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Kateryna Skarzhynska
| 1,150,289,695 |
Early 20th and late 19th-century Ukrainian noblewoman
|
[
"1852 births",
"1932 deaths",
"19th-century nobility",
"19th-century philanthropists",
"19th-century women philanthropists",
"20th-century nobility",
"20th-century philanthropists",
"20th-century women philanthropists",
"Nobility from the Russian Empire",
"People from Lubny",
"People from the Russian Empire of German descent",
"Philanthropists from the Russian Empire",
"Russian ethnographers",
"Ukrainian ethnographers",
"Ukrainian nobility",
"Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire",
"Ukrainian people of German descent",
"Ukrainian women philanthropists"
] |
Kateryna Skarzhynska née von Reiser (Ukrainian: Катерина Миколаївна Скаржинська, 7 February 1852 O.S./19 February 1852 (N.S.) – 1932) was a Ukrainian noblewoman, philanthropist, and collector of folklore. She established the first private museum in Ukraine to house her collection of artifacts and was particularly known for her collection of pysanky, Easter eggs decorated with Ukrainian folk art. Born in Lubny to the von Reiser family, which had a long history of military service to the Russian Tsars, she was educated at home, studying in her parents' library and with select tutors. After her father died in 1859, together with her mother, brother, and maternal grandmother she moved to the Lodygyn/Lodigine family estates in the Tver province of the Russian Empire, near Moscow. There at the age of 14, von Reiser established a school for the former serfs of the estate and a public hospital.
In 1869, von Reiser became acquainted with Nikolai Georgievich Skarzhynsky, a Ukrainian nobleman and soldier. Through his circle of friends, she decided to continue her education and passed her gymnasium studies, entering the Bestuzhev Courses. They married in 1874 and later would have five children together. Five years later, he was transferred from St. Petersburg back to Ukraine. Though she did not finish her studies, Skarzhynska had developed an interest in culture and moving back to her father's estate, Kruglik, inspired her to begin collecting folk art and other artifacts. Consulting with ethnographers, archaeologists and historians, she financed archaeological excavations and amassed a large collection of items. Failing to interest local authorities in establishing a museum to house them, she created the first private museum in Ukraine in 1880. Hiring professional curators, Skarzhynska assisted in developing the collection until 1905. One of the curators, Sergiy Kulzhynskiy [uk], would become her partner, father of her youngest child, and her companion and caretaker in her old age. In 1906, she transferred her materials to the Museum of Natural History of Poltava Provincial Zemstvo.
In addition to her work with the museum, Skarzhynska was involved in creating schools in the Poltava province. She established an agricultural school in the village of Terny in 1891; created a school for prisoners in the Lubny city jail; and built a public school on her estate at Kruglik, while organizing adult education courses. Her works were honored by the Russian government with the gold medal and ribbon of the Order of Saint Anna. In 1905, Skarzhynska separated from her husband and moved with her younger children, first to Italy, and then to Switzerland. She continued her philanthropic endeavors creating a shelter for displaced Russians living abroad, opened schools for Russian children, founded an organization for emigrants to network, created a tuberculosis hospital and various Russian printing houses to assist her compatriots who were living outside of Russia. At the outbreak of World War I, she returned to Ukraine, but as a former noble, was robbed by revolutionary troops and left penniless. Though granted a small pension by Lenin, it was later revoked and she died in 1932 during the Holodomor.
Mostly forgotten in the Soviet era, Skarzhynska is now recognized for her impact on the cultural and scientific development of Ukraine. In 1989 a street in Lubny was named after her. Her papers are housed at the Poltava Regional Studies Museum. The elementary school she founded on the Kruglik estate operated as a public school until 1943. The agricultural school she organized is now known as the Lubny Forestry College.
## Early life
Kateryna Nikolaevna von Reiser, known as Katya, was born 19 February 1852 N.S. in Lubny, in the Russian Empire, to Ekaterina Petrovna (née Lodygyna/Lodigines-Cyrus) and Nikolai von Reiser. Her father's family, though German in origin, had a long-standing history of service to the Tsars. Vincent-Martin Stepanovich von Reiser, a lawyer in the Swedish army, was taken as a prisoner of war by Peter the Great's army during the Battle of Poltava in 1711. He joined the tsar's service working as an artillery and mining specialist. His son, also Vincent, served as an aide-de-camp to Peter III of Russia and later was promoted to Lieutenant-General [ru] by Catherine the Great. Wilhelm Ulrich Vikentievich von Reiser also served in the Russian army, accompanying Suvorov to Switzerland, as did his son and Katya's father, Nikolai, who participated in the Battle of Warsaw. As her father spent much of his time away from the family, Katya and her brother Misha were raised mostly by her mother and maternal grandmother, Varvara Petrovna Lodygina.
Von Reiser's early education was at home, where she drew on her parents' extensive library. Her parents had many intellectual friends and they were often visited by the geologist Konstantin Feofilaktov [uk], who became an early mentor to von Reiser. She mastered both French and German. The family lived on the Kruglik estate purchased by her father in Lubny, until his death from typhus at the fortress of Novogeorgievsk in 1859. When von Reiser was 10, they moved to the Lodygyn/Lodigine family estates in the Tver province, but within a few years moved to Moscow and then St. Petersburg in search of the best tutors for her home studies. These pedagogues were selected by her uncle, Alexander Apukhtin, who was a trustee of the Warsaw School District, and included Aleksey N. Ostrogorsky [ru] and Pavel M. Shpilevsky [ru]. Though her grandmother wanted Katya to become a maid of honour to the imperial court, at the age of 12, von Reiser decided she would dedicate her life to helping the poor.
## Career
### Philanthropy 1866–1905
When she turned 14, von Reiser set up a school for the former serfs on her grandparents' estate in Nikolskoye in the Vyshnevolotsky Uyezd and worked alongside the teacher she hired. She also established a hospital to treat local patients. In 1869, she became acquainted with Nikolai Georgievich Skarzhynsky, a nobleman, who became a major general in the Russian Army, specializing in providing horses for the cavalry. Skarzhynsky was descended of a noble-Cossack family of Polish-Ukrainian roots, through Ivan Mikhailovich Skarzhinsky, of the Lubny Regiment. His friends, who were part of the Russian intelligentsia, inspired her to continue with her education and she passed the exams for the women's gymnasium in Lubny. She then attended the Bestuzhev Courses in St. Petersburg, visiting cultural landmarks, such as the Hermitage Museum and the Russian Academy of the Arts. In 1874, she married Skarzhynsky at the Church of the Greatmartyr George in Kiev. The couple returned to St. Petersburg, where she continued her studies until 1879, when they were interrupted by her husband's transfer back to Ukraine.
Skarzhynska returned to her family estate at Kruglik, where she and her husband lived in separate houses. They had an open relationship, each able to have other relationships, without hostility between the couple. She and Skarzhynsky would have five children: Kateryna, Volodymyr, Olga, Alexander, and Natalia. Fascinated by the local folk art and handicrafts, she began collecting artifacts, with the help of historian Grigory Kiryakov [uk]. In 1880, Skarzhynska founded the first private museum in Ukraine, collaborating with the noted archaeologist and curator Fyodor Kaminsky [uk] on its organization. Kaminsky worked at the museum from 1881 to 1891 as the head curator. The museum was originally housed in a room in the Skarzhynsky's home, but later expanded to a two-story structure with a lobby and six exhibit halls, adjacent to a park and greenhouse. She corresponded with many scientists from throughout Russia and participated in archaeological seminars, as well as fact-finding trips. In 1883, Skarzhynska traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, visiting the Polytechnic Museum, Rumyantsev Museum and State Historical Museum to study materials and acquire knowledge and equipment for running her own museum. That year she also met with officials from the Moscow Archaeological Society and Kiev University Archaeological Museum.
Skarzhynska made archaeological excavations in the mountains near Lubny and led expeditions to dig in the Posulli grounds [uk], an historic area covering the Sula River basin. She also paid for excavations by Kaminsky and others, and established a program where she would pay a reward for the recovery of iconostasis and other artifacts, details of the history of rural churches, and items of local historic interest. She amassed a large collection of Ukrainian folk art on Easter eggs known as pysanky. She tried to interest the city of Lubny in establishing a museum for her collection, but they felt the expense for such a luxury was unjustified. Skarzhynska went ahead and established the museum herself. Skarzhynska did not charge for entry to the museum, which contained over 35,000 items, including archaeological artifacts, coins, Cossack antiquities, personal archives and autographs of notable Ukrainian families, and 4,000 books, housed in a scientific library. Her activities on behalf of the museum resulted in her election to several scientific societies, including the Moscow Numismatic Society and the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography.
In 1891, Kaminsky left the museum, and died later that same year, after recommending hiring his assistant, Sergiy Klimentiyovich Kulzhynskiy [uk] as replacement curator. Kulzhynskiy had originally arrived at Kruglik in 1889, and upon Kaminsky's recommendation became the tutor for the Skarzhynsky children, Olga, Volodymyr, and Natalia. That year, Skarzhynska established an agricultural school on land owned by her husband in the village of Terny, donating the land to the local Zemstvo. She next established a school in the city jail at Lubny and then a girls' gymnasium. In 1898, she built a school on the estate, which had two classrooms, a laboratory, library, museum, and a recreation hall, as well as quarters for the instructor. She hired an instructor from Moscow, Victor Vasilyevich Simonovsky, to teach at the school and shared the expenses of its operation with the Zemstvo. The free, public, coeducational school offered courses for four grades in music, natural sciences, religion, Russian calligraphy and grammar, Russian literature, and Russian geography and history. She employed several former prisoners as clerk, night watchman, and gardener; in the 1905 revolution one of them became a local leader of the rebellion, and ordered her to be protected. Her husband had been made an honorary superintendent of the Lubny School District, and though he supported her collecting, he was not involved in her other philanthropic endeavors and did not support her publishing efforts or meetings with scientists. Skarzhynska and the tutor, Kulzhynskiy, began an affair. He was the father of her youngest son Igor. Her works in education were recognized by the Russian government with the gold medal and ribbon of the Order of Saint Anna.
Skarzhynska offered evening adult education courses at the museum. She continued collecting pysanky and by 1898, her collection contained more than 2,100 eggs. These were catalogued by Skarzhynska and published in 1899 by Kulzhynskiy in a book Description of the Collection of Pysanky (Ukrainian: Описаніе коллекціи народныхъ писанокъ). The collection attracted many visitors, both local people and visiting scientists. By 1901, there were up to 300 visitors a day. In both 1903 and 1905, Skarzhynska offered the museum to the city of Lubny, but her offers were refused. She began making plans to leave Russia in 1905, recognizing that a revolution would make maintaining it impossible. She operated the museum until she left for Europe, finally giving her collections to the Poltava Zemstvo in 1906, transferring over 37,000 objects in four railway boxcars. That year, the Museum of Natural History of Poltava Provincial Zemstvo made a second edition of her collection of pysanky, which included over 3,000 drawings. In 1943, the museum was looted and burned and only 458 specimens of her eggs survived.
### Life abroad 1905–1914
The financial collapse and chaos preceding and during the 1905 Russian Revolution, led Skarzhynsky to suffer a mental breakdown. Placing her husband in a private asylum in Kiev, Skarzhynska and the tutor, Kulzhynskiy, took the youngest two children, Igor and Natalia, and a foster child, Olga Kiryakova, to Italy for their education. For five years, they moved throughout Europe living in various cities, like Budapest and Vienna, before settling in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her husband died in 1910 and Skarzhynska sold her remaining land holdings, donating a portion to the continuation of the agricultural school. Between 1906 and 1907, many Russians emigrated in the wake of the Revolution out of fear of persecution for their political beliefs or activities. Many of these emigrants realized that they would have to live abroad indefinitely. To assist them, Skarzhynska purchased a four-storey house, known as the Russian Home, and made it available to any Russian immigrants and refugees needing a place to stay, while they sought housing or employment. She opened schools for Russian students, bringing in educational materials from Moscow. In Geneva, she founded the Union of Russian Emigrants, where Russians could meet and help each other. She established canteens in various Swiss cities, established a sanatorium for Russian tuberculosis patients in Davos, and set up Russian printing houses in Brussels, London and Paris. In Russian circles, she became widely known as the central contact person for assistance to Russians living abroad.
Skarzhynska's activities helped many political dissidents, drawing attention from the Swiss gendarmes and the Russian intelligence. Among her acquaintances and correspondents in Switzerland were both Lenin and Stalin. She published a magazine in Russian, Зарубежом (Abroad), which carried articles of interest, like the forced exodus of Georgians from their homeland and information on the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). She pressed the federal government of Switzerland to provide a nursery for the orphans of Bulgarian, Greek, Serbian, and Turkish soldiers who were killed during the Balkan wars and raised the funds to finance it. Though she was apolitical, her journal carried evaluations of various revolutionary movements, including from leaders of both the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, in an attempt to explore the ideological thought of her time. In 1913, she broke off all relations with revolutionaries, believing they had used her dreams of improving education to advance their own agendas.
### Return to Ukraine 1914–1932
With the outbreak of World War I, Skarzhynska and Kulzhynskiy returned to Ukraine. She initially went to Kiev and then moved to Poltava, before finally settling in Lubny in 1916. She set about collecting books to establish children's libraries for Poltava and Lubny, but she had to abandon the project, when she lost her fortune during the chaos of World War I and the Russian Revolution. In 1918, one of the military units occupied the coeducational gymnasium operated by Skarzhynska's daughter Olga, where Kulzhynskiy was teaching, and looted the premises, stealing the personal belongings and identity papers of the students and staff. In July 1923, the employees of the museum which she had founded, then known as the Poltava Proletarian Museum, sent her a one-time donation of ₽1,000 while the employees of the Poltava Central Archive sent her a further ₽500. The head archivist wrote a letter to the Russian Academy of Sciences the following year, asking for the "government of the proletariat" to grant a pension to Skarzhynska, who had worked so long on behalf of common people. The plea was successful as Lenin's Soviet government granted her a personal pension. In the late 1920s, the death of Lenin and the curtailment of his influence, along with her former noble status, resulted in the pension's cancellation. Kulzhynskiy, who was working as an assistant professor of physics and headed the physics and mathematics department at the Institute of Social Education in Lubny (Ukrainian: Інституту соціального виховання в Лубнах), provided for her care in her final years.
## Death and legacy
Skarzhynska died in the summer of 1932, during the Holodomor, though accounts differ as to where she died or where she was buried. There is a plaque located on the house at 10 Gogol Street in Lubny which marks her residence there during the 1920s and 1930s. Her activities had a "significant impact on the development of cultural and scientific life in Ukraine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries". Her oldest daughter and namesake Kateryna Nikolaevna Skarzhynska died of starvation soon after her mother. Many years after her death, in 1989, a street in the city of Lubny was named in her honor. Her papers, including her books, historical documents, and manuscripts are housed at the Poltava Museum of Local History [uk], in Poltava, Ukraine.
The elementary school Skarzhynska founded on the Kruglik estate, operated until 1943 and her daughter, Olga Skarzhynska (later Klimova), followed in her footsteps. Olga founded "one of the first Ukrainian-language high schools in Luben" (Lubny), open to students of any nationality or gender. The agricultural school Skarzhynska founded in Terny became an agricultural and technical college in 1917. Students were trained in blacksmithing, coopering, and carpentry, in addition to studying farming techniques. In 2005, the school was transformed into the Lubny Forestry College, a leading institution in Ukraine for training in forestry production. Her daughter Natalia was a romantic interest of the English composer Arnold Bax and his May Night in the Ukraine was dedicated to her. He also wrote about her and her family in his memoir, "Farewell My Youth", published in 1943.
|
72,303,219 |
Arthur O. Austin
| 1,169,030,062 |
American electrical engineer (1879–1964)
|
[
"1879 births",
"1964 deaths",
"20th-century American inventors",
"American electrical engineers",
"Engineers from California",
"Fellow Members of the IEEE",
"People from Stockton, California",
"Stanford University alumni"
] |
Arthur Oswin Austin (December 28, 1879 – June 7, 1964) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He is most known as the inventor of the Austin transformer, used to supply power for lighting circuits on radio towers. He founded Austin Insulator Company and was one of the country's foremost experts in high-voltage insulators. His research included improvements to radio transmission equipment and the effects of lightning on aircraft.
## Personal life
Austin was born on December 28, 1879, in Stockton, California, to Oswin and Mary Hamman Austin. In 1903, he graduated from Leland Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.
In 1907, Austin married Eleanor Briggs from Rochester, New York. The couple were in an accident in 1919 in which Eleanor was killed and Arthur injured. In July 1921, Arthur married Augusta Briggs, Eleanor's younger sister. They had two daughters.
By the 1920s, Austin was a wealthy man. He purchased the estate of O. C. Barber in Barberton, Ohio. Austin died on June 7, 1964, in Barberton after a long illness. After his death, his heirs were unable to maintain the estate and tore down most of the buildings. Parts of the estate have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and preserved as the Anna–Dean Farm.
## Career
After graduation, Austin worked for General Electric in Schenectady, New York, for less than a year. He returned to California where he worked as an insulator inspector for Pacific Gas and Electric. In 1906, he moved to Lima, New York, to work for the Lima Insulator Company. The company's factory was destroyed by fire in 1908, after which Austin moved to Ohio to work for Akron Hi-Potential Porcelain Company. Akron Porcelain became a subsidiary of the Ohio Brass Company which was purchased by Hubbell in 1978.
Over the course of his career, Austin was issued 225 patents, the first in January 1910. He was considered one of the country's foremost experts in high-voltage insulators and fittings and was a fellow of both the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and Institute of Radio Engineers.
## High-voltage laboratory
In 1926, Austin built an outdoor electrical testing laboratory on the grounds of the Barber estate. In operation until 1933, this was the second of four high-voltage labs established by Ohio Brass. It has been described as, "a juxtaposition of Victorian elegance and high-tech equipment".
Equipment included four iron-core, 60 Hz transformers manufactured by Allis-Chalmers, rated at 2.2 kV input, 600 kV output. By over-exciting the transformers, Austin was able to increase the output rating to 750 kV and produced up to 900 kV in tests. A capacitor and synchronous switch was used to produce a transient overvoltage and a spark across a sphere gap which could be applied to objects being studied. A 1933 newspaper report noted about the lab:
> A weird place, filled with cage-like structural towers, and dominated by three mammoth transformers. From an insulated ball suspended in the air, at Austin’s will 30-foot flashes of lightning leap to the ground with a crack like a rifle shot.
Austin used the lab to experiment with the effects of lightning on aircraft, both airplanes and models of lighter-than-air airships from the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation and his research led to methods of protecting aircraft from these strikes. In 1930 Popular Mechanics described the lab as "the most powerful outdoor high-voltage laboratory in the world." The magazine noted that aircraft lightning strikes had not previously been a major cause of problems because there were few planes and most would stay on the ground during thunderstorms. The increasing popularity of air travel, however, would make lightning a greater hazard.
The space available on the Barber estate was outgrown in 1933, and a new lab was built by Ohio Brass adjacent to their factory, accommodating a 3000 kV generator.
## Austin Insulator Company
In 1933, Austin started the A. O. Austin Insulator Company. After Austin's death in 1964, the company passed through a number of ownership changes, being at various times part of Decca Navigator Company (a division of Decca Records) and Litton Marine. it is once again an independent company known as Austin Insulators Inc. The company's main products are high-voltage insulators and transformers mostly used by the radio transmission industry.
## Austin transformer
Austin is most known for the type of transformer that bears his name. This is an air core double-ring toroidal transformer, used at the bases of radio transmission towers to allow electrical power to be fed to the tower lights without interfering with the radio-frequency feed. Despite having been issued a large number of patents, there are no known patents on this particular invention. An oil-filled version is used on higher-power LF and VLF military transmitters.
|
9,342,898 |
The Beast (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
| 1,148,324,789 | null |
[
"1995 Japanese television episodes",
"Biblical topics in popular culture",
"Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes",
"Science fiction television episodes"
] |
"The Beast", known by the Japanese title is the second episode of the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, created by Gainax. The episode was written by the series director Hideaki Anno and Yōji Enokido and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki. It aired originally on TV Tokyo on October 11, 1995.
The series is set fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm, particularly in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3. The protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy who is recruited by his father Gendo to the organization Nerv to pilot a giant bio-machine mecha named Evangelion into combat with beings called Angels. During the episode, Shinji faces the Angel Sachiel but freezes with fear and fails to defend his Eva-01, which is left damaged and inoperable. Shinji wakes up in a hospital the next day and is taken in by Nerv's Captain Misato Katsuragi, who becomes his new legal guardian.
Production of "The Beast" began in September 1994 and ended in May 1995. Staff used Christian religious symbolism in the episode, with the intent of differentiating the show from other mecha series. The title itself, "The Beast", references the beast from the sea from the Book of Revelation. The episode scored a 5.3% rating of audience share on Japanese TV and received critical and public acclaim focused on its visuals, direction, and sound.
## Plot
Pilot Shinji Ikari prepares to face an enemy named Sachiel, third of a series of beings called Angels, in his mecha Evangelion 01. Shinji manages to move his Eva, making it try a successful first step. But as he attempts to take a second step, the Eva trips, falls over and lands face first on the ground. Eva-01 is left helpless as Sachiel advances on it; Shinji is frozen with fear, and fails to defend himself as the Angel proceeds to pick up the Eva by the face, and then damages its left arm and right eye. The pilot's signal is lost, and the Eva powers down. Suddenly, a confused Shinji wakes up in a hospital room the next day; the dramatic battle having been resolved off-screen. Meanwhile, his father, Gendo Ikari, head of the special agency Nerv, meets with the organization's mysterious benefactors, the Human Instrumentality Committee. The Chairman of the Committee, Keel Lorenz, instructs him not to let the reappearance of the Angels allow a process named the Human Instrumentality Project to fall behind schedule. Shinji sees his fellow pilot Rei Ayanami at the hospital. He also has a brief encounter with his father, but the two of them don't talk. Nerv's captain Misato Katsuragi shows up to check up on Shinji in the aftermath of the battle. When she learns that Shinji is going to live alone, she decides to take him in to live with her instead.
Shinji arrives at Misato's apartment. Later that evening, he lies alone in his new bedroom. As he does so, sounds from the battle are heard and images of nerve cells as viewed through a microscope flash across the screen. In a flashback, Shinji remembers that Eva-01 was rendered inoperative by Sachiel's attack, with Nerv losing control of the Eva. Eva-01 reactivates and begins to act on its own. It launches a vicious attack upon the Angel, succeeding in damaging its face. A second attack by the Eva is blocked by a barrier named A.T. Field, but the Eva erodes it with another A.T. Field. Once the barrier is down, Eva-01 soundly defeats Sachiel by shattering the downed Angel's core. Sachiel wraps itself around the Eva and self destructs; Eva-01 emerges from the explosion with little apparent damage. As Nerv regains control of the Evangelion, Shinji comes to in the cockpit. The damaged helmet sloughs off, and Shinji can glimpse the Eva's face reflected in the windows of a building. As he looks on, the Eva's eye regenerates and focuses straight at him. Shinji begins to scream and the flashback ends. He slowly curls up in bed after recalling the battle; Misato comes to his door and praises him for piloting the Eva and saving the city.
## Production
Production for "The Beast" began in September 1994, simultaneously with "Angel Attack", and ended in May 1995. Yōji Enokido and Hideaki Anno wrote the script, while Kazuya Tsurumaki served as director for the episode. Unlike the previous installment, Gainax produced "The Beast" with a non-linear narrative, interspersed with continuous flashbacks and scene changes; Anno remained dissatisfied with "Angel Attack" during the post recording and described it as "a failure", since it couldn't beat the first episode of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. He was disappointed by the script and the structure, judging it "three minutes too long", so he completely reworked "The Beast" in the middle. Continuing their work from "Angel Attack", Anno and assistant director Masayuki composed the storyboards. For the combat between Eva-01 and Sachiel, Takeshi Honda, chief animator for the episode, and Yoh Yoshinari handled the key animation. Shinya Hasegawa handled the key animation around the scene where Misato is drinking beer in her apartment and suggests Shinji take a bath, while Yoshitō Asari and Seiji Kio served as assistant character designers.
The Japanese title "Unfamiliar Ceilings" was decided on in 1993, when Gainax published a presentation document of Neon Genesis Evangelion titled "Proposal" (企画書, Kikakusho). The beginning of a battle between an Angel named Raziel and berserk Unit 01 was planned for "Angel Attack" in the "Proposal", but during production it was moved to "The Beast" and the Angel changed to Sachiel. For the battle between Eva-01 and Sachiel Gainax created integration between the backdrops and the moving objects on several levels. The fight was initially close to a tokusatsu battle in the style of Ultraman, but, according to Yuichiro Oguro, during production Honda apparently decided to give the scene a more anime style. Oguro noted that Honda draws characters in a more sophisticated style, unlike the animation director of the first episode Shunji Suzuki, who tries to be more faithful to Sadamoto's character design instead. He also noted that people are depicted at the edge of the screen in "The Beast", a style he attributes to Masayuki.
To represent Sachiel's AT Field the main staff used special lighting effects, which appear and disappear for short frames. Yoshinari took care of the battle scene, trying to draw the shoulders and face of the Eva-01 using rulers. The staff also made extensive use of close-ups during the episode. During the battle, before Eva-01 berserk mode, the crew zoomed in on Shinji's face in close-up giving the idea of wide-angle lens, and deforming it with CG. For the image of the Eva-01 destroying the AT Field, Hideaki Anno took inspiration from the image of tearing clothes, considering them as the most elementary form of protection for human beings; the concept was included in "The Beast" with no philosophical implications, and Anno thought about its meaning as the "walls of the heart" during the production of the latter part of the series. He also added the term Human Instrumentality Project, one of the most important concepts for the plot, by improvising and without having clear ideas about it. "I still had no idea about what it was going to 'complement'. ... It's just a verbal bluff", he said.
In the hospital scene, where Shinji stands alone in an empty corridor, contrasts of light and shadow were used, keeping the scene monochromatic, to represent Shinji's inner emptiness. Furthermore, the main staff used real brands in "The Beast" scenes, including a Mitsubishi Fuso truck, a Sony Digital Audio Tape and Yebisu beer. Yuko Miyamura, Katsumi Suzuki, Megumi Hayashibara and Takashi Nagasako voiced unidentified characters in "The Beast", while Nagasako, Suzumi, Motomu Kiyokawa and Koyasu Takehito voiced the men of the Istrumentality Committee. Besides the original soundtrack, composed by Shiro Sagisu, Gainax also used You are the only one by Kotono Mitsuishi, Misato's voice actress, published in her image album Lilia \~from Ys\~ (1992). British singer Claire Littley sang a cover of "Fly Me to the Moon" named "Normal Version" which was later used as the episode's closing theme song, replaced in late home video editions by a "String Version" sung by the same singer.
## Cultural references
The scene where Misato talks about air conditioning in a truck with Ritsuko is a reference to Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Gainax's previous work, while the sequence in which Eva-01 is bleeding from the skull is similar to a scene from the Getter Robo manga, of which Anno is a fan. Moreover, in the scene where Misato dines with Shinji in the apartment the staff used the "Gainax bounce", a fan service that made the breasts of the female characters bounce. The city of Tokyo-3 is mentioned in "The Beast" for the first time. Its name is a tribute to the spaceship Tokyo III from the movie Sayonara Jupiter (1984). The scientific concept of phase space is also mentioned in relation to Sachiel's AT Field during Eva-01's battle. Japanese reviewer Akio Nagatomi described the outcome of Eva-01's first battle as "very typical Hideaki Anno", noting how the director used "the exact same flashback/exposition technique" in Gunbuster, when Noriko Takaya in a bath recounts her meeting with Coach Ōta with some differences. Dennis Redmond interpreted the last image of the flashback of the battle against Sachiel, in which a close-up of Shinji's eye is visible while the boy screams in terror, as a quotation of "one of the first great video tropes", the close shots of Sally's quivering eye in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).
"The Beast" uses religious symbolism, including the Christian cross, for the Misato pendant and the Eva-00 cockpit. Angel Sachiel also explodes in the final scenes of the episode, forming a cross-shaped explosion. An official pamphlet states that the cross has the meaning as a symbol of death and self-sacrifice, although it's not clear which meaning the series follows. The director of "The Beast", Kazuya Tsurumaki, said in an interview that Christian graphic symbols were used for artistic reasons by the main staff, because they were considered "cool" for the Japanese audience, and they were intended to differentiate Neon Genesis Evangelion from other mecha anime. According to the official booklets and materials, the title "The Beast" can refer to the Angel Sachiel, the berserk Eva-01 or Shinji's hidden destructive impulses. The official encyclopedia Evangelion Chronicle states that the title also references the beast from the sea, introduced in the Book of Revelation.
## Reception
"The Beast" aired on 11 October 1995 and scored a 5.3% rating of audience share on Japanese TV. It also screened with "Angel Attack" in front of two hundred people at the second Gainax festival on 22 and 23 July 1995 in Itako, Ibaraki, a few months before the airing. According to Gainax co-founder Yasuhiro Takeda, the work received a positive reception. Official merchandise based on the episode has also been released, including lighters and T-shirts. Critics, including Anime News Network and Newtype magazine, received Neon Genesis Evangelion's first two episodes positively. Film School Rejects's Max Covill praised "The Beast" as did animator Yūichirō Oguro, writing for Newtype magazine, who praised its animation. Multiversity Comics' Matthew Garcia similarly lauded the confidence in the film-making and the animation of "Angel Attack" and "The Beast", eulogizing the "assurance and tenacity" of Anno and Gainax.
Anime News Network's Kyle Pope said, "The purpose of this episode was to establish the character of Misato which can be summed up in two words: alcoholic slut". The Animé Café's Japanese reviewer Akio Nagatomi criticized "The Beast" mood as "emotionally manipulative", since the viewer is supposed to be sorry for Shinji but "subtlety seems to be beyond the grasp of the writers". Jane Nagatomi similarly described the story as "fairly weak", criticizing the idea behind the Umbilical Cable but also praising the humour of the scenes involving Pen-Pen. Jack Cameron of Screen Rant regarded Shinji's battle against Sachiel as one of the best Neon Genesis Evangelion fights. Comic Book Resources' editor Ajay Aravind similarly ranked it third among the best battles in the show. SyFy Wire's Daniel Dockery listed it as one of the "most awesome non-depressing" moments in the series, since "there's just something awe-inspiring and terrifying and uncomfortable about watching an uncontrollable Eva unit". Reuben Baron of Comic Book Resources also eulogized the battle, describing it as an example of the "warped brutality of Hideaki Anno's vision". Academic Susan J. Napier noticed the unconventionality of the fight, since Shinji shows reluctance and feelings "that seems less than conventionally heroic", and praised the fight sequence as it ends up "in a fascinatingly low-tech manner", while Ex magazine's Charles McCarter lauded the animation as "nice and clean", the soundtrack and the pace of the first two episodes.
The first scene with Seele inspired a similar scene from the manga Jujutsu Kaisen 0, in which the lead Yuta Okkotsu is questioned by people seeking to control a Curse following him; writer Gege Akutami declared himself a fan of Anno's works. British rock band Fightstar named the song "Unfamiliar Ceilings", contained in the album One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours, after Neon Genesis Evangelion.
|
7,637,965 |
M-146 (Michigan highway)
| 1,092,518,510 |
Former state highway in St. Clair County, Michigan, United States
|
[
"Former state highways in Michigan",
"Transportation in St. Clair County, Michigan"
] |
M-146 was a state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan that initially served as a bypass for traffic going around Port Huron and as a short cut for traffic between U.S. Highway 25 (US 25) and M-21. Later it connected to the Blue Water Bridge before it was truncated to its final form. Segments of M-146 still exist today as state highways as part of Interstate 94 (I-94) and I-69 and the Lapeer Connector.
## Route description
As the highway last existed, its southern end was at an intersection with M-21 (Lapeer Road) in a residential area of Port Huron west of the Black River. Following what is today named the Lapeer Connector, M-146 ran northward for about 0.9 miles (1.4 km) to an interchange with I-94/US 25 where it terminated.
## History
When the route debuted in 1933 it served as a connector between US 25 in southwest Port Huron and M-21 along the west side of town. In 1954 a new approach was built from M-21 to the foot of the Blue Water Bridge, and M-146 was extended northward and easterly, designated along this new route. By 1958, this newer segment was converted to freeway specifications, and in 1964, with the completion of the I-94/US 25 freeway, M-146 was removed from that portion of the route. By the next year, the M-146 designation only remained along the stretch of freeway which now serves as the exit 274 interchange on I-94, and was removed from 24th Street through town. The alignment of the freeway stretch of M-146 was shifted slightly as well, allowing for a smoother transition between it and westbound I-94. In addition, the diamond interchange with Water Street along the Blue Water Bridge approach was reconstructed and appropriated into the alignment of I-94. In 1966, with the completion of a new freeway alignment for M-21 between Wadhams and downtown Port Huron, the M-146 designation was removed from the state trunkline system, and has not been used since. The connector between Lapeer Street and present-day I-94 is now known as the Lapeer Connector and Connector 69.
## Major intersections
## See also
|
34,255,361 |
Homicide in English law
| 1,144,503,559 |
Overview of homicide in the laws of England and Wales
|
[
"Criminal homicide",
"English criminal law"
] |
English law contains homicide offences – those acts involving the death of another person. For a crime to be considered homicide, it must take place after the victim's legally recognised birth, and before their legal death. There is also the usually uncontroversial requirement that the victim be under the "Queen's peace". The death must be causally linked to the actions of the defendant. Since the abolition of the year and a day rule, there is no maximum time period between any act being committed and the victim's death, so long as the former caused the latter.
There are two general types of homicide, murder and manslaughter. Murder requires an intention to kill or an intention to commit grievous bodily harm. If this intention is present but there are certain types of mitigating factors – loss of control, diminished responsibility, or pursuance of a suicide pact – then this is voluntary manslaughter. There are two types of involuntary manslaughter. Firstly, it may be "constructive" or "unlawful act" manslaughter, where a lesser but inherently criminal and dangerous act has caused the death. Alternatively, manslaughter may be caused by gross negligence, where the defendant has broken a duty of care over the victim, where that breach has led to the death, and is sufficiently gross as to warrant criminalisation.
## General features
Death is an irremediable harm that is dealt with particularly seriously in English law. For example, the crime of murder uniquely carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, regardless of the degree to which the defendant is morally culpable provided they are legally culpable. To use another example: causing injury by dangerous driving carries a maximum sentence of two years, whereas causing death by dangerous driving carries one of fourteen years.
All homicides involve three elements as a defining feature: firstly, that the victim must be a legally defined "human being"; that their death must be caused by the act or omission of one or more human beings; and that this must occur within the "King's peace", which relates to jurisdiction.
### Birth and death
A fetus, even at a late stage of pregnancy, is not protected by the law of homicide due to abortion rights in the United Kingdom. (rather, other offences have been created to prevent the proscribed harm). To qualify, the victim must have an "independent existence". This was confirmed in 1998 in Attorney General's Reference (No. 3 of 1994), even where the foetus is viable and could have survived if born before the offence was committed. The confused rationale appears to match the complicated moral and biological distinction on which it is based; there is huge social significance placed upon birth and thus the law is unlikely to change – Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights has not yet been interpreted to conflict with the English law. Instead, in Vo v France, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that most definitions were within the margin of appreciation set aside to national law. The death of a child after birth from injuries sustained before birth would only constitute murder if the requisite intent – that the child would die after birth – was present. Other forms of homicide would also be applicable.
There is no legislation that defines when death has occurred. However, in Airedale NHS Trust v Bland, cessation of brain stem function, one form of brain death, was considered the definition by the House of Lords. Much medical law – for example, that conferring the right to remove organs for transplant – is predicated on this decision and it is unlikely to be overturned. The Criminal Law Revision Committee has declined to propose a legal definition, for fear of the wide impact that it could have on disparate branches of the law, and the changing basis in medical science. In Bland, a person in a persistent vegetative state was considered to be alive; accordingly, anything less than brain stem cessation is unlikely to be sufficient for death.
### Causation
The normal rules of causation apply, although they can become strained when compared to the various moral issues of importance in cases of homicide. In R v. Pagett, the defendant was found guilty of the manslaughter of a hostage he was using as a human shield, who was killed by police returning fire against the defendant. Whether another's actions are "free, voluntary and informed" is the operating definition, as upheld in R. v Kennedy (No. 2) where the defendant was acquitted. Such an intervening act is known as a "novus actus interveniens". The judgments of several judges in various cases, including Devlin J in R. v Adams appear to confuse causality with motive: where there is a strong moral imperative to clear the defendant, causality is doubted, rather than the mental element (mens rea). Since everyone will die at some point, then even murder is a mere acceleration of death. In Adams the question of life-shortening palliative care was approached, and the need to provide a suitable reason with which to distinguish the doctor from any other murderer.
A homicide can be brought about through act or omission. Baker, notes
> "R v Evans [2009] EWCA Crim 650, [2009] 1 WLR 1999 holds that if a person merely facilitates another to create a dangerous situation for himself, that person may be held criminally liable for a homicide offence if that self-endangerment results in death. Evans's sister made an intervening choice to self-inject and it was her independent self-injection that was the direct cause of the dangerous situation. Evans's pre-existing duty of care was grounded on her act of supply and her awareness of the fact that her act of supply had facilitated the creation of a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Evans did not create the dangerous situation, but rather she merely made an indirect causative contribution to the dangerous situation. Furthermore, if she had merely supplied the drugs and had left the scene, and therefore had remained ignorant of the fact that her act of supply had resulted in a dangerous overdose situation, her act of mere supply per se would not have been sufficient for a conviction of gross negligence manslaughter."
Elsewhere Baker argues:
> "In R. v. Evans, Gemma Evans, a 24-year-old woman, purchased heroin and supplied her 16-year-old sister, Carly. Carly self-injected in a house in which she resided with Evans (the defendant) and her mother. After injecting the drug she developed and complained of symptoms consistent with an overdose. Evans appreciated that Carly’s condition was very serious and indicative of an overdose and, together with her mother, Andrea Townsend, who was also convicted of manslaughter, believed that she was responsible for Carly’s care. “The appellant described in a later interview with the police that she had seen that Carly’s lips had turned blue, that she was ‘in a mess’, and was incapable of responding to attempts to speak to her. The appellant and her mother decided not to seek medical assistance because they feared that they themselves and possibly Carly would get into trouble.” Instead, they put Carly in bed with the hope that she would make a miraculous recovery. The defendant and her mother checked on Carly occasionally and slept in the same room, but tragically, Carly died during the night. The medical evidence demonstrated that the cause of death was heroin poisoning. Evans and Townsend were charged with manslaughter.... Lord Judge C.J. held that Gemma Evans assisted Carly Evans to create a dangerous situation and was aware of the danger she assisted Carly to bring about for herself and that these two factors gave rise to a duty of reasonable rescue. The mother was convicted on the basis of her parental duty, which required her to take reasonable steps to summon assistance. Since Evans was an older half-sister, she was not covered by the parental duty doctrine. Instead, a new law had to be minted to catch her conduct. The new law being that mere assistance gives rise to duty of care. Since Evans assisted her sister’s overdose by supplying the drug she had a duty to summon help once she realised her sister was in peril. This category of duty is a newly minted one. Arguably, the courts cannot create further situations (or declare further relationships such as roommate/roommate) where a duty will be imposed the breach of which will amount to manslaughter. Hence, the categories should be regarded as closed. Cases not covered by the aforementioned duties should not give rise to a duty of care. It is arguable that since the conduct in R. v. Evans (assisting another to create a dangerous situation for herself) is not covered by the R. v. Miller doctrine (perpetrating an act that directly creates a dangerous situation), nor by the category of duty as set down in R. v. Stone, the Court of Appeal should have held that Evans had no duty of care. There is nothing wrong with applying R. v. Miller to a manslaughter case, but the court extended the R. v. Miller doctrine to cover mere facilitation, and then applied that new doctrine to manslaughter. The category of duty created in R. v. Evans seems to contravene the ruling in R. v. Rimmington, which holds that judges cannot extend common law offences to cover new forms of conduct. It is one thing to apply an existing doctrine to new facts, and another to apply it to conceptually different conduct such as assistance rather than perpetration."
Dennis J. Baker, Rethinking the Mental Element in Involuntary Manslaughter (2021) Journal of Criminal Law ,
There are no specific rules that apply to acts or omissions in homicide: an omission is criminal if the defendant fails to prevent the avoidable death of the victim where he or she has the duty to do so and that the defendant had the capacity to do so. As noted below, unlawful omissions have been excluded from unlawful act manslaughter. Like in other areas, a duty of care may now be owed, following R. v Evans, even where the dangerous situation which results in the victim's death was not caused by the defendant. Medical professionals may be relieved of their responsibility to sustain a patient's life, where terminating life support is dubiously legally classified as an omission.
### Other features
The year and a day rule was abolished in England and Wales by the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996. As a matter of practice, the defendant may already have been prosecuted for the initial offence (for example, another offence against the person). Accordingly, the Attorney General's consent is required if more than three years has elapsed, or where the defendant has already been prosecuted in the circumstances alleged to have resulted in the victim's death.
A person who is not "under the Queen's Peace" cannot be the victim of a homicide. This includes the killing of alien enemies during a time of war. Murder or manslaughter committed by a British citizen is triable in an English (or Northern Irish) court, regardless of where the crime took place. The same is true for homicides committed on British ships or aircraft, regardless of the nationality of the offender. There are other statutory provisions which extend jurisdiction regarding types of offender on foreign ships, and, in the case of murder, terrorist activities. Although most crimes committed overseas are generally dealt with in the home jurisdiction, the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 formally brings the offences of a British citizen under the jurisdiction of the British courts, and therefore the "Queen's Peace" rule is usefully retained.
### Defences
The killing of another person must be unlawful. Some defences are therefore open to the defendant, among them self-defence. Carrying a lawful activity, for example, a fully qualified doctor carrying out an abortion in the required circumstances, could not result in an unlawful homicide even if the child was born alive. Consent might be relevant to some forms of homicide, but not to murder.
## Murder
Murder has never been statutorily defined, despite being recognised as either the most serious crime, or certainly among them. The actus reus (prohibited act) of murder, unlawfully causing the death of another person, fits the general provisions for homicide. The mens rea (mental element) of murder was long held to be "malice aforethought", which took on a meaning only of the required mental state for murder, since malice aforethought required neither malice (compassionate killing is still murder) nor aforethought (no premeditation is required). It is this mental component that marks murder out from manslaughter.
The mental element is taken to be either an intention to kill, or an intention to inflict grievous bodily harm. Grievous bodily harm is "really serious" harm. The extension of the intention to inflict grievous bodily harm has been criticised, although it has remained in place despite several legal challenges, and, in the case of R v Hyam the minority judgments of Lord Diplock and Lord Kilbrandon which would have removed it. The judges there made reference to the abolition under the Homicide Act 1957 of constructive malice (causing death whilst committing a felony or resisting arrest), believing the rule for grievous bodily harm to be a hang-over of the old system. It can now be concluded that only legislative intervention could abolish this form of murder, and, although the Law Commission proposed a change in the law, none has yet been enacted. The current law was judged to be compatible with Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to Northern Ireland. It can also be defended with reference to the actor taking responsibility for his actions, even unforeseen consequences, or merely as an appropriate response in itself. Intent is subjective: that the defendant must surely have intended their actions because a reasonable person would, knowing what the defendant knew, have foreseen death as a result, is insufficient. This seemed to have been allowed as a form of intent in DPP v Smith, but that case has been considered overturned following legislative changes, and more recent cases leave no room for doubt on this issue.
Core intent would be where the defendant acted either to cause at least grievous bodily harm to the victim, or where the defendant acted to achieve some other aim, where the death caused was a necessary means to that other end. In general, the jury is directed that "intent" is to be taken as meaning what it does in ordinary life, and that the judge should not attempt to define it in other terms. However, following R v Woollin, it is also possible for a jury to convict if they "feel sure that death or serious injury was a virtual certainty (barring some unforeseen intervention) as a result of the defendant's actions and that the defendant appreciated that such was the case" – known as "oblique intent". Despite appearing to present an alternative to the primary, core sense of intent, courts have generally seen Woollin as allowing the jury to infer core intent from the evidence of virtual certainty. The jury are entitled to convict in these circumstances, and they should not be directed that they, finding virtual certainty, must convict. However, if it is difficult to imagine circumstances where a jury would find virtual certainty but not convict, which would support this complicating factor. The exception for medical care is mentioned as a general principle for homicide.
There is a mandatory life sentence for murder in England and Wales. David Ormerod describes the evidence for abolishing it – instead giving judges discretion to impose a life sentence, or some lesser term – as "overwhelming" since murders and murderers differ greatly, as in any other crime. However, no government has yet, or seems likely to, institute such reform. The former role of the Home Secretary in deciding the minimum time spent in jail was successfully challenged with reference to the ECHR in R v Home Secretary, ex p Anderson, but the mandatory life sentence itself has been judged compatible. The sentencing and release of life prisoners was reformed by the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
## Manslaughter
Previously, all deaths which were not murder were classified as "manslaughter" – however, the law now requires that the death fit a particular type of manslaughter. Modern manslaughter does, however, retain a very wide scope.
There are three main forms of manslaughter in English law: voluntary manslaughter, cases which would otherwise amount to murder but for some legally recognised mitigating factor; and involuntary manslaughter which includes cases of gross negligence manslaughter and unlawful act manslaughter.
### Voluntary manslaughter
There are three types of voluntary manslaughter: that resulting from loss of self-control; that resulting from statutorily defined diminished responsibility; and killing in perseverance of a suicide pact.
Loss of control is defined in sections 54 and 55 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Section 56 abolishes the common law defence of provocation, which also dealt only with murder. There is no mandatory life sentence for voluntary manslaughter. The defence operates whether the defendant is a principal or an accomplice. Broadly speaking, the defendant must have actually lost self-control; the trigger for this must be a qualifying trigger; and it must be that a "normal" person might also have lost control in the circumstances. The loss of control need not be sudden, but cannot be in a "considered desired for revenge". The loss of control is a subjective test which asks whether this defendant actually lost control, and if so, whether that loss of control led to their killing. The qualifying trigger may take one of two forms, or be a combination of both: that the killing was attributable to the defendant's fear of serious violence from the victim against the defendant or another identified person; or where the defendant's loss of self-control was attributable to a thing or things done or said (or both) which constituted circumstances of an extremely grave character, and caused the defendant to have a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged. The meaning of the terms "extremely grave character" and "justifiable sense of being seriously wronged" used in the second form is currently unclear. Section 51(1)(c) requires that "a person of [the defendant]'s sex and age, with a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint and in the circumstances of [the defendant], might have reacted in the same or in a similar way to [the defendant]." These issues are complicated and directing a jury on issues of loss of control is likely to be difficult.
Diminished responsibility occurs where the defendant has an "abnormality of mental functioning" attributable to a recognised medical condition. It must "substantially impair" the defendant's ability to either: under the nature of his or her conduct; form a rational judgment; or exercise self-control. It must provide an explanation for the defendant's actions. There is some sort of causal link required between the defendant's condition and his acts or omissions, a change on the previous law. A.P. Simester and G. R. Sullivan have argued that it is more clearly worded and more schematic provision than the earlier law, although they are worried if the wording of the section is taken to imprison those better suited to psychiatric help outside of prison.
A killing in pursuance of a suicide pact, where the defendant had the "settled intention" of also committing suicide – although not necessarily by the same act – is a partial defence to murder. He or she must intend to fulfil that pact at the time of the killing and may renege on it later. Where the jury is not satisfied that the killing can be attributed to the defendant, a charge of encouraging or assisting suicide may be substituted to a charge of murder or voluntary manslaughter.
### Involuntary manslaughter
Involuntary manslaughter involves the causing of the death of another person without intent to kill or intention to commit grievous bodily harm. Some cases are in form similar to murder cases; whilst, in others, had death not been caused, the defendant would only be liable for an insignificant crime.
#### "Constructive" or "unlawful act" manslaughter
"Constructive" or "unlawful act" manslaughter results from the continuation of aspects of the felony murder rule, which was abolished in English law. Under that rule, the perpetrator of any (civil or criminal) illegality were held responsible for manslaughter for any death they caused. It had a huge scope. Constructive manslaughter has been narrowed, but remains broad. It requires a criminal act that causes the death; that that act is inherently criminal; and that that act is dangerous. Civil liability is insufficient for constructive manslaughter to result. It is deemed "constructive" in the sense that a greater crime – manslaughter – is constructed from a lesser.
The typical case will be of a non-fatal offence against the person that causes death. There must be a criminal act, rather than an omission, following R v Lowe. Although acts and omissions may be equally culpable, the extension to omissions – where there is no need to show intent – would have made illegal a huge class of persons. Cases such as Lowe, which there was parental neglect, can be dealt with by gross negligence manslaughter. Judges have often failed to identify a single unlawful act on which the crime of manslaughter is to be constructed, rather assuming the presence of one in particular circumstances. There is a required mental element (mens rea) for this crime, but it has in some cases not actually been formally established. This mens rea might be very low, such as recklessness. The requirement of an unlawful act also means that no lawful defence must be available to the defendant in respect of the lesser crime.
The act must be inherently criminal – the case in point is that of R v Andrews, where the defendant had killed whilst driving dangerously. It was only the fact that the driving was dangerous that made it a crime, not the driving itself. Accordingly, Andrews removed driving and regulatory offences from the scope of constructive manslaughter. There are separate rules for causing death by dangerous driving and some regulatory offences. Some commentators took Andrews as excluding strict liability and negligence cases out of constructive manslaughter, although contrary to the exact wording in the judgment there; however, a separate case also called R v Andrews convicted the defendant of constructive manslaughter based on a strict liability offence and this alternative proposition cannot be supported. Gross negligence manslaughter exists as a complementary form, and, if a driver was sufficiently negligent, as well he might, he would be liable for it. This provides an additional reason to exclude such cases from constructive manslaughter.
The requirement that the action be dangerous was confirmed in R v Newbury, which applied the previous reasoning on R v Church: "the unlawful act must be such that all sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise it as an act which must subject the other person to at least the risk of some harm resulting therefrom albeit not serious harm". This is an (almost completely) objective test, it disregards whether the defendant in particular foresaw the danger, and requires only that it would create a risk of some harm. The ordinary person knows only what the defendant did, at least in relation to the susceptibility of the victim. R v Ball did, however, create a class of dangerous – that of the act itself – where the jury knew more than the defendant; in this case, whilst the defendant knew he was loading a blank cartridge, the jury was entitled to ascribe knowledge that it might be a live cartridge to the reasonable man. This has been criticised, and may not have been necessary. The act need not be directed at the victim: the killing of an innocent bystander by mistake could be manslaughter.
This act must be causally linked to the death. In the case of an offence against the person, it is usually obvious; however, rather more controversial cases have founded constructive manslaughter on drug possession crimes involving the subsequent injection of the drug into another.
#### Gross negligence manslaughter
Gross negligence manslaughter requires a much greater level of wrongdoing that the civil tort of negligence.
It requires that the defendant owed a duty of care to the victim (it is for the judge to decide on which facts such a duty would be created). These rules are typically those of tort. For example, in R v Pittwood, the defendant was put under a duty to act on account of being contractually obliged to close the gates at a railway crossing. Similar duties include those of a doctor of his patients, an electrician over a householder he has done work for, parents over their children, and, developed more recently, a police officer over persons he arrests. Included, however, are those of a criminal enterprise, which would not attract tortious liability in the civil law. Where the defendant is liable through an omission and not an act, then a legal duty to act – rather than a duty of care – is needed. Andrew Ashworth has criticised the nature of the duty of care requirement as "decision-making at its retrospective worst".
Once a duty of care (or duty to act, as required) has been shown, the jury should then be asked, following Lord Mackay in R v Adamoko: "having regard to the risk of death involved, [was] the conduct of the defendant... so bad in all the circumstances as to amount to a criminal act or omission". This has two elements: firstly, the breach of the duty of care must relate to the risk of death (confirmed in R v Singh), and not to any lesser harm. In other words, the breach of the duty of care must cause the victim's death. Secondly the breach of the duty of care must be so egregious as to amount to a crime. For example, on the fact of Adomako itself, the defendant, an anaesthetist, failed to spot a problem with the victim's breathing tube for 11 minutes, something expert evidence suggested a competent anaesthetist would spot within thirty seconds or so. The defendant was convicted. This definition has been opposed as being circular, as defining the crime of manslaughter as gross negligence as being negligence to a criminal degree. The jury may, under this characterisation, be ruling upon a point of law and not a point of fact.
|
728,019 |
Triaugmented triangular prism
| 1,171,978,644 |
Convex polyhedron with 14 triangle faces
|
[
"Deltahedra",
"Johnson solids"
] |
The triaugmented triangular prism, in geometry, is a convex polyhedron with 14 equilateral triangles as its faces. It can be constructed from a triangular prism by attaching equilateral square pyramids to each of its three square faces. The same shape is also called the tetrakis triangular prism, tricapped trigonal prism, tetracaidecadeltahedron, or tetrakaidecadeltahedron; these last names mean a polyhedron with 14 triangular faces. It is an example of a deltahedron and of a Johnson solid.
The edges and vertices of the triaugmented triangular prism form a maximal planar graph with 9 vertices and 21 edges, called the Fritsch graph. It was used by Rudolf and Gerda Fritsch to show that Alfred Kempe's attempted proof of the four color theorem was incorrect. The Fritsch graph is one of only six graphs in which every neighborhood is a 4- or 5-vertex cycle.
The dual polyhedron of the triaugmented triangular prism is an associahedron, a polyhedron with four quadrilateral faces and six pentagons whose vertices represent the 14 triangulations of a regular hexagon. In the same way, the nine vertices of the triaugmented triangular prism represent the nine diagonals of a hexagon, with two vertices connected by an edge when the corresponding two diagonals do not cross. Other applications of the triaugmented triangular prism appear in chemistry as the basis for the tricapped trigonal prismatic molecular geometry, and in mathematical optimization as a solution to the Thomson problem and Tammes problem.
## Construction
The triaugmented triangular prism can be constructed by attaching equilateral square pyramids to each of the three square faces of a triangular prism, a process called augmentation. These pyramids cover each square, replacing it with four equilateral triangles, so that the resulting polyhedron has 14 equilateral triangles as its faces. A polyhedron with only equilateral triangles as faces is called a deltahedron. There are only eight different convex deltahedra, one of which is the triaugmented triangular prism. More generally, the convex polyhedra in which all faces are regular polygons are called the Johnson solids, and every convex deltahedron is a Johnson solid. The triaugmented triangular prism is numbered among the Johnson solids as $J_{51}$.
One possible system of Cartesian coordinates for the vertices of a triaugmented triangular prism, giving it edge length 2, is:
## Properties
A triaugmented triangular prism with edge length $a$ has surface area $\frac{7\sqrt{3}}{2}a^2\approx 6.062a^2,$ the area of 14 equilateral triangles. Its volume, $\frac{2\sqrt{2}+\sqrt{3}}{4}a^3\approx 1.140a^3,$ can be derived by slicing it into a central prism and three square pyramids, and adding their volumes.
It has the same three-dimensional symmetry group as the triangular prism, the dihedral group $D_{3\mathrm{h}}$ of order twelve. Its dihedral angles can be calculated by adding the angles of the component pyramids and prism. The prism itself has square-triangle dihedral angles $\pi/2$ and square-square angles $\pi/3$. The triangle-triangle angles on the pyramid are the same as in the regular octahedron, and the square-triangle angles are half that. Therefore, for the triaugmented triangular prism, the dihedral angles incident to the degree-four vertices, on the edges of the prism triangles, and on the square-to-square prism edges are, respectively, $\begin{align}
\arccos\left(-\frac13\right)&\approx 109.5^\circ,\\
\frac{\pi}{2}+\frac12\arccos\left(-\frac13\right)&\approx 144.7^\circ,\\
\frac{\pi}{3}+\arccos\left(-\frac13\right)&\approx 169.5^\circ.\\
\end{align}$
## Fritsch graph
The graph of the triaugmented triangular prism has 9 vertices and 21 edges. It was used by as a small counterexample to Alfred Kempe's false proof of the four color theorem using Kempe chains, and its dual map was used as their book's cover illustration. Therefore, this graph has subsequently been named the Fritsch graph. An even smaller counterexample, called the Soifer graph, is obtained by removing one edge from the Fritsch graph (the bottom edge in the illustration here).
The Fritsch graph is one of only six connected graphs in which the neighborhood of every vertex is a cycle of length four or five. More generally, when every vertex in a graph has a cycle of length at least four as its neighborhood, the triangles of the graph automatically link up to form a topological surface called a Whitney triangulation. These six graphs come from the six Whitney triangulations that, when their triangles are equilateral, have positive angular defect at every vertex. This makes them a combinatorial analogue of the positively curved smooth surfaces. They come from six of the eight deltahedra—excluding the two that have a vertex with a triangular neighborhood. As well as the Fritsch graph, the other five are the graphs of the regular octahedron, regular icosahedron, pentagonal bipyramid, snub disphenoid, and gyroelongated square bipyramid.
## Dual associahedron
The dual polyhedron of the triaugmented triangular prism has a face for each vertex of the triaugmented triangular prism, and a vertex for each face. It is an enneahedron (that is, a nine-sided polyhedron) that can be realized with three non-adjacent square faces, and six more faces that are congruent irregular pentagons. It is also known as an order-5 associahedron, a polyhedron whose vertices represent the 14 triangulations of a regular hexagon. A less-symmetric form of this dual polyhedron, obtained by slicing a truncated octahedron into four congruent quarters by two planes that perpendicularly bisect two parallel families of its edges, is a space-filling polyhedron.
More generally, when a polytope is the dual of an associahedron, its boundary (a simplicial complex of triangles, tetrahedra, or higher-dimensional simplices) is called a "cluster complex". In the case of the triaugmented triangular prism, it is a cluster complex of type $A_3$, associated with the $A_3$ Dynkin diagram , the $A_3$ root system, and the $A_3$ cluster algebra. The connection with the associahedron provides a correspondence between the nine vertices of the triaugmented triangular prism and the nine diagonals of a hexagon. The edges of the triaugmented triangular prism correspond to pairs of diagonals that do not cross, and the triangular faces of the triaugmented triangular prism correspond to the triangulations of the hexagon (consisting of three non-crossing diagonals). The triangulations of other regular polygons correspond to polytopes in the same way, with dimension equal to the number of sides of the polygon minus three.
## Applications
In the geometry of chemical compounds, it is common to visualize an atom cluster surrounding a central atom as a polyhedron—the convex hull of the surrounding atoms' locations. The tricapped trigonal prismatic molecular geometry describes clusters for which this polyhedron is a triaugmented triangular prism, although not necessarily one with equilateral triangle faces. For example, the lanthanides from lanthanum to dysprosium dissolve in water to form cations surrounded by nine water molecules arranged as a triaugmented triangular prism.
In the Thomson problem, concerning the minimum-energy configuration of $n$ charged particles on a sphere, and for the Tammes problem of constructing a spherical code maximizing the smallest distance among the points, the minimum solution known for $n=9$ places the points at the vertices of a triaugmented triangular prism with non-equilateral faces, inscribed in a sphere. This configuration is proven optimal for the Tammes problem, but a rigorous solution to this instance of the Thomson problem is not known.
## See also
|
619,748 |
HMS Majestic (1895)
| 1,160,810,455 |
Pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy
|
[
"1895 ships",
"Majestic-class battleships",
"Maritime incidents in 1915",
"Ships built in Portsmouth",
"Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I",
"Shipwrecks of Turkey",
"Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom",
"World War I battleships of the United Kingdom",
"World War I shipwrecks in the Dardanelles"
] |
HMS Majestic was a Majestic-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1895, she was the largest pre-dreadnought launched at the time. She served with the Channel Fleet until 1904, following which she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. In 1907, she was part of the Home Fleet, firstly assigned to the Nore Division and then with the Devonport Division. From 1912, she was part of the 7th Battle Squadron.
When World War I broke out Majestic, together with the rest of the squadron, was attached to the Channel Fleet during the early stages of the war before being detached for escort duties with Canadian troop convoys. She then had spells as a guard ship at the Nore and the Humber. In early 1915, she was dispatched to the Mediterranean for service in the Dardanelles Campaign. She participated in bombardments of Turkish forts and supported the Allied landings at Gallipoli. On 27 May 1915, she was torpedoed by a U-boat at Cape Helles, sinking with the loss of 49 men.
## Design
Majestic was 421 feet (128 m) long overall and had a beam of 75 ft (23 m) and a draft of 27 ft (8.2 m). She displaced up to 16,060 long tons (16,320 t) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines powered by eight coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers. By 1907–1908, she was re-boilered with oil-fired models. Her engines provided a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) at 10,000 indicated horsepower (7,500 kW). The Majestics were considered good seaboats with an easy roll and good steamers, although they suffered from high fuel consumption. She had a crew of 672 officers and ratings.
The ship was armed with a main battery of four BL 12-inch (305 mm) Mk VIII guns in twin-gun turrets, one forward and one aft. The turrets were placed on pear-shaped barbettes; six of her sisters had the same arrangement, but her sisters Caesar and Illustrious and all future British battleship classes had circular barbettes. Majestic also carried a secondary battery of twelve QF 6-inch (152 mm) /40 guns. They were mounted in casemates in two gun decks amidships. She also carried sixteen QF 12-pounder guns and twelve QF 2-pounder guns for defence against torpedo boats. She was also equipped with five 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes, four of which were submerged in the ship's hull, with the last in a deck-mounted launcher.
Majestic and the other ships of her class had 9 inches (229 mm) of Harvey steel in their belt armour, which allowed equal protection with less cost in weight compared to previous types of armour. This allowed Majestic and her sisters to have a deeper and lighter belt than previous battleships without any loss in protection. The barbettes for the main battery were protected with 14 in (356 mm) of armour, and the conning tower had the same thickness of steel on the sides. The ship's armoured deck was 2.5 to 4.5 in (64 to 114 mm) thick.
## Operational history
Majestic was laid down at the Portsmouth Dockyard in February 1894. She was launched on 31 January 1895, after which fitting-out work commenced. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy less than a year later, in December 1895, serving with the Channel Squadron at the Portsmouth division. She was present at the Fleet Review at Spithead for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 26 June 1897, and was later flagship to Vice-Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet. Captain George Egerton was appointed in command on 28 June 1899, and paid off in April 1901, when Captain Edward Eden Bradford was appointed in command as she became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Arthur Wilson, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron. She took part in the Coronation Review held at Spithead for King Edward VII on 16 August 1902, and in September that year was head of a squadron visiting Nauplia and Souda Bay at Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. She underwent a refit at Portsmouth from February to July 1904, and then became a unit of the Atlantic Fleet when a reorganisation resulted in the Channel Fleet becoming the Atlantic Fleet in January 1905. On 1 October 1906, she paid off into reserve at Portsmouth.
Majestic recommissioned at Portsmouth on 26 February 1907 to become flagship of the Nore Division in the new Home Fleet, stationed at the Nore. She began a refit later that year in which she received radio and new fire control systems. When the flag was transferred to another ship in January 1908, she became a private ship in the Nore Division. In June 1908, Majestic transferred to the Devonport Division of the Home Fleet, stationed at Devonport. Her refit was completed in 1909, and in March 1909 she transferred to the 3rd Division at Devonport, then in August 1910 to the 4th Division at Devonport, where she underwent another refit in 1911. In May 1912, Majestic became part of the 7th Battle Squadron in the 3rd Fleet at Devonport. On 14 July 1912 she collided with her sister ship Victorious during manoeuvres, suffering no serious damage.
### World War I
Upon the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Majestic and the rest of the 7th Battle Squadron were assigned to the Channel Fleet. Majestic underwent a refit in August and September 1914, then covered the passage of the British Expeditionary Force to France in September 1914. She was detached from the 7th Battle Squadron from 3 October 1914 to 14 October 1914 to escort the first Canadian troop convoy. At the end of October 1914, Majestic was transferred to the Nore to serve as guard ship there. On 3 November 1914, she transferred to the Humber to serve as guard ship there. In December 1914 she became a unit of the Dover Patrol, and combined with battleship Revenge to bombard German coastal artillery from off of Nieuwpoort, Belgium, on 15 December 1914. In January 1915, she was based at Portland.
#### Dardanelles campaign
In February 1915, Majestic was assigned to participate in the upcoming Dardanelles Campaign to open the Turkish Straits, and she departed early that month under the command of Captain H. F. G. Talbot to join the Mediterranean Fleet. Upon arriving at Malta, she was fitted with what was termed "mine-catching" gear so that she could serve as a "mine-bumper". She joined the Dardanelles force on 24 February 1915, and on 26 February 1915 departed Tenedos to bombard the Ottoman Turkish inner forts at the Dardanelles that morning. On 26 February 1915, Majestic and battleships Albion and Triumph became the first Allied heavy ships to enter the Turkish Straits during the campaign, firing on the inner forts from 0914 until 1740 hours. Majestic took a hit below the waterline, but was able to continue operations and patrolled the area again on 27 February 1915. She supported the early landings, shelling the forts from 1125 until 1645 hours on 1 March 1915 and again while patrolling on 3 March 1915. She arrived at Mudros on 8 March 1915.
On 9 March 1915, Majestic circumnavigated the entrance to the Dardanelles and bombarded Ottoman Turkish positions from 1007 until 1215 hours. She returned to Tenedos on 10 March 1915, patrolled off the Dardanelles again on 15 March 1915, and again returned to Tenedos on 16 March 1915. Majestic participated in the final attempt to force the straits by naval power alone on 18 March 1915. She opened fire on Fort 9 at 1420 hours and also engaged Turkish field guns hidden in woods. She shelled Fort 9 until she ceased fire at 18:35; the fort meanwhile fired on the mortally damaged battleship Ocean. Majestic was hit four times, twice in her lower tops and twice on her forecastle, and returned to Tenedos at 2200 hours with one dead and some wounded crew members. Majestic returned to patrol duties on 22 March 1915. She shelled Turkish positions on 28 March 1915 from 0950 to 1015 and from 1250 to 1340 hours and again opened fire on 14 April at 1458 hours. On 18 April, she fired on the abandoned British submarine E15 aground near Fort Dardanos and in danger of being captured; two picket boats, one from Majestic and one from Triumph, destroyed E15 with torpedoes, although the boat from Majestic was itself sunk by Turkish shore batteries while retiring. Majestic returned to Tenedos on 21 April 1915.
On 25 April 1915, Majestic was back in action, signalling London that Allied landings had begun at Gallipoli and supporting them with coastal bombardments until 1915 hours. She brought 99 wounded troops aboard at 2110 hours and recovered all her boats before anchoring off Gallipoli for the night. On 26 April 1915, she was back in action early, opening fire at 0617 hours. On 27 April 1915 she exchanged fire with Turkish guns, with several Turkish shells achieving very near misses before both sides ceased firing at 1130 hours. On 29 April 1915 she again was anchored off Gallipoli. Majestic relieved Triumph as flagship of Admiral Nicholson, commanding the squadrons supporting the troops ashore off Cape Helles, on 25 May 1915.
### Loss
On 27 May 1915, while stationed off W Beach at Cape Helles, Majestic became the third battleship to be torpedoed off the Gallipoli peninsula in two weeks. Around 0645 hours, Commander Otto Hersing of the German submarine U-21 fired a single torpedo through the defensive screen of destroyers and anti-torpedo nets, striking Majestic and causing a huge explosion. The ship began to list to port and in nine minutes had capsized in 54 feet (16 m) of water, killing 49 men. Her masts hit the mud of the sea bottom, and her upturned hull remained visible for many months until it was finally submerged when her foremast collapsed during a storm.
## Dive site
In October 2021, Turkey opened the Gallipoli Historic Underwater Park, an underwater museum off Çanakkale accessible to scuba divers. The park includes a number of wrecks from vessels sunk during the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns, including Majestic and the battleship Triumph. The wreck of Majestic now lies at a depth of 24 m (79 ft), and it is largely intact.
|
1,649,364 |
The Bourgeois Blues
| 1,145,582,964 |
Song performed by Lead Belly
|
[
"1937 songs",
"Blues songs",
"Lead Belly songs",
"Songs against racism and xenophobia",
"Songs written by Lead Belly"
] |
"The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues song by American folk and blues musician Lead Belly. It was written in June 1937 in response to the discrimination and segregation that he faced during a visit to Washington, D.C. to record for Alan Lomax. It rails against racism, the Jim Crow laws, and the conditions of contemporary African Americans in the southern United States. The song was recorded in December 1938 for the Library of Congress and re-recorded in 1939 for commercial release.
"The Bourgeois Blues" is regarded as one of Lead Belly's best original works, but it also drew controversy. There is doubt over the song's authorship, with some scholars contending that Lead Belly was unlikely to have written a work in a genre new to him without a collaborator. Questions have been raised over his role in the American Communist Party and whether he and the song were used to further the party's political goals.
## Background and creation
Most music historians date the writing of "The Bourgeois Blues" to Lead Belly's June 1937 trip to Washington, D.C., when he was invited by the folklorist Alan Lomax to record for the Library of Congress's folk music collection. On the first night Lead Belly and his wife Martha spent in the city, they encountered racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws similar to those found in their native Louisiana: most hotels refused to rent rooms to African Americans and the few that would were either full or refused to serve him because he was with a white man (Lomax). Lomax, in some versions of the story described as an unnamed "white friend", offered to let the couple stay for the night in his apartment near the Supreme Court Building. The next morning, Lead Belly awoke to Lomax arguing with his landlord about the presence of a black man, with the landlord threatening to call the police.
While in Washington, Lead Belly encountered several other incidents of segregation that are believed to have contributed to the impetus of the song. For instance, when Lead Belly, Lomax, and their wives wanted to go out to dinner together, they discovered that it was impossible for the mixed race group to find a restaurant that would serve them. Lead Belly was told that if he returned later without Lomax, he would be served.
In response to one of these incidents, a friend of Lead Belly's, variously identified as either Lomax or Mary Elizabeth Barnicle joked that Washington was a "bourgeois town." Though Lead Belly did not know what the word "bourgeois" meant, he was fascinated by the sound of it, and after its meaning was explained to him he decided to incorporate it into a song about the trip. The song came together quickly; one account claims that it only took a few hours for Lead Belly to write it. Lomax liked it because it was partly based on what happened in his apartment.
## Lyrics, themes and music
"The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues-style protest song that criticizes the culture of Washington, DC. It protests against both the city's Jim Crow laws and the racism of its white population. Its structure includes several verses and a refrain that declares that the speaker is going to "spread the news all around" about the racial issues plaguing the city. The song, particularly in the refrain, conflates race and economics by referring to Caucasians as "bourgeois".
The first two verses speak of the segregation that Lead Belly encountered in Washington DC: the first recounts the fact that during the trip, Lead Belly was "turned down" wherever he tried to get served due to his race, while the second recounts the argument between Lomax and his landlord over Lead Belly staying in his apartment. The third verse sarcastically cites "the home of the brave, the land of the Free", juxtaposed with the mistreatment he received at the hands of white people in Washington, DC. The fourth verse speaks of the racism of the white population of the city, leading to the song's end, which suggests that African Americans boycott buying homes in the district.
The song's tone implies that the speaker feels powerless against the discrimination and racism that he encounters; despite this, by "spreading the news" of his poor treatment in a song, the speaker uses what power he has to tell both southern African Americans and northern whites that the status quo is deeply flawed and that something needs to change.
"The Bourgeois Blues" follows a traditional twelve-bar blues format. It is written in time but annotated to note that the song rhythmically should swing at medium shuffle. The song was written in B. It uses twelve measures with verses one to four repeating, followed by the final two verses and a coda.
## Recordings and adaptions
Lead Belly first recorded "The Bourgeois Blues" in December 1938 in New York City, for donation to the Library of Congress. He re-recorded the song in April 1939 for Musicraft Records, for release the same year as a 78 rpm record. The version that was commercially released features Lead Belly singing and playing the twelve-string guitar without any other accompaniment.
The song has been covered and reinterpreted by a variety of artists including Pete Seeger, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, and Hans Theessink. Seeger recorded and released both live and studio versions of the song on several of his albums. In Australia, the song was reworked as "Canberra Blues" by The Bitter Lemons, an R&B band. The lyrics speak of the problems faced by young Australians in the Australian Capital Territory in the 1960s. Theessink adapted the song to his style of European blues for the album Journey On in 1997.
The Fall covered the song on their 2001 album Are You Are Missing Winner. In 2006 Billy Bragg reworked the song as "Bush War Blues", a topical protest song about the Iraq War. In one verse, he claims that the Iraq War was not for democracy but instead was to "make the world safe for Halliburton". In another, he takes on the Christian right, asking where the moderates are. Finally, Bragg chides the United States government for not dealing with poverty at home before going to war.
## Legacy
"The Bourgeois Blues" is one of Lead Belly's most famous songs and is remembered as his most "heartfelt protest song". There is disagreement among music scholars as to its importance. Robert Springer claims that the song is "peripheral" to the wider study of the blues, while Lawson points to it as a watershed in the way African Americans see themselves in the fabric of the United States. There is debate over the relationship between the song and radical politics. After its release, it became popular with left-wing political groups. Lead Belly was invited to perform at Camp Unity, the Communist Party USA's summer retreat, and the FBI subsequently opened a file on him in the 1940s. This led to the accusations that the Communists were taking advantage of him and using him as a platform. The party claims, to the contrary, that they were some of the few people who respected him and gave him a chance to perform.
Jeff Todd Titon and several other writers have suggested that Lead Belly had significant help with its authorship and claim it is not a genuine protest song. This theory stems from the idea that Lead Belly did not have a history of protest music before he was discovered by Lomax. Since the music that Lomax recorded was sold to northerners sympathetic to Civil Rights, it has been suggested that Lomax helped him write a song attractive to a white audience. Lead Belly admitted that the term "bourgeois" was unfamiliar to him, and it seems out of place compared to the vocabulary of his past work.
|
24,086,468 |
Market Forces (The Spectacular Spider-Man)
| 1,126,884,054 | null |
[
"2008 American television episodes",
"The Spectacular Spider-Man episodes"
] |
"Market Forces" is the fourth episode of the animated television series The Spectacular Spider-Man, which is based on the comic book character Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In the episode, Spider-Man is hunted by Shocker, whose suit allows him to fire intense sonic blasts.
"Market Forces" was written by Andrew Robinson and directed by Dan Fausett. It incorporated computer-generated imagery in the sonic blasts used by Shocker, which mixed in with the other, traditional animation style used in the show. Shocker's secret identity was completely changed from that of his original comic book appearance, but his design stayed close to the original costume used.
The episode originally broadcast on March 22, 2008, on the Kids WB! block for the CW Network. It received generally positive reviews from television critics. IGN praised it for its imagery and storytelling, while iF Magazine said "Even the Shocker was more interesting on this show, so I continue to have high hopes for future episodes, characters, and villains."
## Plot summary
Montana and The Enforcers steal a powered suit from an armored Tri-Corp truck after gassing the guards. Montana hands it to Hammerhead, who insists that Montana dons the suit to complete the "Big Man"'s contract to kill Spider-Man. The next day, Peter Parker gets across town as Spider-Man, unaware that Montana and his men are watching him. He then hangs out at Harry's apartment, discussing the upcoming Fall Formal, until he receives an e-mail from J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle informing Peter that Jonah wants to purchase his photos of Spider-Man. He leaves and promises to help Harry with homework later. At the Bugle building, Jonah mistakenly kicks Peter out before realizing who he is. Jonah pays him and makes him exit the building.
While heading back, Peter hears an alarm coming from a landfill and investigates. It ends up being a trap and he is attacked with sonic blasts by Montana, now wearing the suit and calling himself "Shocker". When he is close to moving in for the kill, one of the thugs used as bait, Alex O'Hirn, accidentally gives Spider-Man time to recover. Shocker then knocks him into a machine and, satisfied, leaves via helicopter. Spider-Man, however, survives but his paycheck was torn to shreds. The next day after school, where Harry is outraged with him over missing out on studying, Peter goes to replace his check at the Bugle where assistant editor Joe Robertson suggests getting a better camera. After Jonah takes a photo of Spider-Man covered in garbage as Peter's submission, Peter goes after O'Hirn and his partner Flint Marko as Spider-Man. He defeats them and tells them to inform Shocker he wants a rematch.
Peter makes it home in time for his curfew and spots Aunt May struggling with the bills, but must use the money he has to buy a new camera. When he goes to school the next day, he finds Harry is furious with him once more over forgetting their studying arrangements once more. At night, Hammerhead tells Shocker the Big Man is displeased with his failure. Meanwhile, Peter unsuccessfully tries to ask out Jonah's assistant, Betty Brant. After a tremor rattles the entire city, Peter, as Spider-Man, discovers it is the Shocker, leaving him a trail that leads to a condemned theater. During their fight, Spider-Man unsuccessfully tries to find out who hired him before finally bringing the building down and defeating the Shocker.
Meanwhile, Harry returns home where his father Norman tells him to take responsibility and study by himself. Norman then goes to meet with Hammerhead, revealing that he helped them steal the suit from Tri-Corp as they are his company's competitor. He talks over speaker phone with the Big Man, who wants him to create new supervillains to occupy Spider-Man in return for ample funding. At his house, Peter sends his photos to the Bugle and tries to give Aunt May the money, but she insists that he uses 10% of every paycheck to save for a new camera.
## Production
"Market Forces" was written by Andrew Robinson and directed by Dan Fausett. Though the show is done in the style of traditional animation, computer-generated imagery was used to produce the green sonic beams made by Shocker. In the original comic book publications, Shocker's secret identity was a man named Herman Schultz. For The Spectacular Spider-Man, they changed his identity to that of Enforcer Montana, who had, in the comics, been a prominent character already. Using Montana allowed the writers to not have to come up with a completely new origin for Shocker. His suit was generally the same as that done in the comic books, but had extra features including goggles and vibrators. His voice was provided by veteran voice performer Jeff Bennett.
## Cultural references
Greg Weisman, one of the producers for the series, came up with the idea to do a title scheme for each arc. For "Market Forces" and its arc, the scheme is economics. A line in the episode asks how deep a location is, using the Mariana Trench and the Ninth Circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno as comparisons.
## Reception
"Market Forces" originally broadcast on March 22, 2008, on the Kids WB! block for the CW Network, at 10:00 a.m. It received generally positive reviews from television critics. Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode an 8.5 out of 10 and wrote "Sometimes change can be fun, and this episode was a great example of that." Goldman enjoyed the design of Shocker which he felt stayed true to his original design and was "intrigued" by changing his secret identity. He praised the usage of CGI, the portrayal of Peter's life, and the "cool" ending.
Sean Elliot, the senior editor of iF Magazine, gave the episode an "A−" and said about the change of Shocker's secret identity, "saves the writers from having to come up with a completely different origin for a character that pretty much is a second tier villain anyways. " Elliot wrote that having Norman making a deal to produce new supervillains was "an extremely useful" convention that allows the introduction and creation of enemies for Spider-Man to fight.
## See also
- List of The Spectacular Spider-Man episodes
|
1,458,309 |
1932 Atlantic hurricane season
| 1,152,854,930 |
Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean
|
[
"1932 Atlantic hurricane season",
"Articles which contain graphical timelines"
] |
The 1932 Atlantic hurricane season featured several powerful storms, including the Cuba hurricane, which remains the deadliest tropical cyclone in the history of Cuba and among the most intense to strike the island nation. It was a relatively active season, with fifteen known storms, six hurricanes, and four major hurricanes. However, tropical cyclones that did not approach populated areas or shipping lanes, especially if they were relatively weak and of short duration, may have remained undetected. Because technologies such as satellite monitoring were not available until the 1960s, historical data on tropical cyclones from this period are often not reliable. The Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project discovered four new tropical cyclones, all of which were tropical storms, that occurred during the year. Two storms attained Category 5 intensity, the first known occurrence in which multiple Category 5 hurricanes formed in the same year. The season's first cyclone developed on May 5, while the last remaining system transitioned into an extratropical cyclone by November 13.
The strongest storm of the season was the Cuba hurricane, which heavily impacted portions of northern Colombia, the Netherlands Antilles, the Greater Antilles, and the Bahamas in November, leaving at least 3,144 fatalities and \$44 million (1932 USD) in damage, the vast majority of which occurred in Cuba. In early September, the Bahamas hurricane devastated portions of the island nation as a Category 5 hurricane, resulting in at least 16 deaths. Another destructive storm was the Freeport hurricane, which caused 40 deaths and about \$7.5 million in damage in Texas in August. The San Ciprian hurricane also wreaked havoc on the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic in late September, with damage totaling approximately \$35.8 million and the death toll reaching 272. Collectively, the tropical cyclones during the 1932 season caused around \$87.57 million in damage and at least 3,473 fatalities.
## Season summary
Tropical cyclogenesis began in early May, with a system developing over the central Caribbean Sea on May 5. The storm made landfall in the Dominican Republic, before becoming extratropical offshore the East Coast of the United States on May 10. However, the season went dormant for about three months until the next system, the Freeport hurricane, formed over the southern Gulf of Mexico on August 12. Two other storms originated in the month of August – the Florida–Alabama and Bahamas hurricanes. September was the most active month, with a total of six tropical cyclones developing, five tropical storms and one hurricane, the San Ciprián hurricane. Four more tropical cyclone formed in October, including three tropical storms and a hurricane, the Cuba hurricane, though much of its duration was in November. The season's final tropical cyclone, a hurricane, developed well east of the Windward Islands on November 3 and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone southwest of the Azores on November 10.
A total of fifteen tropical cyclones developed, the most since 1916. Six of the systems strengthened into a hurricane, while four reached major hurricane status, which is Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Two cyclones intensified into Category 5 hurricanes, making the season the first of only seven featuring multiple Category 5 storms, the other years being 1933, 1961, 2005, 2007, 2017, and 2019. The Bahamas hurricane became the first of four tropical cyclones to have struck the Bahamas at Category 5 intensity, later followed by the Cuba–Brownsville hurricane in 1933, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Additionally, the Cuba hurricane remains among the most intense tropical systems to strike that country. Most of the storms also impacted land, with several causing devastating effects. Overall, the tropical cyclones of the season collectively resulted in at least \$87.57 million in damage and approximately 3,473 deaths.
The season's total activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 170, the highest value since 1926, and well above the 1931–1943 average of 91.2. ACE is a metric used to express the energy used by a tropical cyclone during its lifetime. Therefore, a storm with a longer duration will have high values of ACE. It is only calculated at six-hour increments in which specific tropical and subtropical systems are either at or above sustained wind speeds of 39 mph (63 km/h), which is the threshold for tropical storm intensity. Thus, tropical depressions are not included here.
## Systems
### Tropical Storm One
A tropical depression formed on May 5 in the south-central Caribbean Sea. Moving slowly northeast, the system became a tropical storm the next day and gradually strengthened before making landfall just west of Baní in the Dominican Republic's modern-day Peravia Province with winds of 45 mph (72 km/h) on May 7. Within six hours, the storm emerged into the western Atlantic on May 8 and continued to strengthen. The system reached its peak intensity of 65 mph (105 km/h) on May 9 while centered south-southwest of Bermuda. The diffuse system later transitioned into an extratropical cyclone the same day, later dissipating on May 11 well to the northwest of Bermuda after merging with a frontal boundary. Heavy rainfall was reported in far eastern Cuba and the Dominican Republic, with the latter recording over 6 in (150 mm) of precipitation in 12 hours.
### Hurricane Two
The Freeport Hurricane of 1932
A tropical disturbance developed into a tropical storm in the southern Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatán Peninsula early on August 12. Moving north-northwestward, the cyclone strengthened into a hurricane by early the next day. Thereafter, the storm rapidly intensified, becoming a Category 4 hurricane early on August 13. Strengthening slightly further, the compact hurricane attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds estimated at 150 mph (240 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 935 mbar (27.6 inHg) shortly before making landfall near Freeport, Texas, at 04:00 UTC on August 13. The cyclone then rapidly weakened, falling below major hurricane intensity just eight hours later and to tropical storm intensity about fourteen hours after landfall. On August 15, the system deteriorated to a tropical depression, before dissipating over the Texas Panhandle around 18:00 UTC.
Official warning on the storm began just four hours prior to the storm's landfall in Texas, forcing many people evacuating inland to abandon their cars in high winds and heavy rains. In Galveston, power to electrical and phone service was cut off, temporarily reducing communications. The passage between Galveston Island and mainland Texas was flooded, briefly isolating Galveston. Heavy rains occurred, and a foot of rain fell as the storm moved north towards the coast. A total of 40 people were killed by the hurricane. The greatest single death toll for any town was seven in West Columbia, where sustained winds over 100 mph (160 km/h) flattened several homes. Two neighborhoods that had been constructed for oil industry workers there were nearly destroyed by the high tides and storm surge. Angleton, Freeport, and Galveston suffered extensive wind damage, while the inland towns of Brazoria, West Columbia, Damon and Needville, all in the path of the eye, were also devastated. Damages associated with the hurricane were estimated to total to \$7.5 million.
### Hurricane Three
A tropical disturbance was first identified southeast of Puerto Rico on August 24. Moving northwestward, the disturbance developed into a tropical depression two days later north of Hispaniola. Slowly moving towards the west-northwest, it intensified into a tropical storm late on August 27. The storm made landfall on the north end of Key Largo, Florida, with sustained winds of 65 mph (105 km/h) around 04:00 UTC on August 30, before striking the mainland south of Homestead. After crossing the Florida peninsula and entering the Gulf of Mexico, the system reached its peak intensity as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (137 km/h), before subsequently making its final landfall just east Mississippi–Alabama state line on September 1 at the same intensity. Over land, the hurricane weakened, and after becoming an extratropical cyclone over northwestern Mississippi on September 2, the storm merged with another extratropical system over Quebec on September 4.
At the storm's landfall in southern Florida, heavy rains and strong winds caused extensive damage to crops, particularly to avocado and citrus. A fire in Hollywood that firefighters were unable to extinguish due to winds damaging equipment led to approximately \$20,000 in damage. As the strengthening hurricane moved northwestwards through the Gulf of Mexico, it generated strong surf that caused severe damage to coastal areas across western Florida, before making its second landfall, where it produced hurricane-force winds across a wide swath of the coast. In and around Pensacola, the hurricane caused about \$100,000 in damage, including impacts to buildings, homes, waterfront properties, power lines, and cotton crops. Agricultural lands in coastal regions of Mississippi and Alabama were damaged by strong winds and heavy rain. Storm surge also submerged portions of Bayou La Batre and Mobile in Alabama, with about \$105,000 in damage in the latter. The hurricane caused one death and about \$229,000 in total damages across its path.
### Hurricane Four
`The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1932 `
A tropical depression was first detected north of the Virgin Islands late on August 30. Moving towards the west-northwest, the depression steadily intensified, reaching tropical storm strength and later hurricane strength on September 2, as it passed near the Turks and Caicos Islands. After reaching hurricane intensity, the hurricane began to rapidly intensify, becoming a major hurricane on September 4. The intensifying hurricane moved through the Bahamas and reached its peak intensity as a Category 5 hurricane, the first of the season, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h) at 18:00 UTC on September 5. Shortly thereafter, the hurricane struck the Abaco Islands. Curving north-northeastward, the cyclone slowly weakened, falling to Category 4 intensity by late on September 6. The storm continued weakening as it accelerated northeastward, bypassing New England before becoming extratropical about 150 mi (240 km) south of Cape Sable Island on September 9. The extratropical cyclone brushed Newfoundland and traversed across Iceland and later dissipated just offshore Russia's Kola Peninsula on September 17.
The hurricane caused extensive devastation across much of the Bahamas, where it killed 16 people and injured an additional 300 people. Strong winds destroyed numerous homes and hampered water and food supplies. The large hurricane also generated a strong storm surge which inundated the Abaco Islands. The Abaco Islands were the worst impacted area, where the severity of damage indicated that sustained wind speeds exceeded 150 mph (240 km/h). At Hope Town, the hurricane demolished 83 homes, severely damaged 63 others, and damaged 40 others to a lesser degree. Strong winds also destroyed all churches and public buildings in the community. Similarly, all buildings – including churches, government buildings, and schools – and homes were demolished on Green Turtle Cay. Only six homes remained standing in Coopers Town and just four others withstood the hurricane at Great Guana Cay. The hurricane also completely destroyed the Bluff Point community. Most homes in Marsh Harbour were severely damaged, while the cyclone destroyed 12 other homes and all schools in the town. Effects in the United States were much less severe, due to the distance of the hurricane. However, strong gales still swept through much of New England. In Atlantic Canada, the storm caused 14 or 15 deaths, all related to maritime incidents. On land, wind gusts reached 81 mph (130 km/h) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Some homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed, while approximately 10 percent of apple crops in Annapolis Valley were lost.
### Tropical Storm Five
On September 4, an area of low pressure developed from a stationary front approximately 740 mi (1,190 km) south-southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland. At the time, a warm front and cold front were connected to the system, but further observations revealed minimal temperature deviations. The following day, the disturbance appeared to have acquired subtropical characteristics, but became tropical after observations showed that winds associated with the storm were near the center. The system peaked as a strong tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 km/h) on September 5. The storm later weakened and was absorbed by a frontal boundary at 18:00 UTC on September 7 roughly 165 mi (265 km) southeast of Cape Race.
### Tropical Storm Six
A tropical storm formed in the Bay of Campeche on September 9. Moving slowly northwards, the storm reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 km/h) while located south of the Mississippi River Delta. Beginning on September 14, the storm began to accelerate as it turned towards the northeast. Around 04:00 UTC on September 15, the cyclone made landfall in St. Marks, Florida, at peak intensity. The storm crossed the state quickly and briefly entered Georgia before emerging into the Atlantic less than eight hours after landfall. However, the system soon transitioned into an extratropical cyclone a short distance east of Sapelo Island around 12:00 UTC on September 15. The extratropical cyclone quickly accelerated parallel to the United States East Coast, before being absorbed by another extratropical system over Quebec.
The storm's quick passage over the Florida peninsula left relatively minor damage. A train crossed over a washout on its railroad, causing it to derail. In Apalachicola, there was considerable damage to crops, and torrential rains caused \$2,000 in damages. Electric power in the city was also disabled, and some buildings suffered structural damage, totaling to \$8,000 in damages. Tallahassee observed 5.61 in (142 mm) of precipitation. In Georgia, Thomasville and Valdosta experienced "high winds and considerable rainfall," according to the Tallahassee Democrat. A few weather stations along the East Coast of the United States recorded sustained tropical storm force winds, including Hatteras, North Carolina; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and New York City, New York. There were scattered reports of wind damage across Atlantic Canada, including the toppling of telephone and electrical wires, and the deroofing of buildings and homes. In Nova Scotia, Annapolis Valley lost approximately 75% of its apple crops. The storm also left maritime impacts, damaging or destroying docks, wharves, and boats. At least one death occurred in Canada, while eight other people went missing along with their vessel.
### Tropical Storm Seven
On September 16, a tropical storm with winds of 40 mph (64 km/h) developed out of a frontal boundary about 860 mi (1,385 km) southwest of the northwesternmost islands of the Azores. Moving slowly towards the northwest, gales were reported by ships in the region as the cyclone slowly intensified. On September 20, the storm began to move towards the southwest. The system reached peak intensity on September 21, with winds of 65 mph (105 km/h), before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone about halfway between Bermuda and Nova Scotia as it recurved northwards on September 23. The extratropical cyclone later made landfall on Nova Scotia the following day, before dissipating over southern Greenland on September 26. Sustained winds in Atlantic Canada peaked at 29 mph (47 km/h) on Resolution Island in Nunavut.
### Tropical Storm Eight
Another tropical depression was first identified on September 18 in the Bay of Campeche. Moving quickly towards the north-northeast, the depression intensified to a tropical storm and reached peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (105 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 998 mbar (29.5 inHg) early the next day. The storm subsequently made landfall near Morgan City, Louisiana, at 19:00 UTC on September 19. Weakening over land, the tropical storm degenerated to a tropical depression at 12:00 UTC on September 20, before becoming extratropical the next day just west of Louisville, Kentucky, and later dissipating after it was absorbed by an approaching frontal system over southern Ohio late on September 21.
Since the storm made landfall in a sparsely populated region of Louisiana, only minimal damage was reported. Prior to the storm's landfall, however, hedge selling of cotton were offset in late dealings caused by fears of the storm's potential impact. Tropical storm-force winds damaged some fishing shacks in southwestern Louisiana. A tornado was reported in West Baton Rouge Parish, blowing down sugarcane along a path 8 mi (13 km) long. Another tornado in Gulfport, Mississippi, damaged half a dozen homes and injured three people. Farther inland, heavy rains associated with the system were reported, peaking at 3.01 in (76 mm) in Vicksburg.
### Hurricane Nine
San Ciprián hurricane of 1932
On September 25, ships first noted a tropical storm east of the Leeward Islands. The storm quickly intensified as it moved towards the west due to a nearby high pressure system, reaching hurricane strength at 12:00 UTC that day. As it approached Puerto Rico, the hurricane continued to rapidly intensify, before reaching its peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 mph (233 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 943 mbar (27.8 inHg) on September 27, before making landfall near Ceiba, Puerto Rico, at 03:00 UTC. The hurricane slightly weakened over the island, and after crossing the Mona Passage, made a second landfall in southern areas of the Dominican Republic as a Category 2 hurricane. Its passage of Hispaniola significantly weakened the hurricane, downgrading it to tropical strength on September 28. After brushing Jamaica to the south, the storm remained weak as it traversed the Caribbean. The cyclone made landfall in British Honduras between Hopkins and Placencia with winds of 45 mph (72 km/h) late on October 1. Thereafter, the storm quickly weakened and dissipated over southeastern Mexico on October 3.
Possible due to the storm's small size, sustained wind speeds reached only 60 mph (97 km/h) on Saint Croix and Saint Thomas, while Saint Barthélemy experienced sustained winds between 60 and 85 mph (97 and 137 km/h). On Saint Thomas, winds downed wires and trees and damaged homes. The storm also capsized ships in Saint Thomas harbor and at Tortola. Property damage on Saint Thomas alone exceeded \$200,000, while 15 fatalities were reported. Most of the damage caused by the San Ciprián hurricane occurred in Puerto Rico, particularly along the island's northern half, with the cyclone drawing comparisons to the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. The powerful winds destroyed numerous buildings. More than 40,000 homes were demolished, rendering 25,000 families homeless. Winds also knocked out communications systems, hampering relief efforts. Heavy losses were incurred to crops, particularly to citrus and coffee. The hurricane caused 257 deaths and injured 4,820 other people, while inflicting about \$35.6 million in damage. Economic losses related to the hurricane amounted to about 20 percent of Puerto Rico's gross income. Significant damage to agriculture occurred in the Dominican Republic. Impacts in Jamaica and British Honduras were minimal.
### Tropical Storm Ten
A tropical storm was first identified in the eastern Atlantic on September 28 as a small, compact system, with winds of 40 mph (64 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 1,004 mbar (29.6 inHg). Initially situated roughly 800 mi (1,285 km) south-southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, the storm moved southeastward and intensified slightly to peak with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 km/h). Thereafter, the storm interacted with an extratropical cyclone which pulled it to the northwest. The extratropical cyclone later absorbed the system at 06:00 UTC on September 30 near its location of development.
### Tropical Storm Eleven
A tropical depression formed on October 7 from a broad low-pressure area in the central Caribbean offshore Honduras. Moving slowly to the west-northwest, the depression steadily intensified, reaching tropical storm strength at 12:00 UTC the same day. The storm continued to intensify as it moved towards the Yucatán Peninsula, reaching peak intensity late on October 9, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 70 mph (110 km/h). The storm made landfall near Playa del Carmen at 04:00 UTC the next day, while still at peak intensity. Over land, the storm weakened to a tropical depression on October 11 as it curved northwestward. On the next day, the depression later emerged into the Gulf of Mexico, where it began to restrengthen. By 12:00 UTC on October 13, the elongated system regained tropical storm strength, before reaching a secondary peak intensity of 60 mph (97 km/h). However, baroclinic forces caused the storm to become extratropical prior to striking Louisiana on October 15. The extratropical remnants of the storm continued to trek to the northeast, before it merged with another extratropical system over West Virginia.
In Mexico, the storm produced tropical storm-force winds, with a sustained wind speed of 52 mph (84 km/h) in the city of Veracruz. As the system approached the Gulf Coast of the United States, storm warnings were issued from Brownsville, Texas, to Apalachicola, Florida. Its extratropical remnants brought gale–force winds to portions of Louisiana. Offshore, a cargo ship carrying asphalt sunk due to strong waves, causing \$30,000 in losses. In addition heavy rains caused rivers to exceed flood stage, particularly east of where the storm made landfall, isolating homes and interrupting traffic. The Black Warrior River exceeded its flood stage by 14 ft (4.3 m), and the Catawba River also overflowed. A peak rainfall of 8.5 in (220 mm) was reported during a 17‐hour period in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The storm also brought widespread rainfall across the South Atlantic states through orographic lift, peaking at 9.3 in (240 mm) in Rock House, North Carolina. Washout from the rains also caused a train wreck.
### Tropical Storm Twelve
A tropical depression was first identified on October 8 about 575 mi (925 km) northeast of the Virgin Islands and quickly intensified to a tropical storm. Moving towards the west and then northwest, the storm intensified to its peak intensity of 60 mph (97 km/h) at 1800 UTC on October 10 as it neared Bermuda. The island reported sustained wind speeds up to 40 mph (64 km/h). The storm weakened as it progressed farther northward and curved toward the northeast, before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone by 0600 UTC on October 12 approximately 205 mi (330 km) southeast of Sable Island. The system was absorbed by a strong cold frontal boundary later that day.
### Tropical Storm Thirteen
On October 17, a stationary front positioned over the eastern Atlantic began to dissipate, and a large area of low pressure began to form along the front boundary. The disturbance intensified to tropical storm strength at 0000 UTC on October 18 about 1,220 mi (1,965 km) northwest of the westernmost islands of Cabo Verde, after losing baroclinity. As it moved towards the north, the system slowly intensified to an estimated peak intensity of 70 mph (110 km/h) at 0600 UTC on October 19, as suggested by a nearby ship that also reported 70 mph (110 km/h) winds. At the same time, the storm also turned eastward, and subsequently began to weaken. The system degenerated to tropical depression strength on October 21, and dissipated shortly thereafter around 415 mi (670 km) southwest of the central Azores.
### Hurricane Fourteen
The Great Cuba Hurricane of 1932
Early on October 30, a tropical depression formed about 300 mi (485 km) northeast of Barbados. Moving nearly due west, the depression brushed Martinique on October 31, shortly before entering the Caribbean and intensifying into a tropical storm. Upon reaching the central Caribbean, the cyclone turned west-southwestward and strengthened into a hurricane early on November 2. It reached Category 2 status about 24 hours later near the Guajira Peninsula. The storm strengthened into a major hurricane on November 4, and continued to intensify, peaking as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (282 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure at or below 915 mb (27.02 inHg) on November 5 as it moved west-northwestward over the western Caribbean. The storm later turned northward and then northeastward by early November 9, around the time that it weakened to a Category 4 hurricane. Overall, the system maintained Category 5 status for 78 hours, which is the longest amount of time on record for a storm to remain at that intensity. The cyclone struck Camagüey Province in Cuba on November 9 as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) and a barometric pressure of 918 mb (27.11 inHg). The storm emerged into the Atlantic over the Bahamas and continued to slowly weaken. On November 13, the cyclone fell to tropical storm intensity and became extratropical several hours later about 530 mi (855 km) southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland. The extratropical low turned eastward and dissipated near the Azores late on the following day.
In the ABC islands, the hurricane destroyed Curaçao's harbor fortifications, while the pier on Bonaire was demolished. Several coastal towns and seaports in Colombia in the vicinities of Barranquilla and Santa Marta suffered extensive damage. Some inland farms were ruined by flooding and strong winds. On Providencia Island, major damage to agriculture occurred and 36 homes were demolished. High winds in Jamaica downed more than 2 million trees and caused up to a 50 percent loss of banana crops in some areas. Damage in Jamaica totaled approximately \$4 million. In the Cayman Islands, the storm was considered the worst to strike the archipelago until Hurricane Ivan in 2004. On Grand Cayman, 60 homes were either destroyed or suffered major damage, rendering about 250 people homeless, while only 6 dwellings remained standing on Little Cayman. The hurricane demolished schools on both Cayman Brac and Grand Cayman. The death toll in the Cayman Islands reached at least 109. In Cuba, a massive storm surge measuring 21 ft (6.5 m) in height inundated Santa Cruz del Sur in Camagüey Province. Out of the approximately 4,800 residents, an estimated 2,870 people in Santa Cruz del Sur were killed and less than 10 percent of the town's population was uninjured. Few homes in the town remained standing following the storm. Many other communities in the province suffered devastation. A Pan Am radio operator in Nuevitas reported that nearly all frame-buildings in the area were destroyed and most public buildings sustained serious damage. The hurricane also caused impacts in Oriente and Santa Clara provinces. Overall, damage in Cuba totaled approximately \$40 million, while at least 3,033 fatalities occurred, making the storm the deadliest in the nation's history. The cyclone also caused significant impacts in the central Bahamas, especially on Cat Island, Exuma, Long Island, and Rum Cay, damaging or destroying many crops, structures, and vessels. Two deaths occurred in the Bahamas. Wind gusts on Bermuda reached 87 mph (140 km/h) at St. George's, downing some electrical and telephone wires and tree branches.
### Hurricane Fifteen
A tropical storm was first identified in the Central Atlantic about 785 mi (1,265 km) east of Barbados at 0600 UTC on November 3, with ships reporting moderate gales in its vicinity. Throughout its existence, the storm moved in an erratic path, generally to the north. Steadily intensifying, the storm became a hurricane at 1800 UTC on November 6, as it began to move towards the northeast towards the Azores. The hurricane continued to intensify, attaining Category 2 intensity early on November 8 and at the same time reaching its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (160 km/h). After reaching peak intensity, a weakening trend began as the storm accelerated east-northeastward. Early on November 10, the system transitioned into an extratropical cyclone about 210 mi (340 km) southwest of the northwesternmost islands of the Azores, while still maintaining hurricane-force winds. The extratropical system continued to quickly move east-northeastward until it coalesced with another extratropical cyclone on November 11.
## Season effects
The following table lists all of the storms that formed in the 1932 Atlantic hurricane season. It includes their duration, names, areas affected, damages, and death totals. Deaths in parentheses are indirect (an example of an indirect death would be a traffic accident), but were still related to that storm. Damage and deaths include totals from the storm's precursor and its remnants, and all of the damage figures are in 1932 USD.
## See also
- Atlantic hurricane season
|
8,846,674 |
Sycamore Historic District
| 1,087,687,341 |
Historic district in Sycamore, Illinois, USA
|
[
"Buildings and structures in Sycamore Historic District",
"Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois",
"National Register of Historic Places in DeKalb County, Illinois",
"Sycamore, Illinois"
] |
The Sycamore Historic District is a meandering area encompassing 99 acres (400,000 m<sup>2</sup>) of the land in and around the downtown of the DeKalb County, Illinois county seat, Sycamore. The area includes historic buildings and a number of historical and Victorian homes. Some significant structures are among those located within the Historic District including the DeKalb County Courthouse and the Sycamore Public Library. The district has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since May 2, 1978.
There are over 200 properties within the irregular boundaries of the Sycamore Historic District. Of those, 187 are considered contributing properties to the historic district, and 22 are non-contributing. Of all of the district's homes and buildings 75% fit within the historic district concept. Some of the major structures include several prominent Queen Anne style mansions, the Sycamore library, the DeKalb County Courthouse, and dozens of mid- to late 19th-century houses.
## History
The 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, which created the National Register of Historic Places, empowered individual states to create review boards to function with the state historical preservation officer. Illinois did not create its historic preservation program until the early 1970s, under the direction of the Illinois Department of Conservation. The Department of Conservation dispatched field surveyors to all Illinois counties to find anything that might qualify for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
The field surveyor who traveled to Sycamore in 1973 found a large number of late 19th and 20th century examples of architecture that he recommended the establishment of a historic district. The mayor of Sycamore then appointed a citizens' committee to assist the state with the work involved in listing the district.
The residential areas within the district achieved their maturity before 1900, though Sycamore has grown considerably from the 3,330 or so that lived there from about 1900 until the 1970s most of the historic district remains intact as it was organized in 1978.
## Boundaries
The Historic District is bounded by Somonauk Street on the west and Main Street on the east, a stretch of two blocks. On the north end the district is bounded by Page Street and extends to the end of South Main street. Main and Somonauk are both north/south roads while Page is an east/west street. The district also extends along State Street (Illinois Route 64) to the west until the 300 block. Somonauk Street is included through its 900 block. In addition section of Locust, Maple and California Streets are within the Sycamore Historic District. Other east/west streets also have portions included in the district, these are: Elm, High, Ottawa, Waterman and Lincoln.
The boundaries were drawn up by Robert Wagner, a Chicagoan who worked as a National Register assistant with the Illinois Department of Conservation. Wagner drew up the boundaries on the basis of "visual integrity.". This led to an irregular pattern of inclusion for the Sycamore Historic District. Often one side of the street will be in the district while the other side will not. In other cases, such as with the library or the U.S. Post Office an arbitrary line was drawn with the sole purpose of including a specific structure.
## Architecture
The hodge podge of architectural styles that mingle in the Sycamore Historic District begins with Greek Revival structures which date from Sycamore's foundation in the mid to late 1830s, also the heyday for that particular style. These structures are the oldest surviving within the district. After the Civil War other styles began to dot the landscape in and around downtown Sycamore, Illinois. Styles such as Italianate, Gothic Revival and Queen Anne can be found throughout the neighborhood. Government buildings and commercial buildings offer prime examples of Classical Revival architecture, a style showcased by the ornate DeKalb County Courthouse, Sycamore Public Library, U.S. Post Office and The National Bank & Trust Co. building. The current Sycamore Center, in the 300 block of State Street and once known as the Daniel Pierce Block, also exhibits. Classical Revival architecture.
Of the 226 properties within the Sycamore Historic District 40 are identified as "strongly contributing" to the overall character of the district. Twenty-one of those are ranked as the most significant structures in the district. The majority of the rest of the buildings date from 1860-1900.
## Properties
Sycamore Historic District includes a combination of residential, commercial, government and religious buildings. A number of Victorian homes along Main Street are enclosed in the historic district as well as a number of buildings in downtown Sycamore. South of the courthouse are other homes included in the district, each important structure is marked with a plaque near the sidewalk.
226 properties are located within the Sycamore Historic District's 99 acres (400,000 m<sup>2</sup>). Of those properties, 187 are listed as contributing structures in the district while an additional 22 are non-contributing. Of all the homes and other buildings within the district a full 75% fit within the historic district concept.
### Churches
As of 2007 there are five church buildings in the Sycamore Historic District. When it was nominated to join the National Register there were seven church buildings within the district. One of those included is a residential structure that was utilized as a church when it was first constructed; the Arthur Stark House was once home to the Sycamore Universalist Church congregation. In the time since its listing, two churches have been destroyed or demolished. The Evangelical Church of St. John was destroyed by fire in 2004 and the United Methodist Church in Sycamore is no longer extant, replaced by a modern office building. The extant churches are the Old Congregational Church, Bethel Assembly of God Church, St. Peter's Church, the Universalist Church/Stark House and St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church.
### Commercial buildings
The commercial buildings in the Sycamore Historic District, located in Sycamore, Illinois, United States are mostly located in and around the city's downtown. The largest concentration of commercial contributing properties to the historic district are found along Illinois Route 64 as it passes through Sycamore. They include several buildings known as "blocks" which can consist of more than one adjacent and attached structure, as is the case with the Waterman Block, one of the Sycamore commercial buildings.
### DeKalb County Courthouse
Possibly the gem of the Sycamore Historic District is the DeKalb County Courthouse. The Courthouse sits in the center of a square facing Illinois Route 64, directly across the north/south street, Main, from the Sycamore Public Library. It is a stunning example of Classical Revival architecture. The current structure was erected in 1905 being the third in a line of courthouses to serve DeKalb County.
### Frederick Townsend Garage
This building on Main Street was originally a garage owned by Sycamore resident Frederick B. Townsend. Townsend's Queen Anne style home overlooks the lot from a small incline. The distinctive stone structure was constructed in 1906 for use as a garage for the estate of Frederick B. Townsend, his former home is the Queen Anne mansion that overlooks the garage property. Today it is home to a restaurant. After the building left private ownership the property was exploited for commercial use and became a gas station. Despite the years and the changes in function the building's historical character remains intact.
### George's Block
Though quite altered from its original state in the mid 19th century George's Block remains one of the more eye catching structures in the Historic District. The George's Block was constructed in 1857 and was then known as the James Block, after the owner Daniel P. James. James, a prominent citizen, lived in the nearby Jerkin-roofed D. B. James House, another contributing property. By the 1860s the James name was gone but the building was still known as a block. Many buildings of the period were known as blocks, usually multi-story and multi-business, the buildings contained retail and professional space or, in the case of George's Block, lecture halls or auditoriums. In the first year the building existed such famous men as Horace Greeley, Charles Sumner and Bayard Taylor spoke there.
### Houses
The houses in the Sycamore Historic District cross a variety of architectural styles and span from the 1830s to the early 20th century. There are 187 contributing properties within the historic district, 75% of the districts buildings. Many of the homes are associated with early Sycamore residents, usually prominent business leaders or politicians. Houses within the district are known by, either their street address or by a name associated with a prominent owner or builder. For most of the houses, the latter is true. Some of the more prominent homes include the Charles O. Boynton House, the Frederick B. Townsend House, David Syme House and the Carlos Lattin House.
### U.S. Post Office
The U.S. Post Office Building in Sycamore is located along Illinois 64 (State Street), directly across the street from the Sycamore Public Library.
### Sycamore Public Library
Sycamore Public Library, the only structure on the east side of Main Street, between State and Page Streets, that is included in the Sycamore Historic District. The library, still operational today, was constructed in 1905 with a combination of philanthropical gifts from different sources including Andrew Carnegie. The building was designed, in part, by architect Paul O. Moratz.
## Significance
The district includes 226 properties over its 99 acres (400,000 m<sup>2</sup>), of those, 187 are considered contributing members of the historic district. The buildings consist of a mix of residential, religious, commercial and governmental buildings. Many of the residential buildings are 2 or 21⁄2 stories in height and feature generous setbacks from the street. These factors, along with the growth of mature shade trees, combine to give the streetscape a well-balanced and integrated look and feel. While the usage of the properties in Sycamore Historic District is similar to that in other small, Illinois county seats the district's properties are separated by their survival through the 20th century. The buildings themselves are most significant for their architecture which contributes to what the National Register of Historic Places nomination form in 1978 said conveyed "a gracious calm very close to the popular American image of an ideal small town."
|
49,443,091 |
SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf
| 1,142,781,614 |
Ironclad warship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy
|
[
"1887 ships",
"Ironclad warships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy",
"Ships built in Pola",
"World War I naval ships of Austria-Hungary"
] |
SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was a unique ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1880s. The last ironclad completed for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was laid down in January 1884, launched in July 1887, and completed in September 1889. She was armed with a main battery of three 30.5-centimeter (12 in) guns and had compound steel plating of the same thickness on her armored belt. The ship had an uneventful career, in large part due to her rapid obsolescence. She made trips to foreign countries to represent Austria-Hungary, but was reduced to a coastal defense ship by 1906. She continued in this role through World War I, based at Cattaro Bay, where her crew took part in the Cattaro Mutiny in early 1918. After the war, Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was transferred to the Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, renamed Kumbor and classed as a coastal defence ship, but she remained in their inventory for only a year, being sold for scrap in 1922.
## Design
In the decades that followed the Austrian victory at the Battle of Lissa in 1866, naval expenditure in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were drastically reduced, in large part due to the veto power the Hungarian half of the empire held. Surrounded by potentially hostile countries powers on land, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was more concerned with these threats, and so naval development was not prioritized. Admiral Friedrich von Pöck argued for several years to improve the strength of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, finally winning authorization to build the center battery ship Tegetthoff in 1875. He spent another six years trying in vain to secure a sister ship to Tegetthoff.
Finally, in 1881, Pöck succeeded in securing funding for a new ironclad, authorized as "Ersatz Salamander", a replacement for the earlier ironclad frigate. The new ship, to be named Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, cost 5.44 million florins. According to Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, the design for the new ship was prepared by Josef Kuchinka, the Director of Naval Construction for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, but the naval historian R. F. Scheltema de Heere credits the naval engineer Moriz Soyka with the work. A second ship, Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, was authorized at the same time. The designs for both vessels were heavily influenced by foreign ships like the French ironclads Duguesclin and Amiral Duperré, both of which featured a similar arrangement of the main battery guns that Kuchinka used for his new ships.
Chronically starved of funding, the navy was forced to accept significant compromises in the size—and therefore capabilities—of Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf and Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, particularly compared to the far larger and more heavily armed Amiral Duperré that inspired their design. Scheltema de Heere severely criticized the decision to build two ships of markedly different size and power at the same time, stating "Either you need three guns or you can do with two, but one unit larger than the other is nonsense." Nearly another decade would pass before the Austro-Hungarian Navy secured funding for new capital ships, the three Monarch-class coastal defense ships begun in 1893.
### General characteristics and machinery
Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was 90.26 meters (296 ft 2 in) long between perpendiculars and 97.6 m (320 ft 3 in) long overall. She had a beam of 19.27 m (63 ft 3 in) and a draft of 7.39 m (24 ft 3 in), and she displaced 6,829 long tons (6,939 t) normally and 7,315.10 long tons (7,432.48 t) at full load. Her hull was constructed with transverse and longitudinal steel frames, over which the outer steel hull plating was riveted; it was also extensively sub-divided into watertight compartments and had a double bottom. She had a pronounced ram bow, a common feature of capital ships of the period. The ship had a flush deck and was fitted with a large forward conning tower with a bridge mounted atop it along with a smaller secondary conning tower further aft.
Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was fitted with a single pole mast with a large fighting top placed amidships. The ship had a transverse metacentric height of 2.24 m (7 ft 4 in) at full load. Steering was controlled with a single rudder. She was fitted with electrical pumps that had a capacity of 2,000 long tons (2,032 t) of water per hour. Her crew varied between 447 and 450 officers and enlisted men throughout her career.
Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino manufactured Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf's propulsion system. The ship was powered by a pair of two-cylinder, vertical triple-expansion steam engines, driving a pair of four-bladed screw propellers that were 5.49 m (18 ft) in diameter. Steam for the engines was provided by ten coal-fired fire-tube boilers, each of which had three fireboxes. The boilers were vented through two funnels. Her propulsion system was rated to provide 6,000 indicated horsepower (4,500 kW) for a top speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph). With forced draft, the power could be increased to 7,500 ihp (5,600 kW), though the increase in speed was modest, to 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). The ship was fitted with four electrical generators to power internal lighting and searchlights.
### Armament and armor
Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was armed with a main battery of three 30.5-centimeter (12 in) 35-caliber guns mounted singly in open barbettes. Two were placed forward in sponsons over the battery deck to maximize end-on fire, with the third placed aft. The guns were manufactured by Krupp, while the carriages that carried them were built by Armstrong Mitchell & Co. Each of the forward guns had an arc of 180 degrees, while the stern gun could traverse 270 degrees, all hydraulically operated. The guns fired a 450-kilogram (990 lb) shell using a 140 kg (310 lb) charge of brown powder, which produced a muzzle velocity of 530 meters per second (1,700 ft/s). While the open barbettes provided a wide field of fire for the slow-firing guns, they were rapidly rendered obsolete by the successful application of quick-firing (QF) technology to large-caliber artillery pieces. The guns were supplied with forty shells apiece.
The main battery was supported by a secondary battery of six 12 cm (4.7 in) 35-caliber guns, also built by Krupp. These guns fired a 26 kg (57 lb) shell with a 15 kg (33 lb) propellant charge, and the ship carried a total of 256 of the shells. She carried seven 47 mm (1.9 in) QF guns for close-range defense against torpedo boats; five were 44-caliber guns and the other two were shorter 33-caliber pieces, all built by Hotchkiss. She carried a total of 1770 rounds of ammunition for the guns. Her gun armament was rounded out by a pair of 37 mm (1.5 in) 44-caliber QF guns and a pair of 7 cm (2.8 in) 15-caliber landing guns for use by landing parties. The 37 mm guns were supplied with a total of 780 rounds. As was customary for capital ships of the period, she carried four 40 cm (15.7 in) torpedo tubes; one was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and one on each broadside. The ship carried fourteen torpedoes.
Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was protected with compound armor manufactured by the Dillinger Hütte works in Germany. The ship's armored belt was 305 mm thick amidships, where it protected the ammunition magazines and machinery spaces, and reduced to 62 mm (2.4 in) elsewhere. Transverse bulkheads capped the ends of the thickest portion of the belt, with the forward bulkhead 242 mm (9.5 in) and the aft bulkhead 203 mm (8 in) thick. An armored deck 95 mm (3.7 in) thick protected the ship's vitals from shells that passed over the side armor. The barbettes for the main battery were 254 mm (10 in) thick.
## Service history
SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was laid down on 25 January 1884 at the Navy Dockyard in Pola. She was launched on 6 July 1887 and then began fitting out, which was completed in September 1889. The ship was commissioned to begin sea trials on 20 September. Embarrassingly for the Habsburgs, the ship's namesake had committed suicide earlier that year in the Mayerling incident. In 1890, the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, invited the Austro-Hungarian fleet to take part in the annual fleet training exercises in August. Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, the ironclad Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, and the protected cruiser Kaiser Franz Joseph I were sent to Germany under the command of Rear Admiral Johann von Hinke. While en route, the squadron made visits in Gibraltar and Britain; during the latter stop, the ships took part in the Cowes Regatta, where they were reviewed by Queen Victoria. The ships also stopped in Copenhagen, Denmark and Karlskrona, Sweden. During the voyage back to Austria-Hungary, the squadron visited Cherbourg, France and Palermo, Italy. Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf experienced repeated difficulties with her engines on the trip, but it was nevertheless considered to be a great success in the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
In 1892, celebrations to honor the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first trans-Atlantic voyage were held in several countries; Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, and Kaiser Franz Joseph I represented Austria-Hungary during the ceremonies in Genoa, Italy, Columbus's birthplace. While there, she was inspected by King Umberto I of Italy and his son Victor Emmanuel III. Already by 1898, the ship was regarded by the Austro-Hungarian Navy as a second-rate vessel, after less than 10 years in service. The rapid pace of naval development in the late 19th century had quickly rendered her obsolescent. Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was reclassified as a coastal defense ship in 1906. In 1908, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to sell the ship, Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, and Tegetthoff to Uruguay to raise funds for new projects, but the deal fell through.
### World War I
After Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in July 1914, beginning World War I, the ship was stationed in Cattaro Bay under Commander Richard Florio, the leader of Mining Command II. The force also included an old destroyer, four torpedo boats, a minelayer, and two minesweepers, among other minor vessels. She remained there for the duration of the conflict. On 29 November, the French submarine Cugnot slipped between the protective minefields outside Cattaro Bay and entered the bay, but she was spotted by the Kaiman-class torpedo boat 57 T, which raised the alarm. The Huszár-class destroyer Ulan and the Blitz-class torpedo gunboat Blitz, along with the Schichau-class torpedo boat 36, chased Cugnot, which was intending to attack Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf. Cugnot struck an underwater obstacle and cancelled the attack, and 57 T fired a torpedo at her, but the torpedo missed because the depth was set too low. Cugnot then escaped from the bay and out through the minefield gap.
By early 1918, the long periods of inactivity had begun to wear on the crews of several warships at Cattaro, including Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf. On 1 February, the Cattaro Mutiny broke out, starting aboard the armored cruiser Sankt Georg and quickly spreading to other ships. Officers were confined to their quarters while a committee of sailors met to formulate a list of demands, which ranged from longer periods of leave and better rations to an end to the war, based on the United States President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points. The following day, shore batteries loyal to the government fired on Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf as she steamed to the Bay of Teodo, the outermost part of Cattaro Bay. The batteries scored a single hit that killed two men, which prompted many of the mutinous ships to abandon the effort. On the morning of 3 February, the Erzherzog Karl-class battleships of the III Division arrived in Cattaro, which convinced the last holdouts to surrender. Trials on the ringleaders commenced quickly and four men were executed.
With the end of the war in November 1918 and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf was transferred to the fledgling Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in March 1921. They renamed her Kumbor and classed her as a coastal defence ship, but she remained in their inventory only briefly, being broken up for scrap the following year.
|
18,347,268 |
Praise You In This Storm
| 1,152,335,785 |
Single by Casting Crowns
|
[
"2000s ballads",
"2006 singles",
"Casting Crowns songs",
"Songs written by Bernie Herms",
"Songs written by Mark Hall (musician)"
] |
"Praise You In This Storm" is a song recorded by contemporary Christian music band Casting Crowns, released by Beach Street and Reunion Records. Written by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms and produced by Mark A. Miller, it was released on January 28, 2006 as the second radio single from the band's 2005 album Lifesong. Inspired by the band's experience with a girl, Erin Browning, who died of cancer, the song has the lyrical theme of maintaining faith through difficult circumstances. A power ballad, "Praise You In This Storm" incorporates a wall of sound dynamic into its alternative CCM and adult alternative sound.
"Praise You In This Storm" received positive reviews from music critics, who praised the song's sound and lyrical theme. It was nominated for two awards at the 38th GMA Dove Awards, winning the award for Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year. It peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs and Hot Christian AC charts and also topped the Radio & Records Christian AC and Soft AC/Inspirational charts. It has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), signifying sales of over 1,000,000 digital downloads in the United States. It was included on WOW Hits 2008.
## Background and recording
Lead vocalist Mark Hall says that "Praise You In This Storm" was inspired by the band's experience with a young girl, Erin Browning. The band made arrangements to meet Erin, who had performed a dance at her public school to one of the band's songs, and her family on Valentine's Day 2004 before one of their concerts. Right around the time the band connected with Erin and her family was when she was found to have cancer. Erin died on November 1, 2004. According to Hall, "Watching [Erin's mother] walk through this really showed me truth about my worship. Watching her walk through a real storm showed me that my worship was extremely situational". Hall began writing the song before Erin's death and told her about it, but was not able to complete it before she died.
"Praise You In This Storm" was written by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms. It was produced by Mark A. Miller, with recording and mixing done by Sam Hewitt at Zoo Studio in Franklin, Tennessee. Additional recording was done at Lifesong Studio in McDonough, Georgia. It was mastered by Richard Dodd and engineered by Dale Oliver and John Lewis Lee III. The strings on "Praise You In This Storm" were arranged by Bobby Huff and were recorded at Little Big Studio by Boeho Shin and Daewoo Kim.
## Composition
"Praise You In This Storm" is a song with a length of four minutes and 57 seconds. According to the sheet music published by Musicnotes.com, it is set in common time in the key of G minor and has a tempo of 84 beats per minute. Mark Hall's vocal range in the song spans from the low note of B<sub>3</sub> to the high note of E<sub>5</sub>. A power ballad, "Praise You In This Storm" is an alternative CCM and adult alternative song. It utilizes a wall of sound dynamic and its lyrical theme, "maintaining faith through difficult circumstances", has been compared to that of the biblical character Job.
## Critical reception and accolades
"Praise You In This Storm" received positive reviews from music critics following the release of Lifesong. Russ Breimeier of Christianity Today said "it's vertical in focus and a typical-sounding power ballad, but it's not hard to imagine people latching on to its powerful Job-like expression of faith and hope.". John DiBiase of Jesus Freak Hideout praised it as "sonic" and called it a "passionate and emotional worship experience". Brian Mansfield of USA Today felt that the song's lyric "I was sure by now that You would have reached down and wiped our tears away/Stepped in and saved the day/But once again, I say 'Amen,' and it's still raining" would resonate with listeners.
"Praise You In This Storm" won the award for Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year at the 38th GMA Dove Awards; it was also nominated for Song of the Year at that same event. At the 39th GMA Dove Awards, "Praise You In This Storm" was nominated for Worship Song of the Year.
## Release and chart performance
"Praise You In This Storm" was included as the second track on Casting Crowns' album Lifesong, which was released on August 30, 2005. It was later released as a single to Christian AC, Christian CHR, and Soft AC/Inspirational radio on January 28, 2006. It debuted at number 25 on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart for the chart week of February 18, 2006. It advanced to number 19 in its second chart week and to number 10 in its sixth week. It entered the top five in its eighth chart week, moving to number three, and advanced to number two in its 12th chart week. In its fifteenth chart week, "Praise You In This Storm" hit the number one position; it held that spot for a total of seven consecutive weeks. In total, "Praise You In This Storm" spent a total of 40 weeks on the Hot Christian Songs chart. It also peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Christian AC chart and the Radio & Records Christian AC and Soft AC/Inspirational charts. On the Radio & Records Christian CHR chart, "Praise You In This Storm" peaked at number three.
"Praise You In This Storm" ranked at number two on the 2006 year-end Billboard Hot Christian Songs and Hot Christian AC charts. It also ranked at number two on the 2006 year-end Radio & Records Christian AC and Soft AC/Inspirational charts and number five on the 2006 year-end Radio & Records Christian CHR chart. It ranked at number 11 on the 2000s decade-end Hot Christian AC chart and at number 13 on the 2000s decade-end Hot Christian Songs chart. The song was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on September 26, 2011, signifying sales of over 500,000 digital downloads in the United States, and was certified Platinum on November 13, 2015, certifying sales of over 1,000,000 digital downloads in the United States.
## Live performances
Since the release of Lifesong, Casting Crowns has performed "Praise You In This Storm" in concert. At a concert on November 12, 2005 at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Casting Crowns performed the song as the fifth one on their set list. The performed it at a concert on March 22, 2008 at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida and at a concert on February 3, 2010 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. On February 28, 2010 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, they performed it as the fourth-to-last song of the concert. Casting Crowns performed "Praise You In This Storm" in concert on February 16, 2012 at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan and on March 8, 2012 at the Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee.
## Track listing
Digital download
1. "Praise You In This Storm" – 4:57
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the album liner notes of Lifesong.
Casting Crowns
- Hector Cervantes – Electric guitar
- Juan DeVevo – Electric guitar, acoustic guitar
- Melodee DeVevo – Violin
- Hector Cervantes – Piano, keyboard
- Mark Hall – Vocals
- Chris Huffman – Bass guitar
- Andy Williams – Drums
Additional musicians
- David Angell - Violin
- Monisa Angell - Violin
- David Davidson - Contractor, concertmaster
- Jack Jezioro - Bass
- Anthony Lamarchina - Cello
- Sarighani Reist - Cello
- Pamela Sixfin - Violin
- Mary Vanosdale - Violin
- Kristin Wilkinson - Viola
Production
- Richard Dodd - Mastering
- Terry Hemmings - Executive producer
- Sam Hewitt - Recording, mixing
- Bobby Huff - String arrangement
- Daewoo Kim - Recording (strings)
- John Lewis Lee III - Engineering
- Jason McArthur - A&R Coordination
- Dale Oliver - Engineering
- Mark A. Miller - Producer
- Boeho "Bobby" Shin - Recording (strings)
## Charts
## Certifications
## Release and radio history
## Natalie Grant cover version
Natalie Grant covered the song on her tenth studio album "No Stranger". It was released on June 12, 2020 as the first promotional single from the aforementioned album.
Background
“I’ve loved this song since 2005 when my husband wrote it with Mark Hall. It became new to me in 2017 when I walked through the storm of cancer. Now, as the whole world finds itself in a storm, it’s new to me all over again.”
Commercial performance
It peaked at No. 31 and No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs and Christian Digital Songs respectively.
Charts
|
31,361 |
Tristan da Cunha
| 1,173,788,594 |
South Atlantic island group
|
[
"English-speaking countries and territories",
"Former British colonies and protectorates in Africa",
"Important Bird Areas of Saint Helena",
"Islands of Tristan da Cunha",
"Mid-Atlantic Ridge",
"Penguin colonies",
"Seabird colonies",
"States and territories established in 1816",
"States and territories established in 1938",
"Tristan da Cunha",
"Volcanoes of Tristan da Cunha"
] |
Tristan da Cunha (/ˌtrɪstən də ˈkuːn(j)ə/), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately 2,787 kilometres (1,732 mi) from Cape Town in South Africa, 2,437 kilometres (1,514 mi) from Saint Helena, 3,949 kilometres (2,454 mi) from Mar del Plata in South America and 4,002 kilometres (2,487 mi) from the Falkland Islands.
The territory consists of the inhabited island, Tristan da Cunha, which has a diameter of roughly 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) and an area of 98 square kilometres (38 sq mi); the wildlife reserves of Gough Island and Inaccessible Island; and the smaller, uninhabited Nightingale Islands. As of October 2018, the main island has 250 permanent inhabitants, who all carry British Overseas Territories citizenship. The other islands are uninhabited, except for the South African personnel of a weather station on Gough Island.
Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory with its own constitution. There is no airstrip on the main island; the only way of travelling in and out of Tristan is by boat, a six-day trip from South Africa.
## History
### Discovery
The uninhabited islands were first recorded as sighted in 1506 by Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha, though rough seas prevented a landing. He named the main island after himself, Ilha de Tristão da Cunha. It was later anglicised from its earliest mention on British Admiralty charts to Tristan da Cunha Island. Some sources state that the Portuguese made the first landing in 1520, when the Lás Rafael captained by Ruy Vaz Pereira called at Tristan for water.
The first undisputed landing was made on 7 February 1643 by the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Heemstede, captained by Claes Gerritsz Bierenbroodspot. The Dutch stopped at the island four more times in the next 25 years, and in 1656 created the first rough charts of the archipelago.
The first full survey of the archipelago was made by the crew of the French corvette Heure du Berger in 1767. The first scientific exploration was conducted by French naturalist Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars, who stayed on the island for three days in January 1793, during a French mercantile expedition from Brest, France to Mauritius. Thouars made botanical collections and reported traces of human habitation, including fireplaces and overgrown gardens, probably left by Dutch explorers in the 17th century.
On his voyage out from Europe to East Africa and India in command of the Imperial Asiatic Company of Trieste and Antwerp ship, Joseph et Therese, William Bolts sighted Tristan da Cunha, put a landing party ashore on 2 February 1777 and hoisted the Imperial flag, naming it and its neighbouring islets the Isles de Brabant. However, no settlement or facilities were ever set up there by the company.
After the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War halted penal transportation to the Thirteen Colonies, British prisons started to overcrowd. As several stopgap measures proved to be ineffective, the British Government announced in December 1785 that it would proceed with the settlement of New South Wales. In September 1786 Alexander Dalrymple, presumably goaded by Bolts's actions, published a pamphlet with an alternative proposal of his own for settlements on Tristan da Cunha, St. Paul and Amsterdam islands in the Southern Ocean.
Captain John Blankett, R.N., also suggested independently to his superiors in August 1786 that convicts be used to establish a British settlement on Tristan. In consequence, the Admiralty received orders from the government in October 1789 to examine the island as part of a general survey of the South Atlantic and the coasts of southern Africa. That did not happen, but an investigation of Tristan, Amsterdam and St. Paul was undertaken in December 1792 and January 1793 by George Macartney, Britain's first ambassador to China. During his voyage to China, he established that none of the islands were suitable for settlement.
### 19th century
The first permanent settler was Jonathan Lambert of Salem, Massachusetts, United States, who moved to the island in December 1810 with two other men, to be joined later by a fourth. Lambert publicly declared the islands his property and named them the Islands of Refreshment. Three of the four men died in 1812 and Thomas Currie (Tommaso Corri, from Livorno, Italy), one of the original three, remained as a farmer on the island.
On 14 August 1816, the United Kingdom annexed the islands by sending a garrison to secure possession, and making them a dependency of the Cape Colony in South Africa. This was explained as a measure to prevent the islands' use as a base for any attempt to free Napoleon Bonaparte from his prison on Saint Helena. The occupation also prevented the United States from using Tristan da Cunha as a base for naval cruisers, as it had during the War of 1812. The garrison left the islands in November 1817, although some members of the garrison, notably William Glass, stayed and formed the nucleus of a permanent population.
The islands were occupied by a garrison of British Marines, and a civilian population gradually grew. Berwick stopped there on 25 March 1824 and reported that it had a population of twenty-two men and three women. The barque South Australia stayed there on 18–20 February 1836 when a certain Glass was Governor, as reported in a chapter on the island by W. H. Leigh.
Whalers set up bases on the islands for operations in the Southern Atlantic. However, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, together with the gradual transition from sailing ships to coal-fired steam ships, increased the isolation of the islands, which were no longer needed as a stopping port for lengthy sail voyages, or for shelter for journeys from Europe to East Asia. A parson arrived in February 1851, the Bishop of Cape Town visited in March 1856 and the island was included within the diocese of Cape Town.
In 1836 the schooner Emily ran aground with the Dutch fisherman Pieter Groen from Katwijk. He stayed, married there, changed his name to Peter Green and in 1865 became spokesman/governor of the community. In 1856 there were already 97 people living there.
In 1867, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and second son of Queen Victoria, visited the islands. The only settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, was named in honour of his visit. On 15 October 1873, the Royal Navy scientific survey vessel HMS Challenger docked at Tristan to conduct geographic and zoological surveys on Tristan, Inaccessible Island and the Nightingale Islands. In his log, Captain George Nares recorded a total of fifteen families and eighty-six individuals living on the island. Tristan became a dependency of the British Crown in October 1875.
On 27 November 1885, the island suffered one of its worst tragedies after an iron barque named West Riding approached the island, whilst en route to Sydney, Australia from Bristol. Due to the loss of regular trading opportunities, almost all of the island's able-bodied men approached the ship in a lifeboat attempting to trade with the passing vessel. The boat, recently donated by the British government, sailed despite rough waters and, although the lifeboat was spotted sailing alongside the ship for some time, it never returned. Various reports were given following the event, with rumours ranging from the men drowning, to reports of them being taken to Australia and sold as slaves. In total, 15 men were lost, leaving behind an island of widows. A plaque at St. Mary's Church commemorates the lost men.
### 20th century
#### Hard winter of 1906
After years of hardship since the 1880s and an especially difficult winter in 1906, the British government offered to evacuate the island in 1907. The Tristanians held a meeting and decided to refuse, despite the government's warning that it could not promise further help in the future.
#### Occasional pre-war visits
No ships called at the islands from 1909 until 1919, when HMS Yarmouth stopped to inform the islanders of the outcome of World War I.
The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition stopped in Tristan for five days in May 1922, collecting geological and botanical samples before returning to Cape Town. Among the few ships that visited in the coming years were the RMS Asturias, a Royal Mail Steam Packet Company passenger liner, in 1927, and the ocean liners RMS Empress of France in 1928, in 1929, and RMS Empress of Australia in 1935.
In 1936, The Daily Telegraph of London reported that the population of the island was 167 people, with 185 cattle and 42 horses.
From December 1937 to March 1938, a Norwegian party made a dedicated scientific expedition to Tristan da Cunha, and sociologist Peter A. Munch extensively documented island culture; he visited the island again in 1964–1965. The island was also visited in 1938 by W. Robert Foran, reporting for the National Geographic Society. His account was published that same year.
On 12 January 1938 by letters patent, Britain declared the islands a dependency of Saint Helena, creating the British Crown Colony of Saint Helena and Dependencies, which also included Ascension Island.
#### WW-II military development
During the Second World War, Tristan was commissioned by the Royal Navy as the so-called "stone frigate" HMS Atlantic Isle and used as a secret signals intelligence station, to monitor German U-boats (which were required to maintain radio contact) and shipping in the South Atlantic Ocean. The weather and radio stations led to extensive new infrastructure being built on the island, including a school, a hospital, and a cash-based general store.
The first colonial official sent to rule the island was Sir Hugh Elliott in the rank of Administrator (because the settlement was too small to merit a Governor) 1950–1953. Development continued as the island's first canning factory expanded paid employment in 1949.
#### Rare post-war ship visits
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen's consort, visited the islands in 1957 as part of a world tour on board the royal yacht HMY Britannia.
On 2 January 1954, Tristan da Cunha was visited by the Dutch ship Ruys, a passenger-cargo liner, carrying science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, his wife Ginny and other passengers. The Ruys was travelling from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Cape Town, South Africa. The visit is described in Heinlein's book "Tramp Royale". The captain told Heinlein the island was the most isolated inhabited spot on Earth and ships rarely visited. Heinlein mailed a letter there to L. Ron Hubbard, a friend who also liked to travel, "for the curiosity value of the postmark". Biographer William H. Patterson, Jr. in his two volume "Robert A. Heinlein In Dialogue with his Century," wrote that lack of "cultural context" made it "nearly impossible to converse" with the islanders, "a stark contrast with the way they had managed to chat with strangers" while travelling in South America. Members of the crew bought penguins during their brief visit to the island.
#### 1961 eruption of Queen Mary's Peak
On 10 October 1961, the eruption of a parasitic cone of Queen Mary's Peak, very close to Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, forced evacuation of all 264 people. The evacuees took to the water in open boats, taken by the local lobster-fishing boats Tristania and Frances Repetto to uninhabited Nightingale Island.
The next day, they were picked up by the diverted Dutch passenger ship Tjisadane that took them to Cape Town. The islanders later arrived in the U.K. aboard the liner M.V. Stirling Castle to a big press reception and, after a short period at Pendell Army Camp in Merstham, Surrey, were settled in an old Royal Air Force camp near Calshot, Hampshire.
The following year, a Royal Society expedition reported that Edinburgh of the Seven Seas had survived. Most families returned in 1963.
#### Gough and Inaccessible Islands wildlife reserves
Gough Island was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 as Gough Island Wildlife Reserve. This was further extended in 2004 as Gough and Inaccessible Islands, with its marine zone extended from 3 to 12 nautical miles.
These islands have been Ramsar sites – wetlands of international importance – since 20 November 2008.
### 21st century
On 23 May 2001, the islands were hit by an extratropical cyclone that generated winds up to 190 kilometres per hour (120 mph). A number of structures were severely damaged, and numerous cattle were killed, prompting emergency aid provided by the British government. In 2005, the islands were given a United Kingdom post code (TDCU 1ZZ), to make it easier for the residents to order goods online.
On 13 February 2008, a fire destroyed the island's four power generators and fish canning factory, severely disrupting the economy. On 14 March 2008, new generators were installed and power restored, and a new factory opened in July 2009. While the replacement factory was built, M/V Kelso came to the island as a factory ship. The St. Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009 reorganized Tristan da Cunha as a constituent of the new British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, giving Tristan and Ascension equal status with Saint Helena.
On 16 March 2011, the freighter MS Oliva ran aground on Nightingale Island, spilling tons of heavy fuel oil into the ocean. The resulting oil slick threatened the island's population of rockhopper penguins. Nightingale Island has no fresh water, so the penguins were transported to Tristan da Cunha for cleaning.
On 13 November 2020 it was announced that the 687,247 square kilometres (265,348 sq mi) of the waters surrounding the islands will become a Marine Protection Zone. The move will make the zone the largest no-take zone in the Atlantic and the fourth largest on the planet. The move follows 20 years of conservation work by the RSPB and the island government and five years of the UK government's Blue Belt programme support.
A total solar eclipse will pass over the island on 5 December 2048. The island is calculated to be on the centre line of the umbra's path for nearly three and a half minutes of totality.
## Geography
Tristan da Cunha is thought to have been formed by a long-lived centre of upwelling mantle called the Tristan hotspot. Tristan da Cunha is the main island of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, which consists of the following islands:
- Tristan da Cunha, the main and largest island, area: 99 square kilometres (38.2 sq mi) ()
- Inaccessible Island, area: 14 square kilometres (5.4 sq mi)
- Nightingale Islands, area: 3.4 square kilometres (1.3 sq mi)
- Nightingale Island, area: 3.2 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi)
- Middle Island, area: 0.1 square kilometres (25 acres)
- Stoltenhoff Island, area: 0.1 square kilometres (25 acres)
- Gough Island (Diego Alvarez), area: 91 square kilometres (35 sq mi)
Inaccessible Island and the Nightingale Islands are 35 kilometres (22 mi) SW by W and SSW away from the main island, respectively, whereas Gough Island is 350 kilometres (217 mi) SSE.
The main island is generally mountainous. The only flat area is on the north-west coast, which is the location of the only settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, and the agricultural area of Potato Patches. The highest point is the summit of a volcano called Queen Mary's Peak at an elevation of 2,062 metres (6,765 ft), high enough to develop snow cover in winter. The other islands of the group are uninhabited, except for a weather station with a staff of six on Gough Island, which has been operated by South Africa since 1956 and has been at its present location at Transvaal Bay on the southeast coast since 1963.
### Climate
The archipelago has a Cfb, wet oceanic climate, under the Köppen system, with mild temperatures and very limited sunshine but consistent moderate-to-heavy rainfall due to the persistent westerly winds. Under the Trewartha classification, Tristan da Cunha has a humid subtropical climate due to the lack of cold weather. The number of rainy days is comparable to the Aleutian Islands at a much higher latitude in the northern hemisphere, while sunshine hours are comparable to Juneau, Alaska, 20° farther from the equator. Frost is unknown below elevations of 500 metres (1,600 ft), and summer temperatures are similarly mild, never reaching 25 °C (77 °F). Sandy Point on the east coast is reputed to be the warmest and driest place on the island, being in the lee of the prevailing winds.
## Flora and fauna
Many of the flora and fauna of the archipelago have a broad circumpolar distribution in the South Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans. For example, the plant species Nertera granadensis was first collected in Tristan da Cunha, but has since been recorded as far away as New Zealand.
### Invasive species
The islands of Tristan da Cunha have a high significance of global biodiversity: two of them, Gough and Inaccessible, form a UNESCO natural World Heritage Site. This designation is largely due to the seabird population found there. The biodiversity of the island is vulnerable to introduction of invasive species. Due to Tristan da Cunha's isolated archipelago ecology, and increase of tourism with cruise ships and research vessels, invasive species are a particular concern for Tristan da Cunha. The islands' vegetation and mammal species are not equipped to defend against or control introduced species, increasing island vulnerability, due to lack of defensive behavioural mechanisms and slow generational output rates. Efforts to decrease and eradicate invasive flora, fauna, and marine species have been undertaken, including a programme aimed at eradicating predatory invasive mice on Gough Island. The following described invasive species have been known to have harmful effects on the islands' vegetation and native species.
Invasive house mice on these islands have adapted to be 50% larger than average house mice. They are thought to have been accidentally introduced by 19th-century seal hunters who would dock on the islands. These mice have adapted by consuming sea bird eggs and chicks (as they nest on the ground). Gathering at night in groups of 9 or 10, the mice gather at the bird's nest to feast. With no natural predators, the invasive mice population is able to expand by producing new generations twice a year.
In order to prevent the growth of the invasive mice population and extinction of the Albatross bird species, a 2019 Gough Island mouse eradication project was announced (Grundy, 2018). The RSPB and Tristan da Cunha Government have partnered to spread cereal pellets with rodenticide bait across Gough Island, in hopes to eradicate the invasive mice population. The goal of this operation is to restore Tristan da Cunha back to its natural state, ensuring it will still be one of the world's most important seabird nesting sites.
### Flora
#### Native plants
A combination of the list on Kew's Plants of the World Online site with information from a paper by Wace and Holdgate yields the following list (by no means exhaustive) of plant species recorded as native to Tristan da Cunha.
Eudicots
- Apium australe Thouars (Apiaceae)
- Atriplex plebeia Carmich. (Amaranthaceae)
- Callitriche christensenii Christoph. (Plantaginaceae)
- Chevreulia sarmentosa (Pers.) S.F.Blake (Asteraceae)
- Cotula goughensis Rud. Brown (Asteraceae)
- Cotula moseleyi Hemsl. (Asteraceae)
- Dysphania tomentosa (Thouars) Mosyakin & Clemants (Amaranthaceae)
- Empetrum rubrum Vahl ex Willd. (Ericaceae)
- Gamochaeta thouarsii (Spreng.) Anderb. (Asteraceae)
- Gnaphalium thouarsii Spreng. (Asteraceae)
- Hydrocotyle capitata Thouars (Araliaceae)
- Nertera granadensis Druce (Rubiaceae)
- Pelargonium cucullatum (L.) L'Hér. (Geraniaceae)
- Pelargonium grossularioides (L.) L'Hér. (Geraniaceae)
- Phylica arborea Thouars (Rhamnaceae)
- Rumex frutescens Thouars (Polygonaceae)
- Sophora macnabiana (Graham) Skottsb. (Fabaceae)
Commelinids
- Agrostis carmichaelii Schult. & Schult.f. (Poaceae)
- Agrostis crinum-ursi Mez (Poaceae)
- Agrostis media Carmich. (Poaceae)
- Agrostis trachychlaena C.E. Hubbard (Poaceae)
- Carex insularis Carmich. (Cyperaceae)
- Carex thouarsii Carmich. (Cyperaceae)
- Deschampsia wacei C.E.Hubb. (Poaceae)
- Isolepis bicolor Carmich. (Cyperaceae)
- Isolepis moseleyana (Boeckeler) Muasya (Cyperaceae)
- Isolepis prolifera (Rottb.) R.Br. (Cyperaceae)
- Isolepis sulcata (Thouars) Carmich. (Cyperaceae)
- Sporobolus mobberleyanus P.M.Peterson & Saarela (Poaceae)
- Rostkovia tristanensis Christoph. (Juncaceae)
Ferns, Mosses and Clubmosses
- Asplenium aequibasis (C.Chr.) J.P.Roux (Aspleniaceae)
- Asplenium alvarezense Rudm. Brown (Aspleniaceae)
- Athyrium medium (Carmich.) T.Moore (Athyriaceae)
- Austroblechnum penna-marina (Poir.) Gasper & V.A.O.Dittrich (Blechnaceae)
- Elaphoglossum laurifolium (Thouars) T.Moore (Dryopteridaceae)
- Lomariocycas palmiformis (Thouars) C.Chr. (Blechnaceae)
- Lycopodium diaphanum (P.Beauv.) Sw. (Lycopodiaceae)
- Notogrammitis billardierei (Willdenow) Parris (Polypodiaceae)
- Polyphlebium angustatum (Carmich.) Ebihara & Dubuisson (Hymenophyllaceae)
- Racomitrium lanuginosum (Hedw.) Brid. (Grimmiaceae)
- Rumohra adiantiformis (G.Forst.) Ching (Dryopteridaceae)
#### Introduced plants
Tristan da Cunha acquired an estimated 137 non-native vascular plants that can be categorized into four species types; weeds (trees, shrubs, agricultural weeds), grassland species (grasses), garden escapes (vegetables), and other ruderal species. Vascular plants were accidentally introduced in a variety of ways including; impurities in flower or vegetable seeds, seeds or plant fragments from other imported plants and in soil, attached to containers, cars or people. The majority of invasive weed species that has been introduced to the island are spread by seed and cover 50% of arable land in widely distributed patches. These species include prickly sow-thistle (Sonchus asper), smooth sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), smooth hawksbeard (Crepis capillaris), scrambling fumitory (Fumaria muralis), green field speedwell (Veronica agrestis), groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), and nutgrass (Cyperus esculentus). Other invasive weed species that have a more localized distribution in plots include prickly sow-thistle (Sonchus asper), smooth sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), smooth hawksbeard (Crepis capillaris), and groundsel (Senecio vulgaris). Whether a species is distributed locally or widely depends on the seed's dispersal mechanisms; larger seeds that have not adapted to wind dispersal will be distributed locally, while smaller seeds have adapted to wind dispersal will be widely distributed.
The invasive plants have had several negative impacts on native island plant species, including the competitive exclusion of many such species. The out-competition will and can alter the structure of plant communities and the quality of the islands' soil. Introduced vegetation has altered long-term carbon storage as well as the reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere. Native plants such as fern bushes, Phylica bushes, fern brakes, mires, and bogs, contain high organic content matter which functions as storage for carbon. With the introduction of harmful species, the islands will see a decrease in carbon storage of both the soil and vegetation. With multiple changes occurring within the soil due to invasive plant species, the nutrient cycle is bound to be negatively influenced. Invasive plants are also affecting the human population of Tristan da Cunha by being disease carriers and becoming agricultural pests in gardens and pastures.
The alien plants are able to survive and continue to grow and spread successfully on the islands because they have the ability to naturalize in temperate regions and have limited necessities needed to survive. The islands' isolation increases archipelago ecology uniqueness which increases susceptibility for foreign invaders. A small human population with minimal development encourages flora and fauna development within a limited food web which increases the invasive species abilities for self-defense.
Plants are being controlled by taking surveys of the invasive species, evaluating their impact on biodiversity, and evaluating the feasibility of their eradication. It would be nearly impossible to try and eradicate all invasive plant species so scientists are narrowing down to control particular species based on their impact and feasibility to eradicate. Mitigation plans that are taking place on Tristan are time-consuming and labor-intensive that will take several years using mechanical and chemical procedures.
### Fauna
#### Land
Tristan is primarily known for its wildlife. The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because there are 13 known species of breeding seabirds on the island and two species of resident land birds. The seabirds include northern rockhopper penguins, Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses, sooty albatrosses, Atlantic petrels, great-winged petrels, soft-plumaged petrels, broad-billed prions, grey petrels, great shearwaters, sooty shearwaters, Tristan skuas, Antarctic terns and brown noddies. Tristan and Gough Islands are the only known breeding sites in the world for the Atlantic petrel. Inaccessible Island is also the only known breeding ground of the spectacled petrel. The Tristan albatross is known to breed only on Gough and Inaccessible Islands: all nest on Gough, except for one or two pairs which nest on Inaccessible Island.
The endemic Tristan thrush, also known as the "starchy", occurs on all of the northern islands and each has its own subspecies, with Tristan birds being slightly smaller and duller than those on Nightingale and Inaccessible. The endemic Inaccessible Island rail, the smallest extant flightless bird in the world, is found only on Inaccessible Island. In 1956, eight Gough moorhens were released at Sandy Point on Tristan, and have subsequently colonised the island.
#### Marine
The largest no take zone in the Atlantic, and at 687,247 square kilometres (265,348 sq mi), the fourth largest in the world, was designated on 13 November 2020. The Marine Protected Area bans mining and fishing (except the local lobster fishery), with enforcement the responsibility of the UK government via satellite surveillance. According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the islands and surrounding ocean is one of the most pristine temperate ecosystems on the planet.
Various species of whales and dolphins can be seen around Tristan from time to time with increasing sighting rates, although recovery of baleen whales, especially the southern right whale, were severely hindered by illegal whaling by the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the 1960 volcanic eruption. The subantarctic fur seal (Arctophoca tropicalis) can also be found in the Tristan archipelago, mostly on Gough Island.
The biodiversity of marine life is limited given the islands' isolation, making identifying the impacts of invasion difficult. While much of the marine life is unknown there has been an invasive species identified in the waters around the islands. This species is the South American silver porgy (Diplodus argenteus argenteus) which is thought to have sought refuge in the area due to the wreck of an oil platform off the coast of Tristan in 2006. The silver porgy is omnivorous but is not linked to the consumption of the valued lobster populations that the islanders fish. The silver porgy is however suspected to be consuming components of the islands’ fragile kelp forest. The giant kelp forests of Macrocystis pyrifera were extremely limited in biodiversity and has a simple, short-chain food web. While this species is considered non-native and invasive, removal efforts are currently not prioritized. Continued monitoring is suggested and expedition research for all invasive marine species are ongoing.
## Economy
The island has a unique social and economic structure in which all resident families farm and all land is communally owned. Outsiders are prohibited from buying land or settling on Tristan. Besides subsistence agriculture, major industries are commercial fishing and government. Major export industries are the Tristan rock lobster (Jasus) fishery, the sale of the island's postage stamps and coins, and limited tourism. Like most British Overseas Territories, it was never a part of the European Union, but was a member of the EU's Overseas Countries and Territories Association.
The Bank of Saint Helena was established on Saint Helena and Ascension Island in 2004. This bank does not have a physical presence on Tristan da Cunha, but residents of Tristan are entitled to its services. Although Tristan da Cunha is part of the same overseas territory as Saint Helena, it does not use the local Saint Helena pound; sterling is used directly instead.
The island is located in the South Atlantic Anomaly, an area of the Earth with an abnormally weak magnetic field. On 14 November 2008 a geomagnetic observatory was inaugurated on the island as part of a joint venture between the Danish Meteorological Institute and DTU Space.
### Transport
The remote location of the islands makes transport to the outside world difficult. Tristan da Cunha has no airstrip and is not generally accessible to air travel, though the wider territory is served by Saint Helena Airport and RAF Ascension Island. Fishing boats from South Africa service the islands eight or nine times per year.
The RMS Saint Helena used to connect the main island to St Helena and South Africa once each year during its January voyage, but has done so only a few times in the last years, in 2006, in 2011, and most recently in 2018. In the same year the RMS St. Helena was withdrawn from service. Three ships regularly service Tristan da Cunha, with typically fewer than a dozen visits a year. Other vessels may occasionally visit the island. The harbour at Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is called Calshot Harbour, named after the place in Hampshire, England where the islanders temporarily stayed during the volcanic eruption.
### Tourism
Unlike Saint Helena with its airport, hotels and restaurants, due to its remoteness Tristan da Cunha has a very small tourism industry. As the island can only be reached from Cape Town in rough seas on vessels with limited vacancies, a trip must be planned months in advance, and only after a visit request is approved by the Island Council.
Occasional boats or cruises may include a short visit to the island in their itinerary; but as there is no deep harbour, setting ashore is highly dependent on the maritime conditions. With all these limitations and in spite of the spectacular natural landscapes, visiting the territory is an attractive challenge for more adventurous travellers who can afford the time and money to get there. All visitors staying on Tristan must have a confirmed and fully paid return ticket, health insurance to include cover in case of medical evacuation to Cape Town, and sufficient funds to cover their entire stay. There are no hotels on the island. A visitor can rent a guest house (catered or self-catering) or stay in a private home on a full-board basis. There is a Tourism Post Office that sells souvenirs that might take months to arrive if ordered online.
### Communications
#### Telecommunication
The ITU has assigned telephone country code +290 for Tristan da Cunha; however, residents have access to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Telecommunications Network, provided by Global Crossing. This service uses a London 020 numbering range, meaning that numbers are accessed via the UK telephone numbering plan. Satellite-delivered internet access arrived in Tristan da Cunha in 1998, but its high cost initially made it almost unaffordable for the local population, who primarily used it only to send email. The connection was also extremely unreliable, connecting through a 64 kbit/s satellite phone connection provided by Inmarsat.
Since 2006, a very-small-aperture terminal has provided bandwidth for government purposes that is also made available via an internet café and (after office hours) via Wi-Fi to island homes. As of 2016, there is not yet any mobile telephone coverage on the islands.
The Government and Tristan da Cunha Association jointly run the island official website with all practical information, news and facts about the island. While the site is updated from mainland UK, due to slow internet the photos taken and uploaded from Tristan da Cunha are all in low resolution, which allows online navigation in the territory with acceptable speed.
Amateur radio
Amateur radio operator groups sometimes conduct DX-peditions on the island. One group operated as station ZD9ZS in September–October 2014. Nigel (G3TXF) was part of this DX-pedition.
## Government
There are no political parties or trade unions on Tristan. Executive authority is vested in the King, who is represented in the territory by the Governor of Tristan da Cunha. Prior to 2009 Tristan de Cunha was a dependency of Saint Helena and therefore directly represented by the Governor of Saint Helena. The St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009 made Saint Helena, Ascension Island, and Tristan da Cunha equal constituent parts of the territory with their own governments and established the position of Governor of Tristan da Cunha. Per Section 208 of the Constitution Order the person appointed as Governor of Saint Helena is ex officio Governor of Tristan da Cunha. However, as Tristan da Cunha is 1,350 miles (2,170 km) away from Saint Helena, an Administrator of Tristan da Cunha is appointed to act as the Governor's representative on the Island. This arrangement predates the current constitutional structure and the first Administrator was appointed in the 1940s. Previously the Administrator also acted as the local magistrate, but the appointment is to be transferred to a non-member of the executive or legislative branches of government. The Administrator is a career civil servant in the Foreign Office, selected by London, who acts as the local head of government and takes advice from the Tristan da Cunha Island Council. Since 1998, each Administrator has usually served a three-year term (which begins in September, upon arrival of the supply ship from Cape Town). Fiona Kilpatrick and Stephen Townsend were exceptions to this rule, having taken up their job-share office in January 2020.
The Administrator and Island Council work from the Government Building, which is the only two-storey building on the island. The building is sometimes referred to as "Whitehall" or the "H'admin Building" and contains the Administrator's Office, Treasury Department, Administration Offices, and the Council Chamber where Island Council meetings are held. Policing is undertaken by one full-time police inspector and three special constables. Tristan da Cunha has some legislation of its own, but the law of Saint Helena applies generally to the extent that it is not inconsistent with local law, insofar as it is suitable for local circumstances and subject to such modifications as local circumstances make necessary.
### Chief Islander
The Island Council is made up of eight elected and three appointed members, who serve a three-year term which begins in February or March. A separate but simultaneous vote is held to select the Chief Islander, who is the community's political leader. James Glass was re-elected to the position in March 2022 to a record-breaking fifth term in the role.
## Demographics
Tristan da Cunha recorded a population of 243 in the June 2021 census. The only settlement is Edinburgh of the Seven Seas (known locally as "The Settlement"). The current residents are thought to have descended from fifteen outside ancestors, eight male and seven female, who arrived on the island at various dates between 1816 and 1908. The men were European, and the women were mixed race. Now all of the population has mixed ancestry. In addition, a male contributor of eastern European / Russian descent arrived in the early 1900s. In 1963, when families returned after the evacuation due to the 1961 volcanic eruption, the 200 settlers included four Tristan da Cunha women who brought with them new English husbands.
The female descendants have been traced by genetic study to five female founders, believed to be mixed-race (African, Asian and European descent) and from Saint Helena. The historical data recounted that there were two pairs of sisters, but the mtDNA evidence showed only one pair of sisters.
The early male founders originated from Scotland, England, the Netherlands, the United States, and Italy, who belonged to three Y-haplogroups: I (M170), R-SRY10831.2, and R (M207) (xSRY10831.2). The male founders shared seven surnames: Glass, Green, Hagan, Lavarello, Repetto, Rogers, and Swain. The surnames Collins, Squibb, and Patterson were brought to the island by Tristanian women, returning with their English husbands from the evacuation of the early 1960s. The surnames Collins and Squibb continue to be used on the island. In addition, a new haplotype was found that is associated with men of eastern Europe and Russia. It entered the population in the early 1900s, at a time when the island was visited by Russian sailing ships. There is "evidence for the contribution of a hidden ancestor who left his genes, but not his name, on the island." Another four instances of non-paternity were found among male descendants, but researchers believed their fathers were probably among the early island population.
There are eighty families on the island. Like many remote island communities, Tristan da Cunha has an aging population. In the past, Tristan da Cunha mothers had to travel all the way to Cape Town to give birth, but since 2021 have been able to give birth on the island at Camogli Hospital.
## Language
### Phonetics and phonology
- Tristan da Cunha English, spoken on the isolated island in the South Atlantic, is the smallest and most isolated native-speaker community of English.
- The variety of English spoken in Tristan da Cunha features unique phonetic and phonological characteristics.
- The vowel in words like "face" is non-diphthongized, pronounced as [fe:s].
- Stops, such as the medial consonants in "button," "bottle," and "people," are glottalized.
- Extensive insertion of the sound [h] occurs in words like "happle" and "hafter," merging the pronunciation of "island" with "highland."
- Devoicing of the medial -z- and -zh- sounds is common, resulting in pronunciations like "sea[s]on" and "televi[sh]ion" with [s] and [sh] respectively.
- Tristan da Cunha English is non-rhotic, with linking and intrusive [r] sounds.
Grammar:
- Tristan da Cunha English shares non-standard grammatical features with other English varieties in the Falkland Islands and St. Helena.
- Plural marking after numbers is absent, as seen in constructions like "five pound."
- Distinct second person plural pronouns are used, such as "y'all" and "you's."
- Verbal inflectional morphology is simplified, as in "She sing real good" and "They never eat much them days."
- The pronoun "them" is used to mark definite noun phrases, as seen in sentences like "They never eat much them days."
- Expressiveness drives peculiarities in Tristan da Cunha English, including double comparatives (e.g., "I like that more better") and double negation (e.g., "nobody never come out or nothing").
- In questions, inversion is not used, as in constructions like "Where they is?"
Vocabulary:
- The use of nicknames is extremely common on Tristan da Cunha, serving an important social function.
- Phrases and words associated with holidays, festivals, clothing, farming, fishing, etc., are typical of the island's vocabulary.
- Various aspects of vocabulary related to birds, habitation names, fish, hills, ridges, craters, slopes, inland rocks, plants, rocks in the sea or on the coast, hardies, bluffs, fauna, points, headlands, capes, daily work, plains, plateaus, districts, woods, food, gulches, valleys, clothes, brooks, waterfalls, crater lakes, illness, bays, beaches, caves, nature, tracks, paths, roads, the sea, personal names, nicknames, people, the community, holidays, parties, games, and buildings are mentioned in relation to the vocabulary of Tristan da Cunha.
### Education
Children leave school at age 16, and although they can take GCSEs a year later, few do. The school on the island is St. Mary's School, which serves children from ages 4 to 16. The Naval Station had established a school building during World War II. The current facility opened in 1975 and has five classrooms, a kitchen, a stage, a computer room, and a craft and science room. Tristan students doing post-16 education receive assistance from the Tristan da Cunha Association Education Trust Fund and typically do so in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
The Tristan Song Project was a collaboration between St. Mary's School and amateur composers in Britain, led by music teacher Tony Triggs. It began in 2010 and involved St. Mary's pupils writing poems and Triggs providing musical settings by himself and his pupils. A desktop publication entitled Rockhopper Penguins and Other Songs (2010) embraced most of the songs completed that year and funded a consignment of guitars to the school. In February 2013, the Tristan Post Office issued a set of four Song Project stamps featuring island musical instruments and lyrics from Song Project songs about Tristan's volcano and wildlife. In 2014, the project broadened its scope and continues as the International Song Project.
### Religion
The only religion is Christianity, with the only denominations being Anglican and Roman Catholic. The Roman Catholic population is served by the Mission Sui Iuris of Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha, which is administratively a part of the Apostolic Prefecture of the Falkland Islands. Edwin Dodgson, youngest brother of Lewis Carroll, spent several years as a missionary on the island in the nineteenth century.
### Health
Healthcare is funded by the government, undertaken at most times by one resident doctor. Surgery or facilities for complex childbirth are therefore limited, and emergencies can necessitate communicating with passing fishing vessels so the injured person can be ferried to Cape Town.
As of late 2007, IBM and Beacon Equity Partners, co-operating with Medweb, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the island's government on "Project Tristan", had supplied the island's doctor with access to long distance tele-medical help, making it possible to send EKG and X-ray pictures to doctors in other countries for instant consultation.
The Camogli Healthcare Centre, usually referred to as the hospital, was built and equipped in 2016/2017 to the latest UK National Health Service standards and was officially opened on 7 June 2017. It is located in the southwestern corner of the settlement below the previous hospital (built in 1971), which is now used by the veterinarians and for general storage. The new hospital was funded by the UK Department for International Development with the intention the improved facilities would allow more procedures to be performed locally by visiting specialists, and therefore reduce the need for expensive referrals to Cape Town.
There are normally two expatriate doctors on the island, who provide 24 hour cover. There are also normally two expatriate and four local nurses, as well as two dental technicians, a hospital manager and ancillary staff. The medical staff deal with day-to-day medical matters, handle emergency cases, and undertake minor surgery. More complex and serious cases are transported to Cape Town for treatment, as are all expectant mothers for their deliveries.
There are instances of health problems attributed to endogamy, including glaucoma. In addition, there is a very high (42%) incidence of asthma among the population and research by Noe Zamel of the University of Toronto has led to discoveries about the genetic nature of the disease. Three of the original settlers of the island had asthma.
## Culture
### Music and traditional dance
Tristan residents Mary Swain and Percy Lavarello were recorded in 1962 whilst evacuated in Calshot, Hampshire by Maud Karpeles and Peter Kennedy singing traditional songs and discussing the culture of the island, mainly music and dance; the full recording (split between seven tapes and also including other Tristan residents) can be heard on the British Library Sound Archive website. On these tapes, Mary Swain sings traditional English folk songs learnt from her mother, including seventeenth-century Child Ballads such as "Barbara Allen" and "The Golden Vanity". She also describes how dance was an important element of life on Tristan; well-known dances such as step dances, waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and schottisches were common, as well as many unique traditional dances such as "The Donkey Dance", "The Pillow Dance", "The Chair Dance" and something called "Tabby Oaker's Big Toe" which involved displaying one's feet. It seems that the music and dance of Tristan was ultimately derived from English traditions, but various peculiarities had developed.
### Crime
No one has ever been arrested for crime by the single policeman on the island.
### Radio and television
Local television began in 1984 using taped programming on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings. Live television did not arrive on the island until 2001, with the introduction of the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS TV), which now provides six channels: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News and BFBS Extra, relayed to islanders via local transmitters. Recently the service was upgraded to digital, most TV screens are modern and DTV while some older analogue CRT equipments still are in use with digital boxes connected and there is at least one TV set per house. BFBS Radio 2 is the locally available radio station.
### Newspapers
The Tristan Times was an online newspaper for the island published from 2003 to 2019. The island government also posts news announcements on its website, which is maintained by the UK-based Tristan da Cunha Association.
### Holidays and holiday traditions
The island holds an annual break from government and factory work which begins before Christmas and lasts for three weeks. The beginning of the holiday, called Break-Up Day, is usually marked with parties and celebrations. The islanders would traditionally have parties on Boxing Day but not on Christmas Day.
Traditionally, on "Old Year's Day/Night" (meaning "New Year's Eve"), the islanders would conceal their identities with masks or blackface and the men would wear women's clothing; everyone would celebrate anonymously moving between households, singing songs, dancing, shouting, playing instruments and firing guns. At the stroke of midnight, a bell would announce the new year. On New Year's Day, the islanders would play cricket and football, and once again party later in the day. The disguises sometimes recall English Border Morris dancers. Similarly, in England in the Middle Ages, this period was one of continuous feasting and merrymaking, which climaxed on Twelfth Night, the traditional end of the Christmas season on 6 January. In Tudor England, Twelfth Night itself was forever solidified in popular culture when William Shakespeare used it as the setting for one of his most famous stage plays, titled Twelfth Night. Often a Lord of Misrule was chosen to lead the Christmas revels.
### Sport
Football, cricket and baseball were all historically played on the island.
It has been reported that football was introduced to the locals in the 1920s by Rev. Henry Rogers, and it remains the island’s favourite sport. Rose, Henry’s wife, wrote about informal kick-abouts continuing for years, and these fast became a part of Tristanian culture. The islanders would split themselves into two teams and play friendly matches, especially on dates of special occasions, such as weddings, christenings etc.
In 1940 Tristan da Cunha's footballers played their first "international" game against the crew of a Norwegian ship. No record remains of the score. In the ensuing years, the game flourished, with the islanders playing matches against crews from vessels of various nationalities, including ships from the Royal Navy.
With live transmissions of televised football, the sport regained its former popularity. Tristan da Cunha FC was formed in 2002. A local fishing company bought them a kit (white shirts and blue shorts). They had a very basic pitch on American Field, named in recognition of the American forces stationed there during World War II. However, opponents were in short supply. It was a case of waiting for visiting opponents, and sometimes years might go by without any opportunities to play foreign opposition. Their first match was against a South African fishing vessel and they lost 10–6. The remoteness of Tristan da Cunha makes it virtually impossible for the team to travel abroad to play against foreign opposition. In recent times, the club's numbers have dropped to a level where only 5-a-side matches are being played.
## Notable people
- Edwin Heron Dodgson (1846–1918), a clergyman in the Church of England, was the youngest brother of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He is primarily remembered for his work as a missionary in the island of Tristan da Cunha from 1880 to 1884.
- Conrad Jack Glass MBE (born 1961) is a Tristanian police officer and a former Chief Islander. He is the first islander to have written a book about it, Rockhopper Copper (2005).
- William Glass (1786–1853), Scottish Corporal and founder of the island's settlement.
- Anne Green (born 1952), first female Chief Islander and teacher.
## In popular culture
### Film
- In Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire, a dying man recollecting the things that have apparently meant most to him mentions "Tristan da Cunha".
- 37°4 S is a short film about two teenagers who live on the island.
### Literature
- Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838), Chapter 15, has a detailed history and description of the island.
- In Jules Verne's novel In Search of the Castaways, one of the chapters is set on Tristan da Cunha, and a brief history of the island is mentioned.
- Zinnie Harris's play, Further Than the Furthest Thing (2000), is inspired by events on the island, notably the 1961 volcanic eruption and evacuation of the islanders.
- Alice Munro's short story Deep-Holes in her 2009 short story collection Too Much Happiness. The female protagonist, a mother, confides to her young son about her fascination with remote islands like Tristan da Cunha and the Faroe Islands. Later, when her son goes missing, she fantasises that he has found his way to one of these islands and is living there.
### Non-fiction
- Frank T. Bullen provides details of visiting the island in the 1870s in his book The Cruise of the Cachalot, first published in 1898.
- Francis Pease’s book To the Ends of the Earth (Hurst and Blackett Ltd., 1935) describes the RRS Discovery’s trip to Antartica in 1925, which stopped at Tristan da Cunha. Chapter 2 is titled Folk of Tristan.
- Simon Winchester's book Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire (1985, reprinted in 2003), devotes a chapter to the island, which he visited in the mid-1980s. In the foreword to the reprint, the author states that he was banned from Tristan da Cunha because of his writing about the war-time romance of a local woman. He published a longer account of his banishment in Lapham's Quarterly.
- In 2005, Rockhopper Copper, the first book about the island written by an Islander, was published. It was written by Conrad Glass, Tristan da Cunha's longtime policeman and conservation officer.
## See also
- Outline of Tristan da Cunha
- Sandy Point, Tristan da Cunha
|
18,510,840 |
Tara (Ramayana)
| 1,161,512,722 |
Queen of Kishkindha and wife of the monkey (vanara) King Vali in Hindu epic Ramayana
|
[
"Apsara",
"Characters_in_the_Ramayana",
"Vanara in the Ramayana"
] |
In the Hindu epic Ramayana, Tara (Sanskrit: तारा, , lit. 'star') is the Queen of Kishkindha and the wife of the monkey (vanara) King Vali. After being widowed, she becomes the Queen of Sugriva, Vali's younger brother.
Tara is described as the daughter of the monkey physician Sushena in the Ramayana, and in later sources, as an apsara (celestial nymph) who rises from the churning of the milky ocean. She marries Vali and bears him a son named Angada. After Vali is presumed dead in a battle with a demon, his brother Sugriva becomes king and appropriates Tara; however, Vali returns and regains Tara and exiles his brother, accusing him of treachery.
When Sugriva challenges Vali to a duel, Tara wisely advises Vali not to accept because of the former's alliance with Rama—the hero of the Ramayana and an avatar of the god Vishnu—but Vali does not heed her, and dies from Rama's arrow, shot at the behest of Sugriva. The Ramayana and its later adaptations emphasize Tara's lamentation. While in most vernacular versions, Tara casts a curse on Rama by the power of her chastity, in some versions, Rama enlightens Tara.
Sugriva returns to the throne but spends his time carousing and fails to act on his promise to assist Rama in recovering his kidnapped wife, Sita. Tara—now Sugriva's queen and chief diplomat—is then instrumental in reconciling Rama with Sugriva after pacifying Lakshmana, Rama's brother, who was about to destroy Kishkinda in retribution for Sugriva's perceived treachery. After this incident, Tara is only mentioned in passing references, as the mother of Angada and Queen of Sugriva, as the story moves from Kishkindha to the climactic battle in Lanka to retrieve Sita.
Tara's intelligence, presence of mind, courage and devotion to her husband Vali is praised. She is extolled as one of the panchakanya (five [revered] women), the recital of whose names is believed to dispel sin.
## Birth and early life
In the Ramayana, Tara is addressed by Vali as the daughter of the vanara physician Sushena. Some versions of the Bala Kanda (the first book of the Ramayana), include verses describing principal monkeys created by various deities. Vali and Sugriva are described as sons of the king of the gods, Indra and the sun-god Surya respectively; while Tara is described as the daughter of Brihaspati, the guru of the gods. The 12th century Tamil Ramavataram and the Telugu Ranganatha Ramayanam state that Tara and Ruma rose, along with other apsaras, from the ocean of milk during its churning by the gods and the demons, to acquire the elixir of life (amrita). In the Theyyam drama tradition of Kerala, the gods tire and request Vali to help in the churning. When Vali just starts churning, Tara rises from the ocean and thus is gifted to Vali.
According to the Javanese wayang puppet tradition, Tara (Dewi Tara) is the apsara daughter of Indra and his wife Wiyati. Her siblings include a sister called Dewi Tari, the consort of the demon-king of Lanka, Ravana (Rahwana) and brothers Citarata, Citragana, Jayantaka, Jayantara, and Harjunawangsa.
While the Ramayana states that Tara first weds Vali, some Ramayana adaptations sometimes present a polyandrous relationship between Tara, Vali and Sugriva. The Ranganatha Ramayana states that Tara is given to Vali and Sugriva as a reward for helping the gods. A Tamil folk tale tells that after the amrita emerged, Tara rises and is given as a common wife to both Vali and Sugriva. In the Mahabharata, there is a reference to Vali and Sugriva fighting over an unnamed woman, who the mythologist Bhattacharya believes to be Tara.
Some Ramayana retellings including some Mahabharata versions, the Narasimha Purana and the Mahanataka portray Tara as originally Sugriva's wife that Vali snatched. The Thai Ramakien says that the gods give Vali and Sugriva a trident and Tara respectively, but Vali grabs Tara too and marries her. The Balinese dance Kebyar and the wayang tradition also tells that Tara was married to Sugriva (Sugriwa) initially, but appropriated by Vali (Subali).
In all versions, Angada is born from Tara's marriage to Vali.
In the Ramayana, Vali goes to fight the demon Mayavi in a cave and instructs Sugriva to close the door of the cave if blood flows out from the cave, implying that he has been killed, but if milk flows out, it indicates that Mayavi is dead. After a year of combat, the dying demon turns the colour of his milky blood to red by sorcery. Sugriva believes that Vali is dead and closes the only opening to the cave. Sugriva also appropriates—sometimes interpreted as marriage—Vali's "widow" Tara. After Vali returns, rejecting Sugriva's explanation, he exiles Sugriva and not only re-acquires Tara but also seizes Ruma, Sugriva's wife, in retaliation. While Vali's act of usurping Ruma when her husband is alive is universally criticized by the Ramayana commentators, they excuse Sugriva's taking of Tara, as his wife, as he believed she was widowed.
In the wayang variant, Vali (Subali) goes to battle the demon brother-rulers of Kishkinda, Jatasura and Lembusura, in the cave. Similar to the Ramayana, Sugriva (Sugriwa) presumes Vali dead. The gods crown Sugriva the king of Kishkinda and grant him, Tara, as a reward for aiding his "dead" brother. Vali returns and instigated by Ravana, seizes Tara and the kingdom.
## Death of Vali
After his wife Sita is kidnapped by the demon-king Ravana, Rama and his brother Lakshmana wander the forest searching for her. Upon meeting the monkey-warrior Hanuman, they are taken to the exiled Sugriva. Rama forms an alliance with Sugriva, whom he will help; in order to defeat Vali and regain his wife Ruma and his kingship. In return, Sugriva will aid in the search for Sita. As agreed, Sugriva challenges Vali in the wrestling contest, but Rama is unable to distinguish between the two fighters and Sugriva loses the contest. Rama explains his predicament to Sugriva and tells him to re-challenge Vali, but this time, Rama garlands Sugriva to differentiate him from Vali.
### Tara's warning
In the Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana, when Sugriva re-challenges Vali for combat, Tara suggests that "appearances are deceptive" and normally, a combatant would not return so soon to a fight again after a decisive defeat. Having heard of the growing friendship between Sugriva and Rama, she cautions Vali. She urges him to forgive Sugriva, to anoint him as the crown prince, as a diplomatic move, and live peacefully with him, and also befriend the exalted Rama. Tara begs Vali to act on her advice, but acknowledging Tara's love and devotion, Vali argues that a warrior like him cannot refuse a challenge; despite this, he promises to not kill Sugriva, but just crush his pride.
In the Mahabharata retelling, when Sugriva re-challenges Vali, Tara dissuades Vali from going to the fight and points out that Sugriva may have found a protector. Tara, described as lustrous like the moon, is praised by Vali as one who understands the language of all creatures and is astute to clarify her statement. Tara warns him about Sugriva's alliance with Rama and the plotting of Vali's death at the hands of Sugriva and his advisers. Vali not only disregards Tara's advice but also suspects Tara of cheating on him with Sugriva. Vali leaves, speaking harshly to Tara.
In the Ramavataram, Tara warns about Rama's plans to kill Vali. However, Vali dismisses her warning as unfounded, arguing that Rama, a man of dharma, would not shoot him when he and Sugriva are in a duel. Vali leaves, promising Tara that he will slay Sugriva.
### Tara's lamentation
In the Bala Kanda Book of the Ramayana, where the whole work is summarized, the lamentation of Tara is mentioned as a significant event.
Ignoring Tara's sound advice, Vali engages in combat with Sugriva. While fighting, Rama shoots an arrow at Vali from behind, fatally wounding him. The news of Vali's death reaches Tara; she rushes to him with Angada. She sees monkeys running in terror on the way. They advise her to go back to the palace and consecrate Angada as the king. Tara refuses and says that she needs to see her husband first, leading them back to Vali. Embracing the dying Vali, Tara laments his death while reproaching Sugriva and Rama. Tara accepts Vali's death as punishment for seizing Ruma and exiling Sugriva.
In North Indian manuscripts of the Ramayana, some interpolations elaborate Tara's lament. Tara mentions the hardships of widowhood and prefers death to it. She blames Rama for unjustly killing Vali and tells him that if they had forged an alliance, Vali could have helped him recover Sita. Tara invokes the power of her chastity and curses Rama so that he will soon lose Sita after he regains her. She declares that Sita will return to the earth. The curse also appears in the North-western Indian manuscripts. In several vernacular adaptations of the Ramayana like the Oriya Vilanka Ramayana by Sarala Dasa, Tara's curse is reiterated. Apart from the usual curse to Rama of his separation from Sita, in the Bengali Krittivasi Ramayana, Tara additionally curses Rama that in his next birth, he will be killed by Vali. The Mahanataka and the Ananda Ramayana narrate that Vali is reborn as the hunter who kills Krishna, Rama's next birth.
Hanuman consoles Tara, telling her to look towards the future of her son, Angada. Hanuman suggests that Angada be consecrated as king, compensating her loss but Tara declares that since his uncle Sugriva is alive, it is inadvisable. With his last breath, Vali confesses his folly of abandoning Sugriva and urges Angada and Tara to support Sugriva. He declares that:
> "Tara is ... thoroughly knowledgeable about deciding subtle matters and about various portents. Whatever she says is right should be done without doubt, for nothing Tara believes turns out to be otherwise."
Vali requests Rama to take care that Tara is not insulted and advises Sugriva to unquestioningly follow her advice.
Vali dies in the embraces of Tara, who mourns his death in a painful and rebuking speech. According to Lefeber, Tara's lament has been significantly expanded, if not added completely, over the centuries. In South Indian manuscripts, some later interpolations elaborate Tara's lament, in which Tara asks Rama to kill her and lead her to Vali. Rama consoles Tara, saying that she should accept the preordained destiny. Rama guarantees her that her rights and those of Angada will be protected and that she will enjoy "continued comfort". He tells her that a wife of a hero should not hold personal sorrow.
In the Adhyatma Ramayana, while Tara wails over the death of Vali, Rama preaches to her, saying that the body is ephemeral, while only the soul is eternal; he tells her she should not grieve over the decay of Vali's body. Tara questions him asking "if the body is destructible, why does one feel pleasure and pain". Rama informs her that due to ahamkara (egoism) the mind is chained in bondage to desires. He declares that Tara will remain untouched by karma and be emancipated from the bondage of life. Having heard his sermon, and because she had been devoted to him in a previous birth, Tara thus becomes free of egoism and undergoes self-realization. This discourse of Rama also appears in Tulsidas's Ramacharitamanasa, but it is curtailed to just two verses and is possibly borrowed from the former text. Rama says that the body is perishable, but the soul is immortal and listening to this, the enlightened Tara bows to Rama and gains the boon of supreme devotion.
A Ramayana version portrays her as trying to stabilize the kingdom after Vali's death in her arms. She declares that "With his last breath, King Vali begs you, his faithful subjects, to follow his brother [Sugriva] as your rightful king." Angada cremates Vali, aided in the funeral rites by Tara and Sugriva.
## Marriage to Sugriva
After Vali's death, Sugriva acquires Vali's kingdom as well as Tara. The Ramayana does not record any formal marriage or any ritual purification—like the trial by fire Sita had to undergo when she is reacquired by Rama from Ravana—that Tara must undertake to marry Sugriva or return to Vali following his return from the dead. The lack of the description of formal marriage suggests, according to some critics, that Tara's relationship to Sugriva is neither widow re-marriage nor polyandry, but simply appropriation by Sugriva. In the references of the coronation of Sugriva as king, Angada is also described as the heir-apparent crown prince, while Tara is mentioned as Sugriva's wife. The Adhyatma Ramayana declares that Sugriva acquires Tara.
While Vali's acquisition of Ruma— elder brother taking his younger sister-in-law as a wife—is universally condemned; however as in Tara's case, the elder brother's widow marrying her younger brother-in-law seems to be a social norm. Ramashraya Sharma considers that Rama's silence on the marriage of Tara and Sugriva does not signal non-acceptance of the act, but rather that he is not concerned with the issue of the sexual relations of the loose charactered vanaras, in which Tara and Ruma exchange hands between the brothers. The Ramayana mentions that Sugriva indulges in sexual pleasures of women, including Ruma and Tara, who he coveted. In the Ramayana however, Angada criticizes Sugriva for his lustful marriage to his elder sister-in-law Tara, who is like a mother to him. Though a political marriage, Tara serves Sugriva loyally.
The commentaries of the Ramayana suggest that it would be right for Sugriva to marry the widowed Tara. The Amritakataka of Kataka Madhava Yogindra says that this was right as they were animals. The Tilaka by Nahesh Bhatt(Ramavarma) justifies Sugriva's marriage to Tara since Sugriva was her dead husband's brother. It further states that Tara should remarry as she did not belong to the first three castes and was young. Tara's action of taking Sugriva as her husband after Vali's death is seen as her attempt to secure the futures of Angada and the kingdom.
In some rare instances like in the Ramavataram, Tara does not remarry. Sugriva treats her as a mother figure and salutes her.
## Tara pacifies Lakshmana
The rainy season ensues and ends and Rama in despair fears that Sugriva has forgotten his promise to help him trace and recover Sita. Rama sends Lakshmana to Kishkindha to remind the complacent monarch of his promise to help. Irritated that the city is barricaded, Lakshmana kicks down the city gate and threatens to destroy Sugriva and the monkey kingdom with his divine power. Lakshmana is unable to tolerate Sugriva breaking his vow to Rama, enjoying material and sensual pleasures, while Rama suffers alone.
When the agitated Lakshamana—reaching the inner chambers of Sugriva and his harem—reproaches Sugriva for being ungrateful to Rama and forgetting his promise, the critical edition of the Ramayana states that Tara voluntarily intervenes to calm the wrath of Lakshmana. In some Ramayana adaptations and North-western Indian manuscripts of the Ramayana, it is Tara, not Ruma in whom Sugriva is engrossed when Lakshmana arrives. The South Indian manuscripts portray the drunk Sugriva, who is engrossed in lustful revel as being ignorant of Lakshmana's anger and sending Tara to pacify him, in some versions, even though she is drunk. Though intoxicated with "half-closed eyes and unsteady gait", Tara manages to disarm Lakshmana. The intoxication of Tara is also described in the original Ramayana, but in a different context. Tara is described as having made it a habit to visit Sugriva always in a tipsy state, before indulging in the "new pleasures of love".
The Ramayana narrates: Tara says that Sugriva is mindful that through Rama, Sugriva has gained the kingship, Ruma and herself. She defends Sugriva saying that even great sage Vishwamitra was tempted by pleasure, Sugriva—a mere forest-dwelling monkey—is fatigued by his past hardships and is relaxing, but not partaking in carnal pleasures. Tara informs Sugriva that Vali told her that Ravana is a mighty king with several rakshasas in his service. She reminds Lakshmana that without an ally like Sugriva, Rama cannot defeat such a powerful foe. Tara informs him that Sugriva has summoned all monkey commanders and troops to the capital. The Adhyatma Ramayana also presents a similar description, where Tara, Angada and Hanuman are sent by Sugriva to calm Lakshmana. In a condensed one-verse description, the Ramacharitamanasa says that Tara and Hanuman were dispatched by Sugriva and were successful in appeasing Lakshmana by singing Rama's praises. In the Ramavataram, though not Sugriva's consort, Tara pacifies Lakshamana. The usual epithet of Tara, lustrous as the moon, in the Ramavataram, signifies her white clothes, the sign of a widow. Lakshmana is reminded of his own widowed mother seeing Tara.
Pacified by Tara and praised further by Sugriva, Lakshmana begs for Sugriva's pardon for abusing him. It is only through the diplomatic intervention of Tara that the crisis is averted.
## Commentary
> Ahalya Draupadi Kunti Tara Mandodari tatha
> panchakanya smare nityam mahapataka nashanam
>
> Remembering ever the virgins five -Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari
> Destroys the greatest of sins.
Hindus remember Panchakanya: the five virgins or maidens, in this daily morning prayer. Tara, with Ahalya and Mandodari, belong to the Ramayana, while the rest are from the Mahabharata.
V. R. Devika, author of Tara: Unsung heroine describes her as a woman "treated like an equal and her opinion mattered as if she were one of the lieutenants." Ramayana presents Tara as a woman, intensely loved and respected by Vali, her husband. Her regard is so great that her counsel to Vali sometimes has a commanding tone. Pradip Bhattacharya, author of the book Panchkanya: Women of Substance describes Tara as "a woman of unusual intelligence, foresight and confidence." Tara's devotion to her husband is also praised.
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1,224,902 |
Sad Wings of Destiny
| 1,172,452,798 | null |
[
"1976 albums",
"Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios",
"Judas Priest albums"
] |
Sad Wings of Destiny is the second studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 26 March 1976 by Gull Records. It is considered the album on which Judas Priest consolidated their sound and image, and songs from it such as "Victim of Changes" and "The Ripper" have since become live standards. It was the band's only album to feature drummer Alan Moore.
Noted for its riff-driven sound and the wide range of Rob Halford's vocals, the album displays a wide variety of styles, moods and textures, inspired by an array of groups such as Queen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. The centrepiece "Victim of Changes" is a nearly eight-minute track featuring heavy riffing trading off with high-pitched vocals, extended guitar leads, and a slow, moody breakdown toward the end. "Tyrant" and "The Ripper" are short, dense, high-powered rockers with many parts and changes. Riffs and solos dominate "Genocide", "Island of Domination", and "Deceiver", and the band finds more laid-back moments in the crooning piano-backed "Epitaph" and the moody "Dreamer Deceiver".
Sad Wings of Destiny had a positive reception but weak sales. The band recorded their first two albums with the independent Gull label under tight budgets; after living off a single meal per day while working side jobs to support themselves, the group grew frustrated with the financial situation and signed with CBS Records for their next album, Sin After Sin (1977). Breaking their contract resulted in the rights to Sad Wings of Destiny and its demo recordings falling into Gull's hands. In retrospect, the album has received acclaim as one of the most important albums in heavy metal history, with the album's image and style going on to influence many later metal bands, as well as later Judas Priest albums.
## Background
Judas Priest formed in September 1969 in industrial West Bromwich, Birmingham by lead vocalist/founding Al Atkins and bass guitarist/co-founding Brian "Bruno" Steppenhill, who chose the band's name, wanting one similar to Black Sabbath's. The bands were contemporaries and were both from Birmingham, though Judas Priest failed to find a significant audience until Black Sabbath began to fade from the spotlight. The band's guitarists Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing have said the heavy riffing and complexity of the song arrangements were inspired by the factories of Birmingham.
By the time Judas Priest's first album, Rocka Rolla, was released in 1974, there had been so many lineup changes that K.K Downing and Ian Hill were the only remaining original members. The first album displayed a mix of styles from a wide variety of influences, but the band found the performance and production disappointing. The band gigged occasionally through 1975, at times sharing the stage with bands such as Pink Fairies and UFO. Drummer John Hinch left the band for reasons that are disputed and was replaced with Alan Moore in October 1975, who had drummed in an early incarnation of the band.
The band performed the "Dreamer Deceiver"–"Deceiver" pair on BBC Two's The Old Grey Whistle Test the year before the songs appeared on Sad Wings of Destiny. They were frustrated with the BBC's volume restrictions, as high volume is a key component in producing a heavy-metal sound. The band had yet to develop the studs-and-leather image that was to become their trademark; instead, they wore contemporary mid-1970s fashions, including high-heeled boots and frilled shirts, and a long-haired Halford donned a pink satin top which he later said he borrowed from his sister. By 1976, the band's singer Rob Halford joked that fans should burn their copies of Rocka Rolla.
Finances were tight: the record label Gull provided a recording budget of £2,000 for each of the band's first two albums. During the recording of Sad Wings of Destiny, band members restricted themselves to one meal a day, and several took on part-time work: Tipton as a gardener, Downing in a factory, and Hill driving a delivery van. The group went into the studio with the intention of making an album that mixed straight-ahead rock with a progressive edge.
## Production
Recording took place over two weeks in November and December 1975 at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producers Jeffrey Calvert and Gereint "Max West" Hughes, and Chris Tsangarides as co-engineer. Calvert and Hughes were the main members of the pop group Typically Tropical who topped the UK charts in 1975 with "Barbados", Gull's first hit. The band stayed sober during the recording sessions, which lasted from 3:00 pm until 3:00 am. Mixing took a week at Morgan Studios in London.
David Howells of Gull records commissioned Patrick Woodroffe to provide the cover art, a piece called Fallen Angel depicting a struggling, grounded angel surrounded by flames and wearing a devil's three-pronged cross, which was the band's symbol. Halford posed Christ-like on the reverse, and Gothic fonts adorned the front and back.
## Songs
Victim of Changes
The nearly eight-minute "Victim of Changes" displays a wide dynamic range in rhythm, texture, and mood, with heavy riffing, a melodic ballad section, and extended guitar leads. An almost classical-sounding twin-guitar introduction leads to the violent main riff. The lyrics tell of a woman whose hard-drinking results in losing her man to another woman. Inspired by Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog", the heavy riff alternates with a cappella passages, Halford breaking into screaming falsettos during the slow break and dramatic conclusion of the song.
The track began as two songs: "Whiskey Woman" and "Red Light Lady". "Whiskey Woman" was an early Priest song by Downing and Atkins that the band chose not to include on their first album, though it had long been a crowd-pleasing opener at live shows and features on early demo recordings. To this the band wove in the slow "Red Light Lady", a song Halford brought with him from his previous band, Hiroshima.
The Ripper
A busy, chugging, riff-heavy rocker, "The Ripper" features arrangements inspired by Queen–particularly in the high-pitched layered opening vocals and classical-tinged twin guitars. The lyrics of the Tipton-penned track are from the point of view of Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper.
Dreamer Deceiver
A slow ballad with crooning vocals and screaming lead soloing, the song serves as introduction to the heavy "Deceiver" which follows it. Atkins originally received partial credit for both tracks, but disclaimed involvement in them; later releases removed it.
Deceiver
A heavy song with a chugging riff presaging the technical style of speed metal, "Deceiver" features energetic soloing and a heavy, Black Sabbath-like break with soaring, high-pitched vocals, climaxing in a repetitive acoustic closing.
Prelude
"Prelude" is a short baroque instrumental, alternating between the tonic and dominant, and is arranged for piano, synthesizer, guitars, and tom-tom drums. Despite the title, "Prelude" is musically unrelated to the following track, "Tyrant".
Tyrant
A heavy track full of many parts and tempo changes, Halford has said "Tyrant" expresses his "aversion towards any form of control".
Genocide
A forward-looking, riff-heavy rocker, bearing the influence of heavy rockers such as the Deep Purple tracks "Woman from Tokyo" and "Burn". Halford expressed hope that the song's "strong and graphic" lyrics would "be provocative and somewhat controversial and to stimulate people". The phrase "sin after sin" from the lyrics to "Genocide" provided the title to the band's next album.
Epitaph
A quiet track with piano backing and Queen-like layered vocals, Halford said the lyrics to "Epitaph" express frustration at a lack of place for the young or old in modern cities.
Island of Domination
The side-closing "Island of Domination" is a heavy rocker with a complex riff in a style reminiscent of Black Sabbath. Downing described the lyrics as personal to Halford, joking of their having "probably a few innuendoes".
## Release
Sad Wings of Destiny was released 26 March 1976, and seven days earlier "The Ripper" appeared as a single backed with "Island of Domination".
The album was initially published and distributed by Janus Records in the United States.
The album had the A-side and B-side reversed, so that "Prelude" opens the second side and "Victim of Changes" the first, while the sleeve has "Prelude" opening the first side.
The album had little commercial success at first and had difficulty getting noticed due to critical competition from the rise of punk rock. The band supported the album with a headlining tour of the UK from 6 April to 20 June 1976.
The album was awarded a gold record in 1989. Sad Wings of Destiny arrived at the same time as other influential metal albums from the late 70's – the same year saw the release of Rising from Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and Virgin Killer from Scorpions.
The band had grown dissatisfied with Gull; the tight finances led Moore to leave the band a second time—this time permanently.
The album caught the attention of CBS Records, and with the help of new manager David Hemmings, the band signed with CBS and received a £60000 budget for their next record, Sin After Sin (1977). Downing described how the disappointed feelings the group had over Gull's management influenced the dark themes that appeared on Sad Wings of Destiny.
The signing required breaking their contract with Gull, resulting in the rights to the first two albums and all related recordings—including demos—becoming property of Gull.
Gull periodically repackaged and re-released the material from these albums, such as on the 1981 double album Hero, Hero.
For the most part, the band was to abandon the progressive rock elements of their first two albums for a more straight-ahead heavy rock sound; the band revisited these progressive elements in 2008 on the album Nostradamus.
## Reception and legacy
Fans, critics, and the band have come to see Sad Wings of Destiny as the album on which Judas Priest consolidated their sound and image. In Rolling Stone Kris Nicholson gave the album a positive review, comparing it favourably to Deep Purple's Machine Head of 1972. Martin Popoff cites the album's "reinvention" of the heavy metal genre. The technical dexterity and operatic vocals pointed toward trends in heavy metal that new wave of British heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden were to follow, and the album's dark themes reappeared in the 1980s American thrash metal, such as in the music of Slayer and Metallica. An early sign of the band's influence was that Van Halen included "Victim of Changes" in their sets before achieving fame. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth relates that his brother-in-law punched him in the face for listening to Sad Wings of Destiny; Mustaine called this a turning point, where he chose heavy metal as a career as "revenge". Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth named Sad Wings of Destiny his second favourite metal album. PopMatters described the album as "not-at-all shabby" and listed "Epitaph" as one of its "25 Best Progressive Rock Songs of All Time" in 2011. Halford has called the album his favourite of the band's.
"Victim of Changes", "The Ripper", "Tyrant", and "Genocide"—with an extended introduction—appear on the band's first live album, Unleashed in the East (1979). The first three of those songs have survived until 2019 in the band's setlists, with "Victim of Changes" being one of the band's most played songs ever, while "Genocide" got retired in the early 1980s. With "Dreamer Deceiver", "Deceiver" and "Island of Domination" present on 1975–76 set lists, 7 of the album's 9 songs have been performed in concert.
During the Sad Wings sessions, Howells encouraged the band to work on a heavy metal cover of "Diamonds & Rust" by folk singer Joan Baez, but it did not appear on the album. The band had a hit in the UK with a re-recording of the cover version the following year, after they had moved to CBS Records. Gull released the version from the Sad Wings sessions in 1978 on the compilation album The Best of Judas Priest.
Judas Priest's 1990 album Painkiller features a winged figure Halford has described as a futuristic version of the Fallen Angel from the Sad Wings of Destiny cover. The band's 2005 album Angel of Retribution—with Halford again in the band—revives the Fallen Angel again: the cover concept has the angel rise and seek retribution, and the song "Judas Rising" has him cast off his gloom and rise in optimism.
After Halford left the group in the 1990s, Tim Owens was hired to replace him after auditioning "Victim of Changes" and "The Ripper". Downing and Tipton thereafter nicknamed Owens "The Ripper". Judas Priest's original singer Al Atkins recorded a version of "Victim of Changes" for his album Victim of Changes of 1998. Judas Priest frequently performed the song "Mother Sun" during the Sad Wings era, but never recorded it. The ballad, with its Queen-like vocals, has survived only in bootleg recordings. In 2014 Swedish metal band Portrait released a cover version as a B-side on a 2014 CD single.
## Track listing
The Sad Wings of Destiny disc of the seventeen-disc Complete Albums Collection from 2012 puts the Side B tracks before those from "Side A". "Prelude" did not appear on some pressings.
## Personnel
### Band
The band and production staff of Sad Wings of Destiny were:
- Rob Halford – vocals
- K. K. Downing – guitars
- Glenn Tipton – guitars, piano, organ
- Ian Hill – bass
- Alan Moore – drums
### Production
- Produced by Jeffrey Calvert, Max West, and Judas Priest
- Engineered by Jeffrey Calvert, Max West, and Chris Tsangarides
- Cover concept by Neil French; painting by Patrick Woodroffe
- Art direction by John Pasche
- Band photographs by Lorentz Gullachsen and Alan Johnson
|
522,477 |
Jarlshof
| 1,115,915,031 |
Archeological site in Shetland, Scotland
|
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"Iron Age sites in Scotland",
"Mainland, Shetland",
"Museums in Shetland",
"Neolithic Scotland",
"Picts",
"Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Shetland",
"Viking Age museums",
"Viking Age populated places",
"Viking Age sites in Scotland",
"Walter Scott"
] |
Jarlshof (/ˈjɑːrlzhɒf/ YARLZ-hof) is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies in Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". It contains remains dating from 2500 BC up to the 17th century AD.
The Bronze Age settlers left evidence of several small oval houses with thick stone walls and various artefacts including a decorated bone object. The Iron Age ruins include several different types of structures, including a broch and a defensive wall around the site. The Pictish period provides various works of art including a painted pebble and a symbol stone. The Viking Age ruins make up the largest such site visible anywhere in Britain and include a longhouse; excavations provided numerous tools and a detailed insight into life in Shetland at this time. The most visible structures on the site are the walls of the Scottish period fortified manor house, which inspired the name "Jarlshof" that first appears in an 1821 novel by Walter Scott.
The site is in the care of Historic Scotland and is open from April to September. In 2010 "The Crucible of Iron Age Shetland" including Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof was added to those seeking to be on the "tentative list" of World Heritage Sites.
## Location and etymology
Jarlshof lies near the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland, close to the settlements of Sumburgh and Grutness and to the south end of Sumburgh Airport. The site overlooks an arm of the sea called the West Voe of Sumburgh and the nearby freshwater springs and building materials available on the beach will have added to the location's attraction as a settlement. The south Mainland also provides a favourable location for arable cultivation in a Shetland context and there is a high density of prehistoric settlement in the surrounding area. Jarlshof is only one mile from Scatness where the remains of another broch and other ruins of a similar longevity were discovered in 1975. There is a small visitor centre at Jarlshof with displays and a collection of artefacts.
The name Jarlshof meaning "Earl's Mansion" is a coinage of Walter Scott, who visited the site in 1814 and based it on the Scottish period name of "the laird's house". It was more than a century later before excavations proved that there had actually been Viking Age settlement on the site, although there is no evidence that a Norse jarl ever lived there.
## History
The remains at Jarlshof represent thousands of years of human occupation, and can be seen as a microcosm of Shetland history. Other than the Old House of Sumburgh (see below) the site remained largely hidden until a storm in the late 19th century washed away part of the shore, and revealed evidence of these ancient buildings. Formal archaeological excavation started in 1925 and Bronze Age relics were soon discovered. Jarlshof was one of two broch sites which were the first to be excavated using modern scientific techniques between 1949 and 1952. Although the deposits within the broch had been badly disturbed by earlier attempts, this work revealed a complex sequence of construction from different periods. Buildings on the site include the remains of a Bronze Age smithy, an Iron Age broch and roundhouses, a complex of Pictish wheelhouses, a Viking longhouse, and a mediaeval farmhouse. No further excavations have been undertaken since the early 1950s and no radiocarbon dating has been attempted.
### Neolithic
The earliest finds are pottery from the Neolithic era, although the main settlement dates from the Bronze Age (see below). A site nearby has been dated to 3200 BC.
### Bronze Age
The Bronze Age in Scotland lasted from approximately 2000 BC to 800 BC. The oldest known remains on the Jarlshof site date from this period, although there is evidence of inhabitation as far back as 2500 BC. The remains of several small oval houses with thick stone walls date to the late Bronze Age and the structures show some similarity to Skara Brae on Mainland, Orkney, but are smaller and of a later date. These buildings may have been partly subterranean at the earliest period of inhabitation, a technique that provided both structural stability and insulation.
There is also evidence of a cattle stall with a waste channel leading to a tank in a courtyard and a whale vertebra set into a wall that may have been used as a tethering post. Broken moulds from the smithy indicate that axes, knives, swords and pins were produced there and a bronze dagger was found at the site. The objects indicate the smith was trained in the Irish style of working. Bone pins and awls also survive and an extraordinary bone "plaque". This latter object is 5 centimetres (2 inches) long, has three holes bored into the ends and is decorated with various linear patterns. Its function is unknown. The Bronze Age structures are overlain with sterile sand, suggesting a break in occupation prior to the next phase of building.
### Iron Age and Pictish period
The inhabitants of the Iron Age built part of their settlement on top of the Bronze Age one. The structures include a complex roundhouse, replaced at a later stage by an "aisled roundhouse". Neither have been dated although artefacts found at this level include querns that suggest the latter may have been constructed prior to 200 BC.
It is in this period that the broch was built. Part of the structure has been lost to coastal erosion, and modern sea defences have been erected. The tower was probably originally 13 metres (40 feet) or more high and as with many broch sites the position would have commanded fine views of the surrounding seas. During this period archaeological sites in Shetland usually exhibit defensive fortifications of some kind, and Jarlshof is no exception. An outer defensive wall associated with the broch contained a substantial (although rather poorly constructed) house and byre at one time. This wall was utilised at a later stage to build a large roundhouse in the lee of the broch.
The earliest part of the wheelhouse complex has been dated to 200 BC, although other parts were built later, post-dating the 1st century BC–2nd century AD profusion of these structures in the Western Isles by several centuries. Construction used the stones of the broch itself and two of the four main structures are amongst the best examples of their type. Three successive periods of construction were undertaken, and the best preserved retains a significant proportion of the stone part of its roof and displays a series of corbelled bays. One structure was built as a circular building and the radial piers were inserted afterwards. This may have been an earlier, less stable design. In one case the piers are alternately rectangular and V-shaped, in another all are to the latter design, again suggesting a developing style. Unlike many wheelhouses elsewhere in Scotland that are built into the earth, the Jarlshof structures seem to have been built from ground level upwards.
Amongst the artefacts dated to the later Pictish period is a bone pin with a rounded head probably used as a hair or dress pin. It has been dated to AD 500–800. "Painted pebbles" are associated with more than two dozen Pictish sites and one such stone was unearthed at Jarlshof. This rectangular slate fragment had a cross painted onto it and two small "S" shaped scrolls suggesting an association with Christian beliefs. One of only two Pictish symbol stones found in Shetland was found here, exhibiting a double disc shape and a Z-rod. Pottery finds include buff ware from the period after AD 10, including bowls with flat rims. The quality of the pots appears to decline in the period prior to Viking settlement, becoming thinner-walled and generally more crude in design.
In AD 43 and 77 the Roman authors Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder referred to the seven islands they call Haemodae and Acmodae respectively, both of which are assumed to be Shetland. Another early written reference to the Shetland islands may have been when Tacitus reported that the Roman fleet had seen "Thule" on a voyage that included the Orkney archipelago in AD 98. Watson in 1926 stated that Tacitus was referring to southern Shetland, probably the area of the brochs in Jarlshof.
### Norse period
Remains from this era used to cover most of the site, and it is believed the Norse inhabited the site continuously from the ninth to the 14th centuries. Excavations in the 1930s by Alex Curle found the first confirmed Norse longhouse in the British Isles and later digs in the 1950s found evidence of fishing and farming activities. Sheep, cattle, pigs and ponies were kept, Atlantic cod, saithe and ling were eaten, and whale and seal bones have also been found along with the remains of a single dog. Chicken bones are rare in the Norse levels.
There are seven Norse-era houses at Jarlshof, although no more than two were in use at one time. There were several outbuildings, including a small square structure with a large hearth that may have been a sauna and which was later replaced by two separate outhouses. The largest house from this period is a 20-by-5-metre (66-by-16-foot) rectangular chamber with opposing doors, timber benches along the long sides, and a hearth in the centre. Unlike the earlier structures that had conical thatched roofs, those of the Norse buildings had ridged timber frames. At a later period this large structure was also used to shelter domesticated animals (at which stage it had a paved centre and animal stalls along the sides) and later still may have become an outbuilding. The door to the byre puzzled archaeologists as it appeared to be too narrow to admit a cow. The mystery was solved when a byre door was excavated at Easting on Unst which had a narrow base similar to Jarlshof's but which widened out to become cow-shaped. Another outbuilding has been interpreted as a corn-drying room. Later houses were built at 90 degrees to the longhouse and these are of a type and size that is similar to croft houses that were common in Shetland until the mid-19th century.
One hundred and fifty loom weights were found suggesting wool was an important aspect of Norse-era life. Line weights from the later Norse period and associated evidence from elsewhere in Shetland indicates that deep-water fishing was also a regular undertaking. The Jarlshof site also produced ample evidence of the use of iron tools such as shears, scissors, sickles, and a fish-hook and knife. The ore was locally obtained bog iron. Hazel, birch and willow grew in the area at this time but the pine and oak must have been driftwood or imported timber.
Drawings scratched on slate have been found of dragon-prowed ships, portraits of an old man and of a young, bearded man and of a four-legged animal. The drawings were found in the Viking levels but are Pictish in style and may either pre-date the arrival of the Norse or indicate a continuity of art and culture from one period to the next. Similarly, although the rectangular shape of the Norse-era buildings are quite unlike the earlier rounded Pictish style, the basement courses of the two periods are constructed in the same way. The Viking-style loom weights, spindle whorls and other vessels were found with stone discs and other objects of a Pictish design. A bronze–gilt harness mounting made in Ireland in the 8th or 9th centuries has also been found and many items from this period are in the Shetland Museum. Jarlshof contains the most extensive remains of a Viking site visible anywhere in Britain.
### Old House of Sumburgh
The castle, now known as Jarlshof House, was built during the Scottish period. Originally a medieval stone farmhouse, it was converted into a fortified house during the 16th century, by Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney after Scotland annexed Shetland. The building was named "New Hall" at this time. It was further modernised in the early 17th century by his son Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney who renamed it the "Old House of Sumburgh". It then passed into the keeping of John Buchanan and Margaret Hartsyde, but was abandoned in the late 17th century. The structure was also known as "The laird's house" and "Stewart Mansion".
## Cultural references
Walter Scott set part of his 1821 novel The Pirate in the Old House of Sumburgh during the 17th century, which he named Jarlshof.
Man, however, had in former days considered this as a remote or unlikely event; for a Norwegian chief of other times, or, as other accounts said, and as the name of Jarlshof seemed to imply an ancient Earl of the Orkneys had elected this neck of land as the place for establishing a mansion-house. It has been long entirely deserted, and the vestiges only can be discerned with difficulty; for the loose sand, borne on the temptestuous gales of those stormy regions, has overblown, and almost buried, the ruins of the buildings; but in the end of the seventeenth century, a part of the Earl's mansion was still entire and habitable. It was a rude building of rough stone, with nothing about it to gratify the eye, or to excite the imagination; a large old-fashioned narrow house, with a very steep roof, covered with flags composed of grey sandstone, would perhaps convey the best of idea of the place to a modern reader. The windows were few, very small in size, and distributed up and down the building with utter contempt of regularity. Against the main structure had rested, in former times, certain smaller compartments of the mansion-house, containing offices, or subordinate apartments, necessary for the Earl's retainers and menials. But these had become ruinous; and the rafters had been taken down for fire-wood, or for other purposes; the walls had given way in many places; and, to complete the devastation, the sand had already drifted amongst the ruins, and filled up what had been once the chambers the contained, to the depth of two or three feet.
Amid this desolation, the inhabitants of Jarlshof had contrived, by constant labour and attention, to keep in order a few roods of land, which had been enclosed as a garden, and which, sheltered by the walls of the house itself, from the relentless sea-blast, produced such vegetables as the climate could bring forth, or rather as the sea-gale would permit to grow; for these islands experience even less of the rigour of cold than is encountered on the mainland of Scotland; but, unsheltered by a wall of some sort of other, it is scarce possible to raise even the most ordinary culinary vegetables; and as for shrubs or trees, they are entirely out of the question, such is the force of the sweeping sea-blast.
## See also
Shetland
- Broch of Clickimin
- Broch of Mousa
- Old Scatness
- Scalloway Castle
Other
- Prehistoric Scotland
- Timeline of prehistoric Scotland
- Prehistoric Orkney
- Brough of Birsay – a site of similar antiquity in Orkney
- Oldest buildings in the United Kingdom
|
10,061,978 |
Body of Lies (film)
| 1,169,712,902 |
2008 film by Ridley Scott
|
[
"2000s American films",
"2000s English-language films",
"2000s political thriller films",
"2000s spy action films",
"2000s spy thriller films",
"2008 action thriller films",
"2008 films",
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"American political thriller films",
"American spy action films",
"American spy thriller films",
"Drone films",
"Films about jihadism",
"Films about security and surveillance",
"Films about terrorism in Europe",
"Films about the Central Intelligence Agency",
"Films based on American thriller novels",
"Films directed by Ridley Scott",
"Films produced by Donald De Line",
"Films produced by Ridley Scott",
"Films scored by Marc Streitenfeld",
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"Films set in Langley, Virginia",
"Films set in Manchester",
"Films set in Qatar",
"Films set in Syria",
"Films set in Washington, D.C.",
"Films shot in Maryland",
"Films shot in Morocco",
"Films shot in Washington, D.C.",
"Films with screenplays by William Monahan",
"Iraq War films",
"Scott Free Productions films",
"Techno-thriller films",
"Warner Bros. films"
] |
Body of Lies is a 2008 American spy action thriller film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, written by William Monahan, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in the lead roles. Set in the Middle East, it follows the attempts of the CIA and the GID of Jordan to catch "al-Saleem", a terrorist. Frustrated by their target's elusiveness, differences in their approaches strain relations between a CIA operative, his superior, and the head of Jordanian Intelligence. The supporting cast features Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac, and Golshifteh Farahani.
The screenplay, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by David Ignatius, examines contemporary tension between Western and Arab societies, and the comparative effectiveness of technological and human counter-intelligence methods. Principal photography for the film began on September 5, 2007 and concluded in December 2007. The film was shot largely on location in the United States and Morocco, after authorities in Dubai refused permission to film there because of the script's political themes.
Critics praised Scott's direction and visual style, as well as the performances of its two leads, but criticized his formulaic handling of the story and use of conventions from the spy genre, such as surveillance shots from high-altitude spy planes. The film was released in the United States on October 10, 2008 and grossed \$118 million worldwide.
## Plot
Specialist Anti-Terrorist teams prepare for a raid on a house in England. As members of the team prepare to enter, the terrorists in the house hear the team and suddenly there is an explosion, destroying the house.
Central Intelligence Agency case officer Roger Ferris is tracking a high-ranking terrorist leader called Al-Saleem in Iraq. He meets Nizar, a member of the terrorist organization who is prepared to offer information in return for asylum in North America.
Despite the objections of his boss, Ed Hoffman, Ferris agrees to shelter Nizar. Nizar is used as a pawn to draw out the rest of his cell; when Nizar is captured, Ferris is forced to shoot him to prevent his exposing the identities of Ferris and his associate, Bassam. However, furious at Hoffman's refusal to act on the information Nizar provided, Ferris and Bassam go to search the safe house in Balad, Iraq, Nizar had told them about. Ferris observes men burning records and attempts to bluff his way in but is exposed. In the ensuing shootout and chase, Ferris and Bassam's vehicle is hit by an RPG. Ferris and some salvaged discs are rescued by helicopter, but Bassam is killed in the explosion.
Meanwhile, unknown terrorists in the UK plan to follow up on bus bombings in Sheffield with more attacks in Manchester, but they blow themselves up when the police arrive at their house. Having recovered from his injuries, Ferris is assigned to Jordan to continue searching for Al-Saleem. There, Ferris meets with and negotiates a collaboration with Hani Salaam, head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate. From the intelligence Ferris harvested from the Balad safe house, Hoffman locates an Al-Saleem safe house in Jordan and orders Ferris to watch it. Unbeknownst to Ferris, Hoffman organizes a simultaneous side operation via a local agency. Ferris' CIA subordinate, Skip, identifies the local agency asset as Ziyad Abishi.
Abishi blows his cover with a terrorist from the safe house. The terrorist flees to inform his colleagues of their exposure, and Ferris chases and kills him in such a place and manner that implies the death is a random robbery. Using back channels, Salaam corroborates this interpretation of killing with those who remain at the safe house. Ferris lambastes Hoffman for running side operations which he feels are interfering with and undermining the operational integrity of the primary operation and tells Hoffman to stop. While going to the hospital to receive rabies shots for dog bites he suffered while eliminating the terrorist, Ferris meets a nurse named Aisha and begins developing romantic feelings for her. In Europe the bombers strike again at an Amsterdam flower market, killing 75 people and wounding hundreds more.
Having recognized one of the men living in the safe house as former small-time criminal Mustaffa Karami, Salaam takes Karami into the desert and coerces him into working for Jordanian intelligence, threatening to set him up as a collaborator if he does not co-operate. Hoffman asks Salaam to use Karami, but he refuses, believing a greater return will come later. Unbeknownst to Ferris and Salaam, Hoffman tells Skip to follow Karami and kidnap him. Karami escapes and notifies the terrorists in the safe house that it is being watched, and they abandon it. Salaam catches Ferris' associate Skip, accuses Ferris of having had knowledge of the move on Karami, blames Ferris' duplicity with him for the destruction of the safe house, and exiles Ferris from Jordan.
Ferris returns to Hoffman in Washington, and they devise a new plan to find Al-Saleem. Suspecting he is motivated more by pride than ideology, they stage a fake terrorist attack and set up Omar Sadiki, an innocent Jordanian architect, as its instigator, hoping Al-Saleem will come out of hiding and attempt to contact him. Al-Saleem sees TV news coverage of the attack and takes the bait. Salaam invites Ferris back to Jordan and shares his suspicions that Omar Sadiki is a terrorist, although Ferris feigns ignorance. Ferris later tries to save Sadiki from being kidnapped by Al-Saleem's henchmen but fails and sees his partner nearly killed in the subsequent car crash. Under interrogation, Sadiki denies any knowledge of the attack. He is later found beaten and killed.
Ferris goes back to his apartment and discovers that Aisha has been kidnapped. He desperately asks Salaam for help, admitting he fabricated Omar Sadiki's terrorist cell and the attack. Salaam refuses to help because of Ferris' lies. Ferris offers himself in exchange to Aisha's kidnappers and is brought to the middle of the desert, with Hoffman watching everything via a surveillance drone. At the exchange location, Ferris is surrounded by a group of SUVs, which circle him to create an obscuring dust cloud before picking him up. The dust cloud blocks Hoffman's view, so that he cannot determine which of the SUVs, now headed in different directions, is carrying Ferris.
Ferris is taken across the border to Syria, where he is to be interrogated by Al-Saleem. When Ferris asks Al-Saleem about Aisha, he is told that someone has lied to him and that he has been double-crossed. Ferris tells Al-Saleem that there is an infiltrator (Karami) in his organization who works for Ferris, and that, by association, Al-Saleem works for Ferris. Al-Saleem does not believe Ferris, breaks two of his fingers, turns on a video camera, and orders his execution. Salaam and his agents arrive at the last moment, saving Ferris' life. Al-Saleem is shown arrested in his own SUV by Marwan Se-Kia, Salaam's security officer.
Salaam visits Ferris in the hospital, and reveals that he had faked Aisha's abduction and orchestrated Ferris' capture by Al-Saleem using Karami as a go-between. Having lost the will to fight in this particular war, Ferris goes off the grid and goes to see Aisha again.
## Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris, a field officer working in CIA's Near East Division and later CIA Station Chief of Amman, Jordan.
- Russell Crowe as Ed Hoffman, chief of CIA's Near East Division and Ferris' boss.
- Mark Strong as Hani Salaam, intelligence chief and director of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate.
- Golshifteh Farahani as Aisha, a nurse in Amman and Ferris' love interest.
- Oscar Isaac as Bassam, CIA field operative in Iraq and Ferris' associate.
- Ali Suliman as Omar Sadiki, a Jordanian architect with very low-profile contact with Al-Qaeda and CIA's mole to catch Al-Saleem.
- Alon Abutbul as Al-Saleem, head of an independent terrorist group based in Jordan, aligned with Al-Qaeda.
- Vince Colosimo as Skip, CIA field operative in Jordan.
- Simon McBurney as Garland, a computer geek employed by the CIA to instrument black ops.
- Mehdi Nebbou as Nizar, former linguist, Al-Qaeda operative and attempted defector.
- Michael Gaston as Holiday, Ferris' predecessor as CIA's Jordan station chief.
- Kais Nashif as Mustafa Karami, former petty criminal-turned-Al-Qaeda operative under Al-Saleem who later became Hani Salaam's informer.
- Jamil Khoury as Marwan Se-Kia, GID operative and security officer of Hani Salaam.
- Lubna Azabal as Cala, Aisha's sister.
- Annabelle Wallis as Hani's Girlfriend in Bar
- Michael Stuhlbarg as Ferris's Attorney
- Giannina Facio as Hoffman's wife
Carice van Houten was cast as Roger's wife Gretchen Ferris, but all her scenes were deleted and she does not appear in the final cut.
## Themes
Ridley Scott has made a previous film about the conflict between the Western and Arab civilizations, Kingdom of Heaven (2005), set during the Crusades. Body of Lies resumes this theme in the context of modern intelligence operations and terrorism.
The film puts two contrasting characters on the same side. Ferris, the CIA man on the ground, is a dedicated Arabist fluent in the language; he relies on trust, local knowledge and HUMINT. Hoffman, his superior, who is detached at home in Washington, D.C., and at the CIA in Virginia, is more Machiavellian: he authorizes deceit, double-crossing, and violence by telephone and without scruple. The New Yorker interpreted him as "a greedy, American domestic animal—an advanced-media freak, always eating".
Early in the film, Hoffman explains to his superiors that the terrorists' retreat to pre-tech age communication methods renders useless the high specification tools the CIA uses, which increases the worth of Ferris's human intelligence methods. The terrorists avoid mobile telephones and computers, preferring face-to-face communication and encoded written messages. By contrast, the Americans use sophisticated communication (Hoffman and Ferris regularly speak on the phone) and surveillance technology (high altitude spy planes offer a different point of view throughout). David Denby of The New Yorker said that this was Scott's suggestion that the CIA has the technology but not the human intelligence to properly fight terrorism in the Middle East. Despite Hoffman's distance, the force and unintended consequences of his schemes are often borne by Ferris. The difference is underlined when Ferris, suffering weakened credibility, injured colleagues and personal risk, is reminded by Hoffman that "we are a results-driven organization".
## Production
### Development
In March 2006, Warner Bros. hired screenwriter William Monahan to adapt the novel Penetration by David Ignatius into a feature film, which would be directed by Ridley Scott. In April 2007, with the novel re-titled Body of Lies and the film similarly re-titled, actor Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in the lead role. DiCaprio chose to pursue the role because he considered it a throwback to political films in the 1970s such as The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor (1975). DiCaprio dyed his hair brown, and wore brown contacts for the role. After DiCaprio was cast, Russell Crowe was courted for a supporting role, to which he formally committed after Monahan's script was revised by Steve Zaillian, who wrote Scott and Crowe's American Gangster. Crowe gained 63 pounds to suit his role. The actor said as a result of the film's exploration of the American government and foreign policy, "I don't think it will be very popular, but that’s never been part of my project choice process." Mark Strong, who plays Hani Salaam, the head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) ascribed his casting to his performances in the 2005 films Syriana and Oliver Twist. The character Haani Salaam was modelled after the 2000–2005 GID chief Saad Kheir (1953–2009), whose involvement, according to the original author David Ignatius, in sharply handled interrogations without the use of torture, an encounter with a jihadist with his mother on the phone and being called the 'fingernail boss' were near accurately featured in the film.
### Location and design
Scott sought to film in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, but the federation's National Media Council denied the director permission due to the script's politically sensitive nature. As a result, scenes set in Jordan were instead filmed in Morocco. The shoot took place over sixty-five days from September to December 2007. It was filmed in the United States and Morocco, where scenes set in ten different countries were filmed. Filming began on September 5, 2007 at the Eastern Market, Washington, D.C. Practical locations were used throughout; part of the Capitol Hill neighborhood was converted to resemble a wintry Amsterdam to film a ten- to fifteen-second car bomb explosion. Scenes set in the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia were filmed at the National Geographic offices in Gaithersburg, Maryland; both buildings were set in woodland and "It was eerily similar in terms of architectural style,...", said Arthur Max, the production designer, "We were given several empty floors." Locations in Baltimore also stood in for Manchester, England and Munich, Germany, although the final cut of the movie did not have any scenes that took place in Munich.
Production moved to Morocco, where Scott, Max and Alexander Witt, the cinematographer had filmed several times before. Their previous experience meant they "knew every stone in the desert" and they were allowed access to many locations, including the Ministry of Finance, which was dressed as Jordan's secret service headquarters, Casablanca airport and a military airfield. The basketball stadium in Rabat was used as the U.S. embassy in Jordan: a CIA office set was built inside the stadium, favoured because its design allowed the cameras to shoot both interior and exterior vistas, thus showing the characters looking out on people and tanks passing in the streets. A nine-week shoot also took place at CLA Studios and in the desert around the city of Ouarzazate.
### Cinematography
Body of Lies was Alexander Witt's first credit as a director of photography; he had collaborated with Ridley Scott on six feature films previously, beginning as a second unit camera operator on Black Rain (1989). He shot the film in the Super 35 format with spherical lenses, and explained that these lenses offer more flexibility for interior and night pictures than the anamorphic alternative. They used Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 instead of Technicolor's OZ process, which did not perform well in tests in the Moroccan desert.
Scott is known for his skill at filming with multiple camera set-ups and Body of Lies used a minimum of three simultaneously. Witt explained the benefits, "Actors like multiple cameras because they’re always on-camera, so they’re always in character and not wasting time off-camera." One shot of DiCaprio alone in the desert, for example, still used three cameras: one hand-held above the actor, a second capturing a three-quarter back profile, and the third photographing a close-up through the first cameraman's legs. Richard Cronn, the gaffer, attributed the success of this difficult approach to Scott's filmmaking intelligence, "Ridley will stand at the monitors and tell you what's he's looking for – he'll look at four monitors and say, 'I'm cutting from this to this to this.' He knows exactly how he will cut it."
In line with the film's use of practical locations, the photography and design departments worked together to incorporate practical light sources such as "lots of bare bulbs, lots of primitive fixtures". In the climactic torture scene, filmed in an ancient, windowless prison cell outside of Rabat, they used only diegetic light: two strong torches carried by the actors playing the torturers. It was filmed with three cameras and bounce cards were used to reflect light onto the actors' faces. Just a little smoke was sprayed in to augment the atmosphere but not dull the contrast.
Scott has used many gradations of lens filter in the past, but declined to do so on Body of Lies. One obtains better finesse using the digital intermediate during post-production and does not risk losing light while selecting filters during expensive on-set time. The filmmakers strove for authenticity and realism in the images, and as such little colouration was added after, and the natural contrast of colours between the locations in Washington and Morocco were allowed to show through.
In the film, images from unmanned aerial drones show the viewer the point of view of CIA commanders in Washington. These were filmed by John Marzano (Aerial Director Of Photography) using a helicopter mounted with a Wescam 35 on the nose of a helicopter, and Cineflex's V14 surveillance system, hanging from the side. Its 1–40 zoom allowed the filmmakers to fly very high and then zoom out of Ferris strolling through a market-place, creating the film's final shot.
### Music
The film score was composed by Marc Streitenfeld, who has now composed music for Ridley Scott for three features. He recorded the orchestral portions of his score at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers Studios. Of note is the presence of a song in the film named "If the World", performed by Guns N' Roses, and taken from their long-delayed Chinese Democracy album. The track plays over the beginning of the end credits, but is not included on the official film soundtrack. Streitenfeld also collaborated with Mike Patton and Serj Tankian on the song "Bird's Eye", which was written specially for the musical score of the film. It was not included on the soundtrack album but was released separately as a single.
### Release
The film was commercially released in the United States on October 10, 2008. The film has also been purchased by Turner Broadcasting System to screen on the television networks TBS and Turner Network Television.
The film was screened on September 30, 2008 at Michigan Technological University, and October 2, 2008 at Duke University, New York Film Academy, University of Maryland and University of Virginia. It was also pre-screened on October 3 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, at Michigan State University, at the University of Michigan, the University of Kansas, East Carolina University, and the University of Chicago on October 7 and at Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The University at Buffalo, Columbia University, James Madison University, Syracuse University, the University of Colorado, the University of Washington, and Georgia Southern University on October 9.
Warner Home Video released Body of Lies on DVD on February 17, 2009. The single-disc region one release included surround sound and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish; the two-disc special edition included commentaries by the director, screenwright and original novel author, and a behind the scenes documentary; the Blu-ray edition also included additional commentary on the film's themes.
## Reception
### Critical response
Body of Lies received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 55%, based on 216 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The critical consensus reads, "Body of Lies relies too heavily on the performances of DiCaprio and Crowe to lift it above a conventional espionage thriller." On Metacritic the film has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film three out of four stars. He praised the "convincing" acting and "realistic locations and terse dialogue" but questioned the verisimilitude of the story and concluded, "Body of Lies contains enough you can believe, or almost believe, that you wish so much of it weren't sensationally implausible." Kenneth Turan reached the same conclusion in the Los Angeles Times, "The skill of top-flight director Ridley Scott and his veteran production team, not to mention the ability of stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, ensure that this story of spies and terrorism in the Middle East is always crisp and watchable," he wrote, "but as the film's episodic story gradually reveals itself, it ends up too unconvincing and conventional to consistently hold our attention."
Lou Lumenick in the New York Post wrote that, "There's nothing here we haven't seen in many other movies" and Lisa Kennedy in The Denver Post summarised: "Body of Lies is an A-list project with B-game results. The movie might be set in the Age of Jihad. But the rules of trust and mistrust are wholly familiar."
Critics observed the film's adherence to conventions of the spy thriller genre; Ebert called it "a James Bond plot" and David Denby in The New Yorker pointed out the "usual tropes of the genre—surveillance shots from drones, S.U.V.s tearing across the desert, explosions, scenes of torture" but praised Scott's superior management of space and timing. While Todd McCarthy in Variety praised the initial set-up and conceit of the plot device, he criticised the formulaic approach leading to a "cornball denouement".
A. O. Scott in The New York Times wrote that director Scott's "professionalism is, as ever, present in every frame and scene, but this time it seems singularly untethered from anything like zeal, conviction or even curiosity." He added that he would have preferred the psychological tensions linking the three leading men to be developed further. Joe Neumaier wrote in the New York Daily News that the film "aims to be up-to-the-moment – yet feels same-old, same-old."
Kennedy called the love story between DiCaprio and Farahani contrived, saying that while DiCaprio seemed more at home in those scenes, it made the film seem "foolish". Ebert thought the cultural context of their relationship was well established, but that it essentially existed as a convenience of the plot, to set up the unlikely conclusion.
Mark Strong's performance was mentioned by several critics, with Scott calling it "a marvel of exotic suavity and cool insinuation" while Ebert "particularly admired" his aura of suave control.
### Box office
Body of Lies earned \$12.9 million on its first weekend in theatres in the United States and Canada, 40% less than expected. This placed it as the third highest earning film that weekend, behind Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which turned out to be No. 1 with a take of \$17.5 million in its second week, and Sony/Screen Gems's Quarantine, which earned \$14.2 million—about \$2 million more than it cost to make. A Warner Bros. executive said he was disappointed with the film's opening and attributed it to its controversial storyline, although Body of Lies fared better than previous pictures about the "war on terrorism" such as Rendition, In the Valley of Elah, and Lions for Lambs, which all performed well below studios' expectations. In a fourteen-week theatrical run in the United States and Canada, the film earned \$39 million.
Outside North America it opened reasonably well. In Australia it was the highest-earning film in its opening weekend of October 9–12, 2008 with \$2,104,319, ahead of Pixar Animation's WALL-E, which fell to second place, while Beverly Hills Chihuahua held third. In the United Kingdom, the film's earnings were the second-highest behind Quantum of Solace during November 21–23, its opening weekend. It earned £991,939 from 393 screens. Overall, while the film grossed only \$40 million at the North American box office, it has grossed \$115,097,286 worldwide. In the United States, contemporary war films have performed relatively poorly. Warner Bros. had hoped the large budget and Scott's direction could better them, but the film performed relatively poorly compared to his others; analysts attributed this to the film's Middle East setting and exploration of terrorism. Brandon Gray pointed out that people read these themes in the news media already, and there is a perception that Hollywood films are biased.
Golshifteh Farahani's performance in the film resulted in trouble for Farahani from the Iranian government, being accused of being shown without a hijab.
## See also
- Leonardo DiCaprio filmography
- Russell Crowe filmography
- List of films featuring drones
- Brownface
|
2,050,828 |
Serangoon MRT station
| 1,171,750,079 |
Mass Rapid Transit station in Singapore
|
[
"Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) stations",
"Railway stations in Serangoon",
"Railway stations in Singapore opened in 2003"
] |
Serangoon MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North East (NEL) and Circle (CCL) lines. Situated in Serangoon, Singapore along Upper Serangoon Road and Serangoon Central, the station is integrated with the Nex shopping complex and the Serangoon Bus Interchange. The station is near the Serangoon Neighbourhood Police Centre and Braddell Heights Community Hub and serves various residential estates in the area.
Preliminary studies for the NEL in the late 1980s included a tentative line alignment serving the Serangoon area. The station was confirmed in 1996; its construction involved the erection of the road viaduct above Upper Serangoon Road. In October 1999, it was announced that the station would interchange with the CCL. The NEL station was completed in June 2003. During the construction of the CCL tunnels, ground settlement caused the NEL station to sink, leading to a brief halt in excavation works. The CCL platforms opened in May 2009 as part of Stage 3 of the CCL.
The station has eight entrances, four of which are triangular and enclosed in cubic structures. The station features three artworks as part of the MRT network's Art-in-Transit programme. The NEL platforms and concourse display woodcut prints as part of Eng Joo Heng's artwork Memories of Childhood. The CCL station's concourse features the painting View of Life by Sarkasi Said, while the CCL platforms contain a set of art seats entitled Matrix.
## History
### North East line
In preliminary studies for the North East line (NEL) in 1986, it was planned for the line to serve the Serangoon area, traveling along Serangoon Road and Upper Serangoon Road. The line was not considered financially viable at the time; it was only in 1996 that the government approved plans to construct the line "immediately".
Serangoon station was among the 16 NEL stations announced by communications minister Mah Bow Tan in March 1996. The contract for the construction of Serangoon station, and 2.5 km (1.6 mi) of bored tunnels, was awarded to a joint venture consisting of Wayss & Freytag AG [de], Econ Corporation and Chew Eu Hock Construction Co Ltd. The S\$317 million (US\$ million in ) contract included the construction of the adjacent Woodleigh station and the vehicular viaduct along Upper Serangoon Road. The station opened on 20 June 2003.
To facilitate the station's construction, the Paya Lebar Methodist Church and Braddell Heights Community Centre were relocated. As part of the Serangoon town centre's redevelopment, the area had also been designated for commercial developments. The church moved to a larger site of 6,260 m<sup>2</sup> (7,490 sq yd), allowing it to expand its premises. The community centre relocated closer to the town centre, sharing premises with the Singapore National Wushu Federation. A few public facilities were taken over, and new carpark lots and a new basketball court were built as replacements.
As workers diverted Upper Serangoon Road for the construction works, the road capacity was maintained using the adjacent road reserve spaces. The scope of the project also involved building the new road viaduct above Upper Serangoon Road. Hence, the works had to be carefully scheduled to take into account the various technical aspects of each part of the project. The tunnels were bored first, and the station's roof slab was finished afterward. The pillars for the road viaduct were installed above ground after the roof slab was completed.
The area's grassroots leaders conveyed residents' complaints about the construction noises to the Land Transport Authority (LTA). In response, the LTA explained the work progress and assured the residents that the inconvenience was temporary; the completion of the MRT station would make the area more convenient. The contractors monitored the surrounding residential buildings to ensure that the foundations were not affected.
### Circle line
In October 1999, it was announced that Serangoon station would interchange with a proposed MRT line linking Buona Vista and Paya Lebar via Bishan and Serangoon. Provisions were made for the existing NEL station to link with the future Circle line (CCL) platforms. In January 2003, the LTA announced that Serangoon CCL station would be constructed as part of CCL Stage 3 (CCL3). The 5.7-kilometre (3.5 mi) segment consisted of five stations, between the Bartley and Marymount stations, and was expected to be completed by early 2008. The contract for the construction of the CCL station was awarded to a joint venture of Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Woh Hup and Alpine Mayreder. The S\$155.95 million (US\$ million) contract included the construction of 3.8 kilometres (2.4 mi) of bored tunnels.
Due to a build-up of pressure while boring the CCL tunnels, white foam appeared at the junction of Serangoon Avenue 2 and Avenue 3, leading to the temporary closure of one lane at the junction in February 2005. Tunneling works were suspended to ease the pressure build-up. As the tunnels underneath the NEL station were being excavated later that month, the contractors encountered a large amount of groundwater that seeped into the work site. This led to ground settlement and the sinking of the NEL station by one centimetre (0.39 in). Excavation works were suspended as water was being pumped out. As a precautionary measure, NEL trains had to slow down when arriving or departing from the station. A new tunnel design was implemented, with new construction methods such as jet grouting and a more comprehensive monitoring system to detect any further settlement of the NEL tunnels and the viaduct.
With the Nicoll Highway collapse in April 2004, the opening of the entire line was expected to be delayed to 2010, as the LTA hoped to open all five stages at one go. In January 2008, transport minister Raymond Lim announced that CCL3 would open ahead of schedule in the middle of 2009. As later announced by the transport minister in February 2009, CCL3 opened for service on 30 May 2009.
As part of a joint emergency preparedness exercise by the LTA and train operators SBS Transit and SMRT, security screenings were held at this station on 7 December 2021. The screening machines deployed for the exercise included metal detectors and X-Ray machines to check commuters' belongings. Such exercises were conducted to test established response protocols and maintain vigilance for quicker and more effective responses during emergencies and heightened security situations.
## Station details
Serangoon station is an interchange on the NEL and the CCL; its official station code is NE12/CC13. On the NEL, the station is between the Woodleigh and Kovan stations. On the CCL, the station is between the Bartley and Lorong Chuan stations. The station serves the Serangoon area. The NEL station is underneath Upper Serangoon Road at the junction with Serangoon Central, while the CCL station is underneath the Nex shopping complex.
The station has eight entrances. Four of the entrances are triangular, each encased in a cubic structure which are painted in different colours to mark each entrance. The station is integrated with the Serangoon Bus Interchange and the commercial development of Nex as part of the Serangoon Integrated Transport Hub. Surrounding the station are educational institutions such as St. Gabriel's Secondary School, Yangzheng Primary School and Zhonghua Secondary School, alongside public amenities such as Serangoon Neighbourhood Police Centre, Braddell Heights Community Hub, Braddell Heights Fire Post, Marine Parade Town Council and the Serangoon Central Post Office. Residential developments around the station include Sunshine Terrace, La Belle and Forest Woods Residences.
The NEL and CCL platforms are wheelchair-accessible. A tactile system, consisting of tiles with rounded or elongated raised studs, guides visually impaired commuters through the station, with dedicated routes that connect the station entrances to the platforms or between the lines. There are wider fare gates that allow easier access for wheelchair users into the station. The pair of travellators linking the NEL and CCL platforms are one of the longest in the Singapore MRT network at 73 metres (240 ft).
The NEL station is designated as a Civil Defence (CD) shelter. It is designed to accommodate at least 7,500 people and can withstand airstrikes and chemical attacks. Equipment essential for the operations in the CD shelter is mounted on shock absorbers to prevent damage during a bombing. When electrical supply to the shelter is disrupted, there are backup generators to keep operations going. The shelter has dedicated built-in decontamination chambers and dry toilets with collection bins that will send human waste out of the shelter.
## Station artwork
The station displays three artworks as part of the MRT network's Art-in-Transit programme – a showcase of public artworks on the MRT network.
### Memories of Childhood
Eng Joo Heng's Memories of Childhood is a series of woodcut prints displayed in silk screens or vitreous enamel wall panels at the NEL platforms and concourse. Various children are depicted as playing with dragonfiles and puppies. Eng intended for his work to connect to various generations and allow observers to look back happily at their childhoods, with the older generation passing on to their children stories about the kampung days.
Through his former work as a printmaker at a Parisian art studio, Eng had explored the possibilities of printmaking and used the technique for this work. The artist enjoyed the simplicity of the technique, which did not require complex tools or machinery and could be done anywhere. He felt that the wood textures produced would leave a strong impression on commuters. His early sketches on paper had more specific symbolism related to the theme of childhood but were later revised to more generic images for all commuters to appreciate. Primary colours were predominantly used, giving vibrancy to the artwork. The colours also reflect children's crayon drawings and their view of the world, as well as the colours used at the station's entrances. The work was crafted during school holidays and weekends, as Eng preferred to work in daylight to have a better view of his work.
### View of Life
Displayed at the CCL concourse level, View of Life by Sarkasi Said is a batik painting of various colours in strokes intending to express movements of change and nature. Inspired by the lalangs that used to grow in the Serangoon area, the work was intended to reflect the artist's love of batik painting.
Feeling that Singapore's development was underappreciated, Sarkasi decided to create a painting that reflects the "optimism, joy and vitality" of the country's achievements. Initially, the artist wanted to do an impressionist painting, but eventually decided to challenge commuters to think of art "beyond just aesthetics", giving them a learning experience on art as they "communicate what they see" from the work. The type of each brush stroke on the painting depended on the artist's movements and character. The coloured wax was splashed on the white canvas. Using wax-resist, the artist treated each splash with chemicals to dye the colour on the canvas made of thick denim material.
Created in Sarkasi's studio in Indonesia, the work involved nature. The dyes needed sunlight to bring out the colour, with varying weather conditions affecting how the colours came out. With concerns of possible damage the painting might face due to constant exposure to commuter traffic, a photographed digital copy was installed at the station. Even if the original work was protected by glass, the panels might still break. The painting was photographed, printed and laminated before being mounted on the station walls. The original was donated to the museum at the National University of Singapore. Some of the panels were mounted upside down, but Sarkasi corrected the panels' alignments.
### Matrix
The CCL platforms of Serangoon station feature a set of "art seats" entitled Matrix. Though the platform seats are intended to be works of art, they are designed to remain functional and practical. This work by Lui Honfay and Yasmine Chan, along with Rain, was selected through the International Art Seats Design Competition in 2006. Matrix consists of a series of benches engraved with the station name in a dot-matrix style on the seat surface. The dot-matrix system was adopted as it was flexible enough to be mass-produced for use in many stations. The intriguing combination of signage and seat "impressed" the judges who awarded it the top prize.
|
50,923,686 |
Cassian Andor
| 1,172,442,180 |
Character in the Star Wars franchise
|
[
"Andor (TV series) characters",
"Fictional assassins",
"Fictional child soldiers",
"Fictional marksmen and snipers",
"Fictional mercenaries",
"Fictional military captains",
"Fictional military personnel in films",
"Fictional military personnel in television",
"Fictional military spies",
"Fictional murdered people",
"Fictional outlaws",
"Fictional penal labourers",
"Fictional revolutionaries",
"Fictional secret agents and spies in films",
"Fictional secret agents and spies in television",
"Fictional war veterans",
"Film characters introduced in 2016",
"Male characters in film",
"Male characters in television",
"Star Wars Anthology characters"
] |
Cassian Jeron Andor, born Kassa, is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, primarily portrayed by actor Diego Luna. Introduced in the feature film Rogue One (2016) as a supporting character, he is the protagonist of the ongoing prequel television series Andor (2022–present).
He begins his life as an orphan on the abandoned mining planet Kenari. After being adopted and taken from his home by scavengers, he grows up on the industrial planet Ferrix. As a young man, he smuggles stolen Imperial ship components before joining the Rebel Alliance. During the events of Rogue One, he is a pilot, intelligence officer for the Rebel Alliance, and leader of Rogue One, a rebel unit that steals the plans to the Death Star, a weapon powerful enough to destroy a planet.
The character has received a mixed response from critics, with praise for Luna's performance but some criticism for the quality of the narrative guiding the character. As the first Mexican lead actor and one of the first Latino leads in a Star Wars film, his introduction in Rogue One was considered to be a milestone for Latino representation.
## Character
### Creation
Though not initially named Cassian Andor, a "Cassian Andor-type character" appeared in the original treatment of Rogue One written by John Knoll, chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic and in the first draft of the script written by Gary Whitta. The character was created as a member of Rogue One, then commanded by a Rebel Alliance sergeant version of Jyn Erso. The original intention was to kill all members of the Rogue One team, including Cassian. However, fearing that Disney would not allow the ending, Knoll and Whitta wrote that Cassian escapes Scarif with the Death Star plans alongside Jyn Erso and, though their ship is destroyed by Darth Vader after they transfer the plans to Princess Leia, they narrowly survive in an escape pod. Whitta stated that having to "jump through so many hoops" to ensure survival indicated that Cassian and Jyn should die on Scarif. Producer Kathleen Kennedy and Disney ultimately approved the ending in which the entire crew dies. The main purpose of this action was believed to be for the characters to be ultimately replaced after the film by the crew of the original trilogy.
### Casting and portrayal
In May 2015, it was announced that Diego Luna had been cast in a lead role in Rogue One. Director Gareth Edwards wanted Cassian to be warm and likeable rather than the typical stoic, brooding action hero, leading to Edwards's decision to cast Luna early in the casting process. Edwards was impressed by Luna's background in small, character driven productions, as he wanted the film to tell a more personal story than previous Star Wars instalments. Luna felt that his casting, and the casting of other non-white men in the film's leading roles, reflected a "modern approach" and a world in which "racial and cultural diversity is in fact making us richer and more interesting."
Luna spoke in the role with his native Mexican accent, an exception for the film franchise, which has mostly featured United States, Canadian and British accents. Luna stated that his accent was not an issue with the film's producers, who were happy with it. Luna also dubbed Andor's dialogue for the Spanish-language version of the film; the dub was recorded in Mexico City months before the film's theatrical release.
While filming Rogue One, Luna developed a personal backstory for Cassian to help him get into character. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he stated that he incorporated Mexican cultural influences into the character's backstory. He imagined the character to come from a "marginalized" background as a way to explain his unique accent in the Star Wars universe. He stated this backstory resonated with Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy, who also wanted to explain the character's distinctive accent.
In November 2018, it was reported that Luna would reprise his role in the Disney+ series Andor, which was released in 2022. A young version of Cassian is portrayed by Antonio Viña in the show's first season. Luna once again dubbed the character for the Spanish-language version of Andor, which also features co-star Adria Arjona voicing her own character.
### Backstory and development
For Andor, Luna and the writers of the series both sought to expand on Cassian's backstory and explore how he became the rebel leader portrayed in Rogue One. At the beginning of the series, Cassian is more childish and shortsighted than the character in Rogue One. At the beginning of his story, Gilroy imagined Cassian as being motivated by anger rather than ideology. According to Gilroy, the first season of Andor takes a "completely disillusioned and completely self-interested" character and follows his development into someone fully dedicated to the Rebellion's cause. Luna said that the series was ultimately about change and transformation.
In Andor, Cassian is established to be a refugee who was separated from his culture and community on the indigenous planet of Kenari by the Empire's oppressive regime. Unlike most humans in the Star Wars universe, the inhabitants of Kenari do not speak "Galactic Basic", the common language of the Galaxy, explaining Cassian's accent. The series retcons Cassian's prior backstory as established in Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide, which claimed that he was born on Fest. In the series, he has falsified documents which claim Fest as his birthplace.
Luna and Gilroy saw this backstory as a way to establish Cassian's alienation and resentment for the Empire. Gilroy stated that the loss of his home explained Cassian's coldblooded commitment to the Rebellion, saying he wanted to "allow [Cassian] to do some very unpleasant things along the way and yet you still not reject him." Cassian's unjust incarceration and the execution of his adopted father contributes to his hatred of the Empire, and he dedicates himself to resisting the Empire after being imprisoned on Narkina-5. By the end of the first season, Cassian has gradually transformed into a committed rebel.
## Appearances
### Rogue One
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released in December 2016, featuring Luna in the role of Cassian Andor, a man who had been fighting in the Rebellion since he was six years old. In the film, Cassian learns about the defection of Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook and the Death Star superweapon from Rebel informant Tivik, whom he kills to avoid his capture since he is unable to escape due to an injured arm. Cassian is later secretly ordered to find and assassinate scientist Galen Erso, who was captured by Director Orson Krennic and forced to help build the Death Star.
Andor and his co-pilot, reprogrammed Imperial security droid K-2SO, lead a mission to spring Galen's daughter Jyn Erso from Imperial custody so that they can make contact with Saw Gerrera. Then Andor, K-2S0, and Jyn travel to Jedha to visit Saw and obtain a message from Galen which was carried by Rook. Later, the Rebels arrive on Eadu after learning that Galen is there; Cassian hesitantly chooses not to kill him. He ultimately leads a team with Jyn to steal the plans for the Death Star on Scarif, where he infiltrates its Imperial data center with Jyn and K-2SO. After K-2SO sacrifices himself, Jyn and Cassian obtain the schematics, but they are ambushed by Krennic, who shoots Cassian. However, Andor recovers and shoots and wounds Krennic before Jyn successfully transmits the plans to the Rebel forces in orbit. The Death Star then fires upon the planet, killing Cassian and Jyn as they embrace.
### Andor
Luna reprises his role as Andor in Andor, a live-action "spy thriller" series for Disney+, which is set five years before Rogue One and which premiered September 21, 2022.
#### Season 1
In the first season of Andor, it is revealed that Cassian was an orphan named Kassa from Kenari, a former mining planet abandoned by the Empire whose indigenous inhabitants lead a tribal lifestyle. He was adopted by scavengers Clem and Maarva and raised on Ferrix, a planet whose primary activity is heavy industry. At the age of 13, Cassian witnessed Clem being killed by Imperials. He attacked a group of stormtroopers in retaliation and was sent to an Imperial youth center for three years.
Cassian later began stealing ship components and other valuable technology from the Empire with his former lover Bix Caleen. These activities bring him to the attention of the rebel leader Luthen Rael. Cassian, who is wanted for the murder of two corporate security guards, agrees to join Luthen's operation. He is sent to the planet of Aldhani to help a group of rebels steal the Imperial payroll stored there. After the heist, he takes his payment and returns to Ferrix for Maarva and their droid B2EMO. She refuses to leave her home behind, revealing that she is a rebel and was inspired by reports of an attack on Aldhani. Cassian reluctantly leaves her behind and goes to the tropical planet Niamos.
Luthen decides to kill Cassian to keep his identity secret and sends Cassian's teammates from Aldhani to kill him. ISB supervisor Dedra Meero also searches for Cassian whom she believes is connected to a mysterious rebel leader codenamed Axis, who unbeknownst to her is Luthen. Both the Empire and the Rebellion plant spies on Ferrix in an attempt to trap Cassian. While on Niamos, Cassian is harassed by a shoretrooper who falsely accuses him of vandalism. He is arrested and sentenced to six years on the prison planet Narkina-5. Conditions on Narkina-5 are brutal; prisoners work 12-hour shifts building components for an unknown machine, and electric shocks delivered through the metal floor are used to discipline them. After learning that prisoners are not released at the end of their sentences and that the prison electrocuted one hundred men, Cassian leads a successful prison uprising.
Returning to Niamos, Cassian attempts to call Ferrix and learns that Maarva died while he was in prison. Luthen learns of this and travels to Ferrix, believing Cassian will return for her funeral. Despite the risks, Cassian returns only to learn that Bix has been tortured and imprisoned by Imperial occupiers. He rescues her while the people of Ferrix stage a local rebellion. After ensuring that Bix, B2EMO and his friend Brasso can safely escape Ferrix, he goes to Luthen's ship and offers himself up. Rather than kill him, Luthen agrees to take him back into the Rebellion.
### Related works and merchandising
Cassian appears in a number of related works, some of which differ from the film and television canon. He appears in the film novelization of Rogue One by Alexander Freed. In the novel, he is established to have come from a family of Separatists who resisted the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. In the Ultimate Star Wars New Edition, he is described as having been "battle-hardened" by his Separatist action during the Clone Wars before being recruited into the Rebellion by General Davits Draven. Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide describes his involvement with insurrectionary cells and anarchist movements in his youth. He also appears in Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, a virtual reality experience produced by ILMxLAB and The VOID for the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World; Luna reprises his role as Cassian to provide mission briefings and deliver orders throughout the experience.
## Reception
### Film and television
The character's appearances in Rogue One and Andor have received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided on the quality of his narrative. Luna's performance in Rogue One garnered a mixed reception, while his performance in Andor was more well received.
#### Rogue One
Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times praised Luna's "flinty charisma" in Rogue One, and David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote that the character was "a bit lost between archetypes, but he’s charming enough." Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "the fey, soft-spoken Luna is particularly ill-suited to play a rakish man of adventure". Praising Felicity Jones in the role of Jyn Erso, Chris Nashawaty wrote in Entertainment Weekly, "I wish Luna had a little more personality, a little more Han Solo swagger, to match her."
Many critics and authors commented on the character's ruthless and cynical personality, especially in comparison to other Star Wars protagonists. Cassian's murder of an informant at the beginning of Rogue One is often considered to be a defining moment for the character. Eric Goldman of IGN wrote that "Luna projects innate charisma mixed with ongoing unease, as we see [Cassian] participate in actions he's not always proud of in service of the greater good."
Luna, reflecting on the events of Rogue One, has stated that Cassian's willingness to kill is a symptom of living under oppression.
Terrance MacMullan in "Rebellions are Built on Hope", describes Cassian as a "complex" but ultimately good character, whose faith in his comrades is a core part of the film's philosophy. To MacMullan, Cassian's murder of the informant distinguishes Rogue One's more nuanced philosophy from the clear good against evil conflicts of the Original Trilogy. Macmullan commented that:
> Having to witness the daring Cassian Andor murder a fellow Rebel in cold blood nearly inverts the famous line from the crawl of Revenge of The Sith: while the battles of the Clone Wars taught us that "there are heroes on both sides," Rogue One makes us wonder if "there are villains on both sides."
#### Andor
The character's portrayal in Andor received mixed reviews from critics, with some complimenting his character development over the first season, while others considered his narrative to be a weak point of the otherwise well received show. Sarah Odman, in a review for The Hollywood Reporter, praised Cassian's transformation "from a disenfranchised criminal to a man who looks more like the ruthless Rebel leader they remember."
Roxana Hadadi of Vulture and Joshua Rivera of Polygon both praised the character's expanded history and Luna's performance. Shirley Li, writing for The Atlantic, commented that the series "depicts how an ordinary, disillusioned character can undergo a political awakening in just a few short years."
Critic Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone described this arc as a "hero's journey" while opining that it was the least compelling part of Andor's first season. He wrote that the character is "never dramatized in a particularly interesting way beyond [Luna's] performance". Mike Hale, writing for The New York Times, made similar criticisms of the character, who he described as a thinly written "Humphrey Bogart-style cynical romantic". Ryan Britt, in a review for Den of Geek, wrote that the character had unclear motivations and a lack of agency in the first season that made its finale unsatisfying.
Some critics have considered the story arc in which Cassian is imprisoned on Narkina-5 to be a commentary on exploitation in the prison-industrial complex. Tracy Brown and Jamil Smith of the Los Angeles Times felt that the arc was a timely exploration of mass incarceration.
#### Latino representation
Cassian is the first Star Wars character portrayed by a Mexican actor and one of the first Latino lead characters in a Star Wars film. His appearances in Rogue One and Andor are considered milestones in the history of racial diversity and Latino representation in the Star Wars franchise. Yara Simón, in an article for Remezcla, described Cassian as "the Latino hero we deserve, and the Latino actor who has had the most prominent role in any of the eight Star Wars films released in the last 39 years."
After the release of the theatrical trailer for Rogue One, the film was praised for not masking Luna's Mexican accent. Caroline Framske of Vox wrote that "getting to see a Star Wars hero save the day with a distinctive Mexican accent is a huge deal — especially for audiences who rarely see themselves reflected onscreen in a role that isn’t a tiny part or, worse, the butt of some joke."
Writing for Latino Rebels, Cristina Escobar wrote that "the question of whether Cassian is Latino is a thorny one." She observed that geopolitical categories like Latinx do not exist in the science fiction universe of Star Wars, and wrote that essentializing the Latino experience "reduce[d] [Latin people] to a set of traits we don’t all share".
### Books
In Why We Love Star Wars: The Great Moments That Built a Galaxy Far, Far Away, Ken Napzok described Cassian's characterization in Freed's Rogue One novelization as part of the more nuanced and realistic portrayal of the Rebellion in later Star Wars installments. In a review of the novel for New York Daily News, Sean Keane wrote that "Fans will be happy to see that [Cassian] carries the weight of his questionable actions throughout the story."
|
51,958,555 |
The Concrete Herald
| 1,170,453,843 |
Newspaper in Concrete, Washington
|
[
"Newspapers established in 1901",
"Newspapers published in Washington (state)",
"Skagit County, Washington"
] |
The Concrete Herald is a newspaper serving the town of Concrete, Washington, along with other communities in Skagit County in the United States. The newspaper has received multiple awards from the Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association, Washington State Press Club, and various other state and local organizations. The Herald's publications have initiated various public projects in the area and played a key role in fighting industrial pollution in Concrete. The publication serves as a cohesive element for the community of the Upper Skagit Valley. Published as a weekly newspaper from 1901 until its dissolution in 1991, The Concrete Herald was relaunched as a monthly publication in 2009.
The Concrete Herald was founded in Hamilton, Washington, in 1901, and moved to Concrete in 1913. After changing owners and editors several times, the newspaper entered a 40-year period of stability beginning in 1929, when it became owned and edited by Charles Dwelley. During this period, as Dwelley's editorials were picked up by other publications and quoted nationwide, the Herald's recognition and subscription base expanded beyond Concrete into the Skagit Valley. After Dwelley's retirement, The Concrete Herald was purchased by Robert and June Fader, both experienced journalists. However, after Robert's premature death in 1985 and June's retirement in late 1989, the Herald was purchased by a local businessman unconnected to the publishing business, leading to the newspaper's demise in 1991. In 2009, after raising money from the local community, local resident Jason Miller revived The Concrete Herald in both paper and electronic form.
## History
### Prior to the Great Depression
The newspaper was founded on November 23, 1901, by F.J. Wilcox, under the name The Hamilton Herald, in Hamilton, Washington. Wilcox envisioned rapid industrial development of Skagit Valley, analogous to the development of the industrial region of Pittsburgh. As of 1902, the four-page newspaper was published every Saturday and proclaimed a Republican political affiliation. The industrialization of Skagit County fell below Wilcox's expectations, and in 1904 he sold the newspaper to an immigrant from Norway, Hans J. Bratlie, who also became its editor. Under Wilcox, the paper's yearly subscription price had remained \$1.00, but in 1910, Bratlie raised it to \$1.50.
Bratlie operated the newspaper in Hamilton until 1913, when he moved it to Concrete, Washington and renamed it The Concrete Herald. At that time, Concrete's population was growing rapidly, boosted by two recently established Portland cement plants. Another weekly newspaper the Concrete Enterprise, had been operating in Concrete since 1908. Its owner/editor was the secretary of the Washington Newspaper Association, Louis L. Jacobin. The Enterprise also had a Republican affiliation, and its yearly subscription was \$1.00.
Bratlie lowered The Concrete Herald's subscription price to \$1.00 and increased its size to six pages. In turn, Jacobin re-branded his paper as the Skagit Valley Enterprise, and later as the Skagit Valley News. The relationship between the two editors deteriorated into a feud.
By the end of 1914, both editors were seeking change. Planning his retirement, Bratlie invited Ralph J. Benjamin to invest into and edit The Concrete Herald, with an option to purchase controlling stakes in the paper. On March 9, 1915, however, the newspaper's three-story wooden building and most of its equipment were destroyed by a fire, and Benjamin had to abandon the paper, losing his investment. Bratlie's loss amounted from \$7,000 to \$9,000 (from \$184,000 to \$237,000 in 2021 dollars), according to different accounts, but he salvaged some supplies and one Linotype machine that survived the fire, and continued publishing. He installed W.J.S. Gordon, and later M.G. Flower, as temporary editors.
Meanwhile, the relationship between the competing editors—Jacobin and Bratlie's failed replacement, Benjamin—did not go well. Jacobin reportedly gloated about the fire victims. In turn, Benjamin authored a series of critical editorials attacking both cement plants of Concrete for dust pollution, which led to a loss of advertising revenue for his paper. As a result, in September 1916, Benjamin sold his rebranded Skagit Valley News to Mrs. N.I. Wolbert and purchased interest in another Washington local paper the Wilkeson Record, instead. The strain of World War I, as well as local competition, eventually led to the indefinite suspension of the Skagit Valley News, making the Herald the only newspaper in Concrete by August 1918.
Bratlie continued searching for his replacement, and by May 1917 he had engaged a well-known Everett printer, Jim G. Webster, to work on The Concrete Herald. In January 1918, Webster purchased the controlling share of the newspaper. The editor and co-owner was G.L. Leonard, an attorney by training and the elected school superintendent of Concrete. Bratlie remained a minority shareholder.
With its new leadership, the newspaper changed its political affiliation to Independent and increased its subscription to \$1.50. Its paid circulation, however, fell sharply, from 870 subscribers in Bratlie's years to 330 in 1920. In 1922, circulation rebounded slightly to 462, and Webster sold his share in the newspaper to A.J. Collins. Bratlie retained his minority share and Leonard continued as editor.
Collins remained the owner of The Concrete Herald until his premature death during a fire in Concrete hotel. In July 1928, Leonard purchased Collins' share of the newspaper from his widow and became the sole owner of The Concrete Herald, but by 1929, the newspaper was in trouble and could not service mortgages on its building and equipment.
### Dwelley's years
The Sedro-Woolley Publishing Company took control of The Concrete Herald by purchasing its debts in September 1929. Frank Evans, owner of the Sedro-Woolley Publishing Company and publisher of The Courier Times of Sedro-Woolley, was a member of the Service Committee of the Washington Press Association. He aspired to become a newspaper "magnate" acquire Washington newspapers.
A month before Black Tuesday's collapse of the stock exchange, Evans sent his assistant, Charles Dwelley, to Concrete to edit the newly acquired newspaper. The youngest editor in Washington State at the time,21-year-old Dwelley worked and lived with his pregnant wife in a wooden newspaper building and operated two 19th century Linotype machines for 9-point and 12-point fonts, so all headings needed to be set by hand. In later years, Dwelley stated that the reason Evans has chosen him for the job was that he was the only person in the Sedro-Woolley office who could operate both machines.
In March 1930, Evans and Dwelley jointly incorporated the newspaper. In 1935, during The Great Depression, Dwelley took a mortgage on Evan's share and became the sole owner of Herald. He took another mortgage on the building of a Ford garage on Main Street Concrete that had failed, and gradually renovated it into the new Concrete Herald office and print shop, with an apartment for his family on the second floor. By 1940, Dwelley had paid both mortgages.
Noted as one of very few "remarkable exceptions" to massive newspaper failures in the turbulent years of the Depression and World War II, The Concrete Herald survived under Dwelley and gradually became "one of the finest edited newspapers in the state." The Herald's subscription base rose to include all of upper Skagit Valley, from Lyman in the west to Newhalem in the northeast. Dwelley's editorials were cited on the radio throughout the country, reprinted in nationwide publications such as Reader's Digest and The New York Times, and referred to among professional journalists as "Dwellisms." The newspaper and Dwelley personally received multiple awards and recognitions on state and national levels.
All three of Dwelley's spouses assisted with the Herald's publication, and Dwelley's son, Art, worked as an apprentice at the Herald's shop until September 1951. By this time, the Herald's operation, one of the smallest of its kind, needed three people, and Miriam McGuire replaced Art as an assistant. A typical issue was six or eight pages. Type was set from Tuesday to Thursday, and on Thursdays, newly printed newspapers were folded by hand. The newspaper suspended its publication once, from Nov 2, 1944 to May 31, 1945, during the period Dwelley served in the US Navy during World War II.
#### Protecting public interest
Dwelley strongly believed that a newspaper's editor should have and voice his opinion, and his editorials often confronted local problems. For 40 years, Dwelley fought the Superior Portland Cement Company over the dust pollution it created in Concrete. Dwelley claimed that in 1929 and 1930, he withstood pressure from executives of Superior Portland Cement, who offered him "help" with editing the paper and insisted that his editorials should be cleared with the company's office prior to publication. Open confrontation concerning the dust pollution between Superior Portland Cement and the editor of Herald's competitor in Concrete The Skagit Valley News, was a contributing factor in the demise of that newspaper in 1916. Eventually, a community group led by Dwelley successfully involved Senator Lowell Peterson in the issue, conducted a dust emission study that proved pollution levels more than 10 times over acceptable levels, and pushed for the creation of the Northwest Air Pollution Authority. Five days after the first meeting of the State Air Pollution Control Board, the Concrete plant operator decided to completely close the plant.
In 1956, The Concrete Herald was sued for libel by Jacob Koops, a police judge of the city of Lyman, Washington, in connection to Dwelley's editorial of July 17, 1955. The article alleged financial mishandling of the traffic fines by officials of Lyman for personal gain. At that time, a Washington State Supreme Court decision imposed serious limitations on criticism in newspaper columns. The affair dragged on for three years, making its way to court in June 1958. The Herald supplied witnesses who confirmed its claims, and the court acquitted the paper.
### Post-Dwelley years
Dwelley retired and sold The Concrete Herald in September 1970, just past the 40-year anniversary of his editorship. The new owners of the newspaper, Robert and June Fader had experience in the newspaper business. For over 20 years, Robert Fader worked in and later co-owned The Anacortes American, a local newspaper published in Anacortes. June had previously worked as an assistant editor of The Skagit Valley Herald in Mount Vernon, and later as the news editor of The Whidbey News-Times of Oak Harbor.
June became The Concrete Herald's editor. Robert was involved with Washington Newspaper Publisher's Association, and in August 1976, he was elected its treasurer. In 1985, June Fader stepped down, and Anne Bussiere was hired as Herald's editor. Dwelley praised Bussiere's editorials in their personal correspondence.
Even though the population of Concrete continued to decline, the Herald's subscription base continued to rise after Dwelley's retirement, increasing by 48% from 1970 to 1988. Robert Fader died of cancer in October 1985, at the age of 61. On December 31, 1989, June retired, selling The Concrete Herald to Margaret Walter from Mount Vernon and Mae Falavolito, a Concrete resident who had assisted with editing the newspaper since 1986. As of 1990, Mae Falavolito was listed as the single owner of the newspaper. June Fader's chief consideration was to leave the newspaper in the hands of local residents, but the local community was reportedly "shocked" when they learned that John Falavolito, an opportunistic businessman with no background in communications, was the actual owner.
The newspaper started to fail, and the new owners put it up for sale in the beginning of 1991. After several months of unsuccessful attempts to find a new buyer, The Concrete Herald stopped publication on September 5, 1991. Later that year, The Skagit Argus hired Bussiere and attempted to substitute The Concrete Herald with a special Concrete Argus edition, but the project was unsuccessful.
### Historical distribution
Until 1991, the Herald's subscription base covered a smaller area and was limited to the upper Skagit Valley, with dedicated sections on Birdsview, Marblemount, Newhalem, Rockport, and Van Horn. The Concrete Heritage Museum maintains a digital archive of the newspaper that is sponsored by Puget Sound Energy. However, many early issues of the newspaper were lost in a fire in 1915.
## Awards
## The Herald's revival
In 2009, Concrete resident Jason Miller revived the newspaper in both paper and electronic formats. Miller raised over \$10,000 from over 150 businesses and individuals in the community to fund the revival. Since 2009, The Concrete Herald has been published as a monthly tabloid. The successful resurrection of the paper version in the digital age came as a surprise for the publishing industry. The revival has reportedly "rejuvenated" Concrete, and The Concrete Herald continues to serve as a cohesive element for the community of the upper Skagit Valley.
## Distribution
As of 2022, the distribution of the paper edition of Concrete Herald covers the Skagit County, Whatcom County, and Snohomish County cities, towns, and communities of Anacortes, Arlington, Bellingham, Birdsview, Burlington, Clear Lake, Concrete, Conway, Darrington, Day Creek, Deming, Glacier, Hamilton, La Conner, Lyman, Maple Falls, Marblemount, Newhalem, Rockport, Mount Vernon, and Sedro-Woolley, with a total circulation of 5,000 paper copies. The newspaper maintains dedicated sections covering local news from Darrington, Clear Lake, Concrete, Hamilton, Lyman, Marblemount, Newhalem, Rockport, and Sedro-Woolley.
|
39,665,271 |
2000–01 S.L. Benfica season
| 1,164,748,392 | null |
[
"Portuguese football clubs 2000–01 season",
"S.L. Benfica seasons"
] |
The 2000–01 season was Sport Lisboa e Benfica's 97th season in existence, and the club's 67th consecutive season in the Primeira Liga. It ran from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2001. Benfica competed domestically in the Primeira Liga and the Taça de Portugal. The club also participated in the UEFA Cup, by virtue of finishing third in that tournament the previous season.
The season is the worst in Benfica's illustrious history since the start of the Primeira Liga during 1934–35. The club switched managers two times. Jupp Heynckes was replaced by José Mourinho in September. Toni, who previously guided the club to a league title, took the reins in December. In the transfer market, young players like Marchena and Fernando Meira were brought in, and mixed with the experience of 31 year-old, Pierre van Hooijdonk, who arrived to replace Nuno Gomes, were meant to improve the team competitiveness. However, the biggest event of the pre-season was the release of João Pinto, the longest-serving player on the club, and the incumbent captain. This decision was poorly received by the fans, who criticized Heynckes and the president for the move. Both would leave the club in the following months. In the league campaign, the team lacked balance year-round and only briefly entered the league race, spending all but three weeks out the top three. Even the successful partnership of Pierre van Hooijdonk and João Tomás, with 36 goals between them, did not prevent the club from finishing in sixth place, 23 points behind winner Boavista. Consequently, Benfica missed out on UEFA competitions for the first time in 41 years (since the 1959–60 season).
## Season summary
### Pre-season
Preparations for a new Benfica season started in late-May 2000. Manager Jupp Heynckes remained for a second year, with more control this time in building up the squad. His choices caused immediate controversy, the biggest being the release of Benfica veteran João Pinto. Pinto was the incumbent team captain and the longest-serving player, who had been at Benfica since the 1992–93 season. José Manuel Delgado of Record predicted a difficult season for the German manager: "...he will have less tolerance from the fans than that offered to Artur Jorge (three match days), or Manuel José (four match days)..." He forwent internationals like Paulo Bento and Amaral, but indulged on Marchena, Meira and Van Hooijdonk. The last was intended to replace Nuno Gomes, who moved to Fiorentina after a successful run at Euro 2000. All of this spending happened in spite of club-wide financial difficulties, from missed salaries for Michael Thomas, to the basketball section of the club going months without pay.
The pre-season started on 7 July, with a schedule of 8 games. It included a match celebrating the 50th anniversary of Olympique Lyon, and the Carlsberg Belfast Challenge against Linfield and Liverpool. Benfica ended the pre-season on 11 August, with a draw against Aston Villa.
### August–October
Benfica started their 2000–01 Primeira Liga campaign on the road in a Clássico match against FC Porto, on 19 August 2000. João Marcelino stated that Porto "...had some luck in the way they obtained their first goal (shot from Alenichev deflected off Calado and betrayed Enke)...", allowing them to manage the lead until the end. Benfica's first home game was against Beira-Mar on 27 August. At ten minutes into the second half of that game, Maniche's goal put Benfica up 3–0, setting them up for victory.
September began for Benfica with a visit to Leiria. It was a hard-fought match, in which referee José Leirós gave out twelve bookings. They narrowly escaped defeat when Chano scored in stoppage time. Benfica started their European season on 14 September in Sweden, with a 1–2 loss to host Halmstad. Benfica won their second home game of the season, on 18 September, against Estrela da Amadora, thanks to two goals scored by Van Hooijdonk in consecutive minutes near the end of regulation time. In the post-match interview, following weeks of fan pressure, club manager Heynckes lost his calm and proclaimed: "I can't take this club anymore. If they want me gone, I'll leave tomorrow." He was immediately let go, and replaced with 37-year-old José Mourinho. Former player Mozer joined him as assistant. It was Mourinho's first time as manager, having previously worked only as an interpreter for Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal. His first game as manager was on the road against Boavista, in which his team lost 0–1 to a goal from ex-Benfica player Duda. The second leg of the UEFA Cup was a home game played on 28 September at the Estádio da Luz. It ended in a 2–2 draw and they were eliminated from the tournament – a result reminiscent of their 1997–98 season.
Benfica started October with a home game against Braga. The visitors took the lead in the first half, but João Tomás and Van Hooijdonk responded with a goal each, reversing the score in the second half. However, Braga went on to equalize with a last-minute goal, costing Benfica two points. On 15 October, Benfica won its third league game of the season by defeating Belenenses one–nil behind Marchena's goal. The team played Paços de Ferreira on the 21st, dropping two points in a 0–0 draw. Benfica played their last game of the month against Campomaiorense on the 29th, winning with a double from João Tomás, scored within a space of ten minutes from each other. They finished the month in seventh place on the league table, nine points behind leader Porto.
### November–February
Benfica faced Marítimo in an away game at the beginning of November. They lost 0–3, to a hat-trick from Lagorio. Without a single road game victory, the team dropped to tenth in the league's standings. They hosted Farense in the second week of November and won 2–1. Van Hooijdonk and João Tomás scored a goal each, within a 4-minute interval just before the final whistle, to give their team the three points. On 18 November, Benfica played Vitória de Guimarães on the road. They took the lead near the end of the first half, with a goal from Chano. The second half saw three additional goals, all by João Tomás. It was their first win as visitors, and they climbed to sixth place in the standings. Benfica played their last game of the month, on the 26th, at the Taça de Portugal against Campomaiorense. This fourth round match was won thanks to a late goal by Sabry.
Benfica started December with a Derby de Lisboa game against Sporting. They won 3–0, with a first half goal by Van Hooijdonk and two goals in a five-minute span from João Tomás. Following the win, Mourinho requested a contract extension as a demonstration of faith in the work he had put in along with his assistant: "Me [Mourinho] and Mozer thought that the only way to end speculation and the constant threat of being sacked in the event of a bad result...was renewing our contracts for another season." Their proposal was not met. They parted ways with the club through an announcement in a press conference: "He [President Vilarinho] thought it was better not to accept our request. We understood that decision showed a lack of trust in our work, and that we should offer our resignation..." Benfica immediately appointed Toni – a long-time favourite of the President – as the new manager. On 10 December, Benfica played Alverca away from home. They opened the score sheet with a goal from João Tomás close to half-time, but Mantorras equalized. Later, Milinkovic put the Ribatejo side in the lead, resulting in the fourth loss in seven matches in away games for Benfica. In the last match of the year 2000, Benfica met a struggling Gil Vicente, who were at the bottom of the Primeira Liga standings. Unable to unlock the 0–0 draw, the club suffered their eighth winless league game of the season.
Early in January, Benfica played away from home, at Louletano, in a fifth round match of the Taça de Portugal. They won 3–1 and progressed to the next knock-out stage, where they would face Porto. Benfica resumed their league campaign on the 7th, visiting Salgueiros. They won their second away game, after Van Hooijdonk scored with nine minutes remaining on the clock. They went on to win their third match in a row on 13 January, with a 5–1 home-game win against Desportivo Aves. Benfica took an early lead with a Van Hooijdonk goal in the 15th minute, and added two more in the first half, one by Carlitos and another from an own goal. The Dutch striker added two more goals to his tally in the second half. On 17 January, Benfica received Porto for the first of three consecutive games against them. The first game was part of the Taça de Portugal and ended in a 1–1 draw. Maniche scored the lone Benfica goal before Maric equalized for Porto. A rematch was held to settle the tie. Four days later, on Sunday, Benfica hosted Porto for a Portuguese league match. They defeated the visitors 2–1, after a goal from Van Hooijdonk in the 81st minute. This win allowed the club to climb to fourth in the league's standings – their best position all year. The last of three games saw Benfica succumb to a four-nil loss in the rematch for the Portuguese Cup. Manuel Queiroz wrote: "...A thrashing that did not transpire what really happened in the field, because Fernando Santos' team – in the best performance of the season – completely demolished a Benfica that never entered the game..." Benfica's last game of the month was played on the road on the 29th, against the Aveiro side, Beira-Mar. The match ended with a 3–1 win for Benfica, after another double for Van Hooijdonk. João Tomás also got on the score sheet.
On 4 February, the team beat União de Leiria at home by 3 goals to 2. Benfica took the lead with a goal from João Tomás. Roger and Van Hooijdonk increased their lead by two goals, until Nuno Valente settled the final score. With this win, Benfica climbed to second place the league, now only five points behind leader Boavista. On the 16th, Benfica played Estrela da Amadora away from home. The game ended with a 2–1 victory for Benfica. Along with Boavista's loss in Braga, this further reduced Benfica's separation from the league leader. Benfica played their last match of February on the 25th against Boavista. Benfica had an opportunity to take the top place in the league table with a victory in that game, but they were unsuccessful at breaking the 0–0 draw. Van Hooijdonk had the best chance in the 78th minute, but his attempt struck the goalpost.
### March–May
Benfica began March with an away game in Braga. They lost 3–1 in their first league loss since December. They dropped to fourth place in the standings. On the following Saturday, Benfica visited Belenenses and lost for a second time in a row. A week later, Benfica received Paços de Ferreira at home. The match ended with a 3–2 win for the visitors and Benfica dropped to fifth place. They were now eleven points behind leader Boavista. In the last game of March, Benfica faced Campomaiorense on the road. With a 1–1 draw, the team avoided losing all of their matches in March. However, their need to get points was aggravated, especially if they wanted to qualify for the European competitions.
In April, Benfica opened at home against Marítimo, with a squad composed mainly of reserve players. A 3–0 win helped get closer to both Braga and Sporting in the standings. On 13 April, Benfica visited Faro. The match ended in a 2–2 draw despite a Benfica having a first-half lead. Nine days later, Benfica played Vitória de Guimarães at home. A sole goal from Sabry in the 31st minute was enough to secure the team's second win in April. Closing out the month, Benfica travelled to Alvalade for the second Derby de Lisboa of the season. The game ended in a 3–0 loss for Benfica. This was the Lions' best result against Benfica since the 1986–87 season.
On 4 May, Benfica played Alverca at home, where they lost 0–2, and in the writing of João Querido Manhã for Record, the fans "burst into protests at the end, after they lost patience with the errors, passivity and lack of talent of the whole team.". On 13 May, Benfica went to Adelino Ribeiro Novo to face Gil Vicente. The game ended in a 3–0 defeat – their tenth loss within the league, matching their previous record in the 1996–97 season. As a result, the club was overtaken by Belenenses in the league table. A week later, Benfica played host to Salgueiros in Da Luz. A final score of 1–1 saved Benfica from a record fourth straight loss, and gave the Porto-based side their first point all season against a top 7 team. Benfica played the last game of the season against Desportivo de Aves on the road. At one point in the game, the team was losing three-nil, but managed to equalize and finish with a four-all draw. Toni stated that "Everyone did not do their best to avoid that a historic club slipped into a position that is not accustomed." Benfica finished in a record-breaking sixth place after the 34-game season with a tally of 15 wins, 9 draws and 10 losses that, together, summed up to 54 points. They were ninth-lowest league-wide in goals conceded – 44 in all. On the plus side, they were fifth best in the league at goal-scoring, with a total of 54 goals. Consequently, Benfica missed out on UEFA competitions for the first time in 41 years (since the 1959–60 season). Van Hooijdonk was the second most productive player in the Primeira Liga with 19 goals.
## Results
### Overall record
### Primeira Liga
#### League table
#### Results by round
#### Matches
### Taça de Portugal
### UEFA Cup
#### First round
### Friendlies
## Player statistics
The squad for the season consisted of the players listed in the tables below, as well as staff members Heynckes (manager), Mourinho (manager), Toni (manager) and Mozer (assistant coach).
Note 1: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note 2: Players with squad numbers marked ‡ joined the club during the 2000–01 season via transfer, with more details in the following section.
\|-
## Transfers
### In
### Out
### Out by loan
## See also
- 2000–01 in Portuguese football
|
31,093,572 |
1976 World Professional Match-play Championship
| 1,080,469,019 | null |
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"1970s in Melbourne",
"1976 in Australian sport",
"1976 in snooker",
"December 1976 sports events in Australia",
"November 1976 sports events in Australia",
"Snooker competitions in Australia",
"Sports competitions in Melbourne",
"World Professional Match-play Championship"
] |
The 1976 World Professional Match-play Championship was a professional invitational snooker tournament held from 28 November to 11 December 1976 at the Nunawading Basketball Centre in Burwood East, Melbourne, Australia. Eddie Charlton, the event's promoter, won the title by defeating Ray Reardon by 31 to 24 in the final. The Championship was sanctioned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, with the event's title causing confusion with the World Snooker Championship in some media reports. The tournament was not repeated.
A World Professional Match-play Championship for professional snooker was staged each year from 1952 to 1957, having been created following a dispute between the Professional Billiards Players' Association (PBPA) and the Billiards Association and Control Council. The PBPA members established a competition, which became known as the World Professional Match-play Championship, as an alternative to the World Snooker Championship. Although at first these were not deemed to be world championships, they were later recognised as editions of the World Snooker Championship. After 1957, the event was discontinued due to a decline in the popularity of snooker. The World Championship was re-instituted on a challenge basis from 1964 to 1968, and as a knock-out format tournament from 1969.
The 1976 tournament, which is not recognised as an edition of the World Snooker Championship, featured sixteen invited players. Alex Higgins was the only one of the top four seeds not to reach the semi-finals. Higgins was defeated 6–13 by Paddy Morgan, who then lost in the of his semi-final match against Charlton. Reardon played Graham Miles in the other semi-final, which he won 19–16 after recovering from five frames behind.
## Background
A World Professional Match-play Championship for professional snooker was staged each year from 1952 to 1957, having been created following a dispute between the Professional Billiards Players' Association (PBPA) and the Billiards Association and Control Council. The PBPA members established a competition, which became known as the World Professional Match-play Championship, as an alternative to the World Snooker Championship. Although at first these were not deemed to be world championships, they were later recognised as editions of the World Snooker Championship. After 1957, the event was discontinued due to a decline in the popularity of snooker.
After this, there were no world championship matches until professional Rex Williams gained agreement from the BACC that the world championship would be staged on a challenge basis, with defending World Professional Match-play Championship Pulman featuring in the first match. Pulman retained the title in several challenges from 1964 to 1968. From 1969, the World Snooker Championship we re-established as a knock-out format tournament, using their "Players No. 6" brand.
In 1976, Eddie Charlton gained the recognition of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) for a World Professional Match-play Championship to be held in Australia, promoted by him. The tournament was staged from 28 November to 11 December 1976, at the Nunawading Basketball Centre in Burwood East, Melbourne, Australia, with 16 invited players participating, as an event distinct from the World Championship. John Spencer declined to participate as he was dissatisfied with how the 1975 World Snooker Championship had been conducted by Charlton's promotions company. Clive Everton, editor of Snooker Scene magazine, criticised the WPBSA's decision to approve a tournament with a name that could be confused with the World Snooker Championship, and the decision to include lower-ranked Australian players rather than higher ranked players. Ray Reardon was the top seed, with Alex Higgins second.
On two further occasions after 1976, the WPBSA sanctioned the staging of the tournament, but it did not take place on either of them due to problems with organising the event. The tournament is recognised in Ian Morrison's Hamlyn Encyclopedia of Snooker (1987) as part of the same series as the World Professional Match-play Championship, whilst snooker statistician Chris Turner views them, and the later World Matchplay events as distinct from each other despite the similar titles.
### Prize money
Prize money was awarded as follows:
- First round losers: A\$1,000
- Quarter-finals: A\$1,750
- Semi-Finals: A\$2,500
- Runner-up: A\$3,500
- Winner: A\$6,500
- Total: A\$30,000
## Summary
The first round matches commenced on 25 November, and were contested over 25 frames, finishing on 2 December. Three of the Australian professionals were comprehensively defeated, with Reardon eliminating Ron Mares 13–1 (21–4 after s), Charlton defeating Lou Condo by the same margin (and 17–1 after dead frames), and Higgins whitewashing Dennis Wheelwright 13–0 (16–9 after dead frames). Perrie Mans achieved a winning margin at 13–6 against John Dunning, and the pair split to remaining dead frames for a final scoreline of 16–9. Graham Miles defeated Jim Meadowcroft 13–5, increasing his margin to 18–7 after dead frames.
Dennis Taylor led Paddy Morgan, the Australian national English billiards champion, 4–2 and 9–6, before Morgan won three consecutive frames to equalise at level at 9–9. Taylor took the following two to lead 12–10, but Morgan qualified for the quarter-finals by completing another three-frame run. Cliff Thorburn, facing Gary Owen, had difficulties with the joint of his two-piece . Owen led 4–2 and 12–6 before securing a win at 13–6. Williams led Bill Werbeniuk 11–7, before Werbeniuk won six successive frames for a 13–11 victory.
The quarter-final round was held from 3 to 4 December, with matches played over 25 frames. Having led Owen 11–7, Reardon won 13–9, and added the three dead frames to finish at 16–9. Charlton defeated Mans 13–8 after they had been level at 7–7, and won all the dead frames for 17–8. Miles defeated Werbeniuk 13–11 after they had been tied at 11–11. They did not play the scheduled dead frame. Morgan made a break of 104, consisting of thirteen and , as he built a 12–6 lead against Higgins, and then won 13–6, with each of the pair winning three dead frames to leave the final score 16–9. Higgins was the only one of the top four seeds not to reach the semi-finals.
The semi-finals took place from 5 to 7 December, with both matches across 37 frames. Morgan led Charlton 16–14 at the start of their final , and increased this to 17–14 before Charlton won the next three frames to equalise. Morgan then regained a lead at 18–17, but Charlton took the following two frames to progress to the final after the deciding frame, 19–18. Reardon and Miles were level at 15–15, before Reardon won 19–16. Miles had been leading 10–5, but lost eight of the following nine frames.
The final was played from 8 to 11 December over 61 frames. Charlton established a 5–1 lead during the first session, after winning each of the first five frames. and later led 10–8 and 13–11. From 15 to 15, Charlton added four of the six frames from each of the next two session, for 23–19. From two frames ahead, 25–23, at the start of the penultimate session, Charlton took five of the session's six frames, to increase his advantage to 30–24 going into the last session. Charlton won the title 31–24 by clearing the colours after Reardon had failed an attempt to the black ball.
Reardon congratulated Charlton after the match, saying that he was a worthy winner, whereas Reardon himself had "played like a loser", adding "In fact I didn't really deserve to get to the final at all. I was almost relieved to lose and I was certainly glad when it was over." After winning the title, Charlton was erroneously reported as being "world champion" by Grandstand, World of Sport and several newspapers. The highest break of the tournament was 104, made by Morgan.
## Main draw
Results for the tournament are shown below. Numbers in parentheses indicate seedings.
|
2,990,439 |
The Great God Pan
| 1,171,066,897 |
1894 novella by Arthur Machen
|
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The Great God Pan is a horror and fantasy novella by Welsh writer Arthur Machen. Machen was inspired to write The Great God Pan by his experiences at the ruins of a pagan temple in Wales. What would become the first chapter of the novella was published in the magazine The Whirlwind in 1890. Machen later extended The Great God Pan and it was published as a book alongside another story, "The Inmost Light", in 1894. The novella begins with an experiment to allow a woman named Mary to see the supernatural world. This is followed by an account of a series of mysterious happenings and deaths over many years surrounding a woman named Helen Vaughan. At the end, the heroes confront Helen and force her to kill herself. She undergoes a series of unearthly transformations before dying and she is revealed to be a supernatural entity.
On publication, it was widely denounced by the press as degenerate and horrific because of its implied sexual content, and the novella hurt Machen's reputation as an author. Beginning in the 1920s, Machen's work was critically re-evaluated and The Great God Pan has since garnered a reputation as a classic of horror. Literary critics have noted the influence of other nineteenth-century authors on The Great God Pan and offered differing opinions on whether or not it can be considered an example of Gothic fiction or science fiction. The novella influenced the work of horror writers such as Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King, and has been adapted for the stage twice.
## Plot
Clarke agrees, somewhat unwillingly, to bear witness to a strange experiment performed by his friend, Dr. Raymond. The ultimate goal of the doctor is to open the mind of a patient so that she may experience the spiritual world, an experience he notes the ancients called "seeing the great god Pan". He performs the experiment, which involves minor brain surgery, on a young woman named Mary. She awakens from the operation awed and terrified but quickly becomes "a hopeless idiot".
Years later, Clarke learns of a beautiful but sinister girl named Helen Vaughan, who is reported to have caused a series of mysterious happenings in her town. She spends much of her time in the woods near her house, and takes other children on prolonged twilight rambles in the countryside that disturb the parents of the town. One day, a young boy stumbles across her "playing on the grass with a 'strange naked man,'"; the boy becomes hysterical and later, after seeing a Roman statue of a satyr's head, becomes permanently feeble-minded. Helen also forms an unusually close friendship with a neighbour, Rachel, whom she leads several times into the woods. On one occasion Rachel returns home distraught, half-naked and rambling. Shortly after an explanation to her mother that is unrevealed to the reader, Rachel returns to the woods and disappears forever. Clarke relates these events in a book he is writing entitled Memoirs to Prove the Existence of the Devil.
Years later, Villiers happens across his old friend Herbert, who has become a vagrant since they last met. When asked how he has fallen so low, Herbert replies that he has been "corrupted body and soul" by his wife. After some investigation with Clarke and another character, Austin, it is revealed that Helen was Herbert's wife, and that a well-to-do man died "of fright, of sheer, awful terror" after seeing something in Herbert and Helen's home. Herbert is later found dead.
Helen disappears for some time; according to rumour, she spent the time taking part in disturbing orgies somewhere in the Americas. She eventually returns to London under the pseudonym Mrs. Beaumont. Soon afterwards, a series of stable, happy men in London commit suicide; the last person known to have been in the presence of each of them was Mrs. Beaumont, whom they are implied to have slept with. Villiers and Clarke, each learning of Mrs. Beaumont's true identity, band together and confront Helen in her house with a noose. They tell her that she must kill herself, or they will expose her. Helen has a very abnormal death, transforming between human and beast, male and female, and dividing and reuniting, before turning into a jelly-like substance and finally dying.
A fragment of a document covers the remains of a pillar honouring the Celtic god Nodens. The Latin inscription on the column reads, "To the great god Nodens (the god of the Great Deep or Abyss), Flavius Senilis has erected this pillar on account of the marriage which he saw beneath the shade." The document says that historians are puzzled as to what the inscription refers to. A letter from Dr. Raymond to Clarke reveals that Helen was the child of Mary, who died shortly after her daughter's birth. In the letter, Raymond informs Clarke that Mary became pregnant after his experiment caused her to see the god Pan, implying that Pan fathered Helen.
## Background
Machen's lifelong fascination with occultism began after he read an article on alchemy in an edition of Charles Dickens's periodical Household Words belonging to his father, a clergyman. In his 1922 autobiography, Far Off Things, Machen wrote that The Great God Pan was inspired by the times he visited the Usk, a Welsh river, and the Welsh towns of Caerleon on the Usk and Caerwent as a boy; all of these places had been settled by the Romans. He wrote that "strange relics" were frequently found at Caerwent from the ruined temple of "Nodens, god of the depths".
In writing the novella, he tried to "pass on the vague, indefinable sense of awe and mystery and terror that [he] had received" while visiting those ruins. Machen felt that he had "transliterated [the feeling] clumsily" in The Great God Pan, elaborating: "I translated awe, at worst awfulness, into evil; again, I say, one dreams with fire and works in clay." Dennis Denisoff said that Machen's decision to make Helen Vaughan the child of a Welsh woman and a pagan figure "parallels Machen's own authorial self-identity as one arising from not only his Welsh ancestry but also pagan myth."
What is now the first chapter of the novella was published in 1890 in a magazine called The Whirlwind, while what is now the third chapter of the book was published in the same magazine the following year as a standalone short story called "The City of Resurrections". Machen only viewed the two works as connected after they were finished. Once he decided the two stories were connected, Machen wrote the rest of The Great God Pan in a single evening save for its final chapter. Machen did not think of an ending for the tale for months, and in that time believed that the novella would remain unfinished forever. The last chapter was completed in June 1891. Machen sent the novella to the publisher Blackwood, who rejected it, deeming it a clever story that "shrink[s]...from the central idea." It was accepted by John Lane and published in 1894. When published as a book, The Great God Pan was accompanied by another Machen tale called "The Inmost Light" which also features a mad scientist and elements of science fiction. The book's cover was illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley.
## Analysis
### Genre
Joe Sommerlad of The Independent views The Great God Pan as a work of Gothic horror. According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the story is "typical of Victorian [science fiction] horror at about the time [science fiction] was beginning to shed its Gothic elements into a separate Horror/fantasy genre." Aaron Worth writes that The Great God Pan superficially resembles science fiction due to its depiction of Dr. Raymond as a mad scientist, but it cannot be seen as an example of the genre as it posits that occultism is superior to science. The novella has been classified as Decadent literature as well, as it features hallmarks of the genre such as "occultism, paganism, non-mainstream eroticism, sexual diversity, the femme fatale, violent and strange deaths, and the simultaneous investment in and disavowal of bourgeois identities." Pan has also been described as fantasy literature and as a cautionary tale against men mistreating women the way that Raymond mistreated Mary.
### Influences
Pan was an ancient Greek god, primarily worshipped in Arcadia, who was associated with shepherds and their flocks and with nature. He was believed to lurk in caves, mountains, and other lonely, isolated locations. In some stories, he inflicted his enemies with sudden terror (i.e., panic). The phrase, "the great God Pan" comes from an ancient Greek folktale recorded in Plutarch's De defectu oraculorum (On the Decline of Oracles), which claims that a Greek sailor near the island of Paxi during the reign of Emperor Tiberius (ruled 14–37 AD) heard a voice cry out, "When you are arrived at Palodes, take care to make it known that the great God Pan is dead." Early Christian commentaries suggested that this event occurred at the same time as the death of Christ and that the "death" of Pan represented the transition from a pagan to a Christian world.
This story had particular resonance with Victorian literary audiences. In 1844, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote her poem "The Dead Pan", an adaption of Plutarch's story which insisted that proper Christian literature should abandon Greek mythology, with each stanza ending in the words "Pan, Pan is dead." As a member of the Decadent movement, Machen sought to subvert traditional themes and transgress literary boundaries, an agenda which made Pan a particularly appealing figure. The title of The Great God Pan appears to have been specifically derived from Browning's later poem "A Musical Instrument" (1862), in which the first line of every stanza ends with the words "the great god Pan". Machen's use of Pan in the novella may have also been influenced by Robert Louis Stevenson's essay "Pan's Pipes" (1878) and Algernon Charles Swinburne's poem "A Nympholept" (1894), in which Pan is portrayed as the "emblem of the delicious combination of ecstasy and terror."
In a review of the novella for Black Gate, Matthew David Surridge hypothesized that Machen took inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) in his portrayal of Dr. Raymond as a mad scientist akin to Victor Frankenstein. The works of Robert Louis Stevenson, especially his 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, were among Machen's most significant influences when writing The Great God Pan. Critic John Gawsworth also sees Machen's novella as reminiscent of the horror stories of Edgar Allan Poe and Sheridan Le Fanu. Aaron Worth noted similitude between the death of Helen Vaughan and the theories of alchemist Thomas Vaughan, who is the character's namesake and Helen's disintegration recalls the alchemical concept of the prima materia. John C. Tibbetts observes similarities between Helen Vaughan and Ayesha, the sexually liberated demonic priestess from H. Rider Haggard's She: A History of Adventure (1886). Machen wrote that several critics felt that Joris-Karl Huysmans's novels À rebours (1884) and Là-bas (1891) had inspired The Great God Pan, though he did not read either book until after Pan was published. Upon reading the two novels, Machen concluded that "my critics had not read them either."
### Religious themes
The novella is characteristic of a late nineteenth-century interest in paganism in general and Pan in particular that is found in the works of Florence Farr and Kenneth Grahame. According to the British scholar of modern literature Roger Luckhurst, Raymond expresses a typical Neoplatonist view of reality in which the true object of study is the revelation of a "higher, hidden spiritual world". He is therefore "an occultist rather than a materialist scientist." Neoplatonism is also commonly regarded as the last school of pagan philosophy and Raymond's views therefore relate back to the recurring theme of the death of Pan.
Author Theodora Goss sees The Great God Pan as equating paganism with irrationality and what Carl Jung would call the collective unconscious. Literary critic Kostas Boyiopoulos reads the story from a Judeo-Christian perspective, arguing that Helen Vaughan embodies a "female version of an antichrist", a perversion of Jesus, as well as the figure of Lilith from Judaic myth, with Helen's mother Mary being a "direct analogy of the biblical Virgin Mary". Black Gates's Matthew David Surridge believes that the story associates paganism with sex and femininity, while portraying Helen as a female Antichrist, a view shared by James Goho in Journeys into Darkness: Critical Essays on Gothic Horror (2014). Surridge adds "from another perspective: [Helen] is the undoing of progress. Rather than proceeding from paganism to Christianity, as orthodox Victorian belief imagined the progress of history, she is a reversal of time, the revenge of the atavistic." In keeping with this idea, Surridge sees Mary's name as a reference to Mary, mother of Jesus and Helen's name as a reference to the pagan figure Helen of Troy. Goho interprets the story as Machen's warning against the abandonment of "true religion" and the embrace of paganism.
At one point in the novella, a Latin creed is recited: "Et Diabolus Incarnatus Est. Et Homo Factus Est." ("And the Devil was made incarnate. And was made man.") Luckhurst identifies this as a blasphemous rewriting of the Nicene Creed, an early Christian creed which includes the line: "By the power of the Holy Spirit he [Jesus] became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man." Goho writes that the portrayal of Pan in the novella draws on the mythology of Lucifer and depictions of Pan as "the fetish for evil and suffering and the danger and dread of the wilderness," rather than depictions of Pan as a playful and harmless god. Surridge sees the book's references to Satan and Nodens as implying that Satan, Nodens and Pan are the same being, while Goho connects the novella to the fact that early Christians associated Pan with the devil.
## Critical reception
The Great God Pan's implied sexuality caused a scandal upon its original release and hurt Machen's reputation as an author. Reviewing the novella for the magazine Literary News, Richard Henry Stoddard criticised the story as "too morbid to be the production of a healthy mind". The art critic Harry Quilter's review of the book, titled "The Gospel of Intensity", and published in The Contemporary Review in June 1895, was even more harsh. Quilter declared: "The Great God Pan' is, I have no hesitation in saying, a perfectly abominable story, in which the author has spared no endeavour to suggest loathsomeness and horror which he describes as beyond the reach of words." Quilter warned that Machen's books were a dangerous threat to the entire British public and that they would destroy readers' sanities and senses of morality. Quilter went on to attack the story's publisher, John Lane, as well as Machen himself: "Why should he be allowed, for the sake of a few miserable pounds, to cast into our midst these monstrous creations of his diseased brain?" Quilter added that works of fiction like Machen's should be unanimously condemned by literary critics and newspapers: "If the Press was so disposed it could stamp out such art and fiction in a few months: And that disposition must be acquired, must even be enforced." He was particularly harsh in his denunciation of sexual ambiguity and polymorphous androgyny in the book. He expressed revulsion at Machen's description of Helen's sex changing immediately before her death and concluded his review with a comment of distaste regarding the "nasty little naked figure of dubious sex and humanity with which Mr. Aubrey Beardsley has prefaced the story". A positive appraisal of the novella came from Oscar Wilde, who called it "un succès fou."
Machen's literary reputation was re-evaluated in the 1920s and The Great God Pan has since attained the reputation of a horror masterpiece. In "Supernatural Horror in Literature" (1926; revised 1933), H. P. Lovecraft praised the story, saying: "No one could begin to describe the cumulative suspense and ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds"; he added that "the sensitive reader" reaches the end with "an appreciative shudder". Lovecraft also noted, however, that "melodrama is undeniably present, and coincidence is stretched to a length which appears absurd upon analysis". Bennett Cerf described the story as a "masterpiece". Brian Stableford stated that The Great God Pan is "the archetypal Decadent horror story" and described the story as "highly original". Stephen King referred to it as "one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language." The Washington Post's Elizabeth Hand deemed it "one of the greatest supernatural tales ever written". Black Gate's Matthew David Surridge said that The Great God Pan is "a fascinating, troubling story, and, for all its influence, not like much else than I can think of. It's not simple, and yet it's effective, more so than can easily be explained."
Some commentary on The Great God Pan has focused on its portrayal of women. Surridge sees the novella as expressing a fear of women even though the ultimate source of horror in the story is a male deity. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says that Helen's "metamorphosis...remains one of the most dramatically horrible and misogynistic in fiction". Helen never speaks in the book; according to Victoria Margree and Bryony Randall in Victorian Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion, "The silence of the central female character is part of the text's misogyny, but also part of its narrative effect." Margree and Randall also view Helen's fate as a punishment for her sexual impropriety. Dennis Denisoff connects Machen's tendency to make his empowered female characters "sexually monstrous" to his criticisms of authors who discussed the subject of women's rights. James Machin defends Machen and The Great God Pan from charges from misogyny on the grounds that the male protagonist of Machen's story "The Novel of the White Powder" (1895) disintegrates in a manner reminiscent of Helen Vaughan and on the grounds that Machen married Amy Hogg, a woman who defied the sexual boundaries of her time.
## Adaptations
A pair of parodies of Pan were published in 1895 – Arthur Rickett's "A Yellow Creeper" and Arthur Sykes's "The Great Pan-Demon". Both suggest that Machen is an author of "limited imagination," with the latter depicting him as a mad scientist unleashing degenerate literature on an unsuspecting public. The Great God Pan was brought to the stage in 2008 by the WildClaw Theatre Company in Chicago. It was adapted and directed by WildClaw artistic director Charley Sherman. The novella Helen's Story (2013) by Rosanne Rabinowitz retells the story of The Great God Pan from Helen Vaughan's point of view. Helen's Story was written from a feminist perspective and nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. The Great God Pan was adapted into a chamber opera by composer Ross Crean. Unusually for a composer, Crean wrote the opera's libretto himself. A recording of the work was released in 2017. The production saw its world premiere by Chicago Fringe Opera in 2018. According to the Chicago Tribune's John von Rhein, Chicago Fringe Opera's staging of The Great God Pan portrays Helen Vaughan as both a symbol of gender equality and an evil femme fatale.
## Legacy
Black Gate's Matthew David Surridge said that The Great God Pan influenced Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) as both works feature "an introductory sequence featuring a horrified Englishman in a non-English setting; then a variety of seemingly-unconnected events in London, the metropole at the heart of Empire; then the discovery that all those events are in fact inspired by one malign and supernatural intelligence, that the rational contemporary capital is threatened by the irrational and archaic; then an equivocal conclusion. The fear of sex, women, foreignness." John C. Tibbetts notes that both Helen Vaughan in The Great God Pan and Lucy Westenra in Dracula are "demon women of voracious and malignant sexuality". Theodora Goss also notes similarities between the death of Helen Vaughan in Machen's novella and Lucy's death in Dracula. Tibbetts also notes that Machen's portrayal of Helen Vaughan as demonic and hyper-sexual may have influenced a similar character, The Woman of Songs, in Richard Marsh's The Beetle (1897).
The Great God Pan was highly influential on the circle of writers around H. P. Lovecraft. The structure of Machen's story influenced the structure of Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928). Pan's depiction of a monstrous half-human hybrid inspired the plot of Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" (1929), which refers to Machen's novella by name. According to Lovecraft scholar Robert M. Price, "The Dunwich Horror' is in every sense an homage to Machen and even a pastiche. There is little in Lovecraft's wonderful story that does not come directly out of Machen's fiction." Pan also inspired Lovecraft to create his character Nodens who appears most prominently in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1943).
Clark Ashton Smith was inspired by The Great God Pan to write his story "The Nameless Offspring" (1931), which also features a monstrous child born of a human and a supernatural entity. It has been suggested that Michael Arlen's novel Hell! Said the Duchess (1934) is a parody of The Great God Pan, as Arlen was influenced by Machen's work. The Great God Pan influenced Peter Straub's novel Ghost Story (1979) in its depiction of a shapeshifting monster who terrifies those it encounters. Straub himself frequently credited The Great God Pan as having been a major influence on his work.
According to film historians Keith McDonald and Roger Clark, Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro's portrayal of the faun in his 2006 dark fantasy film Pan's Labyrinth was inspired by the "ambivalent and possibly dangerous" portrayals of Pan in late Victorian and early Edwardian novels, including Machen's The Great God Pan and Pan's Garden (1912) by Algernon Blackwood. Del Toro deliberately chose to imitate the darker, more sinister fauns of Machen and Blackwood rather than the "sweetly domesticated figure" of Mr. Tumnus from C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950). The original title of the film in Spanish is El Laberinto del Fauno (The Labyrinth of the Faun), but the English title Pan's Labyrinth emphasizes the connection between del Toro's film and the body of late nineteenth-century writings about Pan, including The Great God Pan.
Stephen King wrote that his novella N. from his story collection Just After Sunset (2008) is "a riff on Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan.... Mine isn't anywhere near [as] good [as the original], but I loved the chance to put neurotic behavior—obsessive/compulsive disorder—together with the idea of a monster-filled macroverse." King has also cited Machen's novella as an influence on his novel Revival (2014). Similar to Pan, Revival features an experiment on a young woman's brain which allows her to see into another world. Josh Malerman said The Great God Pan partly inspired his novel Bird Box (2014).
## See also
- Pan in popular culture
|
167,782 |
Descent (video game)
| 1,165,411,671 |
1995 first-person shooter game
|
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"1995 video games",
"Cancelled 3DO Interactive Multiplayer games",
"Cancelled Nintendo 64 games",
"Cancelled Panasonic M2 games",
"Cancelled Sega 32X games",
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"Classic Mac OS games",
"Commercial video games with freely available source code",
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"Fiction about the Solar System",
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"Video games set on the Moon",
"Video games with 6 degrees of freedom",
"Video games with cross-platform play",
"Video games with expansion packs",
"Video games with stereoscopic 3D graphics",
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Descent is a first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Parallax Software and released by Interplay Productions in 1995 for MS-DOS, and later for Macintosh, PlayStation, and RISC OS. It popularized a subgenre of FPS games employing six degrees of freedom and was the first FPS to feature entirely true-3D graphics. The player is cast as a mercenary hired to eliminate the threat of a mysterious extraterrestrial computer virus infecting off-world mining robots. In a series of mines throughout the Solar System, the protagonist pilots a spaceship and must locate and destroy the mine's power reactor and escape before being caught in the mine's self-destruction, defeating opposing robots along the way. Players can play online and compete in either deathmatches or cooperate to take on the robots.
Descent was a commercial success. Together with its sequel, it sold over 1.1 million units as of 1998 and was critically acclaimed. Commentators and reviewers compared it to Doom and praised its unrestrained range of motion and full 3D graphics. The combination of traditional first-person shooter mechanics with that of a space flight simulator was also well received. Complaints tended to focus on the frequency for the player to become disoriented and the potential to induce motion sickness. The game's success spawned expansion packs and the sequels Descent II (1996) and Descent 3 (1999).
## Gameplay
### Single-player
Descent is a first-person shooter and shoot 'em up game wherein the player pilots a spaceship through labyrinthine mines while fighting virus-infected robots, using the ship's armaments. They must find and destroy each mine's reactor core, triggering a meltdown that will destroy the mine as the player escapes. For two levels, the reactor core is replaced with a boss. To obtain access to the reactor, the player must collect one or a combination of the three colored access keys for each level. As a secondary objective, the player can also choose to rescue PTMC (Post Terran Mining Corporation) workers who were taken hostage by the infected robots.
Descent features 30 levels, of which three are secret levels. Each level is based in a mine or military installation in various locations in the Solar System. The game demands that players keep their sense of orientation in a fully 3D environment with a flight model featuring six degrees of freedom in zero-gravity. It also provides a 3-dimensional wire-frame automap that displays any area of the current mine visited or seen by the player. Variously colored lines indicate locked doors and zones such as energy stations and reactor areas. These mines may contain hidden doors or robot generators that spawn enemy robots. Flares and lasers light up dark areas of the mine.
Items are available as collectible power-ups. They are either scattered throughout the mines or may be obtained by destroying robots. Weapons are split up into primary and secondary weapons. Primary weapons range from lasers to wide-range Spreadfire Cannons to the chargeable Fusion Cannons whose shots can punch through numerous enemies. They all consume energy as their ammunition, except for the Vulcan Cannon, which uses rounds of explosive shells. Secondary weapons include various missiles (both unguided and homing) including the Smart Missile which upon impact released several smaller guided bomblets, as well as Proximity Bombs that are dropped behind the player's craft to slow pursuing enemies. The player's spacecraft uses shield power as health, and can carry a maximum of 200 units of shields and energy each. Energy is replenished from energy power-ups or recharged to 100 units at permanent energy centers. Shields can only be restored by collecting blue shield orbs. There are also power-ups that modify the ship's status and weaponry. For example, Cloaking Devices temporarily render the ship invisible, Invulnerability temporarily inhibits receiving damage, and Quad Lasers modify the ship's laser system to fire four bolts of energy instead of the standard two. Points are gained by defeating robots, rescuing hostages, and escaping the mine before its self-destruction. If the player ship's shields drop to 0, the ship is destroyed, all acquired weapons are strewn about the area as power-ups, and any rescued hostages aboard are killed. The ship respawns at the cost of a life and the player must navigate the mines to regain the power-ups. Players can record and later view their experiences in the form of demos, both in single-player and multiplayer.
### Multiplayer
Descent allows online competitive and cooperative multiplayer sessions. The competitive sector consists of "Anarchy", "Team Anarchy", and "Anarchy With Robots", three deathmatch modes whereby players attempt to destroy as many of each other's ships as possible. Team Anarchy assigns players to two opposing teams, and Anarchy With Robots adds hostile robots to the match. In Cooperative, players team up to destroy mines and compete for the highest score. Competitive modes allow a maximum of eight players and cooperative modes allow up to four. Players can press a single key to type a message referred to as a taunt, rather than pausing to type in the full message. They can also join same servers across different platforms, particularly MS-DOS and Macintosh.
## Plot
Descent is set in 2169. The story begins with a briefing between PTMC executive S. Dravis and the player's character, PTMC's best "Material Defender", who is hired on a mercenary basis to eliminate the threat of a mysterious alien computer virus infecting the machines and robots used for off-world mining operations.
The PTMC developed numerous mines in the Solar System's planets and moons for a variety of uses, including resource extraction, science research, and military installations. Prior to entering a mine, the player receives an intelligence briefing upon the robots used there, however the computer virus has resulted in some existing robots either modified considerably or even new robots being produced that PTMC is unaware about. The player starts with the mines on the Moon and later shift to Venus and to Mercury, where a boss robot has to be destroyed. Afterward, the mines progress further away from the Sun, as the player visits Mars, then the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and eventually to Pluto and its moon Charon. The player accesses the three secret levels located in the asteroid belt using alternative exit doors hidden in specific levels.
After defeating the boss robot on Charon, the Material Defender is informed he cannot return to the PTMC's headquarters in Earth orbit, as there is a chance his ship may be infected with the same virus as the defeated robots. His employer also mentions that PTMC has lost contact with their deep-space installations outside the Solar System, hinting at the events of the sequel.
## Development
Descent was co-created by programmers Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog. It has origins as far back as 1986, when Toschlog first joined the gaming industry at Sublogic, where he also first met Kulas. There, the pair worked on various simulation titles from Flight Simulator 2 to Jet. Toschlog left the company in 1988 for Looking Glass, where he worked with Ned Lerner to develop Car and Driver. Kulas joined the company in 1990 to develop utilities for Car and Driver. The two had devised an idea of an indoor flight simulator that used shaded polygons. After working on Ultima Underworld however, they realized they could add textures to the polygons for a spectacular effect. By April 1993, they finished a two-page sketch for what would become Descent.
Descent took about 21 months to finish. According to Kulas, the game cost around US\$450,000 to make. The game's marketing budget was \$1 million. Deciding that their idea was too good for anyone else to develop it, Kulas and Toschlog left Looking Glass in June 1993 to form Parallax Software. They hired Che-Yuan Wang and John Slagel as their programmers, with Wang also being their level designer. They also hired Adam Pletcher as their artist. They set out to contact publishers, including Scott Miller of Apogee Software, id Software's primary publisher, who was excited about their proposal and signed a contract with them. For the next seven months, Apogee invested in Parallax and shared with them experience they had gained from developing their own 3D shareware titles. Parallax would implement artistic and structural changes that Apogee requested. After those months, Apogee had numerous projects in the works, and Parallax's project became more expensive to create, so Apogee severed its involvement in the project.
Left without a publisher, Parallax spent the next three months to develop a mock-up prototype, continuing their coding. The project was originally titled Miner, but Parallax presented their prototype in written letters to 50 game companies as Inferno. Of those letters, three of them received a reply. One of them was from Interplay, who immediately signed the company up. Until the game's full release, Interplay's producer Rusty Buchert would oversee and guide the development of the project. Parallax hired three more people to finish the project: level designers Mark Dinse and Jasen Whiteside and story writer and 3D modeler Josh White.
During level design, the idea of simple connected tunnels as the sole component of level architecture expanded to also include rooms and exits. As levels became more complex and confusing, the developers added an automap to address this problem. To design the levels, Descent's graphics engine uses portal rendering, which uses collections of cubes to form rooms and tunnels. Within the game, sides of cubes can be attached to other cubes, or display up to two texture maps. Cubes can be deformed so long as they remain convex. To create effects like doors and see-through grating, walls could be placed at the connected sides of two cubes. Robots were drawn as polygonal models; sprites were only used to represent the hostages and power-ups. This system was very efficient, and made possible the first truly 3D textured environment in a video game.
Another obstacle to overcome was adding online multiplayer. Parallax found it difficult to implement and were initially reluctant to do so. At the same time during development, they had learned of Doom and the popularity of its multiplayer. Interplay sent Rob Huebner to help Parallax program multiplayer. Near their project's completion, Parallax faced yet another obstacle: they needed to make sure that their highly detailed and complex game could run smoothly on computers. Although ultimately the requirements to run the game fast were high, an added option to adjust detail complexity did help.
### Releases and ports
Parallax Software and Interplay followed the shareware model used by Apogee and id Software, and on December 24, 1994; uploaded a seven-level shareware demo as Descent both in retail and on the Internet.
The full game for MS-DOS was released on March 17, 1995, followed by a Macintosh port published by MacPlay in December 1995. A modified version of Descent with stereoscopic graphics was released as a bundle with StereoGraphics's SimulEyes VR 3D glasses.
A PlayStation port was released in Japan on January 26, 1996, and abroad in March 1996, with SoftBank being the Japanese version's developer. The PlayStation version replaces the still screens and text with full-motion video pre-rendered cutscenes incorporating voice acting.
November 22, 1995 also saw the release of Descent: Levels of the World, an add-on containing over 100 winning level submissions from a design competition held by Interplay, plus one level designed by Parallax Software. Also in March 1996, Descent: Anniversary Edition was released, which bundled Descent, Levels of the World, as well as additional exclusive levels.
On October 29, 1997, Interplay published Descent I and II: The Definitive Collection, a compilation containing the full versions of Descent, the Levels of the World mission pack, Descent II, and Vertigo mission packs, and a mission editor. Besides a choice of the original Descent II levels (subtitled Counterstrike), or the Vertigo Series levels, the first Descent levels (subtitled The First Strike) can be started in the Descent II game UI where robots adopt the Descent II sounds and improved AI. The original Descent program is included for players that prefer the unmodified The First Strike, as well as to run Levels of the World. There is also a preview for the upcoming Descent 3.
Descent was later ported to RISC OS by R-Comp Interactive in late 1998, which received a 32-bit update in 2003.
#### Cancelled ports
A Sega 32X version of Descent was planned as the first console version, but it was never released. A 3DO Interactive Multiplayer version was showcased at E3 1995 and slated to be published by Interplay, but never came to fruition for unknown reasons. Likewise, a Panasonic M2 version was also announced but never released due to the system's cancellation. A planned Sega Saturn version was cancelled because the programmers found that a straight port of the PlayStation version was not possible, and they did not think it would be worth their while to do a more elaborate port for the Saturn. Interplay had plans dating to mid-1996 to port Descent to Nintendo 64 under the name Ultra Descent. The port was delayed before it was eventually cancelled in 1998 in favor of Descent 3, with Parallax's Jim Boone explaining that it never reached the design phase in development. In April 2010, Interplay partnered with independent developer G1M2 to release a WiiWare version for Fall 2010. It would have featured enhanced textures and a variety of controls, including motion controls of a Wii Remote and Nunchuk with a MotionPlus accessory and possibly a Wii Balance Board. The deadline was missed, and the last time the developer publicly provided an update on its progress was in a response to a news inquiry in 2011, assuring that the project was still underway, before it was ultimately quietly abandoned.
### Mods
Descent uses package files to store and load level data such as level structures, graphics, objects, and sound effects and music—similar to the WAD file format used for Doom. It also allows players to create their own such files containing the data, which can then be loaded and played. Later in 1997 on the end-of-life commercial cycle came the release of the game's source code, excluding the audio code. Parallax released the source code under the license that permits non-commercial uses only. All of this, combined with the game's popularity, has resulted in a number of distributed mods.
### Re-releases
Descent was re-released on modern digital distribution services. It was one of the launch titles for the open beta version of Good Old Games on September 8, 2008, followed by a Steam release on February 13, 2014. However, the game was withdrawn from Good Old Games in December 2015 along with Descent II and Descent 3, and later from Steam. A representative of Parallax Software responded to speculation on the Good Old Games forums regarding the withdrawal of the titles. Interplay owned the Descent trademark and the publishing rights to those games, but their developers still retained the copyrights to them. The latter pulled their games off because Interplay purportedly had not paid them royalties since 2007. As a result, they had terminated the sales agreement, disallowing Interplay from further selling them.
However, in November 2017, Good Old Games announced that the Descent series would be available for sale again on their platform. The game has also since resurfaced on Steam.
## Reception
### Pre-release
Customer reception of the shareware version of Descent was very positive, with players praising the fully 3D environment and commentators noting perceived "loyalty and goodwill" that both Parallax and Interplay fostered. However, it also garnered player complaints about a technical bug that would recharge each robot's shields whenever the player ship was destroyed (the problem was exacerbated on the last level of the shareware, where the power reactor is replaced with a boss and the gameplay thus becomes extremely difficult). It also received complaints for lacking the ability to save in-game, instead saving the player's progress between levels. Parallax recognized the bug and the popularity of the save feature, so they released patches to address the issues. Mark Burgess of PC Zone called it one of the best shoot 'em up games and wrote that it justified shareware, giving it a perfect five floppy disks out of five. Descent would later go on to become one of the games to inspire other retailers and software companies to look into and embrace the shareware model.
### Sales
On Electronic Entertainment's charts in March 1995, the PC and CD-ROM editions of Descent appeared as Nos. 5 and 8 of the top-selling PC and CD-ROM titles before climbing to Nos. 4 and 3 the next month, respectively. The game first appeared on PC Zone's charts of the top-selling games in May 1995, landing on Nos. 4 and 2 on the top full price and CD-ROM titles, respectively. The shareware version appeared as No. 3 on the top budget games. In June 1995, the CD-ROM version dropped off, and the shareware version fell to No. 6 of the budget games and the full game to No. 9 of the full price games before dropping off next month. The full game rose back up in August 1995 to No. 19 of the top full price games, while the shareware version fell down to No. 7 of the top commercial titles. The game dropped off PC Zone's charts altogether the next month. The Macintosh port also landed on No. 10 of the top Macintosh games in December 1995.
Interplay estimated in March 1995 before Descent's full release that shareware copies of Descent were distributed 900,000 times via online services, on the Internet, or at retail. Official global sales of the game, together with its sequel, surpassed 1.1 million copies as of June 1998, while VentureBeat estimated in 2015 that the actual sales figure of the original was as high as 25 million copies.
### Computer versions
The computer versions of Descent received near-universal acclaim, with reviewers widely comparing it to Doom and noting its unique use of free motion, as well as a fully three-dimensional environment. The multiplayer aspect received equal acclaim. Michael Ryan of PC Magazine enthusiastically attributed the attention the game received to its unique gameplay and found no similar alternatives. GameSpot remarked that "only one 3-D shooter adds a whole new dimension to the field: Descent.", particularly noting the labyrinthine environments. Charlie Brooker of PC Zone noted the game's intense environment and similarities to Doom and praised its multiplayer and ability to taunt opposing players, with only minor criticism directed toward its slight repetitiveness. Common complaints tended to focus on Descent's ability to disorient players, as well as potentially induce motion sickness.
Next Generation particularly praised the graphics and animation, intelligent enemies, and wide array of power-ups, all of which it said would "keep most gamers glued to the screen for hours". They were however disappointed by the game's delayed release, asserting it led to the game being overshadowed by id Software's then-newly released Heretic. Nevertheless, they rated it the fourth-best virtual reality game in September 1995 due to its 3D environment and graphics. In its third-highest-rated review, PC Player also praised the intelligent enemies, as well as the lighting effects, the use of various graphical textures, and "genuine" 3D graphics. Edge remarked the ability to record demos that capture the player's experiences, but also criticized the slightly repetitive gameplay and noted the robots' basic algorithm of being only a little more than "fire and evade", despite their intelligence.
The Macintosh port of Descent also received praise. Bob LeVitus of MacUser called it "one of the best Mac games ever released", attributing its popularity to its online multiplayer mode. His only criticism was the high system requirements (the port required a Power Macintosh to play) and a difficult learning curve. Macworld's Fred DeLisio also praised the enemy artificial intelligence, realism and sense of immersion, and multiplayer for allowing cross-platform sessions between MS-DOS and Macintosh users and allowing players to join and quit anytime without ending the sessions for everyone else, but also criticized the high system requirements.
Jeremy Parish of USgamer ran a retrospective feature on the game, saying Descent combined the genre of space flight simulator with a first-person shooter experience. He also attributed the game's popularity and modifiability to the continued development of fan mods. Engadget's David Lumb retrospectively likened the game's graphical innovations to the computer-generated imagery used in the 1995 film Toy Story. GamesTM rated it No. 4 on their retrospective "Top Five FPS" list for its truly 3D environment combined with the six degrees of freedom, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun ranked it No. 13 on its list of "The best space games on PC", citing the game's numerous innovations, speed, labyrinthine level structures, and the free range of motion.
#### Accolades
### PlayStation version
The PlayStation port of Descent also received praise, which was often directed to the port's use of impressive lighting effects. Like its computer versions, criticism commonly centered on the player's disorientation. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly called it an outstanding conversion due to its extremely fast rendering speed and improved lighting effects. However, two of them felt that the gameplay lacked excitement. Major Mike of GamePro also judged it "an excellent conversion" due to its complex but generally easy to master controls, though he did complain of occasional severe slowdown. Maximum stated it "is one of the greatest games to grace the PlayStation, and rates alongside WipeOut as one of the best ambassadors for the machine." They particularly applauded the labyrinthine level design and intelligent enemy AI. Their subsequent feature on the game was more critical, saying that "the official PAL version of Descent features some of the most hideous letterbox PAL borders we've ever seen, with no sign of PAL optimization whatsoever." However, it also praised the game's use of the PlayStation Link Cable.
Next Generation too praised the developers for adding a new industrial soundtrack to the PlayStation version rather than doing a direct port. Like Major Mike, they found the controls complex but easy to master. While criticizing that the game can be dry and repetitive, they concluded that "Overall, you still can't go wrong, and if you've got the ability to fly against someone else, it doesn't get much better." K. Lee of GameFan praised the sound and music and noted the game's difficulty due to the ubiquitous doors on walls, ceilings, and floors. He thought the automap was useful, though still found it too easy to become disoriented.
## Legacy
Descent is credited with starting a subgenre of six-degrees-of-freedom first-person shooters, and remains an icon of the subgenre. It holds a Guinness World Record for being the first fully 3D first-person shooter, and its popularity spawned two sequels: Descent II in 1996 and Descent 3 in 1999. It also led to a 1999 trilogy of Peter Telep novels based on the series, comprising Descent, Descent: Stealing Thunder, and Descent: Equinox. It brought about a handful of similar "Descent clones", most notably Forsaken, which was released by Acclaim Entertainment in 1998 and had similar graphics and almost identical gameplay to Descent.
In 1997, Interplay released Descent to Undermountain, a role-playing video game that used a modified version of the Descent graphics engine.
Since Descent 3, there had been plans and considerations to work on another game in the series. Those were either cancelled or abandoned in favor of other projects. Volition, the developer of the FreeSpace series, began work on Descent 4. Again, development was cancelled, as most of the company was interested in developing a fantasy role-playing game instead. It would have been a prequel to Descent, and reportedly served as the basis for the 2001 first-person shooter Red Faction. Similarities would have included plot points such as an evil faceless corporation and the mysterious "Plague" they are attempting to harness. President of Volition Mike Kulas stated in an interview that the Red Faction and Descent universes are strictly separate, but also that the code intended for Descent 4 had been used in Red Faction.
A series revival was planned in the late 2010s when development of another Descent title was confirmed. On Kickstarter in March 2015, Descendent Studios announced a prequel to the original game, partnering with Interplay and using their intellectual property rights to develop it. Titled simply Descent, it would have been the first game since Descent 3 to be released in the series. However, after a settlement in 2022, the game was renamed to Ships That Fight Underground, dropping the Descent title altogether. Another game, Overload, was announced on Kickstarter by Revival Productions and successfully crowdfunded in 2016. It included many of the former employees of Parallax Software, including co-founders Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog. It is a six-degrees-of-freedom tunnel shooter and a spiritual successor to the Descent games that released in 2018.
|
442,317 |
Sonic Advance
| 1,170,863,187 |
2001 video game
|
[
"2001 video games",
"Android (operating system) games",
"Dimps games",
"Game Boy Advance games",
"Games with GameCube-GBA connectivity",
"Infogrames games",
"J2ME games",
"Multiplayer and single-player video games",
"N-Gage games",
"Sega video games",
"Side-scrolling platform games",
"Side-scrolling video games",
"Sonic Team games",
"Sonic the Hedgehog video games",
"THQ games",
"Video games developed in Japan",
"Video games produced by Yuji Naka",
"Video games scored by Tatsuyuki Maeda",
"Video games scored by Yutaka Minobe",
"Virtual Console games",
"Virtual Console games for Wii U",
"Windows games"
] |
is a 2001 platform game developed by Dimps for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). It was the first Sonic the Hedgehog game released on a Nintendo console with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on the GameCube, and was produced in commemoration of the series' tenth anniversary. The story follows Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy as they journey to stop Doctor Eggman from taking over the world. Controlling a character, players are tasked with completing each level, defeating Eggman and his robot army, and collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds.
Development began after Sega shifted its focus to third-party software development, due to the poor performance of the Dreamcast console. Sega recruited Dimps to lead development, making the game the first in the franchise developed by the studio. While Sonic Advance follows a similar style of gameplay to the Sega Genesis Sonic games, certain concepts and designs were reused from newer games such as Sonic Adventure (1998). The game has been ported to Nokia's N-Gage and Android devices, and is available on the Wii U via the Virtual Console in Japan.
Sonic Advance received positive reviews for its graphics, character animations, and faithfulness to the original Genesis games, but was criticized for its short length and special stages. It was a major commercial success, selling 1.21 million copies in the United States and is among the GBA's bestselling games. The game was followed by two sequels also on the Game Boy Advance; Sonic Advance 2 (2002) and Sonic Advance 3 (2004).
## Gameplay
Sonic Advance is a side-scrolling platform game reminiscent of the original Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis. Players journey through an island to defeat Doctor Eggman, who is attempting to capture its animal population to turn them into evil robots. Players select one of four characters, each with their own unique set of moves. Sonic the Hedgehog is fastest and can perform an "insta-shield" that protects him for a moment; Tails can fly or swim for a short time; Knuckles the Echidna can glide through the air, swim above water for a few seconds and climb walls; and Amy Rose can destroy enemies using a hammer. Except for Amy, each character can defeat enemy robots by jumping and curling into a ball, or by performing a spin dash on the ground to gain speed. By entering a cheat code, players can control Sonic while Tails runs alongside him, similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992).
The game takes place over six levels called zones. Each zone is split into two acts, where the player must guide their selected character past enemies and obstacles such as spikes and bottomless pits to reach the end in under ten minutes. Scattered around acts are springboards, boost pads, and golden rings, which serve as a form of health; players survive hits as long as they have at least one ring, but their rings will scatter and disappear after a short period. Players collect canisters that contain power-ups such as speed shoes, elemental shields, and invincibility. The first act ends when players pass a signpost, and the second culminates in a boss fight with Eggman; after hitting him eight times, Eggman will flee and drop a capsule of captured animals. Each character starts the game with a number of lives, which are lost when they are hit with no rings in their possession, crushed, drown, fall in a bottomless pit, or exceed an act's 10-minute limit. The game ends when the player runs out of lives, although they can retry the current act from the beginning if they have any continues.
Special springs can be found near the top of certain acts. By jumping on them, the player can reach a special stage, where they are sent down a tube to collect rings. If they collect enough rings, the player receives a Chaos Emerald. Collecting all seven Emeralds unlocks an extra boss fight. The game also features a minigame, Tiny Chao Garden, where players can raise Chao. Players can transfer their Chao between the Tiny Chao Garden and the Chao Garden from the GameCube versions of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. The game also features a competitive multiplayer mode, where up to four owners of the game can race to the end of a level or search for Chao.
## Development and release
In January 2001, Sega, facing financial troubles with the underperformance of its Dreamcast console, shifted from first to third-party software publishing, with Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (GBA) being primary focuses. A team of developers was formed to begin development on Sonic the Hedgehog Advance (later renamed Sonic Advance), a Sonic game for the GBA to commemorate the series' 10th anniversary. Dimps, a studio formed by several former Neo Geo Pocket Color developers and funded by Sega, Sony, and Bandai, developed the game with assistance from Sonic Team. Sonic Team conceived the game, but was understaffed on employees familiar with the GBA hardware and so recruited Dimps. Several Dimps members worked on the critically acclaimed Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (1999) for the Neo Geo Pocket Color.
The developers decided to return to a gameplay style similar to the original Genesis Sonic games, which Naka felt was refreshing. Despite this, they also incorporated concepts from Sonic Adventure (1998), such as the ability to grind on rails and the modernized character designs by Yuji Uekawa. As the Sonic games released for the Dreamcast allowed players to download minigames onto the Visual Memory Unit (VMU), the development team decided to expand upon this by using a similar concept with the GameCube's GBA link cable, making Sonic Advance one of the first games to use the cable. It also features graphical techniques such as rotation effects and Mode 7.
Sega announced Sonic Advance and two other GBA games on January 30, 2001. A video containing footage of the game's first level was featured at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May 2001, and demo versions were showcased at Nintendo Space World and the Tokyo Game Show later that year. Sega released Sonic Advance in Japan on December 20, 2001, while THQ released it in North America on February 4, 2002. The game was released in Europe on March 8, 2002, where Infogrames handled marketing and distribution. A port for Nokia's N-Gage, SonicN, was released worldwide on October 7, 2003. In 2005, it was compiled with ChuChu Rocket!, Sonic Pinball Party, and Sonic Battle in separate bundle packs for the GBA. The game was released on Android on November 25, 2011, and on the Wii U's Virtual Console on February 18, 2015. Both of these rereleases are exclusive to Japan.
## Reception
Sonic Advance received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregation website Metacritic. The game sold 1.21 million copies in the United States, making it one of the bestselling games for the GBA. It earned \$36 million by August 2006. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, it was the 12th highest-selling game launched for the GBA, Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable in the United States.
The game's presentation was well received. Electronic Gaming Monthly called Sonic Advance the best-looking 2D Sonic game. GameSpot praised its detailed scenery and animation, describing them as solid and faithful to the original Genesis games. Nintendo World Report described its use of graphical techniques as elegant, praising its anime-inspired character animations, and compared them positively to the critically acclaimed Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Super Mario World (1990). The game's music and audio was also praised; GameSpot called it comfortable and catchy. Reviewers also praised the gameplay, with many comparing it favorably to the original games. IGN wrote the game's new ideas, such as the ability to grind on rails, were clever and determined that Sonic felt better on the GBA, rather than the Genesis. AllGame said the game relied too much on nostalgia, but felt it was still a "winning formula" and called the game enjoyable. The game's use of the GameCube link cable was praised; IGN noted the replay value and variety it offered, and GameSpot called it interesting, and felt it made good use of the GBA's connectivity to the GameCube.
Certain elements received more mixed responses. GameSpot felt that Sonic Advance lacked polish, and criticized the difficult special stages. IGN's only criticism was the presence of problems from earlier games, such as "an inviting stretch of roadway that begs to have your character blaze across it at top speed, only to have a spike strip jab you in the feet somewhere in the middle". Nintendo World Report thought the game was too short and criticized the exclusion of the Super Sonic replay mode from earlier games. Reviews for the N-Gage version were mixed; GameSpot criticized its choppy frame rate and encouraged readers to buy the superior GBA version instead. IGN agreed and felt the N-Gage's vertical screen and omission of the multiplayer modes had a negative impact on the ported version. Overall, reviewers felt Sonic Advance was a solid addition to the Sonic franchise. Nintendo World Report felt the game was not perfect, but was still a game that "deserves a spot in your GBA case". IGN agreed, and stated the game successfully recaptured the spirit of classic Sonic gameplay while feeling unique and taking advantage of the GBA's capabilities.
## Legacy
In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine named Sonic Advance among the best games for Nintendo consoles. Later that year, they ranked the game 75th on a list of greatest Nintendo games, calling it "the finest Sonic game since the Mega Drive golden years and remains a 2D classic. GamesRadar called it the 13th best Sonic game in 2017. The same year, USgamer named it the sixth best, stating that while it did not feel like the classic Genesis games, its graphics were "gorgeous", which helped make the game a standout for the franchise.
Sonic Advance was the first Sonic game released for a Nintendo console. GamesRadar considered this significant, as Nintendo and Sega were fierce rivals throughout the 1990s; Sonic Advance helped end this rivalry by "reducing Sonic's die-hard brand loyalty to a distant memory from the halcyon-toned 1990s". The two companies worked closely in the following years, collaborating for the first time in 2003 with F-Zero GX. In 2007, both Sonic and Nintendo's mascot Mario featured in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Nintendo Power wrote that Sonic—created as opposition to Nintendo—seemed at home on Nintendo consoles; GamesRadar said Sega and Nintendo were now "like old friends".
Sonic Advance was also the first Sonic game developed by Dimps. Sega continued to contract the company in following years to create many games in the series. The first of these were two sequels to Sonic Advance—Sonic Advance 2 (2002) and Sonic Advance 3 (2004). Dimps also developed the Nintendo DS games Sonic Rush (2005) and Sonic Rush Adventure (2007), the handheld versions of Sonic Colors (2010), Sonic Generations (2011), and Sonic Lost World (2013), and co-developed Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (2010) and the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions of Sonic Unleashed (2008) with Sonic Team. Several journalists have noted that Dimps' handheld games have received consistently better reviews than Sonic Team's home console games. GamesRadar wrote this was because Dimps "managed to keep the spirit" of the original games alive in theirs.
|
45,420,276 |
A. A. Adams
| 1,169,865,378 |
American politician from Washington
|
[
"1900 births",
"1985 deaths",
"20th-century American politicians",
"American chiropractors",
"Democratic Party members of the Washington House of Representatives",
"Politicians from Bellingham, Washington"
] |
Abner Allen "Doc" Adams (August 22, 1900 – May 31, 1985) was an American politician in the state of Washington. He served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1969 to 1981. A Democrat, Adams was noted as a supporter of progressive policies, including assisted suicide, marijuana legalization, and abortion. In addition to his career as a state Representative, Adams was an accomplished chiropractor who served as president of the American Chiropractic Association.
## Early life and education
Adams was born in Bellingham, Washington, on August 22, 1900. He studied at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, graduating in 1924.
## Career
### Chiropractor
In 1945, Adams moved to Tacoma, Washington, and opened an office there. Active in the wider chiropractor community, Adams was legislative chairman and later president of the Washington Chiropractors Association. He was elected president of the American Chiropractic Association in 1965 and served one term. Adams was also vice president of the International Chiropractors Association for some time. He retired from private practice in 1973.
### Politics
Adams began his political career in 1960 as a member of the Tacoma Utility Board. A Democrat, he was first elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 1968, defeating the Republican nominee by a 52–48 margin, with a campaign heavily focusing on pension issues. One of his first actions in the House was to cosponsor a bill banning the carry of "dangerous weapons" at protests. The bill was initially contested due to unclear language, however, it was passed unanimously when the Seattle Black Panthers announced their intention to protest the bill. He supported the 1970 legislation which legalized abortion in Washington.
Adams ran for reelection in 1970. While he won the primary, he had a lower vote total than his Republican opponents. He won the general election, again by a 52–48 margin. He was a cosponsor of the law which introduced mandatory vehicle insurance in Washington. In 1972, the redistricting process placed him in the 27th district, where he defeated Dennis Flannigan in a close primary. He went on to win reelection to a third term by a 67–33 margin and was made chair of the House Social and Health Services Committee. At 72 years old, Adams was the oldest representative in Washington.
In 1974, he sponsored the Senior Services Act, which created a Meals on Wheels program. He also led a probe into escapes at Western State Hospital, which quickly expanded to cover security at all state institutions and a variety of other issues. Adams beat his opponent in the primary and won the general election 66–34. He opposed the 1976 effort to remove Leonard A. Sawyer from his position of Speaker of the House. That same year, he won election for his fifth term 62–38.
Adams sponsored a "Death with Dignity" bill in 1977 that would have legalized a form of assisted suicide in Washington. He also supported a bill to decriminalize marijuana and a bill to legalize the prescription of Laetrile. He supported decriminalization of marijuana again the following year, saying that "We need to send Washington, D.C., a message." He won re-election 65–35.
In 1979, Adams continued to push for assisted suicide and marijuana legislation, successfully passing both bills through the House. He also cosponsored a bill creating a state lottery, although this did not ultimately pass. In May, Adams received criticism for taking a two-week vacation to Hawaii because his absence gave the Republicans a one-vote majority in the House, with an editorial in The News Tribune describing him as being "out of bounds." The following year, Adams opted to not run for reelection, citing a need to spend time with his family. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Art Wang, who defeated his Republican opponent 71–29.
## Personal life
Adams was married to Mildred S. Adams (1899–1993), a music and art teacher, on August 22, 1923. They had one child together. He was a Shriner. Adams supported the legalization of greyhound racing. Late in his political career, Adams was arrested for driving while intoxicated.
Adams died on May 31, 1985. His wife, Mildred, died on March 21, 1993.
## Electoral history
|
1,305,298 |
Crash Bash
| 1,173,493,192 |
2000 video game
|
[
"2000 video games",
"Crash Bandicoot games",
"Eurocom games",
"Multiplayer and single-player video games",
"Party video games",
"PlayStation (console) games",
"PlayStation (console)-only games",
"Sony Interactive Entertainment games",
"Universal Interactive games",
"Video games developed in the United Kingdom",
"Video games featuring female protagonists",
"Video games scored by Steve Duckworth"
] |
Crash Bash is a 2000 party video game developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software in association with Cerny Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the fifth title in the Crash Bandicoot series and the first in the party genre. The game includes a collection of 28 mini-games playable within three modes of gameplay, as well as eight playable characters from the Crash Bandicoot series.
Crash Bash is the first game in the series not to be developed by Naughty Dog, as well as the last Crash Bandicoot game to be exclusively released on a Sony console, with subsequent installments being released on a wider variety of platforms. The game received mixed reviews from critics, who widely noted its similarity to Mario Party, but regarded it as an enjoyable multiplayer experience despite a perceived lack of depth and originality. The mini-games were determined to be varied but repetitive, and the graphics were appreciated for replicating the look and feel of previous Crash Bandicoot titles.
## Gameplay
Crash Bash is a party video game featuring eight playable characters with differing powers and skills: Crash, Coco, Tiny, Dingodile, Cortex, Brio, Koala Kong, and newcomer Rilla Roo. The gameplay consists of 28 different mini-games divided into seven categories with multiple variations each. The categories consist of: "Ballistix", in which players pilot hovercraft to deflect steel balls away from their goal; "Polar Push", in which players riding polar bear cubs must knock opponents off of an icy arena; "Pogo Pandemonium", in which players navigate a grid on pogo sticks to paint squares with their color; "Crate Crush", in which players throw or kick stone crates at their opponents to deplete their health and eliminate them from play; "Tank Wars", a tank battle involving mines and missiles; "Crash Dash", a multi-lap race on a circular track; and "Medieval Mayhem", a variety of challenges played within a circular arena. Crash Bash includes multiplayer compatibility for up to four human players with the use of the PlayStation Multitap.
Crash Bash features three distinct modes of play: "Adventure", "Battle" and "Tournament". In the Adventure mode, one or two human players must win all 28 mini-games and retrieve trophies, gems and crystals by accomplishing certain challenges presented for each mini-game. The mini-games are accessed from a series of "Warp Room" hub areas, with the first Warp Room consisting of four mini-games. A trophy is won by achieving victory in three rounds of any given mini-game. After obtaining a trophy, the player(s) can return to the mini-game and receive a gem or crystal by winning one round under special conditions. When a minimum number of trophies, gems and crystals have been won, the Warp Room's "Boss Arena" becomes accessible, in which the player(s) must defeat a boss character by depleting his health. Winning a Warp Room's Boss Arena will grant entry to the next Warp Room. When three of the game's four Boss Arenas have been won, mini-game challenges become available in which the player(s) can win gold or platinum Relics by defeating advanced computer-controlled opponents. The Adventure mode is completed when all trophies, gems, crystals and relics have been won.
The Battle mode is a quick match within any mini-game that has previously been won in the Adventure mode. The mini-games within this mode can be played as a free-for-all or in teams. In the Tournament mode, players compete in four consecutive mini-games and accumulate points; the player with the most points wins the tournament. In both the Battle and Tournament modes, the number of rounds needed to win a mini-game can be adjusted between two and seven, and the skill level of computer-controlled opponents can be adjusted between "easy", "medium" and "hard".
## Plot
The Adventure campaign features a frame story centering on Aku Aku and Uka Uka, who seek to resolve their feud via a contest between teams who battle in their stead, as the brothers are forbidden from fighting each other directly. During the course of the campaign, Uka Uka plots to use the crystals obtained by the player, a scheme which Aku Aku becomes wise to. The ending is determined by the player's choice of character. If the player chose a character from Aku Aku's team, Aku Aku locks the crystals away and banishes Uka Uka into the vacuum of space, but if the player chose a character from Uka Uka's team, Uka Uka wields the crystals' destructive power to his own ends. If two players complete the campaign with a character from each team, the characters are subject to a special tie-breaking game to decide which team prevails.
## Development and release
Following the release of Crash Team Racing in 1999, Crash Bandicoot creator Naughty Dog began development on Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for the PlayStation 2, and were soon acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment, with Universal Interactive retaining control of the Crash Bandicoot intellectual property. As Naughty Dog's deal with Universal expired, Universal president Mark Cerny departed the studio and formed the independent consultancy Cerny Games to continue his relationship with Naughty Dog and Sony.
Universal's first Crash Bandicoot game without Naughty Dog's involvement would be the Eurocom-developed Crash Bash, with Cerny and Michael John of Cerny Games acting as designers. Naughty Dog, however, donated its entire Crash Bandicoot-related art database for the game's development. Eurocom's Jon Williams, Sony's Grady Hunt, and Universal's Vijay Lakshman served as producers. The programming team consisted of Dave Pridmore, Stuart Johnson, Julian Walshaw-Vaughn, Steve Bak, and Kris Adcock. The graphics were created by Matt Dixon, Steve Bamford, Clive Stevenson, and Jon Parr, while the audio was created by Steve Duckworth. Universal's Sean Krankel and Ricci Rukavina provided additional mini-game design. The character Rilla Roo was created due to the lack of suitable player characters from the Naughty Dog games. Dixon credited the character's concept to Cerny and the design to lead character artist Bamford. The game was showcased at E3 2000, and shipped to North American retailers on November 7, 2000, with a European release following on November 29. It is the final Crash Bandicoot game to be released exclusively for a Sony console, with subsequent installments being released on the Xbox and PlayStation 2.
A game demo of Spyro: Year of the Dragon is accessible via a cheat code entered at the title screen. While a game demo of Crash Bash is, in turn, accessible from Spyro: Year of the Dragon'''s title screen, an alternate input entered at the demo's title screen unlocks a debug menu, granting access to a near-complete beta copy of the game. While all the game's levels are available, the Adventure mode's final hub area is missing, necessitating use of a GameShark to access its levels. The Japanese version of the game features Fake Crash – an odd doppelganger of Crash who had made cameos in previous Crash Bandicoot games – as an unlockable character.
## Reception
Crash Bash received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Reviewers widely compared the game to Mario Party and the then-upcoming Sonic Shuffle. While perceiving a lack of depth and originality, they nevertheless regarded the multiplayer experience as enjoyable.
Shawn Sparks of GameRevolution commended the variety of mini-games, but was displeased by the requirement of playing through the Adventure mode to unlock mini-games in the multiplayer modes. Matt Helgeson of Game Informer admired the challenge and innovative concepts provided by the mini-games, but felt that the Adventure mode was monotonous and lacked purpose. Greg Sewart of Electronic Gaming Monthly interpreted Eurocom's eschewing of the board game formula established by Mario Party in favor of a more action-based format as an attempt to not appear completely derivative, which he deemed unsuccessful. He also complained of the lack of diversity in the Tournament mode, which grouped together mini-games of the same basic type, and felt that it made the mini-game completion requirement of one of the players winning at least three rounds especially tedious. Dean Hager, also of Electronic Gaming Monthly, felt that some of the mini-games were forced and awkward to control, and observed that an excessive amount of power-ups and "general chaos" made concentration difficult. Out of the mini-games, Sewart and Hager deemed those in the "Ballistix" category to be the most fun. Although Doug Perry of IGN appreciated the different variations of the mini-games, he and Daniel Erickson of Next Generation found them generally repetitive. Ryan Davis of GameSpot dismissed Crash Bash as "utterly run of the mill, completely middle of the road", and criticized the unbalanced AI.
The graphics were appreciated for replicating the look and feel of the Naughty Dog titles, but Helgeson and Human Tornado of GamePro were troubled by the distant camera, with the latter observing that the characters often bunched together in several games. While Davis admired the game's explosion, particle and lighting effects, he was annoyed by their abundance distracting from the gameplay and sporadically causing slowdown.
Perry summarized the music as "kooky and light and it's fun to listen to" and remarked on its resemblance to the Naughty Dog games, elaborating that "the thumping vibes and bubblegum Congo drumbeats are right on target". Davis determined the audio to be "standard, with Hanna-Barbera-style background music that is appropriate to the various environments and a somewhat limited set of taunts and yelps for each character", and warned that the audio may quickly wear thin.
According to the NPD Group, Crash Bash'' was the 16th highest selling console game of December 2000 in North America, as well as the 7th best-selling PlayStation title. In the United Kingdom, the game received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies.
|
860,340 |
The System Has Failed
| 1,172,973,518 | null |
[
"2004 albums",
"Megadeth albums",
"Sanctuary Records albums"
] |
The System Has Failed is the tenth studio album by American thrash metal band Megadeth, released on September 14, 2004. It was the band's second and final studio album to be distributed by Sanctuary Records. The System Has Failed was the first album to be released after Dave Mustaine recovered from his arm injury sustained in 2002. It is also the first of four Megadeth studio albums not to include original bassist and co-founder David Ellefson. The album features former Megadeth member Chris Poland (guitar), who previously performed on Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! (1985) and Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? (1986), and session musicians Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) and Jimmie Lee Sloas (bass).
The System Has Failed received positive reception from critics and debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200. The album was generally thought of as being a return to form for the band, after the release of more commercially accessible albums through the 1990s. "Die Dead Enough" and "Of Mice and Men" were released as singles in 2004, and "The Scorpion" was released as a single in 2005. The track "Back in the Day" was featured in the Duck Dodgers episode "In Space, No One Can Hear You Rock" in 2005, which featured an animated version of the band performing the song.
## Background and production
In 2002, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine announced that he was disbanding the band due to an arm injury that rendered him unable to play guitar. In a statement published on April 3, 2002, he stated that doctors expected that it would take about a year before he would recover from the injury. However, it was uncertain as to how complete of a recovery it would be. Mustaine stated his hopes to regain the ability to play guitar. He subsequently recovered following months of physical therapy.
The album was recorded at Ocean Way and Emerald Entertainment in Nashville, Tennessee and at Phase Four Studios in Tempe, Arizona. In a promotional statement from Megadeth's then-label Sanctuary Records, Mustaine clarified that recording the album had been "liberating", due to having more control over the record than he'd had since the first two Megadeth records. Mustaine also noted that he initially took a casual approach to the album, starting out working three hours a night, four days a week.
Originally intended to be a solo album by Mustaine, the record was re-branded with the Megadeth name as a result of contractual obligations owed to Mustaine's publishing company. Mustaine co-produced the record with Jeff Balding, who had previously engineered Cryptic Writings and Risk. Upon restarting Megadeth, Mustaine contacted bassist and founding member David Ellefson about resuming bass guitar duties for the band. Those efforts were ultimately fruitless, however. Ellefson claimed that Mustaine was not financially willing to pick up "where it was when [the band] broke up" and did not return to Megadeth.
### Artwork
The cover art was designed by Mike Learn, and features Vic Rattlehead at a podium in front of the United States Supreme Court building selling a not-guilty verdict to then U.S. President George W. Bush. Saluting is Hillary Clinton, next to former President Bill Clinton. Behind President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney holds a briefcase labeled "plan B". Behind Cheney are several other Bush Administration officials: then National Security Advisor (and later Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John Ashcroft. The \$100 bills on the cover depict Vic Rattlehead's face rather than the one of Benjamin Franklin.
## Release and promotion
The System Has Failed was released on September 14, 2004, through Sanctuary Records. Three days previously, on September 11, the album was made available for streaming on the VH1 website. The album debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200, with 46,000 units sold in its first week. By December 2007, The System Has Failed had sold 196,000 copies in the United States and by October 2019 has sold an additional 200,000 copies. In addition, the album had managed to chart in the top 20 in several other countries, including Canada, Finland, and Sweden.
Still needing a band with whom to tour, Mustaine hired longtime drummer Nick Menza, and newcomers James MacDonough (bass) and Glen Drover (guitar) (although Jeff Waters of Annihilator nearly joined). Five days before the start of the tour, however, Menza was sent home. His place was filled by Shawn Drover, brother of then-recently hired guitarist Glen Drover. The album's promotional tour, the Blackmail the Universe Tour, launched on October 23, 2004, in Reno, Nevada and featured Earshot as a supporting act. This tour would also spawn the That One Night: Live in Buenos Aires double live album, released in September 2007.
Two music videos were made to promote the album. The first was "Die Dead Enough", which was directed by Thomas Mignone. "Of Mice and Men" was selected as the second video from the album. In this video, the then-new Megadeth lineup is shown performing. The majority of the video was filmed in Los Angeles, California on January 20, 2005. Many fans turned up to be in the video through a contest held by Sanctuary Records. A third video was made for "Back in the Day" in 2005, but was unreleased until September 15, 2014, to celebrate ten years since the album's release. "Back in the Day" was also featured in an episode of the Duck Dodgers TV series, along with an animated performance from the band. The episode which the song was featured in, "In Space, No One Can Hear You Rock", aired on November 4, 2005, after having been delayed a week.
A remastered version of The System Has Failed, along with The World Needs a Hero, was reissued on CD, vinyl, and digital download on February 15, 2019.
## Songs
"Die Dead Enough" was the lead single from The System Has Failed. Mustaine wrote it when he was asked to write a song for the movie Tomb Raider II, but the proposed budget for recording was too low and the deal fell through. Later on, the song was supposed to be featured in the film Saw, but ultimately was not for undisclosed reasons. This was later followed by the release of "Of Mice and Men". Additionally, "Kick the Chair" was released as a free promotional download via Megadeth's website in May 2004, several months prior to the album's release. This version of the song was described by Mustaine as being a final mix, but was not the mix that would appear on the record. "Blackmail the Universe" was also released as a promotional single. "Tears in a Vial" was written by Mustaine shortly after Megadeth disbanded in 2002 about a decision to trade success for happiness. The sixth track on the album, "I Know Jack", is an instrumental featuring a sample of Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen's famous response to Indiana Senator Dan Quayle during a 1988 vice-presidential debate. "Shadow of Deth" consists of Mustaine reciting Psalm 23. The Latin phrase heard at the beginning of the track, "Auxilium meum a Domino," translates to "My help comes from the Lord."
## Critical reception
The System Has Failed has received mainly positive reviews from critics, with some of them describing the album as a return to form. AllMusic's Jason Birchmeier commented that Megadeth hasn't sounded this vital since Countdown to Extinction, and called the album "damn near perfect". Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles reviewer Martin Popoff described the album as a mix of several previous records, and praised a number of the album's tracks. Popoff acknowledged the fact that Mustaine only used hired session players on the album was the album's only low point. Jeff Kerby of KNAC gave a positive, if at times slightly sarcastic review, as well as a detailed track-by-track commentary. David E. Gehlke of Blistering said despite that Mustaine's best days were behind him, this record comes across as a "warm return"; although the album fails to recapture past glory, it succeeds in being a solid, reliable metal album. In addition, Gehlke noted that Mustaine's vocals were "as strong as ever", but panned the album for the lack of any "thrash burners". Neil Arnold of Metal Forces had a slightly different opinion, and credited this album for putting Megadeth "back on track". He praised the album artwork, which reminded him of the 80's style of graphics. Another positive review was posted on Entertainment Weekly. Reviewer Nancy Miller called The System Has Failed Megadeth's best since 1990's Rust in Peace and praised Mustaine's collaboration with Poland, calling the result "Righteous!"
In spite of a largely positive reception, not all reaction was completely positive. Tom Day of musicOMH had a mixed reaction to the album. Day called "Die Dead Enough" a "slice of classic 'Deth", while noting its slightly more mainstream sound. Later in his review, however, he noted that with "Shadow of Deth", it seemed that Mustaine had run out of ideas. Nick Lancaster from Drowned in Sound also reacted unenthusiastically towards the album, saying it was a "severe case of St. Anger syndrome". However, he added there were "occasional moments of the old magic, but they're few and far between".
## Track listing
## Personnel
Production and performance credits are adapted from the album liner notes.
## Chart performance
Album
Singles
|
34,799,795 |
Speak Out Now
| 1,157,460,122 | null |
[
"2011 singles",
"2011 songs",
"Oh Land songs",
"Songs written by Oh Land"
] |
"Speak Out Now" is a song recorded by Danish recording artist Oh Land, taken from the deluxe edition of her eponymous and second studio album (2011). It was released as the album's fifth and final single on 28 November 2011 by Fake Diamond Records. The track was written by Nanna Øland Fabricius, Kristian Leth, and Fridolin Nordsø, with production being handled by the latter two.
"Speak Out Now" divided professional music critics. One critic appreciated Oh Land displaying her "mature" side while a different one found it to be "less interesting" compared to her previous singles. The Euro TV Place listed "Speak Out Now" at number three on their list of the "10 Best Euro TV Theme Songs". Commercially, it peaked at number four in Denmark and was later certified Gold by IFPI Denmark for digital sales exceeding 10,000 units. A music video was also created and features Oh Land performing outside in a forest.
## Background and development
"Speak Out Now" was first released in the United States for digital consumption on 1 January 2011. However, it was not distributed as a commercial single, nor in Oh Land's native Denmark, until 28 November 2011 as a digital download. Both releases were handled by Fake Diamond Records, who had previously distributed the releases for both Oh Land (2011) and her debut album Fauna (2008). On 5 December of the same year, the parent album was reissued in its deluxe edition, featuring three previously unreleased bonus tracks: "Speak Out Now", "Twist", and "En Linedanser". The single was written by Oh Land, Kristian Leth, and Fridolin Nordsø, with production being handled by the latter two. It serves as the opening and closing theme to the Danish TV series Rita, which debuted in February 2012.
## Reception
"Speak Out Now" received mixed to favourable reviews from music critics. A reviewer from Scandipop called it "charmingly upbeat and joyful", in addition to naming it the "more mature sister" to album track "We Turn It Up". Becky Bain of Idolator was more mixed, stating that it was less interesting than both "Sun of a Gun" and "White Nights". On a list published by The Euro TV Place, which displays the "10 Best Euro TV Theme Songs" according to the publication, Oh Land's single was placed at number three; the site's consensus reads, "[...] this tune is as peppy and catchy as they come. Anyone who's watched Rita has probably danced to it in her or his seat during the show's title credits."
For the week ending 17 February 2012, "Speak Out Now" debuted on Denmark's Tracklisten chart at number six. The following week, it reached its peak position of number four; including its first appearance on the chart, it spent seven consecutive weeks on their top ten. Furthermore, on the digital component section of the aforementioned chart, which is compiled by Billboard, it debuted and peaked at number four, for the week on 3 March 2012. It lasted an additional six weeks there before departing. On 30 March 2012, "Speak Out Now" was certified Gold in Denmark for digital sales exceeding of 10,000 copies. It was similarly successful on Danish radio stations, where it received significant airplay. It peaked at number eight on Tracklisten's official airplay chart and spent a total of eighteen non-consecutive weeks charting.
## Music video
An accompanying music video for "Speak Out Now" was released on 10 February 2012. For the visual, the singer appears in various scenes, including in a forest and in a "flooded greenhouse". The video was highlighted by Eliot Glazer of Vulture.com, who joked "the beautiful Danish weirdo is going through her 'lace phase'"; additionally, the staff at Electronic Beats declared it "stunning". The music video is recorded at Randers regnskov.
## Track listing
## Charts and certifications
### Charts
### Certifications
## Release history
|
61,855,955 |
Takayuki Yagami
| 1,172,409,227 |
Fictional character in the 2018 video game Judgment
|
[
"Action-adventure game characters",
"Fictional Japanese people in video games",
"Fictional aikidoka",
"Fictional defense attorneys",
"Fictional male martial artists",
"Fictional martial artists in video games",
"Fictional mixed martial artists",
"Fictional private investigators",
"Fictional wushu practitioners",
"Male characters in video games",
"Orphan characters in video games",
"Sega protagonists",
"Video game characters based on real people",
"Video game characters introduced in 2018",
"Yakuza (franchise)"
] |
Takayuki Yagami (Japanese: 八神 隆之, Hepburn: Yagami Takayuki), "Tak" (ター坊, Tabo) for short, is a character in Sega's 2018 action-adventure video game Judgment, which is a spin-off from the Yakuza game series. Yagami is a former defense attorney who resigns after a client he successfully defended kills their partner. Three years later, Yagami is a private detective in his own "Yagami Detective Agency" (八神探偵事務所, Yagami Tantei Jimusho) and investigates a serial killer who gouges out their victims' eyes. The character returns in Lost Judgment as he investigates a criminal accused of both sexual harassment and murder. Yagami is voiced by Takuya Kimura in Japanese and by Greg Chun in English. Yagami's physical appearance is also based on Kimura.
When developing Yagami, the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio team wanted to create a new type of main character following the release of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, which concludes the story of series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. In contrast to the Kiryu's strong, heroic presence, Yagami is meant to be a more relatable character due to his troubled life. To differentiate between the two protagonists, Yagami was given sidequests in which he becomes friends with residents of Kamurocho. Takuya Kimura was chosen to voice Yagami to appeal to a wide audience. Greg Chun, who played Yagami in English-language versions of the game, said the role was challenging but enjoyable.
Critical response to Yagami has been generally positive. Video game journalists have praised the depth of Yagami's character arc and backstory in Judgment, and have favorably compared him to former protagonist Kiryu. Kimura and Chun have both been commended for their portrayals of the character.
## Creation and development
### Personality and influences
Since the game Yakuza 6: The Song of Life concluded the story of Yakuza series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio game developers wanted to create a distinctive character for the story. At the behest of producer Kazuki Hosokawa, the team decided the character should be a detective. The biggest influence was the Paul Newman film The Verdict, in which Newman's character Frank Galvin suffers a crisis similar to Yagami's in regards to his career as a lawyer. In order to a stark contrast between Kiryu and the new protagonist, the staff wanted to develop Yagami as a more relatable character, with his fall from grace and gradual redemptive arc designed to appeal to players. Due to the popularity of detective stories, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio wrote Yagami as a man who would become more knowledgeable alongside the player as the game progressed.
Sega described Yagami as "a man of conviction who fights for his beliefs, despite the overwhelming despair surrounding him".
Executive director and writer Toshihiro Nagoshi said the detective idea drew on multiple influences, primarily Korean films. Because there are few games based on detective dramas, Hosokawa wanted Yagami to stand out but recognized creating a new character is a major challenge. To make a protagonist who would be a fitting successor to Kiryu, Hosokawa wanted Yagami to be "more grounded to fit the noir vibe". He also said:
> "When you’re writing a story and there’s a really solid character that’s been around for a long time, the character dictates what happens next. In contrast to that, with Yagami, at the start of development we didn’t really have anything attached to him at all. It was a challenge, but also an opportunity for a development team that has been working so long on the same series."
The staff wanted the protagonist to have a deep connection to the city. To emphasize this, they introduced a gameplay mechanic known as the Friendship System, allowing Yagami to befriend and form bonds with the residents of Kamurocho. The developers used the main story to explore facets of Yagami's personality, using sidequests to please fans wanting a balance between seriousness and comedy. Hosokawa regarded the friendship system as one of his favorite parts of Judgment due to the bonds Yagami forms with other characters. As a result, Hosokawa believes that a Judgment sequel would have to remain in Kamurocho due to Yagami's strong connection with the city and its people. In contrast to previous Yakuza protagonists, who are often only visitors to Kamurocho, Yagami was written as a civilian resident in the city, allowing his social life to be further explored.
Localization producer Scott Strichart said though fans might miss previous Yakuza characters, like Kiryu and Goro Majima, he hoped they would be receptive to Yagami, describing him as "his own person – super smart, a razor-sharp wit, and a guy who harbours his own flaws, too". Strichart discussed that the portrayals of yakuza are faithful to the main series due to multiple characters being involved in the clans. However, Yagami was noted for standing out within the cast as he has multiple life choices in contrast to others who are forced to be yakuza or already have a path.
The relationship between Yagami and his ex-lover Mafuyu Fujii was changed during development because Nagoshi found the romance spoiled the thriller aspects of Judgment. Nagoshi also expressed doubts about the game's popularity in English-speaking countries because Takuya Kimura is not popular in Western regions. Following the release of the game, Sega staff felt that if there should be a sequel to Judgment, Yagami and his partner Masaharu Kaito would retain their lead roles and would still be set in Kamurocho.
In Lost Judgment, the narrative focuses primarily on bullying as they consider it as a "Distorted justice" which clashes with Yagami's morals. Strichart commented that Yagami is not a hero so he is not able to solve all these cases on his which contrast the fantasy style Persona 5 which often deals with the protagonists saving victims using their powers. During Lost Judgment Yagami meets handyman Jin Kuwana who instead tries to solve every attempt of bullying regardless of methods. In contrast to Judgment, the sequel does not end on satisfactory note for Yagami as Kuwana manages to escape from the protagonist. Nevertheless, Yagami demonstrates a major influence on the bullies he meets in the game's beginning to the point they become heroic figures during the climax. Due to the character's unspecified age in Lost Judgment, Sega hopes to feature him as the protagonist at least one time again in video game form. Hosokawa commented the player should sympathize with the lead, which made Yagami's characterization to be consistent with the first game with the idea that Yagami is a common person without supernatural powers.
### Casting
Early in the development of Judgment, the developers considered using a famous actor to portray Yagami, deciding upon Takuya Kimura. Nagoshi was afraid audiences would accuse them of toning down the character due to Kimura's popularity. However, Kimura was open to the team's suggestions and worked with the developers to hone the character. Yagami has more spoken dialogue in Judgment than Kiryu had in any individual Yakuza game. Sega was pleased with Kimura's performance, noting he needed far fewer retakes during recording than they anticipated. Some lines were rewritten to better fit Kimura's delivery, but the writers ensured these changes would not deviate from Yagami's personality. The game's dialogue was recorded in chronological order so players would feel Kimura's voice evolving as Yagami's character develops during the story. Kimura enjoyed his work on the game, and Nagoshi remarked on Kimura's quick response to his messages. In contrast with previous Yakuza titles, the game was not recorded until after the whole scenario was written, which helped Kimura and the other actors. Yagami's character was revealed alongside the Japanese marketing of the game in September 2018. Sega stated that Kimura "more than 1,000 minutes of voice recording time for his lines". As a result, the company aimed to bring a major appeal in the protagonist. Kimura's influence in Judgment was compared to Keanu Reeves's in Cyberpunk 2077 as the Nagoshi believes the games would make extra sales as a result of their popularities. However, did not want Kimura's presence to be the only reason why Judgment would be popular.
Nagoshi also expressed doubts about the game's popularity in English-speaking countries because Kimura is not popular in Western regions. The game also references other parts of Kimura's career, such as the dialogue line "Chotte mateyo" (Hey, wait a minute!), a line spoken by Kimura's character in the 1997 television drama Love Generation and Yagami's use of multiple outfits like Kimura. Stritchart claimed that Kimura's inclusion as Yagami was kept in secret between staff members, shocking the localization staff when the first video of Yagami was revealed. Stritchart was initially confused, believing Yagami's similarities with Kimura might be accidental but the inclusion of his lines made him realize the actor's connections.
### Localization
Based on his previous knowledge of the Yakuza franchise, Greg Chun was surprised and pleased to be selected to voice Yagami in the English-language version of Judgment. Yagami's voice was meant to make him sound like a "bona fide badass" regardless of language, something the localization team believed they succeeded at. The actor found his work on the game gratifying, saying, "it really did require me to let go of the tricks that you use to push a performance through, and I really did need to fall back on authenticity and genuine groundedness". He claimed that staying faithful to the "spirit of the Japanese version" was challenging, but enjoyed portraying Yagami's blend of seriousness and comedy. He said having to scream in certain parts of the game was difficult. Chun was surprised by the depth of Yagami's character arc, considering his work on the game an unforgettable experience. Nevertheless, Chun felt the character easy to connect with because of his realistic characterization.
For Lost Judgment, Chun noted that the predecessor helped to properly develop Yagami to the point he seemed like another person when quitting his lawyer occupation as he took a liking to being a humble detective; This was mostly seen through the scene where Yagami tells Kaito that they should search for a lady's cat as part of their job in pleased manner something the localization team enjoyed recording. As a result, he claims that for the sequel "the game kind of teed me up to really be in that Yagami mindset where, yeah, I love being a detective, but some cases are real bummer and super boring." However, in regards to the narrative, he claimed that he had to keep "living the character" due to new elements provided. He believes that Lost Judgment explores more Yagami's anger, something the first game did not focus on.
### Fighting style
Although Yagami claims that his fighting style is self taught to the point of calling it "Kamurocho School" (神室町流, Kamurochō-ryū), the creators of the game were inspired by Chinese martial arts. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio developed multiple techniques for Yagami. While the team had experience thanks to the main Yakuza game, they felt that Yagami should have own new unique moves. This was provided by the fact that Judgment is a noir game and thus were restricted to techniques that fit the genre. This was balanced by giving Yagami his own detective skills not present in any of their previous works. Nagoshi wanted to make Yagami's moves entertaining in order to make the player relief stress from the dark narrative but did not want him to use over-the-top fighting techniques. Yagami was given the Parkour moves like the wall kick with the intention of making the character being easy to control. Yagami's fighting style was inspired by Asian movies with a stylishness based on Kung Fu style and Parkour moves at the same time. In order to fit the actor behind the character, Nagoshi claimed that he drew parallels from Power Rangers-like characters. This further made Nagoshi felt Yagami's character would be fitting to Kimura.
In the original Japanese version of the game, Yagami's fighting styles are known as Flash (一閃, Issen) and Waltz (円舞, Enbu) stances. Sega changed them for the Western release to crane-style and tiger-style stances since they found order to these two words more common for English speakers. As downloadable content, Yagami can perform Qi techcniques. For Lost Judgment a new fighting style known as Snake was added; it was based on Aikido with Nagoshi commenting it served as a merciful style. Lost Judgment also features a fourth fighting style, Fists of Might, based on boxing, as part of an optional paid downloadable content pack.
## Appearances
### Judgment
Born in 1983, Takayuki Yagami is orphaned as a teenager after his attorney father proves an accused murderer innocent, leading the victim's father to kill his parents in retribution. Yagami moves to Kamurocho, where he is taken in and raised by yakuza patriarch Mitsugu Matsugane. Matsugane's friend Ryuzo Genda takes an interest in Yagami, paying his law school tuition and later hiring him to work at his law firm. Yagami gains widespread recognition in 2015 after proving Advanced Drug Development Center (ADDC) janitor Shinpei Okubo innocent of murdering patient Koichi Waku. Shortly thereafter, Okubo is arrested for killing his girlfriend Emi Terasawa and burning down his apartment. As a result, Yagami gives up practicing law.
Three years later, at the beginning of Judgment, Yagami has become a private detective, working alongside former Matsugane family yakuza Masaharu Kaito. While helping prove Matsugane captain Kyohei Hamura innocent of murder, Yagami becomes interested in a serial murder case in which the victims' eyes are removed from the bodies. Dubbing the killer "The Mole", Yagami and Kaito begin investigating the case with help from several others.
After the Mole kills Yagami's former colleague Masamichi Shintani, Yagami discovers ties between the Mole and ADDC doctor Yoji Shono. Yagami meets Shigeru Kajihira, who reveals a failed plan to take over the area around the ADDC for a land redevelopment program that was foiled when researchers claimed to have found a potential cure for Alzheimer's disease named "AD-9". Kajihira asks Yagami to investigate the death of former ADDC vice-director Toru Hashiki. While police detective Mitsuru Kuroiwa accuses fellow detective Kazuya Ayabe of being the Mole, Yagami theorizes the real culprit is conducting human experiments to test the effectiveness of AD-9 and that the deaths of Waku, Shintani and Hashiki were failed experiments. He also suspects Shono killed Terasawa to cover up the experiments.
After Matsugane is killed defending them both from the Mole, Hamura tells Yagami that Kuroiwa is the Mole and provides Yagami with evidence of the ADDC's connection to Shintani's murder. Yagami successfully defends Ayabe in court and proves the ADDC's involvement in the murders. During the trial, Yagami learns Kuroiwa has escaped and pursues him to the ADDC. Yagami defeats Kuroiwa, who is shot by the police, while Shono dies of side effects from an AD-9 injection. The court frees Okubo and places the others involved in the conspiracy under arrest. In the aftermath, Yagami declines to take up law again and continues to work with Kaito at the Yagami Detective Agency.
### Lost Judgment
Yagami returns in the 2021 game Lost Judgment. Producer Kazuki Hosokawa claimed that a new side of Yagami's personality would be explored when interacting with high school students. Yagami and Kaito help two detectives from Yokohama in Yokohama's Seiryo High School. He is then called by Shirosaki at the Genda Law Office whose client, Akihiro Ehara, was arrested and convicted for sexual battery, but during his court testimony he revealed he knew about the death of Hiro Mikoshiba, who he holds responsible for his son's suicide. As Yagami investigates, he discovers that Ehara's case is connected to an attempted suicide in 2008 which led to the victim, Mitsuru Kusumoto, being trapped in a coma. Yagami learns from Seiryo teacher Yoko Sawa that Mikoshiba was in fact bullying Toshiro, but she was coerced by the school to stay silent. During this investigation, Yagami meets handyman Jin Kuwana who acts as an ally and is related with the deaths of bullies. However, despite these successes, Yagami is unable to save Sawa from being murdered by the RK, a Hangure gang led by Kazuki Soma, who are hunting Kuwana.
Sawa's death angers Yagami as he is unable to find evidence to capture Soma. Yagami discovers that the police have pinned Sawa's death on Kuwana. Further investigation leads to Yagami discovering that the National Police Agency's Public Security Division, led by Hidemi Bando, has secretly hired RK to capture Kuwana, as they have learned that Mitsuru's mother, Vice Health Minister Reiko Kusumoto, murdered one of Mitsuru's bullies, Shinya Kawai, with Kuwana's assistance. Yagami wants Kuwana to offer himself to the police but they clash as the latter share's Kuwana assistance. After Kuwana fakes his death in a ship, Yagami joins Shirosaki at having Ehara confess his true crime to the law, using a recording of the students that reveals that Mikoshiba was responsible for Toshiro's suicide.
Following this case, Yagami and his friends face the RK in order to save them from Kuwana. Yagami manages to capture Soma after several battles. Kuwana still refuses to turn himself even after being defeated by Yagami but as there is no proof that of his crimes, he escapes. Before his departure, Yagami tells Kuwana that he while the law might not be perfect, he will fight for its sake and arrest him the next time they meet.
## Reception
Critical response to Takayuki Yagami has been generally positive. Upon his revelation before the game's release, RPGSite found his moves more entertaining than previous Yakuza leads, citing them as "Not only is Yagami more agile and lithe than the characters introduced through the Yakuza series, his style is arguably flashier and more acrobatic." GamesRadar considered Yagami's character one of the biggest differences between Judgment and the Yakuza games, highlighting Yagami's different worldview; the reviewer praised Yagami because he stands out both physically and mentally. IGN India and Entertainment Focus enjoyed the character's personality and depth provided by his role in the story. Engadget called him a "flawed but lovable hero" for his sense of honor, comparing him to detectives in television dramas. RPGamer and IGN called Yagami a likable hero and considered his character arc the best part of the game, His dynamic with Kaito was praised by GameSpot and Siliconera due to the duo's likable chemistry. Upon first seeing him, VideoGamer found potential for an entertaining hero with his martial arts providing more entertainment and further compared him with the detective Philip Marlowe from the novel The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler making Yagami a classic sleuth. Due to their similar jobs, Yagami has often been compared to Phoenix Wright, the main character from Capcom's Ace Attorney series, alongside backtories.
Several outlets compared and contrasted Yagami with Kazuma Kiryu. Multiple writers found the differences between Yagami's upbeat attitude and Kiryu's stoic nature to be interesting, praising the handling of Yagami.
`GameSpot considered it challenging to see Yagami as a true successor to Kiryu's legacy but liked the narrative presented through the character, comparing him to fellow Yakuza character Shun Akiyama. USGamer and HobbyConsolas were more critical, saying Yagami is not as appealing as his predecessor and that his backstory is similar to Kiryu's. Following the worldwide success of Judgment, PushSquare and GamesRadar said they would enjoy to see Yagami return in a sequel, with GamesRadar finding him as a fitting successor to Kiryu.`
Yagami's role in Lost Judgment was praised by Destructoid for giving new parts of his personality that are developed in the narrative. Both Computer Games Magazine and GameSpot felt that the sequel had Yagami struggle with the themes of whether or not the lead is able to deal justice by himself. Additionally, the subplot of Yagami working in a school attracted positive response by the same publication due to how fun it becomes. Although he does not team up with Kaito many times in the sequel, GameSpot felt that Yagami became a more likable character in the sequel and is able to deliver emotional scenes properly. In particular Inverse enjoyed the dynamics between Yagami and suppoting character Kyoko Amasawa when interacting in the school. RPGFan found Yagami's time dealing with high school students in Lost Judgment as one of the best side stories in ever developed by Sega for both Yakuza and Lost Judgment due to the multiple tactics employed by the protagonist to work out with teenagers which serves as a major contrast to the dark main narrative of the game.
Journalists also commented on the vocal performances of Yagami's two voice actors. RPGamer gave Judgment its Editors' Choice Award for Best Voice Acting, praising both Kimura and Chun's performances as Yagami. VG247, Kotaku USGamer noted Kimura's appeal to female Japanese fans based on his portrayal of the character. Chun's performance as Yagami was praised by The Hollywood Reporter and Game Informer, with EGM Now finding his performance more striking than Kimura's. In the 2020 NAVGTR Awards, Kimura was nominated for the "Performance in a Drama, Lead" award for his work as Yagami, but lost to Charlotte McBurney's Amicia from A Plague Tale: Innocence. Due to Kimura's popularity within Judgment, Japanese fans have often nicknamed the game Kimutaku ga Gotoku (キムタクが如く, lit. "Like KimuTaku") with "Kimutaku" being a short of Takuya Kimura while "Gotoku" ("Like a" Japanese) as a reference to the original Japanese title of the Yakuza franchise: Yakuza. For Lost Judgment both actors received equal positive response especially when Yagami is involved in a dark scene. In the 2022 "Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards", Lost Judgment''' won "Best Actor Award" for Kimura's performance as Yagami.
### Analysis
In regards to the way Judgment was translated by Sega, Matteo Fabbretti from Translation Matters noted that the localization of the game makes a major contrast between Yagami's and Kaito's dialogues. In the English version, Yagami retains the Japanese honorifics the Yakuza series is known for while Kaito instead comes with an idea of scepticism. Jacqueline Roshman from Dalarna University noted that the translation in Lost Judgment also tries being faithful to the original Japanese version with Yagami often being called "Yagami-shi" with the honorifics referring to his status as a detective while others kept focused on to properly change Yagami's impoliteness while interacting with Kuwana or when talking in a friendly manner with Kaito.
### Controversy
In July 2021, Sega expressed concern over the usage of Kimura's appearance for Yagami. Kimura's talent agency, Johnny & Associates disapproved the idea of Judgment and Lost Judgment being ported to the PC, fearing improper usage of their actor. As a result, writers expressed fear over the future of Judgment series to the point Lost Judgment'' might be the final game in the series due to Johnny & Associates disliking the apparent changes to the PC and Sega failing to get approval to make Steam ports in the process.
|
1,444,974 |
Rally-X
| 1,171,107,922 |
1980 video game
|
[
"1980 video games",
"Arcade video games",
"Bandai Namco Entertainment franchises",
"FM-7 games",
"Hamster Corporation games",
"MSX games",
"Maze games",
"Midway video games",
"Multiplayer and single-player video games",
"Namco arcade games",
"Nintendo Switch games",
"PlayStation 4 games",
"Sharp X1 games",
"Video games developed in Japan"
] |
Rally-X (Japanese: ラリーX, Hepburn: Rarī-Ekkusu) is a maze chase arcade video game developed in Japan and Germany by Namco and released in 1980. In North America, it was distributed by Midway Manufacturing and in Europe by Karateco. Players drive a blue Formula One race car through a multidirectional scrolling maze to collect yellow flags. Boulders block some paths and must be avoided. Red enemy cars pursue the player in an attempt to collide with them. Red cars can be temporarily stunned by laying down smoke screens at the cost of fuel. Rally-X is one of the first games with bonus stages and continuously-playing background music.
Rally-X was designed as a successor to Sega's Head On (1979), an earlier maze chase game with cars. It was a commercial success in Japan, where it was the sixth highest-grossing game of 1980, but Midway Manufacturing released the game in North America to largely underwhelming results. An often-repeated, though untrue, story involving its demonstration at the 1980 Amusement & Music Operators Association trade show, where the attending press believed Rally-X was of superior quality than the other games presented, specifically Pac-Man. Though it was well-received by attendees, Rally-X failed to attract much attention during its presentation.
Reception for Rally-X, both at release and retrospectively, has highlighted its technological accomplishments and high difficulty. Some reviewers have found it to be influential and ahead of its time. Rally-X received several remakes and sequels, beginning with the slightly tweaked New Rally-X in 1981. It is also included in several Namco compilations.
## Gameplay
Rally-X is a maze chase game where the player controls a blue Formula One racecar. The objective is to collect yellow flags that are scattered around an enclosed maze while avoiding collision with red-colored cars that pursue the player. Mazes scroll in the four cardinal directions and are clustered with dead ends, long corridors, and stationary boulders that are harmful to the player. Each level contains ten flags that increase their point value when collected in succession. One of the flags is a "Special Flag", indicated by an S next to it, which doubles the value of each flag collected thereafter. The player can temporarily stun the red cars with smoke screens, which depletes a portion of their fuel meter at the right of the screen. The meter constantly depletes the longer the player takes in a level, and acts as a timer. As the game progresses, more red cars are added and become more aggressive.
The player has a radar beneath their fuel meter, which displays their current position on the map as well as the location of the flags and red cars. The third level and every fourth thereafter is a bonus round (called a "Charanging Stage"), where the objective is to collect the flags in a certain amount of time. In these bonus rounds, the red cars remain idle and will not chase the player unless their fuel is empty.
## Development and release
Rally-X was created by Namco and designed by Hirohito Ito, with hardware developed by Kouichi Tashiro. It was produced as a successor to Head On (1979), an older arcade game from Sega that similarly involved collecting items in a maze while avoiding enemy cars that pursued the player. Head On was a popular title in Japanese arcades, which gave Namco the idea of creating a game that built on its mechanics. Rally-X was created on a version of the Pac-Man arcade system board that supports multi-directional scrolling. The programming was done by Kazuo Kurosu, who went on to design the multi-directional shooter Bosconian (1981), and featured music from Pac-Man composer Toshio Kai.
Rally-X was first demonstrated in Japan in January 1980, before receiving a wide release on October 3, 1980. When preparing to release the game overseas, Namco believed Rally-X had more foreign appeal than Pac-Man with its audiovisual presentation and challenge, which it believed American audiences would prefer to the simplicity and "cuteness" present in Pac-Man. Namco presented Rally-X at the 1980 Amusement & Music Operators Union (AMOA) tradeshow in Chicago, Illinois, alongside Pac-Man, King & Balloon, and Tank Battalion. An often-repeated story is that out of the games presented, specifically Pac-Man, the attending industry analysists believed Rally-X was the stand-out and the one destined to be successful. Though it received praise from the press, Rally-X did not attract much attention during the event. According to Play Meter magazine, both Pac-Man and Rally-X received mild attention at the show. Midway Manufacturing, the video game division of Bally Manufacturing, agreed to distribute Rally-X and Pac-Man in North America. Dave Marofske, the president of Midway, believed the two had the most potential out of the four Namco games presented. Midway released Rally-X in North America in February 1981 in upright, tabletop, and cabaret cabinet variations.
### Conversions
A home conversion of Rally-X was released for the VIC-20 in Japan in 1981. The port was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by the Japanese division of Commodore International. Due to licensing restrictions, HAL changed the game's characters to mice and cats and released it in North America as Radar Rat Race. Namco released a port for the MSX in 1984 that adopted the gameplay of New Rally-X, which was released in Europe by Argus Press Software under the Bug-Byte name. Dempa Shinbun developed versions for the Fujitsu FM-7, MZ-1500, and Sharp X1 computers in Japan the same year.
Rally-X remained relatively obscure for many years until 1995, when it was included in the PlayStation compilation Namco Museum Vol. 1 along with six other Namco arcade games. The port uses a JAMMA emulator running the source code of the original, making it a near-perfect conversion. Rally-X has been included in several Namco compilations including Namco History Vol. 2 (1997), Microsoft Revenge of Arcade (1998), Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005), Namco Museum 50th Anniversary (2005), Namco Museum Virtual Arcade (2008), and Namco Museum Megamix (2010). In 1996, Rally-X was re-released for arcades as part of Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2. It has also appeared in several Namco "plug'n play" game controllers from Jakks Pacific. Rally-X is also included in both Pac-Man’s Arcade Party (2010) and Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash (2019). In 2021, Rally-X saw a digital release under the Arcade Archives label for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.
## Reception
The game was a commercial success in Japan, where it became the sixth highest-grossing arcade game of 1980, and Namco's third highest that year below Pac-Man and Galaxian. In contrast, the game was not as successful in North America. By July 1981, Midway had sold 2,500 Rally-X arcade machines, significantly less than the company's other releases at the time. Dick Pearson of RePlay highlighted its colorful visuals and sound effects in a preview from the tradeshow, comparing its gameplay favorably to Pac-Man and writing that it "shows promise as an entertaining maze video game". A writer for Cash Box provided similar comments, further applauding its scoring system and layer of strategy. In 1991, Gamest listed it as being a "masterpiece" alongside New Rally-X, and believed its underwhelming critical and commercial reception was attributed to it being ahead of its time. Staff considered it a successor to Head On, as well as being influential for the maze genre.
In his review of Namco Museum Vol. 1, Computer and Video Games Ed Lomas said Rally-X was fun at first, but quickly became repetitive and suffered from poor movement controls. Brett Alan Weiss of AllGame was similarly mixed in his review from 1998, where he claimed its only noteworthy aspects were the "merciless" difficulty and smoke screen weapon. Weiss found its visuals and sounds to only be "merely functional", and secondary to the difficult level. IGN staff contrasted their statements, and believed Rally-X, like the other games in Vol. 1, holds up well today. It was listed among the greatest arcade games by Gamest readers in 1998, being selected for its innovation and evolution on the traditional gameplay of maze chase action games.
Rally-X has continued to earn praise in retrospective commentary. Writing for Eurogamer in 2007, Sir Clive believed the game was unique enough to discern it from Pac-Man and similar maze-chasers. He identified its high difficulty and design, and that it gave an adrenaline rush to players. Clive commented: "When you are playing the game, just imaging a yellow circle where your car is and repeat the mantra 'wakawakawakawaka' as you play and you will start to see just how huge this game could have been". Retro Gamer staff were positive towards its colorful graphics, smooth scrolling, and increasing level of difficulty, writing it makes for a unique derivative of Pac-Man and was worth playing in its own right. Phosphor Dot Fossils's Earl Green found its gameplay addictive and commented on its similarities to Pac-Man. Green believes Rally-X failed to catch on as it lacked Pac-Man's abstract characters and design, and was too similar to other driving games from the era.
## Legacy
Rally-X is credited as being one of the first games to feature continuous background music and a bonus round, predating Sega's Carnival, which was released in June 1980.
In response to player feedback from the original, Namco released a sequel named New Rally-X in 1981, which was designed to improve on the original's flaws and make it easier for newcomers. It also adds a "Lucky Flag" that awards bonus points based on how much fuel remains. New Rally-X has been seen as an improvement over the original and has been ported to several consoles and compilations, such as mobile phones and the Xbox 360. Rally-X Arrangement, included in Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2 (1996), is a remake of the original that implements power-ups and new enemy types. A similar game titled New Rally-X Arrangement is included in Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005). The 2007 Wii game Namco Museum Remix and its 2010 update Namco Museum Megamix include a 3D remake named Rally-X Remix, which replaces the player's car with Pac-Man. Namco Bandai Games released a sequel for iOS in 2011, Rally-X Rumble, that uses a neon-inspired graphical motif in the style of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (2010) and is designed as a multiplayer battle royale game.
The Special Flag has become a symbol for Namco and has made frequent appearances in games, usually as an item that awards an extra life. It has appeared in games such as Xevious (1983), Gaplus (1984), Tinkle Pit (1994), Tales of Phantasia (1995), Xevious Resurrection (2009), Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U (2014), and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018). Namco Bandai's "game consulting" service, which provides insight on the company's design philosophies to clients, is named Special Flag, as are its indoor restaurants located in its VR Zone amusement centers. Merchandise such as enamel pins and keychains featuring the Special Flag have also been produced.
|
177,556 |
Cliff Burton
| 1,173,873,855 |
American bassist (1962–1986)
|
[
"1962 births",
"1986 deaths",
"20th-century American bass guitarists",
"20th-century American male musicians",
"American heavy metal bass guitarists",
"American male bass guitarists",
"Metallica members",
"Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area",
"People from Castro Valley, California",
"Road incident deaths in Sweden",
"Thrash metal musicians"
] |
Clifford Lee Burton (February 10, 1962 – September 27, 1986) was an American musician who was the bassist for thrash metal band Metallica from 1982 until his death in 1986. He performed on the band's first three albums, Kill 'Em All (1983), Ride the Lightning (1984), and Master of Puppets (1986). Burton also received a posthumous writing credit on ...And Justice for All (1988) for the song "To Live Is to Die".
While touring in 1986 to support Master of Puppets, Burton died following a bus crash in Sweden. Renowned for his musicianship and influence, he placed ninth in a 2011 reader poll from Rolling Stone recognizing the greatest bassists of all time. He was also ranked 25th on Rolling Stone's list of the 50 greatest bass players of all time. He was posthumously inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Metallica in 2009.
## Biography
### Early life
Clifford Lee Burton was born in Castro Valley, California, to Ray and Jan Burton. He had two elder siblings, Scott and Connie. Burton's interest in music began when his father introduced him to classical music and he began taking piano lessons.
In his teenage years, Burton developed an interest in rock, classical, country and eventually heavy metal. He began playing the bass at age 13, after the death of his brother, who died from a brain aneurysm. His parents quoted him as saying, "I'm going to be the best bassist for my brother." He practiced up to six hours per day (even after he joined Metallica). Along with classical and jazz, Burton's other early influences varied from Southern rock and country to the blues.
Burton cited John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, Stanley Clarke, Lemmy Kilmister, Algy Ward, Phil Lynott and Jerry Only as major influences on his style of bass playing.
### Career
While still a student at Castro Valley High School, Burton formed his first band called EZ-Street. The band took its name from a Bay Area topless bar. Other members of EZ-Street included future Faith No More members Jim Martin and Mike Bordin. Burton and Martin continued their musical collaboration after becoming students at Chabot College in Hayward, California. Their second band, Agents of Misfortune, entered the Hayward Area Recreation Department's Battle of the Bands contest in 1981. Their audition was recorded on video and features some of the earliest footage of Burton's playing style. The video also shows Burton playing parts of what would soon be two Metallica songs: his signature bass solo, "(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth", and the chromatic intro to "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Burton joined his first professional band, Trauma, in 1982. He recorded the track "Such a Shame" with the band on the second Metal Massacre compilation.
In 1982, Trauma traveled to Los Angeles to perform at the Whisky a Go Go. Among those in attendance were James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, both members of Metallica, which had formed the previous year. Upon hearing, as Hetfield described it, "this amazing shredding" (parts of which later became "(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth"), the two went in search of what they thought was an amazing guitar player. When they learned that what they had heard was a bass solo by Burton, they decided to recruit him for their own band. They asked him to replace departed bassist Ron McGovney, and since Burton thought that Trauma was "starting to get a little commercial", he agreed. The idea of having to move to Los Angeles did not sit well with Burton, who said he would join only if the band relocated from Los Angeles to his native San Francisco Bay Area. Metallica, eager to have Burton in the band, left their origin of Los Angeles to make a home in El Cerrito, a town located across the bay from San Francisco.
Burton's first recording with Metallica was the Megaforce demo. A demo tape the band had made prior to Burton's joining, No Life 'til Leather, managed to come into the hands of Jon Zazula, owner of Megaforce Records. The band relocated to Old Bridge, New Jersey, and quickly secured a recording contract with Zazula's label. Their debut album, Kill 'Em All, features Burton's showcase, "(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth", which displayed his use of effect pedals, such as a wah-wah pedal and Electro Harmonix Big Muff, which are not commonly used by bassists.
Metallica's debut album, Kill 'Em All, was originally intended to inherit the name of one of their earlier demo releases (predating Burton's participation), which was Metal Up Your Ass, but the record company did not like the title and insisted on changing it. Burton said "We should just kill 'em all, man," which gave the band members an idea for the new title. The album was released on July 25, 1983, through Megaforce Records.
The band's second studio album, Ride the Lightning, showcased the band's rapidly evolving musical growth. Burton's songwriting abilities were growing, and he received credit on six of the album's eight songs. Burton's playing style and use of effects is notably showcased on two tracks: the chromatic intro to "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (often mistaken as a guitar intro), and the "lead bass" on "The Call of Ktulu".
The band's improving musicianship on Ride the Lightning caught the attention of major record labels. Metallica was signed to Elektra Records, and began working on their third album, Master of Puppets, which is considered by most critics to be a landmark album in heavy metal. Among the tracks featured in the album are the instrumental "Orion" (which features a prominent lead bass section) and the title track, which was Burton's favorite Metallica song. Master of Puppets was the band's commercial breakthrough release, and Burton's final album with Metallica.
Burton's final performance was in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Solnahallen Arena on September 26, 1986, one day before his death. The final song he performed was "Fight Fire With Fire" according to setlist.fm and the cassette included in the deluxe box of Master of Puppets or "Blitzkrieg" according to the band's homepage.
## Death
In Sweden, on the Damage Inc. tour in support of Master of Puppets, the band members complained that the bunks on their tour bus were unsatisfactory and uncomfortable. The story of how Burton won the bunk differs between the two band members, as Kirk Hammett stated on VH1's Behind the Music, he and Burton drew cards, and Burton picked the ace of spades, thereby getting the first choice of bunk. Burton told Hammett "I want your bunk." Hammett replied "Fine, take my bunk, I'll sleep up front, it's probably better anyway." However, Ulrich's version of the event was: Hammett and Burton drew straws, and Burton drew the long straw, winning the choice of bunk. Burton was sleeping shortly before 7 a.m. on September 27 when, according to the driver, the bus skidded off the road (the E4, 12 miles [19 km] north of Ljungby) and flipped onto the grass in Kronoberg County. With no safety restraints on the bunks, Burton was thrown violently through the window of the bus, which then fell on top of him, killing him instantly. Burton was 24 years old.
The bus driver said that the crash was caused by the bus hitting a patch of black ice on the road, but James Hetfield later stated that he first believed the bus flipped because the driver was drunk. Hetfield also stated that he walked long distances down the road looking for black ice and found none. When local freelance photographer Lennart Wennberg (who attended the crash scene the following morning) was asked in a later interview about the likelihood that black ice caused the accident, he said it was "out of the question" because the road was dry and the temperature around 2 °C (36 °F), above the freezing point of 0 °C (32 °F). This was confirmed by police who, like Hetfield, also found no ice on the road. Ljungby detective Arne Pettersson was reported in a local newspaper to have said the tracks at the accident site were exactly like ones seen when drivers fall asleep at the wheel. However, the driver stated under oath that he had slept during the day and was fully rested; his testimony was confirmed by the driver of a second tour bus that was carrying the band's crew and equipment. The driver was determined not at fault for the accident and no charges were brought against him.
## Legacy
Burton's body was cremated and the ashes were scattered at the Maxwell Ranch. At the ceremony, the song "Orion" was played. Shortly after Burton's death, Jason Newsted from Flotsam and Jetsam became Metallica's new bassist.
Metallica wrote a tribute to Burton titled "To Live Is to Die" for ...And Justice for All. Burton also received a writing credit for the lyrics in the middle of the song, as well as the bass lines being a medley of unused recordings Burton had performed prior to his death. A non-Metallica tribute to Burton is the song "In My Darkest Hour" by thrash metal band Megadeth. According to Dave Mustaine, after hearing of Burton's death, he sat down and wrote the music for the song in one sitting. The lyrics, however, are unrelated to Burton's death. Mustaine was Metallica's lead guitarist in the early days and was a close friend of Burton at the time. Thrash metal band Anthrax dedicated its album Among the Living to him, as did Metal Church with The Dark.
In 2006, a memorial stone was unveiled in Sweden near the scene of the fatal crash. The lyrics "...cannot the Kingdom of Salvation take me home" from "To Live Is to Die" are written on Burton's memorial stone. On April 4, 2009, Burton was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Metallica bandmates James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett. Subsequent bassists Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo were inducted as well. During the ceremony, the induction was accepted by his father Ray Burton, who shared the stage with the band and said that Cliff's mother was Metallica's biggest fan.
A biography, To Live Is to Die: The Life and Death of Metallica's Cliff Burton, written by Joel McIver, was published by Jawbone Press in June 2009. Hammett provided the book's foreword. In November 2016, Metallica released the album Hardwired... to Self-Destruct. The deluxe version of the album features a series of live recordings at Berkeley, California's legendary record store Rasputin Music in celebration of Record Store Day on April 16, 2016. The song "Fade to Black" was played with lead singer Hetfield dedicating the song to Burton. During the song Hetfield yells, "Can you hear us Cliff?"
A 2011 reader poll from Rolling Stone placed Burton as the ninth greatest bassist of all time.
In 2017, it was revealed that Burton's parents had been donating his posthumous royalty payments to a scholarship fund for music students at his alma mater Castro Valley High School. In 2018, the Alameda County, California, Board of Supervisors issued a proclamation declaring February 10, 2018, which would have been Burton's 56th birthday, as "Cliff Burton Day" after a fan petition successfully passed. The S&M2 concert in 2019 featured San Francisco Symphony bassist Scott Pingel paying tribute to Burton by playing his signature bass solo, "Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)", using an electric double bass with pedal effects.
Burton has been cited as an admiration, inspiration, or influence by a countless number of bassists within metal-based circles, these include, but are not limited to, Adam Duce, Alex Webster, Dick Lövgren, Justin Chancellor, Liam Wilson, Mike D'Antonio, Martín Méndez, Paolo Gregoletto, Paulo Jr., Reginald Arvizu, Tony Campos, and Troy Sanders.
## Equipment
Cliff Burton played a Rickenbacker 4001 bass before joining Metallica. He removed the original pickups from the instrument, replacing the neck pickup with a Gibson EB and the bridge with a Seymour Duncan stacked jazz pickup, among other modifications.
In January 2013, the guitar manufacturer Aria revealed through Metallica's official website that it would be releasing a replica of Burton's bass, called the Aria Pro II Cliff Burton Signature Bass. The company had received permission from Burton's family and from Metallica to produce the instrument. The bass was officially unveiled at Winter NAMM in Anaheim, California. On January 25, 2013, Burton's father Ray attended the press conference where he signed autographs and talked about Burton's life and the instrument. Current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo was also present and was the first to try out the bass, playing parts of "(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth". Ray Burton said, "What a beautiful instrument and a wonderful tribute to Cliff."
Specifications
- Headstock: Original SB Design
- Neck Shape: Standard, Medium
- Neck: 7 Ply Maple/Walnut
- Neck Joint: Neck-through, Heel-less Cutaway
- Tuners: Handmade Solid Brass Tuner Buttons, 24 K Gold Plated
- Nut: 40mm Width Solid Brass
- Truss rod Cover: Solid Brass
- Headstock Front Inlays: Patent Statement
- Headstock Back Inlay: Cliff Burton Authorized Signature
- Fretboard Scale: 34" or 864mm
- Frets: 24 Frets
- Fretboard: Rosewood
- Fretboard Inlays: Cat Eye, Mother of Pearl Inlays
- Body Shape: Original SB Shape, Super Balanced Body
- Body Material: Alder
- Pickup: Aria MB-V Passive Pickup
- Controls: 1xVolume, 1xTone, 1-Dual Sound Mini-Toggle Switch
- Knobs: Black SB Knobs
- Tailpiece: Solid Brass With 24K Gold Plated Saddles and Black Plated Body
- Strap Pins: 18K Gold Plated Solid Brass
- Strings: Rotosound RS66LB (35, 55, 70, 90)
- Certificate: Certificate of Authenticity Signed by Ray Burton and Toshi Matsumura
- Case: Deluxe Ostrich Hardshell Case With Gold Hardware
## Discography
Studio albums
- Kill 'Em All (1983)
- Ride the Lightning (1984)
- Master of Puppets (1986)
- ...And Justice for All (1988) (posthumous writing credit on "To Live Is to Die")
Video
- Cliff 'em All (1987)
Demos
- No Life 'til Leather (1982) (credited but does not play)
- Megaforce (1983)
- Ride the Lightning (1983)
- Master of Puppets (1985)
Compilations
- Garage Inc. (1998) (featured on "Am I Evil?" and "Blitzkrieg" only)
|
57,372,038 |
Let You Be Right
| 1,171,338,613 | null |
[
"2018 singles",
"2018 songs",
"American disco songs",
"Epic Records singles",
"Meghan Trainor songs",
"Music videos directed by Colin Tilley",
"Songs written by Andrew Wells (record producer)",
"Songs written by Jacob Kasher",
"Songs written by Meghan Trainor"
] |
"Let You Be Right" (stylized in all caps) is a song by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. It was written by Trainor, Andrew Wells and Jacob Kasher Hindlin, and produced by Wells. "Let You Be Right" was announced on May 8, 2018, along with its official single artwork the day after. Epic Records released it on May 10, 2018, along with "Can't Dance". Both songs were intended to be part of Trainor's third major-label studio album Treat Myself (2020), but did not make it to the final cut. Lyrically, the midtempo throwback disco and pop song sees Trainor trying to reach a compromise with a feuding lover.
"Let You Be Right" peaked at number 18 on the US Billboard Adult Top 40 and at number 28 on the US Billboard Mainstream Top 40. Colin Tilley directed the music video for "Let You Be Right". Released on June 4, 2018, the video features Trainor performing choreography with a group of female dancers at a basketball court. The video featured the singer wearing a pair of "silky, ballooning black trousers" and made use of kaleidoscopic effects. In 2018, Trainor performed the song on The Today Show's Citi concert series, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, 2018 Teen Choice Awards, 2018 Radio Disney Music Awards and CMT Crossroads.
## Background and release
Meghan Trainor had been searching for a producer to create her upcoming third major-label studio album Treat Myself (2020) with, when she conducted the first session for it with songwriter Jacob Kasher Hindlin. He suggested that they work with then-unknown producer Andrew Wells. Trainor, who was expecting the session to go "really bad or really awesome", ended up writing "Let You Be Right" with them, and knew Wells "was the one". Wells produced the song, and ended up collaborating with Trainor on four songs for her second EP, The Love Train (2019), two of which were co-written by Hindlin. "Let You Be Right" was Wells' favorite song on Treat Myself, and he suggested that the singer release the song.
Trainor previewed the song on her Instagram account, accompanied by a video of a spinning disco ball, on May 8, 2018, two days before the official release date. It was released on May 10, 2018, accompanied by "Can't Dance". About her decision to release two singles on the same day, Trainor said "My team and I talked about it, and I just can't wait any longer to share the songs on this album. I wanted to drop two today instead of one." In the United States, "Let You Be Right" was serviced to adult contemporary radio on May 11 and contemporary hit radio on June 8, 2018.
In a January 2020 interview, Trainor was regretful about releasing the song as a single, stating that her label, management and team were "really confident" in it, and radio DJs were telling them it was the only song off Treat Myself that "[would] work". So she agreed: "Alright, I'll do what you all want to do", but concluded "that shit was wrong" following its commercial underperformance. As Trainor rewrote the album four times, to make it a pop record that feels relevant in an era when hip-hop reigns, "Let You Be Right" failed to make the final cut.
## Composition and reception
"Let You Be Right" is a pop song that visits the "heady days" of disco. First dubbed as a "make-up anthem", the song finds Trainor delivering "fun" and "flirty" lyrics as she tries to reach a compromise with a feuding lover. It has been described as a retro and disco tinged midtempo throwback song with "sugary" production, with a "bright, breezy" chorus. It is a "bright, bass-thumping" love song, with elements of funk. Trainor's vocals on the song are sung with an "inviting coo", and the song's bass line has been described as "intoxicatingly wiggly". The song's guitar instrumentation received comparisons to the work of Nile Rodgers.
"Let You Be Right" peaked at number 15 on the Belgium Ultratip Flanders chart, and at number 41 on the Canada Billboard AC chart. It reached numbers 31 and 21 on the Canada CHR/Top 40 and Hot AC charts respectively. The song also peaked at number 18 on the US Billboard Adult Top 40 and at number 28 on the US Billboard Mainstream Top 40.
## Music video
Colin Tilley, who previously collaborated with Trainor on her video for "No Excuses" (2018), directed the music video for "Let You Be Right". It was released on June 4, 2018, almost a month after the release of the single. The music video was shot at the Moonlight Rollerway in Los Angeles. It incorporated an "eye-popping" backdrop and laser lights. Trainor's outfits for the video include a white leotard, "Baby Spice-esque" pigtails, bubblegum pink hair, and parachute pants.
In the video, Trainor performs a high-energy dance routine on a basketball court in "sporty" attire. One of the props used in the video is a disco ball, and inclusion of kaleidoscopic effects. The singer opined that it was "[her] best video yet", and featured some looks that she came up with herself and some that were inspired by Pinterest. A critic described it as an "explosion of looks, lasers and choreography".
## Live performances
In 2018, Trainor performed "Let You Be Right" as part of her setlist on The Today Show*'s Citi concert series, as well as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She also performed it at the 2018 Teen Choice Awards in August 2018. Trainor opened the 2018 Radio Disney Music Awards with a medley of "Let You Be Right", "No Excuses", "Can't Dance" (2018), "Me Too" (2016) and "All About That Bass" (2014). She performed it with Brett Eldredge at an episode of CMT Crossroads, and included a stripped-down and "more relaxed" version of it on her Spotify Singles* EP.
## Personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal.
- Andrew Wells – producer, songwriter, engineer
- Meghan Trainor – lead vocals, songwriter
- Jacob Kasher – songwriter
- Bo Bodnar – engineer
- Matt Wolach – engineer
- Mitch McCarthy – mixing engineer
- Randy Merrill – mastering engineer
## Charts
## Release history
|
55,584 |
Gout
| 1,171,057,103 |
Form of arthritis causing swollen joints
|
[
"Arthritis",
"Articles containing video clips",
"Crystal deposition diseases",
"Gout",
"Inborn errors of purine-pyrimidine metabolism",
"Inflammatory polyarthropathies",
"Rheumatology",
"Skin conditions resulting from errors in metabolism",
"Steroid-responsive inflammatory conditions",
"Uric acid",
"Wikipedia emergency medicine articles ready to translate",
"Wikipedia medicine articles ready to translate (full)"
] |
Gout (/ɡaʊt/ GOWT) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by the deposition of needle-like crystals of uric acid known as monosodium urate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensity in less than 12 hours. The joint at the base of the big toe is affected (Podagra) in about half of cases. It may also result in tophi, kidney stones, or kidney damage.
Gout is due to persistently elevated levels of uric acid (urate) in the blood (hyperuricemia). This occurs from a combination of diet, other health problems, and genetic factors. At high levels, uric acid crystallizes and the crystals deposit in joints, tendons, and surrounding tissues, resulting in an attack of gout. Gout occurs more commonly in those who regularly drink beer or sugar-sweetened beverages; eat foods that are high in purines such as liver, shellfish, or anchovies; or are overweight. Diagnosis of gout may be confirmed by the presence of crystals in the joint fluid or in a deposit outside the joint. Blood uric acid levels may be normal during an attack.
Treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), glucocorticoids, or colchicine improves symptoms. Once the acute attack subsides, levels of uric acid can be lowered via lifestyle changes and in those with frequent attacks, allopurinol or probenecid provides long-term prevention. Taking vitamin C and eating a diet high in low-fat dairy products may be preventive.
Gout affects about 1 to 2% of adults in the developed world at some point in their lives. It has become more common in recent decades. This is believed to be due to increasing risk factors in the population, such as metabolic syndrome, longer life expectancy, and changes in diet. Older males are most commonly affected. Gout was historically known as "the disease of kings" or "rich man's disease". It has been recognized at least since the time of the ancient Egyptians.
## Signs and symptoms
Gout can present in several ways, although the most common is a recurrent attack of acute inflammatory arthritis (a red, tender, hot, swollen joint). The metatarsophalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is affected most often, accounting for half of cases. Other joints, such as the heels, knees, wrists, and fingers, may also be affected. Joint pain usually begins during the night and peaks within 24 hours of onset. This is mainly due to lower body temperature. Other symptoms may rarely occur along with the joint pain, including fatigue and high fever.
Long-standing elevated uric acid levels (hyperuricemia) may result in other symptoms, including hard, painless deposits of uric acid crystals called tophi. Extensive tophi may lead to chronic arthritis due to bone erosion. Elevated levels of uric acid may also lead to crystals precipitating in the kidneys, resulting in kidney stone formation and subsequent acute uric acid nephropathy.
## Cause
The crystallization of uric acid, often related to relatively high levels in the blood, is the underlying cause of gout. This can occur because of diet, genetic predisposition, or underexcretion of urate, the salts of uric acid. Underexcretion of uric acid by the kidney is the primary cause of hyperuricemia in about 90% of cases, while overproduction is the cause in less than 10%. About 10% of people with hyperuricemia develop gout at some point in their lifetimes. The risk, however, varies depending on the degree of hyperuricemia. When levels are between 415 and 530 μmol/L (7 and 8.9 mg/dl), the risk is 0.5% per year, while in those with a level greater than 535 μmol/L (9 mg/dL), the risk is 4.5% per year.
### Lifestyle
Dietary causes account for about 12% of gout, and include a strong association with the consumption of alcohol, sugar-sweetened beverages, meat, and seafood. Among foods richest in purines yielding high amounts of uric acid are dried anchovies, shrimp, organ meat, dried mushrooms, seaweed, and beer yeast. Chicken and potatoes also appear related. Other triggers include physical trauma and surgery.
Studies in the early 2000s found that other dietary factors are not relevant. Specifically, a diet with moderate purine-rich vegetables (e.g., beans, peas, lentils, and spinach) is not associated with gout. Neither is total dietary protein. Alcohol consumption is strongly associated with increased risk, with wine presenting somewhat less of a risk than beer or spirits. Eating skim milk powder enriched with glycomacropeptide (GMP) and G600 milk fat extract may reduce pain but may result in diarrhea and nausea.
Physical fitness, healthy weight, low-fat dairy products, and to a lesser extent, coffee and taking vitamin C, appear to decrease the risk of gout; however, taking vitamin C supplements does not appear to have a significant effect in people who already have established gout. Peanuts, brown bread, and fruit also appear protective. This is believed to be partly due to their effect in reducing insulin resistance.
Other than dietary and lifestyle choices, the recurrence of gout attacks is also linked to the weather. High ambient temperature and low relative humidity may increase the risk of a gout attack.
### Genetics
Gout is partly genetic, contributing to about 60% of variability in uric acid level. The SLC2A9, SLC22A12, and ABCG2 genes have been found to be commonly associated with gout and variations in them can approximately double the risk. Loss-of-function mutations in SLC2A9 and SLC22A12 causes low blood uric acid levels by reducing urate absorption and unopposed urate secretion. The rare genetic disorders familial juvenile hyperuricemic nephropathy, medullary cystic kidney disease, phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase superactivity and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency as seen in Lesch–Nyhan syndrome, are complicated by gout.
### Medical conditions
Gout frequently occurs in combination with other medical problems. Metabolic syndrome, a combination of abdominal obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, and abnormal lipid levels, occurs in nearly 75% of cases. Other conditions commonly complicated by gout include lead poisoning, kidney failure, hemolytic anemia, psoriasis, solid organ transplants, and myeloproliferative disorders such as polycythemia. A body mass index greater than or equal to 35 increases male risk of gout threefold. Chronic lead exposure and lead-contaminated alcohol are risk factors for gout due to the harmful effect of lead on kidney function.
### Medication
Diuretics have been associated with attacks of gout, but a low dose of hydrochlorothiazide does not seem to increase risk. Other medications that increase the risk include niacin, aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta blockers, ritonavir, and pyrazinamide. The immunosuppressive drugs ciclosporin and tacrolimus are also associated with gout, the former more so when used in combination with hydrochlorothiazide. Hyperuricemia may be induced by excessive use of Vitamin D supplements. Levels of serum uric acid have been positively associated with 25(OH) D. The incidence of hyperuricemia increased 9.4% for every 10 nmol/L increase in 25(OH) D (P \< 0.001).
## Pathophysiology
Gout is a disorder of purine metabolism, and occurs when its final metabolite, uric acid, crystallizes in the form of monosodium urate, precipitating and forming deposits (tophi) in joints, on tendons, and in the surrounding tissues. Microscopic tophi may be walled off by a ring of proteins, which blocks interaction of the crystals with cells and therefore avoids inflammation. Naked crystals may break out of walled-off tophi due to minor physical damage to the joint, medical or surgical stress, or rapid changes in uric acid levels. When they break through the tophi, they trigger a local immune-mediated inflammatory reaction in macrophages, which is initiated by the NLRP3 inflammasome protein complex. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome recruits the enzyme caspase 1, which converts pro-interleukin 1β into active interleukin 1β, one of the key proteins in the inflammatory cascade. An evolutionary loss of urate oxidase (uricase), which breaks down uric acid, in humans and higher primates has made this condition common.
The triggers for precipitation of uric acid are not well understood. While it may crystallize at normal levels, it is more likely to do so as levels increase. Other triggers believed to be important in acute episodes of arthritis include cool temperatures, rapid changes in uric acid levels, acidosis, articular hydration and extracellular matrix proteins. The increased precipitation at low temperatures partly explains why the joints in the feet are most commonly affected. Rapid changes in uric acid may occur due to factors including trauma, surgery, chemotherapy and diuretics. The starting or increasing of urate-lowering medications can lead to an acute attack of gout with febuxostat of a particularly high risk. Calcium channel blockers and losartan are associated with a lower risk of gout compared to other medications for hypertension.
## Diagnosis
Gout may be diagnosed and treated without further investigations in someone with hyperuricemia and the classic acute arthritis of the base of the great toe (known as podagra). Synovial fluid analysis should be done if the diagnosis is in doubt. Plain X-rays are usually normal and are not useful for confirming a diagnosis of early gout. They may show signs of chronic gout such as bone erosion.
### Synovial fluid
A definitive diagnosis of gout is based upon the identification of monosodium urate crystals in synovial fluid or a tophus. All synovial fluid samples obtained from undiagnosed inflamed joints by arthrocentesis should be examined for these crystals. Under polarized light microscopy, they have a needle-like morphology and strong negative birefringence. This test is difficult to perform and requires a trained observer. The fluid must be examined relatively soon after aspiration, as temperature and pH affect solubility.
### Blood tests
Hyperuricemia is a classic feature of gout, but nearly half of the time gout occurs without hyperuricemia and most people with raised uric acid levels never develop gout. Thus, the diagnostic utility of measuring uric acid levels is limited. Hyperuricemia is defined as a plasma urate level greater than 420 μmol/L (7.0 mg/dl) in males and 360 μmol/L (6.0 mg/dl) in females. Other blood tests commonly performed are white blood cell count, electrolytes, kidney function and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). However, both the white blood cells and ESR may be elevated due to gout in the absence of infection. A white blood cell count as high as 40.0×10<sup>9</sup>/l (40,000/mm<sup>3</sup>) has been documented.
### Differential diagnosis
The most important differential diagnosis in gout is septic arthritis. This should be considered in those with signs of infection or those who do not improve with treatment. To help with diagnosis, a synovial fluid Gram stain and culture may be performed. Other conditions that can look similar include CPPD (pseudogout), rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, palindromic rheumatism, and reactive arthritis. Gouty tophi, in particular when not located in a joint, can be mistaken for basal cell carcinoma or other neoplasms.
## Prevention
Risk of gout attacks can be lowered by complete abstinence from drinking alcoholic beverages, reducing the intake of fructose (e.g. high fructose corn syrup) and purine-rich foods of animal origin, such as organ meats and seafood. Eating dairy products, vitamin C-rich foods, coffee, and cherries may help prevent gout attacks, as does losing weight. Gout may be secondary to sleep apnea via the release of purines from oxygen-starved cells. Treatment of apnea can lessen the occurrence of attacks.
### Medications
As of 2020, allopurinol is generally the recommended preventative treatment if medications are used. A number of other medications may occasionally be considered to prevent further episodes of gout, including probenecid, febuxostat, benzbromarone, and colchicine. Long term medications are not recommended until a person has had two attacks of gout, unless destructive joint changes, tophi, or urate nephropathy exist. It is not until this point that medications are cost-effective. They are not usually started until one to two weeks after an acute flare has resolved, due to theoretical concerns of worsening the attack. They are often used in combination with either an NSAID or colchicine for the first three to six months.
While it has been recommended that urate-lowering measures should be increased until serum uric acid levels are below 300–360 μmol/L (5.0–6.0 mg/dl), there is little evidence to support this practice over simple putting people on a standard dose of allopurinol. If these medications are in chronic use at the time of an attack, it is recommended that they be continued. Levels that cannot be brought below 6.0 mg/dl while attacks continue indicates refractory gout.
While historically it is not recommended to start allopurinol during an acute attack of gout, this practice appears acceptable. Allopurinol blocks uric acid production, and is the most commonly used agent. Long term therapy is safe and well-tolerated and can be used in people with renal impairment or urate stones, although hypersensitivity occurs in a small number of individuals. The HLA-B\*58:01 allele of the human leukocyte antigen B (HLA-B) is strongly associated with severe cutaneous adverse reactions during treatment with allopurinol and is most common among Asian subpopulations, notably those of Korean, Han-Chinese, or Thai descent.
Febuxostat is only recommended in those who cannot tolerate allopurinol. There are concerns about more deaths with febuxostat compared to allopurinol. Febuxostat may also increase the rate of gout flares during early treatment. However, there is tentative evidence that febuxostat may bring down urate levels more than allopurinol.
Probenecid appears to be less effective than allopurinol and is a second line agent. Probenecid may be used if undersecretion of uric acid is present (24-hour urine uric acid less than 800 mg). It is, however, not recommended if a person has a history of kidney stones. Pegloticase is an option for the 3% of people who are intolerant to other medications. It is a third line agent. Pegloticase is given as an intravenous infusion every two weeks, and reduces uric acid levels. Pegloticase is useful decreasing tophi but has a high rate of side effects and many people develop resistance to it. Using lesinurad 400 mg plus febuxostat is more beneficial for tophi resolution than lesinural 200 mL with febuxostat, with similar side effects. Lesinural plus allopurinol is not effective for tophi resolution. Potential side effects include kidney stones, anemia and joint pain. In 2016, it was withdrawn from the European market.
Lesinurad reduces blood uric acid levels by preventing uric acid absorption in the kidneys. It was approved in the United States for use together with allopurinol, among those who were unable to reach their uric acid level targets. Side effects include kidney problems and kidney stones.
## Treatment
The initial aim of treatment is to settle the symptoms of an acute attack. Repeated attacks can be prevented by medications that reduce serum uric acid levels. Tentative evidence supports the application of ice for 20 to 30 minutes several times a day to decrease pain. Options for acute treatment include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), colchicine, and glucocorticoids. While glucocorticoids and NSAIDs work equally well, glucocorticoids may be safer. Options for prevention include allopurinol, febuxostat, and probenecid. Lowering uric acid levels can cure the disease. Treatment of associated health problems is also important. Lifestyle interventions have been poorly studied. It is unclear whether dietary supplements have an effect in people with gout.
### NSAIDs
NSAIDs are the usual first-line treatment for gout. No specific agent is significantly more or less effective than any other. Improvement may be seen within four hours and treatment is recommended for one to two weeks. They are not recommended for those with certain other health problems, such as gastrointestinal bleeding, kidney failure, or heart failure. While indometacin has historically been the most commonly used NSAID, an alternative, such as ibuprofen, may be preferred due to its better side effect profile in the absence of superior effectiveness. For those at risk of gastric side effects from NSAIDs, an additional proton pump inhibitor may be given. There is some evidence that COX-2 inhibitors may work as well as nonselective NSAIDs for acute gout attack with fewer side effects.
### Colchicine
Colchicine is an alternative for those unable to tolerate NSAIDs. At high doses, side effects (primarily gastrointestinal upset) limit its usage. At lower doses, which are still effective, it is well tolerated. Colchicine may interact with other commonly prescribed drugs, such as atorvastatin and erythromycin, among others.
### Glucocorticoids
Glucocorticoids have been found to be as effective as NSAIDs and may be used if contraindications exist for NSAIDs. They also lead to improvement when injected into the joint. A joint infection must be excluded, however, as glucocorticoids worsen this condition. There were no short-term adverse effects reported.
### Others
Interleukin-1 inhibitors, such as canakinumab, showed moderate effectiveness for pain relief and reduction of joint swelling, but have increased risk of adverse events, such as back pain, headache, and increased blood pressure. They, however, may work less well than usual doses of NSAIDS. The high cost of this class of drugs may also discourage their use for treating gout.
## Prognosis
Without treatment, an acute attack of gout usually resolves in five to seven days; however, 60% of people have a second attack within one year. Those with gout are at increased risk of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and kidney and cardiovascular disease and thus are at increased risk of death. It is unclear whether medications that lower urate affect cardiovascular disease risks. This may be partly due to its association with insulin resistance and obesity, but some of the increased risk appears to be independent.
Without treatment, episodes of acute gout may develop into chronic gout with destruction of joint surfaces, joint deformity, and painless tophi. These tophi occur in 30% of those who are untreated for five years, often in the helix of the ear, over the olecranon processes, or on the Achilles tendons. With aggressive treatment, they may dissolve. Kidney stones also frequently complicate gout, affecting between 10 and 40% of people, and occur due to low urine pH promoting the precipitation of uric acid. Other forms of chronic kidney dysfunction may occur.
## Epidemiology
Gout affects around 1–2% of people in the Western world at some point in their lifetimes and is becoming more common. Some 5.8 million people were affected in 2013. Rates of gout approximately doubled between 1990 and 2010. This rise is believed to be due to increasing life expectancy, changes in diet and an increase in diseases associated with gout, such as metabolic syndrome and high blood pressure. Factors that influence rates of gout include age, race, and the season of the year. In men over 30 and women over 50, rates are 2%.
In the United States, gout is twice as likely in males of African descent than those of European descent. Rates are high among Pacific Islanders and the Māori, but the disease is rare in aboriginal Australians, despite a higher mean uric acid serum concentration in the latter group. It has become common in China, Polynesia, and urban Sub-Saharan Africa. Some studies found that attacks of gout occur more frequently in the spring. This has been attributed to seasonal changes in diet, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and temperature.
## History
The term "gout" was initially used by Randolphus of Bocking, around 1200 AD. It is derived from the Latin word gutta, meaning "a drop" (of liquid). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this is derived from humorism and "the notion of the 'dropping' of a morbid material from the blood in and around the joints".
Gout has been known since antiquity. Historically, it was referred to as "the king of diseases and the disease of kings" or "rich man's disease". The Ebers papyrus and the Edwin Smith papyrus, (c. 1550 BC) each mention arthritis of the first metacarpophalangeal joint as a distinct type of arthritis. These ancient manuscripts cite (now missing) Egyptian texts about gout that are claimed to have been written 1,000 years earlier by Imhotep. Greek physician Hippocrates around 400 BC commented on it in his Aphorisms, noting its absence in eunuchs and premenopausal women. Aulus Cornelius Celsus (30 AD) described the linkage with alcohol, later onset in women and associated kidney problems:
> Again thick urine, the sediment from which is white, indicates that pain and disease are to be apprehended in the region of joints or viscera... Joint troubles in the hands and feet are very frequent and persistent, such as occur in cases of podagra and cheiragra. These seldom attack eunuchs or boys before coition with a woman, or women except those in whom the menses have become suppressed... some have obtained lifelong security by refraining from wine, mead and venery.
Benjamin Welles, an English physician authored the first medical book on gout, A Treatise of the Gout, or Joint Evil, in 1669. In 1683, Thomas Sydenham, an English physician, described its occurrence in the early hours of the morning and its predilection for older males:
> Gouty patients are, generally, either old men or men who have so worn themselves out in youth as to have brought on a premature old age—of such dissolute habits none being more common than the premature and excessive indulgence in venery and the like exhausting passions. The victim goes to bed and sleeps in good health. About two o'clock in the morning he is awakened by a severe pain in the great toe; more rarely in the heel, ankle, or instep. The pain is like that of a dislocation and yet parts feel as if cold water were poured over them. Then follows chills and shivers and a little fever... The night is passed in torture, sleeplessness, turning the part affected and perpetual change of posture; the tossing about of body being as incessant as the pain of the tortured joint and being worse as the fit comes on.
Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described the microscopic appearance of urate crystals in 1679. In 1848, English physician Alfred Baring Garrod identified excess uric acid in the blood as the cause of gout.
## Other animals
Gout is rare in most other animals due to their ability to produce uricase, which breaks down uric acid. Humans and other great apes do not have this ability; thus, gout is common. Other animals with uricase include fish, amphibians and most non-primate mammals. The Tyrannosaurus rex specimen known as "Sue" is believed to have had gout.
## Research
A number of new medications are under study for treating gout, including anakinra, canakinumab, and rilonacept. Canakinumab may result in better outcomes than a low dose of a glucocorticoid, but costs five thousand times more. A recombinant uricase enzyme (rasburicase) is available but its use is limited, as it triggers an immune response. Less antigenic versions are in development.
## See also
- List of people known as the Gouty
|
8,798,168 |
The Field Where I Died
| 1,122,209,768 | null |
[
"1996 American television episodes",
"Fiction about cults",
"Television episodes about reincarnation",
"Television episodes about the American Civil War",
"Television episodes set in Tennessee",
"The X-Files (season 4) episodes"
] |
"The Field Where I Died" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Rob Bowman. The episode originally aired in the United States on November 3, 1996, on the Fox network. It is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 12.3 and was seen by 19.85 million viewers upon its initial broadcast.
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. In this episode, Mulder's search for an informant inside a cult compound leads him and Scully to one of the cult leader's wives. What they soon discover is an unexpectedly close connection with the woman involving reincarnation. Scully discovers that spirits inhabit living beings in order to tell their stories. After Mulder's regression scene, he details all of his past lives.
Morgan and Wong wrote the episode specifically for Kristen Cloke, who had previously been the protagonist of their science fiction series Space: Above and Beyond. The two also wanted to write an episode to challenge Duchovny as an actor. The installment was also inspired by Ken Burns' eponymous Civil War documentary. "The Field Where I Died" received mixed to positive reviews from television critics, with many praising the episode's exploration of loss and grief as well as Cloke's acting. Others, however, felt that the episode was bogged down by its overemotional nature.
## Plot
In Apison, Tennessee, authorities receive a tip from someone named Sidney alleging child abuse and weapons possession by a local cult called the Temple of the Seven Stars. The FBI and BATF stage a raid on the Temple's compound, but are unable to find its leader, Vernon Ephesian (Michael Massee). Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) experiences déjà vu and walks into a field on the compound, where he finds a trapdoor. Inside, Mulder and Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) find Ephesian preparing to drink a red liquid with his six wives. Mulder stops them and handcuffs Ephesian, but he feels a strange connection to one of the wives, Melissa Riedal-Ephesian (Kristen Cloke).
Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) warns the FBI and BATF that Ephesian and his wives will be released in a day unless they can track down Sidney and the Temple's reported weapons cache. The agents question Ephesian, who states that there is no member of the temple named Sidney. When they interview Melissa, she suddenly begins to talk like Sidney, claiming that Harry Truman is president. Scully believes Melissa is exhibiting multiple personality disorder, but Mulder thinks she is recalling a past life. The agents take her back to the temple, where she takes on the personality of a woman from the Civil War period and says that the weapons were hidden in another secret bunker in the field. She also states that Mulder, in a past life, was a Confederate soldier in the field with her, her beloved, and she watched him die.
Mulder has Melissa undergo regression hypnosis for her to recount her past lives. She implies that she and Mulder have met over their past lives, always to be separated or lost to each other. To confirm her events, Mulder has himself hypnotized and recalls a time when he was a Jewish woman with a son, who had the same soul as his sister Samantha; his deceased father, who was Scully, is dead. Melissa was his husband in this life, and had been taken to a Nazi concentration camp by a Gestapo officer who was The Smoking Man. Mulder also recalls his past life from the Civil War, when he was a man named Sullivan Biddle, while Melissa was Sarah Kavanaugh; Scully, Mulder claims, was his sergeant. Scully finds pictures of Biddle and Kavanaugh in the county's hall of records and gives them to Mulder. He wears a Confederate uniform in the photo.
The FBI and BATF plan to make another search of the compound. Ephesian, realizing that he will not survive another siege, passes out poison to the cult members while his men open fire on the FBI agents and all but he and Melissa die, Melissa having feigned drinking it. Mulder surrenders in order to get into the temple. Ephesian then forces Melissa to drink the poison, and when Mulder arrives he finds both of them dead. Mulder caresses Melissa, looking out into the field.
## Production
Episode writers Glen Morgan and James Wong developed "The Field Where I Died" specifically as a showcase for Kristen Cloke—the actress who played the protagonist from their short-lived Fox series Space: Above and Beyond. Morgan stated, "I knew she did a lot of characters and voices, so I wanted to incorporate that ... I wanted to write something for her that challenged her". To prepare for her role, Cloke researched dissociative identity disorder, and she based the many personality states that she plays on people that she knew. Morgan also stated that he "wanted to write something for David Duchovny that challenged him." When pitching the idea to director Rob Bowman, Morgan and Wong stated they wanted "this episode to feel like the part in Ken Burns' Civil War documentary where they read the Sullivan Ballou letter."
Michael Massee, the actor who played Vernon Ephesian, wanted his character to be "normal looking" and "nondemonic", explaining, "You have to believe that he believes his own rap. When he speaks, he's just explaining that 'this is the way it is' – and that's when it gets very scary." The name "Vernon" comes from the real name of Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh (né Vernon Wayne Howell), whereas "Ephesian" is taken from the biblical Epistle to the Ephesians. Ephesian's Temple of the Seven Stars was built on a soundstage at North Shore Studios, and at the time was one of the show's most expensive sets.
To create an authentic looking citizen's registry, the show's props team reached out to officials at Apison, Tennessee, who lent them a genuine form, which was then carefully reproduced by the show's art staffers. The old photographs featured in the episode are "hybrids" of different freely-available photographs, which were "meld[ed]" together with the help of computers. The face used for Sullivan was chosen because it bore an "uncanny" resemblance to Mulder. The poem Mulder reads at the beginning and end is from Paracelsus by Robert Browning. The first cut of "The Field Where I Died" was over an hour long, resulting in eighteen minutes being cut; this resulted in removal of two of Melissa's personalities.
Sarah Stegall later noted that the penultimate scene, which features federal agents raiding the religious compound and finding that everyone inside has committed suicide, bears similarities to the Waco siege.
## Reception
### Ratings
"The Field Where I Died" originally aired on the Fox network on November 3, 1996. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 12.3, with an 18 share, meaning that roughly 12.3 percent of all television-equipped households, and 18 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. "The Field Where I Died" was seen by 19.85 million viewers on first broadcast.
### Reviews
"The Field Where I Died" received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave "The Field Where I Died" a "B+". He felt that it worked "pretty well", but felt that "the episode isn't quite good enough for the conclusion to be as devastating as it should be". He also felt that it was not believable that Mulder quickly accepts his past lives and Melissa's part in it, and thought it would have worked better if he eased into believing it. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a largely positive review and awarded it three-and-a-half stars out of four. She called the entry "unabashedly emotional episode" that is "unafraid to plumb the depths of human loss and grief". Furthermore, Vitaris praised Cloke's acting; she called her "a truly gifted actor, slipping faultlessly into the skin of all of Melissa's personalities." She was, however, more critical of Duchovny, noting that his hypnosis scene was underacted. Sarah Stegall, in The Munchkyn Zone, gave the episode a 5 out 5 rating. Stegall wrote that while the episode is "drowned in tears and soaked in muted sunlight, [and] teeters on the brink of sentimentality", it manages "to stay just this side of it for a dynamite, gripping episode that showcases some fine actors".
Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode three-a-half stars out of five, and wrote that, while the episode "stumbles around a lot", it gives the viewer "the impression there's nothing else on TV quite like it". The two felt that the idea that Mulder and Scully were friends throughout their various lives was "one of the best things about the story". They also wrote that the fact that Melissa and Mulder were somehow soul mates also prevented the story from being "obvious and pat". However, Shearman and Pearson felt that Morgan and Wong added "a few too many ingredients" which yielded an uneven episode. Entertainment Weekly, on the other hand, was negative, giving the episode an "F" and describing it as "stultifyingly awful".
The episode is a favorite of Anderson's, who said she "loved the script" and that it made her cry. Series creator Chris Carter received angry calls after the Heaven's Gate, a UFO religion cult, committed mass suicide less than six months after the episode had aired. He declined to comment.
|
12,733,653 |
Kissing You (Des'ree song)
| 1,167,452,739 | null |
[
"1990s ballads",
"1997 singles",
"Beyoncé songs",
"Contemporary R&B ballads",
"Des'ree songs",
"Pop ballads",
"Song recordings produced by Beyoncé",
"Song recordings produced by Nellee Hooper",
"Songs about kissing",
"Songs written for films"
] |
"Kissing You" (or "I'm Kissing You") is a song by British singer Des'ree. It was written by the singer with Timothy Atack for Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film Romeo + Juliet. The song was included on the film's soundtrack album and Des'ree's third studio album, Supernatural (1998). A pop ballad set in the key of A minor, the record uses a simple instrumentation consisting only of piano and string instruments. "Kissing You" featured in Romeo + Juliet when the title characters meet at a ball. The song was well received by critics for its emotional melody and toned-down production. First released as a single in Australia on 24 February 1997, it appeared on the ARIA Singles Chart and the UK Singles Chart. A music video accompanied the single, which included scenes from Romeo + Juliet.
"Kissing You" was covered by Beyoncé in 2007, and an accompanying music video was filmed, titled "Still in Love (Kissing You)". The change of title and music video went against copyright terms, and Des'ree's publishers filed a lawsuit against Beyoncé and her representatives. Infringing albums were recalled, and both sides agreed that the case be settled out of court.
## Background and composition
"Kissing You" was written by Des'ree and Timothy Atack, and was produced by Nellee Hooper. The string instruments were arranged by Craig Armstrong, while Andy Todd and Jim Abbiss engineered the record. The pop ballad uses only piano and string instrumentation. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by T C F Music Publishing, Inc., "Kissing You" is set in 12/8 time with a moderately slow tempo of 112 beats per minute. Written in the key of A minor, it has a sequence of Dm<sub>7</sub>–Am<sub>7</sub>–G/B–C–G/B–Am<sub>7</sub>–C/G as its chord progression. Des'ree's voice spans from the low note of A<sub>3</sub> to the high note of D<sub>5</sub>.
"Kissing You" is featured during Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann, when Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Juliet (Claire Danes) first meet at a ball at the Capulets' mansion; Des'ree also appears in the scene performing the song. The song was featured on the film's soundtrack album, and was included on Des'ree's third studio album, Supernatural (1998). Sony Music released the single via compact disc on 18 June 1997. "Kissing You" was also sold as the B-side to "Life" (1998) in the UK. The musical interlude in the middle of "Kissing You" was used to promote the UEFA Euro 2004.
## Reception
New Statesman's Lisa Jardine noted "Kissing You" as "a high point" of the film. J. D. Considine wrote for The Baltimore Sun that "the tremulous intensity of Des'ree's 'Kissing You' has more emotional impact than many films". In a review of Supernatural for Entertainment Weekly, Considine later commended the "throaty emotionalism" with which Des'ree sang "Kissing You". Jim Farber from the Daily News noted the song as the standout track from Supernatural and claimed that it "stands as the only track to deepen the mood, bringing out the indigo pleasures of her voice." The Richmond Times-Dispatch's Kate Lipper called the record "an excellent slow song that you can play nonstop". However, Ann Powers from The New York Times wrote that Des'ree is too melodramatic on "Kissing You". In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Charlotte Church described the song as one of her favourites: "This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It's an original sound and they sing it so well. There's no beat, it's just a lovely, lulling song."
"Kissing You" debuted on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart at number 42 on the week ending 9 March 1997. It rose to its peak position of number 17 on 20 April 1997, and spent a total of 13 weeks on the chart. In December 2010, "Kissing You" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 137. In 2013 Abbey Clancy waltzed to "Kissing You" on the 11th series of Strictly Come Dancing, and the song reentered the UK Singles Chart at number 91. In 2016, "Kissing You" appeared on the French Singles Chart at number 90.
## Music video
The music video for "Kissing You" features scenes of Romeo + Juliet, mainly those when Romeo and Juliet first meet at the Capulets' ball. Interspersed are clips of Des'ree singing the song in an empty building, with water on the floor. Towards the end of the video, some of the final scenes of the film are displayed, and the building that Des'ree is in is illuminated through the windows. The video was included on the film's special edition DVD, released in 2002.
## Beyoncé cover and lawsuit
"Kissing You" was covered by American R&B singer Beyoncé, included on the 2007 deluxe edition of her second studio album, B'Day. Beyoncé contributed to the writing and production. She called the song "a beautiful ballad". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the song "sound[s] downright subtle".
A music video for the song was shot and directed by Cliff Watts, who had also shot Beyoncé's Sports Illustrated cover. Filmed on Super 8 in Miami, the video was included on the B'Day Anthology Video Album.
Des'ree's publishers, the Royalty Network, filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG, Sony BMG Sales Enterprise, Beyoncé, B-Day Publishing and EMI April Music, claiming that Beyoncé's cover of the song infringed copyright conditions. On 13 February 2007, Beyoncé's representatives had sought permission to use interpolations of "Kissing You". The Royalty Network offered Beyoncé the use of the song under certain terms. Two of the conditions of the proposal were that the song's title remain the same, and that the song was not published in video form. Beyoncé made no further contact with the Royalty Network, and planned to release "Still in Love (Kissing You)" and its video, regardless of the two requested conditions, which the Royalty Network called "completely unacceptable". The publishing company requested that Sony Music Entertainment (SME)—the parent company of Columbia Records—halt distribution of B'Day with the retitled song. Nevertheless, the album was released on 3 April 2007; the Royalty Network considered the action "willful disregard", and retracted their permission to use the song. The lawsuit, filed on 16 April 2007 in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, sought US\$150,000 in damages and a recall of the infringing material. The same day, SME ceased distribution of both the deluxe edition of B'Day and the anthology video album, although the editions had sold over 214,000 copies before the recall. Later reissues of the albums did not include "Still in Love (Kissing You)" and its video, with "If" replacing the track on the B'Day deluxe edition. An injunction hearing was scheduled for 4 May, and later postponed until 14 May 2007. On 12 October 2007, the case was dismissed with prejudice, by agreement of all parties. Beyoncé's father and manager, Mathew Knowles, stated that his daughter did not know about the copyright issues prior to the legal action, and that recording artists rarely involve themselves with such matters.
## Track listing
- CD single
1. "Kissing You" – 4:56
2. "You Gotta Be" – 4:06
3. "Warm Hands, Cold Heart" – 4:35
4. "Sword of Love" – 4:03
5. "Livin' in the City" (Meme's Extended Club Mix) – 7:46
## Certifications
|
50,760,709 |
Tithonus poem
| 1,163,073,327 |
Poem by the archaic Greek poet Sappho
|
[
"Eos",
"Greek-language papyri",
"Works about old age",
"Works by Sappho"
] |
The Tithonus poem, also known as the old age poem or (with fragments of another poem by Sappho discovered at the same time) the New Sappho, is a poem by the archaic Greek poet Sappho. It is part of fragment 58 in Eva-Maria Voigt's edition of Sappho. The poem is from Book IV of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry. It was first published in 1922, after a fragment of papyrus on which it was partially preserved was discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt; further papyrus fragments published in 2004 almost completed the poem, drawing international media attention. One of very few substantially complete works by Sappho, it deals with the effects of ageing. There is scholarly debate about where the poem ends, as four lines previously thought to have been part of the poem are not found on the 2004 papyrus.
## Preservation
Two lines of the poem are preserved in Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae. In addition to this quotation, the poem is known from two papyri: one discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt and first published in 1922; the other first published in 2004. The lines quoted by Athenaeus are part of the poem as preserved on the Oxyrhynchus papyrus, but not the Cologne papyrus.
### Oxyrhynchus papyrus
Part of the Tithonus poem was originally published in 1922 on a fragment of papyrus from Oxyrhynchus. This fragment preserved part of 27 lines of Sappho's poetry, including the Tithonus poem. The papyrus appears to be part of a copy of Book IV of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry, as all of the poems appear to be in the same metre. From the handwriting, the papyrus can be dated to the second century AD. Today the papyrus is part of the collection of the Sackler Library in Oxford University.
### Cologne papyrus
In 2004, Martin Gronewald and Robert Daniel published three fragments of papyrus from the Cologne Papyrus Collection, which taken with the existing fragment from Oxyrhynchus provided the almost complete text to five stanzas of the poem. The Cologne papyrus, preserved on cartonnage, is from the early third century BC, making it the oldest known papyrus containing a poem by Sappho.
The papyrus is part of an anthology of poetry, with poems on similar themes grouped together. Along with the Tithonus poem, two others are preserved on the papyrus published by Gronewald and Daniel: one in the same metre, one written in a different hand and in a different metre. The metre of this last poem has characteristics which do not appear in any known metre used by the Lesbian poets. It also contains word forms which appear not to be in the Aeolic dialect used by Sappho, and refers to the myth of Orpheus in a form not known to have existed in Sappho's time. For these reasons, the poem cannot be by Sappho.
## Poem
The Tithonus poem is twelve lines long, and is in a metre called "acephalous Hipponacteans with internal double-choriambic expansion". It is the fourth poem by Sappho to be sufficiently complete to treat as an entire work, along with the Ode to Aphrodite, fragment 16, and fragment 31; a fifth, the Brothers Poem, was discovered in 2014.
The poem is written as an exhortation to a group of young women, putting forward the singer as an example to emulate. It discusses the singer's old age, and tells the audience that while they too will grow old and lose their beauty, their musical abilities will be retained. Anton Bierl suggests that it was originally composed as a didactic work, intended to teach young women about beauty and mortality. It is one of a number of Sappho's poems which discuss old age.
The poem's common name comes from the Greek myth of Tithonus, which is mentioned in lines 9 to 12. According to legend Tithonus was a Trojan prince, loved by Eos, the goddess Dawn. She asked that Zeus make her lover immortal; he granted the request, but as she did not ask for eternal youth for Tithonus, he continued to age for eternity. The story of Tithonus was popular in archaic Greek poetry, though the reference to him in this poem seems out of place, according to Rawles. However, Page duBois notes that the use of a mythical exemplum to illustrate the point of a poem, such as the story of Tithonus in this poem, is a characteristic feature of Sappho's poetry – duBois compares it to Sappho's use of the story of Helen in fragment 16. Martin Litchfield West considers that these lines seem like a weak ending to the poem, though Tithonus functions as a parallel to Sappho in her old age.
### Text
× ‒ υ υ ‒ ‒ υ υ ‒ ‒ υ υ ‒ υ ‒ ᴖ
—via R. Janko, see also W. Annis
### Metre
The metre of the Tithonus poem was already known, before the discovery of the Cologne papyrus, from four quotations of Sappho. Two of these are preserved in the Enchiridion of Hephaestion; he describes the metre as aiolikon and says that Sappho used it frequently. The metre is of the form "× ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̄ ̆ ̆ ̄ ̆ ̄ ̄", which is part of the larger class of aeolic metres. The poems in this metre by Sappho are conventionally thought to have been from the fourth book of the Alexandrian edition, though no direct evidence either confirms or denies this.
### Continuation after line 12
Before the Cologne papyri were published in 2004, lines 11 to 26 of Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1787 were considered to be a single poem, fragment 58 in the Lobel-Page (and subsequently Voigt) numbering systems. The poem on the Cologne papyrus, however, only contains 12 lines. These begin with line 11 of P. Oxy. 1787, confirming the long-standing suggestion that the poem began there. The Cologne version of the poem is thus missing what were long believed to be the final four lines of the poem.
Much of the scholarly discussion of the poem has concerned the difference between the endings of the Tithonus poem preserved in the two papyri. Scholars disagree about how this should be interpreted. André Lardinois lists possible explanations which have been put forward: firstly that the Cologne papyrus did not contain the full poem, but only the first twelve lines; secondly that the poem does end after line twelve and the final lines on the Oxyrhynchus papyrus were part of another poem; and thirdly that there were two different endings for the poem, one at line twelve and one continuing on to line sixteen.
West argues that the four lines missing from the Cologne papyrus were part of a separate poem, though Lardinois comments that there is no evidence in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus to confirm or deny this. However, other scholars, including Gronewald and Daniel, who originally published the Cologne fragments, believe that the poem did continue for these four lines. Lardinois suggests that there may have been two versions of the poem current in antiquity, one ending after the twelfth line, the other continuing to line 16. Gregory Nagy agrees, arguing that the two versions were appropriate for different performance contexts.
If the four contested lines were part of the Tithonus poem, its tone would have changed significantly. The sixteen-line version of the poem has a much more optimistic ending than the twelve-line version, expressing hope for an afterlife.
## Reception
The publication of the Cologne papyri in 2004, making the Tithonus poem almost complete, drew international attention from both scholars and the popular press. The discovery was covered in newspapers in the US and the UK, as well as online. The Daily Telegraph described the discovery as "the rarest of gifts", while Marylin Skinner said that the discovery was the find of a lifetime for classicists.
Since the discovery, there has been a significant amount of scholarship on the poem. At the 138th annual meeting of the American Philological Association, two separate panels discussed the poems, and papers based on these panels were later published as The New Sappho on Old Age, edited by Marylin Skinner and Ellen Greene. At least two other collections of essays on the Cologne papyri have been published. The discovery has been seen as particularly significant for understanding the transmission and reception of Sappho's poetry in the ancient world.
|
5,538,880 |
Ontario Highway 108
| 1,084,305,503 |
Ontario provincial highway
|
[
"Ontario provincial highways",
"Roads in Algoma District",
"Transport in Elliot Lake"
] |
King's Highway 108, commonly referred to as Highway 108, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Located in the Algoma District, the highway extends for 41.6 kilometres (25.8 mi) from an intersection with Highway 17 west of Serpent River, through the urban core of Elliot Lake, to an intersection with Quirke Mine Road in the north end of the city. The highway continues as Secondary Highway 639 north of Quirke Mine Road.
A second unrelated Highway 108 existed for approximately a year in Toronto, following The Queensway between Highway 27 and the Queen Elizabeth Way. Like most provincial highways in Toronto, it was transferred to Metropolitan Toronto after its formation. The current Highway 108 was designated in 1957 and has remained more-or-less unchanged since then.
## Route description
Highway 108 is a highway in Algoma District that serves to connect the Trans-Canada Highway with the mines in the Elliot Lake and Quirke Lake area. Elliot Lake is the only community on the highway and is located approximately two-thirds of the distance between Highway 17 and Highway 546. The route begins at Highway 17, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) east of Spragge and 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of Serpent River. It proceeds 24 kilometres (15 mi) north through a lake-ridden and remote wilderness before entering the built-up community of Elliot Lake.
Within the urban portion of Elliot Lake, the highway is locally maintained under a Connecting Link agreement. It passes the Nuclear Mining Museum and the Mount Dufour ski resort before leaving the community and crossing the eastern end of the geographic Elliot Lake. From this point to the northern terminus of the highway, the route provides access to several mines that dot the surrounding areas. Immediately south of Quirke Mine Road, Highway 108 becomes Secondary Highway 639; the centre lane ends and the pavement quality is visibly reduced.
Highway 108 forms part of the Deer Trail tourist route, which continues north along Highway 639, then southwest along Highway 546 to Iron Bridge. Like other provincial routes in Ontario, Highway 108 is maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. In 2010, traffic surveys conducted by the ministry showed that on average, 2,250 vehicles used the highway daily along the 4.0-kilometre (2.5 mi) section immediately south of the Elliot Lake Connecting Link while 280 vehicles did so each day along the northernmost section approaching Highway 639, the highest and lowest counts along the highway, respectively.
## History
Highway 108 in Algoma is the second highway to carry the designation. In 1953, The Queensway in Toronto was assumed by the Department of Highways (DHO) as the original Highway 108, between Highway 27 (now Highway 427) and the eastern end of the Queen Elizabeth Way at the Humber River. The route was created in order to widen it to provide access from Highway 27 to the new DHO offices at Kipling as well as the Ontario Food Terminal. The designation was short lived, and the route was decommissioned and transferred to the newly formed Metropolitan Toronto on December 26, 1956.
The current iteration of Highway 108 was assumed by the Department of Highways in sections, beginning in late 1957, shortly after the discovery of uranium deposits in the area. Prior to its assumption, the route it followed was designated as Highway 612. The first section, located in the urbanized area of Elliot Lake, was assumed on December 19, 1957. This was followed on December 30 with the majority of the route being assumed. Finally, on January 23, 1958, the northernmost 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) of Highway 612 was designated as part of Highway 108, eliminating that highway entirely. On January 1, 1998, a 5.8 kilometres (3.6 mi) section of the highway was transferred to the Municipality of Elliot Lake. The route has remained unchanged since then.
## Major intersections
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249,992 |
Binary logarithm
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Exponent of a power of two
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[
"Binary arithmetic",
"Calculus",
"Logarithms"
] |
In mathematics, the binary logarithm (log<sub>2</sub>n) is the power to which the number 2 must be raised to obtain the value n. That is, for any real number x,
$x=\log_2 n \quad\Longleftrightarrow\quad 2^x=n.$
For example, the binary logarithm of 1 is 0, the binary logarithm of 2 is 1, the binary logarithm of 4 is 2, and the binary logarithm of 32 is 5.
The binary logarithm is the logarithm to the base 2 and is the inverse function of the power of two function. As well as log<sub>2</sub>, an alternative notation for the binary logarithm is lb (the notation preferred by ISO 31-11 and ISO 80000-2).
Historically, the first application of binary logarithms was in music theory, by Leonhard Euler: the binary logarithm of a frequency ratio of two musical tones gives the number of octaves by which the tones differ. Binary logarithms can be used to calculate the length of the representation of a number in the binary numeral system, or the number of bits needed to encode a message in information theory. In computer science, they count the number of steps needed for binary search and related algorithms. Other areas in which the binary logarithm is frequently used include combinatorics, bioinformatics, the design of sports tournaments, and photography.
Binary logarithms are included in the standard C mathematical functions and other mathematical software packages. The integer part of a binary logarithm can be found using the find first set operation on an integer value, or by looking up the exponent of a floating point value. The fractional part of the logarithm can be calculated efficiently.
## History
The powers of two have been known since antiquity; for instance, they appear in Euclid's Elements, Props. IX.32 (on the factorization of powers of two) and IX.36 (half of the Euclid–Euler theorem, on the structure of even perfect numbers). And the binary logarithm of a power of two is just its position in the ordered sequence of powers of two. On this basis, Michael Stifel has been credited with publishing the first known table of binary logarithms in 1544. His book Arithmetica Integra contains several tables that show the integers with their corresponding powers of two. Reversing the rows of these tables allow them to be interpreted as tables of binary logarithms.
Earlier than Stifel, the 8th century Jain mathematician Virasena is credited with a precursor to the binary logarithm. Virasena's concept of ardhacheda has been defined as the number of times a given number can be divided evenly by two. This definition gives rise to a function that coincides with the binary logarithm on the powers of two, but it is different for other integers, giving the 2-adic order rather than the logarithm.
The modern form of a binary logarithm, applying to any number (not just powers of two) was considered explicitly by Leonhard Euler in 1739. Euler established the application of binary logarithms to music theory, long before their applications in information theory and computer science became known. As part of his work in this area, Euler published a table of binary logarithms of the integers from 1 to 8, to seven decimal digits of accuracy.
## Definition and properties
The binary logarithm function may be defined as the inverse function to the power of two function, which is a strictly increasing function over the positive real numbers and therefore has a unique inverse. Alternatively, it may be defined as ln n/ln 2, where ln is the natural logarithm, defined in any of its standard ways. Using the complex logarithm in this definition allows the binary logarithm to be extended to the complex numbers.
As with other logarithms, the binary logarithm obeys the following equations, which can be used to simplify formulas that combine binary logarithms with multiplication or exponentiation:
$\log_2 xy=\log_2 x + \log_2 y$
$\log_2\frac{x}{y}=\log_2 x - \log_2 y$
$\log_2 x^y = y\log_2 x.$
For more, see list of logarithmic identities.
## Notation
In mathematics, the binary logarithm of a number n is often written as log<sub>2</sub>n. However, several other notations for this function have been used or proposed, especially in application areas.
Some authors write the binary logarithm as lg n, the notation listed in The Chicago Manual of Style. Donald Knuth credits this notation to a suggestion of Edward Reingold, but its use in both information theory and computer science dates to before Reingold was active. The binary logarithm has also been written as log n with a prior statement that the default base for the logarithm is 2. Another notation that is often used for the same function (especially in the German scientific literature) is ld n, from Latin logarithmus dualis or logarithmus dyadis. The , ISO 31-11 and ISO 80000-2 standards recommend yet another notation, lb n. According to these standards, lg n should not be used for the binary logarithm, as it is instead reserved for the common logarithm log<sub>10</sub> n.
## Applications
### Information theory
The number of digits (bits) in the binary representation of a positive integer n is the integral part of 1 + log<sub>2</sub>n, i.e.
$\lfloor \log_2 n\rfloor + 1.$
In information theory, the definition of the amount of self-information and information entropy is often expressed with the binary logarithm, corresponding to making the bit the fundamental unit of information. With these units, the Shannon–Hartley theorem expresses the information capacity of a channel as the binary logarithm of its signal-to-noise ratio, plus one. However, the natural logarithm and the nat are also used in alternative notations for these definitions.
### Combinatorics
Although the natural logarithm is more important than the binary logarithm in many areas of pure mathematics such as number theory and mathematical analysis, the binary logarithm has several applications in combinatorics:
- Every binary tree with n leaves has height at least log<sub>2</sub>n, with equality when n is a power of two and the tree is a complete binary tree. Relatedly, the Strahler number of a river system with n tributary streams is at most log<sub>2</sub>n + 1.
- Every family of sets with n different sets has at least log<sub>2</sub>n elements in its union, with equality when the family is a power set.
- Every partial cube with n vertices has isometric dimension at least log<sub>2</sub>n, and has at most 1/2 n log<sub>2</sub>n edges, with equality when the partial cube is a hypercube graph.
- According to Ramsey's theorem, every n-vertex undirected graph has either a clique or an independent set of size logarithmic in n. The precise size that can be guaranteed is not known, but the best bounds known on its size involve binary logarithms. In particular, all graphs have a clique or independent set of size at least 1/2 log<sub>2</sub>n (1 − o(1)) and almost all graphs do not have a clique or independent set of size larger than 2 log<sub>2</sub>n (1 + o(1)).
- From a mathematical analysis of the Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model of random shuffles, one can show that the number of times one needs to shuffle an n-card deck of cards, using riffle shuffles, to get a distribution on permutations that is close to uniformly random, is approximately 3/2 log<sub>2</sub>n. This calculation forms the basis for a recommendation that 52-card decks should be shuffled seven times.
### Computational complexity
The binary logarithm also frequently appears in the analysis of algorithms, not only because of the frequent use of binary number arithmetic in algorithms, but also because binary logarithms occur in the analysis of algorithms based on two-way branching. If a problem initially has n choices for its solution, and each iteration of the algorithm reduces the number of choices by a factor of two, then the number of iterations needed to select a single choice is again the integral part of log<sub>2</sub>n. This idea is used in the analysis of several algorithms and data structures. For example, in binary search, the size of the problem to be solved is halved with each iteration, and therefore roughly log<sub>2</sub>n iterations are needed to obtain a solution for a problem of size n. Similarly, a perfectly balanced binary search tree containing n elements has height log<sub>2</sub>(n + 1) − 1.
The running time of an algorithm is usually expressed in big O notation, which is used to simplify expressions by omitting their constant factors and lower-order terms. Because logarithms in different bases differ from each other only by a constant factor, algorithms that run in O(log<sub>2</sub>n) time can also be said to run in, say, O(log<sub>13</sub> n) time. The base of the logarithm in expressions such as O(log n) or O(n log n) is therefore not important and can be omitted. However, for logarithms that appear in the exponent of a time bound, the base of the logarithm cannot be omitted. For example, O(2<sup>log<sub>2</sub>n</sup>) is not the same as O(2<sup>ln n</sup>) because the former is equal to O(n) and the latter to O(n<sup>0.6931...</sup>).
Algorithms with running time O(n log n) are sometimes called linearithmic. Some examples of algorithms with running time O(log n) or O(n log n) are:
- Average time quicksort and other comparison sort algorithms
- Searching in balanced binary search trees
- Exponentiation by squaring
- Longest increasing subsequence
Binary logarithms also occur in the exponents of the time bounds for some divide and conquer algorithms, such as the Karatsuba algorithm for multiplying n-bit numbers in time O(n<sup>log<sub>2</sub>3</sup>), and the Strassen algorithm for multiplying n × n matrices in time O(n<sup>log<sub>2</sub>7</sup>). The occurrence of binary logarithms in these running times can be explained by reference to the master theorem for divide-and-conquer recurrences.
### Bioinformatics
In bioinformatics, microarrays are used to measure how strongly different genes are expressed in a sample of biological material. Different rates of expression of a gene are often compared by using the binary logarithm of the ratio of expression rates: the log ratio of two expression rates is defined as the binary logarithm of the ratio of the two rates. Binary logarithms allow for a convenient comparison of expression rates: a doubled expression rate can be described by a log ratio of 1, a halved expression rate can be described by a log ratio of −1, and an unchanged expression rate can be described by a log ratio of zero, for instance.
Data points obtained in this way are often visualized as a scatterplot in which one or both of the coordinate axes are binary logarithms of intensity ratios, or in visualizations such as the MA plot and RA plot that rotate and scale these log ratio scatterplots.
### Music theory
In music theory, the interval or perceptual difference between two tones is determined by the ratio of their frequencies. Intervals coming from rational number ratios with small numerators and denominators are perceived as particularly euphonious. The simplest and most important of these intervals is the octave, a frequency ratio of 2:1. The number of octaves by which two tones differ is the binary logarithm of their frequency ratio.
To study tuning systems and other aspects of music theory that require finer distinctions between tones, it is helpful to have a measure of the size of an interval that is finer than an octave and is additive (as logarithms are) rather than multiplicative (as frequency ratios are). That is, if tones x, y, and z form a rising sequence of tones, then the measure of the interval from x to y plus the measure of the interval from y to z should equal the measure of the interval from x to z. Such a measure is given by the cent, which divides the octave into 1200 equal intervals (12 semitones of 100 cents each). Mathematically, given tones with frequencies f<sub>1</sub> and f<sub>2</sub>, the number of cents in the interval from f<sub>1</sub> to f<sub>2</sub> is
$\left|1200\log_2\frac{f_1}{f_2}\right|.$
The millioctave is defined in the same way, but with a multiplier of 1000 instead of 1200.
### Sports scheduling
In competitive games and sports involving two players or teams in each game or match, the binary logarithm indicates the number of rounds necessary in a single-elimination tournament required to determine a winner. For example, a tournament of 4 players requires log<sub>2</sub>4 = 2 rounds to determine the winner, a tournament of 32 teams requires log<sub>2</sub>32 = 5 rounds, etc. In this case, for n players/teams where n is not a power of 2, log<sub>2</sub>n is rounded up since it is necessary to have at least one round in which not all remaining competitors play. For example, log<sub>2</sub>6 is approximately 2.585, which rounds up to 3, indicating that a tournament of 6 teams requires 3 rounds (either two teams sit out the first round, or one team sits out the second round). The same number of rounds is also necessary to determine a clear winner in a Swiss-system tournament.
### Photography
In photography, exposure values are measured in terms of the binary logarithm of the amount of light reaching the film or sensor, in accordance with the Weber–Fechner law describing a logarithmic response of the human visual system to light. A single stop of exposure is one unit on a base-2 logarithmic scale. More precisely, the exposure value of a photograph is defined as
$\log_2 \frac{N^2}{t}$
where N is the f-number measuring the aperture of the lens during the exposure, and t is the number of seconds of exposure.
Binary logarithms (expressed as stops) are also used in densitometry, to express the dynamic range of light-sensitive materials or digital sensors.
## Calculation
### Conversion from other bases
An easy way to calculate log<sub>2</sub>n on calculators that do not have a log<sub>2</sub> function is to use the natural logarithm (ln) or the common logarithm (log or log<sub>10</sub>) functions, which are found on most scientific calculators. To change the logarithm base from e or 10 to 2 one can use the formulae:
$\log_2 n = \frac{\ln n}{\ln 2} = \frac{\log_{10} n}{\log_{10} 2},$
or approximately
$\log_2 n \approx 1.442695\ln n \approx 3.321928\log_{10} n.$
### Integer rounding
The binary logarithm can be made into a function from integers and to integers by rounding it up or down. These two forms of integer binary logarithm are related by this formula:
$\lfloor \log_2(n) \rfloor = \lceil \log_2(n + 1) \rceil - 1, \text{ if }n \ge 1.$
The definition can be extended by defining $\lfloor \log_2(0) \rfloor = -1$. Extended in this way, this function is related to the number of leading zeros of the 32-bit unsigned binary representation of x, nlz(x).
$\lfloor \log_2(n) \rfloor = 31 - \operatorname{nlz}(n).$
The integer binary logarithm can be interpreted as the zero-based index of the most significant 1 bit in the input. In this sense it is the complement of the find first set operation, which finds the index of the least significant 1 bit. Many hardware platforms include support for finding the number of leading zeros, or equivalent operations, which can be used to quickly find the binary logarithm. The `fls` and `flsl` functions in the Linux kernel and in some versions of the libc software library also compute the binary logarithm (rounded up to an integer, plus one).
### Iterative approximation
For a general positive real number, the binary logarithm may be computed in two parts. First, one computes the integer part, $\lfloor\log_2 x\rfloor$ (called the characteristic of the logarithm). This reduces the problem to one where the argument of the logarithm is in a restricted range, the interval , simplifying the second step of computing the fractional part (the mantissa of the logarithm). For any x \> 0, there exists a unique integer n such that 2<sup>n</sup> ≤ x \< 2<sup>n+1</sup>, or equivalently 1 ≤ 2<sup>−n</sup>x \< 2. Now the integer part of the logarithm is simply n, and the fractional part is log<sub>2</sub>(2<sup>−n</sup>x). In other words:
$\log_2 x = n + \log_2 y \quad\text{where } y = 2^{-n}x \text{ and } y \in [1,2)$
For normalized floating-point numbers, the integer part is given by the floating-point exponent, and for integers it can be determined by performing a count leading zeros operation.
The fractional part of the result is log<sub>2</sub>y and can be computed iteratively, using only elementary multiplication and division. The algorithm for computing the fractional part can be described in pseudocode as follows:
1. Start with a real number y in the half-open interval . If y = 1, then the algorithm is done, and the fractional part is zero.
2. Otherwise, square y repeatedly until the result z lies in the interval . Let m be the number of squarings needed. That is, z = y<sup>2<sup>m</sup></sup> with m chosen such that z is in .
3. Taking the logarithm of both sides and doing some algebra: <math display="block">\begin{align}
`\log_2 z &= 2^m \log_2 y \\`
`\log_2 y &= \frac{ \log_2 z }{ 2^m } \\`
` &= \frac{ 1 + \log_2(z/2) }{ 2^m } \\`
` &= 2^{-m} + 2^{-m}\log_2(z/2).`
\end{align}</math>
1. Once again z/2 is a real number in the interval . Return to step 1 and compute the binary logarithm of z/2 using the same method.
The result of this is expressed by the following recursive formulas, in which $m_i$ is the number of squarings required in the i-th iteration of the algorithm: $\begin{align}
\log_2 x &= n + 2^{-m_1} \left( 1 + 2^{-m_2} \left( 1 + 2^{-m_3} \left( 1 + \cdots \right)\right)\right) \\
&= n + 2^{-m_1} + 2^{-m_1-m_2} + 2^{-m_1-m_2-m_3} + \cdots
\end{align}$
In the special case where the fractional part in step 1 is found to be zero, this is a finite sequence terminating at some point. Otherwise, it is an infinite series that converges according to the ratio test, since each term is strictly less than the previous one (since every m<sub>i</sub> \> 0). For practical use, this infinite series must be truncated to reach an approximate result. If the series is truncated after the i-th term, then the error in the result is less than 2<sup>−(m<sub>1</sub> + m<sub>2</sub> + ⋯ + m<sub>i</sub>)</sup>.
### Software library support
The `log2` function is included in the standard C mathematical functions. The default version of this function takes double precision arguments but variants of it allow the argument to be single-precision or to be a long double. In computing environments supporting complex numbers and implicit type conversion such as MATLAB the argument to the `log2` function is allowed to be a negative number, returning a complex one.
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P. S. Krøyer's paintings of Marie
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Overview of P. S. Krøyer's paintings of his wife
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[
"1890 paintings",
"Collections of the Skagens Museum",
"Paintings by Peder Severin Krøyer"
] |
Peder Severin Krøyer painted various portraits of his wife, Marie Krøyer née Triepcke, a fellow Danish artist who was said to be one of the most beautiful women in Copenhagen. Norwegian-born Peder had met and painted Marie in Copenhagen but fell in love with her when they met in Paris in 1889. After a honeymoon in northern Jutland and Italy, the couple settled in Skagen on the northern tip of Jutland in 1891, joining the group of artists that became known as the Skagen Painters.
The first few years of their marriage were reasonably happy, leading to the birth of their daughter Vibeke in 1895, but as a result of P. S. Krøyer's periods of mental illness, by the early 1900s they spent ever more time apart. In 1902, Marie began an affair with the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén, with whom she became pregnant in 1905. Thereafter she spent most of her time with Alfvén in Sweden, marrying him in 1912, three years after Krøyer had died in Skagen.
Krøyer's paintings of Marie between 1888 and 1906 present a record of the years they spent together. They show some of their most enjoyable times but also hint at the marital tension that increased as time went by. Among the most notable paintings of her are Summer Evening at Skagen. The Artist's Wife and Dog by the Shore (1892), one of Denmark's most popular works, which shows Marie on the beach with their dog and with the moonlight reflected in the sea, Roses (1893), which depicts her relaxing in the garden, and Summer Evening at Skagen Beach – The Artist and his Wife (1899). Also of note are the depictions of Marie on holiday in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast of Italy in 1890; the portrait for the frieze in the dining room at Skagen's Brøndums Hotel; Chez Moi, a series of watercolours of Marie and the couple's daughter Vibeke in the family homes in Copenhagen and Skagen; and Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach, his last painting of her in which she is shown captured in the firelight with Alfvén.
## Background and early relationship
The Skagen Painters were a close-knit group of mainly Danish artists who gathered each summer from the late 1870s in the fishing village of Skagen in the far north of Jutland, painting the local fishermen and their own family life and celebrations. Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909), who was born in Stavanger, Norway, but brought up in Copenhagen, first arrived in Skagen in 1882 and returned almost every summer. He had already gained a reputation for his paintings of the fishermen in Hornbæk on the north coast of Zealand and had been influenced by the Impressionist movement during his travels to France. In Skagen, he became one of the central and most enthusiastic members of the artistic community.
Marie Krøyer (1867–1940) came from an affluent German family who had moved to Copenhagen. From an early age she aspired to become an artist and after private training she went to study in Paris where Krøyer began to court her. It is believed Marie was subsequently reluctant to paint as she looked up to Krøyer as a far more accomplished artist. A few of her works have nevertheless survived.
Krøyer had visited the atelier where Marie was studying on several occasions, but the first of his works in which she appears is A Duet, painted in Heinrich Hirschsprung's Copenhagen home in 1887 where she had been invited to model for him. She can be seen seated on the left of the painting in a red dress.
Krøyer next met Marie in early 1889 in Paris where she was continuing her studies. Although he was 16 years her senior, he fell madly in love with her. That July, they were married in Augsburg in southern Germany, where Marie's parents were residing. Rather than joining the artists' colony in Skagen directly, the Krøyers chose to spend their honeymoon alone in the little fishing village of Stenbjerg in Thy in the northwest of Jutland. They stayed at the local inn for two months, taking their easels down to the beach each day to paint. In addition to portraits of Marie in the inn, one of Krøyer's paintings shows her seated at her easel on the beach. Measuring 35 x 24 cm, the picture of Marie in her room at the inn is titled Interior with the Artist's Wife and signed "Til Marie. S. Krøyer, Stenbjerg Septbr 1889". It is now in the Hirschsprung Collection of Copenhagen.
The portrait of Marie in a midnight blue dress is believed to have been painted shortly before their stay in Stenbjerg. Krøyer presented it to his new parents-in-law on the occasion of their silver wedding on 17 October 1889. Marie commented on Stenbjerg in a letter to her friends Agnes and Harald Slott-Møller: "I would certainly recommend Stenbjerg to you. It is a really pleasant place for a stay, such nice people; and the nature is impressive — but not at all pretty. Indeed it is rather desolate and saddening."
In 1890, the couple created the double portrait (pictured above) in which they painted each other. The same year they travelled to Italy where they continued their honeymoon in Ravello and Amalfi. The small oil-on-canvas work Interior. Marie Krøyer painting. Ravello shows Marie painting while they were there. They also visited the artist Kristian Zahrtmann who spent his summers in the house he had bought in Civita d'Antino, high up in the mountains in the Abruzzo region some 150 km (90 miles) south of Rome. Thanks to his enthusiasm, the town became a favourite destination for Scandinavian painters. In addition to Marie, the lunch scene includes Zahrtmann and Krøyer himself.
## In Skagen
Most of Krøyer's paintings featuring Marie were painted in Skagen, which attracted a considerable number of artists who preferred to paint "en plein air" rather than to be constrained by the rather rigid approaches of the Scandinavian art academies. Both Krøyers had already visited Skagen independently before they married. The summers Krøyer spent with his wife in the 1890s were clearly a source of inspiration for him, especially as Marie had a strong sense of beauty herself, often quoting Keats' "Beauty is truth, truth beauty".
From 1891 to 1894, they spent their summers renting Madam Bendsen's house in Skagen Vesterby where the writer Otto Benzon paid them a visit in 1893. In A luncheon. The artist, his wife and the writer Otto Benzon (1893), Marie and her husband can be seen listening to Benzon attentively. Krøyer's own presence at the table indicates that the painting might well have been based on a photograph. He had bought his first camera in 1885 and by the 1890s had become a keen photographer. The English title of the painting is certainly a mistranslation from the Danish Ved frokosten. Kunstneren, hans hustru og forfatteren Otto Benzon. At the time "frokost" meant breakfast rather than lunch as can be seen here from the coffee pot, coffee cups and boiled eggs.
### Frieze portrait
A portrait of Marie closely resembling a photograph by Krøyer was completed in 1891. The following year, it was added to the frieze in the dining room at Skagen's Brøndums Hotel which had become the artists' favourite meeting place. Placed next to Krøyer's own portrait, it confirmed Marie's position as an accepted member of the Skagen Painters. The dining room was designed by the architects Ulrik Plesner and Thorvald Bindesbøll in connection with the first major expansion of the hotel in 1892. At Krøyer's suggestion, it was decided to incorporate Degn Brøndum's art collection into its decoration. Over the years it became a custom that visiting artists donated portraits of each other to the hotel owner and these were placed in a frieze just under the ceiling. Today the dining room together with its frieze forms part of Skagens Museum.
### Roses
In 1893, Krøyer included Marie in Roses, in which she is shown relaxing in the garden at Madam Bendsen's house. The original title is Roser. Haveparti fra Skagen med kunstnerens hustru siddende i en havestol (Roses. Garden Scene from Skagen with the Artist's Wife Sitting in a Deckchair). It too, may be based on photographs; the Hirschsprung Collection has a number of shots showing a very similar scene. The painting is interesting in that its treatment of light and shadow shows how Krøyer had been influenced by the French Impressionists while he was in Paris. Marie, framed by the overhanging roses, is shown reading a newspaper; to her left is another empty deckchair which was probably where Krøyer would have sat. The Krøyers' dog, Rap, who features in a number of Krøyer's works, lies sleeping at Marie's feet.
The painting was sold for 3.1 million Danish kroner in 1985 and was donated anonymously to the Skagens Museum in 2008.
### On the beach
Summer Evening at Skagen. The Artist's Wife and Dog by the Shore, one of Denmark's most popular works, was painted in 1892. It shows Marie standing on the beach with Rap by her side and the moonlight reflected in the sea. She is shown in profile and her melancholy face and bright dress glow under the light of the setting sun. The painting is one of the works in which Krøyer tries to capture the light and mood on the Skagen shore during what he called "l'heure bleue" (the blue hour), the short period at dusk when the light casts a blue tint over the landscape. The Symbolists believed the twilight hour heralded the coming of death. The moon's reflection adds a slight feeling of depth to the otherwise flat background which consists mostly of the monolithic blue sea. Marie is depicted as being at a similar height to the viewer, but the horizon rises above her head, emphasizing her radiance against the muted, nearly monochrome background.
Although it is an open-air scene, the painting Anna Ancher and Marie Krøyer on the beach at Skagen was completed in the studio from photographs Krøyer took one evening on the beach. Krøyer was not altogether happy with the results as he had needed to illuminate the photograph in the studio and hence felt that the light in the scene was not true to nature and that the mishmash of natural and artificial light had rendered the picture "two paintings in one". In 1990, an exhibition by the Hirschsprung Collection revealed a number of photographs Krøyer had used as a basis for his paintings, including the one behind Anna Ancher and Marie Krøyer on the beach at Skagen.
In 1895, Krøyer wrote to his friend Oscar Björck: "I am also thinking of painting a large portrait of my wife and me together — but for that I shall definitely need good weather, so it won't be this year." In fact it was four years later, in the summer of 1899, that he finally created the large painting Summer Evening at Skagen Beach – The Artist and his Wife. The result nevertheless has a rather melancholic tone. Despite the beautiful surroundings, Marie appears distant, disappearing into the blue moonlight. Even Krøyer's own weak figure seems to be experiencing difficulty in supporting her on his arm while the closest figure of all is Rap the dog. The painting again presents the blue half-light. Krøyer particularly appreciated "l'heure bleue": "Skagen can look so terribly dull in the bright sunlight ... but when the sun goes down, when the moon rises up out of the sea ... in recent years this has been the time I like most of all."
## Watercolours of home life
In 1898, Krøyer started Chez Moi, a series of watercolours of Marie and their daughter Vibeke in the family homes in Copenhagen and Skagen in a style inspired by the Art Nouveau approach adopted by Carl Larsson whom Krøyer probably met during his time in Paris. Larsson had started painting in watercolours while a member of the Grez-sur-Loing artists' colony in France. On returning to Sweden, he had begun a series of pictures of family life with his wife and children in Sundborn in the mid-1890s, publishing it as Ett hem (A home) in 1899. Krøyer's paintings display no signs of disturbance or frustration but leave an impression of a happy family environment, no doubt in accordance with Krøyer's own desires. He exhibited the three from Skagen in 1889 at Den Frie – the exhibition of the artists' association that had been formed in 1891 with Krøyer's support – under the collective title Fra mit Skagenshjem (From my Skagen Home).
## Sankt Hans bonfire
Krøyer's Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach, one of the best known of his works, shows many of the Skagen artists standing around the traditional Sankt Hans Aften bonfire. He had been working on the huge painting (149.5 cm × 257 cm (58.9 in × 101.2 in)) for years before he finally completed it in 1906. Marie is standing next to a fishing boat with her new lover, Hugo Alfvén, the Swedish composer, just to the left of the flames that seem to stream towards them. Despite Alfvén's affair with Marie, Krøyer had welcomed him to the house in Skagen and appeared to tolerate their relationship. The painting is Krøyer's last major work. The preparatory pastel sketch on which it is based was produced in a couple of hours, but the painting was completed with difficulty as not only had Krøyer spent several lengthy periods in a mental hospital from 1900 but he had also begun to lose his sight, particularly in one eye. He was not altogether happy with the finished product; he thought it had become "too dark" and felt it did not capture the "pale radiance" of the sky over Skagen on Midsummer Eve. Although it is an important work in the Skagens Museum collection it is not considered to be among the best of the group portraits produced by the Skagen Painters or even by Krøyer himself. In contrast, writing in Kristeligt Dagblad, Morten Rasmussen reports that the work is considered by many to be Krøyer's "Magnum Opus", representing a reflection of his own life and a tribute to the people who contributed to his success. Marie left Krøyer for Alfvén in 1902, but it was not until 1905 when she was pregnant with Alfvén's child that Krøyer finally agreed to a divorce.
## Literature
[Paintings by Peder Severin Krøyer](Category:Paintings_by_Peder_Severin_Krøyer "wikilink") [Collections of the Skagens Museum](Category:Collections_of_the_Skagens_Museum "wikilink") [1890 paintings](Category:1890_paintings "wikilink")
|
17,611,995 |
2008–09 Liverpool F.C. season
| 1,112,937,158 |
117th season in existence of Liverpool F.C.
|
[
"2008–09 Premier League by team",
"Liverpool F.C. seasons"
] |
The 2008–2009 season was Liverpool's 117th season in existence and their 47th consecutive season in the top-flight of English football. The season began on 1 July 2008 and concluded on 20 June 2009, with competitive matches played between August and May. Having finished the previous Premier League season in fourth place behind Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, Liverpool improved to end the 2008–09 campaign in second place, four points behind Manchester United, with a record of 25 wins, 11 draws and two defeats. Liverpool made little progress in the domestic cup competitions and were eliminated in the fourth round of both the FA Cup and League Cup by Everton and Tottenham Hotspur respectively. They were defeated in the quarter-final of the UEFA Champions League by Chelsea.
Liverpool acquired eight players in the transfer market, including Philipp Degen, Andrea Dossena and Diego Cavalieri who arrived in early July. They were supplemented by striker Robbie Keane from Tottenham and midfielder Albert Riera in August. A total of eight players departed including John Arne Riise, Steve Finnan, Harry Kewell, goalkeeper Scott Carson and striker Peter Crouch who were all transferred in the summer transfer window. Six months after arriving at Liverpool, Keane was sold back to Tottenham in the winter transfer window.
Liverpool began the season in good form; they won eight of their first ten matches before suffering a defeat against Tottenham. They picked up their form after this and a 5–1 victory over Newcastle United at the end of 2008 ensured that they would be top of the league going into the New Year. Three successive draws at the turn of the year meant that Manchester United caught Liverpool and a 2–0 defeat by Middlesbrough at the end of February dented their hopes of winning the league. Liverpool then won ten of their final eleven matches, including a 4–1 victory over Manchester United. The run was not enough to overhaul United and Liverpool finished four points behind in second place.
Twenty-six different players represented the club in four competitions, and there were 16 different goalscorers. Liverpool's top goalscorer was Steven Gerrard, who scored 24 goals in 44 matches. Defender Jamie Carragher made the most appearances during the season with 54.
## Background
Liverpool did not win any trophies in the 2007–08 season. Despite new signing Fernando Torres scoring 33 goals in all competitions, including 24 in the Premier League, the team finished in fourth place, 11 points behind eventual winners Manchester United. They fared little better in the cup competitions, exiting the FA Cup in the fifth round by losing 2–1 to Championship club Barnsley at Anfield. A 2–0 defeat against Chelsea resulted in Liverpool's exit from the League Cup in the quarter-finals. Liverpool fared better in European competition, reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. For the fourth consecutive year in the competition, they faced Chelsea, but lost the tie 4–3 on aggregate.
Liverpool made a number of additions to their squad during the pre-season. Defenders Philipp Degen and Andrea Dossena were the first to arrive from Borussia Dortmund and Udinese respectively. Goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri was signed from Brazilian club Palmeiras as backup to Pepe Reina, while French striker David N'Gog joined from Paris Saint-Germain. The biggest signing of the summer transfer window was the purchase of striker Robbie Keane from Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £19.3 million. Midfielder Albert Riera joined from Spanish club Espanyol at the end of the summer transfer window.
At the end of the 2007–08 season, Liverpool sold a number of players. Defender John Arne Riise was sold to Serie A club Roma after seven years at the club. Forward Anthony Le Tallec was sold to French club Le Mans, while midfielder Harry Kewell joined Turkish club Galatasaray on a free transfer. Later in July, striker Peter Crouch joined his former club, Portsmouth, for £11 million and goalkeeper Scott Carson was sold to West Bromwich Albion. Defender Steve Finnan and midfielder Danny Guthrie left in August to join Espanyol and Newcastle United respectively. During the January transfer window, striker Robbie Keane returned to Tottenham after only six months at Liverpool. Sebastián Leto joined Olympiacos on a two-year loan after his application for a work permit was rejected, while striker Andriy Voronin was loaned to Hertha BSC.
Manchester United were the pre-season favourites to retain their league title with Chelsea considered their main challengers. Liverpool were expected to struggle initially while their new signings adapted to the squad. The Guardian's Paul Doyle opined, "If they are to sustain a challenge for the title beyond Christmas, Liverpool will have to develop the offensive diversity and unpredictability to turn last season's costly draws against smaller teams into victories."
### Transfers
#### In
#### Out
#### Loaned out
#### Transfer summary
### Pre-season matches
Source:
## Premier League
A total of 20 teams competed in the Premier League in the 2008–09 season. Each team played 38 matches; two against every other team and one match at each club's stadium. Three points were awarded for each win, one point per draw, and none for defeats. At the end of the season the top two teams qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League; teams in third and fourth needed to play a qualifier. The provisional fixture list was released on 16 June 2008, but was subject to change in the event of clashes with other competitions, international football, inclement weather, or matches being selected for television coverage.
### August–October
Liverpool travelled to Sunderland on the opening weekend of the season. The match was goalless until the 83rd minute when striker Fernando Torres scored from 25 yards (23 m) to secure a 1–0 victory. The following weekend, Liverpool hosted Middlesbrough at Anfield. The visitors went ahead in the 70th minute when Mido scored. They appeared to be heading for victory, until the 86th minute when Jamie Carragher's shot deflected off Middlesbrough defender Emanuel Pogatetz into the Middlesbrough goal. In the sixth minute of stoppage time, Steven Gerrard scored from the edge of the penalty area to secure a 2–1 victory for Liverpool. A trip to Villa Park to face Aston Villa was next for Liverpool. Torres was forced off with an injury within the first half-hour and both sides failed to capitalise on chances to win, as the match finished 0–0.
Due to international fixtures, Liverpool did not play another game for two weeks. On the resumption of club football, they faced reigning champions Manchester United at home. Liverpool started without Gerrard and Torres, who were substitutes following their return from injury. The visitors took the lead in the third minute when Carlos Tevez scored. An own goal by United defender Wes Brown levelled the score in the 27th minute. Liverpool took control of the match following their equaliser, but it was not until the 71st minute that they asserted their dominance, when substitute Ryan Babel scored. United's misery was compounded when defender Nemanja Vidić was sent off in the 90th minute for a second bookable offence. The win marked the first time, Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez had beaten United in the League since his arrival in 2004.
The following weekend, Stoke City were the visitors to Anfield. Liverpool appeared to have taken the lead in the second minute when Gerrard scored from a free kick, but the goal was ruled out for offside. Despite a number of chances, neither side was able to score and the match finished 0–0. Benítez was adamant Gerrard's goal should not have been disallowed stating: "Nobody knows why the effort was ruled out." Liverpool's next match was against local rivals Everton in the Merseyside derby. Following a goalless first half, Torres scored twice in three minutes to secure a 2–0 win. Torres was confident Liverpool could challenge for the title following the victory: "We know if we can stay near the top of the table in January or February we can win it."
Manchester City were the opposition the following week, as Liverpool travelled to their home ground, the City of Manchester Stadium. They were losing 2–0 at half-time after goals by Stephen Ireland and Javier Garrido. However, Liverpool improved in the second half and two goals from Torres levelled the score. A draw appeared likely until Dirk Kuyt scored in the 90th minute to give Liverpool a 3–2 victory. The following weekend, Liverpool faced Wigan Athletic at Anfield. Liverpool went behind when Wigan striker Amr Zaki opened the scoring, Kuyt equalised in the 37th minute, before Zaki scored again in the 45th minute. Liverpool struggled to find an equaliser until the 80th minute when Riera scored. Kuyt scored again in the 85th minute, to secure a 3–2 victory for Liverpool. The following weekend, they travelled to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea. A Xabi Alonso goal in the 10th minute was enough to secure victory for Liverpool, as they won the match 1–0, becoming the first team since February 2004 to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League. Three days later, a Gerrard penalty in the 76th minute secured a 1–0 home victory over Portsmouth.
### November–December
The following weekend, Liverpool faced Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. They took the lead in the 3rd minute, when Kuyt scored. However, an own goal by Carragher and a last-minute goal from Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko meant Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the season in the Premier League. Liverpool rebounded the following week as they beat West Bromwich Albion 3–0 at Anfield, courtesy of two goals from Keane and one from Álvaro Arbeloa. They faced Bolton Wanderers the following weekend, at the Reebok Stadium, with goals from Kuyt and Gerrard securing a 2–0 victory. Liverpool hosted Fulham at Anfield the following weekend. They were without injured captain Gerrard for the match, but welcomed back Torres from injury. However, his return did not have the desired impact, as Liverpool failed to score, drawing 0–0. After the match, manager Benítez lamented his side's performance: "It was a bad day, we did not have enough energy and we did not pass the ball well enough."
West Ham United were the next opposition, and the match at Anfield finished with the same scoreline. Despite their inability to convert their chances, Liverpool moved to the top of the table following the draw. Liverpool travelled to Ewood Park to face Blackburn Rovers in their next match and returned to winning ways with a 3–1 victory. Goals from Alonso, Yossi Benayoun and Gerrard secured victory for Liverpool. Liverpool hosted Hull City in their next match, but they fell behind to a goal from defender Paul McShane and an own goal by Carragher. Liverpool recovered through two goals from Gerrard, but were unable to score any further goals, with the match finishing 2–2. Writing in The Observer, Duncan Castles stated the result was "no way to win a title", ridiculing Benítez's claim that the title was 80 per cent Liverpool's if they were top at Christmas. Liverpool travelled to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal the following weekend. Arsenal striker Robin van Persie opened the scoring in the 24th minute, but Keane equalised in the 42nd minute. Despite Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor being sent off in the 62nd minute, Liverpool were unable to score a winning goal and the match finished 1–1.
Liverpool faced Bolton Wanderers at Anfield on Boxing Day. A first half goal by Riera and two in the second half by Keane secured a 3–0 victory. Two days later, Liverpool travelled to St James' Park to face Newcastle United. Two goals from Gerrard, and one each from Sami Hyypiä, Babel and a penalty from Alonso, gave Liverpool a 5–1 victory. The result meant Liverpool had a four-point lead at the top of the table going into the New Year. Following the match, captain Gerrard was arrested over an incident in a bar where it was alleged that he punched a man over a row about music. He was subsequently cleared of the charges in July.
### January–February
On 10 January 2009, Liverpool faced Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. In his pre-match press conference, manager Benítez attacked Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson over observations he had made about upcoming fixtures. Liverpool subsequently drew the match 0–0 with Stoke City. Benítez was content with the result: "It is a game we could win but we could also have lost too, and it was important not to lose. When we play against 10 men and an organised team it is not easy." Nine days later, Liverpool faced local rivals Everton at Anfield. Gerrard scored from 25 yards (23 m) in the 68th minute to give Liverpool the lead. However, they were unable to hold onto the lead as Everton midfielder Tim Cahill scored in the 87th minute to level the score at 1–1.
Liverpool's next match was against Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium. Midfielder Benayoun gave Liverpool the lead in the 41st minute but as in the two previous matches, they were unable to hold onto the lead. Midfielder Lucas conceded a penalty for a foul on Jason Koumas, which was converted by striker Mido on his debut in the 83rd minute to level the score at 1–1. The result saw Liverpool drop to third in the table. Liverpool faced Chelsea in their next match at Anfield. Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard was sent off in the 60th minute for a foul on Alonso, but Liverpool struggled to make their numerical advantage count. It was not until the 89th minute that they did so, when Torres headed in a cross from Fábio Aurélio. Torres scored again a minute later to give Liverpool a 2–0 victory.
Liverpool travelled to Fratton Park for their next match against Portsmouth. They fell behind in the 62nd minute when David Nugent scored. Aurelio levelled the score with a free kick before Hermann Hreiðarsson gave Portsmouth the lead again. Kuyt equalised with five minutes remaining before Torres scored 'a dramatic late header' to secure a 3–2 win for Liverpool. Liverpool hosted Manchester City when club football resumed after the international break. A 'poor Liverpool' drew the match 1–1 to fall further behind leaders Manchester United after they had beaten Blackburn. Liverpool faced Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium the following weekend. Their 'title ambitions were dealt a severe blow' as Middlesbrough won the match 2–0.
### March–May
Sunderland were the next opposition in a midweek match at Anfield. Goals from N'Gog and Benayoun secured a 2–0 victory for Liverpool. Following the resumption of club football after the international break, Liverpool travelled to Old Trafford to face league leaders Manchester United. Liverpool were trailing United, who had a game in hand, by seven points as they went into the match. Liverpool went behind to a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty, before Gerrard and Torres scored to give them a 2–1 lead at half-time. Further goals from Aurelio and Dossena secured a 4–1 victory for Liverpool, reducing their deficit to United to four points. Liverpool hosted Aston Villa the following weekend. A win was imperative after rivals Manchester United lost to Fulham. A Gerrard hat-trick with goals from Kuyt and Riera secured a 5–0 win, as they moved to one point behind United. Manager Benitez was confident Liverpool could keep the pressure on United: "Clearly we have confidence and the team is playing well. But we must just wait to see what happens next to United, while we must keep going and keep the team playing at this level."
Liverpool travelled to Craven Cottage to face Fulham in their next match. They struggled to break down the Fulham defence, with Dossena and Alonso hitting the crossbar, while Torres hit the post with a shot. However, Benayoun secured a 1–0 victory with a 'dramatic injury-time winner.' The following weekend Liverpool hosted Blackburn Rovers. A 4–0 victory was secured courtesy of two goals from Torres and one from Daniel Agger and N'Gog. Ten days later, Liverpool faced Arsenal at Anfield. They went behind to a goal from Andrey Arshavin in the first half, but goals from Torres and Benayoun early in the second half gave them a 2–1 lead. Arshavin scored two goals in three minutes before Torres scored again to level the score at 3–3. Arshavin scored his fourth goal in the last minute, but Benayoun scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to secure a 4–4 draw.
Liverpool travelled to the KC Stadium four days later to face Hull City. Two goals from Kuyt and one from Babel secured a 3–1 victory. Newcastle United were the opposition the following weekend at Anfield. Goals from Benayoun, Kuyt and Lucas secured a 3–0 victory for Liverpool. Their next match was against West Ham United at the Upton Park. Two goals from Gerrard and one from Babel secured a 3–0 victory. The victory put Liverpool ahead of rivals Manchester United at the top of the table, but United had two games in hands over their rivals, including the Manchester derby against Manchester City. Captain Steven Gerrard was hopeful United would slip up in one of the games: "They have a tough game against Manchester City, who have come into form recently, and it's a derby match, which are never easy. We hope Manchester City can do us a favour." Liverpool's next match was a 2–0 victory against West Bromwich Albion. Goals from Gerrard and Kuyt won the match, but they were not enough to sustain their title challenge. United's draw against Arsenal the previous day meant they finished the season as champions. Liverpool's final match of the season was against Tottenham, a 3–1 victory with goals from Torres, an Alan Hutton own goal and Benayoun. The match marked defender Sami Hyypiä's 464th and final appearance for Liverpool and confirmed their second-place finish in the league with 86 points, four points behind United's total of 90.
### League table
#### Results summary
#### Results by round
#### Matches
## FA Cup
Liverpool entered the competition in the third round, by virtue of their Premier League status. Their opening match was away against Preston North End. A goal from Riera in the first half and a last minute goal by striker Fernando Torres secured a 2–0 victory for Liverpool at Deepdale.
Liverpool were drawn against local rivals Everton at home in the fourth round. A Joleon Lescott goal in the first half gave Everton the lead, which they held until the 54th minute when Gerrard equalised. Neither club was able to score a winning goal and the match finished 1–1. The tie was replayed at Goodison Park on 4 February 2009. No goals were scored during 90 minutes, so the match went to extra time. With two minutes remaining, Everton midfielder Dan Gosling scored to secure a 1–0 victory.
## League Cup
The League Cup is a cup competition open to clubs in the Premier League and Football League. Like the FA Cup it is played on a knockout basis, with the exception of the second round and semi-finals, which are contested over a two-legged tie. Together with the other clubs playing in European competitions, Liverpool entered the League Cup in the third round. They were drawn to face Crewe Alexandra on 30 August 2008. Benítez fielded a relatively young team for the tie, which took the lead in the 15th minute when Agger scored. Crewe equalised ten minutes later when Michael O'Connor scored. A goal by Lucas in the second half secured a 2–1 victory for Liverpool.
Liverpool faced Tottenham Hotspur in the fourth round. They fell behind in the 38th minute when Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko scored. Tottenham extended their lead four minutes later courtesy of a Fraizer Campbell goal. A further goal before half-time for Campbell, gave Tottenham a 3–0 lead. Damien Plessis pulled a goal back for Liverpool early in the second half, but three minutes later Pavlyuchenko scored again to extend Tottenham's lead. A Hyypiä goal in the 63rd minute was the final goal of the match, which Liverpool lost 4–2, exiting the competition.
## UEFA Champions League
As Liverpool had finished fourth in the league the previous season, they needed to play a qualifying round against Standard Liège to ensure progression into the group stages. A 0–0 draw in the first leg meant the tie hinged on the result of the second leg at Anfield. With the match goalless in extra time, Kuyt scored to give Liverpool a 1–0 victory. Liverpool were drawn in Group D along with Atlético Madrid, Marseille and PSV Eindhoven.
Liverpool's first match in the group was away to Marseille. Two goals by Gerrard gave Liverpool a 2–1 victory over the French team. The next match at Anfield against PSV resulted in a 3–1 victory for Liverpool, with Keane scoring his first goal for the club. Atlético Madrid were the opponents in the third matchday at the Vicente Calderón Stadium. Keane scored again, but a goal for Atlético by Simão meant the match finished 1–1. The score in the reverse fixture at Anfield was the same, with Gerrard scoring a penalty in the 95th minute after Maxi Rodríguez had given Atlético the lead. Liverpool faced Marseille in the fifth match of the group stage and secured progression to the knockout phase, after winning 1–0 thanks to a Gerrard goal. Liverpool's last match was at the Philips Stadion against PSV, which they won 3–1. They finished top of the group with 14 points after 4 wins and 2 draws.
Liverpool were drawn against Spanish team Real Madrid in the knockout phase. They won the first leg 0–1 at the Santiago Bernabéu thanks to a Benayoun goal. Fernando Torres opened the scoring for Liverpool in the second leg at Anfield, before a penalty and a goal from open play from Gerrard and a goal from Dossena secured a 4–0 victory and a 5–0 aggregate win. Chelsea were the opposition in the quarter-finals, marking the fifth consecutive season that the two sides had met in the competition. Liverpool took the lead in the first leg at Anfield when Torres scored in the sixth minute. However, two goals from defender Branislav Ivanović and one from striker Didier Drogba secured a 3–1 victory for Chelsea. Liverpool scored two goals in the first half through Aurélio and Alonso to level the tie at 3–3. Drogba, defender Alex and midfielder Frank Lampard scored to give Chelsea a 3–2 and a three-goal advantage in the tie midway through the second half. However, Liverpool scored two late goals through Lucas and Kuyt to take a 4–3 lead in the match, with one more goal sufficient to progress to the semi-finals courtesy of the away goals rule. A further goal by Lampard in the 89th minute ended any hopes of a comeback as the match was drawn 4–4, with Chelsea winning the tie 7–5 on aggregate.
## Squad statistics
Liverpool used a total of 28 players during the season, with 18 different goalscorers. The team played in a 4–2–3–1 formation throughout the season. Carragher featured in 54 matches, the most of any Liverpool player during the campaign. Along with Reina and Kuyt, he appeared in every Premier League match. Gerrard was the top goalscorer with 24 goals. Lucas was the only player to be sent off during the season—he was shown a red card during Liverpool's replay of their fourth round FA Cup tie with Everton.
Key
No. = Squad number
Pos = Playing position
Nat. = Nationality
Apps = Appearances
GK = Goalkeeper
DF = Defender
MF = Midfielder
FW = Forward
`= Yellow cards`
`= Red cards`
## Awards
Liverpool's performance during the season resulted in the club's personnel winning a number of awards. Benítez was named Premier League Manager of the Month twice in October and March, while Gerrard was named Premier League Player of the Month for March. Gerrard was named Football Writer's Association Footballer of the Year for the first time and he was also named as the Professional Footballer's Association (PFA) Fans' Player of the Year. Gerrard was nominated for the PFA Players' Player of the Year, but the award went to Manchester United's Ryan Giggs instead. Gerrard and teammate Fernando Torres were named in the PFA Team of the Year.
Gerrard and Torres were nominated for the Ballon d'Or at the end of 2009, but they ranked 10th and 11th respectively behind winner Lionel Messi of Barcelona. Both players were also nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year, but finished eighth and sixth respectively behind winner Messi. Gerrard and Torres were named in the FIFPro World XI for 2009.
|
2,280,846 |
Marcia Mitzman Gaven
| 1,142,285,158 |
American actress
|
[
"1959 births",
"21st-century American women",
"Actresses from New York City",
"American film actresses",
"American soap opera actresses",
"American stage actresses",
"American television actresses",
"American voice actresses",
"Living people",
"People from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York"
] |
Marcia Mitzman Gaven (born February 28, 1959) is an American actress from New York. Since studying at the High School of Performing Arts and the State University of New York at Purchase, she has appeared in many musicals during her career singing in both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles. Her Broadway debut came in 1979 when she played Betty Rizzo in Grease, serving as the replacement for the original actress of the role. In the 1980s she appeared in the musicals The Rocky Horror Show, Oliver!, Zorba, Nine, Anything Goes, Chess, and Welcome to the Club, and in the operas Brigadoon, South Pacific, and Sweeney Todd.
In 1992, Gaven played the character Mrs. Walker in a new production called The Who's Tommy at La Jolla Playhouse. The musical was a success, resulting in its move to Broadway in 1993. Gaven was praised by critics for her performance and received a Tony Award nomination in the "Best Featured Actress in a Musical" category. She eventually had to leave The Who's Tommy before its Broadway run ended because of an allergic reaction to a smoke effect used in the show. In 1995, she won an Ovation Award and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for her portrayal of Florence Vassy in Chess at Hudson Theatre. She was also awarded an Ovation Award for the role of Mother in the staging of the musical Ragtime at Shubert Theatre in 1997. Gaven's latest role in a musical was in a 2001 production of 1776 by UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Since then she has appeared in concerts and fundraisers.
Gaven has also made guest star appearances in numerous television shows and films, playing both live-action and animated roles. She voiced several characters in the animated series The Simpsons from 1999 until 2002, including Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Miss Hoover, and others. She was hired after Maggie Roswell departed from the show, due to a pay dispute. She has not been heard on the show since Roswell's return in 2002. Gaven has also lent her voice to television and radio advertisements. She is currently married to Seth Gaven owner of AV Squad, a film marketing company.
## Early life
Gaven was born as Marcia Mitzman on February 28, 1959, in New York City. She was raised with her two siblings in the village of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, by their mother Patricia Mitzman, who had previously had a career in art. Newt Mitzman, their father, directed television specials and commercials for a living. Gaven went to Hackley Elementary School in Tarrytown, New York, when she was young. At that time she was certain that she wanted to work in show business. As the result of a lie, she was able to study at the High School of Performing Arts even though the school was only open to inhabitants of New York City. She then became a drama major at the State University of New York at Purchase, though she did not get a degree. She said in a 1987 interview with The New York Times that "they kicked me out because I missed a major rehearsal", and she never applied for readmission since she had already made her first appearance on Broadway in Grease by then. While at Purchase, Gaven performed in student productions such as The Taming of the Shrew and Trumpets and Drums.
## Career in theatre
Gaven has had a prominent career in musical theatre and has appeared in many rock musicals. She told TheaterWeek in 1993 that she thinks those kinds of musicals are harder to sing in compared to standard musicals, and that "the nature of rock and roll is that it's on the edge. It's written to be done dangerously. You can't be careful and do it at the same time. If you don't do it dangerously, you run the risk of losing the impact." During her career, Gaven has sung in both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles, and has been cited for her belting. According to Alvin Klein, theatre critic for The New York Times, she "is categorically a mezzo soprano." Gaven has also been noted for her strong voice, and was once told by a sound technician at An Evening Dinner Theater in Elmsford, New York, that "We always turn off the mikes when you sing" because she did not need amplification.
### 1979–1989
In March 1979, when Gaven was twenty years old, she served as the replacement actress for the character Betty Rizzo in the original Broadway production of Grease. This was her Broadway debut. In late 1980, she was cast in the lead role of Janet in the musical The Rocky Horror Show that ran for six nights at Warner Theatre. It tells the story of a couple, Brad and Janet, who find themselves lost one night and end up in the laboratory of an alien doctor. The cast, including Gaven, was praised by critics. In 1984, she played a Londoner in the revival of Oliver! at Broadway and was the understudy to Patti LuPone's Nancy. That same year, in the Broadway revival of Zorba, Gaven played the role of The Widow who is eventually stoned to death by the townspeople after being held responsible for the suicide of a young boy who fell in love with her. She then portrayed the character Luisa, the wife of an Italian film director, in a production of Nine at An Evening Dinner Theater in 1985.
Gaven starred in the New York City Opera's Broadway revival of Brigadoon, in which she played Meg Brockie, at New York State Theater in 1986. The story is about a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years, and Meg is one of the villagers. According to Sy Syna of the magazine The World & I, Gaven was "a huge crowd pleaser" in the role. She was also cast in the New York City Opera's spring 1987 revival of South Pacific as the female lead character Nellie Forbush, a U.S. Navy nurse who works on a South Pacific island during World War II. This nine-week run of South Pacific had an alternating cast and Nellie was also portrayed by Susan Bigelow. Later that year in July during the New York City Opera's regular season, she appeared in the opera company's Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett, who makes and sells meat pies made from the victims of serial killer Sweeney Todd.
In Pioneer Theatre Company's fall 1988 production of Anything Goes, Gaven played the lead role of nightclub singer Reno Sweeney. It is set on an ocean liner on which Reno helps the character Billy Crocker win the heart of the engaged Hope Harcourt who he has fallen in love with. While reviewing the musical for the Deseret News, Joseph Walker commented that Gaven "is sensational as Reno Sweeney, the saucy, sassy hoofer-with-a-heart-of-gold. She has an arresting presence and a golden voice; the whole show always seems better when she's on stage." At the end of 1988, Gaven returned to the musical Oliver! in a Theatre Under The Stars production in Houston, starring as Nancy. A critic for the Houston Chronicle commended her performance, writing that she "acts the compassionate Nancy with warmth and spirit, and sings in a strong voice full of character."
Also in 1988, Gaven played the part of the Russian chess player's wife Svetlana in the short-lived Broadway production of the musical Chess, for which she was praised by critics. The following year she appeared as Carol Bates in the Broadway musical Welcome to the Club. It revolves around four men who have been put in jail for not paying alimony. The musical shows why they ended up divorcing their wives, one of which is played by Gaven. Both Chess and Welcome to the Club were unsuccessful. John Simon criticized the latter musical in a New York Magazine review but praised Gaven's performance, writing: "The cast ranges from the charmless to the hopeless [...] in this mess. Only Marcia Mitzman manages to stand out from the crowd, and when she gets the right part in the right show, she'll do just fine." Associated Press drama critic Michael Kuchwara also wrote negatively about Welcome to the Club while giving praise to Gaven for projecting "a sympathy [to her character] that isn't apparent in the book."
### 1990–1995
In December 1990, Gaven once again appeared as Nancy in a revival of Oliver!—this time in a production at 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington. A theatre critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted that she "has the voice to anchor anything you'd care to name, even the 5th Avenue Theatre. 5th Avenue performers often sound as if they were speaking and singing through a football stadium public address system. But Mitzman overpowers malevolent acoustics." After Oliver!, she appeared as Countess Charlotte Malcolm in Ahmanson Theatre's production of A Little Night Music that was performed from April 18 to June 30, 1991, at James A. Doolittle Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Gaven worked at 5th Avenue Theatre again in December 1991 in the musical Here's Love. She portrayed the divorced Doris Walker, a single-working mother of a girl who doubts the existence of Santa Claus. During spring 1992, she played the love interest of a male songwriter and his best friend in the musical The Tin Pan Man (set in 1905) at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.
Starting at the beginning of July 1992, Gaven appeared in a new musical called The Who's Tommy at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. It was based on the rock opera album Tommy by The Who. Gaven starred as Mrs. Walker, the mother of the boy Tommy who is traumatized when he sees his father murder Mrs. Walker's new boyfriend. Tommy ultimately becomes non-responsive, leading people to believe that he is deaf, mute, and blind, and his parents try to find a cure for his condition. Gaven later told TheaterWeek that she initially did not want to do the musical, since she "had no idea how this could be staged as a theatrical piece. I hoped my agents wouldn't call me and ask me to audition." However, they did, and she was cast as Mrs. Walker after an audition in which she sang the song "Heaven Help My Heart" that she performed in Chess, also a rock musical. The Who's Tommy was La Jolla Playhouse's biggest success yet and as a result its run was lengthened by several weeks. Later that year, Gaven once again played Doris in Here's Love—this time in a Theatre Under The Stars production.
In late 1992 it was announced that because of the success of The Who's Tommy, it would be produced for Broadway and open in April 1993. The production cost eight million dollars and it broke the box office record for the biggest non-opening day with US\$494,897 earned on April 23, 1993, at St. James Theatre (where the musical opened on April 22), beating Guys and Dolls' 1992 record. Des McAnuff, who directed the musical at both La Jolla Playhouse and on Broadway, decided to bring many actors from the original cast with him despite weeks of auditions with thousands of actors trying out for the roles in front of him. The Broadway production featured some changes to the musical, such as a new song devoted to Tommy's parents that Gaven thought "helps show their side of the story." However, as she told The San Diego Union-Tribune, the biggest difference was the increased amount of money she earned. Gaven was praised by critics for her portrayal of Mrs. Walker in the Broadway production, with one critic from The Miami Herald writing that her "alluring alto voice makes you wish Tommy's mother had even more to sing."
It was announced on May 10, 1993, that The Who's Tommy had received eleven Tony Award nominations, tying with Kiss of the Spider Woman for the most nominations that year. Gaven received a nomination in the "Best Featured Actress in a Musical" category. However, as the result of an allergic reaction, she could not perform in the musical some nights. When Daryl Miller interviewed Gaven in the Los Angeles Times in 1997, he noted that "this was one of the biggest disappointments of her life, and clouds cross her face for the first time in the conversation. She glances across the room at the Tony citation—recognizing her nomination for best featured actress in a musical—as she describes how her throat became infected due to a reaction to the oil in a haze-making compound that designers pump onstage to enhance lighting effects. She missed a lot of performances, and an untold number of Tony voters missed her performance. She can't help but wonder how that affected the outcome." At one point, Gaven's understudy Alice Ripley took her place for eight consecutive weeks while Gaven recovered. Gaven eventually had to leave The Who's Tommy some months after it opened because of her allergy. She also disliked the idea of performing in one musical for more than a year.
In late 1993, she was cast in Pasadena Playhouse's musical Sweet, Smart, Rodgers & Hart that featured music and lyrics previously written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. It originally played from the middle of November to December 17, 1993, but was then extended for another run between January 6 and January 23, 1994. In July 1994, Gaven played the role of the partly African-American showboat actress Julie Dozier in Music Circus' adaptation of Show Boat in California. In the spring of the following year, she reprised her part as the Countess in a production of A Little Night Music, also by Music Circus. Gaven returned to Chess in the summer of 1995 in small-scale production at Hudson Theatre, this time as the lead character Florence Vassy. The story involves a romantic triangle between the two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and the woman Florence who manages one and falls in love with the other. Gaven received an Ovation Award (Best Lead Actress in a Musical) and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award (Best Lead Performance) for her work in the musical.
### 1996
On May 21, 1996, Gaven and seventeen other well-known musical theatre artists appeared in the show Say It With Music at Carpenter Performing Arts Center. It was staged to raise proceeds for the Musical Theatre Group, which was described by John Woolard of the Press-Telegram as "a new organization formed to help rejuvenate musical theater in Southern California." The show was made up of singing and dancing numbers that had previously appeared in different Broadway musicals. From June to September 1997, Gaven played the role of Mother in the Los Angeles production (pre-Broadway) of the musical Ragtime at Shubert Theatre. She received her second Ovation Award (Best Lead Actress in a Musical) for this performance. The musical tells the story of three ethnic groups in the United States: White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, African-Americans in Harlem, and European immigrants. Gaven played the mother and matriarch of the Protestant family. Ragtime director Frank Galati praised her in the Los Angeles Times for her "grace and beauty and magnificent voice" and her "extraordinarily keen intelligence—she's a very deep reader of text," and commented that "she seizes the stage with energy." Many critics praised Gaven as well, though Laurie Winer of the Los Angeles Times wrote that she played Mother "valiantly but with a shade too much effort." David Littlejohn of The Wall Street Journal cited her as "the best single performance in this production."
In May of the following year, she appeared in California Musical Theatre's production of Triumph of Love, a musical that had previously been staged on Broadway and is set in Sparta. It ran for six days at the Community Center Theater in Sacramento, California, and featured Gaven in the role of the philosopher Hesione. In 2001, Gaven reappeared as Julie Dozier in another adaptation of Show Boat by Music Circus. Davis Enterprise critic Bev Sykes wrote positively about her voice but criticized her performance for not being credible, writing: "Marcia Mitzman Gaven gives an uneven performance as Julie, a singer of mixed race who passes for white until she's betrayed by a spurned suitor. She is re-discovered in Act 2, having fallen into decline. Though obviously under the influence of the liquor in the bottle she carries around before and after her delivery of the song 'He's Just My Bill,' the song itself is performed straight, with no hint of the ravages that alcohol have taken on her body and voice." Later that same year she played the role of Abigail Adams in a production of 1776 by UCLA's Freud Playhouse.
Gaven performed in a cabaret, called The Girly Show, at a fundraising gala for the Blank Theatre Company on August 15, 2005. It consisted of an all-female cast singing songs by Michael John LaChiusa, with LaChiusa playing the piano. On December 15, 2008, celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of The Who's Tommy, Gaven and the rest of the original Broadway cast reunited for a concert at August Wilson Theatre in New York City. This performance was a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the Broadway Dreams Foundation, and the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation.
## Career in television and film
Gaven has done much voice acting in her career, lending her voice to television and radio advertisements and playing animated characters in The Pink Panther (1993), Red Planet (1994), and Small Soldiers (1998). Working with advertisements earned Gaven more money than playing theatre. "I can make in an hour what I make in a week doing theater," she said in 1997. Gaven has also made guest star appearances in live-action television series such as The George Carlin Show (1994), Ellen (1995), Get Smart (1995), The Drew Carey Show (1996), Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (1997), Frasier (1998), and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1998). In addition, she had a minor role in the 2002 film Moonlight Mile.
When Maggie Roswell left the animated series The Simpsons in spring 1999 after a pay dispute with Fox Broadcasting Company, Gaven was hired to fill in for Roswell's characters. These characters included Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Miss Hoover, and others. However, Maude Flanders was killed off in the 2000 episode "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" to open up new storylines for the show. Maggie Roswell returned to The Simpsons in 2002 after reaching a deal with Fox to record her lines from her home, and Gaven has not worked for the show since that year.
## Personal life
Gaven resided in Los Angeles from 1991 to 1993, when she had to move to New York City to act in The Who's Tommy. However, her stay in the city was short because of the allergic reaction and she moved back to Los Angeles. While performing in musicals, Gaven had to be protective of her vocal cords and this affected her personal life. She told Miller in 1997 that "you have to give up so much of your life", and gave the example that when "somebody coughs behind me [at the cinema] I immediately say to my husband, 'We may have to move.'" She also had to avoid shouting. Gaven is currently married to Seth Gaven who owns AV Squad, a film marketing company.
## Acting credits
### Theatre
### Television
### Film
|
334,740 |
Stefan Czarniecki
| 1,148,147,426 |
Polish general
|
[
"1599 births",
"1665 deaths",
"Castellans of Kiev",
"Field Crown Hetmans",
"People from Włoszczowa County",
"Polish Roman Catholics",
"Polish military personnel of the Khmelnytsky Uprising",
"Polish people of the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)",
"Polish people of the Smolensk War",
"Secular senators of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth",
"Voivodes of Kiev"
] |
Stefan Czarniecki (Polish: of the Łodzia coat of arms, 1599 – 16 February 1665) was a Polish nobleman, general and military commander. In his career, he rose from a petty nobleman to a magnate holding one of the highest offices in the Commonwealth, something that was unprecedented in the Commonwealth's history. On 22 July 1664 he received the office of the Voivode of Kijów and on 2 January 1665, a few weeks before his death, he was given the office of Field Hetman (one of top military commanders) of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom. He is remembered as an accomplished military commander, and regarded as a Polish national hero. His status in Polish history is acknowledged by a mention of his name in the Polish national anthem.
Czarniecki made significant contributions fighting the Khmelnytsky Uprising, during the Russo-Polish War, and during the Polish–Swedish War (The Deluge). His use of guerrilla warfare against the Swedes is credited as one of the main reasons for the eventual Polish victory in this war.
## Biography
### Early career
Stefan Czarniecki was born in 1599 on the family estate of Czarnca near Włoszczowa in southern Poland, into the szlachta (nobility) Czarniecki family. The date of his birth is only an assumption, as no documents exist to prove it without a doubt; most historians, as noted by historians Leszek Podhorodecki and Adam Kersten, accept the 1599 date, although historian Zdzisław Spieralski argued for 1604. His father, Krzysztof Czarniecki, was a soldier who participated in several wars in the late 16th and early 17th century, and eventually became a courtier to Polish queen Constance of Austria. Whereas historian Mirosław Nagielski notes that the Czarniecki family was not well off, which limited some of Stefan's life chances, Podhorecki points out that they owned several villages and even a small town, and the family wealth was "not small". However, Stefan had ten siblings (he himself was the sixth out of nine brothers), and divided into that many parts, the family resources would be stretched rather thinly. However, involvement with the queen's court allowed Krzysztof to boost his sons' careers with his court influence, where they were often able to serve as young courtiers themselves.
Nothing is known about Stefan's childhood. His family could not afford to send him to a university abroad (only one of his brothers would do so); therefore he embarked on a military career at an early age. Before that, he attended a Jesuit college, either in Kraków or Sandomierz, achieving a solid secondary education. After finishing his schooling, he became a courtier to then-royal prince and future king of Poland John II Casimir Vasa. As Stefan could not afford the equipment needed to join a hussar unit, he learned the art of war serving with the Lisowczycy mercenaries, joining them as towarzysz (companion, a junior cavalry officer) in the spring of 1621. Already an officer at the age of eighteen, he took part in the battle of Chocim (Khotyn) in 1621, where the Commonwealth army stopped the Ottomans and ended the Polish–Ottoman War (1620–21). His years with the brutal Lisowczycy mercenaries would impact his strategy in the latter years, where he would not hesitate to use any means necessary – including mistreatment of civilians – to achieve victory.
The next time he took arms was in 1623, when his brother Paweł received a nomination as a rotmistrz of light (cossack) cavalry of the regular army (wojsko kwarciane), and recruited some of his siblings, including Stefan, into his unit. They served under hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski in the campaigns against the Tatars in 1624 (participating in the battle of Martynów). In 1625 they took part in the quelling of a Cossack Zhmaylo Uprising. He fought later against Gustavus Adolphus (1626–1629) (part of the Polish–Swedish War). His light cavalry was used in reconnaissance, diversion, and raiding the enemy territory. In 1627 Stefan, serving in his brother's chorągiew, was promoted to chorąży. On 6–7 August that year he participated in the battle of Tczew, where Gustavus Adolphus was nearly killed. During those years, he learned much from observing a master of military arts, hetman Koniecpolski, who often commanded the Polish army in which he served, and from Poland's Swedish opponents, and earlier from the Cossacks and Tatars they fought.
As the Polish–Swedish war ended, in 1630, Czarniecki enlisted in the Habsburg forces and continued to fight against the Swedes, participating in the battle of Breitenfeld. In 1633 he joined the Commonwealth forces again, to fight under the new Polish king, Władysław IV, in the Smolensk War against Muscovy that lasted until 1634. During the Smolensk War he learned Western tactics used by the foreign mercenary troops. In December 1633 he commanded a raiding unit that successfully raided and pillaged behind the Russian lines, spreading terror, disrupting supply lines, and burning down the town of Kozelsk. For his achievements in that war, in which he advanced to a porucznik rank in the light "cossack" cavalry unit under hetman Marcin Kazanowski, he received some land in the Smolensk Voivodeship near Starodub.
After that war, he moved to a more prestigious hussar unit (rota), and likely due to a reduction of the royal army, he served in the private formation of Władysław Myszkowski and later, voivode Stanisław Lubomirski. In 1635 he might have served as a military adviser to John II Casimir Vasa, and possibly accompanied the king to Vienna. In 1637 he married Zofia Kobierzycka, and later that year he fought in the Pawluk Uprising against the rebellious Cossacks under Pavel Mikhnovych, participating in the battle of Kumejki. He led a cavalry charge at Kumejki which was instrumental in the Polish victory there. Earlier that year he served as a military delegate to the Sejm (parliament) in Warsaw.
### Struggles against the Cossacks
For the next several years he would serve on the hostility-plagued south-eastern border, where he made his home in the city of Illńce. In 1644 under Koniecpolski he took part in the battle of Ochmatów where Commonwealth forces dealt a crushing defeat to Toğay bey's (Tuhaj Bej) Tatars. He served as one of seven pułkowniks in Koniecpolski's army, and once again his cavalry unit charge proved to be a decisive moment of the battle, bringing him much fame. That year he also became a regimentarz in his own light cavalry unit, but he still held the rank of a porucznik of hussars.
He took an active part in the battles against the Cossacks in the Khmelnytsky Uprising. On 16 May 1648 he was one of the many noble Polish prisoners who fell into the hands of Bohdan Khmelnytsky at the battle of Zhovti Vody, but he was quickly ransomed. He participated in the defense of the Kudak Fortress, which surrendered on 26 September; he was once again captured and not released until the autumn of 1649, in the aftermath of the Treaty of Zboriv. He served as a porucznik in the hussar chorągiew of hetman Mikołaj Potocki, a military judge deputized by the hetman, and a member of his staff, meeting with the new king of Poland, John Casimir Vasa. He was part of the fighting at the battle of Berestechko and battle of Bila Tserkva in 1651. He received the title of chorąży of Sandomierz, and was elected the military deputy for the Sejm in January 1652. According to Nagielski, Czarniecki, while returning from the Sejm, witnessed the massacre of Polish prisoners in the aftermath of the battle of Batoh; This scene made him reject the notions that a compromise with the enemies of the Commonwealth was a likely or desired outcome. Podhorodecki however notes that another historian, Wojciech Jacek Długołęcki, questions Czarniecki's presence there, and concludes that we have no conclusive proof whether Czarniecki was present at Batoh, The massacre further escalated the hostilities and the surrounding hatred; illustrating that in a letter Czarniecki wrote soon after the battle, in which he promised that if enough military forces are gathered and given to him, he will leave few Ruthenians alive.
Later that year Czarniecki received territories from the king, along with the office of Crown oboźny. In 1653 he led a unit to Ukraine, ransacking much of the Cossack-held lands, although the attrition among the troops was high. During that campaign Czarniecki was wounded at Monastyryska. He continued his suppression campaign in 1654, and the following January took part in the battle of Okhmativ. In May 1655 he was called from Ukraine to Warsaw, as the king John Casimir Vasa, respected his experience and requested his presence at a new war council, convened to discuss the looming thread of the war with Sweden. At that time his reputation was significant; Sejm often passed resolutions applauding him for his efforts to reclaim Ukraine, and he was even held in much consideration by the Ottomans, then temporarily allied with the Commonwealth. On 14 May 1655 he received the office of the castellan of Kiev, a position that made him a member of the Senate of Poland.
### The Swedish Deluge
When Charles X of Sweden invaded Poland in 1655, Czarniecki distinguished himself by his defence of Kraków, which he eventually surrendered on good terms, retreating with his army. He remained loyal to the Polish king, even when much of the army, including most of the senators and the hetmans, temporarily joined the Swedes. His vocal support for the wavering king, who at that time found refuge abroad, and was considering abdication, was decisive. For his continuing support, the Polish king rewarded him with more lands, and the office of regimentarz of the royal army.
He led guerrilla warfare against Swedish troops of Charles X, a type of a campaign he authored, despite the objections of the hetmans, who by that time returned to serve under John Casmimir Vasa. The mobile Swedish forces, even with their significant firepower, proved to be rather vulnerable to Czarniecki's guerrilla-style warfare. Czarniecki was defeated at the battle of Gołąb in mid-February 1656, but later inflicted serious defeats upon the Swedes, notably at the Battle of Warka in April that year. The tide of the war turned several times that year, and he was again defeated at the battle of Kłecko and battle of Kscynia. His defeats, however, were limited, and in most cases he was able to retreat with most of his army in good order. Under his direction the popular rising against the Swedish troops in Greater Poland proved highly successful. It was against his advice that the battle of Warsaw was fought, and his subsequent strategy neutralized the ill effects of this defeat. Despite support from the king, Czarniecki was seen by many older, established noble family as an arrogant newcomer, and they prevented him from getting the hetman office that year; instead early next year he received the office of the voivode of Ruthenia, and an extraordinary title of the "general and vice commander of the royal forces", which put him in a position of an unofficial hetman-like authority. The Field Crown Hetmanship went to Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, also an accomplished commander, if not so much as Czarniecki – but from a magnate Lubomirski family; Czarniecki commented famously that "Not of salt, or fields, I am, but from what hurts me", alluding to the fact that Lubormirski family built its fortune on salt trade and agriculture, whereas his smaller one was built through military service – yet it was money and politics, not military experience, that decided who was to get the hetman's office.
### Final battles
In 1657 he was instrumental in defeating the forces of George II Rákóczi at the battle of Magierów. In 1658 and 1659 he aided Danes during the Danish–Swedish War, fighting at Als and at the battle of Kolding.
On the conclusion of the Peace of Oliwa, which adjusted the long outstanding differences between Poland and Sweden, Czarniecki was transferred to the eastern frontier where the war with Russia reignited. He distinguished himself in the campaign of 1660, where he won the victories of the battle of Połonka, battle of Basia, and battle of Kuszliki. This campaign, however, marked the zenith of his popularity. King John II Casimir Vasa attempted to involve him in the unpopular plan of vivente rege – to bypass the traditions of the royal elections in Poland and instead chose the next successor to the Polish throne (John II Casimir favored Louis, Grand Condé) still during the life of the previous king. His reputation among the unpaid and dissenting military took a dive; and many criticized him for appropriating the entire ransom that the Russians paid for their prisoners from Połonka. During the Sejm of 1662 some military representatives demanded sanctions and punishments to be levied on him.
His last campaign took place at the end of 1664. He led an army against the Russians, but the Siege of Hlukhiv was not successful, and a new Cossack uprising of Ivan Sirko forced the Polish troops to fall back.
On 22 July 1664 he received the office of the voivode of Kiev, and on 2 January 1665 he was appointed Field Crown Hetman. Before receiving the news of the nomination he desired for years, he was wounded at Lysianka. Called back by the king, who feared that magnate Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski that he just banished might start a rebellion, his recent wound became infected, and he died on 16 February 1665 in Sokołówka (now Sokolívka) near Lwów, six weeks after receiving this supreme distinction.
## Legacy
Czarniecki received a state funeral in Warsaw, and has been interred in the tomb chapel of the church founded by him in Czarnca. He left his estates to a nephew, Stefan Stanisław Czarniecki, but the Czarniecki name did not last long, and the wealth he gathered became instead the foundation of the Branicki family of magnates.
Czarniecki is remembered as one of the most able Polish commanders of all times. Podhorecki called him the greatest Polish military expert in "hit-and-run tactics", and notes that he was the longest-serving of the major Polish military commanders of his era, that he participated in 27 large battles, commanding 17 of them. He is seen as instrumental in defeating the Swedes during the Deluge, although he was even more successful in his battles against the Russians. His career, rising from a simple noble family to the rank of a hetman and a wealthy magnate, was unprecedented in the Commonwealth's history.
His legend had begun growing even during his lifetime, as he became a hero of poems and songs. Few negative rumors about him, popular in the last few years of his life, survived after his death. During the period of Enlightenment in Poland he was written about by poets and writers such as Stanisław Potocki, Franciszek Karpiński, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Franciszek Ksawery Dmowski. A biography by Michał Krajewski cemented his legend of a hero rescuing Poland from anarchy and invasion. That legend that became even stronger during the times of the partitions of Poland in the 19th century, where the artists of the Polish romanticism period used him as a symbol of patriotism, and a reminder of military successes. He appears in the poem Przedświt of Zygmunt Krasiński, but much more significant was his portrayal in The Trilogy of Henryk Sienkiewicz, particularly the second book, The Deluge. It was during that time that his pursuit of the retreating Swedes to Pomerania and Denmark (1658–1659), particularly his crossing with his entire army to the Danish isle of Alsen, was commemorated in the song of the Polish Napoleonic Legions that would eventually become the Polish national anthem, the "Dąbrowski's Mazurka", with the words commemorating his marine excursion to the island of Als: It was only during the time of the Second Polish Republic when more modern, serious historical work begun analyzing his history that a less hagiographic account begun emerging; Władysław Czapliński wrote that Czarniecki was "first and foremost a soldier", and noted his faults such as brutality and greed. Modern historiography of Czarniecki includes works of Czapliński, Stanisław Herbst, Adam Kersten and Zdzisław Spieralski; however Podhorecki notes that while he has been a major figure in the Polish history, and is discussed extensively in Polish historiography, he has never been a subject of much interest to foreign historians, concluding that he was a major persona in Polish, but not European, history.
## See also
- Army of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
|
29,069,410 |
Venezuelan crisis of 1895
| 1,151,960,010 |
Political crisis in Venezuela in the 19th century
|
[
"1890s in British Guiana",
"1895 in Venezuela",
"1895 in international relations",
"1895 in politics",
"1895 in the United Kingdom",
"1895 in the United States",
"Geopolitical rivalry",
"Guyana–Venezuela relations",
"History of United States expansionism",
"Presidencies of Grover Cleveland",
"Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury",
"United Kingdom–Caribbean relations",
"United Kingdom–United States relations",
"United Kingdom–Venezuela relations",
"United States–Venezuela relations"
] |
The Venezuelan crisis of 1895 occurred over Venezuela's longstanding dispute with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland about the territory of Essequibo and Guayana Esequiba, which Britain claimed as part of British Guiana and Venezuela saw as Venezuelan territory. As the dispute became a crisis, the key issue became Britain's refusal to include in the proposed international arbitration the territory east of the "Schomburgk Line", which a surveyor had drawn half-a-century earlier as a boundary between Venezuela and the former Dutch territory ceded by the Dutch in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, later part of British Guiana. The crisis ultimately saw Britain accept the United States' intervention in the dispute to force arbitration of the entire disputed territory, and tacitly accept the US right to intervene under the Monroe Doctrine. A tribunal convened in Paris in 1898 to decide the matter, and in 1899 awarded the bulk of the disputed territory to British Guiana.
The dispute had become a diplomatic crisis in 1895 when a lobbyist for Venezuela William Lindsay Scruggs sought to argue that British behaviour over the issue violated the 1823 Monroe Doctrine and used his influence in Washington, DC, to pursue the matter. US President Grover Cleveland adopted a broad interpretation of the Doctrine that forbade new European colonies but also declared an American interest in any matter in the hemisphere. British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury and the British ambassador to Washington, Julian Pauncefote, misjudged the importance the American government placed on the dispute, prolonging the crisis before ultimately accepting the American demand for arbitration of the entire territory.
By standing with a Latin American nation against European colonial powers, Cleveland improved relations with the United States' southern neighbors, but the cordial manner in which the negotiations were conducted also made for good relations with Britain. However, by backing down in the face of a strong US declaration of a strong interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, Britain tacitly accepted it, and the crisis thus provided a basis for the expansion of US interventionism in the Americas. Leading British historian Robert Arthur Humphreys later called the crisis "one of the most momentous episodes in the history of Anglo-American relations in general and of Anglo-American rivalries in Latin America in particular."
## Background
By 1895, the dispute between Britain and Venezuela over the territory of Guayana Esequiba, which Britain claimed as part of British Guiana and Venezuela saw as Venezuelan territory, had lasted for half a century. The territorial claims, originally those of the Spanish Empire, inherited by Venezuela after its independence in 1830, and of the Dutch Empire, inherited by the United Kingdom with the acquisition of the Dutch territories of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice in 1814, had remained unsettled over previous centuries. Over the course of the 19th century, Britain and Venezuela had proved no more able to reach an agreement until matters came to a head in 1895, after seven years of severed diplomatic relations.
The basis of the discussions between Venezuela and the United Kingdom lay in Britain's advocacy of a particular division of the territory deriving from a mid-19th-century survey that it had commissioned. That survey originated with German naturalist Robert Schomburgk's four-year expedition for the Royal Geographical Society in 1835 to 1839, which resulted in a sketch of the territory with a line marking what he believed to be the western boundary claimed by the Dutch. He was thus commissioned by the British government to carry out a survey of Guiana's boundaries. The result was the "Schomburgk Line", which he established partly to follow natural divisions and partly to distinguish territory of Spanish or Venezuelan occupation from that which had been occupied by the Dutch. The line went well beyond the area of British occupation and gave British Guiana control of the mouth of the Orinoco River.
In 1844, Venezuela declared the Essequibo River the dividing line; a British offer the same year to make major alterations to the line and cede the mouth of the Orinoco and much associated territory was ignored. No treaty between Britain and Venezuela was reached, and after an 1850 agreement not to encroach on disputed territory, the matter largely rested until 1876, when diplomatic exchanges resumed. Schomburgk's initial sketch, which had been published in 1840, was the only version of the "Schomburgk Line" published until 1886. That led to accusations by US President Grover Cleveland that the line had been extended "in some mysterious way".
In October 1886, Britain declared the line to be the provisional frontier of British Guiana, and in February 1887 Venezuela severed diplomatic relations. Proposals for a renewal of relations and settlement of the dispute failed repeatedly, and by summer 1894, diplomatic relations had been severed for seven years, the dispute having dragged on for half a century. In addition, both sides had established police or military stations at key points in the area, partly to defend claims to the Caratal goldfield of the region's Yuruari basin, which was within Venezuelan territory but claimed by the British. The mine at El Callao, started in 1871, was once one of the richest in the world, and the goldfields as a whole saw over a million ounces exported between 1860 and 1883. The gold mining was dominated by immigrants from the British Isles and the British West Indies, giving an appearance of almost creating a British colony on Venezuelan territory.
## History
Its first settlers were Guayan Indians and Kamaracotos, coming from the savanna of the Divina Pastora and Tupuquen located to the left margin of the river Yuruari. They fed on hunting, fishing, and agriculture. Tumeremo was founded on January 26, 1788 under the name of "Mission of Our Lady of Bethlehem of Tumeremo" by the Capuchin monks of Catalonia, among them: Fray Mariano de Perafita, Fray Bonaventura de Carrocera, Fray Joaquín María de Martorell, Fray Ramón Pruna and Fray Tomas de Santa Eugenia. Tumeremo means "Painted Snake", in the dialect of the first Indians who inhabited those lands. The friars establish several missions and an agricultural emporium based on livestock and cotton cultivation.
On 24 February 1781 a group of British privateers captured Essequibo and Demerara in Dutch Guyana, but did not stay. In March, two sloops of a Royal Navy squadron under Admiral Lord Rodney accepted the surrender of "Colony of Demarary and the River Essequebo". From 27 February 1782 to February 1783 the French occupied the colony after compelling Governor Robert Kinston to surrender. The peace of Paris, which occurred in 1783 restored these territories to the Dutch.
In 1796 it was permanently occupied by the British and by 1800, Essequibo and Demerara collectively held around 380 sugarcane plantations.
At the Peace of Amiens (1802), the Netherlands received the Essequibo colony for a short time, from 1802 to 1803, but after that the British again occupied it during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1812 Stabroek was renamed by the British as Georgetown. Essequibo became official British territory on 13 August 1814 as part of the Treaty of London and was merged with the colony of Demerara.
But it also became involved in one of Latin America's most persistent border disputes because the new colony had the Essequibo river as its west border with the Spanish Captaincy General of Venezuela. Although Spain still claimed the region, the Spanish did not contest the treaty because they were preoccupied with their own colonies' struggles for independence war.
During the Campaign of Guayana, in 1817 General Manuel Piar fought against the royalists to seize the missions of Spanish Guyana. After releasing Tumeremo, the Spanish survivors were imprisoned and sentenced to death. From there, the city was a strategic site and barracks for the patriot soldiers commanded by Simón Bolívar.
From 1830 many indigenous and other populations began to emerge around Tumeremo.
On 21 July 1831, Demerara-Essequibo was united with Berbice to create British Guiana with the Essequibo River as its west border, although many British settlers lived west of the Essequibo. In 1894, a group of British settlers who came from the British Guyana tried to establish themselves near Tumeremo in what is now Sifontes Municipality. General Domingo Antonio Sifontes claimed the area on 2 March 1894 near El Dorado, where Venezuela established a military position. After expelling the settlers from the area, Sifontes became a local hero in recognition of his defense of Venezuelan sovereignty.
Venezuela had in the course of the dispute repeatedly appealed to the US and to the Monroe Doctrine, but the US government had declined to involve itself. That changed after Venezuela obtained the services of William Lindsay Scruggs. Scruggs, a former US ambassador to Colombia and Venezuela, was recruited in 1893 by the Venezuelan government to operate on its behalf in Washington D.C. as a lobbyist and legal attache. Scruggs had apparently resigned his ambassadorship to Venezuela in December 1892 but had been dismissed by the US for bribing the President of Venezuela. As a lobbyist, Scruggs published an October 1894 pamphlet, British Aggressions in Venezuela:, or the Monroe Doctrine on Trial in which he attacked "British aggression" and claimed that Venezuela was anxious to arbitrate over the Venezuela-British Guiana border dispute. Scruggs also claimed that British policies in the disputed territory violated the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. For much of the 19th century, it had only rarely been invoked by the United States, but a "paradigm shift in U.S. foreign relations in the late nineteenth century" saw Americans more actively support their increasingly-significant economic interests in Central and South America. The "'new diplomacy' thrust the United States more emphatically into the imperial struggle". It was in that context that Scruggs sought to draw on the Doctrine in Venezuela's interests.
## Crisis
Scruggs collaborated with Georgian compatriot Representative Leonidas Livingston to propose House of Representatives Resolution 252 to the third session of the 53rd United States Congress. The bill recommended Venezuela and the United Kingdom settle the dispute by arbitration. President Grover Cleveland signed it on February 22, 1895, after passing both houses of the United States Congress. The vote had been unanimous.
On April 27, 1895, the Royal Navy occupied the Nicaraguan port of Corinto, after a number of British subjects, including the vice-consul, had been seized during disturbances, shortly after the former protectorate of the Mosquito Coast had been incorporated into Nicaragua. The British demanded an indemnity of £15,000. US Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham thought the demands harsh, but also that they should be met. US public opinion, however, was outraged at the British military activity in the US sphere of influence.
In July 1895, new Secretary of State Richard Olney (succeeding Gresham, who died in office at the end of May) sent a document to London which became known as "Olney's twenty-inch gun" (the draft was 12,000 words long). The note reviewed the history of the Anglo-Venezuelan dispute and of the Monroe Doctrine, and it firmly insisted on the application of the Doctrine to the case, declaring that "today the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition." The President, the Secretary of State, and the US public "had been brought to believe that Britain was in the wrong, that the vital interests of the United States were involved, and the United States must intervene." The note had little impact on the British government, partly because Joseph Chamberlain, at the Colonial Office, thought it possible that the colony had a major gold-bearing region around the Schomburgk line and partly because the British rejected the idea that the Monroe Doctrine had any relevance for the boundary dispute. A reply to Olney's note directly challenged his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine:
> The Government of the United States is not entitled to affirm as a universal proposition, with reference to a number of independent States for whose conduct it assumes no responsibility, that its interests are necessarily concerned in whatever may befall those States, simply because they are situated in the Western Hemisphere."
By 17 December 1895, Cleveland delivered an address to the United States Congress reaffirming the Monroe Doctrine and its relevance to the dispute. The address asked Congress to fund a commission to study the boundaries between Venezuela and British Guiana, and declared it the duty of the United States "to resist by every means in its power as a willful aggression upon its rights and interests" any British attempt to exercise jurisdiction over territory the United States judged Venezuelan. The address was perceived as direct threat of war with the United Kingdom if the British did not comply, but Cleveland had not committed himself to accepting the commission's report or specified any details on how the commission would act. Despite the public belligerence, neither the British nor the American governments had any interest in war.
On December 18, 1895, Congress approved \$100,000 for the United States Commission on the Boundary Between Venezuela and British Guiana. It was formally established on 1 January 1896. Historian George Lincoln Burr, who contributed to the commission's historical research, argued shortly after the Commission concluded its work that it made a major contribution to clarifying issues of historical fact in the dispute. The commission's work, he wrote, helped the disputing parties to focus on issues of fact supportable by evidence (as opposed to mere assertions), and by the time the Arbitration process was under way, the commission's own view of historical facts was largely accepted by the parties "so that their main issue [was] now in the main one of law, not of fact."
## Arbitration
In January 1896, the British government decided in effect to recognise the US right to intervene in the boundary dispute and accepted arbitration in principle without insisting on the Schomburgk line as a basis for negotiation. Negotiations between the US and Britain over the details of the arbitration followed, and Britain was able to persuade the US of many of its views, even as it became clear that the eventual report of the Boundary Commission would likely be negative towards the British claims. An agreement between the US and the UK was signed on 12 November 1896. Cleveland's Boundary Commission suspended its work in November 1896, but it still went on to produce a large report.
The agreement provided for a tribunal with two members representing Venezuela (but chosen by the US Supreme Court), two members chosen by the British government, and fifth member chosen by those four, who would preside. Venezuelan President Joaquín Crespo referred to a sense of "national humiliation", and the treaty was modified so that the Venezuelan President would nominate a tribunal member. However it was understood that his choice would not be a Venezuelan, and in fact, he nominated the Chief Justice of the United States. Ultimately, on 2 February 1897, the Treaty of Washington between Venezuela and the United Kingdom was signed, and ratified several months later.
After the US and Britain had nominated their arbitrators, Britain proposed that the disputing parties agree on the presiding fifth arbitrator. There were delays in discussing that and in the interim, Martens was among the names of international jurists suggested by the US. Martens was then chosen by Venezuela from a shortlist of names submitted by Britain. The Panel of Arbitration thus consisted of:
1. Melville Weston Fuller (Chief Justice of the United States)
2. David Josiah Brewer (Member of the US Supreme Court)
3. Sir Richard Henn Collins (Lord Justice of Appeal)
4. Lord Herschell (former Lord Chancellor), replaced upon his death by Charles Russell (Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales)
5. Friedrich Martens (diplomat of Russia and jurist)
Venezuela's senior counsel was former US President Benjamin Harrison, assisted by Severo Mallet-Prevost, Benjamin F. Tracy, James R. Soley, and José María Rojas. Britain was represented by its Attorney General, Richard Webster, assisted by Robert Reid, George Askwith and Sidney Rowlatt, with Sir Frederick Pollock preparing the original outline of Britain's argument. The parties had eight months to prepare their case, another four months to reply to the other party's case, and another three months for the final printed case. The final arguments were submitted in December 1898, with the total evidence and testimony amounting to 23 volumes.
Britain's key argument was that prior to Venezuela's independence, Spain had not taken effective possession of the disputed territory and said that the local Indians had had alliances with the Dutch, which gave them a sphere of influence that the British acquired in 1814. After fifty-five days of hearings, the arbitrators retired for six days. The American arbitrators found the British argument preposterous since American Indians had never been considered to have any sovereignty. However, the British had the advantage that Martens wanted a unanimous decision, and the British threatened to ignore the award if it did not suit them. They were also able to argue a loss of equity since under the terms of the treaty lands occupied for 50 years would receive title, and a number of British gold mines would be narrowly lost to that cutoff if their lands were awarded to Venezuela.
## Outcome
Sitting in Paris, the Tribunal of Arbitration finalized its decision on 3 October 1899. The award was unanimous but gave no reasons for the decision, merely describing the resulting boundary, which gave Britain almost 90% of the disputed territory. The Schomburgk Line was, with small deviations, re-established as the border between British Guiana and Venezuela. The first deviation from the Schomburgk line was that Venezuela's territory included Barima Point at the mouth of the Orinoco, giving it undisputed control of the river and thus the ability to levy duties on Venezuelan commerce. The second was drawing the border at the Wenamu River rather than the Cuyuni River, giving Venezuela a substantial territory east of the line that Britain had originally refused to include in the arbitration. However, Britain received most of the disputed territory and all of the gold mines.
The reaction to the award was surprise, the award's lack of reasoning being a particular concern. Though the Venezuelans were keenly disappointed with the outcome, they honoured their counsel for their efforts (their delegation's Secretary, Severo Mallet-Prevost, received the Order of the Liberator in 1944), and abided by the award.
The Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute asserted for the first time a more outward-looking American foreign policy, particularly in the Americas, marking the United States as a world power. That was the earliest example of modern interventionism under the Monroe Doctrine in which the USA exercised its claimed prerogatives in the Americas.
## Aftermath
The Olney–Pauncefote Treaty of 1897 was a proposed treaty between the United States and Britain in 1897 that would have required arbitration of major disputes. The treaty was rejected by the US Senate and never went into effect.
The 1895 dispute between the US and Britain over Venezuela was peacefully resolved through arbitration. Both nations realized that a mechanism was desirable to avoid possible future conflicts. US Secretary of State Richard Olney in January 1897 negotiated an arbitration treaty with the British diplomat Julian Pauncefote. President William McKinley supported the treaty, as did most opinion leaders, academics, and leading newspapers. The main opposition came from Irish-Americans, who held a very negative view of Britain because of its treatment of Ireland.
In the US Senate, however, a series of amendments exempted important issues from any sort of arbitration. Any issue that was not exempted would need two thirds of the Senate before arbitration could begin. Virtually nothing was left of the original proposal, and the Senate in May 1897 voted 43 in favor to 26 opposed, three votes short of what was needed. The Senate was jealous of its control over treaties and was susceptible to a certain deep-rooted Anglophobia.
Despite its disappointment with the award of Paris Tribunal of Arbitration, Venezuela abided by it. However, half a century later, the publication of an alleged political deal between Russia and Britain led Venezuela to reassert its claims. In 1949, the US jurist Otto Schoenrich gave the Venezuelan government the Memorandum of Severo Mallet-Prevost (Official Secretary of the U.S./Venezuela delegation in the Tribunal of Arbitration), written in 1944 to be published only after Mallet-Prevost's death. That reopened the issues, with Mallet-Prevost surmising a political deal between Russia and Britain from the subsequent private behaviour of the judges. Mallet-Prevost said that Martens had visited England with the two British arbitrators in the summer of 1899 and had offered the two American judges a choice between accepting a unanimous award along the lines ultimately agreed or a 3-2 majority opinion even more favourable to the British. The alternative would have followed the Schomburgk Line entirely and given the mouth of the Orinoco to the British. Mallet-Prevost said that the American judges and Venezuelan counsel were disgusted at the situation and considered the 3-2 option with a strongly-worded minority opinion but ultimately went along with Martens to avoid depriving Venezuela of valuable territory to which it was entitled.
As a result of Mallet-Prevost's claims, Venezuela revived its claim to the disputed territory in 1962. In 2018, Guyana has applied to the International Court of Justice to get a declaration that the 1899 Award is valid and binding upon Guyana and Venezuela and that the boundary established by that Award and the 1905 Agreement is valid.
## See also
- The Monroe Doctrine (1896 film) – US propaganda film
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59,522,155 |
Fatimid invasion of Egypt (914–915)
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10th-century invasion of Egypt
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[
"10th century in Egypt",
"10th century in the Abbasid Caliphate",
"910s conflicts",
"914",
"915",
"Egypt under the Abbasid Caliphate",
"Invasions of Egypt",
"Military history of the Abbasid Caliphate",
"Military history of the Fatimid Caliphate"
] |
The first Fatimid invasion of Egypt occurred in 914–915, soon after the establishment of the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya in 909. The Fatimids launched an expedition east, against the Abbasid Caliphate, under the Berber General Habasa ibn Yusuf. Habasa succeeded in subduing the cities on the Libyan coast between Ifriqiya and Egypt, and captured Alexandria. The Fatimid heir-apparent, al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, then arrived to take over the campaign. Attempts to conquer the Egyptian capital, Fustat, were beaten back by the Abbasid troops in the province. A risky affair even at the outset, the arrival of Abbasid reinforcements from Syria and Iraq under Mu'nis al-Muzaffar doomed the invasion to failure, and al-Qa'im and the remnants of his army abandoned Alexandria and returned to Ifriqiya in May 915. The failure did not prevent the Fatimids from launching another unsuccessful attempt to capture Egypt four years later. It was not until 969 that the Fatimids conquered Egypt and made it the centre of their empire.
## Background
The Fatimid dynasty came to power in Ifriqiya in 909, when they overthrew the reigning Aghlabids with the support of the Kutama tribe. In contrast to their predecessors, who were content to remain a regional dynasty on the western fringes of the Abbasid Caliphate, the Fatimids held ecumenical pretensions. As imams of the Isma'ili Shi'a sect, and claiming descent from Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad and wife of Ali, they regarded the Sunni Abbasids as usurpers and were determined to overthrow and replace them. Thus in early 910, the Fatimid leader, Abdallah, declared himself caliph with the regnal name of al-Mahdi Billah (r. 909–934).
In line with this imperial vision, following the establishment of their rule in Ifriqiya, the Fatimids' next objective was Egypt, the gateway to the Levant and Iraq, the old heartlands of the Islamic world and seat of their Abbasid rivals. The direct route from Ifriqiya to Egypt led through modern Libya. Apart from the few cities on the coast—Tripoli in the west and the cities of Cyrenaica in the east—this was a country dominated by Berber tribes. From west to east these were the Nafusa, Hawwara, Mazata and Luwata. These tribes had been Islamicized during the previous centuries, although incompletely; thus the Nafusa were Kharijites, while the Mazata were Muslim in name only. Only in Cyrenaica and to the east did there exist true Arab Bedouin, who had migrated there in the 9th century.
The Fatimids entered the area in 911, when Kutama chieftains raided up to the territories of the Luwata. Around Tripoli, which had submitted to the Fatimids after the fall of the Aghlabids, the Hawwara tribesmen quickly came to resent the overbearing behaviour of the Fatimids' Kutama soldiery, as well as their heavy tax demands. A first uprising and siege of the city in 910–911 was followed by a general revolt in summer 912, which also engulfed the city. The Fatimid governor fled, and all Kutama in the city were slaughtered. The Fatimid heir-apparent, al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, led a combined land and naval expedition against the Hawwara. After Tripoli, Libya capitulated in June 913, al-Qa'im left one of the principal Kutama generals, Habasa ibn Yusuf, there, to prepare the further eastward expansion of the Fatimid empire.
Al-Mahdi Billah also entertained hopes of a pincer movement against Egypt from two sides, as the pro-Fatimid propaganda had in the previous years managed to take over most of the Yemen, under the leadership of Ibn Hawshab and Ali ibn al-Fadl al-Jayshani. But in late 911, Ibn al-Fadl denounced al-Mahdi as a fraud, and attacked his former companion Ibn Hawshab, who had remained loyal to the Fatimid ruler. Although both died shortly after, their conflict weakened the Fatimid position in the Yemen, allowing the pro-Abbasid Yu'firids to regain much lost ground, and thwarted any hopes of a simultaneous attack on Egypt from the southeast. Nevertheless, the Fatimids could count on the presence of sympathizers in Egypt: in 904–905, al-Mahdi and his family had remained in hiding with sympathizers under the chief missionary (da'i) Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ahmad, before moving on to the Maghreb.
## Invasion of Egypt
The 15th-century Isma'ili (and thus pro-Fatimid) historian, Idris Imad al-Din, provides the most detail about the expedition against Egypt, and is complemented by Sunni sources such as al-Tabari and al-Kindi, who write from the opposite side.
### Conquest of the Cyrenaica
The expedition against Egypt was launched on 24 January 914, when the army under Habasa ibn Yusuf departed Tripoli. The Fatimid army took the coastal route. The Abbasid garrisons of Sirte and Ajdabiya abandoned these towns without battle, and on 6 February Habasa entered Barqa, the capital of Cyrenaica and the "gateway of Egypt". The conquest of Cyrenaica promised to be beneficial to the Fatimid treasury: the land tax (kharaj) had brought in 24,000 gold dinars to the Abbasids annually, with another 15,000 dinars provided by the jizya paid by the Christian dhimmi, as well as the zakat, and the ushr taxes.
According to Imad al-Din, Barqa was evacuated without battle. Sunni sources claim that the Fatimid troops committed atrocities against the inhabitants and extorted funds from the local merchants. Thus Habasa forced the local pigeon merchants to roast and eat their ware, suspecting them of using their birds to spy for the Abbasids. He urged the members of the local Arab militia (the jund) to enroll in the Fatimid army, while imposing considerable financial levies on the town's population. He furthermore executed two chieftains of the Mazata, who nine years before had waylaid and robbed al-Mahdi during his journey to Ifriqiya; their sons were also killed, while their womenfolk were sold into slavery and their possessions confiscated.
News of the Fatimids' arrival in Barqa provoked the Abbasid authorities in Egypt to send an army against them. Habasa's men, reinforced by fresh troops from Ifriqiya, won the ensuing battle outside the city on 14 March.
### Capture of Alexandria
Encouraged by this success, al-Mahdi sent his son and heir, al-Qa'im, with another army east to assume command of the expedition. At the head of a force comprising numerous Kutama as well as members of the Arab jund of Ifriqiya, al-Qa'im set out from al-Mahdi's residence at Raqqada on 11 July. He arrived at Tripoli on 1 August, writing to Habasa to await his coming before invading Egypt proper. Disregarding these orders, however, the ambitious Habasa led his forces into Egypt; after defeating an Abbasid force at al-Hanniya (near modern El Alamein), on 27 August 914 he entered Alexandria. The Kutama raided south along the River Nile and devastated the country, reaching as far as Giza, across the river from the capital of Egypt, Fustat. Habasa wrote to the local governor, Takin al-Khazari, offering safe-conduct (aman) in exchange for his surrender, but Takin refused. Al-Qa'im arrived in Alexandria on 6 November 914, where he imposed the Fatimid call to prayer, a Kutama governor, and an Isma'ili qadi (judge).
In the meantime, the arrival of the Fatimid army in Alexandria provoked panic in Baghdad. The Abbasid government had paid little attention to the affairs of Ifriqiya and the claims of al-Mahdi, but now urgent enquiries were made as to his origin and intentions. Takin urgently requested reinforcements, and the Syrian provinces were mobilized. In September 914, the first Syrian troops began arriving in Fustat. In October, the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir appointed his chamberlain Mu'nis as commander-in-chief and ordered him to Egypt. To support the expedition, and alleviate the financial burden on the Egyptian populace of the expeditionary force, two million silver dirham were allocated by the treasury.
### March on Fustat and first battle at Giza
In early December, as the Nile floods withdrew and allowed the passage of armies along the river, the Fatimid army set out for Fustat in two columns: Habasa ahead, with al-Qa'im following behind. As Fustat lay on the eastern bank of the Nile, and the only way to cross to it was by the pontoon bridge to Rawda Island and Giza, Takin al-Khazari mobilized the garrison and the inhabitants of the city and set up a fortified camp at Giza.
On 13 December, the first alarm was raised in Fustat, with anyone able to bear arms rushing over the bridge, but no attack ensued. This was repeated the next day, and only on the day after did the Fatimids attack. In the ensuing battle, the Abbasid forces prevailed, as Takin's Turkish horse-archers inflicted heavy casualties on the Kutama lancers. The Egyptian forces pursued the Kutama into the night, but during the pursuit the inexperienced levies fell into an ambush, saving the Fatimid army from a complete rout. The Egyptians remained tense, with another false alarm the next day, but only minor skirmishes occurred during the next few days. Despite this setback, some of the Egyptians (Christian Copts and Muslims alike) corresponded with al-Qa'im, revealing the continued presence of an element of possible sympathizers and, according to Heinz Halm, possibly the presence of a Fatimid da'i in Fustat.
### Fatimid occupation of Fayyum and defeat at Giza
Unable to cross the river to Fustat, al-Qa'im moved, with a large part of his army, around Takin's defences and into the fertile Fayyum Oasis, where they could find provisions. The Kutama initially plundered the area, but al-Qa'im restored order and imposed a regular tax regime on the inhabitants.
At this point, al-Qa'im and Habasa, who had remained behind in command of the bulk of the Fatimid army at Giza, fell out when al-Qa'im ordered Habasa replaced. On 8 January 915, in a large-scale battle at Giza, the Fatimids were decisively defeated; Fatimid sources unanimously attribute this defeat to Habasa, who fled the battlefield, despite al-Qa'im's exhortations to stand firm. The pro-Fatimid accounts maintain that al-Qa'im launched three attacks on the enemy and caused many casualties, but these embellishments cannot hide the fact that the battle was a disaster: with his army collapsing, al-Qa'im retreated to Alexandria, which he entered on 23 January.
### Fatimid withdrawal from Alexandria and revolt in Cyrenaica
Despite the setback, in his letters to his father, and the surviving sermons that he delivered in Alexandria, al-Qa'im appears not to have lost confidence in his ultimate success. At Alexandria, he held a number of Friday prayer sermons (khutbah), propagating the Isma'ili and Fatimid cause. For a while he also engaged in negotiations with some Egyptian defectors, who asked for aman from al-Qa'im, and raised the prospect of the capitulation of Fustat. It appears that al-Qa'im himself was not entirely convinced of the sincerity of such proposals, which became impossible when the Abbasid commander-in-chief Mu'nis arrived at Fustat in April 915. Mu'nis dismissed Takin and replaced him with Dhuka al-Rumi.
Soon after, Habasa with thirty of his closest followers deserted al-Qa'im and made for Ifriqiya; alarmed by this, al-Qa'im evacuated Alexandria hastily and without battle, leaving much of his armament and equipment behind. Dhuka occupied the city and installed a strong garrison under his son al-Muzzafar, before returning to Fustat to mete out punishment to those elements suspected of corresponding with al-Qa'im. Al-Qa'im arrived at Raqqada on 28 May 915. In his rear, Cyrenaica rose in revolt and overthrew Fatimid control; in Barqa, the entire Kutama garrison was killed. The rebellion was only suppressed in 917, after an 18-month siege of Barqa.
## Analysis
The invasion was costly in blood on both sides: 7,000 Fatimid troops were killed and another 7,000 were taken prisoner in the first round of fighting alone, while in the second round, Habasa's troops are said to have lost 10,000 men killed. Losses among the conscripted Egyptian population range from 10,000 to 20,000 dead, while Imad al-Din put the total number of Egyptians killed as high as 50,000.
Both sides suffered from indiscipline and lack of cohesion in their ranks. Habasa repeatedly acted without consulting al-Qa'im, and committed several atrocities against civilians; his abandonment of the battlefield doomed the expedition, and on his return to Ifriqiya, he was executed. Several Fatimid troops defected, while al-Qa'im too had to struggle to impose discipline on his men, who looted the Fayyum. The Abbasid side also experienced defections, quarrels among their commanders, as well as the willingness of many Egyptians to come to terms with the Fatimid invader, leading to brutal reprisals by the Abbasid authorities against those who corresponded with al-Qa'im.
However, in strategic terms it was the failure of the Fatimids to capture Fustat that determined their failure. Fustat was the main administrative and urban centre of the country, and, as the historian Yaacov Lev points out, the "key to the conquest of Egypt": of the several invasions of Egypt in the 10th century, only these that captured the capital were successful, even if large parts of the country itself were not yet subdued.
The Fatimid expedition was considered risky even at the time. The Fatimids' rule in Ifriqiya was still not secure and was plagued by constant rebellions; the Fatimid navy had been destroyed in 913 during such a revolt by the governor of Sicily. The 10th-century Fatimid propagandist al-Qadi al-Nu'man even reports that al-Qa'im was reluctant to embark on the expedition, and argued with his father in favour of delaying it. According to Michael Brett, the Fatimid invasion failed chiefly "because the expedition found itself deep in the interior of the country, on the desert bank of the Nile across the river from the Egyptian capital, confronted by a garrison which had been able to call upon the forces of the empire at its back". The precariousness of the first Fatimid invasion becomes even clearer when contrasted with the elaborate military preparations and infiltration of the country by Fatimid agents undertaken for several years before its final conquest in 969.
Based on a passage in the history of Ibn Khaldun, the Dutch orientalist Michael Jan de Goeje, who first studied the Qarmatians of Bahrayn, an offshoot branch of the same movement that gave rise to the Fatimids, suggested the existence of a covert alliance between the two, and of a coordinated plan of attack against the Abbasids, with the Qarmatians attacking from their bases close to the Abbasid metropolitan region of Iraq, and the Fatimids from the west. Indeed, the Qarmatians raided the environs of Basra in 913, but their forces were weak, and any notion of a coordinated offensive is belied by the fact that they remained inactive when the actual Fatimid invasion of Egypt took place, as they did during the second Fatimid invasion a few years later. Furthermore, more recent analysis of the origins of the Fatimid–Qarmatian schism has demonstrated the deep-seated doctrinal differences and hostility between the two Isma'ili branches, and the fundamentally anti-Fatimid disposition of the Qarmatians.
## Aftermath
The expedition's failure rocked the Fatimid regime's very foundation and the belief in the divine mission of the Imam-Caliph was shaken. As a result, discontent arose, particularly among the Kutama sub-tribe of the Malusa, from whom Habasa, now hounded as a criminal, originated. His eventual capture and imprisonment led to the revolt of his brother Ghazwiyya, who had played a crucial role in securing al-Mahdi's regime up to that point, and who had recently been given charge of the entire Kutama country to the west of Ifriqiya. The revolt was quickly crushed, however, and Ghazwiyya and Habasa were executed. When their heads were brought before al-Mahdi, he is said to have exclaimed "Once did these heads enclose the East and West; and now they are contained within this basket!".
Despite their failure, the Fatimids launched a second invasion in 919, which was also defeated. Apart from a brief intervention in the internal conflicts of the military factions in Egypt in 935, it was not until 969 that another serious invasion was undertaken. By then, the Abbasid Caliphate, weakened by constant power struggles between rival bureaucratic, court, and military factions, and deprived of its outlying provinces to ambitious local dynasts, had ceased to exist as a political entity, with the Abbasid caliphs a powerless pawn of the Buyids; while the Fatimid regime had grown stronger and far more wealthy, and now disposed of a large and disciplined army. This time the Fatimids met little resistance, and Egypt was conquered.
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2,206,580 |
Demining
| 1,171,851,841 |
Process of removing land mines
|
[
"Articles containing video clips",
"Bomb disposal",
"Mine action"
] |
Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing land mines from an area. In military operations, the object is to rapidly clear a path through a minefield, and this is often done with devices such as mine plows and blast waves. By contrast, the goal of humanitarian demining is to remove all of the landmines to a given depth and make the land safe for human use. Specially trained dogs are also used to narrow down the search and verify that an area is cleared. Mechanical devices such as flails and excavators are sometimes used to clear mines.
A great variety of methods for detecting landmines have been studied. These include electromagnetic methods, one of which (ground penetrating radar) has been employed in tandem with metal detectors. Acoustic methods can sense the cavity created by mine casings. Sensors have been developed to detect vapor leaking from landmines. Animals such as rats and mongooses can safely move over a minefield and detect mines, and animals can also be used to screen air samples over potential minefields. Bees, plants, and bacteria are also potentially useful. Explosives in landmines can also be detected directly using nuclear quadrupole resonance and neutron probes.
Detection and removal of landmines is a dangerous activity, and personal protective equipment does not protect against all types of landmine. Once found, mines are generally defused or blown up with more explosives, but it is possible to destroy them with certain chemicals or extreme heat without making them explode.
## Land mines
Land mines overlap with other categories of explosive devices, including unexploded ordnance (UXOs), booby traps and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In particular, most mines are factory-built, but the definition of landmine can include "artisanal" (improvised) mines. Thus, the United Nations Mine Action Service includes mitigation of IEDs in its mission. Injuries from IEDs are much more serious, but factory-built landmines are longer lasting and often more plentiful. Over 1999–2016, yearly casualties from landmines and unexploded ordnance have varied between 9,228 and 3,450. In 2016, 78% of the casualties were suffered by civilians (42% by children), 20% by military and security personnel and 2% by deminers.
There are two main categories of land mine: anti-tank and anti-personnel. Anti-tank mines are designed to damage tanks or other vehicles; they are usually larger and require at least 100 kilograms (220 lb) of force to trigger, so infantry will not set them off.
Anti-personnel mines are designed to maim or kill soldiers. There are over 350 types, but they come in two main groups: blast and fragmentation. Blast mines are buried close to the surface and triggered by pressure. A weight between 4 and 24 pounds (1.8 and 10.9 kg), the weight of a small child, is usually enough to set one off. They are usually cylindrical with a diameter of 2–4 inches (5.1–10.2 cm) and a height of 1.3–3.0 inches (3.3–7.6 cm). Fragmentation mines are designed to explode outwards resulting in casualties as much as 100 metres away. A subtype of fragmentation mines called "bounding" mines are specifically designed to launch upward off the ground before detonating. Their size varies and they are mostly metal, so they are easily detected by metal detectors. However, they are normally activated by tripwires that can extend up to 20 metres away from the mine, so tripwire detection is essential.
The casing of blast mines may be made of metal, wood, or plastic. Some mines, referred to as minimum metal mines, are constructed with as little metal as possible – as little as 1 gram (0.035 oz) – to make them difficult to detect. Common explosives used in land mines include TNT (C
<sub>7</sub>H
<sub>5</sub>N
<sub>3</sub>O
<sub>6</sub>), RDX (C
<sub>3</sub>H
<sub>6</sub>N
<sub>6</sub>O
<sub>6</sub>), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN, O
<sub>12</sub>N
<sub>8</sub>C
<sub>4</sub>H
<sub>8</sub>), HMX (O
<sub>8</sub>N
<sub>8</sub>C
<sub>4</sub>H
<sub>8</sub>) and ammonium nitrate (O
<sub>3</sub>N
<sub>2</sub>H
<sub>4</sub>).
Land mines are found in about 60 countries. Deminers must cope with environments that include deserts, jungles, and urban environments. Antitank mines are buried deeply while antipersonnel mines are usually within 6 inches of the surface. Mines may be placed by hand or scattered from airplanes, in regular or irregular patterns. In urban environments, fragments of destroyed buildings may hide them; in rural environments, soil erosion may cover them or displace them. Detectors can be confused by high-metal soils and junk. Thus, demining presents a considerable engineering challenge.
## Goals
### Military
In military demining, the goal is to create a safe path for troops and equipment. The soldiers who carry out this task are known as combat engineers, sappers, or pioneers. Sometimes soldiers may bypass a minefield, but some bypasses are designed to concentrate advancing troops into a killing zone. If engineers need to clear a path (an operation known as breaching), they may be under heavy fire and need supporting fire to suppress the enemy or obscure the site with smoke. Some risk of casualties is accepted, but engineers under heavy fire may need to clear an obstacle in 7–10 minutes to avoid excessive casualties, so manual breaching may be too slow. They may need to operate in bad weather or at night. Good intelligence is needed on factors like the locations of minefields, types of mines and how they were laid, their density and pattern, ground conditions and the size and location of enemy defenses.
### Humanitarian
Humanitarian demining is a component of mine action, a broad effort to reduce the social, economic and environmental damage of mines. The other "pillars" of mine action are risk education, victim assistance, stockpile destruction, and advocacy against the use of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions. Humanitarian demining differs from military demining in several ways. Military demining operations require speed and reliability under combat conditions to safely bypass a mine field so it is more acceptable if some mines are missed in the process. Humanitarian demining aims to reduce risk for deminers and civilians as much as possible by removing (ideally) all landmines and demining work can usually be temporarily halted if unfavorable circumstances arise. In some situations, it is a necessary precondition for other humanitarian programs. Normally, a national mine action authority (NMAA) is given the primary responsibility for mine action, which it manages through a mine action center (MAC). This coordinates the efforts of other players including government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), commercial companies, and militaries.
The International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) provide a framework for mine action. While not legally binding in themselves, they are intended as guidelines for countries to develop their own standards. The IMAS also draw on international treaties including the Mine Ban Treaty, which has provisions for destroying stockpiles and clearing minefields.
In the 1990s, before the IMAS, the United Nations required that deminers had to clear 99.6% of all mines and explosive ordnance. However, professional deminers found that unacceptably lax because they would be responsible if any mines later harmed civilians. In contrast, the IMAS call for the clearance of all mines and UXOs from a given area to a specified depth.
## Contamination and clearance
As of 2017, antipersonnel mines are known to contaminate 61 states and suspected in another 10. The most heavily contaminated (with more than 100 square kilometres of minefield each) are Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine. Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty are required to clear all mines within 10 years of joining the treaty, and as of 2017, 28 countries had succeeded. However, several countries were not on track to meet their deadline or had requested extensions.
A 2003 RAND Corporation report estimated that there are 45–50 million mines and 100,000 are cleared each year, so at present rates it would take about 500 years to clear them all. Another 1.9 million (19 more years of clearance) are added each year. However, there is a large uncertainty in the total number and the area affected. Records by armed forces are often incomplete or nonexistent, and many mines were dropped by airplane. Various natural events such as floods can move mines around and new mines continue to be laid. When minefields are cleared, the actual number of mines tends to be far smaller than the initial estimate; for example, early estimates for Mozambique were several million, but after most of the clearing had been done only 140,000 mines had been found. Thus, it may be more accurate to say that there are millions of landmines, not tens of millions.
Before minefields can be cleared, they need to be located. This begins with non-technical survey, gathering records of mine placement and accidents from mines, interviewing former combatants and locals, noting locations of warning signs and unused agricultural land, and going to look at possible sites. This is supplemented by technical survey, where potentially hazardous areas are physically explored to improve knowledge of their boundaries. A good survey can greatly reduce the time required to clear an area; in one study of 15 countries, less than 3 percent of the area cleared actually contained mines.
## Economics
By one United Nations estimate, the cost to produce a landmine is between \$3 and \$75 while the cost of removing it is between \$300 and \$1000. However, such estimates may be misleading. The cost of clearance can vary considerably since it depends on the terrain, the ground cover (dense foliage makes it more difficult) and the method; and some areas that are checked for mines turn out to have none.
Although the Mine Ban Treaty gives each state the primary responsibility to clear its own mines, other states that can help are required to do so. In 2016, 31 donors (led by the United States with \$152.1 million and the European Union with \$73.8 million) contributed a total of \$479.5 million to mine action, of which \$343.2 million went to clearance and risk education. The top 5 recipient states (Iraq, Afghanistan, Croatia, Cambodia and Laos) received 54% of this support.
## Conventional detection methods
The conventional method of landmine detection was developed in World War II and has changed little since then. It involves a metal detector, prodding instrument and tripwire feeler. Deminers clear an area of vegetation and then divide it into lanes. A deminer advances along a lane, swinging a metal detector close to the ground. When metal is detected, the deminer prods the object with a stick or stainless steel probe to determine whether it is a mine. If a mine is found, it must be deactivated.
Although conventional demining is slow (5–150 square metres cleared per day), it is reliable, so it is still the most commonly used method. Integration with other methods such as explosive sniffing dogs can increase its reliability.
Demining is a dangerous occupation. If a mine is prodded too hard or it is not detected, the deminer can suffer injury or death. The large number of false positives from metal detectors can make deminers tired and careless. According to one report, there is one such incident for every 1000–2000 mines cleared. 35 percent of the accidents occur during mine excavation and 24 percent result from missed mines.
Mine layers often use anti-demining techniques, including anti-lift devices, booby traps and two or three mines placed on top of each other. Anti-personnel wires are often triggered by tripwires.
### Prodders
In World War II, the primary method of locating mines was by prodding the ground with a pointed stick or bayonet. Modern tools for prodding range from a military prodder to a screwdriver or makeshift object. They are inserted at shallow angles (30 degrees or less) to probe the sides of potential mines, avoiding the triggering mechanism that is usually on top. This method requires the deminer's head and hands to be near the mine. Rakes may also be used when the terrain is soft (e.g., sandy beaches); the deminer is further away from the mine and the rake can be used to either prod or scoop up mines from beneath.
### Metal detectors
Metal detectors used by deminers work on the same principles as detectors used in World War I and refined during World War II. A practical design by Polish officer Józef Kosacki, known as the Polish mine detector, was used to clear German mine fields during the Second Battle of El Alamein.
Although metal detectors have become much lighter, more sensitive and easy to operate than the early models, the basic principle is still electromagnetic induction. Current through a wire coil produces a time-varying magnetic field that in turn induces currents in conductive objects in the ground. In turn, these currents generate a magnetic field that induces currents in a receiver coil, and the resulting changes in electric potential can be used to detect metal objects. Similar devices are used by hobbyists.
Nearly all mines contain enough metal to be detectable. No detector finds all mines, and the performance depends on factors such as the soil, type of mine and depth of burial. An international study in 2001 found that the most effective detector found 91 percent of the test mines in clay soil but only 71 percent in iron-rich soil. The worst detector found only 11 percent even in clay soils. The results can be improved by multiple passes.
An even greater problem is the number of false positives. Minefields contain many other fragments of metal, including shrapnel, bullet casings, and metallic minerals. 100–1000 such objects are found for every real mine. The greater the sensitivity, the more false positives. The Cambodian Mine Action Centre found that, over a six-year period, 99.6 percent of the time (a total of 23 million hours) was spent digging up scrap.
### Dogs
Dogs have been used in demining since World War II. They are up to a million times more sensitive to chemicals than humans, but their true capability is unknown because they can sense explosives at lower concentrations than the best chemical detectors. Well-trained mine-detection dogs (MDDs) can sniff out explosive chemicals like TNT, monofilament lines used in tripwires, and metallic wire used in booby traps and mines. The area they can clear ranges from a few hundred to a thousand meters per day, depending on several factors. In particular, an unfavorable climate or thick vegetation can impede them, and they can get confused if there is too high a density of mines. The detection rate is also variable, so the International Mine Action Standards require an area to be covered by two dogs before it can be declared safe.
Preferred breeds for MDDs are the German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois, although some Labrador Retrievers and Beagles are used. They cost about \$10,000 each to train. This cost includes 8–10 weeks of initial training. Another 8–10 weeks is needed in the country where the dog is deployed to accustom the dog to its handler, the soil and climate, and the type of explosives.
MDDs were first deployed in WWII. They have been extensively used in Afghanistan, which still has one of the largest programs. Over 900 are used in 24 countries. Their preferred role is for verifying that an area is cleared and narrowing down the region to be searched. They are also used in Remote Explosive Scent Tracing (REST). This involves collecting air samples from stretches of land about 100 meters long and having dogs or rats sniff them to determine whether the area needs clearing.
### Mechanical
#### Mine clearing machines
Mechanical demining makes use of vehicles with devices such as tillers, flails, rollers, and excavation. Used for military operations as far back as World War I, they were initially "cumbersome, unreliable and under-powered", but have been improved with additional armor, safer cabin designs, reliable power trains, Global Positioning System logging systems and remote control. They are now primarily used in humanitarian demining for technical surveys, to prepare the ground (removing vegetation and tripwires), and to detonate explosives.
Tiller systems consist of a heavy drum fitted with teeth or bits that are intended to destroy or detonate mines to a given depth. However, mines can be forced downwards or collected in a "bow wave" in front of the roller. They have trouble with steep slopes, wet conditions and large stones; light vegetation improves the performance, but thicker vegetation inhibits it. Flails, first used on Sherman tanks, have an extended arm with a rotating drum to which are attached chains with weights on the end. The chains act like swinging hammers. The strike force is enough to set off mines, smash them to pieces, damage the firing mechanism or throw the mine up. A blast shield protects the driver and the cabin is designed to deflect projectiles. Mine flail effectiveness can approach 100% in ideal conditions, but clearance rates as low as 50–60% have been reported.
First used in World War I with tanks, rollers are designed to detonate mines; blast-resistant vehicles with steel wheels, such as the Casspir, serve a similar purpose. However, those used in humanitarian demining cannot withstand the blast from an anti-tank mine, so their use must be preceded by careful surveying. Unlike flails and tillers, they only destroy functioning mines, and even those do not always explode.
Excavation, the removal of soil to a given depth, is done using modified construction vehicles such as bulldozers, excavators, front-end loaders, tractors and soil sifters. Armor plates and reinforced glass are added. Removed soil is sifted and inspected. It can also be fed through an industrial rock crusher, which is robust enough to withstand blasts from antipersonnel mines. Excavation is a reliable way of clearing an area to a depth that other mechanical systems cannot reach, and it has been used in several countries. In particular, the HALO Trust estimates that their excavation program destroys mines about 7 times faster than manual deminers.
A 2004 study by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining concluded that the data on the performance of mechanical demining systems was poor, and perhaps as a result, they were not being used as the primary clearance system (with the exception of excavators). However, by 2014, confidence in these systems had increased to the point where some deminers were using them as primary clearance systems.
Mechanical demining techniques have some challenges. In steep, undulating terrain they may skip over some of the ground. Operators can be endangered by defective mines or mines with delay charges that detonate after the blast shield has passed over; shaped charge mines that are capable of piercing most armor; and intelligent mines that are off to the side and use a variety of sensors to decide when to fire a rocket at an armored vehicle. One answer is to use remote controlled vehicles such as the Caterpillar D7 MCAP (United States) and the Caterpillar D9 (Israel).
Improvised techniques are sometimes used by people who need the use of land before formal demining. In parts of Ukraine mined during fighting associated with the Russian invasion that started in 2022, farmers who need to use the land improvised a mine-clearing machine by welding parts of rugged abandoned Russian fighting vehicles such as tanks on to an old tractor and harrow, remotely controlled by a battery-powered controller.
#### Smart prodders
Despite advances in mine detection technology, "mine detection boils down to rows of nervous people wearing blast-resistant clothing and creeping laboriously across a field, prodding the ground ahead to check for buried objects." Often, especially when the soil is hard, they unwittingly apply too much force and risk detonating a mine. Prodders have been developed that provide feedback on the amount of force.
## Detection methods under development
Universities, corporations and government bodies have been developing a great variety of methods for detecting mines. However, it is difficult to compare their performance. One quantitative measure is a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which measures the tradeoff between false positives and false negatives. Ideally, there should be a high probability of detection with few false positives, but such curves have not been obtained for most of the technologies. Also, even if field tests were available for all technologies, they may not be comparable because performance depends on a myriad of factors, including the size, shape and composition of the mines; their depth and orientation; the type of explosive; environmental conditions; and performance of human operators. Most field tests have taken place in conditions that favor the performance of the technology, leading to overestimates of their performance.
### Electromagnetic
#### Ground-penetrating radar
Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) probes the ground using radar. A GPR device emits radio waves; these waves are reflected at discontinuities in permittivity and one or more antennae pick up the return signal. The signal is analyzed to determine the shapes and locations of the reflectors. Discontinuities occur between materials with different dielectric constants such as a landmine, a rock and soil. Unlike metal detectors, GPR devices can detect nonmetallic mine casings. However, radio waves have wavelengths that are comparable to the dimensions of landmines, so the images have low resolution. The wavelength can be varied; smaller wavelengths give better image quality but cannot penetrate as far into the soil. This tradeoff in performance depends on soil properties and other environmental factors as well as the properties of the mines. In particular, attenuation in wet soils can make it difficult to spot mines deeper than 4 centimetres (1.6 inches), while low-frequency radar will "bounce" off small plastic mines near the surface. Although GPR is a mature technology for other applications such as searching for archaeological artifacts, the effect of those factors on mine detection is still not adequately understood, and GPR is not widely used for demining.
GPR can be used with a metal detector and data-fusion algorithms to greatly reduce the false alarms generated by metallic clutter. One such dual-sensor device, the Handheld Standoff Mine Detection System (HSTAMIDS) became the standard mine detector of the U.S. Army in 2006. For humanitarian demining, it was tested in Cambodia for a variety of soil conditions and mine types, detecting 5,610 mines and correctly identifying 96.5% of the clutter. Another dual detector developed by ERA Technology, the Cobham VMR3 Minehound, had similar success in Bosnia, Cambodia and Angola. These dual-sensor devices are relatively light and cheap, and the HALO Trust has begun to deploy more of them around the world.
#### Infrared and hyperspectral
Soil absorbs radiation from the Sun and is heated, with a resulting change in the infrared radiation that it emits. Landmines are better insulators than soil. As a result, the soil overhead tends to heat faster during the day and cool faster at night. Thermography uses infrared sensors to detect anomalies in the heating and cooling cycle. The effect can be enhanced using a heat source. The act of burying a mine also affects the soil properties, with small particles tending to collect near the surface. This tends to suppress the frequency-dependent characteristics that are evident in the larger particles. Hyperspectral imaging, which senses dozens of frequency bands ranging from visible light to long-wave infrared, can detect this effect. Finally, polarized light reflecting off man-made materials tend to remain polarized while natural materials depolarize it; the difference can be seen using a polarimeter.
The above methods can be used from a safe distance, including on airborne platforms. The detector technology is well developed and the main challenge is to process and interpret the images. The algorithms are underdeveloped and have trouble coping with the extreme dependence of performance on environmental conditions. Many of the surface effects are strongest just after the mine is buried and are soon removed by weathering.
#### Electrical impedance tomography
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) maps out the electrical conductivity of the ground using a two-dimensional grid of electrodes. Pairs of electrodes receive a small current and the resulting voltages measured on the remaining electrodes. The data are analyzed to construct a map of the conductivity. Both metallic and non-metallic mines will show up as anomalies. Unlike most other methods, EIT works best in wet conditions, so it serves as a useful complement to them. However, the electrodes must be planted in the ground, which risks setting off a mine, and it can only detect mines near the surface.
#### X-ray backscatter
In X-ray backscatter, an area is irradiated with X-rays (photons with wavelengths between 0.01 and 10 nanometres) and detecting the photons that are reflected back. Metals strongly absorb x-rays and little is reflected back, while organic materials absorb little and reflect a lot. Methods that use collimators to narrow the beams are not suitable for demining because the collimators are heavy and high-power sources are required. The alternative is to use wide beams and deconvolve the signal using spatial filters. The medical industry has driven improvements in x-ray technology, so portable x-ray generators are available. In principle, the short wavelength would allow high-resolution images, but it may take too long because the intensity must be kept low to limit exposure of humans to the radiation. Also, only mines less than 10 centimetres deep would be imaged.
### Explosive vapor detection
A buried mine will almost always leak explosives through the casing. 95 percent of this will be adsorbed by the soil, but the other 5 percent will mostly dissolve in water and be transported away. If it gets to the surface, it leaves a chemical signature. TNT biodegrades within a few days in soil, but an impurity, 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT), lasts much longer and has a high vapor pressure. Thus, it is the primary target for chemical detection. However, the concentrations are very small, particularly in dry conditions. A reliable vapor detection system needs to detect 10<sup>−18</sup> grams of 2,4-DNT per millilitre of air in very dry soil or 10<sup>−15</sup> grams per millilitre in moist soil. Biological detectors are very effective, but some chemical sensors are being developed.
#### Honey bees
Honey bees can be used to locate mines in two ways: passive sampling and active detection. In passive sampling, their mop-like hairs, which are electrostatically charged, collect a variety of particles including chemicals leaking from explosives. The chemicals are also present in water that they bring back and air that they breathe. Methods such as solid phase microextraction, sorbent sol-gels, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry can be used to identify explosive chemicals in the hive.
Honey bees can also be trained, in 1–2 days, to associate the smell of an explosive with food. In field trials, they detected concentrations of parts per trillion with a detection probability of 97–99 percent and false positives of less than 1 percent. When targets were placed consisting of small amounts of 2.4-DNT mixed with sand, they detect vapor plumes from the source several meters away and follow them to the source. Bees make thousands of foraging flights per day, and over time high concentrations of bees occur over targets. The most challenging issue is tracking them when a bee can fly 3–5 kilometres before returning to the hive. However, tests using lidar (a laser scanning technique) have been promising.
Bees do not fly at night, in heavy rain or wind, or in temperatures below 4 °C (39 °F), but the performance of dogs is also limited under these conditions. So far, most tests have been conducted in dry conditions in open terrain, so the effect of vegetation is not known. Tests have commenced in real minefields in Croatia and the results are promising, although after about three days the bees must be retrained because they are not getting food rewards from the mines.
#### Rats
Like dogs, giant pouched rats are being trained to sniff out chemicals like TNT in landmines. A Belgian NGO, APOPO, trains rats in Tanzania at a cost of \$6000 per rat. These rats, nicknamed "HeroRATS", have been deployed in Mozambique and Cambodia. APOPO credits the rats with clearing more than 100,000 mines.
Rats have the advantage of being far lower mass than the human or dogs, so they are less likely to set off mines. They are just smart enough to learn repetitive tasks but not smart enough to get bored; and unlike dogs, they do not bond with their trainers, so they are easier to transfer between handlers. They have far fewer false positives than metal detectors, which detect any form of metal, so in a day they can cover an area that would take a metal detector two weeks.
#### Other mammals
In Sri Lanka, dogs are an expensive option for mine detection because they cannot be trained locally. The Sri Lankan Army Corps of Engineers has been conducting research on the use of the mongoose for mine detection, with promising initial results. Engineer Thrishantha Nanayakkara and colleagues at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka have been developing a method where a mongoose is guided by a remote-controlled robot.
During the Angolan Civil War, elephants fled to neighboring countries. After the war ended in 2002, they started returning, but Angola was littered with millions of landmines. A biologist noticed that the elephants soon learned to avoid them. In a study in South Africa, researchers found that some elephants could detect TNT samples with a high sensitivity, missing only one out of 97 samples. They were 5% more likely to indicate the presence of TNT than dogs and 6% less likely to miss a sample (the more important measure of success). While researchers do not plan to send elephants to minefields, they could sniff samples collected by unmanned vehicles in a preliminary screening of potential minefields.
#### Plants
Thale cress, a member of the mustard family and one of the most-studied plants in the world, normally turns red under harsh conditions. But using a combination of natural mutations and genetic manipulation, scientists from Danish biotechnology company Aresa Biodetection created a strain that only changes color in response to nitrate and nitrite, chemicals that are released when TNT breaks down. The plants would aid demining by indicating the presence of mines through color change, and could either be sown from aircraft or by people walking through demined corridors in minefields. In September 2008, Aresa Biodetection ceased development of the method, but in 2012 a group at Cairo University announced plans for large-scale testing of a method that would combine detection using Arabidopsis with bacteria that would corrode metal in mines and rose periwinkle, sugar beet, or tobacco plants that would absorb nitrogen from the TNT that was released.
An inherent problem with sensing nitrate and nitrites is that they are already in the soil naturally. There are no natural chemical sensors for TNT, so some researchers are attempting to modify existing receptors so they respond to TNT-derived chemicals that do not occur naturally.
#### Bacteria
A bacterium, known as a bioreporter, has been genetically engineered to fluoresce under ultraviolet light in the presence of TNT. Tests involving spraying such bacteria over a simulated minefield successfully located mines. In the field, this method could allow for searching hundreds of acres in a few hours, which is much faster than other techniques, and could be used on a variety of terrain types. While there are some false positives (especially near plants and water drainage), even three ounces of TNT were detectable using these bacteria. Unfortunately, there is no strain of bacteria capable of detecting RDX, another common explosive, and the bacteria may not be visible under desert conditions. Also, well-constructed munitions that have not had time to corrode may be undetectable using this method.
#### Chemical
As part of the "Dog's nose" program run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), several kinds of non-biological detectors were developed in an attempt to find a cheap alternative to dogs. These include spectroscopic, piezoelectric, electrochemical, and fluorescent detectors. Of these, the fluorescent detector has the lowest detection limit. Two glass slides are coated with a fluorescent polymer. Explosive chemicals bind to the polymer and reduce the amount of fluorescent light emitted. This has been developed by Nomadics, Inc. into a commercial product, Fido, that has been incorporated in robots deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chemical sensors can be made lightweight and portable and can operate at a walking pace. However, they do not have a 100% probability of detection, and the explosive vapors they detect have often drifted away from the source. Effects of environmental conditions are not well understood. As of 2016, dogs outperformed the best technological solutions.
### Bulk explosive detection
Although some of the methods for detecting explosive vapors are promising, the transport of explosive vapors through the soil is still not well understood. An alternative is to detect the bulk explosive inside a landmine by interacting with the nuclei of certain elements. In landmines, explosives contain 18–38% nitrogen by weight, 16–37% carbon and 2–3% hydrogen. By contrast, soils contain less than 0.07% nitrogen, 0.1–9% carbon and 0–50% hydrogen. Methods for interrogating the nuclei include nuclear quadrupole resonance and neutron methods. Detection can be difficult because the "bulk" may amount to less than 100 grams and a much greater signal may come from the surrounding earth and cosmic rays.
#### Nuclear quadrupole resonance
Nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy uses radio frequency (RF) waves to determine the chemical structure of compounds. It can be regarded as nuclear magnetic resonance "without the magnet". The frequencies at which resonances occur are primarily determined by the quadrupole moment of the nuclear charge density and the gradient of the electric field due to valence electrons in the compound. Each compound has a unique set of resonance frequencies. Unlike a metal detector, NQR does not have false positives from other objects in the ground. Instead, the main performance issue is the low ratio of the signal to the random thermal noise in the detector. This signal-to-noise ratio can be increased by increasing the interrogation time, and in principle the probability of detection can be near unity and the probability of false alarm low. Unfortunately, the most common explosive material (TNT) has the weakest signal. Also, its resonance frequencies are in the AM radio band and can be overwhelmed by radio broadcasts. Finally, it cannot see through metal casing or detect liquid explosives. Nevertheless, it is considered a promising technology for confirming results from other scanners with a low false alarm rate.
#### Neutrons
Since the late 1940s, a lot of research has examined the potential of nuclear techniques for detecting landmines and there have been several reviews of the technology. According to a RAND study in 2003, "Virtually every conceivable nuclear reaction has been examined, but ... only a few have potential for mine detection." In particular, reactions that emit charged particles can be eliminated because they do not travel far in the ground, and methods involving transmission of neutrons through the medium (useful in applications such as airport security) are not feasible because the detector and receiver cannot be placed on opposite sides. This leaves emission of radiation from targets and scattering of neutrons. For neutron detectors to be portable, they must be able to detect landmines efficiently with low-intensity beams so that little shielding is needed to protect human operators. One factor that determines the efficiency is the cross section of the nuclear reaction; if it is large, a neutron does not have to come as close to a nucleus to interact with it.
One possible source of neutrons is spontaneous fission from a radioactive isotope, most commonly californium-252. Neutrons can also be generated using a portable particle accelerator (a sealed neutron tube) that promotes the fusion of deuterium and tritium, producing helium-4 and a neutron. This has the advantage that tritium, being less radiotoxic than californium-252, would pose a smaller threat to humans in the event of an accident such as an explosion. These sources emit fast neutrons with an energy of 14.1 million electron volts (MeV) from the neutron tube and 0–13 MeV from californium-252. If low-energy (thermal) neutrons are needed, they must be passed through a moderator.
In one method, thermal neutron analysis (TNA), thermal neutrons are captured by a nucleus, releasing energy in the form of a gamma ray. One such reaction, nitrogen-14 captures a neutron to make nitrogen-15, releasing a gamma ray with energy 10.835 MeV. No other naturally occurring isotope emits a photon with such a high energy, and there are few transitions that emit nearly as much energy, so detectors do not need high energy resolution. Also, nitrogen has a large cross section for thermal neutrons. The Canadian Army has deployed a multi-detector vehicle, the Improved Landmine Detection System, with a TNA detector to confirm the presence of anti-tank mines that were spotted by other instruments. However, the time required to detect antipersonnel mines is prohibitively long, especially if they are deeper than a few centimeters, and a human-portable detector is considered unachievable.
An alternative neutron detector uses fast neutrons that enter the ground and are moderated by it; the flux of thermal neutrons scattered back is measured. Hydrogen is a very effective moderator of neutrons, so the signal registers hydrogen anomalies. In an antipersonnel mine, hydrogen accounts for 25–35% of the atoms in the explosive and 55–65% in the casing. Hand-held devices are feasible and several systems have been developed. However, because they are sensitive only to atoms and cannot distinguish different molecular structures, they are easily fooled by water, and are generally not useful in soils with water content over 10%. However, if a distributed pulsed neutron source is used, it may be possible to distinguish wet soil from explosives by their decay constants. A "Timed Neutron Detector" based on this method has been created by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and has won design awards.
### Acoustic/seismic
Acoustic/seismic methods involve creating sound waves above the ground and detecting the resulting vibrations at the surface. Usually the sound is generated by off-the-shelf loudspeakers or electrodynamic shakers, but some work has also been done with specialized ultrasound speakers that send tight beams into the ground. The measurements can be made with non-contact sensors such as microphones, radar, ultrasonic devices and laser Doppler vibrometers.
A landmine has a distinctive acoustic signature because it is a container. Sound waves alternately compress and expand the enclosed volume of air and there is a lag between the volume change and the pressure that increases as the frequency decreases. The landmine and the soil above it act like two coupled springs with a nonlinear response that does not depend on the composition of the container. Such a response is not seen in most other buried objects such as roots, rocks, concrete or other man-made objects (unless they are hollow items such as bottles and cans) so the detection method has few false positives.
As well as having a low false positive rate, acoustic/seismic methods respond to different physical properties than other detectors, so they could be used in tandem for a richer source of information. They are also unaffected by moisture and weather, but have trouble in frozen ground and vegetation. However, because sound attenuates in the ground, the technology has shown difficulty finding mines "deeper than approximately one mine diameter". It is also slow, with scans taking between 125 and 1000 seconds per square meter, but increasing the number of sensors can speed the scan up proportionately.
### Drones
Drone is a synonym for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The system that includes the drone, the person operating the machine and the communication system is called an unmanned aerial (or aircraft) system (UAS). The FAA also uses the term small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) for small UAS. In the past decade, the use of such systems for demining has grown rapidly.
Drones equipped with cameras have been used to map areas during non-technical survey, to monitor changes in land use resulting from demining, to identify patterns of mine placement and predict new locations, and to plan access routes to minefields. One such system, a fixed-wing UAV made by SenseFly, is being tested by GICHD in Angola. A Spanish company, CATUAV, equipped a drone with optical sensors to scan potential minefields in Bosnia and Herzegovina; their design was a finalist in the 2015 Drones for Good competition. From February to October 2019, Humanity & Inclusion, an international NGO, is testing drones for non-technical survey in northern Chad.
Several ideas for detecting landmines are in the research and development phase. A research team at the University of Bristol is working on adding multispectral imaging (for detecting chemical leaks) to drones. Geophysicists at Binghamton University are testing the use of thermal imaging to locate "butterfly mines", which were dropped from airplanes in Afghanistan and mostly sit on the surface. At DTU Space, an institute in the Technical University of Denmark, researchers are designing a drone with magnetometer suspended underneath it, with the initial goal of clearing mines from World War II so power cables can be connected to offshore wind turbines.
The Dutch Mine Kafon project, led by designer Massoud Hassani, is working on an autonomous drone called the Mine Kafon Drone. It uses robotic attachments in a three-step process. First, a map is generated using a 3-D camera and GPS. Next, a metal detector pinpoints the location of mines. Finally, a robotic gripping arm places a detonator above each mine and the drone triggers it from a distance.
Drone programs must overcome challenges such as getting permission to fly, finding safe takeoff and landing spots, and getting access to electricity for charging the batteries. In addition, there are concerns about privacy, and a danger that drones could be weaponized by hostile forces.
## Personal protective equipment
Deminers may be issued personal protective equipment (PPE) such as helmets, visors, armoured gloves, vests and boots, in an attempt to protect them if a mine is set off by accident. The IMAS standards require that some parts of the body (including the chest, abdomen, groin and eyes) be protected against a blast from 240 grams of TNT at a distance of 60 centimeters; head protection is recommended. Although it says blast resistant boots may be used, the benefits are unproven and the boots may instill a false sense of security.
The recommended equipment can afford significant protection against antipersonnel blast mines, but the IMAS standards acknowledge that they are not adequate for fragmentation and antitank mines. Heavier armor increases protection at the expense of comfort and mobility. PPE selection is a balance between protection should a blast occur and being sufficiently unhindered to prevent a blast in the first place. Other ways of managing risk include better detectors, remote-controlled vehicles to remove fragmentation mines, long-handled rakes for excavation and unmanned aerial vehicles to scout the hazards before approaching.
## Removal methods
### Humanitarian
Once a mine is found, the most common methods of removing it are to manually defuse it (a slow and dangerous process) or blow it up with more explosives (dangerous and costly). Research programs have explored alternatives that destroy the mine without exploding it, using chemicals or heat.
The most common explosive material, TNT, is very stable, not burnable with a match and highly resistant to acids or common oxidizing agents. However, some chemicals use an autocatalytic reaction to destroy it. Diethylenetriamine (DETA) and TNT spontaneously ignite when they come in contact with each other. One delivery system involves a bottle of DETA placed over a mine; a bullet shot through both brings them in contact and the TNT is consumed within minutes. Other chemicals that can be used for this purpose include pyridine, diethylamine and pyrole. They do not have the same effect on explosives such as RDX and PETN.
Thermal destruction methods generate enough heat to burn TNT. One uses leftover rocket propellant from the NASA Space Shuttle missions. Thiokol, the company that built the engines for the shuttles, developed a flare with the propellant. Placed next to a mine and activated remotely, it reaches temperatures exceeding 1,927 °C (3,501 °F), burning a hole through the landmine casing and consuming the explosive. These flares have been used by the US Navy in Kosovo and Jordan. Another device uses a solid state reaction to create a liquid that penetrates the case and starts the explosive burning.
### Military
In World War II, one method used by the German SS to clear minefields was to force captured civilians to cross the minefields, which would trigger any mine they encountered. In 1987, during the Iran–Iraq War, Iran used children known as baseeji as human mine detonators. More humane methods included mine plows, mounted on Sherman and Churchill tanks, and the Bangalore torpedo. Variants of these are still used today.
Mine plows use a specially designed shovel to unearth mines and shove them to the side, clearing a path. They are quick and effective for clearing a lane for vehicles and are still attached to some types of tank and remotely operated vehicles. The mines are moved but not deactivated, so mine plows are not used for humanitarian demining.
The mine-clearing line charge, successor to the Bangalore torpedo, clears a path through a minefield by triggering the mines with a blast wave. Several examples include the anti-personnel obstacle breaching system and the Python Minefield Breaching System, a hose-pipe filled with explosives that is carried across a minefield by a rocket.
## See also
- Aftermath: The Remnants of War (film)
- Bomb disposal
- Center for International Stabilization and Recovery
- Counter-IED efforts
- Land mines in Central America
- Mines Advisory Group
- Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD)
- Mine clearance agency
- MineWolf Systems
- Fares Scale of Injuries due to Cluster Munitions
|
289,706 |
New Jersey Route 284
| 1,145,969,463 |
State highway in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States
|
[
"State highways in New Jersey",
"Transportation in Sussex County, New Jersey"
] |
Route 284 is a 7.03-mile (11.31 km) state highway in New Jersey, United States, running from Route 23 in Sussex north to the New York state line in Wantage Township. From there, New York State Route 284 (NY 284) continues north to U.S. Route 6 (US 6) at Slate Hill. The route is a connector to Unionville, and intersects with an old alignment of its original designation, Route 84. Route 284 was first a part of Route 8 in the 1920s, becoming Route 8N in 1927 and Route 84 in 1942 before being assigned its current number in 1966.
## Route description
Route 284 begins at a signaled intersection in Sussex with Route 23. The route proceeds northward, intersecting with Sussex County Route 643 at less than a half-mile into the highway. Route 284 leaves the borough of Sussex and enters Wantage Township, intersecting with Layton Road, Janice Drive, and Possum River Road. Route 284 passes to the south of a lake, crosses over a branch of the Wallkill River and intersects with County Route 642 (Bassets Bridge Road). Just after the intersection with Route 642, the rural highway crosses over Quarryville Brook. At 5.41 miles (8.71 km), Route 284 intersects with an old routing of its original designation, Route 84. The original alignment merges in with Route 284 less than a mile later. After crossing the Wallkill River branch again and the Appalachian Trail, Route 284 leaves New Jersey for New York and becomes NY 284.
## History
Route 8, one of the routes assigned before the 1927 renumbering, ran largely along the present Route 23 corridor, but at Sussex it turned north rather than continuing northwest through High Point State Park. The section from Sussex north to the state line was taken over by the state in 1919. In the 1927 renumbering, the majority of Route 8 became Route 23. The part north of Sussex was proposed to become part of Route 31, but that was instead moved to the present Route 94 corridor in the final version of the bill. As Route 8 north of Sussex was not assigned a number, the State Highway Commission appended a suffix of N (to distinguish it from new Route 8), forming Route 8N. The connecting route in New York had been numbered New York State Route 8 to match New Jersey, but in the 1930 renumbering it became New York State Route 84, in order to free up the number 8 for a longer route. New Jersey renumbered its Route 8N to Route 84 in March 1942 to match, in part to provide a single number for military caravans during World War II.
The final renumbering was made in 1966, when Interstate 84 (I-84) opened in New York. As the new I-84 was close to the older Route 84, Route 84 was renumbered in both New York and New Jersey to 284.
## Major intersections
## See also
|
24,479,124 |
History of Braathens (1994–2004)
| 1,094,179,228 |
History of Braathens from domestic market deregulation to dissolution
|
[
"Aviation history of Norway",
"Braathens",
"History of airlines",
"History of companies of Norway"
] |
Braathens SAFE's domestic market was deregulated on 1 April 1994. Since then, any airline within the European Economic Area is free to operate any domestic or international route. Braathens rejected a proposal from the main competitor Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) for a merger; instead the helicopter division was sold and the company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. New routes were opened from Oslo Airport, Fornebu to Bodø, Harstad/Narvik and Tromsø, but the routes from Bergen to these cities were terminated. International routes to Rome, Nice and Jersey were introduced. In 1996, Braathens SAFE bought Sweden's second-largest airline, Transwede, and started flying on the Oslo–Stockholm route. The following year, Transwede, with its five domestic routes, was merged into Braathens SAFE. The same year, KLM bought 30% of Braathens SAFE and the airlines started a partnership.
In 1998, the airline changed its name to Braathens and introduced two-class cabins. Full-fare passengers traveled in the "Best"-class, while discounted travelers traveled in the "Back"-class. It also bought the Swedish airline Malmö Aviation. Oslo Airport, Gardermoen replaced Fornebu as the airline's main hub, and a price war started against SAS and the new low-cost airline Color Air. The availability of slots increased the frequency of flights for all three airlines to an unsustainable level. After a year, Color Air was bankrupt, but Braathens had suffered large losses, and terminated many routes, including all services in Sweden. In 2001, the airline was bought by SAS, and the following year the two coordinated their services so as not to compete. On 1 May 2004, they merged to create SAS Braathens, that re-branded to Scandinavian Airlines in 2007.
## Deregulation
The deregulation process, which would eliminate the need for concessions for routes, was driven by Norway's application for membership of the EU. This was supported by the Labor Party and the right-winged Conservative Party and Progress Party. The plans from the EU indicated that international routes within EU should be deregulated from 1 January 1993, with Norway and Sweden joining from 1 July. Full, domestic liberalization should be performed by 1 April 1997. SAS and Braathens SAFE proposed a solution where only Norwegian airlines could compete until 1997, which was thought to efficiently hinder other airlines, rather than these two, until then. SAS announced its support for competition on 4 February 1993, while Braathens SAFE stated that it no longer was in favor of competition, despite having arguing for this for the whole of the company's history. The company stated that stability was needed and that competition would result in marginalized routes, that were being cross-subsidized, being closed. SAS stated that with competition, prices would fall 20–30%, and that SAS wanted to operate with a loss to force Braathens SAFE close services.
During the discussion about deregulation, Braathens SAFE considered several possibilities to strengthen itself. In particular, it had discussions with the large European airlines Lufthansa, British Airways and KLM about an alliance, but these were rejected by Braathens SAFE, stating that the agreements were all about getting traffic to the partner's hub. Minister of Transport, Kjell Opseth and director of SAS in Norway, Jan Reinås, both proposed a merger between Braathens SAFE and SAS, to ensure that the company had a 100% market share on the primary routes before the merger. This would, according to them, secure that no foreign company could compete with the merged company. The proposal was rejected by Braathens SAFE's management. Still, negotiations started between the companies in 1992, although they were quickly abandoned. The press reported the price of Braathens SAFE to be NOK 1.2 billion, but that this had been rejected as too expensive by SAS.
Prior to a government report being presented on 30 March 1993, SAS had launched 1 November 1993 as their preferred date of free competition, while Braathens SAFE had launched 1 April 1997 as their preferred date. Braaathens SAFE was worried that the high debt the company had due to the purchase of new aircraft would make them illiquid in a price war. Bjørn G. Braathen stated that the company had bought the new aircraft based on the belief that deregulation would occur in 1997, giving the airline time to pay more of the debt. On 2 June 1993, with 76 against 18 votes, parliament voted to deregulate the domestic airline market from 1 April 1994. It was supported by the Labor, Conservative and Progress Party. With this, Norway became the third country in Europe to fully deregulate, after Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Both Braathens SAFE and SAS had been cross-subsidizing their routes. Through the regulations, the airlines had agreed to fly to unprofitable airports, in exchange for making higher profits on other routes. With free competition, this would not be followed, and the authorities announced the introduction of public service obligations on routes that were not profitable. To finance these, a NOK 10 fee would be charged on all primary routes. The cost of collecting this fee was so high that SAS and Braathens SAFE announced it was cheaper to continue to fly to the unprofitable airports. Braathens SAFE stated that their routes Haugesund–Bergen and Oslo–Røros–Trondheim were not profitable.
To meet the free market situation, the company's management introduced measures to keep costs low. On 19 August 1993, ten of eleven trade unions agreed to a three-year wage contract, which contained bonuses for all employees based on the company's profit. The cabin crew's union had a two-day strike, before reaching an agreement. At the same time, the company needed NOK 400 million in share capital. Braathens Rederi sold the sister company Braathens Helikopter to Helkopter Service for NOK 225 million on 30 September 1993, and the money was used to buy Braathens SAFE stock. The company raised further capital in an initial public offering, and the company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 10 January 1994. After the listing, Braathens Rederi retained 69% of the company.
On 1 April, Braathens SAFE increased the number of services. The daily number of flights from Oslo to Bergen increased to nine, and the airline introduced four new services to Northern Norway from Oslo: two each to Tromsø and Harstad/Narvik. Later, the frequency to Tromsø increased to four, and from 28 June there were also two daily round trips to Bodø. SAS increased its services on the routes from Oslo to Stavanger and Trondheim, and from Bergen to Stavanger. The liberalization did not result in a price war, and prices remained constant. The following two years, Braathens SAFE also introduced scheduled international flights to Rome, as well as summer routes to Jersey and Nice. However, Braathens SAFE terminated their routes from Bergen to Bodø, Harstad/Narvik and Tromsø, making the passengers switch planes in Trondheim.
In 1995, Braathens signed agreements with many of the large companies in Norway as a prioritized airline. Several of the contracts had been secured by the airline offering discounts to the companies in exchange for not allowing their customers to collect frequent flyer points. SAS had not allowed this scheme, and had lost companies such as Statoil, Aker and the Government of Norway.
## Expansion into Sweden
In 1996, Braathens SAFE started negotiations to purchase the Swedish airline Transwede Airways from its owners, Transpool. After SAS had bought Linjeflyg, Transwede had become the second-largest domestic airline in Sweden, operating five Fokker 100s. In 1995, Braathens SAFE had a revenue of NOK 4 billion, with a profit of NOK 242 million. The same year, Transwede had lost NOK 200 million with a revenue of NOK 1.2 billion. The company had been split in two, a charter and a scheduled company, and Braathens SAFE started negotiating to purchase the scheduled company. Transwede's scheduled services were at the time form Stockholm Arlanda Airport to Halmstad, Jönköping, Luleå, Sundsvall and Umeå, plus a service from Luleå to Sundsvall. It had a 13% market share, transporting 800,000 people in 1995, and had been through a major restructuring the year before, where the fleet had been reduced from seven to five aircraft.
On 18 June, Braathens SAFE announced that starting on 27 October, the company put one aircraft into service on the route from Oslo to Stockholm. SAS had at the time fifteen round trips on the route, and Braathens planned to introduce seven. The route was considered one of the most profitable for SAS. The purchase of Transwede was confirmed on 25 June; Braathens SAFE bought 50% of the company's scheduled division, Transwede Airways, with an option to purchase the rest in 1997. The companies planned to integrate their networks, to allow connection between Braathens SAFE's and Transwede flights at Stockholm. Services to Stockholm started on 6 November; after three months, the airline had captured 14% of the Oslo–Stockholm market. In 1996, Braathens SAFE had a 51% domestic market share in Norway, transporting 9.5 million passengers.
On 3 February 1997, the airline announced it had ordered six 134-seat Boeing 737-700 aircraft for NOK 1.5 billion. These aircraft would be delivered in 1998, prior to the opening of the new airport at Gardermoen. In addition, the airline had an option for additional ten planes to be delivered after 2000. In 1997, Transwede started replacing its Fokker 100s with Boeing 737s. In May 1997, Braathens SAFE was criticized by the Norwegian Airline Pilots Association because it was using retired Braathens SAFE pilots to fly Transwede aircraft, due to Transwede not having certified pilots for their new Boeing 737-300. Braathens SAFE stated that this was within the rules of the Swedish Civil Aviation Administration and the Joint Aviation Authorities.
In 1997, SAS announced that it was going to reduce its commission to travel agents from 9 to 5%. Braathens followed, reducing from 8 to 5% from 1 January 1998. However, to try to attract more business passengers, the airline retained the 8% commission on their international routes. At the same time, the Government of Norway abandoned its old regime of negotiating prices with the airlines for state-employed civil servants' flights. Instead, they introduced an annual tender for the routes. It was awarded to SAS, who also won all subsequent tenders. For Braathens SAFE, this meant that state-employed civil servants only flew on routes where SAS did not fly. The contract was worth NOK 500 million for SAS.
On 1 April 1997, the European airline market was fully deregulated. At this time, British Airways announced increased activity to Scandinavia, based in part on a cooperation with Braathens SAFE concerning their frequently flyer program; holders of Bracard were allowed to collect frequent flyer points on British Airways' flights. On 3 April, Braathens SAFE, Transwede and Finnair signed an agreement involving codesharing on Finnair's flights from Stockholm and Oslo to Helsinki, Bracard members would be granted points on Finnair flights, and Braathens SAFE took over Finnair's handling services in Oslo.
On 18 December, Braathens SAFE bought the remaining half of Transwede, paying 2 Swedish krona for the who company. However, due to an agreement about converting debt into share capital, the company was sold for SEK 13 million. With the take-over, the company changed its name to Braathens Sverige AB. At the same time, management announced that they planned to replace all the company's Fokker 100s with 737-300s.
## Partnership and new identity
On 18 August 1997, Braathens SAFE announced a strategic partnership with the Dutch airline KLM. The partnership replaced the agreement with British Airways, and became active in 1998. Analysts stated that the partnership came as a reaction to SAS' alliance with Lufthansa, the Star Alliance, that had been created the previous year. Braathens SAFE had also been in negotiations with British Airways. The agreement involved KLM purchasing a 30% stake in Braathens SAFE from Ludvig G. Braathens Rederi for NOK 800 million. In addition, Braathens SAFE started flying from several Norwegian cities to KLM's main hub at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. In addition, the partnership involved a coordination of scheduling, prices, frequent flyer programs, corporate customer agreements, maintenance and procurement. The partnership also involved cooperation with the American airline Northwest Airlines. In 1997, Braathens SAFE and Transwede had a revenue of NOK 5.4 billion and made a profit of NOK 206 million, down 88 million from 1996.
Starting in March, Braathens SAFE took over KLM's routes from Stavanger to Amsterdam, and started a new route from Trondheim to Amsterdam. From 26 March 1998, Braathens SAFE moved its flights to London from Gatwick to London Stansted Airport. At the same time, it announced that the number of daily services from Oslo to London would increase from one to three, following the opening of Gardermoen. In addition, KLM-partner AirUK would become an agent for Braathens SAFE, and the company hoped that 40% of the sales on the route would be sold in the United Kingdom. The agreement also involved a codesharing agreement with AirUK, including some onwards flights from London, notably the route to Dublin. At the same time, Braathens SAFE announced that the airline would start selling more discounted tickets on the London-flights, to compete with Ryanair's new route from Stanstad to Sandefjord Airport, Torp.
On 23 March 1998, Braathens SAFE changed its name and corporate identity to Braathens. It introduced a new livery with a blue bottom, and replaced the Norwegian flag on the tail with an abstract, silver wing, that became the company's new logo. The re-branding was an attempt to create an international identity, and tone down the Norwegian national symbols that had been on the airplanes since 1946. At the same time, a two-class configuration was introduced: the 'Best' section, accounting for 70% of the planes capacity, received higher seat pitch, complimentary in-flight drinks, meals and newspapers, priority boarding and refundable tickets. The 'Back' section was for discount ticket holders, who received a no-frills service with a smaller seat pitch, and were located at the back of the aircraft behind a curtain. Best tickets became NOK 300 more expensive, while it became easier to purchase discounted tickets. The scheme was, according to Erik G. Braathen, an attempt to differentiate between the full-fare customers, with whom Braathens was competing with SAS, and the low-fare customers, who Braathens was competing with Ryanair and the to-be established Color Air. The scheme as first introduced on the first 737-700 that was delivered.
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions encouraged its 800,000 members to not fly with Braathens due to the introduction of a segregated classes. SAS did not follow the same policy, and offered its discounted customers to travel in the same class as Braathens', including complimentary service. After introduction, the concept increased the work load on handing employees, who needed to check the passengers' tickets to ensure they sat in the right class. There were also complaints from Best-passengers who felt that they were receiving worse service after the scheme was introduced.
On 17 August 1998, Braathens bought Malmö Aviation, that flew from Stockholm-Bromma Airport to Göteborg Landvetter Airport and Malmö Airport. In addition, it served all three airports from London City Airport. The airline had eleven British Aerospace 146 jets. In 1997, it had 772,000 passengers, 450 employees, a revenue of SEK 900 million and a profit of SEK 40 million. The airline cost SEK 600 million and the deal gave Braathens and Malmö Aviation a 25% domestic market share in Sweden.
## Price war
In January 1998, Olav Nils Sunde, owner of the cruiseferry company Color Line, announced that he would start a domestic low-cost airline. They company aimed for a 15–20% domestic market share and was named Color Air. The company launched tickets down to NOK 500 each way, and sold cheap tickets without demanding that the traveler be away during a weekend.
From 1 April, a new NOK 65 tax was introduced on all domestic flights. Braathens and SAS decided to divide the cross-subsidize the taxes between their routes, something Color Air was not able to do. This was because the tax was only valid for routes within Southern Norway; Braathens and SAS could therefore tacitly collude to increase the prices to Northern Norway, and thereby subsidize their routes in Southern Norway. Color Air on the other hand would be forced to put the full tax on all its departures. While the government had no way to hinder the incumbents from doing this, Gudmund Restad, Minister of Finance from the Center Party, encouraged the airlines to not "cheat", and follow the intentions of the law, even if he admitted that there was nothing the government could do to hinder the airlines from cross-subsidizing.
Color Air started with flights from Gardermoen on 1 August, two months before the airport opened. Gardermoen was taken into use on 8 October by SAS and Braathens. Both immediately increased the number of flights. Braathens established a route to Haugesund, while SAS started routes to Ålesund and Kristiansand. The number of daily trips from Oslo for SAS increased from 59 to over 80. In total, the three companies increased their daily round trip from 138 to 200, and the daily seat capacity from 18,000 to 26,000. Ålesund had the largest increase, from seven daily round trips with only Braathens, to seventeen offered by all three companies.
In late 1998 and early 1999, KLM and Braathens introduced direct flights from Sandefjord and Kristiansand to Amsterdam. Braathens also started flights from Sandefjord to Stavanger and Bergen. On 1 May 1999, Northwest Airlines started flights to its hub at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in the United States. This service was terminated in October. The Northwest service had a connection to Stockholm as well as a new route from Oslo to Gothenburg, operated by Braathens. After Northwest announced the withdrawal of their service, the Gothenburg service was also terminated.
In November 1998, Color Air introduced a new cheapest ticket for NOK 345. After the winter settled, the ice front between Color Air and Braathens grew colder following Braathens' denying Color Air to use their deicing equipment at Ålesund, resulting in the plane being stuck at the airport. By the end of 1998, it became clear that Braathens had increased capacity with 20%, but only achieved a 5.2% ridership increase after the opening of Gardermoen. Similar numbers were applicable for SAS. The business market, in particular the large corporations with divisions in several cities, were demanding high frequencies on the routes. Color Air could get by with fewer departures, because they mainly targeted the leisure segment. In particular, the routes from Oslo to Ålesund and Kristiansand had a very low seat utilization; to Ålesund there were 1.2 million flown seats annually, but only 345,000 passengers, giving a 29% cabin load.
In September 1999, SAS announced that if Braathens took the first step to reduce capacity between Bergen and Oslo, they would follow immediately to reduce the overcapacity in the combined 37 daily departures. However, Braathens was not willing to reduce. On 15 September, Color Air announced that they would start flying five round trips from Oslo to Stavanger on 1 October, following the delivery of their fourth aircraft. At the same time, the airline would reduce the number of round trips to Ålesund from four to two. In January 1999, Braathens applied to register twenty of its Norwegian aircraft in Sweden, following their discovery that foreign-registered aircraft, such as Color Air's and SAS', did not have to pay value added tax on good sold on board. This was rejected by the Norwegian Armed Forces, who based their need of transport of military personnel during wartime on requisition of civilian, Norwegian-registered aircraft. The same month, Geir Olsen, head of Braathens in Sweden, withdrew from his position, due to disagreements about the corporate strategy.
On 27 September 1999, Color Air terminated all flights and ceased operations. On the day of the termination, the stock price of Braathens increased by 16%. Immediately following the bankruptcy, the two airlines increased their prices. Subsequently, Braathens increased their ticket price by 15%, but stated that this had nothing to do with the elimination of competition, since the price increase was not on any Oslo routes. In November, Braathens started to remove routes, and announced they would increase prices by 20%. They also reintroduced the Flag of Norway on the tail, which since the rebranding had been replaced by a silver, abstract wing. Both Braathens and SAS lost more than NOK 1 billion in 1999, totaling the cost of the price war between the three airlines to exceed NOK 3 billion.
## Crisis
On 23 July 1999, Braathens replaced its CEO with Arne A. Jensen. He introduced the program Improve 800, that was to improve the bottom line with NOK 800 million. In February 1999, Braathens merged the Swedish division with Malmö Aviation, to create Braathens Malmö Aviation. At the same time, the airline removed the 'Best' and 'Back' scheme on domestic Swedish flights. In November, Braathens terminated all services in Sweden that were inherited from Transwede. The Fokker 100 aircraft and Boeing 737-300 aircraft were sold, and the service from Oslo to Stockholm taken over by the company's Norwegian department. Malmö Aviation retained on flights from Stockholm-Bromma to Gothenburg and Malmö, as well as to London City. In addition, a Stockholm to Halmstad Airport service was started. In 1999, Braathens lost SEK 300 million in Sweden, bringing the total loss of Braathens Swedish operations since 1996 to SEK 600 million. At the same time, Braathens terminated its services from Sandefjord to Stavanger and Bergen, and the route from Oslo to Haugesund. From 25 June 2000, the company also terminated its Oslo to Stockholm route. Instead, the planes were put into service to Málaga and Alicante.
During 1999, domestic air ticket prices increased 9.2%, and another 17% the following year. By 2001, the domestic capacity was below the level before Gardermoen opened. Braathens and SAS started cooperating to set the full-price tickets on routes to eleven cities. This meant that the prices were identical on all the routes where both airlines flew, although they were not allowed to make such cooperation with discounted tickets. During the crisis, Braathens had sold several aircraft and started leasing them back to gain liquidity. The company announced in 2000 that they were considering purchasing a smaller type of aircraft, that would replace the 737s on some routes, and that would allow Braathens to start operating the Norwegian Air Shuttle services themselves.
The 'Best' and 'Back' service was highly criticized by analysts and customers. Braathens SAFE had a strong image, and unlike SAS, that was branded as 'The Businessman's Airline', Braathens SAFE was seen as the people's airline. It also drew goodwill from being Norwegian-owned, and that it displayed the Flag of Norway on the tailplane. Prior to the rebranding, no airline in Norway had ever operated a two-class service on domestic flights—including SAS. Professor of Sociology Per Morten Schiefloe commented that the introduction of segregation of passengers offended passengers. Customers who previously had been paying full price, became more aware of the savings on using 'Back' tickets. At the same time, people who wanted to travel with discounted tickets felt that they got better service and were not treated as second-rate customers with SAS. This caused Braathens to lose customers at both ends. The rebranding itself not only cost money to initiate, but also increased operating expenses, because cabin crew needed to move the curtain depending on the number of passengers on each class. Planes were sometimes delayed for hours, particularly in the beginning of the service, due to the increased work load on the handling and cabin crew.
On 25 November 2000, Braathens terminated the route to Murmansk. On 2 January 2001, they also terminated the routes from Molde to Kristiansand and from Kristiansand to Trondheim, the routes to Røros from Trondheim and Oslo, and the services from Oslo to Newcastle. The routes from Bergen to Haugesund were reduced from five to three round trips, and the Bergen–Molde–Trondheim route was reduced from four to three. The capacity on the routes from Oslo to Molde and Kristiansund were increased. A second round trip was introduced from Stavanger to Newcastle, flown by Norwegian Air Shuttle. From 15 February, the airline introduced four weekly services from Oslo to Barcelona, and from 1 March, three weekly round trips to directly from Longyearbyen to Oslo. A direct service was introduced from Bergen to Alicante from 7 April.
## Take-over
On 21 May 2001, SAS and Braathens announced that KLM and Braathens Rederi had agreed to sell their 69% stake in Braathens for NOK 800 million to SAS—valuating Braathens to NOK 1.1 billion. Braathens had contacted British Airways, but they had stated that they did not wish to purchase Braathens. The deal with SAS was initiated by Braathens; they stated that this would allow the two companies to cooperate to eliminate the overcapacity in the domestic market. Because both airlines operated a fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft, about NOK 150 million could be saved in maintenance. The agreement also involved that Malmö Aviation would have to be sold before the take-over. If not, the Braathens family would purchase the airline for NOK 1. At the same time, the family-owned companies guaranteed for about NOK 1 billion in the Swedish subsidiary.
The Norwegian Competition Authority announced that since the new company would have all domestic scheduled services between primary airports, it was unlikely that the take-over would receive permission from them. However, it was stated that one solution could be that the companies discontinue their frequent flyer programs. On 20 August, the Competition Authority declared that SAS was not allowed to purchase Braathens; the ruling was appealed by SAS and Braathens. Analysts stated that Braathens could be bankrupt by the time the appeal was processed. The Competition Authority stated that their denial of the take-over was that the reduction of capacity would remove the airline's incentive to provide discounted tickets, because they would not have to use them to capture travelers with lower willingness to pay from the competitor, and that they would not need low-paying customers to fill up the vacant seats. Instead, the authority wanted the politicians to reduce the taxes on flights. While Braathens also was opposed to the tax, they felt that removing it then was too late to save the company.
CEO Arne A. Jensen stated to the press that he felt that the cause of the problems were made in 1993, when the airline failed to make the correct choices in relation to the deregulation. He stated that he felt that part of the cause was that KLM and the Braathens family had cancelled a planned private placement. He further stated that a monopoly was the best for society, the passengers and the employees. He also stated that if the appeal failed, he had a "Plan B", involving a much smaller airline that would compete with SAS on the main routes. From October, the airline terminated its service to Milan and reduced capacity on some domestic routes; this removed the need for two aircraft. In addition, the airline increased all ticket prices with 5%, due to higher insurance costs.
On 23 October 2001, the Competition Authority granted permission for SAS to purchase Braathens. The rationale was that there were no other realistic purchasers for the airline, and that a bankruptcy was imminent without the take-over. As a condition, the authority decided to regulate a ban on frequent flyer programs, and stated that it would ban cross-subsidization aimed at underbidding or operating at a loss to force new entrants out of the market.
## Coordinated operation
By then, SAS had taken sixteen aircraft out of service, reduced production with 12% and fired 1,000 employees. The airline stated that they wished to renegotiate the agreement with the Braathens family and KLM to reduce the price. Because there had arisen a situation with high over-capacity of aircraft, the value of planes had fallen. In addition, SAS demanded that Braathens reduce its fleet from 33 to 23 aircraft if the deal was to go through, threatening to terminate the purchase if the airline did not abide.
On 2 April 2002, SAS and Braathens split all the routes between them. SAS started flying on the main-haul routes from Oslo to Trondheim, Bergen and Stavanger, with only a few flights to Stavanger flown by Braathens to get planes to the technical base there. From Oslo and Trondheim to Northern Norway, all routes were taken over by Braathens, with exception of a few flights made by SAS to Tromsø and Bodø. SAS also withdrew their flights from Oslo to Kristiansand and Ålesund, and Braathens increased their frequency on the route. Braathens retained the routes it had flown where SAS had not formerly flown. Braathens also kept the international flights to Barcelona, Nice, Málaga and Alicante. This reduced the overcapacity in the market, and allowed the SAS Group to save between NOK 600 and 900 million.
For a short period, members of both Wings and SAS' EuroBonus could collect points from the other airlines. But from 1 July, the awarding of frequent flyer miles on domestic flights was no longer permitted. From 1 April 2003, the West Coast routes, which had been on contract with Norwegian Air Shuttle, were taken over by SAS Commuter.
On 24 April 2002, SAS announced that all handling services operated by Braathens would be taken over by SAS Ground Services. All SAS employees would be prioritized in the rationalization process, and 800 Braathens employees were laid off. Three hundred Braathens' employees were offered jobs with SAS Ground Services, but these lost their seniority. No employees in SAS lost their jobs. The case ended in the courts, where 369 former Braathens employees sued SAS to receive the same seniority as they had in Braathens. On 15 October 2003, Asker and Bærum District Court decided that only 42 of the employees, those working in Kristiansund and Molde, had right to keep their seniority. The case was appealed, and on 18 March 2005, Borgarting Court of Appeal, with four against three votes, decided in favor of SAS, denying the employees their claim. The matter was not settled until 31 January 2006, when the Supreme Court of Norway ruled in favor of the employees.
By 2004, Braathens had managed to cut costs sufficiently to make a profit. At the same time, SAS was having problems making a profit. SAS announced on 10 March 2004 that SAS and Braathens would be merged into a single company, SAS Braathens, in May. At the same time, the airline would create separate national airlines for Sweden and Denmark. SAS Braathens would operate 50 aircraft, all variations of the 737. The company took over the operating licence of Braathens, including the IATA and ICAO code, and callsign. Because all the operations streamlined and coordinated, there would be no further downstaffing due to the merger. From 1 June 2007, SAS Braathens was rebranded to Scandinavian Airlines, making it identical to the branding in Sweden and Denmark, although it remain a separate limited company named SAS Norge AS.
|
56,016,777 |
Siege of Erivan (1804)
| 1,146,054,101 |
Part of the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813
|
[
"1804 in Iran",
"1804 in the Russian Empire",
"19th century in Armenia",
"Battles involving Qajar Iran",
"Battles involving Russia",
"Battles of the Russo-Persian Wars",
"Conflicts in 1804",
"History of Yerevan"
] |
The siege of Erivan (Yerevan, the capital of modern Armenia) took place from July to September 1804, during the Russo-Persian War (1804–13). After a difficult advance, the Russians under Pavel Tsitsianov besieged Erivan. The Iranian forces inside Erivan's citadel prevented the Russians from making a direct attack, while those outside the citadel surrounded the Russians and cut the invaders' supply lines. Commanded by Crown-Prince Abbas Mirza and King Fath-Ali Shah Qajar himself (r. 1797–1834), the Iranians successfully defended the city and defeated the Russian attack. Tsitsianov, in order to save his reputation, shifted the blame on a plethora of people and matters, and deliberately left out his own wrongdoings.
## Background
In 1801, capitalising on political turmoil in Iran, the Russians annexed Kartli-Kakheti (eastern Georgia), a region which had been part of Iran for centuries. In 1802, Pavel Tsitsianov was appointed as the new Russian commander-in-chief in the Caucasus. A die-hard Russian imperialist and expansionist, he had little respect for either the inhabitants of the Caucasus or the Iranians. In January 1804, he invaded Iran, besieging the Iranian city of Ganja. After a month he captured and ruthlessly sacked it; up to 3,000 Iranians were massacred in three days of pillage. This initiated the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813.
After the capture of Ganja, Tsitsianov proceeded to Erivan. At Echmiadzin, near Erivan, his army clashed with that of Crown-Prince and commander-in-chief Abbas Mirza and Tsitsianov and his men were forced to withdraw. A few days later the Russians returned to Echmiadzin, where they caught an Iranian force by surprise and defeated it. They then marched on Erivan once again. Surviving Iranians regrouped and joined the subsequent defence of Erivan.
## Siege
At the end of June, Tsitsianov arrived in front of Erivan, with an army ranging between 3,000 to 20,000 men, as well as Georgian and Armenian auxiliaries. The Russians attacked, accompanied by a heavy bombardment. The king (shah) himself was present at the defence and commanded troops. At the time of the battle the Iranians still fought with their "traditional army", mainly composed of light artillery and mobile cavalry; they had not yet initiated the program that would result in the creation of a military on modern lines (the Nezam-e Jadid).
As the Russians besieged the 6,000–7,000 Iranian troops who held out inside Erivan's citadel, Iranian forces outside the citadel, some 18,000 cavalrymen, in turn cut the line of communications of the invaders, and surrounded them. The Iranians fought with more courage and effectiveness than the Russians had expected them to. During the siege, they prevented the Russians from receiving supplies and reinforcements, while Erivan's garrison prevented the Russians from making any direct attacks. The Russian artillery proved to be effective once more, similar to the encounter at Echmiadzin, but the Iranians were able to inflict heavy casualties on the Russians and prevent them from advancing towards the citadel. In order to disrupt the Russians even more, they burned many wheat fields. Tsitsianov then sent a detachment consisting of 200 soldiers in order to pick up supplies made ready by the recently established military administration in Tiflis (Tbilisi); 6,000 Iranian troops managed to surround the detachment, killing most of them, and enslaving most of the survivors.
During Tsitsianov's campaign, the first major anti-Russian rebellion broke out amongst the locals in the newly established Georgia Governorate. Reasons behind the uprising were dissatisfaction with Tsitsianov's policies, the corruption of Pyotr Ivanovich Kovalensky's administration, and the abolition of the Bagrationi dynasty. In September, five of Tsitsianov's six generals concluded that his plan had failed, and forced him to break off the siege.
## Aftermath
The Russians had suffered heavy casualties. A large proportion had died or ended up wounded, and another thousand had become ill. The rest had become weakened as they had to live and fight for five weeks on half rations. Even during the retreat, the situation remained dire for the Russian soldiers. There was still a shortage of food and water amongst the soldiers, and as a large amount of their pack animals had died, they were forced to carry the equipment themselves. Furthermore, Iranian raiders pursued them, "picking off stragglers and setting fire to the parched fields".
The Erivan siege had left the Georgia Governorate with insufficient troops during a period of increased Lezgin raiding. Tsitsianov had caused further aggravation amongst the locals of the Governorate by forcing local peasants to work under "extremely harsh conditions to improve the road across the mountains". This contributed to an increasing number of Georgians wanting the restoration of the Bagrationis, to which the Iranians gave military support.
Even Tsitsianov was aware that he had failed at Erivan. This is further stipulated by the fact that the Russians didn't write an official report "of their own battle casualties for the siege of the campaign as a whole". After returning to the Georgia Governorate, Tsitsianov reported to Alexander I (r. 1801–1825). In order to save his reputation he blamed the failure of the siege on his subordinate generals, the Iranian governor of Erivan (Mohammad Khan Qajar), and on the "harsh terrain" which separated the Erivan Khanate from the Georgia Governorate. Tsitsianov stated that the Iranian governor needed to be "annihilated" if Russia wanted to achieve glory and a proper strategic position in the Caucasus. However, the person most to blame, according to Tsitsianov, was general and prince Dmitri Mikhailovich Volkonsky [ru]. According to Tsitsianov, the "disgrace" at Yerevan was caused by Volkonsky's failure to bring up supplies. What he did not decide to report was that the area between Erivan up to Georgia was controlled by the Iranians, who prevented Russian contingents from travelling between them, and that the Georgia Governorate needed every soldier it could muster for provincial peacekeeping and therefore could not spare troops to escort supplies. Alexander I received the report warmly; he subsequently recalled Volkonsky, and rewarded Tsitsianov. In contrast, a few years later, when Tsitsianov's successor Ivan Gudovich unsuccessfully besieged Erivan, Alexander condemned his expedition as "stupid" and sent him into retirement.
Tsitsianov's campaign had resulted in numerous Armenian families leaving the khanate for the Georgia Governorate. The Iranian army, after the successful defense, in line with their customary protocol, received orders to disband for the winter with instructions to reassemble in the spring of 1805 for a new campaign.
|
4,889,890 |
Itachi Uchiha
| 1,171,775,098 |
Fictional character from Naruto
|
[
"Comics characters introduced in 2003",
"Fictional assassins in comics",
"Fictional characters who can duplicate themselves",
"Fictional characters who committed familicide",
"Fictional child prodigies",
"Fictional child soldiers",
"Fictional double agents",
"Fictional genocide perpetrators",
"Fictional illusionists",
"Fictional mass murderers",
"Fictional matricides",
"Fictional military captains",
"Fictional ninja",
"Fictional patricides",
"Fictional secret agents and spies",
"Fictional special forces personnel",
"Fictional swordfighters in anime and manga",
"Male characters in anime and manga",
"Orphan characters in anime and manga",
"Undead characters in comics"
] |
Itachi Uchiha (うちは イタチ, Uchiha Itachi) is a character in the Naruto manga and anime series created by Masashi Kishimoto. Itachi is the older brother of Sasuke Uchiha, and is responsible for killing all the members of their clan, sparing only Sasuke. He appears working as a terrorist from the organisation Akatsuki and serves as Sasuke's greatest enemy. During the second part of the manga, Itachi becomes involved in attacks to ninjas possessing tailed-beast creatures until facing Sasuke in a one-on-one battle. Although Itachi perishes during the final duel, it is later revealed that Itachi had a secret reason for assassinating the Uchiha clan. Itachi is a playable character in most of the video games from the series.
Itachi's character has been popular with readers of the manga, and has been positively received by critics. His appearance as an antagonist has been praised by several writers, although some have considered his initial appearance to be unsurprising. The gradual revelations of his past and its impact on the story has also received positive reception, and his fights were noted to be "one of the best" in the series. Numerous types of merchandise have been released in Itachi's likeness, including keychains, plush dolls and figurines.
## Creation and design
When Itachi Uchiha is first mentioned by Sasuke Uchiha in the manga, Masashi Kishimoto had not planned out the character's backstory. His only idea he had was to attribute to Itachi some violent action that would have Sasuke wanting to kill him. However, when Itachi was introduced, Kishimoto had the idea to make Itachi Konoha's secret agent who killed his clan under their orders. Itachi was originally conceived as the leader of Konoha's Special Assassination and Tactical Squad called the "Anbu", dubbed the Itachi Squad (イタチ隊, Itachi-tai), which would have been a 70-man group divided into four teams, specializing in assassination and other illicit operations. However, this idea was scrapped in favour of the current Itachi working for the Akatsuki. From all the Akatsuki characters Kishimoto designed, Itachi is his favorite based on his backstory.
Itachi's Japanese voice actor, Hideo Ishikawa, often talked with Sasuke's Japanese actor, Noriaki Sugiyama, about their characters. When the two characters first confronted, both Ishikawa and Sugiyama found Itachi's massacre of the Uchiha clan hard to believe and started to read the Naruto manga in order to see if Itachi was hiding something. After Itachi's death, the two actors noted that in the end Itachi served as a good older brother to Sasuke. English actor Crispin Freeman was pleased with voicing Itachi regardless of how many times he revisited the series.
## Appearances
### In Naruto
Itachi is a member of the Uchiha Clan from the village of Konohagakure and the elder brother of Sasuke Uchiha. He grew up as the child prodigy of the Uchiha clan, establishing milestones for not only Sasuke, but also for future Uchiha to live up to. His early childhood was marred by war, the violence of which caused him to seek peace at any cost. Upon learning that his clan was planning a coup d'état to take control of Konoha, after his clan was accused of attacking the village with the Nine-Tails, Itachi provides Konoha with intelligence on his clan's actions during his two years as a member of the ANBU. Over time, Itachi distances himself from his clan, as some clan members believed he murdered his best friend, Shisui Uchiha, to gain the Mangekyo Sharingan (万華鏡写輪眼, Mangekyo Sharingan, lit. "Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye").
In reality, as Shisui possesses the ability to subliminally manipulate others and shares Itachi's love for the village, he intended to use his gift on the Uchiha clan leader to stop the coup d'état. However, Shisui is mortally wounded by the Leaf High Council member Danzo Shimura, who then takes his eye to achieve his own ideal of peace. When Shisui entrusts Itachi with his remaining eye, Itachi covers up Shisui's death to make it appear it was his doing. Eventually, in return for Danzo's offer to spare his younger brother, Itachi slaughters his entire clan. After creating the misconception that he murdered their family in cold blood to give Sasuke the mindset to become strong enough to kill him once he is capable, Itachi leaves the village, although he warns Danzo not to harm Sasuke. Meeting up with Konoha's Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, who promises to do what he can to look after Sasuke, Itachi reveals his intentions to continue to protect the village from the shadows. Soon after perceiving them as a threat to Konoha, Itachi joins the Akatsuki to ensure they do not endanger his village. Itachi becomes good friends with his partner Kisame Hoshigaki, who expresses concern for Itachi's wellbeing.
Itachi debuts in Part I after Hiruzen's death, when he uses his infiltration of Konoha to hunt down Naruto Uzumaki as an excuse to secretly check on Sasuke's wellbeing. After engaging with Kakashi Hatake and some of Konoha's forces, he reveals Akatsuki's goal to gather the Jinchuriki which are the people that contained the tailed beasts which there are nine of. Itachi also learns that Naruto is under the protection of Jiraiya and sets up a trap to lure the experienced ninja away to grab the boy. However, as Jiraiya comes to Naruto's aid, Itachi finds himself facing Sasuke and directs his brother back on the path of getting stronger by defeating him before he and Kisame fall back.
In Part II, Itachi uses one of Sasori's informants as a clone of himself to hold off Naruto and the rest of his team while he and the others seal away Shukaku the One Tail. Itachi remains on the sidelines until learning that Sasuke has finally severed his ties to Orochimaru, having absorbed him and now being strong enough to settle matters. Prior to his fight with Sasuke, Itachi meets with Naruto and, after questioning his intentions to save Sasuke, ensures the youth's safety with a crow with Shisui's Sharingan (写輪眼, lit. "Copy Wheel Eye", English manga: "Mirror Wheel Eye") as a countermeasure against Sasuke if he gains his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and attempts to attack Konoha. Sasuke ultimately tracks him down and they engage in their final battle, during the course of which he uses his Mangekyo Sharingan to push Sasuke to his limits. In doing so, Orochimaru is drawn out from Sasuke's body, and Itachi seals him away with his Totsuka blade before finally succumbing to his mysterious illness. As his final act, Itachi implants his Amaterasu technique within Sasuke, meant as a protective measure that will kill Tobi in case he ever tries to approach Sasuke and reveal the truth of their clan's slaughter. Unfortunately, having known where Itachi's loyalties truly lie, Tobi survived and reveals the truth of Itachi's actions to Sasuke. This gives Sasuke the resolve to destroy the village in revenge for ruining his brother's and his clan's lives, eventually having his brother's Mangekyo Sharingan implanted on him.
Itachi reappears later during the Fourth Great Ninja War, brought back by Kabuto Yakushi using the Edo Tensei No Jutsu (Reanimeation Justsu), a forbidden summoning jutsu that brings the dead back as immortal corpses, to fight on Tobi's side. Paired with Nagato and forced to fight Naruto and Killer Bee against his will, Itachi learns of his brother's intentions and summons the crow he gave Naruto to regain his free will. After sealing Nagato, Itachi heads out to stop Kabuto and encounters Sasuke, with his younger brother wanting to know the truth once it is over.
After a long battle, Itachi is pushed to use Izanami to trap Kabuto in an eternal time-loop in his own mind, to have him break his jutsu. His soul beginning to fade, Itachi uses his Sharingan to project his memories to Sasuke to reveal the full story of the events leading to the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Telling his brother that he does not have to forgive him, Itachi tells Sasuke that he will always love him, no matter what choice he makes from then on. With his brother's parting words, and accepting defeat after his final battle with Naruto, Sasuke renounces destroying the village and devotes himself to protecting it, fulfilling Itachi's wish for his younger brother. Sasuke even adopts Itachi's habit of poking on the forehead as a sign of affection, which Sasuke does with his wife Sakura and their daughter Sarada Uchiha.
### In other media
Itachi is present in the sixth Naruto: Shippuden movie, Road to Ninja, where he leads an alternate-universe Akatsuki to help Naruto. He has a brief cameo in one of the original video animations, and is a playable character in nearly all Naruto video games, including the Clash of Ninja series and the Ultimate Ninja series. In some games, he utilizes variations of his techniques not seen in the anime or manga. Several merchandise items based on Itachi have been released, including key chains, plush dolls, and figurines.
## Reception
Itachi has ranked high in the Weekly Shonen Jump popularity polls for the series, continuously placing in the top 10. He was ranked in fifth position in the polls of 2011. In the 2023 online global poll, held to celebrate the 20 years of the manga, Itachi was found to be the second most popular character in the franchise, behind only Minato Namikaze. The character received generally positive reviews from several publications for manga, anime, video games, and other related media. IGN reader Jason Van Horn characterized Itachi as "badass" and jokingly mentioned that he is a character to be afraid of since, in his first fight in the series, he does not make any remarkable move. He found that "there is just something about the cold and numb Itachi," that makes the viewer "want to breakout in chills". IGN's Charles White liked the episode where the relationship between young Sasuke and Itachi is revealed, and hoped to see more of their past to resolve the mystery of Itachi's character commenting that learning about their "past has been intriguing". NTT customers voted him as their tenth favorite black haired male anime character. CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama referred to Itachi as one of his favorite characters from Naruto.
In the Shelf Life section from Anime News Network (ANN) Bamboo Dong comments that Itachi is one of her favorite characters from the series, noting his background and his introduction as the best parts of the series. Activeanime writer Davey C. Jones celebrated Itachi's fights as the best ones in the series, noting his abilities to be as amazing as a "sci-fi ninja". Holly Ellingwood from the same website agrees, citing his fight against Kakashi Hatake as one "few will be able to forget". The reviewer also praised Itachi's attitude, commenting that he "is as cold and as ruthless as any villain yet".
In a review of Volume 16 of the manga, Deb Aoki from About.com listed Itachi's introduction in the series as one of the cons from the volume. She praised his first fight in the series as very entertaining, meant to "whet readers' appetites for future fights between Konoha ninja and the Akatsuki". James Musgrove commented that Itachi and his partner Kisame "make a dramatic and well-timed entrance into the story". However, Jason Van Horn criticised the first battle between Itachi and Sasuke, as "good" but not "as epic as it should've been". His last fight with Sasuke before dying was considered "epic" by Casey Brienza from ANN. She found it to be "a battle of minds" since, even after Itachi's death, Sasuke changes his mind about him when he learns about his past. She also anticipated the impact of Itachi's past revelations on the future storyline of Naruto. Despite disliking how the anime Shippuden used Itachi's light novel as part of the series, Chris Beveridge from the Fandom Post enjoyed Itachi's impact on both Sasuke and Naruto. Writer Jason Thompson highly praised his visual tortures, due to the effect it has on the victims, reminding him of the antagonist from Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film Cure notable for its horror scenes. Nevertheless, he criticized Itachi's death scene as a result of his disease rather than being killed by Sasuke, taking all the blame from his brother in the process. In 2014, IGN listed him as the fifth best Naruto character when the series ended.
## See also
|
587,412 |
Tupelo Honey
| 1,171,092,692 | null |
[
"1971 albums",
"Albums produced by Ted Templeman",
"Albums produced by Van Morrison",
"Albums recorded at Wally Heider Studios",
"Polydor Records albums",
"Van Morrison albums",
"Warner Records albums"
] |
Tupelo Honey is the fifth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in October 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. Morrison had written all of the songs on the album in Woodstock, New York, before his move to Marin County, California, except for "You're My Woman", which he wrote during the recording sessions. Recording began at the beginning of the second quarter of 1971 at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco. Morrison moved to the Columbia Studios in May 1971 to complete the album.
The namesake for the album and its title track is a varietal honey produced from the flowers of the tupelo tree found in the Southeastern United States. The album features various musical genres, most prominently country, but also R&B, soul, folk-rock and blue-eyed soul. The lyrics echo the domestic bliss portrayed on the album cover; they largely describe and celebrate the rural surroundings of Woodstock and Morrison's family life with then-wife Janet "Planet" Rigsbee.
Tupelo Honey received most of its success in America; it charted at number 27 on the Billboard charts and in 1977 it was certified gold by the RIAA. It failed to reach any of the European or other worldwide charts. The album yielded two hit singles, the hymn-like title track, and the R&B-flavored "Wild Night". The third released single, "(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball", was less successful and did not enter the Billboard Hot 100. The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics at the time of its release, but Morrison's biographers were less favorable towards it in later years.
## Background
Prior to the Tupelo Honey recording sessions, Morrison had recorded demo tracks in Woodstock for an upcoming country-and-western album. Some of the tracks planned for Tupelo Honey did appear on the album, but other more traditional country songs like "The Wild Side of Life", "Crying Time" and "Banks of the Ohio" were abandoned. Morrison decided to move from Woodstock when the lease on his house expired and the landlord wanted to move back in. He explained to Richard Williams in Melody Maker that the release of the documentary film Woodstock in 1970 had altered the quaint character of the community: "Everybody and his uncle started showing up at the bus station, and that was the complete opposite of what it was supposed to be." In April 1971, before he began recording on the planned album, Morrison and his family moved to Marin County, California, where his wife, Janet Planet, had family living close by. Morrison's guitarist at the time, John Platania, told biographer Steve Turner that Morrison "didn't want to leave, but Janet wanted to move out West. He was manipulated into going." The Morrisons' new home was in a rural setting situated on a hillside close to San Francisco amid redwood trees. With the move, Morrison abandoned the idea of a full country album and exchanged some of the intended material for songs he had written earlier.
Morrison was under pressure by Warner Bros. Records to produce chart singles and two albums within a year. His previous album, His Band and the Street Choir, had been released in November 1970. In an interview with journalist Sean O'Hagan in 1990, he described this period as being in contrast to the laid-back atmosphere pictured on the album cover: "When I went to the West Coast these people [the musicians he had been working with in Woodstock] weren't that available so I had to virtually put a completely new band together overnight to do [Tupelo Honey]. So it was a very tough period. I didn't want to change my band but if I wanted to get into the studio I had to ring up and get somebody. That was the predicament I was in."
## Recording
Due to the location of the recording sessions of Tupelo Honey, having moved from New York to California, the only musicians from Morrison's previous band that could work with him were saxophonist Jack Schroer and his wife Ellen (who contributed backing vocals). However, two of the three percussionists on the album had recorded with him in the past; Connie Kay contributed drums to Astral Weeks and Gary Mallaber played drums and vibraphone on Moondance. On this album, Kay played drums on four songs and new recruit Rick Shlosser was used for the remaining tracks, while Mallaber played percussion and vibraphone. Biographer Howard DeWitt was convinced that Morrison's music benefited from his move to California, as he comments that "the musical explosion in Marin County also added a great deal to Van's music. In particular, Ronnie Montrose's guitar work made Tupelo Honey a rock classic." Mark Jordan and John McFee made up the rest of the rhythm section. The remaining members of the horn section were Bruce Royston and "Boots" Houston on flutes and Luis Gasca on trumpet. The band was augmented by producer Ted Templeman, who contributed organ to the title track.
The first recording sessions took place in the spring of 1971 at the Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco and continued for three weeks. Only four of the songs recorded were chosen for Tupelo Honey: "Wild Night"; "Moonshine Whiskey"; "I Wanna Roo You" and "Like a Cannonball". Rick Shlosser and John McFee played on these tracks, but were dropped from the second sessions. Engineer Stephen Barncard remembered that "We'd get the band rehearsed, then Ted Templeman would go to the hotel, pick up Van ... We did one or two takes, he'd go back to the hotel and the band would go on to the next tune."
Morrison relocated in the late spring of 1971 to the Columbia Studios, San Francisco to record a second session of tracks for the album. This time Morrison rehearsed the songs before recording began, which helped the sessions run more smoothly. "You're My Woman" was recorded a few days after the other songs, with Rick Shlosser back playing drums.
The vocals on the album were always live after rehearsing each song five or six times, according to saxophonist and flautist "Boots" Houston, who further commented that when Morrison and the band went into the studio: "we would then just play a whole set straight through without repeating anything. We would have played maybe twenty songs and Van would go back and cut out the songs he didn't want. The only time we'd go back would be to overdub backing vocals or horns." Ted Templeman remarked that he had to go through three engineers during the recording of the album, due to Morrison's "ability as a musician, arranger and producer": "When he's got something together, he wants to put it down right away with no overdubbing ... I've had to change engineers who couldn't keep up with him."
## Composition and themes
The rural setting in Marin County furnished the backdrop for the domestic bliss associated with the album, and the songs' lyrics contained harmonious references to the "good life at home". In an interview given to New Spotlight magazine at the time, Morrison's wife, Janet Planet, referred to Morrison's dislike of socializing at this time: "Really he is a recluse. He is quiet. We never go anywhere. We don't go to parties. We never go out. We have an incredibly quiet life and going on the road is the only excitement we have." Although Morrison said that the songs on the album "had been hanging around for awhile [sic?]" and according to biographer Steve Turner they were written in Woodstock, musician Ronnie Montrose recalled that Morrison wrote one of the tunes, "You're My Woman", while sitting at the piano during the recording sessions in California.
The album opens with "Wild Night", a hybrid of R&B, soul and country music influences, which uses a moderate time signature and features the lead guitar playing of Ronnie Montrose. The song's intro was created, according to Montrose, when "One afternoon I was messing around with what is now the intro on the record, [Van] stopped me and ... said ' ... that thing you just played ... that's the intro, don't forget it'". This guitar-driven intro in Clinton Heylin's opinion made it one of Morrison's most memorable singles. "Wild Night", which has been described by biographer Ken Brooks as "a great start to the album", was first recorded after the Astral Weeks sessions in Autumn 1968 and was re-recorded numerous times before its eventual release on Tupelo Honey. Morrison recalled during an interview that the song was originally "a much slower number, but when we got to fooling around with it in the studio, we ended up doing it in a faster tempo."
"(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball" combines a moderately swung waltz with blue-eyed soul. The song boasts a cheery guitar riff accompanied by acoustic guitars and flutes. Lyrically the song praises nature as an easy solution to the stresses of life, referring possibly to both Woodstock and Marin.
"Old Old Woodstock" is a tribute to Morrison's previous life in upstate New York. The theme of domestic bliss is encapsulated in this song, as it shows a strong sensitivity towards children and family life. Howard Dewitt comments that "It is a moving and compelling look at a satisfying period in Van's life." Musically the song contains the music genres jazz and folk. Janet Planet served as the inspiration for the song and also performed backing vocals on the recording.
Jon Landau describes "Starting a New Life" as "both the simplest and lyrically the most significant cut on the album as Van spells out with perfect clarity the statement of Tupelo Honey: it expresses his need to take stock of himself, to see how far he has come, to record the support of those who have helped him get there, and together with them to 'start a new life.'"
The last song that was recorded for the album was "You're My Woman". This slow, blues-influenced ballad was influenced by Janet Planet. As perhaps a last-minute decision Morrison added this song to the album in place of "Listen to the Lion", just before it was released. The recording of "Listen to the Lion" was released a year later on Saint Dominic's Preview.
The title song, "Tupelo Honey", is a classic love ballad in a vein established with "Crazy Love" from the album Moondance. Both songs have the same melody and chord progression, and are in time. Uncut reviewer David Cavanagh wrote: "On an album where the vocals are exultant to say the least, this song sees Morrison use larynx, diaphragm, teeth and tongue to find new ways of enunciating the lines 'she's as sweet as Tupelo honey' and 'she's all right with me', seemingly in ever-increasing adoration." Bob Dylan (who performed the song with Morrison during a concert tour in the 1990s) once remarked that "'Tupelo Honey' has always existed and that Morrison was merely the vessel and the earthly vehicle for it". Greil Marcus called the song "a kind of odyssey" evoking Elvis Presley (whose hometown was Tupelo, Mississippi), and "the most gorgeous number on the album" that "was too good not to be true."
"I Wanna Roo You (Scottish Derivative)" is a country-flavored waltz that prominently features John McFee's steel guitar and Ronnie Montrose's mandolin. The "Scottish Derivative" subtitle refers to the word "roo" featured in the song, which is a Scottish slang word for "woo".
"When That Evening Sun Goes Down" is described by Erik Hage as a "hootenanny flavored" tune driven by "barrel-house honkey-tonk piano". Like "Wild Night", it was first recorded in Autumn 1968 and on various other recording sessions by Morrison before its release on Tupelo Honey. An alternative take of the song was featured as the B-side of the "Wild Night" single.
The final song, "Moonshine Whiskey", has been compared musically to the likes of the Band, (earlier in 1971 Morrison had worked with the Band in Woodstock). The song fluctuates between a slow and fast a time throughout. During the coda it accelerates to an abrupt ending. "Moonshine Whiskey" combines country rock and soul in a song that Morrison once spoke of as having been written for "Janis Joplin or something." (Joplin lived in Woodstock around the same time as Morrison.) There is also a comic element to the song with Morrison imitating fish blowing bubbles.
## Packaging
The title of the album derives from the varietal honey produced from the flowers of the tupelo tree found predominantly in Florida.
The photos on the album were taken by Michael Maggid, a friend of Morrison's then wife Janet Planet, in the town of Fairfax. The original LP was released in a gatefold sleeve. The cover photograph showed Planet, riding bareback on a horse, with Morrison walking alongside. The gatefold and back cover photographs showed Morrison perched upon the fence of the horse's paddock, with his wife standing to his right and a black-and-white kitten on the fence to his left. This rural setting depicting a bygone era was in vogue on album covers at the time as rock artists moved from cities to rural communities. The Band, CSNY and Grateful Dead had similar themes on album covers in 1969 and 1970. Morrison later complained of the cover, explaining that, "The picture was taken at a stable and I didn't live there. We just went there and took the picture and split. A lot of people seem to think that album covers are your life or something."
## Release
Tupelo Honey was first released on LP in October 1971 on Warner Bros. Records. The album reached number 27 on the Billboard 200, which was the highest position reached in the US by any of Morrison's albums at that point. However it failed to reach any of the charts across Europe. By the middle of 1974 Tupelo Honey had sold well over 350,000 copies (50,000 more than Moondance), and in 1977 it was certified gold by the RIAA.
Three singles were released from the album. The first, "Wild Night", with a rare alternative take on "When That Evening Sun Goes Down" as the B-side, proved popular enough to reach number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The single fared slightly better in The Netherlands, peaking at number 24. "Tupelo Honey" reached number 47 on the US singles chart, with the B-side "Starting a New Life". "(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball", with "Old Old Woodstock" as the B-side, was the third single from the album and only reached number 119, just outside the Billboard Hot 100.
The album was reissued on CD in 1990 by Polydor Records. Another CD reissue was released in 1997 by Polydor and Mercury Records. The 29 January 2008 reissued and remastered version of the album, released on CD, contains an alternate extended (5:32) take of "Wild Night" and a reworked cover version of the traditional song "Down by the Riverside". It was also reissued on vinyl, but without the bonus tracks.
## Critical reception
Tupelo Honey was well received by critics upon the album's release. Jon Landau wrote in Rolling Stone: "Tupelo Honey is in one sense but another example of the artist making increased use of the album as the unit of communication as opposed to merely the song or the cut. Everything on it is perfectly integrated." ZigZag magazine reviewer John Tobler, who also reviewed the album just after its release, gave the album high praise, saying "If all music were as good as this, there wouldn't be any reason to make any more, because this is the real thing." Critic Dave Marsh called it "the perfect album for Van: he does everything...so incredibly well. There isn't a bad cut on it, of that I'm really sure." Robert Christgau from The Village Voice voiced reservations in his praise of the album, writing that it was "almost as rich in cute tunes as The Shirelles' Greatest Hits, but I worry that domestic bliss with Janet Planet has been softening Van's noodle more than the joy of cooking requires." Tupelo Honey was later ranked the fourth best album of the year in the Village Voice's first annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.
Morrison's biographers were less impressed by the album. Johnny Rogan commented: "Tupelo Honey was no masterpiece but it was a considerable improvement upon His Band and the Street Choir. At a time when the rock élite were seduced by the lovelorn laments and steel guitars of country rock, Morrison emerged with a work that offered a soulful romantic veneer without lapsing into banal sentimentality." Erik Hage held the opinion that by this time Morrison had become famous enough to be insulated from constructive criticism, resulting in some of the love songs to Janet Planet on the album containing: "obvious lyrical platitudes (truly some of his worst poetry since the revenge songs for Bang Records) and less-than-inspired arrangements."
It was ranked number 944 from votes taken in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000.
## Aftermath
In 2009, music journalist Erik Hage wrote that Tupelo Honey "has become one of Morrison's most likeable albums, but the very elements that make it appealing to many—the homey feeling, the personal odes to married life—also make it a complacent album for an artist who had been pushing forward and challenging boundaries for the past few years."
Morrison was expected to tour to promote the album, but at this time he had developed a phobia about performing that was especially problematic when appearing before large audiences. John Platania was playing in concerts with Morrison and spoke of noticing his confidence ebbing away: "There were many times when he literally had to be coaxed on stage. His motto was 'The show does not have to go on'. He would create the choice of whether he would go on stage or not." Morrison announced before an impending performance at a larger venue that he was retiring from performing live. After regaining his confidence by making regular and informal performances at a small club near his home, he began to tour coast-to-coast again in 1972.
### Morrison's response
Morrison said afterwards that he "wasn't very happy" with it. "It consisted of songs that were left over from before and that they'd finally gotten around to using. It wasn't really fresh. It was a whole bunch of songs that had been hanging around for a while. I was really trying to make a country and western album." He commented further that he seldom listened to it and had a bad taste in his mouth for both His Band and the Street Choir and Tupelo Honey. This may be why it's the only studio album to not be available on Spotify.
## Track listing
## Personnel
Musicians
- Van Morrison – rhythm guitar, harmonica, vocals, backing vocals
- Ronnie Montrose – electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, backing vocals
- John McFee – pedal steel guitar
- Bill Church – bass
- Ted Templeman – organ on "Tupelo Honey"
- Mark Jordan – piano, electric piano
- Jack Schroer – alto, tenor and baritone saxophones
- Luis Gasca – trumpet
- Bruce Royston – flute
- "Boots" Houston – flute, backing vocals
- Ellen Schroer – backing vocals
- Janet Planet – backing vocals
- Rick Shlosser – drums
- Connie Kay – drums on "Starting a New Life", "Tupelo Honey", "When That Evening Sun Goes Down" and "Old Old Woodstock"
- Gary Mallaber – percussion, vibraphone
Production
- Producers: Van Morrison, Ted Templeman
- Engineers: Stephen Barncard, David Brown, Doc Storch
- Remixing: Lee Herschberg, Donn Landee
- Remastering: Ian Cooper
- Art direction: Ed Thrasher
- Photography: Michael Maggid
- Horn arrangements: Van Morrison, Jack Schroer
- Flute arrangements: "Boots" Houston on "Like a Cannonball", Bruce Royston on "Tupelo Honey"
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Singles
|
5,529,634 |
Girlschool
| 1,169,055,380 |
British rock band
|
[
"All-female bands",
"Bronze Records artists",
"Cleopatra Records artists",
"English hard rock musical groups",
"English heavy metal musical groups",
"Female-fronted musical groups",
"Mercury Records artists",
"Musical groups established in 1978",
"Musical groups from London",
"Musical quartets",
"New Wave of British Heavy Metal musical groups",
"Women in metal"
] |
Girlschool are a British rock band that formed in the new wave of British heavy metal scene in 1978. Frequently associated with contemporaries Motörhead, they are the longest-running all-female rock band, still active after more than 40 years. Formed from a school band called Painted Lady, Girlschool enjoyed strong media exposure and commercial success in the UK in the early 1980s with three albums of 'punk-tinged metal' and a few singles, but lost their momentum in the following years.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Girlschool focused on shows and tours and made few studio albums. During their career they travelled the world, playing in many rock and metal festivals and co-headlining with or supporting important hard rock and heavy metal bands. They maintain a worldwide cult following, and are an inspiration for many female rock musicians. Despite frequent changes of line-up, all original members who are still alive—Kim McAuliffe, Enid Williams and Denise Dufort—had been in the band until 2019, when Willams quit. Original lead guitarist and singer Kelly Johnson died of cancer in 2007.
## History
### 1975–1978: Painted Lady
In 1975, school friends and neighbours from Wandsworth, South London, Kim McAuliffe (rhythm guitar, vocals) and Dinah Enid Williams (bass, vocals) formed an all-girl rock cover band called Painted Lady, together with Tina Gayle on drums. Deirdre Cartwright joined the new band on lead guitar, Val Lloyd replaced Gayle on drums and they started playing the local pub scene. "The reason we were all girls was we couldn’t find any blokes who wanted to play with us! This was the natural thing to do", McAuliffe explained to Gary Graff in 1997 about the all-female composition of the band.
Cartwright, who was older and more musically experienced than the other members, left in 1977 to form the band Tour De Force and then followed different professional opportunities in the music business; she is now a renowned jazz guitarist. Her place in the band was briefly taken by visiting American Kathy Valentine, who approached the band through an advertisement in the British music newspaper Melody Maker. When Valentine returned to the United States in 1978 to form the Textones and later join The Go-Go's as bass player, Painted Lady broke up. However, McAuliffe and Williams were still willing to pursue a musical career to escape their day jobs in a bank and a bakery; they reformed the band, recruiting lead guitarist Kelly Johnson and drummer Denise Dufort in April 1978. The new line-up changed their name to Girlschool—taking it from "Girls' School", the B-side of the hit single "Mull of Kintyre" (1977) by Paul McCartney and Wings— and immediately hit the road, touring small venues in France, Ireland and Great Britain.
### 1978–1982: N.W.O.B.H.M.
In December 1978, Girlschool released their first single, "Take It All Away", on the independent record label City Records, owned by Phil Scott, a friend of the band. The single had some radio airplay and circulated in the underground scene; it came to the hearing of Ian Kilmister, commonly known as Lemmy, leader of the British rock band Motörhead, who wanted to meet the band. He, together with Motörhead and Hawkwind manager Doug Smith, went to see the band performing live and offered them a support slot on Motörhead's Overkill tour in the spring of 1979. This was the start of an enduring relationship between the two bands. After the tour and a few other shows supporting Welsh band Budgie, Doug Smith became the manager of Girlschool and obtained an audition with the British label Bronze Records, at the time home of Uriah Heep, Motörhead and Juicy Lucy. Bronze's owner Gerry Bron himself attended the audition; he was impressed by Girlschool's stage presence and musicianship, offering them a contract with his label in December 1979.
The British rock movement known as the new wave of British heavy metal (frequently abbreviated as NWOBHM), which started in the late 1970s and broke in the mainstream in the early 1980s, was just exploding in the United Kingdom and the band gained the support of a strong label at exactly the right time to exploit the moment and form a solid fan base.
The band entered the recording studio with experienced producer Vic Maile in April 1980. Vic Maile had been working as live sound engineer for many important acts, like The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks and Jimi Hendrix, producing also the first two seminal albums of Dr. Feelgood and a few punk bands in the late 1970s. He captured the raw but powerful sound of Girlschool in ten short songs, with lead vocals shared by Williams, McAuliffe and Johnson. Girlschool released their debut album, Demolition, in June 1980, alongside the singles "Emergency", "Nothing to Lose" and "Race with the Devil". Demolition reached No.28 in the UK Album Chart in July 1980.
In the same period, albums and singles from Judas Priest, Saxon, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Motörhead and other bands of the NWOBHM reached high positions in the UK charts, while the same bands did tours and concerts all over Europe. Girlschool participated in this frenzied touring activity, travelling in Great Britain and visiting Europe both as headliner act and as support to label mates Uriah Heep and Motörhead. On 20 August, Girlschool and Motörhead were filmed performing live at the Nottingham Theatre Royal for the Rockstage programme, broadcast by the ATV station on 4 April 1981. In this period, the band was subjected to intense media coverage by music magazines, radio and TV, interested in the novelty of a successful British all-female metal band. The barrage of interviews and promotion did not stop the production of songs and the girls released the new single "Yeah Right" in November 1980.
In December 1980, Girlschool officially started recording the follow-up to Demolition, again with producer Vic Maile, who had meanwhile produced Motörhead's classic album Ace of Spades. During the sessions, Maile suggested a studio recording team-up with Motörhead, resulting in the release of the EP St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The EP contains the cover of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates’ song "Please Don't Touch" and two self-covers, with Motörhead performing Girlschool's "Emergency", and Girlschool playing Motörhead's "Bomber". Dufort played drums on all songs, because Motörhead's drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor was recovering from a neck injury. She also played the drums during the BBC One Top of the Pops TV show of 19 February 1981, where the two bands performed "Please Don’t Touch" under the moniker Headgirl. The EP reached No.5 in the UK Single Chart in February 1981 and was certified silver in December 1981, the best sale performance for both bands at the time.
The album Hit and Run was released in April 1981, soon followed by the eponymous single. Both releases were very successful in the UK, with the album reaching position No.5 and the single position No.33 in the respective charts. The album charted also in New Zealand and in Canada, where it went gold. Hit and Run was not released in the USA until 1982, with a different track listing including songs from Demolition. The success of their second album made Girlschool a rising attraction in the boiling British hard rock and heavy metal scene, ensuring headliner slots in medium-sized arenas in their sold-out UK tour or guest slots in stadium size concerts of major attractions like Black Sabbath and Rush. No dates in the USA were arranged, but Girlschool visited Canada in July. Their 1981 tour culminated on 28 August, headlining the Friday night of the three-day Reading Festival. The Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 would later broadcast the Reading set, but the recording has not received an official release.
At the beginning of 1982, Girlschool did a European tour and, at the last Danish date in Copenhagen with supporting act Mercyful Fate, McAuliffe received a potentially-fatal electric shock from her microphone. She recovered fast enough to complete a Japanese tour, to do other European shows supporting Rainbow on their Difficult to Cure tour and to start working on new material for the next album. However, the gruelling schedule of recordings, promotional work and concerts had started to take its toll on the group, with bassist Enid Williams the first to give up, right after the release of Wildlife in March 1982, an EP designed to launch the upcoming album. On the recommendation of Lemmy, Williams was replaced by Ghislaine 'Gil' Weston, former bassist of the punk band The Killjoys.
Girlschool's third album Screaming Blue Murder was recorded in February and March 1982 under the direction of Nigel Gray, the successful producer of The Police and The Professionals. The album had a worldwide release in June 1982 but, despite the strong promotion, it reached only No.27 in the UK Album Chart. Critics generally considered Screaming Blue Murder a weaker offering in comparison with the preceding two albums.
Girlschool remained anyway a strong live attraction and their 1982 world tour led the band for the first time in the US to play in stadiums, supporting Iron Maiden and Scorpions. NWOBHM acts like Judas Priest and Def Leppard started to be very popular in America and the girls and their record label had no intention to fall back in the conquest of that large market.
### 1983–1985: American sirens
Back in England, the continuous succession of recording sessions, gigs and promotional work started again, but the strain of this routine was wearing out Kelly Johnson, who was also tired of the music the band had been playing for four years without a break. The other members struggled to convince her to stay and the chance to record with British celebrities Noddy Holder and Jim Lea as producers persuaded the guitarist to carry on with Girlschool. Holder and Lea, who had returned in those years to great success and popularity in Great Britain with the 70s rock band Slade, were hired to produce only a single, with the following album already scheduled to be recorded in Los Angeles with Quiet Riot producer Spencer Proffer. However, the good chemistry found with the two Slade members led the band to decide to record not a single, but their whole fourth studio album in North London with Lea and Holder, giving up the trip to the USA. This time the group changed sensibly both their appearance and their musical style in order to appeal to a large American audience, which Bronze considered more oriented toward AOR and glam rock than to the 'biker metal' Girlschool had produced before. Play Dirty, released in October 1983, is an album with a very polished sound, filled with keyboards, choruses and melodies, but it lacks much of the aggression and power of the preceding works. The album contains covers of the Slade songs "High & Dry" and "Burning in the Heat" and of T.Rex’s "20th Century Boy", which was also released as a single. Play Dirty failed to enter the top 50 chart in the UK and had a lukewarm reception by fans and critics at home. A struggle between Bronze and PolyGram for the worldwide contract of the band resulted also in poor promotion for the album in the USA. Moreover, a disastrous performance at Wembley Arena supporting ZZ Top did not help Girlschool's already degraded image in Great Britain.
Girlschool embarked in a long US tour to promote the album, sometimes as support to Quiet Riot and Blue Öyster Cult, but more often as headliner in small venues after uncomfortable travels. Johnson, unable to tolerate the unhealthy life on the road, quit the band before completing the US tour, hurting the promotion of the album in America. She went to live in Los Angeles with Vicki Blue, former bassist of The Runaways. With the departure of Kelly Johnson, who was often considered the visual and musical focal point of the band, the almost bankrupt Bronze Records failed to extend the band's recording contract for a follow-up album.
At the beginning of 1984, Girlschool were in need of a new lead guitar player and singer, of a new recording contract and chart success but, despite the difficult situation, the band did not give up. The search for new members ended with the arrival of guitarist Cris Bonacci and singer and keyboard player Jackie Bodimead, both from the all-female hard rock band She. She were playing in London clubs at the time, trying to get a record contract and attract the attention of the British music press.
The new Girlschool, now a five-piece group, signed with the PolyGram American subsidiary Mercury Records, once home of the American all-girls rock band The Runaways. The label saw in the band an opportunity to produce a rival for chart-winning female-fronted bands like Heart and Lita Ford and pushed the music of the band even more towards FM friendly American hard rock. The band was paired with producer Nick Tauber, who had produced the first albums of Thin Lizzy and the most successful albums of Toyah and Marillion, contributing also to the launch of the British glam metal act Girl. The resulting album Running Wild, sported ten keyboard-laden tracks much different from Girlschool's most successful music. The record label decided to release the album only in the US in February 1985, but actually gave little support to its marketing. The review of the magazine Kerrang! reflects the opinions of Dufort and McAuliffe, which described years later the album as rubbish or even worse. Running Wild had insignificant sales on the US market, not representing the breakthrough the band and the label had hoped for. A live performance of Girlschool as a quintet at Camden Palace in London was taped for the VHS Play Dirty Live, which was released in 1985 and reissued on DVD with the title Live from London in 2005.
The band did some shows supporting the glam rock band Hanoi Rocks in Great Britain, before joining Deep Purple's comeback world tour, where Girschool played in a supporting role all over the USA. A tour of India and the Far East completed their live activities for 1985. Vocal duties were shared on stage between McAuliffe and Bodimead, who also played keyboards. At the end of the tour, Jackie Bodimead left the band to pursue a solo career.
### 1986–1990: 'back to square one'
After the bad commercial results of Running Wild, Mercury broke the contract with Girlschool, leaving the band without financial backup and with a career in dire straits. "Back to square one again", McAuliffe said at the time. The band decided to go back to their roots, remaining a quartet with only McAuliffe on vocals and going on a UK tour in November – December 1985 supporting Blue Öyster Cult; their immediate goal was to play as much as they could and regain some of their fan base. In early 1986, thanks again to Lemmy's suggestion, they eventually signed for Doug Smith's new label GWR Records, which also included in their roster Motörhead. The girls immediately started working on a new album with their old producer Vic Maile at Jackson's Studio in Rickmansworth. The first output of their new work was a team-up with British glam rock singer Gary Glitter for the cover of his 1973 hit "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)", which was released as a single in April 1986. The album Nightmare at Maple Cross, released in July of the same year, marked for the band the return to the sound of Hit and Run and to their trademark abrasive lyrics. The album received fairly good reviews, but it did not enter the British charts and was released in North America only a year later. The following European tour saw the girls supporting the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth.
In January 1987, after five years with the group, bassist Gil Weston-Jones left Girlschool to spend more time with her American husband. Her place was quickly taken by Tracey Lamb, who had been the bass player of the all-female NWOBHM band Rock Goddess and a bandmate of Cris Bonacci in She. Girlschool spent the rest of the year promoting the album with a US tour and appearances in various TV shows across Europe, followed by a long European tour supporting usual label mates Motörhead.
At the beginning of 1988, the band started rehearsing material for a new album with producer André Jacquemin, who had worked on all the Monty Python’s records. The album Take a Bite was published by GWR in October 1988 and follows in the steps of Nightmare at Maple Cross, presenting powerful and melodic metal songs, tinged with the humour typical of the band. To promote the album, Girlschool did a UK tour with Gary Glitter, followed by a North American tour. In 1989, they travelled across Europe with Dio and to the Soviet Union with Black Sabbath, until the end of the year. After their return from Russia, GWR did not renew their contract and the band practically broke up. Musical tastes were changing worldwide in favour of grunge and more extreme metal genres, compelling most acts originated from the new wave of British heavy metal to disband or to reduce their activities, and the same thing happened to Girlschool.
### 1990–1991: She-Devils and Strange Girls
Even if not officially disbanded, Girlschool had become "not a full-time thing anymore" for the members of the group. In this period, Cris Bonacci joined British singer Toyah Willcox, for the promotion of the album Ophelia's Shadow. A brief tour of Spain was Girlschool's only activity of 1990, but in December, McAuliffe, Bonacci, Dufort and returning bass player Enid Williams, teamed up with Toyah Willcox under the name She-Devils for the first edition of the Women in Music festival at Shaw Theatre in London, performing both Girlschool and Toyah’s songs. A few months later, the same musicians reunited again under the new name Strange Girls, with Lydie Gallais replacing Dufort on drums. Strange Girls toured clubs in Great Britain in 1991 and 1992 and supported The Beach Boys in their German dates in the summer of 1991. The band wrote a few songs and produced a demo, but the only published track from this period is the song "Lust for Love", which can be found on Toyah's album Take the Leap! (1993).
### 1992–2002: living on tour
Girlschool went back in action in 1992, recruiting Jackie Carrera on bass and recording Girlschool, their first self-produced album, which was distributed worldwide by the British indie label Communiqué Records. The lower visibility of the album distributed by an indie label marked the definitive transition to cult status for the band, renouncing to many expectations of big sales. Girlschool were now their own managers, relying on their solid live show and on their reputation with promoters and other artists to get gigs and work. As stated in an interview to the British television show Raw Power, Girlschool would "play in every single toilet that we can find!"
After a few European dates, returning bassist Tracey Lamb replaced Carrera before a new tour in the United States. But more line-up changes were in store for the band because, at the end of 1992, Cris Bonacci left the band to become a touring musician and then a producer. In 1993, her place as lead guitarist was taken back by Kelly Johnson, who returned after nine years to England from LA, where she had played in a band with Kathy Valentine and written and produced her own music. The plethora of compilations of old Girlschool material that had started to be released from 1989 kept the band alive on the CD market and guaranteed enough visibility to get a good number of gigs every year in every part of the world, often supporting other NWOBHM acts like Motörhead or Saxon. In this period, the girls were also present at rock festivals all over Europe, both as Girlschool or separately in other outfits. In 1995, Communiqué Records released Girlschool Live, a live album documenting the intense live shows of the band in that period and which included the new tracks "Knife" and "Little Green Men". Girlschool continued their live activity in the 1990s, culminating with a participation to the Wacken Open Air festival on Friday, 6 August 1999.
In all this time the band had been writing new songs and, in September 1998, they began to record a new album, but touring commitments and new line-up changes prevented Girlschool from completing it. Johnson amicably quit Girlschool in 1999, followed by Lamb in 2000. They were replaced by new lead guitarist Jackie 'Jax' Chambers and by Enid Williams, who finally rejoined the group after eighteen years. Johnson, who had been diagnosed with cancer, and Lamb nevertheless remained closely associated with the other band members.
21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent was finally released at the beginning of 2002 and co-produced by Girlschool and Tim Hamill. The album contains tracks recorded three years earlier by the previous line-up, with the addition of the songs "Coming Your Way" and "Innocent" recorded by the current one.
### 2003–present: recent activities
In 2003, the band was again in a recording studio for The Second Wave: 25 Years of NWOBHM, a split album conceived by the label Communiqué, comprising five songs each for Oliver/Dawson Saxon, Tygers of Pan Tang and Girlschool. A tour of the three aforementioned bands could not be organized and, in October 2004, Girlschool toured supporting the album with Tygers of Pan Tang and Paul Di'Anno.
Preceded by the publication of the re-mastered editions of their first four albums, Girlschool released the studio album Believe in July 2004. The wish to explore new territories is obvious in some tracks of the album, which is the first one entirely composed by the new line-up at Chambers’ home studio. The changed line-up brought a new balance in the band, with Chambers involved in the composition of all songs. Moreover, the chance to use two lead singers again led to improvements in the vocal and choral parts. Unfortunately, the album was poorly distributed and remained unknown to large parts of its potential audience. In 2005, the band re-released Believe in a new package with a DVD containing footage taken from concerts of the 2000s and sold it through their official website. A US and European tour followed Believe first release, but the project for releasing in 2004 a live DVD tentatively titled Girlschool Live at the Garage never materialised. In June 2005, Girlschool did a UK tour with Vixen and another one in November–December with old pals Motörhead, celebrating Lemmy's band 30th anniversary. During the same year, they were also on stage at summer festivals in the Netherlands and England and opened for Alice Cooper in Spain.
Rock and metal festivals have become a constant for the band, that performed both in large open air meetings in Germany (Headbangers Open Air 2006, Bang Your Head!!! 2007, Wacken Open Air 2008 and Wacken Rocks 2009), France (Hellfest Summer Open Air 2009), England (Hard Rock Hell 2007 and 2009, Bloodstock Open Air 2009) and the USA (Power Box Festival 2007) and in smaller settings, like the Rock of Ages Fest in England in 2007 and the Metal Female Voices Fest in Belgium in 2008. Girlschool were opening act for Heaven & Hell in 2007, for Dio in 2008 and for Hawkwind and Motörhead in 2009.
On 15 July 2007, Kelly Johnson died of spinal cancer, after six years of painful therapy and treatment of her illness. At Kelly's memorial, Tracey Lamb read the eulogy she had written for her. The band performed a tribute gig on 20 August 2007 at the Soho Revue Bar in London, with many of Johnson's friends and former Girlschool's members and a concert for Cancer Research UK at Rock of Ages Fest in Tamworth on 8 September 2007.
The new album Legacy, released in October 2008, celebrates both the departed guitarist and the 30th anniversary of Girlschool, making them the so far longest-running female rock band in the world. The recording was self-produced with the assistance of Tim Hamill and the compositions are more individual, revealing a large array of influences, going from NWOBHM, to punk, to West Coast alternative rock. To emphasize the celebrative mood, the album features many guest musicians, with members of Heaven & Hell, Twisted Sister and Motörhead supplying vocals and guitars in many tracks. Kelly Johnson's 'ghost' presence permeates the album and the song "Legend" is especially dedicated to her. The album received excellent reviews and the German label SPV/Steamhammer guaranteed the worldwide distribution. Girlschool performed a special show celebrating their 30th anniversary on 16 December at the Astoria 2 in London.
Girlschool were among the many female singers performing on veteran German hard rock singer Doro Pesch’s single "Celebrate", released in 2008. Jackie Chambers and Enid Williams were also present on stage at Doro’s 25th anniversary celebration concert on 13 December 2008 in Düsseldorf.
At the beginning of 2010, Girlschool contributed to the release of the cover of their single "Emergency" by Cornish youth music charity Livewire, in order to raise funds for the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The band went on tour in Europe with the Canadian metal band Anvil in 2010. The band spent time in studio re-recording their classic 1981 album Hit and Run, during 2011. The new version of the LP, titled Hit and Run – Revisited, was released on 26 September 2011 to celebrate the original album's 30th anniversary.
Girlschool continued to tour Europe and South America in 2011-12 and returned in Japan in 2013. In early 2015, they recorded a new album titled Guilty as Sin with producer Chris Tsangarides, which was released on 13 November 2015. On 30 January 2019, it was announced on the band's website that "Girlschool have parted ways once again with bassist Enid Williams" and that Tracey Lamb would return to replace her.
On 27 February 2023 Girlschool's labelmates Alcatrazz released the single "Don't Get Mad... Get Even" which saw them contribute vocals. On 25 April the band announced their first album in eight years WTFortyfive?, due to be released in July. The same day they released the first single "Are You Ready?" and its accompanying music video.
## Music and style
Revolver magazine editor Christopher Scapelliti aptly described Girlschool's music as a "punk-metal mix tough, but poppy enough for radio". The influences of classic hard rock and heavy metal are present in the musical background of all the original band members and they are particularly evident in the clean and sometimes bluesy solo guitar work of Kelly Johnson. Artists like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, T. Rex, Suzi Quatro have been influential on the Girlschool members.
Punk rock had a direct influence in the birth of new wave and new wave of British heavy metal and that music was still popular when the band was formed. Moreover, both Denise Dufort and Gil Weston had played in punk bands before joining Girlschool. "We're both too heavy to be New Wave and too punk to be a heavy metal band", McAuliffe explained to Robbi Millar of Sounds in 1980. The raw and almost live recording sound of their first two Vic Maile produced albums represents perfectly the core music of the band in the years from 1979 to 1982, which were the most successful for Girlschool. The combination of metal and punk was a large part of the sound which also propelled Motörhead to notoriety and chart success in the early 80s in the United Kingdom. This sound, the tours and recordings made together with Lemmy's band, the girls’ denim and leather look, as much as their rowdy and alcohol driven off-stage behaviour soon gained Girlschool the moniker of 'sisters of Motörhead', which they were often identified with until Motörhead became defunct at the end of 2015. Their close association with Motörhead at the beginning of Girlschool's career helped achieve their early success.
The mounting pressure to appeal to a mainstream audience, the quick change of tastes in British rock fans with the decline of the NWOBHM phenomenon and the chance to have a breakthrough in the US market prompted Girlschool to change their music, starting with the album Screaming Blue Murder in 1982. Their sound, following the success of Def Leppard's album Pyromania, became more polished with the introduction of keyboards on Play Dirty and veered toward hard rock and glam metal, losing the raw edge of their early works. "We were signed to an American label (...) there was a certain amount of pressure exerted on us to sound more American" was McAuliffe's explanation, speaking about the tame sound of the album Running Wild. The band appearance also changed to a more feminine and sophisticated style, imitating the successful American glam metal bands of the time and generally following the direction of the market. However, the failed attempt to create a niche for Girlschool in the US and the rapidly changing record market behaviour made the band change their mind and go back to their original sound, which they retain to this day. Girlschool's members themselves described their music in different ways, from "slapstick rock" to "raucous (...) heavy metal rock 'n' roll", and, even acknowledging the common origin of their music in the NWOBHM, they sometimes found it difficult to associate their songs to a single genre or subgenre of rock music.
Just like most punk songs, Girlschool's lyrics usually have short and direct texts, often reflecting the wild rock 'n' roll lifestyle and treating sex and romance as seen from a feminine point of view, with the use of reverse sexism and tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. Although many of their songs revolve around these topics, the band members themselves never resorted to sex appeal gimmickry: as Creem noted appreciatively in 1982, "Girlschool doesn't pimp their gender". Some of their songs deal also with more serious matters, such as exploitation and abuse of women, murder, addiction, the destruction of the environment, social and political issues.
## Reception
The fact of being a band composed of girls, beside the obvious marketing gimmick based on sexuality, has always been perceived as a handicap in the sexist and male-dominated heavy metal scene, especially in the early 1980s, when metal was rapidly taking the place of punk music in the tastes of many young males in Great Britain. However, Girlschool's musicianship and their aggressive but fun-loving attitude quickly won the NWOBHM audience, which treated them with respect, forming a loyal fan base. In Kelly Johnson's word, Girlschool were so well accepted because "most of the audience is headbangers and they spend most of the time banging their heads and hardly look at us".
In 1980, Girlschool's fondest fans formed a club called 'The Barmy Army', which followed and supported the band during every tour in Great Britain and Europe. The fan club did not survive the decline of the band and almost ceased its activities by the end of 1982.
British specialized press took notice of the band and especially weekly magazines like Sounds and later Kerrang! dedicated covers to Girlschool and had frequent articles for either their stage performances or for their off-stage drinking bouts and 'no-nonsense attitude', during their period of maximum media exposition and chart success. In 1980, Sounds voted the band second 'Best Newcomer' and Kelly Johnson third 'Best Female Vocalist'. Two years later, Kerrang! still voted Kelly Johnson second 'Best Female Vocalist' and best 'Female Pin-up'. In that period, British radio stations gladly broadcast Girlschool's singles and the band was also guest of music TV shows, culminating with a performance at Top of the Pops in April 1981 to promote the single "Hit and Run".
On the contrary, Girlschool's change of musical style in 1984 and their sudden predilection for the US market were not well received by the British press and by their fans at home. The change of attitude and image, exemplified by the music video for "Running Wild" on rotation on MTV, which showed the girls playing with heavy make-up, combed hair and fancy costumes, imitating a trendy American glam outfit, alienated the love of British fans, whose perception of the band was still that of roughneck companions to Motörhead, instead of competitors of Mötley Crüe and Ratt. In the time span of two years, Girlschool passed from headliner act to having serious difficulty to find a gig in the UK: "Nobody seems to want us in Britain anymore", confessed McAuliffe to journalist Malcolm Dome in 1984. The return of Girlschool to the sound of their beginnings came too late to win back the large fan base of their heyday and the band fell to cult status already in the late 1980s.
## Legacy
Pete Makowski in an article of the August 1980 edition of Sounds defined Girlschool "the leading pioneers in the battle against sexism". However, even if Enid Williams showed an interest in feminism, the band never openly expressed opinions about female discrimination, happy of being appreciated simply as musicians instead of 'female musicians'. Nonetheless, being a successful all-female group in the macho heavy metal scene was a statement of sexual equality, as many reviewers remarked, arriving as far as to associate Girlschool with the American feminist Riot Grrrl movement.
Reviewers and critics have also often associated the production of recent all-female metal acts to the sound and music of Girlschool, identifying them as a band that, just like The Runaways before them, helped in paving the way to the presence of women in rock music. However, Williams remembered in 2004 how, in her experience, Girlschool were more inspirational for young male musicians than for female ones in starting rock bands. Moreover, important female metal bands of the 2000s, such as Crucified Barbara and Drain STH, denied even of knowing the music of Girlschool. Only the American all-female rock band The Donnas publicly acknowledged the influence of Girlschool on their music.
## Band members
Current members
- Kim McAuliffe – rhythm guitar, lead and backing vocals (1978–present)
- Denise Dufort – drums (1978–present)
- Tracey Lamb – bass guitar (1987–1991, 1993–2000, 2019–present)
- Jackie Chambers – lead guitar, backing vocals (2000–present)
## Discography
- Demolition (1980)
- Hit and Run (1981)
- Screaming Blue Murder (1982)
- Play Dirty (1983)
- Running Wild (1985)
- Nightmare at Maple Cross (1986)
- Take a Bite (1988)
- Girlschool (1992)
- 21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent (2002)
- Believe (2004)
- Legacy (2008)
- Hit and Run – Revisited (2011)
- Guilty as Sin (2015)
- WTFortyfive? (2023)
## Videography
- Play Dirty Live (1985)
- Girlschool - Live from London (2005)
- Around the World (2008)
## See also
- List of Girlschool band members
- List of new wave of British heavy metal bands
- All-female band
|
1,992,444 |
Hap Holmes
| 1,171,423,268 |
Canadian ice hockey player (1888–1941)
|
[
"1888 births",
"1941 deaths",
"Canadian ice hockey goaltenders",
"Canadian people of Scottish descent",
"Detroit Cougars players",
"Hockey Hall of Fame inductees",
"Ice hockey people from Ontario",
"Seattle Metropolitans players",
"Sportspeople from Aurora, Ontario",
"Stanley Cup champions",
"Toronto Arenas players",
"Toronto Blueshirts players",
"Victoria Cougars (1911–1926) players"
] |
Harry George "Hap" Holmes (February 21, 1888 – June 27, 1941) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. As a professional, Holmes won the Stanley Cup four times, with four teams. He tied the record of his 1914 Stanley Cup winning Toronto Blueshirts teammate Jack Marshall, who also won Cups with four teams. No other player has duplicated this record.
Holmes played as an amateur for three seasons with the Parkdale Canoe Club of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1908 to 1911, before joining the professional Toronto Blueshirts of the National Hockey Association (NHA) in 1912–13. Holmes won the first of his four Stanley Cups in 1914. Although being under contract to the Blueshirts, Holmes joined the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) for the 1915–16 season, winning his second Stanley Cup (1917) in his second season with the Metropolitans. For the 1917–18 season, Holmes ended up playing for the Torontos (the following year renamed as the Toronto Arenas) of the National Hockey League (NHL) through a series of loans by other teams. Holmes won his third Stanley Cup in his only full season with the Torontos. After playing two games in the 1918–19 season for the Toronto Arenas, Holmes was recalled by the Metropolitans. Holmes played for the Metropolitans for the next six seasons, until the team folded.
In the 1924–25 season, Holmes joined the Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL/WHL). Holmes played for the Cougars for two seasons, winning the Stanley Cup for his fourth and last time. After the WCHL/WHL folded, Holmes joined the Detroit Cougars of the NHL, playing with the Cougars for two seasons before retiring.
Holmes was a stand-up style goaltender; later on in his career, Holmes wore a cap in goal to protect his head from objects thrown by spectators. Holmes coached minor-league teams after his retirement, notably the Toronto Millionaires of the Canadian Professional Hockey League (CPHL) and the Cleveland Indians of the International Hockey League (IHL). Holmes died in 1941, near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was inducted posthumously into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.
## Amateur career
Harry "Hap" Holmes, alternatively nicknamed "Happy", started playing ice hockey as an amateur with the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club in the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) in the 1908–09 season. He played with Parkdale for three seasons, for 11 regular season games and two playoff games. In his first season with the Parkdale Canoe Club, Holmes lost all three games in which he appeared, giving up 22 goals over that stretch.
The following season, Holmes appeared in four games, winning and losing two games apiece. Over the 1909–10 season, Holmes gave up 26 goals. In 1910–11, his last season with the Parkdale Canoe Club, he appeared in four regular season games once more, winning three and losing one, while giving up only 12 goals over those games. In the playoffs, Holmes played two games, losing one and tying the other, surrendering nine goals.
In the 1911–12 season, Holmes appeared in only one exhibition game, as the Toronto Blueshirts were unable to play due to the slow completion of their artificial ice. Holmes played a game for the Toronto Tecumsehs, conceding three goals in a victory.
## Professional career
### Toronto Blueshirts
Holmes began his professional career playing for the Toronto Blueshirts of the National Hockey Association (NHA) in 1912–13. Holmes played with the Blueshirts for three seasons. In his first season with the Blueshirts, Holmes had a 6–7 (win-loss) record over 15 games with a shutout, and a 4.47 goals-against average. The Blueshirts ended up missing the playoffs. In the 1913–14 season, Holmes' second season with the Blueshirts, he won the Stanley Cup for the first time. It was the first time a Toronto-based team won the Stanley Cup. In the NHA playoffs, Holmes won one out of two games, and recorded a 1.00 goals-against average and one shutout; in the Stanley Cup Finals, Holmes won all three games and finished with a 2.59 goals-against average. The next season, the Blueshirts missed the playoffs, as Holmes had only eight victories over 20 games, ending up with a 4.18 goals-against average.
### First stint with the Seattle Metropolitans
In the 1915–16 season, Holmes signed with the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), although he was still under contract to the Blueshirts. In his first season with the Metropolitans, Holmes played 18 games. He finished with a 9–9 record, with no shutouts and a 3.67 goals-against average. That season, the Metropolitans missed the playoffs. In his second season with Seattle, Holmes posted a 16–8 record over 24 games, with two shutouts and a 3.28 goals-against average. In the Stanley Cup Finals, Holmes posted a 3–1 record with a 2.75 goals-against average, en route to the Metropolitans' only Stanley Cup win. The Metropolitans became the first American-based team to win the Stanley Cup.
### Torontos / Toronto Arenas
In November 1917, Holmes signed as a free agent with the Montreal Wanderers. The Wanderers, in turn, loaned Holmes back to Seattle on December 12, 1917. On January 4, 1918, the Metropolitans returned Holmes under loan to the Torontos, now in the newly formed NHL. In his only full season with the Torontos/Arenas, Holmes appeared in 16 regular season games, posting a 9–7 record, with a 4.73 goals-against average and no shutouts. In the NHL playoffs, Holmes played two games, winning and losing one apiece. In the Stanley Cup Finals, Holmes had a 3–2 record over five games, with a 4.00 goals-against average, en route to Holmes' third Stanley Cup win. He is the only member of both the Blueshirts' 1914 Stanley Cup win and the Torontos' 1918 Stanley Cup win. After playing only two games with the Toronto Arenas the following season, surrendering nine goals in two losses, Holmes was recalled by the Metropolitans on December 27, 1918.
### Second stint with the Seattle Metropolitans
In the 1918–19 season Holmes appeared in 20 regular season games for the Metropolitans, winning 11 and losing nine, with no shutouts and a 2.25 goals-against average. In the PCHA playoffs, Holmes played two games, winning and losing one apiece, and surrendering five goals in total. The Metropolitans made the Stanley Cup Finals once more. Playing against the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL), the series was abandoned tied at two wins apiece, because of the Spanish flu pandemic. Montreal could not continue the series because several of their players were severely ill with influenza; however, the Metropolitans did not wish to accept the Cup by default. Canadiens player Joe Hall died on April 5, 1919, five days after the end of the series, in a Seattle hospital. The only draw of the series was a scoreless affair; after playing 20 minutes of overtime, referee Mickey Ion called the game off.
In the 1919–20 season, Holmes appeared in 22 games, winning 12 games, and losing 10. He finished the season with four shutouts and a 2.46 goals-against average. In the PCHA playoffs, Holmes played two games, surrendering three goals, and ending up with a loss and a win. The Metropolitans made the Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight season, playing against the Ottawa Senators of the NHL. The Metropolitans lost, and Holmes posted a 2–3 record with a 3.00 goals-against average.
Holmes played the next four seasons with the Metropolitans, but failed to make the Stanley Cup Finals. Over that stretch, Holmes and the Metropolitans won about half the games each season. The Metropolitans missed the playoffs in only the 1922–23 season. In the 1920–21 season, Holmes appeared in 24 games. He posted a 12–11–1 (win-loss-tie) record, with a 2.63 goals-against average and no shutouts. In the playoffs, he lost both games he appeared in, and let in 13 goals. The following season, he posted an identical win–loss–tie record in both the regular season and playoffs. The only difference was a 2.60 goals-against average in the regular season, with four shutouts, and the reduction of his playoffs goals-against by 11 goals. In the 1922–23 season, Holmes appeared in 30 games, posting a 15–15 record, with two shutouts and a 3.45 goals-against average; however, the Metropolitans missed the playoffs that season. In the 1923–24 season, Holmes' last with the Metropolitans, he appeared in 30 regular season games, posting a 14–16 record, with two shutouts and a 3.26 goals-against average. Despite an extra loss, the Metropolitans made the playoffs that season. Holmes played two games, losing one and tying one, ending up with a 1.79 goals-against average.
### Victoria Cougars
In 1924–25, after the Metropolitans folded and the rest of the PCHA merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), Holmes joined the Victoria Cougars. In his first season with the Cougars, Holmes posted a 16–12 regular season record, with three shutouts and a 2.25 goals-against average. In the WCHL playoffs, Holmes was undefeated in four games. He had two wins and ties each, with one shutout and a 1.75 goals-against average. In the Stanley Cup Finals, Holmes posted a 3–1 record with a 2.00 goals-against average against the Montreal Canadiens. It was the last time a non-NHL team won the Stanley Cup. It was Holmes' fourth and last Stanley Cup victory.
The following season, Holmes had a 15–11–4 regular season record, with four shutouts and a 1.68 goals-against average. In the WHL playoffs, Holmes nearly duplicated his results from the previous season, posting a 2–0–2 record, with one shutout and a 1.45 goals-against average. In the 1926 Stanley Cup Finals, the Cougars lost the series 3–1 against the Montreal Maroons. That marked the last time a non-NHL team appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals, as the WHL folded after the 1926 Stanley Cup Finals, and its players were absorbed by the NHL. It was Holmes' seventh and last Stanley Cup final appearance.
### Detroit Cougars
A new NHL franchise in Detroit bought the rights to the Victoria Cougars players, and named the team the Cougars. Holmes played his last two professional seasons with the Detroit Cougars. Holmes, playing for Detroit, posted 17 shutouts in 85 appearances. Detroit failed to make the playoffs in both of Holmes' seasons with them, as Holmes only won 30 of his 85 appearances. In Holmes' first season with Detroit, he posted an 11–26–4 record, over 41 games played. Holmes had six shutouts and overall, his goals-against average that season was 2.23. In the 1927–28 season, Holmes' final one as a professional player, he appeared in all 44 of Detroit's games. He posted a 19–19–6 record, with 11 shutouts and a 1.73 goals-against average.
## Playing style
As a player, Holmes wore a baseball cap in net to protect his head from spectators spitting tobacco or throwing other objects at it. Holmes was bald, and as described by the Windsor Star, "his shining bald dome presented a tempting target". Holmes played a stand-up style, and relied on proper positioning to stop the puck. Holmes' play was consistent, and he was relaxed and nonchalant in the nets, leading some to describe his play as almost lazy.
## Post-retirement
After his playing career, Holmes coached minor-league teams. He coached the Toronto Millionaires of the Canadian Professional Hockey League (CPHL) to a 19–6–7 record in the 1928–29 season, and the Cleveland Indians of the International Hockey League (IHL) to a 24–18–6 record in the 1930–31 season. The American Hockey League (AHL) named their award for the top goaltender, the Hap Holmes Memorial Award, after him.
In his later years, Holmes moved to south Florida and opened a papaya farm. During this period, his son Bill played with the Miami Clippers of the abortive Tropical Hockey League. The elder Holmes had the intention of eventually starting a hockey league in Australia, but the farm went under and nothing came of the idea.
Holmes died on June 27, 1941. He was inducted posthumously into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.
## Career statistics
### Regular season and playoffs
|
11,059,581 |
2004 Istanbul summit
| 1,165,774,229 |
2004 NATO summit meeting in Istanbul, Turkey
|
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"2004 conferences",
"2004 in Turkey",
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"2004 in politics",
"21st-century diplomatic conferences (NATO)",
"Diplomatic conferences in Turkey",
"June 2004 events in Turkey",
"NATO summits",
"Turkey and NATO"
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The 2004 Istanbul summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey from 28 to 29 June 2004. It was the 17th NATO summit in which NATO's Heads of State and Governments met to make formal decisions about security topics. In general, the summit is seen as a continuation of the transformation process that began in the 2002 Prague summit, which hoped to create a shift from a Cold War alliance against Soviet aggression to a 21st-century coalition against new and out-of-area security threats. The summit consisted of four meetings.
NATO members welcomed seven new alliance members during the North Atlantic Council meeting, decided to expand the alliance's presence in the War in Afghanistan and to end its presence in Bosnia, agreed to assist Iraq with training, launched a new partnership initiative and adopted measures to improve NATO's operational capabilities.
The NATO-Russia Council meeting was mostly noted by the absence of both Russian president Vladimir Putin and of any progress concerning the ratification of the adapted CFE treaty or the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia and Moldova. NATO leaders further welcomed progress made by Ukraine towards membership in the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting and discussed some general and mostly symbolic topics with its non-NATO counterparts during the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council meeting.
Due to Turkish government fears of a terrorist attack, security measures during the summit were tight. Demonstrators from around the world gathered to protest against NATO or the American foreign policy under the George W. Bush Administration, while the summit itself was blown off the front pages of the world press by the unexpected transfer of Iraqi sovereignty, coinciding with the first day of the NATO summit on 28 June.
## Security measures
Unprecedented security measures were made by the Turkish government to safeguard the NATO summit from terrorist attacks. They especially feared a repetition of the Istanbul bombings of 2003 that killed more than 60 people. Their fear was proven by the arrest of 16 people in Bursa in early May on suspicion of planning to bomb the summit. Police seized guns, explosives, bomb-making booklets and 4,000 compact discs with training advice from Osama bin Laden, and believed that the suspects were members of the radical Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, thought to be linked with al-Qaeda. On 24 June two bombs also exploded. One bomb went off in a bus in Istanbul killing 4 people (including the bomber), the other outside a hotel in Ankara where US president George W. Bush would be staying. Additionally, on 25 June, explosives were found in a parked car at Istanbul's main airport.
Security measures included Turkish war ships and Turkish commandos in rubber boats patrolling the Bosporus, AWACS surveillance planes and F-16 warplanes circling above the city to monitor a no-fly zone over the city, and the assignment of 23,000 to 24,000 police officers, supported by police helicopters and armoured vehicles. The Bosphorus Strait was also closed to oil tankers, the underground rail system was suspended and whole city districts were sealed off. Nevertheless, a small bomb or explosive devise blew up on an empty Turkish Airlines plane on 29 June as workers were cleaning it at the main Istanbul airport. Three of the workers were slightly injured.
The extent of disruption caused by the security measures was criticized by several Turkish newspapers. The newspaper Cumhuriyet for instance called the situation "a total disgrace" and commented that Istanbul and Ankara looked like "ghost cities for a couple of days, imprisoning the people, emptying the streets and stopping boats from leaving." The newspaper further added that people died because emergency services were unable to reach them.
## Demonstrations
During June, there was a surge in demonstrations against the upcoming NATO summit, resulting in almost daily protests in Turkey. For instance on 16 June, Turkish riot police detained some 40 people during a demonstration and on 21 June, police used water cannon, tear gas and armoured vehicles to disperse activists who barricaded streets and threw petrol bombs. Throughout June, anti-NATO protestors from around the world gathered at Istanbul to demonstrate.
Protests included opposition to US foreign policy (especially opposition against the US-led Afghanistan War and the Iraq War), opposition to NATO's presence in the Balkans, opposition against NATO itself or against a new role for NATO, opposition against the continuing existence of nuclear weapons, and claims the USA abused NATO to support its policies in Iraq, the wider Middle East, and Afghanistan.
A day before the summit, US president George W. Bush traveled to Ankara, the capital of Turkey for advance meetings with Turkish leaders. Then and during the summit demonstrations became larger and tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated in the streets of Istanbul. On 28 June, demonstrators tried to disrupt the NATO meeting by staging several simultaneous mass demonstrations around the city. Riot police sprayed tear gas at anti-NATO demonstrators as protesters and police clashed in running street battles. At least 30 people, including five police officers, were injured when anti-NATO protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs clashed with riot police. Some 20 persons were detained in these protests. The police broke up a smaller crowd, detaining at least six persons, in the Mecidiyeköy area when they tried to march towards the summit about 3 km to the south. In a separate protest, Greenpeace activists, dangling from a bridge over the Bosphorus Strait, unfurled a 30-meter banner showing a dove of peace with a nuclear missile in its beak and the phrase "Nukes out of NATO".
## Summit meetings
June 2004 was arguably one of the most intense months of summitry in the history of transatlantic relations. The NATO summit followed on the D-Day's 60th anniversary celebrations in Normandy (France) on 6 June; on the 30th G8 summit from 8 June until 10 June in Georgia (United States); and on the meetings with EU leaders in Dublin (Ireland) on 24 June.
`The 2004 Istanbul summit consisted of four main meetings, all held in the Istanbul Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Center: the North Atlantic Council (NATO's highest decision-making body, attended by heads of state and government from each of the 26 Alliance member countries); the NATO-Russia Council (which met only at the level of foreign ministers, since Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed away, reflecting ongoing tension between NATO and Russia over NATO enlargement and the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty); the NATO-Ukraine Commission; and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (46 countries including many former Eastern bloc and former Soviet states).`
Besides these meetings, several visits and question sessions were made on 26 and 27 June, and several press conferences by heads of government of state or government were made after or in between the above-mentioned meetings. Once the North Atlantic Council meeting on 28 June was concluded, a statement called the "Istanbul Declaration: Our security in a new era" was issued. In this statement the leaders summarized the main conclusions of the discussions.
Almost forgotten in coverage of the summit was that six new members from the former Warsaw Pact – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania – plus Slovenia, joined NATO in March 2004 and were formally welcomed into the Alliance.
### North Atlantic Council meeting (28 June)
#### Missions
##### Expanded presence in Afghanistan
Several days before the summit, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer described Afghanistan as "priority number one". During the summit, NATO members officially agreed that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would take on command of four additional Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) (one in Mazar-e-Sharif, Meymana, Feyzabad and Baghlan), falling short of the initial target of five. Until then ISAF only provided security in around the capital city Kabul and commanded one PRT in Kunduz. The 26 members agreed to contribute between them an additional 600 troops (23.08 per country) and three helicopters to the Afghan mission. The three helicopters came from Turkey, and had gone back within three months. NATO also vowed to beef up its Afghanistan peace force from 6,500 to 10,000 to help make the 2004 Afghan presidential election secure, but no actual agreement for that many additional troops was made.
##### End of the SFOR mission
NATO members agreed to end the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which began its mission in 1996. NATO stressed that it would maintain a presence in the country to assist in certain areas such as defence reform, or the pursuit of persons indicted for war crimes. Heads of State and Government also welcomed a decision by the European Union to establish a follow-on mission, which would take over the 7,500-member mission and which will be supported by NATO under existing NATO-EU agreements.
#### Middle East
The summit marked a shift in Alliance priorities towards greater involvement in the Middle East, a strategically important region, whose security and stability was regarded as closely linked to the Euro-Atlantic security. The existing Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) cooperation was broadened, and two new major engagements were launched: the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) and a training mission for Iraqi troops.
##### Iraq troop training
The summit was dominated by divisions over the Iraq War as NATO members were only able to agree to limited assistance in the form of training for Iraqi security forces. The NATO support given to Iraq troop training was in response to a request by the Iraqi Interim Government, and in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546, which requests international and regional organisations to contribute assistance to the multinational force. Even this limited agreement contained areas of contention, with France insisting that it would only help with training outside Iraq, while the United States favored that the training would take place inside Iraq. As a consequence, the deal was left deliberately vague and differences remained on whether NATO should train Iraqi officers inside Iraq, or limit itself to training outside the country and acting as a clearing house for national efforts. The commitment was also vague as it was not made clear what the size of the training mission would be or exactly when and where it would take place. German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, known for his earlier opposition to the Iraq War, commented: "The engagement of NATO is reduced to training and only training. We have made clear that we don't want to see German soldiers in Iraq." Despite outwardly optimistic statements by the US concerning NATO's commitment towards Iraqi troop training after the summit, France and Germany had refused to share the burden of responsibility for the situation in Iraq and did not support the US and British demand for sending NATO troops. Put differently, participation in the multinational forces in Iraq was left to the discretion of the particular alliance members and the USA relunctantly consented to troop training outside Iraq. Consequently, despite an outward show of NATO unity, the split over Iraq still persisted and tensions in interstate relations within the alliance were not resolved.
##### Improved Mediterranean Dialogue
NATO's leaders invited their Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) partners (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) to elevate the MD to a genuine partnership by establishing a more ambitious and expanded framework for cooperation. This cooperation would be guided by the principle of joint ownership and taking into consideration their particular interests and needs.
##### Istanbul Cooperation Initiative
NATO leaders also decided to launch the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) with selected states in the Greater Middle East, thus exceeding a Mediterranean scope. The initiative was an offer to engage in practical security cooperation activities with these states and each interested country would be considered by the North Atlantic Council on a case-by-case basis and on its own merit. The words "country" and "countries" in the ICI document do not exclude participation of the Palestinian Authority, but such partnership would be—like any other partnership—subject to the North Atlantic Council's approval.
This initiative stands alongside NATO's Partnership for Peace Program and the Mediterranean Dialogue. NATO members regard these partnerships as a response to the new challenges of the 21st century and as a complement to the G8 and US-EU decisions to support calls for reform from within the Broader Middle East region. The ICI offers practical cooperation with interested nations in the Greater Middle East in such areas as: counter-WMD; counterterrorism; training and education; participation in NATO exercises; the promotion of military interoperability; disaster preparedness and civil emergency planning; tailored advice on defense reform and civil-military relations; and cooperation on border security to help prevent illicit trafficking of drugs, weapons, and people.
#### Plans
##### Plan to enhance operational capabilities
NATO leaders endorsed measures to improve NATO's ability to take on operations when and where necessary, committing themselves to be able at all times to deploy and sustain larger proportions of their forces on operations to ensure that NATO has a permanently available pool of assets and forces that can deployed. They also endorsed changes to NATO's defence planning, hoping that the Alliance's long-term defence planning process would become more flexible, thereby helping member countries generate forces that can reach further, faster and still take on the full range of missions.
##### Plan to enhance anti-terrorism efforts
NATO leaders hoped to boost the Alliance's anti-terrorism efforts with an agreement to improve intelligence sharing and to develop new, high-tech defences against terrorist attacks. NATO members committed themselves to improve intelligence sharing through a Terrorist Threat Intelligence Unit. This Unit, created after the September 11 attacks, became permanent and . Its function is to analyze general terrorist threats, as well as those that are more specifically aimed at NATO. NATO also pledged itself to stand ready to assist any member country in dealing with potential or real terrorist attacks. The Alliance's AWACS early warning radar aircraft and Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Defence Battalion would be made available to any member that requests such assistance. Heads of State and Government also gave direction to develop a package of high-tech capabilities to protect civilians and forces from terrorist attacks.
### NATO-Russia Council meeting (28 June)
#### Linkage between the CFE ratification and the OSCE obligations
Discussions with Russia on NATO concessions in return for Russian President Vladimir Putin's attendance had been underway for some months before the summit, and intensified as the summit date drew closer. On 17 May, in the run-up to the NATO summit, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer indicated in a speech that Putin signalled that he might honor the summit with his presence if "the conditions will be right". It is unclear what conditions were under discussion, but it is speculated that Putin's conditions included an enhanced Russian role in NATO decision-making through the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), NATO acceptance of Russia's continued military presence in Moldova and Georgia (the withdrawal of these troops was an obligation Russia had assumed at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) 1999 Istanbul summit); a move of NATO members to ratify that same treaty and to place the three Baltic states, that joined NATO in March 2004, under military restrictions. As Putin did not receive satisfaction in discussions ahead of the NATO summit – at least not to the extent that he hoped, he refused to attend the meeting. When NATO officials indicated that Putin would probably not attend the summit, Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov reacted on the same day (2 June) by stressing the importance that Moscow attaches to enhancing its role in NRC and that Russia had not declined the invitation to attend the NRC meeting. Due to the replacement of Putin by Lavrov, the meeting was not held at the level of the Heads of State and Government (as normally would be the case), but at the level of foreign ministers.
On 26 June, two days before the summit, US Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns and US Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow wrote a joint newspaper article in which they commented that the relations between NATO and Russia were good and that NATO and Russia took "a little-noticed but enormous step in our maturing partnership", referring to "Exercise Kaliningrad 2004" which brought together some 1,000 personnel from 22 NATO member and partner countries for a terrorism response exercise. In practice, several rifts between Russia and NATO were visible and became increasingly more so during the summit. One rift existed about NATO's non-ratification of the adapted CFE treaty and Russia's non-fulfillment of its OSCE obligations (the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Georgia). Even before the summit commenced, the rift was visible as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stopped, en route to Istanbul, in Moldova where he called for the withdrawal of Russian forces from the country. Another reason for tension was the accession of seven Eastern European states to NATO in March 2004 and NATO's increasing cooperation with other Eastern European and Caucasian states. On 27 June, Russia warned NATO to respect its security interests and expressed concern over NATO's stepped up activity in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
During the NRC meeting, NATO leaders and NATO's Secretary General made a clear linkage between their Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (adapted CFE treaty) ratification and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Georgia, and took no notice of Russia's proposals for the earliest possible entry into force of the treaty and Russia's ratification on the eve of the summit. According to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov these withdrawal demands were incorrect, because "the political understandings did not set any time limit for physical action". Put differently, Russia denied that it made clear commitments to withdraw its forces from Georgia and Moldova, a policy to which it adhered since 2002, and reaffirmed its policy of seeking bilateral agreement with Georgia on the status and functioning of Russian military bases in that country. In addition, Russia argued that it faced new threats on its southern borders: the possibility of missile launches from Iran and the expansion of Islamist terrorism, which required – in the perspective of Russia – Russian military presence in Georgia and Armenia. Colonel Anatoli Tesiganouk, Head of Russia's Military Forecasting Center, argued that NATO took no notice of Russia's position because NATO's leaders still had the same mental stereotypes that took shape during the Cold War; that a large part of the Western elite still regarded Russia as a kind of USSR, ignoring the fact that Russia has not only new borders, but also new aspirations, new international partners, and new threats. These stereotypes could have wittingly or unwittingly affected the relations in the NATO-Russia Council.
#### Russia's Iraq and Afghanistan proposals
On Iraq, Lavrov proposed to hold a general conference with the participation of all Iraqi political forces (including all opposition forces and including the "armed resistance to the occupation") and Iraq's neighboring countries and the international community, including Russia. Regarding Afghanistan, Lavrov expressed the interest of Russia and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States in suppressing terrorism and called for "establishing ties" and "developing cooperation" between NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Both proposals received at most a lukewarm response by NATO leaders.
### NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting (29 June)
This meeting was between NATO leaders and president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. NATO members expressed appreciation for Ukraine's contributions to NATO-led and other international peace support efforts such as KFOR. Ukraine also offered to support Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean (a naval operation of NATO which is designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction), an offer which NATO would consider. Defence cooperation between NATO and Ukraine was reviewed and the possible launching of a Partnership for Peace Trust Fund to help Ukraine destroy the surplus munitions, small arms and light weapons was discussed.
NATO further welcomed Ukraine's desire to achieve full integration into NATO, but stressed that this would require more than troop contributions and defence reform. This would require showing commitment to the values that underpin the Alliance (democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech and media, and fair elections) as was foreseen in the NATO-Ukraine Action Plan, which was adopted during the 2002 Prague Summit. In particular NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer criticized Kuchma's record on freedom of press and preparations for the Ukrainian presidential election of November 2004.
### Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council meeting (29 June)
This meeting was mostly symbolic and did not have any concrete proposals or results. Nevertheless, some policies or earlier decisions were reaffirmed or emphasized. First of all, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) Heads of State and Government met with President Hamid Karzai of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan and discussed the progress in that country, and recognized the valuable role played by both Allies and Partners who make up the ISAF, but also emphasized that much remains to be done for Afghanistan to become a peaceful and stable country, fully integrated into the international community. Secondly, the commitment of the Euro-Atlantic community to peace, security and stability in the Balkans was reaffirmed. Further, the presence of the Heads of State of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro at their meeting as observers was welcomed, and these leaders were urged them to meet the outstanding conditions set for Partnership for Peace membership by Allies. Thirdly, the resolve to fight terrorism was reaffirmed and some initiatives aimed at increasing the EAPC's contribution in this fight were taken, thereby endorsing the further implementation of the Partnership Action Plan against Terrorism.
Fourthly, support for a major report on the future development of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership, which outlines the core objectives of Partnership (political dialogue and practical co-operation, the promotion of democratic values across the Euro-Atlantic area, preparing interested Partners for participation in NATO-led operations and support Partners who wish to join the Alliance). Fifthly, the commitment to building a Partnership which would be tailored to the different needs of individual Partners was reaffirmed. In this respect, NATO's intention to place a special focus on relations with the states of the Caucasus and Central Asia was welcomed, including the decision by the Alliance to appoint one liaison officer for each region. They also welcomed the launching of the Individual Partnership Action Plan process by several states of these two regions. Sixthly, NATO's Policy on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, which was developed in consultation with the EAPC partners, was endorsed.
The absence of Armenian president Robert Kocharyan drew some media attention. Kocharyan refused to join the summit to draw the alliance's attention to problems in relations between the Turkey and Armenia, in particular Turkey's refusal to consider the deaths of almost one million Armenians during World War I a genocide.
## Announcement of the transfer of Iraqi sovereignty
While the transfer of Iraqi sovereignty was not decided during the summit, this transfer had some connections to the summit. First of all, the news of the unexpected transfer was made public during the summit. BBC News reports that Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, speaking after a breakfast meeting with Blair in Istanbul on 28 June, "slipped" prematurely that the handover of sovereignty to his country was being brought forward to coincide with the meeting. Later that day, US National Security advisor Condoleezza Rice gave US president Bush during the summit the following note: "Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from [Paul] Bremer at 10:26 am Iraq time – Condi". Bush scribbled in the margin of this note: "Let freedom reign!". Bush then turned to British prime minister Tony Blair, seated next to him, whispered that the handover had happened, and the two men shook hands. Later that day, Bush and Blair held a joint press conference, in which they welcomed the transfer. Secondly, the news of the handover pushed the summit from the front pages.
## Reviews
The international media reported that expectations for a successful summit were deliberately set low, because NATO leaders wanted to avoid a flare-up over the Iraq War. Therefore, they agreed to meet the modest goals the Alliance had already set for itself in trying to stabilize Afghanistan, and endorsed a tepid version of the Bush administration's initiative to promote modernization and democracy in the Arab world. The newspaper further commented that the summit had "a sort of "Waiting for Godot" quality about it – European leaders biding time, neither creating a crisis nor mending fences, in the hope that the American election in November will somehow spare them from the choice between having to deal with Bush and letting Iraq, and NATO, slide into further disarray." Other analysis were even more critical: "There have been NATO summits at which neither a special occasion was acknowledged nor decisions of particular relevance made. One example is the NATO summit in Istanbul in 2004, where the concluded measures hardly required a meeting of the heads of state and government, and the media presence was not justified by the agreed-upon resolutions." US and other government officials however emphasized that the summit was significant in terms of the alliance's unprecedented outreach beyond its traditional North Atlantic focus and its aggressive emphasis on force planning to tackle new challenges worldwide.
Whether or not the summit is considered important for its content, the meeting held some symbolic importance. First of all, it was the first NATO summit between the leaders of the North-American and Western European states, and Eastern European states, states that were finally, after decades of Cold War tensions, together in the same alliance. The media attention that these new members received during the summit, opened public debates about whether there was still a consensus about the purpose, the perceived threats and the future borders of NATO among its 26 members. That this was not the case, became clear in the run-up to the 2006 Riga Summit. Secondly, the holding of the summit in Istanbul made it the most eastern summit in NATO's history. It marked the increasingly key role played by Turkey as a major strategic hub due to its location close to the hotbeds of tension and conflict in the South Caucasus and the Middle East. The location of the summit made clear that NATO's security concerns had shifted towards the southeastern part of the European continent. By shifting eastwards, the Alliance's centre of gravity ventured into very different areas from those on which the Cold War military NATO had focused.
NATO's 2004 Istanbul summit was also remarkably silent on the subject of nuclear weapons policy and non-proliferation, as opposed to pre-summit diplomacy and earlier post-Cold War NATO summits and contrary to the demonstrations going on in Istanbul. In June 2004, shortly before the summit, NATO issued two fact sheets on nuclear policy, portraying the developments within NATO in a favourable light in the run up to the 2005 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. In practice, no real changes since the end of the Cold War were implemented, as since the 1994 US Nuclear posture review the number of US nuclear weapons based in Europe remained unchanged, and as Cold War nuclear sharing arrangements dating back to the 1960s remained in force. Additionally, no changes were made to Alliance nuclear policy since the 1999 Strategic Concept.
|
983,485 |
Lisa's Wedding
| 1,171,254,348 | null |
[
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"Fiction set in 2010",
"Older versions of cartoon characters",
"Science fiction comedy",
"Television episodes about precognition",
"Television episodes about weddings",
"Television episodes set in London",
"The Simpsons (season 6) episodes"
] |
"Lisa's Wedding" is the nineteenth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 19, 1995. The plot focuses on Lisa visiting a carnival fortune teller and learning about her future love. It was written by Greg Daniels and directed by Jim Reardon. Mandy Patinkin guest stars as Hugh Parkfield and Phil Hartman guest stars as Troy McClure. The episode won an Emmy Award in 1995 for Outstanding Animated Program, becoming the third episode of The Simpsons to win the award.
## Plot
The Simpson family visit a Renaissance fair, where Lisa finds a fortune-telling booth. The clairvoyant says she will predict Lisa's future and tell the story of her true love.
In the year 2010 – 15 years in the future – 23-year-old Lisa meets a fellow university student named Hugh Parkfield from London. The pair fall madly in love and soon plan to marry. Lisa and Hugh travel to Springfield, where they plan to hold the wedding. Marge is still a housewife; 25-year-old Bart is twice-divorced and works as a building demolition expert while planning on going to law school; 16-year-old Maggie apparently never shuts up (although she never talks in the episode, and whenever she tries to she is interrupted); and Homer still works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in Sector 7G, with Milhouse as his supervisor.
Despite Lisa's hopes, Hugh does not get along with her family, and is particularly dismayed when Homer wants him to wear family-tradition cufflinks resembling pigs on his wedding day. Lisa begs Hugh to wear the cufflinks, and he agrees on the condition that Lisa abandon her family after the wedding because Hugh is deeply embarrassed by them (although he agrees to let Marge visit once they have children). Outraged, Lisa insists she cannot marry him if he cannot understand that she loves her family members – despite their shortcomings – and calls off the wedding. Hugh returns to England and never sees Lisa again.
In the present, Lisa questions the fortune-teller about her "true love" and the fortune-teller reveals that although Lisa will have a true love, she specializes in foretelling doomed romances. Lisa leaves the booth and finds Homer, who is excited to tell her about his day at the fair.
## Production
The episode was written by Greg Daniels and directed by Jim Reardon. The idea for the episode came from James L. Brooks, who called David Mirkin and pitched the idea as traveling to the future and Lisa meeting the perfect guy, who in turn cannot stand her family. Believing that it would be a tough episode to write, Brooks gave the job to Greg Daniels, who was enthusiastic about it and has said that it was a lot easier and more fun to write than expected. The plot involving Homer's cuff links was not in the original draft; it was later added because the writers felt that something was needed to represent Hugh's disdain for the Simpson family. The end theme was redone by Alf Clausen as a "Renaissance version", including a harp.
Everything in the episode had to be redesigned, including the sets and all the characters. In most cases, the adults were made older, heavier, had a few lines added to the face, and less hair. On Homer, the redesign was minimal, making him a bit heavier, removing one hair and placing an extra line under the eye. In the future, Lisa has frilled, pointed hair, Marge with slightly grayer blue hair, Bart has a beard line like his father, Homer is stouter and even balder, with only one hair on his head and the one wrapping around thinning, and Krusty looks like Groucho Marx. The night sky was intentionally made a more reddish color in a subtle joke about how the producers thought the world would be much more polluted in 2010. Nancy Cartwright's Bart voice was electronically lowered a couple of notches.
This is the first of five future-themed episodes. It was followed by "Bart to the Future" in season 11, "Future-Drama" in season 16, "Holidays of Future Passed" in season 23, and "Days of Future Future" in season 25. While both "Lisa's Wedding" and "Future-Drama" were nominated for an Emmy, in 2003, Entertainment Weekly named "Bart to the Future" the worst episode in the history of the series.
## Cultural references
The episode makes mention of "40 classic films starring Jim Carrey" in 2010. According to David Mirkin, this is a joke about how "huge" Carrey's films were at the time, and how he was not garnering much respect as an actor. Lisa wandering away from the Renaissance fair while following a rabbit is similar to the plot of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. The sounds of the car are the same as the ones used in The Jetsons. On Lisa's wall there is a poster of Rolling Stones Steel Wheelchair Tour 2010. Wrist communicators are using the same sounds as communicators in Star Trek. In this episode's version of the future, apparently three of the major American television networks have been bought by ABC and merged into CNNBCBS. Hugh Parkfield is a parody of English actor Hugh Grant. The beginning of Lisa and Hugh's romance is similar to the one in the 1970 film Love Story. Martin Prince's fate is a parody of The Phantom of the Opera. The song that he plays on the organ is a variation of "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy, a disco version of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" in C Minor. Hugh mentions that he and Lisa are "both utterly humorless about our vegetarianism"; in the next season's episode, "Lisa the Vegetarian," Lisa does indeed become a vegetarian and remains one for subsequent episodes.
## Reception and legacy
### Critical reception
"Lisa's Wedding" won an Emmy Award in 1995 for Outstanding Animated Program, becoming the third episode of The Simpsons to win in the category. This episode is a favorite of James L. Brooks, who believes that it is one of the best-written episodes and ranks near the top of The Simpsons episodes. The emotion of "Lisa's Wedding" is often compared with season two's "Lisa's Substitute". The Quindecim, a college newspaper, made their own top 25 list, ranking "Lisa's Wedding" as the greatest episode of The Simpsons. They also criticized Entertainment Weekly for leaving this episode and "Lisa's Substitute" off their top 25 list, saying it was the "equivalent of leaving the Sistine Chapel off a list of Michelangelo's best work", adding, "Serving well as bookends, these episodes are not only brilliantly funny, they're among the most genuinely touching stories in the show's entire run."
Mandy Patinkin as Hugh is considered one of the best The Simpsons guest spots by Chris Turner in his book Planet Simpson, who says that many of the best The Simpsons guest stars have been lesser known celebrities. In a 2008 article, Entertainment Weekly named Patinkin one of the 16 best The Simpsons guest stars. In 1998, TV Guide listed it as the first in its list of top twelve episodes, calling it "the premier example of what makes a Simpsons episode work." In 2007, The Daily Telegraph characterized the episode as one of "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes".
On August 1, 2010, the day of Lisa's wedding in the episode, the name "Lisa Simpson" was a trending topic on Twitter. Most of the Twitter users that tweeted her name wished her a happy wedding day.
### Ratings
In its original broadcast, "Lisa's Wedding" finished 52nd in ratings for the week of March 13–19, 1995, with a Nielsen rating of 9.1, equivalent to approximately 8.7 million viewing households. It was the third highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place.
|
1,819,108 |
Irene Parlby
| 1,165,247,553 |
Canadian politician (1868–1965)
|
[
"1868 births",
"1965 deaths",
"20th-century Canadian politicians",
"20th-century Canadian women politicians",
"Canadian Anglicans",
"Canadian eugenicists",
"Canadian feminists",
"Canadian human rights activists",
"English emigrants to Canada",
"Feminist eugenicists",
"Members of the Executive Council of Alberta",
"Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)",
"United Farmers of Alberta MLAs",
"Women MLAs in Alberta",
"Women government ministers of Canada",
"Women human rights activists"
] |
Mary Irene Parlby ( Marryat; 9 January 1868 – 12 July 1965) was a Canadian women's farm leader, activist and politician. She served as MLA in the United Farmers of Alberta government from 1921 to 1935, serving as Minister without portfolio in the Cabinet of Alberta during that time. She worked to implement social reforms that helped farm women and children and was an advocate of public health programs. As a member of the Famous Five, she was one of five women who took the Persons Case first to the Supreme Court of Canada, and then to the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for the right of women to serve in the Senate of Canada. From 1930 to 1934, she was one of three Canadian representatives at the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Parlby's accomplishments have garnered her many honours, both before and after her death. In 1935, the University of Alberta granted her an honorary Doctorate of Laws, making her the first woman in its history to receive such a distinction. In 1966, a year after her death, she was named a Person of National Historic Significance, and in 2009, the Senate of Canada voted to name Parlby and other members of the Famous Five Canada's first honorary Senators.
## Early life
Parlby was born Mary Irene Marryat on 9 January 1868 in London, England, the eldest of eight children of Colonel Ernest Lindsay Marryat and Mrs. Elizabeth Lynch Marryat. The Marryats had many well-known relatives, including Frederick Marryat, a Royal Navy author and writer, and Henry Young, a colonial administrator in Australia. She lived in India for six years, from 1868 until 1871 and from 1881 to 1884, due to her father's job in the Royal Engineers. Her family was in the upper middle class, and the children were taught by governesses instead of attending school. She was interested in writing and acting, creating plays for family and friends. She received a good education, studying music and elocution, and was interested in theatre, though such a career was considered inappropriate for a woman of her social status. In 1884, when Irene was 16, her father retired from his work in India and returned with his family to England, where they rented a farm in Limpsfield, Surrey.
She enjoyed her social life, but felt that her life was aimless; she later described this as "killing time as pleasantly as possible". In the mid-1890s, she spent time in Switzerland, recovering from an illness. In 1896, Alix Westhead, a family friend from their time in India, invited Irene to stay with her in the Northwest Territories (present-day Alberta). After receiving her parents' consent, Parlby left for Canada in May 1896, at the age of 28. Shortly after arriving in Canada, she met Walter Parlby, an Oxford graduate who had arrived in Canada in 1890. They were engaged by the autumn of 1896, and later built a house near Alix, Alberta. Irene and Walter visited family in England in 1899. In November 1899, while in England, she gave birth to a son, Humphrey Marryat Hall Parlby.
## Political career
Parlby's political life began in 1914 when she, along with other women in the area, created the Alix Country Women's Club (ACWC), and Parlby was chosen as secretary. One of the first accomplishments of the ACWC was to establish a local library, one of the first in the province. When the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA), an auxiliary group of the United Farmers of Alberta, was formed in 1915, the ACWC became the first local branch of the UFWA. The next year, she was elected to be the first president of the UFWA. Between 1918 and 1920, the membership grew from 1,450 to 4,000 women. As president, Parlby worked to improve healthcare and helped to establish municipal hospitals. In 1920, she resigned as president, saying: "The organization has reached a stage when its own momentum will help to carry it along, the difficult days of arousing interest and establishing the position of the organization are over, and I feel I can ... leave all active work in it to those who are more capable of carrying on than myself."
In the 1921 Alberta general election, Parlby put her name forward as a candidate for the riding of Lacombe, which she won, to her surprise. She called the campaign "nasty", due to the harassment she received for being female. Province-wide, the United Farmers won 38 out of the total of 61 seats, giving it a majority in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Herbert Greenfield was chosen to be the Premier, and Parlby was selected to be the Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet, making her the second woman in the British Empire to hold a ministerial position, after Mary Ellen Smith of British Columbia. In 1930, she was chosen by Prime Minister R. B. Bennett to be one of three delegates of Canada to the League of Nations in Geneva, where she served until 1934. At the end of her third term in office, she decided that she would not seek re-election in the 1935 general election. However, she continued to lead an active public life and was an in-demand speaker, both in person and over the radio.
Throughout her term in office, Parlby used her influence to further numerous social reforms, primarily those of interest to women and children. She supported immigration, and in a time when nativism was on the rise, felt that people of all ethnic origins should embrace their heritage and value and preserve their culture. Parlby introduced and sponsored a large number of bills, including the Minimum Wage for Women Act, which made Alberta the first province to pass a minimum wage for women. She also attempted to pass the Community of Property Act, which would have allowed women to own all property they brought into a marriage, along with gifts and inheritance, but this was not passed as it was seen as too radical.
Like many other prominent left wing Albertan politicians of the time, including fellow Famous Five members Murphy and McClung, Parlby was an advocate for the eugenics movement in Alberta. She supported the Sexual Sterilization Act, which allowed for the sterilization of mentally disabled people to prevent "undesirable" traits from being passed to the next generation. The Act disproportionately affected socially vulnerable people, including females and young adults, along with those of Indigenous ancestry. Parlby expressed sympathy for the mothers of mentally ill children and stated that the "great and only solution to the problem" was the sterilization of feeble-minded persons.
## Famous Five and the Persons Case
Parlby was one of the Famous Five, a group of five women including Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Emily Murphy, who petitioned the federal government for the right of women to serve as senators. The case became known as the "Persons Case", since the federal government took the position that women were not considered "qualified persons", in the provision of the British North America Act, 1867 relating to appointment to the Senate of Canada. In 1927, the case was taken to the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled that women were not eligible for appointment to the Senate. The case was then appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, the highest court of the British Empire. In 1929, the Judicial Committee overturned the Supreme Court's decision, allowing women to serve in the Senate. The first woman to serve in the Senate, Cairine Wilson, was appointed the following year.
## Death and legacy
In 1935, as recognition for her achievements over the past two decades, she became the first woman to be granted an honourary doctorate from the University of Alberta.
Parlby died on 12 July 1965 at a nursing home in Red Deer, Alberta. She was the last surviving member of the Famous Five.
In May 1966, Parlby was recognized as a Person of National Historic Significance by the government of Canada. A plaque commemorating this is found in Alix, Alberta. In 1997, the Persons Case was recognized as a National Historic Event. In 2000, two identical monuments were created in Calgary, Alberta, and near the Senate of Canada Building, in Ottawa, Ontario. The monuments, called Women are Persons!, depict the members of the Famous Five reading the news about their victory in the Persons Case. The monuments were later featured on the \$50 banknote of the Canadian Journey series. In October 2009, the Senate voted to name Parlby and the rest of the Famous Five Canada's first "honorary senators".
|
50,897,475 |
No. 75 Wing RAAF
| 994,297,164 | null |
[
"Military units and formations disestablished in 1944",
"Military units and formations established in 1943",
"RAAF wings"
] |
No. 75 Wing was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) wing that operated during World War II. It was formed in October 1943 at Townsville, Queensland, under North-Eastern Area Command. The wing soon deployed to Horn Island to take control of RAAF units based there and at Thursday Island and Cape York Peninsula. Responsible for air defence and maritime patrol in the Torres Strait, No. 75 Wing's flying units operated P-40 Kittyhawk fighters, Bristol Beaufort reconnaissance bombers, and A-31 Vengeance dive bombers. The wing was disbanded in August 1944.
## History
No. 75 Wing was raised on 13 October 1943 at Garbutt in Townsville, Queensland, under the command of Wing Commander (later Group Captain) Edgar Bruce Courtney. On formation it had a staff of ten, including three officers. The wing was responsible for RAAF units at Horn Island, Thursday Island, and Higgins Field on Cape York Peninsula. An advance party departed Garbutt for Horn Island on 21 October, and the wing headquarters was fully established there six days later. The same month, No. 84 Squadron, based at Horn Island and recently converted from CAC Boomerangs to P-40 Kittyhawks, was transferred from the control of No. 72 Wing (headquartered at Merauke, New Guinea) to No. 75 Wing.
Other units at Horn Island included No. 28 Operational Base Unit, which had been located there since being formed in May 1942; No. 112 Mobile Fighter Sector Headquarters (formerly No. 12 Mobile Fighter Sector Headquarters); and a detachment of No. 7 Squadron (headquartered at Townsville), operating Bristol Beaufort reconnaissance bombers. No. 33 Operational Base Unit, formed at Townsville in April 1943, established itself at Higgins Field on 23 October. No. 1 Repair and Salvage Unit was also headquartered at Higgins, but maintained a detachment on Thursday Island. No. 23 Air Stores Park, based on Thursday Island, was responsible for logistical support of No. 75 Wing units.
No. 84 Squadron had been responsible for air defence in the Torres Strait since arriving at Horn Island in April 1943, and No. 7 Squadron for anti-shipping duties. A Beaufort of No. 7 Squadron was credited with shooting down a Japanese "Jake" seaplane during a patrol west of Horn Island on 11 November. The Beauforts undertook their first bombing and strafing mission from Horn Island against targets in Dutch New Guinea on 27 November. By the end of the year, No. 75 Wing headquarters had a strength of 144 staff, including twenty-three officers, and one de Havilland DH.84. According to George Odgers, "Although the Merauke and Horn Island squadrons had relatively slight contact with the enemy in 1943 they fulfilled a very useful purpose in conjunction with the North-Western Area squadrons in securing the flank of MacArthur's forces".
In February 1944, No. 75 Wing headquarters moved from Horn Island to Higgins Field, where it was soon joined by No. 7 Squadron and another unit now under the wing's control, No. 23 Squadron. The advance party from No. 75 Wing headquarters left Horn Island on 7 February, and the main party departed for Higgins by air and sea eleven days later. No. 7 Squadron moved to Higgins between 3 and 26 March, and No. 23 Squadron between 13 and 31 March. On 19 March, No. 112 Fighter Control Unit was re-formed at Horn Island as No. 32 Zone Filter Centre under No. 75 Wing. By the end of the month, wing headquarters staff numbered 121, including twenty officers, and the DH.84 had been augmented by a Supermarine Walrus.
On 11 March 1944, No. 84 Squadron was hurriedly redeployed to North-Western Area to replace the Supermarine Spitfires of No. 1 Wing, which had been despatched to Perth in response to a feared Japanese naval attack. No attack took place, and No. 84 Squadron returned to Horn Island less than two weeks later. On 17 May, the squadron departed Horn Island for Townsville, and was subsequently reduced to cadre. No. 7 Squadron continued operations in the Dutch East Indies from Higgins, generally in conjunction with other forces such as B-25 Mitchells from North-Western Area, before its tasking was reduced in August pending transfer to No. 71 Wing in New Guinea. No. 23 Squadron was equipped with A-31 Vengeance dive bombers and undertook army-cooperation duties out of Higgins until being declared non-operational in June. That month, a squadron leader from North-Eastern Area Command arrived at No. 75 Wing headquarters to investigate Vengeance accidents and unserviceability; on departure his Vengeance crash-landed on the beach at Princess Charlotte Bay and the crew had to be rescued by an aircraft of No. 9 Squadron. No. 23 Squadron was subsequently re-equipped with B-24 Liberator heavy bombers and transferred to North-Western Area.
By the end of July 1944, No. 75 Wing headquarters strength was sixty-three staff, including eighteen officers, and a DH.84. The wing ceased operations on 21 August, still under Courtney's command, and was disbanded four days later. Its remaining units then became the direct responsibility of North-Eastern Area headquarters.
|
11,368,683 |
Reid Blackburn
| 1,172,855,625 |
American photographer (1952–1980)
|
[
"1952 births",
"1980 deaths",
"20th-century American photographers",
"American photojournalists",
"Deaths in volcanic eruptions",
"Linfield University alumni",
"Natural disaster deaths in Washington (state)"
] |
Reid Turner Blackburn (August 11, 1952 – May 18, 1980) was an American photographer killed in the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. A photojournalist covering the eruption for a local newspaper—the Vancouver, Washington Columbian—as well as National Geographic magazine and the United States Geological Survey, he was caught at Coldwater Camp in the blast.
Blackburn's car and body were found four days after the eruption. His camera, buried under the debris of the eruption, was found roughly one week later.
After his death, Blackburn was praised by his coworkers and friends alike. They spoke of his talent and enthusiasm, as well as his sometimes "acerbic" sense of humor. His wife, Fay, concluded that he had died doing what he loved.
## Life
Blackburn was born in 1952, the son of an engineer who possessed "a fixation on figuring out the way things worked". He loved the idea of photography, once equating it to "painting with light". He was an accomplished photographer, and had received accolades from the Associated Press for his photographs. Blackburn also authored a book on outboard hydroplane racing.
Blackburn attended Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. He began working at The Columbian newspaper in 1975 as a photojournalist. It was there that he met his wife, Fay Mall, who worked in the newspaper's display advertising department. The two dated for several months before marrying in the summer of 1979. Blackburn enjoyed hiking and loved the outdoors.
## Assignment at Mount St. Helens
According to coworker and photo editor Steve Small, St. Helens was Blackburn's favorite mountain. They climbed it together several times, and referred to it as "the Sleeping Beauty of the Northwest."
Blackburn first became interested in the possibility of an eruption at Mount St. Helens in March 1980, when a series of earthquakes rocked the volcano. Having already climbed the mountain, he was intrigued by the situation and was eventually assigned to document the activity of the volcano for his outdoor skills and his meticulousness. By May, he had begun camping out at the volcano as a joint project to take pictures of the volcanic phenomena for The Columbian, National Geographic, and the United States Geological Survey.
Despite being assigned to stay on the mountain only until May 17, Blackburn opted to stay a few more days. Blackburn was situated near Coldwater Creek, 8 miles (13 km) from the volcano, on the day of the eruption.
Early on May 18, an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale struck the region, creating a massive landslide—0.6 cubic miles (3 km<sup>3</sup>) of rock that released pressure on the volcano's crater, causing an ejection of steam. Just seconds later, Mount St. Helens erupted laterally, sending supersonic pyroclastic flows into the forest below.
During the eruption, Blackburn was able to trigger two remotely operated advanced Nikon cameras setup on tripods at his Coldwater I camp and at a location above Spirit Lake. Both were powered by a car battery and placed inside Styrofoam ice chests to protect them. His final notebook entries noted shots taken at 8:33am and 8:34am and his notebook was found inside his radio transmitter case. Neither of the remote cameras were ever found.
## Death
Blackburn was killed when a pyroclastic flow enveloped the area where he was camped out. His car was found four days later, surrounded up to the windows in ash with his body inside . The windows had been broken and ash filled the interior of the vehicle.
In early June, National Geographic photographer Fred Stocker recovered Blackburn's camera from debris 2.5 feet (0.8 m) thick. The film was not salvageable, as the intense heat from the eruption had corrupted the negatives.
The 1980 event was the deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in the history of the United States. A total of 57 people are known to have died, and more were left homeless when the ash falls and pyroclastic flows destroyed or buried 200 houses. In addition to Blackburn, resident Harry R. Truman, photographer Robert Landsburg, and volcanologist David Alexander Johnston were killed.
## Legacy
After his death, friends and coworkers of Blackburn came forward to compliment his pleasant character and his talent. Friends described Blackburn as having "an impishness his friends came to expect." Coworker Mike Prager called Reid "one of the funniest and most talented journalists in the Pacific Northwest" who "made his job look easy, he was that good." Tom Koenninger, editor of The Columbian, described Blackburn's humor as "wry" and sometimes "acerbic", but elaborated that Blackburn was "gentle, displaying aggression when it was necessary for him to get close to a subject he was photographing." Commenting on her husband's dedication to photography, Fay Blackburn remarked, "if Reid were alive today, he'd probably be back on the front line seeking to capture the latest chapter in the mountain's evolution, in spite of the risk." "Reid loved that mountain. He climbed it, hiked it, skied it." She added that he died doing what he loved.
The National Press Photographers Association awards a competitive scholarship annually in Blackburn's honor, worth \$2,000. In 2005 The Columbian offered an internship to applicants for the scholarship in memory of Blackburn.
In December 2013, a roll of undeveloped film containing pre-eruption shots of Mount St. Helens was discovered in Blackburn's archives at The Columbian. The photos, taken by Blackburn during a helicopter photo shoot of the mountain the month before the eruption, were successfully developed over 30 years after Blackburn's death, and remain journalistically important as a record of the pre-eruption landscape.
|
57,546 |
Caenorhabditis elegans
| 1,172,700,403 |
Free-living species of nematode
|
[
"Animal models in neuroscience",
"Articles containing video clips",
"Caenorhabditis elegans",
"Nematodes described in 1900"
] |
Caenorhabditis elegans (/ˌsiːnoʊræbˈdaɪtəs ˈɛləɡæns/) is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek caeno- (recent), rhabditis (rod-like) and Latin elegans (elegant). In 1900, Maupas initially named it Rhabditides elegans. Osche placed it in the subgenus Caenorhabditis in 1952, and in 1955, Dougherty raised Caenorhabditis to the status of genus.
C. elegans is an unsegmented pseudocoelomate and lacks respiratory or circulatory systems. Most of these nematodes are hermaphrodites and a few are males. Males have specialised tails for mating that include spicules.
In 1963, Sydney Brenner proposed research into C. elegans, primarily in the area of neuronal development. In 1974, he began research into the molecular and developmental biology of C. elegans, which has since been extensively used as a model organism. It was the first multicellular organism to have its whole genome sequenced, and in 2019 it was the first organism to have its connectome (neuronal "wiring diagram") completed.
## Anatomy
C. elegans is unsegmented, vermiform, and bilaterally symmetrical. It has a cuticle (a tough outer covering, as an exoskeleton), four main epidermal cords, and a fluid-filled pseudocoelom (body cavity). It also has some of the same organ systems as larger animals. About one in a thousand individuals is male and the rest are hermaphrodites. The basic anatomy of C. elegans includes a mouth, pharynx, intestine, gonad, and collagenous cuticle. Like all nematodes, they have neither a circulatory nor a respiratory system. The four bands of muscles that run the length of the body are connected to a neural system that allows the muscles to move the animal's body only as dorsal bending or ventral bending, but not left or right, except for the head, where the four muscle quadrants are wired independently from one another. When a wave of dorsal/ventral muscle contractions proceeds from the back to the front of the animal, the animal is propelled backwards. When a wave of contractions is initiated at the front and proceeds posteriorly along the body, the animal is propelled forwards. Because of this dorsal/ventral bias in body bends, any normal living, moving individual tends to lie on either its left side or its right side when observed crossing a horizontal surface. A set of ridges on the lateral sides of the body cuticle, the alae, is believed to give the animal added traction during these bending motions.
In relation to lipid metabolism, C. elegans does not have any specialized adipose tissues, a pancreas, a liver, or even blood to deliver nutrients compared to mammals. Neutral lipids are instead stored in the intestine, epidermis, and embryos. The epidermis corresponds to the mammalian adipocytes by being the main triglyceride depot.
The pharynx is a muscular food pump in the head of C. elegans, which is triangular in cross-section. This grinds food and transports it directly to the intestine. A set of "valve cells" connects the pharynx to the intestine, but how this valve operates is not understood. After digestion, the contents of the intestine are released via the rectum, as is the case with all other nematodes. No direct connection exists between the pharynx and the excretory canal, which functions in the release of liquid urine.
Males have a single-lobed gonad, a vas deferens, and a tail specialized for mating, which incorporates spicules. Hermaphrodites have two ovaries, oviducts, and spermatheca, and a single uterus.
C. elegans neurons contain dendrites which extend from the cell to receive neurotransmitters, and a process that extends to the nerve ring (the "brain") for a synaptic connection between neurons. C. elegans has motor excitatory and inhibitory neurons, known as cholinergic and gabaergic neurons, which simply act as further regulation for the tiny creature. They have no influence on the nervous system besides regulating neuron impulses.
### Gut granules
Numerous gut granules are present in the intestine of C. elegans, the functions of which are still not fully known, as are many other aspects of this nematode, despite the many years that it has been studied. These gut granules are found in all of the Rhabditida orders. They are very similar to lysosomes in that they feature an acidic interior and the capacity for endocytosis, but they are considerably larger, reinforcing the view of their being storage organelles. A remarkable feature of the granules is that when they are observed under ultraviolet light, they react by emitting an intense blue fluorescence. Another phenomenon seen is termed 'death fluorescence'. As the worms die, a dramatic burst of blue fluorescence is emitted. This death fluorescence typically takes place in an anterior to posterior wave that moves along the intestine, and is seen in both young and old worms, whether subjected to lethal injury or peacefully dying of old age.
Many theories have been posited on the functions of the gut granules, with earlier ones being eliminated by later findings. They are thought to store zinc as one of their functions. Recent chemical analysis has identified the blue fluorescent material they contain as a glycosylated form of anthranilic acid (AA). The need for the large amounts of AA the many gut granules contain is questioned. One possibility is that the AA is antibacterial and used in defense against invading pathogens. Another possibility is that the granules provide photoprotection; the bursts of AA fluorescence entail the conversion of damaging UV light to relatively harmless visible light. This is seen a possible link to the melanin–containing melanosomes.
## Reproduction
The hermaphroditic worm is considered to be a specialized form of self-fertile female, as its soma is female. The hermaphroditic germline produces male gametes first, and lays eggs through its uterus after internal fertilization. Hermaphrodites produce all their sperm in the L4 stage (150 sperm cells per gonadal arm) and then produce only oocytes. The hermaphroditic gonad acts as an ovotestis with sperm cells being stored in the same area of the gonad as the oocytes until the first oocyte pushes the sperm into the spermatheca (a chamber wherein the oocytes become fertilized by the sperm).
The male can inseminate the hermaphrodite, which will preferentially use male sperm (both types of sperm are stored in the spermatheca).
`The sperm of C. elegans is amoeboid, lacking flagella and acrosomes. When self-inseminated, the wild-type worm lays about 300 eggs. When inseminated by a male, the number of progeny can exceed 1,000. Hermaphrodites do not typically mate with other hermaphrodites. At 20 °C, the laboratory strain of C. elegans (N2) has an average lifespan around 2–3 weeks and a generation time of 3 to 4 days.`
C. elegans has five pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes. Sex in C. elegans is based on an X0 sex-determination system. Hermaphrodites of C. elegans have a matched pair of sex chromosomes (XX); the rare males have only one sex chromosome (X0).
### Sex determination
C. elegans are mostly hermaphroditic organisms, producing both sperms and oocytes. Males do occur in the population in a rate of approximately 1 in 200 hermaphrodites, but the two sexes are highly differentiated. Males differ from their hermaphroditic counterparts in that they are smaller and can be identified through the shape of their tail. C.elegans reproduce through a process called androdioecy. This means that they can reproduce in two ways: either through self-fertilization in hermaphrodites or through hermaphrodites breeding with males. Males are produced through non-disjunction of the X chromosomes during meiosis. The worms that reproduce through self-fertilization are at risk for high linkage disequilibrium, which leads to lower genetic diversity in populations and an increase in accumulation of deleterious alleles. In C. elegans, somatic sex determination is attributed to the tra-1 gene. The tra-1 is a gene within the TRA-1 transcription factor sex determination pathway that is regulated post-transcriptionally and works by promoting female development. In hermaphrodites (XX), there are high levels of tra-1 activity, which produces the female reproductive system and inhibits male development. At a certain time in their life cycle, one day before adulthood, hermaphrodites can be identified through the addition of a vulva near their tail. In males (XO), there are low levels of tra-1 activity, resulting in a male reproductive system. Recent research has shown that there are three other genes, fem-1, fem-2, and fem-3, that negatively regulate the TRA-1 pathway and act as the final determiner of sex in C. elegans.
#### Evolution
The sex determination system in C. elegans is a topic that has been of interest to scientists for years. Since they are used as a model organism, any information discovered about the way their sex determination system might have evolved could further the same evolutionary biology research in other organisms. After almost 30 years of research, scientists have begun to put together the pieces in the evolution of such a system. What they have discovered is that there is a complex pathway involved that has several layers of regulation. The closely related organism Caenorhabditis briggsae has been studied extensively and its whole genome sequence has helped put together the missing pieces in the evolution of C. elegans sex determination. It has been discovered that two genes have assimilated, leading to the proteins XOL-1 and MIX-1 having an effect on sex determination in C. elegans as well. Mutations in the XOL-1 pathway leads to feminization in C. elegans . The mix-1 gene is known to hypoactivate the X chromosome and regulates the morphology of the male tail in C. elegans. Looking at the nematode as a whole, the male and hermaphrodite sex likely evolved from parallel evolution. Parallel evolution is defined as similar traits evolving from an ancestor in similar conditions; simply put, the two species evolve in similar ways over time. An example of this would be marsupial and placental mammals. Scientists have also hypothesized that hermaphrodite asexual reproduction, or "selfing", could have evolved convergently by studying species similar to C. elegans Other studies on the sex determination evolution suggest that genes involving sperm evolve at the faster rate than female genes. However, sperm genes on the X chromosome have reduced evolution rates. Sperm genes have short coding sequences, high codon bias, and disproportionate representation among orphan genes. These characteristics of sperm genes may be the reason for their high rates of evolution and may also suggest how sperm genes evolved out of hermaphrodite worms. Overall, scientists have a general idea of the sex determination pathway in C. elegans, however, the evolution of how this pathway came to be is not yet well defined.
## Development
### Embryonic development
The fertilized zygote undergoes rotational holoblastic cleavage.
Sperm entry into the oocyte commences formation of an anterior-posterior axis. The sperm microtubule organizing center directs the movement of the sperm pronucleus to the future posterior pole of the embryo, while also inciting the movement of PAR proteins, a group of cytoplasmic determination factors, to their proper respective locations. As a result of the difference in PAR protein distribution, the first cell division is highly asymmetric. C. elegans embryogenesis is among the best understood examples of asymmetric cell division.
All cells of the germline arise from a single primordial germ cell, called the P4 cell, established early in embryogenesis. This primordial cell divides to generate two germline precursors that do not divide further until after hatching.
#### Axis formation
The resulting daughter cells of the first cell division are called the AB cell (containing PAR-6 and PAR-3) and the P1 cell (containing PAR-1 and PAR-2). A second cell division produces the ABp and ABa cells from the AB cell, and the EMS and P2 cells from the P1 cell. This division establishes the dorsal-ventral axis, with the ABp cell forming the dorsal side and the EMS cell marking the ventral side. Through Wnt signaling, the P2 cell instructs the EMS cell to divide along the anterior-posterior axis. Through Notch signaling, the P2 cell differentially specifies the ABp and ABa cells, which further defines the dorsal-ventral axis. The left-right axis also becomes apparent early in embryogenesis, although it is unclear exactly when specifically the axis is determined. However, most theories of the L-R axis development involve some kind of differences in cells derived from the AB cell.
#### Gastrulation
Gastrulation occurs after the embryo reaches the 24-cell stage. C. elegans are a species of protostomes, so the blastopore eventually forms the mouth. Involution into the blastopore begins with movement of the endoderm cells and subsequent formation of the gut, followed by the P4 germline precursor, and finally the mesoderm cells, including the cells that eventually form the pharynx. Gastrulation ends when epiboly of the hypoblasts closes the blastopore.
### Post-embryonic development
Under environmental conditions favourable for reproduction, hatched larvae develop through four larval stages - L1, L2, L3, and L4 - in just 3 days at 20 °C. When conditions are stressed, as in food insufficiency, excessive population density or high temperature, C. elegans can enter an alternative third larval stage, L2d, called the dauer stage (Dauer is German for permanent). A specific dauer pheromone regulates entry into the dauer state. This pheromone is composed of similar derivatives of the 3,6-dideoxy sugar, ascarylose. Ascarosides, named after the ascarylose base, are involved in many sex-specific and social behaviors. In this way, they constitute a chemical language that C. elegans uses to modulate various phenotypes. Dauer larvae are stress-resistant; they are thin and their mouths are sealed with a characteristic dauer cuticle and cannot take in food. They can remain in this stage for a few months. The stage ends when conditions improve favour further growth of the larva, now moulting into the L4 stage, even though the gonad development is arrested at the L2 stage.
Each stage transition is punctuated by a molt of the worm's transparent cuticle. Transitions through these stages are controlled by genes of the heterochronic pathway, an evolutionarily conserved set of regulatory factors. Many heterochronic genes code for microRNAs, which repress the expression of heterochronic transcription factors and other heterochronic miRNAs. miRNAs were originally discovered in C. elegans. Important developmental events controlled by heterochronic genes include the division and eventual syncitial fusion of the hypodermic seam cells, and their subsequent secretion of the alae in young adults. It is believed that the heterochronic pathway represents an evolutionarily conserved predecessor to circadian clocks.
Some nematodes have a fixed, genetically determined number of cells, a phenomenon known as eutely. The adult C. elegans hermaphrodite has 959 somatic cells and the male has 1033 cells, although it has been suggested that the number of their intestinal cells can increase by one to three in response to gut microbes experienced by mothers. Much of the literature describes the cell number in males as 1031, but the discovery of a pair of left and right MCM neurons increased the number by two in 2015. The number of cells does not change after cell division ceases at the end of the larval period, and subsequent growth is due solely to an increase in the size of individual cells.
## Ecology
The different Caenorhabditis species occupy various nutrient- and bacteria-rich environments. They feed on the bacteria that develop in decaying organic matter (microbivory). Soil lacks enough organic matter to support self-sustaining populations. C. elegans can survive on a diet of a variety of bacteria, but its wild ecology is largely unknown. Most laboratory strains were taken from artificial environments such as gardens and compost piles. More recently, C. elegans has been found to thrive in other kinds of organic matter, particularly rotting fruit. C. elegans can also ingest pollutants, especially tiny nanoplastics, which could enable the association with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resulting in the dissemination of nanoplastics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria by C. elegans across the soil.
C. elegans can also use different species of yeast, including Cryptococcus laurentii and C. kuetzingii, as sole sources of food. Although a bacterivore, C. elegans can be killed by a number of pathogenic bacteria, including human pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica or Enterococcus faecalis. Pathogenic bacteria can also form biofilms, whose sticky exopolymer matrix could impede C. elegans motility and cloaks bacterial quorum sensing chemoattractants from predator detection.
Invertebrates such as millipedes, insects, isopods, and gastropods can transport dauer larvae to various suitable locations. The larvae have also been seen to feed on their hosts when they die.
Nematodes can survive desiccation, and in C. elegans, the mechanism for this capability has been demonstrated to be late embryogenesis abundant proteins.
C. elegans, as other nematodes, can be eaten by predator nematodes and other omnivores, including some insects.
The Orsay virus is a virus that affects C. elegans, as well as the Caenorhabditis elegans Cer1 virus and the Caenorhabditis elegans Cer13 virus.
Interactions with fungi
Wild isolates of Caenorhabditis elegans are regularly found with infections by Microsporidia fungi. One such species, Nematocida parisii, replicates in the intestines of C. elegans.
Arthrobotrys oligospora is the model organism for interactions between fungi and nematodes. It is the most common and widespread nematode capturing fungus.
## Use as a model organism
In 1963, Sydney Brenner proposed using C. elegans as a model organism for the investigation primarily of neural development in animals. It is one of the simplest organisms with a nervous system. The neurons do not fire action potentials, and do not express any voltage-gated sodium channels. In the hermaphrodite, this system comprises 302 neurons the pattern of which has been comprehensively mapped, in what is known as a connectome, and shown to be a small-world network.
Research has explored the neural and molecular mechanisms that control several behaviors of C. elegans, including chemotaxis, thermotaxis, mechanotransduction, learning, memory, and mating behaviour. In 2019 the connectome of the male was published using a technique distinct from that used for the hermaphrodite. The same paper used the new technique to redo the hermaphrodite connectome, finding 1,500 new synapses.
It has been used as a model organism to study molecular mechanisms in metabolic diseases. Brenner also chose it as it is easy to grow in bulk populations, and convenient for genetic analysis. It is a multicellular eukaryotic organism, yet simple enough to be studied in great detail. The transparency of C. elegans facilitates the study of cellular differentiation and other developmental processes in the intact organism. The spicules in the male clearly distinguish males from females. Strains are cheap to breed and can be frozen. When subsequently thawed, they remain viable, allowing long-term storage. Maintenance is easy when compared to other multicellular model organisms. A few hundred nematodes can be kept on a single agar plate and suitable growth medium. Brenner described the use of a mutant of E. coli – OP50. OP50 is a uracil-requiring organism and its deficiency in the plate prevents the overgrowth of bacteria which would obscure the worms. The use of OP50 does not demand any major laboratory safety measures, since it is non-pathogenic and easily grown in Luria-Bertani (LB) media overnight.
### Cell lineage mapping
The developmental fate of every single somatic cell (959 in the adult hermaphrodite; 1031 in the adult male) has been mapped. These patterns of cell lineage are largely invariant between individuals, whereas in mammals, cell development is more dependent on cellular cues from the embryo.
As mentioned previously, the first cell divisions of early embryogenesis in C. elegans are among the best understood examples of asymmetric cell divisions, and the worm is a very popular model system for studying developmental biology.
### Programmed cell death
Programmed cell death (apoptosis) eliminates many additional cells (131 in the hermaphrodite, most of which would otherwise become neurons); this "apoptotic predictability" has contributed to the elucidation of some apoptotic genes. Cell death-promoting genes and a single cell-death inhibitor have been identified.
### RNA interference and gene silencing
RNA interference (RNAi) is a relatively straightforward method of disrupting the function of specific genes. Silencing the function of a gene can sometimes allow a researcher to infer its possible function. The nematode can be soaked in, injected with, or fed with genetically transformed bacteria that express the double-stranded RNA of interest, the sequence of which complements the sequence of the gene that the researcher wishes to disable. RNAi has emerged as a powerful tool in the study of functional genomics. C. elegans has been used to analyse gene functions and claim the promise of future findings in the systematic genetic interactions.
Environmental RNAi uptake is much worse in other species of worms in the genus Caenorhabditis. Although injecting RNA into the body cavity of the animal induces gene silencing in most species, only C. elegans and a few other distantly related nematodes can take up RNA from the bacteria they eat for RNAi. This ability has been mapped down to a single gene, sid-2, which, when inserted as a transgene in other species, allows them to take up RNA for RNAi as C. elegans does.
### Cell division and cell cycle
Research into meiosis has been considerably simplified since every germ cell nucleus is at the same given position as it moves down the gonad, so is at the same stage in meiosis. In an early phase of meiosis, the oocytes become extremely resistant to radiation and this resistance depends on expression of genes rad51 and atm that have key roles in recombinational repair. Gene mre-11 also plays a crucial role in recombinational repair of DNA damage during meiosis. A study of the frequency of outcrossing in natural populations showed that selfing is the predominant mode of reproduction in C. elegans, but that infrequent outcrossing events occur at a rate around 1%. Meioses that result in selfing are unlikely to contribute significantly to beneficial genetic variability, but these meioses may provide the adaptive benefit of recombinational repair of DNA damages that arise, especially under stressful conditions.
### Drug abuse and addiction
Nicotine dependence can also be studied using C. elegans because it exhibits behavioral responses to nicotine that parallel those of mammals. These responses include acute response, tolerance, withdrawal, and sensitization.
### Biological databases
As for most model organisms, scientists that work in the field curate a dedicated online database and the WormBase is that for C. elegans. The WormBase attempts to collate all published information on C. elegans and other related nematodes. Their website has advertised a reward of \$4000 for the finder of a new species of closely related nematode. Such a discovery would broaden research opportunities with the worm.
### Ageing
C. elegans has been a model organism for research into ageing; for example, the inhibition of an insulin-like growth factor signaling pathway has been shown to increase adult lifespan threefold; while glucose feeding promotes oxidative stress and reduce adult lifespan by a half. Similarly, induced degradation of an insulin/IGF-1 receptor late in life extended life expectancy of worms dramatically. Long-lived mutants of C. elegans were demonstrated to be resistant to oxidative stress and UV light. These long-lived mutants had a higher DNA repair capability than wild-type C. elegans. Knockdown of the nucleotide excision repair gene Xpa-1 increased sensitivity to UV and reduced the life span of the long-lived mutants. These findings indicate that DNA repair capability underlies longevity.
The capacity to repair DNA damage by the process of nucleotide excision repair declines with age.
C. elegans exposed to 5mM lithium chloride (LiCl) showed lengthened life spans. When exposed to 10μM LiCl, reduced mortality was observed, but not with 1μM.
C. elegans has been instrumental in the identification of the functions of genes implicated in Alzheimer's disease, such as presenilin. Moreover, extensive research on C. elegans has identified RNA-binding proteins as essential factors during germline and early embryonic development.
Telomeres, the length of which have been shown to correlate with increased lifespan and delayed onset of senescence in a multitude of organisms, from C. elegans to humans, show an interesting behaviour in C. elegans. While C. elegans maintains its telomeres in a canonical way similar to other eukaryotes, in contrast Drosophila melanogaster is noteworthy in its use of retrotransposons to maintain its telomeres, during knock-out of the catalytic subunit of the telomerase (trt-1) C. elegans can gain the ability of alternative telomere lengthening (ALT). C. elegans was the first eukaryote to gain ALT functionality after knock-out of the canonical telomerase pathway. ALT is also observed in about 10-15% of all clinical cancers. Thus C. elegans is a prime candidate for ALT research. Bayat et al. showed the paradoxical shortening of telomeres during trt-1 over-expression which lead to near sterility while the worms even exhibited a slight increase in lifespan, despite shortened telomeres.
### Sleep
C. elegans is notable in animal sleep studies as the most primitive organism to display sleep-like states. In C. elegans, a lethargus phase occurs shortly before each moult. C. elegans has also been demonstrated to sleep after exposure to physical stress, including heat shock, UV radiation, and bacterial toxins.
### Sensory biology
While the worm has no eyes, it has been found to be sensitive to light due to a third type of light-sensitive animal photoreceptor protein, LITE-1, which is 10 to 100 times more efficient at absorbing light than the other two types of photopigments (opsins and cryptochromes) found in the animal kingdom.
C. elegans is remarkably adept at tolerating acceleration. It can withstand 400,000 g's, according to geneticists at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. In an experiment, 96% of them were still alive without adverse effects after an hour in an ultracentrifuge.
### Spaceflight research
C. elegans made news when specimens were discovered to have survived the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003. Later, in January 2009, live samples of C. elegans from the University of Nottingham were announced to be spending two weeks on the International Space Station that October, in a space research project to explore the effects of zero gravity on muscle development and physiology. The research was primarily about genetic basis of muscle atrophy, which relates to spaceflight or being bed-ridden, geriatric, or diabetic. Descendants of the worms aboard Columbia in 2003 were launched into space on Endeavour for the STS-134 mission. Additional experiments on muscle dystrophy during spaceflight will be carried on board of the ISS starting in December 2018.
## Genetics
### Genome
C. elegans was the first multicellular organism to have its whole genome sequenced. The sequence was published in 1998, although some small gaps were present; the last gap was finished by October 2002. In the run up to the whole genome the C. elegans Sequencing Consortium/C. elegans Genome Project released several partial scans including Wilson et al. 1994.
#### Size and gene content
The C. elegans genome is about 100 million base pairs long and consists of six pairs of chromosomes in hermaphrodites or five pairs of autosomes with XO chromosome in male C. elegans and a mitochondrial genome. Its gene density is about one gene per five kilo-base pairs. Introns make up 26% and intergenic regions 47% of the genome. Many genes are arranged in clusters and how many of these are operons is unclear. C. elegans and other nematodes are among the few eukaryotes currently known to have operons; these include trypanosomes, flatworms (notably the trematode Schistosoma mansoni), and a primitive chordate tunicate Oikopleura dioica. Many more organisms are likely to be shown to have these operons.
The genome contains an estimated 20,470 protein-coding genes. About 35% of C. elegans genes have human homologs. Remarkably, human genes have been shown repeatedly to replace their C. elegans homologs when introduced into C. elegans. Conversely, many C. elegans genes can function similarly to mammalian genes.
The number of known RNA genes in the genome has increased greatly due to the 2006 discovery of a new class called 21U-RNA genes, and the genome is now believed to contain more than 16,000 RNA genes, up from as few as 1,300 in 2005.
Scientific curators continue to appraise the set of known genes; new gene models continue to be added and incorrect ones modified or removed.
The reference C. elegans genome sequence continues to change as new evidence reveals errors in the original sequencing. Most changes are minor, adding or removing only a few base pairs of DNA. For example, the WS202 release of WormBase (April 2009) added two base pairs to the genome sequence. Sometimes, more extensive changes are made as noted in the WS197 release of December 2008, which added a region of over 4,300 bp to the sequence.
The C. elegans Genome Project's Wilson et al. 1994 found CelVav and a von Willebrand factor A domain and with Wilson et al. 1998 provides the first credible evidence for an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) homolog outside of vertebrates. 2
#### Related genomes
In 2003, the genome sequence of the related nematode C. briggsae was also determined, allowing researchers to study the comparative genomics of these two organisms. The genome sequences of more nematodes from the same genus e.g., C. remanei, C. japonica and C. brenneri (named after Brenner), have also been studied using the shotgun sequencing technique. These sequences have now been completed.
### Other genetic studies
As of 2014, C. elegans is the most basal species in the 'Elegans' group (10 species) of the 'Elegans' supergroup (17 species) in phylogenetic studies. It forms a branch of its own distinct to any other species of the group.
Tc1 transposon is a DNA transposon active in C. elegans.
## Scientific community
In 2002, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz, and John Sulston for their work on the genetics of organ development and programmed cell death in C. elegans. The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Andrew Fire and Craig C. Mello for their discovery of RNA interference in C. elegans. In 2008, Martin Chalfie shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on green fluorescent protein; some of the research involved the use of C. elegans.
Many scientists who research C. elegans closely connect to Sydney Brenner, with whom almost all research in this field began in the 1970s; they have worked as either a postdoctoral or a postgraduate researcher in Brenner's lab or in the lab of someone who previously worked with Brenner. Most who worked in his lab later established their own worm research labs, thereby creating a fairly well-documented "lineage" of C. elegans scientists, which was recorded into the WormBase database in some detail at the 2003 International Worm Meeting.
## See also
- Animal testing on invertebrates
- Bioluminescence
- Eileen Southgate
- Intronerator
- OpenWorm
- WormBook
|
6,790,963 |
M-67 (Michigan highway)
| 1,167,102,425 |
State highway in Alger County, Michigan, United States
|
[
"State highways in Michigan",
"Transportation in Alger County, Michigan"
] |
M-67 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It connects with US Highway 41 (US 41) and M-94 between Trenary and Chatham. The highway has largely been unchanged during its history, although the highways that connect to M-67 on each end have changed several times.
## Route description
M-67 starts at an intersection with US 41 near Trenary east of the West Branch of the Whitefish River. From that intersection the highway runs east crossing Scott Creek before running into downtown Trenary along relatively flat terrain. East of town, the highway turns north running parallel to the AuTrain River Basin. The trunkline crosses Dexter Creek between Paulsen and Trout Lake roads. About halfway along the north–south segment of the highway, M-67 passes through the community of Limestone and crosses Johnson Creek. After running for 12.044 miles (19.383 km), M-67 ends at a four-way intersection with M-94 and Tunteri Road.
Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) traffic surveys in 2007 show that between 1,200 and 1,400 vehicles traveled the road daily in 2007 in a measure of the annual average daily traffic (AADT). The same surveys showed that only 90 trucks are included in that average. In comparison, US 41 south of M-67 carried an average of 2,300 vehicles and 270 trucks. No segment of the trunkline is listed on the National Highway System, a system of strategically important highways.
## History
M-67 is an original state trunkline dating back to 1919. Its routing has been largely unchanged since designation. The southern terminus has been moved once, but the northern terminus has remained in the same location since 1919. US 41 was rerouted in the Trenary area to run west of town in late 1937 and 1938. M-67 was extended westerly along a former portion of US 41 to connect to the new highway on the south end of M-67. The highway was fully paved at the end of the 1950s.
While the highway itself is largely unchanged since 1919, the connections with other trunklines have changed. The intersection south of the community of Chatham where M-67 has ended since designation has remained unchanged. The other highways running through the intersection have changed twice. The first highway to connect with M-67 was M-25. M-25 was replaced by M-28 in 1926. The second change came in 1941 when the routings of M-28 and M-94 were exchanged between Harvey and Munising.
The original southern terminus was at an intersection with M-15 in Trenary. In 1926, M-15 was replaced by US 41. As stated previously, the southern terminus of M-67 was shifted to a new intersection with US 41 west of Trenary when the latter was rebuilt in the late 1930s resulting in the only physical change to M-67's routing.
## Major intersections
## See also
|
46,412,833 |
Plum cake
| 1,159,742,370 |
Range of cakes made with dried or fresh fruit
|
[
"British cakes",
"Cakes",
"German cakes",
"Plum dishes"
] |
Plum cake refers to a wide range of cakes usually made with dried fruits such as currants, raisins, sultanas, or prunes, and also sometimes with fresh fruits. There is a wide range of popular plum cakes and puddings. Since the meaning of the word "plum" has changed over time, many items referred to as plum cakes and popular in England since at least the eighteenth century have now become known as fruitcake. The English variety of plum cake also exists on the European mainland, but may vary in ingredients and consistency. British colonists and missionaries brought the dried fruit variety of cake with them, for example, in British India where it was served around the time of the Christmas holiday season. In America's Thirteen Colonies, where it became associated with elections, one version came to be called "election cake".
Plum cakes made with fresh plums came with other migrants elsewhere, in which plum cake is prepared using plum as a primary ingredient. In some versions, the plums may become jam-like inside the cake after cooking, or be prepared using plum jam. Plum cake prepared with plums is also a part of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, and is referred to as Pflaumenkuchen or Zwetschgenkuchen. Other plum-based cakes are found in French, Italian and Polish cooking.
## Terms
The term "plum cake" and "fruit cake" have become interchangeable. Since dried fruit is used as a sweetening agent and any dried fruit used to be described as "plums", many plum cakes and plum puddings do not contain the plum fruit now known by that name. (Plum pudding is a similar, richer dish prepared with similar ingredients, cooked by steaming the mixture rather than baking it.) The term "plum" originally referred to prunes, raisins or grapes. Thus the so-called plums from which English plum puddings are made "were always raisins, not the plump juicy fruits that the name suggests today."
In Old English, the term plūme was "from medieval Latin pruna, from Latin prunum," which equated to "prune". Prune in modern French means plum, so plum tarts have names such as tarte aux prunes. In English, prunes are dried plums, and when modern cakes use them as a primary ingredient, they may be referred to as a plum cake or type of plum cake.
## By region
### Britain
Plum cake has historically referred to an early type and style of fruitcake in England since around 1700. Raisins and currants were used, which in the English language were referred to as plums since around 1660. The various types of dried fruit (chiefly currants and raisins) were familiar to English kitchens through trade with The Levant and Mediterranean but before they became available through "trouble-free" imports from Australia, South Africa and California, preparing them required "an immense amount of labour ... on account of the rough and ready methods by which the fruit was picked, dried, packed and exported".
In 1881 Colonel Henry-Herbert said that "a good English plum cake...is a national institution". At times, Thomas Carlyle was one among many who ate a light style of plum cake with tea, into which he would dip the cake, which he described as bun-like with currants "dotted here and there". Elizabeth David wrote that "Christmas mincemeat and Christmas plum pudding and cake are all such typical examples of the English fondness for spiced fruit mixtures that it seems almost unnecessary to include recipes for them ..."
Plum cakes were raised by whipping air into the cake batter, rather than by the use of yeast. A range of plum cakes and puddings were published in the popular Book of Household Management (published 1859–1861) by Isabella Beeton. Mrs Beeton included recipes for "A Common Plum Cake" and "A Nice Plum Cake" as well as "Baked Plum-Pudding", "An Unrivalled Plum-Pudding", "A Plain Christmas Pudding for Children", "Plum-Pudding of Fresh Fruit", "Plum Tart", "Christmas Plum-Pudding", "A Pound Plum Pudding" and "Christmas Cake". The comment in an Indian Household Management book is indicative both of the reach of Mrs Beeton's book as well as the range of interpretations of plum cake and plum pudding. The author says, "Mrs Beeton’s recipe is by far the best if modified a little: 12 units of manukka raisins ..."
Up to World War I, cakes, including plum cakes, were baked along with loaves of bread. "A smaller cake or pasty might be slipped in or pulled out after the baking had begun, but a raised pie with well-protected sides, or a large plum cake, would take at least the same time as the loaves, and experienced housewives made them in sizes to do so."
### Europe
The English variety of plum cake also exists on the European mainland, although "plum cake" there more usually refers to baked cakes made with fresh, rather than dried fruit.
In French cooking, plums are an ingredients in a significant tradition of cake making: "...throughout the districts of the Loire, the Dordogne, the Lot and the Périgord, there [was] hardly a celebration, a wedding feast or celebration at which the dessert [did] not include some sort of plum or mirabelle tart, made with fresh or dried plums or jam according to the season." The Mirabelle plum is a specific cultivar used to make Tarte aux mirabelles (plum tart). A Galette aux fruits is a type of galette made with yeast dough and covered with previously cooked fruit in season, such as plums (or quinces, apples, apricots). The fruit in these open tarts or flans is cut into suitably sized pieces and the cake is glazed: red glaze is recommended for red plum and rhubarb flans, whereas apricot glaze is recommended in yellow plum and apricot flans.
The German plum cake, known as Zwetschkenkuchen, can be found all over the country, although its home is Bavaria. In chef Robert Carrier's recipe for it, the base is made from yeast pastry rather than often used shortcrust pastry, because the yeast pastry "soaks up the juice from the plums without becoming soggy".
In Italy, plum cake is known by the English name, baked in an oven using dried fruit and often yoghurt.
The Polish version of plum cake, which also uses fresh fruit, is known as Placek z Sliwkami.
### India
In India, plum cake has been served around the time of the Christmas holiday season, and may have additional ingredients such as rum added.
### United States
Plum cake in the United States originated with the English settlers and was prepared in the English style in sizes ranging from small, such as for parties in celebration of Twelfth Night and Christmas, to large, such as for weddings. This original fruitcake version of plum cake in the United States has been referred to as a reigning "standard American celebration cake through the time of the civil war".
During colonial times before the American Revolution "Muster" cakes were baked in great number for the men summoned by British troops for military Training. Following the American Revolution women would bake these cakes in vast quantities to motivate the men to attend town meetings and elections. Thus it became known as "election cake". It was prepared with currants, raisins, molasses and spices, with the addition of brandy in the recipe occurring later. Election cakes were typically leavened with yeast. In New England, large election cakes weighing around 12 pounds (5.4 kg) would traditionally be served while people waited for election results. It has been stated that the first published election cake recipe appeared in 1796 in American Cookery.
Plum cake recipes in the fruitcake style appeared in early cookbooks in the Southern United States, and did not actually call for plums. After 1830 plum cake was often referred to as fruit cake or black cake. In 1885, in a description of plum cake that sounds like plum pudding, it was described as "mucilaginous" – a solid, dark-colored, thick cake with copious amounts of plums, gritty notes from raisins.
## See also
- List of cakes
- Raisin cake
|
45,443,976 |
A Dainty Politician
| 1,108,766,574 | null |
[
"1910 drama films",
"1910 films",
"1910 lost films",
"1910s American films",
"1910s political drama films",
"American black-and-white films",
"American political drama films",
"American silent short films",
"Lost American films",
"Lost drama films",
"Silent American drama films",
"Thanhouser Company films"
] |
A Dainty Politician is a 1910 American silent short drama produced by the Thanhouser Company. The film focuses on corruption political activity during a political convention in which a corrupt politician is running for re-election to the United States Congress. The votes are tallied and the challenger ties with the corrupt Congressman Casey, but a third candidate holds the balance of power. Casey bribes the third candidate to retire in his favor, but the plot is uncovered and the two are ejected from the convention by a reporter who falls in love with challenger's daughter. The film was released on August 23, 1910, and saw a wide national release. Little is known of the actual production, but it received mixed reaction for the plausibility of its plot. The film is presumed lost.
## Plot
Though the film is presumed lost, a synopsis survives in The Moving Picture World from August 27, 1910. It states: "Congressman Casey is a type of the ward politician who is now, fortunately, being rapidly eliminated from politics. He is planning his re-election to Congress. The decent movement in the community has been aroused and a movement is on foot to nominate Professor Blake, a citizen of high standing and character. John Willette, a reporter for the Daily Globe, calls on Professor Blake to inform him that he will be requested to run for the nomination and shows an article on the subject that has appeared in the Daily Globe. Professor Blake receives him cordially and he meets Professor Blake's daughter, Marie; the young people proceed to fall in love. The time for the convention arrives. As the convention is assembling and before they proceed to business, a band of suffragettes headed by Miss Croup gain admission and attempt to get a plank introduced in the platform favoring 'votes for women.' The convention turns them down and they are ejected from the floor."
"Nominations are then made for candidates, and after a vote has been taken it is found that ballots for Casey and Professor Blake are very evenly divided in that a candidate named Jennings, who is receiving the fewest votes, holds the balance of power. The convention takes a recess and Casey endeavors to bribe Jennings to retire in his favor and throw all his votes to Casey. Willett overhears enough of the bargain to make him suspicious, and communicates his beliefs to Marie. Between them they contrive to so fix the connection of the telephone in Casey's room that they can overhear the completion of the bribery plot. They succeed in this, and hear Jennings agree to the bargain for the consideration of a large-size check which Casey hands to him. The convention reconvenes, and John Willette appears and makes the charge publicly that Casey has bribed Jennings to throw his votes. Casey and Jennings indignantly deny this, and Marie comes forward as a witness; whereupon Jennings and Casey try to leave the convention. Delegates grab Jennings; search him and find the check given him by Casey. The two are ejected from the convention, which at once nominates Professor Blake and acclaims the two lovers who made the nomination possible."
## Production
The writer of the scenario is unknown, but it was most likely Lloyd Lonergan. He was an experienced newspaperman employed by The New York Evening World while writing scripts for the Thanhouser productions. One advertisement claimed, likely in error, that this film was based on the play The Man of the Hour. Written by George Broadhurst, the play focused on political corruption in the form of graft, but the play itself was apparently inspired by politicians of New York. The plot of the film includes a nod to the Women's suffrage movement, but it would be a decade before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. The character, Congressman Casey, would later be seen again in Orator, Knight and Cow Charmer. The film director is unknown, but it may have been Barry O'Neil. Film historian Q. David Bowers does not attribute a cameraman for this production, but at least two possible candidates exist. Blair Smith was the first cameraman of the Thanhouser company, but he was soon joined by Carl Louis Gregory who had years of experience as a still and motion picture photographer. The role of the cameraman was uncredited in 1910 productions. There are no known credits for the cast, but Anna Rosemond and Frank H. Crane are two possible actors that were prominent players in 1910. Credits may have included Anna Rosemond, one of two leading ladies of the Thanhouser company in this era. Frank H. Crane was a leading male actor of the company and also involved since the very beginnings of the Thanhouser Company. Bowers states that most of the credits are fragmentary for 1910 Thanhouser productions. A surviving film still leaves open the possibility of identifying two characters.
## Release and reception
The one reel drama, approximately 960 feet long, was released on August 23, 1910. The film had a wide national release, theater advertisements are known in Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Washington, Indiana, New Hampshire, Arizona, Texas, Ohio, and Illinois. One of the last known advertisements for the film was in Bryan, Texas on March 6, 1912.
The film was reviewed positively in The Moving Picture World which stated, "Apparently someone connected with the Thanhouser Company has learned something of ward politics, and the methods of controlling a convention are very clearly and bluntly stated. It isn't always possible to expose plots such as this one was exposed, but it would have been a good thing if it could be done.... The situations are dramatically worked out and the interest never flags from the beginning to the end. A love story adds a certain degree of interest to the picture, and the development of the plot is strengthened by the young people's lovemaking." The New York Dramatic Mirror disagreed with the plausibility of the depicted political manipulation, but found the picture to be interesting and the acting to be adequate. Later publications would also reference the film for its content, like The Columbia Companion to American History on Film which cites it as an example of a political machine based on graft and deceit. Neither graft nor deceit is actually in play with the production, for pure bribery is the method upon which the politician uses to gain political power. Kay Sloan, author of The Loud Silents: Origins of the Social Problem Film, states that the film explored the problem of political corruption and critics approved because they saw was a realistic portrayal. Another release dealing with political corruption was The Girl Reporter, released by Thanhouser on August 16, 1910.
## See also
- List of American films of 1910
|
16,441,821 |
Chelsea (song)
| 1,082,258,594 | null |
[
"2006 debut singles",
"2006 songs",
"Bubblegum pop songs",
"Music videos directed by Nigel Dick",
"Songs written by Greg Kurstin",
"Songs written by Jimmy Harry",
"Stefy songs",
"Wind-up Records singles"
] |
"Chelsea" is the debut single recorded by American pop rock band Stefy. It was released as the lead single from their debut album, The Orange Album (2006). It was sent to mainstream radio in June 2006 and was made available as a CD single and digital download by Wind-up Records on July 18. The song features a melody that is similar to The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)".
"Chelsea" was written by Jimmy Harry, Greg Kurstin and Stefy Rae, while production was handled by Harry. The song received mixed reviews from music critics, who favorably compared it to the works of Gwen Stefani and Blondie, but found it to be a "weak" debut single. The song was moderately successful after its release, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play, and playing a prominent role in the video game 2006 FIFA World Cup (2006).
## Background and release
"Chelsea" was written and produced during recording sessions in Los Angeles, California at 320 Studios and Bombshelter Studios. Sessions for Stefy's debut album, The Orange Album, began when lead singer Stefy Rae was "look[ing] for [a] sense of uniqueness" in the music industry. Rae stated that she was inspired to write "Chelsea" after another woman stole her boyfriend.
The single was written by Stefy lead singer Stefy Rae, Greg Kurstin, and Jimmy Harry, while production was handled solely by Harry. The track was released in 2006 as a CD single and digital download by Wind-up Records. The CD single version of "Chelsea" came with B-side track "Cover Up". The single was later issued to mainstream radio in June 2006, where it received modest success and significant airplay, charting on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play for nine consecutive weeks.
## Composition and reception
Musically, "Chelsea" is a bubblegum pop and new wave track, referencing the music of the 1980s and 1990s. Chris Carle, writing for IGN, described the single as an "ode to jealousy" that started "with [a] Eurhythmics-style synth before launching into a snarling, almost-tough chorus." Marcus Duke for the Daily Express also noted the "sly sampling" of Eurhythmics, and stated "Stefy Rae has definitely been influenced by Gwen Stefani." Francis Petruziello of Domain Cleveland Entertainment wrote an album review of The Orange Album and stated "'Chelsea' kicks off [the] album with the pixie-like vocals of Stefy Rae singing about a boyfriend leaving her for another woman."
"Chelsea" received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Chris Carle of IGN praised the song for being a "standout track" and a "great blend of playful and painful". Similarly, Marcus Dunk of the Daily Express wrote that "Chelsea" was a highlight for Stefy. Francis Petruziello, writing for Domain Cleveland Entertainment, enjoyed the "danceable" qualities of the song. A reviewer of Billboard enjoyed the single, comparing it to Gwen Stefani and Blondie's work, but considered it "hardly a proper intro" on The Orange Album, however, the reviewer praised it for being a "delectably bubble gum" song. A critic from CMJ New Music Monthly was displeased with "Chelsea", stating that it's a "pale imitation of [a] classic decade-of-decadence act", referencing the song's sampling of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)".
## Commercial performance
"Chelsea" was moderately successful. Due to strong airplay on mainstream dance radio, the single managed to peak at number fifteen on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play; it remained on the charts for nine weeks before departing the chart on October 7, 2006. It also peaked at number eighteen on the Billboard Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, where it lasted for four weeks. In Europe, the single also fared moderately well. In the United Kingdom, the track debuted and peaked at number eighty-two on the Official Charts Company. In Ireland, "Chelsea" debuted and peaked at number ninety-six.
## Music video
The official music video for "Chelsea" was first released on September 1, 2006 via YouTube, before being made available for purchase on September 13. The video was directed by Nigel Dick and features a guest appearance by Adam West as the judge of a court case. The video begins with Rae arriving at the scene of the case, surrounded by West and a group of female jurors who clap along to the song's melody. Presumably, Rae is trying to convict her ex-boyfriend of cheating on her. Various scenes include Rae performing at a school's gymnasium and picking a fight with a female antagonist named Chelsea. The video concludes with Rae winning the court case and walking away from the scene.
## Track listings and formats
- US CD single
1. "Chelsea" - 2:51
- UK CD single
1. "Chelsea" - 2:52
2. "Cover Up" – 3:41
- Sebastien Leger Remixes CD (US version)
1. "Chelsea (Sebastien Leger Mix)" - 6:23
2. "Chelsea (Sebastien Leger Mix) (Radio Edit)" - 3:24
- Sebastien Leger Remixes CD (UK version)
1. "Chelsea (Sebastien Leger Mix) (Radio Edit)" - 3:49
2. "Chelsea (Sebastien Leger Mix) (Club Mix)" - 6:31
- The Remixes CD (US version)
1. "Chelsea (Chris Cox Radio Mix)" - 3:30
2. "Chelsea (Chris Cox Club Mix)" - 10:03
3. "Chelsea (Chris Cox Dub Mix)" - 7:39
4. "Chelsea (Album Mix)" - 2:52
5. "Chelsea (Morgan Page Radio Mix" - 4:42
6. "Chelsea (Morgan Page Club Mix)" - 7:30
7. "Chelsea (Morgan Page Dub Mix)" - 7:31
- The Remixes CD (Denmark version)
1. "Chelsea (Original version)" - 2:50
2. "Chelsea (Chris Cox Club Mix)" - 10:03
3. "Chelsea (Chris Cox Dub Mix)" - 7:39
4. "Chelsea (Morgan Page Club Mix)" - 7:30
5. "Chelsea (Morgan Page Dub Mix)" - 7:29
6. "Chelsea (Sebastien Leger Mix)" - 6:29
## Credits and personnel
Credits and personnel adapted from The Orange Album liner notes
Recording
- Recorded at 3:20 Studios and Bombshelter Studios, Los Angeles
Personnel
- Stefy Rae – vocals, lyrics
- Andreas Brobjer – drums
- Bryan K. Christner – legal
- Chriss Fudurich – engineer
- Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering
- Jason Gaviati – keyboards
- Benjamin Haber – photography
- Oren Hadar – engineer
- Jimmy Harry – engineer, guitar, keyboards, lyrics, production, programming
- Femio Hernandez – assistant mixing
- Greg Kurstin – lyrics
- Tom Lord-Alge – mixing
- Gail Marowitz – art direction
- Sean Meyer – guitar
- Mike Mongillo – coordinator
- Chad Nini – assistant engineer
- Bethany Pawluk – design
- Ben Tirney – assistant engineer
## Charts
## Release history
|
48,878,501 |
2016 Tour of the Basque Country
| 1,140,161,044 | null |
[
"2016 UCI World Tour",
"2016 in Spanish road cycling",
"Tour of the Basque Country by year"
] |
The 2016 Tour of the Basque Country (Spanish: Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Basque: Euskal Herriko itzulia) was a road cycling stage race that took place in the Basque Country between 4 and 9 April 2016. It was the 56th edition of the Tour of the Basque Country and the ninth event of the 2016 UCI World Tour.
The race took place over mountainous terrain and was suitable for climbers. The first five stages were mountainous; the sixth and final stage was a hilly individual time trial. The defending champion was Joaquim Rodríguez (), with Nairo Quintana (), Alberto Contador () and Sergio Henao () also among the favourites for the overall victory.
Luis León Sánchez won the opening stage, but lost the lead the following day on the first uphill finish to Mikel Landa (Sky). Landa lost the lead on Stage 4, with Wilco Kelderman () taking over the lead. On the second uphill finish of the race on the penultimate day, Henao took over the lead after escaping with Contador. Contador then won the time trial on the final stage and beat Henao to the overall victory by 12 seconds, with Quintana a further 23 seconds behind in third. Henao won the points classification, while Nicolas Edet () won the intermediate sprints competition and Diego Rosa () the mountains classification.
## Route
The route of the 2016 Tour of the Basque Country was generally mountainous, with no stages suited for the sprinters. The first stage included eight categorised climbs, the last of which was 8.3 kilometres (5.2 mi) from the finish. The second finished with a 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) climb at an average gradient of 11.7%; the third and fourth stages again contained multiple climbs shortly before the finish. The fifth stage was the most difficult, with the 5.5-kilometre (3.4 mi) climb of the Arrate (referred to by its Basque name Usartza and averaging 8.5%), shortly before the finish. The final stage was a hilly individual time trial around Eibar.
## Participating teams
As the Tour of the Basque Country is a UCI World Tour event, all eighteen UCI WorldTeams were invited automatically and were obliged to enter a team in the race. Two UCI Professional Continental teams – and – were awarded wildcard places, bringing the number of teams to twenty. As each team included eight riders, there were a total of 160 at the start of the first stage.
## Pre-race favourites
The mountainous terrain meant that the favourites for victory were exclusively climbers; every stage offered the opportunity for attacks. The final two stages (the climb to Arrate and the individual time trial) were expected to be decisive. The top two riders from the 2015 edition, Joaquim Rodríguez () and Sergio Henao (), both returned to the race. Rodríguez had not been in good form and had not been in the top ten at any race in 2016. Henao had been expected to ride in support of his team's new signing Mikel Landa, but Landa had been ill and was not yet in good form; Henao was therefore his team's leader. The principal favourites, however, were Nairo Quintana () and Alberto Contador (); both men are former winners of the race (Quintana in 2013 and Contador in 2008, 2009 and 2014). Quintana had beaten Contador the previous month at the Volta a Catalunya. Other favourites included Dan Martin () and Fabio Aru (), along with Thibaut Pinot (), who had won the Critérium International.
## Stages
### Stage 1
4 April – Etxebarria to Markina-Xemein, 144 km (89 mi)
The first stage took place over a 144-kilometre (89 mi) course that started in Etxebarria and followed a looping course to finish near the start in Markina-Xemein. The stage began with two third-category climbs, followed by a flat section along the coast, before turning back inland for two second-category climbs; there were then two more third-category climbs. The most difficult climb of the day was the first-category Alto de Ixua (6.2 kilometres (3.9 mi) at 7%); at the summit there were 26 kilometres (16 mi) remaining. This included one more second-category climb – the eighth of the day – and a final 8-kilometre (5.0 mi) descent to the finish, which came on flat, straight roads.
The day's main breakaway formed after the first climb. It was made up of Gianluca Brambilla (), Marcel Wyss (), Nicolas Edet () and Jonathan Lastra (). Brambilla fell back from the break before the third climb of the day, where the lead over the peloton was around three minutes. The peloton was led throughout by riders from Tinkoff and from and was just over a minute 42 kilometres (26 mi) from the end.
Wyss was dropped on the Alto de Ixua, with 35 kilometres (22 mi) remaining, and the lead dropped to less than half a minute. The peloton's chase slowed on the climb, however, and Dario Cataldo was able to attack and come across to the breakaway; he immediately dropped Lastra and, after working with Edet for a while, dropped him too and continued alone. Meanwhile, there were attacks in the peloton, with Philip Deignan (Team Sky) and Wilco Kelderman () both attempting to escape. Towards the top of the climb, Alberto Contador attacked and was followed by the other general classification favourites; this acceleration brought Cataldo back to the group. On the final climb, Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) attacked and was joined by Luis León Sánchez (Astana). Sánchez led Navarro down the fast descent; they held a small lead going into the final kilometres. Sánchez sprinted first and Navarro was unable to come past. The main group were very close at the finish, with Simon Gerrans () sprinting into third place. Sánchez therefore took the overall lead of the race, with 50 other riders on the same time.
### Stage 2
4 April – Markina-Xemein to Baranbio-Garrastatxu (Amurrio), 174.2 km (108.2 mi)
The second stage started where the first had finished, in Markina-Xemein, and headed south-west towards the finish in Amurrio. It began with a second-category climb very early in the stage; after a flat section came two more climbs, one third-category and one second-category. After a long plateau and a descent, the riders arrived in Amurrio for the first time. Another third-category ascent followed; at the summit there were 47 kilometres (29 mi) to the finish. Most of this was over fairly flat roads as the riders looped around Amurrio, but the final part of the race was a steep climb, the 2.7-kilometre (1.7 mi) Alto de Garrastatxu, with an average gradient of 11.7%. The climb started with a section at 11.5%, followed by another at 13.5%; the final part of the climb had a gradient of 9.3%.
The first half of the stage took place in cold and rainy conditions. Nicholas Edet won the first mountain sprint, putting him into the lead of the mountain classification. A breakaway formed in the following kilometres, but the presence of two well-placed riders (Simone Petilli and Louis Meintjes) meant that the group was not allowed to build an advantage. Stefan Denifl () and Ángel Madrazo () were part of this group and were then able to escape again, forming a two-man breakaway that led most of the stage. Their lead was over three minutes with 30 kilometres (19 mi) remaining, but fell rapidly; they were caught with 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) remaining.
Team Sky, along with , Cannondale and Movistar, led the peloton towards the climb, with taking over as the road began to rise. Blel Kadri () then attacked, but was soon overtaken by Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL–Jumbo) and Mikel Landa (Sky). Going into the final kilometre, they had a 14-second lead. Contador, who had lost the key stage of the Volta a Catalunya after doing too much work on the final climb, waited for the other riders in the group to chase Landa and Kelderman. Rui Costa attempted to bring the two riders back, with Contador, Henao, Rodriguez and Samuel Sánchez () following, but they were unable to catch them. In the final few hundred metres, Landa came past Kelderman and took the stage win, his first since signing for Team Sky. Keldeman was second, one second behind Landa, with Henao four seconds further back in third. Landa took over the race lead. After the stage, however, he said that Henao remained the team leader for the rest of the race and that he "could crack tomorrow".
### Stage 3
6 April 2016 – Vitoria-Gasteiz to Lesaka, 193.5 km (120.2 mi)
The third stage covered a 193.5-kilometre (120.2 mi) route from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Lesaka. The route initially took the riders east along flat roads to Irurtzun, then north towards the coast. Shortly after the turn, there was a third-category climb followed immediately by a second-category climb. There were then flat roads as far as Hernani, when the riders turned east again, through Oiartzun. The final 35 kilometres (22 mi) included three second-category climbs. The last of these, the Alto de la Piedad, was crossed with 9.1 kilometres (5.7 mi) to the finish line. After the descent, there were flat roads to the finish.
There was an early breakaway formed by Blel Kadri (), Sam Oomen (), José Gonçalves (), Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data) and, for the second consecutive day, Stefan Denifl (IAM). Gonçalves won the first mountain sprint and Denifl the second, but the group was kept close by the peloton; going into the three final climbs they had just a minute's lead. On the first of these climbs, Denifl attacked the breakaway, with only Oomen able to follow; meanwhile Michael Albasini (Orica–GreenEDGE) attacked from the peloton and was joined by Dario Cataldo (Astana), Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) and Laurens De Plus (Etixx–Quick-Step). Denifl was first to the summit of the day's third climb, with the four chasers around 30 seconds behind.
On the day's penultimate climb, the chasers were joined by Adam Yates (Orica–GreenEDGE) and Pierre Rolland (); the whole group then came across to Denifl and Oomen. Denifl once again won the mountain sprint to take the lead in the mountain classification. As both Yates and Rolland were potential threats to Landa's general classification lead, Sky chased hard on the final climb, with the gap at around 15 seconds. Navarro attacked over the summit; Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) attacked from the peloton and was followed by Landa, Quintana, Samuel Sánchez and Rui Costa. Navarro rode the descent hard and had a small gap to the chasers at the foot, with a larger gap to the main peloton. Rolland and Yates attacked and caught Navarro; all the breakaway riders were finally caught with under 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) remaining.
Within the last 1 kilometre (0.6 mi), Steve Cummings () attacked solo and held on to take the stage win. The peloton came close to catching him – with Simon Gerrans second and Fabio Felline () – but Cummings had time to celebrate as he crossed the line. Cummings's victory came just hours after he had said in an interview with Cyclingnews.com that he would attempt to win stages with late attacks; it was his second such victory of the year, after a stage of the Tirreno–Adriatico. Landa retained his overall lead, with no change in the top ten riders.
### Stage 4
7 April 2016 – Lesaka to Orio, 165 km (103 mi)
The fourth stage of the race once again included several late climbs, coming at the end of a 165-kilometre (103 mi) course. The racing started in Lesaka, where Stage 3 had finished, and took the riders to Orio, travelling principally along the coast. There were two climbs in the first 50 kilometres (31 mi), one first-category and the other third-category. There was then a long section of flat roads before a second-category climb with 65 kilometres (40 mi) remaining. There were then three more second-category climbs in the final 35 kilometres (22 mi); the last two were ascents of different sides of the Alt de Aia, with the last summit coming 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from the finish. After the final descent, there were 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to the finish, which included an uncategorised climb of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) at 7%.
The beginning part of the stage was raced hard; a large breakaway formed early and contested the early climbs. Denifl won the first two climbs, but the breakaway was caught and, after 80 kilometres (50 mi), a new breakaway was formed. This was made up of six riders: Simone Petilli (Lampre–Mérida), Tim Wellens (Lotto–Soudal), Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale), Luis Ángel Maté (Cofidis), Carlos Verona (Etixx–Quick-Step) and Ángel Vicioso (Katusha). The breakaway split on the fourth climb of the day, but re-formed on the descent. Team Sky held their advantage under three minutes for most of the stage and it was reduced further approaching the final climbs; it was around 90 seconds with 22 kilometres (14 mi) remaining.
On the penultimate climb of the day, Warren Barguil () attacked and was followed by Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff), but Astana chased the move down. Meanwhile, Vicioso was dropped from the break; the rest of the breakaway had a one-minute lead going into the final climb. On the final climb, which had sections with a gradient of 28%, Verona attacked and escaped from the breakaway group, with Maté and Wellens chasing. Henao, Contador and Quintana attacked from the peloton, with Landa unable to follow. The riders were in several groups coming off the final climb, but Kreuziger's efforts brought the front groups back together with 2.3 kilometres (1.4 mi) remaining. On the final, uncategorised climb, Contador attacked, with Henao following, but Samuel Sánchez came past both of them and descended fast to the finish line, where he won the stage. Rui Costa (Movistar) finished second, on the same time as Sánchez, as part of a sixteen-rider chasing group that included all the main favourites except Landa, who lost eight seconds. Kelderman therefore moved into the race lead, four seconds ahead of Henao, with Landa now seven seconds behind in third place. Sánchez's victory was his first since he won a stage of the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné and his first since signing for BMC.
### Stage 5
8 April 2016 – Orio to (Eibar), 159 km (99 mi)
The final road stage of the race included eight categorised climbs, the last of which came just 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) before the finish. It began where Stage 4 finished, in Orio, and covered a 159-kilometre (99 mi) course to Eibar, where it finished at the top of the Arrate climb. The first 60 kilometres (37 mi) took the riders along the coast, then inland to Eibar. On the way there were two climbs, one third-category and one second-category. The riders then left Eibar to the south for a 70-kilometre (43 mi) circuit that included three second-category climbs. There was then a 30-kilometre (19 mi) circuit to the north of Eibar with a further two second-category climbs. The riders then returned to the town for the final climb – the Arrate or Usartza – which was 5.4 kilometres (3.4 mi) long at an average gradient of 8.2%. Following the summit, there was a short descent to the finish line.
A large breakaway group formed at the beginning of the stage, consisting of at least eighteen riders. After 41 kilometres (25 mi), Diego Rosa attacked the breakaway. No one followed, and he set off on a solo breakaway. Rosa said after the stage that he had been intending to draw out a smaller breakaway group; as no one followed him, he decided to continue alone, even though he was more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the end of the stage. For a significant portion of the stage, Rosa was chased by Maxime Monfort and Sander Armée (both ), but they were not able to reduce his advantage. At the start of the final climb of the day, he had several minutes' lead.
In the peloton, Kelderman's team was unable to stay with him to the end of the day and he was isolated for the final two climbs. Earlier in the day, he crashed on a corner during a wet descent and was left with rips in his clothing. On the final climb, Mikel Landa attacked from the group of overall favourites; he joined up with his teammate David López, who had been part of the early breakaway. López paced him for some time, with Simon Clarke (Cannondale) also joining the group. They were chased, however, by Tinkoff and brought back on the final climb. Contador then attacked, with only Henao able to follow. Ródriguez and Pinot chased; Kelderman attempted to stay with them but was dropped.
Rosa continued over the final climb and took a solo victory, several minutes ahead of the rest of the field. In the final metres, he stopped, dismounted and crossed the finish line on foot, holding his bike above his head. L'Équipe described his celebration as "unlikely but well deserved", after he had spent most of the stage riding alone. Henao and Contador finished together, two seconds ahead of Ródriguez and Pinot. Kelderman dropped to eighth place after finishing over a minute behind Henao and Contador. Henao took over both the overall lead and the points classification, while Rosa took over the lead of the mountains classification after winning six of the day's seven climbs.
More than thirty riders abandoned the race during the fifth stage. They included Fabio Aru, Dan Martin, Simon Gerrans, Ryder Hesjedal (Trek–Segafredo) and Simon Yates (). Many of the retirements came after crashes on the wet roads.
### Stage 6
9 April 2016 – Eibar, 16.5 km (10.3 mi) (ITT)
The final stage of the race was a hilly, 16.5-kilometre (10.3 mi) individual time trial that started and ended in Eibar. The first 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) were fairly flat, but there was then a significant climb of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) at 9.7%. There was then a 6.3-kilometre (3.9 mi) descent, followed by 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) of flat roads to the finish line.
Seventeen of the riders remaining in the race chose not to compete in the final stage. Caleb Fairly () was the first to start and completed the course in 34' 44". The first significant time was set by Adam Yates, who crossed the finish line with a time of 30' 06". This time remained the best time until the eighth-placed rider overnight – Nairo Quintana – set a time of 29' 18". Other well placed riders, including Pinot, Rodríguez and Landa, struggled on the steep climb. At the top of the climb, Quintana changed from a road bicycle to a time trial bicycle. The only rider able to beat Quintana's time was Alberto Contador. He was 23 seconds up at the top of the climb and finished five seconds ahead by the finish line. Cyclingnews.com suggested after the stage that Quintana's bike change may have cost him the stage victory. Henao, who had lost 46 seconds to Contador on the climb, finished 18 seconds behind and fell to second place overall.
Contador therefore won the race, twelve seconds ahead of Henao, with Quintana moving up to third place overall. It was the third time that he had won the Tour of the Basque Country in the final time trial.
## Post-race analysis
### Rider reactions
Alberto Contador had on various previous occasions announced that the 2016 would be his last as a professional racer. After his victory in the Tour of the Basque Country, however, he said "I'm sure this isn't the last time I come here" and said that he would probably continue beyond the 2016 season. It was his first general classification victory since the 2015 Route du Sud; he dedicated the victory to his fans and to Oleg Tinkov, the owner of the Tinkoff team. Sergio Henao said that he had tried a different tactic in the time trial – holding back early on in order to give more effort later in the stage – and said that he was pleased both with his own performance and with how his team had ridden. He said that he was feeling strong ahead of his main objectives for the season, the Ardennes classics. Quintana said that his bike change in the time trial had helped, but that it was not quite enough to win the stage. He said that he was pleased with how he had ridden the race and in particular with how he had recovered from illness earlier in the week.
### UCI World Tour standings
In the 2016 UCI World Tour season-long competition, Contador's victory moved him from third place to second, 59 points behind his teammate Peter Sagan. Sergio Henao moved from eighth to fourth and Quintana from twelfth to fifth. Spain moved into the lead of the nations' ranking, having previously been fifth. Tinkoff retained their overall lead in the teams' ranking, ahead of Team Sky.
## Classifications
In the Tour of the Basque Country, four different jerseys were awarded. The general classification was calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage; the leader received a yellow jersey. No bonus seconds were awarded.
The points classification – the leader of which wore a white jersey – was awarded on the basis of positions at stage finishes. The top 15 riders on each stage were awarded points (25 points for first, 20 points for second, 16 for third, 14 for fourth, 12 for fifth, 10 for sixth and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 15th). The rider with the highest number of points overall was the leader of the classification.
There were also two classifications awarded for positions at points in the middle of stages. Each stage (except the individual time trial) included individual sprint points (3, 2 and 1 points respectively for the top three riders); the rider with the highest total led the classification and wore a blue jersey. Each stage also included several categorised climbs, with more points awarded for the most difficult ("first-category") climbs. The rider with the most accumulated points led the classification and wore a red and white jersey.
There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists from each team on each stage were added together; the team with the lowest total time led the classification.
### Classification leadership table
### Final classifications
|
58,544,633 |
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut
| 1,153,065,845 |
2017 picture book by Derrick Barnes
|
[
"2017 children's books",
"2017 poems",
"2017 poetry books",
"African-American hair",
"American picture books",
"American poetry books",
"Caldecott Honor-winning works",
"Children's poetry books",
"Kirkus Prize-winning works",
"Newbery Honor-winning works"
] |
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut is a 2017 picture book by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James. The book, Barnes' first picture book, is a poem describing a boy's feelings and experience while getting a haircut. James, who was not the first choice to be the illustrator, wanted the oil color illustrations to have the feel of fine art.
Crown was well received, as Barnes received a 2018 Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award for his writing, while James received a 2018 Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations. Critics noted the unique setting and the way it celebrated African Americans, especially African American boys.
## Plot
Told in the second person, the book describes a young black boy's experience at a barbershop where he gets a haircut.
## Conception
Barnes, who had previously written several middle grade chapter books, wrote a poem about a new haircut after seeing a friend's sketch of a teenager. He sold it after being asked whether he had any books about the life of a normal African American boy. Since this was Barnes' first picture book, he gave particular thought about how to divide up his poem across pages. Barnes was acquainted with James, and after he was rejected by several other illustrators, he approached James directly to do the illustrations, unusually for children's picture books. Barnes describes their connection as "meant to be", with James noting, "I think the key is that our artistic styles really complement each other."
Barnes said that while the word "fresh" was often seen as dated, he believed it was timeless when applied to a haircut in the black community. He reflected on his own feeling of independence and being the "best version of myself" after leaving the barber. Barnes was concerned that in converting the poem to book form it would lose its meaning, as it was spread across the pages of a picture book.
## Themes and illustrations
Critics emphasized the book's contemporary African American protagonist in a setting of importance to African American culture and the way the book could introduce audiences to a variety of haircuts with which they might not have been familiar. Several critics affirmed Barnes' author's note by noting that the barbershop was one of the few institutions, besides the church, which celebrates and honors African American boys. This celebration of the boy helped to reinforce the book's theme of self-confidence and pride. However, it was not just a celebration of boys but all African Americans, even women, as the boy imagines who else is sharing the barbershop with him. The title itself is an allusion to hats African American women will wear to church. This is all underscored by Barnes' "rhythmic" text brimming with cool.
## Illustrations
James said the cover came easily for him after reading the poem. He drew inspiration from the attitude of the boy narrator at the end of the book, and his goal for the cover was to evoke fine art or even photographs. After doing thumbnail drawings, James painted with oils on illustration board. Barnes' son, Silas, served as the model for the boy in the book while the barber is based on James' son's barber. James' oil color illustrations drew comparisons to those of Basquiat, thanks to the detailed realistic portraits which included a variety of unique and "beautiful" African-American skin tones and hairstyles. Critics praised the cover and noted that James' illustrations balanced the reality of getting a haircut with the more ephemeral feelings in the boy's imagination.
## Reception
The book was well-received. Its starred review in The Horn Book Magazine praised both the illustrations' portrayal of the protagonist and how "Barnes's descriptions make each page a serendipity." Kirkus awarded it a starred review and a 2018 Kirkus Prize for children, saying, "One of the best reads for young black boys in years, it should be in every library, media center, and, yes, barbershop." Additional starred reviews came from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal. Elizabeth Bird, writing for School Library Journal, noted how "the interchange between the art and the words lights the very pages on fire"; several other critics also praised the complementary nature of the text and illustrations. The book appeared on several best of 2017 lists including those of NPR, Huffington Post, where contributor Minh Le noted its "flawless delivery" in calling it the most charming picture book of 2017, the Los Angeles Times, whose book editor Carolyn Kellog called it, "a real standout... it also does something important" and the Chicago Public Library ("Best Picture Books of 2017").
Crown was also noted as one of several books with diverse authors and topics that received recognition at the 2018 Youth Media Awards. Crown received four awards, including a Newbery Honor for Barnes, a Caldecott Honor for James, and Coretta Scott King Awards for both. The Caldecott committee praised James' "love-letter to the contemporary barbershop" and the Newbery committee similarly praised Barnes' "joyous paean to... a great haircut". Additionally, the book was recognized by the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award, with Barnes its winner for writing and James an honor winner for illustrations. The Keats citation stated, "In a tribute both stylish and timeless, Derrick Barnes’s exuberant text, along with Gordon C. James’s vivid illustrations, celebrate a cultural institution for African-American men and boys: the barber shop."
|
24,869,986 |
Kaboom (Parks and Recreation)
| 1,163,425,395 | null |
[
"2009 American television episodes",
"Parks and Recreation (season 2) episodes"
] |
"Kaboom" is the sixth episode of the second season of Parks and Recreation, and the twelfth overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on October 22, 2009. In the episode, Leslie tries to have the pit filled in and injures Andy in the process, opening Pawnee up to a possible lawsuit.
The episode was written by Aisha Muharrar and directed by Charles McDougall, and featured guest performances by comedians Paul Scheer and H. Jon Benjamin. "Kaboom" saw the filling in of the Pawnee pit, a focal plot device in Parks and Recreation since the first episode. As part of a multi-network television campaign to spotlight volunteerism, the episode prominently featured the real-life organization KaBOOM!, a charity that builds playgrounds in locations all over the United States.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by 4.98 million household viewers, an improvement over the previous week. "Kaboom" received generally positive reviews, with several commentators praising the series for resolving the long-standing pit subplot.
## Plot
The episode opens with Leslie (Amy Poehler) receiving a speakerphone call about abnormal transactions on her credit card. The purchases turn out to all be legitimate, but Leslie cancels the card anyway out of embarrassment when Tom (Aziz Ansari) hears about her unusual purchases, including a "bucket of cake", a man pillow in the shape of Daniel Craig, and tuition to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Later, the parks department and Ann (Rashida Jones) visit neighboring Indiana town Eagleton to help build a playground in a single day, as part of an event by the charity KaBOOM! There, Leslie and Ann find Ann's ex-boyfriend Andy (Chris Pratt), who claims to be volunteering, but in reality, is coming for the free food. He tells Leslie and Ann that he now has a home with the drummer of his band. Leslie is inspired by the energy of the group and its leader Keef (Paul Scheer), which prompts her to take proactive measures in filling in the pit in Pawnee and turning it into a park. While discussing the matter with her parks department, Mark (Paul Schneider) takes her aside and suggests she simply fill it in without permission. Leslie decides to take his advice and rents an excavator to fill in the pit.
Leslie meets Ann at the pit with the rented excavator, which starts filling it in with dirt. However, they failed to realize Andy was under some tarps in the pit, and he is injured when mounds of dirt fall on him. He is taken to the hospital, where Ann is assigned as his nurse. An angry Ron (Nick Offerman) tells Leslie the town is now open to a large potential lawsuit from Andy, and he sends her to visit him along with their city attorney Scott (H. Jon Benjamin). Meanwhile, Andy is excited to be near Ann and insists it will lead to them getting back together, but Ann tells him she is very happy dating Mark, who unlike Andy has a job, apartment and future. A disheartened Andy decides he has to get money to impress Ann. When Leslie visits, he regretfully tells her he and his attorney Wendell Adams (Chris Tallman) are going to sue Pawnee.
Leslie is convinced she can reason with Andy if they can talk without their lawyers, but Andy will not return her calls. Finally, Ann calls Andy and asks him to come to her house. Later that day, he arrives completely naked, having assumed Ann wanted to take him back. A disgusted Ann leaves the house, leaving Leslie and Andy to talk. Andy admits he is suing the town in an attempt to win Ann back, and she thinks of a different way he can impress her. The next day at city hall, Andy tells Leslie and Scott he will drop the lawsuit if they agree to fill in the pit right away. Scott agrees, unaware it was a trick between Andy and Leslie. The next day the pit is filled in and turned into a lot, and an impressed Ann waves at Andy while the construction work is going on. The episode ends with Keef riding a motorboat, revealing his role in KaBOOM! was an elaborate prank to get the playground built, and announcing he is going to build a hospital in a poor part of China for his next prank.
## Production
"Kaboom" was written by Aisha Muharrar and directed by Charles McDougall. The Pawnee pit, which has been a focal plot device in Parks and Recreation since the first episode, is filled in during this episode. "Kaboom" features actor and comedian Paul Scheer in a guest appearance as the KaBOOM! organizer. Scheer has previously worked with Aziz Ansari on the MTV sketch comedy show, Human Giant. "Kaboom" also featured H. Jon Benjamin, a voice actor from Archer, Dr. Katz, and Home Movies, as Pawnee's lawyer. Chris Pratt actually appeared naked during filming of a scene in which he arrived at Ann's house without clothes on. Michael Schur, co-creator of Parks and Recreation, said the scene was written because Pratt "loves taking his clothes off".
The script prominently features KaBOOM!, a real-life charitable organization that builds playgrounds in locations all over the United States. Parks and Recreation included the charity in the episode as part of a charity campaign called "I Participate", sponsored by the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The campaign involves more than 60 shows on NBC ABC, CBS, Fox and several other networks, all of which spotlighted real-life charities in an effort to encourage volunteerism. Greg Daniels, the series executive producer and co-creator, was responsible for choosing the KaBOOM! charity. In an editorial featured on The Huffington Post after "Kaboom" aired, KaBOOM! chief executive officer Darell Hammond called the episode "Ka-PERFECT!" and said, "The writers certainly captured the spirit that fuels each of our (playground) builds – something that inspires volunteers to continue their great work and strive even harder to give back to their communities."
Within a week of the episode's original broadcast, two deleted scenes from "Kaboom" were made available on the official Parks and Recreation website. The first two-minute clip included extended scenes of the KABOOM! park construction, including Tom text messaging instead of working, Leslie and Ann competing with children, and Paul Scheer doing the Worm dance move. Leslie also seeks advice from her mother (played by Pamela Reed) after putting Pawnee in danger of a lawsuit. In the second, 15-second clip, Ann complains to Mark about Andy appearing naked at her apartment, which Mark only finds amusing.
Revealed in the Parks and Recollection podcast with Rob Lowe and Alan Yang, the ending scene was a late night inclusion that caused mixed reactions within in the team. After the episode first aired, a message showed up to explain Kaboom! is a real charity, not a prank.
## Cultural references
Andy says he volunteers at several organizations in order to get their free food at their events. He specifically identifies the Red Cross, which he says has "amazing cookies", and Meals on Wheels, which he described as a "bonanza".
## Reception
In its original American broadcast on October 22, 2009, "Kaboom" was seen by 4.98 million household viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. It was a slight increase from the previous week's episode, "Sister City". "Kaboom" received a 2.1 rating/6 share among viewers aged between 18 and 49. The episode received generally positive reviews. Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club said "Kaboom" was the best episode of the second season, and called Parks and Recreation "one of the funniest shows on TV right now". Heisler praised the show for not shying away from outrageousness, and called Andy's naked entrance "by far the highlight of the series". Entertainment Weekly writer Henning Fog said "Kaboom" continued a trend of superior Parks episodes in season two, and praised the episode for filling in the pit, claiming it "both tied up a plot thread that had overstayed its welcome and put to rest any lingering ghosts from the first six episodes". Matt Fowler of IGN said the episode was funny and served as good character development for Leslie and Andy. But Fowler also said "some scenes fell flat", and questioned why Ann would continue to harbor feelings for the immature Andy.
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708,923 |
Conn Smythe
| 1,163,814,596 |
Canadian sports executive (1895–1980)
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"Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery officers",
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"Stanley Cup champions",
"Toronto Maple Leafs coaches",
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Constantine Falkland Cary Smythe MC (/ˈsmaɪθ/; February 1, 1895 – November 18, 1980) was a Canadian businessman, soldier and sportsman in ice hockey and horse racing. He is best known as the principal owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1927 to 1961 and as the builder of Maple Leaf Gardens. As owner of the Leafs during numerous championship years, his name appears on the Stanley Cup eight times: 1932, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1962.
Smythe is also known for having served in both World Wars, organizing his own artillery battery in the Second World War. The horses of Smythe's racing stable won the Queen's Plate three times among 145 stakes race wins during his lifetime. Smythe started and ran a sand and gravel business.
## Early years
Smythe was born on February 1, 1895, in Toronto to Albert Smythe, an Irish Protestant from County Antrim who immigrated to Canada in 1889, and Mary Adelaide Constantine, an English woman. Mary and Albert were married in the 1880s while immigrating to Canada, but their marriage was rocky and they did not live together for more than a few months at a time. Conn was the second of the couple's two children; he had a sister, Mary, five years older, who died due to illness in 1903. Smythe remembered his mother Mary, who was known as Polly, as pretty, a drinker, and troublemaker, while Albert was quiet, a vegetarian, and a devoted member of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical movement. Albert Smythe was a charter member of the Theosophical Society of Canada in 1891, and edited its newsletter until the final years of his life.
Smythe's first home was 51 McMillan Street, now known as Mutual Street, not far from the future site of Maple Leaf Gardens. The family was poor and moved several times during Smythe's youth, the size of lodgings depending on Albert Smythe's wages at the time. At one point, Albert and Conn moved to a house in Scarborough while Polly and Mary stayed on North Street. Mary died in 1906, and Smythe attributed his lifelong teetotalism to his mother's drinking. At age eleven, Conn was christened, the occasion marking the first time that he insisted on the name "Conn" instead of his given name, Constantine. Albert and Conn became estranged after Albert began a new relationship with Jane Henderson. The two married in 1913 and had a daughter, Moira.
Smythe first attended high school at Upper Canada College, but disliked it and transferred to Jarvis Collegiate Institute after a year and a half. He developed his athleticism there, playing on the hockey, rugby football, and basketball teams, and playing on city championship teams in basketball and hockey in 1912. At the age of 16, Smythe met Irene Sands, his future wife, after a football game against Parkdale Collegiate Institute, which she attended. Albert Smythe wanted his son to attend university, but Conn defied his father, bolting at age 17 to become a homesteader on 150 acres (61 ha) in Clute Township, near Cochrane, Ontario. After one summer building a home on the property only to have it destroyed by a devastating fire, Smythe returned home and enrolled in engineering studies at the University of Toronto in the fall of 1912. There he played hockey as a centre, captaining the Varsity Blues men's ice hockey team to the finals of the 1914 Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) junior championships and to the OHA junior championship the following year. The coach of the losing team in 1915 was Frank J. Selke, who years later would work for Smythe at Maple Leaf Gardens. Smythe also played on the University of Toronto football team, although not as a starter.
## First World War
A week after winning the OHA championship in March 1915, Smythe and his eight teammates enlisted in the armed forces during World War I. He recalled in his memoirs that he and several classmates had tried to enlist at the beginning of the 1914–15 season, but were told to come back when they had beards. After securing a provisional rank of lieutenant with the 2nd (Ottawa) Battery, 8th Brigade, on July 17, he headed to the Royal School of Artillery in Kingston, Ontario, in August for five weeks of training. He made full lieutenant on September 11, and was able to get himself transferred to the 40th (Sportsmen's) Battery of Hamilton, organized by publishing figure Gordon Southam, son of William Southam. The unit, with Smythe as team manager, organized a team to compete in the OHA's senior league; they were one of four Toronto-based teams in the league in 1916. He played one game at centre, and then decided to replace himself with a better player. The team did not complete the season, as the 40th Battery went overseas in February 1916.
The Battery was ordered into the Ypres salient. On October 12, shelling found their position. killing Major Southam and Sergeant-Major Norm Harvie, temporarily making Smythe commander of the Battery. The Battery fought for nearly two months in the trenches near the Somme before being relieved. In February 1917, Smythe earned a Military Cross, when during an attack the Germans counter-attacked with grenades. Smythe ran into the fight and killed three Germans and helped several wounded Canadian soldiers back to safety On March 5, 1917, Smythe was awarded the Military Cross for "dispersing an enemy party at a critical time. Himself accounted for three of the enemy with his revolver." After an attack where several Canadians were killed because of what Smythe thought was poor planning by the Battery's Major, Smythe wanted out. Smythe transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in July 1917. One of his instructors was Billy Barker, who would later become the first president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Smythe served as an airborne observer, directing artillery fire. Smythe was shot down by the Germans and captured on October 14, 1917; he was imprisoned by the Germans at Schweidnitz (Swidnica) in Upper Silesia. Smythe made two failed escape attempts and ended up in solitary confinement as a result. He was a POW until the end of the war. Smythe would later make light of his fourteen months in captivity "We played so damned much bridge that I never played the game again."
## Return to Toronto
Following the war, Smythe returned to Toronto. With his accrued Army salary and the proceeds from the sale of his homestead plot, he started a sand and gravel business. For a while, the venture became a partnership with Frank Angotti, who owned a paving business. To support the need for sand and gravel, Smythe bought land northwest of Toronto for a sand pit. He returned to the University of Toronto and finished his civil engineering degree in 1920, marrying Irene during the school year. Smythe and his paving business partner split, and Smythe retained the sand and gravel business. The company was named C. Smythe Limited and the company slogan was "C. Smythe for sand," which he had painted on his trucks, the lettering in white on the blue of the trucks. Frank Selke, who had moved to Toronto, was one of Smythe's first employees in the business. Irene took sand and gravel orders over the phone while also caring for the couple's newborn son, Stafford. Smythe would own the business until 1961.
In the evenings, Smythe coached the University of Toronto varsity team, and it was through his coaching of this team that he became involved in the NHL. The team traveled regularly to the Boston area for games against local colleges, with great success. In 1926, Boston Bruins owner Charles Adams recommended Smythe to Col. John S. Hammond, who oversaw the new New York Rangers franchise for its owners, Madison Square Garden. Hammond hired Smythe as general manager and coach, and tasked him with putting together a team. But on October 27, 1926, before the Rangers had played a regular-season game, Hammond fired Smythe in favour of Lester Patrick. Smythe believed Hammond fired him because of his refusal to sign two-time NHL scoring champion Babe Dye, against Hammond's wishes. Smythe thought Dye was not a team player.
Smythe applied to coach the Toronto St. Pats, but was rejected in favour of Mike Rodden. He continued coaching for the University of Toronto and took on a new senior team made up of University of Toronto players, called the Varsity Grads. The team won the Allan Cup and represented Canada at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz the following year. Smythe refused to go when two Varsity Blues players he had promised could be part of the team were blocked by what he described as a "pressure play" from two Grads players to get relatives placed on the team instead. One of the players was Joe Sullivan, who years later became a Canadian Senator.
Although Smythe was no longer a Rangers employee, Madison Square Garden president Tex Rickard invited him to the team's opening game at the arena, an invitation Smythe nearly turned down because he had felt the Rangers had short-changed him (Hammond paid Smythe \$7,500 to settle his contract, but Smythe felt he was owed \$10,000). At the insistence of his wife Irene, they traveled to New York and attended the opener in Rickard's private box. When the Rangers won the game, surprising the Montreal Maroons, Rickard offered Smythe a vice-presidency with the club. Smythe turned Rickard down partly because of the disputed \$2,500, although Rickard ordered Hammond to pay off the rest. On their return trip to Toronto, the Smythes visited Montreal, where Conn bet the \$2,500 on a university football game between Toronto and McGill. He then bet the \$5,000 he won on the Rangers to defeat the St. Pats in Toronto, winning again, turning the \$2,500 into \$10,000 in three days. The Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1928, their second year of existence, largely with the players Smythe had recruited.
## Smythe forms the Maple Leafs
While the Rangers shot to the top of their division, Smythe's hometown team, the St. Pats, were struggling. J. P. Bickell, a part-owner of the St. Pats, contacted Smythe about coaching the team. However, Smythe told Bickell that he was more interested in buying the team, or at least a stake in the team. Not long after, the St. Pats were put up for sale, and majority owner Charles Querrie agreed in principle to sell the club for (\$ in dollars) to a group headed by C. C. Pyle, which would have moved the team to Philadelphia. Bickell contacted Smythe and told him that if Smythe could raise \$160,000 and keep the team in Toronto, Bickell would not sell his \$40,000 interest. After persuading Querrie that civic pride was more important than money, Smythe put together a syndicate that included Bickell and several other investors that bought the St. Pats; Smythe himself invested \$10,000 of his own money. Soon after the sale closed on February 14, 1927, the new owners changed the St. Pats' name to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
At first, Smythe's name was kept in the background. However, when the Leafs promoted a public share offering to raise capital, they announced that "one of the most prominent hockey coaches in Toronto" would be taking over management of the club. That prominent coach turned out to be Smythe. He succeeded Querrie as the team's governor, and installed himself as general manager. He installed Alex Romeril as coach. For the next season (1927–28), Smythe changed the team's colours from green and white to their present blue and white. According to the Maple Leafs, the blue represents the Canadian skies, while white represents snow. They were also the same colours as those of his sand and gravel business trucks. Smythe also took over as coach and for the next three years served as team governor, general manager and coach.
Smythe developed a public image as a "red-faced, pepper-pot" with nicknames such as "little corporal" or "little dictator." Smythe was not reluctant to chase players and referees on the rink and off. Smythe also developed feuds with opposing coaches and general managers. He used any tactic available to disrupt the opponent. He advertised in a Boston newspaper inviting people to watch "a real hockey team, the Toronto Maple Leafs." After learning that Boston general manager Art Ross suffered from hemorrhoids, he gave Ross a bouquet of flowers with a note in Latin describing where he should shove the flowers.
In 1929, Smythe decided, in the midst of the Great Depression, that the Maple Leafs needed a new arena. The Arena Gardens seated 8,000 people, but the Maple Leafs were regularly playing to standing room-only crowds of 9,000 customers. Smythe knew it would take over a million dollars to construct the building, and he got backing from the Sun Life insurance company for half a million. He found a site owned by the T. Eaton Co. department store chain on Carlton Street, a site he selected because it was on a streetcar line. Smythe gave up the coaching position to concentrate on the arena project. The building started construction on June 1, 1931, and was ready on November 12, 1931, after five months. As part of a corporate reorganization, Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. was founded that year to own both the team and the arena. To pay for the building construction, the construction workers were paid with Maple Leaf Gardens stock instead of 20% of their pay. Selke (who had union connections) and Smythe were successful in negotiating the payment method in exchange for using unionized workers.
During the 1931-32 season (the Maple Leafs' first in their new arena), Smythe fired coach Art Duncan after five games and hired Dick Irvin to coach. Irvin promptly led the team to its first Stanley Cup under the Maple Leafs name, and the franchise's third overall. While the Leafs would go to the Stanley Cup Final every year during Irvin's tenure except for 1934 and 1937, they were unable to win another Cup. By 1940, Smythe believed that Irvin had taken the Leafs as far as he could, and decided to replace him with former Leafs captain Hap Day, who had retired as a player. Smythe also knew that he would be away in the war and felt that Irvin would not be tough enough without Smythe to back him up. Meanwhile, the Montreal Canadiens had had a dreadful ten-win season, and were looking for a new coach. At Smythe's suggestion, Irvin became the new coach of the Canadiens.
## Thoroughbred horse racing
Smythe first became interested in horse racing as a boy, when he would take stories his father wrote at the track to the newspaper office downtown. Smythe started owning horses in the late 1920s, but he rarely had any success. One early purchase turned out to be one of his most famous. When Mrs. L. A. Livingston sold off her stable, he bought Rare Jewel, a filly, for \$250. The filly regularly ran last. The horse was eligible for the Coronation Futurity Stakes, one of the best two-year-old races. Smythe was full of blind hope, and on the trainer's advice, entered her in the race. The day of the race, both the trainer and his partner gave the horse some brandy, unknown to Smythe, who bet over \$100 on Rare Jewel. She won the race, a 100–1 longshot paying \$214.40 on a \$2 bet, besting future Queen's Plate winner Froth Blower. Between the winnings from his bets and his portion of the winner's purse as horse owner, Smythe won more than \$10,000 on that one race. Three weeks later, he put his windfall to work for the Maple Leafs by purchasing star defenceman King Clancy from the depression-strapped Ottawa Senators for \$35,000. The purchase was only possible because of his gambling winnings, as the other Maple Leafs owners refused to pay the Senators' then-high price, and only agreed when Smythe volunteered to use his own money.
Smythe continued to own horses through the 1930s, but he sold them in 1940, when he made plans to fight in the Second World War. He did not re-enter the racing business until 1954. In 1951, Smythe bought land for a farm in Caledon, Ontario, originally looking for a new location for a gravel pit. At first he kept only cattle, but in 1954 he decided to get back into owning race horses, in partnership with Larkin Maloney, and an area was set aside to keep horses. Smythe learned about the business and went into breeding, buying mares in foal from top thoroughbred lines, and hiring future Hall of Fame trainer Yonnie Starr.
Maloney and Smythe's most famous horse Wonder Where, also led to the breakup of the partnership. Wonder Where, named by Maloney, was bred at Frank Selke's farm in Quebec and bought by Maloney and Smythe in 1957. In 1959, Wonder Where had an outstanding season, including winning the Canadian Oaks. The horse was voted Canadian Horse of the Year for the year and later, the filly was inducted in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. The Wonder Where Stakes was established in honour of the horse in 1965, becoming one of the Canadian Triple Tiara races for fillies in Canada in 1995. After the outstanding year in 1959, Maloney wanted to continue racing Wonder Where and Smythe did not, concerned over some tendon trouble. The horse broke down in a race in Fort Erie, and the partnership dissolved after that.
While not the largest operation, Smythe's horses won 145 stakes races during his lifetime, a record second only to E. P. Taylor in Canada. Smythe's stable won the Queen's Plate twice, the first in 1958 with Caledon Beau and the second in 1967 with Jammed Lovely. In 1973, Smythe became a founding member of the Jockey Club of Canada. In 1977, he was inducted in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. After his death, the Smythe stable was sold in 1981 to Gardiner Farms and Harlequin Ranches, for an estimated \$2.5 million. Smythe's will gave the racing stable to the Conn Smythe Foundation, which as a charitable foundation, could not run a business. The new owners leased back the farm and stables. The only horse not in the sale was Jammed Lucky, Smythe's favourite, which was given to Smythe's grandson Tommy. Jammed Lucky was 23 years old and had sired 25 winning foals to that point.
## Second World War and the conscription crisis
In the Second World War, at age 45, Smythe again served in the Canadian Army. Initially, he was a captain in charge of a troop within the Canadian Officers Training Corps, based at the University of Toronto. In 1941, along with Colonel Richard Greer, he formed the 30th Battery, a sportsmen's anti-aircraft battery that was part of the 6th LAA Regiment, RCA (Royal Canadian Artillery), Canadian Active Army. Smythe was made acting major and Officer Commanding. He was offered a higher rank to become the army's sports officer, but turned it down. After first serving on Vancouver Island to defend against Japanese attack, the Battery embarked in September 1942 to England. After being stationed in England for nearly two years, Smythe and his unit were sent to France in July 1944, where within three weeks he was badly wounded when the Germans bombed an ammunition depot. His spinal cord injury would mean that for the rest of his life he would walk with a limp and suffer bowel and urinary tract problems. He was sent back to Canada in September on a hospital ship.
Smythe, who had seen that the army was using improperly trained troops due to a lack of soldiers, interviewed other soldiers during his time in the hospital, compiling a record over which to confront Mackenzie King. King had developed an official government policy of voluntary service for political reasons and Smythe saw the detrimental effect it had on the Army. Volunteers tried to press home service troops into active service to assist and augment the undermanned troops overseas. From his bed in the Chorley Park Hospital, Smythe dictated a statement to The Globe and Mail newspaper, which printed it on its front page on September 19, 1944:
Smythe was accused of acting solely for political gain. The publisher of The Globe and Mail at the time was prominent Conservative George McCullagh, and Smythe was friends with Ontario Conservative Premier George Drew. McCullagh and Drew may have used Smythe for their political ends to defeat King. The issue of lack of reinforcements was well known within the Army and Smythe did not make any complaints to senior officers while in active service. Despite being criticized, Smythe kept up his public criticism in the newspapers. After James Ralston, Canada's defence minister, traveled to Italy, he saw for himself the shortage of skilled reinforcements. Ralston, who King did not trust, was replaced with Andrew McNaughton, who was against conscription. However, even King saw the need to send troops for the Canadian Army and he ordered 17,500 reserve troops to Europe in November 1944, which started to arrive in January 1945
## Majority owner of the Maple Leafs
While Smythe was away, a committee, headed by Ed Bickle, Bill MacBrien, and Selke ran Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd., with Selke as acting general manager. Upon his return from the military, Smythe found himself in the middle of a power struggle over the presidency of the company. Smythe suspected that MacBrien, a member of the board of directors, wanted to succeed Bickle as president and make Selke general manager in his own right. Smythe wanted to be president and asked Selke for his support. Selke equivocated, and the relationship between the two long-time friends turned acrimonious, leading to Selke's resignation in May 1946. Two months later, Selke became head of hockey operations for the Canadiens and manager of their home arena, the Montreal Forum, succeeding Tommy Gorman.
With the support of J. P. Bickell and the help of a \$300,000 loan from Toronto stockbroker and Gardens shareholder Percy Gardiner, Smythe bought controlling interest in Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd., and was thus able to install himself as president on November 19, 1947. However, Smythe had been the face of the franchise for more than two decades before then. Acknowledging this, Andy Lytle, sports editor of the Toronto Star, said the appointment "simply makes official what he has been for years in actuality ... Smythe and the Gardens are synonymous terms." MacBrien was made chairman. Smythe repaid his debt to Gardiner by 1960. He later succeeded MacBrien as chairman of the board.
Smythe oversaw one of hockey's greatest dynasties when Toronto won six Stanley Cups in 10 seasons between 1942 and 1951. Hap Day coached the team to five of those Cups and was assistant general manager for the sixth. He was named in a poll of Canadian sports editors the "most dominating personality in any capacity in sports" for 1949. The Maple Leafs were masters of playoff hockey; their regular-season performances were usually fair to good or just good enough to make the playoffs. Smythe was known for caring little about gaudy regular-season records. However, he did care about winning the Cup, because "winning sells tickets."
However, the Leafs spent most of the 1950s as a mediocre team, struggling under three different coaches while Day remained assistant general manager under Smythe. Even so, in 1955, Smythe turned over most responsibility for hockey operations to Day, but nominally remained general manager. However, just after the Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs in 1957, Smythe told the media that it had been "a season of failure" and that he did not know if the 55-year-old Day would be available for the next season. Day felt Smythe had cut his legs out from under him and resigned; he had spent 28 of the previous 30 years with the St. Pats/Leafs as a player, coach, or executive.
By this time Smythe had turned team operations over to a seven-person committee, headed by his son Stafford. Newspaper owner John Bassett was another member of the committee, as was Percy Gardiner's son, George. The committee became known as the "Silver Seven" because the seven had been "born with a silver spoon in their mouths." Initially, all members were in their 30s or early 40s, but that changed before the end of the year when 54-year-old Harold Ballard, president of the Toronto Marlboros, was appointed to the committee to fill a vacancy. The committee hired Punch Imlach as general manager; Imlach would later take over the coaching job as well.
Smythe was an NHL owner during the era before the advent of a players' union. Between the 1942–43 and 1966-67 seasons, the NHL consisted of only six teams (the Original Six), and players who failed to comply with team orders could easily be demoted to the minor leagues and replaced. Players who did not follow Smythe's rules were traded or sent to the minors. Two players, Danny Lewicki and John McCormack, were both demoted to the minors for getting married without Smythe's permission.
While the pay for an NHL player was relatively good, it still left many players looking for other jobs during the off-season, while the owners were all wealthy men. These conditions led to two efforts to organize a union, which Smythe was vehemently against. From 1957 onwards, Smythe, along with other owners, including James D. Norris of the Chicago Black Hawks and his half-brother Bruce Norris of the Detroit Red Wings, were accused of union busting activities related to Ted Lindsay's attempt to form an NHL Players Association. Smythe's role in those affairs are dramatized in the movie Net Worth. Jimmy Thomson, who was acting captain of the Maple Leafs when the players started to organize, was singled out by Smythe. Smythe detailed all the monies Thomson had been paid by the organization going back to junior, while arranging for Thomson to be left off the team. He also allegedly called Thomson a traitor and publicly blamed him for the team's poor season. Thomson finally announced to the press that he would never play again for the Maple Leafs, and he and Tod Sloan were traded away to Chicago. The NHL owners eventually agreed to make some concessions to the players, such as contributing to the players' pensions. The owners were able to temporarily head off the formation of the union, although it would eventually be organized some ten years later.
## Later years
Though the Silver Seven made most decisions involving the Leafs, Smythe was not a hands-off owner and was constantly fighting with his son. Stafford commented: "My father has always given me lots of rope. When I was thirty, I was ten years ahead of everybody. But at forty, I'm ten years behind everybody." Finally, in 1961, Stafford resigned from the committee and this spurred Conn. After four years of fighting, he offered to sell his shares to Stafford and in November 1961, Smythe sold 45,000 of his 50,000 shares in Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. to a partnership of his son, Ballard, and Bassett for \$2.3 million—a handsome return on his investment of 34 years earlier. Years later, Smythe claimed that he thought the sale was only to Stafford, and was furious to learn that he'd brought on Ballard and Bassett as partners. According to this account, Smythe had hoped that Stafford would eventually keep the Gardens for his son Tommy. However, it is not likely that Stafford would have been able to raise the money on his own.
As part of the arrangement, Smythe resigned as president and managing director, nominating Stafford to succeed him. At Stafford's instigation, the board then granted Smythe a \$15,000 annual allowance, an office at the Gardens, and a car and driver for the rest of his life. Stafford, Ballard, and Bassett then nominated Smythe as chairman of the board. Smythe stood down as governor of the Leafs on February 5, 1962–a position he had held since 1927. Smythe resigned the team chairmanship after Toronto won the Stanley Cup in 1962, and Bassett succeeded him.
In 1964, Smythe opposed the plan of Liberal Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson to replace the traditional Canadian flag with a completely new design. He wrote to Pearson, whom he had known since the 1920s: "In the Olympic Games, the whole world is represented and when Canada sometimes wins a Gold Medal everybody knows, when the Red Ensign is raised to the masthead, that Canada has won." Smythe disagreed that a new flag would help to unify the country, and switched his support to John Diefenbaker and the Progressive Conservatives. Smythe wrote over 300 letters to Members of Parliament. In 1965, he unsuccessfully lobbied for the Red Ensign to be flown at the Gardens instead of the new Flag of Canada. Ballard ordered the new flag flown because calls were more than three to one in favour of the new flag.
In March 1966, Smythe sold his remaining shares in Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. and resigned from the board of directors after a Muhammad Ali boxing match was scheduled for the Gardens. He found Ali's refusal to serve in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War to be offensive because, as he put it in his autobiography, "The Gardens was founded by men – sportsmen – who fought for their country. It is no place for those want to evade conscription in their own country. The Gardens was built for many things, but not for picking up things that no one else wants." He also said that by accepting the fight, Gardens owners had "put cash ahead of class."
Smythe stayed away from the Gardens and took shots at the ownership in the press, stating that he had been "traded for \$35,000 and a black Muslim minister." The seats at the Gardens had been replaced with new, narrower ones, and Smythe commented that "only a slim, young man could sit in them but the prices are so high that only a fat rich man could afford them." He continued to be sought out for his views on hockey. When the NHL expanded to 12 teams from six in 1967, Smythe openly opposed the expansion on the basis that it would make for inferior hockey: "We had the best players in the world split between six teams, and hockey was always worth the money."
By this time, Conn and Stafford were not on speaking terms, and it fell to Tom Smythe, Stafford's son, to mediate between the two. Stafford built a new office suite at the Gardens for Conn, and the feud was over. After Stafford was charged with fraud in 1971 and became ill with a stomach ulcer, Conn was with him in hospital when he died. According to Conn, Stafford's last words to him were "see dad, I told you they wouldn't put me in jail."
## Other accomplishments and honours
After the Second World War, Smythe became involved in charities and would remain so for the rest of his life.
Always mindful of the well-being of his fellow veterans, he helped establish and was a founding director of the Canadian Paraplegic Association in 1945 (the foreparent of Spinal Cord Injury Ontario and other spinal cord injury organizations). He gave generously of his time, expertise and treasure to aid in the organization's success, even housing its offices and storing its incoming batches of wheelchairs for his fellow veterans, at Maple Leaf Gardens.
He became heavily involved in the Ontario Society for Crippled Children. Smythe helped organize the financing and construction of their Variety Club Village complex in Toronto. In 1975, at the age of 80, Smythe organized the financing and building of the Ontario Community Centre for the Deaf, which opened in 1979.
In 1960, after paying off his debt to Percy Gardiner, Smythe set up the Conn Smythe Charitable Foundation, which distributes money to charities in the Toronto area. The foundation was operated by Conn, his children and Hap Day. Day continued to help with the Foundation until his death in 1990. Before he died, Conn arranged for his grandson Thomas Smythe to continue the Foundation after his death.
Smythe supervised the construction of the Hockey Hall of Fame building in Toronto in 1961. He served as the Hall's chairman for several years, but resigned in June 1971 when Busher Jackson was posthumously elected into the Hall. Smythe said that it made him sick to think of Jackson alongside such Leafs as "Apps, Primeau, Conacher, Clancy and Kennedy. If the standards are going to be lowered I'll get out as chairman of the board." Jackson was notorious for his off-ice lifestyle of drinking and broken marriages. Frank Selke, head of the selection committee, defended the selection on the belief that a man should not be shut out "because of the amount of beer he drank."
The National Hockey League honoured Smythe's contribution to the game by introducing the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1965, to be presented to the Most Valuable Player in the Stanley Cup playoffs. After his death, the trophy was renamed the Conn Smythe Memorial Trophy. The league also named one of its four divisions, the Smythe Division, after him prior to the 1974–75 season. The division existed until league expansion and realignment after the 1992-93 season.
Smythe Park and Recreation Centre in Toronto is located on the site of his old gravel pit. The surrounding neighbourhood is named Rockcliffe-Smythe, partly a sub-division Smythe built for war veterans. Smythe made provisions for a portion of the lands of the sub-division to be reserved for the centre. A street north of Eglinton Avenue, west of Markham Avenue, is named Conn Smythe Drive in his honour.
His autobiography, Conn Smythe: If You Can't Beat 'Em in the Alley, written with Scott Young, was published posthumously in 1981. The title was taken from Smythe's credo, "If you can't beat 'em in the alley, you can't beat 'em on the ice." In Smythe's memoir he describes it as the most misunderstood remark he ever made. Rather than meaning that his players should go out and bully the opposition, he meant the opposite; that his players should refuse to be bullied by the opposition.
Conn Smythe was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
## Family and personal life
Smythe married Irene Sands on March 17, 1920, at Central Methodist Church. The couple lived in an apartment on St. Clair Avenue, then moved to the Runnymede area of Toronto to be close to Smythe's sand and gravel business, which operated a gravel pit north-west of Jane Street and St. Clair. (Smythe Park exists on the site today). In 1927, after their first two children, Stafford and Miriam, were born, they moved to the Baby Point enclave of Toronto, where they would live for the rest of their lives. Irene and Smythe had two other children, Hugh and Patricia. Hugh became a doctor; a specialist in rheumatology, and later a director of Maple Leaf Gardens. Patricia died due to an allergic attack at the age of ten, in 1945. Stafford became involved in the Smythe sand and gravel business and Maple Leaf Gardens before dying of complications from a bleeding ulcer in 1971. Stafford's son Thomas was a stick boy with the Maple Leafs and later was involved with the Toronto Marlboros and Doug Laurie Sporting Goods at Maple Leaf Gardens, before becoming director of the Smythe Charitable Foundation after Conn's death.
Smythe's father died in 1947 at 86 years of age. Smythe had had a rapprochement with his father, seeing him at Christmas and at times when Albert came to Toronto to preach. After his father's death, Smythe joined the Theosophical Society and remained a member for life. In 1977, Smythe explained why he was a theosophist: "It's because a theosophist teaches you that ya can't get away with anything in this life anyway."
Irene Smythe was diagnosed with cancer after Christmas 1963. The illness progressed and Irene died on June 20, 1965. Due to the amount of pain Irene endured, Conn and Irene considered using a revolver to end her life, but near the end she told Conn that it was a "coward's way out" and she endured. After the amount of pain Irene endured, Smythe called her death a "blessed release." Smythe set up a foundation at the University of Toronto in her name, which opened the Irene Eleanor Smythe Pain Clinic at Toronto General Hospital.
On April 20, 1978, Smythe suffered a heart attack. He spent a month in the hospital, in time to spend May 18 at Woodbine, where he had four horses racing that day. His health continued to deteriorate and Conn realized that he was dying. He arranged for his grandson Thomas Smythe to take over the Conn Smythe Foundation, and he made gifts of money to relatives. Conn Smythe died at the age of 85 in 1980 at his home on Baby Point. He is interred with Irene at Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto.
## Coaching record
Source:
## See also
- List of family relations in the NHL
|
7,339,935 |
James Nicoll Morris
| 1,095,458,195 |
British Royal Navy officer (1763–1830)
|
[
"1763 births",
"1830 deaths",
"Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath",
"Royal Navy captains at the Battle of Trafalgar",
"Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War",
"Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars",
"Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars",
"Royal Navy vice admirals"
] |
Vice-Admiral Sir James Nicoll Morris KCB (1763 – 15 April 1830) was a Royal Navy officer who served through the American Revolutionary War, French Revolutionary Wars, and Napoleonic Wars. He joined the Royal Navy in 1772 and subsequently fought as a junior officer in the Leeward Islands in the battles of St Lucia, Grenada, and the Saintes. He was promoted to commander in 1790, going to the Leeward Islands where he commanded HMS Flirt, and then he similarly had HMS Pluto on the Newfoundland Station. Morris was promoted to post-captain in 1793 and given command of HMS Boston, in which he became a successful prizetaker around Cape Finisterre. In 1798 he transferred to command HMS Lively but in April that ship was wrecked off Cadiz. His next command was HMS Phaeton in the following year. In Phaeton Morris fought in the Mediterranean, assisting the Austrian battles against French forces in Italy.
Morris was unemployed during the Peace of Amiens but received in quick succession command of a group of Sea Fencibles, then HMS Leopard, and finally HMS Colossus in 1804. In Colossus he served in the English Channel and then off Cadiz, and in October 1805 he fought at the Battle of Trafalgar where Colossus was the most heavily engaged of the British ships, fighting three enemy ships of the line and receiving around 200 casualties. Morris himself was injured in the battle but after recovering he continued to serve in Colossus until 1808. He then commanded HMS Formidable in the Baltic Fleet from 1810 until he was promoted to rear-admiral in 1811. He returned to the Baltic as third-in-command of that fleet in 1812, staying there until the end of the Napoleonic Wars, which was his last service in the navy.
## Early career
James Nicoll Morris was born in 1763, the son of Captain John Morris of the Royal Navy. Morris joined the Royal Navy on 19 January 1772 when he was entered in the books of the 14-gun sloop HMS Otter, commanded by his father, as a captain's servant. Morris served in Otter on the Newfoundland Station but soon after transferred into the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Resolution, which was the guardship at Portsmouth. He left Resolution on 13 July 1775 to continue his schooling. While he did so, his father was mortally wounded at the Battle of Sullivan's Island on 28 June 1776. Morris was left in his father's will as a "legacy to king and country".
Morris ended his naval hiatus on 31 March 1778 when he transferred to the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Prince of Wales, which was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Samuel Barrington on the Leeward Islands Station, as a midshipman. Morris then transferred to the 20-gun post ship HMS Ariadne in October, and in her fought at the Battle of St. Lucia on 15 December and Battle of Grenada on 6 July of the following year. From Ariadne he then moved to the 10-gun sloop HMS Fortune on 27 November 1779, which was fitting out in England to sail to the Leeward Islands. Morris only stayed with Fortune until she passed Cork, at which point he travelled back to Portsmouth in the 24-gun frigate HMS Amphitrite. From there Morris continued his connection with Barrington by joining his flagship in the English Channel, the 90-gun ship of the line HMS Barfleur, on 12 January 1780.
On 14 September Morris was posted to the 90-gun ship of the line HMS Queen, taking with him his promotion to lieutenant. Staying in the English Channel, he subsequently transferred into the 90-gun ship of the line HMS Namur, in which he participated in the second naval relief of Gibraltar on 12 April 1781. Namur then travelled to the Leeward Islands, where she joined the fleet of Admiral Sir George Rodney in time to fight at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782. Morris left Namur on 6 June 1783 as the American Revolutionary War began to end and went on half pay. He stayed in that situation until 23 August 1786 when he was appointed to serve on the 50-gun fourth rate HMS Leander. He subsequently served in quick succession in the 74-gun ships of the line HMS Orion and HMS Arrogant and then had a second stint in Barfleur before in 1790 he again reacquainted himself with Barrington, joining his 100-gun ship of the line flagship HMS Royal George during the Spanish Armament.
## Command
Barrington had Morris promoted to commander on 21 September. He was then given command of the 14-gun brig HMS Flirt in the Leeward Islands from September, officially from 2 January 1791, and he commanded her until 28 November 1792, joining his next command, the 14-gun sloop HMS Pluto, on 26 December. In Pluto he sailed to serve on the Newfoundland Station on 16 May 1793 and, the French Revolutionary War having begun, he captured the French 16-gun privateer sloop Lutine on 25 July. Morris spent little time in Pluto, because on 7 October of the same year he was promoted to post-captain in recognition of his capture of Lutine and given command of the 32-gun frigate HMS Boston. He sailed Boston home to England and after initially serving in the English Channel he sailed to the Mediterranean Sea on 22 February 1796. Morris then served off Cape Finisterre and was very successful, capturing the Spanish privateer l’Enfant de la Patria, of 16 guns, on 16 April 1797, El Principe de Paz, of 20 guns, on 4 June, St. Bernardo, of 12 guns, on 16 June, and Hazard, of 8 guns, on 30 July. In early 1798 Morris transferred commands, joining the 32-gun frigate HMS Lively.
He continued off the Spanish coast in Lively but on the night of 12 April 1798 she was shipwrecked on Rota Point, near Cadiz. Visibility at the time of the incident was very poor and Lively had accidentally gotten too close to the shore in the darkness. Boats from other British ships were sent in the morning to rescue the crew, and while one crewmember was killed by the fire of some Spanish batteries the rest were safely taken off and Lively was burned. Morris was not deemed to be at fault for the loss of his ship and was congratulated for successfully escaping the fire of the batteries. On 14 July 1799 he received as his next command, the 38-gun frigate HMS Phaeton.
In the autumn of the same year Morris conveyed in Phaeton Lord Elgin to Constantinople, where he was travelling to take up his post as ambassador. They left England on 4 September and arrived on 2 November in the Dardanelles, from where they sailed to the city. After this Phaeton stayed in the Mediterranean with the Mediterranean Fleet, by May 1800 being stationed off Genoa. At the time the French and Austrian armies were engaging each other in Genoa, and Morris in Phaeton was detached to assist the forces of Peter Karl Ott von Bátorkéz. As such, Phaeton was present off the coast when the French retreated from Alassio in May, and was able to fire on them. Subsequently Morris captured twenty ships carrying corn for the French army as well as a stockpile of arms, and continued to harry the French army as they retreated down the coast. By October Morris had completed this duty, and he was serving off Malaga; on 28 October the boats of Phaeton successfully cut out the Spanish 14-gun polacca San Josef from under the guns of an enemy battery. In 1801 Phaeton moved from the centre of the Mediterranean to continue serving off the coast of Spain and on 16 May Morris sent his ship's boats, in tandem with those of the 32-gun frigate HMS Naiad, in to Marin where they captured the Spanish armed packet L'Alcudia and destroyed her compatriot El Raposo. Morris continued serving off Spain until the end of the year when he was sent home to England with dispatches from Admiral Lord Keith. He arrived at Portsmouth on 27 February 1802 and paid off Phaeton.
## Trafalgar
Morris stayed on half pay throughout the Peace of Amiens but upon the start of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803 he was given command of the Sea Fencibles located between Blackwater and the River Stour on 12 July. On 10 October of the same year he was given command of the 50-gun fourth rate HMS Leopard as flagship to Commodore Charles Cunningham. Morris stayed in Leopard only until 11 May 1804 because he was then given command of the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Colossus. When Morris first joined Colossus, a brand new ship, her crew was sickly and "unpromising", but he worked to improve the ship while serving in the fleet of Admiral William Cornwallis off Brest, and the ship would go on to be described as an "excellent sailer" there. He and Colossus served off Brest until October 1805 when they were sent to join the fleet of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson off Cadiz. As part of such on 21 October Morris fought in the Battle of Trafalgar.
In the battle Colossus was the sixth ship in the leeward column, led by Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood. As he reached the enemy line, Morris had Colossus fire her starboard guns in order to create a smoke screen to assist their advance. In the fighting that came after the two columns of Nelson's fleet had pierced the Franco-Spanish line of battle Colossus received the most damage and casualties out of any British ship in the battle with 40 men killed and 160 wounded. Colossus initially engaged the French 74-gun ship of the line Swiftsure to her larboard side and her first broadside killed seventeen of Swiftsure's crew, but she was then also attacked by the 74-gun ship of the line Argonaute, which smashed into Colossus's starboard side. It was while she was sandwiched between these two ships that Colossus took most of her punishment, fighting both ships for half an hour until Argonaute shied away after receiving over 200 casualties in the engagement. At one point Colossus was almost overwhelmed by a boarding party, but she was saved when her crew on the lower decks climbed up and fought off the attackers. After Argonaute had moved away Morris continued to engage Swiftsure until that vessel lost two of her masts and was described as nothing more than a hulk. Colossus afterwards moved on to attack the Spanish 74-gun ship of the line Bahama, which had been firing on Colossus from a distance, and Morris succeeded in destroying her mizzenmast before obtaining her surrender, Bahama being in a hopeless situation surrounded by four ships of the line.
Having finished with Bahama, Morris quickly began to manoeuvre his ship as Swiftsure had regained control of herself and was attempting to rake his stern. The ship was finally relieved in battle by Orion which sailed up behind Swiftsure and fired three broadsides into her, forcing the French ship to finally surrender. Morris then began to turn Colossus into the wind to continue in the fighting, but as he did so her mizzenmast fell over the starboard side, signifying the end of Colossus's contributions to the battle. Morris himself had become a casualty during the fighting, receiving a severe wound to his thigh or knee, but he stayed on deck after applying his own tourniquet until the combat had finished, at which point he fainted from a lack of blood and was carried below. Colossus was then taken in tow by the 64-gun ship of the line HMS Agamemnon, her mainmast having been cut away on the afternoon of 23 October and Morris in fear that she would succumb to her many injuries and founder. The ship survived the storm of the following night and sailed to Gibraltar with Agamemnon and the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Bellerophon on 27 October. There Morris recovered from his injury.
## Later service
Morris, along with the other captains present at Trafalgar, was awarded a Naval Gold Medal for his service and received the thanks of the Houses of Parliament. He was also presented with a vase by Lloyd's Patriotic Fund. He continued in command of Colossus after the battle; she was paid off on 29 December but Morris recommissioned her on 5 July 1806, from when he served off Rochefort in the squadron of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Strachan. Having chased a French squadron there, from 30 June 1808 Morris served in the Mediterranean. He left the ship on 9 August of that year, suffering from a rupture. His next command came on 1 April 1810 when he joined the 98-gun ship of the line HMS Formidable in the Baltic Fleet, and on 31 July of that year he was further rewarded for his services when he was made a Colonel of Marines. On 1 August 1811 Morris was promoted to rear-admiral, leaving Formidable. Upon the request of Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez who commanded the fleet, he re-joined the Baltic Fleet in 1812 as third-in-command with the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Vigo as his flagship.
Morris spent his time in the Baltic escorting convoys and protecting against Danish attacks around the Great Belt and thus was not part of the force that fought at the Siege of Riga towards the end of the year. He did not receive any more postings after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, but in reward for his services was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 2 January. Through seniority he continued to be promoted after this, becoming a vice-admiral on 12 August 1819. Morris died at his home at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on 15 April 1830, aged sixty-six, and is buried there.
## Family
Morris married Margaretta Sarah Somers Cocks (died January 1842), the daughter of the banker Thomas Somers Cocks and niece of Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers, on 25 October 1802. Through this marriage he became brother-in-law to Admiral Sir William Hargood.
## Notes and citations
|
41,907,686 |
Mr.Mr. (EP)
| 1,121,705,089 | null |
[
"2014 EPs",
"Electropop EPs",
"Genie Music EPs",
"Girls' Generation albums",
"Korean-language EPs",
"SM Entertainment EPs"
] |
Mr.Mr. is the fourth extended play (EP) by South Korean girl group Girls' Generation. The EP consists of six tracks and it incorporates electropop and R&B-pop music genres. It was released for digital download by SM Entertainment and KT Music on February 24, 2014. The CD and digital version were released in Hong Kong on the same day, and was made available for purchase on February 27 in South Korea. To promote the album, Girls' Generation appeared on several South Korean music programs including Music Bank and Inkigayo. The title track was released as a single. This is the final Korean EP featuring member Jessica who later left the group on September 30, 2014.
Mr.Mr. received mostly positive reviews from music critics – AllMusic's Heather Phares praised the album as showcasing the group's musical strengths, while Billboard'''s Jeff Benjamin positively viewed the EP as a more "impressive" release compared to the group's previous album I Got a Boy (2013). The EP peaked atop the Gaon Album Chart and became the best-selling album by a girl group of 2014 in South Korea, as well as the fifth best-selling album overall. It also entered the Japanese Oricon chart at number 11.
## Songs
Mr.Mr. is composed of six songs, which feature "dazzling" electropop and R&B-pop genres. According to member Seohyun, the EP incorporates "exciting" R&B sounds with "cool, simple" melodies. The opening track, "Mr.Mr.", was composed by The Underdogs, who have worked with several American recording artists such as Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, and Britney Spears. It has been described as an R&B-pop song infused with electropop. It also incorporates a hip hop beat and EDM-inspired buildups. The second song, "Goodbye," is a pop-rock track that is instrumented by snare drums and hi-hats. "Europa" (Korean: 유로파), meanwhile, draws from retro late-1980s Europop and disco-pop genres.
"Wait a Minute" was described as a "bouncy" jazz-pop track with "beautiful [harmonizations]", and "Back Hug" (Korean: 백허그) features a "simple, snappy" R&B production. The EP concludes with "Soul" – an uptempo Korean version of the group's first original Chinese recording, "Find Your Soul", released in 2013. The original version was used as the theme song on commercials for the Korean MMORPG video game, Blade & Soul, in Chinese-language markets across Asia.
## Release and promotion
Mr.Mr. was released for digital download worldwide on February 24, 2014, under SM Entertainment and KT Music, while the physical version was made available in South Korea on February 27, 2014, by the same labels. The title track served as the EP's lead single and it was released to South Korean mainstream radio on February 25, 2014.
To promote the EP, Girls' Generation appeared on several South Korean music programs, the first being Mnet's M Countdown, where they performed "Mr.Mr." and "Wait a Minute" live on March 6, 2014. The group also appeared on KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Show! Music Core and SBS's Inkigayo on March 7, 8 and 9, 2014, respectively. On Show! Music Core, the group performed "Mr.Mr." and "Wait a Minute", while on Music Bank, they performed the title track and "Back Hug".
## Reception
Upon its release, Mr.Mr received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Heather Phares from AllMusic labelled the EP "a set of songs that offers something for every kind of Girls' Generation and expands their musical reach." Phares further praised the EP for helping the group to be an outstanding case of Korean popular music. Writing for Billboard, Jeff Benjamin named the six songs of the EP "strong" and called it a more "impressive effort" compared to the group's 2013 album I Got a Boy. He also deemed the track list "a tight bundle of songs that still see the group dipping and experimenting into new sonic territory, but possibly more focused than ever." Benjamin also wrote an article for Fuse, on which he complimented the album's musical styles as "short, sweet, but strong." Music critics from webzine Weiv praised the concepts and musical styles of Mr.Mr; critic Subtlety said that all of its musical styles are evenly distributed, and felt that it did a good job of showcasing the 'third path of idols' by not only embracing sexy or cute, but rather both. On the other hand, Kim Do-heon from online magazine IZM compared the EP to the group's 2011 album The Boys for its "balance of musical competence and appeal to mass popularity", but found the songs to be inadequate. He concluded that the group needed to "[set] a clear direction for the future" after the "mistake" of I Got a Boy, and Mr.Mr was not the answer.
### Commercial performance
Mr.Mr. was a commercial success domestically. It claimed the top spot on the South Korean Gaon Album Chart on the chart issue dated February 23 – March 1, 2014. It remained on the peak position for one further week, beating 2NE1's Crush. Mr.Mr. came second on the Gaon Monthly Album Chart of February, selling 87,824 physical copies, only behind B.A.P's First Sensibility, which sold over 91,000 units. The following month, it topped the Gaon Monthly Album Chart with sales of 70,295 copies. It was placed at number 47 on the Gaon Monthly Album Chart of April with a further 1,125 units sold. Overall, Mr.Mr. was the fifth highest-selling physical album and the best-selling album by a girl group of 2014 in South Korea with total sales figures of 163,209 copies.
Mr.Mr. debuted at number 110 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 3,000 copies in its first week. By doing so, the EP became Girls' Generation's highest-charting release on the Billboard 200 following subgroup TTS's Twinkle, which charted at number 126 in 2012. Mr.Mr. also peaked at number three on the World Albums, and number 23 on the Independent Albums charts. In Japan, it peaked at number eleven on the Oricon Albums Chart.
The six songs from the EP debuted on the South Korean Gaon Digital Chart: "Mr.Mr." (number one), "Goodbye" (number ten), "Wait a Minute" (number 18), "Back Hug" (number 24), "Europa" (number 25), and "Soul" (number 33).
## Track listing
Credits adapted from Mr.Mr. liner notes
## Personnel
Credits are adapted from Mr.Mr.'' liner notes
- Lee Soo-man – producer
- Tom Coyne – mastering engineer
- Steven Myungkyu Lee – English supervisor
- Taeyeon – vocals, background vocals (track 1, 3)
- Jessica – vocals, background vocals (track 1, 3, 4)
- Sunny – vocals, background vocals (track 1, 3)
- Tiffany – vocals, background vocals (track 1, 3, 4)
- Hyoyeon – vocals
- Yuri – vocals
- Sooyoung – vocals, background vocals (track 1)
- Yoona – vocals
- Seohyun – vocals, background vocals (track 1, 3)
- Kenzie – vocal director (track 1), director (track 3), keyboard (track 3)
- Ylva Dimberg – background vocals (track 1)
- Yang Geun-young – background vocals (track 1, 6)
- Gu Jong-pil – recording engineer (track 1, 4), mixing engineer (track 1, 2), additional bass arrangement (track 1)
- Lee Min-gyu – additional vocal editing (track 1)
- Lee Joo-hyung – vocal director (track 2), Pro Tools operator (track 2, 4), additional vocal editing (track 2, 4), director (track 4), background vocals (track 4)
- Choi Young-kyung – background vocals (track 2, 4)
- Jung Ui-seok – recording engineer (track 2, 3, 4), mixing engineer (track 3, 4)
- Kim Jeong-bae – guitar (track 3)
- Jung Eun-kyung – additional vocal editing (track 3)
- Choi Hoon – bass guitar (track 4, 6)
- Jung Soo-wan – guitar (track 4)
- Yoo Ji-sang – keyboard (track 4)
- Hwang Sung-jae – director (track 5), bass guitar (track 5), Pro Tools operator (track 5)
- Seo Mi-rae – background vocals (track 5), additional vocal editing (track 5)
- Lee Sung-ryul – guitar (track 5)
- Lee Na-il – strings arrangement and conductor (track 5)
- Nickel – strings arrangement and conductor (track 5), Pro Tools operator (track 5)
- Yoong – strings (track 5)
- Jung Soo-min – Pro Tools operator (track 5)
- Lee Sung-ho – recording engineer (track 5)
- Oh Sung-geun – recording engineer (track 5)
- Son Joo-yong – assistant recording engineer (track 5)
- Nam Goong-jin – mixing engineer (track 5, 6)
- Red Rocket – director (track 6), keyboard (track 6), additional vocal editing (track 6)
- Ryu Hyun-woo – guitar (track 6)
- Kang Hae-gu – recording engineer (track 6)
- Kim Young-min – executive supervisor
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Release history
|
38,483,706 |
Pusher Love Girl
| 1,166,128,617 |
2013 song by Justin Timberlake
|
[
"2013 songs",
"Song recordings produced by Jerome \"J-Roc\" Harmon",
"Song recordings produced by Justin Timberlake",
"Song recordings produced by Timbaland",
"Songs written by James Fauntleroy",
"Songs written by Jerome \"J-Roc\" Harmon",
"Songs written by Justin Timberlake",
"Songs written by Timbaland"
] |
"Pusher Love Girl" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake for his third studio album, The 20/20 Experience (2013). It was written and produced by Timberlake, Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, with additional writing from James Fauntleroy. The song is an ode to the "intoxicating effects" of love and sex. "Pusher Love Girl" is a slow-tempo R&B song that goes through several different styles during its eight-minute duration. It opens with an orchestral intro, before transcending into its "funky main section". The song concludes with an outro that sees Timberlake rap over futuristic hip hop beats, comparing several narcotics to the love of his significant other.
"Pusher Love Girl" received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics, many of whom regarded it as one of the best songs on The 20/20 Experience. Some critics, however, were critical of the song's length and its lyrics. Following the release of The 20/20 Experience, due to strong digital downloads, it reached number 15 on the South Korean singles chart, number 64 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 122 on the UK Singles Chart.
Timberlake debuted "Pusher Love Girl" live during his comeback performance at DirecTV's Super Night in February 2013. He also performed the song at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Timberlake also performed the song during the Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour (2013) and The 20/20 Experience World Tour (2013–14). At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards (2014), "Pusher Love Girl" won the award for Best R&B Song.
## Writing and production
"Pusher Love Girl" was written by Timberlake, Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, and James Fauntleroy. The song was produced by Timbaland, Timberlake and Harmon. Timberlake arranged and produced his vocals, which were recorded at Larabee Studios in North Hollywood, California. Harmon provided the track's keyboards, while Elliott Ives played the guitar and The Regiment provided horns. Benjamin Wright and The Benjamin Wright Orchestra performed song's strings, which, as well as the horns, were recorded by Reggie Dozler at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles, California. The song was engineered by Chris Godbey, with assistance from Alejandro Baima. The song was mixed by Jimmy Douglass, Godbey and Timberlake at Larabee Studios.
## Music and lyrics
"Pusher Love Girl" is a slow-tempo R&B song with an approximate length of eight minutes and two seconds. The song "simmers" on an "elastic" soul groove that contains "retro-synth" hooks, hand claps, horns and a "squelchy" bass line. Jason Lipshutz of Billboard called the song "a more seasoned version" of "Señorita", the opening track of Timberlake's debut studio album, Justified (2002). The song is an ode to the "intoxicating effects" of love and sex. 411mania's Jeremy Thomas commented that the lyrics are not in the "tortured, emo-driven" context that listeners could expect. Thomas described the song as a "smooth, laid back jam" in which Timberlake "eases his way around" a few "clunky" metaphors and "skillfully navigates several much better ones" in a song that "sets the stage for what to expect from the rest of the album". According to Gregory Hicks of The Michigan Daily, the song adopts the "swift, orchestral chromatics" of Ciara and Timberlake's 2009 single, "Love Sex Magic".
"Pusher Love Girl" opens with a "swirling" of "luscious" strings reminiscent of the opening to Robin Thicke's 2008 track "You're My Baby". Nate Jones of Popdust cited the introduction as being "straight from a Hollywood classic". Allan Raible of ABC News wrote that the "stringed fanfare" is something you would expect to hear on the red carpet of an awards ceremony. Jim Farber of the Daily News called the opening "classic enough" for Michael Jackson. After the "sweeping" orchestral intro, the song transcends into a "funky main section", which, according to Helen Brown of The Daily Telegraph, is a "sweet slice of funk-soul seduction". According to Thomas, "Pusher Love Girl" starts off like a "classic Sinatra song": with a "rise of strings" that "hit a pitch before dropping into a neo-soul sound".
Five minutes into the song, "Pusher Love Girl" morphs into a spoken-word outro where Timberlake raps "Childish Gambino style" over futuristic hip hop beats. Timberlake compares narcotics, such as heroin, cocaine, plum wine, MDMA and nicotine, to the love of his significant other. Kitty Empire, writing for The Observer, commented that Timberlake's list of narcotics sound "tempting". Youssef stated that the outro may seem "bloated" to many, but that it enhances the atmosphere and "cross-genre" feel that Timberlake and Timbaland wanted, while also "building on and completing the ideas" that Frank Ocean experimented with on his debut studio album, Channel Orange (2012). Sarah Dean of The Huffington Post wrote that Timberlake channels his "inner mid-'80s" Prince during this period of the song. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Timberlake raps with "surprising authority".
## Vocal style
Writing for the Houston Chronicle, Joey Guerra stated that Timberlake "hits that unmistakable falsetto" from the first chorus of "Pusher Love Girl". The song, as noted by Sobhi Youssef of Sputnikmusic introduces Timberlake's "beautiful" falsetto at "the apex of his game". musicOMH's David Meller wrote that Timberlake's vocal had "retained some of its boyish appeal but now has a measured, kind of sophisticated charm", while Dean declared that his "trademark falsetto" sounds "as-good-as-ever". The "street-savvy middle range" of Timberlake's vocals further separate him from his boy band start with NSYNC, according to Sean Daly of the Tampa Bay Times.
According to Brown, in the song, Timberlake sounds like he "inhaled" 1970s Stevie Wonder, "breathing it out" as the song "disperses into something spacily 21st century". Rolling Stone reviewer Jody Rosen noted that Timberlake borrows Curtis Mayfield's falsetto and Wonder's chord changes in the song. Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald wrote that Timberlake "snatches swagger" from Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Al Green soul "with dashes of Frank Sinatra swing and Prince's heavy breathing". Empire wrote that "Walt Disney meets Quincy Jones" on "Pusher Love Girl" and that the song rivals English space rock band Spiritualized for "dovetailing affection with addiction". Metro's Arwa Haider declared that the song initially recalls Barry White and The Love Unlimited Orchestra, only with "the walrus of lurve's bass croon" replaced by Timberlake's "falsetto yelp".
## Critical response
MSN Music's Robert Christgau cited "Pusher Love Girl" as a highlight of The 20/20 Experience, while Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club called it the best track on the album. Billboard writer Jason Lipshutz called the song an "extended glide", commenting that even though the song includes some dubious lyrics, Timberlake's "easy delivery will leave listeners hopelessly, er, addicted". Jean Bentley of Hollywood.com write that the intro to "Pusher Love Girl" is "very much in tune" with the "retro-soul vibe" of Timberlake's recent live performances. She wrote that it is one of the catchiest songs on The 20/20 Experience and commented that it "most certainly" would be his "second or third single". The Boston Globe reviewer James Reed wrote that "Pusher Love Girl" begins the album on a "blissed-out high".
Nate Jones of Popdust stated that the album version of "Pusher Love Girl" improves on the live version that was performed at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. He commented that the "instrumental thump, slightly plodding in the live versions, tightens up until it's propelling the song forward" with an "elephantine self-assurance", clearing "enough space" for Timberlake's Prince impersonation to work "out its sweet shimmy". He commented that it might be "slightly uncouth" to compare "your lover to a drug pusher", but "when you're doing it with harmonies like these, we don't think she'll mind." According to ABC News' Allan Raible, the lyrics to "Pusher Love Girl" are "very calculated" and the drug references are meant to give Timberlake, an artist who "somehow lives in a Tiger Beat bubble", "edge". Raible wrote that in the song, Timberlake is "supposed to be the bad boy with the pseudo-'50s smile and the charm to match", a comparison that was "tired" when Roxy Music used it in 1975. He concluded by stating that it is "past even being a dead horse by now".
Nick Krewen, writing for The Star, dismissed "Pusher Love Girl" as a "dull dirge" of a song that "plods along at a midtempo slog lasting five minutes, before a false ending and equally dull coda drag our carcasses another 400 meters after its initial impact". He wrote that "just when we feel we've escaped with minor scratches", Timberlake repeats the line "I'm a junkie for your love" ad nauseam "until the song reaches its merciful resolution". Robert Copsey of Digital Spy wrote that "Pusher Love Girl" begins "perky enough", but that is "hard to justify" its length when it feels repetitive after the first three minutes and "self-indulgent thereafter". HitFix reviewer Melinda Newman was critical of the lyric "hydroponic jelly bean", commenting: "Is there anyone else on God's green earth that could pull off calling someone that?"
## Live performances and cover versions
Timberlake premiered "Pusher Love Girl" as part of the set list for his comeback performance at DirecTV's Super Night in New Orleans on February 2, 2013. Timberlake next performed the song live at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on February 11, for which he received a standing ovation. Billboard ranked Timberlake's performance of "Pusher Love Girl" at the ceremony as one of the night's best performances. He also performed the song live at the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on March 12, 2013 and at the SXSW MySpace Secret Show on March 17, 2013. During the performance of the latter, Timberlake danced at "full tilt", while "owning his own signature falsetto like a seasoned maestro conducting a symphony orchestra", as noted by Maurice Bobb, a writer for MTV News.
In celebration of passing one million subscribers on YouTube, American a cappella group Pentatonix uploaded a video of them performing a live rendition of "Pusher Love Girl". According to Will Goodman of CBS News, their version of the song "reinforces why they've hit this milestone".
## Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of The 20/20 Experience.
Locations
- Vocals recorded and mixed at Larrabee Studios, North Hollywood, California
- Horns and strings recorded at EastWest Studios, Los Angeles, California
Personnel
- Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley – producer, songwriter
- Justin Timberlake – Mixer, producer, songwriter, vocal producer, vocal arranger
- Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon – keyboards, producer, songwriter
- James Fauntleroy – songwriter
- Chris Godbey – engineer, mixer
- Jimmy Douglass – mixer
- Alejandro Baima – assistant engineer
- Benjamin Wright – strings
- The Benjamin Wright Orchestra – strings
- Elliott Ives – guitar
- The Regiment – horns
- Reggie Dozler – horns and strings recorder
## Charts
## Accolades
|
59,373,811 |
Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)
| 1,162,857,501 |
1964 song
|
[
"1960s ballads",
"1964 singles",
"1964 songs",
"Black Mirror",
"Imperial Records singles",
"Irma Thomas songs",
"Jeannie Seely songs",
"Rhythm and blues ballads",
"Songs written by Randy Newman"
] |
"Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" is a 1964 R&B song written by Jeannie Seely and Randy Newman. It was recorded by Irma Thomas and released as a single the same year, with "Time Is on My Side" as the B-side. The song is about a woman who stays in a relationship with a man despite his bad behavior.
"Time Is on My Side" soon gathered attention when a cover by The Rolling Stones became their first top ten single in the US, while "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" peaked at number 52 in the Billboard Top 100 chart.
The song was repopularised by its usage in the science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. First sung by a character for a talent show in "Fifteen Million Merits" (2011), it was used in five subsequent episodes, and began to appear in other films and television programs. In 2018, the song reached number two on Billboard's Top TV Songs. In the 2010s, musicians to cover the song included Seal, Ruby Amanfu and Boyz II Men.
## Background
Irma Thomas, known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans", was born in 1941. By the age of 17, she was in her second marriage with three children, and by 19 her first single—"(You Can Have My Husband But Please) Don't Mess with My Man" (1960)—had charted on Billboard's Hot R&B Sides. Thomas moved to Minit Records and grew in public profile, including after featuring in a Coca-Cola advertisement, though none of her Minit singles charted nationally. Her first single after the label were acquired by Imperial Records, "Wish Someone Would Care" (1963), was a top 20 hit, and she began touring America. "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" was her next single. In 2006, The Guardian said that Thomas appeared to be "on the brink of a major breakthrough" during her years at Imperial, but that no breakthrough materialized. Instead, she had "medium-sized hits" during the period.
## Composition and recording
The song was co-written by Jeannie Seely and Randy Newman. Seely was a 23-year-old secretary at Liberty Records and conceived of the song while reading a pantyhose advert that said, "Anyone who knows what comfort is..." She stayed after work to use the label's piano, but struggled to play the chords and first verse as it sounded in her head. She asked for help from Newman, a 19-year-old songwriter. It was one of only three collaborations during his songwriting career, though he would later write songs for Thomas again—"While the City Sleeps" (1964) and "Baby Don't Look Down" (1966). The arrangement was done by H. B. Barnum; some of it is based on The Flamingos' cover of "I Only Have Eyes for You" (1959). On behalf of Seely and Newman, the music producer Eddie Ray gave the song to Thomas, who did not write her own music.
Both Seely and Newman would go on to have lengthy careers in the music industry. Seely said of the song in 2018, "I wrote the song when I was 23 ... I never thought I would still be getting royalties for it at 78". Seely first recorded herself singing it for her 2017 album Written in Song, which consisted of music she had written for other artists. She later performed it on the Grand Ole Opry.
The song was recorded by Thomas on April 16, 1964, with Barnum as the session director and conductor, and Leon Russell on piano. The recording process under Imperial was more involved than that of Thomas's previous discography, with use of orchestras, vocal ensembles, timpani and overdubbing. It was a few months later re-recorded in stereo for the Wish Someone Would Care album. The mono original, regarded by soul expert Dave Godin as the superior version, was re-released in 1997 on the first volume of his Deep Soul Treasures anthologies, highly acclaimed in the United Kingdom, contributing to the enduring reputation of the song. The B-side, "Time Is on My Side", was recorded in the same session, as was "I've Been There Before" (1966). "Time Is on My Side" was originally an orchestral jazz instrumental composed by Jerry Ragavoy and recorded by trombonist Kai Winding in 1963. Jimmy Norman wrote the lyrics for Thomas's gospel version. The Rolling Stones covered this version the same year, and it became their first top ten single in the U.S.
## Music and lyrics
"Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" is a rhythm and blues song with elements of Motown. It has an accompanying chorus and heavy backbeat. Cashbox described it as a "hauntingly slow beat-ballad affair", while Billboard called it a "soulful" ballad.
Newman biographer Kevin Courrier described the song as fitting the trope of "the sacrificial woman who stands by her no-good man", which is a longstanding theme in blues music. He contrasts this with the later song "While the City Sleeps", written by Newman and performed by Thomas, which "turns the tables" in describing a woman cheating on her male partner. Academic Robert Grant Price analysed it as an "anti-love love song", wherein the protagonist "sings about love's worst moments to show its sacrificial nature": though she will stay with her partner after he cheats on her and insults her, she believes it is worthwhile. Though the listener may urge her to leave her partner, it is she who pities those who have not experienced—in her own words—"what happiness love can be".
## Release
The song was first released as a single on May 14, 1964, by Imperial Records. "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" was the third of Thomas's six charting singles in the 1960s. While "Time Is on My Side" would appear on Thomas's debut album, Wish Someone Would Care (1964), "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" featured on her second album, Take a Look (1966). Both albums were also produced by Imperial.
On the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, the song peaked at number 52 in 1964. After its use in Black Mirror, the song peaked at number 2 on Billboard's Top TV Songs chart in 2018.
## Use in television and film
"Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" was repopularised by its appearance in the anthology science fiction series Black Mirror. Creator Charlie Brooker chose it for "Fifteen Million Merits" (2011), as a symbol of a past era to juxtapose with the dystopian setting. Main character Bing (Daniel Kaluuya) encourages the character Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay) to enter the talent competition Hot Shot after he hears her singing the song in the bathroom. The judges are unimpressed by her rendition, but she is offered a career as a pornographic actress instead. Brooker saw the song as one of "earnest beauty", which had "the sound of a timeless haunting classic" but would not be known by most viewers. A reviewer, Paste's Katherine Connell, wrote that the song's "authenticity" against the "artificiality" of the setting is what attracts Bing to Abi.
Speaking to IndieWire in 2019, Findlay said that she was "terrified" when filming her character's performance on Hot Shot, vomiting from nervousness beforehand. The quivers in her singing voice are genuine. When Newman watched the episode, he found the song "familiar", but it took him a while to place it as his own composition. Brooker chose the song during his 2018 appearance on Desert Island Discs as one of eight recordings he would take to a desert island.
The song was reused by the production throughout the series, as a way of "nesting all the episodes together in an artistic universe of sorts", according to executive producer Annabel Jones. In the special "White Christmas" (2014), Beth (Janet Montgomery) sings it at a karaoke night; Raiman (Madeline Brewer) sings it while holding a person at gunpoint in "Men Against Fire" (2016); in "Crocodile" (2017), a man recalls the song playing at the scene where he was hit by a truck. Miley Cyrus' character Ashley O composes the song during a coma in "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" (2019), while the song plays in a restaurant as Joan meets her ex-partner for dinner in "Joan Is Awful" (2023). Price argued in Black Mirror and Philosophy that in each case, the song is thematically relevant as it is sung either by or to characters who "don't know what love is".
Following its use in Black Mirror, the song began to appear more widely in film and television, for example in The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), The Deuce's "Inside the Pretend" (2018), Dead to Me's "I Can Handle It" (2019), and a trailer for the film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).
## Track listings
## Credits and personnel
- Irma Thomas – vocals
- Judith Arbuckle – songwriter
- Randy Newman – songwriter
- Jeannie Seely – songwriter
- Pat Sheeran – songwriter
- H. B. Barnum – arranger, conductor and director
- Eddie Ray – producer
## Cover versions
The song has been covered a number of times, including by Seal and Ruby Amanfu. Boyz II Men covered the song for Under the Streetlight (2017), with Amber Riley featured on the track. In 2018, Seely credited its use across multiple genres to "the haunting melody" and "the vulnerability of the lyrics".
Seal performed the song in his cover album Standards (2017). In The Sydney Morning Herald, John Shand noted it as one of the obscure choices on the album, in contrast to other primarily "standard repertoire" material, but called it a "lame" choice. Seal said that the song sounded like the music his mother listened to in his childhood in the 1960s, and could have been sung by Dionne Warwick or Tammy Wynette, or produced by Phil Spector. Jay Cridlin of the Tampa Bay Times praised a live performance of the song with orchestral backing as a "stirring, starlit romance" with "wall-of-sound percussion".
A cover of the song opens Ruby Amanfu's 2015 cover song album Standing Still. Saeed Saeed, in The National, reviewed that Amanfu brings a "more sombre take" with her emphasis on particular lyrics, including the word "understand", which creates "an aged feel", as if Amanfu is recalling a past "romantic experience with an almost rueful smile".
|
20,320,444 |
Believe in the Stars
| 1,108,944,890 | null |
[
"2008 American television episodes",
"30 Rock (season 3) episodes",
"Blackface minstrel shows and films",
"Race-related controversies in television",
"Stereotypes of African Americans",
"Television controversies in the United States",
"Television episodes pulled from general rotation"
] |
"Believe in the Stars" is the second episode of the third season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock. The 38th overall episode of the series was written by executive producer Robert Carlock and directed by series producer Don Scardino. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on November 6, 2008. Guest stars in this episode include Remy Auberjonois, Todd Buonopane, Raven Goodwin, and Oprah Winfrey.
The episode's plot concerns a feud between Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) over royalties from Tracy's pornographic video game Gorgasm: The Legend of Dong Slayer. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) attempts to settle the fight with the help of Oprah Winfrey, whom she meets on a return flight from Chicago. Meanwhile, NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) is stung by the revelation that most events from the 2008 Summer Olympics were staged to boost America's image and NBC's ratings. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) attempts to break Kenneth of his moral absolutism.
"Believe in the Stars" received generally positive reception from television critics, with Neal Justin of the Star Tribune concluding it was "the most brilliant episode in the series' history". According to the Nielsen ratings system, the episode was watched by 8.0 million households during its original broadcast, and received a 3.9 rating/9 share among viewers in the 18–49 demographic.
On June 22, 2020, it was revealed that this was one of three episodes being pulled from syndication and repeats due to the scene of Jenna wearing blackface.
## Plot
The episode starts with Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) announcing to her boss, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), that she needs to go to Chicago for jury duty because she is still registered to vote there. Jack gives Liz a powerful sedative for the trip. Later, NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) walks in on a meeting between Jack and the American silver medalist in tetherball, Tyler Brody (Remy Auberjonois). Tyler is angry at Jack for not selecting him as the gold medalist, and is threatening to go public with the revelation that there was no Olympic tetherball competition during the 2008 Summer Olympics, as it was staged to boost NBC's ratings. Jack makes a deal with Brody, but is bothered when Kenneth tells him that he no longer looks up to him over the morally grey actions. In an attempt to break Kenneth's moral absolutism, Jack stages a gambit where nine people are trapped in an elevator with enough air for eight, and Kenneth shows no hesitation in sacrificing himself. Jack concedes that Kenneth is better than him, and gives him a big screen television as a gift, but no cable hookup. Kenneth steals cable and later confesses to Jack, asking if SpongeBob SquarePants "is supposed to be terrifying".
Meanwhile, Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) demands compensation for her voice work in Tracy Jordan's (Tracy Morgan) pornographic video game, Gorgasm: The Legend of Dong Slayer. The argument escalates and Liz orders them to stop their bickering. After Liz leaves for Chicago, Jenna and Tracy decide to conduct a social experiment to see whether Tracy can survive better as a white woman than Jenna can as a black man, after arguing respectively that black men and white women have it harder in society. Later, while on her flight, Liz takes Jack's sedative. Liz realizes that the woman sitting next to her is Oprah Winfrey. When Liz arrives back at the 30 Rock studios, Tracy is dressed in female drag with his body covered in white makeup and soon after, Jenna enters in blackface and male drag. Jack worries that the situation has gone out of control, but Liz assures him that Oprah, who is coming to the studios, will be able to make them come to terms. As it turns out, her inflight conversation with Oprah was a hallucination. The person who Liz thought was Oprah is actually a 12-year-old girl named Pam (Raven Goodwin). Even so, Pam engages Tracy and Jenna in a heart-to-heart, and manages to settle their differences.
## Production
"Believe in the Stars" was written by executive producer Robert Carlock and directed by series producer Don Scardino. This episode was Carlock's ninth writing credit, and was Scardino's fifteenth directed episode. "Believe in the Stars" originally aired in the United States on November 6, 2008 on NBC as the second episode of the show's third season and the 38th overall episode of the series.
In September 2008, it was announced that television host Oprah Winfrey would guest star on the show. She filmed her appearance on September 13, 2008. When Winfrey interviewed series creator Tina Fey on her show in November, Fey revealed that they shot their scene together on a Saturday, a day that the show normally does not film on. Actress Raven Goodwin played Pam, a 12-year-old girl that, while hallucinating, Liz Lemon believed was Oprah. Actor Remy Auberjonois played Olympic medalist Tyler Brody in this episode. This was actor Todd Buonopane's debut as the character Jeffrey Weinerslav, an NBC Human Resource mediator. In "Believe in the Stars", Jeffrey tries to mediate the disagreement that Jenna and Tracy are having over the video game. Buonopane later guest starred in the episodes "Cutbacks" and "Jackie Jormp-Jomp".
Star Wars is frequently referenced in 30 Rock, beginning with the pilot episode in 2006 where Tracy Jordan is seen shouting that he is a Jedi. Liz admits to being a huge fan of Star Wars, saying that she had watched it many times with Pete Hornberger (Scott Adsit), and dressed up as the Star Wars character Princess Leia during four recent Halloweens, and in this episode while trying to get out of jury duty in Chicago. Star Wars is also referenced when Tracy takes on the identity of the character Chewbacca. Fey, a fan of Star Wars herself, said that the weekly Star Wars joke or reference "started happening organically" when the crew realized that they had a Star Wars reference "in almost every show". She said that from then on "it became a thing where [they] tried to keep it going", and that even though they could not include one in every episode, they still had a "pretty high batting average". She attributed most of the references to Carlock, whom she described as "the resident expert".
## Reception
According to the Nielsen ratings system, "Believe in the Stars" was watched by 8.0 million households in its original American broadcast. It earned a 3.9 rating/9 share in the 18–49 demographic. This means that it was seen by 3.9 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 9 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. This was a decrease from the season premiere episode, "Do-Over", which was watched by 8.7 million American viewers. Nonetheless, this episode was the eighth highest-rated show on the NBC network during the week of November 3–9, 2008. Since airing, "Believe in the Stars" has received positive reception from television critics.
IGN contributor Robert Canning praised the episode, saying that it was "an absolutely perfect episode with not a moment wasted [and] equally hilarious were the storylines between Jack and Kenneth, and Tracy and Jenna. The episode had everything that makes 30 Rock great." Canning opined that Liz's admissions to Oprah Winfrey were "painfully funny", and that Tracy "was on fire" following his actions in this episode. In conclusion, Canning gave it a 10 out of 10 rating. Jeremy Medina of Paste was complimentary towards the episode, reporting that it had "madcap humor tirelessly delivered one joke after another at a lightning fast speed, adding up to one of the funniest episodes in the series." Medina enjoyed the social experiment between Jenna and Tracy, noting that it was "hilarious". TV Guide's Matt Mitovich commented that the episode was "Rock-solid", while Neal Justin of the Star Tribune believed it was "the most brilliant episode in the series' history". Television columnist Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger wrote that "Believe in the Stars" belonged to Tina Fey "who has grown by leaps and bounds as an actress over the past few years. The Princess Leia voice, her drunken panic on the plane [...] and the religious fervor at the knowledge that Oprah would be coming to the studio were all hilarious, and played with the sort of confidence I don't know that she would have had at the start of the series."
The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin said that the Jenna and Tracy subplot was not the most inspired idea, but admitted it introduced one of his "favorite gags in 30 Rock history" regarding two make-up artists giving Tracy a monster claw to use as a white hand when they ran out of white powder. Rabin called it a "brilliant gag." He was less enthusiastic with Winfrey in the episode, noting that her appearance "was treated as such a seismic cultural event that tonight's episode couldn't help but feel like a letdown." Bob Sassone of AOL's TV Squad wrote that "the least effective plot" in this episode was Jenna and Tracy's.
|
12,230,267 |
Tiffany and Company Building
| 1,154,797,453 |
Commercial building in Manhattan, New York, U.S.
|
[
"1905 establishments in New York City",
"Commercial buildings completed in 1905",
"Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan",
"Fifth Avenue",
"McKim, Mead & White buildings",
"Midtown Manhattan",
"National Historic Landmarks in Manhattan",
"New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan",
"Renaissance Revival architecture in New York City",
"Retail buildings in New York (state)",
"Tiffany & Co."
] |
The Tiffany and Company Building, also known as the Tiffany Building and 401 Fifth Avenue, is an eight-story commercial building at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The structure was designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White. It was built from 1903 to 1905 as the flagship store of jewelry company Tiffany & Co. The building is a New York City designated landmark and a National Historic Landmark.
The Tiffany Building has a marble facade inspired by that of the Palazzo Grimani di San Luca in Venice. The facade is divided by large entablatures and cornices into three horizontal tiers; the lowest tier has square piers and rectangular openings, while the second and third tiers have round columns and arched openings. The Tiffany Building has a steel superstructure and a sloped metal roof that resembles a tiled roof. The interior originally comprised seven above-ground stories and two basement levels; a mezzanine was added above the first story in 1952. The basement contained a vault, the first six stories contained various departments of the store, and the seventh story was an exhibition space. The interiors were decorated with various woods, marbles, and Guastavino tiles, much of which has since been removed.
Tiffany & Co.'s president Charles T. Cook developed the building, which cost \$600,000 and opened on September 5, 1905. The Tiffany store prospered through the 1920s, but it suffered through the Great Depression. After the company moved to a new flagship store on 57th Street in 1940, the building was occupied by American Red Cross and Textron in the 1940s. Henry Goelet of the Goelet family acquired the building in 1951 and renovated the lower stories, while the upper stories were occupied by Allied Stores from 1950 to 1973. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church bought the Tiffany Building in 1977 and used it as a newspaper office. Following a failed plan in the late 1980s to build a tower above the Tiffany Building, the upper stories were used as television studios. The Stahl Real Estate Company bought the building in 2000 and renovated the lower stories.
## Site
The Tiffany and Company Building is at 401 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, at the southeast corner with 37th Street. The building's land lot is nearly rectangular, with a recess at its southeast corner, and has a total area of 17,048 sq ft (1,583.8 m<sup>2</sup>). It measures 117 ft (36 m) from north to south and 152 ft (46 m) from west to east. Nearby buildings include The Langham, New York hotel and 404 Fifth Avenue to the west; the Lord & Taylor Building one block north; 200 Madison Avenue to the southeast; and the Gorham Building at 390 Fifth Avenue to the southwest.
The residential core of Manhattan relocated north from lower Manhattan during the late 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, development was centered on Fifth Avenue north of 34th Street, where new department store buildings were quickly replacing the street's brownstones. One of the first new store buildings in the area was the B. Altman and Company Building, which opened in 1906. Other department stores such as Lord & Taylor, as well as specialty stores such as Tiffany & Co. and the Gorham Manufacturing Company, relocated during the 1900s and 1910s.
## Architecture
The Tiffany and Company Building was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White for luxury retail store Tiffany & Co. It is the company's fifth flagship store in New York City. The facade is an adaptation of the Palazzo Grimani di San Luca in Venice. The building was originally seven stories tall, though its facade is divided into three horizontal tiers. The top of the roof is 140 ft (43 m) above ground; the high ceilings made the building about as tall as a typical 11-story structure. The facade remains intact, but the interior layout has been changed significantly. The addition of one story in the lowest tier makes the building now eight stories tall.
### Facade
The facade is made largely of marble with finishes of iron and terracotta. It is divided vertically into five bays on its western elevation, facing Fifth Avenue, and seven bays on its northern elevation, facing 37th Street. Originally, the facade used clear wire glass for fireproofing, which was imperceptible from both the inside and the outside.
#### First tier
The bays of the lowest tier are mainly articulated by pairs of square Corinthian piers made of marble. Most bays are separated by two square piers, which rise from a single marble pedestal. These support an entablature and balustrade above the second floor. Between these piers, each bay has a square-headed opening. These piers originally were topped by Corinthian capitals, which were removed in 1952.
On Fifth Avenue, the outermost bays provided an entrance to the Tiffany & Co. store. Each of these outermost bays contained brass porticos with revolving doors. The three inner bays on Fifth Avenue contained plate-glass storefront windows at the first story. Each first-story opening was topped by a marble spandrel, as well as a tripartite second-story window with six panes. Because the site slopes slightly downward to the south, there was a level platform in front of the Fifth Avenue elevation, which was two to four steps above the ground. In 1952, the storefronts, porticos, and spandrels on the first story were removed. In addition, the first story (which was originally slightly above the sidewalk) was lowered to ground level. Several storefronts, with black-granite piers and spandrels, were installed in their place. The black granite was removed in 2002 and the original design of the ground story was restored, with new square piers and bronze storefronts. The pilasters at the ground story are lighter in color than those above.
On 37th Street, the third and fourth bays from west contained porticos similar to those on Fifth Avenue, while the remaining bays contained storefronts. The second story was designed with similar windows and spandrels as on Fifth Avenue. The center three bays are separated by single rounded columns. The rest of the bays are separated by pairs of square piers, similar to those on Fifth Avenue. The two westernmost bays were modified in 1952 to resemble the storefronts on Fifth Avenue. The third through sixth bays from west remain intact, except for the addition of black-granite spandrels at the mezzanine level. The seventh bay from west (the easternmost bay on that elevation) was retrofitted with a black-granite entrance, removed in 2002.
#### Second and third tiers
The second and third tiers are designed similarly with only minor differences. On both tiers, the windows are designed as double-height arches. The bays are separated by rounded Corinthian-style engaged columns, which are generally grouped in pairs (except the center three bays on 37th Street, which are separated by single columns). The second tier consists of the third and fourth stories. The third story contains rectangular double-hung windows, each divided into several panes. The windows at the third and fourth stories are separated by stone spandrel panels. The columns contain imposts at that level; these imposts support round arches that rise to keystones at the top of the fourth story. The spandrels above the corners of these arches are exposed, allowing the installation of rectangular windows on the fourth story. The exposed spandrels increased the amount of glass used in the windows behind them.
Above the fourth floor, at the central bay on 37th Street, was a statue of the mythological figure Atlas, designed by Henry Frederick Metzler. This statue had been placed on Tiffany & Co.'s previous headquarters and has been at 6 East 57th Street since 1940. The statue stood as an icon of the brand; the flagship store did not have the name "Tiffany" appear on its facades, and only the statue and clock denoted the company's occupancy. The statue was of a bearded, thin man and was sculpted from wood of a fir tree, painted to resemble the patina of weathered bronze. The feet were made of solid lead. Aside from the Atlas statue, White intentionally did not put any sculpture on the facade.
An entablature separated the fourth floor (top of the second tier) and fifth floor (bottom of the third tier). The fifth and sixth stories are designed almost identically to the third and fourth stories, respectively. The main difference is that the engaged piers are covered with panels, and the spandrels of the arches are covered. The facade is topped by an entablature and a cornice with large modillions. Above the cornice, the seventh story is placed within a pitched roof, which due to its location is not easily visible from the street. The roof appeared to be a tile roof, but it was actually a fireproof metal surface fabricated by the Meurer Brothers.
### Structural and mechanical features
The interior was divided into seven above-ground stories and two basement levels. The current first story was rebuilt at a lower height in 1952 to allow the installation of a mezzanine above it. The sub-basement is 25 ft (7.6 m) below the sidewalk. The floor slabs are about 2 ft (0.61 m) thick and the exterior walls are up to 5 to 6 ft (1.5 to 1.8 m) thick, much larger than in similar buildings. The building also used a steel superstructure, which allowed the use of thinner exterior walls, thereby permitting large glass windows at the first story and exposed spandrels on the fourth story. High ceilings and glazed windows allowed natural light to illuminate almost all of the selling spaces on the first to sixth floors.
As a fireproofing measure, the Tiffany store minimized the use of wood. In addition, all doors were made of steel and all windows were made of wire-glass with steel frames. Terracotta and clay were also used for fireproofing. The ceilings of the basement and top floor were both made of Guastavino tiles, manufactured by the National Fire Proofing Company. Also included within the building were glass partitions made by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in a manner resembling marble. All the interior windows, facing adjacent buildings on the same block, are made of wire glass.
Six elevators originally served the building's upper floors. The elevators were steel cages and were in the rear (eastern) part of the store. In 1952, two of the elevators were removed while the other four elevators were rebuilt. In addition to those, a lift allowed patrons to bring their valuables down to the basement vault. There was a private elevator for customers who had valuables in the vault. Wrapping around the elevator cabs was the main stairway, which was decorated with exedra and mythical creatures. The risers of the stairway were 8 ft (2.4 m) wide and were made of Formosa marble. The entire building was fitted with a pneumatic tube system. The basement contained three small generators and an ice machine; to prevent vibrations, the foundation of the basement was encased in a 1 ft-thick (0.30 m) layer of sand. Each floor had eight ventilation fans.
### Interior
#### Basement
The basement contained a safe deposit vault and a valuables-storage department. The vault's ceiling was made of masonry. Its walls were 4 ft (1.2 m) thick and included steel plates measuring 22 in (560 mm) thick. The two vault doors were secured to the vault's steel frame by heavy bolts. The outer vault door was 14 in (360 mm) thick and was unlocked by three dials made of white enamel. The inner door was 8 in (200 mm) thick and was operated using a lever. Architects' and Builders' Magazine wrote that explosives or drills could not penetrate the vault. Inside were 2,036 safe-deposit boxes, each of which was secured by a double combination lock. The vault was so closely guarded that, when the vault experienced a minor fire in 1914, the store's security guards initially refused to let New York City Fire Department firefighters in. The safe remained in place even after Tiffany & Co. relocated in 1940.
The vault was accessed by a marble hallway with decorative gates at one end. There was also a safe-keeping department with Guastavino-tiled ceilings and marble walls. The coupon room was surrounded by white-glass walls. On the 37th Street side was the shipping department. Packages would be loaded in the basement, where they were then lifted to a vestibule at street level and loaded onto trucks.
#### First story
The original first story contained gray decoration. The space had purplish-gray German marble columns. which were cast in four pieces and hollowed out, surrounding the steel superstructure. The floor surface was made of Philippine teak. On this story were Philippine teak display boxes, as well as selling counters decorated with griffin-shaped legs. Some wall surfaces were made of Formosa marble. Other walls and counters had teakwood with brass-and-steel borders. The first story originally contained ten tons of bronze fixtures, which were removed from the store in a 1952 renovation. Behind the elevators was an exhibit room trimmed in ash, which contained a brass coffered ceiling. The double-height ceiling was extensively coffered, and silvered chandeliers were hung from the coffers. In 1952, a mezzanine level was created within the upper half of the original space, and the original first story was slightly lowered.
#### Upper stories
The front of the second floor, facing Fifth Avenue, was used for selling Tiffany glass, statuary, and bronze merchandise. There were Ionic columns within this space. The rear of the second floor contained the president's and board of directors' offices, which were decorated with wood. The second floor also contained the counting rooms, correspondence, and mail order departments. Tableware, pottery, and glass were sold on the third floor, and the registry offices and the order department were also on that story. The fourth floor contained the photography, engraving, design, heraldic, and library departments. Goldsmiths, polishers, and diamond cutters worked on the fifth floor, while the sixth floor sold leather goods and clocks. Two of the upper floors contained wooden-tiled floor surfaces laid in a herringbone pattern.
The seventh floor, at the top of the building, was not in the original plans. It was only added after McKim, Mead & White realized that there was enough space beneath the metal roof. The top floor was used for exhibitions. It measured about 60 by 100 ft (18 by 30 m) in total. The center of the ceiling had an oval glass skylight measuring 20 by 60 ft (6.1 by 18.3 m). The vaulted ceiling was 35 ft (11 m) high and was covered with Guastavino tiles. Though one account described the ceiling as being supported by Corinthian columns, The New York Times cited a press release as saying that the space was "a column-free expanse". Architect Robert A. M. Stern described the top floor as "an elegant and spartan antidote to the opulence of the main hall at street level". Only the decorations on the top floor remain intact, except the skylight, which has been removed.
## History
Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young founded the stationery store Tiffany, Young and Ellis in 1837; the store was housed at 259 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. The company began selling jewelry, glassware, and clocks in 1839, and these items comprised most of the firm's sales four years later. This prompted the firm to expand to a neighboring building. The name was shortened to Tiffany & Company in 1853, when Charles Tiffany took control and established the firm's emphasis on jewelry. Tiffany & Co. moved to 271 Broadway in 1847 and then to 550 Broadway in 1854. The Atlas clock was sculpted with the construction of 550 Broadway. By the American Civil War, Tiffany & Co. was one of the nation's leading jewelry makers. With the uptown movement of commerce, Tiffany & Co. built a headquarters at 15 Union Square West in 1870. As late as 1893, Charles Tiffany denied rumors that the company would move yet again to Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, even as other companies were doing so.
### Tiffany use
#### Development
Charles Tiffany was again planning to relocate the headquarters of Tiffany & Co. by 1902, but he died that year, before the company could relocate. Tiffany's successor as company president, Charles T. Cook, bought a site at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street from George C. Boldt in April 1903. The site cost \$2 million and measured 159 ft (48 m) on Fifth Avenue by 151 ft (46 m) on 37th Street. At the time, this was the most anyone had ever paid for a commercial site in Manhattan. Cook planned to build a new headquarters on the site, hiring McKim, Mead & White to "build me a palace". McKim, Mead & White filed plans for a seven-story store with the New York City Bureau of Buildings in September 1903. The building was to measure 117 by 152 feet and was to contain a marble facade with cornices, three Atlas statues, and two entrances. The next month, the Charles T. Wills Company was hired as the building's general contractor. As the site was being excavated that October, the foundation walls collapsed, killing one laborer.
The building's cornerstone was laid on March 16, 1904. That month, city inspectors alleged that the Tiffany Building's contractors were violating construction codes by hastily erecting steel frames in the winters and then installing the brick-arched floors in the summers. At the time, New York City law mandated that the top of a development site's steel structure could not progress more than three stories beyond the highest brick-arched floor. The southern lot line, which abutted the home of Henry O. Havemeyer, was originally irregular in shape; this created a situation in which parts of one lot were surrounded on three sides by the other lot. In August 1904, Havemeyer and Tiffany & Co. swapped two of the interior lots to straighten out the boundary of the site. The building ultimately cost \$600,000 to complete, excluding the cost of the land. The firm also designed a garage at 141 East 41st Street for Tiffany & Co.
#### Operation
The new Tiffany Building opened on September 5, 1905. At the time, the seventh floor was not complete. Within the first three minutes of the new store's opening, a customer had bought \$9,575 worth of merchandise. The store's merchandise at the time ranged from \$2,000 garters to \$700,000 necklaces. In February 1908, the city government ordered that buildings on Fifth Avenue between 26th and 47th Streets had to remove stoops and vaults that encroached onto the street, as the city planned to widen Fifth Avenue. That December, McKim, Mead & White filed plans to remove the marble steps in front of the building. Three months later, the firm filed plans for a seven-story building to the south, later the Gunther Building. Although that site was owned by Tiffany & Co., the Tiffany store did not occupy that land lot.
Tiffany & Co. had been one of the earliest stores to move uptown to Fifth Avenue, which at the time was still primarily residential. In 1910, the New-York Tribune reported that the Altman and Tiffany buildings had prompted high demand "of high-class retail houses for locations on the avenue". Tiffany & Co. temporarily switched to making surgical instruments for the government during World War I. After the war, the company reverted to producing luxury items. The Tiffany store prospered through the 1920s, but it suffered through the Great Depression, recording net losses for the first time in its history. Nonetheless, the corner of 37th Street and Fifth Avenue "stood as the symbol of wealth in the richest shopping area in the country, if not in the world", according to The New York Times.
By the late 1930s, commerce on Fifth Avenue had relocated still further uptown to 57th Street. In May 1939, the company leased a site on 57th Street from First National City Bank, which acted as trustee for the William Waldorf Astor estate, the previous owner of the property. In exchange, National City Bank agreed to take over the 37th Street building. Tiffany & Co. then hired Cross & Cross to design a new flagship store at 6 East 57th Street. The new flagship store opened on October 21, 1940. The same day, Tiffany & Co. deeded the 37th Street site to the Astor estate, with National City Bank paying \$1.2 million. The interior of the old store was disassembled immediately after the Astors acquired the building.
### 1940s to mid-1970s
For three years in the early 1940s, the ground floor was leased to the American Red Cross, which hosted events such as home-nursing courses as well as volunteer art exhibitions. In 1945, Alad Holding Inc., led by Alan N. Adelson, leased the building for \$2 million and then sold the leasehold to industrial company Textron. Textron then remodeled the first to third floors and, in the interim, opened an office on the seventh floor in April 1946. Textron planned to eventually occupy the entire building and rename it. The company also added an air conditioning system. In July 1949, Textron announced plans to move its men's division to the Empire State Building while keeping the women's division at 401 Fifth Avenue. That November, Textron sold the leasehold, which was then acquired by Charles A. Frueaoff. Allied Stores leased the third through sixth stories of the Tiffany Building in 1950, and the Office of Price Stabilization also briefly occupied the building until early 1952.
Henry Goelet of the Goelet real-estate family obtained full ownership of the Tiffany Building in January 1951 in a series of transactions worth \$8.5 million. He bought the leasehold from the Frueaoff estate, as well as the fee interest in the land, from the Astor estate, obtaining \$1.5 million in short-term financing. Goelet had planned to lease the lowest stories to a "Midwestern department store", but this deal was canceled after the U.S. federal government demanded that the Office of Price Stabilization use the space. In 1952, Goelet detailed his plans to renovate the building. He planned to lower the first story slightly, add a mezzanine above it, remodel the storefronts, and add new air conditioning and elevators. Charles N. and Selig Whinston conducted the renovations, which cost \$1 million. Ten tons of bronze and \$1 million of marble were removed during the project.
The Gotham Hosiery Company leased the new mezzanine level in 1953, and American Bleached Goods opened a second-story office with two showrooms the same year. Other tenants in the 1950s included shoe chain Stuart Brooks Red Cross Shoes, as well as a Horn & Hardart restaurant. Goelet sold the Tiffany & Co. Building in 1957 to a syndicate of Nelson Properties Inc. and Burnebrook Manor Inc. Allied renovated the fifth to seventh floors in 1960, consolidating its marketing department there. Allied continued to occupy the Tiffany Building until 1973, when it moved to 1120 Avenue of the Americas. The surrounding stretch of Fifth Avenue had begun to decline by the 1970s. A Burger King fast-food restaurant had opened within the Tiffany Building by 1976.
### Late 1970s to present
In 1977, Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church bought the Tiffany & Co. Building for a reported \$2.4 million. The Tiffany & Co. Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978. The church promised to restore the Tiffany Building into offices for its daily newspaper, The News World. Within four years, the building had an estimated value of \$4.3 million, and it housed the English and Spanish editions of the church's daily newspapers. The New York City Tribune, a subsidiary of The News World, was formed in 1983 and also had its offices in the Tiffany Building. Noticias del Mundo, a newspaper also run by the Unification Church, took some office space as well. The Unification Church planned to eventually restore the Tiffany Building, but it did not conduct any work in the decade after it purchased the building.
The Unification Church proposed restoring the building and erecting a tower above it in 1987. The tower would have been designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. If built, it would have been 40 stories tall and made of precast concrete. Most of the facade of the original building would have been restored, except for two bays on the highest tier, which would have been removed to create a light court. In February 1987, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) deferred a decision on whether to designate the Tiffany Building as a city landmark. The next year, the LPC designated the building as a landmark. Meanwhile, News World Communications acquired three lots beside the Tiffany Building to enable the construction of a tower with 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m<sup>2</sup>). The Unification Church canceled its plans to build a tower above the Tiffany Building in 1990, after the LPC rejected a similar tower over the Metropolitan Club building. Instead, the church planned to restore only the exterior storefront signs.
By 1991, the top floor was available for lease. Its broker described the space as being "ideal for a fashion or accessories showroom, or a television or video production company" due to its high ceilings. The Image Group then leased 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m<sup>2</sup>) in the building, spanning four stories. The company taped The Ricki Lake Show on the seventh floor. The Image Group also produced The People's Court in the building, and American Eagle Outfitters occupied two floors by the end of the 20th century. In 2000, the Stahl Real Estate Company bought the building, evicted three retail tenants, and began restoring the space. After the renovations, Stahl leased out 8,800 sq ft (820 m<sup>2</sup>) on the ground floor and 9,500 sq ft (880 m<sup>2</sup>) in the basement. The piers at the ground story were restored, although they were much lighter in color than the original piers above them.
## Reception
When the building opened, Architects and Builders magazine said the interior color scheme "has been treated by a master hand". Henry James described the building as "a great nobleness of white marble... with three fine arched and columned stages above its high basement". James described the building as having been designed "within the conditions of sociable symmetry", complementing McKim, Mead & White's other buildings on Fifth Avenue, including the Knickerbocker Trust Company Building, the Gorham Building, and the clubhouses of the University Club of New York and Metropolitan Club. Architectural Record wrote: "Compared to the Gorham Building, the Tiffany Building is by way of being frivolous". Henry Olmsted Jr. said: "Architects and Capitalists are awakening to the splendid returns obtained from building construction embodying the best skill and materials money can purchase", with the Tiffany Building being one such example.
When the building was renovated in the 1950s, architectural writer Lewis Mumford disapproved of the changes, saying there should be a "Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Buildings". In the late 1970s, Paul Goldberger said the Tiffany and Gorham buildings were "splendid examples" of Renaissance palazzos on Fifth Avenue, even though the style "did not remain the favored architectural motif of the avenue for too long". Architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable described the Burger King's presence at ground level as part of "the mutilation of Fifth Avenue", while Robert A. M. Stern described it as an "indignity". By 1990, Christopher Gray had described the building as "a notorious object lesson in how not to treat a landmark"; at the time, the facade was extremely dirty. Even after the lower section of the facade had been restored in the 2000s, Gray described the restored section as being like "a pair of khakis dipped in bleach".
## See also
- List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City
- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
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Boyfriend (Justin Bieber song)
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[
"2010s Island Records singles",
"2012 singles",
"2012 songs",
"Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles",
"Issues (band) songs",
"Justin Bieber songs",
"Music videos directed by Director X",
"Song recordings produced by Kuk Harrell",
"Songs written by Blackbear (musician)",
"Songs written by Justin Bieber",
"Songs written by Mike Posner"
] |
"Boyfriend" is a song by Canadian singer Justin Bieber, taken from his third studio album Believe (2012). Bieber explained that the track would surprise people in different ways, since it is a musical departure from his previous material. A snippet of "Boyfriend" was previewed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on March 1, 2012, Bieber's 18th birthday. The song was announced as a single on the same day, and was released on March 26, 2012. The cover art was revealed on March 19, 2012.
Musically, "Boyfriend" is an R&B influenced song that features pop beats reminiscent of American record producer Pharrell Williams and boy band NSYNC. The instrumentation is kept in a lower sound to highlight Bieber's vocals. However, critics dismissed the lyrics as immature and silly. "Boyfriend" was a commercial success, debuting at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 after selling a total of 521,000 digital units of the single. The song has the sixth-highest-ever debut digital sales week in the United States and has also charted at number 9 on the Pop Songs component chart. It also debuted at number one in Canada and number two in the United Kingdom.
Island Records initially commissioned a music video to be directed by Colin Tilley; however, the video was later scrapped and re-shot with Director X. Released on May 3, 2012, the video broke the VEVO record for having the most views in a 24-hour period with 8.00 million, later bested by One Direction's "Live While We're Young" (8.24 million). As part of promotion for the song, Bieber performed "Boyfriend" in a number of live appearances, including at the second-season finale of The Voice, and at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. The rapping duo Ying Yang Twins also released a remixed version of the track with new verses added. Another remix of "Boyfriend" features 2 Chainz, Mac Miller and Asher Roth.
## Background and artwork
In late 2011, Bieber confirmed to radio network Capital FM that he was recording material for his third studio album, which was originally going to be released in early 2012. He later spoke to MTV News and revealed that Believe would surprise people in different ways, since it musically is a departure from his previous works. "Boyfriend" was written by Bieber, Michael Posner, Mason D. Levy and Matthew Musto. During an interview with radio DJ Bootleg Kev, Posner revealed that he was impressed with Bieber's work ethic, and further commented, "he's super talented. At first I didn't know what to expect because he's super young, but dude can write." Posner said that people would "flip" over the beat and that radio stations would want to play the song. Levy also commented on the track, and described it as "definitely edgier, it's more grown-up, it's more developed and it's sexier." Prior to the song's release, it had been previewed by several industry insiders, including radio host Mick Lee of WZFT, who said that the song was "so much different than his previous music.
On March 1, 2012, Bieber was featured as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he announced that the song would be officially released on March 26. He said, "My big announcement is that on March 26, my first single is coming out and it's called 'Boyfriend.' The song, it's basically I'm talking to this girl, [saying] if I was your boyfriend, I would never let you go. We wrote it, and the verses I'm talking/ rapping and then on the hook I'm singing. It's a really awesome song." Bieber also previewed the song's introduction on the show. Through his Twitter account, the singer released a poll in which fans were allowed to choose between two artworks for the single. Jessica Sager of Pop Crush noted that Bieber sports a mature look on both covers, using Elvis Presley's hair style and wearing a white t-shirt underneath a short sleeved, navy and white plaid button down with a thin chain necklace. The winning artwork was revealed on March 19, 2012.
## Composition
"Boyfriend" is a R&B influenced track that lasts for two minutes and 52 seconds, which incorporates elements of acoustic music, hip hop, while still having club beats. The song was written in the key of B♭ minor and its tempo is 96 beats per minute. The song opens with Bieber using a lower-register and breathy vocals while rapping, "If I was your boyfriend, I’d never let you go/ I can take you places you ain’t never been before/Baby, take a chance or you’ll never ever know/ I got money in my hands that I’d really like to blow/ Swag, swag, swag on you/Chilling by the fire while we eatin’ fondue." As the chorus follows, he adopts a falsetto similar to Michael Jackson, and sings about being "everything you want".
The instrumentation, produced by Posner and Levy, infuses hand claps and Pharrell Williams similar style beats, and, as noted by Pop Crush reviewer Amy Sciaretto, "is kept to a minimum, allowing The Biebs’ voice, which has strengthened and deepened as he matures and grows up, to shine and take center stage." Sciaretto also thought that "Boyfriend" is similar to Timberlake's song "Cry Me a River" (2002), while it was perceived by Robbie Daw of Idolator as a homage to the early 1990s. Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone dismissed the lyrical content, and summarized it as "Justin Has Actually Had Sexual Intercourse – But He Won't Harm Your Nine-Year-Old." Spin writer Marc Hogan said that the lyrics have references to several tracks, including Beyoncé's "Party" (2011), Britney Spears' "Till the World Ends" (2011), and Janet Jackson's "If" (1993). Andrew Hampp of Billboard said that "the club-ready beat and guitar-plucked chorus" recalls 'N Sync's final single "Girlfriend" (2002), and compared it to early songs by Justin Timberlake and Usher. Despite being influenced by Timberlake, Bieber strongly disapproved of the Timberlake comparison, stating in an interview on Mojo in the Morning: "That's crazy because our voices sound nothing alike. I mean, I'm not trying to sound like anyone. Saying I sound like someone else is not really a compliment".
## Critical reception
"Boyfriend" has received positive reviews. Andrew Hampp of Billboard rated it 82 out of 100, stating that Bieber sounds more adult than ever, but noted that most of his fans are still 12-year-old girls. Amy Sciaretto of Pop Crush praised the track, and said that the result of trying new music styles resulted on "a more mature, more well-rounded Justin Bieber song." Jenna Hally Rubenstein of MTV said that "Boyfriend" is "crazy dope", and realized that the lyrics are directed to the things Bieber does with his current girlfriend Selena Gomez. Becca Grim of Rolling Stone thought that the song is "edgier-than-usual," while Artistdirect reviewer Breña Brandano said that "Boyfriend" not only marks Bieber's transition to an adult, but also deemed it as a "new dawn for pop." Marc Hogan of magazine Spin said that Bieber "wants to sex you up" with the track, but thought that "Bieber might be a wealthy suitor, but he's not grown up just yet." A Rap-Up reviewer complimented "Boyfriend" for showcasing a mature Bieber and urban sound on it. The A.V. Club editors Steven Hyden and Genevieve Koski rated the song an A−, complimenting its production and vocals and considering it "irresistible, and when Bieber launches into that Timberlakian falsetto, it all feels pretty perfect." They also ranked it among his best singles, although they criticized its lyrical content.
Jordan Zakarin of The Hollywood Reporter described the song as a "more or less a proposition, with Bieber outlining both solid small town date ideas and eternal promises." Raju Mudhar of Toronto Star commented that, lyrically, Bieber is "nowhere near bringing 'SexyBack', but sounds like he's love to walk home holding your hand." Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone also rated it three out of five stars, and, while seeing its background as "expertly calculated to ease the Biebs' transition from tweenpop dreamboat to post-tweenpop dreamboat", questioned, "how can a song that begins with Bieber rapping in his thickest patois about his "swag" not be hater-bait?" About.com critic Bill Lamb considered it a "simplistic song derivative of Justin Timberlake", and stated that the lyrics does not have "substance to expand into an entire song." HitFix blogger Chris Eggertsen thought that "Boyfriend" is lyrically the same song Bieber has sung since his career first started, but noted that none of his fans would notice such aspect. Gregory Hicks of The Michigan Daily commented that Bieber is copying Timberlake's R&B style on the song, and described the lyrics as original "in the sense that few artists are willing to introduce this much poetic stupidity into their music.". RedEye's Ernest Wilkins said that Bieber doesn't know how to rap well, adding that "I yearn for the days of the Wahlberg men being the most awkward white male rappers on Earth."
## Chart performance
A few hours after its release, "Boyfriend" reached the top position on the US iTunes Store. According to Keith Caulfied of Billboard, industry sources suggested that the track could sell around 400,000 downloads by the end of the tracking week on April 1, 2012, and noted that it could debut into the top five of the Hot 100 chart. The song debuted at number two on the chart, only being held off the top spot by "We Are Young" by Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe. It sold a total of 521,000 digital units, the sixth-highest-ever debut digital sales week. Bill Werde of Billboard noted that it failed to debut at number one because the digital download of the track was only available through iTunes Store, "restricting the buying option for those that do not frequent the Apple retail store." The song has sold 3,216,000 downloads in the US by December 2012. "Boyfriend" is also Bieber's first single to ever reach the top position on the Canadian Hot 100 by debuting at number one and staying on for one week.
In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number two with sales of 54,817 on the week ending April 15, 2012, held off from achieving his first number one in the country by fellow Canadian and his own protégée, Carly Rae Jepsen, with her single "Call Me Maybe". The track was also able to reach the top ten in Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, while attaining top twenty positions in Belgium (Flanders), France, Finland, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. In Australia, "Boyfriend" debuted and peak at number five on the chart issue dated April 8, 2012. The track failed to reach the top position in New Zealand, where it debuted and peaked at number two.
## Promotion
### Music video
Island Def Jam Music Group commissioned a music video to be directed by Colin Tilley, who previously worked with Bieber on the music video for "U Smile" (2010). Filming sessions occurred on the week of March 28, 2012, and took place in a studio located in California. Bieber revealed that the music video doesn't have a "steady concept," adding that it mostly features artistic shots intercalated with dance scenes. He continued to explain, "It's not like 'Justin follows this girl to this spot.' No, it's a bunch of amazing scenes: Like a fire scene, we have an ice scene." On April 3, 2012, a teaser of the clip was unveiled by Bieber. Becky Bain of Idolator revealed that the following number of teasers featured Bieber "being groped by several female hands, dancing in front of a large white spotlight a la Michael Jackson, [and] posing menacingly in front of a fire and floating underwater." Nicola Sia also of Idolator considered the scenes where the singer "provocatively whispering into girls’ ears" as too "erotic".
However, it was later reported that the music video directed by Tilley was scrapped, and re-shot with Director X on the week of April 21, 2012. The second version of the video premiered on May 3, 2012, on MTV. Director X summarized the synopsis of the video saying, "it was just cars and the simplicity that they liked. Cars, girls, just young people hanging out, having fun, that kind of thing. When I heard it, I thought that's what it should be."
Brogan Driscoll of The Huffington Post wrote that Bieber "shows he's all grown up, driving fast cars and taking one rather scantily-clad young lady into his arms". James Montgomery of MTV News wrote that "Filled with cool clothes, hot cars and even hotter women, 'Boyfriend' is the stuff of every newly minted heterosexual adult's dreams only on overdrive" and added that "It's a cool, confident clip, and, given where he's at right now, it's also an important one." Bruna Nessif of E! Online shortly commented that Bieber "is not a little boy anymore" in the music video for the song. Upon release, the video broke the VEVO record for having the most views in a 24-hour period with 8.00 million. The previous records were held by Nicki Minaj's "Stupid Hoe" (4.8 million) and Rihanna's "Where Have You Been" (4.9 million). Released on 20 September 2012, the video for One Direction's "Live While We're Young" garnered 8.24 million views in a 24-hour period, thus besting Bieber's record (8.00 million).
### Live performances
As part of promotion for the song, Bieber performed "Boyfriend" at the second-season finale of The Voice, concluding with a choreographed routine reminiscent of Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation." It was also performed at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards and on Germany's Next Top Model. Bieber performed "Boyfriend" at the Capital FM Summertime Ball 2012. For the performance, he sported fingerless gloves, a Union Jack tank with matching vest, and jeans. The singer also performed the track during a promotional concert in Europe on June 4, 2012, along with "All Around the World" and "Die in Your Arms". Bieber performed the song for the first time after a year at the 2015 Wango Tango.
## Cover versions and remixes
In 2012, the song was also covered by metalcore band Issues on Punk Goes Pop 5.
In 2012, actor Jaden Smith, who is also a friend of Bieber, has made a remix to the song entitled "Flame (Just Cuz)".
Another remix featuring Mac Miller, Asher Roth and 2 Chainz was released on May 24, 2012.
On April 18, 2012, Marina and the Diamonds covered the song during a performance at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. During the performance, she changed the lyrics of the song and according to Jeff Benjamin of Billboard magazine, "have put a completely different spin on his track, turning The Bieb's latest into a dark, acoustic lament".
In 2012, Kevin McHale and Darren Criss (as their characters Artie Abrams and Blaine Anderson) performed the song in a mash-up with Britney Spears' song "Boys" in episode "Britney 2.0" of musical TV series Glee.
The rapping duo Ying Yang Twins remixed "Boyfriend" on the week of May 10, 2012. D-Roc, one of the members, explained that after his friends compared Bieber's song to their song "Wait (The Whisper Song)" (2005), "I was so amped up to hear the song too. When I actually did, I listened to it and I was like, it sounded like us. He complimented us," he said. "So I wanted to compliment him by getting on it."
A mashup of "Boyfriend" and 'N Sync's 2002 single "Girlfriend" was uploaded on YouTube by mashup artist Raheem on July 13, 2012, and quickly became a viral video.
## Track listings
- Digital download and CD single
1. "Boyfriend" – 3:31
- Digital download – Remixes
1. "Boyfriend" (Oliver Twizt Radio) – 3:44
2. "Boyfriend" (Oliver Twizt Club) – 4:27
3. "Boyfriend" (Oliver Twizt Instrumental) – 4:27
4. "Boyfriend" (Vice Radio) – 3:08
5. "Boyfriend" (Vice Club) - 4:46
6. "Boyfriend" (Vice Instrumental) – 4:46
7. "Boyfriend" (Joe Gauthreaux & Peter Barona Full Vocal Club) – 6:58
8. "Boyfriend" (Joe Gauthreaux Dark Dub) – 7:46
- Digital download – Boyfriend (Dada Life Remix)
1. "Boyfriend" (Dada Life Remix) – 5:32
## Credits and personnel
Recording
- Recorded at Chalice Recording Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles and in London, England
- Mixed at Larrabee Studios, Burbank, California
Personnel
- Justin Bieber – vocals, songwriter
- Mike Posner – songwriter, producer, keyboards
- Mason "MdL" Levy – songwriter, producer
- Matthew Musto (blackbear) – songwriter, guitar production
- Kuk Harrell – vocal producer
- Josh Gudwin – engineer
- Chris "TEK" O'Ryan – engineer
- Thomas Cullison – assistant engineer
- Manny Marroquin – mixer
- Chris Galland – assistant mixer
- Del Bowers – assistant mixer
- Benny Steele – guitar recording
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
## Certifications
## Release history
|
649,100 |
Adderall
| 1,171,732,388 |
Drug mixture used mainly to treat ADHD and narcolepsy
|
[
"5-HT1A agonists",
"Adderall",
"Amphetamine",
"Anorectics",
"Aphrodisiacs",
"Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder management",
"Combination drugs",
"Drugs acting on the cardiovascular system",
"Drugs acting on the nervous system",
"Ergogenic aids",
"Euphoriants",
"Excitatory amino acid reuptake inhibitors",
"Narcolepsy",
"Nootropics",
"Norepinephrine-dopamine releasing agents",
"Phenethylamines",
"Racemic mixtures",
"Stimulants",
"Substituted amphetamines",
"TAAR1 agonists",
"Takeda Pharmaceutical Company brands",
"VMAT inhibitors",
"World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited substances"
] |
Adderall and Mydayis are trade names for a combination drug called mixed amphetamine salts containing four salts of amphetamine. The mixture is composed of equal parts racemic amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which produces a (3:1) ratio between dextroamphetamine and levoamphetamine, the two enantiomers of amphetamine. Both enantiomers are stimulants, but differ enough to give Adderall an effects profile distinct from those of racemic amphetamine or dextroamphetamine, which are marketed as Evekeo and Dexedrine/Zenzedi, respectively. Adderall is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. It is also used illicitly as an athletic performance enhancer, cognitive enhancer, appetite suppressant, and recreationally as a euphoriant. It is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the phenethylamine class.
Adderall is generally well-tolerated and effective in treating symptoms of ADHD and narcolepsy. At therapeutic doses, Adderall causes emotional and cognitive effects such as euphoria, change in sex drive, increased wakefulness, and improved cognitive control. At these doses, it induces physical effects such as a faster reaction time, fatigue resistance, and increased muscle strength. In contrast, much larger doses of Adderall can impair cognitive control, cause rapid muscle breakdown, provoke panic attacks, or induce a psychosis (e.g., paranoia, delusions, hallucinations). The side effects of Adderall vary widely among individuals, but most commonly include insomnia, dry mouth, loss of appetite, and weight loss. The risk of developing an addiction or dependence is insignificant when Adderall is used as prescribed at fairly low daily doses, such as those used for treating ADHD; however, the routine use of Adderall in larger daily doses poses a significant risk of addiction or dependence due to the pronounced reinforcing effects that are present at high doses. Recreational doses of amphetamine are generally much larger than prescribed therapeutic doses, and carry a far greater risk of serious adverse effects.
The two amphetamine enantiomers that compose Adderall (levoamphetamine and dextroamphetamine) alleviate the symptoms of ADHD and narcolepsy by increasing the activity of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, which results in part from their interactions with human trace amine-associated receptor 1 (hTAAR1) and vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) in neurons. Dextroamphetamine is a more potent CNS stimulant than levoamphetamine, but levoamphetamine has slightly stronger cardiovascular and peripheral effects and a longer elimination half-life than dextroamphetamine. The levoamphetamine component of Adderall has been reported to improve the treatment response in some individuals relative to dextroamphetamine alone. Adderall's active ingredient, amphetamine, shares many chemical and pharmacological properties with the human trace amines, particularly phenethylamine and N-methylphenethylamine, the latter of which is a positional isomer of amphetamine. In 2020, Adderall was the 22nd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 26 million prescriptions.
## Uses
### Medical
Adderall is commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy (a sleep disorder).
#### Available forms
Adderall is available as immediate-release (IR) tablets or two different extended-release (XR) formulations. The extended-release capsules are generally used in the morning. A shorter, 12-hour extended-release formulation is available under the brand Adderall XR and is designed to provide a therapeutic effect and plasma concentrations identical to taking two doses four hours apart. The longer extended-release formulation, approved for 16 hours, is available under the brand Mydayis. In the United States, the immediate and extended release formulations of Adderall are both available as generic drugs.
### Enhancing performance
Adderall has been banned in the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). In leagues such as the NFL, there is a very rigorous process required to obtain an exemption to this rule even when the athlete has been medically prescribed the drug by their physician.
### Recreational
Adderall has high potential for misuse as a recreational drug. Adderall tablets can either be swallowed, crushed and snorted, or dissolved in water and injected. Injection into the bloodstream can be dangerous because insoluble fillers within the tablets can block small blood vessels.
Many postsecondary students have reported using Adderall for study purposes in different parts of the developed world. Among these students, some of the risk factors for misusing ADHD stimulants recreationally include: possessing deviant personality characteristics (i.e., exhibiting delinquent or deviant behavior), inadequate accommodation of disability, basing one's self-worth on external validation, low self-efficacy, earning poor grades, and having an untreated mental health disorder.
## Contraindications
## Adverse effects
The adverse side effects of Adderall are many and varied, but the amount of substance consumed is the primary factor in determining the likelihood and severity of side effects. Adderall is currently approved for long-term therapeutic use by the USFDA. Recreational use of Adderall generally involves far larger doses and is therefore significantly more dangerous, involving a much greater risk of serious adverse drug effects than dosages used for therapeutic purposes.
## Overdose
## Interactions
- Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) taken with amphetamine may result in a hypertensive crisis if taken within two weeks after last use of an MAOI type drug.
- Inhibitors of enzymes that directly metabolize amphetamine (particularly CYP2D6 and FMO3) will prolong the elimination of amphetamine and increase drug effects.
- Serotonergic drugs (such as most antidepressants) co-administered with amphetamine increases the risk of serotonin syndrome.
- Stimulants and antidepressants (sedatives and depressants) may increase (decrease) the drug effects of amphetamine, and vice versa.
- Gastrointestinal and urinary pH affect the absorption and elimination of amphetamine, respectively. Gastrointestinal alkalinizing agents increase the absorption of amphetamine. Urinary alkalinizing agents increase concentration of non-ionized species, decreasing urinary excretion.
- Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) modify the absorption of Adderall XR and Mydayis.
- Zinc supplementation may reduce the minimum effective dose of amphetamine when it is used for the treatment of ADHD.
## Pharmacology
### Mechanism of action
Amphetamine, the active ingredient of Adderall, works primarily by increasing the activity of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. It also triggers the release of several other hormones (e.g., epinephrine) and neurotransmitters (e.g., serotonin and histamine) as well as the synthesis of certain neuropeptides (e.g., cocaine and amphetamine regulated transcript (CART) peptides). Both active ingredients of Adderall, dextroamphetamine and levoamphetamine, bind to the same biological targets, but their binding affinities (that is, potency) differ somewhat. Dextroamphetamine and levoamphetamine are both potent full agonists (activating compounds) of trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1) and interact with vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), with dextroamphetamine being the more potent agonist of TAAR1. Consequently, dextroamphetamine produces more CNS stimulation than levoamphetamine; however, levoamphetamine has slightly greater cardiovascular and peripheral effects. It has been reported that certain children have a better clinical response to levoamphetamine.
In the absence of amphetamine, VMAT2 will normally move monoamines (e.g., dopamine, histamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, etc.) from the intracellular fluid of a monoamine neuron into its synaptic vesicles, which store neurotransmitters for later release (via exocytosis) into the synaptic cleft. When amphetamine enters a neuron and interacts with VMAT2, the transporter reverses its direction of transport, thereby releasing stored monoamines inside synaptic vesicles back into the neuron's intracellular fluid. Meanwhile, when amphetamine activates TAAR1, the receptor causes the neuron's cell membrane-bound monoamine transporters (i.e., the dopamine transporter, norepinephrine transporter, or serotonin transporter) to either stop transporting monoamines altogether (via transporter internalization) or transport monoamines out of the neuron; in other words, the reversed membrane transporter will push dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin out of the neuron's intracellular fluid and into the synaptic cleft. In summary, by interacting with both VMAT2 and TAAR1, amphetamine releases neurotransmitters from synaptic vesicles (the effect from VMAT2) into the intracellular fluid where they subsequently exit the neuron through the membrane-bound, reversed monoamine transporters (the effect from TAAR1).
### Pharmacokinetics
### Pharmacomicrobiomics
### Related endogenous compounds
## History
The pharmaceutical company Rexar reformulated their popular weight loss drug Obetrol following its mandatory withdrawal from the market in 1973 under the Kefauver Harris Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act due to the results of the Drug Efficacy Study Implementation (DESI) program (which indicated a lack of efficacy). The new formulation simply replaced the two methamphetamine components with dextroamphetamine and amphetamine components of the same weight (the other two original dextroamphetamine and amphetamine components were preserved), preserved the Obetrol branding, and despite it lacking FDA approval, it still made it onto the market and was marketed and sold by Rexar for many years.
In 1994, Richwood Pharmaceuticals acquired Rexar and began promoting Obetrol as a treatment for ADHD (and later narcolepsy as well), now marketed under the new brand name of Adderall, a contraction of the phrase "A.D.D. for All" intended to convey that "it was meant to be kind of an inclusive thing" for marketing purposes. The FDA cited the company for numerous significant CGMP violations related to Obetrol discovered during routine inspections following the acquisition (including issuing a formal warning letter for the violations), then later issued a second formal warning letter to Richwood Pharmaceuticals specifically due to violations of "the new drug and misbranding provisions of the FD&C Act". Following extended discussions with Richwood Pharmaceuticals regarding the resolution of a large number of issues related to the company's numerous violations of FDA regulations, the FDA formally approved the first Obetrol labeling/sNDA revisions in 1996, including a name change to Adderall and a restoration of its status as an approved drug product. In 1997 Richwood Pharmaceuticals was acquired by Shire Pharmaceuticals in a \$186 million transaction.
Richwood Pharmaceuticals, which later merged with Shire plc, introduced the current Adderall brand in 1996 as an instant-release tablet. In 2006, Shire agreed to sell rights to the Adderall name for the instant-release form of the medication to Duramed Pharmaceuticals. DuraMed Pharmaceuticals was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2008 during their acquisition of Barr Pharmaceuticals, including Barr's Duramed division.
The first generic version of Adderall IR was introduced to market in 2002. Later on, Barr and Shire reached a settlement agreement permitting Barr to offer a generic form of the extended-release drug beginning in April 2009.
### Commercial formulation
Chemically, Adderall is a mixture of four amphetamine salts; specifically, it is composed of equal parts (by mass) of amphetamine aspartate monohydrate, amphetamine sulfate, dextroamphetamine sulfate, and dextroamphetamine saccharate. This drug mixture has slightly stronger CNS effects than racemic amphetamine due to the higher proportion of dextroamphetamine. Adderall is produced as both an immediate release (IR) and extended release (XR) formulation. As of December 2013, ten different companies produced generic Adderall IR, while Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Actavis, and Barr Pharmaceuticals manufactured generic Adderall XR. As of 2013, Shire plc, the company that held the original patent for Adderall and Adderall XR, still manufactured brand name Adderall XR, but not Adderall IR.
### Comparison to other formulations
Adderall is one of several formulations of pharmaceutical amphetamine, including singular or mixed enantiomers and as an enantiomer prodrug. The table below compares these medications (based on U.S.-approved forms):
## Society and culture
### Legal status
- In Canada, amphetamines are in Schedule I of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and can only be obtained by prescription.
- In Japan, the use, production, and import of any medicine containing amphetamines is prohibited.
- In South Korea, amphetamines are prohibited.
- In Taiwan, amphetamines including Adderall are Schedule 2 drugs with a minimum five years prison term for possession. Only Ritalin can be legally prescribed for treatment of ADHD.
- In Thailand, amphetamines are classified as Type 1 Narcotics.
- In the United Kingdom, amphetamines are regarded as Class B drugs. The maximum penalty for unauthorized possession is five years in prison and an unlimited fine. The maximum penalty for illegal supply is 14 years in prison and an unlimited fine.
- In the United States, amphetamine is a Schedule II prescription drug, classified as a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant.
- Internationally, amphetamine is in Schedule II of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances.
### Shortages
In February 2023, news organizations began reporting on shortages of Adderall in the United States that have lasted for over five months. The Food and Drug Administration first reported the shortage in October 2022. On May 2023, 7 months into the shortage, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner Robert Califf stated that "a number of generic drugs are in shortage at any given time because there's not enough profit". He points out that Adderall is a special case because it is a controlled substance and the amount available for prescription is controlled by the Drug Enforcement Administration. He also faults a "tremendous increase in prescribing" due to virtual prescribing and general overprescribing and overdiagnosing, adding that "if only the people that needed these drugs got them, there probably wouldn't be a [stimulant medication] shortage".
## Reference notes
|
36,405,030 |
Cannon Fodder 3
| 1,152,446,734 |
2011 video game
|
[
"2011 video games",
"Action games",
"Anti-war video games",
"Shooter games",
"Strategy video games",
"Video game sequels",
"Video games developed in Russia",
"Video games with isometric graphics",
"Windows games",
"Windows-only games"
] |
Cannon Fodder 3 is an action-strategy PC game developed and published – originally in Russia – by Game Factory Interactive (GFI), along with developer Burut CT. The game is the second sequel to Cannon Fodder, a commercially and critically successful game released for multiple formats in 1993. Jon Hare and his company Sensible Software, the developers of Cannon Fodder and its prior sequel, were uninvolved with Cannon Fodder 3. GFI instead licensed the intellectual property from now-owner Codemasters.
The game is a combination of action and strategy involving a small number of soldiers battling enemy terrorists. The protagonists are heavily outnumbered and easily killed. The player must rely on strategy and heavy secondary weapons to overcome enemies, their vehicles and installations.
Cannon Fodder 3 was released in Russia in December 2011 and – via download service GamersGate – Europe and North America on 9 February 2012, receiving mixed reviews. Reviewers found the game to be enjoyable but limited and repetitive. The graphics and humour received both positive and negative criticism. Critics derided the poor English translations as well as technical problems.
## Overview
Cannon Fodder 3 has a basic premise involving American soldiers battling disparate terrorists who have united with the aim of world domination. Like the earlier games in the series, it features a mix of "old school" action and strategy gameplay viewed from an isometric perspective. The player directs a small squad of soldiers, primarily with the mouse though the keyboard is used to deploy additional weaponry. The control system - according PC PowerPlay - "is very similar to ‘twin-stick’ shooters like Geometry Wars, except here you control just one of the four soldiers while the others fall in line, shooting when the lead does". Each squad begins with four soldiers. They are fragile (though, possessing health bars, are somewhat tougher than the protagonists of the originals), but increase in status and power should they survive; the player is provided with a replacement squad should all his platoon die. The player can also split the squad into smaller units should strategy so require. The game has an online cooperative mode for up to four players, though Strategy Informer noted this mode is unpopular. As well as facing large numbers of equally frail enemy infantry, the player must combat vehicles, buildings and turrets which cannot be destroyed with the standard machine guns. For this reason, the player must rely on explosive secondary weapons such as grenades and rockets, which are essential to destroy enemy structures and more powerful units. He can also make use of vehicles – such as tanks and helicopters – as well as various power-ups. The game features an extensively destructible environment and several settings, including the moon.
## Development
Cannon Fodder 3 is the third installment in the Cannon Fodder series, the first two games of which – Cannon Fodder and Cannon Fodder 2 – were successful across multiple formats in the 1990s. Those games were created by Sensible Software led by Jon Hare; Hare later worked on abortive sequels for both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, as well as planning a version for smartphones. However, the publisher Codemasters had acquired Sensible Software and its intellectual property. In 2008 Codemasters licensed Russian company Game Factory Interactive (GFI) – which had previously been involved in games such as The Precursors, Boiling Point: Road to Hell and White Gold: War in Paradise – to develop Cannon Fodder 3. While English-language media reported on the development in January 2011, GFI was initially permitted only to release the game in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, with the possibility of a wider European or North American release initially unclear at the time. GFI, described as an "unknown", or "little-known" company, published the game in Russia in December, with both GFI and Burut CT variously reported as developers. Eurogamer then reported that Codemasters had clarified the agreement between itself and GFI: Codemasters had reserved the option to publish the game in the UK, but ultimately declined. This allowed GFI to distribute the game out with Russia and dispelled the belief that GFI was not authorised to make such a release. The game was released via GamersGate, in Europe and North America, on 9 February 2012.
GFI's Oleg Lychaniy stated the developers attempted to retain the most appealing elements of the original Cannon Fodder while attracting new players. GFI also attempted to retain Cannon Fodder's "antimilitarist message" and was most proud of the new destructible environment. The developers broadened the variety of weapons and vehicles and changed the level structure by adding sub-missions.
## Reception
Richard Cobbet, writing in PC Gamer UK said "just maybe, this is going too far", in reference to images of soldiers' gory corpses cleared from the interface by windscreen wipers. The reviewer expressed bemusement at "terrorists with robots and plasma guns" antagonists, but reflected – in reference to Cannon Fodder 2 – "still, could be worse. They could be time-travelling aliens again". He said the "biggest issue" is that a "gung-ho" approach to play is infeasible and that the "precise and tactical" approach faithful to earlier games in the series "turns out to be a very different experience from before. Far less satisfying". This is due to the "key problem" of the ease with which enemy weapons such as rocket launcher-armed turrets can destroy the player's soldiers. The player is thus forced "to play with aching, paranoid care, picking away at base defences from as far away as possible, and rubbing up against the save points like a lovely cat finally reunited with its owner. This is not fun". He also complained about the arbitrary death inflicted by exploding barrels "raining down over the entire screen". Cobbet summarised that the departure from the original game meant that Cannon Fodder 3 did not evoke nostalgia and was a "poor substitute" for other action or strategy games. On the other hand, he found the game "admittedly nowhere near as frustrating" as the original. He reflected that it "does have a solid crack at updating the action for a new age, and it's far from as bad as expected" given its obscure development.
Liam Martin of Digital Spy noted that the variety of locations and weather effects added to the distinctiveness of individual levels. He praised the "simple but effective", "cartoonish" and colorful visual style, the improved detail from the game's predecessors along with the "light-hearted tone" and "spectacular and bloody" gore effects. He praised the destructible environments but thought the characters were too small. He felt use of strategy to be "limited" but the action "enormous amounts of explosive fun" and enjoyed the gratification of destroying enemies and buildings with rifles and tanks. The writer found the game a "little repetitive" with a "tendency to grate", which he blamed on somewhat tedious level design, a lack of variety in objectives, a poor camera and long loading times. The lack of a tutorial or mini-map proved sometimes confusing. He noted the "welcome" but limited on-line cooperative mode. Martin felt the game was "best played in short bursts" and summarised: "Provided you're not expecting a game with much depth or that's oozing innovation, Cannon Fodder 3 proves that virtual war can still be a lot of fun".
Nathan Cocks of PC PowerPlay complained the need for secondary weapons proves frustrating: "It is not uncommon to run out of the weapons needed for the job, forcing the player to engage in a tedious game of hide and seek as they scour the map in the hopes of finding another cache". He wrote: "In fact, tedium is a frequent bedfellow in Cannon Fodder 3", due to the lack of variety in the gameplay and mission objectives. He felt the player's vehicles to be of limited effectiveness as is the ability to split the squad. Cocks complained of the game's "bargain basement production" ruining the tone of the game due to low quality translations and voice acting, as well as numerous bugs causing problems with running the game, crashes, spawning and using vehicles. The reviewer acknowledged the "wonderfully cartoony" graphics, found the gory windscreen wipers "amusing" and wrote "it’s all over-the-top explosive goodness and contributes a great deal to what little appeal is present". Cocks summarised: "Cannon Fodder 3 is the ultimate coat-tail rider [...] perhaps there is some nostalgic pleasure to be taken in this but for the most part, we suggest leaving well enough alone".
Strategy Informer felt the game had updated and improved upon the original, noting better controls, more forgiving health bars and save points, and more engaging mission goals. The reviewer criticised the poor translations and perceived borderline ethnic stereotypes in the enemy characters. Overall the reviewer was impressed by the game, saying "in the end CF3 far exceeded my expectations". Metro had some praise for the graphics but complained of a lack of any fun and poor camera, controls and level design. The reviewer called the translated dialogue worse than that of Zero Wing. Greece's PC Master praised the game as enjoyable and while somewhat repetitive, a successful update of the Cannon Fodder series. Czech website Games.cz criticised the game as a failure, with poor graphics, music, sound effects and immature, unimpressive humour, saying the game would only be worth buying at a lower price.
|
35,601,388 |
Chikaraishi
| 1,054,495,234 |
Heavy rocks used in Japan to develop or demonstrate physical strength.
|
[
"Japanese architectural features",
"Japanese architectural history",
"Shinto shrines",
"Sport in Japan",
"Strongmen competitions"
] |
Chikaraishi (力石, chikaraishi, lit. "strength stones") (also hakari-ishi (秤石, "weighing stones") or bijuru (Okinawan) are heavy rocks used at least since the 8th century CE in Japan to develop or demonstrate physical strength. Commonly found within Shinto shrines, they were used for competition, divination, physical fitness and entertainment; some famous examples have also become tourist attractions, and many have been recognised as Important Cultural Assets by the Japanese Government.
Competitive stone-lifting is still continued in modern times, and a number of competitive forms of stone-lifting exist, employing different physical techniques.
## History
Strength-stones are found throughout Japan, often at Shinto shrines. In 2005 around 14,000 strength-stones were recorded in shrines around Japan. Of these, around 300 are designated as Important Cultural Assets. Many are inscribed with the names and feats of those who lifted them. The oldest-known inscribed stone is from Shinobu, and dates to 1664. The first recorded incidence of strength-stone lifting is attributed to the samurai Kamakura Gongorō Kagemasa in 1089, however the practice itself is much older, dating to before the 8th century. The Nippo Jisho, also called the Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam, a Japanese – Portuguese dictionary published in 1603, includes the term chikaraishi in the written record as early as the 17th century. The Nippo Jisho, published in Nagasaki and associated with the Jesuit priest João Rodrigues (1561 or 1562 – 1633), identically records both the modern pronunciation and written form of the term chikaraishi.
It is one of the few traditional sports not solely the preserve of the samurai class, being popular among peasants and sake brewers. Both professions valued the manual labor of young people, and similar practices called kyokumochi also existed, which involved lifting sacks of rice or barrels of sake. The sporting aspect of stone-lifting developed in Edo around the seventeenth century, likely evolving from the sack-lifting contests of the stevedores and labourers. Historically, the lifting of strength-stones was exclusively practiced by men.
The practice of lifting strength-stones was especially popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries (roughly coinciding with the Meiji period), with organised competitions occurring. Stones used in competition were usually inscribed with their weight, measured in kan (貫) (a unit of approximately 3.75 kg (8 lb)), and if not naturally smooth, were often sculpted into a roughly oval shape.
Some strength-stones have become tourist attractions due to the legends attached to them. In Nerima, for example, tourists still visit Sobei's Horse-Headed Kannon Stone, a strength-stone associated with the tale of Kato Sobei from 1840. According to the story, Sobei was awarded possession of a heavy stone that he managed to lift. However, his horse collapsed and died under the weight of the stone, and in its memory, he erected the stone as the horse's grave marker. Another famous stone is the Benkei-ishi, a huge rock supposedly moved from present-day Himeji, Hyōgo, Hyōgo Prefecture to its current resting place on Mount Shosha by the folk hero Benkei (1155 – 1189). The Benkei-ishi can be viewed at Engyō-ji, high above Himeji.
## Purpose
A general lack of recorded evidence makes it difficult to ascertain the intended purpose of stone-lifting. It has been assumed that the practice was for competition, physical fitness or entertainment purposes (sumo wrestlers have been known to perform such feats between bouts for the entertainment of their audience). Records of competition techniques and winners (such as the 1836 list of "Men of Strength in Edo", which ranks competitors by weights lifted) indicate a competitive aspect.
Strength-stones are used in modern times for strength training, particularly in the martial arts where such practices are known as hojo undō. Special stones are manufactured for this purpose, usually with a wooden handle to aid their manipulation; such stones are also known as chi ishi. It is a common practice in karate, used in solo training to improve stances and upper body strength.
### In divination
The prevalence of the stones in Shinto shrines and temples has led to speculation that rock-lifting was used for divining the future, a practice known as ishi-ura (石占). The ease with which a petitioner lifted the stones indicated the likelihood of his preferred outcome occurring. Ishi-ura was notably practiced in ancient Shinano Province, now modern-day Nagasaki Prefecture. Smaller versions of these stones were sometimes placed by a child's bed, in the belief that this would strengthen the child.
### As a sport
Several forms of competition were employed in stone-lifting, each sometimes using a particular type of stone. Ishizashi (石差, "various stones") was the simplest form, requiring competitors to hoist a rock of about 70 kg (154 lb), known as a sashi-ishi (サシ石), from the ground to above the head. It was permissible for participants to pause and readjust their grip once the rock was at chest height. Ishikatsugi (石担, "shoulder carried stone") contests required that the stone be lifted to the shoulder; this form employed heavier rocks (up to 240 kg (529 lb)), known as a katage-ishi (カタゲ石), and allowed the use of a rope wrapped around the stone. In ishihakobi (石運び, "stone carrying") competitions, the aim was to carry the stone as far as possible, the winner naturally being the man who carried it the greatest distance, whilst ashiuke (足受, "foot receiving") contests featured extremely heavy stones that were lifted with the feet by competitors lying on their backs. Rocks that were too heavy to be lifted clear of the ground were employed in ishiokoshi (石起し, "stone raising"), using a type of stone called the chigiri-ishi (チギリ石), the aim of which was to raise a stone so that it was balanced on its edge.
Stone-lifting contests still take place in the modern era. The city of Sōja, Okayama hosts an annual competition in which local teams participate.
## See also
- Lifting stone
## Footnote
A.The Nippo Jisho romanizes "chikaraishi" as "chicara ixi"; the difference in spelling reflects the early Portuguese romanization of the Japanese language, not a difference between the early 17th century and modern pronunciations of the name.
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875,897 |
Justin Wilson (racing driver)
| 1,173,085,228 |
English racing driver (1978–2015)
|
[
"1978 births",
"2015 deaths",
"24 Hours of Daytona drivers",
"24 Hours of Le Mans drivers",
"American Le Mans Series drivers",
"Andretti Autosport drivers",
"BRDC Gold Star winners",
"Champ Car drivers",
"Chip Ganassi Racing drivers",
"Conquest Racing drivers",
"Dale Coyne Racing drivers",
"Dreyer & Reinbold Racing drivers",
"EFDA Nations Cup drivers",
"English Formula One drivers",
"English expatriate sportspeople in the United States",
"English racing drivers",
"Filmed deaths in motorsport",
"Formula E drivers",
"Formula Palmer Audi drivers",
"ISR Racing drivers",
"Indianapolis 500 drivers",
"IndyCar Series drivers",
"International Formula 3000 Champions",
"International Formula 3000 drivers",
"Jaguar Formula One drivers",
"Kelly Racing drivers",
"Meyer Shank Racing drivers",
"Minardi Formula One drivers",
"Newman/Haas Racing drivers",
"Nordic Racing drivers",
"People educated at Birkdale School",
"People from Longmont, Colorado",
"Racing Engineering drivers",
"Racing drivers from Yorkshire",
"Racing drivers who died while racing",
"Rocketsports Racing drivers",
"Rolex Sports Car Series drivers",
"RuSPORT drivers",
"Sports deaths in Pennsylvania",
"Sportspeople from Sheffield",
"Sportspeople with dyslexia",
"Supercars Championship drivers",
"Team Astromega drivers",
"WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers"
] |
Justin Boyd Wilson (31 July 1978 – 24 August 2015) was a British professional open-wheel racing driver who competed in Formula One (F1) in 2003, the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) from 2004 to 2007 and the IndyCar Series from 2008 to 2015. He won the first Formula Palmer Audi (FPA) in 1998, the International Formula 3000 Championship (IF3000) with Nordic Racing in 2001, and co-won the 2012 24 Hours of Daytona for Michael Shank Racing.
Wilson began karting at the age of eight and achieved consistent results, before progressing to car racing in the Formula Vauxhall Championship. He won the FPA title and earned a fully funded seat in IF3000, becoming the first British driver to win the series championship in 2001. He moved to the 2002 World Series by Nissan for the Racing Engineering team and finished fourth. Through an investment scheme where the public could purchase shares in Wilson, he drove for the Minardi and Jaguar teams in the 2003 F1 season.
He drove for the Conquest Racing and RuSPORT teams in the CCWS from 2004 to 2007, winning four races and finishing runner-up in the 2006 and 2007 drivers' championships. Wilson went to Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing for the 2008 IndyCar Series, winning the Detroit Indy Grand Prix. A move to the low-budget Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) team for 2009 resulted in the team's first open-wheel victory at the Grand Prix at the Glen. Wilson moved to the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing squad from 2010 and 2011 but did not win a race. He returned to DCR for 2012 to 2014, winning the 2012 Firestone 550 and finishing sixth in the 2013 drivers' championship.
Late in the 2015 season, in the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway, Wilson died after debris from a crashed car struck his helmet. He was the first driver to die from injuries sustained in an IndyCar race since Dan Wheldon in 2011. As of 2023, it is also the most recent fatal accident to have occurred in IndyCar. His organs were donated to save the lives of five people. A hairpin corner at Snetterton Circuit was renamed after him and a memorial fund was established to support his children.
## Early and personal life
Wilson was born in Moorgate, a suburb of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on 31 July 1978 to Keith and Lynne Wilson. His father owns a solvents company, a petrol station, and raced Formula Ford cars from the 1960s until a major accident at Oulton Park in 1975 ended his career. Wilson's younger brother, Stefan, is also a racing driver. He grew up in Woodall, South Yorkshire. From 1989 to the completion of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations in July 1994, Wilson was educated at Sheffield's private Birkdale School.
At age 11, he was tested for dyslexia, a learning disability that affects how a person reads and writes words; the test was negative. Wilson's mother took him to a clinic for a second test two years later and he was formally diagnosed with the condition at the age of 13. He struggled at school with the disability and received additional tutoring; Wilson's peers perceived him as inept and unintelligent. He married his partner Julia in 2006 and they have two children, Jane and Jessica. Wilson was the official ambassador for the International Dyslexia Association, and Teen Cancer America.
## Junior career
Aged 8 in 1987, Wilson sought a hobby and took up karting, refining his ability at the South Yorkshire Kart Club in Wombwell, Barnsley. His father was his chief mechanic, courier and mentor. In 1989, Wilson finished 7th in the Cadet National British Karting Championship, 12th in the 1991 RACMSA Junior British Championships, improving to 4th in 1992. His father contacted karting expert Terry Fullerton in 1993 and the two met at the Worksop motorway services. Fullerton told him Wilson should cease karting in his category because of his weight, and mentored him in 1994. Wilson finished fifth in the 1994 Formula A British Championship, the United Kingdom's highest-level of kart racing. He was third at Buckmore Park Kart Circuit's Renault GP race.
He progressed to car racing at age 16, competing in the Formula Vauxhall Junior Winter Series with Team JLR, as preparation for the 1995 Formula Vaxuhall Junior Championship. Wilson won on his series debut at Pembrey Circuit in South Wales' first heat aged 16 years and 2 months, and became the first 16-year-old to win an official motor race in the United Kingdom. He remained with Team JLR in 1995. Wilson missed the season's first round after breaking both his legs when the brakes on his racing school car failed at Brands Hatch. A pre-season title favourite, he claimed four victories and tied on points in third position with driver Ben Collins. He won the Formula Vauxhall Junior Challenge Cup category limited to 16-year-olds. Wilson won the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) Chris Bristow Trophy as "the most promising driver to race at Silverstone", and was a finalist for the Autosport BRDC Award.
To better his driving ability, Paul Stewart Racing (PSR) manager Andy Pycock selected him to compete for the team in the 1996 championship. PSR were allowed to move his pedals back and alter its shape for better comfort to accommodate Wilson's 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) frame. He won the season-opening round at Brands Hatch, finished in the top five in every race and took two pole positions to finish runner-up in the championship. The following year, Wilson fell to fourth overall with three victories and seven podium finishes. For the 1997 EFDA Nations Cup at Donington Park in October, he joined fellow driver Warren Carway at the Diamond Racing-run European Union Team, finishing fourth.
His performances impressed the three-time world champion Jackie Stewart and his son Paul. Jackie Stewart concluded Wilson's height would hinder him in single-seaters and advised a move to either sports car or touring car racing. A lack of funding prevented a progression to Formula Three due to its high entry fee. His family wrote to the former driver and commentator Jonathan Palmer for advice. Palmer replied he had established a one-make racing series for drivers seeking a modest financial route to Formula One (F1). Wilson entered Formula Palmer Audi in 1998 and was employed as a driving instructor at Bedford Autodrome. With nine victories and four pole positions, he won the inaugural championship over Darren Turner, and was again shortlisted for the Autosport BRDC Award.
Wilson's title victory earned him a fully funded seat in the International Formula 3000 Championship (IF3000)—F1's feeder series—with Team Astromega for the 1999 season, and Palmer became his manager. He worked to better his engineering skills and relationship with the media. During the season, in which Palmer obtained sponsorship for Wilson from Benetton Formula, he qualified for every race and was several times the highest-placed rookie. He took two points and was 20th in the drivers' standings.
His driving ability attracted Nordic Racing's attention, and they signed him for the 2000 season. He established a rapport with team owners Chris and Derek Mower, and results improved from 1999, finishing fifth overall with two podiums and five points finishes. He returned to Nordic Racing for the 2001 season, after negotiations with Arden International in late 2000 fell through because of his tall height. Wilson won three times—at Autódromo José Carlos Pace, the A1-Ring and the Hungaroring— and achieving 10 podium finishes and scoring 71 points, to become the first British driver to claim the championship. Wilson won by a series-record 32 points over Mark Webber, and the BRDC Gold Medal, the ERA Club Trophy and the Graham Hill Trophy for winning the title.
At first F1 teams were not interested in Wilson, but tested for the Jordan squad at Silverstone in September 2001, and had a seat fitting at McLaren. Jordan did not employ Wilson to race in the 2002 season due to financial issues, signing the 2001 British Formula Three champion Takuma Sato. Wilson considered going to Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), and spoke to the Minardi team before it selected Webber; he did not return to IF3000. For 2002, he drove in the inaugural World Series by Nissan. The Racing Engineering team chose Wilson, and he accepted. He won races at Autódromo José Carlos Pace and the Circuit Ricardo Tormo and achieved six more podium finishes for fourth in the points standings.
## Formula One career
When Minardi driver Alex Yoong was rested for two races due to poor performance, Wilson was the team's preferred choice to replace him. However, during a seat fitting at Minardi's headquarters in Faenza, Italy, he was unable to fit inside the PS02 car because of his long legs and so Anthony Davidson drove the car instead. Wilson and his manager Jonathan Palmer were eager to arrange a test with the Newman/Haas Racing CART team in September 2002, and Wilson had a seat fitting in a Lola-Toyota car at their Chicago workshop, becoming acquainted with staff members. Wilson made his oval track test debut at Homestead–Miami Speedway on 8 October. He declined Newman/Haas' invitation for a second test at Sebring International Raceway in December.
Wilson discussed driving for Minardi in 2003 with its owner Paul Stoddart, who was keen to have him replace the outgoing Mark Webber. He was told to gather £2 million in sponsorship funding to race for Minardi. The capital was raised through Palmer searching for financial partners, whilst Wilson's father mortgaged the family home. With the provision of him bringing the agreed financial settlement, Minardi designed the PS03 car to accommodate Wilson's large frame; the seat was lowered to keep his knees away from his chin and moved its pedals forward. He visited Faenza in late November and had no difficulty entering and exiting a mocked-up version of the car. Wilson signed a three-year driving contract with Minardi a month later.
It emerged Wilson had not obtained the necessary sponsorship money to pay for his seat at Minardi and his father was close to selling his petrol station. Palmer spent most of January and February 2003 holding meetings with lawyers to develop a programme allowing investors to support Wilson's career by buying shares in him. This would allow them to raise £1.2 million required for Wilson to drive for Minardi in the season's first two rounds. The investment was floated on the London Stock Exchange from 5 March to 31 May, making Wilson the first racing driver to be listed on it. A total of 900 people invested a minimum of £500, with 10 per cent of Wilson's earnings paid to them until 31 December 2012.
He equalled the pace of his more experienced teammate Jos Verstappen; Wilson generally qualified in a low grid slot and made brisk starts to gain track position before a pit stop. Before the , Jaguar selected him to replace the under-performing Antônio Pizzonia for the rest of the season. David Pitchforth, Jaguar's managing director, and team principal Tony Purnell were impressed with Wilson's performances and driving; they received feedback from Stoddart and Wilson's mechanics at Nordic Racing. Palmer told Wilson to visit Jaguar's headquarters in Milton Keynes for a seat fitting at midnight with a contract written up the day after the . Having been granted the final five races to convince Jaguar to keep him alongside Webber for 2004, Wilson found the Jaguar different to handle than his Minardi and did not foresee the change in driving style required to use it. His teammate outperformed him by half a second on average in his first four races with the team due to his unfamiliarity with the car, but was consistently within three to four-tenths of a second per lap of Webber's pace by the end of the season. Wilson finished eighth at the and was 20th in the drivers' standings with one point.
He was linked to three teams for the 2004 season. Jaguar granted Wilson a contract extension until post-season testing ended in December to convince the team to retain him. Jaguar dropped Wilson because its owner, Ford, was not prepared to pour unlimited funds into F1 and advised the team to sign a pay driver. Christian Klien, a Formula Three driver funded by the drink company Red Bull, replaced Wilson. A return to Jaguar as a test driver on race weekends became unfeasible after F1's governing body – the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) – retained a regulation for 2004 prohibiting drivers who had competed in six or more F1 events from participating in Friday test sessions.
## American open-wheel racing career
### Champ Car World Series (2004–2007)
With the loss of employment in F1, Wilson was disenchanted with his career, and sought a drive in the U.S.-based Champ Car World Series (CCWS) over the rival Indy Racing League (IRL) due to its parity, noting: "Same cars, same engines, so working with the team with a half reasonable budget you can do a half decent job." Wilson signed with the small-budget Conquest Racing team for the 2004 season. The layout of his Lola car allowed him to lie almost flat on its floor and demonstrated a decent performance in pre-season testing. Wilson had a mixed season driving the No. 34 car; he took eight top-ten finishes, with a year-best of fourth at the season-ending Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate. He generally qualified higher than he finished, taking a season-high of second at the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland. Wilson finished 11th in the drivers' standings with 188 points, and was second to A. J. Allmendinger in the rookie of the year standings.
After the season, Wilson declared his wish to remain in the CCWS for the 2005 season and enquired several teams about employment. Car owner Carl Russo signed him to replace Michel Jourdain Jr. at the RuSPORT team in November 2004. Wilson worked with driver coach Barry Waddell, and cautioned his rivals he was ready to win races due to further car and driver development. In the No. 9 Lola-Ford car, Wilson took three fourth-place finishes in the first three rounds before earning his first series pole position at the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland. He led the final ten laps of the Molson Indy Toronto to claim his first series victory. Wilson followed that victory with four more top-ten finishes, and ended the season with a second career win at the Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate from pole position. He amassed 265 points to finish third in the drivers' championship; his qualifying results improved with nine top fives.
Wilson remained with RuSPORT for the 2006 season. Several pundits predicted he would challenge for the drivers' championship, and he said his objective was to be consistent and win two or three races. He took four-second-place finishes in the first five rounds. At the season's sixth race, the Molson Grand Prix of Toronto, Wilson won his only pole position that year. At the following West Edmonton Mall Grand Prix of Edmonton he qualified in third place and achieved his only victory of 2006. Wilson took a further three top-eight finishes. He fractured the scaphoid bone in his right wrist in an accident in practice for the Lexmark Indy 300, requiring him to withdraw from the race; he was deemed fit by the CCWS medical delegate Chris Pinderski to enter the season-ending Gran Premio Telmex. He qualified on pole position, and led until Sébastien Bourdais passed him on the final lap. Wilson finished runner-up in the championship with 298 points, and won that year's Greg Moore Legacy Award.
The Newman/Haas, Forsythe and RuSPORT teams were interested in Wilson for the 2007 season. He signed a "multi-year" contract with RuSPORT in January 2007. Wilson was persuaded to remain there after his race engineer Todd Malloy left and limitations in the team's budget saw his assistant Mike Talbott promoted. Driving the No. 9 Panoz DP01-Cosworth XFE he achieved eight top-ten finishes and two pole positions at the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland and the San Jose Grand Prix at Redback Raceway after ten rounds. Wilson led most of the Bavaria Champ Car Grand Prix for his solitary victory of the season. He ended his CCWS career with consecutive top-ten finishes in the final two rounds to be runner-up in the drivers' championship with 281 points. Wilson won the Greg Moore Legacy Award for the second successive year.
### IndyCar Series (2008–2015)
Late in the season RuSPORT announced it was closing and informed Wilson and his colleagues. He was put on Newman/Haas' shortlist to replace the outgoing Bourdais for the 2008 season, and was rumoured to be in contention to drive for Andretti Green Racing and did not want to move to the American Le Mans Series. Wilson and Palmer agreed terms to join Newman/Haas in the CCWS before it amalgamated with the IRL to form the IndyCar Series. Wilson said his objective for the season was to perform to the best of his ability and acknowledged Newman/Haas would be disadvantaged against the established IndyCar teams on oval tracks noting: "We can only judge the competition when we get there, but we have to be realistic. I don't want to overestimate and I don't want to underestimate."
While Wilson struggled during his rookie season driving the No. 2 Dallara-Honda car, he took pole position for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and rapidly established himself as a road course expert. He qualified 16th for his first Indianapolis 500. Mid-race, Wilson had an accident due to a loss of control at the rear of his car, which left him 27th. He was third at the Indy Edmonton and achieved his first series victory at the Detroit Indy Grand Prix three races later. Wilson was 11th in the drivers' championship with 340 points, and was second in the rookie of the year standings, behind Hideki Mutoh but ahead of Will Power.
Before the 2009 season Newman/Haas co-owner and actor Paul Newman died and the Great Recession cost the team much of its funding. In January 2009 Wilson was released from the team after being informed they could not support two paid drivers without acquiring additional sponsorship. The funded Robert Doornbos replaced him. He contacted Dale Coyne, the co-owner of the privately underfunded Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) team, in February, after a journalist told him DCR had employed engineer Bill Pappas. Wilson visited their workshop for a seat fitting, and became acquainted with Pappas. He signed a contract to drive for DCR one month later. At the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Wilson began from second and finished third. He qualified 15th for the Indianapolis 500; late in the race, Wilson retired following a collision with a barrier after 160 laps, placing 23rd. Wilson started second at the Grand Prix at the Glen and led for 49 out of 60 laps in DCR's first open-wheel victory and his second in the series. With five more top-ten finishes over the rest of the year, he was ninth in the points standings with 354.
Wilson drove Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's (DRR) No. 22 car in the 2010 season. A disagreement over the length of his contract with DCR, the departure of key team personnel and a desire for another experience led him to assess driving elsewhere. Wilson received a telephone call from Dreyer & Reinbold co-owners Robbie Buhl and Dennis Reinbold and visited their workshop in January 2010. He was impressed by what he observed and signed to the team soon after. Wilson mentored his teammate Mike Conway on oval track racing and advised DRR on road courses. In the first four races he finished second at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the Grand Prix of Long Beach. After qualifying 11th for the Indianapolis 500, Wilson led eleven laps and took seventh. Four races later, he took his first IndyCar pole position for the Honda Indy Toronto. The rest of Wilson's season saw him achieve a best of sixth at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. He was 11th in the drivers' standings with 361 points.
Although linked with the Andretti Autosport, KV Racing Technology and Panther Racing teams for the 2011 season, Wilson stayed at DRR. An important factor in his decision was the progress he believed the team had made in 2010. Wilson sustained a minor fracture in his left wrist in an accident with Alex Tagliani at the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and wore a carbon fibre brace. He started the Indianapolis 500 from 19th position. Handling and balance difficulties left Wilson in 16th. His best finish of 2011 was fifth at Edmonton Indy. During practice for the Honda Indy 200 an accident left him with a stable burst fracture of the T5 vertebrae in his back. Wilson was ruled unfit for three months and wore a back brace. For the rest of the season, his substitutes were Simon Pagenaud at Mid-Ohio, Tomas Scheckter at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Giorgio Pantano on the road and street courses and Townsend Bell in Kentucky and Las Vegas. Wilson was 24th in the points standings with 183.
For the 2012 season, he returned to drive for DCR in its No. 18 Dallara DW12-Honda car. Wilson had two tenth-place finishes in the first four races. At the Indianapolis 500, he qualified in 21st and finished 7th. At the Firestone 550 Wilson overtook Graham Rahal, who crashed with two laps to go, for his third career series victory and his first on an oval track. The rest of his season saw him claim two more top-ten results in the final eight races for 15th in the drivers' championship with 278 points.
Wilson remained at DCR for the 2013 season after signing a long-term contract; he changed his car number to 19. He began the year with three consecutive top-nine finishes. Wilson qualified for the Indianapolis 500 in 14th and finished a career-high fifth. His performance for the rest of 2013 included three podium finishes—two third places at the first Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix and the Grand Prix of Houston, and a season-high second at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. At the season-ending IndyCar World Championships at the Auto Club Speedway, Wilson was involved in a high speed lateral impact with driver Tristan Vautier, sustaining a minor pulmonary contusion and three non-operable breakages to his pelvis. He was told to avoid bearing weight on his right leg before commencing rehabilitation. Wilson finished the season a series-high sixth in the drivers' standings with 472 points.
DCR owner Dale Coyne took up an option to retain Wilson for the 2014 season after recovering from injury and recommenced training. Michael Cannon became his race engineer after Bill Pappas moved to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Coyne promised Wilson better resources for him to continue achieving top-ten finishes. His first top ten-finish of 2014 was a sixth at the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Wilson started 14th at the Indianapolis 500 finishing eight places lower and two laps down in 22nd after debris damaged his front wing late in the race. One race later, Wilson achieved a season-best fourth at the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix and four top-ten finishes in the final 12 rounds for 15th overall with 395 points.
He left DCR after the season ended because of their limited budget for a full-time campaign, and sought employment with another team for the 2015 season, saying: "It's one of those things, where I could find out tomorrow, or it could be in another month or two months." Talks with Andretti Autosport owner Michael Andretti, who was interested in Wilson, about a full-time campaign ended in March 2015 over sponsorship issues. That same month, Wilson signed a two-race contract to drive Andretti Autosport's No. 25 car in May's Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500. He started his final Indianapolis 500 from sixth position. During the race a tyre vibration and a pit stop strategy error left him in 21st. Afterwards, Wilson obtained sponsorship to drive the season's final five races for Andretti, finishing a year-high second in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, in an aerodynamically inefficient car.
## Other racing ventures
Wilson made his sports car racing debut at the 2001 FIA GT Magny-Cours 500km, part of the FIA GT Championship. He shared the Coca-Cola Racing Team's No. 65 Porsche 911 GT3-RS with Tomáš Enge, finishing third in the N-GT category. He joined fellow British drivers Ben Collins and Christian Vann in a Team Ascari-entered Ascari KZR-1 car in the LMP900 class at the 2002 12 Hours of Sebring (part of the American Le Mans Series), finishing sixth. Two years later, he again entered the season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring, this time joined by Milka Duno and Phil Andrews. Driving a Taurus Racing-fielded Lola B2K/10 they finished 9th in class and 22nd overall. In June, Wilson competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Tom Coronel and Ralph Firman in the No. 16 Racing for Holland Dome S101-Judd car, retiring after 313 laps with ignition failure.
At the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona (part of the Rolex Sports Car Series), Wilson drove for Michael Shank Racing (MSR) alongside A. J. Allmendinger, Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Mark Patterson in the No. 60 Riley MkXI-Lexus car in the Daytona Prototype (DP) category, completing 733 laps and finishing second. He entered the season-ending round of the 2007 Rolex Sports Car Series, the Sunchaser 1000, joining Negri and Patterson at MSR and finishing tenth. He returned to MSR for the 2008 24 Hours of Daytona with Negri, Patterson and Graham Rahal, driving the Riley Mk.XX-Ford DP vehicle and finishing sixth after starting from pole position.
In 2010, he entered the 24 Hours of Daytona for the third time, this time for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates in the DP class. The No. 01 Riley Mk.XX-BMW car he shared with Max Papis, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas finished second after starting fifth. Wilson returned to MSR with Curb/Agajanian for the 2011 24 Hours of Daytona, partnering Allmendinger and Michael McDowell, starting eighth and finishing seventh in the No. 6 Dallara DP01-Ford car. He won the 2012 24 Hours of Daytona with Allmendinger, Negri and John Pew at MSR, completing 761 laps in the No. 60 Riley-Ford DP car. He joined Kelly Racing as Greg Murphy's international co-driver in its No. 51 Holden Commodore for the Gold Coast 600 double header round of the V8 Supercars Championship in October 2012. Wilson visited the team's workshop for a seat fitting as preparation for the round. He and Murphy finished outside of the top ten in both races.
Wilson entered the 24 Hours of Daytona alongside Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, Negri and Pew at MSR in 2013, finishing third. He partnered Gustavo Yacamán in MSR's No. 6 Riley-Ford car at the Six Hours at the Glen when regular driver Antônio Pizzonia had sponsorship problems, finishing sixth. With no date conflicts between the IndyCar Series and the Rolex Sports Car Series, Wilson entered the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series' final four rounds to partner and mentor Yacamán. The duo had a season-best second-place finish at Lime Rock. At the 2014 24 Hours of Daytona (now part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship), Wilson, Allmendinger, Negri and Pew were 12th in the prototype class and 47th overall due to a gearbox fault in the No. 60 Riley-Ford Ecoboost car. He rejoined Negri and Pew at MSR for the following 12 Hours of Sebring, finishing ninth.
In 2015, Wilson replaced Matt McMurry as co-driver to Negri and Pew in MSR's No. 60 Ligier JS P2-Honda car at the 12 Hours of Sebring, where they came 42nd. As Wilson waited for a new IndyCar Series contract, he was entered into the all-electric Formula E round in Moscow by Andretti Autosport in June. He replaced Scott Speed, who had an X Games commitment. Wilson finished 10th and scored 1 championship point for a 25th drivers standing finish. A planned drive in a HPD ARX-04b at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in June was cancelled because turbocharger failures damaged the car's motors.
## Death
On the 179th lap of the 2015 ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway on 23 August, the race leader Sage Karam lost control of his car in the first turn after passing a bump in the tarmac surface. He crashed heavily with the front of his car against a wall to the right of the circuit. The car's nose cone was removed with enough force that it ricocheted along the racing surface as other drivers manoeuvred past it. James Jakes slowed faster than Wilson, who turned right to avoid contact with his car. At the same time, the nose cone from Karam's car struck Wilson's helmet as he drove through the accident scene. Wilson was knocked unconscious and his car almost immediately veered left out of control towards the inside wall. It left the track, hitting the left-hand side wall coupled with a SAFER barrier after the first turn and continued to slide before stopping.
Wilson was unresponsive when the track safety crew arrived at his vehicle and he had to be extricated from it. A medivac helicopter was called for and transported Wilson to Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest in nearby Allentown, Pennsylvania. He was reported to be in a coma with a severe head injury and listed in critical condition. Wilson was declared dead from his injuries the following day, at 17:37 local time on 24 August. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway president J. Douglas Boles and the CEO of Hulman & Company Mark Miles made the news public at 21:00 that same day. He was the first driver to die from injuries sustained in a racing accident in IndyCar since Dan Wheldon was killed during the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championships at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. An autopsy conducted by Andrew Kehm, the Chief Deputy Coroner of the Lehigh County Coroner's Office, on 26 August determined Wilson died of blunt force trauma to his head. On 10 September, he was given a funeral service at St. James The Great Church in Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, England attended by about 500 mourners, which included members of the motor racing community. Wilson was subsequently cremated, and a wake was held for him at Silverstone Circuit.
An inquest into his death was held at Northampton General Hospital on the morning of 9 March 2016. The coroner concluded his death was "accidental". A statement from Wilson's father was read, which described the crash as a "freak accident" and stated:
> "The car leading the race crashed and was driving at over 200 miles per hour [320 km/h]. The driver was unhurt but debris from his car flew high into the air and a large, heavy piece hit Justin on the head as he approached the scene of the accident. Justin was unconscious, he was extracted from the car and rushed to hospital. He underwent surgery and was kept on a life support machine until the following day. The decision was then taken to switch off the machine and Justin was pronounced deceased."
## Personality and legacy
David Tremayne of The Independent described Wilson as an "easy-going and humble" individual who was able to build a rapport with others. According to Alasdair Steven of The Herald: "his cheerful, quietly modest manner, and genuine enthusiasm" made him popular with fans of motor racing. A leader of the IndyCar safety and promotional association alongside Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan, Wilson increased his lobbying for improved safety after the death of Dan Wheldon in 2011. He aspired to have retention walls altered to better deal with airborne crashes, and wrote an online article arguing for the shifting of trackside grandstands to inside racing circuits as a means of shielding spectators from debris.
Nicknamed "Bad Ass" by his driving instructor colleagues at PalmerSport in 1999, for being "as fearsome a competitor you could ever find", Wilson was friendly, shy, endearing, soft-spoken and highly analytical. His technical shrewdness provided teams with extensive performance alterations to improve a race car. According to Racer's Mark Glendenning this made Wilson a driver who "commanded universal respect" from fellow competitors. For DailySportsCar editor Graham Goodwin it created an image of Wilson as "a very rare breed indeed, a man in the modern age who had competed at the highest level in multiple motorsport disciplines", and a driver who "had the cutting edge". Wilson was fast-witted and used this in his humour.
After Wilson's death, the donation of his organs helped to save the lives of five people. On 27 August IndyCar drivers Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Graham Rahal converted what had been a previously planned promotion for the season-ending Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway by driving their cars across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco into a tribute for Wilson. Andretti drove Wilson's No. 25 car. Honda and Andretti Autosport employed Wilson's close friend and fellow driver Oriol Servià to drive his car in Sonoma.
Joey Gase, a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver, carried a photograph of Wilson on the rear of his No. 52 car to promote awareness of eye, organ and tissue donation. A. J. Allmendinger had his former teammate Wilson's name above the window of his vehicle for the final 12 rounds of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. At the 2016 Indianapolis 500, Stefan drove the No. 25 KV Racing Technology car in honour of his elder sibling. The name of a hairpin turn on the Snetterton Circuit's 300 layout was changed from Montreal Corner to Wilson Corner by the track's owners MotorSport Vision in July 2016; a board at the corner features the design of Wilson's multi-coloured rainbow racing helmet and his surname.
The Wilson Children's Fund was launched with the support of his widow Julia to ensure their two daughters would be financially secure in the long term following his death. Contributions are raised through the auctioning of motor racing memorabilia on the internet and by public donations.
## Motorsports career results
### Complete International Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap; small number denotes finishing position)
### Complete American Le Mans Series results
### Complete Formula One results
(key)
### Complete American open-wheel racing results
(key)
#### Champ Car World Series
#### IndyCar Series
<sup>1</sup> Run on same day.
<sup>2</sup> Non-points-paying, exhibition race.
#### Indianapolis 500
### Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
### Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship
#### Complete 24 Hours of Daytona results
### Complete Formula E results
|
23,982,182 |
30.5 cm SK L/50 gun
| 1,165,666,852 | null |
[
"305 mm artillery",
"Coastal artillery",
"Naval guns of Germany"
] |
The 30.5 cm SK L/50 gun was a heavy German gun mounted on 16 of the 26 German capital ships built shortly before World War I. Designed in 1908, it fired a shell 30.5 cm (12 in) in diameter and entered service in 1911 when the four Helgoland-class battleships carrying it were commissioned into the High Seas Fleet.
It was also fitted on the subsequent five Kaiser and four König-class battleships and the three Derfflinger-class battlecruisers. The guns were used to great effect at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, when the two Derfflinger-class ships, Derfflinger and Lützow, used them to destroy the British battlecruisers Queen Mary and Invincible. The gun was eventually superseded in German naval use by the much larger and more powerful 38 cm SK L/45.
Before World War I, 30.5 cm SK L/50 guns were emplaced on the islands of Helgoland and Wangerooge to defend Germany's North Sea coast. One battery was emplaced during the war to defend the port of Zeebrugge in Occupied Flanders. The guns on Helgoland were destroyed by the victorious Allies at the end of the war, but the battery at Wangerooge survived intact. Three of its guns were transferred to Helgoland after the island was remilitarized in 1935. During the Second World War, the other three guns were transferred to France and employed in coastal defense positions along the English Channel.
## Specifications
### Naval Turrets
The 30.5 cm SK L/50 guns were mounted in twin gun turrets. The Helgoland-class ships used six Drh LC/1908 mountings; these turrets had 100 mm (3.9 in)-thick roofs and 300 mm (11.8 in)-thick sides. Later ship classes used improved designs. The Kaiser class carried five Drh LC/1909 gun houses, while the subsequent König class carried five turrets of the Drh LC/1911 type. The primary improvement for the LC/1909 turret was an increase in armor thickness of the roof, from 100 mm to 300 mm; side armor remained the same. The turret roofs on the LC/1911 mounts were reduced to 110 mm (4.3 in); again, the sides remained at a thickness of 300 mm. Derfflinger and Lützow used four Drh LC/1912 mountings, while their half sister Hindenburg carried an improved Drh LC/1913 type. The LC/1912 mounts had 110 mm-thick roofs and 270 mm-thick sides. The turrets on the newer Hindenburg had the thickness of their roofs increased to 150 mm (5.9 in), though the sides were the same as in the preceding LC/1912 type. Weights for the gun houses ranged from 534–549 tons (543–558 metric tons); the variations depended primarily on the thickness of armor.
In the König-class ships, each gun turret had a working chamber beneath it that was connected to a revolving ammunition hoist leading down to the magazine below. The turrets were electrically controlled, though the guns were elevated hydraulically. In an effort to reduce the possibility of a fire, everything in the turret was constructed of steel. This layout was also used in the preceding battleships. On the Derfflinger-class battlecruisers, the two forward and the superfiring rear turret used this configuration, although the rearmost gun turret had its magazine and shell room inverted.
All of the German gun turrets initially allowed for elevation to 13.5 degrees, although after the battle of Jutland, they were modified to allow elevation to 16 degrees. The centerline turrets on the warships could train 150 degrees in either direction, though the wing turrets on the Helgoland and Kaiser classes were limited to an arc of 80 degrees in either direction.
### Coast defense mounts
The island of Helgoland received four twin gun turrets between 1909 and 1912, although their exact type is unknown. Battery Kaiser Wilhelm II was built to protect the port of Zeebrugge in Occupied Flanders during World War I. It consisted of four guns in concrete barbettes mounted on Bettungsschiessgerüst (BSG) (firing platforms). These manually powered mounts rotated on a pivot at the front of the mount and the rear was supported by rollers resting on a semi-circular rail. They were equipped with a gun shield and capable of all-around fire. They were manned by sailors from Naval Artillery Regiment (Matrosen Artillerie Regiment) 1.
By the end of World War I, six guns in BSG mounts equipped Battery Friedrich August on the island of Wangerooge. Three of these were transferred to Helgoland after 1935 when Hitler renounced the Treaty of Versailles which had demilitarized the island. By 1938, they equipped Battery von Schröder and were manned by troops of the Second Naval Artillery Battalion (II. Marine-Artillerie-Abteilung), later 122nd Naval Artillery Battalion (122. Marine-Artillerie-Abteilung). After the French were defeated in 1940 all three guns were transferred to Le Trésorerie, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, France where they assumed their former name of Battery Friedrich August. These guns were initially in open barbettes with 360° traverse, but these were later rebuilt into concrete casemates with overhead cover. that could elevate to 50 degrees and train 220 degrees in either direction.
### Ammunition
These guns fired two types of shells during World War I: armor-piercing (AP) L/3.1 and high explosive (HE) L/4 types. During World War II, the guns fired a wider variety of shells, including armor-piercing L/3,4 and L/4,9 types, and high explosive L/3.8, L/5, and L/4.8 shells, as well as specially designed coast defense artillery projectiles. The AP and HE rounds weighed between 405 and 415 kg (915 lb), while the coastal artillery projectiles weighed only 250 kg (551 lb).
Shells used during World War I used an RP C/12 main propellant charge that weighed 91 kg (201 lb) and a smaller RP C/12 fore charge that weighed 34.5 kg (76 lb); this gave the guns a muzzle velocity of 855 meters per second (2,805 feet per second). Coast defense guns used RP C/32 charges that weighed 85.4 kg (188.3 lb) for the main charge and 41.6 kg (91.7 lb) for the fore charge. After 1942, these were increased to 121.5 kg (268 lb) RP C/38 for AP shells and 143 kg (315 lb) RP C/38 for HE rounds. These shells were fired with a muzzle velocity of between 850 and 855 m/s (2,789–2,805 ft/s), but the lightweight coast defense shell had a muzzle velocity of 1,120 m/s (3,700 ft/s).
### Performance
At 13.5 degrees of elevation, the 30.5 cm gun could hit targets out to 16,200 m (17,717 yards) with armor-piercing shells. After the turrets were improved to allow elevation to 16 degrees, the range correspondingly increased to 20,400 m (22,310 yd). At a range of 12,800 m (14,000 yd), the L3 armor-piercing shells fired by the gun were expected to penetrate 254 mm (10 in) of armor plate. At 15,000 m (16,000 yd) the effectiveness of the shell decreased; it was able to pierce 229 mm (9 in)-thick plate. The range of the World War II guns was significantly greater than the guns used in World War I. With the 405 kg shell at 45 degrees, the guns had a maximum range of 32,000 m (35,000 yd). With the 415 kg shell at 49.2 degrees, the range was 41,300 m (45,166 yd), and with the lighter 250 kg round at 49.1 degrees, the maximum range was 51,400 m (56,200 yd).
## See also
### Weapons of comparable role, performance and era
- BL 12-inch Mk XI – XII naval gun - British contemporary guns
- Obukhovskii 12-inch/52-caliber Pattern 1907 gun - Russian contemporary gun
- 12-inch/50-caliber Mark 7 gun - U.S. contemporary gun
|
68,089,985 |
2021 West Coast Eagles women's season
| 1,160,536,460 |
AFL women's competition season
|
[
"2021 AFL Women's season",
"West Coast Eagles seasons"
] |
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football team based in Perth, Western Australia. The 2021 AFL Women's season was their second season in that competition, their first season with Daniel Pratt as coach, and their second season with Emma Swanson as captain. They won two out of the nine games they played, their only wins being by one point against and 39 points against . They finished 12th out of 14 on the ladder, missing out on qualifying for finals.
The season was marked by many injuries to the team's players, most notably to star player Dana Hooker, who was unable to play for most of the season due to a kitchen accident. Young midfielders Mikayla Bowen and Isabella Lewis were standout players, both receiving Rising Star nominations. Lewis was the team's best and fairest player, winning the West Coast Club Champion medal. Bowen was the team's sole inclusion in the All-Australian squad. Grace Kelly was the team's leading goalkicker, with seven goals.
## Background
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football team based in Perth, Western Australia. They began playing in the AFL Women's in the 2020 season. That year, they won one out of their six games, finishing last on the ladder for their conference.
In October 2020, it was announced that Daniel Pratt would take over as senior coach from Luke Dwyer, who resigned. Pratt had been a development coach and an assistant coach for West Coast's men's team for seven years. He was assisted by forwardline coaches Michelle Cowan and Jo Beechey, midfield coaches Brady Grey and Ryan Turnbull, and backline coach Andrew Di Loreto. Emma Swanson was captain for a second season. Dana Hooker was vice-captain for a second season as well. Courtney Guard and Alicia Janz continued being part of the leadership group, along with newcomer Parris Laurie. Mikayla Bowen and Hayley Bullas were appointed as "emerging leaders", a new position which is used for developing leadership skills.
The club had 3,081 AFLW members in 2021, the second most of any club, behind .
## Playing list
### Changes
During the off season, Talia Radan and Emily Bonser retired, and Kate Bartlett, Cassie Davidson, Emily McGuire, Danika Pisconeri and Tarnee Tester were delisted. Andrea Gilmore was also delisted following a season as an injury replacement player. Tarnee Tester was later signed by as a delisted free agent.
Due to West Coast's poor performance in 2020, before the start of the trade period, West Coast, and , were given a draft pick at the end of the first round (pick 16). This draft pick had the requirement that it had to be traded with another club for an established player. The pick was allowed to be traded in combination with other draft picks or players, but it could not be used in a trade that involved West Coast receiving any draft picks. During the 2020 trade period in August, West Coast had two trades. The first had West Coast receive Aisling McCarthy and pick 3 in the 2020 AFL Women's draft from the , in exchange for pick 2 and pick 16. The second had West Coast receive Tayla Bresland from , in exchange for pick 46.
Before the 2020 AFLW, McKenzie Dowrick was placed on the inactive list to allow her more time to recover from surgery. During the 2020 draft on 6 October, teams were only allowed to pick from a pool of players in their state. West Coast drafted Isabella Lewis (pick 3), Shanae Davison (pick 18), Julie-Anne Norrish (pick 32) and Andrea Gilmore (pick 53), who was previously delisted. They passed on picks 56 and 59.
If players were undrafted in their nominated state, clubs from outside that state with room on their lists could sign those players. This mechanism enabled West Coast to sign Amber Ward and Lauren Gauci, both of whom are from South Australia, on 8 October. In November, Demi Liddle was signed as an injury replacement player for Ashton Hill, who ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in round 1 of the previous season. In January, Katelyn Pope was signed as an injury replacement player for Mhicca Carter, who had a season-ending foot injury.
### Statistics
## Season summary
For the 2021 AFLW season, the conference system was removed, with every team now on the same ladder. The planned fixture was revealed on 11 December 2020; continued restrictions and border closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, forced it to change several times. The first change was rounds one and two, in which West Coast were originally going to face at Metricon Stadium, and then in Perth. That changed on 22 January to West Coast facing in Perth, and then (GWS) at Norwood Oval in Adelaide, in a GWS home match. This was because there were no restrictions to travel between Western Australia and South Australia, and GWS had temporarily relocated to Adelaide.
### Rounds 1–4
West Coast's round one match took place against the Adelaide Crows, the reigning premiers, on 30 January 2021. At half time, the Eagles were only behind by five points, as the Crows missed opportunities to score. However, Adelaide dominated the third quarter, kicking four unanswered goals and even preventing any inside 50s for West Coast. The final score was 18–56. This match had eight new players for West Coast, and three players suffered injuries: Brianna Green received an ankle injury, Maddy Collier was concussed and Demi Liddle injured her back.
Western Australia went into lockdown on 1 February, resulting in South Australia closing its border to Western Australia. West Coast's match against GWS was cancelled as a result, and West Coast were not allowed to train together during the lockdown. After the lockdown was lifted on 5 February, a Western Derby against was scheduled instead for 7 February, albeit with no crowds. The derby meant that the Western Australian teams did not have to leave Western Australia or have another team enter. During the week between rounds one and two, vice-captain Dana Hooker cut a tendon in her foot when a knife fell off her kitchen bench, ruling her out for the rest of the season. She joined Green, Collier and Liddle as the four outs for round 2.
West Coast lost their match against Fremantle 14–23, playing at Fremantle Oval in heavy rain. Aisling McCarthy got the first and only goal in the first quarter, but Fremantle took over from there, reaching 20 points at three quarter time. Imahra Cameron kicked a goal in the final quarter to reduce the margin to 6 points, but Fremantle held off from there, winning by nine points. The result wasn't considered a total failure for West Coast, considering that their previous match against Fremantle was a 45-point blowout, and that Fremantle finished at the top of the ladder in 2020, however, there were several more injuries during the match. Niamh Kelly and Andrea Gilmore suffered finger injuries and Parris Laurie sustained a right knee injury. Katelyn Pope made her AFLW debut in this match. Daniel Pratt said after the match that West Coast may have to use players from outside their squad to field a team in round three if none of the injured players are able to play.
The fixture for round three was announced on 8 February. West Coast were scheduled to face at the Swinburne Centre on 14 February. A COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne caused Western Australia to close its border to Victoria, resulting in the cancellation of West Coast's match against Richmond on 11 February. The following day, it was announced that West Coast would play at Hickey Park on Monday, 15 February.
During the week between rounds two and three, Claremont WAFLW players Jessica Low and Sasha Goranova trained with West Coast in case the team needed them as top-up players. West Coast ended up not needing them, with several players back from injury for round three. Maddy Collier returned after completing concussion protocols, Parris Laurie and Andrea Gilmore's injuries were minor enough to allow them to return, and Melissa Caulfield was back for the first time this season following a pre-season hamstring injury. During the first half of their match against the Brisbane Lions, the Eagles dominated the inside 50s and clearances, but because they were unable to convert that into goals, the margin at half time was one point in favour of the Lions. Brisbane dominated for the rest of the match though, including kicking four goals in the first six minutes of the third quarter. The final score was 20–65 in favour of the Lions. Andrea Gilmore suffered another injury, this time a concussion in the third quarter, ruling her out of round four due to the concussion protocol.
The round four fixture was revealed on 14 February, with West Coast facing GWS on Sunday, 21 February at Blacktown International Sportspark Oval. In that match, Alicia Janz made her West Coast debut, and Lauren Gauci made her AFLW debut. West Coast were beaten yet again in round four, with the final score being 28–48. The Eagles lead for a brief moment in the first quarter, but GWS lead for the rest of the match. The only injury was to Aisling McCarthy, who had a knee injury after landing awkwardly in the third quarter.
### Rounds 5–9
On 21 February, the round five fixture was revealed. West Coast were scheduled to play against fellow winless side , in the Eagles' first home game since round one. The round five match was Niamh Kelly's and Demi Liddle's first match back from injury. Aisling McCarthy was also due to play her first game back, but was a late out due to her knee injury, being replaced by Kate Orme. Sophie McDonald and Courtney Guard were omitted. West Coast got their first win of the season in that round, beating Gold Coast 34–33. Mikayla Bowen stood out, getting 21 disposals, seven marks, three clearances and the match-winning goal. She received a Rising Star nomination for her effort. Yet another injury occurred, with Tayla Bresland receiving a hamstring injury in the first quarter.
Between rounds five and six, over a third of West Coast's players were on its injury list. The round six fixture was revealed on 27 February. West Coast were scheduled to play Fremantle for the second time in a season. Aisling McCarthy made a return from injury in this game. The Eagles were thrashed by Fremantle, which was played at Optus Stadium in front of West Coast's largest crowd for the season. The final score was 8–75, with Grace Kelly scoring the Eagles' only goal.
The fixture for the remaining rounds was revealed on 4 March. West Coast were scheduled to play against at home in round seven, Richmond away in round eight, and at home in round nine, all on the Sundays of each round. On 9 March, the round seven match against Geelong was changed to Monday, 15 March. In the match, West Coast had their second win of the season, and largest win in their history, beating Geelong 53–14. Imahra Cameron kicked three goals, a record for the club. Brianna Green was back from injury. Emma Swanson was reported to the match review panel for rough conduct due to an off-the-ball bump on Geelong's Georgie Rankin which gave Rankin a concussion. Swanson received a two match ban for the incident, causing her to miss the remainder of the season.
In round eight, West Coast were beaten by Richmond 34–42, although they almost made a comeback in the fourth quarter. At half time, the margin was 22 points with Richmond in front. The Eagles had kicked no goals in the first half compared to Richmond's three. But West Coast started to catch up during the second half, kicking three third-quarter goals, compared to Richmond with just one. The Eagles managed to get the margin to seven points during the fourth quarter, but Richmond managed to hold off West Coast. Mikayla Bowen and Isabella Lewis were the strongest among the midfield, with 21 and 18 disposals respectively. Lewis received a Rising Star nomination for this effort. West Coast suffered a multitude of injuries in that match, with Aisling McCarthy (corked thigh), Belinda Smith (cork), Shanae Davison (hamstring) and Maddy Collier (concussion) all injured.
Collier, McCarthy and Davison were all left out for the final match of the season due to their injuries, joining a large list of key players who could not play. Parris Laurie also suffered an ankle injury just before the start of the match, too late for her to be replaced in the team. West Coast were thrashed by St Kilda, the score being 20–76. West Coast ended the season 12th on the ladder, capping off an injury-plagued season having not qualified for finals.
### Results
### Ladder
## Awards
Mikayla Bowen received a Rising Star nomination in round five, and Isabella Lewis received a nomination in round eight. Mikayla Bowen was also named in the initial 40-woman All-Australian squad, but was not named in the final 21-woman team. West Coast was only one of two teams that did not have any player in the All-Australian team in 2021, the other team being the Gold Coast Suns.
First-year player Isabella Lewis won the Club Champion award for best and fairest player, with 40 votes. Behind her was Aisling McCarthy, on 37 votes, Mikayla Bowen, on 35 votes, and Maddy Collier, Grace Kelly and Niamh Kelly, on 34 votes. Lewis was also the Best First Year Player, and Parris Laurie was Best Clubperson.
## See also
- 2021 West Coast Eagles season
|
143,294 |
Nevermind
| 1,173,738,017 | null |
[
"1991 albums",
"2011 live albums",
"2011 video albums",
"Albums produced by Butch Vig",
"Albums recorded at Sound City Studios",
"DGC Records albums",
"Nirvana (band) albums",
"Nirvana (band) live albums",
"Nirvana (band) video albums",
"United States National Recording Registry albums",
"United States National Recording Registry recordings"
] |
Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind features a more polished, radio-friendly sound than the band's prior work. It was recorded at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, and Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, in May and June 1991, and mastered that August at the Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California.
Written primarily by frontman Kurt Cobain, Nevermind is noted for channeling a range of emotions, being noted as dark, humorous, and disturbing. It includes anti-establishment views, anti-sexism, frustration, alienation, and troubled love inspired by Cobain's broken relationship with Bikini Kill's Tobi Vail. Contrary to the popular hedonistic themes of drugs and sex at the time, writers have observed that Nevermind re-invigorated sensitivity to mainstream rock. According to Cobain, the sound of the album was influenced by bands such as Pixies, R.E.M., the Smithereens, and Melvins. Though the album is considered a cornerstone of the grunge genre, it is noted for its musical diversity, which includes acoustic ballads ("Polly" and "Something in the Way") and punk-inspired hard rock ("Territorial Pissings" and "Stay Away").
Nevermind became an unexpected critical and commercial success, hitting the top 10 charts across the world. By January 1992, it reached number one on the US Billboard 200 and was selling approximately 300,000 copies a week. The lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", reached the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100 and went on to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Its video was also heavily rotated on MTV. Three other successful singles were released: "Come as You Are", "Lithium", and "In Bloom". The album was voted the best album of the year in Pazz & Jop critics' poll, while "Smells Like Teen Spirit" also topped the single-of-the-year and video-of-the-year polls. The album also garnered the band three Grammy Award nominations in total across the 34th and 35th Grammy Awards, including Best Alternative Music Album.
Nevermind and its singles' success propelled Nirvana to being widely regarded as the biggest band of the 1990s, with Cobain being dubbed by critics as the "voice of his generation." The album brought grunge and alternative rock to a mainstream audience while ending the dominance of hair metal, drawing similarities to the early 1960s British Invasion of American popular music. It is also often credited with initiating a resurgence of interest in punk culture among teenagers and young adults of Generation X, becoming seminal to the counterculture of the decade. It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. In March 1999, it was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Among the most acclaimed and influential albums in the history of music, Nevermind was added to the National Recording Registry in 2004 as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and is frequently ranked highly on lists of the greatest albums of all time. The album has since been reissued with alternate takes and live performances.
## Background and early sessions
In early 1990, Nirvana began planning their second album for their record company Sub Pop, tentatively titled Sheep. At the suggestion of Sub Pop head Bruce Pavitt, Nirvana selected Butch Vig as producer. The band particularly liked Vig's work with Killdozer. They traveled to Vig's Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, and recorded from April 2 to 6, 1990. Most of the basic arrangements were complete, but songwriter Kurt Cobain was still working on lyrics and the band was unsure of which songs to record. Ultimately, eight were recorded, some of which appeared on Nevermind: "Imodium" (later renamed "Breed"), "Dive" (later released as the B-side to "Sliver"), "In Bloom", "Pay to Play" (later renamed "Stay Away"), "Sappy", "Lithium", "Here She Comes Now" (released on Heaven & Hell: A Tribute to the Velvet Underground), and "Polly".
On April 6, Nirvana played a local show in Madison with fellow Seattle band Tad. Vig began to mix the recordings while the band gave an interview to Madison's community radio station WORT on April 7. Cobain strained his voice, forcing Nirvana to end the recording. On April 8, they travelled to Milwaukee to begin an extensive midwest and east coast tour of 24 shows in 39 days.
Drummer Chad Channing left after the tour, putting additional recording on hold. During a show by hardcore punk band Scream, Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic were impressed by their drummer Dave Grohl. When Scream unexpectedly disbanded, Grohl contacted Novoselic, travelled to Seattle, and was invited to join the band. Novoselic said in retrospect that, with Grohl, everything "fell into place".
By the 1990s, Sub Pop was having financial problems. With rumors that they would become a subsidiary of a major record label, Nirvana decided to "cut out the middleman" and look for a major record label. Nirvana used the recordings as a demo tape to shop for a new label. Within a few months, the tape was circulating amongst major labels. A number of labels courted them; Nirvana signed with Geffen Records imprint DGC Records based on recommendations from Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and their management company.
After Nirvana signed to DGC, a number of producers were suggested, including Scott Litt, David Briggs, Don Dixon, and Bob Mould. Novoselic said the band had been nervous about recording under a major label, and the producers suggested by DGC wanted percentage points. Instead, the band held out for Vig, with whom they felt comfortable collaborating.
## Recording
With a budget of \$65,000, Nirvana recorded Nevermind at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in May and June 1991. To earn gas money to get to Los Angeles, they played a show where they performed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time. The band sent Vig rehearsal tapes prior to the sessions that featured songs recorded previously at Smart Studios, plus new songs including "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come as You Are".
Nirvana arrived in California and spent a few days rehearsing and working on arrangements. The only recording carried over from the Smart Studios sessions was "Polly", including Channing's cymbal crashes. Once recording commenced, the band worked eight to ten hours a day.
Despite receiving a \$287,000 advance upon signing with Geffen, Cobain retained a preference for inexpensive equipment—particularly Japanese-made Fender guitars, due to their skinny necks and wider availability in lefthanded orientation. These included several Stratocasters fitted with humbucker pickups in the bridge positions, as well as a 1965 Jaguar with DiMarzio pickups and a 1969 Mustang, the latter of which Cobain cited as his favorite due its design flaws. For the album, Cobain bought a rackmount system featuring a Mesa/Boogie Studio preamp, a Crown power amp, and Marshall cabinets. He also used a Vox AC30 and a Fender Bassman. Vig preferred not to use pedals, but he allowed Cobain to use a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal, which Cobain considered a key part of his sound, as well as an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz pedal and a Small Clone chorus.
Novoselic and Grohl finished their tracks in days, while Cobain worked longer on guitar overdubs, vocals, and lyrics. He sometimes finished lyrics minutes before recording. Vig recalled that Cobain was often reluctant to record overdubs, but he was persuaded to double-track his vocals when Vig told him that John Lennon did it. Though the sessions generally went well, Vig said Cobain would become difficult at times: "He'd be great for an hour, and then he'd sit in a corner and say nothing for an hour."
### Mixing and mastering
Vig and the band were unhappy with Vig's initial mixes and decided to bring in someone else to oversee the mixing. DGC supplied a list of options, including Scott Litt (known for his work with R.E.M.) and Ed Stasium (known for his work with the Ramones and the Smithereens). Cobain was concerned about bringing in well known producers, and instead chose Andy Wallace, who had co-produced Slayer's 1990 album Seasons in the Abyss. Novoselic recalled, "We said, 'right on,' because those Slayer records were so heavy."
Wallace's mixes most notably altered the drum and guitar sounds. According to Wallace and Vig, the band loved the results. However, they criticized it after the album was released. Steve Albini, who engineered Nirvana's next album, In Utero (1993), said Vig's initial mix "sounded maybe 200 times more ass-kicking" than the final version of Nevermind and that Nirvana referred to it while working on In Utero.
Nevermind was mastered by Howie Weinberg on the afternoon of August 2 at the Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California. Weinberg started working alone when no one else arrived at the appointed time in the studio; by the time Nirvana, Andy Wallace, and Gary Gersh arrived, he had mastered most of the album.
A hidden track, "Endless, Nameless", intended to appear at the end of "Something in the Way", was accidentally left off initial pressings of the album. Weinberg recalled, "In the beginning, it was kind of a verbal thing to put that track at the end. (...) Maybe I didn't write it down when Nirvana or the record company said to do it. So, when they pressed the first twenty thousand or so CDs, albums, and cassettes, it wasn't on there." Cobain called Weinberg and demanded he rectify the mistake.
## Music
At the time of writing Nevermind, Cobain was listening to bands such as Melvins, R.E.M., the Smithereens, and Pixies, and was writing songs that were more melodic. A key development was the single "Sliver", released on Sub Pop in 1990 before Grohl joined, which Cobain said "was like a statement in a way. I had to write a pop song and release it on a single to prepare people for the next record. I wanted to write more songs like that." Grohl said that the band at that point likened their music to children's music, in that they tried to make their songs as simple as possible.
Cobain fashioned chord sequences using primarily power chords and wrote songs that combined pop hooks with dissonant guitar riffs. His aim for Nevermind's material was to sound like "the Knack and the Bay City Rollers getting molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath". Many songs feature shifts in dynamics, whereby the band changes from quiet verses to loud choruses. Grohl said this approach originated during a four-month period prior to the recording of the album, when the band would experiment with extreme dynamics during regular jam sessions.
Guitar World wrote, "Kurt Cobain's guitar sound on Nirvana's Nevermind set the tone for Nineties rock music." Cobain played a 1960s Fender Mustang, a Fender Jaguar with DiMarzio pickups, and a few Fender Stratocasters with humbucker bridge pickups. He used distortion and chorus pedals as his main effects, the latter used to generate a "watery" sound on "Come as You Are" and the pre-choruses of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Novoselic tuned down his bass guitar one and a half steps to D flat "to get this fat-ass sound".
After the release of Nevermind, members of Nirvana expressed dissatisfaction with the production for its perceived commercial sound. Cobain said, "I'm embarrassed by it now. It's closer to a Mötley Crüe record than it is a punk rock record." In 2011, Vig said that Nirvana had "loved" Nevermind when they finished it. He said Cobain had criticized it in the press "because you can't really go, 'Hey, I love our record and I'm glad it sold 10 million copies.' That's just not cool to do. And I think he felt like he wanted to do something more primal."
### Lyrics
The album is noted for channeling a range of emotions, being noted as dark, humorous, and disturbing. Thematically, it includes anti-establishment views, and lyrics about sexism, frustration, loneliness, sickness, and troubled love. Contrary to the popular hedonistic themes of drugs and sex at the time, writers have observed that the album re-invigorated sensitivity to mainstream rock. Cobain said that the lyrics were taken from two years of poetry he accumulated, which he then cut up and chose lines he preferred, noting that they're "not usually thematic at all." On the other hand, Grohl has said that Cobain told him, "Music comes first and lyrics come second," and Grohl believes that above all Cobain focused on the melodies of his songs. Cobain was still working on the album's lyrics well into the recording of Nevermind. Additionally, Cobain's phrasing on the album is often difficult to understand. Vig asserted that clarity of Cobain's singing was not paramount, saying that "Even though you couldn't quite tell what he was singing about, you knew it was intense as hell." Cobain later complained when rock journalists attempted to decipher his singing and extract meaning from his lyrics, writing: "Why in the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second-rate Freudian evaluation of my lyrics, when 90 percent of the time they've transcribed them incorrectly?"
Charles R. Cross asserted in his 2001 biography of Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven, that many of the songs written for Nevermind were about Cobain's dysfunctional relationship with Tobi Vail. After their relationship ended, Cobain began writing and painting violent scenes, many of which revealed a hatred for himself and others. Songs written during this period were less violent, but still reflected anger absent from Cobain's earlier songs. Cross wrote, "In the four months following their break-up, Kurt would write a half dozen of his most memorable songs, all of them about Tobi Vail." "Drain You" begins with the line, "One baby to another said 'I'm lucky to have met you,'" quoting what Vail had once told Cobain, and the line "It is now my duty to completely drain you" refers to the power Vail had over Cobain in their relationship. According to Novoselic, "'Lounge Act' is about Tobi," and the song contains the line "I'll arrest myself, I'll wear a shield," referring to Cobain having the K Records logo tattooed on his arm to impress Vail. Though "Lithium" had been written before Cobain knew Vail, the lyrics of the song were changed to reference her. Cobain also said in an interview with Musician that "some of my very personal experiences, like breaking up with girlfriends and having bad relationships, feeling that death void that the person in the song is feeling—very lonely, sick".
## Title
The tentative title Sheep was something Cobain created as an inside joke directed towards the people he expected to buy the album. He wrote a fake advertisement for Sheep in his journal that read "Because you want to not; because everyone else is." Novoselic said the inspiration for the title was the band's cynicism about the public's reaction to Operation Desert Storm. As recording ended, Cobain grew tired of the title and suggested to Novoselic that the album be named Nevermind. Cobain liked the title because it was a metaphor for his attitude on life and because it was grammatically incorrect. Sacagawea, after the Native American, was briefly considered so to reference the band's intentions for a more widespread impact compared to their previous studio album Bleach.
"Nevermind" appears on the album liner notes as the last word in a paragraph of lyric fragments that ends with "I found it hard, it was hard to find, oh well, whatever, nevermind" from "Smells Like Teen Spirit". The word "nevermind" also echoes the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, one of Cobain's favorite albums.
## Artwork
The album cover shows a naked baby boy swimming underwater with a U.S. dollar bill on a fishhook just out of his reach. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water births. Cobain mentioned it to Geffen's art director Robert Fisher. Fisher found some stock footage of underwater births, but they were too graphic for the record company to use. Furthermore, the stock house that controlled the photo of a swimming baby that they chose wanted \$7,500 a year for its use. Instead, Fisher sent a photographer, Kirk Weddle, to a pool for babies to take pictures. Five shots resulted and the band settled on the image of four-month-old Spencer Elden, the son of a friend of Weddle. Geffen was concerned that the infant's penis, visible in the photo, would cause offense, and prepared an alternate cover without it; they relented when Cobain said the only compromise he would accept would be a sticker covering the penis reading: "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile." The cover has since been recognized as one of the most famous album covers in popular music. A few months after the original baby shot, Weddle also photographed the entire band underwater for a promotional poster.
The back cover features a photograph of a rubber monkey in front of a collage created by Cobain. The collage features photos of raw beef from a supermarket advertisement, images from Dante's Inferno, and pictures of diseased vaginas from Cobain's collection of medical photos. Cobain noted, "If you look real close, there is a picture of Kiss in the back standing on a slab of beef." The album's liner notes contain no complete lyrics; instead, the liner contains random song lyrics and unused lyrical fragments that Cobain arranged into a poem.
A year later, "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the artwork for his album Off the Deep End, replacing the baby with himself wearing a bathing suit, except it is hidden, and the dollar with a donut. He would later jokingly state "I never really anticipated going full-frontal on any of my album covers."
### Spencer Elden lawsuits
In August 2021, Elden filed a lawsuit against Weddle, Cobain's estate, Grohl and Novoselic, claiming that the use of his likeness on the album cover was made without his consent or that of his legal guardians, that it violated federal child pornography statutes, and that it resulted in "lifelong damages". Elden said that, by refusing to censor the artwork with a sticker, Nirvana had failed to protect him from child sexual exploitation. The lawsuit also stated that "Cobain chose the image depicting Spencer—like a sex worker—grabbing for a dollar bill that is positioned dangling from a fishhook in front of his nude body with his penis explicitly displayed".
Attorney Jamie White criticized the lawsuit as "frivolous" and "really offensive to the true victims" of child sexual abuse. Fordham Law School professor James Cohen said the context of the cover did not suggest pornography. White and Cohen concluded that Elden intended to make money with the lawsuit. In December, lawyers for the defendants sought to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it was filed too late and that its claim that the image depicts sexual abuse was "not serious". They noted that Elden had "spent three decades profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed 'Nirvana Baby'", having recreated the artwork several times, and that he had the album title tattooed on his chest. They argued that the cover instead "evokes themes of greed, innocence, and the motif of the cherub in western art". After Elden's lawyers did not file an opposition, the lawsuit was dismissed by a judge on January 3, 2022. However, the judge did allow for future lawsuits.
Elden refiled again on January 14, 2022, amending the original suit by removing charges of child sex trafficking while arguing it was child pornography. On September 2, 2022, a judge ruled against Elden, saying he had waited too long to file the suit and cited a 10-year statute of limitations from the date the plaintiff becomes an adult at age 18, meaning Elden needed to file before he turned 28. In addition, the judge blocked any additional filings in the future, bringing the case to a "final" close, although Spencer says he intends to appeal.
## Release
Nevermind was released on September 24, 1991. American record stores received an initial shipment of 46,251 copies, while 35,000 copies were shipped in the United Kingdom, where Bleach had been successful. The lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had been released on September 10 with the intention of building a base among alternative rock fans, while the next single "Come as You Are" would possibly garner more attention. Days before the release date, the band began a short American tour in support of the album. Geffen hoped that Nevermind would sell around 250,000 copies, matching sales of Sonic Youth's Geffen debut Goo. The most optimistic estimate was that Nevermind could be certified gold (500,000 copies sold) by September 1992.
Nevermind debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 144. Geffen shipped about half of the initial U.S. pressing to the American Northwest, where it sold out quickly and was unavailable for days. Geffen put production of all other albums on hold to fulfill demand in the region. Over the next few months, sales increased significantly as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" unexpectedly increased in popularity. The song's video had received a world premiere on MTV's late-night alternative show 120 Minutes, and soon became popular enough for the network to start broadcasting it during the daytime. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" reached number six on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album was soon certified gold, but the band was relatively uninterested. Novoselic recalled, "Yeah I was happy about it. It was pretty cool. It was kind of neat. But I don't give a shit about some kind of achievement like that. It's cool—I guess."
As the band set out for their European tour at the start of November 1991, Nevermind entered the Billboard Top 40 for the first time at number 35. By this point, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had become a hit and the album was selling so fast none of Geffen's marketing strategies could be enacted. Geffen president Ed Rosenblatt told The New York Times, "We didn't do anything. It was just one of those 'Get out of the way and duck' records." Nirvana found as they toured Europe during the end of 1991 that the shows were dangerously oversold, television crews became a constant presence onstage, and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was almost omnipresent on radio and music television.
Nevermind became Nirvana's first number-one album on January 11, 1992, replacing Michael Jackson's Dangerous at the top of the Billboard charts. By this time, Nevermind was selling approximately 300,000 copies a week. It returned for a second week at number one in February. "Come as You Are" was released as the second single in March 1992; it reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart and number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Two more singles, "Lithium" and "In Bloom", reached number 11 and 28 on the UK Singles Chart.
Nevermind was certified gold and platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in November 1991 and certified Diamond in March 1999. It was also certified Diamond in Canada (1,000,000 units sold) by the Canadian Recording Industry Association in March 2001 and six times platinum in the United Kingdom. It has gone on to sell more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.
## Critical reception
Geffen's press promotion for Nevermind was lower than that typical of a major record label. The label's publicist primarily targeted music publications with long lead times for publication as well as magazines in the Seattle area. The unexpectedly positive feedback from critics who had received the album convinced the label to consider increasing the album's original print run.
At first, Nevermind did not receive many reviews, and many publications ignored the album. Months after its release and after "Smells Like Teen Spirit" garnered airplay, print media organizations were "scrambling" to cover the phenomenon the album had become. However, by that point, much of the attention fell on Cobain rather than the album itself. The reviews that did initially appear were largely positive. Karen Schoemer of The New York Times wrote, "With Nevermind, Nirvana has certainly succeeded. There are enough intriguing textures, mood shifts, instrumental snippets and inventive word plays to provide for hours of entertainment ... Nevermind is more sophisticated and carefully produced than anything peer bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Mudhoney have yet offered."
Entertainment Weekly gave Nevermind an A− rating. The reviewer, David Browne, wrote that Nirvana "never entertain the notion" of wanting to sound "normal", compared to other contemporary alternative bands. Concluding his enthusiastic review for the British Melody Maker, Everett True wrote that "When Nirvana released Bleach all those years ago, the more sussed among us figured they had the potential to make an album that would blow every other contender away. My God have they proved us right." Spin gave Nevermind a favorable review stating that "you'll be humming all the songs for the rest of your life—or at least until your CD-tape-album wears out." Select compared the band to Jane's Addiction, Sonic Youth, and Pixies, stating that the album "proves that Nirvana truly belong in such high company."
Some reviews were not entirely positive. Rolling Stone gave the album three out of five stars. Reviewer Ira Robbins wrote, "If Nirvana isn't onto anything altogether new, Nevermind does possess the songs, character and confident spirit to be much more than a reformulation of college radio's high-octane hits." The Boston Globe was less enthusiastic about the album; reviewer Steve Morse wrote, "Most of Nevermind is packed with generic punk-pop that had been done by countless acts from Iggy Pop to the Red Hot Chili Peppers," and added "the band has little or nothing to say, settling for moronic ramblings by singer-lyricist Cobain."
Nevermind was voted the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll; "Smells Like Teen Spirit" also topped the single of the year and video of the year polls. Nevermind topped the poll by a large majority, and Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote in his companion piece to the poll, "As a modest pop surprise they might have scored a modest victory, like De La Soul in 1990. Instead, their multi-platinum takeover constituted the first full-scale public validation of the Amerindie values—the noise, the toons, the 'tude—the radder half of the [Pazz & Jop poll] electorate came up on." In the United Kingdom, the album was ranked number one on NME's Best Fifty LPs of 1991. The album garnered the band three Grammy Award nominations in total at the 34th and 35th Grammy Awards. Among the nominations was the Best Alternative Music Album award.
## Legacy
Nevermind popularized the Seattle grunge movement and brought alternative rock as a whole into the mainstream, establishing its commercial and cultural viability and leading to an alternative rock boom in the music industry. Though a short tenure from the album's release to the death of Cobain, the album's and singles' success propelled Nirvana to being regarded by the media as the biggest band in the world — especially throughout 1992. As a grunge act, the band's success over the popular hair metal acts of the time drew similarities to the early 1960s British Invasion of American popular music. The album also initiated a resurgence of interest in punk culture among teenagers and young adults of Generation X. Journalist Chuck Eddy cited Nevermind's release as roughly the end of the "high album era".
Billboard writer William Goodman lauds the album, particularly in comparison to the music and image of hair metal acts: "Instead of the chest-beating, coke-blowing, women-objectifying macho rock star of the ’80s, Cobain popularized (or re-invigorated) the image of the sensitive artist, the pro-feminism, anti-authoritarian smart alec punk with a sweet smile and gentle soul." In its citation placing it at number 17 in its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, Rolling Stone said, "No album in recent history had such an overpowering impact on a generation—a nation of teens suddenly turned punk—and such a catastrophic effect on its main creator." Gary Gersh, who signed Nirvana to Geffen Records, added that "There is a pre-Nirvana and post-Nirvana record business...'Nevermind' showed that this wasn't some alternative thing happening off in a corner, and then back to reality. This is reality."
The album had an enormous impact towards youth culture. Goodman says that Nevermind "killed off hair metal, and sparked a cultural revolution across the globe". Speaking to the BBC, Brazilian cultural studies academic Moyses Pinto stated that he was struck by Nevermind, saying "I thought: 'this is perfect'; it sounded like a bright synthesis of noise and pop music." In similar praise, Kgomotso Neto says that the impact of Nirvana, as well as MTV, during the time of Nevermind, caused a new youth who listened to the same music and dressed similarly (grunge fashion). Neto further remarks that "there was a cultural homogeneity probably never experienced before" and that "grunge culture became dominant very quickly; all that had been 'cool' suddenly became ugly and exaggerated, and Kurt [Cobain] was the symbol of transgression." Michael Azerrad argued in his Nirvana biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana (1993) that Nevermind marked an epochal generational shift in music similar to the rock-and-roll explosion in the 1950s and the end of the dominance of the baby boomer generation on popular music. Azerrad wrote, "Nevermind came along at exactly the right time. This was music by, for, and about a whole new group of young people who had been overlooked, ignored, or condescended to."
The success of Nevermind surprised Nirvana's contemporaries, who felt dwarfed by its influence. Fugazi frontman Guy Picciotto later said: "It was like our record could have been a hobo pissing in the forest for the amount of impact it had ... It felt like we were playing ukuleles all of a sudden because of the disparity of the impact of what they did." Karen Schoemer of the New York Times wrote that "What's unusual about Nirvana's Nevermind is that it caters to neither a mainstream audience nor the indie rock fans who supported the group's debut album." In 1992, Jon Pareles of The New York Times described the aftermath of the album's breakthrough: "Suddenly, all bets are off. No one has the inside track on which of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ornery, obstreperous, unkempt bands might next appeal to the mall-walking millions." Record company executives offered large advances and record deals to bands, and replaced their previous strategies of building audiences for alternative bands with the attempts to achieve mainstream popularity quickly.
Nevermind has continued to garner critical praise, having been ranked highly on lists of the greatest and most acclaimed albums of all time and is ranked the best album of the 1990s according to Acclaimed Music, which statistically aggregates hundreds of published lists. The album was ranked number 17 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, and upgrading to number 6 in 2020 revised list. In 2019, Rolling Stone also ranked Nevermind number one on its list of the 100 Best Albums of the '90s, calling it the "album that guaranteed the nineties would not suck." Also in 2019, Nevermind was ranked number one on Rolling Stone's 50 Greatest Grunge Albums list. The magazine ranked the album number 10 in its list of 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time too. In 2001, VH1 conducted a poll of more than 500 journalists, music executives and artists which judged Nevermind the second-best album in rock 'n' roll history, behind the Beatles' Revolver. Time placed Nevermind, which writer Josh Tyrangiel called "the finest album of the 90s", on its 2006 list of "The All-TIME 100 Albums". Pitchfork named the album the sixth best of the decade, noting that "anyone who hates this record today is just trying to be cool, and needs to be trying harder." In 2004, the Library of Congress added Nevermind to the National Recording Registry, which collects "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" sound recordings from the 20th century. On the other hand, Nevermind was voted the "Most Overrated Album in the World" in a 2005 BBC public poll. In 2006, readers of Guitar World ranked Nevermind 8th on a list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Recordings. Entertainment Weekly named it the 10th best album of all time on their 2013 list. It was voted number 17 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). Christgau named it among his 10 best albums from the 1990s and said in retrospect it is an A-plus album. In 2017, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
### Reissues
In 1996, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs released Nevermind on vinyl as part of its ANADISQ 200 series, and as a 24-karat gold CD. The CD pressings included "Endless, Nameless". The LP version quickly sold out its limited pressing but the CD edition stayed in print for years. In 2009, Original Recordings Group released Nevermind on limited edition 180g blue vinyl and regular 180g black vinyl mastered and cut by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes.
In September 2011, the album's 20th anniversary, Universal Music Enterprises reissued Nevermind in a two-CD "deluxe edition" and a four-CD/one-DVD "Super Deluxe Edition". The first disc on both editions features the original album with studio and live B-sides. The second discs feature early session recordings, including the Smart Studio sessions and some band rehearsals recorded with a boombox, plus two BBC session recordings. The "Super Deluxe Edition" also includes Vig's original mix of the album and CD and DVD versions of Live at the Paramount. IFPI reported that as of 2012, the 20th anniversary formats of the album that were released in 2011 had sold nearly 800,000 units. In June 2021, Novoselic revealed that he and Grohl were compiling the 30th-anniversary edition of the album. In September 2021, it was announced that BBC Two in the United Kingdom would celebrate the 30th anniversary with a documentary titled When Nirvana Came to Britain, which featured contributions from Noveselic and Grohl. That same month, a 30th-anniversary edition of Nevermind was announced, which became available in eight-LP and five-CD editions and contained 70 previously unreleased live songs. The CD edition also included a blu-ray of Live in Amsterdam.
## Track listing
Notes
- After the initial pressing, CD versions included "Endless, Nameless" as a hidden track which begins after 10 minutes of silence following "Something in the Way", making track 12's total length 20:35. The song is not included on vinyl versions.
## Personnel
Nirvana
- Kurt Cobain (credited for the "Monkey Photo" as Kurdt Kobain) – vocals, guitars, photography
- Krist Novoselic (credited as Chris Novoselic) – bass, vocals on the intro of "Territorial Pissings"
- Dave Grohl – drums, backing vocals
Additional musicians
- Chad Channing – cymbals on "Polly" (uncredited), drums on the "Smart Studio Sessions" (Deluxe Edition)
- Kirk Canning – cello on "Something in the Way"
Technical staff and artwork
- Craig Doubet – assistant engineering, mixing
- Robin Sloane – DGC/Geffen Records Creative Director
- Kurt Cobain – cover concept
- Spencer Elden – infant in cover photo
- Robert Fisher – artwork, art direction, design, cover design
- Michael Lavine – photography
- Bob Ludwig – mastering on 20th Anniversary Edition
- Jeff Sheehan – assistant engineer
- Butch Vig – producer, engineer
- Andy Wallace – mixing
- Kirk Weddle – cover photo
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
- Paul Carlsen – engineering/digital editing
## Charts
### Weekly charts
### Year-end charts
### Decade-end charts
## Certifications
## See also
- 1991 in music
- Album era
- Classic Albums: Nirvana – Nevermind
- Nevermind It's an Interview
- List of best-selling albums
- List of best-selling albums in Belgium
- List of best-selling albums in France
- List of best-selling albums in the United States
- List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
- List of 200 Definitive Albums in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|
1,048,693 |
Active camouflage
| 1,148,736,349 |
Camouflage changing continually to match background
|
[
"Camouflage",
"Military camouflage",
"Military electronics"
] |
Active camouflage or adaptive camouflage is camouflage that adapts, often rapidly, to the surroundings of an object such as an animal or military vehicle. In theory, active camouflage could provide perfect concealment from visual detection. Active camouflage is used in several groups of animals, including reptiles on land, and cephalopod molluscs and flatfish in the sea. Animals achieve active camouflage both by color change and (among marine animals such as squid) by counter-illumination, with the use of bioluminescence. Military counter-illumination camouflage was first investigated during the Second World War for marine use. More recent research has aimed to achieve crypsis by using cameras to sense the visible background, and by controlling Peltier panels or coatings that can vary their appearance.
## In animals
Active camouflage is used in several groups of animals including cephalopod molluscs, fish, and reptiles. There are two mechanisms of active camouflage in animals: color change and counter-illumination.
### Counter-illumination
Counter-illumination is camouflage using the production of light to blend in against a lit background. In the sea, light comes down from the surface, so when marine animals are seen from below, they appear darker than the background. Some species of cephalopod, such as the eye-flash squid and the firefly squid, produce light in photophores on their undersides to match the background. Bioluminescence is common among marine animals, so counter-illumination may be widespread, though light has other functions, including attracting prey and signaling.
### Color change
Color change permits camouflage against different backgrounds. Many cephalopods including octopuses, cuttlefish, and squids, and some terrestrial amphibians and reptiles including chameleons and anoles can rapidly change color and pattern, though the major reasons for this include signaling, not only camouflage. Cephalopod active camouflage has stimulated military research in the United States.
Active camouflage by color change is used by many bottom-living flatfish such as plaice, sole, and flounder that actively copy the patterns and colors of the seafloor below them. For example, the tropical flounder Bothus ocellatus can match its pattern to "a wide range of background textures" in 2–8 seconds. Similarly, the coral reef fish, the seaweed blenny can match its coloration to its surroundings.
## In research
Active camouflage provides concealment by making an object not merely generally similar to its surroundings, but effectively invisible with "illusory transparency" through accurate mimicry, and by changing the appearance of the object as changes occur in its background.
### Early research
Military interest in active camouflage has its origins in Second World War studies of counter-illumination. The first of these was the so-called diffused lighting camouflage tested on Canadian Navy corvettes including . This was followed in the United States Army Air Forces with the airborne Yehudi lights project, and trials in ships of the Royal Navy and the US Navy. The Yehudi lights project placed low-intensity blue lights on aircraft. As skies are bright, an unilluminated aircraft (of any color) might be rendered visible. By emitting a small, measured amount of blue light, the aircraft's average brightness better matches that of the sky, and the aircraft is able to fly closer to its target before being detected.
### Possible technologies
Active camouflage may now develop using organic light-emitting diodes and other technologies which allow for images to be projected onto irregularly shaped surfaces. Using visual data from a camera, an object could perhaps be camouflaged well enough to avoid detection by the human eye and optical sensors when stationary. Camouflage is weakened by motion, but active camouflage could still make moving targets more difficult to see. However, active camouflage works best in one direction at a time, requiring knowledge of the relative positions of the observer and the concealed object.
In 2003 researchers at the University of Tokyo under Susumu Tachi created a prototype active camouflage system using material impregnated with retroreflective glass beads. The viewer stands in front of the cloth viewing the cloth through a transparent glass plate. A video camera behind the cloth captures the background behind the cloth. A video projector projects this image on to the glass plate which is angled so that it acts as a partial mirror reflecting a small portion of the projected light onto the cloth. The retroreflectors in the cloth reflect the image back towards the glass plate which being only weakly reflecting allows most of the retroreflected light to pass through to be seen by the viewer. The system only works when seen from a certain angle.
Phased-array optics would implement active camouflage, not by producing a two-dimensional image of background scenery on an object, but by computational holography to produce a three-dimensional hologram of background scenery on an object to be concealed. Unlike a two-dimensional image, the holographic image would appear to be the actual scenery behind the object independent of viewer distance or view angle.
### Military prototypes
In 2010, the Israeli company Eltics created an early prototype of a system of tiles for infrared camouflage of vehicles. In 2011, BAE Systems announced their Adaptiv infrared camouflage technology. It uses about 1000 hexagonal Peltier panels to cover the sides of a tank. The panels are rapidly heated and cooled to match either the temperature of the vehicle's surroundings, or one of the objects in the thermal cloaking system's "library" such as a truck, car or large rock.
## In fiction
Active camouflage technology, both visual and otherwise, is a commonly used plot device in science fiction stories. The Star Trek franchise incorporated the concept, and Star Trek: Voyager depicts humans using "bio-dampeners" to infiltrate a Borg Cube without the antagonists realizing they are there. The eponymous antagonists in the Predator films also use active camouflage. In many video games, such as the Halo series, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and the Crysis series, players can obtain and use cloaking devices. In the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, Bond's Aston Martin V12 Vanquish is fitted with an active camouflage system.
## See also
- Cloaking device
- Cloak of invisibility
- Penetration aid
- Snow camouflage – color change with the seasons
- Stealth technology
|
8,827,430 |
Siege of Eretria
| 1,171,623,914 |
Siege in 490 BC during the Greco-Persian Wars
|
[
"490 BC",
"490s BC conflicts",
"Ancient Eretria",
"Battles involving ancient Greece",
"Battles of the Greco-Persian Wars",
"Sieges involving the Achaemenid Empire"
] |
The siege of Eretria took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. The city of Eretria, on Euboea, was besieged by a strong Persian force under the command of Datis and Artaphernes.
The first Persian invasion was a response to Greek involvement in the Ionian Revolt, when the Eretrians and Athenians had sent a force to support the cities of Ionia in their attempt to overthrow Persian rule. The Eretrian and Athenian force had succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis (the regional capital of Persia), but was then forced to retreat with heavy losses. In response to this raid, the Persian king Darius I swore to have revenge on Athens and Eretria.
Once the Ionian revolt was finally crushed by the Persian victory at the Battle of Lade, Darius began to plan to subjugate Greece. In 490 BC, he sent a naval task force under Datis and Artaphernes across the Aegean to subjugate the Cyclades, and then to make punitive attacks on Athens and Eretria. Reaching Euboea in mid-summer after a successful campaign in the Aegean, the Persians proceeded to put Eretria under siege. The siege lasted six days before a fifth column of Eretrian nobles betrayed the city to the Persians. The city was plundered, and the population was deported to the village Ardericca in Susiana near the Persian capital.
After Eretria, the Persian force sailed for Athens, landing at the bay of Marathon. An Athenian army marched to meet them, and won a famous victory at the Battle of Marathon, thereby ending the first Persian invasion.
## Background
The first Persian invasion of Greece had its immediate roots in the Ionian Revolt, the earliest phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. However, it was also the result of the longer-term interaction between the Greeks and Persians. In 500 BC the Persian Empire was still relatively young and highly expansionistic, but prone to revolts amongst its subject peoples. Moreover, the Persian king Darius was a usurper, and had spent considerable time extinguishing revolts against his rule. Even before the Ionian Revolt, Darius had begun to expand the Empire into Europe, subjugating Thrace, and forcing Macedon to become a vassal of Persia. Attempts at further expansion into the politically fractious world of Ancient Greece may have been inevitable. However, the Ionian Revolt had directly threatened the integrity of the Persian empire, and the states of mainland Greece remained a potential menace to its future stability. Darius thus resolved to subjugate and pacify Greece and the Aegean, and to punish those involved in the Ionian Revolt.
The Ionian revolt had begun with an unsuccessful expedition against Naxos, a joint venture between the Persian satrap Artaphernes and the Miletus tyrant Aristagoras. In the aftermath, Artaphernes decided to remove Aristagoras from power, but before he could do so, Aristagoras abdicated, and declared Miletus a democracy. The other Ionian cities followed suit, ejecting their Persian-appointed tyrants, and declaring themselves democracies. Artistagoras then appealed to the states of Mainland Greece for support, but only Athens and Eretria offered to send troops.
The reasons that Eretria sent assistance to the Ionians are not completely clear. Possibly commercial reasons were a factor; Eretria was a mercantile city, whose trade was threatened by Persian dominance of the Aegean. Herodotus suggests that the Eretrians supported the revolt in order to repay the support the Milesians had given Eretria in a past war against Chalcis.
The Athenians and Eretrians sent a task force of 25 triremes to Asia Minor to aid the revolt. Whilst there, the Greek army surprised and outmaneuvered Artaphernes, marching to Sardis and there burning the lower city. However, this was as much as the Greeks achieved, and they were then pursued back to the coast by Persian horsemen, losing many men in the process. Despite the fact their actions were ultimately fruitless, the Eretrians and in particular the Athenians had earned Darius's lasting enmity, and he vowed to punish both cities. The Persian naval victory at the Battle of Lade (494 BC) all but ended the Ionian Revolt, and by 493 BC, the last hold-outs were vanquished by the Persian fleet. The revolt was used as an opportunity by Darius to extend the empire's border to the islands of the East Aegean and the Propontis, which had not been part of the Persian dominions before. The completion of the pacification of Ionia allowed the Persians to begin planning their next moves; to extinguish the threat to the empire from Greece, and to punish Athens and Eretria.
In 492 BC, once the Ionian Revolt had finally been crushed, Darius dispatched an expedition to Greece under the command of his son-in-law, Mardonius. Mardonius re-conquered Thrace and compelled Alexander I of Macedon to make Macedon a client kingdom to Persia, before the wrecking of his fleet brought a premature end to the campaign. However, in 490 BC, following up the successes of the previous campaign, Darius decided to send a maritime expedition led by Artaphernes, (son of the satrap to whom Hippias had fled) and Datis, a Median admiral. Mardonius had been injured in the prior campaign and had fallen out of favor. The expedition was intended to bring the Cyclades into the Persian empire, to punish Naxos (which had resisted a Persian assault in 499 BC) and then to head to Greece to force Eretria and Athens to submit to Darius or be destroyed. After island hopping across the Aegean, including successfully attacking Naxos, the Persian task force arrived off Euboea in mid summer, ready to fulfil their second major objective - to punish Eretria.
## Prelude
When the Eretrians had discovered that the Persian task force was heading to attack them, they had appealed to the Athenians to send reinforcements. The Athenians agreed to this, and instructed the 4,000 Athenian colonists from the nearby Euboean city of Chalcis to aid the Eretrians. These colonists had been planted on Chalcidian land after Athens had defeated Chalcis some 20 years previously. However, when these Athenians arrived at Eretria, they were told by a leading citizen, Aeschines, of the divisions amongst the Eretrians, and he advised them to leave and save themselves. The Athenians followed Aeschines' advice and sailed to Oropus, thus avoiding the fate of the Eretrians.
The Eretrians failed to come to a clear plan of action; in Herodotus's words "it seems that all the plans of the Eretrians were unsound; they sent to the Athenians for aid, but their counsels were divided". There were three competing plans - one group wanted to surrender to the Persians, seeking to profit thereby, others wanted to flee to the hills above Eretria, whilst others wanted to fight. However, when the Persians landed in their territory, a consensus was reached not to leave the city but to try to withstand a siege, if possible.
## Opposing forces
### Eretrians
Herodotus does not estimate numbers for the Eretrians. Presumably, the majority of the citizen body would have been involved in the defence of the city, but the population of Eretria at the time cannot be clearly established.
### Persians
According to Herodotus, the fleet sent by Darius consisted of 600 triremes. Herodotus does not estimate the size of the Persian army, only saying that they were a "large infantry that was well packed". Among ancient sources, the poet Simonides, another near-contemporary, says the campaign force numbered 200,000; while a later writer, the Roman Cornelius Nepos estimates 200,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, of which only 100,000 fought in the battle, while the rest were loaded into the fleet that was rounding Cape Sounion; Plutarch and Pausanias both independently give 300,000, as does the Suda dictionary. Plato and Lysias assert 500,000; and Justinus 600,000.
Modern historians have proposed wide-ranging numbers for the infantry, from 20,000–100,000 with a consensus of perhaps 25,000; estimates for the cavalry are in the range of 1,000
## Siege
The Eretrian strategy was to defend their walls, and undergo a siege. Possibly this was the only plan that could be agreed on, or became the default option when no plan was agreed. At any rate, since the Persian army had only suffered two defeats in the last century, and since a Greek army had never successfully fought the Persians, this was probably a sensible strategy. Since the Persians arrived by ship, it is probable they had little siege equipment, and indeed, they had already been foiled in the siege of Lindos earlier in the expedition.
The Persians landed their army at three separate locations, disembarked, and advanced towards Eretria. The Persians then began besieging the city. Rather than passively besieging the city, the Persians seemed to have vigorously attacked the walls. Herodotus reports that the fighting was fierce and both sides suffered heavy losses. However, after six days of clashes, two eminent Eretrians, Euphorbus and Philagrus, opened the gates for the Persians. Once inside the city, the Persians plundered it, burning temples and sanctuaries in revenge for the burning of Sardis. Those citizens who were captured were enslaved, as Darius had ordered.
## Aftermath
After staying at Eretria for a few days, the Persians made their way down the coast towards Attica. The Persians dropped the captured Eretrians off on the island of Aegilia, before landing at the bay of Marathon in Attica. The Persians' next target was Athens. However, the Athenians had marched out from Athens to meet the Persians, and blocked the exits from the plains of Marathon. After several days of stalemate, the Athenians finally resolved to attack the Persians, winning a famous victory at the ensuing Battle of Marathon. After the battle, the remaining Persians fled to their ships, picked up the Eretrians from Aegilia, and then sailed back to Asia Minor, thereby ending the campaign, and the first Persian invasion of Greece.
When the Persian fleet arrived in Asia Minor, Datis and Artaphernes took the Eretrians before Darius in Susa. The Eretrians were not harmed by Darius who decided to settle them in the town of Ardericca in Cissia. They were still there, using their own language and customs, when Herodotus wrote his history, and were encountered by Alexander the Great during his conquest of Persia a further century later.
In the meantime, Darius began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. Darius then died whilst preparing to march on Egypt, and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I. Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt, and very quickly restarted the preparations for the invasion of Greece. The epic second Persian invasion of Greece finally began in 480 BC, and the Persians met with initial success at the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium. However, defeat at the Battle of Salamis would be the turning point in the campaign, and the next year the expedition was ended by the decisive Greek victory at the Battle of Plataea.
## See also
- Battle of Salamis
- Achaemenid destruction of Athens
|
39,938,660 |
A Polish Nobleman
| 1,165,141,095 |
1637 painting by Rembrandt
|
[
"1637 paintings",
"17th-century portraits",
"Collections of the National Gallery of Art",
"Paintings in Washington, D.C.",
"Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth historical images",
"Portraits by Rembrandt",
"Portraits of men",
"Self-portraits"
] |
A Polish Nobleman is a 1637 painting by Rembrandt depicting a man in a costume of Polish szlachta (nobility). The identity of the subject of the painting is unclear, and has given rise to several different interpretations. The view that the figure's dress is clearly Polish is not universally held and it may have been a self-portrait.
The painting has changed owners several times, and its past owners have included Catherine II the Great and Andrew Mellon. It is currently located at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
## Description
The portrait represents a man, estimated by some to be 45 years of age, standing turned to the viewer's right, looking at the viewer with a commanding expression. In his uplifted right hand he holds a baton with a golden cap. He has a thick moustache and wears a high fur cap on which there is a golden chain with precious stones and a coat of arms in the center. From his ear a large pear-shaped pearl hangs from a golden pendant earring. He wears a reddish-brown mantle with a broad fur collar and, over it, a heavy gold chain from which the order of three horse tails, set in rich pendants, hangs on his right shoulder. A full light from the left falls on the right side of his face. The background is brownish-grey.
## History and provenance
The painting was created by Rembrandt in 1637. It was not given an official title. The current one is the most recent, widely accepted one. Prior and alternate names include Portrait of a Slav Prince, Portrait d'un Turc, and Man in Russian Costume. Its authenticity was supported by an analysis of the panel's wood, which showed that it was cut from a tree felled around 1635 that was also used in the painter's River Landscape with Ruins (1650). The painting underwent restoration in 1985 and has been X-rayed.
The painting's first owner or owners are not clear, but it might have been owned by a certain Harman van Swole. It was part of the extensive collection of Johann Karl Philipp von Cobenzl, a Carniolan nobleman who served as Maria Theresa's plenipotentiary in the Austrian Netherlands. After Cobenzl's bankruptcy, it was purchased in 1768 by Catherine II the Great and held in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. It was purchased by Andrew Mellon in 1931, and given by the Mellon Trust to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1937. The painting was one of a number of artworks that Mellon had purchased from the Hermitage during the 1930s. He denied having made these purchases for several years, since the US was in a major depression – which would have made the acquisitions seem extravagant – and at odds with the Soviet government. The works were kept for some time in a non-public section of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
## Analysis
This work was labeled by some art critics as a tronie, a painting with an exaggerated facial expression or a stock character in costume. For instance, Melissa Percival notes that in this particular painting the viewer may notice an extravagant fur cape, lopsided hat, tufted mustache, and similar paraphernalia, all giving "an impression that the painting should not be taken too seriously".
Scholars have attempted for more than a century to understand who is portrayed in this painting. Earlier proposals that the subject was John III Sobieski (who would have been eight years old in 1637) or Stephen Bathory (who died in 1586) have been discredited. According to Otakar Odložilík, while the man in the painting is clearly wearing Polish garb, it is neither certain who he is, nor whether he is a Pole. Odložilík's research on this issue suggested that the painting may be that of Andrzej Rej, a Polish noble and diplomat of that era who passed through Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where Rembrandt was working, at the time the painting was created. Nonetheless, without any documents from that era clearly acknowledging that fact, as Odložilík noted, it may never be known for certain who the subject really is.
Odložilík concluded (writing in 1963) that most scholars are in consensus that Rembrandt portrayed a real Polish noble. He cited research by Kurt Bauch who has suggested that it may be Rembrandt's brother Adriaen who modeled for him, but judged it as unlikely. Other views have emerged since the publication of his article. In 1979 the art historian Kenneth Clark opined that it was a self-portrait, idealized and "got up in fancy dress." Walter Liedtke of the Metropolitan Museum of Art writing in 2001 identifies the hat as Russian and Marieke de Winkel in 2006 asserted that "...the man cannot be identified as a Pole but as a Muscovite boyar." The National Gallery website states that it is "probably not a portrait of a specific individual", but notes a strong resemblance to Rembrandt himself and suggests in turn that it may be a self-portrait. One objection to its classification as a self-portrait, that the subject's jowls were too pronounced, was addressed by an X-ray analysis showing that Rembrandt modified the painting during the course of its creation.
## See also
- List of paintings by Rembrandt
- The Polish Rider (another Poland-themed painting by Rembrandt)
- Self-portraits by Rembrandt
|
41,416,225 |
Tom Conlon
| 1,171,834,580 |
English footballer
|
[
"1996 births",
"Billericay Town F.C. players",
"English Football League players",
"English men's footballers",
"Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent",
"Isthmian League players",
"Living people",
"Men's association football forwards",
"Newcastle Town F.C. players",
"Peterborough United F.C. players",
"Port Vale F.C. players",
"Stevenage F.C. players",
"Stoke City F.C. players",
"Stone Dominoes F.C. players"
] |
Tom George Sawyer Conlon (born 3 February 1996) is an English footballer who plays for club Port Vale. He is a descendant of Football League players George Heppell and Albert Pearson.
Conlon began his career in the youth set-up at Stoke City, later joining the youth academies at Newcastle Town and Peterborough United respectively. He made a handful of appearances in the first-team at Peterborough, before signing for Stevenage on loan in September 2014, a deal that was subsequently made permanent in January 2015. He signed with Port Vale in July 2018, was appointed club captain in January 2021 and named Player of the Year at the end of the 2020–21 season. Vale were promoted out of League Two via the play-offs in 2022, though Conlon was unable to play due to injury.
## Career
### Early career
Conlon was raised in Porthill, near Stoke-on-Trent, and attended Wolstanton High School in Newcastle-under-Lyme. He spent a brief time of his early childhood with Stone Dominoes, before he began his career at Stoke City's academy, spending nine years at his hometown club before being released in the summer of 2012. He subsequently joined Newcastle Town's youth set-up, playing the opening two months of the 2012–13 season for the club's U17 and U18 sides. In October 2012, Conlon was spotted by scouts at Peterborough United whilst playing in the FA Youth Cup for Newcastle Town against Stratford Town, and subsequently signed for the then-Championship club on a two-year scholarship after a successful three-day trial. He spent the remainder of the campaign playing in Peterborough's U18 side. Conlon made his professional debut on 9 November 2013, coming on as a 68th minute substitute in a 2–0 win over Exeter City in an FA Cup First Round tie at the London Road Stadium. He was given his first 18-month professional contract by manager Darren Ferguson the following month. He made three appearances in total for the first-team during the 2013–14 campaign, all of which were from the substitute's bench.
### Stevenage
Having not featured for Peterborough's first-team at the start of the 2014–15 season, Conlon joined League Two side Stevenage on loan on 13 September 2014 for the remainder of the year, with a view to a permanent deal in the January transfer window. He made his debut on the same day his loan move was announced, playing the whole match as Stevenage secured a 1–0 victory over Shrewsbury Town at Broadhall Way. His deal was made permanent in January 2015, with manager Graham Westley saying he just needed to develop physically to make the most of his technical ability. He went on to make 14 appearances during his first season with the Hertfordshire club as they narrowly lost out on promotion after defeat in the League Two play-off semi-final. After being given the captain's armband for a pre-season friendly at the age of 19 by new manager Teddy Sheringham, the following season turned out to be Conlon's breakthrough in the first-team. He started the opening game of the campaign, a 2–0 home loss to Notts County and was a mainstay in the centre of midfield apart from a five-week period at the end of 2015. Conlon scored the first professional goals of his career in Stevenage's 2–1 away victory over Hartlepool United on 9 February 2016, giving Stevenage their first win in nine matches. The first goal was a left-footed long-range effort that flew into the top corner, before his second of the match came from close range to double his side's lead. He made 35 appearances in all competitions during the season, without scoring any further goals, as Stevenage finished the season in 18th place.
After featuring in the club's opening five fixtures of the 2016–17 season, Conlon suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury in Stevenage's 2–1 victory over Luton Town. The injury ultimately ruled Conlon out of action for nine months, missing the remainder of the campaign. He signed a new contract with Stevenage in April 2017, after manager Darren Sarll stated that "he's had a really tough year ... [but] if he realises his potential he will be a terrific player". Ahead of the 2017–18 season, Conlon played his first match in just under a year when he played the first half in Stevenage's pre-season draw with Hitchin Town. He made his competitive return on 19 August 2017, coming on as an 80th minute substitute in the club's 3–1 home win over Grimsby Town. The majority of Conlon's 15 appearances during the first half of the season were from the substitute's bench, and he was subsequently loaned out to Isthmian League Premier Division leaders Billericay Town on a one-month loan deal on 20 February 2018. He made his "Blues" debut on the same day, playing the first 75 minutes in a 2–1 away defeat at Folkestone Invicta. The match proved to be Conlon's only appearance of the brief loan spell as he returned to Stevenage early due to having a "slight injury". The 2017–18 season saw Conlon make 17 appearances in all competitions as Stevenage finished the League Two campaign in 16th position. He was released by new manager Dino Maamria upon the expiry of his contract in May 2018.
### Port Vale
On 25 July 2018, Conlon signed a one-year contract with League Two side Port Vale after impressing manager Neil Aspin in pre-season friendlies whilst on trial at Vale Park. However he picked up a thigh injury only a few days later, which ruled him out of action for the start of the 2018–19 season. He made his debut in a 1–1 draw with Forest Green Rovers on 8 September, a game in which Farrend Rawson was sent off for a "wild late challenge" on Conlon. On 22 January, Conlon himself was sent off after receiving two yellow cards in the space of four minutes during a 3–0 defeat at Bristol Rovers in the quarter-finals of the EFL Trophy; Aspin went on to say that Conlon had to learn from the incident and reduce any further ill-discipline in the future. On 12 March, he scored a "stunning" 25 yards (23 m) volley in a 3–0 home win over Yeovil Town, which would win him the club's goal of the season award.
He started the 2019–20 season with the club's number ten shirt and played alongside Luke Joyce and David Worrall on the left side of the Vale's midfield three until he was sidelined with a hamstring injury in mid-September. He was returned to the starting line-up upon his recovery, but then picked up a suspension after being shown a straight red card for elbowing Josh Gordon in a 1–0 home defeat to Walsall on 7 December. He scored his first goal of the campaign on 15 February, in a 3–0 home win over Colchester United, and was praised by coach Danny Pugh for his "brilliant" performance and work rate. He was signed a new two-year contract after he ended the campaign with one goals in 27 appearances.
On 19 September 2020, he scored a "stunning free-kick" and picked up an assist in a 2–0 win at Exeter City; the goal won him that month's League Two goal of the month award. Three months later he was highlighted as a player who should be attracting interest from higher division clubs in Guy Branston's column in The Football League Paper; Branston wrote that "I have been really impressed by his technique, movement, positioning and attacking ability". Interim manager Danny Pugh named him as the club's new captain in January 2021. He retained the captaincy under new manager Darrell Clarke, who said that Conlon was "not necessarily too vocal, but leading by example". On 20 April, he scored "a wonder goal" from just over the half-way line and later added a second in a 2–0 win at Barrow; the goal was later voted League Two Goal of the Month. He was nominated for April's League Two Player of the Month award for his three goals and an assist during the club's winning run. He was named as the club's Player of the Year at the end of season awards, and also won the Players', Club, Supporters' Club Player of the Year awards, as well as the Goal of the Season award for his goal against Barrow. He also won League Two's PFA Fans' Player of the Year award. His tally of eight assists was bettered by only four players in League Two. He signed a contract extension to keep him at the club until summer 2024, with Clarke stating that "he understands and believes in what we want to achieve and he epitomises what we want to build here".
He was sent off for a second bookable offence during a 1–0 home defeat to Walsall on 23 November 2021. In January 2022, he had an injection into his Achilles and took rehab to recover from an injury that he had been struggling with for some time, causing him to miss four weeks of action. However the procedure was not a success and he was later ruled out of action for the rest of the 2021–22 season after undergoing surgery. In his absence, his teammates secured him a promotion medal as Vale won the play-offs by beating Mansfield Town in the final. He retained his Club Player of the Year award as he "maintained all his captaincy responsibilities such as speaking to the team before, during and after games, displaying his outstanding leadership qualities".
He recovered form his injury by the start of the 2022–23 season, though said it took him four games to be able to play at "full tilt" again. Speaking in October, he admitted that his form was poor and that he was working hard to try and get back to his best. Clarke came out in support of Conlon, saying that "when I first came here he carried this club... I have nothing but praise for my captain". On 1 November, Conlon scored Vale's equalising goal in a 2–2 draw at Wycombe Wanderers; his performance won him the supporters' Player of the Match award. On 15 April, he was shown a straight red card following an off the ball confrontation during a 3–2 loss at Lincoln City; the red card was rescinded on appeal, however the scoreline at the time of his wrongful dismissal was 2–1 in Vale's favour and manager Darrell Clarke was sacked in the aftermath of the defeat.
Conlon picked up a hamstring injury in July 2023 and was ruled out of action for three months. New manager Andy Crosby went on to appoint Nathan Smith as the new club captain.
## Style of play
Conlon is a left-footed midfielder with good ball-control skills, vision and aggressiveness. He has good leadership skills. Former Port Vale teammate Tom Pope stated that "he’s strong, wins his tackles, competes aerially and also has a great all-round attitude over 90 minutes".
## Personal life
His great-grandfather, George Heppell, played as a goalkeeper for Port Vale from 1937 to 1952. Heppell's father-in-law, Albert Pearson, played for Port Vale, Liverpool and others in the 1910s and 1920s. In 2021, he set up a coaching academy in Madeley, Staffordshire with Port Vale teammate Nathan Smith. Two years later, the pair set up a charity called Pro Level Vision to support disadvantaged children.
## Career statistics
## Honours
Port Vale
- EFL League Two play-offs: 2022
Individual
- PFA Fans' Player of the Year: 2021–22 League Two
- Port Vale Player of the Year: 2021
|
2,118,256 |
Bart Gets an Elephant
| 1,151,574,530 | null |
[
"1994 American television episodes",
"Elephants in popular culture",
"Television episodes about mammals",
"Television shows written by John Swartzwelder",
"The Simpsons (season 5) episodes"
] |
"Bart Gets an Elephant" is the seventeenth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 1994. In this episode, Bart wins a radio contest and is awarded a full-grown African elephant that he names Stampy. After Stampy wrecks the Simpsons' house and eats all the food, Homer decides to sell Stampy to an ivory dealer. Bart runs away with Stampy to save his pet, but the family finds the two at a museum exhibit, where Homer sinks into a tar pit. Homer is saved by Stampy, and so gives the elephant away to an animal refuge instead.
The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, and directed by Jim Reardon. It introduced the fictional elephant Stampy, and marks the first appearance of the recurring character Cletus Spuckler. The episode features cultural references to the songs "Sixteen Tons" and "Do-Re-Mi", and the La Brea Tar Pits cluster of tar pits located in Hancock Park in Los Angeles, California.
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating of 10.7, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
## Plot
Bart wins a contest on Bill and Marty's radio show, and chooses the joke prize of a full-grown African elephant. Word spreads throughout town about Bill and Marty's refusal to give Bart an elephant, leading to a flood of angry mail and letter bombs from the station's listeners. Bill and Marty's boss gives them an ultimatum: either find an elephant for Bart or lose their jobs to an automated DJ. They find an elephant and leave it on the Simpsons' front lawn.
Bart names his new elephant Stampy and ties him to a post in the backyard. Lisa complains that keeping an elephant as a pet is cruel, while Homer worries that Stampy is too expensive to keep. Initially feeding Stampy on complimentary peanuts from Moe's Tavern and leaves from a public park, Homer attempts to offset Stampy's food costs, Bart and Homer exhibit him by charging customers to pet and ride him. After still failing to cover his budget, and driving away customers by raising admission fees into the thousands, Homer and Marge decide that Stampy must go.
A representative of a game reserve tells the Simpsons that the acres of open land on the reserve would be an ideal habitat for the elephant, but Homer rejects this idea because it includes no financial profit. Mr. Blackheart, a wildlife poacher, offers to buy Stampy. Homer eagerly agrees, but Bart and Lisa disapprove because Blackheart openly admits to being an ivory dealer.
Just as Homer and Blackheart reach a deal, Bart and Stampy run off and wreak havoc throughout Springfield. Initially misled by the trail of destruction left by a hurricane, the family finds them at the Springfield Tar Pits, where Homer gets stuck in a tar pit. After pulling Barney Gumble from the pit, Stampy frees Homer, who reluctantly agrees to donate the elephant to the wildlife reserve. Bart says goodbye to Stampy, who bullies the other elephants at the reserve for no apparent reason.
## Production
The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, and directed by Jim Reardon. The Simpsons''' creator Matt Groening thought it was a "quintessential" Swartzwelder episode, and executive producer/show runner David Mirkin said it was a "fantastic job by one of the most prolific writers of the show". The most important thing to Mirkin while making the episode was to make sure that the elephant would be a "bastard" and behave rudely, unlike other animals on the show. For example, instead of putting people on his back, Stampy would put them in his mouth. Mirkin said the elephant "never quite bonds because it's a very cantankerous animal, a concept that was very important to this episode". Stampy has since been used several times in jokes later on in the series. For example, Stampy made an appearance in the season nine episode "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" in one of Bart's dreams, and in the season fourteen episode "Large Marge", where he is used by Bart in a stunt to help Krusty the Clown win back his popularity. Stampy appeared briefly in The Simpsons Movie, where he tries to break down the giant glass dome lowered over Springfield. The episode also introduces the character Cletus Spuckler. He is shown as one of the "slack-jawed yokels" gawking at Stampy in the Simpson family's backyard. Cletus is not named in the episode, so the staff simply referred to him as the Slack-Jawed Yokel.
## Cultural references
The Springfield Tar Pits are inspired by the La Brea Tar Pits located in Hancock Park in Los Angeles, California. The museum in the background of the scene where Homer sinks into one of the tar pits resembles the George C. Page Museum of the La Brea Discoveries. When Stampy runs away, he passes the Republican National Convention, with people cheering, and then he passes the Democratic National Convention, with people booing. This is a reference to the fact that an elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party. Homer uses Mr. Cleanser, a parody of the detergent brand Mr. Clean, to clean the basement. As Bart cleans, he accidentally scrubs the paint off an American Gothic painting hanging on the wall. Under the paint is a message signed by the painter, Grant Wood, reading: "If you can read this, you scrubbed too hard."
The scene in which Stampy's eye is seen through a window of the Simpson family's house is similar to a scene with a Tyrannosaurus rex in the film Jurassic Park. While cleaning the house, Marge turns on the radio and the song "Sixteen Tons" by Merle Travis is heard. The scene in which Homer crashes his car into a deer statue at the Springfield Tar Pits parodies the lyrics to the Sound of Music song "Do-Re-Mi" as Homer shouts: "D'oh!" followed by Lisa: "A deer!" and Marge: "A female deer!" Homer reads an old TV Guide in which the synopsis of an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. reads "Gomer upsets Sgt. Carter", a possible synopsis for every episode of that series. He also imagines the episode with a thought of both Carter and Pyle standing next to each other. Carter yells, "Pyle!" and Pyle responds, "Shazam!". As Stampy wreaks havoc throughout Springfield, Patty and Selma are sucked up by a tornado and fly through the air in rocking chairs, similar to a scene in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
## Reception
### Critical reception
The episode won an Environmental Media Award in the Best Television Episodic Comedy category, which has been awarded every year since 1991 to the best television episode with an environmental message. The episode has also received a Genesis Award in the Best Television Comedy Series category. The Genesis Awards are given out annually by the Humane Society of the United States "to the news and entertainment media for shining that spotlight into the darkest corners of animal abuse and exploitation."
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote: "Another favourite. It's hard to explain the special appeal of this episode. Perhaps it's because Homer is so exceptionally dumb. Or perhaps because it contains the 'D'oh!' 'A deer!' 'A female deer!' gag." This gag was also praised by BBC News's Mark Milne, who said: "[It] just cracks me up every time. Brilliant!"
DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson thought the fifth season included "plenty of programs with potentially cheesy concepts", such as "Deep Space Homer" and "Bart Gets an Elephant". However, he thought the episode managed to "easily overcome its possible flaws" to turn into a "very fine program". Homer's line "Marge, I agree with you in theory. In theory, communism works — In theory''" was Jacobson's favorite of the episode.
Patrick Bromley of DVD Verdict gave the episode a grade of A, and Bill Gibron of DVD Talk gave it a score of 4 out of 5.
### Ratings
In its original broadcast, "Bart Gets an Elephant" finished forty-second in the ratings for the week of March 28 to April 20, 1994, with a Nielsen rating of 10.7, equivalent to 10 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
|
25,876 |
Anastasius I Dicorus
| 1,173,532,102 |
Byzantine Emperor from 491 to 518
|
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"430s births",
"518 deaths",
"5th-century Byzantine emperors",
"5th-century Roman consuls",
"6th-century Byzantine emperors",
"6th-century Roman consuls",
"Anastasian War",
"Burials at the Church of the Holy Apostles",
"House of Leo",
"Illyrian emperors",
"Illyrian people",
"Imperial Roman consuls",
"Oriental Orthodox monarchs",
"People from Durrës",
"People of the Roman–Sasanian Wars"
] |
Anastasius I Dicorus (Greek: Ἀναστάσιος, translit. Anastásios; c. 431 – 9 July 518) was Eastern Roman emperor from 491 to 518. A career civil servant, he came to the throne at the age of 61 after being chosen by the wife of his predecessor, Zeno. His reign was characterised by reforms and improvements in the empire's government, finances, economy and bureaucracy. He is noted for leaving the empire with a stable government, reinvigorated monetary economy and a sizeable budget surplus, which allowed the empire to pursue more ambitious policies under his successors, most notably Justinian I. Since many of Anastasius' reforms proved long-lasting, his influence over the empire endured for many centuries.
Anastasius was a Miaphysite Christian and his personal religious tendencies caused tensions throughout his reign in the empire that was becoming increasingly divided along religious lines. He is venerated as a saint by the Syriac Orthodox Church on 29 July.
## Early life and family
Anastasius was born at Dyrrachium; the date is unknown, but is thought to have been no later than 431. He was born into an Illyro-Roman family. Anastasius had one black eye and one blue eye (heterochromia), and for that reason he was nicknamed Dicorus (Greek: Δίκορος, translit. Díkoros, "two-pupiled"). Before becoming emperor, Anastasius was a particularly successful administrator in the department of finance.
Anastasius is known to have had a brother named Paulus, who served as consul in 496. With a woman known as Magna, Paulus was father to Irene, who married Olybrius. This Olybrius was the son of Anicia Juliana and Areobindus Dagalaifus Areobindus. The daughter of Olybrius and Irene was named Proba. She married Probus and was mother to a younger Juliana. This younger Juliana married another Anastasius, maternal grandson of Theodora, and was mother of Areobindus, Placidia, and a younger Proba, who married Flavius Anastasius, born in 530, and mothered Areobindus, born in 550, and Placidia, born in 552 and wife of John Mystacon. Another nephew of Anastasius was Flavius Probus, consul in 502. Anastasius' sister, Caesaria, married Secundinus, and gave birth to Hypatius and Pompeius. Flavius Anastasius Paulus Probus Moschianus Probus Magnus, consul in 518, was a great-nephew of Anastasius. His daughter Juliana later married Marcellus, a brother of Justin II. The extensive family may well have included several viable candidates for the throne.
## Accession
Following the death of Zeno (491), there is strong evidence that many Roman citizens wanted an emperor who was an Orthodox Christian and a Roman proper. In the weeks following Zeno's death, crowds gathered in Constantinople chanting "Give the Empire an Orthodox Emperor!" Under such pressure, Ariadne, Zeno's widow, turned to Anastasius. Anastasius was in his sixties at the time of his ascension to the throne. It is noteworthy that Ariadne chose Anastasius over Zeno's brother Longinus, who was arguably the more logical choice; this upset the Isaurians. It was also not appreciated by the circus factions, the Blues and the Greens. These groups combined aspects of street gangs and political parties and had been patronised by Longinus. The Blues and Greens subsequently repeatedly rioted, causing serious loss of life and damage. Religiously, Anastasius' sympathies were with the Monophysites. Consequently, as a condition of his rule, the Patriarch of Constantinople required that he pledge not to repudiate the Council of Chalcedon.
Ariadne married Anastasius on 20 May 491, shortly after his accession on 11 April. He gained popular favour by a judicious remission of taxation, in particular by abolishing the hated tax on receipts, which was mostly paid by the poor. He displayed great vigour and energy in administering the affairs of the empire. His reforms improved the empire's tax base and pulled it from financial depression and bleak morale. By the end of his reign, it is claimed that the treasury had 320,000 lb gold reserve.
## Foreign policy and wars
Under Anastasius, the empire engaged in the Isaurian War against the usurper Longinus and the Anastasian War against Sassanid Persia.
The Isaurian War (492–497) was stirred up by the Isaurian supporters of Longinus, the brother of Zeno, who was passed over for the throne in favour of Anastasius. The Battle of Cotyaeum in 492 broke the back of the revolt, but guerrilla warfare continued in the Isaurian Mountains for several years. The resistance in the mountains hinged upon the Isaurians' retention of Papirius Castle. The war lasted five years, but Anastasius passed legislation related to the economy in the mid-490s, which suggests that the war did not absorb all of the energy and resources of the government. After five years, the Isaurian resistance was broken. Large numbers of Isaurians were forcibly relocated to Thrace to ensure that they would not revolt again.
During the Anastasian War of 502–505 against the Sassanid Persians, the Sassanids captured the cities of Theodosiopolis and Amida although the Romans later received Amida in exchange for gold. The Persian provinces also suffered severely, and a peace was concluded in 506. Anastasius afterward built the strong fortress of Daras, which was named Anastasiopolis, to hold the Persians at Nisibis in check. The Balkan provinces were denuded of troops, however, and were devastated by invasions of Slavs and Bulgars. To protect Constantinople and its vicinity against them, Anastasius built the Anastasian Wall, extending from the Propontis to the Black Sea. He converted his home city, Dyrrachium, into one of the most fortified cities on the Adriatic with the construction of Durrës Castle.
## Domestic and ecclesiastical policies
Anastasius was a convinced Miaphysite, but his ecclesiastical policy was moderate. He endeavoured to maintain the principle of the Henotikon of Zeno and the peace of the church. Yet, in 512, perhaps emboldened after his military success against the Persians, Anastasius deposed the Patriarch of Chalcedon and replaced him with a Monophysite. That violated his agreement with the Patriarch of Constantinople and precipitated riots in Chalcedon. The following year, the general Vitalian started a rebellion, quickly defeated an imperial army and marched on Constantinople. With the army closing in, Anastasius gave Vitalian the title of Commander of the Army of Thrace and began communicating with the Pope on a potential end to the Acacian schism. Two years later, General Marinus attacked Vitalian and forced him and his troops to the northern part of Thrace. After the conclusion of the conflict, Anastasius had undisputed control of the empire until his death in 518.
## Successor
The Anonymous Valesianus gives a (most likely fictional) account of Anastasius attempting to predict his successor. Anastasius did not know which of his three nephews would succeed him and so he put a message under one of three couches and had his nephews take seats in the room. He believed that the nephew who sat on the couch with the message would be his heir. However, two of his nephews sat on the same couch, and the one with the concealed message remained empty. After putting the matter to God in prayer, he determined that the first person to enter his room the next morning would be the next emperor, and that person turned out to be Justin, the chief of his guards.
Anastasius died childless in Constantinople on 9 July 518. He was 90 and a half years old according to the later chronicles of John Malalas (c. 491–578) and the Chronicon Paschale (c. 630). The early 6th-century historian Victor of Tunnuna states that he died at the age of 88, a figure accepted by most modern historians.
He became the last emperor known to be consecrated as divus on his death. Anastasius left the Imperial treasury with 23,000,000 solidi, which is 320,000 pounds of gold or 420 long tons (430 t). The illiterate peasant-born Justin then became the next emperor. Meanwhile, his nephew and future heir Justinian engrossed himself in the life of Constantinople.
## Administrative reform and introduction of new coinage
Anastasius is famous for showing an uncommon interest in administrative efficiency and issues concerning the economy. Whenever it was possible in governmental transactions, he altered the method of payment from goods to hard currency. This practice decreased the potential for embezzlement and the need for transportation and storage of supplies. It also allowed for easier accounting. He also applied this practice to taxes, mandating that taxes be paid with cash rather than with goods. He eliminated the practice of providing soldiers with their arms and uniforms; instead he allotted each soldier a generous sum of money with which to purchase their own. These changes to imperial policy seem to have worked well; taxpayers often paid smaller tax bills than they had before, while government revenue increased. The increase in revenue allowed the emperor to pay soldiers a higher wage, which attracted native Roman soldiers to the military, as opposed to the barbarian and Isaurian mercenaries which some previous emperors had been forced to rely on. Anastasius is often cited for his "prudent management" of the empire's finances.
Amidst these reforms, though, Anastasius continued the practice of selling official positions. He sold so many that he has been accused of having facilitated the creation of a civilian aristocracy. This claim is strengthened by the growth in influence of families that often held high level positions in the government, such as the Apiones from Egypt. This has puzzled historians, given that the emperor seems to have minimised government corruption/inefficiency in other areas. Anastasius I also gave official positions to his close friend General Celer, his brother-in-law, his brother, his nephews, and his grand-nephews.
The complex monetary system of the early Byzantine Empire, which suffered a partial collapse in the mid-5th century, was revived by Anastasius in 498. The new system involved three denominations of gold, the solidus and its half and third; and five of copper, the follis, worth 40 nummi, and its fractions down to a nummus. It would seem that the new currency quickly became an important part of trade with other regions. A follis coin has been found in the Charjou desert, north of the River Oxus. Four solidi from his reign have been recovered as far from the Roman Empire as China. China might seem an unlikely trading partner, but the Romans and the Chinese were probably able to do business via Central Asian merchants travelling along the Silk Roads. Some Roman trading partners attempted to replicate the coins of Anastasius. The currency created by Anastasius stayed in use and circulated widely for long after his reign.
A 40-nummi coin of Anastasius is depicted on the obverse of North Macedonia's 50 denar banknote, issued in 1996.
## See also
- List of Byzantine emperors
|
29,330,627 |
British Engineerium
| 1,158,669,030 |
Museum in Hove, East Sussex, UK
|
[
"1866 establishments in England",
"Conservation areas in England",
"Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove",
"Grade II listed industrial buildings",
"Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove",
"Grade II* listed industrial buildings",
"Industry museums in England",
"Infrastructure completed in 1866",
"Museums established in 1976",
"Museums in Brighton and Hove",
"Preserved beam engines",
"Steam museums in England",
"Water supply and sanitation in England",
"Water supply pumping stations"
] |
The British Engineerium (formerly Brighton and Hove Engineerium) is an engineering and steam power museum in Hove, East Sussex. It is housed in the Goldstone Pumping Station, a set of High Victorian Gothic buildings started in 1866. The Goldstone Pumping Station supplied water to the local area for more than a century before it was converted to its present use. The site has been closed to the public since 2006, and in March 2018 the entire complex was put up for sale.
At its greatest extent, between 1884 and 1952, the complex consisted of two boiler houses with condensing engines, a chimney, coal cellars, workshop, cooling pond, leat, and an underground reservoir. Situated on top of a naturally fissured chalk hollow, it provided vast quantities of water to the rapidly growing towns of Hove and its larger neighbour, the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton, for more than a century. As new sources of water were found elsewhere and more modern equipment installed to exploit them, the pumping station's importance declined, and by 1971 the Brighton Water Department had closed it and threatened the complex with demolition. An industrial archaeologist offered to restore the buildings and machinery in return for a lease from the Brighton Water Corporation, and a charitable trust was formed to enable this. Expertise developed by the Engineerium's employees and volunteers was exploited across the world: they founded museums, undertook restoration projects and trained young people in engineering heritage conservation. Another enthusiast subsequently bought the complex, and as of 2023 it is closed to the public while more restoration and extension work takes place.
The High Victorian Gothic buildings are a landmark in Hove, and are a good example of the 19th-century ethos that "utility definitely does not equal dullness" in industrial buildings. Polychrome brickwork, moulded dressings and facings, decorative gables and elaborate windows characterise all the structures – even the 95-foot (29 m) chimney, which stands apart from the main buildings like a campanile. English Heritage has listed the complex for its architectural and historical importance, giving its structures five separate listings: the former boiler house and the chimney are both listed at Grade II\* – the second-highest designation – and the former coal shed, the cooling pond and leat and the tall flint and brick wall surrounding the site each have the lower Grade II status.
As well as the restored pumping station equipment, the complex has a wide range of exhibits: more than 1,500 were in place less than a year after it opened. These include a 19th-century horse-drawn fire engine, traction engines, veteran motorcycles, Victorian household equipment and old tools. A French-built horizontal steam engine dating from 1859 is the principal exhibit. Until its closure in 2006, the Engineerium used its exhibits to educate and promote the study of industrial history: it has been called "the world's only centre for the teaching of engineering conservation", and was central to the activities of the English Industrial Heritage Year in 1993. For many years, the larger and indigenous exhibits were fully operational and in steam at weekends.
## History
Brighton and neighbouring Hove, on the English Channel coast between the South Downs and the sea, were built on top of a vast aquifer of chalk. A regular supply of naturally pure water was always available from this natural reservoir, and in the settlements' early days many wells were sunk to exploit it. The rapid growth of Brighton in the 18th and early 19th century, followed by similar expansion in Hove, put pressure on the local authorities to provide more sources and a better supply system, though: wells became increasingly contaminated by sewage from cesspits, and some had to be blocked because they were so polluted, reducing the two towns' water supply further. The first local water company—the Brighton, Hove and Preston Waterworks Company—was founded on 16 June 1834 by means of an Act of Parliament; it built a waterworks on the road to Lewes and provided piped water for two hours per day to a few wealthy customers. This facility had two 20-horsepower beam engines.
By the 1850s, more water was needed for the continually expanding population: the intermittent supply from the Lewes Road waterworks was the only alternative to wells and boreholes. In 1853, a new company was formed with the aim of introducing a large-scale, consistent supply to Brighton, Hove and surrounding villages. The Brighton, Hove and Preston Constant Water Service Company bought its predecessor, the Waterworks Company, in 1854. By the time it was in turn acquired by Brighton Corporation in 1872 (by means of another Act of Parliament), it was pumping 2,600,000 imperial gallons (12,000,000 L) per day to 18,000 houses in Brighton, Hove and the surrounding villages of Falmer, Hangleton, Ovingdean, Patcham, Preston and Rottingdean.
The company employed eminent civil engineer Thomas Hawksley to find a suitable site for a new pumping station. Hawksley built more waterworks than any of his Victorian counterparts: he oversaw more than 150 schemes in Britain and abroad. In 1858, he advised the company that the shallow chalk valley at Goldstone Bottom, at the south end of West Blatchington village just outside Hove, would be a good candidate for exploratory drilling. Test wells were sunk, and confirmed his impression. The company bought the 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) of land in 1862, and in 1865 it was granted permission to build a pumping station on the site. By this stage, the Lewes Road facility was suffering from pollution, and the opening of another pumping station at Falmer and the building of more reservoirs had not been sufficient to satisfy demand.
Work took place during 1866, and the facility opened in that year with the name Goldstone Pumping Station. The Brighton, Hove and Preston Constant Water Service Company operated it until its acquisition by Brighton Corporation. In its original form, the complex consisted of a boiler house and adjacent engine room, coal cellars and a chimney described by one historian as "truly monumental", all built of polychrome brick. The engine room housed a 120-horsepower beam engine made by Charles Amos of London-based manufacturer Easton and Amos. It was a compound engine of the type patented by engineer Arthur Woolf. Water was drawn from a 160-foot (49 m) well which started immediately below the engine, which was known as the "Number 1 Engine". It was driven by three Lancashire boilers with twin furnaces, which were fed by two coal cellars. Up to 130,000 imperial gallons (590,000 L) of water could be pumped per hour.
In 1872, ownership of Goldstone Pumping Station and all other water facilities in the Brighton area passed to Brighton Corporation, which formed a new committee called the Brighton Water Corporation to operate them. Demand for water continued to rise, so in 1876 the corporation undertook a major expansion of the pumping station. A second engine room was added, and a separate coal storage shed was built in the grounds. Workshop facilities were also provided, with a range of machine tools, forge, lathe and planer and a separate Easton and Amos steam engine, apparently left over from The Great Exhibition. The new engine house was equipped with the "Number 2 Engine"—a 250-horsepower Woolf compound unit built by the firm of Easton and Anderson and with a pumping capacity of 150,000 imperial gallons (680,000 L) per hour. It was powered by three more Lancashire boilers. Mayor of Brighton Henry Abbey fired up the engine for the first time on 26 October 1876; his visit, with members of the Water Corporation committee, was recorded on a plaque in the engine room. A network of arched tunnels were built to link the new coal shed, the workshop and the firing platform of the boiler room. The subterranean passages were used by coal trucks.
The next extension took place in 1884. A cooling pond and a leat (an artificial waterway) were built on land behind the pumping station, and a new 1,500,000-imperial-gallon (6,800,000 L) underground reservoir was built by J.T. Chappell. It ran for 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) westwards from the complex. Brighton Water Corporation spent £11,000 on this work and on the building of two other reservoirs in Brighton, at Dyke Road and Race Hill. All three were built of tile, brick and Portland cement. They were constantly replenished by a 1,000-imperial-gallon (4,500 L)-per-minute inflow from numerous natural fissures in the chalk.
Because the surrounding area became substantially urbanised in the interwar period, the water was treated with ozone from 1937 to disinfect it. Meanwhile in 1934, the boilers powering the Number 2 Engine were replaced by four new models of the same type, built by the Blackburn-based Yates and Thom company. Their capacity was greater: they could each generate 6,000 pounds-force (27,000 N) of steam per hour. The pumping station soon went into decline, though. Electric pumps became available in the 1940s, and one was installed in the Number 1 Engine room; the engine itself was decommissioned at that time. The four new Lancashire boilers were in full-time use for only 18 years: Number 2 Engine was taken out of service in 1952, although it was maintained for a further two years in case it was required. Several pumping stations had been newly built or rebuilt since World War II—at Aldrington, Falmer, Mile Oak, Newmarket Down (near Lewes), Patcham and Sompting—and the old Lewes Road source, closed in 1903 because of pollution, came back into use. The corporation increased its supplies further by acquiring waterworks in Peacehaven and Lewes in the 1950s. The Goldstone Pumping Station was considered outdated and no longer required, and in 1971 the corporation announced plans to build a small electric pumphouse on the site, demolish the 19th-century buildings and scrap the steam-era equipment.
Jonathan Minns, a London-based steam and engineering expert, immediately set about trying to save the buildings and their contents. He applied to the Historic Buildings Council for England (the forerunner of the present English Heritage body) for listed status to be granted to the buildings in the complex. This was granted on 17 June 1971, and in the following year the Department of the Environment issued a preservation order preventing demolition or significant alteration of the buildings. Minns acquired the lease of the complex in 1974, and planned to restore it from its derelict state and establish an industrial museum and educational centre. He also set up a trust to run it. By this time, the complex had a new owner: the Water Act 1973 restructured the water industry in England and Wales, transferring ownership of water infrastructure from local authorities to 10 government-controlled regional companies. Brighton Water Corporation became part of the Southern Water Authority, and it was this entity which granted the lease to Minns.
Minns had only £350 when he started work on the Engineerium, but more money soon arrived in the form of grants and donations. The Southern Water Authority gave the trust £22,000, the Department of the Environment granted £40,000, and the trust received the largest historic buildings grant awarded in Sussex up to that point in 1975. In October of that year, Minns and eight volunteers began to restore the complex and its machinery, which were in a state of disrepair. The boiler house and Number 2 Engine were the priority, but before they could be started the workshop had to be repaired so that its equipment could be used to carry out the necessary work elsewhere.
The boiler house and Number 2 Engine were in a particularly bad condition: the roof was wrecked, the metal fixtures were corroded, moss was growing on exposed surfaces and the boilers were not operational. Number 2 Engine had not been steamed since 1954, and had to be taken apart and rebuilt while the building was restored around it. Every moving part was cleaned by hand, and the exterior was repainted in its correct colour after the original paintwork was discovered under layers of mould and rust. The eight men worked for about six months on these tasks; Number 2 Engine was successfully fired up again on 14 March 1976 after the two renovated Lancashire boilers were tested and inspected by safety officials (the other two were left in their unrestored state).
The complex was first opened to the public on Good Friday 1976. The official reopening, on 26 October 1976 (exactly 100 years after Number 2 Engine was first fired up), came after the coal store was converted into an exhibition and educational area. At this time, it was named the Brighton and Hove Engineerium; the complex was given its present name on 30 May 1981. By this time, about 1,500 exhibits were on display, and the boilers and Number 2 Engine were fired up every weekend. The cost of running the Engineerium and employing 18 people (including six professional engineers) was running at about £250,000 per year. Although the Southern Water Authority, which still owned the site, paid for improvements in 1983, and grants came in from East Sussex County Council and Hove Borough Council, there was no financial backing from central government—although the Engineerium was acknowledged as a national and international leader in industrial heritage and "the world's only centre for the teaching of engineering conservation". (Employees of the Engineerium have helped to set up or renovate more than 20 similar institutions across the world, and it was designated as England's South East Regional Centre during Industrial Heritage Year in 1993.) The centre's second royal visit, by the Duke of Kent in 1993, coincided with a fundraising plea for £4 million, to be spent on extensions to the exhibition space and workshop; Minns also applied unsuccessfully for a National Lottery grant. Vodafone paid for the right to attach a mobile phone mast to the chimney, though.
Ongoing funding problems caused the Engineerium to close in 2006, and the complex and its contents were put up for auction by Bonhams. The inventory was split into hundreds of separate lots, and the buildings themselves were valued at £1.25 million. Just before the auction was due to begin, a local businessman and enthusiast offered £2 million for the buildings and more than £1 million for the contents conditional on his being donated half of the Minns Collection. This was accepted, and on 10 May 2006 the Engineerium Trust assets passed into Mike Holland's ownership.
The Engineerium stayed shut while its new owner invested in improvements and extensions. In February 2010, he stated that he expected the Engineerium to reopen within a year. On 10 October 2010, it was opened for a day to raise money for charity; the Number 2 Engine was demonstrated and many steam engines and other exhibits from the museum's own collection and from outside were on display. In August 2011, Brighton and Hove City Council approved a planning application for some renovation and remodelling work, including an extension. Structural engineers found that part of the building was in poor condition, and in January 2012 a further application was submitted to seek permission to demolish and rebuild part of the machine room. General restoration work began in October 2012, supported by a second open day.
Jonathan Minns died on 13 October 2013, aged 75. Two years later, an arson attack damaged the chimney. In 2017 the owner, Mike Holland, was sent to prison for manslaughter. In March 2018 the entire complex was put up for sale.
## Architecture
The Engineerium has been described by Brighton historian Clifford Musgrave as an "unusually fine asset" for Brighton and Hove and by fellow historian Ken Fines "a splendid example of Victorian industrial engineering". The buildings have intricately patterned polychrome brickwork, and the 95-foot (29 m) chimney to the south is also finely detailed and is a landmark in Hove. Both the buildings and the machinery inside demonstrate the widespread belief among Victorian designers and architects that every object and building, no matter how commonplace or humble, should be elaborately and expansively embellished.
On the main buildings, the walls consist of bands of red, yellow and purplish-blue brick with moulded layers and coping. The ground floor has red brickwork with a rusticated appearance. The cast-iron windows are set in round-arched openings below a string course which runs around the whole building and consists of alternate patterns of red and black brick. The slate roof has flat-topped gables set above pediments at the top of each engine room. The two engine rooms are two-storey and have a three-bay, three-window range; they flank the single-storey boiler room which also has three bays. The left- and right-hand bays are recessed; all have windows that are similar to those of the engine rooms.
The chimney stands about 7 feet (2.1 m) south of the engine rooms and boiler house. The rectangular, campanile-style structure stands on a rusticated base with a tapering plinth below it. Above this is a moulded cornice. The chimney itself tapers slightly and has tall arched panels on each face, forming slight recesses. An entablature runs all the way round, linking these. The brickwork is of the same colours and detailing as the other buildings.
The former coal shed (now the exhibition hall) and its attached workshops are of red and brown brick with coping on the walls and a shallow slate roof. The workshops, which do not contribute to the architectural interest of the building, are a perpendicular adjunct to the rear of the coal shed, so the building has an overall L-shape. Sloping land gives the building a single storey at the front (north) end and a second lower storey towards the rear. The three-bay north façade has three arched entrances; the smaller flanking pair have replacement doors.
Standing in the grounds behind the complex, the cooling pond measures 1,100 square feet (100 m<sup>2</sup>) and has a leat around three sides; it opens out on the southwest side. It is surrounded by small walls of red brick and terracotta. Pipework connects the leat to the boiler house, from which hot water flows; heat exchange takes place in the cooling pond; and cold water is returned to be used in the boilers.
Tall flint and brick walls, dating from 1866, surround the complex on all sides. Small flints laid in courses form the main building material on three sides. Other parts have red brickwork with inset flints, and the main entrance has red-brick piers with knapped flintwork. There are also iron railings and gates with the fleur-de-lis emblem. The walls have recesses on the inside and outside at irregular intervals; one on the outside of the south wall contains a drinking fountain with a panel imploring users to commit no nuisance. Flints are prevalent in this downland area; so many were found when the pumping station was built that the contractors fashioned them into a deliberately ancient-looking folly on the southwest corner of the engine rooms.
## Exhibits
The Engineerium has hundreds of exhibits relating to the history of engineering and steam power. Many are on display in the exhibition hall, which occupies the former coal storage shed. The central feature of the hall is a Corliss steam engine built in France in 1859. American inventor George Henry Corliss patented the design in 1849 and became president of The Corliss Steam Engine Company. The valve gear he invented improved the efficiency of horizontal reciprocating engines more than any other innovation. The Engineerium's example was assembled in 1859 by the Lille-based company Crepelle & Grand. It was shown at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, where it won first prize. It was then used for more than 50 years at L'Hôpital Émile-Roux in Limeil-Brévannes. It was bought by Jonathan Minns, taken apart, brought to the Engineerium and reassembled in 1975. The engine can generate 91 horsepower; its 13-foot (4.0 m), 4-long-ton (4.1 t) flywheel turns 80 times a minute; and the whole machine weighs 16 long tons (16.3 t).
The Engineerium also has a horse-drawn fire engine dating from 1890. Originally owned by the local authority in Barnstaple, Devon, the Shand Mason & Company vehicle was bought and restored by the museum's employees. It is a vertical steam engine with two cylinders and a pair of pistons flanking a central crank. A steam traction engine built in 1886 by Marshall, Sons & Company has also been restored. A range of veteran motorcycles are on display; the oldest is an Ariel Motorcycles vehicle built in 1915.
Elsewhere in the complex, smaller steam engines are on display, alongside Victorian tools and domestic equipment such as stoves. Much of the equipment in the workshop is also original, such as the main forge and a heavy-duty metal lathe. The single-cylinder Easton and Amos steam engine used to power the belts which drive the machine tools in the workshop was already several years old when the Goldstone Pumping Station acquired it in 1875.
From the beginning, the overriding purpose of the collection of exhibits was to portray and explain the history and development of civil and mechanical engineering and British industry, through both the restoration of the pumping station's original equipment and the acquisition of other pieces associated with industrial pioneers such as James Watt, Michael Faraday and George Stephenson. An example is a model of Stephenson's Locomotion No 1 engine, which was valued at £75,000 by Bonhams when the Engineerium was up for auction in 2006.
## Heritage status
When Jonathan Minns, who later bought the complex, found in 1971 that it was threatened with demolition, he successfully sought to get it listed by the Historic Buildings Council for England (the predecessor of English Heritage). The organisation granted listed status in five separate parts on 7 June 1971, covering the pumping station's five main structures. The boiler rooms and engine house were jointly listed at Grade II\*, as was its free-standing chimney. Three more structures were listed at Grade II: the cooling pond and leat, the coal storage shed and the flint and brick walls surrounding the complex. Grade II\* is the second highest of the three designations awarded to listed buildings; such buildings are defined as being "particularly important ... [and] of more than special interest". As of February 2001, the boiler house and chimney represented two of the 70 Grade II\*-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove. Grade II is the lowest status, given to "nationally important buildings of special interest". In February 2001, there were 1,124 such buildings in the city.
In 1982, an 8.89-acre (3.60 ha) zone incorporating the whole Engineerium complex became a conservation area—one of 34 such areas in the city of Brighton and Hove.
## See also
- Brede Waterworks
- Grade II\* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
- Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove: A–B
- List of conservation areas in Brighton and Hove
|
3,582,822 |
Addicted to You (Hikaru Utada song)
| 1,121,655,569 | null |
[
"1999 singles",
"1999 songs",
"EMI Music Japan singles",
"Hikaru Utada songs",
"Oricon Weekly number-one singles",
"Song recordings produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis",
"Songs written by Hikaru Utada"
] |
"Addicted to You" is a song by Japanese-American recording artist Hikaru Utada from her second studio album Distance (2001). It was released as the album's lead single on September 6, 1999 by EMI Music Japan. "Addicted to You" was written by Utada and produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis; this is Utada's first collaboration with American producers and composers. The single artwork was shot by American photographer Richard Avedon and features two black-and-white figures of Utada. Musically, "Addicted to You" is an R&B song.
"Addicted to You" received positive reviews from music critics, many who highlighted it from the parent album; one music critic viewed the single as "nostalgic". It achieved commercial success in Japan, with a peak position of number one on the Oricon Singles Chart and a Million certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). The single remains the fourth highest selling single in first week sales, and the thirty-ninth best selling single in Japan. A music video was shot in Hong Kong, and featured Utada inside a club.
## Background and release
"Addicted to You" was written by Utada and produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis; this is Utada's first collaboration with American producers and composers. The song was recorded in mid-1999 at Flyte Tyme Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota and mixed at Flyte Tyme, Edina, Minnesota. Darnell Davis played the keyboard and Alex Richbourg played the drums. There are two versions of the track: the Up-in-Heaven mix and the Underwater mix. EMI did not originally select "Addicted to You" as the lead single as they feared it would not make an impact in Japan. The song was then re-composed in order to appeal more to the Japanese audience. "Addicted to You" is an R&B song.
"Addicted to You" was released on September 16, 1999 in CD format by EMI, as the lead single for the singer's second studio album Distance (2001). The cover sleeve features two shots of Utada, one being a close-up of Utada's face and the second being a long shot of them, and was photographed by American artist Richard Avedon, his only collaboration with Utada up until his death in October 2004 as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. The CD featured the instrumental and radio edits of both versions.
## Critical reception
"Addicted to You" received positive reviews from music critics. Editor-in-chief for Rockin'On Japan magazine Kano said that the song was "exceptional" and commended their collaboration with Jam and Lewis. Yonemoto Hiromi from Yeah!! J-Pop! was positive in his review, feeling that the composition sounded "nostalgic"-like. A staff review from CDJournal discussed Utada's first greatest hits compilation Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 and commended Utada's "fine" vocal delivery and composition. Ian Martin from Allmusic also commended Jam and Lewis' collaboration, saying that "providing stark contrast to the cheap, tinny sound that characterized much Japanese pop of the previous decade, with "Wait & See" and "Addicted to You" both featuring the production talents of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis." Miko Amaranthine from Yahoo! Music listed the song at number four on his Top Ten Hikaru Utada songs, stating ""Addicted to you" is one of my favorites for a slightly greedy purpose [...] When I listen to this song, I am reminded how much I love my marriage and am thankful I do not have to play the "dating game"." At the 15th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards, "Addicted to You" and Utada's previous singles "Automatic" and "Movin' on Without You" received the award for "Song of the Year".
## Commercial response
"Addicted to You" debuted at number one on the Japanese Oricon Singles Chart, Utada's second number-one single since "Movin' on Without You" (1999), and stayed in the chart for fifteen weeks. First week sales sold over one million units, making it the second-highest selling single in the first charting week behind Mr. Children's "Nameless Poetry", but both positions were replaced by AKB48's "Everyday, Katyusha" and "Flying Get" in 2011. The song was certified Million by the RIAJ for shipments of one million units, selling 1.7 million units in total. "Addicted to You" is the thirty-ninth best selling single in Japan music history and Utada's second best selling single behind "Automatic/Time Will Tell". According to Oricon, the song was Utada's fourth million-selling single.
"Addicted to You" reached number one on the Japanese Count Down TV Chart for two weeks, and remained on the chart for thirteen weeks. This was their fourth consecutive number one on the chart, following "Automatic/Time Will Tell", "Movin' on Without You", and "First Love". In the Annual 1999 Count Down TV chart, "Addicted to You" was placed at number five.
## Promotion and other appearances
Wataru Takeishi directed the accompanying music video, which was filmed in Hong Kong and featured Utada inside a nightclub. The music video was included on Utada's Single Clip Collection Vol. 1 (1999). "Addicted to You" has been included in four of Utada's live Japanese tours concert: Bohemian Summer 2000, Utada Unplugged, Utada in Budokan 2004-2005, and Utada United 2006. The live versions were then released on a live DVD for each tour.
## Track listing
CD single
1. "Addicted to You" (Up-in-Heaven mix) – 5:19
2. "Addicted to You" (Underwater mix) – 6:17
3. "Addicted to You" (Up-in-Heaven mix) (Instrumental) – 4:08
4. "Addicted to You" (Underwater mix) (Instrumental) – 5:21
## Personnel
- Hikaru Utada – songwriting, composition
- Jerry Jam and Terry Lewis – arrangement, instruments, production, composition
- Teruzane Utada – arrangement, production, composition
- Akira Miyake – arrangement, production, composition
- Steve Hodge – guitar, recording
- Alex Richbourg – drums
- Darnell Davis – keyboards
- Indoh Mitsuhiro – recording
- Ugajin Masaaki – recording
- Richard Avedon – recording
Credits adapted from the promotional CD single.
## Charts and certifications
### Charts
### Certification
|
58,288 |
Louse
| 1,171,510,914 |
Order of insects
|
[
"Delusional parasitosis",
"Insects in culture",
"Lice",
"Nanopsocetae",
"Taxa named by Ernst Haeckel"
] |
Louse (: lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result of developments in phylogenetic research.
Lice are obligate parasites, living externally on warm-blooded hosts which include every species of bird and mammal, except for monotremes, pangolins, and bats. Lice are vectors of diseases such as typhus.
Chewing lice live among the hairs or feathers of their host and feed on skin and debris, while sucking lice pierce the host's skin and feed on blood and other secretions. They usually spend their whole life on a single host, cementing their eggs, called nits, to hairs or feathers. The eggs hatch into nymphs, which moult three times before becoming fully grown, a process that takes about four weeks. Genetic evidence indicates that lice are a highly modified lineage of Psocoptera (now called Psocodea), commonly known as booklice, barklice or barkflies. The oldest known fossil lice are from the Paleogene, though molecular clock estimates suggest that they originated earlier, during the Cretaceous.
Humans host two species of louse—the head louse and the body louse are subspecies of Pediculus humanus; and the pubic louse, Pthirus pubis. The body louse has the smallest genome of any known insect; it has been used as a model organism and has been the subject of much research. Lice were ubiquitous in human society until at least the Middle Ages. They appear in folktales, songs such as The Kilkenny Louse House, and novels such as James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. They commonly feature in the psychiatric disorder delusional parasitosis. A louse was one of the early subjects of microscopy, appearing in Robert Hooke's 1667 book, Micrographia.
## Morphology and diversity
Lice are divided into two groups: sucking lice, which obtain their nourishment from feeding on the sebaceous secretions and body fluids of their host; and chewing lice, which are scavengers, feeding on skin, fragments of feathers or hair, and debris found on the host's body. Many lice are specific to a single species of host and have co-evolved with it. In some cases, they live on only a particular part of the body. Some animals are known to host up to fifteen different species, although one to three is typical for mammals, and two to six for birds. Lice generally cannot survive for long if removed from their host. If their host dies, lice can opportunistically use phoresis to hitch a ride on a fly and attempt to find a new host.
Sucking lice range in length from 0.5 to 5 mm (1⁄64 to 13⁄64 in). They have narrow heads and oval, flattened bodies. They have no ocelli, and their compound eyes are reduced in size or absent. Their antennae are short with three to five segments, and their mouthparts, which are retractable into their head, are adapted for piercing and sucking. There is a cibarial pump at the start of the gut; it is powered by muscles attached to the inside of the cuticle of the head. The mouthparts consist of a proboscis which is toothed, and a set of stylets arranged in a cylinder inside the proboscis, containing a salivary canal (ventrally) and a food canal (dorsally). The thoracic segments are fused, the abdominal segments are separate, and there is a single large claw at the tip of each of the six legs.
Chewing lice are also flattened and can be slightly larger than sucking lice, ranging in length from 0.5 to 6 mm (1⁄64 to 15⁄64 in). They are similar to sucking lice in form but the head is wider than the thorax and all species have compound eyes. There are no ocelli and the mouthparts are adapted for chewing. The antennae have three to five segments and are slender in the suborder Ischnocera, but club-shaped in the suborder Amblycera. The legs are short and robust, and terminated by one or two claws. Some species of chewing lice house symbiotic bacteria in bacteriocytes in their bodies. These may assist in digestion because if the insect is deprived of them, it will die. Lice are usually cryptically coloured to match the fur or feathers of the host. A louse's color varies from pale beige to dark gray; however, if feeding on blood, it may become considerably darker.
Female lice are usually more common than males, and some species are parthenogenetic, with young developing from unfertilized eggs. A louse's egg is commonly called a nit. Many lice attach their eggs to their hosts' hair with specialized saliva; the saliva/hair bond is very difficult to sever without specialized products. Lice inhabiting birds, however, may simply leave their eggs in parts of the body inaccessible to preening, such as the interior of feather shafts. Living louse eggs tend to be pale whitish, whereas dead louse eggs are yellower. Lice are exopterygotes, being born as miniature versions of the adult, known as nymphs. The young moult three times before reaching the final adult form, usually within a month after hatching.
Humans host three different kinds of lice: head lice, body lice, and pubic lice. Head lice and body lice are subspecies of Pediculus humanus, and pubic lice are a separate species, Pthirus pubis. Lice infestations can be controlled with lice combs, and medicated shampoos or washes.
## Ecology
The average number of lice per host tends to be higher in large-bodied bird species than in small ones. Lice have an aggregated distribution across bird individuals, i.e. most lice live on a few birds, while most birds are relatively free of lice. This pattern is more pronounced in territorial than in colonial—more social—bird species. Host organisms that dive under water to feed on aquatic prey harbor fewer taxa of lice. Bird taxa that are capable of exerting stronger antiparasitic defense—such as stronger T cell immune response or larger uropygial glands—harbor more taxa of Amblyceran lice than others. Reductions in the size of host populations may cause a long-lasting reduction of louse taxonomic richness, for example, birds introduced into New Zealand host fewer species of lice there than in Europe. Louse sex ratios are more balanced in more social hosts and more female-biased in less social hosts, presumably due to the stronger isolation among louse subpopulations (living on separate birds) in the latter case. The extinction of a species results in the extinction of its host-specific lice. Host-switching is a random event that would seem very rarely likely to be successful, but speciation has occurred over evolutionary time-scales so it must be successfully accomplished sometimes.
Lice may reduce host life expectancy if the infestation is heavy, but most seem to have little effect on their host. The habit of dust bathing in domestic hens is probably an attempt by the birds to rid themselves of lice. Lice may transmit microbial diseases and helminth parasites, but most individuals spend their whole life cycle on a single host and are only able to transfer to a new host opportunistically. Ischnoceran lice may reduce the thermoregulation effect of the plumage; thus heavily infested birds lose more heat than others. Lice infestation is a disadvantage in the context of sexual rivalry.
## Evolution
Phthiraptera lice are members of Psocodea (formerly Psocoptera), the order that contains booklice, barklice and barkflies. Within Psocodea, lice are within the suborder Troctomorpha, and most closely related to the family Liposcelididae. The oldest confirmed fossil louse is a bird louse, Megamenopon rasnitsyni, from Eckfelder Maar, Germany, which dates to the Eocene, around 44 million years ago. Saurodectes vrsanskyi from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Zaza Formation of Buryatia, Russia, has also been suggested to be a louse, but this is tentative.
Cladogram showing the position of Phthiraptera within Psocodea:
### Classification
Phthiraptera is clearly a monophyletic grouping, united as the members are by a number of derived features including their parasitism on warm-blooded vertebrates and the combination of their metathoracic ganglia with their abdominal ganglia to form a single ventral nerve junction. The order has traditionally been divided into two suborders, the sucking lice (Anoplura) and the chewing lice (Mallophaga); however, subsequent classifications suggest that the Mallophaga are paraphyletic and four suborders were then recognized:
- Anoplura: sucking lice, occurring on mammals exclusively
- Rhynchophthirina: parasites of elephants and warthogs
- Ischnocera: mostly avian chewing lice, with one family parasitizing mammals
- Amblycera: a primitive suborder of chewing lice, widespread on birds, and also occurring on South American and Australian mammals
Upon finding that Phthiraptera was nested within Psocoptera, Phthiraptera, in 2021 de Moya et al. proposed reducing the rank of Phthiraptera to infraorder, and the four suborders to parvorder. These changes were accepted by Psocodea Species File and others, with the exception of placing Phthiraptera under the infraorder Nanopsocetae, as a parvorder, with the four subgroups listed above. These classifications are likely to change in the future as a result of ongoing phylogenetic research.
Nearly 5,000 species of louse have been identified, about 4,000 being parasitic on birds and 800 on mammals. Lice are present on every continent in all the habitats that their host animals occupy. They are found even in the Antarctic, where penguins carry 15 species of lice (in the genera Austrogonoides and Nesiotinus). The oldest known record of the group is Megamenopon rasnitsyni from the Eocene of Germany, but it is essentially a modern form, belonging to Amblycera, so the group as a whole likely has an origin in the Mesozoic.
### Phylogeny
Lice have been the subject of significant DNA research in the 2000s that led to discoveries on human evolution. The three species of sucking lice that parasitize human beings belong to two genera, Pediculus and Pthirus: head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis), body lice (Pediculus humanus humanus), and pubic lice (Pthirus pubis). Human head and body lice (genus Pediculus) share a common ancestor with chimpanzee lice, while pubic lice (genus Pthirus) share a common ancestor with gorilla lice. Using phylogenetic and cophylogenetic analysis, Reed et al. hypothesized that Pediculus and Pthirus are sister taxa and monophyletic. In other words, the two genera descended from the same common ancestor. The age of divergence between Pediculus and its common ancestor is estimated to be 6-7 million years ago, which matches the age predicted by chimpanzee-hominid divergence. Because parasites rely on their hosts, host–parasite cospeciation events are likely.
Genetic evidence suggests that human ancestors acquired pubic lice from gorillas approximately 3-4 million years ago. Unlike the genus Pediculus, the divergence in Pthirus does not match the age of host divergence that likely occurred 7 million years ago. Reed et al. propose a Pthirus species host-switch around 3-4 million years ago. While it is difficult to determine if a parasite–host switch occurred in evolutionary history, this explanation is the most parsimonious (containing the fewest evolutionary changes).
Additionally, the DNA differences between head lice and body lice provide corroborating evidence that humans used clothing between 80,000 and 170,000 years ago, before leaving Africa. Human head and body lice occupy distinct ecological zones: head lice live and feed on the scalp, while body lice live on clothing and feed on the body. Because body lice require clothing to survive, the divergence of head and body lice from their common ancestor provides an estimate of the date of introduction of clothing in human evolutionary history.
The mitochondrial genome of the human species of the body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus), the head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) and the pubic louse (Pthirus pubis) fragmented into a number of minichromosomes, at least seven million years ago. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA in human body and hair lice reveals that greater genetic diversity existed in African than in non-African lice. Human lice can also shed light on human migratory patterns in prehistory. The dominating theory of anthropologists regarding human migration is the Out of Africa Hypothesis. Genetic diversity accumulates over time, and mutations occur at a relatively constant rate. Because there is more genetic diversity in African lice, the lice and their human hosts must have existed in Africa before anywhere else.
## In human culture
### In social history
Lice have been intimately associated with human society throughout history. In the Middle Ages, they were essentially ubiquitous. At the death of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170, it was recorded that "The vermin boiled over like water in a simmering cauldron, and the onlookers burst into alternate weeping and laughing". The clergy often saw lice and other parasites as a constant reminder of human frailty and weakness. Monks and nuns would purposely ignore grooming themselves and suffer from infestations to express their religious devotion. A mediaeval treatment for lice was an ointment made from pork grease, incense, lead, and aloe.
Robert Hooke's 1667 book, Micrographia: or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and Inquiries thereupon, illustrated a human louse, drawn as seen down an early microscope.
Margaret Cavendish's satirical The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World (1668) has "Lice-men" as "mathematicians", investigating nature by trying to weigh the air like the real scientist Robert Boyle.
In 1935 the Harvard medical researcher Hans Zinsser wrote the book Rats, Lice and History, alleging that both body and head lice transmit typhus between humans. Despite this, the modern view is that only the body louse can transmit the disease.
Soldiers in the trenches of the First World War suffered severely from lice, and the typhus they carried. The Germans boasted that they had lice under effective control, but themselves suffered badly from lice in the Second World War on the Eastern Front, especially in the Battle of Stalingrad. "Delousing" became a euphemism for the extermination of Jews in concentration camps such as Auschwitz under the Nazi regime.
In the psychiatric disorder delusional parasitosis, patients express a persistent irrational fear of animals such as lice and mites, imagining that they are continually infested and complaining of itching, with "an unshakable false belief that live organisms are present in the skin".
### In science
The human body louse Pediculus humanus humanus has (2010) the smallest insect genome known. This louse can transmit certain diseases while the human head louse (P. h. capitis), to which it is closely related, cannot. With their simple life history and small genomes, the pair make ideal model organisms to study the molecular mechanisms behind the transmission of pathogens and vector competence.
### In literature and folklore
James Joyce's 1939 book Finnegans Wake has the character Shem the Penman infested with "foxtrotting fleas, the lieabed lice, ... bats in his belfry".
Clifford E. Trafzer's A Chemehuevi Song: The Resilience of a Southern Paiute Tribe retells the story of Sinawavi (Coyote)'s love for Poowavi (Louse). Her eggs are sealed in a basket woven by her mother, who gives it to Coyote, instructing him not to open it before he reaches home. Hearing voices coming from it, however, Coyote opens the basket and the people, the world's first human beings, pour out of it in all directions.
The Irish songwriter John Lyons (b. 1934) wrote the popular song The Kilkenny Louse House. The song contains the lines "Well we went up the stairs and we put out the light, Sure in less than five minutes, I had to show fight. For the fleas and the bugs they collected to march, And over me stomach they formed a great arch". It has been recorded by Christie Purcell (1952), Mary Delaney on From Puck to Appleby (2003), and the Dubliners on Double Dubliners (1972) among others.
Robert Burns dedicated a poem to the louse, inspired by witnessing one on a lady's bonnet in church: "Ye ugly, creepin, blastid wonner, Detested, shunn'd, by saint and sinner, How dare ye set your fit upon her, sae fine lady! Gae somewhere else, and seek your dinner on some poor body." John Milton in Paradise Lost mentioned the biblical plague of lice visited upon pharaoh: "Frogs, lice, and flies must all his palace fill with loathed intrusion, and filled all the land." John Ray recorded a Scottish proverb, "Gie a beggar a bed and he'll repay you with a Louse." In Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, Thersites compares Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, to a louse: "Ask me not what I would be, if I were not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus."
### Woodlouse
The name woodlouse or wood-louse is given to crustaceans of the suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda, unrelated to lice. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation of this usage is from 1611.
## See also
- Pest (organism)
- Use of DNA in forensic entomology
|
8,021,977 |
HMS Formidable (1898)
| 1,136,555,111 |
Pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy
|
[
"1898 ships",
"1915 in the United Kingdom",
"Formidable-class battleships",
"Maritime incidents in 1915",
"Protected Wrecks of the United Kingdom",
"Ships built in Chatham",
"Ships built in Portsmouth",
"Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I",
"World War I battleships of the United Kingdom",
"World War I shipwrecks in the English Channel"
] |
HMS Formidable, the third of four ships of that name to serve in the Royal Navy, was the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships. The ship was laid down in March 1898, was launched in November that year, and was completed in September 1901. Formidable served initially with the Mediterranean Fleet, transferring to the Channel Fleet in 1908. In 1912, she was assigned to the 5th Battle Squadron, which was stationed at Nore.
Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the squadron conducted operations in the English Channel, and was based at Sheerness to guard against a possible German invasion. In the first days of the war, the 5th Battle Squadron covered the crossing of the British Expeditionary Force to France. On 31 December, the squadron was conducting training exercises in the English Channel, and despite the risk of German submarines, was without anti-submarine protection; the German U-24 stalked the ships during the day and in the early hours of 1 January 1915, torpedoed Formidable twice, sinking her with very heavy loss of life.
## Design
The design for the Formidable class was prepared in 1897; it was an incremental improvement over the preceding Majestic and Canopus classes. Formidable adopted the larger size of the Majestics, while taking the stronger Krupp armour of the Canopus design. In addition, the new design incorporated longer (and thus more powerful) main and secondary guns and an improved hull form. These characteristics produced a ship with better armour protection than either earlier class, the same high speed of Canopus.
Formidable was 431 feet 9 inches (131.6 m) long overall, with a beam of 75 ft (22.9 m) and a draught of 25 ft 11 in (7.90 m). She displaced 14,500 long tons (14,700 t) normally and up to 15,800 long tons (16,100 t) fully loaded. Her crew numbered 780 officers and ratings. The Formidable-class ships were powered by a pair of 3-cylinder triple-expansion engines, with steam provided by twenty Belleville boilers. The boilers were trunked into two funnels located amidships. The Formidable-class ships had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) from 15,000 indicated horsepower (11,000 kW).
Formidable had a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) 40-calibre guns mounted in twin-gun turrets fore and aft; these guns were mounted in circular barbettes that allowed all-around loading or elevation. The ships also mounted a secondary battery of twelve 6-inch (152 mm) 45-calibre guns mounted in casemates, in addition to ten 12-pounder 3 in (76 mm) guns and six 3-pounder 47 mm (1.9 in) guns for defence against torpedo boats. As was customary for battleships of the period, she was also equipped with four 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes submerged in the hull.
Formidable had an armoured belt that was 9 inches (229 mm) thick; the transverse bulkheads on either end of the belt were 9 to 12 in (229 to 305 mm) thick. Her main battery turrets sides were 8 to 10 in (203 to 254 mm) thick, atop 12 in (305 mm) barbettes, and the casemate battery was protected with 6 in of Krupp steel. Her conning tower had 14 in (356 mm) thick sides as well. She was fitted with two armoured decks, 1 and 3 in (25 and 76 mm) thick, respectively.
## Service history
HMS Formidable was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard on 21 March 1898 and launched on 17 November 1898; she was, at the time of her launching, very incomplete, and she was launched primarily to clear the slipway so construction could begin on the battleship London. Formidable was completed in September 1901, and was commissioned at Portsmouth on 10 October for service in the Mediterranean Fleet. Captain Alexander William Chisholm-Batten paid off HMS Resolution on 9 October and he and his crew turned over to Formidable on the following day. In September 1902 she visited the Aegean sea with other ships of the station for combined manoeuvres near Nauplia, and the following year she was escort ship to the royal yacht HMY Victoria and Albert when the King visited the Mediterranean. She began a refit at Malta in 1904 which lasted until April 1905, and in April 1908 transferred to the Channel Fleet.
Paid off at Chatham Dockyard on 17 August 1908, Formidable began another refit and recommissioned on 20 April 1909 for service in the 1st Division, Home Fleet, stationed at the Nore. On 29 May, she transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. In May 1912, Formidable was reduced to a nucleus crew and transferred to the 5th Battle Squadron in the Second Fleet, Home Fleets, again at the Nore, where she served until the outbreak of war in August 1914. Hard steaming during this service led to her developing serious machinery problems.
### World War I
At the beginning of the First World War, Formidable and the 5th Battle Squadron were based at Portland and assigned to the Channel Fleet to defend the English Channel. After covering the safe transportation of the British Expeditionary Force to France in August 1914, Formidable took part in the transportation of the Portsmouth Marine Battalion to Ostend on 25 August. On 14 November, Formidable and the other ships of the 5th Battle Squadron were rebased at Sheerness because of concern that a German invasion of Great Britain was in the offing. The squadron was relieved by Duncan-class battleships of the 6th Battle Squadron and transferred to Portland on 30 December.
#### Loss
Under the command of Vice-Admiral Commanding, Channel Fleet, Sir Lewis Bayly, the 5th Battle Squadron spent 31 December participating in gunnery exercises off the Isle of Portland, supported by the light cruisers Topaze and Diamond. The squadron received no escort of destroyers for the operation. After the exercises, that night the fleet remained at sea on patrol even though submarine activity had been reported in the area. Visibility that night was good, though the sea was rough enough to make detection of a submarine difficult. Bayly suspected no danger from submarines, and so steamed his ships in line ahead formation at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Formidable was the last battleship in the line, followed only by the two cruisers. Unknown to the British, the German submarine U-24 stalked the squadron while it was exercising all afternoon, trying to find a suitable attack position.
At around 02:20 on 1 January 1915, U-24 launched a torpedo at Formidable, striking her on the starboard side abreast of the forward funnel. Formidable's commander, Captain Loxley, hoped to save the ship by bringing her close to shore; the other British ships were at that point unaware of what had happened, but after Formidable turned out of line, Topaze increased speed to determine what she was doing. By the time Topaze closed with Formidable twenty minutes later, the latter vessel had already taken on a list of 20 degrees to starboard, and Loxley had issued the order to abandon ship. Men attempting to save the vessel remained aboard and through counter-flooding reduced the list, though Formidable was by then very low in the water.
At around 03:05, U-24 launched another torpedo at the stricken Formidable, hitting her again on the starboard side close to her bow. Topaze, joined by Diamond, began the rescue effort, but the heavy seas made it very difficult to bring men aboard. Formidable remained afloat for another hour and forty minutes, and at 04:45 began to capsize and sink by the bow. She remained afloat, with her stern in the air, for a few minutes before sinking. Loxley was last seen on the bridge calmly overseeing the evacuation of the ship. Diamond picked up thirty-seven officers and crew from the water. The Brixham trawler Provident picked up 73 members of Formidable's crew from the battleship's launch at around midday, while Formidable's pinnace managed to reach Lyme Regis after 22 hours at sea, saving another 47 men. A total of 35 officers and 512 men were killed in the sinking.
An inquiry from the Admiralty into the sinking determined that the risk of conducting training exercises in the Channel without destroyer protection was excessive and should not be continued. Bayly was relieved of command for failing to take adequate precautions against submarine attack.
## Wreck site
Formidable's wreck site is designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
|
36,861,493 |
Mayflower MRT station
| 1,165,021,855 |
Mass Rapid Transit station in Singapore
|
[
"Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) stations",
"Railway stations in Singapore opened in 2021"
] |
Mayflower MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the Thomson–East Coast line (TEL) in Ang Mo Kio, Singapore. Situated underneath Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, the station serves various landmarks including the Kebun Baru Heights Estate, Kebun Baru Community Centre, and CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' School.
First announced in August 2012 as part of the Thomson line (TSL), the station was constructed as part of TEL Phase 2 (TEL2) with the merger of the TSL and the Eastern Region line (ERL). Building the station required multiple traffic diversions while having to construct the station along the slope. Opening on 28 August 2021 along with the TEL2 stations, Mayflower station features a unique honeycomb motif and is decorated with bird sculptures as part of the Art-in-Transit artwork in the station.
## History
Mayflower station was first announced as part of the 22-station Thomson line (TSL) on 29 August 2012. In October 2013, the contract for the design and construction of Mayflower station was awarded to Gammon Construction Limited Singapore Branch at . The station's construction began in 2014, with a scheduled completion date of 2020.
On 15 August 2014, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the TSL would merge with the Eastern Region line to form the Thomson–East Coast line (TEL). Mayflower station, along the proposed line, would be constructed as part of TEL2, consisting of six stations between Springleaf and Caldecott.
Since the station is directly underneath Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, its construction required traffic to be diverted in 15 phases. The sloping topography created height differences, which made it difficult to position the working platforms for the boring rigs and cranes to be used for the construction. Barriers were installed to minimise noise pollution, with workers draping noise curtains on heavy machinery.
With restrictions imposed on construction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the TEL2 completion date was pushed to 2021. On 14 December 2020, it was further announced that the opening of TEL2 was delayed to the third quarter of 2021 so the rail system software for the line could be reviewed. As announced during a visit by Transport Minister S. Iswaran at Caldecott station on 30 June 2021, the station began operations on 28 August 2021.
## Station details
Mayflower station serves the TEL and is between the Lentor and Bright Hill stations. The official station code is TE6. Being part of the TEL, the station is operated by SMRT Trains. Train frequencies on the TEL range from 5 to 9 minutes. Mayflower station has seven entrances, the most among the TEL2 stations. These entrances connect to the various landmarks nearby, including Kebun Baru Community Club, Mayflower Market & Food Centre, Ang Mo Kio Joint Temple and Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church. Educational institutions around the station include CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls' School and Mayflower Secondary School.
Designed by Ong&Ong, the linkways, roof panels and the entrances feature hexagonal motifs inspired by the honeycomb. The entrances are barrier-free, allowing easier access for elderly residents in the area. Reflecting the area's heritage as a songbird-watching community, the station is decorated with 22 bird sculptures as part of an Art-in-Transit artwork by Song-Ming Ang. The bird sculptures depict the seven species of birds that are kept as pets in Singapore, including the Oriental white-eye, the red-whiskered bulbul and the zebra dove.
Mayflower station is a designated Civil Defence (CD) shelter and contains a reinforced structure with blast doors. During a chemical attack, the air vents of the station can be shut to prevent the circulation of toxic gases. The CD shelter has dedicated cubicles for chemical decontamination alongside dry toilets.
|
56,836,491 |
Groom Mine
| 1,167,511,838 |
Defunct mine in Lincoln County, Nevada
|
[
"1875 establishments in Nevada",
"2015 disestablishments in Nevada",
"Buildings and structures in Lincoln County, Nevada",
"Mines in Nevada"
] |
Groom Mine, located in Lincoln County, Nevada, first opened in the 1870s. Most mining in the area, mostly of silver chloride ores, had finished by 1874. Groom Mine continued to operate, finally ceasing operations in 1954. By 1956, official recordings of products of the Groom Mining District, which includes Groom Mine, shows that lead was the bulk of minerals harvested, which also included 145,000 troy ounces (4,500 kg) of silver and about 45 troy ounces (1.4 kg) of gold. During World War II, Groom Mine became surrounded by military activity, which continued into the 21st century. In the 1950s, the mine was exposed to fallout from nuclear testing that was being carried out at the Nevada Test Site. During the late 20th century, military activities, including the destruction of a mill and the restriction of access to the mine, continued to affect work there. The United States Government seized the mine under eminent domain from its previous owners in 2015. Just compensation was set at \$1.204 million by the United States District Court, District of Nevada (Las Vegas), Judge Miranda Du presiding.
## Background
The rocks in the range date back to the Paleozoic era; the site is also covered by Tertiary rocks on its east and north sides. Prior to European exploration, the region was inhabited by Southern Paiute Native Americans. Following the discovery of minerals in the Comstock Lode in 1859, prospecting of other areas in Nevada began. Mining in the area began in the late 1860s, after minerals were discovered in the Groom Range in 1864. A mining district to organize claims, called Groom District, was formed in 1869. In 1871, the area was documented in the Wheeler Survey.
## History
### Mining
Human habitation at the Groom Mine site may have begun as early as 1866. A patent for the Groom Mine was issued in 1872 and in 1885, the Sheahan family acquired the property. The mine was three days' travel from Indian Springs and 5,250 feet (1,600 m) above sea level, making it very isolated. According to Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology in 1998, the property claim, which is commonly referred to as Groom, is officially named "Conception".
In addition to the Conception claim, other claims in Groom Distract were made and held by the Sheahan family. From 1915 until 1917, the mine was leased to Tom McCormick, who worked the mine. In September 1917, a miner from Austria-Hungary who was employed by Groom Mining Company died at the mine. In the mid-to-late 1910s the mine produced silver worth about \$250,000. The shipping of mined products became difficult with the closing of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad at the end of that decade, which caused the mine to become temporarily idle. By 1922, the mine had two shafts, the longest being 200 feet (61 m) deep.
In 1942, construction of a mill that used a gravity and flotation method began; a source later referred to this mill as a concentration mill. By 1951, four people were living at the mine and the concentration mill had been completed. Ore from Groom Mine, from which lead and silver were extracted, was found to contain cerussite and galena. Beginning in 1950, roads approaching the mine from the west were closed due to military activities, leading to the Sheahan family and Lincoln County to build a road from the east; this is referred to as Groom Road in a 1986 report. During the 1950s, mining operations paused due to nearby nuclear tests. In 1954, production from the mine ended due to the destruction of a mill at the mine.
Until 1956, the mine product totaled almost a million dollars in several minerals, including copper, silver, and gold; In 1977, the United States Bureau of Mines valued the output of Groom mine products at \$3.75 million . It was the most productive mine in the Groom Mining District and had been worked on by three generations of the Sheahan family. Based on panning samples near Groom Mine, the area may also contain deposits of antimony, barium, lead, mercury, and zinc. By 1959, the Sheahan family moved away from the mine but visited their property regularly. In 1984, the Sheahan family, who still owned the Groom Mine, also had the legal rights to most of the other 22 patented mining claims nearby. According to the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, it was estimated in 1963 that there is 30,000 tonnes (30,000,000 kg) of material that can be mined at Groom Mine. A 1990 Bureau of Land Management report stated that due to restricted access to the mine, it would lead to "potential loss of income through inability to expand or further develop the claims". Until late 2015, the Sheahan family periodically blasted for minerals at the mine; by this time the family had owned the mine for 130 years.
### Military interaction
In 1941, Groom Mine was visited by individuals who stayed at the mine with the Sheahan family while surveying the area for a gunnery and bombing range to be used during World War II. The outhouse and bunkhouse at the mine were accidentally strafed during the war by aircraft using the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range. Beginning in the 1950s, Groom Mine began to be impacted by nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site; Groom Mine was 38 miles (61 km) away. In 1951, the Atomic Energy Commission informed the Sheahan family of the planned detonations and set up instrumentation at the mine. The instrumentation was monitored by an employee of the United States Public Health Service, who lived at the mine along with the Sheahan family. The first mention of a nuclear tests impacting operations at Groom Mine was the Operation Tumbler–Snapper Easy Test, which led to the mine being evacuated due to its proximity to the detonation. Following the detonation, measurements of radiation at the mine reached 0.19 roentgen per hour. It caused some structural damage, breaking the front door of the Sheahan's home. Further away, fallout impacted nearby Tempiute. Returning to the mine had to be done using a different route; the normal route was too radioactive to travel on. The following Fox test in late May 1952 led to fallout falling on the mine; the highest-recorded radiation was 0.32 roentgen per hour. It was, however, the view of the Atomic Energy Commission that the nuclear detonations "had not subjected Groom Mine personnel to any real danger from fallout".
By May 1952, most of the Sheahan family had evacuated the mine and moved to Las Vegas. In July 1952, Martha, a member of the family who had been exposed to fallout, was diagnosed with cancer. Following Operation Upshot–Knothole, the Sheahan family attempted to sell their claim to the Atomic Energy Commission but it refused, fearing it would set a precedent; instead the family received \$1,100 for losses and damages resulting from the Operation Tumbler-Snapper tests. Following the adverse environmental impact observed by the two remaining family members at the mine caused by Upshot-Knothole Harry, the Atomic Energy Commission said the blasts were designed to produce winds from the testing area towards Groom rather than towards Las Vegas.
During 1953, the property was strafed and during the summer a bomb destroyed the mine's mill; no specific claim was made by the Sheahan family against the United States Air Force (USAF) for the event. In 1954, the mining buildings were strafed by aircraft using Nellis Air Force Gunnery and Bombing Range. In 1956, the Sheahan family and others filed lawsuits against the Atomic Energy Commission because of damage caused by nuclear testing. In 1959, the lawsuit was withdrawn when the Sheahan family ran out of funds to continue legal action. The property on which the mine is located has a view of an airfield known as Area 51. In the 1970s and 1980s, armed personnel arrived when the Sheahan family came onto their property, sometimes locking them into their own buildings.
In 1984, the USAF seized lands around Groom Mine, restricting access to the mine for the Sheahan family. Some of the Sheahan family were issued with security clearances after 1984. In 1986, the 1953 mill-destruction event was entered into the record of a subcommittee of the United States House Committee on Natural Resources. In 1987, the position of the United States Air Force was, "we don't want to go in and tell them to get the hell out". In 1989, although it was within the Nevada Test and Training Range, the United States Air Force allowed claimants access to their claims within the Groom Mining District, including Groom Mine.
### Government ownership
Beginning in late 2014, the United States Department of Defense attempted to purchase the property from the Sheahan family, originally offering \$1.5 million. By August 2015, the USAF had raised the offer to \$5.2 million; the family continued rejecting the offers. In August 2015, a government press release described the mine as a "safety and security risk", even though the Sheahan family had not disclosed any activities of the Groom Lake facility. In September 2015, the commander of the Nevada Test and Training Range stated that the existence of the mine within the range led to "tremendous expense" due to "canceling missions when they came out"; secret operations at the base could not proceed when civilians were present on the Sheahan's property within easy view of the installation. On 16 September 2015, the property was condemned under eminent domain and given to the United States Government by a court order signed by federal Judge Miranda Du.
It was not determined at the time of transfer of ownership how much the Sheahan family would receive in just compensation for the government acquisition of Groom Mine; the USAF in 2015 estimated the land to be worth \$1.2 million. In November 2015, the Sheahan family suggested the mine be protected as a national historic site; this coincides with a suggestion in a 1980s USAF report that recommended nominating Groom Mining District to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By 2016, the USAF only valued Groom Mine at under a third of a million dollars; the Sheahan family's legal counsel valued the property as being worth over \$100 million. In 2017, the family claimed they were forced to leave millions of dollars worth of property at Groom Mine following the seizure; part of the property which was abandoned includes an antique anvil that was missing when personal property was reviewed in November 2015. In August 2019, it was reported that the family was hoping to have a jury trial to determine the value of the property. The trial was ultimately conducted in front of a three-member Land Commission. Prior to trial, the landowners accepted the Government's valuation of the mineral interests at \$104,000 and went to trial only to contest the value of the surface rights. The landowner's experts valued those rights at \$50 million based on the property being developed into a commercial tourism enterprise offering views of Area 51. The Government's experts valued it at \$254,000 based on continued use as a rural recreation retreat. On May 29, 2020 the Land Commission ruled that just compensation for the taking of the surface rights is \$1,100,000 based on the property's continued use for rural recreation, with a premium over the Government's valuation to account for its view of Area 51 and its historic use as a family owned mining operation.
## See also
- Tikaboo Peak
|
8,728,498 |
My Lord John
| 1,167,797,321 |
Historical fiction novel by the Georgette Heyer, published in 1975
|
[
"1975 British novels",
"Historical novels",
"Novels by Georgette Heyer",
"Novels published posthumously",
"The Bodley Head books"
] |
My Lord John is an unfinished historical fiction novel by the British author Georgette Heyer, published posthumously in 1975 after her death the previous year. It traces the early lives of the "young lordings" – Harry, Thomas, John, and Humfrey – all sons of the future Lancastrian king Henry IV of England. They grow up amidst turbulent events including the 1394 pestilence, the exile of their father by Richard II, the death of their powerful grandfather John of Gaunt, and the seizure of the throne by their father. John of Lancaster serves as the novel's main character.
Heyer intended the novel to be the first instalment in a trilogy covering the House of Lancaster at the peak of its power (1393–1435), with John as its central character. She felt that John, now largely unknown today, was ideal because he was a "great man" who lived during the entirety of her selected time period and was the most trusted brother of Henry V. However, Heyer failed to complete the trilogy, finding herself distracted with the writing of her popular Regency novels to please her fans and offset her tax liabilities. She died in 1974, and My Lord John was published by her family a year later. It covered only the early life of John of Lancaster, from 1393 to 1413.
Upon its publication, My Lord John garnered a mostly negative reception from contemporary readers and literary critics, who felt that it lacked narrative flow and was inferior to Heyer's Regency novels. Modern critics also have viewed the work unfavourably. Featuring significant historical detail, it has been labelled "more serious" than her previous undertakings; one reviewer felt it resembled a historical narrative more than a novel. A German translation was released in 1980.
## Background and development
Georgette Heyer is best known for writing romantic stories set in the Regency era, but her body of work encompassed many different historical periods, including the English Civil War and the Middle Ages. One of her favoured periods centred on the House of Lancaster's peak of power, between 1393 and 1435. In 1950, Heyer began working on what she called "the magnum opus of my latter years", a medieval trilogy intended to cover the House of Lancaster during that period. She estimated that she would need five years to complete this project. Her impatient readers continually clamoured for new books, however; to satisfy them and her tax liabilities, Heyer interrupted herself to write Regency romances, such as April Lady (1957) and Charity Girl (1970).
According to Heyer's husband George Ronald Rougier, the Lancaster trilogy was to centre on John of Lancaster because he was Henry V's most trusted brother, lived during the entirety of her selected time period, and "was a great man" little known today. In her novel, Heyer describes John as possessing the "best temper of all his family, and the greatest talent for peacemaking." Rougier stated that the perfectionist Heyer prepared for the trilogy by embarking on holistic research that covered "every aspect of the period," including its wars, social conditions, and heraldry. Heyer learned to read medieval English and created indexed files that catalogued every single day for the forty year time period. She and her husband travelled England and Scotland, where Heyer took copious notes while visiting seventy-five castles and twenty-three abbeys.
After each break taken to write another Regency novel however, Heyer found it difficult to return to writing the trilogy and "recapture the spirit of her main work," as each time she had to refresh her knowledge of the era. As a result, she only managed to complete nearly a third of the trilogy, and My Lord John was the result of these efforts. It became her only completed volume of the series. Heyer died in 1974, with a story that only covered a quarter of John of Lancaster's life, from 1393 to 1413. The novel's structure is split into four parts, each covering a specific period of John's life.
## Plot
### Historical background
The reign of Richard II of England forms the backdrop of the novel. Having become monarch at a young age, Richard has become a vain king "not universally held in high esteem." In his minority, governance has been dominated by select favourites such as the 9th Earl of Oxford, who is deeply unpopular. In response to policies they deem bad for the realm, Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby and other members of the "Lords Appellant", such as the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Arundel, successfully take up arms against Oxford at the Battle of Radcot Bridge and remove him from power.
Now twenty-two, King Richard takes the reigns of government back into his own hands, appointing new favourites labelled "contemptible foppets" by his uncle John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. Gaunt is, however, loyal and trusted by the King despite his disagreements with court favourites. As one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, Gaunt has been involved in an ongoing conflict with Arundel, an "orgulous" man whom Gaunt blames for inciting a rising in Cheshire.
### Plot summary
The novel's story begins in 1393 England. John of Lancaster – the third eldest son of Henry of Bolingbroke – resides at Kenilworth Castle with his mother Countess Mary and three brothers Harry, Thomas, and Humfrey. The boys are visited by their grandfather, John of Gaunt, and a large retinue that includes his mistress Katherine Swynford, his daughter Lady Elizabeth, and his three Beaufort sons. Mary privately worries to Katherine that the King will never forgive her husband's participation at Radcot Bridge and the loss of his "dear friend" Oxford.
Mary and the children travel to London to greet the recently travelling Bolingbroke – "a handsome, jolly knight, richly caparisoned, splendidly horsed" – who is very popular with the city's residents, unlike his father. The Earl of Derby pays homage to King Richard, who decides that Harry will become his squire. Gaunt succeeds in getting Arundel ousted from court. Mary dies of the plague, as does Queen Anne and Gaunt's wife Constance.
Harry becomes King Richard's squire while John is sent to live with the Countess Marshal at Framlingham Castle. There, he is lonely though kindly treated. John hears of the increasingly erratic behaviour of the king, who has had the body of Oxford embalmed and publicly displayed. Former members of the Lords Appellant are arrested, including Arundel, Gloucester, and Warwick. Richard also decides that those "who were of his own blood" will be raised to the status of dukes, and Henry of Bolingbroke is made Duke of Hereford.
Fearful of Hereford's power, Richard unjustly orders that his cousin be banished from the realm for six years, to the dismay of the House of Commons and many others. Slowly dying of old age, Gaunt's final advice to Richard, that he put aside his favourites and become a just king, falls on deaf ears. Gaunt dies soon after; Richard becomes increasingly dictatorial and prevents Gaunt's vast inheritance from being granted to Bolingbroke; his banishment is converted to life, though his sons remain in the country. In the wake of these troublesome events, Richard leaves England for Ireland, a decision widely considered folly considering the turmoil England is in. Bolingbroke returns to England and many nobleman flock to his banner; Richard is overthrown.
John watches as his father is crowned Henry IV of England and Harry is made Prince of Wales, but remains sceptical that his family has a more immediate claim to the crown than others in their family. The new king's supporters insist Henry kill Richard and others who oppose him, but Henry resists the calls for violence. Henry deals with opposition to his rule in the form of rebellions, imposters, and men who expected him to right every wrong in the kingdom. Amidst these events, John grows up under the fostership of various households. John is a talented student, but is more interested in the problems of the realm than mere writings of long dead men. He is the only one of Henry IV's sons interested in crown finances, and acquires as much information on the running of government as possible.
As a teenager John proves his worth and is gradually granted positions of authority, first as Master of the Falcons, then as Lord Warden of the East Marches and Constable of England. He takes all three positions seriously, devoting himself to the acquirement of knowledge necessary for effective administration. He comes of age in the midst of these busy tasks, a ready pupil to the string of men sent to advise him. He helps his father withstand the Glyndŵr and Northern Risings, and wisely gives military command to his more experienced uncle Westmorland. He understands that his administrative skill is more useful than acting as a soldier, and earns the respect of the people under his control by not being unduly harsh with punishment and embarking on negotiations with the Scots.
The novel abruptly ends mid-sentence, with John journeying north to negotiate a long truce with the Scots on behalf of his brother Harry.
## Analysis
My Lord John, as one of Heyer's few historical novels, marks a departure from her more popular Regency stories. It has been labelled "more serious" than her previous undertakings, and features extensive historical detail. Geneva Stephenson of the Columbus Dispatch likened My Lord John more to a historical narrative than a novel, only deciding on the latter category due to the work's "in-depth characterisation, movement, colour, [and] motivation."
By featuring the life of John of Lancaster from early childhood to young adulthood, Heyer conveys a full glimpse of medieval life – court intrigues as well as the lives of ordinary people are part of the story. Furthermore, while near to major historical players, John's apartness from power allows Heyer to create a fuller depiction of his life without having to change major historical events.
## Release and reception
Heyer's family published My Lord John in 1975, a year after Heyer's death. Several days after its release, A. S. Byatt reported that The Bodley Head "have received their biggest paperback offer ever" for the novel. That publishing company released the novel in the United Kingdom, while its American release was handled by Dutton, a company based in New York. A German translation was released in 1980.
In the period immediately following its publication, the novel received fourteen professional reviews – a number much larger than most of her other works. Critics gave largely negative reviews, and Mary Fahnestock-Thomas writes that "many fans [found My Lord John] virtually unreadable." The year of its release in 1975, Library Journal contributor Eleanore Singer praised it for being "well-documented historical writing," though she felt that "as a novel, it doesn't have enough dramatic or narrative flow to keep it from being often boring." Singer added that My Lord John "falls far short of that superb blending of history and compelling storytelling that characterizes successful examples of the genre." Jane Aiken Hodge of History Today, while praising Heyer's Regency novels as "triumphs of a language that never was on sea or land," thought that My Lord John was "less successful." The language of the novel, Aiken Hodge said, was grating and "scattered with too lavish a hand," with words like lordings and bel sire. Aiken Hodge also felt that while it contained "some happy moments of unmistakable Heyer humour," it failed to contain enough to "hold a young reader for long."
R.M. Franklin of The Times Literary Supplement opined that because the novel ended before the "most interesting parts of John of Bedford's career," it "has an air of anticlimax about it, and more than once themes are indicated which vanish inexplicably." In a 2008 contribution for The Times, Hilary Rose praised Heyer's Regency novels but found My Lord John to be "oddly difficult, possibly on account of it being concerned more with medieval history than masquerade balls at Vauxhall Gardens." Writing for Tor.com in 2012, Mari Ness opined that while Heyer hoped My Lord John would be her masterpiece, it instead "serves mainly as an illustration that authors are often terrible at determining which of their works is actually a masterpiece. My Lord John, absolutely not."
|
25,989,627 |
The One with the Cast of Night Court
| 1,153,720,929 | null |
[
"2008 American television episodes",
"30 Rock (season 3) episodes"
] |
"The One with the Cast of Night Court" is the third episode of the third season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock. It was written by co-executive producer Jack Burditt, and directed by Gail Mancuso. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on November 13, 2008.
The episode received mixed reception from television critics. According to the Nielsen ratings system, it was watched by 7.5 million households during its original broadcast, and received a 4.6 rating/7 share among viewers in the 18–49 demographic. For her performance in this episode, Jennifer Aniston received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the category for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. The title of the episode is a reference to Aniston's show Friends.
## Plot
Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) await the arrival of their old Chicago roommate, Claire Harper (Jennifer Aniston). The two are not thrilled with her visit as they find her exhausting to be around. Immediately, their boss Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) is attracted to Claire, but Liz tells him not to get involved with her. Jack, however, reveals to Liz that the two have already slept together. At a General Electric formal function, Claire surprises Jack by singing a sexy rendition of "Happy Birthday" to him, an allusion to Marilyn Monroe's performance for John F. Kennedy's birthday. He tells her that she needs to leave, so Claire loudly threatens to kill herself. To help Jack, Liz gets Claire to abandon her plans with Jack and instead go out nightclubbing with her and Jenna. At the club, Claire does not show up, which prompts Liz to call Jack to warn him about potential danger. He finds Claire inside his apartment and ends up sleeping with her again. When asked to choose between Liz and Claire, Jack chooses Claire, but Claire, thinking that the relationship has gotten boring, turns on Jack.
Meanwhile, NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) is not happy with the new page uniforms. Wanting to see Kenneth happy again, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) gets actors Harry Anderson, Markie Post, and Charlie Robinson from the television show Night Court to come to 30 Rock, where Anderson and Post agree to stage the wedding of their respective characters, Judge Harry Stone and Christine Sullivan. Kenneth is excited when he finds out that he can finally see the Night Court wedding, which never occurred before the show was canceled by the network. When a conflict between Anderson and Post ensues, it seems that the wedding will not take place. However, Anderson and Post make up and rehearse. As Tracy and Kenneth finish taping the final scenes of Harry and Christine's wedding, Harry declares it illegal to wear the new page uniforms and demands the old ones be brought back. Tracy tells Kenneth that he added that part in the script as he complained to Kenneth's superiors to bring back the old uniforms, which makes Kenneth happy.
## Production
"The One with the Cast of Night Court" was written by co-executive producer Jack Burditt, and directed by Gail Mancuso. This was Burditt's eighth writing credit, and was Mancuso's fourth directed episode. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on November 13, 2008, as the third episode of the show's third season. Its title, "The One...", is the convention used to name episodes of guest star Jennifer Aniston's prior sitcom Friends.
In August 2008, it was announced that actress Jennifer Aniston would guest star on 30 Rock. The following month it was confirmed by NBC that she would play a woman obsessed with Alec Baldwin's character, Jack Donaghy. She filmed her scenes on August 29 and September 4, 2008. In November 2008, it was announced that actors Markie Post, Harry Anderson and Charlie Robinson, the cast of the situation comedy show Night Court, would make a cameo on the show.
Two filmed scenes from "The One with the Cast of Night Court" were cut out from the airing. Instead, the scenes were featured on 30 Rock's season 3 DVD as part of the deleted scenes in the Bonus feature. In the first scene, Liz and Jenna recall their wild nights with Claire, including when Jenna and Claire danced around an opened fire hydrant, while Liz tells them that she does not feel safe. They also remember when they crashed a Polish wedding, in which Claire is seen dancing around a group of men. In the second scene, Harry Anderson is in Tracy's dressing room, after leaving rehearsal. Tracy enters to convince him to make up with Markie Post. In another room, Kenneth is seen with Markie Post. Anderson complains to Tracy about Post, as does Post about Anderson to Kenneth. Tracy tells him to forget about the past and fulfill Kenneth's dreams of a Night Court wedding to make Kenneth happy, as he is displeased with the new page uniforms he is forced to wear.
## Reception
In its original American broadcast, "The One with the Cast of Night Court" was watched by 7.5 million households, according to the Nielsen ratings system. It received a 4.6 rating/7 share among viewers in the 18–49 demographic, meaning that 4.6% of all people in that group, and 7% of all people from that group watching television at the time, watched the episode. This was a decrease from the previous episode, "Believe in the Stars", which was watched by 8.0 million American viewers. This episode was the tenth highest-rated show on the NBC network during the week of November 10–16, 2008. Jennifer Aniston received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards for her work in this episode, but lost to Tina Fey for her satirical portrayal of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.
Since airing, "The One with the Cast of Night Court" has received mixed reception from television critics. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club wrote that the episode was "kooky, ooky and over-the-top" and enjoyed every minute of it. "For the more esoteric viewer, it's a milestone episode", said The Age's Farah Farouque. Cameron Adams for the Herald Sun called the episode hilarious, while The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert felt that it was flaccid and clichéd. IGN contributor Robert Canning said that the episode "did have its moments" and that the storylines "had their potential, and their share of laughs, but I can't help but feel they both could have been so much more." He opined that the Kenneth and Tracy story was "more up 30 Rock's style" but that it was a shame that the story could not "quite knock the concept out of the park." Overall, Canning rated "The One with the Cast of Night Court" a 7.9 out of 10. Jeff Labrecque for Entertainment Weekly reported that the episode fell flat.
Critical opinion was divided on Aniston's performance as Claire. TV Guide's Matt Mitovich wrote that Aniston "looked sweet, but the role was juuuuust a bit much ... [and] over-the-top." Jeremy Medina of Paste said that the show did not really seem to know what to do with Aniston in this episode. Tom Stempel for Slant Magazine said 30 Rock was "smart enough" not to make Claire resemble Aniston's former television character, Rachel, from Friends. Further in his review, Stempel said that Claire was a "great choice of character" for Aniston to play, and praised her for knocking the role "out of the park." Kerrie Murphy for The Australian was equally positive noting that Aniston fits in smoothly as Liz's former roommate. Murphy added, "Not only is it a reminder that Aniston is a gifted comic actor [...] With her, the show's regular cast easily hold their own."
Bob Sassone of AOL's TV Squad enjoyed the cameos of Harry Anderson, Markie Post, and Charles Robinson in the episode. Robert Philpot for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote that the Night Court cast stole the show from Aniston. Television columnist Alan Sepinwall for The Star-Ledger wrote that he "got a much bigger kick out" of the Night Court story. Medina, who wrote that the episode was "mostly a success", disliked the Night Court subplot, claiming it was not funny.
|
38,850,105 |
Italian cruiser San Marco
| 1,134,784,871 |
Italian San Giorgio-class cruiser
|
[
"1907 ships",
"Naval ships of Italy captured by Germany during World War II",
"San Giorgio-class cruisers",
"Ships built in Castellammare di Stabia",
"World War I cruisers of Italy"
] |
The Italian cruiser San Marco was a San Giorgio-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the first large Italian ship fitted with steam turbines and the first turbine-powered ship in any navy to have four propeller shafts. The ship participated in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, during which time she supported the occupations of Benghazi and Derna, the island of Rhodes, and bombarded the fortifications defending the entrance to the Dardanelles. During World War I, San Marco's activities were limited by the threat of Austro-Hungarian submarines, although the ship did participate in the bombardment of Durazzo, Albania in late 1918. She played a minor role in the Corfu incident in 1923 and was converted into a target ship in the first half of the 1930s. San Marco was captured by the Germans when they occupied northern Italy in 1943 and was found sunk at the end of the war. The ship was broken up and scrapped in 1949.
## Design and description
The ships of the San Giorgio class were designed as improved versions of the Pisa-class design. San Marco's design featured several new innovations that differentiated her from her sister ship San Giorgio. San Marco was given the first steam turbines fitted in a large Italian ship and she was the first turbine-powered ship in any navy to have four shafts, the first with a gyroscopic compass, the first with antiroll tanks, and the first not to use wood in any way.
San Marco had a length between perpendiculars of 131.04 metres (429 ft 11 in) and an overall length of 140.89 metres (462 ft 3 in). She had a beam of 21.03 metres (69 ft 0 in) and a draught of 7.76 metres (25 ft 6 in). The ship displaced 10,969 tonnes (10,796 long tons) at normal load, and 11,900 tonnes (11,700 long tons) at deep load. Her complement was 32 officers and 666 to 673 enlisted men.
The ship was powered by four steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam supplied by 14 Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Designed for a maximum output of 23,000 shaft horsepower (17,000 kW) and a speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph), San Marco handily exceeded this, reaching a speed of 23.75 knots (43.99 km/h; 27.33 mph) during her sea trials from 23,030 ihp (17,170 kW). The ship was also required to be a half a knot faster than San Giorgio, a requirement she easily surpassed. San Marco had a cruising range of 4,800 nautical miles (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
The main armament of the San Giorgio-class ships consisted of four Cannone da 254/45 A Modello 1908 guns in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. The ships mounted eight Cannone da 190/45 A Modello 1908 in four twin-gun turrets, two in each side amidships, as their secondary armament. For defense against torpedo boats, they carried 18 quick-firing (QF) 40-caliber 76 mm (3.0 in) guns. Eight of these were mounted in embrasures in the sides of the hull and the rest in the superstructure. The ships were also fitted with a pair of 40-caliber QF 47 mm (1.9 in) guns. The San Giorgios were also equipped with three submerged 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. During World War I, eight of the 76 mm guns were replaced by six 76 mm anti-aircraft guns and one torpedo tube was removed.
The ships were protected by an armoured belt that was 200 mm (7.9 in) thick amidships and reduced to 80 mm (3.1 in) at the bow and stern. The armoured deck was 50 mm (2.0 in) thick and the conning tower armour was 254 mm thick. The 254 mm gun turrets were protected by 200 mm of armour while the 190 mm turrets had 160 mm (6.3 in).
## Construction and career
San Marco , named after Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice, was ordered on 18 September 1905 and laid down on 2 January 1907 at the Regio Cantieri di Castellammare di Stabia in Castellammare di Stabia, on the Bay of Naples. The ship was launched on 20 December 1907 and completed on 7 February 1911.
When the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912 began on 29 September 1911, San Marco was not initially assigned to the 2nd Division of the 1st Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet. She was assigned to the Division on 1 October and later escorted several Italian transports that arrived off Derna, Libya on 15 October together with the battleship Napoli and the armoured cruisers Pisa and Amalfi. After negotiations for a surrender of the town fell apart, Pisa shelled the barracks and a fort. There was no return fire from Derna, so a boat with offers of a truce was sent in. When it was greeted by a volley of rifle fire, San Marco and the other armoured cruisers opened fire on the town with their 190 mm guns and, according to a contemporary account, "completely destroyed" the town in 30 minutes time. A landing party was unable to reach the shore because of rough seas and gunfire from the shore. San Marco and her consorts then shelled the beach for two hours. Weather conditions prevented a landing until the 18th, when 1,500 men took possession of Derna. The ship then supported Italian troops at Benghazi in December. In mid-April 1912 the Italian fleet sortied into the eastern Aegean Sea with Pisa and Amalfi leading in an attempt to lure out the Ottoman fleet. When that failed, the Italians bombarded the fortifications defending the Dardanelles to little effect before the main body departed for Italy on the 19th. In May San Marco provided support for the occupation of Rhodes and finally returned home on 20 September.
She was used for experiments evaluating shipboard operation of seaplanes before the start of World War I. The ship was based at Brindisi when Italy declared war on the Central Powers on 23 May 1915. That night, the Austro-Hungarian Navy bombarded the Italian coast in an attempt to disrupt the Italian mobilization. Of the many targets, Ancona was hardest hit, with disruptions to the town's gas, electric, and telephone service; the city's stockpiles of coal and oil were left in flames. All of the Austrian ships safely returned to port, putting pressure on the Regia Marina to stop the attacks. When the Austrians resumed bombardments on the Italian coast in mid-June, Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel responded by sending San Marco and the other armoured cruisers at Brindisi—the navy's newest—to Venice to supplement the older ships already there. Shortly after their arrival at Venice, Amalfi was sunk by a submarine on 7 July and her loss severely restricted the activities of the other ships based at Venice. San Marco later participated in the bombardment of Durazzo (now known as Durrës) on 2 October 1918 which sank one merchantman and damaged two others.
On 21 September 1923, the ship transported to Taranto the bodies of the members of the Boundary Commission killed on Corfu on 27 August (their deaths sparked the Corfu incident). On 1 October, San Marco ferried the last occupation troops from Corfu to Brindisi. On 16 March 1924, she saluted King Victor Emmanuel III when he arrived in Fiume to attend the ceremony commemorating the city's annexation by Italy. San Marco escorted Crown Prince Umberto, travelling aboard San Giorgio, during his South American tour in July–September 1924.
San Marco was disarmed and converted into a radio-controlled (by the elderly destroyer Audace) target ship in 1931–1935. Her old boilers were replaced by four oil-burning Thornycroft-type boilers which reduced her maximum speed to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) from 13,000 shaft horsepower (9,700 kW). During a naval review for Adolf Hitler in the Bay of Naples on 5 May 1938, the ship was used as a target by the heavy cruisers Fiume and Zara. She was captured by the Germans when they occupied La Spezia on 9 September 1943; the ship was found at the end of the war sunk in the harbor there. San Marco was formally stricken from the Navy List on 27 February 1947 and broken up in 1949.
|
5,141,594 |
New York State Route 134
| 1,159,334,397 |
State highway in Westchester County, New York, US
|
[
"State highways in New York (state)",
"Transportation in Westchester County, New York"
] |
New York State Route 134 (NY 134) is a 6.35-mile (10.22 km) state highway in the western part of Westchester County, New York, in the United States. It begins at an intersection with NY 133 in the village of Ossining and heads northeast to the hamlet of Kitchawan, located adjacent to the New Croton Reservoir in the town of Yorktown. From here, the route turns southeast to reach its east end at a junction with NY 100. The highway passes the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, one of the main research headquarters for IBM, just east of an interchange with the Taconic State Parkway.
Taken over by the state of New York between 1908 and 1926, NY 134 was assigned to its current alignment as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. In 1960, in conjunction with construction of the Watson Research Center, an interchange was added to NY 134 for the Taconic.
## Route description
NY 134 begins at an intersection with NY 133 (Croton Avenue) in the village of Ossining, just east of the latter's west end at U.S. Route 9 (North Highland Avenue). The route proceeds northeast as the two-lane Dale Avenue, passing through a residential section of the village and passing Dale Cemetery. Just past the cemetery, the highway changes names to Hawkes Avenue as it leaves the village for other parts of the town of Ossining. The route continues generally northeastward past homes to the vicinity of NY 9A (the Briarcliff–Peekskill Parkway), where NY 134 forks from Hawkes Avenue and begins to parallel NY 9A on Kitchawan State Road, a short connector to nearby Croton Dam Road. Upon intersecting Croton Dam Road, NY 134 turns northward and immediately intersects NY 9A at an at-grade intersection.
Past NY 9A, NY 134 heads northeast across the northern fringe of Ossining, climbing uphill as it passes Purdy Pond and crossing into the town of New Castle. Here, the homes gradually diminish in number, with dense woods taking their place. This trend continues into the adjacent town of Yorktown, where NY 134 becomes Kitchawan Road. About 1 mile (1.6 km) from the town line, the highway entering an interchange with the Taconic State Parkway. For a short distance after the interchange, NY 134 becomes four lanes as the road serves IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. It narrows to two lanes past the facility, from where the highway takes a slightly more easterly track across Yorktown to reach the Kitchawan Preserve on the southern edge of the New Croton Reservoir.
At this point, the road makes a turn to the southeast to enter the small hamlet of Kitchawan, located at NY 134's junction with Pines Bridge Road (unsigned County Route 1323 or CR 1323). Pines Bridge Road was once NY 135, and its junction with NY 134 in Kitchawan was NY 135's eastern terminus. From Pines Bridge Road, NY 134 bends southward to run alongside a reservoir inlet connecting to Cornell Brook. After about 1,500 feet (460 m), the route makes a final turn to the east to cross Cornell Brook and reach its east end at an intersection with NY 100 (Saw Mill River Road).
## History
The origins of NY 134 date back to the late 1900s when the state of New York improved the portion of the route outside of the Ossining village limits to state highway standards. A contract for the \$59,973 project (equivalent to \$ in 2023) was awarded on June 30, 1908, and the rebuilt road was added to the state highway system on August 1, 1910, as unsigned State Highway 768 (SH 768). Its continuation into the village limits was taken over by the state by 1926. Neither state highway had a posted route number until the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, when hundreds of state-maintained roads were given signed designations for the first time. The two state highways were combined to create NY 134.
In 1960, a new interchange was built between NY 134 and the Taconic State Parkway as part of the construction of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. During the excavation process for the junction, a bone from a woolly mammoth (colloquially known as Jefferson's mammoth) was found buried in the earth below. The bones were moved to the New York State Museum in Albany. The construction also required the relocation of the Kitchawan Tavern from the site of the exit to the junction of Kitchawan and Chadeanye roads a half-mile (0.8 km) to the east.
## Major intersections
## See also
|
3,361,692 |
U.S. Route 1 Business (Trenton, New Jersey)
| 1,173,281,245 |
Highway in Trenton, New Jersey
|
[
"Lincoln Highway",
"Roads in Mercer County, New Jersey",
"Special routes of the United States Numbered Highway System",
"Trenton, New Jersey",
"U.S. Highways in New Jersey",
"U.S. Route 1"
] |
U.S. Route 1 Business (US 1 Bus.) is a four-lane surface road that provides an alternate route to the Trenton Freeway (US 1) northeast of Trenton in Mercer County, New Jersey. The route is 2.73 miles (4.39 km) long and runs between US 1 in Trenton and Lawrence Township. On the border of Trenton and Lawrence Township, US 1 Bus. intersects the northbound direction of US 206 at the Brunswick Circle. The route was once part of a longer U.S. Route 1 Alternate (US 1 Alt.), which continued southwest through downtown Trenton and into Morrisville, Pennsylvania.
The old US 1 Alt. in Trenton is now signed by the New Jersey Department of Transportation as part of US 1 Bus., despite not being officially recognized as such. Signage in Pennsylvania no longer exists; most of the former US 1 Alt. is now part of Pennsylvania Route 32 (PA 32). US 1 Alt. was created in 1953 after US 1 was moved to a freeway between Morrisville and the Brunswick Circle. By the 1980s, when the Trenton Freeway was extended to its current terminus, US 1 Bus. was created onto its current alignment and US 1 Alt. was removed through Trenton and Morrisville.
## Route description
US 1 Bus. begins at a split from the median of the US 1 freeway in Trenton, having access to and from the south along US 1. The road heads north as a four-lane divided highway before making a turn to the northwest. The route becomes four-lane undivided Strawberry Street and passes through residential areas. At the border of Lawrence Township and Trenton, the road enters the Brunswick Circle, where it junctions with northbound US 206 and CR 645. At the circle, the route turns northeast onto a four-lane divided highway known locally as the Brunswick Pike (originally the Trenton and New Brunswick Turnpike) and enters Lawrence Township. The road runs through residential and commercial areas and passes Colonial Lake, with a few intersections controlled by jughandles. US 1 Bus. has an intersection with CR 616, which heads east to provide access to US 1. Further to the northeast, the settings become more commercial before US 1 Bus. merges into northbound US 1 at the northeast end of the Trenton Freeway.
Despite the official route beginning at US 1 near the Brunswick Circle, signage has US 1 Bus. begin at the Lower Trenton Bridge over the Delaware River, just north of the Trenton–Morrisville Toll Bridge (US 1). The continuation into Pennsylvania is State Route 2060 (SR 2060), an unsigned quadrant route, to the PA 32 intersection in Morrisville. From the bridge, US 1 Bus. signage heads northeast on Bridge Street, with the road curving north onto Warren Street into downtown Trenton. At Livingston Street, the road becomes a one-way pair following Warren Street southbound and Broad Street northbound, concurrent with US 206. At the south end of Route 31, the one-way pair becomes Brunswick Avenue northbound and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard southbound, heading northeast. These two roads are two-way but carry only one direction of US 1 Bus./US 206. The one-way pair continues to the Brunswick Circle, where the official US 1 Bus. continues north. Strawberry Street is signed "to US 1 south" from the circle and as US 1 Bus. north from US 1. Southbound US 1 Bus. leaves the circle with US 206 southbound on the Brunswick Circle Extension, merging with Princeton Avenue (CR 583). Officially, the Brunswick Circle Extension is CR 645 and US 206 southbound bypasses the circle via Princeton Avenue, but all signage points US 206 through the circle. Northbound US 1 Bus. and US 206 simply enter the circle from Brunswick Avenue.
## History
What is now US 1 Bus. north of the Brunswick Circle was chartered as part of the Trenton and New Brunswick Turnpike in 1803. This turnpike became a public road in 1903. In 1926, the U.S. Numbered Highway System was created and US 1 was designated to run through the Trenton area from the Lower Trenton Bridge north to Route 13, which it followed to New Brunswick. In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, Route 13 became Route 27 and the Trenton and New Brunswick Turnpike, which ran parallel to Route 13 in Trenton, became Route 26. By the 1930s, US 1 was rerouted to follow Route 26 between Trenton and New Brunswick, with US 206 being designated along Route 27 in Trenton.
In December 1952, the Trenton–Morrisville Toll Bridge and its approaches opened, which included the Trenton Freeway between the Delaware River and the Brunswick Circle. US 1 was rerouted onto the new bridge and the Trenton Freeway. In the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering that occurred a month later, the Route 26 and Route 27 designations were removed through Trenton. In addition, US 1 Alt. was designated onto the former US 1 in Morrisville and Trenton, running from US 1 on the western end of Morrisville and over the Lower Trenton Bridge into Trenton, where it continued northeast to US 1 at the Brunswick Circle. By the 1980s, an extension of the Trenton Freeway had been completed to Lawrence Township. US 1 was rerouted to this freeway and US 1 Bus. was designated onto the former US 1 between the freeway's north end and the interchange at Strawberry Street. The US 1 Alt. designation through Trenton and Morrisville was officially removed. Most of the route in Trenton is now only officially a part of US 206, despite being signed as US 1 Bus. The former US 1 Alt. in Morrisville became SR 2060 from the Lower Trenton Bridge to PA 32 and a southern extension of PA 32 south of there.
## Major intersections
## See also
|
11,162,516 |
VR Class Sm3
| 1,169,736,738 |
Finnish high-speed Pendolino train
|
[
"25 kV AC multiple units",
"Fiat Ferroviaria",
"High-speed trains of Finland",
"Multiple units of Finland",
"Passenger trains running at least at 200 km/h in commercial operations",
"Pendolino"
] |
The Sm3 Pendolino (originally branded as Pendolino S220, and usually referred to simply as the Pendolino) is a class of high-speed body-tilting trains operated by VR Group. It is a member of the Pendolino train family; its design is based on the ETR 460. The first two trainsets were assembled in Finland by Rautaruukki-Transtech in the mid-1990s. The rest of the series of eighteen EMUs were built by Fiat Ferroviaria (later Alstom) between 2000 and 2006. The trains serve most of Finland's major cities such as Helsinki, Turku, Oulu and Joensuu with a maximum speed of 220 km/h (140 mph), although this speed is only attained between Kerava and Lahti. The train has a power output of 4,000 kW (5,400 hp) and weighs 328 tonnes (323 long tons; 362 short tons).
The Sm3 had a long prototype phase before the main series was ordered, with reliability issues being brought up by the press from time to time. Negative reporting continues to haunt the series' reputation. Reliability problems cannot be proven, as no statistics of specific train types are available. The train has not managed to cope with harsh Finnish weather conditions, and the time benefit of the tilting mechanism will not be taken into account in timetables of winter 2011–2012. Nevertheless, the Sm3 has also received positive feedback from passengers and has led to increased operating speeds on the Finnish rail network.
## History
### 1992: Ordering
VR announced its 2 billion Finnish Mark Pendolino order on 7 February 1992, consisting of two firm orders and twenty-three options. ABB's X 2000 and the Talgo Pendular were considered in addition to the Italian train; the latter was chosen due to its lower price (70 million FIM per unit) and because it was already running. Only these two tilting trains were considered due to the twisting nature Finland's railway network. Thanks to its tilting mechanism, the Pendolino – unlike such other European high-speed trains like the TGV, Thalys, and AVE – does not need to run on specialised high-speed lines, which was important to VR; instead, it runs on existing lines, and was expected to surpass the speed attained by traditional trains by 35%. This has both beneficial and negative consequences. The trains cannot run at as high a speed as, for example, the TGV, due to the lines. However, the Pendolino can also run alongside normal non-tilting trains, allowing for greater use of the railway. Building trains that could ensure passenger comfort at high speed on these routes by tilting through the curves was seen as a much cheaper solution than reconstructing the railway network itself due to Finland's low population and long distances. The train was originally called the Sm200, but in May 1995 it was officially named Sm3 according to VR's nomenclature for multiple units.
It was expected that the train would, as in Italy, run at a maximum speed of 250 km/h (160 mph) and significantly shorten the travel times between major cities. As an example, the 2-hour and 7-minute travel time between Helsinki and Turku was expected to drop to 1:28 by 2010; however, the top speed of the train was limited to 220 km/h (140 mph) and the advertised times were never achieved. As of July 2011, 1:44 is the fastest train link between the two cities (on the S126).
### 1993–1997: Testing the prototypes
A test carriage from an ETR 460 arrived by boat into Finland from Italy in March 1993. It was used to test how the Pendolino would cope with Finland's winter and rail network by running it in Northern Karelia between Nurmes and Vieki. The carriage had to be fitted with new bogies over night at Hanko as it was designed for standard gauge instead of the broader Finnish gauge. Another carriage was built by Transtech according to the specifications of the new train (nomenclature KOEV from koevaunu, test carriage). It was later included in the first completed unit as the fourth car, TT 7401. Before a full trainset was finished, some test runs were made with only the first three carriages of the train in late 1994.
The first finished train was unveiled to the press on 14 October 1994, and the first two trainsets started their regular test traffic on 27 November 1995 between Helsinki and Turku on the coastal track. Test traffic was stopped only after three months, at the end of February 1996, due to technical difficulties with the trains. Testing later resumed, and VR announced in 1997 that it would start normal operations with the Pendolino despite electrical problems. The ability of the train to cope with the Finnish winter was put into question, but VR denied that coldness had been a factor in the electrical failures.
### 1997–2006: The main series
Testing ended in August 1997, after the two trainsets had covered a total of 815,000 kilometres (506,000 mi) during 3,870 trips between Helsinki and Turku. Only six of three thousand journeys were terminated due to technical issues. VR's CEO Henri Kuitunen was positive about the new train in 1998, stating that passengers feel it has been a good purchase. Passenger numbers rose by 17% between Helsinki and Turku in 1997.
Eight additional Pendolinos were ordered at the end 1997 at the price of FIM 77 million per train (€13 million). They were delivered between 2000 and 2002. The main series trains differed in various ways from the prototypes. The new trains allowed Pendolino traffic to extend: they started running between Helsinki and Jyväskylä on 22 October 2001. In June 2002, the network was expanded further, and routes were continued from Tampere onwards to Oulu and from Jyväskylä to Kuopio. One of the main series trains (number 7x08) was damaged during maritime transport in October 2001. The badly secured train had come loose during a storm on the Atlantic, almost causing the loss of M/S Traden, the ship carrying it. Thanks to good actions of the ship's crew, it was able to reach Le Havre and the train was sent back to Italy to be repaired.
Not all passengers were happy with the new train. In 2005, a delegation of commuters between Helsinki and Tampere collected criticism from fellow passengers on the Internet and delivered it to VR's head of passenger transport Antti Jaatinen. The delegation's leader, Kaj-Erik Fohlin, had made 30 trips between the two cities in January 2005 using the Pendolino, 12 of which had been on schedule.
The last eight trains were ordered in 2002 and delivered in 2004–2006, finalising the fleet of 18 trains. At that point it had become clear that the speed limits on the rail network were mostly too low for the trains to run at their maximum operating speed, even though they were chosen specifically to prevent the costly work of straightening existing lines. Work on lines has continued, and, on modernised lines, the speed difference between the Pendolino and non-tilting trains has become minimal. The Sm3 was able to attain its maximum operating speed in regular traffic only in 2006, when a new rail line was opened between Kerava and Lahti and the full Pendolino fleet was available. Seven of the original 23 options never came to be.
### 2006 onwards: The New Train Era
VR advertised the arrival of the full Pendolino fleet with the slogan "New Train Era" (Finnish: Uusi juna-aika). It started on 3 September 2006, when the line between Kerava and Lahti was officially opened and timetables changed to take the full potential of the Sm3 into account. Travel times between Helsinki and eastern Finland were cut by up to an hour.
The Pendolino has received bad publicity since the first units were taken in service for its serious reliability issues, mostly caused by technical problems with the tilting system and the couplers. The coupling problems grew particularly important with the expansion of the Pendolino network in 2006, requiring rapid on-the-fly coupling of two trains at intersection stations. Because the units often could not be coupled the train units had to be run as two separate trains running one after another. This consumed one extra train slot on the heavily used rail sections causing cascading timetable delays. Sometimes two trains would not separate after coupling them, caused by moisture in the couplers. Due to the problems VR ended the practice of coupling Pendolino trains on-the-fly at the two intersection stations; in Tampere in late 2007 and in Kouvola during autumn 2008.
VR has given mixed statements about the fault-sensitivity of the train. Pentti Kuokkanen, project coordinator of VR Engineering downplayed the problems when questioned about the reliability of another Fiat Ferroviaria multiple unit, the Sm4, in 1999. According to him, the Pendolino had been VR's most reliable passenger train during winter 1998–1999. In 2006, VR's CEO Henri Kuitunen affirmed that the Pendolino was causing serious image problems to VR Group. In 2010, the company's head of traffic control Mauno Haapala stated that the Sm3 was not more fault-sensitive than their other trains. However during winter 2011, VR Group's head of service and production department Pertti Saarela gave a totally different answer, saying that Pendolinos are more prone to failures especially during winter. It is impossible to know if the train has more problems than VR's other rolling stock, as the company does not give out punctuality statistics for specific train types.
In the 2010s, the novelty of the Pendolino has worn off and VR has even used the train in regional traffic between Oulu and Rovaniemi due to rail works in summer 2011. The problematic tilting mechanism was not used during winter 2010–2011 and the time benefit of the tilting was not taken into account in timetables of winter 2011–2012.
On 19 August 2011, VR announced it would start a refurbishment of all its Sm3 units to improve the operating conditions during winter. The work will be done between 2012 and 2014 and will cost 10 million Euros. Alstom will cover half of the expenses. The problematic couplers will be changed to allow trains to be coupled on-the-fly again at intermediate stations. Heaters will be installed in the trains' undercarriages to prevent the formation of ice during the winter. In addition to these modifications, the tilt angle of the bogies will be lowered from the current eight degrees. The operating speed of the train will remain the same. As of January 2013, new couplers have been installed in at least Sm3 units 7x12 and 7x18.
VR has been experiencing high maintenance costs and a low availability of the tilting system in its daily operations with the original Italian-designed tilting hydraulics. The original solution is based on analog hydraulics with many servo valves, which the extreme temperature differences and contamination of hydraulic oil have made very failure-prone. VR contracted Finnish scientists of Tampere University of Technology to demonstrate the feasibility of a conversion of the tilting technology using digital hydraulic technology developed at the university. Digital hydraulics replace conventional continuously adjustable servo valves with a number of smaller intelligently controlled on/off valves. The result of the study was a retrofit kit for the conversion of all Pendolinos with a plug-and-play solution that fits seamlessly into the mechanical, hydraulic and electrical interfaces of present VR Pendolinos. The kit is provided by Rexroth. Two carriages were fitted with the new system in 2012. During two years of tests in Pendolino trains in normal use there was no single failure of the system. VR has decided to retrofit the entire Pendolino fleet with digital hydraulics.
Pendolino traffic on the coastal line ended in December 2012. The two remaining services were replaced with InterCity trains, which run at similar speeds.
## Technical information
With its eight asynchronous three-phase AC motors delivering 4,000 kW (5,400 hp) to move its weight of 328 tonnes (323 long tons; 362 short tons), the Sm3 does not accelerate particularly fast, reaching 200 km/h (120 mph) from a standstill only after 3 minutes and 13 seconds and a distance of 6.8 km (4.2 mi). The tilting mechanism lets the body tilt up to 8° at speeds of over 70 km/h (43 mph), which helps to lessen the G-forces in the corners and allows the train to achieve its maximum speed of 220 kilometres per hour (140 mph). According to VR, the tilting system enables a 30 to 40% higher speed compared to traditional trains. The highest speed ever reached by the class has been 242 km/h (150 mph) during testing.
Each train consists of six cars, from front to back: IM, CM, TTC, TT, CM and IM. The IM class carriages at each end of the train are powered and fitted with a driver's compartment. The CM class is a powered passenger car. Class TTC is unpowered, it is equipped with a pantograph and a restaurant. The TT class is an unpowered passenger car which has also a pantograph on its roof. Each of the powered carriages is fitted with one motor on each of the two bogies. If needed, two trains can be coupled together.
The prototype and series trains have various differences. The number of seats was increased from 264 to 309 by changing the seat configuration in second class from 2+1 to 2+2. The information screens on the outside of the carriages were moved from the center of the carriages to next to the doors. There are also differences with the light switch logic, which often leads to the trains running with both front and tail lights on at the same end. The prototypes differed also originally by their restaurant car and Extra class features. They were modified in the mid-2000s to be similar to the series trains.
The doors of the two prototype trains were changed in 1999 as they were not working properly.
VR does the maintenance work of the trains itself, getting expert advice from Alstom as needed. The work is done in Helsinki and Turku.
## Services
The Pendolino is designed as a premium facility train. The seats are fitted with audio sockets for radio and music channels; however the radio service was dropped in 2010 due to low usage. All seats have electricity sockets for laptops and mobile phones. All Sm3 trains offer a free onboard Wi-Fi Internet access since 2010. The passenger information monitors over the aisle in the carriages show a clock and the train's current speed in addition to VR's marketing material and station information. They are also used to convey passenger information for the deaf. The train is accessible for wheelchairs, contains pet spaces and seats for allergic passengers.
The train has an onboard bistro, named RavintoLAvaunu. It has a Nordic theme and serves traditional Finnish foods and snacks. First class passengers have access to a self-service counter with coffee, tea and the day's newspapers. Each train has also a closed-off conference compartment for business groups.
## Routes
The trains are distinguished in Finnish railway timetables by the letter S. The Pendolino network radiates out from the capital Helsinki. Five main routes serve most of Finland's big cities:
Regular service
- Helsinki–Oulu(–Rovaniemi)
- Helsinki–Vaasa
- Helsinki–Jyväskylä-Pieksämäki
- Helsinki–Kouvola–Kuopio–Kajaani–Oulu
- Helsinki–Joensuu
- Helsinki–Turku
The newest service between Helsinki and Vaasa started on 12 December 2011, with the completion of the electrification work on the Seinäjoki–Vaasa line.
The trains can run at speeds up to 200 km/h (120 mph) on routes between Helsinki and Seinäjoki, Helsinki and Turku and Lahti and Luumäki as lines are being upgraded. Only the line between Kerava and Lahti permits operation at the maximum speed of 220 kilometres per hour (140 mph).
## Livery
At least two livery variants were tested on scale models, which were later exposed at VR's conference centre at Helsinki central railway station: one has a red strip for the whole length of the train, with the window backgrounds painted grey. The other is more similar to the final result, but the front of the train includes more red and no grey paint at all. VR finally settled to a combination of both of them, which bore resemblance to the company's InterCity livery. The bottom of the carriages is dark grey, with a red stripe distinguishing it from the white base colour. The top of the carriages is painted grey. Red colouring at the end of each car forms red parallelograms when the carriages are combined. When asked why the trains were not blue and white, VR's CEO answered that red and white fits the train and its design the best.
The trains were originally marked with only a V instead of the full VR logo to symbolise the company's high speed transport. The same logo was also used on the Sr2 locomotive. The text "Pendolino S220" was written on the units according to the train's original branding. On later units, VR's logo was fully painted (the same happened with the Sr2) and "S220" dropped.
Since 2009, VR has been repainting its fleet in new colours according to its changed visual identity. Green colour has replaced red, and each car now has two green parallelograms instead of one larger figure between carriages. Artwork showcasing Finnish nature decorates them. As of December 2012, Sm3 units 7x01 to 7x04, 7x06 to 7x10 and 7x12 have been repainted in the new livery.
## Incidents and accidents
On 9 January 2003 an improperly locked door came loose in a high-speed tunnel at Perniö. No-one was injured in the accident. The settings of all Sm3 doors were checked by the operator in the following days.
A Sm3 derailed near Karjaa on 25 July 2003 due to a defect in a turnout. The train derailed at a low speed after mechanics turned the turnout blades manually into the correct position, but forgot to check the turnout frog, which was set to a diverging track. The first three carriages of the train derailed completely, in addition to the first bogie of the fourth car.
In December 2021 two Sm3 units crashed on low speed near Tampere station. No one was hurt, but one of the trains was severely damaged.
## Sm6 Allegro
In December 2010, Karelian Trains, a joint venture by VR and RZhD, started a new service linking Helsinki to St. Petersburg, Russia using a new model of the Pendolino called the Sm6 Allegro. The Sm6 is technically based on the New Pendolino, but its looks are similar to the Sm3. The most significant difference is that an Sm6 unit is composed of seven carriages. The train is capable of dual-voltage running due to differences between the electric systems of the Finnish and Russian rail network and is equipped with four pantographs.
The Sm6 is reserved for international passengers and therefore cannot be used to travel inside of Finland. There are four trains per day in each direction.
The service has been suspended since 27 March 2022 due to the international sanctions, and in its half-year report VR Group announced that it wrote off all Allegro rolling stock and spare parts.
## See also
- List of high speed trains
- High-speed rail in Europe
- Sm6 Allegro
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