aired, the season was seen by an average of 1.55 million viewers per episode. Timeshifted ratings for the season increases from live viewers by 45.9 per cent, increasing the average to 2.2 million viewers per episode. In Canada, the season premiered on October 9 on Space, a cable channel that specialises in science fiction programs. Each episode would be available on demand on the channel's website after they aired. It was moved from The Movie Network, which originally aired the first season. In the United Kingdom, the season premiered on ITV4 on October 12, 2009, and finished on January 18, 2010. It started with 334,000 viewers for the first episode, and ended with 268,000 for the finale. In Australia, the season started airing on July 12, 2010 on ABC2.
### Critical reception
> There are some series that are simply fun to watch, and Sanctuary is one of the best. Like stepping into the pages of a favorite graphic novel, the viewer is swept into a world that has immortals and "abnormals" who exist in the world, but are not always appreciated much less accepted by ordinary folk.
>
> <div class="templatequotecite">
>
> — <cite>Monsters and Critics</cite>
>
> </div>
The season was met with generally positive reviews. Mark Wilson of About.com believed that after the series was "finding its feet," and "looks like a harbinger of the new, more confident Sanctuary," but added "there's still work to be done." He also stated "because of the talents involved, the wide-open concept, and the way it's created, Sanctuary has huge potential. The season 2 premiere is good to great, with a fantastic performance from Tapping and a real escalation of the Cabal threat. Let's hope that the show continues to develop and evolves, like its characters, into the show it's capable of becoming." In a DVD review of the season, Monsters and Critics rated it five out of five, stating that fans "will be very happy" with the season set.
John Sinnott of DVD Talk said that while "the show still has a lot of charm," he felt it did not live up to the standards of the first season. Sinnott criticised the season for wrapping up the Cabal story line in the first two episodes, expecting it to continue throughout the season, as well as accusing the writers of throwing out "a lot of aspects that made the end of the first season so great." However, he felt there were good episodes, naming "Sleepers" as his favourite, and also saying he liked "Hero". He summed up that the season was "still worth watching and enjoyable, just not as gripping as the first season," believing it comes "recommended" to those who wish to purchase the season box set. David Blackwell of Enterline Media stated that the second season "continues to amaze as a show I first wrote off as bad. I'm glad I'm still giving this show a second chance as it continues to deliver great character arcs and stories." Blackwell named "Pavor Nocturnus", "Veritas" and "Haunted" as the standout episodes. CliqueClack TV believed the season was a "mixed bag"; "End of Nights" was considered "the most thrilling hours of television Sanctuary has ever produced," but the season later "suffered mostly from failure to follow through with the Cabal/Ashley story arc."
Critical reactions towards the introduction of Kate Freelander was also mixed. Mark Wilson stated "the growling sass-mouth feels out of place. Darshi's performance is good, at least, so we'll just have to see if the writers are capable of integrating her into the cast." John Sinnot meanwhile, started "I always found [Ashley] a bit irritating, so it was no big loss. For some reason however, they've replaced her with another annoying young woman, Kate Freelander. She's basically the same character as Ashley, tough as nails on the outside but still a vulnerable young woman on the inside, but this time in an Indian shell."
### Awards and nominations
Overall the second season won seven awards, all them Leo Awards, out of 17 nominations from the same ceremony. "Pavor Nocturnus" won three of those wins; Brenton Spencer won "Best Direction", Christina McQuarrie won "Best Costume Design", and Robin Dunne won "Best Lead Performance by a Male". Christopher Gauthier won "Best Guest Performance by a Male" for his role in "Hero". Todd Masters, Holland Miller, Harlow Macfarlane, Werner Pretorius and Yukio Okajima won "Best Make-Up" for "Fragments". Christopher Heyerdahl won "Best Supporting Performance by a Male" for "Haunted", and Bridget McGuire won "Best Production Design" in the season finale, "Kali Part 2". The season was also nominated for "Best Dramatic Series", but lost to Stargate Universe.
The second part of "Kali" represented the series for "Best Television Series – Drama" in the 2010 Directors Guild of Canada Awards, but lost out to the comedy–drama series Being Erica. Elsewhere, Dunne was also nominated for "Best Male Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode" at the 2010 Constellation Awards, but lost out to Doctor Who actor David Tennant, for his role in the episode "The Waters of Mars", by only one percent of the votes.
## Home video releases
A DVD box set of the second season, published by E1 Entertainment, was first released in Region 1 on June 15, 2010, in Region October 2 4, 2010, and in Region 4 on June 9, 2010 It was also released on Blu-ray Disc in the United States and Australia on the same days the DVD counterpart was released. The four-disc set consists of all 13 episodes, each with audio commentaries from cast and crew. The set also includes numerous special featurettes: Amanda Tapping Directs "Veritas", "Next Tuesday" – Anatomy of an Episode, Sanctuary Visual Effects, Sanctuary for Kids, Behind the Scenes and On the Set, Sanctuary Goes to Japan and Dancing in Mumbai'', as well as a presentation from the San Diego Comic-Con International, a blooper reel and photo gallery. |
1,617,618 | Blending inheritance | 1,170,023,630 | Obsolete theory of genetics | [
"Classical genetics"
]
| Blending inheritance is an obsolete theory in biology from the 19th century. The theory is that the progeny inherits any characteristic as the average of the parents' values of that characteristic. As an example of this, a crossing of a red flower variety with a white variety of the same species would yield pink-flowered offspring.
Charles Darwin's theory of inheritance by pangenesis, with contributions to egg or sperm from every part of the body, implied blending inheritance. His reliance on this mechanism led Fleeming Jenkin to attack Darwin's theory of natural selection on the grounds that blending inheritance would average out any novel beneficial characteristic before selection had time to act.
Blending inheritance was discarded with the general acceptance of particulate inheritance during the development of modern genetics, after c. 1900.
## History
### Darwin's pangenesis
Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution by natural selection on the basis of an understanding of uniform processes in geology, acting over very long periods of time on inheritable variation within populations. One of those processes was competition for resources, as Thomas Malthus had indicated, leading to a struggle to survive and to reproduce. Since some individuals would by chance have traits that allowed them to leave more offspring, those traits would tend to increase in the population. Darwin assembled many lines of evidence to show that variation occurred and that artificial selection by animal and plant breeding had caused change. All of this demanded a reliable mechanism of inheritance.
Pangenesis was Darwin's attempt to provide such a mechanism of inheritance. The idea was that each part of the parent's body emitted tiny particles called gemmules, which migrated through the body to contribute to that parent's gametes, their eggs or sperms. The theory had an intuitive appeal, as characteristics of all parts of the body, such as shape of nose, width of shoulders and length of legs are inherited from both the father and the mother. However, it had some serious weaknesses. Firstly, many characteristics can change during an individual's lifetime, and are affected by the environment: blacksmiths can develop strong arm muscles during their work, so the gemmules from these muscles ought to carry this acquired characteristic. That implies the Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics. Secondly, the fact that the gemmules were supposed to mix together on fertilisation implies blending inheritance, namely that the offspring would all be intermediate between the father and the mother in every characteristic. That directly contradicts the observed facts of inheritance, not least that children are usually either male or female rather than all intersex, and that traits such as flower colour often re-emerge after a generation, even when they seem to disappear when two varieties are crossed. Darwin was aware of both these objections, and accordingly had strong doubts about blending inheritance, as evidenced in his private correspondence. In a letter to T.H. Huxley, dated November 12, 1857, Darwin wrote:
> I have lately been inclined to speculate very crudely & indistinctly, that propagation by true fertilisation, will turn out to be a sort of mixture & not true fusion, of two distinct individuals, or rather of innumerable individuals, as each parent has its parents & ancestors:— I can understand on no other view the way in which crossed forms go back to so large an extent to ancestral forms."
In a letter to Alfred Wallace, dated February 6, 1866, Darwin mentioned conducting hybridization experiments with pea plants, not unlike those done by Gregor Mendel, and like him obtaining segregating (unblended) varieties, effectively disproving his theory of pangenesis with blending:
> I do not think you understand what I mean by the non-blending of certain varieties. It does not refer to fertility; an instance I will explain. I crossed the Painted Lady and Purple sweetpeas, which are very differently coloured varieties, and got, even out of the same pod, both varieties perfect but not intermediate. Something of this kind I should think must occur at least with your butterflies & the three forms of Lythrum; tho’ those cases are in appearance so wonderful. I do not know that they are really more so than every female in the world producing distinct male and female offspring...
Blending inheritance was also clearly incompatible with Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The engineer Fleeming Jenkin used this to attack natural selection in his 1867 review of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Jenkin noted that if inheritance were by blending, any beneficial trait that might arise in a lineage would have "blended away" long before natural selection had time to act. The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins commented that blending inheritance was observably wrong, as it implied that every generation would be more uniform than the one before, and that Darwin should have said as much to Jenkin. The problem was not with natural selection, but with blending, and in Dawkins's view, Darwin should have settled for saying that the mechanism of inheritance was unknown, but certainly non-blending.
### Replacement by Mendelian inheritance
Blending inheritance was dismissed by the eventual widespread acceptance, after his death, of Gregor Mendel's theory of particulate inheritance, which he had presented in Experiments on Plant Hybridization (1865). In 1892, August Weismann set out the idea of a hereditary material, which he called the germ plasm, confined to the gonads and independent of the rest of the body (the soma). In Weismann's view, the germ plasm formed the body, but the body did not influence the germ plasm, except indirectly by natural selection. This contradicted both Darwin's pangenesis and Lamarckian inheritance. Mendel's work was rediscovered in 1900 by the geneticist Hugo de Vries and others, soon confirmed that same year by experiments by William Bateson. Mendelian inheritance with segregating, particulate alleles came to be understood as the explanation for both discrete and continuously varying characteristics.
## See also
- Aristotle's biology
- Incomplete dominance |
6,242,536 | Typhoon Ewiniar (2006) | 1,173,827,462 | Pacific typhoon in 2006 | [
"2006 Pacific typhoon season",
"2006 disasters in the Philippines",
"2006 in China",
"2006 in Japan",
"Tropical cyclones in 2006",
"Typhoons",
"Typhoons in China",
"Typhoons in Japan",
"Typhoons in North Korea",
"Typhoons in South Korea",
"Typhoons in the Philippines"
]
| Typhoon Ewiniar, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Ester, was the third named storm of the 2006 Pacific typhoon season and one that lasted for twelve days as a tropical cyclone, moving on a generally northward track. During its lifespan, it affected Palau, Yap, eastern China, the Ryūkyū Islands of Japan, South Korea as well as North Korea, briefly threatening to make landfall in North Korea before doing so in South Korea. Ewiniar is responsible for at least 181 deaths. However, an unofficial report stated that up to 10,000 people had been killed by flooding in North Korea, with 4,000 people missing.
## Meteorological history
On June 29, a persistent tropical disturbance was classified as a tropical depression by the JTWC while east of Palau. The depression moved northwestward and was upgraded to Tropical Storm 04W by the JTWC the next day on June 30, while the JMA named the storm Tropical Storm Ewiniar at around the same time. The name "Ewiniar" was submitted by the Federated States of Micronesia, and refers to a traditional storm god of Chuuk.
Ewiniar moved west-northwestward over the next two days, bringing heavy rain and localized flooding to the Yap Islands. Ewiniar turned to the northwest and reached its peak intensity of 130 knots (240 km/h or 150 mph) on the U.S. method of measuring windspeeds by one-minute averages, or 100 knots (185 km/h or 115 mph) on the international method of measuring windspeeds by ten-minute averages, and its minimum pressure of 930 hPa (mbar). Ewiniar turned northward and brushed eastern China, forcing evacuations in many cities.
Ewiniar gradually weakened as it moved over colder waters, and made landfall in South Korea on July 10 as a severe tropical storm, having briefly threatened to make landfall on impoverished North Korea. Ewiniar passed within 50 km (31 mi) of Seoul as it moved across the country before becoming extratropical over the Sea of Japan the next day. Ewiniar had also earlier brushed the Ryūkyū Islands of Japan.
## Preparations
### People's Republic of China
As Ewiniar started to threaten the coast of China, the government in Beijing ordered emergency evacuations for all villagers in low-lying areas. A reported 7,634 people were evacuated from Ningbo, and over 8,000 ships were asked to return to dock in harbours in Ningbo and Zhoushan. The municipal flood control headquarters in Shanghai also asked officials to prepare for the approaching typhoon, which was forecast to begin affecting the city on July 9.
### Japan
As Ewiniar started to approach the Ryūkyū Islands, Sasebo Naval Base in Kyūshū announced a Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 3 at 4 p.m. local time on July 7, while a day earlier, on July 6, USS Harpers Ferry had unanchored from the harbour for an area of safer weather conditions. USS Essex also evacuated the area on July 7. USS Juneau and USS Bowditch, however, both remained anchored in Sasebo, while USS Guardian and USS Safeguard were both moved to a nearby dry dock.
All United States military stations and bases on Okinawa were put into a Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 2 on July 7 with an upgrade to a Condition of Readiness 1 expected the following day, and Commander's Cup softball tournaments that had been scheduled for the weekend of July 8 and July 9 at Camp Hansen and Marine Corps Air Station Futenma had to be postponed. Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1E, which means that all outdoor activities are prohibited as there are sustained winds of at least 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph) in force, was declared early on the morning of July 9.
### South Korea
As Ewiniar cleared the Ryūkyū Islands and began to threaten the Korean Peninsula, the Korea Meteorological Administration issued typhoon warnings for most of the country. The KMA also issued typhoon advisories for Liancourt Rocks and Ulleungdo.
United States Navy commands in South Korea were put into a Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness level 3, with Condition of Readiness 2 declared on July 8. TCCOR Level 1 was later declared by United States Forces Korea, which was cancelled after landfall on July 10.
## Impact
Ewiniar affected many areas due to its track and relatively long life, killing at least 40 people along the way and leaving much damage in its path.
### Yap and Palau
Early in its life as a tropical cyclone, Ewiniar affected Yap and Palau, which fall under the warning jurisdiction of the National Weather Service office in Tiyan, Guam. Ewiniar caused coastal flooding in Yap of up to 5 feet (1.5 m), especially near the port and around the Colonia Bay area. Ewiniar also caused an island-wide power outage in Yap, although according to an NWS post-storm report, damage was minimised on Yap due to steadier structures after Super Typhoon Sudal of 2004 tore through the islands. Damage was also reported to agriculture due to salt spray. The total amount of damage caused was estimated to be just over \$100 thousand (2006 USD).
About 2.4 inches (61 mm) of rain fell on Yap, while Koror in Palau reported a 24-hour total of 1.88 inches (48 mm) of rain through 6 a.m. UTC on July 3. The peak wind gusts reported were 53 knots (98 km/h, 61 mph) on Yap at the Weather Service Office (WSO) in Yap and 46 knots (85 km/h, 53 mph) at the WSO in Koror. During its course through the islands, Tropical Storm Ewiniar also necessitated tropical storm warnings and watches for Ngulu, Yap, Koror and Kayangel. No deaths in Yap or Palau were reported due to Ewiniar.
### People's Republic of China
Typhoon Ewiniar killed at least 34 people in China, with areas as far northwest as Gansu and Shanxi affected by landslides. It is not known if the landslides were triggered directly as a result of Ewiniar, or whether it was caused by a combination of Ewiniar and other weather. Therefore, the deaths that can be attributed to Ewiniar from the landslides are assumed to be indirectly caused, and not directly. Average rainfall reported in Shandong was 3.4 mm (0.133 inches) per hour from 6 a.m. July 9 through midnight July 10 (totalling about 61.2 mm or 2.4 inches). At least 300 flights out of Beijing's Capital International Airport had to be delayed due to thunderstorms and effects of Ewiniar, while Air China and China Eastern Airlines cancelled flights to South Korea heading out of China. As Ewiniar did not affect the mainland directly, there are little to no reports of major damage.
### Japan
Ewiniar hammered Okinawa with heavy rain, creating mass confusion and troubles for tourists. Flights and ferries out of Okinawa to neighbouring islands were cancelled, and as many as 3,500 tourists were left stranded at various airports because most hotels were already near full capacity. Other tourists reportedly stayed in the homes of some Okinawa residents, while some residents in landslide-prone areas evacuated to higher ground. Seven people were injured in Nanjo from a fallen signboard, while an elderly woman in Nago City and a young girl in Yaese suffered wind-related injuries.
The highest winds reported during the storm were 34.9 m/s (78 mph, 126 km/h). These winds blew sand about 7 cm (3 in) deep off the beach and into residents' yards. Typhoon Ewiniar caused a reported ¥20 million (\$173,000) worth of sugar cane and vegetable damage, and farmers experienced profit losses when ripe fruits were unable to be shipped to Asian markets.
### South Korea
In South Korea, much damage was reported. 150 km<sup>2</sup> (58 sq mi) of farmland was reported to have been flooded across the nation, while most domestic ferry and air travel was disrupted or cancelled. Landslides and flooding destroyed roads and levees, while in South Cholla province, a landslide damaged a temple. According to an official, floods also damaged over 600 homes and houses.
Rainfall totals varied from province to province. The KMA said up to 234 mm (9.36 inches) of rain had fallen on the southern areas of South Korea, while Hamyang County in South Kyongsang province reported a total rainfall of 199 mm (7.83 inches) to 260 mm (10.2 inches).
About 300 schools were ordered to be closed down in South Cholla, South Kyongsang and on Jeju. However, two injuries were reported at a school in Jeju which ignored the orders. Injuries were also reported elsewhere across South Korea, while 62 people were killed due to Ewiniar.
Alongside the effects of flooding immediately following Typhoon Ewiniar, damage throughout the country amounted to ₩2.06 trillion (US\$1.4 billion).
### North Korea
Due to the secrecy in North Korea, not much information is available on damage caused in the country. However, a TIME Asia report on North Korea noted that Ewiniar left 60,000 villagers homeless. Floods in the country killed at least 141 people and left 112 others missing. However, an unofficial report stated that as many as 10,000 people may have been killed. Another report indicated that the typhoon caused a "disaster of biblical proportions", with an estimated 54,700 people being killed, mainly by landslides.
## See also
- Typhoon Sanba (2012)
- Typhoon Halong (2014)
- Typhoon Maysak (2020)
- Typhoon Hinnamnor (2022)
- Typhoon Khanun (2023) |
396,803 | Dirk Nowitzki | 1,173,692,176 | German basketball player (born 1978) | [
"1978 births",
"2002 FIBA World Championship players",
"2006 FIBA World Championship players",
"Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics",
"Dallas Mavericks players",
"Euroscar award winners",
"German expatriate basketball people in the United States",
"German men's basketball players",
"Laureus World Sports Awards winners",
"Living people",
"Milwaukee Bucks draft picks",
"Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees",
"National Basketball Association All-Stars",
"National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Award winners",
"National Basketball Association players from Germany",
"National Basketball Association players with retired numbers",
"Olympic basketball players for Germany",
"Power forwards (basketball)",
"Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany",
"Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf",
"S.Oliver Würzburg players",
"Sportspeople from Würzburg"
]
| Dirk Werner Nowitzki (, ; born June 19, 1978) is a German former professional basketball player who is a special advisor for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Listed at , he is widely regarded as one of the greatest power forwards of all time and is considered by many to be the greatest European player of all time. In 2021, he was selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. In 2023, Nowitzki was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
An alumnus of the DJK Würzburg basketball club, Nowitzki was chosen as the ninth pick in the 1998 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks and was immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks, where he played his entire 21-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career. Nowitzki led the Mavericks to 15 NBA playoff appearances (2001–2012; 2014–2016), including the franchise's first Finals appearance in 2006 and its only NBA championship in 2011. Known for his scoring ability, versatility, accurate outside shooting, and trademark fadeaway jump shot, Nowitzki won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 2007 and the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in 2011.
Nowitzki is the only player ever to play for a single NBA franchise for 21 seasons. He is a 14-time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA Team member, the first European player to start in an All-Star Game, and the first European player to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. Nowitzki is the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA history. He is the first Maverick voted onto an All-NBA Team and holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records. On December 10, 2012, he became the first non-American player to receive the Naismith Legacy Award. Following his retirement, Nowitzki stood sixth on the NBA all-time scoring list.
In international play, Nowitzki led the Germany national team to a bronze medal in the 2002 FIBA World Championship and silver in EuroBasket 2005, and was the leading scorer and MVP in both tournaments. He is also the first German men's player to have his number retired, receiving this honor in September 2022.
## Early life
Born in Würzburg, Germany, Dirk Werner Nowitzki comes from an athletic family: his mother Helga Nowitzki (née Bredenbröcker) was a professional basketball player and his father Jörg-Werner was a handball player who represented Germany at the highest international level. His older sister Silke Nowitzki, a local champion in track and field, also became a basketball player and now works for the NBA in International TV.
Nowitzki was a very tall child; most of the time he stood above his peers by a foot or more. He initially played handball and tennis. He managed to become a ranked junior tennis player in the German youth circuit, but soon grew tired of being called a "freak" for his height and eventually turned to basketball. After joining the local DJK Würzburg, the 15-year-old attracted the attention of former German international basketball player Holger Geschwindner, who spotted his talent immediately and offered to coach him individually two to three times per week. After getting both the approval of Nowitzki and his parents, Geschwindner put his student through an unorthodox training scheme: he emphasized shooting and passing exercises, and shunned weight training and tactical drills, because he felt it was "unnecessary friction". Furthermore, Geschwindner encouraged Nowitzki to play a musical instrument and read literature to make him a more complete personality.
After a year, the coach was so impressed with Nowitzki's progress that he advised him, "You must now decide whether you want to play against the best in the world or just stay a local hero in Germany. If you choose the latter, we will stop training immediately, because nobody can prevent that anymore. But if you want to play against the best, we have to train on a daily basis." After pondering this lifetime decision for two days, Nowitzki agreed to enter the full-time training schedule, choosing the path to his eventual international career. Geschwindner let him train seven days a week with DJK Würzburg players and future German internationals Robert Garrett, Marvin Willoughby, and Demond Greene, and in the summer of 1994, then 16-year-old Nowitzki made the DJK squad.
## Professional career
### DJK Würzburg (1994–1998)
When Nowitzki joined the team, DJK played in Germany's second-tier level league, the Second Bundesliga, South Division. His first trainer was Pit Stahl, who played the tall teenager as an outside-scoring forward rather than an inside-scoring center to utilise his shooting skills. In the 1994–95 Second Bundesliga season, ambitious DJK finished as a disappointing sixth of 12 teams; the rookie Nowitzki was often benched and struggled with bad school grades, which forced him to study rather than work on his game. In the next 1995–96 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki established himself as a starter next to Finnish star forward Martti Kuisma and soon became a regular double-digit scorer: after German national basketball coach Dirk Bauermann saw him score 24 points in a DJK game, he stated that "Dirk Nowitzki is the greatest German basketball talent of the last 10, maybe 15 years."
In the 1996–97 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki averaged 19.4 points per game and led DJK again to second place after the regular season, but could not help his team gain promotion. In the following 1997–98 Second Bundesliga season, Nowitzki finished his "Abitur" (German A-levels), but had to do compulsory military service in the Bundeswehr which lasted from September 1, 1997, to June 30, 1998; The 18-year-old, who had grown to 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) tall, made progress, leading DJK to a 36:4-point total (in Germany, a victory gives 2:0 points and a loss 0:2) and ending as leading scorer with 28.2 points per game. In the promotion playoffs, DJK finally broke its hex, finishing at first place with 14:2 points and earning promotion to the next higher league; Nowitzki was voted "German Basketballer of the Year" by the German BASKET magazine.
Abroad, Nowitzki's progress was noticed. A year later, the teenager participated in the Nike "Hoop Heroes Tour", where he played against NBA stars like Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen. In a 30-minute show match, Nowitzki outplayed Barkley and even dunked on him, causing the latter to exclaim: "The boy is a genius. If he wants to enter the NBA, he can call me." On March 29, 1998, Nowitzki was chosen to play in the Nike Hoop Summit, one of the premier talent watches in U.S. men's basketball. In a match between the U.S. talents and the international talents, Nowitzki scored 33 points on 6-of-12 shooting, 14 rebounds and 3 steals for the internationals and outplayed future US NBA players Rashard Lewis and Al Harrington. He impressed with a combination of quickness, ball handling, and shooting range, and from that moment a multitude of European and NBA clubs wanted to recruit him.
### Dallas Mavericks (1998–2019)
#### Difficult start (1998–1999)
Projected to be the seventh pick in the 1998 NBA draft, Nowitzki passed up many college offers and went directly into the NBA as a prep-to-pro player. The Milwaukee Bucks selected Nowitzki with the ninth pick in the draft and traded him to the Dallas Mavericks in a multi-team deal; future star point guard Steve Nash came to Dallas in the same trade. Nowitzki and Nash quickly became close friends. Nowitzki became only the fourth German player in NBA history, following pivots Uwe Blab and Christian Welp and All-Star swingman Detlef Schrempf, who was a 35-year-old veteran of the Seattle SuperSonics when his young compatriot arrived. Nowitzki finished his DJK career as the only Würzburg player to have ever made the NBA.
In Dallas, Nowitzki joined a franchise which had last made the playoffs in 1990. Shooting guard Michael Finley captained the squad, supported by 7-foot-6-inch (2.29 m) center Shawn Bradley (once a number two draft pick) and team scoring leader Cedric Ceballos, an ex-Laker forward. The start of the season was delayed by the 1998–99 NBA lockout, which put the entire season in jeopardy. In limbo, Nowitzki returned to DJK Würzburg and played thirteen games before both sides worked out a late compromise deal that resulted in a shortened NBA schedule of only 50 games. When the season finally started, Nowitzki struggled. Played as a power forward by coach Don Nelson, the 20-year-old felt overpowered by the more athletic NBA forwards, was intimidated by the expectations as a number nine pick, and played bad defense; hecklers taunted him as "Irk Nowitzki", omitting the "D" which stands for "defense" in basketball slang. He only averaged 8.2 points and 3.4 rebounds in 20.4 minutes of playing time. Looking back, Nowitzki said: "I was so frustrated I even contemplated going back to Germany. ... [the jump from Second Bundesliga to the NBA] was like jumping out of an airplane hoping the parachute would somehow open." The Mavericks only won 19 of their 50 games and missed the playoffs.
#### "Big Three" era (1999–2004)
##### 1999–00 season: Improving as a sophomore
On January 4, 2000, team owner Ross Perot Jr. sold the Mavericks to Internet billionaire Mark Cuban for \$280 million. Cuban quickly invested into the Mavericks and restructured the franchise, attending every game at the sidelines, buying the team a \$46 million Boeing 757 to travel in, and increasing franchise revenues to over \$100 million. Nowitzki lauded Cuban, stating that he "created the perfect environment ... we only have to go out and win." As a result of Nelson's tutelage, Cuban's improvements and his own progress, Nowitzki significantly improved in his second season. Nowitzki averaged 17.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 35.8 minutes. He was voted runner-up in the NBA Most Improved Player Award behind Jalen Rose, and made it into the NBA All-Star Sophomore squad. The 7-foot-0-inch (2.13 m) Nowitzki also was chosen for the Three-Point Contest, becoming the tallest player ever to participate. While he improved on an individual level, the Mavericks missed the playoffs after a mediocre 40–42 season.
##### 2000–01 season: First All-NBA and playoff appearances
In the 2000–01 NBA season, Nowitzki further improved his averages, recording 21.8 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. As a sign of his growing importance, he joined team captain Finley as only one of two Mavericks to play and start in all 82 games, and had 10 games in which he scored at least 30 points. Nowitzki became the first Maverick ever to be voted into the All-NBA squads, making the Third Team. In addition, his best friend Nash became a valuable point guard, and with Finley scoring more than ever, pundits took to calling this trio the "Big Three" of the Mavericks.
Posting a 53–29 record in the regular season, the Mavericks reached the playoffs for the first time since 1990. As the fifth seed, they were paired against the Utah Jazz, who were led by point guard John Stockton and power forward Karl Malone. The Mavericks won the series in five games, setting up a meeting with their Texas rivals, the San Antonio Spurs. The Mavericks lost the first three games of the series, and Nowitzki fell ill with the flu and later lost a tooth after a collision with Spurs guard Terry Porter. After a Game 4 win, Nowitzki scored 42 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in Game 5, but could not prevent a deciding 105–87 loss.
##### 2001–02 season: First All-Star selection
Prior to the 2001–02 NBA season, Nowitzki signed a six-year, \$90 million contract extension, which made him the second-highest-paid German athlete after Formula One champion Michael Schumacher. He continued to improve, averaging 23.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. Nowitzki was voted into the All-NBA Second Team and into his first All-Star Game. After making the playoffs with a 57–25 record, the Mavericks swept Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round; Nowitzki averaged 33.3 points per game. In the second round, the Mavericks met the Sacramento Kings and rival power forward Chris Webber. After splitting the first two games, Kings coach Rick Adelman changed his defensive scheme, assigning Hedo Türkoğlu to cover Nowitzki. Türkoğlu would use his agility to play Nowitzki tightly, and if the taller Maverick tried to post up Türkoğlu, Webber would double team Nowitzki. In Game 3 in Dallas, the Mavericks lost, 125–119; Nowitzki scored only 19 points and said: "I simply could not pass Türkoğlu, and if I did, I ran into a double team and committed too many turnovers." In Game 4, Nowitzki missed two potentially game-deciding jump shots, and the Mavericks lost, 115–113, at home. In Game 5, the Mavericks were eliminated, 114–101. However, Nowitzki received a consolation award: the Gazzetta dello Sport voted him as "European Basketballer of the Year", his 104 votes lifting him over second-placed Dejan Bodiroga (54) and Stojakovic (50).
##### 2002–03 season: First Western Conference Finals appearance
Before the 2002–03 NBA season, Don Nelson and Mark Cuban put more emphasis on defense, specializing in a zone anchored by prolific shotblockers Raef LaFrentz and Shawn Bradley. The Mavericks won their first fourteen games, and Finley, Nash and Nowitzki were voted "Western Conference Players of the Month" in November 2002. In that season, Nowitzki lifted his averages again, now scoring 25.1 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. He led the Mavericks to a franchise-high 60–22 record, which earned them the third seed: as a result, the Mavericks had to play sixth seed Portland Trail Blazers in the 2003 NBA Playoffs. Now playing in a best-of-seven series instead of the former best-of-five, the Mavericks quickly won the first three games, but then completely lost their rhythm and the next three. In Game 7, Nowitzki hit a clutch three to make it 100–94 with 1:21 left and the Mavericks won 107–95. "This was the most important basket of my career", he later said, "I was not prepared to go on vacation that early." In the next round, the Mavericks met the Kings again, and the series went seven games. Nowitzki delivered a clutch performance in Game 7; he scored 30 points, grabbed 19 rebounds, and played strong defense, leading the Mavericks to a series-deciding 112–99 win. In the Western Conference Finals, the Mavericks met the Spurs again. In Game 3, Nowitzki went up for a rebound and Spurs guard Manu Ginóbili collided with his knee, forcing him out of the series. Without their top scorer, the Mavericks ultimately lost in six games.
##### 2003–04 season: Playoff disappointment
After Dallas traded starting center Raef LaFrentz to Boston for forward Antoine Walker, Nelson decided to start Nowitzki at center. To cope with his more physical role, Nowitzki put on 20 lb (9.1 kg) of muscle mass over summer, sacrificed part of his agility, and put more emphasis on defense rather than scoring. Nowitzki's averages fell for the first time in his career, dropping to 21.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game, but he still led the Mavericks in scoring, rebounding, steals (1.2 spg) and blocks (1.35 bpg). These figures earned him nominations for the All-Star Game and the All-NBA Third Team. Compiling a 52–30 record, the Mavericks met their familiar rivals the Sacramento Kings in the playoffs once again, but were eliminated in five games.
#### Franchise player (2004–2010)
##### 2004–05 season: First All-NBA First Team selection
Before the 2004–05 NBA season, the Mavericks were re-tooled again. Center Erick Dampier was acquired from the Golden State Warriors in an eight-player trade. Also, Nowitzki's close friend and fellow international teammate Steve Nash left Dallas and returned to the Phoenix Suns as a free agent, going on to win two Most Valuable Player awards with the Suns. During the season, long-time head coach Don Nelson resigned, and his assistant Avery Johnson took on head coaching duties. In the midst of these changes, Nowitzki stepped up his game and averaged 26.1 points a game (a career high) and 9.7 rebounds; and his 1.5 blocks and 3.1 assists were also career-high numbers. On December 2, 2004, Nowitzki scored 53 points in an overtime win against the Houston Rockets, a career best. Nowitzki was voted to the All-NBA First Team for the first time. He also placed third in the league's MVP voting, behind Nash and Shaquille O'Neal.
However, the Mavericks had a subpar 2005 NBA Playoffs campaign. In the first round, Dallas met Houston Rockets scoring champion Tracy McGrady and center Yao Ming. The Rockets took a 2–0 series lead before the Mavericks won three games in a row. After losing Game 6, Dallas won Game 7 convincingly and won the series even though Nowitzki struggled with his shooting. In the Western Conference Semi-finals, the Mavericks met the Phoenix Suns, the new club of Nash. They split the first four games before the Suns won the last two games. In Game 6, which the Mavericks lost in overtime, Nowitzki was not at his best: he scored 28 points, but also sank only 9 of his 25 field goal attempts and missed all five of his shots in overtime.
##### 2005–06 season: First NBA Finals appearance
Prior to the 2005–06 NBA season, veteran Mavericks captain Michael Finley was waived, leaving Nowitzki as the last player remaining from the Mavericks' "Big Three" of Nash, Finley, and himself. Nowitzki averaged 26.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 2.8 assists during the season. Not only was this his third 2,000-point season, but his scoring average of 26.6 points was highest ever by a European. He improved his shooting percentage, setting personal season records in field goals (48.0%), three-point shots (40.6%) and free throws (90.1%). During the 2006 All-Star Weekend in Houston, Nowitzki scored 18 points to defeat Seattle SuperSonics guard Ray Allen and Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas in the Three-Point Contest.
Nowitzki paced Dallas to a 60-win season. The team finished with the third-best record in the league behind the defending champion San Antonio Spurs and the defending Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons. As in the 2004–05 season, he finished third in the league's MVP voting, this time behind Nash and LeBron James. He was again elected to the first team All-NBA squad. Nowitzki averaged 27.0 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in the playoffs. In the opening round, the Mavericks swept the Memphis Grizzlies, 4–0, with Nowitzki making a clutch three-pointer in the closing seconds of Game 3 which tied the game and forced overtime. In the Western Conference Semi-finals, the Mavericks played against the San Antonio Spurs again. After splitting the first six games, the Mavericks took a 20-point lead in Game 7 before Spur Manu Ginóbili broke a tie at 101 by hitting a 3 with 30 seconds left. On the next play, Nowitzki completed a three-point play, which tied the game at 104. In the end, the Mavericks won, 119–111, and Nowitzki ended the game with 37 points and 15 rebounds. Nowitzki commented: "I don't know how the ball went in. Manu hit my hand. It was a lucky bounce." The Mavericks advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they again met the Suns. Nowitzki scored 50 points to lead the Mavericks to a victory in the crucial Game 5 with the series tied at 2; the Mavericks won the series in six games and faced the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals. A content Nowitzki commented: "We've been a good road team all season long, we believed in each other. We went through some ups and downs this season, but the playoffs are all about showing heart and playing together." Of Nowitzki's performance, ESPN columnist Bill Simmons wrote, "Dirk is playing at a higher level than any forward since [Larry] Bird."
The Mavericks took an early 2–0 Finals lead, but then gave away a late 15-point lead in a Game 3 loss. Nowitzki only made 20 of his last 55 shots in the final three games as the Mavericks lost the Finals series, 4–2, to the Heat. The German was criticized by ESPN as "clearly ... not as his best this series" and remarked: "That was a tough loss (in Game 3) and that really changed the whole momentum of the series."
##### 2006–07 season: NBA MVP and franchise record in wins
In the 2006–07 season, Nowitzki shot a career-best 50.2% from the field, recorded averages of 24.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 3.4 assists, and led the Mavericks to a franchise-high 67 wins and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference in the 2007 NBA Playoffs. He averaged 50% from the field, 40% for three-pointers, and 90% from the free-throw line, becoming (at the time) only the fifth player in NBA history to join the 50–40–90 club. Nowitzki was touted as the overwhelming favorite for the Most Valuable Player award and was expected to lead the Mavericks to an easy win against the eighth-seed Golden State Warriors, despite the Warriors having won all three regular-season meetings against Dallas. However, the Mavericks ended up losing to the Warriors in six games, marking the first time a No. 8 seed had beaten the No. 1 seed in a best-of-seven series in NBA history. In the clinching Game 6, Nowitzki shot just 2–13 from the field for only eight points. Defended by Stephen Jackson, Nowitzki averaged nearly five points less than his regular-season average in that series and shot 38.3% from the field as compared to 50.2% during the regular season. He described that loss as a low point in his career: "This series, I couldn't put my stamp on it the way I wanted to. That's why I'm very disappointed." In spite of this historic playoffs loss, Nowitzki was named the NBA's regular-season Most Valuable Player and beat his friend and back-to-back NBA MVP Nash with more than 100 votes. He also became the first European player in NBA history to receive the honor.
##### 2007–08 season: First triple-double
The 2007–08 campaign saw another first-round playoff exit for Nowitzki and the Mavericks. Despite a mid-season trade that brought veteran NBA All-Star Jason Kidd to Dallas, the Mavericks finished seventh in a highly competitive Western Conference. Nowitzki averaged 23.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, and a career-high 3.5 assists for the season. In the playoffs, they faced rising star Chris Paul's New Orleans Hornets, and were eliminated in five games. The playoff loss led to the firing of Avery Johnson as head coach and the eventual hiring of Rick Carlisle. The few positive highlights that season for Nowitzki were his first career triple-double against the Milwaukee Bucks on February 6, 2008, with 29 points, 10 rebounds, and a career-high 12 assists, and on March 8, 2008 (34 points against the New Jersey Nets), when he surpassed Rolando Blackman with his 16,644th point to become the Mavericks' all-time career points leader.
##### 2008–09 season: Playoff upset
The 2008–09 NBA season saw Nowitzki finish with averages of 25.9 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists. He was fourth in the league in scoring, and garnered his fourth All-NBA First Team selection. He also made the 2009 All-Star game, his eighth appearance. Nowitzki led Dallas to a tight finish towards the playoffs, finishing 50–32 for the season (6th in the West), after a slow 2–7 start. In the playoffs, the German led Dallas to an upset win over long-time rival San Antonio (the third seed), winning the first-round series, 4–1. The Mavericks, however, fell short against the Denver Nuggets, 4–1, in the second round, with Nowitzki averaging 34.4 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 4 assists in the series.
##### 2009–10 season: 20,000 points
The Mavericks finished the 2009–10 NBA season as the second seed for the 2010 NBA Playoffs. Notable additions to the squad were multiple All-Stars Shawn Marion and Caron Butler, with the latter coming in the second half of the season. On January 13, 2010, Nowitzki became the 34th player in NBA history—and the first European—to hit the 20,000-point milestone, while ending the regular season with averages of 25 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1 block. He was selected to the 2010 All-Star Game, his ninth appearance. The Mavericks faced off against San Antonio once more in the first round of the playoffs, but for the third time in four seasons, they failed to progress to the next round. Nowitzki became a free agent after the season, but signed a four-year, \$80 million deal to remain in Dallas.
#### Championship season (2010–2011)
Prior to the 2010–11 season, the Mavericks traded for center Tyson Chandler. Nowitzki was injured in the middle of the season, but finished the regular season with averages of 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. Despite missing nine games, Nowitzki was selected to the All-Star Game for the tenth time. The Mavericks defeated Portland in the first round of the playoffs and swept the two-time defending champion Lakers in the Conference Semifinals. In the Conference Finals, they faced the Oklahoma City Thunder and their All-NBA duo of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. In Game 1, Nowitzki scored 48 points and set an NBA record of 24 consecutive free throws made in a game as well as a record for most free throws in a game without a miss. In Game 4, with Dallas leading the series 2–1, Nowitzki scored 40 points to rally his team from a 99–84 fourth-quarter deficit to a 112–105 overtime victory. Dallas won the Western Conference title in Game Five.
In the 2011 NBA Finals, Dallas once again faced the Miami Heat, which had acquired All-Stars LeBron James and Chris Bosh before the season began. During a Game 1 loss in Miami, Nowitzki tore a tendon in his left middle finger; however, MRIs were negative, and Nowitzki vowed that the injury would not be a factor. In Game 2, he led a Dallas rally from an 88–73 fourth-quarter deficit, making a driving left-handed layup over Bosh to tie the series at 1. Miami took a 2–1 series lead after Nowitzki missed a potential game-tying shot at the end of Game 3. Despite carrying a 101 °F (38 °C) fever in Game 4, he hit the winning basket to tie the series yet again at 2, evoking comparisons to Michael Jordan's "Flu Game" against Utah in the 1997 NBA Finals. Dallas went on to win the next two games, with Nowitzki scoring 10 fourth-quarter points in the series-clinching game in Miami. The championship was the first in the history of the franchise. Nowitzki was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.
### Post-championship and final years (2011–2019)
#### 2011–12 season: Naismith Legacy Award
As Dallas celebrated their title, the NBA was in a lockout that ended on December 8, 2011. The defending champions lost core players, such as DeShawn Stevenson, J. J. Barea, Peja Stojaković, and Tyson Chandler, while adding Lamar Odom, Delonte West, and veteran all-star Vince Carter in free agency. The Mavericks played only two preseason games, which led to a slow start for Nowitzki. Nowitzki made his 11th straight All-Star game appearance in Orlando. Nowitzki led his team in scoring 45 times during the season. Nowitzki's streak of 11 seasons with 1,500 points came to an end after scoring 1,342 in the shortened NBA season. Dallas clinched the seventh spot in the West, and were matched against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2012 NBA Playoffs. The Thunder swept the Mavericks in four games.
#### 2012–13 season: Surgery and missing playoffs
Before the season, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry left the Mavericks in free agency. Nowitzki underwent knee surgery in October 2012 and missed the first 27 games of the season. He returned on December 23, 2012, in a game against San Antonio. In January 2013, Nowitzki and some of his teammates made a pact not to shave their beards until the team reached .500. They were often called "The Beard Bros." On April 14, 2013, after a fadeaway jumper in a game against the New Orleans Hornets, Nowitzki became the 17th player in NBA history to score 25,000 points. The Mavs went on to win the game and climbed back to .500 with a 40–40 record, and Nowitzki shaved his beard. However the Mavericks missed the playoffs for the first time since Nowitzki's second season, ending their 12-year playoff streak.
#### 2013–14 season: Magic Johnson Award
On January 29, 2014, Nowitzki scored his 26,000th point in a 115–117 loss to the Houston Rockets. In 35 minutes of play, he recorded 38 points, 17 rebounds, and 3 assists. On March 12, 2014, in a 108–101 victory over the Utah Jazz, Nowitzki finished the game with 31 points and passed John Havlicek on the NBA scoring list with 26,426 points. On April 8, 2014, Nowitzki scored his 26,712th point, passing Oscar Robertson to move to the 10th position on the all-time scoring list. Nowitzki led the Mavericks back to the playoffs where they faced their in-state rival San Antonio Spurs in the first round. Dallas lost the series in seven games, and the Spurs went on to win the NBA championship.
#### 2014–15 season: 10,000 rebounds
On July 15, 2014, Nowitzki re-signed with the Mavericks to a reported three-year, \$25 million contract. He was also reunited with former championship teammate Tyson Chandler, who was traded to Dallas after a three-year stint with New York. However, longtime teammate Shawn Marion signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers before the season.
On November 11, 2014, Nowitzki scored 23 points to surpass Hakeem Olajuwon as the highest-scoring player born outside the United States, as the Mavericks came from 24 points down to defeat Sacramento, 106–98. Nowitzki hit a jumper from just inside the three-point line early in the fourth quarter to pass Olajuwon at No. 9, and he finished the night at 26,953 career points. Six days later, Nowitzki became the fourth player in NBA history to eclipse 27,000 career points with the same franchise, joining Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Kobe Bryant. On December 26 against the Los Angeles Lakers, Nowitzki passed Elvin Hayes for eighth place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. He went on to pass Moses Malone for seventh place on the NBA's all-time scoring list on January 5, 2015, in a 96–88 overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets. He recorded his 10,000th career rebound on March 24 against the San Antonio Spurs, and scored his 28,000th career point on April 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Mavericks finished the regular season as the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference with a record of 50–32. They faced the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs and lost the series in five games.
#### 2015–16 season: Final playoff appearance
On November 11, 2015, Nowitzki scored a season-high 31 points in a 118–108 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. He also grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds and passed former teammate Shawn Marion for 15th on the all-time career rebounding list. On December 23, Nowitzki moved past Shaquille O'Neal into sixth place on the NBA's career scoring list, then made the go-ahead basket with 19.2 seconds left in overtime to help the Mavericks defeat the Brooklyn Nets, 119–118. On February 21, he scored 18 points against the Philadelphia 76ers, becoming the sixth player in NBA history to reach 29,000 career points. On March 20, he set a new season high with 40 points in a 132–120 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers. His 20th career 40-point game was his first since January 2014, and the first by a 37-year-old since Karl Malone in 2000–01.
In Game 4 of the Mavericks' first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Nowitzki passed Elgin Baylor (3,623 points) for 15th on the NBA's career playoff scoring list. The Mavericks lost the series four games to one.
#### 2016–17 season: NBA Teammate of the Year and 30,000 points
On July 27, 2016, Nowitzki re-signed with the Mavericks. Nowitzki missed several games early in the season with Achilles tendon problems. On March 7, 2017, in a 122–111 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Nowitzki became the sixth player in NBA history to score 30,000 regular-season points. He also became the first international player to reach the milestone and one of only three to score all 30,000-plus with one team—the others being Karl Malone (Utah Jazz) and Kobe Bryant (L.A. Lakers). The Mavericks finished the season with a 33–49 record and missed the NBA Playoffs.
Following the 2016–17 season, Nowitzki exercised his player option to become a free agent; this move allowed the Mavericks to re-sign him with less money and be able to pursue other free agents.
#### 2017–18 season: Season-ending surgery
On July 6, 2017, Nowitzki re-signed with the Mavericks on a two-year, \$10 million contract (with a team option on the second year). On February 5, 2018, in a 104–101 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Nowitzki became the sixth player in NBA history to reach 50,000 career minutes. On February 28, 2018, in a 111–110 overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Nowitzki reached 31,000 career points. On March 17, 2018, in a 114–106 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, Nowitzki played in his 1,463rd game, moving past Kevin Garnett into fifth place in the NBA career list. He had season-ending ankle surgery on April 5 after appearing in 77 of the first 78 games. The Mavericks finished the season with a 24–58 record and missed the NBA Playoffs.
#### 2018–19 season: Final season
On July 23, 2018, Nowitzki re-signed with the Mavericks for the 2018–19 season. With his season debut on December 13, 2018, he set the NBA record for the most seasons played with the same team (21), breaking a tie with Kobe Bryant, who spent 20 seasons with the Lakers. He also became the fifth player in NBA history to play 21 seasons, tying an NBA record. Nowitzki was named to his 14th All-Star game as a special team roster addition. On March 18, 2019, Nowitzki became the sixth-highest scoring player of all time, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain's 31,419 points in a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. In his team's final home game of the season, a 120–109 victory over the Phoenix Suns on April 9, Nowitzki scored 30 points, and announced his retirement in an emotional ceremony during which Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Shawn Kemp, Scottie Pippen, and Detlef Schrempf appeared on the court to give laudatory speeches for Nowitzki. One day later, he played his final NBA game, recording a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds in a 105–94 loss to the Spurs.
## National team career
Nowitzki began playing for the German national basketball team in 1997. In his debut tournament, the EuroBasket 1999, the 21-year-old rookie emerged as the main German scorer, but Germany finished seventh and failed to qualify for the 2000 Olympic Games. In the EuroBasket 2001, Nowitzki was top scorer with 28.7 points per game, and narrowly lost the MVP vote to Serbian player Peja Stojaković. Germany reached the semi-finals and were close to beating host nation Turkey, but Hedo Türkoğlu hit a three-point buzzer beater to tie it, and the Turks eventually won in overtime. Germany then lost, 99–90, against Spain, and did not win a medal. However, with averages of 28.7 points and 9.1 rebounds, Nowitzki led the tournament in both statistics, and was voted to the All-Star team. Back home, the German basketball team attracted up to 3.7 million television viewers, a German basketball record at the time.
Nowitzki earned his first medal when he led Germany to a bronze medal in the 2002 FIBA World Championship. In the quarter-finals against the Pau Gasol-led Spain, Spain was up 52–46 after three-quarters, but then Nowitzki scored 10 points in the last quarter and led Germany to a 70–62 win. In the semi-finals, his team played against the Argentinian team led by Manu Ginóbili, but despite leading, 74–69, four minutes from the end and despite Argentina losing Ginobili to a foot injury, the South Americans won, 86–80. However, the Germans won 117–94 against New Zealand in the consolation finals and won bronze, and Nowitzki, as the tournament's top scorer, (24.0 points per game), was elected the tournament MVP. Back in Germany, over four million television viewers followed the games, an all-time record in German basketball history.
In a preparation game for EuroBasket 2003, Nowitzki suffered a foot injury after a collision with French player Florent Piétrus; as a result, Nowitzki played inconsistently and was also often target of hard fouls. In the decisive second-round match against Italy (only the winner was allowed to play the medal round), Germany lost, 86–84, finished ninth and did not qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games. Nowitzki scored 22.5 points per game (third overall), but in general seemed to lack focus and dominance due to his injury.
In the EuroBasket 2005, Nowitzki led a depleted German squad into the Finals, beating title favorites Slovenia in the quarter-finals and Spain in the semi-finals on the way. EuroBasket pundits praised Nowitzki in both matches: against Slovenia (76–62), the forward scored a game-high 22 points and commented: "The Slovenians underestimated us. They said we were the team they wanted and that was wrong, you shouldn't do that in the quarter-finals." Against Spain (74–73), Nowitzki scored a game-high 27 points and scored the decisive basket: down by one and with only a few seconds to go, he drove on Spanish forward Jorge Garbajosa, and hit a baseline jump shot over Garbajosa's outstretched arms with 3.9 seconds to go. The German later commented: "It was indescribable. Garbajosa kind of pushed me towards the baseline so I just went with it." Despite losing the Finals, 78–62, to the Greeks, Nowitzki was the tournament's leading scorer (26.1 per game), and second-leading rebounder (10.6 per game), and shot blocker (1.9 per game), and he was also voted the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. When he was subbed out towards the end of the final, Nowitzki received a standing ovation from the crowd, which he later recalled as "one of the best moments of [his] career". The German team was awarded a silver medal.
In the 2006 FIBA World Championship, Nowitzki led the German team to an eighth place and commented: "It's tough luck. But overall, finishing eighth in the world is not bad."
In the EuroBasket 2007, in which the top three teams automatically qualified for the 2008 Olympics, Nowitzki led Germany to a fifth place. He was the leading scorer with 24.0 points per game. The fifth place meant that Germany fell short of direct qualification, but was allowed to participate in the 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Nowitzki led Germany into a decisive match against Puerto Rico for the last remaining slot. In that crucial match, he scored a game-high 32 points and was vital for the 96–82 win which sent the German basketball team to their first Olympics since the 1992 Summer Olympics. Nowitzki was chosen to be the flag bearer for the German Olympic Team at the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Olympics. Nowitzki led the German team to a tenth-place finish, and averaged 17.0 points and 8.4 rebounds for the tournament.
In 2009, Nowitzki skipped the EuroBasket 2009. In July 2010, he said that he would skip the 2010 FIBA World Championship. In summer 2011, Nowitzki played with Germany in the EuroBasket 2011, where the team reached ninth place. In 2015, Nowitzki captained Germany at the EuroBasket. They won only one game, and were eliminated in the group stage, on home soil. In January 2016, Nowitzki officially announced his retirement from Germany's national team. In his career with Germany's senior men's national team, he averaged 19.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game.
Nowitzki was named the Euroscar European Basketball Player of the Year by the Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport for five years running from 2002 to 2006 and again in 2011. He was also named the Mister Europa European Player of the Year by the Italian sports magazine Superbasket in 2005, and the FIBA Europe Men's Player of the Year twice in 2005 and 2011. He was named to the FIBA EuroBasket 2000–2020 Dream Team in 2020.
The German Basketball Federation (DBB) honored Nowitzki with a jersey (number 14) retirement in September 2022, ahead of EuroBasket 2022. The ceremony was held on September 2, immediately before Germany's EuroBasket opening game against France in Cologne. DBB also announced that a replica of Nowitzki's national team jersey would hang from the arena rafters at all future Germany men's home games.
## Player profile
Nowitzki was a versatile frontcourt player who mostly played the power forward, but also played center and small forward in his career. An exceptional shooter for his size, Nowitzki made 88% of his free throws, nearly 50% of his field goal attempts and nearly 40% of his 3-point shots, and won the 2006 NBA All-Star Three-Point Contest. In the 2006–07 season, Nowitzki became only the fifth member of the NBA's 50–40–90 Club for players who shot 50% or better from the field, 40% or better on three-pointers, and 90% or better on free-throws in a single season while achieving the NBA league minimum number of makes in each category.
Nowitzki's shooting accuracy, combined with his long seven-foot frame and unique shooting mechanics (such as having a release point above his head), made his jump shots difficult to contest. Before the start of the 2011 NBA Finals, LeBron James called Nowitzki's one-legged fadeaway the second most unstoppable move ever, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook. Additionally, Nowitzki could drive to the basket from the perimeter like few men his size were able to do. NBA.com lauded his versatility by stating: "The 7–0 forward who at times mans the pivot can strike fear in an opponent when he corrals a rebound and leads the break or prepares to launch a three-point bomb." Charles Barkley said the best way to guard Nowitzki was to "get a cigarette and a blindfold". Later on in his career, Nowitzki also developed an unorthodox post-up game, often backing down his opponents from the free-throw line or near the middle of the key, opening up the floor for multiple passing angles should a double team come his way. In 2022, to commemorate the NBA's 75th Anniversary The Athletic ranked their top 75 players of all time, and named Nowitzki as the 21st greatest player in NBA history.
Nowitzki was the sixth player in NBA history, and the first European, to hit the 30,000-point milestone. Apart from being the Mavericks' all-time leader in points, rebounds, field goals, field goal attempts, 3-pointers, 3-point attempts, blocks, free throws, and free-throw attempts, Nowitzki made the NBA All-Star games fourteen times and the All-NBA Teams twelve times. He was voted NBA MVP of the 2006–07 NBA season, becoming the first European player to receive the honor, as well as the MVP of the 2011 NBA Finals. Other achievements include winning the 2006 Three-Point Contest and the 2017 NBA Teammate of the Year award, being voted European Basketballer of the Year five times in a row by La Gazzetta dello Sport. He was the leading scorer and MVP of the 2002 FIBA World Championship, and EuroBasket 2005 tournaments.
Nowitzki is the only player to record at least 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists, 1,200 steals, 1,200 blocks and 1,500 three-point field goals.
## NBA career statistics
### Regular season
\|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 1998–99 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 47 \|\| 24 \|\| 20.4 \|\| .405 \|\| .206 \|\| .773 \|\| 3.4 \|\| 1.0 \|\| .6 \|\| .6 \|\| 8.2 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 1999–2000 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 82 \|\| 81 \|\| 35.8 \|\| .461 \|\| .379 \|\| .830 \|\| 6.5 \|\| 2.5 \|\| .8 \|\| .8 \|\| 17.5 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2000–01 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 82 \|\| style="background:#cfecec;"\|82\* \|\| 38.1 \|\| .474 \|\| .387 \|\| .838 \|\| 9.2 \|\| 2.1 \|\| 1.0 \|\| 1.2 \|\| 21.8 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2001–02 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 76 \|\| 76 \|\| 38.0 \|\| .477 \|\| .397 \|\| .853 \|\| 9.9 \|\| 2.4 \|\| 1.1 \|\| 1.0 \|\| 23.4 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2002–03 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 80 \|\| 80 \|\| 39.0 \|\| .463 \|\| .379 \|\| .881 \|\| 9.9 \|\| 3.0 \|\| 1.4 \|\| 1.0 \|\| 25.1 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2003–04 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 77 \|\| 77 \|\| 37.9 \|\| .462 \|\| .341 \|\| .877 \|\| 8.7 \|\| 2.7 \|\| 1.2 \|\| 1.4 \|\| 21.8 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2004–05 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 78 \|\| 78 \|\| 38.7 \|\| .459 \|\| .399 \|\| .869 \|\| 9.7 \|\| 3.1 \|\| 1.2 \|\| 1.5 \|\| 26.1 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2005–06 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 81 \|\| 81 \|\| 38.1 \|\| .480 \|\| .406 \|\| .901 \|\| 9.0 \|\| 2.8 \|\| .7 \|\| 1.0 \|\| 26.6 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2006–07 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 78 \|\| 78 \|\| 36.2 \|\| .502 \|\| .416 \|\| .904 \|\| 8.9 \|\| 3.4 \|\| .7 \|\| .8 \|\| 24.6 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2007–08 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 77 \|\| 77 \|\| 36.0 \|\| .479 \|\| .359 \|\| .879 \|\| 8.6 \|\| 3.5 \|\| .7 \|\| .9 \|\| 23.6 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2008–09 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 81 \|\| 81 \|\| 37.7 \|\| .479 \|\| .359 \|\| .890 \|\| 8.4 \|\| 2.4 \|\| .8 \|\| .8 \|\| 25.9 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2009–10 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 81 \|\| 80 \|\| 37.5 \|\| .481 \|\| .421 \|\| .915 \|\| 7.7 \|\| 2.7 \|\| .9 \|\| 1.0 \|\| 25.0 \|- \| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"\|2010–11† \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 73 \|\| 73 \|\| 34.3 \|\| .517 \|\| .393 \|\| .892 \|\| 7.0 \|\| 2.6 \|\| .5 \|\| .6 \|\| 23.0 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2011–12 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 62 \|\| 62 \|\| 33.5 \|\| .457 \|\| .368 \|\| .896 \|\| 6.8 \|\| 2.2 \|\| .7 \|\| .5 \|\| 21.6 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2012–13 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 53 \|\| 47 \|\| 31.3 \|\| .471 \|\| .414 \|\| .860 \|\| 6.8 \|\| 2.5 \|\| .7 \|\| .7 \|\| 17.3 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2013–14 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 80 \|\| 80 \|\| 32.9 \|\| .497 \|\| .398 \|\| .899 \|\| 6.2 \|\| 2.7 \|\| .9 \|\| .6 \|\| 21.7 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2014–15 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 77 \|\| 77 \|\| 29.6 \|\| .459 \|\| .380 \|\| .882 \|\| 5.9 \|\| 1.9 \|\| .5 \|\| .4 \|\| 17.3 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2015–16 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 75 \|\| 75 \|\| 31.5 \|\| .448 \|\| .368 \|\| .893 \|\| 6.5 \|\| 1.8 \|\| .7 \|\| .7 \|\| 18.3 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2016–17 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 54 \|\| 54 \|\| 26.4 \|\| .437 \|\| .378 \|\| .875 \|\| 6.5 \|\| 1.5 \|\| .6 \|\| .7 \|\| 14.2 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2017–18 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 77 \|\| 77 \|\| 24.7 \|\| .456 \|\| .409 \|\| .898 \|\| 5.7 \|\| 1.6 \|\| .6 \|\| .6 \|\| 12.0 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2018–19 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 51 \|\| 20 \|\| 15.6 \|\| .359 \|\| .312 \|\| .780 \|\| 3.1 \|\| .7 \|\| .2 \|\| .4 \|\| 7.3 \|- class="sortbottom" \| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2" \| Career \| 1,522 \|\| 1,460 \|\| 33.8 \|\| .471 \|\| .380 \|\| .879 \|\| 7.5 \|\| 2.4 \|\| .8 \|\| .8 \|\| 20.7 \|- class="sortbottom" \| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2" \| All-Star \| 14 \|\| 2 \|\| 16.2 \|\| .450 \|\| .290 \|\| .875 \|\| 3.7 \|\| 1.1 \|\| .7 \|\| .4 \|\| 8.7
### Playoffs
\|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2001 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 10 \|\| 10 \|\| 39.9 \|\| .423 \|\| .283 \|\| .883 \|\| 8.1 \|\| 1.4 \|\| 1.1 \|\| .8 \|\| 23.4 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2002 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 8 \|\| 8 \|\| 44.6 \|\| .445 \|\| .571 \|\| .878 \|\| 13.1 \|\| 2.3 \|\| 2.0 \|\| .8 \|\| 28.4 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2003 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 17 \|\| 17 \|\| 42.5 \|\| .479 \|\| .443 \|\| .912 \|\| 11.5 \|\| 2.2 \|\| 1.2 \|\| .9 \|\| 25.3 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2004 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 5 \|\| 5 \|\| 42.4 \|\| .450 \|\| .467 \|\| .857 \|\| 11.8 \|\| 1.4 \|\| 1.4 \|\| 2.6 \|\| 26.6 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2005 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 13 \|\| 13 \|\| 42.4 \|\| .402 \|\| .333 \|\| .829 \|\| 10.1 \|\| 3.3 \|\| 1.4 \|\| 1.6 \|\| 23.7 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2006 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 23 \|\| 23 \|\| 42.7 \|\| .468 \|\| .343 \|\| .895 \|\| 11.7 \|\| 2.9 \|\| 1.1 \|\| .6 \|\| 27.0 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2007 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 6 \|\| 6 \|\| 39.8 \|\| .383 \|\| .211 \|\| .840 \|\| 11.3 \|\| 2.3 \|\| 1.8 \|\| 1.3 \|\| 19.7 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2008 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 5 \|\| 5 \|\| 42.2 \|\| .473 \|\| .333 \|\| .808 \|\| 12.0 \|\| 4.0 \|\| .2 \|\| 1.4 \|\| 26.8 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2009 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 10 \|\| 10 \|\| 39.5 \|\| .518 \|\| .286 \|\| .925 \|\| 10.1 \|\| 3.1 \|\| .9 \|\| .8 \|\| 26.8 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2010 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 6 \|\| 6 \|\| 38.8 \|\| .547 \|\| .571 \|\| .952 \|\| 8.2 \|\| 3.0 \|\| .8 \|\| .7 \|\| 26.7 \|- \| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"\|2011† \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 21 \|\| 21 \|\| 39.3 \|\| .485 \|\| .460 \|\| .941 \|\| 8.1 \|\| 2.5 \|\| .6 \|\| .6 \|\| 27.7 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2012 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 4 \|\| 4 \|\| 38.5 \|\| .442 \|\| .167 \|\| .905 \|\| 6.3 \|\| 1.8 \|\| .8 \|\| .0 \|\| 26.8 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2014 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 7 \|\| 7 \|\| 37.6 \|\| .429 \|\| .083 \|\| .806 \|\| 8.0 \|\| 1.6 \|\| .9 \|\| .9 \|\| 19.1 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2015 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 5 \|\| 5 \|\| 36.2 \|\| .452 \|\| .235 \|\| .929 \|\| 10.2 \|\| 2.4 \|\| .4 \|\| .4 \|\| 21.2 \|- \| style="text-align:left;"\| 2016 \| style="text-align:left;"\| Dallas \| 5 \|\| 5 \|\| 34.0 \|\| .494 \|\| .364 \|\| .941 \|\| 5.0 \|\| 1.6 \|\| .4 \|\| .6 \|\| 20.4 \|- class="sortbottom" \| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2" \| Career \| 145 \|\| 145 \|\| 40.7 \|\| .462 \|\| .365 \|\| .892 \|\| 10.0 \|\| 2.5 \|\| 1.0 \|\| .9 \|\| 25.3
## Career highlights
NBA
- NBA Finals MVP: 2011
- NBA Most Valuable Player: 2007
- 14× NBA All-Star: 2002–2012, 2014–2015, 2019
- 12× All-NBA Team: 2001–2012
- 4× First Team: 2005–2007, 2009
- 5× Second Team: 2002–2003, 2008, 2010–2011
- 3× Third Team: 2001, 2004, 2012
- NBA Three-Point Contest champion: 2006
- NBA Shooting Stars champion: 2010
- NBA Teammate of the Year: 2017
- Ranked 6th in all-time-scoring
- Ranked 5th in all-time defensive-rebounds
- Ranked 2nd in all-time NBA Finals free throw percentage
- 82 consecutive free throws made in the regular season (the third-longest streak of all time)
- 26 consecutive free throws made in the Finals (longest streak of all time)
- One of three players with at least 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists, 1,000 steals and 1,000 blocks
- One of two players with 150 three-pointers and 100 blocks in a single season: 2001
- One of four players with an NBA Playoff career average of 25 ppg and 10 rpg (25.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg)
- One of eight members of the 50–40–90 club: 2007
- One of three players to surpass the mark of 1,000 in both three-pointers and blocks for the career
- One of four players to surpass the marks of 30,000 in points and 10,000 in rebounds for the career
- Holds the record for most free-throws made in a single playoff season with 205 free-throws made: 2006
- Dallas Mavericks all-time statistical leader in games, seasons, points, rebounds, blocks, field goals, three-point field goals and free throws
- NBA record for most seasons with one team (21) and games played in a career spent with only one team (1,522)
German national basketball team
- 2002 FIBA World Championship: bronze medal, MVP, top scorer, all-tournament team
- EuroBasket 2005: silver medal, MVP, top scorer, all-tournament team
- 2006 FIBA World Championship, EuroBasket 2001, EuroBasket 2007: top scorer, all-tournament team
- Goldener Ehrenring (golden honorary ring) of the DBB (German Basketball Federation): 2007
- FIBA EuroBasket 2000–2020 Dream Team:
- Third leading scorer (1,052 points) in the history of EuroBasket
- Leading scorer in the history of the senior German national basketball team (3,045 points in 153 international games)
- Member of the German national basketball team which was voted Outstanding German Team of the Year: 2005
Other achievements and highlights
- German League MVP: 1999
- German League Top Scorer: 1999
- 6× Euroscar: 2002–2006, 2011
- 2× FIBA Europe Men's Player of the Year: 2005, 2011
- Mr. Europa: 2005
- 5× All-Europeans Player of the Year: 2005–2008, 2011
- German national flag bearer at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China
- Best NBA Player ESPY Award: 2011
- Best Male Athlete ESPY Award: 2011
- Outstanding Team ESPY Award with the Dallas Mavericks: 2011
- Sports Illustrated NBA All-Decade Second Team (2000–2009)
- Silbernes Lorbeerblatt: 2011
- German Sports Personality of the Year: 2011
- Naismith Legacy Award: 2012
- Magic Johnson Award: 2014
- Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award: 2020
## Personal life
Nowitzki's older sister, Silke Nowitzki, described Nowitzki as a confident but low-key character, unspoiled by money and fame. He enjoys reading and playing the saxophone. Nowitzki passed his Abitur examination at Röntgen Gymnasium Grammar School of Würzburg. He founded the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation, a charity which aims at fighting poverty in Africa.
Nowitzki dated Sybille Gerer, a female basketball player from his local club DJK Würzburg. The relationship started in 1992 and lasted for 10 years before it ended in 2002; Nowitzki said, "At the end, we found out we developed in separate ways. ... It did not work anymore, but we are still good friends." He added: "I surely want to start a family and have kids, but I cannot imagine it happening before I become 30."
In 2010, Nowitzki met and began dating Jessica Olsson, sister of twin Swedish footballers Martin Olsson and Marcus Olsson. The couple got married on July 20, 2012, at Nowitzki's home in Dallas. They have a daughter, born in July 2013 and two sons, born in March 2015 and November 2016. Though Nowitzki has considered acquiring U.S. citizenship, he remains a German national.
Nowitzki acknowledged close ties to his mentor Holger Geschwindner, whom he called his best friend. He is also good friends with his ex-teammate Steve Nash. Nash said of playing with Nowitzki, "We were both joining a new club, living in a new city, we were both single and outsiders: this creates a bond ... He made life easier for me and I for him ... Our friendship was something solid in a very volatile world." Nowitzki added, "He would have also become a good friend if we had met at the supermarket."
Nowitzki is a keen association football fan and an avid supporter of Arsenal F.C.
## Books
Nowitzki's career has been chronicled in books. Dirk Nowitzki: German Wunderkind, written by German sports journalists Dino Reisner and Holger Sauer, was published in 2004 by CoPress Munich. The 160-page hardcover book follows Nowitzki's beginnings in his native Würzburg, documents his entry into and ascent within the NBA, and ends at the beginning of the 2004–05 NBA season.
In November 2011, the Würzburg local newspaper Main-Post published a 216-page book written by its sports journalists Jürgen Höpfl and Fabian Frühwirth: Einfach Er – Dirk Nowitzki – Aus Würzburg an die Weltspitze, (Just Him – Dirk Nowitzki – From Würzburg to the Top of the World). Both Höpfl and Frühwirth accompanied Nowitzki throughout his career, collecting interviews and photos used in the book. It looks back on the 2011 NBA Finals but also has a strong focus on Nowitzki's relation to his hometown Würzburg and his career progression which began there. The book features insights from former coaches, family members, and friends.
Thomas Pletzinger published in 2019 the 502-page biography The Great Nowitzki, which was regarded as one of the best sports-biographies to have ever been published in German.
## In popular culture
In 2014, the film documentary Nowitzki. The Perfect Shot was released, which retells Nowitzki's career and life.
## Honors
On October 30, 2019, by a unanimous resolution of the Dallas City Council, part of Olive Street was renamed Nowitzki Way, which runs past the American Airlines Center. In December 2019, Nowitzki received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in recognition of his social commitment.
On January 5, 2022, Nowitzki's number 41 was retired by the Mavericks. The same night, Mark Cuban unveiled the design for the statue of Nowitzki that was planned to be installed outside the arena. The statue was unveiled on Christmas Day later that year.
## See also
- List of National Basketball Association career games played leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career 3-point scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career minutes played leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career playoff scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career playoff rebounding leaders
- List of National Basketball Association career playoff free throw scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association players with 9 or more steals in a game
- List of National Basketball Association players with 50 or more points in a playoff game
- List of National Basketball Association franchise career scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association seasons played leaders
- List of NBA players who have spent their entire career with one franchise
- 2008 Summer Olympics national flag bearers
- List of European basketball players in the United States |
48,444,106 | Neepaulakating Creek | 1,141,457,860 | Tributary of Papakating Creek | [
"Papakating Creek watershed",
"Rivers of New Jersey",
"Rivers of Sussex County, New Jersey",
"Tributaries of the Wallkill River"
]
| Neepaulakating Creek is a 2.4-mile long (3.8 km) tributary of Papakating Creek in Wantage Township in Sussex County, New Jersey in the United States. It is one of three streams feeding the Papakating Creek, a major contributor to the Wallkill River. Although the stream was dammed in the 1950s to create Lake Neepaulin as the focal point of a private residential development, the stream did not receive a name until 2002. Residents chose a name that combined elements of the names "Neepaulin" and "Papakating", and submitted a proposal to the United States Board of Geographic Names. The name was approved in 2004.
## Course and watershed
Neepaulakating Creek is small stream whose headwaters are located at 640 feet (200 m) above sea level approximately 0.4 miles (0.64 km) northwest of the north end of Lake Neepaulin. These headwaters are located a short distance south of County Route 650 (Libertyville Road) roughly halfway between the hamlet of Libertville in Wantage Township and Sussex Borough. The stream flows into Lake Neepaulin located at 509 ft (155 m) above sea level. The man-made lake, created through damming, is the centre of a private residential development. It flows southeast from the lake's dam in the southeast direction for another 1.5 miles (2.4 km) before flowing into Papakating Creek. It enters Papakating Creek at 395 feet (120 m) above sea level approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) upstream of that creek's junction with the Wallkill River at a location directly south of Sussex Borough along County Route 565 near the hamlet of Lewisburg in Wantage Township and near Sussex Airport.
Along with the Clove Brook and West Branch Papakating Creek, Neepaulakating Creek is one of the tributaries that form the 60.6 square miles (157 km<sup>2</sup>) watershed of Papakating Creek, a major tributary of the Wallkill River. The Papakating Creek watershed is located in the Kittatinny Valley, is underlain by dark shale and limestone of the Martinsburg Formation, and has soils of glacial origin. The topography of the Papakating Creek's watershed ranges from gentle slopes in the east to steeper slopes in the west. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), the Papakating watershed consists of gently sloping farmland, forested land, wetlands, older individually built homes, and low-density residential development.
According to NJDEP reports, two developed lake communities in the Papakating Creek watershed—Lake Neepaulin and the nearby Clove Acres Lake contribute to phosphorus loading in the waters of Papakating Creek. The phosphorus loading may originate from the runoff of fertilizer applications on residential lawns, nearby agricultural operations, or from large populations of geese that inhabit the lakes.
## History and naming
In the 1950s, a real estate developer dammed an unnamed stream located to the west and south of Sussex Borough and created Lake Neepaulin. The lake was the center of a planned private lakeside residential community. In 2002, an organization known as Friends of Lake Neepaulin, began using "Neepaulakating Creek" as a new name for an unnamed stream that was dammed to create the lake. After a review of resources available on the internet, topographic maps, and other government and historical documents, a state engineer reported there was no evidence the stream had any previous name. The name chosen, Neepaulakating, was a combination of portions of the names "Neepaulin" and "Papakating". Lake Neepaulin was named after a combination of the original developers children's names.
A formal proposal prepared by the residents was submitted to the Board of Geographic Names by Nathaniel Sajdak, described as the Outreach Coordinator of the Wallkill River Watershed and a member of Friends of Lake Neepaulin. Sajdak reported to the United States Geological Survey's Board of Geographic Names that studies such as visual and biological assessments were carried out on the unnamed stream by the Lake Neepaulin Lake Association for roughly two years, during which time they had begun to call it "Neepaulakating Creek". On February 25, 2004, the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders unanimously approved a resolution to support the naming, stating that the county government "defers to the Township of Wantage and concurs with the naming of the tributary as 'Neepaulakating Creek'". On April 8, 2004, the Board of Geographic Names approved the proposal.
## Gallery
## See also
- List of landforms in Sussex County, New Jersey
- List of rivers of New Jersey |
3,776,540 | Whale tail | 1,153,318,080 | Part of a thong or g-string | [
"2000s fashion",
"2000s slang",
"2005 neologisms",
"Clothing controversies",
"Lingerie",
"Popular culture neologisms",
"Sexual slang"
]
| Whale tail is the Y-shaped rear portion of a thong or G-string when visible above the waistline of low-rise pants, shorts, or skirts that resembles a whale's tail. Popularized by a number of female celebrities including Amy Dumas, Christina Aguilera, Victoria Beckham, Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, displaying whale tails became popular in the early 2000s, together with the popularity of low-rise jeans and thong panties; but quickly waned within the decade.
Low-waisted trousers, such as low-rise jeans or hip-huggers, and higher-cut thongs led to greater exposure of the whale tail. The trend was also associated with the trend of sporting lower back tattoos.
The word was selected by the American Dialect Society in January 2006 as the "most creative word" of 2005.
## History
The rising popularity of low-rise jeans led to increased exposure of thong tops in the early 2000s. Originally shown by WWE female wrestler Amy Dumas in early 2000, others such as Britney Spears have been portrayed as a major contributor to the whale tail's popularity. Her whale tail display has been referred to in such creative literature books as Married to a Rock Star by Shemane Nugent, Thong on Fire by Noire, The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears by Ryan G. Van Cleave, and Off-Color by Janet McDonald. The Oregonian, a Portland, Oregon, newspaper, wrote in 2004 that an abundance of whale tails had become a distraction on the campus. Social commentator Ann C. Hall identified this campus trend as an "apparent intersection between everyday campus fashion and soft porn". The layered clothing trend of the early 2000s was partly led by the whale tail style that incorporates hip-hugger jeans, crop tops and high riding thongs popularized by celebrities.
### Rise
By the mid-2000s, whale tails became common to celebrities, providing opportunities to the paparazzi. Whale tail display spawned a new accessory—clip-on jewelry for the visible straps. Jess Cartner-Morley of The Guardian claimed that following pop stars in the hipster trousers gave rise to the "low-slung jeans, whale-tail G-string era". On 17 September 2004, a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times stated, "Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera regularly were photographed with thong straps riding high above their low-rise jeans. And even usually tasteful Halle Berry succumbed to the thong craze by attending an awards show with bejeweled thong straps peeking out from above her miniskirt." Actresses Gillian Anderson, Natalie Portman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Tara Reid, MTV's Molly Sims, model Kate Moss, singers Beyoncé Knowles, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, LeAnn Rimes and Britney Spears have been associated as propagators of the trend by ABC.
In France, clothing brands started creating the thong or le string in styles that encourage a projection above low-hung jeans, such as designs that had small jewels or luminous stars sewn into the "tail". In India, thongs peeked out of low-rise jeans in page three parties and university bashes. Indian model Shefali Zariwala displayed a whale tail in the MTV Immies-winning music video "Kaanta Lagaa" and shot to fame and public debate in 2003. In Japan, clothing company Sanna's brought forward an extreme low-rise hip-hugging jeans design with built-in thong whale tails. R&B artist Sisqó rhapsodized about whale tails in his "Thong Song"—"I like it when the beat goes da na da na/Baby make your booty go da na da na/Girl I know you wanna show da na da na/That thong thong thong thong." Pornographic film director Mike Metropolis made three films based on whale tails—Whale Tail (2005), Whale Tail I (2005) and Whale Tail II (2006)—with Mark Ashley in the lead. Another movie titled Whale Tail: Thong Dreams was released in 2005 featuring Sunny Lane and Kirsten Price. In 2003, web content developer Gavin Hamilton created the site whale-tail.com with content featuring whale tail display. The domain name WhaleTail.com sold for \$6,600 in October 2004. The website has been quoted by ABC Radio, NY Times, FHM (UK) and Fuel Magazine (Australia), and has been nominated as a Best Adult Web Site by Australian Adult Industry Awards in 2008.
### Legal debates
In 2004, Louisiana, USA State Representative Derrick Shepherd proposed a bill (HB1626), also known as the Baggy Pants Bill to Louisiana House of Representatives. The bill proposed that "it shall be unlawful for any person to appear in public wearing his pants below his waist and thereby exposing his skin or intimate clothing" and that violators would be subjected to three eight-hour days of community service and a fine of up to US\$175. The measure died in the face of opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union. The bill was proposed again in 2008 and was rejected by a state Senate panel. In two Louisiana towns, Delcambre (a maximum penalty of US\$615 fine or up to six months in prison) and Opelousas (a maximum penalty of US\$500 fine or up to six months in prison), wearing low slung pants that reveal buttock cleavage or undergarments is considered a misdemeanor. Garments that reveal underpants were banned in four other Louisiana towns including Alexandria and Shreveport, where violators face fines of US\$150 or 15 days in jail, as well as Hawkinsville, Georgia.
In February 2005, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee of Virginia voted unanimously in a hastily convened meeting against a bill proposed by Delegate Algie T. Howell Jr. (Norfolk, Virginia) to impose a US\$50 fine on any person who publicly and intentionally "wears and displays his below-waist undergarments, intended to cover a person's intimate parts, in a lewd or indecent manner" in a public place. The bill (HB1981), also known as the Droopy Drawers Bill, was earlier passed by Virginia House of Delegates by a 60–34 vote. Atlanta, GA, Dallas, TX, Baltimore, MD, Charlotte, NC, Yonkers, NY, Duncan, OK, Natchitoches, LA, Stratford, CT, Pine Bluff, AR, Trenton, NJ, Pleasantville, NJ, as well as three other Georgia towns, Rome, Brunswick and Plains have seen attempts to ban underwear peeking over the pants. School dress codes sometimes also banned some low-rising pants or visible underwear.
### Decline
The trend of wearing whale tail-revealing jeans started to dissipate somewhat in the mid-2000s when American clothing designers started shifting focus from low-slung jeans and exposed midriffs to high-waisted trousers and cardigans. Jess Cartner-Morley, fashion writer of The Guardian, claimed that the whale tail and the muffin top (the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low-rider jeans), "twin crimes of modern fashion", had led to the decline in the popularity of hipster jeans. She quoted Louise Hunn, editor of the British edition of InStyle, as saying—"When a look goes too mainstream, people start wearing it badly. And then the really fashionable people run a mile". While the thong still represented 24% of the US\$2.5 billion annual market in women's underwear, it stopped growing by end of 2004. Some vendors, including Victoria's Secret and DKNY, started selling thongs that do not result in whale tails. Adam Lippes, founder of the lingerie line ADAM, said, "Women got tired of it. And they got sick and tired of seeing string hanging out of the top of every celebrity's jeans."
### Resurgence
In 2019, publications including Vogue and the Daily Record began referring to a revived interest in the trend, with influencers such as Kim Kardashian, Hailey Baldwin and Dua Lipa prominently wearing it. The trend has made a comeback in kpop in the last year.
## Socio-cultural analysis
Attributing whale tails to mainstreaming of the sexualization of young women, The Santa Rosa, California Press Democrat termed the trend as "stripper chic". Post-modern thinker Yasmin Jiwani and co-writers described the trend in Girlhood: Redefining the Limits as an attempt to redefine girlhood while acknowledging the debate around it. The book termed the trend as the "slut" look popularized by Britney Spears. Some experts even dubbed visible whale tails as "thong feminism" for young girls. Other experts accused marketers of "outrageous selling of sex to children".
One conjecture assumes that the style of exposed thong may have "bubbled-up" from the street level to the high streets, like the jeans and t-shirt look of James Dean. Another assumes the fad was initiated by glamor model Jordan in England and singers Mariah Carey and Spears in the United States. The phenomenon has been compared to the phenomenon of visible bra straps. Saying that "just as Madonna made bras a public garment in the 1980s, Ms. Lewinsky, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears transformed women's panties into a provocative garment intended for public display", the New York Times claimed that the thong, with straps worn high over the hips and exposed by fashionable low-rise jeans and "Juicy Couture" sweat pants, had become a public icon.
## Word of the year
"Whale tail" was selected in January 2006 as the "most creative word" of 2005 by the American Dialect Society, a group of linguists, editors, and academics. It received 44 votes to muffin top's 25, flee-ancée's (a reference to runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks) 15, and pinosaur's (a very old Wollemi pine tree near Australia's Blue Mountains) 6.
While discussing these new coinages, Sali Tagliamonte, associate professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto, observed that young women in North America were ahead of young men as influencers. The use of the word to indicate an underwear phenomenon has shown up in serious mainstream news media, sometimes in reference to the pop stars who made the fashion trend popular. Wayne Glowka, member of the Georgia College and State University faculty and head of the New Word Committee of the Dialect Society, said about the happening, "Language is just going on its merry way, creating many new words. It's time for men to win something."
## See also
- Buttock cleavage
- Camel toe
- Crop top
- Muffin top
- Sagging
- Underwear as outerwear
- Upskirt
- Wardrobe malfunction |
34,424,745 | Aniplex of America | 1,173,222,585 | American anime distributor | [
"American companies established in 2005",
"American subsidiaries of foreign companies",
"Anime companies",
"Aniplex",
"Companies based in Santa Monica, California",
"Entertainment companies of the United States",
"Home video companies of the United States",
"Mass media companies established in 2005",
"Sony subsidiaries"
]
| Aniplex of America, Inc. or Aniplex USA is the U.S. distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an anime and music production company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was established in March 2005 in Santa Monica, California, with the goal of reinforcing the parent company's licensing business in the North American market. They operate the English language version of the Aniplex+ store, and from 2013 to 2017 operated a streaming service called Aniplex Channel through their website. The company most of the time only directly releases its titles in the Americas, however, some of its titles have been released in other territories by other distributors, such as Anime Limited, Manga Entertainment, MVM Films, Madman Anime Group, and Siren Visual.
Their home video sets are distributed in the North American market by Right Stuf Anime and their titles are usually streamed on Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, and Hidive, and occasionally streamed on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO Max. Some of their titles were also available on Anime Strike, Daisuki, go90, Crackle, Anime News Network, and Neon Alley but they have been removed and/or the service shut down.
## History
### 2005–2012: Founding and independent distribution
Aniplex of America was founded in March 2005. At this point, the Japanese parent company still licensed its titles through other distributors, such as Funimation, Bandai Visual, Geneon, ADV Films, NIS America, and Media Blasters.
Starting in 2010, Aniplex of America began releasing the Japanese parent company's titles, starting with the Gurren Lagann movies and Durarara!! (which had been previously announced to stream on Crunchyroll). Durarara!! was the first time they partnered with Bang Zoom for an English dub (the studio they would almost exclusively work with for dubs from this point on). They also re-released Read or Die (OVA) and R.O.D the TV on home video, despite them having previously been licensed through Manga Entertainment and Geneon. The aforementioned titles was the first time they sold a home video set on Right Stuf Anime (the website that would eventually be the only retailer in North America to sell their home video sets). Starting with Oreimo in 2010, they started streaming some of their titles on Anime News Network. In April 2011, they started streaming some of their titles on Hulu and Viz Anime (Neon Alley), with Blue Exorcist being the first. In June 2011, they started airing titles on Cartoon Network's late night block Adult Swim, with Durarara!! being the first. In July 2011, they started streaming their titles on Crackle, with Star Driver being the first. In June 2012, they announced that they would release their first non-anime, Hatsune Miku's Mikunopolis concert.
### 2013–present: Streaming expansion and new management
In 2013, Aniplex started streaming some of their titles on their website (called Aniplex Channel). In April 2014, they launched the English version of Aniplex+. Later in April 2014, they started streaming shows on Netflix, with Blue Exorcist being the first. In 2015, they started streaming some of their titles on Daisuki and Funimation. In March 2017, they started streaming some of their titles on Anime Strike, with Eromanga Sensei being the first. In June 2017, they launched their first mobile game, the English version of the Fate/Grand Order mobile game.
In August 2017, it was announced that Shu Nishimoto was appointed as president of the company, with former president Hideki "Henry" Goto becoming head of international business development with the Tokyo branch. Later the same month, Aniplex Channel was shut down. In October 2017, they started streaming some of their titles on go90, which included exclusive rights to the Anohana and God Eater dubs. In January 2019, they started streaming some of their titles on HIDIVE, with The Promised Neverland being the first.
In August 2019, they announced that they partnered with Funimation Films to release Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl in North American theaters. They later did the same with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train.
In January 2020, they allowed Funimation to dub Darwin's Game, which was the first time that a new Aniplex of America title that was dubbed was not dubbed by Bang Zoom. In May 2020, Funimation announced they partnered with Aniplex of America to release a standard edition Blu-ray set for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Later in May 2020, they started streaming some of their titles on HBO Max. In December 2020, the company made a partnership with Lucky Helmet Agency to help with merchandising and licensing for the release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train in the United States.
## Criticism
In episode five of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War season two, one line in the subtitled script read "What's the deal with the social distancing?", which references the COVID-19 pandemic. Aniplex of America apologized for this and corrected the line to "Why are you so far away from me?"
Fans of the Magia Record mobile game criticized Aniplex of America for not offering refunds for in-game purchases made in the game, which was announced to shut down its English version on September 29, 2020, after about one year of service. It was later announced that the English version of the game would instead close operations on October 30, 2020. This was done in order to add a gallery mode, which allows players to view their magical girls earned in the game, even after the shutdown.
## Catalog
Note: Any anime that has been dubbed in English by anybody, including Aniplex of America themselves, is marked with an asterisk (\*) beside the title.
### Anime
- 22/7 (January 2020 – March 2020) (A-1 Pictures)
- Aldnoah.Zero\* (July 2014 – March 2015) (A-1 Pictures & Troyca)
- Angel Beats!\* (April 2010 – June 2010) (P.A. Works) (acquired from Sentai Filmworks)
- Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day\* (April 2011 – June 2011) (A-1 Pictures) (acquired from NIS America)
- Anohana the Movie: The Flower We Saw That Day (August 2013) (A-1 Pictures)
- The Anthem of the Heart (September 2015) (A-1 Pictures)
- The Asterisk War\* (October 2015 – June 2016) (A-1 Pictures)
- Auto Boy - Carl from Mobile Land (April 2020 – March 2022) (CloverWorks)
- Baccano!\* (July 2007 – November 2007) (Brain's Base) (acquired from Funimation)
- Black Butler\* (October 2008 – September 2010) (A-1 Pictures) (acquired from Funimation)
- Blast of Tempest (October 2012 – March 2013) (Bones)
- Blend S (October 2017 – December 2017) (A-1 Pictures)
- Blue Exorcist\* (April 2011 – October 2011) (A-1 Pictures)
- Blue Exorcist: The Movie\* (December 2012) (A-1 Pictures)
- Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga\* (January 2017 – March 2017) (A-1 Pictures)
- Build Divide (October 2021 - June 2022) (Liden Films)
- Cells at Work!\* (July 2018 – February 2021) (David Production)
- Cells at Work! Code Black\* (January 2021 – March 2021) (Liden Films)
- Cencoroll Connect (July 2019) (Independent work) (screened at Anime Expo only)
- Charlotte\* (July 2015 – September 2015) (P.A. Works)
- Classroom Crisis (July 2015 – September 2015) (Lay-duce)
- DAKAICHI -I'm being harassed by the sexiest man of the year- (October 2018 – December 2018) (CloverWorks)
- Darwin's Game\* (January 2020 — March 2020) (Nexus)
- Day Break Illusion (July 2013 – September 2013) (AIC) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba\* (April 2019 – September 2019) (Ufotable)
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train\* (October 2020) (Ufotable) (theatrical distribution via Funimation Films)
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Entertainment District Arc\* (December 2021 - February 2022) (Ufotable)
- Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? (July 2019 – September 2019) (J.C.Staff)
- Doukyusei: Classmates (February 2016) (A-1 Pictures)
- Durarara!!\* (January 2010 – June 2010) (Brain's Base)
- Durarara!!x2\* (January 2015 – March 2016) (Shuka)
- Engage Kiss\* (July 2022 – ) (A-1 Pictures)
- Erased\* (January 2016 – March 2016) (A-1 Pictures)
- Eromanga Sensei (April 2017 – June 2017) (A-1 Pictures)
- Expelled from Paradise\* (November 2014) (Toei Animation & Graphinica) (streaming on Netflix only)
- Fate/Apocrypha\* (July 2017 – December 2017) (A-1 Pictures) (Netflix Original)
- Fate/EXTRA Last Encore\* (January 2018 – July 2018) (Shaft) (Netflix Original)
- Fate/Grand Order: First Order\* (December 2016) (Lay-duce)
- Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia\* (October 2019 – March 2020) (CloverWorks)
- Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity - The Grand Temple of Time: Solomon\* (July 2021) (CloverWorks)
- Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom (December 2017) (Lay-duce)
- Fate/Grand Order: Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot\* (December 2020 – May 2021) (Part 1 by Signal.MD and Part 2 by Production I.G)
- Fate/Grand Carnival\* (June 2021 – October 2021) (Lerche)
- Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works\* (October 2014 – June 2015) (Ufotable)
- Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel\* (October 2017 – August 2020) (Ufotable)
- Today's Menu for the Emiya Family (January 2018 – January 2019) (Ufotable)
- Fate/Zero\* (October 2011 – June 2012) (Ufotable)
- The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II\* (July 2019 – September 2019) (Troyca)
- Fullmetal Alchemist\* (October 2003 – October 2004) (Bones) (acquired from Funimation)
- Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa\* (July 2005) (Bones) (acquired from Funimation)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood\* (April 2009 – July 2010) (Bones) (acquired from Funimation)
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos\* (July 2011) (Bones) (acquired from Funimation)
- The Garden of Sinners (December 2007 – September 2013) (Ufotable) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- God Eater\* (July 2015 – March 2016) (Ufotable) (this is not an Aniplex production)
- Granblue Fantasy The Animation\* (April 2017 – December 2019) (Season 1 by A-1 Pictures and Season 2 by MAPPA)
- Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation (April 2015 – June 2015) (A-1 Pictures)
- Gurren Lagann\* (April 2007 – September 2007) (Gainax) (acquired from ADV Films and Bandai Entertainment)
- Gurren Lagann the Movie –Childhood's End- (September 2008) (Gainax)
- Gurren Lagann the Movie –The Lights in the Sky Are Stars- (April 2009) (Gainax)
- Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack (February 2012) (Ufotable)
- Hell Girl: The Fourth Twilight (July 2017 – September 2017) (Studio Deen) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- High School Fleet (April 2016 – June 2016) (Production IMS)
- I Want to Eat Your Pancreas\* (September 2018) (Studio VOLN)
- I've Always Liked You (April 2016) (Qualia Animation) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- The Moment You Fall in Love (December 2016) (Qualia Animation) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- Our love has always been 10 centimeters apart (November 2017 – December 2017) (Lay-duce)
- The Irregular at Magic High School\* (April 2014 – December 2020) (Season 1 by Madhouse and Season 2 by 8-Bit)
- The Irregular at Magic High School: The Movie – The Girl Who Summons the Stars (June 2017) (8-Bit)
- The Honor Student at Magic High School\* (July 2021 – September 2021) (Connect)
- The Irregular at Magic High School: Reminiscence Arc\* (December 2021) (8-Bit)
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War\* (January 2019 – June 2022) (A-1 Pictures) (season 2 streaming on Funimation only)
- Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu\* (July 2017 – September 2017) (Ufotable)
- Kill la Kill\* (October 2013 – March 2014) (Trigger)
- Kiznaiver\* (April 2016 – June 2016) (Trigger) (Crunchyroll holds additional rights because they co-produced it)
- Lycoris Recoil\* (July 2022 – ) (A-1 Pictures)
- Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic\* (October 2012 – March 2013) (A-1 Pictures)
- Magi: The Kingdom of Magic\* (October 2013 – March 2014) (A-1 Pictures)
- March Comes In like a Lion\* (October 2016 – March 2018) (Shaft)
- Mashle\* (2023 – Present) (A-1 Pictures)
- Mekakucity Actors (April 2014 – June 2014) (Shaft)
- Meow Meow Japanese History (April 2016 – present) (Joker Films)
- The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited\* (April 2020 – September 2020) (CloverWorks) (streaming on Funimation only)
- Miracle Train (October 2009 – December 2009) (Yumeta Company) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- The Misfit of Demon King Academy\* (July 2020 – present) (Silver Link) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- Monogatari (July 2009 – June 2019) (Shaft)
- Bakemonogatari (July 2009 – September 2009) (Shaft)
- Nisemonogatari (January 2012 – March 2012) (Shaft)
- Nekomonogatari (Kuro) (January 2013) (Shaft)
- Monogatari Series Second Season (July 2013 – December 2013) (Shaft)
- Hanamonogatari (August 2014) (Shaft)
- Tsukimonogatari (December 2014) (Shaft)
- Owarimonogatari (October 2015 – December 2015) (Shaft)
- Kizumonogatari (January 2016 – January 2017) (Shaft)
- Koyomimonogatari (January 2016 – March 2016) (Shaft)
- Owarimonogatari Second Season (August 2017) (Shaft)
- Zoku Owarimonogatari (May 2019 – June 2019) (Shaft)
- Mushi-Shi -Next Passage- (April 2014 – December 2014) (Artland)
- Nanana's Buried Treasure (April 2014 – June 2014) (A-1 Pictures)
- Natsume's Book of Friends the Movie: Ephemeral Bond (September 2018) (Shuka)
- Nier: Automata Ver1.1a\* (January 2023 – present) (A1 Pictures)
- Nisekoi (January 2014 – June 2015) (Shaft)
- Occultic;Nine\* (October 2016 – December 2016) (A-1 Pictures)
- Oreimo (October 2010 – June 2013) (AIC Build & A-1 Pictures)
- Oreshura (January 2013 – March 2013) (A-1 Pictures)
- Oresuki (October 2019 – December 2019) (Connect)
- Persona 3 The Movie (November 2013 – January 2016) (Movie 1 by AIC ASTA and Movies 2-4 by A-1 Pictures)
- Persona 3 The Movie: \#1 Spring of Birth (November 2013) (AIC ASTA)
- Persona 3 The Movie: \#2 Midsummer Knight's Dream (June 2014) (A-1 Pictures)
- Persona 3 The Movie: \#3 Falling Down (April 2015) (A-1 Pictures)
- Persona 3 The Movie: \#4 Winter of Rebirth (January 2016) (A-1 Pictures)
- Persona 4: The Golden Animation (July 2014 – September 2014) (A-1 Pictures)
- Persona 5: The Animation\* (April 2018 – September 2018) (CloverWorks)
- Persona 5: The Animation -The Day Breakers- (September 2016) (A-1 Pictures) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- Plastic Memories (April 2015 – June 2015) (Doga Kobo)
- Pretty Boy Detective Club\* (April 2021 – June 2021) (Shaft) (streaming on Funimation only)
- The Promised Neverland\* (January 2019 – March 2021) (CloverWorks)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica\* (January 2011 – April 2011) (Shaft)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica Part 1: Beginnings\* (October 2012) (Shaft)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica Part 2: Eternal\* (October 2012) (Shaft)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica Part 3: Rebellion\* (October 2013) (Shaft)
- Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story\* (January 2020 – March 2020) (Shaft)
- Ranking of Kings (October 2021 – March 2022) (Wit Studio) (streaming on Funimation only)
- Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (October 2018 – December 2018) (CloverWorks)
- Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl (June 2019) (CloverWorks) (theatrical distribution via Funimation Films)
- Read or Die\* (May 2001) (Studio Deen) (acquired from Manga Entertainment)
- R.O.D the TV\* (October 2003 – March 2004) (J.C.Staff & Studio Deen) (acquired from Geneon; streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- Record of Grancrest War\* (January 2018 – June 2018) (A-1 Pictures)
- Rurouni Kenshin\* (January 1996 – September 1998) (Studio Gallop & Studio Deen) (acquired from Media Blasters)
- Rurouni Kenshin: The Movie\* (December 1997) (Studio Gallop) (acquired from ADV Films)
- Rurouni Kenshin OVA: Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal\* (February 1999 – November 1999) (Studio Deen) (acquired from ADV Films)
- Rurouni Kenshin OVA: Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection\* (December 2001) (Studio Deen) (acquired from ADV Films)
- Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (January 2015 – March 2015) (A-1 Pictures)
- Saekano the Movie: Finale (October 2019) (CloverWorks)
- Samurai Flamenco (October 2013 – March 2014) (Manglobe)
- Servant × Service (July 2013 – September 2013) (A-1 Pictures)
- Silver Spoon (July 2013 – March 2014) (A-1 Pictures)
- SK8 the Infinity\* (January 2021 – March 2021) (Bones) (streaming on Funimation only)
- Slow Start (January 2018 – March 2018) (CloverWorks) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- Star Driver (October 2010 – April 2011) (Bones) (acquired from Bandai Entertainment)
- Super HxEros\* (July 2020 – September 2020) (Project No.9) (streaming on Funimation only)
- Sword Art Online\* (July 2012 – December 2012) (A-1 Pictures)
- Sword Art Online: Extra Edition\* (December 2013) (A-1 Pictures)
- Sword Art Online II\* (July 2014 – December 2014) (A-1 Pictures)
- Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale\* (February 2017) (A-1 Pictures) (theatrical distribution via Sony Pictures; streaming on Hulu only)
- Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online\* (April 2018 – June 2018) (Studio 3Hz)
- Sword Art Online: Alicization\* (October 2018 – September 2020) (A-1 Pictures)
- Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night\* (October 2021) (A-1 Pictures)
- Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night (October 2022) (A-1 Pictures)
- Uchitama?! Have you seen my Tama? (January 2020 – March 2020) (MAPPA & Lapin Track)
- Togainu no Chi (October 2010 – December 2010) (A-1 Pictures)
- Tokyo 24th Ward\* (January 2022 – April 2022) (CloverWorks)
- Valvrave the Liberator (April 2013 – December 2013) (Sunrise)
- Vividred Operation (January 2013 – March 2013) (A-1 Pictures)
- Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song\* (April 2021 – June 2021) (Wit Studio) (streaming on Funimation only)
- We Never Learn (April 2019 – December 2019) (Studio Silver & Arvo Animation)
- World Conquest Zvezda Plot (January 2014 – March 2014) (A-1 Pictures)
- Working!!! (July 2015 – December 2015) (A-1 Pictures) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- WWW.Working!! (October 2016 – December 2016) (A-1 Pictures) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
- Your Lie in April\* (October 2014 – March 2015) (A-1 Pictures)
- Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs (July 2018 – September 2018) (Xebec) (streaming on Crunchyroll only)
### Video games
- Adabana Odd Tales
- ATRI -My Dear Moments-
- Fate/Grand Order
- Magia Record
### Music artists
- LiSA
- Mikunopolis in Los Angeles |
488,027 | Ted Jolliffe | 1,171,522,713 | Canadian politician | [
"1909 births",
"1998 deaths",
"20th-century Canadian politicians",
"Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford",
"Canadian Rhodes Scholars",
"Canadian socialists",
"Leaders of the Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation",
"Members of the United Church of Canada",
"Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPPs",
"University of Toronto alumni"
]
| Edward Bigelow Jolliffe QC (March 2, 1909 – March 18, 1998) was a Canadian social democratic politician and lawyer from Ontario. He was the first leader of the Ontario section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and leader of the Official Opposition in the Ontario Legislature during the 1940s and 1950s. He was a Rhodes Scholar in the mid-1930s, and came back to Canada to help the CCF, after his studies were complete and being called to the bar in England and Ontario. After politics, he practised labour law in Toronto and would eventually become a labour adjudicator. In retirement, he moved to British Columbia, where he died in 1998.
## Early life and education
His family had lived in Ontario for generations. His parents, the Reverend Charles and Gertrude Jolliffe, were missionaries for the Methodist Church of Canada, and were living near what was then known as Luchow, China. He was born at the Canadian Missionary hospital in Luchow, near Chunking on March 2, 1909. He was home-schooled in China by his mother until his early teens. When his family returned to Ontario, he attend Rockwood Public School and then went to high school at Guelph Collegiate Institute. He was an undergraduate at the University of Toronto's Victoria College, the United Church College. He became the head of the Victoria Student Council, and was a member of the Hart House Debates Committee. In 1930, he won the Maurice Cody scholarship, and then became one of Ontario's Rhodes Scholars that same year. He attended Christ Church, Oxford University for three years. As a member of Oxford's Labour Club, he met David Lewis, the club's leader and a fellow Canadian. Together they fought the Communist Red October club and fascists such as Lord Haw-Haw–William Joyce. Both he and Lewis planned a 'silent' protest at Joyce's February 1934 speech at Oxford. They carefully made sure that enough members from the Labour Club attended the meeting, and then in groups of two or three, strategically walked out of the speech, across the creaking wooden floors, effectively blotting out Joyce's speech. The Blackshirts in the audience then caused riots in the street after the meeting and Jolliffe and Lewis were in the thick of it.
His Oxford experiences made him a socialist and he joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation shortly after it was formed in 1932 during his summer vacation. He helped form an overseas branch of the CCF at Oxford that year. He was called to the bar in England, and was the first Canadian to win the Arden scholarship. When Jolliffe permanently returned from Oxford, he worked as the CCF's Ontario organizer and was called to the bar in Ontario and practised law in Toronto from 1938 onwards.
He was a candidate in the 1935 Canadian election in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, placing fourth. He ran again in the 1940 federal election, this time in the York East electoral district. He was noted for calling out the former federal Conservative government for neglecting World War I soldiers on their return home, and that this time, "proper measures be taken to protect the future of Canadian soldiers and their dependents." He countered that a C.C.F. government would stop war profiteering and the protect the interests of the country's soldiers and "small taxpayers." He was soundly defeated, like every other Ontario CCF candidate, placing a distant third.
## Leader and 1943 election
He became the first leader of the Ontario CCF in 1942. The following year, he led the party to within five seats of victory with 34 seats and 32% of the vote in the election of 1943 that elected a Conservative minority government under George Drew. He won the York South seat, and became its Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP).
## 1945 "Gestapo" campaign
In the 1945 Ontario election, Drew ran an anti-Semitic, union bashing, Red-baiting campaign. The previous two years of anti-socialist attacks by the Conservatives and their supporters, like Gladstone Murray and Montague A. Sanderson, were devastatingly effective against the previously popular CCF. Much of the source material for the anti-CCF campaign came from the Ontario Provincial Police(OPP)'s Special Investigation Branch's agent D-208: Captain William J. Osbourne-Dempster. His office was supposed to be investigating war-time 5th column saboteurs. Instead, starting in November 1943, he was investigating, almost exclusively, Ontario opposition MPPs, mainly focusing on the CCF caucus. The fact that Jolliffe knew about these 'secret' investigations as early as February 1944 led to one of the most infamous incidents in 20th-century Canadian politics.
### May 24, 1945 radio speech
As can be discerned from the previous description, the 1945 campaign was anything but genteel and polite. Jolliffe replied by giving a radio speech (written with the assistance of Lister Sinclair) that accused Drew of running a political Gestapo in Ontario. In the speech excerpt below, Jolliffe alleged that a secret department of the Ontario Provincial Police was acting as a political police – spying on the opposition and the media.
> It is my duty to tell you that Colonel Drew is maintaining in Ontario, at this very minute, a secret political police, a paid government spy organization, a Gestapo to try and keep himself in power. And Col[onel] Drew maintains his secret political police at the expense of the taxpayers of Ontario – paid out of the Public Funds... Now all through this election campaign, you've been hearing that the real issue is freedom versus dictatorship.... And I quite agree; there certainly is a very grave danger; and when you've heard all the facts, true facts, supported by affidavits, about Col[onel] Drew's Ontario Gestapo – Well, I'll let you decide for yourselves where the danger of dictatorship is coming from.
The dramatic tone of the speech is Sinclair's, as at the time, he was a dramatist, mostly writing for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). At the time, there was speculation among CCF supporters as to whether or not the speech damaged the party's reputation. But as Gerald Caplan maintains in his book The Dilemma of Canadian Socialism, the CCF was already at 21 percent in popular support in the Gallop poll just prior to the speech. On election day, they received 22 percent of the popular vote, so at best it added an extra percentage point of support. At worst, it didn't have an effect, which is highly unlikely.
Jolliffe's inflammatory speech became the main issue of the campaign, and dominated coverage in the media for the rest of the election. Drew, and his Attorney-General Leslie Blackwell vehemently denied Jolliffe's accusations, but the public outcry was too much for them to abate. On May 28, 1945, they appointed a Royal Commission to investigate these charges. Jolliffe's CCF and the Ontario Liberal party wanted the election suspended until the Commission tabled its report. Drew ignored these requests and continued to hold the election on its original date, despite it being many months before the Commission's findings could be made available.
### Election Day, June 4, 1945
Jolliffe's CCF went from 34 seats to 8, but almost garnering the same number of actual votes cast, though their percentage of the popular vote dropped from 32 to 22 percent. Drew, with his attack campaign, successfully drove the voter turn-out up, thereby driving the CCF's percentage and seat totals down.
Monday, June 4, 1945, was one of Ontario's most important elections in the 20th century according to Caplan and David Lewis. It shaped the province for the next 40 years, as the Conservatives won a massive majority in the Legislature, and would remain in government for the next 40 consecutive years.
After going from 34 seats to 8, as Caplan puts it, "June 4 and June 11 [federal election], 1945, proved to be black days in CCF annuals: Socialism was effectively removed from the Canadian political agenda." The CCF would never fully recover from this defeat and would eventually cease as a party and morph into the Ontario New Democratic Party. Only then, and in the 1970s, did a social democratic party attain the popularity it had under Jolliffe in 1943.
For Ted Jolliffe, another election consequence was his tenure as the MPP from York South ended, at least for the time being. He lost the election but did better than any other CCF candidate in Toronto or in the outlying Yorks.
### LeBel Royal Commission
Drew appointed Justice A.M. LeBel as the Royal Commissioner. His terms of reference were restricted to the question of whether Drew was personally responsible for the establishment of "a secret political police organization, for the purpose of collecting, by secret spying, material to be used in attempt to keep him in power." Wider questions like why the OPP, Ontario Civil Servants, were keeping files on MPPs were not allowed.
Jolliffe would act as his own counsel throughout the commission, but was assisted by fellow CCF lawyer, Andrew Brewin. Both he and Brewin were able to establish, from several eyewitnesses, that agent D-208, Dempster, was spying on the CCF. What they could not prove, because they did not have access to the information in 1945, were the letters that Drew wrote to his supporter M.A. (Bugsy) Sanderson suggesting that he would finance any lawsuits or other charges stemming from the information provided by Dempster in his advertisements. Sanderson was, in late 1943 to 1945, along with Gladstone Murray, leading the libelous advertisement campaigns against the CCF in newspapers and bill-boards, with information gleaned from Dempster's briefings. Jolliffe presented several witnesses that claimed to have seen these documents. But Jolliffe could not produce the actual letter, and Drew would deny ever writing it.
On October 11, 1945, Justice LeBel issued his report that essentially exonerated Drew and Blackwell. Due to Jolliffe presenting only circumstantial evidence that linked Drew to Dempster, Murray and Sanderson, the Commissioner found the information unconvincing, even though LeBel believed Dempster's interaction with Sanderson and Murray was inappropriate.
Jolliffe's motives regarding his accusations, as well as his choice of words, would be questioned for many years afterwards. That would change. In the late 1970s, when David Lewis was doing research for his Memoirs he came across archival evidence proving the charge. Due to Lewis's discovery, Drew's son Edward, placed extremely restrictive conditions on his father's papers housed in the Public Archives of Canada that continue as of 2010.
As Lewis pointed out in his memoirs, "We found that Premier Drew and Gladstone Murray did not disclose all information to the Lebel Commission; indeed, they deliberately prevaricated throughout. The head of the Government of Ontario had given false witness under testimony.... The perpetrator of Ontario's Watergate got away with it."
Jolliffe faced a leadership challenge in 1946, but was re-elected CCF leader.
## 1948 re-elected MPP
As a result of the 1948 Ontario election, the CCF recovered, winning 21 seats. Jolliffe again became Leader of the Opposition in Ontario and Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for York South. In 1951, however, as a result of the Cold War and the "red scare", the CCF and labour movement acted to purge individuals (including CCF MPP Robert Carlin) suspected of being under Communist influence. Among the general public, support for socialism suffered: the CCF was reduced to only two seats in the 1951 election. Jolliffe lost his own seat and resigned as party leader in August 1953 in order to focus on his law practice.
## Post MPP career
He returned to his previous career as a labour lawyer, founding the firm Jolliffe, Lewis and Osler with fellow CCF activist and future New Democratic Party leader, David Lewis in 1945. In the 1950s and 1960s, the firm assisted the United Steelworkers union in their fight with the Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers union in Sudbury, Ontario. In 1968, he was appointed Chief Adjudicator under the (federal) Public Service Staff Relations Act, a position he held until 1978. He then became active as a labour arbitrator until his retirement. In 1972, an historical novel he wrote, entitled The First Hundred, was published by McClelland and Stewart Limited.
Ted Jolliffe was the first social democratic leader of the opposition in Ontario's Legislature in 1943. He lived long enough to see Bob Rae and the NDP form the Ontario government in September 1990. He died on March 18, 1998, in Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
## Electoral record |
22,027,053 | North Shore Towers | 1,146,473,816 | Residential skyscrapers in Queens, New York | [
"1973 establishments in New York (state)",
"Buildings and structures in Nassau County, New York",
"Condominiums and housing cooperatives in Queens, New York",
"Gated communities in New York (state)",
"Golf clubs and courses in New York (state)",
"Residential buildings completed in 1973",
"Residential buildings completed in 1974",
"Residential buildings completed in 1975",
"Residential skyscrapers in New York City",
"Skyscrapers in Queens, New York"
]
| The North Shore Towers and Country Club is a three-building residential cooperative located in the Little Neck neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, near the city's border with Nassau County. The complex is located next to the Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
The three constituent residential buildings—Amherst, Beaumont, and Coleridge Towers—which sit on a 110-acre (45 ha) property, are some of the tallest structures in Queens with 34 floors each. The towers are constructed on the highest point of land in Queens County, a hill located 258 feet (79 m) above sea level. This hill is part of the terminal moraine of the last glacial period. The hill is ranked 61 of 62 on the list of New York County High Points. The North Shore Towers complex contains 1,844 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments.
The North Shore Towers complex has an 18-hole golf course and its own power plant that produces electricity independent of local power companies. The community also has an indoor shopping concourse that connects the three residential buildings with 22 retail units, as well as fitness centers that include five swimming pools and five tennis courts.
The North Shore Towers is the only gated residential community in New York with its own United States Postal Service zip code, 11005. The zip code is addressed as Floral Park even though the towers are neither in nor adjacent to the Floral Park, Queens neighborhood or the Village of Floral Park. Queens postal zones do not reflect neighborhood or even political boundaries.
## History
The neighborhood where the North Shore Towers were built was a rural, unnamed section of Flushing, part of a 20,000-acre (8,100 ha) land grant to Massachusetts settlers. In 1923, the Glen Oaks Golf Club was built, created on 167 acres (68 ha) purchased from William K. Vanderbilt II's country estate. By 1971, the golf course was replaced by the North Shore Towers. The North Shore Towers were constructed in Glen Oaks because of Queens's lax zoning rules, which are less restrictive than those in Nassau and Suffolk Counties in Long Island. Some Glen Oaks residents, mostly single-home dwellers, protested the construction of the North Shore Towers because they were afraid it would dominate the horizon. However, it was a highly anticipated "big Queens project" for most New Yorkers.
The North Shore Towers were originally built as rentals, but in 1985 a filing with the New York State Attorney General's office sought to convert the complex into cooperative apartments. At the time, this was touted as the most expensive conversion in New York City’s history. In 1987, all but 150 units of the North Shore Towers complex were successfully converted to a co-op under a noneviction plan.
The buildings are considered fireproof by the New York City Fire Department because partitions between individual units are designed to stop the spread of flames, also known as compartmentalization. This is evidenced by a 2004 fire caused by a cigarette, where no one was seriously injured because the fire was self-contained.
### Energy independence
The North Shore Towers complex has a self-generating power plant that produces electricity independent of local power companies, which as of December 31, 1996 had an 8.9 megawatts (11,935 hp) capacity. This was noted during the New York City Blackout of 1977 when the entire city was without power but lights were still visible in the North Shore Towers. During the Northeast blackout of 2003, the North Shore Towers continued to produce electricity unaffected. This resulted in extensive media coverage on the co-op's self-sufficiency with regard to energy. After seeing this news coverage of North Shore Towers' ability to produce power during the blackout, city tax collectors sent energy tax bills to North Shore Towers and the Penn South co-op in Chelsea, Manhattan. The tax bills were for \$1 million each, representing unpaid fuel taxes going back 20 years, even though both co-ops produce their own power. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Councilman David Weprin (D-Queens), then Councilwoman Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), and other city officials worked towards settling the tax bills and removing future energy taxes for the co-ops. Then Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) commented that such co-ops "should be rewarded, not punished for providing their own energy."
In 2000, a North Shore Towers resident noticed a zip code error when making an online purchase. After further investigation in 2001, it was determined that the North Shore Towers was one of four zip codes that were mistakenly charged a Nassau County sales tax of 8.5% instead of the New York City sales tax of 8.25% because the zip codes cross the city line. Residents argued that New York City should receive their tax dollars and not Nassau County. This error was corrected by late 2001.
## Description
### Amenities
As a gated community and private country club, the North Shore Towers offers a variety of amenities for residents and guests. The on-premises security is always present at the front gate guard booth and in the dispatch office. There are also security patrols 24-hours a day. The on-site management company is Charles H. Greenthal Management Corp., which also manages upscale residential buildings in Manhattan. Superintendents, maintenance staff, doormen, and concierge are staffed in each building 24/7. The North Shore Towers has been described as "where the city meets the suburbs", given its location at the eastern edge of Queens and its suburban feel. As of February 2011, the average unit in the Towers sells for \$381,099.
The North Shore Towers Country Club offers several areas dedicated to recreational sport, including an 18-hole, par 70 private golf course, 5 tennis courts, basketball court, shuffleboard court, ping pong tables, billiards room, card rooms, and a clubhouse. The health club includes 5 indoor and outdoor pools, a 20-person jacuzzi, fully equipped gym with personal trainers, aerobics classes, saunas, steam rooms, lockers, and showers.
The three buildings that compose the North Shore Towers are connected by an indoor, underground arcade with 9 residential units and 7 staff residential rooms. This 27,831-square-foot (2,585.6 m<sup>2</sup>) mall includes a 460-seat movie theater, restaurant, bank branch, supermarket, dry cleaner, laundromat, fruit and flower shop, pharmacy, boutique, spa, beauty salon, golf pro shop, convention center with catering hall, videographer, library, art gallery, public lounge rooms, courtyard garden with snack bar, children’s playground, dentist, and notary. North Shore Towers has three in-house television channels and two monthly newspapers, the independently published Tower Times, and the North Shore Towers Courier. Complementary flu shots are given to residents each fall. Leisure and hobbies at the North Shore Towers also include "day and evening trips, cultural events, book clubs, walking clubs, photography clubs, gardening clubs, concerts, guest speaking events, and holiday dinner dances", according to The New York Times. Many of the clubs are developed not by the board on the North Shore Towers, but by the residents themselves.
There is above ground parking and three levels of underground parking available, able to accommodate 2,363 cars in a subterranean garage and 126 more spots above ground. A car wash, detail, and repair service is available to residents in the underground parking lot. The concierge service offers courtesy bus rides to local shopping destinations. The North Shore Towers are served by the express buses to Manhattan, operated by MTA Regional Bus Operations.
### Board of directors
The North Shore Towers Board of Directors consists of nine directors, each elected for 2-year terms. Each of the three buildings at North Shore Towers has its own on-site election district. Voting for both United States government elections and in-house board elections are done on the premises. North Shore Towers regularly contracts an outside election company for such occasions. The North Shore Towers has an annual budget of \$43 million. Their General Manager is Glen Kotowski and their Controller is Robert Serikstad, CPA. Those looking to live at the North Shore must be interviewed by the co-op's Board of Directors through a serious screening process.
### Notable visitors
The North Shore Towers Political Action Committee frequently organizes events to show support for lawmakers and to raise awareness on a number of important issues. Politicians running for office often visit the North Shore Towers during their campaigns in an attempt to win the vote of their residents, who tend to be retired, white, and Jewish. Politicians who have campaigned and spoken at the North Shore Towers include U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, U.S. Congressman Thomas Suozzi, U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, State Senator Frank Padavan, State Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza, New York City Councilman Mark Weprin, Speaker of the City Council Christine Quinn, New York City Comptroller William Thompson, New York City Finance Chairman Councilman David Weprin and New York City Commissioner of Finance Martha Stark.
## See also
- List of tallest buildings in Queens
- Glen Oaks
- Lake Success |
61,746,621 | Amee Kamani | 1,172,019,266 | Indian snooker player | [
"1992 births",
"Cue sports players from Madhya Pradesh",
"Female snooker players",
"Indian snooker players",
"Living people",
"Sportspeople from Indore"
]
| Amee Kamani (born 3 June 1992) is an Indian snooker player. She was runner-up in the 2016 International Billiards and Snooker Federation World Snooker championship, losing 0–5 in the final to the defending champion Wendy Jans. Kamani was the 2018 Asian Billiards Sports Championships Ladies (ACBS Asian Snooker Championship) Champion after defeating Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan 3–0 in the final, and was runner-up at the 2014 Australian Open (0–3 to Jessica Woods) and the 2019 International Billiards and Snooker Federation Women's six-reds snooker championship (2–4 against Nutcharut Wongharuthai).
After a sporting focus on table tennis for ten years until she was 17, Kamani then took up cue sports competitively. She has won three Indian national titles at snooker and two at English billiards, and was a member of the victorious Asia women's team at the 2019 World Team Trophy, a test event for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
## Early life
Amee Kamani was born on 3 June 1992 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Her main sporting focus was on table tennis from the ages of 7 to 17. However, she lost interest in that sport in 2010 due to feeling that she was not being supported despite her successes, and might never become a top player. She played pool recreationally, and her friends suggested that she try other cue sports. She took up snooker, practicing at the Madhya Pradesh Snooker, Billiards Academy in Indore in 2011.
## Playing career
At her first national tournament, Kamani lost 0–2 to Varsha Sanjeev in the quarter-finals of the 2011 Indian girls' championship. In 2013, she took third place at the Indian women's six-reds championship by defeating R. Umadevi 3–0 in the playoff. The following year she was a losing semi-finalist, 1–3 to Vidya Pillai, in the women's national snooker championship, and won the third-place playoff by defeating Neeta Sanghvi 2–0. She told Daily News and Analysis that she had been practicing for five hours a day, but wanted to maintain a balance between snooker and her studies.
With Pillai partnering her, Kamani was a semi-finalist at the 2014 International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) Team Snooker Championships. At the 2014 Australian Open, held in Sydney, Kamini won all of her five matches in the qualifying round, four of them 2–0 and the other 2–1. She then beat Suniti Damani 3–0 in the quarter-final, and Jennifer Budd 4–0 in the semi-final. In the final, Kamani lost the first three frames to Jessica Woods, then won the next two frames before Woods took the sixth frame to complete a 4–2 victory. Kamani won the Indian national snooker title in 2015, with a 4–2 defeat of Pillai in the final. At the 2015 IBSF Six-Reds Snooker Championship, Kamani topped her qualifying group. in the knockout phase, she beat Floriza Andal 4–1 but then lost 1–4 to Ng On-yee in the semi-final.
2015 also saw Kamani reach the semi-final of the 2015 IBSF World Snooker Championship. She topped her qualifying group, winning all four matches without losing a frame, including a victory over Wendy Jans, who had won the title in the three previous years and would go on to win the tournament again. In the knockout, Kamani eliminated Amy Claire King 4–0 and Chitra Magimairaj 4–3 before losing 3–4 to Anastasia Nechaeva after leading 3–1.
She reached the semi-final of the 2015 ISBF six-red snooker tournament, held in Karachi, and won the first frame against Ng On-yee, but then scored only 31 points whilst losing the next four frames and the match. Kamani started 2016 by winning the Indian National six-red Snooker Championship with a 4–1 victory over Pillai in the final. In the national snooker Championships the following month, the same two players met in the final, but this time Pillai won, 4–2, to take the title from Kamani. She reached the semi-finals of the 2016 Asian Billiards Sports Championships Ladies' 6 reds Snooker Championships, after defeating reigning world champion Ng On-yee 4–2 in the group stage.
In November 2016, Kamani reached the final of the 2016 IBSF World Snooker Championship, where she faced Wendy Jans, with Jans looking to win her fifth consecutive world title. Kamani lost both of the first two frames on the , and Jans went on to complete a 5–0 victory. Kamani lost in the semi-finals of the IBSF 6 reds Women Snooker Championship. She won the Indian National six-red snooker championship in Mumbai the following month, and followed this with victories in the 2017 national billiards championship and national snooker championship, to hold all three titles at the same time. In the billiards tournament she beat Varsha Sanjeev in the final, and in the snooker final won 4–2 over Arantxa Sanchis.
She was part of the "Hyderabad Hustlers" team in Cue Slam, a 2017 series of events featuring players including players participating included Kelly Fisher, Vidya Pillai, Laura Evans, Anastasia Nechaeva, Darren Morgan and Pankaj Advani in five teams playing a series of snooker and nine-ball pool matches, but her team failed to progress beyond the group stage. Later that year, she was a 2017 Asian Billiards Sports Championships Snooker Championships Ladies semi-finalist.
At the 2018 national championships, Kamani was trailing 1–3 in the final to Varsha Sanjeev, but then took three consecutive frames to win 4–3. Kamani won the 2018 Asian Billiards Sports Championships Ladies Championship organised by the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports. She topped the table for qualifying, then in the knockout competition defeated Aye Mi Aung 3–0 and Ka Kai Wan 3–1, then winning 3–0 against Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan. At the 2018 IBSF 6 reds Women Snooker Championships, she reached the semi-finals; in the main Snooker Championships she reached the same stage.
Kamani was selected as part of "Women's Team Asia" which won at the World Team Trophy event in Paris in March 2019. This was a demonstration event to promote the inclusion of cue sports at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, featuring simultaneous play of three games, snooker, carom and pool, in the same hall. She was runner-up to Nutcharut Wongharuthai in the 2019 IBSF World Women's 6 Reds Championship, losing 2–4 in the final. Kamani was runner-up in the 2020 Indian snooker championship, reaching the final with wins over Sanchis (30) and Sanjeev (3–1), then losing the final 2–3 to Pillai. She regained the national billiards title in 2020 by winning 3–1 (in games of 75-up) against Keerath Bhandaal.
## Career finals |
25,931,839 | Coast Veddas | 1,170,866,983 | Social group within the minority Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic group | [
"Sri Lankan Tamil castes",
"Sri Lankan Tamil society",
"Vedda"
]
| The Coast Veddas (Tamil: கரையோர வேடர்கள், romanized: Karaiyōra Vēṭarkaḷ, Sinhala: වෙරළේ වැද්දන්, romanized: Veraḷē Væddan), by self-designation, form a social group within the minority Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic group of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. They are primarily found in small coastal villages from the eastern township of Trincomalee to Batticalao. Nevertheless, they also inhabit a few villages south of Batticalao as well. They make a living by fishing, slash and burn agriculture, paddy cultivation of rice, basket weaving for market and occasional wage labor. Anthropologists consider them to be partly descended from the indigenous Vedda people, as well as local Tamils. Residents of the Eastern province consider their Vedar (Tamil for "hunter") neighbors to have been part of the local social structure from earliest times, whereas some Vedar elders believe that their ancestors may have migrated from the interior at some time in the past.
They speak a dialect of Sri Lankan Tamil that is used in the region. During religious festivals, people who enter a trance or spirit possession sometimes use a mixed language that contains words from the Vedda language. Most Vedar are Hindu Saivites and worship a plethora of folk deities, as well as the main Hindu deities such as Murugan, Pillaiyar and Amman. They also maintain the ancestor worship tradition of the interior Veddas. Clan divisions, if they still exist, do not play an important role in choosing of marriage partners or place of domicile. Most identify themselves as a caste among the Tamils as opposed to a separate ethnic group. Their economic conditions have been impacted by the Sri Lankan civil war.
## Identity
Western observers such as James Emerson Tennent (1858) and Charles Gabriel Seligman (1911) have termed the social group Coast Veddahs, Coast Verdas or East Coast Veddas. Anthropologists have considered them to be at least partly descended from the Veddas of the interior of the island who had migrated at some unknown period in the past to the east coast, intermarrying with the local Tamils. Interior Veddas clans themselves have a number of divisions, each claiming either Sinhalese, Tamil, mixed, or pure Vedda lineages. Vedda identity also depends on whether these clans are hunter-gatherers or settled agriculturalists. Settled Veddas have tended over a period of time to assume Sinhalese or Tamil identity based on the area of residence. If considered a subdivision of Veddas, then they are by far the largest sub-group amongst the Vedda people. Residents of Eastern Province consider those who maintain a primitive life style, or are partly dependent on hunting and gathering, as Vedar without any connotations of ethnic origins.
Vedar are not designated as an indigenous community of Sri Lanka. They are placed within the Sri Lankan caste system. Vedar sometimes refer to themselves as "Veda Vellalar", thus claiming a high caste ranking (the Vellalar are given the highest ritual position within the caste structure of Sri Lankan Tamils in many regions). They also claim to marry into the higher castes of the neighboring region, such as Karaiyar. But some higher ranked castes did not consider Vedar quite their equals, although still placing them above the lower castes. Members of the Karaiyar caste sometimes downplayed their connections to Vedar as there was stigma attached to such unions. Field studies have indicated that mixed marriages across all caste groups of the eastern littoral was possible with Vedar. Vedar themselves claimed that they would not marry into lower Tamil castes such as Ambattar (barbers), Vannar (washerman) and Pallar (agricultural workers), but field studies indicated that such unions did sometimes take place.
Once a non-Vedar married into a Vedar family, he or she was assimilated as part of the Vedar village. Almost all Vedar families had an ancestor who was Tamil or a family member who was married to a Tamil from a neighboring village.
Some Vedar have gradually lost most aspects of their aboriginal identity and culture and no longer identify themselves as Vedar. During the 1980s and 1990s, most Vedar families were displaced from their native villages due to the effects of the Sri Lankan civil war and were placed in refugee camps along with other Tamil refugees.
## History
Ancestors of Vedar migrated to Sri Lanka via the Indian sub continent during the pre-historic period. A number of Mesolithic sites have been excavated containing human remains dated to 35,000 BCE. Anthropologists consider these skeletal remains to belong to a group ancestral to some of the surviving Vedar groups. Sri Lanka has also yielded Megalithic burial sites, one of which was excavated close to a present Vedar settlement, Kathiraveli. The precise time in which some of the Vedar lineage founders migrated to the east coast of Sri Lanka is unknown. The earliest written reference to Vedar is a Tamil chronicle, Nadukadu paraveni kalvettu, which is maintained amongst the custodians of a prominent Hindu temple in the town of Tirukovil in the Ampara District. It is a Tamil 14th to 16th-century original text. The chronicle documents the presence of a people who practiced hunting and gathering for survival, exercising jurisdiction over vast jungle tracts close to the Akkaraipattu township. It names a number of Vedar chiefs, such as Kadariyan and Puliyan. These Vedars were not just hunter-gatherers, but were also accepted as the rightful owners of the forest lands.
Emerson (1858) documented the presence of Vedar north of Eravur who subsisted by fishing or helping the traditional fisherfolk, as well by cutting wood for Muslim traders. He speculated that there were then at least 400 to 500 individuals in the group. He also recorded that it was the British colonial officers, as well as Wesleyan missionaries who provided land for them to start cultivating yams and other vegetables.
Neville (1890) and Seligman (1911) also documented the presence of a subdivision of Vedar called Kovil Vanam ("Temple precincts" in Tamil) within the southern edges of the Batticalo District; their name suggests they had originally lived in the jungles close to the Kataragama temple in the Hambantota District in the Southern Province. By the early 1900s these Vedar had mingled with the local Tamils and Sinhalese and were not encountered as a separate group any more. Local legends attribute the origins of some Hindu temples in the eastern province to the presence of Vedar. Important Hindu temples in villages such as Kokkadichcholai and Mandur have such Vedar creation legends. But Vedar are no longer associated with either the ownership or maintenance of these regionally important temples.
## Culture
### Clans and family organization
Clans of the interior Veddas
Interior Veddas have clans called Waruge or Variga that were named after trees, animals or places of origin. Seligman speculated that these clans were territorial, thus hunting territory was divided amongst the clan, not to be violated by members of other clans. These clans were:
1. Morana (after Mora tree)
2. Unapana (Water)
3. Namudana (Namuda tree)
4. Ura (Wild boar)
5. Ambilo (Ant)
6. Tala (Plains)
7. Rugam (Village name)
8. Kovil Vannam (Temple precincts)
Among these, the Morana and Unapana clans claimed superior status to Namudana, Ambilo and Ura clans. Seligman reported that Morana and Unapana clans considered the other three as their servile groups, a classification strongly denied by the others. This also led to so-called servile groups denying such clan association when questioned and claiming Morana or Unapana clan origins.
Retention of Clan system amongst Vedar
When Seligman inquired about the Waruge divisions of the Vedar, most of them did not remember their clan origins. Of those who remembered, most self-identified as Ura Waruge. Others mentioned clans such as Ogatam, Kavatam, Umatam, Aembalaneduwe and Aembale. They also had memories of other clans such as Morana and Unapana. By the 1980s the Vedar had no knowledge of any word Waruge, although they vaguely used the Tamil term Vamisam (family origin) to indicate some division amongst them. Some had come up with a two-fold division of the Vedars based on the Kuti or matrilineal descent system popular in the East coast. These Kutis were supposed to have descended from former local chiefs called Vanniyar, who had ruled feudal divisions called Vannimai. But these clan divisions and related rules of endogamy were not totally followed by all Vedar, and there no practical prohibitions from marrying from each Kuti.
As with local Tamils, the preferred marriage pattern is based on cross cousin preference. Parallel cousins are considered brothers and sisters and are ineligible as partners. As most marriages take place between first and second cousins, clan endogamy even it is present is of no value. Within a village, most of the residents are related and this carries on over to villages that are three to five miles away as well. The longer the distance the more distantly are the villagers related to each other. Related lineages also maintain places of worship that are the private property of the family group.
### Religion
Vedar are nominally Hindus; they were known to wear the marks of Saivite Hinduism such as Vibuthi ("sacred ash") on their forehead even in the 19th century. According to local legends, Vedars are considered to be the builders of most of the regional Hindu temples associated with Hindu high god Murugan. Although Vedars frequent regionally important Hindu temples and shrines associated with high Hindu deities such as Murugan, Pillaiyar and Siva, they propitiate local deities of folk Hinduism, who are sometimes unique to Veddars. Most of the folk deities are also commonly propitiated by other local Tamils such as Vairavar, Virapathirar, Kali and Narasingan. Seligman (1911) encountered two unique deities, Kapalpei (“Ship spirit”) and Kumara Deivam (“Young god”) who are peculiar to Vedar. The cult of Kappalpei is based on legends of foreigners coming over by ships and landing along the coast where the Vedar usually lived. They are propitiated to ward off evils and hard times. Kumara Deivam was also noted amongst the primitive Sinhalese village of Gonagolla in the Ampara District known as Kumara Devio. Jon Dart in the 1980s found that these deities were no longer worshipped, but were replaced by the Periyasami cult.
The worship pattern is a combination of Devil-dancing called Sandangu ("ceremony" in Tamil) and orthodox Hindu Agamic rituals. The devil-dancing is unique to Vedar, but the aspect of spirit possession as a part of devil dancing is not unique to Vedar. Locals Tamils also experience spirit procession and trance states during religious festivals. During devil-dancing ceremonies, related family groups congregate in family-owned worship centers and build platforms known as Pandals. These Pandals may have a weapon, such a lance known as a Vel, installed in their middle, a construction similar to the Kirikoroha function of the interior Veddas as well. Male family members dance throughout the night and as part of the ceremony some become possessed by spirits, sometimes those of their recently diseased family members. This pattern is similar in nature to the ancestor-worshipping patterns of the interior Veddas. Most of the Sadangu locations are temporary ones without related permanent structures over them, but some have been turned into temples. In the village of Palchennai, one of these temporary structures has become a temple now identified with Hindu high god Vishnu. Vedars also participate in Tamil folk dramas called Kuttus that depict scenes from Hindu epics such as Mahabharatha and Ramayana.
### Language
Vedar use the Sri Lankan Tamil dialect peculiar to the region, known as Batticaloa Tamil dialect, in their day to day conversations. Vedar children also study in that language in schools. During Sadangu ceremonies, those who are possessed by spirits speak in a mixed language that they call Vedar Sinkalam(Vedar Sinhala") or Vedar Bhasai which is the Vedda language of the interior Vedas. This Vedar Sinkalam is mixed with many Tamil words, as people no longer know the language. There is evidence at some point in the past that the people were bilingual in Vedda language and Tamil, but that is no longer the case.
## Geographic distribution
Native chronicles have documented the presence of Vedar or Vedar-like people throughout the island from the beginning of the historic period. Vedar presence in the present Eastern province has been noted during the Kandyan Kingdom period (1469 to 1815). Tennent noted that Vedars were found chiefly from Eravur to Venloos Bay. The 1946 Sri Lankan census returned 44 Vedar villages. The largest concentration of villages was close to the Vaharai peninsula; predominantly Vedar villages there included Ammenthnaveli, Kandaladi, Komatalamadu, Palchennai, Puliyankandadi, Oddumadu, Thaddumunai, Uriyankadu, and Vammivattavan. Vedar are also found further south, in Panichankerni, Mankerni and Kayankerni. There are also Vedars close to Kalkudah, in a village called Pallanchenai, and in the Trincomalee District, between the towns of Muttur and Foul Point.
## Economic status
Native chronicles such as Nadu Kadu Paraveni Kalvettu mention the socio-economic status of the Vedar as that of primitive hunter gatherers. The chronicles also mention that the chiefs amongst them received gifts such as clothes from settlers and state that the Vedar in turn provided meat and honey to the settler population, indicating a system of barter trade between the groups. Vedar also seem to have provided manual labor to clear forest lands, in exchange for an annual portion of the food crops harvested. When Tennent visited the east coast in 1858, the Vedar were living in houses that were made of mud and thatch. They were moved seasonally from place to place dependent on the availability of fish and other game. They were surviving primarily as fishermen, as well as wage laborers working for timber merchants, cutting and transporting timber from the forests. By the time Seligman visited them in 1911, he considered the Vedar subdivision to be economically better off than the rest of the Indigenous population of the interior. He attributed this to the assimilation of Tamil economic and cultural values by the Vedar clans, as well as to absorption of non-Vedar Tamils into Vedar families by intermarriage. Studies done in the 1980s by the anthropologist Jon Dart, indicated that Vedar in general were poorer than the rest of the Tamil and Muslim communities of the Eastern Province, which Dart attributed to their physical isolation in remote villages, as well as prevailing cultural norms that prevented them from fully integrating within the society. His studies did indicate that some Vedar had successfully integrated in Eastern society, with worldly possessions that did not much differ from those of their non-Vedar neighbors. The marked impact of the Sri Lankan civil war was also noted, due to the proximity of the Vedar's native villages to the theaters of operations of both rebel LTTE and government forces.(See Vaharai bombing)
## See also
- Anuradhapura Veddas
- History of Eastern Tamils
- Balangoda Man |
1,445,283 | Janet (album) | 1,172,251,915 | 1993 studio album by Janet Jackson | [
"1993 albums",
"Albums produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis",
"Concept albums",
"Janet Jackson albums",
"Virgin Records albums"
]
| Janet (stylized as janet.) is the fifth studio album by American singer Janet Jackson, released on May 18, 1993, by Virgin Records America. Prior to its release, Jackson was at the center of a high-profile bidding war over her recording contract. In 1991, her original label A&M sought to renew her contract, while others, such as Atlantic, Capitol, and Virgin all vied to sign her. After meeting with Virgin owner Richard Branson, she signed with the label. The contract was worth an estimated \$40 million, making her the world's then-highest paid musical act. Janet marks as Jackson's second eponymous record after her debut studio album, Janet Jackson (1982).
Its title, read "Janet, period.", is meant to disassociate her public image from her family, dropping her surname. An R&B record, Janet incorporated pop, hip hop, soul, funk, rock, house, jazz, and opera, eliminating the rigid, industrial sound of her previous records. Lyrically, the theme of Janet is sexual intimacy—an abrupt departure from her conservative image. Much of her lyrics emphasize a woman's perspective on sexuality and the demand for practicing safe sex.
In the United States, Janet became the singer's third consecutive album to top the Billboard 200 and her first to debut at number one. Selling 350,000 copies in its first week, it set a record for the highest first week sales for a female artist at that time. Certified sixfold platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it has sold over seven million copies in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan. Internationally, Janet topped the record charts in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and has sold an estimated 14 million copies worldwide.
Janet remains one of only seven albums in history to produce six top-ten hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, including the number-one singles "That's the Way Love Goes" and "Again". The MTV-sponsored Janet World Tour supporting the album received critical acclaim for Jackson's elaborate stage performances, reinforcing her reputation as one of the preeminent artists of the MTV generation. Janet cemented her as an international icon and sex symbol, and is listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 200 Definitive Albums of All Time. Academics argued the erotic imagery in her music videos have contributed to a higher degree of sexual freedom among women.
## Background
Rumors of a multimillion-dollar bidding war over Jackson's recording contract began to circulate in spring 1991. Jet magazine reported: "A recording company has offered in excess of \$50 million to sign superstar Janet Jackson to a recording contract, making the 24-year-old singer/songwriter/dancer/actress the key player in one of the hottest bidding wars among today's major record companies." Reports indicated that Capitol, Virgin and Atlantic were all bidding for Jackson's contract, as her ties to A&M would soon expire; by March, she had signed with Virgin. The New York Times declared "Janet Jackson has signed what is believed to be the most lucrative contract in the history of recording. The 24-year-old singer, songwriter and actress signed an exclusive contract with Virgin Records it was announced yesterday." Her new contract guaranteed a twenty-two percent royalty payment, in addition to her then-historic signing bonus. Chuck Philips of the Los Angeles Times reported that it had been the largest bidding war in recent memory and that "[o]ne reason the bidding was so heavy, various industry observers have noted, was that Jackson-at just 24-is still a relatively fresh face on the pop scene and that her dance-pop style is ideal for today's pop/video climate." In addition, her potential as an international superstar proved to be the primary motivation for the label's investment. Jeff Ayeroff, co-managing director of Virgin in the US stated: "Janet is a world-class artist and we expect her growth to be enormous." Chairman Richard Branson spoke with Jackson privately to seal the deal. He commented: "A Rembrandt rarely becomes available... When it does, there are many people who are determined to get it. I was determined."
Stephen Holden of The New York Times criticized the contract amount, considering it a gamble for Virgin. He stated that Jackson "is a producer-dependent artist—i.e., someone who relies on others to make her sound interesting and trendy. She also lacks a sharply defined personality, both as an artist and celebrity. Where singers like Ms. Houston and Mariah Carey have commanding vocal power, Ms. Jackson's is a relatively indistinguishable studio voice." Richard Branson rebutted this argument stating "Ms. Jackson has met with great success working with the production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, just as her brother Michael Jackson has experienced his greatest successes with the producer Quincy Jones. It is interesting that Mr. Holden doesn't mention this similar 'liability' when discussing Michael Jackson. To say that Ms. Jackson is 'dependent' on her producer is a shortsighted observation. She is a formidable talent who stands on her own." Michael Jackson would break his sister's record only days later, when he signed a \$60 million contract with Sony Music Entertainment. Both sibling's contracts garnered considerable criticism. Los Angeles Times reported that "A&M Records President Al Cafaro, whose company lost the fierce bidding battle over Janet Jackson to Virgin Records, said record companies may be vesting too much importance in individual performers" as the funds used as advances to the Jacksons could have launched recording careers for numerous unknown talents. Cliff Burnstein of Q-Prime management commented that recording artists demands for advances upon signing would begin to escalate from that point forward.
Prior to her first release with Virgin, Jackson was asked by Jam and Lewis to record a song for the soundtrack to the feature film Mo' Money, released in 1992 by their label Perspective Records. Jon Bream of the Star Tribune reported: "For most movie soundtracks, producers negotiate with record companies, managers and lawyers for the services of big-name singers. Like the Hollywood outsiders that they are, Edina-based Jam and Lewis went directly to such stars as Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Bell Biv DeVoe, Color Me Badd and Johnny Gill." Jackson and Vandross recorded the duet "The Best Things in Life Are Free" featuring Bell Biv DeVoe and Ralph Tresvant, which peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot R&B Singles chart. Shortly afterward, Jackson began filming for her first feature length role in John Singleton's Poetic Justice. Although she was encouraged by a major studio executive to take on a film in which she could portray a singer, she insisted on finding a different role. She explained: "About that same time John Singleton asked me to read his new script. John and I became buddies—I loved Boyz n the Hood—so I thought he was just asking my advice. I was shocked and honored to learn the screenplay had been written with me in mind. 'Would you play Justice?' he wanted to know. Yes! I'd finally found a role—a dramatic nonsinging role—that was right." Released in July 1993, Poetic Justice debuted at number one at the box office, grossing \$11,728,455; it grossed a grand total of \$27,515,786.
## Conception and titling
After writing songs with themes of independence for Control and social injustice for Rhythm Nation 1814, Jackson desired to devote her new album to love and relationships, describing the theme of her new album as "intimacy" and that "[s]exual communication is the name of the game." She stated in an interview with David Wild for Rolling Stone that "[w]hile I was doing Rhythm Nation, I was thinking about how things were so hard, so regimented and so black and white ... I thought I'd do something on the sexy side—which is hard for me since I grew up as a tomboy and don't really think of myself that way. But I think this album is more on the feminine tip." She also commented on how her experience acting in Poetic Justice played a role in taking a new direction with her music. Speaking with biographer David Ritz, she stated that "Rhythm Nation was a heavy record, and Poetic Justice was a heavy movie. I wanted to do something lighter but also daring ... When I wrote the album, I was still in a poetic frame of mind, inspired by Maya's beautiful language. You can hear that inspiration or the interludes and especially on the song 'New Agenda'. This time I felt much freer expressing myself."
Despite the critical and commercial success of her two previous albums, Jackson continued to receive numerous comparisons to her brother Michael, often with doubts that she held staying power in the music industry. When Edna Gundersen of USA Today questioned her about the subject, she responded: "Certain people feel I'm just riding on my last name ... That's why I just put my first name on janet. and why I never asked my brothers to write or produce music for me." Virgin Records expressed the album title "punctuates the declaration of strength the singer, songwriter and producer boldly expresses on this moving collection of songs which explore love, sensuality, the power of sisterhood and her own evolving self-identity." Thomas Harrison, author of Music of the 1990s (2011) wrote that "[t]he conscious decision was made, by the company and/or Jackson, to put her into the same league as other one-named artists, such as Madonna, Bono, Beyoncé and Prince, or at least to put her on the same standing as others in the industry who are often called by one name, such as Whitney, Mariah, Britney, Diana, Dolly, and Garth among others. Jackson could now, in a sense, stand on her own and not be seen as a product of the family entertainment machine." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine recounted the title of the album ultimately "announced the singer as completely independent of her male-dominated family [and] it positioned her as the person in charge of her sound."
## Production
The album was recorded at Flyte Tyme Studios in Edina, Minnesota, from September 1992 to February 1993. Songs on the album, with the exception of "What'll I Do", were written by Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and mixed by Steve Hodge and Dave Rideau; "What'll I Do" was written and produced by Jackson and Jellybean Johnson. Jackson took a larger role in songwriting and production than she did on her previous albums. She explained that "[a]ll my records are personal, and janet, is the most personal of them all. That's why this time around it was important for me to write all the lyrics and half of the melodies." Jam described the record as being "a more mature album musically." David Ritz noted that Jackson and her producers took risks by experimenting with musical influences that had not appeared in their previous work. He explained: "She asked Kathleen Battle and Public Enemy's Chuck D to contribute—an opera diva and a hardcore rapper, two artists one would not associate with Janet—and somehow pulled if off. Beyond Jam and Lewis, there's now a recognizable Janet Jackson production style that's gutsy and, in some cases, even eccentric."
"That's The Way Love Goes" contains a sample loop of "Papa Don't Take No Mess" written by James Brown, Fred Wesley, Charles Bobbit, and John Starks. The song "Again", was originally just an experimental sound the production duo was considering. While Jackson found its melody compelling, the trio did not give the song serious contemplation until the film producers from Poetic Justice requested a ballad for the film's soundtrack. Jackson subsequently wrote the lyrics for "Again" and adapted them to Jam's melody. The song was arranged by Lee Blaskey and accompanied by members of the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
janet. features eclectic production choices. The record incorporates R&B ("That's the Way Love Goes", "Where Are You Now", "The Body That Loves You", "Any Time, Any Place"), new jack swing ("You Want This", "Because of Love"), rock ("If", "What'll I Do"), opera ("This Time"), house ("Throb"), jazz ("Funky Big Band"), hip hop ("New Agenda"), and pop ("Again", "Whoops Now"). The album expanded Jackson's musical endeavors from the more electronic-based soundscapes of her prior albums. Like its immediate predecessor, janet. also features a number of interludes between songs that vary from short conversations, instrumentals, and ambient-based tracks.
## Release and promotion
### Rolling Stone cover
In September 1993, Jackson appeared topless on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with the hands of her then-husband René Elizondo Jr. covering her breasts. The photograph is the original full-length version of the cropped image used on the cover of the Janet album, shot by Patrick Demarchelier. In the cover story, "Sexual Healing" by David Ritz, Jackson explained, "sex has been an important part of me for several years. But it just hasn't blossomed publicly until now. I've had to go through some changes and shed some old attitudes before feeling completely comfortable with my body. Listening to my new record, people intuitively understand the change in me". Ritz likened Jackson's transformation to Marvin Gaye as he stated, "just as Gaye moved from What's Going On to Let's Get It On, from the austere to the ecstatic, Janet, every bit as serious-minded as Marvin, moved from Rhythm Nation to Janet, her statement of sexual liberation".
The image was cropped to show only Jackson's face on the album cover, and midriff in the interior booklet. The full version appears as the cover of the limited edition double-disc edition of the album, as well as the video compilation Janet released later that year. Sonia Murray of the Vancouver Sun later reported, "Jackson, 27, remains clearly established as both role model and sex symbol; the Rolling Stone photo of Jackson ... became one of the most recognizable, and most lampooned, magazine covers of the year".
### Singles
"That's the Way Love Goes", the album's lead single entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number fourteen and peaked at number one. The single was certified gold by the RIAA on November 12, 1993. Virgin Records intended for "If" to be the lead single for the album, but Jackson, Jam and Lewis disagreed. "That's the Way Love Goes" remained at number one for eight weeks—the most successful chart performance of any member of the Jackson family. The single earned a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. "If" was released as the album's second single and peaked at number four on the Hot 100, receiving gold certification on September 28, 1993. To promote the album, Jackson performed a medley of the first two singles at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. "Again", peaked at number one on the Hot 100 on December 11, 1993, and topped the chart for two weeks. The single was certified gold and then doubled to platinum by the RIAA on December 17, 1993. The single earned a nomination at the 66th Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and she also performed the track at the ceremony. "Because of Love" reached number ten, but was not certified by the RIAA. "Any Time, Any Place" peaked at number two on the Hot 100 and was certified gold on July 11, 1994. "You Want This", the album's final commercial single for the United States, peaked at number eight on the Hot 100 and was awarded gold certification on December 6, 1994. The album's hidden track "Whoops Now" was released as a single in selected territories in 1995.
The album's massive popularity at the time of its release made it one of the first instances in which an album's songs would chart prior to them being released as proper singles. "Throb", which would eventually be released as a B-side to "Any Time, Any Place" in June 1994, charted an entire year before due to unsolicited radio airplay, reaching number 66 on the Radio Songs Chart. Similarly, the album cut "Where Are You Now" reached number 30 on the same chart, being present on the chart for 37 weeks.
Jackson's music video for "If" was staged as a futuristic Asian nightclub, with spy cameras monitoring the intimate interactions of patrons within their private boudoirs. The video is an elaborate metaphor for the single's message of sexual fantasy, desire and voyeurism. The video was directed by Dominic Sena, who previously worked with Jackson on music videos for Rhythm Nation 1814. René Elizondo, Jr. directed the videos for "That's The Way Love Goes", and "Again". Videos for "Any Time, Any Place" and "You Want This" were directed by Keir McFarlane.
### Janet World Tour
Jackson embarked on her second world tour in support of her debut album with the Virgin Records label. Costumes and wardrobe for the tour were designed by stylist Tanya Gill, with outfits "rang[ing] from pipebone vests with high-heeled moccasin boots to zoot suits top-hats to circus-ringmaster bustiers." With a show encompassing over 100 costumes, a team of over 50 costume makers was led by wardrobe supervisor, Helen Hiatt. The tour's debut concert was held on November 24, 1993, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Jackson held a four show engagement at Madison Square Garden which began on December 17, 1993, with the final performance held on New Year's Eve. Michael Snyder of the San Francisco Chronicle described Jackson's stage performance at the San Jose Arena in February 1994, as what erased the line between "stadium-size pop music concerts and full-scale theatrical extravaganzas".
> The one-hour-and-45-minute performance was so tightly choreographed—down to two built-in pauses for "tears" at overwhelming waves of crowd adoration and a contrived bit of seductive repartee with a handsome, buffed hunk plucked from the front row for the ode to lust, "Any Time, Any Place"—that it breezed by like a glitzy Vegas revue or a television variety show.
Her performances also garnered criticism. Renee Graham of The Boston Globe commented that her stage show at Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts on June 20, 1994, proved her limited vocal range as "[t]he numerous costume changes, pyrotechnics and the dancing all but overshadowed her razor-sharp seven-piece band and three back-up singers", asserting Jackson was a better performer and entertainer than she was a vocalist. However, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Steve Pick observed Jackson's stage show at the Riverport Amphitheatre on July 12, 1994, made the Janet album's numerous hit singles more effective with her "larger-than-life stage persona".
## Critical reception
Rolling Stone magazine declared "[a]s princess of America's black royal family, everything Janet Jackson does is important. Whether proclaiming herself in charge of her life, as she did on Control (1986), or commander in chief of a rhythm army dancing to fight society's problems (Rhythm Nation 1814, from 1989), she's influential. And when she announces her sexual maturity, as she does on her new album, Janet, it's a cultural moment." Claiming the album should bring her critical praise, the magazine concludes its review with the statement "[t]he princess of America's black royal family has announced herself sexually mature and surrendered none of her crown's luster in the process. Black women and their friends, lovers and children have a victory in Janet." Robert Christgau originally gave the album an "honorable mention" in his consumer guide for The Village Voice, wherein he complimented its erotic songs and cited "Funky Big Band", "Throb", and "Be a Good Boy" as highlights. Billboard magazine gave a positive review, stating "[d]estined to be an instant smash, Ms. Jackson's latest is a glamorous assortment of styles—pop, dance, R&B, rock, jazz, rap—each delivered with consummate skill and passion. Janet is described as "a career-defining record earning Janet the right to operate on a first-name basis."
Michael Snyder of the San Francisco Chronicle lauded the album's content, stating "[t]his 75-minute opus, her first effort under a megabuck contract with the Virgin label, could be the make-out album of the '90s ... a silken soul odyssey, charting one woman's journey to emotional and sexual fulfillment through 10 songs and a series of spoken-word and ambient snippets." Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian declared the album's "luxuriant collection of house, soul and pop is her best yet. Cod-Madonna throwaways like 'Throb' aside, there are surprises all over the place. Public Enemy's Chuck D counterweights Jackson's sugared vocal to stunning effect on a black-pride anthem, 'New Agenda'; soprano Kathleen Battle turns the heavyweight funk of 'This Time' into something eerie and beautiful."
Robert Johnson of San Antonio Express-News praised Jackson and her producers for taking a chance on a new sound. He wrote: "Under the enormous pressure of her \$40 million deal with Virgin Records, Jackson had to deliver something big enough to put her on a first-name basis with the world ... janet. isn't perfect, but it should be enough to make her the Queen of Pop." "Dammit, Janet!", marveled Melody Maker. "The last Jackson hero(ine) has carried peacock feathers to the dance. Holier than Mahalia." "Janet will please most people," remarked The Daily Telegraph, "because it is crammed with the sort of tender, joyous pop music that lingers long after smarter records have been forgotten."
Steve Pick of St. Louis Post-Dispatch stated that although Jackson may not be the greatest singer or songwriter, but she has nonetheless "created and projected a persona that is irresistible. Part of it is a sexual allure, but more of it is the way she demands and receives attention." John Mackie with the Vancouver Sun reported the album gives Jackson an "incredible style", proclaiming Janet as "the best commercial album so far this year, an album that could well vault her past the stumbling Madonna as Queen of the charts. Heck, she might even outsell Michael with this one." "While her brother loops the loop on Planet Pepsi, it's hard to imagine the spotlight ever shifting to his sassy sis," remarked NME, "but this modern hunk of an album should redress some of the balance."
Jay Cocks of Time magazine offered a mixed review, stating "[f]or all its sass, there is something a little too careful about this album: the rhythms are too studied and studiobound, the sexiness slightly forced. It's as if Jackson, aware that this was her premier effort under a new, \$40 million record deal, felt weighed down by the burden of proving herself. When, however, she kicks loose on 'What'll I Do', a nifty, '60s-style soul stirrer, it's clear that Jackson's got nothing to prove to anyone, including herself." Jon Pareles of The New York Times compares Jackson to her brother Michael and Madonna, stating "Jackson's real strength, abetted by Jam and Lewis, is the way she tops dance-club rhythms with pop melodies. Less up-to-the-second than Madonna but still effective, the Jackson team has obviously been listening to the competition. Madonna's 'Justify My Love' echoes in 'That's the Way Love Goes', and 'If' resembles Michael Jackson's 'Why You Wanna Trip on Me', starting with screaming guitar and a chanted verse, rising to a sweet melody." He also comments that despite its shortcomings, "[t]he album's not about being real; it's about seamlessness and ingenuity, about giving the public something it can use. For a superstar, Jackson is downright selfless, but she gets the job done."
Chris Willman of the Los Angeles Times gave an unfavorable review. Although sex in popular music is considered a standard concept, Willman states the only reason the album would cause a reaction is because of Jackson's well-known conservative nature. He comments: "So be it. Jackson's first album in four years is destined for a long ride at No. 1, not because it's any great piece of work, but largely for its aphrodisiacal aspirations." David Browne of Entertainment Weekly stated that "[i]f musical variety and daring lyrics were all that mattered, Janet would make the grade. But the album has a lot to prove. It is the first delivery under her \$40 million contract with Virgin, and its title—which translates as 'Janet, period'—is meant as a declaration of independence from her oddball siblings ... She still sounds like a young woman from a male-dominated family who is searching for her identity and voice. Mostly, though, Janet sounds like a mess—period." David Sinclair of The Times wrote: "In the steamy, post-Madonna climate of the 1990s, Jackson is not about to let thoughts of love get in the way of the mechanics of lust, and like many of her superstar contemporaries she tends to confuse sex with soul."
### Accolades
Jackson received five nominations for the 1994 American Music Awards: Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Album and Favorite Soul/R&B Album for Janet, and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "That's the Way Love Goes" but lost all the awards to Whitney Houston for The Bodyguard soundtrack. The same year she received two Grammy Award nominations—Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female and Best R&B Song for "That's The Way Love Goes"—winning Best R&B Song. Several critics asserted she was unjustly overlooked in the Grammy's three major categories: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune stated, "Jackson again was denied a nomination for album of the year, even though janet (Virgin) has remained in the Top 10 since its release last summer and has been critically acclaimed." He adds that "the oversight is doubly vexing, because [Jackson]—in a songwriting and production partnership with Jimmy Jam (aka James Harris III) and Terry Lewis—is not just a multiplatinum pop act but an artist who has reshaped the sound and image of rhythm and blues over the last decade." Kot laid blame to the oversight on the fact that many believed her to be a producer-dependent artist—an opinion he found to be in error. Similarly, producer Jimmy Jam stated: "It's easy to say that the two albums she did before she met us weren't successful and when she got with us she became successful ... Control was the first album she actually had input. I think that's just as significant as the fact we (Jam and Lewis) did the record."
### Retrospective reviews
Later reviews were generally positive. In a retrospective review, Christgau gave Janet an "A−" and said that although the costly production by Jam and Lewis makes the music sound "more pornographic than obscene", "this achievement is Janet's, period ... Better nose than Michael, better navel than Madonna, better sex than either." Laura Sinagra wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that with janet, Jackson "took more risks" lyrically than on her previous albums. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine notes that the album "was at the forefront of the increasingly popular sampling trend in the '90s, with one song even employing three different samples as its foundation. Some make perfect sense on a thematic as well as sonic level, like Kool & the Gang's 'Kool It (Here Comes the Fuzz)' and Stevie Wonder's 'Superwoman, Where Were You When I Needed You' on 'New Agenda', or the orchestral flourish from Diana Ross & the Supremes' 'Someday We'll Be Together' on 'If', which seems to exist for the sole purpose of providing the impetus behind one of the greatest dance-break routines in music video history." Commenting on the album's broad range, he states: "The mother of eclectic, genre-hopping records by Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, and Fergie, janet. incorporates new jack swing, house, pop, rock, hip-hop, jazz, and even opera, but the album's range of styles isn't jarring in the least ... Janet has never been one thing and janet. is a feminist statement, to be sure." Alex Henderson of AllMusic offered a positive review, saying "[a]nyone who expected Jackson to top Rhythm Nation—her crowning achievement and an incredibly tough act to follow—was being unrealistic. But with janet., she delivered a respectable offering that, although not as strong as either Control or Nation, has many strong points."
## Commercial performance
Janet debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. It was the first time a female artist debuted at number one since the start of the SoundScan era; with the largest first week sales in history for a female artist at the time with 350,000 units sold in its first week. The album also earned worldwide success, debuting at number one in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. It also debuted in the top 10 in Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada (with 65,000 copies sold at the first week) and Switzerland. In Germany the album peaked at number five and charted for 49 total weeks, becoming Jackson's longest charting album.
Janet was first certified gold by the RIAA on August 8, 1993, denoting 500,000 units shipped within the United States. The same day, the album's certification was raised to 3× platinum, denoting 3,000,000 units shipped. On November 17, 1993, Janet received 4× platinum certification and was later awarded 5× platinum on December 17, 1993. The following year on April 12, 1994, the album was certified 6× platinum. It was the second best selling album of 1993 in United States with 4.3 million copies sold, behind The Bodyguard soundtrack and was the biggest selling album by a solo artist. Within seven months of release the album had sold over ten million copies worldwide. Other certifications include a Double Gold certification in France, a 2× Platinum certification in the UK And Australia, a Platinum in New Zealand and a Gold certification in Norway.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album has sold 7,035,000 million copies in the United States since its release, and also sold an additional 860,000 copies through BMG Music Club. With estimated worldwide sales of over 14 million copies, it is Jackson's best selling album.
## Legacy
Although Jackson had reached superstar status in the United States, she had yet to achieve the same level of response internationally. According to Nacy Berry, vice chairman of Virgin Records, Janet marked the first time the label "had centrally coordinated and strategized a campaign on a worldwide basis" which ultimately brought her to a plateau of global recognition. Her historic multimillion-dollar contract made her the highest-paid artist in history, until brother Michael renegotiated his contract with Sony Music Entertainment only days later. Sonia Murry noted that she remained "the highest-paid female in pop ... a whirlwind of fashion, personality and slick musical packaging rivaled only by Madonna and Whitney Houston in today's pop pantheon." James Robert Parish, author of Today's Black Hollywood (1995) wrote: "She confirmed her status as today's Queen of Pop when, not long ago, she signed a \$35-\$40 million recording contract with Virgin Records." Music critic Nelson George noted that while surpassing Michael would be next to impossible, Janet had assuredly reached iconic status. He explained: "What worked for Michael 10 years ago is working for her now ... Michael was clearly the voice of the '80s, those that grew up with him since Motown. And with the themes (independence, social consciousness and up-front yet responsible sexuality) that she's addressing in her albums and the popularity she's enjoying, she could very well be the voice of the '90s."
Rolling Stone's The '90s: The Inside Stories from the Decade That Rocked (2010) documented that she had achieved some level of growth with each of her records, and that with Janet, "[u]sing soul, rock and dance elements, as well as opera diva Kathleen Battle, [she] unleashed her most musically ambitious record, guided as always, by producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis." Richard J. Ripani author of The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues, 1950–1999 (2006) noted that she had led the incorporation of rap into mainstream R&B with a select group of artists, in that "rap music no longer sounded so musically distant to many R&B listeners because many of its traits were commonly heard in songs by mainstream artists such as Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Keith Sweat, and others." Vibe magazine observed that "R&B was omnipresent in 1993. It was a year in which Janet Jackson, at 27, topped the Billboard pop album charts for six straight summer weeks, with her critically lauded, six-times-platinum Janet" It became one of only five albums in the history of the Billboard 200—along with Whitney Houston's Whitney (1987), Norah Jones' Feels Like Home (2004), Taylor Swift's Fearless (2008), and Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream (2009)—to debut at number one and remain at the top of the chart for a minimum of six consecutive weeks. It is also only one of seven albums—including Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987), Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. (1984), George Michael's Faith (1987), Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989), Taylor Swift's Midnights (2023), and Katy Perry's Teenage Dream (2010) to yield a minimum of six top ten hit singles on the Hot 100.
The release of Janet signaled the singer's transformation from conservative teen role model to adult sex symbol. In You've Come A Long Way, Baby: Women, Politics, and Popular Culture (1996), Lilly J. Goren observed that "[Her] 1993 album Janet moved away from politically driven lyrics to songs about love and sex-lyrics that could capitalize on her new sexy, more scantily clad image in MTV music videos. Jackson's evolution from politically aware musician to sexy diva marked the direction that society and the music industry were encouraging the dance-rock divas to pursue." Reporter Edna Gunderson commented: "The woman whose hourglass torso and sensual gyrating have made her MTV's reigning sex kitten is today a vision of wholesome beauty." Professor and social critic Camille Paglia expressed: "Janet's unique persona combines bold, brash power with quiet sensitively and womanly mystery. Her latest music is lightning and moonglow."
Her music videos contributed to a higher degree of sexual freedom among young women, as Jean M. Twenge, author of Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before (2007) wrote: "In Alfred Kinsey's studies in the 1950s, only 3% of the young women had received oral sex from a man. By the mid-1990s, however, 75% of women aged 18-24 had experienced cunnilingus. Music videos by female artists have contributed to the trend, with both Mary J. Blige and Janet Jackson heavily implying male-on-female oral sex in music videos by pushing down on a man's head until he's in exactly the right position." Similarly, Paula Kamen in Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution (2000) states that "[i]n the early to mid-1990s, oral sex even reached mainstream music as politically charged demand of truly liberated women," citing TLC, Mary J. Blige and Janet Jackson as examples of female artists simulating cunnilingus in their videos. Rolling Stone wrote that "she celebrated becoming an erotic being ... [showing] young women a way to have their sexual freedom and their dignity, to have their cake and eat it too." She was named Best Female Singer and Female Sex Symbol by Rolling Stone for the year 1993 in pop music. Goren adds that later pop stars such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Pink would rely on image, sex appeal and choreography as much as musical talent.
## Track listing
All tracks written and produced by Janet Jackson, James Harris III and Terry Lewis, except where noted.
Notes
- "That's the Way Love Goes" contains:
- samples from "Papa Don't Take No Mess", written by James Brown, Fred Wesley, Charles Bobbit and John Starks and performed by J. Brown.
- an interpolation from "Georgy Porgy", performed by Toto and written by member David Paich.
- "You Want This" contains samples from:
- "Love Child", written by R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards and performed by Diana Ross & the Supremes.
- "Jungle Boogie", written by Robert Bell, Ronald Bell, Claydes Smith, Robert Mickens, Donald Boyce, Richard Allen Westfield, Dennis Thomas and George Brown and performed by Kool & the Gang.
- "If" contains samples from:
- "Someday We'll Be Together", written by Johnny Bristol, Harvey Fuqua and Jackey Beavers and performed by Diana Ross & the Supremes.
- "Honky-Tonk Haven", performed by John McLaughlin
- "New Agenda" contains samples from:
- "School Boy Crush", written by Hamish Stuart, Onnie McIntyre, Alan Gorrie, Steve Ferrone, Molly Duncan and Roger Bell and performed by Average White Band.
- "Kool It (Here Comes the Fuzz)", written by Gene Redd, Woodrow Sparrow, Robert Bell, Ronald Bell, Westfield, Mickens, G. Brown, Thomas and Smith and performed by Kool & the Gang.
- "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)", written and performed by Stevie Wonder.
- "One More Chance" is a cover of the song of the same name, written by Randy Jackson and performed by the Jacksons.
## Personnel
- (Ex) Cat Heads – rap
- Alice Preves – viola
- Ann Nesby – background vocals
- Bernie Edstrom – horn arrangements, trumpet
- Carolyn Daws – violin
- Celine Leathead – violin
- Chuck D – rap
- Core Cotton – background vocals
- Daria Tedeschi – violin
- Dave Karr – flute
- David Barry – guitar
- David Bullock – violin
- David Carr – flute
- David Eiland – sax (alto)
- David Rideau – mixing
- Frank Stribbling – guitar
- Gary Raynor – bass
- Hanley Daws – violin
- Jamecia Bennett – background vocals
- Janet Jackson – main performer, record producer, vocals, background vocals
- Jean Krikorian – design
- Jeff Gottwig – clarinet, trumpet
- Jeff Taylor – bass, vocals, Engineering
- Jellybean Johnson – producer
- Jimmy Jam – keyboards, producer, vocals
- James "Big Jim" Wright – keyboards, vocals
- Jossie Harris – talking
- Kathleen Battle – vocals
- Ken Holman – clarinet, sax (tenor)
- Kool & the Gang
- Laura Preves – bassoon
- Lawrence Waddell – organ (hammond)
- Lee Blaskey – orchestration
- Len Peltier – art direction, design
- Marie Graham – background vocals
- Mark Haynes – bass, drum programming, programming
- Merilee Klemp – oboe
- Mike Sobieski – violin
- Patrick Demarchelier – photography
- Robert Hallgrimson – sax (alto), trumpet
- Steve Hodge – mixing
- Steve Wright – trumpet
- Steven Pikal – trombone
- Stokley – drums
- Tamas Strasser – viola
- Terry Lewis – producer
- The Average White Band
- Tina Landon – talking
- Tom Kornacker – violin
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Decade-end charts
### All-time chart
## Certifications and sales
\|-
## See also
- List of best-selling albums by women
- List of albums containing a hidden track |
34,345,985 | Hallaton Helmet | 1,093,239,458 | Decorated iron Roman cavalry parade helmet | [
"1st-century artifacts",
"2000 archaeological discoveries",
"Ancient Roman helmets",
"Archaeological artifacts",
"Archaeological discoveries in the United Kingdom",
"Individual helmets",
"Metal detecting finds in England",
"Roman Armour from Britain",
"Roman archaeology"
]
| The Hallaton Helmet is a decorated iron Roman cavalry parade helmet originally covered in a sheet of silver and decorated in places with gold leaf. It was discovered in 2000 near Hallaton, Leicestershire after Ken Wallace, a member of the Hallaton Fieldwork Group, found coins in the area. Further investigation by professional archaeologists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services discovered that the site appeared to have been used as a large-scale Iron Age shrine. Nine years of conservation and restoration have been undertaken by experts from the British Museum, supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £650,000. The helmet is now on permanent display at the Harborough Museum in Market Harborough alongside other artefacts from the Hallaton Treasure hoard.
Although it was found shattered into thousands of pieces and is now heavily corroded, the helmet still bears evidence of its original finely decorated design. It was plated with silver-gilt and decorated with images of goddesses and equestrian scenes. It would have been used by a Roman auxiliary cavalryman for displays and possibly in battle. The identity of the owner is not known but the helmet was discovered on a native British ceremonial site, buried alongside thousands of Iron Age British and Roman coins. It is possible that the helmet was owned by a Briton who fought alongside the Romans during the Roman conquest of Britain.
## Description and interpretation
The helmet is an example of a three-piece Roman ceremonial cavalry helmet, made of sheet iron covered with silver sheet and partly decorated with gold leaf. Such helmets were worn by Roman auxiliary cavalrymen in displays known as hippika gymnasia and may also have been worn in battle, despite their relative thinness and lavish decoration. Horses and riders wore lavishly decorated clothes, armour and plumes while performing feats of horsemanship and re-enacting historical and legendary battles, such as the wars of the Greeks and Trojans.
It is the only Roman helmet ever found in Britain that still has most of its silver-gilt plating attached. The helmet would originally have had two cheekpieces attached via holes in front of its ear guards. It has a prominent browguard, the shape of which is similar to that of the 3rd-century Guisborough Helmet, discovered in 1864 near Guisborough in Redcar and Cleveland. The rear of the helmet bowl descended to form a neckguard.
As is the case with other Roman cavalry helmets, the Hallaton Helmet was very ornately decorated. The closest parallel to the Hallaton Helmet in terms of overall appearance is a helmet found in Xanten-Wardt in Germany which, like the Hallaton example, is made of silver-gilded iron with a wreath on the crown, a central figure on the browguard and a garland of flowers on the neckguard. A number of similar features have survived on the Hallaton Helmet. Its bowl is decorated with laurel wreaths while the scalloped browguard is edged with elaborate cabling. In the centre of the browguard is the (now heavily damaged) bust of a woman flanked by repoussé lions. Her identity is unclear, but she may have been an empress or goddess. The iconography is reminiscent of depictions of Cybele, the Magna Mater or "Great Mother" whose image was used to promote the values of the Augustan period a few decades after the helmet was deposited. However, the depiction has a number of features that are more in common with funerary art.
The ear guards are in the shape of silver ears, and the neckguard is decorated with a scrolling leaf pattern. Six detached cheekpieces were found within the helmet bowl along with the disintegrated remains of a seventh, although only two would have been needed. Hinges were also found, as was the pin of one cheekpiece, which had been bent. It may have been forcibly removed or possibly sustained damage at a later date, perhaps from a plough. It is unclear why there were so many cheekpieces accompanying the helmet; it is possible that they may all have been used on the same helmet to customise its appearance on different occasions, or alternatively they may have been intended as spares in the event of damage. The surviving cheekpieces are very elaborate. Five of the cheekpieces show equestrian scenes; one depicts the triumph of a Roman emperor on horseback, holding his arm in the air as he is crowned with a laurel wreath by the goddess Victoria (Victory). A cowering barbarian is depicted below being trampled by the hooves of the emperor's horse. Another less well-preserved cheekpiece depicts a possibly Middle Eastern figure holding a large cornucopia, and a Roman helmet and shield below.
The helmet was found along with some 5,296 Iron Age and Roman coins mostly dating to AD 20/30–50, the largest assemblage of Iron Age coins ever found in Britain. They had been buried at what appears to have been a pre-Roman shrine where large-scale animal slaughtering had taken place; nearly 7,000 bone fragments were also found at the site, 97 per cent of which were from pigs. Many appear to have been buried without the meat being eaten, suggesting that they had been used as offerings. The site is located on a hilltop which appears to have been encircled by a boundary ditch and palisade, with a possible processional way leading up to it. In Roman times it would have been located in the territory of the Corieltauvi, who inhabited an area of the East Midlands stretching from Northamptonshire to Lincolnshire.
It is very unusual to find a helmet of this type on a native ceremonial site. It was probably made between 25 and 50 AD, close to the date of the conquest of Britain in 43 AD; this makes it one of the earliest Roman helmets ever found in Britain. Other British examples of later date were found in isolation away from settlements, as in the cases of the Guisborough Helmet and Crosby Garrett Helmet, or on Roman sites, as with the Newstead Helmet. Various suggestions have been put forward as to why the helmet ended up at Hallaton; it may have been owned by a Briton who served in the Roman cavalry, it may have been a diplomatic gift from the Romans or it may have been captured in war. According to Dr Jeremy Hill of the British Museum, the first explanation is the most likely: "Here you probably have a situation where local Britons are fighting on the Roman side." The Roman cavalry at this time was mostly recruited from native allies, not Italians, suggesting that Britons fought alongside the Romans as they carried out their conquest of Britain.
## Discovery and restoration
The helmet was discovered by 71-year-old Ken Wallace, a retired teacher and amateur archaeologist. He and other members of the Hallaton Fieldwork Group had found fragments of Roman pottery on a hill near Hallaton in 2000. He visited the site with a second-hand metal detector late one afternoon and found about 200 coins, which had been buried in a series of small pits dug into the clay. He also found another artifact, which he left in the ground overnight. The following day he returned to examine his discovery and found it that it was a silver ear. He reported the find to Leicestershire's county archaeologist, who called in the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) to excavate the site. The dig took place in the spring of 2003.
The helmet was too fragile to be excavated in situ so it was removed within a block of earth held together with plaster of Paris. It was taken to the British Museum in London for conservation, which took nine years of work by conservator Marilyn Hockey and her colleagues Fleur Shearman and Duygu Çamurcuoğlu. Corrosion and the effects of time had shattered the helmet into thousands of pieces, most of which were smaller than the nail on a person's little finger. The reconstructed and conserved helmet was unveiled in January 2012.
Leicester County Council was able to raise £1 million to buy the entire hoard and pay for the conservation of the helmet, with the assistance of donations from the Heritage Lottery Fund (which gave a £650,000 grant), the Art Fund and other trusts and charities. The helmet was valued at £300,000; under the terms of the Treasure Act, Ken Wallace and the landowner were each awarded £150,000.
The helmet was put on permanent public display at the end of January 2012 at the Harborough Museum in Market Harborough, nine miles from the site where the hoard was found, alongside other objects found at Hallaton. |
34,960,333 | Imme R100 | 1,086,876,008 | Lightweight motorcycle made by Riedel AG | [
"Motorcycles introduced in the 1940s",
"Motorcycles of Germany"
]
| The Imme R100 was a lightweight motorcycle made by Riedel AG from 1948 to 1951. It is noted for its simple and innovative design with many advanced features. With low cost and technical innovation, the R100 sold well, but reliability problems and low profit margins resulted in warranty costs driving Riedel AG into bankruptcy.
The advanced specification of the Imme R100 caused it to be highly regarded. The R100 was one of the motorcycles included in "The Art of the Motorcycle" exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1998 and is on permanent display at Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.
## Concept, design and engineering
Motorcycle engineer Norbert Riedel recognized the need for a simple and economical light motorcycle during Germany's recovery from the Second World War and began to design one. By the summer of 1947, a prototype frame had been built and tested. The spine frame was made from 40 mm steel tubing, as were the steering head, the single-sided front fork, and the single-sided swingarm. The wheels were interchangeable, and were mounted from the left on stub axles attached to the suspension on the right.
Riedel developed the engine at the same time. This was a piston-ported two-stroke single-cylinder engine of 99 cc (6.0 cu in) capacity. The engine was cast in light alloy around the cylinder liner, and had an integral cylinder head. The crankshaft was suspended on only one side. The power output of the engine was 4.5 PS (3.3 kW; 4.4 hp) at 5,800 rpm, which was considered a high output at the time. Contemporary engines of comparable size typically made about 2.5 PS (1.8 kW; 2.5 hp), and 4.5 PS was expected from 125 cc engines such as those used in the DKW RT 125 and the later Hoffmann Vespa.
The transmission had three speeds with no neutral position; a mechanism held the clutch open when the motorcycle was at idle in first gear. First gear was positioned in the middle of the shift pattern, with second gear below and third gear above.
The engine and transmission were mounted together on the swingarm in front of the pivot axle at the bottom of the spine frame. The near-horizontal engine and transmission together as a unit formed a "power egg" style which would later be used by Benelli and Motobi. The tubular swingarm also served as the exhaust pipe. Behind the pivot axle, the swingarm, the reinforced rear fender, and the supports for the rear carrier formed a triangular structure which supported the rear spring. This suspension system allowed a long suspension travel and a soft spring rate. Test rides on the complete prototype began in December 1947 and showed that the combination of long travel and soft springs needed damping. Friction dampers were added.
## Production, marketing and demise
Norbert Riedel registered Riedel AG in 1948. He moved his facilities from Muggendorf to Immenstadt and began production there in June 1948. It is widely believed that the name "Imme" came from an abbreviation of this location, and that the Imme's "bee on wheels" logo came from "Imme" being a dialect word meaning "bee". However, it has also been suggested that the name came from the motorcycle itself resembling a bee, or from the engine sounding like a buzzing bee.
The Imme R100's light weight, relatively powerful engine, and long travel suspension made it popular in motorsport; this, along with good marketing and low pricing, led to strong sales. The management of Riedel AG expected high sales volume to offset the low profit margin. A basic Imme sold for 775 Deutschmark without battery, tachometer, or centre stand. Passenger accommodation was an optional extra, as was a spare wheel. Initially, Immes were all painted oxide red.
In 1950, a better-equipped "Export" version became available for 850 Deutschmark with a battery, an electric horn, a centre stand, a speedometer, a more comfortable seat, chrome plating, pinstriping, and a choice of colours including lime green and gloss black. Production of the Imme R100 had gone up to 1,000 per month and, by the autumn of 1950, more than 10,000 had been sold.
Imme engines were also sold to Fritz Fend, to power his Fend Flitzer invalid carriages. These replaced the Fichtel & Sachs engines used in earlier versions of the Flitzer.
However, the Imme began to develop problems, especially with the single-sided crankshaft bearings and the freewheel for the kick starter. Riedel corrected the problem beginning with the Model D version, which had a conventional crankshaft with two bearings. However, the profit from sales was not enough to cover the warranty expenses, and, by the end of 1950, Riedel AG went bankrupt with debts of 1.25 million Deutschmark.
## Legacy
At the time of Riedel AGs bankruptcy, three prototypes of an Imme with a 150 cc parallel twin two-stroke engine had been made. Fritz Philipps, who had been a senior executive at Riedel AG, formed Zweirad-Motoren und -Getriebe GmbH (ZMG) to supply parts and perform repairs on Imme motorcycles. ZMG also set up to manufacture an Imme with a 175 cc straight-twin two-stroke engine, but made only 25 before they ended production.
The Imme R100 is noted for its simple and innovative design. Its advanced features include single-sided suspension front and rear, interchangeable wheels front and rear with the option of a spare tyre, the complete drivetrain mounted on the swingarm, and the swingarm tube used as the exhaust pipe. Remarking on the R100 being displayed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum exhibition "The Art of the Motorcycle", Ultan Guilfoyle, curatorial adviser at the museum, said: "It's my favourite unknown bike. There are ideas there that are 40 years ahead of their time." An R100 is on permanent display at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.
## See also
- List of motorcycles of the 1940s
- List of motorcycles of the 1950s
[Motorcycles of Germany](Category:Motorcycles_of_Germany "wikilink") [Motorcycles introduced in the 1940s](Category:Motorcycles_introduced_in_the_1940s "wikilink") |
198,447 | Arrow (missile family) | 1,172,002,527 | Anti-ballistic missile family | [
"20th-century surface-to-air missiles",
"Anti-ballistic missiles of Israel",
"Emergency management in Israel",
"IAI missiles",
"Israel–United States military relations",
"MLM products",
"Military equipment introduced in the 2000s",
"Missile defense"
]
| The Arrow or Hetz (Hebrew: חֵץ, ) is a family of anti-ballistic missiles designed to fulfill an Israeli requirement for a missile defense system that would be more effective against ballistic missiles than the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile. Jointly funded and produced by Israel and the United States, development of the system began in 1986 and has continued since, drawing some contested criticism. Undertaken by the MALAM division of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Boeing, it is overseen by the Israeli Ministry of Defense's "Homa (Hebrew: חומה, , "rampart") administration and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. It forms the long-range layer of Israel's multi-tiered missile defence system, along with David's Sling (at medium-to-long range) and both Iron Dome and Iron Beam (at short ranges).
The Arrow system consists of the joint production hypersonic Arrow anti-missile interceptors, Arrow 2 and Arrow 3, the Elta EL/M-2080 "Green Pine" and "Great Pine" early-warning AESA radars, the Elisra "Golden Citron" ("Citron Tree") C<sup>3</sup>I center, and the Israel Aerospace Industries "Brown Hazelnut" ("Hazelnut Tree") launch control center. The system is mobile and can be moved to other prepared sites.
Following the construction and testing of the Arrow 1 technology demonstrator, production and deployment began with the Arrow 2 version of the missile. The Arrow is considered one of the most advanced missile defense programs currently in existence. It is the first operational missile defense system specifically designed and built to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles. The first Arrow battery was declared fully operational in October 2000 and is operated by the Protective Sword unit under the Air Defense Command of the IDF. Although several of its components have been exported, the Israeli Air Defense Command within the Israeli Air Force (IAF) of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is currently the sole user of the complete Arrow system.
The spaceflight upper-tier portion of Israel's missile defense, Arrow 3, was declared operational on January 18, 2017. Arrow 3 operates at greater speeds, greater range and at greater altitudes than Arrow 2, intercepting ballistic missiles during the space-flight portion of their trajectory. According to the chairman of the Israeli Space Agency, Arrow 3 may serve as an anti-satellite weapon, which would make Israel one of the world's few countries capable of shooting down satellites.
## Background
The Arrow program was launched in light of the acquisition by Arab states of long ranged surface-to-surface missiles. It was chosen over RAFAEL Armament Development Authority's AB-10 missile defense system since the Arrow was judged to be a more complete concept and have greater range. The AB-10 system was criticized as being merely an improved MIM-23 Hawk, rather than a system designed from the outset for missile interception.
The United States and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding to co-fund the Arrow program on May 6, 1986, and in 1988 the United States Department of Defense Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) placed an order with Israel Aircraft Industries for the Arrow 1 technology demonstrator. The Gulf War, which exposed the controversial performance of the Patriot missile against Iraqi "Al Hussein" missiles, gave further impetus to the development of the Arrow. It was initially designed to intercept missiles such as the SS-1 "Scud", its "Al Hussein" derivative, the SS-21 "Scarab" operated by Syria, and the CSS-2 operated by Saudi Arabia. The Arrow evolved also with an eye on the advanced missile programs of Iran. Yitzhak Rabin, then Defense Minister of Israel, viewed the emerging missile threat as one of the most dangerous future threats on Israel's security. He said of the program that:
> I had the honor, during my term of office as Minister of Defense, in the National Unity Government, to vote in favor of Israel's participation in the Strategic Defense Initiative... introduced by President Reagan...
The Israeli Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, part of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, runs the Arrow development project under the "Homa" administration. The "Homa" administration, which is also commonly referred to as the IMDO – Israel Missile Defense Organization, is responsible for coordinating industrial activities of Israel's different defense companies involved in the development of the Arrow system.
### Funding
The multibillion-dollar development program of the Arrow is undertaken in Israel with the financial support of the United States. When the development program began, the projection for the total cost of its development and manufacture – including the initial production of missiles – was an estimated \$1.6 billion. The price of a single Arrow missile was estimated at \$3 million. Between 1989 and 2007 some \$2.4 billion had been reportedly invested in the Arrow program, 50–80 percent of which was funded by the United States. Israel contributes approximately \$65 million annually.
### Criticism and opposition
The Arrow program encountered opposition from the IAF, whose traditional doctrine of deterrence and use of preemptive strikes stand in sharp contrast with the nature of the missile. In addition, the IAF feared that the procurement of the costly missiles would diminish the resources allocated towards offensive projects such as fighter aircraft.
A criticism of the concept of missile defense for Israel was aired by Dr. Reuven Pedatzur in a comprehensive study published in 1993 by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. The arguments made in the study conformed to the opinions of numerous defense officials and analysts, and echoed many of the arguments made by the Strategic Defense Initiative critics in the United States.
Pedatzur argued that it was exceedingly simple to fool an Arrow-type defensive system with simple, cheap, and easily installed countermeasures, which would render the Arrow system ineffective. He doubted Israel's defense industries could rise to the challenge of such a complex system, citing anonymous experts in the IDF who predicted that the system would not be available before 2010. He envisaged enormous costs, around \$10 billion, that would distort budgeting priorities and divert funds from the vital enhancement of the IDF's warfighting capability, thus forcing a profound revision of Israel's national security doctrine. He further argued that even if effective against missiles with conventional, chemical or biological warheads, the Arrow would not be relevant against future threats of missiles with nuclear warheads, since it would never be able to supply hermetic defense and the impact of even a single nuclear warhead in Israel's densely populated urban area would be an existential threat to Israel.
At the same time, John E. Pike, who worked then with the Federation of American Scientists, stated that "given technical problems with the systems radar and command system, coupled with its high development cost, the Arrow program may soon fall by the wayside". Victoria Samson, a research associate of the Center for Defense Information, also stated in October 2002 that the Arrow system cannot track an incoming missile that has split its warhead into submunitions.
In June 2003 a group of Israeli chief engineers, co-inventors, and project managers of IAI and subcontractors were awarded the Israel Defense Prize for the development and production of the Arrow system.
According to Dr. Uzi Rubin, first Director of IMDO, with the passage of time most of the pessimistic predictions have proven to be unfounded. Israel's defense industries overcame the technical challenge, the system's development was completed a full decade ahead of what was predicted, and there are no indications that the expenditures for the Arrow harmed other IDF procurement plans to any degree whatsoever. Rubin insists that Israel's missile defense is now an established fact and that most of the warnings issued by critics have failed to materialize. Pedatzur, however, remained unconvinced.
## Development
### Arrow 1
The first launch of the Arrow interceptor took place on August 9, 1990, designed to test the missile's control and guidance systems. The test came to a halt seconds after takeoff and the missile was intentionally destroyed due to fears it might go off track and hit a settled location. This was caused by the failure of the ground tracking radars to track the missile's trajectory. Test number two took place on March 25, 1991. Designed to check missile components during launch, it was conducted from a ship at sea. Once again a missile malfunction resulted in the abortion of the experiment. A third test, designed to examine the Arrow's interception capabilities, was conducted on October 31, 1991. The missile was once again launched from a ship at sea, and was once more aborted because of a repeat of previous malfunctions.
On September 23, 1992, in another test of the missile components during launch, the systems finally operated as planned and the Arrow reached its designated point in the sky, 45 seconds after launch. As planned, the missile was then destroyed. This successful experiment ended the system's preliminary testing phase. The fifth, sixth, and seventh tests took place on February 28, July 14, and October 14, 1993, respectively. During these, the Arrow managed to pass in close proximity to the target missiles, thereby proving its ability to intercept surface-to-surface missiles. During test number eight on March 1, 1994, the missile was not launched due to a ground computer failure. The ninth test launch on June 12, 1994, also known as ATD#1 (Arrow Demonstration Test 1), saw an Arrow 1 successfully intercepted a target missile launched from a ship anchored in the middle of the Mediterranean.
The Arrow 1 was reportedly a two-stage solid propellant missile, with an overall length of 7.5 m (25 ft), a body diameter of 1,200 mm (47 in), and a launch weight of around 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). It was estimated that the second stage had a length of 2.5 m (8.2 ft), and that it had inertial and command update mid-course guidance, with a terminal infrared focal plane array. The missile was described as being relatively high-speed and maneuverable, with thrust vectoring in both stages. The range capability has been described as around 50 km (31 mi). On the other hand, the Arrow 1 could be a single stage missile. Development of the "big and cumbersome" Arrow 1 then ceased and further research continued with the "smaller, faster and more lethal" Arrow 2.
### Arrow 2
Two successful tests (designated IIT#21 and IIT#22) of the steering, control and cruising systems were conducted without target missiles on July 30, 1995, and February 20, 1996. Two successful interceptions took place on August 20, 1996, and March 11, 1997, and were designated AIT#21 and AIT#22. Another interception test (AIT#23) was conducted on August 20, 1997, but the missile was destroyed when its steering system malfunctioned. The fault was corrected in time to ensure the success of AST#3, the first comprehensive test of the entire system. On September 14, 1998, all system components successfully countered a computer-simulated threat. On November 29, 1998, Israel Aerospace Industries delivered the first operational Arrow 2 interceptor to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
A full system interception test (AST#4) was held on November 1, 1999. During this test the Arrow system located, tracked and intercepted a TM-91C target missile simulating a "Scud" missile, launched on a very steep trajectory from a ship located offshore. The IAI TM-91C target missile was itself based on the Arrow 1 interceptor. On March 14, 2000, the first complete Arrow 2 battery was rolled out in a ceremony at Palmachim Airbase. In his speech, then IAF commander Aluf Eitan Ben Eliyahu said:
> This is a great day for the Air Defense Forces, for the Air Force, the defense establishment and, I would say, for the State of Israel. As of today, we have completed the acceptance of the only weapon system of its kind in the entire world. We are the first to succeed in developing, building and operating a defense system against ballistic missiles.
Another Arrow 2 test (AST#5) took place on September 14, 2000, this time with a new target missile, the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems "Black Sparrow". This airborne ballistic target missile, launched by an IAF F-15 towards Israel's coastline at a ballistic trajectory simulating an aggressor "Scud", was intercepted and destroyed. Consequently, the following month saw the Palmachim Arrow battery declared operational by the Israeli Air Defense Command. The "Black Sparrow" has since been used as the aggressor target in the AST#6, AST#9, and AST#10 tests. Reportedly, in June 2001 Arrow missiles were test-fired in the course of a joint American-Israeli-Turkish exercise code-named Anatolian Eagle, in the southeast of Turkey. On August 27, 2001 (AST#6), the Arrow system successfully intercepted its target at some 100 km (62 mi) from shore, the highest and farthest that the Arrow 2 had been tested to date. In October 2002 the second battery was declared operational.
#### Block-2
A successful test of the Arrow 2 block-2 took place on January 5, 2003 (AST#8). Four missiles were launched towards four simulated targets in order to examine the interceptor's performance during special flight conditions as well as system performance during a sequence of launches. The test did not include actual interceptions. Another successful test held on December 16, 2003 (AST#9), examined the system's ability to intercept and destroy incoming missiles at significantly high altitudes, around 60 km (37 mi). Reportedly, AST#8 and AST#9 also tested integration of the Arrow with Patriot batteries.
On July 29, 2004, Israel and the United States carried out a joint test at the Naval Air Station Point Mugu (NAS Point Mugu) Missile Test Center in California, in which the Arrow interceptor was launched against a real "Scud-B" missile. The test represented a realistic scenario that could not have been tested in Israel due to test-field safety restrictions. To enable the test a full battery was shipped to Point Mugu. The "Green Pine" radar and command-and-control systems were deployed at the base, while the Arrow launcher was installed 100 km (62 mi) offshore on an island that forms part of the test range. The test was a success, with the interceptor destroying the "Scud" that flew a 300 km (190 mi) trajectory at an altitude of 40 km (25 mi), west of San Nicolas Island. This was the twelfth Arrow interceptor test and the seventh test of the complete system, the first interception of a real "Scud". This significant test became known as the AST USFT#1. Following this test, then Defense Minister of Israel, Shaul Mofaz, said:
> We are in an age of uncertainty. Countries in the 'third circle' [Iran] are continuing their efforts to acquire non-conventional capabilities along with long-ranged launch capabilities. The Arrow is the best missile system of its kind in the world, and represents a force multiplier for our future force.
AST USFT#2 was conducted at NAS Point Mugu a month later, on August 26. This test was aimed at examining the Arrow's ability to detect a splitting warhead of a separating ballistic missile. It detected the true target, but a technical malfunction reportedly prevented it from maneuvering to strike it, leading to a suspension of testing. In March–April 2005 the ability of "Green Pine" and "Golden Citron" to work with Patriot system elements operated by U.S. Army was successfully tested against simulated "Scud"-type targets during regular series of U.S.–Israeli biennial exercises code-named "Juniper Cobra". Actual testing of the complete Arrow system was resumed in December 2005, when the system successfully intercepted a target at an unspecified but reported record low altitude. This test (AST#10) was the fourteenth test of the Arrow missile and the ninth test of the complete system.
#### Block-3
On February 11, 2007, an Arrow 2 block-3 successfully intercepted and destroyed a "Black Sparrow" target missile simulating a ballistic missile at high altitude. It was the first so-called distributed weapon system test conducted in Israel, which required two Arrow units deployed some 100 km (62 mi) apart to share data on incoming threats and coordinate launching assignments. It was also the first time the Link 16 data distribution system was used to connect two Arrow units, although the system had been used in previous tests to connect Arrow and Patriot batteries. Furthermore, an improved launcher was used. Another "Juniper Cobra" exercises ran from March 10 to 20, 2007. The computer simulation used for "Juniper Cobra 2007" was similar to the computer simulation used in "Juniper Cobra 2005".
A precursor of the next block was launched without a target on March 26, 2007, in order to gather information on its flight and performance, introducing unspecified modifications to its hardware and electronics and reduced manufacturing costs by some 20 percent. Arieh Herzog, then Director of IMDO, has said: "Our Arrow operational system can without a doubt deal with all of the operational threats in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and Syria."
#### Block-4
On April 15, 2008, the Arrow weapon system successfully detected and made a simulated intercept of a new target missile, the "Blue Sparrow", a successor of the "Black Sparrow" capable of simulating "Scud-C/D" missiles and reportedly the Iranian Shahab-3 as well. During the test, a target missile was launched from an IAF F-15 at a height of 90,000 feet (27.5 km). The missile split into multiple warheads, making it harder to intercept it. Nevertheless, "Green Pine" tracked the warhead, simulating an intercept. In September 2008 the IDF attempted a test of actual Arrow 2 block-4 missile against the "Blue Sparrow". The drill had to be aborted, however, when the target missile malfunctioned shortly after launch. Eventually the Arrow 2 block-4 was successfully tested against the "Blue Sparrow" on April 7, 2009.
A July 22, 2009, joint test of the Arrow 2 block-4 against an airborne target missile with a range of over 1,000 km (620 mi) once again at the NAS Point Mugu, was reportedly aborted in the final second before launch after the missile failed to establish a communications link. A target had been released from a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, the radar detected the target and transferred its tracks, but the interceptor was not launched. "Tracking of the target worked well, but tracking trajectory information that the radar transferred to the battle management center erroneously showed we would be out of the prescribed safety range, so the mission was aborted," a program source said. The aborted interception came after two earlier setbacks in the planned test, initially scheduled for July 17. The first try was scuttled due to a technical glitch in the C-17 aircraft, and a planned July 20 attempt was scrubbed due to a malfunctioning electric battery that was not providing enough power to a key element of the Arrow system. The test was widely referred to as a failure, however objectives of interoperability with other ballistic missile defense systems were achieved.
On February 22, 2011, the Arrow system successfully intercepted a long-range ballistic target missile during a flight test conducted at NAS Point Mugu. The target missile was launched from a mobile launch platform off the coast of California, within the Point Mugu test range. The test validated new block-4 versions designed to improve discriminating capabilities of the Arrow 2 interceptor. It was a body-to-body impact that completely destroyed the target.
On February 10, 2012, developers successfully conducted the final target-tracking test prior to delivery of block-4 Arrow system. The Blue Sparrow target missile was detected and tracked by the radar, the intercept solutions were plotted by the battle management controller and transferred to the launch units.
According to Arieh Herzog, block-4 upgrades "improve the process of discrimination of what happens in the sky and the transmission of target data for much better situational control." Block-4 upgrades also refine midcourse guidance which, when coupled with improved target identification and discrimination capabilities, improves lethality.
Block-4.1 is expected to include a new Battle Management Center, armored launchers with high shooting availability, better communication with other missile systems and wider ranges of interceptions. On September 9, 2014, an intercept test was conducted over the Mediterranean Sea with block-4.1 versions of the operational system. The outcome was inconclusive and remained so until data was fully analyzed. In February 2015, an official at the IMDO acknowledged that a test successfully acquired, but narrowly missed its target. The exact reason behind the failure was not provided, but officials initially attributed the glitch to easily correctable software issues.
#### Block-5
By April 2011 IMDO launched initial definition of a new block-5 upgrade to the complete Arrow system that will merge the lower-tier Arrow 2 and exoatmospheric Arrow 3 into a single national missile defense system. According to Arieh Herzog, the planned block-5 will include new ground- and airborne sensors, a command and control system, and a new target missile – the Silver Sparrow – to simulate potentially nuclear-capable delivery vehicles developed by Iran. According to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, block-5 is expected to be able to deal with "more stressing regional threats" by increasing total defended area by some 50 percent.
The planned block-5 will optimize the existing Super Green Pine radar to operate with the AN/TPY-2 radar as well as with radars commanding anti-ballistic missiles aboard United States Navy destroyers. U.S. radars will be used to support closed-loop operations if Israel and U.S. targets in the region come under attack.
Another successful Arrow 2 test (AST#18a) took place on August 12, 2020, over the Mediterranean Sea.
### Arrow 3
By August 2008 the United States and Israeli governments have initiated development of an upper-tier component to the Israeli Air Defense Command, known as Arrow 3. The development is based on an architecture definition study conducted in 2006–2007, determining the need for the upper-tier component to be integrated into Israel's ballistic missile defense system. According to Arieh Herzog, the main element of this upper tier will be an exoatmospheric interceptor, to be jointly developed by IAI and Boeing. Arrow 3 was declared operational on January 18, 2017.
Arrow 3 operates at greater speeds, greater range and at greater altitudes than Arrow 2, intercepting ballistic missiles during the space-flight portion of their trajectory. According to the chairman of the Israeli Space Agency, Arrow 3 may serve as an anti-satellite weapon, which would make Israel one of the world's few countries capable of shooting down satellites.
### Arrow 4
Israel's Defense Ministry and industry developers have begun early work on what could evolve into the Arrow 4, a new missile-intercepting system to defend against much more sophisticated future threats. In 2017 Boaz Levy, IAI executive vice president, said it was probably too early to call the effort Arrow 4. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that ongoing design studies are aimed at a future interceptor that will extend capabilities beyond Arrow 2 and Arrow 3.
In early 2021 Israel revealed that the development of the Arrow 4 interceptor was ongoing and that the system was targeting the interception of hypersonic threats such as hypersonic cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles. Efforts to counter hypersonic threats took on new urgency following a November 2022 announcement by Iran that they had tested a hypersonic missile, although its authenticity is disputed; such a missile launched from Iran could hit Israel in as little as four minutes.
## Specifications
The Arrow system was originally designed and optimized to intercept short and medium-range ballistic missiles with ranges above 200 km (120 mi). It is not intended to intercept either military aircraft or artillery rockets, the second of which are relatively small and short ranged. In contrast to THAAD, RIM-161 Standard Missile 3, and MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3, that use kinetic, direct impact to destroy the target ("hit-to-kill") the Arrow 2 relies on explosive detonation. Arrow 2 is able to intercept its targets above the stratosphere, high enough so that any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons do not scatter over Israel. The developers' intention was to perform the destruction sequence away from populated locations. According to Dr. Uzi Rubin, the missile was tested to determine whether chemical warfare agents would reach the ground should such a warhead be intercepted. The conclusion was that nothing would reach the ground if the warhead is destroyed above the jet stream, which flows from west to east and would therefore blow any chemical residue. Nevertheless, Arrow is also capable of low altitude interception, as well as multi-tactical ballistic missiles interception.
The two-stage missile is equipped with solid propellant booster and sustainer rocket motors. The missile uses an initial burn to carry out a vertical hot launch from the container and a secondary burn to sustain the missile's trajectory towards the target at a speed of Mach 9, or 2.5 km/s (1.6 mi/s). Thrust vector control is used in the boost and sustainer phases of flight. At the ignition of the second stage sustainer motor, the first stage assembly separates. The Arrow missile is launched before the threat missile's trajectory and intercept point are accurately known. As more trajectory data becomes available, the optimum intercept point is more precisely defined, towards which the missiles is then guided. The 500 kg (1,100 lb) kill vehicle section of the missile, containing the warhead, fusing and the terminal seeker, is equipped with four moving delta aerodynamic control fins to give low altitude interception capability. The dual mode missile seeker has a passive infrared seeker for the acquisition and tracking of tactical ballistic missiles and an active radar seeker used to home on air-breathing targets at low altitudes. The infrared seeker is an indium antimonide focal plane array. The kill vehicle is designed to achieve a hit-to-kill interception, but if this is not achieved, the proximity fuze will direct the warhead fragments at the target shortly before reaching the closest point to the target. The high explosive directed blast fragmentation warhead is capable of destroying a target within a 40–50 m (130–160 ft) radius. In this manner, Arrow also differs from Patriot PAC-3, THAAD, and Standard Missile 3, which rely purely on hit-to-kill technology in which the kinetic force of a precise impact causes the destruction of the threat.
According to Dov Raviv, a senior developer dubbed "the father of the Arrow anti-ballistic missile", a single Arrow interceptor has a 90 percent probability of destroying a target missile at the highest altitude possible. In case of failure two more interceptors can be launched towards the target at short time intervals. If the first of these destroys the target, the second can be directed to another target. Using this technique, three independent interception possibilities are provided which raise the interception probability from 90 percent to 99.9 percent, thus satisfying the leakage rate requirement. The Arrow also has the capability to simultaneously intercept a salvo of more than five incoming missiles, with the target missiles arriving within a 30-second span. Such capability is currently possessed only by the United States and Russia. According to Raviv, the Arrow can discriminate between a warhead and a decoy.
Each Arrow battery is equipped with typically four to eight erectors–launchers, its manning requires about 100 personnel. Each trailer-mounted erector–launcher weighs 35 tonnes (77,000 lb) when loaded with six launch tubes with ready-to-fire missiles. After firing the launchers can be reloaded in an hour. The system is transportable rather than mobile, as it can be moved to other prepared sites, but cannot be set up just anywhere.
### Green Pine
The "Green Pine" is an active electronically scanned array (AESA) solid state radar operating at L band in the range 500 MHz to 1,000 MHz, or 1,000 MHz to 2,000 MHz. It operates in search, detection, tracking, and missile guidance modes simultaneously. It is capable of detecting targets at ranges of up to about 500 km (310 mi) and is able to track more than 30 targets at speeds over 3,000 m/s (10,000 ft/s). The radar illuminates the target and guides the Arrow missile to within 4 m (13 ft) of the target.
Super Green Pine
An advanced version of the radar, called "Super Green Pine", "Green Pine" Block-B, or "Great Pine" (Hebrew: אורן אדיר, ), is to take the place of the original "Green Pine. As of 2008 both versions were active. The "Super Green Pine" extends detection range to about 800–900 km (500–560 mi). An even more advanced upgrade of the Super Green Pine is under development.
### Golden Citron
The "Golden Citron" (Hebrew: אתרוג זהב, ) truck-mounted net-centric open systems architecture Battle Management Command, Control, Communication & Intelligence Center can control up to 14 intercepts simultaneously. As of 2007 it was one of the world's most advanced net-centric systems. The system provides fully automatic as well as Human-in-the-Loop options at every stage of battle operation management. It is also capable of interoperability with other theater missile defense systems and C<sup>3</sup>I systems. Notably Link 16, TADIL-J, communications were being altered to allow interoperability with Patriot fire control units. Assigned targets can be handed over to the Patriot's AN/MPQ-53 fire control radar. Tests carried out by the U.S and Israel have successfully linked the Arrow with both U.S and Israeli versions of the Patriot.
The "Citron Tree" has three banks of operator consoles laid out in a U shape. In the center sits the officer in command who oversees the engagement, but also has links to the other parts of the battery as well as to IAF headquarters. On the commander's right sits the engagement officer, who ensures that targets are assigned to other engagement officers sitting on the right-hand leg of the U. Each is assigned a geographical area to defend and two of the officers are more senior as they have an overview of Patriot batteries. To the left of the commander is the resource officer, who monitors the status and readiness of the missiles. On the left of the U sits the sky picture officer, who is in contact with the Home Front Command and uses the center's ability to predict impact point to alert the civil authorities. Also at these consoles are an intelligence officer and an after-action/debrief officer, who uses recordings as it is impossible to absorb all the information during engagements. All in all, the "Golden Citron" is manned by 7–10 operators.
### Brown Hazelnut
The "Brown Hazelnut" (Hebrew: אגוז חום, ) launch control center is located at the launch site, up to 300 km (190 mi) from the "Golden Citron" fire control center. It employs microwave and radio data and voice communications links to the "Green Pine" and "Golden Citron". The launch method is a vertical hot launch from a sealed canister, providing all-azimuth coverage. "Brown Hazelnut" also has missile maintenance and diagnostic capabilities.
## Production
Israel initially produced the Arrow system domestically, but on February 11, 2003, IAI and Boeing signed an agreement, valued at over \$25 million for fiscal years 2003–2004, to establish production facilities for the manufacture of components for the Arrow missile in the United States. In March 2004, IAI awarded a \$78 million production contract to Boeing; the total contract value could exceed \$225 million through second quarter 2008. As a result of successful implementation of this contract Boeing is responsible for production of about 35 percent of Arrow missile components, including the electronics section, booster motor case and missile canister, at its Huntsville, Alabama, facilities. IAI, the prime contractor of the Arrow system, is responsible for integration and the final assembly of the Arrow missile in Israel. Boeing also coordinates the production of Arrow missile components manufactured by more than 150 American companies located in over 25 states. Boeing delivered its first Arrow 2 interceptor to Israel in 2005. Co-produced interceptors has been tested since February 12, 2007. Final deliveries to the Israel Air Force were planned by the end of 2010.
Other major contractors are:
- Elta – produces the "Green Pine" / "Super Green Pine" radar;
- Elisra – produces the "Golden Citron" C<sup>3</sup>I Center;
- Rafael Advanced Defense Systems – produces the sustainer motor and the warhead;
- Israel Military Industries – produces the booster motor;
- Alliant Techsystems – produces the motor cases and the first stage nozzle;
- Lockheed Martin – produces the active radar seeker;
- Raytheon – produces the infrared seeker;
- Ceradyne – produces the ceramic radome.
## Deployment
According to its original 1986 schedule, the Arrow system was supposed to enter operational service in 1995. The first operational Arrow battery was deployed, however, in March 2000 in Palmachim Airbase, near the city of Rishon LeZion, south of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It was declared operational in October 2000, and reached its full capacity in March 2001. Deployment of the second battery at Ein Shemer (Ein Shemer Airfield), near the city of Hadera, Haifa District, northern Israel, was delayed by strong opposition from local residents who feared its radar would be hazardous to their health. The situation was eventually resolved and Israel's second battery completed its deployment, turned operational and linked up with first battery in October 2002. In 2007 the IDF has reportedly decided to modify its missile defense doctrine and in order to counter possible Syrian and Iranian missile barrages and has quietly modified its deployment of the Arrow in northern Israel.
The IDF planned to procure 50–100 interceptors for each battery. As of 1998, a battery was estimated to cost about \$170 million. As of 2012, reportedly one "Great Pine" radar is deployed alongside two "Green Pine" radars.
Israel had originally planned to deploy two Arrow 2 batteries but has since sought and won promises of funding for a third battery. Some reports stated that a third battery was already deployed, or in development in the south, while others claimed that a decision on deployment of a third battery has not yet been made, although it was under discussion for service entry in 2012. Another report stated that Israel planned to deploy not one, but two additional Arrow 2 batteries to defend the country's southern region, also covering sensitive sites such as the Negev Nuclear Research Center. However the decision about the third battery was taken in October 2010. The new battery was expected to be put into operational use in 2012 in the center of the country. According to Jane's Defence Weekly, some sources indicate that the new Arrow 2 battery became operational in 2012 in an Israeli Air Force facility at Tal Shahar, roughly halfway between Jerusalem and Ashdod, near Beit Shemesh.
### Export
Apart from Israel, no country has purchased a full Arrow system, although India had acquired and deployed three "Green Pine" radars by August 2005. The Indian government has sought to purchase the Arrow system since 1999, however in early 2002 the U.S. vetoed Israel's request to sell the Arrow 2 missiles to India, exercising its right as a major funding contributor. U.S. officials argued that the sale would violate the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Although the Arrow 2 could possibly achieve a range of 300 km (190 mi), it is designed for intercepts at shorter ranges, and it is unclear whether it could carry a 500 kg (1,100 lb) payload to this range specified in the MTCR. In 2011 once again an Indian Army official said that the Arrow 2 might become part of India's missile defense solution.
Turkey also planned to buy anti-missile air defense systems worth more than \$1 billion. The Arrow was considered a potential contender, but was rejected on political grounds. In the past, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Singapore were mentioned as then potential foreign customers of the Arrow system. Netherlands reportedly expressed interest in the "Golden Citron" C<sup>3</sup>I center in November 1999.
In the late 1990s officials of Jordan expressed concern that any conflagration between Israel and Iraq or Iran would impact its territory. The problem becomes more difficult for Jordan when the warheads are not conventional. Therefore, Benjamin Netanyahu, during his first term of office as Prime Minister of Israel, reportedly offered Jordan "a defensive umbrella of Arrow 2". Without allowing Israel to forward deploy the Arrow launchers close to the Iraqi border, the other option is for Israel to sell Jordan the Arrow system. This is most likely what Prime Minister Netanyahu meant above. In May 1999 Israel reportedly requested U.S. approval for selling Arrow batteries to Jordan, but apparently no such approval has been given.
Armed with marketing approval by their respective governments, a U.S.–Israeli industrial team plans to offer the Arrow system to South Korea. The potential deal, estimated to exceed \$1 billion.
For the United States, the Arrow has provided important technical and operational data. It remains a key element in the Missile Defense Agency's plan for a layered missile defense architecture, and an example of a successful, affordable program. At the moment, however, the United States does not have any plans to procure and deploy the Arrow. Nevertheless, in September 2009 the Arrow system was mentioned by then U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and then Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright among the alternative to the proposed U.S. missile defense assets in Europe. The Arrow system is being incorporated into U.S. anti-ballistic capability in Europe, they said.
In a June 2011 interview Lieutenant General Patrick J. O'Reilly said that Arrow 2 will be integrated into a regional defense array planned by the U.S. in the Middle East. According to the interview, it may also protect Arab countries who are allies of the U.S. but with which Israel has no diplomatic ties. By October 2015, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had become interested in procuring the Arrow system for themselves.
In the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, the German government is considering the purchase of the Arrow-3 system for the Bundeswehr. Since it is available on the market, it could be operational in Germany as early as 2025. For the missile protection shield, "Super Green Pine" missile radar systems would be installed at three locations in Germany, which would send their data to the Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem. The German Arrow batteries could also cover Poland, Romania and/or the Baltic States. Neighbouring countries would then have to buy additional Arrow-3 missiles, whereas the radar image would be supplied by the German forces. According to a report in the newspaper "The Jerusalem Post" dated April 5, 2022, Israel and the United States have agreed in principle to sell the Arrow-3 system to Germany.
In June 2023 the German Bundestag approved the purchase of the Arrow 3 system for the German Air Force. Deliveries are expected for late 2025.
## Operational history
On March 17, 2017, the Arrow missile scored its first operational intercept when it shot down a Syrian S-200 missile fired at an Israeli aircraft. A senior IAF officer provided operational context to the unusual intercept of a surface-to-air missile. The officer said the S-200 missile "behaved like a ballistic threat" with "an altitude, range and ballistic trajectory" that mimicked the Scud-class targets the Arrow 2 interceptor was designed to kill.
## See also
- European Sky Shield Initiative
- Terminal High Altitude Area Defense
- Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System
- Taiwan Sky Bow Ballistic Missile Defense System
- Indian Ballistic Missile Defense Program
- Medium Extended Air Defense System
- S-300PMU
- S-300V
- S-300VM missile system
- S-400 missile system
- S-500 missile system |
500,599 | Mount McLoughlin | 1,163,276,715 | Stratovolcano in Oregon | [
"Cascade Range",
"Cascade Volcanoes",
"Cinder cones of the United States",
"Locations in Native American mythology",
"Mountains of Jackson County, Oregon",
"Mountains of Oregon",
"Pleistocene stratovolcanoes",
"Stratovolcanoes of Oregon",
"Subduction volcanoes",
"Volcanoes of Klamath County, Oregon"
]
| Mount McLoughlin is a dormant steep-sided stratovolcano, or composite volcano, in the Cascade Range of southern Oregon and within the United States Sky Lakes Wilderness. It is one of the volcanic peaks in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, within the High Cascades sector. A prominent landmark for the Rogue River Valley, the mountain is north of Mount Shasta, and south-southeast of Crater Lake. It was named around 1838 after John McLoughlin, a Chief Factor for the Hudson's Bay Company. Mount McLouglin's prominence has made it a landmark to Native American populations for thousands of years.
McLoughlin consists largely of basaltic andesite. It underwent three major eruptive periods before its last activity took place between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago. It is not currently monitored for activity or deformation. Diverse species of flora and fauna inhabit the area, which is subject to frequent snowfall and temperature variation between seasons. The Pacific Crest Trail skirts the eastern and northern sides and also accesses the only trail to the summit, the 6-mile (9.7 km) McLoughlin Trail 3716. The mountain can also be skied.
## Geography
The major landmark for the Rogue River Valley, Mount McLoughlin reaches an elevation of 9,493 feet (2,893 m). The tallest volcano in between Mount Shasta — located 70 miles (110 km) to the south — and South Sister 120 miles (190 km) to the north, it lies in the Cascade Range, in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Oregon. Most of the volcano lies in Jackson County, though the eastern side of its base lies in Klamath County. It is the sixth tallest peak in Oregon, but despite its height, Mount McLoughlin only has a volume of 3 cubic miles (13 km<sup>3</sup>).
The volcano includes the North Squaw Tip and South Squaw Tip peaks, which occur on its flanks at elevations of 7,070 feet (2,150 m) and 7,654 feet (2,333 m), respectively. It can be seen from the Interstate 5 and U.S. Route 97 highways. From the southwest and southeast, it has a symmetrical appearance, but the northeastern flank of the volcano has been eroded and transformed into a hollow amphitheater.
### Wilderness
McLoughlin lies within the Sky Lakes Wilderness area, part of the Rogue River–Siskiyou and the Fremont–Winema National Forests. The Sky Lakes Wilderness covers an area of 113,590 acres (459.7 km<sup>2</sup>), with a width of 6 miles (9.7 km) and a length of 27 miles (43 km). Designated by the United States Congress in 1984, it stretches from Crater Lake National Park to Highway 140 at the south and ranges in elevation from 3,800 feet (1,200 m) in the Middle Fork canyon of the Rogue River to the peak of McLoughlin. The wilderness area encompasses more than 200 bodies of water including ponds and lakes, in addition to forests and mountain ridges.
### Physical geography
The local area has warm, dry summers during the daytime with cool nights, and snowy winters that impede access to the Sky Lakes Wilderness through July. Moisture is limited between June and October barring occasional thunderstorms, which accounts for a very short growing season between ice thawing and drought. On average, precipitation does not exceed 40 inches (100 cm) at medium elevations, reaching 80 to 90 inches (200 to 230 cm) at greater heights, most of which consists of snowfall.
Around the base of the mountain, there are a number of lakes, including the Lake of the Woods and Fourmile Lake. The Upper Klamath Lake, the largest body of freshwater in the state, sits to the east of Mount McLoughlin. The Summit Lake is a small lake on the northern slope of the volcano between the Rogue River and the Klamath Basin. The Big Butte Creek, a tributary of the Rogue River, drains the northwestern part of McLoughlin, while the Little Butte Creek is fed by the southern flanks.
## Ecology
About 20 tree species can be found throughout Mount McLoughlin's surroundings, including Pacific yew at low elevations, mountain hemlock, whitebark pine, and subalpine fir at higher elevations, and lodgepole pine and red fir throughout. Other plant species include shrubs, wildflowers, junipers, heather, columbine, kinnikinnick, huckleberry, chinquapins, grouse huckleberry, and bearberry.
Common fauna in the area include chipmunks, deer, elk, American black bears, coyotes, while yellow-bellied marmots, fishers, pikas, and American martens are less common. More than 150 bird species live in the Big Butte Creek watershed near McLoughlin. Eagles and hawks can be sighted in the vicinity, as can spotted owls. goshawks like to live beneath the tree canopy in the region. Amphibian species like Oregon spotted frogs and Cascades frogs live in certain parts of the watershed. Fish species include Chinook salmon, rainbow trout, Coho salmon, Pacific lamprey, and coastal cutthroat trout.
## Geology
Little was known about Mount McLoughlin's geology until the 1970s. Much of what is known today comes from LeRoy Maynard of the center for Volcanology at the University of Oregon. His work established that the volcano was built over three eruptive phases, each with their own eruption types. James Smith from the United States Geological Survey expanded on Maynard's findings, producing a map of the McLoughlin region.
McLoughlin is part of the High Cascades, which trend north–south. Formed towards the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, these mountains are underlain by more ancient volcanoes that subsided due to parallel north–south faulting in the surrounding region. Like other Cascade volcanoes, Mount McLoughlin was fed by magma chambers produced by the subduction of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate under the western edge of the North American tectonic plate. Within Oregon, plutons, or bodies of intrusive igneous rock that crystallize from magma cooling below the surface of the Earth, lay between 47 and 68 miles (75 and 110 km) northwest of the major High Cascade axis. At McLoughlin, mean displacement rates for the past 16 million years have been 0.14 to 0.28 inches (3.5 to 7.1 mm) each year.
The volcano shows magnetic high points to the east of its main cone, suggesting that it has normal magnetic polarization that corresponds to an age of less than 700,000 years. Other evidence that the volcano is geologically young include its symmetrical shape on the western and southern sides, its well-preserved lava flow deposits, and the absence of soil formation on many of its flow deposits.
McLoughlin is a stratovolcano, made up of basaltic andesite on top of underlying basaltic andesitic shield volcanoes. Much of its central volcanic cone formed within the last 200,000 years, including lava flows on the sides of the mountain that are between 30,000 and 20,000 years old. The volcano has a volume of 3 cubic miles (13 km<sup>3</sup>), and its lava is predominantly basaltic andesite with silicon dioxide content between 53 and 57 percent, though it also has andesite.
During the last ice age, a large ice cap buried most of the High Cascades, reaching thicknesses in the thousands of feet. Pleistocene glaciers carved out McLoughlin's major volcanic cone, excavating two solidified lava tubes that reached the summit crater. From 25,000 to 12,000 years ago, glaciers on the northern slopes of the volcano combined with an ice cap at the base of the volcano that was about 500 feet (150 m) thick. A cirque glacier occupied part of the depression until early in the 20th century. The volcano displays a lack of snow during the summer season.
### Nearby features
Two nearby volcanoes closely resemble Mount McLoughlin in composition and structure. Brown Mountain, a shield volcano with a volume of 1 cubic mile (4.2 km<sup>3</sup>), lies to the southeast, while Pelican Butte, the most prominent shield volcano in the southern Cascades of Oregon, lies to the east.
Brown Mountain has been dated to between 60,000 and 12,000 years old. It produced basaltic andesite lava flows that have not been heavily eroded, but during Pleistocene glacial advance, ice streams on the volcano ate away at the cinder cone that formed Brown Mountain's summit. This formed a glacial cirque with a bowl shape on the northeastern flank.
Pelican Butte reaches an elevation of 8,036 feet (2,449 m), and it features gradual slopes. Adjacent to Klamath Lake, it has a greater volume than McLoughlin at 5 cubic miles (21 km<sup>3</sup>), and it is made up of basaltic andesite. Like Brown Mountain, Pelican Butte has a cinder cone on the top of its summit, in addition to a glacial cirque and ravine that were excavated on its northeastern side. These eroded areas exhibit pyroclastic rock in a matrix with lava flows, suggesting that blocky and ʻaʻā lavas formed an outer shell around Pelican Butte's fragmented interior. Glaciation has also lowered the overall volcano by tens of yards.
Other volcanoes can be found within the Sky Lakes Wilderness area, including lava flows and mud flows at Big Bunchgrass Butte and Imagination Peak, in addition to more recent eruptive activity at Goosenest Mountain in the northeastern sector.
## Eruptive history
Mount McLoughlin underwent at least three distinct eruptive phases. Early activity at Mount McLoughlin was explosive, and it yielded tephra and pyroclastic rock that built about a third of the overall volume. These eruptions also yielded lava flows, but they only occurred on the lower flanks. The northwestern flank has volcanic vents that produced lava flows responsible for inundating the Fourbit Creek valley 4 miles (6.4 km) from the base of McLoughlin, which extend up to the Big Butte Springs. Other lava flows from earlier eruptions reach at least 6 miles (9.7 km) from the base of the mountain, a number of which run along the Oregon Route 140 highway. One ʻaʻā stream that filled a river valley for 6 miles (9.7 km) in length moved from an elevation of 5,000 feet (1,500 m) to 3,000 feet (910 m), though it was thin, with more than 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of its length being less than 500 feet (150 m) in width.
A second eruptive stage was characterized by large lava flows, which covered the inner pyroclastic core with basaltic andesite. These thin lava flows formed a shell around the loosely compacted pyroclastic interior. The third stage of development consisted of floods of blocky lava erupting from below the summit and more fluid lavas erupting from basal fissures, mostly confined to the south slope. North Squaw Tip and South Squaw Tip on McLoughlin's west flank now mark the site of the two major blocky flow vents. There are two smaller vents as well. The entire third stage is thought to have happened after the last Pleistocene glaciers in the area had melted, due to a general lack of weathering and fresh appearance of the solidified lava. The freshest lava flows at Mount McLoughlin occur on the southern and western flanks of the mountain, and they are thought to be between 30,000 and 20,000 years old.
### Future activity
Mount McLoughlin's main volcanic cone has not erupted during the Holocene, with the last production of lava flows taking place between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago. The volcano is not currently monitored for activity or deformation. The closest seismic monitoring stations lie 62 miles (100 km) to the south near Mount Shasta and the Medicine Lake Volcano.
## Human history
McLouglin has served as a landmark to Native American populations for thousands of years. They utilized the area to hunt and gather berries. The Takelma people referred to it as "Mal-sr" or "Alwilamchaldis", one of their mythical heroes, and they considered it the home of Tasuune, or the "Acorn Woman", a being that helped their acorns grow every year. In the culture of the Shasta people, McLoughlin was known as "Makayax"; the Klamath people named the volcano "Walum" and "Kesh yainatat", meaning the home of the "dwarf old woman" that controlled the west wind. McLoughlin was called "Melaiksi" by the Modoc people. The Little Butte Creek which drains from McLoughlin was called "So-ytanak", translating as "corner" or "rock house", by the Upper Takelma people.
First detected by an American explorer Peter Skene Ogden in 1827, McLoughlin has a complex name-place history. Ogden called the volcano "Mt. Sastise" after the Shasta Native Americans that helped him reach the Rogue Valley, but this name was later exchanged with Mount Shasta in northern California, then called "Pit Mountain". To local residents, Mount McLoughlin's English name was Mount Pitt, though it came to be referred to by other names including Mt. John Quincy Adams, Mt. Clear View, Snowy Butte, and Mt. Madison, also appearing in maps as Mount Pitt, Mount Simpson, and Mount Jackson. Though the volcano was also known as Mount McLoughlin during the 1800s, it was officially renamed in 1905 by the Oregon Legislative Assembly after Dr. John McLoughlin, a factor for the Hudson's Bay Company noted for helping American settlers in the 1830s and 1840s. An important figure in the local fur trade, McLoughlin was also known as the "Father of Oregon". The change from Pitt to McLoughlin was later confirmed by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1912.
The area around Mount McLoughlin was frequented by fur trappers and explorers, but they did not settle for long stays in the area. Settlers living near the surrounding Sky Lakes Wilderness trapped beavers and martens during the winter seasons, hunted, and grazed sheep in warmer months. Stuart Falls and Twin Ponds marked popular spots for picking huckleberries. Trails and fire lookouts were constructed for the Sky Lakes Wilderness area in the early 1900s, with the Pacific Crest Trail expanding into the region during the mid-1970s, superseding the pre-existing Oregon Skyline Trail.
Mount McLoughlin's first known ascent took place in 1858, when Joseph Burpee, William Wilkinson, Dr. Greer, Henry Klippel, John S. Love, and Robert Haines, from the city of Jacksonville, reached the summit from the northeast. The event was reported in a letter published by the Jacksonville Democratic Times on May 28, 1897. In 1896, members of the Mazama mountaineering club including Lottie Reed, Henry Pittock, and Leslie Scott ascended the mountain.
As of 1926, Mount McLoughlin's western flank acts as the municipal watershed for Medford, its melted snow feeding the Big Butte Springs near the city. The summer melting of snow forms a shape that is referred to locally as "the angel wings" or "the diving eagle", which local fishers consider a sign of peak fishing opportunities in the mountain's lakes.
## Recreation
Mount McLoughlin has a 5-mile (8.0 km) hiking trail to its summit. While non-technical, the trail gains about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in elevation, typically requiring at least six hours from start to finish. The trail receives moderate to heavy use each year; the peak is easiest to reach from July through September, when the trailhead is accessible by vehicle and snow is minimal along the path. The Mt. McLoughlin Trailhead is on Forest Road 3650, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of Oregon SR-140. After about 1 mile (1.6 km), the Mt. McLoughlin Trail joins the Pacific Crest Trail for half a mile, then passes through a forested area for about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) before reaching timberline. The last mile of the route travels over blocky lava and rubble, and the trail above the tree line is less clearly delineated. From the summit, Mount Shasta and Crater Lake can be seen.
During the winter, the climb requires snowshoes, crampons, and ice axes, and is far more challenging than the popular summertime route. The access road from Oregon SR-140 may also be closed due to snow, requiring a longer approach on snowshoes or cross country skis. The mountain can also be skied, which has become more popular in recent years.
## See also
- Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway |
1,615,896 | Battle of Roan's Tan Yard | 1,145,382,648 | 1862 battle of the American Civil War | [
"1862 in Missouri",
"1862 in the American Civil War",
"1862 in the United States",
"Battles of the American Civil War in Missouri",
"Battles of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War",
"January 1862 events",
"Operations in Northeast Missouri",
"Randolph County, Missouri",
"Union victories of the American Civil War"
]
| The Battle of Roan's Tan Yard, also known as the Battle of Silver Creek, was a minor battle fought during the American Civil War on January 8, 1862, in Randolph County, Missouri. After back-and-forth operations throughout 1861, the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard under the command of Sterling Price had been confined to southwestern Missouri. In December 1861, Price authorized recruiting and raiding activities in the central portion of the state, with the North Missouri Railroad being a major target. In January 1862, Major W. M. G. Torrence of the Union Army located a Missouri State Guard base in Randolph County and attacked it on January 8 with elements of four cavalry regiments. The camp, which was commanded by Colonel John A. Poindexter, put up little resistance and was soon overrun. Large quantities of supplies were captured in the abandoned camp, which was destroyed. The action at Roan's Tan Yard, along with a Missouri State Guard defeat at the Battle of Mount Zion Church the preceding December, led to a decrease in pro-Confederate activity in central Missouri.
## Background
When the American Civil War began in early 1861, the state of Missouri was politically divided. Despite being a slave state, it did not secede, although Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson supported secession. An attempt by Jackson and his pro-secession followers to move against the St. Louis Arsenal was thwarted on May 10 by Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon of the Union Army. In response, Jackson formed the Missouri State Guard as a pro-secession militia unit and appointed Sterling Price to lead it. Lyon chased Jackson and Price into the southwestern portion of the state in June, where Price was reinforced by Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch and his Confederate States Army unit. On August 10, Lyon attacked Price's and McCulloch's combined camp, but Lyon was killed and his army routed in the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Price followed up the victory by leading the Missouri State Guard on a foray north towards the Missouri River, culminating in the capture of Lexington in September. In mid-October, Union troops concentrated against Price, who then retreated back into southwestern Missouri. On November 3, while at Neosho, Jackson and the pro-secession state legislators, who had previously been evicted from the state capital by Lyon, voted to secede and join the Confederate State of America as a government-in-exile; the anti-secession elements of the state legislature had previously voted to remain in the United States.
## Battle
In December, Price sent recruiters into the central portions of Missouri, in the hope that men would volunteer to serve in his command. An additional goal was to raid the North Missouri Railroad on the night of December 20. Several hundred men volunteered for the raid on the railroad, and damaged a 100 miles (160 km) stretch of it by burning bridges; thousands of Missourians joined Confederate-supporting units in the period after the raid. The Missouri State Guard then formed a camp in the vicinity of Yates, Missouri, in Randolph County, to attract and train new recruits. While scouting near Silver Creek in January 1862, Union major, W. M. G. Torrence, of the 1st Iowa Cavalry Regiment, learned of the presence of a Missouri State Guard camp in the area. While Union authorities had been aware of the existence of the camp for over a week, its location had not previously been established. The Missouri State Guard outpost was under the command of Colonel John A. Poindexter. An 1864 source estimated that Poindexter had around 1,000 men on hand.
On January 8, Torrence decided to attack Poindexter's camp. Collecting together detachments from his own regiment, as well as the 1st and 2nd Missouri and the 4th Ohio cavalry regiments, Torrence began preparing for an attack. The National Park Service estimates the Union column's strength at around 450 men, while a 1908 history of the Union Army gives a strength of about 500. About 4 miles (6 km) from the Missouri State Guard camp, Torrence deployed his men. One battalion of the 2nd Missouri Cavalry and one company of the 4th Ohio Cavalry were to draw Poindexter's fire, while elements of the 1st Iowa Cavalry and the 1st Missouri Cavalry were to conduct a mounted charge; three additional companies of the 2nd Missouri Cavalry were to attack from a different direction. The attack hit around 16:30 with fog on the field. Initially, the Missouri States Guardsmen held out, using the fog and the terrain as cover, with the two sides trading volleys. Torrence broke the stalemate by sending four companies, three of which were from the 1st Iowa Cavalry, to charge Poindexter's line. This threw the defenders into confusion, and the camp was captured after a fight of only thirty or forty minutes. Large quantities of supplies and equipment were taken from the camp. Poindexter's surviving men fled, using fog to cover their retreat. In his official report, Torrence stated that he had sent two companies to block the Missouri State Guardsmen's path of retreat, but that fog and the terrain thwarted the attempt, allowing their escape.
## Aftermath
After the battle, the camp was destroyed; with the camp unusable, Missouri State Guard recruiting activities in Randolph County ceased. Coupled with another defeat, at the Battle of Mount Zion Church, the previous December, the setback led to a reduction of pro-Confederate activities in the central Missouri region. Estimates of casualties suffered in the action vary. Torrence estimated that between 80 and 100 Missouri State Guard soldiers were killed or wounded, and reported the capture of a further 28; the National Park Service and the modern history Frances H. Kennedy place Poindexter's loss at a total of 80. Union casualties are generally reported to have been either four or 11, although one source places their loss at as high as 27. The site of the battle is privately owned and is not commemorated on-site, although a museum in nearby Huntsville provides interpretation of the action. A 2011 study by the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission determined that 1,329.25 acres (537.93 ha) of the battlefield are likely eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The same study determined that land use at the site was relatively unchanged when compared to the time of the battle.
## General sources
[1862 in the United States](Category:1862_in_the_United_States "wikilink") [Operations in Northeast Missouri](Category:Operations_in_Northeast_Missouri "wikilink") [Union victories of the American Civil War](Category:Union_victories_of_the_American_Civil_War "wikilink") [Battles of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War](Category:Battles_of_the_Trans-Mississippi_Theater_of_the_American_Civil_War "wikilink") [Roan's Tan Yard](Category:Battles_of_the_American_Civil_War_in_Missouri "wikilink") [Battle of Roan's Tan Yard](Category:Randolph_County,_Missouri "wikilink") [1862 in the American Civil War](Category:1862_in_the_American_Civil_War "wikilink") [1862 in Missouri](Category:1862_in_Missouri "wikilink") [January 1862 events](Category:January_1862_events "wikilink") |
5,362,623 | Carbon accounting | 1,168,765,614 | Processes used to measure how much carbon dioxide equivalents an organization sequesters or emits | [
"Carbon finance",
"Greenhouse gas inventories",
"Management cybernetics",
"Types of accounting"
]
| Carbon accounting (or greenhouse gas accounting) is a framework of methods to measure and track how much greenhouse gas (GHG) an organization emits. It can also be used to track projects or actions to reduce emissions in sectors such as forestry or renewable energy. Corporations, cities and other groups use these techniques to help limit climate change. Organizations will often set an emissions baseline, create targets for reducing emissions, and track progress towards them. The accounting methods enable them to do this in a more consistent and transparent manner.
GHG accounting is often done to address social responsibility concerns, or meet legal requirements. Other motivations include public rankings alongside other companies, financial due diligence, and potential cost savings. GHG accounting methods can help investors better understand the climate risks of companies they invest in. Corporate and community net-zero goals are also aided by accurate accounting methods. There are now many governments around the world that require various forms of reporting, and there is some evidence that programs that require GHG accounting have the effect of lowering emissions. Markets for buying and selling carbon credits also depend on accurate measurement of emissions and emission reductions. These techniques can also help understand the impacts of specific products and services by quantifying their GHG emissions throughout their lifecycle. This can promote more environmentally friendly purchasing decisions.
These techniques can be used at different scales, from those of companies and cities, to the greenhouse gas inventories of entire nations. They typically involve a combination of measurements, calculations, estimates, and reporting. A variety of standards and guidelines can apply, including Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO 14064. These often organize emissions into three categories. The Scope 1 category covers direct emissions from an organization's facilities. Scope 2 covers emissions from electricity purchased by the organization. Scope 3 covers other indirect emissions, including those from general suppliers.
There are a number of challenges in creating accurate accounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions, in particular, can be difficult to estimate. In project accounting, additionality and double counting issues can affect the credibility of renewable energy and forest preservation efforts. These limitations can, in turn, impact perceptions of progress on climate change. Methods are being developed to provide accuracy checks on accounting reports from companies and projects. Organizations like Climate Trace are now able to check reports against actual emissions via the use of satellite imagery and AI techniques.
## Origins
Initial efforts to create greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting methods were largely at the national level. In 1995, the United Nations climate program required developed countries to report annually on their emissions from six types of industry. Two years later, the Kyoto protocol defined the greenhouse gases that are the focus of today's accounting methods. These are carbon dioxide (), methane (), nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen trifluoride, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. These actions raised awareness about the importance of accurate GHG emission estimates.
In 1998 the World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) began work to develop a protocol to support this goal. They published the first version of Greenhouse Gas Protocol in September 2001. It establishes a "comprehensive, global, standardized framework for measuring and managing emissions from private and public sector operations, value chains, products, cities, and policies". The corporate protocol divides an organization's emissions into three categories. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from an organization's facilities. Scope 2 covers emissions from generating electricity purchased by the organization. Scope 3 covers other indirect emissions.
Other initiatives since then have helped promote corporate and community participation in GHG accounting. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) began in the UK in 2002, and is now a multinational group, with thousands of companies disclosing their GHG emissions. The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) formed in 2015 as a collaboration between CDP, WRI, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). Its goal is to establish science-based environmental target setting as a standard corporate practice.
Since the 2015 Paris Agreement there has been an increased focus on standards for financial risk from GHG emissions. The Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) formed as a follow-up to the Paris Agreement. It established a framework of recommendations on the types of information that companies should disclose to investors, lenders, and insurance underwriters. More recently, governments such as the EU and US have developed regulations that cover corporate financial disclosure requirements and the use of accounting protocols to meet them.
Participation in greenhouse gas accounting and reporting has grown significantly over time. In 2020, 81% of S&P 500 companies reported Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Globally, over 22,000 companies disclosed data to CDP in 2022.
## Drivers
### Internal company drivers
A variety of business incentives drive corporate carbon accounting. These include rankings alongside other companies, managing climate change related risks, investment due diligence, shareholder and stakeholder outreach, staff engagement, and energy cost savings. Accounting for greenhouse gas emissions is often seen as a standard practice for business.
### Governmental requirements
Legal requirements provide another type of driver. These are usually created through specific laws on reporting, or within broader environmental programs. Emissions trading markets also depend on accounting and reporting protocols. In 2015 more than 40 countries had some type of reporting requirement in place.
The EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is part of the European Green Deal. It is intended to make EU countries carbon neutral by 2050. This directive will require many large companies and companies with securities listed on EU-regulated markets to disclose a broad array of ESG information, including GHG emissions. The UK's Environmental Reporting Guidelines update and clarify requirements in earlier laws that required companies to report information on GHG emissions. In the US the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) requires facility (as opposed to corporate) based reporting of GHG emissions from large industrial facilities. The program covers a total of 41 industrial categories.
Recent regulations are also coming from agencies that traditionally have had a financial focus. The US Security Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule in 2022 to require all public companies, regardless of size, to report Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Larger companies would be required to disclose Scope 3 emissions only if they are material to the company, or if the company has set an emissions target that includes Scope 3. Japan's Financial Services Agency's (FSA) also issued rules in 2022 that require financial disclosure of climate related information. These may cover around 4,000 companies, including those listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Government procurement requirements have also begun to incorporate GHG reporting requirements. In 2022 both the US and the UK governments issued executive type orders that require this practice.
Emission trading schemes in various countries also play a role in promoting GHG accounting, as do international carbon offset programs. The European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is a cap-and-trade system where a limit is placed on the right to emit specified pollutants over an area, and companies can trade emission rights within that area. EU ETS is the second largest trading system in the world after the Chinese national carbon trading scheme, covering over 40% of European GHG emissions. Greenhouse Gas Protocol is cited in its guidance documents. California's cap-and-trade program operates along similar principles. International offset programs also contain requirements for quantifying emission reductions from specific project. The CDM has a detailed set of monitoring, reporting, and verification procedures, as does the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program. As of 2022, similar procedures to document project reductions under Article 6 of the Paris agreement are yet to be worked out .
### Non-governmental organization programs
Many NGOs have developed programs that both promote GHG accounting and reporting, and help define its features. The Carbon Disclosure project allows a range of protocols for reporting to it. Most companies report GHG emissions to CDP using Greenhouse Gas Protocol or a protocol based on it. The Science Based Targets initiative cites Greenhouse Gas Protocol guidance as part of its criteria and recommendations. Similarly, the TCFD cites Greenhouse Gas Protocol in its recommended metrics and targets.
## Frameworks and standards
Many of today's carbon accounting standards have incorporated principles from the 2006 guidelines for greenhouse gas inventories that were created by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Those most consistently applied include transparency, accuracy, consistency, and completeness. The IPCC principle of comparability, for example amongst organizations, is less widely applied, though techniques to support this goal are mentioned throughout Greenhouse Gas Protocol's corporate standard.
These standards typically cover the greenhouse gases first regulated under the Kyoto Protocol. They operate in two distinct manners. Attributional accounting allocates emissions to specific organizations or products, and measures and tracks them over time. Consequential accounting methods measure the difference from a specific change, like a GHG reduction project.
### Corporate/local government standards
Corporations and facilities use a variety of methods to track and report GHG emissions. These include those from Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, the Global Reporting Initiative, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, the Climate Registry, as well as several industry specific organizations. CDP lists an even broader set of acceptable methods for reporting in its guidance. Standards for cities and communities include the Global Protocol for Community Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories and the ICLEI U.S. Community Protocol. This covers cities and communities in the US.
#### Greenhouse Gas Protocol
GHG Protocol is a group of standards that are the most common in GHG accounting. These standards reflect a number of accounting principles, including relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, and accuracy. The standards divide emissions into three scopes.
Scope 1 covers all direct GHG emissions within a corporate boundary (owned or controlled by a company). It includes fuel combustion, company vehicles and fugitive emissions. Scope 2 covers indirect GHG emissions from consumption of purchased electricity, heat, cooling or steam. As of 2010, at least one third of global GHG emissions are Scope 2.
Scope 3 emission sources include emissions from suppliers and product users (also known as the “value chain”). Transportation of goods, and other indirect emissions are also part of this scope. Scope 3 emissions often represent the largest source of corporate greenhouse gas emissions, for example the use of oil sold by Aramco. These were estimated to represent 75% of all emissions reported to the Carbon Disclosure Project, though that percentage varies widely amongst business sectors. In 2022 about 30% of US companies reported Scope 3 emissions. However, the International Sustainability Standards Board is developing a recommendation that Scope 3 emissions be included as part of all GHG reporting. There are 15 Scope 3 categories. Examples include goods or services an organization purchases, employee commuting, and the use of sold products. Not every category is relevant to all organizations.
WRI is currently developing a Land Sector and Removals Standard for its corporate reporting guidelines. This will include emissions and removals from land management and land use change; biogenic products; and carbon dioxide removal technologies.
#### ISO 14064
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published ISO 14064 standards for greenhouse gas accounting and verification in 2006. ISO, WRI and WBCSD worked together to ensure consistency amongst the ISO and Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards. ISO 14064 is based on Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Part 1 (ISO 14064-1:2006) specifies principles and requirements for estimating and reporting GHG emissions and removals. Part 3 (ISO 14064-3:2006) provides guidance for conducting and managing the verification of GHG reporting.
#### PAS 2060
PAS 2060 is a standard that describes how organizations can demonstrate carbon neutrality. It was developed by the British Standards Institute and published in 2010. Under PAS 2060 GHG estimates should include 100% of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, plus all Scope 3 emissions that contribute more than 1% of the total footprint. Organizations must also develop a Carbon Management Plan which contains a public commitment to carbon neutrality along with a reduction strategy. This strategy should include a time scale for achieving neutrality, specific targets for reductions, how those reductions will be achieved and how residual emissions will be offset.
#### EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) requires facility and supplier based reporting for many categories of emissions sources. The program includes guidelines for how emissions are to be estimated and reported. Facilities are required to report (1) combustion emissions resulting from burning fossil fuels or biomass (such as wood or landfill gas); and (2) other emissions from industrial processes, such as chemical reactions from iron and steelmaking, cement, or petrochemicals. Categories of suppliers that must report include coal and natural gas, petroleum products, as well as suppliers of and other industrial GHGs. Monitoring methodologies are more specific than GHG Protocol or ISO 14064, and require the use of continuous monitoring systems, mass balance calculations, or default emission factors. EPA uses the facility-level and supplier data to help prepare the annual Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, which is submitted to the United Nations.
#### Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
Created in 2015, the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) provides information to investors about what companies are doing to mitigate the risks of climate change. TCFD's disclosure standard for companies covers four thematic areas. These are governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. There are also several principles TCFD emphasizes in its guidance. Disclosures should be representative of relevant information; specific and complete; as well as clear, balanced, and understandable. In addition, estimates also need to be consistent over time; comparable amongst companies within a sector industry or portfolio; reliable, verifiable, and objective; and timely. The metrics and targets portion of the standard requires measurement and disclosure methods based on GHG Protocol. The TCFD's standard specifies that companies should disclose all Scope 1 and 2 emissions regardless of their material impacts on the company. Scope 3 emission reporting is dependent on whether they are "material", but TCFD recommends they be included.
#### Protocols for cities/communities
The Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories (GPC) is the result of a collaborative effort between the GHG Protocol at World Resources Institute (WRI), C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), and Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI). It requires a community to first identify the inventory boundary, such as an administrative boundary for a city or county. The protocol focuses on six main activity sectors. These are stationary energy; transportation; waste; industrial processes and product use; agriculture, forestry and other land use. Emissions occurring outside the geographic boundary that are a result of a jurisdiction's activities are also included. To distinguish between emissions that occur within a city boundary and outside, the protocol uses the Scope 1, 2 and 3 definitions in GHG Protocol. Communities report emissions by gas, scope, sector and subsector using two options. One is a framework that reflects a more traditional Scope 1, 2, and 3 assessment. Another is more focused on activities taking place within that community, and excludes categories such as waste generated outside of it.
The U.S. Community Protocol developed by ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability USA also emphasizes the use of geographic boundaries rather than corporate boundaries. It recommends an approach focused on specific emission sources and activities rather than the more commonly used Scope 1, 2 and 3 framework to calculate emissions. The guidance suggests communities consider the stories they wish to convey about community emissions, and what reporting methods will help tell those stories. The guidance covers five basic emissions generating activities. These are use of electricity by the community; use of fuel in residential and commercial stationary combustion equipment; on‐road passenger and freight motor vehicle travel; use of energy in drinking water and wastewater treatment and distribution; and generation of solid waste by the community. Reporting guidance covers a variety of approaches, and organizations can include one or more of them. These include GHG activities and sources over which a local government has significant influence; GHG activities of community interest; household consumption inventories; and an inventory that incorporates the GHG emissions (and removals) from land use. GHG reports from cities have been found to vary widely, and often show lower emissions than those from independent analyses.
Consumption-based methods, such as PAS 2070, provide another perspective on community greenhouse gas emissions. These clarify the difference between GHG emissions from sources within a community boundary, and GHG emissions from goods and services that are used by residents, but produced outside the community. These consumption-based estimates can often be much greater than those from sources solely within a community.
### Product accounting standards
Product accounting methods are part of a broader set of Life Cycle Assessment approaches that include Product Carbon Footprints. These focus on the single issue of climate change. They can be used for either a product or a service. Related standards include ISO 14067, PAS 2050, and GHG Protocol Product Standard.
GHG Protocol for Products builds on the framework of requirements in the ISO 14040 and PAS 2050 standards. It is similar to GHG Protocol Scope 3, but focused on life cycle/value chain impacts for a specific product. The same five accounting principles apply as with the Corporate Standard. Steps include setting business goals, defining analysis boundaries, calculating results, analyzing uncertainties, and reporting. Boundaries for final products are required to include the complete cradle-to-grave life cycle.
The ISO 14067 standard builds largely on other existing ISO standards for LCA. Steps include goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, interpretation, and reporting. For ISO 14067, the life cycle stages that need to be studied in the LCA are defined by a variety of system boundaries. Cradle-to-grave includes the emissions and removals generated during the full life of cycle of the product. Cradle-to-gate includes the emissions and removals up to where the product leaves the organization. Gate-to-gate includes the emissions and removals that arise in the supply chain.
Product footprint analysis can provide insight into GHG contributions throughout the value chain. On average, 45% of total value chain emissions arise upstream in the supply chain, 23% during the company's direct operations, and 32% downstream.
### Project accounting standards
Project accounting standards and protocols are typically used to ensure the "environmental integrity" of projects designed to reduce GHG emissions and generate carbon offsets. They support both compliance type programs as well as voluntary markets. Accounting rules cover areas such as monitoring, reporting, and verification, and are designed to ensure that the emission reduction estimates for a project are accurate. Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO have specific protocols to accomplish this. Certification organizations also have program requirements can cover project eligibility, certification, and other aspects. Verified Carbon Standard, the Gold Standard, Climate Action Reserve and the American Carbon Registry are among the leading certification organizations doing this work. Project developers, brokers, auditors, and buyers are the other main types of participants.
Several principles help ensure the environmental integrity of carbon offset projects that rely on this family of standards. One key principle is additionality. This depends on whether the project would occur anyway without the funds raised by selling carbon offset credits. For instance, a project would not be considered additional if it is already financially viable due to energy or other cost savings. Similarly, if it would normally be done to meet an environmental law or regulation, it would not be additional. Various kinds of analyses can help evaluate this aspect of a project, though the results are often subjective.
Projects are also judged based on the permanence of reductions over various time horizons. This is important in areas such as forestry projects. They should also be designed to avoid double-counting, where reductions are claimed by more than one organization. Avoiding overestimation of emission reductions is another consideration. Some protocols and standards look to ensure that projects produce social and environmental co-benefits, in addition to emission reductions from the project itself.
#### ISO 14064 Part 2
This standard provides guidance for quantification, monitoring and reporting of GHG reduction activities or removal enhancements. It includes requirements for planning a GHG project, as well as identifying and selecting GHG sources and sinks. It also covers various aspects of GHG project performance.
#### GHG Protocol standards for projects and policies
The accounting principles in the GHG Protocol for Project Accounting include relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, accuracy and conservativeness. Like the ISO standard, the protocol's focus is on core accounting principles and impact quantification, rather than the programmatic and transactional aspects of carbon credits. The protocol gives general guidance on applying additionality and uncertainty principles, but does not specifically require them. WRI and WBCSD have also developed additional guidance documents for projects in the land use, forestry, and electric grid sectors. GHG Protocol Policy and Action Standard has similar accounting principles, but these are applied to general programs and policies designed to reduce GHGs.
#### Verified Carbon Standard (VERRA)
VERRA was developed in 2005, and is a widely used voluntary carbon standard. It uses accounting principles based on ISO 14064 Part 2, which are the same as the GHG protocol principles described above. Allowable projects under VERRA include energy, transport, waste, and forestry. There are also specific methodologies for REDD+ projects. Verra has additional criteria to avoid double counting, as well as requirements for additionality. Negative impacts on sustainable development in the local community are prohibited. Project monitoring is based on CDM standards.
#### Gold Standard
The Gold Standard was developed in 2003 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in consultation with an independent Standards Advisory Board. Projects are open to any non-government, community-based organization. Allowable project categories include renewable energy supply, energy efficiency, afforestation/reforestation, and agriculture (the latter can be difficult - for example soil carbon measurements are depth sensitive). The program's focus includes the promotion of Sustainable Developments Goals. Projects must meet at least three of those goals, in addition to reducing GHG emissions. Projects must also make a net-positive contribution to the economic, environmental and social welfare of the local population. Program monitoring requirements help determine this. The standard certifies additionality based on an evaluation of financial viability or the institutional barriers that a project faces. In some cases additionality is assumed based on the type of project. There are also screens for double counting.
## Other applications
In addition to the uses described above, GHG accounting is used in other settings, both regulatory and voluntary.
### Renewable energy credits
Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) or Guarantees of Origin (GO) document the fact that one megawatt-hour of electricity is generated and supplied to the electrical grid through the use of renewable energy resources. RECs are now being utilized around the world and are becoming more prevalent. The United Kingdom (U.K.) has used renewable obligation certificates since 2002 in order to ensure compliance with the U.K. Renewables Obligation. In the European Union, Guarantees of Origin are used to describe this practice. Australia has used RECs since 2001. More recently, India set up a REC market.
In the context of GHG accounting, RECs are often used to adjust estimated Scope 2 emissions. In a typical case, a company would calculate its Scope 2 emissions using its electricity consumption and grid emissions factor. Companies that purchase RECs can use them to lower average emissions factors in their accounting. This allows them to report lower emissions while their real electricity consumption stays the same; as the use of a REC does not necessarily mean additional renewable power has been brought to the grid.
### National emissions inventories
Data from facility level accounting can improve the overall quality and accuracy of national inventories by providing quality control checks on inventory estimates and through improved emissions factors. This depends in part on what percentage of the sector's emissions the available data covers. In some cases, aggregated facility level data can also be used to update or modify inventory results for certain sectors.
### Net Zero goals and GHG disclosure
The Net Zero concept emerged from the Paris Agreement, and has become a feature of both national laws and numerous corporate goals. Race to Zero was developed in 2019 to encourage private companies and sub-national governments to commit to net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. SBTI created a Net Zero program in 2021 to assist organizations in making this transition. That standard includes restrictions on the use of carbon removals to reach net zero goals. Accurate and comprehensive GHG accounting is considered a key element of for Net Zero transition plans, including the use of protocols such as GHG Corporate Standard.
The CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) is an international NGO that helps companies and cities disclose their environmental impact. It aims to make corporate accounting and reporting a business norm, and drive GHG disclosure, insight, and action. In 2021, over 14,000 organizations disclosed their environmental information through CDP. CDP's 2022 questionnaire on transition plans includes specific requirements for describing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
## Effectiveness
With the growth of GHG reporting, more information is now available to provide rankings of GHG emissions from companies and cities. News media have used these rankings to bring attention to those companies. In some instances, such as media coverage of the 2017 "Carbon Majors" report by CDP, this particular use of disclosure was shown to be misleading.
Understanding the overall impacts of GHG reporting in reducing an organization's emissions can be difficult. A number of studies have looked at changes in GHG emissions that occur after GHG reporting begins. There is evidence from related programs that self reporting lowers emissions. EPA's Toxic Release inventory is one such example. It has been shown to have had a significant effect in reducing emissions of chemicals once facilities are required to disclose that information.
Recent studies focusing on changes in GHG emissions that result from GHG reporting have shown mixed results. Voluntary carbon reporting itself has often been shown to be ineffective in reducing GHG emissions. However, when looking at the additional impact of programs that require GHG emission reporting, studies have shown more of an effect. A recent study of UK reporting requirements showed that they do result in reduced corporate GHG emissions. Analyses of EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program found that when firms are required to disclose their facility level emissions, it can also lead to a reduction in GHG intensity of their operations, though the evidence for reductions in absolute emissions is less clear. One suggestion for the effects of specific GHG reporting requirements is that they inhibit the ability of companies to portray their emissions in a flattering way, and so are forced to actually make changes that lower GHG emissions.
There are some confounding factors involved in this research. These include whether or not the studies are done in places where there is emissions trading, such as the EU ETS. Another variable is whether or not the requirements focus on larger companies that emit more GHGs. In addition, firms that are required to report on facility emissions appear to focus on controlling emissions for their affected facilities, but to then transfer emissions to nonreporting facilities that they also control.
## Limitations
GHG accounting faces a number of challenges and critical assessments. One category involves how best to determine organizational boundaries and identify inputs and outputs most relevant to emissions. Problems also arise with characterizing uncertainty in emission estimates, and identifying what information materially affects a company's operations, and therefore needs reporting. The use of alternate standards can affect comparability across organizations, as can lack of third party verification.
Accurate reporting of Scope 3 emissions is a particular challenge. These emissions can be several times greater than Scope 1 and 2 emissions. In some cases these are reported inconsistently, depending on whom they are reported to. Lack of high-quality data can also affect the accuracy of Scope 3 estimates for particular categories of upstream and downstream sources that influence Scope 3 estimates. Companies may neglect to include key Scope 3 categories when reporting to organizations such as CDP. As of 2020, only 18% of the constituents of MSCI's global security index reported Scope 3 emissions. There is also evidence that many of the high rate emitters either under-report or do not report at all. Even Scope 3 data from companies that are then analyzed and summarized by third party auditing firms tend to be highly inconsistent. There are also concerns over double counting of Scope 3 emissions as companies work with their value chain partners. Despite the uncertainty of these numbers, Scope 3 estimates are seen by many companies as important for decision making purposes. They are also considered an important tool for investors to better understand climate related risks in their portfolio.
Many companies may also inaccurately estimate the climate benefits of their products. This can happen by failing to account for a product's full life cycle, using inappropriate comparisons, conflating market size with product use, and cherry picking results to skew a portfolio towards those products that have less impacts.
Double counting of GHG emissions or benefits can discredit the information value. Problems created by skewed data collection methods can affect companies, GHG reduction projects, investors, those involved in carbon credits/offsets, and regulatory agencies. It can also distort perceptions of progress in reducing emissions. In corporate accounting, double-counting can reach about 30-40% of emissions in institutional portfolios. However, some accounting methods can still provide organizations with information on how to reduce real emissions.
In trading schemes and regulatory/inventory schemes, double counting presents other problems. For Renewable Energy Certificates, double counting can falsely exaggerate claims about using renewable resources. Double counting of emission reductions can also produce disincentives to use international carbon trading schemes, such as the CDM. Trading participants may be reluctant to purchase credits if the credits are already used by other entities. Double counting of emission reductions could increase the global costs of reducing GHG emissions. It can also make mitigation pledges less comparable. This, in turn, can affect the credibility of the international climate control efforts, and make it more difficult to reach agreements on how to affect the drivers of climate change. Estimating the extent of double counting is difficult. Estimates depend in part on actions taken at various levels to prevent double counting.
In addition to double counting, carbon offsets face a variety of other challenges that affect the quality of the offset. These include additionality, overestimation, and permanence of offsets. News stories in 2021 and 2022 have criticized nature based carbon offsets, the REDD+ program, and certification organizations. The REDD+ program in particular has been criticized as having a poor history of accounting for its results. However, positive aspects of these programs have also been highlighted.
## Current trends
### Standards alignment and interoperability
As mentioned in the "Frameworks and standards" section, organizations can use a variety of accounting methods and approaches to estimate and report on GHG emissions. Some standards, such as GHG protocol, have been in existence for more than two decades. Yet efforts continue to better align these standards and create more interoperability among them. For example, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has also been established to develop a global baseline of sustainability standards that it hopes will help harmonize sustainability disclosure requirements. In 2022, the ISSB established a working group to enhance compatibility among various corporate disclosure requirements, including the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and SEC's 2022 disclosure rule.
Although these are all based on the broader elements of the TCFD framework and GHG protocol, they differ in a variety of ways. For example, when the SEC proposal uses the term "material", it is only describing the extent to which reporting on emissions could directly impact a company financially. The CSRD proposal uses a "double materiality" criterion, which takes into consideration impacts on both a company and the public at large. It remains to be seen how these types of issues will be reconciled.
Another trend is an increased convergence between voluntary standards and regulatory requirements. These began with the incorporation of voluntary offsets standards into the California Emission Trading System. More recently, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) has incorporated guidance from voluntary carbon market standards. It has approved seven such standards as eligible for use by airlines under its program.
### Support for net-zero goals
There is also an increased focus on aligning GHG accounting standards with net-zero goals and claims. SBTi launched a net-zero corporate standard in 2021. Companies that pledge to this standard need to have both short term targets as well as targets for 2050. ISO also has a new standard under development, ISO 14068, that supports net-zero goals. It is expected to build on the original net neutrality standard, PAS 2060.
### Managing Scope 3 emissions
For the average company, Scope 3 emissions estimates are significantly higher than the level of direct emissions. NGOs such as SBTI are working to address this. If a company's Scope 3 emissions are more than 40% of their total, that company needs a Scope 3 target to meet SBTi standards. Hoverer, only about a third of suppliers reporting to CDP as part of their Global Supply Chain program describe specific climate targets.
In some cases, companies are working with their suppliers to set goals for measuring and reducing emission. Other efforts include developing supplier codes of conduct for specific business sectors. Companies may also target specific offset projects within their own Scope 3 supply chains. Government agencies have developed guidance on how to engage with suppliers, including basic questionnaires about Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
### Voluntary carbon markets
The voluntary market is expected to grow tremendously over the next few decades. To date, the Scope 1-3 emissions of the 54 Global Fortune 500 companies that committed to net zero by 2050 or earlier is about 2.5 gigatons of equivalent. By comparison, the volume of credits traded on the voluntary carbon market was about 300 megatons as of 2021. Global demand for carbon credits could increase up to 15 times by 2030 and 100 times by 2050. Carbon removal projects such as forestry and carbon capture and storage are expected to have a larger share of this market in the future, compared to renewable energy projects.
### Alternative validation approaches
Techniques are being developed to use other emission data sets to validate GHG accounting methods. Project Vulcan collects data from a large number of publicly available data sources for the United States such as pollution reporting, energy statistics, power plant stack monitoring, and traffic counts. Using these data, US cities have been found to often underestimate their emissions. Methods that link emissions data with atmospheric measurements can help improve city inventories.
Climate Trace is an independent organization that improves monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) by publishing point sources of carbon dioxide and methane in near-real-time. Climate Trace has found underreporting of emissions from the oil and gas sector.
## See also
- Carbon emissions trading
- Carbon footprint
- Clean Development Mechanism
- Cooperative Mechanisms under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement
- European Union Emissions Trading System
- Flexible Mechanisms
- Greenhouse gas inventory
- Greenhouse gas monitoring
- Regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act |
32,659,202 | Criminal (Britney Spears song) | 1,172,510,689 | 2011 single by Britney Spears | [
"2010s ballads",
"2011 singles",
"2011 songs",
"Britney Spears songs",
"Jive Records singles",
"Music video controversies",
"Music videos directed by Chris Marrs Piliero",
"Music videos shot in London",
"Pop ballads",
"RCA Records singles",
"Song recordings produced by Max Martin",
"Song recordings produced by Shellback (record producer)",
"Songs about criminals",
"Songs written by Max Martin",
"Songs written by Shellback (record producer)",
"Songs written by Sophia Somajo",
"Torch songs"
]
| "Criminal" is the fourth and final single from American singer Britney Spears' seventh studio album, Femme Fatale (2011). "Criminal" was written and produced by Max Martin and Shellback, with additional writing by Tiffany Amber. After Spears first listened to the song, she felt it was different and unlike anything she had heard before. She posted a snippet of it online on March 2, 2011, prior to the album's release. "Criminal" was chosen as a single by a poll on her Facebook page, as Spears explained it was a way to give back to her fans. The artwork for the single was released on September 14, 2011.
"Criminal" is a guitar and synth-driven mid-tempo pop ballad which incorporates a folk-style flute melody. It is considered the only ballad on Femme Fatale, and is less aggressive than the other songs of the album. "Criminal" is influenced by the works of ABBA and Madonna. In the song, Spears sings about being in love with a bad boy and outlaw, and pleads to her mother to not worry about their relationship. "Criminal" received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising its organic and refreshing feel in comparison with the rest of the album. After the release of Femme Fatale, the song charted on the South Korean International chart. "Criminal" has also charted in major markets such as Canada, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil and the United States.
The accompanying music video for the song was filmed at Dalston and Stoke Newington, London. It features Spears as a woman in upper society and follows her relationship with a criminal, played by her then real-life boyfriend Jason Trawick. Prior to its release, London officials criticized Spears for shooting scenes with a replica gun and glamorizing violence. The video received a positive response from critics, with some calling it the best music video from Femme Fatale. Reviewers also perceived parallels between the video and Spears's personal life.
A revival in interest for the song occurred when it went viral on TikTok, particularly with the "Mugshot Challenge". It has since become Spears' fourth most liked music video on YouTube; and in October 2020, the single reached a new peak of daily listeners on Spotify with 128,000 streams occurring on October 2.
## Background
"Criminal" was written in 2008 by Max Martin, Shellback and Tiffany Amber, and was produced by Martin and Shellback. Spears told MTV News that after she first listened to the song, she felt it was different and unlike anything she had heard before. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Spears spoke about Martin's productions on Femme Fatale, saying, "Max played a huge role on this album and he has been there since the beginning so there is such a huge level of trust. He gets exactly what I am saying when I tell him what I want and don’t want musically". Spears recorded her vocals at Maratone Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The track was later mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It was registered on Broadcast Music Incorporated under the legal title "In Love With a Criminal". On March 2, 2011, Spears posted on her Twitter account a link to a 17-second clip of the song, describing it as "one of [her] favorites".
On August 5, 2011, she launched a poll on her Facebook page asking fans whether her next single should be "Criminal", "Inside Out" or "(Drop Dead) Beautiful." After the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, she revealed to MTV News that "Criminal" was chosen as the fourth single. On the British talk show This Morning, Spears explained that the song "was chosen by the fans. It was just cool to give something back to them and see what they would appreciate." The "Criminal (Radio Mix)", which was included on her second remix album, B in the Mix: The Remixes Vol. 2, was released as a single on September 30, 2011, and the song was added to the United States mainstream radio playlists on October 4, 2011. The artwork for the single was released on September 14, 2011. It features Spears looking out into the distance, with her wavy hair falling on her bare back. A mysterious hooded man is also featured on the cover. Robbie Daw of Idolator said that "it appears as if Camp Spears hired the best Photoshop expert \$15 could buy when it came to designing the art. Oh, just kidding — we love red and blue! Makes us think of sex and, uh, ice-cold criminals. Or something."
## Composition
"Criminal" is a guitar-driven midtempo track which incorporates a folk-style flute melody. Erin Thompson of the Seattle Weekly said the song "takes a breather from aggressive, wall-to-wall synths, driven instead by a steady guitar rhythm and an oddly Asian folky-sounding flute melody.". The radio edit changes the drums to be louder, among various other instrumental changes. It is considered the only ballad of the album. Thompson compared it to her past ballads, saying it is not "sappy" like "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" (2002) and not "teary-sad" like "Everytime" (2004). "Criminal" is reminiscent of the music of ABBA and Madonna, and the latter's albums Ray of Light (1998) and American Life (2003), according to David Buchanan of Consequence of Sound and Samesame.com.au, respectively. The beat was compared by Keith Caufield of Billboard to Madonna's "Don't Tell Me" (2000). Carl Wilson of the Los Angeles Times said "Criminal" is "awkwardly pitched between rock and ballad". The use of the flute was compared by Amy Sciarretto of PopCrush to the sample of "The Lonely Goatherd" from The Sound of Music (1959) on Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up" (2006).
In the verses, Spears sings about being in love with a bad boy and outlaw, in lyrics such as "He is a hustler / He's no good at all / He is a loser, he's a bum, bum, bum, bum" and "He is a bad boy with a tainted heart / And even I know this ain't smart". During the chorus, she pleads to her mother not to worry in lines such as "But mama I'm in love with a criminal" and "Mama please don't cry / I will be alright." Andrew Leahey of The Washington Times and Erin Thompson of the Seattle Weekly compared the lyrics to those of Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" (1986), while David Bunachan compared them to Coolio's "Mama I'm in Love Wit' a Gangsta" (1994). The words in the chorus end in 'al's syllables, as evident in lyrics such as "And this type of love isn't rational / It's physical". Keith Caufield noted that they were an unintentional nod to Supertramp's "The Logical Song" (1979). Thompson stated that Spears's vocals are less processed than on the rest of the album, while according to Amy Sciarretto they are "heavily Auto-Tuned and studio-treated, [...] she delivers her lines in a monotone, robotic fashion."
## Critical reception
"Criminal" received critical acclaim from music critics. Andy Gill of The Independent called it one of the highlights of Femme Fatale, along with "Till the World Ends". Gill also said that the album sounds more programmed than natural, commenting that "indeed, such is the shock when the final track, 'Criminal', opens with a little folksong-style flute and guitar figure that one's immediate reaction is that a Midlake soundfile has been accidentally appended to Britney's running-order." Amy Sciarretto of PopCrush gave the song four stars, explaining that "Only Brit can make a flute sound sexy. Seriously, few pop stars can pull off a flute and Brit does it with ease." Aaron-Spencer Charles of Metro said that "the verses, chorus and bridge all work perfectly for Ms. Spears, showing that she still has it from all those years ago." Erin Thompson of the Seattle Weekly called it her best vocal performance of the album, and added that "it has a spark and a mischievous sass to it – and these days anytime Britney shows even just a bit of her old liveliness and independence, we like it." Rudy Klapper of Sputnikmusic commented the song "isn't exactly the progressive stylings of a Janelle Monáe [sic], but damn if it’s not catchy and interesting." The A.V. Club's Genevieve Koski claimed that the album "[i]s not all dance-floor narcotics", adding that "Inside Out", "Till the World Ends" and "Criminal" "add texture to the wall-to-wall synth waves and booty bass." Robert Copsey of Digital Spy said the production of Femme Fatale is "polished, intriguing and – best of all – fun", exemplifying "Inside Out", the piano breakdown in "Big Fat Bass" and the flute in "Criminal".
No Ripcord's Gary McGinley stated that Femme Fatale "is so synth-led that hearing the simple guitar lines on Criminal and He's About To Lose Me (from the Deluxe Edition) is refreshing." Natalie Shaw of the BBC Online commented that "Criminal" "with its teenage lyrics [...] on top of a fairytale flute melody and a rhythm so summery it manages to completely set itself free from the rest of the album." David Buchanan of Consequence of Sound found that Femme Fatale "is entirely rescued by backtracking to Circus-style material, with Rihanna-esque 'Gasoline', and the Ray Of Light-era Madonna influence in closing song 'Criminal'. Katherine St Asaph of Popdust said that as "a bad-boy track, it at least makes a bit more lyrical sense than 'Judas' and is more vulnerable than her past few singles, which is probably a good career move." Keith Caufield of Billboard commented that "while some of the lyrics are a teensy clunky at times – [it] is a fitting closer to a nearly-completely excellent album." Los Angeles Times writer Carl Wilson stated that the album's momentum "flags only on the closing 'Criminal', with its formless Renaissance fair flute line and a tempo [that is] joyless". Thomas Conner of the Chicago Sun-Times considered "Criminal", along with "Inside Out", "weak mid-tempo fare" songs. Eric R. Danton of the Hartford Courant deemed the song as "an eye-rolling homage to those oh-so-attractive bad boys that good girls lust for in spite of themselves." Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor of AllMusic, called it "a lousy song".
## Chart performance
Following the release of Femme Fatale, "Criminal" reached number fifty-one on South Korea's Gaon international chart, due to digital sales. On September 26, 2011, the song debuted at number forty on the US Billboard Pop Songs. On the chart issue of November 19, 2011, it peaked at number nineteen. Promotion for the single release was minimal, with no live performances either on TV or on the Femme Fatale Tour. To date, the song has never been performed live. On October 5, 2011, "Criminal" entered on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at number twenty-one. Two weeks later, it debuted on the Hot 100 at number ninety-two, due to sales of 12,000 digital units. It then rose to a new peak of fifty-five. According to Nielsen Soundscan, "Criminal" has sold over 279,000 digital units in the United States as of June 2012. The song also entered Canadian Hot 100 at number eighty-three, reaching a new peak of sixty-three a week later and eventually peaking at sixteen. In Brazil, the song was a huge chart hit, peaking at number one on the Brasil Hot 100 Airplay and Brasil Hot Pop Songs charts. "Criminal" also achieved moderate success in Europe, reaching the top-twenty in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Finland and France, and the top-forty in Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and both regions of Belgium.
## Music video
### Development
At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, Spears said to MTV News that she had thought of a "really cool concept for the video, just to make it interesting. You'll have to see." She then contacted Chris Marrs Piliero, who directed the music video for her previous single "I Wanna Go", to work with her. She told him the basic story she had planned, which he described as a "fairy-tale, sweet, knight-in-shining-armor feel to it. I said let's take that and make the fairy tale badass." Spears also wanted her real-life boyfriend Jason Trawick to play the criminal. Marrs Piliero was initially hesitant to cast Trawick feeling that a professional actor would do a better job, but did not talk to Spears about it. He told USA Today, "When you're doing nudity, I don't think it was at the top of Britney's list to bring in some random guy while her boyfriend watches. [...] We definitely wanted to make some passionate, steamy scenes, but we also wanted it to be intensely beautiful. We didn't want to go for raunchy. We wanted it to be sensual and steamy." On September 6, 2011, Spears announced through her Twitter account that she had decided to shoot the video "in the streets of merry old England when I get there." In an interview with AOL, she explained, "I've never shot on location out of the country of America for a video. So, it should be very interesting. It was partly my idea ... to see if it could to happen, and they were like, 'Yeah, it's a great idea,' so we did it."
### Synopsis
The video begins at a formal party in which Spears seems to be looking for someone. The opening shot of her was inspired by the scene of Jennifer Love Hewitt walking into the party in Can't Hardly Wait (1998). Her boyfriend (model Freddy Bradshaw) talks with two people next to her. He persuades her to smile to avoid embarrassment from the guests then verbally abuses her and grabs her face, after which she leaves to the restroom, where she wipes away a tear and puts on her fragrance Radiance. She comes back to the party and catches her boyfriend flirting with another woman; Spears tells her "So you're not working the street corner tonight I see?", making her boyfriend angry. He apologizes to the other woman for his girlfriend's remark then grabs Spears by the arm and carries her outside the building. After he slaps her, one of the waiters of the party (Trawick) wearing a leather jacket punches her boyfriend several times. The waiter asks Spears if she is okay, and after she kicks her boyfriend in the crotch goodbye, she replies "Now I'm okay." She and the waiter climb on his motorcycle and leave the scene. When they get to his house, it is revealed by a newspaper that he is a criminal. She opens one of the lockers in his house and finds a gun, after which the couple kisses. This is followed by scenes of them having sex.
The next morning, the criminal brings Spears breakfast to the bed and kisses her on the forehead. He has several tattoos in his body, including one on his chest that reads "R.I.P. Goose", a reference to the film Top Gun (1986). They go to a convenience store where she steals vanilla candles and points the gun to the employee; the criminal takes money out of the cash register and they escape by stealing a Citroën DS3. The robbery is caught by the security cameras, and pictures of the couple appear on the local news. There are scenes of them having sex in the shower. As they change clothes, several policemen then appear outside the criminal's house; they start shooting it with Heckler & Koch MP5's as Spears and the man embrace, kissing passionately. The policemen then enter the house, and one of them confirms that the couple escaped. The video ends with Spears and the criminal escaping on the motorcycle as the credits roll. One of them reads "No vanilla candles were harmed in the making of this music video." The video also includes intercut scenes of Spears performing dance moves similar to voguing.
### UK controversy
After pictures of Spears and Trawick carrying replica guns on set surfaced online, the Hackney London Borough Council criticized her for "promoting gun violence", since the area had been badly affected by the 2011 England riots. The Council told London Tonight that they had not agreed to the use of replica guns at Stoke Newington Town Hall, and that they would be raising the matter with the production company. Councillor Ian Rathbone added that Spears should apologize and make a sizeable donation to a Hackney charity "for the rudeness and damage she's done to this community." When asked if she thought the council was overreacting, Hackney MP Diane Abbott insisted: "It is only a music video but it's images like this, with popstars glamorising gangs, which means that some young people... get drawn in. Britney should really know better." Rae Alexandra of the SF Weekly explained that the United Kingdom "is not a place that readily embraces guns. Rather, it's a place where guns are rare, gun licensing is tightly controlled, and the entire establishment has been in a panic about gun use on its streets for the last three years." On September 26, 2011, Spears' representatives released a statement to MTV News saying, "The video is a fantasy story featuring Britney's boyfriend, Jason Trawick, which literally plays out the lyrics of a song written three years before the riots ever happened." Marrs Piliero stated about the controversy,
> "Holding the gun became a controversial thing 'cause we filmed it in London, and they don't have a lot of gun use out there. That doesn't mean that there's no gun use, so I did find it really interesting. For me, the thing is, it blew me away that members of [the British] Parliament were speaking about this. One, because it's a music video, and two, because don't you guys have television shows out there that show crime? It's really strange to me. I don't understand why pop stars are put on such a high pedestal over other celebrities. Why do members of Parliament feel that they need to scrutinize her for having a gun, and 'She's in the public,' and 'She should know better,' and 'She's a role model,' but what about every other celebrity out there? What about every other actor? That's very strange to me. I was really surprised at how much the gun use was scrutinized. [Trawick plays] a professional criminal, so it makes sense he has a gun. We shouldn't censor ourselves."
### Release and reception
The video was ranked at number ten on a list of the ten most controversial music videos in pop music by AOL on September 29, 2011. Spears announced through her Twitter account on October 13, 2011, that the video would be released the following week. On October 17, 2011, she posted five GIF files with scenes from the video on her Tumblr. The video was released the same day on the iTunes Store; it reached the top position on its chart within minutes. Becky Bain of Idolator called it "an epic mini-movie, full of romance, intrigue [...] [with] a whole lot of unnecessary PDA between Brit and her beau. It was full of passion, joy and just a little touch of madness — just like its star." Bain also noted several influences, such as Alfred Hitchcock films and the music videos for Spears' "Toxic" (2004) and Green Day’s "21 Guns" (2009). A writer for Rolling Stone also compared it to a Hitchcock film and deemed the opening scene as "a tribute to Old Hollywood". The reviewer found the scenes of physical abuse "surprising" and called the acting "stiff", but said that "from there on out, we're in the usual comfort zone of a Britney video – sexy dancing, sexy vamping – with the added bonus of gratuitous PDA between the pop star and her real-life boyfriend."
USA Today's Ann Oldenburg described the video as sexy and "pretty personal." Kenneth Partridge of AOL commented, "Packed with sex, violence and questionable acting, the new Britney Spears video, 'Criminal,' has all the trappings of a midnight movie." A reporter from the American edition of The Huffington Post said: "We can't honestly remember the last time Britney Spears looked so gorgeous in a music video" and deemed it as the best video from Femme Fatale. Erin Strecker Entertainment Weekly also called it the best video of the album, and highlighted Spears' look, the ending scene and the "fun story". Katherine St Asaph of Popdust said it is "probably the best video of the Femme Fatale era." Tom Townshend of MSN stated that although the video was not appropriate for Spears' younger fans, "[it] is actually rather compelling and feels more like a short film rather than a pop starlet's music video." A writer for VH1 said that part of the reason the video works is the comic sensibility between Spears and Marrs Piliero, explaining that "[it] point[s] to one of Spears's greatest talents: giving the impression that although she takes her career extremely seriously, she nevertheless doesn't take it too seriously." The critic summarized the review by saying that the video is "entertaining [as] a bad-girl adventure story, and her role here is essentially that of a (wait for it) femme fatale."
Critics also commented on the Hackney controversy. Sarah Dean of the UK edition of The Huffington Post said: "If having a blonde, leather-clad superstar brandishing a gun at a shop owner's face isn't glamourising violence, I'm not sure what is" and added that, in essence, the video "seems more like an opportunity for her to live out her sexual fantasies than anything beneficial to music fans." Amanda Dobbins of New York stated that "After viewing the final product, we're guessing [the local officials] probably won't be down with the shower sex, the regular sex, the domestic abuse, the armed robbery, or any of Britney's other questionable activities, either." Katherine St Asaph of Popdust joked about the situation, saying, "Britney Spears’ video for 'Criminal' is out, and gang recruitment is already up 200% since 8 a.m.! This has not happened." Marianne Garvey of the UK website of E! Online said, "With the 'fantasy' getting so hot and heavy and Britney stripping down to nothing, the guns are the last thing you notice."
### Themes and analysis
Alyssa Rosenberg of ThinkProgress said that although it is common to see pop stars being assaulted by men in their videos —exemplifying Rihanna's "Man Down"— the public is aware of Spears's vulnerability, explaining that "we believe she really would choose a guy who would do something like this to her." Rosenberg also stated even though her bad behaviour once she leaves her boyfriend is not directed at him, the fact that he treated her badly is a form of narrative permission for her to rob a store and have sex with the criminal. She also commented that the same narrative works on her previous video with Marrs Piliero for "I Wanna Go". The video received comparisons to Rihanna's "We Found Love", which was released two days after "Criminal", on October 19, 2011. Among the similarities, critics noted that they were both filmed in the United Kingdom and arose controversy in the country; both contain scenes of sex, violence and crime; both feature bad boy archetypes and both evoke the personal lives of the artists. Katherine St Asaph found the opening line of Spears's boyfriend ("Would you try smiling just once?") a subtle dig at the press. She explained that there is a tendency among writers and spectators to call "her every smile plastered on or conservator-mandated", and that the fact the line is delivered by her abusive boyfriend only makes it more evident. According to her, that there are two contradictory ways to analyze the relationship between Spears and Trawick as the criminal: it could be seen as him luring her into her life, but Spears is the one that kisses him and she is the first to pull the gun.
St Asaph explained that the only interpretation of the video lies on the opinion of each viewer about Spears's personal life, and how active a role each person imagines she plays in it. It was noted by St Asaph that although most pop stars release videos that draw from their personal lives, they do not make the viewer uncomfortable. The same cannot be said for Spears and Rihanna, and it does not matter if they themselves have moved on from past situations, because the discussion around them has not. St Asaph also expressed that neither Spears or Rihanna said much about the parallels to their lives, but that they do not need to: their videos are much more effective than anything they could reveal in an interview. Rae Alexandra of the SF Weekly also compared it to "We Found Love", saying that both videos feature an anti-British sentiment. She wrote that all the villains in the video – her boyfriend and the policemen – are British, whereas her savior in the video is an American criminal. Alexandra noted that Spears and Rihanna chose to films their "grittiest videos" in a country with a lower crime rate than the United States, that is also so against guns that politicians felt the need to talk about it. According to her, the videos continue with a xenophobic portrayal of British people as villains by American pop culture.
## Track listings
- Digital download
1. "Criminal" (Radio Mix) – 3:45
- Digital download (EP)
1. "Criminal" (Radio Mix) – 3:45
2. "Criminal" (Varsity Team Radio Remix) – 4:23
3. "Criminal" (Tom Piper & Riddler Remix) – 5:50
4. "Criminal" (Video) – 5:21
- Digital download (Remixes)
1. "Criminal" (DJ Laszlo Mixshow Edit) – 5:20
2. "Criminal" (DJ Laszlo Club Mix) – 6:53
3. "Criminal" (Tom Piper & Riddler Remix) – 5:50
4. "Criminal" (Varsity Team Extended Remix) – 6:36
5. "Criminal" (Varsity Team Mixshow) – 5:21
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from Femme Fatale booklet liner notes.
Recording
- Recorded at Maratone Studios, Stockholm, Sweden
- Mixed at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Personnel
- Britney Spears – backing vocals, lead vocals
- Max Martin – songwriter, producer and keyboards
- Shellback – songwriter, producer, keyboards and guitar
- Tiffany Amber – songwriter
- John Hanes – engineering
- Chau Phan – background vocals
- Tim Roberts – engineering
- Serban Ghenea – audio mixing
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Monthly charts
### Year-end charts
## Release history
## See also
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2012 (Brazil)
- List of number-one pop hits of 2012 (Brazil) |
254,009 | Operation Ladbroke | 1,173,345,262 | Glider landing by Britain during the World War II | [
"Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom",
"Airborne operations of World War II",
"Allied invasion of Sicily",
"Battles and operations of World War II involving Italy",
"Glider Pilot Regiment operations",
"July 1943 events",
"Land battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom"
]
| Operation Ladbroke was a glider landing by British airborne troops during the Second World War near Syracuse, Sicily, that began on 9 July 1943 as part of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. The first Allied mission using large numbers of the aircraft, the operation was carried out from Tunisia by glider infantry of the British 1st Airlanding Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Philip Hicks, with a force of 136 Hadrians and eight Airspeed Horsas. The objective was to establish a large invasion force on the ground near the town of Syracuse, secure the Ponte Grande Bridge and ultimately take control of the city itself with its strategically vital docks, as a prelude to the full-scale invasion of Sicily.
En route to Sicily, sixty-five gliders released too early by the American towing aircraft crashed into the sea, drowning approximately 252 men. Of the remainder, only eighty-seven men arrived at the Pont Grande Bridge, although they successfully captured the bridge and held it beyond the time they were to be relieved. Finally, with their ammunition expended and only fifteen soldiers remaining unwounded, the Allied troops surrendered to Italian forces. The Italians, having gained control of the bridge, sought to destroy the structure, but were frustrated by troopers of the 1st Airlanding Brigade who had removed the previously attached explosive charges. Other troops from the brigade, who had landed elsewhere in Sicily, aided further by destroying communications links and capturing gun batteries.
## Background
By December 1942, with Allied forces advancing through Tunisia after landing there the month before in Operation Torch, the North African Campaign was coming to a close; with victory there imminent, discussions began among the Allies regarding the nature of their next objective. Many Americans argued for an immediate invasion of Northern France, while the British, as well as then-Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, argued that the island of Sardinia was the best subsequent target of the Allied forces. In January 1943 the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt settled at the Casablanca Conference on the island of Sicily, whose invasion and occupation could potentially provide the Allies with Mediterranean shipping routes and airfields nearer to mainland Italy and Germany. The codename Operation Husky was decided upon for the Allied invasion of Sicily, and planning for Husky began in February. Initially the British Eighth Army, under the command of General Sir Bernard Montgomery, were to land on the south-eastern corner of the island and advance north to the port of Syracuse. Two days later the U.S. Seventh Army, commanded by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, would land on the western corner of the island and move towards the port of Palermo.
In March it was decided that the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, under Major General Matthew Ridgway, and the British 1st Airborne Division, under Major-General George F. Hopkinson, would be dropped by parachute and glider just prior to the amphibious landings; they would land a few miles behind the beaches and neutralize their defenders, thereby aiding the landing of the Allied ground forces. However, in early May these directives were radically changed at the insistence of the Eighth Army commander, General Montgomery; he argued that with Allied forces landing separately at either end of the island, the defending Axis forces would have the opportunity to defeat each Allied army in turn before both could unite. Instead, the plans were altered to land both the Eighth and Seventh Armies simultaneously along a 100 miles (160 km) stretch of coastline on Sicily's south-eastern corner. At the same time, the plans for the two airborne divisions, the British 1st and U.S. 82nd, were also adjusted; Montgomery believed that the airborne troops should be landed near Syracuse, so that they could seize the valuable port. The commander of the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery, Brigadier General Maxwell D. Taylor, further asserted that dropping behind the island's beaches and overcoming its defences was not a suitable mission for the airborne troops, as they were only lightly armed and vulnerable to the 'friendly fire' of the planned Allied naval bombardment. In the revised blueprint for the airborne divisions, a reinforced regimental combat team (the 505th Parachute Infantry, under Colonel James M. Gavin, with the 3rd Battalion of the 504th PIR and numerous other units attached) from Major General Ridgway's U.S. 82nd Airborne Division would be dropped by parachute north-east of the port of Gela to block the movement of Axis reserves towards the Allied beachheads. Major General Hopkinson's British 1st Airborne Division was now to conduct three brigade-size airborne operations: the Ponte Grande road bridge south of Syracuse was to be captured by the 1st Airlanding Brigade, under Brigadier Philip Hicks, the port of Augusta was to be seized by Brigadier Ernest Down's 2nd Parachute Brigade, and finally the Primasole Bridge over the River Simeto was to be taken and secured by Brigadier Gerald Lathbury's 1st Parachute Brigade.
## Planning
As there were insufficient transport aircraft for all three brigades to conduct their operations simultaneously, it was decided that the first operation would be Ladbroke, whose objective was the capture of the Ponte Grande Bridge. The mission, under the command of Brigadier Philip Hicks, was conducted just prior to the amphibious landings, on the night of 9 July, while the remaining two operations took place on successive two nights. The 1st Airlanding Brigade was also given the additional tasks of capturing Syracuse harbour and the urban area that adjoined it, and either destroying or confiscating a coastal artillery battery that was in range of the amphibious landings. When training began for the operation, difficulties immediately arose. The original plan for the airborne operations had called for all three to employ parachutists, but in May Montgomery altered the plan; after determining that airborne troops would be at a considerable distance from Allied ground forces, he believed that the force sent to capture Syracuse would be served best by gliders in order to provide them with the maximum possible amount of firepower. His airborne advisor, Group Captain Cooper of the Royal Air Force, argued that a glider landing conducted at night with inexperienced aircrews was not practical, but the decision was left unchanged.
Montgomery's orders raised several issues, the first with the transport aircraft of the Troop Carrier Wings assigned to the airborne operations. When they had arrived in North Africa, it had been decided that the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing would operate with 1st Airborne Division and its counterpart, the 51st, with 82nd Airborne Division. A few weeks later this arrangement was switched, with the 52nd now operating with 82nd Airborne Division and the 51st with 1st Airborne Division; this seemed a logical decision, as each Wing had operational experience with the division it had been paired with. However, the decision to turn the Syracuse assault into a glider-based one was problematic; the 51st had practically no glider experience, whilst the 52nd had much more but was already training for a parachute-based mission. To switch both was impractical and would have led to a number of problems, which left 1st Airborne Division, and thus 1st Airlanding Brigade, with an inexperienced Troop Carrier Wing.
### Glider problems
Further problems were encountered with the gliders to be used in the operation, and the glider pilots themselves. Until a few months prior to the operation, there was a notable shortage of serviceable gliders in North Africa. In late March a small number of Wacos arrived at Accra on the Gold Coast, but pilots sent to ferry them to North Africa found that they were in poor condition. Due to neglect and the deleterious effects of tropical weather, the pilots were able to assemble only a small number of Wacos and fly them back on 22 April. On 23 April, a larger number of the American gliders began to arrive in North African ports, but were not immediately available for use as the crates holding them were unloaded haphazardly, instructions were often found to be missing, and those men assigned to assemble the gliders were often inexperienced. However, when the decision was made to conduct a glider-borne assault with 1st Airlanding Brigade, assembly was improved, and by 12 June 346 gliders had been put together and delivered to the Troop Carrier Wings. A small number of Horsa gliders were transported to North Africa for use by the brigade. Thirty took off from England and undertook a trip of approximately 1,500 miles (2,400 km) in Operation Turkey Buzzard. After attacks from Luftwaffe fighter patrols and experiencing often turbulent weather, a total of 27 Horsas were delivered to North Africa in time for the operation.
When sufficient gliders had arrived in North Africa, however, they were not all usable even in training; on 16 June, most of the gliders were grounded for repairs, and on 30 June, large numbers of them had developed weaknesses in their tail-wiring, necessitating another grounding period of three days. Given these problems and delays, 51st Troop Carrier Wing was not able to conduct a large-scale glider exercise until mid-June. On 14 June, fifty-four Wacos were flown over 70 miles (110 km) and then released to land at an airfield, and a larger exercise was conducted on 20 June; but even these limited exercises were unrealistic, as they were conducted in broad daylight. The British glider pilots themselves also caused difficulties; although there were a sufficient number of them to conduct the operation, they were highly inexperienced. Detached from the Glider Pilot Regiment for the operation, they had no experience with the Waco gliders and night operations involving them, as British doctrine had deemed such operations impossible. On average, the pilots had eight hours of flight experience in gliders. Few were rated as being 'operationally ready' and none had combat experience. Colonel George Chatterton, the commander of the Glider Pilot Regiment, had protested their participation as he believed they were entirely unfit for any operation. When the training period for the brigade ended with a total of two exercises completed, the glider pilots had an average of 4.5 hours training in flying the unfamiliar Waco, which included an average of 1.2 hours night flying.
### 1st Airlanding Brigade
The units of the 1st Airlanding Brigade were: the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment; 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment; 181st (Airlanding) Field Ambulance and 9th Field Company, Royal Engineers. The Staffords were tasked with securing the bridge and the area to the south, while the Borders were to capture Syracuse. For the mission the 1st Airlanding Brigade were allocated 136 Waco and eight Horsa gliders. With the shortage of space in the gliders—Wacos could only accommodate fifteen troops, half that of the Horsa, thus the whole brigade could not be deployed. Six of the Horsas carrying 'A' and 'C' companies from the Staffords were scheduled to land at the bridge at 23:15 on 9 July in a coup-de-main operation. The remainder of the brigade would arrive at 01:15 on 10 July using a number of landing-zones between 1.5 and 3 miles (2.4 and 4.8 km) away, then converge on the bridge to reinforce the defence.
### Italian forces
The Ponte Grande Bridge was immediately outside the area defended by the Italian 206th Coastal Division, which would oppose the British seaborne landing. The fortress commander was Rear Admiral Priamo Leonardi, with Colonel Mario Damiani in command of the army contingent. The Augusta-Syracuse Naval Fortress Area, which included the Coastal Division, was protected by six medium and six heavy coastal artillery batteries, with eleven additional dual-purpose coastal and anti-aircraft batteries, with six batteries only of anti-aircraft guns. Finally the Fortress contained an armoured train with four 120 mm guns. The army contingent was the 121st Coastal Defence Regiment, which included four battalions. There were also naval and air force battalions available, while the 54th Infantry Division "Napoli" was in a position to send reinforcements if required.
## Mission
On 9 July, a contingent of 2,075 British troops, along with seven jeeps, six anti-tank guns and ten mortars, boarded their gliders in Tunisia and took off at 18:00, bound for Sicily. In the hours that preceded the landing, twelve Boeing B-17 and six Vickers Wellington equipped with radar jamming devices flew back and forth along the coast in the Siracusa-Licata sector; between 21:00 and 21:30, 55 Wellingtons of 205th Group carried out a diversionary bombing of the port and airport of Syracuse, causing a number of civilian and military casualties, including the commander of the Italian naval base, Commander Giuseppe Giannotti. 280 puppets dressed in paratrooper uniforms were launched north of the landing area, in order to deceive the Italian defense. En route, the gliders encountered strong winds, poor visibility and at times were subjected to anti-aircraft fire. To avoid gunfire and searchlights, pilots of the towing aircraft climbed higher or took evasive action. In the confusion surrounding these manoeuvres, some gliders were released too early and sixty-five of them crashed into the sea, drowning around 252 men. Of the remainder, only twelve landed in the right place. Another fifty-nine landed up to 25 miles (40 km) away while the remainder were either shot down or failed to release and returned to Tunisia. About 200 American paratroopers, having been mistakenly parachuted in the area assigned to the Eighth Army, were captured by the Italian 146th Coastal Regiment (206th Coastal Division) in the early hours of 10 July.
Only one Horsa with a platoon of infantry from the Staffords landed near the bridge. Its commander, Lieutenant Withers, divided his men into two groups, one of which swam across the river and took up position on the opposite bank. Thereafter the bridge was captured following a simultaneous assault from both sides. The Italian defenders from the 120th Coastal Infantry Regiment abandoned their pillboxes on the north bank.
The British platoon then dismantled some demolition charges that had been fitted to the bridge and dug-in to wait for reinforcement or relief. Another Horsa landed roughly 200 yards (180 m) from the bridge but exploded on landing, killing all on board. Three of the other Horsas carrying the coup-de-main party landed within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the bridge—their occupants eventually finding their way to the site. Reinforcements began to arrive at the bridge, but by 06:30 they numbered only eighty-seven men.
Elsewhere, about 150 men landed at Cape Murro di Porco and captured a radio station. Based on a warning of imminent glider landings transmitted by the station's previous occupants, the local Italian commander ordered a counter-attack but his troops failed to receive his message. The scattered nature of the landings now worked in the Allies' favour as they were able to cut all telephone wires in the immediate area. The glider carrying the brigade deputy commander, Colonel O. L. Jones, landed beside an Italian coastal artillery battery; at daylight the staff officers and radio operators attacked and destroyed the battery's five guns and their ammunition dump. Other isolated groups of Allied soldiers tried to aid their comrades, assaulting Italian defences and targeting reinforcements. Another attack by a group of paratroopers on three 149/35 mm Italian coastal batteries failed, and the batteries were able to open fire on Allied landing craft and troops at 6:15 on 10 July. At 9:15, the 1st Battalion of the Italian 75th Infantry Regiment ("Napoli" Division) captured another 160 American paratroopers on the Palazzolo Acreide–Syracuse road. Another group of paratroopers attacked an Italian patrol led by Major Paoli, commander of the 126th Artillery Group; Paoli was killed and his unit fell in disarray, and was thus unable to intervene in the later fight against British tanks near the bridge.
The first counterattack on the bridge was by two companies of Italian sailors, who were repulsed by the British. As the Italians responded to the Allied landings, they gathered more troops and brought up artillery and mortars to bombard the Allied-controlled Pont Grande Bridge. The British defenders came under attack from the Italians while the expected British 5th Infantry Division relief did not appear at 10:00 as planned. At 11:30 the Italian 385th Coastal Battalion arrived at the bridge, followed soon afterward by the 1st Battalion, 75th (Napoli) Infantry Regiment. The Italians were positioned to attack the bridge from three sides. By 14:45 there were only fifteen British troops defending the bridge that had not been killed or wounded (four officers and eleven soldiers). At 15:30, with their ammunition consumed, the British stopped fighting. Some men on the south side of the bridge escaped into the countryside, but the rest became prisoners of war. With the bridge back in Italian hands, the first unit from 5th Infantry Division, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, of 17th Infantry Brigade, arrived at the bridge at 16:15 and mounted a successful counter-attack, which had been made possible by the prior removal of demolition charges from the bridge, preventing its destruction by the Italians. The 1st Battalion of the 75th Infantry Regiment, having no artillery, was unable to oppose the British tanks and had to retreat after suffering heavy losses. The survivors from the 1st Airlanding Brigade took no further part in the fighting and were withdrawn back to North Africa on 13 July. During the landings, the losses by 1st Airlanding Brigade were the most severe of all British units involved. The casualties amounted to 313 killed and 174 missing or wounded. Fourteen accompanying glider pilots were killed, and eighty-seven were missing or wounded.
## Aftermath
After an enquiry into the problems with the airborne missions in Sicily, the British Army and Royal Air Force submitted recommendations in the aftermath of Operation Ladbroke. Aircrew were to be trained in parachute and glider operations, and pathfinders were to be landed before the main force, to set out their beacons. The landing plan was simplified with complete brigades landing on a drop zone, instead of the smaller battalion landing areas used on Sicily. Gliders were no longer released at night while still over water, and their landing zones would be large enough to accommodate the aircraft with room to spare. Following a friendly fire incident over an Allied convoy, more training was given to ship's crews in aircraft recognition; Allied aircraft were also painted with three large white stripes. Training for pilots of the Glider Pilot Regiment was increased, and improvements to the gliders were implemented, including better inter-aircraft communication. To provide another method of delivering jeeps and artillery by air, the Royal Air Force started experimenting with how to use parachutes to drop them into combat, the jeeps and guns being carried in aircraft's bomb bays. A second Royal Air Force transport group, No. 46, was formed and equipped solely with Douglas Dakotas, instead of the mixture of aircraft in No. 38 Group. Together, the Royal Air Force groups were capable of supplying eighty-eight Albermarles, eighty-eight Stirlings, thirty-six Halifaxes and 150 Dakotas, a total of 362 planes which did not include aircraft held as reserves. |
66,325,375 | Mayoralty of Pete Buttigieg | 1,168,522,851 | Mayor of South Bend, Indiana | [
"2010s in Indiana",
"2010s in LGBT history",
"2012 establishments in Indiana",
"2020 disestablishments in Indiana",
"Government of South Bend, Indiana",
"LGBT in Indiana",
"Mayoralties of municipalities in the United States",
"Pete Buttigieg"
]
| Pete Buttigieg served as mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020. Elected in 2011 as a Democrat, he took office in January 2012 at the age of 29, becoming the second-youngest mayor in South Bend history, and the youngest incumbent mayor, at the time, of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents. During his mayoralty, he acquired the nickname "Mayor Pete". Coming out as gay in 2015, Buttigieg became the first elected official in Indiana to come out while in office, as well as the highest-ranking Indiana elected official to come out. Buttigieg won reelection in 2015. Buttigieg opted against running for reelection in 2019, instead launching a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election.
Buttigieg focused on urban development during his tenure. As mayor, Buttigieg supported numerous private developments. He also oversaw the sale of numerous city-owned properties to private owners. A key initiative of Buttigieg's first term was his Vacant and Abandoned Properties Initiative, also known as "1,000 Properties in 1,000 Days". This initiative reached its goal of repairing or demolishing 1,000 blighted properties across the city. In his second term, Buttigieg completed two major infrastructure projects, a \$150 million "Smart Sewer" project and a \$25 million complete streets program named "Smart Streets". Buttigieg also took a number of steps to commit the city of South Bend to greater environmental stewardship.
Buttigieg's early tenure had been marred by a scandal involving South Bend Police Department Chief Darryl Boykins illegally recording officers. This led to Buttigieg demoting Boykins, and ultimately asking for his resignation. The firing of the city's first African American police chief sparked backlash.
## Election and transition
Buttigieg was elected mayor of South Bend in the November 2011 election, with 10,991 of the 14,883 votes cast (74%).In 2011, as South Bend's mayor-elect, Buttigieg supported John Broden in his successful bid to become St. Joseph County Democratic Party chairman. Buttigieg took office on January 1, 2012 at the age of 29, becoming the second-youngest mayor in South Bend history (Schuyler Colfax III had become mayor in 1898 at the age of 28), and the youngest incumbent mayor, at the time, of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents. Buttigieg was sworn in on January 1, 2012 by former congressman Romano Mazzoli at Century Center.
## First term
### Housing, urban development and blight removal initiatives
In February 2012, soon after taking office, to address allegations of improperly awarded contracts and misallocated funds in the Housing Authority of South Bend, Buttigieg, along with the board of the housing authority, requested that the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development conduct a "full audit and investigation" In 2013, federal officials outlined "dire" mismanagement and financial problems, and faulted the board with failure to provide proper oversight to the agency and catch its problems. In October 2014, after the board failed to present a plan to resolve the agency's problems, the federal officials encouraged Buttigieg to take initiative actions, including recommending that he explore "the possibility of replacing all or some existing board members". In January 2015, after all six of the board's members either resigned or saw their terms expire, Buttigieg appointed six new members.
As mayor, Buttigieg promoted the transformation of the former Studebaker plant location into a technology park named Ignition Park. He also supported the development of the "Renaissance District" located near the technology park.
Buttigieg was involved in the creation of a nightly laser-light display along downtown South Bend's St. Joseph River trail as public art. The project cost \$700,000, which was raised from private funds. The "River Lights" installation was unveiled in May 2015 as part of the city's 150th anniversary celebrations.
By the end of Buttigieg's first term, South Bend had sold off 71 city-owned properties. An example was the former Bendix Corporation headquarters and factory, which the city sold to Curtis Products in 2014. In late 2014 and early 2015, South Bend negotiated the sale of the city-owned Blackthorn Golf Course. The LaSalle Hotel was sold to developers in 2015 for conversion into apartments. Also in 2015, the city sold the former site of the College Football Hall of Fame to JSK Hospitality.
One of Buttigieg's signature programs was the Vacant and Abandoned Properties Initiative. Known locally as "1,000 Properties in 1,000 Days", it was a project that aimed to repair or demolish blighted properties across South Bend. In late September, Buttigieg announced that the program had reached its goal three months before its scheduled end date in November 2015, declaring that more than 1,000 homes had either been demolished or refurbished. By the thousandth day of the program, before Buttigieg's first term ended, the city was reporting that more than 1,000 homes had either been demolished or repaired. In 2019, Buttigieg would acknowledge that many of the homes demolished had been in communities of color, and that this had led to early distrust between his administration and these communities.
Buttigieg set aside \$2 million in his 2014 budget to create comprehensive plans for corridors along Lincoln Way West and Western Avenue. This would lead to improvements that began to be implemented in 2019.
### Policing
South Bend adopted the National Network for Safe Communities' Group Violence Intervention approach in 2014, launching the South Bend Group Violence Intervention program.
During Buttigieg's first term, the city's police force continued to struggle with a high homicide rate, a problem which preceded his tenure. The annual number of murders in South Bend was 18 in 2012, 9 in 2013, 17 in 2014, and 7 in 2015.
#### Darryl Boykins
In 2012, after a federal investigation ruled that South Bend police had illegally recorded telephone calls of several officers, Buttigieg demoted police chief Darryl Boykins. Boykins had first been appointed in 2008 by Mayor Stephen Luecke and reappointed by Buttigieg earlier in 2012. Buttigieg also dismissed the department's communications director, the one who had actually "discovered the recordings but continued to record the line at Boykins' command". The police communications director alleged that the recordings captured four senior police officers making racist remarks and discussing illegal acts. The city is 26% black, but only 6% of the police force is black. Buttigieg has written that his "first serious mistake as mayor" came shortly after taking office in 2012, when he decided to ask for Boykins's resignation. The city's first ever African American police chief accepted the request. However, the next day, backed by supporters and legal counsel, Boykins requested reinstatement. When Buttigieg denied this request, Boykins sued South Bend for racial discrimination, making the argument that such a taping policy had been present under previous white police chiefs. Buttigieg settled the suits brought by Boykins and the four officers out of court for over \$800,000. A federal judge ruled in 2015 that Boykins's recordings violated the Federal Wiretap Act. He called for the eradication of racial bias in the police force. Buttigieg's handling of the matter, including his ousting of Boykins, was seen as hurting his relationship with the city's African American community.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Buttigieg came under pressure from political opponents to release the tapes, but said that doing so would be a violation of the Wiretap Act. Since 2012, the South Bend Common Council (city council) had been fighting in court for the mayors' office to comply with a subpoena of the police department that the Council had issued for the audio recordings in question. The subpoena had been issued to facilitate their investigation of Boykins' removal as police chief. However, the officers' featuring in the recordings have fought the Common Council in court to block the public release. In April 2019, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Steven Hostetler ruled that the effort by the Common Council to obtain the tapes had legal merit warranting a trial. On May 10, 2021, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Steven Hostetler found the officers lacked legal standing to prevent the Council from being given the recordings. The officers appealed the ruling in a brief filed with the Indiana Court of Appeals. The appeals court reversed Hostetler's ruling. This opened the possibility of a trial to block the release. In August 2022, the Common Council filed an appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court.
### Other civic matters
In June 2012, fulfilling a campaign promise, Buttigieg hosted an economic summit for the city.
In his first year of office, Buttigieg oversaw an update of the city's phone and email systems as well as a redesign of the city's website. In 2013, Buttigieg oversaw the city's launching of a 3-1-1 system.
In May 2013, the city put in place its first shared lane marking for cyclists.
In January 2013, Buttigieg joined the national group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Buttigieg took some steps to address the city's environmental impact in his first term. In 2014, Buttigieg reconvened the city's Green Ribbon Commission. This had first been established in 2009 by his predecessor, Luecke, to assess ways to reduce city's negative impact on the environment. He also created an Office of Sustainability within the city's Energy Office.
In his budget proposal for the 2014 fiscal year, Buttigieg proposed combining South Bend's Code Enforcement, Animal Control, and Building Department into a single Department of Building Services to save costs and improve efficiency. The proposal failed, and the three have remained separate departments.
### Service in Afghanistan
Buttigieg served for seven months in Afghanistan as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve, returning to the United States on September 23, 2014. While deployed, he was assigned to the Afghan Threat Finance Cell, a counterterrorism unit that targeted Taliban insurgency financing. In his absence, Deputy Mayor Mark Neal, South Bend's city comptroller, served as executive from February 2014 until Buttigieg returned to his role as mayor in October 2014.
### RFRA opposition and coming-out
In 2015, during the controversy over Indiana Senate Bill 101—which was widely criticized for allowing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people—Buttigieg emerged as a leading opponent of the legislation. Amid his reelection campaign, in a June 2015 piece published in the South Bend Tribune, he came out as gay to express his solidarity with the LGBTQ community. By coming out, Buttigieg became Indiana's first openly gay elected executive. He was the first elected official in Indiana to come out while in office, and the highest elected official in Indiana to come out.
## Second term
### Reelection in 2015
In 2014, Buttigieg announced that he would seek a second term in 2015. He won the Democratic primary with 78% of the vote, defeating Henry Davis Jr., the city councilman from the second district. In November 2015, he was elected to his second term as mayor with over 80% of the vote, defeating Republican Kelly Jones by a margin of 8,515 to 2,074 votes.
### Environment
In 2017, Buttigieg signed onto Climate Mayors' statement in response to President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. Also in 2017, Buttigieg signed onto "We Are Still In", voicing South Bend's commitment to the goals of the Paris Agreement. In 2018, he joined the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. Also in 2018, Buttigieg signed the "Pledge to Repower Indiana" letter, urging utility companies to supply 100% clean energy.
In 2019, Buttigieg signed onto the "Mayors for Solar Energy" letter resolving to make solar power a key element of the city. In April 2021, more than a year after he left office, the city of South Bend would be awarded "Gold" designation by the group SolSmart (their highest designation) in recognition of its efforts in easing the adoption of solar power for its residential and commercial buildings.
In April 2019, the South Bend Common Council approved Buttigieg's request to enable his administration to develop a city climate plan. That month Buttigieg contracted with the Chicago firm Delta Institute to develop a plan. In late November 2019, the Common Council voted 7–0 to approve the resultant "Carbon Neutral 2050" plan, setting the goal of meeting the Paris Agreement's 26% emission reduction by 2025, and aiming for a further reductions of 45% by 2035.
Buttigieg, in a February 2019 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert promoting his exploration of a presidential run, expressed a belief attributing to climate change's impact on extreme weather events the phenomenon of a 500-year flood impacting South Bend in 2018 only eighteen months after a 1,000-year flood impacted the city in 2016.
### Housing and urban development
In a new phase of the Vacant and Abandoned Properties Initiative, South Bend partnered with the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center to provide free legal assistance to qualifying applicants wishing to acquire vacant lots and, with local nonprofits, to repair or construct homes and provide low-income home ownership assistance using South Bend HUD (Housing and Urban Development) funds. He increased city funding levels for home construction and improvement in the 2018 South Bend budget via several programs, including the UEA (Urban Enterprise Association) Pilot Home Repair Program, a grant intended to improve low-income residents' quality of life.
As a further part of the development of the city's "Renaissance District", in 2016, South Bend partnered with the State of Indiana and private developers to break ground on a \$165 million renovation of the former Studebaker complex, with the aim of making the complex home to tech companies and residential condos. In 2017, it was announced that the long-abandoned Studebaker Building 84 (also known as "Ivy Tower") would have its exterior renovated with \$3.5 million in Regional Cities funds from the State of Indiana and \$3.5 million from South Bend tax increment financing, with plans for the building and other structures in its complex to serve as a technology hub.
While many aspects of South Bend had improved by 2016, a Princeton University study found that the rate of evictions in the city had worsened, more than doubling since Buttigieg took office.
Buttigieg supported a proposed high-rise development in South Bend's East Bank neighborhood that would greatly exceed the existing height ordinances. In the weeks after the Common Council voted against the development in December 2016, Buttigieg and his administration negotiated a new compromise plan with the developer, Matthews LLC, that reduced the height from twelve stories to nine. In January 2017, the Common Council voted to approve a ten-year tax abatement for the \$35 million development. In February, the Common Council raised the height limits for the East Bank neighborhood to facilitate the development. The city later committed \$5 million in tax increment financing to the project.
In 2017, after complaints from downtown business owners about a homeless encampment that had formed under the Main Street railroad viaduct, Buttigieg assembled a 22-member task force to develop recommendations to prevent such encampments from forming. The task force's report recommended a gateway center and permanent supportive housing project, which would have a "housing first" approach that would provide immediate shelter regardless of behavioral or substance abuse issues. However, this project was scrapped by the city, due to an inability to find a location due to NIMBYism. Those living near prospective locations had opposed the establishment of such a facility near their properties. The city instead opted to attempt a scattered-site housing approach with participating landlords.
Poorer neighborhoods of South Bend were shown to have a high incidence of lead poisoning among its youth. Buttigieg was originally reluctant to tackle the issue himself, arguing citizens should pressure the state government to act. However, after pressure from citizens groups, as well as an editorial in the South Bend Tribune urging him to act, Buttigieg worked to address the problem. The city, in 2017, committed \$100,000, contingent on the city also receiving a roughly \$3 million grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to address the problem. The city, however, had their grant application rejected. By late 2017, Buttigieg's administration was partnering with a private group to address the problem. In December 2018, Buttigieg announced that the city government, in partnership with the St. Joseph County Health Department, had received \$2.3 million from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to remediate residences with lead paint.
In November 2017, at the Buttigieg administration's recommendation, the South Bend Common Council approved a property tax abatement for a planned \$9 million five-story office building. The building would break ground in April 2019, marking the first new construction in the city's business core in over two decades.
Buttigieg's budget proposal for the 2018 fiscal year included items to address various public health concerns, including funding for a "healthy homes" program, which was ultimately included in the 2018 budget approved by the Common Council.
In September 2018, Buttigieg voiced concern about a number of issues regarding the Housing Authority of South Bend, calling for reforms to be made. The following month, he presented its board with a letter outlining several problems, and declaring that the Housing Authority of South Bend had risen to the "top tier of priorities for my administration, and will receive sustained attention from my office for the balance of my time as mayor."
In January 2019, Buttigieg launched the South Bend Home Repair initiative. This expanded the existing South Bend Home Repair Pilot, which helps make available funds to assist residents with home repairs, through the use of \$600,000 in city funding (double what the city had earlier pledged to the program) and \$300,000 in block grants. It also created two new programs. The first of these is the South Bend Green Corps, which makes funds available to lower-income homeowners for such uses as energy-saving measures and basic weatherization, the installation of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, lead tests, and energy bill review. It also provides education on reducing energy bills. The South Bend Green Corps was funded with \$290,000 from the city and \$150,000 from AmeriCorps. The second program is Love Your Block, which assists citizen groups and local nonprofits in revitalizing neighborhoods, and which was funded with \$25,000 from the city and \$25,000 from the nonprofit Cities of Service.
By one account, by the year 2019, the city had seen \$374 million in private investment for mixed-use developments since Buttigieg had taken office. By another account, during Buttigieg's tenure, Downtown South Bend alone had seen roughly \$200 million in private investment.
### Infrastructure and transportation
In 2013, Buttigieg proposed a "Smart Streets" urban development program to improve South Bend's downtown area, and in early 2015—after traffic studies and public hearings—he secured a \$25 million bond issue for the program backed by tax increment financing. Smart Streets was a complete streets implementation program. Smart Streets was aimed at improving economic development and urban vibrancy as well as road safety. The project involved the conversion of one-way streets in downtown to two-way streets, traffic-calming measures, the widening of sidewalks, streetside beautification (including the planting of trees and installation of decorative brickwork), the addition of bike lanes and the introduction of roundabouts. Elements of the project were finished in 2016, and it was officially completed in 2017. The project was credited with spurring private development in the city. In 2016, the project received the national awards for "Complete Streets" and "Overall Success" at the United States Department of Transportation's Safer People, Safer Streets Summit.
Under Buttigieg, the city also began a "Smart Sewer" program, the first phase of which was finished in 2017 at a cost of \$150 million. The effort utilized federal funds and by 2019 had reduced the combined sewer overflow by 75%. The impetus for the effort was a fine that the EPA had levied against the city in 2011 for Clean Water Act violations. However, Buttigieg also, in 2019, sought for the city to be released from an agreement with the EPA brokered under his mayoral predecessor Steve Luecke, in which South Bend had agreed to make hundreds of millions dollars in further improvements to its sewer system by 2031.
Buttigieg was involved in bringing a bike sharing service run by LimeBike to the city. The service launched in July 2017 as a pilot program. South Bend was the third American city in which LimeBike had launched operations. It was reported that, within the service's first year, it saw 290,000 individual rides. In 2019, Lime withdrew its service from the city amid the company's decision to end its bike sharing service in order to focus solely on scooter sharing. In October 2019, Buttigieg signed into law a comprehensive shared mobility ordinance. This ordinance would, among other things, give the city controller the power to order shared mobility vendors, similar to Lime, to designate locations where devices could be stored when not being used.
In 2018, South Bend was designated as a silver-level "Bike Friendly Community" by the League of American Bicyclists. South Bend was only the second city in the state of Indiana to receive the group's silver level "Bike Friendly Community" designation.
Effective July 22, 2017, the Federal Railroad Administration revoked the city's quiet zone on the very active tracks (Norfolk Southern's Chicago Line and Canadian National's South Bend Subdivision) that run through the city, demanding that median barriers be installed at roughly eleven grade crossings and that other deficiencies be remedied. This had come as a surprise to Buttigieg and the rest of the city government when it occurred on July 22, as the letter from the Federal Rail Administration giving prior notice to the city had been mistakenly addressed to a former city attorney that had been deceased for six years. Buttigieg worked to get quiet zones restored, making changes to railroad crossings. By September of that year, part of South Bend's quiet zone was restored. Buttigieg was able to get even more of the city's quiet zone restored, completing phase one of the city's quiet zone project by June 2019 on the west side of the city
South Bend's road infrastructure experienced issues with potholes. In 2018, Ed Stemmler of the South Bend Tribune wrote that the city's pothole situation at the time might have been the "worst in recent memory".
In September 2019, the city of South Bend finalized a long-anticipated agreement with St. Joseph County to jointly fund the county's \$18 million share of the project to double-track the South Shore Line. Buttigieg was a supporter of efforts to double-track the South Shore Line.
Beginning in August 2018, Buttigieg promoted the idea of moving the city's South Shore Line station from South Bend International Airport to the city's downtown. He made it a goal to have the city complete this project by 2025. Buttigieg's earlier budgets had allotted funding to the existing South Shore Relocation project, which would have moved the station to a different end of the South Bend International Airport. Buttigieg had, prior to advocating for a downtown station, been supportive of the existing plans to relocate the station to a different end of the airport. Buttigieg's new push for a downtown station engendered suggestions of other possible locations. Buttigieg ordered a study of five location options, including his personally preferred downtown option, as well as two that would keep the station at the airport. Of the five, the downtown location was found to be the priciest, but also the one with the greatest potential economic impact. In December 2018, an engineering study was commissioned to further examine the cost of a downtown station.
In 2019, South Bend launched Commuters Trust, a new transportation benefit program created in collaboration with local employers and transportation providers (including South Bend Transpo and Lyft). This program was made possible by a \$1 million three-year grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge.
In his position as mayor of South Bend, Buttigieg shared authority over the bus system, South Bend Transpo, with the mayor of Mishawaka. After South Bend Transpo CEO David Cangany was fired in 2018 for both being abusive towards staff and charging personal expenditures to the transit agency, Buttigieg supported changes that the agency put in place to prevent these sorts of issues from recurring under any future CEO.
### Parks and green spaces
In 2017, a new Venues Parks & Arts department was created in South Bend's government, merging two existing departments.
Under Buttigieg, South Bend invested \$60 million in the city's parks, many of which had been neglected during the preceding decades. On August 23, 2017, the city's Venues Parks & Arts department first announced plans to spend \$50 million on parks. It was planned that \$19 million would come from private and outside funding, tax increment financing would cover \$11 million, and \$18 million would come from park bonds (both new and existing). The city ultimately secured \$20 million in outside funding for parks investments, with money coming from such sources as the Indiana's Regional Cities initiative, the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, and the University of Notre Dame. Roughly one third of the investments in parks came from taxes collected from tax increment financing districts. The rest of the investment in parks came from taxes, still being collected, that had originally been created for the purposes of paying for the College Football Hall of Fame.
As part of the investment in parks, from 2018 to 2019, Howard Park, a riverfront park considered to be a centerpiece of the city's park system, underwent an \$18.9 million renovation, with the city contributing part of the funding through TIF bonds, and the rest of the funding coming from donations. Howard Park's renovation was the largest expenditure of the city's park improvements. Other investments in parks included a \$4.5 expansion and renovation of the Charles Black Community Center, a \$900,000 renovation of the clubhouse at the Erskine Park Golf Course, and \$2 million in improvements to bathrooms and playgrounds at 40 neighborhood parks. By the spring of 2019, multi-million dollar upgrades were planned for the city's trail system, as well as Leeper, Pinhook, and Pulaski parks.
Buttigieg made a request in his 2018 budget proposal for \$24 million to fund new green spaces in the city that was ultimately excluded from the budget.
Buttigieg had arranged a deal under which the city's parks department would sell Elbel Golf Course to developers for \$747,500. In January 2016, amid public pressure, the city dropped the plan. The idea had been floated in 2014, when the city was exploring selling the Blackthorn golf course, but began to gain momentum in 2015. Buttigieg had justified the plan to sell the city-owned golf course by claiming that residents found golf to be a low priority, that the course had failed to turn a profit for over five years, and that the city was subsidizing rounds of golf at about \$2 per round. Buttigieg characterized the course as a drain on the city's finances. Opposition arose, with concerns that the sale would limit public access to the land and endanger the protection of wetlands surrounding it. At 313 acres (127 ha), Elbel is the city's largest park. The park, while owned by the city, is outside city boundaries. The original plan Buttigieg outlined for the sale would have allowed it to be developed freely by the buyer.
### Police and fire services
In late September 2017, in his budget proposal for the 2020 fiscal year, Buttigieg sought Common Council approval to create the new position of Director of Public Safety, which would have oversight over the city's fire and police chiefs. Such a position had existed in South Bend during the mayoralties of Jerry Miller and Peter Nemeth; Nemeth eliminated the position in 1976. Buttigieg's budget proposal for the 2018 fiscal year earmarked \$105,000 for the position's salary, which was more than the salary of the fire chief or police chief at the time. The plan was opposed by members of the fire and police forces, including the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge. Criticisms included claims that it was unfair to both the fire and police chiefs to create an additional layer of bureaucracy between them and the mayor. The Common Council rejected Buttigieg's proposal, and he rescinded the request. In late October 2019, it was announced that the South Bend Mayor's Office would have a slightly different new division, the Division of Community Initiatives. This was budgeted to be launched in 2020, when Buttigieg's successor would take office. Buttigieg supported this department's creation.
In September 2018, South Bend sent roughly 20 members of its fire department's Swift Water Rescue Group to Raleigh, North Carolina, to assist in anticipation of Hurricane Florence.
In June 2019, after Eric Logan, an African American man, was shot and killed by a white South Bend police officer, Buttigieg was drawn from his presidential campaign to focus on the emerging public reaction. Body cameras were not turned on during Logan's death. Soon after Logan's death, Buttigieg presided over a town hall attended by disaffected activists from the African-American community as well as relatives of the deceased man. The local police union accused Buttigieg of making decisions for political gain. Buttigieg, in the aftermath of the shooting, promised to give the city's police officers de-escalation training and to advocate for stronger discipline and accountability to be enforced by the police department on its officers. He also directed the police chief to order all of the city's police officers to keep their body cameras activated during all on-duty interactions with civilians. In November 2019, Buttigieg secured \$180,000 to commission a review of South Bend's police department policies and practices to be conducted by Chicago-based consulting firm 21CP Solutions.
To address violence in the city, in the 2020 budget, Buttigieg and the Common Council set aside \$300,000 in violence prevention grants.
During Buttigieg's second term, the city's police force continued to struggle with a high homicide count: 14 in 2016, 15 in 2017, and 13 in 2018.
During Buttigieg's mayoralty through 2019, the overall crime rate in the city decreased, largely due to a decline in some categories of property crime since 2012. However, the homicide and robbery rates remained roughly the same, and reports of assaults and motor vehicle theft saw large increases. While Buttigieg had attempted to address gun violence as mayor, the rate of shootings did not decline.
During a June 2019 Democratic presidential debate, Buttigieg said, "I couldn't get it done" when remarking on his inability as mayor to recruit a diversified police force. By the time he left office, the number of black officers on the police force of roughly 230 officers had fallen by half of what it had been when he took office to only fifteen.
### Other matters
In 2016, Buttigieg signed an executive order helping to establish a recognized city identification card. The program is run in partnership with the nonprofit La Casa de Amistad, which produces the ID cards. A December 2016 executive order signed by Buttigieg required police, schools and other government services recognize the cards as a valid form of identification. The program formally launched later that month. Many immigration advocates praised the program's approach for protecting undocumented immigrants. In August 2019, Judicial Watch launched litigation arguing that, by not disclosing staff emails related to the program, the City of South Bend was acting in violation of Indiana's Access to Public Records Act. In the city's 2019 mayoral election, both the Democratic and Republican mayoral nominees voiced their support for retaining this program.
Buttigieg's budget proposal for the 2018 fiscal year included \$156,000 for paid parental leave to city employees. He was successful in this effort.
Buttigieg had expressed his openness to a proposal by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians to open a tribal casino in South Bend. The Common Council approved a casino deal in April 2016, and the Pokagon Band received federal clearance to put the land into a required trust in November 2016. Under a revenue-sharing agreement that the Pokagon Band voluntarily entered into with the city, the city receives the greater of 2% of the casino's annual Class II gaming revenues or either \$1 million or \$2 million (depending on the number of games at the casino). The casino opened in January 2018 as Four Winds South Bend.
In 2018, Women's Care Center, a crisis pregnancy center chain, petitioned the city to rezone a residential property where they sought to open a location. This location would be adjacent to a planned Whole Woman's Health abortion clinic (which would be the only abortion clinic in the city, which had been without one since 2015). The rezoning case became a flashpoint between local anti-abortion activists supporting the rezoning and abortion-rights activists opposing it. In April 2018, the city council voted 5–4 to allow the rezoning. The group Pro Choice South Bend, which opposed the rezoning, organized a letter-writing campaign and other efforts to urge Buttigieg to use his veto power to block the rezoning. Amid this, Buttigieg's office reportedly reached out to Whole Woman's Health Alliance and discussed various concerns. Four days after the Common Council's vote to approve the rezoning, Buttigieg vetoed it, in a decision he described as "one of the hardest decisions I've ever made" as mayor. In a letter to Common Council members, Buttigieg said he was persuaded by data provided by the abortion clinic showing that, at abortion clinics near crisis pregnancy centers, there were greater rates of harassment, threats, and violence. Buttigieg was careful not to criticize the crisis pregnancy center, writing that he believed that representatives of both the abortion clinic and the crisis pregnancy center "are good residents who seek to support women by providing services consistent with their values." In a press conference he held to explain his veto, he declared, "Issues on the morality or the legality of abortion are dramatically beyond my pay grade as mayor. For us this is a neighborhood issue, and it's a zoning issue." In mid-May 2018, Buttigieg said he was willing to work with Women's Care Center to find a different location in the area. Women's Care Center eventually opened at a location across the street from the planned abortion clinic. When Buttigieg ran for president, some criticized his assistance to Women's Care Center as a failure to stick strongly to his abortion-rights position.
Also in 2018, Buttigieg explored annexing several areas bordering the city and redrawing the boundaries of several of the city's tax increment financing districts to better serve neighborhoods that had not benefited from redevelopment.
In August 2018, South Bend pledged a \$3.7 million bond issue to assist the Potawatomi Zoo in funding its renovations. In September, it was announced that the zoo renovation had obtained additional funding from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation's Regional Cities Initiative.
In August 2018, Buttigieg declared an intent to include a focus on neighborhoods in his budget proposal for the 2019 fiscal year. In addition to improvements to infrastructure, such as streetlights, Buttigieg also promoted the expansion of the city's Group Violence Intervention efforts, which he believed were showing success at reducing violent crime among the city's youth. The Common Council approved many of Buttigieg's requests in its 2019 budget.
#### Succession as mayor
In December 2018, Buttigieg announced that he would not seek a third term as mayor of South Bend. In February 2019, Buttigieg endorsed James Mueller in the 2019 South Bend mayoral election. Mueller was a high-school classmate of Buttigieg's and his mayoral chief of staff, and later executive director of the South Bend Department of Community Investment. Mueller's campaign promised to continue the progress that had been made under Buttigieg's mayoralty. Buttigieg appeared in campaign ads for Mueller and donated to Mueller's campaign. Mueller won the May 2019 Democratic primary with 37% of the vote in a crowded field. In the November 2019 general election, Mueller defeated Republican nominee Sean M. Haas with 63% of the vote. Mueller took office on New Year's Day 2020.
In 2020, the website "Best Cities" ranked South Bend number 39 on its list of the 100 best small cities in the United States, giving much credit to the progress made under Buttigieg.
#### Speculations about higher office and national political involvement
During his second term, Buttieig began to involve himself in national politics. In the United States Senate election in Indiana he campaigned on behalf of Democratic Senate nominee Evan Bayh and criticized Bayh's opponent, Todd Young, for having voiced support in 2010 for retaining the military's don't ask, don't tell policy, which Bayh had voted to repeal. In the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, Buttigieg endorsed Hillary Clinton. He also endorsed Democratic nominee Lynn Coleman in that year's election for Indiana's 2nd congressional district, which includes South Bend.
In 2016, columnist Frank Bruni of The New York Times published a column praising Buttigieg's work as mayor, with a headline asking speculating whether Buttigieg might one day become "the first gay president". Additionally, Barack Obama was cited as mentioning him as one of the Democratic Party's talents in a November 2016 profile on the outgoing president conducted by The New Yorker.
In January 2017, Buttigieg launched his candidacy for the 2017 Democratic National Committee chairmanship election. He was regarded to be dark horse candidate in the race for the chairmanship, and had the endorsements of former DNC chairman Howard Dean, former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, Indiana senator Joe Donnelly, and North Dakota senator Heidi Heitkamp. NBC News described Buttigieg as having "campaigned on the idea that the aging Democratic Party needed to empower its millennial members". He withdrew the morning before the vote was held.
With a rising national profile, Buttigieg made a national late-night talk show appearance, being interviewed on Late Night with Seth Meyers on June 22, 2017.
By the end of 2017, it had been noted that as his national profile increased, Buttigieg increased his out-of-city travel. By early 2018, there was speculation that Buttigieg was looking towards running for either governor or president in 2020. There was some speculation that, despite a presidential bid being a long shot, he could garner enough recognition to become a dark horse contender for the vice presidential slot on the Democratic ticket.
For the 2018 midterms, Buttigieg founded the political action committee Hitting Home PAC. That October, Buttigieg endorsed 21 congressional candidates. He also later endorsed Mel Hall, Democratic nominee in the election for Indiana's 2nd congressional district. Buttigieg also campaigned in support of Joe Donnelly's reelection campaign in the United States Senate election in Indiana. Buttigieg campaigned for candidates in more than a dozen states, including early presidential primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina, a move indicating potential interest in running for president.
On January 23, 2019, Buttigieg announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to run for president of the United States in the upcoming 2020 election. Buttigieg sought the Democratic Party nomination for president. By the time he left office as mayor in January 2020, Buttigieg had already become a top-tier candidate for the Democratic nomination.
## Analysis of Buttigieg's leadership style
A number of writers for outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and HuffPo have described Buttigieg's approach to governance during his tenure as technocratic. Alex Seitz-Wald and Adam Edelman of NBC News described Buttigieg as a "delegator". |
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]
| Betty Asunta Tejada Soruco (born 5 June 1959) is a Bolivian ecologist, lawyer, and politician who served as president of the Chamber of Deputies from 2013 to 2014. A member of the Movement for Socialism, she served as party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from Santa Cruz from 2010 to 2015. Prior to that, she served in the same position from 2002 to 2006 and as a substitute party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from Santa Cruz under Roberto Landívar from 1997 to 2002, on behalf of the right-wing populist New Republican Force.
## Early life and career
Betty Tejada was born on 5 June 1959 to a middle-class family in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. While her mother was a housewife, her father was one of the first electrical engineers in the city and a founding member of the Rural Electrification Cooperative, Santa Cruz's first electric association. Upon completing primary studies in that city, Tejada moved to La Paz, where she graduated high school before attending the Higher University of San Andrés to study law. Her education was briefly suspended by the 1980 coup d'état of Luis García Meza, during which time many documents were burned, causing her to lose a year of studies. Upon the university's reopening, Tejada returned to classes, graduating with a diploma in ecological economics.
After that, Tejada returned to Santa Cruz, where she devoted her career to social services and environmental activities. During this time, Tejada worked to channel funds for the Modelo daycare center in the La Ramada barrio and founded the Santa Cruz Somos Todos urban movement. Additionally, she is the founder of multiple environmental groups, including the Salpi Collective, dedicated to conserving the Piray River. Together with other women's rights activists, she co-founded the Santa Cruz Women's Christian Association and founded the Nuevo Poder feminist group.
At age 19, Tejada married Ramón Prada, who served as prefect of the Santa Cruz Department during the administration of Hugo Banzer. Together they had three children: María Cecilia, María Laura, and María Nela. The latter is the incumbent minister of the presidency, serving in the administration of Luis Arce since 2020.
## Chamber of Deputies
### Substitute deputy (1997–2002)
Tejada became active in politics through her membership in Nuevo Poder. For the 1997 general elections, the group formed a series of alliances with the country's major parties in a bid to facilitate greater women's representation in Congress. Tejada joined the New Republican Force (NFR) and was elected as a substitute deputy from Santa Cruz under Roberto Landívar on the party's electoral list. In early 2000, during the NFR's internal democratization process, the party appointed Tejada as its temporary departmental chief in Santa Cruz. Once proper internal elections were held the following year, she was voted into a full term in that position.
### First term (2002–2006)
In the 2002 general elections, Tejada was elected as a titular member of the Chamber of Deputies from Santa Cruz. However, she questioned the decision of the NFR's leader, Manfred Reyes Villa, to ally the party with the abortive government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. Her presence as one of multiple openly critical voices against party leadership led the NFR to support her ouster as departmental head through the election of Jaime Rivero in 2004. Tejada refused to recognize Rivero's "illegal election", claiming that her functions were not set to expire for another two years. Tejada's public disagreements with Reyes Villa resulted in a permanent rupture between herself and the NFR when the party expelled her from its ranks. For the duration of her term, she supported the administration of Sánchez de Lozada's successor, Carlos Mesa, who attempted to govern without partisan support, instead seeking to attract individual legislators to form a parliamentary majority, though he was ultimately unsuccessful.
### Second term (2010–2015)
In 2005, Tejada became one of several former rightists who joined the ranks of the emergent Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP). Though she was absent from the 2005 elections, Tejada was convinced by former ombudsman Ana María Romero to run as a candidate for the MAS in the 2009 elections. After being elected, Tejada served three consecutive terms on the Commission for Autonomies and Decentralization between 2010 and 2012. During this time, Tejada also continued her environmental advocacy, drafting at least five laws relating to the environment throughout her term.
In January 2013, the MAS caucus chose not to ratify Rebeca Delgado as president of the Chamber of Deputies due to disagreements over an asset forfeiture bill. After four hours of extensive debate, the party elected Tejada to succeed Delgado on 17 January. She was sworn in the following day. Tejada's management lasted just over a year, and she was succeeded by Marcelo Elío on 21 January 2014. Nearing the end of her term, she sought to run as a MAS candidate for Santa Cruz city councillor. However, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) ruled that all potential candidates must have lived in the districts in which they were running for at least two years, a fact that disqualified most incumbent deputies and senators from running in the 2015 regional elections. Her disapproval of the TSE's decision led Tejada to resign her seat on 2 January 2015, a few weeks before the new Legislative Assembly was sworn in.
## Santa Cruz Municipal Council
Despite not being allowed to stand as a candidate, Tejada nonetheless had the opportunity to join the Santa Cruz Municipal Council. At the recommendation of Mayor Percy Fernández, Angélica Sosa, president of the municipal council, appointed Tejada as her personal advisor. The decision was somewhat surprising as Tejada's party, the MAS, was the minority opposition bloc in the municipal council. Though Tejada ruled out joining the ranks of Fernández and Sosa's Santa Cruz Para Todos party, the MAS nonetheless affirmed that she no longer had "[any] connection with the organic structure of the party".
## Electoral history |
23,866,703 | Thomas Tuchel | 1,173,482,511 | German football manager (born 1973) | [
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| Thomas Tuchel (; born 29 August 1973) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. He is widely regarded as a tactical innovator in modern football and one of the best coaches in the world.
Born in Krumbach, Tuchel retired as a footballer at age 25 after a chronic knee cartilage injury; in 2000, he began his coaching career as a youth coach at VfB Stuttgart, and in 2009, after a one-year period at FC Augsburg II, he was hired by Mainz 05. He departed Mainz in 2014 and was appointed at fellow Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund in 2015 and won the DFB-Pokal before being dismissed in 2017. He was hired by French club Paris Saint-Germain in 2018 and won two league titles, including a domestic quadruple in his second season, and guided the club to its first UEFA Champions League final.
Tuchel was appointed by Chelsea in 2021, where he won the Champions League in his debut season and was named The Best FIFA Football Coach. He was dismissed as manager in 2022, and was appointed at Bayern Munich in 2023, where he won his first Bundesliga title.
## Playing career
Born in Krumbach, Bavaria, Tuchel starred as a member of his local club, TSV Krumbach, coached by his father Rudolf. Tuchel moved to the academy at FC Augsburg in 1988, however, he never appeared for the first team, being released when he turned 19. There, coach Heiner Schuhmann's evaluation of Tuchel during his tenure at Augsburg noted he "was a passionate player who gave his all on the pitch, but had few friends among his teammates because he was exacting and demanding". After he was released, Tuchel signed for 2. Bundesliga side Stuttgarter Kickers in 1992.
Tuchel played eight games during the 1992–93 season. After the 1993–94 season, he was dropped from Kickers' first team, and joined Regionalliga Süd side SSV Ulm, coached by Hermann Badstuber, the father of Holger Badstuber, whom Tuchel would later manage at youth level. Playing as a central defender, he played for SSV Ulm until being forced to retire in 1998, at the age of 24, after suffering a knee cartilage injury.
## Coaching career
### Early career
Tuchel began his coaching career in 2000, hired by Ralf Rangnick as youth team coach at VfB Stuttgart, where he aided in the development of future first team players, namely Mario Gómez and Holger Badstuber. He coached the under-19 side of the club to the Under 19 Bundesliga title in the 2004–05 campaign. He left after that season, as the club tired of his personality and chose not to renew his contract. In 2005, Tuchel returned to Augsburg, with club sporting director Andreas Rettig noting the club's admiration of Tuchel's tactical discipline led to him being appointed youth team coordinator. He was hired despite lacking a UEFA Pro Licence, which he gained in a six-and-a-half month course in Cologne under Erich Rutemöller. Tuchel held the position as coordinator for three years, transitioning into management after accepting the position as first team coach at FC Augsburg II for the 2007–08 season. With Augsburg II, he coached a team which included Julian Nagelsmann, himself an injury-prone defender, who transitioned to a coaching career after Tuchel instructed him to scout for the club in 2008. Tuchel also garnered a reputation for his combustibility towards referees during games, often receiving fines from the Bavarian Football Association (BFV) as a result. At the end of the 2007–08 season, Tuchel's Augsburg II finished fourth.
### Mainz 05
Tuchel's time as the coach of Augsburg II impressed many top-level German clubs, and he went on to be appointed by Bundesliga club Mainz 05 in 2009. Having signed an initial two-year contract, he was promoted into the role after acting as a youth coach at Mainz for the previous 12 months, during which he had won the Under 19 Bundesliga with the under-19 side. According to club executive Christian Heidel, Tuchel's perfectionism, going as far as to analyze pitch maintenance prior to a game against Olympiacos, contributed to his eventual appointment.
The composition of the squad was seen in Tuchel's tactical approach at Mainz, as despite possessing technically inferior players, he instructed them to utilize long distribution and focus on pressing off the ball, typically overloading one portion of the opposition half in order to create less space to generate counter-attacking opportunities, as relentless high-pressure would create chances by dispossessing or forcing errors from the opposition. An initial disciplinarian, Tuchel reportedly forbade his players to leave the canteen while others were still eating, deeming it ill-mannered. His tactics of pressing and positional play led Mainz to a ninth-placed finish in his first season as manager. In the following campaign, Tuchel's Mainz enjoyed a perfect start to the season, winning seven games in their first seven, including an away victory over Bayern Munich. This coincided with Tuchel's employment of René Marić and Martin Rafelt, founders of the tactics blog Spielverlagerung, to compile occasional scouting reports on Mainz's opponents. Tuchel eventually led the team to a fifth-placed finish as the club improved by 11 points to qualify for the third-qualifying round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League. Only four Bundesliga sides scored more goals than Mainz in the 2010–11 campaign, who had scored 52 goals in total. Of those goals, fifteen had been scored by rising star André Schürrle, and ten by Sami Allagui, who was a key part of Tuchel's pressing machine.
Mainz fell to a thirteenth-placed finish the following season, having notably lost Schürrle to Bayer Leverkusen in the summer. Allagui's lack of form added to Mainz's issues in attack, although new signing Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was able to score ten goals, and midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger's organization and discipline helped the team and "marked him out" as a future club captain. Mainz suffered an early exit in the Europa League, and ended the season with 39 points, the lowest total during Tuchel's spell at the club. In the 2012–13 season, Mainz would go on to repeat their thirteenth-placed finish from the season prior. Despite a poor start and end to the season, there were significantly fewer struggles than in the previous campaign, and the team finished six points below seventh place. Ádám Szalai, who netted thirteen times, solved the goal-scoring issues up front, while Nicolai Müller and Andreas Ivanschitz scored eight and seven goals respectively. Mainz was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal. In what would turn out to be his final season with the club, Tuchel led Mainz to a seventh-place finish, qualifying for the group stages of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League. At the beginning of the season, he had brought in Japanese forward Shinji Okazaki. Deployed in a central striking role, he went on to have a prolific season, scoring 15 goals in the Bundesliga, a record for a Japanese player.
Despite approaches by Schalke 04 and Bayer Leverkusen for his services in the latter-half of the 2013–14 season, Tuchel remained at Mainz until the end of the campaign. However, in May 2014, he asked to be released from his contract, later stating that he "couldn't see how [the team] could reinvent [itself] once more the coming summer." Tuchel explained that he had already made the decision to leave Mainz at the end of the season in autumn of 2013. Mainz initially refused to release him from his contract, but on 11 May 2014, he was allowed to step down. Tuchel concluded his Mainz career with a record of 72 wins, 46 draws, and 64 losses, from 182 games, with a win percentage of 39.56%.
### Borussia Dortmund
#### 2015–2016: League runner-up
In April 2015, coach Jürgen Klopp announced that he would leave Borussia Dortmund following the 2014–15 season. Dortmund, inquiring over the availability of various coaches, quickly decided on Tuchel, eager to incorporate a similar press-based footballing philosophy made a club trademark under Klopp. Shortly thereafter, Tuchel's appointment as the club's new head coach for the following season occurred on 19 April 2015. Signing a three-year deal effective from 1 July, he returned to coaching after over a year without a club. Both Klopp and Tuchel completed the same path of moving from Mainz to Dortmund.
Joining at the beginning of the summer window, Tuchel was eager to avoid speculation and off-the-pitch distractions. He addressed the issue of star players who were in a dilemma between staying and leaving, rapidly convincing them that Dortmund could meet their ambitions. After securing the futures of several important players, Tuchel identified targets that could help the squad compete and "bridge the gap at the top". Dortmund and Tuchel's approach was to build upon Klopp's foundations, keeping the team's core with shrewd additions. This policy resulted in the acquisitions of Roman Bürki and Julian Weigl, players who were not considered stars, but had potential to be so, while Gonzalo Castro joined the club for €11 million. Weigl was frequently utilized by Tuchel behind two central midfielders in a 4–1–4–1 formation, and along with the other two midfielders, he would work the ball until Dortmund could force an overload in space out wide, attacking with rapidity from there. Tuchel also utilized a 4–2–3–1 formation at Dortmund; players like Shinji Kagawa, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and the deep-dropping Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would make overloads in pockets of space in-between the lines. Weigl would sit back in front of the defence, while the other central midfielder, which was İlkay Gündoğan when fit, pushed up forward. Although unbeaten in his first fourteen matches at Borussia Dortmund, Tuchel and his team ended trophyless in the 2015–16 season, despite an appearance in the 2016 DFB-Pokal final, in which they lost to Bayern Munich on penalties. The team also suffered elimination at the quarter-final stage of the UEFA Europa League at the hands of Liverpool, who were now coached by Klopp. However, the campaign was notable for further promotions of youth talent, with American teenager Christian Pulisic largely starring during the latter stages of the season. Dortmund scored 82 goals in the 2015–16 Bundesliga, a club record, and the team's average league possession of 61% and an average pass accuracy of 85% were significant improvements from the team's counterpressing days with Klopp. Their point total of 78 was also the second highest in club history, and would have secured a league title in all but three of the previous 52 seasons. Dortmund finished second in the Bundesliga, securing UEFA Champions League football.
#### 2016–2017: DFB-Pokal and departure
In preparation for the following campaign, Dortmund spent heavily on player purchases, spending a total of €109.75 million in the transfer market; the club was looking to find replacements for important players Mats Hummels, Gündoğan, and Mkhitaryan. Ousmane Dembélé, Marc Bartra, Emre Mor, Mario Götze and Raphaël Guerreiro were notably brought in for a total sum of €64 million. Guerreiro, signed following his successful time at UEFA Euro 2016, was shifted from left-back to midfield by Tuchel. Dortmund went on to return the final of the DFB-Pokal, where Tuchel won his first ever major honor as a coach, as well as the club's first trophy in five years, as they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2–1, with goals from both Dembélé and Aubameyang. The team finished the season third in the Bundesliga, and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League by Monaco.
Despite the victory, the DFB-Pokal was to be Tuchel's only honour with the club, as he was dismissed three days later on 30 May 2017. His tenure as first-team coach was marred with controversy, with a strained relationship with the club's hierarchy, notably CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, who described Tuchel as a "difficult person". Tuchel publicly criticized Watzke after he agreed to UEFA's demand that the club play their Champions League quarter-final first leg match against Monaco on 12 April 2017, one day after the team's bus being bombed. He also reportedly expressed discontent over transfer activity, with Watzke sanctioning the departures of Hummels, Gündoğan, and Mkhitaryan, despite guarantees they would not leave. Tuchel also maintained fractured relations with club stalwarts Roman Weidenfeller, Neven Subotić, and Jakub Błaszczykowski, and aimed to replace the trio, which Watzke disagreed with. Tuchel aimed to sign defender Ömer Toprak in 2016, a move allegedly blocked by Watzke and chief scout Sven Mislintat, the latter of whom was effectively banished from the training ground after an argument with Tuchel. Moreover, the club also chased midfielder Óliver Torres behind Tuchel's back in 2017.
Tuchel left Dortmund with a record of 68 wins, 23 draws, and 17 defeats in 108 games, with a win percentage of 62.96%.
### Paris Saint-Germain
#### 2018–2019: First season in Paris, Ligue 1 title
In May 2018, Tuchel signed a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), replacing Unai Emery. He rejected an offer of Bayern Munich to join the club as a head coach.
Tuchel's first move in the transfer market was the permanent signing of Monaco forward Kylian Mbappé for a fee of €180m on 1 July. To offset this large acquisition, and to adhere to UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations, Tuchel sanctioned the departure of several players, including first-team players Yuri Berchiche and Javier Pastore, as well as promising youngster Gonçalo Guedes. After also generating profits through the sales of other bit-part players, the club signed free agent goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon on 6 July. A month later, the team signed German defender Thilo Kehrer for €37m, and PSG concluded their activity in the summer transfer market by signing Spanish left-back Juan Bernat for €15m on deadline day, while also reuniting Tuchel with former player Choupo-Moting. Despite these acquisitions, Tuchel publicly lamented the club's inability to improve at both full-back areas.
Tuchel's first match in charge also yielded his first honor at the club, as PSG defeated Monaco 4–0 to win the Trophée des Champions on 4 August. He also saw victory in his first league game, as the club defeated Caen 3–0 eight days later. After enjoying a brief unbeaten record, Tuchel suffered his first defeat in Paris on 18 September, losing 3–2 away to Liverpool in a Champions League group stage game. However, by November, Tuchel would break the record for the most wins to start to a domestic league season, as he registered twelve straight victories. The record was later extended to include two additional victories, prior to the club ending its 100% start to the season on 2 December, after PSG drew 2–2 away to Bordeaux. Tuchel then guided Paris Saint-Germain to top spot in the club's Champions League group, with a 4–1 win over Red Star Belgrade on 12 December. By securing victory over Nantes on 22 December, Tuchel also broke the record for most points by Christmas in Ligue 1, with 47 after 17 games.
In January 2019, Tuchel was eliminated from his first competition at PSG, falling to Guingamp on 9 January, in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue. However, he would defeat the same opposition by a margin of 9–0 ten days later in the league, the biggest home win in PSG's history. Prior to deadline day, on 29 January, the club delved into the winter transfer market to sign Argentine midfielder Leandro Paredes for a rumored fee of €40m. However, these transfers failed to progress the club in Europe, as PSG crashed out of the Champions League in the first knockout round against Manchester United. The club secured a 2–0 victory away from home in the first leg, but lost 3–1 at home, exiting the competition on away goals. With only the league and the Coupe de France to play for, PSG won the former on 21 April, six gameweeks before the end of the season, marking Tuchel's first league title victory as a coach. Six days later, Paris Saint-Germain lost the 2019 Coupe de France final to Rennes on penalties, which occurred after a stretch of three consecutive league defeats: PSG's worst showing since 2012.
#### 2019–2020: Domestic quadruple and Champions League final
After the season's end, Tuchel signed a one-year contract extension, scheduled to end in 2021. In his second transfer window, Tuchel strayed from recruiting stars and instead pushed for the recruitment of hardworking Spanish midfielders Ander Herrera and Pablo Sarabia, as well as youth prospect Mitchel Bakker. Meanwhile, the club let go of strong personalities in Buffon, Dani Alves, and Adrien Rabiot, and profited from the sales of several fringe players, including Moussa Diaby, Timothy Weah, and Grzegorz Krychowiak. Additionally, the club signed central defender Abdou Diallo from Tuchel's old club Borussia Dortmund, combative midfielder Idrissa Gueye, and completed the transfer of goalkeeper Keylor Navas, as well as a loan move for forward Mauro Icardi, on deadline day. With a number of additional sales, this marked the first transfer window since PSG's takeover by Qatar Sports Investments in 2012 during which the club made a profit in the transfer market.
Tuchel began his second season at PSG by retaining the Trophée des Champions on 3 August 2019, in a 2–1 win over Rennes. He also won his first league game of the season, defeating Nîmes 3–0 at home. However, PSG lost 2–1 against Rennes in the club's second league game. In the club's first game in that season's UEFA Champions League, Tuchel received praise for his tactical setup as PSG defeated thirteen-time winners Real Madrid 3–0 at home; the victory occurred without recognized first-team players Neymar, Edinson Cavani, and Mbappé. He later guided the team to qualification to the first knockout stage with two group games to spare, following a 1–0 win over Belgian club Club Brugge on 6 November. Just under three weeks later, Tuchel led the club to top spot in their group after securing a 2–2 draw against Real Madrid. The club then embarked on an unbeaten run, recording a number of high-scoring victories; PSG scored six goals against Linas-Montlhéry and Saint-Étienne in the domestic cup competitions in January, while they scored five against Montpellier in the league. Notably, the latter game contained controversy, as Tuchel was seen to be in a heated conversation with Mbappé following his substitution.
On 18 February, PSG sustained a 2–1 defeat against Tuchel's former club Dortmund in the first leg in the round of 16 in the Champions League. Under a month later, Tuchel guided the club to the last eight, overturning the deficit in a 2–0 victory at home in the second leg. This was the club's first game behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic; this was the reason the domestic league was canceled on 30 April, while their Champions League fixtures, the Coupe de France, and the Coupe de la Ligue finals were postponed. PSG returned to competitive football on 24 July, winning the Coupe de France after beating Saint-Étienne 1–0 in the final. The game was marred by Kylian Mbappé suffering an ankle sprain, which ruled him out for three weeks. On 31 July, PSG defeated Lyon 6–5 on penalties in the 2020 Coupe de la Ligue final to complete a domestic treble. On 12 August, PSG scored two late goals to beat Atalanta 2–1 in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, marking the club's first appearance in the semi-finals of the competition since the 1994–95 season. In the semi-final, PSG defeated RB Leipzig 3–0 to reach their first ever Champions League final, and their first European final since 1997. They would go on to lose the match by a single goal to Bayern Munich on 23 August.
#### 2020–2021: Final season in Paris
In his third transfer window, PSG released a number of players, including club stalwarts Thiago Silva and Cavani. Meanwhile, Mauro Icardi's loan was made permanent for €50 million, and the club supplemented this with the loan acquisitions of Alessandro Florenzi, Danilo Pereira, and Moise Kean. PSG began their league title defence with a 1–0 defeat to newly promoted Lens away on 10 September 2020; the club were missing newly appointed captain Marquinhos, Icardi, Neymar, Mbappé, Navas, Paredes, and Ángel Di María due to COVID-19 protocols or for testing positive for COVID-19. The club went on to lose their second league game by the same scoreline in Le Classique, marking the first time PSG lost their opening two league games since the 1984–85 season. The game became infamous for its disciplinary issues, with 17 cards shown (the most in a single Ligue 1 game in the 21st century), while five were sent off following an injury-time brawl. Tuchel secured the club's first win of the league season by defeating Metz 1–0 on 16 September, although the game was marred by another red card to PSG. This began a streak of 8 straight wins, before succumbing to a 3–2 away defeat to Monaco on 20 November; another game where PSG saw a red card. After only managing to secure 3 more league wins, and with PSG third in Ligue 1, behind Lyon and eventual winners Lille, Tuchel was dismissed on 24 December, despite placing top of their Champions League group. His firing occurred a day after beating Strasbourg 4–0, surprising many at the club, including assistant coach Zsolt Lőw.
Tuchel's tenure at Paris Saint-Germain was marred by a fractured relationship with the club's hierarchy. In an interview with German television station Sport 1, he said he felt "[more like] a politician in sport" than a coach. These comments, as well as his previous criticism over the club's transfer activity, were condemned by PSG's sporting director Leonardo, who said Tuchel "[must] respect the people above [him]", and labelled the comments as damaging for the club. Tuchel and Leonardo reportedly fell out over the signing of defensive midfielder Danilo Pereira, with the coach requesting a central defender; in response, Tuchel often fielded Pereira as a central defender.
Tuchel departed Paris Saint-Germain with a record of 95 wins, 13 draws, and 19 defeats in 127 games, with the best win percentage in Ligue 1 history (75.6%) and the highest average of points per game (2.37, tied with his predecessor Emery). Before leaving Paris, Tuchel facilitated the medical expenses for his housemaid's child's heart surgery, and enabled her to return home to the Philippines by purchasing her family a property in the country.
### Chelsea
On 26 January 2021, Tuchel signed an 18-month contract (with the option for an additional year) with Premier League club Chelsea, replacing Frank Lampard. He became the first German to be appointed as head coach of the club. Although expressing a desire to not come in mid-season so as to have a pre-season with his new team, Tuchel accepted the position after Ralf Rangnick rejected the proposal of interim head coach.
#### 2020–21: Back-to-back European finals and Champions League title
Tuchel took charge of his first match the following day, a goalless draw at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers, a match that set the record for most possession (78.9%) and passes completed (820) for a manager's first Premier League game. Tuchel won his first game on 31 January, defeating Burnley 2–0 at home, and then won his first London derby (and his first away game) by defeating Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 on 4 February. On 11 February, Tuchel guided Chelsea to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a 1–0 away win over EFL Championship side Barnsley, extending his unbeaten run to five games. This run was eventually extended to eight games after Chelsea defeated Atlético Madrid 1–0 away in the first leg of the round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League, with Olivier Giroud scoring an overhead kick. This marked Tuchel's first European victory as Chelsea manager.
On 8 March, Tuchel's unbeaten run extended to eleven games after a 2–0 home league win over Everton, becoming the first head coach in Premier League history to keep consecutive home clean sheets in their first five home matches. After a 2–0 home victory against Atlético Madrid in the second leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League on 17 March, Tuchel extended his unbeaten run to 13 games, setting the record for the longest unbeaten run by a new head coach in Chelsea's history. This was considered to be due to the change to a three-man defence and partly attributed to a pragmatic approach to games; Tuchel's team took as many shots as Lampard's team per game (13.8 v 13.9), but created fewer chances, leading to 1.1 goals scored on average per game, compared to 2.1 under Lampard. He was then awarded his first Premier League Manager of the Month in October. The unbeaten run concluded at 14 games, with a 5–2 home defeat against West Bromwich Albion on 3 April.
On 17 April, courtesy of a Hakim Ziyech goal, Tuchel led Chelsea to the FA Cup final, defeating league leaders Manchester City 1–0 in the semi-final; Chelsea would eventually lose the final 1–0 to Leicester City. Tuchel also guided Chelsea to the Champions League final following a 3–1 aggregate win over Real Madrid in the semi-finals, becoming the first coach to reach consecutive finals with two different clubs. He eventually led Chelsea to European glory with a 1–0 win over Manchester City in the final. Following this, Tuchel signed a contract extension, keeping him at the club until 2024.
#### 2021–22: Club World champion, Ukraine sanctions, Cup final losses
In his first transfer window at Chelsea to prepare for the 2021–22 season, the club signed experienced goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli on a free transfer from West London rivals Fulham on 28 July, thus marking Tuchel's first signing as Chelsea head coach. Tuchel also began incorporating academy player Trevoh Chalobah into the first team, and Chelsea then later re-signed Romelu Lukaku for a club-record £97.5 million (€115 million). He also signed Saúl Ñíguez on a season-long loan from Atlético Madrid (which included an option to buy for £30 million) on deadline day. Chelsea began the season with an eight-game unbeaten streak, winning the UEFA Super Cup, before suffering their first defeat of the season, against Manchester City, on 25 September. On 20 October, Chelsea recorded their highest scoring victory under Tuchel, a 4–0 home victory over Malmö in the Champions League; this was bettered three days later following a 7–0 thumping of league strugglers Norwich City. The club then embarked on a 12 match unbeaten run in all competitions, which culminated in a 3–2 away loss against West Ham United on 4 December. A month later, Tuchel led Chelsea to the EFL Cup final following a 3–0 aggregate semi-final victory over city rivals Tottenham Hotspur; Chelsea would go on to lose the final against Liverpool on penalties. On 12 February, after a 2–1 extra time win over Palmeiras, Tuchel won the FIFA Club World Cup, Chelsea's first Club World Cup win.
On 12 March, Chelsea F.C. was frozen as an asset of Russian oligarch Abramovich, as consequence of the Ukraine war. Tuchel, who was reluctantly the face of the club amidst off-field turmoil, was praised by Jacob Steinberg of The Guardian for being "a voice of calm and reason throughout the most unsettling period in Chelsea's history." While he reaffirmed his commitment to the club despite interest from Manchester United and Barcelona, renewing player contracts was made difficult, like of Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen.
After a six-game win streak in all competitions, Chelsea lost 4–1 at home to newly promoted Brentford on 2 April; the club then registered their highest scoring away win under Tuchel by winning 6–0 at Southampton a week later. However, on 12 April, Chelsea lost 5–4 on aggregate after extra time against Real Madrid and were knocked out of the Champions League, following which, Tuchel criticized several refereeing decisions, including a disallowed goal for Marcos Alonso and referee Szymon Marciniak's "smiling and laughing" with Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti at the game's conclusion. Four days later, Tuchel led Chelsea to their second successive FA Cup final with a 2–0 victory over Crystal Palace. However, Chelsea went on to lose to Liverpool in the final on penalties, repeating the outcome of that year's EFL Cup final three months prior.
#### 2022–23: Final season with Chelsea
On 30 May 2022 the sanctions were lifted, and Chelsea was able to spend money again. To prepare for the 2022–23 season, Tuchel and Chelsea had spent over £250 million – the highest spend in that season's Premier League and a British record for spending in one transfer window – on Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, as well as near club record outlays on Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana. The club also secured the loan of Denis Zakaria on transfer deadline day on 31 August. Several first team players also departed, including Antonio Rüdiger and Marcos Alonso, academy graduates Andreas Christensen and Callum Hudson-Odoi (who left on loan), and former heavy money signings Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku (who left on loan).
The club began their league season with a 1–0 win over Everton on 6 August 2022. Eight days later, Tuchel was sent off following a 2–2 draw against Tottenham Hotspur after an angry confrontation with Antonio Conte at the end of the match. He was fined £35,000 and given a one-match touchline ban by the Football Association (FA) for improper conduct. Tuchel was subsequently handed an additional £20,000 fine after comments suggesting that referee Anthony Taylor should no longer referee Chelsea matches after he made some controversial decisions in the Tottenham game. The FA stated that Tuchel's comments had constituted improper conduct and that they "imply bias, question the integrity of the match referee, and bring the game into disrepute". On 7 September 2022, Tuchel was fired as the team's manager following the club's 1–0 away loss to Dinamo Zagreb in their opening Champions League fixture the previous day (a match attended by new Chelsea chairmen Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali); Chelsea also sustained league defeats against Leeds United and Southampton prior to the loss to Dinamo Zagreb.
According to The Athletic, Tuchel was reportedly dissatisfied over his increased involvement in Chelsea's day-to-day transfer activity as a result of the dismissals of club director Marina Granovskaia and technical advisor Petr Čech (with whom Tuchel had a strong working relationship); Tuchel was said to have delegated his presence at recruitment meetings to his agent. Sources close to Tuchel claim he disagreed with the club's transfer strategy and targets, such as not being involved in the loan signing of Zakaria and personally expressing interest in moves for Matthijs de Ligt, Raphinha, Frenkie de Jong, and Presnel Kimpembe. Sources connected with Chelsea claimed Tuchel was inconsistent regarding transfers, expressing both reluctance and support towards potential moves for Gabriel Jesus, Edson Álvarez, Roméo Lavia, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Boehly was said to have described Tuchel as a "nightmare" to deal with on recruitment to a Premier League executive. Tuchel had also fallen out with and isolated several first team players, such as Ziyech, Pulisic, Werner, Lukaku, and Hudson-Odoi, from gametime; Tuchel also reportedly argued with Werner following a pre-season defeat to Charlotte FC on 20 July. On his departure, Tuchel wrote an open letter, detailing how he had not anticipated leaving Chelsea "for many years" and saying he felt "honoured to have been a part of [the] club's history" and that "the memories of the last 19 months [would] always have a special place in [his] heart". In March 2023, Tuchel revealed he suspected the sacking on his morning commute to the training centre, and said the meeting with the ownership "turned out to be very short. It lasted three to five minutes".
Tuchel departed Chelsea with a record of 60 wins, 24 draws, and 16 defeats in 100 games with a win percentage of 60%, the fourth highest win-rate by a Chelsea manager who managed at least 100 games, after José Mourinho (67.03%), Antonio Conte (65.09%), and Carlo Ancelotti (61.09%). Tuchel was succeeded by Graham Potter.
### Bayern Munich
#### 2022–23: Mid-season appointment and first Bundesliga title
On 24 March 2023, Tuchel was announced as the new head coach at Bayern Munich, replacing his former player Julian Nagelsmann, who was dismissed. Tuchel was presented at a club press conference the following day, where he said "the squad assembled [here] is one of the most talented and best in Europe. We are here to win all the titles." Four days later, the club made a formal approach to Chelsea first-team assistant coach Anthony Barry, who worked with Tuchel (primarily on set pieces) during his time at Chelsea. Tuchel's first game in charge of Bayern was a 4–2 home win against his old club Borussia Dortmund on 1 April. In his second game, Bayern were knocked out in the quarter-finals of DFB-Pokal, on 4 April, after losing 2–1 at home to SC Freiburg. Bayern were also eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League later that month, losing 4–1 to Manchester City on aggregate. On 20 May, Bayern lost 3–1 at home to RB Leipzig, dropping to second place below Dortmund with one match remaining in the Bundesliga season. In the final matchday, Dortmund fell to a 2–2 draw at home to Mainz 05, while Bayern won 2–1 away to FC Köln thanks to a late Jamal Musiala winning goal. These results secured an 11th consecutive Bundesliga title for Bayern Munich, and Tuchel's first in his career.
## Manager profile
### Tactics
Tuchel is known for his tactical knowledge and flexibility as well as his implementation of innovative training methods. During his tenure at Mainz, Tuchel used rondos, cut the corners off the training pitch in an effort to improve passing and movement, and obliged his players to hold tennis balls during defensive drills to keep unnecessary fouling in check. A stringent analyst, he once paused a documentary on Pep Guardiola for two hours on the Mainz bus to study a graph which showed Barcelona's passing patterns. He also discussed tactics with Guardiola for four hours in Munich. Tuchel has borrowed training methods from other sports, including archery and kick-boxing; he once made the team spend close to a month training with a handball team. According to Jan Kirchhoff, Tuchel also emphasized psychological training, regularly sharing extracts from newspaper articles or books with his players to challenge their thinking.
Tuchel is known as an innovator in the game, and often compared to Guardiola. Chelsea fans called him Tommy Tactics in reference to the high-level of tactical play seen under Tuchel.
With Dortmund, Tuchel often used the 4–1–4–1 and 4–2–3–1 formations; with the former, he made his team force overloads in space out wide, while with the latter, he looked to create overloads in pockets of space in between the lines of the opposition. At Paris Saint-Germain, Tuchel primarily played a 4–3–3 with plenty of flair to emphasize the attacking capabilities of wide forwards Neymar and Mbappé, although he used up to ten different formations while at the club. An initial disciplinarian, Tuchel implemented bans on eating refined carbohydrates, replacing it with wholemeal pasta and light sauces; he changed this approach after being appointed at PSG. During the 2018–19 season, the forward line, with Neymar and Mbappé flanking central target man Cavani, regularly dropped into the half-space or into wide areas. The team's full-backs would also push up alongside the midfield in order to attain positional overloads, and players were encouraged to find space between the lines of defence and midfield to disorganize the opposition. Simultaneously, this would disrupt attempts to man-mark Neymar and Mbappé and create open space behind the defensive line for the pair to run into.
The team's midfield would see the deepest defensive midfielder stick close to the central defenders, who would often be joined by another midfielder acting as a deep-lying playmaker. These roles were occupied by Marquinhos and Marco Verratti, respectively. The last remaining midfielder would push forward to stagger attacks and disrupt defensive structure by overloading one side of the opponent's defensive area, setting an overload passing trap. During the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons, Di María and Paredes were commonly associated with this role. The team also heavily utilized Gegenpressing, a tactic where, after losing possession of the ball, the team would immediately attempt to win it back rather than regroup. PSG would thus corral the opponent to one side before switching play quickly to exploit the weaker side. Tuchel has also been noted for his use of man-marking, tasking Herrera to do so on Thiago in the 2020 Champions League final.
In the 2018–19 season, following injuries to Neymar, Verratti, and Rabiot, Tuchel sometimes departed from the 4–3–3 – to his success. In a 4–1 home victory against Rennes in January 2019, PSG lined up in a 4–2–2–2 formation; in possession, one defensive midfielder would drop between the central defenders to create a back three while the fullbacks pushed forward. This meant the other midfielder would act as a sweeping defensive presence while the four forwards would stay high and wide, dropping in sporadically to create vertical passing options to break the defensive line. In defence, PSG would retreat to a 5–3–2 formation and readjust to a 4–4–2 to gegenpress.
At Chelsea, Tuchel was known for making frequent player alterations in his early tenure; he made 39 changes to the starting lineup in 10 Premier League games between January and March 2021. He mostly preferred a 3–4–2–1 with ball progression largely coming from the wingbacks, a position mainly played by Reece James and Ben Chilwell, while also restoring the ostracized Antonio Rüdiger to a first-team regular, deploying him as a left centre-back in a back three, despite Rüdiger being right-footed. Sources close to Chelsea noted training sessions feature a light tone, with a wide range of drills including smaller footballs or using hands instead of feet in some games. He also used staggered recovery, such as lighter sessions after big games or rest days altogether. According to Andreas Christensen, in days leading up to games, training intensity typically increases, with focus on possession over tactics, such as three v two passing drills.
### Reception
Klopp, his contemporary, commenting on Tuchel's "exceptional" rise through the ranks remarked, "He's an outstanding coach and an outstanding manager". Guardiola also expressed his admiration for Tuchel's footballing philosophy, saying, "He's so creative. One of the few managers I learn from. Excellent in all departments. I enjoy watching his teams, the way he plays [and] his approach."
Barney Ronay writing for The Guardian mused that "Tuchel's acuity, his tendency even in his pre- and post-match TV appearances to blurt out original thoughts, to riff on the spot, turning this thing around in his hand, seeing its edges" has upped the stakes in terms of what an elite manager must be and demonstrate "restless intelligence, the obsession with detail, with football as a play of shapes and numbers and ideas."
Nikolče Noveski, who played under Tuchel and Klopp, noted "Tuchel's [management] was interested in fine details; his preparation for games is unparalleled. He is perfectionist, isn't afraid to challenge people and can be direct despite potential conflict". Speaking on his management style, Marcus Bettinelli noted Tuchel emphasizes personableness with playing and non-playing staff, saying, "...whether you're the chef, the bin man or gardener [you can] feel the atmosphere. He likes to ask how your family are, how you're doing. It's small things like that [which] help you feel comfortable". Chelsea captain César Azpilicueta said that Tuchel's man management was key in bringing success for Chelsea.
Sources close to Chelsea noted Tuchel's strong communication skills with players and light tone; to assimilate with the playing squad, Tuchel regularly organized external team outings and activities, including cooking them Weißwürste and pretzels. Writing for The Athletic, Simon Johnson reported such tensions rose at Chelsea, especially with the club's attacking players, with "brutal" criticism for failing to carry out his tactics. This was echoed by Gonzalo Castro, who also played under Tuchel, and said, "[Tuchel] organises everything precisely, down to the last millimetre." Tuchel is also known as a fierce motivator. At Mainz, during a bike tour up a mountain, Tuchel buried the club badge, saying if the youth team reached the 2009 Under 19 Bundesliga final, he would retrieve it; according to under-19 player Konstantin Fring, "We all had goosebumps. We would have killed someone for him [when he retrieved it]. We wanted to win so much. And we did."
## Personal life
As a child, Tuchel was a "huge" fan of football, and his first footballing idol was Hans-Günter Bruns.
Tuchel attended Simpert-Kraemer-Gymnasium and devised tactical strategies in PE volleyball. He graduated from Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University with a degree in business administration, and worked as a bartender at the Radio Bar in Stuttgart while a student.
Thomas married his wife Sissi in 2009, with whom he has two daughters. In April 2022, it was reported Sissi filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Tuchel is a polyglot, speaking German, French, English, and Italian. He describes himself as an "imperfect vegetarian" and consumes minimal amounts of alcohol. Tuchel considers himself an avid reader, namely of crime thriller novels and books about architecture and design, and is also a fan of tennis, rock music, and hip hop.
## Managerial statistics
## Honours
### Manager
Borussia Dortmund
- DFB-Pokal: 2016–17; runner-up: 2015–16
Paris Saint-Germain
- Ligue 1: 2018–19, 2019–20
- Coupe de France: 2019–20; runner-up: 2018–19
- Coupe de la Ligue: 2019–20
- Trophée des Champions: 2018, 2019
- UEFA Champions League runner-up: 2019–20
Chelsea
- UEFA Champions League: 2020–21
- UEFA Super Cup: 2021
- FIFA Club World Cup: 2021
- FA Cup runner-up: 2020–21, 2021–22
- EFL Cup runner-up: 2021–22
Bayern Munich
- Bundesliga: 2022–23
Individual
- VDV Bundesliga Coach of the Season: 2015–16
- Premier League Manager of the Month: March 2021, October 2021
- German Football Manager of the Year: 2021
- UEFA Men's Coach of the Year: 2020–21
- IFFHS Men's World's Best Club Coach: 2021
- The Best FIFA Football Coach: 2021 |
2,761,294 | John Northcott | 1,161,513,121 | Australian general | [
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| Lieutenant General Sir John Northcott (24 March 1890 – 4 August 1966) was an Australian Army general who served as Chief of the General Staff during the Second World War, and commanded the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in the Occupation of Japan. He was the first Australian-born Governor of New South Wales.
Northcott joined the Australian Army as a reservist in 1908, before becoming a regular officer in 1912. On duty in Tasmania when the Great War broke out in 1914, he joined the 12th Infantry Battalion, a unit from that state. He was wounded in the landing at Gallipoli on Anzac Day and invalided to Egypt, the United Kingdom, and ultimately Australia, taking no further part in the fighting. After the war, Northcott served on a series of staff posts. He attended the Staff College, Camberley and Imperial Defence College and also spent time overseas as an exchange officer with the British Army and as a military attaché in the United States and Canada.
During World War II, Northcott was attached to the British 7th Armoured Division in the Middle East to study armoured warfare, returning to Australia in December 1941 to organise the new 1st Armoured Division. In March 1942, he assumed command II Corps. In September 1942, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff. As General Sir Thomas Blamey's principal non-operational subordinate, he was responsible for administering and training the wartime army. After the war, he served as commander of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in the post-war Occupation of Japan. He retired from the Army in 1946 to become the Governor of New South Wales.
## Early life
John Northcott was born on 24 March 1890 at Creswick, Victoria, the eldest son of a storekeeper, John Northcott, and his wife Elizabeth Jane, née Reynolds. Northcott was educated at Dean State School, Grenville College, Ballarat, and the University of Melbourne. While at school, he served in the Australian Army Cadets. He was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 9th Light Horse, a Militia unit, on 14 August 1908, and was promoted to lieutenant on 31 October 1910 and captain on 31 July 1911.
On 16 November 1912, he was granted a commission as a lieutenant in the Administrative and Instructional Staff of the regular forces, then known as the Permanent Military Forces (PMF), retaining the rank of honorary captain until he was promoted to that rank in the PMF on 1 June 1918.
## First World War
Northcott was assigned to staff of the 6th Military District, the military district covering the state of Tasmania, where he was serving when the First World War broke out in August 1914. His initial task was assisting with the raising of Australian Imperial Force (AIF) units in Tasmania. He joined the AIF as a lieutenant on 24 August 1914 and was appointed adjutant of the 12th Infantry Battalion, which was forming at Anglesea Barracks near Hobart. He was promoted to captain in the AIF on 18 October 1914.
Northcott embarked for Egypt from Hobart with the 12th Infantry Battalion on the transport A2, HMAT Geelong on 20 October 1914. This was one of the first battalions ashore in the landing at Anzac Cove on the first Anzac Day, 25 April 1915. Northcott's part in the battle was brief, for that day he was wounded in the chest by a Turkish bullet. He lay among a pile of dead bodies until the evening, when he was found to be alive. He was evacuated to Alexandria and later to England.
While recuperating, he was joined by his fiancée, Winifred Mary Paton, who had travelled to England to be with him. The two were married at the parish church in Oxted on 14 September 1915. He returned to Australia on 30 December 1915 and took no further part in the fighting, it being "a rigid rule that no regular officer once invalided to Australia could again go overseas". His AIF appointment was terminated on 30 September 1916 and he was posted to the 5th Military District, the military district covering the state of Western Australia.
## Between the wars
Northcott was granted the honorary rank of major on 1 January 1919, and the brevet rank on 1 January 1920, but this was not made substantive until 1 October 1923. He attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1924 to 1926. On returning to Australia, Northcott served as Staff Officer, and later Director, Stores and Transport, at Army Headquarters in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne. He was appointed a Member (fourth class) of the Royal Victorian Order on 8 July 1927 for coordinating the transport for the 1927 six-month Royal Tour of the Duke and Duchess of York (later George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) that year to open the Old Parliament House, Canberra.
Northcott served on the staff of the 4th Division from 17 September 1931 to 31 January 1932 and then with the 3rd Division from 1 February to 22 November 1932. He returned to England as an exchange officer with the British Army, where he served the staff of the 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division. He attended the Imperial Defence College in 1935. He was one of only six Australian Army officers to attend this prestigious course between 1928 and 1939, the others being Frank Berryman, John Lavarack, Henry Wynter, Vernon Sturdee, Sydney Rowell and William Bridgeford. Frederick Shedden, later Secretary of the Department of Defence, also attended this course. Northcott was given the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel on 1 July 1935, which was made substantive on 1 January 1936. He attended the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness in 1936, and was seconded to the Committee of Imperial Defence. He then served as an Australian defence attaché in the United States and Canada from September 1936 to June 1937. He was promoted to the brevet rank of colonel on 1 July 1937 and substantive rank on 13 October 1939. He served on the staff of the 4th Division until 1 September 1939, when he became Director of Military Operations and Intelligence.
## Second World War
Northcott was promoted to the local rank of major general on 13 October 1939, when he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff. He accompanied Richard Casey to the Dominions' Conference in London in later that year as his military adviser. For his service as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1941.
On 26 January 1940, Northcott became acting Chief of the General Staff (CGS) following the death of Lieutenant General Ernest Ker Squires. In August, his successor, General Sir Brudenell White, died in an air crash and Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee succeeded him. The post of commander of the 8th Division thereby became available but Northcott was excluded from consideration because his knowledge was vital to the new CGS. When the commander of the 9th Division, Major General Henry Wynter, fell ill in January 1941, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey asked for Northcott to replace him, but Northcott was involved in organising the 1st Armoured Division and the appointment instead went to Brigadier Leslie Morshead.
Northcott joined the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a major general on 1 September 1941 and was given the AIF serial number VX63396. He was attached to the British 7th Armoured Division in the Middle East to study armoured warfare, returning to Australia in December 1941 to organise the new 1st Armoured Division. The job was a challenging one that some of his subordinates felt that Northcott was not up to, given his lack of command experience. In March 1942, Northcott found out from The Herald newspaper that he was to be promoted to command II Corps. "This is what they do to me", was his comment, "just as my first tank is coming down the road". The new post came with a promotion to the temporary rank of lieutenant general on 6 April 1942, which became substantive on 12 December 1945. Northcott was succeeded as commander by Major General Horace Robertson, an officer with a distinguished combat record in the desert.
However, on 10 September 1942, Northcott was appointed Chief of the General Staff. Formerly, the Army had been controlled by the Military Board. This ceased to function on 30 July 1942, with its responsibilities being assumed by the Commander-in-Chief, General Blamey. The Adjutant General, Major General Victor Stantke, the Quartermaster General, Major General James Cannan and the Master-General of the Ordnance, Major General Leslie, who would formerly have been members of the board, now came under the Lieutenant General Administration (LGA), Lieutenant General Henry Wynter. This left the CGS with responsibility for the day-to-day running of the Army. His job also involved liaison with Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and he frequently had to represent Blamey in meetings with the Minister for the Army, Frank Forde.
Northcott spent much of his time from 1943 on in a long battle with the government over the number of men and women allocated to the Army. He attempted to do so without Blamey being dragged into a political fight but this proved to be impossible. In September 1944, the government reduced the Army's monthly intake of women from 925 to 500, while it only received 420 out of 4,020 men allocated to the three services. Such a meagre allocation was below what the Army needed to maintain its strength, and formations had to be disbanded. Blamey took up the matter with Prime Minister John Curtin, and managed to get a more satisfactory monthly allocation of 1,500 men per month out of 3,000 allocated to the three services.
The relationship between Northcott as Chief of the General Staff and Blamey as Commander-in-Chief bore some similarities to the one between the RAAF's Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal George Jones, and Air Vice Marshal William Bostock, the commander of the RAAF forces in the field, but Blamey was senior to Northcott, both in rank and in the Army's command structure. The relationship could still have been a delicate one, but in the event it was characterised by none of the rancour and rivalry that marred the wartime administration of the RAAF. In late 1943, Blamey sought to appoint Northcott as his deputy, but the government turned down his request, on the advice of General Douglas MacArthur, who did not want another officer who was answerable both to himself and the Australian Government. However, when Blamey travelled to Washington, D.C. and London in April 1944, he arranged for Northcott to act as Commander-in-Chief in his absence. After Wynter's death in February 1945, the post of LGA was abolished and the CGS again became responsible for administration.
## British Commonwealth Occupation Force
At the end of World War II, Sturdee was again invited to become CGS. He made it a condition of his acceptance that Northcott be given the appointment of Commander-in-Chief of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) in Japan. Sturdee felt that Northcott had missed out on opportunities for active service through his being CGS and saw the BCOF post as a just reward for that service.
Northcott headed the BCOF from December 1945 until June 1946. As such, he negotiated the Northcott-MacArthur agreement with General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, which governed the terms and conditions under which the BCOF would occupy part of Japan. The BCOF would serve under American command, with American policy being followed. Northcott was offered, and accepted, the post of Governor of New South Wales in April 1946. He remained in Japan until June though, because Prime Minister Ben Chifley wanted the changeover to coincide with his own visit to Japan in May, and because he needed to obtain consent of the other governments concerned for the appointment of Lieutenant General Horace Robertson as Northcott's successor. Northcott's lack of experience in command once again showed, and his command was again overhauled by Robertson.
## Governor of New South Wales
On 1 August 1946, Northcott became the first Australian-born, and one of the longest-serving, Governors of New South Wales. As such, he gave patronage and support to many charitable organisations and to youth, church and citizens' groups. Blamey was unable to secure a knighthood for Northcott for his military service, it being Australian Labor Party policy not to award knighthoods at that time.
In April 1949 Northcott took part in an event of historic importance at Sydney's famous Australia Hotel, being the venue of the first successful television demonstration in Australia. Northcott was televised in the hotel's ballroom as he opened the demonstration.
Northcott was made a Knight of the Venerable Order of St John of Jerusalem in December 1946, a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for his services as governor in 1950, and a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1954 for his work with the Royal Tour of Queen Elizabeth II. He was a freemason who, during his term as governor, was Viceregal Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New South Wales.
Northcott was Administrator of the Commonwealth in the absence of the governor-general from 19 July to 14 December 1951, and again from 30 July to 22 October 1956. While occupying that office, he held the honorary rank of general. He was awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters by the University of Sydney in 1952 and the University of New England in 1956, and Doctor of Science by the New South Wales University of Technology in 1956. He retired in July 1957. In April 1964, Northcott and Forde represented Australia at General MacArthur's funeral in Washington, D.C.
## Death and legacy
Sir John's wife, Winifred Mary predeceased him on 7 June 1960. Survived by his two daughters, Sir John died on 4 August 1966 in his home at Wahroonga, New South Wales. He was accorded a state funeral with military honours and was cremated with his ashes interred with his wife at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens. Like most governors of New South Wales, his papers are in the State Library of New South Wales.
In 1968 the Northcott Municipal Council, comprising large areas formerly in the City of Sydney, and the Electoral district of Northcott in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly were dedicated in his name (the council was renamed in December 1968, while the electoral district existed until abolition in 1999). In his military career, Northcott was both highly regarded and successful staff officer, as commander of the 1st Armoured Division, II Corps and BCOF he was "noted neither for innovation nor conspicuous success", especially when compared with Robertson who "possessed the ebullience and flair that Northcott lacked". While governor, Northcott was patron of the New South Wales Society for Crippled Children. He continued to take an active in its affairs for the rest of his life. In 1995, this charity changed its name to The Northcott Society in his honour. In 2004, it became Northcott Disability Services, providing case to people of all ages with disabilities. He is also remembered through Cranbrook School, Sydney by having one of the houses named after him, Northcott House.
He was a long-standing Freemason, and served as Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
## Honours
### Honorary military appointments
- 20 December 1951 – 14 August 1958: Honorary Air Commodore of No. 22 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force.
- 1949 – 31 January 1958: Honorary Colonel of the 1st/15th Royal New South Wales Lancers. |
48,446,547 | 2016 Australian Grand Prix | 1,146,779,323 | Formula One motor race held in 2016 | [
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| The 2016 Australian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2016 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 20 March 2016 in Melbourne. The race was contested over fifty-seven laps of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit and was the first round of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race marked the 81st race in the combined history of the Australian Grand Prix – which dates back to the 100 Miles Road Race of 1928 – and the 21st time the event was held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was the race winner.
Lewis Hamilton took the first pole position of the season and the fiftieth of his career in a qualifying session that saw the introduction of a new one-by-one elimination format that was widely criticised. His teammate Nico Rosberg took victory ahead of Hamilton and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. The race was stopped on lap 18 following an accident involving Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutiérrez. Mercedes used the break for a change of tyres that allowed their drivers to take a 1–2 finish after Vettel had initially led the race from the start. Romain Grosjean finished sixth, scoring points for the Haas F1 team on their début, the first completely new team to do so since 2002. Mercedes equalled the record for most consecutive 1–2 finishes, by achieving their fifth in a row.
## Report
### Background
#### Regulation changes
The race saw the introduction of a new qualifying system. As before, qualifying was divided into three parts. However, instead of eliminating the slowest drivers at the end of each respective session, the slowest driver at a given point was now eliminated from contention every ninety seconds, with the countdown starting some minutes into every session.
In a further change of regulations, tyre supplier Pirelli now made three instead of two tyre compounds available for each Grand Prix. For the Australian Grand Prix, these were the super-soft, soft and medium compounds. With Pirelli providing every driver with two sets of tyres for the race (of which one must be used) and an additional one for the third part of qualifying, drivers were able to choose ten additional sets of tyres out of the three compounds available. Notably, Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg made different choices, with Rosberg opting for an additional set of mediums instead of soft tyres. The two Manor drivers chose the most conservative way, taking on four sets each of the medium and soft compounds.
The race saw the competitive début of the Haas F1 Team, and its car, the Haas VF-16; and the return of Renault as a fully manufacturer-supported team after a four-year absence.
### Free practice
Per the regulations for the 2016 season, three practice sessions were held, two 1.5-hour sessions on Friday and another one-hour session before qualifying on Saturday. Rain had fallen before the start of the first practice session, rendering the track wet and slippery, and drivers initially opted to go on their first laps on intermediate tyres. Nico Rosberg was the first to set a lap time, clocking in at 1:44.037, a time soon bettered by his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton at 1:40.812. As conditions improved further, Kimi Räikkönen set a new fastest time after about half an hour of practice. Soon after, the track had dried enough for the drivers to go out on slick tyres, with Daniel Ricciardo setting the first time on the medium compound with 1:34.007. After around one hour of practice, Hamilton managed the best time of the session, at 1:29.725. Still, several wet spots on the track caused problems to a number of drivers, including Max Verstappen, who flat-spotted his tyres while spinning in turn six, as well as Valtteri Bottas and Rio Haryanto, who both had to pass through the gravel traps after slipping off the track. Shortly before the end of the session, rain returned and caught out many drivers, including Räikkönen and Ricciardo, whose Red Bull RB12 got stuck in a gravel pit at turn twelve.
Due to several rain showers between first and second practice, the track was again wet during the second session, which limited the drivers to using the intermediate tyres only. Hamilton was again fastest, setting a time of 1:38.841. Teammate Rosberg crashed at turn seven thirty minutes into the session, damaging a new-specification front wing that the team had deliberately not run in first practice for fear of damage. Rosberg later apologised for the incident, which saw him trying to get back to pit lane, before his team told him to stop on track, calling an early end to his session. Nico Hülkenberg, Räikkönen, Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz Jr. all finished within one second of Hamilton's time, while Sergio Pérez was at one point on his way to a new fastest time overall, setting best times in the first two timechecks along the track, before having to slow in the last part of the lap due to heavy rain. The two Manor drivers Pascal Wehrlein and Haryanto covered the highest number of laps, with 24 and 22 laps in 12th and 14th place respectively. Neither Renault nor Williams drivers set a time, albeit going on track. The Sauber cars and Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso did not leave the garage at all during the session.
Although rain fell on Saturday morning, the track had dried by the start of the final free practice session. Lewis Hamilton again set the fastest time with 1:25.624, less than two-tenths of a second in front of teammate Rosberg, with Sebastian Vettel in third position close behind. The fastest times had been set on the super-soft tyre compound. However, Mercedes's advantage over Ferrari proved more significant, up to seven-tenths of a second on the harder soft compound, the tyre most likely to be used in the race. Toro Rosso confirmed their good pace for the weekend with fourth and sixth place for Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen respectively, being about half a second quicker than their sister team, Red Bull Racing. A major incident occurred just seconds after the beginning of the practice session, when Rio Haryanto and Romain Grosjean collided in the pit lane. Both cars needed to equip new front wings and Haas also changed the floor on Grosjean's car. Haryanto was later issued a three-place grid penalty for the incident, as well as two penalty points added to his licence.
### Qualifying
Qualifying got under way on Saturday afternoon with new rules in place. Just as in years before, the qualifying procedure was divided into three parts, with the first part (Q1) running for 16 minutes and the second and third parts (Q2 and Q3) being 15 and 14 minutes long respectively. All twenty-two cars contested the first part, with seven drivers eliminated from further contention in each of the first two parts of qualifying, leaving eight drivers to compete for pole position in Q3. However, in a change of rules, drivers were now eliminated during the session, with the slowest runner at a given point being taken out from contention every ninety seconds, beginning seven minutes into Q1, six minutes into Q2 and five minutes into Q3.
The new format meant that all cars took to the track quickly in Q1, with everyone setting lap times on the super-soft compound, the fastest tyre available at the event. The two Manor drivers were first to be eliminated, having set only one timed lap each, as were both Haas cars after them, being unable to cross the finishing line in time. The same fate caught out Daniil Kvyat, who qualified 18th. Both Sauber drivers were able to go out on a second timed lap, but proved too slow to avoid being the last to go out in Q1, after Renault rookie Jolyon Palmer was able to avoid elimination, setting a faster time towards the end of the session.
Q2 started with a busy track once more, but many of the top drivers elected not to go out on a second timed run after setting sufficient lap times first time around. The eliminated drivers were determined rather quickly, with the two Renault drivers qualifying 14th and 15th respectively. The two McLarens were next to go out of contention, before Bottas was eliminated for 11th place on the grid, failing to improve on his lap time. Both Force India drivers were the last not to make it into Q3, with Sergio Pérez beating his teammate Hülkenberg to ninth.
The third part of qualifying determined pole position and only the two Mercedes drivers set two timed laps. After he clocked in behind both Ferrari drivers in his first run, Rosberg improved to second place on his second time out, but was unable to challenge teammate Hamilton, who took the fiftieth pole position of his career. Every other driver was limited to only one timed lap and in the end, the two Ferrari cars of Vettel and Räikkönen locked out the second row on the grid ahead of Max Verstappen and Felipe Massa. Sainz and Ricciardo rounded up the top eight on the grid. Therefore, Q3 saw little running with the final positions determined very early on and drivers exiting their cars five minutes before the end of qualifying.
#### Post-qualifying
The new qualifying format was criticised immediately after the end of the session by pundits, drivers and team personnel alike. Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle called for a swift revision of the rules, saying the procedure was "not acceptable" and calling for it to be abandoned before the next race. Mercedes's executive director Toto Wolff and former driver Johnny Herbert were equally critical, describing it as "rubbish" and "embarrassing". Red Bull team director Christian Horner was apologetic, describing the format as "[not] good for Formula One." Niki Lauda, non-executive chairman at Mercedes, was in agreement, calling it "a big mistake." Particular criticism was aimed at the fact that many drivers did not get enough time to improve on their lap times, seeing many getting out of their cockpits while still technically in contention. 1996 World Champion Damon Hill observed that pole-sitter Hamilton "could have waved his own chequered flag [...] with four minutes still to go." Nico Rosberg acknowledged that it had "not worked", while Sebastian Vettel was equally critical, describing it as "the wrong way to go." Lewis Hamilton joined the criticism but acknowledged the attempt to revitalise the format. Bernie Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder of Formula One, spoke out against the format as well, declaring it to be "pretty crap". On the day of the race, the teams of Formula 1 voted a proposal to go back to the qualifying format as it had been in previous seasons, which was rejected by the FIA's F1 Commission.
### Race
At the end of the formation lap, Daniil Kvyat was unable to reach the grid due to an electrical issue. Therefore, the field went to another formation lap and the race was shortened accordingly to 57 laps. At the start proper, Vettel got away well, passing through both Mercedes cars into the lead, followed by his teammate Räikkönen in second. As Rosberg and Hamilton went through the first corner, Hamilton was forced wide and lost additional places, falling down to sixth. Kevin Magnussen suffered a puncture on the first lap and made a pit stop for new tyres, while Esteban Gutiérrez had mechanical issues at the back of the field. Hamilton was able to pass fifth-placed Massa on lap four, as Vettel was leading from Räikkonen, Rosberg and Verstappen. On lap eight, Sainz was the first of the top-ten runners to pit for new tyres. Meanwhile, Hamilton was unable to pass Verstappen for fourth, discussing alternative tactics with his team on the radio communication. Pascal Wehrlein had a good start in his debut as well, running in 14th place at that point of the race.
On the end of lap eleven, Rosberg was the first front runner to go into the pitlane and Vettel followed suit just two laps later. A quicker stop by Rosberg saw Vettel emerge just in front of him, but the Ferrari stayed ahead and he passed Hamilton for second on lap 16. On the same lap, both Räikkönen and Hamilton made pit stops as well, re-establishing the order. One lap later, Fernando Alonso had a major accident as he ran into the back of Gutiérrez, being lifted into the air at 300 km/h (190 mph) and hitting the left-hand barrier before subsequently rolling over several times before coming to rest upside-down against the barrier at turn three, experiencing a peak force of 46G. While Alonso walked away with minor injuries, a safety car was deployed for a short time before the race direction decided to red flag the race due to the huge amounts of debris across the track from both Alonso's McLaren and damaged advertising boards, causing all cars to come back into pitlane.
While the cars waited for the restart, work on the cars was allowed and Hamilton's front wing was changed, while Rio Haryanto ended his race. As the race resumed behind the safety car, both Ferrari drivers were running on the super-soft tyre compound, with both Mercedes now equipped with mediums, which were set to last for the rest of the race. The running order at the restart was: Vettel, Rosberg, Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton, Massa, Grosjean, Bottas. Grosjean in ninth was the only driver who had not made a pit stop before the red flag was shown, which allowed him to save one pit stop and change his tyres during the break.
Vettel led away at the restart, but his Ferrari teammate Räikkönen was forced to pull into the pit lane on lap 22 with fire coming from his airbox and subsequently retired, handing second place to Rosberg. Over the next couple of laps, Vettel was able to pull away from Rosberg on the softer tyre compound. Marcus Ericsson was handed a drive-through penalty for having his team work on his car less than 15 seconds before the restart. By lap 31, the gap between Vettel and Rosberg started to come down again, while Hamilton moved ahead of Sainz into fifth as the latter made a pit stop. Two laps later, Verstappen was in as well, but a slow pit stop lost him time. On lap 35, Rosberg took the lead as Vettel made a pit stop, who also lost time due to a mistake during his stop. He emerged back on track in fourth place. Hamilton now started to pull back time on the leaders, while debutant Palmer held off the two Toro Rosso drivers in a struggle for ninth place.
On lap 40, Ericsson started to slow on track and eventually retired. One lap later, Hamilton moved into second ahead of Ricciardo on the main straight. Lap 42 saw first Sainz and then Verstappen overtake Palmer's Renault, who fell back to eleventh. Another lap later, Ricciardo changed tyres and came out fifth behind Massa, taking fourth three laps later. At the front, Hamilton and Vettel slowly closed on Rosberg, with the gap between the two also coming down. Vettel came onto the back of Hamilton with five laps remaining, chasing him closely for several laps before making a mistake in the second to last corner of lap 55, losing his chances at second place.
As the race ended, Nico Rosberg took victory, thirty-one years after his father Keke Rosberg had won the 1985 Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton and Vettel rounded out the podium ahead of Ricciardo and Massa. With Romain Grosjean having finished in sixth, Haas F1 became the first new (and "from scratch") constructor since Toyota in 2002 to score points in its inaugural Grand Prix race entry. Behind Grosjean, Hülkenberg, Bottas, Sainz and Verstappen were the other point scorers. By finishing fourth, Daniel Ricciardo equalled the highest ever finish by an Australian driver at their home event, after Mark Webber did the same in 2012. It was Mercedes's fifth consecutive 1–2 finish, equalling a record set by Ferrari in 1952 and 2002 and by themselves in 2014.
### Post-race
At the podium interviews, conducted by former Formula One driver Mark Webber, both Mercedes drivers expressed delight at their result. Hamilton in particular described his race as "great" and added that he "loved the fact that we had to come through from far behind." Sebastian Vettel meanwhile was satisfied with his start, but lamented the red flag situation and said that Ferrari had not expected Mercedes to opt for the harder tyre compound and go until the end of the race. He later added that he was confident that Ferrari had closed the gap to Mercedes and would be able to compete for the championship throughout the season. Nico Rosberg later revealed that the team had been close to retiring his car due to persisting brake issues caused by debris caught in the brake caliper. However, he was able to manage the brake temperatures to secure victory. Rosberg also apologised to his teammate for making contact and forcing him wide at the start.
Following an inquiry into the incident between Alonso and Gutiérrez, the stewards took no action against either driver, deeming it a "racing incident" with no driver particularly to blame. Fernando Alonso shared the stewards' opinion and was quick to express that he did not blame Gutiérrez. The accident was a talking point for days after the race, with former FIA president Max Mosley pointing out that Alonso's impact might have been fatal about twenty years earlier. He praised the measures taken in terms of driver security ever since the fatal accident of Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, saying that due to these efforts, one was now able to "expect the driver to walk away" from a violent crash.
Particular praise after the race went to both newcomers Haas and debutant Jolyon Palmer, who delivered what The Guardian described as an "impressive" drive. Palmer had been able to hold off attacks by both Toro Rosso drivers for several laps in the closing stages of the race. Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen was very unhappy with his team's strategy in the race handling the situation, repeatedly complaining and swearing over the team radio. He lost several seconds in a rushed pitstop, after which he lamented that he had wanted to pit before his teammate Sainz. While driving behind Sainz when both where trailing Palmer, he asked for team orders to allow him to pass his teammate, which were denied, leading him to describe his team's strategy as a "joke". Verstappen received criticism for his outbursts, with Sky Sports describing him as sounding "like a teenager - and a sulky one at that". He later apologised to his team for his outbursts.
The race also marked the first time the Driver of the Day award was introduced, as a move to increase fan engagement. The award originally went to Haryanto, who retired during the red flag period, but it was rewarded to Grosjean who helped the new Haas team to score their maiden points after the Formula One Management stated that, "In the interest of fairness, multiple votes identified as originating from the same source were not counted".
## Classification
### Qualifying
Notes
- – Valtteri Bottas received a five-place grid penalty for unscheduled gearbox change.
- – Rio Haryanto received a three-place grid penalty after a pit lane collision with Romain Grosjean during the third practice session.
### Race
Notes
- – Daniil Kvyat's car failed during the formation lap. His place on the starting grid was left vacant.
## Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings
Constructors' Championship standings
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
## See also
- 2016 Coates Hire V8 Supercars Challenge |
2,208,221 | Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site | 1,169,236,664 | Historic site in Cambridge, Massachusetts | [
"1972 establishments in Massachusetts",
"Biographical museums in Massachusetts",
"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow",
"Historic house museums in Massachusetts",
"Homes of American writers",
"Homes of United States Founding Fathers",
"Houses completed in 1759",
"Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts",
"Landmarks in Cambridge, Massachusetts",
"Literary museums in the United States",
"Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts",
"National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts",
"National Historic Sites in Massachusetts",
"Protected areas established in 1972",
"Washington family residences"
]
| The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site (also known as the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House and, until December 2010, Longfellow National Historic Site) is a historic site located at 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was the home of noted American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for almost 50 years, and it had previously served as the headquarters of General George Washington (1775–76).
The house was built in 1759 for Jamaican planter John Vassall Jr., who fled the Cambridge area at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War because of his loyalty to the king of England. George Washington occupied it as his headquarters beginning on July 16, 1775, and it served as his base of operations during the Siege of Boston until he moved out on April 4, 1776. Andrew Craigie, Washington's Apothecary General, was the next person to own the home for a significant period of time. He purchased the house in 1791 and instigated its only major addition. Craigie's financial situation at the time of his death in 1819 forced his widow Elizabeth to take in boarders, and one of those boarders was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became its owner in 1843 when his father-in-law Nathan Appleton purchased it as a wedding gift. He lived in the home until his death in 1882.
The last family to live in the home was the Longfellow family, who established the Longfellow Trust in 1913 for its preservation. In 1972, the home and all of its furnishings were donated to the National Park Service, and it is open to the public seasonally. It presents an example of mid-Georgian architecture style.
## History
### Early history
The original house was built in 1759 for Loyalist John Vassall Jr. owner of a slave-labor sugar plantation in Hanover, Jamaica. He inherited the land along what was called the King's Highway in Cambridge when he was 21. He demolished the structure that had stood there and built a new mansion, and the home became his summer residence with his wife Elizabeth (née Oliver) and children until 1774. His wife's brother was Thomas Oliver, the royal lieutenant governor of Massachusetts who moved to Cambridge in 1766 and built the Elmwood mansion. Vassall, who kept an usually high number of people enslaved on the property, served for a time as a warden of nearby Christ Church. Vassall's house and all his other properties were confiscated by Patriots in September 1774 on the eve of the American Revolutionary War because he was accused of being loyal to the King. He fled to Boston and later to England where he died in 1792.
The home was used as a temporary hospital in the days after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Colonel John Glover and the Marblehead, Massachusetts Regiment occupied the house as their temporary barracks in June 1775. General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the newly formed Continental Army, initially used the Benjamin Wadsworth House at Harvard College as his headquarters, but he decided that he needed more space for his staff; he moved into the Vassall House on July 16, 1775, and used it as his headquarters and home until he departed on April 4, 1776. During the Siege of Boston, he found the view of the Charles River from the house particularly useful. The home was shared with several aides-de-camp, including colonel Robert H. Harrison. Washington was visited at the house by John Adams and Abigail Adams, Benedict Arnold, Henry Knox, and Nathanael Greene. In his study, he also confronted Dr. Benjamin Church with evidence that he was a spy. It was in this house that Washington received a poem written by Phillis Wheatley, the first published African-American poet. "If you should ever come to Cambridge", he wrote to her, "I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses".
Martha Washington joined her husband in December 1775 and stayed until March 1776. She brought with her Washington's nephew George Lewis as well as her son John Parke Custis and his wife Eleanor Calvert. On Twelfth Night in January 1776, the couple celebrated their wedding anniversary in the home. Mrs. Washington reported to a friend that "some days we have [heard] a number of cannon and shells from Boston and Bunkers Hill". She used the front parlor as her personal reception room, still furnished with the English-made furniture left behind by the Vassalls. The Washingtons also had several servants, including a tailor named Giles Alexander, and several slaves including "Billy" Lee. They also entertained very often. Surviving household accounts show that the family purchased large quantities of beef, lamb, wild ducks, geese, fresh fish, plums, peaches, barrels of cider, gallons of brandy and rum, and 217 bottles of Madeira wine purchased in a two-week period.
Washington left the house in April 1776. Nathaniel Tracy had made a great fortune as one of the earliest and most successful privateers under Washington, and he owned the house from 1781 to 1786. He then went bankrupt and sold it to Thomas Russell, a wealthy Boston merchant who occupied it until 1791.
### Craigie family and boarders
Andrew Craigie had been the first Apothecary General of the American army, and bought the house in 1791. He hosted Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn in the ballroom; Prince Edward was the father of Queen Victoria. Craigie married Elizabeth while living in the house; she was the daughter of a Nantucket clergyman and only 22 years old, 17 years younger than he.
Craigie overspent trying to restore the home, and left Elizabeth in great debt when he died in 1819. She took in boarders to support herself, most often people connected to nearby Harvard University. Short-term residents of the home included Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, and Joseph Emerson Worcester. Sparks moved into the home in April 1833 while he was preparing a biography of Washington based on original documents. He recorded in his journal: "It is a singular circumstance that, while I am engaged in preparing for the press the letters of General Washington which he wrote at Cambridge after taking command of the American army, I should occupy the same rooms that he did at that time." Another lodger was Sarah Lowell, an aunt of James Russell Lowell.
Longfellow moved to Cambridge to take a job at Harvard College as Smith Professor of Modern Languages and of Belles Lettres, and rented rooms on the second floor of the home beginning in the summer of 1837. Elizabeth Craigie initially refused to rent to him because she thought that he was a student at Harvard, but Longfellow convinced her that he was a professor there, as well as the author of Outre-Mer, the very book that she was reading.
Longfellow's new landlady had earned a reputation for being eccentric and often wore a turban. In the 1840s, Longfellow wrote about an incident where canker-worms were devastating the elm trees on the property. Elizabeth Craigie "would sit by the open window and let them crawl over her white turban. She refused to have the trees protected against them & said, Why, sir, they have as good a right to live as we—they are our fellow worms". He wrote to his father in August 1837, "The new rooms are above all praise, only they do want painting." The rooms that he rented were the same ones once used personally by George Washington while it was his headquarters, and he wrote to his friend George Washington Greene: "I live in a great house which looks like an Italian villa: have two large rooms opening into each other. They were once Gen. Washington's chambers".
The first major works that Longfellow composed in the home were Hyperion, a prose romance likely inspired by his pursuit for the affections of Frances Appleton, and Voices of the Night, a poetry collection which included "A Psalm of Life". Edward Wagenknecht notes that it was these early years at the Craigie House which marked "the real beginning of Longfellow's literary career". His landlady, Elizabeth Craigie, died in 1841.
### Longfellow family
Joseph Emerson Worcester leased the property from Elizabeth Craigie's heirs after her death, and he rented the eastern half to Longfellow. Nathan Appleton purchased the house in 1843 for \$10,000; Longfellow married his daughter Frances, so Appleton gave him the house as a wedding gift. Longfellow's friend George Washington Greene reminded them "how noble an inheritance this is — where Washington dwelt in every room". Longfellow was proud of the connection to Washington and purchased a bust of him in 1844, a copy of the sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon.
Longfellow lived in the house for the next four decades, producing many of his most famous poems including "Paul Revere's Ride" and "The Village Blacksmith", as well as longer works such as Evangeline, The Song of Hiawatha, and The Courtship of Miles Standish. He published 11 poetry collections, two novels, three epic poems, and several plays while living in this house, as well as a translation of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. He and his wife most often referred to it as "Craigie House" or "Craigie Castle".
Longfellow oversaw the creation of a formal garden, and his wife oversaw decorating the interior. She purchased several items from Tiffany & Co. in New York, as well as \$350 worth of carpets. They installed central heating in 1850 and gaslight in 1853. The family hosted artists, writers, politicians and other famous people. Specific visitors included Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, singer Jenny Lind, and actress Fanny Kemble. Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil also visited the house privately and requested the company of Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and James Russell Lowell. The couple also raised their three daughters and two sons in the home. They stayed in the home until their respective deaths but spent their summers after 1850 in Nahant, Massachusetts.
Longfellow often wrote in his first-floor study, formerly Washington's office, surrounded by portraits of his friends, including charcoal portraits by Eastman Johnson of Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Cornelius Conway Felton. He would write at the center table, at the desk, or in the armchair by the fire. His second wife Fanny died in the home in July 1861 after her dress accidentally caught fire. He attempted to quell the flames, managing to keep her face from burning, but he was burned on his own face and was scarred badly enough that he began growing a beard to hide it.
## Preservation and current use
Longfellow died in 1882 and his daughter Alice Longfellow was the last of his children to live in the home. In 1913, the surviving Longfellow children established the Longfellow House Trust to preserve the home as well as its view to the Charles River. Their intention was to preserve the home as a memorial to Longfellow and Washington and to showcase the property as a "prime example of Georgian architecture".
The home was already becoming famous during the poet's lifetime as it was often printed alongside his works, in chromolitographs, and in gift-cards. Its fame continued to grow after Longfellow's death. By the 1890s, a company began manufacturing postcards and selling them in bulk for teachers to give away.
In 1962, the trust successfully lobbied for the house to become a national historic landmark. In 1972, the Trust donated the property to the National Park Service and it became the Longfellow National Historic Site and open to the public as a house museum. On display are many of the original nineteenth century furnishings, artwork, over 10,000 books owned by Longfellow, and the dining table around which many important visitors gathered. Everything on display was owned by the Longfellow family. The site was renamed to Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site on December 22, 2010, to ensure that the connection to Washington was not lost in the memory of the general public.
The site also possesses some 750,000 original documents relevant to the former occupants of the home. These archives are open to scholarly research by appointment.
Across the street from the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is the municipal park known as Longfellow Park. The park was left undeveloped as a way to preserve an unobstructed view of the Charles River from the house. In the middle sits a memorial by sculptor Daniel Chester French dedicated in 1914. In addition to a bust of the poet, a carved bas-relief by Henry Bacon depicts the famous characters Miles Standish, Sandalphon, the village blacksmith, the Spanish student, Evangeline, and Hiawatha. The monument is similar to one French designed for the street that leads to Sunnyside, the former home of Washington Irving.
In 1994, locals established the Friends of the Longfellow House, a nonprofit organization which raises funds to supplement federal support for the site and to assist with ongoing preservation projects.
## Architecture and landscape
The original 1759 house was built in the Georgian architectural style. The pair of large pilasters that frame the central entry portal created two side wings, also framed by large pilasters. The house is influenced by the English architect James Gibbs, who published his "Book of Architecture" in 1728. Gibbs demonstrated a melding of the English Baroque style with the new Palladian movement. This facade configuration effectively expressed the rising prosperity and status of John Vassall's family background. In 1791, Andrew Craigie added the two side porches and the two-story back ell and also expanded the library into a twenty by thirty foot ballroom with its own entrance. During the Longfellow family's time in the home, very few structural changes were made. As Frances Longfellow wrote, "we are full of plans & projects with no desire, however, to change a feature of the old countenance which Washington has rendered sacred".
The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is noted for its garden on the northeast end of the property. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow oversaw the creation of the original garden, shaped as a lyre, shortly after his wedding. In 1845, he began refurbishing the garden in earnest and imported trees from England with help from Asa Gray. These trees included "a number of evergreens, among them a cedar of Lebanon and pines from the Himalayas, Norway, Switzerland and Oregon". The lyre shape proved impractical and a new design was made with the help of a landscape architect named Richard Dolben in 1847. The new design was a square surrounding a circle that was cut into four tear-shaped garden beds outlined by trimmed boxwood. Mrs. Longfellow referred to the shape as a "Persian rug".
After her father's death in 1882, Alice Longfellow commissioned two of America's first female landscape architects, Martha Brookes Hutcheson and Ellen Biddle Shipman, to redesign the formal garden in the Colonial Revival style. The garden was recently restored by an organization called Friends of the Longfellow House, which completed the final stage of its reconstruction, the historic pergola, in 2008.
## Replicas
For a time, Longfellow's home was one of the most photographed and most recognizable homes in the United States. In the early twentieth century Sears, Roebuck and Company sold scaled-down blueprints of the home so that anyone could build their own version of Longfellow's home. Several replicas of Longfellow's home appear throughout the United States. One replica, simply called Longfellow House, still exists in Minneapolis. Originally built by businessman Robert "Fish" Jones, it currently serves as an information center for the Minneapolis Park System and is on the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. A full-scale replica of the house was built in Great Barrington, Massachusetts at the turn of the 20th century. This building is the only remaining full-scale replica of Longfellow's original home maintaining all the original historical character. There is also a replica in Aberdeen, South Dakota on Main St.
## See also
- Wadsworth-Longfellow House in Portland, Maine
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- List of Washington's Headquarters during the Revolutionary War |
11,142,859 | 100,000-year problem | 1,172,633,650 | Discrepancy between past temperatures and the amount of incoming solar radiation | [
"History of climate variability and change",
"Ice ages"
]
| The 100,000-year problem (also 100 ky problem or 100 ka problem) of the Milankovitch theory of orbital forcing refers to a discrepancy between the reconstructed geologic temperature record and the reconstructed amount of incoming solar radiation, or insolation over the past 800,000 years. Due to variations in the Earth's orbit, the amount of insolation varies with periods of around 21,000, 40,000, 100,000, and 400,000 years. Variations in the amount of incident solar energy drive changes in the climate of the Earth, and are recognised as a key factor in the timing of initiation and termination of glaciations.
While there is a Milankovitch cycle in the range of 100,000 years, related to Earth's orbital eccentricity, its contribution to variation in insolation is much smaller than those of precession and obliquity. The 100,000-year problem refers to the lack of an obvious explanation for the periodicity of ice ages at roughly 100,000 years for the past million years, but not before, when the dominant periodicity corresponded to 41,000 years. The unexplained transition between the two periodicity regimes is known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, dated to some 800,000 years ago.
The related 400,000-year problem refers to the absence of a 400,000-year periodicity due to orbital eccentricity in the geological temperature record over the past 1.2 million years.
The transition in periodicity from 41,000 years to 100,000 years can now be reproduced in numerical simulations that include a decreasing trend in carbon dioxide and glacially induced removal of regolith, as explained in more detail in the article Mid-Pleistocene Transition.
## Recognition of the 100,000-year cycle
The geologic temperature record can be reconstructed from sedimentary evidence. Perhaps the most useful paleotemperature indicator of past climate is the fractionation of oxygen isotopes, denoted δ<sup>18</sup>O. This fractionation is controlled mainly by the amount of water locked up in ice and the absolute temperature of the planet and has allowed a timescale of marine isotope stages to be constructed.
By the late 1990s, δ<sup>18</sup>O records of air (in the Vostok ice core) and marine sediments were available and were compared with estimates of insolation, which should affect both temperature and ice volume. As described by Shackleton (2000), the deep-sea sediment record of δ<sup>18</sup>O "is dominated by a 100,000-year cyclicity that is universally interpreted as the main ice-age rhythm". Shackleton (2000) adjusted the time scale of the Vostok ice core δ<sup>18</sup>O record to fit the assumed orbital forcing and used spectral analysis to identify and subtract the component of the record that in this interpretation could be attributed to a linear (directly proportional) response to the orbital forcing. The residual signal (the remainder), when compared with the residual from a similarly retuned marine core isotope record, was used to estimate the proportion of the signal that was attributable to ice volume, with the rest (having attempted to allow for the Dole effect) being attributed to temperature changes in the deep water.
The 100,000-year component of ice volume variation was found to match sea level records based on coral age determinations, and to lag orbital eccentricity by several thousand years, as would be expected if orbital eccentricity were the pacing mechanism. Strong non-linear "jumps" in the record appear at deglaciations, although the 100,000-year periodicity was not the strongest periodicity in this "pure" ice volume record.
The separate deep sea temperature record was found to vary directly in phase with orbital eccentricity, as did the Antarctic temperature and CO<sub>2</sub>; so eccentricity appears to exert a geologically immediate effect on air temperatures, deep-sea temperatures, and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Shackleton (2000) concluded: "The effect of orbital eccentricity probably enters the paleoclimatic record through an influence on the concentration of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>".
Elkibbi and Rial (2001) identified the 100 ka cycle as one of five main challenges met by the Milankovitch model of orbital forcing of the ice ages.
## Hypotheses to explain the problem
As the 100,000-year periodicity only dominates the climate of the past million years, there is insufficient information to separate the component frequencies of eccentricity using spectral analysis, making the reliable detection of significant longer-term trends more difficult, although the spectral analysis of much longer palaeoclimate records, such as the Lisiecki and Raymo stack of marine cores and James Zachos' composite isotopic record, helps to put the last million years in a longer-term context. Hence there is still no clear proof of the mechanism responsible for the 100 ka periodicity—but there are several credible hypotheses.
### Climatic resonance
The mechanism may be internal to the Earth system. The Earth's climate system may have a natural resonance frequency of 100 ka; that is to say, feedback processes within the climate automatically produce a 100 ka effect, much as a bell naturally rings at a certain pitch. Opponents to this claim point out that the resonance would have to have developed 1 million years ago, as a 100 ka periodicity was weak to non-existent for the preceding 2 million years. This is feasible—continental drift and sea floor spreading rate change have been postulated as possible causes of such a change. Free oscillations of components of the Earth system have been considered as a cause, but too few Earth systems have thermal inertia on a thousand-year timescale for any long-term changes to accumulate. The most common hypothesis looks to the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, which might expand through a few shorter cycles until large enough to undergo a sudden collapse. The 100,000-year problem has been scrutinized by José A. Rial, Jeseung Oh and Elizabeth Reischmann who find that master-slave synchronization between the climate systems natural frequencies and the eccentricity forcing started the 100 ky ice ages of the late Pleistocene and explain their large amplitude.
### Orbital inclination
Orbital inclination has a 100 ka periodicity, while eccentricity's 95 and 125ka periods could inter-react to give a 108ka effect. While it is possible that the less significant, and originally overlooked, inclination variability has a deep effect on climate, the eccentricity only modifies insolation by a small amount: 1–2% of the shift caused by the 21,000-year precession and 41,000-year obliquity cycles. Such a big impact from inclination would therefore be disproportionate in comparison to other cycles. One possible mechanism suggested to account for this was the passage of Earth through regions of cosmic dust. Our eccentric orbit would take us through dusty clouds in space, which would act to occlude some of the incoming radiation, shadowing the Earth.
In such a scenario, the abundance of the isotope <sup>3</sup>He, produced by solar rays splitting gases in the upper atmosphere, would be expected to decrease—and initial investigations did indeed find such a drop in <sup>3</sup>He abundance. Others have argued possible effects from the dust entering the atmosphere itself, for example by increasing cloud cover (on 9 July and 9 January, when the Earth passes through the invariable plane, mesospheric cloud increases). Therefore, the 100 ka eccentricity cycle can act as a "pacemaker" to the system, amplifying the effect of precession and obliquity cycles at key moments, with its perturbation.
### Precession cycles
A similar suggestion holds the 21,636-year precession cycles solely responsible. Ice ages are characterized by the slow buildup of ice volume, followed by relatively swift melting phases. It is possible that ice built up over several precession cycles, only melting after four or five such cycles.
### Dust and albedo
It has been suggested that ice-sheet albedo and dust are responsible. The high albedo of northern ice sheets will resist climatic warming from Milankovitch maxima unless they are covered in dust. Dust episodes occur just before each interglacial warming period, and it is claimed that the resulting reduced albedo of northern ice sheets assists in interglacial warming. Dust episodes are said to be caused by low atmospheric creating -deserts in northern China upland areas, with the resulting dust creating the Loess Plateau and coating the northern ice sheets.
### Solar luminosity fluctuation
A mechanism that may account for periodic fluctuations in solar luminosity has also been proposed as an explanation. Diffusion waves occurring within the Sun can be modeled in such a way that they explain the observed climatic shifts on Earth.
### Land vs. oceanic photosynthesis
The Dole effect describes trends in δ<sup>18</sup>O arising from trends in the relative importance of land-dwelling and oceanic photosynthesizers. Such a variation is a plausible cause of the phenomenon.
### Ongoing research
The recovery of higher-resolution ice cores spanning more of the past 1,000,000 years by the ongoing EPICA project may help shed more light on the matter. A new, high-precision dating method developed by the team allows better correlation of the various factors involved and puts the ice core chronologies on a stronger temporal footing, endorsing the traditional Milankovitch hypothesis, that climate variations are controlled by insolation in the northern hemisphere. The new chronology is inconsistent with the "inclination" theory of the 100,000-year cycle. The establishment of leads and lags against different orbital forcing components with this method—which uses the direct insolation control over nitrogen-oxygen ratios in ice core bubbles—is in principle a great improvement in the temporal resolution of these records and another significant validation of the Milankovitch hypothesis. An international climate modelling exercise (Abe-ouchi et al., Nature, 2013) demonstrated that climate models can replicate the 100,000-year cyclicity given the orbital forcing and carbon dioxide levels of the late Pleistocene. The isostatic history of ice sheets was implicated in mediating the 100,000-year response to the orbital forcing. Larger ice sheets are lower in elevation because they depress the continental crust upon which they sit, and are therefore more vulnerable to melting.
## See also
- Brunhes–Matuyama reversal
- Chibanian
- Milankovitch cycles
- Paleoclimatology
- Timeline of glaciation |
27,091,231 | Gould Memorial Library | 1,173,294,463 | Building in the Bronx, New York | [
"1900 establishments in New York City",
"Bronx Community College",
"Former library buildings in the United States",
"Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City",
"Library buildings completed in 1900",
"McKim, Mead & White buildings",
"National Historic Landmarks in New York City",
"National Register of Historic Places in the Bronx",
"Neoclassical architecture in New York City",
"New York City Designated Landmarks in the Bronx",
"New York City interior landmarks",
"New York University",
"Stanford White buildings"
]
| The Gould Memorial Library (GML; also nicknamed Gould) is a building on the campus of the Bronx Community College (BCC), an institution of the City University of New York (CUNY), in University Heights, Bronx, New York City, United States. The building was designed by Stanford White of the firm McKim, Mead & White. Constructed between 1895 and 1900 as the central library of New York University (NYU)'s Bronx campus, it was part of the New York University Libraries system. The library is named after railroad magnate Jay Gould, whose daughter Helen Miller Shepard funded the project in his memory. Gould is no longer used as a library, instead serving primarily as an event space. Gould's facade and interior are New York City designated landmarks, and it is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Gould is arranged in the shape of a Greek cross and is surrounded by the Hall of Fame for Great Americans to its west. The library's main entrance is on the east side, where there is a portico with a Corinthian-style colonnade. The copper dome contains an ornamental frieze as well as an oculus at its center. Inside the entrance vestibule, a barrel-vaulted stair hall leads up to offices and a circular reading room. The ornately designed reading room contains two colonnades flanking two balcony levels; multiple Tiffany glass windows; a balustrade with sixteen statues; and a coffered ceiling. Originally, the reading room was surrounded by three levels of stacks and 18 seminar rooms. Under the library was a 600-seat auditorium.
New York University's Bronx campus was developed in the 1890s. Construction on the library started in 1895 after Shepard anonymously donated \$200,000. During the 20th century, NYU used the library for commencement ceremonies and other events. The university installed numerous busts of artists inside the library during the 1920s and 1930s. NYU built additional campus libraries in the 1950s due to a lack of space at Gould, and the auditorium was rebuilt after an arson attack in 1969. After NYU sold its Bronx campus to CUNY in 1973, the Gould Library was converted into an event space, and the library fell into disrepair. The auditorium was restored in 2000, and the library was further refurbished in the early 21st century.
## Site
The Gould Memorial Library is on a high plateau in the University Heights neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. The plateau is 170 ft (52 m) above sea level and overlooks the Harlem River immediately to the west. When Gould was built, the plateau had views of the Palisades to the west, Spuyten Duyvil to the north, Long Island to the east, and the South Bronx to the south. The modern site overlooks the Major Deegan Expressway, the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line, and the Harlem River to the west. Gould was originally part of New York University (NYU)'s campus. Since 1973, Gould has been part of the Bronx Community College (BCC), operated by the City University of New York (CUNY). The library occupies a land lot whose official address is 1930 Sedgwick Avenue.
The library is flanked by the Hall of Languages to the south and the Hall of Philosophy to the north. The three buildings are placed at the top of the plateau. The building is about 30 ft (9.1 m) above Sedgwick Avenue, which runs directly to the west. The Hall of Fame for Great Americans runs to the west of the Gould Memorial Library, Hall of Languages, and Hall of Philosophy. The Hall of Fame, composed of a 630 ft-long (190 m) stone colonnade as well as a brick walkway, contains bronze portrait busts of prominent Americans. The Hall of Fame was designed to conceal the Gould Memorial Library's foundation. The portion of the colonnade next to the library is circular in plan. West of the Hall of Fame is a fountain facing Sedgwick Avenue. To the east, a promenade cuts across BCC's quad. The promenade originally extended to Ohio Field, but a student center was built between the library and Ohio Field in 1953.
## Architecture
The Gould Memorial Library was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White and was built between 1895 and 1898 as part of the New York University Libraries system. It was the centerpiece of NYU's Bronx campus. Since 1973, it has been part of the BCC campus. Gould no longer serves as the campus library; it has been superseded by the Bronx Community College Library, which opened in 2012.
### Form and facade
The library is shaped like a Greek cross; this layout was also used for the Low Memorial Library, designed by White's colleague Charles Follen McKim. It measures four bays wide on each elevation. The corners of the building contain notches. To the north, west, and south are wings with pediments, each of which measures one bay deep and four bays across. The eastern elevation, facing the rest of the BCC campus, contains a portico with Corinthian columns. Each of the six columns in the portico is made of Indiana sandstone.
The library, as well as the adjacent buildings, are clad with buff brick and limestone trim. Pink granite and soft-red copper were also used in the building's construction. The main entrance to the library is underneath the portico to the east. It contains bronze entrance doors, which were designed in 1921 and sculpted by White's son, Lawrence Grant White. The doors, consisting of eight relief panels, were designed by six sculptors who had worked with Stanford White. The remaining three elevations are made of Roman red brick, framed with pilasters made of limestone. The brick walls contain windows. Each of the windows is flanked by molded jambs and topped by entablatures. Above the building is a Composite-style cornice with antefixes.
The top of the library contains a circular drum, above which is a saucer dome with an oculus at its center. There is also a composite frieze on the dome, decorated with garlands and pendants. The dome is covered with copper tiles. The lower section of the dome is divided into several stepped tiers. Surrounding the oculus are decorations such as antefixes. Several authors have likened the arrangement of the building, with its dome and porticoes, to the University of Virginia's Rotunda.
### Interior
#### Vestibule and stairs
Just inside the doors is a vestibule with bronze lamps on either side. The vestibule is decorated with stained-glass windows; a mosaic floor with red, yellow, white and black tiles; and a domed ceiling. There is a revolving door just inside the vestibule, which leads to a landing with a mosaic floor and wooden office doors. The side walls contain barrel-vaulted staircases descending to the basement. One of these staircases led to the auditorium. This stairway contained six marble panels with the inscription "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom" in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, English, and German.
A main staircase with 24 Tennessee marble steps ascends from the lower landing to the reading room. The main staircase is placed inside a stair hall with a barrel-vaulted, coffered ceiling. The design of the main staircase was inspired by a sketch that White had created in his youth. Inspiration was also derived from the Golden Staircase in the Doge's Palace and the Scala Regia in the Apostolic Palace. The staircase was designed to resemble an ascent toward knowledge, as the domed reading room could not be seen until a visitor reached the top of the staircase. Each of the steps is 12 ft (3.7 m) wide. The walls of the stair hall are clad with Portland stone to about two-thirds of the stair hall's height. A frieze with a scroll pattern, as well as pale-yellow panels of marble, runs atop the Portland-stone section of the wall. Each wall contains two stone pilasters, one near the bottom of the staircase and one near the top. There are bronze torchères attached to both sets of pilasters, above which are glass orbs providing illumination to the stairway. The top of each wall contains an entablature, above which rises the ceiling.
The top of the stair hall contains an upper landing with a domed ceiling, similar in design to the lower landing. A green roundel of Tiffany glass is placed within the middle of the dome, and a glass lighting orb is suspended from this roundel. The walls of the upper landing are similar to those in the stair hall: Portland stone on the lower two-thirds of the wall and pale-yellow marble panels above. Directly in front of the stair hall is a doorway with an eared frame and a triangular pediment, which leads directly into the reading room. In addition, each side wall contains doorways to NYU's former administrative offices. The librarian's room is to the left while the chancellor's room is to the right. Above all these doorways are lunette openings with niches, each of which is large enough to fit a bust.
#### Reading room
The circular reading room was designed as the centerpiece of the library and was surrounded by three levels of stacks. The outer wall of the reading room contains a colonnade of 16 triple-height engaged and fluted Corinthian columns. It is aligned with an inner colonnade of freestanding green Connemara marble columns. The colonnades flank a passageway with a floor of white, black, and yellow marble tiles; the passageway measures about 5 ft (1.5 m) wide. A skylight in the middle of the ground floor, measuring 15 ft (4.6 m) across, illuminates the former auditorium in the basement. There are three balconies immediately above the passageway. The second-level balcony contains an iron frame with a glass floor. The third-level balcony was decorated more ornately. Above the colonnades is a fourth-level balcony as well as the dome.
##### First to third levels
On the reading room's north, west, and south walls were alcoves with stacks, as well as doorways leading to seminar rooms and staircases. Each of the alcoves contained three tiers of stacks, each measuring 7.5 ft (2.3 m) tall. The alcoves were all divided vertically into three bays. On the first level, the outer bays of each alcove contained bookcases, while the central bay contained a swinging bookcase that doubled as a doorway. The names of academics and other intellectual figures are inscribed onto the walls of the reading room, above and below the bookcases. The second and third levels contained iron bookcases, gilded doors, and inscriptions similar to those on the first level. Above the stacks on the third level are red, green, and blue Tiffany glass panels.
The reading room's entrance was flanked by card catalog desks. The loan desk was in the second alcove, counting clockwise from the main entrance (on the patron's left when they entered). The loan desk contained an inscription of a Latin phrase. White designed furniture for the reading room, which is no longer extant. The furniture was designed for a practical purpose; for example, the legs of the chairs and tables had rubber tips to prevent screeching. The center of the room contained a circular table surrounded by twenty-four seats. Radiating from the center were eight long and eight short tables; the short tables seated four people, and the long tables seated eight people. This gave the reading room a seating capacity of 120.
The Connemara-marble inner colonnade surrounds the central section of the reading room, which is 54 ft 3 in (16.54 m) across. Each of the columns has a diameter of 3 ft 5 in (1.04 m). Between each set of columns were glazed cases for large books or portfolios. The columns were constructed in six sections and are placed atop white Vermont-marble pedestals. The tops of the columns have metal Corinthian capitals, painted by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co. in a gold color. These columns support an entablature and a balcony. The entablature contains a frieze with an inscription in all capital letters, which is derived from book 1 of John Milton's poem Paradise Lost. There is an architrave with Greek frets beneath the inscription, as well as a cornice with brackets above.
##### Fourth level and dome
The balcony on the fourth level, above the colonnades, contains a plaster balustrade with openwork motifs, interrupted by 16 plaster pedestals with Tiffany glass mosaics. Atop these pedestals are plaster statues of female figures. The statues may represent four Greek figures related to learning: Polyhymnia (muse of sacred poetry), Calliope (muse of epic poetry), Mnemosyne (goddess of memory), and Urania (muse of astronomy). There are bookcases on the outer walls of the balcony, within the dome's drum. Another inscription in all capital letters, from the Book of Job, is placed above the drum and just beneath the dome.
The dome is made of plaster and is divided into coffers, each with a rosette at its center. The coffers become progressively smaller near the highest point of the dome, above the middle of the room. The center of the dome originally contained a Tiffany-glass skylight, which has since been sealed. The skylight measured 23 ft (7.0 m) across. The top of the dome is either 70 ft (21 m) or 73 ft (22 m) above the main floor of the reading room.
#### Other spaces
Adjacent to the reading room were 18 seminar rooms, each of which was connected to a set of stacks. Each seminar room measured 18 by 14 ft (5.5 by 4.3 m) and contained two tables, which accommodated a total of four people. There were six seminar rooms on each of the first through third levels. The seminar rooms for the history and philosophy departments were on the first level. The language departments occupied the rooms on the second level. The seminar rooms for the various mathematics, sciences, engineering, and arts departments were on the third level. The library's holdings included a collection of 8,000 German-language books from an anonymous donor, as well as 3,000 Italian volumes from former NYU philosophy professor Vincenzo Botta.
NYU's administrative offices, just outside the upper landing of the main stairway, contained fireplaces and wood-paneled walls. The librarian's office contained white mahogany. The chancellor's room had an oiled maple floor, as well as San Domingo mahogany wainscoting. Above those were two cataloguing rooms on the second floor and the periodical and newspaper reading rooms on the third floor.
Under the reading room was a 600-seat auditorium, which originally served as the Gould Library's chapel. When the library opened, the New-York Tribune said the auditorium could fit 400 people and a theatre organ on the stage. The seats were arranged in an amphitheater layout, surrounding a stage. In addition, there were 18 professors' offices around the stage. Science professors occupied eight offices directly behind the stage; history and philosophy professors occupied five offices on one side; and mathematics professors occupied five offices on the other side. The auditorium was designed so it could be converted into stacks if necessary. After the auditorium was damaged by arson in 1969, Marcel Breuer redesigned it in a brutalist style. Also in the basement were large fans, which generated warm air in winter and cool air in summer. The air was circulated throughout the building via flues on each story.
## History
What is now New York University was founded in 1831; its original campus faced Washington Square Park in Manhattan. NYU was a small college with less than a hundred students for its first half-century. NYU's vice chancellor Henry MacCracken began looking for alternate sites in November 1890. The formerly residential area surrounding Washington Square Park had evolved into a commercial neighborhood by the late 19th century, and MacCracken believed the growth of commerce would stymie undergraduate education. MacCracken acquired the estate of H. W. T. Mali, on a bluff in the Bronx along the Harlem River, in May 1891. He became NYU's chancellor the next month, in large part due to his acquisition of the Mali estate. The original purchase covered 22 acres (8.9 ha) and was subsequently expanded several times.
### Development
#### Planning
In January 1892, MacCracken wrote a letter to White, asking the architect if he would be interested in designing NYU's Bronx campus. White's involvement was largely based on the fact that his father, Richard Grant White, had attended NYU. White originally planned to relocate NYU's original building "stone by stone" to the Bronx. The relocated building would contain a museum, library, and chapel; the Mali mansion would contain classrooms. In addition, two new structures were to have been constructed. This plan was deemed infeasible, as it would cost about the same as five new buildings, so NYU instead asked White to design a completely new campus. The campus was to contain science, language, and philosophy halls; a library; a chapel; and dormitories, all arranged around a quadrangle. Around the same time, MacCracken began raising money for the new campus. One of the donors to the new campus was railroad magnate Jay Gould, who was willing to fund the new campus but died at the end of 1892.
White was formally hired to design NYU's new Bronx campus in November 1893, at the same time his partner Charles Follen McKim was hired to design the rival Columbia University campus in Morningside Heights, Manhattan. The banker Jacob Schiff had proposed that the two colleges merge, so he could give a large endowment to the combined colleges. Officials from both colleges ultimately rejected this proposal. By February 1894, White had outlined a plan for two classroom buildings flanking a domed central building. All structures would be made of yellow brick and limestone. The next month, the university sold its original building to fund the construction of the new Bronx campus. NYU's main campus at Washington Square continued to operate.
#### Funding and construction
Norcross Brothers began constructing the campus that April, and White was finalizing his plans for the library by the end of 1894. The first building on the new campus was the Hall of Languages, as that was the only structure for which funds had been procured. In May 1895, NYU received a \$250,000 gift for the construction of the central building, which was to contain the library, museum, commencement hall, and administrative offices. The library would have capacity for a million books, while the commencement hall was to fit 1,000 students. The only stipulation of the gift was that the donor remain anonymous. The donor was Jay Gould's daughter Helen Miller Shepard, whose name was mentioned in the New-York Tribune in relation with a separate \$20,000 gift for NYU's dormitories. Shepard was not publicly revealed as the donor until several years later, in December 1898. The library donation was part of \$1.39 million in capital gifts that Shepard gave to NYU throughout her lifetime.
As the central building of the new NYU campus, the library had the largest budget; the remaining buildings had simpler designs due to a lack of funds. The library's budget was influenced by the design, whereas the opposite was typically true. After Shepard's donation, NYU's library committee wished to host an architectural design competition for the library, inviting White, Richard Morris Hunt, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, and George B. Post. Hunt, Hardenbergh, and Post all declined to participate. MacCracken initially did not seem to like the plans for the domed reading room and asked White to create alternate plans, a request to which White took offense. Hunt, who was hired to mediate the resulting dispute, sided with White. In mid-1895, MacCracken wrote a letter to White, requesting that the library be recessed behind the Hall of Languages. A groundbreaking ceremony for the library occurred on October 19, 1895, upon the dedication of the Hall of Languages.
MacCracken continued to modify the design after the groundbreaking. In September 1896, he wrote that it was "rather bewildering" that \$500,000 had already been spent on the library, even though it had not been fitted out. MacCracken also requested that the library be fitted out with green Connemara marble columns, rather than the "sham" marble columns in White's original plans. White's partner McKim had secured only two Connemara marble columns for Columbia's Low Library due to the small amount of Connemara marble available. After acquiring 16 columns for the Gould Library, White boasted that McKim had been unable to secure the same material for Columbia's library. The first event hosted at the library was a conference for the American Philological Association, which convened at Gould in July 1899. By the end of the year, the Gould Library was nearly complete; its construction had been delayed due to difficulties in securing the Connemara marble columns.
### NYU use
The library was completed in 1900. According to a New-York Tribune article from that December, all work had been finished except for the installation of some furniture. Within a month, the Tribune said of the library: "Hardly a week passes without major additions to it." A stained-glass window depicting justice, goodness, and power was also installed at Gould in early 1901. By the end of the year, Gould had 61,000 volumes, of which 5,000 had been added during the past year. The adjacent Hall of Fame was dedicated in May 1901, a year after Shepard had donated \$100,000 for the hall. NYU started using the library's auditorium for commencement ceremonies in 1903. During the early 20th century, the library hosted free concerts, public-speaking contests, and Easter services.
NYU approved plans for the Hall of American Artists at the Gould Library in the late 1910s. Sixteen busts of artists, painters, and sculptors were approved for the library's reading room. The first busts, commemorating American artists Carroll Beckwith, George Inness, and Clinton Ogilvie, were installed at the Gould Library in August 1921. That December, NYU officials dedicated a new set of front doors for the library, which had been manufactured in memory of Stanford White. Other busts at Gould included those of William Merritt Chase (1923); Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1925); James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Samuel Morse (1928); Francis Davis Millet, Elihu Vedder, Charles Webster Hawthorne, and Charles Grafly (1934); and Charles Henry Niehaus (1938). A bust of NYU chancellor Elmer Ellsworth Brown was installed in the chancellors' office in 1932, following his retirement.
The library's auditorium continued to host commencement ceremonies for students who were graduating with baccalaureate degrees. Starting with the 1943 ceremony, overflow seating was placed outside the library due to the growing number of guests at the annual ceremonies. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Gould Library also hosted pie-throwing contests to raise money for various student organizations. The library was also used for exhibits in the mid-20th century, such as a display of printing mediums and a showcase of old maps of the Bronx. The James Arthur Museum of Clocks and Watches, which opened in the basement in 1950, operated for at least a decade. NYU built additional libraries in the 1950s, since the Gould Library could no longer accommodate all of NYU's collections.
By the early 1960s, NYU's Bronx campus had 5,000 students, just over 10 percent of the university's total enrollment. Though the Bronx campus was the more prestigious of NYU's two campuses, its facilities were in dire need of upgrades. NYU announced a \$75 million capital expansion plan for its campuses in 1961, including \$1 million for a renovation and expansion of the Gould Library. The university started fundraising in 1964 and had obtained most of the necessary funds within three years. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the exterior of the Gould Library as a city landmark in March 1966. The NYU campus was the site of several student protests in the late 1960s. Amid this unrest, Gould's auditorium was severely damaged by arson in April 1969, though the main library was not damaged. At the time, Gould had 300,000 books. Marcel Breuer redesigned the auditorium in a brutalist style; the original ornamentation was removed and a wall was constructed in front of the balcony.
### CUNY use
The number of students at the Bronx campus decreased by 40 percent from 1968 to 1973, creating a large financial deficit for NYU. The New York state government recommended in February 1972 that NYU sell its Bronx campus, and governor Nelson Rockefeller authorized the sale three months later. New York City's public university system, the City University of New York (CUNY), acquired the campus in early 1973 for \$62 million, opening the Bronx Community College there. BCC moved onto the campus that September. BCC did not use the building as a library, since the stacks were arranged inefficiently, although BCC still used the auditorium for assemblies. The reading room was only used occasionally for parties and other events. The Gould Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, as part of the Hall of Fame Complex, and the LPC designated the library's interior as a New York City landmark in 1981.
The Gould Library fell into disrepair during the late 20th century. The library's upkeep was funded through grants from politicians, as well as payments from filmmakers who used the library as a filming location. One issue was that, since the library building had few emergency exits, it had a very low seating capacity. In 1996, BCC hired the firm of Platt Byard Dovell to restore the auditorium, and it hired William A. Hall Partnership to design a rehabilitation of the roof. The basement auditorium was restored to its original appearance in 2000 after Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer allocated funding for the project. Ferrer also provided funding for a new sound and lighting system for the library. The J. Paul Getty Trust granted \$228,000 for the restoration of the Gould Library and other buildings on the BCC campus in 2004. By then, dirt had accumulated throughout the library; the bookshelves were dangling from the walls; and the skylight atop the reading room was covered by a sheet. Additionally, the steel superstructure of the library had corroded because the steel beams were not galvanized. Conservators used the funds to research the library's history, examine the building's condition, and create a preservation plan.
In 2012, the National Park Service designated the BCC campus, including the Gould Memorial Library, as a National Historic Landmark. BCC was the first community college in the United States to be designated as such. By 2015, a group called Save Gould Memorial Library was advocating for the building to be restored and reused. A spokesperson for Bronx Community College said, "It matters to CUNY, but we've got to keep heat going for students." The city had provided \$4 million for the restoration of the library building, and the Extell Development Company provided additional funds for the digitization of the library's original blueprints. Save Gould Memorial Library estimated that the renovation would cost \$50 million. One of the largest issues was the deteriorated condition of the drum, as the entire dome could collapse if the drum were not repaired. BCC began restoring the library in the early 2020s. Gould's dome and oculus were restored at a cost of \$18.3 million, and an exit stair was added for \$2 million; both projects were completed in May 2023.
## Impact
According to a 1921 article in The New York Times, the reading room had been "declared by some critics to have no superiors outside of St. Paul's in Rome". Paul Goldberger described the library in 1984 as a "kind of pantheon, surrounded by the long, curving colonnade of one of the most remarkable places in New York". Three decades later, Christopher Gray of the Times described Gould as "full of brilliant flashes of excitement, like lightning bolts in a grand thunderstorm", in contrast with McKim's design for the Low Library. Columbia University architectural professor Andrew Dolkart said in 2005: "The interior is among the most dramatic and most magnificent in America."
A model of NYU's University Heights campus, including the Gould Memorial Library, was displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. The library was separately featured in an exhibition presented by the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 1986.
The Gould Memorial Library, along with other buildings on the BCC campus, has frequently been used as a filming location. The library has been shown in films such as Sophie's Choice (1982), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and A Beautiful Mind (2001). Additionally, the United States Postal Service issued postage stamps depicting notable works by American architects in 1981. The USPS used a depiction of the Gould Library for the stamp representing Stanford White's work.
## See also
- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in the Bronx
- National Register of Historic Places listings in the Bronx |
39,157,467 | Monotron | 1,170,362,891 | Analogue synthesizer series | [
"Japanese musical instruments",
"Korg synthesizers"
]
| Monotron (stylised as monotron in all lowercase) is the collective name of a series of miniature monophonic analogue synthesisers produced by Korg, a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments. There are three models in the series: the original Monotron (released 2010), the Monotron Duo (released 2011) and the Monotron Delay (released 2011). The models share a minimalist set of synthesis components, consisting only of a voltage-controlled oscillator, voltage-controlled filter, a voltage-controlled amplifier and a low-frequency oscillator.
Critics received the Monotron series well, citing the synthesisers' analogue circuits, which were a novelty at the time. The Monotrons proved successful with consumers, especially with electronics hobbyists, who made modifications to the synthesisers' designs. Korg did not originally intend for the Monotrons to be used for this purpose: rather, it was a consequence of the company labeling the synthesisers' PCB solder points and publicly releasing their schematics.
The Monotron played a role in an "analogue revival" of synthesisers by showing that analogue synthesisers could still be popular in the digital era. Korg's decision to release the Monotron in 2010 emboldened other manufacturers to produce their own offerings, making analogue synthesisers popular again. Korg continued to release other analogue offerings, such as the Monotribe (released in 2011).
## Monotron
Announced in the summer of 2010 at the German music exposition Musikmesse, the Monotron was Korg's first analogue synthesiser to be released in two decades (the last release being the Trident mkII). The Monotron was designed by Korg's Tatsuya Takahashi.
### Design
Monotron measures 12 cm × 7 cm (4.7 in × 2.8 in), weighs approximately 100 grams (3.5 oz) and has a monochrome black-and-white design. It has a continuous ribbon controller for pitch and gate, similar to the touch controller found on Korg's Koass Pad line. The ribbon controller is also connected to the filter cutoff. Attached to the faceplate, there are five knobs for changing parameters.
In terms of its sound engine, the Monotron is relatively bare-bones and only includes the basic elements of a monophonic synthesiser. Monotron has a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), voltage-controlled filter (VCF), a simple gated voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) and a low-frequency oscillator (LFO). The VCO and LFO both use a sawtooth waveform. The Monotron's VCO has a pitch tuning control and can reach frequencies below human hearing (i.e. \<20 Hz). The LFO has a frequency range of \<1 Hz to 900 Hz and can be routed to VCO pitch or filter cutoff, with control over modulation intensity. The VCF is the same design as the Korg-25 filter chip that used on the MS-10 and MS-20 synthesisers. It has control over cutoff and resonance. External connections on the Monotron consist of a headphone output and an audio input.
### Reception
The Monotron was received well by critics, who praised its full analogue circuitry and affordable price. Concerns were raised about the synthesiser's ribbon keyboard and noisy signal output, but critics overlooked these problems. According to MusicRadar, a music journalism website:
Some critics suggested mitigating the ribbon keyboard's small size by using a stylus, or forgoing the keyboard entirely by using the Monotron as an effects unit for the sake of its filter. As an effects unit, the Monotron has seen usage in modular systems despite having no control voltage connections.
The Monotron's simple monophonic sound engine led to some comparing it to Moog Music's Micromoog and Korg's own MS-10. The synthesiser's small form factor and analogue circuitry made others draw parallels between the Monotron and the Stylophone, a miniature analogue electronic keyboard musical instrument created in 1967 by the British inventor Brian Jarvis. The British consumer electronics magazine Stuff called the Monotron "the new Stylophone" following its release. The magazine stated:
`Monotron was nominated for Make's 2011 Makey Awards. In their nomination, they noted the Monotron's accessible circuit board and inexpensive price. The nomination was titled "Best Product Documentation". The Monotron also won the "Hardware Synth Under $500" category at the 2011 Electronic Musician Editor's Choice Awards, with comments made about its "great sound". `
## Monotron Delay
The Monotron Delay was announced in November 2011. It was later exhibited at the 2012 NAMM Show, an annual music trade show.
The Delay has a design more similar to the original Monotron than its sibling, the Monotron Duo. Its faceplate is black and orange, with additional writing in UV paint. The Delay's ribbon controller is unquantised and spans four octaves. Its markings—ostensibly representing a keyboard little over an octave in size—are purely decorative and do not correspond to the pitch output nor the ribbon's actual range.
The monophonic sound engine of the Monotron Delay includes a single VCO, an LFO, a VCF and a delay circuit. The VCO uses a sawtooth waveform and has a maximum frequency of around 4 kHz. The VCF is the same as the other Monotrons but only has control over cutoff. The LFO can reach frequencies as low as 0.02 Hz and is connected to oscillator pitch. It can be a triangle (blendable between sawtooth and ramp) or pulse (with PWM) waveform. The delay circuit is based on the PT2399 echo processor chip and has control over time and feedback. Maximum delay times are around one second. The delay will self oscillate at high feedback levels.
## Monotron Duo
The Monotron Duo was announced alongside the Monotron Delay in 2011, and was also exhibited at the 2012 NAMM Show.
The Duo shares the same cosmetic design as the original Monotron but is instead coloured blue, with a yellow highlight. Like other Monotron models, the Monotron Duo has a ribbon controller (with a range of one octave). The ribbon controller has four playing modes: chromatic, major, minor (natural) and unquantised. Monotron Duo has an automatic tuning system to ensure tuning stability.
The Monotron Duo loses the LFO of the original Monotron and replaces it with an extra VCO, and a cross-modulation circuit. The dual VCOs use square waveforms and have a range of four octaves. VCO2's frequency is dependent on VCO1 so the synthesiser can be set to play in intervals. In terms of musical notes, the Duo's oscillators have a range of D<sub>1</sub> to A<sub>6</sub>. Although it has one oscillator more than its predecessor, the Monotron Duo is still monophonic. The cross-modulation circuit (named "X-mod" by Korg) is similar to the one found on Korg's Mono/Poly synthesiser. The 12 dB/octave MS-20 filter is also present on the Monotron Duo with control over cutoff and resonance.
## Legacy
### Modifications
Due to their accessibility, the Monotron series became very popular candidates for modifications. Part of this popularity comes from Korg's decision to release the Monotrons' schematics online as well as labeling relevant solder points on the PCB. This labeling enabled consumers to easily create modifications to the synthesisers. According to Andrew Dubber, Professor of Music Industry Innovation at Birmingham City University:
The synthesisers' designer, Tatsuya Takahashi, stated that making the Monotron modification-friendly was not Korg's original goal. Instead, it was to create an affordable analogue synthesiser. He believed that the Monotron being used for modifications was a by-product of the synthesiser's analogue circuits. In a 2013 interview, Takahashi said:
Due to the lack of external connections on the Monotrons (apart from audio in/out), the most popular modifications add control voltage (CV) or MIDI capabilities to control the synthesiser from other hardware. Mods adding MIDI support use microcontrollers, such as the Raspberry Pi or an Atmel ATmega328P, to convert between MIDI and CV.
Other modifications can be more extreme, like the "FrankenSynth". Nicknamed by the digital music resource site Ask.Audio, it is a heavily expanded Monotron designed in the United Kingdom by Harry Axten. Carrying out any modifications on a Monotron voids the synthesiser's warranty.
### Analogue revival
The Monotron has been credited with helping to create an "analogue revival" of synthesisers. In the 1980s, analogue synthesisers began to lose popularity, being replaced by digital and, eventually, software synthesisers. By releasing Monotron in 2010, Korg showed that analogue synthesisers were still relevant and could sell well. This helped to revitalise Korg's image of being a maker of analogue synthesisers.After the test run that was the Monotron, Korg continued to make analogue synthesisers. In 2011, the success of the Monotron prompted Korg to release the Monotribe, a groovebox combining elements of Korg's Monotron and Electribe series. The groovebox took inspiration from the ribbon controller of the Monotron, adding a switch to toggle between "wide" and "narrow" pitch ranges. As with the Monotron, the Monotribe's circuit diagrams and schematics were released. The Monotribe did sell units, but failed to attain the same popularity as the Monotron.
Through creating synthesisers like the Monotrons and Monotribe, Korg inspired other synthesiser companies to release their own new analogue synthesisers. These companies included Moog Music and Behringer, who later released their DeepMind 12 synthesiser in 2017.
### Use in music
In popular music, Monotrons have been used by artists including Ana da Silva (The Raincoats), Martyn Ware (the Human League and Heaven 17), the Dutch producer Martijn Deijkers, Henry Laufer (Shlohmo) and the Portuguese-American musician RAC. Ware in particular listed the Monotron Delay as one of his "11 favourite hardware synths". A Monotron also appeared on Gorillaz's 2010 album, The Fall.
Monotron synthesisers have been used sparingly in contemporary classical music. There exists a Concerto for Korg Monotron, composed in 2015 by the Canadian composer Andrew Noseworthy. The concerto calls for the use of a Monotron Duo and Monotron Delay, and lasts around 15 minutes.
## See also
- Korg Volca – series of synthesisers produced by Korg
- List of Korg products |
43,547,752 | Alienation (video game) | 1,171,039,469 | Shooter video game | [
"2016 video games",
"Alien invasions in video games",
"Housemarque games",
"Multiplayer and single-player video games",
"PlayStation 4 games",
"PlayStation 4-only games",
"Role-playing video games",
"Twin-stick shooters",
"Video games about extraterrestrial life",
"Video games developed in Finland",
"Video games scored by Ari Pulkkinen"
]
| Alienation is an action role-playing shooter video game developed by Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It was released in April 2016 worldwide. The game is an isometric twin-stick shooter in which one to four players defend themselves against an alien invasion on Earth through increasingly-difficult levels. Players can choose one of three character classes, each with its own abilities. Players can upgrade their weapons with collectables, known as upgrade cores.
The development of Alienation was hinted at in early January 2014 and announced at the 2014 Sony Gamescom convention. In 2015, the developers released details of the gameplay and classes and its first trailer. According to Sony, the game would be released sometime in 2015; it was delayed until March 2, 2016. After another three-week delay, it was released as part of a Sony promotion releasing six games in seven weeks. Since the release of Alienation, Housemarque has updated the game with free and paid expansions. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for the twin-stick elements and cooperative multiplayer feature. Reviewers criticized the lack of a local co-op mode, which was later added, as well as the game's lack of variety in regard to weapons and ammunition.
## Gameplay and plot
Alienation is an isometric twin-stick shooter game set in a future in which aliens are invading Earth. After a large portion of the population has been murdered or mutated, humanity's fate rests with a group of four soldiers from UNX (a military group assembled to help prevent alien attacks). The game features a single-player mode, a local co-op mode, and a multiplayer mode that allows four people to play at once, with each player controlling a heavily modified soldier from one of three character classes: Bio-Specialist, Saboteur, and Tank. Each class has its own weapons, movement mechanics, and abilities, and can be "leveled up" to level thirty. The Bio-Specialist can heal other team members and create poisonous trails. The Tank is able to create a shield behind which players can stand and can "blow everything away", allowing players to maneuver more easily. The Saboteur has the ability to become invisible, and can call in airstrikes when needed. Players defend themselves against hordes of aliens through increasingly-difficult levels. In multiplayer mode, players can revive each other and use checkpoints in the levels to respawn if they die.
Players can find new weapons in random drops. Many weapons contain slots for the insertion of "upgrade cores"; depending on the core, upgrades can affect a weapon's rate of fire, clip size, damage, or other mechanics. Random items and loot, such as new (and more powerful) weapons and upgrade cores, drop at random intervals and when enemies are defeated. The class of a drop differs by rarity, ranging from "stock" to "legendary" class. Unwanted items can be converted into metal, which is then used to re-roll a weapon's statistics. Aiming is accomplished by targeting a blue laser in the direction a player wishes to shoot. Players can "dash and melee", knocking down many enemies at once to give themselves more space.
When a player accumulates enough experience, they "level up" and can spend points on three active and three passive abilities, chosen from several options on a trio of skill trees. Each ability has a cooldown timer, requiring players to use them strategically. Points may be switched from one skill tree to another at any time. When a player dies, their experience multiplier is reset. When Alienation's story mode is completed, the player unlocks missions with bounty-like assignments and quests with special items as rewards. The player unlocks more difficult enemies, more powerful weapons, and the ability to complete difficult, procedurally-generated, levels set in the alien's space craft. Two types of "keys" are unlocked at the end of the game. UFO keys are used for "loot runs", and ark keys are used for player-vs-player fights.
## Development and release
Alienation was developed by Finnish video game company Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released on April 26, 2016 exclusively for the PlayStation 4. The game, first hinted at in January 2014, was announced at the 2014 Sony Gamescom conference. In a question-and-answer article on the PlayStation Blog in April 2014, Mikael Haveri of Housemarque said that they are inspired for many of their games by other games. Haveri cited Dark Souls and Demon's Souls as examples, saying that they "take a concept [the developers] like and try and improve it or put a twist on it". According to Haveri, Alienation would have content (such as better explosion mechanics) which players had not seen before. He noted the chance of references to other Housemarque games, similar to how the incorporation of Resogun ships into Dead Nation.
In April 2015 the developers released details about Alienation's gameplay, saying that it would feature three character classes, and "plenty of loot and a ton of weapon customization". Details about enemies were also posted. The same day, Housemarque released a two-and-a-half-minute pre-alpha gameplay video demonstrating the cooperative gameplay feature. In early 2016, Alienation was showcased at Sony's PlayStation Digital Showcase.
Sony announced that Alienation would be released sometime in 2015. The game was later delayed until March 2, 2016, and further pushed back to March 23. Another delay postponed its release until April 26, when it was part of Sony's PlayStation Store Launch Party 2016 promotion: six games released over a seven-week period.
### After release
Since Alienation's release, Housemarque has updated and added downloadable content (DLC) to the game. Ranked leagues and a local co-op mode were introduced in early July 2016. Other customization options, including bullet colors, were added. Two new difficulty levels (master and expert) and new "hero levels" were also added. On July 5, a season pass and the first DLC (the Survivor's Pack) were introduced, along with a mention of upcoming DLC titled the Conqueror's Pack. On August 23, Housemarque introduced three new DLC: the Weapons Pack, the Armor Paint Pack and the Veteran Heroes pack, all of which (with the Survivor's Pack and the Conqueror's Pack) were included in the season pass. Weekly missions were introduced to give players an additional challenge, with another difficulty level also added.
## Reception
Alienation was met with positive reviews from video-game critics upon release. It received a score of 79 out of 100 on the review aggregator website Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Many reviewers praised the game's twin-stick mechanics, with Jordan Devore of the video-game blog Destructoid calling it "one of the best-feeling twin-stick shooters" he had ever played. Matt Miller wrote for the video-game magazine Game Informer that in multiplayer mode, Alienation had some of the best twin-stick shooting gameplay available. According to Ben Tyrer of GamesRadar, although the game's maps might not be memorable, its twin-stick shooting mechanics and design were.
Its cooperative gameplay was preferred by critics over single-player mode, but critics were confused by the game's lack of local co-op. On GameSpot, a video-game news website, Jason D'Aprile praised Alienation's cooperative gameplay but was frustrated by the lack of a local mode, though he said that "with a full troop online" the game was "easily one of the best all-out action multiplayer games in recent memory". In David Jenkins' review for the British news site Metro, the co-op was "fun no matter what". On USgamer, Jaz Rignall was puzzled about it not being a feature when the game was released, saying that it would be the "perfect game for couch co-op". Although GamesRadar's Ben Tyrer enjoyed the game, he also believed that it would benefit from having a "tense, pad-crushing, couch co-op" feature. Game Informer's Matt Miller preferred its cooperative gameplay over single-player.
The game's lack of variety in regard to weapons and ammunition was cited by reviewers. According to IGN's Vince Ingenito, Alienation did not have enough weapons and was disappointed that many of the weapons looked and behaved the same way. Destuctoid's Jordan Devore wrote that even with upgrades enabled, the game had few weapons available. Matt Miller was frustrated by repeatedly running out of ammunition; although the game's upgrade system was interesting, its lack of ammunition (which he described as being "tediously small ammo clips") hampered enjoyment.
Reviewers had other issues with Alienation. GameSpot's Jason D'Aprile was annoyed by his inability to pause the game even in single-player mode. Although Metro's David Jenkins found its creatures' design "uninspired", the game's overall graphics were decent. According to gamesTM reviewers, Housemarque did not do a good job of combining two gameplay elements—the incremental loot system (accomplished through grinding) and the gameplay mechanic in which players repeat stages to increase scores—resulting in a "gameplay cycle that doesn’t match the purity or compulsion of either". |
8,673,932 | Hurricane Gladys (1975) | 1,168,501,950 | Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 1975 | [
"1975 Atlantic hurricane season",
"Cape Verde hurricanes",
"Category 4 Atlantic hurricanes",
"Hurricanes in North Carolina"
]
| Hurricane Gladys was the farthest tropical cyclone from the United States to be observed by radar in the Atlantic basin since Hurricane Carla in 1961. The seventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the 1975 Atlantic hurricane season, Gladys developed from a tropical wave while several hundred miles southwest of Cape Verde on September 22. Initially, the tropical depression failed to strengthen significantly, but due to warm sea surface temperatures and low wind shear, it became Tropical Storm Gladys by September 24. Despite entering a more unfavorable environment several hundred miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, Gladys became a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale on September 28. Shortly thereafter, the storm reentered an area favorable for strengthening. Eventually, a well-defined eye became visible on satellite imagery.
As the storm tracked to the east of the Bahamas, a curve to the north began, at which time an anticyclone developed atop the cyclone. This subsequently allowed Gladys to rapidly intensify into a Category 4 hurricane, reaching maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (230 km/h) on October 2. Thereafter, Gladys began to weaken and passed very close to Cape Race, Newfoundland before merging with a large extratropical cyclone the next day. Effects from the system along the East Coast of the United States were minimal, although heavy rainfall and rough seas were reported. In Newfoundland, strong winds and light precipitation were observed.
## Meteorological history
On September 17, a tropical wave emerged into the Atlantic Ocean off the western coast of Africa. The disturbance followed another tropical wave which became Hurricane Faye several days later, before turning west near the 11th parallel. Based on estimates from the Dvorak Technique, the wave was designated a tropical depression at 18:00 UTC on September 22. Due to favorable conditions such as low wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures, the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and was named Gladys by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) on September 24. After becoming a tropical storm, Gladys slowly intensified as winds increased to 50 mph (80 km/h). The storm then moved west-northwest, and on September 25, Gladys strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS). Despite strong wind shear, the storm maintained minimal hurricane status. However, early on September 28, the barometric pressure increased to 1,000 mb (30 inHg); the NHC notes that Gladys may have briefly weakened into a tropical storm at this time.
After passing through the trough that generated the wind shear, the storm began to strengthen again. While moving about 350 miles (560 km) north of Puerto Rico on September 30, the winds of the storm increased to 90 mph (140 km/h). By this time, an eye was clearly visible on satellite imagery. After holding steady for 36 hours, the storm recurved around a ridge on October 1. Gladys then began to undergo rapid deepening, becoming a Category 2 hurricane at 18:00 UTC and Category 3 hurricane the following day. Early on October 2, the storm strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane. At 08:46 UTC on October 2, Hurricane Hunters measured maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 939 mbar (27.7 inHg). Moving northeast, the hurricane hunters soon observed a pressure of 940 mbar (28 inHg), making it the one of the most intense high-latitude storms ever observed. Despite its distance from Cape Hatteras, the system was briefly observed on radar. It became one of few hurricanes at the time to be seen on radar over 150 mi (240 km) from the continental United States. Thereafter, the storm weakened slightly, and was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane early on October 3. Accelerating at unusually high speeds, Gladys passed 70 miles (110 km) southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland on October 3. The storm finally merged with a large extratropical cyclone on October 4.
## Observation, preparations and impact
While over the Atlantic Ocean, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) C-130 hurricane hunter aircraft flew into Gladys on October 1 on a research mission. The mission was to study the storm and use the information to improve seeding operations for the now-defunct Project Stormfury.
Gladys was the strongest storm to threaten the East Coast of the United States since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Although initially not expected to threaten, meteorologists at the NHC forecast the storm to make landfall along the East Coast of the United States within three days. A hurricane watch was issued for North Carolina's Outer Banks on October 1, extending from Cape Lookout to Kitty Hawk. However, the watch discontinued as Gladys pulled away, though the storm was still considered a threat to the nation. In Manteo, residents began laying sandbags and filling their cars up with fuel in anticipation for possible evacuation, and the United States Coast Guard sent a plane equipped with a loudspeaker to warn fishermen of the hurricane. However, despite warnings, about 40 fishermen went to Cape Point near Cape Hatteras due to the "increased feeding activities" of fish during rough seas. All small crafts were advised to stay out of the water. Elsewhere in the Outer Banks, residents evacuated to hotels in Elizabeth City and four United States Coast Guard servicemen stationed at a lighthouse in Cape Hatteras were evacuated.
While passing the Outer Banks, a campground and road was closed due to 8 ft (2.4 m) waves. As the cyclone moved northward. In all, the effects of the storm on North Carolina were minimal. While tracking rapidly to the southeast of Newfoundland, light rainfall was observed, including 1.46 in (37 mm) of precipitation in St. John's. Strong winds were also reported on the island.
## See also
- List of Category 4 Atlantic hurricanes
- Other storms of the same name |
69,396,487 | Yuta Okkotsu | 1,169,135,461 | Fictional character from Jujutsu Kaisen | [
"Anime and manga characters who can move at superhuman speeds",
"Anime and manga characters who use magic",
"Anime and manga characters with superhuman strength",
"Comics characters introduced in 2017",
"Fictional Japanese people in anime and manga",
"Fictional characters with energy-manipulation abilities",
"Fictional characters with evocation or summoning abilities",
"Fictional characters with healing abilities",
"Fictional demon hunters",
"Fictional double agents",
"Fictional exorcists",
"Fictional ghost hunters",
"Fictional kenjutsuka",
"Fictional magicians and sorcerers",
"Fictional male martial artists",
"Fictional swordfighters in anime and manga",
"Male characters in anime and manga",
"Martial artist characters in anime and manga",
"Teenage characters in anime and manga"
]
| Yuta Okkotsu (Japanese: 乙骨 憂太, Hepburn: Okkotsu Yūta) is the protagonist of Gege Akutami's manga Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Yuta Okkotsu is a teenager who is surrounded and helped by the Cursed Spirit of Rika Orimoto, his childhood friend who died six years before the story and is cursed because both of them promised to get married when they grow up. In November 2016, Yuta met Satoru Gojo, a Jujutsu Sorcerer under whose guidance he joined Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School to control Rika's Curse. Yuta also appears in the sequel Jujutsu Kaisen as an experienced warrior.
Akutami created Yuta alongside Rika before the creation of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 as a duo who work together. He compared Yuta with the Jujutsu Kaisen protagonist Yuji Itadori, whose roles in the narratives are similar because having to deal with inner beings with different personalities. In the 2021 animated film adaptation of the manga, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Yuta is voiced by Megumi Ogata in the Japanese version and Kayleigh McKee in the English version. Ogata's role was picked by Akutami himself, finding her ideal for the part, while McKee felt pressure over her work because of her lack of experience when the movie was dubbed.
Yuta was met with a positive response. Some critics found him more appealing than the protagonist Yuji Itadori due to their different powers and backstories. His appearance in Jujutsu Kaisen also surprised critics due to his changed traits. Additionally, Yuta has been a popular character within the series, appearing in marketing and polls. Ogata's and McKee's performances of Yuta also drew positive responses in the media.
## Creation
Manga author Gege Akutami said Yuta and Rika were created as "a combo" for the story before he envisioned the manga's publication. The name Okkotsu (乙骨) sounded appealing to the author while Yuta (憂太) was given for his kanji's meaning; "One With Many Friends", which the mangaka also liked. Akutami never intended Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School to be serialized as Yuta's character arc was the sole focus of this short series. As a result, when Jujutsu Kaisen was created, Akutami created a new character, Yuji Itadori, for the leading role while Yuta became supporting. Similarities between Yuta and Itadori include their introduction to jujutsu, tragedy, naivety and having faced death. Despite their similarities, the two have been noted to "carry themselves very differently ... Itadori is outgoing, where Yuta is more reserved".
Yuta and Rika remained in the same form as in the final product. The concept of the story was creating sorcerers whou would be able to stop Yuta and Rika from killing others. Instead of Satoru Gojo, the character meant to recruit Yuta was Maki. Yuta's relatives were meant to be included into the story, most notably his sister who would be taken by Rika over jealousy. Although several changes were made for the official version, Akutami believes it should have kept the original concept. Yamanaka was interested by the storyboard and talked to other members from Shueisha about it. However, Akutami was stressed about expectations. In crafting the ideal protagonist, Akutami wanted Yuta to avoid being like himself. The first scene of Yuta being interrogated was influenced by the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion which often uses a group known as SEELE that communicates with Gendo Ikari. Akutami included Michizane Sugawara, a famous figure in Japanese history, as an ancestor of Yuta and Gojo as a tribute to the former editor Yamanaka. Akutami recounts that a scene where Yuta comforts his friend Maki surprised his editor Katayama; Katayama commented that Yuta understood Maki's feelings in their interactions. Akutami revised this scene in the storyboard following his editor's praise.
In retrospect, Akutami found the early design of Yuta too similar to that of fellow Jujutsu Sorcerer Megumi Fushiguro in the main series, thinking this they might confuse readers. As a result, Akutami changed Yuta's look for the main series. For the series, Akutami teased readers with the possibility Yuta might have been romantically involved with another woman since Rika's death. Yuta's unique white uniform was made to reference problematic students but wears a black one in the final pages to fit with his classmates. Nevertheless, Akutami planned that once Yuta would return in Jujutsu Kaisen, he would once again wear a white uniform in hopes older readers would remember him. When Akutami's father started reading his manga, the manga author started wondering he based on Yuta on his father or Megumi's father, Toji.
Sunghoo Park, who directed the first season of the series' anime adaptation and prequel film, originally wanted to cover Yuta's story in the anime's first few episodes but later decided to against it. In the original format, Park would dedicate the series' first three episodes to develop Yuji Itadori and then replace him with Okkotsu but the idea was scrapped. Although Yuta is not present in the anime's first season, he was given a brief cameo in the second introduction sequence, which was created months before the studio MAPPA confirmed the production of the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 film.
Park said that while Yuta and Rika are the main focus of the movie, he still wanted to explore more on his relationship with the supporting cast. Sunghoo Park cast Yuta's voice actor; Ogata's job surprised them because Yuta is a young male being voiced by a woman. In regards to the film's theme song King Gnu's "Ichizu" (一途, "The Only Way"), the lyrics places focus on the relationship between Yuta and Rika. Following the film's release, Park's favorite fight sequence is when Yuta calls Rika to Geto in terms of animation.
### Casting
Gege Akutami cast Megumi Ogata as Yuta's Japanese voice, following Park's advice and other staff members. The manga author claimed that the voice he envisioned was "neutral, soft, and kind, and there is also a big emotional swing and head". Ogata further said Yuta is one of the most relatable characters she has ever found due to the parallels she found when comparing his lonely childhood with hers and how both became sociable people. Additionally, she also found Yuta relatable because he continues suffering pain and overcomes his internal struggles.
Ogata had to interact with the director Park to get a better understanding of Yuta as a character. When the film premiered, Ogata said she was satisfied with her work and looked forward to future projects. Fellow voice actors Yuichi Nakamura and Takahiro Sakurai felt that the feeling of "synchronization" is great in regards to Ogata's performance as Yuta. When asked about Ogata, Hanazawa commented through her work; she managed to feel Yuta's love through her partner's work, making the character loveable. In response to that, Ogata praised Hanazawa's work as Rika. In retrospect, Ogata said voicing Yuta was a difficult work due to social distancing protocols.
In the English dub, Yuta is voiced by Kayleigh McKee. McKee expressed satisfaction over being selected for Yuta's voice, calling the work "amazing, challenging, and so fun". McKee related to Yuta's lonely life and eventual growth, which helped her find the pitch required to voice the character. She also found Yuta's story similar to a coming-of-age story due to his need to learn control Rika while making friends. McKee, who was new to voice work, had fun doing fight scenes because her character makes several types pf sounds, especially because of Yuta's troubling experiences. McKee found the moments where Yuta calms down and makes touch with Rika as the most important for her because they show how kind he can be. Yuta's leading role in the movie made McKee nervous because she never had such a big role in her career.
## Characterization and themes
According to the website Real Sound, Yuta is the main focus of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, whose narrative primarily focuses on his growth since Rika's death. Similarly, Polygon said the narrative's theme is Yuta's need to accept the death of Rika. Meanwhile, Anime News Network saw Yuta as an emotionally ambiguous character because of the way he deals with his feelings for Rika after her death. We Got This Covered Yuto stated it is a story focused on traumas, something the main series is known for. Park considers Yuta to be a straightforward teenager whose loneliness is caused by being chased by Rika's curse. While making the film, Megumi Ogata surprised Park by giving Yuta a sensitive characterization. The actress describes Yuta as an attractive character because he becomes stronger when interacting with others. Komatsu noted while at first Yuta appears to be weak, Ogata's performance helps give the character a stronger impression. Rika's curse is also considered the idea of how Yuta can use a major power for a great good. The film expands upon Yuta's personal weaknesses, which are a result of an illness and his rejection of his surroundings. Yuta realizes he and his peers are both accepted through their interactions with one another. Yuta's reluctance to accept Rika's death parallels Yuji Itadori's need to accept his grandfather's death.
In the series' beginning, Yuta finds salvation in Satoru Gojo, who guides him in controlling Rika in Jujutsu High and avoiding isolation. The Mary Sue said Yuta's growth makes him appealing because he stops wanting to kill himself and starts appreciating his life. Yuta's hero's journey advances through his physical growth, as Maki training him to stand alone allows his change into a hero. Despite his early passivity, Yuta shows a more aggressive personality when his friends are wounded by Suguru Geto, especially when the scene is animated. Fighting Geto and confronting Rika's curse allows Yuta to accept death and recover from the trauma of losing her. McKee was moved by Yuta's motivational speech about being cherished by his classmates and noted a major change of expression towards the climax in his fight against Geto.
Satisfied with her role, McKee considered Yuta to have become more mature. Cullture agreed with McKee in regards to how Yuta is portrayed as a more composed teenager who in one year when compared with his original persona. He is noted to keep trust in his mentor Gojo. Additionally, Yuta is noted to share close connections with his former partners, mostly Maki, despite his absence. However, Cullture noted that there was no romance between them despite the tease made by Panda and Akutami himself.
## Appearances
### Jujutsu Kaisen 0
Yuta Okkotsu is the protagonist of Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, retitled Jujutsu Kaisen 0; initially, he is a cursed victim of Special-Grade who is haunted by the spirit of his childhood friend Rika Orimoto. Satoru Gojo takes charge of Yuta's case and enrolls him at Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School, where he befriends Panda, Maki Zen'in and Toge Inumaki. In his first mission, a wounded Maki motivates Yuta to fight to achieve his goals, allowing him to briefly control Rika and swearing to stop the Curse in the process. After months training with Gojo and the other students, Yuta learns to control his Cursed Energy and becomes a skilled swordsman, often sparing with Maki. The power of Rika attracts Suguru Geto, a sorcerer who is friendly with Gojo. Geto attacks Yuta and his friends, severely wounding them.
Enraged by Geto's actions, Yuta unleashes Rika's curse, promising to join her if she helps him to defeat Geto. Yuta overwhelms Geto, who escapes after losing an arm in combat. As Gojo kills the escapees, it is revealed Rika did not curse Yuta, but after her death, Yuta's desire to make her survive resulted in him accidentally turning her into a Curse Spirit. Now familiar with his powers, Yuta frees Rika, and she departs to the afterlife with Yuta remaining as sorcerer.
In December 2021, Akutami wrote a new chapter based on Jujutsu Kaisen 0. After Rika's passing, Yuta's group has part-time jobs in a store, where Utahime Iori is a customer. The animated film adds an extra scene where Yuta befriends one of Geto's former allies as they have lunch in Kenya until being interrupted by Gojo.
### Jujutsu Kaisen
Yuta does not appear in the early chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen, but Gojo mentions him as one of the upper-level students attending Jujutsu High who may one day surpass him when discussing students with Yuji Itadori. Upon his return to Japan, Yuta saves a child from a spirit surrounded by a replica he calls Rika. Yuta returns to Jujutsu High as an executioner of Yuji for possessing a vengeful spirit called Ryomen Sukuna, also avenging his friend Inumaki who had been wounded by Sukuna. Yuta finds Yuji and his ally Choso fighting one of Maki's relatives, Naoya Zen'in. Yuta easily defeats Yuji and Choso and pretends to kill the former. After telling Naoya to inform their superiors that Yuji is dead, Yuta reveals himself as an ally to the recently revived Yuji. Yuta then reunites with Maki and other sorcerers to help Gojo and promises to kill Yuji if he can no longer control the vengeful spirit. The group joins forces to defeat Kenjaku who aims to curse Japanese civilians through his Culling Game terrorist attack.
## Reception
### Critical response
Critics often praised Yuta's role in Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Several writers enjoyed the handling of his story arc as well as his relationship with his classmates. Comic Book Resources called his story "perfect" for the movie adaptation. while Daryl Harding for Yatta-Tachi and Bleeding Cool found him an appealing character from the shōnen manga demography. Anime News Network and Comic Book Resources criticized Yuta's traits as a common trend in contrast due to his early growth Jacob Parker-Dalton from Otaquest said Yuta is a more interesting and more compelling character than the other lead, Yuji, who feels less active. In regards to his powers, Los Angeles Times compared the pairing of Yuta and Rika with that of the Marvel Comics character Venom because of the way Yuta has to control Rika's power in order to properly fight. On the other hand, Yuta was criticized for being overpowered due to Rika, making him less relatable. Nevertheless, the potential of power Yuta has was seen as promising because he is connected to the already powerful Satoru Gojo. The Digital Fix noted there are multiple differences between the two leads but found Yuta's story darker than Yuji's. Critics also praised Yuta's fight scenes in the movie, which were deemed superior to most of MAPPA's past works such as The God of High School with Polygon finding him comparable to the superhero Batman based on how energetic he becomes.
In Jungian Dimensions of the Mourning Process, Burial Rituals and Access to the Land of the Dead: Intimations of Immortality, the writer Hiroko Sakata addressed similarities Yuta and Rika with the God Hiruko, the Oni Katako and the child K, citing the Yuta's and Rika's stories as modernized versions of Japanese myths, comparing them with Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko Kamado from the manga Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba as both aim to control the Oni element present in the narrative and become fighters in the process.
The film adaptation includes a post-credits scene that foreshadows Yuta's inclusion in the main series, which IGN appreciated. Yuta's eventual return to Jujutsu Kaisen surprised critics due to the irony in the former protagonist's role of killing the current one. Comic Book Resources said Yuta's appearance in Jujutsu Kaisen was quite different from the original one upon his reveal. Anime Hunch claimed that the entire fandom was relieved when Yuta was revealed to be acting on Gojo's request to fake Yuji's death, something noticeable by how his personality changes from aggressive in his fake demand to friendly and casual when he finds Yuji and continuously apologizes to him for wounding him. Geekmi found Yuta's role in the latter story arc and looked forward for such events to be adapted in anime format. The character's connection with the late Sugawara no Michizane was kept vague that might generate a future impact in the series by critics.
There was also commentary about Yuta's voice actors in the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 film. Some media praised Megumi Ogata's Japanese portrayal of Yuta for making the character stand out as unique in the film, in which when he changes from being calm, which was compared to her early deliveries as Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion, to aggressive, when there are elements of horror and action. ANN and IGN also praised Yuta's relationship with Rika for giving him a less predictable characterization. Fandom Post compared Kayleigh McKee's voice work with that of Spike Spencer, who voiced Shinji in the English dub of the series, and wondered whether it was intentional. Hit equally praised McKee and Ogata for making Yuta more appealing alongside Rika. Pop Culture Maniac was more negative about McKee's work for making him sound childish rather than traumatized.
### Popularity
In a Viz Media popularity poll conducted in March 2021, Yuta was voted as the eighth-most-popular character in the Jujutsu Kaisen franchise. In a second poll taken in December 2021 by Shonen Jump, he was voted the eighth most popular character once again. To promote the series, Yuta's outfit was added to the NetEase video game Knives Out and a figurine of Yuta holding Rika was released by Shibuya Scramble Figure. A replica of Yuta's sword featuring the shadows of his energy was also produced.
Following the release of the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie, Slashfilm listed the character as its third best character behind Rika and Panda. In May 2022, manga author Kenta Shinohara did his own tribute to the character of Yuta alongside Yuji and Megumi. In the Anime Trending 2022 poll, Yuta was voted as one of the best movie characters, ranking 8th in the general "Boy of the Year" category. In the Newtype annual awards, Yuta was also popular reaching 6th place in the category "Best male character" for his role in the movie. He was also second in the best male character award from Animage' 2021 Anime Grand Prix poll behind Tengen Uzui from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. In 2023, Jaime Pérez de Sevilla and Nicolás Artajo were awarded the best Spanish and German, respectively, voice actors from the 7th Crunchyroll Anime Awards for their portrayal of Yuta. Pedro Alcântara was also a nominee in regards to Portuguese voice acting |
49,932,749 | War of the Antiochene Succession | 1,167,888,098 | War in Syria between 1201 and 1219 | [
"1200s conflicts",
"1200s in Asia",
"1210s conflicts",
"1210s in Asia",
"13th century in the Crusader states",
"Military history of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia",
"Principality of Antioch",
"Wars involving the Kingdom of Jerusalem",
"Wars involving the Knights Hospitaller",
"Wars involving the Knights Templar",
"Wars involving the Sultanate of Rum",
"Wars of succession involving the states and peoples of Asia"
]
| The War of the Antiochene Succession, also known as the Antiochene War of Succession, comprised a series of armed conflicts in northern Syria between 1201 and 1219, connected to the disputed succession of Bohemond III of Antioch. The Principality of Antioch was the leading Christian power in the region during the last decades of the 12th century, but Armenian Cilicia challenged its supremacy. The capture of an important fortress, Bagras, in Syria by Leo II of Cilicia gave rise to a prolonged conflict already in the early 1190s. Leo tried to capture Antioch, but the Greek and Latin burghers formed a commune and prevented the Armenian soldiers from occupying the town. Bohemond III's eldest son, Raymond, died in 1197, leaving an infant son, Raymond-Roupen. The boy's mother, Alice of Armenia, was Leo I's niece and heir presumptive. Bohemond III and the Antiochene noblemen confirmed Raymond-Roupen's right to succeed his grandfather in Antioch, but the commune preferred Bohemond III's younger son (Raymond-Roupen's uncle), Bohemond, Count of Tripoli.
Bohemond of Tripoli seized Antioch without resistance after his father died in April 1201, but many noblemen left the principality to seek refuge in Cilicia. Leo invaded the Principality of Antioch in almost every year between 1201 and 1208, but he had to return to his kingdom on each occasion because Az-Zahir Ghazi, the Ayyubid emir of Aleppo, or Kaykaus I, the Seljuq sultan of Rum stormed into Cilicia in his absence. Pope Innocent III initially supported Leo. However, the conflict between Leo and the Knights Templar over Bagras led to Leo's excommunication in 1208. During the following years, Leo captured new fortresses in Syria, abandoning them in 1213 as part of an effort to improve his relationship with the Holy See. Taking advantage of Bohemond IV's isolation, Leo entered Antioch, helping Raymond-Roupen seize the principality in 1216. Before long, Leo abandoned Bagras and lost the Armenian fortresses to the north of the Taurus Mountains to the Seljuqs. Raymond-Roupen increased taxes, which made him unpopular in Antioch. His relationship with Leo also became tense, enabling Bohemond IV to regain Antioch in 1219. The war contributed to the weakening of the Christian states in Northern Syria.
## Background
After Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Syria and Egypt, destroyed the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the late 1180s, the Principality of Antioch became the leading Christian power of Northern Syria. By 1186 Leo II, Lord of Armenian Cilicia, had already acknowledged the suzerainty of Bohemond III of Antioch, but their relationship became tense after Bohemond borrowed money from Leo but failed to repay it.
In 1191 Leo captured and rebuilt Bagras, a strategically important fortress that Saladin had seized from the Knights Templar and then destroyed before abandoning it. Bohemond ordered Leo to return it to the Templars, but Leo refused, stating that his right of recent conquest was stronger that the claim of the Templars who had lost their property. After Bohemond failed to include Cilicia in his truce with Saladin in 1192, Leo invited him to Bagras to start negotiations. Bohemond accepted the offer, but Leo had him captured, forcing him to surrender Antioch. Although the noblemen (who were closely related to Armenian nobles) were willing to accept Leo's rule, the mainly Greek and Latin townspeople formed a commune and prevented the Armenian soldiers from occupying Antioch.
Peace was restored with the mediation of Henry I of Jerusalem, who persuaded both Leo and Bohemond to renounce their claims to suzerainty over each other. Leo's occupation of Bagras was confirmed. Bohemond's eldest son, Raymond, married Leo's niece and heir presumptive, Alice. Raymond died in early 1197, but his widow give birth to a posthumous son, Raymond-Roupen. The almost sixty-year-old Bohemond III sent Alice and her son to Armenia, showing that he did not want to acknowledge his infant grandson's right to succeed him in Antioch.
Leo had meanwhile united the Armenian Church in Cilicia with Rome and acknowledged the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI. The emperor's envoy, Conrad of Wittelsbach, Archbishop of Mainz, was present when Leo was crowned the first king of Armenian Cilicia on 6 January 1198. Before long, Conrad went to Antioch and persuaded Bohemond and his barons to swear an oath to accept Raymund-Roupen's right to inherit Antioch.
Bohemond III's younger son (Raymund-Roupen's uncle), Bohemond, Count of Tripoli, disputed the validity of their oath. He expelled his father from Antioch with the support of the Templars, the Hospitallers and the commune of the burghers in late 1198. Three months later Leo invaded the Principality of Antioch, forcing the younger Bohemond to allow his father to return to Antioch. Pope Innocent III also supported the restoration of Bohemond III in Antioch, but, responding to the Templars' demand, he also began urging Leo to restore Bagras to them.
## War
### First phase
When Bohemond III died in April, Bohemond of Tripoli hurried to Antioch, where, because he was the late prince's closest living relative, he was recognized by the commune of the townspeople as his father's rightful heir. The nobles who had regarded Raymond-Roupen (the only son of Bohemond III's eldest son) the lawful prince, fled to the Kingdom of Cilicia. Bohemond repaid a loan that Raymond III of Tripoli had long before borrowed from the Knights Hospitaller, thus winning them over to his side.
Leo continued to support Raymond-Roupen, which sparked an enduring conflict, with many theatres of war. During the war, neither Leo nor Bohemond IV was able to control his own territory (Cilicia and Tripoli, respectively) and Antioch at the same time, due to insufficient forces. Az-Zahir Ghazi, the Ayyubid emir of Aleppo, and the Seljuq rulers of Anatolia were always ready to invade Cilicia, while the Ayyubid rulers of Hama and Homs controlled the territory between Antioch and Tripoli, hindering the movements of Bohemond's troops between the two crusader states.
Shortly after Bohemond seized Antioch, Leo laid siege to it to press Raymond-Roupen's cause, but Bohemond's allies, Az-Zahir Ghazi and Suleiman II, Seljuq Sultan of Rum, stormed into Cilicia, forcing Leo to withdraw in July 1201. He soon sent letters to Pope Innocent, informing him of Bohemond's cooperation with the Muslim rulers. Leo again invaded Antioch in 1202, but Aimery, King of Jerusalem and Cyprus, and the papal legate, Cardinal Soffredo, mediated a truce. After Bohemond IV refused to acknowledge the right of the Holy See to pass judgement in the case of the succession of Antioch, Leo renewed the war. Taking advantage of Bohemond's absence, Leo entered Antioch on 11 November 1203, but he was not able to seize the citadel, which was defended by the Templars and the troops of the commune. Before long, Az-Zahir Ghazi again invaded Cilicia, forcing Leo to return to his kingdom.
Renoart of Nephin, who had married an heiress in the County of Tripoli without Bohemond's consent, rose up against Bohemond in late 1204. He routed Bohemond at the gates of Tripoli. Leo seized the Antiochene fortresses in the Amanus Mountains, which controlled the road towards Antioch. He laid siege to the fortress at Trapessac on 25 December 1205, but Az-Zahir Ghazi's troops routed his army. After crushing Renoart of Nephin's revolt, Bohemond returned to Antioch, forcing Leo to sign a truce for eight years in summer 1206.
### Conflicts with the Church
A conflict between the new papal legate, Peter of Capua, and the Latin Patriarch of Antioch, Peter of Angoulême, who had become Raymond-Roupen's supporter, ended with the excommunication of the patriarch. Exploiting the situation to get rid of his opponent, Bohemond replaced Peter of Angoulême with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Symeon II with the support of the commune in early 1207. Peter of Angoulême was reconciled with the legate, excommunicated Bohemond and the commune, and then persuaded some nobles to rise up against Bohemond, forcing him to take refuge in the citadel. Leo entered Antioch, but Bohemond collected his forces and defeated the Armenians. Peter of Angoulême was captured and died of drink deprivation in his prison.
The Ayyubid sultan, Al-Adil I, stormed into the County of Tripoli, creating an opportunity for Leo to plunder the land around Antioch in 1208. Bohemond persuaded Kaykaus I, Sultan of Rum, to invade Cilicia, forcing Leo to withdraw from Antioch. Pope Innocent tasked Albert Avogadro, Patriarch of Jerusalem, to mediate a peace. Avogadro, who was an ally of the Knights Templar, urged Leo to return Bagras to them. In an attempt to renew the truce, Leo obeyed the legate's demand, promising to withdraw from Bagras.
Before long, Leo broke his promise and refused to return Bagras to the Templars. He also decided to terminate the union of the Armenian Church with Rome. On the other hand, he granted fortresses to the Teutonic Knights in Cilicia. He also arranged the marriage of Raymond-Roupen with Helvis, sister of Hugh I of Cyprus. Leo ambushed a caravan which had been transporting provisions to the Templars in 1211. In the skirmish, Guillaume de Chartres, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was badly injured. News of Leo's action shocked Pope Innocent, who forbade all Christian rulers to assist Leo and urged John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, to intervene on the Templars' behalf. John sent fifty knights to Northern Syria to fight against Leo. Leo expelled the Latin priests from Cilicia and gave shelter to the Orthodox Patriarch, Symenon, who had been driven out of Antioch. He dispatched Raymond-Roupen to plunder the region of Antioch in 1212.
Pope Innocent, who had proclaimed a new crusade in 1213, wanted to persuade Leo to assist the crusaders. In that year, Leo renounced all lands that he had seized from the Templars, but retained Bagras. John of Brienne married Leo's daughter, Stephanie, in 1214. During the same period, Bohemond's position weakened. His attempt to take vengeance on the Assassins for the murder of his eldest son, Raymond, brought him into conflict with his old ally, Az-Zahir Ghazi of Aleppo.
### Raymond-Roupen in Antioch
With Leo's support, Raymond-Roupen began to find new allies, promising land grants to the Hospitallers and Antiochene noblemen, including Acharie of Sermin, the head of the commune of the burghers. Taking advantage of the absence of Bohemond IV, Leo and his army entered Antioch during the night of 14 February 1216. A few days later, the Templars, who had held the citadel, also surrendered without a struggle. The Latin Patriarch of Antioch, Peter of Ivrea, consecrated Raymond-Roupen prince. After his protégé seized the Principality of Antioch, Leo restored Bagras to the Knights Templar. During Leo's absence, Kaykaus I captured the Armenian forts to the north of the Taurus Mountains, forcing him to concentrate on the defense of Cilicia.
After finding an empty treasure in Antioch, Raymond-Roupen increased taxation, which made him unpopular among his subjects. In 1217, Raymond-Roupen tried to capture Leo, but the Templars assisted Leo to flee to Cilicia. Bohemond visited John, King of Jerusalem, in Acre in autumn 1217. Early the next year, John recognized Bohemond as the lawful prince, but did not provide him with military assistance. The burghers and noblemen of Antioch rose up against Raymond-Roupen. Their leader, William Farabel, persuaded Bohemond to come back to the town. After Bohemond's arrival, Raymond-Roupen at first sought refuge in the citadel but soon fled to Cilicia, granting the citadel to the Hospitallers. Raymond-Roupen could never regain Antioch.
## Aftermath
Leo was dying when Raymond-Roupen came to Cilicia. With Leo's death in May 1219 and Bohemond's restoration, the war "came to a rather unspectacular end". Leo disinherited Raymond-Roupen and willed Cilicia to his five-year-old daughter, Isabella. Both Raymond-Roupen (the grandson of Leo's elder brother, Rupen) and John, King of Jerusalem (the husband of Leo's elder daughter, Stephanie) refused to accept Leo's last will, claiming Cilicia for themselves. The new conflict lasted for decades, further weakening the Christian states of Northern Syria.
## See also
- Crusades
- Eastern Catholic Churches |
26,990,497 | Droungarios of the Fleet | 1,138,749,346 | Commander of the Imperial Fleet of the Byzantine navy | [
"Byzantine admirals",
"Byzantine military offices",
"Lists of admirals",
"Lists of office-holders in the Byzantine Empire",
"Naval ranks"
]
| The droungarios of the Fleet (Greek: δρουγγάριος τοῦ πλοΐμου/τῶν πλοΐμων, droungarios tou ploïmou/tōn ploïmōn; after the 11th century δρουγγάριος τοῦ στόλου, droungarios tou stolou), sometimes anglicized as Drungary of the Fleet, was the commander of the Imperial Fleet (βασιλικὸς στόλος, basilikos stolos, or βασιλικὸν πλόϊμον, basilikon ploïmon), the central division of the Byzantine navy stationed at the capital of Constantinople, as opposed to the provincial (thematic) fleets. From the late 11th century, when the Byzantine fleets were amalgamated into a single force under the megas doux, the post, now known as the Grand droungarios of the Fleet (μέγας δρουγγάριος τοῦ στόλου, megas droungarios tou stolou), became the second-in-command of the megas doux and continued in this role until the end of the Byzantine Empire.
## Background and history of the office
In response to the Muslim conquests, some time in the latter half of the 7th century, the bulk of the Byzantine navy was formed into a single command, the great fleet of the Karabisianoi (Greek: Καραβισιάνοι, "the Ships' Men"), commanded, like the land themes that appeared around the same time, by a stratēgos (stratēgos tōn karabōn/karabisianōn, "general of the ships/ships' men"). The Karabisianoi, however, proved inadequate and were replaced in the early 8th century by a more complex system composed of three elements, which, with minor alterations, survived until the 11th century: a central fleet based at Constantinople; a few regional naval commands, namely the maritime Theme of the Cibyrrhaeots and a number of independent commands under a droungarios, which eventually evolved into the maritime themes of the Aegean Sea and of Samos in the course of the 9th century; and a greater number of local squadrons in the land themes, charged with purely defensive and police tasks and subordinate to the local thematic governors.
A fleet was based in Constantinople at least since the 7th century, and indeed played a central role in the repulsion of the two Arab sieges of Constantinople in 674–678 and 717–718, but the exact date of the establishment of the Imperial Fleet (βασιλικὸς στόλος, basilikos stolos, or βασιλικὸν πλόϊμον, basilikon ploïmon) as a distinct command is unclear. The Irish historian J. B. Bury, followed by the French Byzaninist Rodolphe Guilland, considered it "not improbable" that the Imperial Fleet existed as a subordinate command under the stratēgos tōn karabisianōn already in the 7th century. Certainly the droungarios of the Fleet first appears in the Taktikon Uspensky of ; and as there is little evidence for major fleets operating from Constantinople during the 8th century, the Greek Byzantinist Hélène Ahrweiler dated the fleet's creation to the early 9th century. From that point on, the Imperial Fleet formed the main naval reserve force and provided the core of various expeditionary fleets.
In the Taktikon Uspensky, the droungarios of the Fleet is positioned relatively lowly in the hierarchy, coming after all the senior military and civilian officials, placed between the prōtostratōr and the ek prosōpou of the themes. By the time of the 899 Klētorologion of Philotheos, however, he had risen considerably in importance, being placed variously either immediately before or after the logothetēs tou dromou and in the 35th or 38th position of the overall hierarchy, ahead of the domestikoi of the guard regiments (tagmata) of the Hikanatoi and the Noumeroi, as well as of the various chartoularioi (civil department heads). Indeed, he was not classed with the other military commanders, whether of the themes or of the tagmata, but in the special class of military officials, the stratarchai, where he is listed second, after the hetaireiarchēs, the commander of the imperial bodyguard. This rise coincided with the revival in the Byzantine navy's fortunes, begun under Michael III (r. 843–867) but carried to fruition under the first two emperors of the Macedonian dynasty, Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886) and Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912).
The Klētorologion further lists his subordinate officials as comprising his deputy or topotērētēs (τοποτηρητής), the secretary or chartoularios (χαρτουλάριος), the head messenger or prōtomandatōr and the other messengers (μανδάτορες, mandatores), the commanders of squadrons or komētes (κόμητες; sing. κόμης, komēs), and the centurions of the individual ships (κένταρχοι, kentarchoi; sing. κένταρχος, kentarchos). In addition, there was a komēs tēs hetaireias (κόμης τῆς ἑταιρείας), whose function is disputed: according to Bury, he probably commanded the foreign mercenaries, especially Rus' or Scandinavians, who served as marines, but the Greek historian Nicolas Oikonomides considered him the head of the droungarios' personal guard. According to the De Ceremoniis of Emperor Constantine VII (r. 913–959), he also had a role in imperial ceremonies, often in association with the droungarios tēs viglēs. Typical dignities associated with the post where the senior ranks of prōtospatharios, patrikios, and anthypatos.
The office reached its heyday during the 10th century, when several important personages held it, most notably Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944), who used it as a springboard to the throne. The office continued in the 11th century, but as the fleet was no longer very active, the droungarios chiefly commanded the Constantinopolitan fleet instead of leading expeditions; the title was now usually referred to as droungarios tou stolou (δρουγγάριος τοῦ στόλου). With the accession of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) a major reorganization of the navy took place. With the great naval themes having suffered a long decline as military formations, Alexios gathered the remnants of the provincial fleets and amalgamated them with the Imperial Fleet into a single force based in Constantinople, and placed it under the command of the megas doux.
The post of the droungarios of the Fleet remained in existence, now with the addition of the prefix megas ("grand"). According to the mid-14th century Book of Offices of Pseudo-Kodinos, he "has the same relation to the megas doux as the megas droungarios tēs viglēs had to the megas domestikos", i.e., he was the second in command. He was apparently in charge of subordinate droungarioi, who however were of very lowly rank and are rarely mentioned in the sources. Although reduced in significance in comparison to its heyday, the megas droungarios tou stolou remained important, ranking 32nd in the overall hierarchy in the Book of Offices. Pseudo-Kodinos gives his ceremonial costume at the time as follows: a gold-embroidered skiadion hat, a plain silk kabbadion kaftan, and a skaranikon (domed hat) covered in golden and lemon-yellow silk and decorated with gold wire and images of the emperor in front and rear, respectively depicted enthroned and on horseback. He bore no staff of office (dikanikion).
## List of known holders
Note: Uncertain entries are marked in italics.
A number of holders are known only by their surviving seals of office, and can only approximately be dated: |
44,496,652 | Stained glass in Liverpool Cathedral | 1,172,170,471 | null | [
"Glass architecture",
"Lists of stained glass works",
"Liverpool Anglican Cathedral",
"Windows"
]
| The stained glass in Liverpool Cathedral all dates from the 20th century. The designs were planned by a committee working in conjunction with the architect of the cathedral, Giles Gilbert Scott, with the intention of forming an integrated scheme throughout the cathedral. A number of stained glass designers were involved in the scheme, but the major contributors came from James Powell and Sons (Whitefriars Glass), in particular J. W. Brown, James Hogan, and Carl Edwards.
The subjects portrayed in the windows are numerous and diverse. They include scenes and characters from the Old and New Testaments, evangelists, church fathers, saints, and laymen, some famous, others more humble. The windows in the Lady Chapel celebrate the part that women have played in Christianity. The designs in the windows at the ends of the cathedral are based on canticles, the east window on the Te Deum laudamus, and the west window on the Benedicite. The earlier designs are dark, but the later windows are much brighter and more colourful. Much of the glass was damaged by bombing in the Second World War. The windows replacing them were based on the originals, but often using simpler and more colourful designs.
## History
The foundation stone of Liverpool Cathedral was laid on 19 July 1904, and it was completed in 1979. Giles Gilbert Scott won the competition to design the cathedral, and a Stained Glass Committee under the chairmanship of Sir Frederick Radcliffe was established to organise the design of the stained glass in the windows. The architect worked with the committee initially to decide on "the main lines on which the design of the window should be based and the extent to which is to be of clear glass or coloured". The committee then decided on the subjects to be depicted and, in discussion with the stained glass artist, agreed on the details of the design; Scott was concerned from the outset that "the windows should not detract from the architecture". The committee continued to work during the construction of the cathedral under a series of chairmen, whose discussions were often very detailed. The oldest windows in the cathedral are dark in colour, but with changes in manufacturing techniques from the 1930s, the later windows are much brighter and more colourful.
## Description
### Lady Chapel
The Lady Chapel was the earliest part of the cathedral to be built. There was a competition in 1907 to design the windows, which was won by James Powell and Sons, who commissioned J. W. Brown as designer. Brown had worked for Powell's until 1886 and then worked freelance, but from 1891 he was "the firm's preferred designer for prestigious projects". As the chapel is dedicated to St Mary, they are based on the role that women have played in the history of Christianity. Running through all the windows is a scroll containing the words of the Magnificat. On the north side are holy women from the British Isles, and on the south side are mainly saints commemorated in the Prayer Book. The Lady Chapel was damaged by bombing on 6 September 1940, and all the glass had to be replaced. The work was undertaken by James Hogan, who used simplified adaptations of the original designs. Following Hogan's death in 1948 the work was continued by Carl Edwards; the resulting windows are much brighter than the originals. The windows at the rear of the chapel and on the staircase were donated by the Girls' Friendly Society, and were designed by Brown. Known as the "Noble Women" windows, they depict women who have made major contributions to society, including Elizabeth Fry, Grace Darling, and Kitty Wilkinson.
### Ambulatory and Chapter House
The four windows in the ambulatory are the only designs in the cathedral by Burlison and Grylls, each depicting two saints from a nation of the British Isles. On the steps leading to the Chapter House is the only window in the cathedral by C. E. Kempe and Company. It commemorates the Woodward family, who were local corn merchants between 1803 and 1915, and includes biblical references to corn and harvest. The Chapter House was donated by local Freemasons as a memorial to their members lost in the First World War. The windows were made by Morris & Co. and designed by Henry Dearle, reflecting the interests and traditions of the Freemasons. The windows were damaged in the Second World War and repaired by James Powell and Sons.
### East window
The east window, designed by Brown, dominates the east end of the cathedral, rising above the reredos, and is based on the theme of the Te Deum laudamus. At the top of the window is the risen Christ, and around and below are members of the heavenly choir. Under this are four lancet windows, each representing one of the communities praising God. The left window represents 'the company of the apostles', with Saint Raphael at the top. Below are fourteen figures; the twelve apostles, excluding Judas Iscariot but including Saint Matthias, with Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas. The next window commemorates 'the goodly fellowship of the apostles'. At the top is Saint Michael, with fifteen figures below. These include Isaiah, Elijah, John the Baptist, Saint Athanasius, Saint Augustine, John Wycliffe, Thomas Cranmer, and John Wesley. The third window represents 'the noble army of martyrs', with Archangel Gabriel at the top. Below are fifteen Christian martyrs, starting with Saint Stephen. Underneath are Zechariah and the Holy Innocents, Saint Alban, Saint Oswald, and Saint Boniface. At the bottom are figures representing martyrs from Madagascar, Africa, Melanesia, and China. The lancet window on the right commemorates 'the holy church throughout all the world', with an angel, possibly Uriel, at the top. Underneath are various representations: King Alfred as a warrior, Dante as a poet, Fra Angelico as a painter, the musician J. S. Bach, the scientist Isaac Newton, and the physician Thomas Linacre. Other figures commemorate law, commerce, scholarship, and architecture. Also included are Christopher Columbus and Francis Drake.
### Choir aisles
There are four main windows in the choir aisles, two on each side, and they are concerned with the four Gospels. The windows on the north side are original, but those on the south side were destroyed by bombing and were renewed. In the renewal, the central mullion of these windows was widened, and the design of the glass was simplified and made more vibrant. Each window, known by its predominant colour, shows the author of the gospel at the top with his symbol. Below are figures linked with the subject matter of the gospel. The windows on the north side are by Brown, the left window, the Sapphire window, represents Saint Matthew and shows a depiction of the Nativity on one side, and the Epiphany on the other. The 'Gold' window commemorates Saint Luke and shows the Feeding of the Five thousand, and the Raising of Jairus' daughter. The windows on the south side are by Hogan. The Ruby window represents Saint John and includes biblical scenes together with the Old Testament figures of Daniel, Ezekiel, Jonah, and Job. Saint Mark is in the Emerald window, with scenes of the Baptism of Jesus and the Transfiguration. Also included are the disciples Saint Simon and Saint Andrew, and the Old Testament figures, Noah, Zechariah, Enoch, and Malachi. At the east ends of the aisles are rose windows by Brown. The window in the north aisle relates to "journeys across the sea and undertaken in faith", namely Moses crossing the Red Sea, Saint Paul's journey to Rome, Saint Columba planting a cross on Iona, and missionaries of the Melanesian Mission landing in the Solomon Islands. The images in the rose window in the south aisle show instances of God's power being demonstrated through water, namely Noah holding a model of the ark, Jesus calming the disciples in a storm, Jesus walking on water, and Saint Paul after his shipwreck in Malta.
### Central space
The windows on the north and south sides of the central space were designed by Hogan; each includes three tall lancet windows topped by a rose window. The area of glass in each window is 1,800 square foot (170 m<sup>2</sup>), the sill is 51 feet (15.5 m) above the level of the floor, and the top of the rose window is 156 feet (47.5 m) above floor level. The north window shows figures and themes from the Old Testament, with Moses with the Ten Commandments in the rose window. Below the figures include Adam and Eve, Noah, Solomon, prophets, and important characters from Israelite history. The south window depicts characters and scenes from the New Testament. The Holy Trinity is depicted in the rose window, below which are depictions of events including the Crucifixion and the Ascension, together with a variety of saints.
### Transepts
The War Memorial Chapel forming the northeast transept has as its themes the aftermath of the First World War, sacrifice and the risen life. The design of its window was started by Brown and completed by Hogan. It shows suffering and death, including a depiction of the Crucifixion. The original window by Brown was destroyed by bombing; the window replacing it shows Christ with his arms outstretched in welcome at the top. Below are scenes of acts of compassion, including figures such as Saint Francis. The southwest transept forms the baptistry, and its window by Herbert Hendrie of Whitefriars depicts salvation, particularly through water and healing. The window in the northwest transept has the theme of the Church and the State.
### Nave aisles
The six windows in the nave aisles deal with historical subjects, all but one designed by Carl Edwards. The exception is the west window on the south side, designed by William Wilson. This is the Bishops' Window, and includes Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, and William Temple. The middle window is the Parsons' Window, and depicts notable clergymen including Thomas Arnold (with a rugby ball), Revd Peter Green, and Revd W. Farquhar Hook. The Layman's Window includes tradesmen who worked on building the cathedral, members of the committees responsible, and a depiction of Giles Gilbert Scott. The Musicians' Window contains composers, performers, and conductors who have played a part in the development of Anglican church music. The Hymnologists' Window includes hymn writers such as C. F. Alexander and Cecil Spring Rice. Finally there is the Scholars' Window, with theologians, philosophers, and biblical scholars. In the corner is the Very Revd Frederick Dwelly, the first dean of the cathedral.
### West window
Following Scott's death in 1960 it was decided to change the design of the west end of the cathedral, which had consisted of a small rose window and an elaborate porch. Frederick Thomas and Roger Pinkney, who had both worked with Scott, produced a simplified design that gave the opportunity for a large west window. Created by Carl Edwards and based on the theme of the Benedicite, the window consists of a round-headed window at the top, and three tall lancet windows below. It covers an area of 1,600 square foot (150 m<sup>2</sup>), each lancet window being more than 52 feet (15.8 m) high. Revd Noel Vincent, the former canon treasurer of the cathedral, states that the top part of the window represents "the risen Christ in glory looking down ... in compassion on the world", and the images beneath depict "all creation united in peace". |
34,182,384 | Nagi Yanagi | 1,173,507,319 | Japanese singer-songwriter (born 1987) | [
"1987 births",
"21st-century Japanese singers",
"21st-century Japanese women singers",
"Anime musicians",
"Japanese women pop singers",
"Living people",
"Musicians from Osaka Prefecture",
"NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan artists",
"Utaite"
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| Nagi Yanagi (やなぎ なぎ, Yanagi Nagi, born May 31, 1987), stylized as yanaginagi (やなぎなぎ), is a Japanese singer and songwriter from Osaka Prefecture who is signed to NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan. After becoming interested with music in her childhood, she began singing and writing original songs. In 2006, she began uploading her music to Niconico and other websites, gaining the attention of the J-pop band Supercell, who featured Yanagi as the guest vocalist from 2009 to 2011.
Yanagi made her solo debut in February 2012 with the release of the single "Vidro Moyō", which is used as the ending theme to the anime Waiting in the Summer. Her music has been featured in anime series such as My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, Jormungand, Seraph of the End, and Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea. She has also performed at overseas events in Southeast Asia, China, and Europe. In 2012, Yanagi collaborated with composer Jun Maeda of Key to produce the original concept album Owari no Hoshi no Love Song, which finished 6th on the Oricon charts, marking her first album to chart.
Yanagi has written the songs for 2014's Kamigami no Asobi, and performed the theme songs for The Quintessential Quintuplets in 2019, 2021, and 2022. Aside from singing and songwriting, Yanagi served as the music producer of the 2017 anime series Just Because!. She announced her marriage on her official blog on August 5, 2019.
## Early life
Yanagi was born in Osaka Prefecture on May 31, 1987. From an early age, she had become interested in music, playing with an electronic keyboard her neighbor originally intended to throw away. She also sang to nursery rhymes, making up tunes as she saw fit. When she was in junior high school, her brother bought computer programs used for producing music, which she decided to experiment on. During her junior high school years, because of her belief that "her voice was mediocre", she decided to make music instead.
## Career
### 2006–2011: Early career and Supercell
Yanagi began posting cover versions of songs online in 2006, and started producing original dōjin music under the name CorLeonis. She released four studio albums individually: EN (2006), Leonis (2007), Freirinite (2008), and Oort no Yume (オールトの夢) (2010). Leonis was only released online via Yanagi's website. Two more releases followed in 2011: the single "Hyōka no Kuni" (氷下の国) and the best of album Ame no Umi (雨の海). In May 2006, she formed the music duo Binaria with female singer Annabel. Between 2007 and 2011, Binaria released two mini-albums (Alhaja (2007) and Forma (2007)), one best of album (Sonido (2010)), and four singles ("Epoca" (2008), "Alba" (2009), "Delightful Doomsday" (2010), and "Nachtflug" (2011)). Binaria also collaborated with the singer Cassini for the single "Rueda" (2007). In January 2007, Yanagi formed the musical unit Inochi Kokonotsu with composer KTG (an acronym of Ken The Garage), and the group put out a single album, Tortoiseshell (トーティシェル), on April 29, 2007 before disbanding in June 2007.
As early as 2007, Yanagi began submitting cover versions of songs to the Nico Nico Douga video sharing website under the name Gazelle. Roughly the next day after Supercell's songwriter Ryo uploaded the music group's first song "Melt" in December 2007, Yanagi uploaded a cover of her singing the song. Yanagi, who was herself a fan of Ryo's music, contacted him and the two talked about someday collaborating. Ryo, who had been a fan of Yanagi's voice even before uploading his own songs to Nico Nico Douga, approached her to sing the vocals for Supercell's debut single "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" (2009). Yanagi continued as the vocalist of Supercell until 2011, and in that time provided vocals for two more singles in 2010—"Sayonara Memories" and "Utakata Hanabi / Hoshi ga Matataku Konna Yoru ni"—and Supercell's second studio album Today Is A Beautiful Day (2011). Later in 2011, Yanagi sang two songs on the original soundtrack for Key's visual novel Rewrite.
### 2012–2016: Solo debut
Yanagi collaborated with Jun Maeda of Key to produce the original concept album Owari no Hoshi no Love Song released on April 25, 2012. A single from the album, "Killer Song", was released at Comiket 81 on December 29, 2011. Yanagi made her solo debut signed to Geneon with the single "Vidro Moyō" (ビードロ模様) released on February 29, 2012. "Vidro Moyō" is used as the ending theme to the 2012 anime series Waiting in the Summer. Yanagi's second single "Ambivalentidea" was released on June 6, 2012; the title track is used as the ending theme to the 2012 anime series Jormungand. Her third single "Laterality" (ラテラリティ) was released on November 7, 2012; the title track is used as the ending theme to Jormungand's second season Jormungand: Perfect Order.
Yanagi released her fourth single "Zoetrope" on January 30, 2013; the title track is used as the opening theme to the 2013 anime series Amnesia. Yanagi released her fifth single "Yukitoki" (ユキトキ) on April 17, 2013; the song is used as the opening theme to the 2013 anime series My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected. Yanagi's solo debut album Euaru (エウアル) was released on July 3, 2013. Yanagi released her sixth single "Aqua Terrarium" (アクアテラリウム) on November 20, 2013; the song is used as the first ending theme to the 2013 anime series Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea. Her seventh single "Mitsuba no Musubime" (三つ葉の結びめ) was released on February 19, 2014; the song is used as the second ending theme to Nagi-Asu. Yanagi's eighth single "Tokohana" (トコハナ) was released on June 4, 2014; the song is used as the ending theme to the 2014 anime series Black Bullet. The third song of the single is used in the Z-kai Group promotion video Cross Road (クロスロード) in collaboration with Makoto Shinkai. She made an appearance at Anime Festival Asia Singapore in November 2014.
Yanagi's second solo album Polyomino (ポリオミノ) was released on December 10, 2014. Her ninth single "Sweet Track" was released on December 24, 2014. Her tenth single "Foe" was released on March 18, 2015. Yanagi's 11th single "Harumodoki" (春擬き) was released on June 3, 2015; the song is used as the opening theme to the second season of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected. In July 2015, she made appearances at Japan Expo in Paris and Hyper Japan in London. She also made an appearance at SMASH! in Sydney in August 2015, and later at Anime Festival Asia Indonesia in September 2015. Her 12th single "Orarion" (オラリオン) was released on December 9, 2015; the song is used as the ending theme to the 2015 anime series Seraph of The End: Battle in Nagoya. Her 13th single "Kazakiri" (カザキリ) was released on February 24, 2016; the song is used as the opening theme to the 2016 anime series Norn9; Yanagi also played the role of Aion in the series. Yanagi's third solo album Follow My Tracks was released on April 20, 2016. Yanagi's 14th single "Meimoku no Kanata" (瞑目の彼方, "Beyond Closed Eyes") was released on August 31, 2016; the song is used as the ending theme to the 2016 anime series Berserk. She appeared at Animax Carnival Malaysia in March 2016, and at Animax Carnival Philippines in October 2016.
### 2017–present: Professional expansion
Yanagi collaborated with Yoshino Nanjō in performing the song "Issai wa Monogatari" (一切は物語, "Everything is the Story") released on May 17, 2017; the song is used as the ending theme to the second season of Berserk. Her 15th single "Jikan wa Mado no Mukōgawa" (時間は窓の向こう側, "Time Is on the Other Side of the Window") was released on August 2, 2017; the song is used as the ending theme for the 2017 anime series Chronos Ruler. Yanagi's 16th single "Over and Over" was released on November 1, 2017; the song was used as the opening theme for the 2017 anime series Just Because!, where she also served as the music producer. Her 17th single "Here and There / Satōdama no Tsuki" (砂糖玉の月) was released on November 1, 2017; "Here and There" and "Satōdama no Tsuki" was used as the opening and ending themes to the 2017 anime television series Kino's Journey – The Beautiful World.
Yanagi's fourth solo album "Natte" (ナッテ) was released on January 17, 2018. Her 18th single "Madōi Mirai" (間遠い未来, "A Far-Away Future") was released on February 21, 2018; the song is used as the first ending theme to the 2018 anime series Hakyū Hōshin Engi. Her 19th single "Mukei no Outline" (無形のアウトライン, " Intangible Outline") was released on May 30, 2018; the song is used as the second ending theme to Hakyū Hōshin Engi. Her 20th single "Mimei no Kimi to Hakumei no Mahō" (未明の君と薄明の魔法, "Magical Twilight of Your Early Dawn") was released on October 31, 2018; the song is used as the ending theme to 2018 anime series Iroduku: The World in Colors. She was released two compilation albums titled Yanagi Nagi Best Album -Library- and Yanagi Nagi Best Album -Museum- on January 9, 2019. In August 2019, she performed in North America for the first time at Anime Revolution in Vancouver.
Her 21st single "Houseki no Umareru Toki" (宝石の生まれるとき, "When Gemstones Are Born") was released on February 19, 2020; the song is used as the opening theme song to anime series The Case Files of Jeweler Richard. Her 22nd single "Megumi no Ame" (芽ぐみの雨, "Sprouting Rain") was released on July 15, 2020; the song is used as the opening theme song to the third season of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected. Her 23rd single "Kimi to Iu Shinwa" (君という神話, "Your Myth") / "Goodbye Seven Seas" was released on October 28, 2020; "Kimi to Iu Shinwa" and "Goodbye Seven Seas" were used as the opening and ending themes to the 2020 anime television series The Day I Became a God. Her 24th single "Shirushibi" (標火, "Mark of Fire") was released on November 3, 2021; the song is used as the ending theme song to the first season of the anime series The Faraway Paladin.
In the making of The Quintessential Quintuplets, Yanagi wrote the songs that were performed by herself.
## Artistry
### Influences
Yanagi cites Akino Arai, Yoko Kanno, and Maaya Sakamoto as well as the 1996 song "Flower Crown" by the musical unit Goddess in the Morning as some of her musical influences; early on, she decided that she wanted to write music "just like Arai". In an interview with Japanese website Natalie, she describes how desktop music software was magical for her, as it allowed her to make music without playing instruments. She later bought an audio interface for the software to allow her to experiment more.
### Musical style
In an interview with Animate Times, Yanagi discussed her experiences in making the single "Ambivalentidea", as well as her early career. She describes how she originally did not intend to pursue a career in music, as producing dōjin music was just a hobby and she was working at a non-music related job. She started out performing covers of songs, but due to positive reception online, she was persuaded to make original songs as well. For the single "Ambivalentidea", she wanted to incorporate Jormungand's theme of "contradiction" in the song. To accomplish this, she included figurative and abstract words in the song's lyrics. The song's title comes from the words ambivalent and idea, which when put together were intended to express the idea of a contradiction of visualization. In an interview with Natalie, she described how because she wanted the song to have a "more literary feel", she would frequently consult a dictionary while writing the lyrics.
In an interview with Entertainment Station, Yanagi discussed her role as music producer of the anime series Just Because!, and the making of the series' opening theme "Over and Over". It was the first time that she served as a music producer for an anime series, so she would discuss ideas with anime staff. As Just Because! is set in a high school, she set out to write music that would fit scenes, deciding when instruments such as the piano or guitar would be used depending on the scene. She used picture stories as references in making the soundtrack; she also used high school baseball cheering songs as references in writing a track for scenes involving baseball. The intro of "Over and Over" was influenced by two of her earlier songs "Yukitoki" and "Harumodoki", which were both used in My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected. For the song, she wanted to incorporate the series plot point of transferring schools; she aimed for the song to have a happy feeling, but she took time finding a way to express it.
## Filmography
### Anime
### Video games
## Discography
### Albums
#### Studio albums
#### Compilation albums
### Singles
#### Digital singles
#### Collaborations
### Other album appearances |
17,444,540 | Infinite Space | 1,170,359,935 | 2009 video game | [
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"Multiplayer and single-player video games",
"Nintendo DS games",
"Nintendo DS-only games",
"Nude Maker games",
"PlatinumGames games",
"Production I.G",
"Role-playing video games",
"Sega video games",
"Small Magellanic Cloud in fiction",
"Space opera video games",
"Video games about space warfare",
"Video games developed in Japan",
"Video games scored by Masafumi Takada"
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| is a 2009 role-playing video game co-developed by Nude Maker and PlatinumGames for the Nintendo DS. It was published by Sega in 2009 in Japan, and 2010 in Western territories. The science fiction storyline, set across the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, follows the life and growth of Yuri as he first confronts the aggressive expansion of the Lugovalian Empire, then a greater alien threat. Gameplay involves Yuri's fleet travelling across the galaxies, fighting in both scripted battles and random encounters, with the battle system featuring real-time commands and both ships and crew being customizable.
The project emerged when producer Atsushi Inaba contacted Nude Maker to produce a title together, as Inaba had enjoyed working with them on Steel Battalion. The story, created by director Hifumi Kono, drew inspiration from numerous Western and Japanese science fiction works, particularly the work of authors Arthur C. Clarke and Greg Egan, and anime creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. The characters were designed by Capcom veterans Sawaki Takeyasu and Tatsuro Iwamoto, while spaceship designs were handled by a large team which included Kazutaka Miyatake of Studio Nue.
The game was produced as one of a four-game publishing deal between PlatinumGames and Sega, acting as their debut in Japan and their third title in the West after MadWorld and Bayonetta. It was promoted in Japan with an anime short film co-produced by Gonzo and Production I.G, released in several parts in both Japanese and English. It saw generally positive reviews, with praise going to its narrative and gameplay mechanics. A common complaint across Japanese and Western critics was its high difficulty. Its sales were disappointing, totalling 200,000 units worldwide, attributed to cartridge manufacturing costs and the narrative's niche appeal.
## Gameplay
Infinite Space is a science fiction role-playing video game where players take on the role of protagonist Yuri, who leads a growing fleet of spaceships across different galaxies. The narrative is presented through non-interactive story cutscenes presented using 2D static images, while other elements including battles and exploration are presented using 3D graphics. The entire game is controlled by the touchscreen. Neither characters nor spacecraft are controlled directly, but instead use a style similar to a point-and-click game. While the main plot is unchanging, many smaller elements feature a non-linear branching narrative dictated by choices from the player. These choices can determine a particular path through the narrative, or allow a new character to join Yuri's fleet. Travelling between planets causes a ship crew's fatigue level to rise, impeding their efficiency. Stopping at a space port or planet removes fatigue and replenishes the fleet's health.
During navigation between planets, Yuri can both enter scripted encounters that advanced the narrative, or random encounters with pirate fleets or other enemy groups. Battles play out in real-time, relying on tactical commands of a fleet of up to five ships facing an equal number of enemy ships. Movement and position play a role in battle, as some weapon types can only activate a certain ranges. After a certain point, melee options are unlocked both for close-range ship combat and ground-based battles either between board parties on ships or on planet surfaces. Attack types are dependant on the command gauge, which fills up over time and is depleted upon selection an action. Similar to the concept of rock paper scissors, each attack type cancels out one attack while being weak to another; dodging nullifies Barrage attacks, while normal attacks are certain hits while dodging. The color outline of ships and ground parties indicates what types of move they can activate.
A key part of building up Yuri's fleet is gathering ship blueprints, buying parts from space ports, and customizing ships. Ship customization is handled by arranging building blocks within a limited grid, which alters a ship's abilities and statistics. Crew members can also be recruited during the main and side scenarios from ship ports, having different statistics which influence performance in battle and granting different boons depending on where they are placed within the crew hierarchy. After battles, the player is awarded with experience points, raising ship and character statistics. Multiplayer spaceship battles are also available for two-players to play competitively over local Wi-Fi, selected from an option on the bridge of Yuri's ship and isolated from the main campaign. After completing the game for the first time, a New Game+ feature is unlocked, allowing statistics and other elements to be carried over into a new playthrough.
## Synopsis
### Setting and characters
Infinite Space is set in the far future, where humanity has expanded beyond the Milky Way to colonise neighbouring galaxies including the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC), with travel between distant locations accomplished using Void Gates, constructs of an ancient civilization. A notable space phenomenon are Flux Sectors, areas of space where reality is in an unstable state. A recurring feature of the setting are groups called Zero-G Dogs, who act as mercenaries fighting with different factions and are alternately admired and despised. Key objects of power are Epitaphs, cube-shaped objects from ancient times that are said to open a gateway to a divine realm.
The two major powers in the galaxies are the Galactic Federation, formed from nations across the SMC and LMC; and the Lugovalian Empire, controlling a quarter of the known universe and now expanding towards the Milky Way cluster under the guidance of Emperor Taranis. The protagonist is Yuri from the planet Ropesk, the inhabitants of which have been banned from space travel. He is taken from Ropesk by Nia, a Zero-G Dog he hires to escape the planet. A key character is Kira, his sister who is initially taken hostage after his departure. Other key characters encountered by Yuri are the notorious pirate Valantin; Cico, a Lugovalian who later becomes the Empire's crown prince; and Patriarch Bogd, leader of the Holy Nation of Adis.
### Plot
Yuri, yearning to leave Ropesk, contacts Nia and pawns an Epitaph he believes to have been his father's to buy a ship. Kira is kidnapped by Ropesk's leader to force Yuri to return, but instead Yuri breaks Kira free, then learns that his Epitaph was stolen from the pawn shop by the pirate Valantin. Yuri and a growing crew of Zero-G Dogs go on the hunt for Valantin, ending up caught in the political struggles surrounding the aggressive expansion of the Lugovalian Empire into the SMC. He also runs into Cico, who allies with him during a difficult battle. Despite multiple battles, the Lugovalian Empire conquers the SMC, destroying the most powerful fleets and prompting other powers to surrender. Yuri allies with a sympathetic nation within the LMC, but their attempt to hold off the Lugovalian forces ends in failure when the Lugovalians use a weapon to send a nearby sun into supernova, destroying all surrounding ships and the Void Gate connecting the two galaxies. Nia, whose family and planet were brutally conquered by the Lugovalian Empire, sacrifices herself in an attempt to kill Taranis so Yuri can escape to the LMC.
Ten years later, Yuri is in prison, put there along with all SMC refugees by the Federation as part of a cover-up surrounding the conquest of the SMC. Yuri escapes and slowly rebuilds his crew, ultimately surrendering to the sympathetic nation of Regeinland. The Lugovalian Empire finds a new Void Gate and restarts their invasion of the LMC, causing civil conflict between Federation factions over the response. Yuri spearheads efforts by Regeinland to unite Federation members against rival factions and the Lugovalians. During this period, Yuri discovers an ability to manipulate Flux Sectors and consequently control reality within them. Under Yuri's leadership, the Regeinland-led fleets first establish their military presence by quashing rebellions and civil unrest, then unite the LMC's Federation planets in an assault on the Empire's military which successfully beats them back and forces a peace accord with support from Cico. Ships begin disappearing within Void Gates, and Adis claims responsibility. Arriving to exact retribution, Yuri encounters Bogd and learns that the planetary destruction is being caused by the Overlords, a god-like species who gifted humanity with their technology and have been repeatedly destroying and recreating the universe.
Yuri is revealed to be an artificial human called an Observer created by the Overlords, explaining his possession of an Epitaph and power over Flux Sectors, with Kira being a Tracker android sent to monitor him. The Void Gates were designed to track and record events for the Overlords to use in a subsequent cycle of creation. Taranis, an Observer similar to Yuri, started his conquests intending to unite humanity against the Overlords. When Kira attempts to access the Overlords' network and discover their weakness, she is erased and leaves only her android skeleton behind. The Overlords' organic Phage ships begin appearing, destroying large sectors of known space. Yuri learns that the only way to stop the Phages is destroying the one Void Gate that links to the Overlords' realm, located in the original Solar System. Valantin—revealing himself to be a Tracker like Kira—returns to aid Yuri, and ultimately sacrifices himself so Yuri can reach the Solar System. In a final battle, Yuri's fleet holds off the Phage as Taranis sacrifices his ship to destroy the Overlords' Void Gate. A post-credit scene shows Yuri steering his ship into a Flux Sector and using his powers to restore Kira as a human.
## Development
Infinite Space was co-developed by PlatinumGames, a company founded by ex-Capcom staff including producer Atsushi Inaba; and Nude Maker, a company founded by former employees of Human Entertainment including director and writer Hifumi Kono. The adult Kono had wanted to create a sweeping science fiction epic since his teens, though he had never imagined being able to do so. The project began when Inaba contacted Kono, having wanted to work with him since the pair's experience developing Steel Battalion. Infinite Space was unusual compared to PlatinumGames's other action-based titles, but Inoue pushed for something out of the ordinary to be included in their library. PlatinumGames oversaw and supported production under Inaba. Nude Maker handled the core programming and creation of initial art assets and scenario, with expansion of aspects such as artwork handled by other external studios. The production was notably supported by Studio Nue.
When publisher Sega presented the proposed budget, Kono felt it was restrictive for a console game, but large for a handheld title. Not wanting to cut anything from the game, he chose to make Infinite Space for the DS. The platform choice was also seen as having the smallest commercial risks compared to home consoles due to the game's scale and mechanics. Kono commented that it proved difficult fitting all the game's content on the DS cartridge. As part of its promotion, Sega announced that the developers were aiming to push the technical limitations of the platform. Similar to Steel Battalion, Kono proposed a dedicated control peripheral for Infinite Space, but PlatinumGames rejected the idea in favor of having the broadest market appeal possible. Kono attributed the successful production to both new tools that helped organise production within the small team, and the dedication of staff involved.
While the gameplay system was uncommon among Japanese titles, the design aim was not to make it complicated. Spaceship customization was present during the early talks between Inoue and Kono, drawing inspiration from playing with action figures as children. Kono felt the crew recruitment system was a necessity, as a large crew was more important to ships than it would have been to a tank or similar customizable vehicles in other games. The customization options also allowed players to complete a game with their "ideal fleet" rather than needing to acquire and upgrade different ships across the campaign. The rock-paper-scissors mechanics of battles were decided upon later. Exploring a ship interior in real-time was considered, but dropped due to the DS's technical limitations. The difficulty curve was not intentionally high, but it was intended that players should learn the systems, and it served as an extension of the narrative featuring an inexperienced youngster going against ruthless veterans. The team experimented with online multiplayer, but due to potential issues and the project's already large scope, these plans were dropped.
### Scenario and art design
Kono described the scenario as dividing naturally into four parts. The first half of the narrative was a lighter-toned adventure, while the second half leaned more towards adult serious science fiction. Kono created the scenario at the beginning of development, allowing him to carefully plan out revelations and relationships. The main narrative followed the human conflict, with the more esoteric elements either layered over it or appearing as smaller side-stories. In addition, Kono designed the narrative to have a grand scope by using locations across multiple galaxies, contrasting against a trend he noticed for recent science fiction to stay within the Solar System. Looking back on its production, Inoue noted that the scenario kept expanding, increasing the game's ROM size and putting their resources and production schedule under pressure. Kono wanted to include voice acting, but the space limitations of the DS made his desire for full voice acting impractical. Voice acting ended up being limited to in-battle exclamations. While not all planets and galaxies could be visited, Kono took pains to describe different races and factions in-game.
The scenario drew influence from multiple sources. The main influences were science fiction authors Arthur C. Clarke and Greg Egan, and anime creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. In using Clarke, Kono took the themes of the novel Childhood's End and incorporated its perspective through the game's view of humanity from an overarching perspective. Another direct influence was the work of H. P. Lovecraft, particularly the contrast between the vastness of space and small-scale actions of humanity. Other cited influences from both Kono and Inoue include the television series Star Trek and the reimagined Battlestar Galactica; the manga Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Planetes; and the anime Space Battleship Yamato and Space Runaway Ideon.
The character graphics were the first designs to be created, with rough sketches created by Nude Maker staff and then handed to the external artists. Character portraits were created using "dot-like" graphics, allowing for small detailed adjustments where needed. The anime stills used for cutscenes were a choice born of budgetary and hardware constraints. The character and ship designs were created in parallel with the scenario due to time constraints, leading to parts of the scenario being altered in response to the character designs. Due to these changes, many of the minor characters changed roles completely, although their affiliation with different organizations remained intact. The characters were designed by Sawaki Takeyasu and Tatsuro Iwamoto, who had both worked on Ōkami. The ship, mechanical and environmental designs were handled by Kazutaka Miyatake of Studio Nue, Yasushi Yamaguchi, Junji Okubo, Tetsuyaro Shinkaida, Naohiro Washio, Goro Murata, and Mitsuru Yaku.
While incorporating hard science fiction elements, Kono also incorporated anime-inspired characters and events to broaden its appeal. As part of the promotion in Japan, an anime short film was co-produced by studios Gonzo and Production I.G. It was first shown on stage at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, then released in multiple parts through the game's website. The anime was directed by Yasufumi Soejima. The animation director was Fumitoshi Oizaki, while art direction was handled by Nishino Takashiyo and Yusuke Takeda. It was commissioned by Sega at Inaba's request as he wanted to further express the world of Infinite Space, but knew the DS lacked the hardware to incorporate multiple anime cutscenes. The anime was also published online in English.
### Music
The soundtrack was composed by members of the sound team of Grasshopper Manufacture. Grasshopper Manufacture had previously worked with Nude Maker on the audio design of Steel Battalion. The most notable composer was Masafumi Takada, whose work at Grasshopper Manufacture included Killer7 and No More Heroes. The game was one of Takada's last projects with Grasshopper Manufacture before becoming an independent composer at the end of 2008. The soundtrack was principally composed by Takada and Jun Fukuda, who Kono described as the two composers he trusted the most. Additional music was composed by Etsuko Ichikawa and Yusuke Komori. Kono requested tracks that would express the expansive nature of space, something which proved challenging due to the DS's limited sound capacities. The ending theme "Infinity Route" was performed by Chieko Nishimura.
A two-disc soundtrack album was released on July 29, 2009. It was co-published by Geneon Entertainment and Sega's WaveMaster label. The soundtrack release included an orchestral piece titled "Infinite Space", created by Masamichi Amano and performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra for the promotional anime short.
## Release
Infinite Space was announced in May 2008. The announcement came alongside that of PlatinumGames's four-game publishing partnership with Sega; the other titles were MadWorld, Bayonetta, and the then-unannounced Vanquish. At the time, it was known under the title Infinite Line. As part of the publishing partnership, Infinite Space and the other announced IPs are owned by Sega. The title was demoed at TGS 2008. Based on feedback from the demo, adjustments were made to the gameplay speed and an option to skip combat cutscenes was included. They also adjusted the difficulty balance, which Kono admitted gave him trouble during the early levels. A promotional try-out event took place at a gaming store in Akihabara on May 30, 2009. Kono commented that promotion of the title was difficult without spoiling additional details from its second half.
The game released in Japan on June 11, 2009. It was supplemented by a strategy guide released by Enterbrain on July 5; and the Infinite Space Setting Document Collection published by SoftBank Creative on February 1, 2010, containing artwork and developer commentary. Work on the Western version of Infinite Space began shortly before its Japanese release. Aside from the language difference, no content was changed between regional releases. The game released in North America on March 16, 2010. In PAL regions, it released on March 26. While it was the third PlatinumGames title to be released in the West, it was their first release in Japan.
## Reception
Infinite Space met with "generally favorable" reviews, earning a score of 75 points out of 100 from aggregate website Metacritic based on 46 critic reviews. While critical reception of the game was generally positive, it saw a more mixed reaction from players in both Japan and the West.
Reception to the narrative was generally positive, with praise going to its writing and scope. Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu called the narrative enjoyably complex, with one reviewer noting its setting as "overwhelming". Kat Bailey of 1Up.com noted homages to 1970s Japanese science fiction, while Edge Magazine praised the narrative as "neatly grafted" onto the gameplay systems. Eurogamer's Dan Pearson described the storyline as traditional while praising Yuri's characterization. Matthew Kato of Game Informer called the characters cliche and the story "ordinary", while GamesRadar enjoyed the balance of serious drama and humor. GameSpot's Nathan Meunier found the story predictable, though the characters grew on him. GameTrailers enjoyed the narrative and praised the localization, saying it "carefully balances between violent, humorous, and thought-provoking themes". IGN's Daemon Hatfield highlighted the characters' growth as the main reason to play through more difficult sections. Matthew Castle, writing for Nintendo Gamer, lauded the scale of characters and narrative, praising Yuri as one of the best recent RPG protagonists. Anthony Capone of PALGN cited the narrative as one of the game's positives, and Pocket Gamer's Will Wilson lauded the character interactions and script quality. RPGamer's Mike Moehnke enjoyed the character development, particularly Yuri's growth during the story.
Where mentioned, the graphics saw mixed responses. Kato positively noted the battle sequence graphics. GameTrailers gave praise to the anime stills used for cutscenes, but found the 3D ship models unattractive and faulted the sound design for its poor quality. Hatfield faulted the interface design as unintuitive and frustrating to manage, while Capone faulted both the menu design and audio quality while praising the anime designs. Wilson noted the 3D graphics and sound design as positives that helped create the right atmosphere. Moehnke faulted the lack of animation in battles, and lauded the soundtrack as enjoyable even after extended play.
The gameplay saw general praise for its customization and battle system; a common complaint across regions was high difficulty and a lack of direction. Famitsu praised the customization options and depths of its mechanics. Bailey, while generally positive, noted many obscure mechanics and the need to grind for cash to strengthen ships. Edge praised the customization options, but noted a lack of direction and problems navigating the interface; these sentiments were echoed by Pearson, who also praised the depth of battle mechanics. Kato's main point of praise was the customization systems, as he found the battles less engaging overall. GamesRadar praised the battles, but found several of the associated systems overly complex. Meunier positively noted the blend of combat and customization, but found the melee elements unenjoyable. GameTrailers disliked the ground-based battles, but praised the ship combat and depth of customization options given to players. Hatfield disliked the gameplay during the first few hours due to a lack of flexibility and generally negative about several mechanical choices, while by contrast Castle lauded its systems despite these unintuitive elements. Capone faulted the navigation as too complex, and felt that the prolonged periods between save points undermined enjoyment. Wilson was fairly mixed about the battle system due to recurring frustrations with its combat mechanics, feeling new elements were unlocked too slowly. Moehnke was overall positive despite noting the weak melee options and need for grinding.
### Sales
During the first week following its release in Japan, Infinite Space sold 38,000 units and was the highest selling game in Japan during that period. Sales tracking company Media Create predicted that the game would have a 92% sell-through rate, indicating that it could continue to perform well on the market. By the end of 2009, it was among the top-selling two hundred titles, selling just over 71,400 units. Its early sales success was attributed to its broad appeal in themes, and the fact that it was an "orthodox" DS title of a type becoming rare in the modern market. It ended up selling around 200,000 units worldwide. Later speaking about its low overall sales in Japan, Kono cited the limited manufacture of cartridges due to costs as a factor. Inaba half-jokingly blamed Sega for under-producing the game, resulting in the limited stock quickly selling out worldwide, but more seriously attributed its lack of sales to the bulky scenario's niche appeal. |
9,262,238 | Sara Northrup Hollister | 1,169,820,151 | American occultist (1924–1997) | [
"1924 births",
"1997 deaths",
"American Thelemites",
"American occultists",
"American people of Russian descent",
"American people of Swedish descent",
"L. Ron Hubbard family",
"Members of Ordo Templi Orientis",
"People from Pasadena, California"
]
| Sara Elizabeth Bruce Northrup Hollister (April 8, 1924 – December 19, 1997) was an American occultist and second wife of Scientologist founder L. Ron Hubbard. She played a major role in the creation of Dianetics, which evolved into the religious movement Scientology. Hubbard would evolve into the leader of the Church of Scientology.
Northrup was a figure in the Pasadena branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), a secret society led by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, where she was known as "Soror [Sister] Cassap". She joined as a teenager along with her older sister Helen. From 1941 to 1945 she had a turbulent relationship with her sister's husband John Whiteside Parsons, a pioneer in liquid-fueled rocketry and head of the Pasadena O.T.O. Although she was a committed and popular member, she acquired a reputation for disruptiveness that prompted Crowley to denounce her as a "vampire." She began a relationship with L. Ron Hubbard, whom she met through the O.T.O., in 1945. She and Hubbard eloped, taking with them a substantial amount of Parsons' life savings and marrying bigamously a year later while Hubbard was still married to his first wife, Margaret Grubb.
Northrup played a significant role in the development of Dianetics, Hubbard's "modern science of mental health", between 1948 and 1951. She was Hubbard's personal auditor and along with Hubbard, one of the seven members of the Dianetics Foundation's Board of Directors. However, their marriage was deeply troubled; Hubbard was responsible for a prolonged campaign of domestic violence against her and kidnapped both her and her infant daughter. Hubbard spread allegations that she was a Communist secret agent and repeatedly denounced her to the FBI. The FBI declined to take any action, characterizing Hubbard as a "mental case". The marriage ended in 1951 and prompted lurid headlines in the Los Angeles newspapers. She subsequently married one of Hubbard's former employees, Miles Hollister, and moved to Hawaii and later Massachusetts, where she died in 1997.
## Early life
Northrup was one of five children born to Thomas Cowley, an Englishman working for the Standard Oil Company, and his wife, Olga Nelson, the daughter of a Swedish immigrant to the United States. She was the granddaughter of Russian emigrant Malacon Kosadamanov (later Nelson) who emigrated to Sweden. The couple had three daughters. In 1923 the family moved to Pasadena, a destination said to have been chosen by Olga using a Ouija board.
Although she later remembered her childhood with warmth, Northrup's upbringing was marred by her sexually abusive father, who was imprisoned in 1928 for financial fraud. She was sexually active from an unusually young age and often said she lost her virginity at the age of ten.
## Relationship with Jack Parsons
In 1933, Northrup's 22-year-old sister Helen met the 18-year-old Jack Parsons, a chemist who went on to be a noted expert in rocket propulsion. Jack Parsons was also an avid student and practitioner of the occult. Helen and Jack were engaged in July 1934 and married in April 1935. Parsons' interest in the occult led in 1939 to him and Helen joining the Pasadena branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.).
At age 15, Northrup moved in with sister Helen and her husband Jack, while she finished high school. Parsons had subdivided the house, a rambling mansion next door to the estate of Adolphus Busch (which later became the first Busch Gardens), into 19 apartments which he populated with a mixture of artists, writers, scientists and occultists. Her parents not only knew about her unconventional living arrangements but supported Parsons' group financially.
Northrup joined the O.T.O. in 1941, at Parsons' urging, and was given the title of Soror [Sister] Cassap. She soon rose to the rank of a second degree member, or "Magician", of the O.T.O.
In June 1941, at the age of seventeen, she began a passionate affair with Parsons while her sister Helen was away on vacation. She made a striking impression on the other lodgers; George Pendle describes her as "feisty and untamed, proud and self-willed, she stood five foot nine, had a lithe body and blond hair, and was extremely candid." When Helen returned, she found Northrup wearing Helen's own clothes and calling herself Parsons' "new wife." Such conduct was expressly permitted by the O.T.O., which followed Crowley's disdain of marriage as a "detestable institution" and accepted as commonplace the swapping of wives and partners between O.T.O. members.
Although both were committed O.T.O. members, Northrup's usurpation of Helen's role led to conflict between the two sisters. The reactions of Parsons and Helen towards Northrup were markedly different. Parsons told Helen to her face that he preferred Northrup sexually: "This is a fact that I can do nothing about. I am better suited to her temperamentally – we get on well. Your character is superior. You are a greater person. I doubt that she would face what you have with me – or support me as well." Some years later, addressing himself as "You", Parsons told himself that his affair with Northrup (whom he called Betty) marked a key step in his growth as a practitioner of magick: "Betty served to affect a transference from Helen at a critical period ... Your passion for Betty also gave you the magical force needed at the time, and the act of adultery tinged with incest, served as your magical confirmation in the law of Thelema."
Helen was far less sanguine, writing in her diary of "the sore spot I carried where my heart should be", and had furious – sometimes violent – rows with both Parsons and Northrup. She began an affair with Wilfred Smith, Parsons' mentor in the O.T.O. and had a son in 1943 who bore Parsons' surname but who was almost certainly fathered by Smith. Northrup also became pregnant but had an abortion on April 1, 1943, arranged by Parsons and carried out by Dr. Zachary Taylor Malaby, a prominent Pasadena doctor and Democratic politician.
Northrup's hostility towards other members of the O.T.O. caused further tensions in the house, which Aleister Crowley heard about from communications from her housemates. He dubbed her "the alley-cat" after an unnamed mutual acquaintance told him that Parsons's attraction to her was like "a yellow pup bumming around with his snout glued to the rump of an alley-cat." Concluding that she was a vampire, which he defined as "an elemental or demon in the form of a woman" who sought to "lure the Candidate to his destruction," he warned that Northrup was a grave danger to Parsons and to the "Great Work" which the O.T.O. was carrying out in California.
Similar concerns were expressed by other O.T.O. members. The O.T.O.'s US head, Karl Germer, labeled her "an ordeal sent by the gods". Her disruptive behavior appalled Fred Gwynn, a new O.T.O. member living in the commune at 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue: "Betty went to almost fantastical lengths to disrupt the meetings [of the O.T.O.] that Jack did get together. If she could not break it up by making social engagements with key personnel she, and her gang, would go out to a bar and keep calling in asking for certain people to come to the telephone."
## Relationship with L. Ron Hubbard
In August 1945, Northrup met L. Ron Hubbard for the first time. He had visited 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue at the behest of Lou Goldstone, a well-known science fiction illustrator, while on leave from his service in the US Navy. Parsons took an immediate liking to Hubbard and invited him to stay in the house for the duration of his leave. Hubbard soon began an affair with Northrup after beginning "affairs with one girl after another in the house." He was a striking figure who habitually wore dark glasses and carried a cane with a silver handle, the need for which he attributed to his wartime service: as Northrup later put it, "He was not only a writer but he was the captain of a ship that had been downed in the Pacific and he was weeks on a raft and had been blinded by the sun and his back had been broken." She believed all of it, though none of his claims of wartime action or injuries was true.
Parsons was deeply dismayed but tried to put a brave face on the situation, informing Aleister Crowley:
> About three months ago I met Captain [sic] L. Ron Hubbard, a writer and explorer of whom I had known for some time ... He is a gentleman; he has red hair, green eyes, is honest and intelligent, and we have become great friends. He moved in with me about two months ago, and although Betty and I are still friendly, she has transferred her sexual affection to Ron.
> I think I have made a great gain and as Betty and I are the best of friends, there is little loss. I cared for her rather deeply but I have no desire to control her emotions, and I can, I hope, control my own. I need a magical partner. I have many experiments in mind.
Hubbard became Parsons' "magical partner" for a sex magic ritual that was intended to summon an incarnation of a goddess. Although they got on well as fellow occultists, tensions between the two men were apparent in more domestic settings. Hubbard and Northrup made no secret of their relationship; another lodger at Parsons' house described how he saw Hubbard "living off Parsons' largesse and making out with his girlfriend right in front of him. Sometimes when the two of them were sitting at the table together, the hostility was almost tangible." Despite the tensions between them, Hubbard, Northrup and Parsons agreed at the start of 1946 that they would go into business together, buying yachts on the East Coast and sailing them to California to sell at a profit. They set up a business partnership on January 15, 1946 under the name of "Allied Enterprises", with Parsons putting up \$20,000 of capital, Hubbard adding \$1,200 and Northrup contributing nothing. Hubbard and Northrup left for Florida towards the end of April, Hubbard taking with him \$10,000 drawn from the Allied Enterprises account to fund the purchase of the partnership's first yacht. Weeks passed without word from Hubbard. Louis Culling, another O.T.O. member, wrote to Karl Germer to explain the situation:
> As you may know by this time, Brother John signed a partnership agreement with this Ron and Betty whereby all money earned by the three for life is equally divided between the three. As far as I can ascertain, Brother John has put in all of his money ... Meanwhile, Ron and Betty have bought a boat for themselves in Miami for about \$10,000 and are living the life of Riley, while Brother John is living at Rock Bottom, and I mean Rock Bottom. It appears that originally they never secretly intended to bring this boat around to the California coast to sell at a profit, as they told Jack, but rather to have a good time on it on the east coast.
Germer informed Crowley, who wrote back to opine: "It seems to me on the information of our brethren in California that Parsons has got an illumination in which he has lost all his personal independence. From our brother's account he has given away both his girl and his money. Apparently it is the ordinary confidence trick."
Parsons initially attempted to obtain redress through magical means, carrying out a "Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram" to curse Hubbard and Northrup. He credited it with causing the couple to abort an attempt to evade him:
> Hubbard attempted to escape me by sailing at 5 P.M., and I performed a full evocation to Bartzabel [the spirit of Mars or War] within the circle at 8 P.M. At the same time, so far as I can check, his ship was struck by a sudden squall off the coast, which ripped off his sails and forced him back to port, where I took the boat in custody... Here I am in Miami pursuing the children of my folly; they cannot move without going to jail. However I am afraid that most of the money has already been dissipated.
Northrup later recalled that the boat had been caught in a hurricane in the Panama Canal, damaging it too badly to be able to continue the voyage to California. Parsons subsequently resorted to more conventional means of obtaining redress and sued the couple on July 1 in the Circuit Court for Dade County. His lawsuit accused Hubbard and Northrup of breaking the terms of their partnership, dissipating the assets and attempting to abscond. The case was settled out of court eleven days later, with Hubbard and Northrup agreeing to refund some of Parsons' money while keeping a yacht, the Harpoon, for themselves. The boat was soon sold to ease the couple's shortage of cash. Northrup was able to dissuade Parsons from pressing his case by threatening to expose their past relationship, which had begun when she was under the legal age of consent. Hubbard's relationship with Northrup, while legal, had already caused alarm among those who knew him; Virginia Heinlein, the wife of the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, regarded Hubbard as "a very sad case of post-war breakdown" and Northrup as his "latest Man-Eating Tigress".
Hubbard's financial troubles were reflected in his attempts to persuade the Veterans Administration to increase his pension award on the grounds of a variety of ailments which he said were preventing him finding a job. He persuaded Northrup to pose as an old friend writing in support of his appeals; in one letter, she claimed untruthfully to have "known Lafayette Ronald Hubbard for many years" and described his supposed pre-war state of health. His health and emotional difficulties were reflected in another, much more private, document which has been dubbed "The Affirmations". It is thought to have been written around 1946–7 as part of an attempted program of self-hypnotism. His sexual difficulties with Northrup, for which he was taking testosterone supplements, are a significant feature of the document. He wrote:
> Sara, my sweetheart, is young, beautiful, desirable. We are very gay companions. I please her physically until she weeps about any separation. I want her always. But I am 13 years older than she. She is heavily sexed. My libido is so low I hardly admire her naked.
Around the same time, Hubbard proposed marriage to Northrup. According to Northrup's later recollections she repeatedly refused him but relented after he threatened to kill himself. She told him: "All right, I'll marry you, if that's going to save you." They were married in the middle of the night of August 10, 1946 at Chestertown, Maryland after awakening a minister and roping in his wife and housekeeper to serve as witnesses. It was not until much later that Northrup discovered that Hubbard had never been divorced from his first wife, Margaret "Polly" Grubb; the marriage was bigamous. Ironically, the wedding took place only 30 miles from the town where Hubbard had married his first wife thirteen years previously. The wedding attracted criticism from L. Sprague de Camp, another science fiction colleague of Hubbard's, who suggested to the Heinleins that he supposed "Polly was tiresome about not giving him his divorce so he could marry six other gals who were all hot & moist over him. How many girls is a man entitled to in one lifetime, anyway? Maybe he should be reincarnated as a rabbit."
The couple moved repeatedly over the following year – first to Laguna Beach, California, then to Santa Catalina Island, California, New York City, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and ultimately to Hubbard's first wife's home at South Colby, Washington. Polly Hubbard had filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion and non-support, and was not even aware that Hubbard was living with Northrup, let alone that he had married her. The arrival of Hubbard and Northrup three weeks after the divorce was filed scandalized Hubbard's family, who deeply disapproved of his treatment of Polly. Northrup had no idea of Hubbard's first marriage or why people were treating her so strangely until his son L. Ron Hubbard Jr. told her that his parents were still married. She attempted to flee on a ferry but Hubbard caught up with her and convinced her to stay, saying that he was in the process of getting a divorce and that an attorney had told him that the marriage with Northrup was legal. The couple moved to a rented trailer in North Hollywood in July 1947, where Hubbard spent much of his time writing stories for pulp magazines.
The relationship was not an easy one. According to Northrup, Hubbard began beating her when they were in Florida in the summer of 1946. Her father had just died and her grief appeared to aggravate Hubbard, who was attempting to restart his pre-war career of writing pulp fiction. He was struggling with constant writer's block and leaned heavily on Northrup to provide plot ideas and even to help write some of his stories. She later recalled: "I would often entertain him with plots so he could write. I loved to make plots. The Ole Doc Methuselah series was done that way." One night while they were living beside a frozen lake in Stroudsburg, Hubbard hit her across the face with his .45 pistol. She recalled that "I got up and left the house in the night and walked on the ice of the lake because I was terrified." Despite her shock and humiliation, she felt compelled to return to Hubbard. He was severely depressed and repeatedly threatened suicide, and Northrup believed "he must be suffering or he wouldn't act that way".
After Hubbard was convicted of petty theft in San Luis Obispo in August 1948, the couple moved again to Savannah, Georgia. Hubbard told his friend Forrest J. Ackerman that he had acquired a Dictaphone machine which Northrup was "beating out her wits on" transcribing not only fiction but his book on the "cause and cure of nervous tension". This eventually became the first draft of Hubbard's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which marked the foundation of Dianetics and ultimately of Scientology.
## The Dianetics years
The final version of Dianetics was written at Bay Head, New Jersey in a cottage which the science fiction editor John W. Campbell had found for the Hubbards. Northrup, who was beginning a pregnancy, was said to have been delighted with the location. In three years of marriage to Hubbard, she had set up home in seven different states and had never stayed in one place for more than a few months. She gave birth on March 8, 1950 to a daughter, Alexis Valerie. A month later Northrup was made a director of the newly established Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey, an organization founded to disseminate knowledge of Dianetics. The Hubbards moved to a new house in Elizabeth to be near the Foundation. Northrup became Hubbard's personal auditor (Dianetic counselor) and was hailed by him as one of the first Dianetic "Clears".
Dianetics became an immediate bestseller when it was published in May 1950. Only two months later, over 55,000 copies had been sold and 500 Dianetics groups had been set up across the United States. The Dianetics Foundation was making a huge amount of money, but problems were already evident: money was pouring out as fast as it was coming in, due to lax financial management and Hubbard's own free spending. Northrup recalled that "he used to carry huge amounts of cash around in his pocket. I remember going past a Lincoln dealer and admiring one of those big Lincolns they had then. He walked right in there and bought it for me, cash!"
By October, the Foundation's financial affairs had reached a crisis point. According to his public relations assistant, Barbara Klowden, Hubbard became increasingly paranoid and authoritarian due to "political and organizational problems with people grabbing for power." He began an affair with the twenty-year-old Klowden, much to the annoyance of Northrup, who was clearly aware of the liaison. Klowden recalled that Northrup "was very hostile to me. We were talking about guns and she said to me that I was the type to use a Saturday night special" (a very cheap "junk gun"). One evening he arranged a double-date with his wife and Klowden, who was accompanied by Hollister, an instructor in the Los Angeles Dianetic Foundation. The dinner party backfired drastically; Northrup began an affair with Hollister, a handsome 22-year-old who was college-educated and a noted sportsman.
The marriage was in the process of breaking down rapidly. Northrup and Hubbard had frequent rows and his violent behaviour towards her continued unabated. On one occasion, while Northrup was pregnant, Hubbard kicked her several times in the stomach in an apparent – though unsuccessful – attempt to induce an abortion. She recalled that "with or without an argument, there'd be an upsurge of violence. The veins in his forehead would engorge" and he would hit her "out of the blue", breaking her eardrum in one attack. Despite this, she still "felt so guilty about the fact that he was so psychologically damaged. I felt as though he had given so much to our country and I couldn't even bring him peace of mind. I believed thoroughly that he was a man of great honor, had sacrificed his well being to the country ... It just never occurred to me he was a liar." He told her that he didn't want to be married "for I can buy my friends whenever I want them" but he could not divorce either, as the stigma would hurt his reputation. Instead, he said, if Northrup really loved him she should kill herself.
Klowden recalled later that "he was very down in the dumps about his wife. He told me how he had met Northrup. He said he went to a party and got drunk and when he woke up in the morning he found Northrup was in bed with him. He was having a lot of problems with her. I remember he said to me I was the only person he knew who would set up a white silk tent for him. I was rather surprised when we were driving back to LA on Sunday evening, he stopped at a florist to buy some flowers for his wife." In November 1950, Northrup attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills. Hubbard blamed Klowden for the suicide bid and told her to forget about him and the Foundation, but resumed the affair with her again within a month.
Hubbard attempted to patch up the marriage in January 1951 by inviting Northrup and baby Alexis to Palm Springs, California where he had rented a house. The situation soon became tense again; Richard de Mille, nephew of the famous director Cecil B. de Mille, recalled that "there was a lot of turmoil and dissension in the Foundation at the time; he kept accusing Communists of trying to take control and he was having difficulties with Northrup. It was clear their marriage was breaking up – she was very critical of him and he told me she was fooling around with Hollister and he didn't trust her." Hubbard enlisted de Mille and another Dianeticist, Dave Williams, in an attempt to convince her to stay with him. John Sanborne, who worked with Hubbard for many years, recalled:
> Earlier on (before the divorce) he made this stupid attempt to get Northrup brainwashed so she'd do what he said. He kept her sitting up in a chair, denying her sleep, trying to use Black Dianetic principles on her, repeating over and over again whatever he wanted her to do. Things like, "Be his wife, have a family that looks good, not have a divorce." Or whatever. He had Dick de Mille reciting this sort of thing day and night to her.
Northrup went to a psychiatrist to obtain advice about Hubbard's increasingly violent and irrational behaviour, and was told that he probably needed to be institutionalized and that she was in serious danger. She gave Hubbard an ultimatum: get treatment or she would leave with the baby. He was furious and threatened to kill Alexis rather than let Northrup care for her: "He didn't want her to be brought up by me because I was in league with the doctors. He thought I had thrown in with the psychiatrists, with the devils." She left Palm Springs on February 3, leaving Hubbard to complain that Northrup "had hypnotized him in his sleep and commanded him not to write."
## Kidnapped by Hubbard
Three weeks later, Hubbard abducted both Northrup and Alexis. On the night of February 24, 1951, Alexis was being looked after by John Sanborne while Northrup had a night at the movies. Hubbard turned up and took the child. A few hours later, he returned with two of his Dianetics Foundation staff and told Northrup, who was now back at her apartment: "We have Alexis and you'll never see her alive unless you come with us." She was bundled into the back of a car and driven to San Bernardino, California, where Hubbard attempted to find a doctor to examine his wife and declare her insane. His search was unsuccessful and he released her at Yuma Airport across the state line in Arizona. He promised that he would tell her where Alexis was if she signed a piece of paper saying that she had gone with him voluntarily. Northrup agreed but Hubbard reneged on the deal and flew to Chicago, where he found a psychologist who wrote a favorable report about his mental condition to refute Northrup's accusations. Rather than telling Northrup where Alexis was, he called her and said that "he had cut [Alexis] into little pieces and dropped the pieces in a river and that he had seen little arms and legs floating down the river and it was my fault, I'd done it because I'd left him."
Hubbard subsequently returned to the Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There he wrote a letter informing the FBI that Northrup and her lover Miles Hollister – whom he had fired from the Foundation's staff and, according to Hollister, had also threatened to kill – were among fifteen "known or suspected Communists" in his organization. He listed them as:
> SARA NORTHRUP (HUBBARD): formerly of 1003 S. Orange Grove Avenue, Pasadena, Calif. 25 yrs. of age, 5'10", 140 lbs. Currently missing somewhere in California. Suspected only. Had been friendly with many Communists. Currently intimate with them but evidently under coercion. Drug addiction set in fall 1950. Nothing of this known to me until a few weeks ago. Separation papers being filed and divorce applied for.
>
> MILES HOLLISTER: Somewhere in the vicinity of Los Angeles. Evidently a prime mover but very young. About 22 yrs, 6', 180 lbs. Black hair. Sharp chin, broad forehead, rather Slavic. Confessedly a member of the Young Communists. Center of most turbulence in our organization. Dissmissed [sic] in February when affiliations discovered. Active and dangerous. Commonly armed. Outspokenly disloyal to the U.S.
In another letter sent in March, Hubbard told the FBI that Northrup was a Communist and a drug addict, and offered a \$10,000 reward to anyone who could resolve Northrup's problems through the application of Dianetics techniques.
Northrup filed a kidnapping complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department on her return home but was rebuffed by the police, who dismissed the affair as a mere domestic dispute. After a fruitless six-week search she finally filed a writ of habeas corpus at the Los Angeles Superior Court in April 1951, demanding the return of Alexis. The dispute immediately became front-page news: the newspapers ran headlines such as "Cult Founder Accused of Tot Kidnap", "'Dianetic' Hubbard Accused of Plot to Kidnap Wife", and "Hiding of Baby Charged to Dianetics Author". Hubbard fled to Havana, Cuba, where he wrote a letter to Northrup:
> Dear Sara,
>
> I have been in the Cuban military hospital and I am being transferred to the United States next week as a classified scientist immune from interference of all kinds.
>
> Though I will be hospitalized probably a long time, Alexis is getting excellent care. I see her every day. She is all I have to live for.
>
> My wits never gave way under all you did and let them do but my body didn't stand up. My right side is paralyzed and getting more so. I hope my heart lasts. I may live a long time and again I may not. But Dianetics will last 10,000 years – for the Army and Navy have it now.
>
> My Will is all changed. Alexis will get a fortune unless she goes to you as she would then get nothing. Hope to see you once more. Goodbye – I love you.
>
> Ron.
In reality, Hubbard had made an unsuccessful request for assistance from the US military attaché to Havana. The attaché did not act on the request; having asked the FBI for background information, he was told that Hubbard had been interviewed but the "agent conducting interview considered Hubbard to be [a] mental case." On April 19, as Barbara Klowden recorded in her journal, Hubbard telephoned her from Wichita and told her "he was not legally married. His first wife had not obtained divorce until '47 and he was married in '46. According to him, Sara had served a stretch at Tahatchapie [sic] (in a desert woman's prison) and was a dope addict." A few days later – while still married to Northrup – he proposed marriage to Klowden.
## Divorce from Hubbard
Northrup filed for divorce on April 23, 1951, charging Hubbard with "extreme cruelty" causing her "great mental anguish and physical suffering". Her allegations produced more lurid headlines: not only was Hubbard accused of bigamy and kidnapping, but she had been subjected to "systematic torture, including loss of sleep, beatings, and strangulations and scientific experiments". Because of his "crazy misconduct" she was in "hourly fear of both the life of herself and of her infant daughter, who she has not seen for two months". She had consulted doctors who "concluded that said Hubbard was hopelessly insane, and, crazy, and that there was no hope for said Hubbard, or any reason for her to endure further; that competent medical advisers recommended that said Hubbard be committed to a private sanatorium for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia."
Her lawyer, Caryl Warner, also worked the media on her behalf so that Northrup's story received maximum publicity. He briefed the divorce court reporters for the Los Angeles Times and the Examiner, who were both women and early feminists, to ensure that "they knew what a bastard this guy Hubbard was." He later told Hubbard's unofficial biographer, Russell Miller:
> I liked Sara and Miles a lot. They eventually married and got a house in Malibu and we became friends; I remember they introduced me to pot. I believed Sara absolutely; there was no question about the truth in my opinion. When she first came to me with this wild story about how her husband had taken her baby I was determined to help her all I could. I telephoned Hubbard's lawyer in Elizabeth and warned him: "Listen, asshole, if you don't get that baby back I'm going to burn you."
The divorce writ prompted a deluge of bad publicity for Hubbard and elicited an unexpected letter to Northrup from his first wife, Polly, who wrote: "If I can help in any way I'd like to—You must get Alexis in your custody—Ron is not normal. I had hoped that you could straighten him out. Your charges sound fantastic to the average person—but I've been through it—the beatings, threats on my life, all the sadistic traits you charge—twelve years of it ... Please do believe I do so want to help you get Alexis."
In May 1951, Northrup filed a further complaint against Hubbard, accusing him of having fled to Cuba to evade the divorce papers that she was seeking to serve. By that time, however, he had moved to Wichita, Kansas. Northrup's attorney filed another petition asking for Hubbard's assets to be frozen as he had been found "hiding" in Wichita "but that he would probably leave town upon being detected". Hubbard wrote to the FBI to further denounce Northrup as a Communist secret agent. He accused Communists of destroying his business, ruining his health and withholding material of interest to the US Government. His misfortunes had been caused by "a woman known as Sara Elizabeth Northrup . . . whom I believed to be my wife, having married her and then, after some mix-up about a divorce, believed to be my wife in common law." He accused Northrup of having conspired in a bid to assassinate him and described how he had found love letters to his wife from Hollister, a "member of the Young Communists." Her real motive in filing for divorce, he said, was to seize control of Dianetics. He urged the FBI to start a "round-up" of "vermin Communists or ex-Communists", starting with Northrup, and declared:
> I believe this woman to be under heavy duress. She was born into a criminal atmosphere, her father having a criminal record. Her half-sister was an inmate of an insane asylum. She was part of a free love colony in Pasadena. She had attached herself to a Jack Parsons, the rocket expert, during the war and when she left him he was a wreck. Further, through Parsons, she was strangely intimate with many scientists of Los Alamo Gordos [Alamogordo in New Mexico was where the first atomic bomb was tested]. I did not know or realize these things until I myself investigated the matter. She may have a record . . . Perhaps in your criminal files or on the police blotter of Pasadena you will find Sara Elizabeth Northrop, age about 26, born April 8, 1925, about 5'9", blond-brown hair, slender . . . I have no revenge motive nor am I trying to angle this broader than it is. I believe she is under duress, that they have something on her and I believe that under a grilling she would talk and turn state's evidence.
Fortunately for Northrup – as it was the peak of the McCarthyite "Red Scare" – Hubbard's allegations were apparently ignored by the FBI, which filed his letter but took no further action. In June 1951, she finally secured the return of Alexis by agreeing to cancel her receivership action and divorce suit in California in return for a divorce "guaranteed by L. Ron Hubbard". She met him in Wichita to resolve the situation. He told her that she was "in a state of complete madness" due to being dictated to and hypnotized by Hollister and his "communist cell". Playing along, she told Hubbard that he was right and that the only way she could break free of their power was by going through with the divorce. He replied, "You know, I'm a public figure and you're nobody, so if you have to go through the divorce, I'll accuse you of desertion so it won't look so bad on my public record." She agreed to sign a statement, written by Hubbard himself, that retracted the allegations that she had made against him:
> I, Sara Northrup Hubbard, do hereby state that the things I have said about L. Ron Hubbard in courts and the public prints have been grossly exaggerated or entirely false.
>
> I have not at any time believed otherwise than that L. Ron Hubbard is a fine and brilliant man.
>
> I make this statement of my own free will for I have begun to realize that what I have done may have injured the science of Dianetics, which in my studied opinion may be the only hope of sanity in future generations.
>
> I was under enormous stress and my advisers insisted it was necessary for me to carry through an action as I have done.
>
> There is no other reason for this statement than my own wish to make atonement for the damage I may have done. In the future I wish to lead a quiet and orderly existence with my little girl far away from the enturbulating influences which have ruined my marriage.
>
> Sara Northrup Hubbard.
Interviewed more than 35 years later, Northrup stated that she had signed the statement because "I thought by doing so he would leave me and Alexis alone. It was horrible. I just wanted to be free of him!"
On June 12, Hubbard was awarded a divorce in the County Court of Sedgwick County, Kansas on the basis of Northrup's "gross neglect of duty and extreme cruelty", which had caused him "nervous breakdown and impairment to health." She did not give evidence but was awarded custody of Alexis and \$200 a month in child support. She left Wichita as soon as Alexis was returned to her. Her reunion with her daughter was uncertain to the last, as Hubbard had second thoughts about letting her go as he drove Northrup and Alexis to the local airport. She persuaded him that the compulsion instilled by the communists would be dissipated by going ahead with the flight: "Well, I have to follow their dictates. I'll just go to the airplane." She was so desperate to leave by the time she got to the airport that she left behind her daughter's clothes and her own suitcase and one of Alexis's shoes fell off as she dashed to the plane. "I just ran across the airfield, across the runways, to the airport and got on the plane. And it was the nineteenth of June and it was the happiest day of my life."
## Post divorce
After divorcing Hubbard, Northrup married Miles Hollister and bought a house in Malibu, California. Hubbard continued to develop Dianetics (and ultimately Scientology), through which he met his third and last wife, Mary Sue Whipp, in late 1951 – only a few months after his divorce. The controversy surrounding the divorce had severely dented his reputation.
Around the summer of 1951, he explained his flight to Cuba as being a bid to escape Northrup's depredations: "He talked a lot about Sara. When she ran off with another man Ron followed them and they locked him in a hotel room and pushed drugs up his nose, but he managed to escape and went to Cuba." He publicly portrayed his marital problems as being entirely the fault of Northrup and her lover Hollister:
> The money and glory inherent in Dianetics was entirely too much for those with whom I had the bad misfortune to associate myself ... including a woman who had represented herself as my wife and who had been cured of severe psychosis by Dianetics, but who, because of structural brain damage would evidently never be entirely sane. ... Fur coats, Lincoln cars and a young man without any concept of honor so far turned the head of the woman who had been associated with me that on discovery of her affairs, she and these others, hungry for money and power, sought to take over and control all of Dianetics.
Many years later, another of his followers, Virginia Downsborough, recalled that during the mid-1960s he "talked a lot about Sara Northrup and seemed to want to make sure that I knew he had never married her. I didn't know why it was so important to him; I'd never met Sara and I couldn't have cared less, but he wanted to persuade me that the marriage had never taken place. When he talked about his first wife, the picture he put out of himself was of this poor wounded fellow coming home from the war and being abandoned by his wife and family because he would be a drain on them." As Downsborough put it, he portrayed himself as "a constant victim of women".
The writer Christopher Evans has noted that "So painful do the memories of these incidents appear to be that L. Ron has more than once denied that he was ever married to Sarah [sic] Northrup at all." He notes as an example of "this apparent erasure of Sarah Northrup from his mind" a 1968 interview with the British broadcaster Granada Television, in which Hubbard denied that he had had a second wife in between his first, Polly, and the present one, Mary Sue:
> HUBBARD: "How many times have I been married? I've been married twice. And I'm very happily married just now. I have a lovely wife, and I have four children. My first wife is dead."
>
> INTERVIEWER: "What happened to your second wife?"
>
> HUBBARD: "I never had a second wife."
Granada's reporter commented: "What Hubbard said happens to be untrue. It's an unimportant detail but he's had three wives... What is important is that his followers were there as he lied, but no matter what the evidence they don't believe it." Hubbard also gave a new explanation of why he had been involved with Jack Parsons and the O.T.O. After the British Sunday Times newspaper published an exposé of Hubbard's membership of the O.T.O. in October 1969, the newspaper printed a statement attributed to the Church of Scientology (but written by Hubbard himself) that asserted:
> Hubbard broke up black magic in America... L. Ron Hubbard was still an officer of the US Navy because he was well known as a writer and a philosopher and had friends amongst the physicists, he was sent in to handle the situation. He went to live at the house and investigated the black magic rites and the general situation and found them very bad. Hubbard’s mission was successful far beyond anyone’s expectations. The house was torn down. Hubbard rescued a girl they were using. The black magic group was dispersed and destroyed and has never recovered.
Only a couple of months later, he highlighted Northrup to his staff as a participant in a "full complete covert operation" mounted against Dianetics and Scientology by a "Totalitarian Communistic" enemy. In a memo of December 2, 1969, he wrote that the operation had started with bad reviews of Dianetics, "pushed then by the Sara Komkovadamanov [sic] (alias Northrup) "divorce" actions ... At the back of it was Miles Hollister (psychology student) Sara Komkosadamanov [sic] (housekeeper at the place nuclear physicists stayed near Caltech) ..."
By 1970, Northrup and Hollister had moved to Maui, Hawaii. Northrup's daughter Alexis, who was by now twenty-one years old, attempted to contact her father but was rebuffed in a handwritten statement in which Hubbard denied that he was her father: "Your mother was with me as a secretary in Savannah in late 1948 . . . In July 1949 I was in Elizabeth, New Jersey, writing a movie. She turned up destitute and pregnant."
He said that Northrup had been a Nazi spy during the war and accused her and Hollister of using the divorce case to seize control of Dianetics: "They obtained considerable newspaper publicity, none of it true, and employed the highest priced divorce attorney in the US to sue me for divorce and get the foundation in Los Angeles in settlement. This proved a puzzle since where there is no legal marriage, there can't be any divorce."
Despite clearly being written by Hubbard, who spoke in the first person in the letter, it was signed "Your good friend, J. Edgar Hoover". Even his own staff were shocked by the contents of Hubbard's letter; he ended his instructions to them with the statement, "Decency is not a subject well understood".
Neither Northrup nor Alexis made any further attempt to contact Hubbard, who disinherited Alexis in his will, written in January 1986 on the day before he died. In June 1986 the Church of Scientology and Alexis agreed a financial settlement under which she was compelled not to write or speak on the subject of L. Ron Hubbard and her relationship to him. An attempt was made to have her sign an affidavit stating that she was in fact the daughter of L. Ron Hubbard's first son, her half-brother L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. In one publication the Church has airbrushed Northrup out of a photograph of the couple that appeared in the Miami Daily News issue of June 30, 1946. The news story which the photograph accompanied has been republished by the Church with all mention of Northrup edited out from the text.
The church continues to promulgate Hubbard's claims about their relationship. The writer Lawrence Wright was told in September 2010 by Tommy Davis, the then spokesman for the Church of Scientology, that Hubbard "was never married to Sara Northrup. She filed for divorce in an effort to try and create a false record that she had been married to him." She had been part of Jack Parsons' group because "she had been sent in there by the Russians. I can never pronounce her name. Her actual true name is a Russian name. That was one of the reasons L. Ron Hubbard never had a relationship with her. He never had a child with her. He wasn't married to her. But he did save her life and pull her out of that whole black magic ring."
Although Northrup did not speak out publicly against her ex-husband following their divorce, she broke her silence in 1972. She wrote privately to Paulette Cooper, the author of the book The Scandal of Scientology who was subsequently targeted by the Church's Operation Freakout. Northrup told Cooper that Hubbard was a dangerous lunatic, and that although her own life had been transformed when she left him, she was still afraid both of him and of his followers, whom she later described as looking "like Mormons, but with bad complexions."
In July 1986 she was interviewed by the ex-Scientologist Bent Corydon several months after Hubbard's death, which had reduced her fear of retaliation. Excerpts from the interview were published in Corydon's 1987 book, L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?.
She died of breast cancer in 1997 but in the last few months of her life she dictated a tape-recorded account of her relationship with Hubbard. It is now in the Stephen A. Kent Collection on Alternative Religions at the University of Alberta. Rejecting any suggestion that she was some kind of "pathetic person who has suffered through the years because of my time with Ron", Northrup spoke of her relief that she had been able to put it behind her. She stated that she was "not interested in revenge; I'm interested in the truth." |
6,195,150 | Egyptian–Libyan War | 1,168,446,772 | Short war between Libya and Egypt in 1977 | [
"1977 in Egypt",
"1977 in Libya",
"Anwar Sadat",
"Cold War in Africa",
"Conflicts in 1977",
"Egypt–Libya military relations",
"July 1977 events in Africa",
"Muammar Gaddafi",
"Republic of Egypt",
"Wars involving Egypt",
"Wars involving Libya"
]
| The Egyptian–Libyan War or the Four Day War (Arabic: حرب الأربعة أيام) was a short border war fought between Libya and Egypt that lasted from 21 to 24 July 1977. The conflict stemmed from a deterioration in relations that had occurred between the two states after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had rebuffed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's entreaties to unify their countries and had pursued a peace settlement with Israel in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Soon thereafter Libya began sponsoring dissidents and assassination plots to undermine Sadat, and Egypt responded in kind to weaken Gaddafi. In early 1976 Gaddafi dispatched troops to the Egyptian frontier where they began clashing with border guards. Sadat responded by moving many troops to the area, while the Egyptian General Staff drew up plans for an invasion to depose Gaddafi.
Clashes along the border intensified in July 1977. On 21 July a Libyan tank battalion raided the town of Sallum. The Egyptian forces ambushed it and subsequently launched a large counter-attack, conducting airstrikes against Gamal Abdel Nasser Airbase and sending a mechanised force 24 kilometres (15 mi) into Libyan territory before withdrawing. Over the next two days heavy artillery fire was exchanged across the border, while Egyptian jets and commandos raided Libyan locales. On 24 July the Egyptians launched a larger raid against Nasser Airbase and struck Libyan supply depots. Under significant pressure from the United States to end the attacks, and attempts from President of Algeria Houari Boumediène and Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat to mediate a solution, Sadat suddenly declared a ceasefire. Sporadic fighting occurred over the next few days as Egyptian troops withdrew across the border. Relations between the two countries remained tense, and, though a formal agreement was never reached, both upheld a truce and gradually withdrew their forces from the border. Gaddafi softened his rhetoric against Egypt in the following years, but actively rallied other Arab states to isolate the country.
## Background
In the 1970s Libya, led by Muammar Gaddafi, began a determined foreign policy of promoting Arab unity. He consulted Egyptian and Syrian leaders on taking steps towards that goal. When Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a leading proponent of Arab nationalism, died in September 1970, his successor, Anwar Sadat, took his place in the discussions. The negotiations culminated in the creation of the Federation of Arab Republics (FAR) in 1972, consisting of Libya, Egypt, and Syria. Though the FAR was instituted with broad goals for the consolidation of each country's militaries, laws, and foreign policies, only symbolic gestures of unity were ever adopted, such as the establishment of a common national flag. In the following months Gaddafi aggressively campaigned for immediate unity with Egypt, while Sadat's interest in unification steadily declined. Sadat also took a personal dislike to Gaddafi, finding him an annoying and unfit leader.
One of Gaddafi's major foreign policy goals, shared by many in the Arab world, was the elimination of Israel. He hoped that the combined power of Libya's finances, backed by a profitable oil-based economy, and Egypt's large population and military strength, could be used to destroy Israel. In October 1973 Egypt and Syria, without consulting Libya, launched a co-ordinated attack on Israel, initiating the Yom Kippur War. Though an Israeli counter-attack eliminated Egyptian territorial gains in the early stages of the war, Sadat agreed to open negotiations with Israel, seeking the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for a guarantee to not engage in further attacks on the country. Gaddafi was angered by the war's limited objectives and the ceasefire, and accused Sadat of cowardice, undermining the FAR, and betraying the Arab cause. Sadat responded by revealing he had intervened earlier that year to prevent Libya from sinking a civilian passenger ship carrying Jewish tourists in the Mediterranean Sea. Thereafter Egyptian–Libyan relations were marked by frequent accusations against each country's leaders, and further discussions regarding the pursuit of unity were abandoned.
## Prelude
Unnerved by Sadat's peace policy, Gaddafi sought to increase Libya's role in Middle Eastern affairs. Bolstered by strong oil revenues, he began acquiring a significant amount of weapons from the Soviet Union. He also sponsored Egyptian dissidents such as the Muslim Brotherhood, armed Egyptian insurgents, and made plans to assassinate Sadat. The Egyptian President responded by supporting subversion in Libya—including the possible extensions of encouragement to plots to assassinate Gaddafi—and backing anti-Libyan groups in neighbouring Chad. In February 1974 Sadat told United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to encourage Israel to refrain from attacking Egypt in the event it went to war with Libya. In early 1976 Gaddafi deployed Libyan troops along the Egyptian border, where they began clashing with Egyptian border guards. In the summer Sadat decided to take military action against Libya's provocations, moving two mechanised divisions—totaling 25,000–35,000 troops—to the border and transferring 80 combat aircraft to Marsa Matruh Airbase, Egypt's westernmost airfield. Alarmed by this sudden escalation, Gaddafi dispatched an additional 3,000–5,000 troops and 150 tanks to the border. On 22 July Gaddafi ordered Egypt to close its consulate in Benghazi. For a time the situation remained tense as it appeared Egypt would invade Libya, but after several weeks of no major action by the Egyptians it appeared to the Libyans that there would be no attack.
Most observers at the time argued that Sadat did not order an invasion because it would stress Egypt's faltering economy and distance it from the Soviet Union and the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, which were already displeased with his policy towards Israel and overtures to the United States. Diplomatic sources have posited that Sadat was determined to occupy the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and depose Gaddafi. Egyptian sources also reported that Sadat wished to demonstrate to the Soviet Union that Egypt was stronger than Libya, and that its government should not abandon good relations with Egypt in favour of Libya. American intelligence analyst Kenneth M. Pollack concluded that the reason Egypt did not attack Libya at the time was because its army was unprepared; Egyptian forces had never rehearsed an invasion of Libya, and lacked the infrastructure and logistics in the Western Desert to support such an operation. Nevertheless, the Egyptian General Staff made plans for an attack. Egyptian Minister of War Mohamed Abdel Ghani el-Gamasy stated that the Egyptian Army was preparing for conflict in the west, while Egyptian media declared that Gaddafi was planning to annex the Western Desert with aid from Cuba.
Gaddafi increased his political pressure on Egypt, while the Egyptians continued to stockpile supplies and concentrate forces along the border. In May 1977 the Soviets told Libya and other Arab countries that they had evidence that Egypt was planning to launch an invasion. The Libyans ignored the warning and left most of their units at low levels of readiness, despite continuing to engage in border clashes with Egyptian forces. By the early summer Egypt had completed its preparations for war. The Egyptian Air Force transferred Su-20 and Su-7 fighter-bombers of the No. 55 Squadron and Mirage 5 strike aircraft of the No. 69 Squadron to Marsa Matruh Airbase and nearby installations in anticipation of conflict. Significant clashes occurred on 12 and 16 July, and on 19 July Libyan forces engaged in a drawn-out firefight with the Egyptians while conducting a raid. The Egyptian government reported that nine of its soldiers were killed. Gaddafi organised a group of civilians to march from Libya to Cairo, the Egyptian capital, to protest Sadat's policy towards Israel in the hopes that they would be well received by the population. After Egyptian border guards halted the demonstration at the frontier, Gaddafi ordered his forces to raid the Egyptian town of Sallum.
## Opposing forces
By early July 1977, the two Egyptian Army divisions deployed to the border had been raised to full strength and were dug in. They were bolstered by several commando battalions and support units, while a third division stationed near Cairo and other commandos were ready to relocate on short notice. A total of over 40,000 troops were deployed to the border during the war. Having participated in the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian forces also had a fair amount of combat experience, maintained a high level of professionalism, and were led by a skilled group of generals. However, morale among the soldiers was mixed, as some had reservations about fighting a fellow Arab nation over what seemed to be a dispute related to peace with Israel, a former enemy. The Egyptian forces also struggled with a lack of skilled personnel to maintain their equipment.
Libyan forces were largely at a disadvantage. The entire Libyan Army consisted of only 32,000 troops and, of these, only about 5,000 were assembled in three brigade-sized formations to combat the Egyptians along the border. Libya also had a dearth of skilled personnel; in 1977, the military only had about 200–300 trained tank crews and at most 150 qualified pilots. Maintenance of equipment was minimal and units typically managed only a 50 percent operational readiness level or less. The Libyan Arab Republic Air Force (LARAF), led by Colonel Mahdi Saleh al-Firjani, possessed over 100 Mirages and MiG-23 fighter aircraft each, but technical problems grounded the latter. Gaddafi had also politicised the army by frequently shuffling commands and making appointments based on personal loyalty and thus the military lacked professionalism. Nevertheless, Libyan morale was high, as they believed they were facing an enemy that had betrayed the Arab world by seeking peace with Israel.
## Course of the war
On 21 July 1977 the Libyan 9th Tank Battalion carried out a raid on Sallum. The unit was ambushed in the town and subjected to a well-planned counter-attack by at least one Egyptian mechanised division, which inflicted 50 percent casualties on the 9th Tank Battalion before it retreated. The Libyan Army requested air support, and a few Mirages of the LARAF's No. 1002 Squadron bombed Sallum and nearby settlements, causing minimal damage. The Egyptians claimed to have shot down two of them with anti-aircraft fire, reportedly destroying one with SA-7 man-portable air-defence systems. Several hours later the Egyptians initiated a large counter-offensive. Four Egyptian Mirages and eight Su-7s, led by Colonel Adil Nassr and covered by four MiG-21 fighters, flew out of Marsa Matruh and raided the Gamal Abdel Nasser Airbase at Al Adm, which served as the primary interceptor airbase in eastern Libya. The Libyans were caught off guard, and many of their Mirages and MiGs were stationary and exposed at the base. Western sources reported that the air raid had little effect. According to Pollack, the Egyptian airstrikes caused little damage to aircraft, though they struck a few radars. The Egyptians claimed that they had damaged seven planes. Military historians Tom Cooper and Albert Grandolini wrote that Libyan pilots reported the raid to be "highly effective". One Egyptian Su-7 was shot down and its pilot was captured. He was later presented as a captive on television. Other Egyptian jets attacked radar stations at Bardia and Jaghbub.
A substantial Egyptian mechanised force—possibly as large as two divisions—advanced into Libya along the coast towards the town of Musaid. Aside from a few tank clashes, the Libyans retreated in face of the incursion. After advancing 24 kilometres (15 mi) into Libya, the Egyptians withdrew over the border. The Libyans lost a total of 60 tanks and armoured personnel carriers in the fighting.
Over the next two days the Libyans and the Egyptians exchanged heavy artillery fire over the border to minimal effect. Egyptian forces rallied in Sallum, and were subject to 16 low-level raids from the LARAF on the morning of 22 July. The Egyptians claimed to have shot down two fighter jets, though the Libyans attributed these losses to accidents, claiming one of their aircraft crashed while on a reconnaissance mission and that another was destroyed by their own anti-aircraft fire. During this time the Egyptian Air Force raided several Libyan towns and military installations, including the Kufra Airbase. The Egyptians also dispatched three squadrons of MiGs and Su-20s to attack Nasser Airbase. The Libyan aircraft were still left exposed at the base, but the Egyptians only caused light damage to them, as well as some radars and buildings. Nevertheless, the LARAF ceased to operate from the installation for the rest of the day. Egyptian jets also displayed their air superiority by making low passes over Libyan villages. Though the planes did not open fire, this reportedly instigated the flight of thousands of civilians towards Benghazi. With Nasser Airbase temporarily inoperative, 12 Egyptian commando battalions launched helicopter-borne attacks against Libyan radars, military installations, and Egyptian anti-Sadat insurgent camps located along the border as well as in the Kufrah Oasis, Al Jaghbub Oasis, Al Adm, and Tobruk. On the morning of 23 July, the LARAF launched attacks against Egypt, its Mirages flying low over the Mediterranean Sea before turning south to assault Marsa Matruh Airbase and other installations. They were accompanied by Mil Mi-8 helicopters, which were equipped for electronic warfare. Though the helicopters disrupted Egyptian Air Defence Command's communications, Egyptian MiG-21s conducted near-constant patrols to mitigate the effectiveness of the LARAF. Egypt claimed that it destroyed four Mirages.
On 24 July Libya mobilised its reserves. Meanwhile, the Egyptians initiated a large assault on Nasser Airbase, where the Libyans had still not moved their aircraft into cover. The Egyptian jets attacked in tandem with commandos in helicopters. They managed to demolish several early-warning radar systems, damage some surface-to-air missile sites, crater the airstrip, and destroy a few armoured vehicles and 6–12 Mirages. Libyan anti-aircraft fire shot down two Su-20s. Commando attacks on Libyan logistics depots at Al Adm and Jaghbub caused significant damage, though a raid by Egyptian jets on Kufra Airbase had little effect. Late in the day, while fighting was still going on in Jaghbub, Sadat declared a ceasefire. Minor actions occurred over the next two days while Egyptian forces withdrew to their country. Over the course of the war the Libyans lost 30 tanks, 40 armoured personnel carriers, as well as 400 casualties. In addition to this, 12 Libyan soldiers were captured. Pollack stated that the LARAF lost 10–20 Mirages. Cooper and Grandolini wrote that the force lost six Mirages and as many as 20 Soko G-2 Galebs and Jastrebs. Most Libyan military installations east of Tobruk were damaged to varying extents. The Egyptians suffered at most the loss of four aircraft and 100 casualties, as well as a number of soldiers captured. According to Arab diplomats, three Soviet military technicians who were assisting the Libyans in operating their radars were incidentally killed in the airstrikes, though they were not participating in the conflict. While the fighting was going on, an Egyptian military spokesperson told the press that "our forces were careful not to harm Libyan civilians." According to journalist Mayada El Gohary, no Libyan civilians were killed during the war.
## Aftermath
### Truce
Libya and Egypt both portrayed the outcome as a victory for themselves. They never reached a formal peace agreement after the war, but ceased combat operations and upheld a truce. Tensions nevertheless remained high, with Sadat and Gaddafi trading insults in the days following the conflict. Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Munim Huny wrote a letter to the United Nations Security Council, alleging that the Egyptians had destroyed schools and hospitals, caused significant damage to five towns, and inflicted "a great loss of life among innocent civilians". The Security Council declined to discuss the matter. The Libyan government also accused the United States of sharing combat intelligence with Egypt. On 24 August Egypt and Libya exchanged prisoners. Large concentrations of troops remained stationed along the border in the immediate aftermath of the conflict, but these were eventually withdrawn, as the lack of infrastructure in the area made long-term deployments of significant forces difficult.
International media was barred from the combat zone during the war, making independent confirmation about details of the conflict difficult. Observers were surprised by Sadat's sudden declaration of a ceasefire, as Egyptian officials had been telling diplomats that Sadat intended on invading Libya and deposing Gaddafi. Over the course of the border war the Palestinian Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat flew between Tripoli and Cairo in an attempt to mediate its resolution. Two Libyan military officers accompanied Arafat to Egypt to attempt to reach a solution. Shortly before the end of fighting the President of Algeria, Houari Boumediène, also intervened to mediate, and the government of Kuwait announced it would assist. However, several diplomatic sources reported that the United States government had encouraged Sadat to end the conflict. Taking into account Egyptian failures during the Yom Kippur War and the lack of infrastructure in the Western Desert, American officials believed that the Egyptians could not sustain an invasion of Libya and would thus be forced to withdraw in humiliation. The Americans believed this would damage Sadat's reputation, thus undermining his political clout or even possibly leading to his downfall. Since the United States deemed him to be of key importance in Egypt achieving peace with Israel, its ally, they pressed him to end the fighting. They also feared that the Soviets would intervene in favor of Libya.
### Effects of the war
According to The New Arab, the Four Day War initiated a new era of conflict in the Middle East characterised by fighting between Arab states instead of combat between them and Israel. The war disrupted the cross-border trade and smuggling activities of the Bedouins, a nomadic people who resided in both countries. Thousands of Egyptians residing in Libya and employed in the civil service, oil industry, agriculture, commerce, and education subsequently left the country, upsetting the economy and hampering public services. Many mines laid in Libya during the war remained there as late as 2006. Many observers in Arab states were concerned by the clash, feeling that it was advantageous to Israel. To Gaddafi, the war proved that Sadat was serious about countering Libyan influence in Egypt. Realising that he could not challenge Egypt's armed forces, the Libyan leader decreased his military pressure on the country. Upset with the LARAF's performance during the conflict, he dismissed al-Firjani and replaced him with an officer who immediately set about modernising the force. Despite Libya's substantial human and materiel losses during the war, the appearance that Libya's smaller army had held back an Egyptian offensive boosted the military's morale and Gaddafi's domestic political standing. To Sadat and his military commanders, the conflict revealed that Libya had amassed a substantial arsenal of materiel which had the potential to disrupt regional balances of power.
Meanwhile, Sadat continued to pursue negotiations with Israel to the chagrin of Libya and other Arab countries. Israeli officials feared that the Libyans would initiate a second war to oust Sadat, thus dooming the prospects of peace with Egypt. Relations between Libya and Egypt declined further after Sadat travelled to Jerusalem in November 1977. Nevertheless, Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1978, returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian control. Egypt promptly moved forces to its western border, and Libya responded by drawing its forces back to avoid another confrontation. Gaddafi softened his rhetoric against Egypt in the following years, but actively rallied other Arab states to isolate the country and deprecate the policies of Sadat and his successor, Hosni Mubarak. |
14,419,702 | Wehrmachtbericht | 1,167,371,494 | Propaganda report about the German military situation during World War II | [
"German words and phrases",
"Mass media of Nazi Germany",
"Military history of Germany during World War II",
"Nazi propaganda",
"Radio during World War II",
"Wehrmacht"
]
| Wehrmachtbericht (literally: "Armed forces report", usually translated as Wehrmacht communiqué or Wehrmacht report) was the daily Wehrmacht High Command mass-media communiqué and a key component of Nazi propaganda during World War II. Produced by the Propaganda Department of the OKW (Wehrmacht Propaganda Troops), it covered Germany's military situation and was broadcast daily on the Reich Broadcasting Corporation of Nazi Germany. All broadcasts were authorized by the Reich Ministry of Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels. Despite the latter's attempts to temper excessive optimism, they often exaggerated the success of the German armed forces, the Wehrmacht, leading historian Aristotle Kallis to describe their tone as "triumphalist".
Both civilian and military authorities considered the Wehrmachtbericht to be a vital instrument of German home-front mobilisation, the civilian contribution to the German war effort, especially after the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad. According to historians Wolfram Wette and Daniel Uziel, the final 9 May 1945 communiqué laid the foundation for the myth of the clean Wehrmacht, the notion that the Wehrmacht had fought honourably and was not implicated in the crimes of the Nazi regime, for which (according to the myth) only the SS bore responsibility.
## Production
During World War II, the Wehrmacht communiqué (Wehrmachtbericht ) was the official news communication medium about the military situation of the Reich, and was intended for both domestic and foreign consumption. The communiqué was produced by a special propaganda department attached to the Wehrmacht Chief of Operation Staff, general Alfred Jodl, in the Wehrmacht High Command (the OKW). Commanded by general Hasso von Wedel, the department oversaw the growing number of propaganda companies of the Wehrmacht Propaganda Troops (Wehrmachtpropaganda), the propaganda wing of the Wehrmacht (in the army, the air force and the navy) and the Waffen-SS. At its peak in 1942, the propaganda troops included 15,000 men.
The planning for propaganda activities by the Wehrmacht began in 1938. Joseph Goebbels, the head of Ministry of Propaganda, sought to establish effective cooperation with the Wehrmacht to ensure a smooth flow of propaganda materials from the front. He deferred to the military in setting up and controlling the propaganda companies, but provided assistance in supplying personnel.
These troops, who were trained soldiers, were responsible for preparing the combat reports to be used as source material for the OKW communiqués. The propaganda companies were the only news-reporting units in areas of military operation, as civilian news correspondents were prohibited from entering combat zones. The troops produced the written, audio and film materials from the front and sent them to a processing center in Germany, where they were reviewed by censors, mostly for security purposes. The filtered materials were then forwarded to the Ministry of Propaganda for immediate dissemination.
All Wehrmachtbericht broadcasts were authorized by Goebbels's ministry as the controlling institution of the German media. A Ministry of Propaganda official attended daily Wehrmacht conferences, where the initial versions of the communiqué were provided to state and party officials. Goebbels's day at the ministry began with his adjutant reading out the text of the communiqués to him. While Goebbels did not have a final say in what went into the communiqués, he made sure that officials from his ministry worked closely with the Wehrmacht Propaganda Department.
The first communiqué aired with the start of World War II on 1 September 1939 and the last one was issued on 9 May 1945. The communiqués were broadcast daily on the Reich Broadcasting Corporation and published in the press. From 12 May 1940 onwards, Major of the OKW Propaganda Department was given the task of adding commentary to them, both on the radio (21:00 to 21:15) and in the press. The commentaries were aimed at the civilian audience, and were written in layman's language so that the population could easily grasp the daily military developments. The communiqués were read twice, the first at a normal speed, and a second time more slowly, to enable them to be transcribed by listeners.
## Service record by campaign
### Operation Barbarossa
In the summer of 1941, during Operation Barbarossa, the communiqués created an image of uninterrupted successful advances by Germany deep into the Soviet territory, with historian Aristotle Kallis describing the tone of the early Wehrmacht reports as "triumphalist". As the operation progressed, however, it was more and more difficult to sustain the illusion of a swift and decisive victory. The subsequent reports were at times in stark contrast with the deteriorating situation on the ground, which was noted by the German troops. After the Soviet Yelnya Offensive east of Smolensk in early September 1941, a German infantryman wrote:
> Officially it was called a "planned withdrawal" (...). But to me it was so much bullshit. The next day, we heard on the radio, in the 'news from the front' (Wehrmachtbericht) about the "successful front correction" in our Yelnya defensive lines and the enormous losses we inflicted on the enemy. But no single word was heard about a retreat, about the hopelessness of the situation, about the mental and emotional numbness of the German soldiers. In short, it was again a "victory". But we on the front line were running back like rabbits in front of the fox. This metamorphosis of the truth from "all shit" to "it was a victory" baffled me, and those of my comrades who dared to think.
Starting in August 1941, when it became clear to some in the Propaganda Ministry and the Wehrmacht high command that the war would likely extend into 1942, Goebbels grew increasingly concerned about the triumphant tone of the communiques. However, a string of spectacular victories in September, especially in the Battle of Kiev, removed any restraint from the texts, making propagandists's work more difficult later on, when they had to explain the Wehrmacht's failures to the German public which was rapidly losing confidence in a swift victory.
Because of the competing goals, approaches and chains of command, along with the chaotic nature of the regime itself, the propaganda materials produced by Goebbels's ministry, the OKW and Hitler's press chief, Otto Dietrich, did not always agree in tone or assessment of the situation. After the assault on Moscow, Operation Typhoon, began on 2 October 1941, Goebbels described in his diary the "excessive optimism" that was developing in the population after the announcements about the initial rapid advance of the German forces. Concerned about an "almost illusionistic" mood, he instructed the press to adopt a more cautious approach and spoke to Jodl about tempering down the tone of the Wehrmacht communiqués. Nonetheless, the broadcast on 16 October announced that the first defensive line in front of Moscow had been broken, being still "too optimistic" for Goebbels.
### The Battle of Stalingrad
The Wehrmachtbericht communiqués around the 1942 summer campaign and the defeat of the German army in the Battle of Stalingrad provide another case study on their effects on Germany's population and the evolution of the propaganda efforts themselves. In August 1942, the name "Stalingrad" was featured prominently in the communiqués even before the Wehrmacht reached the outskirts of the city. The communiqués were factual and restrained; nevertheless, Goebbels issued instructions to the German press to exercise "cautious optimism" so as not to set expectations too high among the population.
The Soviet counter-offensive, Operation Uranus, broke the thinly-held German flanks on 19 November; by 22 November, the encirclement of the 6th Army was complete. The concern of the propaganda organisations, both military and civilian, was how to present this military disaster to the public. Initially, every effort was made to hide the true scope of the events from the population. The communiqués published between 19 and 24 November merely mentioned the Soviet attack in the southern sector of the East front, not addressing the extent of Wehrmacht's difficulties.
From 24 November onward, the Wehrmacht communiqués began acknowledging the Soviet breakthrough and described "heavy fighting", but provided no references to the encirclement. The reports by the SD, the security and intelligence service of the SS, indicated that the 24 November report caused alarm among the population. There were periods where the OKW dispatches did not mention Stalingrad at all. Wild rumors describing 100,000 German troops trapped at Stalingrad were beginning to circulate, as some Germans were able to get the news from foreign radio.
On 16 January 1943, the dispatch finally mentioned that the 6th Army was fighting the enemy "on all sides", thus acknowledging the encirclement, but little was said about the situation in subsequent reports. Meanwhile, Goebbels was working behind the scenes to advance his program of mobilisation of the population for the "total war", using the impending defeat at Stalingrad as a rallying cry. Getting the go-ahead from Hitler, Goebbels launched the effort in the late winter of 1943. The state propaganda after that focused on the home-front mobilization, the civilian contribution to the German war effort, with this message continuing through the rest of the war.
## Impact
Despite occasional mis-alignment of messages, with the tone of the Wehrmacht communiqués being too exuberant for Goebbels, a self-described "realist", the relations between the military and civilian propaganda organizations proved successful throughout the war. Friction was low, even though several apologetic postwar publications, such as an account provided by Wedel, described the relations between them as problematic. Both Goebbels and Jodl considered the Wehrmachtbericht a vital instrument of the German home-front mobilization, especially after the defeat at Stalingrad.
From the onset, according to historian Daniel Uziel, the Nazi propaganda machine regarded the Wehrmacht communiqués as "possessing a future value, besides the immediate use as news delivery medium". Along with all the other propaganda materials produced by the Wehrmacht, the underlying message was the supposed "superiority of the German warrior's spirit and character". The final broadcast, issued by the Dönitz Government, aired on 9 May 1945 and read in part:
> Since midnight the weapons on all the fronts are silent. By the order of the Grand Admiral Dönitz, the Wehrmacht ceased its hopeless fighting. With this, a nearly 6-year heroic struggle has ended. It brought us great victories but also heavy defeats. The Wehrmacht has been honorably defeated by superior forces. The German soldier, in accordance with his oath, has given his unforgettable effort to his people. Till the end the homeland supported him with all its strength, under the heaviest sacrifices. The singular performance of the front and Fatherland shall receive its final honor in the later, fair judgement. The achievements and sacrifices of German soldiers at sea, on the land and in the air has not escaped the notice of our enemy. Therefore, every soldier can hold his head high, and proudly lay his weapon down. He can start to work bravely and confidently the bitterest hour of our history, for the eternal life of our people.
Those words were intended for public consumption by the now-defeated nation. According to Uziel, in this final radio address, the Wehrmacht propagandists hoped to set the frame of reference for the entire war effort of 1939–45. In this they were successful; the last communiqué helped lay the foundation for the legend of the "clean Wehrmacht", the notion that Wehrmacht had fought honourably and professionally, and was not in any way implicated in the crimes of the Nazi regime, for which (according to the myth) the SS bore sole responsibility. This assessment is echoed by historian Wolfram Wette in his 2006 work The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality.
## Named reference
According to the historian Felix Römer, the named reference in the Wehrmachtbericht (Namentliche Nennung im Wehrmachtsbericht), was an award, among other military decorations. As an award, the named reference in the Wehrmachtbericht was based on the Walther von Brauchitsch decree of 27 April 1940 which was published in the Heeres-Verordnungsblatt (Army Ordinance Gazette) on 6 May 1940.
## See also
- Nazi propaganda
- Signal, a magazine published by the Wehrmacht
- Themes in Nazi propaganda
- Waffen-SS in popular culture |
44,046,673 | 1917 Georgia Tech Golden Tornado football team | 1,158,819,244 | American college football season | [
"1917 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football season",
"1917 in sports in Georgia (U.S. state)",
"College football national champions",
"College football undefeated seasons",
"Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football seasons"
]
| The 1917 Georgia Tech Golden Tornado football team represented the Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly known as Georgia Tech) in American football during the 1917 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football season. The Golden Tornado, coached by John Heisman in his 14th year as head coach, compiled a 9–0 record (4–0 SIAA) and outscored opponents 491 to 17 on the way to its first national championship. Heisman considered the 1917 team his best, and for many years it was considered "the greatest football team the South had ever produced". The team was later named national champion by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, and National Championship Foundation.
The backfield of Albert Hill, Everett Strupper, Joe Guyon, and Judy Harlan led the Golden Tornado, and all four rushed for more than 100 yards in a 48–0 victory over Tulane. During the regular season Georgia Tech defeated strong opponents by large margins, and its 41–0 victory over eastern power Penn shocked many. Davidson, with Buck Flowers (a future Tech star), was defeated 32–10. Tech's 83–0 victory over Vanderbilt is the worst loss in Vanderbilt history, and its 63–0 defeat of Washington and Lee was the worst loss in W&L history at the time. Tech finished the season by defeating Auburn 68–7, clinching the conference title. Davidson and Auburn were the only teams to score points against Georgia Tech.
## Before the season
Because of the American entry into World War I in April, several SIAA schools did not field football teams. However, Georgia Tech had an increasing enrollment and bright prospects for its football team after its undefeated 1916 season. Losses from the previous season's team included guard Bob Lang and fullback Tommy Spence.
In 1917 football used a one-platoon system, in which players played both offense and defense. Fifteen of the 21 players on the 1917 roster were from the state of Georgia, and 10 of its 11 starters came from Georgia high schools. The team's captain was tackle Walker "Big Six" Carpenter. Its renowned backfield consisted of quarterback Al Hill, halfback Everett Strupper, halfback Joe Guyon, and freshman fullback Judy Harlan.
Coach John Heisman's swift backfield used the pre-snap movement of his "jump shift" offense, and Al Hill led the team in carries. Ev Strupper, arguably the best of the four, was partially deaf; because of his deafness, he called the signals instead of the team's quarterback. When "Strupe" tried out for the team, he noticed that the quarterback shouted the signals every time he was to carry the ball. Realizing that the loud signals would be a tip-off to the opposition, Strupper told Heisman: "Coach, those loud signals are absolutely unnecessary. You see when sickness in my kid days brought on this deafness my folks gave me the best instructors obtainable to teach me lip-reading." Heisman recalled how Strupper overcame his deafness: "He couldn't hear anything but a regular shout. But he could read your lips like a flash. No lad that ever stepped on a football field had keener eyes than Everett had. The enemy found this out the minute he began looking for openings through which to run the ball."
Joe Guyon, the team's best passer, was a Chippewa Indian who was born on the White Earth Indian Reservation; his brother, Charles "Wahoo" Guyon, was the assistant coach. Guyon had played for Pop Warner at Carlisle, and had to sit out the 1916 season in accordance with conference transfer rules. He ran through (and over) opponents, in contrast to Strupper's dodging style. Judy Harlan said about Guyon, "Once in a while the Indian would come out in Joe, such as the nights Heisman gave us a white football and had us working out under the lights. That's when Guyon would give out the blood curdling war whoops."
## Schedule
## Game summaries
### Week 1: Furman and Wake Forest
- Sources:
The Golden Tornado opened its season on September 29 with a doubleheader in three inches of mud.
#### Furman
In the first game Georgia Tech defeated Furman 25–0, playing mainly substitutes. Hay was spread on the field in an attempt to counteract the steady downpour. Tech quarterback Al Hill scored two touchdowns, and Dan Whelchel (called Walthall) scored a third when he recovered a fumble by Theodore Shaver after crossing the goal line. Although Furman's lineup included future South Carolina Hall-of-Famer Speedy Speer, there was little Speer could do to affect the outcome. Tech's starting lineup was Ulrich (left end), Higgins (left tackle), Whelchel (left guard), Johnson (center), Wright (right guard), Doyle (right tackle), Colcord (right end), Hill (quarterback), Smith (left halfback), Shaver (right halfback), and Harlan (fullback).
#### Wake Forest
- Sources:
After the Furman game, the rain subsided and Tech defeated the Wake Forest Baptists 33–0. Ev Strupper and Joe Guyon had sat out the previous game. The first touchdown was on the play after Strupper dashed around end for a 17-yard gain; Guyon's first carry from scrimmage for Tech was a 75-yard run.
Strupper scored the second touchdown on a short drive set up by his 40-yard punt return. Early in the second quarter, Strupper shot through the line for 70 yards and the third touchdown. Tech's fourth touchdown required considerable effort and a methodical drive, ending in a 15-yard dive for a touchdown by Strupper. End runs by Guyon and Simpson's line plunging set up the fifth (and final) touchdown with Guyon's 6-yard run. Strupper ran for 198 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries. Tech's starting lineup was Bell (left end), Fincher (left tackle), Thweatt (left guard), Phillips (center), Dowling (right guard), Rogers (right tackle), Carpenter (right end), Hill (quarterback), Strupper (left halfback), Guyon (right halfback), and Armsley (fullback).
### Week 2: Penn
- Sources:
In the second week of play, Georgia Tech beat Penn 41–0. Bernie McCarty called it "Strupper's finest hour, coming through against powerful Penn in the contest that shocked the East." In comparison, Pop Warner's undefeated Pittsburgh defeated Penn 14–6. Penn was the first northeastern powerhouse to lose to a team from the South. Both Strupper and Hill rushed for more than 100 yards. Tech outgained Penn 276 yards to 11 at halftime. According to the Florida Times-Union, "The result ... demonstrates that the large Eastern colleges will have to reckon with some of those of Dixieland in future."
Tech baffled Penn by playing conventionally instead of using its regular shift. On its second play from scrimmage less than two minutes into the game Strupper ran around his end, "winding and twisting out of a mass of Red and Blue players" for a 68-yard touchdown. Walker Carpenter brushed two tacklers out of the way, and Strupped side-stepped Penn safety Joe Berry before running the last 30 yards. Tech "scored again in this period before Pennsylvania had recovered from its bewilderment", a touchdown by Hill. For the last score of the half, Strupper made a short run behind guard.
Penn did not have a first down in the first half, as the Tech defense played well. Hill scored a touchdown in the third quarter on a 27-yard run through the line. Penn's only scoring opportunity was in the third quarter. After another Al Hill touchdown and the kickoff return, Penn worked five complete forward passes in quick succession (one 23 yards) to reach Tech's 6-yard line. The Tech defense responded, and Penn turned the ball over on downs. On first down, Carpenter threw Penn back for a 6-yard loss and a pass was incomplete on second down. On third down, Penn's quarterback dropped back to pass Carpenter and William Higgins tackled him on the 25-yard line. On fourth down, Penn came out in a "freak formation" and its pass was incomplete. In the fourth quarter, Judy Harlan had a 65-yard interception return for a touchdown. Tech's starting lineup was Guill (left end), Whelchel (left tackle), Fincher (left guard), Phillips (center), Dowling (right guard), Thweatt (right tackle), Carpenter (right end), Hill (quarterback), Strupper (left halfback), Guyon (right halfback), and Harlan (fullback).
### Week 3: Davidson
- Sources:
The Davidson Wildcats, which scored the most points against Tech (10), included future Tech running back Buck Flowers in his freshman year. Unlike Tech's other 1917 opponents, Davidson held its backs to less than 100 yards rushing. Writer Bernie McCarty considered Davidson the second-best southern team that year.
The game's first score came in the second quarter when Davidson's Buck Flowers converted a 28-yard drop kick field goal for a 3–0 lead. Set up by a 27-yard run around end by Davidson fullback R. C. Burns, Al Hill prevented Burns from scoring a touchdown by tackling him from behind. Strupper and Guyon then worked the ball close to the goal; Strupper was forced out of bounds, and Hill scored a touchdown.
Tech led 6–3 when Strupper broke the game open in the second half. After a fumble by Strupper, Hill caught a pass from the 22-yard line and ran in for a touchdown. Strupper made the next touchdown after Tech ran through Davidson's right guard. Strupper then recovered a punt fumbled by Flowers on Davidson's 30-yard line, leading to a score by Hill from 18 yards out on a criss-cross run. Davidson scored its only touchdown on a forward pass. From midfield, quarterback Henry Spann hit end Georgie King on a 50-yard touchdown pass that went 30 yards in the air, catching Tech by surprise. For Tech's last score, Judy Harlan returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown.
The defense of Walker Carpenter and William Thweatt was the game's highlight. Tech made 16 first downs and Davidson 13. Neither Pup Phillips nor Ham Dowling played in this game, with Bill Fincher replacing Phillips at center. The umpire was Fay Wood, and Boozer Pitts was the head linesman. Davidson captain Georgie King said, "I consider Georgia Tech the best football team I have ever played against or ever expect to play against." Tech's starting lineup was Guill (left end), Whelchel (left tackle), Higgins (left guard), Fincher (center), Rogers (right guard), Thweatt (right tackle), Carpenter (right end), Hill (quarterback), Strupper (left halfback), Guyon (right halfback), and Harlan (fullback).
### Week 4: Washington and Lee
- Sources:
In a 63–0 victory against the Washington and Lee Generals, Tech made 35 first downs to Washington and Lee's five. At the time, it was the Generals' worst loss. According to Judy Harlan, Joe Guyon knocked a Washington and Lee player out of the game by "wearing an old horse collar shaped into a shoulder pad but reinforced with a little steel". The player may have been Turner Bethel, who was knocked out of the game and taken to a local hospital.
"The game was never in doubt after 'Strup' got away for his first long run", a 35-yarder followed a few minutes later by his 16-yard touchdown run. Although Strupper only played in the first half because of a leg injury, he gained 128 yards in addition to scoring the touchdown. Al Hill scored four touchdowns, Guyon three, and Pup Phillips also had one with a 30-yard interception return. Tech's starting lineup was Ulrich (left end), Fincher (left tackle), Whelchel (left guard), Phillips (center), Dowling (right guard), Carpenter (right tackle), Bell (right end), Hill (quarterback), Strupper (left halfback), Guyon (right halfback), and Harlan (fullback).
### Week 5: Vanderbilt
- Sources:
Tech's 83–0 defeat of the Vanderbilt Commodores was the worst in Vanderbilt history. "It was not until 1917 that a Southern team really avenged long-time torment at McGugin's hands. And it took one of history's top backfields–Joe Guyon, Ev Strupper, Al Hill, and Judy Harlan of Georgia Tech–to do it," writes Edwin Pope. The team was not the Commodores' worst, and had defeated Alabama.
Joe Guyon was the game's star; according to Morgan Blake, "Guyon has been great in all games this year. But Saturday he was the superman". Guyon ran nine times for 124 yards, with kick returns for 95 yards and 80 yards passing. He scored on 48- and one-yard runs, had a 75-yard kick return to set up a touchdown, and threw a pass to Shorty Guill for a score. Ev Strupper ran for four touchdowns and 147 yards in 14 carries, returning five punts for 111 yards. Al Hill ran 169 yards in 25 carries, scoring three touchdowns, and Judy Harlan carried 15 times for 132 yards and two touchdowns.
Vanderbilt captain Alf Adams praised the Tech team: "Tech's magnificent machine won easily over Vanderbilt. It was simply the matter of a splendid eleven winning over an unseasoned, inexperienced team. Tech played hard, clean football, and we were somewhat surprised to meet such a fair, aggressive team, after the reports we had heard. I think that Vanderbilt could have broken that Tech shift if we had had last year's eleven. Being outweighed, Vanderbilt could not check the heavy forwards, or open up the line. Thereby hangs the tale." Tech's starting lineup was Guill (left end), Fincher (left tackle), Whelchel (left guard), Phillips (center), Dowling (right guard), Carpenter (right tackle), Bell (right end), Hill (quarterback), Strupper (left halfback), Guyon (right halfback), and Harlan (fullback).
### Week 6: at Tulane
- Sources:
Tech played coach Clark Shaughnessy's Tulane Olive and Blue for its only road game, winning 48–0. Against a solid foe with a 5–3 record, all four Tech backs ran over 100 yards. According to the Times-Picayune, "Strupper, Guyon, Hill, and Harlan form a backfield with no superiors and few equals in football history". Joe Guyon threw two touchdowns and ran for one, passing 91 yards and running 112: "Guyon's passing was so accurate it suggest possibilities yet undeveloped in the Tech offense". Al Hill ran for 140 yards on 24 carries, including a 48-yard touchdown. Ev Strupper scored twice (one on a 33-yard pass from Guyon) and ran for 118 yards; Harlan ran for 111. Missing an extra point in the third quarter, Bill Fincher ended his streak at 31. The game was called with six minutes left because of darkness. Tech's starting lineup was Guill (left end), Fincher (left tackle), Whelchel (left guard), Phillips (center), Thweatt (right guard), Carpenter (right tackle), Bell (right end), Hill (quarterback), Strupper (left halfback), Guyon (right halfback), and Harlan (fullback).
### Week 7: Carlisle
- Sources:
In a 98–0 win against the Carlisle Indians, Strupper's performance was praised. Morgan Blake of the Atlanta Journal wrote, "Everett Strupper played like a veritable demon. At one time four Carlisle men pounced on him from all directions, and yet through some superhuman witchery he broke loose and dashed 10 yards further. On another occasion he attempted a wide end run, found that he was completely blocked, then suddenly whirled and ran the other way, gaining something like 25 yards before he was downed."
Hill and Strupper each scored five touchdowns; Shorty Guill had two touchdowns and 108 yards rushing. Billy Sunday wrote, "That jump shift is about the slickest offense I ever saw." One of Strupper's touchdowns was a 32-yard fumble return. This was Carlisle's last season before the school closed. Guyon asked to be substituted midway through the game against his former school, perhaps for sentimental reasons. Tech's starting lineup was Fincher (left end), Higgins (left tackle), Whelchel (left guard), Phillips (center), Dowling (right guard), Carpenter (right tackle), Bell (right end), Hill (quarterback), Strupper (left halfback), Guyon (right halfback), and Guill (fullback).
### Week 8: Auburn
- Sources:
In the season's final game, Tech defeated the Auburn Tigers 68–7. Coach Mike Donahue's Tigers had lost only to Davidson in an upset, and held undefeated Big Ten champion Ohio State to a scoreless tie less than a week before the Tech game. Ohio State, led by Chic Harley, had been favored 4 or 5 to 1. Coach Heisman (who previously coached at Auburn) and his players were at the game, rooting for the Tigers.
In the game with Auburn, Tech piled up 472 yards on the ground in 84 rushes and 145 yards in the air. Guyon scored four touchdowns, and Strupper had a 65-yard touchdown run. According to the Atlanta Journal,
> It was not the length of the run that featured it was the brilliance of it. After getting through the first line, Stroop was tackled squarely by two secondary men, and yet he squirmed and jerked loosed from them, only to face the safety man and another Tiger, coming at him from different angles. Without checking his speed Everett knifed the two men completely, running between them and dashing on to a touchdown.
In the second quarter, Auburn's Moon Ducote broke through the line toward the goal with blocking by Pete Bonner and William Donahue. After Guyon dove at Ducote and missed, Guyon gave chase and tackled him at the 26-yard line. For Auburn's only score Ducote circled around end for 17 yards and lateraled to Donahue, who ran down the sideline for a six-yard touchdown. Guyon was the star of the game, accounting for four touchdowns and having his best day passing. Strupper had touchdown runs of 62 and 50 yards. Auburn was considered a strong team, despite the lopsided score; Ducote and Bonner were the only non-Tech, unanimous All-Southern selections. Tech's starting lineup was Fincher (left end), Higgins (left tackle), Mathes (left guard), Phillips (center), Dowling (right guard), Carpenter (right tackle), Bell (right end), Hill (quarterback), Strupper (left halfback), Guyon (right halfback), and Guill (fullback).
## After the season
### Awards and honors
The Golden Tornado led the nation in scoring, with 491 points. Quarterback Al Hill led the nation in touchdowns with 23, and tackle Bill Fincher kicked 49 extra points.
A number of Georgia Tech players received post-season honors. Walker Carpenter, Everett Strupper, and Joe Guyon were All-America selections, with Carpenter and Strupper the first two players from the Deep South selected for a first-team. In addition to Carpenter, Strupper, and Guyon, Bill Fincher, Pup Phillips, Si Bell, Shorty Guill, and Al Hill were selected to the All-Southern Team by sportswriters. Phillips also received the Hal Nowell trophy for the most efficient play during the season.
#### National champions
On December 8, the Golden Tornado celebrated its national-championship season at a team dinner at the Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta. Each member was presented with a gold football inscribed with the words "National Champions". Clarke Mathes, William Thweatt, Dan Whelchel, Theodore Shaver, and William Higgins had already enlisted in the U. S. Marines for the First World War; a week later, Si Bell, Jim Fellers, Pup Phillips, and Charles Johnson also left for the Marines.
Heisman challenged Pop Warner's Pittsburgh team to a postseason game to determine a national champion, but since they did not play until the following season, Tech was named national champion. Although the Golden Tornado was invited to play the 4–3 Oregon team in the Rose Bowl, by then many players had joined the war effort.
### Legacy
"I consider the 1917 Tech team the best football I have ever coached", Heisman said. "It's the best team I have seen in my long career as a coach. I was lucky in having under me a team whose members possessed much natural ability and who played the game intelligently. I have never seen a team that, as a whole, was so fast in the composite." For many years, it was considered "the greatest football team the South had ever produced". According to a contemporary New York Sun account, "Georgia Tech looms up as one of the truly great teams of all time."
## Personnel
### Depth chart
The following chart provides a visual depiction of Tech's lineup during the 1917 season with games started at the position reflected in parenthesis. The chart mimics the offense after the jump shift has taken place.
### Varsity letterwinners
#### Line
#### Backfield
### Substitutes
### Stats and scoring leaders
The following is an incomplete list of statistics and scores, largely dependent on newspaper summaries.
### Coaching staff
- John Heisman, coach
- Charles Guyon, assistant coach
- John Tally Johnston, assistant coach
- W. T. Collins, manager
## See also
- 1917 College Football All-America Team
- 1917 College Football All-Southern Team
- List of undefeated NCAA Division I football teams
## Endnotes |
17,006,701 | Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe | 1,172,841,665 | 2008 video game | [
"2.5D fighting games",
"2008 video games",
"Censored video games",
"Crossover fighting games",
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"Superhero crossover video games",
"Unreal Engine games",
"Video games about parallel universes",
"Video games based on DC Comics",
"Video games developed in the United States",
"Video games directed by Ed Boon",
"Video games scored by Sascha Dikiciyan",
"Video games set in the United States",
"Video games set on fictional planets",
"Warner Bros. video games",
"Xbox 360 games"
]
| Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a 2008 fighting video game developed and published by Midway Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is a crossover between Mortal Kombat and the DC Universe, and is the eighth main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise. The game was released on November 16, 2008.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was developed using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3, and was the first Mortal Kombat title developed solely for the seventh generation of video game consoles. Its story was written by comic writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. The game was the final entry in the franchise developed by Midway Games before the company went bankrupt in 2009 and sold the franchise to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
The game's story takes place after Raiden, Earthrealm's god of thunder, and Superman, Metropolis' defender, repel invasions from both their worlds. An attack by both Raiden and Superman simultaneously in their separate universes causes the merging of the Mortal Kombat and DC villains, Shao Kahn and Darkseid, resulting in the creation of Dark Kahn, whose mere existence causes the two universes to begin merging; if allowed to continue, it would result in the destruction of both. Characters from both universes begin to fluctuate in power, becoming stronger or weaker.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe received mixed-to-positive reviews. Most reviewers agreed that the game was entertaining and made good use of its DC Universe license, but its lack of unlockable features compared to past installments of Mortal Kombat and toned-down finishing moves garnered some criticism. The game was followed by a Mortal Kombat reboot in 2011, and by Injustice: Gods Among Us in 2013.
## Gameplay
The game features a story mode, playable from two different perspectives. The perspectives consist of one segment from the DC Universe side, and one from the Mortal Kombat side, each split up into various chapters. Depending on which side players choose, the characters from one universe see those from the opposite universe as the invaders of their own. The player has the ability to play as all the characters in the story mode at one point during development, but the story mode ultimately lacked story arcs for a few characters.[^1] Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe also contains a mode called "Kombo Challenge", where players must perform ten pre-created combos of increasing difficulty.
Intertwined within fight matches, which are played in a 3D fighter style, are new gameplay modes, such as "Free-Fall Kombat" or "Falling Kombat," which are activated automatically after throwing the opponent to a lower level in the arena. The players can fight in the air during the fall in a quasi-mini-game, with one player having to hit certain buttons to be above the other during the fall and land on the other player when the fall ends. "Klose Kombat" is a mode the players can enter during a fight, causing the characters to lock with each other and the perspective to change to a close-up shot of the two, to make for an interval of close-quarters fighting. A "Test Your Might" mini-game is also worked into the gameplay; while fighting in certain areas, the player can smash the opponent through a series of walls and engage in a tug-of-war with the damage meter at the top of the screen. The player on the offense presses buttons to increase damage given, while the player on the defense presses buttons to decrease damage taken.
Another in-fight feature called "Rage mode" is introduced in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The Rage mode is governed by a rage meter placed below the player's health meter that fills progressively every time the player receives damage or attacks. Once the meter is completely filled, Rage mode can be activated and lasts for several seconds. Rage mode enables the player to break the opponent's guard on the second hit, prevents the attacker from experiencing hit stun, knockdown or pop-up, and increases the damage of an attacker's moves. During fights, characters show permanent signs of damage, such as bruises, scrapes, bleeding, and broken or torn clothing. All of the characters except Darkseid, Shao Kahn, and Dark Kahn have finishing moves; the Mortal Kombat characters and the DC villains can execute Fatalities, while the DC heroes can execute moves called "heroic brutalities," which function in the same manner but do not kill opponents, in order to stay in tone with the heroes who have an established reputation of never taking a life.
## Plot
After Shao Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm is halted by Raiden's forces of light, Raiden blasts and sends Kahn through a portal. At exactly the same time on Earth, Superman stops Darkseid's Apokoliptian invasion by blasting Darkseid with his heat vision as he enters a boom tube. These acts do not destroy either of them, but merge them into Dark Kahn, and causes the DC and Mortal Kombat universes to merge. As this happens, the characters' abilities fluctuate, causing violent "rage" outbreaks that are actually the feelings of Dark Kahn being infused in the characters from afar. Because of this, certain characters gain either strength or vulnerability. This allows for such things as the possibility of Superman being defeated due to his vulnerability to magic and giving the Joker the ability to fight skilled martial artists such as his nemesis Batman and Deathstroke. With each world thinking that the other is responsible for the merger, they fight each other until only one fighter from each side remains: Raiden and Superman. In the final battle, the two fight while Dark Kahn feeds on their rage. Both realizing that neither is working with Dark Kahn, Raiden and Superman overcome their rage for each other and defeat their fused enemy, restoring the two worlds to their normal separation. While everyone else has been sent to their original universe, Darkseid and Shao Kahn have been switched and are both rendered powerless. In the end, they both face eternal imprisonment in the other's universe; Darkseid is restrained in the Netherrealm, while Shao Kahn is trapped in the Phantom Zone.
## Characters
### Mortal Kombat characters
### DC Universe characters
## Development
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was Midway Games's last project before filing for bankruptcy and selling the rights to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in 2009. In February 2007, Midway Games announced they were planning a new game in the Mortal Kombat franchise, inspired by seeing a showcase of Gears of War. "Mortal Kombat 8" would have been "dark, gritty, serious" and a "back to basics reboot" of the series. Eventually, during the planning process, a deal with DC Comics was made and this project was cancelled, thus leading to the development of a different game. An announcement in April 2008 confirmed the game as a crossover, and a trailer was released. The only notable aspect that remained from the original project was the use of the Unreal Engine 3, also used in Gears of War.
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was co-published by Midway Games and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and was the final Mortal Kombat title to be developed under the Midway label prior to its purchase by Warner Bros. Interactive. Midway used AutoDesk software to develop Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, according to Maurice Patel, entertainment industry manager at AutoDesk, and Illuminate Labs products for lighting.
The use of a DC license imposed some restrictions on the characteristic violence in Mortal Kombat games. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was thus restricted to a "Teen" ESRB rating. Therefore, certain Fatalities such as Sub-Zero's "Spine Rip" were excluded or replaced due to their graphic nature. In order to keep that rating, two of the Fatalities in the game were censored in North America. In the United Kingdom version, both the Joker and Deathstroke's first Fatality depict them each finishing their opponent with a gunshot to the head, both shown uncut from a distance. The North American version has the camera quickly pan toward the victor before the shot is fired, thereby cutting the victim out of the shot completely. Additionally, one of Kitana's Fatalities which involved impaling the opponent in the head and the torso with her fanblades was modified so that both fanblades impaled her opponent's chest instead.
According to interviews, the characters were chosen for their popularity, and for parallels between them from both universes. Ed Boon, creative director of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and co-creator of the Mortal Kombat franchise, has said that some of the characters' abilities, especially those from the DC Universe, had been toned down to make them balanced within Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. For example, Boon specifically mentioned that Superman became vulnerable because of magic. Boon revealed that two new characters were developed as downloadable content, Quan Chi from Mortal Kombat and Harley Quinn from DC comics but had been discarded. He had also hinted earlier at the prospect of Kung Lao and Doomsday being downloadable characters.
For the release of the Kollector's Edition of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a new cover was created by Alex Ross. Also included in the Kollector's Edition is a 16-page comic book prequel, Beginnings, which was illustrated by Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias.
Downloadable content (DLC) had been confirmed by Major Nelson, but was canceled due to Midway's financial issues. Ed Boon had stated that they would have been updating Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe periodically with new content all the way up to the release of the next installment of the Mortal Kombat series: "I'd like to have [DLC] as soon as possible. I think that might be a great Christmas gift to reinvigorate the game". Ed Boon said on his Twitter account that the plan for DLC had been scrapped, which occurred because, as clarified by 1UP, Midway had filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Warner Bros. Interactive after the suggestion of downloadable content.
The game features a four hour long, fully motion captured and voiced acted story mode, becoming among the first fighting games to attempt something like this. Ed Boon pitched the idea to Midway Game's artists, animators, and producers, who were initially unwilling on the grounds they felt it was unnecessary and not possible. It required tech and knowledge that was not available at that time, such as the ability for the game to stream a video while at the same time loading the data required for the next fight. The team was also no sold on the idea of fighting game fans wanting a film-inspired "Story mode". Midway's financial crisis also contributed to this decision making. The team pitched alternatives to Ed Boon's idea, such as still images accompanied by music and voiced dialogue, “like you'd see in some fancy comic presentations”. These alternatives frustrated Boon and he used his authority to force the team to develop his pitch as he envisioned.
According to Ed Boon, the team was sold after they completed a single scene transition into gameplay and out of gameplay. Many workers at Midway had skillsets in film, scriptwriting, and animation that they finally got to utilize. DC comics also assisted by employing two writers, Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, so Midway would keep the characterization of DC characters consistent. Making sure Midway did not diverge from what DC characters would normally say or do. The work done for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe's story mode would eventually be seen in future Mortal Kombat games, such as Mortal Kombat 9, and the future Injustice series, developed by Netherrealm Studios from the ashes of Midway Games. Ed Boon viewed the single-player mode as a major source of appeal to casual fans who would have otherwise not paid attention to a fighting game.
## Reception
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Adam Sessler of X-Play stated: "Whether it's a decade-late answer to the Marvel vs. Capcom team up games or an off-the-cuff boardroom joke gone wildly too far, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is destined to make just about anyone's shortlist of bizarre video game team-ups. Still, sometimes two disparate things can merge to create a unique synergy that makes the melding work, however unlikely it may have seemed at the outset." In GamePro, Sid Shuman called it "surprisingly enjoyable." Wired.com's preview stated that the concept of the game was "nose-pokingly ludicrous", noting that Superman's powers could be used to easily defeat a character with the comment, "from Sub-Zero to Well-Done in eight seconds flat." ABC News praised the game's story because it did "a great job of giving players a cohesive, if far-fetched, story line that's fun if not engaging," as well as "comic book-like" dialogue. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe's Kombo Challenge mode was criticized as a thin and frustrating mode with combos that required very precise timing. The modes of Klose Kombat and Free-Fall Kombat were praised as concepts but were criticized in their execution as they appeared to slow the gameplay down and took the player out of the fast gameplay experience. Critics noted that the change in the amount of gore was disappointing to longtime fans of the series who were used to the "insane amounts of gore."
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry approved of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe because of its departure from the earlier M-rated games of the series praising its "simpler play, familiar graphics and adjustable gore content" but still not recommending it for younger players. In 2008, GamePro, ranked it as the 15th best fighting game out of 18.
Midway Games announced that as of January 26, 2009, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe had shipped 1.8 million copies since its release in mid-November 2008, not including the sales of the Kollector's Edition. The chief operating officer of GameStop stated that the Kollector's Edition of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe made up 55% of the game's total sales at GameStop locations in its first week. In their 10-K filing, Midway Games revealed the title had sold over 1.9 million units, making it one of the company's most successful titles since 2002. According to Wired.com, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe also "holds the distinction of being the most pre-ordered MK game of all time." In a ranking by Rentrak, the Xbox 360 version of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was the sixth most rented game of 2009.
## Legacy
Midway's work on Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe's cinematic story mode would influence development of future Mortal Kombat games and the Injustice series after Midway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and became NetherRealm Studios. Future fighting games like Guilty Gear Xrd, Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite'' attempted to create similar film-inspired experiences.
[^1]: |
1,394 | Algol | 1,171,540,766 | Eclipsing variable star in the constellation Perseus | [
"Algol variables",
"Am stars",
"Astronomical objects known since antiquity",
"B-type main-sequence stars",
"Bayer objects",
"Bright Star Catalogue objects",
"Durchmusterung objects",
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"Henry Draper Catalogue objects",
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| Algol /ˈælɡɒl/, designated Beta Persei (β Persei, abbreviated Beta Per, β Per), known colloquially as the Demon Star, is a bright multiple star in the constellation of Perseus and one of the first non-nova variable stars to be discovered.
Algol is a three-star system, consisting of Beta Persei Aa1, Aa2, and Ab – in which the hot luminous primary β Persei Aa1 and the larger, but cooler and fainter, β Persei Aa2 regularly pass in front of each other, causing eclipses. Thus Algol's magnitude is usually near-constant at 2.1, but regularly dips to 3.4 every 2.86 days during the roughly 10-hour-long partial eclipses. The secondary eclipse when the brighter primary star occults the fainter secondary is very shallow and can only be detected photoelectrically.
Algol gives its name to its class of eclipsing variable, known as Algol variables.
## Observation history
An ancient Egyptian calendar of lucky and unlucky days composed some 3,200 years ago is said to be the oldest historical documentation of the discovery of Algol.
The association of Algol with a demon-like creature (Gorgon in the Greek tradition, ghoul in the Arabic tradition) suggests that its variability was known long before the 17th century, but there is still no indisputable evidence for this. The Arabic astronomer al-Sufi said nothing about any variability of the star in his Book of Fixed Stars published c.964.
The variability of Algol was noted in 1667 by Italian astronomer Geminiano Montanari, but the periodic nature of its variations in brightness was not recognized until more than a century later, when the British amateur astronomer John Goodricke also proposed a mechanism for the star's variability. In May 1783, he presented his findings to the Royal Society, suggesting that the periodic variability was caused by a dark body passing in front of the star (or else that the star itself has a darker region that is periodically turned toward the Earth). For his report he was awarded the Copley Medal.
In 1881, the Harvard astronomer Edward Charles Pickering presented evidence that Algol was actually an eclipsing binary. This was confirmed a few years later, in 1889, when the Potsdam astronomer Hermann Carl Vogel found periodic doppler shifts in the spectrum of Algol, inferring variations in the radial velocity of this binary system. Thus Algol became one of the first known spectroscopic binaries. Joel Stebbins at the University of Illinois Observatory used an early selenium cell photometer to produce the first-ever photoelectric study of a variable star. The light curve revealed the second minimum and the reflection effect between the two stars. Some difficulties in explaining the observed spectroscopic features led to the conjecture that a third star may be present in the system; four decades later this conjecture was found to be correct.
## System
Algol is a multiple-star system with three confirmed and two suspected stellar components. From the point of view of the Earth, Algol Aa1 and Algol Aa2 form an eclipsing binary because their orbital plane contains the line of sight to the Earth. The eclipsing binary pair is separated by only 0.062 astronomical units (au) from each other, whereas the third star in the system (Algol Ab) is at an average distance of 2.69 au from the pair, and the mutual orbital period of the trio is 681 Earth days. The total mass of the system is about 5.8 solar masses, and the mass ratios of Aa1, Aa2, and Ab are about 4.5 to 1 to 2.
The three components of the bright triple star used to be, and still sometimes are, referred to as β Per A, B, and C. The Washington Double Star Catalog lists them as Aa1, Aa2, and Ab, with two very faint stars B and C about one arcmin distant. A further five faint stars are also listed as companions.
The close pair consists of a B8 main sequence star and a much less massive K0 subgiant, which is highly distorted by the more massive star. These two orbit every 2.9 days and undergo the eclipses that cause Algol to vary in brightness. The third star orbits these two every 680 days and is an A or F-type main sequence star. It has been classified as an Am star, but this is now considered doubtful.
Studies of Algol led to the Algol paradox in the theory of stellar evolution: although components of a binary star form at the same time, and massive stars evolve much faster than the less massive stars, the more massive component Algol Aa1 is still in the main sequence, but the less massive Algol Aa2 is a subgiant star at a later evolutionary stage. The paradox can be solved by mass transfer: when the more massive star became a subgiant, it filled its Roche lobe, and most of the mass was transferred to the other star, which is still in the main sequence. In some binaries similar to Algol, a gas flow can be seen. The gas flow between the primary and secondary stars in Algol has been imaged using Doppler Tomography.
This system also exhibits x-ray and radio wave flares. The x-ray flares are thought to be caused by the magnetic fields of the A and B components interacting with the mass transfer. The radio-wave flares might be created by magnetic cycles similar to those of sunspots, but because the magnetic fields of these stars are up to ten times stronger than the field of the Sun, these radio flares are more powerful and more persistent. The secondary component was identified as the radio emitting source in Algol using Very-long-baseline interferometry by Lestrade and co-authors.
Magnetic activity cycles in the chromospherically active secondary component induce changes in its radius of gyration that have been linked to recurrent orbital period variations on the order of ΔP/P ≈ 10<sup>−5</sup> via the Applegate mechanism. Mass transfer between the components is small in the Algol system but could be a significant source of period change in other Algol-type binaries.
Algol is about 92.8 light-years from the Sun, but about 7.3 million years ago it passed within 9.8 light-years of the Solar System and its apparent magnitude was about −2.5, which is considerably brighter than the star Sirius is today. Because the total mass of the Algol system is about 5.8 solar masses, at the closest approach this might have given enough gravity to perturb the Oort cloud of the Solar System somewhat and hence increase the number of comets entering the inner Solar System. However, the actual increase in net cometary collisions is thought to have been quite small.
## Names
Beta Persei is the star's Bayer designation. The name Algol derives from Arabic رأس الغول raʾs al-ghūl : head (raʾs) of the ogre (al-ghūl) (see "ghoul"). The English name Demon Star was taken from the Arabic name. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Algol for this star. It is so entered on the IAU Catalog of Star Names.
In Hebrew folklore, Algol was called Rōsh ha Sāṭān or "Satan's Head", as stated by Edmund Chilmead, who called it "Divels head" or Rosch hassatan. A Latin name for Algol from the 16th century was Caput Larvae or "the Spectre's Head". Hipparchus and Pliny made this a separate, though connected, constellation.
In Chinese, 大陵 (Dà Líng), meaning Mausoleum, refers to an asterism consisting of β Persei, 9 Persei, τ Persei, ι Persei, κ Persei, ρ Persei, 16 Persei and 12 Persei. Consequently, the Chinese name for β Persei itself is 大陵五 (Dà Líng wu, English: The Fifth Star of Mausoleum.). According to R.H. Allen the star bore the grim name of Tseih She 積屍 (Zhi Shī), meaning "Piled up Corpses" but this appears to be a misidentification, and Dié Shī is correctly π Persei, which is inside the Mausoleum.
## Cultural significance
Historically, the star has received a strong association with bloody violence across a wide variety of cultures. In the Tetrabiblos, the 2nd-century astrological text of the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, Algol is referred to as "the Gorgon of Perseus" and associated with death by decapitation: a theme which mirrors the myth of the hero Perseus's victory over the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa. In the astrology of fixed stars, Algol is considered one of the unluckiest stars in the sky, and was listed as one of the 15 Behenian stars.
## See also
- Jaana Toivari-Viitala, egyptologist who contributed to understanding Ancient Egypt and the star |
4,372,614 | Jack Coggins | 1,106,224,325 | English painter (1911–2006) | [
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| Jack Banham Coggins (July 10, 1911 – January 30, 2006) was an artist, author, and illustrator. He is known in the United States for his oil paintings, which focused predominantly on marine subjects. He is also known for his books on space travel, which were both authored and illustrated by Coggins. Besides his own works, Coggins also provided illustrations for advertisements and magazine covers and articles.
During World War II, he served as an artist and correspondent for YANK magazine, capturing and conveying wartime scenes from the front lines. Over the course of his career, Coggins produced more than 1,000 paintings and taught art classes for 45 years. He retired in May 2001 and died at his home in Pennsylvania in January 2006.
## Biography
### Early life
Coggins was born in London, England on July 10, 1911, the only child of Ethel May (née Dobby) and Sydney George Coggins. Sydney Coggins was Regimental Corporal Major of the First Regiment of Life Guards, the part of the Household Cavalry responsible for guarding the British Monarch; Jack Coggins was born in his father's barracks. During World War I, Sydney Coggins served with, and was commissioned by the regiment. After the war, he was appointed regimental Riding Master, but he was retired when the 1st and 2nd Life Guards were amalgamated into a single regiment under the Geddes Axe. A fellow officer, married to an American steel heiress, offered Sydney work as a secretary to his wife, and the Coggins family emigrated to Long Island, New York in 1923.
### Education
While his father served with the Life Guards Regiment in France during World War I, Coggins and his mother lived with family in Folkestone, Kent. He attended the Imperial Service College, a public school preferred by army families. After moving to New York, Coggins enrolled at Roslyn High School in Roslyn Heights where he found difficulty in adjusting to the difference between military school in England and New York city public school. After graduation from Roslyn in 1928 at age 17, he enrolled in the New York City Grand Central School of Art and studied under Edmund Greacen, George Pearse Ennis, and Wayman Adams. In the early years, he painted advertising signs to support himself. With a grounding in fine art techniques, Coggins graduated to the Art Students League of New York, where he studied from 1933 to 1934 under noted artist Frank DuMond.
### Marriage and later life
While a member of the faculty of Hunter College in New York, Coggins met Alma Wood, a fashion and photographic model. They married in 1948 and moved to Pike Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, where Coggins had purchased an old farm. Alma named their home "Crestfield," which, according to Jack, meant absolutely nothing.
Coggins taught his wife to paint, and she had success as an artist in her own right under the name Alma Woods. The couple would hold annual joint exhibitions for many years. Alma Coggins assisted her husband in the planning, research and typing of many of his books, and he acknowledged her efforts with book dedications to her.
He taught art classes at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts from 1957 until 2001, despite being handicapped by the loss of his left eye due to infection after an operation.
Coggins was a signature member and Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America, a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists, a member of the American Ordnance Association, the U.S. Naval Institute, and an adviser to the boards of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum and the Reading Public Museum. He died at his home in Berks County, Pennsylvania at the age of 94 and willed his body to medical science. Alma Wood-Coggins died March 4, 2007. Jack and Alma Coggins had no children and were survived by several nieces and nephews.
## Illustrator, author and artist
### Military illustrations of World War II
Coggins's interest in sailing and maritime subjects began in London when he would sail model yachts on Round Pond in Kensington Gardens. This interest developed into a lifelong passion during his teens when he sailed small craft on Hempstead Harbor, near his new home on Long Island. During the early years of World War II, Coggins took a sampling of his war illustrations to Worthen Paxton, the art director of LIFE Magazine, who commissioned Coggins to produce a drawing of an imaginary coastal invasion of England. Coggins was paid \$250 for that work, a large sum at the time, which paid his rent for five months. Appearing on July 15, 1940, this was the first of many war time illustrations for LIFE. Some of Coggins's works are in the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection.
During the early 1940s, Coggins obtained more work producing war pictures for other magazines, including a series of double-page spreads for the controversial newspaper PM, and illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post. Throughout the war years, most of the output of many large corporations was reserved for materiel production; however, management were keen to promote their connection to the war effort and keep their name before the buying public until they could resume peacetime sales. Coggins received advertising commissions from such corporations including Elco, Koppers, US Steel, and Westinghouse. He also received commissions from the U.S. War Department for aircraft recognition charts, and he was intrigued to later find these charts used during his army basic training.
Because of the quality of his maritime illustrations, Coggins was invited by publisher Doubleday to provide artwork for a children's book about the U.S. Navy; the author being Fletcher Pratt, the well known military historian. Coggins was invited to participate in Pratt's Naval Game, based on a wargame developed by Fred T. Jane involving dozens of tiny wooden ships, built on a scale of one inch to fifty feet. These were spread over the floor of Pratt's apartment and their maneuvers were calculated via a complex mathematical formula. The result of Pratt and Coggins's first collaboration, published in 1941, was Fighting Ships of the U.S. Navy, a volume that described in text and illustrated in full color every class of ship in the Navy.
Coggins was called up for Army service, and enlisted on April 8, 1943. He was pulled from basic training at Fort Eustis, Virginia before he could complete it to work as an illustrator for YANK magazine. He was originally introduced to the Commanding Officer and Editor of YANK, Colonel Franklin Forsberg, by Fletcher Pratt. On May 20, 1943, Coggins commenced work at the head office of YANK in New York, where he worked until his departure for Britain. Jack Coggins became a naturalized citizen of the United States on August 19, 1943.
He served as an artist for British YANK in London until August 2, 1945, and was discharged from the U.S. Army on November 3, 1945. After serving as a Private for most of his time abroad, he finally made Corporal, and just before discharge, Sergeant. While in Britain, Coggins spent time on a Royal Navy convoy in the North Sea, witnessed the bombing of Saint-Lô, and flew over Berlin in a Lancaster bomber. He also spent time on a U.S. PT boat patrolling the beaches and made a trip into Brittany with an armored column. Events from all of these sorties were illustrated in YANK magazine in double page spreads.
Coggins was "bugged" by the fact that the Liberty Ship to which he had been assigned for the Normandy Landings got to Utah Beach only on D-Day plus one. He saw lively action, but bemoaned missing the big show. During his time in Britain, Coggins also wrote articles on war rockets and the German Navy which were published in YANK.
### Science and science-fiction illustrations
During the late 1940s and early 1950s Coggins's marine art was featured on covers of Yachting Magazine and other publications, as well as on advertising material, and his science-fiction art illustrated covers for pulp science fiction magazines. These included Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Thrilling Wonder Stories.
Due to reduced interest in his pre-war work, Coggins applied for a position teaching watercolor at Hunter College. He taught watercolor painting there from 1948 to 1952. In New York, as a result of his friendship with Fletcher Pratt, Coggins was introduced to the members of the Hydra Club, where he met Judith Merril and L. Ron Hubbard. Coggins was also invited to join Pratt's Trap Door Spiders club, where he became closely associated with L. Sprague de Camp and Isaac Asimov. The contact with such visionary thinkers complemented his exposure to the German V-2 rockets in Europe and served to strengthen his growing interest in space travel, rockets, and science fiction.
In 1951 and 1952, Coggins collaborated again with Fletcher Pratt on two classic books: Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles & Space Ships, and By Space Ship to the Moon. The books were released amidst the great wave of interest in space travel sweeping the United States and the rest of the world in the 1950s, and they were published in several countries and translated into other languages. These books made the prospect of space exploration seem a practical possibility. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists used the books to demonstrate their ideas to Congressmen when seeking funding for the space program, and there are many NASA scientists today who retain fond memories of the influence the books had on their careers.
### Books
Between 1941 and 1983, Coggins wrote or illustrated 44 books on a wide range of marine, military, historical and educational themes. Among his more famous works is the 1962 authoring and illustration of Arms and Equipment of the Civil War. Dale E. Biever, registrar at the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia, described the work as "not about generals or battles but about the things one should know before delving into those areas ... a welcome addition to any Civil War library." It was republished several times, most recently in 2004. In 1966, Coggins wrote and illustrated The Horseman's Bible, which sold over 500,000 copies with a revised edition published in 1984. In this book Coggins acknowledges his father "whose twenty five years in the cavalry and lifetime interest in horses made his advice invaluable." Coggins's last book was Marine Painter's Guide, which was first published in 1983. After the book was published, he decided to stop writing to concentrate more on painting. A new edition of Marine Painter's Guide was published in 2005 by Dover Publications, the publisher of new editions for several of his books.
### Other paintings and illustrations
In 1968, Coggins was invited to undertake part of a voyage on the NOAA vessel USC&GS Discoverer (OSS-02) from Barbados and commissioned to paint several images of the ship and crew. Harris B. Stewart was the chief scientist who commissioned and personally paid for the artwork, which remained his personal property; Stewart was the author of the cited report.
Coggins relied on a realistic style that was executed in oils, for which he had a preference. However, he also painted works in water colors and other media. The majority of his paintings have a maritime theme, about which he wrote "It seems strange that with so much of the globe covered by water, so few artists know how to paint it." His stated preference in art styles was "a direct splashy type of realistic painting" and he admired the New Hope school of Redfield and Garber, with "no liking for 'modern art'".
A catalog listing well over 1000 works has been posthumously compiled by his relatives. A retrospective exhibition and sale of artworks found in Coggins's home after his death was held at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts in late 2006. This consisted of about 300 previously unseen oils, watercolors, and other printed materials. An annual "Jack Coggins Award" to be given to a deserving local artist was financed from part of the proceeds from the sale of these works.
As of 2001, Coggins's paintings are owned by the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Navy, and the United States Coast Guard, among many other institutions, corporations, and private collectors. His original manuscripts and illustrations are part of The University of Southern Mississippi's Permanent Collection of outstanding authors and artists.
### Recognition
Coggins's work has been accepted for show by the American Watercolor Society, the Salmagundi Club, the American Artist Professional League, and the Pastel Society of America. Coggins received a number of awards and accolades during his career, including the American Revolution Round Table Award in 1969, the Daniel Boone National Foundation's Americanism Award in 1985, the Mystic Maritime Gallery's Purchase Award in 1989, the International Maritime Exhibition's Rudolph Shaeffer Award from 1987 to 1990, and Berks Art Council's Pagoda Award in 1995. In 2000, he was inducted to the International Association of Astronomical Artists Hall of Fame as a Living Legend and celebrated master of the genre of Space Art. |
39,354,012 | Aroused (film) | 1,144,066,821 | 2013 film by Deborah Anderson | [
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| Aroused is a 2013 feature-length documentary film directed by the photographer Deborah Anderson, in her directorial debut. It focuses on the lives and careers of 16 pornographic actresses. The film's structure includes interviews with the women both during makeup and during a subsequent photo shoot for Anderson's coffee table book of the same name as the documentary. Quotes are presented in title cards throughout the film on the topic from women including Erica Jong, Marlene Dietrich, and Gloria Leonard. The actresses interviewed describe their early upbringing, entry into sexual activity, and motivations for entering the adult film industry. A female talent agent within the industry, Fran Amidor, provides a counterpoint to the interviews. Several of the actresses recount facing stigma and discrimination due to their career choice. Katsuni reflects on the impact of entering the industry, and criticizes society's "judgment of morality".
Anderson was inspired to work on Aroused, after previously photographing an adult industry actress for a magazine shoot. She wanted to draw attention to a double standard in society regarding consumption of pornography while simultaneously stigmatizing the actresses that perform in the adult industry. She stated her attempt was to humanize and provide dignity to the actresses. Anderson cast the actresses in the film in order to showcase, "the most successful women in the adult film industry". Filming took place in Hollywood Hills, California; the film was shot in black and white, color, and muted color tones. The film premiered on May 1, 2013, at Nuart Theatre of the Landmark Theatres chain in Los Angeles. The film was released on iTunes and Amazon, followed by a DVD in June 2013.
Aroused received mixed to negative reviews. The film was compared by the Chicago Tribune to the documentary After Porn Ends with a more optimistic feel to it. Screen Daily and BroadwayWorld commented favorably on the vulnerability of the subjects. Film critics compared the documentary's style to Michael Moore, Annie Leibovitz and the film Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry. A review of the film in the Los Angeles Times was critical, writing that it was only recommended for fans of Alexis Texas, Katsuni and Misty Stone. The Village Voice found the subject more appropriate for a photography book. The Hollywood Reporter and The Washington Post criticized Aroused for its lack of depth. The New York Times compared the film's cinematic style to an advertisement for Victoria's Secret. The New York Daily News criticized Anderson for self-promotion.
## Contents summary
The film profiles the lives of 16 notable adult film actresses. Anderson states at the documentary's outset, "This is not a story about pornography...this is a story about women." A quote from Erica Jong is presented at the beginning of the film, "Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads." The documentary is broken up into two sections: an initial interview with the actresses during makeup and preparation for Anderson's companion photography book, and further interviews during the photo shoot itself. The actresses describe their personal lives and backgrounds, including their love interests and close social connections. Title cards are shown in the film with quotes on its subject matter, including Marlene Dietrich observing, "In America sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it's a fact." Gloria Leonard is quoted stating, "The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting."
A few of the women describe less than ideal upbringing experiences in their early lives. Katsuni, a French-speaking actress of Asian background, recounts a fairly routine childhood. Adult film star, Francesca Lé, describes early problems from her parents and difficult experiences with recreational drugs. The actresses discuss initial sexual experiences and partners, and discuss their early foray into sexual activity. Some had little knowledge of sexuality or sex itself before entering the industry; others describe early lives based on very conservative religious experiences.
Desires for financial independence and ego are identified as motivating factors to join the adult industry. They recount experiencing ageism in the adult film industry, stating colleagues who had been in the business over eight years, "are already gone". The actresses state it is difficult to engage in relationships with those outside of the industry due to their views on multiple sex partners. The interviews delineate the differences from actual work on an adult film itself, to the way it is presented in the final product to the viewers. Kayden Kross explains she originally felt bashful in her youth, and purposefully constructed a character to portray within adult film to emulate perceived desires from consumers. The actresses take joy from accomplishments garnered while working in the adult film industry. Allie Haze states she wishes to be seen as one of the top performers within her field. Teagan Presley explains that due to the standards within the adult film industry including regular testing for sexually transmitted diseases, she feels they are encouraging viewers to engage in safe sex practices.
They delve into negative aspects of the adult film industry including feeling objectified by others, plastic surgery to improve their appearance for further work in the field, disagreements over their work with their relatives, contracting of sexually-transmitted diseases, and abuse of recreational drugs. Anderson balances the narrative of the interviews against commentary from a talent agent for the adult film industry. Fran Amidor, a representative of actors within the industry, comments on the impact of these experiences on the talent. She states female stars in the industry frequently require mental health counseling and blur the boundaries between their on-set and off-set personalities. Such negative experiences within the industry are shown to cause stress for the performers over periods of time.
Several women recount discrimination they face due to their choice of occupation. The documentary examines the dichotomy of society's obsession with actresses in the adult film industry for sexual gratification, while simultaneously the same actresses face criticism from society for their perceived immorality. One actress tells Anderson, "They don’t understand. We have fans who love us, but we have people who hate us and spit on us." Katsuni reflects on the stigma of entering the industry, lamenting society's "judgment of morality".
## Cast
- Lisa Ann
- Belladonna
- Lexi Belle
- Allie Haze
- Ash Hollywood
- Jesse Jane
- Katsuni
- Kayden Kross
- Francesca Lé
- Brooklyn Lee
- Asphyxia Noir
- April O'Neil
- Teagan Presley
- Misty Stone
- Tanya Tate
- Alexis Texas
## Production
### Inspiration and writing
Prior to her work on Aroused, Anderson gained notice as a celebrity photographer with publications including Room 23 and Hollywood Erotique. Room 23 garnered her praise for her photography of celebrities including Elton John and George Clooney. Her photography work had been featured in publications including Playboy and Vanity Fair. Aroused was her first feature film. She stated her intention was to humanize sex work for the viewers and show the experiences females have to go through to work in the adult industry.
Anderson wanted the viewer to be able to get to know, "the world’s most sexualized women". Anderson was initially motivated to work on the project after previously having photographed a female actress from the adult film industry for a magazine. Anderson got to know the woman, and felt impacted by the nature of her kind demeanor as contrasted against her difficult treatment from members of society due to the stigma of her line of work. Anderson's stated goal through her work on Aroused was to show the female stars of her film were genuine individuals. Anderson explained her thought process, stating, "I wanted to trim away their peacock feathers and show the real girls underneath. By peeling away these women's personas, I show that there is a human being behind the characters they play. And these human beings revel in their sexuality. That's something everyone can learn from." She asserted she wanted to draw attention to a double standard in society of consuming pornography while simultaneously criticizing female porn stars. Anderson observed, "I don't think that we should look at any of these women and judge the choices they make just because they're doing something we wouldn't do. I allow myself to express that maybe it's time to stop pointing the finger and take a look at ourselves."
### Casting
Anderson selected her interview subjects in an attempt to feature, "the most successful women in the adult film industry". She interviewed 16 actresses from the adult film industry about their experiences and backgrounds. Anderson selected female adult film stars including: Lisa Ann, Belladonna, Lexi Belle, Allie Haze, Ash Hollywood, Jesse Jane, Katsuni, Kayden Kross, Francesca Lé, Brooklyn Lee, Asphyxia Noir, April O'Neil, Teagan Presley, Misty Stone, Tanya Tate, and Alexis Texas. Anderson additionally interviewed talent agent within the adult film industry, Fran Amidor, for her perspective on female stars within the genre. Ages of the cast members selected by Anderson were from 22 through 41 years.
Throughout the film production, Anderson gained admiration for the assertive females she interviewed for Aroused. Anderson stated she was pleased she had, "created a platform for these women to be heard." Anderson reflected she was heartened to have created a "safe space" for the actresses to open up to her, commenting, "From one woman to another, it became more of a conversation". Kayden Kross commented of being included in Aroused, "any chance we get to show that world in a way that isn't slanted or biased toward making it look like the stereotypical thing you expect from porn--any opportunity is good for us." Allie Haze stated she was optimistic the film could introduce a more varied populace to the humanity of adult film actresses, "Adult performers are always interested in being seen and heard by mainstream audiences ... The difference with Aroused is that a whole new audience could learn something from us."
### Filming
During production, the film was known as Aroused, The Aroused Project, and Aroused: The Lost Sensuality of a Woman. In addition to film directing, Anderson also narrated the documentary, and placed herself within the film portraying her photography of the actresses for her erotic coffee table book. The book was intended as a companion piece to the film, and was sold stating the women featured were shown, simply attired only in footwear by Jimmy Choo. Aroused was produced by Anderson, along with Christopher Gallo. She chose to shoot the majority of the documentary in black and white. Later shots in the film are in color, and subsequently in color in muted tones. Filming was shot with the actresses in a rented residence in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California. Anderson edited the interviews together in a collage style. The director attended an adult film industry convention and shot video of herself at the event to use as video during the end credits of her documentary. Anderson chose to include quotations throughout the film from figures including Joan of Arc, Anaïs Nin, Erica Jong, Marlene Dietrich, and Eleanor Roosevelt. The majority of the film included English-language dialogue with some French with subtitles as well. The film was marketed in a movie trailer as, "an exploration of the lost sensuality of women."
## Release
Anderson's companion fine-art photography book associated with the film titled, Aroused: The Lost Sensuality of a Woman, was released before the film itself in 2012. The Aroused film premiere took place on May 1, 2013, at Nuart Theatre of the Landmark Theatres chain in Los Angeles. Many of the female stars of the film were present for the premiere, and stayed after the conclusion of the screening to greet guests and sign the accompanying companion coffee-table book. The documentary film was first released publicly on May 2, 2013. The film had a showing at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. Screenings were also shown in 2013 at Village East Cinema in East Village, Manhattan, West End Cinema in Washington, D.C., and Landmark Theatres in Chicago, Illinois, and San Francisco, California.
The film was simultaneously made available on iTunes, with the accompanying book sold on Amazon. The iTunes release was successful, rising to the number three spot on their "documentary most viewed list". The film was not rated by the Motion Picture Association. It was released in DVD format on June 4, 2013, distributed by company Ketchup Entertainment. The DVD rendered the film in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Audio for the DVD was presented with Dolby Digital 5.1. The DVD included a movie trailer for the film itself. In 2020, Aroused was featured on Amazon Prime and the TV network Showtime in the United States.
## Reception
Aroused received mixed to negative reviews. The film has a 31% "fresh" rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
Writing for the Chicago Tribune, film critic Matt Pais commented on the film's treatment of its female stars that Aroused, "absolutely succeeds in framing them as people who are beautiful, rather than objects that are judged." He compared Aroused to the documentary After Porn Ends, observing it had a more optimistic feel to it about the industry. Chief film critic for Screen Daily, Mark Adams, reviewed the film writing, "Aroused is an intriguing and insightful film." Adams called it, "an unconventional and refreshing look at the adult film industry". Adams observed of the female stars of the film, "they are aware they are not being exploited and then here is a woman interested in them as women first and foremost." His review concluded of Anderson's work as film director that she, "reveals a candour, honesty and charm to these women that is far beyond the simplistic sexual image they have to portray in their adult films." BroadwayWorld compared and contrasted the actresses and their on-screen personas, "Their true inner vulnerability is touching, yet the characters they have created are confident and intoxicating." Writing for African American Literature Book Club, Kam Williams called the film, "An eye-opening expose about the surprisingly-conventional concerns of some of the most hyper-sexualized women in the world."
Blast Magazine film critic Randy Steinberg wrote, "It's an effort to take the stigma out of what they do, and it is quite effective and compelling." His review called Anderson, "a political documentarian", and compared her style of filmmaking to Michael Moore. Steinberg concluded, "Aroused is a well-made and thoughtful documentary." Writing for ACED Magazine, critic John Delia commented of the film's shooting style, "Beautifully photographed with clean and clear video, the production gets high marks for cinematography." He was critical of the narrative employed by the documentary, calling it biased towards the actresses. Delia posited that the film was a vehicle to market Anderson's accompanying photography book. Edward Frost wrote for CineVue that Anderson had created, "an in-depth portrait of the women she’s chosen to shed light on." He commented positively of Anderson's ability to draw out, "the women’s fluid and thought-provoking testimonies". Writing for Punch Drunk Critics, Mae Abdulbaki commented, "Aroused is well-directed and unique in its content and presentation." Abdulbaki observed, "Anderson does a great job in her directorial debut." She called the director, "an unbiased storyteller, choosing to focus on the industry and the girls’ experiences with it, hoping to take one step closer to shedding a stereotype." Abdulbaki concluded, "Aroused is definitely a documentary worth watching if only for the unique point of view and approach that Anderson chooses to take."
Movie Metropolis film critic James Plath reviewed the film and its accompanying coffee table book, calling them "both tasteful and artistic". Plath compared Anderson's style of cinematography to Annie Leibovitz, in that both treated their subjects with human dignity. He wrote of the film's quality, "Aroused is well done, and like the best documentaries and the best artwork it alters the way you see a subject and the way you think about things." Plath's review concluded, "Aroused is a revealing look at the women of porn, and a sensitive portrayal of what makes them tick." Avi Offer wrote for NYC Movie Guru that Anderson could have spent more time giving more in-depth interviews to a smaller number of subjects. Brent Simon of Shared Darkness wrote, "Aroused is an uncommonly intelligent nonfiction exploration of the inner lives of 16 women in the adult film industry." He compared the documentary to Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry by Michael Grecco, and America Stripped by David Palmer. Simon observed, "Anderson's effort has an easy, unforced quality to go along with its acuity, keeping prurience at arms' length and allowing the humanity and vulnerability of its subjects to come through." AllMovie critic Jason Buchanan gave the film a score of two stars out of five.
Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Sheri Linden commented, "For a film that purports to go beyond the surface and uncover the 'true essence' of adult film stars, Aroused spends a lot of time admiring the surface." Linden observed, "Completist fans of such performers as Alexis Texas, Katsuni and Misty Stone are the only likely viewers liable to find the documentary satisfying." The film was referred by The Village Voice as "a tack better suited to Anderson's famed photo collections than a narrative medium" in which the interviews "are cut into such narrow snippets it's impossible to piece together anyone here into a coherent personality". The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "lacks the depth to be much more than a glossily sexy curiosity". According to The Washington Post film critic Michael O'Sullivan, despite being in some moments "surprisingly moving" the film "arouses curiosity without really satisfying it". Ciara LaVelle wrote for Miami New Times, "Overall, this looks more like exploitation than exploration."
The New York Times critic Nicole Herrington compared the film's cinematic style to a television advertisement for Victoria's Secret. Herrington commented, "It has an inviting softness, but the background music, odd camera angles, close-ups and lingering shots only distract and objectify." She wrote that instead of a documentary film, Anderson's piece would have been better suited for the format of television series, in the vein of a combination of Taxicab Confessions and Red Shoe Diaries. Herrington highlighted the humanity of the film's female stars, concluding, "The serious, thoughtful responses carry the film". IndieWire journalist Gabe Toro gave a critical review, commenting, "Aroused works as a beautiful infomercial for the porn industry, mostly serving as a counterpoint to all those troubled 20/20-type hysterical anti-porn news specials that look at the billion dollar smut industry as the collapse of Western civilization." Elizabeth Weitzman reviewed the film for the New York Daily News, and criticized the director's use of the film to promote her own work, "Anderson ... turns a welcome opportunity into a shameless example of exploitation and self-promotion."
## See also
- List of documentary films
- Anti-pornography movement in the United States
- Feminist pornography
- Feminist views of pornography
- Free Speech Coalition
- Hot Girls Wanted
- The Naked Feminist
- Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography
- Pornography in the United States
- Sex-positive movement
- Sex-positive feminism
- Thinking XXX
- Women's erotica
- Women's pornography |
15,713,038 | Jennifer's Body | 1,169,937,691 | 2009 American film | [
"2000s American films",
"2000s English-language films",
"2000s buddy comedy films",
"2000s fantasy comedy films",
"2000s female buddy films",
"2000s feminist films",
"2000s high school films",
"2000s satirical films",
"2000s supernatural horror films",
"2000s teen comedy films",
"2000s teen horror films",
"2009 LGBT-related films",
"2009 black comedy films",
"2009 comedy horror films",
"2009 fantasy films",
"2009 films",
"20th Century Fox films",
"American black comedy films",
"American buddy comedy films",
"American comedy horror films",
"American fantasy comedy films",
"American female buddy films",
"American feminist films",
"American films about revenge",
"American high school films",
"American satirical films",
"American splatter films",
"American supernatural comedy films",
"American supernatural horror films",
"American teen LGBT-related films",
"American teen comedy films",
"American teen horror films",
"American vigilante films",
"Cheerleading films",
"Demons in film",
"Dune Entertainment films",
"Female bisexuality in film",
"Films about Satanism",
"Films about human sacrifice",
"Films about mass murder",
"Films about proms",
"Films about spirit possession",
"Films about virginity",
"Films directed by Karyn Kusama",
"Films produced by Jason Reitman",
"Films produced by Mason Novick",
"Films scored by Theodore Shapiro",
"Films set in Minnesota",
"Films shot in Minnesota",
"Films shot in Vancouver",
"Films with screenplays by Diablo Cody",
"LGBT-related buddy comedy films",
"LGBT-related comedy horror films",
"LGBT-related satirical films",
"Lesbian-related films",
"Succubi in film"
]
| Jennifer's Body is a 2009 American horror comedy film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama. Starring Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, J. K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris, and Adam Brody, the film follows a demonically possessed high school student who kills her male classmates and devours their flesh in order to survive, with her childhood friend striving to end her killing spree.
Working with Cody again following their collaborative efforts on Juno, Jason Reitman stated he and his producers "want to make unusual films". Cody said she wanted the film to speak to female empowerment and explore the complex relationships between best friends. As a tie-in to the film, Boom! Studios produced a Jennifer's Body graphic novel, released in August 2009.
Jennifer's Body premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2009, and was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on September 18, 2009. The film had a lackluster performance at the box office, grossing \$31.6 million against a budget of \$16 million and received mixed reviews from critics, with its dialogue, emotional resonance and performances being praised, while the narrative and uneven tone were criticized. In the wake of the \#MeToo Movement, it has been described as a feminist cult classic.
## Plot
Anita "Needy" Lesnicki, once an insecure and studious teenager living in the small town of Devil's Kettle, Minnesota, is now a violent mental inmate who narrates the story as a flashback while in solitary confinement.
Since childhood, Needy has been best friends with Jennifer Check, a popular and beautiful colour guard despite the two having little in common, and Jennifer often mistreats and dominates Needy, who is too in awe of her to stand up for herself. One night, Jennifer takes Needy to a local dive bar to attend a concert by indie rock band Low Shoulder. A fire engulfs the bar, killing several people. Jennifer, in shock from the fire, leaves with the band even though Needy tells her not to. Later that evening, she appears in Needy's kitchen, covered in blood, and attempts to eat a rotisserie chicken. She immediately vomits a trail of black fluid and almost bites Needy's neck, but retreats and leaves.
The next morning at school, Jennifer appears fine and dismisses Needy's concerns, appearing apathetic to the fire tragedy. She seduces the school's football captain and disembowels him. Meanwhile, Low Shoulder gains popularity due to their falsely rumored heroism during the fire, and offer to make a charity appearance at the school's spring formal.
A month later, Jennifer appears sick and listless. She accepts a date with school alternative/emo Colin, whom she brutally kills. While Needy and her boyfriend Chip have sex, Needy senses something dreadful has happened. She leaves in a panic and almost runs over Jennifer, who is drenched in blood. Jennifer visits Needy at home, and the two kiss. Jennifer explains that Low Shoulder had taken her into the woods after the bar fire and offered her as a virgin sacrifice to Satan in exchange for fame and fortune. Although the sacrifice was a success, Jennifer was not actually a virgin, so she became permanently possessed. She became hungry and Ahmet, a foreign exchange student, who was thought to have died in the fire, was her first victim. She had intended to eat Needy as well, but left because she could not bring herself to hurt her best friend. When she has eaten, she can withstand virtually any injury without pain, healing instantly.
Needy goes to the school library's occult section and determines that Jennifer is a succubus who must feed on flesh and can only be killed while she is hungry and weak. Needy tells Chip about Jennifer. He does not believe her, so she breaks up with him in order to protect him. Chip is intercepted by Jennifer on the way to the school dance and lies to him, saying that Needy had been cheating on him with Colin. She takes him to an abandoned pool and begins feeding on him. Needy arrives and Chip impales Jennifer through the stomach with a pool skimmer. Jennifer escapes and Chip dies.
Angry and heartbroken, Needy breaks into Jennifer's bedroom. The two fight and Jennifer bites Needy's neck in the struggle. Needy rips Jennifer's half of their best friend necklace off her neck. Jennifer stops fighting back and Needy stabs her in the heart with a utility knife, killing her and destroying the demon. Jennifer's mother enters and finds Needy on top of her dead daughter's body. Needy is brought to an asylum. She now manifests some of Jennifer's supernatural powers due to the bite. She escapes the mental facility and hitchhikes a ride, telling the driver she is following a band.
In a credits scene, a home video and crime scene photos show that the members of Low Shoulder have been murdered in their hotel by Needy.
## Cast
- Megan Fox as Jennifer Check:
Fox was in negotiations to star as Jennifer Check since 2007, and was officially cast in October 2007. Fox said the reason she agreed to the role was her love for the script. "I think what I loved about the movie is it's so unapologetic and how completely inappropriate it is at all times," she said. "That was my favorite part about the script and about the character. It's fun to be able to say the shit that she got to say and get away with it and how people find it charming." Asked how acting in a film like this is different from acting in Transformers, Fox said "there's [no] distractions, like there's no robots to distract you from whatever performance I do give. So, if it's terrible, you're gonna fucking know that it's really terrible". She said despite this aspect of the business being intimidating, she enjoyed portraying the character. "I wasn't really sure what I was doing," said Fox. "I was just trying to have fun with it and I felt like I was able to make fun of my own image as to how some people might perceive Megan Fox to be. I was just sort of flying freely and I hope some of it works." In balancing out the film's horror with humor, she said she relied heavily on Diablo Cody's script and Karyn Kusama's direction to pull it off, stating, "I have a very specific sense of humor, things that I think are funny aren't going to fly with middle America. It's going to eliminate some of the audience, so you need someone there to tell you you can't do that."
- Amanda Seyfried as Anita "Needy" Lesnicki:
In February 2008, Seyfried was cast as Anita "Needy" Lesnicki, the "plain Jane" best friend to Fox's character for whom she harbors a somewhat homoerotic infatuation. Seyfried said it was a relief to play the nerdy role opposite Fox. "Being a lead (like Megan), you have that weird pressure of feeling like you have to look attractive," she said. "In this movie, I didn't worry about any of that shit. I don't want to play the one that everybody is supposed to want to have sex with."
- Adam Brody as Nikolai Wolf:
The filmmakers had hoped to cast an actual rock musician to portray Nikolai Wolf, with Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte being their top choices. One Tree Hill star Chad Michael Murray was also considered for the role. In March 2008, Johnny Simmons was reportedly cast as Nikolai. However, Brody was officially cast in the role, while Simmons then accepted the role of Chip Dove. Brody did not perform his own vocals, saying, "My singing voice is still going through puberty. They gave me a singing lesson or two, and it's not the worst thing in the world, but it's not anything anyone would choose to hear." His vocals were provided by Ryan Levine, who also played another member of the band.
- Johnny Simmons as Chip Dove
- J. K. Simmons as Mr. Wroblewski
- Amy Sedaris as Toni Lesnicki
- Kyle Gallner as Colin Gray
- Cynthia Stevenson as Mrs. Dove
- Chris Pratt as Officer Roman Duda
- Carrie Genzel as Mrs. Check
- Juan Riedinger as Dirk
- Juno Ruddell as Officer Warzak
- Valerie Tian as Chastity
- Aman Johal as Ahmet
- Josh Emerson as Jonas Kozelle
- Bill Fagerbakke as Jonas' Dad
- Lance Henriksen as the driver near the end of film
## Production
### Development
Jennifer's Body is the follow-up to writer and producer Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman's collaboration efforts on Juno. In October 2007, Fox Atomic pre-emptively purchased the rights to Cody's script with Megan Fox to star. Peter Rice, who at the time oversaw Fox Searchlight and Fox Atomic, brought in the project as Fox Searchlight had previously distributed Cody's film Juno. Mason Novick and Reitman's producing partner Dan Dubiecki signed as producers in November 2007 with plans to produce the film under Hard C, which is housed at Fox Searchlight. Reitman commented, "We want to make unusual films, and anything that turns a genre on its ear interests Dan and I." Karyn Kusama took over as director in January 2008. Kusama said she signed on to the project because of the script. "I was blessed to read this script at a moment where the producers were meeting with directors and it just knocked me out. It was just so original, so imaginative", she stated. "That's what it is about this script and the world is that it feels like a fairy tale gone psycho and I think that's what most fairy tales actually started as." Additionally, Cody, Reitman and Kusama knew the film would be R rated because of the language.
In February 2008, a cease and desist was given to a writer at CC2K.us after they posted an advance script review for the film. The Latino Review also posted an advance review. At the time CC2K.us received their cease and desist order, questions were raised why Latino Review's largely positive script review was allowed to stay posted while CC2K was being forced by Fox Searchlight to remove their mainly negative coverage. Although Latino Review was later asked to remove their review, numerous other websites and blogs published their own critiques of the script.
Cody stated that when writing the script, she was "simultaneously trying to pay tribute to some of the conventions that we've already seen in horror, yet, at the same time, kind of turn them on their ear". One of her influences from the 1980s horror genre was the film The Lost Boys. She wanted to "honor that, and at the same time, [she] had never really seen this particular subgenre done with girls and [she] tried to do a little of both". Despite this, she said she had noticed that "the last survivor standing in the typical horror film is a woman" and that because of this she feels "horror has always had kind of a feminist angle to it in a weird way and, at the same time, it's kind of delightfully exploitative". Jennifer's Body could play on both of these aspects.
Cody said she wanted the film to speak to female empowerment and explore the complex relationships between best friends. "(Director) Karyn Kusama and I are both outspoken feminists", she said. "We wanted to subvert the classic horror model of women being terrorized. I want to write roles that service women. I want to tell stories from a female perspective. I want to create good parts for actresses where they're not just accessories to men." Addressing "the male-dominated" horror genre, Cody said "a key reason for writing the film was to bring to the screen a new way of expressing the intensity of female bonds" and that the adolescent female friendships she experienced were unparalleled in their intensity. She wanted to show the "almost horrific" aspect of such devotion and its relation to parasitism.
The producers decided to have the film open with the statement "Hell is a teenage girl" to reflect the "horrors" of puberty and that "the hellish emotions felt during high school often reappear as teenage girls mature into young women". Cody stated:
> There's the scene where Jennifer's sitting alone smearing makeup on her face. I always thought that was such a sad image. She's so vulnerable. I don't know any woman who hasn't had a moment sitting in front of the mirror and thinking, 'Help me, I want to be somebody else.' What makes it extra affecting is that [Megan Fox] is stunning.
Cody crafted the story to follow a night that ends in a tragic fire, after which Jennifer is kidnapped and set up as a sacrifice which goes awry. Jennifer, now possessed by a demon and subsequently altered into a succubus, sets out on a bloody rampage in which she devours boys, and it is up to Needy to stop her. In sort of a reversal aspect of how puberty changes a girl's life, Jennifer must consume the blood of others once a month or she becomes weak and plain-looking. "It's a meek shall inherit the Earth sort of thing. I think it's always really satisfying and cathartic to see a character that was previously bullied become super human", said Cody. Cody said the script is not a reflection of any part of her own life, but that she is more like character Needy. "I would say I was more of a Needy than a Jennifer. I was never an Alpha female, and I've never gotten off with bullying other people", she said. "If I had to choose, I was definitely the one being shoved, not the one shoving."
The nickname "Needy" was given to Seyfried's character to underline the essentially condescending dynamic in Jennifer and Needy's high school relationship, as Needy often admires Jennifer and feels she needs her. Cody said "Jennifer is a product of a culture that pressures girls to be skinny, beautiful and just like movie stars" and that she "hopes the film inspires girls to take life into their own hands and do with it, what they want". "If I had gone to this movie as a teenage girl, I would've come out of it feeling totally inspired", she stated. "I would've wanted to write, I would've wanted to create and I would've felt like I watched something that was speaking to me."
Assigned to direct the film, Kusama said, "I think also a lot of horror is about femaleness – whether it's Carrie or Rosemary's Baby." She said she feels "like there's a lot of fear of the female or kind of celebration of it in some weird way and something about this movie managed to take the fear and the sense that it's the female that ultimately survives and sort of marry that in a really interesting way".
Addressing her decision to have Jennifer and Needy be romantically intimate at one point during the film, which takes place in the form of a long and passionate kissing scene, Cody said she did not write the scene to score publicity. Speaking of the scene's media hype, she said that "if the two protagonists of the film were a guy and a girl and in a particularly tense moment, they shared a kiss, no one would say it was gratuitous" but "the fact that they're women means it's some kind of stunt". The scene was "intended to be something profound and meaningful" to her and Kusama. She further stated:
> Obviously we knew people were going to totally sensationalize it. They're beautiful girls, the scene is hot—I'm not afraid to say that. There is a sexual energy between the girls which is kind of authentic, because I know when I was a teen-aged girl, the friendships that I had with other girls were almost romantic, they were so intense. I wanted to sleep at my friend's house every night, I wanted to wear her clothes, we would talk on the phone until our ears ached. I wanted to capture that heightened feeling you get as an adolescent that you don't really feel as a grownup. (laughs) You like [your] friends when you're a grownup, but you don't need to sleep in the same bed with them and talk to them on the phone until 5 a.m. every night.
Though the film is part comedy, Cody initially intended for it to be a "very dark, very brooding" traditional slasher film. Close to "a third of the way into the process" she felt that she was incapable of doing so because "the humor just kept sneaking in". She stated, "I have a macabre sense of humor. A lot of the things in the movie that are horrifying are funny to me." Feeling that "comedy films and horror films are kind of similar" due to being films where you can significantly gauge intense audience reactions, Cody stated, "They're laughing, they're screaming, it's not a passive experience. So, I actually think comedy and horror are kind of similar in that way."
### Design and effects
Handling the film's special effects were KNB EFX GROUP and Moving Picture Company (MPC). For Jennifer's demonic form, the creators used different techniques. "I actually wasn't in [the makeup chair] that much because they created an entire head. They did a live cast of me from the shoulders up. They created me and then put the teeth in", stated Fox. "To save my face, they had a photo double that would come in and do most of the crazy monster makeup - they would do that on her. So it would go from me, then in post-production it would somehow go to her and the fake head. They would mix them all together."
For the "vomit scene" where Jennifer has just arrived at Needy's house after being murdered and inhabited by a demon, Fox said the liquid she was given to spit out "was actually ... chocolate syrup initially". "We did a few takes where I would just do this scream and sort of puke Hershey's chocolate syrup. Scratch the Hershey's because I don't want to endorse that or anything", she stated. "And then, special effects did a rig that clamps onto my ear and you revisit it in the pool scene ..." Fox said it "clips on. It goes around the back of my ear and then I bite down on it on the side of my face, like this, and it projectiles. It's a tube ..."
Director Kusama said it had a classic feel. Fox agreed, "Yeah, and it projects whatever that material was. I'm not sure. It was pretty intense. I think it was worse for [Seyfried] because she's the one that got puked on. I was the one doing the puking."
For more practical special effects on the set as opposed to CG, Kusama said it "was a choice that we all sort of made organically". She said they appreciate "those kind of effects in older movies and [questions] sometimes how much more effective it is to use a ton of CG" and that they "always started with a practical effect and then moved forward from there to lay a groundwork of something that's actually physically, materially there". They found this to be more enjoyable.
Erik Nordby of KNB (known for his work on The Haunting in Connecticut, which also features co-star Kyle Gallner) stated, "We immediately went into pitch mode in January and spent a solid two weeks trying to not only bid the script but also collect as much reference material and stuff for the first client get together." He said the director and producers wanted an "old-school, hands-off, lo-fi approach to the visual effects" so that the horror elements would not overpower the storyline. Based on the script, MPC similarly came to the same conclusion and "provided a clear direction" for Nordby and his team. "At that point when we met with them, they had already met with KNB, who had already done up a stylized still of what, at the time, they were calling 'Evil Jennifer,'" he said. "There was a lot of info yet to come, but based on the script, Jennifer goes from very beautiful Megan Fox to a very ghoulish, succubus creature whose jaw distends half-way down her face." Nordby said the look was eventually toned down at the wishes of MPC. From there, KNB "produced some tests, grabbing a bunch of stills from [Fox] and [did their] work to indicate how that balance could exist between special effects and visual effects and still maintain a level of subtlety" and that "[MPC] responded really well".
The teams wanted to "maintain some sort of the Megan Fox allure" but said that it was "incredibly difficult because as soon as [they] warped her face in any direction, the shine kind of came off it". To combat this, they ended up focusing on anything below her nose, where they had the freedom to make things "as horrific as [they] needed to" and then above her nose, "[they] could manipulate it somewhat with warps and color correction in her eye sockets. So even at her worst, she had some of that sexiness throughout".
Nordby said most of the attention was devoted to Jennifer's face and that "very quickly in combination" with special effects and makeup, MPC thought up a five-station system for what Jennifer goes through. Nordby stated:
> Stage one is beautiful Jennifer and then two and three were strictly makeup where her eyes become more recessed and she would start to look plain like the rest of us. And stage four was some custom dentures that KNB made for her, and then visual effects in stage four was mainly facial warping and recessing her eyes some more and having a pinning effect to her irises and a variety of other musculature deforms, just bringing her cheek bones down more. And stage five was the full on, as crazy as it gets, which you don't really see until near the end.
During testing, Nordby and the special effects teams realized that getting Fox in and out of the appliance used to create Jennifer's murderous jaw would be too time-consuming. To remedy this, they hired a photo double. "[E]very day (for about 10 days) she would sit in a chair with this full appliance on her and we would shoot this jaw, and then all [Fox] would have to do is the dentures", stated Nordby. He said that "when it came time to shoot any of these jaw moments, [Fox] would act out in rehearsal how she was going to attack her victim and [they would] fine tune that blocking so it was relatively locked". The camera accompanied them in the same way, as "it would roll and she would put her dentures in, and they would really distort her face" in a way that would produce a satisfying and nice side effect. Additionally, the team would have Fox wear contact lenses and go through exactly the same motions as normal Jennifer. "But then I would shoot all the key poses that existed in whatever moves the digital double was doing, so that we had as much of that appliance in that lighting condition that we could get", said Nordby. "KNB also created a hairless but high detailed head of the stage five Jennifer that had an articulating jaw."
Nordby spent a significant amount of time shooting "the articulating jaw" scene because they had "ultimate control over how the light was hitting the head". He said, "This so-called jaw shot became a pivotal point, because for four months of the post, the filmmakers thought the film was getting too scary so MPC pulled back on the jaw and then they thought it wasn't scary enough." Because of this, "they pushed back and this jaw went back and forth quite a bit to help navigate where they wanted the tone on any given day". These different poses helped the two teams perfect the jaw scenes. "From a marketing point of view, from all the test screenings they did", said Nordby, "there was a lot of work figuring out how to make this a scary film as well as a funny film." Since the team was on a small budget, they "relied more on skilled artists to think through shots rather than a brute force approach".
MPC additionally worked on the disappearing waterfall that serves as Jennifer's grave when she is killed at the beginning of the film. They transformed the mysterious waterfall into a whirlpool. "We came up with an approach that we thought would work because we had a lot of confidence in our water sims", stated Nordby. "The waterfall appears both as a day and night shot, so we had to integrate with the water. And the night shots play a pivotal role in the film, and we do a huge crane over." They could not lock it to a pan or to a tilt and filming the shots was difficult due to the actual base of the waterfall being out of reach. Nordby said, "I eventually lowered down a shot—a ton of reference of the area because I knew we'd have to do some digi-matte work to recreate the basin that the whirlpool ends up in." They soon realized that there was an insufficient amount of churning and foam to read as real as the location. The CG Supervisor, Pete Dionne, presented a different idea. "He grabbed chunks of that river and tialing it so that it had a nice stretch of birds' eye point of view of the water that existed on the location in the lighting situation we were trying to match", stated Nordby. "And then he projected that onto a whirlpool of animated sprites and had similar enough texture to the actual water that existed there, but pulled control into lighting it and could add depth mainly to the center of it." Dealing with "very shallow" water, the team had to take extra care when filming the scenes.
During the film's fire scene, Cody appears as a character in the barroom. "To me, I am afraid of fire and fire technics and all that stuff which is why I don't know why I asked to be in the bar scene because I've never exploded before", she said. She had asked to be set on fire. "That was me trying to conquer a fear. By the way, they would not allow me to do a full burn for insurance purposes, even though I argued that Burt Reynolds had done it once", stated Cody. "But apparently he got really hurt, so they would not let me. To me, there's nothing more horrifying than being stuck in a claustrophobic space as it is burning down so, to me, it was more like tapping into a personal fear. That's not tough."
### Filming
In late 2007, Fox Atomic had plans to film Jennifer's Body before a possible writer's strike. When the Writers Guild of America strike began, shooting was then moved to March 7, 2008, in Burnaby, British Columbia, specifically at Robert Burnaby Park near Cariboo Hill Secondary School. Some of the scenes, particularly those situated in a school setting, were filmed in local Vancouver-area schools such as Vancouver Technical Secondary School, Langley Secondary School and University Hill Secondary School. The waterfalls scene was filmed at Cascade Falls in Cascade Falls Regional Park in British Columbia.
Fox said that while filming her highly anticipated kissing scene with Seyfried that Seyfried was "extremely uncomfortable" but that she herself was not. "I feel much safer with girls, so I felt more comfortable kissing [Seyfried] than kissing any of the other people that I had to kiss", she said. Seyfried's uneasiness in the scene caused "giggling fits" between takes. Seyfried said that neither of them wanted to do the kiss because they felt it was just for promotional purposes. She agreed with Fox that she was uneasy about acting out the scene. "It was my first time doing a real kissing scene with a woman", she stated. "It is just weird. It is a woman. With a woman's smell—soft and floraly—and maybe the pheromones are different. Something about it felt uncomfortable for me."
### Music
Music was incorporated as an essential part of the film; there are "very specific bands" placed in band posters in some parts, such as in the selection of the band poster on the walls of the bar. Kusama said "[t]he music was a huge component of the movie" and this is first evident with "the songs that we see and hear performed, but then, just the vibe of the movie actually". She said, "As the movie progresses, it becomes a pretty clearly music-oriented movie. It's sort of a youth movie. Some of those bands were totally made up and some of them are not."
## Release
### Critical response
#### Contemporary
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 46% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 212 reviews, and an average rating of 5.20/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Jennifer's Body features occasionally clever dialogue but the horror/comic premise fails to be either funny or scary enough to satisfy." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews from mainstream critics, the film holds a score of 47 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C-" on an A+ to F scale.
Film critic Roger Ebert enjoyed the film, dubbing it a "Twilight for boys" and saying "as a movie about a flesh-eating cheerleader, it's better than it has to be." Ebert said that within Cody there is "the soul of an artist, and her screenplay brings to this material a certain edge, a kind of gleeful relish, that's uncompromising. This isn't your assembly-line teen horror thriller". Additionally, he complimented Fox as "[coming] through" in her portrayal and "play[ing] the role straight". He gave the film three out of four stars. Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail gave the film three out of four stars. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated it is "Hot! Hot! Hot!" and that "Director Karyn Kusama is torn between duty to female empowerment and slasher convention". He credited Fox's portrayal as showing "a comic flair" that Transformers "never investigated". Tom Charity of CNN said "[the] last time a horror flick tried for a distinctly female point of view the result was Twilight, which was more of a wan gothic romance than a chiller" and "Fox makes a convincing vixen, callously picking up victims whenever her luster begins to fade. It's not hard to imagine she can have anyone who takes her fancy". Charity credited the dialogue as "bitingly smart, funny teen-speak ... along with sharp pop culture references".
Mary Pols of Time magazine called the film entertaining and reasoned "[t]here is a lot of intelligent camp here, and some sharply observed characterizations" and Cody and Kusama's "depiction of the ways in which women like Needy are willing to compromise themselves to indulge an ultimately less secure friend is spot-on". Dana Stevens of Slate praised the film for being "luscious and powerful, sexy and scary, maddening at times, but impossible to stop watching" and a "wicked black comedy with unexpected emotional resonance, one of the most purely pleasurable movies of the year so far". Elle's Karen Durbin said the film not only puts "a fresh spin on female-centric pop genres but also own[s] them outright" and is "rich with first-rate performances".
The Miami Herald's Rene Rodriguez likened the film's "[effective exploitation] of the genre as a metaphor for adolescent angst, female sexuality and the strange, sometimes corrosive bonds between girls who claim to be best friends" to Brian De Palma's 1976 film Carrie. She applauded the film for being fearless when delving into the subject of teen sex and for reversing the notion that only "bad girls have sex when they're 16 [and the] good ones—those who, like Needy, do their homework and are responsible—never slide past first base". Nick Pinkerton of Sci Fi Weekly called Fox and Seyfried's lesbian kissing scene "the best close-up girl-girl liplock" since Cruel Intentions (1999), and A. O. Scott of The New York Times concluded "the movie deserves—and is likely to win—a devoted cult following, despite its flaws" and that "[these flaws] are mitigated by a sensibility that mixes playful pop-culture ingenuity with a healthy shot of feminist anger".
Giving a partially negative review of the film was Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York, who said the "movie has a centerfold sheen to it—and some lesbianic soft-core flirtation to match—as its plot dives deeply into Twilight-esque heavy-melo meltdown in the last act" and that "Cody throws one too many losses at Needy; the screenwriter loses her satiric way about halfway through. But for a while, this has real fangs". Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post said, "There's a certain kooky, kinky fun to be had with Jennifer's Body" but that "[a]dmittedly, this is the stuff of lurid adolescent distraction, not great cinema" and "is strictly a niche item but provides a goofy, campy bookend to Drag Me to Hell (2009) on the B-movie shelf. Watch it, forget it, move on". San Francisco Chronicle's Peter Hartlaub stated, "Enjoy the film for its witty dialogue and fun performances, but know that there isn't a single good scare. An episode of Murder, She Wrote has more thrills." Hartlaub felt the film is not bad, is "almost always pleasing" and that Fox "proves that she has some [acting] range" but "the chances that it will be somebody else's pop culture reference 27 years from now are slim to none". Joe Neumaier of New York Daily News said, "Fox merely needs to look either vacant or evil, which the Transformers boy-toy does spookily well" but "[w]ords and story are still the lifeblood of a movie, and Jennifer's Body is filled like a Twinkie with half-fleshed-out ideas". Disagreeing with Fox's performance, Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips called Fox "a pretty bad actress" who "doesn't seem to get Cody's sense of humor. At all". He reasoned the "movie's partially redeemed by Seyfried, who makes her character more than a repository for audience sympathy" and "her make-out scene with Fox is handled with more suspense and care than anything else in the movie".
Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun described the only "perfect aspect" of Jennifer's Body as being its title. "No one is going to like this movie for its brain", he said. Claudia Puig of USA Today stated of the film, "Jennifer's Body is not as hot as you hope it would be". Where others praised the film's dialogue, MSNBC's Alonso Duralde called the writing lazy and "[w]orse still, all of Cody's trademark pop-culture–infused dialogue stands out as artificial and precious". Jennifer's Body, he said, wants "so badly" to be a Heathers-esque dark comedy, "but its shortcomings makes you appreciate why that earlier film was so great". Ty Burr of The Boston Globe also said the film wants to be like Heathers, and reminded him "a lot" of Heathers but the only scene in the film that "actually feels dangerous" is when the possessed Jennifer initiates a long and passionate kiss with Needy, which the film "very, very nervously backs away from" and that "Jennifer's Body falls into the dispiriting category of dumb movies made by smart people, in this case a glibly clever writer and a talented director who think a few wisecracks are enough to subvert the teen horror genre".
#### Retrospective
In 2018, Constance Grady reported in Vox that a new critical consensus was forming that appreciated the film as a "forgotten feminist classic". She stated that after the Me Too movement highlighted routine sexual harassment and misconduct in the media industry, the film's story of "a group of powerful men sacrificing a girl's body on the altar of their own professional advancement" became "uncomfortably familiar." This, according to Grady, allowed viewers to see the film, rather than as a sex fantasy, as a revenge fantasy as Jennifer uses her abused body against her attackers.
According to the screenwriter, Diablo Cody, the film was marketed "all wrong". She had argued with executives who wanted "to market this to boys who like Megan Fox. That's who's going to see it. And I was like. No! This is a movie for girls too! That audience, they did not attempt to reach."
In a 2022 essay on its status as a classic queer and bisexual film, Carmen Maria Machado wrote that Jennifer's Body speaks to "what it means to experience parallel sexualities with your best friend as you punch through the last vestiges of childhood." Machado rejects accusations that the film is guilty of queerbaiting, considering it instead an effective depiction of the "central body of water that is bisexuality" which many queer people spend at least some of their life in.
### Box office
Though the film was expected to pull in a significant number of the late teenage/young adult audience, particularly males aged 17 and older, and though Cody hoped for a large female turnout, it earned a "disappointing" \$2.8 million on its opening Friday and \$6.8 million its opening weekend at the North American box office; the film placed \#5, while 3D animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs placed \#1 with \$30.1 million. Produced for \$16 million, Jennifer's Body did manage to attract the sizable female audience Cody wanted; 51% were female, with 70% of patrons under age 25. The film had been expected to benefit somewhat from its heavily marketed lesbian kissing scene between Fox and Seyfried, which, in addition to Fox being in the film, was thought to entice and successfully attract male viewers. Critic Jim Vejvoda at IGN stated that such a scene is not as shocking as it was in past decades and cannot be expected to significantly pull in an audience. The film grossed \$16,204,793 domestically and \$15,351,268 in international sales, for a worldwide total of \$31,556,061.
Box-office analysts and critics debated the film's underperformance. Analyst Jeff Bock, of Exhibitor Relations, reasoned the film underperformed at the box office due to two reasons; the first, he said, is the genre. Bock stated that Americans get horror and comedy, but with the idea "of those two things together in one place, people suddenly get very dumb". "The horror-comedy genre is the toughest sell in Hollywood", he said. He noted films Tremors, Slither, Shaun of the Dead, Eight Legged Freaks and The Evil Dead series, and said that while many of those are considered critical and business successes, "none of them have brought in the megabucks that a simple horror or comedy can." In addition, he labeled the Scream franchise as more "straight-up horror" than comedy and stated Zombieland's box office performance would determine the horror-comedy genre's current viability.
Despite other R-rated horror films having centered around teenagers, some such as Scream having been successful, Bock said the second reason Jennifer's Body under-performed at the box office is the R-rating, which he described as a "killer" for the film. He said the film is set in high school and "sounds like the perfect package for teens" but that "the R rating banned many teens from the theaters" and the studio was left with "an R-rated film marketed to whom, exactly?" Nicole Sperling of Entertainment Weekly felt that it was a slow and disappointing weekend for the box office in general; 3D animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was steep competition, and with low box office performances by the Matt Damon film The Informant! and Jennifer Aniston film Love Happens, she concluded that this may support "the current hypothesis floating around Hollywood, that movie stars no longer matter" and that it takes more than a name to open a film. S.T. VanAirsdale of Movieline echoed Sperling's sentiment about the weekend, as "some of the stinkiest high-profile openings in recent memory". He concluded five reasons for Jennifer's Body's underperformance at the box office. The first, he said, is the distributor. "20th Century Fox's genre wing, Fox Atomic, had Jennifer's Body in the can by the time the mother ship shut it down last spring", he said. "Instead of offloading the film to Fox Searchlight, which nimbly maneuvered Diablo Cody's previous brainchild Juno to awards-season lucre in 2007, a decision was somehow reached to fill a gap in Big Fox's early fall slate with a gory" and "post-feminist horror romp starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried". VanAirsdale classified this as a "[b]ig mistake" and that "[y]ou'd have to go back to The Devil Wears Prada to find an example of a Fox release that worked without a genuine male lead; you'd probably have to go back to Aliens to find a genre example of such that they pulled off successfully." He named the second reason as the marketing, stating that the film was not well-marketed (whether by billboards, transit posters, lobby standees, or other promotional venues), even in New York City.
VanAirsdale cited the release date and screening as the third and fourth reasons; he said there was confusion about what day the film was going to debut in theaters, and that Toronto is "a nation removed from the audience where the film's actual momentum had been accruing for at least a month" and that "this rarely works for early fall releases; not because news doesn't travel, obviously, but because it peels away a layer of accessibility that accompanies New York and L.A. bows." The final reason, he attributed to the critics, believing that the fusion of horror and teen comedy confused some of them. He mentioned Ty Burr's review in particular, and stated that the film could perhaps have used more horror and been funnier, but that the film is "ultimately a movie about two teenage girls' misadventures in victimization" and that "[t]he jokes are virtually incidental to the friction imposed on women who happen to be two sides of the same coin. Who's the monster, and who made the monster? Sorry if you wanted Heathers with demons, fellas. Equipment's cheap these days; perhaps make your own?"
Hollywood.com box-office analyst and President Paul Dergarabedian said "the poor numbers don't mean Fox can't open a movie." "It may be a matter of just choosing the right projects for her", he told Associated Press. "She's trying to find a world beyond Transformers, and she will. She's young and has a lot of promise."
### Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 29, 2009, in the United States and Canada. In Australia, the DVD and Blu-ray was released on May 18, 2010. The film opened at \#11 at the DVD sales chart, making \$1.6 million in the first week off 104,000 DVD units. There is a rated and an unrated version of the film, with the unrated version running about five minutes longer than the theatrical version. The UK Blu-ray lacks most of the extras found on the locked US release.
## Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was released by Fueled by Ramen on August 25, 2009, and featured previously released music by various indie rock and alternative rock bands such as White Lies, Florence + The Machine, Silversun Pickups and Black Kids. It also features pop punk band All Time Low and electropop singer Little Boots. In addition, the album features new songs from pop rock artists such as Cobra Starship and Panic! at the Disco and Paramore's lead singer Hayley Williams. The first single from the soundtrack is "New Perspective" by Panic! at the Disco.
The ending sequence of the film itself features a song, "Violet", from the album Live Through This by Hole. This same album also features a song entitled "Jennifer's Body." In total, the film features 22 songs, most of which are included on the soundtrack.
## Graphic novel
As a tie-in to the film, Boom! Studios produced a Jennifer's Body graphic novel. The graphic novel expands on the film's universe and Jennifer's murders of the boys. It was written by Black Metal's Rick Spears, with the first nine pages illustrated by Jim Mahfood (Clerks). Two covers, in Fox's likeness, were designed; one for the direct market by Eric Jones (available only in comic specialty stores), and the other by Frank Cho for the mass market focusing more on "hellish Jennifer stories" with art by Mahfood, Hack/Slash's Tim Seely, DMZ's Nikki Cook, and Popgun's Ming Doyle. The novel was released in August 2009.
The novel features less of Jennifer than the film, but does capture her "going in for the kill" several times. It focuses heavily on following her soon-to-be victims and provides information on their personalities not elaborated on in the film so that readers can better conclude whether the boys deserved to be murdered. The novel consists of four chapters, with a prologue and an epilogue, with art provided for each by different artists. Each one follows a different boy and what is happening in his life just before Jennifer kills him.
On creating the story, Spears stated, "The best part for me as a writer was to show some events from the movie from a different point of view, sort of like Rashomon for you Kurosawa fans. And with comics we can get into the character's [sic] heads in a way that works well in comics and novels more so than in film." He stated, "... I was using the medium to change what we really know about these characters and twist around what we see in the movies. All the academics aside, it's also very funny and gore splattered."
Spears stated that while writing the stories, the film was still being made and he had not seen any of it at the time. He mainly learned about the characters through the script. "I got to read the screenplay. It was kinda crazy writing characters that were being changed on set and in the editing process. I had to bob and weave to keep up but that was all part of the fun", he said.
## See also
- Ginger Snaps (film)—A 2000 film with a similar plot |
233,736 | John Edward Brownlee | 1,144,466,885 | Fifth Premier of Alberta, Canada (1883–1961) | [
"1883 births",
"1961 deaths",
"Canadian King's Counsel",
"Canadian Methodists",
"John Edward Brownlee",
"People from Norfolk County, Ontario",
"Premiers of Alberta",
"United Farmers of Alberta MLAs",
"University of Toronto alumni"
]
| John Edward Brownlee, QC (August 27, 1883 – July 15, 1961) was the fifth premier of Alberta, serving from 1925 until 1934. Born in Port Ryerse, Ontario, he studied history and political science at the University of Toronto's Victoria College before moving west to Calgary to become a lawyer. His clients included the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA); through his connection with that lobby group, he was involved in founding the United Grain Growers (UGG).
After the UFA entered electoral politics and won the 1921 election, new premier Herbert Greenfield asked Brownlee to serve as his attorney-general. Brownlee agreed and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in a by-election in the riding of Ponoka. As attorney-general, he was an important member of Greenfield's government. He was closely involved in its most important activities, including efforts to better the lot of farmers living in Alberta's drought-ridden south, divest itself of money-losing railways, and win jurisdiction over natural resources from the federal government. When a group of UFA backbenchers grew frustrated with Greenfield's weak leadership, they asked Brownlee to replace him. Brownlee eventually agreed, and became premier in 1925.
Brownlee enjoyed early success as premier: he handily won the 1926 election, signed an agreement with the federal government transferring control over Alberta's natural resources to its provincial government, sold the struggling government railways to the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railway companies, and ran a series of balanced budgets. Things became more difficult with the advent of the Great Depression. Brownlee was unable to restore the province to prosperity in the face of a global economic crisis, and reluctantly ran budget deficits. Political radicalism increased, and Brownlee found his orthodox approach to political economy under attack.
In 1934, Vivian MacMillan, a family friend, sued Brownlee for seduction. Brownlee denied any sexual relationship, but the jury found in MacMillan's favour. Though the judge disregarded the jury's verdict, the trial's lurid testimony and the stigma resulting from the jury's finding forced Brownlee's resignation as premier.
He ran for re-election in Ponoka in the 1935 provincial election but was defeated, as William Aberhart's Social Credit League swept the province. Once out of politics, Brownlee resumed the practice of law and joined the management of the UGG, serving as its president and general manager from 1948 until shortly before his death in 1961.
## Early life
### Childhood
John Edward Brownlee was born August 27, 1883, in Port Ryerse, Ontario, to William "Bill" James Brownlee (1856–1934) and Christina Brownlee (née Shaw; c. 1860–1941). He was named for his maternal grandfather, miller John Shaw, and paternal grandfather, carpenter Edward James Brownlee. Christina Brownlee was a former school mistress and William James Brownlee was the operator of the Port Ryerse general store. John Brownlee had one sister, Maude, born September 12, 1888. The Brownlees lived in the general store building, and it was here that John spent the happiest times of his childhood: he much preferred his parents' books, their political discussions with neighbours, and the details of their business to life outside the store. One anecdote has the village children, displeased with his serious temperament, throwing him into Lake Erie. By the age of seven, John was assisting at the store with such tasks as mixing butter from the different dairies with which his father dealt to produce a standardized blend.
By the end of the 1880s, Port Ryerse was dying out. The advent of railways was making tiny lake ports obsolete, and in Port Ryerse's case this obsolescence was hastened by the town mill burning down in August 1890. Against this backdrop, the family moved to Bradshaw, in Lambton County. There, John began school and attended Sunday school at the village's Methodist church. He was the only pupil at his tiny school not from a farm; he later claimed that this exposure to farmers gave him an early understanding of their concerns. He also became involved with his church's young people's club, which put on speaking programs. He was by nature shy, serious, and introverted, which made these programs a challenge at first; however, he found that he was able to succeed at them through focus and discipline.
In September 1897, Brownlee began high school. The closest high school was in Sarnia, too distant for a daily commute, so at the age of fourteen Brownlee boarded away from his family, seeing them only during holidays and occasional weekends. He was a good student—described by his instructors as "diligent", if not brilliant—but was not a social success, being too studious for many of his peers. He wrote his departmental examinations in July 1900 and graduated shortly thereafter.
### Early professional career
After graduating high school, Brownlee travelled with his father on a sales trip through northern Ontario, and otherwise assisted with the operation of the family business. His family expected him to become a teacher and, in September 1901, just after his eighteenth birthday, he enrolled at Sarnia Model School. There, Brownlee completed a fifteen-week program that included such subjects as school management, pedagogy, school law, reading instruction, and hygiene. He graduated December 12, 1901, second in his twenty-person class, and within a month was one of two teachers at Bradshaw's school.
He fast gained a reputation as a competent instructor: his old work ethic served him well, and his seriousness, cool blue-grey eyes, and six foot four frame combined to give him an impressive presence. His \$400 per year salary did not satisfy his ambition, and in the spring of 1904, after two and a half years on the job, he decided that he wanted a university education. His teaching salary was not sufficient to finance this, so he spent the summer of 1904 selling a one volume encyclopaedia in the newly settled areas around Rapid City, Manitoba. Besides providing him with the income he required—he was a patient, effective salesman and later boasted that he was never thrown off of a farm—the job gave the now 21-year-old Brownlee his first glimpse of Western Canada. Returning to Ontario at the summer's end, he enrolled at Victoria College at the University of Toronto.
### University
In Toronto, Brownlee pursued an honours program with specializations in history and political science. Besides these chosen subjects, he was required to study mathematics, biology, English literature, composition, Latin, and two additional languages—despite having some knowledge of French, he chose German and Hebrew. He continued his trend of diligent scholarship, and earned As in all subjects his first year except for Latin, German, and mathematics, in which he received Bs. The trend continued, and in his third year he was among the top five in his class in all subjects except economics, in which he was eighth. As he became more involved in extracurricular pursuits, these grades fell; after his fourth and final year, he graduated with III Class Honours, leaving him out of the top tier of students. His professors included historian George Wrong, whom Brownlee held in high esteem.
Brownlee was involved in a wide array of extracurricular pursuits. Chief among these were the Union Literary Society (dubbed "the Lit"), Acta Victoriana (the college's literary journal), and "the Bob" (a satirical revue). The first of these allowed him to hone his skills at formal debate; he earned a reputation as "one of the more effective although not the most dramatic of speakers". In his involvement with the journal, he developed his business skills: in his second year he was named assistant business manager, and he was promoted to business manager in his fourth year. His financial management of Acta Victoriana, along with that of the college glee club (for which he also served as business manager during his fourth year, organizing a ten-day tour of the Niagara region), earned him accolades. For the Bob, Brownlee temporarily abandoned his seriousness to write skits poking fun at the college and his classmates; these won good reviews, with the Acta Victoriana declaring the 1908 edition, which Brownlee headed, "one of the best ever". The summer following his third year, he attended the Conference of College Young Men's Associations at Niagara-on-the-Lake, where he attended Bible study classes and heard guest speakers encourage him to pursue a career in the clergy.
Brownlee's summers in university were spent selling stereoscopic viewers in England and magazine subscriptions in Toronto. He also derived a salary in his fourth year as business manager of the Acta Victoriana. These sources of income allowed him to rent a small room in a private home, and to subscribe to a meal plan at a local eatery for Can\$2.50 per week.
### Family
During Brownlee's convocation in 1908, he sneaked off to go canoeing in the Humber River with a female classmate, Isabella Govenlock. Upon their return, they announced that they were engaged. The news stunned friends of both, none of whom was aware of any romance between the two; moreover, the apparent spontaneity of the engagement seemed at odds with Brownlee's reputation for seriousness and caution. The engagement did not last, and the following winter Brownlee met and began to court Florence Edy, an arts student at McMaster College. In the summer of 1909, Edy moved with her family to Calgary; Brownlee, for a combination of personal and professional reasons, soon followed. The pair was married December 23, 1912, at the Toronto home of Edy's sister Blanche. A honeymoon trip back to Calgary via Chicago followed.
Brownlee and his wife had two sons: John Edy Brownlee was born December 1915, and Alan Marshall Brownlee was born September 1917. Florence's pregnancy with Alan, combined with a bout of poor health before it, made her a virtual invalid in subsequent years. This was exacerbated by the 1919 birth and death in infancy of a daughter. Also in 1919, Brownlee visited his family in Ontario; he returned to Alberta with his sister, Maude, who assisted Florence with the care of her children. Soon after, a full-time maid was hired.
While John Brownlee relished life in Alberta, Florence missed her friends and family in Ontario. Her own health was only made worse by worry about her sons: John was perpetually nervous, and Alan was high-strung and sickly. It did not help that, beginning in 1921, her husband spent the work week in Edmonton, commuting home to Calgary only for the weekends. This situation continued until 1923, when the family moved to Edmonton's Garneau region. In 1926, on the way home from a visit east, Florence Brownlee and her sons were examined at the Mayo Clinic, where all three were given clean bills of health; Florence in particular was advised to "resume a more active life".
Although Brownlee's public image was of a severe and humourless technocrat, in private he allowed himself some levity. Christmas morning 1923, the Brownlee boys awoke to find footprints of coal dust leading from the fireplace to the stairs and a handwritten note from Santa Claus apologizing for the mess and explaining that he had been searching for one of his reindeer. It transpired that he had mistaken one of Florence's feet, emerging from the covers at the foot of her bed, for an antler. On another occasion, Brownlee reacted to his sons' displeasure at leaving his parents' cat in Ontario by acquiring a large bloodhound, which he himself came to enjoy.
## Legal career
### Early career
At the time of Brownlee's graduation from Victoria College, the path of entry to his chosen profession, law, was through three years of articling instead of law school. Brownlee and Victoria classmate Fred Albright resolved to go west; after narrowing the choice to either Calgary or Vancouver, the former was selected on the basis that its legal community was less established, and it offered better prospects to young lawyers without significant capital. There, Brownlee was articled to Lougheed, Bennett, Allison & McLaws, whose partners included Sir James Lougheed and R. B. Bennett. Brownlee became quite close to Bennett; the future Prime Minister often visited him after hours while Brownlee was studying, and used his honed memory and impressive oratorical skills to give the younger man detailed lectures on whatever area of law he was reading about, illustrated by precise and invariably accurate references to cases. Despite his relationship with Bennett, Brownlee was dissatisfied with the work he was being given, and he moved to Muir, Jephson and Adams, where he hoped to practice more commercial law. There he benefited from the tutelage of James Muir, who spent hours finding precise citations relevant to Brownlee's studies, and then left the casebooks open to the appropriate page for Brownlee to find the next morning.
On December 16, 1912, Brownlee was called to the Alberta Bar. He began work as an associate with Muir, Jephson and Adams; in 1914 he was made partner. He took advantage of his membership in Victoria College's newly founded Calgary alumni branch to build professional connections. On the outbreak of World War I, Brownlee did not enlist; his biographer, Lakeland College historian Franklin Foster, speculates that this may have been because of his eyesight, but notes that he did not involve himself in patriotic fundraising or volunteer work and questions whether he "completely shared the values and ideals of his generation".
### Farmers' lawyer
One of Muir, Jephson and Adams' major clients was a new agricultural lobby organization called the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), and it was with this group that Brownlee began to work most closely. Among his first tasks for the UFA was to assist with the creation of a province-wide farmer-owned company to own and operate the province's grain elevators. Early in 1913, he was part of a delegation to lobby the provincial government of Arthur Sifton to grant a charter to such a company; Sifton was cognizant of the political power of the UFA, and quickly incorporated the Alberta Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Company (AFCEC) Limited, but refused the farmers' request to guarantee bank loans to the new company. These guarantees were instead received from the Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGG), a Manitoba-based equivalent of the AFCEC.
Brownlee became the AFCEC's lawyer, and in that capacity dealt with lawsuits against the company alleging incompetence on the part of its general manager and fraud on the part of a former auditor. His most important work for the AFCEC, however, was in merging it with the GGG to form the United Grain Growers (UGG). In 1916, new AFCEC president Cecil Rice-Jones began to advocate the amalgamation of western Canada's farmer-controlled grain elevator companies. The Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company was uninterested, leaving the AFCEC and the GGG as the two potential partners. After accompanying Rice-Jones to a meeting with Alberta Public Works Minister Charles Stewart, Brownlee initially found himself in agreement with Stewart's belief that the companies' shareholders would not accept amalgamation, and that a holding company should instead be created to run both companies' affairs. After further study, however, he changed his mind and pursued the amalgamation with his typical focus. He reviewed the two companies' corporate charters, and found that the GGG's prevented it from either selling out to another company or acquiring sufficient capitalization to buy out the AFCEC. The charter could only be amended by the Parliament of Canada, and the GGG was concerned that any request for amendment would lead eastern Canadian financial interests to successfully lobby for a weakening of farmers' rights. A meeting of both companies' boards at the GGG's Winnipeg offices nevertheless reached the reluctant conclusion that such a request was necessary for amalgamation. Though Brownlee continued to fear resistance from shareholders, both companies' annual general meetings approved the proposal. Brownlee was heavily involved at both meetings, fielding questions from shareholders about legal ramifications and serving on ad hoc subcommittees to study aspects of the proposal. Once the proposal was approved, he drew up the necessary agreements, bylaws, stock certificates, and other instruments. The UGG came into existence September 1, 1917.
As lawyer for the UGG, Brownlee began to sympathize with the prevailing farmers' view that the eastern Canadian business establishment was hostile to their interests (for example, when the UGG wanted to sell twine, no manufacturer would supply it). He recommended that the UGG reduce farmers' reliance on the eastern establishment by expanding its operations into insurance, investment, and real estate. The result was the United Grain Growers Securities Ltd. He also helped the UGG quietly sell the stock it held in the Home Bank of Canada when UGG directors began to doubt the bank's soundness; this subtlety was considered essential, as the directors were concerned that airing their doubts publicly would make the bank's failure a self-fulfilling prophecy. When UGG Assistant General Manager J. R. Murray found an interested buyer, Brownlee advised Murray against insisting on an intricate written sales contract for fear that the buyer would sense the directors' concerns. His advice was heeded, and the sale was concluded December 29, 1919. The bank failed less than four years later.
In July 1919 Brownlee left Muir, Jephson and Adams to accept a full-time position with the UGG at \$6,000 per year. Several months later this was increased to \$7,500 in view of his increased responsibilities as General Manager of UGG Securities. In 1922, he was made King's Counsel. Brownlee was doing well in both law and business, and expected to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
### UFA and politicization
Though most of his legal work was for the AFCEC and then the UGG, Brownlee also made contact with leaders of the UFA proper, including William Irvine, Irene Parlby, Herbert Greenfield, and, most importantly, Henry Wise Wood. The charismatic Wood was the UFA's president, and Brownlee often accompanied him to speaking engagements at UFA locals across Alberta in 1919 and 1920. Wood held audiences enraptured with his sermons on cooperation and social justice—Brownlee at one point likened the UFA to a religion—while Brownlee explained the services offered by the UFA's central office and answered members' legal questions. His trips with Wood aroused Brownlee's interest in the political side of the farmers' movement, which he began to study in greater detail.
Another of Brownlee's contacts was T. A. Crerar, who had recently become leader of the Progressive Party of Canada, and it was to him that Brownlee turned for his political education. Crerar introduced Brownlee to Ernest Charles Drury, the newly elected United Farmers of Ontario Premier of Ontario, and arranged for a meeting between Brownlee and Charles Stewart, by now Alberta Premier. During the latter meeting, Brownlee told Stewart that he felt that the UFA's desires could be accommodated within Stewart's Liberal government, but warned against a quick election. Foster suggests that this strategic advice from a political neophyte offended Stewart; whether this is true or not, Stewart did call a quick election, for July 1921. The UFA had decided in January 1919, against Woods' wishes, that it would run candidates in the next election.
Before the provincial election, there was a federal by-election scheduled for June 1921 in Medicine Hat. Crerar's Progressives were running Robert Gardiner, a local farmer, and Crerar asked Wood and Greenfield (the Vice President of the UFA) to broker an alliance between farmers and labour in the mixed rural-urban riding. Before these efforts could come to fruition, the federal government of Conservative Arthur Meighen disclosed allegations of irregularities in the management of some of the UGG's elevators. At a hearing on June 4, former employees testified of storage bins with false bottoms and bribed railway employees. These allegations involved events from 1912 until 1914, and their sudden prominence in 1921 made some in the UFA suspect that the hearings were politically motivated. Brownlee, as the UGG's attorney, was successful in obtaining an injunction against further hearings until the UGG had time to conduct its own investigation and, as importantly, until the Medicine Hat by-election was over. Gardiner won by a wide margin.
While most of the UFA was preparing for the 1921 provincial election, Brownlee went on vacation in Victoria for a month; despite his recent interest in politics, he still viewed himself as a lawyer and businessman with little role to play in the UFA's electoral activities. Before leaving Calgary, he was assured by Wood that the UFA would not win more than 20 of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta's 61 seats; in fact, it won 38. Brownlee watched the results come in at the offices of the Victoria Colonist.
The UFA, not a political party in the conventional sense, had contested the election without a leader. While its control of the majority of seats in the legislature entitled it, under the conventions of the Westminster parliamentary system, to form the government, it was not clear who would become Premier. Wood was the natural choice, but he declined the job for several reasons. To Brownlee's surprise, Wood proposed that he should become premier instead. Brownlee declined, surmising that many of the newly elected farmer-politicians would have seen an urban lawyer in the premier's office as a repudiation of much of what they stood for. Ultimately, Greenfield was selected.
## Attorney-General
Greenfield appointed Brownlee his attorney-general, and soon after Brownlee was acclaimed in a by-election in Ponoka. His training in business and law, unique in the UFA caucus, gave him a central role in most of the government's initiatives; he also led the defense against attacks from the Liberal opposition, and eventually became responsible for setting the agenda for cabinet meetings.
Brownlee quickly entrenched himself in the conservative wing of the UFA caucus. He resisted measures that would take decision-making out of government departments and transfer them to the caucus or UFA locals, and opposed the efforts of some UFA backbenchers to transform the application of the Westminster system in Alberta. When the UFA's more radical elements called for the creation of a government-owned bank, Brownlee dismissed the idea as neither financially nor constitutionally feasible. His concern for the government's finances extended to its budget deficit; when he found Greenfield's spending cuts wanting, he cut staff from his own department to set an example. In a further attempt to better the government's financial position, he unsuccessfully advocated the sale of its four money-losing railways to Canadian National (CPR) or Canadian Pacific (CPR).
A longstanding objective of the Alberta government had been winning control of Alberta's lands and natural resources from the federal government. The older provinces already had this control, but when Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba were admitted to Confederation, the federal government retained resource rights and paid the provincial governments an annual grant as compensation. As attorney-general, Brownlee was Alberta's chief negotiator in these efforts, and met frequently with representatives of Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. While negotiations occasionally seemed promising, King was unwilling to fully commit to the transfer, possibly because Charles Stewart, now King's Alberta lieutenant, and John R. Boyle, leader of the provincial Liberals, were sworn enemies of the UFA.
As a farmers' government, the UFA was committed to helping farmers in the province's drought-stricken south. Brownlee authored the Drought Relief Act, which created a Drought Relief Commissioner to provide farmers with financial counselling and help them reach settlements with banks when they were unable to pay their debts. He also played a leading role in the creation of the Alberta Wheat Pool.
Brownlee's department was responsible for administration of prohibition. Though the policy initially enjoyed the support of most Albertans, disregard for it was sufficiently widespread that effective enforcement proved impossible. The 1922 murder of Alberta Provincial Police constable Steve Lawson by bootleggers Emil Picariello and Florence Lassandro, for which they were hanged, helped turn public opinion against it. A referendum held on the issue found most voters willing to replace prohibition with government-owned liquor stores and rigidly-regulated beer parlours. And the Act was repealed. The Lord's Day Act, which prohibited most commerce on Sundays, was also Brownlee's responsibility, though he had little enthusiasm for it and prosecuted only the most flagrant violations.
Many UFA MLAs came to see the government's reliance on Brownlee as embarrassing, and Greenfield's abilities as too limited to continue to lead. In 1924, they pressured Greenfield to resign so Brownlee could replace him; Brownlee scuppered the plot by warning that Greenfield's resignation would be accompanied by his own. A second attempt in 1925 was successful when Wood intervened to convince Brownlee to accept the premiership and Greenfield assured him that he would be pleased to be rid of it. Brownlee became Premier of Alberta November 23, 1925.
## Premier
### First term (1926–1930)
Brownlee's first challenges as premier were similar to those he had faced as attorney-general: winning control of Alberta's natural resources, selling the money-losing railways, and balancing the provincial budget. Before he could do any of these, however, he needed to win the impending provincial election. He accomplished this, winning 43 seats in the 1926 election, an increase from the 38 that the UFA had won in 1921 and enough for a majority in the 60-seat legislature.
Once returned to office, Brownlee turned his attention to his other priorities. Many of them required the cooperation of King's Liberal federal government: provincial control of resources would require the acquiescence of the federal government, and Brownlee felt that the deficit was in part the result of the federal government's failure to cover its rightful share of expenses. King was himself reliant on the UFA: his minority government survived thanks to the support of Progressives and allied factions, including the 11 UFA MPs. Though some UFA legislators preferred Arthur Meighen's Conservatives, Brownlee personally supported the King government, and even appeared to consider an offer from the Prime Minister to take Brownlee into his cabinet.
Brownlee attempted to leverage his relationship with King to win provincial control of natural resources. He won such an agreement in 1926, but it was soon scuttled by the federal addition of a clause requiring Alberta to continue supporting separate Roman Catholic schools. Wrangling over this clause persisted until 1929, when a compromise was reached. All that remained was the question of compensation to Alberta for land given away by the federal government, and by the end of 1929 agreement on this too was reached. Brownlee returned from Ottawa to Alberta, where he was greeted by 3,000 cheering supporters.
Brownlee was similarly successful in divesting the government of its railways. When his initial attempts to sell them to the CNR or CPR failed, the provincial government took over direct operation of the lines in 1927. In 1928, they began to show a profit, and one of the lines was soon sold to the CPR. A joint offer from the CPR and CNR of \$15 million for the remaining lines was judged too low, but they were sold to the CPR near the end of 1928 for \$25 million. Brownlee's negotiating skill was widely praised in the aftermath of the deal.
Control of natural resources and the divestment of the railways were two factors that permitted balanced provincial budgets, the first of which was registered in 1925. Despite this success, Brownlee continued to advocate austerity, and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the federal government to assume a greater share of the costs of new social programs, such as the old age pension. His resulting reputation as a penny-pincher came at a cost to his personal popularity.
Brownlee's government also attempted to advance a progressive agenda. One way this manifested itself was an attempt to consolidate Alberta's thousands of school districts into a far smaller number of school divisions. The plan was supported by educational reformers who believed that the decentralized status quo made province-wide reform impossible, but was scrapped when rural residents expressed fears that it would mean the closure of local schools. Another progressive initiative was the Sexual Sterilization Act, which allowed for the sterilization of "mental defectives". While the Act, repealed in 1972, is now viewed as barbaric, at the time it enjoyed the support of moral reformers like Nellie McClung, who believed it was for the subjects' own protection.
### Second term (1930–1934)
Brownlee campaigned vigorously during the 1930 election, and was re-elected with a slightly diminished majority. However, the Great Depression was making itself felt in Alberta. The price of wheat, Alberta's major export, declined from a high of \$1.78 per bushel in the summer of 1929, to \$1.00 in the following March, to \$0.45 by the end of 1930. The Alberta Wheat Pool (AWP) guaranteed its members a minimum price of \$1.00 per bushel (itself not enough for many farmers to earn a living), and it found itself facing ruination. Banks denied credit to it and to individual farmers, which in turn made it difficult for the latter to afford seed for the 1931 crop. The provincial government faced calls to provide loan guarantees. Brownlee was concerned that such guarantees would encourage lenders to make loans at higher interest rates, with the knowledge that the provincial government would pay them if the farmers defaulted. He sought a federally guaranteed minimum price of \$0.70 per bushel, but was rebuffed by Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, who saw the source of the problem as a global oversupply.
As farms failed, many young people migrated from rural areas to Alberta's cities, where the situation was scarcely better. As the unemployment rate rose, so did labour militancy. December 1932 saw a "hunger march", in which more than a thousand unemployed men and women attempted to hold a protest march to the Alberta legislature. Brownlee requested the Edmonton city government to prohibit such a display. While he pronounced himself sympathetic to the workers' ordeal, he said he felt such an event would create a volatile atmosphere that would breed radicalism and communism. It was through this lens that he had viewed the 1932 founding of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). Though many UFA members supported this new party, which saw itself as a partnership between farmers and labourers, Brownlee considered it dangerously socialist. When the hunger marchers attempted to go ahead without government sanction and were brutally dispersed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Edmonton city police, Brownlee took much of the blame.
Further weakening Brownlee's control of the situation, the UFA, around this time, took a sharp left-ward turn, as Robert Gardiner replaced retiring Henry Wise Wood as president of the provincial body.
The weakened economy presented significant challenges to provincial government finances. 1931 saw the first deficit of Brownlee's premiership, of approximately \$2.5 million, and 1932's was still larger. During the latter year, the province came within hours of defaulting on a \$3 million bond, which was avoided only by a loan from the federal government. Brownlee cut spending aggressively: he closed most of the province's agricultural colleges, reduced the civil service by more than a third, cut provincial employees' salaries, and disbanded the Alberta Provincial Police, replacing it with the RCMP. His government also increased corporate taxes and implemented a new provincial income tax. These measures proved insufficient, and Brownlee joined his colleagues in the other western provinces in entreating Bennett to help. Bennett said he was privately sympathetic to Brownlee but refused to provide assistance.
In 1933, Brownlee was appointed to the Royal Commission on Banking and Currency as a representative of unorthodox economic views (despite his conservative approach to Alberta's finances – outside of the province he was viewed as a spokesperson of the progressive movement). Brownlee argued that banks were treating Eastern and Western debtors unequally, and that they were charging predatory interest rates to farmers. He joined the majority on the Commission in calling for the creation of a central bank in Canada but was alone in proposing that it be entirely publicly controlled.
During the Great Depression's early years, Calgary schoolteacher and evangelist William Aberhart began to preach a version of C. H. Douglas's social credit economic theory. Brownlee believed that Aberhart's proposals would be both unconstitutional (if implemented by a provincial government, which did not have control over monetary policy) and ineffective (since they would not create markets for Alberta's agricultural products). As Aberhart gained popularity, Brownlee attacked his solutions as illusory but had little of his own to offer but critiques and orthodoxy.
### Sex scandal
In 1934, Brownlee was sued for the seduction of Vivian MacMillan, a Brownlee family friend and clerk in the provincial Attorney-General's office. MacMillan alleged that Brownlee had seduced her in 1930 and that the subsequent affair had lasted until 1933; Brownlee denied her story completely and said that the lawsuit was the result of a conspiracy between MacMillan, her fiancé, and Brownlee's opponents in the Liberal Party. After a sensational and well-publicized trial, the jury found in MacMillan's favour. However, Justice William Carlos Ives, who presided over the trial, disregarded its finding, ruling that MacMillan had failed to show that she had suffered any damage. Appeals eventually led to the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council, at the time Canada's highest court of appeal, where MacMillan emerged victorious.
Once the jury issued its finding, Brownlee realized that his time as Premier was finished. He announced that he would resign as soon as a successor could be found, and on July 10, 1934, was replaced by Richard Gavin Reid.
## Later political career
In the months after his resignation, Brownlee kept a low profile, though he was still MLA for Ponoka. He returned to the public eye with a speech to the January 1935 UFA convention attacking Aberhart's plans to implement social credit in Alberta alone: "I would impress you that nothing but disillusionment, loss of hope and additional despair can follow any attempt to inaugurate a system of that kind, because the Province has no jurisdiction in these matters." Despite hearing directly from Aberhart, the convention defeated by a wide margin a motion to endorse his version of social credit.
Reid's government made Brownlee its chief strategist against Aberhart and social credit. One tactic he adopted was C. H. Douglas to serve as a consultant to the Alberta government on economic reconstruction. In doing this, Brownlee hoped both to co-opt the promise of social credit for the benefit of the UFA and to discredit Aberhart by demonstrating how widely his interpretation of social credit differed from Douglas's. This effort failed because Albertans, confronted by the contrast between the fiery, charismatic Aberhart and the aloof, technocratic Douglas, preferred the former. Brownlee also invited Aberhart to come to Edmonton and prepare proposals on which the government could act; this was an attempt to force him to take specific positions that could be attacked rather than relying on vague assurances of economic salvation, but was foiled by Aberhart's continued evasiveness.
Brownlee himself toured southern Alberta attacking Aberhart's policies as vague and unconstitutional. In April 1935, he gave a series of radio speeches designed to counter Aberhart's popular radio program, Back to the Bible Hour. When his customary appeals to logic did not work, Brownlee resorted to attacking Aberhart personally, comparing him to the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Aberhart did not resist the comparison, retorting that the pied piper had "rid the capitol of all the rats"; Brownlee responded that, after doing that, he had led its children to their destruction. In May 1935, after Aberhart announced that his social credit movement would contest the next provincial election, Brownlee ridiculed its candidate-selection process—in which Aberhart personally interviewed and selected more candidates for each riding than could ultimately run—as one in which the candidates would be "wrapped in cellophane and carefully hidden away so they will not dry out on [Aberhart], until the day he calls out the fittest and discards the rest".
The 1935 election took place August 22. Brownlee spent most of the campaign trying to retain his own riding of Ponoka. Despite the respect he commanded, his constituents were in desperate economic straits and tired of the UFA's orthodoxy, which had failed to raise their condition. As Brownlee later recalled:
> One man got up and said, "Mr. Brownlee, we have listened to you with a great deal of attention and the answers you have given seem pretty hard to meet. But I have one more question...I'm selling my wheat at 25 cents a bushel. If I tried to sell a steer tomorrow I'd probably hardly get enough to pay the freight. I get 3 cents a dozen for eggs. I'm lucky to get a dollar for a can of cream. Will you tell me what I've got to lose?" and a cheer went over the audience. I knew then what the result of the election was going to be.
On election day, every UFA candidate in the province was defeated, as Aberhart's Social Crediters won 56 of 63 seats. In Ponoka, Social Credit's Edith Rogers defeated Brownlee 2,295 votes to 879. After this election, Brownlee never sought political office again.
## Life after politics
Shortly after his electoral defeat, Brownlee started a new law firm based in Edmonton. The United Grain Growers soon re-appointed him as their general counsel. By 1940, Brownlee had restored his career to it position before he entered politics: his firm counted a number of major agricultural companies among its clients, and the UGG too brought him considerable work. He was also hired to write a legal column for the Western Review newspaper.
In his capacity as UGG general counsel, Brownlee was responsible for its restructuring. Its bylaws provided that only farmers could buy shares directly from the company, but placed no limitation on who could buy them from other shareholders. This had the effect of limiting capital inflow, since few farmers could afford to buy shares during the depression, and transferring control of the company to non-farmers, who were purchasing shares from impoverished farmers. Brownlee's solution was to create two classes of share: an investment share with a par value of \$20, and a voting share with a par value of \$5. The former could be held by any person, to a maximum of 250 shares per person, while the latter could be held only by farmers, to a maximum of 25 shares per person.
### UGG director and vice president
When he restructured the UGG's capital, Brownlee included a rider that non-farmers who held shares at the time the new structure came into effect could hold voting shares. This clause allowed him to do so, and in consequence to be elected to the company's board of directors at the 1942 annual shareholders' meeting; he was also appointed the UGG's vice president.
At the time of Brownlee's appointment, the UGG was embroiled in an income tax dispute. Though the farmers' movement had generally supported the 1917 introduction of income tax, as rates climbed the UGG began to resent it, especially given that the pools were exempt. While the rationale for this exemption—that the pools were agents of their members, and that any income should therefore be taxed as personal income once disbursed, and not as corporate income pre-disbursal—was initially accepted, the UGG argued that the pools' 1931 reorganization eliminated the differences between them and the UGG, and that the exemption thus put the UGG at a competitive disadvantage. In 1941, Brownlee travelled to Ottawa to express the UGG's case; there he collaborated with O. M. Biggar, representing the private grain companies in the form of the North-West Line Elevators Association (NLEA), who also objected to the pools' exemption, on a joint brief to the Minister of National Revenue. The government ruled that the pools were taxable; the pools appealed to the Exchequer Court, which found in the government's favour in 1943. By this time, the government had agreed not to tax the pools for pre-1941 revenue and to grant generous exemptions on taxation thereafter.
After World War II, the federal government appointed the Royal Commission on Taxation of Cooperatives to examine the question in greater detail. Brownlee prepared the UGG's submission, and was pleased with the Commission's eventual findings: it recognized the UGG as a cooperative, and recommended that it be granted the same exemptions as the pools enjoyed. However, the government still intended to collect taxes from 1940 and 1941 from the UGG, but not from the pools. In February 1947, Brownlee returned to Ottawa to present the UGG's case to Finance Minister Douglas Abbott, who eventually sided with the UGG and extended the pools' exemption to it.
The acrimony this dispute engendered between the pools and the UGG led the former to suggest that the latter was not a true cooperative, but rather an old-style grain company. Brownlee played a major role in disputing these allegations, and was a major contributor to The Grain Growers' Record 1906–1943, the UGG's written response. When he, as the UGG's delegate to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, opposed a resolution calling for the continued tax-exempt status of pools, the resolution's proponents suggested stating that it was "endorsed by the cooperatives"; Brownlee objected that the UGG was a cooperative, and the wording was withdrawn. The Alberta Wheat Pool later published a pamphlet entitled A History of Events Leading to Taxation of Cooperatives, which placed much of the blame on the UGG and Brownlee, accusing the latter of working with the hated private grain companies to "enforce taxation of the Wheat Pools". Seizing on an incorrect date in the pamphlet, Brownlee dismissed the charges—which were substantially true, in light of his 1941 joint brief with Biggar—as factually incorrect. Though UGG shareholders subjected him to vigorous questioning, he held firm and the controversy died down after he gave a series of radio addresses in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
### UGG President
In the mid-1940s, UGG President and General Manager R. S. Law fell ill, and in February 1947, Brownlee was named the UGG's Acting General Manager. On January 1, 1948, he became full General Manager. In spring 1948 Law stepped down completely, and on May 1 Brownlee succeeded him as President and General Manager.
In this capacity, he had offices in Calgary and Winnipeg. He worked constantly, often arriving at work on a Monday with a briefcase full of dictation machine recordings for secretaries to transcribe. Foster says that Brownlee was known by his staff as "a man whose life was his work, who lived in his briefcase, and whose only recreation seemed to be changing from one job to another".
He turned this work ethic to expanding the company, building new grain elevators and purchasing existing ones. At the same time, he undertook a study of the operating costs and volume of each of the UGG's delivery points. He found that roughly a dozen elevators were losing money, with climbing costs threatening to increase this number. Brownlee tried to reach accommodations with the UGG's competitors to divide among them centres too small to support more than one elevator, and achieved some success, especially with the Alberta Wheat Pool. At the same time, Brownlee increased the UGG's presence in larger centres, especially Regina, Brandon, and Winnipeg.
Brownlee remained intimately involved in the grain industry even outside the UGG, in part through his position on the Canadian Federation of Agriculture executive. In this capacity, he found himself in the middle of a controversy over the British Wheat Agreement (BWA). The BWA was an agreement to sell wheat to British clients at a fixed price over a four-year period. The price was to be adjusted during the following two years, "having regard to" world wheat prices. During the first four years, world wheat prices were continually above the price stipulated in the agreement, breeding resentment towards the British, especially since they sold much of this fixed price wheat for a large profit in European markets. This was exacerbated when the British refused to adjust the price upwards for the last two years, on the grounds that there was nothing in the agreement to compel them to do so. The result was considerable ill will and a loss by grain farmers of an estimated \$350 million. The federal government, which had negotiated the agreement, offered to supplement the British payments by \$65 million, a sum large enough to raise the ire of eastern Canadians but too small to placate western farmers. Brownlee, who had opposed the agreement, authorized a purchase of advertising across the country pointing out that the government fixed the domestic price of wheat at \$0.77 per bushel while the world price reached as high as \$2.18. In Brownlee's view, the \$65 million payment by the government paled in comparison to the benefit to consumers of the federal policy. Subsequent international agreements, for which Brownlee acted as an advisor to the Canadian delegation, resulted in more favourable terms for farmers. Brownlee's continued status as one of the grain industry's leading figures was also exhibited by his involvement in government relations. He appeared before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture to oppose a system of allocating box cars to each grain elevator by formula, favouring instead a system whereby the Canadian Wheat Board retained the flexibility to assign them as it saw fit. In his September 1960 submission to the Royal Commission on Transportation, In Defense of the Crow's Nest Pass Rates, he rejected the railways' calls to deregulate the rates they charged for the shipment of grain.
Brownlee's presidency coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the Grain Growers Grain Company, one of the UGG's founding organizations. In celebration of the event, Brownlee travelled around the country speaking to UGG outlets. He also oversaw the publication, and wrote much, of The First Fifty Years, a history of the UGG to that point. In this capacity, he came into conflict with UGG Vice President R. C. Brown, in charge of the UGG department that published the book, and Assistant General Manager P. C. Watt. Brownlee had an interventionist style as President, which Foster acknowledged sometimes "verged on outright interference". As the years wore on, his decision-making became more autocratic, with the board of directors expected to serve as a rubber stamp.
On June 21, 1961, ill health forced Brownlee's resignation from the UGG.
### Later political activities
Brownlee never sought political office after his 1935 defeat, and commented publicly on political issues only rarely. His distaste for Aberhart's social credit government—and in particular its contention, which Brownlee viewed as unfair, that the UFA had left the government bankrupt—did not prevent him from advising it behind the scenes on a number of issues, most notably Alberta's submission to the Rowell-Sirois Commission, The Case for Alberta.
In the early 1940s, he met M. J. Coldwell, the new federal leader of the CCF, on a train. According to Coldwell, in the ensuing conversation Brownlee indicated that he would be prepared to consider running federally as a CCF candidate. Coldwell excitedly reported this to some of the CCF's Alberta leaders; one of them telephoned Brownlee to question whether Coldwell's report was true. Brownlee adhered to a conservative view of how politics should be conducted, and was perhaps put off by the audacious telephone call; despite an apology from Coldwell, Brownlee did not indicate any further interest in running for the CCF.
Brownlee's occasional public comments on political issues still attracted considerable attention. He spoke to the 1944 UFA convention on post-war reconstruction, and expressed pessimism about Canada's economic prospects. He advocated a policy of full employment, and emphasized that jobs had to be meaningful rather than "put[ting] men to work building roads like coolies in China when machines can do it better". He criticized the government-imposed wartime ceiling on wheat prices, of \$1.25 per bushel, as forcing farmers to shoulder an unfair burden of a national crisis, as they had during the depression.
### Personal life
Brownlee's father had died in January 1934, while the MacMillan suit was still pending. In April 1941, his mother died intestate and left an estate of \$1,507. Brownlee relinquished any claim on the estate in favour of his sister, who had cared for their mother in her last years.
Brownlee's sons became successful at their careers: Alan graduated from law at the University of Alberta and joined his father's firm, which was renamed Brownlee, Baldwin and Brownlee, while John studied photography in Los Angeles and returned to Canada to work as a photographer. Both married and had children. In time, Brownlee relinquished the law firm—now Brownlee and Brownlee—to Alan, and returned to Calgary, where he and his wife led a quiet, reserved life. When Calgary planners announced their intention to widen Memorial Drive, where the Brownlees lived, several residents expressed concern that the plan would destroy the street's trees; they consulted Brownlee, who telephoned the mayor and saved the trees.
In his last years, Brownlee received a number of honours. Premier of Manitoba Duff Roblin inducted him into the province's Order of the Buffalo Hunt in November 1960, in recognition of his contributions to the prairie provinces. The UFA awarded him an honorary life membership, and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed him to the National Productivity Council, though ill health prevented him from participating after its inaugural March 1961 meeting.
Beginning in June 1957, Brownlee underwent a series of major surgeries. By this time his memory was failing, and he often had to ask his wife for details that escaped him. He died July 15, 1961, two weeks after resigning from the UGG board and barely three after resigning as President.
## Legacy
As Premier, Brownlee is most remembered for the sex scandal that ended his career; his accomplishments are largely forgotten. Still, he is highly regarded by historians: Foster calls him "Alberta's greatest premier" and cites, in particular, his successful negotiations for the transfer of resource rights to the provincial government as the cause of Alberta's subsequent prosperity. Journalist Ted Byfield concurs, noting that his willingness to confront the federal government sets him apart from Ernest Manning, another contender for the title. In 1980, the Edmonton Journal wrote, "The lasting political estate left by former Premier John Brownlee has made Alberta what it is today, one of Canada's wealthiest provinces fuelled by billions of dollars in oil and gas royalties."
A University of Calgary undergraduate seminar in 2005 ranked Brownlee as the province's third greatest premier, behind Manning and Peter Lougheed.
Brownlee's impact is also felt through the organizations he participated in founding: the Alberta Wheat Pool remained an important player in Canadian agriculture until 1998, when it merged with Manitoba Pool Elevators to form Agricore Cooperative Ltd. In 2001, this new company merged with the UGG to form Agricore United. In 2007, the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool took it over, forming Viterra. Brownlee's vision, unique among the members of the Macmillan Commission, of a publicly controlled central bank became a reality in 1938, when the Bank of Canada shifted from private to government control.
Brownlee was buried at Evergreen Memorial Gardens near Edmonton. The provincial government's John E. Brownlee Building in Edmonton is named in his honour, as is the University of Alberta Faculty of Law's John E. Brownlee Memorial Prize in Local Government Law.
## Electoral record
### As party leader
### As MLA |
31,711,097 | Ahmed Zayat | 1,170,818,062 | Egyptian-born American entrepreneur and racehorse owner | [
"1962 births",
"American racehorse owners and breeders",
"American sports businesspeople",
"Boston University School of Management alumni",
"Boston University School of Public Health alumni",
"Breeders of U.S. Thoroughbred Triple Crown winners",
"Businesspeople from Cairo",
"Eclipse Award winners",
"Egyptian Jews",
"Egyptian emigrants to the United States",
"Living people",
"Owners of Belmont Stakes winners",
"Owners of Kentucky Derby winners",
"Owners of Preakness Stakes winners",
"Owners of U.S. Thoroughbred Triple Crown winners",
"People from Teaneck, New Jersey",
"Yeshiva University alumni"
]
| Ahmed Zayat (/zəˈjɑːt/; Arabic: أحمد الزيات), (born August 31, 1962) is an Egyptian American businessman and owner of Thoroughbred race horses. He is the CEO of Zayat Stables, LLC, a Thoroughbred horse racing business which bred and owns the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Joe Drape of The New York Times described Zayat as "controversial" and "one of the most successful and flamboyant owners in thoroughbred racing."
Zayat was born in Cairo, Egypt to a wealthy family, and grew up in an ethnically-diverse neighborhood where he learned to ride horses. At age 18, he moved to the United States where he attended college and ultimately obtained a master's degree in business and public health from Boston University. After a brief career in commercial real estate in New York City, he returned to Egypt, and for about a decade ran the Al-Ahram Beverages Company, which he owned as part of an investment group. After the company was purchased by Heineken in 2002, Zayat stayed on a few more years but also began investing in racehorses and established Zayat Stables in 2005. Upon returning to the United States for good in 2007, he made his racing stables his full-time occupation, working with his son, Justin, to build the business.
While generally successful with his race horses, Zayat's goal of winning the Kentucky Derby eluded him several times, including three second-place finishes, until his win with American Pharoah. He also filed bankruptcy proceedings in 2010 when a bank called a note due and tried to foreclose on his horses. Zayat Stables successfully completed its Chapter 11 reorganization, but Zayat was next plagued by legal issues related to his penchant for betting large sums of money on horse racing. Nonetheless, Zayat generated considerable positive publicity on social media for his efforts to save his racehorse Paynter from life-threatening health problems, a successful struggle that earned the colt the 2012 NTRA Moment of the Year Award and Secretariat Vox Populi Award.
The Zayat family lives in Teaneck, New Jersey with his wife, Joanne. They have four children: Ashley, Justin, Benjamin, and Emma. Their eldest son, Justin, helps run the Zayat Stables operation, and their youngest, Emma, inspired the name of Littleprincessemma, dam of American Pharoah.
## Early career and personal life
Ahmed Zayat was born in Egypt in 1962 to an affluent family and grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. His father, Alaa al-Zayat, was a prominent doctor and professor of medicine, a personal physician to Anwar Sadat. His grandfather, Ahmed Hasan al-Zayyat, was a leading intellectual who established the Egyptian literary magazine al-Risala, described as "the most important intellectual weekly in 1930s Egypt and the Arab world." Born into what was then a peasant family, the earlier al-Zayyat studied at Al-Azhar University before taking up legal studies in Cairo and Paris; he taught Arabic literature at American University in Cairo, and for three years in Baghdad, before founding al-Risala in 1933.
As a young man, Ahmed Zayat learned to ride horses at the local country club. Zayat competed in show jumping during his early teens, winning national titles as a child in the under-12 and under-14 age divisions. He moved to the United States at the age of 18, and earned an undergraduate degree from Yeshiva University. He obtained a master's degree in public health administration from Boston University. Though the Zayat Stables, LLC website once stated that Zayat attended Harvard University, he did not. After graduation, he worked for Zev Wolfson, a New York City commercial real estate developer and investor. Zayat described Wolfson as "the toughest guy I ever worked for ... such a perfectionist. A great negotiator."
Zayat returned to Egypt in 1995 and formed an investment group, which purchased the Al-Ahram Beverages Company in 1997, outbidding Anheuser-Busch and Heineken International. Al-Ahram had been owned by the Egyptian government and Zayat had helped find American investors to take over government-owned businesses that had been nationalized by Gamal Abdel Nasser back in the 1950s. The original beer product was of poor quality, mocked as being able to "power heavy machinery if there was no diesel fuel available." Under Zayat's leadership, additional brands of beer were introduced, and he developed a non-alcoholic beer, Fayrouz, designed specifically for the Muslim market. The company was modernized from a run-down operation to a publicly traded business that sold in 2002 to Heineken International for \$280 million, more than three times its pre-acquisition valuation, in what was then the largest corporate buyout in Egyptian history.
Zayat continued to run Al-Ahram until 2007, but periodically returned to the United States, where he started buying racehorses and formed Zayat Stables in 2005. His motivation to return to the US was, in part, to commute less and be more involved with his family and children. Upon leaving Al-Ahram, he declared that he was "retiring", but as his wife explained, "he can't be retired for more than 15 seconds," and he soon expanded his horse operation to include both breeding and racing stock. He still owns other business interests in Egypt, including being the majority shareholder of Misr Glass Manufacturing, which is Egypt's largest maker of glass containers.
Zayat lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, with his wife, Joanne. The couple have four children: Ashley, Justin, Benjamin and Emma. Justin, a 2015 graduate of New York University, works closely with his father in the Zayat Stables business. While residing primarily in New Jersey, the Zayats also have residences in New York, Egypt and London. Zayat donates to schools and charities, including those that help special-needs children. Although The New York Times has stated that Zayat has publicly identified as both Jewish and Muslim at times, Zayat stated, "Why is it relevant, and why does it matter? It's personal."
## Zayat Stables
Zayat first began buying Thoroughbred race horses in 2005. Zayat Stables owns approximately 200 horses at any one time. Zayat made a number of big-ticket sales purchases early on including a horse he named Maimonides, purchased at Keeneland as a yearling in 2006 for \$4.6 million. In addition, Zayat paid \$1.6 million for the highest-priced horse at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale, a filly by Empire Maker named Mushka, whom he resold in 2008 for \$2.4 million.
Maimonides was named in honor of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who is respected by both Jews and Muslims. At the time, Zayat explained, "If this horse was going to be a superstar, I wanted an appropriate name... I wanted it to be pro-peace, and about loving your neighbor." Zayat also had difficulty obtaining the name from the Jockey Club, as it had been reserved by Earle I. Mack, who owned race horses and also happened to be the chairman of the board of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, . After Zayat donated \$100,000 to the school to "promote peace," Mack released his reservation of the name. But, in the first of Zayat's many racing disappointments, the colt's promising racing career was cut short by injury after two races.
The horses of Zayat Stables began to earn race purses in 2006. In 2008, Zayat was North America's leading owner by earnings. Zayat Stables ranked second in the nation for earnings in 2007, third in 2009, fourth in 2010 and fifth nationally in 2011. Between 2006 and 2014, Zayat Stables ranked in the top ten leading owners by purse money won in six of those years and always in the top 20. Zayat has horses at all stages of the racing process, stallions, broodmares, young horses in training and active racing stock. His daughters were the inspiration for the names of two race horses, stakes-winner Point Ashley, who in turn inspired daughter Ashley's costume jewelry business name; and Littleprincessemma, dam of American Pharoah. Race horse Justin Phillip was named for Justin.
The business base for the horse racing operation is Hackensack, New Jersey, but Zayat's horses live in different locations across the US. His horse breeding stock live mostly in Kentucky, young horses are started in Florida. The racing stock have been in training with multiple trainers including Bob Baffert, Mark Casse, D. Wayne Lukas, Todd Pletcher, Dale Romans and others. Zayat Stables keeps about 30 broodmares and their foals in Kentucky along with roughly 20 yearlings. In 2015 the operation stood 13 breeding stallions at stud. Zayat typically retains a 25% interest in the stallions he sends to stud, though in the case of Pioneerof the Nile, he kept a 75% interest.
As of 2015, Zayat's horses include American Pharoah and 13 other Grade I winners. These include: 2013 Breeders' Cup runner and 2012 Haskell Invitational winner Paynter; 2013 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap winner Justin Phillip; 2012 Arkansas Derby winner Bodemeister; Pioneerof the Nile who won the 2008 CashCall Futurity and 2009 Santa Anita Derby; three-time Grade I winner Zensational. He has entered horses in the Breeders' Cup races 16 times, with his best result a fourth-place finish in 2007.
Zayat has experienced significant highs and lows in his quest for Triple Crown classic wins. Three times Zayat's horses placed second in the Kentucky Derby. In 2009, Zayat's homebred Pioneerof the Nile started a streak of Zayat horses finishing second in the Kentucky Derby and other classic races when he was defeated by Mine That Bird. In 2010, Zayat campaigned Eskendereya, winner of the Wood Memorial and considered the favorite for the Kentucky Derby. On the Sunday prior to the Derby, Eskendereya was withdrawn from the race and subsequently retired to stud due to a soft tissue injury that would have taken at least a year to heal. In 2011, Zayat entered Nehro, who finished second to Animal Kingdom.
In 2012, Zayat Stables' horses Bodemeister and then Paynter ran second in each of the three legs of the Triple Crown. Bodemeister finished a narrow second place in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes to I'll Have Another. Switching horses in the 2012 Belmont Stakes, Zayat's colt Paynter also finished second. Paynter went on to win the Grade I Haskell Invitational but shortly thereafter developed near-fatal complications from colitis and laminitis. Zayat authorized the highest quality of care for the horse, and following abdominal surgery and several months of rehabilitation, Paynter successfully returned to racing in 2013. After Zayat and his son Justin began making regular social media updates on Twitter with the hashtag \#PowerUpPaynter, the horse developed a significant fan base, and received hundreds of get well cards, many from children. For his struggle to return to health, Paynter won NTRA Moment of the Year Award and Secretariat Vox Populi Award.
Zayat's Triple Crown race losing-streak was finally broken by American Pharoah, who won the 2015 Kentucky Derby, the 2015 Preakness Stakes, and the 2015 Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the Triple Crown since 1978.
## Litigation and related disputes
Zayat has been described as "controversial," and "one of the most successful and flamboyant owners in thoroughbred racing" by Joe Drape of the New York Times; his success accompanied by a number of legal controversies. His racing stable survived Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, and he faced a number of legal issues associated with his penchant for betting large sums of money on horse racing.
### Bankruptcy
In December 2009, Zayat was sued by Fifth Third Bank for an alleged \$34 million in unpaid loans. He had taken out multiple loans from the bank totaling over \$38 million between 2007 and 2009. Fifth Third alleged that Zayat was in default because he failed to make two payments in 2009. As part of the loan package, the bank had a security interest in Zayat Stables' horses, prize money, stallion shares and stallion income. Further, the bank added an amended provision to its later loans stating, "if Zayat Stables defaulted on any of the Notes, such default would be considered a default under all of the notes thereby entitling Fifth Third to accelerate the principal balance and all accrued interest due and owing under all of the Notes." While Zayat paid off some of the money owed, the bank contended that he remained in default on one loan. The bank alleged that Zayat had lost \$52 million between 2006 and 2008, that he had not reported a previous Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy he had filed under the name Ephraim David Zayat, and the bank attempted to foreclose on his horses.
Zayat filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in February 2010. He stated that the problem was that the Lexington branch of the bank worked with the Thoroughbred industry and was willing to restructure his loans, while the bank's corporate headquarters in Cincinnati wanted to get out of the equine lending business altogether. Stating that Fifth Third was "reneging on its promises," Zayat filed a countersuit in April 2010, alleging the bank engaged in deceptive and predatory lending practices. When he thought the bank was willing to restructure its loans, Zayat withdrew 67 horses he intended to sell at Keeneland's 2009 September and November sales and instead purchased 24 more yearlings. He had also paid Fifth Third \$4.3 million from the proceeds of the sale of breeding rights to Zensational, all of which left him low on cash when the bank called in its loans. Zayat said the bank was using "scorched earth" tactics and accused it of trying to put him out of business, explaining that had he known the bank would not extend his loans, he would have sold enough horses to make his payments.
All cases were resolved with a settlement agreement in July 2010, seven months after the initial suit was filed. Zayat agreed to pay off his unsecured creditors over two years, without interest, and pay off Fifth Third by 2014. Zayat Stables' creditors unanimously approved the repayment plan. Zayat owed about \$2.4 million to the Keeneland Association, and \$1.2 million to other creditors including clinics, horse transport companies, boarding farms, and trainers—among them Bob Baffert. He also owed several horse breeders for stud fees. To settle his debts with Fifth Third, he agreed to annual payments based on a percentage of horse sales and proceeds from claiming races. As part of his reorganization plan, he was to sell a number of horses, including 100% of his Grade I-winning horse Eskendereya. Ultimately, consistent with Zayat's tendency to retain a financial interest in his stallions, he sold an undisclosed share in the stallion to Jess Jackson and retained some breeding rights. While the selling percentage and price were confidential, Zayat Stables' reported income to the bankruptcy court for the month the deal closed was \$7.5 million. Zayat stated, "While Chapter 11 was a necessary step to take ... I look forward to carrying out our reorganization plan, and continuing to develop some of the best horses in the country." Zayat Stables successfully completed the bankruptcy reorganization plan, in the process his stable went from a high of 285 horses to a census of 118 in 2012.
### Gambling cases
Zayat's bankruptcy revealed other problems. His bankruptcy documents listed four loans he had made to members of the Jelinsky family. Two members of that family, Michael and Jeffrey Jelinsky, had pleaded guilty in 2009 to illegal bookmaking. As a result, the racing commissions in California and Kentucky opened investigations on Zayat; racing licensees are not to associate with bookmakers or convicted felons. Zayat claimed that he had no knowledge of the Jelinskys' illegal acts. He stated that he thought the brothers were professional gamblers and that they had financial need. Further, he said he loaned them money because he knew their father and that the money they owed him was unrelated to gambling; he stated that some of the money he loaned was to assist one of the brothers with a divorce. He was cleared in both states. Although New York also stated that they were investigating, there were no news reports of any adverse action. Zayat stated that he had been visited by federal agents who played tapes where the Jelinsky brothers discussed how they had cheated Zayat out of money by giving him bad betting advice.
In an unrelated case, Zayat was mentioned in a 2013 lawsuit between Freehold Raceway and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The plaintiffs alleged that Zayat was allowed to bet on credit, which was a violation of state law. Zayat had been betting \$200,000 a week through New Jersey's online betting system, and the agency allowed him to "float" \$286,000 in credit, "as a courtesy." Zayat was not a party to the lawsuit and he paid off all debts owed to the Sports Authority. The records containing Zayat's name were later redacted, but an internal email indicated that Zayat had wagered a total of at least \$8.3 million.
On March 10, 2014, a lawsuit against Zayat was filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. The plaintiff, Howard Rubinsky, was an associate of the Jelinskys who had also pleaded guilty in the illegal betting operation. His suit alleged breach of contract, claiming that Zayat failed to pay off a \$1.65 million line of credit in 2004. Rubinsky said he extended credit to Zayat with Tradewinds Sportsbook so Zayat could bet on horse races via a gambling website set up in Costa Rica. Zayat's lawyer described the suit as "a meritless claim", filed a motion to dismiss in 2015 alleging lack of evidence, and argued that the statute of limitations of six years had run. Zayat stated in court documents that he had met and loaned money to Rubinsky, but said, "I can say unequivocally that I did not give Mr. Rubinsky any money as payment on any debt ... I agreed to give him money because he told me he was ill and broke." On June 4, 2015, a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, dismissed Rubinsky's lawsuit, citing both Rubinsky's difficulty in proving his case and the expired statute of limitations. In a related matter, June 1, 2015, days before American Pharoah was to run in the 2015 Belmont Stakes, the New York Times reported that Rubinsky's lawyer, Joseph Bainton, filed a \$10-million libel suit against Zayat for comments to the press, including the characterization of Rubinsky's other lawsuit as "extortion, a fraud and blackmail." That suit was dismissed on August 5, 2015.
In a post-race press conference after winning the 2015 Belmont Stakes, Zayat stated that he was so anxious about American Pharoah's upcoming race that he neglected to bet on anything. |
36,366,323 | Entoloma murrayi | 1,077,011,911 | Species of fungus | [
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| Entoloma murrayi, commonly known as the yellow unicorn Entoloma or the unicorn pinkgill, is a species of fungus in the Entolomataceae family. First described from New England (USA) in 1859, the species is found in eastern North America, Central and South America, and southeast Asia, where it grows on the ground in wet coniferous and deciduous forests. The fungus produces yellow mushrooms that have a characteristic sharp umbo on the top of a conical cap. The mushroom is inedible and may be poisonous. Other similar species can be distinguished from E. murrayi by differences in color, morphology, or microscopic characteristics.
## Taxonomy
The species was originally described by Miles Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis in 1859 as Agaricus murrayi, based on collections made in New England. Berkeley and Curtis called it "An extremely pretty species". Pier Andrea Saccardo transferred the species to Entoloma in 1899. Synonyms include combinations resulting from generic transfers to Rhodophyllus by Rolf Singer in 1942, Noleana by R. W. G. Dennis in 1970, and to Inocephalus by Gordon Rutter and Roy Watling in 1997. Depending on the authority, these latter three genera are considered either subgenera of Entoloma, or independent genera. In a large-scale molecular phylogenetic analysis of Agaricales species published in 2002, E. murrayi grouped in a clade together with E. canescens and two Entolomas traditionally classified in Inocephalus – E. quadrata and E. lactifluus. The Dictionary of the Fungi (10th edition, 2008) lumps Inocephalus and Rhodophyllus into Entoloma.
The specific epithet murrayi honors the original collector, Dennis Murray of Massachusetts. Its common names "yellow unicorn Entoloma" or "unicorn pinkgill" refer to the characteristic sharp umbo at the top of its cap.
## Description
The cap of E. murrayi is bell-shaped to conical, and measures 1.3–3 cm (0.5–1.2 in) in diameter. It features a sharp umbo in the center. The cap color is bright yellow to orange-yellow, but tends to fade in maturity. The gills have a narrowly adnate attachment to the stem, and are well-spaced. Initially yellow, they acquire a pinkish tone as the spores mature. The slender hollow stem is 4–7.5 cm (1.6–3.0 in) long and roughly equal in width throughout its length. It is pale yellow, with a fibrous surface, and often twisted with longitudinal striations. Its surface is smooth, and there may be a whitish mycelium at the base. The flesh is thin and pale yellow. The taste and odor of the fruit bodies have been described as either "pleasant", or indistinct. The mushroom is not edible and may be poisonous.
The spore print is salmon-pink. Spores are smooth, angular (four-sided), hyaline (translucent), and measure 9–12 by 8–10 μm. The arrangement of the hyphae in the hymenophore tissue is parallel to interwoven and inamyloid. In the cap cuticle, the hyphae are interwoven radially, or alternatively in somewhat erect bundles. Hyphae of Entoloma murrayi rarely have clamp connections. The cap and gill tissue contain "repository hyphae" (storage units containing byproducts of metabolism) that release a watery, yellow-colored liquid when injured. These distinctive hyphae can be seen with light microscopy of both fresh and dried specimens.
### Similar species
Characteristic diagnostic features of Entoloma murrayi include the bright yellow coloring, the conical cap, cube-shaped spores, and club-shaped cheilocystidia. Entoloma quadratum is similar in size and morphology, but is colored salmon-orange. E. murrayi has the habit and form of some similarly colored mushrooms in the genus Hygrocybe (such as Hygrocybe marginata var. concolor), but it can be readily distinguished from those by its salmon-pink spore print, non-waxy gills, and the angular shape of its spores. Entoloma luteum is a duller yellow color, with a less distinctly pointed umbo. The South American species E. dennisii, originally misidentified as E. murrayi, can be distinguished from the latter by its less conical cap and considerably smaller spores that measure 5.5–7 μm.
## Habitat and distribution
A saprobic species, Entoloma murrayi derives nutrients by breaking down organic matter. Fruit bodies are found in wet coniferous and deciduous forests, where they grow singly or in small groups on the ground in litterfall or humus, or in moss. Fruiting occurs in the summer and autumn.
In North America, the species is found eastern Canada (Atlantic Maritime Ecozone), the eastern United States (from Maine south to Alabama and west to the Great Lakes), and Mexico. The distribution includes Central and South America, and Southeast Asia. It has also been recorded from Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. |
46,976,528 | Dishonored 2 | 1,172,610,228 | 2016 video game | [
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| Dishonored 2 is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It is the sequel to 2012's Dishonored. After Empress Emily Kaldwin is deposed by the witch Delilah Copperspoon, the player may choose between playing as either Emily or her Royal Protector and father Corvo Attano as they attempt to reclaim the throne. Emily and Corvo employ their own array of supernatural abilities, though the player can alternatively decide to forfeit these abilities altogether. Due to the game's nonlinear gameplay, there are a multitude of ways to complete missions, from non-lethal stealth to purposeful violent conflict.
Ideas for Dishonored 2 began while developing the downloadable content of its predecessor, which spawned the decision to create a voice for Corvo Attano after being a silent character in the first installment. The advancement of the timeline was brought about once Emily Kaldwin, a child in Dishonored, was proposed as a playable character. The game's aesthetic was influenced by paintings and sculptures. Set in the fictional city of Karnaca, its history was invented in the span of one year. The city itself was based on Larnaca in Cyprus and other Mediterranean countries like Greece, Italy, and Spain, drawing on the architecture, fashion, and technologies of 1851. Voice actors include Rosario Dawson, Sam Rockwell, Robin Lord Taylor, Jamie Hector, Pedro Pascal, and Vincent D'Onofrio.
Dishonored 2 was released to a positive reception. Praised were the improvements made since the first game: the more challenging stealth, the adaptability of Emily and Corvo's abilities to both play styles, the creative design of individual missions, the realization of the game's world, and the artificial intelligence. Criticism was directed at the lack of focus of the overarching narrative. The PC version of the game became subject to technical issues at launch. Dishonored 2 won the award for Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards 2016 and for Costume Design at the 2017 NAVGTR Awards. Since then, it has been listed as one of the greatest games ever made.
## Gameplay
Dishonored 2 is an action-adventure game with stealth elements played from a first-person perspective. After playing as Empress Emily Kaldwin during the prologue, players may decide to play either as Emily or as Corvo Attano, the protagonist from Dishonored, the previous game. Side missions unlock alternate methods of assassination, non-lethal approaches and paths to navigate the main mission. Both characters wield a pistol, crossbow, a retractable blade, grenades and mines—all of which are upgradable. Upgrades may be purchased at black market shops found throughout levels, and blueprints scattered throughout the environment unlock new upgrades. Coin is required to buy these upgrades, which can be found throughout levels or gained from other collectibles, like stealing paintings. Players can choose whether to play stealthily or not and can finish the game without taking a life. Health elixirs and food consumables will restore health, while mana elixirs replenish mana.
Enemy detection works on line-of-sight, with players being able to use cover or high areas out of enemies' cones of vision to stay undetected. Darkness can aid the player in staying hidden, but it is only effective at a distance. Enemy alert meters and musical cues let the player know if they have been spotted. Noise will cause enemies to go to investigate, including noise made by broken bottles or the player striking a sword against a wall; this may be used deliberately to lure guards into traps or disrupt their patrol route. Players can look through keyholes to help them survey a room before entering and can lean to look from cover without fully exposing themselves. The player is able to be detected if they peer out from behind a wall for too long, a feature not seen in Dishonored. To avoid detection, the player may choke people out or slit their throats. Bodies can be carried away and concealed. Alarms can be disabled to assure that enemies are not alerted to the player's presence. Walls of Light, deadly electrical barriers powered by wind or whale oil, are subject to have their power turned off or be rewired so that only enemies are killed by going through them. Whale oil canisters explode on harsh impact, and can be thrown at enemies to that end.
Dishonored 2 introduces non-lethal combat moves to throw people off-balance or knock someone unconscious—choke-holds, blocks, pushes, kicks, crouch-slides, drops from high up, sleep darts, stun mines, and various supernatural abilities—and features the chaos system used in the first game. The player gains chaos by killing characters, representative of the player destabilizing the world. The game adds an element to the system where, at the start of a mission, random non-player characters are procedurally assigned one of three states: sympathetic, guilty, and murderous. Killing a "sympathetic" person gives the player more chaos than killing others, while in contrast killing a murderous character gives the player a lesser amount. The amount of chaos accrued affects the dialog used by Emily and Corvo and the quantity of enemies present in each given level. Further, insects called bloodflies make nests in corpses; therefore if many people are killed, there will be an increase in bloodflies. Loot can be found in the nests which, if destroyed, can be obtained. The bloodflies similarly encourage the player to hide bodies from them while on a mission. Each level in the game is intended to have a unique theme, in either fiction or game mechanic. In one level, the player is confronted with two factions each with their own assassination target, and may use the level's reoccurring dust storms for cover. In another, time distortion is introduced as the player traverses an abandoned mansion in ruins. The player is given a device that lets them glimpse three years into the past, where the mansion is still occupied and guards roam, and can shift back and forth between the two points in time.
### Abilities and powers
As in the first game, the player has access to supernatural powers. These powers are optional and may be rejected. Independently from whether these supernatural powers are rejected or not, the player receives a heart item which aids in the discovery of bone charms and runes; these provide passive perks and skill points, respectively; if the powers are not accepted, runes are converted into additional coins. The heart reveals whether those the player comes across are sympathetic, guilty or murderous. Unlike the first game, the upgrading system was changed to a skill tree with multiple paths and more possible upgrades; a power may have a lethal or non-lethal upgrade. Each character has unique powers. "Dark Vision", the power that more easily identifies the player's surroundings, including where an enemy directs their gaze, is available to both. Another skill tree, applied to both playable characters, unlock more passive abilities which do not consume mana, such as the ability to run faster and jump higher, or the ability to craft bonecharms.
Corvo retains many of the powers available in the first game, though his progress in them has been reset. "Blink" teleports him to a chosen location, but in addition can be upgraded to freeze time or impart damage on impact with the momentum gained from teleportation. Corvo may summon rats with "Devouring Swarm" to clear dead bodies before bloodflies lay eggs in them. While its original use allowed Corvo to possess animals and humans, "Possession" is enhanced to take control of dead bodies as well as multiple hosts in succession. "Bend Time" can be used to slow down time, circumventing dangerous checkpoints or reaching enemies unobserved. The ability "Windblast" enables Corvo to summon a blast of wind that can deflect projectiles and push enemies off ledges. Emily has powers new to the series, including "Far Reach", which allows her to pull objects and enemies toward her and travel without physical movement by clasping onto something to propel herself forward. She can use "Mesmerize" to distract her enemies, moving them into a state of sedation. "Domino" permits Emily to connect several of her enemies together so that they share the same outcome. With "Shadow Walk", she is turned into a shadowy cloud that moves swiftly and changes tangibility at will. "Doppelganger" conjures a clone of Emily in order to misdirect her opponents, and can work alongside "Domino".
## Synopsis
### Setting
While players begin and end the game in Dunwall, much of the story takes place in the coastal city of Karnaca, the capital of Serkonos that lies along the southern region of the Empire of the Isles, whose chief exports include silver. Unlike Dunwall, which relied on whale oil for power, Karnaca is powered by wind turbines fed by currents generated by a cleft mountain along the city's borders, though the winds that blow over and into the city cause it to be rife with dust storms, most notably within its mining district which led it to be known as the "Dust District". At the time the game begins, two factions, the Howlers and Overseers, engage in violent conflict within the district, with the Howlers seeking to oppose the new Duke and his government following the passing of its previous Duke, leading to the Grand Serkonan Guard, Karnaca's law enforcement and military, erecting defensive barriers called Walls of Light in response to the disarray.
### Characters
The main characters of Dishonored 2 that the player can control are Corvo Attano (Stephen Russell), a former bodyguard turned assassin and the main character of Dishonored; and Emily Kaldwin (Erica Luttrell), the former Empress of the Empire of the Isles. The game's main antagonists include Luca Abele (Vincent D'Onofrio), the new duke of Serkonos following the passing of his father Theodanis; and Delilah Copperspoon (Erin Cottrell), a witch and the antagonist of the previous game's downloadable content packs The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, as well as being the half-sister of Emily's deceased mother; promotional material from the special collector's edition of the game references her as "Delilah Kaldwin".
Other characters in the game include Meagan Foster (Rosario Dawson)—the captain of the Dreadful Wale; Paolo (Pedro Pascal)—leader of the Howler Gang; Mindy Blanchard (Betsy Moore)—Paolo's second-in-command; Mortimer Ramsey (Sam Rockwell)—a corrupt officer of the Dunwall City Watch; Liam Byrne (Jamie Hector)—the Vice Overseer of Karnaca who opposes the Howlers; Anton Sokolov (Roger L. Jackson)—Dunwall's genius inventor; the Outsider (Robin Lord Taylor)—the representational figure of the Void, an alternate dimension that grants supernatural abilities; and Jessamine Kaldwin (April Stewart)—Emily Kaldwin's mother, whose spirit was trapped in The Heart.
### Plot
Fifteen years after Corvo Attano restored Emily Kaldwin to the throne following the assassination of her mother, Dunwall has prospered under her reign. A serial killer known as "the Crown Killer" has been murdering Emily's enemies, leading many to believe that Emily and Corvo are responsible. During a ceremony in remembrance of Jessamine Kaldwin's assassination, Duke Luca Abele of Serkonos arrives with the witch Delilah Copperspoon. Delilah claims to be Jessamine's half-sister and the true heir to the throne. The Duke's men attack, killing Emily's men. The player then chooses whether to continue as Emily or Corvo, and the character not chosen is magically turned to stone by Delilah. The player escapes to the Dunwall docks, where Meagan Foster is waiting. Meagan was sent by Anton Sokolov to warn Emily and Corvo about the Duke's coup. They sail for Karnaca, where Delilah began her rise to power. During the voyage, the player is visited by the Outsider, who offers them supernatural powers and instructs them to stop Delilah.
Arriving in Karnaca, the player is tasked with rescuing Sokolov, who was kidnapped by the Crown Killer. Infiltrating Addermire Institute, where the Crown Killer is reportedly hiding out, the player discovers that the Crown Killer is the alter ego of Karnaca's Chief Alchemist, Alexandria Hypatia (Jessica Straus). Hypatia accidentally created the Crown Killer persona when she tested an experimental serum on herself, and the Duke then exploited this to frame Emily. The player either kills Hypatia or cures her condition.
Investigating Addermire, it is revealed that Sokolov was imprisoned by Kirin Jindosh (John Gegenhuber), the Duke's Grand Inventor. The player enters Jindosh's Clockwork Mansion, kills him or performs an electrical lobotomy on him, and frees Sokolov. Sokolov directs the player to eliminate Breanna Ashworth (Melendy Britt), the curator of the Royal Conservatory and witch working for Delilah. The player enters the Royal Conservatory and discovers that Ashworth brought Delilah back from the Void, after her defeat at the hands of Daud, the assassin who killed Emily's mother. Ashworth is either killed or has her powers removed.
With Delilah being too powerful to defeat conventionally, Sokolov suggests the player investigate the home of mining magnate Aramis Stilton (Richard Cansino). Upon entering Stilton's mansion, the player discovers that he had gone insane after witnessing Delilah's resurrection. With the aid of the Outsider, the player travels back in time and observes the Crown Killer, Jindosh, Ashworth, and the Duke pull Delilah from the Void. Afterward, Delilah siphons part of her soul into a statue, making her immortal.
The player invades the Duke's palace to eliminate him and retrieve Delilah's soul. After either killing the Duke or working with his body double to depose him, the player finds the statue and extracts Delilah's soul. The player then returns to Dunwall for a final confrontation with Delilah. After reuniting Delilah with her soul, the player may choose to kill Delilah or trick her into trapping herself inside her own painting.
#### Endings
There are multiple endings based on whether the player caused high chaos by indiscriminate murder, or achieved low chaos by refraining from taking lives. These endings are also dependent on whom the player killed or spared, and which factions, if any, they sided with.
In the High Chaos ending, the player is faced with the choice of freeing Emily / Corvo from petrification or leaving them that way. If Emily is not left in stone, she becomes a vengeful empress and brutally purges Delilah's supporters. If Corvo leaves Emily petrified, he takes the throne for himself and becomes a brutal tyrant known as Emperor Corvo "the Black". Karnaca is either ruled by a new tyrant or collapses into anarchy and, if alive, Sokolov becomes a broken man after witnessing the perversion of his work, and is exiled to his home country.
In the Low Chaos ending, the player frees Emily / Corvo from their imprisonment. A council of representatives, or, optionally, Corvo, who can make himself the new Duke, takes charge in Karnaca and brings the city back from the brink. Emily becomes a fair and just ruler, reuniting the Empire. Sokolov, proud to see his work used for good, returns to his home country to spend his last days in comfort.
In either ending, if Meagan survives, she is revealed to be Billie Lurk and leaves to search for Daud, leading to Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.
## Development
Dishonored 2 was developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. After having co-directed the first game, Harvey Smith worked as director of Dishonored 2. Though the first Dishonored was developed by both Arkane teams in Lyon, France and Austin, United States, its sequel was developed largely solely in Lyon as Arkane Studios Austin were focused on developing 2017's Prey. Both studios collaborated on the game, and playtested each other's builds. The game runs on Arkane's "Void" engine, as opposed to Unreal Engine 3 that was previously used in Dishonored. The Void engine is based on id Tech 5, though the majority of the original engine was rewritten. Arkane removed unneeded elements from the engine like the mini open world and overhauled the graphics. The new engine is intended to improve in-game lighting and post-processing to help the game's visuals, and allows the game to visualize subsurface scattering.
Dishonored was not developed with a sequel in mind, but ideas for one began to emerge during the development of its downloadable content. Harvey Smith called the decision to play as Emily as intuitive at the start, with Emily having been a child in the original game. The impact that Emily had on players in Dishonored, which changed how the game was being played, made the developer decide to continue her story and give her more depth in Dishonored 2. Although this meant moving the timeline along, Arkane did not want to go too far for fear of losing the series' gaslamp fantasy / steampunk aesthetics. The choice to include Corvo as an alternate player character was itself a later decision.
In contrast to the first game, it was decided that both Emily Kaldwin and Corvo Attano should be voiced in Dishonored 2. The developers had previously experimented with a voiced player character with the assassin Daud in two pieces of Dishonored's downloadable content, The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches. Voiced player characters allowed the developers to draw attention to things on-screen via dialogue, and Arkane found them better at making players more emotionally invested. As Corvo had been a silent character in the first game, Arkane wanted to avoid going against any broad assumptions a player may have made about his character while also giving him a more assertive personality, which Smith remarked as an increased challenge for the writers. Originally, the player was to have access to all the powers regardless of what character was chosen. However, instead the team chose to limit them, and have the character's powers "reflect their lives or their time in the world".
Arkane was influenced by some criticisms of the first Dishonored. Although the difficulty was not considered a major problem, a sizeable number of players had complained the first was too easy, and thus the harder difficulty settings were reworked. The chaos system of Dishonored, considered as merely a binary ersatz meter, was intended to have more depth in the sequel. The altered chaos system, where different individuals grant varying amounts of chaos, was implemented due to how many players used the Heart in the original game. As the Heart would reveal secrets about whomever it was pointed at, players would use it to decide which non-player characters to kill and which to leave be or spare. Also intended to yield additional improvements was the upgrade system, which would for the first time level up based on a skill tree. Bone charms were made into craftable items, with 400,000 possible combinations available. While taking into account the intricacies of how supernatural abilities would be used, designers faced increased difficulty in relation to the play-style where the game is traversed in their absence, noting the accommodation of the play-style in a way that would not cancel out the other as a challenge.
As Arkane's Austin studio had left to work on Prey, Arkane Studios Lyon had to rebuild the AI team and begin work on the AI "from scratch". In addition to their own individual AIs, the guards in the game respond to a master AI that assigns them roles and helps them react to and work with each other.
With Dishonored 2, developers wanted to make the game's characters more representative. Arkane tried to give more key roles to non-white characters both to match the "melting pot" nature of the Empire and create a realistic world, and to ensure any potential player could find themselves reflected in the world. Elsewhere, characters exist who are not heterosexual, though developers wished this to feel a natural part of the world rather than "draw[ing] a big sign" around them. Emily's sexuality itself is deliberately never specified in order to allow for players to impose their own interpretations. The first Dishonored had received some criticisms about giving women limited types of roles. From Dishonored's downloadable content onwards, Arkane attempted to address these concerns and reach a more "plausible balance" in the world. This trend continued for Dishonored 2 which has women in a wider range of roles, including as guards.
### Art, level design and setting
Sébastien Mitton, who acted as art director on the first game, returned to the position for Dishonored 2. Viktor Antonov, who helped conceive of Dishonored's "painterly" look, had moved on as a general creative consultant for Bethesda and thus was less involved in the art of Dishonored 2. Arkane drew on paintings and sculptures for the art design, and had Lucie Minne mold several clay busts. The game begins and ends in the city of Dunwall, the setting of the first game, with most of the game taking place in Karnaca, "the jewel of the south". The change in setting in part was out of a desire to show another corner of the series' Empire. On using both settings, Harvey Smith commented that Arkane felt "we need to start it at home ... and then venture out into an exotic place and come back". Mitton wanted Dishonored 2 to be a visual "journey to a new city", though keeping the same sensibility of the first game and elements like oppression, disease, magic, and decay.
The history of Karnaca reportedly took approximately a year to create. After the creation of the setting's basic outline, the team focused on developing ideas that were inspired from inside the game, rather than from the outside world. Arkane had anthropology and politics in mind when creating the land's history, looking upon the first settlers of the region, the influence of foreign powers taking up residence there, and the different "tides of culture" that shaped the city. An attempt was made to have the game feature various different types of architecture, to reflect these various waves of settlers. The Arkane team worked with industrial designers and architects in creating Karnaca.
Based on southern Europe countries like Greece, Italy and Spain, Karnaca is warmer and sunnier than Dunwall. Reference photos were used from a variety of places to help design the city, including Cuba, Lyon and Malibu, California. The buildings in Karnaca frequently have flat roofs and more ornate windows. Photography from the 1920s was examined in order to help build a setting with a historical disposition, using reference websites like Shorpy.com and looking at the work of Agustín Casasola. Whereas Dishonored was largely built on the real world of 1837, Dishonored 2 draws ideas from "the architectural forms, popular fashions, and far-out technologies" of 1851. Arkane tried to take architectural concerns into account, and considered the effect the wind would have on the way the city developed, with energy being generated by wind turbines. Level designers and level architects collaborated throughout the entire production as locations were built. In making Karnaca, a style of Art Nouveau was applied.
The developers intended to depict Karnaca as grounded environment to help the city seem as though it could exist in reality. Arkane wished to avoid what one member dubbed "the Deus Ex effect"—wherein man-sized vents were placed wherever the game designers felt, often in nonsensical places. The team tried to reflect practicalities of everyday life; for instance, a building would have to have some kind of toilet and a guard's placement should make in-world sense. Colonies in places such as Australia, India and Africa were investigated to comprehend the transition of people adapting from the cold climate of Dunwall to areas with a warmer constitution like Karnaca.
Designing the in-game propaganda, they studied its use in history, finding the same pattern of elements reappearing throughout the centuries. In place of the militarily inspired propaganda of the first game, Dishonored 2 would employ a subtler approach; lavish posters for invariably canceled enterprises meant to aid the people of Serkonos were made to exhibit the nature of tyranny as practised by the Duke of Serkonos and his government. To further detail the world, the narration team would come up with fictitious products and brand names and make advertisements of them.
## Release
The game was formally announced during Bethesda's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 press conference by Dishonored co-directors Raphaël Colantonio and Harvey Smith, but was leaked the night before during a rehearsal. Lucie Minne's clay models, along with other Dishonored art, were featured on display at Art Ludique in an exhibit focused on French video games. Dishonored 2 appeared again at E3 2016. An image for the game by Sergei Kolesov was featured as part of the "Into the Pixel" collection. It was released to manufacturing on 1 November and made available on 11 November. The PC version was tamper-protected by anti-piracy software Denuvo, which was cracked in June 2017 by hacker group SteamPunks.
Preordering Dishonored 2 granted players access to the full game a day early. Bethesda announced a special collector's edition of the game as a pre-order on their online store. The collector's edition included a 13.5 inch replica of Corvo Attano's signature mask, a zinc alloy replica of Emily Kaldwin's ring, a Delilah Kaldwin propaganda poster and a metal collector's edition case for the game disc and manual. Digital bonuses were also included in the form of the Digital Imperial Assassin's Pack, which included additional in-game content. Pre-orders for console versions of the collector's edition came with a copy of Dishonored: Definitive Edition, a remastered version of the first game for the eighth generation of consoles with all downloadable content included.
In May 2016, Bethesda announced a Dishonored tie-in comic miniseries and novel trilogy. The comic mini-series, published by Titan Comics and written by Gordon Rennie with art by Andrea Olimpieri and Marcelo Maiolo, consists of four issues, the first of which was published in August. The three tie-in novels are published by Titan Books, the first of which, The Corroded Man, written by Adam Christopher, was published in September, with the second and third volumes following in 2017. In addition, a Dark Horse Comics-created artbook, The Art of Dishonored 2, was released, launching on the same date as the game. An art contest was held over social media—from 28 June to 17 July—with five winning participants being featured in the book. A graphic novel, The Peeress and the Price, was released on 20 February 2018. Written by Michael Moreci, drawn by Andrea Olimpieri and colorized by Mattia Iacono, it was created as a follow-up to the game.
Dishonored 2 received later updates. A New Game Plus mode was made available on 19 December 2016, which also allows the player access to both protagonists' powers in a single playthrough. Customizable difficulty settings along with a mission-select option were postponed to 23 January 2017 for all platforms. A standalone expansion, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, was released on 15 September 2017. It follows Billie Lurk and Daud the assassin as they embark on a mission to kill the Outsider.
## Reception
### Pre-release
Emily Kaldwin's reveal as player character at E3 2015 drew attention pre-release. GamesRadar called it one of the event's biggest surprises, noting the rarity of female protagonists. Both GameSpot and The Guardian commented on the prominence of female player characters in 2015's E3 expo. Game Informer called her one of ten "most promising" new characters revealed at the expo. The game's appearance at E3 2016 gained accolades. IGN awarded it "Best Xbox One Game", and it was nominated "Game of the Show", "Best PlayStation 4 Game", "Best Action Game", "Best Trailer", and "Best PC Game", being the runner-up to the last of which.
Dishonored 2 was nominated for "Best of Show", "Best Console Game", "Best PC Game" and "Best Action/Adventure Game" at the Game Critics Awards. Game Informer awarded the game "Best Multiplatform Game". PC Gamer gave the game "Best of Show". Eurogamer selected the game as one of the five best games at E3, highlighting the time-manipulating level and commenting "it's hard to imagine there'll be any game as intricate released this year, nor one quite so imaginative".
### Post-release
Dishonored 2 received generally favorable reviews according to Metacritic. The levels "Clockwork Mansion" and "A Crack in the Slab" were singled out to considerable praise. The game has been the recipient of over one hundred Best of 2016 awards. On its release, PC players reported issues with performance such as loss of frame rate and display resolution, and system crashes. Three patches for the PC version were released to remedy the problem.
Chris Carter of Destructoid considered the stealth approach "glorious"; the heart item one of his favorite ways to be exposed to further content; the puzzles and traversal challenges demanding; and the task of becoming a better assassin rewarding. The only complaints concerned shortcomings in frame rate capabilities on the Xbox One console, "stilted voice acting and script issues, despite the compelling narrative". Electronic Gaming Monthly's Nick Plessas wrote that Dishonored 2 "[recreates] many of the positive experiences from the previous instalment, but [requires] much greater effort on the part of the player this time around to achieve it". According to Plessas, the game's emotional substance was derived from the player character as coupled with the choices and their consequences to the story, though he was moved significantly more by the "smaller moments" of the game than the finale.
Writing for Game Informer, Matt Bertz thought the balance between low-chaos and high-chaos play styles held an improved competence from the original game and that each approach availed thought-provoking scenarios to be solved. Each character's abilities were praised as "equally useful". Bertz disparaged the main story beats however, calling them "rushed and underdeveloped", whilst lauding the environmental storytelling. James Kozanitis at Game Revolution enjoyed playing as Emily Kaldwin the most and said that, because some elements from Dishonored had returned, Emily infused a fresh perspective into the overall experience. Kozanitis favored the stealthier approach, which was said to better accommodate side quests—opined as the chief incentive for playing Dishonored 2. GameSpot's Scott Butterworth was satisfied with the use of weapons and observed that the sophisticated behavior patterns of the artificial intelligence (AI) rendered into "fun" experimentation, especially for stealth employment. The lack of increasing challenges was subject to criticism, with Butterworth lamenting the "underutilized" new enemies; the plot met charges of reproval for the same reason. Conversely, one quest involving time manipulation was declared a "masterpiece unto itself" and another in a clockwork-driven mansion was labeled as "mind-bending".
Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar complimented its sense of place, supernatural abilities and execution, but disapproved of the character development and constraint of a number of mechanics that were otherwise "brilliant". GamesRadar remarked in the days following that the Clockwork Mansion mission exemplified the best of Arkane Studios' "rich, intricate level design". IGN's Lucy O'Brien felt the decision to allocate powers and story details between the two player characters was "smart", echoing the view that the characters' abilities were "excellently" adaptable to both play styles. She commended the level design for distinguishing each level in terms of providing unique gameplay mechanics and expressed admiration for the game world's "gorgeous, painterly aesthetic". Phil Savage, writing for PC Gamer, stated that "at its worst, it offers a similar experience to its predecessor, which is to say, it offers tens of hours of extraordinary first-person stealth and action". PC Gamer later recognized the Clockwork Mansion as one of the best levels of 2016. Polygon's Arthur Gies noted the combat system as "improved and refined", the setting as "Dishonored 2's greatest inherited strength" and the AI units for their "excellent peripheral vision", yet regarded the inability to replay missions and the absence of a New Game Plus option as "possible deal-breakers". Alice Bell at VideoGamer.com wrote in her verdict: "Dishonored 2 takes everything you loved about Dishonored and improves upon it without becoming bloated. It's a beautifully designed, layered game, stuffed with hidden gems and secret stories. Also you can stab people in mid air".
### Sales
Dishonored 2 was the fourth best-selling game in its first week of release, but the launch week sales dropped thirty-eight percent when compared with the original game, although only sales of physical copies were recorded. That same week, the game had sold the most pre-orders on Steam and was ranked sixth in overall sales. It was the seventh best-selling retail video game in the UK in its second week of release, according to Chart-Track, a fifty-two percent decrease from the first week – similar to that of its predecessor. After a reduction in cost, Dishonored 2 re-entered the UK charts in the fourth week of May 2017, ranked in 8th place with a 1,267 percent rise in sales.
### Accolades
## See also
- Immersive sim |
432,255 | The Operative: No One Lives Forever | 1,166,024,110 | 2000 video game | [
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"PlayStation 2 games",
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| The Operative: No One Lives Forever (abbreviated as NOLF) is a first-person shooter video game with stealth gameplay elements, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive, released for Windows in 2000. The game was ported later to the PlayStation 2 and Mac OS X in 2002.
A story-driven game set in the 1960s, No One Lives Forever has been critically acclaimed for its stylistic representation of the era in the spirit of many spy films and television series of that decade, as well as for its humor. Players control female protagonist Cate Archer, who works for a secret organization that watches over world peace. In addition to a range of firearms, the game contains several gadgets disguised as ordinary female fashion items.
At the time of its release, many reviewers felt that No One Lives Forever was the best first-person shooter since 1998's Half-Life. After receiving several Game of the Year awards in the press, a special Game of the Year Edition was released in 2001, which included an additional mission. The Operative: No One Lives Forever was followed by a sequel, No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way, in 2002, and a spin-off that takes place during the time between the first two games entitled Contract J.A.C.K. released in 2003, both developed by Monolith.
A re-release of the game has been hampered by the complicated state of the series' intellectual property (IP) rights, with even parties assumed to be in possession of the IP having publicly admitted not knowing the precise legal situation of the series.
## Gameplay
The Operative: No One Lives Forever is a story-driven video game, set in the 1960s, and stars spy Cate Archer as the eponymous Operative, who works for UNITY—a secret international organization "dedicated to protecting humanity from megalomaniacs bent upon world domination." During the story of the game, Archer is sent on missions to a number of locales, including Morocco, East and West Germany, the Caribbean, and the Alps, where she gets into intense situations, such as scuba diving a shipwreck, free-falling from an airplane without a parachute, and exploring a space station in outer space, all the while fighting armed villains.
The game is a mixture of a first-person shooter and a stealth game. Most, but not all, missions can be solved in multiple ways: using sneaking to avoid danger or by going in with guns blazing. A stealthy approach can be taken to evade security cameras, guard dogs and other obstacles. Enemies are aware of noise made by the player, including footsteps and weapon fire, and they also react to footprints in the snow, and dead bodies left lying around. The game features a wide variety of firearms, including a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver, a submachine gun, a sniper rifle, and an assault rifle. Some of the weapons can be loaded with different types of ammunition, including standard full metal jacket bullets, dum dum rounds that expand on impact and cause bleeding damage, and phosphorus-coated tracer bullets that continue to burn upon impact. Silencers and scopes can also be fitted on some weapons.
A novel feature of the game is its array of gadgets, often disguised as ordinary female fashion objects. For example, lipsticks double as various explosives, perfume bottles hold materials such as sleeping gas, a barrette also functions as a lockpick and poison dagger, sunglasses can be used for photographing evidence and detecting land mines, and a belt buckle hides a zip line inside it. Other gadgets include a body-removing powder for disposing of incriminating corpses, a robotic poodle to distract guard dogs, and a rocket launcher disguised as a briefcase. An ordinary coin can be thrown to confuse enemies, giving the player the opportunity to sneak by without a guard noticing. A cigarette lighter can also be used as a miniature welding torch. These ingenious gadgets come from UNITY's gadget lab, led by its main inventor and scientist, Santa. "Santa's Workshop" continuously works on these covert gadgets and provides Cate with them as the game progresses.
In various sections of the game, the player can ride a motorcycle, or a snowmobile. Other segments of the game involve boss fights. If the player chooses to be stealthy, they can overhear humorous conversations between non-player characters, such as guards, scientists and civilians. Occasionally, the player can engage in conversations with such characters. In certain cutscenes, the game uses a dialog tree, where the player can choose between different questions and responses when talking to another character.
The missions in the game are littered with "intelligence items": briefcases, envelopes, and manila folders containing textual notes which often provide humorous side-notes and helpful hints to the game. The collection of intelligence items is optional. Special power-ups, called "gear" items are also available for collection during the game, such as "fuzzy slippers" that reduce noise made by movement, earplugs that reduce damage from explosions, and a fire extinguisher that protects the player from burn damage. These gear items are sometimes located in hard-to-reach areas. At the start of each mission, the player can choose which weapons, gadgets and gear to take with them. Some intelligence and gear items cannot be collected on the first playthrough of the game, as the necessary gadgets to reach them are not unlocked until later in the game. If the player wants to collect these items, they have to revisit the mission with the appropriate equipment.
At the end of each mission, the game displays various statistics, as well as any awards and bonuses earned during the mission. Awards are humorous textual notes given for the player's performance during a mission; these include awards for using a very low or a very high number of bullets, or a "Thanks For Not Getting Hurt Award" for avoiding damage. The player also receives a rank, such as "Trainee" or "Super Spy", which is based on the number of intelligence items obtained during the mission. Achieving a high mission rank increases the player's maximum health, armor and ammo capacity, as well as stealth, the amount of inflicted damage, and the accuracy of their shots.
No One Lives Forever also includes multiplayer gameplay online or over a local area network. There are two multiplayer modes available: standard deathmatch, and "H.A.R.M. vs. UNITY". The latter is a team deathmatch mode, where the goal is to capture as much intelligence for a player's team as possible, by sneaking in to the enemy team's base, finding the item, and photographing it.
## Plot
### Story
UNITY is a secret international organization headquartered somewhere in England that protects humanity from outsiders who want to take over the world. In 1967, over half of the UNITY's elite agents are murdered by an unknown assassin within a week, leaving UNITY with a critical manpower shortage. They are forced to send UNITY agent Cate Archer and her mentor, Bruno Lawrie, on a series of high-profile missions. Cate is an ex-cat burglar, and is UNITY's first female spy operative. UNITY's leaders, Jones and Smith, are skeptical of Cate working as a field agent, and have previously relegated her to more mundane assignments. Intelligence reveals that a Russian assassin named Dmitrij Volkov and a new terrorist organization named H.A.R.M. are responsible for the murders of UNITY's former agents. Cate and Bruno embark on a dangerous assignment in Morocco, which later turns out to be an ambush set up by Volkov and his men. Cate manages to escape Morocco whilst Bruno is shot by Volkov. In the UNITY headquarters, Jones and Smith reveal that Volkov killed Bruno simply because he was the traitor, to which Cate reacts with disbelief.
She is then tasked to escort Dr. Otto Schenker, an East German scientist, to England. Later on, as Cate and Dr. Schenker fly back to England, he is captured by H.A.R.M., led by Magnus Armstrong, who knocks Cate unconscious. Armstrong decides to spare Cate's life, believing that she is a fellow Scot. Cate awakens and is soon thrown from the plane as it explodes. After surviving the fall via parachute, Cate is later introduced to a new partner, Tom Goodman, a UNITY agent from the American branch. After meeting him in a nightclub in Hamburg, they are ambushed by H.A.R.M. but manage to escape. The nightclub is owned by a German singer named Inge Wagner, whom Cate suspects is connected with H.A.R.M. The two are then tasked to investigate a cargo freighter containing several suspicious chemical containers that UNITY believes are linked to Dr. Schenker. Cate gets in the freighter, and after taking photos of the containers, is knocked unconscious by Armstrong, who spares her life by locking her in a cargo hold, thus ignoring Wagner's insistence that she must be liquidated. As the freighter heads out to sea, it slowly begins to sink, due to a huge explosion. Wagner and Armstrong escape immediately, but Cate has to fight her way out of the bowels of the freighter. Because Cate could not obtain the required information, she and Tom must return to the sunken freighter to finish gathering intelligence aboard. Cate goes scuba diving, and after investigating the shipwreck and obtaining the captain's log and the cargo manifest, she is ambushed by H.A.R.M. divers sent from a submarine commanded by Armstrong and Wagner but manages to escape.
The information from the ship reveals a possible connection between H.A.R.M. and a large manufacturing firm named Dumas Industrial Enterprises, which was operated by Baron Archibald Dumas. However, the Baron claims he has no intelligence regarding his connection to H.A.R.M.
Later, Cate infiltrates the Dumas corporate headquarters, gaining access to their highly guarded safe, and photographing some relevant documents, despite heavy opposition, including an ear-splitting deathmatch against Wagner. However, after photographing the headquarter's final document, Cate escapes the headquarters despite witnessing Tom being shot by Volkov.
Meanwhile, H.A.R.M. starts infecting and killing innocent people using Dr. Schenker's biological explosive development. The chemical is injected into the living host, and it feeds on organic material until it culminates in a massive explosion. H.A.R.M. states that if their ransom demands are not met, they will continue to use human time bombs to cause destruction around the world. Cate embarks on a train ride to Washington, where Dr. Schenker is believed to be located. Cate finds him and manages to escort him to safety using an underground base.
Soon after, Dr. Schenker reveals that the antidote for the chemical reagent is located in H.A.R.M.'s space station. Cate travels to a small island located in the Caribbean, where she infiltrates a secret space launch facility. Cate discovers that a rocket will be sent to the space station that afternoon to collect some antidote. Disguised as a H.A.R.M. space agent, Cate boards the rocket and travels to H.A.R.M.'s space station. While she is searching for the antidote, the space station is struck by a meteor shower, causing it to implode. Cate obtains a large antidote sample and uses an escape pod to return to Earth safely.
Now in possession of the antidote, UNITY needs the list of infected people to find out who administered it, during which Cate believes that the real mastermind behind H.A.R.M.'s events is the Baron's wife, Baroness Felicity Dumas, who is believed to be in possession of the list. Later, Cate heads to the Dumas' château located in the German Alps. While there, she is knocked unconscious by Armstrong, who spares her life by locking her in a cell. The Baroness gloats at Cate about her plans to take over the world and leaves. Cate then provokes Armstrong into an ensuing fist fight. After being defeated, Armstrong agrees to let Cate go, and defects H.A.R.M. by telling her where the list is located. Cate then realizes that she was infected after being shot with a blowgun by Wagner in Hamburg days ago. The Baroness mentions that Wagner must have set the count-down to 10 days instead of 10 hours. Eventually, Cate obtains another antidote and later, the list located in the Baroness's hidden lair.
When Cate traveled down the mountain via a gondola lift, defeating the H.A.R.M. helicopters in the process, she encounters Volkov and a gun duel ensues. During their duel, an explosion causes an avalanche to send Volkov over the edge of a cliff. Later, Cate is confronted by the Baroness, and another gun duel ensues. After defeating the Baroness, she reveals that she has also infected herself and is about to detonate. Cate hurries to clear the civilians off the streets, and hides inside a building as the Baroness explodes.
Back at UNITY's headquarters, Cate is congratulated for a mission well done, and everybody leaves to grab some rest. Cate arrives at a graveyard where Bruno was buried to pay her respects. She is then confronted by the supposedly long-dead Tom Goodman, who reveals that he is the real traitor within UNITY, and a final gun duel ensues. Cate manages to injure Tom and arrest him, but Smith shoots Tom, causing him to fall into a freshly dug grave. Smith then tries to shoot Cate as well, but Jones shoots Smith and reveals that Bruno is still alive. Smith attempts his one last effort to shoot Cate, but Cate kills Smith just in time. With Tom and Smith shot dead, Jones and Bruno decide to tell Cate the truth; Bruno falsified his death so that Cate and the rest of UNITY could find the real traitor. Seven years ago, Smith was taken out of the field by UNITY due to his inadequate fieldwork. In order to sabotage UNITY as a way to avenge himself, Smith joins H.A.R.M. to kill the real Tom Goodman, and replace him with an impostor. When Cate's investigation initially foiled H.A.R.M.'s plan, both Smith and his mole were forced to reveal their true intentions. Cate reacts in shock upon finding out the truth.
In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Volkov survived the avalanche and reports back to H.A.R.M.'s mysterious Director, a middle-aged drunk man who Cate has seen several times in different countries during the game.
## Production
### Development
Work on No One Lives Forever started in 1998, after the release of Monolith Productions' previous game, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. Craig Hubbard, game designer for Shogo and NOLF expressed that Shogo "(although critically successful) fell embarrassingly short of original design goals", and "it is a grim reminder of the perils of wild optimism and unchecked ambition" exercised by the relatively small development team. The team (which included approximately 18 core members during development of NOLF) was determined not to make the same mistakes again with their next game. Describing the pressure on Monolith, Hubbard said that they "were still trying to live down the stigma" of their 1998 game, Blood II: The Chosen, which had been prematurely released buggy and unpolished, and that the company "had a lot to prove, both to ourselves and the gaming public."
Signing a contract with a publisher was a very difficult task for Monolith. Development had been going on for months, and the project had been approved by different publishers four times, before they were able to actually sign a deal with one. During this long time for finding a publishing partner, No One Lives Forever "mutated constantly in order to please prospective producers and marketing departments. The game actually started off as a mission-based, anime-inspired, paramilitary action thriller intended as a spiritual sequel to Shogo and ended up as a 60s spy adventure in the tradition of Our Man Flint and countless other 60s spy movies and shows." This final theme for the game was settled on through discussions with Fox Interactive, the final publisher of NOLF. (Parts of the initial "paramilitary action thriller" concept evolved into F.E.A.R., another Monolith game, released after the NOLF series, in 2005.) Monolith's producer for the game, Samantha Ryan, said that before the deal was signed, "here was a period where Monolith was two weeks from death. And Jace Hall closed the deal with Fox Interactive that basically saved the company."
After finally signing a contract with Fox (with whom partnership was announced to the public on August 24, 1999), the team was able to draft a mission statement, which stood as a point of reference during every aspect of developing the game.
> Our primary aim was to make the player feel like the hero of a 60s action/adventure/espionage movie. We came up with a list of the characteristics we felt were necessary to achieve our objective. The game must have a strong narrative, with twists and turns in the spirit of Charade or Where Eagles Dare. It must feature a fiercely competent hero and an assortment of despicable villains. The hero must have access to an impressive arsenal of weapons and gadgets worthy of Our Man Flint, Danger: Diabolik, or Get Smart. There must be memorable, death-defying situations, opportunities for stealth as well as all-out action, and a variety of exotic locales to explore. Finally, every aspect of the presentation must convincingly evoke the era.
The game was announced at the 1999 E3 conference show. While at this time – as described in the mission statement above – the game was already set out to be a spy-themed shooter set in the 1960s, the version that was previewed to the press at this time had many differences to the finished product, with regard to characters, plot and setting. The game's protagonist was originally set out to be a male character called Adam Church who worked for MI0, "Her Majesty's Most Secret Service". However, many of the final gameplay and story elements are known to have been present in this earlier iteration of the game: the H.A.R.M. organization; the defection of an East German biophysicist for information about a top-secret Soviet weapons program; the presence of humor in the game; some locations, such as the sunken cargo freighter; the use of gadgets, such as the rocket-launching briefcase; etc.
By at least July 1999, Monolith has decided to introduce many major changes to the game; the main reason being that the gaming press unexpectedly started comparing the game to James Bond games, like GoldenEye 007 (1997). Hubbard mentioned that their intention was to "make a 60s spy game", and claimed that they "didn't want to make a 'Bond' style game, so when people were obviously drawing that comparison, we decided to rework things a bit. We wanted to get away from the Bond comparisons that people were making, so we've changed the main character and the back-story a fair amount." As a result, the player controls a female protagonist in the final game, Cate Archer, who works for an organization called UNITY. Changing the main character to a woman not only helped the separation of the game from the Bond franchise, but also allowed for "more interesting dramatic possibilities", and the "list of gadgets got a lot more visually interesting". As Hubbard said, before switching to a female protagonist, he had been "struggling with trying to distinguish him from all the other male superspies from the era—extraordinarily handsome, intelligent, knowledgeable, resourceful, and so on. But a woman with those same characteristics immediately stood out because of the social climate of the time. No matter how qualified she might be, she'd have to overcome some serious barriers just to get a chance to prove herself. And if things didn't go flawlessly on a mission, she'd catch more heat than she deserved."
The female protagonist "went through numerous concept sketches, costume designs, hairstyles, names, and even nationalities." According to Hubbard, it was a challenge to find a look for her that was not only evocative of era, "but also worked as a 3D model." In the end, the in-game model of Cate Archer was styled after model and actress Mitzi Martin. This was a marketing decision made by the publisher, Fox Interactive, which used its feature film casting department to look for an appropriate model internationally. Archer's voice was provided by American voice actress Kit Harris, who also did the voice of the Inge Wagner character. Originally, Harris recorded the Scottish protagonist's voice in a stronger Scottish accent. This was changed after a Scottish producer of the game felt that the particular accent used was too lower class, and an inappropriate choice; Harris re-recorded her lines with a "British bent" instead. Both the face and the voice of the character were changed in the game's sequel, where she was voiced by Jen Taylor.
Along with the character and plot changes, it was also decided to change the game's working title, No One Lives Forever, to something else, for similar reasons related to the Bond franchise (in particular, the novel Nobody Lives for Ever), as well as possible legal considerations. However, the title instead stayed consistent throughout development, and "The Operative" (referring to the game's heroine, Cate Archer), which was added to the beginning of the title, was removed for the sequel, No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way.
After the game's release, Hubbard identified the realistic expectations set by the team as a strong point in the game's development, saying that "given our budget, team size, and development cycle, the best we could hope to do was to create a fun, engaging 60s espionage game that would make up in presentation what it lacked in innovation." Other positive aspects of the process included the aforementioned mission statement, along with the flexible systems used in development, the cohesion of the team, and effective scheduling. On the other hand, Hubbard cited difficulties in fleshing out the final team, as well as inefficient pre-production, delays due to waiting on technology, and the major difficulties in finding a publisher. Hubbard also mentioned the cinematic cutscenes as lengthy and problematic, partly because of technical difficulties, and partly because of conceptual flaws on his behalf, with regard to screenwriting. Regarding gameplay, he said that "ne of the main failings of NOLF was that it ended up feeling a lot more scripted and linear than it was intended to be". Hubbard also expressed dissatisfaction with the balance between action and intrigue: "Unfortunately, we came up a little short on intrigue. Stealth was too unforgiving. Once you were spotted, you were playing an action game." The team paid attention to these points while developing No One Lives Forever 2.
According to Hubbard, the team's "greatest asset was the list of mistakes we made during Shogo. We started this project with a pretty sober view of what we could achieve. As a result, every major feature we outlined made it into the game, as well as a few additional items we came up with during the project." However, there were still things that the team didn't have enough time to implement. For example, No One Lives Forever'''s team-based multiplayer portion was originally going to be a story-driven cooperative gameplay mode (similar to the "Assault" game type in the 1999 first-person shooter Unreal Tournament), including objectives and obstacles for the two teams. Like the single-player story in the game, this gameplay mode was also going to incorporate humor; for example, in one map, a goal of each team was to find a special watermelon for a mayor in a Moroccan marketplace. While this mode was publicly discussed even in July 2000, it is not present as such in the final product (which went gold on October 20). The different objectives were changed to a general goal for both teams in all maps: photographing the other team's intelligence item. However, a number of remnants stemming from the earlier gameplay design can be seen in some of the released maps, such as the office of the aforementioned mayor seen in the Morocco map. Fully realized co-operative multiplayer was, however, a feature of No One Lives Forever 2.
### Technology
No One Lives Forever utilizes the LithTech game engine, which was originally developed by Monolith, and later by its subsidiary, LithTech, Inc. (later known as Touchdown Entertainment). The game is based on LithTech 2.5 (the first game to use this version), with many custom additions and modifications to support the game's design, such as support for vehicles. According to the game's creators, characters in NOLF were built from more polygons than any other PC action game at the time, with Cate Archer's model having approximately 1,700 polygons.
The artificial intelligence (AI) in NOLF was significantly advanced at the time of the game's release. Enemy AI can react to eleven different stimuli, including hearing the player's footsteps or weapon firing, seeing the player's footprints in the snow, or hearing an ally scream in pain. The AI can try and investigate the source of these stimuli, by following the footprints for example, and can sound alarms or call for backup. During combat, the AI finds cover positions, and, to some extent, can also use its environment for protection, such as flipping over a table and hiding behind it. After advancing AI technology in their subsequent games, Monolith likened the way NOLF's AIs pop randomly in and out of cover to a shooting gallery. Groups of AI guards make use of a group logic when investigating and combating the player. For example, one guard might start firing at the player, while another runs and calls for backup. The game's AI includes friendly and enemy humans, as well as dogs, sharks, and helicopters.
## Design
### Influences and humor
In terms of video games, Monolith drew inspiration from a number of stealth/action games, such as Metal Gear Solid (1998), Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (1998), Syphon Filter (1999), and GoldenEye 007 (1997), because the team was "interested in a blend of stealth and action rather than focusing on one or the other exclusively." The original release of the 1981 stealth game Castle Wolfenstein was also cited as being influential.
Thematically, influences behind The Operative: No One Lives Forever were primarily 1960s spy-themed films, novels, television shows, as well as historical references. When it was decided that NOLF was going to be a 1960s spy game, lead designer Craig Hubbard started immersing himself in the subject matter, in order to "develop some fluency" in it. As he explained, he "was a big fan of early Bond films, but didn't know a lot about the whole spy craze. So I watched the Derek Flint movies , Modesty Blaise, Matt Helm, Danger: Diabolik, Avengers – anything I could get my hands on." Other influences included books, such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, TV shows like The Saint, The Pink Panther films, commando movies, such as The Guns of Navarone, as well as "lots of historical references, encompassing everything from books and documentaries on the spy trade to fashion catalogs and interior-design books." The basis for the biological explosives plot was the 1967 film Casino Royale. According to Hubbard, "the idea was to create a game that would make you feel like a superspy, so we tried to come up with situations, characters, and settings to support that goal." During the course of the game, the player can hear explicit popular culture references, including the TV series The Prisoner and The Fugitive, the Matt Helm films The Silencers and The Ambushers, and exotica musicians Les Baxter and Sondi Sodsai. Other conversations allude to major events of the time, such as the studio years of The Beatles, and the commercial failure of the Edsel automobile.
Humor plays an important role in No One Lives Forever. As Hubbard explained, the game's intention is "to make you laugh, but not at the expense of providing a broader, more satisfying emotional experience than a spoof generally allows, so that even if you don't chuckle once, you can still have plenty of fun playing the game. At heart, NOLF is an action/adventure/espionage game with a healthy dose of levity." Humor is presented mainly via visual gags, overheard conversations, textual intelligence items, and cutscenes. The humor includes "situational humor, and even a dash of absurdity and bathroom humor for good measure. Some of it is subtle, some of it isn't." The name of UNITY, H.A.R.M., and other fictional organizations mentioned in the game follow the spy genre formula of using contrived acronyms for organizations (see List of fictional espionage organizations). What H.A.R.M. actually stands for is never revealed, and speculation about its true meaning is used as a running gag in the game's sequel.
Regarding comparisons between the game and the Austin Powers film series, Hubbard pointed out on several occasions that, unlike Austin Powers, No One Lives Forever is not a parody of the spy genre. Contrasting the source of the humor in the two series, Hubbard noted that while the game is "campy and silly, the underlying premise borders on apocalyptic. That dichotomy in tone results in a very different style of humor from a parody, where everything is in good fun and nobody, including the characters, takes anything very seriously."
### Music
The soundtrack for the original version of No One Lives Forever (as well as the later Mac OS X port) was chiefly composed and produced by Guy Whitmore. The game uses DirectMusic technology, and its music is an example of an adaptive score: the music smoothly and flexibly adapts to the situations that players finds themselves in, in order to simulate film soundtracks. For instance, the music increases in tempo or urgency when the player is in a combat situation, or if enemies become aware of the player's presence. Whitmore's task as composer was "to capture the flavor of the '50s/'60s spy genre, without infringing on any existing copyrights." In order to avoid any legal troubles over music from the James Bond franchise of films and games, Whitmore was initially asked to refrain from using brass instruments; a directive he compared to "being asked to produce a blues album without guitars". While some of the instrument sounds came from professional collections, others were home-made samples, including solo cello sounds performed by Lori Goldston, used in the H.A.R.M. theme. Influences for the score included German composer Peter Thomas, the soundtrack of the 1968 film Barbarella, and "an array of Italian composers who did beautiful scores for low budget European erotic films."
Whitmore's adaptive score was not used for the PlayStation 2 version of the game. Instead, it featured original music by Rebecca Kneubuhl, and mixed by Gabriel Mann. The No One Lives Forever theme song was created by Rich Ragsdale. Kneubuhl and Mann also provided vocals for the title theme.
#### In the Lounge
The game was released with bonus 1960s-inspired music on the second CD. The songs available on this album, titled In the Lounge, were not featured in the game, but were specifically written as extra material. The 9 songs were written by Rebecca Kneubuhl (who created the in-game score for the later PlayStation 2 port as well), and were recorded at Asylum Studios. The CD also features two songs by independent artists: "Void" by Red Delicious and "El Dorado" by Archie Thompson. These were selected for inclusion as part of a NOLF online "music search", organized by Fox Interactive and Indiespace.com.
A different version of In the Lounge was also created. This includes the same 9 original tracks, although in a slightly different order. It does not include the two indie songs; however, it does feature Rich Ragsdale's NOLF title theme, as well as remixes of 6 of the original songs, by Gabriel Mann.
## Releases and ports
### Original release and Game of the Year Edition
The Operative: No One Lives Forever was originally released for Windows in the United States on November 10, 2000, by Fox Interactive, after it went gold on October 20. Before the game's release, a tech demo was released that included four single player missions, with one being a training mission. After the game's release, another demo was released, dubbed "Mega Mix Demo", which contained four single player levels and two multiplayer maps. A number of patches and map packs had also been made freely available for the game.
After receiving a number of Game of the Year awards, a special Game of the Year Edition was released on October 4, 2001. At this point, Fox Interactive co-published titles with a selection of partners, with the "Game of the Year" edition of the title being co-published by Sierra On-Line. This re-released version includes an exclusive mission otherwise not available in the original game, titled "Rest and Relaxation", which is available after the original story. The GOTY edition comes with the game's official Prima strategy guide, and it also contains more multiplayer maps, which were also made available as a download for owners of the original game.
In 2001, Monolith Productions released a set of editing tools for No One Lives Forever that included the level editor and model editor used for development. The team also released the source code for NOLF (version 1.003 on Windows) that year to "support the fan base by offering the tools to create their own levels". It is available both as a download, as well as on the Game of the Year Edition CD-ROM.
### PlayStation 2 port
On May 11, 2000, at E3, Fox Interactive announced that No One Lives Forever would be released for the PlayStation 2. although no release date was planned within that time.
On May 2, 2001, Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing and Fox Interactive signed a co-publishing agreement for four titles, including the PS2 port of No One Lives Forever, all of which would be released under the company's Sierra division. This deal followed an initial January 2001 announcement by Fox where they announced to cease publishing as a standalone unit. The port was initially announced for a Q4 2001 release, but was instead released on April 29, 2002.
The PlayStation 2 version is a port of the "Game of the Year Edition", but includes three exclusive flashback levels not available in other releases of the game titled "Nine Years Ago", in which the player controls a younger Cate Archer, when she used to be a cat burglar. Each of the new levels is accessed during several moments in the original story, when Cate is knocked out by Armstrong. All three levels use new textures, new character models, and feature Cate's cat burglar outfit, as well as two exclusive gadgets. The port does not feature Guy Whitmore's original interactive score; instead, it uses different original music by Rebecca Kneubuhl. Multiplayer mode is not present in this version of the game.
### Mac OS X port
A port of No One Lives Forever – Game of the Year Edition for the Mac OS X operating system was developed by MumboJumbo, and published by MacPlay. It was released on November 21, 2002, soon after the original Windows release of No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (which was also ported to Mac OS X by MacPlay later). Similarly to the Windows version of the game, the Mac OS X port also uses GameSpy technology for its online multiplayer mode, allowing players to play with each other, no matter which platform they use.
### Possible re-release
With the rise of digital distribution of video games in the latter part of the 2000s, there has been speculation about a possible re-release, or even a remake of the titles in the No One Lives Forever series. However, a number of reports have pointed out the complicated state of the series' intellectual property (IP) rights. Even parties that have strong ties to the IP, including video game publisher Activision and NOLF designer Craig Hubbard, have publicly admitted not knowing the precise legal situation of the series, as of May 2014.
In April 2013, Activision community manager Dan Amrich attempted to explain the acquisition history of the No One Lives Forever IP in a public video. This history includes the 2003 acquisition of NOLF publisher Fox Interactive by Vivendi Universal Games (who also owned Sierra Entertainment), as well as the 2008 merger between Vivendi Universal Games (VUG, which had since been renamed Vivendi Games) and video game publisher Activision, forming the Activision Blizzard holding company. After the merger, Activision decided to sell off some IPs and retain others. In order to find out the legal details behind NOLF, Amrich asked his colleagues, saying that "[t]he person that I normally talk to about this stuff does not believe that we [at Activision] currently have the rights. They've never seen it, they've never been given the permission to put that stuff on [GOG.com]. He said, basically, 'If we had it, I would love to be able to reissue those old games.'" Amrich also asked a friend of his who worked at NOLF developer Monolith (since acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment), who also did not know who the IP belonged to. Amrich concluded that "at this time I do not believe that Activision has the rights to No One Lives Forever."
When asked about the rights to the game in July 2013, NOLF designer Craig Hubbard also expressed confusion about the legal complexities behind the series. According to Hubbard, "my understanding was that Monolith owned the IP and Fox owned the title of the first game, which was technically The Operative: No One Lives Forever. I think Monolith actually owned A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way, the subtitle of the sequel, but I could be wrong about that. Fox got acquired by VUG, which in turn got acquired by Activision, while Monolith got bought by Warner Brothers, so some stars would have to align for everything to get sorted out." Hubbard added that "there didn't seem to be any interest in resurrecting the franchise" as of 2012, while he was still working at Monolith/Warner Bros.
A possible venue for re-release of the games would be computer game sale and distribution service GOG.com. In an interview with GOG.com's Trevor Longino, he said that "NOLF is a really great title, and it's one of the ones where the rights are a bear to get sorted. Just like pretty much any other classic IP you're ever thought of, we’ve looked into it, but it’s not an easy thing to do."
In May 2014, Nightdive Studios, a publisher of classic PC titles, filed trademarks for "No One Lives Forever", "The Operative", "A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way", and "Contract J.A.C.K.", Nightdive had also been able to acquire the source code for the games, which would enable them to remaster them for modern computer systems. However, Nightdive had yet to comment on the situation regarding who owned the rights to the game. At this point, the rights to the series were unclear, as the property may have been owned solely or in part by 20th Century Fox (which owned Fox Interactive at the time of the game's release), Activision (which acquired and merged with Vivendi Games, which in turn was the parent to Sierra Entertainment, the publisher of No One Lives Forever 2, and had acquired Fox Interactive in 2003), and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (which acquired Monolith Productions). Warner Bros. did file opposition to Nightdive's trademark, leading Nightdive to try to seek a license arrangement. However, Warner Bros. representatives were concerned that if either Fox or Activision had a part of the ownership, that they would also need their approval. Nightdive attempted to work with Fox and Activision to search their archives, but as these transitions pre-dated computerized records, neither company wanted to do so. Nightdive's efforts were further stalled when they were told by Warner Bros. that they had no interest in partnering or licensing the IP, leading Nightdive to abandon their efforts to acquire the rights.
## Reception and legacy
No One Lives Forever received critical acclaim upon its release, and has an 88.34% ranking on the aggregate site GameRankings (based on 28 reviews), and a score of 91 out of 100 on Metacritic (32 reviews). Many reviewers said at the time that No One Lives Forever was among the best first-person shooters since the influential and critically acclaimed 1998 title Half-Life.
In his review, GameSpot's Erik Wolpaw gave No One Lives Forever a score of 9.3 out of 10, and praised the "game's unrelenting inventiveness shows in virtually every aspect of its design." In IGN's review the game was given a 9.1 overall rating ("Outstanding") out of 10, and was called "one of the best shooters of the year". Eurogamer gave the game a score of 8 out of 10, and called it "thoroughly commendable." Computer Games Magazine gave the game 5 stars out of 5, and claimed that "No One Lives Forever combines a fantastic sense of style with great animation and voice acting, clever AI, industry-leading interactive music, a wry sense of humor, and gameplay that keeps you coming back for more."
Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "It may not be in quite the same league as Deus Ex, but then, what is? NOLF is one ferociously terrific game. Sequel please."
Critical reception of the PlayStation 2 port of No One Lives Forever was much less positive than the original version. It has a 70.12% ranking on GameRankings (42 reviews), and a score of 67 out of 100 on Metacritic (23 reviews). IGN gave the PlayStation 2 version an overall rating of 6.9 ("Passable") out of 10. The PlayStation 2 port received a 4.6 score ("Poor") out of 10 from GameSpot, and was panned mainly for the lack of the quicksave feature available in the PC version. The Mac OS X version of the game was given a 9.1 rating overall ("Outstanding") by IGN, and was called "a fabulous Mac version of this top notch game."
In the United States, No One Lives Forever sold 36,501 copies by the end of 2000, which accounted for \$1.32 million in revenue. The editors of PC Gamer US called these figures "a tragedy, and it's tough to nail a reason." By January 2002, the game's total sales had reached 350,000 copies.
### Awards
No One Lives Forever has earned several Game of the Year awards in the video game press. NOLF was named "Game of the Year" and "Action Game of the Year" by Computer Games Magazine. It also received "Action Game of the Year" awards from Computer Gaming World and PC Gamer magazines. During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the game in the categories for "Game Play Engineering", "PC Action/Adventure", "PC Game of the Year", and "Game of the Year". NOLF was also nominated for the International Game Developers Association's 2001 Game Developers Choice Awards in four categories: Game of the Year, Original Character of the Year, Excellence in Level Design, and Game Spotlight Awards. Out of these, the game earned a Game Spotlight Award for innovation.
### Legacy
Retrospective articles written about the game have also been positive. In a 2003 GameSpy feature called "The Top 25 Underrated Games of All Time", No One Lives Forever was ranked as \#19, dubbing it and its sequel "two of the most memorable games of the past 10 years." In an article written in 2009 (nine years after the game's release), Eurogamer states that the game has "dated enormously but survives well", and that "you simply couldn't make No One Lives Forever today. You couldn't because it would be too long, require far too many assets, and most significantly of all, risk all the cost of development on a comedy game – a genre that no longer exists." In a 2010 online PC Gamer feature titled "Why you must replay No One Lives Forever", Tim Stone hailed the 10-year-old game's use of humor, and wrote that NOLF "is every bit the amusing, inventive, life-affirming experience I remembered."
## Sequel and spin-off
The Operative: No One Lives Forever is the first game in the No One Lives Forever series. It was followed by a sequel in 2002, entitled No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way. In 2003, a spin-off of the first two games was released, entitled Contract J.A.C.K.. Being a prequel to No One Lives Forever 2, it is chronologically set between the first two No One Lives Forever'' games. This stand-alone expansion pack is a shorter game, and unlike the previous titles, its main protagonist is not Cate Archer, but John Jack, who works for H.A.R.M. The game also focuses more on action gameplay, rather than on stealth. |
1,602,494 | USS Cushing (DD-55) | 1,134,932,314 | O'Brien-class destroyer | [
"1915 ships",
"O'Brien-class destroyers",
"Ships built in Quincy, Massachusetts",
"World War I destroyers of the United States"
]
| USS Cushing (Destroyer No. 55/DD-55) was an O'Brien-class destroyer built for the United States Navy prior to the American entry into World War I. The ship was the second U.S. Navy vessel named in honor of William B. Cushing, a U.S. Navy officer best known for sinking the Confederate ironclad warship CSS Albemarle during the American Civil War.
Cushing was laid down by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Massachusetts, in September 1913 and launched in January 1915. The ship was a little more than 305 feet (93 m) in length, just over 31 feet (9.4 m) abeam, and had a standard displacement of 1,050 long tons (1,070 t). She was armed with four 4-inch (102 mm) guns and had eight 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. Cushing was powered by a pair of steam turbines that propelled her at up to 29 knots (54 km/h).
After her August 1915 commissioning, Cushing sailed off the east coast and in the Caribbean. She was one of seventeen destroyers sent out to rescue survivors from five victims of German submarine U-53 off the Lightship Nantucket in October 1916. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Cushing was sent overseas to patrol the Irish Sea out of Queenstown, Ireland. Cushing made several unsuccessful attacks on U-boats, and rescued survivors of several ships sunk by the German craft.
Upon returning to the United States after the war, Cushing was placed in reserve in reduced commission. She was decommissioned at Philadelphia in August 1920. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1936 and sold for scrapping in June.
## Design and construction
Cushing was authorized in March 1913 as the fifth of six ships of the O'Brien class, which was an improved version of the Cassin-class destroyers authorized in 1911. Construction of the vessel was awarded to the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Massachusetts, which laid down her keel on 23 September 1913. On 16 January 1915, Cushing was launched by sponsor Miss M. L. Cushing, daughter of the ship's namesake, William B. Cushing. The ship was the second ship named for Cushing, a U.S. Navy officer best known for sinking the Confederate ironclad warship Albemarle during the American Civil War. As built, the destroyer was 305 feet 3 inches (93.04 m) in length overall, 31 feet 1 inch (9.47 m) abeam, and drew 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m). The ship had a standard displacement of 1,050 long tons (1,070 t) and displaced 1,171 long tons (1,190 t) when fully loaded.
Cushing had two Zoelly steam turbines that drove her two screw propellers, and an additional pair triple-expansion steam engines, each connected to one of the propeller shafts, for cruising purposes. Four oil-burning White-Forster boilers powered the engines, which could generate 17,000 shaft horsepower (13,000 kW), moving the ship at up to 29 knots (54 km/h). Cushing reached a maximum speed of 30.59 knots (56.65 km/h; 35.20 mph) during sea trials on 25 May 1916, with her engines running at 16,621 horsepower (12,394 kW).
Cushing's main battery consisted of 4 × 4 in (100 mm)/50 caliber Mark 9 guns, with each gun weighing in excess of 6,100 pounds (2,800 kg). The guns fired 33-pound (15 kg) armor-piercing projectiles at 2,900 feet per second (880 m/s). At an elevation of 20°, the guns had a range of 15,920 yards (14,560 m).
Cushing was also equipped with eight 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. The General Board of the United States Navy had called for two anti-aircraft guns for the O'Brien-class ships, as well as provisions for laying up to 36 floating mines. From sources, it is unclear if these recommendations were followed for Cushing or any of the other ships of the class.
## Early career
USS Cushing was commissioned into the United States Navy on 21 August 1915 under the command of Lieutenant Commander T. A. Kittinger. Cushing served on the Neutrality patrol off Rose Bank, New York, until 28 December 1915. She sailed to the Caribbean for fleet maneuvers on 4 January 1916 and after joining in fleet tactical exercises off Portland, Maine, and gunnery exercises off Norfolk, Virginia, she reported to Newport, Rhode Island, on 27 September to test torpedoes at the Naval Torpedo Station.
At 05:30 on Sunday, 8 October 1916, wireless reports came in of a German submarine stopping ships near the Lightship Nantucket, off the eastern end of Long Island. After an SOS from the British steamer West Point was received at about 12:30, Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves ordered Cushing and other destroyers at Newport to attend to survivors. The American destroyers arrived on the scene about 17:00 when the U-boat, U-53 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose, was in the process of stopping the Holland-America Line cargo ship Blommersdijk. Shortly after, U-53 stopped the British passenger ship Stephano. After Rose had given passengers and crew aboard both ships adequate time to abandon them, he sank the pair. In total, 226 survivors from U-53's five victims were rescued by the destroyer flotilla.
After finishing out the rest of 1916 at Newport, Cushing again joined in exercises in the Caribbean for the first three months of 1917.
## World War I
After the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917 entering World War I, Cushing was put to sea from New York on 15 May 1917 with Cummings, Nicholson, O'Brien, and Sampson. The destroyers arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, 24 May for duty in the war zone.
Cushing patrolled off the Irish coast, meeting and escorting convoys of merchant ships and troop transports to British ports and the French coast. German submarines were active in the area and Cushing conducted antisubmarine patrols and performed rescue work on the ships that were victims of U-boats. On 4 June, she picked up 13 men adrift in a small boat, survivors of Italian brig Luisa.
The destroyer had a busy July. On the 7th, she assisted Perkins in rescuing survivors of the torpedoed and sinking British merchant ship SS Tarquah. The next day she responded to an SOS from SS Onitsha, which was being chased by an enemy submarine, and picked up 54 survivors of SS Obuasi which had already been sunk. On 16 July she escorted SS Tamele to safety after the merchantman had received five hits, and the same day fired on two submarines, U-49 and U-58, at extremely long range following their attack on the Italian merchant vessel SS Lamia L., from whom Cushing rescued 27 survivors.
On 12 September, five survivors from the British SS Vienna were saved after being adrift for 2 days. On 26 November, when RFA Crenella was torpedoed, Cushing stood by, giving damage control assistance which kept the merchantman from sinking, then escorted her into Queenstown. Cushing rejoined her convoy the next day. Continuing her convoy escort and patrol duty, Cushing on 25 April 1918 dropped fifteen depth charges on German submarine U-104, damaging her severely; HMS Jessamine sank U-104 later that same day. After 11 June 1918, Cushing operated from Brest, France, escorting eleven troop convoys through the submarine zones into French ports, making two depth charge attacks without success in the process.
## Postwar
Immediately after the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, Cushing remained in French waters. She towed Murray, which had grounded on rocks in a French harbor, into Brest on 3 December. However, Cushing departed for the United States on 21 December, arriving in New York on 6 January 1919. She was placed in reduced commission on 1 July, and transferred to the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 6 April 1920. In July, she was assigned the hull code of DD-55 under the U.S. Navy's alphanumeric classification system. Cushing was decommissioned on 7 August.
On 1 July 1933, she dropped the name Cushing to free it for a new destroyer of the same name, becoming known only as DD-55. The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 7 January 1936, and, on 30 June, was sold for scrapping in accordance with the London Naval Treaty for the limitation of naval armaments. |
65,843,800 | Boxer Ramen | 1,161,168,387 | Chain of ramen restaurants in Portland, Oregon, U.S. | [
"2013 establishments in Oregon",
"Japanese restaurants in Portland, Oregon",
"Ramen shops",
"Restaurants established in 2013"
]
| Boxer Ramen is a small chain of ramen restaurants in Portland, Oregon, United States. Micah Camden and Katie Poppe opened the original 30-seat restaurant in 2013, followed by a second in January 2015. Matt Lynch and Chris Thornton have since joined as partners. Boxer Ramen opened a third, fourth, and fifth location in March 2016, December 2017, and 2018, respectively. All of the restaurants closed temporarily in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; the two most recent closures have been converted into other restaurants operated in part by Camden.
## Description
Boxer Ramen is a small chain of fast casual restaurants in Portland, Oregon. The original 30-seat ramen shop is located in Union Way, a multi-use retail "alleyway project" in the space formerly occupied by Red Cap Garage, in downtown Portland's West End. It has been described as a "sister restaurant" to Boxer Sushi, opened by Micah Camden in southeast Portland's Hawthorne district in 2012 and closed in September 2014.
Three additional locations have opened since 2013. Their interiors feature pop art decor. Portland Monthly said of the original location's atmosphere and interior: "Micah Camden's neo-pop noodle house looks like a ramen shop designed by Lucky Peach magazine. Wu-Tang Clan bumps from the sound system and an entire wall is clad in a mural of three cute but devilish Japanese girls hovering over a chicken, pig, or tuna leaping from a ramen bowl."
The restaurant on Albert Street features "utilitarian plywood decor" and umbrellas hanging from the ceiling, an alley spray-painted gold, and a mural described as "drawings of animal-people eating bowls of animal-people, like an anime episode of BoJack Horseman". Alexander Basek of Food & Wine said of the interior: "Boxer's generous use of hot pink and unfinished plywood for decor bestows Boxer's small interior with a work-in-progress vibe."
The original restaurant accepted cash only and did not offer take-out containers, as of 2013.
### Menu
When it opened, Boxer Ramen's menu featured noodle soups with noodles made by Sun Noodle Company and two types of broth: spicy miso and tonkotsu-shoyu. Within a year, two additional ramen options were added: shiitake, featuring a mushroom-pork bone dashi, and vegetarian yellow curry, with coconut milk, corn, stock, and tofu. Other soup ingredients include pork belly, scallions, and soft poached eggs. Rotating side dishes included Japanese pickles, ohitashi spinach salads, okonomiyaki tater tots, pork belly buns and pot stickers. Mochi ice cream shipped from Bubbies in Honolulu is available for dessert; flavors include passion fruit. The fourth Boxer Ramen location added a bowl with short ribs to the menu, along with cocktails, including a Moscow mule and yuzu-infused gin and tonic.
## History
### Original restaurant
Micah Camden announced plans to open Boxer Ramen in April 2013. In August, he and co-owner Katie Poppe confirmed plans to open in late September, but there were some delays while the restaurant offered "soft openings" and "test dinners". October 9 was later announced as the opening date, but this was pushed back to November 1. Boxer Ramen hosted a "ramen free-for-all" on October 31, offering guests bowls at no cost from noon to 3:00 pm. The restaurant celebrated its first anniversary by offering half-price bowls from noon to 9:00 pm on November 1, 2014.
### Subsequent locations
Boxer Ramen opened a second location in northeast Portland's Alberta Arts District, at the intersection of 21st Avenue and Albert Street, in January 2015. Camden and Poppe had applied for a liquor license by November 2014. The opening kicked off with a ramen bowl giveaway on January 22, and the restaurant initially operated from noon to 10:00 pm. It closed at 9:00 pm on all evenings, as of 2016.
The soft launch for the third restaurant, housed in a space previously occupied by the Two Tarts Bakery at the intersection of Northwest 23rd Avenue and Kearney Street, in the city's Northwest District, was held on March 25, 2016. Camden and Poppe had applied for a liquor license for the restaurant by November 2015, and were joined by new co-owner Matt Lynch. Similar to the promotional giveaway for the original location, Boxer Ramen offered free ramen bowls on site from 4:00 pm–7:00 pm. The Northwest District restaurant has a 28-seat dining area with an additional 8-seat counter. It offers a similar menu as the first two locations, operating from noon–9:00 pm on weekdays and from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm on weekends, as of 2016.
The trio opened a fourth location along East Burnside Street on December 1, 2017, slightly later than the previously announced opening date of October 15. Boxer Ramen hosted a similar on-site ramen giveaway on November 30. The 40-seat restaurant had a slightly expanded menu, cocktails, and happy hour from 10:00 m to midnight on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The restaurant was the largest of the Boxer Ramen locations.
Plans for a fifth location in the Westmoreland, district of southeast Portland's Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood were confirmed in 2018. In January 2018, Portland Mercury said construction had recently begun on the 32-seat restaurant and anticipated a start by the summer season.
Boxer Ramen supported Family Meal, a nonprofit organization supporting "food service and agricultural workers in need in a medical debt crisis", as of 2019. In addition to Camden, Poppe, and Lynch, Chris Thornton was named a co-owner of Boxer Ramen in 2020.
### COVID-19 pandemic
When the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Governor Kate Brown to close indoor dining, Camden gave teams at all restaurants the choice of temporary closure or continuing as a take-out service. The Boxer Ramen teams elected to pause operations altogether. In September 2020, Camden said of the closures: "Boxer Ramen has always been one of my favorite restaurants. I have five locations. But nobody in the world orders ramen to go."
The Burnside location had closed by August, and was converted into Rock Paper Fish, a seafood chain by Camden, Craig Peterson, and Ndamukong Suh. By July, the Sellwood restaurant was converted into a second location for Baes Fried Chicken, a fried chicken operation by Camden with Suh. Some Boxer Ramen staff continued to work at the satellite Baes, and new employees were hired as well.
## Reception
Following the opening of the original restaurant, Michael Russell of The Oregonian gave Boxer Ramen a "B" rating and called the restaurant a "small step forward" for the city's ramen scene. He described the tonkotsu broth as "a salty Japanese carbonara" and deemed the dish Portland's best ramen. Russell also called the okonomiyaki tater tots a "cross-cultural stroke of genius". Willamette Week's Martin Cizmar said Boxer Ramen "delivers quick, hard jabs" and called the restaurant Camden's "greatest creation yet" (in addition to Boxer Sushi, his other projects have included Blue Star Donuts and Little Big Burger). Portland Monthly said the spicy red miso ramen "has addictive potential" and recommends the passion fruit mochi, described as "creamy and softly fruity, a Dreamsicle reborn".
The Oregonian's Samantha Bakall wrote, "The hip, Southwest Portland ramen-ya is known for its tonkotsu broth, arguably the best in Portland right now. Boxer was one of our favorite ramen shops of 2014." She also included Boxer Ramen in her 2014 list of "50 great Portland-area restaurants where you and a friend can chow down -- and maybe even have a drink -- for under \$50". In his review, Ben Waterhouse recommended the pork-bone, shoyu, and tonkotsu broths, and wrote, "nowhere in town offers a bowl more like that you're likely to find after a long night of drinking in Shibuya".
Chris Onstad of the Portland Mercury recommended the tonkotsu-shio ramen in his 2014 review, and complimented the service staff describing as "quick, remarkably knowledgable, and friendly to the point of actual charm". He did, however, criticize the restaurant for accepting cash only, and wrote, "It is claimed the noodles are brought in from a vaunted purveyor, but I would still like them to be a little more toothsome when first set down. If the same noodle is going to be used in all four dishes, as it is here, it deserves finer tuning. Quantity-wise, I always felt like I ran out three bites shy of satisfaction."
In 2016, Willamette Week staff recommended the Northwest District restaurant during neighborhood visits, and Aaron Mesh questioned the Alberta restaurant's relatively early closing time. He wrote, "The puzzling part of a high-gloss take on the Tokyo ramen counter is that it closes at 9 pm. The starter menu ... would be impossibly popular at last call." Furthermore, he opined, "Camden's little big touches remain deft, even as he makes Portland look increasingly like a cartoon." The newspaper's Elise Herron ranked Boxer Ramen number six in her 2019 list of the "seven best places to get tots" in Portland, and wrote, "Seafood lovers will appreciate the fish flake-topped tots with sides of tonkatsu and creamy-spicy sauce." Boxer Ramen won in the "best ramen" category in Willamette Week's 2016 "Best of Portland Readers' Poll", and was runner-up in 2017 and 2020. Portland Mercury's Jenni Moore wrote in 2019, "Boxer Ramen's cool little space on Alberta has purposely exposed-but-glossed-over plywood walls, some pleasant mural art, and an only slightly alarming taxidermy raccoon riding in a canoe... They get extra points for bumping rap from the likes of Big K.R.I.T. and 2Pac, because yes, hip-hop does make my plant-based ramen more enjoyable."
Fodor's has described the original location as "often crowded and convivial", and Thrillist said: "This place is all about creating a dish, executing it well, and selling it for a decent price in a good environment. Nestled at the front end of Union Way plaza, this place has been the best place to get ramen in Downtown since its opening, and a great place to stop for post-shopping lunch." Zagat gives Delta ratings of 4.0 for food, 3.9 for decor, and 4.0 for service, each on a scale of 5. The guide said, "Fans find extreme umami at these no-nonsense Japanese from Micah Camden ... that offer a simple menu of great, rich ramen plus a few side dishes; the compact spaces are not a place to go with groups, but speedy, solicitous service ensures a noodle-icious experience that hits the spot."
## See also
- List of Japanese restaurants
- List of noodle restaurants |
6,936,020 | Thomas R. Kline School of Law | 1,167,492,412 | Law school of Drexel University | [
"2006 establishments in Pennsylvania",
"Drexel University",
"Educational institutions established in 2006",
"Law schools in Pennsylvania"
]
| The Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law (previously the "Earle Mack School of Law") is the law school of Drexel University, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 2006, it offers Juris Doctor, LLM and Master of Legal Studies degrees and provides for its students to take part in a cooperative education program.
## History
In 2005, Drexel University announced its plans to create a new law school adjacent to the Drexel University Main Campus W. W. Hagerty library in West Philadelphia. That same year Drexel received approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to start the school. The decision to launch a law school with cooperative education in a city with five other law schools was based on a demand for graduates with immediate experience, with the president of Drexel University, Constantine Papadakis, saying that employers "like to hire a graduate and have them immediately be useful." The School of Law joins Temple University, University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, Rutgers University, and Widener University to become the sixth law school in the Delaware Valley. The School of Law is the first new law school to be opened by a doctoral university in a 25-year period nationwide.
The School of Law's inaugural class began classes on August 16, 2006. Due to a shortage of construction materials in 2006, caused in part by the need in the gulf coast due to Hurricane Katrina, construction on the building was delayed, resulting in classes being held on Drexel University's Main Campus and within the Jenkins Law Library and the auditorium of the National Constitution Center. The first class was expected to be composed of 120 students; ultimately, the inaugural class consisted of 183 students with an incoming median GPA of 3.4 and a median LSAT score of 156. On May 1, 2008, the Drexel University College of Law was renamed the Earle Mack School of Law in honor of Earle I. Mack, a Drexel University alumnus, after a donation of \$15 million dollars.
In 2013, the school's name was changed from Earle Mack School of Law to Drexel University School of Law to create new fund-raising opportunities by opening the naming rights.
In 2014, it received a \$50 million gift from Thomas R. Kline, a trial lawyer in Philadelphia, and was renamed after him. The gift, which was the single largest in Drexel University's history and the fifth largest received by a law school, was designated for the support of scholarship and to enhance the school's Trial Advocacy Program. The gift includes the conveyance of an historic building designed by Horace Trumbauer. Thomas R. Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy will move into the building and be used for courtroom simulations, Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs, and development of the Master of Laws (LLM) program.
## Academics
The school offers Juris Doctor, LLM and Master of Legal Studies degrees, as well as joint-degree programs for those pursuing a degree through Drexel University's LeBow College of Business, School of Public Health, Department of Psychology and Center for Public Policy. It received provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association in February 2008 enabling the first graduating class, 2009, to take the bar exam upon graduation. The school offers optional concentrations in business and entrepreneurship law, criminal law, health law, and intellectual property law and as of 2019 has 134 full and part-time faculty members. The School of Law is the first to have enrolled all of its students in the Philadelphia Bar Association's Young Lawyers Section. The students also have automatic membership to the Jenkins Law Library. In addition to admittance to the Law Library students also publish a Law Review, Drexel Law Review, which is published semiannually. In August 2011, after three years of being provisionally accredited, the American Bar Association granted the School of Law full accreditation.
### Cooperative education
Like Drexel University's cooperative education program, the School of Law offers cooperative education for its students. The School of Law is the second law school in the country to have a co-op program for law students, the first being Northeastern University. The first co-op cycle for the school started in September 2007 and over ninety area corporations, law offices, judiciary positions, non-profit organizations, and government offices offered internship positions.
During their first year at school students concentrate on basics such as legal writing and contracts before starting their first six-month co-op cycle. In order to be eligible to participate in the program students must complete their first year with a minimum GPA and satisfy any job orientation that is required. While on co-op students are required to work at least 20 hours a week at their position and take an additional 3 credit hours in either a class or an approved academic program.
Beginning with the class that enrolled in 2014, all students are required to complete at least one co-op placement or a clinical placement in addition to providing a minimum of 50 hours of pro bono service.
### Rankings
In 2022, U.S. News ranked Drexel the 78th best law school in the country.
From 2006–2011 the School of Law went "unranked" on the U.S. News & World Report as provisionally accredited law schools cannot be ranked. On the 2020 list of "Best Law Schools" by the U.S. News & World Report the School of Law was ranked 93 out of 201 schools. The law school's Trial Advocacy program was ranked 11th; the Health Law program was ranked 23rd, the Clinical Training program was ranked 40th and the Legal Writing program was ranked 14th. In July 2013, the School of Law had an 81.9% Pennsylvania Bar Examination passage rate for 1st time test takers. In July 2014, the School of Law had an 87.5% Pennsylvania Bar Examination passage rate for 1st time test takers.
## Career Planning
### Placement
According to Drexel's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 80.6% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. The school was scored among the top 25 law schools in the U.S. for job outcomes, based on employment outcomes for the Class of 2016 by Law School Transparency. The National Law Journal ranked the school 30th in the U.S. for its employment outcomes, based on its placements for graduates in the Class of 2016.
### Costs
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Drexel for the 2014–2015 academic year is \$62,842. The website Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is \$234,910. Based on cost of attendance and financial aid data (that the law school is required by the American Bar Association to disclose to prospective students), the average accumulated debt for students who graduated in 2013 was \$98,820.
## Facilities
In 2005, the Philadelphia Planning Commission approved Drexel's then estimated \$13 million temporary law school. Construction on the temporary law school building began in the fall of 2006 and was completed during the winter term. The \$14 million building opened for classes on January 8, 2007.
The 65,000-square-foot (6,000 m<sup>2</sup>) complex features a moot courtroom, a two-floor library, a two-story atrium for meetings and casual conversation, faculty/staff offices, and several rooms available for students to meet and work. The building also shares Drexel's campus-wide wireless Internet access.
The law school also has a second building, the Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy located at 1200 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19107. This building features a mock courtroom built to scale to replicate real trials for students. |
2,943,640 | Antibiotic sensitivity testing | 1,173,488,486 | Microbiology test used in medicine | [
"Antibiotics",
"Antimicrobial resistance",
"Infectious diseases",
"Microbiology techniques"
]
| Antibiotic sensitivity testing or antibiotic susceptibility testing is the measurement of the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics. It is used because bacteria may have resistance to some antibiotics. Sensitivity testing results can allow a clinician to change the choice of antibiotics from empiric therapy, which is when an antibiotic is selected based on clinical suspicion about the site of an infection and common causative bacteria, to directed therapy, in which the choice of antibiotic is based on knowledge of the organism and its sensitivities.
Sensitivity testing usually occurs in a medical laboratory, and uses culture methods that expose bacteria to antibiotics, or genetic methods that test to see if bacteria have genes that confer resistance. Culture methods often involve measuring the diameter of areas without bacterial growth, called zones of inhibition, around paper discs containing antibiotics on agar culture dishes that have been evenly inoculated with bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentration, which is the lowest concentration of the antibiotic that stops the growth of bacteria, can be estimated from the size of the zone of inhibition.
Antibiotic susceptibility testing has been needed since the discovery of the beta-lactam antibiotic penicillin. Initial methods were phenotypic, and involved culture or dilution. The Etest, an antibiotic impregnated strip, has been available since the 1980s, and genetic methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing have been available since the early 2000s. Research is ongoing into improving current methods by making them faster or more accurate, as well as developing new methods for testing, such as microfluidics.
## Uses
In clinical medicine, antibiotics are most frequently prescribed on the basis of a person's symptoms and medical guidelines. This method of antibiotic selection is called empiric therapy, and it is based on knowledge about what bacteria cause an infection, and to what antibiotics bacteria may be sensitive or resistant. For example, a simple urinary tract infection might be treated with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. This is because Escherichia coli is the most likely causative bacterium, and may be sensitive to that combination antibiotic. However, bacteria can be resistant to several classes of antibiotics. This resistance might be because a type of bacteria has intrinsic resistance to some antibiotics, because of resistance following past exposure to antibiotics, or because resistance may be transmitted from other sources such as plasmids. Antibiotic sensitivity testing provides information about which antibiotics are more likely to be successful and should therefore be used to treat the infection.
Antibiotic sensitivity testing is also conducted at a population level in some countries as a form of screening. This is to assess the background rates of resistance to antibiotics (for example with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), and may influence guidelines and public health measures.
## Methods
Once a bacterium has been identified following microbiological culture, antibiotics are selected for susceptibility testing. Susceptibility testing methods are based on exposing bacteria to antibiotics and observing the effect on the growth of the bacteria (phenotypic testing), or identifying specific genetic markers (genetic testing). Methods used may be qualitative, meaning that a result indicates resistance is or is not present; or quantitative, using a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to describe the concentration of antibiotic to which a bacterium is sensitive.
There are many factors that can affect the results of antibiotic sensitivity testing, including failure of the instrument, temperature, moisture, and potency of the antimicrobial agent. Quality control (QC) testing helps to ensure the accuracy of test results. Organizations such as the American Type Culture Collection and National Collection of Type Cultures provide strains of bacteria with known resistance phenotypes that can be used for quality control.
### Phenotypic methods
Testing based on exposing bacteria to antibiotics uses agar plates or dilution in agar or broth. The selection of antibiotics will depend on the organism grown, and the antibiotics that are available locally. To ensure that the results are accurate, the concentration of bacteria that is added to the agar or broth (the inoculum) must be standardized. This is accomplished by comparing the turbidity of bacteria suspended in saline or broth to McFarland standards—solutions whose turbidity is equivalent to that of a suspension containing a given concentration of bacteria. Once an appropriate concentration (most commonly an 0.5 McFarland standard) has been reached, which can be determined by visual inspection or by photometry, the inoculum is added to the growth medium.
#### Manual
The disc diffusion method involves selecting a strain of bacteria, placing it on an agar plate, and observing bacterial growth near antibiotic-impregnated discs. This is also called the Kirby-Bauer method, although modified methods are also used. In some cases, urine samples or positive blood culture samples are applied directly to the test medium, bypassing the preliminary step of isolating the organism. If the antibiotic inhibits microbial growth, a clear ring, or zone of inhibition, is seen around the disc. The bacteria are classified as sensitive, intermediate, or resistant to an antibiotic by comparing the diameter of the zone of inhibition to defined thresholds which correlate with MICs.
Mueller–Hinton agar is frequently used in the disc diffusion test. The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) provide standards for the type and depth of agar, temperature of incubation, and method of analysing results. Disc diffusion is considered the cheapest and most simple of the methods used to test for susceptibility, and is easily adapted to testing newly available antibiotics or formulations. Some slow-growing and fastidious bacteria cannot be accurately tested by this method, while others, such as Streptococcus species and Haemophilus influenzae, can be tested but require specialized growth media and incubation conditions.
Gradient methods, such as Etest, use a plastic strip placed on agar. A plastic strip impregnated with different concentrations of antibiotics is placed on a growth medium, and the growth medium is viewed after a period of incubation. The minimum inhibitory concentration can be identified based on the intersection of the teardrop-shaped zone of inhibition with the marking on the strip. Multiple strips for different antibiotics may be used. This type of test is considered a diffusion test.
In agar and broth dilution methods, bacteria are placed in multiple small tubes with different concentrations of antibiotics. Whether a bacterium is sensitive or not is determined by visual inspection or automatic optical methods, after a period of incubation. Broth dilution is considered the gold standard for phenotypic testing. The lowest concentration of antibiotics that inhibits growth is considered the MIC.
#### Automated
Automated systems exist that replicate manual processes, for example, by using imaging and software analysis to report the zone of inhibition in diffusion testing, or dispensing samples and determining results in dilutional testing. Automated instruments, such as the VITEK 2, BD Phoenix, and Microscan systems, are the most common methodology for AST. The specifications of each instrument vary, but the basic principle involves the introduction of a bacterial suspension into pre-formulated panels of antibiotics. The panels are incubated and the inhibition of bacterial growth by the antibiotic is automatically measured using methodologies such as turbidimetry, spectrophotometry or fluorescence detection. An expert system correlates the MICs with susceptibility results, and the results are automatically transmitted into the laboratory information system for validation and reporting. While such automated testing is less labour-intensive and more standardized than manual testing, its accuracy can be comparatively poor for certain organisms and antibiotics, so the disc diffusion test remains useful as a backup method.
### Genetic methods
Genetic testing, such as via polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA microarray, DNA chips, and loop-mediated isothermal amplification, may be used to detect whether bacteria possess genes which confer antibiotic resistance. An example is the use of PCR to detect the mecA gene for beta-lactam resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Other examples include assays for testing vancomycin resistance genes vanA and vanB in Enteroccocus species, and antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. These tests have the benefit of being direct and rapid, as compared with observable methods, and have a high likelihood of detecting a finding when there is one to detect. However, whether resistance genes are detected does not always match the resistance profile seen with phenotypic method. The tests are also expensive and require specifically trained personnel.
Polymerase chain reaction is a method of identifying genes related to antibiotic susceptibility. In the PCR process, a bacterium's DNA is denatured and the two strands of the double helix separate. Primers specific to a sought-after gene are added to a solution containing the DNA, and a DNA polymerase is added alongside a mixture containing molecules that will be needed (for example, nucleotides and ions). If the relevant gene is present, every time this process runs, the quantity of the target gene will be doubled. After this process, the presence of the genes is demonstrated through a variety of methods including electrophoresis, southern blotting, and other DNA sequencing analysis methods.
DNA microarrays and chips use the binding of complementary DNA to a target gene or nucleic acid sequence. The benefit of this is that multiple genes can be assessed simultaneously.
### MALDI-TOF
Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is another method of susceptibility testing. This is a form of time-of-flight mass spectrometry, in which the molecules of a bacterium are subject to matrix-assisted laser desorption. The ionised particles are then accelerated, and spectral peaks recorded, producing an expression profile, which is capable of differentiating specific bacterial strains after being compared to known profiles. This includes, in the context of antibiotic susceptibility testing, strains such as beta-lactamase producing E coli. MALDI-TOF is rapid and automated. There are limitations to testing in this format however; results may not match the results of phenotypic testing, and acquisition and maintenance is expensive.
## Reporting
The results of the testing are reported as a table, sometimes called an antibiogram. Bacteria are marked as sensitive, resistant, or having intermediate resistance to an antibiotic based on the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), which is the lowest concentration of the antibiotic that stops the growth of bacteria. The MIC is compared to standard threshold values (called "breakpoints") for a given bacterium and antibiotic. Breakpoints for the same organism and antibiotic may differ based on the site of infection: for example, the CLSI generally defines Streptococcus pneumoniae as sensitive to intravenous penicillin if MICs are ≤0.06 μg/ml, intermediate if MICs are 0.12 to 1 μg/ml, and resistant if MICs are ≥2 μg/ml, but for cases of meningitis, the breakpoints are considerably lower. Sometimes, whether an antibiotic is marked as resistant is also based on bacterial characteristics that are associated with known methods of resistance such as the potential for beta-lactamase production. Specific patterns of drug resistance or multidrug resistance may be noted, such as the presence of an extended-spectrum beta lactamase. Such information may be useful to the clinician, who can change the empiric treatment to a tailored treatment that is directed only at the causative bacterium.
## Clinical practice
Ideal antibiotic therapy is based on determining the causal agent and its antibiotic sensitivity. Empiric treatment is often started before laboratory microbiological reports are available. This might be for common or relatively minor infections based on clinical guidelines (such as community-acquired pneumonia), or for serious infections, such as sepsis or bacterial meningitis, in which delayed treatment carries substantial risks. The effectiveness of individual antibiotics varies with the anatomical site of the infection, the ability of the antibiotic to reach the site of infection, and the ability of the bacteria to resist or inactivate the antibiotic.
Specimens for antibiotic sensitivity testing are ideally collected before treatment is started. A sample may be taken from the site of a suspected infection; such as a blood culture sample when bacteria are suspected to be present in the bloodstream (bacteraemia), a sputum sample in the case of a pneumonia, or a urine sample in the case of a urinary tract infection. Sometimes multiple samples may be taken if the source of an infection is not clear. These samples are transferred to the microbiology laboratory where they are added to culture media, in or on which the bacteria grow until they are present in sufficient quantities for identification and sensitivity testing to be carried out.
When antibiotic sensitivity testing is completed, it will report the organisms present in the sample, and which antibiotics they are susceptible to. Although antibiotic sensitivity testing is done in a laboratory (in vitro), the information provided about this is often clinically relevant to the antibiotics in a person (in vivo). Sometimes, a decision must be made for some bacteria as to whether they are the cause of an infection, or simply commensal bacteria or contaminants, such as Staphylococcus epidermidis and other opportunistic infections. Other considerations may influence the choice of antibiotics, including the need to penetrate through to an infected site (such as an abscess), or the suspicion that one or more causes of an infection were not detected in a sample.
## History
Since the discovery of the beta-lactam antibiotic penicillin, the rates of antimicrobial resistance have increased. Over time, methods for testing the sensitivity of bacteria to antibiotics have developed and changed.
Alexander Fleming in the 1920s developed the first method of susceptibility testing. The "gutter method" that he developed was a diffusion method, involving an antibiotic that was diffused through a gutter made of agar. In the 1940s, multiple investigators, including Pope, Foster and Woodruff, Vincent and Vincent used paper discs instead. All these methods involve testing only susceptibility to penicillin. The results were difficult to interpret and not reliable, because of inaccurate results that were not standardised between laboratories.
Dilution has been used as a method to grow and identify bacteria since the 1870s, and as a method of testing the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics since 1929, also by Alexander Fleming. The way of determining susceptibility changed from how turbid the solution was, to the pH (in 1942), to optical instruments. The use of larger tube-based "macrodilution" testing has been superseded by smaller "microdilution" kits.
In 1966, the World Health Organisation confirmed the Kirby-Bauer method as the standard method for susceptibility testing; it is simple, cost-effective and can test multiple antibiotics.
The Etest was developed in 1980 by Bolmstrӧm and Eriksson, and MALDI-TOF developed in 2000s. An array of automated systems has been developed since and after the 1980s. PCR was the first genetic test available and first published as a method of detecting antibiotic susceptibility in 2001.
## Further research
Point-of-care testing is being developed to speed up the time for testing, and to help practitioners avoid prescribing unnecessary antibiotics in the style of precision medicine. Traditional techniques typically take between 12 and 48 hours, although it can take up to five days. In contrast, rapid testing using molecular diagnostics is defined as "being feasible within an 8-h(our) working shift". Progress has been slow due to a range of reasons including cost and regulation.
Additional research is focused at the shortcomings of current testing methods. As well as the duration it takes to report phenotypic methods, they are laborious, have difficult portability and are difficult to use in resource-limited settings, and have a chance of cross-contamination.
As of 2017, point-of-care resistance diagnostics were available for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), rifampin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) through GeneXpert by molecular diagnostics company Cepheid.
Quantitative PCR, with the view of determining the percent of a detected bacteria that possesses a resistance gene, is being explored. Whole genome sequencing of isolated bacteria is also being explored, and likely to become more available as costs decrease and speed increases over time.
Additional methods explored include microfluidics, which uses a small amount of fluid and a variety of testing methods, such as optical, electrochemical, and magnetic. Such assays do not require much fluid to be tested, are rapid and portable.
The use of fluorescent dyes has been explored. These involve labelled proteins targeted at biomarkers, nucleic acid sequences present within cells that are found when the bacterium is resistant to an antibiotic. An isolate of bacteria is fixed in position and then dissolved. The isolate is then exposed to fluorescent dye, which will be luminescent when viewed.
Improvements to existing platforms are also being explored, including improvements in imaging systems that are able to more rapidly identify the MIC in phenotypic samples; or the use of bioluminescent enzymes that reveal bacterial growth to make changes more easily visible. |
2,187,945 | 1986 Pacific hurricane season | 1,152,036,072 | Hurricane season in the Pacific Ocean | [
"1986 Pacific hurricane season",
"Pacific hurricane seasons",
"Tropical cyclones in 1986"
]
| The 1986 Pacific hurricane season featured several tropical cyclones that contributed to significant flooding to the Central United States. The hurricane season officially started May 15, 1986, in the eastern Pacific, and June 1, 1986 in the central Pacific, and lasted until November 30, 1986 in both regions. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. A total of 17 named storms and 9 hurricanes developed during the season; this is slightly above the averages of 15 named storms and 8 hurricanes, respectively. In addition, 26 tropical depressions formed in the eastern Pacific during 1986, which, at the time, was the second most ever recorded; only the 1982 Pacific hurricane season saw a higher total.
Several storms throughout the season affected land. Hurricane Estelle passed south of Hawaii, resulting in \$2 million in damage and two deaths. Hurricanes Newton, Paine and Roslyn each struck Northwestern Mexico. While damage was minimal from these three systems near their location of landfall, Paine brought considerable flooding to the Great Plains. The overall flooding event resulted in \$350 million in damage, with the worst effects being recorded in Oklahoma. Hurricane Roslyn was the strongest storm of the season, attaining peak winds of 145 mph (233 km/h).
## Seasonal summary
Activity in the Eastern Pacific Hurricane Center's (EPHC) area of responsibility was above average. There were 25 tropical depressions, one short of the record set in 1982, which had 26. Only one storm formed in the Central Pacific Hurricane Center's (CPHC) area of responsibility, Tropical Depression One-C. Six other cyclones entered the CPHC area of responsibility from the EPHC area of responsibility. In all, 17 systems formed, which is two storms above normal. In addition, 9 hurricanes were reported during the season, one more than average. An average number (3) of major hurricanes – Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale – was also reported.
The season began with the formation of Hurricane Agatha on May 22 and ended with the dissipation of Tropical Depression Twenty Five on October 25, spanning 147 days. Although it was nearly two weeks shorter than the 1985 Pacific hurricane season, the season was six days longer than average. The EPHC issued 406 tropical cyclone advisories, which were issued four times a day at 0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800 UTC. In 1986, hurricane hunters flew into three storms; Newton, Roslyn, and Estelle. In Newton, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducted environmental research in the cyclone. In addition, the National Weather Service Field Service Station provided the East Pacific with excellent satellite coverage.
During the months of May and June, four named systems developed. In July, one tropical storm and two hurricanes formed. The following month, five tropical systems developed. Towards the end of the season, tropical cyclone activity declined somewhat. While five storms formed in September, only one formed in October and none during the month of November. A moderate El Niño was present throughout the season; water temperatures across the equatorial Central Pacific were 1.3 °C (3 °F) above normal. In addition, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) was in a warm phase during this time period.
Three tropical cyclones made landfall in 1986. The first, Hurricane Newton made landfall near Cabo San Lucas, bringing minor damage. Another storm, Hurricane Paine brushed Cabo San Lucas, and later moved inland over Sonora. Paine caused minimal impacts at landfall, but its remnants were described as one of the worst floods in Oklahoma history. Flooding affected 52 counties in Oklahoma, which resulted in a total of \$350 million in damage. The final storm to make landfall during the hurricane season was Hurricane Roslyn. The hurricane produced some flooding, but no serious damage. In addition, Hurricane Estelle came close enough to Hawaii to require a hurricane watch. Two drownings were reported, and the total damage was around \$2 million.
## Systems
### Hurricane Agatha
The 1986 Pacific hurricane season's first tropical disturbance formed 865 mi (1,390 km) from the tip of Baja California Sur on May 20. By 0000 UTC May 22, the circulation began to tighten and become more organized, and thus the EPHC upgraded the disturbance into Tropical Depression One-E that morning. Approximately 48 hours after becoming a tropical depression, the system was upgraded into Tropical Storm Agatha, the first storm of the season. After moving southeast, the cyclone made an abrupt change in direction, turning towards the north. Agatha strengthened into a hurricane on May 25 near the coast of Mexico, reaching its peak intensity of 75 mph (115 km/h). Turning southeast, the system quickly weakened into a tropical depression, but regained tropical storm strength on May 28, only to dissipate that day. Rainfall spread around both the Atlantic and Pacific Mexican coasts, peaking at 10.75 in (273 mm) at Xicotepec de Juarez, Puebla.
### Tropical Depression Two
A tropical disturbance formed on May 30 in the eastern Gulf of Tehuantepec. The disturbance was moving very slowly when it was upgraded to Tropical Depression Two-E on May 31. The depression began to weaken six hours later and the final advisory by the EPHC was released on June 1. Most of Mexico received rainfall, with over 3 in (76 mm) falling on Yucatán Peninsula. The worst rain occurred in Central Mexico, where over 15 in (380 mm) of precipitation fell, peaking at 18.63 in (473 mm) in Tenosique, Tabasco. The rest of the country was hit by 1–3 in (25–76 mm) of rainfall.
### Tropical Storm Blas
A tropical disturbance originated from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) on June 16. The disturbance moved west-northwest at 13 mph (21 km/h) below a weak upper-level high, becoming the third tropical depression of the 1986 season on June 17. The depression intensified into Tropical Storm Blas the next day. It kept that strength for only six hours, weakening into a depression again as it moved into cooler waters. After Blas's convection dissipated, the EPHC ceased advisories on June 19 while situated roughly 600 mi (965 km) south of Cabo San Lucas.
### Hurricane Celia
On June 24, five days after Tropical Storm Blas dissipated, a tropical disturbance developed south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Later that day, its circulation had become well-defined enough for the EPHC to upgrade the disturbance into Tropical Depression Four. Winds reached 40 mph (65 km/h), enough to upgrade the system into Tropical Storm Celia on June 26. While located off the coast of Mexico, Celia strengthened into a hurricane at 1800 UTC June 27. An eye became evident on satellite imagery and the hurricane reached its peak intensity of 90 mph (145 km/h) on June 28 at 1600 UTC as it tracked near Socorro Island. Meanwhile, Celia moved into much cooler water, which resulted in rapid weakening. On June 30, Celia was downgraded into a tropical depression. The EPHC released its final advisory at 1800 UTC that day as the system had dissipated.
### Tropical Storm Darby
The fifth tropical cyclone of the season originated from a tropical disturbance that was first noticed on July 2. Moving northwest at about 13 mph (21 km/h), the disturbance entered warmer waters and began to develop rapidly. The disturbance was upgraded into Tropical Depression Five at 1800 UTC July 3. Turning west-northwest, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Darby on July 5. Darby peaked at 40 mph (65 km/h), and after turning northwest, encountered 77 °F (25 °C) waters. The storm began to weaken as thunderstorm activity became displaced from the center and spread northward over Arizona and California on July 6. The cyclone dissipated on July 7.
### Hurricane Estelle
During the afternoon of July 16, a tropical depression formed thousands of miles west of Mexico, and within 12 hours it strengthened into a tropical storm. On July 18, Estelle intensified into a hurricane. Located in a favorable environment, Estelle continued strengthening to become the first major hurricane of the season on July 20. The hurricane entered the Central Pacific Hurricane Center's area of responsibility near its peak strength of 130 mph (215 km/h), a Category 4 hurricane. The hurricane veered to the west and passed south of Hawaii. Estelle weakened to a tropical storm on July 23, and on July 25, it weakened to a depression. The storm dissipated two days later.
In advance of Hurricane Estelle, the National Weather Service issued a hurricane watch and high-surf advisory for the Island of Hawaii. More than 200 people evacuated from their homes. Huge waves crashed on the shores of the Big Island on the afternoon of July 22. The high waves washed away five beachfront homes and severely damaged dozens of others on the beach resort of Vacation Land. The total damage was around \$2 million. However, only two deaths reported from the storm, both of whom drowned offshore Oahu.
### Hurricane Frank
The EPHC began monitoring a tropical disturbance located 195 mi (315 km) southwest of San Salvador on 1800 UTC July 23. About 24 hours later, the disturbance was upgraded into a tropical depression. Initially moving towards the west-northwest due to an upper-level low and a ridge over Mexico, the storm then turned to the west as the upper-level low changed direction. By July 28, the depression was upgraded into Tropical Storm Frank. After turning back to the west-northwest, Frank reached hurricane intensity early on July 30. The storm quickly developed a well-defined eye and three hours later, Hurricane Frank reached its peak intensity as a moderate Category 1 hurricane, with winds of 85 mph (140 km/h). Hurricane Frank maintained this intensity for 18 hours. Subsequently, the hurricane began to rapidly weaken over 76 °F (24 °C) sea surface temperatures. Wind shear soon increased, thus accelerating the weakening process. On July 31, Frank was reduced to tropical storm intensity. Not long after weakening into a depression, the storm entered the CPHC's area of responsibility. Wind shear increased further, and upon entering the region, Frank moved over slightly cooler water. It transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on August 3.
### Tropical Storm Georgette
On August 3, a tropical depression developed in the open ocean over 600 mi (970 km) west of the Mexican coastline. Twelve hours later, it strengthened into Tropical Storm Georgette before weakening to a depression on August 4. It then accelerated to a very rapid speed of 23–45 mph (37–75 km/h). Due to its fast speed, Georgette could not maintain a closed circulation, and thus degenerated into a non-cyclonic disturbance on August 4. The disturbance kept up its rapid forward motion, crossed the dateline and entered the western Pacific, where it reformed and reached its peak intensity as Severe Tropical Storm Georgette. By August 16, Georgette merged with another system.
### Tropical Storm Howard
A tropical wave crossed Southwestern Mexico and Belize in mid-August. A tropical disturbance developed from this wave 50 mi (80 km) south of Acapulco on August 15, the same day that the system moved offshore. Moving west-northwest south of an upper-level high, the system was classified as a tropical depression the next day about 125 mi (200 km) south of Manzanillo. Several hours later, the depression reached tropical storm intensity. Turning towards the northwest due to a trough, it failed to intensify beyond minimal tropical storm strength. Passing south of the Baja California Peninsula, the storm rapidly moved over cooler waters. Howard weakened into a tropical depression at 0600 UTC August 18. Transversing 75 °F (24 °C) water, Howard dissipated. Rainfall along the southern coast reached 1 in (25 mm) in some places, with totals in excess of 5 in (130 mm) in isolated locations. Further north, rainfall was more scattered. The maximum rainfall was 9.25 in (235 mm) in Reforma, near the southern part of the country.
### Tropical Storm Isis
A tropical disturbance developed 265 mi (426 km) south of Socorro Island at 1800 UTC August 18. Twenty-four hours later the disturbance was upgraded into a tropical depression on August 19. The depression intensified into Tropical Storm Isis the next day. After peaking as a moderate tropical storm at 1200 UTC August 23, Isis weakened into a depression over 74 °F (23 °C) waters early on August 24. While located some 1,500 mi (2,415 km) west of the Mexican coast, the tropical cyclone dissipated later that day.
### Hurricane Javier
On August 19, a tropical disturbance formed 460 mi (740 km) south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec and 319 mi (513 km) south of Cabo San Lucas. Satellite imagery began to show signs of developing a circulation, and the disturbance became a tropical depression on August 20 and intensified into Tropical Storm Javier hours later. Southwest of a ridge, Javier began to turn towards the west-northwest. Despite an increase in forward speed, Tropical Storm Javier underwent rapid intensification, reaching hurricane intensity at 0900 UTC August 21. About three hours later, Javier reached Category 2 strength, and briefly became a major hurricane on August 22, only to rapidly weaken back to a Category 1 hurricane late on August 23. Hurricane Javier sharply turned towards the north and eventually towards the northwest. Early on August 24, Javier resumed intensification, regaining Category 3 intensity at 0600 UTC. Passing midway between Socorro Island and Clarion Island, the storm reached its peak intensity of 130 mph (210 km/h). Moving beneath the ridge, Hurricane Javier turned to the west and subsequently weakened back into a Category 3 hurricane.
After briefly re-intensifying into a Category 4, the storm resumed weakening due to increasing wind shear, and by late on August 25, Hurricane Javier had weakened directly into a Category 2 hurricane. Shortly thereafter, Javier was downgraded into a Category 1 hurricane. While it managed to maintain marginal hurricane intensity for 24 hours. on 1200 UTC August 28, the EPHC announced that Javier had weakened back into a tropical storm. Shortly after that, Javier turned towards the west-northwest due an upper-level trough. Now over 74 °F (23 °C) waters, the system continued to weaken as wind shear increased further. On August 30, Javier weakened into a depression and dissipated the next day over 1,000 mi (1,610 km) southwest of Southern California. Waves were 15 ft (4.6 m) high in some areas, prompting meteorologists to issue a high surf advisory. Hurricane Javier brought the highest waves of the summer to southern California.
### Tropical Storm Kay
In late August, a tropical disturbance formed 725 mi (1,165 km) east-southeast of Hurricane Javier and nearly 370 mi (595 km) south of the Baja California Peninsula. Moving slowly west, the disturbance began to develop a well-defined circulation, and was respectively upgraded into a tropical depression on August 28. Passing 10 mi (20 km) south of Clarion Island, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Kay. The cyclone's forward speed increased; subsequently, Kay reached its peak intensity. After maintaining its intensity for 18 hours, Kay rapidly weakened over cold water, and was downgraded into a depression at 0000 UTC September 2. Kay dissipated the next day several hundred miles west of the Baja California Peninsula.
### Tropical Storm Lester
A westward-moving tropical wave increased in thunderstorm activity, soon organizing into a tropical depression on September 13. At the time of the upgrade, Lester was located more than 900 mi (1,450 km) west of the Mexican coast. Moving towards the west, the depression soon intensified into Tropical Storm Lester. After turning towards the west-northwest, Lester peaked in intensity as a moderate tropical storm. Due to a combination of strong wind shear and cold water, Lester began a slow weakening trend. While entering the CPHC's area of responsibility at 1800 UTC September 17, Lester had already weakened to a tropical depression. Unable to maintain a closed circulation, the final advisory was issued.
### Tropical Storm Madeline
A tropical disturbance first developed during September 13 and September 14 over the warm waters south of Acapulco. On September 15, the EPHC first classified the system as a tropical depression. Rapidly moving towards the west, the depression was embedded in deep easterly flow. The system attained tropical storm intensity on 1800 UTC September 16, thus received the name Madeline. After turning towards the west-northwest, Tropical Storm Madeline accelerated. It began a slow intensification trend, and peaked as a high-end tropical storm on 0600 UTC September 18. An upper-level low introduced strong wind shear, and Madeline began to fall apart almost immediately thereafter. After turning towards the north, and slowing down, Madeline dissipated on September 22.
### Hurricane Newton
A tropical disturbance became a tropical depression on September 18. Intensification was slow as the depression did not reach storm status until September 20. Paralleling the coast, Newton steadily intensified. Newton strengthened into a hurricane on September 21. On September 22, Newton slammed into Cabo San Lucas, and after entering the Gulf of California, Hurricane Newton attained its peak intensity 85 mph (140 km/h). Shortly after that, Newton moved inland into the mainland of Mexico. Over land, Newton dissipated on September 23.
Upon making landfall on the Baja California Peninsula, moderate rainfall was recorded. After the hurricane's second landfall, damage was also minor, though 40 roofs were ripped off of homes; trees and utility poles were also downed due to high winds. However, no injuries or fatalities were reported in association with Newton. Newton's remnants later combined with a cold front to produce heavy rainfall that downed power lines in Kansas City, leaving 20,000 customers without power.
### Hurricane Orlene
Hurricane Orlene originated from a stationary tropical disturbance that was upgraded into a tropical depression on September 21. Despite a poorly defined circulation, the cyclone intensified into Tropical Storm Orlene 12 hours after formation. Steadily gaining strength, Orlene reached hurricane intensity on September 22. Shortly thereafter, the hurricane entered the CPHC's area of responsibility. Upon the formation of an eye, Orlene reached its peak intensity of 80 mph (130 km/h). After maintaining peak intensity for 24 hours, Hurricane Orlene began to encounter strong wind shear. Subsequently, Orlene weakened rapidly and lost hurricane status at 1800 UTC September 23. The system weakened into a tropical depression on September 24. Tropical Depression Orlene dissipated the next day.
### Hurricane Paine
A tropical disturbance developed on September 27 within 250 mi (400 km) of the Mexican coastline. The disturbance was upgraded into Tropical Depression Twenty-Three on 0000 UTC September 28. Tropical Depression Twenty-Three moved west-northwestward, lured poleward by an upper-level trough near northern Mexico. At 0000 UTC September 30, the depression became Tropical Storm Paine, southwest of Acapulco. Roughly 21 hours later, a NOAA Hurricane Hunter flight found winds of 90 mph (145 km/h), upgrading Paine into hurricane. The hurricane peaked as a Category 2 hurricane on October 1 as it turned northwest, headed towards the Gulf of California. Hurricane Paine did not intensify further due to the presence of mid-level wind shear and dry air. The outer eyewall moved across Cabo San Lucas, and the resultant land interaction was believed to have slightly weakened the inner core of the hurricane. Paine moved ashore near San José, Sonora with winds of 100 mph (160 km/h). The storm weakened as it moved over land going through Mexico and then entering the United States. Paine dissipated on October 4 over Lake Michigan.
Rainfall from the tropical cyclone was significant in Mexico and the United States. Light rain fell in Cabo San Lucas. Meanwhile, rains around the Mexican Mainland peaked at 12 in (300 mm) in Acapulco. Near the area around where it made landfall, strong winds knocked down trees and caused disruptions to city services. In the United States, rainfall peaked at 11.35 inches (288 mm) in Fort Scott, Kansas. The Barnsdall, Oklahoma weather station recorded 10.42 inches (26.5 cm) on September 29, which set a record for the highest daily precipitation for any station statewide. The flooding affected 52 counties in Oklahoma, which resulted in a total of \$350 million in damage. In all, Paine was described as one of the worst floods in Oklahoma history. Flooding from Paine resulted in about 1,200 people homeless in East Saint Louis, Illinois and resulted in record discharge rates along many streams and creeks. Subsequently, many reservoirs were nearly filled to its capacity. For example, the Mississippi River in St. Louis reached the fifth highest flood stage on record.
### Hurricane Roslyn
A tropical disturbance moved westward offshore Nicaragua and was declared Tropical Depression Twenty-Four on October 15.. During the early afternoon of the next day, ship reports indicated the formation of a tropical depression close to land. The cyclone moved at a quick pace towards the west-northwest south of a warm-core ridge. Early on the morning on October 16, Roslyn became a tropical storm. By the morning of the October 17, Roslyn had developed into a hurricane south of Acapulco. A vigorous upper trough was deepening offshore Baja California, and Roslyn began to re-curve within a few hundred miles of Manzanillo. The system struck Mazatlán as a marginal hurricane on October 20. The low-level center rapidly dissipated, although a frontal low developed in the western Gulf of Mexico, which moved over southeastern Texas and later through the Mississippi Valley. The original upper-level circulation maintained its northeast movement, bringing rainfall to the Southeastern United States.
Affecting a sparsely-populated area, the highest reported winds from a land station were 44 mph (71 km/h). Roslyn produced some flooding, but no serious damage. Impact was limited to flooded homes and factories, as well as some crop damage and beach erosion and only one yacht sunk. The remnants of Hurricane Roslyn produced heavy rainfall across the central and southern United States. In Matagorda, Texas, a total of 13.8 in (35 cm) was reported.
### Other systems
In addition to the 17 named storms, there were eight tropical depressions during the season that failed to reach tropical storm strength. The second, Tropical Depression Seven, began as a large area of thunderstorms near Hurricane Estelle on July 17. Moving at a steady pace, the cyclone failed to intensify and attained peak intensity of 30 mph (45 km/h). Cool sea surface temperatures and its proximity to Hurricane Estelle eventually caused the depression to dissipate late on July 18.
Tropical Depression Eight formed on July 21 while located 1,000 mi (1,610 km) southwest of the Baja California Peninsula. Initially moving west-northwest around an upper-level high, the depression peaked with winds of 35 mph (55 km/h). It dissipated on July 24. Another tropical disturbance formed on July 24. A circulation developed two days later, and thus it was classified as Tropical Depression Ten. The cyclone remained a tropical depression for about three days before moving into the CPHC's area of responsibility on 1000 UTC July 27. A slow weakening trend began as the depression continued to move west at speeds of 30 mph (50 km/h). By 1800 UTC on July 29, it had become poorly organized around 1,000 mi (1,610 km) west-southwest of the Hawaiian Islands, and the final advisory was issued.
Tropical Depression One-C formed on July 27, possibly from the remnants of Tropical Depression Eight that dissipated a few days earlier well to the east of 140 °W. The depression tracked westward at a fairly rapid forward speed of 35 mph (55 km/h); however, it failed to develop past the depression stage. One-C passed well south of the Hawaiian Islands on July 28. On July 29 at 0000 UTC, it had dissipated to the southwest of the Hawaiian Islands and the final advisory was issued by the CPHC.
An area of disturbed weather developed a circulation on August 12 and was upgraded into Tropical Depression Twelve nearly 700 mi (1,100 km) south of the Baja California Peninsula. It drifted slowly to the northwest until it dissipated near 22 °N 110 °W on August 14. Peak maximum sustained winds were estimated at 35 mph (55 km/h). Tropical Depression Seventeen formed on September 8, 30 km (20 mi) east of Socorro Island and dissipated on September 9 over cold water without becoming a tropical storm.
One of the last cyclones of the season formed from a westward-moving tropical disturbance in the ITCZ. The disturbance moved at about 10 mph (20 km/h) and upon developing a circulation, was declared Tropical Depression Twenty-One at 0600 UTC September 19. However the depression lasted for only six hours before dissipating, likely due to the close distance between it and Tropical Storm Madeline. Tropical Depression Twenty-Five was the final tropical depression of the 1986 season. It formed on October 22 at 1800 UTC near the 140°W line. Due to strong wind shear, the stationary storm had dissipated within 30 hours of formation. Even though no more official systems developed, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center remarked that an unnamed tropical storm may have formed in November.
## Storm names
The following names were used for named storms that formed in the eastern Pacific in 1986. No names were retired, so it was used again in the 1992 season. This is the same list used for the 1980 season. A storm was named Paine for the first time in 1986, while Orlene and Roslyn were previously used on the old four-year lists. No central Pacific names were used; the first name used would have been Oka. Names that were not assigned are marked in gray.
## See also
- List of Pacific hurricanes
- Pacific hurricane season
- 1986 Atlantic hurricane season
- 1986 Pacific typhoon season
- 1986 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
- South-West Indian Ocean cyclone seasons: 1985–86, 1986–87
- Australian region cyclone seasons: 1985–86, 1986–87
- South Pacific cyclone seasons: 1985–86, 1986–87 |
18,954,655 | Great Mosque of Gaza | 1,166,747,607 | Mosque in Palestine | [
"14th-century mosques",
"16th-century mosques",
"5th-century churches",
"Buildings and structures completed in 1340",
"Church buildings in the Kingdom of Jerusalem",
"Grand mosques",
"Mamluk architecture in the State of Palestine",
"Mosques in Gaza City",
"Religious buildings and structures converted into mosques"
]
| The Great Mosque of Gaza (Arabic: المسجد غزة الكبير, transliteration: al-Masjid Ghazza al-Kabīr), also known as the Great Omari Mosque (Arabic: المسجد العمري الكبير, transliteration: al-Masjid al-ʿUmarī al-Kabīr,) is the largest and oldest mosque in the Gaza Strip, located in Gaza's old city, in the State of Palestine.
Believed to stand on the site of an ancient Philistine temple, the site was used by the Byzantines to erect a church in the 5th century, but after the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was transformed into a mosque. Described as "beautiful" by an Arab geographer in the 10th century, the Great Mosque's minaret was toppled in an earthquake in 1033. In 1149, the Crusaders built a large church, but it was mostly destroyed by the Ayyubids in 1187, and then rebuilt as a mosque by the Mamluks in the early 13th century. It was destroyed by the Mongols in 1260, then soon restored only for it to be destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the century. The Great Mosque was restored again by the Ottomans roughly 300 years later. Severely damaged after British bombardment during World War I, the mosque was restored in 1925 by the Supreme Muslim Council.
## Location
The Great Mosque is situated in the Daraj Quarter of the Old City in Downtown Gaza at the eastern end of Omar Mukhtar Street, southeast of Palestine Square. Gaza's Gold Market is located adjacent to it on the south side, while to the northeast is the Katib al-Wilaya Mosque and to the east, on Wehda Street, is a girls' school.
## History
### Legendary Philistine roots
According to tradition, the mosque stands on the site of the Philistine temple dedicated to Dagon—the god of fertility—which Samson toppled in the Book of Judges. Later, a temple dedicated to Marnas—god of rain and grain—was erected. Local legend today claims that Samson is buried under the present mosque.
### Byzantine church
The building was constructed in 406 AD as a large Byzantine church by Empress Aelia Eudocia, although it is also a possible that the church was built by Emperor Marcian. The church appeared on the 6th-century Madaba Map of the Holy Land.
### Early Muslim mosque
The Byzantine church was transformed into a mosque in the 7th century by Omar ibn al-Khattab's generals, in the early years of Rashidun rule. The mosque is still alternatively named "al-Omari", in honour of Omar ibn al-Khattab who was caliph during the Muslim conquest of Palestine. In 985, during Abbasid rule, Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi wrote that the Great Mosque was a "beautiful mosque." On 5 December 1033, an earthquake caused the pinnacle of the mosque's minaret to collapse.
### Crusader church
In 1149, the Crusaders, who had conquered Gaza in 1100, built a large church atop the ruins of the church upon a decree by Baldwin III of Jerusalem. However, in William of Tyre's descriptions of grand Crusader churches, it is not mentioned. Of the Great Mosque's three aisles today, it is believed that portions of two of them had formed part of the Crusader church.
Based on a Jewish bas-relief accompanied by a Hebrew and Greek inscription carved on the upper tier of one of the building's columns, it was suggested in the late 19th century that the upper pillars of the building were brought from a 3rd-century Jewish synagogue in Caesarea Maritima. However, the discovery of a 6th-century synagogue at Maiumas, the ancient port of Gaza, in the 1960s make local re-use of this column much likelier. The relief on the column depicted Jewish cultic objects - a menorah, a shofar, a lulav and etrog - surrounded by a decorative wreath, and the inscription read "Hananyah son of Jacob" in both Hebrew and Greek. The relief has been destroyed sometime between 1973-1996 and the stone has been smoothed over.
In 1187, the Ayyubids, under Saladin wrested control of Gaza from the Crusaders and destroyed the church.
### Mamluk mosque
The Mamluks reconstructed the mosque in the 13th century, but in 1260, the Mongols destroyed it. It was rebuilt thereafter, but in 1294, an earthquake caused its collapse. Extensive renovations centered on the iwan were undertaken by the governor Sunqur al-Ala'i during the sultanate of Husam ad-Din Lajin between 1297-99. A later Mamluk governor of the city, Sanjar al-Jawli, commissioned the restoration of the Great Mosque sometime between 1311 and 1319. The Mamluks finally rebuilt the mosque completely in 1340. In 1355 Muslim geographer Ibn Battuta noted the mosque's former existence as "a fine Friday mosque," but also says that al-Jawli's mosque was "well-built." Inscriptions on the mosque bear the signatures of the Mamluk sultans al-Nasir Muhammad (dated 1340), Qaitbay (dated May 1498), Qansuh al-Ghawri (dated 1516), and the Abbasid caliph al-Musta'in Billah (dated 1412).
### Ottoman period
In the 16th century, the mosque was restored after apparent damage in the previous century; the Ottomans commissioned its restoration and also built six other mosques in the city. They had been in control of Palestine since 1517. The interior bears an inscription of the name of the Ottoman governor of Gaza, Musa Pasha, brother of deposed Husayn Pasha, dating from 1663.
Some Western travelers in the late 19th century reported that the Great Mosque was the only structure in Gaza worthy of historical or architectural note. The Great Mosque was severely damaged by Allied forces while attacking the Ottoman positions in Gaza during World War I. The British claimed that there were Ottoman munitions stored in the mosque and its destruction was caused when the munitions were ignited by the bombardment.
### British Mandate
Under the supervision of former Gaza mayor Said al-Shawa, it was restored by the Supreme Muslim Council in 1926-27.
In 1928, the Supreme Muslim Council held a mass demonstration involving both local Muslims and Christians at the Great Mosque in order to rally support for boycotting elections and participation in the Legislative Assembly of the British Mandate of Palestine government. To increase the number of people in the rally, they ordered all the mosques in one of Gaza's quarters to temporarily close.
### After 1948
The ancient inscriptions and bas-relief of Jewish religious symbols were allegedly chiseled away intentionally at some stage between 1987 and 1993. During the Battle of Gaza between the Palestinian organizations of Hamas and Fatah, the mosque's pro-Hamas imam Mohammed al-Rafati was shot dead by Fatah gunmen on June 12, 2007, in retaliation for the killing of an official of Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard by Hamas earlier that day. The mosque is still active and serves as an emotional and physical support base for Gaza's residents and a focal point of Palestinian pride.
## Architecture
The Great Mosque has an area of 4,100 square metres (44,000 sq ft). Most of the general structure is constructed from local marine sandstone known as kurkar. The mosque forms a large sahn ("courtyard") surrounded by rounded arches. The Mamluks, and later the Ottomans, had the south and southeastern sides of the building expanded.
Over the door of the mosque is an inscription containing the name of Mamluk sultan Qalawun and there are also inscriptions containing the names of the sultans Lajin and Barquq.
### Interior
When the building was transformed from a church into a mosque, most of the previous Crusader construction was completely replaced, but the mosque's facade with its arched western entrance is a typical piece of Crusader ecclesiastical architecture, and columns within the mosque compound still retain their Italian Gothic style. Some of the columns have been identified as elements of an ancient synagogue, reused as construction material in the Crusader era and still forming part of the mosque. Internally, the wall surfaces are plastered and painted. Marble is used for the western door and the western facade's oculus. The floors are covered with glazed tiles. The columns are also made of marble and their capitals are built in Corinthian style.
The central nave is groin-vaulted, each bay being separated from one another by pointed transverse arches with rectangular profiles. The nave arcades are carried on cruciform piers with an engaged column on each face, sitting on a raised plinth. The two aisles of the mosque are also groin-vaulted. Ibn Battuta noted that the Great Mosque had a white marble minbar ("pulpit"); it still exists today. There is a small mihrab in the mosque with an inscription dating from 1663, containing the name of Musa Pasha, a governor of Gaza during Ottoman rule.
### Minaret
The mosque is well known for its minaret, which is square-shaped in its lower half and octagonal in its upper half, typical of Mamluk architectural style. The minaret is constructed of stone from the base to the upper, hanging balcony, including the four-tiered upper half. The pinnacle is mostly made of woodwork and tiles, and is frequently renewed. A simple cupola springs from the octagonal stone drum and is of light construction similar to most mosques in the Levant. The minaret stands on what was the end of the eastern bay of the Crusader church. Its three semicircular apses were transformed into the base of the minaret.
## See also
- Sayed al-Hashim Mosque |
609,234 | Alexei Kosygin | 1,172,690,729 | Soviet politician (1904–1980) | [
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| Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Косы́гин, IPA: [ɐljɪkˈsjej njɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvjɪtɕ kɐˈsɨɡjɪn]; – 18 December 1980) was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1980 and was one of the most influential Soviet policymakers in the mid-1960s along with General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.
Kosygin was born in the city of Saint Petersburg in 1904 to a Russian working-class family. He was conscripted into the labour army during the Russian Civil War, and after the Red Army's demobilization in 1921, he worked in Siberia as an industrial manager. Kosygin returned to Leningrad in the early 1930s and worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), Kosygin was a member of the State Defence Committee and was tasked with moving Soviet industry out of territories soon to be overrun by the German Army. He served as Minister of Finance for a year before becoming Minister of Light Industry (later, Minister of Light Industry and Food). Stalin removed Kosygin from the Politburo one year before his own death in 1953, intentionally weakening Kosygin's position within the Soviet hierarchy.
Stalin died in 1953, and on 20 March 1959, Kosygin was appointed to the position of chairman of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan), a post he would hold for little more than a year. Kosygin next became First Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. When Nikita Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964, Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev succeeded him as Premier and First Secretary, respectively. Thereafter, as a member of the collective leadership, Kosygin formed an unofficial Triumvirate (also known by its Russian name Troika) alongside Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, that governed the Soviet Union in Khrushchev's place.
During the initial years following Khrushchev's ouster, Kosygin initially emerged as the leading figure in Soviet politics. In addition to managing the Soviet Union's economy, he assumed a preeminent role in its foreign policy by leading arms control talks with the US and overseeing relations with other communist countries. However, the onset of the Prague Spring in 1968 sparked a severe backlash against his policies, enabling Brezhnev to eclipse him as the dominant force in the Politburo. While he and Brezhnev disliked one another, he remained in office until being forced to retire on 23 October 1980, due to bad health. He died two months later on 18 December 1980.
## Early life and career (1904–1964)
Kosygin was born into a Russian working-class family consisting of his father and mother (Nikolai Ilyich and Matrona Alexandrovna) and his siblings. The family lived in Saint Petersburg. Kosygin was baptized (7 March 1904) one month after his birth. He lost his mother in infancy and was brought up by his father.
He and his father sympathized with the Revolution and Alexei was conscripted into a labour army on the Bolshevik side at the age of 14 during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. After demobilization from the Red Army in 1921, Kosygin attended the Leningrad Co-operative Technical School and found work in the system of consumer co-operatives in Novosibirsk, Siberia. When asked why he worked in the co-operative sector of the economy, Kosygin replied, quoting a slogan of Vladimir Lenin: "Co-operation – the path to socialism!" Kosygin stayed there for six years until Robert Eikhe personally advised him to quit, shortly before the repressions hit the Soviet consumer co-operation movement.
### Pre-war period
He applied for a membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1927 and returned to Leningrad in 1930 to study at the Leningrad Textile Institute [ru]; he graduated in 1935. After finishing his studies, Kosygin worked as a foreman and later a manager in a textile mill director. He rose rapidly during the Great Purge, overseen in Leningrad by the provincial communist party boss, Andrei Zhdanov. He was appointed director of the October Textile Factory in 1937, head of the Industry and Transport department of the Leningrad provincial communist party in July 1938, and in October 1938, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Soviets of Working People's Deputies, ie 'mayor' of Leningrad City. In 1939, he was appointed People's Commissar for Textile and Industry and earned a seat on the Central Committee (CC). In 1940 Kosygin became a Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars.
### Wartime
Kosygin was appointed by the State Defence Committee to manage critically important missions during the Great Patriotic War (World War II).
As deputy chairman of the Council of Evacuation, he had the task of evacuating industry from territories about to be overrun by the Axis. Under his command 1523 factories were evacuated eastwards, as well as huge volumes of raw materials, ready-made goods and equipment. Kosygin managed clearing of congestions on the railroads in order to maintain their stable operation.
During the Leningrad Blockade he was sent to his hometown to manage the construction of an ice road and a pipeline across the Lake Ladoga. This allowed to evacuate some half-million people from the besieged and starving city, and to supply fuel to its factories and power plants. He was also responsible for the procurement of locally available firewood.
In 1943 Alexey Kosygin was promoted to Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (government) of the Russian SFSR. In 1944 he was appointed to head the Currency Board of the Soviet Union.
### Afterwar period
Kosygin became a candidate member of the Politburo in 1946. During the Soviet famine of 1946–47 He headed the foodstuff relief missions to the most suffering regions. He was appointed USSR Minister for Finance in February 1948, and a full member of the Politburo on 4 September 1948, putting him among the dozen or so most ranking officials in the USSR.
Kosygin's administrative skills led Stalin to take the younger man under his wing. Stalin shared information with Kosygin, such as how much money the families of Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas Mikoyan, and Lazar Kaganovich possessed, spent and paid their staff. (A Politburo member earned a modest salary by Soviet standards but enjoyed unlimited access to consumer goods.) Stalin sent Kosygin to each home to put their houses into "proper order".
### Temporary fall
Kosygin's patron, Zhdanov, died suddenly in August 1948. Soon afterwards, Zhdanov's old rivals Lavrentiy Beria and Georgy Malenkov persuaded Stalin to let them remove members of the decapitated Zhdanov faction, of whom the three most prominent were Nikolai Voznesensky, then Chairman of the State Planning Committee and a First Deputy Premier, Alexey Kuznetsov, the party secretary with oversight over the security, and Kosygin. During the brutal purge that followed, known as the Leningrad affair, Voznesensky, Kuznetsov and many others were arrested and shot. Kosygin was relegated to the post of USSR Minister for Light Industry, while nominally retaining his membership of the Politburo until 1952. Nikita Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs:
> Beria and Malenkov were doing everything they could to wreck this troika of Kuznetsov, Voznesensky and Kosygin ... Many people perished in Leningrad. So did many people who had been transferred from Leningrad to work in other regions. As for Kosygin, his life was hanging by a thread ... Men who had been arrested and condemned in Leningrad made ridiculous accusations against him ... I simply can't explain how he was saved from being eliminated along with the others. Kosygin, as they say, must have drawn a lucky lottery ticket.
Kosygin told his son-in-law Mikhail Gvishiani, an NKVD officer, of the accusations leveled against Voznesensky because of his possession of firearms. Gvishiani and Kosygin threw all their weapons into a lake and searched both their own houses for any listening devices. They found one at Kosygin's house, but it might have been installed to spy on Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who had lived there before him. According to his memoirs, Kosygin never left his home without reminding his wife what to do if he did not return from work. After living two years in constant fear, the family reached the conclusion that Stalin would not harm them.
### Khrushchev era
In September 1953, six months after Stalin's death, Kosygin was appointed USSR Minister for Industrial Goods, and in December he was reinstated as a Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, under Malenkov, Stalin's immediate successor, but lost that position in December 1956, during Khrushchev's ascendancy, when he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the State Economic Commission. When the power struggle between Khrushchev and the so-called 'Anti-Party Group came to a head in 1957, Kosygin backed Khrushchev because, as he said later, if Malenkov and his allies had won "blood would have flowed again", but the French journalist Michel Tatu, a close observer who based in Moscow at the time, concluded that "Kosygin did not owe anything to Khrushchev" and that out of the post-1957 leadership "was visibly the least willing to praise the First Secretary", and that Khrushchev was "somewhat reluctant" to promote Kosygin.
However, despite Khrushchev's reluctance, Kosygin's career made a steady recovery. In June 1957, he was again appointed a Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (for the third time), and a candidate member of the Presidium Central Committee (the renamed Politburo). In March 1959, he was made Chairman of Gosplan, and on 4 May 1960, he was promoted First deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, and a full member of the Presidium.
As First Deputy Premier Kosygin travelled abroad, mostly on trade missions, to countries such as North Korea, India, Argentina and Italy. Since 1959 Kosygin headed Soviet mission to the ComEcon. Later, in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kosygin was the Soviet spokesman for improved relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. According to Michel Tatu, in 1960–62, Kosygin was one of the 'big four', with Khrushchev, Frol Kozlov and Leonid Brezhnev, who would be present in the Kremlin to greet visiting leaders of East European communist parties, implying, but in November 1962, after Khrushchev complained about the management of Gosplan, and opposed Kosygin's plans for economic reform, he was removed from the inner leadership.
## Premiership
### Struggle for power with Brezhnev
When Khrushchev was removed from power in October 1964, Kosygin replaced him as Premier in a collective leadership that included Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary and Nikolai Podgorny who ultimately became Chairman of the Presidium. Overall, the new Politburo adopted a more conservative outlook than that under Khrushchev's rule.
Kosygin, Podgorny and Andrei Kirilenko were the most reformist members, Brezhnev and Arvīds Pelše belonged to the moderate faction while Mikhail Suslov retained his leadership of the party's Stalinist wing.
In October 1964, at a ceremony in honour of Soviet cosmonauts, Brezhnev called for the strengthening of the Party apparatus. This speech was only the beginning of a large campaign directed against Kosygin. Several newspapers, such as Pravda and Kommunist, criticized the work of the Council of Ministers, and indirectly Kosygin, its chairman, for planning the economy in an unrealistic fashion, and used the highly aggressive rhetoric previously used to condemn Khrushchev against Kosygin.
Brezhnev was able to criticize Kosygin by contrasting him with Vladimir Lenin, who - Brezhnev claimed - had been more interested in improving the conditions of Soviet agriculture than improving the quality of light industrial goods. Kosygin's support for producing more consumer goods was also criticized by Brezhnev, and his supporters, most notably Konstantin Chernenko, for being a return to quasi First World policies. At the 23rd Party Congress, Kosygin's position was weakened when Brezhnev's supporters were able to increase expenditure on defense and agriculture. However, Brezhnev did not have a majority in the Politburo, and could count on only four votes. In the Politburo, Kosygin could count on Kiril Mazurov's vote, and when Kosygin and Podgorny were not bickering with each other, they actually had a majority in the Politburo over Brezhnev. Unfortunately for Kosygin this was not often the case, and Kosygin and Podgorny were constantly disagreeing on policy.
Early during Kosygin's tenure, the Brezhnev–Kosygin attempt to create stability was failing on various fronts. From 1969 to 1970, discontent within the Soviet leadership had grown to such an extent that some started to doubt both former and current Soviet policies. Examples include the handling of the Prague Spring and the later Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (which Kosygin initially resisted), the decline in agriculture production, the Sino–Soviet border conflict (he advocated restraint), the Vietnam War, and the Soviet–American talks on the limitation of strategic missiles. Two summit conferences between the US and the USSR were held: the Warsaw Pact Summit Conference and the Moscow Summit Conference; both failed to gain support for Soviet policies.
By 1970, these differences had not been resolved, and Brezhnev postponed the 24th Party Congress and the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1971–1975). The delay in resolving these issues led to rumors circulating in Soviet society that Kosygin, or even Brezhnev, would lose their posts to Podgorny. By March 1971, it became apparent that Brezhnev was the leader of the country, with Kosygin as the spokesman of the five-year plan and Podgorny's position within the collective leadership strengthened.
### Foreign policy
Early on in his tenure, Kosygin challenged Brezhnev's right as general secretary to represent the country abroad, a function Kosygin believed should fall into the hands of the head of government, as was common in non-communist countries. This was actually implemented for a short period, which led Henry A. Kissinger to believe that Kosygin was the leader of the Soviet Union. Kosygin, who had been the chief negotiator with the First World during the 1960s, was hardly to be seen outside the Second World after Brezhnev consolidated his position within the Politburo, but also due to Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko's dislike of Kosygin meddling into his own ministerial affairs.
The Six-Day War in the Middle East had the effect of increasing Soviet–American cooperation; to improve relations even further, the United States Government invited Kosygin to a summit with Lyndon B. Johnson, the President of the United States, following his speech to the United Nations. At the summit, which became known as the Glassboro Summit Conference, Johnson and Kosygin failed to reach agreement on limiting anti-ballistic missile systems, but the summit's friendly and even open atmosphere was referred to as the "Spirit of Glassboro". Relations between the two countries improved further when the 1970 Moscow Treaty was signed on 12 August 1970 by Kosygin and Gromyko and Willy Brandt and Walter Scheel who represented West Germany. In 1971, Kosygin gave an extensive interview to the American delegation that included David Rockefeller, presenting his views on US-Soviet relations, environmental protection, arms control and other issues.
Kosygin developed a close friendly relationship with the President of Finland Urho Kekkonen, which helped the USSR to maintain active mutual trade with Finland and to keep it away from Cold War confrontation.
In 1972, Kosygin signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the government of Iraq, building on strong Soviet ties to the Iraqi Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and previous close relations with Iraqi leader Abd al-Karim Qasim.
Kosygin protected János Kádár's economic reforms and his position as leader of the Hungarian People's Republic from intervention by the Soviet leadership. Polish leader Władysław Gomułka, who was removed from all of his posts in 1970, was succeeded by Edward Gierek who tried to revitalize the economy of the People's Republic of Poland by borrowing money from the First World. The Soviet leadership approved both countries' respective economic experiments, since it was trying to reduce its large Eastern Bloc subsidy programme in the form of cheap oil and gas exports. During the discussions within the Soviet leadership of a possible Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia Kosygin reminded leaders of the consequences of the Soviet suppression of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Kosygin's stance became more aggressive later on when he understood that the reforms in Czechoslovakia could be turned against his 1965 Soviet economic reform.
Kosygin acted as a mediator between India and Pakistan in 1966, and got both nations to sign the Tashkent Declaration. Kosygin became the chief spokesman on the issue of arms control. In retrospect, many of Kosygin's colleagues felt he carried out his work "stoically", but lacked "enthusiasm", and therefore never developed a real taste for international politics.
The Sino–Soviet split chagrined Kosygin a great deal, and for a while he refused to accept its irrevocability; he briefly visited Beijing in 1969 due to increased tension between the USSR and Maoist China. Kosygin said, in a close-knit circle, that "We are communists and they are communists. It is hard to believe we will not be able to reach an agreement if we met face to face". His view on China changed however, and according to Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Kosygin viewed China as an "organized military dictatorship" whose intended goal was to enslave "Vietnam and the whole of Asia".
During an official visit by an Afghan delegation, Kosygin and Andrei Kirilenko criticized Afghan leaders Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin for Stalinist-like repressionist behaviour. He promised to send more economic and military aid, but rejected any proposal regarding a possible Soviet intervention, as an intervention in Afghanistan would strain the USSR's foreign relations with the First World according to Kosygin, most notably West Germany. However, in a closed meeting, without Kosygin, who strongly opposed any kind of military intervention, the Politburo unanimously supported a Soviet intervention.
### Economic policy
#### Five-Year Plans
The Eighth Five-Year Plan (1966–1970) is considered to be one of the most successful periods for the Soviet economy and the most successful when it comes to consumer production (see The "Kosygin" reform). It became known as the "golden era". The 23rd Party Congress and the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1971–1975) had been postponed by Brezhnev due to a power struggle within the Soviet leadership. At the 23rd Party Congress Kosygin promised that the Ninth Five-Year Plan would increase the supply of food, clothing and other household appliances up to 50 percent. The plan envisaged a massive increase in the Soviet standard of living, with Kosygin proclaiming a growth of 40 percent for the population's cash income in his speech to the congress.
The Tenth Five-Year Plan (1976–1981) was referred to by Kosygin as the "plan of quality". Brezhnev rejected Kosygin's bid for producing more consumer goods during the Tenth Five-Year Plan. As a result, the total volume of consumer goods in industrial production only stood at 26 percent. Kosygin's son-in-law notes that Kosygin was furious with the decision, and proclaimed increased defence expenditure would become the Soviet Union's "complete ruin". The plan was less ambitious than its predecessors, with targets of national industrial growth no higher than what the rest of the world had already achieved. Soviet agriculture would receive a share investment of 34 percent, a share much larger than its proportional contribution to the Soviet economy, as it accounted for only 3 percent of the Soviet GDP.
#### The "Kosygin" reform
Like Khrushchev, Kosygin tried to reform the command economy within a socialist framework. In 1965 Kosygin initiated an economic reform widely referred to as the "Kosygin reform". Kosygin sought to make Soviet industry more efficient by including some market measures common in the First World such as profit making for instance; he also tried to increase quantity of production, increase incentives for managers and workers, and freeing managers from centralized state bureaucracy. The reform had been proposed to Khrushchev in 1964, who evidently liked it and took some preliminary steps to implement it. Brezhnev allowed the reform to proceed because the Soviet economy was entering a period of low growth. In its testing phase, the reform was applied to 336 enterprises in light industry.
The reform was influenced by the works of Soviet economist Evsei Liberman. Kosygin overestimated the ability of the Soviet administrative machine to develop the economy, which led to "corrections" to some of Liberman's more controversial beliefs about decentralization. According to critics, Kosygin's changes to Liberman's original vision caused the reform to fail.
Kosygin believed that decentralization, semi-public companies, and cooperatives were keys to catching up to the First World's contemporary level of economic growth. His reform sought a gradual change from a "state-administered economy" to an economy in which "the state restricts itself to guiding enterprises". The reform was implemented, but showed several malfunctions and inconsistencies early on.
##### Results
The salary for Soviet citizens increased abruptly by almost 2.5 times during the plan. Real wages in 1980 amounted to 232.7 rubles, compared to 166.3 rubles before the 1965 Soviet economic reform and the Eighth Five-Year Plan. The first period, 1960–1964, was characterized by low growth, while the second period, 1965–1981, had a stronger growth rate. The second period vividly demonstrated the success of the Kosygin reform, with the average annual growth in retail turnover being 11.2 billion rubles, 1.8 times higher than in the first period and 1.2 times higher than the third period (1981–1985). Consumption of goods and daily demand also increased. The consumption of home appliances greatly increased. Refrigerators increased from a low of 109,000 in 1964 to 440,000 units by 1973; consumption declined during the reversal of the reform. Car production increased, and would continue to do so until the late 1980s. The Soviet leadership, under pressure, sought to provide more attractive goods for Soviet consumers.
The removal of Khrushchev in 1964 signalled the end of his "housing revolution". Housing construction declined between 1960 and 1964 to an average of 1.63 million square metres. Following this sudden decrease, housing construction increased sharply between 1965 and 1966, but dropped again, and then steadily grew (the average annual growth rate was 4.26 million square metres). This came largely at the expense of businesses. While the housing shortage was never fully resolved, and still remains a problem in present-day Russia, the reform overcame the negative trend and renewed the growth of housing construction.
##### Cancellation and aftermath
Growing hostility towards reform, the initial poor results, and Kosygin's reformist stance, led to a popular backlash against him. Kosygin lost most of the privileges he had enjoyed before the reform, but Brezhnev was never able to remove him from the office of Chairman of the Council of Ministers, despite his weakened position. In the aftermath of his failed reform, Kosygin spent the rest of his life improving the economic administration through the modification of targets; he implemented various programmes to improve food security and ensure the future intensification of production. There is no proof to back up the claim that the reform itself contributed to the high growth seen in the late-1960s, or that its cancellation had anything to do with the stagnating growth of the economy which began in the 1970s.
#### 1973 and 1979 reforms
Kosygin initiated another economic reform in 1973 with the intentions of weakening the central Ministries and giving more powers to the regional authorities in republican and local-levels. The reform's failure to meet Kosygin's goal led to its cancellation. However, the reform succeeded in creating associations, an organization representing various enterprises. The last significant reform undertaken by the pre-perestroika leadership was initiated by Kosygin's fifth government in a joint decision of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers. The "Improving planning and reinforcing the effects of the economic mechanism on raising the effectiveness in production and improving the quality of work", more commonly known as the 1979 reform. The reform, in contrast to the 1965 reform, was intended to increase the central government's economic involvement by enhancing the duties and responsibilities of the ministries. Due to Kosygin's resignation in 1980, and because of Nikolai Tikhonov's conservative approach to economics, very little of the reform was actually implemented.
## Later life and resignation
By the early to mid-1970s Brezhnev had established a strong enough power base to effectively become leader. According to historian Ilya Zemtsov, the author of Chernenko: The Last Bolshevik: The Soviet Union on the Eve of Perestroika, Kosygin "began to lose power" with the 24th Party Congress in 1971 which for the first time publicized the formula 'the Politburo led by Brezhnev'". Along with weakening Kosygin's position, Brezhnev moved to strengthen the Party's hold on the Government apparatus, weakening Kosygin's position further. Historian Robert Wesson, the author of Lenin's Legacy: The Story of the CPSU, notes that Kosygin's economic report to the 25th Party Congress "pointed even more clearly to the end of struggle" between Brezhnev and Kosygin. Kosygin was further pushed aside when Brezhnev published his memoirs, which stated that Brezhnev, not Kosygin, was in charge of all major economic decisions. To make matters worse for Kosygin, Brezhnev blocked any future talks on economic reform within the party and government apparatus, and information regarding the reform of 1965 was suppressed.
Brezhnev consolidated his own position over the Government Apparatus by strengthening Podgorny's position as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, literally head of state, by giving the office some of the functions of the Premier. The 1977 Soviet Constitution strengthened Podgorny's control of the Council of Ministers, by giving the post of head of state some executive powers. In fact, because of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, the Council of Ministers became subordinate to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. When Podgorny was replaced as head of state in 1977 by Brezhnev, Kosygin's role in day-to-day management of government activities was lessened drastically, through Brezhnev's new-found post. Rumours started circulating within the top circles, and on the streets, that Kosygin would retire due to bad health.
Brezhnev's consolidation of power weakened Kosygin's influence and prestige within the Politburo. Kosygin's position was gradually weakened during the 1970s and he was frequently hospitalized. On several occasions Kiril Mazurov, the First Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, had to act on his behalf. Kosygin suffered his first heart attack in 1976. After this incident, it is said that Kosygin changed from having a vibrant personality to being tired and fed up; he, according to people close to him, seemed to have lost the will to continue his work. He twice filed a letter of resignation between 1976 and 1980, but was turned down on both occasions. During Kosygin's sick leave, Brezhnev appointed Nikolai Tikhonov to the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Tikhonov, as with Brezhnev, was a conservative, and through his post as First Deputy chairman Tikhonov was able to reduce Kosygin to a standby role. At a Central Committee plenum in June 1980, the Soviet economic development plan was outlined by Tikhonov, not Kosygin. The powers of the Premier diminished to the point where Kosygin was forced to discuss all decisions made by the Council of Ministers with Brezhnev.
## Death
Kosygin was hospitalized in October 1980; during his stay he wrote a brief letter of resignation; the following day he was deprived of all government protection, communication, and luxury goods he had earned during his political life. Kosygin died on 18 December 1980 in Moscow, none of his Politburo colleagues, former aides, or security guards visited him. At the end of his life, Kosygin feared the complete failure of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (1981–1985), saying that the sitting leadership was reluctant to reform the stagnant Soviet economy. His funeral was postponed for three days, as Kosygin died on the eve of Brezhnev's birthday, and the day of Stalin's. Kosygin was praised by Brezhnev as an individual who "laboured selflessly for the good of the Soviet state". A state funeral was conducted and Kosygin was honoured by his peers; Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Tikhonov laid an urn containing his ashes at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
## Personality
Compared to other Soviet officials, Kosygin stood out as a pragmatic and relatively independent leader. In a description given by an anonymous high-ranking GRU official, Kosygin is described as "a lonely and somewhat tragic figure" who "understood our faults and shortcomings of our situation in general and those in our Middle East policy in particular, but, being a highly restrained man, he preferred to be cautious." An anonymous former co-worker of Kosygin said "He always had an opinion of his own, and defended it. He was a very alert man, and performed brilliantly during negotiations. He was able to cope quickly with the material that was totally new to him. I have never seen people of that calibre afterwards."
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said Kosygin was like "Khrushchev without the rough edges, a fatherly man who was the forerunner of Mikhail Gorbachev". He noted that Kosygin was willing to discuss issues so long as the Soviet position was not tackled head-on. Former United States Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger said that Kosygin was devoted, nearly fanatically, to his work. Kosygin was viewed by Western diplomats as a pragmatist "with a glacial exterior who was orthodox if not rigid". Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet dissident, believed Kosygin to be "the most intelligent and toughest man in the Politburo". Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew remembered Kosygin as "very quiet-spoken, but very determined, mind of great ability and application". David Rockefeller admitted that Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin was a talented manager doing miracles in ruling the clumsy Soviet economy.
## Legacy
### Historical assessments
Kosygin would prove to be a very competent administrator, with the Soviet standard of living rising considerably due to his moderately reformist policy. Kosygin's moderate 1965 reform, as with Nikita Khrushchev's thaw, radicalized the Soviet reform movement. While Leonid Brezhnev was content to maintain the centralized structure of the Soviet planned economy, Kosygin attempted to revitalize the ailing economic system by decentralising management. Following Brezhnev's death in 1982, the reform movement was split between Yuri Andropov's path of discipline and control and Gorbachev's liberalization of all aspects of public life.
Chernenko: The Last Bolshevik: The Soviet Union on the Eve of Perestroika author Ilya Zemtsov describes Kosygin as "determined and intelligent, an outstanding administrator" and claims he distinguished himself from the other members of the Soviet leadership with his "extraordinary capacity for work". Historians Moshe Lewin and Gregory Elliott, the authors of The Soviet Century, describe him as a "phenomenal administrator". "His strength", David Law writes, was "his exceptional capability as an administrator". According to Law Kosygin proved himself to be a "competent politician" also. Historians Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White claim that Brezhnev was unable to remove Kosygin because his removal would mean the loss of his last "capable administrator". In their book, The Unknown Stalin, Roy Medvedev and Zhores Medvedev called Kosygin an "outstanding organizer", and the "new Voznesensky". Historian Archie Brown, the author The Rise & Fall of Communism, believes the 1965 Soviet economic reform to have been too "modest", and claimed that Kosygin "was too much a product of the Soviet ministerial system, as it evolved under Stalin, to become a radical economic reformer". However, Brown does believe that Kosygin was "an able administrator". Gvishiani, a Russian historian, concluded that "Kosygin survived both Stalin and Khrushchev, but did not manage to survive Brezhnev."
Kosygin was viewed with sympathy by the Soviet people, and is still presently viewed as an important figure in both Russian and Soviet history. Because of Kosygin's popularity among the Soviet people, Brezhnev developed a "strong jealousy" for Kosygin, according to Nikolai Egorychev. Mikhail Smirtyukov, the former Executive Officer of the Council of Ministers, recalled that Kosygin refused to go drinking with Brezhnev, a move which annoyed Brezhnev gravely. Nikolai Ryzhkov, the last Chairman of the Council of Ministers, in a speech to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1987 referred to the "sad experiences of the 1965 reform", and claimed that everything went from bad to worse following the reform's cancellation.
## Honours
During his lifetime, Kosygin received seven Orders and two Awards from the Soviet state. He was awarded two Hero of Socialist Labour (USSR); one being on his 60th birthday by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1964, on this occasion he was also awarded an Order of Lenin and a Hammer and Sickle Gold Medal. On 20 February 1974, to commemorate his 70th birthday, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet awarded him another Order of Lenin and his second Hammer and Sickle Gold Medal. In total, Kosygin was awarded six Orders of Lenin by the Soviet state, and one Order of the October Revolution and one Order of the Red Banner of Labour. During a state visit to Peru in the 1970s with Leonid Brezhnev and Andrei Gromyko, all three were awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun by President Francisco Morales Bermúdez. The Moscow State Textile University was named in his honour in 1981, in 1982 a bust to honour Kosygin was placed in Leningrad, present day Saint Petersburg. In 2006 the Russian Government renamed a street after him.
### Foreign honours
- Bangladesh Liberation War Honour (Bangladesh Muktijuddho Sanmanona) |
3,048,898 | Wat Phra Dhammakaya | 1,173,869,547 | Thai Buddhist temple | [
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"Buddhism in Thailand",
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"Buddhist organizations",
"Buddhist temples in Pathum Thani Province",
"Buildings and structures completed in 1982",
"Dhammakaya tradition",
"Religious organizations established in 1970",
"Thai Theravada Buddhist temples and monasteries",
"Visionary environments"
]
| Wat Phra Dhammakaya (Thai: วัดพระธรรมกาย, , ) is a Buddhist temple (wat) in Khlong Luang district, in the Pathum Thani province north of Bangkok, Thailand. It was founded in 1970 by the maechi (nun) Chandra Khonnokyoong and Luang Por Dhammajayo. It is the best-known and the fastest growing temple of the Dhammakaya tradition. This tradition, teaching Dhammakaya meditation (Vijja Dhammakaya), was started by the meditation master Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro in the early-20th century. Wat Phra Dhammakaya is one of the temples that emerged from this tradition and is part of the Mahā Nikāya fraternity. The temple is legally represented by the Dhammakaya Foundation. It aims to adapt traditional Buddhist values in modern society, doing so through modern technology and marketing methods. The temple has faced controversy and a government crackdown. Wat Phra Dhammakaya plays a leading role in Thai Buddhism, with theologian Edward Irons describing it as "the face of modern Thai Buddhism".
Initially, the temple was founded as a meditation center, after Maechi Chandra and the just ordained monk Luang Por Dhammajayo could no longer accommodate the rising number of participants in activities at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen. The center became an official temple in 1977. The temple grew exponentially during the 1980s, when the temple's programs became widely known among the urban middle class. Wat Phra Dhammakaya expanded its area and the building of a huge stupa (pagoda) was started. During the period of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the temple was subject to widespread criticism for its fundraising methods and teachings. Luang Por Dhammajayo had several charges laid against him and was removed from his office as abbot. In 2006, the charges were withdrawn and he was restored as abbot. The temple grew further and became known for its many projects in education, promotion of ethics, and scholarship. The temple also became accepted as part of the mainstream Thai Saṅgha (monastic community). During the rule of Thailand's 2014 military junta, the abbot and the temple were put under scrutiny again and Luang Por Dhammajayo was accused of receiving stolen money from a supporter and money-laundering in a case generally seen as a politically motivated conflict between the Dhammayuttika Nikāya and Mahā Nikāya as well as between the Red Shirt movement and the Thai junta. The temple has been referred to as the only influential organization in Thailand not to be subdued by the military junta, a rare sight for a ruling junta that shut down most opposition after taking power. The judicial processes against the abbot and the temple since the 1990s have led to much debate regarding the procedures and role of the state towards religion, a debate that has intensified during the 2017 lockdown of the temple by the junta. As of 2017, the whereabouts of Luang Por Dhammajayo was still unknown, and in 2018, Phrakhru Sangharak Rangsarit was designated as the official abbot.
Wat Phra Dhammakaya emphasizes a culture of making merit through doing good deeds and meditation, as well as an ethical outlook on life. The temple promotes a community of kalyāṇamittas ('good friends') to achieve its vision. In its beginnings, the temple emphasized mostly the teaching of meditation, then later emphasized fundraising more. Finally, the temple broadened its activities to include more engagement in society. The temple uses a satellite television station and a distance-learning university. In its large temple complex, the temple houses several monuments and memorials, and in its construction designs traditional Buddhist concepts are given modern forms. The temple aims to become a global spiritual center to help cultivate its slogan "World Peace through Inner Peace". As of 2017, the number of followers was estimated at three million people worldwide.
## History
### Early history (1963–1996)
After the meditation teacher Luang Pu Sodh died in 1959, the maechi (nun) Chandra Koonnokyoong transmitted the Dhammakaya tradition to a new generation at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen. Chaiyabun Sutthiphon, a university student at Kasetsart University, started visiting her at Wat Paknam in 1963. As the community grew, Chaiyabun was ordained as a monk in 1969 and received the name Phra Dhammajayo. Eventually Wat Paknam was unable to accommodate all of the students interested in learning meditation.
Thus, on 20 February 1970, Maechi Chandra, Phra Dhammajayo, and his former senior student Phadet Pongsawat moved to the 196-rai (313,600 m<sup>2</sup> or 77.5-acre) plot of land to found a new meditation center. Although initially they intended to buy a plot of land, the landowner gave a plot four times the requested size to practice generosity on the occasion of her birthday. Phra Dhammajayo later became abbot of the temple and was called Luang Por Dhammajayo from then on, and Pongsawat was ordained with the name Luang Por Dattajīvo and became deputy abbot. In 1972, the center started a program called Dhammadayada ('heirs of the Dhamma'), a meditation training program focused on university students. Due to the temple's early activities having a large number of students joining and students in the 1970s tending to be leftist, for a brief period Wat Phra Dhammakaya was accused of supporting the Communist insurgency in Thailand.
Although originally intended as a satellite meditation center of Wat Paknam, the center eventually became an official temple in 1977. The temple was originally called "Wat Voranee Dhammakayaram", but was renamed "Wat Phra Dhammakaya" in 1982. Wat Phra Dhammakaya gained great popularity during the 1980s (during the Asian economic boom). The temple emphasized values of prosperity, modernity and personal development, which made it attractive for the middle class, especially during times of quick cultural and social changes. During this period the temple became more involved in social activities, such as promoting blood donations, and began organized Buddhist training programs for both the private and public sector. By the mid-1980s, the temple was attracting up to fifty thousand people on major ceremonies.
Wat Phra Dhammakaya started expanding the temple grounds significantly starting in 1984. In the 1980s and 1990s the temple became known for promoting Buddhist education and scholarship and also began building up relationships with Buddhist organizations outside of Thailand, with Wat Phra Dhammakaya and Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan declaring each other sister temples in 1994. In 1992, the temple started to found its first branch centers, in the United States, Japan and Taiwan.
### First clash with government (1997–2000)
In the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis the temple came under heavy criticism following the miracle controversy, when the temple claimed that a miracle was witnessed at their meditation event where the sun disappeared and a golden statue or a crystal was appeared in the sky. It also reported miraculous occurrences in the lives of its supporters. Wat Phra Dhammakaya was also seen to have right-wing sympathies for its links to some government and military officials. The main criticism was that the temple was using fundraising methods that did not fit in with Buddhism and the temple had become too capitalistic. Although many of these methods and teachings were not unique to Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the criticism came at a moment when the temple had become very noticeable due to its size, its high-profile supporters, and due to the project of building the Dhammakaya Cetiya at the time, which required a lot of funds. All of this occurred against the backdrop of the financial crisis Thailand was facing at the time.
Prompted by the criticism and public outcry, in January 1999 the Saṅgha Supreme Council started an investigation into the temple, led by Luang Por Ñāṇavaro [th], Chief of the Greater Bangkok Region. One of the accusations Luang Por Ñāṇavaro investigated was that Luang Por Dhammajayo had moved land donated to the temple to his own name. The temple denied this, stating that it was the donors' intention to give the land to the abbot, and not the temple, and that this was common and legal in Thailand. Eventually the Saṅgha Council declared that Wat Phra Dhammakaya and Luang Por Dhammajayo had not committed any serious offenses against monastic discipline (Vinaya) that were cause for defrocking (removal from monkhood) but instead practical directives were given for the temple to improve itself. Despite this, the Religious Affairs Department [th], the secular part of the government in charge, charged Luang Por Dhammajayo with alleged embezzlement and removed him from his post as abbot.
Luang Por Dhammajayo was summoned by prosecutors to acknowledge the charges but the temple asked for a guarantee that the abbot would not be imprisoned and consequently defrocked. No such guarantee was given, an arrest warrant followed, and a standoff began between police and the temple's practitioners. After two days, Luang Por Dhammajayo agreed to let the police take him when the requested guarantee was given. The abbot was interrogated but not defrocked, and was released. Luang Por Dhammajayo later fell ill and was hospitalized with throat and lung infections. The Ministry of Education also accused Luang Por Dhammajayo of having stated that the Tipiṭaka (Buddhist scriptures) was incomplete. Although there was no law in Thailand against this, he was eventually charged with this as well. During this period, many news reporters used pejorative language in describing the Saṅgha Council, the Supreme Patriarch, or Wat Phra Dhammakaya. This period of intense media attention had effects on the temple's fundraising, but the temple continued to organize projects, ceremonies and other events. The trials proceeded slowly, as the hearings were postponed because of evidence that was not ready, and because of the abbot's illness.
In 2000, Maechi Chandra Konnokyoong died.
### Nationwide engagement (2001–2013)
In the 2000s, the Thai media gradually lost interest in the temple's controversies from the Asian financial crisis. During this period, the temple began to focus more on promoting an ethical lifestyle, using the five and eight precepts as a foundation. The campaign had a national impact when the temple started organizing protests against the company Thai Beverage's public listing in the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The company, a producer of alcoholic beverages, finally had to capitulate and decided to list in Singapore instead.
The temple broadened its activities to a more national scope. The temple started its own satellite channel called Dhammakaya Media Channel (DMC), to broadcast live events to branch centers. and a university that supports distance learning. The temple started to use this satellite channel to broadcast live events to branch centers, such as guided meditations. Wat Phra Dhammakaya started to develop a more international approach to its teachings, teaching meditation in non-Buddhist countries as a religiously neutral technique suitable for those of all faiths, or none. An international Dhammadayada training program was also started, held in Chinese and English, and the temple started to organize retreats in English language in Thailand and abroad. Later on, guided meditations were also held online, in different languages. According to anthropologist Jim Taylor, Wat Phra Dhammakaya was the first new religious organization in Thailand to effectively use Internet technology in disseminating its teachings.
In 2006 the Attorney-General withdrew the charges against Luang Por Dhammajayo, stating that there was insufficient reason to pursue the case any further. He stated that Luang Por Dhammajayo had moved all the land to the name of the temple and that he had corrected his teachings as directed. Luang Por Dhammajayo's position as an abbot was subsequently restored.
From 2008 onward, the temple extended its youth activities to include a training course in Buddhist practice known as , and a yearly national day of Buddhist activities. One year later, Wat Phra Dhammakaya expanded its temporary ordination program by making it nationwide. In this program, the participants were trained in thousands of temples spread over Thailand, but ordained simultaneously at Wat Phra Dhammakaya. As part of the ordination programs, the temple started to organize pilgrimages passing important places in the life of Luang Pu Sodh. The pilgrimages stirred up resentment however, because it was very noticeable, allegedly caused traffic jams, and a debate started as to whether it was going against tradition. Eventually, the temple stopped the pilgrimages. Also during this period, Wat Phra Dhammakaya started to invest more resources in its own education and scholarship, continuously ranking as one of the five highest in the country in Pāli studies. Despite differing opinions about the work of the temple, as of 2010, Wat Phra Dhammakaya was the fastest growing temple in Thailand and major ceremonies were reaching attendance of 300,000 people.
### Standoff with junta (2014–present)
The temple came under heavy scrutiny again after the 2014 coup d'état. Following the coup, the new military junta set up a National Reform Council, with a religious committee seeking to make several changes in the Thai Saṅgha. These changes were led by former senator Paiboon Nititawan [th], monk and former infantryman Phra Suwit Dhiradhammo [th] (known under his activist name Phra Buddha Issara), and former Wat Phra Dhammakaya monk Mano Laohavanich. Senator Paiboon led a failed attempt to reopen the 1999 case of Luang Por Dhammajayo's alleged land embezzlement. Phra Suwit objected to the nomination of Somdet Chuang Varapuñño, the monk who ordained Luang Por Dhammajayo, as the next Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, and successfully held a petition to stop it. Meanwhile, Mano Laohavanich began appearing extensively in Thai media criticizing Wat Phra Dhammakaya, former Thai Rak Thai party members, and various groups the junta was generally seen as opposed to.
In 2015 the temple was implicated in the Klongchan Credit Union controversy when 11.37 billion baht was taken out by an employee of the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative (KCUC) via unauthorized checks, of which a portion totaling more than a billion baht was found to have been given to Wat Phra Dhammakaya via donations. Spokespeople of Wat Phra Dhammakaya said that Luang Por Dhammajayo was not aware that the donations were illegally obtained. Despite an agreement between the temple and the credit union about giving back money, which had settled the situation, Luang Por Dhammajayo was summoned to acknowledge the charges of ill-gotten gains and conspiring to money-laundering at the offices of the DSI. The temple requested the DSI to let him acknowledge his charges at the temple due to his deep vein thrombosis, a request the DSI refused. When Luang Por Dhammajayo did not appear at the DSI office to acknowledge his charges, authorities launched several failed raids of the temple to search for the honorary abbot and laid hundreds of additional charges on the temple. The standoff has been described as the only major demonstration against the junta since the coup, a rare sight for a ruling junta that has silenced most opposition since seizing power.
The Klongchan controversy led to a 23-day lockdown of the temple in 2017 by the junta using Article 44 of the interim constitution. A debate about the role of the state toward religion intensified during this time, as well as criticism of the junta's handling of the case. Despite the lockdown, authorities came out empty-handed. As of 20 December 2017, Thai authorities had still not found Luang Por Dhammajayo. Regardless, in the aftermath of the lockdown the junta's lawsuits against the temple continued.
In December 2017, the temple assigned Phrakhru Sangharak Rangsarit as the temple's new abbot and began announcing the organization of new events. News outlet Kom Chad Luek described this as a "revival" of the temple, but news outlet Thai PBS stated that the temple had not been affected much by the disappearance of the former abbot. As of 2017, the number of followers was estimated at 3 million people.
## Political analysis
The junta's actions toward the temple have been the subject of much debate and speculation among news analysts. Since the junta's crackdown of the temple the question has been raised as to why the state is so strongly opposed to the temple, with many doubting the extensive efforts as a mere attempt to "enforce the law". It has been pointed out that the problems with Wat Phra Dhammakaya formed a distraction for the media from the more serious problems politicians had to deal with, both in 1999 and during the Klongchan controversy.
Several political commentators have stated that the actions of the Thai junta towards the temple may have reflected a political need to control who should be selected as the next Supreme Patriarch. The monk who was next in line for the position, Somdet Chuang Varapuñño, had ordained Luang Por Dhammajayo. Selecting Somdet Chuang would have meant a Supreme Patriarch from the Mahā Nikāya fraternity, rather than the Dhammayuttika fraternity, which historically had been the preferred choice by the Thai government and the monarchy. In fact, Somdet Chuang had already been nominated by the Saṅgha Supreme Council, but the appointment was postponed and eventually withdrawn by the Thai Junta, with another candidate from the Dhammayuttika fraternity having been appointed instead. The several hundred coinciding lawsuits against Wat Phra Dhammakaya and Somdet Chuang's connection to the temple were, in fact, eventually used as a reason by the junta to withdraw his nomination.
In addition, since the period that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was still in power, Wat Phra Dhammakaya had been associated with Thaksin, and subsequently, his Red Shirt pressure group which opposes the ruling junta. When Thaksin Shinawatra was in power, the temple was often accused of having close ties to him, influencing his policies and eventually causing him to stop the lawsuits against the temple. The temple and Red Shirt leaders have denied any political relationship. Scholars and political commentators have not been in agreement as to whether the temple was related to PM Thaksin and the Red Shirts political group, and if so, to what extent. Some major supporters of the temple were also publicly known to be members of the Yellow Shirts political group, PM Thaksin's political opposition.
One spokesperson of the temple pointed out that the temple is often seen as a threat during periods of political tension. Indeed, the temple has often been described as the only influential organization in Thailand that has not been subdued by the ruling junta since the 2014 coup d'état. But more material motivations may also have been involved. Critics and scholars have speculated that the junta may be trying to seize the temple and confiscate its famed wealth. In listing the reasons why the junta is opposed to the temple, anthropologist Jim Taylor also notes that the temple has not donated much to the palace.
Protesters drew comparisons between Somdet Chuang's postponed appointment, and that of Phra Phimontham [th], a leading monk charged with communist insurgency during the Cold War. The latter was jailed and defrocked, but was later determined to have been innocent all along. Proponents of Wat Phra Dhammakaya referred to Phra Phimontham's case to explain why Luang Por Dhammajayo did not go to acknowledge the charges in 1999, and again in 2016. After Phra Phimontham was released, he entered the monkhood again without re-ordaining, since he never had disrobed officially and voluntarily anyway. Some critics have suggested that Luang Por Dhammajayo should do the same, but other commentators have argued that indictment under the current military junta would be even more dangerous than that of the junta at the time of Phra Phimontham, with no Thai law prohibiting torture of prisoners.
Despite its many opponents, Wat Phra Dhammakaya is generally seen by pro-democracy Thai intellectuals as a symbol of religious pluralism that has managed to survive. Political scientist Duncan McCargo and other western scholars have posed the question of why conservative Thai scholars have not considered the freedom of religion argument in the case of Wat Phra Dhammakaya. Several Thai scholars have pointed out the increasing entanglement of state and religion in Thailand, as the temple has relied heavily on the Supreme Saṅgha Council's authority in its activities. Since the Saṅgha Council is part of the Thai government, critics are afraid the influential temple might take over the state. If state and religion were more separated, problems could be more easily solved by the Saṅgha and other parts of civil society, without any state interference.
## Principles, practices and beliefs
### General
Wat Phra Dhammakaya sees itself teaching traditional values and "purified Buddhism" that "cleans up its nation's moral life". These teachings include meditation and selected forms of merit-accumulation. Its leaders see themselves as "heading a key Buddhist reform movement" to improve the lives of its followers, strengthen Buddhism and bring prosperity to Thailand. Wat Phra Dhammakaya deploys modern media, advertisements for merit making and fundraising, internet, and other modern technologies to achieve these goals. Its methods along with modernist interpretations of Theravāda Buddhist doctrines have been a source of controversy. It has been called by some scholars "a Buddhist prosperity movement with some millenarian and fundamentalist characteristics", and compared to Taiwanese new religious movements. Yet, the temple does not quite resonate with the "fundamentalistic" classification, states theologian Rory Mackenzie. The term can be misleading because of the temple's size, commitment to meditation and its progressive nature.
Wat Phra Dhammakaya notably focuses on the Dhammakaya meditation method and its modern teaching practices make it stand out from mainstream Thai Buddhism, though it is not defiant of it. The temple has put in great efforts to remain part of the main Mahā Nikāya fraternity and makes it a point to often demonstrate their loyalty, and offer support to the Thai royal family and the leading monks of the Thai Saṅgha. The combination of the traditional and the modern can also be found in the temple's teachings, in which intellectual Buddhism and Thai folk religion meet. The temple is a typical example of Buddhism for the Thai middle class, which emphasizes practical solutions for the individual and society. The temple is, however, more spiritual than intellectual in its influence on devotees, and in its attempts to exercise political influence it is more indirect than most other forms of middle class Buddhism. Wat Phra Dhammakaya attaches great importance to its lineage of teachers, starting from Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro, who then passed on his experience to Maechi Chandra Khonnokyoong, who in her turn passed it on to Luang Por Dhammajayo. In the PR and media of the temple the teachers are much emphasized as an inseparable part of the temple's tradition, from which the temple gains its authenticity.Wat Phra Dhammakaya attempts to revive the local temple's role as a spiritual community center, but does so within a format that is meant to fit with modern society and customs. According to the temple's active propagation philosophy, in the present day and age people will not come to the Buddhist temple anymore, because the temple is no longer the center of community life. The temple therefore must seek out its devotees in society in an active way, so as to promote virtue both in the temple and at home and school. In this active propagation philosophy, if it would be possible to introduce Buddhism and Vijja Dhammakaya to every person in the world, they would do so. An important part of this active propagation style is the role of the layperson. The temple has been noted for its emphasis on lay participation.
The propagation of the temple has been analyzed from three scholarly approaches. The earliest analyses of the temple were done by Thai (former) monastics and intellectuals, who criticized the temple for the content of its teachings. These scholars described the temple's teachings as "distorted" from "original" Theravāda Buddhism, and depicted the temple as using these teachings for profit and power. Some of the more well-known of these critics are Phra Payutto and Prawase Wasi, who have concluded that the temple cannot be regarded as part of Theravāda Buddhism. Religious studies scholar Rachelle Scott and Asian Studies scholar Jesada Buaban have pointed out the modernist perspective in this approach, as it emphasizes a deviation from a rational, idealist and universal Buddhism, that is unaffected by local customs and traditions. The second group of scholars were anthropologists and sociologists, both Thai and non-Thai, who mostly studied the question why the temple had been so effective in its propagation. Most scholars in this group emphasized the popularity of the temple among middle-class Thai from the cities, and the ability of the temple to appeal to middle class attitudes and use modern technology. The third group are scholars who believe that Thailand should become a secular state with no state intervention in religion. These scholars downplay the true Buddhism–false Buddhism dichotomy, and believe that Wat Phra Dhammakaya should be given freedom in propagating its views, as long as they do not infringe on human rights. Some western scholars, such as Duncan McCargo, historian David Streckfuss and legal scholar Mark Templeton, have voiced similar opinions. Furthermore, some prominent secular state proponents have heavily criticized the first group of scholars as inconsistent, as they often rely on the support of the state in their understanding and enforcement of "true Buddhism". According to Surapot Thaweesak, they only apply their critical view of "false Buddhism" to their political and religious opponents, but not their proponents who support them by political power, usually through undemocratic means.
### Dhammakaya meditation
The temple is known for its emphasis on meditation. Central to the temple and the Dhammakaya tradition is the idea that Dhammakaya meditation was the method through which the Buddha became enlightened, a method which was forgotten but has been revived by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro. In Thai, this method is also called Vijjā Dhammakāya, a meditation method scholars have linked to the Borān tradition that existed in Thai Buddhism prior to late 19th century reforms. According to the tradition, the principles of Dhammakaya meditation were discovered by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro on the full-moon night of October 1916 at Wat ฺBotbon, Bangkuvieng, Nonthaburi. Essential to the meditation method is the center of the body: whatever technique someone might use to meditate, the mind can only attain to a higher level through this center, according to Luang Pu Sodh. This center is also believed to play a fundamental role in the birth and death of an individual. Traditionally, a crystal ball is used to maintain focus at this point, but other objects can be used as well, Wat Phra Dhammakaya has taught people in the Solomon Islands to visualize a coconut and has taught Muslims to visualize religious symbols such as a crescent moon to maintain focus at the center.
Dhammakaya meditation has both samatha and vipassanā stages. The process of concentration in Dhammakaya meditation correlates with the description of samatha meditation in the Visuddhimagga, specifically kasiṇa meditation. Luang Pu Sodh usually explained the process of attainment in the method in terms of inner bodies (Pali: kāya), existing within every human being. These are successively more subtle, and come in pairs. These inner bodies ultimately lead to the Dhammakāya, the Dhamma-body, which is described as the shape of a Buddha sitting within oneself. The vipassanā stage of Dhammakaya meditation is done by contemplating the three marks of existence of the lower mundane inner bodies after reaching the Dhamma-body.
Dhammakaya meditation at the higher levels is also believed to bring forth abhiññā, mental powers that can be used for the benefit of society at large. Examples include stories of miraculous events such as Luang Pu Sodh performing healings, and meditation stopping the Allies from dropping an atom bomb on Bangkok due to the Japanese occupation of Thailand in World War II. Similarly, Wat Phra Dhammakaya has included claims of miracles in its PR along with images of amulets with miraculous powers. According to Seeger, such claims and widespread use of miracles by the temple have been one of the sources of criticism from the traditional Thai Buddhist establishment. Practitioners of Dhammakaya Meditation believe that meditation in group is a means to "help overcome the influence of evil Mara" against this world. This is seen by some adherents to be both an individual and collective responsibility. Dhammakaya meditation has influenced several notable teachers outside of the tradition as well.
#### Anattā and Niṛvāna
It is Dhammakaya meditation that makes the temple stand out from other forms of Theravāda Buddhism. According to the philosopher Suwanna Satha-Anand, the tradition believes that meditation and the attainment of the Dhammakaya is the only way to Niṛvāna. According to the Dhammakaya tradition, the Buddha made the discovery that Niṛvāna is nothing less than the true Self, the Dhammakāya, a spiritual essence. The tradition believes that this essence of the Buddha and Niṛvāna exist as a literal reality within each individual. The not-self teaching (Pali: anattā) is considered by the tradition as a method to let go of what is not the self, to attain the "true self".
Wat Phra Dhammakaya is part of the Dhammakaya tradition-related larger doctrinal controversy in Thai Buddhism. Some of the beliefs and practices of the Dhammakaya tradition – such as about Niṛvāna, "true self" and meditation – have been criticized as allegedly opposing or rejecting the mainstream Theravāda teachings and practices by traditional Thai Buddhist institutions. According to Seeger, the bulk of Thai Theravāda Buddhism – including a number of Thai scholars, academics, monks and social critics – reject the true-self teaching of Dhammakaya, and insist upon "all and everything is no-self" (Pali: sabbe dhamma anattā) as the Buddha's real teaching.
The anattā concept has been a subject of intense debate in Thailand, dating as far back as 1939, when the 12th Supreme Patriarch of Thailand published a book arguing that Niṛvāna was the "true-self". This dispute arose again in the 1990s when monastic scholar monk Phra Payutto published a book stating that the Dhammakaya tradition's teaching that "nibbāna is attā", was outside of Theravāda Buddhism. Payutto states in his book The Dhammakaya Case that the "Nibbāna [Nirvana] is Higher Self (attā)" teaching of Dhammakaya "insults" the Buddhist canonical and post-canonical teachings. He continues that the historic Theravāda teachings emphasize nirvana in the context of anattā, and the "nirvana as attā" is not an acceptable interpretation. Payutto has been criticized in return by a number of Thai academics and news commentators for being "narrow-minded", "attached to scriptures", "dogmatist" and a "purist". The Thai columnist Sopon Pornchokchai has accused Payutto of performing sloppy research. Although some scholars have criticized Dhammakaya's teachings on Niṛvāna in the past, these critiques garnered virtually no public attention until the 1990s when Phra Payutto published his book. According to Scott, Phra Payutto's word was largely considered authoritative in Thai Theravāda Buddhism, and thus legitimized Dhammakaya's interpretation of Niṛvāna as controversial.
Wat Phra Dhammakaya has responded in different ways to the debate of self and not-self. Wat Phra Dhammakaya's assistant-abbot Luang phi Thanavuddho wrote a book about the topic in response to critics.
It has been pointed out that followers of the temple themselves generally tend to not show much interest in the self–not-self debate and are more concerned about how Dhammakaya meditation improves their mind.
The temple often uses positive terms to describe Niṛvāna. Scott states that Wat Phra Dhammakaya publications and discourse describe Niṛvāna as being the state of supreme happiness, rather than the traditional Theravāda's via negativa description of "nirvana is not samsara". She states that this may be one of the reasons why the temple seems so attractive to new members. In its teachings on how meditation can help improve health and the quality of modern life, the temple has been compared to the Vipassanā Movement of S.N Goenka. The temple's emphasis on meditation is expressed in several ways. Accessories for meditation are for sale in stores around the temple, and every gathering that is organized by the temple will feature some time for meditation. The temple emphasizes the usefulness of meditating in a group, and teaches that public meditations have a powerful effect on the minds of the temple's practitioners.
### Cleanliness and order
Luang Por Dhammajayo was heavily influenced by Maechi Chandra Khonnokyoong in his teachings. He turned the Dhammakaya meditation method "into an entire guide of living" (religious studies scholar Justin McDaniel), emphasizing cleanliness, orderliness and quiet, as a morality by itself, and as a way to support meditation practice. In Jim Taylor's words, the temple "eschews disorder". In Wat Phra Dhammakaya, ceremonies are commonly held on Sundays rather than the traditional lunar calendar-based Uposatha days. Free buses drive to the temple. Lay people joining the ceremonies are strongly encouraged to wear white, a traditional custom. No smoking, drinking or flirting is allowed on the temple terrain, nor newspapers, animals or fortune-telling. Traditional, noisy temple fairs are not held. Children attending activities at Wat Phra Dhammakaya are taken care of through Sunday school and crèche while their parents attend the adult meditation sessions in the Great Sapha Dhammakaya Hall. There are activities for children and young people: people of all ages attend activities. Moreover, the temple teaches regularly about traditional Thai manners, explained as the heart of being Thai. In short, the temple's appearance is orderly, and can be described as "a contemporary aesthetic" (Scott), which appeals to practitioners, especially the modern Bangkok middle class. Practitioners are also encouraged to keep things tidy and clean, through organized cleaning activities. A strong work ethic is promoted through these activities, in which the most menial work is seen as the most valuable and fruitful. The temple's emphasis on discipline and order is expressed in its huge and detailed ceremonies.
### Merit-making and fundraising
Wat Phra Dhammakaya has a vision of a future ideal society. The temple emphasizes that the daily application of Buddhism will lead the practitioner and society to prosperity and happiness in this life and the next, and the temple expects a high commitment to that effect. The temple emphasizes the making of merit, and explains how through the law of kamma merit yields its fruits, in this world and future rebirths. The temple teaches that its practices can help "students to prepare for college entrance exams, transform wayward teens, cultivate confidence in professionals, and bring families together". Donors are typically very joyful about their giving to the temple and the merit-making, while critics argue that "merit was being marketed as some kind of commodity which could be exchanged for money", and a form of "religious consumerism".
Wat Phra Dhammakaya practices have sometimes been criticised by some attackers as a "prosperity movement", because members believe giving to the temple coupled with the meditation practices can ensure their own "prosperity and status". The temple's approach to commercializing donations is seen in other prosperity movements of Thailand. Wat Phra Dhammakaya relies on donations and merit making to build temples and operate its organization. It runs consumer-savvy media placement and billboards to deploy "consumerist competitive and advertising strategy with the traditional belief of merit accumulation which ends up in the merchandization of merit", states Mackenzie. This is echoed by anthropologist Sandra Cate. The donors of the temple are promised rewards in future rebirths, and their donations are recognized in public ceremonies. For instance, those who gift regular monthly donations become a part of the "millionaires' club" who are guaranteed "rebirth as a millionaire" in future rebirths. Leading donors are publicly recognized as examples, and donor groups are credited by certain titles.
Wat Phra Dhammakaya, states Mackenzie, offers "a variety of convenient options" to donate, leveraging the traditional Thai belief in karmic theory as the accumulation of merit through the cycle of rebirths. In the studies of anthropologist Apinya Fuengfusakul she compares the merit-making at Wat Phra Dhammakaya with the marketing of a product, pointing out how the temple makes merit-making very convenient and pleasant. However, the temple does not see this as compromising the sacred element of Buddhism, but rather as amplifying it. The temple teaches that a temple must be 'suitable' (Pali: sappaya) for spiritual practice, a term also referred to in Wat Paknam.
The height of the criticism of the temple's fundraising occurred in the late 1990s, during the onset of 1997 Asian Financial crisis. Scholar Ravee Phawilai of Chulalongkorn University went as far as accusing the temple of "commercializing Buddhism to seek money and power". According to one CNN news reporter, the criticism against the temple may reflect a general criticism of Thai Buddhism as a whole, as the commercializing of Buddhism became the most controversial religious problem in the 1990s in Thailand. Although many of the temple's methods and teachings were not unique to Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the criticism came at a moment when the temple was very noticeable, due to its size and the major fundraising the temple was doing at the time. Scholars have pointed out that the timing of the temple's fundraising may have been a cause of the criticism, as the persistent fundraising was done during the Asian economic crisis.
Religious Studies scholar Rachelle Scott concludes that criticism of Wat Phra Dhammakaya can mostly be categorized as criticism on a religious organization that uses material rewards to persuade someone to believe something, and the tendency of critics to regard a religious organization's propagation as an attack on the beliefs of the community. It has been pointed out that many people are afraid that, given Wat Phra Dhammakaya's size and popularity, the temple may exert too much influence in the Saṅgha, or take over the Saṅgha.
Scott has argued that criticism against Wat Phra Dhammakaya, its fundraising practices and teachings on merit-making, partly reflect historical changes in Thai society with regard to wealth and merit-making. The relation between giving and wealth is ubiquitous in vernacular Pāli literature, and many stories of exemplary donors exist, such as the stories of the bankers Anāthapiṇḍika and Jōtika. The association of wealth with merits done has deeply affected many Buddhist countries. At the turn of the twentieth century, however, perspectives of merit-making had changed in traditional Buddhist societies, as merit-making became associated with capitalism and consumerism, which had been rising in South and Southeast Asia. In the early 1990s, there was a royalist revival in Thailand, and Thai Buddhism became associated with the traditional village life and a sole rejection of material wealth, as reflected in King Bhumibol's sufficiency economy philosophy. Also, in some Buddhist countries, such as Thailand, there is a tendency among teachers and practitioners to dismiss and even revile merit-making in favor of other Buddhist teachings about detachment and attaining Niṛvāna, for which Buddhist Studies scholar Lance Cousins has coined the term ultimatism.
### Pāramī's and self-development
According to the temple, Pāramīs (lit. "perfections") are formed when people do merits consistently, and these merits become 'concentrated' (Thai: กลั่นตัว) through the passage of time. This happens when people dedicate their lives to merit-making. Wat Phra Dhammakaya does not consider pāramīs solely the domain of Buddhas-to-be, but as necessary for everyone aiming for the Buddhist goal of release from suffering. There are traditionally ten pāramīs, that is, giving, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort, patience, truth, resolute determination, loving-kindness and equanimity. All of these can be practiced through the three practices of giving, morality and mental development, which includes mostly meditation. The practice of giving and merit-making in Wat Phra Dhammakaya's perspective is therefore a practice of self-training and self-sacrifice, in which merit is dependent on intention, not merely the amount donated. The ideal of giving as a form of building character is expressed in the temple's culture with the words Cittaṃ me, meaning 'I am victorious', referring to the overcoming of inner defilements (Pali: kilesa).
To explain the importance of self-transformation, Wat Phra Dhammakaya often refers to the Maṇgala Sutta, a Buddhist sutta (discourse) that emphasizes ethics. The ethics contests the temple has been organizing throughout the country since its early years are heavily based on this sutta. Also, the temple often refers to traditional narratives from the Tipiṭaka regarding exemplary donors and the fruits that merit-making yields. The emphasis on individual ethics is also expressed in the temple's view on society: the temple emphasizes strengthening the individual's morality more than changing the system of society, and measures the welfare of the state by the virtue of its citizens. Field research also confirms that the temple's practitioners believe the individual's lack of virtue to be the main reason for current economic problems. Indeed, every year Earth Day is celebrated in the temple, on which the motto of the temple "Clean the world, clean the mind" is brought forward. The temple states that the environment will only improve if one starts working on clearing up one's own mind.
### Spiritual friendship
Participants in the temple's activities report that the temple feels like a family. According to Taylor, the temple's success may be partly explained by the flexible social structure of the temple, allowing for openness to newcomers. The temple organizes its followers into groups with certain interests. In surveys, one major reason for joining the temple's activities is the structure and clarity of the teachings. The temple's lifestyle promotes good family values and emphasizes a network of like-minded friends to facilitate spiritual development. Wat Phra Dhammakaya encourages people to persuade others to make merit, because such persuasion is in itself considered a merit. In activities of the temple, even on retreats, ample opportunity is therefore given for socializing and spiritual friendship. In teachings of the temple, practitioners are encouraged to set up kalyāṇamitta homes ('homes of good spiritual friends') to meditate together with friends and family, and practitioners are trained to take on leading roles. Wat Phra Dhammakaya makes it a point that homes, temples and schools should unite in creating responsible members of society, and organizes programs to that effect. Communities of kalyāṇamittas also have an exemplary effect, according to the temple. One of the reasons why the temple emphasizes huge gatherings during ceremonies, as stated in the temple's literature, is that such gatherings will effect that "people of the world will stop, think and ask themselves why so many people have gathered in one place to meditate (...) and they will strive to find the answer for themselves".
Wat Phra Dhammakaya very much emphasizes respect for one's seniors and people in higher rank. This holds for lay people towards monks, but also amongst lay people. Qualities such as being easy to advise, being humble, being soft-spoken and so on, are encouraged and promoted through the temple's activities and teachings. Such qualities are also connected to accomplishment in meditation practice. Fuengfusakul speculates that the culture of respect of Wat Phra Dhammakaya has its roots in the seniority system of Kasetsart University, from which the first generation of the temple's monks were mostly graduated. Kasetsart was one of the first universities where the Buddhist student society was revived and promoted by the temple, and Buddhist societies at many other universities followed the model of the Kasetsart Buddhist society. Indeed, one of the main activities at the Buddhist societies led by the temple is the revival of the custom of Wai Khru, a ceremony for students to express gratitude and respect to their teacher. Alma mater traditions aside, Litalien speculates that Wat Phra Dhammakaya's emphasis on respect for hierarchy and seniority comes from the conviction that position and status are gained by merit-making and karma.
### Thi Sut Haeng Tham
Wat Phra Dhammakaya's teachings on merit-making, morality and meditation are not only claimed by the temple to bring about individual happiness and world peace, but also serve a higher aim. The temple teaches that the ultimate purpose of one's life is to develop pāramīs on the path of the bodhisattas. The temple's practitioners aim for Buddhahood, but call this aim Thi Sut Haeng Tham (Thai: ที่สุดแห่งธรรม), literally 'the utmost of Dhamma'. This goal is described as helping to bring all living beings to Niṛvāna, which requires an utmost effort. In this context pāramī is also defined as a habit to put one's life on the line to develop goodness.
### The miraculous
Although Wat Phra Dhammakaya does not involve itself in traditional magical rituals, fortune telling and giving lottery numbers, it doesn't oppose everything that is miraculous. In the biographies of Luang Pu Sodh and Maechi Chandra, the temple often relates of miraculous events relating to the meditation prowess of these two masters, thereby establishing the value of the lineage. Mackenzie points out that not everyone who comes to the temple is interested in the miraculous, but it is nevertheless a part of the temple's appeal: "Some members especially appreciate the logic and relevance of the Dhamma talks, others draw much from the effect the cetiya and other buildings have on them, others place a special value on meeting their friends and clearly many have a very strong focus on meditation. I have also met members who look to experience the miraculous at the temple..." On a similar note, practitioners believe that meditation not only calms the mind, but also has a miraculous effect on the outside world, especially the meditations every first Sunday of the month. (See § Other activities) Fuengfusakul points out, however, that the temple tends to downplay the gap between the miraculous and the rational or scientific, and draws on science to explain the miraculous or psychic.
## The foundation
### Organization structure
Wat Phra Dhammakaya is legally presented by the Dhammakaya Foundation, described as the modern equivalent of the traditional 'temple committee' (Thai: กรรมการวัด). Founded in 1970 under the name Prasit Foundation, the foundation was in 1985 renamed the Dhammakaya Foundation. Later, a second foundation was founded to finance the worldwide activities of the temple, the Khun Yai Ajan Maharatana Khonnokyoong Foundation.
The Dhammakaya foundation has a complex organization structure, and is more formalized than traditional Thai temples. It is modeled on and managed like a modern organization. Despite its modern methods, the temple adheres highly to a traditional hierarchy, and Luang Por Dhammajayo as a leader. He is the president of the foundation and used to be the abbot of the temple, assisted by deputy-abbot and vice-president Luang Por Dattajīvo. Thus, the foundation is intrinsically connected to the temple. There are several departments in the foundation that are run by assistant-abbots, who report to the abbot and deputy-abbot: a human resource center, as well as a support center that helps with facilitating ceremonies, and departments for maintenance, fundraising, education and proselytization. The responsibility for lay people is further subdivided in sixty-two groups. The personnel of the temple consists of monastics, full-time employees, workers and volunteers. Full-time employees will sometimes ordain after a while, but their ordination is different from that of males who ordain without having been an employee. Former employees usually take a vow for lifelong ordination in a special ceremony, and often have high coordinating positions as monks. Following Thai custom, the temple does not provide a full ordination as bhikkhunī for women, but there are training programs for female staff.
Among lay personnel, the full-time employees are expected to follow the eight precepts, behave in an orderly way, and spent their lives in the temple, without a paid job or residence outside the temple. Just like in the Dhammadayada training programs, full-time employees are trained, including a probation period before being employed. They are not paid a full-fledged salary, but receive some stipidend, as well as some welfare services. Full-time employees have an important role in the temple's active approach of spreading Buddhism: they complement monastics who have more limitations because of the Vinaya. They are also meant to be role models for the public at large. Wat Phra Dhammakaya is known for its relatively high-educated monastics and full-time lay personnel. A high percentage possesses a bachelor's degree.
In the 1980s, Wat Phra Dhammakaya was very centrally organized, which led to problems within the organization. From the early 1990s onward, the temple began to invite professional management and law consultants to develop its organisation processes, and decision-making was distributed downwards to supervisory committees.
### Objectives
On its website, the foundation lists seven goals:
- To teach Dhammakaya meditation;
- To promote and support Buddhist studies;
- To promote and support Dhamma education for both monastics and lay people;
- To provide support for the people living in the temple;
- To build and maintain the World Dhammakaya Center;
- To build and maintain the temple;
- To build and maintain an academic institute that offers all levels of education, from pre-school to university, in which Dhamma education is provided together with the normal curriculum.
Another list of five objectives underlying the work of the foundation is sometimes also mentioned:
- To provide facilities for the teaching of meditation and the study of the culture that underlies world peace;
- To create virtue in society by instilling morality, with special emphasis on the younger generation;
- To promote the recognition and praise of those of exceptional virtue in society;
- To produce materials in print and other media to promote peace, social harmony, virtue and morality;
- To provide humanitarian services.
According to Luang Por Dattajīvo, the temple's buildings aim to gather people and cultivate the spirit of the Dhammakaya slogan "World Peace through Inner Peace". In the Thai language, the temple has the motto "We are born to build up our pāramīs" is also used. Another motto is "Dhammakaya is the goal of life". The last two mottos are often combined in one sentence, in which the fulfillment of pāramīs is the path, and the attainment of the Dhammakaya at the highest level is the aim. This attainment is equated with Niṛvāna.
## Layout of building complex
The general appearance of the temple is clean and orderly. The temple has many well-maintained gardens and greenery. What is unusual for a Buddhist temple building in Thailand is that the buildings are functionalist with minimal ornamentation, which makes them look futuristically modern and global, although they are based on older tradition.
The temple's area is divided into three parts: the 'Buddha residence area' (Thai: เขตพุทธาวาส), including the Ubosot, and residence areas for monks; the 'Dhamma residence area' (Thai: เขตธรรมาวาส), including the areas for teaching and ceremonies that involve laypeople; and finally, the 'Saṅgha residence area' (Thai: เขตสังฆาวาส), including the areas for monastic ceremonies. Although many Thai temples divide their areas in this fashion, Wat Phra Dhammakaya stands out in that it uses most of the space of the temple's grounds for the Dhamma residence area, providing enough room for the large masses of people that come to the temple's activities, and for the international community. From 1984 onward, the temple's area was greatly expanded. Thus, a distinction can be made between the older areas and the areas which are later expansions.
### Older areas
In the older areas the following buildings are important:
- The Ubosot: Designed based on Wat Benchamabophit, the building was awarded an honourable mention by the Association of Siamese Architects (ASA) in 1998. The Buddha image in the ubosot is modern rather than classic Thai. Nevertheless, the temple's Buddha images are made following the traditional thirty-two characteristics of a Great Man, mentioned in the Pāli Canon, and the temple believes they are more authentic than many other types of Buddha images.
- The Memorial Hall of Khun Yai Achan Chandra Khonnokyoong: This hexagonal pyramid-shaped chapel was built in 2003. This two-storey 29 meters (95 ft) tall structure is made of gold-tinted plate glass. The lower floor is a museum with an exhibition, telling the biography of Maechi Chandra Khonnokyoong. The upper floor houses a golden image of Maechi Chandra.
- Tavatimsa: a building where Luang Por Dhammajayo used to undergo treatment for his illness.
- Dhammakaya English Learning Center: a center for the study of English for usage in propagating Buddhism, with foreign teachers.
The Dhammakaya Open University and the kuṭis (residences) for monks are also located in the older sections.
### The World Dhammakaya Center
Since 1984, the number of people joining the ceremonies of the temple exceeded its capacity and prompted the decision to expand the site and the building of the World Dhammakaya Centre, an area of two thousand rai (3.2 km<sup>2</sup>). Buildings are designed using principles from meditation practice, and, according to the temple, are built to last a thousand years. In the area there are a number of important buildings:
- The Great Sapha Dhammakaya Hall: This hangar-like construction built in 1997 is a multi-functional two-storey building, used for meditation, Buddhist lectures and ceremonies, a crèche and youth training, and monastic conferences. The upper level has been designed to accommodate 150,000 people. The lower level is used primarily for parking but can be used as seating capacity for an additional 150,000 people, if necessary.
- The Dhammakaya Cetiya: The Dhammakaya Cetiya is described by the temple as a symbol of world peace through inner peace. The design is based on the architectural style of different ancient stupas, among which are the stupas of Sanchi, Borobodur, Anuradhapura, Shwedagon and the stupas of the Pagan Kingdom. The Cetiya has the shape of a hemispherical dome, thirty-two meters high and hundred and eight meters in diameter. The hemispherical dome represents the Buddha, the surrounding inner terraces the Dhamma, and the granite outer terraces the Saṅgha. The exterior holds 300,000 Buddha statues, placed on the dome and the terraces. Each of the images has the name of the donor engraved in it, which is an old tradition. Inside the Cetiya are digitally preserved Buddhist texts, another 700,000 Buddha statues and a large central Buddha of 4.5 m made from sterling silver. The central Buddha image symbolizes the possibility of liberation through meditation. The outer terraces of the Cetiya can seat ten thousand monks, whereas the open area around the Cetiya can accommodate 600,000 people. The area has become a meeting-place for Buddhists all over the world, who join the yearly ceremonies. It was officially opened in 2000.
- The Grand Meditation Amphitheatre: The Grand Meditation Amphitheatre is the name of a two-storey stadium-like structure built to accommodate monks, sāmaṇeras (young novices) and people from around the world to meditate and pray. The Amphitheatre has been built around the Cetiya and can accommodate 300,000 people. It was finished in 2004.
- The Memorial Hall of Phramongkolthepmuni: This 108 meters (354 ft) tall circular domed building was finished in 2003 in honor of Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro. It houses a golden statue of Luang Pu Sodh. The building is open to visitors and pilgrims.
- The Dining Hall of Khun Yay Archaraya Chandra Khonnokyoong: Finished in 2004, the Dining Hall of Khun Yay can seat up to six thousand monks. Every day, lay people come to offer food and refreshments to over 1,200 monks and sāmaṇera who reside at the temple.
- The Pariyattidhamma School: This is a school in which Buddhism and Pāli is taught to laypeople and monastics, at different levels. The school was founded in 1985.
- The Sixtieth Year Building: This is a building that is planned to be used for Dhammakaya meditation at an advanced level. On the roof 300,000 Buddha images have been placed.
- The hundredth year Khun Yai Ajan Maharatana Upasika Chan Khonnokyoong Office: As of 2017, this building was in development. It is meant to be a central office building for management, but will also have educational activities in it. The spherical shape symbolizes attainment in meditation. The building has been equipped with a closed circuit water cooling system and is made of self-compacting concrete. Currently, the Dhammakaya Foundation is located here.
Besides these, in the World Dhammakaya Center there are also more office buildings, a medical center, kutis for the sāmaṇera, a computer center and a broadcast center for the satellite television channel and radio channel. The construction layout of the World Dhammakaya Center has been compared with that of Wat Mahadhatu, in that the layout reflects the cosmological order and the idea of the nation.
It is the intention of Wat Phra Dhammakaya to develop the World Dhammakaya Center into a meeting-place and pilgrimage place for Buddhists from all over the world, just as Vatican City is for Christians and Mecca is for Muslims.
## In the media
Wat Phra Dhammakaya was the subject of the 2019 Thai documentary Come and See. The 84-minute film included extensive interviews with both supporters and critics of Wat Phra Dhammakaya regarding its teachings and practices, and chronicled the events of the 23-day lockdown of the temple by the Thai military junta in 2017. The film received critical acclaim as a type of long-form journalism that presented a wide range of views and provided a unique investigation into the temple and its alleged controversies that differed from what was seen in mainstream media reports. The film premiered in 2019 at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, but was banned in Thailand by Thai media censors. The ban on the film was lifted after two years, with the film premiering in Thai theaters in April 2021 and being made available on Thai Netflix in August of the same year. The filmmaker expressed surprise for the film's approval, given the behavior of the Thai military regime toward the temple in the past. News analysts described the film's approval as a possible attempt by Thailand's military-backed government to moderate its image in the wake of the 2020-2022 Thai Protests.
## See also
- Suppression of monasteries |
39,691,461 | HMS Aldenham | 1,144,084,360 | British Hunt-class escort destroyer | [
"1941 ships",
"1999 archaeological discoveries",
"Hunt-class destroyers of the Royal Navy",
"Maritime incidents in December 1944",
"Ships built on the River Mersey",
"Ships sunk by mines",
"Shipwrecks in the Adriatic Sea",
"World War II destroyers of the United Kingdom",
"World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea"
]
| HMS Aldenham (pennant number L22) was an escort destroyer of the Type III Hunt class. The Royal Navy ordered its construction in July 1940. Upon completion in February 1942, she was deployed to convoy escort duty. Aldenham is one of the ships credited with the sinking of the on 27 March 1942. After circumnavigating Africa, she joined the Mediterranean Fleet, escorting convoys between Alexandria, Malta and Tobruk. She took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, landings at Salerno and Anzio, the Dodecanese campaign and Operation Dragoon before being assigned to the Adriatic campaign.
On 14 December 1944, Aldenham was sunk by a naval mine in the Adriatic Sea off Pag Island after she led a Royal Navy force in a bombardment mission against targets on the island of Pag and near the town of Karlobag in support of the Yugoslav Partisans. Although the rest of the force came to pick up survivors, cold weather and severe damage to Aldenham permitted the rescue of only 63 of her crew. Her wreck, broken in two by the explosion, was discovered in 1999–2000. The wreck has been declared a war grave, where 126 crew members and two partisans aboard Aldenham at the time of the mining died. She was the last Royal Navy destroyer lost in World War II.
## Design and construction
Aldenham was a Royal Navy Type III Hunt-class destroyer. She had an overall length of 85.34 metres (280 feet 0 inches), a beam of 9.45 metres (31 feet 0 inches) and a maximum draught of three metres (9 feet 10 inches). Aldenham had a standard displacement of 1,050 long tons (1,070 tonnes), and a full load of 1,435 long tons (1,458 tonnes). Her two Parsons geared steam turbines drove two propeller shaft. Steam was supplied by two Admiralty three-drum water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at 13,970 kilowatts (18,730 shp) and gave Aldenham a speed of 28.3 knots (52.4 km/h; 32.6 mph) during sea trials, but she achieved up to 27 knots (50 kilometres per hour; 31 miles per hour) on deployments.
Aldenham was armed with four quick-firing four-inch (102 mm) Mk XVI naval guns on twin mounts, four anti-aircraft 40-millimetre (1.6 in) QF 2-pounder naval guns and three Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. She also had two 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, and 70–100 depth charges deployed by four throwers and two chutes.
The ship was ordered on 4 July 1940. She was laid down by Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead on 22 August 1940 as construction project J 3766. Aldenham was launched on 27 August 1941 and completed on 5 February 1942.
## Service
Aldenham (Lieutenant Alex Stuart-Menteth) and its crew of 170 completed brief training at Scapa Flow before deploying for the first time on 21 March 1942, as a part of an Escort Group assigned to the convoy WS 17 sailing to the Cape of Good Hope. On 27 March, Aldenham, together with the Leamington, Grove and Volunteer, sank U-587 in the North Atlantic, due west of Ushant, France.
Circumnavigating Africa and transiting the Suez Canal accompanied by Grove, Aldenham joined the 5th Destroyer Flotilla in the Battle of the Mediterranean. She escorted 14 convoys there, protecting shipping between Alexandria, Malta and Tobruk. On 29 August 1942, she was assigned coastal bombardment duties, including the area of El Daba. Sources disagree which ships took part in the bombardment of El Daba itself. According to Jürgen Rohwer, Aldenham and Eridge were the only ships involved, while Paul Kemp places Eridge at the scene supported by fellow destroyers Croome and Hursley. Aldenham towed Eridge back to Alexandria after the latter ship was disabled by an Italian MTSM motor torpedo boat during the bombardment.
Aldenham was a part of an Allied blockade off Cap Bon in May 1943 and escorted landing craft during the Allied invasion of Sicily in July and the Salerno landings in September that year. She assisted Eskimo removing wounded when Eskimo was attacked and hit by the Luftwaffe on 15 July. Aldenham also took part in failed Dodecanese Campaign of 1944, when she sustained minor damage in an aircraft attack. After repairs in Alexandria, Aldenham saw action in Operation Shingle off Anzio, Italy, and escorted convoys between Oran, Algeria and Naples. She was based in Taranto in May, and transferred to Bari in June, before supporting Operation Dragoon, protecting landing craft off southern France. Afterwards, she sailed again to the Adriatic Sea, joining a Royal Navy flotilla fighting the Adriatic Campaign.
The Royal Navy Adriatic flotilla consisted of Aldenham, Atherstone, Avon Vale, Lamerton, Lauderdale, Wheatland, Wilton, Brocklesby and Quantock. In late November 1944, the flotilla, led by Aldenham under Commander James Gerald Farrant, intercepted and captured German hospital ship Bonn (ex-Yugoslav steamship Šumadija). She and Atherstone bombarded German units deployed to the island of Rab on 9 December. The bombardment was in support of Yugoslav Partisans advance north along the eastern coast of the Adriatic, capturing the coast and islands from retreating German forces.
What became Aldenham's final deployment began on 14 December 1944, when she and Atherstone sortied from a Royal Navy base at Ist Island and anchored off the western coast of Pag Island, north of Zadar, to bombard an artillery battery near Karlobag and other military targets on Pag. Because of poor visibility, the artillery observers on Pag directed destroyers to strike the Pag Island objectives first. Each destroyer fired 500 four-inch (102 mm) shells against bunkers and barracks on the island between 09:00 and 11:20. The town of Pag itself was targeted by the destroyers for an hour at 14:00, while Aldenham alone engaged the battery at Karlobag at approximately 13:00 and again before 15:00 as visibility improved, firing 200 shells against that target. At 15:00, the destroyers started their return to Ist with Aldenham in the lead and Atherstone following her at 20 knots (37 kilometres per hour; 23 miles per hour).
## Sinking
As Aldenham was making a turn at a position north of the islet of Škrda, to sail between islands of Planik and Olib, she hit a mine that exploded under her engine room. The ship broke in two and her bow sank quickly, followed by her stern a little later, at 15:29. Cold weather hampered rescue efforts by Atherstone and accompanying Motor Launches ML 238 and HDML 1162, and only 58 seamen and five officers, including Farrant, were pulled out of the sea. 126 crewmen died, as well as a wounded partisan transported from Pag for medical treatment and a partisan liaison officer, Colonel Ivan Preradović. Aldenham was the last Royal Navy destroyer lost in World War II.
A portion of the surviving crew revisited the site on 14 December 1984, but the shipwreck was not located until 15 years later. In 1999, Italian wreck divers located a 30-metre (98 ft) long bow section one nautical mile (1.9 kilometres) off Škrda. It lies on the port side, at a depth of 86 metres (282 feet), but it is normally obscured by silt stirred up by trawling further north in the Kvarner Gulf. The aft section of the ship was discovered in 2000 through testimony of a fisherman from Pag. It was found closer to Škrda, approximately 700 metres (2,300 feet) away from the bow section. Aldenham's boilers and propellers were still operating as the ship sank, and the section struck the silty seafloor at a depth of 82 metres (269 feet), with her keel on top. Her rudder is now at a depth of 67 metres (220 feet). The wreck was declared a British war grave, and forms a part of "the Ghost Fleet of Pag" together with wrecks of Kriegsmarine destroyer TA20 (ex-Italian Audace), corvettes UJ 202 and UJ 208 (ex-Italian Melpómene and Spingarda) sunk in the action of 1 November 1944, and World War I wrecks of Austro-Hungarian steamships SS Albanien and SS Euterpe.
## Remembrance
Annual memorial services are held by the HMS Aldenham Association in Aldenham Church of St John The Baptist each December. The church contains a stained glass window dedicated to Aldenham, and a Book of Remembrance is displayed in front of the stained glass window, along with a White Ensign. The stained glass window memorial was unveiled on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of sinking of Aldenham. |
42,097,307 | Whitemore, Tasmania | 1,111,234,160 | null | [
"1857 establishments in Australia",
"Localities of Meander Valley Council",
"Populated places established in 1857",
"Towns in Tasmania"
]
| Whitemore is a rural locality and small town in the local government area of Meander Valley in the Launceston region of Tasmania. The locality is about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) south-east of the town of Westbury. The 2016 census has a population of 198 for the state suburb of Whitemore.
The town's land and surrounding rural area was first granted to Richard Dry in the 1830s then sold for farming to William Hingston in 1854. Hingston constructed a Wesleyan Chapel, near which a few later buildings were added. Over time the town has had a blacksmith, post office, library, shops and petrol station; none of these remain in the 21st Century.
Shaw Contracting, a large Civil engineering firm formed by James Alan Hope Shaw, has been the most significant business in the town's history. Whitemore's most prominent features are the 1864 brick church, adjacent original church building dating from 1857—now a community hall—and the large workshop and offices of Shaw contracting.
From 1870 to sometime before 1978 the town had a nearby rail service but in the 21st century transport is by car or school bus. The town has a small largely Australian born, and aging, population. Whitemore has a few houses, a church that is part of the Uniting Church in Australia, the offices and workshops of Shaw Contracting, and a recreation ground and tennis courts used by the towns' tennis and cricket teams.
## History
Whitemore is in the southern part of the former Quamby estate. The estate was granted to Richard Dry, father of Richard Dry who was later Premier of Tasmania, in 1837. The estate was in two main parts. The southern section was approximately 4,500 acres (1,800 ha), including an outlying part of 500 acres (200 ha) on which the modern town of Whitemore lies. The land in this section was recorded as first leased to William Burke in 1846. He worked a 200-acre (81 ha) lot as a tenant farmer, though it was probably leased before this, as at the time 200-acre (81 ha) was recorded in the lands returns records as cleared. This southern part of Quamby Estate covered the Whitemore Creek valley, the later town of Whitemore and Shaw's farm, amongst other later farms.
By 1851, 350 acres of the 500 acre section was cleared. By the mid-1850s the area had been settled for almost two decades and was noted as "fairly well populated". Dry sold land in the area in 1854 to William Hingston, who named a 120 acres (49 ha) section "Whitemoor farm" after a farm his family had run as tenant farmers in Cornwall. Hingston's land ownership and actions assisted the establishment of Whitemore as a central village of the surrounding farming area. Around 1857 Hingston donated the land for a Wesleyan chapel that became known as "Whitemoor chapel". Over time this name was taken by the village that grew around the church. Hingston built "Whitemoor house" in c.1860 using locally made bricks. The building was extant as of 2002.
By the time Hingston built Whitemoor House the town had a modest country store, a blacksmith's shop and the Wesleyan chapel. The town never became the population centre and Whitemoor remained a farming district with only a few buildings clustered near the church. By 1865 the town had four substantial buildings: A brick church; the original wooden church now used as a school; and two cottages. As late as 1915 there were only three occupied cottages in the town.
Land was purchased by the local council in 1951 for a memorial hall to commemorate those who served in the two world wars. Built largely using volunteer labour and working bees, the hall opened on 9 December 1953. The buildings in Whitemore are constructed either side of the only road through the town. The town section of this road was sealed in 1953.
Whitemore was gazetted as a locality in 1968.
## Geography
The Bass Highway forms the northern boundary, and Whitemore Road forms part of the eastern boundary.
## Road infrastructure
The Bass Highway (National Route 1) runs from east and to west along the northern boundary. Route C507 (Black Hills Road / Whitemore Road) enters from the north-west and runs through to the south-east, where it exits. Route C508 (an extension of Whitemore Road) starts at an intersection with C507 and runs north-east until it exits, where it then forms part of the eastern boundary. Route C510 (Adelphi Road / Glenore Road) starts at an intersection with C507 and runs west and south-west until it exits.
## Services
In common with the rest of Tasmania, Whitemore no longer has passenger rail transport; the last Tasmanian passenger rail service stopped in 1978 and the service to Whitemore prior to that. Rail transport for Whitemore opened in the late 1870s. The first passenger train was on 27 April 1870 and the rail line opened for regular traffic in February 1871. This transport was from a siding rather than a station. The Whitemore siding did not have a full-time station master and was not a regular stop; passengers had to request the train stop or flag the train for a pickup. The town's only regular transport services as of 2014 are Redline Coaches' private school-bus services.
One of the town's buildings was used as a house and a shop from 1859; a Shell petrol bowser was installed in the late 1920s outside the shop. A district post office was established in 1871 at the railway siding's station house. By 1908 the post office was run from the chapel house in the main part of the town, and a shop ran from the same building. This building was used for around 70 years as a store, telephone exchange, mail exchange and petrol station. The post office closed in 1977 and has not reopened.
Telephone services reached Whitemore in 1918, initially with only three subscribers. Telephone switching was done at the post office. Whitemore was connected to the State's electricity system in 1929. The electricity was fed from the Hydro-Electric scheme and was connected to twelve buildings, in Whitemore and several nearby farms, by August of the same year. There may have been blacksmiths in Whitemore from the mid-19th century. A blacksmith established a shop on the main road in 1895 that was, by 1900, the only blacksmith in the area. Shaw Contracting's office is on the site of this former blacksmith's shop.
The Whitemore irrigation scheme was begun in 2010 to provide irrigation water to 12,000 hectares (46 sq mi) of farmland with water from the Poatina Hydroelectric Power Station. The scheme uses a 400 megalitre dam for storage.
## Religion
A Methodist circuit had been established in Westbury in 1848 with meetings held in homes of the Oaks Estate. After Hingston purchased his land in 1854, Methodist meetings were held at his home. Hingston's home proved too cramped for religious meetings so in 1857 he donated land for a chapel, which was built in the same year by Joshua Higgs. It was an all timber 18 by 30 feet (5.5 m × 9.1 m) building made from pit-sawn beams clad with split timber. It opened for services on 13 December 1857, after completion at a total cost of 250 pounds. The wooden church was also used as a Sunday school and state school from 1865 to 1928. A chapel house was built in 1859 next to the church by the Wesleyan trustees. This house was used initially by David Tinning, the town's first school teacher.
In the 1860s a new church was planned. The original wooden building was relocated in 1864, and the new church subsequently built on its site. Its foundation stone was laid on 30 November 1864; the year of the Australian Wesleyan Church's jubilee observance. The church is a brick-structure in a Gothic architectural style, and was designed to hold 200 people. The new Wesleyan chapel at Whitemoor, as it was then known, was opened Sunday 4 June 1865. It had cost 450 pounds, 150 from the Wesleyan building fund and the remainder from subscriptions, fund-raising and donations. The money from Wesleyan building fund was a 10-year loan. By 1929 it was used as a Methodist chapel in 1929 and in the 21st century is part of the Uniting Church in Australia.
The original wooden church building was moved again in 1909 and extended in 1928 for use as a community hall. It had a kitchen extension added in 1955 and a kindergarten room in 1958. The split paling cladding was replaced with weatherboards in the 1900s. The roof was replaced with iron, probably in 1914 when the brick church was also re-roofed in iron. The interior paling lining of the old wooden church was covered with pine sheeting in the late 1930s. This building has been used as a church for seven years, more than sixty years as a meeting room and community centre and more than seventy years as a day and Sunday school. After the school moved to a new building in 1929 the old building remained in use as a Sunday school.
## Sport and recreation
On the main street, opposite the church, is a recreation ground and playground, both maintained by the Meander Valley Council. The recreation ground was upgraded with toilets c.1949 that were replaced with newer ones in 1966. Playground equipment was installed in 1964.
Whitemore cricket club began in the 19th century. An early record is of a match against Oaks in 1898, though club minutes date only from 1927 at which time it was playing in the Westmoreland association. A cricket pavilion was built some time prior to 1900 and was replaced during 1962–63. The cricket club has continued to field teams and in 2013 they played in the B grade of the Northern Midlands Cricket Association. Their most successful years were from the 1960s through to the 1980s.
Whitemore tennis club had its first meeting on 18 November 1910. Asphalt was laid on the courts in November 1921 and a shed built in February 1923. From 1928 the tennis club fielded two teams in the newly formed district tennis association. Lights were installed on the courts in 1958. The tennis club had three plexipave courts by 2002. As of 2012 the Whitemore Tennis club fielded an amateur A grade team, and others in lower divisions
## School and Library
The first wooden church was used as the area's school from 1857. This dual use of the church as a school has been stated, by local historian Ivan Heazlewood, as likely to be planned from the beginning. The area was more heavily populated in the past than in the 21st century due to a large number of tenant farmers with large families. Heazlewood speculated that the later 1865 church was probably used for classes due to the small size of the wooden school building. The school grew to around 100 pupils on the register in 1900. The church building, also used for Wesleyen Sunday school, was used as a school until 1929. For this period the Education Department rented it from the Church trustees. A new school was built, on donated land, opposite the church and next to the recreation ground. This state school was opened in a ceremony on 23 August 1929. The school remained open as late as the end of 1954.
A library was operating from the wooden church building by 1860. Patronage of the library had declined markedly by the 20th century and by the 1930s it was virtually unused. A mobile library began calling in the 1960s and for a time called once per month. The bookmobile service was finally ended, for all places not only Whitemore, in 1998.
## Current town
In the 21st century, Whitemore consists of a small cluster of buildings either side of the only road, surrounded by farming land. By the late 20th Century the town's population was ageing, and it was described as somewhat of a retirement village. The buildings owned by Shaw Contracting dominate the town; they have two workshops and a three-storey office.
### Agriculture and land
The town sits on flat to gently undulating land in the base of the Meander Valley. The soil is primarily of alluvial origin, underlain by dolomite bedrock. Whitemore creek, a tributary of the Meander River (Tasmania), flows past Whitemore. The creek is seasonal, often drying up completely in summer. The Whitemore Irrigation Scheme has reduced the dry periods by discharging up to 2 megalitres (71,000 cu ft) per day into the creek for downstream irrigation use.
Whitemore, along with Hagley, has historically had one of the highest concentrations of stud farms breeding pedigree livestock, in Australia. In the 1950s there were more than 100 registered studs within 5 miles (8.0 km) of the town's centre. The Poll Dorset, an important breed in prime lamb production in Australia, was first bred at a Whitemore stud. Whitemore farmers, the French family, began breeding Ryeland lambs in early 21st century. The family had originally farmed this breed in the 1930s, but it had now become uncommon in Australia due to changing fashions in meat. The Heazlewood family breeds the Border Leicester, another sheep breed that is now uncommon in Australia. The family was honoured by the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania in 2013 for their involvement in the Tasmanian sheep industry over the previous one hundred years.
In 2014 a Whitemore farm attracted media attention creating the first crop maze in Tasmania. It was designed by specialist crop design company from the United Kingdom, and created to attract tourists and visitors. The maze was in the form of a stylized Tasmanian tiger, cut into a 5-hectare (12-acre) sorghum field. An open day was held on 28 February 2014 and the maze subsequently opened to the public, until the crop was harvested a few weeks later.
### Shaw Contracting
Shaw Contracting is a large Tasmanian civil contracting firm based in Whitemore. Its two large workshops and three-storey office dominate the town; the company has stood large in Whitemore since the mid-20th Century. James Alan Hope Shaw was born in Bridgenorth, Tasmania in 1904. He designed and built agricultural machinery, including the first "stump jump" scarifier that was suitable for the northwest coast of Tasmania. In 1939 Shaw was granted a patent for "An improved scraper for reversible disc ploughs". This plough was never commercialised though some prototypes were built and used. Shaw moved to Whitemore in late 1935 and began work as an agricultural service provider, from what had been a blacksmith's workshop.
His company expanded into civil construction work during World War II. Using in-house manufactured equipment they scarified 5 mi (8.0 km) of road so it was ready for regrading. The company's work did have some negative impacts on the town. When they had electricity installed their first welder drew so much power the town's supply had to be upgraded. This welder also put out sufficient radio-frequency interference to disrupt radio reception elsewhere the town; a matter that caused some complaint. They added vehicle sales and maintenance in the 1940s and expanded with the purchase of a one-acre lot opposite the original workshop in 1946. A significant part of the Shaw company's income from the late 1940s to the early 1950s was selling vehicle tires. The company continued to expand and a new workshop was opened in the town, with a ceremony in August 1953. In the same year the company became an agent for "David Brown" tractors, its first agency.
In 1958 James Shaw and a partner purchased a 25-ton International Harvester TD24 tractor that was formerly owned by Tasmania's Hydro Electric Commission. The company by this point was known as "JAH Shaw & Sons". With the lack of a transporter at first the tractor could only be used in the close surrounds. One of its first jobs was levelling the tennis courts in Whitemore. By 1960 JAH Shaw & Sons had moved into large scale earth-moving. In 1970 they tendered for, and won, work on the Cressy to Longford irrigation scheme; 7 km (4 mi) of main channel excavation and 100 km (62 mi) of smaller channels. By the 1970s the company was known as "Shaw Contracting". An offshoot was launched in 1973 as "Shaw Mix" which sold concrete and created and installed precast concrete panels. Shaw Mix were involved with the Launceston General Hospital and some cast concrete bridges but this line of work ceased during the 1990s. Other significant contracts have included: Building 11 kilometres (7 mi) of the Hume freeway from Seymour to Avenel Victoria in 1978; A road upgrade near Samoa's capital Apia in 2004; Constructing, from 2009, a 15 kilometres (9 mi) bypass of the Town of Dilston on the road from Launceston to Georgetown. The company completed their three-storey offices in the town in 1999. Alwyn Shaw—Son of James Shaw—and his wife Judy ran the business until 2013, when they sold it to a group that included long-term company employees. When sold the company had approximately 100 employees. |
32,555,371 | Tropical Storm Don (2011) | 1,171,829,797 | Atlantic tropical storm in 2011 | [
"2011 Atlantic hurricane season",
"Atlantic tropical storms",
"Tropical cyclones in 2011"
]
| Tropical Storm Don was the first tropical cyclone to make landfall in the United States during the 2011 season. The fourth named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Don formed from an area of low pressure along a tropical wave, Don developed into a tropical depression on July 27, and on that same day, was upgraded to tropical storm intensity, based on data from a reconnaissance aircraft noted the presence of tropical-storm-force winds. It tracked across the Gulf of Mexico and reached a peak intensity of 50 mph (85 km/h) before moving ashore in Texas on July 30 as a tropical depression, dissipating shortly afterwards. Initially, Don was expected to provide relief to the state, which was suffering from a major drought. However, the system dissipated rapidly just before making landfall, providing very little in the way of help to the state; rainfall totals were less than 1 in (25 mm).
## Meteorological history
The genesis of Tropical Storm Don was from a tropical wave first identified off the west coast of Africa on July 16. It tracked westward over the open Atlantic for several days, with minimal convection confined to the monsoon trough. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) first mentioned the potential for gradual tropical cyclogenesis on July 21, when it was positioned about 750 mi (1200 km) to the east of the Windward Islands. As the system moved through the Lesser Antilles on July 23, it produced tropical-storm-force winds in Puerto Rico. The combination of vertical wind shear and the wave's proximity to land impeded further development. Convection increased along the northern portion of the wave on July 24, although by the following day the NHC expected no significant redevelopment.
Early on July 26, the thunderstorms along the tropical wave became more concentrated to the south of Cuba, in association with a low-pressure area. The system continued to organize, and by 0600 UTC on July 27, the surface circulation became defined enough for it to be classified as a tropical depression about 60 mi (95 km) northeast of Cancún, Mexico. Within twelve hours, the depression intensified into a tropical storm. Operationally, the system was not known to be a tropical cyclone until 2100 UTC on July 27, after a reconnaissance aircraft flight into the system confirmed the presence of a closed, albeit elongated, circulation center. At that point, the NHC classified it as Tropical Storm Don. Upon forming, the storm moved to the west-northwest along the southern periphery of a low- to mid-level ridge over the northern Gulf of Mexico. Due to generally favorable conditions, including warm waters and light to moderate wind shear, the NHC predicted steady intensification to winds of at least 65 mph (100 km/h). However, none of the tropical cyclone forecast models anticipated much strengthening.
Initially, Don failed to intensify significantly due to a misalignment between the lower and mid-level circulations. The wind shear in the region further exposed the circulation from the convection late on July 28, although the winds increased slightly. Early on July 29, Don attained peak winds of 50 mph (85 km/h) as reported by the Hurricane Hunters, and the storm maintained that intensity while moving across the Gulf of Mexico. As Don approached the Texas coast early on July 30, the thunderstorms rapidly diminished due to the combination of wind shear, drier air, and cooler sea surface temperatures just offshore. The winds decreased as the convection dissipated, and Don made landfall on Padre Island National Seashore as a tropical depression at 0230 UTC on July 30. About three and a half hours later, Don degenerated into a remnant low, and the circulation dissipated six hours after that.
## Preparations and impact
The state civil protection agency in Quintana Roo warned that the tropical wave from which Don formed was capable of dropping 80 to 150 mm (3.1 to 5.9 in) of rainfall over the state, while producing sustained winds of 35 to 45 km/h (22 to 28 mph) and gusts up to 65 km/h (40 mph). After Don was designated as a tropical storm, the Yucatán state government issued a green-level alert. The alert indicated that although the tropical storm was located close to the state, it was only considered to be slightly dangerous. Late on July 27, the National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch from Port Mansfield to San Luis Pass in Texas. Six hours later, the tropical storm watch was extended southwards to the international border.
After the storm was named, officials in Texas began making preparations for Don. The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston issued a level one alert for Don, and city officials began preparing for a possible evacuation. On July 27, oil companies throughout the western Gulf of Mexico began removing non-essential personnel from their rigs and platforms in preparation for Don. The next day, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko Petroleum and Apache Corporation announced the evacuations of some of the oil facilities in the area, while ExxonMobil began preparing the Baytown Refinery for a possible storm strike. Several oil companies stopped oil production as a result of Don; by midday on July 28, 6.8% of oil production and 2.8% of natural gas production in the Gulf had been shut in ahead of the storm.
Due to its abrupt weakening prior to landfall, Don produced minimal rainfall, with totals of less than 1 in (25 mm). However, Bay City, Texas, located well northeast of where the storm made landfall, reported 2.56 in (65 mm). In southern Texas, the rains resulted in slippery roads and some ponding. Cotton farmers benefited from what rains that did fall as they harvested their crop. Winds during Don's passage were minimal, with a peak wind gust of 41 mph (66 km/h) at Waldron Field. In addition, Don moved ashore with a storm surge that peaked at about 1.89 ft (0.58 m) at Bob Hall Pier. There were no reports of damage.
## See also
- Other storms with the same name
- List of Texas hurricanes (1980–present)
- Tropical Storm Frances (1998) – affected a similar area
- Tropical Storm Beta (2020) – affected a similar area. |
23,292,628 | Here We Go Again (Demi Lovato song) | 1,166,435,988 | 2009 single by Demi Lovato | [
"2009 singles",
"2009 songs",
"American power pop songs",
"Demi Lovato songs",
"Hollywood Records singles",
"Songs written by Isaac Hasson",
"Songs written by Lindy Robbins",
"Torch songs"
]
| "Here We Go Again" is a song recorded by American singer Demi Lovato. It was written by Isaac Hasson, Lindy Robbins and Mher Filian and produced by SuperSpy, for Lovato's second studio album of the same name. It was released as the album's lead single on June 23, 2009, through Hollywood Records. The song was the only single from Here We Go Again released in North America. "Here We Go Again" is a power pop song with guitar lines and pop hooks and the lyrics speak of the protagonist's on-off relationship with a hesitant boyfriend.
The song received positive reviews from critics, who praised its pop hook and made comparisons to works of Kelly Clarkson. "Here We Go Again" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Lovato's first top 40 hit on the chart as a solo artist. The song was certified platinum by the RIAA in 2014. It also peaked at number 38 in New Zealand and in the lower region of the Canadian Hot 100.
## Background
Lovato released her debut studio album, Don't Forget, in September 2008. Shortly thereafter, in January 2009, she had already begun writing material for her sophomore effort. The recording sessions for the album began in January 2009, right after filming from the first season of Sonny with a Chance. According to Lovato, the album's writing process was nearly finished in just two weeks. Unlike Don't Forget, Lovato did not collaborate with the Jonas Brothers for her second album as she wanted to see what her sound would be like without their input. "Here We Go Again" was written by Isaac Hasson, Lindy Robbins and Mher Filian, and produced by Hasson and Filian under the production name SuperSpy. The duo also co-wrote and produced the album track "U Got Nothin' on Me".
"Here We Go Again" was recorded at three different recording studios in California; SuperSpy Studios in Los Angeles, Resonate Studios in Burbank, and The Jungle Room in Glendale. Additional recording took place at Safe House Studios in Greensboro, North Carolina. Co-writer Robbins contributed backing vocals. Hasson provided programming, guitars and synths, and Filian handled programming and keys. The instruments were played by Dorian Crozier, who provided drums, and Kenny Johnson, who played the bass. The song was ultimately mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. "Here We Go Again" premiered during Planet Premiere on Radio Disney on June 17, 2009, and was released as the lead single for the album of the same name via digital download on June 23, through Hollywood Records. It was later released in Australia and New Zealand on July 17, 2009.
## Composition
"Here We Go Again" is an uptempo power pop song, with guitar lines and pop hooks. Critics made comparisons with works by Kelly Clarkson, particularly the song "Since U Been Gone". According to sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Kobalt Music Publishing, "Here We Go Again" is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderately fast tempo of 142 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of F major and Lovato's vocal range spans from the low note of F<sub>3</sub> to the high note of A<sub>5</sub>. It has a basic sequence of F–Dm–Dm–Gm/B–F as its chord progression. The song's lyrics chronicle the protagonist's on-off relationship with an indecisive boy as she sings that "Something about you is so addictive". Lovato explained: "So it's about, basically, being in a relationship where you break up and you make up, and you break up and it's like 'Here we go again, we just keep doing this over and over'."
## Reception
### Critical reception
"Here We Go Again" received generally positive reviews from music critics. The Arizona Republic's Ed Masley referred it to as "an explosion of pop hooks delivered with a winning blend of heartache and bravado". Kerri Mason of Billboard called the song a potential hit single and noted that Lovato "almost sounds like Kelly Clarkson's kid sister". Margaret Wappler of Los Angeles Times compared it to Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and wrote that Lovato "tells a guy where to stick it over buff guitar lines". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called the album "not quite as much fun" as Don't Forget, "but still fun, particularly when Lovato tears into hooky power pop like 'Here We Go Again'." Erlewine also named it one of the best tracks on the album. Chicago Tribune's Althea Legaspi referred it to as "anthemic" and "catchy", while Houston Chronicle critic Joey Guerra described it was not as "immediate a grabber" as Lovato's previous singles.
### Chart performance
In the United States, "Here We Go Again" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 51 on July 11, 2009. After two weeks on the chart, it fell to number 66, before rising to number 24 the next week, in addition to being named the "greatest digital gainer". Coinciding with the release of the parent album, the song peaked at number 15 on August 8, 2009. The song became Lovato's highest-peaking solo single on the chart until "Skyscraper", peaked at number 10 in July 2011. The song has sold 880,000 digital copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In Canada, "Here We Go Again" debuted at number 86 on July 11, 2009, of the Canadian Hot 100. It fell off the following week, and re-entered on August 8, 2009, at number 61, which became its peak position. In New Zealand, the song entered and peaked at number 38, becoming Lovato's first entry on the chart.
## Music video
"Here We Go Again" was directed by Brendan Malloy and Tim Wheeler, both who directed Lovato's previous video "La La Land". The music video was filmed on June 8, 2009, in Los Angeles, California. It premiered on June 26, 2009, on Disney Channel, following the premiere of Princess Protection Program (which stars Lovato). The video begins with Lovato in her dressing room to prepare for her concert. Lovato is talking to her boyfriend (portrayed by Christopher Mason) over the phone. After hanging up, she rips up a photograph of the two of them together, implying he ended their relationship. He tries to call her back, but she ignores the call and heads to the stage. The boyfriend is shown visiting the concert and after Lovato finished the performance, she return to her dressing room. He meets her with a rose and they begin their relationship again.
## Live performances
Lovato has performed "Here We Go Again" on several occasions. To promote the album, she appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to perform the song on July 17, 2009. She performed it alongside the album cut "Catch Me" on Good Morning America on July 23, while performing "Here We Go Again" only on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The View later the same day. The song was also performed during her Summer Tour 2009, where it was the closing song. In September 2011, Lovato performed the song during the revue concert An Evening with Demi Lovato as part of a medley with "Get Back" and "La La Land". She later performed the same medley during the tour A Special Night with Demi Lovato.
## Track listing
- Digital download
1. "Here We Go Again" – 3:46
2. "Here We Go Again (Jason Nevins Remix) – 6:34
## Credits and personnel
Recording and management
- Recorded at SuperSpy Studios (Los Angeles, CA), Resonate Studios (Burbank, CA), Safe House Studios and The Jungle Room
- Mastered at Masterdisk (New York City)
- IRH Publishing (ASCAP); Hey Kiddo Music (ASCAP) administered by Kobalt Music Group, Ltd; Part Time Buddha Productions (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.
Personnel
- Demi Lovato – vocals
- Isaac Hasson – songwriting, guitars, programming, synths
- Lindy Robbins – songwriting, background vocals
- Mher Filian – songwriting, programming, keys
- Dorian Crozier – drums, engineering
- Kenny Johnson – bass
- SuperSpy – production, engineering
- Simon Sampath-Kumar – engineering
- Jason Coons – engineering
- Chris Lord-Alge – mixing
- Dave McNair – mastering
Credits adapted from Here We Go Again liner notes.
## Charts
## Certifications
## Release history |
25,902,540 | Constitution of the Republic of Singapore Tribunal | 1,142,774,547 | Constitutional court | [
"1994 in Singapore",
"Constitutional courts",
"Courts in Singapore",
"Presidents of Singapore"
]
| The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore Tribunal is a tribunal established in 1994 pursuant to Article 100 of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore. Article 100 provides a mechanism for the President of Singapore, acting on the advice of the Singapore Cabinet, to refer to the Tribunal for its opinion any question as to the effect of any provision of the Constitution which has arisen or appears to likely to arise. Questions referred to the Tribunal may concern the validity of enacted laws or of bills that have not yet been passed by Parliament.
Constitutional questions may also be referred to the Tribunal when Parliament attempts to circumvent or curtail the discretionary powers conferred on the President by the Constitution. If the attempt is by way of an ordinary bill, the President can exercise personal discretion to withhold assent to it. It is then open to Cabinet to advise the President to refer to the Tribunal the question whether the bill in fact circumvents or curtails his discretionary powers. If the bill is determined by the Tribunal not to have that effect, the President is deemed to have assented to the bill on the day following the day when the Tribunal's opinion is pronounced in open court. When Article 5A of the Constitution is brought into force, a similar procedure will apply to attempts to circumvent or curtail the President's discretionary powers through a constitutional amendment. If the Tribunal rules that the proposed amendment does have the effect of restricting the discretionary powers of the President, the Prime Minister is entitled to submit the bill to a national referendum for approval.
The Tribunal consists of not less than three judges of the Supreme Court. Its opinions are binding on all other courts. Since the Tribunal was established in 1994, to date only one constitutional question has been referred to it. The Tribunal determined in 1995 that although Article 5(2A) was not in force, Article 22H(1) did not prevent Parliament from restricting the President's discretionary powers through a constitutional amendment. Since then, there have been several unsuccessful attempts to persuade Cabinet to invoke the Article 100 procedure.
## History
The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore Tribunal is an ad hoc tribunal established by Article 100 of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore. Article 100 was introduced into the Constitution by the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment No. 2) Act 1994, which was passed by Parliament on 25 August 1994 and assented to by President Ong Teng Cheong on 14 September 1994. It came into force on 1 October 1994.
Prior to the enactment of Article 100, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted during the Second Reading of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment No. 2) Bill that the Singapore Constitution had no provisions for referring questions of constitutional interpretation to the courts for an advisory ruling, especially those relating to new and complex provisions of the Constitution. Article 100 was intended to address this perceived lacuna in the Constitution.
One question of constitutional interpretation that was highlighted during the parliamentary debates pertained to the former Article 22H which had been incorrectly inserted into the Constitution by the Constitution (Amendment) Act 1991 in January 1991. Article 22H(1) provided that the President might, acting in his discretion, withhold his assent to any bill passed by Parliament (other than a bill to which Article 5(2A) applied) if the bill provided for the circumvention or curtailment of the discretionary powers conferred upon him by the Constitution. At that time, Article 5(2A), which entrenched certain core constitutional provisions (of which Article 22H(1) was one) by requiring the approval of the electorate at a national referendum for their amendment, had not been brought into force.
In August 1994, Parliament intended to amend Article 22H to restrict the President's powers thereunder to only non-constitutional bills which provided for the circumvention or curtailment of the President's discretionary powers conferred upon him by the Constitution. Because Article 5(2A) was not in force, a question arose as to whether the President had the power under Article 22H(1) to withhold his assent to any bill seeking to amend any of the provisions referred to in Article 5(2A), and specifically to any bill seeking to amend Article 22H. President Ong Teng Cheong stated that in the interest of testing out the system, he wished to have this question referred to the courts for a ruling, and that he would accept as correct whatever interpretation of Article 22H was given by the court. In response to his request, Article 100 was inserted into the Constitution by Parliament for that purpose.
## Reference of constitutional questions
### Grounds for bringing of reference
A constitutional question can be referred to the Tribunal on three grounds. First, under Article 100 itself, the President, acting on the advice of Cabinet, may refer to the Tribunal for its opinion any question as to the effect of any provision of the Constitution which has arisen or appears to the President likely to arise. During the parliamentary debates preceding the introduction of Article 100, Nominated Member of Parliament Associate Professor Walter Woon posed the following question:
> The President can only refer a constitutional question to the tribunal on the advice of the Cabinet. He has no discretion to refer it himself. If you are going to give the power to the President to clear up constitutional ambiguities, would it not be better to allow him to make the reference himself when he sees there is an ambiguity, rather than to constrain it only to situations where Cabinet sees there is an ambiguity?
The reply by the Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was threefold:
- Article 100 was drafted by following the precedent in the Constitution of Malaysia. Since it had worked for Malaysia, the drafters thought it safe for Singapore to follow suit.
- It was the intention of legislation concerning the elected President that the initiative to refer the question to the Tribunal should lie with the Government, and generally not with the President whose recourse was in vetoing the legislation. The Cabinet would advise the President and the matter would then be referred to the Tribunal.
- In the event of Cabinet wishing to ride roughshod over the President's views and refusing to refer a particular matter, there would be considerable public pressure exerted on the Government to so refer.
Questions referred to the Tribunal may concern the validity of enacted laws or of bills that have not yet been passed by Parliament.
The other two grounds relate to attempts by Parliament to circumvent or curtail the discretionary powers conferred on the President by the Constitution. Article 22H of the Constitution deals with attempts to alter the President's powers by introducing an ordinary bill. If this occurs, the President may exercise personal discretion to withhold assent to the bill. The Cabinet may, if it wishes, advise the President to refer to the Tribunal the question whether the bill in fact has the effect of circumventing or curtailing his discretionary powers. If the Tribunal determines that the bill does not have that effect, the President is deemed to have assented to the bill on the day following the day when the Tribunal's opinion is pronounced in open court.
When Article 5A is brought into force, the President will also be able to decline to assent to a bill seeking to amend the Constitution that has a direct or indirect effect of circumventing or curtailing his discretionary powers. In this case, the Cabinet may also advise the President to refer to the Tribunal the question of whether the bill indeed has this effect. If the Tribunal rules that the bill does not have this effect, the President is deemed to have assented to the bill on the day immediately following the day when the Tribunal pronounces its opinion in open court. On the other hand, if the Tribunal decides to the contrary, the Prime Minister may opt to submit the bill to the electorate. If the bill is supported at a national referendum by not less than two-thirds of the total number of votes cast, the President is deemed to have assented to the bill on the day immediately following the day when the results of the referendum have been published in the Government Gazette.
### Procedure
A reference must be made under the hand of (that is, signed by) the President, and must be served on the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General is required to assist the Tribunal in the hearing of the reference, and the President may be represented by such legal counsel as the Tribunal may appoint, after consulting the President. The parties appearing before the Tribunal are not confined to the President and the Attorney-General. The Tribunal may direct that the hearing of a reference be notified to any interested person or, where there is an interested class of persons, to one or more representatives of the class. If there is any interest that is affected which is not represented by counsel, the Tribunal may request that counsel argue the case for this interest.
The reference must state the questions on which the Tribunal's opinion is required in a form which allows, as far as possible, answers to be given in the affirmative or the negative. There must also be a concise statement of facts, and documents must be included, as are necessary to enable the Tribunal to decide the questions referred. During the hearing of a reference, the procedure in proceedings before the Court of Appeal applies. The President of Singapore is treated as the appellant and all other parties as respondents. However, the Tribunal is not bound by strict rules of evidence. The proceedings of the Tribunal, except for the hearing for directions, are held in open court. No party to any proceedings is ordered to pay any costs, and no court fees are payable in respect of any proceedings.
The Tribunal has to consider and answer a question referred to it not more than 60 days after the date of such reference. The Tribunal is mandated to certify to the President for his information its opinion on the question referred to it with reasons for its answer, and any Tribunal judge who differs from the opinion of the majority shall similarly certify his opinion and his reasons. The opinion of the majority of judges is the opinion of the Tribunal, and is required to be pronounced in open court.
## Composition
The Constitution provides that the Tribunal must consist of not less than three judges of the Supreme Court, as Parliament intended that the Tribunal should have the same structure as the Court of Appeal. In practice, the Tribunal consists of the Chief Justice and not less than two other judges of the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice may determine. If for any reason the Chief Justice is unable to be a Tribunal member, the Tribunal must consist of not less than three Supreme Court judges. The Chief Justice is the President of the Tribunal and, in his absence, the presidency of the Tribunal is determined in accordance with the following order of precedence:
- the vice-presidents of the Court of Appeal;
- the Judges of Appeal (other than vice-presidents); and
- the Judges of the High Court.
Among themselves, the judges in each category rank according to the priority of their appointments to the Bench.
## Effect of opinions
Opinions of the Tribunal cannot be questioned by any court. This includes the Tribunal's view of the validity of any law, the bill of which has been the subject of a reference to a Tribunal. This means that although the Tribunal lies outside the normal hierarchy of the courts since it does not hear appeals from any courts, its opinions are binding on all other courts. It is technically open for the President, on Cabinet's advice, to refer the same matter to the Tribunal for its re-consideration.
## Invocations of the constitutional reference process
### Constitutional Reference No. 1 of 1995
Since the creation of the Tribunal in 1994, only one constitutional reference has been made to it. Constitutional Reference No. 1 of 1995 arose from the issue of the application of Article 22H(1) of the Constitution in relation to Article 5(2A), which was and is still not yet in force. The matter was referred by President Ong Teng Cheong to clarify the scope of the application of both Articles. The Government was represented by Chan Sek Keong and Soh Tze Bian of the Attorney-General's Chambers, and the Presidency by Joseph Grimberg and Walter Woon.
The Constitutional Tribunal, which consisted of the Chief Justice Yong Pung How and Judges of Appeal M. Karthigesu and L.P. Thean, held that although Article 5(2A) was in abeyance, it represented the will of Parliament and therefore had to be taken into consideration. The Tribunal concluded that the President had no power under Article 22H(1) to withhold his assent to any bill seeking to amend any of the provisions referred to in Article 5(2A).
### Attempted invocations
#### Rescue and assistance package for Indonesia
The first instance of a non-governmental attempt to put an issue before the Constitutional Tribunal came from Non-constituency Member of Parliament Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam. He challenged the constitutionality of Singapore's US\$5 billion loan offer to Indonesia in November 1997 on the basis of Article 144(1) of the Constitution which states: "No guarantee or loan shall be given or raised by the Government, except under the authority of any resolution of Parliament with which the President concurs." Jeyaretnam interpreted this to mean that the giving of a loan required parliamentary and presidential approval. The Finance Minister Dr. Richard Hu Tsu Tau did not agree with Jeyaretnam's interpretation of the provision, and stated that the Attorney-General had given advice that the granting of loans and the purchase of securities of this type had the prior approval of two Presidents.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Finance stated that Article 144(1) applied only to the giving of guarantees or the raising of loans by the Government, and not the giving of loans. The Attorney-General Chan Sek Keong confirmed that this reading of the provision, which he characterized as reddendo singula singulis (Latin for "referring each to each"), was correct. The Attorney-General also suggested that Jeyaretnam bring the matter to the Tribunal, a procedure seemingly inconsistent with a rule which stipulates that a reference to the Tribunal shall be made under the hand of the President of Singapore. This issue was finally abandoned when Jeyaretnam refused to pay for the costs for referring the matter to the Tribunal and the Ministry of Law found it ludicrous that it was asked by Jeyaretnam to bear the costs.
#### Public Entertainments Act
On 20 January 1999, Jeyaretnam wrote to President Ong Teng Cheong requesting the reference of another constitutional question to the Tribunal. This was made on behalf of his client, opposition politician Chee Soon Juan, who had been charged for giving a public talk on 20 December 1999 without a licence under the Public Entertainments Act. The question involved the constitutionality of the Act. Jeyaretnam argued that the Act violated Articles 14(1)(a) and (b) of the Constitution, which enshrines freedom of speech and assembly.
The President, acting on the advice of the Cabinet, turned down the request. The reply to Jeyaretnam dated 29 January 1999 pronounced the request as "misconceived". The following reasons were given:
- The jurisdiction of the Tribunal should only be invoked "when there is no other forum available to a person who claims that his constitutional rights have been infringed to have such claim tested". The Tribunal was not a court of law, but only advisory in nature. Chee would be able to raise the same constitutional question at trial or on appeal as he had been charged under the Act.
- If the Tribunal were to come into the picture when the court had yet to resolve the matter, then this would "constitute an improper interference with the judicial power of the courts and the constitutional functions of the Public Prosecutor".
#### Misuse of Drugs Act
A plea for a review by the Constitutional Tribunal was sought as a last-ditch attempt to stave off the execution of drug trafficker Shanmugam Murugesu. Shanmugam's lawyer contended that his client's right to equal protection under Article 12 of the Constitution had been infringed. Referring to cases of six recent offenders similarly convicted under the Misuse of Drugs Act, Shanmugam's lawyer drew attention to the fact that those offenders had imported more than 700 grammes of cannabis, an offence which attracted the death penalty, but were eventually charged with possessing less than 500 grammes of cannabis which resulted only in a jail sentence. In contrast, Shanmugam, who had imported 1,029.8 grammes of cannabis, did not have the amount reduced and was sentenced to death. The plea was rejected by the President on 12 May 2005, one day before the execution date.
#### Legal status of the right to vote
Speaking in Parliament on 12 February 2009, Nominated Member of Parliament Thio Li-ann posed the question of whether the right to vote is a constitutional one and suggested that the Law Minister obtain an advisory opinion to clarify the point. This issue was briefly dealt with by the Minister who simply answered it in the affirmative, rendering the need for a resolution by the constitutional tribunal nugatory. Thio subsequently expressed the view that it would be desirable to ask the Constitutional Tribunal to give its authoritative opinion as the courts are the final arbiter on questions of constitutionality in Singapore. |
68,358,018 | Sazanami Cherry | 1,075,294,688 | 2010 manga by Rika Kamiyoshi | [
"2010s LGBT literature",
"Cross-dressing in anime and manga",
"Ichijinsha manga",
"LGBT in anime and manga",
"Romance anime and manga",
"Seinen manga",
"Transgender in anime and manga"
]
| Sazanami Cherry (Japanese: さざなみチェリー, Hepburn: Sazanami Cherī) is an otokonoko romance manga created by Rika Kamiyoshi [ja]. It was originally serialized by Ichijinsha in their magazine Waai! from April 24, 2010, to August 25, 2011, and has since been collected in a single tankōbon volume. Together with Reversible!, it was the first manga published under the Waai! Comics imprint.
The story follows Kazuhiro Migiwa, who falls in love with the cross-dresser Ren Takano under the belief that he is a woman, and their romantic relationship. Kamiyoshi wrote the story based on the concept of the unease around difficulties for otokonoko to remain feminine as they grow older and wrote the main characters as a gay couple to add more depth to the story. The series was well received and was considered by critics to stand out among otokonoko manga.
## Plot
Sazanami Cherry is an otokonoko romance manga following Kazuhiro Migiwa, who falls in love with Ren Takano on first sight. When confessing his love, he learns that Ren is a cross-dressing man, rather than a woman as he had first believed. Kazuhiro is surprised but does not let Ren's gender affect his attraction to him. They become a couple and begin dating, and Ren enjoys being treated like a woman and being seen as cute. One day while on a date they are confronted by Ren's older sister Kai, who disapproves of how he cross-dresses and pretends to be a woman, and tells him he will have to stop eventually.
Ren tells Kazuhiro about how he took an interest in cross-dressing after playing dress-up with Kai as a child, but that their father was upset at Kai over it, after which Kai has tried to stop Ren from wearing girls' clothes. Ren asks Kazuhiro if he could still love him if he stopped being feminine, and he does not know how to answer. When they see each other on the train the next day, Ren is wearing men's clothes and breaks up with Kazuhiro. Kai seeks out Kazuhiro, telling him about how Ren left her a message apologizing for cross-dressing. She reveals that she was herself assigned male at birth, but that her father did not accept that she preferred femininity until she was an adult; knowing the hardship of presenting femininely, she tried to dissuade Ren from it.
Kazuhiro explains to her how Ren feels, and they meet up with him to talk. Kai repeats what she told Kazuhiro and says that she was jealous of Ren for his femininity and for having a boyfriend. Ren is surprised, having only ever known her as a woman due to their age gap. They reconcile, and Ren takes up dressing like a woman again. Two years later, he is still cross-dressing and in a relationship with Kazuhiro. In an epilogue, Ren and Kai are shown having grown closer again.
## Production and release
Sazanami Cherry was written and illustrated by Rika Kamiyoshi [ja], who was helped by her assistants Shiro and Mugicha with the background art and screentones. The series was serialized by Ichijinsha in Japanese in their cross-dressing manga magazine Waai!, premiering on April 24, 2010, in the magazine's first issue and running until its sixth issue on August 25, 2011. The concept for the story came from how Kamiyoshi wanted to write a story about a cute cross-dresser falling in love, and to portray the unease of difficulties for otokonoko in remaining feminine while getting older. She considered whether the cross-dressing character's partner should be female or male, and if male, whether they too are a cross-dresser, finding this an important point in cross-dressing romance stories: she eventually chose to make Kazuhiro a male character, as she thought Kazuhiro and Ren being a gay couple would add depth to the story.
Kamiyoshi designed the characters in consultation with her editor but in the end only made few, minor alterations to the designs compared to her first drafts; for Kai, she did not prepare a design sheet in advance but designed her as a "somewhat pretty, realistic-looking" woman in her mid-20s. She designed Ren to be cute in a feminine way when wearing men's clothes and even more so when cross-dressing, while contrasting this by writing him as mischievous. A key point in his design to make him come across as charming was the addition of pigtail hair extensions that shake as he moves around. The main characters' names were chosen to carry meaning: "Ren" is written with the same kanji character as sazanami (漣, "waves"), and Kazuhiro's family name "Migiwa" (汀) means "shore", representing how Kazuhiro supports Ren. Kai's nickname, "Umi", is also based on kanji readings, chosen as a more feminine-sounding reading of the same kanji used to write "Kai" (海).
Ichijinsha collected the series in a single tankōbon volume on October 20, 2011, which together with Reversible! was both the first manga released under the Waai! Comics imprint and the first Waai! manga to see a collected release. The two series were chosen for this as Waai!'s editor-in-chief Toshinaga Hijikata considered them the most distinctive and representative of their manga. Because of the cross-dressing theme, the magazine staff focused on ensuring that the cover artwork for the collected volume would not cause embarrassment for potential customers and cause them to avoid bringing a copy to the book store check-out.
### Collected edition
## Reception
Sazanami Cherry was well received both critically and by readers; Bukumaru and Honcierge both considered it a must-read otokonoko manga, the latter calling it among the best written. Natalie found it to stand out among Waai!'s manga, helping diversify the magazine and forming the foundation that Waai! rests on.
Critics liked the writing, with Bukumaru calling it an exciting and sad love story. Honcierge called the story heartbreaking and appreciated how it made use of the otokonoko genre to tell a story that could not happen in other genres. The cast was well received, with both Natalie and Honcierge finding Ren cute and charming, the latter of whom appreciated seeing him act both cutely mischievous and sweetly with Kazuhiro, whom they found appealing for not letting Ren's gender affect his attraction to him. Bukumaru enjoyed following Ren and Kazuhiro's relationship and considered the highlight to be Ren's inner conflict around having to stop being feminine as he gets older. |
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