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Peanut Jar Mixers Development 7

Oda Gasinzigwa

Rwandan civil servant and politician

Oda Gasinzigwa (born 1966) is a Rwandan civil servant and politician. Born in Tanzania as a refugee, she was educated at the Institute of Development Management in Mzumbe and then worked for eight years at the National Bank of Commerce in Dar es Salaam. When the Rwandan genocide ended in 1994, she moved to Kigali and worked with various ministries to improve women's economic and leadership. In 2016, she was elected to serve on the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). She served two terms on its administrative commission and worked on legislation to give the organisation administrative and financial autonomy, improve security and peaceful relations in the region, and synchronise trade agreements. Having completed her term in the EALA in 2022, she became chair of Rwanda's National Electoral Commission in 2023. To harmonise the election processes in Rwanda with those of the other member nations in the East African Community, she proposed that presidential and parliamentary elections in the country be held at the same time. Her proposal was approved by the Cabinet and Parliament of Rwanda and the constitution was modified so that the 2024 election would be held for both the executive branch and legislative branch simultaneously. ## Early life, education, and family Oda Gasinzigwa was born in 1966 as the second of eight siblings in a family of Rwandan refugees living in Tanzania. Her mother was a nurse and her father was a teacher, who had fled their native Rwanda in 1959 because of ethnic conflict. Despite their refugee status, both her parents encouraged the children to pursue higher education. Gasinzigwa completed a bachelor's degree in government administration at the Institute of Development Management, in Mzumbe, Tanzania in 1991. After earning her degree, she began working in administration at the National Bank of Commerce in Dar es Salaam. She remained at the bank for eight years, holding various positions. She married Paul Gasinzigwa in 1992 and had four sons, including William Muhire, the musician known as K8 Kavuyo. ## Career ### Women's advocacy and development (1994–2016) Gasinzigwa and her family returned to Rwanda in 1994, after the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, won the civil war and established a new government. Upon her return to Kigali, Gasinzigwa was hired by the Ministry of Women and Family Promotion. Her role was to link women who had developed viable economic projects with banks that could finance their projects. After seven years, she transferred in 2001 to the Ministry of Environment to work with the United Nations Development Programme on a resettlement effort for people displaced by the war and genocide. When the resettlement project ended, Gasinzigwa worked briefly on a project with the Ministry of Agriculture to increase farming yields and then worked between 2005 and 2008 for the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission. The commission was tasked with evaluating and proposing reforms to state structures which had in the past led to divisions and conflicts as a basis for charting a peaceful path for the future. Gasinzigwa was elected to serve as the secretary at the cell-level of the National Women's Council in 2001. The council was an umbrella network which had provincial, district, sectional, cell, and local councils through which women's concerns and needs could be filtered. The goal of these councils was to organise and prepare women throughout the country to become advocates for themselves, so that they would be ready to press for their rights when the first post-genocide elections occurred. She was elected as chair of the national branch of the National Women's Council in 2004, serving for four years before being succeeded by Diane Gashumba. Gasinzigwa became the chief monitor in the Gender Monitoring Office in 2008. Her job entailed analysing whether the gender targets of the national development plan were on course to achieve equality goals. During her tenure, the enrollment of girls in school increased nearly three percentage points and women's savings in banks rose from 29 to 47 per cent between 2008 and 2012. She organised the first regional women's business conference of the East African Community, "Unlocking Business Opportunities for Women within an EAC Common Market", to allow women to share their expertise on challenges and successes in operating business ventures. The conference, held in Kigali in 2011, was attended by over 300 business owners, policy makers, and officials, sparking the creation of the EAC Women Entrepreneur Association, and the organisation of a second conference to be held in 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya. That year, she commissioned a study to evaluate whether inheritance was reaching equality after the 1999 law reform. The report showed that although the law required equal distribution of the family's property to sons and daughters, its language allowed testators to continue traditional practices of giving sons land and daughters goods they would need to establish a household. Gasingzigwa began pressing for additional reforms to improve women's ability to inherit land. Gasingzigwa decided to continue her education in 2011 and studied under Shirley Kaye Randell who was the first director of gender studies at the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development of Kigali Institute of Education, now part of the University of Rwanda. She earned a master's degree in gender and development in 2012 and the following year was promoted to the post of Minister of Gender and Family Promotion. The ministry was designed to address gender issues in government policy and legislation and to serve as an interface between women's organisations and their international donors. During her tenure, Gasingzigwa also pressed legislators to improve laws protecting the rights of children and people with disabilities. Speaking with lawmakers, she stressed the need to adopt policies and laws to provide adequate health care and eliminate marginalisation and stigmatisation of those with disabilities. Gasingzigwa was one of the speakers at the 2014 Women in the World summit held in New York City where she spoke about women's leadership in reconciliation efforts in Rwanda after the genocide. In March 2015, Gasingzigwa was a featured speaker at the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women held in New York City to evaluate progress in women's rights since the Beijing World Conference on Women held in 1995. She outlined the steps Rwanda had taken to meet the Beijing action targets, explaining that the country's approach was to allocate financing for gender equality programmes in the national budgeting plan to avoid having insufficient resources for achieving the goals. Upon her return to Rwanda later that month, she spoke at a workshop for the Rwanda Women Leaders Network with Scholastica Kimaryo, United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative to South Africa, on developing leadership and mentoring skills to give women more opportunities and prevent unemployment. ### Politics (2016–present) Gasinzigwa was elected to serve as a member of parliament in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in 2016, to complete the unfinished five-year term of Christophe Bazivamo. The EALA is a regional legislative body that works to integrate the socio-politico-economic policies of its member nations, which include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Sudan. She was re-elected in 2012 and again in 2017. In 2017 she was also elected to serve on the EALA Commission, which administers the business activities of the legislative body and appoints its committee members. One of those functions was to develop a plan for the complete administrative and financial autonomy of the EALA. Drawing from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and other countries' strategies for good governance, a draft was prepared. When Susan Nakawuki, Uganda's MP, introduced a resolution in 2018 to establish the independence of the legislative body from the East African Cabinet, Gasinzigwa seconded the measure. After completing her two-and-a-half-year term on the EALA Commission, she was re-elected in 2020 to serve another term. Among other issues Gasinzigwa supported were laws that bettered integration of the member nations of the East African Community. For example, she stated that businesses could not operate at full potential in the region if national laws overrode EALA legislation, preventing harmonisation of policies. She backed analysis of the region's strategic security broadly, not just in terms of political conflict, but with the inclusion of factors like employment, environmental protection, and food security, which could otherwise create unrest and reduce investment and development. Noting the interconnection of issues, she stated that lack of uniform standards, inspection, and testing on food goods would impact both food and health security, as well as trade, making it imperative for border issues to be addressed in a unified manner. As a part of the peace and security strategy, she urged other legislators to adopt the measures recommended by Fatuma Ndangiza, chair of the EALA Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution, to prevent genocide. According to Ndangiza, the key to making strides in that area was to address budgeting and staffing shortages in the East African Community's Peace and Security Department. When her term in the EALA ended in 2023, Gasinzigwa was sworn in as the chair of the National Electoral Commission. In February, she made a proposal for Rwanda to hold its presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously, as did all the other nations in the East African Community. Her proposal was accepted by the Cabinet of Rwanda in March and sent on to parliament for approval to modify the constitution. It was passed by the legislature in July, with the result that the parliamentary elections previously scheduled for September 2023 would instead be held simultaneously with the presidential election in July 2024.

Avery House (Griswold, Connecticut)

Historic house in Connecticut, United States

Avery House, in Griswold, Connecticut, also known as Hopeville Pond Park House, was built around 1770. The house is a 20 feet (6.1 m) by 40 feet (12 m), two-story central-chimney Colonial that was originally sheathed in clapboard and topped with a gable roof. The central chimney is on a stone base and has a built-in root cellar. Alterations in the house changed the traditional five-room first floor plan by eliminating the keeping rooms and the removal of the kitchen fireplace. It retains much of its original door frames and wrought-iron latch hardware. After the rehabilitation of the property, the Avery House became the Hopeville Park manager's residence and is a part of the Hopeville Pond State Park. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. ## Construction The architect and the date of construction is unknown. The National Register of Historic Places nomination dates it to circa 1770 is substantiated by the construction and interior woodwork of the house. Measuring approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) by 40 feet (12 m), the two-story house is a central-chimney Colonial that was originally sheathed in clapboard and topped with a gable roof. The central chimney is on a stone base and has a built-in root cellar. At the time of its nomination, the house was using asphalt shingles on its roof. The house is historically significant for its bolection molding and around fireplaces and shallow molded shelves above the fireplaces in the front chambers. Fireplace in the east room has a large single over-mantel panel and the west fireplace has two panels. Mary McMahon, who prepared the inventory form for the National Register of Historic Places, writes "A handsome corner cabinet with butterfly shelves is also located in the east room". The second floor retains its original flooring and mantels, and the post and beam construction is visible throughout the interior of the house. Alterations in the house changed the traditional five-room first floor plan by eliminating the keeping rooms and the removal of the kitchen fireplace. Despite this, the house's original door frames and much of the doors with wrought-iron latch hardware remained by the time of its nomination in 1985. In 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) rehabilitated the property for park use. The house was acquired by the State of Connecticut in 1938. The CCC shingled the exterior of the house, but it is uncertain if the "inappropriate porch" was an addition they made. The CCC is also believed to be the builders of the garage/workshop. ## Owners The owners of the house are also unknown, but two records do exist. The 1854 Baker map of New London, listed owner of the house was Captain J. Avery. An 1868 map lists a H. Bennett in residence. After the rehabilitation of the property, the Avery House became the Hopeville Park manager's residence. ## Importance The Avery House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. According to the nomination form and the multiple property submission sheet, the house is historically significant as an example of a well-preserved house that does not have its historical integrity degraded by alterations. McMahon writes that "[t]he interior paneling is the finest in any 18th-century house owned by DEP (Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection)." Originally, the house was set to have the surrounding 400 feet (120 m) as part of its designation, but this was later changed to 300 feet (91 m) because it would not impact the historic setting. ## See also - National Register of Historic Places listings in New London County, Connecticut

Hyperbolic spiral

Spiral asymptotic to a line

A hyperbolic spiral is a type of spiral with a pitch angle that increases with distance from its center, unlike the constant angles of logarithmic spirals or decreasing angles of Archimedean spirals. As this curve widens, it approaches an asymptotic line. It can be found in the view up a spiral staircase and the starting arrangement of certain footraces, and is used to model spiral galaxies and architectural volutes. As a plane curve, a hyperbolic spiral can be described in polar coordinates \((r,\varphi)\) by the equation \(r=\frac{a}{\varphi},\) for an arbitrary choice of the scale factor \(a.\) Because of the reciprocal relation between \(r\) and \(\varphi\) it is also called a reciprocal spiral. The same relation between Cartesian coordinates would describe a hyperbola, and the hyperbolic spiral was first discovered by applying the equation of a hyperbola to polar coordinates. Hyperbolic spirals can also be generated as the inverse curves of Archimedean spirals, or as the central projections of helixes. Hyperbolic spirals are patterns in the Euclidean plane, and should not be confused with other kinds of spirals drawn in the hyperbolic plane. In cases where the name of these spirals might be ambiguous, their alternative name, reciprocal spirals, can be used instead. ## History and applications Pierre Varignon first studied the hyperbolic spiral in 1704, as an example of the polar curve obtained from another curve (in this case the hyperbola) by reinterpreting the Cartesian coordinates of points on the given curve as polar coordinates of points on the polar curve. Varignon and later James Clerk Maxwell were interested in the roulettes obtained by tracing a point on this curve as it rolls along another curve; for instance, when a hyperbolic spiral rolls along a straight line, its center traces out a tractrix. Johann Bernoulli and Roger Cotes also wrote about this curve, in connection with Isaac Newton's discovery that bodies that follow conic section trajectories must be subject to an inverse-square law, such as the one in Newton's law of universal gravitation. Newton asserted that the reverse was true: that conic sections were the only trajectories possible under an inverse-square law. Bernoulli criticized this step, observing that in the case of an inverse-cube law, multiple trajectories were possible, including both a logarithmic spiral (whose connection to the inverse-cube law was already observed by Newton) and a hyperbolic spiral. Cotes found a family of spirals, the Cotes's spirals, including the logarithmic and hyperbolic spirals, that all required an inverse-cube law. By 1720, Newton had resolved the controversy by proving that inverse-square laws always produce conic-section trajectories. For a hyperbolic spiral with equation \(r=\tfrac{a}{\varphi}\), a circular arc centered at the origin, continuing clockwise for length \(a\) from any of its points, will end on the \(x\)-axis. Because of this equal-length property, the starting marks of 200m and 400m footraces are placed in staggered positions along a hyperbolic spiral. This ensures that the runners, restricted to their concentric lanes, all have equal-length paths to the finish line. For longer races where runners move to the inside lane after the start, a different spiral (the involute of a circle) is used instead. The increasing pitch angle of the hyperbolic spiral, as a function of distance from its center, has led to the use of these spirals to model the shapes of some spiral galaxies, which in some cases have a similarly increasing pitch angle. However, this model does not provide a good fit to the shapes of all spiral galaxies. In architecture, it has been suggested that hyperbolic spirals are a good match for the design of volutes from columns of the Corinthian order. It also describes the perspective view up the axis of a spiral staircase or other helical structure. Along with the Archimedean and logarithmic spiral, the hyperbolic spiral has been used in psychological experiments on the perception of rotation. ## Constructions ### Coordinate equations The hyperbolic spiral has the equation \(r=\frac a \varphi ,\quad \varphi > 0\) for polar coordinates \((r,\varphi)\) and scale coefficient \(a\). It can be represented in Cartesian coordinates by applying the standard polar-to-Cartesian conversions \(x=r\cos\varphi\) and \(y=r\sin\varphi\), obtaining a parametric equation for the Cartesian coordinates of this curve that treats \(\varphi\) as a parameter rather than as a coordinate: \(x = a \frac{\cos \varphi} \varphi, \qquad y = a \frac{\sin \varphi} \varphi ,\quad \varphi > 0.\) Relaxing the constraint that \(\varphi>0\) to \(\varphi\ne0\) and using the same equations produces a reflected copy of the spiral, and some sources treat these two copies as branches of a single curve. The hyperbolic spiral is a transcendental curve, meaning that it cannot be defined from a polynomial equation of its Cartesian coordinates. However, one can obtain a trigonometric equation in these coordinates by starting with its polar defining equation in the form \(r\varphi=a\) and replacing its variables according to the Cartesian-to-polar conversions \(\varphi=\tan^{-1}\tfrac{y}{x}\) and \(r=\sqrt{x^2+y^2}\), giving: \(\sqrt{x^2+y^2}\tan^{-1}\frac{y}{x}=a.\) It is also possible to use the polar equation to define a spiral curve in the hyperbolic plane, but this is different in some important respects from the usual form of the hyperbolic spiral in the Euclidean plane. In particular, the corresponding curve in the hyperbolic plane does not have an asymptotic line. ### Inversion Circle inversion through the unit circle is a transformation of the plane that, in polar coordinates, maps the point \((r,\varphi)\) (excluding the origin) to \((\tfrac1r,\varphi)\) and vice versa. The image of an Archimedean spiral \(r=\tfrac{\varphi}{a}\) under this transformation (its inverse curve) is the hyperbolic spiral with equation \(r=\tfrac{a}{\varphi}\). ### Central projection of a helix The central projection of a helix onto a plane perpendicular to the axis of the helix describes the view that one would see of the guardrail of a spiral staircase, looking up or down from a viewpoint on the axis of the staircase. To model this projection mathematically, consider the central projection from point \((0,0,d)\) onto the image plane \(z=0\). This will map a point \((x,y,z)\) to the point \(\tfrac{d}{d-z}(x,y)\). The image under this projection of the helix with parametric representation \((r\cos t, r\sin t, ct),\quad c\neq 0,\) is the curve \(\frac{dr}{d-ct}(\cos t,\sin t)\) with the polar equation \(\rho=\frac{dr}{d-ct},\) which describes a hyperbolic spiral. ## Properties ### Asymptotes The hyperbolic spiral approaches the origin as an asymptotic point. Because \(\lim_{\varphi\to 0}x = a\lim_{\varphi\to 0} \frac{\cos \varphi} \varphi =\infty,\qquad \lim_{\varphi\to 0}y = a\lim_{\varphi\to 0} \frac{\sin \varphi} \varphi = a,\) the curve has an asymptotic line with equation \(y=a\). ### Pitch angle From vector calculus in polar coordinates one gets the formula \(\tan\alpha=\tfrac{r'}{r}\) for the pitch angle \(\alpha\) between the tangent of any curve and the tangent of its corresponding polar circle. For the hyperbolic spiral \(r=\tfrac{a}{\varphi}\) the pitch angle is \(\alpha=\tan^{-1}\left(-\frac{1}{\varphi}\right).\) ### Curvature The curvature of any curve with polar equation \(r=r(\varphi)\) is \(\kappa = \frac{r^2 + 2(r')^2 - r\, r''}{\left(r^2+(r')^2\right)^{3/2}} .\) From the equation \(r=a/\varphi\) and its derivatives \(r'=-a/\varphi^2\) and \(r''=2a/\varphi^3\) one gets the curvature of a hyperbolic spiral, in terms of the radius \(r\) or of the angle \(\varphi\) of any of its points: \(\kappa = \frac{\varphi^4}{a \left(\varphi^2 + 1\right)^{3/2}} = \frac{a^3}{r(a^2+r^2)^{3/2}}.\) ### Arc length The length of the arc of a hyperbolic spiral \(r=a/\varphi\) between the points \((r(\varphi_1),\varphi_1)\) and \((r(\varphi_2),\varphi_2)\) can be calculated by the integral: \(\begin{align} L&=a \int_{\varphi_1}^{\varphi_2}\frac{\sqrt{1+\varphi^2}}{\varphi^2}\,d\varphi \\ &= a\left[-\frac{\sqrt{1+\varphi^2}}{\varphi}+\ln\left(\varphi+\sqrt{1+\varphi^2}\right)\right]_{\varphi_1}^{\varphi_2} . \end{align}\) Here, the bracket notation means to calculate the formula within the brackets for both \(\varphi_1\) and \(\varphi_2\), and to subtract the result for \(\varphi_1\) from the result for \(\varphi_2\). ### Sector area The area of a sector (see diagram above) of a hyperbolic spiral with equation \(r=a/\varphi\) is: \(\begin{align} A&=\frac12\int_{\varphi_1}^{\varphi_2} r(\varphi)^2\, d\varphi\\ &=\frac{a}{2}\bigl(r(\varphi_1)-r(\varphi_2)\bigr) . \end{align}\) That is, the area is proportional to the difference in radii, with constant of proportionality \(a/2\).

Kids See Ghosts (song)

2018 song by Kids See Ghosts featuring Yasiin Bey

"Kids See Ghosts" is a song by American hip hop duo Kids See Ghosts, composed of Kanye West and Kid Cudi, from their first album Kids See Ghosts (2018). The song features a guest appearance from Mos Def, who received credit under his real name of Yasiin Bey. It was produced by West, Kid Cudi, and Plain Pat, while additional production was handled by Andrew Dawson, Justin Vernon and Noah Goldstein. Apart from Plain Pat and Goldstein, the producers wrote the song alongside Bey. Making heavy use of synthesizers, the song draws inspiration from ambient music. Lyrically, the song reflects on the difficulties of fame and success. The song received widespread acclaim from music critics, who generally complimented Bey's vocals. They often highlighted the presence of his feature on the album, while some critics praised the lyrical content of "Kids See Ghosts" and a few appreciated the duo's chemistry. It reached number 73 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while further appearing at number 53 on the Canadian Hot 100. The song was performed live by Kids See Ghosts at the 2018 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. In June 2018, Tyler, the Creator shared his remix of the song, titled "Crust in Their Eyes". It was recorded that same month and features him rapping personal lyrics over the original. The remix received positive reviews from critics, mostly being praised for Tyler, the Creator's rapping; a number of them placed emphasis on his lyricism. ## Background On April 19, 2018, Kanye West announced a collaborative album with Kid Cudi. The album was revealed as being titled Kids See Ghosts by West, with him proposing the release date of June 8, 2018 for it, and he later announced that the album was set to include a song of the same name. Kid Cudi had been featured on a number of tracks by West prior to the announcement of Kids See Ghosts, such as "Welcome to Heartbreak" (2008) and "Gorgeous" (2010). West released his eighth studio album Ye on June 1, 2018, with vocals from Kid Cudi included on the tracks "No Mistakes" and "Ghost Town". "Kids See Ghosts" includes a feature from rapper Mos Def, who was credited as Yasiin Bey, which is his real name. He had collaborated with West since the start of the latter's career, with him contributing a feature to "Two Words" from West's debut studio album The College Dropout (2004). In January 2018, fellow rapper Talib Kweli teased that West and Bey were working together with an Instagram photo. The picture shows West and Bey sat at a table alongside stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle, with the three of them writing notes. However, it was not known at the time if West and Bey were working on material together. The song was produced by West, Kid Cudi, and Plain Pat, with additional production from Andrew Dawson, Justin Vernon and Noah Goldstein. The producers, excluding Plain Pat and Goldstein, co-wrote it with Bey. ## Composition and lyrics Musically, "Kids See Ghosts" is an ambient influenced song. According to The Guardian's Dean Van Nguyen, it has a rumbling beat. The song heavily features synths alongside hand drums that softly pitter-patter, accompanying the verses from Kids See Ghosts. It contains chilling sounds as well as clicking percussion and a bassline, with the latter of the three appearing during the bridge. The song includes a jungle groove. Bey performs both the bridge and the hook of the song, and his vocals are covered in electronics. Kid Cudi contributes a verse, which is accompanied by humming from him. During West's verse, he raps enthusiastically. In the lyrics of "Kids See Ghosts", the duo of the same name rap reflectively about the difficulties of fame and success. The lyrics feature respective references to religion from West and Kid Cudi. For the hook, Bey declares, "Kids see ghosts sometimes/Spirit, moving around, just moving around." In Kid Cudi's verse, he alludes to his private mental health battle while commenting on struggling to find happiness. West's performance sees him actively attempting to live up to his own legacy, as well as rapping about the public fight for his soul. On the bridge of the song, Bey recites a brief mission statement. ## Release and promotion On June 8, 2018, "Kids See Ghosts" was released as the sixth and penultimate track on Kids See Ghosts' eponymous debut studio album. The song switched position from the track list tweeted by West on May 15, 2018, that showed it as originally being slated for release as the second track. However, on the day of its release, multiple tracks from the album were mislabeled on streaming services due to a technical error, with "Kids See Ghosts" being incorrectly labeled as the album's second track, "Fire". For the first show that they were billed as Kids See Ghosts, the duo delivered a performance of the song at the 2018 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. "Kids See Ghosts" was the seventh track of their set, while it was the penultimate track to be performed that was released by them under the moniker of Kids See Ghosts. ## Critical reception "Kids See Ghosts" was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, with Bey's performance mostly garnering praise. Narsimha Chintaluri from HipHopDX asserted that Bey "grabs a hypnotic hook" on the song. The staff of XXL wrote that with the title track's lyrical style alongside "the context of Kids See Ghosts", the former's "driving force" is "youthful energy" and liked how Bey "takes command of the song's creeping bassline". They continued, voicing the belief that the song completes the album's "strongest sequence" while Bey contributes to forming "a strong supporting cast that aids the Kids See Ghosts narrative", along with the other featured artists. On a similar note, Exclaim\! writer Riley Wallace cited Bey's appearance as one of the features that help make the album "feel like more of a larger collective" as West and Kid Cudi "feel like lead singers". Ben Devlin from musicOMH listed the feature as evidence Kids See Ghosts' guest appearances "are well-picked and serve their respective tracks in contrasting ways"; he called Bey's presence "very unassuming" on the title track and described his lyrics as "enigmatic". Nguyen considered Bey's voice to be "swathe[d]" in "gentle electronics" and noticed that the "spiritual hums" from Kid Cudi "match the rumbling beat" of the song, with him being complimentary of how West is able to "artfully fold the orchestration into the voices of his collaborators" and demonstrate his "almighty" musical ear has come back. He further made consideration that the song can be "viewed primarily as an exercise in highlighting all of Cudi's strengths" as "the more outlandish proclivities" are erased, remarking West "is frequently pulled into Cudi's lane" rather than the other way round. While Robert Christgau pointed to Bey's "envisioning" as the album's "closest brush with wisdom" in his Expert Witness column at Vice, he also named the song's "nursery rhyme in waiting" one of the best parts of Kids See Ghosts due to it being an example of how the duo of the same name "fool around like male bonders should". Reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, Chuck Arnold commented that the song "spins a jungle groove" by presenting a confrontation of "the monsters that lurk in our heads". In Rolling Stone, Christopher R. Weingarten praised Kid Cudi's lyricism. For Highsnobiety, Russel Dean Stone wrote that the atmosphere of the album is "fully embodied" on the song. ### Accolades On June 8, 2018, Pitchfork named "Kids See Ghosts" the best new track. The magazine's writer Sheldon Pearce complimented Kids See Ghosts' chemistry, noting that they do "bridge the gap between Cudi's stoner hymnals and the cursed, self-flagellating ego trips of Kanye's ye" while acclaiming the duo's rapping and the "gentle rush" of the song's music. The track was listed by Eric Renner Brown from Billboard as the 19th best song from the five albums produced by West in 2018, with him questioning that it "could be West's most lyrically limber moment" out of the recording sessions for the albums. On the Pitchfork Readers' Poll for the top 50 songs of 2018, the track was voted in at number 14. ## Commercial performance Upon the release of Kids See Ghosts, the title track opened at number 73 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The track simultaneously entered the US Hot R\&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at number 37. It was most successful in Canada, peaking at number 53 on the Canadian Hot 100. In Australia, the track reached number 84 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Elsewhere, "Kids See Ghosts" debuted at number 64 on the Irish Singles Chart. The track further charted at number 39 on the UK R\&B Chart. ## Tyler, the Creator remix ### Background and composition American rapper Tyler, the Creator released a remix of "Kids See Ghosts" entitled "Crust in Their Eyes" to his SoundCloud on June 15, 2018. The title comes from a line in the remix. Tyler, the Creator had remixed West's music in the past, sharing a freestyle over "Freestyle 4" under the title of "What the Fuck Right Now" in the same year as the original's release on West's seventh studio album The Life of Pablo (2016). The previous year, Tyler, the Creator featured West on the track "Smuckers" from his third studio album Cherry Bomb. He tweeted of "Kids See Ghosts" that "i like this song alot [sic] and wrote to it the same hour i heard it", also revealing a friend sent the instrumental to him and he "recorded it that night". Tyler, the Creator posted another tweet, in which he recalled West "sent me that beat same night" and expressed strongly positive feelings of West's verse while also praising Bey's performance on the original. The remix's cover art was created by French contemporary photographer Matthieu Venot. On "Crust in Their Eyes", Tyler, the Creator raps over the original, while Bey's hook is kept. After the hook, the rapper's performance begins. The remix features personal lyrics from Tyler, the Creator, and includes references to Twitter cancellations. He begins by mentioning calling his sister and admitting to not telling her that he loves her enough. At one point, Tyler, the Creator calls out people who feel assured they are "woke but got crust in their eyes." ### Critical reception "Crust in Their Eyes" was received with positive reviews from music critics. In a review for Consequence of Sound, Ben Kaye expressed positive feelings of the lyrical content. Grace Fleisher from Dancing Astronaut asserted that Tyler, the Creator puts himself forward "as characteristically clever and collected" on the remix, and concluded by saying he does "his peers' work considerable justice". HotNewHipHop writer Mitch Findlay stated that the rapper delivers "mixtape-ready bars" on the remix, citing his lyrics as "conjuring images of The Simpsons legend Squeaky Voiced Teen". Despite being disappointed in the remix ending "before it truly blossoms", Findlay enjoyed how it highlights the "rapper" side of Tyler, the Creator's artistry. For This Song Is Sick, Jake Nixon wrote that the "fire" remix "does not disappoint" and features an "amazing verse" from Tyler, the Creator, who "sounds incredible over the production" in his opinion. Phil Witmer of Vice regarded the remix as "particularly affectionate" due to Tyler, the Creator's past connections to West. ## Credits and personnel Recording - Recorded at West Lake Ranch, Jackson Hole, Wyoming Personnel - Kanye West – songwriter, production - Kid Cudi – songwriter, production - Andrew Dawson – songwriter, additional production, engineer - Justin Vernon – songwriter, additional production - Yasiin Bey – songwriter, featured artist - Plain Pat – production - Noah Goldstein – additional production, engineer - Zack Djurich – engineer - Mike Malchicoff – engineer - William J. Sullivan – engineer - Jenna Felsenthal – assistant engineer - Mike Dean – mixer - Jess Jackson – mixer - Sean Solymar – assistant mixer Information taken from the Kids See Ghosts liner notes and Tidal. ## Charts ## Certifications

Bayard–Condict Building

Office building in Manhattan, New York

The Bayard–Condict Building (formerly the Condict Building and Bayard Building) is a 12-story commercial structure at 65 Bleecker Street in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built between 1897 and 1899 in the Chicago School style, it was the only building in New York City designed by architect Louis Sullivan, who worked on the project alongside Lyndon P. Smith. Located in the NoHo Historic District, the building was designated a New York City landmark in 1975 and has been a National Historic Landmark since 1976. The building occupies a rectangular site and has a terracotta facade divided horizontally into three sections. The lower two stories consist of ground-story storefronts with ornate columns, with an arched entrance in the westernmost bay. On the upper stories, piers separate the building vertically into five bays, each with ornate spandrel panels. There are six winged angels just below the cornice at the top of the building. On the inside, the first two stories are used for retail, while the upper floors generally contain large loft-like spaces and a steel structural frame. A mechanical core with elevators, utilities, and stairs is in its western end. The Bayard Building was developed by the United Loan and Investment Company, who acquired the land in 1897 from the Bank for Savings in the City of New York and named the edifice after the Bayard family. Due to disputes over construction methods, United Loan was forced to give up the building before it was completed, and Emmeline G. H. Condict had acquired it by June 1899. It was sold in 1900, and again in 1920, before coming under the control of the Shulsky family in the 1940s. The storefronts were replaced in the 1960s, followed by the lobby in the 1980s. The facade was restored during the late 1990s and early 2000s. ## Site The Bayard–Condict Building is at 65 Bleecker Street in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is on the north side of Bleecker Street between Broadway and Lafayette Street, at the northern end of Crosby Street. The land lot is rectangular and measures around 8,330 square feet (774 m²), with a frontage of 83.3 feet (25.4 m) and a depth of 100 feet (30 m) along Bleecker Street. The Robbins & Appleton Building adjoins the Bayard–Condict Building on the same block directly to the north, and an entrance to the New York City Subway's Bleecker Street station is immediately to the east. Other nearby structures include the Schermerhorn Building to the northeast, 339 Lafayette Street to the east, and 640 Broadway to the southwest. Before the early 19th century, what is now NoHo was part of the farms of numerous families, such as the Bayard, Bleecker, Herring, Pero, and Randall families. West–east streets were laid through the area by the early 19th century, and row houses were built along these streets. This was followed by institutions like churches, libraries, and schools in the 1830s and 1840s, then by store and loft buildings in the 1850s, which catered to the area's wealthy population. With the advent of curtain walls, steel frames, and fireproof elevators, these store and loft buildings were being built as tall as 12 stories by the 1890s. The Bayard–Condict Building was among these early high-rise loft buildings. ## Architecture The Bayard–Condict Building is the only structure in New York City designed by Louis H. Sullivan, who specialized in the Chicago school style of architecture. Sullivan is sometimes cited as the building's sole architect, although he was assisted by New York architect Lyndon P. Smith. Such partnerships were typical for Sullivan; whenever he designed buildings outside his home state of Illinois, he worked with other architects who were licensed in that state. It is unknown how or why Sullivan was selected to design the building, but, at the time of its development in the late 1890s, the city's most prominent structures were generally designed by local firms like McKim, Mead & White. George Elmslie helped design the decoration. The building was one of the first skeleton frame skyscrapers in New York City, and the Department of Buildings raised numerous objections to the design before the plans were finally accepted. Measuring 162 feet (49 m) tall, with 13 stories, it was considered an early skyscraper. It was similar in design to an unbuilt skyscraper for the St. Louis Trust and Savings Bank that was designed in 1895. According to Sullivan's protege Frank Lloyd Wright, the Bayard–Condict Building was Sullivan's favorite design. ### Facade The Bleecker Street elevation of the facade is clad in white glazed terracotta over a masonry wall. The facade has relatively undecorated mullions and pilasters, which accentuate its height and divide the facade vertically into five bays. The Bleecker Street facade is divided horizontally into three sections—an ornamented base, a shaft of identical stacked floors, and a decorated crown—illustrating Sullivan's views on skyscraper design. Whereas the protrude mullions and pilasters were intended to draw attention to the columns in the building's superstructure, the superstructure's horizontal beams were deemphasized and covered with wide spandrel panels. According to Herbert Muschamp, the emphasis of the vertical elements may have been intended to represent "maximum development of a small urban site by thrusting against gravitational force". Sullivan's ornate floral designs decorate the facade's base and top, as well as the spandrels below each window opening. The facade's other three elevations are made of red brick on common bond. The lowest part of the Bleecker Street facade contains a concrete water table. The entrance to the building is through the westernmost bay. The doorway is flanked by piers, above which are a small cornice and an ornamented lunette with "organic" motifs such as spirals, leaves and tendrils. The lunette is topped by geometric designs and leaves. The base of the building originally contained storefronts separated by octagonal columns, above which were ornate capitals that also depicted leaves. The original columns were removed in 1964 and restored in 2002. Above each of the ground-story storefronts are spandrel panels with more organic motifs. On the upper stories, the bays are separated by piers, which correspond to the internal structural system; each bay is topped by a large arch. Above the second floor, each bay contains two sash windows per story, separated by a narrow mullion. There are recessed terracotta spandrels with geometric and organic motifs above the pairs of windows on each story. The spandrels above the eleventh floor are decorated with lions' heads. The top two stories (the twelfth and thirteenth) were intended to resemble a single story from the outside. On these stories, each bay contains an arch at the twelfth and thirteenth stories, and there is a trefoil motif in the spandrels of each arch. A heavy cornice projects from the facade above the thirteenth floor. The cornice contains decorative soffit panels.There are six winged angels just below the cornice. For many years, it was widely believed that Silas Alden Condict, a lawyer with religious aspirations who had briefly owned the building, had wanted the angels to be included. Condict allegedly wanted the angels to represent the six working days of the week (excluding the Sabbath). Sullivan had allegedly initially objected to the presence of the angels; according to The New York Times, Sullivan had asked Condict, "Do you want a commercial building or do you want a church?" This account is disputed by historians Sarah Landau and Carl W. Condit, who wrote in their 1996 book Rise of the New York Skyscraper that Sullivan had used winged-angel motifs in his design for the Transportation Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The sculptures had been depicted in a Brickbuilder magazine article in June 1898, before the Condict family had even bought the building. There are round motifs and leaves above the cornice, but the roof of the building is otherwise flat. ### Interior According to the Architectural Review, the Bayard–Condict Building was a speculative development "designed to be used for offices or light manufactures as to the upper storeys, and for shops in the ground and first floors". When the Bayard–Condict Building was built, it generally contained large loft-like spaces, as well as a mechanical core with elevators, utilities, and stairs. The lofts could be divided into smaller offices and were illuminated by natural light, which was maximized by the presence of setbacks at the rear of the building. Originally, the building was to contain brick curtain walls with a uniform thickness of 12 inches (300 mm). The interior would have been supported by a type of freestanding steel frame called the Gray system, which used 14-by-14-inch (360 by 360 mm) columns attached to cast-steel bases. Sullivan and Dankmar Adler had previously used the Gray system in the Prudential (Guaranty) Building, but New York City officials were loath to approve the use of the Gray system. As a result, the curtain wall measured 20 inches (510 mm) thick between the floor slabs for the first and fifth stories; 16 inches (410 mm) thick between the fifth and ninth stories; and 12 inches (300 mm) thick above the ninth story. The interior columns were also thickened, measuring between 24 inches (610 mm) across at the ground story and 13 inches (330 mm) across on the top two stories. By the late 20th century, the building was accessed through the westernmost bay on Bleecker Street, which led to a north–south hallway. The hallway had terrazzo floors, plastic wall tiles, and acoustical ceiling tiles. A pair of elevators was positioned at the center of the hallway, while the rear end of the hallway had a stairway adjacent to a storefront. The staircase had an ornate balustrade between the basement and third story, stucco-and-plaster walls, and a plaster ceiling. On the upper stories, there was a hallway on the western end of each story connecting to the elevators and stair. The remainder of each story was divided into office or industrial space, with tile floors, plaster walls, and plaster ceilings. Ceiling heights range from 15 feet (4.6 m) on the first floor to 9.5 feet (2.9 m) on the 12th floor. ## History The Bayard–Condict Building was constructed on the former site of the Bank for Savings in the City of New York, also known as the Old Bleecker Street Bank. That bank relocated to Fourth Avenue in the late 19th century. ### Development The United Loan and Investment Company had been incorporated in 1895 to sell securities, land, and mortgages for a commission; it was authorized to trade real estate in 1897. That September, United Loan acquired a 83.6-by-100-foot (25.5 by 30.5 m) site on the north side of Bleecker Street from the Bank for Savings. The site reportedly cost $200,000, most of which was covered by a $150,000 mortgage from the Bank of Savings, which was to come due in three years. United Loan immediately announced plans to erect the 12-story Bayard Building at a cost of $100,000. The edifice was to be named after the Bayard family, an early settler of the colony of New Netherland, whose area included modern-day New York. Although the family was not involved with the project, Landau and Condit wrote that the structure directly referenced William Bayard Jr., the Bank for Savings' first president. Louis Sullivan, working with Lyndon P. Smith of New York state, had been hired to design the structure during mid-1897. The partnership of Sullivan & Smith submitted plans for a 12-story structure at 65–69 Bleecker Street to the New York City Department of Buildings on September 17, 1897, and The New York Times announced these plans on September 23. The building was to be a fireproof structure with a terracotta facade and would contain numerous elevators. The New York Times estimated the building would cost $400,000, while the Chicago Daily Tribune gave a cost of $275,000. According to trade publication The Construction News, the building was to cost between $250,000 and $275,000. After disputes over various aspects of the planned building were resolved, United Loan began erecting the Bayard Building in December 1897. Although Sullivan never again designed another building in New York City, the reason for this is unclear. The Blue Guide New York said Sullivan had a hard time getting the Bayard Building to meet the city's building codes, while Carl Condit stated that the building's remote location on Bleecker Street may have been a factor. The Bank for Savings initiated foreclosure proceedings on the property in December 1898. In April 1899, Charles W. Rice of the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Company acquired the building at a foreclosure auction for $327,000, wiping out United Loan's investment in the structure. Rice had been one of the building's material contractors, and he had purchased the building to satisfy $150,000 in liens. Emmeline G. H. Condict bought the building in June 1899 from Chase Mellen for $37,000, taking out a $310,000 mortgage on the property. The building was completed in December 1899. The tenth floor was severely damaged in a fire in March 1900, and the Condict family sold the building that May to its builder, Charles T. Wills. ### 20th century Sources disagree on the building's original name. Landau and Condit described the structure as being known as the "Bayard Building" when it was completed, while the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) said that it was already known as the "Condict Building" when it opened in December 1899. A 1901 directory listed the Bayard Building as an office building at 65–67 Bleecker Street, adjacent to another office building, the Condict Building at 69 Bleecker Street. A New York Times article about the 1900 fire identified 65–67 Bleecker Street as the Condict Building, while the Brooklyn Times Union described the Condict Building as occupying "65, 67 and 69 Bleecker Street". In its early years, the Condict Building operated as a commercial loft structure. The Wills estate continued to own the Condict Building until January 1920, when the estate sold the building to Heidelberg, Wolff & Co. for $450,000. Elgin Shulsky acquired the building during the 1940s. At the end of that decade, the capitals above the columns at ground level were covered with plaster and cinder blocks. This blunted the effect of Sullivan's original storefronts, which had been designed as full-height glass panels between small columns. The popularity of ornate facades, such as that of the Condict Building, had declined significantly by the late 1950s, prompting the Municipal Art Society to select the building as one of several in the city that were "worthy of preservation". Elgin Shulsky replaced the original storefronts with generic commercial aluminum storefronts, designed by Gustave W. Iser, in 1964. The neighborhood was largely occupied at the time by warehousing and light manufacturing firms. One of the original capitals was preserved in the Brooklyn Museum, while a group led by Ivan Karp obtained another capital for the collection of the Anonymous Arts Museum. The capital in the Brooklyn Museum's collection became part of a sculpture garden. The LPC first hosted a public hearing on whether to designate the building as a city landmark in 1966, but the structure was not designated because the owners objected to it. The LPC hosted further hearings in 1970, 1974, and 1975 before it designated the Bayard–Condict Building as a city landmark on November 25, 1975. The LPC designated the Bayard–Condict Building largely on the grounds that it was Sullivan's only New York City building. The Shulsky family immediately sued the LPC, claiming that "the vast majority of the population in the City of New York and the United States of America have no knowledge whatsoever" of the building's existence, but the lawsuit stalled. The building's owners also objected when preservationist Carolyn Pitts nominated the building for National Historic Landmark designation the next year. Despite the owners' claim that the building was "run-down" and "undistinguished", Pitts surreptitiously created a report on the building and submitted it to the United States Department of the Interior, which approved the nomination the same year. The building continued to be largely occupied by commercial tenants through the late 20th century. By the early 1980s, the Shulsky family was replacing the industrial tenants with office tenants, as the owners wished to refurbish the building. Among the tenants who moved out was the building's largest occupant, a company specializing in ribbons and artificial flowers. The vacant space was rented to office tenants for as low as $8 per square foot ($86/m²). Subsequently, the Shulsky family renovated the lobby to designs by Edgar Tafel, whose mentor Frank Lloyd Wright had studied under Sullivan. Elgin Shulsky's son Marvin Shulsky took over the building's management in the 1980s. ### Restoration In 1996, New York City-based architecture and engineering firm Wank Adams Slavin Associates designed and oversaw a restoration of the Bayard–Condict Building's facade. The project cost $800,000. Of the 7,000 glazed architectural terra-cotta tiles, 1,200 had to be replaced. Marvin Shulsky said at the time: "I figured I had a choice: cover the whole thing in $10's and $20's or redo the terra cotta." In addition, replicas of the original capitals at ground level, modeled after the capital in the Anonymous Arts Museum's collection, were installed. By then, the building was nearly fully occupied by tenants such as the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Carl Fischer Music, the literary agency of Sterling Lord, cosmetics firm The Estée Lauder Companies, and USA Films. The LPC further designated the building as part of the NoHo Historic District in June 1999. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation gave its Village Award in 2003 to the contractors who restored the building. By 2013, Marvin Shulsky's son-in-law Lawrence Ellenberg had taken over the building and was adding an elevator. During the early 21st century, the building's tenants included the Council of Fashion Designers of America, a law firm, and an ice cream shop. ## Critical reception When the Bayard–Condict Building was completed, it was a radical design for its time, since it contravened the strictures of American Renaissance architecture which were the accepted status quo. However, it had little influence on architectural design in New York City, because of its location in the industrial area that Bleecker Street was during that period. Russell Sturgis said the structure "exemplifies the growth of modern American building connected with the steel cage construction", saying that the design was clearly intended to be that of a skyscraper. Montgomery Schuyler wrote: "There is nothing capricious in the general treatment of this structure. It is an attempt, and a very serious attempt, to found the architecture of a tall building upon the facts of the case." A reporter for The Wall Street Journal wrote that, following the building's completion, the public saw Louis Sullivan "as the architect who had solved the problem of what to do with the skyscraper". The building was still largely lauded in the late 20th century. A reporter for the New York Daily News described the Bayard–Condict Building in 1964 as having "the appearance of a large commercial structure from the 1897–98 period", despite its significance as Sullivan's only New York City building. The same year, the Times said the building "is still in every important textbook of the American skyscraper". In designating the Bayard–Condict Building as a city landmark in 1975, the LPC wrote that the structure was "the most significant commercial building utilizing skyscraper structural techniques in New York City". Paul Goldberger described the Bayard–Condict Building's cornice in 1976 as "perhaps the finest cornice in all of New York". In his 1994 book New York, a Guide to the Metropolis, Gerard Wolfe wrote that the Bayard–Condict Building was a "startlingly ornate" structure that was tucked onto a side street. The building also received positive commentary after its renovation in the 1990s and 2000s. According to Herbert Muschamp in 2001, the building "stands as a reminder that private clients, including developers, were once more eager than the cultural organizations to embrace progressive ideals". A 2003 Miami Herald article described the Bayard–Condict Building as "massive and delicate", while the Chicago Tribune wrote that the building was "a study in terra-cotta ornamentation". The architect Chad Smith wrote for the Village Voice in 2005: "It is new because it is modern—both for its forward-looking design and because it was (and is) an innovative solution to 19th-century problems. It feels fresh because it is still so completely a building of its age." The Bayard–Condict Building's architecture also inspired the design of other structures, including a nearby office building in SoHo designed by Marcello Porcelli and Cookfox during the 2010s. ## See also - Louis Sullivan buildings - Chicago school (architecture) - Chicago School: category index - List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City - List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan below 14th Street - National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan below 14th Street

King George V-class battleship (1911)

1911 class of battleships of the Royal Navy

The King George V-class battleships were a group of four dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the early 1910s that were sometimes termed super-dreadnoughts. The sister ships spent most of their careers assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Home and Grand Fleets, sometimes serving as flagships. In October 1914, Audacious struck a mine and sank. Aside from participating in the failed attempt to intercept the German ships that had bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in late 1914, the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive action of 19 August, the surviving ships' service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. The three surviving ships were briefly reduced to reserve in 1919 before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1920–1921 where they played minor roles in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Chanak Crisis of 1922. The first ship to return to Britain, King George V, became a training ship in 1923 but the other two were placed into reserve again upon their return the following year. The imminent completion of the two Nelson-class battleships in 1927 forced the sale of King George V and Ajax for scrap at the end of 1926 while Centurion was converted into a target ship to comply with the tonnage limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty. During the Second World War, Centurion was rearmed with light weapons and was converted into a blockship and was then modified into a decoy with dummy gun turrets. Centurion was sent to the Mediterranean in 1942 to escort a convoy to Malta, although the Italians quickly figured out the deception. The ship was deliberately sunk during the Invasion of Normandy in 1944 to form a breakwater. ## Design and description Ordered as part of the 1910–1911 Naval Programme, the King George V class was an enlarged version of the preceding Orion class with additional armour, a revised layout of the secondary armament and improved fire-control arrangements. The ships had an overall length of 597 feet 9 inches (182.2 m), a beam of 90 feet 1 inch (27.5 m) and a draught of 28 feet 8 inches (8.7 m). They displaced 25,420 long tons (25,830 t) at normal load and 27,120 long tons (27,560 t) at deep load. Their crew numbered around 869 officers and ratings upon completion and 1,114 in 1916. Sea trials with the battlecruiser Lion showed that the placement of the fore funnel between the forward superstructure and the foremast meant that hot clinkers and flue gases from the boilers made the spotting top on the foremast completely unworkable when the forward boilers were alight and that the upper bridge could easily be rendered uninhabitable, depending on the wind. The King George V class also used the same arrangement and they were altered while under construction to remedy the problem at a cost of approximately £20,000 per ship. The fore funnel was moved aft and a makeshift foremast was built from one of the struts of the original tripod mast. The spotting tower at the rear of the conning tower was removed, the conning tower enlarged, and the coincidence rangefinder was moved from the foremast spotting top to the roof of the conning tower. The ships of the King George V class were powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines. The outer propeller shafts were coupled to the high-pressure turbines in the outer engine rooms and these exhausted into low-pressure turbines in the centre engine room which drove the inner shafts. The turbines used steam provided by 18 water-tube boilers. They were rated at 27,000 shaft horsepower (20,000 kW) and were intended to give the battleships a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). During their sea trials, the ships exceeded their designed speed and horsepower, reaching a maximum of 22.9 knots (42.4 km/h; 26.4 mph). They carried a maximum of 3,100 long tons (3,150 t) of coal and an additional 840 long tons (853 t) of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. This gave them a range of 5,910–6,310 nautical miles (10,950–11,690 km; 6,800–7,260 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). ### Armament The King George V class was equipped with ten 45-calibre breech-loading (BL) 13.5-inch Mark V gun in five hydraulically powered, centreline, twin-gun turrets, designated 'A', 'B', 'Q', 'X' and 'Y' from front to rear. The guns had a maximum elevation of +20° which gave them a range of 23,830 yards (21,790 m). Their gunsights, however, were limited to +15° until super-elevating prisms were installed by 1916 to allow full elevation. In contrast to the Orions, the loading machinery of these turrets was modified to accommodate longer and heavier 1,400-pound (635 kg) projectiles, some 150 pounds (68 kg) more than those of the Orions, at a muzzle velocity of about 2,500 feet per second (760 m/s) at a rate of two rounds per minute. The ships carried 100 shells per gun. Training exercises had shown that destroyer and torpedo boats attacked more frequently from the frontal arc, so the sixteen 50-calibre BL four-inch (100 mm) Mark VII guns of the secondary armament was re-arranged to improve fire distribution ahead. Eight of these were mounted in the forward superstructure, four in the aft superstructure, and four in casemates in the side of the hull abreast of the forward main gun turrets, all in single mounts. The guns in the hull casemates were frequently unusable in heavy seas and were later removed during the war. The Mark VII guns had a maximum elevation of +15° which gave them a range of 11,400 yards (10,424 m). They fired 31-pound (14.1 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,821 ft/s (860 m/s). They were provided with 150 rounds per gun. Four 3-pounder (1.9 in [47 mm]) saluting guns were also carried. The ships were equipped with three 21-inch submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and another in the stern, for which 14 torpedoes were provided. ### Fire-control The ships of the King George V class were some of the first battleships in the RN to receive the full suite of fire-control equipment used during the First World War. The control position for the main armament was located in the conning tower. Data from a 9-foot (2.7 m) coincidence rangefinder (an unstabilized Barr and Stroud instrument in King George V and stabilized Argo units in the other ships) on the roof of the conning tower, together with the target's speed and course information, was input into a Dumaresq mechanical computer and electrically transmitted to a Dreyer Fire-control Table (a Mark III system in King George V and Mark II Tables in the others with an Argo range clock replacing the Dreyer-Elphinstone model in the Mark III) located in the transmitting station located on the main deck. Wind speed and direction was called down to the transmitting station by either voicepipe or sound-powered telephone. The fire-control table integrated all the data and converted it into elevation and deflection data for use by the guns. The target's data was also graphically recorded on a plotting table to assist the gunnery officer in predicting the movement of the target. As a backup, two turrets in each ship could take over if necessary. Fire-control technology advanced quickly during the years immediately preceding World War I, and the development of the director firing system was a major advance. This consisted of a fire-control director mounted high in the ship which electrically provided elevation and training angles to the turrets via pointer on a dial, which the turret crewmen only had to follow. The guns were fired simultaneously, which aided in spotting the shell splashes and minimised the effects of the roll on the dispersion of the shells. The weight of the director and the enlarged spotting top proved to be more than the unsupported foremast could bear, and it had to be reinforced when the directors were installed in 1913–1914 on the roof of the spotting top. The mast of King George V used flanges, but the other three ships received half-height tripod legs. The former ship's mast was rebuilt into a full-height tripod in 1918. Available sources do not acknowledge that Audacious was fitted with a director before her loss, but photographic evidence clearly shows one visible as she was sinking. ### Armour The King George Vs had a waterline belt of Krupp cemented armour that was 12 inches (305 mm) thick between the fore and rear barbettes. It reduced to 2.5–6 inches (64–152 mm) outside the central armoured citadel, but did not reach the bow or stern. The belt covered the side of the hull from 16 feet 10.5 inches (5.1 m) above the waterline to 3 feet 4 inches (1.0 m) below it. Above this was a strake of 9-inch (229 mm) armour. The fore and aft oblique 10-inch (254 mm) bulkheads connected the waterline and upper armour belts to the 'A' and 'Y' barbettes. The exposed faces of the barbettes were protected by armour 9 to 10 inches thick above the main deck that thinned to 3–7 inches (76–178 mm) below it. The gun turrets had 11-inch (279 mm) faces sides with 3- to 4-inch roofs. The guns in the forward superstructure were protected by armour 3–3.5 inches (76–89 mm) thick. The four armoured decks ranged in thickness from 1 to 4 inches (25 to 102 mm) with the greater thicknesses outside the central armoured citadel. The front and sides of the conning tower were protected by 11-inch plates, although the roof was 3 inches thick. The gunnery control tower behind and above the conning tower had 4-inch sides and the torpedo-control tower aft had 6-inch sides and a 3-inch roof. Unlike the Orions, the anti-torpedo bulkheads were extended to cover the engine rooms, as well as the magazines with thicknesses ranging from 1 to 1.75 inches (25 to 44 mm). The boiler uptakes were protected by 1–1.5-inch (25–38 mm) armour plates. ### Modifications By October 1914, a pair of QF 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft (AA) guns were installed aboard each ship. About 80 long tons (81 t) of additional deck armour was added after the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and King George V was fitted to tow kite balloons around the same time. By April 1917, the ships had exchanged a 4-inch AA gun for one of the 3-inch guns and the four 4-inch guns in the hull casemates had been removed. The stern torpedo tube was removed during 1917–1918 and one or two flying-off platforms were fitted aboard each ship in 1918; these were mounted on turret roofs and extended onto the gun barrels. King George V had them on 'B' and 'Q' turrets, Centurion on 'B' and 'X' turrets and Ajax had one on 'B'. ## Ships ## Careers While conducting her sea trials on the night of 9/10 December, Centurion accidentally rammed and sank the Italian steamer SS Derna and she was under repair until March 1913. All four ships of the King George V class were assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron upon commissioning, commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir George Warrender, and King George V was the squadron flagship by 18 February 1913. Centurion was present to receive the President of France, Raymond Poincaré, at Spithead on 24 June 1913. The sisters represented the Royal Navy during the celebrations of the re-opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal in Kiel, Germany, 23–30 June 1914, held in conjunction with Kiel Week. Between 17 and 20 July 1914, the King George Vs took part in a test mobilisation and fleet review as part of the British response to the July Crisis. Afterwards, they were ordered to proceed with the rest of the Home Fleet to Scapa Flow to safeguard the fleet from a possible surprise attack by the Imperial German Navy. After the British declaration of war on Germany on 4 August, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, and placed under the command of Admiral Jellicoe. According to pre-war doctrine, the role of the Grand Fleet was to fight a decisive battle against the German High Seas Fleet. This grand battle was slow to happen, however, because of the Germans' reluctance to commit their battleships against the superior British force. As a result, the Grand Fleet spent its time training in the North Sea, punctuated by the occasional mission to intercept a German raid or major fleet sortie. While the 2nd Battle Squadron was conducting gunnery training off the northern coast of Ireland on 27 October, Audacious struck a mine and sank; all of her crew was successfully rescued before she capsized. King George V developed problems with her condensers in November. This forced the ship to be intermittently withdrawn from operations over the next several months while the condensers had their tubes replaced. ### Bombardment of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans for a German attack on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in mid-December using the four battlecruisers of Konteradmiral (Rear-Admiral) Franz von Hipper's I Scouting Group. The radio messages did not mention that the High Seas Fleet with fourteen dreadnoughts and eight predreadnoughts would reinforce Hipper. The ships of both sides departed their bases on 15 December, with the British intending to ambush the German ships on their return voyage. They mustered the six dreadnoughts of the 2nd Battle Squadron, including the three surviving King George Vs, and the four battlecruisers of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty. The screening forces of each side blundered into each other during the early morning darkness and heavy weather of 16 December. The Germans got the better of the initial exchange of fire, severely damaging several British destroyers, but Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, commander of the High Seas Fleet, ordered his ships to turn away, concerned about the possibility of a massed attack by British destroyers in the dawn's light. A series of miscommunications and mistakes by the British allowed Hipper's ships to avoid an engagement with Beatty's forces. ### Battle of Jutland In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet departed the Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May 1916 in support of Hipper's battlecruisers which were to act as bait. Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation, so the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. Once Jellicoe's ships had rendezvoused with the 2nd Battle Squadron, coming from Cromarty, Scotland, on the morning of 31 May, he organised the main body of the Grand Fleet in parallel columns of divisions of four dreadnoughts each. The two divisions of the 2nd Battle Squadron were on his left (east), the 4th Battle Squadron was in the centre and the 1st Battle Squadron on the right. When Jellicoe ordered the Grand Fleet to deploy to the left and form line astern in anticipation of encountering the High Seas Fleet, this naturally placed the 2nd Battle Squadron at the head of the line of battle. The sisters were able to fire a few volleys at the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group without effect early in the battle, but the manoeuvers of their escorting light cruisers frequently blocked their views of the German ships. Coupled with the visibility problems from the smoke and mist, none of the King George Vs were able to fire more than 19 rounds from their main guns. ### Subsequent activity The Grand Fleet sortied on 18 August 1916 to ambush the High Seas Fleet while it advanced into the southern North Sea, but a series of miscommunications and mistakes prevented Jellicoe from intercepting the German fleet before it returned to port. Two light cruisers were sunk by German U-boats during the operation, prompting Jellicoe to decide to not risk the major units of the fleet south of 55° 30' North due to the prevalence of German submarines and mines. The Admiralty concurred and stipulated that the Grand Fleet would not sortie unless the German fleet was attempting an invasion of Britain or there was a strong possibility it could be forced into an engagement under suitable conditions. Along with the rest of the Grand Fleet, they sortied on the afternoon of 23 April 1918 after radio transmissions revealed that the High Seas Fleet was at sea after a failed attempt to intercept the regular British convoy to Norway. The Germans were too far ahead of the British to be caught, and no shots were fired. The sisters were present at Rosyth, Scotland, when the German fleet surrendered there on 21 November. ### Postwar activities The sisters remained with the 2nd Battle Squadron into early 1919, after which King George V became the flagship of the 3rd Battle Squadron until that unit was disbanded later that year. The ship then became flagship of the Reserve Fleet and served until late 1920. In the meantime, Ajax had been transferred to 4th Battle Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet by mid-1919 and sometimes served as the Fleet's flagship. Centurion followed in early 1920, although she spent a lot of time in reserve in Malta. The sisters played minor roles in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea in 1919–1920. King George V joined them in the 4th Battle Squadron in early 1921. After striking a rock in early September 1922, she was in Smyrna, Turkey, receiving temporary repairs when the Great Fire of Smyrna occurred later that month and evacuated some refugees when she sailed for permanent repairs at Malta. Her sisters were in Turkish waters during the Chanak Crisis around the same time. King George V was the first of the trio to return home in early 1923 and she served a training ship until she was sold for scrap at the end of 1926. Ajax and Centurion followed in April 1924, although they were placed in reserve, with the latter serving as the flagship of the Reserve Fleet. Like King George V, Ajax was sold for scrap at the end of 1926. The British tonnage allowance granted by the Washington Naval Treaty permitted them to keep the three sisters in service until the two Nelson-class battleships were completed in 1927. While King George V and Ajax were scrapped, Centurion was demilitarized by the removal of her armament and was converted into a radio-controlled target ship. In addition to being used as a target for surface ships, Centurion was used to evaluate the effectiveness of various types of aerial bombing. During the Second World War, she was rearmed with light weapons and was converted into a blockship in 1941. In preparation for that operation (subsequently cancelled), she was modified into a decoy with dummy gun turrets in an attempt to fool the Axis powers. Centurion was sent to the Mediterranean in 1942 to escort a convoy to Malta, although the Italians may have figured out the deception. The ship was scuttled off Omaha Beach in June 1944 to form a breakwater to protect a mulberry harbour built to supply the forces ashore.

86th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)

New York City Subway station in Manhattan

The 86th Street station is a local station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of West 86th Street and Broadway in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan, it is served by the 1 train at all times and the 2 train during late nights. The 86th Street station was constructed for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. Construction of the line segment that includes the 86th Street station began on August 22 of the same year. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. The station's platforms have been lengthened since opening. The 86th Street station contains two side platforms and four tracks; express trains use the inner two tracks to bypass the station. The station was built with tile and mosaic decorations, although the platform extensions contain a cinder block design. The platforms contain exits to 86th Street and Broadway and are not connected to each other within fare control. ## History ### Construction and opening Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864. However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. It called for a subway line from New York City Hall in lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into the Bronx. A plan was formally adopted in 1897, and all legal conflicts concerning the route alignment were resolved near the end of 1899. The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900, under which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations. Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway. The 86th Street station was constructed as part of the IRT's West Side Line (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) from 82nd Street to 104th Street, for which work had begun on August 22, 1900. Work for that section had been awarded to William Bradley. By late 1903, the subway was nearly complete, but the IRT Powerhouse and the system's electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening. The 86th Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from City Hall to 145th Street on the West Side Branch. ### Service changes and station renovations #### 1910s to 1930s After the first subway line was completed in 1908, the station was served by local trains along both the West Side (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street) and East Side (now the Lenox Avenue Line). West Side local trains had their southern terminus at City Hall during rush hours and South Ferry at other times, and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street. East Side local trains ran from City Hall to Lenox Avenue (145th Street). To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. Platforms at local stations, such as the 86th Street station, were lengthened by between 20 and 30 feet (6.1 and 9.1 m). Both platforms were extended to the north and south. Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910. The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line opened south of Times Square–42nd Street in 1918, and the original line was divided into an H-shaped system. The original subway north of Times Square thus became part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, and all local trains were sent to South Ferry. In December 1922, the Transit Commission approved a $3 million project to lengthen platforms at 14 local stations along the original IRT line, including 86th Street and five other stations on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. Platform lengths at these stations would be increased from 225 to 436 feet (69 to 133 m). The commission postponed the platform-lengthening project in September 1923, at which point the cost had risen to $5.6 million. In 1927, an additional staircase was constructed from the uptown platform to the northeastern corner of 86th Street and Broadway by Patteli & Wilson for $25,300. In 1932, the entrance at the southeastern corner of 86th Street and Broadway was relocated from the easterly curb of Broadway to the southern building line of 86th Street. The new entrance did not have a kiosk. #### 1940s to 1960s The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. The IRT routes were given numbered designations in 1948 with the introduction of "R-type" rolling stock, which contained rollsigns with numbered designations for each service. The Broadway route to 242nd Street became known as the 1 and the Lenox Avenue route as the 3. The original IRT stations north of Times Square could barely fit local trains of five or six cars depending on the configuration of the trains. Stations on the line from 50th Street to 96th Street, including this station but excluding the 91st Street station, had their platforms extended in the 1950s to accommodate ten-car trains as part of a $100 million rebuilding program. The contract to extend the platforms at 79th Street and 86th Street was awarded to Delma Engineering Corporation for $1,867,705 in 1957 (). The platform extensions at the local stations were completed by early 1958. As part of the contract to extend the platform at this station, additional entrances were constructed. Once the project was completed, all 1 trains became local and all 2 and 3 trains became express, and eight-car local trains began operation. Increased and lengthened service was implemented during peak hours on the 1 train on February 6, 1959. Due to the lengthening of the platforms at 86th Street and 96th Street, the intermediate 91st Street station was closed on February 2, 1959, because it was too close to the other two stations. #### 1970s to present In 1985, art and mosaics were installed in the station for $200,000 (). The cost was covered by Haines, and was done as part of the construction of The Bromely at 85th Street and Broadway. The following year, the entrance to the southwestern corner of 87th Street and Broadway was relocated into a building, The Boulevard at 246 West 87th Street. The $1,270,000 cost of the project () was borne by the developer, Ian Bruce Eichner. The entrance was constructed to supplant public infrastructure improvements required by the New York City Housing Quality Program for the construction of The Boulevard, which in turn allowed the developer to increase the height of the development. In April 1988, the New York City Transit Authority unveiled plans to speed up service on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line through the implementation of a skip-stop service: the 9 train. When skip-stop service started in 1989, it was only implemented north of 137th Street–City College on weekdays, and 86th Street was served by both the 1 and the 9. Skip-stop service ended on May 27, 2005, as a result of a decrease in the number of riders who benefited. ## Station layout Like other local stations, 86th Street has four tracks and two side platforms. The station is served by the 1 at all times and by the 2 during late nights; the center express tracks are used by the 2 train during daytime hours and the 3 train at all times. The station is between 96th Street to the north and 79th Street to the south. The platforms were originally 200 feet (61 m) long, like at other local stations on the original IRT, but as a result of the 1958–1959 platform extension, became 520 feet (160 m) long. ### Design As with other stations built as part of the original IRT, the station was constructed using a cut-and-cover method. The tunnel is covered by a U-shaped trough that contains utility pipes and wires. The bottom of this trough contains a foundation of concrete no less than 4 inches (100 mm) thick. Each platform consists of 3-inch-thick (7.6 cm) concrete slabs, beneath which are drainage basins. The original platforms contain circular, cast-iron Doric-style columns spaced every 15 feet (4.6 m), while the platform extensions contain I-beam columns. Additional columns between the tracks, spaced every 5 feet (1.5 m), support the jack-arched concrete station roofs. There is a 1-inch (25 mm) gap between the trough wall and the platform walls, which are made of 4-inch (100 mm)-thick brick covered over by a tiled finish. This station retains original mosaic and terracotta wall reliefs, consisting of purple characters surrounded by yellow and blue tiles. The tiled pilasters on the side walls are interrupted by tiled rectangles, as well as motifs of little squares and semicircles. The decorations also include cornucopia designs with the number "86". There are also a few "Men" and "Women" relief signs for now-defunct restrooms. The mosaic tiles at all original IRT stations were manufactured by the American Encaustic Tile Company, which subcontracted the installations at each station. The decorative work was performed by tile contractor Alfred Boote Company and faience contractor Rookwood Pottery Company. The ceilings of the original platforms and fare control areas contain plaster molding. At the northern part of the station, where the platforms have been extended, the walls have cream-colored tiles with a pink trim line and black "86th ST" written on them at regular intervals. The 86th Street station has artwork installed in 1989 entitled Westside Views by Nitza Tufiño. The artists are students of Manhattan Community Board 7 and the Grosvernor House. Scenes include the 72nd Street station, medians on Broadway, New York City Fire Department, children at play, Ida Straus memorial in Straus Park, boats at the 79th Street Boat Basin, Buddhist vendors on Church Street, and a New York City Bus. The station also has a poem entitled West Side Views by student Pedro Pieti. Westside Views is one of two works Tufiño made for MTA Arts & Design; the other, Neo-Boriken – a solo effort – can be found at 103rd Street on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. ### Exits All fare control areas are on platform level and there are no crossovers or crossunders. The centers of the northbound and southbound platforms each have a fare control area with a turnstile bank and token booth, although the northbound token booth is closed to the public. The northbound platform's fare control area contains stairs to the northeast and southeast corners of West 86th Street and Broadway, while the southbound platform's fare control area here contains stairs to the northwest and southwest corners of the same intersection. The southbound platform has another fare control near the north end. A bank of three turnstiles lead to a token booth that is only staffed during rush hours. A staircase goes up to an alcove inside 246 West 87th Street, on the southwest corner of West 87th Street and Broadway.

Werner Erhard (book)

Book by W.W. Bartley, III

Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est is a biography of Werner Erhard by philosophy professor William Warren Bartley, III. The book was published in 1978 by Clarkson Potter. Bartley was a graduate of Erhard Seminars Training and served on its advisory board. Erhard wrote a foreword to the book. The book's structure describes Erhard's education, transformation, reconnection with his family, and the theories of the est training. The book went through five editions in its first year. Reviewers generally commented that the book was favorable to Erhard, and a number of critics felt that it was unduly so, or lacked objectivity, citing Bartley's close relationship to Erhard. Responses to the writing were mixed; while some reviewers found it well written and entertaining, others felt the tone was too slick, promotional, or hagiographic. ## Background This biography tells Werner Erhard's early life story and the creation of the est Training which he designed to provide people with access to their own transformational experience. Werner Erhard (born John Paul Rosenberg), a California-based former salesman, training manager and executive in the encyclopedia business, created the Erhard Seminars Training (est) course in 1971. est was a form of Large Group Awareness Training, and was part of the Human Potential Movement. est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time. The program was very intensive. Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes. est was widely ridiculed in the popular press and aroused a great deal of controversy. In 1985, Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs". In the early 1990s Erhard faced family problems, as well as tax problems that were eventually resolved in his favor. In 1991 a group of his associates formed the company Landmark Education, purchasing The Forum's course "technology" from Erhard. ## Author William Warren Bartley, III, professor of philosophy at California State University, Hayward from 1973, prior to writing his biography on Erhard, had authored The Retreat to Commitment (1962), on the epistemology of Sir Karl Popper; Wittgenstein (1973), a biography of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein; edited (1977) Lewis Carroll's Symbolic Logic of 1896; and authored a book titled Morality and Religion (1971). Bartley was first introduced to and referred to est in March 1972 by a doctor whom he had consulted about his nine-year struggle with insomnia. As a result of his experience in the est training his insomnia was cured. He then became very involved in the est organization, and served for several years as the company's philosophical consultant. He received payments of over US$30,000 in this capacity during the two years he spent writing the book. He also served on the "Advisory Board" of est. Bartley interviewed a number of individuals who were involved in his subject's life and made use of quotations from a wide array of sources. Bartley commented on his subject in an article on the book in The Evening Independent, stating: "He's not a huckster, although he's a great salesman. I think he's a very good man, a very important man. ... He's a fascinating man. People are interested in him." ## Contents Life story The book recounts how Erhard's childhood events, job positions and self-education led to the development of the est training. Born Jack Rosenberg, Erhard was an inquisitive child who was close to his mother. In his student years, he read profusely and earned superior grades. As a teenager, Erhard experienced both conflicts with his mother and a growing dissatisfaction with his life. Shortly after graduating from high school he married his girlfriend Pat Campbell, who had become pregnant. Instead of pursuing his plans for higher education, he took on a variety of jobs including meat-packing, heating and plumbing, estimating and selling cars. By the age of 21, Erhard had become the top car salesman at the dealership he worked for. By the time he was 25, Erhard and his wife had four children and he was feeling increasingly restless and constrained. He formed a friendship with a woman named June Bryde, which gradually deepened into an affair. He secretly arranged a flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with June in 1960, leaving behind his wife and their four children, who would not hear from him for twelve years. The couple settled for a time in St Louis, and it was at this time that he changed his name to Werner Erhard with June changing hers to Ellen Erhard. After more work in car sales, Erhard joined the sales staff of Parents Magazine and was rapidly promoted to training manager and eventually appointed vice-president in 1967. During this period Erhard moved frequently to different parts of the US as dictated by the demands of the job, finally settling in San Francisco. When Parents Magazine was sold to the Time-Life group, he was recruited by the Grolier Society as Divisional Manager. According to Grolier vice-president John Wirtz the intention of appointing Erhard was that he would bring "integrity, honesty and straightforwardness" to their sales practices. Personal search and self-education Shortly after moving to St. Louis Erhard began to embark on a program of inquiry and self-education. Initially he focused on self-improvement books such as Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. From there, he widened his search to Human Potential Movement psychologists such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, a range of traditional Western philosophers, and Eastern disciplines such as Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Subud and the Martial arts as well as contemporary movements including Mind Dynamics, and Scientology. Creating the est training Bartley recounts a revelation that Erhard said he had experienced in March 1971 while driving into San Francisco, California to work at Grolier Society. Erhard described to Bartley what the revelation experience felt like: "What happened had no form. It was timeless, unbounded, ineffable, beyond language." He told Bartley that he realized: "I had to 'clean up' my life. I had to acknowledge and correct the lies in my life. I saw that the lies that I told about others — my wanting my family, or Ellen (his second wife), or anyone else, to be different from the way that they are -- came from lies that I told about myself -- my wanting to be different from the way that I was." His desire to share this experience led to the plans formed later that year to create the est training. The first promotional seminar was held in September with over one thousand attendees, and the first est training took place in October 1971 in a San Francisco hotel. In October 1972, while leading an est session in New York, Erhard realized that the time had come to reconnect with his family after an absence of 12 years. Although his long absence from his family caused them feelings of confusion and pain, he re-established cordial and loving relationships with all of them. His brother and sister became est Trainers and took on prominent roles in the business. He also set up a separate business venture for Ellen that gave her the financial freedom to choose how to structure her life and her relationship with him. Key concepts of the est training as defined by Erhard and described in the book include: - Completion: the acknowledgement of actions or decisions taken in the past, and the taking of steps to bring a resolution. - Rackets: behavior patterns ostensibly involving complaints about people in one's life, but actually resulting in the perpetuation of the complaint and the securing of a payoff such as dominating the other person. - Integrity: being whole and complete, and honoring one's word. In the est context the word is used to depict a matter of workability, rather than with the moral overtones it has in everyday usage. - Stories: the interpretations of experiences which are regarded as reality, leading to conflict with other people who have created differing interpretations of the same events. - Responsibility: the willingness to accept oneself as the source of outcomes in life – whether welcome or unwelcome – rather than blaming others for them. Intersections The biographical chapters on Erhard are interspersed with chapters that Bartley refers to as "Intersections". These chapters contain Bartley's scholarly overview and analysis of the various disciplines that Werner Erhard explored before founding the est training. ## Reception The book was 8th place on the Time non-fiction bestseller list of November 20, 1978. Bartley told The Evening Independent in February 1979 that the book had sold a total of 110,000 copies and gone through five editions. Jonathan Lieberson, writing for The New York Review of Books, described the book as "attractively written, never shrill or unduly proselytizing, careful to avoid the hysteria and tribalism that usually characterize the early years of movements like est", but considered Bartley to have "fallen" for Erhard. Given Bartley's previous work, Lieberson stated, he might have made an ideal interpreter of Erhard, but he found this expectation "disappointed [although] the book is nevertheless instructive". A review of Werner Erhard in Kirkus Reviews similarly concluded, "Too entranced to be truly objective, Bartley is nonetheless an insightfully partial observer." Booklist stated that Bartley, as an est student, had made the "mistake of being too close to his subject to be objective or critical." In Psychology Today, Morris B. Parloff stated that Bartley had written his biography of Erhard "carefully, lovingly, and well". Kris Jeter, writing in Cults and the Family, commented that "wise researchers know and teach that one should be in love with their research topic", and counted Bartley's book among several in which "this love was highly evident". Steve McNamarra, in the Pacific Sun, said that the book was "clearly written and, while basically sympathetic" was not "an adulatory 'house job'." McNamarra found the sections detailing Erhard's "soap opera", making up three-quarters of the book, the easiest to read, while the "intersections", passages in which Bartley provided concise summaries of the philosophical traditions underpinning Erhard's est training, were tougher but ultimately rewarding. Kenneth Wayne Thomas, in Intrinsic Motivation at Work, described the book as "somewhat sympathetic" to Erhard and the est philosophy; Steve Jackson, writing in Westword, similarly included it among "books sympathetic to Erhard, est and Landmark", written by an "old friend of Erhard's". Stephen Goldstein, in a Washington Post review, said Bartley had made it "obvious from the start that he cares about his subject and his own est experience" and had told "a rather simple, straightforward story that pretty much lets you draw your own conclusions [about Erhard] or keep the ones you have already reached." A reviewer in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries stated he was "enthusiastic about this book", praising the "personal quality [of] the narrative, which, though, sometimes becomes overly detailed." He highly recommended the book for general and college libraries focused on the social sciences. Other commentators felt that the book was unduly favourable to Erhard. A review of the book in The Christian Century stated that Bartley had got "sucked into" writing a "promo on Erhard, founder of one of the pseudo-therapies of the '70s." The Los Angeles Times commented that "[Bartley's] philosophical justification of est as a mishmash of totalitarianism, hucksterism and existentialism makes this book more a public relations product than an objective study." A Chicago Tribune review described the book as a "painstaking ... act of devotion" that nevertheless failed in its mission: "No one reading it is likely to agree with Bartley that the founder of est is a philosopher and spiritual leader of Gandhian magnitude except the already convinced." James R. Fisher, in Six Silent Killers: Management's Greatest Challenge, and Suzanne Snider, writing for The Believer magazine, referred to Bartley's book as a "hagiography", and Rachel Jones of Noseweek considered the book "sycophantic". A review in The Evening Independent described Bartley as Erhard's "friend and admitted booster", telling his "often-sordid story in detail." E. C. Dennis, writing for Library Journal, found that Bartley's work "has a slick tone and more than a trace of hero worship". Dennis acknowledged that the book gave "the full details of Erhard's 'soap opera,' often in his own words," but was critical of Bartley's writing, saying he cast "a Freud's-eye-view on his subject's youthful failings, but after the famous 'transformation' his tone becomes almost reverential." Dennis stated that the book failed to ask important questions, but that large public libraries should carry a copy, given its status as an "authorized" biography. ## See also - Getting It: The psychology of est - New age - Outrageous Betrayal - The Book of est

Yarborough v. Alvarado

Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U.S. 652 (2004), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declined to overturn a state court's conclusion that a minor was not in custody for Miranda purposes during his police interview. Michael Alvarado helped his friend Paul Soto steal a truck in Santa Fe Springs, California. The truck owner was killed by Soto during the robbery and Alvarado was convicted of second-degree murder for his role in the crime. The evidence for Alvarado's conviction was primarily based on statements given by Alvarado during a two-hour police interrogation that occurred when Alvarado's parents brought him to the police station. Alvarado was 17 years old and was not read his Miranda rights before questioning. During Alvarado's murder trial in a state court, motions to suppress the statements given by Alvarado were denied on the ground that Alvarado was not in police custody at the time of the interrogation and thus did not have to be read his Miranda rights. Alvarado appealed his conviction, claiming that the determination that he was not in custody was incorrect because the courts did not take his age into account. In a split decision, the Supreme Court declined to overturn the state court's conclusion about custody because it was not objectively incorrect. The Court noted that there was no precedent that required the use of age in determining whether someone is in police custody (this would change in 2011 with J.D.B. v. North Carolina, which held that age is relevant to determining if someone is in custody). The case has been cited in subsequent Supreme Court decisions as precedent for providing state courts with latitude in making decisions about general or broad rules. ## Background ### Crime and investigation The respondent Michael Alvarado agreed to help his friend Paul Soto steal a truck in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Santa Fe Springs, California. Soto pulled out a gun and approached the driver of the truck, demanding the keys, while Alvarado hid by the driver's side door. The driver refused and was shot and killed by Soto. Afterwards, Alvarado helped hide the gun. Los Angeles County Sheriff's detective Cheryl Comstock led the investigation of the crime. During the investigation Comstock contacted Alvarado's parents, saying that she wished to speak with Alvarado. Alvarado's parents brought him to the police station to be interviewed. Comstock brought Alvarado into an interview room and questioned him for two hours. Alvarado's parents asked to be present during the interview but were not allowed in by police. Alvarado admitted during questions that he had helped his friend try to steal the truck and that he had helped hide the gun. Before custodial interrogations, police are required to give suspects a Miranda warning that informs suspects of their legal rights during interrogation. However, Alvarado was not given a Miranda warning at any time during questioning. This would form part of the basis for Alvarado's legal defense. ### Trial and conviction The State of California charged Alvarado and his friend with first-degree murder and attempted robbery. Alvarado attempted to suppress his statements given during the Comstock interview on the basis that he was not read his Miranda rights. The trial court denied the motion on the basis that Alvarado was not in police custody at the time he gave his statement. Alvarado was subsequently convicted, primarily based on statements Alvarado made during his police interrogation. Alvarado's conviction was reduced by the trial judge to second-degree murder for his comparatively minor role in the offense. The California Courts of Appeal affirmed the conviction and agreed that Alvarado was not in custody. The Supreme Court of California declined discretionary review. Much of Alvarado's trial focused on whether Alvarado was in custody or not during his police interview. According to Thompson v. Keohane, to determine whether someone is in custody the courts apply a reasonable person test: whether a reasonable person would have felt free to leave or not. ### Petition for habeas corpus After his conviction, Alvarado filed for a writ of habeas corpus claiming that the custody analysis was incorrect because the court had not considered Alvarado's age in its reasonable person test. Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), a federal court can grant habeas corpus to a person held due to a state court judgment if the state court judgement "resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States". Alvarado's habeas corpus petition thus depended on demonstrating that the state court's custody determination was more than debatable, but objectively incorrect. The United States District Court for the Central District of California agreed that the state court rulings were correct; however, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed. The Court of Appeals held that the state court made a mistake in not accounting for Alvarado's youth and inexperience when evaluating custody. ## Oral argument Chief Justice William Rehnquist noted early in the oral argument that the case presented two questions. First, whether the Ninth Circuit's ruling was consistent with Supreme Court precedent. Second, whether the state courts' ruling was objectively unreasonable according to AEDPA. California Deputy Attorney General Deborah Chuang argued that the Ninth Circuit's ruling was not consistent with precedent because the Supreme Court had never addressed using age as a factor in custody analysis. Associate Justice Stephen Breyer remarked that he thought a Supreme Court precedent was not necessary because he thought it obvious that age affects whether a reasonable person would feel free to leave. John P. Elwood, at the time assistant to the Solicitor General, argued that age doesn't make a legal difference for Miranda purposes because it is a rule uniformly applied to all people and that police officers should not be required to get inside the head of each suspect. Tara K. Allen, arguing for Alvarado, claimed that the state court's decision was objectively unreasonable because they did not consider the totality of the circumstances surrounding the investigation as required by Thompson v. Keohane. Specifically, the considered circumstances of custody were not total because Alvarado's age was not considered. Associate Justice Antonin Scalia responded by saying that, according to Thompson v. Keohane, custody is an objective test and subjective factors like characteristics of the individual do not matter. ## Opinion of the Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion for the Court, which declined to overturn the state court's decision because fair-minded jurists could disagree over whether Alvarado was in custody. Kennedy noted that there were facts for and against the claim that Alvarado was in custody. Facts pointing towards custody included that the interview took place at a police station, the interview lasted for two hours, Alvarado was not told he was free to leave, and Alvarado's parents were not allowed to be present during the interview. Facts weighing against custody included that Alvarado was not transported to the police station by police, Alvarado was not threatened or told he would be placed under arrest, and the interview focused on the crimes of Alvarado's friend, not Alvarado's crimes. The Court was not tasked with conducting a separate inquiry into the issue of custody, rather, the Court was tasked with granting relief only if the lower court's decision is objectively unreasonable. Kennedy wrote that, given this standard, the state court's decision was reasonable because it was not clearly unreasonable. Central to the reversal of the Ninth Circuit was the fact that the state court did not take into account Alvarado's age and experience with law enforcement in the custody analysis. The Court made several findings on this issue. The Court held that the use of age in custody analysis had not been explicitly required by previous rulings. Inexperience with law enforcement was rejected as well; the Court noted that previous opinions had rejected reliance on such factors. ### O'Connor's concurrence Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote a concurrence that agreed with the finding that the state court's decision was reasonable. However, O'Connor held that there could be cases in which age would be relevant to custody analysis. This would be affirmed by the Court in 2011 in J.D.B. v. North Carolina. ### Dissent Associate Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissenting opinion, with whom Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, and Justice Ginsburg joined. Breyer disagreed with the majority's holding that fair-minded jurists could disagree on whether Alvarado was in custody, holding that the facts compelled the single conclusion that Alvarado was in custody. Breyer held that the actions the police did not do, such as arrest Alvarado or threaten him, were not as important as what the police did do. Specifically, the police had Alvarado's parents bring him to the police station, brought Alvarado to an interrogation room, kept his parents out, and questioned him for two hours. In the matter of Alvarado's age, Breyer found that it was relevant to the custody analysis. Further, Breyer held that nothing in the law prevents a judge from including age in the custody analysis. Breyer called the discussion of experience with law enforcement misleading; while experience with law enforcement can be difficult to determine, Breyer noted that Alvarado's age was a known objective fact. ## Reception The case received both positive and negative reception in scholarly publications. ### Support A note published in The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology supported the decision on procedural grounds, noting that using age in the custody analysis was not a precedent established by the Supreme Court. The note argued that establishing such broad legal precedent was outside the bounds of the authority of the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court was right to reverse. Instead, the note supported the state court who had applied the law as the Supreme Court had in the past. ### Criticism Berry Feld, professor at University of Minnesota Law School, wrote: "the Court's decision ... treated juveniles as the functional equals of adults during interrogation. Over the past quarter-century, developmental psychological research consistently has emphasized adolescents' inability to understand or exercise Miranda rights". Paul Holland, professor at Seattle University School of Law, wrote that "the assumptions Justice Kennedy made in Alvarado are inapplicable to the schoolhouse context ... considering the age of a student-suspect questioned at school, would not present a significant risk of compromising the clarity the Court has sought to provide law enforcement. Officers questioning students at school are well aware of the students' status as minors". ## Role in subsequent decisions ### Leeway granted to state courts Yarborough v. Alvarado has been cited in subsequent Supreme Court decisions as precedent for providing state courts leeway in reaching case by case determinations for general rules. ### J.D.B. v. North Carolina Though the Court rejected the argument that its previous holdings supported using age in the custody analysis, the Court did not rule against the use of age. In 2011 the Court clarified in J.D.B. v. North Carolina, ruling that a child's age is relevant to custody analysis. J.D.B. was a 13-year-old student who was interrogated at school by an investigator, a uniformed police officer, and school officials regarding a series of robberies. J.D.B. confessed to committing the robberies. He was not given a Miranda warning during the interrogation. Motions to suppress J.D.B.'s statements at trial were denied on the ground that J.D.B. was not in custody. Age was not used as a factor in the custody determination. The Supreme Court found that J.D.B.'s age should have been considered in the custody analysis and instructed the lower court to make a new finding on custody while taking age into account.

H-13 (Michigan county highway)

County highway and forest highway in Michigan, United States

H-13 is a county-designated highway in the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan that runs north–south for approximately 36.2 miles (58.3 km) between Nahma Junction in Delta County and the Munising area in Alger County. The highway is also signed as Federal Forest Highway 13 (FFH-13), a Federal Forest Highway between Nahma Junction and Wetmore. The roadway runs through rural national forest lands providing access to several campgrounds and parks. The area contains several lakes as well. The Forest Highway System dates back to the 1920s, and an earthen roadway was present along the route of FFH-13 by the 1930s. It was paved by the late 1940s and added to the county-designated highway system in the 1970s. A section of H-13 in Alger County originally continued north to Miners Castle, but the roadway designation was truncated in the first decade of the 21st century. ## Route description H-13/FFH-13 starts at an intersection with US Highway 2 (US 2) west of Moss Lake. The roadway runs north crossing a line of the Canadian National Railway. It heads through the Hiawatha National Forest, running parallel to the Sturgeon River. H-13/FFH-13 crosses the river near the Flowing Well National Forest Campground on a T-beam bridge built in 1941. The road meanders from there northeasterly through rural Delta County forests, passing to the west of Dana and Skeels lakes and crossing several small streams. It crosses into the southeastern corner of Alger County near Straits Lake. The road continues northeasterly and then meanders back and forth along the Alger–Schoolcraft county line in an area dotted with several lakes. H-13/FFH-13 crosses east into Schoolcraft County completely and provides access to the Pete's Lake National Forest Campground near the lake of the same name. The road shifts back westerly to follow the county line near the Widewaters National Forest Campground; from here north the forest highway will follow the county line north to the northwestern corner of Schoolcraft County. Along the way, H-13 meets the southern terminus of the unsigned H-09. Once the road crosses back into Alger County completely, it provides access to Wagner Falls State Park and passes Hanley Field, a private airport south of Wetmore. The forest highway crosses another branch of the Canadian National Railway south of the junction with M-28/M-94 in Wetmore. At that junction, the FFH-13 designation ends and H-13 continues north as a gravel surface along Connors Road through Munising Township. The county road ends at the intersection with H-58 (Munising–Van Meer–Shingleton Road) in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. As a county-designated highway, H-13 is maintained by the county road commissions of Delta, Alger and Schoolcraft counties (DCRC, ACRC and SCRC respectively) with support for the FFH-13 segment as part of the Forest Highway System that is funded and administered by the United States Forest Service and the Federal Highway Administration. H-13/FFH-13 forms a major north–south artery for the Hiawatha National Forest. ## History The Forest Highway System was created by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921. An earthen road was present along the route of H-13 by the middle of 1936. Later that year, the segment along the Alger–Schoolcraft county line was built as a gravel road, and Miners Castle Road was upgraded to gravel as well. Additional segments were under construction in 1940 in Delta County and south of Wetmore. During World War II, the gravel surface was downgraded to earth along Miners Castle Road. The rest of the modern H-13 was paved in 1948 or 1949. The county-designated highway system was created around October 5, 1970, when the state approved the system. The H-13 designation debuted in 1972 between Nahma Junction and H-58; H-13 turned east and ran concurrently with H-58 before turning north on Miners Castle Road. The northernmost segment was paved in 1987, completing the paving along the entire route. The H-58 concurrency was removed in 2004 when the northern segment of H-13 along Miners Castle Road was redesignated H-11. ## Major intersections |} ## See also -

Lady (Devil May Cry)

Fictional character in the Devil May Cry

Lady (Japanese: レディ, Hepburn: Redi), born Mary, is a character in Devil May Cry, an action-adventure hack and slash video game series created by Japanese developer and publisher Capcom. She was introduced in the 2005 title Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, as a demon hunter on a mission to avenge her mother's death at the hands of her father, Arkham. She is also present as a playable character in the sequel Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (2015). Since her introduction, Lady has appeared in the series' various anime and manga releases, supporting the protagonist Dante, to whom she often provides support and employment. The character was created by Bingo Morihashi alongside two other designers. Her appearance was based on Russian singer Julia Volkova, and was specifically designed with several traits to distinguish her from other heroines in the franchise. While Lady does not play a major role in Devil May Cry 4 (2008), her design in that game was reworked to be more attractive, since the sequel takes place almost a decade after her introduction, when she was underage. Multiple actors have provided her voice in her numerous appearances, including Kari Wahlgren and Kate Higgins, while Fumiko Orikasa voices the character in Japanese versions of the games. Critical reception to Lady has been positive. Various gaming publications have liked her role in the overall story of the franchise, and praised her debut as a playable character in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition due to her unique movements. She has been listed as one of the best heroines in video gaming history, and her addition to the anime spin-off series has also been acclaimed. ## Creation and design Lady's appearance was based on Russian singer Julia Volkova. While the character's designers sought to have her portrayed as a capable fighter, she was dressed in a school uniform in order to appeal to casual gamers; Daigo Ikeno tried to off-set the immature outfit by using oversized weaponry. With regard to cutscenes, Ikeno asked staff to make her look like a skilled fighter by utilizing sudden, unexpected martial arts movements and having the character make quick use of her guns during peak stances of those movements; her motion-capture actress found it difficult to replicate these moves. Bingo Morihashi said that he originally intended for Lady to be older than series protagonist Dante, but director Hideaki Itsuno refused to agree to this, believing Japanese players would prefer the character younger. Her appearance was finalized late in Devil May Cry 3's development, though Morihashi wrote her story and dialogue with a clear visual in mind. To distinguish her from previous heroines in the franchise, Lady was given black hair. Another contrast with Trish and Lucia was the fact she was highly skilled at fighting demons. The team felt former heroines were too generic. Her relationship with her father Arkham represents one of the key themes of Devil May Cry 3: familial conflict, with Dante also being in conflict with his brother Vergil. Itsuno said he did not like the idea of Lady killing Arkham, as he believed a child should never kill their parent. Morihashi wanted this scene in the final product, along with Dante defeating Vergil, as themes of the game. To balance this, Morihashi wrote a scene leading up to Arkham's death, where Lady said that Arkham was her responsibility. For Devil May Cry 4, Lady was redesigned to look like a businesswoman. The main character designer added sunglasses to hide her eyes of different colors, while expanding on her sex appeal to make players notice she was older than in Devil May Cry 3. This sex appeal required adjusting cutscenes in the game. However, multiple ideas were rejected by staff on the grounds that they were too explicit, although her final model was still approved despite being more erotic. Although Lady only appeared in a few cutscenes in the game, the staff had multiple discussions about her redesign; one concept artist said he spent more time designing Lady than Kyrie, the main heroine of the game. Like Dante, Lady's age was kept ambiguous, though the designers wanted both characters to look more attractive than in previous titles. Lady's popularity once made Capcom staff think about designing a spin-off game centered around her, but this was not pursued. Originally, the character was set to be included as an alternate skin in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, but Itsuno feared a negative backlash, and decided to retain her original moves and instead make Lady a playable character. To accommodate her inclusion, certain bosses were redesigned on her campaign mode. In 2015, Itsuno referred to Lady as his favorite character from Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, based on how different her play style is when compared to the others. Itsuno further described her as "definitely [a] cool enough and strong enough character." ## Appearances Lady is a freelance demon hunter, who is highly skilled in acrobatics and armed close quarters combat. She also has a signature weapon: the Kalina-Ann, a customized missile launcher similar to MANPADS. She was born Mary, later renouncing that name after her father Arkham murdered her mother in a ritual to obtain demonic power, an act which drove Mary to psychosis and obsessive vengeance. She first appears in Devil May Cry 3 as an antagonist to Dante, who eventually assumes her mission to stop her father's plans to destroy the world, and decides to take her place upon finding her exhausted. When Lady refuses to identify herself to Dante, he replies, "Whatever, lady\!" After Dante and his brother defeat Arkham, Lady formalizes her name in the game's denouement, telling her father that "Mary" is dead, before shooting him. At the end of the game, it is revealed that it was she who coined the phrase "Devil May Cry". She said it while trying to console Dante over the loss of his brother. Dante then used it as the name for his shop. She appears in Devil May Cry: The Animated Series as a solo demon hunter who sometimes calls on Dante for help. She has a cameo appearance in Devil May Cry 4, asking Dante and Trish for help in defeating the Order of the Sword, which has been creating their own weapons: Devil Arms. In the epilogue, she gives only a small amount of money to the duo as reward for dismantling the organization, while blaming them for generating chaos on the mission. In a special edition of the fourth game, she and Trish replaces Nero and Dante respectively in their own episode, whereas Lady's gameplay heavily focus on her firearms. She is also present in Devil May Cry 5 but unplayable. In the game's story, Lady, Trish and Dante are defeated by the Demon King Urizen and she is placed inside a demon until Nero rescues her. In the Devil May Cry 3 manga, Lady makes a brief appearance a year before the events of the game. She also appears as an assistance character in Project X Zone. Her design from Devil May Cry 4 also appears in the game Monster Hunter Frontier G. In the musical Devil May Cry: The Live Hacker, Lady was portrayed by Naomi Majima. Kari Wahlgren voiced Lady in Devil May Cry 3 and Devil May Cry 4, with Kate Higgins taking over the role since Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition. Stephanie Cheeva provided Lady's motion capture in Devil May Cry 3; Laura Napoli did so in Devil May Cry 4. Melissa Davis voiced her in the English version of The Animated Series. Fumiko Orikasa voiced Lady in The Animated Series, Special Edition of the fourth game, Devil May Cry 5, and Project X Zone. Capcom staff praised Orikasa, who said her work in the anime was challenging and Lady's appeal comes from her cool fighting appearance and her dynamic with Lady during their fight. Orikasa describes Lady as coldhearted but still enjoyed her role in the series. ## Reception Critical response to Lady has been positive. GamesRadar praised her role in Devil May Cry 3, highlighting how she stood out from the rest of the cast, and how she clashes with both Dante and Vergil. Similarly, Engadget commended the execution and handling of her plot on Devil May Cry 3, and how Dante ends up helping Lady to get revenge on her father. GameSpy shared similar feelings, stating that Lady and the rest of the cast were better written than the characters from the first two Devil May Cry games. Complex additionally found her a more likable sidekick to Dante than Trish based on her backstory and fighting style. In 2009, IGN listed her as the seventh best gaming heroine due to her characterization and the impact her actions have had on the overall franchise. GamesRadar also noted the impact Lady made to Devil May Cry series, by coming up with the franchise's title during her first appearance. The same site also described 'Lady' as being one of the worst character names in gaming. PortalPlay Game listed her as the third most sexually appealing character in gaming. Before the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, Play listed Lady as a character they wanted to see in the cast, believing Capcom "underused" her. Despite enjoying Lady's redesign in Devil May Cry 4, GamesTM was disappointed by the brevity of her appearance in the game. In their review of Special Edition, Hobby Consolas praised Lady's fighting style, although they noted it was the most difficult to master of any character in the game. Destructoid said she was a unique character in the game, because she is human who does not possess any demonic powers like the rest of the cast, which made mastering her fighting style entertaining. PC Magazine expressed a similar sentiment, based on how her skills contrast to those of the rest of the playable characters. While also finding her enjoyable to play, IGN believed that Vergil's mechanics made him more appealing and overshadowed both Trish and Lady. Game Informer was afraid Lady would "feel too gimmicky", but ended up liking her dynamic style. While reviewing the anime series, DVDTalk said they liked the interactions between Dante, Lady and Trish, to the point where the reviewer expected to see more of these, rather than stories focused on Dante fighting different enemies. GroundReport felt Lady and Trish were foils to Dante and compared them to the main characters from the manga and anime series GetBackers, due to the financial issues Dante faces despite him often receiving jobs from Lady. Fandom Post appreciated her addition to the cast; they liked the variety her character brought to the anime, as well as how she stands out in an episode fighting Trish over a misunderstanding where they end up becoming friends. The writer also enjoyed her role in following episodes, most notably the finale. Anime News Network lamented the fact that Lady only makes brief appearances in the anime, but said they found her English voice acting charming. UK Anime Network also liked her role in the anime, praising the way her fights are displayed. Hyper had mixed thoughts about the episode where Lady meets Trish through a fight but compared the style of the two female characters to the franchise The Matrix because of how stylish they both are.

Isaac L. Rice Mansion

Mansion in Manhattan, New York

The Isaac L. Rice Mansion (also the Isaac L. Rice House, Villa Julia, and the Solomon Schinasi House) is a mansion on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Located at 346 West 89th Street, at the corner with Riverside Drive, it was designed by Herts & Tallant. The house was built between 1901 and 1903 for the family of the businessman Isaac Rice and his wife Julia. Several further expansions in the 20th century, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert, Bloch & Hesse, and William Lazinsk, are similar in style to the original building. The Rice Mansion has served as a yeshiva since 1954 and is one of only two free-standing mansions extant on Riverside Drive. The house is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The mansion was designed in a mixture of the Colonial Revival, Italianate, Georgian, and Beaux-Arts architectural styles. The brick and marble facade is four stories high, with an attic and basement; the house is surrounded by a marble perimeter wall. There is a double-height entrance arch along Riverside Drive. On 89th Street, the first two stories are curved outward and contain a porte-cochère and a carved bas relief panel. The building is topped by a hip roof, clad with Spanish tiles. The mansion's interior was decorated in classical architectural styles, and was designed to be soundproof. It was built with spaces such as a main hall, library, and dining room on the main floor; a chess room in the basement; and bedrooms on the upper stories. Although subsequent tenants have modified the interior spaces over the years, the house largely retains its original interior layout. At the end of the 19th century, Isaac Rice and his wife Julia sought to erect a residence in a quiet part of New York City. The Rices bought the site at Riverside Drive and 89th Street in 1900 and hired Herts and Tallant as the house's architects. When the Rice family moved to the Ansonia Hotel in 1907, they sold it to the tobacconist Solomon Schinasi, whose family modified the house in 1908, 1912, and 1927. The Schinasi family lived there until around 1945, after which the Heckscher Foundation for Children leased it. Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim acquired the house in 1954. The yeshiva attempted to sell and demolish the mansion in the late 1970s, prompting a heated dispute with local preservationists. The house was taken over in 1988 by another Jewish day school, Yeshiva Ketana, which restored the house in the 1990s. There has been positive architectural commentary of the house over the years. ## Site The Isaac L. Rice Mansion is at 346 West 89th Street, at the southeast corner of Riverside Drive and 89th Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The house occupies an irregular plot with frontage of 148 feet (45 m) wide on 89th Street to the north and 116 feet (35 m) on Riverside Drive to the west; the plot extends 100 feet (30 m) back from 89th Street. The house itself is rectangular, measuring roughly 62 by 38 feet (19 by 12 m), with a semicircular annex to the south and a rectangular annex to the southeast. It is aligned with the rest of the Manhattan street grid (parallel to 89th Street and neighboring buildings), toward the eastern portion of the site. When the house was finished in the early 1900s, it was surrounded by terraced gardens. The house was originally surrounded by a brick wall designed by Herts & Tallant, the mansion's overall architect. The wall was a solid masonry structure measuring 7 feet (2.1 m) high, interspersed with six pillars measuring 15 feet (4.6 m) high. The brick perimeter wall was demolished in 1912 because it protruded past the lot line, and it was replaced by a marble wall designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. The house is across from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument within Riverside Park to the west. Rice had specifically selected the site of his house because it faced the monument, and the mansion's marble perimeter wall is designed similarly to the monument's balustrades. The Rice Mansion is also near the Normandy apartment building, which is two blocks to the south. The house was one of several freestanding mansions that were built along Riverside Drive and Park in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at a time when developers envisioned Riverside Drive as a rival to the millionaires' row on Fifth Avenue. The plot immediately to the south was owned by the brewer George Ehret and the department store retailer Benjamin Altman in the late 19th century, neither of whom built their houses there. Immediately to the north was a house belonging to Elizabeth Clark (whose family owned the Dakota apartment building). As part of an agreement that Altman made with William W. Hall in 1898, the Rice Mansion site was restricted to single-family residential use and had to be at least four stories high. By the early 21st century, the Rice Mansion was one of two remaining freestanding mansions on Riverside Drive, along with the Schinasi Mansion. The Rice Mansion was also the only mansion on the avenue that retained some of its original gardens; the other mansions had mostly been replaced with apartment buildings. ## Architecture The Isaac L. Rice Mansion was designed for the businessman and lawyer Isaac L. Rice by Herts & Tallant, who were known for designing Broadway theaters such as the New Amsterdam, Liberty, and Lyceum. The mansion was designed in a mix of the Colonial Revival, Italianate, and Georgian styles, and it also incorporates Beaux-Arts architectural elements. Local news sources in the early 20th century compared the house to an Italian villa or a Swiss chalet. C. P. H. Gilbert designed an annex in 1908 and a marble perimeter wall in 1912, while Bloch & Hesse and William Lazinsk were responsible for additional annexes in 1927. All of these additions were designed in a similar style to Herts & Tallant's original mansion. The building is four stories high with an attic and a basement. ### Facade The facade is made of brick and marble. The use of brick in the facade was common among neo-Georgian buildings, whereas the marble details were intended to be reminiscent of the Beaux-Arts style. Marble was used for the stairs, gardens, terraces, and archway. #### Riverside Drive The primary elevation of the mansion's facade faces west toward Riverside Drive and is divided vertically into three bays. There is an entrance on the second story of the Riverside Drive elevation, accessed via a wide exterior stairway measuring 40 feet (12 m) wide. While the original plans called for twenty granite steps, with a stone balustrade and electric lamps on either side, the current staircase has ten steps. The stairway to the house was narrowed in 1912 when the balustrade around the mansion was rebuilt. The Riverside Drive entrance is a double-height arch, which rises to the third story. The archway is similar to the New Amsterdam Theatre's original archway, which the firm also designed. The lower portion of the arch is flanked by a pair of engaged columns in the Tuscan order. Within the arch, the walls are faced in marble. The arch has a second-story doorway topped by a pediment and a double window. The upper portion of the arch is outlined by a string course with modillions. A keystone shaped like a console bracket is placed at the very top of the arch. On either side of the arched doorway, the second story forms a piano nobile flanked by Tuscan or Doric engaged columns. Miniature balustrades with stone panels are placed in front of the entrance. Above the story is an entablature with modillions, which is interrupted by the archway. The third-story windows have flat lintels influenced by English architecture. String courses run horizontally across the facade at the third and fourth stories as well. #### Other elevations On 89th Street, the first two stories are curved outward from the rest of the building and are clad with marble. At ground level, there is a porte-cochère for vehicles, which is composed of two segmental arches leading to a ground-floor entrance. Each arch is topped by a keystone. Between the arches of the porte-cochère is a carved bas relief panel depicting six children, who likely represent the Rices' sons and daughters. The sculpture is attributed to Louis St. Lannes (or Lanne), who also designed a statue outside the Rice Memorial Stadium in Pelham Bay Park. The second story consists of windows with Doric engaged columns on either side, above which is an entablature with modillions. There is another porte-cochère on 89th Street, which is attached to the house; the one-story structure fits two cars and was designed by Bloch and Hesse in 1927. The rest of the original facade is made of brick and is topped by a cornice with modillions and escutcheons. A hip roof, clad with Spanish tiles, overhangs the cornice. The north side of the roof has a skylight. The western and eastern sides of the roof each have three dormer windows that illuminate the attic, while the southern side has a single dormer. The house was originally constructed with four chimneys, two each to the west and east. There is also a brick elevator shaft to the east. At the southeast corner is a two-story annex designed by Gilbert in 1908. This annex is attached to the original mansion's eastern wall, which has very little ornamentation. Gilbert also added a semicircular bay to the southern elevation, similar to the design of the original mansion. The semicircular bay contains windows flanked by Doric engaged columns, as well as an entablature above the second story. The southern elevation additionally includes a two-story arched entrance, which is similar to the design of the Riverside Drive arch. The southern arch is topped by a keystone, with three windows above. ### Interior Isaac Rice and his wife Julia Barnett Rice had wanted the house to be soundproof because their six children (Muriel, Dorothy, Isaac Leopold Jr., Marion, Marjorie, and Julian) were loud. The mansion's interior was decorated in classical architectural styles, with marble fireplaces, wooden ceilings, stained glass windows, and a marble staircase. Although various subsequent tenants have modified the interior spaces over the years, the house largely retained its original interior layout in the late 20th century. Many of the original fireplace mantels also remain, along with wood paneling. The mechanical and electrical systems have also been upgraded. The original house had one elevator, and a second was constructed in 1927. The main hall measures 35 by 35 feet (11 by 11 m). Its ceiling is made of plaster and is divided into coffers with rinceaux and foliate motifs. On the northern and southern walls of the main hall are tall doorways with moldings and pilasters, which lead to various rooms. The room to the north is the former library, whose eastern wall contains an elaborate fireplace mantel. The library's mantel is flanked by pilasters with ornate capitals, which support a shelf with carved rinceaux and a central medallion. When the Rices lived in the mansion, the library had a carving of a blind beggar (which Dorothy Rice reportedly sculpted using only a hairpin), as well as a bronze bust of a rabbi also designed by Dorothy. South of the main hall was the dining room, which had wood paneling relocated from the St. Louis World's Fair. One source from 1907 described it as "one of the handsomest rooms in the house", with 40 types of wood used in the ceiling and walls. In the basement was a chess room where Isaac Rice often arranged matches with competitors abroad. Designed in the Arts and Crafts style, the chess room was a double-height space measuring 22 by 22 feet (6.7 by 6.7 m), with space for six tables. The room had a ventilation system, and it was soundproofed so Isaac could concentrate during matches. Other features of the house included wine vaults, billiards rooms, a fitness room, a studio, an infirmary room, and a garage that could fit several vehicles. The fourth floor contained a gymnasium for the Rice children. The house's original staircase was made of wood; this was replaced in 1908 by an iron-and-marble stairway, designed by Gilbert in the Italianate style. The lower part of the staircase has a marble balustrade with coats of arms and rosettes. On the upper stories, the staircase has an iron balustrade with rosettes, as well as landings with protruding balconies. The upper stories were used as bedrooms. Each of the Rice children designed their bedrooms according to their own tastes; for example, Isaac Jr. and Julian decorated their respective rooms with machinery. On the fourth floor, there is a room with a plaster ceiling that contains moldings, a frieze, and geometric motifs. ## History ### Use as residence At the end of the 19th century, Isaac and Julia sought to erect a residence in a quiet part of New York City, away from Broadway. The Rices initially obtained a 75-by-100-foot (23 by 30 m) site at 88th Street and Riverside Drive from Egbert Viele, paying $125,000 for that site in June 1899. Isaac Rice was reportedly convinced to buy the neighboring plot to the north at 89th Street, while observing a parade from the roof of Viele's house. In October, the Rices bought the site to the north for $225,000 () or $235,000 (). As partial compensation, Isaac Rice relinquished ownership of the 88th Street site. Rice planned to spend $200,000 () to erect the residence on 89th Street. The Real Estate Record and Guide predicted that the mansion would be "another handsome dwelling in an avenue which, during the year, has sprung into architectural and social fame". #### Rice ownership Herts and Tallant submitted blueprints for a four-to-five-story brick-and-stone mansion to the New York City Department of Buildings in August 1900. The original plans called for the mansion to occupy the center of its site. There were to be features such as a garage, gymnasium, chess room, grand stair, observatory tower, billiard room, and private clinic. The Building & Sanitary Inspection Company was given the contract for the plumbing and ventilation. Herts & Tallant submitted updated plans for the mansion in August 1901. The house was relocated eastward so its main facade would be on Riverside Drive; this allowed the house's architecture to complement the adjoining row houses on 89th Street. The structure was built up to the third story by January 1902. By the end of 1902, the house was nearly complete. Its final cost was estimated at $750,000 (), excluding furniture. The Rices' perimeter fence protruded several feet onto the sidewalk along both Riverside Drive and 89th Street, though Rice had obtained the city government's permission to erect the fence. The house was finished in 1903, When the house was completed, it was named in honor of Rice's wife, being referred to as "Villa Julia". He sometimes hosted chess matches at the house, such as college tournaments and at least one international collegiate match conducted by cablegram. Isaac Rice rehired Herts & Tallant in 1906 to design a one-story annex at a cost of $25,000 (). By the mid-1900s, Julia Rice was annoyed at the frequent noises made by the tugboats on the Hudson River near the house, claiming the noise made it impossible for Riverside Drive residents to sleep. After a student counted almost 3,000 horn blasts near the house in a single night, Julia established the Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise at the house in early 1907. Tugboat operators protested outside her house, but the effort ultimately led to federal legislation limiting noise from tugboats. The city government sought to have the mansion's perimeter wall removed by mid-1906, after government officials received complaints from several neighbors. Though Rice argued that other Riverside Drive residences had taller fences, he was ordered to demolish his perimeter wall in January 1907; litigation over the wall continued for months. #### Schinasi ownership In 1907, the Rice family decided to move to the Ansonia Hotel. Various reasons are given for the relocation, including the financial crisis that year, the fact that the Rices spent much of their time elsewhere, and Julia Rice's fight against tugboat noise. Julia also cited noise from the New York Central Railroad's West Side Line as the reason for her decision to move to the Ansonia. The tobacconist Solomon Schinasi, whose brother Morris was developing the Schinasi Mansion further north, bought the Rice Mansion in December 1907 for $600,000 (). He paid in cash for the home and also took over the house's $175,000 mortgage (). Schinasi had reportedly not even considered buying the Rice Mansion until shortly before his purchase was finalized. A judge ruled the same month that the mansion's perimeter wall had to be removed. In April 1908, C. P. H. Gilbert submitted plans to the New York City Department of Buildings for the construction of a three-story extension, which was to cost $38,000 (). The work involved removing the main stairway and elevator to make way for a new entrance. The W. L. Crow Construction Company was hired as the general contractor for the annex's construction, while D. S. Hess & Co. was given the contract for the interior decorations. Meanwhile, the city's park commissioner initially refrained from demolishing the Rice Mansion's perimeter wall, as he was awaiting the outcome of another lawsuit involving the removal of sidewalk obstructions. The second lawsuit was decided in the park commissioner's favor in June 1911, and the wall was demolished shortly thereafter. Schinasi hired Gilbert in 1912 to design a new perimeter wall, and Bunn and Nase were hired to build the wall. Solomon, his son Leon, and his adoptive daughter Nellie Schrater Stoeve lived there. Nellie described herself as being "as much a domestic slave of the Schinasi family as though I had really been a prisoner" while at the mansion. Solomon Schinasi lived in the house until 1919, when he died there of heart disease. Leon and Nellie continued to live there. Leon married Ruby Smith Salmon in 1926, and Ruby is recorded as having moved to the house; she also kicked Nellie out. The next year, Leon developed a garage on 89th Street and modified the southern facade of the house. Upon Leon's death in 1930, he bequeathed the house and the objects inside to Ruby, who continued to live there with their two children. By 1935, the general costs of the mansion amounted to $35,000 annually (). In 1940, a New York Surrogate's Court judge authorized Ruby to spend $2,000 () to redecorate her daughter's bedroom inside the house. The Schinasi family continued to live in the house until around 1945, and it leased the house out during the mid-20th century. The Heckscher Foundation for Children leased the house in the mid-1940s. A New York Times article from 1946 described the house as hosting rehearsals twice a week, in addition to dance rehearsals and "other forms of welfare work". ### Use as yeshiva #### Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim ownership Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, a yeshiva for Orthodox Jewish students, acquired the house in June 1954 at an assessed price of $300,000 (). The yeshiva had originally been the Radin Yeshiva, which had relocated from Poland after World War II. Chofetz Chaim had moved into the house by the end of the year, using the mansion as a school while retaining the house's original decorations. The yeshiva opened a high school in Tallman, New York, in 1964 but kept ownership of the house at 346 West 89th Street. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) considered designating the house as a landmark in 1973 but ultimately declined to do so. In 1979, Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim indicated that it wanted to sell the Rice Mansion because it was too small for the school and too expensive to maintain. The yeshiva's dean, Emerich Feigelstock, said the school needed money and that a developer might offer $1.5 million to $2.5 million. The developer, rumored to be a Canadian firm, would have replaced the mansion with a high-rise tower with up to 40 apartments, as well as classrooms for the yeshiva. Local residents formed the Citizens' Coalition to Preserve the Isaac L. Rice Mansion. The group and the yeshiva could not agree on a potential buyer for the mansion or an alternate location for the school. Feigelstock said in September 1979 that he had identified a developer who was willing to pay $2 million, whereas a buyer selected by Citizens' Coalition wanted to pay only $250,000. The LPC held a hearing on the mansion that month, amid continuing disputes over the mansion. Feigelstock maintained that the building had no historical or architectural importance because Rice was unknown to him. The LPC designated the Rice Mansion as a landmark in February 1980. The LPC's designation had to be approved by the New York City Board of Estimate, and Jewish groups and local residents continued to debate it acrimoniously. One New York Times article that the discussions were marked by "suggestions of anti-Semitism and allusions to connections with figures in nursing-home scandals". Opponents of the designation believed that a decision over the building's preservation was outside the LPC's purview, while supporters did not want the house to be demolished. New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger said the residents' reasons for saving the mansion were inherently selfish in nature. By a margin of one vote, the Board of Estimate confirmed the house's landmark designation in June 1980. The building was also placed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places, and the offer to buy the mansion was withdrawn. The LPC designation meant that, if the yeshiva had difficulties financing the building's maintenance, the city had to find a new owner for the mansion, and demolition was more difficult. In 1987, the LPC proposed including the house in the planned Riverside-West End Historic District, which was designated as a city historic district three years later. #### Yeshiva Ketana ownership The house was taken over in 1988 by another Jewish day school, Yeshiva Ketana, which had 200 students. Yeshiva Ketana was one of several Orthodox Jewish day schools in the neighborhood. The yeshiva began raising money for repairs to the Rice Mansion, including a $250,000 renovation of the roof, which was partly funded by a private grant. The school had difficulty raising money for other repairs, including the construction of a second staircase to four rooms on the roof, so it requested assistance from the local preservation group Landmark West. Yeshiva Ketana replaced the mansion's roof in the late 1990s. The roof caught fire in December 1997, shortly after its renovation was completed; though the upper stories were severely damaged, the roof repairs were delayed until the end of the school year. Because the house was a designated city landmark, the New York Landmarks Conservancy and other local groups provided funding to restore the damaged roof. In 1999, Yeshiva Ketana proposed converting the house's dust-filled yard into a playground, but local residents opposed the plan. By the early 21st century, local residents accused Yeshiva Ketana of not adequately maintaining the house and complained to both the LPC and the New York City Department of Buildings, the latter of which fined the yeshiva. The house was still known as the Rice Mansion or the Rice House. The New York Times described the house in 2005 as dilapidated, with cracks in the masonry; damaged or missing copper decorations; and a yard filled with dust that blew into nearby houses. Yeshiva Ketana continued to occupy the building in the 2020s. ## Reception Upon the house's completion, the Democrat and Chronicle called the house "one of the finest houses in New York, both in its exterior aspect and its interior arrangement". When the building was designated as a landmark in 1980, Paul Goldberger wrote that the Rice Mansion was "a handsome freestanding mansion, mixing the beaux arts and neo-Georgian styles in the eclectic manner", in a manner akin to the Andrew Carnegie Mansion on the Upper East Side. Goldberger also wrote that the house was "at once grand and pleasantly eccentric", especially considering the design of its porte-cochere. A writer for the SoHo News write that the house's Riverside Drive facade augmented the avenue because it faced the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, while the 89th Street elevation inspired the design of the adjacent row houses. Christopher Gray, another architectural historian, said the house was "superior to many" existing city-designated landmarks. ## See also - List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets - National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets

Freedom of Expression (book)

2005 book by Kembrew McLeod

Freedom of Expression® is a book written by Kembrew McLeod about freedom of speech issues involving concepts of intellectual property. The book was first published in 2005 by Doubleday as Freedom of Expression®: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity, and in 2007 by University of Minnesota Press as Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property. The paperback edition includes a foreword by Lawrence Lessig. The author recounts a history of the use of counter-cultural artistry, illegal art, and the use of copyrighted works in art as a form of fair use and creative expression. The book encourages the reader to continue such uses in art and other forms of creative expression. The book received a positive reception and the Intellectual Freedom Round Table of the American Library Association awarded McLeod with the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award, which honors the "best published work in the area of intellectual freedom". A review in The American Scholar said that McLeod " ... delivers a lively, personal account of the ways intellectual property messes with people—and how he messes with intellectual property." American Book Review said the work is "a clever compendium of examples" for those familiar with its subject matter. The Journal of Popular Culture called it "an informative, thought-provoking, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny examination of specific ways the privatization of ideas suppresses creativity in contemporary culture." Publishers Weekly said that McLeod's views echo prior comments about intellectual property by academics—including Lessig. ## Background McLeod first published the book as a compilation of writings in magazine format. Freedom of Expression was first published in book form in 2005 by Doubleday as Freedom of Expression®: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity, and in 2007 by University of Minnesota Press as Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property. The 2005 edition of the book was made freely available via a Creative Commons license. The Media Education Foundation released a DVD documentary film ytyhrtyreyeyeyn 2007 featuring McLeod, Jeremy Smith, Sut Jhally, and Jeremy Earp. The documentary was narrated by Naomi Klein and included interviews with Lessig, Siva Vaidhyanathan—a University of Virginia academic in media studies; Inga Chernyak—a co-founder of Free Culture at New York University, and Mark Hosler of Negativland. ## Contents In Freedom of Expression®, Kembrew McLeod discusses the concept of freedom of expression regarding cultural norms and the manner in which society allows corporations to influence discourse. McLeod discusses his own pranks, such as his 1998 registration of the phrase "freedom of expression" as a trademark. In 1998, he registered the phrase "Freedom of Expression" as a trademark in the United States, and said he would initiate a lawsuit against individuals who subsequently used this phrase without his permission. McLeod said, "If the ACLU wanted to put out a magazine with [the] title Freedom of Expression, they would have to pay me royalties." After the telecommunications company AT\&T used the phrase during a marketing campaign, McLeod's attorney sent a cease and desist letter to request that AT\&T stop using his trademarked phrase. In his book Owning Culture: Authorship, Ownership, and Intellectual Property Law, McLeod said that his intention with the registration of "Freedom of Expression" was to initiate social commentary in the media, saying, "I would let the news story itself be the social commentary." The trademarked phrase subsequently fell back into the public domain. McLeod also discusses the history of counter-cultural artistry, recounting episodes such as Dadaist art styles and an incident in which Vanna White initiated a lawsuit against a robot likeness for copyright infringement. He explores the concept of fair use and encourages the reader to use copyrighted works in alternative forms of artwork. He also gives a history of the song "Happy Birthday to You", information about the music industry's use of sampling, and discusses illegal art. McLeod said that the threat of a lawsuit from a company is not necessarily an indication of actual criminal activity, and these threats against artistry and creativity can be overcome through determination. ## Reception In 2006, the Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT)—a committee of the American Library Association (ALA)—awarded McLeod the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award, which recognizes the "best published work in the area of intellectual freedom." In a press release statement upon presenting McLeod with the award, Committee Chair Fred Stielow commented, "McLeod captures the growing switch from a balanced compromise between the creator's rights and public access. In its place, the author wittily exposes a stifling shift of copyright law into an instrument of commercial interests." McLeod was the only recipient of the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award in 2006. In a review of the book for The American Scholar, Siva Vaidhyanathan of New York University wrote that MacLeod " ... delivers a lively, personal account of the ways intellectual property messes with people—and how he messes with intellectual property", and that, "McLeod is ironic and witty, writing with a hip-hop-influenced youth-savvy diction that demonstrates his confidence and engagement with the material and the culture that means so much to him." Davis Schneiderman wrote positively of the work in a review for American Book Review, comparing it to similar works on the subject matter, including No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (2000) by Naomi Klein, and writings of Michael Moore and Al Franken. A review by Eric Anderson of Bowling Green State University in the Journal of Popular Culture praised the author's use of interviews throughout the book, writing that it " ... shines with McLeod's broad use of interviews ... [he] records and reports the voices of creative people who have been encumbered by the contemporary intellectual property regime. The incorporation of these interviews, demonstrating as they do specific examples of creativity obstructed in specific ways, is this book's most important contribution." Anderson said the book is "an informative, thought-provoking, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny examination of specific ways the privatization of ideas suppresses creativity in contemporary culture." Anderson mentions McLeod's and the book's publisher's uncommon tactic of making the book freely available via a Creative Commons license. Publishers Weekly reviewed the book and compared McLeod's tactic of following his trademarked phrase with "®" as a satire of Fox Network's registration of the phrase "fair and balanced" as a trademark. The reviewer wrote, "While McLeod's arguments aren't original, his entertaining examples and punchy writing nicely amplify the concerns voiced by an increasing number of intellectual property scholars, such as Lawrence Lessig." The reviewer said of the author's tone, "Although he evokes dark, almost Orwellian images throughout, McLeod manages an upbeat spin, citing the 'egalitarian' nature of the new technologies and a growing awareness of the need to return to a place where 'freedom of expression' is once again 'a meaningful concept that guides our political, social and creative lives.'" ## See also - Censorship - Censorship in the United States - Freedom of speech by country - Freedom of speech in the United States - Freedom of the press - International Freedom of Expression Exchange

Quién Dijo Ayer

Quién Dijo Ayer (English: Who Said Yesterday) is a compilation album released by Guatemalan singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona on 21 August 2007. Dan Warner and Lee Levin co-produced the album with Arjona and Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Tommy Torres. It was recorded in the United States, Mexico, Italy and Argentina, and is the last album Arjona released under the Sony Music Entertainment label before signing with Warner Music Group. It is Arjona's first compilation to include new material in the form of re-recorded versions of past hits in different musical genres from the original recordings, featuring guest artists such as Marc Anthony, Marta Sánchez and Mexican ska band Panteón Rococó, among others. Critically and commercially successful, Quién Dijo Ayer topped the US Billboard Latin Pop Albums chart and reached number two on the Top Latin Albums chart. The album became a hit in Latin America, topping the Mexican albums chart and receiving gold and Platinum certifications in several countries including the United States. The album spawned two commercially successful singles, "Quién", which reached number four on the Billboard Latin Pop Songs chart, and "Quiero", which reached number eight. Quién Dijo Ayer received in 2008 a nomination for the Latin Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Album and the Best Male Pop Vocal Album award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards. ## Background In a press conference, Arjona stated that "yesterday is the cumulus of this that put us here, which raised us and made us what we are, for good or bad." He also said that Quién Dijo Ayer was more than a compilation, and that "it's an album with all the features of the typical greatest hits disc. Several songs are the most popular, but others are the most important on other topics. We've dressed them different. "Se Nos Muere El Amor" is now with piano and flauta, as an example." He further stated that it was "an album that begun as an experiment, with a dose of informality, and suddenly, when I realized of what the producers were achieving with the songs I worked many years ago, the album finished as being very complicated." After spending the majority of his career signed to Sony, and later, Sony BMG, Arjona signed a long-term recording deal with Warner Music Latina in September 2008. Iñigo Zabala, chairman of Warner Music Latin America commented that "He's an artist that fits perfectly with our company," and that "We are a label that has a major catalog of songwriters and quality pop and rock from the likes of Maná, Alejandro Sanz, Laura Pausini, and now, Arjona." This departure made Quien Dijo Ayer the last album the artist directly released on his former label, although Sony later released another album named Simplemente Lo Mejor. ## Composition For this compilation album, Arjona re-recorded some of his older songs in a different style from the original versions, and remastered others. "Si El Norte Fuera El Sur" was transformed into a ska-style song, which he performed with Panteón Rococó. Argentinian jazz musician Fernando Otero was featured on the new version of "Jesús, Verbo No Sustantivo". "Historia De Taxi" was transformed into a salsa song, which Arjona performed with American singer Marc Anthony and pianist Sergio George; George said, "It's been interesting to work with two figures from different music worlds on the interest of making good music.", and that "every time a reunion of this kind happens, it [is] a reason to celebrate." Arjona also re-recorded "Realmente No Estoy Tan Solo"with singer Sandro; it was last song recorded by Sandro, who died on 4 January 2010. Arjona's manager told Argentinian newspaper Clarín that "[the singer] had the idea of inviting Roberto [Sandro] for his album, he [Sandro] showed enthusiasm and manifested the same degree of appreciation to Arjona. It seemed to him that he [Arjona] was an artist who proclaims the same values he proclaimed." This album included three new songs. "Quién" was written by Arjona, who co-produced it with Tommy Torres. It was released as the lead single from the album on 19 June 2007. Arjona commented that "'Quién' is the world out of the window and the prison built by ourselves. It's the freedom to choose the path or to prefer loneliness as an argument of nostalgia. 'Quién' is a story with the hurry of the desperate, is the flashback of those who end up loving alone." "Quiero", also written by Arjona, was released as the second single in November 2007. Website ADN Mundo called the song bohemian and hippie, and that it was "a love story that doesn't speak about love, but instead about the recent events on the world we live [in] and finally comes to the search of an individual who challenges nostalgia finding entertainment on the impossible." In 2009, "Quiero" was awarded the Pop/Ballad Songs of the Year award by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The third new song on the album was "Espantapájaros", which was written by Arjona and Miguel Luna. ## Release and promotion Quién Dijo Ayer was released in most markets as a two-disc compilation album. The first disc contains sixteen songs, of which thirteen are new versions of Arjona's past hits. On this disc appears the duets with Panteón Rococó on "Si El Norte Fuera El Sur"; Marc Anthony on "Historia de Taxi"; Marta Sanchez on "Tarde (Sin Daños A Terceros)"; Eros Ramazzoti on "A Ti" and Sandro de América on "Realmente No Estoy Tan Solo". This disc also contains the new songs "Quién", "Quiero" and "Espantapájaros". The second disc contains the same songs as the first disc but in their original versions, remastered. In Canada, Germany, Brazil and Mexico, a digital special edition was released that features only six songs on the second digital disc instead of 13. The songs included on the second disc on this version were "Se Nos Muere El Amor", "Dime Que No", "Si El Norte Fuera El Sur", "A Ti", "Tu Reputación" and "Cuando". This Brazilian version featured a different cover art. The album was also released as a single disc version with only the new versions and songs. Also, in Mexico, two physical single-disc versions of the album were released. The first includes the first single from Quinto Piso, "Como Duele" as a bonus track. This version was also released in Spain. The second version does not include "Espantapájaros" or "Realmente No Estoy Tan Solo"; it also includes "Como Duele" as a bonus track. ### Singles The first single released from the album was "Quién", a Latin pop song written by Arjona and produced by Tommy Torres and Los Gringos. The song charted on the Billboard Latin Songs at number twenty-one, and reached its peak the week ending 25 August 2007. The song was more successful on the Latin Pop Songs chart, where it reached number four. The music video for "Quién" was filmed in Las Vegas, Nevada. The second single released was "Quiero", which reached number twelve on the Billboard Latin Songs chart, and number eight on the Latin Pop Songs component chart. "Quiero" was very popular in Central American countries like Honduras, Nicaragua and Panamá. The music video for "Quiero" was filmed in the Dominican Republic and premiered in November 2007. ## Reception Jason Birchmeier from Allmusic gave a positive review of the album, and commented that, "while only a couple of the new versions depart stylistically from the originals, the contemporary productions breathe new life into these songs, which should be well known by longtime fans." Quién Dijo Ayer was Arjona's second album after Galería Caribe to reach number one on the Latin Pop Albums chart; it reached its peak in the week ending 8 September 2007. On the Latin Albums chart, Quién Dijo Ayer debuted at number two. The album was commercially successful in Latin America, and was certified Gold in Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, and Peru; and Platinum in Argentina, Mexico and the United States. ## Track listing ### Digital edition ### Standard edition The standard physical release of the album contains 2 discs with the following track list. ### Special edition The special edition does not include "La Novia Que Nunca Tuve", which is at No.9 on the digital edition. ## Personnel - Pedro Alfonso – engineer, string quartet, violin - Carlos Alvares – engineer - Ricardo Arjona – lead vocalist, arranger, producer - Isaias G. Asbun – Engineer, mixing - Pablo Aslan – double bass - Paco Barajas – trombone - Alberto Barros – trombone - Tom Bender – assistant - Robbie Buchanan – piano - Felipe Bustamante – keyboards - Miguel Bustamante – production assistant - Ricardo Calderon – graphic design, photography - Rodrigo Cardenas – bajo sexto - Aaron Cruz – double bass - Sal Cuevas – bajo sexto - Hector del Curto – bandoneon - Octavio DeMoraes – bajo sexto, choir arrangement - Rodrigo Duarte – chelo - Doug Emery – choir arrangement, keyboards, piano - Dario Espinosa – bajo sexto - Benny Faccone – engineer - John Falcone – bajo sexto - Ernesto Franco – photo assistance - Isaias García – engineer - Sergio George – arranger, keyboards, piano, producer - Chris Glandsdorp – chelo - Jose Gomez – programming - Mick Guzauski – mixing - Julio Hernandez – bajo sexto - Rob Herrera – production assistant - Michael Landau – electric guitar - Lee Levin – arranger, battery, choir arrangement, engineer, percussion, producer, programming - Erick Lopez – chorus - Vlado Meller – mastering - Armando Montiel – percussion - Alfredo Oliva – concert comedian - Fernando Otero – arranger, guest appearance, piano, producer - Joaquin Pizarro – engineer - Eros Ramazzotti – chorus, electric guitar - Tony Rijos – engineer, electric guitar, guitar, producer - Lorena Rios – coordination - Matt Rollings – piano - Bob St. John – engineer - Marta Sánchez – chorus - Milton Sesenton – piano, producer - Tom Swift – engineer - Tommy Torres – choir arrangement, chorus, engineer, producer, vocal producer - Dante Vargas – trumpet - Robert Vilera – bongos, percussion, timbales - Pete Wallace – keyboards, hammond organ - Ben Wish – engineer, mixing - Christian Zalles – engineer ## Chart performance ### Weekly charts ### Yearly charts ### Certifications ## Release history ## See also - Top 100 Mexico - List of number-one Billboard Latin Pop Albums of 2010

Cannabis in Japan

Cannabis has been cultivated in Japan since the Jōmon period of Japanese prehistory approximately six to ten thousand years ago. As one of the earliest cultivated plants in Japan, cannabis hemp was an important source of plant fiber used to produce clothing, cordage, and items for Shinto rituals, among numerous other uses. Hemp remained ubiquitous for its fabric and as a foodstuff for much of Japanese history, before cotton emerged as the country's primary fiber crop amid industrialization during the Meiji period. Following the conclusion of the Second World War and subsequent occupation of Japan, a prohibition on cannabis possession and production was enacted with the passing of the Cannabis Control Law. As of 2024, the possession of cannabis for recreational and medicinal use is illegal in Japan, though a law legalizing medical cannabis was passed by the House of Councillors in late 2023. The cultivation of commercial cannabis hemp is permitted under a strictly regulated licensing system. While other East Asian and industrialized nations have generally moved to relax laws that criminalize cannabis in recent decades, Japan has maintained and strengthened laws that prohibit the use, possession, and cultivation of cannabis. The proportion of the Japanese population that has used cannabis at least once was 1.8 percent in 2019, making it the second most popular illicit drug in the country behind methamphetamine. ## History ### Prehistoric and ancient Japan Though it is possible that cannabis is native to the Japanese archipelago, it most likely spread to what is now modern Japan from Korea and China; the common term for "hemp" in Japanese is taima (大麻), derived from the Chinese dà má. Cannabis was likely introduced roughly 18,000 years ago via a land bridge that connected the Asian continent to the Japanese archipelago. Cultivation of cannabis began during the Jōmon period at least 6,000 to 7,000 years ago and possibly as early as 10,000 years ago, making cannabis one of the earliest cultivated plants in Japan. The plant was grown as a food source and for its fibers, which were used to create clothing, rope, nets, and later washi (paper). Owing to the plant's association with purity, cannabis hemp fibers were also used by Shinto priests for ritual cleansing and to exorcise evil spirits, a practice that continues to the present day. Artifacts made from hemp have been recovered from the Torihama shell mound, an early Jōmon settlement. Hemp production continued into the Yayoi period, with Chinese historian Chen Shou noting in his Records of the Three Kingdoms that the Japanese cultivated hemp along with rice and mulberry; Shou's claims are supported by the recovery of hemp cloth from the Yayoi cemetery at the Yoshinogari site in Kyushu. The growth of the Yayoi population combined with the introduction of loom weaving from the Asian continent led to an increased need for weaving fiber, and subsequently an expansion of hemp cultivation. By the 3rd century, hemp clothing was widely available in Japan. The indigenous Ainu of Hokkaido may have also used hemp fiber for cordage and as weaving for clothing, though it was not used in their shamanic rituals. It is unclear how extensively cannabis was used for its psychoactive properties during this period. There is circumstantial evidence that cannabis resin may have been ingested for ritualistic or shamanic purposes: shamanism was central to Jōmon culture, and the mind-altering properties of cannabis were used for divination and communication with deceased ancestors in China as recently as the third millennium BCE. Regardless, any ritualistic use of cannabis for psychoactive purposes was suppressed in Japan following the arrival of Confucianism in the 3rd century. ### Classical and feudal Japan Cannabis use and production continued as Japan unified under a centralized government. References to cannabis appear in Man'yōshū, the oldest extant collection of Japanese waka (poetry), and in haiku poetry; bundles of cannabis were also traditionally burned during Bon to welcome the spirits of the deceased. By 645 CE, hemp was among the goods taxed by the ruling Yamato court, which also paid corvée laborers in hemp cloth and other items collected from commoners as exemption revenue. The ascendance of the feudal daimyo led to the further cultivation of commodity crops like hemp, which provided them an additional source of revenue through both sale and taxation. While the wealthy classes typically wore silk clothing during this period, hemp was the main fiber used to make clothing among commoners; hemp was also used to make uniforms and leisure kimono for samurai, training clothes for martial arts, and military uniforms. As Japan pursued a policy of economic isolationism during the Edo period, agricultural plots in the south of the country were used to grow cotton, which was highly valued at the time, while hemp was grown on a smaller and more irregular scale in the north. As in the prehistoric and ancient periods, it is unclear how extensively cannabis was used for its psychoactive properties during this time. Historians have speculated that the wide availability of cannabis may have made it the intoxicant of choice for commoners, contrasting the monopolization of sake extracted from rice by the upper classes. ### Early modern and post-war Japan As a result of higher agricultural yields prompted by industrialization during the Meiji period, cotton came to gradually replace hemp as Japan's primary fiber crop. Though cotton clothing became readily available among the urban working class, hemp clothing remained common among the rural peasantry, who would often combine hemp fabric and cotton rags to create patchwork garments. Contemporaneously, specialized fine hemp clothing produced using modern weaving techniques began to emerge, though the high labor costs associated with creating these garments meant they were purchased and worn exclusively by the wealthy. By the end of the twentieth century, cotton clothing had become ubiquitous in Japan across economic classes, while only the upper classes continued to wear traditional fine hemp clothing – a reversal from hemp's previous role as the fabric of commoners. By the early 20th century, cannabis-based cures for insomnia and muscle pain could be purchased in Japanese drug stores. Its ritual use also continued, with early 20th century American historian George Foot Moore observing that Japanese travelers would present cannabis leaves as offerings at roadside shrines to ensure safe trips. Hemp was a strategic war crop for Japan during the Second World War, as it was for the United States and Europe, and was used to make rope and parachute cords. Following the conclusion of the war and subsequent occupation of Japan, a prohibition on cannabis production was enacted by the passing of the Cannabis Control Law (see Legal status below). While the ostensible purpose of the law was to protect Japanese society from narcotics, historians have speculated that American petrochemical interests may have sought to restrict the hemp fiber industry in order to open Japan to foreign-made polyester and nylon, noting that the sale of amphetamines was permitted until 1951. In any case, the opening of the Japanese economy under the occupied government saw the country flooded with foreign synthetic products that replaced many traditional Japanese goods, and effectively eliminated hemp cultivation in Japan in all but the most remote regions of the country. Spontaneous wild cannabis growth in urban areas (particularly in open environments along railway tracks) persisted until at least the mid-1950s, while wild cannabis growth persists in parts of Hokkaido; in 2003, Hokkaido's health and welfare bureau cut down 1.47 million wild cannabis plants, amounting to roughly 80 percent of the total wild cannabis in Japan. In the months prior to the cultivation ban, Emperor Hirohito offered assurances that farms cultivating hemp for industrial use would be permitted to continue operating in defiance of the Cannabis Control Law. In 1950 there were approximately 25,000 cannabis farms in Japan, a number that would decline significantly in the subsequent decades due to a reduction in demand for hemp fiber and the cost of newly required hemp cultivation licenses. A 1968 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report noted that the majority of the violators of the country's cannabis laws were foreigners, principally foreign sailors and soldiers on leave from the Vietnam War. Cannabis gained some popularity as a recreational drug among Japanese domestics during the 1970s as disposable incomes rose, but remained generally less popular than solvents and amphetamines. In 1972, 853 violations of the Cannabis Control Law were recorded. Synthetic cannabinoids, referred to in Japan as dappo habu (literally "loophole herb"), gained popularity in the 2010s, but faced police crackdowns after two separate incidents in which drivers under the influence of synthetic cannabinoids struck pedestrians. ## Legal status ### Legislation and policy The Cannabis Control Law is Japan's national law banning the import, export, cultivation, sale, purchase, and research of cannabis buds and leaves. Originally passed in July 1948, the law has subsequently been modified multiple times, with each revision adding stricter penalties for violations. Japan has also ratified the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Industrial hemp is legal under Japanese law, though its cultivation is strictly regulated (see Modern use below). Cannabidiol (CBD) and certain cannabis derivatives are legal due to a regulatory loophole that permits the importation of products made from cannabis stems and stalks that do not contain THC, though certain derivatives and synthetic cannabinoids such as HHC and CUMYL-CBMICA have been made illegal. The possession, sale, and cultivation of cannabis for both recreational and medicinal purposes is illegal, though a law legalizing medical cannabis was passed by the House of Councillors in December 2023. Consumption of cannabis is legal, a legacy of an original provision of the Cannabis Control Law that did not punish consumption in order to shield hemp farmers who may unintentionally inhale the crop's psychoactive substances. In 2021, a Ministry of Health panel formally recommended that the Cannabis Control Law be revised to criminalize cannabis consumption (see Reform below). ### Penalties and violations Penalties for violations of Japan's cannabis laws are among the strictest in the world. Possession of cannabis carries a penalty of up to five years imprisonment, cultivation carries a penalty of up to seven years imprisonment, and possession for the purpose of trafficking carries a penalty of up to seven years imprisonment and a fine of . Cultivation and importation carry a penalty of up to seven years imprisonment, while cultivation and importation for the purpose of trafficking carries a penalty of up to ten years imprisonment and a fine of . A report by the Ministry of Justice found that there were 2,423 violations to the Cannabis Control Law in 2006, an increase from 2,063 in 2005. The same report found that a total of 421 kg (928 lb) of marijuana was confiscated in 2006, compared with 972 kg (2143 lb) in 2005 and 1,055 kg (2325 lb) in 2004, a trend cited as possible evidence that casual marijuana use was on the rise among the broader population. In 2019 there were 4,570 violations – the sixth consecutive year of year-over-year increases – with nearly 60 percent of those arrested being aged 30 or younger. In 2020, 5,034 people in Japan were convicted for cannabis-related crimes, compared to 8,471 convictions for crimes related to amphetamines, 201 for synthetic drugs, and 188 for cocaine. Of these 5,034 cannabis cases, 4,121 were for possession, 274 were for delivery, and 232 were for cultivation. 17.6 percent of cannabis offenders were between 14 and 19 years old, while 50.4 percent were between 20 and 29 years old. The majority of offenders reported that they began to use cannabis when they were 20 or younger and that they began using cannabis "after being invited to do so, citing curiosity as a reason for accepting such an invitation". There have been several high-profile arrests and scandals relating to the possession or use of cannabis by public figures. In 1980, English musician Paul McCartney was detained in a Japanese prison for nine days after cannabis was found in his luggage at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. The 2008 sumo cannabis scandal resulted in the expulsion of four professional sumo wrestlers from the sport, and was described by The Japan Times as the largest drug-related sporting scandal in Japanese history. In 2009, professional rugby player Christian Loamanu of Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo was indefinitely suspended from the Japan Rugby Football Union after testing positive for cannabis in a random drug test. In 2017, actress Saya Takagi was sentenced to a three-year suspended sentence for possession of cannabis; she subsequently retired from acting to become a cannabis legalization activist. Actor and idol Junnosuke Taguchi was sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence for possession of cannabis in 2019, while actor Yusuke Iseya was sentenced to a three-year suspended sentence for possession of cannabis in 2020. ## Modern use ### As hemp Hemp fibers and nongerminated hemp seeds are used in a variety of Japanese commercial products and religious items, such as shichimi spices, traditional shimenawa straw festoons, and noren curtain room dividers. Most hemp products in Japan are imported, though cannabis for use as hemp is cultivated domestically on a small scale. Permits to cultivate hemp are granted under a strictly regulated licensing system; in 2016, there were 37 licensed cannabis farms in Japan. The majority of these farms are in Tochigi Prefecture, a region that cultivates approximately 90 percent of Japan's commercial hemp, though these farms rarely exceed 10 hectares (25 acres) in size. Japanese hemp cultivators are required to grow Tochigishiro, a low THC strain with little euphoric potency that was developed after World War II and which is distributed to farmers as seeds by the government. Less than one hundred total licenses are granted to Shinto shrines, which grow and process small amounts of cannabis for ritual use. ### As a drug Marijuana is the second most commonly-used illicit drug in Japan behind methamphetamine. A 2019 survey found that 1.8 percent of people in Japan had used marijuana at least once in their lifetime, compared to 44.2 percent of Americans and 41.5 percent of Canadians, while 2018 survey by the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry [ja] found that 1.4 percent of people in Japan aged 15 to 64 (or 1.33 million people) had used marijuana. The total value of the cannabis market in Japan was estimated at in 2023. Recreational cannabis usage in Japan has steadily increased since the 2000s, particularly among young people (see Penalties and violations above). Potential causes for this trend include the reduced availability of kiken (quasi-legal designer drugs) as a result of police crackdowns, and the ubiquity of positive information about cannabis available on the internet. Despite this, cannabis use continues to carry a strong social stigma in Japan, and individuals who are arrested or prosecuted for cannabis possession typically face social and professional consequences in addition to legal prosecution. For example, when actress turned cannabis activist Saya Takagi was arrested for cannabis possession in 2016, media companies removed her films and television episodes featuring her from circulation, and damaging stories about her personal life and marriage were published in the mainstream press. While clandestine marijuana grow operations do operate in Japan, they are generally small in scale, and most cannabis in the country is imported. Per a UNODC survey, in 2010 a gram (1/28 oz) of ground cannabis sold at retail in Japan for an average of US$68.40, while a gram (1/28 oz) of hashish retailed for an average of US$91.10. A 2018 global cannabis price index based on UNODC data found that Tokyo was the most expensive city in the world to purchase cannabis, with a gram (1/28 oz) costing an average of US$32.66. CBD is legal in Japan and been sold in the country since 2013, with CBD-infused products such as oils, cosmetics, and foodstuffs being readily available at both specialty shops and major retailers. The value of the CBD food market in Japan was an estimated US$10-18 million in 2020, representing an increase of 171 percent from 2019. Many Japanese CBD manufacturers intentionally dissociate their products from marijuana, for example, by avoiding packaging featuring marijuana leaf designs. While The New York Times reported in 2021 that Japanese authorities "haven't exactly encouraged the CBD industry, they largely view it as benign, in 2024 a proposed revision to the Cannabis Control Law was introduced that would restrict the amount of THC that CBD products can contain to 0.001% or less. The proposal has been strongly criticized by Japan's CBD industry, which has argued that the cap would constitute an effective ban on CBD. ## Reform The Japan Times reported in 2021 that "political momentum for legalizing cannabis" in Japan "is essentially nonexistent". While several industrialized nations have moved to relax laws concerning cannabis in recent decades, Japan has maintained and strengthened laws that prohibit the use, possession, and cultivation of cannabis. The Cannabis Control Law was upheld by the Supreme Court of Japan in a 1985 challenge, while the Japanese Drug Abuse Prevention Center (an organization under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and the National Police Agency) maintains a policy that cannabis is harmful to the immune and respiratory systems, and can induce manic-depression. A 2012 projection by author and businessman Funai Yukio [ja] estimated that legalizing recreational cannabis in Japan could generate up to in revenue. Multiple pro-legalization organizations have formed since the 1990s: in 1999, the Japanese Medical Marijuana Association was formed to advocate for the legalization of medical cannabis. In 2001, the Cannabis Museum was opened by hemp rights advocate Junichi Takayasu, which "works to elevate the degraded standing of cannabis by educating the public about the history of hemp in Japan". Japanese legalization activists have emulated tactics used by activists in the United States by publicizing reports on the effectiveness of cannabis in treating pediatric epilepsy and other ailments, with the goal of shifting public opinion in order to provoke legal changes. Few politicians have indicated support for reformist policies; in 2017, the now-defunct New Renaissance Party was the first Japanese political party to endorse the legalization of medical cannabis. Akie Abe, wife of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, has advocated for greater investment in Japanese industrial hemp farming, and has indicated support for the legalization of medical cannabis. In 2021, the Ministry of Health convened a panel of experts to make recommendations on potential revisions to the Cannabis Control Law. In its report the panel recommended that cannabis consumption be formally criminalized, that cannabis regulations shift from the current system of regulating leaves and buds to regulating cannabis' chemical compounds, and to permit clinical trials of cannabis-derived pharmaceuticals such as Epidiolex. In December 2023, the House of Councillors passed a law that would legalize medicinal cannabis, criminalize non-medical cannabis consumption, and introduce a new licensing system for cannabis growers. If adopted, the provisions relating to medical cannabis will come into effect one year from promulgation, while the provisions relating to licensing will come into effect two years from promulgation. ## See also - Cannabist Kansai - Kyoto Hemp Forum

Matar Matar

Bahraini politician

Matar Ebrahim Ali Matar (also spelled Mattar Mattar; ; born 3 May 1976) is a Bahraini politician of the Al Wefaq party who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from October 2010 until his resignation in early 2011. Born in the village of Al Daih to a large family with diverse political views, Matar completed his secondary education in Bahrain and moved to Kuwait to pursue higher education. He remained there until 2002 when he returned to Bahrain and joined Al Wefaq political party. Matar was politically active, working within committees in the party and meeting with foreign officials. In 2010, he won with a large margin in the Parliamentary election, becoming the youngest of all MPs and representing the country's largest constituency. When the Bahraini uprising started in early 2011, Matar joined the protests and gave several interviews to international media. Following government crackdown, he and other party MPs resigned from Parliament. Due to his activism, Matar was arrested by authorities in May. He was allegedly kept in solitary confinement and subjected to torture while in detention before getting tried before a military court. He was released in August and acquitted of charges in February 2012. His arrest, alleged mistreatment and subsequent release triggered several international reactions by international bodies and NGOs such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Inter-Parliamentary Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Following his release, Matar continued his political activism. ## Early life and career Matar was born in Al Daih village, Bahrain on 3 May 1976. His father, Ebrahim is married to three women and has 17 children besides Matar, who is the fifth child out of his mother's seven. The family is diverse in its ideological and political views; some being "leftists, Islamists, Communists, some...conservative and some liberal," said a family member. They are active politicians, most of them members of opposition groups Al Wefaq (Shia) or Wa'ad (secular). As a child, Matar is said to have been shy and intelligent. He studied at Al Razi primary school, then at Jidhafs intermediate school and after that at Noaim secondary school, where he is said to have been a top student. He traveled to Kuwait to pursue higher education. He earned a Master's degree in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from Kuwait University. When the 1990s uprising in Bahrain began in 1994, Matar left to Kuwait. He returned to Bahrain following a reform process initiated by King Hamad who succeeded his father, Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa. In 2003, Matar married Amal Habib, an ophthalmologist working in Salmaniya Medical Complex. They have a son, Ahmed (born 2007) and a daughter, Sara (born 2008). ## Political life Matar joined Al Wefaq political party in 2002 following his return to Bahrain. He established its Youth Center and became its head. He was also a member of the party's monitoring committee and anti-discrimination committee to which he co-authored a report about discrimination in Bahrain. According to his colleague Khalil al-Marzooq, Matar was active and popular within Al Wefaq. In 2008, he participated in the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship Program in the United States, during which he met Condoleezza Rice, the then-Secretary of State and criticized the U.S. for giving Bahrain "a pass in exchange for hosting the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet's large base." Since 2009, Matar had been working with the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED). In October 2010, Matar was successfully nominated by Al Wefaq to the parliamentary election, becoming the youngest Member of Parliament. The constituency he represented, the first of the Northern Governorate is the biggest in Bahrain, having about 16,000 people. In the previous election of 2006, Ali Salman, the head of Al Wefaq who did not run in this election, was elected by the same constitute. Matar won from the first round with a percentage of 85.72. He became a member of the financial affairs committee where he was an outspoken critic of the military budget. In December, the then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was on a visit to Bahrain when Matar asked her to "use America’s influence to reverse a sharp decline in civil rights in the kingdom". "Sometime we feel that there are no red lines or constraints between United States and their allies," he added. Since then, he has become a well-known politician and a "moderate critic of the Sunni-led Bahraini government". In their 2011 documentary, Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, Al Jazeera English (AJE) described Matar as "the closest thing Bahrain had to a representative leader". ## Bahraini uprising ### Background Beginning in February 2011, Bahrain saw sustained pro-democracy protests, centered at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital of Manama, as part of the wider Arab Spring. Authorities responded with a night raid on 17 February (later referred to by protesters as Bloody Thursday), which left four protesters dead and more than 300 injured. In March, martial law was declared and Saudi troops were called in. Despite the hard crackdown and official ban, the protests continued. ### Role in uprising Matar was among protesters in the Pearl Roundabout; he also took part in a number of other protests and encouraged youth to do so. In February, he and 17 other Al Wefaq MPs (the largest bloc) submitted their resignations in protest against the government crackdown on anti-government demonstrations. He was involved in organizing talks with the government. Matar was outspoken against the government's human rights violations, giving interviews to human rights organisations and foreign media including one on 26 April with AJE on the arrest of several health workers and another on 1 May with BBC in which he called for "establishment of a secular democracy in Bahrain". He also gave interviews to Reuters and France 24. On 28 April, a TV programme with footage of a defendant charged with "murdering two security officers" was aired on the state-controlled Bahrain TV. The programme was one of a series of confessions from prisoners aired by the channel. The defendant, called Ali Saqer said Matar had instructed him to kill policemen. Saqer had died from torture earlier in April while in detention (the footage was aired more than two weeks after Saqer's death). Following the airing of the programme, Matar said he was worried that "they [the government] are preparing something for me". Due to his actions during the uprising, Matar became a "government target". ### Arrest and alleged mistreatment On 2 May, following a car chase, Matar was arrested by plain-clothed and masked security forces while he was accompanied by his wife, his family said. AJE reported that Matar was forced at gunpoint to enter an unmarked car. His wife Amal said in an interview with AJE: "We were chased in the street by masked men in plain clothes with machine guns. They cornered us in the street and take [sic] him out of the car in front of my eyes with the guns pointed at his head." Subsequently, Matar was taken to an unknown location. According to "media sources and human rights organizations", he was kept in solitary confinement until 12 June, with a family visit allowed ten days later. During the visit, Matar said he had not been mistreated, but a human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab said he was beaten afterwards. A witness said he had overheard the screams and beatings of Matar on 10 May while he was being held for interrogation at a military barrack in Riffa. The witness added that he had heard guards call Matar's name and saw him "handcuffed and with blood on his clothes". Following his release, Matar said he had been subjected to torture and filed a complaint regarding it. In a testimony to Amnesty International, he said: > I was ill-treated by the security forces in Bahrain and held in solitary confinement for 45 days. I was interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department while blindfolded and handcuffed and threatened to be treated like an animal if I did not co-operate. For several days I was deprived of sleep and forced to stand up for prolonged hours. I was brought before the military prosecutor without the presence of a lawyer and only allowed to contact the outside world for the first time three weeks after my arrest, but I wasn't allowed to tell them where I was being held. The government of Bahrain denied that Matar had been kept in solitary confinement. They said the "information concerning the disappearance of Mr. Matar following his arrest is not correct" and that they had followed international human rights standards. They added that Matar was allowed to contact his family and lawyer, and that his "legal safeguards were ensured" according to local law. They also noted that Matar had lost his parliamentary immunity following the acceptance of his resignation on 29 March. They however did not address the allegations of mistreatment nor did they provide other information requested by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights such as the results of investigation and medical examinations. Also, Kassoum Tapo, the president of the Committee on human rights of parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union insisted that Matar had been a parliamentarian "at the time of the demonstrations and of [his] arrest." ### Trial On 12 June, Matar was put before a military court called the National Safety Court. He and Jawad Fairooz, another resigned MP of Al Wefaq who was also detained on 2 May were charged with "public incitement for regime change and deliberately spreading biased rumors, in addition to taking part in public gatherings," the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported. Matar denied charges against him. His second session before court was on 21 June, but he was not brought to court. Against the wishes of his lawyer, the judge refused to adjourn Matar's trial saying it was a minor case that did not warrant his attendance. The third session was due on 5 July. Matar and Fairooz were released on 7 August, however their cases remained open. On 20 February 2012, Matar was acquitted of all charges by the minor criminal court. Later in the month, his travel ban was lifted and he was allowed to travel to Washington, D.C. for POMED annual awards reception. ### Reactions Matar said he thought the purpose of the arrest was to pressure Al Wefaq. Analysts speculated that the release was "an attempt at defusing tensions in the country". The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over the alleged mistreatment of Matar, alleged absence of access to lawyer and guarantees for a fair trial. The Inter-Parliamentary Union expressed concern that by October 2012, authorities had not started prosecuting those behind the alleged mistreatment of Matar and Fairooz. Amnesty International expressed its concern on the arrest of Matar and Fairooz and asked authorities to protect them from ill-treatment. The UK-based NGO welcomed their release saying it was overdue. Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed its concern on the two former MPs. "These latest arrests of the two Al Wefaq parliamentarians fit a pattern of masked men abducting Bahraini citizens who happen to have opinions critical of the government," said Joe Stork of HRW. Alkarama expressed concern over the arrest and possible mistreatment of the two, and welcomed Matar's acquittal later. American scholars John Farmer, Jr. and Michael Bronner wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post asking the United States to push for the release of Matar. ### Continued activism Following his release, Matar continued his pro-democracy activities, authoring a number of book chapters and articles on the situation in Bahrain and testifying before a United States Congress human rights commission. In 2012, the Project on Middle East Democracy awarded him with the Leaders of Democracy Award. In 2013 he co-authored an article titled "Bahrain's Shifting Sands" for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and was a presenter at a National Endowment for Democracy event titled "Understanding the Struggle for Power and the Democratization Process in Bahrain".

Abd al-Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad

Palestinian Arab commander (1892–1939)

Abd al-Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad Al Saif (; 1892 – March 1939), also known by his kunya Abu Kamal, was a prominent Palestinian Arab commander of rebel forces during the 1936–39 Arab revolt against British Mandate rule and increased levels of Jewish settlement in Palestine. Most of his activities were based in the areas of Tulkarm, Nablus and Jenin (modern-day northern West Bank). In September 1938, he became the General Commander of the Revolt, although he shared the post in rotation with Arif Abd al-Raziq. In February 1939, al-Hajj Muhammad was given sole title to the post by the revolt's political leadership, but was killed the following month in a fire-fight with British forces. ## Early life Al-Hajj Muhammad was born in the village of Dhinnaba (today a neighborhood of Tulkarm city) in 1892. He belonged to the landowning clan of Samara, itself a part of the larger tribal confederation of al-Barqawi, which had a long history of activity in the area of Tulkarm. During the invasion of Syria by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798–99, al-Hajj Muhammad's great-grandfather fought in the Ottoman defense of the country, but was later sentenced to death. Another of his great-grandfathers participated in the 1834 peasants' revolt against Ibrahim Pasha's rule in Palestine. Al-Hajj Muhammad was initially educated in Dhinnaba's kuttab, a traditional elementary school. In 1899–1900 he was enrolled in a primary school in Tulkarm. Later, he worked the fields of his lands alongside his father and occasionally traveled with him from place to place, selling their agricultural products. During World War I (1914–18) he was conscripted into the Ottoman army (a requirement for male Ottoman citizens), and posted outside of Palestine in Tripoli and Beirut. He returned following the Ottomans' defeat by British forces and their Hashemite Arab allies. His father had died sometime during the war. In 1920 Britain, which had already been in control of the area, established a mandate over Palestine under the auspices of the League of Nations. ## Career during British rule Upon his return to Palestine in 1918, al-Hajj Muhammad supervised his family's land possessions. He became one of the prominent local grain traders of Palestine during the early years of the Mandate. Coinciding with this period, al-Hajj Muhammad became an ardent opponent of Zionism and British support for that movement. The 1920 Nebi Musa riots, unrest in 1923 and the 1929 Palestine riots all extended into Tulkarm and al-Hajj Muhammad was angered at the coercive manner in which the British authorities quelled the Palestinian Arab participants. His business eventually went bankrupt after the Mandate adopted new economic policies that saw the import of cheaper, foreign wheat at the expense of local produce. His disaffection with British economic policies partly motivated his participation in the Palestinian Arab revolt in 1936. The local connections al-Hajj Muhammad established as a grain merchant became beneficial in his later recruitment efforts. The web of the al-Barqawi's tribal loyalties proved of great value, providing him with fighting men and provisions. During the 1930s, al-Hajj Muhammad set up base in the vicinity of Bal'a, near Tulkarm, and began recruiting and training fighters from the area, including former Ottoman soldiers who brought additional expertise in combat and use of firearms. Under his command, his men launched minor raids against Jewish settlements and British security personnel. One of the main targets were the orange orchards of newly established Jewish settlements in the Wadi al-Hawarith area west of Tulkarm. These places had mostly been built on the lands of absentee landlords and their peasant tenants had been evicted. Al-Hajj Muhammad had a criminal record with the Mandatory authorities. According to Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath, his alleged crime was committing fraud in a land transaction with a Jewish buyer. However, author and anthropologist Ted Swedenburg wrote Porath's claim was never mentioned by other sources that discussed al-Hajj Muhammad. In 1934, his wife Badia'a died and al-Hajj Muhammad was left to care for his four sons. With the killing of Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a Muslim revivalist preacher and anti-colonial militant by British forces, tensions between the Palestinian Arab population, among whom al-Qassam was popular, and the authorities rose significantly. His sympathizers grew in number and the notion of armed struggle against British rule and British sponsorship of Zionism became increasingly popular as an alternative to the diplomatic negotiations between the Palestinian leadership and the British government. The negotiations were ultimately seen by the local population as a futile effort that bore no tangible results. Later, when al-Hajj Muhammad actively took part in the revolt, he entrusted his children with his sister Halima, a widow. According to his eldest son Kamal, she too was a grain merchant, who later traded in textiles. She also financially supported the children's education. Al-Hajj Muhammad normally met his sons for one or two days a week in different villages. His children would be escorted to his location by one of al-Hajj Muhammad's soldiers. ## Commander in the revolt ### Early stage The revolt started in Nablus with the Palestinian general strike in April 1936. The strike spread to a number of cities throughout Palestine, including Tulkarm where al-Hajj Muhammad helped organize the campaign. By the summer of that year, several Palestinian Arab rebel bands had sprung up, including the forces of al-Hajj Muhammad. The latter used existing social networks and the complex web of local clan politics to build alliances both with the middle classes of the major towns, particularly the well-educated activists, and the rural clan elders to build a solid base of resistance among the Muslim populace. In order to avoid detection, al-Hajj Muhammad refrained from commanding a large unit of troops. Instead, he raised small, semi-permanent bands of volunteers called fasa'il (sing. fasl) as he moved from one area to another. They normally launched night time attacks against specific targets. In the earliest stage of the revolt, in the early summer, al-Hajj Muhammad's fighters primarily operated in the Wadi al-Sha'ir area between Nablus and the coastal plain. Most of their actions consisted of attacks against British Army and police patrols between Tulkarm and Nablus. On 21 June 1936, in the Battle of Anabta, al-Hajj Muhammad and his fasa'il ambushed a British Army force protecting a Jewish convoy passing near the village. Three British bomber planes were dispatched to aid the ambushed convoy. The ensuing battle lasted about seven hours and ended with the deaths of 10 rebels and 2 British soldiers. A further 21 rebels and two British soldiers were wounded. The authorities consequently issued an arrest warrant for al-Hajj Muhammad. The rebel bands had worked independently of each other until July, when al-Hajj Muhammad, Arif Abd al-Raziq and Fakhri Abd al-Hadi decided to coordinate the actions of their respective militias. Abd al-Raziq was based in the Bani Sa'b area around Tayibe, while Abd al-Hadi operated in Sha'ruwiya, around Arraba. All of their areas of operation were concentrated in the north-central highlands. Another meeting between the leaders was held in August to designate official areas of operation and specific targets to attack. The Jerusalem-area militia of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was absent from both of these meetings, making it increasingly difficult to form a solid military command among rebels across the country. The arrival of the well-known Arab nationalist volunteer commander Fawzi al-Qawuqji in August, and his assumption of the rebels' leadership, further damaged the revolt's coherence, despite his attempts to unify rebel ranks. Although al-Qawuqji was an experienced field commander, relations between him and the Palestinian political and military leadership was one of general mistrust. Local rebels resented the delegation of command positions to non-Palestinians and al-Qawuqji's references to the area as "Southern Syria" instead of "Palestine." Nonetheless, al-Hajj Muhammad and al-Qawuqji fought together in a second major confrontation with British forces in Bal'a in September. The battle went on for six hours and according to Mandatory figures, three British military personnel were killed and four wounded. One of the fatalities was a British pilot whose plane was downed by rebels, who suffered ten dead and six wounded. In October 1936, rebel operations temporarily ceased after the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), the revolt's political leadership, accepted calls by the generally pro-British royals of Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia for a cessation of hostilities. In return, the Arab royals would lobby the British Mandatory authorities to address Palestinian Arab concerns about Zionist activity in Palestine. That month, al-Qawuqji left Palestine. Al-Hajj Muhammad followed suit and headed for Damascus to evade arrest; the British had placed a bounty of 500 pounds on him. While in Damascus, al-Hajj Muhammad raised funds and purchased weapons for the revolt. He also began working with Syrian and Lebanese nationalists to smuggle the arms into Palestine. Al-Hajj Muhammad later left Damascus for the Lebanese mountain village of Qarnayel east of Beirut. From there, he maintained regular communications with his forces. ### Renewal of rebellion While fighting was on hold, the British government announced it would not restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine and instead proposed a partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states as put forward by the Peel Commission (November 1936–January 1937.) These moves antagonized the Palestinian leadership whose principal concern was increased Jewish settlement. Thus, they boycotted the commission from the time it began its work. The AHC under the chairmanship of Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, requested rebel leaders return and resume military activities in Palestine to pressure the authorities. To that end, al-Hajj Muhammad returned to Palestine in April to command his fasa'il in the Tulkarm-Jenin-Nablus region, which was referred to by the authorities as the "Triangle of Terror" due to the concentration of rebel activity in the area. With the renewal of the revolt, efforts were made to unify rebel ranks and establish a hierarchical command structure. In late 1937, al-Hajj Muhammad summoned the village elders in Tulkarm's vicinity and requested that they each provide him with one armed man. He was generally successful and recruited a 50-man force. The last quarter of the year saw increased attacks against British military targets, buses carrying Jews, the Iraqi Petroleum Company pipeline in Palestine and telecommunication lines. By this stage, the revolt had developed into an organized effort across Palestine, with each area's fasa'il having a hierarchy of some sort. In the case of al-Hajj Muhammad's forces, there were four brigades, each led by a commander and with designated funds. Al-Hajj Muhammad appointed Ahmad Massad as his deputy to whom the other commanders were subordinate. This military order contrasted with the early phase of the revolt where al-Hajj Muhammad had been the sole field commander. During a confrontation between rebels and British forces at the village of an-Nazla ash-Sharqiya in early December 1937, al-Hajj Muhammad was wounded, but managed to evade capture when the mukhtar (village headman) escorted him to safety in a nearby cave. Four of al-Hajj Muhammad's men died in the battle. After the British withdrew from the area, al-Hajj Muhammad was treated by local doctors until January 1938 when he received more advanced care in Damascus. He returned to Palestine later that month. By early 1938, the rebels consolidated control over much of the countryside and the rural roads. These areas became increasingly dangerous for British forces, who were mostly concentrated in the main towns. ### General commander Local rebel commanders were generally suspicious of outside Arab military leaders, such as al-Qawuqji, and of the AHC, particularly after many members of the latter joined the Damascus-based Central Committee of Jihad following the AHC's dissolution by the authorities in October 1937. The Central Committee had been founded in late 1937 by Izzat Darwaza, and officially served as the revolt's political leadership, fund-raising body and arms supplier. On the ground in Palestine, competition for the role of the rebels' general command became increasingly tense between al-Hajj Muhammad and Abd al-Raziq. They engaged in a serious rivalry, which coincided with acrimonious relations between their families over their influence in the Tulkarm area's social and political spheres. To smooth over differences, the revolt's leaders held a summit in Deir Ghassaneh in September 1938 and established the Bureau of the Arab Revolt in Palestine as the armed body of the Central Committee, with al-Hajj Muhammad and Abd al-Raziq rotating as general commander. The other two commanders on the Bureau were Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir of the Upper Galilee and Yusuf Abu Durra of the Haifa-Wadi Ara region. The British Army, backed by bomber planes, assaulted Deir Ghassaneh after gaining knowledge of the meeting, and sought to arrest or kill the commanders. A battle ensued in which a prominent commander, Muhammad al-Salih (known as Abu Khalid) was slain. Despite the Bureau's formation, the rivalry between al-Hajj Muhammad and Abd al-Raziq continued and undermined its purpose. The Central Committee settled the leadership dispute when it conferred the title of general commander solely to al-Hajj Muhammad in February 1939. He was already in Damascus at the time, having moved back in October 1938. Al-Hajj Muhammad was also given an assurance of support after tensions between him and the Central Committee resulted in the latter's withholding of supplies and funding to al-Hajj Muhammad at one point in 1938. The rebellion was also entering a new stage with the establishment of British-sponsored and Zionist-supported anti-rebel forces known as "peace bands". They were commanded by al-Husayni's political rivals, chief among them the Nashashibi clan, and launched counter-attacks against rebel forces and a campaign to harass rebel sympathizers and pressure local leaders to end the revolt. ## Death and legacy In late March 1939, on his return to Palestine after being officially confirmed as the rebellion's general commander, al-Hajj Muhammad was killed by the British Army in the village of Sanur, located between Jenin and Nablus. He had entered the village with two of his subordinate commanders and a few of his fighters. A peace band set up by Farid Irsheid had been carrying out surveillance of him. Irsheid had sought revenge for the killing of his brothers Ahmad and Muhammad in May 1938, which were generally attributed to al-Hajj Muhammad. The information Irsheid's band of informants collected on al-Hajj Muhammad's movements were then passed onto British intelligence. A large force from the British Army subsequently arrived at Sanur and sealed off the village. Irsheid's band served alongside the army unit. The village's residents had reportedly pleaded with al-Hajj Muhammad to escape from Sanur undercover, but he and his fighters entered the adjacent Marj Sanur plain and clashed with British troops. Al-Hajj Muhammad was killed in the fire-fight along with one of his deputy commanders. According to some residents who witnessed the clash, the British officer who headed the operation, Geoffrey Morton, removed his hat and covered al-Hajj Muhammad's face with a handkerchief in a sign of respect. Morton later wrote "Abdul Rahim had a special respect among his people, and among us." Al-Hajj Muhammad was buried in Sanur, but two weeks later members of his fasa'il exhumed his body and transported it to Dhinnaba. There, he was buried in a ceremonial manner "befitting his stature in the revolt," according to author Sonia Nimr. As news of his death spread, a general strike was held throughout Palestine for a number of days in honor of al-Hajj Muhammad's efforts in the anti-colonial and anti-Zionist struggle. His death made the headlines of various newspapers in Palestine and other parts of the Arab world. Al-Hajj Muhammad's native village commemorates his death annually in March and the 70th anniversary of his death was also honored by Tulkarm's (Jewish-founded) Kadoorie Institute in March 2009. A boys' school in Dhinnaba is named after al-Hajj Muhammad as is a major street in Amman, Jordan. According to historian Hillel Frisch, al-Hajj Muhammad's death was a "reflection of how much the rebels were then bereft of an area that could serve as a sanctuary or from which they could renew operations." The revolt had largely dissipated by the time al-Hajj Muhammad was killed, his demise being a significant blow. He was succeeded by Ahmad al-Hasan, but the latter was unable to maintain the momentum of the revolt, which ended in late 1939. ## Ideology and relationship with the Central Committee According to Swedenburg, al-Hajj Muhammad was the "most respected commander, [and] was renowned for his nationalist convictions, for his opposition to political assassination, and for his tirelessness as a fighter". He operated more or less independently from the political leadership of the rebellion, including those based in Palestine, such as al-Husayni, and the Damascus-based Central Committee. Despite his tacit alliance with al-Husayni, al-Hajj Muhammad had refused to assassinate local leaders who were rivals against the al-Husayni family for political power, once remarking "I don't work for Husayniya ("Husanyni-ism"), but for wataniya (patriotism)." Political assassinations, attempted or successful, commonly occurred throughout the revolt. Al-Hajj Muhammad's refusal to participate did not seriously damage his relations with al-Husayni or the Central Committee, an organization which he depended on for war materiel. He went frequently to Damascus to obtain weapons and supplies as well as to discuss the situation in Palestine. However, an intelligence document from the British Mandatory authorities revealed that al-Hajj Muhammad left Palestine for Syria in October 1938 after becoming disaffected with the Central Committee's activities. The report states that he refused to send funds to the Committee, remarking "The shoe of the most insignificant mujahid (fighter) is nobler than all the members of the Society, who have indulged in pleasure, while their brethren suffer in the mountains." At one point, tensions emanating from al-Hajj Muhammad's refusal to carry out the killings of several men provided to him in a hit list by Da'ud al-Husayni on behalf of the Committee resulted in the cutting off of financial and material support for a certain period of time in 1938. This forced al-Hajj Muhammad to go to Jerusalem's chamber of commerce and the Ramallah municipality for funds. Another reason for his departure was the increased presence of informants within rebel ranks, making it hard for him to continue military activities. His personal assistant Abu Shahir depicted al-Hajj Muhammad as a "genuine nationalist," in contrast to the self-proclaimed nationalist leaders whom Abu Shahir accused of adhering to "narrow factional interests". He claimed that al-Hajj Muhammad saw Palestinian unity as being all-inclusive and incompatible with political assassinations, particularly killings that would fuel divisions within the ranks of the rebellion's leadership. A possible exception to his anti-assassination policy was his alleged responsibility for the killings of Ahmad and Muhammad Irsheid, landowners who supported Nashashibi-led opposition to al-Husayni's leadership. Because of the widely disputed circumstances surrounding the Irsheids' deaths and its general attribution to al-Hajj Muhammad, the killings were rarely mentioned in Palestinian narratives of the revolt.

The Best Man Wins (1910 film)

The Best Man Wins is a 1910 American silent short drama produced by the Thanhouser Company. The film features Thanhouser's leading players Anna Rosemond, Martin Faust, Frank H. Crane and Marie Eline in a drama about morality. Two suitors are vying for the hand of Julia Seaton and propose to her on the same day, but she asks for a month to decide between them. In the time, the caliber of both men are tested when asked by a young girl, named May, to help her dying mother. The doctor refuses to help, and the lawyer offers his assistance, but her mother soon dies. The orphan is taken in by the Seaton family and personally attests to the character of both men when Julia Seaton has to choose between her suitors. The writer, director, and cameraman are unknown. Released on May 14, 1910, the film was met with mostly positive reviews by critics. The film is presumed lost. ## Plot Though the film is presumed lost, a surviving synopsis was published in The Moving Picture World. It states: "Julia Seaton, a rich heiress, has two suitors, Dr. John Seymour, a wealthy physician, and Richard Calhoun, a poor lawyer. They both propose in the same evening, but while inclined to prefer John, Julia has not yet made a definite choice, and tells both to come back in a month for their answer. The scene shifts to the squalid home of the charwoman, Mrs. Smith, who, ill in bed and unable to earn the rent money, is about to be evicted with her tiny daughter May. The mother faints from weakness, and May rushes for a doctor. She sees Seymour's sign in a window and asks him to help her mother. Then the man shows his caliber. Because she has no money, he turns her away. Calhoun, the lawyer, meets May, learns of her plight, and, although poor, pays the overdue rent, and the family moved back in the house. But the privation she has suffered proved fatal to the mother, and tiny May is left an orphan. On her deathbed, Mrs. Smith is found by Miss Seaton, who is visiting the poor quarters on charity work, and on the charwoman's passing, the society girl adopts poor little May. The child becomes a happy member of the Seaton family and at the end of the month is a fast friend of the kind-hearted Julia. At the end of a month, too, Julia prepares to decide who shall be her life partner, as promised. But it is little May who really decides. At sight of Seymour, she recalls the physician who turned her away, and denounces him to his own and Miss Julia's face. May recognizes Calhoun as the friend in need and tells Miss Julia so. The latter feels that Calhoun is a real man and would make a splendid husband, so it's a cinch that 'the best man wins.'" ## Cast - Anna Rosemond as Julia Seaton, the rich heiress - Martin Faust as Dr. John Seymour, the wealthy physician - Frank H. Crane as Richard Calhoun, the poor lawyer - Marie Eline as May, the young daughter ## Production The writer of the scenario is unknown, but it may have been Lloyd Lonergan. Lonergan was an experienced newspaperman still employed by The New York Evening World while writing scripts for the Thanhouser productions. He was the most important scriptwriter for Thanhouser, averaging 200 scripts a year from 1910 to 1915. While the director of the film is not known, two Thanhouser directors are possible. Barry O'Neil was the stage name of Thomas J. McCarthy, who would direct many important Thanhouser pictures, including its first two-reeler, Romeo and Juliet. Lloyd B. Carleton was the stage name of Carleton B. Little, a director who would stay with the Thanhouser Company for a short time, moving to Biograph Company by the summer of 1910. Bowers attribute neither as the director for this particular production, nor does Bowers credit a cameraman. Blair Smith was the first cameraman of the Thanhouser company, but he was soon joined by Carl Louis Gregory who had years of experience as a still and motion picture photographer. The role of the cameraman was uncredited in 1910 productions. The leading lady, Anna Rosemond, was one of two leading ladies that Thanhouser would have in its first year of productions. The two suitors vying for her hand in marriage were Martin J. Faust and Frank H. Crane, both of whom were leading men in numerous productions. Frank H. Crane was involved in the very beginnings of the Thanhouser Company from 1909. Crane's was the first leading man of the company and acted in numerous productions before becoming a director at Thanhouser. Bowers credits Martin J. Faust as one of the most important actors for Thanhouser in 1910 and 1911, but Faust's role in productions often went uncredited. The role of a young daughter was Marie Eline, soon to be known and famous as the "Thanhouser Kid". A possible film still exists for the work, and the identity of the actors are complementary in between two identical stills in the Jonathan Silent Film Collection. The description of T-151, identifies the man in the center as Martin Faust and notes the possibility that the still comes from this work. However, the description for T-176 identifies two actors as Harry Benham and Frank Crane, but asserts that the two only worked together in 1911. ## Release and reception The single reel drama, 957 feet (0.29 km) long, was released on May 13, 1910. Whether the film is 957 feet (0.29 km) or 950 feet (0.29 km) long is subject to debate. Bowers notes that some sources state the film is 950 feet (0.29 km) long, one such example is the advertising for the film which lists it as being approximately this length. Advertising for the film recognized the negativity of Friday the 13th and used it to promote the film to redefine the date to instead bring joy. The film was shown across the United States, advertisements for the showing included theaters in Kansas, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Identifying the theaters showing this work is complicated by the identically named The Best Man Wins by Vitagraph. The silent western produced in 1909 was still being shown and advertised in theaters at the time of the release of Thanhouser's film. An ambiguous advertisement, but most likely a Vitagraph reference, is seen in The Hawaiian Star of Hawaii was published on the same day of the Thanhouser release. Reviews for the film were generally positive. The Moving Picture World found the story to be interesting and well acted, giving no criticism of the production. The New York Dramatic Mirror's review criticized the weak plot and the satisfactory acting, which was diminished by camera consciousness. The review also found that, "[i]n the scene where the child is taken from her mother's deathbed too little attention is paid to the corpse." The Leavenworth Times included a review that was favorable and praised the film's photography. The Arkansas City Daily Traveler had an advertisement from the Lotus Theater that stated Thanhouser films were rivaling Independent Moving Pictures. No known existing copies, complete or partial, are known to exist. ## See also - List of American films of 1910

Pocinho railway station

Railway station in northern Portugal

Pocinho railway station is located on the Iberian gauge Douro line, which serves the town of Pocinho, in the municipality of Vila Nova de Foz Coa, in northern Portugal. It also served as a junction with the Sabor line from its opening in 1911 until its closure in 1988. Since 1988 the station has been the terminus of the Douro Line, following the closure of the section that extended to Barca d'Alva and the Spanish border. There have been calls for this section to be reopened. ## Description The station is located near the town of Pocinho, with access via Estação street. In January 2011 it had two tracks, both 817 metres (2,680 ft) long, and two platforms, 139 and 42 metres (138 ft) long and 35 centimetres (14 in) high. The station also had a public information service provided by the Rede Ferroviária Nacional (National Railway Network). The National Railway Network rated the station in 2004 as a class E station, its lowest tier, indicating a small station "with reduced passenger flow", but still higher than a halt. In October 2003, they also provided freight handling, shunting and carriage and wagon cleaning services at the site. In 2007, the station had regular train service. In December of that same year, a commission made up of people from Portugal and Spain was created to fight for the reopening of the link between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva of the Douro line. The passenger building is located on the south side of the tracks. It contains a number of azulejos, tin glazed ceramic tiles produced by Gilberto Renda and J. Oliveira, showing scenes of daily life in the surrounding region. The timetable for 2023–2024 shows six trains per day arriving and departing. Trains arrive at irregular intervals from 10:45 until 20:53 and depart at irregular intervals between 7:08 and 19:26. ## History ### 19th century The section of the Douro line between Tua and Pocinho was opened for operation on 10 January 1887 and was the provisional terminus of the line until the next section to Côa was completed on 5 May of the same year. The Comboio Presidencial, a train that used to carry the Head of State of Portugal through the Douro line since 1890, had the Pocinho station as its last stop until the 1970s. The project was revived as a tourist attraction by chef Chakall [pt] in March 2024 with the objective of “catching the best of the region”. ### 20th century In the Plan for the Complementary Network to the North of Mondego, outlined in a decree on 15 January 1900, a broad gauge link was planned between Pocinho and Vila Franca das Naves [pt], on the Beira Alta line. This line, together with the Sabor line, had been recommended by the commission responsible for studying the complementary railway network in the north of the country, and was considered to be of great importance, as it would connect the Douro and Trás-os-Montes regions to Beira Alta and the centre of the country. In December 1967, the National Assembly of Portugal enacted Law No. 2133. This legislation facilitated studies concerning railway lines, including the Douro line, and promoted their utilization and exploration. In 1901 a study by the operator Caminhos de Ferro do Estado [pt] (State Railways) noted that this station had road connections with Royal Road No. 9, on both banks of the Douro River. On the north bank, it was also served by a branch of Royal Road No. 38, from Mirandela to Vila Flor, which joined Royal Road No. 9 near the mouth of the Sabor River, and there were plans to build District Road No. 58, which would make it easier for people from the municipality of Alfândega da Fé to access the station. Pocinho station was one of the stations served by the Porto–Medina train, which ran from the beginning of the 20th century until 1914, connecting the city of Porto to Salamanca and Medina del Campo. The train service resumed in 1919, but was suspended indefinitively shortly afterwards. In 1913, Pocinho station was served by stagecoach routes to Vila Nova de Foz Côa, Touça [pt], Fonte Longa [pt], Poço do Canto and Mêda. When the plan for the network north of the Douro river was revised by decree on 1 April 1930, one of the narrow gauge railways that was listed as still to be built, for which the plans had caused controversy and complaints, was the Côa line [pt] from Pocinho to Idanha-a-Nova, which would be about 183 kilometres (114 mi) long. It was also suggested at the time that the Douro Line between Livração [pt] and Pocinho should be converted to dual gauge by the addition of a third rail, a project that would connect all the narrow-gauge lines in the Trás-os-Montes region, but would cause major traffic disruption while the work was taking place. In 1933, the Companhia Nacional de Caminhos de Ferro [pt] (National Railway Company) installed a pump on the Douro River to supply water to the station's reservoir. The following year, the Comissão Administrativa do Fundo Especial de Caminhos de Ferro (Administrative Commission of the Special Railway Fund) approved the modification and extension of the tracks, and the Portuguese Railway Company paved the transhipment quay. In 1935, the National Railway Company installed a 20 T weighbridge at this station. In 1939, the National Railway Company, who managed the Sabor line, carried out remodelling work on the Traction, Workshop and Movement Services buildings and on the reservoir at Pocinho station. A decree published in Diário do Governo on 5 March 1953 authorised the expropriation of several plots of land next to Pocinho station, to enable it to be altered and expanded. That year, Pocinho station was served by at least two bus routes, one to Mêda and the other to Viseu via Sernancelhe. On 16 and 17 May 1995, a government commission made a trip to the northern and central regions of the country to inspect work taking place on the National Road Network. On the first day, the journey between Lisbon and Pocinho was made by train. ### Connection to the Sabor line On 30 April 1884 the General Council of the District of Bragança sent a representation to the Chamber of Deputies asking for the construction of the lines from Foz Tua to Mirandela and from Pocinho to Miranda do Douro. This request was repeated on 2 July 1890, when the Mirandela Town Council sent a representation to the Chamber of Deputies. In 1899 the engineer Cachapuz, who represented a company of Italian financiers, asked the state for permission to build several railway lines in Portugal, one of which was from Pocinho to Moncorvo [pt]. On 15 August of that year, the Minister of Public Works paid a visit to Pocinho so that later that year a commission to study the Plan for the Complementary Network to the North of the Mondego could be set up. The commission proposed the construction of a new line from Pocinho, which would be used to transport iron ore from Reboredo and alabaster from Vimioso. The line would be broad gauge to avoid the need for transhipment at Pocinho. Due to the opposition of the War Council, the project was changed so that the broad gauge section would only go as far as Carviçais, while the rest of the line would be narrow gauge, and this proposal for the line formed part of the Network Plan, published on 15 February 1900. In 1901, Minister Manuel Francisco de Vargas started a tendering process for the construction of the Pocinho Bridge, which was to be used by rail and road, and the contract was signed in 1903. However, due to the great difficulties in building broad gauge railways in the mountainous terrain on the north bank of the River Douro and the ease with which the ore could be transhipped at Pocinho, it was decided that the line could be entirely narrow gauge, with the Pocinho Bridge designed from the outset to allow broad gauge tracks to be laid across it in the future, if the decision was made to widen the gauge of the line. On 3 October 1903 the design work for the extension of Pocinho to accommodate the new line was completed, which was presented to the Superior Council of Public Works later that month. The changes at Pocinho station were made in order to make it as easy as possible to transfer goods, especially ores and alabaster, from the narrow gauge line to the broad gauge line. In April 1904, the project for the line from Pocinho to Miranda do Douro was approved, and construction began shortly afterwards. The first section of the Sabor Line, between Pocinho and Carviçais, was completed in early 1911, and services began on 17 September of that year. After 1947, E61 and E41 narrow gauge locomotives shunted at this station. In the 1950s there was a big increase in traffic on the Sabor line, with two to four ore trains a day from the Reboredo mines to Pocinho, where it was transhipped into broad gauge wagons and then transported to the Port of Leixões, bound for the United Kingdom. In 1988, services were withdrawn on the Sabor line and on the section between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva of the Douro line. This decision was taken as part of the government's transport strategy at the time, which favoured the construction of freeways over rail transport. ### 21st century In 2008, the Northern Region Coordination Commission was looking for private operators to rehabilitate the stretch between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva and use it for tourist trains, hauled by steam locomotives, while the Rede Ferroviária Nacional (National Railway Network) considered that the stretch could be transformed into a greenway. In November 2009, the section of the Douro line between the stations of Tua and Régua was closed due to adverse weather conditions and the likelihood that fencing would collapse, so a replacement road service was organized between Régua and Pocinho. On 25 December of the same year, a major landslide occurred on the Douro line between Tua and Pocinho stations, interrupting traffic on that section. In February 2010, the Rede Ferroviária Nacional reported that restoration work had already begun and that the section would be reopened at the end of March. In the meantime, passengers were conveyed between the two stations by buses and taxicabs. In April 2011, Ricardo Magalhães, the coordinator of the Douro Mission (organisation created to preserve the Alto Douro Wine Region landscape), campaigned for the reopening of the link from Pocinho to Barca d'Alva and the Spanish border, arguing that this would be of great interest from a regional point of view, due to its positive impact on tourism. At the time, the initiative to reopen the line already had the support of the Spanish government and would include local municipalities, the regional administration, promoters of tourism and the wine industry. In November 2016, the Left Bloc party criticized the poor state of the Douro line and the reduction in services on that route, advocating works on the stations and the electrification of the stretch to Régua, before continuing on to Pocinho and the border. Under the Strategic Transport and Infrastructure Plan, electrification and improved signalling up to Marco de Canaveses [pt] should have been completed by 2016. Failure to complete this was picked up by the Ferrovia 2020 plan. On 26 November 2018, the operator Trains of Portugal suspended traffic on the section of the Douro Line between Caíde [pt] and Marco de Canaveses, having guaranteed normal train traffic on the remaining section of the line, from that point to Pocinho. In June 2019, the League of Friends of the Douro World Heritage Site and the Douro Museum Foundation opened a petition for the modernization of the entire Douro Line, including the section from Pocinho to Barca d'Alva. More than thirteen thousand people signed the petition, far more than the four thousand needed to bring the issue to parliament, and it was delivered to the parliament on 9 January 2020. In October 2019, the mayor of Peso da Régua, José Manuel Gonçalves, questioned the company Trains of Portugal about a planned cancellation of Regional and Inter-Regional services on the Douro line, including three daily Inter-Regional trains in each direction between Peso da Régua and Pocinho, and was assured that the operator was not planning to suspend any services on the line. The mayor also asked whether the company was planning to replace the rolling stock and whether stock used during the electrification works would return to service on the line between Marco de Canaveses [pt] and Pocinho. The company replied that although various options were being considered, none would be implemented at that time. ## See also - Rail transport in Portugal - History of rail transport in Portugal ## Recommended reading - - - -

Indo-Roman trade relations

Trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire

Indo-Roman trade relations (see also the spice trade and incense road) was trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Trade through the overland caravan routes via Asia Minor and the Middle East, though at a relative trickle compared to later times, preceded the southern trade route via the Red Sea which started around the beginning of the Common Era (CE) following the reign of Augustus and his conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE. The southern route so helped enhance trade between the ancient Roman Empire and the Indian subcontinent, that Roman politicians and historians are on record decrying the loss of silver and gold to buy silk to pamper Roman wives, and the southern route grew to eclipse and then totally supplant the overland trade route. Roman and Greek traders frequented the ancient Tamil country, present day Southern India and Sri Lanka, securing trade with the seafaring Tamil states of the Pandyan, Chola and Chera dynasties and establishing trading settlements which secured trade with the Indian subcontinent by the Greco-Roman world since the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty a few decades before the start of the Common Era and remained long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. ## Background The Seleucid dynasty controlled a developed network of trade with the Indian Subcontinent which had previously existed under the influence of the Achaemenid Empire. The Greek-Ptolemaic dynasty, controlling the western and northern end of other trade routes to Southern Arabia and the Indian Subcontinent, had begun to exploit trading opportunities in the region prior to the Roman involvement but, according to the historian Strabo, the volume of commerce between Indians and the Greeks was not comparable to that of later Indo-Roman trade. The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a time when sea trade between Egypt and the subcontinent did not involve direct sailings. The cargo under these situations was shipped to Aden: > Aden – Arabia Eudaimon was called the fortunate, being once a city, when, because ships neither came from India to Egypt nor did those from Egypt dare to go further but only came as far as this place, it received the cargoes from both, just as Alexandria receives goods brought from outside and from Egypt. The Ptolemaic dynasty had developed trade with Indian kingdoms using the Red Sea ports. With the establishment of Roman Egypt, the Romans took over and further developed the already existing trade using these ports. Classical geographers such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder were generally slow to incorporate new information into their works and, from their positions as esteemed scholars, were seemingly prejudiced against lowly merchants and their topographical accounts. Ptolemy's Geography represents somewhat of a break from this since he demonstrated an openness to their accounts and would not have been able to chart the Bay of Bengal so accurately had it not been for the input of traders. It is perhaps no surprise then that Marinus and Ptolemy relied on the testimony of a Greek sailor named Alexander for how to reach "Cattigara" (most likely Oc Eo, Vietnam, where Antonine-period Roman artefacts have been discovered) in the Magnus Sinus (i.e. Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea) located east of the Golden Chersonese (i.e. Malay Peninsula). In the 1st-century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, its anonymous Greek-speaking author, a merchant of Roman Egypt, provides such vivid accounts of trade cities in Arabia and India, including travel times from rivers and towns, where to drop anchor, the locations of royal courts, lifestyles of the locals and goods found in their markets, and favorable times of year to sail from Egypt to these places in order to catch the monsoon winds, that it is clear he visited many of these locations. ## Establishment The replacement of Greek kingdoms by the Roman Empire as the administrator of the eastern Mediterranean basin led to the strengthening of direct maritime trade with the east and the elimination of the taxes extracted previously by the middlemen of various land based trading routes. Strabo's mention of the vast increase in trade following the Roman annexation of Egypt indicates that monsoon was known from his time. The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing according to Strabo (II.5.12.): > At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Kingdom of Aksum (Ethiopia), and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to the subcontinent, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise. By the time of Augustus up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India. So much gold was used for this trade, and apparently recycled by the Kushan Empire (Kushans) for their own coinage, that Pliny the Elder (NH VI.101) complained about the drain of specie to India: > India, China and the Arabian peninsula take one hundred million sesterces from our empire per annum at a conservative estimate: that is what our luxuries and women cost us. For what fraction of these imports is intended for sacrifices to the gods or the spirits of the dead? ## Trade of exotic animals There is evidence of animal trade between Indian Ocean harbours and the Mediterranean. This can be seen in the mosaics and frescoes of the remains of Roman villas in Italy. For example, the Villa del Casale has mosaics depicting the capture of animals in India, Indonesia and Africa. The intercontinental trade of animals was one of the sources of wealth for the owners of the villa. In the Ambulacro della Grande Caccia, the hunting and capture of animals is represented in such detail that it is possible to identify the species. There is a scene that shows a technique to distract a tiger with a shimmering ball of glass or mirror in order to take her cubs. Tiger hunting with red ribbons serving as a distraction is also shown. In the mosaic there are also numerous other animals such as rhinoceros, an Indian elephant (recognized from the ears) with his Indian conductor, and the Indian peafowl, and other exotic birds. There are also numerous animals from Africa. Tigers, leopards and Asian and African lions were used in the arenas and circuses. The European lion was already extinct at that time. Probably the last lived in the Balkan Peninsula and were hunted to stock arenas. The birds and monkeys entertained the guests of many villas. Also in the Villa Romana del Tellaro there is a mosaic with a tiger in the jungle attacking a man with Roman clothes, probably a careless hunter. The animals were transported in cages by ship. ## Ports ### Roman ports The three main Roman ports involved with eastern trade were Arsinoe, Berenice and Myos Hormos. Arsinoe was one of the early trading centers but was soon overshadowed by the more easily accessible Myos Hormos and Berenice. #### Arsinoe The Ptolemaic dynasty exploited the strategic position of Alexandria to secure trade with the subcontinent. The course of trade with the east then seems to have been first through the harbor of Arsinoe, the present day Suez. The goods from the East African trade were landed at one of the three main Roman ports, Arsinoe, Berenice or Myos Hormos. The Romans repaired and cleared out the silted up canal from the Nile to harbor center of Arsinoe on the Red Sea. This was one of the many efforts the Roman administration had to undertake to divert as much of the trade to the maritime routes as possible. Arsinoe was eventually overshadowed by the rising prominence of Myos Hormos. The navigation to the northern ports, such as Arsinoe-Clysma, became difficult in comparison to Myos Hormos due to the northern winds in the Gulf of Suez. Venturing to these northern ports presented additional difficulties such as shoals, reefs and treacherous currents. #### Myos Hormos and Berenice Myos Hormos and Berenice appear to have been important ancient trading ports, possibly used by the Pharaonic traders of ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic dynasty before falling into Roman control. The site of Berenice, since its discovery by Belzoni (1818), has been equated with the ruins near Ras Banas in Southern Egypt. However, the precise location of Myos Hormos is disputed with the latitude and longitude given in Ptolemy's Geography favoring Abu Sha'ar and the accounts given in classical literature and satellite images indicating a probable identification with Quseir el-Quadim at the end of a fortified road from Koptos on the Nile. The Quseir el-Quadim site has further been associated with Myos Hormos following the excavations at el-Zerqa, halfway along the route, which have revealed ostraca leading to the conclusion that the port at the end of this road may have been Myos Hormos. In Berenike in March 2022 an American-Polish archaeological mission excavating the main early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis uncovered in the forecourt of the temple a marble statue of a Buddha, the Berenike Buddha, suggesting the presence of Buddhist merchants from India in Egypt at that time. ### Major regional ports The regional ports of Barbaricum (modern Karachi), Sounagoura (central Bangladesh), Barygaza (Bharuch in Gujarat), Muziris (present day Kodungallur), Korkai, Kaveripattinam and Arikamedu (Tamil Nadu) on the southern tip of present-day India were the main centers of this trade, along with Kodumanal, an inland city. The Periplus Maris Erythraei describes Greco-Roman merchants selling in Barbaricum "thin clothing, figured linens, topaz, coral, storax, frankincense, vessels of glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine" in exchange for "costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn, and indigo". In Barygaza, they would buy wheat, rice, sesame oil, cotton and cloth. #### Barigaza Trade with Barigaza, under the control of the Indo-Scythian Western Satrap Nahapana ("Nambanus"), was especially flourishing: > There are imported into this market-town (Barigaza), wine, Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a cubit wide; storax, sweetclover, flint glass, realgar, antimony, gold and silver coin, on which there is a profit when exchanged for the money of the country; and ointment, but not very costly and not much. And for the King there are brought into those places very costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. There are exported from these places spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, agate and carnelian, lycium, cotton cloth of all kinds, silk cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other things as are brought here from the various market-towns. Those bound for this market-town from Egypt make the voyage favorably about the month of July, that is Epiphi. #### Muziris Muziris is a lost port city on the south-western coast of India which was a major center of trade in the ancient Tamil land between the Chera kingdom and the Roman Empire. Its location is generally identified with modern-day Cranganore (central Kerala). Large hoards of coins and innumerable shards of amphorae found at the town of Pattanam (near Cranganore) have elicited recent archeological interest in finding a probable location of this port city. According to the Periplus, numerous Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris: > Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica (Limyrike), and then Muziris and Nelcynda, which are now of leading importance. Tyndis is of the Kingdom of Cerobothra; it is a village in plain sight by the sea. Muziris, of the same Kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with cargoes from Arabia, and by the Greeks; it is located on a river, distant from Tyndis by river and sea five hundred stadia, and up the river from the shore twenty stadia" #### Arikamedu The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions a marketplace named Poduke (ch. 60), which G.W.B. Huntingford identified as possibly being Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu, a centre of early Chola trade (now part of Ariyankuppam), about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the modern Pondicherry. Huntingford further notes that Roman pottery was found at Arikamedu in 1937, and archeological excavations between 1944 and 1949 showed that it was "a trading station to which goods of Roman manufacture were imported during the first half of the 1st century AD". ## Cultural exchanges The Rome-subcontinental trade also saw several cultural exchanges which had a lasting effect on both the civilizations and others involved in the trade. The Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum was involved in the Indian Ocean trade network and was influenced by Roman culture and Indian architecture. Traces of Indian influences are visible in Roman works of silver and ivory, or in Egyptian cotton and silk fabrics used for sale in Europe. The Indian presence in Alexandria may have influenced the culture but little is known about the manner of this influence. Clement of Alexandria mentions the Buddha in his writings and other Indian religions find mentions in other texts of the period. Han China was perhaps also involved in the Roman trade, with Roman embassies recorded for the years 166, 226, and 284 that allegedly landed in Rinan (Jiaozhi) in northern Vietnam, according to Chinese histories. Roman coins and goods such as glasswares and silverwares have been found in China, as well as Roman coins, bracelets, glass beads, a bronze lamp, and Antonine-period medallions in Vietnam, especially at Oc Eo (belonging to the Funan Kingdom). The 1st-century Periplus notes how a country called This, with a great city called Thinae (comparable to Sinae in Ptolemy's Geography), produced silk and exported it to Bactria before it traveled overland to Barygaza in India and down the Ganges River. While Marinus of Tyre and Ptolemy provided vague accounts of the Gulf of Thailand and Southeast Asia, the Alexandrian Greek monk and former merchant Cosmas Indicopleustes, in his Christian Topography (c. 550), spoke clearly about China, how to sail there, and how it was involved in the clove trade stretching to Ceylon. Comparing the small amount of Roman coins found in China as opposed to India, Warwick Ball asserts that most of the Chinese silk purchased by the Romans was done so in India, with the land route through ancient Persia playing a secondary role. Christian and Jewish settlers from Rome continued to live in India long after the decline in bilateral trade. Large hoards of Roman coins have been found throughout India, and especially in the busy maritime trading centers of the south. The Tamilakkam kings reissued Roman coinage in their own name after defacing the coins in order to signify their sovereignty. Mentions of the traders are recorded in the Tamil Sangam literature of India. One such mention reads: "The beautifully built ships of the Yavanas came with gold and returned with pepper, and Muziris resounded with the noise." (from poem no. 149 of 'Akananuru' of Sangam Literature)" ## Decline and aftermath ### Roman decline Trade declined from the mid-3rd century during a crisis in the Roman Empire, but recovered in the 4th century until the early 7th century, when Khosrow II, Shah of the Sasanian Empire, occupied the Roman parts of the Fertile Crescent and Egypt until being defeated by the Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius at the end of 627, after which the lost territories were returned to the Eastern Romans. Cosmas Indicopleustes ('Cosmas who sailed to India') was a Greek-Egyptian trader, and later monk, who wrote about his trade trips to India and Sri Lanka in the 6th century. ### Ravaging of the Gupta Empire by the Huns The Gupta Empire had greatly benefited from Indo-Roman trade through the export of numerous luxury products such as silk, leather goods, fur, iron products, ivory, pearl or pepper from the ports of Bharutkutccha, Kalyan, Sind and the city of Ujjaini. The Alchon Huns' invasions (496–534 CE) are said to have seriously damaged the Gupta's (c.319-560 CE) trade with Europe and Central Asia. Soon after the invasions, the Gupta Empire, already weakened by these invasions and the rise of local rulers, ended as well. Following the invasions, northern India was left in disarray, with numerous smaller Indian powers emerging after the crumbling of the Guptas. ### Arab expansion The Arabs, led by 'Amr ibn al-'As, crossed into Egypt in late 639 or early 640 CE. This advance marked the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Egypt. The capture of Alexandria and the rest of the country brought an end to 670 years of Roman trade with the subcontinent. Tamil speaking south India turned to Southeast Asia for international trade where Indian culture influenced the native culture to a greater degree than the sketchy impressions made on Rome seen in the adoption of Hinduism and then Buddhism. However, knowledge of the Indian subcontinent and its trade was preserved in Byzantine books and it is likely that the court of the Emperor still maintained some form of diplomatic relation to the region up until at least the time of Constantine VII, seeking an ally against the rising influence of the Islamic states in the Middle East and Persia, appearing in a work on ceremonies called De Ceremoniis. The Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in the 15th century (1453), marking the beginning of Turkish control over the most direct trade routes between Europe and Asia. The Ottomans initially cut off eastern trade with Europe, leading in turn to the attempt by Europeans to find a sea route around Africa, spurring the European Age of Discovery, and the eventual rise of European Mercantilism and Colonialism. ## See also

HMS Minotaur (1906)

British lead ship of the Minotaur-class

HMS Minotaur was the lead ship of the Minotaur-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy. Launched in 1906, she served as the flagship of the China Station before the First World War. Shortly after the war began, the ship searched unsuccessfully for the German East Asia Squadron and was transferred to the Grand Fleet at the end of 1914. During the rest of the war Minotaur served as the flagship of the 7th and 2nd Cruiser Squadrons and spent most of her time assigned to the Northern Patrol. In mid-1916 she participated in the Battle of Jutland but did not fire her weapons during the battle. The ship was paid off in 1919 and sold for scrap the following year. ## Description Minotaur displaced 14,600 long tons (14,800 t) as built and 16,630 long tons (16,900 t) at deep load. The ship had an overall length of 519 feet (158.2 m), a beam of 74 feet 6 inches (22.7 m) and a mean draught of 26 feet (7.9 m). She was powered by a pair of four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, which developed a total of 27,000 indicated horsepower (20,130 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph). The engines were powered by 24 Yarrow water-tube boilers. The ship carried a maximum of 2,060 long tons (2,090 t) of coal and an additional 750 long tons (760 t) of fuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. At full capacity, she could steam for 8,150 nautical miles (15,090 km; 9,380 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Minotaur was designed to carry 779 officers and men, but mustered 825 in 1909. The ship's main armament consisted of four BL 9.2-inch Mark X guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. Her secondary armament, ten BL 7.5-inch Mark II guns, were mounted amidships in single turrets. Anti-torpedo boat defence was provided by sixteen QF 12-pounder (three-inch) 18-cwt guns. Minotaur also mounted five submerged 18-inch torpedo tubes, one of which was mounted in the stern. The waterline belt consisted of 6 inches (152 mm) of Krupp cemented armour roughly between the fore and aft 7.5-inch gun turrets, but was reduced in steps to three inches to the ends of the ship. The gun turrets and barbettes were protected by 6–8 in (152–203 mm) of armour. The thickness of the lower deck was 1.5–2 inches (38–51 mm). The armour of the conning tower was 10 inches (254 mm) thick. ## Construction and career Minotaur was ordered as part of the 1904–05 naval construction programme as the last of three Minotaur-class armoured cruisers. She was laid down on 2 January 1905 at Devonport Royal Dockyard and was christened on 6 June 1907 by the Countess of Crewe. The ship suffered a coal gas explosion that injured three sailors and one dockyard worker on 6 November before she was commissioned on 1 April 1908. Minotaur cost £1,410,356. The ship was assigned to the 5th Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet upon commissioning. She escorted the royal yacht Victoria and Albert from Kiel, Germany to Reval when King Edward VII and his wife visited in Russia in June. The next month Minotaur escorted the battlecruiser Indomitable as it carried the Prince of Wales to Canada to commemorate the tercentenary of Quebec City. The ship was transferred to the 1st Cruiser Squadron when the Home Fleet reorganized on 24 March 1909. She was present for two fleet reviews in June and July before she was ordered to the China Station in January 1910 to relieve King Alfred as flagship. Minotaur was in Wei Hai Wei on 3 July 1914 when most of the ships assigned to the China Station were ordered to assemble at Hong Kong. Shortly after the start of the First World War, the ship, together with the armoured cruiser Hampshire and the light cruiser Newcastle sailed for the German-owned island of Yap. They captured the collier Elsbeth on 11 August and destroyed the radio station there with gunfire. They then unsuccessfully searched for the ships of the East Asia Squadron until the light cruiser Emden was reported to have destroyed several ships in the Bay of Bengal in mid-September. Minotaur was ordered to the west coast of Sumatra to search for the German warship, but was unsuccessful. She was then ordered to escort a troop convoy from Wellington, New Zealand in late September. The ship was detached from the convoy and ordered to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope and reinforce the squadron there on 6 November after the Admiralty learned of the defeat at the Battle of Coronel. Upon her arrival Minotaur became flagship of the Cape of Good Hope Station under the command of Vice Admiral Herbert King-Hall and escorted a South African troop convoy to Luderitz Bay in German South-West Africa. The ship was near Table Bay, South Africa when the East Asia Squadron was destroyed during the Battle of the Falklands in early December and she was ordered home on 8 December. Upon her arrival, Minotaur became flagship of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Arthur Waymouth, based at Cromarty Firth. She received a brief refit in early 1915 and was then assigned to Northern Patrol for the next year. The ship received a QF 12-pounder (three-inch) 12-cwt anti-aircraft (AA) gun and a QF three-pounder (47 mm) AA gun in 1915–16. The 12-pounder gun was mounted on the aft superstructure and the three-pounder on the quarterdeck at the extreme rear. The ship was transferred to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron on 30 May 1916 and participated in the Battle of Jutland on the following day as flagship of Rear Admiral Herbert Heath. She remained unengaged throughout the battle and did not fire her 9.2 or 7.5-inch guns at all during the battle. Minotaur was also present during the attempted interception of the High Seas Fleet by the Grand Fleet on 19 August although no combat occurred. For the rest of the war, the ship was assigned to the Northern Patrol. On 11 December 1917, together with her sister Shannon and four destroyers, she was assigned to patrol the convoy route between Lerwick and Norway, but the Germans successfully destroyed a convoy off the Norwegian coast on the following day and returned home without being spotted. The British ships were only able to rescue survivors and escort the sole surviving ship from the convoy, the crippled destroyer Pellew, back to Scapa Flow. In 1917–18 the 12-pounder AA gun mounted on the aft superstructure was moved to the roof of the forward 9.2-inch gun turret and a fire-control system was installed with a director mounted on a platform fitted to the foremast. Minotaur was paid off on 5 February 1919, placed on the disposal list in May, put up for sale in March 1920 and sold the following month.

The Return of Dr. Octagon

The Return of Dr. Octagon is the eighth solo studio album by American rapper Kool Keith (Keith Matthew Thornton), and his second release under the 'Dr. Octagon' alias, following Dr. Octagonecologyst. It was released on June 27, 2006, on OCD International in the United States. The album revives the character of Dr. Octagon, who was killed off on Thornton's 1999 release First Come, First Served. Production for the album began in 2002 under the title The Resurrection of Dr. Octagon with producer Fanatik J. Thornton signed a contract with CMH Records to release the album. Following a contractual dispute, Fanatik J was released from the project. The album's production was completed by the One-Watt Sun production team based upon three completed vocal recordings and older unfinished recordings. Thornton had little involvement with the production of the album. He later stated that he liked the completed product, but that it hurt his musical reputation. The Return of Dr. Octagon initially received great reviews. The first single "Aliens" garnered the coveted The Guardian's Single of the Week in the U.K., and also was given a place among The Wire magazine's top hip hop records of the year, but what followed were much more polarized reviews. The album did not chart. Much praise and criticism centered on the production, with HipHopDX stating "This is Kool Keith's best album in years—arguably even better than his classic Octagonecologyst," and Newsweek stating that "If this album surpasses its predecessor, full credit goes to the Berlin production trio One Watt Sun, who come off sounding like a cross between Parliament-Funkadelic and Kraftwerk." Yet others felt that the production fit neither Thornton's lyrical style nor the Dr. Octagon character. Thornton revived the character for the albums Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation and Space Goretex. ## Origins and recording Keith Thornton, best known by the stage name Kool Keith, released the album Dr. Octagonecologyst in 1996, under the name Dr. Octagon, produced by Dan "The Automator" Nakamura. Thornton later expressed some frustration with the "Dr. Octagon" nickname, saying, "Octagon wasn't my life...I've done a lot of things that were totally around different things other than Octagon. Are some people just afraid to venture off into my life and see that I do other things which are great? I think people stuck me with something." In 1999, Thornton released the album First Come, First Served, which featured a track in which the newly introduced character Dr. Dooom murdered Dr. Octagon. Thornton had intended to move away from the Dr. Octagon character, but later decided to record another album under the Octagon name. In 2002, Thornton announced The Resurrection of Dr. Octagon, a proposed sequel to Dr. Octagonecologyst that would reintroduce the character. Los Angeles-based producer Fanatik J was chosen to create the music for the album. Thornton himself took part in the production of early material for the project, playing bass, guitar, and keyboards on many of the tracks. Thornton signed a contract with CMH Records to release the album. On July 23, 2002, Rolling Stone reported that a new Dr. Octagon album would be released in February 2003. Explaining his choice of label, Thornton said, "I chose to go with somebody that [would] take this as a creative project, not a marketing project. Major labels tend to let inexperienced people oversee your projects. Your innovation goes down because they have [too much] input. You don't see anybody going into the studio to tell James Brown what to do. Even though he can adapt to certain things, nobody tells him how to sing. That's the way I feel about myself." Preceding the production of the album, Thornton told Rolling Stone that "this album is fine-tuned with instruments, deeper and more spaced out. The last one was cool, but I didn't like it because it wasn't funky. When I don't work on a project, it's not that funky. When I do work on it, it's funky, and it has soul to it...I'm proud of my funky sounds right now." Fanatik J was not named as the album's producer. Thornton stated that with Dr. Octagonecologyst, Thornton had given Nakamura his first successful album as a producer, and that with The Return of Dr. Octagon, he would "make another person and create another star". As production on the album was underway, Thornton had a falling out with Fanatik J over contract rights. Thornton referred to Fanatik J as "greedy" and stated that "He went out of his level of producer's ranking. Maybe he thought he was an overnight Quincy Jones, that he was the Automator." Fanatik J later engaged in a legal battle with CMH over contractual terms that did not give him input on remixes. Following Fanatik J's disputes with the label, CMH contacted San Francisco-based producer John Lindland and Melbourne-based producers Simon Walbrook and Ben Green to produce material for the album. Lindland, Walbrook and Green began creating material for the album under the billing of One-Watt Sun. Thornton was briefly involved with the project, recording vocals for three tracks: "Trees," "Ants," and "Aliens," based upon rough sonic and lyrical themes created by the production team. After Thornton had a falling out with the label over contractual terms, he gave the label recordings he had made two years previously, consisting of Thornton rapping and goofing off, in order to complete his contract. The album was completed without his involvement. ## Music ### Production One-Watt Sun met at various points in Berlin, Prague, Melbourne, and Byron Bay to work on the album's music tracks with Pro Tools software. The music and structure of the vocal recordings were completed the following year. None of Fanatik J's production work appeared on the final album. According to Allmusic reviewer Marisa Brown, One-Watt Sun's production incorporates elements of "pop, dirty blues, rock, and R\&B". Some critics felt that the album's production was inferior to that of Dr. Octagonecologyst. KutMasta Kurt, a frequent collaborator with Thornton, disliked the album's production, stating "The Dr. Octagon character was rapping over sounds that were dark and sinister, but they turned the album into this dancey electro-pop. A lot of it had this Euro-dance feel, and I was like, 'Wait a second, not only did they change the music, they changed it into something [to which] I couldn't relate.'" KutMasta Kurt also recounts a conversation with Thornton on a European flight in December 2006, in which Thornton stated that The Return of Dr. Octagon does not sound like a Dr. Octagon album. Thornton himself said that he liked the album's production, but that the album hurt his reputation as a musician. According to Thornton, "I'm not mad. But I don't repeat words when I rap. They cooked up some electronic stuff, you know, WORD\! WORD\! WORD\! making me sound like triple people. It's interesting." ### Storyline and lyrical themes Although Thornton's vocals were largely edited without his involvement, a background story for the album was created by the label and published in a series of eight segments, each revealing a new chapter and featuring an exclusive remix by the likes of Prefuse 73, Aesop Rock, Kid Loco, Spank Rock and others. The remixers appear in the story as "interpreters" hired to decipher the meaning of each remixed song, reportedly sent in a package to the offices of OCD. The story begins three weeks after OCD received the package. Still unable to decode its meaning, the record company receives a phone call from an unknown source, tracked to Los Angeles, New York, Australia and Saturn. The caller claims to have received the same package five years ago and that it had brought destruction and chaos upon his society, and warns that they are coming after Octagon. OCD then receives a message from a hacker identifying himself as Cassettes Won't Listen, who states that eight years ago, himself and five friends were abducted by aliens, tortured, cloned, and kept in isolation. The last survivor was killed by one of the clones, whom Cassettes Won't Listen then went underground to fight. Cassettes Won't Listen reveals that Dr. Octagon was imprisoned in the cell next to him, as "a prime candidate to study all things regarding grills, pills and bills". Octagon was cloned: his clones have been sent out to destroy the universe. Rob Sonic learns that the clones were created by a giant gorilla driving a pickup truck, who intends to steal the package to prevent the world from hearing Octagon's message, allowing him to destroy the Earth. The story concludes with the remixers and OCD's staff escaping with the package on Kid Loco's plane. An intern briefly sees a figure standing on OCD's rooftop, wearing a labcoat with a stethoscope around his neck, holding the head of "some black hairy creature" in his hand. PopMatters writer Michael Frauenhofer wrote that "Dr. Octagon's lyrics on this album typically appear to be unconnected, but over the course of each track can be seen building around a general theme, be it conservation, societal conformity, American militarism, or, yes, his characteristic fascination with sex." According to Allmusic reviewer Marisa Brown, Dr. Octagon has matured and his focus has broadened since Dr. Octagonecologyst, in which the character focused largely on sex. Brown writes that Octagon is now "truly worried about the state of humankind, both physically and musically; in short, someone who could truly save the world". Brown also states that while the album focuses on science fiction and abstract themes, "there are also as many, if not more, songs about man's own behavior toward himself and his environment". Frauenhofer referred to "Trees" as "a definite highlight" in which "the doctor drops his trademark off-kilter raps on, surprisingly, environmentalism". Pitchfork Media's Tom Breihan wrote that the song "Ants" compares "the humans infesting Earth to ants in a colony, enthused and disgusted at once". Frauenhofer, describing the song "Eat It," wrote that Princess Superstar "constantly references sex" while Dr. Octagon "confusingly interjects with his complaints about how women only want to go out and talk and eat", but Frauenhofer states that the sexual content of the album's lyrics is not as explicit as previous Thornton albums, such as Sex Style. Dallas Observer writer Geoff Johnston described the song as being "as profane as one would hope for". ### Singles and music videos "Aliens" was released as the first single from the album. A remix of "Aliens" by British drum and bass producer Sub Focus was chosen as compilation of the month in the May 2006 issue of Mixmag. Music videos were produced for the singles "Aliens" and "Trees", in which Thornton did not appear. The music video for "Trees" was produced as a public service announcement for MTV's "Break the Addiction" campaign, as well as a promo video for the album. ## Release OCD International was created as an imprint of CMH to release the material. On October 12, 2004, a bootleg consisting of material produced by Chilly Chill from the Lench Mob was released under the title Dr. Octagon Part 2 by Real Talk Records. It was discontinued by court order. On June 27, 2006, OCD International released One-Watt Sun's material under the title The Return of Dr. Octagon in the United States on compact disc, although the completed work more closely resembled a remix album than what Thornton had originally intended. In the United Kingdom, the CMH-completed album was released by Buttercuts Records on compact disc and vinyl. CMH distributor World's Fair promoted The Return of Dr. Octagon as the official sequel to Dr. Octagonecologyst, and claimed that Thornton would tour in support of the album. Early news stories reported by outlets such as The Guardian, MTV2, MySpace, Remix Magazine, and The Washington Post endorsed the label's claims. Internet rumors began to spread that the album had been released without Thornton's authorization via what turned out to be an unsubstantiated piece of journalism by David Downs. In August, Thornton performed under the Dr. Octagon billing, but did not promote the album. According to Thornton, "This ain't the record I did. It was totally new music. I was really pissed off about people wanting me to go out and tour and do these songs." OCD originally intended to ship 50,000 units during the first year, but halted the plan due to the remarkably high volume of downloads received by the online remixes. In September, Thornton stated that he had not received royalties from CMH Records. According to Thornton, "I hope they're sending them. You have another interview if they don't send me a check. Honestly, with the next single, I want them to leave me a sparkling diamond." ## Reception Metacritic, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the album a score of 61%, denoting generally favorable reviews. The album did not chart. The earliest reviews of the album, published by the LA Weekly and Newsweek, were positive. Rolling Stone critic Christian Hoard wrote that "Octagon's verses often feel unfocused and random, but when he bears down he can be mesmerizing, channeling his quick-tongued rhymes with streetwise brassiness and cosmic vibrations." AllMusic reviewer Marisa Brown wrote that the album "doesn't always make a lot of sense, but that's the beauty of it. It's a kind of concept album that concentrates more on the actual overall sound than the concepts. Its elements are all on the very edge of control, which is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time; if it works, it could bring us to where we've never been, protect us from what may be, but if it fails, it could kill us all." HipHopDX reviewer B. Love wrote, "This is Kool Keith's best album in years—arguably even better than his classic Octagonecologyst—and marks a fine return to form for one of rap music's most distinctive and original talents." Other reviews were mixed. Pitchfork Media's Tom Breihan wrote that "Keith himself is responsible for all of the album's good moments. Even when he's in unhinged-rant mode, Keith's imagery often remains lucid. And so the album's best song is "Ants," where he comes off frantic but omnipotent...It's dense and fascinating stuff, a tantalizing glimpse of what might've happened if Keith hadn't treated the reemergence of his most popular persona like an easy payday." PopMatters writer Michael Frauenhofer wrote that "The Return of Dr. Octagon is still better than anything Kool Keith's done in a little while, but apart from its best tracks, it's not close to the level of his finest work of the past, and it doesn't really build much on the legend of Dr. Octagon, which still rests most firmly on the good doctor's debut." Geoff Johnston of Dallas Observer thought it was "not the triumphant return that most fans have been hoping for", as "the absence of [...] Dan the Automator and Q-Bert is painfully apparent throughout". The reviewer still believed the album was enjoyable, commending some of the tracks. Negative reviews came from Billboard writer Ron Hart and Michael Pollock of Prefix magazine. Hart wrote that "Kool Keith has dropped nothing but disappointment and at an alarmingly steady rate". Pollock wrote that "Despite all the stupid records he's put out before, The Return of Dr. Octagon is the first one that plunges wholly into self-parody. He's now a fully realized clown, a prop, a joke and, most disappointingly, a sub-par rapper whose forced ideas and personality obstacles have devolved into flimsy, uninspired character sketches." Dan the Automator criticized the release, stating "That wasn't a Dr. Octagon record. Dr. Octagon is me, Kool Keith, and Q-Bert. The label didn't have the legal right to use the name, but I didn't want to get involved in a legal battle...Keith's my man, just trying to make a little bit of money." KutMasta Kurt stated that Thornton was reluctant to perform songs from the album, because the lyrics did not fit the music. John Lindland, who coproduced the final album under the name One-Watt Sun, stated in defense of the album, "People say it's a fake. We don't have that feeling. We think that those are great tracks. It wasn't about remixing anything. They were our ideas, and Keith went on grooves that we sent to LA." In response to Fanatik J's criticism of the album, One Watt Sun referred to him as being disgruntled as a result of the label discarding his music. According to Lindland, "If we were him, we'd have [a] beef too". Dr. Dooom 2, Thornton's 2008 follow-up to First Come, First Served, was produced in response to The Return of Dr. Octagon. According to Thornton, "I'm one of those artists that people take my music without my consent. People love to snatch my music and do things on their own. You got people that put me on beats I never rapped on. I just feel that it's a bad thing." Thornton later revived the character for the albums Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation and Space Goretex. ## Track listing ## Personnel - Keith Matthew Thornton – lyrics, vocals - Concetta Kirschner – lyrics & vocals (track 14) - April McClellan – vocals (track 5) - Dexter Fabay – scratches (track 4) - Simon Walbrook – producer, mixing - Ben Green – producer (tracks: 1–10, 13–15), mixing - John Lindland – songwriting - Mike Letho – mixing - Nilesh "Nilz" Patel – mastering - Tomáš Sochůrek – additional mixing - François Tétaz – additional mixing - Argee Geronca – artwork design - Brent Wadden – artwork design - Mario Campos – artwork design - Michael Tullberg – photography

Staurakios (eunuch)

Byzantine court official (died 800)

Staurakios (, sometimes Latinized Stauracius; died 3 June 800) was a Byzantine Greek eunuch official, who rose to be one of the most important and influential associates of Byzantine empress Irene of Athens (r. 797–802). He effectively acted as chief minister during her regency for her young son, Emperor Constantine VI (r. 780–797) in 780–790, until overthrown and exiled by a military revolt in favour of the young emperor in 790. Restored to power by Constantine along with Irene in 792, Staurakios aided her in the eventual removal, blinding, and possible murder of her son in 797. His own position thereafter was threatened by the rise of another powerful eunuch, Aetios. Their increasing rivalry, and Staurakios's own imperial ambitions, were only resolved by Staurakios's death. ## Biography ### First minister under Irene's regency Staurakios emerged into prominence in 781, when Irene, as regent for her infant son Constantine VI, appointed him to the post of logothetes tou dromou, the Byzantine Empire's foreign minister. Already holding the high court rank of patrikios, through this appointment Staurakios became, in the words of the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, "the foremost man of his day and in charge of everything" for most of Irene's subsequent reign. This appointment was part of Irene's consistent policy to rely on eunuch officials as ministers and generals, in large part the result of her distrust towards the established generals of her late husband, Leo IV (r. 775–780) and his father Constantine V (r. 741–775). The generals, intensely loyal to the Isaurian dynasty and its vehemently iconoclastic policies, could threaten her own position: already a few weeks after Leo IV's death, Irene had foiled a palace plot to put his surviving brother, the Caesar Nikephoros, on the throne. Resentment at Staurakios's appointment to this powerful post is given by the Byzantine chroniclers as the reason for the (initially secret) defection of the prominent Armenian strategos of the Bucellarian Theme, Tatzates, to the Arabs in 782. This was a critical blow to the Byzantines, who at that time had almost succeeded in encircling the invading army of the future Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809). On Tatzates's suggestion, Harun asked for negotiations, but when the imperial envoys, including Staurakios, arrived, they were seized and held as hostages. At this point, Tatzates and his men publicly went over to the Caliph. Staurakios and the other envoys were released only when Empress Irene accepted the Caliph's harsh terms for a three-year truce, including the annual payment of an enormous tribute of 70,000 or 90,000 gold dinars and the handing over of 10,000 silk garments. In the next year, Staurakios led an imperial expedition against the Slavic communities (Sclaviniae) of Greece. Setting out from Constantinople, the imperial army followed the Thracian coast into Macedonia, and then south into Thessaly, Central Greece and the Peloponnese. This expedition restored a measure of Byzantine imperial authority over these areas, and collected booty and tribute from the locals. Empress Irene rewarded her loyal minister by allowing him to celebrate a triumph in the Hippodrome of Constantinople in January 784. Buoyed by this success, which was followed by a restoration of imperial control in much of Thrace as far as Philippopolis, Irene moved towards the restoration of the veneration of icons, which had been prohibited by Emperor Constantine V. A new ecumenical council was convened. Initially, in 786, it was held in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, but the soldiers of the tagmata, founded by Constantine V and loyal to his iconoclastic policies, gathered outside in protest and forced the assembly to be broken up. In order to neutralise their reaction, Irene sent the tagmata to the army base of Malagina in Bithynia, allegedly in preparation for a campaign against the Arabs. There, some 1,500 of the soldiers were dismissed while Staurakios brought loyal thematic troops from Thrace to guard the capital. Irene then reconvened the council at Nicaea, after dismissing the most recalcitrant iconoclast bishops. Predictably, iconoclasm was overturned as a heresy, and the veneration of images was restored. ### Clash with Constantine VI In 788, Staurakios is recorded as attending as a judge in the bride show for the 17-year-old Constantine VI, along with Irene and the young Byzantine emperor himself. Maria of Amnia was chosen, although Constantine was unhappy about the breaking up of his earlier betrothal with Rotrude, Charlemagne's daughter. From this point on, he began to resent his mother's control over state affairs and the power of her eunuch officials. Along with a few trusted conspirators, Constantine planned to arrest Staurakios and exile him to Sicily, while he would assume his position as effective co-ruler of the Byzantine Empire. Their plans were pre-empted by Staurakios, however: he persuaded Irene to arrest, torture, exile or imprison Constantine's associates, while Constantine himself was placed under house arrest. Next, Irene demanded of the army an oath of loyalty, whose wording placed her before her son in precedence. This demand provoked a mutiny by the soldiers of the Armeniac Theme, which then spread throughout the Anatolian armies, which assembled in Bithynia and demanded Emperor Constantine's release. Bowing to their pressure, Irene capitulated and Constantine was installed as sole ruler in December 790. Among Constantine's first acts was to have Staurakios flogged, tonsured, and exiled to the Armeniac Theme, while all other eunuch officials were likewise exiled. Irene remained confined in a palace at the Harbour of Eleutherios in the capital and retained her formal title as empress. Then, on 15 January 792, for reasons not clear, she was recalled to the imperial palace with her title as empress and co-ruler confirmed and her name restored in the imperial acclamations. Staurakios, too, seems to have been recalled and, along with Irene, again took an active role in the governance of the state. On his mother's re-entry, Constantine was either more occupied with his personal amusements or overseeing the army for campaigns, thus leaving the household, government, and finances to her and her eunuchs. Moreover, he consulted her or the men around him about all his plans and made important decisions with their consent. This turn of events drove the Armeniacs once again to mutiny, but their commander, Alexios Mosele, was in Constantinople. Despite guarantees of safety, Mosele was imprisoned and later blinded at the instigation of Irene and Staurakios, both eager to take revenge for his role in their overthrow in 790. This alienated the army, especially the Armeniacs, who had provided a firm support base for Constantine VI against his mother. With his strong power base lost or diminished, he became more dependent on his mother and her group. In 795, Constantine also strained relations with the Church in the so-called "Moechian Controversy", when he divorced Maria and married his mistress Theodote. As a result, Empress Irene's position within the capital's bureaucracy was strengthened, her influence over the states of the empire increased, and she began plotting against her son. Constantine, who did not think of conspiracies, often enjoyed himself, hunting and resting, and left his mother to manage everything, especially when he had taken the whole court to Porsa for pleasure, but when he learned that his wife Theodote gave birth to a son, he returned to the capital and left his mother alone with all the court and soldiers, and this gave her more and easier time to advance her goals. While Irene bribed the tagmata and drew groups of important nobles, senior courtiers, church clergy and officers of other armies near the capital and provinces and even Constantine's close friends, Staurakios and other agents of Irene foiled an expedition headed by Constantine against the Arabs, afraid that a victory would boost the emperor's standing with the people and the army. As he returned to the capital, Constantine was seized and blinded. Although it was officially stated that he survived and remained imprisoned, he likely died of his wounds sometime after. ### Irene's sole rule and Staurakios's rivalry with Aetios With the removal of Constantine VI, Irene henceforth reigned alone, the first Byzantine empress to do so. Staurakios, however, found his own position increasingly challenged by another powerful eunuch and trusted servant of the empress, Aetios. Both were engaged in an intense rivalry to place their relatives in positions of power so as to secure control of the Empire after Irene's death. This rivalry intensified when Irene fell seriously ill in May 799. With the backing of the Domestic of the Schools, Niketas Triphyllios, Aetios accused Staurakios to Irene of planning to usurp the throne. Irene held a council at the Palace of Hieria, where her powerful minister was rebuked but got off with an apology. Staurakios now began preparing his own counter stroke, bribing members of the tagmata, although he seems to have lacked supporters among the higher command echelons. Although a eunuch was legally barred from the imperial throne, Staurakios nevertheless seems to have aspired to seize it for himself. Warned by Aetios, Empress Irene issued orders in February 800 that no one from the military should have any contact with Staurakios. This measure curbed the latter's designs, and introduced a precarious balance between Staurakios and Aetios, the latter still supported by Niketas Triphyllios. Soon after, Staurakios fell fatally ill, reportedly coughing up blood. Nevertheless, persuaded by doctors, monks and soothsayers that he would live and become Byzantine emperor, he instigated a revolt in Cappadocia against his adversary Aetios, who had by then secured the post of strategos of the Anatolic Theme (the highest-ranked military position in the Byzantine Empire). However, even before news of the revolt, which was swiftly suppressed, reached the capital, Staurakios died on 3 June 800.

1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane

Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 1933

The 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane was among the most damaging hurricanes in the Mid-Atlantic states in the eastern United States. The sixth storm and third hurricane of the very active 1933 Atlantic hurricane season, it formed in the eastern Atlantic, where it moved west-northwestward and eventually became a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. A strong ridge over New England allowed a continued northwest course, bringing the storm south of Bermuda and later toward the middle coast of the eastern United States. Advanced warning allowed hundreds of people to evacuate ahead of the hurricane making landfall. It did so in northeastern North Carolina on August 23 with winds of about 90 mph (140 km/h). Soon after, the eye crossed over Norfolk, Virginia, the first time that happened since 1821. The hurricane weakened into a tropical storm over northern Virginia shortly before passing near Washington, D.C., becoming the worst tropical cyclone there since 1896. Curving northward, the storm moved through Pennsylvania and New York before losing tropical characteristics on August 25. Now extratropical, the former hurricane moved across Atlantic Canada, dissipating on August 28. Across the eastern United States, the hurricane left widespread damage amounting to over $40 million (equivalent to about $800 million in 2020) and causing at least 47 deaths. Although the storm struck North Carolina, damage in the state totaled only about $250,000, largely to crops and transport. Along the Chesapeake Bay, the storm produced 100-year flooding from its storm surge, setting records that remained for 70 years. In Virginia, flooding covered downtown portions of Norfolk in the southeast and Alexandria in the north. Damage in the state was estimated at $17.5 million. Similarly heavy damage occurred in Maryland, including over $7 million to crops. High waves along the coast eroded beaches and created a new inlet at Ocean City. The highest rainfall associated with the hurricane was 13.28 in (337 mm) at York, Pennsylvania. In the state, the rains flooded several rivers which forced thousands to evacuate. In neighboring New Jersey, high waves wrecked boats and destroyed a fishing pier, while in New York, flooding caused traffic jams. In Atlantic Canada, heavy rainfall assisted firefighters in combating wildfires, and the associated winds caused isolated power outages. ## Meteorological history On August 13, a tropical depression developed near the west coast of Africa, southeast of Cape Verde, with an associated closed circulation. Based on observations from a nearby ship, it is estimated the depression quickly intensified into a tropical storm while moving generally to the west-northwest. For several days the storm continued this general trajectory, eventually shifting more to the northwest. Based on interpolation of reports, it is estimated the storm intensified into a hurricane on August 16 while halfway between Africa and the Lesser Antilles. The Weather Bureau began tracking the system on August 18. Later that day, a ship reported a pressure of 948 mbar (28.0 inHg), suggesting winds of 135 mph (217 km/h). This made the hurricane a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Another ship report on August 20 indicated a pressure of 940 mbar (28 inHg) while reporting hurricane winds, suggesting peak winds of 140 mph (230 km/h). After remaining near peak intensity for three days, the hurricane began steadily weakening while curving more to the west-northwest, a rare track for the region due to steering from a ridge over New England. On August 21, the storm passed about 150 mi (240 km) southwest of Bermuda. At 1000 UTC on August 23, the hurricane made landfall along the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina, near Nags Head, with a pressure of 963 mbar (28.4 inHg). Based on the steady weakening, coastal observations, and a larger than normal size, landfall winds were estimated at 90 mph (140 km/h). A few hours later, the hurricane made another landfall on the North Carolina mainland after crossing the Albemarle Sound. While the hurricane continued to the northwest, the eye briefly moved over Norfolk, Virginia, for the first time since the 1821 Norfolk and Long Island hurricane. Early on August 24, the hurricane weakened into a tropical storm while passing near Washington, D.C. Curving to the north, the storm crossed Pennsylvania and into New York, where it weakened further into a tropical depression. On August 25, the former hurricane turned to the east near the Canada–US border, and after interacting with a cold front, became extratropical. It emerged from Maine and briefly re-intensified, moving across southern Nova Scotia with gale-force winds. On August 28, the circulation dissipated to the south of Newfoundland. ## Preparations and impact The hurricane first affected Bermuda when it passed to the south. Winds at St. George's reached 64 mph (103 km/h). High waves along the coast prevented boats from docking. Early on August 21, the Weather Bureau issued storm warnings from Cape Hatteras to Boston, Massachusetts. As the hurricane approached land, the warnings were extended southward to Southport, North Carolina. In Norfolk, Virginia, most ships either remained at port or sought shelter due to advance warning. Residents were advised to evacuate in Ocean View, Virginia Beach, and Willoughby Spit, and about 350 people left their houses in Virginia Beach. Along the coast, the United States Coast Guard rescued more than 200 people, many of whom due to capsized boats. A 1993 article published in the Monthly Weather Review considered the storm to have been "one of the most severe storms that has ever visited the Middle Atlantic coast." Flooding affected a larger portion of the northeastern United States than any other hurricane in the 1900s after Hurricane Agnes in 1972. The Federal Emergency Management Agency later used high water levels from the storm as a 100-year event for the Chesapeake Bay region. The next storm to approach the storm surge levels was Isabel in 2003, which was lower in most locations in Virginia, although higher in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore due to sea level rise. This hurricane caused damage from North Carolina through New Jersey, due to the combination of high winds and storm tides, and left at least 47 people dead overall. ### North Carolina and Virginia When the hurricane made landfall in the Outer Banks, it produced winds of 76 mph (122 km/h) at Cape Hatteras. The winds caused crop damage as far inland as Granville County. The four-masted schooner G.A. Kohler hailing from Baltimore and bound for Haiti was driven ashore at Hatteras by the high winds. Across the region, the storm downed power lines, washed out highways, wrecked boats, and destroyed houses, and overall damage in the state was around $250,000. As the hurricane moved into Virginia, winds were as strong as 82 mph (132 km/h) at Cape Henry, while Norfolk reported winds of 70 mph (110 km/h). The latter city reported a record high tide of 9.8 ft (3.0 m) above normal at Sewell's Point, which flooded the downtown section with 5 ft (1.5 m) of water. Water levels were 5 to 8 ft (1.5 to 2.4 m) higher than any previous high water mark in Newport News and most of Fort Eustis was flooded. In Hampton the storm surge flooded Langley Air Force Base, swamped homes and businesses, wrecked boats, and destroyed fishing piers. Rainfall in Chesapeake reached about 10 in (250 mm), and reached about 7 in (180 mm) in Norfolk. Flooding near Norfolk damaged crops, and after its downtown section was flooded, residents were forced to travel by boat. When the flood levels dropped, many fish were left behind in the streets. High water levels of around 4 ft (1.2 m) along the York River destroyed buildings at Gloucester Point. In Virginia Beach, the storm knocked down about 600 trees, many of them about 100 years old, and over 79,000 people lost telephone service. Due to advance warning, there was minimal damage to shipping in the region. However, high waves damaged the steamer Madison with 90 people on board and caused it to drift off Cape Charles, which necessitated rescue from the Coast Guard. Inland flooding occurred along the James River as far west as Richmond, where damage was limited to downed trees and broken windows. The pier of the Jamestown Ferry was washed out in Surry and a marina at Jordan Point near Hopewell was wrecked after the river reached the highest level on record. A powerful storm surge moved up the Chesapeake Bay and flooded waterfront locations. At Colonial Beach along the Potomac River, the surge flooded the town with 4 ft (1.2 m) of water and wrecked a local amusement park. The Potomac in Alexandria was at its highest level since 1899, causing floods 8 ft (2.4 m) deep along U.S. Route 1, and flooding the Old Town section. High winds in the city caused power outages, and flooding along the Cameron Run washed out a bridge. The combination of rain and winds damaged crops in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, mainly to corn and peaches. Statewide, the storm caused $5.25 million in crop damage, largely to corn and tobacco. Damage in the state was estimated at $17.5 million, and there were 15 deaths. After the storm, about 350 people helped clear debris from the streets of Norfolk. ### Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic Farther north, it is estimated the storm produced hurricane-force winds in portions of Maryland. Along the coast, high waves eroded about 2 sq mi (5.2 km²) of beaches in Maryland and another 1 sq mi (2.6 km²) in Delaware. High waves created an inlet that turned Assateague into an island. The storm damaged or destroyed several hotels in the region. Power, telephone, and telegraph outages occurred from Cape Charles through Delaware. In Baltimore, 7.62 in (194 mm) of precipitation fell in 24 hours, setting a record and causing flooding. The storm surge wrecked a steamboat pier and promenade at Chesapeake Beach, and damaged or destroyed 70 houses in neighboring North Beach. In Cheverly, flooding caused nine cars of a train to derail, killing four people. Statewide, the storm caused about $7 million in crop damage, mostly to tobacco, tomato, and corn. The high tides caused $3 million in damage to the fishing industry, having damaged or destroyed many boats and docks. There was about $90,000 worth of damage to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, after docks were damaged. Throughout the state, the hurricane caused about $10 million in property damage, with another $1.1 million to federal properties, about $960,000 in transportation damage, and $364,000 in utility damage. In neighboring Delaware, road damage was about $150,000, after three bridges were wrecked along DuPont Highway. Rainfall in the state reached 13.24 in (336 mm) in Bridgeville. In Washington, D.C., the storm dropped 6.39 in (162 mm) of rainfall, at the time the highest on record for a single day total. High winds knocked down trees and destroyed the roofs of several houses. Along the Anacostia River, flooding surpassed a seawall, and traffic was disrupted when the Benning Bridge was flooded with 2 ft (0.61 m) of water. The Washington-Hoover Airport was also flooded. Damage in the nation's capital was the worst since a tropical storm in 1896. The highest rainfall associated with the hurricane was 13.28 in (337 mm) near York, Pennsylvania. On August 24, the minimum pressure in Philadelphia dropped to 996 millibars (29.4 inHg), which was the lowest on record in the month of August at the time. Wind gusts in the city reached 42 mph (68 km/h). In the surrounding area, winds and rainfall caused $1 million in damage, mostly to crops and houses, and there were four deaths. Rainfall caused the worst flooding in the Lehigh Valley since 1902. In York County, floods destroyed 47 bridges, while in York proper, about 3,000 people evacuated along the swollen Codorus Creek. Hurricane-force winds potentially affected portions of Delaware and southern New Jersey. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, winds reached 76 mph (122 km/h) at a height of 171 ft (52 m), which is 67 mph (108 km/h) at sea level. At the time, this was the highest wind report for the station in the month of August. Rainfall in Atlantic City totaled 8.12 in (206 mm), including 2.25 in (57 mm) that fell in an hour on August 20, which was the monthly average. Two people drowned along the Jersey Shore due to high waves, and the storm capsized nine boats. The waves destroyed a 300 ft (91 m) long fishing pier in Cape May. High winds damaged the boardwalk while streets were flooded in Atlantic City, and there was about $3 million in damage. The storm spawned a tornado in Wildwood. At Picatinny Arsenal, residents and members of the military helped prevent a dam from breaking. Sustained winds of around 35 mph (56 km/h) were observed across northern New York, while the top of the Empire State Building reported a gust of 90 mph (140 km/h). Heavy rainfall in the state increased water levels along streams, causing one person to drown at Mount Tremper. After a dam broke, 190 people at Godeffroy were stranded until they were rescued by a fire crew. A power outage during the storm caused the Statue of Liberty torch to extinguish for the first time since 1929. Streets and basements of New York City were flooded after the heavy rainfall. The combination of flooding and fallen trees caused heavy traffic jams. The former hurricane passed near southern Quebec as a tropical depression, and later crossed southern Nova Scotia as an extratropical cyclone. Along Lake Ontario, winds reached 51 mph (82 km/h), and in Montreal, winds reached 21 mph (34 km/h). After a dry summer, the storm's accompanying rainfall was beneficial, reaching 4.4 inches (110 mm) in Fredericton, New Brunswick and 2 inches (51 mm) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The rains helped farmers in Ontario and assisted firefighters in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In Montreal, 2.4 inches (61 mm) of rainfall flooded a tunnel. Gusty winds knocked down power lines in portions of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Nova Scotia. Overall effects were minor, limited to some utility damage and delays for shipping. ## See also - Hurricane Fran - Hurricane Isabel - Hurricane Florence - List of North Carolina hurricanes (1900–49) - List of Delaware hurricanes

New Jersey Route 94

State highway in northwestern New Jersey, US

Route 94 is a state highway in the northwestern part of New Jersey, United States. It runs 45.9 mi (73.87 km) from the Portland–Columbia Toll Bridge over the Delaware River in Knowlton Township, Warren County, where it connects to PA 611, northeast to the New York state line in Vernon, Sussex County. At the New York border, NY 94 continues to Newburgh, New York. Route 94 is mostly a two-lane undivided road that runs through mountain and valley areas of Warren and Sussex counties, serving Columbia, Blairstown, Newton, and Hamburg. The route intersects several roads, including US 46 and I-80 in Knowlton Township, US 206 in Newton, Route 15 in Lafayette Township, and Route 23 in Hamburg. What is now Route 94 was legislated as part of two separate routes in 1927. The portion of road between Route 6/US 46 near the Delaware Bridge to Newton became Route 8, while the route north of Newton to the New York border became a part of Route 31. Prior to 1953, the only portion of Route 31 north of Newton that was a state highway was between North Church and Hamburg. In 1953, Route 94 was designated to replace all of Route 8 as well as Route 31 north of Newton; the number was chosen to match NY 94, and in turn named after the 94th Infantry Division. After the Portland–Columbia Toll Bridge and the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge were both completed in December 1953, the southern terminus of Route 94 was cut back to an intersection with US 611 in Columbia, which had been rerouted into New Jersey across both bridges, following a freeway between Columbia and the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge that would later become a part of I-80. The former alignment of Route 94 between the Delaware Bridge and the Portland–Columbia Toll Bridge became a part of US 46. In 1965, US 611 was routed out of New Jersey (though US 611 shields would remain on that freeway along with I-80 shields until 1972), and Route 94 still ended at that three-way intersection. Once new ramps were completed in that area in 1972 along with US 611 being decommissioned (being replaced with PA 611), Route 94 was extended to the state line on the Portland–Columbia Toll Bridge. Through the 1960s and 1970s, a freeway was proposed for the Route 94 corridor. This freeway, proposed to be a part of the Interstate Highway System, was never built. ## Route description ### Warren County Route 94 begins at the two-lane undivided Portland–Columbia Toll Bridge over the Delaware River in Knowlton Township, Warren County, where it connects to PA 611 on the Pennsylvania side of the river. This bridge is maintained by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission; the rest of Route 94 is maintained by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Immediately after the bridge, the route comes to a complex interchange with the western terminus of US 46 as well as with I-80 a short distance later, near the community of Columbia. In the area of the US 46/I-80 interchange, the directions of Route 94 split, carrying two lanes in each direction. Signage for Route 94 begins at the interchange with I-80. From here, the route becomes a two-lane undivided road that continues northeast through a mix of woods and farms with some development, passing under the abandoned Lackawanna Cut-Off. After passing through the community of Hainesburg, the road turns more to the east and enters Blairstown. Route 94 turns northeast before reaching the community of Blairstown, where the road continues east past some development before intersecting with Stillwater Road (CR 521). It forms a short wrong-way concurrency with that route, along which it crosses the Paulins Kill and CR 521 splits from Route 94 by heading south on Hope Road. A short distance later, Route 94 enters Frelinghuysen Township, passing through more rural surroundings. The road turns northeast through the community of Marksboro before heading east again. After the intersection with Ramsey Road (CR 661), Route 94 makes a sharp turn to the north-northeast. ### Sussex County The route continues into Sussex County at Fredon Township, heading through rural areas. The road turns more to the northeast as a two-lane road before heading east again and entering Newton. Here, Route 94 becomes High Street and passes several homes, intersecting with West End Avenue (CR 519). CR 519 forms a concurrency with Route 94 and the two routes continue into Downtown Newton. In the downtown area, the road comes to the Park Place Square, where it meets the intersection of US 206. At this point, all three routes turn southeast on Park Place, northeast on Main Street, northwest on Spring Street, and run concurrently north on four-lane undivided Water Street for a short distance. CR 519 splits from the road by turning north on Mill Street, while US 206 and Route 94 continue north as a three-lane road with a center left-turn lane, where a shopping district lines the road as it leaves Newton for Hampton Township. The road narrows back to two lanes as it heads into areas of farmland. Route 94 splits from US 206 by making a right turn to continue east. The road passes a mobile home park before making a turn northeast and heading into Lafayette Township. In Lafayette Township, the route resumes to the east through a mix of rural and industrial areas. The road continues to an intersection with Route 15, where Route 94 makes a right turn to head southeast along Route 15 in a wrong way concurrency. Upon splitting, Route 15 stays straight and heads southeast as Route 94 turns at a right hand reverse jughandle to head northeast. Route 94 continues through more rural areas with occasional development and enters Sparta, where it is known as North Church Road. Here, the road passes near some residential developments before continuing into Hardyston Township. In Hardyston Township, the route runs through the community of North Church. After making a sharp turn to the east, Route 94 enters Hamburg and becomes Vernon Avenue. The route passes a few homes before intersecting with Route 23 in the center of town. From this intersection, the route makes a turn to the northeast before leaving the town and heading back into Hardyston Township. The road passes rural developed areas before entering Vernon. At this point, the surroundings become more wooded and mountainous as the road passes near residential areas and reaches the community of McAfee. In McAfee, McAfee-Glenwood Road (CR 517) intersects with Route 94 and the two routes head east for a short wrong-way concurrency, crossing the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway's New Jersey Subdivision line before CR 517 turns to the south. Route 94 continues northeast unnamed, briefly becoming a divided highway as it passes the Mountain Creek ski resort and the Mountain Creek Waterpark, passing under a pedestrian bridge between the resort and parking lot. Continuing northeast, the route comes to an intersection with Vernon Road (CR 515), which it runs concurrently with on Vernon-Warwick Road. The two routes continue north, with CR 515 splitting from Route 94 by turning north on Prices Switch Road a short distance after crossing the Appalachian Trail. From here, Route 94 continues through more countryside before reaching the New York state line, where the road continues into that state as NY 94. ## History Through Vernon, what is now Route 94 was designated as the Vernon Turnpike, which was legislated to run from the Paterson-Hamburg Turnpike to the New York state line. It was abandoned by 1828. In the 1927 renumbering of state highways, Route 8 was defined to run along present-day Route 94 from Route 6 (current US 46) at the Delaware Bridge north to Columbia before turning northeast to Route 31 (now US 206) in Newton. Past Newton, Route 31 continued northeast to the New York state line (current US 206 north of here was Route S31). In the original version of the renumbering bill, Route 31 was to reach the state line via Sussex, incorporating pre-1927 Route 8 (now Route 284) from Sussex to the New York state line. However, in the final version, Route 31 ran via Hamburg, using the same alignment as a planned spur of pre-1927 Route 8 from Lafayette Township to North Church. Route 8 was eventually taken over by the state. On the other hand, by 1949, only one section of Route 31 north of the Route S31 split had been taken between North Church to Hamburg. In the 1953 renumbering, Route 8 was renumbered to Route 94, which was extended northeast past Newton along former Route 31 to the New York state line, matching NY 94 across the border. It was initially only marked south of Hamburg, as none of the route north of Hamburg was state-maintained. Originally, Route 94 began at the now razed Delaware Bridge, where US 46 would cross into Pennsylvania. Route 94 would wind right and north-east a few to Columbia, where it joined its current route. In December 1953, both the Portland–Columbia Toll Bridge and Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge opened. That year a section of Old Mine Road was rebuilt and aligned as a four lane freeway between Columbia and the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge. Following this, US 46 was rerouted over the first several miles of Route 94 between the Delaware Bridge and Columbia, and Route 94 was cut back to Columbia, near the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge. Here, US 46 would end and US 611, would cross the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge from Pennsylvania and follow the freeway north to the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge. The freeway portion that US 611 followed became a part of I-80 in 1959. When US 611 was removed from New Jersey in 1965, Route 94 was extended to the state line on the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge. By 1969, the unsigned portions of Route 94 north of Newton were signed. In 1973, this whole area was realigned into a complex interchange as the New Jersey portion of Interstate 80 was completed. In 1964, a Route 94 freeway was proposed to run from I-80 in Netcong north to the planned Route 23 freeway in Hamburg, following US 206 north to Newton and current Route 94 to Hamburg. In the late 1960s, the New Jersey Department of Transportation planned for the Route 94 freeway to run from I-80/US 46 in Columbia northeast to the New York state line near Wawayanda State Park. The New Jersey Department of Transportation hoped to get funding for the freeway in 1970 for it to become an Interstate highway as it was planned to serve a proposed national recreation area along the Delaware River that would have been built in conjunction with the controversial Tocks Island Dam project. This proposed Interstate, which was to run from I-80 in Hope Township to I-84 in Port Jervis and continue northeast along US 209, was denied funding. After reviewing the proposal again in 1972, the New Jersey Department of Transportation determined that the freeway would cost $96 million. It was eventually canceled due to environmental concerns and financial constraints. ## Major intersections |} ## See also - -

Patsy Cline

American country music singer (1932–1963)

Patsy Cline (born Virginia Patterson Hensley; September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist and composer from the state of Virginia. She is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century and was one of the first country music artists to cross over into pop music. Cline had several major hits during her eight-year recording career, including two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart. Cline's first professional performances began at local radio station WINC when she was fifteen. In the early 1950s, Cline began appearing in a local band led by performer Bill Peer. Various local appearances led to featured performances on Connie B. Gay's Town and Country television broadcasts. She signed her first recording contract with the Four Star label in 1954, and had minor success with her earliest Four Star singles including "A Church, a Courtroom, Then Goodbye" (1955) and "I've Loved and Lost Again" (1956). In 1957 Cline made her first national television appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. After performing "Walkin' After Midnight", the single became her first major hit on both the country and pop charts. Cline's further singles with Four Star Records were unsuccessful, although she continued performing and recording. After marrying in 1957 and giving birth in 1958, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to further her career. Working with new manager Randy Hughes, Cline became a member of the Grand Ole Opry and then moved to Decca Records in 1960. Under the direction of producer Owen Bradley, her musical sound shifted and she achieved consistent success. The 1961 single "I Fall to Pieces" became her first to top the Billboard country chart. As the song became a hit, Cline was severely injured in an automobile accident, which caused her to spend a month in the hospital. After she recovered, her next single "Crazy" also became a major hit. During 1962 and 1963, Cline had hits with "She's Got You", "When I Get Through with You", "So Wrong" and "Leavin' on Your Mind". She also toured and headlined shows with more frequency. On March 5, 1963, she was killed in a plane crash along with country musicians Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and manager Randy Hughes, during a flight from Kansas City, Missouri, back to Nashville. Since her death, Cline has been cited as one of the most celebrated, respected, and influential performers of the 20th century. Her music has influenced performers of various styles and genres. She has also been seen as a forerunner for women in country music, being among the first to sell records and headline concerts. In 1973, she became the first female performer to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In the 1980s, Cline's posthumous successes continued in the mass media. She was portrayed twice in major motion pictures, including the 1985 biopic Sweet Dreams starring Jessica Lange. Several documentaries and stage shows about her have been made, including the 1988 musical Always...Patsy Cline. A 1991 box set of her recordings received critical acclaim. Her greatest hits album sold over 10 million copies in 2005. In 2011, Cline's childhood home in Winchester was restored as a museum for visitors and fans to tour. ## Early life Virginia Patterson Hensley was born in Winchester, Virginia, on September 8, 1932, to Hilda Virginia (née Patterson) and Samuel Lawrence Hensley. Mrs. Hensley was only 16 years old at the time of Cline's birth. Sam Hensley had been married before; Cline had two half siblings (aged 12 and 15) who lived with a foster family because of their mother's death years before. After Cline, Hilda Hensley gave birth to Samuel Jr. (called John) and Sylvia Mae. Besides being called "Virginia" in her childhood, Cline was referred to as "Ginny". She temporarily lived with her mother's family in Gore, Virginia, before relocating many times throughout the state. In her childhood, the family relocated where Samuel Hensley, a blacksmith, could find employment, including Elkton, Staunton, and Norfolk. When the family had little money, she would find work, including at an Elkton poultry factory, where her job was to pluck and cut chickens. The family moved often before finally settling in Winchester, Virginia, on South Kent Street. Cline would later report that her father sexually abused her. When confiding the abuse to friend Loretta Lynn, Cline told her, "take this to your grave." Hilda Hensley would later report details of the abuse to producers of Cline's 1985 biopic Sweet Dreams. At age 13, Cline was hospitalized with a throat infection and rheumatic fever. Speaking of the incident in 1957 she said, "I developed a terrible throat infection and my heart even stopped beating. The doctor put me in an oxygen tent. You might say it was my return to the living after several days that launched me as a singer. The fever affected my throat and when I recovered I had this booming voice like Kate Smith's." It was during this time she developed an interest in singing. She started performing with her mother in the local Baptist choir. Mother and daughter also performed duets at church social events. She also taught herself how to play the piano. With the new performing opportunities, Cline's interest in singing grew, and at the age of 14, she told her mother that she was going to audition for the local radio station. Her first radio performances were at WINC in the Winchester area. According to WINC's radio disc jockey Joltin' Jim McCoy, Cline appeared in the station's waiting room one day and asked to audition. McCoy was impressed by her audition performance, reportedly saying, "Well, if you've got nerve enough to stand before that mic and sing over the air live, I've got nerve enough to let you." While performing on the radio, Cline also started appearing in talent contests and created a nightclub cabaret act similar to performer Helen Morgan's. Cline's parents had marital conflicts during her childhood and by 1947 her father had deserted the family. Author Ellis Nassour of the biography Honky Tonk Angel: An Intimate Story of Patsy Cline reported Cline had a "beautiful relationship" with her mother. In his interviews with Hilda Hensley, he quoted Cline's mother as saying they "were more like sisters" than parent and child. Cline attended the ninth grade at John Handley High School in Winchester, Virginia. However, the family had trouble sustaining an income after her father's desertion, and Cline dropped out of high school to help support the family. She began working at Gaunt's Drug Store in the Winchester area as a clerk and soda jerk. ## Career ### 1948–1953: Early career At age 15, Cline wrote a letter to the Grand Ole Opry asking for an audition. She told local photographer Ralph Grubbs about the letter, "A friend thinks I'm crazy to send it. What do you think?" Grubbs encouraged Cline to send it. Several weeks later, she received a return letter from the Opry asking for pictures and recordings. At the same time, Gospel performer Wally Fowler headlined a concert in her hometown. Cline convinced concert employees to let her backstage where she asked Fowler for an audition. Following a successful audition, Cline's family received a call asking for her to audition for the Opry. She traveled with her mother, two siblings, and a family friend on an eight-hour journey to Nashville, Tennessee. With limited finances, they drove overnight and slept in a Nashville park the following morning. Cline auditioned for Opry performer Moon Mullican the same day. The audition was well-received and Cline expected to hear from the Opry the same day. However, she never received news and the family returned to Virginia. By the early 1950s, Cline continued performing around the local area. In 1952, she asked to audition for local country bandleader Bill Peer. Following her audition, she began performing regularly as a member of Bill Peer's Melody Boys and Girls. The pair's relationship turned romantic, continuing an affair for several years. Nonetheless, the pair remained married to their spouses. Peer's group played primarily at the Moose Lodge in Brunswick, Maryland where she would meet her first husband, Gerald Cline. Peer encouraged her to have a more appropriate stage name. She changed her first name from Virginia to Patsy (taken from her middle name "Patterson"). She kept her new last name, Cline. Ultimately, she became professionally known as "Patsy Cline". In August 1953, Cline was a contestant in a local country music contest. She won 100 dollars and the opportunity to perform as a regular on Connie B. Gay's Town and Country Time. The show included country stars Jimmy Dean, Roy Clark, George Hamilton IV and Billy Grammer, and was filmed in Washington D.C. and Arlington County, Virginia. She was not officially added to the program's television shows until October 1955. Cline's television performances received critical acclaim. The Washington Star magazine praised her stage presence, commenting, "She creates the moods through movement of her hands and body and by the lilt of her voice, reaching way down deep in her soul to bring forth the melody. Most female country music vocalists stand motionless, sing with monotonous high-pitched nasal twang. Patsy's come up with a throaty style loaded with motion and E-motion." ### 1954–1960: Four Star Records In 1954, Bill Peer created and distributed a series of demonstration tapes with Cline's voice on it. A tape was brought to the attention of Bill McCall, president of Four Star Records. On September 30, 1954, she signed a two-year recording contract with the label alongside Peer and her husband Gerald Cline. The original contract allowed Four Star to receive most of the money for the songs she recorded. Therefore, Cline received little of the royalties from the label, totaling out to 2.34 percent on her recording contract. Her first recording session took place in Nashville, Tennessee on January 5, 1955. Songs for the session were handpicked by McCall and Paul Cohen. Four Star leased the recordings to the larger Decca Records. For those reasons Owen Bradley was chosen as the session's producer, a professional relationship that would continue into the 1960s. Her first single release was 1955's "A Church, a Courtroom, Then Goodbye". Although Cline promoted it with an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, the song was not successful. Cline recorded a variety of musical styles while recording for Four Star. This included genres such as gospel, rockabilly, traditional country, and pop. Writers and music journalists have had mixed responses on Cline's Four Star material. Robert Oermann and Mary Bufwack of Finding Her Voice: Women in Country Music called the label's choice of material "mediocre". They also commented that Cline seemed to have "groped for her own sound on the label". Kurt Wolff of Country Music the Rough Guide commented that the music was "sturdy enough, but they only hinted at the potential that lurked inside her. Richie Unterberger of Allmusic claimed it was Cline's voice that made the Four Star material less appealing: "Circumstances were not wholly to blame for Cline's commercial failures. She would have never made it as a rockabilly singer, lacking the conviction of Wanda Jackson or the spunk of Brenda Lee. In fact, in comparison with her best work, she sounds rather stiff and ill-at-ease on most of her early singles." Between 1955 and 1956, Cline's four singles for Four Star failed to become hits. However, she continued performing regionally, including on the Town and Country Jamboree. In 1956, she appeared on ABC's Country Music Jubilee, Ozark Jubilee. It was at one of her local performances that she met her second husband, Charlie Dick. In 1956, Cline received a call to perform on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a national television show she had auditioned for several months prior. She accepted the offer, using her mother Hilda Hensley as her talent scout for the show. According to the show's rules, talent scouts could not be family members. For those reasons, Cline's mother lied in order to appear on the show. When Arthur Godfrey asked if Hensley had known Cline her entire life, she replied, "Yes, just about\!" Cline and Mrs. Hensley flew into LaGuardia Airport in New York City on January 18, 1957. She made her debut appearance on the program on January 21. The day of the show, she met with the show's producer Janette Davis. Cline had chosen "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)" to perform on the program, but Davis preferred another song she had recorded, "Walkin' After Midnight". Cline initially refused to perform it, but ultimately agreed to it. Davis also suggested Cline wear a cocktail dress instead of the cowgirl outfit created by her mother. She performed "Walkin' After Midnight" and won the program's contest that night. The song had not yet been released as a single. In order to keep up with public demand, Decca Records rush-released the song as a single on February 11. The song ultimately became Cline's breakthrough hit, peaking at number 2 on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart. The song also reached number 12 on the Billboard pop music chart. The song has since been considered a classic in country music since its release. Music critics and writers have positively praised "Walkin' After Midnight". Mary Bufwack and Robert Oermann called the song "bluesy". Richie Unterberger noted "it's well-suited for the almost bemused aura of loneliness of the lyric." The success of "Walkin' After Midnight" brought Cline numerous appearances on shows and major networks. She continued working for Arthur Godfrey over the next several months. She also appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in February and the television program Western Ranch Party in March. The money she had earned from her numerous engagements totaled out to ten thousand dollars. Cline gave all the money to her mother, which she used to the pay the mortgage on her Winchester house. In August 1957, her debut studio album was released on Decca Records. Cline's follow-up singles to "Walkin' After Midnight" did not yield any success. This was partially due to the quality of material chosen for her to record. Cline was dissatisfied with the limited success following "Walkin' After Midnight". Bradley recounted how she often came to him saying, "Hoss, can't you do something? I feel like a prisoner." Around the same time, Cline was fired from her regular slot on Town and Country Jamboree. According to Connie B. Gay, she ran late for shows and "showed up with liquor on her breath." In September 1957, Cline married Charlie Dick and he was soon sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina on a military assignment. Cline also gave birth to her first daughter Julie. In hopes of restarting her career, Cline and her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. ### 1960–1961: New beginnings and car accident Cline's professional decisions yielded more positive results by the early 1960s. Upon moving to Nashville, she signed a management deal with Randy Hughes. She originally wished to work with Hubert Long, however, he was busy managing other artists. Instead, she turned her attention to Hughes. With the help of Hughes, she began working steadier jobs. He organized fifty dollar bookings and got her multiple performances on the Grand Ole Opry. In January 1960, Cline officially became a member of the Opry. When she asked general manager Ott Devine about a membership he replied, "Patsy, if that's all you want, you're on the Opry." Also in January 1960, Cline made her final recording sessions set forth in her contract with Four Star Records. Later that year, her final singles with the label were released: "Lovesick Blues" and "Crazy Dreams". Leaving Four Star, Cline officially signed with Decca Records in late 1960, working exclusively under Bradley's direction. Insisting on receiving an advance, she received $1,000 from Bradley once she began at the label. Her first release on Decca was 1961's "I Fall to Pieces". The song was written by newly established Nashville songwriters Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard. "I Fall to Pieces" had first been turned down by Roy Drusky and Brenda Lee before Cline cut it in November 1960. At the recording session, she worried about the song's production, particularly the background vocals performed by The Jordanaires. After much arguing between both Cline and Bradley, they negotiated that she would record "I Fall to Pieces" (a song Bradley favored) and "Lovin' in Vain" (a song she favored). Released as a single in January 1961, "I Fall to Pieces" attracted little attention upon its initial issue. In April, the song debuted on the Hot Country and Western Sides chart. By August 7, the song became her first to top the country chart. Additionally, "I Fall to Pieces" crossed over onto the Billboard Pop chart, peaking at number 12. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1961 in the end of year charts. On June 14, 1961, Cline and her brother Sam Hensley Jr. were involved in an automobile accident. Cline had brought her mother, sister and brother to see her new Nashville home the day before. On the day of the accident, Cline and her brother went shopping to buy material for her mother to make clothing. Upon driving home, their car was struck head-on by another vehicle. The impact threw her directly into the car windshield, causing extensive facial injuries. Among her injuries, Cline suffered a broken wrist, dislocated hip and a large cut across her forehead, barely missing her eyes. Friend Dottie West heard about the accident via the radio and rushed to the scene, helping to remove pieces of broken glass from Cline's hair. When first responders arrived, Cline insisted the driver in the other vehicle be treated first. Two of the three passengers riding in the car that struck Cline died after arriving at the hospital. When she was brought to the hospital, her injuries were life-threatening and she was not expected to live. She underwent surgery and survived. According to her husband Charlie Dick, upon waking up she said to him, "Jesus was here, Charlie. Don't worry. He took my hand and told me, 'No, not now. I have other things for you to do.'" She spent a month recovering in the hospital. ### 1961–1963: Career peak Cline returned to her career six weeks after her 1961 car accident. Her first public appearance was on the Grand Ole Opry where she assured fans she would continue performing. She said to the audience that night, "You're wonderful. I'll tell you one thing: the greatest gift, I think, that you folks coulda given me was the encouragement that you gave me. Right at the very time I needed you the most, you came through with the flying-est colors. And I just want to say you'll just never know how happy you made this ol' country gal." Cline's follow-up single to "I Fall to Pieces" was the song "Crazy". It was written by Willie Nelson, whose version of the song was first heard by Dick. When Dick brought the song to Cline she did not like it. When Dick encouraged her to record "Crazy", Cline replied, "I don't care what you say. I don't like it and I ain't gonna record it. And that's that." Bradley liked the song and set the date for its recording for August 17. When Cline got to Bradley's studio, he convinced her to record it. She listened to Nelson's version of "Crazy" and decided she was going to perform it differently. Nelson's version included a spoken section that Cline removed. She cut additional material on August 17 and when she got to "Crazy", it became difficult to perform. Because Cline was still recovering from the accident, performing the song's high notes caused rib pain. Giving her time to rest, Bradley sent her home while musicians laid down the track without her. A week later she returned and recorded her vocal in a single take. "Crazy" was released as a single in October 1961, debuting on the Billboard country charts in November. It would peak at number 2 there and number 9 on the same publication's pop charts. "Crazy" would also become Cline's biggest pop hit. Her second studio album Patsy Cline Showcase was released in late 1961. The album featured both major hits from that year and re-recorded versions of "Walkin' After Midnight" and "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)". "Crazy" has since been called a country music standard. Cline's vocal performance and the song's production have received high praise over time. Cub Koda of AllMusic noted the "ache" in her voice that makes the song stand out: "Cline's reading of the lyric is filled with an aching world weariness that transforms the tune into one of the first big crossover hits without even trying hard." Country music historian Paul Kingsbury also highlighted her "ache," saying in 2007, "Cline's hit recording swings with such velvety finesse, and her voice throbs and aches so exquisitely, that the entire production sounds absolutely effortless." Jhoni Jackson of Paste Magazine called the recording "iconic", highlighting the emotional "pain" Cline expressed in her voice. "Crazy" and Cline's further Decca recordings have received critical praise. Mary Bufwack and Robert Oermann noted "Her thrilling voice invariably invested these with new depth. Patsy's dramatic volume control, stretched-note effects, sobs, pauses and unique ways of holding back, then bursting into full-throated phrases also breathed new life into country chestnuts like "San Antonio Rose", "Blue Moon of Kentucky", and "Half as Much". Richie Unterberger of AllMusic commented that her voice "sounded richer, more confident, and more mature, with ageless wise and vulnerable qualities that have enabled her records to maintain their appeal with subsequent generations." Kurt Wolff of Country Music the Rough Guide reported that Owen Bradley recognized potential in Cline's voice and once he gained studio control, he smoothed arrangements and "refined her voice into an instrument of torch-singing glory." In November 1961, she was invited to perform as part of the Grand Ole Opry's show at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She was joined by Opry stars Minnie Pearl, Grandpa Jones, Jim Reeves, Bill Monroe, Marty Robbins, and Faron Young. Despite positive reviews, New York Journal-American columnist Dorothy Kilgallen commented, "everybody should get out of town because the hillbillies are coming\!" The comment upset Cline but did not affect ticket sales; the Opry performance sold out. By the end of year, Cline had won several major industry awards including "Favorite Female Vocalist" from Billboard Magazine and Cashbox Magazine's "Most Programmed Female Artist". Also in 1961, Cline was back in the studio to record an upcoming album. Among the first songs she recorded was "She's Got You". Written by Hank Cochran, he pitched the song to Cline over the phone. Insisting that Patsy hear it in-person, Cochran brought the recording over to her house, along with a bottle of alcohol. Upon listening to it again, she liked the song and wanted to record it. Owen Bradley also liked the song and she recorded it on December 17, 1961. "She's Got You" became her third country-pop crossover hit by early 1962. "She's Got You" would also be her second number 1 hit on the Billboard country chart. It was also Cline's first entry in the United Kingdom singles chart, reaching number 43. The cover by Alma Cogan, one of Britain's most popular female artists of the 1950s, performed notably as well. In 1962, Cline had three major hits with "When I Get Through with You, "So Wrong", and "Imagine That". Cline's career successes helped her become financially stable enough to purchase her first home. She bought a ranch house located in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. The home was decorated by Cline and included a music room, several bedrooms and a large backyard. According to Dottie West, "the house was her mansion, the sign she'd arrived." Cline called it her "dream home" and often had friends over to visit. After her death, the house was sold to country artist Wilma Burgess. In the summer of 1962, manager Randy Hughes got her a role in a country music vehicle film. It also starred Dottie West, Webb Pierce and Sonny James. After arriving to film in DeLand, Florida, the producer "ran off with the money," according to West. The movie was never made. In August, her third studio album Sentimentally Yours was released. It featured "She's Got You", as well as several country and pop standards. According to biographer Ellis Nassour, her royalties "were coming in slim" and she needed "financial security." Therefore, Randy Hughes arranged Cline to work at the Merri-Mint Theatre in Las Vegas, Nevada for 35 days. Cline would later dislike the experience. During the engagement, she developed a dry throat. She also was homesick and wanted to spend time with her children. By appearing at the engagement, Cline became the first female country artist to headline her own show in Las Vegas. During this period Cline was said to have experienced premonitions of her own death. Dottie West, June Carter Cash, and Loretta Lynn recalled Cline telling them she felt a sense of impending doom and did not expect to live much longer. In letters, she would also describe the happiness of her new career successes. In January 1963, her next single "Leavin' on Your Mind" was released and debuted on the Billboard country chart soon after. In February, she recorded her final sessions for Decca Records. Among the songs recorded were "Sweet Dreams", "He Called Me Baby", and "Faded Love". Cline arranged for friends Jan Howard and Dottie West to come and hear the session playbacks. According to Howard, "I was in awe of Patsy. You know, afterward you're supposed to say something nice. I couldn't talk. I was dumbfounded." ## Personal life ### Friendships Cline had close friendships with several country artists and performers. Her friendship with Loretta Lynn has been the subject of numerous books, songs, films and other projects. The pair first met when Lynn performed "I Fall to Pieces" on the radio shortly after Cline's 1961 car accident. Cline heard the broadcast and sent her husband to pick up Lynn so they could meet. According to Lynn, the pair became close friends "right away." Lynn later described their friendship in detail, "She taught me a lot about show business, like how to go on a stage and how to get off. She even bought me a lot of clothes... She even bought me curtains and drapes for my house because I was too broke to buy them... She was a great human being and a great friend." Lynn also noted they became so close that Cline even gave her underwear. Lynn still has the underwear in storage, saying it was "well-made". Dottie West was another female country artist with whom Cline became friends. They first met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. West wrote Cline a fan letter after hearing her first hit "Walkin' After Midnight". According to West, Cline "showed a genuine interest in her career" and they became close friends. The pair often spent time at their homes and worked on packaged tour dates together. West also stated Cline was a supportive friend who helped out in times of need. Jan Howard was a third female artist with whom Cline had a close friendship. The pair first met when Cline tried starting an argument with Howard backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. She said to Howard, "You're a conceited little son of a bitch\! You just go out there, do your spot, and leave without saying hello to anyone." Howard was upset and replied angrily back. Cline then laughed and said, "Slow down\! Hoss, you're all right. Anybody that'll stand there and talk back to the Cline like that is all right...I can tell we're gonna be good friends\!" The pair remained close for the remainder of Cline's life. Other friendships Cline had with female artists included Brenda Lee, Barbara Mandrell and pianist Del Wood. She also became friends with male country artists including Roger Miller, who helped Cline find material to record. Faron Young was another male artist whom Cline befriended from working on tour together. While on tour, the pair would spend time together, including a trip to Hawaii where the pair saw a hula show. ### Family Cline's mother Hilda Hensley continued living in Winchester, Virginia, following her daughter's death. She rented out the family's childhood home on South Kent Street and lived across the street. Following Cline's death, Hensley briefly spent time raising her two grandchildren in Virginia. Hensley maintained a closet full of her daughter's stage costumes, including a sequined dress Cline wore while performing in Las Vegas in 1962. She worked as a seamstress and made many of her daughter's stage costumes. Hensley died from natural causes in 1998. Cline's father Samuel Hensley died of lung cancer in 1956. Hensley had deserted the family in 1947. Shortly before his death, upon learning that he was gravely ill, Cline said to her mother, "Mama, I know what-all he did, but it seems he's real sick and may not make it. In spite of everything, I want to visit him." Cline and her mother visited him at a hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Cline's mother died in 1998, 35 years after Cline's death. Both of Cline's surviving siblings fought in court over their mother's estate. Because of legal fees, many of Cline's possessions were sold at auction. Cline had two surviving children at the time of her death: Julie Simadore and Allen Randolph "Randy". Julie has been a significant factor in keeping her mother's legacy alive. She has appeared at numerous public appearances in support of her mother's music and career. Following the death of her father in 2015, she helped open a museum dedicated to Cline in Nashville, Tennessee. Julie has few memories of her mother due to Cline's death while she was young. In an interview with People Magazine, Julie discussed her mother's legacy, "I do understand her position in history, and the history of Nashville and country music...I'm still kind of amazed at it myself, because there's 'Mom' and then there's 'Patsy Cline,' and I'm actually a fan." The present-day American female blues, swing, and rock and roll singer, songwriter and record producer Casey Hensley is a distant relation of Cline's. ### Marriages Cline was married twice. Her first marriage was to Gerald Cline, on March 7, 1953. His family had owned a contracting and excavating company in Frederick, Maryland. According to Cline's brother Sam, he liked "flashy cars and women." The two met while she was performing with Bill Peer at the Moose Lodge in Brunswick, Maryland. Gerald Cline said, "It might not have been love at first sight when Patsy saw me, but it was for me." Gerald Cline often took her to "one-nighters" and other concerts she performed in. Although he enjoyed her performances, he could not get used to her touring and road schedule. During their marriage, Patsy told a friend that she didn't think she "knew what love was" upon marrying Gerald. The pair began living separately by the end of 1956 and divorced in 1957. Cline married her second husband Charlie Dick on September 15, 1957. The pair met in 1956 while Cline was performing with a local Virginia band. At the time, Dick was a linotype operator for a local newspaper, The Winchester Star. According to Dick, he had asked Cline to dance, and she replied, "I can't dance while I'm working, okay?" They eventually started spending time together, and Cline told close friends about their relationship. Cline told Grand Ole Opry pianist Del Wood in 1956, "Hoss, I got some news. I met a boy my own age who's a hurricane in pants\! Del, I'm in love, and it's for real this time." The pair had children Julie and Randy together. Their relationship was considered both romantic and tempestuous. According to Robert Oermann and Mary Bufwack, Cline and Dick's marriage was "fueled by alcohol, argument, passion, jealousy, success, tears, and laughter." According to biographer Ellis Nassour, the pair fought often but remained together. They had gained a reputation as "heavy drinkers", but according to Dick himself, they were not "drunks". During one particular fight, Cline had Dick arrested after they became physical with one another. Following Cline's death in 1963, Dick married country artist Jamey Ryan in 1965. The pair divorced in the early 1970s after having one child together. Dick helped keep Cline's legacy alive for the remainder of his life. He assisted in producing several documentaries about Cline's career, including Remembering Patsy and The Real Patsy Cline. He became involved with Hallway Productions in the 1990s and helped produce videos on other artists, including Willie Nelson and The Mamas and the Papas. Dick died in 2015 and was laid to rest next to Cline. ## Death On March 3, 1963, Cline performed a benefit at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Kansas, for the family of disc jockey "Cactus" Jack Call; he had died in an automobile crash a little over a month earlier. Also performing in the show were George Jones, George Riddle and The Jones Boys, Billy Walker, Dottie West, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, George McCormick, the Clinch Mountain Boys as well as Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins. Despite having a cold, Cline performed at 2:00, 5:15, and 8:15 pm. All the shows were standing-room only. For the 2 p.m. show, she wore a sky-blue tulle-laden dress; for the 5:15 show, a red dress; and for the closing show at 8 p.m., Cline wore white chiffon. Her final song was the last she had recorded the previous month, "I'll Sail My Ship Alone". Cline, who had spent the night at the Town House Motor Hotel, was unable to fly out the day after the concert because Fairfax Airport was fogged in. West asked Patsy to ride in the car with her and her husband, Bill, back to Nashville, an 8-hour drive, but Cline refused, saying: "Don't worry about me, Hoss. When it's my time to go, it's my time." On March 5, she called her mother from the motel and checked out at 12:30 p.m., going the short distance to the airport and boarding a Piper PA-24 Comanche plane, aircraft registration number N7000P. On board were Cline, Copas, Hawkins, and pilot Randy Hughes. The plane stopped once in Rogers, Arkansas, to refuel and subsequently landed at Dyersburg Municipal Airport in Dyersburg, Tennessee, at 5 p.m. Hawkins had accepted Billy Walker's place after Walker left on a commercial flight to take care of a stricken family member. The Dyersburg, Tennessee, airfield manager suggested they stay the night because of high winds and inclement weather, offering them free rooms and meals. But Hughes, who was not trained in instrument flying, said, "I've already come this far. We'll be there before you know it." The plane took off at 6:07 p.m. Cline's flight crashed in heavy weather on the evening of Tuesday, March 5, 1963. Her recovered wristwatch had stopped at 6:20 p.m. The plane was found some 90 miles (140 km) from its Nashville destination, in a forest outside of Camden, Tennessee. Forensic examination concluded that everyone aboard had been killed instantly. Until the wreckage was discovered the following dawn and reported on the radio, friends and family had not given up hope. Endless calls tied up the local telephone exchanges to such a degree that other emergency calls had trouble getting through. The lights at the aircraft's destination, Cornelia Fort Airpark, were kept on throughout the night, as reports of the missing plane were broadcast on radio and TV. Early in the morning, Roger Miller and a friend went searching for survivors: "As fast as I could, I ran through the woods screaming their names—through the brush and the trees—and I came up over this little rise, oh, my God, there they were. It was ghastly. The plane had crashed nose down." Shortly after the bodies were removed, looters scavenged the area. Some recovered items were eventually donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Cline's wristwatch, a Confederate flag cigarette lighter, a studded belt, and three pairs of gold lamé slippers were among them. Cline's fee in cash from the last performance was never recovered. Per her wishes, Cline's body was brought home for her memorial service, which thousands attended. People jammed against the small tent over her gold casket and the grave to take all the flowers they could reach as keepsakes. She was buried at Shenandoah Memorial Park in her hometown of Winchester, Virginia. Her grave is marked with a bronze plaque, which reads: "Virginia H. Dick ('Patsy Cline' is noted under her name) 'Death Cannot Kill What Never Dies: Love'." A memorial marks the exact place off Mt Carmel Road in Camden, Tennessee, where the plane crashed in the still-remote forest. ## Posthumous releases ### Music Since Cline's death, Decca Records (later bought by MCA and owned by Universal Music since 1999) has re-released her music, which has made her commercially successful posthumously. The Patsy Cline Story was the first compilation album the label released following her death. It included the songs "Sweet Dreams (Of You)" and "Faded Love". Both tracks were released as singles in 1963. "Sweet Dreams" would reach number 5 on the Billboard country charts and 44 on the Hot 100. "Faded Love" would also become a top 10 hit on the Billboard country chart, peaking at number 7 in October 1963. In 1967, Decca released the compilation Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits. The album peaked at number 17 on the Billboard country chart, and was certified diamond in sales from the Recording Industry Association of America. In 2005, the Guinness World Book of Records included Greatest Hits for being the album to run the longest on any record chart by any female artist. Cline's music continued making the charts into the 1980s. Her version of "Always" made the Billboard country chart in 1980. An album of the same name was also released in 1980 that peaked within the top 30 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Two overdubbed duets between Cline and Jim Reeves became major hits during this time as well. Following the release of the Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), there was renewed interest in Cline's career. As a result, MCA Records reissued much of Cline's earlier studio and compilation releases. Her 1967 greatest hits album for example was repackaged in 1988 and labeled 12 Greatest Hits. The record reached number 27 on the Top Country Albums list in 1990. The soundtrack for Cline's own film biopic was released concurrently with the movie in 1985. The soundtrack would peak at number 6 on the Billboard country albums chart upon its release. In 1991, MCA records issued her first boxed set, titled The Patsy Cline Collection. The album chronicled all of Cline's recorded material for Four Star and Decca Records. The boxed set received positive reviews, notably by Thom Jurek of Allmusic, who rated it five out of five stars. Jurek commented, > If an artist ever deserved a box set chronicling her entire career, it is Patsy Cline. Having recorded 102 sides between 1955 and her death at the age of 30 in 1963, Cline changed not only country music forever, but affected the world of pop as well. Over four CDs, arranged chronologically, the listener gets treated to a story in the development and maturation of a cultural icon who was at least, in terms of her gift, the equal of her legend. Rolling Stone listed the box set among their "Women Who Rock: 50 Greatest Albums of All-Time" list. Writer Rob Sheffield called Cline "a badass cowgirl drama queen belts some of the torchiest, weepiest country songs ever, hitting high notes that make you sob into your margarita." The Patsy Cline Collection would reach number 29 on the Billboard country albums chart in January 1992. In 1997, MCA released Live at the Cimarron Ballroom, a rare recording that had recently resurfaced. Jeweler Bill Frazee had originally purchased a tape in 1975 that he discovered included Cline's live recording, which took place during July 1961, following Cline's car accident. She appeared at the Cimarron Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to give a one-night performance. Included on the record was unreleased live performances and dialog with the audience. The album peaked in the top 40 of the Billboard country albums chart. Cline's former MCA label (now MCA Nashville) continues releasing material to this day. Cline is listed among the Recording Industry of America's bestselling artists, with a total of over 14 million records sold to date. ### Film and television Cline has been portrayed on film and television several times since the 1980s. The Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) renewed interest in her life and career. Cline and Lynn's friendship was portrayed in the 1980 film. Actress Beverly D'Angelo played Cline in the movie and did her own singing of Cline's original material. D'Angelo earned a Golden Globe award nomination for her role. In an interview D'Angelo did for a 2017 PBS documentary, playing the role of Patsy Cline "had a profound impact" on her life and career. In 1985, a feature film about Cline's life was released entitled Sweet Dreams. The film starred Jessica Lange as Cline and Ed Harris as husband Charlie Dick. Originally, Meryl Streep auditioned for Cline's role but ultimately lost to Lange. The film was produced by Bernard Schwartz, who also produced Coal Miner's Daughter. Original ideas called for scenes between Cline and Lynn, however they were ultimately removed from the final script. The film has been criticized for its lack of accuracy to Cline's own life and its musical production. Kurt Wolff wrote, "the soundtrack, however, featured overdubbed versions of Cline's material – better to stick with the originals." Mark Deming of Allmovie only gave the release two out of five stars. Deming commented, "While it's a wise approach to show how her turbulent marriage paralleled her crossover to Countrypolitan ballads, the melodrama tends to overshadow the celebrity story by relegating her rise to stardom to the background. Due to the historically dubious concerts at carnivals and fairgrounds, it appears as though she wasn't as big a star as she actually was." Deming did praise Lange's performance saying she created a "cheerful and spirited" depiction of Cline. Roger Ebert gave it two stars in his original 1985 review. Ebert said, "There isn't the sense of a well-shaped structure in this movie; there's no clear idea of what the filmmakers thought about Patsy Cline, or what thoughts her life is supposed to inspire." Lange was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Cline. Cline was also portrayed in television films. In 1995, a film about the life and career of Cline's friend Dottie West debuted on CBS titled, Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story. It included several scenes that showcased West's friendship with Cline. Actress Tere Myers played her in the television movie. Deborah Wilker of the Sun-Sentinel called her performance "terrific" and authentic. Lifetime aired an original television film Patsy & Loretta in October 2019 on the network. It chronicles Cline's friendship with Loretta Lynn. Cline is portrayed by Megan Hilty and Lynn by Jessie Mueller. The film is directed by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri. The trailer for the movie was released in July 2019. Patsy & Loretta was filmed on location in Nashville, Tennessee and is co-produced by Lynn's daughter and Cline's daughter, Julie Fudge. There have been several documentaries made about Cline's life and career. The first was a 1989 documentary titled The Real Patsy Cline, which featured interviews with friends and fellow artists. This included Carl Perkins and Willie Nelson. Another documentary was filmed in 1994 entitled Remembering Patsy. The show was hosted by country artist Michelle Wright, who read letters Cline wrote to friends and family. It included interviews with several artists such as Roy Clark, George Jones and Trisha Yearwood. Both documentaries were produced by Cline's widower Charlie Dick. In March 2017, PBS released a documentary on Cline as part of their American Masters series. The film was narrated by Rosanne Cash and featured interviews with fans of Cline. These interviews included Beverly D'Angelo and Reba McEntire. It also included rare performances of songs such as "Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray" and "Walkin' After Midnight". ### Plays and musicals Cline's life and career has also been re-created in the theater sector. In 1988, the show Always...Patsy Cline premiered. The show was created by Ted Swindley who derived it from a friendship Cline had with Texas resident Louise Seger. The pair met while Cline was performing at the Esquire Ballroom in Houston, Texas. Seger brought Cline home following the show and they spent the night together. The pair would remain in contact through letters before Cline's death. Much of the script relied from letters exchanged between the two during the course of several years. Seger acts as the show's narrator and revisits memories she shared with Cline through their letter exchanges. Among the show's original performers was Mandy Barnett, who debuted the show at the Ryman Auditorium in 1994. Barnett would go on to have a music and performing career. A second musical was later released in 1991 titled A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. The show was written by Dean Regan and has been called a "musical retelling" of Cline's career. ## Artistry ### Influences Cline was influenced by various music artists. Among her earliest influences were pop singers of the 1940s and 1950s. These included Kay Starr, Helen Morgan, Patti Page, and Kate Smith. Patti Page recollected that Cline's husband said to her, "I just wish Patsy could have met you because she just adored you and listened to you all the time and wanted to be like you." Among her primary influences was Kay Starr, of whom Cline was a "fervent devotee" according to The Washington Post. Jack Hurst of the Chicago Tribune remarked that "Her rich, powerful voice, obviously influenced by that of pop's Kay Starr, has continued and perhaps even grown in popularity over the decades." Cline was also attracted to country music radio programs, notably the Grand Ole Opry. According to Mary Bufwack and Robert Oermann, Cline became "obsessed" with the program at a young age. Cline's mother Hilda Hensley commented on her daughter's admiration, "I know she never wanted anything so badly as to be a star on the Grand Ole Opry..." Among performers from the program she admired was Patsy Montana. Cline was also influenced by other types of performers including early rockabilly artist Charline Arthur. ### Voice and style Cline possessed a contralto voice. Time magazine writer Richard Corliss called her voice "bold". Her voice has also been praised for its display of emotion. Kurt Wolff called it one of the most "emotionally expressive voices in modern country music". Tony Gabrielle of the Daily Press wrote that Cline had "a voice of tremendous emotional power." Cline was at times taken by her own emotion. Husband Charlie Dick recounted that Cline's producer Owen Bradley told him to leave a recording session because she was very emotional and he didn't want to disturb the mood. Cline was once quoted in describing the emotion she felt, saying, "Oh Lord, I sing just like I hurt inside." During her early career, Cline recorded in styles such as gospel, rockabilly, and honky-tonk. These styles she cut for Four Star Records have been considered below the quality of her later work for Decca Records. Steve Leggett of Allmusic commented, > Her recordings prior to 1960, though, were something else again, and with the exception of 1956's "Walkin' After Midnight" and perhaps one or two other songs, she seemed reined in and stifled as a singer, even though she was working with the same producer, Owen Bradley, who was to produce her 1960s successes. Oh the difference a song makes, because in the end the material she recorded between 1955 and 1960 – all of which is collected on these two discs – was simply too weak for Cline to turn into anything resembling gold, even with her obvious vocal skills. Cline's style has been largely associated with the Nashville Sound, a sub-genre of country music that linked traditional lyrics with orchestrated pop music styles. This new sound helped many of her singles to crossover onto the Billboard Hot 100 and gain a larger audience that did not always listen to country music. Her producer Owen Bradley built this sound onto her Decca recordings, sensing a potential in her voice that went beyond traditional country music. At first, she resisted the pop-sounding style, but was ultimately convinced to record in this new style. Stephen M. Desuner of Pitchfork explained that Cline has been an identifiable factor with the Nashville Sound: "She essentially rewrote their songs simply by singing them, elevating their words and wringing every one of their rhymes for maximum dramatic potential." Mark Deming of Allmusic commented, "Cline and Bradley didn't invent "countrypolitan," but precious few artists managed to meld the sophistication of pop and the emotional honesty of country as brilliantly as this music accomplishes with seemingly effortless grace, and these songs still sound fresh and brilliantly crafted decades after the fact." ### Image Cline's public image changed during the course of her career. She began her career wearing cowgirl dresses and hats designed by her mother. However, as her music crossed over into pop, she began wearing sequined gowns and cocktail dresses. While she would often wear cowgirl costumes for live performances, she would also wear evening dresses for television and metropolitan performances. For her 1957 performance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, the show's producer insisted that Cline wear an evening dress instead of the fringed cowgirl attire she had intended to wear. Her 1962 engagement at the Merri-Mint Theatre in Las Vegas represented this particular image shift. For one of her performances, Cline wore a sequined cocktail dress designed by her mother. Cline has also been seen as a pioneer for women in country music. She has been cited as an inspiration by many performers in diverse styles of music. Kurt Wolff of Country Music: The Rough Guide said that Cline had an "aggression" and "boisterous attitude" that gained her the respect of her male counterparts. Wolff explained, "She swaggered her way past stereotypes and other forces of resistance, showing the men in charge – and the public in general – that women were more than capable of singing about such hard subjects as divorce and drinking as well as love and understanding. Sean O'Hagan of The Guardian commented that along with Minnie Pearl, Jean Shepard and Kitty Wells, Cline helped prove that country music was not "macho" and that "strong women" could have a "strong voice". In 2013, Diane Reese wrote, "she was what I call a pre-feminist woman. She didn't open doors; she kicked them down." Mary Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann wrote in 2003 that Cline "transformed what it meant to be a female country star". ## Legacy and recognition Cline has been cited in both country and pop music as of one of the greatest vocalists of all time. Her voice has also been called "haunting", "powerful", and "emotional". Cline's emotional expression and delivery of lyrics helped influence various musical genres and artists. With the support of producer Owen Bradley, Cline has been said to "help define" the Nashville Sound style of country music. While the subgenre has received mixed opinions, it has also been said to be a significant part of country music's "authenticity", with Cline being the center focal point of the subgenre. Other artists have noted her impact, including LeAnn Rimes who stated, "I remember my dad telling me to listen to the way she told a story... I remember feeling more emotion when she sang than anyone else I had ever heard." Lucinda Williams commented on Cline's vocal talent in helping define her legacy, stating, "Even though her style is considered country, her delivery is more like a classic pop singer... That's what set her apart from Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette. You'd almost think she was classically trained." Cline has been a major influence on various music artists including Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn, LeAnn Rimes, k.d. lang, Linda Ronstadt, Trisha Yearwood, Sara Evans, Dottie West, Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price, Cyndi Lauper, Trixie Mattel and Brandi Carlile. Dottie West (also a close friend of Cline's) spoke about her influence on her own career, "I think I was most influenced by Patsy Cline, she said things for people. There was so much feeling in there. In fact, she told me, 'Hoss, if you can't do it with feeling, don't'". In 2019, Sara Evans discussed how Cline has been an influence since she was a young girl, "I learned everything I could learn about her. I tried to mimic her singing to the 't'. We grew up singing in bars — my brothers, sisters and I — from the time I was really little. So I started covering every Patsy Cline song. Then when I first got my record deal I came to Winchester to visit a radio station to try to get them to play my song Three Chords and the Truth." In 1973, Cline was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. With the induction, she became the first solo female artist to be included. In 1977, Cline's friend and mentee Loretta Lynn released a tribute album entitled I Remember Patsy. The record contained covers of Cline's songs, including "Back in Baby's Arms" and "Crazy". The album's lead single was "She's Got You", which would reach the number 1 spot on the Billboard country chart in 1977. In 1995, Cline received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her legacy and career. Additionally, her hits "I Fall to Pieces" and "Crazy" received inductions into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1993, Cline was included on United States postal stamps as part of their "Legends" series. Other country artists that were included on stamp series were The Carter Family, Hank Williams, and Bob Wills. The stamps were dedicated in an official ceremony at the Grand Ole Opry by Postmaster General Marvin Runyon. In August 1999, Cline received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The ceremony was attended by her widower Charlie Dick and daughter Julie Fudge. During the 1990s, two of her songs were voted among the "Greatest Juke Box Hits of All-Time". "Crazy" was voted as the number 1 greatest, along with "I Fall to Pieces" ranking at number 17. Since the late 1990s, she received additional rankings and honors. In 1999, Cline was ranked at number 11 among VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll". In 2003, she was included by Country Music Television on their list of the "40 Greatest Women of Country Music". In 2010, Cline ranked at number 46 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All-Time". The magazine would rank her on their 2017 list of the "100 Greatest Country Artists of All-Time", where she placed at number 12. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Cline at No. 13 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Forty years after her death, MCA Nashville released a tribute album entitled Remembering Patsy Cline (2003). A television special also followed around the same time. The album consisted of cover versions of songs taken from Cline's 1967 greatest hits album. It included songs covered by country artists such as Terri Clark and Martina McBride. It also featured artists from other genres such as Michelle Branch, Diana Krall and Patti Griffin. Cline's hometown of Winchester, Virginia has helped honor her legacy and career. In 1987, the local government approved the placing of markers within the town denoting it as the birthplace of Cline. The same year, a bell tower was erected in her burial location at Shenandoah Memorial Park. The bell tower cost thirty five thousand dollars and was partially funded by Cline's friends Jan Howard and Loretta Lynn. In 2005, Cline's childhood home was given an official on-site marker and included on the National Register of Historic Places. With the development of an organization entitled Celebrating Patsy Cline Inc., renovations began on Cline's childhood home. In August 2011, the Patsy Cline House officially opened as a historic home for tours. In almost three months, about three thousand people visited the home. The home was restored to the era in which Cline lived in it during the 1950s with her mother and siblings. Replicas of furniture and stage clothes are also included. Daughter Julie Fudge spoke of the house in 2011, stating, "I think when you go into the house, you will kind of feel like this is a snapshot of what it would have been like to visit when Mom lived there." In 2017, the Patsy Cline Museum opened in Nashville, Tennessee, located at 119 3rd Ave. S., on the second floor in the same building as the Johnny Cash Museum. The museum includes Cline's actual stage costumes, as well as her original scrapbook and record albums. It also features other artifacts such as the soda fountain machine from Gaunt's Drug Store where Cline worked as a teenager. Original letters that Cline wrote to friends are also included in the museum's collection. ## Discography Studio albums - 1957: Patsy Cline - 1961: Showcase - 1962: Sentimentally Yours Posthumous studio albums - 1964: A Portrait of Patsy Cline - 1964: That's How a Heartache Begins - 1980: Always

Christine Love (writer)

Canadian writer

Christine Love (born 10 December 1989) is a Canadian independent visual novel writer best known for her original works Digital: A Love Story; don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story; Analogue: A Hate Story; and Ladykiller in a Bind. Love began creating visual novels while in university, making a few small games, visual novels, and pieces of written fiction before coming into prominence with the release of Digital in 2010. She went on to work on Love and Order, a dating simulation by Italian video game designer Celso Riva, as well as don't take it personally, both released in 2011. Her first commercial project on which she was the primary developer is Analogue, released in February 2012; Love dropped out of her English degree during its development, and is currently a full-time game developer. She released an expansion to the game, titled Hate Plus, in 2013. In October 2016, she released Ladykiller in a Bind. Her latest project is Get in the Car, Loser\!, a road trip role-playing game that was released on 21 September 2021. ## Biography and career Christine Love was born on 10 December 1989. She began creating visual novels while in school at Trent University. By January 2010, she had made a few small video games; written a novel and a few short stories, which she largely unsuccessfully tried to sell; and had made a visual novel each March for three consecutive years for NaNoRenO (National Ren'ai Game Writing Month), a month-long contest in the vein of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where developers attempt to create a visual novel in one month. In February 2010, she started a fourth visual novel, which resulted in Digital: A Love Story, her first game to receive widespread attention and acclaim. Set "five minutes into the future of 1988", Digital tells the story of the silent protagonist's online relationship with a girl named \*Emilia, and a mystery surrounding the "murders" of several AI programs. The game is presented entirely through the interface of a 1980s computer with online bulletin board system posts and messages from other characters; the protagonist's own messages are implied but never shown. Love expected the game to reach as many people as her prior work, "a dozen or so people"; instead, the free game was noticed by video game publications and websites such as PC Gamer and Gamasutra and received much more attention, becoming what Love believes was "a defining point in [her] writing career". Widely praised by critics, Digital earned an honourable mention in Gamasutra's "Best Indie Games of 2010" list. Love felt that Digital's success turned her from a writer into an indie game developer. After Digital, Love worked on her first commercial game project, Love and Order, a dating simulation by video game designer Riva Celso. She did writing and design work for the game, set in the Crown attorney's office in Montreal, which was released in February 2011. Love describes the game as "not really my best work", as dating simulations are not her strong point. Nevertheless, proceeds from the game were enough to support her financially for a while, and showed Love that creating games and visual novels could be a full-time profession. In 2011, she spent the month of March working on another visual novel, don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story, which was released as a free download on 4 April 2011. A spiritual sequel to Digital, the game follows John Rook, a private school literary teacher in 2027, over the course of a semester. He can see students' private messages at any time via the school's social network. Don't take it personally deals with themes of internet privacy and relationships in the future. The game was again widely praised by critics, with The Daily Telegraph awarding the game for "Best Script" in its video game awards of 2011. That summer, Love began working on a larger, commercial game. She was beginning to believe that her games could be successful commercially, a belief supported by messages to that effect by fans of her previous works. The game, Analogue: A Hate Story, was released in February 2012. Love dropped out of university during the game's development in her fourth year of an English undergraduate degree. She felt that she was "not really learning a whole lot" and was unable to balance school and work on the game. Set centuries after Digital: A Love Story, the plot of Analogue revolves around an unnamed investigator, who is tasked with discovering the reason for an interstellar ship's disappearance once it reappears 600 years after "going dark". The game's themes focus similarly around human/computer interaction, interpersonal relationships, and LGBT issues, primarily on "transhumanism, traditional marriage, loneliness and cosplay." The release of Analogue, Love's first commercial game as main developer, currently fully supports her financially. Although Analogue is a sequel "of sorts" to Digital, the time difference between the two games means that they are connected more in spirit than directly, similar to the connections between Digital and don't take it personally. Analogue sold over 40,000 copies by December 2012, and has inspired the release of a soundtrack album by the game's composer, Isaac Schankler, as well as a commercial expansion to the game, titled Hate Plus. Along with her visual novels, Love has also developed a few games using the interactive fiction tool Twine. These games include Even Cowgirls Bleed, and Magical Maiden Madison. In 2016, Love released a new visual novel, Ladykiller in a Bind. She described the game as "an erotic visual novel about social manipulation and girls tying up other girls". Ladykiller in a Bind won the Excellence in Narrative award at the Independent Games Festival 2017. It was followed in 2021 by Get in the Car, Loser\!, a role-playing game. It received positive reviews from RPGamer and Kotaku. ## Influences and philosophy Christine Love describes herself as "a writer first, and a game designer second", as writing was her initial goal. She originally pictured her future as that of a novelist, with a day job as a programmer to support herself. Love describes her games as being about "our relationship with technology, about human relationships in general, and about seeing things from different perspectives," as well as having "a ton of words". She strives for her stories to be true and sincere, but not necessarily realistic. She believes strongly in the power of cuteness. Love describes cuteness and sincerity to be the most important things to her, and believes human beings should work together to make the world a cuter place. Love is also interested in the portrayal of gender and sexuality in video games; in Digital and Analogue, she was careful to avoid mentioning or assuming the gender of the player or the character they control, though the love interests in the games are female. Privately, however, she thinks of them as female, as her intention was to create games that could be easily appreciated by queer people such as herself, without having to project themselves onto a relationship that did not match up to their perceptions. Love believes that indie games have "more meaningful depictions of queer experiences" than those from larger studios. Love's design process has become more refined as time goes on. For Digital, she did not plan anything in advance; while for Analogue, she worked out the entire design and pacing game in flowcharts before starting. For all of her games, however, she does a lot of research into the time periods and issues involved. Love does not feel that text is necessarily the best way to tell a story in a game, but finds it easier to communicate with it as a writer. ## Works - Digital: A Love Story (2010) - Love and Order (2011) - don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story (2011) - Analogue: A Hate Story (2012) - Hate Plus (2013) - Interstellar Selfie Station (2014) - Ladykiller in a Bind (2016) - Get in the Car, Loser\! (2021)

Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn)

Boulevard in Brooklyn, New York

Ocean Parkway is a boulevard in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it was built between 1874 and 1876. Ocean Parkway runs roughly 5.5 miles (8.9 km) north to south from the intersection with Prospect Park (Machate) Circle, at the southwestern corner of Prospect Park, to the Atlantic Ocean waterfront at Brighton Beach. The 4.86-mile-long (7.82 km) section between Church Avenue and the Atlantic Ocean is maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) as New York State Route 908H (NY 908H), an unsigned reference route. In general, Ocean Parkway is 210 feet (64 m) wide and consists of a main roadway, two landscaped medians, and two service roads. The western median contains the United States' first bike lane, which opened in 1894, while the eastern side of the parkway contained a bridle path until the 1970s. Commercial vehicles are prohibited from Ocean Parkway, and there is limited public transit. Much of the original parkway remains intact, but the section north of Church Avenue was replaced with the Prospect Expressway in the 1950s. The section south of Church Avenue is a New York City scenic landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. Olmsted and Vaux designed Ocean Parkway, along with Eastern Parkway, in the 1860s to connect Prospect Park with neighborhoods further afield. The section north of Kings Highway was constructed from 1873 to 1874, while the section south of Kings Highway was constructed in 1876. Over the years, a variety of building styles including single-family homes, mansions, and apartment buildings were developed along the parkway. Ocean Parkway was originally a dirt road but has been modified several times over the years. The boulevard first received a macadam pavement in the 1920s and was renovated in the 1970s. Ocean Parkway was one of Brooklyn's most dangerous roads by the 21st century. ## Route description Ocean Parkway is a boulevard within the New York City borough of Brooklyn, which is coextensive with Kings County in western Long Island, New York. It runs 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from Prospect Park in the north to Brighton Beach and Coney Island in the south. Though Ocean Parkway is almost entirely a surface street, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) maintains the segment south of Church Avenue as a state highway and oversees the design of the parkway's intersections. The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is responsible for the maintenance of traffic lights and crosswalks there. The NYSDOT designates the 4.86-mile (7.82 km) section south of Church Avenue as an unsigned reference route, New York State Route 908H (NY 908H). Ocean Parkway begins at Prospect Park (Machate) Circle at the southwestern entrance of Prospect Park, where it intersects with Coney Island Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway. At Park Circle, the parkway is divided into four roadways. The outermost roadways are service roads; the inner westbound roadway carries traffic to Ocean Parkway and Fort Hamilton Parkway, and the inner eastbound roadway carries traffic from the Prospect Expressway (New York State Route 27). Ocean Parkway travels west for about 1,000 feet (300 m) before curving southward. There is a pedestrian overpass over the parkway at Sherman Street, just east of this curve. West of the overpass, ramps from Ocean Parkway merge into the Prospect Expressway, which runs in a trench. Due to the presence of the expressway, the western or southbound service road is split into two sections between Prospect Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway, while the eastern or northbound service road remains intact. At Church Avenue, a streetcar tunnel crossed under Ocean Parkway from the 1890s to the 1950s. After Prospect Expressway ends at Church Avenue, Ocean Parkway passes through the neighborhoods of Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Midwood, Homecrest, and Sheepshead Bay. The parkway crosses over the Long Island Rail Road's Bay Ridge Branch in Midwood, and it passes underneath the Belt Parkway in Sheepshead Bay. It runs parallel to Ocean Avenue for much of its route. Ocean Parkway ends at Surf Avenue in Brighton Beach, close to the Riegelmann Boardwalk and Atlantic Ocean. Near its southern end, the parkway divides Brighton Beach to the east and Coney Island to the west. ### Design The landscape firm of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed the parkway, while John Y. Culyer was the chief engineer. Olmsted's landscape design firm, the Olmsted Brothers, regarded Ocean Parkway as a "formal pleasure drive" and thus a boulevard; this contrasted with parkways, which the firm defined as "informal pleasure drives". A New York Times article from 1980 characterized Ocean Parkway as "New York City's closest equivalent to a strictly residential boulevard in the European style". According to the historian Elizabeth Macdonald, Ocean Parkway was intended to be a recreational space, as opposed to traditional spaces, which were meant for reflection. The parkway is similar to Eastern Parkway in its layout. It includes a 70-foot-wide (21 m) central roadway, two 20-foot-wide (6.1 m) grassy medians on each side with bike and pedestrian paths, two 25-foot-wide (7.6 m) service roads on the periphery, and two 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) exterior sidewalks, for a total width of 210 feet (64 m). As designed, there were six rows of trees: two on each median and one on each outer sidewalk. The Brooklyn Parks Commission initially controlled another 30 feet (9.1 m) outside either outer sidewalk, and all buildings on either side of the parkway had to be recessed 30 feet from the sidewalk. The neighborhood's zoning still requires that buildings have a 30-foot-deep lawn. The parkway's roads were originally paved with gravel and had stone curbs and gutters. By the late 20th century, the roadbeds and sidewalks had been rebuilt in concrete. At intervals of every 0.5 miles (800 m), there were formerly engraved milestones. Only one of the original 11 milestones remains: the 3-mile marker between Quentin Road and Avenue P. There are also traffic signs along the main roadway, which indicate whether drivers must exit onto a service road if they want to make a turn. #### Medians As part of the 1869 legislation that established the parkway, the medians were to be used for trees, plazas, and other ornamentation. As such, chess playing tables and benches line the medians. There are also elm, oak, maple, and sycamore trees along the medians and outer sidewalks, interspersed with some gingko trees. Residents along the parkway have used the medians as gathering spaces. North of Church Avenue, the western median has been severed by the Prospect Expressway, while the eastern median has been replaced with pavement. A bike lane extends along the parkway's length. The bike lane uses the western median south of Church Avenue; north of that intersection, there is a bike path next to the eastern service road. When the western median's bike path opened in 1895, it was paved with crushed stone. At each intersection, a macadam crosswalk was provided for cyclists, and bollards were also installed to discourage horse-drawn vehicles. Another path opened in the eastern median in 1896. During the bike paths' heyday, there were roadhouses and repair shops along Ocean Parkway. The original bike path was repaved with concrete by the 20th century. A pipe-rail fence was added next to the bike lane as part of a renovation in the late 1970s. By the 2000s, the western median south of Beverley Road was divided into a 9.67-foot-wide (2.95 m) bike path and a 5.83-foot-wide (1.78 m) pedestrian path. North of Beverley Road, pedestrians and cyclists share the median, which narrows to 11.5 feet (3.5 m) at Church Avenue. Cycling is not allowed on the east mall south of Church Avenue, which has a walkway measuring 10.25 feet (3.12 m) wide. A bridle path formerly existed within the eastern mall; it was paved in cinder and clay. Equestrians could rent horses near Prospect Park and ride them as far as Coney Island. There were also horse stables near the northern end of the parkway in Kensington. Both the Gravesend Race Track and Brighton Beach Race Course were adjacent to Ocean Parkway, and horse racing took place there as well. A ban on open betting took effect in either 1908 or 1910, and horse races stopped at all of these facilities. Horseback riding in Brooklyn declined during the 20th century as people switched to automobiles, and equestrian activities became more of a hobby. After the parkway's northern section was replaced by the Prospect Expressway, the remainder of the bridle path was severed from Prospect Park, and equestrian traffic disappeared almost entirely. The bridle path was largely removed in 1978, but a short section of bridle path still exists east of East 8th Street, where the eastern median's bike path ends. The nearby Kensington Stables also remain in operation. #### Southern end At the southern end, facing the Atlantic Ocean, there was originally a concourse, which traveled around 0.5 miles (0.80 km) along Coney Island Beach. The concourse extended 1,400 feet (430 m) west to the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad terminal and 1,400 feet east to Engleman's Oceanic House. As built, it included a roadway measuring 75 feet (23 m) wide and a walkway 25 feet (7.6 m) wide, with a breakwater sloping down to the ocean. The concourse also had two large bathing shelters, which were cited as measuring 75 by 25 feet (22.9 by 7.6 m) wide. By 1922, the Riegelmann Boardwalk had been built at Ocean Parkway's southern terminus. ### Traffic and safety Commercial vehicles are not allowed to use Ocean Parkway. By the late 1990s, the parkway was used by 42,040 vehicles a day, traveling at an average speed of 35 miles per hour (56 km/h). Since 2015, the parkway has had a speed limit of 25 miles per hour (40 km/h). By the late 20th century, Ocean Parkway was one of Brooklyn's most dangerous streets. Between 1988 and April 1994, thirty-one people had been killed in vehicular incidents on the parkway, more than any other street in the city except for Grand Concourse and Queens Boulevard. Another report, in 2001, found that drivers had killed 13 pedestrians on the parkway between 1995 and 2000, an average of 2.6 deaths per mile (4.2 deaths per kilometer). By the 2010s, the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives had ranked Ocean Parkway as Brooklyn's most dangerous road. According to the group, six pedestrians had been killed on the parkway from 2009 to 2011. Overall, 64 people were injured or killed on the parkway from 2009 to 2013. The intersection with Church Avenue was among the city's most dangerous, and five people had been killed there from 2007 to 2011. Because of the high number of traffic incidents on Ocean Parkway, the parkway is designated as a Vision Zero traffic safety "priority corridor". After traffic speed cameras were added in 2015, vehicular crashes on the parkway decreased by 16%, while pedestrian injuries were reduced by 23%. In the parkway's early years, horse-and-sleigh racing took place on the bridle paths. Horse-and-sleigh races often originated in Prospect Park and ended at the Atlantic Ocean. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the parkway was sometimes used for races and events. These included horse races organized by the Parkway Driving Club, races along the parkway's central roadway, and vehicular excursions organized by the Long Island Automobile Club. It was also part of the route of the Brooklyn Marathon until the marathon was canceled in 1915. By the 21st century, the Brooklyn Half Marathon also used the parkway for part of its route. ### Transportation The Ocean Parkway station of the New York City Subway's BMT Brighton Line, served by the , is located in Brighton Beach. The Ocean Parkway station is situated on a masonry viaduct, with three groin vaults spanning the parkway and colorful ceramic tiles on its facades. During the construction of the Independent Subway System in the 1920s, local groups also advocated for the construction of a subway line under Ocean Parkway, which was not built. Ocean Parkway is also served by several MTA Regional Bus Operations routes. In Sheepshead Bay, the B1 bus runs on the parkway between Brighton Beach Avenue and Avenue X. It is joined by the B4 and B36 buses between Neptune Avenue and Avenue Z. In Midwood, the B9 bus runs between Avenue M and Avenue N. There were proposals in the 1940s for a bus route extending the parkway's length. ## History ### Development #### Planning Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who were also responsible for designing Central Park and Prospect Park, suggested the construction of Eastern Parkway and Ocean Parkway to Brooklyn park commissioners in reports prepared in 1866. The proposed Ocean and Eastern parkways would connect Prospect Park with Coney Island and East New York, respectively. Their plan for the parkways were inspired by boulevards such as Under den Linden in Berlin and Avenue Foch in Paris. However, Ocean and Eastern Parkways were considered to be improvements over these two thoroughfares, since both would contain service roads separated from the main road by tree-lined medians. The National Park Service cites Ocean Parkway as the first parkway to be planned in the U.S., though Eastern Parkway was the first parkway to be constructed. Olmsted and Vaux intended the parkways to be the center of a parkway system in Brooklyn. Though this plan did not come to fruition, it spurred plans for other park and parkway systems in the United States. The road to Coney Island was officially called Ocean Parkway, although it was initially more commonly known as Coney Island Boulevard. Vaux and Olmsted wrote in 1866 that they wanted the parkway to be "of a picturesque character [...] neither very straight nor very level, and should be bordered by a small belt of trees and shrubbery". The next year, the landscape architects wrote that the parkway would provide a "suggestion of the old country flavor" to people living along the parkway. On May 11, 1869, the New York State Legislature authorized the then-independent city of Brooklyn to develop a highway or avenue from Prospect Park toward Coney Island. The roadway was to extend southwest along Franklin Avenue (now Fort Hamilton Parkway), then turn south toward Coney Island. The legislation originally called for a 3-mile-long (4.8 km) road measuring 210 feet (64 m) wide. This was composed of a 70-foot (21 m) main road, two 30-foot (9.1 m) medians with trees and grass; two 25-foot (7.6 m) service roads; and two 15-foot (4.6 m) outer sidewalks. Each building on the parkway was required to be recessed at least 30 feet (9.1 m) from the sidewalk. To fund the parkway's construction, a tax assessment was imposed on all properties within 1,050 feet (320 m) of the boulevard. The Brooklyn city government also appointed a group of commissioners to seize property through eminent domain and determine how much to compensate each landowner. The commissioners had finished calculating the compensation by February 1871. A state judge confirmed the commissioners' calculation that December, ruling that landowners be paid $252,788. The parkway's southern terminus was originally planned to be located at Kings Highway. At the time, the Prospect Park Fair Ground Association (PPFGA) operated a racecourse along the parkway's route, the Gravesend Race Track between Kings Highway and Avenue U. The association had convinced legislators to prevent the parkway's extension through the racetrack. A state legislator proposed amending the original legislation in 1872 to allow the parkway to be extended further south from Kings Highway. The act was amended that year, giving Brooklyn's park commissioners control over the parkway and any courtyards facing it. The park commissioners approved plans for the boulevard's construction that October, and John Lefferts, Teunis G. Bergen, and William W. Moseley were appointed in mid-1872 to oversee Coney Island Boulevard's construction. The state legislature passed a bill in January 1873, officially designating the boulevard as Ocean Parkway. The next month, Brooklyn's Board of Supervisors was directed to auction off all property that lay on the parkway's right of way. #### Construction In April 1873, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution directing the Kings County treasurer to issue up to $300,000 in bonds for the construction of Ocean Parkway. Thomas McCann received the contract to pave the parkway between Prospect Park and Parkville Avenue, and Scrimshaw Paving Company received the contract to pave the section from Parkville Avenue to Kings Highway. McCann and Cranford also received a contract to grade the route of the parkway from Fort Hamilton Parkway to Kings Highway and lay down a gravel roadbed. Work on the gravel roadbed south of Church Avenue began in June, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that August that the parkway was already well-used. The Eagle referred to the parkway as "a full equal to the [Eastern] Parkway", while the New-York Tribune regarded the road as "the pride of Long Island" and predicted that it would be one of the United States' finest boulevards when complete. Brooklyn's park commissioners were invited to tour the northern half of the parkway in March 1874, and the parkway was completed that May, except for stone flagging. Prospect Park's chief engineer, John Y. Culyer, finished surveying the route of the parkway's southern extension in early 1874. Simultaneously, the state legislature passed a bill to extend the parkway southward. Governor John Adams Dix modified the bill so the bonds for the extension could not be issued until the following year. Despite the delays, James S. T. Stranahan, the president of the Brooklyn Board of Park Commissioners, approved the creation of a special tax-assessment district in mid-1874. Property owners in the special district would pay a tax to fund the construction of the southern extension, which was projected to cost $295,525. Originally, the southern half of the parkway was planned to curve around the PPFGA's racetrack. The city of Brooklyn auctioned off 1,000 land lots in the right-of-way of the parkway's extension later that year. Brooklyn's park commissioners voted in November 1874 to adopt Culyer's design for the extension of Ocean Parkway, though there was still no money to begin extending the parkway. During mid-1875, the city's park commissioners began calculating the values of land for Ocean Parkway's extension, though construction was delayed while Brooklyn's park commissioners negotiated to acquire the PPFGA's racetrack. The racetrack's clubhouse was ultimately relocated west of the parkway. The commissioners also approved a wide promenade at the southern end of the parkway that June. Brooklyn's park commissioners solicited bids for the Ocean Parkway extension in March 1876, and the Brooklyn Supervisors' Law Committee recommended the same month that $200,000 be appropriated for the extension's construction. The supervisors approved the sale of $200,000 in bonds that April. Initially, the Brooklyn city government issued $184,000 in bonds; the city did not issue the remaining $16,000 until the next year. The southern extension of Ocean Parkway to Coney Island was well underway by mid-1876. A large amount of swampland was infilled to make way for the parkway's extension, while a concourse was built at the parkway's southern end, on Coney Island Beach. Contractors also constructed a bridge across Coney Island Creek, which was completed that June. #### Completion and cost The extension of Ocean Parkway was finished on November 11, 1876, and opened seven days later on November 18. When Ocean Parkway was finished, the area was still relatively rural, with farms on either side of the parkway. The trees along the parkway had not grown to their full sizes, giving the parkway a barren appearance. Initially, Ocean Parkway was frequently used by horse-drawn carriages. Heavy vehicles were banned from using the parkway's main road but were allowed to use the service roads. The parkway was often referred to as "the boulevard" or as "Coney Island Boulevard". The completion of Ocean Parkway contributed to further development in the Kensington neighborhood. A contemporary Brooklyn Daily Eagle article described the boulevard as the "paradise of horsemen, and by far the finest drive in the country". The Times Union called Ocean Parkway "the finest drive in the world" and predicted that the parkway's presence would turn Coney Island into "the favorable suburban resort of the city" of Brooklyn. The New York Times wrote in 1877 that the parkway was unrivaled "as a work of suburban embellishment". The Kings County Rural Gazette regarded Ocean Parkway as superior to both Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. At the time of the parkway's completion, the construction costs were estimated at $300,000 (), the cost of which was to be paid by landowners within 1,050 feet (320 m) of the parkway. Brooklyn's park commission was required to pay for the boulevard's annual upkeep, though the Kings County government controlled the parkway. For several years, there were disputes over who would pay for the parkway. There was a proposal in 1878 to have the city of Brooklyn pay the parkway's cost, but the New York State Legislature voted down the proposal. A similar proposal to divide the cost among all landowners in Brooklyn was put forth in 1879, but the state legislature refused this plan as well. The state legislature ultimately passed a law in 1882, allowing landowners within 800 feet (240 m) of Ocean Parkway to pay one-third of the parkway's cost. The remaining two-thirds would be paid by the Kings County government. ### Late 19th century Shortly after the parkway was completed, Brooklyn's park commissioners voted to allocate funding for water mains under the parkway. The water mains were approximately 30,000 feet (9,100 m) long and supplied water from Prospect Park to neighborhoods further south. To preserve the parkway's appearance, state legislators passed a law in 1881, which banned the construction of steam railroads and streetcar lines with level crossings on Ocean Parkway. The parkway also could not be raised or lowered to make way for railroads. The Ocean Parkway Transit Company proposed constructing a streetcar line along the parkway's eastern service road in 1888, though the plans elicited protests and were not approved. Other companies had similar problems constructing streetcar lines across the parkway. The Nassau Electric Railroad was banned from installing streetcar tracks across the boulevard in the 1890s, even though two streetcar lines had already built tracks across the parkway. In another case, an underpass had to be built under the parkway for the Church Avenue streetcar line; this was the only streetcar tunnel in Brooklyn. Brooklyn city officials announced plans in 1884 to repave Ocean Parkway with gravel, and the repaving took place the next year. Meanwhile, cyclists often used the parkway's western median to travel to and from Coney Island. By 1892, cyclists were petitioning the Brooklyn government to construct a bike path along Ocean Parkway. There were proposals to convert one of the service roads into a bike path, as well as to construct asphalt or concrete bike paths within the medians. These cyclists formed the Good Roads Association to raise $3,500 to construct the pavements for the bike paths. Following negotiations with the Good Roads Association, the Brooklyn park commissioners agreed to build a bike path within the western median of Ocean Parkway in April 1893, and work began that May. Five short sections of the bike path were paved in experimental materials: four were made of different types of gravel, and the fifth was paved in limestone. After a local cyclists' organization inspected the five test sections in late 1894, the city of Brooklyn decided to construct the rest of the pathway out of crushed gravel. The bike path was formally dedicated on June 15, 1895, with a parade attended by 10,000 cyclists. The bike path was the first to be built in the United States. Originally, the bike path was 14 feet (4.3 m) wide and had a speed limit of 12 miles per hour (19 km/h). In the two months after the bike path opened, an average of 2,000 people used it each day. Part of the existing bike path was widened in late 1895. Owing to the bike path's popularity, Brooklyn mayor Frederick W. Wurster approved plans for a second bikeway on Ocean Parkway's eastern median in April 1896. Brooklyn's park commissioners began soliciting bids for the second path that month. The park commissioners also ordered cyclists to use the bike path and not the main road, though the decree elicited objections from cyclists. The city of Brooklyn completed the eastern bike path in June 1896. Drinking fountains and benches were added at regular intervals along the medians, and pedestrian shelters were built at the north and south ends of the parkway. To accommodate heavy vehicles, part of the western service road was repaved in macadam in 1896. These were among the last projects completed by the Brooklyn city government before Brooklyn became part of the City of Greater New York in 1898. The parkway itself remained a dirt road until 1897. Ocean Parkway had never been graded properly, which resulted in large accumulations of rainwater; the drainage problems were exacerbated by the completion of the bike paths. As such, the state legislature provided $50,000 to improve Ocean Parkway during 1897. That April, Brooklyn's park commissioners awarded contracts to pave the main road from Prospect Park to 22nd Avenue (Bay Parkway) in macadam, as well as add concrete gutters along the main road. The same year, the commissioners also awarded a contract to pave the western service road, south of Kings Highway, with macadam. The Good Roads Association alleged that the western roadway was paved poorly, and the Brooklyn Citizen alleged that the contractor for the west road had received the contract due to cronyism. By the late 1890s, the parkway also had electric lights powered by the Flatbush Light Company. ### 20th century The parkway continued to receive praise in the 20th century. The Brooklyn Citizen wrote in 1902 that the parkway was better than "even the great thoroughfare of Budapest", Andrássy Avenue, while The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote that "no more beautiful speeding ground is there in this country". Even in the mid-20th century, the Kings Courier wrote that "many still maintain that the magnificent street, with its lovely trees, walks and benches, still holds first place for beauty". The architectural critic Paul Goldberger wrote in the 1980s that the parkway "is wide, sumptuous and full of trees", although he regarded the parkway as having unassuming, commonplace architecture. #### 1900s and 1910s In 1900, Brooklyn borough officials agreed to spend $3,000 to convert the main roadway between 22nd Avenue and Kings Highway into an automobile speedway. The speedway was paved with clay and loam, and the western bike path was also widened to match the 18-foot (5.5 m) width of the eastern bike path. Ocean Parkway's speedway was completed later that year, and automobile drivers were given exclusive use of the speedway during selected hours. Though the clay-and-loam pavement was optimal for racing, it also tended to become muddy after rainstorms. The New-York Tribune wrote that the bridle path was often so overcrowded that horse carriages were forced onto the main roadway. Following requests from equestrians, in early 1903, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) banned all vehicles except horse-drawn vehicles from the eastern service road. The main roadway was reserved for "pleasure vehicles", while commercial vehicles used the western service road. The next year, a sewer was installed under the parkway, and part of the bike lane was ripped up to make way for the sewer. State legislators drafted a bill in 1910 to give equestrians exclusive use of the Ocean Parkway speedway during selected hours; the bill was passed that May despite opposition from automobile drivers. NYC Parks subsequently banned all automobiles from the speedway. After the Long Island Automobile Club sued to overturn the ban, the New York Court of Appeals revoked the equestrians' right to the exclusive use of the speedway in June 1912. City officials also regraded Ocean Parkway between Neptune and Coney Island avenues, which frequently flooded during high tides, during the early 1910s. By the end of the decade, many of the parkway's trees had died without being replaced, and the pavement was also in poor condition. There were proposals in 1918 to rename Ocean Parkway after the French military general Joseph Joffre, as the parkway was frequently confused with Ocean Avenue. The New York City Board of Aldermen failed to act upon the renaming proposal. #### 1920s to early 1940s NYC Parks announced plans to repave the entirety of the main and western service roads in asphalt, add new trees, replace the sidewalk, and raise the bicycle and bridle paths in late 1919. The project was part of a $1.5 million program to improve parks and roads across Brooklyn. NYC Parks banned commercial vehicles from using the parkway between Park Circle and Avenue U the next year, citing increasing congestion. NYC Parks hired several companies to repave Ocean Parkway in 1921. and the work was completed the following May, giving the thoroughfare permanent pavement for the first time. As part of the project, the main road was narrowed to 66 feet (20 m) between avenues J and W. In addition, NYC Parks planned to pave the eastern service road and convert the eastern bike path to a bridle path. Park commissioner E. T. O'Loughlin described the existing bridle path on the eastern service road as "an unbearable nuisance and a menace to health" in 1924, and he said the bike paths saw almost no traffic. Meanwhile, due to worsening congestion, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) began stationing traffic guards at several intersections in the 1920s, and a traffic light was added at Kings Highway. There were also proposals for additional traffic signal towers on Ocean Parkway, as well as traffic islands in the main roadway. Traffic commissioner Grover Whalen proposed constructing a movable bridge in 1924 to replace the existing bridge that carried Ocean Parkway over Coney Island Creek. The new bridge was never built, as Coney Island Creek was partially infilled east of Ocean Parkway in the late 1920s. Workers installed a trunk water main along the parkway in 1927, requiring the partial closure of the bridle path. The next year, NYC Parks announced plans to pave the eastern service road in asphalt, though work was delayed for several months. In addition, timed traffic lights were installed along the parkway. To encourage motorists to drive on the right-hand side of the parkway, the NYPD first painted road markings onto the main roadway in 1929. The installation of traffic lights on Ocean Parkway contributed to congestion and vehicular crashes on parallel streets, as motorists sought to avoid the parkway's traffic lights. In addition, the intersection of Prospect Avenue, Ocean Parkway, and Fort Hamilton Parkway had become one of the most congested in New York City by 1930. Few equestrians still used Ocean Parkway after all the roadways had been paved. As part of a Works Progress Administration project to expand Brooklyn's bike-lane network, workers replaced Ocean Parkway's bike path with a 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) concrete bikeway between Park Circle and Neptune Avenue. By 1942, traffic at the intersection with Prospect Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway prompted the city's traffic engineers to redesign that intersection. As part of this redesign, the northbound (eastern) service road was reserved for traffic traveling to the Gowanus Parkway (later Gowanus Expressway). #### Mid-1940s to 1960s Additional traffic markings were painted onto Ocean Parkway's roadways between Park Circle and Surf Avenue in 1950. City officials announced plans in 1952 to increase speed limits to 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) and retime the parkway's traffic signals, though these plans were not implemented for several years. City officials also sought to increase traffic flow by banning vehicles from parking on Ocean Parkway during rush hours. In addition, engineers investigated the possibility of relocating Ocean Parkway's traffic lights in 1955 after receiving complaints that the existing traffic signals, in the middle of the roadway, were hazardous. Many of the parkway's intersections were redesigned between 1960 and 1961. Workers added left-turn lanes, retimed traffic signals, and replaced the existing traffic lights in the middle of the roadway with signals suspended from mast arms. In addition, some of the medians were extended to reduce collisions between drivers in the main road and service roads. Although the traffic signals only controlled traffic on the main roadway and not the service roads, many motorists on the service roads were fined for not obeying the traffic signals. In advance of the 1964 New York World's Fair, workers also planted new trees along Ocean Parkway. Traffic commissioner Henry Barnes added parking spaces to the service roads, and he removed parking spaces near intersections to improve visibility. As early as the 1940s, urban planner Robert Moses had suggested constructing an expressway to connect Ocean and Gowanus parkways. Despite local opposition to the proposal, Moses announced plans in 1945 for the Prospect Expressway, which would link the two parkways. The plans initially called for the expressway to pass over Fort Hamilton Parkway and under Caton Avenue before terminating at the intersection of Beverley Road and Ocean Parkway. The Prospect Expressway was completed in 1962, replacing the section of Ocean Parkway north of Church Avenue. The expressway's construction severed Ocean Parkway's bike path from the roads in Prospect Park. By the late 1960s, equestrian traffic had declined to almost nothing. As such, NYC Parks began removing the bridle path between Church and Foster avenues in 1967, saying that the path was a traffic hazard. #### 1970s renovation By the early 1970s, there were many potholes along Ocean Parkway. The city government attempted to repave the entire parkway at a cost of $6.5 million in 1971. Seven-tenths of the project was to be funded by the federal government, while the state government would pay for the rest. The next year, the city's transportation administrator requested funds for the repaving of Ocean Parkway from Kings Highway to Church Avenue. The federal government would only pay for the repaving project if the lanes were widened; this would have entailed removing trees and adding Jersey barriers. Residents objected to the removal of trees, and they also opposed leaving the parkway as-is, but they did support the installation of new curbs. Additionally, there were proposals to install left-turn signals along the parkway to improve vehicular safety. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) proposed designating Ocean Parkway as a scenic landmark in late 1974. The LPC had gained the authority to designate city parkland as scenic landmarks the preceding year. At the time, local residents worried that the parkway's medians would be modified or destroyed, and there were concerns that the barriers would encourage speeding. Brooklyn borough president Sebastian Leone, who opposed the Jersey barriers, said he would reject federal funding for the boulevard if the federal government required the barriers to be installed. The LPC designated the parkway as a landmark on January 28, 1975. After a short controversy over whether such a landmark was eligible for federal funds, the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) said the landmark designation would not affect the parkway's federal funding. The New York City Board of Estimate confirmed the parkway's scenic landmark status in April 1975. Afterward, the New York state government announced that Ocean Parkway was to be restored and repaved. The FHA approved plans for Ocean Parkway's reconstruction in March 1976, and officials announced that August that the state and U.S. governments would pay for the entire project. Work commenced on September 20, 1976. The first phase of the project, covering 1.5 miles (2.4 km), included rebuilding the western median's bike path. The project also included new drainage systems, curbs, concrete roadbeds, and pavement. The city's Department of Highway planned to add benches, game tables, fences, stone-block pavers around trees, and wheelchair ramps in response to local residents' requests. The overpass above the Bay Ridge Branch, between avenues H and I, would be replaced. In addition, the parkway's bridle path was removed, and 598 trees were to be planted. During the renovation, local residents complained of unsafe work conditions; for instance, one pedestrian died after being hit by a crane. The state and U.S. governments allocated another $5.2 million to the project in November 1978, and the reconstruction was completed in 1980. Meanwhile, the construction of institutional buildings in the 1970s prompted local residents to ask that the Ocean Parkway corridor be rezoned to preserve the area's residences. The area, which was originally proposed to cover only the area between Church Avenue and Avenue P, was subsequently expanded to include the area between Park Circle and Brighton Beach Avenue. The New York City Planning Commission voted in December 1976 to rezone the corridor, and the New York City Board of Estimate approved the rezoning the next month. The city government then created the Special Ocean Parkway District. #### 1980s and 1990s The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) relaxed parking regulations on Ocean Parkway in 1980 to allow Orthodox Jewish residents to park on the service roads during Shabbat, when Orthodox Jews were forbidden to use their cars. In addition, the NYCDOT added loading areas along the service roads. Ocean Parkway was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 8, 1983. The parkway was included in the 1987 plan for the Brooklyn–Queens Greenway, a pedestrian and bicycle path stretching 40 miles (64 km) across Brooklyn and Queens. The greenway proposal was to connect Ocean Parkway, Prospect Park, and Eastern Parkway with other destinations in the two boroughs. The section of the bike path from Beverley Road to Church Avenue was reopened the next year as part of the construction of the Brooklyn–Queens Greenway. The reopened bike path included new signage and a pedestrian walkway next to it. In the 1990s, the pine trees were replaced with local flora such as American holly and red cedar trees. By then, the parkway's bike lane had become rundown, and few local residents even knew of its existence because of a lack of signage. Ocean Parkway had also become one of the city's most dangerous thoroughfares, and motorists routinely traveled above the speed limit of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). Following a series of deadly vehicular crashes on Ocean Parkway, local residents began advocating for the NYCDOT to install left turn signals along the parkway; according to Brooklyn Community Board 14's district manager, the signals would cost $1.5 million. Signals were installed at avenues J and P in 1993, and the NYCDOT approved additional signals at 18th Avenue and Avenue I the next year. Additionally, in 1997, the NYCDOT proposed connecting the bike paths along Ocean and Belt parkways as part of a $200,000 program to create bikeways around the city. ### 21st century To improve pedestrian safety, the NYCDOT adjusted traffic lights in 2002 to give pedestrians extra time to cross the parkway. The interchange with Belt Parkway was also rebuilt. Despite being a major thoroughfare, Ocean Parkway retained its park-like character; one writer for The New York Times wrote that "every layer of the boulevard is a world, separated from the next by trees". Starting in 2011, the NYCDOT installed countdown pedestrian signals along Ocean Parkway as well. As part of the New York City Council's participatory budgeting program, local residents voted in 2012 to request $200,000 from the City Council to upgrade the crosswalk at Church Avenue and Ocean Parkway. The upgrades would have increased pedestrian safety, but the state government initially refused to upgrade the crosswalk. The New York state government finally agreed to upgrade the Church Avenue intersection the next year, and it also allocated $6 million for safety improvements to Ocean Parkway. In addition, many of the parkway's trees were felled after they were damaged during Hurricane Sandy. In 2016, an overhaul of traffic regulations at major intersections was proposed, including traffic signals for service roads and turn restrictions at multiple intersections. The regulations were unpopular among residents but went into effect at Kings Highway and Avenue J in late 2016. The project was finished in 2017, though some motorists ignored the new traffic restrictions. As part of the Vision Zero program and to reduce traffic-related deaths, speed limits were lowered to 25 miles per hour (40 km/h), and speed cameras were installed. Local politicians who opposed the speed limit decrease, including Simcha Felder, wanted the speeds to be increased to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) or higher. In addition, the NYCDOT announced plans in 2018 to rebuild the intersection of Church Avenue and Ocean Parkway, including new pedestrian islands and curb extensions. In 2019, NYC Parks received funds to renovate Ocean Parkway's bike lane between Avenue R and Avenue X, but the repairs were postponed to 2024 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. ## Neighborhood ### Structures Much of Ocean Parkway is zoned for mid-to-high-rise residential structures, which were developed along the parkway starting in the early 20th century. In Kensington to the north, Ocean Parkway has rental and cooperative apartment buildings of up to 20 stories, while side streets have lower-density housing. Within Gravesend to the south, there are condominiums and co-ops of six and seven stories on the parkway. There are also single-family and two-family homes along the parkway, although many of these homes have been expanded or combined over the years. Ever since the parkway was established, all buildings on the parkway have been required to include a 30-foot-deep (9.1 m) front yard. State law allows courtyards, trees, shrubs, and other ornaments to be placed in the front yards, but most structures are banned. The parkway is part of the Special Ocean Parkway District, which extends from Park Circle to Brighton Beach Avenue and includes several parallel streets. New structures in the Special Ocean Parkway District must have a 30-foot-deep front yard, and paving is not permitted except on driveways and walkways. In addition, new and expanded buildings in the special district are subject to density restrictions. There are several educational institutions along the parkway, such as Abraham Lincoln High School at Shore Parkway and Mir Yeshiva at Avenue R. In addition, South Brooklyn Health (formerly Coney Island Hospital) is located on Ocean Parkway near Avenue Z; there has been a hospital at that location since 1909. The Brighton Theatre, a popular attraction near the southern end of the parkway, operated until the 1950s. #### Development history Around 1900, homes were constructed along the perimeter of the parkway, and many mansions were built during World War I. People moved to Ocean Parkway from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Heights, and Bushwick. In the 1920s, some apartment complexes and one- and two-family homes were constructed, and there were many detached houses with 10 to 25 rooms. Luxurious apartment buildings with elevators were clustered around the northernmost portion of the parkway. Apartments began to replace private homes in the vicinity of the parkway after World War II, although these apartments tended to be no taller than six stories. A large number of nursing homes, schools, and houses of worship were built on the parkway during the 1960s and 1970s. Most of Ocean Parkway's remaining private houses were on the eastern side of the parkway by the 1960s, and many of the parkway's mansions had been demolished by the 1970s. From 1960 to 1965 alone, twenty-six apartment buildings were developed on the parkway itself. Many of Ocean Parkway's apartment buildings were converted to co-ops during the late 20th century, particularly near the northern end of the parkway. ### Community In the 20th century, the areas around Ocean Parkway were largely populated by middle-class white residents, who moved away during the 1960s, A 1974 article in The New York Times described Ocean Parkway as a "series of small ethnic enclaves". There is an especially large Jewish population centered along Ocean Parkway between Avenue H and Belt Parkway. In addition to the Jewish community, there are black, Irish, Polish, Russian, and Hispanic communities along Ocean Parkway. The parkway's residents over the years have included the actress Lauren Bacall and the politician Elizabeth Holtzman. The area has a large population of Syrian Jews, who started moving to the area in the 1950s. Within two decades, Ocean Parkway had the highest concentration of Syrian Jews in the United States. The New York Times estimated in 1980 that 60 to 70 percent of the population was Syrian Jewish, with more than 25,000 Syrian Jews near Ocean Parkway, Avenue S, and Avenue T. There is a high density of synagogues, yeshivas, and other traditionally Jewish institutions around Ocean Parkway. Many of the Syrian Jews who live on the parkway tend to be wealthy, and the parkway includes several mansions that protrude all the way to their lot line. In the 21st century, the southern part of the parkway had a large Sephardic Jewish population as well. One writer estimated in 2009 that 40,000 to 50,000 Jews lived near Ocean Parkway and that there were more than 40 synagogues on and around the parkway. By the early 21st century, mansions along the parkway routinely sold for $1 million or more, while properties on parallel streets were much cheaper. The segment of the parkway between avenues S and U was in particularly high demand. Many residents of that area are Orthodox Jews who do not drive on Shabbat, so they instead walk to the synagogues and yeshivas on the parkway. Conversely, Orthodox Jewish families tended not to live in Ocean Parkway's multi-unit condominiums. ## Major intersections |} ## See also - List of parkways in New York - List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn - List of New York City scenic landmarks - National Register of Historic Places listings in Brooklyn

South Bellevue station

Light rail station in Bellevue, Washington

South Bellevue station is an elevated light rail station located in Bellevue, Washington, United States, an eastern suburb of Seattle. It opened on April 27, 2024, as the western terminus of the 2 Line of Sound Transit's Link light rail system. The station has a park and ride garage with 1,500 stalls and bus service from King County Metro and Sound Transit Express. The original park and ride opened on January 30, 1981, with 337 stalls to serve express routes between Downtown Seattle and Bellevue. It had low use for several years, but eventually reached capacity and was expanded to 419 stalls by the late 1990s. South Bellevue was included as the site of a light rail station in various proposals prior to the approval of East Link (now the 2 Line) in 2008. The park and ride lot closed in May 2017 to construction of the light rail station and a parking garage, which opened in 2021. Light rail service began in April 2024 with South Bellevue as the terminus of the initial phase of the 2 Line. ## Location South Bellevue station is situated on the east side of Bellevue Way near its interchange with Interstate 90 south of Downtown Bellevue. The light rail tracks and Bellevue Way form the boundary between the residential neighborhood of Enatai to the west and the Mercer Slough Nature Park to the east. The Mercer Slough includes freshwater wetlands, an education center, walking trails, a boat launch, and a blueberry farm. The town of Beaux Arts Village is located a one-half-mile (0.80 km) to the west; the Bellefield office park and historic Frederick W. Winters House are both north of the station site. According to 2013 data from the Puget Sound Regional Council, the area within 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) of the station has a population of 1,708 people and no recorded jobs. The area is split between single-family homes in Enatai to the west and the protected areas of the Mercer Slough Nature Park to the east. The Enatai neighborhood developed in the 1950s and 1960s using winding streets and landscaping to impede through traffic. The city government's 2016 plan for the station area does not include land use changes for the neighborhood and calls for improved pedestrian and bicycling facilities. A high-occupancy vehicle lane on Bellevue Way is planned to be constructed to connect the station to Interstate 90. The plan also proposed a residential parking zone with issued permits to prevent park-and-ride commuters from using street parking in the neighborhood. ## History ### Park and ride Metro Transit, the countywide bus operator for King County, began development of permanent park and ride lots in the 1970s and selected southern Bellevue as one of 18 potential markets. Two sites along Bellevue Way at Southeast 27th Place and Southeast 30th Street were proposed in 1977 by Metro and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). The first site, a 12-acre (4.9 ha) farm in the Mercer Slough on the east side of Bellevue Way, was selected for development of a 400-stall park and ride, which was downsized from 630 stalls after a request from the City of Bellevue. The site's selection was criticized by a local community club, who were concerned with additional bus traffic and the aesthetics of the lot amongst farms and wetlands. The South Bellevue Park & Ride opened on January 30, 1981, with 337 stalls and cost $2.3 million to construct using mitigation funds from the construction of Interstate 90. The lot served existing express routes that connected Bellevue to Downtown Seattle as well as a new route that spanned the entire Interstate 405 corridor from Aurora Village in Shoreline to the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila. By the end of the year, a new turn lane and widened entrance were completed by Metro. South Bellevue was described by The Seattle Times as "one of Metro's most dismal failures in attracting park and ride customers" due to its limited routes. Route 226, a major Seattle–Bellevue express service, was rerouted to South Bellevue in 1982 to encourage more use. In 1983, an average of 39 stalls (11% of capacity) were used daily by commuters; the figure grew to 66 stalls (18%) the following year. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Metro used the park and ride as a terminus for free "shopper" buses serving the Bellevue Square shopping center and shuttles for major events in Downtown Bellevue and Seattle. In 1994, King County Metro added 108 stalls to the park and ride, which was regularly filled on weekdays. An additional 50 stalls opened for use in May 1997 and was supplemented by a set of leased spaces at a nearby church parking lot. A parking garage for the South Bellevue lot was proposed during the same time to meet projected demand but faced opposition from Bellevue mayor Ron Smith. By 1999, the lot was used by a daily average of 574 vehicles—over the listed capacity—and drivers resorted to illegally parking along fire lanes or on grass. Metro also proposed repainting the parking lot to fit an additional 50 stalls, but the plan was rejected due to concerns about the width of modern vehicles. The opening of new park and ride lots in Eastgate and Issaquah in 2004 and 2006, respectively, were expected to ease overcrowding issues at South Bellevue. The South Bellevue park and ride remained filled on weekdays, with 107 percent of its listed 519 stalls used on an average weekday in late 2016. Approximately 44 percent of its users drove 5 miles (8.0 km) or more to access the lot according to a 2013 survey of recorded license plates. As of 2017, South Bellevue Park and Ride was served by four Sound Transit Express routes and three King County Metro routes with connections to Downtown Seattle, the University District, Overlake, and Issaquah. ### Light rail planning The Forward Thrust plan for rapid transit, which was rejected by voters in 1968 and 1970, included a line from Seattle to Bellevue on the Interstate 90 corridor with a park and ride station serving Enatai. The second iteration of the plan 2.6-mile (4.2 km) spur line would have split off at Enatai to serve a station at Eastgate with a 1,200-stall parking garage. A light rail plan drafted by Metro and the Puget Sound Council of Governments in 1986 also included a South Bellevue station on its Seattle–Bellevue line, which continued onward to Bothell and Redmond. In 1990, Metro proposed a rapid transit station—either for a busway or light rail system—at the site of the South Bellevue park and ride as part of a long-range plan for Eastside transit. In 1995, the Regional Transit Authority (now Sound Transit) presented a $6.7 billion ballot measure that included a light rail line connecting Seattle to Bellevue and Overlake with a station serving South Bellevue. The proposal was rejected by voters, but the smaller Sound Move package passed in November 1996 to fund construction of a scaled-back Link light rail system with provisions for future expansions. In 2005, Sound Transit adopted a long-range plan with a designated Seattle–Bellevue–Overlake corridor for high-capacity transit that would use the Interstate 90 floating bridge. A light rail extension was chosen the following year in lieu of a proposed bus rapid transit line, which would have been designed for conversion to rail at a later date. The light rail project, named the East Link Extension, was part of the 2007 Roads and Transit ballot measure that was rejected by voters. A transit-only version of the ballot measure, named Sound Transit 2, was passed the following year with a station in South Bellevue on the Seattle–Overlake line. The routing of the project's South Bellevue segment, generally between the East Channel Bridge and Main Street in Downtown Bellevue, was debated for several years by city officials and Sound Transit. An at-grade station at South Bellevue was initially endorsed by the city council in February 2009 and adopted by the Sound Transit Board in May with plans to further evaluate its placement. An alternate alignment on the Woodinville Subdivision or near I-405 was proposed in early 2010 by new councilmembers elected in November 2009 with support from Bellevue Square developer Kemper Freeman; the councilmembers in favor of the new alignment held a 4–3 majority. The concept eliminated the South Bellevue station and did not initially provide a replacement; a later version adopted by the city council as their locally preferred alternative in March 2010 included a station at the South Bellevue Way interchange with I-90. The Sound Transit Board voted to continue analysis of the Bellevue Way routing while the city government prepared their own study of South Bellevue station alternatives that was published in July 2010. The study found that a station at the South Bellevue interchange would cost $170 million to $210 million—more than the baseline cost of $130 million for Sound Transit's alternative—and cause significant impacts to nearby areas, including Mercer Slough. The city council remained split on the South Bellevue alignment until an additional study from the city found a $138 million cost increase. In July 2011, Sound Transit and the city government tentatively agreed to adopt the Bellevue Way and 112th Avenue alignment with additional noise and traffic mitigation for some neighborhoods. The full memorandum of understanding was approved by both parties in November 2011 and the final routing was adopted in April 2013 with several cost-reducing design modifications. A lawsuit filed by residents in South Bellevue over the visual impacts of light rail construction was rejected by a U.S. District Court judge in 2013, allowing for plans to continue. ### Light rail design and construction The first designs for South Bellevue station were released in late 2013; the city government also began planning for future development and construction mitigation around the station. The finalized design for the station, its public artwork, and a five-story parking garage were unveiled in November 2014. As part of the project, Sound Transit also acquired 2 acres (0.81 ha) of Mercer Slough Nature Park from the city government in exchange for additional land near the garage. The agency also paid for the restoration of a produce barn and public restrooms in the park. The construction contract for the South Bellevue section, which comprised the station, 2.2 miles (3.5 km) of elevated trackway, and the parking garage, was awarded to a joint venture of Shimmick Construction and Parsons for $321 million in October 2016. The section also includes a crossing of the westbound lanes of Interstate 90 that uses a curved, 600-foot (180 m) balanced cantilever bridge built through form-traveler gantries. Utility relocation near the station area began in June 2016 with the removal of overhead lines by Puget Sound Energy. The South Bellevue park and ride closed on May 30, 2017, for light rail construction at the site. Buses continued to serve Bellevue Way but were moved from the center island to on-street stops. To mitigate the loss of parking, Sound Transit leased 367 stalls from eight churches in Bellevue and Renton, added trips to other express routes, and directed users to other park-and-ride lots with spare capacity. An additional lot opened in January 2018 with 50 more stalls. An earlier plan to build a satellite lot on Mercer Island was rejected following protests from residents who opposed the loss of parkland for the project. A temporary lot was opened south of the station site in July to serve visitors to Mercer Slough Nature Park as part of Sound Transit's construction mitigation plan. On-site construction began in June 2017 with the preparation of work areas and installation of fencing. The historic Frederick W. Winters House and blueberry farms in Mercer Slough Nature Park closed to visitors in October to prepare for light rail construction along Bellevue Way. Utility relocation was completed in early 2018 and was followed by the start of column construction, which required long-term lane closures on Bellevue Way; the street was arranged to have two lanes open in the peak direction and one lane in each direction during mid-day. The installation of precast concrete girders to support the trackway and platform at the station began in mid-July; the parking garage was constructed in two phases, beginning with the north half in 2018. In 2019, the parking garage was topped out and work on the station's elevators and escalators began; Sound Transit also restored 6 acres (2.4 ha) of wetlands in Mercer Slough Nature Park as part of mitigation for the project. By the end of the year, the South Bellevue contract had reached 77 percent completion and tracks were installed on elevated sections. The traction power substation to power the overhead lines for the light rail vehicles was delivered to the South Bellevue station site in April 2021. Sound Transit opened the bus loop and 1,500-stall parking garage at South Bellevue station on November 15, 2021, per an agreement with the city government to restore parking capacity sooner. Work continued on trackwork, the station platform, and various communications and electrical systems during the commissioning process. The project reached substantial completion in August 2022; it had originally been scheduled to reach the milestone in January 2021, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a concrete workers' strike. During platform work that began in February 2023, a contractor discovered that the installed floor tiles at the station had come loose and posed a tripping hazard. Sound Transit later found that the tactile edge markers had not been rated for outdoor use and other tiles had buckled in hot weather, requiring full replacement. A $3 million contract was awarded to Balfour Beatty to demolish and replace the platform tiles, which began in September 2023. ### Opening South Bellevue station opened in on April 27, 2024, as the terminus of the 2 Line's initial segment, which runs north to Downtown Bellevue and east to Redmond Technology station. As part of the opening celebrations, the station hosted live music, pop-up exhibits from the Pacific Science Center, and a Port of Seattle firetruck. It was also the terminus of a shuttle to Bellevue Downtown station prior to the ribbon-cutting. The shortened line, made necessary by construction issues on the Seattle–Bellevue section on Interstate 90, was announced in August 2023; the full line is anticipated to open in 2025. Testing on the South Bellevue section began in November 2023. The station is anticipated to have 4,500 daily boardings by 2030. ## Station layout South Bellevue station is located on the east side of Bellevue Way at an intersection with 112th Avenue Southeast, north of the street's interchange with Interstate 90. It includes an elevated light rail station, bus bays, a drop-off parking area, and an adjacent parking garage to the east. The island platform is 35.5 feet (10.8 m) above street level and connected by a set of stairs, escalators, and elevators with no mezzanine. Two bus bays are located under the north half of the platform and also include layover parking for buses and paratransit vehicles; a third bay is on the northbound side of Bellevue Way. The parking garage is five stories tall and includes 1,500 vehicle stalls; its lower two levels are below street level. Three access roads connect the garage and bus bays to Bellevue Way, including two with signalized intersections. A bicycle locker with 35 spaces is also available at the station. The station was designed by a joint venture of HNTB, Jacobs, and Mott MacDonald. It features several pieces of public art that was funded by the "STart" program, which allocates a percent of construction costs for artwork. The west side of the platform is shielded by 900 feet (270 m) of metal acoustic panels designed by Vicki Scuri that use repeated hexagonal patterns that reflect the seasonal leaf colors of the Mercer Slough; the northern half uses gold to reflect autumn, while the southern half uses green for spring. The panels are made in Olympia with porcelain enamel on steel panels and are each 6 feet (1.8 m) tall. Artist Katy Stone designed metal screens for the garage facade that resemble ripples in water and metal sculptures on the garage roof that are inspired by cattails and reeds in the wind. ## Services The first phase of the 2 Line began service on April 27, 2024, with trains every 10 minutes for 16 hours a day on weekdays and weekends from South Bellevue station. During service disruptions, a shuttle bus is operated between 2 Line stations; at South Bellevue, it stops at bus bays 2 and 3. As of September 2023, the station is served by four bus routes operated by Sound Transit Express and King County Metro. Sound Transit Express routes 550 and 556 provide regional service to Downtown Seattle, Mercer Island, Downtown Bellevue, and the University District. The two King County Metro routes provide local service that connects the station to Beaux Arts Village, Downtown Bellevue, Overlake, Factoria, and Eastgate. No changes to Sound Transit bus service are planned until the full 2 Line opens in 2025. Sound Transit and King County Metro plan to truncate and restructure several routes around Eastside rail stations in 2025, including redirecting Issaquah's route to Downtown Seattle to instead serve Downtown Bellevue with a stop at South Bellevue station. Several local Metro routes would be extended to South Bellevue station and provide connections to Renton, Newcastle, the Issaquah Highlands, and other parts of Bellevue.

Mycena acicula

Species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae

Mycena acicula, commonly known as the orange bonnet, or the coral spring Mycena, is a species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae. It is found in Asia, the Caribbean, North America and Europe. The fruit bodies, or mushrooms, of the fungus grow on dead twigs and other woody debris of forest floors, especially along streams and other wet places. They have small orange-red caps, up to 1 cm (0.4 in) in diameter, held by slender yellowish stems up to 6 cm (2.4 in) long. The gills are pale yellow with a whitish edge. Several other Mycena species look similar, but may be distinguished by differences in size and/or microscopic characteristics. M. acicula is considered inedible because of its small size. ## Taxonomy First named Agaricus acicula by the German scientist Jacob Christian Schäffer in 1774, the species was also referred to as Agaricus miniatus by another German, naturalist August Batsch. It was given its current name in 1871 by Paul Kummer. Rolf Singer transferred the species to the genera Hemimycena and Marasmiellus, but the binomials resulting from these transfers are now considered synonyms. The fungus is classified in the section Aciculae of the genus Mycena. The specific epithet acicula is derived from the Latin word meaning "small needle". The mushroom is commonly known as the "orange bonnet", or the "coral spring Mycena". ## Description The cap is initially convex, but as it matures, it expands to a bell-shape, typically reaching 0.3 to 1 cm (0.1 to 0.4 in) in diameter. The cap sometimes has a small abrupt umbo (a central bump), and the cap margin is pressed closely against the stem when young, often flaring or curving slightly inward. As the cap expands, a narrow sterile (i.e., without any reproductive cells typical of the hymenium) band which frequently becomes lobed or irregularly-jagged often forms at the extreme margin. The cap surface is smooth, faintly translucent-striate when moist, at first pruinose but soon naked. The color is red when young, soon becoming yellowish toward the margin, and slowly fading to bright orange-yellow. The flesh is thin, brittle, yellow, and has no distinctive odor or taste. The gills are adnate (with gills broadly attached to the stem, slightly above the bottom of the gill, with most of the gill fused to the stem) or slightly rounded next to the stem. The individual gills are close to subdistant, with between 10–14 reaching the stem, and two or three tiers of lamellulae (short gills that do not reach the stem). The gills are moderately broad, pale orange to whitish, often yellowish at the base and whitish along the edges. The stem is 1 to 6 cm (0.4 to 2.4 in) long, and up to 1 mm thick; flexuous (winding from side to side), brittle, with the base covered with sharp, straight, and stiff white hairs. The surface is densely white-pruinose initially, but soon becomes naked with a subsequent color shift to orange-yellow or lemon yellow. This species has been described as "a delight to behold", but "one usually has to get down on hands and knees to find it\!" The fruit bodies of Mycena acicula are considered inedible, as they are too small and insubstantial to be considered for consumption. ### Microscopic characteristics The spores are roughly spindle-shaped (i.e., tapering at each end), with dimensions of 9–11 by 3.5–4.5 μm. They are nonamyloid, meaning they do not take up iodine when stained with Melzer's reagent. The spore-bearing cells, the basidia, are club-shaped, four-spored and measure 20–22 by 5–6 μm. The cheilocystidium and pleurocystidia (cystidia found on the edge and face, respectively, of a gill) are similar, club-shaped to spindle-shaped or egg-shaped, and have apices that are often covered with a resinous secretion. The hyphae that comprise the cap cuticle are up to 3.5 μm wide, clamped, and covered with cylindrical excrescences that measure 2–9 by 1–3 μm. The hyphae of the cortical layer of the stem are up to 4.5 μm wide, clamped, and densely covered with simple to somewhat branched, cylindrical to inflated excrescences that are up to 20 by 5 μm. These latter excrescences are embedded in gelatinous matter. ### Similar species Mycena adonis, , and are larger species of the section Adonidae in the genus Mycena. In that section, among other differences, the hyphae of the cortical layer (the outer layer of tissue) of the stem are smooth. is similar in appearance to M. acicula, but the cap is yellower, the gills are broadly adnate or decurrent with a short tooth, the gill edge is orange to bright yellow, and the stem is dry, not sticky. The hyphae of the cortical layer of the stem are smooth and not embedded in gelatinous matter, and in European collections the basidia are two-spored and do not have clamps. , a North American and European species, looks similar with its orange cap, but may be distinguished microscopically by the cheilocystidia which are densely covered by excrescences; it also has a larger cap, up to 2 cm (0.8 in). can be distinguished by the reddish-orange cap which tends to become paler at the margin. Mycena specialist Alexander H. Smith further noted of M. acicula that it could readily be mistaken for a Hygrophorus. ## Habitat and distribution The fruit bodies of Mycena acicula grow singly, in groups, or somewhat clustered on debris in wet places, especially along streams or the borders of swamps. The appearance of the fruit bodies is not significantly influenced by the effect of rainfall, perhaps because "such minute fungi are largely determined by the microenvironment prevailing under dense vegetation, etc., which is no doubt less affected by recent rain than more exposed situations." The fungus is widely distributed throughout the eastern United States and Canada and occurs in Washington, Oregon, and California along the Pacific Coast. It has also been reported from Trinidad, Britain, Norway, Spain, Korea, and the Ussuri River Valley in the northeast of China.

Coat of arms of Pichilemu

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Pichilemu () is the official heraldic symbol representing the city of Pichilemu, the capital of the Chilean province of Cardenal Caro. It consists of a party per cross referencing the importance of tourism in Pichilemu, and the commune's agricultural, huaso origins. The coat of arms is crested with a "symbolical representation of Pichilemu's past and present: a balustrade fused in a mitre", worn by José María Caro Rodríguez, the first Cardinal of the Chilean Roman Catholic Church, who was born in the village of San Antonio de Petrel, in Pichilemu. In September 1986, the municipality of Pichilemu and the Council of Communal Development (CODECO) made a public call for tenders to create a coat of arms for the commune, similar to that of the province of Cardenal Caro. A design made by Hernán Martínez Morales from Curicó was eventually adopted by the local government on 19 December 1986, under the administration of Mayor René Maturana Maldonado. The original date inscribed in the coat of arms, "21-XII 1891" (21 December 1891), prompted criticism from local historians Antonio Saldías and José Arraño Acevedo, who have pointed out it is "incorrect". Saldías has suggested to commemorate the first municipal meeting of 6 May 1894, or the grant of the title of encomienda of Topocalma on 24 January 1544, for example. ## Origin During the earlier years of the municipal administration of Pichilemu by Mayor René Maturana Maldonado (1984–92), the municipality made use of a drawing resembling a sun as the official logo and seal, which was used in official documents. In September 1986, the local government and the Council of Communal Development (Consejo de Desarrollo Comunal, CODECO) made a public call for tenders to create a coat of arms for the commune, with the purpose of "counting with a symbolic expression of representativeness, and to exalt distinctive features of the area and its people," adding that they were "seeking a coat of arms similar, but not identical to that of the province of Cardenal Caro." Participants could send as many designs as they wanted, as far as it included the name of the commune and the date of its creation, 21 December 1891. Authors could add a motto and an inscription to their coat of arms if they wanted to. An article in local newspaper Pichilemu stated that the new coat of arms was to be chosen by a jury composed of the mayor of Pichilemu, the director of Municipal Works, two members of the CODECO, a representative of the culture department of the regional secretariat of the Education Ministry, an artist, and a teacher. The eventual winner would earn a prize of 100,000 pesos, and a diploma. Once past the deadline, set for 31 October 1986, the jury had a month to make a decision. The winning design for coat of arms of Pichilemu was announced in December 1986. It was created by Hernán Martínez Morales from Curicó, Region of the Maule, who was described in the Pichilemu edition of that month as a "fan (of Pichilemu), and regular vacationer" in the city. He told the newspaper he took knowledge of the public call made by the local government by reading a previous edition of Pichilemu; Martínez requested the municipality for more details on his Fiestas Patrias holiday, and sent a design "with a lot of faith." Martínez Morales was, at the time, a student of graphic design at the University of Valparaíso. His design was adopted by decree of mayor René Maturana Maldonado on 19 December 1986 as the official coat of arms of the commune of Pichilemu in a public ceremony. ## Description The shield is divided party per cross: that is, it is divided in four equal parts. The first quarter is or, and the remaining are bleu celeste. According to descriptions by the designer of the coat of arms, Hernán Martínez Morales, in the December 1986 edition of Pichilemu, the forest and sea quarter, which has a yellow background, portrays "the richness of the area, its potential;" the windsurf boards quarter, which like the two remaining quarters has a sky blue background, depicts the tourism in Pichilemu, water sports, and "the exceptional conditions for their practice;" the sea quarter represents "the men who work at the sea, in a symbolic manner;" the fourth quarter represents the local agriculture, "with the country and a spur." The name of the commune, Pichilemu is written in the upper side of the coat of arms, while the date of creation of the commune is located in the lower side ("22-XII 1891", originally had incorrectly inscribed "21-XII 1891"). The crest, according to its designer, "symbolically represents the past and future" of Pichilemu, with "a balustrade that fuses with a mitre", worn by the first Chilean Cardinal of the Catholic Church José María Caro Rodríguez, who was born in the Pichilemu village of San Antonio de Petrel, to Rita Rodríguez Cornejo and José María Caro Martínez, the first mayor of Pichilemu. Martínez described the colors used in his creation, beginning with the yellow, which "represents the sun, the light and the warmth of a welcoming place. Sun which stays in Pichilemu to make us spend beautiful moments." The green color and its tones represent the "forest, economic potential of the area, which augurs the countryman a promising future." He described the blue color and its tones used in the coat of arms as "speaking of the sea off the coast of Pichilemu, sea that is present in every moment of our stay in Pichilemu. Sea that is richness and that 'promises us a future splendor'." Martínez used the red color to represent "the tourism along all colors, happiness, vacations, sport," while described the use of greenish gray as the "touch of distinction, elegance, nobleness." ### Possibly inappropriate date Concerns were raised by Antonio Saldías (pen name Don Antonio de Petrel) regarding the appropriateness of the date used to celebrate the anniversary of Pichilemu, which commemorated the creation of the commune, on 21 December 1891, a date also used in the coat of arms. Saldías pointed out that, since there was no act of foundation of Pichilemu nor record of date of the first inhabitation of the area by the Promaucaes, the date of 24 January 1544, specified in the title of encomienda of Topocalma given by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia to Juan Gómez de Almagro, another conquistador, was the most correct date to be used to commemorate the anniversary of Pichilemu. The current territory of Pichilemu was part of the encomienda of Topocalma. Later, in a March 1987 article for Pichilemu, Saldías condemned the use of an "incorrect" date in the coat of arms, stating that all Chilean communes were created on 22 December 1891 and not on 21 December, as it appeared in the coat of arms. The historian wrote that "Pichilemu possesses its own events, many of them with more valid and rightful dates [...]. But overall, very ours," and went on to suggest some "more appropriate dates" for the coat of arms and the anniversary of Pichilemu, including: the grant of the Topocalma encomienda title, the date of the purchase of the current territory of central Pichilemu by Daniel Ortúzar Cuevas (1884), the date of purchase of the "rustic farm" of San Antonio de Petrel by Agustín Ross Edwards (5 September 1885), the merced de tierra of Cáhuil given to Leonor de la Corte (1609), the merced de tierra of San Antonio de Petrel given to Francisco Rojas y Puebla (1611), the date of the first municipal meeting of Pichilemu (6 May 1894). In September 1987, local journalist and historian José Arraño Acevedo said after declining the Distinción 11 de Septiembre (11 September Award) award given by the Municipality of Pichilemu that his nomination was an "inconsequence", "when I have gone to the municipality to tell them that they have committed an error by using a wrong date in the official coat of arms of the commune, and although I have spoken with reasonings, they have not heard me."

Guitar Hero World Tour

2008 video game

Guitar Hero World Tour is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Guitar Hero series. The game was launched in North America in October 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles, and a month later for Europe and Australia. A version of World Tour for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X was published by Aspyr in July 2009. A mobile version developed by Hands-On Mobile was released for BlackBerry, Android, Java, and the N-Gage platform. While the game continues to feature the use of a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of rock music, Guitar Hero World Tour is the first game in the Guitar Hero series to feature drum and microphone controllers for percussion and vocal parts. This is in many ways similar to the competing Rock Band series of games. The game allows users to create new songs through the "Music Studio" mode, which can then be uploaded and shared through a service known as "GHTunes". The PlayStation 2 version uses venues that are pre-rendered videos, due to the console's technical limits. World Tour received generally positive reviews, with critics responding positively to the quality of the instrument controllers, the customization abilities, and improvements in the game's difficulty compared with the previous Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (2007). ## Gameplay Guitar Hero World Tour builds on the gameplay from previous Guitar Hero games, in which players attempt to simulate the playing of rock music using special guitar-shaped controllers. World Tour expands beyond the core guitar-based gameplay by introducing the ability to play drums and sing vocals, and supports the ability for up to four players to play together in a virtual band through these different instruments. Successfully hitting notes increases the player's or band's score, as well as increase the "Rock Meter" that represents the song's performance. Missed notes are not scored and negatively affect the Rock Meter. If the Rock Meter drops too low, the song ends prematurely, with the virtual audience booing the band off stage. Completing a consecutive series of notes successfully will increase a scoring multiplier for that player up to 4x. This multiplier is doubled when the player activates star power. Similar to Rock Band, the band shares a common score, scoring multiplier and band performance meter while each player has their own performance metric; the band also shares the same "Star Power" meter, though any player may activate it at any time. A player that performs poorly and reduces their performance meter to zero can still continue to play, but they drain the overall performance meter for the band, requiring the other players to make up for this. Successfully completing a song garners a three to five-star rating based on the accumulated score, and rewards such as in-game money that can be used to buy new guitars and outfits for characters. The guitar interface remains relatively unchanged in World Tour. As with previous Guitar Hero titles, the guitar and bass player must hold down the correct fret button(s) on the controller while strumming in time with the notes as they scroll on-screen. One addition to the guitar gameplay is the ability to play notes while holding a sustained note. Additionally, the bass guitar player is required to play notes representing an open E string, which is shown on-screen as a solid line across their note track. To play these notes, the bass guitar player strums the controller without pressing any fret button keys. The drum interface is similar to the guitar's interface, with each on-screen note track equivalent to a colored drum head on the controller, with the bass drum indicated by a line across the note track. The drum player only needs to hit the correct drum pads simultaneously to the note gems to successfully play their track. There are also marked sections indicating drum fills wherein the player may play any notes they wish in a 'solo' to gain points. The vocal track requires the player to match the pitch of the notes in a manner similar to Karaoke Revolution to be successful. Special sections of each player's note track are marked with glowing notes, which, if completed successfully, builds up Star Power. Once enough Star Power is accumulated, it can be released via various means to double the band's current score multiplier. For guitar and bass, this is done by lifting the guitar controller vertically or (though not in bass) by pressing a button on the guitar face; for drums, by striking both cymbal pads on the controller at the same time; for vocals, by tapping the microphone or making a similarly quick sound. Star Power's use has been modified over previous Guitar Hero entries in that Star Power can now be accumulated even when Star Power is in use by successfully completing additional Star Power phrases, which extends the Star Power's duration. In addition to the standard four difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert) for each song and instrument, a new Beginner level has been added in World Tour. This difficulty is aimed for younger and unskilled players; notes are generally simple straight lines in time with bass drum beats, and allowing any or no fret button to be held while the note is strummed (for lead and bass guitar), any drum to be hit (for drums), or any sound to be made (for vocals). ### Game modes The primary single-player game mode is Career mode, which can be played on the lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or vocals. Career mode has been slightly altered from previous Guitar Hero games. After creating a band, selecting or creating an avatar, and then selecting an instrument, the player is then presented with one of several gigs containing two to five songs each. Most gigs end with an encore song that is not revealed until the other songs are completed. Two of the lead guitar gigs feature "boss challenges" with Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent; these boss challenges, featuring original songs by Wylde and Nugent, are different from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's boss battle, removing the focus on attack power-ups and instead featuring a call-and-response mechanic similar to the existing Face-Off mode. The gigs are arranged by difficulty based on the selected instrument. The player is awarded in-game money for each song completed, and completing each gig can also award additional money for meeting certain criteria, such as never letting the Rock Meter drop below a certain level or playing the first several notes of a song perfectly. Completing a gig can also unlock one or more gigs with more difficult songs to complete. Additional awards, such as customization items, are also awarded for completing gigs. The player's accumulated earnings across any of the single player Career Modes are tracked and used to rank the player's overall performance level. Band Career mode is similar to the solo Career mode, with the game songs presented as several gigs to be completed. A band must have at least two players to proceed. The second player may be either a local player or one over the network. Players may be at different levels of progression in the game, but still gain benefits for successfully completing songs when playing together. The in-game interface features vocals along the top of the screen, and three tracks underneath, for bass, drums, and guitar; only tracks for active players are shown. Full four-player bands can compete with other bands online in a Battle of the Bands mode. Both single players and bands can play a setlist of up to six songs in Quickplay mode, still earning in-game money rewards for their performances. Existing competitive modes from the series, including the Battle Mode from Guitar Hero III, are also present in the game. The Wii version of the game features a special "Mii Freestyle" mode that allows players to use their Miis as their characters as they improvise songs via the guitar and drum controllers or using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. ### Characters and customization Players are able to use the Create-a-Rocker mode which is based on the Create-a-Skater mode in Neversoft's Tony Hawk series and the advanced character creation scheme from the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series. Players can change their character's poise, clothing, tattoos, makeup, and age. Selected characters from previous Guitar Hero games are available as templates for creating a rocker. Previous games featured Gibson Guitars, but as a result of a lawsuit with Gibson Guitars, branded guitars are not featured; instead, the player can create a customized guitar from various components, such as bodies, fretboards, and headstocks. The player's in-game drum set and microphone can also be similarly customized. The 14 starting characters of the game can be customized too; however, their customization is limited to clothing and accessories only. Activision had formed partnerships with several instrument equipment manufactures to be featured in the game, including Ampeg, Audio-Technica, EMG Pickups, Ernie Ball, Evans Drumheads, Guitar Center, Krank Amplification, Mackie, Marshall, Orange County Drum & Percussion, Pork Pie Percussion, Regal Tip, Sabian, Vox and Zildjian. In addition to the computer- and player-controlled characters, avatars of notable musicians are featured in the game, either with motion capture or the licensing of their image for their character. Such playable artists include Hayley Williams of Paramore, Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, the Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan, Sting, Ted Nugent, and Travis Barker. New venues in the game include virtual recreations of real arenas, such as Ozzfest, Amoeba Music, Live Nation's House of Blues, Sunset Strip and the San Francisco Giants' stadium, AT\&T Park. One venue showcases the trademark art style of Tool and was developed in collaboration with the band. World Tour is the first Activision game on the PlayStation 3 to support dynamic in-game advertising provided by IGA Worldwide; similar advertising for the Xbox 360 version is provided by Massive Incorporated. ### Instruments #### Guitar and bass guitar RedOctane developed a new guitar controller for World Tour. The unit is approximately 25% larger than previous controllers, making it closer to the size of a real guitar. The new controller includes a longer whammy bar and places the Star Power button directly below the strum bar, improving the access of these features. The strum bar itself was made quieter and longer. The neck of the guitar is detachable, similar to the Gibson Les Paul controller for Guitar Hero III, but the connector has been hardened to avoid connection issues experienced with the previous unit. The neck of the guitar features a touch-sensitive pad just toward the body end from the normal five fret buttons. The player can use either the fret buttons or the touch pad to play regular notes. The pad also allows the player to play notes via tapping or via "tap strumming" similar to the slap bass method for bass guitar, and to alter the pitch of sustained notes. Guitar tracks feature notes connected by a semi-transparent purple line, (except for the Wii and PlayStation 2 version, in which semi-transparent gems replace this purple line) called "Slider Gems"; the player can play these notes by sliding their fingers up and down the touch pad or by tapping the fret buttons without strumming. The touchpad can also be used for sustained and staccato notes in the music studio feature while recording guitar, and is used for finer control over loops when recording other instruments. #### Drums World Tour features a wireless six-piece drum kit, with a bass drum pedal and five velocity-sensitive drum pads, which Activision has stated provide the "most realistic drum experience ever in a video game". Generally, the pads represent the snare drum (red), the tom-tom drum (blue), the floor tom (green), the hi-hat cymbal (yellow), and the crash cymbal (orange), however, they can be used for other percussion instruments depending on the song. The bass drum is represented by a purple, horizontal line on the highway, which players must use the drum pedal to hit. The drum kit was designed with help from John Devacka, the developer of MTV Drumscape, and developed key patents used for most modern music games that are now owned by Activision. Special note gems on the drum track, representing accent notes, are "armored", requiring the player to strike the corresponding drum head harder in order to break the armor and score more points. During song creation, the velocity sensitivity feature of the drum pad allows players to alter the sounds made by the drums. The drum set also has a MIDI input port in the back, allowing users to connect a compatible MIDI drum kit to play in the game. The Wii version of the drum controller includes a slot for the Wii Remote to fit into, enabling it to become wireless, much like the guitar controller introduced for the Wii version of Guitar Hero III. #### Microphone The official microphone used for vocals uses a USB connection. For other consoles, such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a headset can also be used as an alternative, but has proven to be less reliable as it tends not to pick up the audio from the player. When playing vocals, a standard game controller, or Wii Remote on the Wii version, is necessary in order to navigate menus, select difficulties and pause. The microphone can also be used as a standard recording device when connected to a casual PC USB port. The computer recognizes the device as a Logitech Recording Device. Logitech and Activision announced that the former company would produce "premium" instruments to be released later in 2008. #### Instrument compatibility World Tour works with older Guitar Hero guitar controllers. Activision stated during their E3 2008 press conference that Xbox 360 users would be able to use the existing Rock Band instrument controllers as well as other third party controllers in Guitar Hero World Tour; Rock Band instruments for the PlayStation 3 are not guaranteed to work in World Tour, though Sony is attempting to help make these units compatible. All Rock Band original Harmonix instruments for PlayStation 2 work with World Tour. According to issue 027 of the UK's Official PlayStation Magazine, all Guitar Hero and Rock Band PS3 controllers are cross-compatible with all games (except for Guitar Hero: World Tour drums on Rock Band, however some require patching, which is done automatically when connected to the internet). Wired Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 instruments also work on the PlayStation 2 versions of World Tour, as well as later Guitar Hero games. Console makers have helped to ensure instrument compatibility between current and upcoming guitar and band games. Both Sony and Microsoft announced that instruments for World Tour, Rock Band 2, and Konami's Rock Revolution would work between all three games on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The Wii version of the game only supports guitar controllers from previous Guitar Hero games, and "no compatibility with any other peripherals". World Tour adjusts the tracks in the game to account for the instrument controller being used. For example, sections of the lead guitar track that are designed to be played on the new World Tour controller's touchpad can be played by tapping the frets on older controllers without strumming. When using Rock Band's drum controller, which has one fewer percussion pad than the World Tour unit and lacks velocity sensitivity, two of the lanes on the "World Tour" drum board merge, reducing the note track to four drum pads and bass pedal, and no armored notes are presented. ## Development The fourth major entry to the Guitar Hero series, at the time named Guitar Hero IV, was officially announced upon the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games in December 2007. "We couldn't have done it without Red Octane's support." says the Guitar Hero Team. The game's new name, Guitar Hero World Tour, was officially announced by Activision in May 2008. Activision and RedOctane had previously registered for trademarks on "Guitar Villain", "Drum Villain", "Keyboard Hero", "Drum Hero" and "Band Hero". Analysts speculated that future Guitar Hero would need to include additional instrument peripherals in order to compete against former Guitar Hero developer Harmonix's Rock Band. Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick and early previews of the game revealed that Guitar Hero IV would branch out into other instruments and vocals. According to the Game Informer preview, the addition of drum functionality came from work initially done towards the Drum Hero title. This work was later folded into the Guitar Hero series after Neversoft was chosen as developer of the series. Neversoft's Allen Flores stated that with the addition of the existing drum gameplay, the development of World Tour took under a year, starting development immediately after the release of Guitar Hero III. The drum instrument controller was designed to be more realistic, with input from Chad Smith (of Red Hot Chili Peppers), Stewart Copeland (of The Police) and Travis Barker (of Blink-182), all of whom requested the elevated cymbal pads. The ability to open-strum the guitar was a feature that was planned for Guitar Hero III but was removed before release, finding that it was too difficult on the guitar tracks. However, they built this feature in from the start of World Tour development for the bass guitar tracks. Bright describes the development of the note track for a given song once it has been licensed for the game as a parallel effort, a process that they have found to be more efficient than their previous work on the Tony Hawk games. Once the song was mixed for use by the development team, a "tempo map" was created by one developer; this map denotes the beats in the music which then can be used by the rest of the development team. Once the tempo map was complete, the song was then distributed to the various teams, such as the specific instrument teams or to the animators, to complete the song. Note-for-note tracking from the song was then performed, and in some cases, changes were made to account for sections that cannot be replicated on the game controllers; the final track represented the note track for the Expert difficulty of the song. Note tracks were then reduced and adjusted to create the note tracks for the lower difficulties in the game. A difficulty assessment was made using the final note tracks to determine where the songs were to be placed in the soundtrack progression. The difficulty model is based on that from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which was adjusted from the Guitar Hero III model after the team received negative feedback from players regarding a "brick wall" in the difficulty progression in that game. The song list for World Tour started as the list of songs that Neversoft wanted to include in Guitar Hero III, but had failed to get into the game or as downloadable content; the list was eventually expanded to over 500 songs. The song list was then prioritized based on what the team thought would be best in the game, and then going after the music that would take the longest time to license, as was the case for the Jimi Hendrix songs. While songs were selected to make sure that guitar, bass, and drums all had great parts, they also opted for songs that would be strong for one single instrument as to make the game still appealing for those playing the single player modes. Some songs were also suggested through the licensing efforts by Activision for inclusion in the game. Flores stated that the inclusion of caricatures of recording artists in the game was either due to the team seeking that specific artist for the game, or the artist approaching the development team and requesting to be part of it. The band Tool, which hasn't licensed its music since 1996, allowed for the inclusion of three of its songs in World Tour as long they were involved with the artwork and tracking of the songs for the game, leading to the creation of the art-like Tool venue. Bright noted that they had support for "epic drum solos", in which the band animation would focus on the drummer, but removed this feature from the game's final release due to its complexity. They also had to remove the "Jam Over" mode planned for the game's music creation section that would have allowed players to start with one of the game's songs and play over it on their instruments; this feature was removed in order to keep the final product polished and on-time. The custom song creation feature was inspired by the current "hacking environment" that has arisen from the first two Guitar Hero games, where players would create new tracks and share them with others. Hands-On Mobile has secured the worldwide rights to create a mobile phone version of the game to be released later in 2008. A version of the game has been rated by the ESRB for Microsoft Windows computers, though Activision has not officially confirmed this version. A PC version of Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed by Intel on February 27, 2009 and displayed at CeBIT on March 3–8, 2009 in Hannover, Germany. ### Bundling and promotion World Tour is available in several bundle packages, as well as the stand-alone game. In addition to a game bundle that includes a wireless guitar for each platform, the game can be bought in one of two bundles that include the guitar, drums, and microphone controller. The second bundle, only available through RedOctane's store, also includes a T-shirt, keychain, and a recharging kit. Players in the United Kingdom who pre-order the full band bundle also received a second guitar controller for bass players. The bass guitar is the Les Paul guitar, the same model as bundled with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. During the Christmas season of 2008, Some retailers, such as Target, sold in-store a dual guitar bundle which included two identical wireless Les Paul styled guitars from previous game versions and did not include the new guitar with the tapping area. Activision created a series of television advertisements directed by Brett Ratner based on the famous scene from Risky Business where Tom Cruise dances to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" in a shirt and underwear, each featuring a different set of celebrities lip synching to the lyrics while using the new instrument controllers. The first ad included athletes Kobe Bryant, Tony Hawk, Alex Rodriguez, and Michael Phelps. Another ad spot featured model Heidi Klum; two versions of Klum's ad exist, one a "director's cut" where she is wearing less clothing. A subsequent commercial featuring model Marisa Miller was banned from airing as too racy. A YouTube viral video entitled "Bike Hero" showed what appeared to be a teenager riding a bike along a route marked with symbols similar in appearance to the in-game note tracks with LED lights on the handlebars blinking in time to the notes to the song "Prisoner of Society" by The Living End. The video was later determined to be the work of a viral marketing company Droga5 in cooperation with Activision to promote the Guitar Hero games. The viral advertisement was considered a success, with about 3.5 million views since its release. ## Soundtrack All of the 86 songs in the game are master recordings, a first for the series. Project director Brian Bright claims that they have "a pretty even split between the '80s, '90s, and classic rock" with a "good amount of emerging bands". Some of the songs from the disc are exportable to both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero for a small fee, with music licensing rights limiting which songs can be exported. ### Custom songs Guitar Hero World Tour allows players to create their own songs through the "Music Studio" and share them with others through the Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection internet capabilities. The Studio is similar to Apple's GarageBand software. The player can create the tracks for each song by playing it in real or slowed time, with the game quantizing offbeat notes to the nearest beat as set by the player, or tracks can be constructed one note at a time. The notes played by the user are the default "Expert" difficulty track, and the lower difficulty versions are generated by the game. Players can create the tracks for lead, rhythm, and bass guitars and for drums, selecting from a number of different sounds and kits for each instrument. Distortion and other effects can be added to these tracks through Line 6 amplifiers in the "GHMix" mode. Players cannot record vocals directly, but can create a hum-along vocal line in the Studio. PlayStation 3 users with MIDI-compatible computers are also able to connect their computer to the console and use it for song composition; a similar feature is sought for Xbox 360 owners. Eurogamer reported that a crew at Activision was able to successfully create a "perfectly respectable cover" version of the first verse of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Custom songs can be uploaded to the "GH Tunes" service, allowing other players to rate songs and search and download songs by these ratings. A Showcase service provides some of the best user works alongside new songs from popular artists for players to download. Players can only upload five songs to the service at the start, but players that have highly rated songs gain the ability to upload more. Bright stated that uploaded songs would be actively monitored, and that covers of copyrighted songs would be removed from the service while also taking down any other requests made by copyright owners. The PlayStation 2 version of the game features custom song creation, but does not support the uploading service. ### Downloadable content In addition to custom songs, players of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions were able to download new licensed songs for the game. However, on March 31, 2014 Activision removed this content from being downloadable and there is no evidence it will become available again. This is the first game in the Guitar Hero series that supported download functionality on the Wii. Wii users are able to store downloaded songs on either the Wii's internal memory or on an SD Card in a "Rock Archive", and then were able to add songs to playlists from this. When playing tracks stored on an SD Card, each song was automatically copied to a "content cache" on the Wii's flash memory for play and then deleted after the song is finished. This required about 200 free memory blocks on the Wii. Neversoft and Activision expressed intentions to release downloadable content more frequently, but this has yet to materialize since the game was released in 2008. Downloadable content was available through the in-game store and includes full album downloads and more regular releases compared to Guitar Hero III. Most existing downloadable content for Guitar Hero III is not playable in World Tour, due to the lack of having tracks for all four instruments for the latter game. However, with the release of Metallica's Death Magnetic, the developers were able to prepare the tracks in Guitar Hero III to have the required portions needed for World Tour, and thus these tracks are forward-compatible. Activision has also stated that they are considering a monthly subscription service to deliver downloadable content to users for future games. Most of the downloadable content (152 of 158 songs as of early August 2009) is exportable to both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero, updated to include new features introduced in those games. However, Guitar Hero 5 downloadable content is not playable in World Tour. ## Technical issues Users encountered several technical issues with the instrument controllers upon release of the game. Most often cited was the drum controller failing to register drum hits by the player. Some users have also found that, despite the assurance of instrument compatibility, the PlayStation 3 World Tour drum kit does not work with Rock Band 2, however the 1.1 patch for Rock Band 2 on PS3 has fixed this issue. Users have also noted that the wireless guitar strum bar may fail after a few hours of playing. Activision has acknowledged that drum sets from earlier manufacturing processes may be prone to these errors, and have set up several support threads on their Guitar Hero forums to address the issue and assist users in equipment replacement. ## Reception Guitar Hero World Tour has received generally positive reviews from critics, many making comparisons between it and the Rock Band series. 1UP noted that while World Tour is not as good a "party game" as Rock Band, the game still provides "great peripherals and fun-to-play music" and delivers what the player should expect. GameTrailers stated that "another viable challenger has stepped onto the stage." IGN's review was lukewarm, noting that "A number of things it tries to accomplish were already done better in Rock Band", but stated that the game would be a good "stepping point" for the next iteration of the series. While reviewers were satisfied with the single player modes of the game, the Band tour mode was considered weaker than Rock Band's Tour mode. The interface for a full band, despite being similar to Rock Band, was found to be confusing, making it difficult to determine if a fellow bandmember was about to fail or identifying how much Star Power the band had accumulated. The Band tour was found to be little different from the single player modes, and lacked the additional incentives and challenges that Rock Band had. The note charts and the game's difficulty curve were found to be significantly easier than the more punishing ones in Guitar Hero III. Critics did observe poor note charting, stating that some of the song charts "simply don't match the music" and that "you'll be asked to hit notes where there are none, or not hit notes that are there." The soundtrack was generally praised for containing all master recordings. However, critics found that the setlist contains very few standout hits, and that the inclusion of a number of foreign-language and difficult-to-recognize songs weakened the overall list. Reviews also commented on the number of songs that overlapped with Rock Band 2's set list. Reviews of the instrument peripherals for World Tour were mixed. The new touchpad on the guitar controller was found to be imprecise to make it difficult to use during difficult song sections and would sometimes fail to register taps or slides; some of these issues were attributed to initial manufacturing problems. The drum kit has been praised for the ease of setup, the drum pad layout, and the response of the drums, though the lack of a means to fix the location of bass drum pedal was seen as a drawback when compared to the Rock Band drum kit. The music creation feature of the game, while seen as a useful addition to the game, was found to be difficult to use, suffered from on-screen lag that could interfere with song creation, and the quality of the resulting songs were compared to ring tones for cell phones. The character customization in World Tour was generally seen as an improvement over the limitations of Rock Band. However, reviewers noted that the use of the real-life celebrities against the cartoon-like visuals, along with the emphasis on the band and not individual players, made their presence "anachronistic". The Wii version received additional praise from reviewers, mostly from the changes in the Wii operation to accommodate the game's Music Store and online play features. The Mii Freestyle Mode was also found to be a good addition, allowing the game to be accessible for younger players. IGN noted that most of the credit for the Wii version is due to Vicarious Visions, as that "the only real aspects that hold the game back from being truly amazing overall are - oddly enough - the ones implemented by Neversoft's core design". It was awarded Best Music/Rhythm Game on the Wii by IGN in its 2008 video game awards. IGN also nominated it for several other Wii-specific awards, including Best Family Game, Best Online Multiplayer Game, and Game of the Year. During the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated World Tour for "Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack". In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine remarked "It rocks\!", placing the game 42nd on a list of greatest Nintendo games. World Tour sold more than 534,000 units during its first week of release, less than half of the sales of Guitar Hero III during the same period, with the Wii version selling the most with 183,000 units. During the month of November 2008, 978,000 units were sold, with 475,000 being for the Wii platform. The Wii version was the fifth best-selling game of December 2008 in the United States, selling in excess of 850,000 copies. The PlayStation 2 version was the 17th best-selling game and best-selling PlayStation 2 game of the same month in that region. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions did not rank, but ranked the sixth and fifth best-selling games respectively for their respective systems. World Tour sold 3.4 million copies across all platforms in North America during 2008. Full band bundles represented 41% of all unit sales of World Tour through January 2009, equating to 61% of the game's revenue, while 35% of unit sales and 27% of total revenues came from the guitar and game bundle. In a March 2011 list, the NPG Group placed World Tour as the 7th highest-grossing game in the United States since 1995. ### Awards - IGN Best of 2008: - Best Music/Rhythm Game (Wii) - Game Informer: Included in "The Top 50 Games of 2008". - Kids Choice Award (2009) Best Video Game. ## Guitar Hero World Tour - Definitive Edition Guitar Hero: World Tour - Definitive Edition (or GHWTDE for short) is a community-made mod of the PC version of World Tour. It not only contains every song from the base game, but players can add additional songs backported from previous and future Guitar Hero games along with their animations, as well as community-made characters, instruments and venues released on Nexus Mods. The game also contains a debug menu, additional practice speeds, additional content for the in-game character creator, and customization of the game's graphics, loading screen, gem theme, and more. The mod is still in active development and has been continuously updated since its launch in December 2021. ## See also - Clone Hero - Frets on Fire X - JamLegend - Ultimate Band

Fielding L. Wright

American politician (1895–1956)

Fielding Lewis Wright (May 16, 1895 – May 4, 1956) was an American politician who served as the 19th lieutenant governor and 49th and 50th governor of Mississippi. During the 1948 presidential election he served as the vice presidential nominee of the States' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) alongside presidential nominee Strom Thurmond. During his political career he fought to maintain racial segregation, fighting with President Harry S. Truman over civil rights legislation, and holding other racist views. Wright grew up in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where he was educated and later attended Gardner–Webb University and the University of Alabama. During World War I he was sent to France as a captain. Wright served in the 149th Machine Gun Battalion and the 105th Engineer Combat Battalion before being honorably discharged in 1919. Following his service in the United States Army, he joined the Mississippi National Guard. After entering politics in the 1920s, Wright was elected to the state legislature, where he served in the late 1920s and through the 1930s. Following the death of Speaker Horace Stansel, he rose to the speakership of the state House of Representatives. After a brief absence from politics, Wright was elected as Mississippi's lieutenant governor and served until he ascended to the governorship following the death of Thomas L. Bailey on November 2, 1946. During his gubernatorial tenure he made efforts to maintain racial segregation and supported Senator Theodore G. Bilbo, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and segregationist, in his attempt to maintain his seat in the United States Senate. Wright was elected to a term in his own right in the 1947 election. In his inaugural address, he voiced opposition to Truman's support of civil rights and called for Southern Democrats to leave the Democratic Party. He served as a leader of the States' Rights Democratic Party, declining offers to run for the presidential nomination, although he later accepted the vice-presidential nomination. In the presidential election, Thurmond and Wright won multiple Southern states, but failed to prevent Truman from winning the presidential election. Wright completed his gubernatorial term on January 22, 1952, and retired from public service. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the 1955 Mississippi gubernatorial election, and died on May 4, 1956. ## Early life and education Fielding Lewis Wright was born on May 16, 1895, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, to Frances Foote Clements and Henry James Wright and was named after his uncle, Colonel Fielding Lewis. In 1901, he entered elementary school and graduated in 1911, as a member of the school's second graduating class. Wright attended Gardner–Webb University and the University of Alabama, graduating with a law degree and was later admitted to the legal bar in September 1916. On July 16, 1917, he married Nan Kelly, with whom he had two children. ### Military In April 1918, Wright enlisted into the United States Army and was given the rank of private at Camp Shelby. He served as a member of the 149th Machine Gun Battalion inside the 38th Infantry Division. He later served as the commander of the 105th Engineer Combat Battalion. During World War I he participated in the battles of Belleau Wood and Château-Thierry before being honorably discharged on August 31, 1919. After leaving the army he organized a unit of the Mississippi National Guard in Rolling Fork and was selected to serve as its first captain where he would lead the unit through the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. ## Career ### Local politics During the 1920s Wright served two terms on the Rolling Fork Board of Alderman. In 1927, he was elected to represent the Twentieth district in the state senate and served until 1932. In 1929 he authored a paved highway bill, but it was vetoed by Governor Theodore G. Bilbo due to disputes over the program's implementation. In 1930, he was appointed to serve as the assistant director of the state tax commission to aid in the enforcement and administration of the tax laws. ### Mississippi House of Representatives In 1932, Wright was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1940. In 1932, he was appointed to serve as the chairman of the House Committee on Highways and Highway Financing. In 1936, he was appointed to serve as the chairman of the House Rules Committee and was also appointed onto the Levees committee and the Joint Committee on Executive Contingent Fund. On March 19, 1936, he introduced a resolution proposing a state constitutional amendment that would allow for the election of highway commission members starting in the 1938 elections, but the resolution failed. Facing opposition from House and statewide leadership for his highway reforms, he helped organize the removal of Speaker Thomas L. Bailey and his replacement by a fellow highway advocate, Horace Stansel. Stansel made Wright chairman of the House Rules Committee. #### Speaker of the House In February 1936, Speaker Stansel requested for Wright to be designated as the acting Speaker of the House and the request was accepted. On April 4, Stansel died from a heart attack while Wright was still serving as the acting Speaker and Wright participated in the planning of Stansel's funeral. From June 23 to 27, 1936, Governor Hugh L. White was outside of Mississippi to attend the Democratic national convention causing Lieutenant Governor Jacob Buehler Snider to become the acting governor. When Snider left the state, John Culkin, President pro tempore of the Senate, was elevated to acting governor. If Culkin had left the state the Speaker of the House would have become the acting governor, but Wright was not eligible as he was in an acting role. However, Culkin did not leave the state which prevented a constitutional crisis over the succession of acting governor. On September 14, 1936, he was nominated by Pearl Stansel and the House of Representatives voted by acclamation, as he faced no opposition despite statements made by John Armstrong and Ira L. Morgan about being interested in running, to formally appoint Wright as the Speaker of the House. After being appointed to the speakership Wright appointed Hilton Waits to replace him as the chairman of the House Rules committee and appointed R. E. Lee to replace him as the chairman of the Highways and Highway Financing House committee. Waits resigned shortly after being appointed as chairman of the House Rules Committee and Joe Owen was selected by Wright to replace him. Wright would continue to serve as Speaker of the House until 1940. On March 24, 1938, the House of Representatives voted twenty-one to nineteen in favor of drafting articles of impeachment against Land Commissioner R. D. Moore. Wright appointed a five-man committee of Walter Sillers, John T. Armstrong, Gerald Chatham, Guy B. Mitchell, and Sam Lumpkin to draft the articles of impeachment. Moore criticized the committee as being "stacked" against his favor by Wright. ### Interlude Although it was speculated that Wright would run in the lieutenant gubernatorial election in 1939, he announced on July 19, 1938, that he would not seek another term in the House of Representatives and would not seek election to another office. After leaving the state house he started working for the law firm of John Brunini and Sons in Rolling Fork. In 1942, he represented the Union Producing company at a House Ways and Means committee to argue for Mississippi to place flat taxes on oil producers rather than multiple severance and sales taxes. After the United States entered World War II Wright attempted to rejoin the army, but was rejected due to his poor eyesight. ### Lieutenant gubernatorial On November 19, 1942, Wright met with friends in Jackson, Mississippi, and stated that he would be a candidate in the lieutenant gubernatorial election. In January 1943, he formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the lieutenant gubernatorial election. Walter D. Davis, a former member of the state House of Representatives and attorney in the Department of War, was appointed to serve as his campaign manager. In the initial primary he won with a plurality of the vote ahead of Paul Spearman and Charles G. Hamilton, who were eliminated, and John Lumpkin, who would continue onto the runoff primary. Wright defeated Lumpkin in the runoff with 155,265 to 108,661 votes winning the Democratic nomination. In the general election he and gubernatorial nominee Thomas L. Bailey faced no opposition. The state House and Senate passed a resolution allowing for Wright to be inaugurated one day before Bailey and Wright was inaugurated as the Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi on January 17, 1944. On March 21, 1944, he gave his first tie breaking vote, in which he voted in favor, when the state Senate voted nineteen in favor to nineteen against on a bill authorizing chancery clerks to use photostat machines in recording records. In April 1944, Wright became acting governor when Governor Bailey went to Kansas City to attend the Methodist general conference as one of Mississippi's two delegates. In 1946, he attempted to call another session of the state legislature to have the state's election laws changed to prevent black voters from participating in the 1947 primaries. In June 1946, he refused to authorize the extradition of George Johnson, a black man facing charges of child abandonment, back to California and refused to commute the death sentence of James Leo Williams, a 25 year old black man convicted for murder, while serving as acting governor. On August 1, 1946, he was made aware of plans by the Department of Justice to investigate the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. Wright claimed that he did not know of any activities conducted by the Ku Klux Klan and that the organization had not existed in the state since 1923. ### Gubernatorial #### First term On October 30, 1946, Governor Bailey suffered a stroke and was in poor health for the next four days until he died from a spinal tumor on November 2. Wright was supposed to leave the state for a physical checkup, but remained in Mississippi due to Bailey's poor health and succeeded him following his death to fulfill the remainder of his term as the 49th governor. On November 7, he was formally inaugurated by Chief Justice Sydney M. Smith without a ceremony. The United States Senate, controlled by a Republican majority, refused to seat Senator Theodore G. Bilbo at the request of Senator Glen H. Taylor. Wright threatened to appoint Bilbo to serve as an interim senator if he was not allowed to be seated, for which the Harrison County affiliate of the Bilbo Campaign Committee passed a resolution praising Wright. The issue was resolved when it was proposed that Bilbo's credentials remain on the table while he returned home to Mississippi to seek medical treatment for oral cancer. When Bilbo died on August 21, 1947, Wright stated that "He was a long and faithful servant of the state. He was an outstanding official whose loss will be felt by Mississippi." On May 20, the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, organized a walkout and strike to improve the wages of bus drivers working for Southern Trailways, the Mississippi affiliate of the Trailways Transportation System. On September 28, a man driving a carnival truck attempted to crash into two Trailway buses and later another driver attempted to crash a bus off a highway near Winona. On October 1, Wright threatened to place members of the Mississippi National Guard onboard every bus with orders to shoot to protect the buses. In November, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation was formed as a temporarily state police force to prevent further violence during the strike, although it was criticized as similar to the Gestapo and the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Hattiesburg passed a resolution calling it fascist, Wright successfully transformed it into a permanent police force. #### 1947 election On January 25, 1947, Wright announced his intention to seek election to a term in his own right in the 1947 Mississippi gubernatorial election. Paul B. Johnson Jr., the son of former governor and representative Paul B. Johnson Sr., later announced his intention to challenge Wright in the Democratic primary. On June 12, he formally launched his campaign at a campaign rally in Rolling Fork where he showed his twenty-point platform which included support for veteran benefits, road improvements, sales tax exemptions, and stopping outside influence on Mississippi. On August 5, he won the Democratic primary with over 55% of the popular vote and later received a letter of congratulations from Johnson, who had placed second in the primary. Wright's first ballot victory was the second time in Mississippi history that the Democratic gubernatorial nominee won without a runoff being needed, with Theodore G. Bilbo's 1915 victory being the first. In the general election he defeated former Nebraskan Governor George L. Sheldon, who ran on the ballot as an Independent Republican and who had stated that he had only expected to receive a few thousand votes against Wright. #### Second term On January 20, 1948, Wright was inaugurated as the 50th Governor of Mississippi by Chief Justice Sydney M. Smith. In his inaugural address he called for Southern Democrats to abandon the Democratic Party due to the Fair Employment Practice Committee, and anti-poll tax, anti-lynching, and pro-civil rights measures. He also criticized President Harry S. Truman for his committee on civil rights and support for other "anti-southern" legislation. His speech and call for Southern Democrats to leave the party was praised by Senator James Eastland and Representatives John Bell Williams and Jamie Whitten who stated that they had been ignored by the party's leadership and should not allow the region's racial beliefs to be undermined. However, Senators Allen J. Ellender and Claude Pepper, Representative William Madison Whittington, Governor Benjamin Travis Laney, and Alabama Democratic Chairman Gessner T. McCorvey criticized him stating that they should remain in the party to reform it from the inside. On January 21, the state house and senate approved resolutions supporting threats to leave the party if more "anti-southern" legislation was passed. In April, the state legislature passed the first workers' compensation bill in Mississippi history and it was later signed into law by Wright. Secretary of Labor Lewis B. Schwellenbach praised the passage of the bill as Mississippi was the last of the then forty-eight states to pass a workers' compensation bill. On July 8, Lycurgus Spinks, who had run in the 1947 Democratic gubernatorial primary and was an Imperial Emperor of the United Klans of America, filed a $50,000 lawsuit against Wright claiming that Wright, W.W. Wright, and George Godwin had convinced John L. Dagget to cancel a contract he had with Spinks. On January 11, 1949, Spinks' lawsuit was dismissed by Judge Sidney Carr Mize of the Southern District Court of Mississippi, but Spinks refiled his lawsuit. On June 29, Spinks removed Wright from his lawsuit, but continued his lawsuit against W. W. Wright and George Godwin. On September 7, Wright declared a state of emergency as Mississippi had suffered its second highest number of polio cases in its history during 1949. #### Segregation In February 1948, a "State-wide Mass Meeting of Negro citizens" organized in Jackson, Mississippi, and called for a biracial committee to oversee the educational improvement project that was started in 1946, but Wright declined their request. Due to federal threats to force the integration of schools Wright reorganized Mississippi's public education system in an attempt to maintain racial segregation. Education funding towards black schools was increased, but still remained inferior to the funding given to white-only schools. In 1951, he opposed attempts by the NAACP to admit black students into white-only colleges and stated that he would "insist on (racial) segregation regardless of the costs or consequences". At the Southern Governors Conference Wright stated that "regardless of what others may say, we in Mississippi are determined that the segregated educational system shall be maintained." ### 1948 presidential election #### Democratic Wright's inaugural address calling for Southerners to abandon the Democratic Party was supported by Senator James Eastland, who was later invited to speak before the state legislature. On January 29, 1948, Senator Eastland gave a speech to a joint session of the Mississippi state legislature where he called for the Solid South to withhold its 127 electoral votes from the Democratic presidential nominee so that "a Southern man would emerge as president of the United States". In February, Wright attended the Southern Governors' Association conference with plans to introduce a resolution calling for the creation of a new Southern party. However, Georgia Governor Melvin E. Thompson gave Wright a copy of a statement condemning his call although Wright stated that he would still introduce his resolution. Alabama Governor Jim Folsom, Maryland Governor William Preston Lane Jr., and Florida Governor Millard Caldwell also criticized Wright while South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond and Texas Governor Beauford H. Jester declined to comment. When he proposed his resolution it was rejected by the eight other governors present and a different resolution calling for a committee to study the effects of recently proposed civil rights legislation was accepted. Although Wright's resolution was unsuccessful another resolution proposed by Thurmond calling for the Truman administration to stop attacking white supremacy or the Southern Democrats would leave the party. After his failure at the Southern Governors' Association conference Wright went to Little Rock, Arkansas to meet with political leaders. While there almost four hundred Arkansas political leaders voted unanimously in favor of a resolution supporting Wright and in Virginia Governor William M. Tuck called for the state legislature to prevent Truman from appearing on the ballot. On March 13, another Southern governor meeting was held where a resolution against civil rights and the party's leadership was supported by the governors of South Carolina, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida while the governors of North Carolina and Louisiana were not at the meeting and the governor of Maryland voted "present". The Anti-Truman Democratic Club of Florida, which controlled twenty-eight of Florida's delegates to the national convention, formed a presidential draft movement supporting Wright. The organization also passed a resolution where it would support South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond or Arkansas Governor Benjamin Travis Laney if Wright did not run for the presidency. After being informed of the movement Wright stated that he was not interested in running for president. Former Alabama Governor Frank M. Dixon attempted to start another draft movement for Wright, but Wright declined to run for president again. On May 10, the States' Rights Democrats conference was held in Jackson, Mississippi, with Wright serving as temporary chairman. The conference was attended by around 2,500 people and a resolution calling for a separate national convention in Birmingham was passed. On May 25, Wright was elected to serve as one of Sharkey County's eight delegates to Mississippi's state Democratic convention. On June 23, he was selected to serve as one of the delegates to the national convention. #### Dixiecrat Wright and former Governor Hugh L. White led the twenty-two member Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. At the national convention he and the Mississippi delegation supported Governor Laney for the presidential nomination. An attempt was made by Charles Hamilton to prevent the seating of the Mississippi delegation due to its pledge to leave the party if Truman was nominated or if the platform was pro-civil rights. However, the Credentials Committee voted fifteen to eleven in favor of seating Wright's delegation. On July 14, he led the Mississippi delegation in a walkout of the convention to protest the adoption of a pro-civil rights plank into the party's platform. On July 17, the Conference of States' Rights Democrats in Birmingham, Alabama suggested him as a candidate for the vice presidential nomination of the breakaway States' Rights Democratic Party and he later accepted the nomination on August 11. During the election Wright, a supporter of racial segregation, stated that "if any of you [African Americans] have become so deluded as to want to enter our white schools, patronize our hotels and cafes, enjoy social equality with the whites, then true kindness and sympathy requires me to advise you to make your homes in some other state." In the general election he and South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond won the popular and electoral votes of the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, and received one faithless electoral vote from Tennessee. Although the party won multiple states it was unsuccessful in its goal of preventing Truman from winning the election as he still managed to defeat Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey without the unanimous support of the Solid South. The failure to spoil the election against Truman was credited to the Dixiecrats being a third party within the United States' two-party system, the Republicans' campaign against Truman in which Dewey did not criticize Truman for his administration's scandals, the Progressive presidential nominee Henry A. Wallace focusing on an idealistic foreign policy, remaining support of the New Deal, labor issues voters against the Taft–Hartley Act, and farm issue voters. In 1950, Truman invited every governor from the South to a luncheon, except for Wright and Thurmond, as Truman stated that invitations were given to Democrats only. Wright continued to defend states' rights and segregation, but conceded that complete obstinance along the lines of the 1948 departure from the Democratic Party would cause Mississippi to lose "its standing with everybody in America." ## Later life Upon leaving gubernatorial office, Wright opened a law practice in Jackson. In 1952, he was selected to serve as Mississippi's national committeeman to the Democratic National Committee for a four-year term. During the 1952 presidential election he supported the Democratic presidential ticket of Governor Adlai Stevenson II and Senator John Sparkman and stated that he would not support the Republican presidential ticket of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Senator Richard Nixon. On October 2, 1954, Wright announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for governor and he selected Gordon Roach, an attorney who had served as Pike County attorney, as his campaign manager. On May 5, 1955, he formally launched his campaign at his home in Rolling Fork with around 3,500 people in attendance. Hoping to build off of white discontent with the United States Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling mandating desegregation in public schools, Wright framed himself as an ardent segregationist. He argued that his involvement in the Dixiecrat foray made him "the man most feared by Negro leaders who seek to integrate the schools" and pledged to use Mississippi's police power to prevent such integration. Though the media reported his chances favorably, Wright placed third in the Democratic primary behind James P. Coleman and Paul B. Johnson Jr., surprising many observers and preventing him from participating in the primary runoff. He thereafter returned to practicing law and Coleman went on to be elected governor. ### Death and legacy On May 4, 1956, Wright suffered a heart attack and died forty minutes later at his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Following his death, his son Fielding Wright Jr. was selected to succeed him as the president of the United Cerebral Palsy of Mississippi, Incorporated, a cerebral palsy humanitarian organization. His funeral was held on May 6, and was attended by Senator Strom Thurmond, state senator R. M. Kennedy, Mississippi Governor James P. Coleman, Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Carroll Gartin, and Mississippi Secretary of State Heber Ladner. Thurmond stated that his death was "a tremendous loss to the South and to the nation". Most state newspaper obituaries focused on his participation in the 1948 Dixiecrat movement and his staunch segregationist pledges in the 1955 gubernatorial race. He was buried at Kelly Cemetery in Rolling Fork. On November 17, 1960, a section of U.S. Route 61 inside Mississippi was designated as the Fielding L. Wright Memorial Highway. An art center at the Delta State University and a science complex in the Mississippi Valley State University were named after him. In 1990, former Arkansas Governor Sid McMath stated that Wright and Thurmond's nominations were "a racist thing" as "they were against Truman because of his attitude toward race and fair employment and these other things that finally became a matter of course later on, this social legislation." Historian James Patterson Smith wrote that Wright's association with the Dixiecrat movement "built the profoundly negative image that has long obscured his substantial achievements as a progressive legislator". His personal papers were destroyed in a fire shortly after he left office, and he has generally been ignored in historiography or dismissed as a reactionary. ## Electoral history ## See also - Curtis LeMay – vice-presidential nominee of the American Independent Party in 1968 - Herman Talmadge – selected vice-presidential nominee of a faithless elector in 1956 - Thomas H. Werdel – vice-presidential nominee of multiple third parties in 1956

Will Palmer (cricketer)

English cricketer (1736–1790)

William Palmer (1737 – February 1790) was an English cricketer who played during the 1760s and 1770s. He was born and died in Coulsdon, Surrey. As a top-order batsman, he was a member of the local Coulsdon Cricket Club and also played county cricket for Surrey. Most of Palmer's career was before cricket's statistical record began in the 1772 season so relatively little is known of him. However, he regularly played in noteworthy matches until 1776. He has been recorded in 24 eleven-a-side matches and in one top-class single wicket match. He was last recorded playing for Coulsdon against Chertsey in 1784 when he was 47 years old. ## Career ### 1768 to 1772 Will Palmer was born at Coulsdon, Surrey in 1737 and christened on 7 January that year (Julian calendar). He was already 31 years old when he played for Bourne Cricket Club against Caterham Cricket Club at Westerham Common on 10 June 1768. The match is the earliest known mention of him in cricket sources. Caterham batted first and were all out for 63 but Bourne were dismissed for 60 in their first innings, Palmer scoring 12. In their second innings, Caterham totalled 150 for a match total of 213, so Bourne needed 154 to win. Palmer scored 23, which was the second-highest score after Richard Simmons' 45, but Bourne were all out for 139 and Caterham won the match by 14 runs. As Palmer was a Surrey man, it is possible that he played for Bourne as a given man. This match is not included in the ACS guide. In 1769, Palmer played for Caterham against Hambledon at Guildford Bason on 31 July and 1 August. The team totals are known but there are no individual scores or details of dismissals. Caterham scored 104 and 137. Hambledon replied with 99 and 143/6 to win by 4 wickets. The match was originally recorded by H. T. Waghorn but with some transcription errors. The report found by Waghorn described the match as "the finest that ever was played" and calculated an attendance of 20,000. G. B. Buckley discovered an additional report which mentioned that the first day's play was interrupted by rain and that Hambledon in their first innings had scored 51/4 at the close. According to CricketArchive, however, the match was played in 1768 and Hambledon won by 86 runs after scoring 137 and 142 while Caterham (who batted first and third in reality) replied with 104 and 99. Hambledon's match total by the database's reckoning was 279 and Caterham's was 203, a difference of 76, not 86. Furthermore, CricketArchive calls the match "Surrey v Hampshire". In the ACS guide, the match is correctly dated and called "Caterham v Hambledon". There is no mention of Palmer in reports from the 1770 and 1771 seasons. In 1772, he played in two matches for an England XI against Hampshire. The first was at Broadhalfpenny Down on 23–25 June; the second at Bourne Paddock on 19–20 August. Although Palmer's team was called England by some sources, others called it Kent, Middlesex and Surrey, as the players were from those counties only. In the first match, Hampshire (146 and 79) defeated England (109 and 63) by 53 runs, Palmer scoring 13 and 8. At Bourne Park, England won by 2 wickets. Hampshire were all out for 123 and England replied with 136. Palmer top-scored with 29. Hampshire scored 113 in their second innings. Palmer scored 14 as England made 101/8 to win by 2 wickets. The result of this match gave cause for celebration in Kent as most of the England team were Kent players. A song was written by a Kent supporter which named all the England players in one quatrain: > Minshull, Miller, and Palmer, with Lumpy and May, > Fresh laurels have gained by their conquest to day; > Wood, Pattenden, Simmons, with Fuggles and White, > With Boorman we'll join and we'll toast them all night. ### 1773 1773 was the best of Palmer's known seasons. He appeared in eight noted eleven-a-side matches and in one top-class single wicket match. The latter was played on 2 June at the Artillery Ground between Five of Hambledon and Five of England, including Palmer. It was a low-scoring match which England won by 1 wicket. Palmer was dismissed for 1 in both innings. He made his first known appearance for Surrey at Laleham Burway on 21–22 June in a match against Kent. He scored 8 and 5 as Surrey won by 35 runs. Palmer then had an outstanding match on 2–3 July at the Artillery Ground as England defeated Hampshire by 6 wickets. Hampshire batted first and were all out for 132. England replied with 187, of which Palmer scored 52 not out, a first innings lead of 55. Hampshire scored 154 in the second innings. Palmer with 30 not out and John Boorman with 55 led England to victory at 100/4. Palmer had a match total of 82 and was not out in both innings. On 19–21 July, Palmer was in the Surrey team which defeated Kent by 153 runs at Bourne Paddock. He top-scored in the first innings with 22 in a total of 77. Kent were all out for 63. Surrey built on their lead and scored 217 in the second innings, Palmer contributing 38. Kent were bowled out for 78. As happened in Kent the previous year, a song was written to celebrate Surrey's victory. The writer was the Rev. J. Duncombe of Sevenoaks. It was called Surrey Triumphant and was a parody of The Ballad of Chevy Chase. Several players were mentioned and one of the verses was: "Palmer, for batting well esteemed". In his next match, Palmer made the highest-known score of his career when he scored 68 for England against Hampshire at Broadhalfpenny Down on 4–5 August. At the time, it was one of the highest scores on record. Pitch preparation in the 18th century can best be described as rudimentary and conditions invariably favoured the bowlers. It was not until 1895, when marl began to be used as a soil conditioner in pitches, that there was a general improvement in favour of batsmen. Scores of more than 50 were rare in the 1770s and it was not until 1775 that the earliest known century was scored in a top-class match. Hampshire batted first and were all out for 89. England lost two wickets cheaply but then Palmer and Thomas White came together and built a match winning partnership for the third wicket. Palmer scored 68 and White 69. The rest of the England batsmen were soon dismissed and the total was 202. Hampshire scored 140 to avoid an innings defeat. Palmer, who is known to have been a long stop fielder, took a catch to dismiss Richard Francis. Needing 28, England won by 9 wickets. Palmer did not bat. Palmer played for Surrey in each of his other four 1773 matches. These were against Kent at Sevenoaks Vine on 16–18 August; against Hambledon Town at Broadhalfpenny Down on 26 August; against Hampshire at Laleham Burway on 16–18 September; and against Hampshire at Broadhalfpenny Down on 27–28 September. In the match at Sevenoaks, Palmer was number 2 in the Surrey batting order and scored 20 in both innings. He was run out in the first and caught behind by Richard Simmons in the second. Surrey scored 170 and 70; Kent replied with 141 and 100/4 to win by six wickets. The match on 26 August ended in another Surrey victory by six wickets. Hambledon scored 103 and 51; Palmer scored 16 and 6 as Surrey replied with 131 and 24/4. The scorecard lacks dismissal details so it is not known if Palmer was out or not out in his two innings. At Laleham Burway, Surrey won by 8 wickets. Hampshire were all out for 38 and 145; Surrey scored 120 and 64/2. Palmer was bowled by Thomas Brett for 6 in the first innings and did not bat in the second. In the last match at the end of September, Surrey won by an innings and 60 runs. Hampshire were dismissed for 83 and 82; Surrey scored 225. Palmer made 14 but William Yalden scored 88 which equalled the highest score on record at the time. ### 1774 to 1776 Palmer's first known match in 1774 was for England against Hampshire at Broadhalfpenny Down on 22–24 June. Hampshire won by an innings and 52 runs. England scored 122 and 133; Palmer was out for 0 in the first innings and made only 6 in the second. Hampshire scored 307. There was a return match at Sevenoaks Vine on 8–9 July which Hampshire won by 169 runs. They scored 139 and 182; England were dismissed for 88 and 64, Palmer scoring 3 and 5. In the second innings, he was bowled by his Surrey colleague, Lumpy Stevens, who was playing for Hampshire as a given man. After that poor start to the season, Palmer had a better game for Surrey against Hampshire at Guildford Bason on 20 July. Surrey were all out for 61 but he top-scored with 26 not out, batting at number 4 in the order. Hampshire were all out for 91, a lead of 30. Surrey in their second innings scored 77, Palmer being bowled by Richard Francis for 2. Hampshire replied with 48/3 to win by 7 wickets. Palmer is recorded four times in 1775. In July, he played in two matches for Surrey against Hampshire. The first match was at Laleham Burway on 6–8 July. Surrey won by 69 runs. They batted first and were all out for 76, Palmer making the top score of 15. In the second innings, when Surrey scored 163, he made only 1. Hampshire were dismissed for 51 and 119. The second match was at Broadhalfpenny Down on 13–15 July. This was the famous match in which John Small scored the earliest known century in a top-class match. Hampshire batted first and scored 168; Surrey replied with 151 but Palmer was out without scoring. In their second innings, Hampshire lost four wickets very quickly and seemed to be heading for certain defeat but Small and his captain, Richard Nyren, built a large partnership for the fifth wicket. Small scored 136, Nyren 98 and Thomas Brett weighed in with 68. Their total of 357 was a huge score in the playing conditions of the time. Surrey were bowled out for 78, of which Palmer made the top score of 22, and Hampshire won by 296 runs. Arthur Haygarth commented on the fact that 754 runs were scored in the match. In September 1775, Palmer played for his local club Coulsdon against Chertsey and as a given man for London, also against Chertsey. Coulsdon lost heavily at Laleham Burway by 172 runs. Chertsey scored 152 and 148; Coulsdon were dismissed for 43 and 85, Palmer scoring 1 and 5. Chertsey beat London by 44 runs after scoring 106 and 122. London replied with 101 and 83; Palmer scored 9 and 5. Palmer played for Kent as a given man on 5–7 June 1776. The match was against Hampshire on the neutral venue of Moulsey Hurst for a stake of 500 guineas. Hampshire scored 225 and 186; Kent scored 55 and 204, so Hampshire won by 152 runs. Palmer is number one in the scorecard but he was dismissed for 2 and 0, bowled by William Barber in both innings. Palmer's next known match was for Surrey against Hampshire at Laleham Burway on 6–8 August 1776. This was a very close contest which Surrey won by one wicket. Hampshire scored 94 and 176; Surrey 141 and 130/9. Again, Palmer did not have a successful match and was out for 2 and 5. In his last known match until 1784, he was out for a "pair", scoring 0 in both innings. He was bowled by Richard Nyren in the first and caught behind by Tom Sueter in the second. Hampshire won the match by 198 runs. ## Later years Palmer is undocumented after 1776 except for one final reference in 1784. He was 47 years old by that time and may have been playing continuously for Coulsdon in the interim but there are no surviving reports of Coulsdon matches during that period. The 1784 match was against Chertsey at Laleham Burway on 22–23 June for a stake of £50 a side. Chertsey scored 219 and 186; Coulsdon could only score 63 and 29. Palmer scored 9 in the first innings and just 1 in the second. Chertsey won by 313 runs. Haygarth left a short biographical note about Palmer which included the "batting well esteemed" verse. As Haygarth says, Palmer was a successful batsman in the few matches recorded of him (especially in 1773) but he undoubtedly began his career long before 1772 when match records were rarely created or maintained. Palmer died in Coulsdon in early 1790 and was buried there on 8 February 1790.

Svalbard Rocket Range

Rocket launch site in Svalbard, Norway

The Svalbard Rocket Range or SvalRak as it is named, is a launch site for sounding rockets at Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway. The site has been in use since 1997 and is owned by Andøya Space Center, which is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and the Kongsberg Group. SvalRak's location at the 79th parallel north makes it well-suited for launching rockets to investigate Earth's magnetic field. It is used mostly by American, Japanese and Norwegian researchers. It is the world's northernmost launch site. ## History Planning of a launch site in Ny-Ålesund started in 1993, a location chosen because of its ideal location to study the polar cusp. Construction of the site started in the summer of 1997. The Norwegian Institute for Air Research, which conducts air measurements in Ny-Ålesund, was concerned that the rockets could pollute their measurements. A test rocket was launched on 15 November. The first proper launch was an Indian Rohini RH-300 MkII sounding rocket purchased from ISRO and christened Isbjørn 1 (Polar Bear 1). This rocket contained instruments from University Centre in Svalbard, the University of Tromsø and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. The 510-kilogram (1,120 lb) rocket had a payload of 70 kilograms (150 lb) and reached 120 kilometers (75 mi) altitude. It was followed by two Black Brant rockets for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which reached an altitude of 500 kilometers (310 mi). ## Use SvalRak is the world's northernmost rocket launch site, and is located at the 79th parallel north. This makes it an ideal location for sending instruments into Earth's magnetic field and the polar cups, cleft and cup. It is also used for studying the Magnetopause and aurora borealis, for which Ny-Ålesund is the most convenient location because of its ease of access. It is owned by Andøya Space Center, which is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (90 percent) and the Kongsberg Group (10 percent). SvalRak has no permanent staff in Ny-Ålesund. The main users are American, Japanese and to a less extent Norwegian scientists. ## Launches SvalRak originally held permission to fire four rockets every two years. Forty-one rockets had been launched by 2004, with a peak altitude of 1,108 kilometers (688 mi). The site was upgraded in 2018.

Mudumalai National Park

National park in Tamil Nadu, India

Mudumalai National Park is a national park in the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu in southern India. It covers 321 km² (124 sq mi) at an elevation range of 850–1,250 m (2,790–4,100 ft) in the Nilgiri District and shares boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala. A part of this area has been protected since 1940. The national park has been part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve since 1986 and was declared a tiger reserve together with a buffer zone of 367.59 km² (141.93 sq mi) in 2007. It receives an annual rainfall of about 1,420 mm (56 in) and harbours tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests with 498 plant species, at least 266 bird species, 18 carnivore and 10 herbivore species. It is drained by the Moyar River and several tributaries, which harbour 38 fish species. Traffic on three public roads passing through the national park has caused significant roadkills of mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The park's northern part has been affected by several wildfires since 1999. ## History The word Mudumalai is a Tamil word with முது 'mutu' meaning old, ancient, original; and முதுகாடு 'mudhukadu' meaning ancient forest. The word மலை 'malai' means hill or mountain. The name 'Mudumalai forest' was already in use when the British Government rented the forest in 1857 for logging purposes from the Raja of Neelambur. In 1914, large forest tracts on the Sigur Plateau were declared as reserve forest for systematic logging. An area of about 60 km² (23 sq mi) was established as Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in 1940. The sanctuary was enlarged in 1977 and incorporated into Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in 1986. It was declared as a Tiger Reserve under Project Tiger in April 2007 and notified as 'Critical Tiger Habitat' in December 2007. At the time, 1947 people lived in 28 hamlets inside the reserve; they kept about 1,060 cattle. In 2010, it was proposed to resettle them. This notification was criticised by activists and conservationists as having been intransparent and undemocratic. In 2010, the National Tiger Conservation Authority approved the release of funds to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the frame of Project Tiger. In 2020, Project Tiger has been extended until 2021 with funding of ₹ 114.1 million borne by the Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu. ## Geography Mudumalai National Park covers 321 km² (124 sq mi) in the eastern hills of the Western Ghats at an elevation range of 850–1,250 m (2,790–4,100 ft); it is bordered in the west by Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, in the north by Bandipur National Park and in the east by Sigur Reserve Forest. In the south, it is bordered by Singara Reserve Forest. The Moyar River enters the national park in the south and is joined by five tributaries. Together they drain this area, and several artificial waterholes provide drinking water for wildlife during dry seasons. The original national park area together with a surrounding buffer zone of 367.59 km² (141.93 sq mi) was designated as the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. The elevation range of 250–1,200 m (820–3,940 ft) in the Western Ghats is characterised by evergreen forest with dipterocarp species prevailing. Its undulating hills consist mostly of hornblendite and biotite gneiss with black sandy loam; red heavy loam prevails in the southern part. It is part of the ecoregion South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests. Mudumalai National Park and the adjacent Sigur Reserve Forest form an important wildlife corridor within the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and provide the highest landscape connectivity for the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population in the region. ### Climate Mudumalai National Park receives about 1,420 mm (56 in) rainfall annually, most of it during the southwest monsoon season from June to September. The temperature drops during the cool season from December to January, but rises during April to June, which are the hottest months. Annual precipitation ranges from 1,100 mm (43 in) in the south and west to 600 mm (24 in) in the east. ## Flora Mudumalai National Park harbours tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests. The floral diversity comprises 498 plant species including 154 tree, 77 shrub, 214 herb and 53 vine species. Teak (Tectona grandis) and axlewood (Anogeissus latifolia) are the dominant tree species with a density of more than 105 trees/ha (42 trees/acre). Prominent tree species include flame-of-the-forest (Butea monosperma), Indian laurel (Terminalia elliptica), kusum tree (Schleichera oleosa), weaver's beam tree (Schrebera swietenioides), Malabar kino tree (Pterocarpus marsupium), Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia), Malabar plum (Syzygium cumini), silk-cotton tree (Bombax ceiba) and Indian beech (Millettia pinnata); moist deciduous forest is interspersed with giant thorny bamboo (Bambusa bambos). Mango (Mangifera indica) and persimmon (Diospyros) grow along river courses. Climbers include orange climber (Zanthoxylum asiaticum), Wattakaka volubilis, frangipani vine (Chonemorpha fragrans), trellis-vine (Pergularia daemia), purple morning glory (Argyreia cuneata), striped cucumber (Diplocyclos palmatus) and several jasmine species. Ceylon satinwood (Chloroxylon swietenia), red cedar (Erythroxylum monogynum) and catechu (Senegalia catechu) are the dominant plants in shrubland patches. Lantana camara is an invasive species that negatively affects the dispersal of the native Indian gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica) and Kydia calycina, but does not affect growth and dispersal of other shrubs. A study on nesting behaviour of birds revealed that red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) and red-whiskered bulbul (P. jocosus) prefer its top canopy level for building nests in spring. An exceptionally large arjun tree (Terminalia arjuna) with a height of 32 m (105 ft) and a girth of 8.45 m (27.7 ft) was detected in the Moyar River valley in 2019; it was used by white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), brown fish owl (Ketupa zeylonensis), spot-bellied eagle-owl (Bubo nipalensis), crested honey buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus), changeable hawk-eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus) and shikra (Accipiter badius) for roosting. ## Fauna During the major flowering season, 394 nests of the giant honey bee (Apis dorsata) were detected in the park between January and June 2007; bee colonies comprised an average of 19 nests, mostly built in large trees. ### Mammals A survey carried out between November 2008 and February 2009 revealed that about 29 Indian leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) and 19 Bengal tigers (P. tigris tigris) lived in the park's core area of 107 km² (41 sq mi). As of 2018, the tiger population in the wider Mudumalai Tiger Reserve was estimated to comprise 103 resident individuals. Jungle cat (Felis chaus), rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus) and leopard cat (P. bengalensis) were recorded during camera trap surveys in 2010–2011 and 2018. Two dhole (Cuon alpinus) packs were monitored during 1989–1993 and had home ranges of 83.3 and 54.2 km² (32.2 and 20.9 sq mi); packs comprised between four and 25 individuals during this period. Golden jackal (Canis aureus), and Nilgiri marten (Martes gwatkinsii) were also recorded in 2018. Scat of sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) collected along forest roads and animal trails contained remains of 18 plant species with golden shower (Cassia fistula), Indian plum (Zizyphus mauritiana) and clammy cherry (Cordia obliqua) forming the bulk of its diet apart from fungus-growing termites (Odontotermes), fire ants and honey bees. Small Indian civet (Viverricula indica), Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and brown palm civet (P. jerdoni) live in both deciduous and semi-evergreen forest patches; ruddy mongoose (Urva smithii) lives foremost in deciduous forest, whereas stripe-necked mongoose (U. vitticollis) frequents riverine areas, and Indian grey mongoose U. edwardsii open habitats. The mongooses forage foremost for pill millipedes, dung beetles, fruits, small rodents, birds and reptiles. Smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) groups were observed along the Moyar River in 2010 and 2011. Their habitat preference was studied between 2015 and 2017; the groups preferred rocky areas near fast flowing water with loose sand and little vegetation cover. The Asian elephant is the largest mammal in the park with an estimated 536–1,001 individuals in 25 herds in 2000. Herds comprise up to 22 individuals. The gaur (Bos gaurus) is the largest ungulate in the park, with herds of up to 42 individuals that frequent foremost grasslands in the vicinity of water sources. The sambar deer (Cervus unicolor) forms smaller groups of up to five individuals, but also congregates in groups of up to 45 individuals in the wet season. The chital (Axis axis) forms large groups of at least 35 individuals, with some herds increasing to more than 100 members in the wet season. Chital, Indian spotted chevrotain (Moschiola indica) and Indian muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak) have been recorded eating fallen fruit of the Indian gooseberry in a forest monitoring plot; they are therefore considered to be the primary seed dispersers in the park. Present are also four-horned antelope (Tetracerus quadricornis), blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra), wild boar (Sus scrofa), Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica). Four bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata) troops were studied in 1997, which ranged in size from 28 to 35 members and lived in sympatry with gray langur (Semnopithecus entellus) troops. A troop in the Moyar River valley foraged on leaves, flowers and fruits of several tree and shrub species including tamarind (Tamarindus indica), banyan fig (Ficus benghalensis), wild jujube (Ziziphus oenoplia), neem (Azadirachta indica), kaayam (Memecylon edule) and indigoberry (Randia malabarica), but also consumed herbs, crickets and grasshoppers. The range of the Indian giant squirrel (Ratufa indica) is continuous in the national park's moist deciduous forest; in the drier eastern part, it inhabits foremost riverine habitat with contiguous canopy. It builds nests in trees with a mean canopy height of 10.6 m (35 ft) and feeds on 25 plant species including teak, Indian laurel and Grewia tiliifolia. The Indian giant flying squirrel (Petaurista philippensis) inhabits foremost moist deciduous forest with old trees of a mean 12.9 m (42 ft) height, a mean density of 499 trees/ha (202 trees/acre) and a canopy height of at least 6.86 m (22.5 ft). In 2013, a painted bat (Kerivoula picta) was sighted in the eastern part of the tiger reserve. ### Birds Birds observed from 1994 to 1996 comprised 266 species; the 213 resident ones include Malabar grey hornbill (Ocyceros griseus), Indian grey hornbill (O. birostris), Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata), crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela), black eagle (Ictinaetus malaiensis), besra (Accipiter virgatus) and crested goshawk (A. trivirgatus), white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus), Indian roller (Coracias benghalensis), greater flameback (Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus) and white-naped woodpecker (C. festivus), black-rumped flameback (Dinopium benghalense), white-bellied woodpecker (Dryocopus javensis), heart-spotted woodpecker (Hemicircus canente), rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus), greater racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus), grey-bellied cuckoo (Cacomantis passerinus) and Indian cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus), coppersmith barbet (Psilopogon haemacephalus), white-cheeked barbet (P. viridis) and brown-headed barbet (P. zeylanicus), grey francolin (Ortygornis pondicerianus), speckled piculet (Picumnus innominatus), Indian pond heron (Ardeola grayii), white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), blue-winged parakeet (Psittacula columboides), Nilgiri wood pigeon (Columba elphinstonii), common emerald dove (Chalcophaps indica), yellow-footed pigeon (Treron phoenicoptera), red spurfowl (Galloperdix spadicea) and grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii), painted bush quail (Perdicula erythrorhyncha), crimson-backed sunbird (Leptocoma minima), Loten's sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius), forest wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus), white-browed wagtail (Motacilla maderaspatensis) black-and-orange flycatcher (Ficedula nigrorufa), Eurasian golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus) and black-hooded oriole (O. xanthornus). In 2004, pin-striped tit-babblers (Mixornis gularis) were observed in a dry stream bed outside the protected area. December to March is the breeding season of yellow-crowned woodpecker (Leiopicus mahrattensis), streak-throated woodpecker (Picus xanthopygaeus), yellow-throated sparrow (Gymnoris xanthocollis), blue-bearded bee-eater (Nyctyornis atherton), Indian robin (Saxicoloides fulicatus), scaly-breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata) and white-rumped munia (L. striata). Spot-bellied eagle-owl, Oriental scops owl (Otus sunia), brown boobook (Ninox scutulata) and jungle owlet (Glaucidium radiatum) are known night birds in the region. A juvenile cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) was recorded in spring 2019. The vulture populations in Moyar River valley were surveyed in March 2019. About 200 white-rumped vultures and about 30 active white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus) nests were observed; Indian vultures (G. indicus) and red-headed vultures (Sarcogyps calvus) were sighted at several locations. Sightings of migrating birds include booted eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus), rufous-bellied eagle (Lophotriorchis kienerii), Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), common buzzard (Buteo buteo), western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) and pallid harrier (C. macrourus), cotton pygmy goose (Nettapus coromandelianus), knob-billed duck (Sarkidiornis melanotos), northern pintail (Anas acuta) and rosy starling (Pastor roseus). White storks (Ciconia ciconia) were observed in December 2013 and February 2014. ### Reptiles In 1992, six Indian star tortoises (Geochelone elegans) were sighted in scrubland at elevations of 850–950 m (2,790–3,120 ft). An ornate flying snake (Chrysopelea ornata) was observed in 2006. The mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris) population in Moyar River was thought to encompass about 100 individuals as of 2009. Small reptiles recorded in Mudumalai National Park comprise striped coral snake (Calliophis nigrescens), Elliot's forest lizard (Monilesaurus ellioti), Jerdon's day gecko (Cnemaspis jerdonii), Goan day gecko (C. indraneildasii) and Beddome's ground skink (Kaestlea beddomii). A dead Bibron's coral snake (Calliophis bibroni) was discovered on the road in the Theppakadu area at an elevation of 894 m (2,933 ft) in August 2013, the first record since 1874. A Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis) was recorded in 2018. The Indian rock python (Python molurus) was studied in the frame of a telemetry project in the Moyar River valley from 2017 to 2020. In February 2019, a 3.7 m (12 ft) long female Indian rock python was observed mating with two smaller males measuring 1.98 and 2.22 m (6 ft 6 in and 7 ft 3 in). ### Fish The Moyar River and tributaries harbour 38 fish species, including Nilgiri mystus (Hemibagrus punctatus), Puntius mudumalaiensis, Puntius melanostigma, reba carp (Cirrhinus reba), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), Deccan mahseer (Tor khudree), Malabar baril (Barilius gatensis), mullya garra (Garra mullya), zig-zag eel (Mastacembelus armatus) and bullseye snakehead (Channa marulius). ## Threats From 1979 to 2011, remains of 148 dead Asian elephants were found in the park; 50 individuals were killed by poachers. Traffic on three public roads cutting through Mudumalai National Park pose a significant threat to the park's wildlife; between December 1998 and March 1999 alone, 180 animals belonging to 40 species were killed by drivers. Between December 2006 and November 2007, 101 amphibians and 78 reptiles became roadkills on a 6 km (3.7 mi) stretch of the national highway passing through the park including Indirana frogs, Indian skipper frog (Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis), bronzed frog (Indosylvirana temporalis), pigmy wrinkled frog (Nyctibatrachus beddomii), Asian common toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus), common green forest lizard (Calotes calotes), Blanford's rock agama (Psammophilus blanfordanus), Mysore day gecko (Cnemaspis mysoriensis), bronze grass skink (Eutropis macularia), green keelback (Rhabdophis plumbicolor), trinket snake (Coelognathus helena), Russell's viper (Daboia russelii), common krait (Bungarus caeruleus) and hump-nosed viper (Hypnale hypnale). Between January 2014 and December 2016, 497 Indian palm squirrels (Funambulus palmarum) were found killed in traffic collisions on a 40 km (25 mi) long stretch of a state highway passing through the park. A 0.913 m (2 ft 11.9 in) long roadkilled Bibron's coral snake was found in September 2016. Proliferating tourism resorts and increasing demand for firewood at the national park's periphery are also considered threats to its ecosystem. In 1995, the annual firewood need was estimated at 376 kg (829 lb) per person living in the periphery of the national park. Between 1999 and 2013, six forest fires affected dry deciduous forest patches ranging in size from 80 ha (200 acres) to 85 km² (33 sq mi) in the northern part of the national park; the plant diversity in burned patches needs more than 15 years to recover. ## See also - Wildlife of Tamil Nadu - List of birds of Tamil Nadu - List of endemic plants in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve - 2019 Bandipur forest fires

Malta at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Malta competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which was held from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The country's participation at London marked its fifteenth appearance in the Summer Olympics since its début at the 1928 Summer Olympics. The delegation included two track and field athletes, Rachid Chouhal and Diane Borg, one double trap shooter William Chetcuti and two swimmers Andrew Chetcuti and Nicola Muscat. All five competitors qualified for the Games through wildcard places. William Chetcuti was selected as the flag bearer for the opening ceremony while Borg held it at the closing ceremony. Choudai did not progress beyond the preliminary stages of the men's 100 metres, while Borg advanced to the first round of the women's 100 metres before being eliminated. William Chetcuti finished ninth in the double trap shooting event, while Andrew Chetcuti and Muscat were unable to progress to the first rounds of their respective swimming disciplines. ## Background Malta participated in fifteen Olympic Games between its début at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, with the exception of 1932, 1952, 1956, 1964 and 1976. No Maltese athlete has ever won a medal at the Olympic Games. Malta participated in the Summer Olympics from 27 July to 12 August 2012. Malta sent sprinters Rachid Chouhal and Diane Borg, shooter William Chetcuti and swimmers Andrew Chetcuti and Nicola Muscat to London. As in the 2004 Summer Olympics, Chetcuti was the flag bearer for the opening ceremony while Borg held it for the closing ceremony. Along with the five athletes, the Malta Olympic team consisted of chef de mission and the country's NOC vice-president Julian Pace Bonello, director of sport and assistant Mark Cutajar, secretary general Joe Cassar and director of finance David Azzopardi. The athletes were coached by Jimmy Bugeja, Andy Colbourn and Mario Bonello, with Lucienne Attard, Adele Muscat and Milos Stanisavljevic from the Maltese NOC's medical commission attending the Games. ## Athletics Rachid Chouhal was the oldest athlete to represent Malta at the London Games at the age of 37. He had not participated in any previous Olympic Games. Chouhal qualified for the Games via a wildcard because his fastest time of 10.83 seconds, set at the Marsa Sports Complex on 2 June 2012, was 0.59 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for his event, the men's 100 metres. Before the Games Choudal said "When I want something, I go for it. I am not afraid. I am confident in my training and am careful not to get hurt. I know that the level of the athletes competing in the 100 metre sprint is very high. My aim is to do a personal best or season's best." He was drawn in the fourth heat of the preliminary round on 4 August, finishing fourth out of eight runners, with a time of 10.83 seconds. Overall Chouhal finished 58th out of 75 athletes, but did not progress to the first round because he was 0.21 seconds slower than the slowest competitor in his heat who went through to the later stages. Competing at her first Olympic Games at the age of 21, Diane Borg carried the flag of Malta at the closing ceremony. She qualified for the London Games as a wildcard entrant, because her fastest time of 11.89 seconds, set at the 2011 Games of the Small States of Europe, was 0.51 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for the women's 100 metres. She stated that it was "a great feeling" that she would be representing Malta and every person hoping that she would perform well. Borg took part in the event's second heat on 3 August, finishing third out of eight entrants, with a time of 12 seconds. Her finishing position allowed her to advance to the first round as the slowest qualifier. Borg was drawn in the second heat of the first round, held on the same day, placing eighth (and last) of all competitors, with a time of 11.92 seconds. She finished 53rd out of 78 runners overall, and was unable to advance to the semi-finals because her time was 0.57 seconds slower than the slowest athlete who progressed to the next stage. - Men - Women ## Shooting William Checuti was the only member of the Maltese team at the London Olympics to have participated in three previous Olympic Games and was his country's sole representative in the men's double trap shooting competition. He qualified for the event by receiving a wildcard from the Tripartite Commission because of his performance at the 2011 ISSF Shotgun World Cup where he achieved a gold medal. William Chetcuti said that his objective was "to do his best" and in the event he performed well, he felt that he would be at an equivalent level to his rival competitors. On 2 August he competed in the qualification round of the men's double trap. He finished ninth out of 23 athletes, with a score of 135 points. William Chetcuti scored eight points less than the highest scoring competitor Peter Wilson of Great Britain. He scored two points less than Sweden's Håkan Dahlby and Richárd Bognár from Hungary who were the lowest scoring qualifiers for the final and therefore his competition ended at the qualifying round. After the Games William Chetcuti said he gave it his best but on the day he did not perform to the best of his ability. He stated that his result was influenced by missing his targets in the first and third rounds. - Men ## Swimming The 2012 London Summer Games marked Andrew Checuti's début in the quadrennial competition. He was the youngest male athlete on the national team, at age 19. Andrew Chetcuti qualified for the Games after being issued with a universality place from swimming's world governing body FINA after his fastest time of 51.98 seconds, set at the 2011 Games of the Small States of Europe, was 0.95 seconds slower "B" qualifying standard for his event, the men's 100 metre freestyle. He spent time in Dubai and South Africa preparing for the Games. Andrew Chetcuti said it would be "the best experience of my life so far" and that he would attempt to enjoy competing in the Games. The swimmer revealed that he would attempt to record a new personal best time. He participated in the third heat on 31 July, finishing third out of eight swimmers, with a time of 51.67 seconds. Andrew Chetcuti's time was a new Maltese national record. He finished 39th out of 56 competitors overall, and was unable to advance beyond the first round because he was 2.68 seconds slower than the slowest athlete who progressed to the later stages. After the event Andrew Chetcuti said he was happy with the achievement but hoped to go faster. Nicola Muscat was the youngest person to compete for Malta at the London Games at the age of 18. She had not taken part in any previous Olympic Games. Muscat qualified for the Games after receiving a wildcard from FINA because her fastest time of 26.87 seconds was 1.11 second slower than the "B" qualifying standard for her event, the women's 50 metre freestyle. Before the Games she said, "Competing at international competitions makes you learn to be realistic about winning and making achievable aims. For example, my main aim at the Olympics is to break my own national record." Muscat was drawn in the event's fifth heat on 3 August, finishing fourth out of eight athletes, with a time of 27.22 seconds. Overall she ranked 43rd out of 73 swimmers, and was unable to advance to the semi-finals after finishing 1.94 seconds slower than the slowest competitor who made the later stages. - Men - Women ## See also - Malta at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

2002 Football League Third Division play-off final

Association football match

The 2002 Football League Third Division play-off final was an association football match played on 6 May 2002 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, between Cheltenham Town and Rushden & Diamonds. The match determined the fourth and final team to gain promotion from the Football League Third Division, English football's fourth tier, to the Second Division. The top three teams of the 2001–02 Third Division season gained automatic promotion to the Second Division, while those placed from fourth to seventh in the table took part in play-offs. The winners of the play-off semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2002–03 season in the Second Division. Cheltenham Town finished in fourth place while Rushden & Diamonds ended the season in sixth position. Hartlepool United and Rochdale were the losing semi-finalists, being defeated by Cheltenham and Rushden respectively. The referee for the match, played in front of 24,368 spectators, was Anthony Leake. Neither side dominated the early stages of the match but in the 27th minute, Cheltenham took the lead. Martin Devaney struck the ball towards the Rushden goal where it was defended by Scott Partridge. His clearance went back to Devaney who struck the ball past Rushden's goalkeeper Billy Turley from a tight angle. Within 14 seconds, the score was level at 1–1 as Paul Hall beat three Cheltenham defenders before shooting past Steve Book. Four minutes into the second half, Julian Alsop headed Anthony Griffin's cross goal-bound and despite the ball being blocked by Andy Tillson, Alsop tapped it into the net to put Cheltenham back into the lead. In the 80th minute, substitute Neil Grayson's curling shot struck the Rushden goalpost but John Finnigan scored from the rebound. The match ended 3–1 and Cheltenham were promoted to the Second Division. Rushden & Diamonds ended their following season as champions of the Third Division and secured automatic promotion to the Second Division. Cheltenham Town's next season saw them finish in 21st position in the Second Division which meant they were relegated back to the Third Division for the 2003–04 season. ## Route to the final Cheltenham Town finished the regular 2001–02 season in fourth place in the Football League Third Division, the fourth tier of the English football league system, two positions ahead of Rushden & Diamonds. Both therefore missed out on the three automatic places for promotion to the Second Division and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the fourth promoted team. Cheltenham Town finished one point behind Mansfield Town (who were promoted in third place), nineteen behind Luton Town (who were promoted in second place), and twenty-four behind league winners Plymouth Argyle. Rushden & Diamonds ended the season five points behind Cheltenham Town. Rushden & Diamonds faced Rochdale in their play-off semi-final with the first match of the two-legged tie taking place at Nene Park, Rushden's home ground, on 27 April 2002. Lee McEvilly put the visitors ahead on eight minutes before a header from Stuart Wardley levelled the match in the 34th minute. Eleven minutes after half-time, Paul Simpson scored from distance with a curling shot before Rushden saw a potential equalising goal from Onandi Lowe disallowed for a foul. Garry Butterworth then scored for Rochdale in the 72nd minute from the edge of the penalty area, and the match ended 2–2. The second leg of the semi-final took place three days later at Spotland in Rochdale. After a goalless first half, Mark Peters scored an own goal when his backpass rolled into the Rushden goal to give Rochdale the lead. Immediately from the restart, Butterworth's pass found Lowe who turned and scored to make it 1–1. In the 75th minute, Hall took advantage of a mistake by Griffiths to go round Billy Turley, the Rochdale goalkeeper, and score the deciding goal. Rushden won the match 2–1 and progressed to the play-off final with a 4–3 aggregate victory. Cheltenham's opposition for their play-off semi-final were Hartlepool United; the first leg was held at Victoria Park in Hartlepool on 27 April 2002. The visiting side started strongly and eventually took the lead in injury time in the first half when Eifion Williams scored with a header from close range. With one minute remaining in the game, Martyn Lee won the ball from Chris Westwood and played it to Neil Grayson who levelled the score, ending the match 1–1. The second leg took place three days later at Whaddon Road in Cheltenham. Paul Arnison put Hartlepool ahead on 17 minutes with a low strike but Williams equalised ten minutes later with a shot from 25 yards (23 metres). The second half was goalless which meant the game ended 1–1 and 2–2 on aggregate, resulting in extra time. Grayson came close to scoring with a header but no goals were scored in the additional period so a penalty shootout was required to decide the match. Both sides scored four of their first five spot kicks. Alsop then scored to put Cheltenham ahead in sudden death before Ritchie Humphreys' strike hit the crossbar; despite appearing to have crossed the goalline, the shot was adjudged to have missed. Cheltenham progressed to the play-off final with a 5–4 victory on penalties. ## Match ### Background Neither side had appeared in the play-offs prior to this season. Rushden & Diamonds were playing in their maiden Football League season, having been promoted from the Conference as champions in the previous season. Cheltenham had also recently been promoted from non-League football, and had played in the Third Division since the 1999–2000 season. In the matches between the clubs during the regular season, Rushden had won the game at Nene Park 1–0 in September 2001 (the first competitive League meeting ever between the sides), while the return match at Whaddon Road the following March ended in a 1–1 draw. Julian Alsop was Cheltenham's top scorer during the regular season with 24 goals (20 in the league, 4 in the FA Cup), while Tony Naylor had 17 (12 in the league, 5 in the FA Cup). Lowe was Rushden's leading marksman with 19 (all in the league). Neither side were clear favourites to win the match, according to bookmakers. The match was shown live in the UK on ITV Sport Channel, one of the last games broadcast by the channel before it closed on 11 May 2002. The referee for the match was Anthony Leake. Both sides adopted a 4–4–2 formation and Cheltenham opted to wear their third-choice kit which was yellow in preference to their "unlucky" orange strip. ### Summary The match kicked off around 3 p.m. on 6 May 2002 in front of 24,368 spectators at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Neither side dominated the early stages of the match but in the 27th minute, Cheltenham took the lead. Martin Devaney struck the ball towards the Rushden goal where it was cleared by Scott Partridge. The ball went back to Devaney who struck it past Rushden's goalkeeper Turley from a tight angle. Within 14 seconds, the score was level as Paul Hall beat three Cheltenham defenders before shooting past Steve Book to make it 1–1. Neither side made any personnel changes during the half-time interval and the second half commenced with Cheltenham dominating. Four minutes in, Julian Alsop headed Anthony Griffin's cross goal-bound and despite the ball being blocked by Andy Tillson, Alsop tapped it into the net to put Cheltenham back into the lead. Alsop then missed a chance when he headed wide, before Cheltenham saw claims for a penalty denied after it appeared that Stuart Gray had handled the ball in the Rushden penalty area. In the 69th minute, Rushden made two substitutions, with Jon Brady and Brett Angell coming on to replace Gray and Partridge. Devaney was then substituted with an injury in the 75th minute and replaced by Neil Grayson. Five minutes later, his curling shot struck the Rushden goalpost but John Finnigan scored from the rebound. The match ended 3–1 and Cheltenham were promoted to the Second Division. ### Details ## Post-match Steve Cotterill, the Cheltenham manager, suggested the play-off route to promotion was his preference: "I always said this is the way to go up ... Cheltenham will never have another season like this". His counterpart Brian Talbot admitted his side was second-best and that Cheltenham "edged it and deserved to win ... On the day the best team has won and we have got to reproduce it next season." Cheltenham became the eleventh consecutive team to win a final at the Millennium Stadium after being allocated the North End dressing room. Devaney was named as man of the match. Rushden & Diamonds ended their following season as champions of the Third Division and secured automatic promotion to the Second Division. Cotterill moved to Stoke City by the end of May 2002, replacing Guðjón Þórðarson who was sacked four days after leading Stoke to promotion in the 2002 Football League Second Division play-off final. Cheltenham Town's next season saw them finish in 21st position in the Second Division which meant they were relegated back to the Third Division for the 2003–04 season.

2011 Budweiser Shootout

The 2011 Budweiser Shootout was a stock car race and the first exhibition event of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on February 12, 2011, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The 75-lap race was won by Kurt Busch for the Penske Racing team. Jamie McMurray finished second and Ryan Newman came in third. Pole position driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. maintained his lead through the first corner, but Clint Bowyer, who started seventh on the grid, led the first lap. On the 25th lap, the first caution was given, as Jeff Burton became the leader. During the caution all the teams made a pit stop. Two laps later, an accident involving several racecars prompted the second caution to be given. On lap 63, Newman became the leader. He maintained the lead until the final lap, when Denny Hamlin passed him below the yellow line (out of bounds line), as Busch passed him on the other side. Hamlin passed Newman below the yellow line giving the win to Kurt Busch. There were four cautions and 28 lead changes among ten different drivers throughout the course of the race. It was Busch's first win in the 2011 season, as well as his first win at a track that uses restrictor plates, such as Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. A total of 80,000 people attended the race, while 7.8 million watched it on television. ## Report ### Background The track, Daytona International Speedway, is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races. The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees. The Budweiser Shootout was created by Busch Beer brand manager Monty Roberts as the Busch Clash in 1979. The race, designed to promote Busch Beer, invites the fastest NASCAR drivers from the previous season to compete. The race is considered a "warm-up" for the Daytona 500. It was renamed the Bud Shootout in 1998. The name changed to the Budweiser Shootout in 2001, and it was rebranded the Sprint Unlimited in 2013. A total of thirty drivers were eligible to compete in the race, including previous Sprint Cup Series champions, past winners of the race, rookie of the year winners, previous year pole position winners, the participants of the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup, and the winners of the Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400. The race was 75 laps long, with two segments of 25 and 50 laps. In between the segments there was a pit stop that lasted ten minutes. During the pit stop, teams were able to change tires, add fuel, and make normal chassis adjustments, but they were not allowed to change springs, shock absorbers or rear-ends. Also, all the work was done in either the garage or on pit road. The caution laps, as well as the green flag laps was scored in the race. Kevin Harvick was the defending race winner. ### Practice and qualifying Two practice sessions were held before the race, which was on Friday afternoon. The first session lasted 45 minutes, while the second lasted 60 minutes. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was quickest with a time of 45.031 seconds in the first session, less than five hundredths of a second faster than Mark Martin. Jimmie Johnson with a quickest time of 45.082 seconds was third, ahead of Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, and Jeff Burton. Ryan Newman was seventh, still within a second of Earnhardt's time. In the second and final practice session, Joey Logano was quickest with a fastest time of 44.316 seconds. Busch followed in second, ahead of Michael Waltrip and Bobby Labonte. Greg Biffle was fifth quickest, with a time of 44.787. Denny Hamlin, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, and Matt Kenseth rounded out to the first ten positions. Also in the final practice session, a caution came out because the flood lights (that light the track for racing) in the first and third turns were turned off. For qualifying, the 24 drivers that appeared to race chose their starting positions by a draw. Earnhardt chose the pole position, ahead of Tony Stewart, Edwards, Hamlin, and Kahne who rounded out the first five positions. Labonte chose sixth place, while Bowyer chose seventh, ahead of Newman and Derrike Cope in eighth and ninth. Waltrip, Biffle, Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jamie McMurray chose the next five positions. Burton, who chose fifteenth, was followed by Kevin Conway, Kurt Busch, Harvick, Kenseth, and Martin in the first 20 positions. Kyle Busch, Logano, Johnson, and Regan Smith chose the last four positions in the race. ### Race The 2011 Budweiser Shootout was the first exhibition race of the season, and was televised live in the United States on Fox which began at 8:10 p.m. EST. The conditions on the grid were dry before the race, the air temperature at 51 °F (11 °C) with clear skies expected. Country music singer Laura Bell Bundy began pre-race ceremonies, performing the national anthem. Bob Hadley of Westside Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Florida then delivered the invocation, and actress Amber Heard gave the command for drivers to start their engines. Earnhardt retained his pole position lead into the first corner, but by the conclusion of the first lap, Bowyer was leading. Bowyer remained the leader for the next four laps with assistance from Earnhardt. On the sixth lap, Kahne drove to pit road because of problems with his racecar. On the following lap, Stewart and Hamlin began to draft with each other while in the third and fourth positions. By lap nine, Johnson had moved up 16 positions into the fifth position. One lap later, Burton, with assistance from Earnhardt, moved up to the first position, but on lap 11, Earnhardt reclaimed the lead. On the twelfth lap, Stewart became the leader, but after one lap Burton reclaimed the first position as Edwards moved up to second. On the 14th lap, Burton remained the leader, ahead of Edwards and Kurt Busch. Afterward, Earnhardt fell to fifth. However, he moved up to the second position on the following lap while drafting with Kyle Busch to become the leader on lap 17. Kyle Busch became the fourth different leader in the race. On the 20th lap, Burton, with assistance from Edwards moved to first and second, as Waltrip had a highest speed of 206 miles per hour (332 km/h), the fastest lap speed in a NASCAR cup series race since 1987. On lap 22, Busch became the leader, but after leading one lap, Earnhardt took over the lead position. Three laps later, the first caution was given as a break during the race. Also on the same lap, Burton became the leader. Just after the caution was given, all the teams pitted. After ten minutes the racecars returned to the track for the restart. Burton remained the leader, ahead of Harvick, Kenseth, Earnhardt, and Johnson. On the 27th lap, the second caution was given because of an accident involving Earnhardt, Montoya, Smith, Edwards, Logano, and Conway. Two laps later, Johnson, Bowyer, and Hamlin pit for new tires. Before the restart on lap 34, it was announced that both Edwards and Earnhardt were out of the race. At the lap 34 restart, Burton remained the leader. On lap 36, the third caution was given because of an accident involving Kyle Busch, and Martin. During the caution, Hamlin pitted. At lap 39, Burton remained the leader. On the following lap, Gordon became the leader, but after one lap, they were passed by Harvick and Burton. On the 42nd lap, Kyle Busch drove to the garage. Four laps later, Johnson, with assistance from Biffle, became the leader. On lap 48, Waltrip collided into the wall, prompting the fourth caution to be given. One lap later, it was announced that Kyle Busch was out of the race. At the lap 50 restart, Johnson remained the leader. Two laps later, Burton became the leader, after having assistance from Bowyer. On the 56th lap, Johnson reclaimed the lead, but after one lap, Kurt Busch passed him for the first position. On lap 59, Burton became the leader, as Hamlin moved to second. Four laps later, Newman became the leader, after assistance from Hamlin. On lap 70, Newman remained the leader ahead of Hamlin, Kurt Busch, and McMurray. On the final lap, Hamlin moved below the yellow line and became the leader, as Kurt Busch and McMurray were passing them. After Hamlin passed below the yellow line, Kurt Busch became the leader because Hamlin was not scored. McMurray scored second, while Newman finished third, ahead of Johnson and Biffle in fourth and fifth. Gordon, Harvick, Burton, Bowyer, and Labonte rounded out the top ten finishers in the race. ### Post-race Kurt Busch appeared in victory lane after his victory lap to start celebrating his first win of the season, and his first on any restrictor plate track such as Daytona International Speedeway and Talladega Superspeedway, in front of a crowd of 80,000 people; earning $203,000 for the victory. Following his celebration he said, "McMurray was the man [Saturday night]. He stayed with us. He stayed true. I can't thank him enough for doing that. I hope it was the show the fans wanted to see." He also commented, "What an unbelievable experience, this two-car draft. I had no idea what to expect going in. I was just going to take it one lap at a time and see how it played out. I wanted to learn as the race went on how this Shell/Pennzoil Dodge raced." McMurray, who finished second in the race, explained, "It's completely different plate racing than we've ever had. I hope it was exciting for the fans to watch. But from the driver's seat, it was actually really exciting to push two-by-two and do the side draft. It is awesome the runs you were able to get, so I hope the fans enjoyed it." In the post race press conference, Hamlin, who passed Newman below the yellow line, described his misfortune, "That yellow line is there to protect us and the fans in the stands, and I just chose to take the safer route. A win in the Shootout is not worth sending the 39 [Newman] through the grandstands. For me, as fast as we're running, if I got into his left rear, that car will go airborne." Edwards who was involved in the largest accident in the race, "We were three- or four-wide back there, and I was going between the 88 and the 78, and I don't think the 78 knew I was in there. He kept coming down, and I just had enough of my car in there. I laid up against the 88 and then the 78 got me in the right-front, but that's just everybody trying to get the best position they can so we can go out there and race." 7.8 million people watched the race on television. ## Results ### Qualifying ### Race Results

Action of 24 October 1798

Minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars

The action of 24 October 1798 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought between a British Royal Navy frigate and two ships of the Batavian Navy. The Dutch ships were intercepted in the North Sea within hours of leaving port, 30 nautical miles (56 km) northwest of the Texel, by the British ship HMS Sirius. Both Dutch vessels were carrying large quantities of military supplies and French soldiers, reinforcements for the French and Irish forces participating in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Although the rebellion had been defeated a month earlier, word of the British victory had not yet reached the European continent, and the Dutch force was intended to supplement a larger French squadron sent earlier in October. The French had already been defeated at the Battle of Tory Island and the Dutch suffered a similar outcome, both ships defeated in turn by the larger and better armed British vessel. Captain Richard King on Sirius discovered the Dutch ships early on 24 October, when they were separated by 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) and thus unable to mutually support one another. Targeting the smaller ship, Waakzaamheid, King was able to outrun her in an hour and force her to surrender without a fight. Turning his attention on the larger vessel, Furie, King rapidly overhauled her as well and opened a heavy fire, to which Furie was only able to ineffectively reply. Within half an hour she too had surrendered. Both ships were taken to Britain, repaired and commissioned in the Royal Navy. The defeat ended the last effort by the continental nations to land soldiers in Ireland, and signified the last action of the Irish Rebellion. ## Background Following the French Revolution in 1789, a political organisation was formed in Ireland named the Society of United Irishmen. Crossing social and religious boundaries, this organisation embraced republican principles with the stated goal of removing British government control from Ireland. When Britain went to war with the French Republic in 1793, the organisation was declared illegal and driven under cover, many of its senior members going into exile in Europe or America. These men continued to call for armed resistance to the British government, and in 1796 persuaded the French Directory to launch the Expédition d'Irlande, a large scale invasion of Ireland. The expedition was a disaster, with thousands of French soldiers drowned without a single man successfully landed. Subsequently, the French-controlled government of the Batavian Republic, formerly the Dutch Republic, was persuaded to make an attempt on Ireland in October 1797, but their fleet was intercepted and defeated by Admiral Adam Duncan at the Battle of Camperdown. In May 1798, the arrest of a number of the leaders of the United Irishmen provoked the Irish Rebellion of 1798, a widespread uprising across Ireland. The Rebellion took the British authorities by surprise, but the introduction of regular British Army troops rapidly defeated the Irish armies and the last resistance was brought to an end in September with the surrender of a small French force at the Battle of Ballinamuck. The French authorities had also been taken by surprise by the uprising, and were consequently unprepared: the forces they deployed were inadequate to face the much larger British armies operating in Ireland at the time. News of this defeat had still not reach the continent by October, when a second French invasion force set out. Closely watched by the Royal Navy as soon as it left Brest, the squadron was defeated on 12 October 1798 at the Battle of Tory Island: fewer than a third of the French ships returned to France. The Dutch had also been persuaded to send reinforcements to the United Irishmen during the rebellion, but like the French they were unprepared for the sudden uprising and their contributions were not ready until 24 October. Two Dutch ships had been ordered to take on troops and supplies: the 36-gun frigate Furie under Captain Bartholomeus Pletz and the 24-gun corvette Waakzaamheid under Captain Meindert van Neirop, who assumed command of the expedition. Although both ships were small and poorly armed, each carried a number of French soldiers for service in Ireland, Furie embarking 165 and Waakzaamheid 122. In addition, the ships carried over 6,000 stands of arms and large quantities of other military stores with which to arm the Irish irregular forces that they expected to meet. ## Battle Departing on the night of 23/24 October, the Dutch ships made rapid progress and at 08:00 were 30 nautical miles (56 km) northwest of the Texel, sailing westwards towards the English Channel. Within sight of the Dutch ships however was the British frigate HMS Sirius, a new ship of 1,049 long tons (1,066 t), rated as 38-guns but actually carrying 44. She was commanded by Captain Richard King, who had participated in the campaign against the Expédition d'Irlande two years earlier. Sirius had been stationed off the Texel to watch for Dutch movements and intercept any ships of smaller or equal size entering or leaving the waterway. Although van Neirop's squadron outnumbered King's ship, the British vessel was much larger and faster, and the Dutch were also hampered by their position: the two ships were more than 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) apart, too far to offer mutual support against their opponent. King's first target was the smaller and slower Waakzaamheid, which was windward of Furie and thus would have to sail into the wind to link with Pletz's ship. King rapidly closed with the corvette, avoiding contact with the larger Furie as he did so. At 09:00 Sirius came alongside Waakzaamheid and fired a gun at her, prompting van Neirop to immediately surrender. Furie had not attempted to come to the flagship's aid and resistance against the much larger Sirius would have been futile. King despatched boats containing a prize crew and removed most of the prisoners from Waakzaamheid, placing them below decks on Sirius. Once the prize was secure, King immediately set off in pursuit of Furie, which was attempting to flee to the west and had nearly disappeared over the horizon. For the rest of the day the pursuit continued, Furie unable to escape the faster British ship, which steadily gained during the afternoon until at 17:00 was within range of the Dutch frigate. King's fire was heavy, but Pletz resisted, responding with his own cannon and continuing his attempts to escape. For half an hour the engagement continued, the distance between the ships varying as Pletz attempted to manoeuvre out of King's range. The British crew were better gunners than the Dutch, and the musketry of the French soldiers aboard had little effect on Sirius as the range between the ships was too great for muskets to be effective. As a result, damage and casualties mounted aboard Furie although Sirius was barely touched, only one shot striking the bowsprit and one man wounded. At approximately 17:30, Pletz surrendered, having lost eight dead and 14 wounded and with his ship badly damaged. King transferred the prisoners and placed a prize crew on Furie before returning to his base at the Nore with his prizes. ## Aftermath The capture of the Dutch ships was the end of the final attempt by a continental nation to land troops in Ireland during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars that followed them. Furie and Waakzaamheid were both purchased for the Royal Navy, Furie returned to her pre-war name of Wilhelmina and Waakzaamheid under the same name. The corvette was regraded and the number of guns aboard were reduced to 20 as her frame was not deemed strong enough to carry 24. Richard King remained in Sirius until 1802, and subsequently commanded the ship of the line HMS Achille, participating at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Steven Universe

American animated TV series (2013–2019)

Steven Universe is an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe (Zach Callison), who lives with the Crystal Gems—magical, mineral-based aliens named Garnet (Estelle), Amethyst (Michaela Dietz), and Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall)—in the fictional town of Beach City. Steven, who is half-Gem, has adventures with his friends and helps the Gems protect the world from their own kind. The pilot was first shown in May 2013, and the series ran for five seasons, from November 2013 to January 2019. The TV film Steven Universe: The Movie was released in September 2019, and an epilogue limited series, Steven Universe Future, ran from December 2019 to March 2020. Books, comics and video games based on the series have been released. The themes of the series include love, family, and the importance of healthy interpersonal relationships. Sugar based the lead character on her younger brother Steven, who was an artist for the series. She developed Steven Universe while she was a writer and storyboard artist on Adventure Time, which she left when Cartoon Network commissioned her series for full production. The series is storyboard-driven; the show's storyboard artists were responsible for writing the dialogue and creating the action in addition to drawing the storyboards. The series developed a broad fanbase and has been critically acclaimed for its design, music, voice acting, characterization, prominence of LGBTQ themes, and science fantasy worldbuilding. The series ranked \#99 on BBC's 100 Greatest Television Series of the 21st Century, and appeared on various best-of animated lists. It received numerous accolades, including a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids & Family Program in 2019, becoming the first animated series to win the award, and a Peabody Award for Children's & Youth Programming in 2019, and nominations for five Emmy Awards and five Annie Awards. ## Synopsis Steven Universe is set in the fictional town of Beach City, Delmarva, where the Crystal Gems live in an ancient beachside temple and protect humanity from monsters and other threats. The Gems are ageless alien warriors who project female humanoid forms from magical gemstones at the core of their being. The Crystal Gems comprise Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Steven—a young, half-human, half-Gem boy who inherited his gemstone from his mother, the Crystal Gems' former leader Rose Quartz. As Steven tries to understand his gradually expanding range of powers, he spends his days accompanying the Gems on their missions, as well as interacting with his father Greg, his best friend Connie, his magical pet lion, and the other residents of Beach City. He explores the abilities inherited from his mother, which include fusion—the ability of Gems to merge their bodies and abilities to form new, more powerful personalities. The series' first season gradually reveals that the Crystal Gems are fugitives from a great interstellar empire. During their missions they visit ruins that were once important to Gem culture but have been derelict for millennia. The Gems are cut off from the Gem homeworld, and Steven learns that many of the monsters and artifacts they encounter are Gems who were corrupted by a Gem weapon of mass destruction and can no longer maintain rational, humanoid form. By the end of the first season, Steven learns that, millennia ago, the Gem empire intended to sterilize the Earth to incubate new Gems, but Rose Quartz led her supporters, the Crystal Gems, in a violent and apparently successful rebellion against this genocidal plan. The discovery and release of Lapis Lazuli, a Gem trapped on Earth for millennia, puts the Crystal Gems at risk from the Gem empire once more, leading to the arrival of hostile envoys Peridot and Jasper. In the second season, Peridot allies with and eventually joins the Crystal Gems to prevent Earth's destruction by a Gem "geo-weapon" buried in the planet. During the third season, Lapis Lazuli decides to live on Earth with Peridot; Jasper is defeated and captured; and Steven learns that his mother assassinated one of the Gem empire's matriarchs, Pink Diamond. In the fourth season, as Steven wrestles with his conflicted feelings about his mother's actions, the Gem empire leaders Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond begin to turn their full attention to Earth. In the fifth and final season, Steven learns that in fact his mother was Pink Diamond, who faked her death to assume the identity of Rose Quartz; he uses this revelation to persuade the other Diamonds to try to take responsibility for and fix the damage they have caused. ## Conception In 2011, after former Cartoon Network vice-president of comedy animation Curtis Lelash asked the staff for ideas for a new series, Rebecca Sugar—an artist working for the network's series Adventure Time—described her initial ideas for what would become Steven Universe, and the project was chosen for development. While developing her show, Sugar continued working on Adventure Time. The series evolved from a short story written by Sugar entitled "Ballad of Margo and Dread", about a sensitive child helping teenagers with problems they cannot verbalize. Cartoon Network executives commissioned the show after the crew's art presentation, and Sugar became the first non-binary person to create a show independently for the network. Prior to coming out as non-binary, she was described as the first woman to do so. Before a production team had been appointed, Sugar tried to alter elements of the show's plot and developed the character's identity so her crew would have the freedom she did when she worked for Adventure Time. ### Development When Sugar's show was commissioned, she resigned from her role as a storyboard artist on Adventure Time to focus on her own series. Sugar focused the pilot short on the main characters and their personalities to demonstrate the series' humor. The pilot is a slice-of-life episode that does not involve major events because the series' world was still in development. Sugar and her production team focused the plot on interaction between the Crystal Gems and Steven. Sugar strove to make her pilot distinctive in terms of its artistic and aesthetic detail but was hampered by the time limit imposed upon her by Cartoon Network. The problems with the pilot helped Sugar develop the show's concept; she said, "to know that there is so much more that you can't see and the way that knowledge frustrates and excites and confuses and scares you". The title character Steven is loosely based on Steven Sugar, Rebecca's younger brother. During Steven Universe's development, Sugar repeatedly asked her brother whether naming the show after him was a good idea; she stopped asking when it was commissioned. Her brother had no problem with it and trusted Sugar to use his name wisely. In an interview with the New York Times, Sugar discussed developing the background of the show's protagonist, saying she wanted to base the character's viewpoint on her brother growing up "where you're so comfortable in your life because you get all the attention, but you also want to rise up and not be the little brother". When the original pilot was presented to Cartoon Network executives, they told the crew the series would air in 2013. Cartoon Network released the original pilot in May 2013. Sugar and her team panicked because the series was going to be very different from the pilot episode. The pilot was popular when it was released, engendering forum discussions in which people expressed their hopes of seeing it on the air soon. Those who knew Rebecca Sugar from Adventure Time were also interested. Positive reaction to the show reassured its crew. To prepare for the show's commissioning by Cartoon Network, Sugar began assembling a production crew. Jackie Buscarino was engaged as a producer in September 2012 and was tasked with hiring people and supervising the show's crew. During this period of development, Sugar and her team were moved to a building behind the main Cartoon Network studio and based on the same floor as the crew of The Powerpuff Girls CGI special. Some artists who had worked on the special, such as colorist Tiffany Ford and art directors Kevin Dart, Ellie Michalka and Jasmin Lai, were later invited to join the Steven Universe team. Cartoon Network also provided Sugar with a list of suggested writers; when she saw Ben Levin and Matt Burnett (former writers for Level Up) on the list she immediately asked them to join her team because she was familiar with their work. Freelance artist Danny Hynes, whom the former supervising director Ian Jones-Quartey knew from his own project Lakewood Plaza Turbo, became the show's lead character designer. Steven Sugar was assigned as the background designer after his work on the original pilot, and was assisted by Dart, Michalka, Lai, background painter Amanda Winterston and others. During the art presentation, Jones-Quartey, Guy, Hynes and Steven Sugar created artwork that differed from their previous work. Jones-Quartey wanted to work with something new, retaining elements of the show's previous project. He worked with Elle Michalka, who later took over his role as background painter for the presentation, to create concept art for an "action-comedy" series. Around this time, Jones-Quartey added stars to the series' logo because he saw them as a versatile symbol. He later said he overused them, and they were criticized at the art presentation. The art presentation's drawings were by Rebecca Sugar, Jones-Quartey, Hynes, Paul Villeco (a writer and storyboard artist) and Steven Sugar. Michalka did the painting. ### Design During the development of the Steven Universe pilot, Sugar focused much attention on the design of the world, adding notes to her drawings. Inspired by the idea of foreign figures (Gems) living human lives, she drew many sketches depicting their world and history. The series' design was also inspired by her and her brother's interest in video games, comics and animation. After the series was commissioned, Sugar decided to redesign everything to make the series "flexible and simple" for future production staff to add ideas of their own. During this time, the art director was Kevin Dart, followed by Jasmin Lai, Elle Michalka, and Ricky Cometa. Dart's artistic style has remained a great influence on the show long after his departure. Steven Sugar praised Dart's work and was inspired by him in college years, saying Dart had more ideas for the art than he did. In the pilot, only two locations appeared (the Temple and the Big Donut). The Temple was designed by Ian Jones-Quartey, Steven Sugar, Ben Levin, Matt Burnett, Tom Herpich and Andy Ristaino. The Temple's dual faces were based on Guy Davis' ideas. Steven Sugar designed the rest of Beach City for the series; he was painstaking in his attention to detail. Sugar also designed people, houses, cars, buildings and restaurants. Because of Rebecca Sugar's redesigned drawings, the two original locations had to be redrawn. To find inspiration for the show's backgrounds, the Sugars and Jones-Quartey went to their favorite beaches. The series' setting, Beach City, is loosely based on Delaware beaches Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach and Dewey Beach, all of which Rebecca Sugar visited as a child. Steven Sugar drew Beach City with a boardwalk lined with a variety of shops. He wanted it to have a "specific style" so viewers could believe it was based on a real location; he drew the roads and shops consistently oriented with the Temple and a water tower. The concept for the primary setting was inspired by Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump, which features a small environment in which the recurring characters live where they work. Steven Sugar made the boardwalk the focus of Steven Universe's human world. ### Characters During the early stages of production, Sugar worked on character appearance and personality development simultaneously; during this process of conception, she was heavily inspired by fantasy television characters she and her brother used to draw when they were younger. Lead character designer Danny Hynes, influenced by the design of Mickey Mouse by Disney artists, wanted the characters to be standardized, simple and recognizable. He proposed 24 human characters to the crew; Rebecca and Steven Sugar drew 22 designs—13 of which were made official. The coloring was done by Jones-Quartey. Rebecca Sugar merged several characters during the pilot development; supporting characters Lars and Sadie were originally created when she was in college. The Pizza family was based on Jones-Quartey's Ghanaian family, and Ronaldo was created by Ben Levin and Matt Burnett. Guy Davis, a childhood friend of the Sugars, designed the early monsters and Gem architecture. Making a character "look alive" was always a priority in their design; according to Jones-Quartey, a character's emotions should be clearly delineated. The character design team's mission is for the characters to resemble a classic cartoon such as 1940s Disney cartoons, Dragon Ball Z or the works of Osamu Tezuka and Harvey Kurtzman. In drawing the characters for each episode, the crew has two weeks to make modifications. Character names and some designs were inspired by types of food, and some characters were redesigned because the pilot revealed discrepancies between appearances and personalities. Sugar planned for the characters' designs to receive visual benchmarks so the show's artists can draw them consistently. Sugar aimed to make the designs for her characters simple, flexible and consistent so the production team members would not become bogged down by over-complex details. This redesigning meant the appearances of the characters in the pilot episode differs substantially from their depiction in the television series. Sugar wanted the Gems to resemble humans; she developed the Crystal Gems to ride a roller coaster of family life with Steven, whom they would treat like a brother. She wanted their gems to reflect their personalities; Pearl's perfect smoothness, Amethyst's coarseness and Garnet's air of mystery. According to Sugar, the Gems are "some version of me ... neurotic, lazy, decisive". Their facial designs were influenced by Wassily Kandinsky, who taught at the Bauhaus and encouraged his students to pair three primary colors—red, yellow and blue—with the three basic shapes—square, triangle and circle. Because of the characters' personalities, Garnet is square, Amethyst is a sphere and Pearl is a cone. Sugar wanted to give the Gems a superpower similar to those of classic cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny. The Gems' ability to shape-shift is a reference to older cartoons such as Tex Avery's work for MGM, where characters would change at will. Although the Crystal Gems are intended to be serious characters, the writers wanted them to be "funny and weird" as well. ## Production According to Sugar, production for Steven Universe began while she was working on Adventure Time, her last episode for which was "Simon & Marcy". Working on both series simultaneously became impossible; she also encountered difficulty in the production of the episode "Bad Little Boy". Cartoon Network executives authorized the Steven Universe production crew to begin working after their pre-production presentation, for which the crew were well-prepared. The episodes "Cheeseburger Backpack" and "Together Breakfast" were developed at this time. Although Sugar works as executive producer on the series' art, animation and sound, she considers herself "the most hands on" at the storyboarding stage. The episode outlines were passed to the storyboarders, who create the action for the episode and write its dialogue. The storyboards were animated, using paper drawings and the production crew's designs, by one of two Korean studios, Sunmin and Rough Draft, and the production crew's designs. ### Writing During the pilot development, Sugar wrote and sketched a number of plot ideas that later became episodes. The series' initial premise focused mostly on Steven's human side, rather than his magic side, but the premise was later changed. Sugar developed the Gems' history in conjunction with the pilot episode. While the first season of the show introduced the human and Gem characters and their relationships, Sugar began to plot and explore second-season storylines involving the Crystal Gems. Eventually, Sugar created a chart with taped printouts about a 2,000-year Gem and Earth history, with a number of events needing to be "fleshed out" for production. Although the series' overall plot was established, the writers improvised to arrive at its ending; according to Matt Burnett, the storylines will be resolved by the series' end. Sugar wanted the series to focus on comedy and positivity before exploring controversial subjects involving the main characters, thinking it was "more honest" to begin the show with happiness instead of action or drama. The writers—formerly Levin and Burnett—would write the premises and outlines while the storyboarders wrote and drew the episodes. Everyone would wait at least a day to get together and discuss. The writers wrote potential episode names on paper cards, which they pinned on the conference room wall to review what they have written and plan their meetings. They discussed episode pacing and varied each season's texture by balancing "lighter" and "heavier" story arcs. Changes in major-character appearances—such as Yellow Diamond—in a storyline could be difficult for the writers. According to Ben Levin, writing a season of Steven Universe was like a "jigsaw puzzle" because the writing team must assemble a number of plot ideas, which were discarded if they do not benefit character growth. After further discussion and questions about the writing, an idea would become an episode. After discussing a season's proposed episodes, the "puzzle" was complete, and they began writing a major story arc or a season finale. Burnett said writing a season was like an algebraic equation "where one side is the season finale, and the x's and y's are the episodes we need for that solution to make sense"; he cited "Ocean Gem", "Steven the Sword Fighter", "Monster Buddies", "An Indirect Kiss" and "Serious Steven" as examples. Those episodes led to the season-one finale as a minor story arc. To develop new ideas for episodes, the writers played writing games. In one, a scenario with characters was drawn and passed to another writer. The second writer added a few sentences before giving it to a third, until the drawing had a three-act story. Episodes such as "Island Adventure", "Future Boy Zoltron" and "Onion Friend" were written this way. The writers also played drawing games, which designed new Gem characters and technological ideas. Burnett said he and Levin used fewer ideas from the storyboarders than they previously did; storyboarders change fewer things than they did before because the episodes have a "stronger continuity". According to Levin, he and Burnett tried to balance the focus between the main characters—with Steven in the center—and the theme of episodes in their writing. The balance indicated Steven has the same interests on his human side as he does on his Gem side. Levin said the Gem mythology and drama would have been less interesting if Steven was not as well-developed in the first few episodes. Grateful to work on a show which was unafraid to be "sincere and vulnerable", he said if every episode was emotional, the series would become formulaic; happy episodes balance out emotional ones. Levin said he and Burnett have found ways to integrate Steven's powers into the plot. The character's powers and home-world technology are revealed at a "measured (very slow) pace", satisfying the viewer and keeping the series clear of superhero territory. Before significant plotlines aired, the writers revealed information relevant to a "climactic" episode for the audience. According to storyboard artist Hilary Florido, much of the series' action and magic are narrative climaxes, demonstrating the characters' discoveries, difficulties and views. Florido said if a character's evolution is not directly related to the plot, there is no drama. The crew was discouraged from breaking perspective involving episode development as they want the audience to know the protagonist's point of view. Although the writers could hint at future events, they prefer to focus on plot and develop Steven in real time. Levin said if the pilot tried to present Gem history in five minutes, the audience and protagonist would be equally confused. ### Storyboarding During storyboard meetings, artists drew their ideas on post-it notes, which are then attached to walls, table and boxes in the corners of their conference room. The drawings played a major role in forming episode ideas; Sugar looked at these designs and occasionally made changes to key poses. Sugar liked to review and re-draw scenes and characters to add extra pathos and emotion to storyboards. Each episode's storyboards were created by two artists, each of whom wrote half of the dialogue and drew panels similar to comic strips. This process could be quite complex; the storyboard artists would have to create the cinematography and focus on scenic design in a way similar to film production. After the panels were made, the thumbnail-storyboard artists drew mannerisms and dialogue based on their own experiences; Sugar drew "quintessential" scenes from her memories of hanging out with her brother after school. The storyboard artists then discussed their work with the rest of the crew and make any necessary changes. After the team discussion, the storyboard artists drew a revised board—based on the thumbnail board—on a full-size panel with notes. The storyboards are again discussed, corrected and finally approved. ### Backgrounds The production of background art would begin after the approved storyboards were received. If the characters visited old locations, the pre-existing backgrounds would be modified for authenticity; locations would likely change slightly over time. Steven Sugar liked to hide narrative bits in the backgrounds, believing the key to worldbuilding is "having a cohesive underlying structure to everything". Former art director Elle Michalka said the backgrounds' artistic style was inspired by French post-impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, whose apparent lack of focus belied detail and specificity. The art was also inspired by Tao Te Ching, whose work highlights the importance of empty spaces, "like the space within a vase as being part of the vase that makes it useful". During the painting phase, the painters saw the lines as "descriptive bones" and color is used loosely, meaning the color is intentionally slightly off register, highlighting the distinction between color and line. The painters used "superimposed" watercolor texture before switching to Photoshop because the former made the backgrounds "very chunky". When painting the backgrounds, they used one primary and several secondary colors; Amanda Winterston and Jasmin Lai found suitable color combinations. After the primary backgrounds were painted, they are sent to the color stylist, who chooses colors for a character or prop from model sheets, matching and complementing the storyboard and background. The lines of the character or prop were rarely colored. The lines are removed when scenes need light effects. The coloring in early season one episodes was experimental because the stylist would have difficulty if a storyboard's character and background mixed together or a bright character walked unchanged into a shadow. Mistakes became rare as the crew planned and checked storyboards. The primary backgrounds were made in Burbank; the secondary ones were made by Korean artists. ### Animation After the crew finished constructing an episode, the production team sent it to animators in Korea. The series was animated at Sunmin Image Pictures and Rough Draft Korea. The production team and animators communicated by email and sometimes used video chat when animating a major episode. Before sending the episode to one of the studios, animation director Nick DeMayo and his team created a plan for the animators after reviewing the animatics. They then added character movements on exposure sheets to guide the animators. Mouth assignments for the characters, describing mouth shapes and timing for lip-syncing, followed. The episode would then be sent to one of the animation studios. The black-and-white version was sent first, followed about two weeks later by the colored version. The animation was drawn and inked on paper, then scanned and colored digitally. Afterward, the crew would a "work print" meeting to discuss the episode and review it for errors. DeMayo noted any errors, removed them and sent the episode back to the animation studio or to Cartoon Network's post-production department to fix any remaining issues. Minor animation mistakes or omissions were fixed by the crew. ### Voice cast American actor Zach Callison voiced Steven. The role of Steven is his first lead role on television. For his audition, Callison spoke ten lines of dialogue from the pilot and sang the theme song while being recorded. Garnet, the Crystal Gem leader, was voiced by Estelle, a singer, songwriter and actor. Cartoon Network asked Estelle to take the part, her first voice-acting role. Steven Universe was also the first animation voice role for actor Michaela Dietz who voices Amethyst and The Party singer Deedee Magno Hall who voices Pearl. Sugar wanted Tom Scharpling, whom she knew from his podcast The Best Show with Tom Scharpling, to voice a character for one of her projects before Steven Universe was conceived. She approached Scharpling for the part of Greg Universe, who was originally named Tom. The Ruby Gems were voiced by Charlyne Yi, to whom Sugar wrote to say she was confident Yi would be perfect for the role. Grace Rolek, who voiced Steven's friend Connie, was 16 years old when the series began; Rolek has been a voice actor in animated productions since the age of five or six. The show's four main voice actors—Callison, Dietz, Magno Hall and Estelle—spent three to four hours recording per session; three to four weeks a month for ten months each year. Cast members could be recorded together or separately; they would often record multiple episodes. Each recording session covered a new episode and included retakes for that episode or previous ones if needed. In group recording sessions, a maximum of six actors stood in a semicircle. Sugar and voice director Kent Osborne attended the sessions, advising the actors about voicing the characters in specific situations. If they liked a take, the production assistant marked it and gave it to the animation editor for the episode's rough cut. When a recording session began, Sugar explained the storyboards and described the sequences, character intention and the relationship between them; Osborne did the recording. Before the sessions, Sugar and the voice actors discussed new plot elements and showed them the advanced storyboards. Magno Hall said she enjoyed the group recording sessions because the funny faces the cast members make while recording lines requiring emotion or movement often cause them to laugh. ### Music Steven Universe features songs and musical numbers produced by Sugar and her writers, who collaborated on each song's lyrics. Multiple drafts of the theme song's lyrics were written. Sugar composed the extended theme song while waiting in line for a security check at Los Angeles International Airport. The series relies on leitmotifs for its soundtrack; instruments, genres and melodies are allotted to specific characters. The music was influenced by the works of Michael Jackson and Estelle; and Sugar has cited Aimee Mann as "a huge influence". Sugar wrote songs for the series during her travels, accompanying herself on a ukulele. Not every episode features a song; according to Sugar, she uses them occasionally, to avoid forced creativity. Most of the show's incidental music was composed by the chiptune piano duo Aivi & Surasshu, with guitars by Stemage. Jeff Liu, who was familiar with producer Aivi's musical score for the video game Cryamore, recommended them to Sugar as a composer. Sugar asked Aivi to audition and agreed that producer Surasshu could join them. Aivi & Surasshu scored a clip from "Gem Glow", the series' first episode; Sugar liked their work and hired them as series composers. Before composing an episode, Aivi & Surasshu video chat with Sugar and the creative director to discuss the episode; they have a week to send Sugar a preview score. After any necessary changes, Aivi & Surasshu send the score to Sabre Media Studios for the final mix with their sound designs. Each character has a leitmotif expressing their personality, which changes slightly depending on the situation. Pearl is often accompanied by a piano, Garnet by a synth bass, Amethyst by a drum machine with electric bass and synths, and Steven with chiptune tones. Sound palettes were produced for the human characters to represent the evolution of the series, its characters and their relationships. Sound motifs and palettes were also created for locations, objects and abstract concepts. When Sugar or the other writers wrote a song for an episode, they would record a demo that was sent to the composers. The same musical style for a song and the character singing appeared for each song. Over time, the songs had become increasingly complex and production has become more difficult because the show's original musical style no longer fit perfectly with the newer lyrical themes. An example is "Here Comes a Thought", sung by Estelle and AJ Michalka (who voices Stevonnie). The two were less inspired by a specific musical style, but rather by the song's "feel", which Sugar had explained to them. ## Broadcast The pilot episode of Steven Universe was released on Cartoon Network's video platform on May 21, 2013, and an edited version was released on July 20. The pilot was shown at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con, and Sugar hosted a 30-minute panel discussion about the series at the 2013 New York Comic Con on October 13. Initially, thirteen half-hours (26 episodes) were ordered for the first season; on November 14, the season was picked up for an additional thirteen half-hours. The series was renewed for a second season of 26 half-hours on July 25, 2014, which began airing on March 13, 2015, and for a third season of 26 half-hours in July 2015. In March 2016, a production shuffle saw the second and third seasons subdivided to create four seasons of 13 half-hours each, making a total of five seasons. Finally, in 2016, following the decision to end the series, Sugar petitioned Cartoon Network to extend the fifth season by three extra half-hours to wrap up the story, making it 16 half-hours total. The series premiered in the United States on November 4, 2013, on Cartoon Network with two episodes. In Canada, it began airing on Cartoon Network on November 11, 2013, and on Teletoon on April 24, 2014. It began airing on Cartoon Network channels in Australia on February 3, 2014, and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on May 12 of that year. Beginning in 2015, Cartoon Network often aired new episodes in groups of five over one week—marketed as "Stevenbombs"—rather than one episode per week. The hiatuses between groups have irritated fans, according to The A.V. Club causing "agonized cries of a rabid, starving, pained cult following". The format, which is also used for other Cartoon Network series, has, in the website's view, contributed to the network's spikes in Google Trends associated with each "bomb". The A.V. Club attributed the effect to Steven Universe's unusual—for a youth cartoon—adherence to an overarching plot, which can generate "massive swells of online interest"—similar to the release of full seasons of adult TV series—which are "crucial to a network's vitality in an increasingly internet-based television world". In May 2018, Cartoon Network apologized to fans after one of the channel's promotional videos contained unaired footage with significant spoilers for future episodes. In response to the video, former series producer Ian Jones-Quartey noted in a later-deleted tweet that "being a Steven Universe fan is suffering", alluding to the series' irregular and unpredictable airing schedule. In an October 2020 art book for the series, Sugar stated that when clips from unaired episodes, giving away major spoilers, were leaked or those clips were used in official promotional videos, it was "very demoralizing for the crew". From June 2 to July 29, 2018, Steven Universe aired re-runs on Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang. ## Episodes ### Crossovers "Say Uncle" is a crossover episode with Uncle Grandpa that aired on April 2, 2015. In the episode, Uncle Grandpa helps Steven use his Gem powers when he cannot summon his shield. The episode contains an acknowledgement by Uncle Grandpa that the episode is not canonical. Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and other Cartoon Network characters from current and former shows made cameo appearances in the Uncle Grandpa episode "Pizza Eve". Additionally, Garnet appeared in "Crossover Nexus", an episode of OK K.O.\! Let's Be Heroes, which aired on October 8, 2018. In the episode, Garnet teamed up with K.O., Ben Tennyson from Ben 10 and Raven from Teen Titans Go\! to stop the villain Strike. ### Minisodes Two volumes of mini-episodes have been released by Cartoon Network. The first one includes the extended title theme "We Are the Crystal Gems"; shorts in which the Crystal Gems teach Steven about Gems in a classroom setting; an unboxing video of Steven's new duffel bag; and a short in which Steven's pet lion is playing with a cardboard box. The second volume contains fives minisodes that show Steven cooking, performing karaoke, reacting to "Crying Breakfast Friends\!", video chatting with Lapis and Peridot, and playing a new song. ## Cancellation and sequels According to Rebecca Sugar, she was notified in 2016 that the series would be cancelled at the end of the fifth season. She prevailed upon Cartoon Network to extend the fifth season to 32 episodes, in order to have room to complete the story, as well as a follow-up television film, Steven Universe: The Movie. Along with the film, Cartoon Network also greenlit an additional season of 20 episodes, which would become the sequel series Steven Universe Future, taking place after the events of the film. Despite the show's end, Sugar has indicated that more stories could exist, but has stated that she needs a long break before deciding how to approach such a continuation. ### Television film The follow-up TV film, Steven Universe: The Movie, was announced on July 21, 2018, at San Diego Comic-Con. A teaser was shown and was uploaded to the Cartoon Network YouTube channel. It was released on Cartoon Network commercial-free on September 2, 2019. The 82-minute film takes place two years after the events of the series finale; its plot centers on a deranged Gem, Spinel, erasing the Crystal Gems' memories to take revenge for her abandonment by Steven's mother. ### Sequel limited series The limited series Steven Universe Future, intended to serve as an epilogue to the main series, was announced at the 2019 New York Comic Con. Steven Universe Future premiered on December 7, 2019 and ran for a total of 20 11-minute episodes, including a four-part finale airing on March 27, 2020. Its narrative focuses on Steven dealing with his own emotional trauma in the aftermath of the events of the series. ## Other media ### Books A number of companion books have been published: - Steven Universe's Guide to the Crystal Gems (October 2015, ) by series creator Rebecca Sugar, with information about the Crystal Gems. - Quest for Gem Magic (October 2015, ) by Max Brallier is a "colorful journal and activity book" for 8- to 12-year-olds. - Steven Universe Mad Libs (October 2015, ) by Walter Burns is a Mad Libs word-game book. - Steven Universe: Live from Beach City (February 2016, ) is a music and activity book with chord charts and sheet music for the first season's major songs. - What in the Universe? (February 2016, ) by Jake Black is a collection of trivia about Steven and the Gems. - Best Buds Together Fun (June 2016, ) by Jake Black is a "quiz and activity book" for at 8- to 12-year-olds. - The Answer (September 2016, ) by Rebecca Sugar is a children's-book adaptation of the episode, "The Answer". It was seventh on The New York Times Best Seller list on October 2, 2016. - The Tale of Steven (October 2019, ) by Rebecca Sugar is a children's book companion to the episode "Change Your Mind". Inspired by Sugar's experience of coming out, it retells Pink Diamond's decision to become Rose Quartz and to create Steven from the perspectives of White Diamond, Rose and Steven himself, each readable by rotating the pages of the book in different directions. Nonfiction books covering the development of the franchise and compiling production artwork have also been published: - Steven Universe: Art and Origins (July 2017, Abrams Books, ) by Chris McDonnell, with an introduction by Dexter's Laboratory creator Genndy Tartakovsky and a foreword by Rebecca Sugar. The book contains concept art, production samples, early sketches, storyboards and commentary by the Steven Universe production crew. - The Art of Steven Universe The Movie (March 2020, Dark Horse, ) by Ryan Sands, which contains preliminary character designs and storyboards. - Steven Universe: End of an Era (October 2020, Abrams Books, ) by Chris McDonnell, with a foreword by N. K. Jemisin. ### Video games The tactical role-playing video game Steven Universe: Attack the Light\! was released on April 2, 2015, for iOS and Android devices. It was developed by Grumpyface Studios in collaboration with Sugar for mobile devices. Players control Steven and three Crystal Gems to fight light monsters. A sequel, Steven Universe: Save the Light, was released for consoles in October 2017. Another sequel, Steven Universe: Unleash the Light, was released exclusively on Apple Arcade in November 2019. It was then rereleased on PC (Steam) and consoles in February 2021. A rhythm-based mobile game, Steven Universe: Soundtrack Attack, was released on July 21, 2016, in the United States. A player-created Gem flees her pursuer through side-scrolling stages set to remixes of the series' music. Another mobile game, Steven Universe: Dreamland Arcade, was released in 2017; it is a collection of arcade games with characters from the series. Steven Universe characters appear in Cartoon Network's kart racing game Formula Cartoon All-Stars and in the side-scrolling, beat-'em-up game Battle Crashers. In common with other Cartoon Network series, several browser-based games—including Heap of Trouble, Goat Guardian and Gem Bound—are available on the channel's website. On February 26, 2019, Minecraft released a Mash-Up Pack based on Steven Universe, making it the second Cartoon Network series to receive one after Adventure Time. On December 4, 2019, Brawlhalla, a free-to-play fighting game, added Steven Universe characters. Additionally, the platform fighter MultiVersus features characters, locations and elements from Steven Universe. ### Comics BOOM\! Studios has published several limited comics series based on Steven Universe: - A monthly comic series, written by Jeremy Sorese and illustrated by Coleman Engle, was first published in August 2014. It ended in March 2015. - A graphic novel, the first in a planned series, was published by KaBOOM\! on April 6, 2016. Also written by Sorese, drawn by Asia Kendrick Holton, and illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, and based on a story by Ian Jones-Quartey, Too Cool for School is about Steven accompanying Connie to school. - A four-part comic miniseries titled Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems was published in 2016. It is written by Josecline Fenton and illustrated by Chrystin Garland, and the covers are illustrated by Kat Leyh. - A reboot comic series written by Melanie Gillman and illustrated by Katy Farina began publication in January 2017. It has also been written by Grace Kraft, and illustrated by Rii Abrego, Meg Omac, and Kat Hayashida. Since Issue 9 to Issue 12 and Issue 13 to onwards it is written by Kraft and illustrated by Abrego. - A second graphic novel called Anti-Gravity was released in July 2017. It is written by Talya Perper and illustrated by Queenie Chan. - A five-issue miniseries called Steven Universe: Harmony was first released in August 2018. It is written by Shane Michael Vidaurri and illustrated by Mollie Rose. The covers are illustrated by Marguerite Sauvage. ### Toys and merchandise In October 2015, Cartoon Network announced a line of toys based on Steven Universe, which would be sold by specialty retailers. For the 2015 holiday season, Funko made "Pop\!" vinyl figures and Just Toys offered "blind bag" novelty products. PhatMojo sold plush figures and foam weapons, and Zag Toys released collectible bobbleheads and other mini-figures in early 2016. The following year, Toy Factory planned to sell a line of plush and novelty items. Cartoon Network sells a variety of products, including mugs, blankets and clothing, based on the show's episodes and characters. ### Soundtracks The first soundtrack album collecting songs from the first four seasons, Steven Universe Soundtrack: Volume 1, was released on June 2, 2017. The soundtrack debuted at number 22 on the Billboard 200, number two on the Soundtracks chart, and number one on the Independent Albums chart. In Europe, it reached number 28 on the UK Album Downloads Chart, nine on the country's Soundtrack chart, 56 on the nation's official Compilation chart, and 174 on the Ultratop Flanders album chart. An album of songs from the fifth and final season, Steven Universe: Volume 2 (Original Soundtrack) as well as a karaoke album were released on April 12, 2019. Volume 2 debuted at number 24 on the Soundtracks chart, number 28 on the Independent Albums chart, and number 14 on the Kid Albums chart. A soundtrack for the movie featuring its songs and score was released on September 3, 2019, peaking at number 57 on the Billboard 200, number five on the soundtrack chart, number six on the Independent chart, and number two on the Kid Albums chart. The soundtrack for Steven Universe Future was released on October 23, 2020. Five albums featuring the show's score were released on May 29, June 26, July 31, August 28, and September 25, 2020, respectively. ## Reception ### Critical response Steven Universe has been widely praised for its art, music, voice performances, storytelling and characterization. According to James Whitbrook of io9, it is an "equally rewarding watch" for adults and children, and Eric Thurm of Wired has called it "one of the stealthiest, smartest, and most beautiful things on the air". Over the course of its run, Steven Universe has attracted a rapidly-growing fan base. In 2019, TV Guide ranked Steven Universe \#61 in its selection of the top 100 contemporary television series, describing the series as "groundbreaking" with an "uplifting, self-affirming message". Critics have praised the "breathtaking beauty", "intriguing, immersive environments" and "loveably goofy aesthetic" of Steven Universe's art, writing highly of its distinctive, soft pastel backgrounds and its "gorgeous, expressive, clean animation". Reviewers also enjoyed the diverse, ensemble cast's voice acting, particularly that of Tom Scharpling's Greg, Zach Callison's "exuberant and expressive" work as Steven and Grace Rolek "singing her heart out" as Connie. All five seasons of Steven Universe hold a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's critical consensus for season five reads "Having blossomed into a sophisticated mythology with a deeply moving subtext, Steven Universe remains a sparkling entertainment and perfect introduction to LGBTQ representation for children." ### Style and themes Sugar wanted Steven Universe to be thematically consistent with hers and her brother's shared interests. As a coming-of-age series, the theme of family is important since Sugar based the titular character on her brother. Additionally, the theme of love was inspired by her relationship with Jones-Quartey. The series also expresses the importance of acceptance, and explores relationships, LGBTQ identity, body shapes and "hues of skin in a colorful sci-fi magic display of diversity". According to Kat Morris, the series' central concepts are developed over time in an organic way, rather than being "overly calculated" from the start. Former writer Matt Burnett said the series' simple-life theme prevented the inclusion of "cynicism" or "snarkiness". According to Burnett, the writers have no interest in a superhero theme. The unusually strong female presence in a series about a boy—all major characters except Steven and Greg are female—is intentional according to Sugar, who intended to "tear down and play with the semiotics of gender in cartoons for children", considering it "absurd" that shows for boys should be fundamentally different from those for girls. She developed the series' plot towards a distant goal, with everything in between kept flexible, partly because her intentions have "changed since I've started because I've grown up a lot" while working on the show. Sugar described the series as "reverse escapism": the idea that fantasy characters would become interested in real life and would want to participate in it. Steven personifies the "love affair between fantasy and reality". Sugar said Steven Universe was influenced by The Simpsons and anime series Future Boy Conan and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Steven Universe, according to Eric Thurm, is a low-key, slice of life portrayal of childhood, an examination of unconventional family dynamics, a homage to anime, video games and other pop-culture mainstays, and a "straightforward kids' show about superheroes". Jacob Hope Chapman of Anime News Network said the anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sailor Moon are Steven Universe's strongest influences visually and structurally, reflected by its "predominantly playful tone, interrupted by crushing drama at key moments", and its "glorification of the strengths of femininity, dilution of gender barriers, and emphasis on a wide variety of relationships between women, aimed at a family audience". Steven Universe also refers to Japanese cultural icons, including Neon Genesis Evangelion, Akira, Cowboy Bebop, Dragon Ball Z, Studio Ghibli movies and Junji Ito's horror manga The Enigma of Amigara Fault. According to Whitbrook, the series' "masterful sense of pace" allows it to integrate foreshadowing and worldbuilding into scenes, which makes an overarching, dramatic narrative emerge from what might otherwise be "monster of the week" episodes. The narration of a complex story from a child's perspective means its exposition remains "artfully restrained, growing in ambition with the series" and Steven's character. Steven Universe's measured pace allows its characters to become "more complex and interesting than most of their counterparts on prestige dramas", developing "as real people and not entities serving narrative functions". The series explores increasingly-challenging facets of relationships, such as the possibility Pearl may partially resent Steven because he is the reason his mother Rose no longer exists, and the growing self-destruction of Pearl's "all-consuming passion" for Rose. Its action scenes—such as Estelle's song presenting the climactic fight in "Jail Break" as a contest between Garnet's loving relationship and Jasper's lone-wolf attitude—are occasionally cast as philosophical arguments. #### Characters Adams highlighted the "groundbreaking and inventive" portrayal of the complicated "mentor/caregiver/older sibling dynamic" between Steven and the Crystal Gems in a series which, at its core, is about sibling relationships. Thurm wrote that a notable emotional difference between Steven Universe, and Adventure Time and Regular Show, is that the latter two series deal with their protagonists' transitions to adulthood whereas during its first season, Steven Universe was content to be "enamored with the simplicity of childhood". Steven slowly grows from being an obnoxious, tag-along child to an accepted member of the Crystal Gems in his own right by the end of the first season, a change brought about by increased insight and experience rather than age. Joe Cain noted in The Mary Sue that unlike heroes from antiquity (Hercules) and modern fiction (Luke Skywalker), Steven is defined by his mother's legacy rather than his father's; the preponderance of mother figures in the series underscores their rarity in other fiction. According to Kat Smalley of PopMatters, the Gems' alien nature, which prevents them from fully understanding the world they protect, is handled with "remarkable depth and intellectual rigor", even as they deal with human issues such as "depression, post-traumatic stress, and self-loathing" remaining from the long-past war for Earth. Smalley characterized Steven Universe as part of a growing trend of cartoons that appeal to adults and children alike, which includes Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005), its sequel The Legend of Korra (2012), Adventure Time (2010) and Regular Show (2010). This is reflected in the series' outreach to minorities that seldom appear elsewhere in animation and its broader themes: instead of delivering genre-typical, mustache-twirling villains, Steven Universe "deals with issues of extraordinary violence and horror, depicts its characters in shades of grey, and subtly plays with matters of philosophy, morality, and interpersonal conflicts, all while refusing to reset any development to a status quo". #### Gender and sexuality "Gender is at the forefront of the conversation surrounding Steven Universe", according to Erik Adams of the A.V. Club, who noted that "the show's superheroes are all women". As a self-aware pastiche of magical girl anime, the series subverts the genre's premises by having Steven embody the loving femininity of the typical magical-girl protagonist without ridicule or losing his masculine side. Whitbrook characterized the series as being "about love—all kinds of love", including non-traditional forms such as the motherly and friendly bond between Steven and the Gems, and Garnet as the "physical embodiment of a lesbian relationship". When placing the series on the honor list of the 2015 Tiptree Award, which recognizes works of science fiction or fantasy that explore and expand gender roles, the jury wrote: "In the context of children's television, this show deals with gender in a much more open and mature way than is typical for the genre, and has some of the best writing of any cartoon ... In addition to showing men and women who do not necessarily conform to standard American gender ideals, the show also gives us an agender/non-binary character and a thoughtful exploration of growing up". In 2015, Autostraddle's Mey Rude wrote that Steven Universe was the most-recent animated series for a younger audience with significant queer themes, such as the androgynous fusion Stevonnie and the romantic relationship between the Gems Ruby and Sapphire, whose fusion is the main character Garnet. This, according to Rude, reflects the growing prominence of these themes in children's cartoons; previous depictions were subtextual or minimal, such as the 2011 Adventure Time episode "What Was Missing", the 2014 series Clarence or (more explicit but unexplored) the 2014 finale of Nickelodeon's The Legend of Korra. In Steven Universe, LGBTQ themes are prominent as early as the first season's second half. The fifth season's engagement and wedding between Ruby and Sapphire was reportedly the first same-sex marriage proposal in a children's animated series. In their 2015 report, GLAAD stated that the show reflected the "diversity of the real world," noting that one of the show's protagonists, Garnet, is "the physical form of two female-presenting Gem beings who are in love", shown in episodes such as "The Answer", focusing on how the romantic relationship between Ruby and Sapphire. This led some to say the show has "heavy queer undertones." "The Answer" later earned the show its second Emmy nomination, one of the six for the show. Stevonnie, a fusion between Steven and Connie debuted in the January 15th episode Alone Together, using they/them pronouns. Sugar, the show creator, said that Stevonnie challenges gender norms as a "metaphor for all the terrifying firsts in a first relationship." Later, the show earned a Emmy nomination in 2018 for the episode "Jungle Moon" centered around Stevonnie, a non-binary character. According to Sugar, her series' LGBT representation is not intended to make a point but to help children understand themselves and develop their identities. In her view, queer youth deserve to see themselves in stories as much as other children—and, given pervasive heteronormativity, not allowing them to do so can be harmful. She said, "I think a lot about fairy tales and Disney movies and the way that love is something that's always discussed with children. You're told that you should dream about love, about this fulfilling love that you're going to have. [...] Why shouldn't everyone have that?" During a 2016 panel discussion, Sugar said the LGBT themes in Steven Universe were also largely based on her own experience as a bisexual woman. A year later she said that Fluorite—the fusion of six Gems introduced in the season five episode "Off Colors"—represents a polyamorous relationship. In July 2018, she told an interviewer that she created the series' Gems as "non-binary women" in order to express herself, as a non-binary woman, through them. The series' reputation as "one of the most unabashedly queer shows on TV" generated controversy in 2016 when Cartoon Network UK removed an embrace between Rose and Pearl but did not remove a kiss between Rose and Greg from its British broadcast. The network, which said the decision was intended to make the episode "more comfortable for local kids and their parents", was criticized as homophobic by fans and the media. In 2017, the Kenya Film Classification Board banned Steven Universe and other cartoon series from being broadcast for "glorifying homosexual behavior". Sugar told Vanity Fair in March 2021 that she had been determined to make "queer couples and narratives" integral to the story in ways that are "impossible to censor," and had to fight internally for the representation. Obstacles from Cartoon Network executives included requests to make Ruby a boy, have the characters never kiss on the mouth, and not have a romantic relationship between Ruby and Sapphire, and warnings that if anyone on the crew, including Sugar herself, publicly "confirmed that the characters were LGBTQIA+, it might lead to the show's cancellation." Sugar said that she began to talk publicly about why she "felt so strongly that kids deserve these stories" and won with the "support of Steven Universe's young fans and the muscle of GLAAD behind them." In June 2021, Taneka Stotts, a genderfluid writer for Steven Universe: Future told Insider that Sugar "went out of the way to make sure that their show was [staffed] as inclusive as possible", hiring talented people noticed on Tumblr and Twitter instead of industry regulars. Sugar said that being at the forefront of LGBTQ representation meant that beyond what they were creating there was "very little queer content". She also said that apart from threats and backlash from homophobic viewers, she feared that her identity and content in the show could lead to its cancellation if she spoke about it openly, noting that support for the show was "often very qualified and hurtful". She also noted that non-binary creators such as herself have additional challenges, going through a world where non-binary people are dehumanized, and hoped that "visible queer content and multiple queer creators means no one has to feel isolated" in the ways that she did. The same month, Sugar told NPR that she wanted "little boys to experience girl show things" and vice versa, and for "nonbinary, gender-expansive kids to have a show". In September 2021, Abbey White, a non-binary reporter for Insider and The Hollywood Reporter, told The Hollywood Reporter's "Hollywood Remixed" podcast that the whole idea behind the show is "an upending of gender expectation", with Steven as a "gender nonconforming boy" with a family of "feminine non-binary, non-gendered aliens", saying this is "laced in very conscious, purposeful ways throughout the entire series." Previously, Mashable had stated that some fans relate to Lars Barriga in certain respects to the transgender experience, like feelings of societal pressure and conformity, even though he is not a confirmed transgender character. The series also featured Fluorite, a representation of a polyamorous relationship, a minor show character, and Kiki Pizza, who asked Stevonnie on a date in the comics. Additionally, a Steven Universe storyboarder stated in 2017 that Harold Smiley and Quentin Frowney were a gay couple. This was also confirmed by the official artbook released the same year, titled Steven Universe: Art & Origins, which showed that episode concept art for "Future Boy Zoltron". ### Music Aivi Tran and Steven "Surasshu" Velema's chiptune-inspired music has also been praised in reviews: Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club mentioned its range from "peppy retro" to Ghibli-esque "smooth jazz piano", Eric Thurm wrote that the musical numbers are characterized by "uplifting determination", and James Whitbrook wrote that they have evolved from being "little ... goofy ditties" to an integral part of the show's storytelling. Thurm wrote for Pitchfork that "music matters in Rebecca Sugar's work", more than in most musicals, by structuring the characters' lives rather than merely telling a story. The series' music has also been widely praised. "Stronger Than You" has been referred to as a "queer fight song", and the end credits song, "Love Like You", has also been called worthy of being "the latest addition to the Great American Songbook". ### Fandom Public interest in the series measured by Google Trends vastly outstripped that of Cartoon Network's other series in April 2016, which The A.V. Club called "definitive proof that Steven Universe is now Cartoon Network's flagship series". Fans have campaigned against censorship outside the United States of the series' representation of LGBT relationships. A fan campaign persuaded Cartoon Network's French subsidiary to re-record the song "Stronger than You" with a translation making the singer's love as explicit as the original, and another was launched in 2016 to protest Cartoon Network's British subsidiary's practice of removing scenes of affection between Gems from UK broadcasts. Swedish fans originated a protest petition after flirting between Gems was changed to unrelated dialogue in the Swedish broadcast of the episode "Hit the Diamond". According to io9, "while most of the Steven Universe fandom is supportive and welcoming, there is a small subsection that's known for being extreme and hostile under the guise of inclusiveness". A fan artist attempted suicide in 2015 after she was bullied on social media because of the body proportions in her art, and in 2016 storyboard artist and writer Jesse Zuke quit Twitter after being harassed by fans over perceived support for a particular romantic relationship between characters. A full-length fan-made episode titled "The Smothering", set in an alternate version of the story's continuity, was called "one of the more impressive pieces of work to come out of the Steven Universe fandom" in 2017 by io9. Beach City Con, a Steven Universe fan convention, was held in Virginia Beach on October 13–15, 2017. ### Influence and legacy In 2019, Ian Jones-Quartey, who left the show in 2015 to develop his own show (OK K.O.\! Let's Be Heroes), noted how the focus of Steven Universe on identity struck a chord with audiences, while ND Stevenson, showrunner of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, described the show's effect on LGBTQ+ representation in Western animation, arguing that it changed the "landscape of animated shows when it first hit the air." In a later interview, Stevenson said their early conversations about queer relationships and characters in their own show were only possible because of Steven Universe. Additionally, in an interview with GLAAD's Raina Deerwater, Stevenson talked about queer representation in animation, citing Steven Universe alongside The Legend of Korra as an inspiring example of show that taught young fans to expect "nothing less than a variety of solid queer representation and central queer characters." Tracy Brown, a reviewer for the Los Angeles Times argued that the show, during its run, became the "gold standard" for Cartoon Network itself. In October 2020, legal scholar Monica Ramsy stated in a California Law Review article that the series disrupts "the retributive mediascape", modeling principles of restorative justice which rewrites the "justice narratives available for young viewers." Ramsy compared the series to retributive justice in other superhero cartoons such as Batman: The Animated Series, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and Justice League of America/Justice League Unlimited, arguing that Steven Universe rejects the "typical hero warrior narrative", and has villains who suffer from "oppressive norms" rather than "unidimensional villains". The article was later shared by Jones-Quartey on Twitter, calling it some of the "most spot-on writing" about the series. On January 10, 2021, Twitter user @camrynieroway tweeted that there was "absolutely nothing better than living outside the gender binary," stated they were non-binary, and added a GIF of Stevonnie, stating "'Are you a boy or a girl?' I'm an experience." The same day, the tweet was quoted by singer and songwriter Janelle Monáe who added the hashtag \#IAmNonbinary. In an interview with The Cut a month after the tweet, she told the interviewer that she retweeted the GIF because it "resonated with me, especially as someone who has pushed boundaries of gender since the beginning of my career". In June 2021, a former Cartoon Network executive, Katie Krentz, said part of a shift more inclusion in animation, might be due, in part, to events at conventions, giving the example of rooms at Comic-Con filled up with Steven Universe fans in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Krentz further argued this sort of participation by fans gives executives and creators feedback on who is watching the show and will buy merchandise, and on a related note, what counts as "good" representation. Journalists for Insider also argued that the show was "the start of a wave of animated shows with LGBTQ representation." In July 2021, Jade King of TheGamer reported that She-Ra and the Princesses of Power "wouldn't exist without Steven Universe", noting a story told by Molly Ostertag who said that her partner, ND Stevenson, used Steven Universe to prove to Netflix that shows with queer representation "have value, audiences, and a right to exist to show young people that being different is nothing to be ashamed of." In October 2021, Matt Braly, the creator of Amphibia said he was a big fan of the show, a friend of Rebecca Sugar, and said that Sugar shows that original cartoon music can be beautiful and soulful. He also argued that there are a lot of crossover themes between Steven Universe and Amphibia, noting that a few crew members had worked on the show, and adding "we've got some Steven DNA." In November 2021, an interviewer for GQ asked rapper and singer Lil Nas X if he watched the series, saying one of his outfits looks like Yellow Diamond in the series. Lil Nas X responded, telling the interviewer that he was going to commission someone to take the outfits of the diamonds and "position them as the diamonds." ### Awards and nominations ### Best-of-lists Steven Universe has been considered one of the greatest animated shows of all time in various best-of all time and 21st century lists, particularly for its first recognition and importance of LGBTQ representation in children's television. The series ranked \#99 on BBC's 100 Greatest Television Series of the 21st Century, the last of four animated shows in the 21st century to be included on the list. In Indiewire, the series ranked \#6 as the greatest animated TV series in history. In GamesRadar+, the series \#12 as the greatest animated shows of all time. In ScreenAge Wasteland, the series ranked \#35 as the greatest cartoon of all time.

Sargonid dynasty

Final ruling dynasty of Assyria, founded 722 BC

The Sargonid dynasty was the final ruling dynasty of Assyria, ruling as kings of Assyria during the Neo-Assyrian Empire for just over a century from the ascent of Sargon II in 722 BC to the fall of Assyria in 609 BC. Although Assyria would ultimately fall during their rule, the Sargonid dynasty ruled the country during the apex of its power and Sargon II's three immediate successors Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BC), Esarhaddon (r. 681–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (r. 669–631 BC) are generally regarded as three of the greatest Assyrian monarchs. Though the dynasty encompasses seven Assyrian kings, two vassal kings in Babylonia and numerous princes and princesses, the term Sargonids is sometimes used solely for Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. Though the Sargonid dynasty only encompasses the reigns of a few kings, their rule saw the borders of the empire grow to encompass the entire Ancient Near East, the East Mediterranean, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and parts of the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, and they witnessed the subjugation of rivals such as Babylonia, Elam, Persia, Urartu, Lydia, the Medes, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Israel, Judah, Phoenicia, Chaldea, Canaan, the Kushite Empire, the Arabs, and Egypt, as Assyria's rivals were either completely conquered or made vassals. Following Sargon II's reconquest of Babylon in 710 BC, the Sargonids also periodically ruled as kings of Babylon, though they sometimes preferred to assign vassal kings. Babylon proved to be notoriously difficult to control, with the city and the surrounding lands in southern Mesopotamia repeatedly rebelling against the Sargonid kings despite various different methods being attempted to appease the Babylonians. The final such revolt, by Nabopolassar in 626 BC, succeeded in establishing a new independent kingdom, the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which would less than two decades later destroy the Neo-Assyrian Empire and end the rule of the Sargonid dynasty. The Babylonians allied with the Medes, also rivals of the Assyrians, and though the Medo-Babylonian war against the Assyrian Empire was indecisive at first, the Fall of Nineveh and the death of King Sinsharishkun in 612 BC was a death blow to the Assyrian Empire. Sinsharishkun's successor Ashur-uballit II rallied what remained of the Assyrian army at the city of Harran but lost the city to his enemies in 610–609 BC and was defeated attempting to retake it in 609 BC, ending the rule of the Sargonid dynasty and Assyria's nearly two-millennia long history as an independent political entity. ## Background The Sargonid dynasty's century in power was immediately preceded by the reigns of the two kings Tiglath-Pileser III (r. 745–727 BC) and Shalmaneser V (r. 727–722 BC). The nature of Tiglath-Pileser's rise to the throne of Assyria in 745 BC is unclear and disputed. Several pieces of evidence, including that there was a revolt in Nimrud, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, in 746/745 BC, that ancient Assyrian sources give conflicting information in regards to Tiglath-Pileser's lineage, and that Tiglath-Pileser in his inscriptions attributes his rise to the throne solely to divine selection rather than both divine selection and his royal ancestry (typically done by Assyrian kings), have been interpreted as indicating that he was a usurper. Though some have gone as far as suggesting that Tiglath-Pileser was not part of the previous royal dynasty, the long-lasting Adaside dynasty, at all,' his claims of royal descent were probably true, meaning that regardless of whether he usurped the throne or not, he was a legitimate contender for it. Though it was chiefly during the Sargonid dynasty that Assyria was transformed from a kingdom primarily based in the Mesopotamian heartland to a truly multinational and multi-ethnic empire, the foundations which allowed this development were laid during Tiglath-Pileser's reign through extensive civil and military reforms. Furthermore, Tiglath-Pileser began a successful series of conquests, subjugating the kingdoms of Babylon and Urartu and conquering the Mediterranean coastline. His successful military innovations, including replacing conscription with levies being supplied from each province, made the Assyrian army one of the most effective armies assembled up until that point.' Tiglath-Pileser's son and successor Shalmaneser V proved to be unpopular due to his poor military and administrative skills and he also seemingly overtaxed the peoples throughout his large empire. After a reign of only five years, Shalmaneser was replaced as king, probably being deposed and assassinated in a palace coup, by the founder of the Sargonid dynasty, Sargon II.' Though Sargon II would be connected to previous kings in king lists through a claim that he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III, this claim is not presented in most of his own inscriptions, where he is also described as being called upon and personally appointed as king by Ashur.' Many historians accept Sargon's claim to have been a son of Tiglath-Pileser, but do not believe him to have been the legitimate heir to the throne as the next-in-line after the end of Shalmaneser's reign. Even then, his claim to have been Tiglath-Pileser's son is generally treated with more caution than Tiglath-Pileser's own claims of royal ancestry. Some Assyriologists, such as J. A. Brinkman, believe that Sargon, at the very least, did not belong to the direct dynastic lineage. Sargon II's rise to the throne saw many rebellions and he might have taken the regnal name Sargon (Šarru-kin in Akkadian, one possible interpretation being "legitimate king") in an effort to portray himself as legitimate.' References as late as the 670s BC, during the reign of Sargon II's grandson Esarhaddon, to the possibility that "descendants of former royalty" might try to seize the throne suggests that the Sargonid dynasty was not necessarily well connected to previous Assyrian monarchs. Babylonian king lists dynastically separate Sargon and his descendants from Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser V: Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser are recorded as of the "dynasty of Baltil" (Baltil possibly being the oldest portion of the ancient Assyrian capital of Assur), whereas the Sargonids are recorded as of the "dynasty of Ḫanigalbat", possibly connecting them to an ancient Middle Assyrian junior branch of the Assyrian royal family who governed as viceroys in the western parts of the Assyrian Empire with the title "king of Hanigalbat". ## Rulers of the Sargonid dynasty ### Sargon II (722–705 BC) In the aftermath of Sargon II's assumption of the kingship, the political situation throughout the Neo-Assyrian Empire was unstable and volatile. The new king was faced with numerous revolts against his rule and he also had to finish the unfinished final military campaigns of his predecessor Shalmaneser V. Sargon II's quick resolution of Shalmaneser's three-year long siege of Samaria, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel, resulted in the kingdom's fall and the famous loss of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel as nearly 30,000 Israelites were deported and spread out throughout the empire.' Though there were uprisings in the Assyrian heartland (as verified by references to "guilty Assyrians" in Sargon II's inscriptions), greater rebellions directed at Sargon II sprung up along the periphery of the empire. A revolt by several of the previously independent kingdoms in the Levant, such as Damascus, Hamath and Arpad, was crushed in 720 BC but an uprising in Babylonia in the south, led by newly proclaimed Babylonian king Marduk-apla-iddina II, successfully defeated Sargon II's attempt at suppressing it, re-establishing Babylonia as an independent kingdom. With the most directly threatening revolts dealt with and his position consolidated, Sargon II embarked on several campaigns aimed at expanding the borders of the Assyrian Empire. Emulating himself after his ancient namesake, Sargon of Akkad (whom Sargon II probably took his throne name from), Sargon II dreamt of conquering the entire world. In 717 BC, Sargon II conquered the militarily weak but economically strong Kingdom of Carchemish in modern-day Syria, recognized as the successor of the ancient Hittite Empire by its contemporaries, and significantly bolstered the Assyrian treasury. In 714 BC, Sargon II campaigned against Assyria's northern neighbor, Urartu. In order to avoid a series of fortifications alongside Urartu's southern border, Sargon II marched his army around them, through the mountains in modern-day Kermanshah, Iran. Though his troops were exhausted once the Assyrians arrived in Urartian territory, a near-suicidal attack led by just Sargon II and his personal guard against the entire Urartian army rallied his army and Urartu was defeated. Though Sargon II chose not to conquer the entire kingdom due to the exhaustion of his army, he successfully seized and plundered Urartu's holiest city, Musasir. From 713 BC to the end of his reign, Sargon II constructed a new city, Dur-Sharrukin (meaning 'Sargon's fortress'), which he intended to serve as the new Assyrian capital, though the city was never completely finished, Sargon II moved into the city's palace in 706 BC. In 710 BC, Sargon II and his army marched to reconquer Babylonia. Instead of attacking the south from the north, as he had in his failed attempt a decade earlier, Sargon II marched his army down alongside the eastern bank of the river Tigris and then attacked Babylon from the southeast. Marduk-apla-iddina fled rather than face Sargon II, was later defeated and Sargon II was formally inaugurated as King of Babylon. Sargon II's final campaign was against the Kingdom of Tabal in Anatolia, which had thrown off Assyrian control a few years earlier. As in his other campaigns, Sargon II personally led his troops and he died in battle, his body being lost to the enemy. ### Sennacherib (705–681 BC) Sennacherib ascended to the throne following his father's death in battle, and like most Assyrian kings spent his reign engaging in a series of campaigns and building projects. Sennacherib is most notably remembered for his campaigns against Babylonia and Judah. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, may have been in Nineveh as part of Sennacherib's magnification works on the city as the new royal capital. Sennacherib moved the capital to Nineveh, abandoning Dur-Sharrukin, due to the death of Sargon II in battle being perceived as an ill omen. Sennacherib's military campaigning began in 703 BC with the king campaigning against Marduk-apla-iddina II of Babylon, Sargon II's old rival, successfully defeating him. Marduk-apla-iddina fled, Babylon was taken once more and the Babylonian palace was plundered, though the citizens were not harmed. A puppet king named Bel-ibni was placed on the throne and for the next two years Babylon was left in peace. In 701 BC, Sennacherib turned from Babylonia to the western part of the empire, where King Hezekiah of Judah had renounced Assyrian allegiance through incitement by Egypt and Marduk-apla-iddina. Various small states in the area which had participated in the rebellion, Sidon and Ashkelon, were taken by force and a string of other cities and states, including Byblos, Ashdod, Ammon, Moab and Edom then paid tribute without resistance. Ekron called on Egypt for help but the Egyptians were defeated. Sennacherib then besieged Hezekiah's capital, Jerusalem, and gave its surrounding towns to Assyrian vassal rulers in Ekron, Gaza and Ashdod. There is no description of how the siege ended, but the annals record a submission by Hezekiah and a list of booty sent from Jerusalem to Nineveh. Hezekiah remained on his throne as a vassal ruler.Sennacherib placed his eldest son and crown prince Ashur-nadin-shumi on the throne of Babylon in 699 BC. Marduk-apla-iddina continued his rebellion with the help of Elam, and in 694 BC Sennacherib took a fleet of Phoenician ships down the Tigris river to destroy the Elamite base on the shore of the Persian Gulf, but while he was doing this the Elamites captured Ashur-nadin-shumi and put Nergal-ushezib, the son of Marduk-apla-iddina, on the throne of Babylon. Nergal-ushezib was captured in 693 BC and taken to Nineveh, and Sennacherib attacked Elam again. The Elamite king fled to the mountains and Sennacherib plundered his kingdom, but when he withdrew the Elamites returned to Babylon and put another rebel leader, Mushezib-Marduk, on the Babylonian throne. Babylon eventually fell to the Assyrians in 689 BC after a lengthy siege, and Sennacherib dealt with the "Babylonian problem" by utterly destroying the city and even the mound on which it stood by diverting the water of the surrounding canals over the site. With Ashur-nadin-shumi presumed dead following his abduction by the Elamites, Sennacherib eventually chose to proclaim a younger son, Esarhaddon, as the crown prince rather than Arda-Mulissu who was the next oldest son and had been crown prince for several years following Ashur-nadin-shumi's disappearance. Arda-Mulissu remained a popular and became an increasingly powerful figure in the royal court, attracting support from the aristocrats and scribes. Troubled by this, Sennacherib sent crown prince Esarhaddon to the safety of the western provinces. Arda-Mulissu, feeling that a decisive act would grant him the kingship, made "a treaty of rebellion" with co-conspirators, including another son of Sennacherib, Nabu-shar-usur, and moved to kill his father. Sennacherib was then murdered, either stabbed directly by his son or killed while he was praying by being crushed underneath a statue of a winged bull colossus that guarded the temple, although the former is more likely than the latter.' Arda-Mulissu used Sennacherib's destruction of the ancient city of Babylon as a justification for murdering his father.' ### Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) After Sennacherib's murder, Esarhaddon first had to defeat his brothers Arda-Mulissu and Nabu-shar-usur in six weeks of civil war. Their betrayal deeply affected Esarhaddon, who would remain paranoid and distrustful, particularly of his male relatives, for the rest of his reign.' Though the brothers who had betrayed him managed to escape, their families, associates and supporters were captured and executed, as was the security staff in the royal palace.' To not allow the same justification being used to supplant him as ruler, Esarhaddon quickly moved to rebuild Babylon and issued an official proclamation which made clear that it had been the will of the gods that Babylon be destroyed because the city had lost its respect for the divine. The proclamation makes no mention of Esarhaddon's father but clearly states that Esarhaddon was to be a divinely chosen restorer of the city.' Esarhaddon successfully rebuilt the city gates, battlements, drains, courtyards, shrines and various other buildings and structures. Great care was taken during rebuilding of the Esagila (Babylon's great temple), depositing precious stones, scented oils and perfumes into its foundations. Precious metals were chosen to cover the doors of the temple and the pedestal that was to house the Statue of Marduk (the main cult image of Babylon's god, Marduk) was manufactured in gold.' It was due to Esarhaddon's military campaigns that the Neo-Assyrian Empire reached its largest ever extent. He established borders stretching from Nubia in the south-west to the Zagros Mountains in the north-east, including regions such as the Levant, south-eastern Anatolia and all of Mesopotamia. The combination of attentive administration of the government and the successful military campaigns ensured that the empire would remain stable throughout his reign as king and allowed for advances within art, astronomy, architecture, math, medicine and literature.' Perhaps his greatest conquest was Egypt, which dramatically increased the size of his empire. After having been defeated in a first failed attempt to conquer the country in 673 BC, Esarhaddon's armies successfully defeated Pharaoh Taharqa in 671 BC after which he captured the Pharaoh's family, including his son and wife, and most of the royal court, which were sent back to Assyria as hostages. Governors loyal to the Assyrian king were then placed in charge of the conquered territories along the Nile.' Not wishing to repeat the bloody transition of power that had begun his own reign, Esarhaddon took steps to ensure that the succession following his own death would be a peaceful one.' He designated his eldest living son, Shamash-shum-ukin, as his heir in Babylon and his favored, but younger, son Ashurbanipal as the heir to the Assyrian throne. Although the reasoning behind this is unknown, it is possible that Shamash-shum-ukin's mother was a Babylonian woman, which would have made his eligibility to the Assyrian throne questionable. Esarhaddon's mother Naqi'a issued a treaty commanding the royal court and the various provinces of the empire to accept Esarhaddon's son, Ashurbanipal, as king, and Esarhaddon himself entered into treaties with rival powers, such as the Medians and the Persians, which saw them submit as vassals to Ashurbanipal in advance.' After Esarhaddon's death in late 669 BC, Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin ascended to their thrones peacefully, proving his succession plans a success. ### Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC) After ascending the Assyrian throne and attending the inauguration of his brother Shamash-shum-ukin as the King of Babylon, Ashurbanipal had to immediately deal with Egypt, which had rebelled against Assyrian rule shortly before Esarhaddon's death. The rebellion, led by the same Pharaoh Taharqa that Esarhaddon had defeated in 671 BC was only stopped after Ashurbanipal invaded Egypt c. 667 BC, marching his army as far south as Thebes, sacking several cities in his path and eventually defeating the revolt and appointing Necho I, the former king of Sais, as Egyptian vassal ruler. In 665 BC, Ashurbanipal was forced to war in Egypt again, this time as the country was invaded by Taharqa's designated successor, Tantamani. Although Egypt would be aligned with Assyria for the rest of Assyria's existence, direct control slowly slipped away over the course of Ashurbanipal's reign and by the time of his death, Egypt would be a fully independent kingdom once more, without the need for another revolt.' During the years that followed his Egyptian campaign, Ashurbanipal was kept busy elsewhere. Perhaps the most famous of his many military campaigns were his two wars against Elam, which had long been a thorn in Assyria's side. Though he had successfully defeated Elam in his first campaign in 653 BC, the Elamites rose against Assyria again in 647 BC. Elam's second attack was punished severely by Ashurbanipal, who invaded the country in 647–646 BC, a campaign which saw the brutal plunder and razing of numerous Elamite cities, including the capital Susa. The campaign was thorough; statues of Elamite gods were destroyed, royal tombs were desecrated and the ground was sowed with salt. Ashurbanipal's inscriptions suggest that he had intended to wipe out the Elamites as a distinct cultural group. Hostility had been building up between Ashurbanipal and his brother Shamash-shum-ukin throughout their reigns, probably mainly because Ashurbanipal exercised significant control over Shamash-shum-ukin's actions, despite Esarhaddon possibly having intended the two to be equals. When Shamash-shum-ukin openly declared war on his brother in 652 BC, much of southern Mesopotamia followed him in his rebellion. Although Shamash-shum-ukin seemed to initially have the upper hand, successfully securing many allies, his imminent defeat was apparent by 650 BC, when Babylon and many other prominent southern cities were besieged by Ashurbanipal. When Babylon fell to Ashurbanipal's troops in 648 BC, Shamash-shum-ukin is traditionally believed to have committed suicide by setting himself on fire in the palace,' but contemporary texts only say that he "met a cruel death" and that the gods "consigned him to a fire and destroyed his life". In addition to suicide though self-immolation or other means, it is possible that he was executed, died accidentally or was killed in some other way. The end of Ashurbanipal's reign and the beginning of the reign of his son and successor, Ashur-etil-ilani, is shrouded in mystery because of a lack of available sources, but it appears that Ashurbanipal died a natural death in 631 BC.' Although his military activities were impressive, Ashurbanipal is today chiefly remembered because of the Library of Ashurbanipal, the first systematically organized library in the world.' The library, composed of more than 30,000 clay tablets containing stories, poems, scientific texts and other writings, was considered by Ashurbanipal himself as his greatest accomplishment.' When Assyria fell two decades after Ashurbanipal's death, the library was buried beneath the ruins of Nineveh where many tablets survived undamaged, this being the main reason why many ancient Mesopotamian texts survive to this day.' ### Final kings of Assyria (631–609 BC) Ashur-etil-ilani's brief reign (631–627 BC) was initially met with opposition, as with most successions in Assyria.' Although the capital experienced a brief period of unrest and violence, those who conspired against Ashur-etil-ilani were quickly defeated by his rab ša rēši (great/chief eunuch), Sin-shumu-lishir.' Though few sources remain from Ashur-etil-ilani's reign, Kandalanu continued to serve as vassal king in Babylonia and it appears that Ashur-etil-ilani exercised the same amount of control as his father had.' It is possible that he was perceived as a weak ruler; the palaces he constructed were unusually small by Assyrian standards and he is not recorded to have ever gone on a military campaign or a hunting trip, activities who were otherwise common for the Assyrian kings and cemented their position as warrior-kings.' Ashur-etil-ilani's brother Sinsharishkun became king in 627 BC. Although the common idea has been that Sinsharishkun had struggled with his brother and eventually deposed him, there is no evidence to suggest that the succession was violent or that Ashur-etil-ilani's death was unnatural.' The rise of a new king might have endangered the general Sin-shumu-lishir's position at the court and Ashur-etil-ilani's old general rebelled, seizing control of northern Babylonia for three months before being defeated. The instability caused by this brief civil war might have been what allowed another general or official, Nabopolassar to revolt in 626 BC. Sinsharishkun failed to efficiently deal with Nabopolassar's revolt, which led to the foundation of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. This new empire allied with the Median Empire to the east and the following Medo-Babylonian war against the Assyrian Empire would have catastrophic effects for Assyria.' In 614 BC, the Medes sacked and razed the city of Assur, one of Assyria's previous capitals and still its religious heart and from June to August in 612 BC, the Medes and Babylonians besieged Nineveh. The walls were breached in August, leading to a lengthy and brutal sack, during which Sinsharishkun is assumed to have been killed.' Sinsharishkun's successor (possibly his son) Ashur-uballit II, rallied what remained of the Assyrian army at the city Harran, where he would be defeated by the Medes and Babylonians in 609 BC, ending the ancient Assyrian monarchy. Ashur-uballit probably died at some point during the following years, c. 608–606 BC.' Although Assyria fell during the rule of the Sargonid dynasty, the Sargonid kings also ruled the country during the apex of its power. Sargon II's three immediate successors; Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, are generally regarded as three of the greatest Assyrian kings.' The term Sargonids is sometimes used solely for these three monarchs.' ## Politics ### Royal iconography Royal iconography, symbols associated with the Assyrian monarchy, in the Sargonid period mostly followed on from trends established during the preceding nearly two millennia of Assyrian monarchy. In the many reliefs by Ashurbanipal, a recurring symbol depicted as embellished on his clothes is a stylized tree (often called a "tree of life" or a "sacred tree") beneath a sun-disc and flanked by a royal figure. Though the exact meaning of the tree is unknown, it likely relates to the divine and had been a symbol associated with the monarchy since the time of Ashurnasirpal II two centuries prior, when it was incorporated into the decorations of the royal palace in Nimrud. Its presence on the clothes of Ashurbanipal suggests that the gods were directly connected to the king, who thus represented the center of the Assyrian realm.' The Sargonid period saw the creation of a definite Assyrian royal emblem, depicted in monumental form on the outside palace walls of the throne rooms of the first three Sargonid kings. This emblem consisted of a hero grasping a lion, flanked on both sides by lamassu (winged human-headed bulls) with their heads turned to the front. Though the emblem is not attested in Ashurbanipal's works, its iconography still appears in some form with frequent depictions of lamassu and lions together with the Assyrian king (a "hero").' A new design element in Ashurbanipal's reliefs was a new open design for the Assyrian royal crown. Though Ashurbanipal is often depicted with the traditional tall and vaguely bucket-shaped crown, especially while depicted in chariots, the new design appears in depictions of informal events, such as lion hunts or scenes of relaxation. The design, depicted as a wide band with a long cloth end hanging pendant at the back, may have served as a more practical alternative during such informal occasions.' ### Royal women The term used for the queen in the Neo-Assyrian Empire was issi ekalli (or in its abbreviated form, sēgallu), literally meaning "woman of the palace". The feminine form of the title of king (šar or šarru) was šarratu, but this was not used for the consort of the king and was only applied to goddesses and to queens who held sole power in foreign countries. As such, this does not indicate that the Assyrian queen would have held a lesser position relative to queens who were consorts to foreign kings. Although Assyrian kings are known to have had multiple wives, surviving inscriptions suggest that there was only one woman with the title of queen at any one given point in time since contemporary documents use the term without further specification. The kings often showed great and public appreciation for their queens. As an example, Sennacherib discusses his construction of a suite for his wife and queen Tashmetu-sharrat in his new palace at Nineveh in his inscriptions: > And for the queen Tashmetu-sharrat, my beloved wife, whose features Belet-ili has made more beautiful than all other women, I had a palace of love, joy and pleasure built. ... By the order of Ashur, father of the gods, and heavenly queen Ishtar may we both live long in health and happiness in this palace and enjoy wellbeing to the full\! Sennacherib's second wife Naqi'a, the mother of Esarhaddon, retained a prominent position under Esarhaddon and even under Ashurbanipal, her grandson. She is attested in Ashurbanipal's reign in 663 BC with the title "mother of the king" despite no longer being the mother of the reigning king. Naqi'a is likely to have had residencies in most of the major Assyrian cities and was in her role as queen mother probably extremely wealthy, possibly wealthier than the actual queens of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. Her influence was increased after Esarhaddon's coronation and she is recorded to have built a palace for him in Nineveh. The queen was not necessarily the mother of the succeeding king. The queen of Sargon II, Ataliya, was not the mother of his successor Sennacherib and Sennacherib's first wife (it is uncertain of Naqi'a held the title of queen) Tashmetu-sharrat was not the mother of his successor Esarhaddon. Although all female members of the royal family ultimately derived their power from the king (as did all male members of the family), they were not pawns without political power. They had a say in their own financial affairs and had many duties, often in very high levels of the government, in addition to producing an heir. The reign of Esarhaddon has in particular been seen as a time in which the royal women were allowed to exercise great political power, possibly on account of Esarhaddon's mistrust of his male relatives after his brothers had murdered his father and waged civil war in an attempt to usurp the throne from him.' ### The Babylonian problem By the time of the Sargonid kings, Babylonia, the southern part of their empire, had only been incorporated into the Assyrian empire relatively recently. Though an Assyrian vassal for short periods over the course of a few centuries, the kingdom had been ruled by native Babylonian kings until its conquest and annexation by Tiglath-Pileser III less than a century prior.' The annexation of Babylonia resulted in what has been termed by historians as the "Babylonian problem", Babylonia's frequent revolts aimed at throwing off Assyria's yoke and re-establishing their independence. Nabopolassar's successful 626 BC revolt, which eventually doomed Assyria, was simply the last in a long line of such Babylonian uprisings.' The Sargonid kings tried many different solutions for the Babylonian problem. Sennacherib, frustrated by Babylon's repeated aspirations of independence, destroyed the city in 689 BC and carried the religiously important Statue of Marduk off into Assyria. The city was then rebuilt by Esarhaddon in the 670s BC, probably in a move that the king hoped would show the benefits of continued Assyrian rule over the region and that he was to rule Babylon with the same care and generosity as a native Babylonian king.'''''' ## Family tree of the Sargonid dynasty Follows Radner (2013) unless otherwise indicated. Kings indicated with bold text, women indicated with italics. ## Timeline of Sargonid rulers

Moon (1997 video game)

1997 Japanese adult visual novel

Moon (stylized as MOON.) is a Japanese adult horror visual novel developed by Tactics, a brand of Nexton, released on November 21, 1997, playable on Windows PCs. The game was described by the development team as a "Reaching the Heart AVG" (心に届くAVG, Kokoro ni Todoku AVG). The story follows the protagonist Ikumi Amasawa, a teenage girl who joins a mysterious organization called Fargo in the hopes of discovering why and how her mother died, who was a member of the same group. The gameplay in Moon follows a branching plot line which offers predetermined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the three female main characters. The game ranked twice in the national top 50 for best-selling PC games sold in Japan. Much of the staff that created the game later became the founding members of the visual novel brand Key. Moon was the starting point for Key's origins, and was the first time the principal Key team was formed. A novel based on the game written by Midori Tateyama was released in July 1998 by Movic. The game's original soundtrack was released bundled with Dōsei's soundtrack in August 2000 at Comiket 58; Dōsei was Tactics' first game. Moon has been referenced in other media not directly related to the game, such as in Tactics' third game One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e, and in the second anime adaptation of Key's first game Kanon. ## Plot ### Setting and gameplay Moon is set within a windowless facility owned and operated by the Fargo religious organization that aims to research what is referred to as the "unseen power". The Fargo facility shown in Moon is one of multiple facilities operated throughout Japan where new female believers looking to obtain the unseen power undergo "mental reinforcement" training. All men in the organization are either guards or researchers. New believers are split into three groups and segregated into three buildings for classes A, B and C which are linked together via an underground passageway. The accommodations and treatment of the trainees differ between the classes, with class A given preferential treatment, class B less so, and class C not given any of the comforts of the other two classes. This includes class C not having access to bathing, toilets, any kind of bedding or even private rooms. Classes B and C are also routinely raped by the Fargo men in the "tempering room". Outside of the living quarters, all believers have access to a dining hall, and are allowed to freely move within the confines of their own facility. Training of believers takes the form of repeated visits to both the Minmes and Elpod rooms which contain devices able to interface with the trainee's mind. The Minmes device fixates on a specific part of a trainee's past mental pain so as to measure their mental strengthening. The Elpod device makes trainees face a duplicate of themselves, forcing them to reminisce on past disgraces to again measure their mental strengthening. There is also a "relaxation room" that is occasionally used in place of Elpod training which contains a bed so the trainee can take a short nap. Other locations within the facility include a small sewer below the underground passageway, and two sets of three holding cells. Beyond the holding cells is access to an area 20 floors belowground with a room containing a vast field of flowers. Moon is a horror visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Ikumi Amasawa. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue. The text in the game is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Ikumi is talking to, over background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites. When the game is completed at least once, a gallery of the viewed CGs and played background music becomes available on the game's title screen. There are scenes in Moon with CGs depicting a given heroine having sex. Moon follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. Some decisions can lead the game to end prematurely, which offer an alternative ending to the plot. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction. If not all conditions are met, the player is given an option to view a hint about which direction to take the plot, with seven hints in total. If all conditions are met, the player accesses the true conclusion to the plot. The player is also tasked to navigate the Fargo facility via the use of an overworld map of whichever part of the facility the player is currently in with the player's location indicated by a red circle. The game's story is divided into 20 days each with an English subtitle displayed mostly in white with a portion of it colored red. In the original game, a bonus role-playing game became available on the title screen after the game was completed at least once. This was later removed from the full-voice DVD edition of the game. ### Story Moon begins when high school girl Ikumi Amasawa (voiced by: Ruru) arrives at the Fargo facility in search of the truth behind the death of her mother Miyoko who was once a member of Fargo. There, she meets and forms an alliance with two teenage girls—Haruka Mima (voiced by: Aya) and Yui Nakura (voiced by: Miya Serizono). Haruka is looking for her brother Ryōsuke who works as a Fargo researcher, and Yui is searching for her sister Yuri (voiced by: Komugi Nishida) who joined Fargo as a trainee. Ikumi is put in class A, Yui is put in class B, and Haruka is put in class C. Ikumi meets her roommate—an unnamed and mysterious young man referred to only as "Boy" (voiced by: Arashi Tsunami)—and also a young woman and fellow class A member Yōko Kanuma (voiced by: Satomi Kodama) who she interacts with when eating in the dining hall. Ikumi starts undergoing training and later meets up with Haruka and Yui on their third day at Fargo. They later locate Yuri in class C, but she refuses Yui's pleas to go back home with her. Yuri later loses control of the unseen power within her, but she faints when she sees Yui. The sisters are able to reconcile before the unseen power again goes out of control, killing Yuri in the process. Despite securing an escape route, Yui decides to stay to try to help other Fargo trainees. Ikumi and Haruka later locate Ryōsuke, who gives Ikumi a passcard to gain access to other parts of the facility, but this results in Ryōsuke being killed by Fargo's men. A few days later, Haruka—now under the influence of the unseen power—is ordered to kill Ikumi, but the power deserts her before she can do it, causing Haruka to go into hiding within the facility. However, Ikumi is then put in a holding cell, but she is freed by her roommate who is not human but an entirely different species first encountered 30 years prior. Ikumi later finds the young man in a holding cell and learns that his species is the source of the unseen power. He also tells her that the purpose of Fargo was to find a way to implant that power within humans to create controllable super soldiers, and that his species has been held captive within Fargo's facilities. Ikumi tries to find a way to save him, but it is ultimately too late, and the young man is executed shortly afterward. Ikumi spends several days in deep depression, but when she uses the Minmes device, she receives encouragement from the young man who now only exists as a memory, allowing her to track down Fargo's founder, known only as the "voice's owner". Ikumi encounters this being in the form of a large red Moon, and a mental battle ensues with the founder and Ikumi using the unseen power. Ikumi prevails, resulting in the founder's death. At the same time, Yui finds Haruka in one part of the facility. Ikumi is then led to the dining hall by Yōko who tells her she has been ordered to kill her. Following a destructive battle, Yōko relents and saves both of them from dying. Yōko decides to leave Fargo and go back to the outside world with a promise to meet up with Ikumi at a later date. Ikumi uses the Minmes device one last time to have a conversation with her mother and say goodbye to her before also leaving the facility. Sometime later, Ikumi has given birth to her daughter Miyu, and she is still close friends with Haruka and Yui. ## Development and release Moon's production was headed by YET11, the pseudonym of Tsutomu Yoshizawa. Planning for Moon was headed by Jun Maeda, who also worked on the game's scenario with fellow writer Naoki Hisaya. Art direction and character design was provided by Itaru Hinoue, while the computer graphics in the game was supplemented by Miracle Mikipon and Shinory. The game's soundtrack was primarily composed by Shinji Orito, with two tracks composed by YET11, and one track each composed by Maeda and Ishisan. Excluding YET11 and Ishisan, the staff that created the game later became the founding members of the visual novel brand Key. Moon was first released on November 21, 1997, playable on a Windows PC as a CD-ROM. Nexton released Moon Renewal on August 21, 1998, with an improved game engine. AI System published the game under the title Moon Memorial Selection on September 14, 2000, for a cheaper price. Nexton released Moon DVD LimitedEdition on July 12, 2002, with added support for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP as a DVD-ROM; this release was also called Moon DVD Final Version by Nexton. The DVD edition, and subsequent releases, also included full voice acting, two animated sequences at the beginning of the game, and improved graphics. A CD-ROM version of the DVD edition titled Moon CD LimitedEdition was released on three CDs on September 20, 2002. Nexton released Moon DVDPG Edition in Japan on January 30, 2003, playable as a DVD game. Nexton later re-released the DVD edition with updated support for Windows XP/Vista/7 on April 2, 2010. Regolith Innovation released a version playable on Android devices through their Drops\! service and app on June 14, 2012. ## Related media A 256-page novel adaptation written by Midori Tateyama was released by Movic on July 31, 1998 (). A 143-page art book including art from Moon and Tactics' later game One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e titled Tactics Moon & One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e Settei Genga-shū (タクティクスMOON.\&ONE\~輝く季節へ\~設定原画集) was published by Compass on October 31, 1998 (). The game's soundtrack was released bundled with the soundtrack for Dōsei, the game Tactics made before Moon, and was called Dōsei and Moon Original Soundtracks. The album contains a single CD and was released on August 10, 2000, at Comiket 58 by Exobitant Records. The disc contains 31 tracks; the first 15 pertain to Dōsei and the latter 16 are from Moon. ## Reception and legacy According to a national ranking of how well bishōjo games sold nationally in Japan, the Moon DVD Windows release made the ranking of the top 50 games once at number 44 during the first two weeks of July 2002. Moon Limited also made it on the list only once, achieving the ranking of 48 in late September 2002. Ikumi Amasawa appeared in the Eternal Fighter Zero dōjin games by Twilight Frontier. Four characters from Moon can be seen as background characters during scenes in the cafeteria from One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e; the characters are: Ikumi, Yōko Kanuma, Haruka Mima, and Yui Nakura. There is a reference to Moon in the sixth episode of the Kyoto Animation version of Kanon, which can be seen as the film poster of a horror film that Ayu and Yuichi go to see. A limited edition framed art piece featuring a newly drawn illustration of the original cover art by Itaru Hinoue was available for sale in April 2022.

Tunnels (novel)

2007 novel by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

Tunnels is a subterranean fiction novel by British authors Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. It was initially self-published as The Highfield Mole in 2005, and re-released as Tunnels by The Chicken House in 2007. The story follows Will Burrows, a 14-year-old 'archaeologist', who stumbles upon an underground civilization called The Colony. Will and his friend Chester flee The Colony and set out to find Will's father, in the Deeps, a place even deeper in the Earth than The Colony. Tunnels was critically well received, although some complaints about its lengthy, slow start were recorded. The book placed on The New York Times Children's Chapter Books Bestseller List in February and March 2008. It is the first book in the Tunnels series, and was followed by Deeper (2008), Freefall (2009), Closer (2010), Spiral (2011) and Terminal (2013). BBC Audiobooks and Recorded Books have released audio editions. ## Plot The main influence in fourteen-year-old Will Burrows' life is his father, Dr. Burrows, and together they share an interest in archaeology and a fascination for the buried past. When Dr. Burrows begins to notice strange 'pallid men' where they live in Highfield, and then promptly goes missing, Will and his friend Chester go search for him. They discover a blocked passageway behind bookshelves in the cellar of the Burrows home and re-excavated it, finding the passage leads to a door set into the rock, and beyond the door is an old lift that takes them down to another set of doors. A cobblestone street lies beyond, lit by a row of orb-like street lamps; houses that appear to be carved out of the walls themselves flank the street. They are soon captured by the police of the underground community, known as the Colony. In prison, Will is visited by Mr. Jerome, and his son Cal. They reveal Will was actually born in the Colony, and that they are his real family; Mr. Jerome his father, and Cal his younger brother. Will is eventually released from the prison and taken to the Jerome's home, where Will and Cal's Uncle Tam is delighted to see him and informs Will that his adoptive father, Dr. Burrows, was recently there, and had willingly traveled down into the Deeps – a place even deeper in the Earth than The Colony. Will learns that the Styx, the religious rulers of the Colony, are either going to enslave Chester or banish him to the Deeps to fend for himself. Will refuses to abandon his friend, and Uncle Tam formulates a plan for him to rescue Chester and to take him back to the surface. Will and Cal attempt to rescue Chester before he is sent to the deeps on the 'Miner's Train', but the Styx arrive and they are forced to leave Chester behind. During the botched escape attempt, it is revealed that Rebecca, Will's adoptive sister, is actually a Styx implanted in his family to monitor him. The boys head through a series of tunnels to the Eternal City, an old stone city, estimated by Will to be from Roman times, where the air is filled with deadly bio-toxins. They avoid the Styx soldiers, who patrol the city with their vicious stalker attack dogs, and eventually emerge on the bank of the Thames. Will makes for his home in Highfield, but there Will's health deteriorates, so Cal helps him to his Auntie Jean's flat where he recovers. Soon they return underground to find Will's adoptive father and attempt to rescue Chester once again. They encounter another Styx patrol, and Uncle Tam kills a member of the Styx, whom he calls Crawfly, but is mortally wounded in the fight. The strong-willed Uncle Tam chooses to stay behind to give the boys time to escape. With the help of Imago Freebone, a member of Uncle Tam's gang, Will and Cal escape to a small hiding place halfway between the Colony and the Eternal City. There, they rest and mourn for Uncle Tam; and are told by Imago that Chester's train to the Deeps will pass directly under their hiding spot shortly. They jump down into the train through a hole in the floor of the hiding spot and find Chester. Together they ride down to the Deeps. In the book's epilogue, Rebecca kills Imago, who was hiding on the surface, by poison. ## Publication history The novel was initially self-published under the title The Highfield Mole: The Circle in the Spiral on 17 March 2005, with a limited run of 500 hardbacks and 2,000 softback copies, financed by the sale of Roderick Gordon's house. The book received some trade press attention before launch and the entire hardback run sold within a day. On 19 November 2005, Barry Cunningham, of Chicken House, announced that he had agreed to publish The Highfield Mole and a second book in the series. Cunningham, while working for Bloomsbury in London, famously signed up J. K. Rowling, and this connection led to the book being branded "the next Harry Potter". The authors and Barry Cunningham also decided to retitle the book Tunnels, to reflect that it had been changed by some limited editing. With the announcement of the publication date, and press coverage in the UK, the price of the original self-published books jumped dramatically, with one copy selling for £950. Tunnels was released in the UK as a softcover on 2 July 2007, and in the United States as a hardcover on 10 December 2007, and as a paperback on 1 February 2009. In Canada, the book was released as a paperback on 7 July 2007, as a hardcover on 1 January 2008, and a mass market paperback on 1 February 2009. In the United States, Tunnels had an initial printing of 100,000 copies. In February and March 2008 it appeared on The New York Times Children's Chapter Books Best Seller List. The sequel, Deeper, was released in the UK on 5 May 2008 (in the United States on 3 February 2009), and a third book, Freefall, was published in the UK on 18 May 2009 (in the United States on 1 February 2010). The fourth book, called Closer, was published in the UK in May 2010, and the fifth, Spiral, was released on 1 September 2011, the authors released the final novel, Terminal, in 2013, concluding the series as a hexalogy. ## Critical reception Many reviewers criticized the first third of Tunnels for its slow pace, but praised the remainder of the book for its fast-paced excitement, suspense, and adventure. In Britain, children's author Philip Ardagh, reviewing for The Guardian, thought the long wait for Will to discover the underground city could dull the reader's anticipation, noting that the event did not occur until page 170. He did observe, however, that when the city is reached, "fantastic fun" begins and that from then on its well-paced, exciting and – in places – frightening and bloody." He thought the characters "splendidly named and drawn". In The Sunday Times of 7 July 2007, Nicolette Jones described the book as "a good adventure yarn ... [b]ut after 460 suspenseful pages it is frustratingly inconclusive." She noted the book became a best-seller the month of its release based simply on "stories about its discovery by [publisher] Barry Cunningham, who "found" Harry Potter." Publishers Weekly thought the book "full of holes, as if its raison d'etre were to set up the action for future books". Like The Guardian, PW commented on the slow start but noted the pace picked up once the Colony was reached. School Library Journal wrote that after a slow start, "the pace picks up", and praised the plot twists and the setting. Kirkus Reviews wrote "[d]ense but exciting" and Booklist thought "[the novel] appears to be a very promising series kickoff". The Horn Book Review felt readers "may lose patience with the slow beginning", but observed that adventure lovers would still like the plot. ## Other formats BBC Audiobooks Ltd. released an unabridged version of Tunnels on CD in the UK and Canada on 5 November 2007, and in the United States on 8 November 2007. Reader Jack Davenport garnered critical praise for his "haunting tone" and his ability to depict the people of The Colony with an Irish-sounding accent and their rulers with an "intimidating aristocratic hiss." In the United States, Recorded Books released an unabridged recording on 31 October 2008 read by Stephen Crossley. In February 2013, Relativity Media announced it had assigned Mikael Håfström to direct a film adaptation of the novel. The Polish publishers' website features an interactive game based on Tunnels.

Burger King

Global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in Florida

Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant chain. After Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton (1927–2018) and James McLamore (1926–1996) purchased the company in 1959 and renamed it "Burger King". Over the next half-century, the company changed hands four times and its third set of owners, a partnership between TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, took it public in 2002. In late 2010, 3G Capital of Brazil acquired a majority stake in the company in a deal valued at US$3.26 billion. The new owners promptly initiated a restructuring of the company to reverse its fortunes. 3G, along with its partner Berkshire Hathaway, eventually merged the company with the Canadian-based doughnut chain Tim Hortons under the auspices of a new Canadian-based parent company named Restaurant Brands International. Burger King's menu has expanded from a basic offering of burgers, french fries, sodas, and milkshakes to a larger and more diverse set of products. In 1957, the "Whopper" became the first major addition to the menu, and it has since become Burger King's signature product. Conversely, Burger King has introduced many products that have failed to catch hold in the market. Some of these failures in the United States have seen success in foreign markets, where Burger King has also tailored its menu for regional tastes. From 2002 to 2010, Burger King aggressively targeted the 18–34 male demographic with larger products that often carried correspondingly large amounts of unhealthy fats and trans-fats. This tactic would eventually damage the company's financial underpinnings and cast a negative pall on its earnings. Beginning in 2011, the company began to move away from its previous male-oriented menu and introduce new menu items, product reformulations, and packaging, as part of its current owner 3G Capital's restructuring plans of the company. As of December 31, 2018, Burger King reported that it had 17,796 outlets in 100 countries. Of these, nearly half are located in the United States, and 99.7% are privately owned and operated, with its new owners moving to an almost entirely franchised model in 2013. Burger King has historically used several variations of franchising to expand its operations. The manner in which the company licenses its franchisees varies depending on the region, with some regional franchises, known as master franchises, responsible for selling franchise sub-licenses on the company's behalf. Burger King's relationship with its franchises has not always been harmonious. Occasional spats between the two have caused numerous issues, and in several instances, the relations between the company and its licensees have degenerated into precedent-setting court cases. Burger King's Australian franchise Hungry Jack's is the only franchise to operate under a different name due to a trademark dispute with a similarly named restaurant in Adelaide, South Australia, and a series of legal cases between the two. ## History The predecessor to Burger King was founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, as Insta-Burger King. After visiting the McDonald brothers' original store location in San Bernardino, California, the founders and owners (Keith G. Cramer and his wife's uncle Matthew Burns), who had purchased the rights to two pieces of equipment called "Insta-machines", opened their first restaurants. Their production model was based on one of the machines they had acquired, an oven called the "Insta-Broiler". This strategy proved to be so successful that they later required all of their franchises to use the device. After the company faltered in 1959, it was purchased by its Miami, Florida, franchisees, James McLamore and David R. Edgerton. They initiated a corporate restructuring of the chain, first renaming the company Burger King. They ran the company as an independent entity for eight years (eventually expanding to over 250 locations in the United States), before selling it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967. Pillsbury's management tried several times to restructure Burger King during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The most prominent change came in 1978 when Burger King hired McDonald's executive Donald N. Smith to help revamp the company. In a plan called "Operation Phoenix", Smith restructured corporate business practices at all levels of the company. Changes included updated franchise agreements, a broader menu and new standardized restaurant designs. Smith left Burger King for PepsiCo in 1980 shortly before a system-wide decline in sales. Pillsbury's Executive Vice President of Restaurant Operations Norman E. Brinker was tasked with turning the brand around, and strengthening its position against its main rival McDonald's. One of his initiatives was a new advertising campaign featuring a series of attack ads against its major competitors. This campaign started a competitive period between Burger King, McDonald's, and top burger chains known as the Burger wars. Brinker left Burger King in 1984, to take over Dallas-based gourmet burger chain Chili's. Smith and Brinker's efforts were initially effective, but after their respective departures, Pillsbury relaxed or discarded many of their changes, and scaled back on construction of new locations. These actions stalled corporate growth and sales declined again, eventually resulting in a damaging fiscal slump for Burger King and Pillsbury. Poor operation and ineffectual leadership continued to bog down the company for many years. Pillsbury was eventually acquired by the British entertainment conglomerate Grand Metropolitan in 1989. Initially, Grand Met attempted to bring the chain to profitability under newly minted CEO Barry Gibbons; the changes he initiated during his two-year tenure had mixed results, as successful new product introductions and tie-ins with The Walt Disney Company were offset by continuing image problems and ineffectual advertising programs. Additionally, Gibbons sold off several of the company's assets in an attempt to profit from their sale and laid off many of its staff members. Burger King's headquarters experienced major damage in 1992 from Hurricane Andrew. After Gibbon's departure, a series of CEOs each tried to repair the company's brand by changing the menu, bringing in new ad agencies and many other changes. The parental disregard of the Burger King brand continued with Grand Metropolitan's merger with Guinness in 1997 when the two organizations formed the holding company Diageo. Eventually, the ongoing systematic institutional neglect of the brand through a string of owners damaged the company to the point where major franchises were driven out of business, and its total value was significantly decreased. Diageo eventually decided to divest itself of the money-losing chain and put the company up for sale in 2000. The 21st century saw the company return to independence when it was purchased from Diageo by a group of investment firms led by TPG Capital for US$1.5 billion in 2002. The new owners rapidly moved to revitalize and reorganize the company, culminating with the company being taken public in 2006 with a highly successful initial public offering. The firms' strategy for turning the chain around included a new advertising agency and new ad campaigns, a revamped menu strategy, a series of programs designed to revamp individual stores, a new restaurant concept called the BK Whopper Bar, and a new design format called 20/20. These changes successfully re-energized the company, leading to a score of profitable quarters. Yet, despite the successes of the new owners, the effects of the Great Recession weakened the company's financial outlooks while those of its immediate competitor, McDonald's, grew. The falling value of Burger King eventually led to TPG and its partners divesting their interest in the chain in a US$3.26 billion sale to 3G Capital of Brazil. Analysts from financial firms UBS and Stifel Nicolaus agreed that 3G would have to invest heavily in the company to help reverse its fortunes. After the deal was completed, the company's stock was removed from the New York Stock Exchange, ending a four-year period as a public company. The delisting of its stock was designed to help the company repair its fundamental business structures and continue working to close the gap with McDonald's without having to worry about pleasing shareholders. In the United States domestic market, the chain fell to third place in terms of same store sales behind Ohio-based Wendy's. The decline was the result of 11 consecutive quarters of same store sales decline. In August 2014, 3G announced that it planned to acquire the Canadian restaurant and coffee shop chain Tim Hortons and merge it with Burger King with backing from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. The two chains retained separate operations post-merger, with Burger King remaining in its Miami headquarters. A Tim Hortons representative stated that the proposed merger would allow Tim Hortons to leverage Burger King's resources for international growth. The combined company became the third-largest international chain of fast food restaurants. The deal led to a controversy over the practice of tax inversions, in which a company decreases the amount of taxes it pays by moving its headquarters to a tax haven, a country with lower rates, but maintains the majority of their operations in their previous location. As a high-profile instance of tax inversion, news of the merger was criticized by U.S. politicians, who felt that the move would result in a loss of tax revenue to foreign interests, and could result in further government pressure against inversions. In 2019, Burger King reported that it planned to close up to 250 low-volume locations per year, with closures coming into effect in 2020. In February 2021, Burger King began testing a customer loyalty rewards program called "Royal Perks" in Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, New Jersey and Long Island, New York. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, many companies, including Burger King, faced growing pressure to halt operations in Russia. In March 2022, Burger King claimed to have suspended all its corporate support, including operations, marketing, supply chain, investments and expansion in Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, including support to the more than 800 fully franchised restaurant chains in Russia managed by a local master franchisee. However, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism revealed that Burger King retained its stake in the Russian franchises through an offshore joint venture with the Russian state-owned VTB Bank and a Ukrainian investment firm linked to corrupt deals with Ukraine's former pro-Russian leader. In October 2023, Tom Curtis, president of Burger King U.S. & Canada, announced a new store design at its annual franchisee convention in Canada, branded "The Sizzle". The company planned to remodel existing Burger King locations with a new look inside and outside, to tackle slowing business after the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The overhaul plan included more kiosks, dedicated pickup areas for mobile app orders, food-ordering platforms like Doordash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, and an improved drive-thru service. In 2023, Burger King remodeled several locations in the United States with the "Sizzle" concept. While the remodel plan was an overhaul to the entire restaurant, Burger King was also investing in a "Refresh" initiative in order to replace equipment and upgrade technologies. By the end of 2023, Burger King completed 264 remodels and exited the year with 46% of its restaurants with a modern image. ## Structure and operations Burger King Holdings was the parent company of Burger King when it went public in 2002. Burger King derived its income from several sources, including property rental and sales through company owned restaurants; however, a substantial portion of its revenue was dependent on franchise fees. During the transitional period after 3G Capital acquired the company, Burger King's board of directors was co-chaired by John W. Chidsey, formerly CEO and chairman of the company, and Alex Behring, managing partner of 3G Capital. By April 2011, the new ownership had completed the restructuring of Burger King's corporate management and Chidsey tendered his resignation, leaving Behring as CEO and chair. Burger King Corporation is currently an independently operated subsidiary of RBI. RBI's present organizational structure includes five primary segments: Tim Hortons, Burger King, Firehouse Subs, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and International. International encompasses the aggregated outcomes from the operations of each brand outside the United States and Canada. Josh Kobza, the CEO of RBI, was appointed in 2023. Before taking over as CEO in February 2023, Kobza served as CFO, CTO, and COO of RBI. Tom Curtis, the president of Burger King U.S. and Canada, was appointed in 2021 and oversees the operation of the Burger King Corporation in the United States and Canada. In North America, Burger King Corporation is responsible for licensing operators and administering of stores. Internationally, the company often pairs with other parties to operate locations or it will outright sell the operational and administrative rights to a franchisee which is given the designation of master franchise for the territory. The master franchise will then be expected to sub-license new stores, provide training support, and ensure operational standards are maintained. In exchange for the oversight responsibilities, the master franchise will receive administrative and advertising support from Burger King Corporation to ensure a common marketing scheme. The 3G Capital ownership group announced in April 2011 that it would begin divesting itself of many corporate owned locations with the intent to increase the number of privately held restaurants to 95%. In 2016, the percentage of privately owned Burger King establishments grew to 99.5%. RBI maintains that approximately 100% of Burger King franchises are privately held restaurants. Burger King was formerly headquartered in a nine-story office tower by the Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida. On Monday July 8, 2002, 130 employees began working at the Burger King headquarters with the remainder moving in phases in August 2002. Prior to the moving to its current headquarters in 2002, Burger King had considered moving away from the Miami area to Texas; Miami-Dade County politicians and leaders lobbied against this, and Burger King stayed. Before 2002, the company's previous headquarters was located in a southern Dade County campus located on Old Cutler Boulevard in the Cutler census-designated place. In August 2014, the future of the company's Miami headquarters was again in doubt as reports surfaced that Burger King was in talks about buying the Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons. The merger between Burger King and Tim Hortons created the fast food company now known as Restaurant Brands International Inc. In 2016, Burger King signed a build-to-suit lease agreement on a new 150,000 square feet (14,000 m²) five-story headquarters building to be built at 5707 Blue Lagoon Drive, just down the street from its existing nine-story headquarters at 5505 Blue Lagoon Drive. This was slightly smaller than the 200,000 square feet (19,000 m²) it was leasing in its current headquarters building at the time. In 2018, Burger King moved into its new headquarters at 5707 Blue Lagoon Drive after it was finished. As of August 2024, the Burger King system operates more than 18,700 locations in more than 100 countries and U.S. territories. ## Franchises When Burger King Corporation began franchising in 1959, it used a regional model where franchisees purchased the right to open stores within a geographic region. These franchise agreements granted BKC very little oversight control of its franchisees and resulted in issues of product quality control, store image and design, and operational procedures. During the 1970s, structural deficiencies in Burger King's franchise system became increasingly problematic for Pillsbury. A major example was the relationship between Burger King and Louisiana-based franchisee Chart House, Burger King's largest franchisee group at the time with over 350 locations in the United States. The company's owners, William and James Trotter, made several moves to take over or acquire Burger King during the 1970s, all of which were spurned by Pillsbury. After the failed attempts to acquire the company, the relationship between Chart House and Burger King soured and eventually devolved into a lawsuit. Chart House eventually spun off its Burger King operations in the early 1980s into a holding company called DiversiFoods which, in turn, was acquired by Pillsbury in 1984 and absorbed into Burger King's operations. As part of the franchising reorganization segment of Operation Phoenix, Donald N. Smith initiated a restructuring of future franchising agreements in 1978. Under this new franchise agreement, new owners were disallowed from living more than one hour from their restaurants – restricting them to smaller individuals or ownership groups and preventing large, multi-state corporations from owning franchises. Franchisees were also now prohibited from operating other chains, preventing them from diverting funds away from their Burger King holdings. This new policy effectively limited the size of franchisees and prevented larger franchises from challenging Burger King Corporation as Chart House had. Smith also sought to have BKC be the primary owner of new locations and rent or lease the restaurants to its franchises. This policy would allow the company to take over the operations of failing stores or evict those owners who would not conform to the company guidelines and policies. By 1988, parent company Pillsbury had relaxed many of Smith's changes, scaling back on construction of new locations, which resulted in stalled growth of the brand. Neglect of Burger King by new owner Grand Metropolitan and its successor Diageo further hurt the standing of the brand, causing significant financial damage to BK franchises and straining relations between the parties. By 2001 and after nearly 18 years of stagnant growth, the state of its franchises was beginning to affect the value of the company. One of the franchises most heavily affected by the lack of growth was the nearly 400-store AmeriKing Inc., one of the largest Burger King franchisees. By 2002, the franchise owner, which until this point had been struggling under a nearly US$300 million debt load and been shedding stores across the US, was forced to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The failure of AmeriKing deeply affected the value of Burger King, and put negotiations between Diageo and the TPC Capital-led group on hold. The developments eventually forced Diageo to lower the total selling price of the chain by almost $750 million. After the sale, newly appointed CEO Brad Blum initiated a program to help roughly 20 percent of its franchises, including its four largest, who were in financial distress, bankruptcy or had ceased operations altogether. Partnering with California-based Trinity Capital, LLC, the company established the Franchisee Financial Restructuring Initiative, a program to address the financial issues facing BK's financially distressed franchisees. The initiative was designed to assist franchisees in restructuring their businesses to meet financial obligations, focus on restaurant operational excellence, reinvest in their operations, and return to profitability. Individual franchisees took advantage of the AmeriKing failure; one of BK's regional owners, Miami-based Al Cabrera, purchased 130 stores located primarily in the Chicago and the upper mid-west region, from the failed company for a price of $16 million, approximately 88 percent of their original value. The new company, which started out as Core Value Partners and eventually became Heartland Foods, also purchased 120 additional stores from distressed owners and revamped them. The resulting purchases made Cabrera the largest minority franchisee of Burger King, and Heartland one of the company's top franchises. By 2006, the company was valued at over $150 million, and was sold to New York–based GSO Capital Partners. Other purchasers included a three-way group of NFL athletes Kevin Faulk, Marcus Allen, and Michael Strahan who collectively purchased 17 stores in the cities of Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia; and Cincinnati-based franchisee Dave Devoy, who purchased 32 AmeriKing stores. After investing in new decor, equipment and staff retraining, many of the formerly failing stores showed growth approaching 20 percent. As part of 3G's restructuring plan, the company decided to divest itself of its corporate owned locations by re-franchising them to private owners and become a 100% franchised operation by the end of 2013. The project, which began in April 2012, saw the company divest corporate-owned locations in Florida, Canada, Spain, Germany, and other regions. The move gave the company a Q3, 2013 profit of US$68.2 million over the same quarter, 2012 of US$6.6 million. At the end of its 2013 fiscal year, Burger King was the second largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants in terms of global locations, behind industry bellwether McDonald's, which had 32,400 locations. At the end of 2014, Burger King ranked fourth among US food chains in terms of US sales, behind McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway. Burger King now has over 12,000 stores worldwide. In January 2024, Restaurant Brands International, the owner of the brand, announced it would purchase the largest franchisee of the chain, Carrols Restaurant Group, for around $1 billion. At the time of the announcement, Carrols had 1,022 Burger King locations (along with 60 Popeyes locations). The goal was to remodel 600 of the restaurants, then sell them back to franchisees over five to seven years. The move represented a departure from the existing model of largely franchising locations. ## International operations While BK began its foray into locations outside of the continental United States in 1963 with a store in San Juan, Puerto Rico, it did not have an international presence until several years later. Shortly after the acquisition of the chain by Pillsbury, it opened its first Canadian restaurant in Windsor, Ontario in 1969. Other international locations followed soon after, including Australia in 1971, with a restaurant in the Perth suburb of Innaloo, and Europe in 1975, with a restaurant in Madrid. Beginning in 1982, BK and its franchisees began operating stores in several East Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea. Due to high competition, all of the Japanese locations were closed in 2001; however, BK reentered the Japanese market in June 2007. BK's Central and South American operations began in Mexico in the late 1970s and by the early 1980s in Caracas, Venezuela, Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. While Burger King lags behind McDonald's in international locations by over 12,000 stores, as of 2008 it had managed to become the largest chain in several countries including Mexico and Spain. The company divides its international operations into three segments; the Middle East, Europe and Africa division (EMEA), Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In each of these regions, Burger King has established several subsidiaries to develop strategic partnerships and alliances to expand into new territories. In its EMEA group, Burger King's Switzerland-based subsidiary Burger King Europe GmbH is responsible for the licensing and development of BK franchises in those regions. In APAC region, the Singapore-based BK AsiaPac, Pte. Ltd. business unit handles franchising for East Asia, the Asian subcontinent and all Oceanic territories. The LAC region includes Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands and has no centralized operations group. Australia is the only country in which Burger King does not operate under its own name. When the company set about establishing operations down under in 1971, it found that its business name was already trademarked by a takeaway food shop in Adelaide. As a result, Burger King provided the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin, with a list of possible alternative names derived from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and its then corporate parent Pillsbury, that could be used to name the Australian restaurants. Cowin selected the "Hungry Jack" brand name, one of Pillsbury's US pancake mixture products, and slightly changed the name to a possessive form by adding an apostrophe "s" forming the new name Hungry Jack's. After the expiration of the trademark in the late 1990s, Burger King unsuccessfully tried to introduce the brand to the continent. After losing a lawsuit filed against it by Hungry Jack's ownership, the company ceded the territory to its franchisee. Hungry Jack's is now the only Burger King brand in Australia; Cowin's company Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd. is the master franchise and thus is now responsible for oversight of the operations that country with Burger King only providing administrative and advertising support to ensure a common marketing scheme for the company and its products. Over a 10-year period starting in 2008, Burger King predicted 80 percent of its market share would be driven by foreign expansion, particularly in the Asia-Pacific and Indian subcontinent regional markets. While the TPG-led group continued BK's international expansion by announcing plans to open new franchise locations in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Brazil, the company plan is focusing on the three largest markets – India, China, and Japan. The company plans to add over 250 stores in these Asian territories, as well as other places such as Macau, by the end of 2012. Its expansion into the Indian market has the company at a competitive disadvantage with other fast food restaurants such as KFC because of the aversion of the country's large Hindu majority to beef. BK hopes to use their non-beef products, such as their TenderCrisp and TenderGrill chicken sandwiches, as well as other products like mutton sandwiches and veggie sandwiches, to help them overcome this hurdle to expand in that country. 3G has reported that it will continue with the plans to grow globally, even ramping up the planned expansion to help increase their return on investment. It is expected that 3G Brazilian-based management connections in the region may help Burger King expand in Brazil and Latin America, where it has been having problems finding acceptable franchisees. In December 2020, Burger King India went in for an initial public offering (IPO) on the BSE and NSE in India. The IPO was subscribed over 150 times. The stock opened at ₹112.5 per share on December 14, nearly double the IPO price of ₹60, and closed at ₹135. ## Legal cases Burger King has been involved in several legal disputes and cases, as both plaintiff and defendant, in the years since its founding in 1954. Depending on the ownership and executive staff at the time of these incidents, the company's responses to these challenges have ranged from a conciliatory dialog with its critics and litigants, to a more aggressive opposition with questionable tactics and negative consequences. The company's response to these various issues has drawn praise as well as, in some instances, suggestions of political appeasement. A trademark dispute involving the owners of an unrelated restaurant also named Burger King in Mattoon, Illinois, led to a federal lawsuit. As a result, the larger Burger King chain was ordered not to build any franchises within a 20-mile radius of the Mattoon Burger King. An existing trademark held by a shop of the same name in South Australia forced the company to change its name in Australia to "Hungry Jack's", while another state trademark in Texas forced the company to abandon its signature product, the Whopper, in several counties around San Antonio. The company was only able to enter northern Alberta, in Canada, in 1995, after it paid the founders of another chain named Burger King. Legal decisions from other suits have set contractual law precedents in regards to long-arm statutes, the limitations of franchise agreements, and ethical business practices. Many of these decisions have helped define general business dealings that continue to shape the entire marketplace. Controversies and disputes have arisen with groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), governmental and social agencies, and unions and trade groups over various topics. These situations have touched on legal and moral concepts such as animal rights, corporate responsibility, ethics, and social justice. While the majority of the disputes did not result in lawsuits, in many of the cases, the situations raised legal questions, dealt with legal compliance, or resulted in legal remedies such as changes in contractual procedure or binding agreements between parties. The resolutions to these legal matters have often altered the way the company interacts and negotiates contracts with its suppliers and franchisees, or how it does business with the public. Further controversies have occurred during the company's expansion in the Middle East. The opening of a Burger King location in Ma'aleh Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, led to a breach of contract dispute between Burger King and its Israeli franchise due to the hotly contested international dispute over the legality of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories in accordance to international law. The controversy eventually erupted into a geopolitical dispute involving Muslim and Jewish groups on multiple continents over the application of, and adherence to, international law. The case eventually elicited reactions from the members of the 22-nation Arab League. The Islamic countries within the League made a joint threat to the company of legal sanctions including the revocation of Burger King's business licenses within the member states' territories. A related issue involving members of the Islamic faith over the interpretation of the Muslim version of canon law, Shariah, regarding the promotional artwork on a dessert package in the United Kingdom raised issues of cultural sensitivity, and, with the former example, posed a larger question about what companies must do to ensure the smooth operation of their businesses in the communities they serve. On April 9, 2019, Nations Restaurant News reported that Burger King filed a lawsuit on Fritz Management LLC to remove Burger King trademarks from 37 units in South Texas after unsanitary conditions were found at a restaurant in Harlingen, Texas. In May 2019, the lawsuit was settled with the franchisee, Fritz Management (a subsidiary of Sun Holdings Inc), keeping the trademarks on all 37 units. On November 19, 2019, a lawsuit was filed by a vegan from Atlanta, Georgia against Burger King for allegedly failing to clearly disclose that Impossible Whopper burgers were heated on the same grill as their beef burgers. The lawsuit was dismissed. On March 28, 2022, a lawsuit was filed against Burger King, alleging the fast food chain falsely advertised the Whopper to "look about 35% bigger in its advertising than it is in reality". ## Charitable contributions and services Burger King has two in-house national charitable organizations and programs. One is the Have It Your Way Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit (501(c)(3)) corporation with multiple focuses on hunger alleviation, disease prevention and community education through scholarship programs at colleges in the U.S. The other charitable organization is the McLamore Foundation, also a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation that provides scholarships to students in the U.S. and its territories. In various regions across the United States, Burger King and its franchises have aligned themselves with several charitable organizations that support research and treatment of juvenile cancer. Each year, these coalitions hold a fund raising drive called "A Chance for Kids", in which Burger King restaurants sell lottery-style scratch cards for $1. Each card produces a winning prize that is usually a food or beverage product, but includes (rarer) items such as shopping sprees or trips. In the Northeast, BK has affiliated itself with the Major League Baseball team the Boston Red Sox and its charitable foundation, the Jimmy Fund. The group runs the contest in Boston. In the New York City area, it operates the contest in association with the Burger King Children's Charities of Metro New York and the New York Yankees. Funds raised in these areas go to support the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, located in Boston. In Nebraska, the company is affiliated with the Liz's Legacy Cancer Fund "BK Beat Cancer for Kids" program at the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. In the Pittsburgh region, it funded the establishment of the Burger King Cancer Caring Center, a support organization for the families and friends of cancer patients. ## Products When the predecessor of Burger King first opened in Jacksonville in 1953, its menu consisted predominantly of basic hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. After being acquired by its Miami, Florida, franchisees and renamed to its current moniker in 1954, BK began expanding the breadth of its menu by adding the Whopper sandwich in 1957. This quarter-pound (4 oz (110 g)) hamburger was created by Burger King's new owners James McLamore and David Edgerton as a way to differentiate BK from other burger outlets at the time. Since its inception, the Whopper has become synonymous with Burger King and has become the focus of much of its advertising. The company even named its new kiosk-style restaurants Whopper Bars. The menu component of Donald Smith's Operation Phoenix was initiated in 1978 and led to the addition of the Burger King Specialty Sandwich line in 1979. The new product line significantly expanded the breadth of the BK menu with many non-hamburger sandwiches, including new chicken and fish offerings. The new Specialty Sandwich line was one of the first attempts to target a specific demographic, in this case, adults 18–34, who would be willing to spend more on a higher quality product. One of Smith's other significant contributions to the menu was the addition of a breakfast product line, which until this time was not a market Burger King had entered. Besides the addition of the Croissan'Wich in 1983, the breakfast menu remained almost identical to the McDonald's offerings until a menu revamp in 1985. This expansion introduced BK's "AM Express" product line, which added new products such as French toast sticks and mini-muffins. As the company expanded both inside and outside the US, it introduced localized versions of its products that conform to regional tastes and cultural or religious beliefs. International variations add ingredients such as teriyaki or beetroot and fried egg to the Whopper; beer in Germany, Italy, and Spain; and halal or kosher products in the Middle East and Israel. To generate additional sales, BK will occasionally introduce limited time offers (LTOs) that are versions of its core products, or new products intended for either long or short term sales. Items such as the Texas Double Whopper and various sandwiches made with mushrooms and Swiss cheese have been rotated in and out of its menu for several years, while products such as its 1993 Meatloaf Specialty Sandwich offering and accompanying limited table service, along with special dinner platters, failed to generate interest and were discontinued. In order to appeal to as many demographic groups as possible and better compete with its competitor, Wendy's, Burger King added a multi-tiered value menu in 1993 with items priced at 99¢, US$1.99 and $2.99. The additions, part of then CEO James Adamson's back-to-basics program called Operation Phoenix, were an attempt to add not only a value menu, but also a line of value meals. The tiered menu was replaced with a more standard value menu in 1998 while the value meals were separated into their own menu segment. This value menu featured seven products: Whopper Jr., five-piece Chicken Tenders, a bacon cheeseburger, medium-sized French fries, medium soft drink, medium onion rings, and a small milkshake. In 2002 and 2006, BK revamped its value menu, adding and removing several different products such as chili and its Rodeo Cheeseburger. Many of these items have since been discontinued, modified or relegated to a regional menu option. To better appeal to a more adult palate and demographic, BK introduced several new products to its menu in 2003, including several new or revamped chicken products, a new salad line and its BK Joe brand of coffee. Some of the new products, including their Enormous Omelet Sandwich line and the BK Stacker line, brought negative attention due to the large portion size, and amounts of unhealthy fats and trans-fats. Many of these products featured higher quality ingredients like whole chicken breast, Angus beef, and natural cheeses such as cheddar and pepper jack. Again, not all these products, such as the BK Baguette line, have met sales expectations. With the purchase of the company in 2010, 3G began a program to restructure its menu designed to move away from the male-oriented menu that had dominated under the previous ownership. The first major item to be introduced was a reformulation of its BK Chicken Tenders product in March 2011. Over the next few months, approximately 20 new products were developed while others were reformulated, including its Chef's Choice Burger. Eventually pruned down to 10 items, Burger King began deploying the items in the United States throughout 2011–2012 with the official roll out beginning April 2012. The changes included new soft serve products, smoothies, frappés and chicken strips. The Whopper was the most prominently reformulated product in this round of introductions with a new type of cheese and packaging. At the end of 2015, Burger King's parent company, Restaurant Brands International, announced that none of its subsidiaries would use chicken that had been fed antibiotics that are "critically important" to human health; that announcement referred only to a small class of antibiotics for which there is only one drug that kill a kind of bacteria and the announcement was described as a "small step" by advocates for stopping all antibiotic use in livestock. In 2019, Burger King released an "Impossible Whopper" burger, a vegetarian burger using a plant-based patty from Impossible Foods. In February 2020, Burger King announced that it would remove artificial preservatives, colors, and flavors from the Whopper by the end of 2020. In July 2020, BK announced it would begin selling a Whopper patty made from cows on a low methane diet. In late 2021 and early 2022, the company announced it would cut back on value items and altered product configuration because of inflationary pressures and to speed up drive-thru lanes. After successfully testing vegan products at meat-free temporary restaurants in Leicester Square and Bristol, Burger King UK announced that in 2023 it would offer a Vegan Royale Bakon King, made with vegan bacon, vegan cheese and a vegan burger made by The Vegetarian Butcher. ### Equipment Like its menu, the equipment the company cooks its hamburgers with has also evolved as the company expanded. The burgers have always been broiled mechanically; the original unit, called an Insta-Broiler, was one of two pieces of equipment the founders of Insta-Burger King purchased before opening their new restaurant. The Insta-Broiler worked by cooking 12 burger patties in a wire basket, allowing the patties to be cooked from both sides simultaneously. When McLamore and Edgerton took over the company, besides dropping the "Insta-" prefix, they switched to an improved unit called a "Flame Broiler". Designed by the two and featuring stationary burners that cooked the meat on a moving chain, the unit broke down less often while maintaining a similar cooking rate. The company would stay with that format for the next 40 years until Burger King began developing a variable speed broiler that could handle multiple items with different cooking rates and times. These new units began testing in 1999 and eventually evolved into the two models the company deployed system-wide in 2008–2009. Accompanying these new broilers was new food-holding equipment, accompanied with a computer-based product monitoring system for its cooked products. The monitoring system allows for more concise tracking of product quality while giving the company and its franchisees a method to streamline costs by more precisely projecting sales and product usage. ## Advertising Since its founding in 1954, Burger King has employed varied advertising programs, both successful and unsuccessful. During the 1970s, output included its "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce..." jingle, the inspiration for its current mascot the Burger King, and several well known and parodied slogans such as "Have it your way" and "It takes two hands to handle a Whopper". Burger King introduced the first attack ad in the fast food industry with a pre-teen Sarah Michelle Gellar in 1981. The television spot, which claimed BK burgers were larger and better tasting than competitor McDonald's, so enraged executives at McDonald's parent company that they sued all parties involved. Starting in the early 1980s and running through approximately 2001, BK engaged a series of ad agencies that produced many unsuccessful slogans and programs, including its biggest advertising flop "Where's Herb?" Burger King was a pioneer in the advertising practice known as the "product tie-in", with a successful partnership with George Lucas' Lucasfilm, Ltd., to promote the 1977 film Star Wars in which BK sold a set of beverage glasses featuring the main characters from the movie. This promotion was one of the first in the fast food industry and set the pattern that continues to the present. BK's early success in the field was overshadowed by a 1982 deal between McDonald's and The Walt Disney Company to promote Disney's animated films beginning in the mid-1980s and running through the early 1990s. In 1994, Disney switched from McDonald's to Burger King, signing a 10-movie promotional contract which would include such top 10 films as Aladdin (1992), Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Lion King (1994), and Toy Story (1995). Burger King created kids' meal toys to promote the DreamWorks Pictures film Small Soldiers (1998). This led to some controversy due to the film being rated PG-13. As a result, BK altered the promotional commercials to be directed at an older audience, and included a pamphlet disclaimer with the toys which read, in part; "the movie Small Soldiers may contain material that is inappropriate for younger children." A partnership in association with the Pokémon franchise at the height of its popularity in 1999 was tremendously successful for the company, with many locations rapidly selling out of the toys and the replacements. In December 1999, two hazardous incidents involving the Pokéball toy, one of which caused the death of a 13-month-old child, led to the toy being recalled. Shortly after the acquisition of Burger King by TPG Capital, L.P. in 2002, its new CEO Brad Blum set about turning around the fortunes of the company by initiating an overhaul of its flailing advertising programs. In 2003, Burger King hired the Miami-based advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), which completely reorganized its advertising with a series of new campaigns. CP+B was known for having a hip, subversive tack when creating campaigns for its clients, exactly what BK was looking for. Their strategy centered on a redesigned Burger King character used during the 1970s/1980s Burger King Kingdom children's advertising campaign as a caricatured variation, now simply called "the King". While highly successful, some of CP+B's commercials were derided for perceived sexism or cultural insensitivity. Burger King's new owner, 3G Capital, later terminated the relationship with CP+B in 2011 and moved its advertising to McGarryBowen to begin a new product-oriented campaign with expanded demographic targeting. Additionally, CP+B created a series of new characters like the Subservient Chicken and the faux nu-metal band Coq Roq, featured in a series of viral web-based advertisements on sites such as MySpace and various Burger King corporate pages, to complement various television and print promotional campaigns. One of the more successful promotions that CP+B devised was the creation of a series of three advergames for the Xbox 360. Created by UK-based Blitz Games and featuring company celebrity spokesman Brooke Burke, the games sold more than 3.2 million copies, placing them as one of the top selling games along with another Xbox 360 hit, Gears of War. These ad campaigns, coupled with other new promotions and a series of new product introductions, drew positive and negative attention to BK and helped TPG and its partners realize about US$367 million in dividends. With the late-2000s recession hitting the 18–35 demographic targeted by the CP+B created ads particularly hard, the company saw its market share decline and the company move into the red. After the completion of the sale of the company in late 2010, the new ownership group terminated Burger King's seven-year relationship with CP+B and hired rival firm McGarryBowen to create a new campaign with an expanded market reach. As part of the new campaign, McGarryBowen terminated the use of The Burger King in the company's advertising program in favor of a new program that focused on the food and ingredients in its new advertising campaigns. In recent years, Burger King has turned to trolling fast food rival McDonald's with their advertising strategy. The company's tactics have included LOLA MullenLowe's "Scary Clown Night" which offered a free Whopper to anyone dressed as a clown (McDonald's mascot) on Halloween; FCB New York's Whopper Detour initiative, which encouraged mobile app users to go to a nearby McDonald's in order to unlock a 1-center Whopper; and Ingo's "The Not Big Macs" menu, which poked fun at McDonald's recent loss of the Big Mac trademark in the EU. In February 2019, the company launched an advertising campaign called "Eat Like Andy". The television spot which premiered during the Super Bowl LIII features archival documentary film footage from "66 Scenes from America" by Jørgen Leth of the pop artist Andy Warhol (1928–1987) unwrapping and eating a Whopper. The footage was approved for use by the fast food giant courtesy of the Andy Warhol Foundation. Meanwhile, prior to the game, the mass market hamburger chain made available to viewers who ordered it in advance via DoorDash an "Andy Warhol Mystery Box" which contains among other items a plastic bottle of ketchup and a platinum wig so one can "Eat Like Andy". On March 8, 2021, Burger King was criticized for their International Women's Day marketing campaign, after a tweet from Burger King UK stated, "Women belong in the kitchen". The tweets were labeled as sexist by thousands of Twitter users and dozens of news publications. Burger King UK followed up, stating "We're on a mission to change the gender ratio in the restaurant industry." However, critics say the damage has already been done. The initial tweet received high amounts of recognition and viewer interaction, while the replies received a fraction of the coverage, meaning only a few people are aware of the clarifications made by Burger King. After severe backlash, Burger King deleted the tweet 12 hours later and posted an apology stating, "We got our initial tweet wrong and we're sorry." In late 2022, Burger King released the "Have it Your Way" commercials, going viral on social media such as TikTok after the 2022–23 NFL playoffs because of its large amount of repetition and catchiness. The ads gained media attention and made their way onto music streaming services such as Spotify in February 2023. ## See also - Drive-through - Hungry Jack's, the Australian subsidiary for Burger King - List of hamburger restaurants - WhopperCoin

Ashtead

Village in Surrey, England

Ashtead /ˈæʃtɛd/ is a village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately 16 mi (26 km) south of central London. Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on the northern slopes of the North Downs and is in the catchment area of The Rye, a tributary of the River Mole. The earliest archaeological evidence for human activity in the village is from the Stone Age. At several points in its history, including during the early Roman period, Ashtead has been a centre for brick and tile manufacture. From medieval times until the late 19th century, Ashtead was primarily an agricultural settlement. Residential development was catalysed by the opening of the railway line between Epsom and Leatherhead in 1859 and by the breakup of the Ashtead Park estate in the 1880s. Housebuilding continued into the 20th century, reaching a peak in the 1930s. Future expansion is now constrained by the Metropolitan Green Belt, which encircles the village. There are two nature reserves in the village: Ashtead Common, to the north west of the centre, forms part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is owned by the Corporation of London; Ashtead Park, to the east of the centre is a Local Nature Reserve owned by the District Council. ## Toponymy In the Domesday Book of 1086, Ashtead is recorded as Stede, which simply means "place". In later documents, the village appears as Estede, Akestede and Aschestede (13th century), Asshstede (1370s), Ashstede (14th century), Asshested (15th century), Asted (1790) and Ashsted (1820). The name is generally agreed to mean "place of ash trees". ## Geography ### Location and topography Ashtead is a large village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, approximately 25 km (16 mi) south of central London. It lies on the southern edge of the London Basin and the highest point in the parish is 129.5 m (425 ft) above ordnance datum. Both the Epsom to Leatherhead railway line and the A24 run from northeast to southwest through the settlement, broadly parallel to The Rye, a tributary of the River Mole. The historic core of Ashtead is known locally as "The Village" and is focused around the main shopping area along The Street (A24). The residential area to the north west, closer to the railway station, is known as "Lower Ashtead" and incorporates secondary shopping centres on Craddocks Parade and Barnett Wood Lane. There are two protected nature reserves in Ashtead: Ashtead Common, a 181 ha (450-acre) woodland, is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation and is to the north west of Lower Ashtead; the 54 ha (130-acre) Ashtead Park is to the east of The Village and is owned by Mole Valley District Council. ### Geology Like many of the villages between Croydon and Guildford, Ashtead is a spring line settlement. It is positioned at the point where the chalk of the North Downs dips beneath the London Clay. The chalk is a natural aquifer and numerous wells have been bored into the ground to obtain drinking water. Springs rise at several points along the boundary between the permeable and impermeable ground, some of which feed The Rye and its tributaries, while others feed the ponds on the Common and in the Park. ## History ### Pre-history The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. A backed blade made of flint, dating from 50,000 to 12,000 years before present (BP), was found during pipeline excavations in Lower Ashtead, near Barnett Wood Lane and tranchet axes, dating from 15,000 to 5000 BP, have been discovered in Ottways Lane and Glebe Road. During the demolition of Parsons Mead School in 2009, pottery from the Neolithic was found which contained charcoal that was radiocarbon dated to 3775-3659 BP. Bronze Age artefacts discovered in the village include a spearhead and pottery sherds. ### Roman and Saxon Ashtead was the site of a major Roman brickworks in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The site on Ashtead Common consisted of a corridor villa and kilns adjacent to a series of claypits. A bath house was also provided for the use of the workers. The complex was excavated in the 1920s and it is now protected by scheduled monument status. Bricks and tiles produced in Ashtead were most likely transported via a short branch road to Stane Street, the Roman road that runs to the south east of the village centre. Remains of a building close to St Giles' Church, suggest that Roman occupation of Ashtead continued into the 4th century. Although there is no archaeological evidence of Anglo-Saxon occupation in the village, Ashtead would have been administered as part of the Copthorne Hundred. There may have been a small chapel, likely to have been controlled by a minster at Leatherhead, which was a royal vill. In 1984, an Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered on the site of the former Goblin factory in Ermyn Way, Leatherhead (now the location of the offices of Esso). Excavations uncovered the remains of at least 40 individuals and the artefacts found, including knives, buckles and necklaces, suggest that they were pagan burials. ### Medieval Ashtead appears in the Domesday Book as Stede and was held by the Canons of Bayeux from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its assets were: three hides and one virgate; 16 ploughs, woodland for seven hogs and four acres (1.6 ha) of meadow. In total, it rendered £12 per year. The de Warenne Family, the Earls of Surrey, held the manor in the 12th century. In the second half of the 13th century, it passed to the de Montfort family. During the Second Barons' War (1264–1267), Ashtead men are known to have fought on the side of Simon de Montfort. The de Montforts and their descendants continued to own the manor until the death of Baldwin de Freville in 1419, when it passed to his brother-in-law, Sir Roger Aston. Ashtead passed through several generations of the Aston family until 1543, when Edward Aston returned the manor to the Crown in exchange for land in Stafford and Derby. During the late 14th century, tile manufacturing was again taking place on Ashtead Common. Records from the Manor of Banstead indicate that a "Henry the Tyler of Asshstede" supplied over 10,000 roof tiles in 1372–3, and in 1384 the same individual also supplied the lord of the manor of Ashtead with tiles for "The Lord's Kitchen." It is possible that, during the 1290s, the tiles for the building of Pacchesham Manor, Leatherhead, were also manufactured on Ashtead Common. There is no mention of Henry the Tyler after 1400, and it seems likely that the medieval tileworks closed around this time. The area now bordered by Barnett Wood Lane, Agates Lane, Ottways Lane and Harriots Lane, was formerly a separate manor called Little Ashtead, which was held by Merton Priory in the Middle Ages. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-16th century, the area was known as Prior's Farm. ### Early modern Documents surviving from the mid-17th century, detail the organisation of the manor during the reign of Charles II: Two common fields, together totalling 194 ha (479 acres) and representing around 30% of the cultivatable land in the village, were divided into strips of around 1 acre each. The strips were distributed between 52 families and the planting would have been regulated by the manor court. In 1656, 17 of these strips were held by the rector and provided an income for the parish priest. The remainder of the cultivatable land had already been enclosed and was either held by the Lords of the Manor or by other prominent individuals, including the Stydolf family of Norbury Park. Ashtead is mentioned twice in Samuel Pepys' diaries. Part of his entry for 25 July 1663 reads: - "I went towards Ashted, my old place of pleasure... and there we got a lodging in a little hole we could not stand upright in, but rather than go further to look we staid there, and while supper was getting ready I took him to walk up and down behind my cozen [cousin] Pepys's house... and so up and down in the closes, which I know so well methinks, and account it good fortune that I lie here that I may have opportunity to renew my old walks." For much of the early modern period, Ashtead was owned by the Howard family. Sir Robert Howard purchased the manor from his cousin Henry Howard, the 6th Duke of Norfolk, in 1680 and is credited with transforming the land into a Gentleman's country seat. Sir Robert built a new mansion and also enclosed the surrounding park to create a formal garden. The diarist, John Evelyn, visited the house shortly after it was completed in 1684, admiring the paintings by the Italian-born artist Antonio Verrio and remarking upon the "swete park upon the Downe." Celia Fiennes described the brick-built mansion as having "an abundance of pictures" and "very good tapestry hangings". Sir Robert's guests also included Charles II, James II and William III. The turnpike road between Epsom and Horsham, which ran through Ashtead, was authorised by Parliament in 1755. By the end of the century, stagecoaches were passing through the village several times a day, although it is unlikely that many stopped to pick up passengers and local residents probably walked or rode to Epsom if they wished to use them. ### 19th century For the first seven decades of the 19th century, Ashtead remained a predominantly farming community. The manor continued to be owned by members of the Howard family and was inherited by Mary Howard in 1818. Mary Howard was a major benefactor to the village and was responsible for founding St Giles' School. She endowed the almshouses and, together with her husband, Fulk Greville Howard, initiated a major redevelopment of the parish church. In 1825 George Rennie and his brother, John, proposed the construction of The Grand Imperial Ship Canal, between Deptford and Portsmouth, to reduce the transit time from the capital to the south coast from 12 days to 24 hours and to avoid hostile waters in the event of war. The canal would have run across Ashtead Common, along the course of The Rye. The two common fields were enclosed in 1838, bringing to an end the open-field system in the manor. The land was divided into forty rectangular fields, each of around 4 ha (10 acres), which were leased to local farmers. The glebe strips were taken over by the Howards and the rector was given land to the south of the village centre in compensation. In around 1850, the 92 ha (227 acres) comprising the remaining core of Little Ashtead manor was sold for development, marking the start of a long period of housebuilding in the village. The railway line through Ashtead was built by the Epsom and Leatherhead Railway Company and opened on 1 February 1859. It was constructed as a single-track line and, on opening, Ashtead railway station had only one platform and trains only stopped by request. Initially all services were operated by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) and, for the first two months, only ran as far as Epsom. The completion of the line through Worcester Park enabled these trains to be extended to London Waterloo from April of the same year. In August 1859, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) began to run trains from Leatherhead to London Bridge, but did not begin stopping at Ashtead until the following year. After the death of Mary Howard in 1877, much of the village was offered for sale. Ashtead Common was purchased by Thomas Lucas, who sold it four years later, in 1889, to the banker Pantia Ralli. The rest of the land, much of it farmland, was split into eight separate lots. Since the sale coincided with a period of depression in British agriculture, the land sold cheaply. The lot containing Ashtead Park and Home Farm was withdrawn from sale when it failed to meet its reserve price and was acquired by Pantia Ralli in 1889. By 1887 the majority of the farms in Ashtead had been broken up and the land was in the hands of eight major owners and many smaller ones. New houses began to be built on the east side of Woodfield Lane and to the north of Barnett Wood Lane. The area west of the station (including Links Road and Ashtead Woods Road) had been marked out for housing by 1894, but construction was delayed by difficulties in securing access over the railway. Elsewhere building work was also slow and the population of the village increased from 906 in 1871 to 1,881 in 1901. ### 20th century Development continued in the first decade of the 20th century and the population had reached 2,921 by 1911. Many of the new homes were in the west of the parish and housebuilding took place along Skinners Lane, Ottways Lane and Oakfield Road. By 1914, new houses had also appeared along Leatherhead Road, Woodfield Road and The Marld. Many of the new residents were professionals who commuted to London by train. During the First World War, several hundred men from the 21st Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers were billeted in the village and were responsible for constructing a convalescent hospital at Woodcote Park in Epsom. George V visited the village by train in October 1914 to inspect the troops. By January 1915, there were around 1500 soldiers based in Ashtead. The war memorial at St George's Church was dedicated in 1920. The inter-war years saw the most rapid period of residential development, stimulated in part by the final breakup of the Ashtead Park estate, following the death of Pantia Ralli in 1924. The electrification of the railway line in 1925 also made the village more attractive to potential homeowners. The population increased from 3,226 in 1921 to 9,336 in 1939. In September 1939, children were evacuated to Ashtead from Streatham and Dulwich. A unit of the Royal Norfolk Regiment was stationed in the village at the start of the war and, from 1941, Canadian soldiers were billeted locally. Land bordering Craddocks Avenue was taken over for war allotments and pigs were reared on vacant building plots on the Overdale estate. In 1940 a company of the Home Guard was formed. In 1940 and 1941, several buildings in Ashtead suffered damage as a result of enemy bombing during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, including St Andrew's School, which was almost completely destroyed. In the final year of the war, two V-1 flying bombs landed in the village and a V-2 rocket landed to the south of Ashtead Park in February 1945. The 1944 Greater London Plan placed much of the land surrounding Ashtead in the protected Metropolitan Green Belt, which severely limited the scope for urban expansion. The northern half of Ashtead Park was threatened with development from the late 1940s and so it was purchased by Surrey County Council in 1957, before being passed to the ownership of the Leatherhead Urban District Council. In 1988, three conservation areas were designated in the village. ## Government and politics Since 1997, Ashtead has been part of the parliamentary constituency of Epsom and Ewell. For much of the 19th century, local infrastructure and services were overseen by the vestry, but the Local Government Act 1888 transferred many administrative responsibilities to the newly formed Surrey County Council. A parish council was established under the Local Government Act 1894 when the village became part of Epsom Rural District. The parish council was abolished in 1933, when Ashtead became part of Leatherhead Urban District. Ashtead thus became an urban parish. In 1951 the parish had a population of 9852. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished. Mole Valley District Council was created in 1974 by combining the Urban Districts of Dorking and Leatherhead with the Rural District of Dorking. Although Ashtead does not have a parish council today, stakeholder engagement is conducted through a number of bodies, including Ashtead Residents' Association. ## Demography and housing In the 2011 Census, the combined population of the Ashtead Common, Park and Village wards was 14,169. ## Public services ### Utilities Until the late 18th century, villagers obtained drinking water from The Rye or from wells. In 1884, the first piped supply was installed by the Leatherhead and District Water Company and was fed from a borehole at Waterway Road in Leatherhead. The gas main from Epsom was installed in the 1880s, to supply gas for street lighting. The first sewerage system was completed in 1900 and electricity reached Ashtead in the same year. ### Emergency services In the early 19th century a constable was employed by the vestry and the Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower public house doubled as the village prison, where the accused could be held before trial. Policing in the village became the responsibility of the Surrey Constabulary on its creation in 1851. Ashtead Fire Brigade was founded in 1901. At first the horse-drawn fire cart was housed at the Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower, but it moved to a site in Agates Lane in 1908. The village Brigade was merged with that of Leatherhead in October 1926. In 2021, the fire authority for the village is Surrey County Council and the statutory fire service is Surrey Fire and Rescue Service. Local ambulance services are run by the South East Coast Ambulance Service. ### Healthcare Ashtead Hospital, a private hospital not run by the NHS, opened in the old chalk quarry site to the south of the village in September 1984. The nearest hospital with an A\&E is Epsom Hospital, 2.1 km (1.3 mi) away. As of 2021, the village has two GP practices, both on Woodfield Lane. ## Industry and business Brick and tile manufacture has taken place at Ashtead at several points in the village's history. Clay pits on Ashtead Common were active in the 1st, 2nd, 13th and 14th centuries and, in the mid-19th century, there was a brick kiln and drying shed in Newton Wood. In around 1880, the Sparrow brothers opened a works to the north of Barnett Wood Lane and their company was active for around 30 years. Houses were built on the site in the 1950s and part of the old clay pit is now the Floral Pond, adjacent to The Chase. Ashtead Brickworks, to the west of the Sparrow Works, was established in 1896 and closed in 1909. Ashtead Potters Ltd was established in the village in 1923 by Sir Lawrence Weaver and Kathleen Purcell, Lady Weaver. The firm was based in the Victoria Works in West Hill and produced a wide range of products in a variety of styles. The clay was delivered by train to Ashtead station. The company ceased trading in 1935 after sales fell during the Great Depression. The construction company Longcross had its head office in Ashtead but entered administration in 2015. The Ashtead Group was founded in 1947 as Ashtead Plant and Tool Hire. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1986. The company operates internationally and serves customers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. ## Transport ### Road The A24 single-carriageway road runs through the centre of the village. In October 1985, Ashtead was joined to the UK motorway system, when the M25 motorway was opened between Wisley and Reigate. ### Bus Route 408 (Epsom – Leatherhead – Cobham) is run by Falcon Buses and Route 479 (Epsom – Leatherhead – Guildford) is run by Arriva Kent & Sussex and Stagecoach. ### Train Ashtead railway station is to the northwest of the village centre and is managed by Southern. The main ticket office building was rebuilt in 2013. It is served by trains to London Victoria via Sutton, to London Waterloo via Wimbledon, to Horsham via Dorking and Guildford via Bookham. ### Long-distance footpath The Thames Down Link long-distance footpath between Kingston upon Thames and Box Hill runs through Ashtead Park. ## Schools ### Maintained schools The first school in Ashtead was established by the Howard family in 1815 and was located close to the almshouses in Park Lane. On opening it catered for around 60 children, but numbers had grown to around 100 by 1850. St Giles' Infant School was established in 1852 by Mary Howard to replace the Park Lane school. Originally boys and girls were taught separately, but the two halves were amalgamated in 1900. By 1904 there were 317 children enrolled. Barnett Wood Infant School was opened as Ashtead Council School in 1906. Initially it was housed in temporary facilities, but moved to its present brick building in 1914. The Greville Primary School was opened in 1958 and is thought to have been named after Fulk Greville Howard, husband of Mary Howard. West Ashtead Primary School was opened in 1964 and underwent an expansion in the mid-1970s. St Andrew's Catholic Secondary School is in Leatherhead, close to the southern boundary of the village. ### Independent schools The City of London Freemen's School was founded in 1854 by the Corporation of London to educate orphans of the freemen of the city. Originally located in Brixton, the school taught both boys and girls from the outset and it is one of the oldest coeducational establishments in the world. In 1926, the school moved to its present site in Ashtead Park and began to admit fee-paying pupils. Downsend Lodge (Ashtead) was founded as Ryebrook School in 1948. It was acquired by Downsend School in 1983 and is run as a pre-prep feeder school. The main Downsend School site is in Leatherhead, close to the border with Ashtead. ### Former schools Parsons Mead School was an independent school founded by Jessie Elliston in 1897. In 1904 it moved to its permanent site in Ottways Lane and by the outbreak of the First World War it had 95 female pupils, aged between 10 and 18. A decline in school numbers forced the school to close in 2006 and the site was sold for housing a year later. ## Places of worship ### St Giles' Church St Giles' Church is first recorded in a charter of the Bishop of Winchester that dates from the early 12th century. It was built around 1115 with an endowment from Laurence of Rouen, probably as a private chapel for the nearby manor house. The oldest surviving part is the east end of the nave, the south wall of which includes some Roman tiles. The chancel was added in the 13th century and St Giles' became a church in its own right, with a rector and vicar. A substantial rebuilding took place in the 15th and 16th centuries, during which the tower was added. The east window, which is attributed to the 16th-century artist Lambert Lombard of Liège was transferred from Herkenrode Abbey, Belgium in the mid-18th century. The stone reredos and panelled-cedar chancel ceiling date from the same period. The ring of six bells dating from 1725, was recast as a peal of eight in 1873. A major redevelopment took place in the 1890s, which included the renewal of the roof, pews and pulpit. A new organ chamber was built at the same time and new arches were opened in the walls of the chancel and north aisle. The lychgate was erected in 1903 in memory of Sir Thomas Lucas. The churchyard contains 16 Commonwealth war graves of service personnel of both World Wars. ### St George's Church A small church built of corrugated iron was built in Lower Ashtead in 1882, funded by a donation from Sir Thomas Lucas. The foundation stone for the permanent replacement was laid in 1905 and St George's Church was consecrated in April of the following year. The brick building was designed by Arthur Conran Blomfield and, on opening, consisted of a nave, chancel, north aisle and transept. An organ chamber and vestry were added in 1908 and the church hall was constructed in 1954. A new east window, designed by Christopher Webb, was installed in 1961 and the south aisle was built three years later. A major redevelopment took place in the late 1990s, during which the old hall was demolished and a two-storey extension to the church was constructed. The church was reopened in 2001. ### St Michael's Catholic Church The first regular Catholic masses to be held in Ashtead since Elizabethan times took place in the Constitutional Hall in Barnett Wood Lane in 1942. Two years later a bombed-out house in Woodfield Lane was purchased and the congregation began meeting in the corrugated iron garage on the site, replaced in 1947 by a wooden building. The foundation stone of St Michael's Catholic Church was laid on 1 July 1967 and construction work was completed in October of the same year. The architect was Eduardo Dodds and the altar and font were designed by Joseph Cribb. The church hall was opened in 1983. ### Ashtead Baptist Church The Baptist Church has its origins in the Ashtead Gospel Church, which was a temporary building, constructed of corrugated iron in 1895. It became the Ashtead Free Church in 1913 and was replaced by a permanent brick building in 1924. ## Culture Ashtead Choral Society was founded in 1949 and performs regularly in local venues, including the Dorking Halls. In 2008, the society commissioned The Ashtead Psalms by Robert Steadman to mark its 50th anniversary. ## Sport Ashtead Cricket Club was founded in 1887. The home ground is at Woodfield Lane and in 2020 the club played in the Premier league of the Surrey Championship. The Old Freemen's Cricket Club also plays cricket in Ashtead. Its home fixtures are split between the grounds of the City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead Park and at Headley Cricket Club to work around term time use by the School. Ashtead Football Club was founded in 1894. Initially it played its home games at Woodfield Lane, but since the Second World War it has used the Recreation Ground. The Old Freemen's Ladies' hockey team play on the artificial pitch in Ashtead Park every Saturday, with training in Clapham. Rugby Union has been played in Ashtead Park since 1930 as the home of the Old Freemen's RFC. ## Parks and open spaces ### Ashtead Common In medieval times, Ashtead Common was the waste land of the manor. It was used extensively for grazing of livestock, trees were harvested for timber and many of the older oaks show signs of pollarding. Following the end of the Second World War, the Common was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and was protected as part of the Metropolitan Greenbelt. It was purchased by Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) in 1988 and was passed to the Corporation of London in 1991. Today the total area of the Common is approximately 200 ha (490 acres) and access is provided by public footpaths and bridleways. It provides a habitat for 90 different bird species, including tawny owls and green woodpeckers, as well as 130 rare species of beetle. ### Ashtead Park Ashtead Park was conceived as a 200-acre deer park, by Sir Robert Howard, who became Lord of the Manor in 1680. Following the death of Pantia Ralli in 1924, the southern half was bought by the Corporation of London. The northern part, which includes oak woodland and two large ponds has been designated a local nature reserve and is managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust on behalf of MVDC. ### Ashtead Rye Meadows The privately owned Ashtead Rye Meadows, to the west of the village, was designated a Site of Nature Conservation Interest in 2013. The 19 ha (48-acre) site runs along the banks of The Rye, downstream of Ashtead Common. In the early Middle Ages, part of the area was known as "The Great Marsh" and the court roll of 1483 records its clearance and conversion into pasture. The system of drainage was also installed around this time and the oldest hedges date from at least 1638. The course of The Rye through the meadows was straightened during the 1950s when the adjacent housing was constructed, leading to a loss of wildlife habitats. Volunteers restored the stream in the 2010s, reinstating the original meanders. In 2017, one area of the meadows was designated a "Centenary Field" to commemorate the 62 residents of Ashtead who died in the First World War. ### Recreation Ground The Recreation Ground in Barnett Wood Lane was opened in 1932. ## Notable buildings and landmarks ### Ashtead Park House Ashtead Park House was designed by Joseph Bonomi the Elder in the classical style and was completed in 1790. It is constructed from yellow stock bricks with Portland stone dressings. It was enlarged and altered in around 1880 for Sir Thomas Lucas. Notable features include the c. 1790 circular saloon, which has scagliola columns and a plaster frieze. The interiors of the Jacobean-style entrance hall and other principal rooms date from the late 19th century. The main staircase features an Adam-style bronze balustrade. The building is now Grade II\* listed and is part of the City of London Freemen's School. ### Coal-tax posts Six surviving coal-tax posts are positioned at intervals along the northern boundaries of Ashtead. These posts marked the limits of the tax jurisdiction of the Corporation of London and were erected under the provisions of the London Coal and Wine Duties Continuance Act 1861. The majority of the posts are classified as 'Type 2' and are made of cast iron, painted white. The post adjacent to the railway line is a taller 'Type 4' design, made of unpainted stone. ### Feilding House The almshouses in The Street were established following a bequest from Lady Diana Howard, who lived at Ashtead Park until her death in 1733. They are thought to take their name from that of her second husband, the Whig politician, William Feilding. Originally the building accommodated six widows, but in 1852, alterations were carried out to increase the number of residents to eight. ### Grey Wings Grey Wings is a detached house that was designed by the architects Giles Gilbert Scott and his brother Adrian. It was built in 1913 and has been Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England since January 1999. It was occupied by the Boustead family shortly after completion. It has been subject to very few alterations since its construction. Grey Wings was put up for sale for £2.1 million in September 2015. It was listed as having 4 reception rooms and 6 bedrooms. ### Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower pub The oldest parts of the Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower pub date from the late 17th century and an innkeeper is first recorded as working there in 1707. The building has a timber-framed core, but the frontage was extended in the early 20th century. It is protected by a Grade II listing. ### Memorial fountain The Memorial Fountain was erected by the parishioners of Ashtead in 1879 in memory of Mary Howard. It is built from sandstone ashlar in the form of a medieval cross. ### Peace Memorial Hall The Peace Memorial Hall in Woodfield Lane was built to celebrate the end of the First World War. The single-storey building was opened in 1924 by Sir Rowland Blades and functions as a village hall. ### Public Library The library in Woodfield Lane is run by Surrey County Council. The brick building was designed by the county architect RJ Ash and was opened in 1968. ### Village Club Ashtead Village Club was founded in 1887 as a church social club for men of the parish, to provide an alternative source of entertainment to the local pubs. The club moved to its present site in 1888, but the premises were bombed in 1941 and a partial rebuilding took place in the early 1950s. The current two-storey building was opened in 1966. Women were allowed to become full members of the club in 2008. ### Whittaker's Cottages Whittaker's Cottages were constructed adjacent to the railway line in the mid-1860s and are named after a farm labourer who had owned the land before they were built. Each two-storey, semi-detached cottage measures 12 ft (3.7 m) wide and 20 ft (6.1 m) deep. Although the shared chimney and foundations are made from brick, the cottages are built primarily of timber. Imported softwood from the Baltic was used for the walls, floors, roof and cladding and hardwood was used for the infill framing. The cottages were dismantled in 1987 and were relocated to the Weald and Downland Living Museum in West Sussex. ## Notable residents - Edward Aston (d. 1568) was Sheriff of Staffordshire and owned the Manor of Ashtead from 1526 to 1543 - Edward Darcy (d. 1612) was a politician and courtier and owned the Manor of Ashtead from 1589 until his death - Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) visited Ashtead in the 17th century and spent some time living there as a boy - Thomas Tyers (1726–1787) author - Thomas Byam Martin (1773–1854) Royal Navy officer and politician - Sara Jeannette Duncan (1861–1922) Canadian author and journalist, who wrote under the pen name Mrs Everard Cotes - Robert Kahn (1865–1951) composer, lived in Ashtead from 1938 until his death - Robert Davis (1870–1965) inventor of the Submerged Escape Apparatus used by submarine crews in the Second World War. - Elsie Knocker later Baroness de T'Serclaes, MM, OStJ (1884–1978) nurse and ambulance driver on the Western Front during World War I - Albert Marshall (1897–2005) the last surviving British cavalryman to have fought on the Western Front during World War I. - Beverley Nichols (1898–1957) writer and composer - A. P. Herbert (1890–1971) writer and politician - Kathleen Riddick (1907–1973) pioneering conductor and founder of the Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra - Pete Brown (1940–2023) performance poet, lyricist and singer, best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce - Evan Davis (b. 1962) journalist and television presenter, grew up in Ashtead. ## See also - List of places of worship in Mole Valley -

Delaware Route 44

State highway in Delaware

Delaware Route 44 (DE 44) is a state highway in Kent County, Delaware. It is signed east-west and runs from DE 300 at Everetts Corner southeast to DE 8 in Pearsons Corner. The route passes through rural areas of western Kent County as well as the town of Hartly. In Hartly, DE 44 intersects DE 11. The route was built as a state highway east of Hartly by 1924 and west of Hartly by 1932, receiving the DE 44 designation by 1936. ## Route description DE 44 heads to the southeast from DE 300 at Everetts Corner on two-lane undivided Everetts Corner Road. The road passes through a mix of woodland and farmland before reaching the town of Hartly. In Hartly, the route intersects DE 11, where it becomes Main Street, and passes by homes along with some commercial establishments, crossing an abandoned railroad line. The road then heads to the east out of Hartly as Hartly Road, passing through more rural areas. DE 44 continues to its eastern terminus at DE 8 in the community of Pearsons Corner. DE 44 has an annual average daily traffic count ranging from a high of 4,188 vehicles at the eastern terminus at DE 8 to a low of 1,565 vehicles at the western border of Hartly. The entire length of DE 44 is part of the National Highway System. ## History By 1920, what is now DE 44 existed as an unimproved county road. The road east of Hartly was improved into a state highway by 1924. By 1932, the portion of road west of Hartly became a state highway. DE 44 was designated by 1936 to follow its current alignment. The route has not changed since its inception. ## Major intersections |} ## See also -

Richard Pacquette

Association football player

Richard Francis Pacquette (born 28 January 1983) is a semi-professional footballer who plays as a striker for Amersham Town. He has played in the Football League for Queens Park Rangers, Mansfield Town, Milton Keynes Dons and Brentford, and at senior international level for the Dominica national team. Pacquette started his career with Queens Park Rangers and made his first-team debut towards the end of the 2000–01 season. He had loan spells with Stevenage Borough, Dagenham & Redbridge and Mansfield Town before being released in 2004, having made over 40 appearances. He had brief spells with Milton Keynes Dons and Brentford before dropping down to non-League football, where he has played since. Following short spells at five different clubs, he played for Worthing for a season and scored 17 goals. He scored for Havant & Waterlooville in their FA Cup fourth round match against Liverpool at Anfield in 2008, where they were defeated 5–2. Born in Kilburn, London to Dominican parents, Pacquette has played internationally for the Dominica national team. He scored on his debut against Barbados in 2008 and has earned two caps for the team. His second appearance came in a defeat to Barbados in the second leg. ## Club career Born in Kilburn, Greater London, to Dominican parents, Pacquette's first club was Queens Park Rangers (QPR) where he played in the same youth team as Peter Crouch. He turned professional on 1 February 2000 and made his first-team debut as a 77th-minute substitute in a 2–1 defeat to Huddersfield Town on 21 April 2001. He made one further appearance in the 2000–01 season, with a start in a 3–0 defeat to Stockport County. The season finished with QPR's relegation to the Second Division, and Pacquette scored his first goal for the club in a 3–0 victory over Bury on 12 January 2002. He scored his second, and final goal of the 2001–02 season, to give QPR the lead in a 1–1 draw with Cardiff City in March, but was later handed a red card. After the end of the season, in July, manager Ian Holloway placed him on the transfer list. After having made four appearances and scored one goal for QPR during the 2002–03 season, he joined Football Conference club Stevenage Borough on a three-month loan on 18 October. He made his debut the following day in a 1–0 defeat to Burton Albion and scored in his next appearance, in a 2–1 victory over Swansea City in the Football League Trophy first round. He went on to score for Stevenage in the southern section second round of the Football League Trophy, which finished in a 4–3 defeat to Luton Town. He finished the loan spell having scored four goals in 10 appearances. After returning to QPR, he scored three goals in the league and featured for them in both legs of the Second Division play-off semi-final, as well as the final, which was lost 1–0 to Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium. Pacquette scored on his first appearance of the 2003–04 season, in a 2–0 victory over Kidderminster Harriers in the Football League Trophy in October 2003. He featured against Dagenham & Redbridge in the Football League Trophy in November, which proved to be his final appearance for QPR. He later joined Dagenham on loan on 29 December and made his debut in a 2–1 defeat to Aldershot Town on 1 January 2004. He scored his first goal for Dagenham in a 5–0 victory over Shrewsbury Town and finished loan the spell with five appearances and two goals. He joined Mansfield Town in the Third Division on a one-month loan on 4 February. He made his debut in a 3–0 defeat to Rochdale and scored in the following match, which finished as a 2–1 victory over York City. He finished the loan spell at Mansfield with five appearances and one goal, and after the end of the season, in June, he was released by QPR after not being offered a new contract. He trained with newly formed League One club Milton Keynes Dons (MK Dons) and joined them on 24 September. Pacquette made his debut in a 4–2 victory over Hartlepool United and scored his first goal in his following match, a 3–0 victory over Brentford in the Football League Trophy. After making seven appearances for MK Dons, he was released in November, and subsequently signed for Southern League Division One East club Fisher Athletic later that month. He left the club to sign for Brentford in League One on non-contract terms on 26 November. He played for Brentford in a 2–0 defeat to Hull City. He left the club by mutual consent and signed for Conference National club Farnborough Town on 7 December. His debut came in a 1–1 draw with Canvey Island and his first goal came in a 2–1 defeat to Morecambe. After making five appearances for Farnborough, he rejoined Stevenage on non-contract terms, after training with Grimsby Town. He made two appearances for Stevenage, and after failing to earn a long-term contract he had another trial at Grimsby. He eventually joined St Albans City in February, where he made one appearance before signing for Hemel Hempstead Town in March. After making two appearances, he soon moved on after joining Isthmian League Premier Division club Hampton & Richmond Borough 10 days later. He made six appearances for Hampton before the end of the 2004–05 season. He joined Worthing after a trial in July 2005, and was loaned to Thurrock of the Conference South in February 2006, where he made four appearances after making his debut in a 1–0 defeat to Yeading. Before this loan, he was transfer-listed by Worthing, and in March he was released by the club, after scoring 17 goals in 30 appearances during the 2005–06 season. After leaving Worthing, Pacquette joined Conference South club Havant & Waterlooville in March, scoring three goals in eight league appearances during the remainder of the 2005–06 season. He scored his first goal of the 2006–07 season in a 2–0 victory over Dorchester Town on 11 September. He scored two goals for Havant in their 3–0 victory over Team Bath in the FA Trophy third qualifying round, which saw them progress to the first round. He played in both legs of Havant's play-off semi-final defeat to Braintree Town, finishing the season with 41 appearances and 13 goals. Following the end of the season, he signed a new contract with Havant in June 2007. He scored for Havant in their FA Cup fourth round tie against Premier League team Liverpool at Anfield on 26 January 2008, putting Havant 1–0 in the lead on eight minutes, before they eventually lost 5–2. On transfer deadline day, 31 March 2008, Pacquette joined rival Conference South club Maidenhead United on loan until the end of the 2007–08 season, after making 32 appearances and scoring 13 goals for Havant up to that point during the 2007–08 season. He made five appearances and scored three goals for Maidenhead before the end of the season, and signed for the club permanently during the summer. He signed for Conference Premier club Histon on a one-month loan on 18 February 2009, after having made 25 appearances and scored 15 goals for Maidenhead up to that point during the 2008–09 season. He made his debut for Histon as a 75th-minute substitute against Eastbourne Borough on 21 February 2009. He started the following match, a 2–0 victory over Barrow, before making his final appearance as an 83rd-minute substitute in a 3–0 victory against Lewes. He was an unused substitute for the following four matches before he finished the loan spell at Histon with three appearances. He finished the 2008–09 season with 32 appearances and 20 goals for Maidenhead. At the end of the season, Pacquette signed for Conference Premier club York City on 22 May 2009. After being unavailable for the opening three matches of the season due to a suspension he received while at Maidenhead, he made his debut as a 78th-minute substitute against Hayes & Yeading United, scoring York's equaliser with a header in a 1–1 draw. He was sent off 56 minutes into his first start for York in the following match against Gateshead, which resulted in him serving another three-match suspension. He made his return as an 82nd-minute substitute in a 3–2 victory over Tamworth in October. He later pulled a thigh muscle, meaning he was expected to be out injured for the remainder of the month, eventually returning to training in November. His return came in a 3–2 victory over Crewe Alexandra in the FA Cup first round, coming on as an 84th-minute substitute, before scoring to equalise the match at 2–2. He scored the winning goal in an FA Trophy second round replay against Newport County in stoppage time on 26 January 2010. He scored York's goal in a 2–1 defeat in the FA Trophy quarter-final against Barrow on 2 March. He finished the 2009–10 season with 18 appearances and four goals for York and the club announced that he would be released when his contract expired. Pacquette signed for Conference Premier club Eastbourne Borough on a one-year contract on 28 June. He made his debut in the opening match of the 2010–11 season, a 4–2 defeat away to Tamworth on 14 August, and he scored Eastbourne's first goal with a header. Pacquette finished the season with 14 goals in 39 appearances as Eastbourne were relegated to the Conference South. He was not offered a new contract by the club after indicating that he wished to leave and later went on trial with former club Maidenhead. At the start of August 2011 Pacquette joined Forest Green Rovers on trial and featured in a match against Cirencester Town but failed to land a deal. Later that month, Pacquette joined Conference Premier club Hayes & Yeading United. He was released by Hayes on 9 December, later that day re-signing for Maidenhead of the Conference South. He made his second debut for the club in a goalless draw with Staines Town in the FA Trophy first round, and also appeared in the replay defeat three days later. He would go on to score three goals in the next three matches, all in the Conference South. Just a month after joining Maidenhead he returned to the Conference Premier after signing for Lincoln City on a contract until the end of the 2011–12 season. He joined Gainsborough Trinity on trial in August 2012 and scored in the team's 4–0 pre-season victory over Doncaster Rovers. He signed for Conference South club Bromley on 16 August 2012 and made his debut two days later in a 0–0 draw at home to Staines Town. He scored his first two goals for the club on 25 August 2012 in a 3–2 defeat at Chelmsford City. Pacquette was released by Bromley in December 2012, and promptly joined fellow Conference South club Eastleigh. He scored on his debut, a 5–3 a defeat at Salisbury City on 1 January 2013, but was subsequently released on 10 January 2013, after scoring once in two matches for the club. He signed for another Conference South club, Sutton United, on 19 January 2012. Pacquette's debut came in a 2–1 home win over Eastleigh on 2 February 2013, before scoring his first goal in a 3–2 victory at home to Basingstoke Town on 19 February. He was released by Sutton on 6 March 2013, having scored once in seven matches for the club. Pacquette returned to Conference South club Maidenhead on 7 March 2013 on a contract until the end of the 2013–14 season, making his third debut on 9 March in a 2–0 home defeat to Eastleigh. In June 2014 he left Maidenhead to rejoin Eastbourne Borough of the Conference South. During the summer of 2015, he made preseason appearances for Hampton & Richmond Borough, scoring a goal against Tooting & Mitcham United on 12 July 2015, and later signed for them. He went on a loan stint at Lewes in November 2015, and after a spell with Walton & Hersham winter 2016, he was back in the Hampton & Richmond Borough jersey on 22 March 2016 as they narrowly lost to Cockfosters in a 42 penalty shoot out thriller in the Middlesex Senior Charity Cup. In July 2016, Metropolitan Police manager Jim Cooper announced his arrival. Pacquette went on to sign for fellow Isthmian League Premier Division club Grays Athletic on 20 October. Following his release on 17 November 2016, he made his debut for Egham Town on 3 December 2016. In June 2017, Pacquette joined Isthmian League Premier Division club Harrow Borough. In November 2017 he joined Thamesmead Town. Following the club going into creditors voluntary administration in October 2018, he signed for Harefield United of Spartan South Midlands League Division One. In May 2023, he joined Amersham Town as player-assistant manager ## International career Pacquette earned a call-up to the Dominica national team for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification CONCACAF first round match against Barbados on 6 February 2008. Barbados went into the match as heavy favourites but fell behind to Pacquette's goal on his international debut, which finished as a 1–1 draw. After making his debut, manager Christopher Ericson said "He is great in front of goal, powerful and full of effort and work. I only hope that we can get him some more support up front in the next game – if we do I am sure we can win it". He also played in the 1–0 defeat in the second leg on 26 March. ## Style of play After signing for York City in 2009, manager Martin Foyle described him as being "strong and can hold the ball up, which we were poor at doing last season. He could be our link man because we need to retain possession better in the final third." ## Personal life He attended Cardinal Hinsley Maths and Computing College when he was young. His cousin is fellow Dominica international footballer Jefferson Louis, with whom he was paired as Dominica's strikers in the second leg against Barbados. During his time as a semi-professional Pacquette worked as a school caretaker and a truancy officer. Pacquette and his Havant & Waterlooville teammates would have received £10,000 each if they had beaten Liverpool in the FA Cup. After joining York City in 2009, he moved into a house with teammates Neil Barrett, Alex Lawless, James Meredith and Daniel Parslow. Like his cousin, Pacquette is known to be an Arsenal supporter. Pacquette is now a PE Teacher at Newman Catholic College. ## Career statistics ### Club ### International - As of match played 6 February 2008. Dominica score listed first, score column indicates score after each Pacquette goal. ## Honours Harefield United - Spartan South Midlands Football League Division One: 2018–19

M-134 (Michigan highway)

State highway in Mackinac and Chippewa counties in Michigan, United States

M-134 is an east–west state trunkline highway in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of the US state of Michigan. It connects Interstate 75 (I-75) north of St. Ignace with the communities of Hessel, Cedarville and De Tour Village along Lake Huron. East of De Tour, the highway crosses the De Tour Passage on a ferry to run south of the community of Drummond on Drummond Island. It is one of only three state trunklines in Michigan on islands; the others are M-154 on Harsens Island and M-185 on Mackinac Island. M-134 is also one of only two highways to utilize a ferry in Michigan; the other is US Highway 10 (US 10) which crosses Lake Michigan from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to Ludington. Most of the mainland portion of M-134 is also part of the Lake Huron Circle Tour, and since 2015, it has been a Pure Michigan Byway under the name M-134 North Huron Byway. A separate highway bore the M-134 designation in the Lower Peninsula from the late 1920s to the late 1930s. The current highway's immediate predecessors were included in the original M-4 in the state. That designation was renumbered to the current M-134 moniker in 1939. Since the trunkline number was finalized, it was extended eastward to end south of Goetzville in the 1950s, with a further extension to De Tour in the 1950s. The western section was moved closer to the lakeshore in the 1960s. The last change came when M-134 was extended to Drummond Island in 1989. ## Route description M-134 starts at the interchange for exit 359 along I-75 north of St. Ignace in rural Mackinac County near the St. Martin Bay of Lake Huron. As the highway runs eastward, it carries the Lake Huron Circle Tour over the Pine River on Huron Shore Drive. The trunkline turns to the southeast and follows the shoreline along the bay and runs inland at the bases of the peninsulas that form the Search Bay. Returning to a shoreline routing at Mismer Bay, M-134 runs through the wooded rural areas into Hessel. There Huron Shore Drive continues eastward to Cedarville where the highway meets the south end of M-129 north of Marquette Island. Farther east, M-134 runs along the north side of the many small bays and channels that separate the Les Cheneaux Islands from the mainland. About 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Cedarville, M-134 crosses into Chippewa County for about a mile and a half (2.5 km); the highway passes back into a sliver of Mackinac County that extends along the Lake Huron shoreline for another 5 miles (8.0 km) before finally crossing back into Chippewa County. Near Albany Harbor, M-134 follows Scenic Road to an intersection with M-48. The main route of the Lake Huron Circle Tour turns north on M-48 while a locally designed loop route continues east on M-134 along Lake Huron. The highway continues past De Tour State Park and St. Vital Point before heading northeasterly to De Tour Village. In the middle of the village, M-134 runs north on Ontario Street and turns east along Elizabeth Street to connect to the ferry docks; the loop tour continues north out of town on county roads. The highway uses the ferry, run by the regional public transportation agency, to cross the De Tour Passage. Once on Drummond Island, M-134 follows Channel Road northward along the passage before turning eastward. The trunkline cuts across to run along Sturgeon Bay on the north shore of the island. On the east side of the bay, M-134 turns inland and runs east to the Four Corners, south of the unincorporated community of Drummond. The trunkline terminates at that intersection south of the Drummond Island Airport where Channel, Townline, Johnswood, and Shore roads (west, north, east and south respectively) come together. M-134 is one of three state highways in Michigan located on an island; the two other state highways located on islands are M-185 on Mackinac Island and M-154 on Harsens Island. No part of M-134 is listed on the National Highway System, a system of roadways important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility. In 2009, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) conducted a survey to determine the traffic volume along the highway, reported using a metric called average annual daily traffic (AADT). The department determined that the highest count was the 3,595 vehicles a day that used the highway west of the M-129 junction in Cedarville; the lowest counts were 608 vehicles daily between the M-48 junction and the De Tour village limits. On the island, 667 vehicles use M-134 daily. According to tourism officials in the area, over 100,000 vehicles per year are transported round trip on the ferry with almost twice as many additional passengers. ## Ferry The Eastern Upper Peninsula Transportation Authority (EUPTA) operates the Drummond Island Ferry across the De Tour Passage in addition to two other ferries and the regional rural bus system for Luce and Chippewa counties. As part of the service between De Tour and Drummond Island, EUPTA operates up to three different vessels: the SS Drummond Islander, SS Drummond Islander III and the SS Drummond Islander IV. As of 2022, fares start at $20 per car and increase based on the size of the vehicle transported, including a fuel surcharge. Passenger fares are $2 for adults and $1 for seniors or students; the vehicle driver's fare is included in the vehicle charge. All fares are round trip and collected when departing DeTour Village; there is no fare when departing Drummond Island. Ferries leave Drummond Island at 10 minutes after the hour, from De Tour at 20 minutes to the hour, and run most of the day, all year round, only closing temporarily when high winds and heavy ice occur. M-134 is one of two highways in Michigan to use a ferry connection; the other is US 10 between Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. ## History Starting in late 1928 or early 1929, the first route designated as M-134 was a road in Missaukee County from M-66 three miles (4.8 km) north of McBain east to Falmouth in the northern Lower Peninsula. In 1938, the Michigan State Highway Department (MSHD) returned the road to local control. When the rest of the state highway system was first designated, by July 1, 1919, the first state highway in the area of today's M-134 was a section of M-12. That highway segment was used for US 2 in 1926. A rerouting of US 2 was completed in 1933 between Rogers Park and Sault Ste. Marie. The new routing followed Mackinac Trail instead of turning east to Cedarville and north to Sault Ste. Marie. The former routing was given the M-121 designation, and later M-4. The current designation appeared in the Upper Peninsula in 1939, soon after being removed from Missaukee County. It replaced the former M-4 route designation. At the time, M-134 was routed farther inland between US 2 and a point north of Hessel. The highway ended at the Mackinac–Chippewa county line, but an extension farther east was shown on maps of the time as under construction. This segment of roadway was completed in the latter half of 1940, extending M-134 to terminate at M-48 about 10 miles (16 km) west of DeTour. In 1950, a new roadway section was added to the state highway system, bypassing the former routing of M-48 west of DeTour; in the process the MSHD extended M-134 on this new highway and truncated M-48 to the junction south of Goetzville. In 1958, the highway west of Hessel was shifted to follow an alignment closer to Lake Huron; the MSHD transferred the former routing of M-134 to local control at that time. In October 1963, the final section of I-75/US 2 freeway opened in the UP; M-134's western terminus was truncated slightly to end at the new freeway instead of the former routing of US 2 along Mackinac Trail. In 1989, MDOT extended the trunkline to add a segment on Drummond Island; in the process, the Drummond Island Ferry across the DeTour Passage was added to the route. The entire length of the highway was dedicated as a Pure Michigan Byway on October 16, 2015. ## Major intersections |} ## See also - SS Badger, connects US 10 across Lake Michigan - Lake Express'', a modern ferry that follows a previous route that connected US 16 across Lake Michigan

Siege of Badajoz (1658)

1658 battle during the Portuguese Restoration War

The fourth siege of Badajoz took place from July to October 1658 during the Portuguese Restoration War. It was an attempt by a huge Portuguese army under the command of Joanne Mendes de Vasconcelos, governor of Alentejo, to capture the Spanish city of Badajoz, which was the headquarters of the Spanish Army of Extremadura. The fortifications of Badajoz were essentially medieval and considered vulnerable by the Portuguese, and had already been attacked by them three times during this war. So in 1658, Mendes de Vasconcelos gathered an army at Elvas and advanced on Badajoz. The city was poorly defended and the Spanish troops under the command of Francisco de Tuttavilla, Duke of San Germán, looked principally to their own survival until a Spanish relief expedition could be mounted. The Portuguese forces launched a direct assault on the town, hoping initially to capture a key fort, San Cristóbal, but after 22 days of unsuccessful attack, the Portuguese abandoned this plan and began to build a circumvallation wall around Badajoz instead, to try to isolate the city. These plans received a boost when they captured a large Spanish defensive installation outside Badajoz, the Fort of San Miguel, but were unable to use this platform successfully against Badajoz itself. The siege lasted for four months, during which time one-third of the Portuguese troops either died (mainly from the plague) or deserted. The arrival of a relief army, under King Philip IV of Spain's favorite don Luis de Haro in October, lifted the siege. Mendes de Vasconcelos, the Portuguese commander, was stripped of his rank and imprisoned for his failure. Taking advantage of this failure, D. Luis de Haro, invaded Portugal and besieged Elvas, the main defensive system of Portugal - where the Portuguese army that had besieged Badajoz took refuge and was suffering a second catastrophic plague. A small relief army was improvised by the Portuguese which inflicted a crushing defeat to the Spanish army at the decisive battle of the Lines of Elvas (14 January 1659). This way, the Portuguese independence was granted while the Spanish reached military advantage in the secondary front of war, Minho and Galicia. ## Background After the death of John IV of Portugal in 1656, various Spanish offensives were launched against Portuguese territory, mainly from Extremadura, but also from Galicia, where a second front was opened to force the Portuguese to divide their forces. The Spanish Army of Extremadura, recently reinforced with many veterans of the war against France, was commanded by Francisco de Tuttavilla, Duke of San German, who appointed Gaspar Téllez-Girón y Sandoval, Duke of Osuna, as general of artillery and his second-in-command. In 1657 they laid siege to the Portuguese town of Olivença with 8,000 soldiers and 29 cannons and occupied the town, despite a desperate attempt by the Count of San Lorenzo, military governor of Alentejo, to dislodge them by launching a surprise attack himself on the Spanish town of Badajoz. Mourão fell into Spanish hands shortly thereafter. San Lorenzo was then dismissed from his command and replaced by dom Joanne Mendes de Vasconcelos, who easily managed to retake both Mourão and Olivença in the following months, since their Spanish garrisons had been considerably diminished in order to move troops to face the French armies in Catalonia. Mendes de Vasconcelos, encouraged by his successes, promised the Portuguese Queen Regent Luisa de Guzmán that he would capture the town of Badajoz, headquarters of the Spanish Army of Extremadura and therefore the most important Spanish fortress near the Portuguese frontier. The Count of Sabugal suggested that an offensive in the north, to conquer the Galician city of Tui, would be easier, due to the mild climate of the coast, and suggested that this would also be strategically more beneficial as it would secure the province of Entre Douro e Minho. But the queen and her ministers preferred Mendes de Vasconcelos' plan. He was given command of an army consisting of 14,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry troops with a train of 20 cannons and 2 mortars, gathered in the main fortress of Elvas. Mendes de Vasconcelos' second-in-command was the recently appointed Maestro de Campo General dom Rodrigo de Castro, a friend of the Count of Soure, Vasconcelos' enemy in the court, which was a cause of friction between them. The Spanish fortress town of Badajoz was at that time garrisoned by 4,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry soldiers. The military governor of the fortress was the Marquis of Lanzarote, Diego Paniagua y Zúñiga, but the command of the army belonged to the Duke of San German, who had retreated to Badajoz after the loss of Olivenza, which he had briefly attempted to retake. The infantry was led by don Diego Caballero de Illescas, the tercios by don Rodrigo de Múgica y Butrón, the cavalry by the Duke of Osuna, and the artillery by don Gaspar de la Cueva, brother of the Viceroy of New Spain. The defenses of the town consisted essentially of an old Moorish Alcazaba and a medieval wall dating from the Almohad period, reinforced since the outbreak of the war in 1640 by various newly built bulwarks and ravelins. ## Siege ### Preliminary maneuvers The Portuguese army left its fortress at Elvas on 12 July and arrived outside Badajoz the following day. A company of cuirassiers under dom Luiz de Menezes and some cavalry troops commanded by dom André de Albuquerque were confronted near a bridge over the Guadiana river by a Spanish cavalry party led by the Duke of Osuna. Both units retreated after inflicting serious losses upon each other in a bloody fight, the Spanish seeking protection behind the walls of the town. Mendes de Vasconcelos arrived shortly thereafter with the main Portuguese army, with its artillery, and a large number of supply wagons brought from Elvas. Seeing the strength of the Portuguese army, the Duke of San German hastily sent a message calling on Philip IV for help. Despite the longstanding danger of a Portuguese attack, the situation of the Spanish force in Badajoz was dreadful. The garrison suffered from a lack of ammunition and supplies, the soldiers were dressed in rags or were practically nude, and there was none among the civilian population of the town trained to wield a weapon. The Duke of San German put soldiers and civilians to work on the fortifications and storing food. The Portuguese sappers, meanwhile, proceeded to prepare the field for an assault upon the fortress. Mendes de Vasconcelos had decided, in a war council with many other senior officers, to attack Fort San Cristóbal, a key point in the Badajoz defenses. This fort, built after 1640, covered a bridgehead over the Guadiana river, thus guarding access to the city. A redoubt was quickly strengthened on the bridgehead by the Spanish sappers, who, protected by the Duke of Osuna and his cavalry, also widened the trenches which connected it with Fort San Cristóbal, the garrison of which was being strengthened every day along a strongly defended communication road. The Portuguese assault was thoroughly prepared. The plan was for six Portuguese squadrons under dom João da Silva to block the entrance to the bridge, isolating the redoubt from Fort San Crisóbal. The fort would in turn be attacked by Alfonso Futrado and Simon Correa da Silva. Maestre de Campo dom Diogo Gomes was given the task of cutting the communication lines along the Guadiana river and Pedro Almado of distracting several minor forts nearby. Some cavalry regiments were deployed in the expectation of a fierce Spanish resistance. The assault, however, was a costly failure. After twenty-two days of prolonged action, during which the defenders, led by the Marquis of Lanzarote, virtually wiped out Almado's regiment with musketry fire and firebombs, Mendes de Vasconcelos ordered a withdrawal. ### Attempted encirclement The Portuguese general, convinced of the impossibility of taking Badajoz by assault, changed his strategy and began a circumvallation of the town, in order to try to isolate it completely. The Spanish, meanwhile, were reinforcing their own defensive fortifications with extensive works, mainly ravelins built between the medieval towers. Various outlying forts were also strengthened with the aim of obstructing the Portuguese works and forcing them to build a larger circumvallation line. One of these forts was San Miguel, a star fort able to accommodate 600 infantry, built around a hermitage. It had five earthen bulwarks and an artillery-proof parapet. Portuguese sappers built a pontoon bridge over the Guadiana river which united two Portuguese quarters in Vado del Moro and allowed Mendes de Vasconcelos' troops to cross the river. Having reinforced Santa Engracia, north of San Critsóbal, and fortified a bridge over the Gévora river, they built, unmolested, an arc of the circumvallation from Gévora to Vado del Moro. Fort del Mayordomo, located near the Guadiana river, had been abandoned by its Spanish garrison shortly after being built. The Portuguese used it to cover the construction of the circumvallation line to the Guadiana. They also tried to occupy Cerro del Viento, a hill near Vado del Moro, but were repelled by the Spanish garrison that was there and had to build the circumvallation line behind it. Given the strategic importance of Cerro del Viento, the nearby hill of Cerro de las Mayas had been earmarked for an improvised star fortification by the Italian general Ventura de Tarragona, but it had not been built, leaving the Fort of San Miguel vulnerable. Mendes de Vasconcelos instructed dom André de Albuquerque, dom Rodrigo de Castro and the Count of Misquitella to occupy the Convent of San Gabriel. All the Portuguese cavalry and five terços were dispatched with this aim. They passed through the undefended Cerro de las Mayas and easily overran the convent, whose small Spanish garrison promptly surrendered. The Portuguese sappers then began to build a fort in front of an old watchtower known as "Torre quebrada", located between the convent and the Fort of San Miguel. The continued Spanish occupation of the Fort of San Miguel was preventing the completion of the circumvallation line, so its capture was a priority to Vasconcellos. Albuquerque and the Count of Misquitellos, assisted by the engineers Nicolao de Lanres, Pedro de S. Coloma, and Luiz Serrão Pimentel, planned an assault on the fortification. On 20 June, after an ineffective bombardment by a 6-gun battery put in place to try to breach the parapets, the Portuguese tercios and the cavalry, the latter covered by ranks of musketeers, were ordered to attack. The advance was made difficult by the presence of vineyard fences in the field. Moreover, 5 Portuguese battalions at the head of the attack were surprised by the Spanish cavalry of the Duke of Osuna and his general, don Juan de Pacheco, followed by the Duke of San German who, with various Spanish tercios, had sallied out of Badajoz in order to try to counter the Portuguese assault. Maestre de Campo of Tercio de la Armada, whose brother the Irish officer William Dongan was the commander of the Fort of San Miguel, managed to reach the fort. Albuquerque, meanwhile ordered dom Luiz de Menezes to reinforce his vanguard battalions. The Portuguese cavalry was also sent into action. Teniente General Diniz de Mello de Castro was wounded and captured, but a Spanish counter-attack was repelled and the Fort of San Miguel finally surrendered. ### Skirmishing and bombardment The capture of Fort San Miguel allowed the Portuguese sappers to complete the circumvallation works, which consisted of a continuous line of little forts, each able to garrison as many as about 200 soldiers, or perhaps as few as 25 musketeers. The Spanish also continued strengthening their defenses. The Southwestern section of the wall was fortified at Pedraleras, and a ravelin was erected 400 meters in front of the Gate of Santa Maria. No significant action took place during this period, except for an ambush near San Gabriel by André de Albuquerque, against a Spanish supply convoy sent from La Albuera, and various sorties by the garrison of Badajoz to try to obstruct the Portuguese works. A night attack by the Spanish Duke of Osuna against a Portuguese section cost Mendes de Vasconcelos 200 infantry and 40 horses. On 6 August, however, Osuna and San German abandoned the town, and with 1,200 cavalry soldiers, broke the lines of circumvallation near the quarter of Santa Engracia, between two Portuguese redoubts, reaching Alburquerque shortly thereafter. San German was replaced in the command of Badajoz by Rodrigo de Múgica y Butrón, his Maestre de Campo General. The Spanish concentrated their efforts on the defense of a large ravelin in Pradaleras garrisoned by 2,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, against Portuguese artillery fire from Cerro del Viento and San Miguel. In late August, news of the formation of a relief army under Philip IV of Spain's favorite Luis de Haro reached the Portuguese camp, increasing the pressure upon Mendes de Vasconcelos to bring his siege to a conclusion. Unfortunately, the damage caused by the bombardment of the Spanish positions was minor, and heat and disease was decimating the Portuguese army. ### Relief The Duke of Medina de las Torres had suggested that Philip IV himself should lead the relief of Badajoz in the company of all the Grandees of Spain. Luis de Haro, Philip IV's favourite, however, feared that Queen Mariana of Austria would be given the government of the country during the absence of the king, and, although having no military experience, offered himself to lead the relief army. His force consisted of up to 12,000 infantry and 4,500 cavalry, or perhaps as little as 8,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. Haro did not reach Badajoz until mid-October, but his appearance compelled Mendes de Vasconcelos to abandon the siege. The buildings in Cerro del Viento were set on fire and the bridge over the Gévora river was destroyed, The Portuguese army retreated unmolested to Elvas having lost 6,200 men in all, either killed in battle or dead from disease. ## Aftermath When the Spanish relief army arrived, Luis de Haro entered Badajoz, where he was acclaimed by some as "Liberator of the town and Restorator of the Monarchy". In Portugal, Queen Luisa de Guzmán imprisoned Mendes de Vasconcelos for his failure to capture Badajoz. News of a further setback for the Portuguese arrived from the northern frontier, as a Spanish army commanded by the Governor of Galicia, Rodrigo Pimentel, Marquis of Viana, entered Portuguese territory in early September, defeating a Portuguese army led by João Rodrigues de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 2nd Count of Castelo Melhor at the Battle of Vilanova. Spanish forces proceeded over the following months to capture Lapela, Monção, Salvatierra de Miño and other Portuguese strongholds. De Haro, meanwhile, decided to attack Portugal on his own and, against the advice of the Duke of San German, advanced towards the Portuguese fortress of Elvas. Elvas was reached by the Spanish army on 22 October and a siege begun. Although the fortifications could not ensure safety from a full-scale assault supported with heavy guns, they enabled the defenders to withstand a considerable attack for enough time to allow the Portuguese to mobilize a relief army in Estremoz, firstly under André de Albuquerque and later under António Luís de Meneses, Count of Cantanhede. On 17 January, around 8 o'clock in the morning, the Portuguese attacked the Spanish in their trenches. The battle was undecided in its initial stages, as the Duke of San Germán and other Spanish generals made every effort to collect their troops and recover the lost ground, but after some time, the Portuguese forces of Cantanhede managed to break the lines and the Spanish retreated to Badajoz with great loss: from the initial army of 17, 500 men, only 5,000 infantry men plus 1,300 horsemen managed to reach Badajoz, and all the artillery together with 5,000 men, 15,000 firearms, luggage and correspondence, were captured. The Portuguese army again besieged Badajoz shortly after, bringing events in the region full circle, but failed once again to take the city. By then, the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees had ended Spains's war with France and the recovery of Portugal had become the main objective of Philip IV.

M-85 (Michigan highway)

State highway in Wayne County, Michigan, United States

M-85, also known as Fort Street or Fort Road for its entire length, is a state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan. The highway serves several Downriver suburbs of Detroit, as well as neighborhoods in the city itself. From its southern terminus at exit 28 on Interstate 75 (I-75) to its second interchange with exit 43 on I-75 in southwest Detroit, M-85 is part of the Lake Erie Circle Tour. In between, it serves mostly residential areas running parallel to a pair of rail lines; the highway carries between 5,000 and 43,000 vehicles per day on average. Once in the city of Detroit, Fort Street runs parallel to I-75 for several miles before they separate near the Ambassador Bridge. The northern end of M-85 is at the intersection with Griswold Street in downtown Detroit, one block away from Campus Martius Park. Two previous unrelated highways bore the M-85 designation. The first was in Montcalm County and the second near Caro. These uses were retired in the 1930s and the 1940s, respectively. The current M-85 was created in 1956 after the construction of the Detroit-Toledo Freeway; the original northern end was at an intersection with US Highway 25 (US 25) in downtown. The northern end was truncated in the late 1960s to the northern junction with I-75. The highway was then extended back into downtown Detroit in the first year of the 21st century. ## Route description M-85 starts a directional interchange with I-75 in near Rockwood; traffic to or from southbound I-75 must use Gibraltar Road instead. M-85 runs north from this interchange to Gibraltar Road as a full freeway; north of that intersection the highway becomes a boulevard. There are many businesses directly adjacent to Fort Street in the Downriver area with residential subdivisions on either side of them. The trunkline parallels a pair of rail lines. In this area, M-85 also runs parallel to, but inland from, the southern part of the Detroit River. The highway runs northeasterly through Gibraltar to Trenton, where it turns due north. Fort Street forms the boundary between Riverview and Trenton in the area near the Riverview Landing Shopping Center between King and Sibley Roads; north of here, Riverview extends along both sides of the road. At Pennsylvania Road, Fort Street crosses into the city of Southgate and curves to the northeast near the Southgate Tower office building. The highway returns to a due northerly course near Memorial Park and continues along the Southgate–Wyandotte city line. This area is mainly residential neighborhoods that extend in street grids on either side of the Fort Street boulevard, including the Old Homestead neighborhood of Southgate. The highway crosses the South Branch of the Ecorse River and enters the city of Lincoln Park, through which Fort Street angles slightly northeasterly before turning sharply to the northeast at Champaign Road. M-85's new direction keeps it parallel to the Detroit River about one mile (1.6 km) away. When the trunkline crosses the North Branch of the Ecorse River, M-85 enters the city of Detroit near Outer Drive. Fort Street runs parallel to I-75 through the Boynton–Oakwood Heights neighborhoods of the city. North of the intersection with Schaefer Highway, M-85 meets an interchange with I-75 and passes under the freeway, crossing to its northwest side. At this interchange, the LECT designation is transferred from M-85 to I-75. Fort Street continues running between an industrial area and I-75. In this area, the highway crosses the River Rouge and turns east-northeast. Fort Street continues through the Delray neighborhood and past Woodmere Cemetery before crossing under I-75 again; there is no interchange at this location. These two highways continue in parallel to the north of Fort Wayne and the Detroit Harbor Terminals / Boblo Island Detroit Dock Building; M-85 intersects Grand Boulevard and passes under the approaches for the Ambassador Bridge; I-75 turns inland near the bridge's toll plaza north of Fort Street. M-85 continues along the river into the Corktown neighborhood. As M-85 approaches downtown, it crosses over the Canadian Pacific-owned Michigan Central Railway Tunnel. Several blocks later, the highway passes over M-10 (Lodge Freeway) without an interchange near Huntington Place. Fort Street continues carrying the M-85 designation as far east as the intersection with Griswold Street, one block west of Campus Martius Park. M-85 is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) like other state highways in Michigan. As a part of these maintenance responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic that uses the roadways under its jurisdiction. These volumes are expressed using a metric called annual average daily traffic, which is a statistical calculation of the average daily number of vehicles on a segment of roadway. MDOT's surveys in 2010 showed that the highest traffic levels along M-85 were the 42,786 vehicles daily in Wyandotte; the lowest count was 5,976 vehicles per day at the southern terminus. All of M-85 has been listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility. Between the two I-75 interchanges, M-85 is the closest state trunkline to Lake Erie and the Detroit River, making it a part of the Lake Erie Circle Tour (LECT). ## History ### Previous designations In 1919, the first version of M-85 ran from then M-66 east to M-43 at Stanton in Montcalm County. This highway was later extended in 1929 from Stanton north to Edmore. By the end of 1930, this designation was removed when M-57 was extended through the area. A new M-85 was then designated between Mayville and Caro. This second designation was supplanted by an extended and rerouted M-24 in late 1941 or early 1942. ### Current designation When the Detroit–Toledo Freeway opened in 1956, several local roads were given the M-85 designation between the new freeway in Woodhaven into downtown Detroit to end at US 25/M-17. The northern end was truncated in 1968 to the interchange with I-75 in Detroit when that freeway was completed in the area. In the 1980s, the Great Lakes Circle Tours were created by the state of Michigan in consultation with neighboring states and the province of Ontario; after the tours were created in 1986, M-85 was added to the LECT. At the end of 2000, MDOT proposed several highway transfers in Detroit. Some of these involved transferring city streets in the Campus Martius Park area under the department's jurisdiction to city control; another part of the proposal involved MDOT assuming control over a section of Fort Street from the then northern terminus of M-85 to the then southern terminus of M-3 at Clark Street. When these transfers were completed the following year, M-3 was severed into two discontinuous segments by the Campus Martius changes, and the southern segment between Clark and Griswold streets was added to an extended M-85. ## Major intersections |} ## See also -

Trade winds

Equatorial east-to-west prevailing winds

The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, strengthening during the winter and when the Arctic oscillation is in its warm phase. Trade winds have been used by captains of sailing ships to cross the world's oceans for centuries. They enabled European colonization of the Americas, and trade routes to become established across the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. In meteorology, they act as the steering flow for tropical storms that form over the Atlantic, Pacific, and southern Indian oceans and cause rainfall in North America, Southeast Asia, and Madagascar and East Africa. Shallow cumulus clouds are seen within trade wind regimes and are capped from becoming taller by a trade wind inversion, which is caused by descending air aloft from within the subtropical ridge. The weaker the trade winds become, the more rainfall can be expected in the neighboring landmasses. The trade winds also transport nitrate- and phosphate-rich Saharan dust to all Latin America, the Caribbean Sea, and to parts of southeastern and southwestern North America. Sahara dust is on occasion present in sunsets across Florida. When dust from the Sahara travels over land, rainfall is suppressed and the sky changes from a blue to a white appearance which leads to an increase in red sunsets. Its presence negatively impacts air quality by adding to the count of airborne particulates. ## History The term originally derives from the early fourteenth century sense of trade (in late Middle English) still often meaning "path" or "track". The Portuguese recognized the importance of the trade winds (then the volta do mar, meaning in Portuguese "turn of the sea" but also "return from the sea") in navigation in both the north and south Atlantic Ocean as early as the 15th century. From West Africa, the Portuguese had to sail away from continental Africa, that is, to west and northwest. They could then turn northeast, to the area around the Azores islands, and finally east to mainland Europe. They also learned that to reach South Africa, they needed to go far out in the ocean, head for Brazil, and around 30°S go east again. (This is because following the African coast southbound means sailing upwind in the Southern hemisphere.) In the Pacific Ocean, the full wind circulation, which included both the trade wind easterlies and higher-latitude westerlies, was unknown to Europeans until Andres de Urdaneta's voyage in 1565. The captain of a sailing ship seeks a course along which the winds can be expected to blow in the direction of travel. During the Age of Sail, the pattern of prevailing winds made various points of the globe easy or difficult to access, and therefore had a direct effect on European empire-building and thus on modern political geography. For example, Manila galleons could not sail into the wind at all. By the 18th century, the importance of the trade winds to England's merchant fleet for crossing the Atlantic Ocean had led both the general public and etymologists to identify the name with a later meaning of "trade": "(foreign) commerce". Between 1847 and 1849, Matthew Fontaine Maury collected enough information to create wind and current charts for the world's oceans. ## Cause As part of the Hadley cell, surface air flows toward the equator while the flow aloft is towards the poles. A low-pressure area of calm, light variable winds near the equator is known as the doldrums, near-equatorial trough, intertropical front, or the Intertropical Convergence Zone. When located within a monsoon region, this zone of low pressure and wind convergence is also known as the monsoon trough. Around 30° in both hemispheres, air begins to descend toward the surface in subtropical high-pressure belts known as subtropical ridges. The subsident (sinking) air is relatively dry because as it descends, the temperature increases, but the moisture content remains constant, which lowers the relative humidity of the air mass. This warm, dry air is known as a superior air mass and normally resides above a maritime tropical (warm and moist) air mass. An increase of temperature with height is known as a temperature inversion. When it occurs within a trade wind regime, it is known as a trade wind inversion. The surface air that flows from these subtropical high-pressure belts toward the Equator is deflected toward the west in both hemispheres by the Coriolis effect. These winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. Because winds are named for the direction from which the wind is blowing, these winds are called the northeasterly trade winds in the Northern Hemisphere and the southeasterly trade winds in the Southern Hemisphere. The trade winds of both hemispheres meet at the Doldrums. As they blow across tropical regions, air masses heat up over lower latitudes due to more direct sunlight. Those that develop over land (continental) are drier and hotter than those that develop over oceans (maritime), and travel northward on the western periphery of the subtropical ridge. Maritime tropical air masses are sometimes referred to as trade air masses. All tropical oceans except the northern Indian Ocean have extensive areas of trade winds. ## Weather and biodiversity effects Clouds which form above regions within trade wind regimes are typically composed of cumulus which extend no more than 4 kilometres (13,000 ft) in height, and are capped from being taller by the trade wind inversion. Trade winds originate more from the direction of the poles (northeast in the Northern Hemisphere, southeast in the Southern Hemisphere) during the cold season, and are stronger in the winter than the summer. As an example, the windy season in the Guianas, which lie at low latitudes in South America, occurs between January and April. When the phase of the Arctic oscillation (AO) is warm, trade winds are stronger within the tropics. The cold phase of the AO leads to weaker trade winds. When the trade winds are weaker, more extensive areas of rain fall upon landmasses within the tropics, such as Central America. During mid-summer in the Northern Hemisphere (July), the westward-moving trade winds south of the northward-moving subtropical ridge expand northwestward from the Caribbean Sea into southeastern North America (Florida and Gulf Coast). When dust from the Sahara moving around the southern periphery of the ridge travels over land, rainfall is suppressed and the sky changes from a blue to a white appearance which leads to an increase in red sunsets. Its presence negatively impacts air quality by adding to the count of airborne particulates. Although the Southeast US has some of the cleanest air in North America, much of the African dust that reaches the United States affects Florida. Since 1970, dust outbreaks have worsened due to periods of drought in Africa. There is a large variability in the dust transport to the Caribbean and Florida from year to year. Dust events have been linked to a decline in the health of coral reefs across the Caribbean and Florida, primarily since the 1970s. Every year, millions of tons of nutrient-rich Saharan dust cross the Atlantic Ocean, bringing vital phosphorus and other fertilizers to depleted Amazon soils. ## See also - Intertropical Convergence Zone - Volta do mar - Westerly wind burst - Winds in the Age of Sail

Phil Edwards (footballer)

English association football player (born 1985)

Philip Lee Edwards (born 8 November 1985) is an English former professional footballer who made 480 appearances in the EFL. Edwards began his football career at Wigan Athletic, progressing through the club's youth system before signing a professional contract at the age of 18. In September 2004, Edwards joined Morecambe on a month's loan, playing one game before returning to Wigan. He was loaned out again during the 2005–06 season, this time to Accrington Stanley in October 2005. He subsequently signed for the club permanently in January 2006, helping them win the Conference National. He spent five years at Accrington, playing over 250 games for them in all competitions. In June 2011, Edwards signed for Stevenage on a free transfer. In March 2012, he joined Rochdale on loan until the end of the 2011–12 season. Released by Stevenage in May 2012, he signed for Rochdale on a permanent basis in August 2012. After a season of regular first-team football at Rochdale, Edwards joined League Two club Burton Albion in June 2013. He helped the club earn back-to-back promotions into the Championship during his time there. Following a loan spell at Oxford United during the 2016–17 season, he was released by Burton and signed for Bury. After one season back at Accrington, Edwards signed for Warrington Town in November 2020. ## Career ### Early career Edwards started his career at Wigan Athletic, signing a professional contract with the club at the age of 18. He was sent out on a one-month loan to Morecambe in September 2004 in order to gain first-team experience. However, Edwards made just one appearance for the club, coming on as a substitute in the 36th minute of a 2–2 draw away at Northwich Victoria. He returned to Wigan in October 2004, playing regularly for the reserve team, although did not make any first-team appearances for the club. ### Accrington Stanley Edwards signed for Accrington Stanley on loan in October 2005, making his debut in a 3–3 Football League Trophy draw away at Rotherham United. He made his league debut on 29 October 2005, playing the whole match as Accrington beat York City 2–1 at the Crown Ground. During Edwards' first six games at Accrington, the club had won all six fixtures, conceding just two goals. This form had propelled the club to the top of the Conference National. His loan was later extended until the end of the 2005–06 season in November 2005. After playing regularly during the loan agreement, Edwards signed for Accrington on a permanent basis on 12 January 2006. Edwards was part of the team that earned promotion to the Football League following a 1–0 away victory at Woking on 15 April 2006. He played 27 times for Accrington during the campaign. He was an unused substitute in Accrington's first two games back in the Football League, both of which resulted in 2–0 defeats. He came on as an 85th-minute substitute in the club's 2–1 home win against Barnet in the following game on 12 August 2006, Accrington's first win of the 2006–07 season. He scored his first professional goal in a 3–3 home draw with Shrewsbury Town on 2 December 2006, scoring a header in the 55th-minute to restore parity after Accrington were trailing in the match. Edwards' last game of the 2006–07 season was in a 3–2 home win against Macclesfield Town, a win that ultimately secured the club's Football League status for another year. He played 39 times in all competitions that season, scoring one goal. He opted to remain at Accrington ahead of the 2007–08 season, signing a contract extension on 8 May 2007. He played his first game of the campaign on 25 August 2007, a 2–0 defeat at Lincoln City. Despite playing sporadically during the first half of the season, Edwards was ever-present in the first-team from December 2007 onwards. He scored his first goal of the 2007–08 season on 4 April 2008, the winning goal in a 1–0 win against Dagenham & Redbridge. The goal helped secure League Two survival for Accrington. It was his only goal of the season, playing 32 games in all competitions. Remaining at Accrington for the 2008–09 season, Edwards made his first appearance of the campaign in a 1–0 home defeat to newly promoted Aldershot Town on 9 August 2008. Accrington manager John Coleman praised Edwards for his form during the start of the season in October 2008, stating "I couldn't pay him enough compliments. I think the last six months he has been absolutely magnificent. I am convinced if he was three inches bigger he would be playing in the Premier League. He is our best defender and hopefully he'll continue to be a great player for us for a long time". Edwards remained a first-team regular before being substituted after 17 minutes in Accrington's 2–1 win against Shrewsbury Town on 21 October 2008. Despite needing eight stitches in his knee, Edwards played in Accrington's following league match four days later, a 1–0 home defeat to Wycombe Wanderers. Edwards played in all of Accrington's 50 games during the 2008–09 season, with the club finishing in 16th position in the league table. He signed a new two-year contract at Accrington. He scored his first goal of the 2009–10 season on 22 August 2009, "bundling" the ball into the goal from John Miles' corner kick in a 3–1 loss at Aldershot Town. Edwards scored nine times from central defence during the 2009–10 season, playing all 57 of the club's matches as Accrington finished in 15th place in League Two. He scored his first and second goals of the 2010–11 season on 2 October 2010, when he scored twice from the penalty spot in Accrington's 7–4 home win against Gillingham. Accrington cemented a place in the League Two play-offs after finishing in fifth place in League Two, Edwards played in both of the semi-final matches against Stevenage, which Accrington lost by a 3–0 aggregate scoreline. Edwards scored 13 goals from defence in 51 appearances during Accrington's 2010–11 campaign, finishing as Accrington's joint top goalscorer for the season alongside Terry Gornell and Sean McConville. He was offered a two-year contract extension at the end of the season. Accrington assistant manager Jimmy Bell stated "Phil has been offered a good deal and we're quietly confident, although there have been a few rumours about one or two clubs being interested. But Phil has been here since he was young, he can't drive, he gets looked after by the club and he gets lifts in to training, so he feels quite settled here". Edwards played 257 games for Accrington, scoring 24 goals. ### Stevenage Edwards signed for League One club Stevenage on 27 June 2011. He joined the club on a free transfer, rejecting a contract extension at Accrington. He signed a one-year deal with Stevenage, with the option of a second year. On joining the club he said "I wasn't particularly looking for another club and I didn't have any interest in any other clubs at the time, so I thought I'd still be at Accrington next season. However, the manager got in touch with my agent and discussed the offer and when I thought I had the chance of playing League One football I decided to sign for Stevenage". He made his Stevenage debut on the first day of the 2011–12 season, playing the whole match in a 0–0 home draw against Exeter City. Edwards made 13 starting appearances for the club, as well as a further 14 appearances from the substitutes' bench, during the first half of the club's first ever League One campaign. ### Rochdale After falling out of favour under new Stevenage manager Gary Smith, Edwards joined Rochdale on 9 March 2012, on a loan agreement until the end of the 2011–12 season. The move re-united him with manager John Coleman, who had managed Edwards for six years at Accrington Stanley. He made his first appearance for Rochdale a day after signing for the club, on 10 March 2012, coming on as a 61st-minute substitute as Rochdale came back twice to draw 2–2 against Huddersfield Town. Edwards made just three appearances for Rochdale during his loan spell due to a knee injury. At the end of the season, Edwards was released by Stevenage when his contract expired, after just one year at the club. He made 27 appearances during his time at Stevenage. Ahead of the 2012–13 season, Edwards signed for Rochdale on a permanent basis having briefly played on loan there the previous season. He signed a one-year deal with the club. He played regularly throughout the campaign, making 49 appearances in all competitions as Rochdale finished the campaign in a mid-table position. ### Burton Albion He opted to leave Rochdale after his first full season there, signing for fellow League Two club Burton Albion on a free transfer on 29 June 2013. On signing Edwards, Burton manager Gary Rowett stated "In Phil we have a player who knows what it takes to be successful at this level as well as the league above and he is a very consistent performer. At 27 he's also at a good age to continue progressing and I'm sure he'll prove to be a big asset to the club". He made his Burton debut in the club's first match of the 2013–14 season, a 2–2 draw with Cheltenham Town on 3 August 2013. Edwards scored his first goal for the club in a 1–0 away victory at Exeter City on 26 October 2013. He played regularly in defence during his first season with the club, making 51 appearances and scoring two goals, as Burton missed out on promotion after losing 1–0 to Fleetwood Town in the 2014 Football League Two play-off final. He scored six times in 50 matches the following season as Burton finished the 2014–15 season as League Two champions. This included goals in Burton's final two matches of the season, victories against Northampton Town and Cambridge United, as the club secured the League Two title on the final day of the season. Edwards signed a new one-year contract with Burton on 8 May 2015 and was once again a mainstay in the Burton defence during the 2015–16 campaign, making 49 appearances in all competitions. Burton finished the season in second-place in League One, meaning they had earned back-to-back promotions to the Championship. During his time at Burton, Edwards played 151 times and scored eight goals, and was described as having earned "cult hero status" during his three years there. #### Loan to Oxford United After making just one appearance for Burton in the opening month of the 2016–17 season, Edwards made the move back into League One when he signed a season-long loan contract with Oxford United on 19 August 2016. Burton manager Nigel Clough stated that whilst he did not want to loan out Edwards, it would have been "selfish" to keep him in the squad just in case of injuries. He debuted for Oxford a day later, playing the whole match in a 2–1 victory against Peterborough United. His equalising goal away at Scunthorpe United on 26 November 2016 served as his first goal for the club, and he went on to score five times from right-back during the season, making 51 appearances. This included eight appearances in the EFL Trophy, as Oxford lost to Coventry City in the EFL Trophy Final at Wembley Stadium. ### Bury Released by Burton at the end of the season, Edwards signed a two-year contract with League One club Bury on 14 May 2017. He tore a cartilage in his knee during pre-season, undergoing surgery in July 2017. Edwards returned to fitness and made his Bury debut in a 0–0 draw with former club Rochdale on 26 August 2017. Edwards played 42 times during the campaign, as Bury were relegated to League Two after finishing in last place in the League One standings. Edwards made just three appearances during the 2018–19 season, all of which came in the EFL Trophy. He left the club upon the expiry of his contract in June 2019. ### Return to Accrington Without a club at the start of the 2019–20 season, Edwards rejoined Accrington Stanley on a one-year contract on 1 August 2019. It was the third time Edwards had been signed by manager John Coleman, who stated signing Edwards once more was a "no risk signing". He made his first appearance back at Accrington as an 89th-minute substitute in the club's 2–1 victory over Milton Keynes Dons on 31 August 2019. Edwards played a peripheral role during his one year back at Accrington, making eight appearances in all competitions. He was released by Accrington in June 2020. ### Warrington Town Edwards signed for Northern Premier League club Warrington Town on 3 November 2020. Warrington's 2020–21 season was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic before he made any first-team appearances. ## Style of play Edwards has been deployed in a number of positions throughout his career and his versatility to play across all back four defensive positions has been highlighted as one of his strengths. At Stevenage, Edwards was also used in a defensive midfield role whereby he would offer additional protection in front of the back four. He was a regular penalty-kick taker at Accrington, scoring sixteen times from the penalty spot. Edwards has been praised for his worth ethic both in training and during matches. ## Personal life Born in Bootle, Merseyside, Edwards is a supporter of Everton. ## Career statistics ## Honours Accrington Stanley - Conference National: 2005–06 Burton Albion - Football League One second-place promotion: 2015–16 - Football League Two: 2014–15 Oxford United - EFL Trophy runner-up: 2016–17 Individual - Accrington Stanley Player of the Season: 2007–08, 2009–10 - PFA Team of the Year: 2014–15 League Two

Ontario Highway 63

Ontario provincial highway

King's Highway 63, commonly referred to as Highway 63, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The 63.5-kilometre (39.5 mi) route travels from Highway 11 and Highway 17 (the Trans-Canada Highway) in North Bay northeast to the Ontario-Quebec provincial boundary, where it continues as Route 101 into Témiscaming. The route was assumed in 1937, following the merger of the Department of Northern Development (DND) into the Department of Highways (DHO), predecessor to the modern Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO). It travelled from what was then Highway 11 (Main Street) in downtown North Bay northeast to its present terminus. The highway follows the same route today, with the exception of the westernmost 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi), which were transferred to the City of North Bay in 1998. ## Route description Highway 63 begins at Highway 11 and Highway 17 (the Trans-Canada Highway) in North Bay and travels 63.5 kilometres (39.5 mi) northeast to the Ontario–Quebec provincial boundary, where Route 101 continues into Témiscaming. It travels through the communities of Feronia, Redbridge, Balsam Creek, Eldee and Thorne. Prior to 1998, the route included a 1.9-kilometre (1.2 mi) section of Cassells Street extending into downtown North Bay. Highway 63 is 63.5 kilometres (39.5 mi) long, situated entirely within Nipissing District. Beginning in North Bay near Lake Nipissing, the source of the French River which flows down to Georgian Bay, Highway 63 travels east through suburbs. It exits the city and travels along the northern shores of Trout Lake, which serves as the headwaters of the Mattawa River, which flows into the Ottawa River and eventually the St. Lawrence River. The portion of Highway 63 west of Trout Lake travels between these water systems. The highway curves northeast to pass through the communities of Feronia and later Redbridge and Balsam Creek, after which it enters thick wilderness dominated by the Canadian Shield and Boreal Forest, with few residences or services outside of communities. It meanders northward, meeting the northern end of Highway 533, which travels south to Mattawa, approximately two-thirds of the distance between North Bay and the Quebec border. For the remainder of the highway, the route passes through isolated forests, travelling north, then curving east towards the Ottawa River. It passes through the community of Eldee before turning north alongside the river, following it up through Thorne. North of Thorne, the highway turns east and crosses the river into Quebec, becoming Route 101 and entering Témiscaming. ## History On August 25, 1937, the North Bay – Témiscaming Road was assumed by the DHO as Highway 63, connecting Highway 11 (Main Street) in downtown North Bay with the Ontario–Quebec border at Témiscaming. The road existed prior to this point as a northern development road. However, on April 1, 1937, the DND merged into the DHO. As a result, numerous highways were assumed in the northern regions of Ontario in mid-1937. The highway remained unchanged for over 60 years, until January 1, 1998, when the Connecting Link agreement through North Bay from Main Street to Highway 11 / Highway 17 - the North Bay Bypass - was rescinded. As a result, Highway 63 was shortened by 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi). ## Major intersections |}

Elkins v. United States

Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206 (1960), was a US Supreme Court decision that held the "silver platter doctrine", which allowed federal prosecutors to use evidence illegally gathered by state police, to be a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Evidence of illegal wiretapping had been seized from the home of James Butler Elkins by Portland, Oregon police officers on an unrelated search warrant, and he was subsequently convicted in federal court. Elkins appealed, arguing that evidence found by the officers should have been inadmissible under the exclusionary rule, which forbids the introduction of most evidence gathered through Fourth Amendment violations in criminal court. In a 5–4 decision, the Court overturned the silver platter doctrine and Elkins' conviction. Associate Justice Potter Stewart wrote the majority opinion, while Associate Justices Felix Frankfurter and John M. Harlan II dissented. By giving a rationale for a broader interpretation of Fourth Amendment rights, the decision prepared the way for Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which applied the exclusionary rule to the states. ## Silver platter doctrine The Fourth Amendment prevents most warrantless searches by law enforcement officers, and since Weeks v. United States (1914), has been enforced by the exclusionary rule, which excludes most evidence gathered through Fourth Amendment violations from criminal trials. While Wolf v. Colorado (1949) had held the amendment to apply to the states, a process known as incorporation, the exclusionary rule had explicitly not been incorporated by the decision. Evidence gathered by state law enforcement was therefore not yet bound by the same strictures as that gathered by federal law enforcement. In Lustig v. United States (1949), Justice Felix Frankfurter coined the silver platter doctrine, ruling that evidence gathered by Fourth Amendment violations was still admissible if state police gave it to federal officials on "a silver platter"—that is, without any level of involvement by federal authorities. This doctrine nonetheless created an incentive for federal authorities to coordinate with state law enforcement in the gathering of evidence. ## Background of the case Portland, Oregon police officers searched the home of James Butler Elkins, ostensibly for obscene material, and seized tape recordings that Elkins had made from illegal wiretaps. He was subsequently convicted in federal court of intercepting and divulging telephone communications, but appealed his federal conviction on the grounds that state police had gathered the evidence against him in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. His conviction was upheld by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals. ## Court's decision Associate Justice Potter Stewart delivered the opinion of the court in this case, in which Chief Justice Earl Warren and Associate Justices Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and William J. Brennan, Jr. joined. Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote a dissenting opinion that was joined by Associate Justices John M. Harlan II, Charles E. Whittaker, and Tom C. Clark. Harlan also wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Whittaker and Clark. The Court overturned the silver platter doctrine, ruling that "[e]vidence obtained by state officers during a search which, if conducted by federal officers, would have violated the defendant's immunity from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment is inadmissible". Elkins' conviction was therefore overturned. Stewart wrote that the primary purpose of the exclusionary rule was to provide a disincentive to abuses by law enforcement, stating that "[t]he rule is calculated to prevent, not to repair. Its purpose is to deter—to compel respect for the constitutional guaranty in the only effectively available way—by removing the incentive to disregard it." Frankfurter's dissent criticized the extension of the exclusionary rule, noting that the conduct of the state police in the Elkins investigation had already been found illegal at the state level; he argued that the Court's extension of the rule would only create further confusion, and that the relation between federal and state criminal law should be governed by the principle of federalism. Harlan's dissent followed similar reasoning to Frankfurter's and argued that Elkins' conviction should be upheld. Scholar Jacob W. Landynski called Stewart's opinion "the most thorough and convincing analysis in favor of the exclusionary rule to be found in any opinion of the Court". In giving a rationale for a broader interpretation of Fourth Amendment rights, the decision set the stage for Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which applied the exclusionary rule to the states.

1 Wall Street Court

Residential building in Manhattan, New York

1 Wall Street Court (also known as the Beaver Building and the Cocoa Exchange) is a residential building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The 15-story building, designed by Clinton and Russell in the Renaissance Revival style, was completed in 1904 at the intersection of Wall, Pearl, and Beaver Streets. The building is shaped similarly to a flatiron because of its position at an acute angle formed by the junction of Pearl and Beaver Streets. 1 Wall Street Court's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital. The base is faced with stone, the shaft contains alternating bands of buff and tan brick, and the capital contains multicolored terracotta ornamentation depicting geometric shapes. There are carved beavers over the main entrance facing Pearl and Beaver Streets, signifying the building's original name. The superstructure is of steel frame construction. The Beaver Building was constructed between 1903 and 1904 as a speculative development. The building served as the headquarters of the Munson Steamship Line from 1904 until 1921, and the company owned 1 Wall Street Court from 1919 to 1937. The building was foreclosed upon in 1937, and ownership subsequently passed to several other entities, including the Bowery Savings Bank. The New York Cocoa Exchange was another large tenant, occupying the building between 1931 and 1972. The commercial spaces on ground level, as well as the interior offices, were significantly altered from their original design, with major renovations in 1937 and the mid-1980s. 1 Wall Street Court was converted into a residential condominium building in 2006. The building was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1995 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2005. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007. ## Site 1 Wall Street Court is in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. It occupies most of the block bounded by Hanover Street to the west, Pearl Street to the southeast, and Beaver Street to the north, with facades on Pearl and Beaver Streets. The building faces eastward toward the five-pointed intersection of Pearl, Beaver, and Wall Streets. It is near 55 Wall Street and 20 Exchange Place to the northwest, 63 Wall Street to the north, and 75 Wall Street to the east. The property measures 122 feet (37 m) on Beaver Street, 136 feet (41 m) on Pearl Street, 20 feet (6.1 m) on the intersection with Wall Street, and 88 feet (27 m) on the west. The plot covers 9,300 square feet (860 m²). Including a four-story annex at 80 Beaver Street, it measures 140 feet (43 m) on Beaver Street and 157 feet (48 m) on Pearl Street. The narrow lot was a result of the Financial District's street grid, as outlined in the Castello Plan, a street map for the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. The site was historically part of the estate of pirate William Kidd. Nearby buildings include the Wall and Hanover Building to the north and 20 Exchange Place to the northwest. ## Architecture 1 Wall Street Court was designed by Clinton and Russell in the Renaissance Revival style. It is 205 feet (62 m) tall with 15 stories and a partially raised basement. 1 Wall Street Court is one of a few buildings in Lower Manhattan that are shaped like a flatiron, but its design was largely overlooked in favor of other buildings such as the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street. ### Facade 1 Wall Street Court's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital. The two principal elevations on Pearl and Beaver Streets are joined by a rounded corner on Wall Street. The windows on each side are arranged into bays, with six each on Pearl and Beaver Streets and three on the rounded corner. These bays generally have one window per floor on the first and second stories, and two windows per floor above; on two of the corner bays, there is one window per floor on the first through twelfth stories, and two windows per floor above. The western facade, treated as the rear of the building, is a plain brick wall with windows. There was a fire escape on the Pearl Street side, dating from 1916, but was removed in the early 21st century. The three-story base is faced with ashlar of granite and Indiana limestone. At the main corner, facing the intersection of Beaver, Wall, and Pearl Streets, there is a rounded stoop leading to the building's first story. This door is underneath an entablature with a rounded sign reading "THE NEW YORK COCOA EXCHANGE inc." Additional entrances were on the building's western end, originally leading to the elevator lobby. The entrance on Pearl Street, which was formerly located under the Third Avenue elevated line, is more simply designed and contains revolving doors under a canopy. The entrance at Beaver Street has a pediment with carvings of beavers framing a cartouche with the words "munson line building". The other windows on the first story are generally double-height windows, indicating the presence of the mezzanine inside. Above the second story are ornamental cartouches over carvings of beaver heads. There are panels between the window groupings on the third story, and a cornice over the third story. The nine-story shaft is composed of alternating bands of buff and tan brick. The windows are surrounded by glazed green terracotta tiles. The three-story capital is ornamented with multicolored glazed terracotta tiles in green, cream, and russet hues. The windows are separated into pairs surrounded by double-story neoclassical outlines. The terracotta was originally sandblasted to reduce the glaze. The top of the building contains a terracotta cornice. The cornice originally contained copper cresting, although that was removed after 1940. The roof has a gravel surface, and contains a skylight and some heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. ### Features 1 Wall Street Court contains a superstructure made entirely of steel. The floor arches and partitions are made of fireproof brick. In the original layout, all woodwork was covered with fireproof materials; the floors of the corridors were made of mosaic and marble, while the office floors were made of cement. 1 Wall Street Court contains four elevators along its western side. An enclosed fire stair with marble treads is on the building's northwest corner. As built, 1 Wall Street Court also had two 300 horsepower (220 kW) boilers that provided steam for three electric generators aggregating 275 kilowatts (369 hp). The total amount of interior space is about 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²). The first-story and mezzanine space was intended to be used by banks, while the basement was reserved for restaurants. The basement still serves as its original purpose, but the National Park Service could not determine if a bank ever used the first story and mezzanine. The first floor is about 4 feet (1.2 m) above street level and contains lobbies, commercial space, and elevator access. The main lobby on Pearl Street and the freight lobby on Beaver Street are connected by a corridor with four elevators. The commercial space is accessed by the corner entrance, which contains a wooden vestibule with a revolving door. The elevator lobby contains a barrel-vaulted ceiling, wood-paneled and mirrored walls, and wood-and-metal elevator doors. The mezzanine, a U-shaped space above 2⁄3 of the first floor, is reached by a stair on the west side. The second floor was used as office space for its first hundred years. A "typical floor" would have an elevator landing on the west, a corridor extending east, and offices on either side of the corridor as well as at the narrow corner. The corridors were originally made of mosaic and marble, while the office floors were cement, and there were glass panels along the corridors prior to the building's 1937 renovation. In the original layout, toilets were placed on the second, fourth, and tenth floors. Because of the interior arrangement and small lot size, all of the interior space was directly lit by a window. Architects' and Builders' Magazine said upon the building's completion that 1 Wall Street Court contained possibly "a larger window area relative to floor space than in any other office building in the city". Further renovations led to the replacement of the floors, walls, and doors. By 2006, the office space was converted to 126 condominium apartments. ## History ### Construction During the late 19th century, builders began erecting tall office buildings in New York City, especially in Lower Manhattan, where they were compelled to build tall structures due to a lack of available land. One such project was led by the Century Realty Company, who hired Clinton and Russell in 1903 to design a speculative development on a narrow lot at Beaver and Pearl Streets. The Remington Construction Company was hired as the contractor for the building, which was planned to cost $600,000. Work began in June 1903. Ownership of the Beaver Building was transferred the next month to the Beaver and Wall Street Corporation. During construction, some of the workers went on strike, prompting the Remington Construction Company to hire longshoremen for the project. Construction was completed in October 1904. Original floor plans indicate that the first story had a partition between the two commercial spaces to the west and east; only the western space had a mezzanine. ### Munson Line use The Munson Line, a steamship-line company operating from the United States to the Caribbean and South America, took up offices in the Beaver Building in May 1904. The building was sold to the Hoffman family in 1905 for $1.25 million in cash. The New York Times described the transaction as the "first cash purchase of a downtown skyscraper reported in several years". The Munson Steamship Line bought the Beaver Building in July 1919, when the building was estimated to be worth $1.5 million. The Beaver Building was intended as the headquarters of the Munson Line, so it was renamed the Beaver-Munson Building. Shortly afterward, the company announced plans for the 25-story Munson Building at 67 Wall Street, across Beaver Street from the Beaver Building. When the Munson Building opened in 1921, it replaced the Beaver Building as the Munson Line's headquarters. The Munson Line retained ownership of the Beaver Building, which continued to be occupied by tenants involved mainly in shipping, produce, and importing and exporting. However, by the 1930s, these tenants had started to move elsewhere, and the Munson Line itself suffered from financial difficulties throughout the 1920s and 1930s. A first mortgage loan of $750,000 was placed on the Beaver Building in 1928. ### Cocoa Exchange use In April 1931, the New York Cocoa Exchange—at the time described by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and The New York Times as the world's largest cocoa market—moved to the Beaver-Munson Building from its original headquarters at 124 Water Street. By 1937, the Munson Building Corporation had a debt of $831,690, and the Beaver Building was foreclosed upon. The Beaver Building and a four-story extension at 80 Beaver Street went up for auction in April 1937. The winning bid was from the Bowery Savings Bank, who had bid $500,000. The New York Cocoa Exchange leased more space in the Beaver Building in June 1937. As part of the lease extension, the Bowery Savings Bank hired F. P. Platt & Bros to expand the mezzanine above the first floor for the Cocoa Exchange's use, increasing the exchange's floor area from 2,300 square feet (210 m²) to 5,600 square feet (520 m²). In October 1937, the bank announced plans to renovate the building at a cost of between two and three hundred thousand dollars. The Beaver Building's electrical, heating, and plumbing systems would be replaced, and the facade would be extensively cleaned. The interiors would also receive major modifications, with new automatic elevators and rearranged interior partitions. The first floor partition wall was relocated to the west and a new stair was built to the mezzanine. The Bowery Savings Bank sold the Beaver Building and its four-story annex in 1944 to investor Jerome Greene; at the time, the annex housed the Swan Club. The building was sold again in 1951, this time to an investment syndicate represented by lawyer David Rapoport. At the time, the Buffet Exchange Restaurant and the Cocoa Exchange were both lessees of the space. Records indicate that the lobby was renovated again during 1952, during which deteriorated marble paneling was removed. Sources disagree on the order of subsequent sales. According to The New York Times, the property was then sold to Klausner Associates, and then to investor Arthur H. Bienenstock in 1959, with the latter planning to renovate the elevators and clean the exterior. However, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission states that 82 Beaver Company owned the Cocoa Exchange Building between 1951 and 1981. The Cocoa Exchange moved to 127 John Street in 1972. ### Later use In January 1985, British developers London & Leeds acquired the Beaver Building, at which point about 70 percent of the space was vacant. After purchasing the building, London & Leeds renamed it One Wall Street Court and renovated the interior, refurbishing the lobby, elevators, and electrical and HVAC systems. Inside, the first-floor partition wall was removed and the mezzanine stair was again replaced. In addition, various improvements were made to the exterior; new windows and window louvers were installed, the base masonry was painted, and metal lights were fixed. The windows in the basement were covered over. The building was purchased in 1994 by Cocoa Partners, a limited partnership based in Cohasset, Massachusetts. Sometime after the Cocoa Exchange moved out, the commercial space was occupied until 2002 by a large shop called J\&R Discount Cigars. By mid-2004, 1 Wall Street Court was undergoing conversion into a residential building. The conversion was completed around 2006, and the building became a residential condominium development with 126 units. A sushi restaurant was also opened at the building's base. The building was used as the setting for the exterior shots of the Continental Hotel in the 2014 film John Wick. ## Reception 1 Wall Street Court was one of the first tall structures in New York City to use multicolored glazed terracotta. Prior to the 1920s, few buildings in the city used this type of material, exceptions including the Madison Square Presbyterian Church and the Broadway–Chambers Building. The writer Herbert Croly, in an Architectural Record article, was a proponent of such decoration. However, he was critical of its use on 1 Wall Street Court, saying that the tiles did not "harmonize with each other, nor do they constitute a pleasing scheme of decoration for the top stories of a tall building". Architects' and Builders' Magazine, conversely, stated that the terracotta panels served "to strengthen the outline of the building and make it a notable feature amid its surroundings". The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission made 1 Wall Street Court an official city landmark on February 13, 1996. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 2005. In 2007, the building was designated as a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district. ## See also - National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan below 14th Street - List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan below 14th Street

Thomas Hines

Confederate Army officer

Thomas Henry Hines (October 8, 1838 – January 23, 1898) was a Confederate cavalryman who was known for his espionage activities during the last two years of the American Civil War. A native of Butler County, Kentucky, he initially worked as a grammar instructor, mainly at the Masonic University of La Grange, Kentucky. During the first year of the war, he was a field officer, initiating several raids. He was an assistant to John Hunt Morgan, doing a preparatory raid (Hines' Raid) in advance of Morgan's Raid through the states of Indiana and Ohio, and after being captured with Morgan, organized their escape from the Ohio Penitentiary. He was then granted secret authorisation, following the Dahlgren Affair, by Jefferson Davis and his cabinet to unleash total war behind Union lines. From a secret base at Toronto in Upper Canada, Hines oversaw Confederate Secret Service covert operations with Copperhead Democrat leaders Harrison H. Dodd and Clement Vallandigham for arson, state terrorism, guerrilla warfare, and pro-Confederate regime change uprisings by the paramilitary Order of the Sons of Liberty against pro-Union governors throughout the Old Northwest. Hines made narrow, unlikely escapes on several occasions during the war. At one point, he concealed himself in a mattress that was being used at the time; on another occasion, he was confused for the actor and assassin John Wilkes Booth, a dangerous case of mistaken identity that forced him to flee Detroit in April 1865 by holding a ferry captain at gunpoint. Union agents viewed Hines as the man they most needed to apprehend, but apart from the time he served at the Ohio Penitentiary in late 1863, he was never captured. After the war, once it was safe for him to return to his native Kentucky, he settled down with much of his family in Bowling Green. He started practicing law, which led him to serve on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, eventually becoming its chief justice. Later, he practiced law in Frankfort, Kentucky, until he died in 1898, keeping many of the secrets of Confederate espionage from public knowledge. ## Early life Hines was born in Butler County, Kentucky, on October 8, 1838, to Judge Warren W. and Sarah Carson Hines and was raised in Warren County, Kentucky. While his education was largely informal, he spent some time in common schools. He was 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall, and weighed a mere 140 pounds (64 kg). With his slender build, Hines was described as rather benign in appearance, and a friend observed that he had a voice resembling a "refined woman". He was said to love women, music, and horses fondly. He became an adjunct professor at the Masonic University, a school established by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky Freemasons for teaching the orphans of Kentucky Masons in La Grange in 1859. He was the principal of its grammar school, but with the advent of the war, he joined the Confederate States Army in September 1861. ## American Civil War ### Early war experiences Hines joined the Confederate army, as did at least eleven cousins. Hines initially led "Buckner's Guides", which were attached to Albert Sidney Johnston's command, as his fellow guides recognized his "coolness and leadership". In November 1861, he was given a lieutenant's commission. On December 31, 1861, he led a successful mission to Borah's Ferry, Kentucky, to attack a Union outpost there. The Guides were disbanded in January 1862 after the Confederate government of Kentucky fled Bowling Green; Hines did not want to fight anywhere except in Kentucky. He traveled to Richmond, Virginia, and missed the Battle of Shiloh as a result. In April, Hines decided to join Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan, and he re-enlisted in the army as a private in the 9th Kentucky Cavalry in May 1862. Morgan commissioned Hines as a captain on June 10, 1862. Afterward, Hines spent most of his time conducting espionage in Kentucky. Dressed in civilian clothes, he usually operated alone to avoid drawing attention to himself, not wanting to be executed as a spy. Hines made special trips to see loved ones on his forays in Kentucky. Often, it was to visit Nancy Sproule, his childhood sweetheart and future bride, in Brown's Lock, near Bowling Green. On other occasions, he visited his parents in Lexington, Kentucky. In both places, U.S. authorities attempted to capture Hines, but he always escaped, even after his father had been captured and his mother was sick in bed. ### 1863 In June 1863, Hines led an invasion into Indiana with 25 Confederates posing as a U.S. unit in pursuit of deserters. Their goal was to see if the local Copperheads would support the invasion that John Hunt Morgan planned for July 1863. Traveling through Kentucky for eight days to obtain supplies for their mission, they crossed the Ohio River to enter Indiana, near the village of Derby, on June 18, 1863. Hines visited the local Copperhead leader, Dr. William A. Bowles, in French Lick, and learned that there would be no formal support for Morgan's Raid. On his way back to Kentucky, Hines and his men were discovered in Valeene, Indiana, leading to a minor skirmish near Leavenworth, Indiana, on Little Blue Island. Hines abandoned his men, swimming across the Ohio River under gunfire. After wandering around Kentucky for a week, Hines rejoined Morgan at Brandenburg, Kentucky. Colonel Basil W. Duke made a disparaging comment in his memoirs about how Hines appeared on the Brandenburg riverfront, saying Hines was "apparently the most listless inoffensive youth that was ever imposed upon"; despite being Morgan's second-in-command, Duke was usually not told of all the espionage Hines was carrying out, causing some to believe that Hines and Duke did not like each other, which was not the case. It was due to Hines that the riverboats Alice Dean and the John T. McCombs were captured to transport Morgan's 2000+ men force across the Ohio River. Hines' reports encouraged Morgan to be rough with anyone posing as a Confederate sympathizer in Indiana, as Morgan had been relying on support from sympathizers in Indiana to be successful in his raid. Hines stayed with Morgan until the end of the raid and was with John Hunt Morgan during their imprisonment as prisoners of war, first at Johnson's Island, and later at the Ohio Penitentiary just outside downtown Columbus, Ohio. #### Escape Hines discovered a way to escape from the Ohio Penitentiary. He had been reading the novel Les Misérables and was said to be inspired by Jean Valjean and Valjean's escapes through the passages underneath Paris. Hines noticed how dry the lower prison cells felt and how they were lacking in mold, even though sunlight never shined there. This caused him to believe that escape by tunneling down was possible. After discovering an air chamber underneath them, which he had deduced, Hines began the tunneling effort. The tunnel was only eighteen inches wide, just large enough for him to enter the four-foot by four-foot air chamber surrounded by heavy masonry. As Hines and the six others who accompanied Hines and John Hunt Morgan worked on the tunnel, a thin crust of dirt was used to hide the tunnel from the prison officials. They tunneled for six weeks, with the tunnel's exit coming between the inner and the 25-foot (7.6 m) outer prison walls, near a coal pile. On the day of escape, November 26, 1863, Morgan switched cells with his brother, Richard Morgan. The day was chosen as a new Union military commander was coming to Columbus, and Morgan knew the prison cells would be inspected then. Together, after the daily midnight inspection, Hines, John Hunt Morgan, and five captains under Morgan's command used the tunnel to escape. Aided by the fact that the prison sentries sought shelter from the raging storm occurring at the time, the Confederate officers climbed the 25-foot-tall (7.6 m) wall effortlessly, using metal hooks to effect their escape. Hines left a note for "Warden N. Merion, the Faithful, the Vigilant" that read, "Castle Merion, Cell No. 20. November 27, 1863. Commencement, November 4, 1863. Conclusion, November 20, 1863. Hours for labor per day, three. Tools, two small knives. La patience est amere, mais son fruit est doux. By order of my six honorable confederates." Those left behind were strip searched and moved to different cells in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Two of the officers who escaped with Hines and Morgan, Ralph Sheldon and Samuel Taylor, were captured four days later in Louisville, Kentucky. Still, the other three (Captain Jacob Bennett, Captain L. D. Hockersmith, and Captain Augustus Magee) escaped to Canada and the Confederacy. Hines led John Hunt Morgan back to Confederate lines. First, they arrived at the train station in downtown Columbus, where they bought tickets to Cincinnati, Ohio. The duo jumped off the train before it entered the Cincinnati train station. They continued to evade capture in Cincinnati, staying for one night at the Ben Johnson House in Bardstown, Kentucky. In Tennessee, Hines diverted the Union troops' attention away from Morgan and was himself recaptured and sentenced to death by hanging. He escaped that night by telling stories to the soldier in charge of him and subdued him when given the chance. A few days later, he again escaped U.S. soldiers who intended to hang him. ### Northwest Conspiracy Hines traveled to Richmond, Virginia, after his escape in January 1864. He convinced Confederate President Jefferson Davis of a plan to instill mass panic in the northern states by freeing prisoners and systematic arson in the larger U.S. cities. Impressed by Hines' plan and wishing to retaliate for the Dahlgren affair, Davis agreed to back him. Davis urged Hines to tell Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin and Secretary of War James Seddon his plan. Both men agreed to the project and encouraged Hines to proceed, with the only hesitation by Davis, Benjamin, and Sheldon being the potentially damaging effect on public opinion of the exposure of such a plan, including what Great Britain and the Second French Empire would think of Hines' actions. Hines thought entering the Union from Canada would be easier and traveled there during the winter. Hines led the Northwest Conspiracy from Canada in the fall of 1864. Colonel Benjamin Anderson was involved in the plot, along with other Confederate soldiers. It was hoped that Hines and his men would be able to free the Confederate prisoners held at Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois. Hines led sixty men from Toronto, Ontario, on August 25, 1864. They arrived during the Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago that year. The Copperheads had told Hines to wait until that time, as they said that 50,000 Copperheads would be there for the event. However, encountering Copperhead hesitation to assist Hines and his force, and with U.S. authorities knowledgeable of the plot, Hines and his men were forced to flee Chicago on August 30, 1864. Many men thought Anderson may have been a double agent, forcing him to leave the group. A second attempt to free the Camp Douglas Confederate prisoners occurred during the United States Presidential Election of 1864, but that plan was also foiled. In the same year, he tried to free Confederate prisoners of war by recruiting former members of Morgan's Raiders who had escaped to Canada, including John Hunt Morgan's telegrapher George "Lightning" Ellsworth, who was a native of Canada. On his last day in Chicago, Hines had to avoid discovery by U.S. soldiers inspecting the home he was hiding in by crawling into a mattress upon which the homeowner's wife lay ill with delirium. The soldiers inspected the house he was in and even checked to see if Hines was lying on the bed, but they did not discover Hines in the mattress. The soldiers established a guard by the door of the house. Visitors were encouraged to visit the sick woman as it rained the next day. The soldiers never looked at the faces under the umbrellas, so Hines sneaked out of the house and left Chicago. ### Late war In October 1864, Hines again went to Cincinnati after crossing covertly through Indiana, where U.S. troops sought him again. This time, with the help of friends whose home he hid in, Hines concealed himself in an old closet obscured by mortar and red bricks, where he avoided detection by the troops who inspected the house. Hines learned there that his beloved Nancy Sproule was in an Ohio convent. He decided to "spirit" her from it. On November 10, 1864, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Covington, Kentucky, they were married, despite her father's wishes to wait until the war was over due to Hines' wartime activities. They spent a week's honeymoon in Kentucky, after which Hines returned to his clandestine activities in Canada. Two days after Lincoln's assassination, on April 16, 1865, Hines was in Detroit, Michigan, when he was mistaken for John Wilkes Booth, who was then the subject of a massive search. After finding himself in a fight, Hines jumped several fences and made his way to Detroit's wharf. He waited for a ferryboat to empty its passengers and then forced the captain at gunpoint to take him across the Detroit River to Canada. On arrival, Hines apologized to the captain and gave him five dollars. Hines' exploit led to the mistaken rumor that Booth had escaped into Canada. ## Later life After he fled Detroit, Hines went to Toronto, where several other former Confederates lived. He did not expect to return to the United States, so he sent for his wife, Nancy. In Toronto, he studied law with General John C. Breckinridge, a former Vice President of the United States. Once U.S. President Andrew Johnson declared a pardon for most former Confederates, Hines returned to Detroit to sign a loyalty oath to the United States on July 20, 1865. However, knowing that U.S. officials in Kentucky would consider him an exception to the pardon, he remained in Canada until May 1866. After sending his wife to Kentucky, where their first child was born, Hines began living in Memphis, Tennessee, passing the bar exam on June 12, 1866, with high honors. During his stay in Memphis, he edited the Daily Appeal. Hines moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1867, where many of his family lived and practiced law. Basil W. Duke appointed Hines a colonel in the Soldiers of the Red Cross. Hines later became the County Judge for Warren County, Kentucky. Hines was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1878 and served there until 1886. From 1884 to 1886, he served as Chief Justice. He was said to be "exceptionally free from all judicial bias." Hines was a witness to the assassination of fellow judge John Milton Elliott on March 26, 1879, while the two were leaving the Kentucky State House, by Colonel Thomas Buford, a judge from Henry County, Kentucky. Buford, enraged by Elliott's failure to rule in favor of his late sister in a property dispute, shot Elliott with a double-barreled twelve-gauge shotgun filled with buckshot after Hines had turned and walked away from Elliott. Hines inspected the body as Buford surrendered to a deputy sheriff who had come to investigate the turmoil. After his time on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Hines returned to practicing law in Frankfort, Kentucky. In 1886, Hines began writing four articles discussing the Northwest Conspiracy for Basil W. Duke's Southern Bivouac magazine. The magazine espoused the Lost Cause of the Confederacy but was less adversarial than similar Neo-Confederate magazines, gaining a larger Northern readership than similar journals. The first of the articles was printed in the December 1886 issue. However, after consulting with Jefferson Davis at Davis' home in Mississippi, Hines did not name anybody on the Northern side who assisted in the conspiracy. After writing the first article, Hines was attacked for not being more forthcoming regarding all the participants from both newspapers' reviewers (particularly from the Louisville Times) and Southern readers, which discouraged Hines from publishing any more accounts of the Northwest Conspiracy. Hines died in 1898 in Frankfort and was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in the Hines series of plots. Also among the Hines family plots is the grave site of Duncan Hines, a second cousin twice removed. ## Misinformation Historical markers concerning Hines' deeds have occasionally included mistaken information. The historical marker placed by the Indiana Civil War Centennial Commission in 1963 in the vicinity of Derby, Perry County, Indiana, to memorialize Hines' entry into Indiana states that Hines invaded Indiana in 1862, although he did so in 1863. In addition, a marker by the Confederate Monument of Bowling Green in Bowling Green's Fairview Cemetery says that Hines died before he could go to the dedication ceremony in 1876 when, in reality, he died in 1898 and is buried a few hundred feet away.

Every Sunday

Every Sunday (sometimes incorrectly listed as Every Sunday Afternoon or Opera vs. Jazz) is a 1936 American musical short film about two adolescent girls and their efforts to save a public concert series threatened by poor attendance. Directed by Felix E. Feist, the film served as a screen test for, and is the first significant screen appearance of, two adolescent actresses who soon became stars, Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin. Although only lightly reviewed at the time of its release, the film has garnered a generally positive reputation among Garland biographers. ## Plot Small town friends Edna (Deanna Durbin) and Judy (Judy Garland) are upset. Edna's grandfather and his orchestra, who play free Sunday concerts at a local park, have been fired by the town council because the concerts are poorly attended. The girls hit upon the idea of singing at the concerts and set about promoting the next concert. The following Sunday Edna and Judy join Granddad on the bandstand. Edna's operatic style and Judy's swing bring crowds running from all over the park. The event is a huge success and Granddad's concerts are saved. ## Production Deanna Durbin and Judy Garland were both under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer but the studio had not put them to work in films. With their contracts coming up for renewal, feelings among studio executives were that the studio didn't need two girl singers. Every Sunday would serve as an extended screen test to decide which girl's contract would be renewed. Durbin recorded the aria Il Bacio for the film. Composers Con Conrad and Herb Magidson wrote a specialty number for Garland, "The Americana." Following the screening of the short for MGM executives, opinion was divided on whether Garland or Durbin should be retained. Finally, Louis B. Mayer, upon his return from a European trip, decreed that both girls should be kept. However, Durbin's contract option had expired by then. She was signed by Universal Studios, where her first picture, Three Smart Girls (1936), was so successful that it saved Universal from bankruptcy. ## Critical reception As a short film that served as a programmer, Every Sunday received scant critical attention upon its release. Durbin's hometown newspaper, the Winnipeg Free Press, did praise the film, lamenting that it was "all too short" and citing Garland as a "girl singer of distinction." Garland biographers, when discussing the film in any detail, are generally complimentary both to the film and to Garland. "Unpretentious and fascinating...Every Sunday gives us a marvelous glimpse of Judy's talent in an unrefined state" is a typical comment, with the film "reveal[ing] how accomplished a performer Judy Garland already was at fourteen." Durbin does not fare quite as well. Although described by one biographer as appearing "relaxed" and "happy" on film others dismiss her "diffidence" and call her "stiff."

Momchil

Bulgarian brigand

Momchil (, , ; c. 1305 – 7 July 1345) was a 14th-century Bulgarian brigand[1] and local ruler. Initially a member of a bandit gang in the borderlands of Bulgaria, Byzantium and Serbia, Momchil was recruited by the Byzantines as a mercenary. Through his opportunistic involvement in the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347, where he played the various sides against each other, he became ruler of a large area in the Rhodopes and western Thrace. Momchil achieved initial successes against Turks and Byzantines alike, setting Turkish ships on fire and almost managing to kill one of his main opponents at the time, John VI Kantakouzenos. Despite this, he was defeated and killed by a joint Byzantine–Turkish army in 1345. Due to his opposition to the Turks, he is remembered in popular South Slavic legend as a fighter against the Turkish invasion of the Balkans. ## Brigandage and role in the Byzantine civil war Contemporary and near-contemporary accounts describe Momchil physically as "imposing in appearance", "as tall as two men" and, in the words of a Turkish poet, "resembling a minaret". According to a contemporary source, Momchil was a native of the "border area of Bulgarians and Serbs", which at the time straddled the Rhodopes and the Pirin mountains. The claim that Momchil was born in that region may be reinforced by 15th-century Ottoman registers, according to which his name was the most popular male name in that area. There exist at least a few legends which tie his birth to a particular place, for example the village of Fakia in Strandzha, though evidence is nonexistent. In any case, Momchil was born of humble origin. This was a main factor in his decision to join a band of brigands (hajduks) which was active in the scarcely governed border areas between Bulgaria, Byzantium and Serbia. Persecuted by the Bulgarian authorities, some time before 1341 Momchil fled to Byzantium. He was accepted into the service of Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos (r. 1328–1341) as a mercenary and tasked with the protection of the territories he previously plundered. However, his brigand activities did not cease. Momchil regularly raided Bulgarian lands, which negatively impacted Byzantine–Bulgarian relations. Undesired by the Byzantines and "detestable to the Bulgarians", he deserted the Byzantine army and fled to Serbia to serve its ruler Stephen Dušan. In Serbia, he formed a company of 2,000 trusted men, both Bulgarians and Serbs. During the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347, Momchil joined the forces of John VI Kantakouzenos (r. 1341–1354), who had perhaps known Momchil during his flight to Serbia in 1342, at the beginning of the war. In 1343, as per the wishes of the local population, Kantakouzenos gave Momchil governance of the region of Merope in the Rhodope Mountains, a virtual no man's land plagued by nomadic Slavic brigands. In the words of Kantakouzenos himself, the appointment was because "[Momchil] was of the same race these nomads would be favourably disposed toward him, but also because he was not lacking in courage and boldness in battle and was a first-rate expert in robbery and plunder." As the governor of Merope, Momchil gathered of an army of 300 cavalry and 5,000 infantry from different nationalities. Though he considered himself able to "set against any side in the Byzantine war", along with Umur Bey's Turkish forces he nevertheless assisted Kantakouzenos in his campaigns in 1344. At the time, Momchil was approached by agents of Kantakouzenos' opponents, the Constantinopolitan regency, and persuaded to turn against him. Thinking that Kantakouzenos and his Turkish allies from the Emirate of Aydin were far away in eastern Thrace, he attacked a Turkish fleet of 15 ships near Portolagos and sank three of them. He then overcame another Turkish force that arrived to exact retribution near the fortress of Peritheorion (also known as Burugrad), and plundered several cities in the area that refused to surrender. Afterwards, Momchil along with 1,000 horsemen attacked Kantakouzenos, who had set camp near Komotini with only 60 horsemen to protect him. The Byzantines were thoroughly routed: Kantakouzenos' horse was killed and he received a powerful hit to the head, which he survived thanks to his helmet. Momchil captured many of Kantakouzenos' men, but the claimant to the throne himself managed to escape in the turmoil. Soon, however, Momchil sent messages to Kantakouzenos asking for forgiveness. The latter, loath to alienate Momchil and open another front in his rear, pardoned him in exchange for promises of future good conduct, and even awarded him the title of sebastokrator. Momchil nevertheless continued to entertain parallel ties with the regency, and even secured the title of despotes from the Empress Anna of Savoy. ## Ruler in the Rhodopes and death In the summer of 1344, Momchil finally broke with both parties and seceded from the Byzantine Empire. He proclaimed himself an independent ruler in the Rhodopes and the Aegean coast, "capturing cities and villages and appearing all-powerful and invincible". With his army he captured Xanthi, which became the capital of his domain. Bulgarian historian Plamen Pavlov theorises that Momchil was in friendly relations with Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander (r. 1331–1371), with whom he shared a lengthy border, and believes the two may have acted in co-ordination against the Byzantines. In late spring 1345 however, Kantakouzenos, reinforced with allegedly 20,000 troops from Aydin under their ruler Umur Bey, marched against Momchil. Momchil tried to prevent this by asking again for pardon and offering to submit to Kantakouzenos, but the emperor refused to heed him. The two armies met near Peritheorion on 7 July 1345. Momchil tried to seek refuge behind the city's walls — scholars debate whether he actually held the city or not — but they were shut against him and his men by the locals. The locals did let in Momchil's cousin Rayko along with 50 men, which they hoped would persuade Momchil not to take vengeance on the city if he defeated his opponents. In the subsequent battle before the city walls, Momchil's forces used the Peritheorion's ruined old fortifications as a first line of defence, with the city walls behind them. After the foremost Turkish troops crossed the fortifications and dealt with the Bulgarian defenders, they began plundering the vicinity. However, to the surprise of Kantakouzenos and Umur Bey, the majority of Momchil's men were standing in front of the city walls and had not yet participated in the skirmishes. As the Byzantine–Turkish force advanced towards the defenders, Momchil led his troops ahead into battle. His cavalry was promptly eliminated by Turkish sharpshooters and his remaining troops were surrounded on three sides by heavily armed horsemen. Momchil's remaining men continued the fight on foot and for the most part did not surrender until Momchil himself perished. Out of respect for Momchil, Kantakouzenos spared his wife, a Bulgarian woman he had captured during his conquest of Xanthi. He allowed her to flee to Bulgaria along with all of her property. However, it is unknown whether Momchil had any children from this marriage or a previous one, if any. Pavlov presents the hypothesis that Momchil's wife was a noblewoman from the Bulgarian capital Tarnovo, whom he married as part of an agreement with the Bulgarian court. ## In popular culture In Bulgarian and South Slavic folklore in general, Momchil is glorified in numerous songs and epic tales as a brigand, defender of the people and a prominent fighter against the Turks. Indeed, some of the earliest heroic songs in Bulgarian folklore tradition deal with Momchil's exploits. In some folklore material, Momchil, referred to as a duke, acts as the uncle of Prince Marko, another legendary figure who in epic poetry is a fighter against the Turks. In the folklore version of Momchil's last battle, Vidosava, his wife, and not the citizens of Peritheorion, betrays him and is to blame for his death. On the other hand, Momchil's legendary sister Yevrosima is described as the mother of Prince Marko as well as a major influence on him. The town of Momchilgrad and the village of Momchilovtsi in southern Bulgaria, as well as Momchil Peak on Greenwich Island of the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica are named after Momchil. His life served as the basis for an opera piece, eponymously named Momchil and written by Bulgarian composer Lyubomir Pipkov. Momchil's biography also inspired a 1988 children's comic book, The Lord of Merope'', which tells a largely fictionalised version of his story. 1. Prince Marko: The Hero of South Slavic Epics, Tanya Popovic, Syracuse University Press, 1988, , p. 25: ...it is generally accepted he was a Bulgarian... ...p. 45. The historical Momcilo, a Bulgarian, who was somewhere between an outlaw and a lord...

2017 Macau Grand Prix

64th running of the Macau Grand Prix

The 2017 Macau Grand Prix (formally the 64th Suncity Group Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup) was a motor race for Formula Three cars that was held on the streets of Macau on 19 November 2017. Unlike other races, such as the Pau Grand Prix, the 2017 Macau Grand Prix was not a part of any Formula Three championship, but was open to entries from all Formula Three championships. The race itself was made up of two races: a ten-lap qualifying race that decided the starting grid for the fifteen-lap main race. The 2017 race was the 64th running of the Macau Grand Prix, the 35th for Formula Three cars and the 2nd edition of the FIA F3 World Cup. The Grand Prix was won by Motopark driver Dan Ticktum, having finished eighth in the previous day's qualification race which was won by Theodore Racing by Prema driver Callum Ilott. Ticktum led only the final lap of the Grand Prix after Ferdinand Habsburg and Sérgio Sette Câmara crashed at the final corner while battling for the victory. Second place went to Lando Norris, competing for Carlin, while the podium was completed by the highest-placed rookie driver, Ralf Aron for Van Amersfoort Racing. ## Entry list and background The Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three race considered to be a stepping stone to higher motor racing categories such as Formula One and is Macau's most prestigious international sporting event. The 2017 Macau Grand Prix was the 64th running of the event, the 35th time the race was held to Formula Three regulations and the 2nd edition of the FIA F3 World Cup. It took place on the 6.2 km (3.9 mi) 22-turn Guia Circuit on 19 November 2017 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying. The Guia Circuit underwent modifications following the 2016 event with several kerbs modified for safety purposes along with the installation of TecPro barriers and the strengthening of recovery protocols for stranded vehicles. After being sidelined by Pirelli for the 2016 race, Yokohama was reinstated as the event's official tyre supplier. Yokohama organised a test session with the 2017 Formula Three aerodynamic package to prevent a driver or team from gaining an unfair advantage. In order to compete in Macau, drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-regulated championship meeting during the calendar year, in either the FIA Formula Three European Championship or one of the domestic championships, with drivers placed high up in the rankings of these respective championships given priority in receiving an invitation to the meeting. Within the Formula Three record-low 22-car grid for the event, only one of the major Formula Three series was represented by their respective champion. Lando Norris, the Formula Three European champion, was this sole representative as the Japanese series winner Mitsunori Takaboshi was not entered for the race. It marked the first time since the 2014 edition that the overall champion of the All-Japan Formula Three series did not race in Macau. Seven drivers outside of Formula Three entered the race through invitations: they were Formula Two race winner Sérgio Sette Câmara, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 competitors Dan Ticktum and Sacha Fenestraz, All-Japan Formula Three national class champion Ryuji "Dragon" Kumita, Super GT racer Kenta Yamashita and Super Formula driver Yuhi Sekiguchi. ## Practice and qualifying There were two 40-minute practice sessions preceding the Sunday race: one on Thursday morning and one on Friday morning. Sette Câmara set the fastest time for Motopark in the closing minutes of the opening practice session with a lap of 2 minutes, 14.808 seconds, one-tenth of a second faster than any one else. His closest challenger was teammate Joel Eriksson in second. Ticktum, Pedro Piquet and Ferdinand Habsburg, the Theodore Racing by Prema duo of Guanyu Zhou and Callum Ilott, Norris, Mick Schumacher and Yamashita followed in positions three through ten. Jehan Daruvala's session ended early when he hit the barriers at Moorish corners and Maximilian Günther lost a large amount of time in the pit lane as his car needed gearbox repairs. Eriksson narrowly avoided damaging his car when he slid sideways at Fisherman's Bend while Norris regained control of his at Lisboa corner. Kumita crashed into the tyre barriers at Police corner, ending the session early. Qualifying was split into two sessions; the first was held on Thursday afternoon and ran for 40 minutes with the second held on Friday afternoon and lasted for half an hour. The fastest time set by each driver from either session counted towards his final starting position for the qualification race. The first qualifying session had Norris at the top of the time sheets with a lap of 2 minutes, 11.570 seconds after he improved on his own personal best. He was fastest in the circuit's mountain section but admitted to the press most of his advantage came out on new rear tyres at his pit stop after struggling to locate a decent car balance. Norris was nine-tenths of a second faster than the second-placed Pedro Piquet after he fitted new tyres to his vehicle. Günther was second but fell to third in spite of improving his fastest lap time on worn tyres. Ticktum ended up provisionally fourth and was narrowly in front of teammate Eriksson in fifth. Sekguicki finished sixth, with Fenestraz the best-placed rookie in seventh and he was followed closely in the time sheets by Sette Câmara. Zhou and Yamashita rounded out the top ten. Following them were Ralf Aron, Schumacher with Tadasuke Makino and Habsburg, Daruvala, Marino Sato, Devlin DeFrancesco, Ritomo Miyata, Álex Palou, and the Japanese duo of Kumita and Sekiguchi who both failed to register a lap time. The session was tumultuous and was stopped four times: Kumita crashed at San Francisco Bend early on, and shortly after the restarted, a second red flag was necessitated for Palou who went into the wall at Paiol turn and stopped on the circuit. Sette Câmara went into the barriers heavily at Fisherman's Bend with his car's rear, prompting a one-hour delay before running could resume. First qualifying was prematurely ended with less than two minutes remaining because of Daruvala impacting the wall at San Francisco Bend. After cracking a bone his left hand, Kumita was withdrawn for the rest of the weekend. In the second 40-minute practice session, Ticktum led the way early on with a benchmark lap time and held it for most of the session until Eriksson had two new tyres fitted to his car's left-hand side to claim the top spot in the closing minutes with a lap of 2 minutes, 12.032 seconds. Ticktum followed 0.110 seconds adrift in second and Habsburg improved late in practice to finish third-fastest. Ilott was satisfied with alterations to his car and was fourth with a late lap that put him ahead of teammate Günther in fifth. After his car was repaired by his mechanics overnight, Sette Câmara was sixth and Norris seventh. Sekiguchi, Zhou and Darvala completed the top ten. Piquet swiped the barriers and removed the car's front left corner but returned to the pit lane. This caused the session's first stoppage as debris was left on the track. A second red flag was prompted when Schumacher lost control of his vehicle, locked his tyres at Police corner and hit the wall. The final stoppage came when Aron went into the wall at Moorish Hill turn. In the second qualifying session, the first red flag came out when Daruvala crashed at the Solitude Esses complex. Soon after, Sette Câmara crashed for a second time at Fisherman's Bend and this prompted the second stoppage of the session. Ticktum was the early pace setter before Norris returned to the top of the time sheets on a new set of tyres by being the first driver to go into the two minutes and 10 seconds range more than halfway through. Eriksson fitted four new tyres to his car and found a gap between traffic to better Norris's time with a lap of 2 minutes, 10.720 seconds. With five minutes left, Zhou hit the wall and stopped with heavy damage to his vehicle, causing the session's third stoppage. Norris and Eriksson elected not to venture onto the track at the restart after Seguicki ended the session early by crashing. Thus, Eriksson became the sixth Swedish driver to secure pole position at the Macau Grand Prix. Norris was 0.027 seconds behind in third and Ilott was hindered by slower traffic and oversteer and settled for third having been eighth beforehand. Günther dropped one position from his provisional grid slot to start from fourth. Habsburg damaged his suspension after hitting the wall but limped back to the pit lane. Habsburg fell to fifth due to Ilott improving his position and him choosing not to venture onto the track at the restart. Ticktum was bulked by the slow-moving Habsburg but his earlier effort placed him sixth with Schumacher the best placed rookie in seventh. The top ten was completed by Sekiguchi, Sette Câmara and Zhou. Behind them the rest of the field lined up as Fenestraz, Makino, Piquet, DeFrancesco, Sato, Yamashita, Aron, Tsuboi, Daravala, Miyata and Palou. ### Qualifying classification Each of the driver's fastest lap times from the two qualifying sessions are denoted in bold. ## Qualification race The qualifying race to set the grid order for the main race started at 10:20 Macau Standard Time (UTC+08:00) on 18 November. On the grid, in dry and cloudy weather, Eriksson maintained the lead into the first turn. Norris was slow off the line and Ilott overtook him for second place. Günther followed suit and overtook the slow moving Norris for third position. At the end of the first lap Eriksson led Ilott by 1.127 seconds. Sette Câmara passed Habsburg to take fourth into Lisboa corner on lap two. He then slipstreamed onto the back of Günther and overtook him for third place on the next lap. Habsburg lost a further position to Ticktum on the same lap and fell behind Schumacher who overtook him braking for Lisboa on the fourth lap. Schumacher locked his tyres driving towards Lisboa corner as he attempted to overtake Habsburg for sixth and ran onto the turn's escape to allow him to continue driving. The gap between the first two drivers remained stable over the next three laps until Ilott drew closer to Eriksson and got onto the latter's slipstream by the end of the fifth lap. Ilott immediately attempted to overtake on Eriksson on the outside of Lisboa corner but failed to pass. Ilott remained close behind Eriksson on the following lap and elected to stay back until he exited the Mandarin Bend kink before attempting a pass on Eriksson who had worn tyres. This allowed Eriksson to cover the inside and keep the lead when the duo drew alongside each other braking for Lisboa corner. Ilott had a large amount of momentum on Eriksson, that at the start of lap seven, he passed Eriksson on the inside at the Mandarin Bend kink for the lead. After he was overtaken by Ilott, Eriksson immediately came under pressure from his teammate Sette Câmara. Norris fell to ninth after his slow getaway and overtook Ticktum to return to the top five on lap seven but then slowed without warning and fell down the order. Ilott opened up a lead of nearly eight seconds and crossed the start/finish line after ten laps to win the qualification race and pole position for the Grand Prix itself. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Eriksson who fended off consecutive overtaking attempts from Sette Câmara. Behind the trio, Günther followed with Habsburg in fifth. Piquet, Norris and Ticktum were in close formation for positions six to eight and Sekiguchi and Zhou were similarly close to round out the top ten. Yamashita, Fenestraz, Aron, the Japanese duo of Sato and Tsuboi, Daruvala, Makino, Palou, Miyata, Schumacher and DeFrancesco (delayed by an unnoticed incident) completed the 21 classified finishers. ### Qualifying race classification ## Main race The race started at 15:30 local time on 19 November. The weather was cloudy and dry although some rain had fallen earlier in the day. Eriksson made a brisk start and clung onto the slipstream of pole position starter Ilott heading towards Lisboa corner and moved into first place. Competitive racing was temporarily suspended with a full course yellow flag on the second lap after Sato crashed at the kink going into the entry for Fisherman's Bend. As the field were travelling down the straight heading towards Lisboa corner, the green flags were waved to signal to drivers that racing resumed. This appeared to catch out race leaders Ilott and Eriksson, with Ilott steering into the corner earlier than anticipated and making contact with the front-left suspension on Eriksson's car. Eriksson reached the turn in first position but the damage to his car meant he retired from the Grand Prix after he stopped before the tyre barrier at San Francisco Hill a few hundred metres later. The incident allowed Sette Câmara into the lead with Günther moving into second and the Carlin pairing of Habsburg and Norris inherited third and fourth places. Eriksson's stranded car necessitated a second full course yellow flag, which was later converted to a safety car because he was deemed to be in a dangerous position. Ilott made a pit stop for repairs to his car under the safety car while Schumacher had gearbox issues that needed tending to. The race restarted on the seventh lap with Sette Câmara ahead of Günther, Habsburg, Norris and Ticktum. Günther could not get back up to speed, allowing Sette Câmara to establish a healthy lead and the former came under attack from Habsburg. DeFrancesco was another retiree when he went into the barriers at Lisboa corner after ten laps. On the 11th lap, Habsburg used the slipstream of Günther and the braking area at the Lisboa turn to overtake him for second position. He set about reducing Sette Câmara's two-second lead over the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Ticktum pressured Norris. Ticktum used a four-wide battle of Norris, Günther and Aron into Lisboa corner for third place on the Grand Prix's 14th lap and slipstreamed past both into third place. As the leading two started the final lap, Habsburg drew close to Sette Câmara into Mandarin corner. Habsburg's higher straight-line speed allowed him to attempt a pass to the left of Sette Câmara heading into Lisboa corner. Despite drawing alongside Sette Câmara, he did not take the lead in the braking zone as the latter held onto the position on the inside. As the two cars slid in the mountain complex, Habsburg could not take the lead due to a lack of on-track space. Habsburg however got a fast exit leaving the penultimate turn and used the momentum on the straight linking the Melco and Fisherman's Bend corners to challenge Sette Câmara. Habsburg passed Sette Câmara on the outside for the lead but, in an attempt to brake later than each other, both drivers braked too late for the corner, drove onto some dust and understeered into the barriers on the left of Fisherman's Bend. Habsburg ricocheted off the wall and managed to limp to the line, whilst Sette Câmara was left stranded in the tyre wall. Thus, in his third Formula Three race, Ticktum inherited the lead and swerved to avoid hitting debris to win the race. Norris finished half a second later in second and Aron completed the podium in third having moved up ten from his starting position. Off the podium, Habsburg limped his car which had its left-front suspension deranged to fourth ahead of Günther in fifth. Piquet took sixth place ahead of Fenestraz and Zhou. The top ten was rounded out by Makino and Daruvala. Outside the top ten, Palou finished 11th having moved up seven from his starting position, in front of Miyata and the stricken Sette Câmara. Tsuboi, Ilott and Schumacher were the last of the classified finishers. ### Post-race The top three drivers appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. Ticktum spoke of a "pretty unlucky weekend" for himself before the Sunday race and admitted that his victory was serendipitous, owing to the Sette Câmara and Habsburg crash on the final lap, "I was due a bit of luck with what happened at the final corner. But there are no words to describe what it was like coming across the line." He thanked Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko for signing him and said he sought to improve himself, "I think if you are a second-year driver in the Red Bull programme, then Helmut has established that you are bloody fast – unless something else has gone wrong with the team and he cannot quite gauge what the driver is doing." Though Norris congratulated Ticktum for his victory he spoke of his disappointment over not winning, but expressed a desire to return to Macau in 2018 and sought an improvement in his tyre's life span, "I came to Macau to win, and in some ways I didn't prepare for it as much as I should have done and maybe I could have done – because I was focusing on other things" Third-placed Aron said of his achievement, "It could be said that it was a happy one too, but that's Macau. Macau's always the race that everyone wants to win, and it often ends with silly maneuvers. I finally got the third place, probably a tenth, but it was time for luck to finally end up on my side." Habsburg spoke of his pride on his weekend and stated that he was "100 percent" unwilling to finish second as he attempted to put off Sette Câmara on the final lap, "I was crying when I crashed, because I knew I'd lost it. and I was wiping my tears away. But I don't think you can say you've lost it when you've thrown everything into winning it at the final corner. The move was either win or crash – and for me it was crash." Sette Câmara revealed he lost aerodynamic grip just before his crash, "It hurts a lot, it is not easy. But it's a World Cup, it's not a championship. Either you win or you lose, I do not have to get upset about it." Eriksson apportioned blame for his crash on Ilott, who received a ten-second penalty from the stewards which could not be applied since he retired, who he felt was overaggressive, "Callum crashed into me. He thought he was already past me and he was not; it was his mistake and we both had to pay the price for it." Ilott stated his belief he was unworthy of a penalty because his car's onboard footage was not made available to the stewards and it reportedly showed Eriksson steering left. He argued he provided Eriksson with enough room and stated his belief he had passed the latter before the collision. ### Main race classification ## See also - 2017 FIA GT World Cup

Clustertruck

2016 video game

Clustertruck is a 2016 platformer game developed by the Swedish independent studio Landfall Games and published by tinyBuild. The game consists of nine worlds in which the player must navigate by jumping on moving trucks to avoid obstacles and the ground, culminating in a boss fight. This concept originated from Landfall Games's founder, Wilhelm Nylund, picturing himself leaping across trucks to escape traffic. Clustertruck was released for Linux, macOS, the PlayStation 4, Windows, and the Xbox One in September 2016, followed by a version for the Nintendo Switch in March 2018. While praised for its gameplay, graphics, and original soundtrack, Clustertruck's Nintendo Switch port was primarily criticized for its controls. ## Gameplay Clustertruck is a platformer game played from the first-person perspective. Across nine worlds with ten levels each, the player navigates to a designated goal by jumping across moving trucks with real-time physics that collide, flip, and tip over. During a level, the player may sprint or slow down time. Touching the ground or any obstacle triggers a game over. Each world introduces a new obstacle; for example, the third world has ice that causes trucks to be slippery, the fourth world adds lasers, and the sixth world adds a boulder that the player must run away from. The game culminates in a boss fight in the final world. The player may earn bonus points by skipping trucks or remaining airborne, which can be spent on power-ups, such as grappling hooks, double jumps, speed boosts, air dashes, and a jet pack. The player can use the level editor to construct and share custom levels. With Clustertruck's Twitch integration, the game's developers and Twitch users can modify the game by voting in the chat. Modifications include rickrolling, time manipulation, color changing, on-screen messages, exploding trucks, earthquakes, laser trucks, high and low gravity, and inverted controls. ## Development and release The development of Clustertruck began in 2015 and spanned one year. While traveling home from Gamescom in 2015, Wilhelm Nylund, the lead designer and CEO of Landfall Games, imagined himself escaping traffic by jumping on trucks to get home faster, inspiring him to develop the prototype of Clustertruck. New features were playtested and discussed within the team on whether it would be implemented into the game. Building the game in Unity, Landfall Games ultimately added power-ups and obstacles that passed. After a few months in development, an early alpha build was released. During the alpha phase, playtesters discovered they could finish levels early by reaching the front of the truck line. They messaged the developers on Discord to make the game more optimal for speedrunning. Landfall Games planned to release Clustertruck by April 2016. This was postponed as the game's early popularity led the team to extend its development. At PAX South 2016, it was announced that Landfall Games had signed a publishing deal with tinyBuild. On September 27, 2016, the game released for Linux, macOS, the PlayStation 4, Windows, and the Xbox One, with an estimated 65,000 sales within its first month of release. In October 2016, Clustertruck was updated with a Halloween-themed map. On March 15, 2018, the game was released for the Nintendo Switch. For an April Fools' Day prank, Landfall Games created a parody of Superhot called Super Truck in 2016; similar to the original game, trucks would only move forward when the player does so. Permission was obtained from the Superhot development team prior to its production. ## Reception Clustertruck received scores of 76/100 on Metacritic for the PC version, 74/100 for the Nintendo Switch port, and 69/100 for the Xbox One edition. On OpenCritic, the game holds a 50% approval rating. Critics generally praised the gameplay, likening it to the children's game the floor is lava. Other reviewers commended how the gimmicks in each world and stressful gameplay kept the game fun. Emily Sowden of Pocket Gamer noted the sudden increase in difficulty, stating that the game is "brutal" and "unfair at times" but also "super simple to pick up" for any player. Nintendo Life's Gonçalo Lopes praised the game for "masterfully" implementing a combination of casual and hardcore gameplay and giving the player choices on how to beat a level. Nintendo World Report's Donald Theriault felt satisfied after finishing a challenging level, and HobbyConsolas's Alberto Lloret praised how the game's variety in worlds captivated players. Ian Dallas, for a Game Informer report, highlighted the game's "weird, surreal energy" of leaping across trucks and called it "the strangest game" since Katamari Damacy. While Peter Bathge of PC Games stated that highscore lists incentivized players to purchase power-ups, Theriault felt that the double jump was the only necessary one. Writing for Destructoid, Peter Glagowski found the first world "disappointing" with a "weird", repetitive gimmick, adding on that the game's boss level was too long, went against the game's concept, and "sucks the fun out". Clustertruck was praised for its original soundtrack. Lopes felt the "catchy tunes" fit the chaotic gameplay, and Theriault, while critical that it "isn't all that memorable", appreciated how the music did not restart with each new level attempt. Lopes noted that the game's use of flat, shaded polygons helped to maintain performance. The Nintendo Switch port faced criticism for its controls. Some critics stated that turning the game's camera with the right Joy-Con's analog stick was too sensitive. Bathge found it "almost impossible" to control the player's jump and rotate the camera simultaneously with the same controller. Theriault thought the game "ran fine" on the Nintendo Switch, and Lloret argued that the game's short levels fit with the console's "portable nature" due to their length.

Resident Evil: Afterlife

2010 film by Paul W. S. Anderson

Resident Evil: Afterlife is a 2010 action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It is the second film in the series that he directed, after the first film. A direct sequel to Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), it is the fourth installment in the Resident Evil film series, which is loosely based on the video game series of the same name, and the first to be shot in 3D. It stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, and Wentworth Miller. The film follows Alice searching for and rescuing the remaining survivors in Los Angeles after the T-virus outbreak, and teaming up against Albert Wesker, the head of the Umbrella Corporation. Chris Redfield, a primary character from the video games, was featured for the first time in the film franchise. Other characters from the games and films who returned are: Claire Redfield, Chris's sister who has lost her memory prior to the film's events; Albert Wesker, the film's main antagonist; and Jill Valentine, who made a cameo appearance. In May 2005, producers mentioned the possibility of following Extinction with a sequel titled Afterlife. Extinction was released in 2007 and was a box office success, prompting Afterlife to begin development in June 2008, with the script being written by Anderson that December. Elements from the video game Resident Evil 5 (2009) were incorporated into the film including the mind control devices and Chris' confrontation with Wesker. Filming took place in Toronto from September to December 2009 using the 3D Fusion Camera System. The film was released on September 10, 2010, to generally negative reviews. The film grossed $60 million in the United States and Canada on an estimated $60 million budget, and made $240 million in other markets surpassing the previous film's overseas total in the second week of release. Grossing a worldwide total of $300 million, Resident Evil: Afterlife became the second highest-grossing entry of the series. Resident Evil: Afterlife was released to DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on December 28, 2010, in the United States. A fifth film, Resident Evil: Retribution, was released in 2012. ## Plot Alice and her clones lead the assault on Umbrella HQ, in Tokyo, slaying the entire branch except for Albert Wesker, who escapes in a tiltrotor plane and detonates a bomb that leaves a massive sinkhole. The real Alice boarded beforehand and attempted to execute Wesker, only for him to inject her with an anti-virus to remove her superhuman abilities. Wesker is revealed to have used the T-virus to gain his own superhuman abilities and prepares to kill Alice before the plane crashes into the mountains. Six months later, Alice travels to Alaska in an airplane, tracking broadcasts from a safe haven called Arcadia; she only finds abandoned planes and is attacked by a feral Claire Redfield. Alice destroys a spider-like device on Claire's chest, giving her amnesia and pacifying her. They travel to the ruins of Los Angeles, where they find survivors living in a prison surrounded by thousands of undead. They meet Luther West, who leads the surviving band from the prison, Wendell, Crystal Waters, Bennett, Kim Yong, and Angel Ortiz. With their help, Alice lands on the prison's roof and learns Arcadia is not a fixed place, but a cargo tanker traveling along the coast. However, the ship has not moved recently and no one from it has responded to the group's rescue flares. Luther takes Alice to the last inmate, Chris, who insists he is falsely imprisoned and will reveal an escape route in exchange for freedom. Alice goes to the showers to wash up but catches Wendell attempting to peep. Holding him at gunpoint, they are attacked by a group of infected that dug into the prison. They take Wendell, but Alice wards off the rest. Desperate, they free Chris, who reveals that Claire is his sister, and the prison has an armored car they can use to escape. However, a giant axe-wielding monster begins breaking down the gate. Alice, Chris, and Crystal go to the basement armory to get more guns, but zombies kill Crystal en route. Luther and Claire reinforce the gate. Angel informs Bennett and Yong the car is missing its engine, and it would take a week to fix. Bennett shoots Angel and heads for Arcadia in Alice's airplane. The Axeman breaks down the gate, allowing the zombies into the prison. The group decides to use the zombie-dug tunnels to escape into the sewers. Yong is slashed in half by the Axeman, while Alice is knocked out. Claire successfully defends Alice and disorients the Axeman, after which Alice kills it by firing at its head. Unfortunately, Luther is dragged into the tunnels by a zombie. Alice and the Redfields board the Arcadia, discovering it functional but abandoned. Claire then remembers Arcadia is an Umbrella trap to get test subjects after her convoy escaped to Alaska. They release the survivors, including K-Mart from Claire's group. Alice follows a trail of blood deeper into the ship, where she finds Wesker. The T-virus revived him, but it battles Wesker for control, something he believes fresh human DNA can pacify; the Umbrella staff fled when he began eating test subjects. Alice's DNA is superior to his since she retained control despite bonding with the virus at a cellular level. Wesker believes eating her will help him regain control of his body. The Redfields fight Wesker while Alice battles Bennett, now working for Wesker. Wesker easily overpowers Chris and Claire, but Alice is able to defeat both Bennett and Wesker with help from K-Mart. They lock Bennett in the room to be devoured by Wesker when he revives. Wesker then escapes in an aircraft, activating a bomb on the Arcadia; the plane explodes instead as Alice places the bomb there beforehand. Unbeknownst to them, Wesker parachutes away from the explosion, while Luther emerges from the sewers, battered but alive. Alice resolves to turn Arcadia into a real haven and broadcasts a new message for any other survivors. As Alice, Claire, and Chris watch over from Arcadia, it is approached by a squadron of Umbrella aircraft. During a mid-credits scene in one of the aircraft, Jill Valentine, who went missing after the destruction of Raccoon City, is dictating the attack wearing the same mind control device used on Claire. ## Cast - Milla Jovovich as Alice and her clones; former Umbrella Corporation security officer turned rogue fighter, who has been captured by Umbrella scientist after escaping The Hive and being experimented upon. Since the T-virus outbreak at Raccoon City which has spread across the entire world, Alice has bonded with the virus on a cellular level, leaving her with powerful superhuman abilities, making her virtually indestructible. - Ali Larter as Claire Redfield; One of Alice's former allies, who leads the surviving convoy of survivors in Nevada desert which is heading with the remaining survivors to a safe haven known as "Arcadia" in Alaska, but later used as a trap, luring the survivors as Umbrella test subjects. She is also the younger sister of Chris. - Wentworth Miller as Chris Redfield; United States military elite soldier and the older brother of Claire, who also joins Alice and Claire in Arcadia, to battle against the infected. - Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker; the Chairman of the Umbrella Corporation who possesses superhuman strength, speed, and regenerative capabilities, similarly to Alice. He is one of her deadliest enemies. - Boris Kodjoe as Luther West; a former professional basketball player who leads the band of the survivors of Los Angeles. - Kim Coates as Bennett Sinclair; a former film producer and one of the survivors of Los Angeles. - Sergio Peris-Mencheta as Angel Ortiz, a survivor in Los Angeles. - Kacey Barnfield as Crystal Waters; a junior champion in swimming in her high school days, she came to Los Angeles to work as an actress and is one of the survivors. - Norman Yeung as Kim Yong; Bennett's former intern before the virus outbreak and also one of the survivors. - Spencer Locke as K-Mart; a young girl named after the department store where she was discovered hiding, and a member of Claire's convoy of survivors in the previous film. - Mika Nakashima as J-Pop Girl; Japan's patient zero, first infected person there. - Ray Olubowale as the Axeman; a monster taken from the game Resident Evil 5 (known as The Executioner). - Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine; former S.T.A.R.S. member & police officer of Raccoon City who helped Alice escape after the city's destruction incident, and also has gone missing ever since. She was captured by Umbrella and brainwashed through a scarab device attached to her chest, and led the assault on Arcadia. ## Production ### Development In May 2005, producers mentioned the possibility of following Extinction with a sequel entitled Afterlife, to be shot and set in Tokyo, Japan and Alaska. Despite Resident Evil: Extinction being billed on the official website and elsewhere as the final installment of the Resident Evil film series; on September 23, 2007, Rory Bruer, Sony's head of distribution explained, "It absolutely would not surprise me considering the success of the franchise that they find a way to come up with another. It's a real possibility." Producer Jeremy Bolt also stated that while there was no intention of making a fourth film, that the third had been particularly well done and that Paul Anderson was talking with Sony about the possibility. In June 2008, Anderson noted that negotiations were underway with Sony for creating the film. In December 2008, Anderson stated that he was working on the script. The following year, it was announced that Sony was aiming to release Resident Evil: Afterlife by August 27, 2010. ### Casting In September 2006, reports indicated that casting for the fourth film had begun, with Jensen Ackles being considered for the role of Leon S. Kennedy. Ali Larter missed seven episodes of filming the television show Heroes in order to appear in the film. Before Wentworth Miller was cast as Chris Redfield, actor Johnny Messner auditioned for the role. Having never played the Resident Evil video games, Miller began preparing for the role by searching the internet for images of Chris Redfield. Much to his surprise, he noticed how muscular the character was; with only three weeks to prep before shooting, he knew it was impossible to increase his muscle mass to that extent. He was shown video footage of the games and saw how he was visually different, especially in the first game. He did cardio to build up endurance. Miller described his interpretation on the character from the video game as: "He's definitely capable and heroic, but there's also something quite innocent. He was still freshly scrubbed, in a way, at the beginning of this horrifying journey." He described his take as the character in the film: "My Chris has been walking down this particular road for quite some time. The edges are sharper, and they're way more jagged." Shawn Roberts was originally going to audition for Chris Redfield before Miller accepted the role. He went to audition for the role of Albert Wesker, a role previously played by Jason O'Mara. Describing the character Roberts said: "[He's the] Chairman of the Umbrella Corporation. He is in a position of power. He pretty much runs the world, and Alice is an annoyance. It's a whole process: I get to set and wardrobe gives me this big, long black jacket, and props comes over and gives me the dark glasses and the gloves. By the time you are all dressed you stand a little straighter, you walk a little differently. He's got everything going for him—he's super fast, super strong, has the ability to regenerate—it's all the elements from the game. That was one thing we all agreed on from the start: this character has to be for the fans." Sienna Guillory reprises her role as Jill Valentine, who was last seen in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. She is featured briefly in a scene shown during the credits, setting up the sequel. ### Cinematography and set design Anderson was shown footage of James Cameron's Avatar, which sold him on the idea to shoot Resident Evil: Afterlife in digital 3D. He shot in high-definition with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, using Cameron's Fusion Camera System, or more specifically a Sony F35 camera. The crew spent two weeks in pre-production learning the 3D camera system. With a budget of about $60 million, principal photography took place for 55 days, from September 29 to December 2009. Filming in 3D added 20% to the budget. Roberts began filming his scenes on October 10, 2009. The final showdown scene was filmed for about six days. During production, Jovovich accidentally shot out a $100,000 camera. For slow motion scenes with bullets and drops of water, twin Phantom high-speed cameras were used which filmed 200 frames per second. A fight scene with Wesker and Chris in the Resident Evil 5 game was recreated shot-by-shot for the film, and the Phantom cameras were used to create Wesker's superhuman speed which took about two days to film. The added size and weight of the 3D cameras meant the filmmakers were not able to use existing equipment such as Steadicam rigs. Instead, the camera operator worked on a Segway to achieve the look of a Steadicam shot. Much of the action scenes were shot in front of a green screen. A 1983 Yak-52 was used throughout the film by Jovovich and Larter. Stunt pilot Martin Mattes was dressed like Jovovich and flew the plane for the camera. The 3D cameras were unable to pick up anything shiny, such as stainless steel, due to a flare. Set decorator Cal Loucks said that most items that looked metal were actually painted silver with special paint to remove its reflective quality. The saturation of colors also had to be changed to accustom the 3D cameras, which are "slow to pick up information". Loucks said: "It's a very restrictive color palette. For example, in this warehouse scene, we saturated the floors in a dark, dark charcoal, and we thought that was enough, but then the cameras showed them as still being too light. So we had to add more and more black. The reason I say it's too light is because we are putting more light onto these sets than we ever have before." ### Filming locations Principal photography was done mostly at Cinespace Film Studios in Toronto, Ontario. Toronto police received hundreds of calls from concerned neighbors after a scene involving a burning plane crashed. For the underwater scenes, cargo shipping containers were cut and welded to make a giant tank on stage. The opening scene was filmed at Cinespace Film Studios. Interior scenes of Umbrella Corporation's subterranean lair were filmed at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. Robarts Library was used to portray exterior shots of a Los Angeles prison, due to its resemblance to a prison, and other scenes were shot at University of Toronto Scarborough. Scenes portraying an Alaskan aircraft boneyard were filmed at Oshawa Airport. A location depicting an Alaskan beach was filmed at Sandbanks Provincial Park. Second unit was sent to Alaska to capture establishing shots of the scenery. ### Visual and special effects Visual effects were done by Rocket Science VFX and Mr. X Inc. Paul Jones served as the special effects creator, who previously designed the Nemesis character in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The production team planned to use extras to portray 300 zombies at once, but time restraints prevented that. Around 150 zombies were eventually used, and Mr. X Inc's visual effects supervisor, Dennis Berardi, added more in post-production. For Alice's clones, they shot motion control photography for multiple passes of Jovovich. For the wide shots, they took digital photo doubles. Visual effects production manager Eric Robertson described the look of the film: "interesting contrasts, pure whites, which is a staggering look. It's so clean and tight along with some real darkness too that may evoke a bit of a feel of Silent Hill. So we've got the extremes, but it's definitely a unique look for this incarnation and it's been fun to see those looks." A burned cityscape with ash and smoke in the sky was created to depict a postapocalyptic Los Angeles, in which most of the film is set. Bolt described this approach as: "In a world that has gone to hell in a handbasket, there's no control and no fire service, so clearly, what's going to happen to LA is it's going to get burned." The infected Dobermans from the games and previous films return, but are more advanced. The dogs wore a costume with prosthetics. Anderson wanted to make the dogs in this film look "absolutely terrible". Computer effects were used to make the dog's jaw flare open, with tentacles coming out of their mouths, similar to the dogs from the fourth and fifth video games. Other creatures borrowed from the fifth video game are the "Majini", who are more intelligent and have mandibles and tentacles coming out of their mouths, and "The Executioner" (named the Axeman in the film). ## Release In August 2009, it was announced that the film would be released on August 27, 2010, but that December it was set back to January 14, 2011. In January 2010, it was announced that the release date was moved to September 10, 2010. Screen Gems paid Constantin Film, Davis Films and Impact Pictures $52 million for the rights to distribute the film in North American and "most key foreign markets". On April 3, 2010, Anderson, Jovovich and Larter attended WonderCon for a Resident Evil: Afterlife, panel answering fan questions. On July 24, 2010, they attended San Diego Comic-Con to promote the film. ### Soundtrack The Resident Evil: Afterlife: Music from the Motion Picture was composed by Tomandandy and released on September 28, 2010, by Milan Records. In addition to the original soundtrack, "The Outsider" (Apocalypse Remix) by alternative rock group A Perfect Circle was used for the marketing of the film, along with a short segment of it being played during the confrontation between Alice and Wesker, as well as playing over the end credits. ### Home media Resident Evil: Afterlife was released to DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on December 28, 2010 in the United States. Special features on the DVD includes a filmmaker commentary and two featurettes. The Blu-ray releases includes the same and also with deleted and extended scenes, additional featurettes and outtakes. An Ultra HD Blu-ray edition was released on January 17, 2017. In 2013, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a two-disc set containing the first four films in the series. It was called The 4 Movie Resident Evil Collection. ## Box office ### United States and Canada Resident Evil: Afterlife opened on approximately 4,700 screens in 3,203 locations, with 2,062 of the locations showing on 3D-equipped screens and 141 in IMAX 3D, ranking as one of the largest 3D releases at the time. In Canada, the film opened in an additional 250 theaters through Alliance Films. The film opened at number one and took in $10.7 million on its opening day and $26.6 million on its opening weekend. By its second weekend, the film had dropped to fourth place, with the newly-released The Town taking its first place spot. It grossed $10 million, a 63% decrease in ticket sales from its opening weekend. It fell to seventh place by its third weekend, grossing $4.9 million and was removed from 567 theaters. On its fourth weekend, Resident Evil: Afterlife moved to eleventh place, with the newly-released Case 39 at number one, while grossing $2.7 million and being dropped from 735 theaters. For the film's fifth weekend, it made $1.2 million, a 54% decrease from the previous weekend, and was removed from an additional 895 theaters. For its sixth, seventh and eight weekends, it had dropped to $347,264, $137,502 and $70,474 respectively, and was playing in 140 theaters by its eight and final weekend. The film left theaters on November 4, 2010, after 56 days of release. ### Other countries On September 15, Resident Evil: Afterlife opened in 30 countries, bumping Inception from first place and grossing $42.3 million from 3,559 screens with 3D screenings accounting for 81% of total earnings, thereby becoming the most successful overseas debut of the entire series. More than one-third of the total came from a $15.5 million three-day launch in Japan. Additionally, the film grossed $6.4 million in Russia, $3.3 million in Spain, $2.95 million in Taiwan and $2.6 million in the UK. By September 19, it had passed Resident Evil: Extinction's $97.1 million overseas total. The following day, it had surpassed Extinction's total of $103.2 million overseas, 148.8 million worldwide, to become the highest-grossing entry of the series. During its second week, the film grossed $40 million, with $5.3 million of it in Germany, $3.2 million in Mexico, $3.1 million in South Korea and $2.9 million in Brazil. Japanese ticket sales grossed $5.1 million, with Russia adding another $4.2 million. By its third weekend, it was still at number one, grossing $24.3 million, with an opening in France adding $3.5 million. Hong Kong added another $768,324. The film remained at \#1 for its fourth weekend, grossing $15.6 million. On its fifth weekend, it grossed $8 million, dropping to fifth place, being replaced by Eat Pray Love at number one. By its eleventh weekend, ticket sales had dropped to $9.1 million gross, with a full $9 million of that coming from its opening in China. Overall, Resident Evil: Afterlife only missed by about $1.5 million the total the three previous films in the series had made combined. ### Worldwide overview The film grossed $60 million in the US and Canada with $240 million in other markets, for a worldwide total of $300 million. In the United States, the high box office gross was attributed to the ticket price inflation of the 3D presentation, but the film had the lowest opening weekend attendance of the film series. On November 23, 2010, Resident Evil: Afterlife became the most successful production in Canadian feature film history, as well as the highest grossing zombie film. It is also the highest-grossing film to be released by Screen Gems. Worldwide, it is the fourth highest-grossing video game film of all-time, behind Warcraft ($433.5 million), The Angry Birds Movie ($347.1 million) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($336.4 million). ## Reception ### Critical response Resident Evil: Afterlife was not screened in advance for critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The site's consensus states: "As dim-witted and lifeless as its undead antagonists, Resident Evil: Afterlife is a wholly unnecessary addition to the franchise." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 37 based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B−" on an A+ to F scale. Michael Ordoña of the Los Angeles Times gave it a positive review, noting the slower cut of the film and saying: "the action is easier to read than in most films of the genre, and therefore more enjoyable. Anderson makes particular use of sets and locations to wring out more bang for the stereoscopic buck". Phelim O'Neill of The Guardian gave the film two stars out of five praising the use of 3D, while stating that the Resident Evil films "always look good and have well-staged action, but they don't have one iota of originality or imagination". Chicago Reader's Andrea Gronvall described the plot as "nearly indiscernible", but did call the film the "sleekest so far, thanks to 3D and star Milla Jovovich's body-hugging catsuit". Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying: "Cannibalizing John Carpenter's Thing and much of the sci-fi-horror canon, Afterlife is more moribund than its thronging undead". David Edwards of the Daily Mirror compared it to Resident Evil: Extinction, stating that the "results are even less impressive, which is saying quite something" and "only fans of the series will care with the film looking suspiciously like a series of barely connected action scenes and unimpressive 3D welded to a who-the-hell-cares? plot". Spill.com critics Korey Coleman and Co-Host 3000 gave the film a "Some Ol' Bullshit", the second lowest rating on the site. They criticized the overuse of slow motion, lack of explanation of certain plot elements and long lapses in between action, but gave the film points for its cinematography, small bits of action, 3D and the special effects of the Axeman. Andrew Barker of Variety compared the film to the previous installment as "equally moribund, and perhaps even more shamelessly derivative". He compared Roberts' Wesker to Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith from The Matrix, calling it a "slipshod impression". A particularly scathing review came from Brian Orndorf of Dark Horizons, who commented: "Perhaps the first 3D motion picture to simulate the experience of watching paint dry, Resident Evil: Afterlife is a dreadful bore that only occasionally comes to life." ### Accolades ## See also - List of films based on video games

How Will I Know

1985 single by Whitney Houston

"How Will I Know" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her self-titled debut studio album. It was released on November 22, 1985, by Arista Records as the album's third single. Written and composed by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, it was originally intended for pop singer Janet Jackson, who passed on it. Houston then recorded the song with altered lyrics and production from Narada Michael Walden. "How Will I Know" received mostly positive reviews from music critics. It became Houston's second number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 in February 1986, spending two weeks atop the chart, and also became her first chart-topper on the Canadian RPM Top 100 Singles chart. It also reached top-10 positions in Australia, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, and top-20 positions in the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland. The accompanying music video for "How Will I Know" features scenes of Houston dancing in a setting of video screens and colored partitions. The music video gave Houston exposure to teenagers via MTV and other video outlets. It received two nominations at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards; Best Female Video and Best New Artist, winning the former category. The song was performed on many of her tours including Greatest Love Tour (1986) and her Nothing But Love World Tour (2009–10). "How Will I Know" is also featured as a remix on Houston's compilation album Whitney: The Greatest Hits (2000), whereas the original single version is featured on The Ultimate Collection (2007) and I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston (2012). ## Background and recording Initially, husband-and-wife songwriters George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam had written the song's demo in 1984 for pop singer Janet Jackson, who was managed by A\&M Records executive John McClain. However, after hearing the song, Jackson's management passed on it, feeling it was not a compatible fit with material already in development for her. In an interview with Fred Bronson, Merrill expressed his feelings after learning of Jackson's decision: "We were pretty upset because we thought it was perfect for her at the time. We had written it with her completely in mind." During this period, Brenda Andrews at Almo-Irving Music, Merrill and Rubicam's publisher, played the song for Gerry Griffith, the director for R\&B music at A\&M and Arista Records. Griffith, who was then compiling material for Houston's debut album, felt the song perfectly matched her musical style. He soon contacted Andrews and the song's two writers and suggested that they give the song to him for Houston's debut album. Griffith described his discovery of the song and what he and Clive Davis thought of it: > "We had a lot of R\&B-based tunes, we had a few ballads, but we didn't have a pop crossover song. So when I heard 'How Will I Know,' I said 'this is absolutely perfect.' I played it for Clive [and] he fell in love with it. I wasn't very familiar with her family background; I didn't realize that, even at that time, there was a pretty big industry buzz about her future." After receiving permission from Merrill to use the song, Griffith quickly turned to Narada Michael Walden, who at the time was producing material for Aretha Franklin's album Who's Zoomin' Who?. Griffith implored him to produce it, describing how important the song would be for Houston's upcoming album. After hearing the demo, Walden agreed to fly to San Rafael, California to arrange it. He was not very impressed with the demo and requested permission to change some of the lyrics and chord progression, inducing Merrill and Rubicam to deny him the right to their song. After a lot of back-and-forth with Griffith, they compromised and allowed Walden to de-construct the song and change the key and tempo. After completing the song, Houston came in to the studio to record her vocal in late 1984. Her mother Cissy Houston joined her on background vocals. Griffith stated: > "I asked Whitney to sing on the background session. She was reluctant because she wanted to enjoy hearing her mother sing. I said, 'No, get out there and sing,' so she did. The background sounded incredible ... Clive Davis heard the mix and immediately gave it a 10, which is outrageous for him, because he doesn't like anything\!" ## Composition "How Will I Know" is a synth-funk and dance-pop song composed in a 1980s dance beat. According to Kyle Anderson of MTV, the song found Houston hitting an "incredible groove". It is written in the key of G flat major. The beat is set the time signature of common time and moves at a fast tempo of 120 beats per minute. The song also has the sequence of G-Bm₇-G/C-D-Em-D as its chord progression. Houston's vocals in the song span from the note of D₄ to the high note of G₅. Lyrically, the song speaks about the lead woman trying to discern whether a man she likes will ever like her back. She is also hesitant, because her friends tell her "love can be deceiving", and she is so shy that she cannot call him. Later, she feels that it might be a dream, but realizes that "there's no mistaking", and that what she feels is really love. ## Critical reception "How Will I Know" mainly garnered positive reviews from music critics, with some noting it as a standout on the album. Don Shewey of Rolling Stone commented "Although it's awfully reminiscent of the Pointer Sisters' 'He's So Shy', 'How Will I Know' is still irresistibly danceable." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote "...what really impresses some 20-plus years on are the lighter tracks, particularly the breakthrough single 'How Will I Know'." While reviewing the Deluxe Anniversary Edition of the album, Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly commented on the a cappella version of the song, noting, "a cappella mix of 'How Will I Know' displays the singer's precision long before the advent of Auto-Tune." While reviewing The Ultimate Collection, Nick Levine of Digital Spy added, "Houston's floor-fillers have aged a little more gracefully, although their clunky, thudding drum sounds are as unmistakably Eighties as Joan Collins' Dynasty wardrobe." Dave Rimmer of Smash Hits considered that "this dreary bit of disco isn't anywhere near as good" as "Saving All My Love for You," adding that it "sounds positively snoozeworthy, in fact." The song was voted number 12 in VH1's List of Greatest Songs of the 1980s. ## Commercial performance "How Will I Know" debuted at number 60 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in the December 7, 1985 issue. Nine weeks later it peaked at number one in the issue dated February 15, 1986, becoming Houston's second number-one single on that chart. It displaced Houston's cousin Dionne Warwick's "That's What Friends Are For," stayed at number one for two weeks, and was displaced by Mr. Mister's "Kyrie." It also debuted on the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart at number 60, and later peaked at number one for one week. In the issue dated January 25, 1986, "How Will I Know" entered the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart at number 30, and later peaked at number three in the February 22, 1986, issue. It also reached number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the single Gold on December 6, 1985, for shipments of 500,000 copies or more, and later Double Platinum, for an equivalent sales of 2,000,000 units. It ranked at number six on the Billboard year-end chart. In Canada, the single debuted at number 80 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in the issue dated December 14, 1985. It later peaked at number one in the week dated March 1, 1986, becoming Houston's first number-one single in Canada. It was later certified Gold by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) on May 1, 1986, for shipments of 200,000 copies or more. The single also performed well in other countries. In the United Kingdom it debuted at number 36 during the week of January 25, 1986, and later peaked at number five. It was also certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). According to MTV UK and Ireland, the single has sold about 280,000 copies in the UK. In New Zealand it debuted at number 35, and peaked at number 19. In Austria it reached a peak position of number 28, while peaking at number 12 in the Netherlands. It also reached number two in Norway and Sweden, while charting at number 11 in Switzerland. According to AllMusic, "How Will I Know" has sold about 1.5 million copies worldwide. In Australia "How Will I Know" was released as the first single from the album in March 1985. It spent a single week on the Kent Music Report chart at number 97 in July 1985, before re-entering the chart in February 1986, eventually peaking at number two. ## Music video The accompanying music video for "How Will I Know", directed by British director Brian Grant and choreographed by Arlene Phillips, was filmed prior to the release of the single and album. Unlike her past music videos, Houston was given the opportunity to move beyond the staged performance settings to demonstrate straightforward dance moves. The video is set against a strikingly designed, vividly colored setting of video screens and partitions. Houston's hair is dyed honey blonde and is worn by a dazzling, colored hairbow. She is also seen underlined by a form-fitting silver dress made of metal mesh, reaching almost to her knees, adorned with matching fingerless gloves. Houston is also seen performing with backup dancers in black outfits and wearing French-style makeup. The video also has a scene of spattering of paint and drizzling down the screen. Houston's labelmate and family friend Aretha Franklin also makes a black-and-white cameo appearance in the otherwise colorful music video. In 2011, Kyle Anderson of MTV wrote that it was "eye-opening to watch her cut loose in a fun environment," since her past songs were ballads. The music video was her first to receive heavy rotation on MTV. It was also nominated for two awards at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, in the categories of Best New Artist and Best Female Video, winning the latter. ## Live performances Houston performed the song on her Greatest Love Tour (1986), Moment of Truth World Tour (1987–88), Feels So Right Japan Tour (1990), I'm Your Baby Tonight World Tour (1991), The Bodyguard World Tour (1993–1994), My Love Is Your Love World Tour (1999) and Nothing But Love World Tour (2009–2010). Apart from the concert tour performances, Houston has performed the song on many other occasions like the third annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1986, where she sang "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All", 13th annual American Music Awards (1986), and 1987 BRIT Awards. The latter performance is included in the 2014 CD/DVD release, Whitney Houston Live: Her Greatest Performances. On May 15, 1987, during her European promotion for then-new album, Whitney, Houston sang the song at the Montreux Golden Rose Rock Festival: IM\&MC Gala with two other 1986 released songs, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go". On April 29, 1985, she appeared on The Merv Griffin Show, taped in New York City, and performed "How Will I Know". On her Moment of Truth World Tour, she participated in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Concert and performed the song with other seven songs. She also performed the song on Welcome Home Heroes, a concert dedicated to the U.S. troops, their families, and military and government dignitaries in honor of those returning from the Gulf War, which aired on HBO on March 31, 1991. The concert was taped and later released as a VHS on May 14, 1991. She also performed the song on The Concert for a New South Africa, three concerts in 1994 to honor President Nelson Mandela. Houston later performed the song on the closing ceremonies of the 1994 World Cup along with five of her other songs. In 2000, she performed the song on Arista's 25th Anniversary, along with "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)." ## Formats and track listings - US 7" vinyl single - A: "How Will I Know" (edit) – 4:10 B: "Someone for Me" – 4:57 - German 12" vinyl single - A: "How Will I Know" (dance remix) – 6:35 B1: "How Will I Know" (instrumental version) – 4:42 B2: "How Will I Know" (LP version) – 4:28 - German 12" vinyl single - A: "How Will I Know" (dance mix) – 6:10 B1: "Saving All My Love for You" – 3:55 B2: "How Will I Know" (dub mix) – 5:36 - Japan CD single/3" 1. "How Will I Know" – 4:34 2. "Someone for Me" – 5:00 ## Credits and personnel - "How Will I Know" - George Merrill – writer - Shannon Rubicam – writer - Narada Michael Walden – writer, vocal producer - Whitney Houston – lead vocals - Mary Canty – background vocals - Preston Glass – synthesizer - Cissy Houston – background vocals - Randy Jackson – bass - Yvonne Lewis – keyboards - Corrado Rustici – guitar - Premik Russell Tubbs – saxophone - Bill Schnee – mixer, Firewire synth trumpet, drums - Michael Barbiero – engineer - "Someone for Me" - Freddie Washington – writer - Raymond Jones – writer - Jermaine Jackson – producer - Whitney Houston – lead vocals - John Barnes – keyboards - Nathan East – bass - Ed Greene – drums - Paul Jackson, Jr. – guitar - Tim May – guitar - Greg Phillinganes – synthesizer - John "J.R." Robinson – drums - Steve Rucker – drums - Freddie Washington – bass - Bill Schnee – mixer ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts ## Certifications ## Sam Smith version British singer Sam Smith released a cover of "How Will I Know" in June 2014, taking a slower tempo and a snippet of that version was used in an episode of Grey's Anatomy. It was later included on Smith's 2015 In the Lonely Hour (Drowning Shadows Edition), a re-release of their debut album. ### Certifications ## David Guetta, MistaJam and John Newman version In 2021, French DJ and producer David Guetta teamed up with British DJ and producer MistaJam and singer John Newman to release a dance track based on an interpolation of "How Will I Know". Now called "If You Really Love Me (How Will I Know)", the song charted in the UK, reaching No. 66 in the Top 75 (for the week ending August 5, 2021) after amassing a sales total of 7,018 units. The song became the fourth entry on that week's chart for Guetta (though the only single out of the four chart hits where he took lead artist credit) and the first chart credit for Newman since "Give Me Your Love" with British DJ and record producer Sigala and American guitarist Nile Rodgers in 2016. ### Charts #### Weekly charts #### Year-end charts ### Certifications ## Whitney × Clean Bandit version In September 2021, British electronic music group Clean Bandit released a remix of the track. ### Charts #### Weekly charts ### Certifications ## Other covers and samples In January 2004, British dance group LMC and Irish rock band U2 released the song "Take Me to the Clouds Above", which interpolates the first four lines of "How Will I Know". ## See also - List of RPM number-one singles of 1986 - List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1986 (U.S.) - List of number-one R\&B singles of 1986 (U.S.) - List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1986 (U.S.)

Battle of Ollantaytambo

Battle in the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire

The Battle of Ollantaytambo (, ) took place in January 1537, between the forces of Inca emperor Manco Inca and a Spanish expedition led by Hernando Pizarro during the Spanish conquest of Peru. A former ally of the Spaniards, Manco Inca rebelled in May 1536, and besieged a Spanish garrison in the city of Cusco. To end the stand-off, the besieged mounted a raid against the emperor's headquarters in the town of Ollantaytambo. The expedition, commanded by Hernando Pizarro, included 100 Spaniards and some 30,000 Indian auxiliaries against an Inca army more than 30,000 strong. There is some controversy over the actual location of the battle; according to some, it took place in the town itself, while Jean-Pierre Protzen and John Hemming argue that the nearby plain of Mascabamba better matches the descriptions of the encounter. In any case, the Inca army managed to hold the Spanish forces from a set of high terraces and flood their position to hinder their cavalry. Severely pressed and unable to advance, the Spaniards withdrew by night to Cusco. Despite this victory, the arrival of Spanish reinforcements to Cusco forced Manco Inca to abandon Ollantaytambo and seek refuge in the heavily forested region of Vilcabamba, where he established the small independent Neo-Inca State which survived until 1572. ## Prelude In 1531, a group of Spaniards led by Francisco Pizarro landed on the shores of the Inca Empire, thus starting the Spanish conquest of Peru. At that time the empire was emerging from a civil war in which Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huascar to claim the title of Sapa Inca. Atahualpa underestimated the strength of the small force of Spaniards and was captured during an ambush at Cajamarca in November 1532. Pizarro ordered the execution of the emperor in July 1533, and occupied the Inca capital of Cusco four months later. To replace Atahualpa, Pizarro installed his brother Túpac Huallpa as a puppet ruler, but he died shortly afterwards. Another brother, Manco Inca, was crowned in his place. During this stage, Atahualpa's generals were the only opposition to the Spanish advance as a sizable part of the empire's population had fought on Huascar's side during the civil war and joined Pizarro against their enemies. For a while, Manco Inca and the conquistadors maintained cordial relations, together they defeated Atahualpa's generals and reestablished Inca rule over most of the empire. However, Manco came to realize that real authority rested in Spanish hands when his house was looted with impunity by a Spaniard mob in 1535. Following this episode, the Inca emperor was subject to constant harassment as the Spaniards demanded gold, took away his wives, and even imprisoned him. In response, he fled his capital to start an uprising. In May 1536, an Inca army besieged Cusco, which was garrisoned by a group of Spaniards and native allies. The conquistadors were hard pressed but they managed to resist and counterattack, storming the main Inca stronghold at Sacsayhuaman. Meanwhile, Manco's generals occupied the central highlands of Peru and annihilated several expeditions sent to reinforce Cusco but failed in their attempt to take the recently founded Spanish capital of Lima. As a result of these events, neither side was able to break the deadlock at Cusco for several months, so the Spaniard garrison decided to make a direct attack on Manco's headquarters at the town of Ollantaytambo, 70 kilometers (43 mi) northwest of the city. ## Order of battle Manco Inca had gathered more than 30,000 troops at Ollantaytambo, among them, a large number of recruits from tribes of the Amazon Rainforest. Manco Inca's forces were a militia army made up mostly of conscripted farmers with only rudimentary weapons training. This was the regular fare in the Inca Empire, where military service was a duty for all married men between 25 and 50 years old. In combat, these soldiers were organized according to their ethnic group and led into battle by their native leaders, called kurakas. They used melee weapons such as maces, clubs, and spears, as well as ranged weapons such as arrows, javelins, and slings; protective gear included helmets, shields, and quilted cloth armor. Against the conquistadors, wooden clubs and maces with stone or bronze heads were rarely able to penetrate Spanish armor; slings and other missile throwing weapons were somewhat more effective due to their accuracy and the large size of their projectiles. Even so, Inca soldiers were no match for the Spanish cavalry in open terrain so they resorted to fighting on rough terrain and digging pits in open fields to hinder the mobility of horses. The attack was led by Hernando Pizarro, the senior Spanish commander in Cusco, with a force of 100 Spaniards (30 infantry, 70 cavalry) and an estimated 30,000 native allies. One of his main assets against the Inca armies was the Spanish cavalry because horses provided a considerable advantage in hitting power, maneuverability, speed, and stamina over Inca warriors. All Spaniards wore some kind of armor, the most commonly used types were chain mail shirts and padded cloth armor which were lighter and cheaper than full armor suits; they were complemented by steel helmets and small iron or wooden shields. The main Spanish offensive weapon was the steel sword, which horsemen supplemented with the lance; both weapons could easily penetrate the padded armor worn by Inca troops. Firearms, such as arquebuses were rarely used during the Spanish conquest of Peru because they were scarce, hard to use, and despised by horsemen as an ungentlemanly weapon. Spaniards relied heavily on Indian auxiliaries because they provided thousands of warriors as well as support personnel and supplies. These native troops had the same sorts of arms and armor as their Inca counterparts. During the Ollantaytambo campaign, the Pizarro expedition included thousands of auxiliaries, mainly Cañaris, Chachapoyas, and Wankas, as well as several members of the Inca nobility opposed to Manco Inca. ## Battle The main access route to Ollantaytambo runs along a narrow valley formed in the mountains by the Urubamba River, which connects the site with Machu Picchu to the west and with Pisaq and Cusco to the east. After his uprising, Manco Inca fortified the eastern approaches to fend off attacks from the former Inca capital, now under Spanish occupation. The first line of defense was a steep bank of terraces at Pachar, near the confluence of the Anta and Urubamba rivers. Behind it, the Incas channeled the Urubamba to make it cross the valley from right to left and back thus forming two more lines backed by the fortifications of Choqana on the left bank and 'Inkapintay on the right bank. Past them, at the plain of Mascabamba, eleven high terraces closed the valley between the mountains and a deep canyon formed by the Urubamba. The only way to continue was through the gate of T'iyupunku, a thick defensive wall with two narrow doorways. In the event of these fortifications being overrun, the Temple Hill, a religious center surrounded by high terraces overlooking Ollantaytambo, provided a last line of defense. Faced with these constraints, the Spanish expedition had to cross the river several times and fight at each ford against stiff opposition. The bulk of the Inca army confronted the Spaniards from a set of terraces overlooking a plain by the Urubamba River. Several Spanish assaults against the terraces failed against a shower of arrows, slingshots, and boulders coming down from the terraces as well as from both flanks. To hinder the efforts of the Spanish cavalry, the Incas flooded the plain using previously prepared channels; water eventually reached the horses' girths. The defenders then counterattacked; some of them used Spanish weapons captured in previous encounters such as swords, bucklers, armor, and even a horse, ridden by Manco Inca himself. In a severely compromised situation, Hernando Pizarro ordered a retreat; under the cover of darkness the Spanish force fled through the Urubamba valley with the Incas in pursuit and reached Cusco the next day. ## Battle site The actual location of the battle is the subject of some controversy. According to Canadian explorer John Hemming, Spanish forces occupied a plain between Ollantaytambo and the Urubamba River while the main Inca army was located on a citadel (the Temple Hill) overlooking the town, protected by seventeen terraces. However, Swiss architect Jean-Pierre Protzen argues that the topography of the town and its surrounding area does not match contemporary descriptions of the battle. An anonymous account, attributed to Diego de Silva, claims that the Inca army occupied a set of eleven terraces, not seventeen; while the chronicle of Pedro Pizarro describes a gate flanked by walls as the only way through the terraces. Protzen thinks that these descriptions allude to a set of eleven terraces that close the plain of Mascabamba, near Ollantaytambo, which include the heavily fortified gate of T'iyupunku. At this location, when the Spaniards faced the terraces they would have had the Urubamba River to their left and the steep hill of Cerro Pinkuylluna to their right, matching the three sides from which they were attacked during the battle. If Protzen's hypothesis is correct, the river diverted to flood the battlefield was the Urubamba, and not its smaller affluent, the Patakancha, which runs alongside the town of Ollantaytambo. ## Aftermath The success at Ollantaytambo encouraged Manco Inca to make a renewed attempt against Cusco. However, the Spaniards discovered the Inca army concentrating near the city and mounted a night attack, which inflicted heavy casualties. On April 18, 1537, a Spanish army led by Diego de Almagro returned from a long expedition to Chile and occupied Cusco. Almagro imprisoned Hernando Pizarro and his brother Gonzalo because he wanted the city for himself; most Spanish troops and their auxiliaries joined his side. He had previously tried to negotiate a settlement with Manco Inca but his efforts failed when both armies clashed at Calca, near Cusco. With the Spaniards' position consolidated by Almagro's reinforcements, Manco Inca decided that Ollantaytambo was too close to Cusco to be tenable so he withdrew further west to the town of Vitcos. Almagro sent his lieutenant Rodrigo Orgóñez in pursuit with 300 Spaniards and numerous Indian auxiliaries. In July 1537, Orgoñez occupied and sacked Vitcos, taking many prisoners, but Manco managed to escape. He took refuge at Vilcabamba, a remote location where the Neo-Inca State was established and lasted until the capture and execution of Túpac Amaru, its last emperor, in 1572. ## See also - List of battles won by Indigenous peoples of the Americas - Encomienda - History of Peru - Inter caetera - Spanish colonization of the Americas

Holzwarth gas turbine

Early type of gas turbine engine

The Holzwarth gas turbine is a form of explosion, or constant volume, gas turbine where an air–fuel mixture is admitted, ignited and then exhausted from combustion chambers controlled by valves. The Holzwarth gas turbine is named after its developer Hans Holzwarth (1877–1953) who designed several prototype engines used for testing and experimental service in Germany and Switzerland between 1908 and 1943. Early efforts to build practical gas turbines struggled with the low efficiency of contemporary turbo compressors as these consumed almost all of the energy supplied by the turbine. In a Holzwarth gas turbine, high compressor efficiency is not needed since almost all the pressure rise takes place in sealed combustion chambers. The drawback of this approach is the high heat losses to the surrounding water jacket and correspondingly low cycle efficiency. The last and largest Holzwarth gas turbine was a 5,000-kilowatt (6,705 hp) unit supplied to the Thyssen steelworks in Hamborn during 1938. The turbine was run experimentally until 1943 when it was damaged during an air raid. The machine was not repaired, and no further Holzwarth gas turbines were built. ## Design and development After completing his studies in mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart, Hans Holzwarth spent a short period of time working for the manufacturing company MAN before joining Hooven-Owens-Rentschler in the United States where he worked on the design of steam turbines. It was in 1903, while he was an employee of Hooven-Owens-Rentschler, that Holzwarth first patented his design for an explosion, or constant volume, gas turbine. Holzwarth went on to dedicate his career to the development of the explosion gas turbine and was granted nearly 200 patents, the last being published posthumously in 1957. Between 1906 and 1908, Holzwarth built a small demonstration machine at the Körting Brother's workshop in Hanover. This first machine is now on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. In modern constant pressure gas turbines, a compressor is needed to deliver pressurized air to the combustion chamber while also being efficient enough not to drain too much of the turbine's power. The relatively poor efficiency of early centrifugal compressors made building a commercially viable constant pressure gas turbine impractical. In Holzwarth's constant volume design, combustion takes place in a closed chamber where the air–fuel mixture is ignited electrically in a manner similar to the Otto cycle in spark-ignition engines. Since the pressure rise is driven primarily by the explosive expansion of gasses in the combustion chamber, an efficient compressor is not needed. Holzwarth's design attracted the attention of Brown, Boveri & Cie. who had collaborated on the 1906 Armengaud-Lemale gas turbine which had been unable to generate usable power in part due to poor compressor efficiency. From 1909, Holzwarth worked with Brown, Boveri & Cie to build a market-ready 1,000-horsepower (746 kW) gas turbine however output and efficiency were below expectations and Brown, Boveri & Cie withdrew from the project in 1912. Holzwarth continued to work on his design while he was employed as chief engineer for gas turbines at Thyssen. In 1923, a prototype machine was delivered to the Prussian state railway where it was used to drive a 350-kilowatt (469 hp) generator for several years. During this period tests were carried out using coal dust fuel which was found to burn acceptably in the combustion chamber but produced exhaust particles which damaged turbine blades. In 1927, Hans Holzwarth left Thyssen & Co and founded his own company, Holzwarth Gasturbinen GmbH. In 1927, Aurel Stodola tested a 500-kilowatt (671 hp) oil-fired Holzwarth gas turbine and found that only 8% of the fuel's energy was transformed into mechanical energy with most of the remaining energy being lost to the cooling water jacket. Brown, Boveri & Cie's engineers recognized that the heat lost to the cooling water could be used to drive a steam turbine. This led to the development of the commercially-successful Velox boilers, which in turn led to the development of the first modern industrial gas turbines. In 1928, Holzwarth once again collaborated with Brown, Boveri & Cie to build a version of his gas turbine with two sets of combustion chambers connected in series. These two-stage machines used a compressor driven by a steam turbine which was fed from the evaporation of water from the cooling water jacket. In 1933, a two-stage machine driving a 2,000-kilowatt (2,682 hp) generator was installed at the Thyssen steelworks in Hamborn where it was initially operated with fuel oil and later with blast furnace gas. The last Holzwarth gas turbine was an experimental 5,000-kilowatt (6,705 hp) machine built by Brown, Boveri & Cie's Mannheim factory in 1938 for the Hamborn steelworks. Fuel for combustion was blast-furnace gas compressed to about 6 bar (87 psi). The gas turbine had hydraulically operated valves working at 60–100 cycles per minute. The unit was only infrequently run and was not part of the steelwork's regular equipment. In 1943, the gas turbine was damaged during an Allied bombing raid after which no further test runs were made. After World War II ended, interest in the Holzwarth design declined and no further units were built. ## Operation The combustion chamber (A) is filled intermittently with an air–fuel mixture supplied by the gas chamber (C) and the air chamber (B). The air–fuel mixture is ignited by a spark after which the explosion of the mixture causes an increase in pressure throwing open the nozzle valve (F), allowing the compressed gases to flow through the nozzle (G) to the turbine wheel (H) on which the work is to be performed. While passing through the nozzle, the gases are expanded to the pressure of the exhaust (J). The nozzle valve (F) is kept open by fresh air throughout the expansion and subsequent scavenging and cooling. When the expansion has been completed, the air is blown, or drawn, in at a slight pressure through the valve (D). This scavenging air throws any residual gases left in the combustion chamber through the nozzle, into the exhaust, after which the nozzle valve and the air valve (D) are positively closed. At this point the combustion chamber (A) is filled with pure, relatively cold air, into which the pure fuel (gas or atomized oil) is blown through the valve (E), thus forming the explosive air–fuel mixture which is ignited by a spark. In order to make the impulses imparted to the turbine wheel more uniform, several combustion chambers working alternately are arranged in a circle around the turbine wheel (H). In early Holzwarth machines, gas and air were supplied at a relatively low pressure around 0.1–1 bar (1–15 psi) in later models a gas compressor was used to supply fuel at pressures up to 6 bar (87 psi). The gas compressor was driven by a steam turbine fed from the evaporation of water from the gas turbine cooling jacket which required the addition of a surface condenser package. The two Holzwarth gas turbines built by Brown, Boveri & Cie after 1928 used two stages of combustion chambers and a "two stoke" version of the cycle where gas admission and exhaust took place simultaneously. The first stage comprised the final charging of the combustion chamber, the explosion, the delivery of heat and energy in the steam generator and gas turbine. The second stage comprised the scavenging and the pre-charging. The residual exhaust gases escaped through an economizer to the atmosphere. ## Surviving example This first prototype Holzwarth gas turbine is on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

2016 Tour of the Basque Country

The 2016 Tour of the Basque Country (, ) 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

Rim Tim Tagi Dim

2024 song by Baby Lasagna

"Rim Tim Tagi Dim" is a song written and performed by Croatian musician Marko Purišić, better known as Baby Lasagna. It was released on 12 January 2024 through Virgin Music Group as the third single from Baby Lasagna's upcoming debut solo album, Demons and Mosquitoes. Self-described as a humorous song about the economic emigration of young Croatians, it represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, where it finished runner-up with 547 points. The result marked Croatia's best ever finish in the competition. The song was met with widespread praise in both Croatian and international outlets, drawing praise for its musical style, its message, and for how the message of the song was presented. The performance of "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" was also well-received, earning praise from past Croatian Eurovision representatives. As a result, the song became a favourite to win the contest. "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" enjoyed commercial success, peaking at number one in its native country of Croatia, and peaking within the top ten in an additional five other countries. It also received numerous accolades, including a Marcel Bezençon Award and an OGAE Poll victory. ## Background and composition "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" was written and composed solely by Marko Purišić. According to him, the song was written by himself in his bedroom, and was inspired by an opportunity he had to take a job on a cruise ship that he refused. It was originally meant to be a filler song for his future debut album, Demons and Mosquitoes, but realized the potential of the song after it surged in streams and later decided to enter the song into Dora 2024. The song was officially announced as a reserve song for Croatia's national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, Dora 2024, on 2 January 2024 to serve as a backup if any entry in the main lineup withdrew, which happened the following day. In numerous interviews, he stated that the song was inspired by a mass exodus of young adults leaving Croatia for better opportunities in foreign countries. To Purišić, the song is a "humorous and light hearted approach" to the issue. The song itself tells a story of a young, rural man who leaves his village for a better life in a foreign country; although excited, he is still wracked by anxiety over moving. Purišić was also inspired by his own anxiety. In the song lyrics, 'rim tim tagi dim' serves as the name of a fictional folk dance of the narrator's native village. Sonically, "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" merges elements of techno, heavy metal, pop and trap; Matilda Källén of Dagens Nyheter described it as "some kind of pop punk with elements of techno and metal". It is based on a sample taken from the Sounds of KSHMR Vol. 2 Splice pack. ## Critical reception ### Croatian media "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" has been largely well received. When Večernji list's Hrvoje Horvat dubbed the song the worst one at Dora and compared it to the works of Dead or Alive, the comment was condemned by Index.hr writer Josip Bošnjak. The song was also compared to Käärijä's "Cha Cha Cha" and Pain's "Party in My Head"; in response, Purišić expressed admiration for the former artist. Käärijä himself later praised the song, dubbing it "crazy". Writing for Index.hr, Martina Radoš called on Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) to fire those who placed Purišić among the reserves. In an article for the same publication, Bošnjak wrote: "It's an unusual musical oxymoron. Sad everyday life in a cheerful Istrian tone." The song was praised by Croatian artists Matko Jelavić, Zorica Kondža, and Zdenka Kovačiček, along with journalist Vedrana Rudan. ### Eurovision-related and other media In reactions by Wiwibloggs' William Lee Adams and Cinan, the two praised the song for its composition and lyrics. Adams stated in response to the song's composition, "nothing here feels sort of forced, cheesy, or generic; it feels sincere... this is quality. It just feels like a sincere rock song." Markus Larsson of Aftonbladet described the song as a "hard-to-digest but effective mix of Rammstein and Sean Banan" and pointed out its likely victory at Eurovision. Hanna Fahl of Dagens Nyheter evoked some of Larsson's sentiment, writing: "A schlagerfied Rammstein for cat lovers and anxiety sufferers – it's both lovable and troll-friendly in all its simple silliness." NPR'''s Glen Weldon acknowledged the song as a favourite to win the competition, praising the combination of the song's message and musical style, calling it a "narrative turducken". Roisin O'Connor from The Independent included the song on their list of ten potential favourites to win the contest, writing, "the staging for this is also nuts... Perfect Eurovision fodder, and very entertaining\!" In a Wiwibloggs review containing several reviews from several critics, the song was rated 8.5 out of 10 points, earning second out of the 37 songs competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 on the site's annual ranking. Another review conducted by ESC Bubble that contained reviews from a combination of readers and juries rated the song first out of the 15 songs "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" was competing against in its the Eurovision semi-final. Jon O'Brien of Vulture ranked the song as 12th overall, dubbing it "essentially a piece of socioeconomic commentary". He credited its "infectious rhythmic verses and slightly deranged leap from Balkan techno to headbanging emo" for Purišić's status of a Eurovision favourite. ESC Beat's Doron Lahav also ranked the song 12th overall, stating that while he believed the song would be remembered by listeners, he acknowledged Purišić's inconsistant live vocals during performances. The Scotsman writer Erin Adam gave the song a heavily positive review, rating the song 10 points out of 10 and stating that the song was her personal winner. ### Betting odds Shortly after "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" won Dora 2024, the song was listed on 29 February 2024 as the overall favourite to win the competition, at 4.82-to-1 odds. By 10 March, although Purišić still remained the favourite, his odds had slightly decreased. 12 days later, his odds decreased to the lowest a Croatian entry had ever been placed. After Pre-Party ES, on 1 April, the song fell to second place in the betting odds, falling behind 's Nemo and their song, "The Code". After rehearsals, the song still remained in second place. However, after the semi-finals, the song was listed once again as the overall favourite to win the contest. ## Music video and promotion An accompanying music video for the song was released on 20 February 2024. The video was directed by Purišić's partner, Elizabeta Ružić, and filmed in her native Kaštelir-Labinci. According to a Jutarnji list review, the music video features a rural man, surrounded by fellow rural residents and farm animals, emigrating out of Croatia in search of a better life. In the video, the rural man displays that, while excited to move out of his rural lifestyle, he is still overtaken by anxiety and fear. ### Promotion The song's victory at Dora sparked a TikTok trend that saw users recreating a part of the choreography. Those who took part in the trend include Croatian members of the European Parliament Valter Flego, Biljana Borzan and Predrag Matić; Jasenka Auguštan-Pentek, the mayor of Zlatar, and Nathalie Rayes, the U.S. Ambassador to Croatia. On 9 March 2024, Purišić visited the International Cat Show, organized in Zagreb by the Association of Croatian Felinological Societies (SFDH) as a result of one of the song's lyrics about a cat meowing gaining popularity. On 22 March, Purišić performed the song at the 30th Večernjak's Rose Awards. To further promote the song, Purišić announced his participation in various Eurovision pre-parties, including Amsterdam's Eurovision in Concert, Madrid's Pre-Party ES, and the London Eurovision Party. During his visit to the Netherlands, Purišić also performed the song on Beau, a Dutch talk-show series, on 12 April. On 21 April, Purišić performed the song on the Slovenian TV show Nedeljsko popoldne. On 8 April, HRT invited fans across the country to a public dance event where they would get filmed dancing to the song in order to show support to Purišić. The event, which was taped by HRT for television and social media, took place on 13 April in five Croatian cities: Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Zadar and Umag. Nearly 150 dancers choreographed their performance for the filming in Umag, with Luana Kličić and Sebastijan Žeželić, Purišić's backup dancers for Malmö, joining the event as well. On the same day, HRT published photos and videos of the fans dancing, which also aired on Dnevnik, HRT's central news program. On 16 April, HRT released a music video titled "Hrvatska pleše 'Rim Tim Tagi Dim'" (transl. Croatia Dancing to "Rim Tim Tagi Dim"). The video compiled the footage of fans dancing at the five events, as well as several other recordings submitted to HRT by the fans, among which were videos made by the employees of Croatian Post, members of Zagreb's Croatian National Theatre and its Ballet Department, Zagreb's Fire Department, Croatia's Ministry of the Interior and its Police Academy members, and several tourist boards across Croatia. ## Eurovision Song Contest ### Dora 2024 HRT, Croatia's broadcaster, organized a 24-entry competition, Dora 2024, to select Croatia's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. The competition consisted of two 12-song semi-finals that culminated into a grand final, with eight songs qualifying from each semi-final. In the final, the winner was selected from a 50/50 combination of votes from the public and a jury that consisted from international and local Croatian juries. Purišić was announced on 2 January as a reserve entry in the case of anyone in the main lineup's withdrawal. The following day, Zsa Zsa withdrew from the competition, with Purišić taking her spot. It was drawn to perform seventh in the second semi-final, which took place on 23 February. The performance was choreographed by Luana Kličić and Sebastijan Žeželić, who also took part in it as backing dancers, as well as Purišić's brother Martin who played the drums. It featured Croatian folk elements such as lace, headscarfs, and a washboard, with Purišić wearing a Valentina Pliško-designed costume consisting of a black leather vest, a shirt made of silver rings, faded black jeans with a pink twine, and white baggy sleeves inspired by the Croatian traditional clothing. The sleeves were compared to those worn by Käärijä at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The performance also featured a suitcase, symbolizing emigration, and neon farm animals on the LED backdrop. The song managed to qualify for the grand final, and was later drawn to perform 14th. Purišić performed a repeat of his semi-final performance. Upon the announcement of the voting results in the grand final on 25 February, the song was revealed to have won the competition, winning both the jury and televote with a combined total of 321 points, 239 more than Vinko Ćemeraš' "Lying Eyes", the runner-up. He also won 247 points from televote, 220 more than Alen Đuras' "A Tamburitza Lullaby", the televote runner-up; all other entries earned 218 points from televote combined. As a result, the song won the right to represent Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. ### At Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place at the Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 7 and 9 May and the final on 11 May 2024. During the allocation draw on 30 January 2024, Croatia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final, performing in the first half of the show. He was later drawn to perform seventh in the semi-final, after 's Luna and before 's Hera Björk. Purišić's performance at Eurovision featured certain modifications compared to the one from Dora: Pliško created new costumes more heavily inspired by the traditional clothing, as well as masks for the dancers inspired by Istrian čentrini. Martin Purišić was replaced by Matija Klaj on the drums. Purišić's costume consisted of white shirt and trousers made of lace, as well as a red vest with golden and silver details. The outfit was rounded off with a choker, black boots and a tousled hairdo. The performance also featured a backdrop of dancing LED cats. At the end of his semi-final performance, Purišić winked at the audience and meowed, which Zadovoljna.hr interpreted as a reference to his one-eyed cat Stipe. The performance drew positive reactions from previous Croatian Eurovision participants, including the Jacques Houdek and the Let 3. "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" won the semi-final, scoring 177 points and securing a position in the grand final. Purišić performed a repeat of his performance in the grand final on 11 May. The song was performed 23rd, ahead of 's Raiven and before 's Nutsa Buzaladze. After the results were announced, he finished second with 547 points, with a split score of 210 points from the juries and 337 points from public televoting. Regarding the former, the song received two sets of the maximum 12 points from and . It also managed to receive nine additional sets of 12 points from the public televote, winning the televote in the process. The result was Croatia's highest ever finish in the contest. In response to his finish, Purišić expressed contentment, stating that he was "surprised how happy I am... We didn't fake anything, everything was done exactly as we imagined, as it should have been." ### Aftermath On 12 May, the day after the final, Purišić arrived from Malmö to Zagreb, where he was welcomed by a crowd of fans and his parents at the Zagreb Airport. He was then taken to the Ban Jelačić Square by a panoramic bus. At the square, he was welcomed by thousands of fans, to whom he expressed his gratitude and broke down in tears. He then performed "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" two times in a row. Prior to his arrival, the crowd at the square was entertained by performances from Emilija Kokić (), Tajči () and Let 3 (Croatia 2023). Those who welcomed Purišić at the square also included the Mayor of Zagreb Tomislav Tomašević and the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. On 16 May, Plenković revealed that the Government would reward Purišić with €50,000 for his success; Purišić, however, refused to accept the money and asked that €25,000 each be donated to two hospitals that he himself had chosen. On 19 May, Purišić was announced as the winner of the You're a Vision Award. Purišić's success at Eurovision became a cultural phenomenon in Croatia. He was shown support by RTL Vijesti, the Croatian National Tourist Board, Croatia Airlines and the Croatian Football Federation. In an op-ed for Agroklub, Leticija Hrenković wondered if "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" could change the attitude of the average Croatian towards the rural. Večernji list's Ana Hajduk and Gloria's Ana Strizić credited Purišić for restoring the popularity of lace. ## Commercial performance Prior to Dora, "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" debuted at number 24 on the HR Top 40 issue dated 14 January 2024, before peaking at number four the following week. Following its triumph at Dora, it reached the new peak of number one on the chart issue dated 3 March 2024. It also debuted at number two on Billboard's Croatia Songs chart issue dated 9 March 2024, behind "Fantazija" by Grše and Miach. On the chart issue dated 25 May 2024, it ended "Fantazija"'s 15-week reign and reached the chart summit. On the UK Singles Chart issue dated 17 May 2024, "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" debuted at number 36. The achievement made Purišić only the second Croatian artist to appear on the chart, after Ivo Robić who peaked at number 23 with "Morgen" (1959). Other territories where the song reached top 40 include Austria, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland. Globally, the song debuted at 139 and 64 on Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. US chart issues dated 25 May 2024, respectively. ## Cover versions On 26 February, a day after the Dora final, Vatrogasci released their Croatian-language parody cover of "Rim Tim Tagi Dim", titled "Rim Tu Tiki Tiki". On 5 May, the weekend before the Eurovision week, Croatian actress Marija Kolb impersonated Purišić's Dora performance in the tenth episode of the eighth season of Tvoje lice zvuči poznato'', winning the episode. Her performance was endorsed by Purišić. ## Awards and nominations ## Charts ## Release history

Ten Nights in a Bar Room (1910 film)

1910 film

Ten Nights in a Bar Room is a 1910 American silent short drama produced by the Thanhouser Company. Adapted from the novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There by Timothy Shay Arthur, the production focuses on Joe Morgan after he has become a hopeless drunkard. Often Morgan's young daughter, Mary, comes to beg her father to return home. One day, she appears during a fight between the two men and is fatally struck by a bottle thrown by the saloon-keeper. Before Mary dies she asks her father to promise to swear off alcohol and he accepts. He is reformed and becomes successful, while the saloon-keeper is killed in a fight in an irony of fate. The film was released on November 4, 1910 and met with mixed reviews. The film is presumed lost. ## Plot The work was an adaptation of Timothy Shay Arthur's novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There. The Moving Picture World synopsis states: "Despite the fact that he is a loving husband and father, Joe Morgan ruins his life by his fondness for drink and finally becomes a seemingly hopeless drunkard. He spends his time and money in the saloon kept by Slade, the man who took away Joe's mill and largely caused his financial ruin. Slade's saloon, when he first opened it, was well furnished, the landlord courteous and well groomed, and the customers happy and seemingly unaffected by their surroundings. But as time passed, a change for the worse was noted in everything. Probably this escaped Joe's notice, for a sharp shot, indeed, was needed to reform him. That shock came. Joe's only daughter, Mary, was in the habit of going to the saloon and piteously urging her father to come home. She knew that no matter how intoxicated he might be, he would never harm her. But one evening when she appeared her father and Slade had been quarreling, and the saloonkeeper threw a bottle at Morgan, who dodged. The missile struck the child, entering. The blow resulted fatally, but before Mary died, she extracted a promise from her grief-stricken father that he would never drink again, a promise which he ever-afterward kept. In later years Joe became wealthy and respected, and influenced by the thought of his daughter in heaven he kept in the straight and narrow path. The saloon keeper who killed Mary was never punished by the law - but through the irony of fate his taking off was much like that of Joe Morgan's helpless child." ## Cast - Frank H. Crane as Joe Morgan - Marie Eline as Little Mary ## Production The production was based on Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There by Timothy Shay Arthur. The plot focused on the dangers of alcoholism and the downfall of those taken in by its effects. In the 1850s, sales of the novel were second only to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. The production was adapted for the stage in 1858 and while it did not perform well on Broadway, it proved to be a lasting success. Dozens of productions would cross the United States for the next sixty years and the play proved to be a major influence on the Temperance movement, resulting in the passage of temperance laws. It is likely that the writer of the scenario was Lloyd Lonergan. The film director is unknown, but it may have been Barry O'Neil or Lucius J. Henderson. Cameramen employed by the company during this era included Blair Smith, Carl Louis Gregory, and Alfred H. Moses, Jr. though none are specifically credited. The role of the cameraman was uncredited in 1910 productions. Only the roles of Frank H. Crane and Marie Eline are known. The other cast credits are unknown, but many 1910 Thanhouser productions are fragmentary. In late 1910, the Thanhouser company released a list of the important personalities in their films. The list includes G.W. Abbe, Justus D. Barnes, Frank H. Crane, Irene Crane, Marie Eline, Violet Heming, Martin J. Faust, Thomas Fortune, George Middleton, Grace Moore, John W. Noble, Anna Rosemond, Mrs. George Walters. ## Release and reception The single reel drama, approximately 1,000 feet long, was released on November 4, 1910. The film was released outside of the planned order due to a scheduling conflict. Originally The American and the Queen was planned to be released on this date, but it was instead pushed back to November 11. The film received mixed reviews from critics, H. Jeanval of The Moving Picture News stated that the costuming and lace curtains on the windows of the home betrayed the supposed poverty of the Morgan family. Walton, also of The Moving Picture News, stated, "This title would be completely misunderstood by the majority of moving picture show attendants. Some sporadic 'reformer' who does not know the original and who has never seen the film will fill 'space' on the iniquity of moving pictures founded on this title. If he did see the film it has not the necessary power to grapple with the terrible reality of a too common incident in daily life." The New York Dramatic Mirror was more picky in its wording and praise, stating: "It was to be supposed that some company would finally present this familiar drama in pictorial form, and a reviewer must feel glad that it is over, for the film doesn't materially exalt the level of film output." The review found the acting to be good, but found fault in the shadows of the actors fell towards a lamp instead of away from it. The New York Dramatic Mirror was not a neutral party for reviews and took a shot at the Thanhouser Company by running an article that stated: "The Selig Company announces the production of Ten Nights in a Bar Room will not be confined to one reel, but will be given all the film that it requires for proper production. This departure from the restrictive limit of 1,000 feet gives promise that the drama will have adequate treatment." Bowers states that the paper "was acting the role of a spoiler, for the Selig version was not released until a half year later, in June 1911, and, except for spite, there was no reason to mention it now." Thomas S. Hischak, author of American Literature on Stage and Screen: 525 Works and Their Adaptations, claims that the Thanhouser production is the earliest known film adaptation of the novel. This is an error because Lubin would produce an adaptation, 700 feet in length, by October 1903. ## See also - List of American films of 1910

Steamer Maxwell

Canadian ice hockey player (1890–1975)

Frederick George "Steamer" Maxwell (May 19, 1890 – September 11, 1975) was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player. He played rover in the days of seven-man hockey at the turn of the 20th century, spending six seasons with the Winnipeg Monarchs of the Manitoba Hockey League (MHL) between 1909 and 1915. Considered one of the top players of his era, he won two Manitoba provincial championships with the Monarchs and was a member of the team that won the 1915 Allan Cup as Canadian senior amateur champions. Maxwell spurned multiple offers to turn professional and ultimately quit playing hockey when he learned some of his peers at the senior amateur level were getting paid. A long-time coach at the senior level, Maxwell led the Winnipeg Falcons to an Allan Cup championship in 1920; the team went on to win an Olympic Gold medal as Canada's representative in the 1920 Olympic ice hockey tournament. He coached into the 1930s, leading several teams to senior and junior championships. Maxwell is an honoured member of the Manitoba Sports and Hockey Halls of Fame and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962. ## Playing career Quick on his feet, Maxwell's skating ability at rover earned him the nickname "Steamer". He began his senior career in 1909–10, appearing in one game with the Winnipeg Monarchs of the Manitoba Hockey League (MHL). In 1910–11, he scored six goals for the Monarchs in five games and was named to the league's second All-Star team. He scored seven goals in seven games for the Monarchs in 1911–12, and by the following season had been named the team's captain. Maxwell scored three goals and two assists for the Monarchs in the 1913–14 season as the team won the city and provincial championships. By virtue of the title, the team was granted possession of the Allan Cup, emblematic of Canada's national senior-amateur championship. The team initially refused to defend the trophy against a challenge by the Kenora Thistles after the Cup's trustees ruled Dick Irvin ineligible. Facing the possibility of having to play with only six players against Kenora's seven, the Monarchs threatened to default. The game, held March 11, 1914, was ultimately played and Maxwell's speed and skating helped lead the Monarchs to a 6–2 victory. The team was unable to defend the trophy against a second challenge, played two nights later against the Regina Victorias. Maxwell scored a goal in a 5–4 defeat. The Monarchs repeated as Manitoba provincial champions in 1914–15 as Maxwell again scored three goals and two assists during regular league play. The team reached the 1915 Allan Cup finals, where they challenged the Saskatchewan champion Melville Millionaires who held the Cup. Unlike the previous year's single-game contests, the 1915 final was played as a two-game, total-goals series. Melville defeated Winnipeg by a 4–3 score in the first game, but the Monarchs overcame a two-goal deficit in the second match to win 4–2 and win the series on an aggregate total of seven to six. There were no further challenges, and Maxwell and the Monarchs ended the season as Allan Cup champions. Throughout his playing career, Maxwell received several offers to turn professional. Toronto Blueshirts of the National Hockey Association offered him $1,500 to join their team, while representatives of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association made an offer of $1,800 the following season. He turned both offers down, preferring to remain an amateur. His feelings on what constituted an amateur player were so strong that he quit playing hockey following the 1915 Allan Cup as the nature of the senior game at the time failed to meet his expectations: "When I played, I bought my own skates and boots. When I found out some of the others were getting paid, I quit." ## Coaching career Maxwell remained in the game, turning to coaching. He served two seasons as coach of the Winnipeg Monarchs before moving to the cross-town rival Winnipeg Falcons. He led the Falcons to the 1920 Allan Cup, defeating the University of Toronto Varsity Blues by scores of 8–3 and 3–2. The victory also earned his team the right to represent Canada at the first Olympic ice hockey tournament at the Summer Games in Antwerp. His business interests outside of hockey prevented Maxwell from travelling to Belgium with his team; however the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) lists him as the coach for the gold medal winning Canadians, who outscored their opponents 29–1 in three games played. Maxwell coached several Winnipeg teams throughout the 1920s and 1930s. He led the Winnipeg Rangers, Winnipeg Winnipegs and Elmwood Millionaires to Manitoba provincial senior championships in 1926, 1927 and 1930, respectively. He led the Millionaires' junior team to a provincial title that same season. Maxwell briefly coached in the professional ranks, with the Winnipeg Maroons of the American Hockey Association in 1927–28. The Toronto Maple Leafs attempted to sign him to coach their National Hockey League club in 1931, however team owner Conn Smythe chose to hire Dick Irvin instead after Maxwell insisted on a three-year contract. Instead, Maxwell returned to the Winnipeg Monarchs, where he led their junior team to the western Canadian championship in 1931–32. In the Memorial Cup final, Maxwell's squad lost to the eastern champion Sudbury Cub Wolves. Coaching the senior Monarchs, Maxwell led the team to the Manitoba Championship in 1933–34. Canadian Amateur Hockey Association invited the team to represent Canada at the 1935 World Championship. However, as with 1920, Maxwell was unable to travel to Europe with his team. The Monarchs went on to win the World Championship. In addition to coaching, Maxwell was a long time referee. He frequently officiated matches in both Allan and Memorial Cup playoffs, as well as professional teams that traveled through Western Canada. He was recognized numerous times for his playing and coaching career. Maxwell is an honoured member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. That honour followed his 1962 induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. ## Personal life Outside of hockey, Maxwell owned a lumber business, F. G. Maxwell Co. Ltd, which he operated until his retirement in 1967. He was a partner with fellow Hall of Famer Charlie Gardiner until the latter's death in 1934. The company, which focused on plywood supply, was successful and ultimately made Maxwell a millionaire. Following his retirement, Maxwell turned to photography and world travel. He and his wife Ann resided in his hometown of Winnipeg. He had two sisters, Genevieve and Beatrice. Genevieve was herself a champion tennis player in Western Canada. An avid baseball fan, Maxwell was among the founders of the Winnipeg Arena baseball club in 1908, and became the team's manager in 1912. At its peak, the team drew as many as 5,000 fans per game. As a player, manager or general manager, Maxwell was a member of eight Arena teams that won the Winnipeg city championship between 1908 and 1923. He was known for his quick, and often barbed, wit; His friends often told a story of an Arenas baseball game where, after failing to convince the umpire that it was too dark to play, Maxwell sent his players onto the field with lighted candles. In his later years, he served on the advisory board of the Winnipeg Goldeyes professional club. ## Career statistics

Widevine

Digital rights management technology

Widevine is a proprietary digital rights management (DRM) system developed by Google. It provides content protection for media. Widevine is divided into three security levels with differing levels of protection depending on the hardware present on the device. Widevine is included in most major web browsers and in Android and iOS. Widevine was originally developed by Internet Direct Media, who later rebranded as Widevine Technologies. Following several rounds of funding, the company was acquired by Google in 2010 for an undisclosed amount. ## History ### Origins (1998–2006) Widevine was created by Seattle-based Internet Direct Media in 1999 as Widevine Cypher. The company, founded by executive Brian Baker and cryptography researcher Jeremy Horwitz, changed its name to Widevine Technologies. In February 2001, Widevine Technologies released Widevine Cypher Enterprise; at the time, techniques such as screen recording and network request monitoring were common. Widevine Cypher used DES-X encryption to prevent these techniques. Widevine Technologies partnered with Bellevue-based streaming company Midstream Technologies in April. Baker returned to the company in 2001, leading it through a restructuring process; the process involved recapitalizing the company and firing many of its employees. In June 2003, Widevine Technologies secured US$7.8 million in funding from venture capital firms Constellation Ventures and Pacesetter Capital. That same year, Widevine Technologies partnered with Taiwanese telecommunications company Chunghwa Telecom in an effort to secure their video-on-demand service. Widevine Technologies would receive further funding in 2004 from Constellation Ventures and Pacesetter Capital, along with Phoenix Capital Partners, in a funding round led by VantagePoint Venture Partners, netting the company $13 million. Widevine Technologies branched out into digital watermarking in 2005, partnering with content processing company TVN Entertainment (now Vubiquity) for its Mensor system. Widevine Mensor inserts a 64-bit payload into the signal, a computationally inexpensive operation. ### Growth (2006–2010) In April 2006, Constellation Ventures, Pacesetter Capital, Phoenix Capital Partners, and VantagePoint Venture Partners joined digital communications company Cisco Systems and Canadian telecommunications company Telus to invest $16 million into Widevine Technologies. Cisco's involvement in the investment followed its acquisition of set-top box manufacturer Scientific Atlanta for $7 billion. In a six-year agreement, Widevine was awarded a contract with Telus to use its technology in Telus's platforms. On August 3, 2007, Widevine Technologies filed a patent infringement lawsuit against content security company Verimatrix. The two companies reached a settlement in March 2010. Vendors utilizing Widevine steadily increased up until 2010. In August 2008, CinemaNow used Widevine to expand its reach to multiple devices, including the Nintendo Wii, disc players from LG and Samsung, and the iPhone and iPod. To implement DRM into Microsoft Silverlight for browsers not using Microsoft Windows, Microsoft worked with Widevine Technologies. Widevine was also implemented into several streaming services using Adobe Flash, including content from Sony and Warner Bros. distributed in the virtual social network Gaia Online. In December 2009, Widevine received an additional $15 million in funding from telecommunications company Liberty Global and Samsung Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of Samsung. Samsung would expand its use of Widevine in June 2010. LoveFilm signed a deal with Widevine in July 2010. ### Acquisition by Google (2010–present) On December 3, 2010, Google announced that it had acquired Widevine for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition occurred on the same day Viacom filed an appeal in Viacom v. YouTube, a case regarding Google's role in users uploading content owned by Viacom onto YouTube. A CNN report in February 2011 revealed that Google had paid $150 million for Widevine, despite an internal valuation of the company being between $30 million and $40 million, making it the company's ninth largest acquisition until that point. ## Architecture Widevine is divided into three security levels. The security level used is dependent on the usage of a trusted execution environment (TEE) in the client device. For example, ARM Cortex-A processors implement TrustZone technology, allowing cryptography and video processing to occur entirely within the TEE. In Widevine L1, media decryption and processing occurs entirely in a TEE, and content is available in its original resolution. In Widevine L2, media decryption and processing occurs in software or dedicated video hardware, despite the presence of a TEE, and content is available in a fixed resolution. In Widevine L3, media decryption and processing occurs in software and no TEE is present, and content is available in a fixed resolution. In Android, Widevine L1 can be implemented into Stagefright, Android's media playback engine. This is implemented in Qualcomm chips, where an OpenMAX (OMX) component communicates with the video driver at the kernel level. Multimedia memory is carved out through the memory management unit driver for ION, a memory manager introduced in Android 4.0 to address the various memory management interfaces across Android. The input/output buffer is then allocated, and the content is decrypted and stored to a secured input buffer in TrustZone. ### Input → output overview Widevine uses multiple standards and specifications, including MPEG Common Encryption (CENC), Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), Media Source Extensions (MSE), and Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH). In addition, Widevine supports the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, developed by Apple Inc. in 2009. In one implementation of Widevine, a browser receives encrypted content from a content delivery network (CDN). The content is then sent to the Content Decryption Module (CDM), which creates a license request to send to the license server. The player then receives a license from the license server and passes it to the CDM. To decrypt the stream, the CDM sends the media and the license to the OEMCrypto module, required to decrypt the content. OEMCrypto is an interface to the TEE; most implementations ensure that session keys, decrypted content keys, and the decrypted content stream are not accessible to other running applications. This is usually accomplished through a secondary processor with separate memory. The content is then sent to the video stack and displayed to the end user in chunks. License request and license response messages are sent and received using Protocol Buffers. Vendors may implement their own proxy server within the license server, in cases where user authorization is managed by the vendor's preexisting proxy server. This setup requires the use of the proxy server as a middleman. Widevine requires the use of service certificates beginning in Chrome 59, along with iOS and some configurations of ChromeOS. A proxy server may choose to refuse to issue licenses for browsers that do not implement a "verifiable" framework, otherwise known as Verified Media Path (VMP). Notably, browsers running on Linux are not included in VMP. Similarly, the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) version used on the client device may be enforced by the proxy server. In Widevine L1 devices, certificate provisioning is usually performed once. During provisioning, the CDM creates a nonce and derives keys for certificate decryption and integrity checks, as well as dynamically generated buffers. The device key is treated as the Root of Trust (RoT). The RoT-derived client key protects the request using HMAC. The RoT is established through a factory-provisioned component called the "keybox". The keybox is 128 bytes long with two special fields. The integrity of the keybox is checked by verifying the last eight bytes match a magic number ("kbox") followed by a cyclic redundancy check (CRC-32). The other 120 bytes comprise an internal device ID (32 bytes), an Advanced Encryption Standard key (16 bytes), and a provisioning token (72 bytes). Each content key is associated with a 128-bit key control block, specifying security constraints. The key control block ensures data path security requirements on clients such as Android, where video and audio are encrypted separately, and to provide a timeout value to the TEE. The block is AES-128-CBC encrypted with a random initialization vector (IV), and the fields are defined in big-endian byte order. The values of the block comprise a verification field, a duration field (expressed in seconds), a nonce, and control bits, all 32 bits each. The control bits are a series of bit fields controlling the HDCP version that can be used, the data path type, whether or not a nonce should be used, and the Copy General Management System (CGMS) used. Despite this, vendors may still choose to encrypt audio and video with the same key or may not even encrypt the audio at all. ### Client support Widevine is included in most major web browsers, including Google Chrome. Derivatives of Chromium, including Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, and Opera, also implement Widevine. Since June 2016, Firefox has supported Widevine directly in an effort to remove NPAPI support. In addition, Widevine is supported on Android and iOS. Streaming services utilizing Widevine include Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Hulu, Paramount+, and Discovery+. Since Android 5, the version of Google Chrome used in Android supports Widevine. In February 2021, Firefox for Android added Widevine. In Android, Widevine is implemented through a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) module plugin. The Widevine library on Android translates Android DRM API calls to Widevine CDM ones, and its role varies depending on the security level implemented; in Widevine L1, the Widevine library acts as a proxy for the TEE, while in L3, the library contains the obfuscated CDM. Additionally, the library `liboemcrypto.so` marshals and unmarshals requests to the Widevine trustlet for Widevine L1 through a specialized TEE driver, such as `QSEEComAPI.so` for Qualcomm Secure Execution Environment (QSEE). iOS does not natively support DASH or CENC. To work around this limitation, Widevine transmuxes DASH to HLS; the Universal DASH Transmuxer (UDT) parses the DASH manifest using an XML parser, such as libxml2. The UDT then creates an HLS playlist. On May 31, 2021, support for 32-bit Linux was stopped, and DRM-protected content cannot be played on this platform. ## Security Widevine has been exploited multiple times. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev discovered a vulnerability in Widevine in June 2016; the vulnerability allowed users to obtain a decrypted version of protected content in cache. In January 2019, security researcher David Buchanan claimed to have broken Widevine L3 through a differential fault analysis attack in Widevine's white-box implementation of AES-128, allowing Buchanan to retrieve the original key used to encrypt a stream. The MPEG-CENC stream could then be decrypted using ffmpeg. A similar vulnerability was exploited in October 2020. In 2021, the Android version of Widevine L3 was reverse engineered and broken by security researchers. The same year, Qi Zhao presented the first attack breaking Widevine L1 in Android by recovering the L1 keybox. ## Criticism In 2019, a developer tried to bundle Widevine in an Electron/Chromium-based application for video playing and did not get any response from Google after asking for a license agreement, effectively blocking DRM usage in the project. He later got the reply: > I'm sorry but we're not supporting an open source solution like this The same happened to other Electron projects. Widevine does support Electron and Electron projects through a third-party integrator. ## See also - FairPlay - Marlin - PlayReady

Hitler's Generals on Trial

2010 book by Valerie Hébert

Hitler's Generals on Trial: The Last War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg is a 2010 book by Canadian historian Valerie Hébert dealing with the High Command Trial of 1947–1948. The book covers the criminal case against the defendants, all high-ranking officers of the armed forces of Nazi Germany, as well as the wider societal and historical implications of the trial. The book received generally positive reviews for its mastery of the subject and thorough assessment of the legacy of the trial. ## Contents ### Premise Hitler's Generals on Trial details the High Command Trial, officially known as "War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals", which was part of the Subsequent Nuremberg trials. Hitler's Generals on Trial focuses on two goals set out for the trials. The first, a didactic goal, which attempted to use the trials as a learning experience for the German nation regarding the depth of the complicity of their armed forces, the Wehrmacht, in the criminality of the Nazi regime. The second goal involved obtaining justice for the victims by punishing those involved. Handling the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective, Hebert addresses the issues of international military justice, post-war developments in West Germany, and how political considerations superseded the quest for justice. In this atmosphere the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht" thrived, and in the words of the author, the trial had "virtually no impact on German public consciousness". ### Prosecution and defence cases Using primary and secondary materials, Hébert discusses the proceedings themselves, the evolution of the American judicial policy towards war crimes, the preceding trials, and the post-conviction developments. Hébert focuses in particular on the cases against senior field commanders Hermann Hoth, Georg von Küchler, and Georg-Hans Reinhardt, who led armies and army groups on the Eastern Front and were responsible for mass war crimes and crimes against humanity. She also details the cases against two key members of the OKW, German military's supreme command: Walter Warlimont, who composed the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order, and Hermann Reinecke, in charge of the prisoner of war regulations, which led to the deaths of millions of Soviet POWs. In covering one tactic shared by defence counsels from different trials, Hébert reviewed a memorandum put forth at the Nuremberg Trial in 1945–1946. Co-authored by former chief of staff of the OKH (German Army High Command) Franz Halder and former field marshals Walter von Brauchitsch and Erich von Manstein, along with other senior military figures, the document aimed to portray the German armed forces as apolitical and largely innocent of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime. Hébert shows how that strategy was also adopted by the lead counsel for the defence in the High Command trial, Hans Laternser. ### Conclusion Hébert implicates the court's greater pedagogical failure as the cause of its failure to enact justice. While evidence of the specific war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the accused was damning, the book found that it was the defence that won the case in the court of Germany's public opinion. The German public proved to be too recalcitrant towards the idea of imposing consequences upon their military leaders. In a country where society has long-revered the military, the German public found the concept of punishment for its military leaders as anathema to their own personal sense of a moral, legal culture. Those motivations brought about various campaigns conducted by the German clergy and the government of the new Federal Republic on behalf of the convicted, which ultimately impacted the trial's conclusion. Faced with their concerted lobbying efforts, the American sentence review and clemency program reduced or commuted many of the sentences, which according to Hébert, brought failure to both of the trial's goals. Former military officers were the first to be released, including those convicted in the High Command Case. With various areas of German society doing what it could to influence the sentences of those on trial, none of the defendants remained in prison after 1957. Nevertheless, none of those found guilty were ever publicly exonerated of their crimes. ## Reception A review by historian Daniel Segesser in the Journal of Genocide Research finds the book a "welcome addition to this literature, [as it] focuses on a trial that has so far been neglected". According to Segasser, if Hébert had provided more information on the German military organization and function, she could have presented a clearer picture the Wehrmacht's inexorable ties to the Nazi regime's goals of conquest and annihilation. The review agrees with Hébert in that Americans did not fully achieve the objectives they had set out before the start of the case: > ...but it must be remembered that the trials of German military figures between 1945 and 1949 brought to light many documents of inestimable value to historians (as in the Wehrmacht exhibition of the 1990s). Thus, although most of the crimes of the Wehrmacht were forgotten in the immediate wake of the proceedings, the didactic value of the High Command Trial was not completely lost. Reviewing Hitler's Generals on Trial in Military Review, Mark Montesclaros of the Army Command and General Staff College describes the book's treatment of the political context of the trial and subsequent developments as one of its "greatest insights". He points out that American authorities in Germany were not only seeking justice but, at the same time, trying to rebuild the German society, conduct a de-Nazification program, and recruit West Germany into a military coalition in the face of the looming Cold War with the Soviet Union. Faced with these conflicting priorities, the Americans opted for the reconciliation with the former enemy, which included clemency programs for those convicted in war crimes trials. Mark Montesclaros "highly recommends" the book to those interested in international military justice and post-war developments in Germany. Historian Alaric Searle notes the book's "success, with only 208 pages of text, [in] providing a readable, accessible, and tightly structured overview of an extremely complex case". He contrasts it with other literature on war crimes trials which he describes as "longwinded affairs, written by lawyers" and recommends Hitler's Generals on Trial for teaching purposes. American scholar Jonathan Lurie, reviewing the book in H-Net, finds that it "breaks new ground" and is "strongly recommended". Comparing it to the 2008 collection of essays, Atrocities on Trial: Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Prosecuting War Crimes, edited by Patricia Heberer and Jürgen Matthäus, which covered a number of war crimes trials, Lurie notes the strength of Hébert's book in thoroughly analysing a single case and its outcomes and lessons. He goes on to describe the work as an "outstanding contribution" that asks "difficult questions" about justice, retribution, and atonement. ## Author Valerie Hébert is an associate professor of history and interdisciplinary studies at Lakehead University, Canada. Her research and teaching include modern European history, Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and genocide. Published by the University Press of Kansas in 2010, Hitler's Generals on Trial was Hébert's first major publication. ## See also - Clean Wehrmacht - Wehrmacht Exhibition - The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality

Typhoon Choi-wan (2009)

Pacific typhoon in 2009

Typhoon Choi-wan was a powerful typhoon that became the first Category 5-equivalent super typhoon to form during the 2009 Pacific typhoon season. Forming on September 11, 2009, about 1,100 km (700 mi) to the east of Guam, the initial disturbance rapidly organized into a tropical depression. By September 12, the depression intensified into a tropical storm, at which time it was given the name Choi-wan. The following day, rapid intensification took place through September 14. Choi-wan attained its peak intensity on September 15, as it moved through the Northern Mariana Islands with the Japan Meteorological Agency reporting peak 10-minute sustained winds of 195 km/h (121 mph). Additionally, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported the storm to have attained 1-minute sustained winds of 260 km/h (160 mph). The typhoon remained very powerful until September 17 when the storm's outflow weakened. The typhoon underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, leading to intensity fluctuations. By September 19, Choi-wan rapidly weakened as strong wind shear caused convection to diminish. The following day, the system transitioned into an extratropical cyclone and dissipated several hours later over open waters. Despite the intensity of Choi-wan when it passed through the Northern Mariana Islands, no casualties were reported. However, following the storm, the United States Navy deemed that the island of Alamagan was uninhabitable, with all but one of the structures completely destroyed and most of the islands' trees downed. In response to this, all residents on the island were evacuated to nearby Saipan. ## Meteorological history Early on September 11, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) began monitoring an area of convection roughly 1,100 km (680 mi) east of Guam. A broad, low-level circulation center had formed within the system and became increasingly organized, showing signs of developing convective banding. A Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert was released later that day as convection was rapidly consolidating around the low, which was embedded within the eastern end of the monsoonal trough. It was then declared as a tropical depression by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the JTWC with the latter designating it as Tropical Depression 15W The tropical depression was tracking westward along the southern edge of the subtropical ridge situated east of the International Date Line. During September 12, the depression continued to develop quickly with both the JMA and the JTWC reporting that the depression had intensified into a Tropical Storm later that day, with the JMA assigning the international name of Choi-wan and the international designation of 0915. During September 13, Choi-wan gradually developed whilst moving west with the JMA reporting that Choi-wan had become a severe tropical storm late that day, before reporting along with the JTWC early the next day that Choi-wan had intensified further and had become a weak Typhoon with multiple spiral bands that had wrapped into the fully consolidated center to form a banding eye. During September 14, Choi-wan intensified further whilst moving along the southwestern edge of a deep level subtropical ridge of the northeast, intensifying into a Category 4-equivalent typhoon on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale with 1-minute winds of 220 km/h (140 mph). Early on September 15, the JTWC reported that Typhoon Choi-wan had intensified further and had become a Category 4-equivalent Super Typhoon whilst passing over the island of Alamagan. Later that day the JMA reported that Typhoon Choi-wan had reached its 10-minute peak wind speeds of 195 km/h (121 mph) and a pressure of 915 hPa (mbar). Typhoon Choi-wan then intensified further and reached its peak 1-minute wind speeds of 260 km/h (160 mph) which made it the first Category 5-equivalent tropical cyclone on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale anywhere in the world in 2009. With the help of excellent poleward outflow and high ocean heat content, Typhoon Choi-wan remained at its peak intensity until early on September 17 when deep convection started to erode in the northwestern quadrant as the tropical upper tropospheric trough (TUTT) cell to the northwest was no longer providing good outflow. Choi-wan was then downgraded to a typhoon by the JTWC as it started to undergo an eyewall replacement cycle, with the JTWC reporting a secondary peak intensity of 150 km/h (93 mph), during the next day. During September 19, Choi-wan rapidly weakened, as it moved into an unfavorable environment with higher amounts of vertical wind shear, causing the storm's deep convection to erode. As a result of this and dry latitude air wrapping into the low level circulation center, the JTWC decided to downgrade Choi-wan to an extratropical system and released their final advisory, early the next day before the JMA followed suit later that day. The JMA then reported that the extratropical low had dissipated completely, early on September 21. ## Preparations ### Mariana Islands Early on September 12, the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Guam, using data from the JTWC, placed Tinian and Saipan under a Typhoon Watch whilst declaring a Tropical Storm Watch also declared for Guam and Rota. By September 15, the islands of Agrihan, Tinian and Saipan before being upgraded to tropical storm warnings and a typhoon watch. Additionally, the watches in place for Guam and Rota were discontinued. These warnings were kept in force until late on September 14, when the warnings for Tinian were canceled and the typhoon watch for Saipan was canceled, while the typhoon watch was upgraded to a Typhoon Warning as Choi-wan rapidly intensified. The Tropical Storm Warning in place for Saipan was canceled during September 15 as Choi-wan intensified into a high-end Category 4 equivalent super typhoon. All watches and warnings were discontinued during the afternoon of September 16 once Choi-wan was no longer a threat to the Mariana Islands. By September 15, shelters were opened throughout Tinian and Saipan at local schools, most schools and all governmental buildings were closed and residents rushed to board up their homes. The American Red Cross had also mobilized on the islands by this time. Some private schools were open during the morning but let out early to allow students to return to their families before the typhoon's arrival. On Saipan, 179 residents sought refuge in shelters by the afternoon of September 15, by which time heavy rain had begun falling. Only one flight was delayed by the typhoon across all the islands. The youth basketball league in the Northern Mariana Islands canceled their games for the time Choi-wan passed through the islands. At the height of the storm, a total of 270 residents sought refuge in shelters on Saipan. ### Japan Early on September 16 the JMA started to issue Typhoon force wind warnings, for the Naha, Okinawa; however these were discontinued later that day. The JMA then placed the Yokohama, Moji and Naha under a Typhoon Warning early the next day. These warnings were kept in place until early on September 19, when the JMA added the Kushiro and Otaru to the warnings. However, the warnings were dropped for all areas except Yokohama and Kushiro as the typhoon turned away from Japan. These warnings stayed in effect until late the next day when they were cancelled as Choi-wan began to dissipate. ## Impact and aftermath On September 15, the eye of Choi-wan passed within 10 km (6.2 mi) of Alamagan and brought winds of up to 230 km/h (140 mph) to the island. The most recent storm of Choi-wan's intensity to strike the islands was Chaba in 2004. That storm caused severe damage and widespread flooding. Unlike Chaba, relatively little rainfall fell due to Choi-wan, and no flooding was reported. The main effects from the typhoon in Saipan were downed trees which littered streets across the islands. Power lines were downed and sewer pipes were broken; however, crews began repairing damage once Choi-wan passed. In Garapan, the major shelter on the island sustained minor damage and repair work on it would take roughly a week. On Alamagan, residents attempted to contact officials on other islands on September 17. Despite the extreme intensity of the storm, all sixteen residents on the island, including the 4-day old infant were safe. During their attempted contact, the connection was poor and hard to understand. The following day, the United States Navy sent a ship and helicopter to the island to assess the situation. The Navy stated that the entire island of Alamagan was a total loss, with all but one of the structures, a facility for laboratory and research, completely destroyed and most of the islands' trees downed. Once on the island, they determined that all residents needed to be evacuated "...whether they like or not". The first to be evacuated from the island were the infant and six people in the family; the infant was taken to a hospital on Saipan as a precaution. On nearby Agrihan, it was determined that the residents on the island also needed to be evacuated. Prior to their evacuations, they were given relief supplies, mainly food and water, to survive for five days. Roughly 260 gallons of fresh water, 50 lbs of rice and other health or comfort supplies were delivered by Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 to both islands. On September 21, the Salvation Army announced that residents displaced by the storm would be received donated items, such as clothing, toys, pillows and baby formula. ## See also - Other tropical cyclones named Choi-wan - Typhoon Dolphin (2015) - Typhoon Lekima (2013) - Typhoon Isa - Typhoon Melor (2009)

Virgin Islands at the 2008 Summer Olympics

The United States Virgin Islands competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, which were held in Beijing, the People's Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008. The appearance of its 23-person delegation marked its fifteenth appearance at the Olympic games, and its tenth appearance at the Summer Olympic games. In total, seven athletes participated on behalf of the Virgin Islands (Tabarie Henry and LaVerne Jones-Ferrette in track and field, John and Julius Jackson in boxing, Thomas Barrows III in sailing, Ned Gerard in shooting, and Josh Laban in swimming) in Beijing. Of those, John Jackson and Tabarie Henry progressed to a post-preliminary event, and Henry reached semifinals in his own. There were no Virgin Islander medalists at the Beijing Olympics. ## Background Between its beginning and the Beijing Olympics, the United States Virgin Islands have participated in fifteen Olympic Games, including five Winter Olympics. Of the ten Summer Olympic games, the Virgin Islands have sent a delegation for every game since the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City excluding the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The first women in the team participated at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, and the delegation has included women ever since, peaking at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The size of its summer Olympic team was largest between 1972 (16 athletes) and 1992 (25 athletes), and was at its all-time largest in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles when 29 athletes competed for the country. After 1996, the team carried 15 athletes or less. In its entire history up to Beijing, there has been one medalist: Peter Holmberg, who medaled silver in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Seven Virgin Islanders participated in the Beijing games, including five men and one woman in five distinct sports. There were no medalists, although boxer John Jackson and runner Tabarie Henry progressed to post-preliminary rounds. Josh Laban was the nation's flag bearer during ceremonies. The Virgin Islands' delegation to Beijing included five executives (among them, Virgin Islands Olympic Committee President Hans Lawaetz); the seven Olympians, along with nine assisting staff (coaches, etc.); and two youth camp athletes. Overall, 23 people composed the team. ## Athletics ### Men's competition Then-attendee of the Kansan Barton County Community College Tabarie Henry qualified for the Beijing Olympics when he ran the 400 meter dash in 45.42 seconds at the John McDonnell Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas in April. His qualifying time passed the Olympic A standard and marked the 15th fastest time in the event's history and the 10th fastest time set that year in all the world. Henry's participation in Beijing marked his Olympic debut. At the Olympics, Tabarie Henry participated in round one of his event on August 17. He was placed in Heat 7 against eventual silver medalist Jeremy Wariner of the United States and Belgian runner Cedric van Branteghem. With a time of 45.36 seconds, Henry ranked second of eight in his heat, behind Wariner by 0.13 seconds and ahead of van Branteghem by 0.18 seconds. Overall, Henry tied Nery Brenes of Costa Rica for 18th place out of 56 athletes. He progressed to semifinals. At the August 19 semifinal rounds, Henry was placed in Heat 1, again against Wariner and also versus Brenes and Christopher Brown of the Bahamas, among others. Tabarie Henry ran the event in 45.19 seconds, ending seventh out of eight athletes in the heat, at 0.13 seconds behind Cuba's Williams Collazo (6th place) and 0.45 seconds ahead of Italy's Claudio Licciardello (8th place). Overall, Henry ranked 17th out of 24 athletes, and did not progress to finals on August 21. ### Women's competition LaVerne Jones-Ferrette, the only female athlete to participate in the Beijing Olympics on behalf of the United States Virgin Islands, participated in the 100 meters and 200 meters dashes. Her participation in Beijing marked her second Olympic games, as she also participated in the 100 m and 200 m in the Athenian 2004 Summer Olympics. Jones-Ferrette's participation in the 100 m dash began with the August 15 first round. Jones-Ferrette was placed in Heat 1. She placed third behind Jamaica's Kerron Stewart (1st place) and Norway's Ezinne Okparaebo (2nd place) with a time of 11.41 seconds. Okparaebo was 0.09 seconds faster than Jones-Ferrette; Haiti's Barbara Pierre was 0.09 seconds slower. Jones-Ferrette ranked 20th out of 85 athletes in the first round, and progressed to round two. Jones was placed in Heat 1 during the second round, completing the event in 11.55 seconds and ranking fifth of eight athletes. Jones-Ferrette was 0.1 seconds slower than Kittitian runner Virgil Hodge and 0.1 seconds faster than Cameroon's Myriam Leonie Mani. Overall, Jones-Ferrette tied Ukrainian Natalia Pogrebniak for 29th place out of 40 athletes. She did not progress further. LaVerne Jones-Ferrette also participated in the 200 m dash. On August 18, she was placed in Heat 6 of the first round, completing the event in 23.12 seconds and ranking fourth place out of eight athletes. Jones-Ferrette was 0.04 seconds behind Cuba's Roxana Diaz, and was 0.29 seconds ahead of Brazil's Evelyn Santos. Jones-Ferrette ranked 16th overall out of 48 athletes. Jones progressed to the August 19 second round, and was placed in Heat 1 against athletes that included Jamaica's Veronica Campbell and the Cayman Islands' Cydonie Mothersill. Jones-Ferrette placed seventh out of eight with a time of 23.37 seconds. Overall, LaVerne Jones-Ferrette placed 24th out of 32 athletes. She did not advance to semifinals. ### Summary - Men - Women - Key - Note–Ranks given for track events are within the athlete's heat only - Q = Qualified for the next round - q = Qualified for the next round as a fastest loser or, in field events, by position without achieving the qualifying target - NR = National record - N/A = Round not applicable for the event - Bye = Athlete not required to compete in round ## Boxing The Virgin Islands qualified two boxers for the Olympic boxing tournament. John Jackson qualified at the first American qualifying tournament. His brother Julius Jackson earned his spot at the second qualifier. The Beijing Olympics marked the first time that either of the Jackson brothers had participated in the Olympic games. Although neither medaled, John Jackson progressed to the Round of 16, which followed the preliminary round. ## Sailing Then-student of Yale University Thomas Barrows III was the only sailor to participate on behalf of the Virgin Islands during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His appearance in Beijing marked his first time at any Olympic games. He qualified for the Men's Laser class, which consists of ten races, and involved 43 athletes. In the first race, Barrows ranked 20th; in the second, 28th; in the third, 20th, in the fourth, 24th; in the fifth, 26th; in the sixth, 31st; in the seventh, 15th; in the eighth, 10th (his highest); and in the ninth, 21st. Barrows did not complete the tenth race. Overall, Barrows earned 195 points in total, but ended with 164 net points and ranked 21st in the event. He did not medal. - Men M = Medal race; EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race; CAN = Race cancelled ## Shooting Ned Gerard was the only shooter representing the Virgin Islands at the Beijing Olympics. He qualified for the shooting event men's 50 m small-bore rifle, prone. His participation in Beijing marked his Olympic debut. The shooting event took place on August 14. In the first round, Gerard scored 96 points; the second round, 96 points again; the third round, 95; the fourth round, 98; the fifth round, 97; and the last round, 98. Ned Gerard scored 580.0 points, ranking 53rd out of 56 athletes, and thus did not medal. He fell two points behind Cuba's Eliecer Perez and two points ahead of Kyrgyzstan's Ruslan Ismailov. Gerard was 122.7 points behind event leader Artur Ayvazyan of Ukraine. - Men ## Swimming Former University of Georgia student Josh Laban was the only swimmer to participate on behalf of the Virgin Islands at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He has known U.S. Virgin Islander swimmers Kieran Locke and Kevin Hensley since childhood, and competed alongside them during qualifying competitions. His participation marked his second appearance at the Olympics, with his first being at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. In Beijing, Laban was placed in the seventh heat of the August 14 preliminaries round against swimmers that included Chile's Oliver Elliot and Romania's Norbert Trandafir. With a time of 23.28 seconds, Laban ranked seventh in the heat of eight athletes, defeating Kyrgyzstan's Vitaly Vasilev by 0.74 seconds and falling behind sixth-place swimmer Martyn Forde of Barbados by 0.20 seconds. Laban was 0.53 seconds slower than Elliot, who led the heat. Overall, Laban ranked 53rd out of 97 athletes competing in the event. He did not progress to the semifinal rounds held later that day. - Men ## See also - Virgin Islands at the 2007 Pan American Games - U.S. Virgin Islands at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games

Sorraia

Breed of horse

The Sorraia is a rare breed of horse indigenous to the portion of the Iberian Peninsula, in the Sorraia River basin, in Portugal. The Sorraia is known for its primitive features, including a convex profile and dun coloring with primitive markings. Concerning its origins, a theory has been advanced by some authors that the Sorraia is a descendant of primitive horses belonging to the naturally occurring wild fauna of Southern Iberia. Studies are currently ongoing to discover the relationship between the Sorraia and various wild horse types, as well as its relationship with other breeds from the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Africa. Members of the breed are small, but hardy and well-adapted to harsh conditions. They were occasionally captured and used by native farmers for centuries, and a remnant population of these nearly extinct horses was discovered by a Portuguese zoologist in the early 20th century. Today, the Sorraia has become the focus of preservation efforts, with European scientists leading the way and enthusiasts from several countries forming projects and establishing herds to assist in the re-establishment of this breed from its current endangered status. ## Characteristics The Sorraia breed stands between high, although some individuals are as small as The head tends to be large, the profile convex, and the ears long. The neck is slender and long, the withers high, and the croup slightly sloping. The legs are strong, with long pasterns and well-proportioned hooves. These horses have good endurance and are easy keepers, thriving on relatively little fodder. They have a reputation for being independent of temperament, but tractable. On adult horses, the lay of the hair can create the appearance of stars and flags on the neck and chest. Also due to the lay of the hair, newborn foals can appear to have stripes all over, reminiscent of zebra stripes. The breed standard refers to this as "hair stroke". ### Color Sorraia are generally dun or a dun variation called grullo. Dun coloring includes primitive markings such as a black dorsal stripe, black tipped ears, horizontal striping on the legs and a dark muzzle area. The dark muzzle area is in contrast to some other dun-colored horse breeds, who have light-colored muzzle areas and underbellies, possibly due to the presence of pangare genetics. Sorraia horses have bi-colored manes and tails with lighter colored hairs that fringe the outside of the longer growing black hair. This is a characteristic shared with other predominantly dun-colored breeds, such as the Fjord horse. Purebred Sorraia occasionally have white markings, although they are rare and undesired by the breed's studbook. ## Genetics The relationship between the Sorraia and other breeds remains largely undetermined, as is its relationship to the wild horse subspecies, the Tarpan and the Przewalski's Horse. The Sorraia originally developed in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula. d'Andrade hypothesized that the Sorraia would be the ancestor of the Southern Iberian breeds. Morphologically, scientists place the Sorraia as closely related to the Gallego and the Asturcon, but genetic studies using mitochondrial DNA show that the Sorraia forms a cluster that is largely separated from most Iberian breeds. Some evidence links this cluster with Konik and domestic Mongolian horses. At the same time, one of the maternal lineages is shared with the Lusitano. Genetic evidence has not supported a hypothesis that the Sorraia is related to the Barb horse, an African breed introduced to Iberia by the Moors. Multiple authors have suggested that the Sorraia might be a descendant of the Tarpan based on shared morphological features, principally the typical color of its coat. Other authors simply state that the Sorraia has "evident primitive characteristics", although they do not refer to a specific ancestor. However, there have been no genetic studies comparing the Sorraia with the Tarpan, and similarity of external morphology is an unreliable measure of relatedness. Genetic studies to date have been inconclusive about the closest relative of the Sorraia. On one hand, studies using mitochondrial DNA showed a relationship with the Przewalski's Horse, in that Przewalski's Horse has a unique haplotype (A2) not found in domestic horses, which differs by just one single nucleotide from one of the major Sorraia haplotypes (JSO41, later A7). In comparison, genetic distances within the domestic horse are as large as 11 nucleotide differences. However, this relationship with the Przewalski's Horse was contradicted in another study using microsatellite data that showed that the genetic distance between the Prewalski's Horse and the Sorraia was the largest. Such conflicting results can arise when a population passes through a genetic bottleneck, and evidence suggests that the Sorraia, among other rare breeds, has recently passed through a bottleneck, effectively obscuring the position of this breed in the family tree of the domestic horse. Thus, the morphological, physiological, and cultural characteristics of the Sorraia are the subject of continued study to better understand the relationship between various Iberian horse breeds and wild horse subspecies. ## History Although it is known that the Sorraia developed in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, the breed was isolated and unknown to science until the 20th century. Despite the lack of documentation, attempts have been made to reconstruct its history. Paleolithic parietal art images in the region depict equines with a distinct likeness to the Sorraia, with similar zebra-like markings. Analysis of mtDNA has been performed on Mustangs in the western United States that show similar mtDNA patterns between some Mustangs and the Sorraia breed. Spanish conquistadors took Iberian horses, some of whom closely resembled the modern-day Sorraia, to the Americas in their conquests, probably as pack animals. Similarities between the Sorraia and several North and South American breeds are shown in the dun and grullo coloring and various physical characteristics. This evidence suggests that the Sorraia, their ancestors, or other horses with similar features, may have had a long history in the Iberian region and a role in the creation of American breeds. Otherwise, the Sorraia breed was lost to history until 1920, when Portuguese zoologist and paleontologist Dr. Ruy d'Andrade first encountered the Sorraia horse during a hunting trip in the Portuguese lowlands. This remnant herd of primitive horses had continued to live a wild existence in these lowlands, which were rather inaccessible and had been used as a hunting preserve by Portuguese royalty until the early 1900s. At the time of d'Andrade's initial meeting the breed, the horses were ill-regarded by native farmers, although they were considered hardy native fauna that lived off of the uncultivated lands and salt marshes in the local river valleys. For centuries, peasant farmers of the area would occasionally capture the horses and use them for agricultural work, including threshing grain and herding bulls. In the 1920s and 1930s, as mechanization became more prevalent, both wild and domesticated breeding stock diminished to almost nothing, and d'Andrade, along with his son Fernando, encouraged the conservation of the breed. In 1937, d'Andrade began a small herd of his own with five stallions and seven mares from horses obtained near Coruche, Portugal. All Sorraias currently in captivity descend from these original horses obtained by d'Andrade, and it is believed that the remnant wild herds of the breed died out soon after. These horses were kept in a habitat similar to their native one. In 1975, two other farms took up the Sorraia's cause and acquired small herds to help with conservation. In 1976, three stallions and three mares were imported to Germany from Portugal to begin a sub-population there. In March 2004, a small breeding herd of Sorraia horses was released on the estate of a private land owner who dedicated a portion of his property so that these horses could live completely wild, as did their ancestors. The refuge created for them is in the Vale de Zebro region of south western Portugal, one of places so named because this is where the Sorraia's predecessors dwelt. Today, the breed is nearly extinct, with fewer than 200 horses existing as of 2007, including around 80 breeding mares. The Food and Agriculture Organization considers it to be maintaining critical risk status. The first studbook was published in 2004, dedicated to maintaining a written record of the bloodlines of the Sorraia. Sorraias are present mainly in Portugal, with a small population in Germany. While not bred for a specific use, the Sorraia horses are versatile and have been used in herding bulls, dressage riding and light harness. ### American preservation efforts Two Sorraia stallions were imported to the United States in the early 21st century. In 2006, another Sorraia stallion was imported to Canada where a Sorraia Mustang Preserve has been established on Manitoulin Island in Ontario. Unrelated to existing preservation efforts which work in conjunction with the Sorraia Mustang Studbook, another project by a consortium of breeders in the United States is attempting to establish a separate network and studbook. These breeders have gathered Spanish Mustangs that through mtDNA testing show a genetic relationship with the Sorraia and are breeding them according to both genotype and phenotype in an attempt to help preserve what they are calling the "American Sorraia Mustang". ### Naming Dr. Ruy d'Andrade gave the breed their name of "Sorraia". D'Andrade took the name from the Sorraia River in Portugal. The breed had previously been known by the local Portuguese as "zebro" or "zebra", due to their markings. In the time of Christopher Columbus, the Sorraia was also known as the Marismeño, but the Sorraia and the Marismeño have evolved into two different breeds over time. Today, the name Marismeño refers to a population of semiferal horses living in Doñana Natural Park in Spain.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

2017 film by Rian Johnson

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (also known as Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi) is a 2017 American epic space opera film written and directed by Rian Johnson. Produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the second installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following The Force Awakens (2015), and the eighth episode of the nine-part "Skywalker saga". The film's cast includes Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, and Benicio del Toro. The Last Jedi follows Rey as she seeks the aid of Luke Skywalker in hopes of turning the tide for the Resistance in the fight against Kylo Ren and the First Order while General Leia Organa, Finn, and Poe Dameron attempt to escape a First Order attack on the dwindling Resistance fleet. The film features the first posthumous film performance by Fisher, who died in December 2016, and the film is dedicated to her memory. The Last Jedi is part of a new trilogy of films announced after Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in October 2012. It was produced by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman and executive produced by The Force Awakens director J. J. Abrams. John Williams, composer for the previous episodic films, returned to compose the score. A number of scenes were filmed at Skellig Michael in Ireland during pre-production in September 2015, but principal photography began at Pinewood Studios in England in February 2016 and wrapped that July. The Last Jedi premiered in Los Angeles on December 9, 2017, and was released in the United States on December 15. It grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2017 and the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time by the time its theatrical run was over. It is also the second-highest-grossing Star Wars film and turned a net profit of over $417 million. The film was well received by critics and received four nominations at the 90th Academy Awards, including Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects, as well as two nominations at the 71st British Academy Film Awards. A sequel, The Rise of Skywalker, concluded the sequel trilogy in 2019. ## Plot Following the battle of Starkiller Base, General Leia's Resistance forces are forced to evacuate their base when the First Order attacks. Leia dispatches Poe Dameron to distract General Hux and buy time to escape, but Poe ignores Leia's orders and recklessly leads a Pyrrhic counterattack. The Resistance escapes into hyperspace, but the First Order unveils its new hyperspace tracker to ambush them on arrival. Kylo Ren hesitates to fire on his mother Leia, but his wingmen destroy the bridge, killing many Resistance leaders. Leia is sucked into space. She survives by using the Force but is heavily injured. The First Order continues pursuing the fleet, now led by Vice-Admiral Holdo, who, like Leia, scolds Poe for his insubordination. On Ahch-To, Rey and Chewbacca ask Luke to end his self-imposed exile. Luke rebuffs them, but R2-D2 inspires him by playing Leia's old distress signal to Obi-Wan. Luke agrees to teach Rey about the Force. He criticizes the Jedi's old arrogance, explaining that while the Jedi favored the light side of the Force, the Force requires a balance of light and dark. Rey grows curious about the dark side, which offers her information about her long-lost parents and lets her communicate remotely with Kylo. Kylo wins Rey's sympathy by revealing that he left the Jedi because Luke, fearing his power, tried to kill him. Luke confesses that he momentarily considered killing Kylo, who was being corrupted by Snoke, but thought better of it. Rey leaves Ahch-To to redeem Kylo. She meets him at Snoke's flagship, but he takes her prisoner. Tormented by his failures, Luke prepares to burn the last Jedi relics, but cannot bring himself to do it. Yoda's force ghost sets fire to the Jedi library to teach Luke that the Jedi's future lies with Rey, not past memories. Yoda encourages Luke to learn from his failure with Kylo and to be a better mentor to Rey. Shut out of Holdo's inner circle, Poe impulsively dispatches Finn, Rose, and BB-8 to disable the hyperspace tracker. They visit Canto Bight to find Maz Kanata's favored hacker, but are pursued by police and improvise by recruiting DJ, a cynical mercenary hacker. They escape with the help of young stablehands and a herd of fathiers, sentient animals tortured by the locals for profit. DJ sneaks the team onto Snoke's flagship, but Phasma catches them. Kylo brings Rey to Snoke, who reveals that he connected them to find Luke. He orders Kylo to kill Rey, but Kylo kills him instead. Together, Kylo and Rey defeat Snoke's bodyguards. To Rey's horror, Kylo rejects the Resistance and proposes ruling the galaxy together. Rey refuses and battles Kylo for Luke's lightsaber, causing an explosion that allows her to escape. Holdo devises a plan to escape by sneaking away to an unspecified destination, while she remains aboard the flagship as a decoy. Believing her plan cowardly and futile, Poe leads a mutiny, but Leia rises from her sickbed, stuns him, and reveals a secret, well-defended Rebellion base on Crait. DJ betrays the plan to Hux, who begins massacring the Resistance's transport ships. To stop him, Holdo launches a kamikaze attack, destroying Snoke's flagship. In the chaos, BB-8 frees Finn and Rose, who escape to Crait. The First Order, now led by Kylo, arrives on Crait with overwhelming force, including a cannon powerful enough to demolish the fortress wall. Finn attempts his own kamikaze attack to destroy the cannon, but Rose stops him, as unlike Holdo, he can still live to fight another day. Even so, all appears to be lost. Suddenly, Luke appears. After a heartfelt conversation with Leia, he strides out to face Kylo, who demands to duel him. Kylo belatedly realizes that Luke—having reconciled with the Force—is projecting his image from Ahch-To. Poe finally earns Leia's approval by maturely deducing that Luke is buying them time to escape. With Rey's help, Poe finds a secret exit. Chewbacca evacuates the Resistance on the Falcon. Leia tells Rey that the Resistance can rise again. His power spent, Luke peacefully dies, becoming one with the Force. At Canto Bight, the stablehands retell Luke's now-legendary story. One boy grabs a broom with the Force and gazes into space. ## Cast - Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, a powerful Jedi Master who has been in self-imposed exile on the planet Ahch-To. - Hamill voices Dobbu Scay, named after the film's editor, Bob Ducsay. On Canto Bight, the character mistakes BB-8 for a slot machine. - Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa, twin sister to Luke, former princess of Alderaan, and a leading general in the Resistance. - Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader Snoke's disciple, who is strong with the Force. He is the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, and Luke's nephew. - Daisy Ridley as Rey, a highly Force-sensitive scavenger from the desert planet Jakku who joined the Resistance and goes to find Luke - John Boyega as Finn, a former stormtrooper of the First Order who defected to the Resistance. - Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, a high-ranking X-wing fighter pilot in the Resistance. - Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke, the leader of the First Order and Kylo Ren's master. - Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata, a pirate and ally of the Resistance. - Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux, the former head of the First Order's Starkiller Base. - Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, a humanoid protocol droid in the service of Leia Organa. - Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma, the commander of the First Order's stormtroopers. - Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, a member of the Resistance who works in maintenance. - Laura Dern as Vice-Admiral Amilyn Holdo, an officer in the Resistance. - Benicio del Toro as DJ, an underworld codebreaker. Frank Oz returns as Yoda, the deceased former Jedi Master and Luke's wise mentor, who appears as a Force spirit. Joonas Suotamo appears as Chewbacca, taking over the role from Peter Mayhew after previously serving as his body double in The Force Awakens. Mayhew, who suffered from chronic knee and back pain, was credited as "Chewbacca consultant". Billie Lourd, Mike Quinn, and Timothy D. Rose reprise their roles as Lieutenant Connix, Nien Nunb, and Admiral Ackbar, respectively; with Tom Kane voicing Ackbar. Amanda Lawrence appears as Commander D'Acy, and Mark Lewis Jones and Adrian Edmondson play Captains Canady and Peavey, respectively. BB-8 is controlled by puppeteers Dave Chapman and Brian Herring, with initial voice work by Ben Schwartz and final sound effects voiced by Bill Hader modulated through a synthesizer. Jimmy Vee portrays R2-D2, taking over the role from Kenny Baker, who died in August 2016. Veronica Ngo portrays Rose's sister Paige Tico, a Resistance gunner who sacrifices her life to destroy a First Order dreadnought. Justin Theroux plays the master codebreaker, while Lily Cole plays his companion. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a voice cameo as Slowen Lo, and Warwick Davis plays Wodibin. Rogue One (2016) director Gareth Edwards has a cameo appearance as a Resistance Soldier, with Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish also cameo in the film. Hermione Corfield appears as Tallissan "Tallie" Lintra, a Resistance A-Wing pilot and squadron leader, and Noah Segan and Jamie Christopher appear as Resistance pilots Starck and Tubbs. Hugh Skinner cameos as a Resistance Officer; while Hamill's children, Griffin, Nathan, and Chelsea, cameo as Resistance soldiers. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; and Gary Barlow have cameo appearances as stormtroopers, and Tom Hardy also had an appearance as a stormtrooper, but his cameo was dropped from the final cut. ## Production ### Development In October 2012, Star Wars creator George Lucas sold his production company Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company. Disney announced a new trilogy of Star Wars films. J. J. Abrams was named director of the first episode in the trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in January 2013. In June 2014, director Rian Johnson was reported to be in talks to write and direct its sequel, Episode VIII, and to write a treatment for the third film, Episode IX, with Ram Bergman producing both films. Johnson confirmed in August that he would direct Episode VIII. In January 2015, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that Episode VIII would be released in 2017. In December, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that the film had not been mapped out and that Abrams was collaborating with Johnson, who would in turn work with (then) Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow to ensure a smooth transition. Additionally, Abrams served as an executive producer along with Tom Karnowski and Jason McGatlin. In January 2017, Lucasfilm announced the title for Episode VIII as Star Wars: The Last Jedi. ### Writing The Last Jedi story begins immediately after The Force Awakens. Johnson had his story group watch films such as Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Gunga Din (1939), Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), Sahara (1943), and Letter Never Sent (1960) for inspiration while developing ideas. He felt it was difficult to work on the film while The Force Awakens was being finished. Johnson wrote the scene with the mirrored versions of Rey to symbolise her search for identity; when she asks for a vision of her parents, she sees only herself. Rey learns that her parents were "nobodies" because it would be "the hardest thing" she and the audience could hear; Johnson likened the scene to Luke Skywalker learning that Darth Vader is his father in The Empire Strikes Back (1980). During production, Hamill expressed disagreement with the direction of his character, Luke, feeling his disillusioned state was at odds with the character. Hamill later said he regretted making his initial misgivings public and compared his disagreements to his clashes with George Lucas during the filming of Return of the Jedi (1983). ### Casting In September 2015, Disney shortlisted the female cast members to Gina Rodriguez, Tatiana Maslany, and Olivia Cooke. That same month, Benicio del Toro confirmed his involvement in the film, but denied that he was playing a villain, and Mark Hamill was also confirmed. Joaquin Phoenix was also courted to portray the role of DJ, but would end up passing on the offer. In October 2015, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was rumored to have been cast in the film. In November, Kennedy announced at the London premiere of The Force Awakens that the entire cast would return for Episode VIII, along with "a handful" of new cast members. In February 2016, at the start of filming, it was confirmed that Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran had been cast in undisclosed roles. In April 2017, at the Star Wars Celebration Orlando, Lucasfilm announced that Tran would play Resistance maintenance worker Rose Tico, which Johnson described as the film's largest new role. To keep Frank Oz's return as Yoda a secret, producers excluded Oz's name in the billing for the film's pre-release marketing and ensured that Oz stayed on set during filming. ### Filming Second unit photography began during pre-production at Skellig Michael in Ireland on September 14, 2015, due to the difficulties of filming at that location during other seasons. It would have lasted five days, but filming was canceled for the first day due to poor weather and rough conditions. In September 2015, del Toro revealed that principal photography would begin in March 2016. The production began work on the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios on November 15, 2015. Rick Heinrichs served as production designer. In January 2016, production of Episode VIII was delayed until February due to script rewrites. Filming was in danger of being delayed further due to an upcoming strike between the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television and the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union. On February 10, 2016, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that principal photography had begun under the working title Space Bear. Additional filming took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from March 9 to 16, as well as in Ireland in May. Malin Head in County Donegal and a mountain headland, Ceann Sibeal in County Kerry, served as additional filming locations. To increase the scenes' intimacy Driver and Ridley were both present when filming Kylo and Rey's Force visions. Location filming for the battle scenes on the planet Crait took place at the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia. Additional filming took place in Mexico. Principal photography wrapped on July 22, 2016, though as of early September, Nyong'o had not filmed her scenes. In February 2017, it was announced that sequences from the film were shot in IMAX. Production designer Rick Heinrichs said the original script called for 160 sets, double what might be expected, but that Johnson did some "trimming and cutting". Ultimately, 125 sets were created on 14 sound stages at Pinewood Studios. According to creature designer Neal Scanlan, The Last Jedi has more practical effects than any Star Wars film, with 180 to 200 creatures created with practical effects, some cut from the final edit. For Yoda's appearance in the film as a Force ghost, the character was created using puppetry, as was done in the original Star Wars trilogy (as opposed to computer-generated imagery, which was used to create Yoda in most of the prequel trilogy). Rian Johnson explained the decision was because he felt a digital Yoda would not have been true to how Luke knew him in The Empire Strikes Back. ### Music In July 2013, Kennedy confirmed at the Star Wars Celebration Europe that John Williams would return to score the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Williams confirmed his assignment for The Last Jedi at a Tanglewood concert in August 2016, stating he would begin recording the score "off and on" in December 2016 until March or April 2017. On February 21, 2017, it was confirmed that recording was underway, with both Williams and William Ross conducting the sessions. In lieu of a traditional spotting session with Johnson, Williams was provided a temp track of music from his previous film scores as a reference for scoring The Last Jedi. The official soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on December 15, 2017. ## Marketing On September 19, 2017, Australia Post released a set of stamp packs. On October 12, Royal Mail released a set of eight promotional postage stamps designed by Malcolm Tween. Several tie-in books were released on the same day as the film's release, including The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary, and various children's reading and activity books. Related novelizations included the prequel book Cobalt Squadron, and Canto Bight, a collection of novellas about the Canto Bight Casino. As with The Force Awakens, there is no official tie-in game for The Last Jedi, in favor of integrating content from the film into other Star Wars video games, including Star Wars Battlefront II, which introduced various content from the film, during the game's first "season". ## Release ### Theatrical The film had its world premiere at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on December 9, 2017, and was released in the United States on December 15, in IMAX and 3D. The film was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on May 26; however, it was pushed back to December to avoid competition with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). ### Home media Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Star Wars: The Last Jedi digitally in HD and 4K via digital download and Movies Anywhere on March 13, 2018, with an Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD physical release on March 27. On March 31, 2020, a 27-disc Skywalker Saga box set was released, containing all nine films in the series, with each film receiving three discs, a Blu-ray version, a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and special features found on the 2011 release for the first six episodic films. ## Reception ### Box office Star Wars: The Last Jedi grossed $620.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $712.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.333 billion. It was the highest-grossing film of 2017 and the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time. The film had a worldwide opening of $450.8 million, the eighth-biggest of all time, including $40.6 million that was attributed to IMAX screenings, the second biggest for IMAX. It was estimated that the film would need to gross $800 million worldwide to break even; On December 31, 2017, the film crossed the $1 billion mark, making it the third Star Wars film to do so. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $417.5 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it first on their list of 2017's "Most Valuable Blockbusters". #### United States and Canada Pre-sale tickets went on sale in the United States on October 9, 2017, and as with The Force Awakens and Rogue One, ticket service sites such as Fandango had their servers crash due to heavy traffic and demand. In the United States and Canada, industry tracking had The Last Jedi grossing around $200 million from 4,232 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $45 million from Thursday night previews, the second-highest amount ever (behind The Force Awakens' $57 million). It went on to make $104.8 million on its first day (including previews), and $220 million over the weekend, both the second-highest amounts of all time. The opening weekend figure included an IMAX opening-weekend of $25 million, the biggest IMAX opening of the year, and the second biggest ever behind The Force Awakens. After dropping by 76% on its second Friday, the worst Friday-to-Friday drop in the series, the film fell by a total of 67% in its second weekend, grossing $71.7 million. It was the largest second-weekend drop of the series, although it remained atop the box office. It made $52.4 million in its third weekend, again topping the box office. It also brought its domestic total to $517.1 million, overtaking the Disney film Beauty and the Beast (2017) as the highest of 2017. It grossed $23.6 million and was surpassed the following weekend by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) (which was in its third week) and Insidious: The Last Key (2018). #### Other countries In its first two days of release the film made $60.8 million from 48 markets. The top countries were the United Kingdom ($10.2 million), Germany ($6.1 million), France ($6 million), Australia ($5.6 million), and Brazil ($2.5 million). By the end of the weekend, the film made $230 million outside the United States and Canada. All-time opening weekend records were set in various countries, including France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, and Finland. On its second weekend, it grossed $76.1 million outside the United States and Canada and became the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year in Europe. As of January 21, the largest markets outside of the United States and Canada are the United Kingdom ($109.3 million), Germany ($79.8 million), France ($63.5 million), Japan ($60.8 million), and Australia ($43.5 million). The film had a $28.7 million opening weekend in China. A week after its debut, China's movie exhibitors dropped the film's showtimes by 90%. The film grossed $910,000 in its third weekend, dropping to ninth place at the Chinese box office, overshadowed by new releases including Bollywood film Secret Superstar (2017), Hollywood films Ferdinand (2017) and Wonder (2017), and Chinese film A Better Tomorrow 2018. The Last Jedi grossed $42.5 million in China. ### Critical response ` Metacritic analysis found the film was the 25th-most mentioned film on "best of the year" film rankings and the 22nd-most mentioned on "best of the decade" film rankings.` Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film four stars out of four, praising the surprises and risks that it took, writing that "The movie works equally well as an earnest adventure full of passionate heroes and villains and a meditation on sequels and franchise properties", in which the film "includes multiple debates over whether one should replicate or reject the stories and symbols of the past." Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising Johnson's direction and the cast performances, particularly Hamill's, and concluding that the film "ranks with the very best Star Wars epics (even the pinnacle that is The Empire Strikes Back)". Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising the action sequences and humor, and said that the film "doesn't pack quite the same emotional punch [as The Force Awakens] and it lags a bit in the second half, [but] this is still a worthy chapter in the Star Wars franchise", containing a few callbacks of "previous characters and iconic moments". Will Gompertz, arts editor of BBC News, gave the film four stars out of five, writing "Rian Johnson [...] has not ruined your Christmas with a turkey. His gift to you is a cracker, a blockbuster movie packed with invention, wit, and action galore." The unpredictability of the plot was appreciated by reviewers such as Alex Leadbeater of Screen Rant, who commented specifically that the death of Snoke was "the best movie twist in years". Conversely, Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote that the film "comes off as a work that's ironed out, flattened down, appallingly purified". Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail gave the film two stars out of four, saying it suffered from too many new additions and adding, "as it seeks to uphold a giant cultural legacy, this unfolding trilogy struggles to maintain a balance that often seems just out of reach." Owen Gleiberman of Variety criticized the film for being too derivative of the past films, noting "it's now repeating things that have already been repeated", becoming "an official monument to nostalgia". George Lucas, who was not involved with the film's production, described The Last Jedi as "beautifully made" shortly after its release. His reaction to Star Wars: The Force Awakens was generally more negative. ### Audience reception Audience reception measured by scientific polling methods was highly positive. Audiences polled by CinemaScore during the opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, and those at PostTrak gave the film an 89% overall positive score, a 79% "definite recommend", and a rare five-star rating. SurveyMonkey determined that 89% of its polled audience graded the film positively. User-generated scores at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic received considerable coverage for being more negative. Audience scores on such sites require only registration and do not ensure that contributing voters have seen the film. Several reviewers speculated that coordinated vote brigading from internet groups and bots contributed to the low scores, including analysis provided by Quartz and Bleeding Cool. After initially rejecting tampering claims, Rotten Tomatoes later said in 2019 that The Last Jedi had been "seriously targeted" by a review-bombing campaign. Scott Mendelson of Forbes labeled the negative reaction "alleged", saying it was based on "easily trolled online user polls", and he criticized Disney for placating the "vocal minority" in its approach to the sequel, The Rise of Skywalker. The Last Jedi was also characterized by reviewers as divisive among audiences. Emily VanDerWerff of Vox found that dissatisfied fans saw the film as too progressive, disliked its humor, plot, or character arcs, or felt betrayed that it ignored fan theories. Other reviewers made similar observations. Particularly divisive was the reveal that Rey's parents are insignificant; many fans had expected her to be Luke's daughter or to share a lineage with another character from the original trilogy. There was also sentiment that Snoke's character was underdeveloped and that Luke's actions contradicted his previous heroic portrayal. Reviewers claimed that fan theories were held so strongly among some viewers that it was difficult for them to accept different stories, but they noted that other viewers appreciated the film's action, tone, and deviation from Star Wars tradition. #### Harassment The casting of Asian-American actress Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico spurred both a racial and misogynistic backlash against the film, including sexist and racist commentary about both Tran and her character. Tran was accused of representing "forced diversity" imposed by "social justice warriors" because of her race. After facing extensive harassment over her ethnicity and appearance, Tran quit social media. The incident highlighted the challenges faced by people of color who are in Star Wars. Tran was the first woman of color to have a lead role in a Star Wars film, and similarly John Boyega faced the same type of abuse when he was cast in The Force Awakens. After leaving social media, director Rian Johnson and co-stars Mark Hamill and John Boyega defended Tran against the harassment she received. ### Accolades ## Sequel The Last Jedi was followed by The Rise of Skywalker, the conclusion of the sequel trilogy. Despite a mixed critical reception, The Rise of Skywalker was a financial success.

Girl in the Flower Dress

"Girl in the Flower Dress" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., it follows Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they investigate the disappearance of a man with pyrokinetic abilities. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. The episode was written by Brent Fletcher and directed by Jesse Bochco. Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, starring alongside Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge. Louis Ozawa Changchien portrays the super-powered man Chan Ho Yin, while Ruth Negga is introduced as Raina—the titular "girl in the flower dress". In addition, to support the episode's Hong Kong setting, actor Tzi Ma appears in a guest role as a Hong Kong agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Jeremy Zuckerman contributed performances on Chinese instruments for the musical score. The episode brings back elements from the series' pilot, and features ties to the MCU films. "Girl in the Flower Dress" originally aired on ABC on October 22, 2013, and was watched by 11.16 million viewers within a week. The episode received a mixed critical response. It was praised for being more mature than previous episodes and for featuring a Marvel-like superhero, but also described as "perfunctory" and "mellow" by some critics. ## Plot In Hong Kong, street performer Chan Ho Yin is convinced by the mysterious Raina to reveal his secret pyrokinetic abilities. When his S.H.I.E.L.D. monitor, Agent Quan Chen, discovers him missing the next day, Agent Phil Coulson and his team of agents are tasked with finding him. Quan reveals that Chan's location and abilities were leaked by the hacktivist group Rising Tide. Skye, a new civilian recruit and S.H.I.E.L.D. trainee, was once a member of the Rising Tide. She traces the hack that released the information back to Miles Lydon, her secret boyfriend and Rising Tide contact. The team goes to Texas to confront Lydon, but Skye reaches him first; the two are caught together by Agent Melinda May and are taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. Skye tries to defend them both, but turns on Lydon when the team finds evidence that he was paid for the information. The team tracks the buyer, Raina, to a Project Centipede facility in Hong Kong, where they are draining Chan's fire-resistant platelets against his will, to use as stabilizers for the Extremis serum within their super-soldiers. Chan, angry with this betrayal and with S.H.I.E.L.D. for constricting him, attacks both. He kills, among others, Quan and the Centipede head doctor Debbie. Realizing that Chan can't be reasoned with, Coulson and May inject him with a large dose of Extremis, causing him to explode. Lydon, convinced that what he did is harming people, helps by using his hacking skills to direct the blast through the ventilation and out the top of the building, while the others escape to safety. Coulson releases Lydon after fitting him with a S.H.I.E.L.D. bracelet that prevents technology use. Coulson then confronts Skye about her true motivation for joining S.H.I.E.L.D., and she explains that she is searching for information on her parents, who she believes are tied to S.H.I.E.L.D. in some way. Coulson agrees to let her stay on the team and to help her in her search, but makes her wear a bracelet like Lydon's. In an end tag, Raina visits a member of Centipede in prison and asks him to contact the "Clairvoyant". ## Production ### Development and writing Marvel Television announced in October 2013 that the fifth episode of the series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was titled "Girl in the Flower Dress", written by Brent Fletcher and directed by Jesse Bochco. The episode was originally set in Japan, with a Japanese guest character. After testing filming at Los Angeles' Little Tokyo as a stand-in for Japan, the crew decided that this would not work well enough and the episode was re-written to feature a Chinese character so filming could take place in Los Angeles' Chinatown instead. The episode's end tag scene was originally meant to include Raina meeting with Ian Quinn, a villain from a previous episode in the season. This scene would have revealed that Quinn is a member of Centipede, but the writers felt it was too soon in the season to reveal this connection. The character Edison Po was created to be used instead. Fletcher said that Quinn is "kind of a sane guy, to a certain degree [w]hereas Po is a little creepy". Speaking to the exchange between Coulson and Skye when he catches her with Miles, Fletcher spoke to the "underlying bond" that was developing between the two despite the situation, with Fletcher adding the relationship was "a real underpinning of the show". ### Casting Marvel confirmed in September 2013 that the episode would star main cast members Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Brett Dalton as Grant Ward, Chloe Bennet as Skye, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, and Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons. They also announced the episode's guest cast, including Louis Ozawa Changchien as Renshu Tseng, Ruth Negga as Raina, Austin Nichols as Miles Lydon, Shannon Lucio as Debbie, Tzi Ma as Agent Quan Chen, and Cullen Douglas as Edison Po. The name of Changchien's character was later revealed to actually be Chan Ho Yin. Changchien speaks fluent Japanese but does not speak Cantonese, so after his character was changed to Chinese to support the episode's new setting the actor had a few days before shooting to learn his new lines phonetically. Ma previously guest starred on another Joss Whedon-created series, Dollhouse. Lucio reprises her role from "Pilot", appearing again as the Centipede doctor, Debbie. Jimmy O. Yang cameos in the episode. ### Filming and visual effects Filming occurred from August 30 to September 11, 2013. The opening Hong Kong scene was shot in Los Angeles' Chinatown. Magician Gregory Wilson was brought to set to assist Changchien with hand movement and placement to make his magic "believable". The Centipede lab was shot at the Los Angeles Stock Exchange Building. Chan Ho Yin's fire abilities were achieved through practical and visual effects. LED lights were used during filming to get the proper interactive lighting from the fire that would be added digitally. Special effects supervisor Gary D'Amico lit a boulder attached to a zip line on fire to simulate the fireballs, allowing visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpack to composite the content together and enhance it further with additional digital fire simulations. It took about six hours for Changchien's burn prosthetics to be applied. ### Music Composer Bear McCreary wanted to introduce Chinese instruments into the score to support the Hong Kong setting, and collaborated with composer Jeremy Zuckerman who played the guzheng for the episode. McCreary found "the nearly ten-minute long action scene" at the climax of the episode to be "the real beast of this episode" and "one of the most challenging pieces [he had] composed yet for the series", calling it "pretty chaotic" and noting the difficulty the orchestra had in recording it. The episode also saw the return of several major themes, most notably the Centipede theme from "Pilot". McCreary refrained from using the theme until Raina is revealed to be working for Centipede, at which point he relies on the theme for the rest of the episode, playing it on "ominous low strings [with] the creepy bells stat[ing] it more quickly above". ### Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-ins The Extremis virus from Iron Man 3 (2013) and "Pilot" reappears in this episode, and is stabilized using Chan's platelets to prevent it from exploding in future episodes. The explosive that Coulson uses to enter the Centipede facility is similar to the one he used in Iron Man (2008), and he strikes a similar pose when using it. ## Release ### Broadcast "Girl in the Flower Dress" was first aired in the United States on ABC on October 22, 2013. It was aired alongside the US broadcast in Canada on CTV, while it was first aired in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 on October 25, 2013. It premiered on the Seven Network in Australia on October 23, 2013. ### Home media The episode, along with the rest of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s first season, was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 9, 2014. Bonus features include behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a blooper reel. On November 20, 2014, the episode became available for streaming on Netflix. ## Reception ### Ratings In the United States the episode received a 2.7/8 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 2.7 percent of all households, and 8 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 7.39 million viewers. The Canadian broadcast gained 1.76 million viewers, the third highest for that day and the ninth highest for the week. The United Kingdom premiere had 2.52 million viewers and in Australia, the premiere had 1.6 million viewers, including 0.7 million timeshifted viewers. Within a week of its release, the episode was watched by 11.16 million U.S. viewers, above the season average of 8.31. Following the episode's release, Screen Rant's Andre Dyce reviewed the series' ratings performance so far, saying over 7 million viewers is "still a far cry from trouble on their own", but as the show "continues to slip in both viewers and demographics, the trend could become problematic." He acknowledged that the drop in viewers from the series premiere, which had "some of the highest ratings in recent history" for ABC, to the second episode was to be expected, but the continued decrease in viewership since then was a sign of trouble for the series. He said, "A rocky start is to be expected, but by this point in the season, most procedural dramas tend to have hit their pace both in structure and audience." Dyce noted that fans of the MCU films had been expected to provide a "healthy viewership" for the series, and "enthusiasm seems to be waning" among those fans now. ### Critical response Eric Goldman of IGN graded the episode 8.1 out of 10, calling it "pretty damn busy and quite fun", highlighting Skye's character development and the drama it caused, as well as the connections to "Pilot". He praised the "dark, but also necessary" deaths depicted, and concluded that the series "is beginning to build its story in an intriguing way." James Hunt at Den of Geek found the episode to be "mostly, quite good," praising Skye's story, the idea that S.H.I.E.L.D. "might actually be as bad as the people they're trying to fight", and the character of Raina, who he said was "the closest thing this series has yet had to an original, interesting idea". Hunt criticized the dialogue, and found the character of Chan Ho Yin to be unrealistic, stating, "I loved the fact that they kind of, sort of, dredged up an actual Marvel character to use" but the character "bore almost no resemblance to an actual person". The Guardian's Graeme Virtue also criticized some of the dialogue, but enjoyed the character of Raina and the potential for her to return. He hoped that now Skye's secret has been revealed, "perhaps some of the other agents will get their time in the spotlight." Marc Bernardin of The Hollywood Reporter found the episode to be better than the first three but said it "wasn't as good" as "Eye Spy", explaining that he did not care about Scorch by the end of the episode and found most of it to be "just so very ... perfunctory." David Sims of The A.V. Club graded the episode a "B−", stating, "I've defended this show against complaints that it's terminally bland, but formulaic material like this really does expose its flaws. It's definitely not an unwatchably bad show." He did praise the visual effects in the episode, saying, "This week's episode had a couple of very nicely-staged set pieces and, especially for broadcast TV, some excellent special effects. Fire is hard to pull off, even in a blockbuster movie, but this episode revolved around a character ... who can generate and manipulate fire, and everything he did looked pretty cool." Morgan Jeffrey at Digital Spy scored the episode 3 stars out of 5, calling it a "slow burn", and concluding that "Skye's arc is easily the weakest aspect of "Girl in the Flower Dress" but there's a decent villain and a strong climax to help compensate." Will Salmon of SFX also scored the episode 3 stars out of 5, stating "a shade more mature than the initial installments. It's a welcome growth, and it does feel like Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting itself together. They found the right levels of warmth and humanity last week, and humour and drama this time around. Now they just need to start going on some genuinely compelling missions against decent enemies." Jim Steranko, known for his work on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., felt the series "has settled into a pragmatic, if sometimes predictable comfort zone", and said that the episode "delivered enough premise, pace, and patter to get its audience through a mellow hour — and set the bar higher for the rest of the season."

Ludwig Augustinsson

Swedish footballer (born 1994)

Hans Carl Ludwig Augustinsson (born 21 April 1994) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Pro League club Anderlecht and the Sweden national team. A product of Brommapojkarna's academy, he played two senior seasons with the club before leaving for IFK Göteborg in 2013. With an injury-filled first year, his breakthrough had to wait until the 2014 season, in which he was named the best left back of the campaign. A move to Copenhagen followed in January 2015 for an estimated record fee of €1.4 million. He has ended up being club champion twice, with Copenhagen in the 2015–16 season and 2016–17 season, and runner-up three times with his teams; in Superettan 2012, Allsvenskan 2014 and in the 2014–15 Danish Superliga. He won one domestic cup title with IFK Göteborg 2012–13 and three consecutive domestic cup titles with Copenhagen in 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17. He joined Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in summer 2017, spending four seasons with the German club before moving to La Liga club Sevilla. Augustinsson was part of the Sweden under-21 squad that qualified and later won the European U21 Championship in 2015, playing all five games in the main tournament and scoring in the penalty shoot-out against Portugal in the final. He made his first appearance for the senior national team in January 2015, and was part of Sweden's Euro 2016, 2018 FIFA World Cup, and Euro 2020 squads. ## Club career ### IF Brommapojkarna Augustinsson started his football career at age six with Stockholm side IF Brommapojkarna. He was notable throughout his youth years, being the captain for the team's U17 squad and having trials with clubs such as Borussia Mönchengladbach and Sampdoria. After advancing through the youth ranks, he earned a spot in the first team as a 16-year-old in 2011 and made his debut in Superettan later that year. With four appearances in his debut season, including his senior debut in the domestic cup, he came to play almost every game the following year, ending up with two goals and four assists. With two senior seasons and 30 league games for Brommapojkarna, Augustinsson moved to IFK Göteborg in January 2013, turning down offers from several other professional clubs. ### IFK Göteborg The move to top team IFK Göteborg went well and Augustinsson played most of the games during the pre-season. When Svenska Cupen began in March, he was first-choice as left-back and played two games in the group stage. IFK Göteborg later won the cup against Djurgården in the final. Just a couple of weeks before the start of 2013 Allsvenskan, he picked up a knee injury while playing for Sweden under-21s, which kept him out of action for five months. On his Allsvenskan debut on 25 August 2013 in an away match against Malmö FF he suffered another injury, which meant that he would be out for the rest of the season. Augustinsson came back from his second injury in time for the first competitive match in 2014, against Värnamo in Svenska Cupen in early March. He scored his first goal in Allsvenskan on 24 September in the 2014 season, when IFK Göteborg won away against Örebro SK by 4–3. He played 28 league games that season, without being substituted, and assisted for three goals. He later earned a spot in Allsvenskan's Team of the Year 2014 – voted by supporters of the SvenskaFans.com website. ### Copenhagen Augustinsson transferred to F.C. Copenhagen on 5 January 2015 after signing a 4.5-year contract on 6 June 2014. The deal was made so he could be the replacement for Pierre Bengtsson at the left-back position when Bengtsson's contract ended with Copenhagen on 31 December 2014. The transfer fee was estimated at 13 million SEK (approximately €1.4 million), which made him the most expensive wing-back ever bought from Sweden. #### 2014–15 season Having played every exhibition game during the winter break for Copenhagen, Augustinsson made his Superliga-debut against Vestsjælland when the season restarted in February. He assisted the first goal of the game and scored later himself, playing a key role in the team's 2–0 victory. Ekstra Bladet described it as "the dream debut" and manager Ståle Solbakken said it was the best debut since his own debut for Copenhagen against rivals Brøndby back in the year 2000. He came to play 15 league games during the spring season, helping the team reach the second place in the league. He was noted for six assists, which placed him third in the assist-table and which made him the defender with the most assists of the 2014–15 season – despite playing less than half of the games. Defensively Copenhagen only conceded goals in six games, with many experts claiming that he was one of the best players of the spring season. Augustinsson played regularly in the Danish Cup as well throughout the spring, and scored a match winning 1–0 goal from a free kick against Esbjerg in the second game of the semifinals. Copenhagen later won the final in May against Vestsjælland, with him providing an assist in the team's 3–2 win. The cup win was his second title of his career and his first for the club. #### 2015–16 season The 2015–16 season was Augustinsson's most successful season in his career, winning his first domestic league title and securing his third domestic cup victory. Being rumored with moves to top teams, such as Liverpool, after winning the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Augustinsson stayed in Denmark and played his first complete season for Copenhagen. In the league, Augustinsson played every minute of the first 30 games, until he was rested for the final two away games when the trophy was already secured in the middle of May. He assisted to nine goals throughout the campaign, placing him as tied leader with Nicolaj Thomsen and Rasmus Falk. Ekstra Bladet ranked him as one of the five best players for Copenhagen, awarding 5 of 6 stars for his performance, citing an improvement compared to the spring part of the season. #### 2016–17 season During the Copenhagen derby at Brøndby on 17 April 2017, Augustinsson had dead rats thrown at him by home supporters as he prepared to take a corner kick. Play was stopped and Copenhagen players attempted to kick the rats off the pitch before stewards arrived to pick up the rodents. ### Werder Bremen On 30 January 2017, Werder Bremen announced the signing of Augustinsson for the forthcoming 2017–18 Bundesliga season. In August 2018, upon his return from holidays after the 2018 FIFA World Cup, he agreed a contract extension with Werder Bremen. On 6 July 2020, Werder Bremen played 1. FC Heidenheim in the second leg of the Bundesliga relegation playoff, having tied the first leg 0–0. In the 90+4th minute, Augustinsson scored to give Werder Bremen a 2–1 lead. They match ended 2–2, and Bremen stayed in the Bundesliga on away goals. ### Sevilla Augustinsson moved to La Liga club Sevilla in August 2021. #### Loan to Aston Villa On 11 July 2022, Augustinsson joined Premier League club Aston Villa on a season-long loan, with the English club having the option to make the transfer permanent at the end of the loan. Augustinsson made his debut for Aston Villa on 2 October 2022, an away Premier League draw against Leeds United, starting the match due to an injury to Lucas Digne. Augustinsson himself, however, would suffer a hamstring injury in the first half of the match and was substituted. #### Loan to Anderlecht Augustinsson again departed Sevilla on loan in August 2023, joining Belgian Pro League club Anderlecht for the 2023–24 season. ### Anderlecht On 6 August 2024, Anderlecht announced they had permanently signed Augustinsson from Sevilla on a three-year deal. On 17 August 2024, he scored his first goal for Anderlecht, in a 3-1 away win against KV Mechelen. ## International career ### Youth national teams Augustinsson represented Sweden under-17s and the under-19s 21 times between 2009 and 2013. He has made 19 caps for Sweden under-21s since 2012 and is still eligible to play for the team. His biggest success came for the under-21 team, when they manage to qualify to the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship and later win the tournament, whilst being a key player in Håkan Ericson's squad. In 2016, Augustinsson was denied joining Sweden under-23s squad for the 2016 Olympics in August by his club Copenhagen. #### European U21 Championship Sweden managed to qualify to the European U21 Championship in Czech Republic for the first time since 2004 after a successful qualification. In an exhibition game against Portugal U21 in early 2013, Augustinsson injured his knee and was later out for the rest of the year, which meant he missed most of the qualification games. He was however Håkan Ericson's first choice at the left-back position when he was available and was part of the squad in the games of 2014. Augustinsson played every game in the group stage of the main tournament. Before the second game against England, in which Sweden lost, interest from Liverpool was reported. Sweden however managed to advance from the group, thanks to winning against Italy and drawing against Portugal. After knocking out Denmark in the semi-final by 4–1, Sweden were to play Portugal again in the final. In a goalless match, the first kept clean sheet of Sweden in the tournament, the final had to be decided by a penalty shoot-out. Augustinsson scored his penalty and Sweden won by 4–3. He received international praise for his final performance, described as "outstanding". He earned a spot in The Guardian's 'Team of the Tournament'. ### Senior national team Augustinsson debuted with the senior team in January 2015, when he started both games in their friendlies against the Ivory Coast and Finland. Sportbladet rated him as the best Swedish player of those two games. He received his second call-up in March 2016, playing 90 minutes in Sweden's 2–1 loss against Turkey. On 11 May, Erik Hamrén announced that Augustinsson was going to feature the Euro 2016 squad. #### 2016–present He remained as unused substitute, behind Martin Olsson, throughout Sweden's disappointing group stage at Euro 2016. Following Hamréns resignation and Janne Andersson's arrival later that summer, Augustinsson got bigger competition when Oscar Wendt re-joined the squad after conflicts with the former head coach. With Andersson's experimenting of the two veterans at the left-back position in the beginning of the World Cup qualification, Augustinsson opened possibilities to join the Sweden under-21 squad, for which he still was eligible to play. Andersson however kept him in the senior squad and Augustinsson came to play the final 30 minutes against Bulgaria in the qualifier in October. In May 2018 he was named in Sweden's 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. ## Style of play Augustinsson is often referred as a modern wing-back, whose qualities is in his offense, possession, pace and a good left foot. He started out as a central midfielder, but changed position to left-back at age eleven due to tough competition in the midfield. He has always been a specialist in set pieces and takes a lot of corners and freekicks. His role models on the football pitch is former left back Gareth Bale and David Alaba. ## Personal life Ludwig is the firstborn and grew up in a sports-oriented family in the central parts of Stockholm. His father Hans played football in Swedish Division 1 and his mother Elisabeth played volleyball on an international level for Sweden. His younger brother Jonathan Augustinsson also plays professional football as a left-back. The family was part of a nationwide debate in the summer of 2015, about more Swedish national players coming from well-educated families in wealthier neighborhoods. Critics have stated that players like Augustinsson are successful today because of the amount of money the families invest in private training sessions. Together with his good friends and former teammates from his time in Brommapojkarna, John Guidetti and Simon Tibbling, Augustinsson does not drink alcohol. Ludwig attended primary schools Aspuddens skola and Nybohovsskolan, both with focus on football. Although he has been playing football his entire life, he tried out ice hockey in his youth and was part of AIK IF. He is a lifelong supporter of Manchester United and dreams of playing for the club one day. ### Modeling In December 2015, Augustinsson featured in NLY Man's Christmas campaign "The Next Generation". ## Career statistics ### Club ### International - Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, and the score column indicates the score after each Augustinsson goal. ## Honours IFK Göteborg - Svenska Cupen: 2012–13 Copenhagen - Danish Superliga: 2015–16, 2016–17 - Danish Cup: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 Sweden U21 - UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 2015

A Little Kiss

"A Little Kiss" is the two-part fifth season premiere of the American television drama series Mad Men. Officially counted as the first two episodes of the season and the 53rd and 54th episodes of the series. It was written by series creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner, and directed by Jennifer Getzinger. It originally aired on the AMC channel in the United States on March 25, 2012. The premiere concerns on Don Draper's fortieth birthday, opening on Memorial Day weekend 1966. The office prepares for Don's surprise party while also dealing with the Heinz Beans account recently brought into the agency. The relationship between Megan and Don turns bitter after she performs a sensuous dance during the party, while Peggy and Pete both suffer through professional conflict with their co-workers. "A Little Kiss" was the first Mad Men episode to air in 17 months following heated contract negotiations between AMC and Matthew Weiner. A consequence of the hiatus saw the show switch from airing in the Summer/Fall to the Spring for the remainder of its run. Christopher Stanley (Henry Francis), Jessica Paré (Megan Draper), and Jay R. Ferguson (Stan Rizzo) were all added as main cast members beginning with the premiere. The theme of the episode relates to the boredom and discontent among the main characters as they settle into their rather uneventful lives. The episode was well received by television critics and, at a runtime of 90 minutes, is the longest episode of Mad Men to date. It was also the highest-rated episode, with 3.54 million viewers, a substantial jump over the fourth-season average owing in large part to the lengthy time between seasons. ## Plot On Memorial Day weekend in 1966, on the street below the Young & Rubicam office, African American protesters are picketing in support of equal-opportunity employment. Several employees lean out the office window and drop bags of water on them. The protesters and journalists then enter the office to catch the employees ready with water-filled bags. At his new apartment, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) cooks breakfast for Sally (Kiernan Shipka), Bobby (Mason Vale Cotton) and Gene. He only gets to see them for a short time before he returns them to Betty and Henry's impressive (but quite old) home. Don is now married to Megan, and turning forty (Dick Whitman's birthday having been more than six months earlier and Don Draper's about to occur). The next day, Megan, who now works under Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) in creative, is planning a big surprise party for his birthday. Peggy, knowing Don's aversion to birthdays, is reserved about the idea, but Megan insists that no one could dislike parties. Roger Sterling (John Slattery) shows Don and Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) a newspaper article shaming Y\&R for the water-bomb stunt. Roger suggests running a mock ad touting Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as an equal-opportunity employer. Pete arrives at a lunch meeting with representatives from Mohawk Airlines and unexpectedly finds Roger sharing drinks with them. Roger had spied on Pete's appointment calendar. Pete is overcome with anger over Roger's antics, especially since the charismatic Roger makes a much better impression. During a presentation for Heinz, Peggy pitches an ambitious, cutting-edge "ballet of beans" ad, which does not impress the Heinz executives. Don enters to assure the company men that his firm will think of a new pitch. Peggy protests that he did not fight hard enough for her idea, and complains to Stan that Don has changed. On the evening of the surprise party (which is inadvertently given away by Roger), Megan presents her birthday gift, she sings a French song, "Zou Bisou Bisou", and dances provocatively. The guests clap and whistle, although Don seems unimpressed. Peggy, while talking to Don and Megan, makes a snide remark about having to return to the office later, since she is the only one really working on the weekend. After the party, Don, tired of the day, collapses on the bed fully clothed. Megan asks if he enjoyed the party; he tells her not to waste money on such things. Indifferent to his mood, she teases and kisses him, wanting to talk about the party. He declines and insists on going to sleep, so she leaves the room upset. It is also revealed that, since the time of the last episode, Don has told Megan about his real identity and past. The next morning, Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) finds a man's wallet in a cab. Inspecting it, he becomes fascinated with a photo of a young woman named Delores. He later telephones the wallet's owner but reaches Delores, the owner's girlfriend. He flirts with her on the phone, and she promises the wallet be retrieved. The owner of the wallet comes to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in order to retrieve it. Lane secretly removes Delores' photo and the owner does not notice. Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) has given birth to a son named Kevin, who is now a few months old. Her mother, Gail Holloway (Christine Estabrook), has come to stay with her to help with the baby but constantly argues about Joan returning to work, saying that Joan's husband is a doctor. Insisting that the company needs her, Joan does not want to break her promise to go back. Gail shows Joan the company's newspaper ad and claims that it is evidence that they intend to replace her. Joan stops by the office with baby Kevin in tow. In Lane's office, she tearfully asks if they are planning to replace her. He assures her that the ad is a poor joke and that everyone is eagerly awaiting her return. Megan overhears some particularly lewd comments from Harry about her dance, eventually ranting to Peggy about the office's cynical culture. She tells her that Don did not appreciate the surprise party. Peggy apologizes for her rude comment at the party and Megan goes home early. Peggy goes to Don's office to apologize to him as well. After hearing that Megan went home early, Don also leaves for the day. At the apartment, he asks Megan why she left work. She then disrobes and angrily cleans up the mess left from the party in just her black bra and panties. Don tries to initiate sex, but Megan says no and forcefully pushes him away several times. Don grabs her roughly, saying she "[wants] it so bad right now", and the two have sex on the floor. Afterwards, Megan complains that she is not liked at the office and wonders if she ought to stop working there. Don tells her he does not care about work, he only cares about her. Pete is given Harry's office, which is larger and has windows to impress his clients. As revenge for Roger crashing his earlier meeting with Mohawk Airlines, Peter later tricks Roger into going on a 6:00 a.m. meeting with Coca-Cola that doesn't exist. At the office the next morning, Don and Megan enter the reception area to find a large group of African-American women and men. They are responding to the newspaper ad, not aware it was a joke. The receptionist interrupts with a piece of traditional African art, sent from Y\&R. Realizing that the applicants have seen the artefact, Cooper sends Lane into the reception area. He dismisses the men, by saying they are only seeking secretaries, and collects resumes from the women. ## Production "A Little Kiss" was directed by Jennifer Getzinger and written by series creator Matthew Weiner. This was the second episode to be solely written by Weiner and directed by Getzinger, the other being the fourth season episode "The Suitcase". Although the first to be aired of the season, it was actually produced after the following episode "Tea Leaves", due to January Jones' pregnancy. Despite the long break, 85 percent of the crew from the fourth season returned for the fifth. "There's a sense of boredom, there's a sense of anxiety, there's a sense of discontent with the contentedness", Weiner said, in regards to the positions of the characters at the beginning of the new season. Weiner considered the main question of the first episode "What is Don Draper like when he is happy?", with the twist of the first episode being Don's lack of interest in work. The episode was expanded from its regular runtime of 47 minutes into a 90-minute episode aired over two hours, after Weiner realized the story broken for the premiere was "85 percent too big". "We just put everything into it that we had. I think when you see it in its completeness, you'll get it." Contract negotiations between the end of the fourth and fifth season led Matthew Weiner to quit during the downtime between Season 4 and Season 5. AMC and Weiner were negotiating, with AMC asking Weiner to cut two main cast members every season starting with the fifth, a shorter running time to make room for more commercials, and more product placement within the series. During the negotiations, Weiner said, "First of all, the number that's been published is not true. Second of all, I offered to have less money, to save the cast, and to leave the show in the running time that it's supposed to be. The harder that I've fought for the show, the more money that they've offered me." After conversations with the network stalled, Weiner gave up hope on returning to the series. "I quit ... during the negotiation. I had come to terms with the fact that it was over ... In the most protective and demanding way, I did not feel that it was worth going back to work to make a show that was not the show I'd been making. I had this argument with my wife, where I said: 'You don't understand - it's not just a matter of changing the show. I don't want to go to work and do it different. I just figured out how it works' ... [But] in the end, everything worked out." AMC eventually relented, signing a new deal with Weiner that keeps him on board as show runner for the fifth and sixth season, with a strong possibility for a final seventh season. Weiner explained that the delay in the airing of the series and the 17-month break between the fourth and fifth season was not his decision. Although, he did admit that the plan to keep Mad Men off the air in 2011 was in place before the negotiations. He said, "There was a plan in place in 2010 that the show would not be on the air in 2011. You don't just throw in Breaking Bad because Mad Men is not available. They have four shows. They do them one at a time, and God bless them for the fact that Breaking Bad got an audience, because of where they were this summer. I'm very happy about that, because people should see that show." ### "The Look of Love" song change The original screener of "A Little Kiss" sent out to critics included the use of the Dusty Springfield song "The Look of Love". Critics soon pointed out that "The Look of Love" was not released until 1967, six months after the time that "A Little Kiss" takes place. When critics pointed this out to Weiner, he sent out a letter to critics, which was reprinted in many publications and websites. Weiner's letter included him telling reporters that, "Although we take license for artistic purposes with the end-title music, we never want the source music to break from the time period we are trying to recreate. As someone who has a deep appreciation for details, I want to thank you for bringing this to our attention. It's a privilege to work on a show that generates an ongoing dialog with you and our amazing fans so please — keep those notes and comments coming\!" The 1966 Dusty Springfield song "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" was used during the end titles, though this was not a replacement for "The Look of Love". An article by The New York Times indicated that "The Look of Love" was originally played by the band at Don Draper's fortieth birthday party. ### Young & Rubicam protest incident In an unusual departure for the series, the opening scene of the season premiere was largely a re-creation of a true event that occurred at the Young & Rubicam advertising agency. The original story detailing the event was published on Page 1 of the May 28, 1966, edition of The New York Times. The "Goldwater '68" poster seen in the window of Young & Rubicam during "A Little Kiss" was also present on the day of the real event, including another poster that read "If you want money, get a job" (echoed by one character's scream of "Get a job\!" at the protesters in the premiere). The incident was notable for water bombs thrown from the executive floor, which housed the Young & Rubicam advertising agency. The two water balloons struck 19-year-old James Hill, who slipped and fell on pavement, but was not seriously hurt and 9-year-old Mike Robinson. His mother, Mrs. Esme Robinson, along with other Black protesters and a New York Times reporter, came to the executive floor to complain. Mike Robinson, Esme Robinson, protester Vivian Harris, and Times reporter John Kifner were all portrayed in the opening scene. The dialogue in the scene was also taken directly from the original article. Vivian Harris originally said the, "And they call us savages" line, which television critic Mike Hale called "unfortunately hamhanded" and fellow critic Matt Zoller Seitz called "a terrible line" when they reviewed the premiere, apparently unaware that it was a quote. On the day of the real event, Young & Rubicam office manager Frank Coppola apologized to the women for the incident, saying that "we have 1,600 people in this building and I can't control all of them. I've ordered all of the windows closed and I have men patrolling all the floors to make sure this doesn't happen again." Coppola's assurance that the windows were closed is similar to character Don Draper's idea of "Our windows don't open" in Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's mocking want ad seen later in the episode. After the head researcher for Mad Men, Allison Hill, found the original article, she handed it to Weiner, who was "blown away". "I just loved the level of outrage from the participants in the protest. It was so eloquently said, and it struck to the heart of the conflict. They were being lampooned. This was a very serious issue for them and a joke to everyone else". The New York Times reporter, John Kifner, does not remember the event, mentioning that he did "a lot of poverty and racial stuff." He could not remember the original article, but was delighted to hear that his story inspired the premiere. The current chief executive of Young & Rubicam, David Sable, did not know whether the original employees were fired, but found their actions "completely repulsive and not in line with the values of our company". ### "Zou Bisou Bisou" The episode includes a scene where Megan Draper serenades Don with a rendition of "Zou Bisou Bisou", which is a French Yé-yé song originally released in 1960 by Gillian Hills. Matthew Weiner prepared Jessica Paré for her performance and gave her a detailed list of notes to help her. She worked with choreographer Marianne Ann Kellogg during three six-hour sessions to work out the dance routine. It took the actress about a week and a half to learn the routine. She recorded the song in a studio. Paré said to reporters the day after the original episode airing, "It's been gathering a lot of really great attention. I can't believe I'm new on the show and one of the first things I have to do is an entire song and dance routine for the entire cast of Mad Men." Weiner called the dance a symbol of the oncoming generation gap and "open sexuality". Alexandra Kaptik of The Wall Street Journal said "One of the most talked-about scenes...was Megan Draper's sultry performance..." Slate's Haglund described the song as "The centerpiece of the Mad Men season 5 premiere". Matthew Perpetua of Rolling Stone described the scene as "a highlight of the two-hour episode", stating that "Megan sings...for her husband, who can barely suppress his embarrassment and discomfort." Bill Keveney of USA Today said "Paré...had fans buzzing...with her character's sexy rendition..." Patrick Kevin Day of the Los Angeles Times stated that the scene "...has people talking", describing it as follows: "Pare...serenades her husband...with the sexy, slinky number "Zou Bisou Bisou" while wearing a barely there miniskirt." Lori Rackl of the Chicago Sun-Times noted that the performance was the talk the premiere and said: "Showing a lot of leg — and chutzpah — the new Mrs. Megan Draper (Jessica Paré) delivered a sexy serenade...purring the early '60s French pop song "Zou Bisou Bisou." The...performance made the unflappable Don Draper blush and his co-workers' jaws hit the floor..." Lauren Moraski of CBS News said "Probably one of the best scenes...took place when the new Mrs. Don Draper (Jessica Paré as Megan) sang an awkward-turned-sultry version of the French '60s pop song "Zou Bisou Bisou"..." Erin Carlson of The Hollywood Reporter described Paré's performance as "bizarre, come-hither burlesque", noting that she "...stunned partygoers who openly ogled her while the ad exec (Jon Hamm) squirmed with polite embarrassment." Ethan Sacks of the New York Daily News described the scene as "The sexy scene in which Megan serenades Don...with the song and transitions into a lap dance..." ## Reception ### Ratings "A Little Kiss" was the most watched episode of Mad Men to that point, with 3.5 million viewers and 1.6 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic. Before the fifth season, Mad Men had never got above a 1.00 in the 18-49 demographic. The premiere's core viewer demographic was adults aged 25–54 at 1.7 million viewers. This was an increase from the same core group during the season four premiere at 1.4 million viewers. Charlie Collier, AMC's president, said that "For each of the five Mad Men seasons Matthew Weiner and his team have crafted a beautifully told story and each season a larger audience has responded; a rare accomplishment. We couldn't be more proud of this program, the brilliant writers, cast and crew, and the entire team on each side of the camera." ### Critical reception "A Little Kiss" received very approving reviews from the television critic community. USA Today writer Robert Bianco gave it four out of four stars, praising the high level of achievement in the writing and directing as well as the cast led by the "shockingly under-Emmyed Jon Hamm, playing a man who is his own deeply flawed invention and letting us see the effort and pain behind the charade. But there's not a weak performer on view Sunday, from the preternaturally assured Kiernan Shipka as Sally to old pro Robert Morse as Bert." TV Guide critic Matt Roush opined that "the civil rights movement provides ironic bookends for the episode, reflecting how insular the universe is for these smug but deeply flawed purveyors of the American dream, none more memorable and maddening than Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the alpha hunk who appears to have it all. But some things never change in the world of Mad Men: the high quality of acting, writing, production design and detail." Newsday reviewer Verne Gay gave it an "A" grade, citing that "Mad Men is back and back in all the right ways -- the humor, the writing, the period details, and best of all, the flawless attention to these characters and their cluttered interior worlds." Alan Sepinwall of HitFix said that "the premiere suggests that the only other show that belongs with it in the discussion for the best drama on television is the same one we were talking about last season. At the top level, there is Breaking Bad, and there is also — finally, thankfully, exceptionally — Mad Men, and then there is everything else." TV Fanatic's Dan Forcella gave the two-hour season premiere 4.5 out of 5 stars by saying, "Honestly, the first 45 minutes or so were basically just setting the scene for the new season, so it was a smart move to make this premiere two hours long. After that, though, everything began to pick up." Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club rated this episode an A− and commented on the series' take on the 1960s, saying: "The '60s are both incredibly important to the show and something almost incidental to what makes it work so well. It's a show, on the one hand, about how people deal with sweeping social change, even when it's happening way, way off their radar (as we see in the final scene of tonight's episode), but it's also a show about what it means to live through a decade." Lori Rackl of Chicago Sun-Times gave the season five premiere four stars: "After a dark and often depressing season four, it's refreshing to start things off on a more jovial, lighter note. That's not to say the premiere is devoid of angst, disappointment and drama. It's just buoyed by an unusually high amount of humor." The Los Angeles Times' Robert Lloyd spoke about the series' continued success: "It works because it's less about who we were then—it's a fantasy of who we were then, really—than about who we are now." Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times, however, was one of the very few reviewers to give the season premiere a low score: "A show that became a hit because it seemed so original has been so co-opted that it now looks like a cliché. The personalities on Mad Men don't change, but the times do. At this point, the context may be more interesting than the characters." On Twitter, The Hollywood Reporter critic Tim Goodman characterized Stanley's critique as a "bullshit ramble-review", saying that Stanley "just wants us to know she's above the material she's covering." In his review, Goodman was laudatory, saying that "the party, more than anything else, was a central defining moment of where we're going. Everything about it was different. Newer. We're not in 1960 anymore. And if you think about it, the show we all know and love is about to change as well. It's going to look different, above and beyond the characters changing." Time writer James Poniewozik wrote a cooler review saying that, "I'm glad to have Mad Men back, but "A Little Kiss" was not a great episode. Mad Men return episodes generally aren't: they take their time and do a lot of table setting." Poniewozik was simultaneously intrigued and unsettled by Megan's addition as "essentially a new female lead" and reasoned that Weiner used Megan's "unfamiliarity as an advantage and as a storytelling device. The very fact that she is an unknown quantity among these very well-known quantities may give us a chance to see everyone we think we know differently — through the eyes of a relative stranger." Chuck Barney of the Contra Costa Times said the premiere was off to a "methodical start" that reintroduced us to the "enigmatic characters" but that "Eventually, it gains traction, weaving threads of heartfelt poignancy with doses of dark humor. What hasn't changed is the quality of the endeavor. Mad Men remains a show that often feels more like literature than TV. The top-notch acting is still intact, as is the attention to aesthetic detail. So, after that excruciating delay, are we still in love with this show? Truly, deeply -- madly." David Weigard of the San Francisco Chronicle called the premiere a "stunner" and compared the character of Don Draper to legendary American characters like Jake Barnes, Charles Foster Kane, Tony Soprano, Huck Finn, Natty Bumppo, Elmer Gantry and "most of all, to F. Scott Fitzgerald's creation of Jimmy Gatz, who assumed an entirely new identity as Jay Gatsby in 1925."

National War Memorial (South Australia)

War memorial in Adelaide, South Australia

The National War Memorial (South Australia) is a monument on the north edge of the city centre of Adelaide, South Australia that commemorates South Australians who served in the First World War and those who gave their lives. It was opened in 1931. The memorial is on the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, next to the grounds of Government House. Observances are held at the site throughout the year, with major services on Anzac Day (25 April) and Remembrance Day (11 November). ## Themes The two themes of the monument – one visible on each side – show respectively the prelude and the epilogue to war, exemplifying both the willingness of youth to answer the call of duty and the sacrifices they had to make. Symbols of war itself and its participants are left out. This symbolism, according to the designers, does not represent victory in the traditional sense but a spiritual victory, in which is displayed a "willingness to serve and to sacrifice": > It is the collective personal sacrifice of victory over self which is expressed in the ... two scenes. The renunciation of all that made life sweet, of life itself, by the men who enlisted, toiled, fought, and died; by the women who waited, worked, succoured, and suffered. ## History First proposed in 1919, the memorial was funded by the Parliament of South Australia, making it the first Australian state war memorial to be confirmed after the war. The design was selected through two architectural competitions. The first competition, in 1924, produced 26 designs – all of which were lost before judging could be completed after fire destroyed the building in which they were housed. A second competition, in 1926, produced 18 entries, out of which the design by the architectural firm Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne-Smith was selected as the winner. Almost 35,000 South Australians served in the First World War. This number amounted to 8.5% of the South Australian population at the time, or 37.7% of men between the ages of 18 and 44. Of those who served, more than 5,000 South Australians died. In response to these deaths, Archibald Peake, the premier of South Australia, asked the state parliament to fund a memorial commemorating the victory and the sacrifice of those who had fought and fallen. The motion, presented in March 1919, received unanimous support in the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council. With the passing of this motion, the South Australian Government became the first in Australia to elect to build a memorial to the soldiers of the First World War. Parliament decided that the new memorial should be referred to as the "National War Memorial", even though it was to be a purely South Australian monument and in spite of the term already being used to describe the memorial to the South African War of 1899–1902. At least two perspectives have been offered as to why the term "national" was employed. First, as Donald Richardson observed, the name may have been chosen to emphasise the government's intention that the memorial should commemorate all who served during the war, not just those who came from South Australia; and second, Ken Inglis argued that the name may have reflected the perception (still held in spite of federation) that the "province is a nation". ### 1924 competition The National War Memorial Committee was formed in order to bring the proposal to fruition, and in February 1924 the committee announced an architectural competition to find the design of the new memorial. In the preamble to the conditions of entry, it was stated that the new memorial was to serve the purpose of "perpetually commemorating the Victory achieved in the Great War, 1914–1918, the Supreme and personal sacrifice of those who participated in that War, and the National effort involved in such activities". Entry was open to South Australians who were British subjects, A one-guinea entry fee was imposed and those intending to submit designs were required to file a statement of intent before 29 February 1924. The competition closed on 30 September 1924. Three assessors were nominated to judge the entries: the South Australian Architect-in-Chief, A. E. Simpson; local architect Herbert Louis Jackman (representing the South Australian Institute of Architects); and Sir William Sowden. The committee specified a budget of £25,000; figures of both £5,000 and £100,000 had been discussed. The conditions of entry stated that the memorial was to be situated at the entrance to Government House on the corner of King William Street and North Terrace, placing it just behind the existing memorial to the South African War. This location was counter to previous suggestions: a 1919 survey of architects had proposed that the memorial should be built on Montefiore Hill, and in 1923 the plans involved erecting it at the rear of Government House rather than at the front. The committee left open the form that the memorial would take, beyond stating that the memorial was not to be "utilitarian in character". Debate over the form led to the emergence of a number of suggestions, many of which were covered in the media of the day. These included Dame Nellie Melba's proposal to build a carillon of bells; a suggestion by Simpson Newland to turn Anzac Highway into a "Way of Honour" by adding triumphal arches to each end; and Walter Charles Torode's plan to build a "metal and marble" monument, 30 metres (98 feet) high, on the top of Mount Lofty with an electric car to carry people to the summit. Eventually a total of 28 architectural firms registered their intent to submit entries to the competition – a lower number than expected, possibly on account of work on proposals for the new Adelaide railway station. 26 firms submitted designs by the deadline. On 10 November 1924, before judging could be completed, the Richards Building in Currie Street was destroyed by fire, taking with it all 26 proposals. Although most of the judging had been completed before the fire, it was suggested that the committee could use what they had learned from the entrants to propose a new competition with greater clarity about the requirements led to naught. However, a 1925 letter to the Premier, John Gunn, stated that little was to be learned from the competition, since the assessors had found that none of the designs was suitable. ### 1926 competition Little progress had been made on the memorial by 1926. Although some debate occurred about the form the memorial would take, the focus of discussions was on the location of the memorial, the future of Government House and the role of the Governor. Several left-wing politicians argued that the grounds of Government House should be turned over to the State and used to build the memorial; conservatives desired to retain the status quo. By 1925 the committee was prepared to accept the Government House grounds as the site of the memorial, but delayed making an announcement. This proved to be fortuitous since legal issues prevented the plan from going ahead. Instead, a portion of the grounds, located at the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, was put aside for the purpose. In 1926, after pressure from returned soldiers, a second competition was announced. Once again the budget was set at £25,000. As with the first competition, all entrants had to be South Australian British subjects, and all entries were to be judged anonymously, but this time there was to be only one assessor: John Smith Murdoch, chief architect for the Commonwealth of Australia. In deference to the previous competition, the top five entrants from 1924 were each given £75 on their submission of a new design, and all of the designs were insured by the government for £100 each. With entries restricted to South Australians, only 18 designs were received – a figure that was "correspondingly fewer" than those received in other states where the competitions were open to all Australians. Nevertheless, in his Assessor's Report, Murdoch acknowledged that the quality of some of the proposals was such that they "probably would not have been exceeded had the competition been more open". After examining the submissions, on 15 January 1927, the design by Louis Laybourne Smith, (one of the principals of the architectural firm Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne–Smith) was selected by Murdoch as the winner. Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne-Smith had entered the 1924 competition with an arch designed by Walter Bagot, but in 1926 Bagot was away in Europe. Thus Laybourne Smith was responsible for drawing and submitting the final design, although he was clear to highlight the role Bagot played in the "architectural conception" of the monument. Although the firm was to be awarded 6% of the cost of the memorial, the principals refused all but enough to cover their own expenses, asking instead that residues (approximately £1000) be placed in a trust fund to pay for the upkeep of the work. Although this was seen as an altruistic act, Laybourne Smith was both a member of the National War Committee and sat on the sub-committee that drafted the rules of the competition, and thus it may have been considered "improper" to accept the money. When announced to the public, the design was "universally hailed as a masterpiece". Nevertheless, in writing his report on the result of the judging, Murdoch stated of the winning architect that he "depends almost entirely on the sculptor to tell the story of the memorial, employing in his design no more architecture than that required to successfully frame and set his sculptural subjects, and to provide accommodation to the extent asked for by the conditions". This view was echoed by Inglis, who described the architecture as "essentially a frame for statuary" – an approach that he felt was "unusual" for an architect. As a result of this dependency on the sculpture, some of the other contestants expressed concerns, arguing that the contest was about architectural works rather than sculptural ones, even though the conditions of the competition specifically allowed for sculpture in the proposals. ### Construction Construction of the memorial began in 1928 with the cutting and placement of marble blocks from Macclesfield and Angaston. The South Australian Monumental Works were chosen to work on the construction, with Alan Tillett as the principal. Although no sculptor was named in the winning proposal, it did make mention of a possible candidate, who later proved to be Rayner Hoff, a Sydney-based sculptor born in England. Hoff produced the designs for the sculptures from his Sydney studio; the bronze castings from Hoff's plaster models were produced by the South Australian firm A.W. Dobbie and Company. Hoff had expressed reservations that a South Australian company would be capable of handling bronzes of the required size, but a test casting of the lion's head from the memorial was sufficient to overcome his concerns. The two angel reliefs sculpted from the Angaston marble were produced by Julius Henschke in situ from Hoff's designs, expressed through one-third sized plaster models, which Henschke then scaled to suit. Significant delays occurred during construction after a strike by the stonemasons, who were demanding a 44-hour week and to be paid at "outside rates": rates of pay for stonemasons were based on whether or not the work was to be constructed on site in the open air, or inside under cover. Tillett was paying the lower "inside rates", even though most of the work was to be conducted on the site. However, Tillett had tendered on the basis of a 48-hour week at inside rates, and paying extra would have caused significant financial problems. Tillett eventually won after the dispute went before the courts, but the strike had caused considerable financial damage to Tillett's company, which went into receivership in 1930 and stayed in that state until after the memorial was completed. The South Australian Government had dedicated £25,000 to the memorial project. It was estimated that bulk of the expense would be masonry at £15,300, sculptural work £8,500 and landscaping £1,200. The final cost was about £30,000. ### Opening The National War Memorial in South Australia became the fourth state World War I memorial to be opened when it was unveiled in 1931. Inglis notes that this is in keeping with the size of the constituency, arguing that "[t]he larger the constituency that each of these collective tributes had to represent, the later it was built". It was unveiled before a crowd of almost 75,000 on Anzac Day, 25 April 1931, (the 16th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing), by the Governor Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthven. The crowd, "as huge a crowd as anyone could remember assembling in the city", was unable to fit in front of the memorial, so many thousands assembled at the Cross of Sacrifice in Pennington Gardens to await a later ceremony. Hore-Ruthven was introduced by the acting state premier, Bill Denny MC, whose involvement in the unveiling, according to Inglis, was unusual for a Labor politician. ### Commemorative activities The first dawn service to be conducted at the memorial was held on Anzac Day 1935, and was attended by 200–300 people. ### Restoration work In 2001, the memorial's 70th anniversary year, a three-month remedial project was undertaken, restoring the bronze and stonework details and reinforcing the foundations. The work was completed just days before the Remembrance Day services. In 2002 the architects responsible for the restoration, Bruce Harry & Associates, were awarded a Heritage merit award for their work on the memorial by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. ## Design The rules of the competition limited the space for the memorial to the "one half acre" of land that was excised from the grounds of Government House. The design submitted by Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne-Smith easily met this requirement, as the memorial was designed to fit on an ellipse with a major axis of 18.3 m (60 ft) in length and a minor axis of 15.5 m (51 ft). Standing at a height of over 14 m (46 ft), the structure was carefully placed back from North Terrace to provide space for "public gatherings of a ceremonial nature" and to allow for the proposed widening of the street. The monument is effectively a frame for two scenes – the prologue and the epilogue of war – depicted through Rayner Hoff's marble reliefs and bronze statues. The two sides were referred to by the architects as the reverse and the obverse of the work, which they likened to the two sides of a coin. Each scene is a relief carved from Angaston marble and framed by the "rough-hewn" arch carved out of marble from Macclesfield; the granite steps leading up to the monument are constructed of granite from Harcourt, Victoria, as specified in the original proposal. (The architects had preferred the local West Island granite, but acknowledged that Harcourt granite was "the best available" unless the government would agree to reopen the quarry on West Island). The materials were chosen in order to provide continuity with Parliament House, located a short distance away along North Terrace. To represent the prologue to the war, the obverse of the monument (the side facing North Terrace) features a relief of the Spirit of Duty appearing as a vision before the youth of South Australia, represented in the work by a sculptural group consisting of a young woman, a student and a farmer abandoning the "symbols of their craft". The three are depicted in normal dress, as they are not yet soldiers and are currently unprepared for the war that is to come, and they are facing away from the world as they look to the vision before them. In Bagot's original plan, submitted for the 1924 competition, there was to be but a single nude figure kneeling before the vision (for which Bagot posed while in Europe), but Laybourne Smith's 1926 submission became grander in its scope. In addition, Bagot's original designs were naturalistic, with the Spirit of Duty depicted as a female figure, but under Hoff's direction the figure was changed to male, and the style of the reliefs was changed to Art Deco – a "radically new" art style for Australia at the time. Hoff, however, presented the sculptural group in the original naturalistic style, thus providing a "bridge between the Renaissance-style architecture and the Art Deco of the reliefs". On the reverse side of the monument, facing away from the traffic, is a relief carved into the marble representing the epilogue of the war and depicting the Spirit of Compassion as a winged spirit of womanhood bearing aloft a stricken youth. Beneath the figure is situated the Fountain of Compassion, the flow of water representing the "constant flow of memories"; the lion's head from which it emerges (which bears the Imperial Crown) is representative of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The designers acknowledged that the symbolism – especially that of the reverse side – does not represent "victory" in the traditional sense. They stated that the "Arch of Triumph which was built in honour of a Caesar, a Napoleon, no longer expresses the feelings of modern democracy after an international struggle". Instead, the memorial represented a spiritual victory, in which was displayed a "willingness to serve and to sacrifice". Within the memorial the architects added an inner shrine, or Record Room, in which could be recorded the names of the South Australians who fell during the war. Although the design did not specify the exact form that this would take, in the completed memorial these names are inscribed in the bronzes that line the walls. Bronze tablets were mounted on one wall of the inner shrine to honour the war dead, for which the Returned Soldiers' League contributed £3,500. Tablets on the opposite wall listed the South Australians who served in the war. Above the two entrances to the shrine were to be inscribed the names of the major theatres in which Australians served in the Great War. Originally it was suggested that this was to be Egypt, Gallipoli and Palestine on one side, with France on the other; in the final work Belgium was added to the list. The design also allowed for a cenotaph within the inner shrine, which the designers suggested could either be used as a symbolic representation of the unknown soldier or as the marker to an actual grave. This element was never realised. Although the central square mile of the City of Adelaide is designed to the points of the compass, the monument sits at a 45-degree angle to North Terrace. The architects provided two reasons for this. First, it was observed that "monuments suffer materially from monotonous lighting" when they face to the south; and second, the placing of the monument to face a north-west direction allows it to be in line with both the Cross of Sacrifice and St. Peter's Cathedral. In addition to these two arguments, Richardson also notes that the diagonal positioning of the memorial permits the dawn sun to fall on the facade. ## Nearby memorials Although the National War Memorial was initially proposed as a memorial to those who served in the First World War, the site has since grown to incorporate a number of smaller memorials. These include a memorial to the Battle of Lone Pine; the French Memorial, which commemorates South Australians who fought and died in France during the first and second World Wars, unveiled in 1993; an honour roll of those who died in World War II; and the Australian Armed Forces Memorial, encompassing the Malayan Emergency of 1948–1960, the Korean War, the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in Borneo, and the Vietnam War. In addition, the wall which surrounds the northern and western sides of the site features the six "Crosses of Memory" – a series of "simple wooden crosses" commemorating the siege of Tobruk from 1941, the 10th, 27th, and 48th Battalions of 1916, and 50th Battalion of 1918. Along North Terrace, the Jubilee 150 Walkway honours recipients of the Victoria Cross and George Cross. Jubilee 150 Walkway plaques honouring recipients of the Victoria Cross and George Cross: ## Works consulted

The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

1998 film by Terrence Malick

The Thin Red Line is a 1998 American epic war film written and directed by Terrence Malick. It is the second film adaptation of the 1962 novel by James Jones, following the 1964 film. Telling a fictionalized version of the Battle of Mount Austen, which was part of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War, it portrays U.S. soldiers of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, played by Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, and Ben Chaplin. The novel's title alludes to a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Tommy", from Barrack-Room Ballads, in which he calls Scottish foot soldiers "the thin red line of heroes", referring to the stand of the 93rd Regiment in the Battle of Balaclava of the Crimean War. The film marked Malick's return to filmmaking after a 20-year absence. It co-stars Adrien Brody, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Jared Leto, John C. Reilly, and John Travolta. Reportedly, the first assembled cut took seven months to edit and ran five hours. By the final cut, footage of performances by Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, and Mickey Rourke had been removed (one of Rourke's scenes was included in the special features outtakes of the Criterion Blu-ray and DVD release). The film was scored by Hans Zimmer and shot by John Toll. Principal photography took place in Queensland, Australia and in the Solomon Islands. 20th Century Fox released The Thin Red Line on December 25, 1998, and grossed $98 million against a $52 million budget. Critics gave it a positive reception, praising it for its philosophical depiction of war, Malick's direction, musical score, cinematography, screenplay, editing, and performances of the cast. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound. It won the Golden Bear at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival. Martin Scorsese ranked it as his second-favorite film of the 1990s. On At the Movies, Gene Siskel called it "the finest contemporary war film I've seen" ## Plot United States Army Private Witt goes AWOL from his unit in 1942 to live among the carefree Melanesian natives in the South Pacific. He is found and imprisoned on a troopship by First Sergeant Welsh of his company. Witt is not allowed to rejoin his unit, and is instead punitively assigned to act as a stretcher bearer for the upcoming campaign. The men of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, have been brought to the island of Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henderson Field, seize the island from the Japanese, and block off their route to Australia. C Company is commanded by Capt. James Staros. As they wait in the hold of a Navy transport ship, they contemplate their lives and the upcoming invasion. The company lands on Guadalcanal unopposed. They march into the interior of the island, and along the way encounter natives and evidence of the ongoing Japanese presence. The company soon finds its objective: Hill 210, a key enemy position. The attack commences at dawn the next day. Charlie Company storms up the hill, but is immediately repelled by heavy machine-gun fire. One group, a squad led by Sergeant Keck, hides behind a knoll safe from enemy fire "to await reinforcements". When they are fired upon, Keck reaches for a grenade on his belt and accidentally pulls the pin, then throws himself back on the grenade so that he will be the only one killed by the blast. At another point, Sergeant Welsh attempts to rescue a dying soldier, only to provide him with enough morphine to put him out of his misery. Lt. Col. Gordon Tall orders Staros over the field telephone to capture the bunker by frontal assault, at whatever cost. Staros balks, stating that he will not commit his men to what he sees as a suicide mission. Meanwhile, Pvt. Bell covertly scouts the summit of the hill by himself and assesses the Japanese stronghold. Furious at Staros's refusal to obey his command, Tall ventures up to Charlie Company's position, accompanied by his battalion executive officer, Captain John Gaff. When they arrive, they find that the Japanese resistance seems to have lessened, and Tall's opinion of Staros is sealed. After being advised of Bell's reconnaissance of the Japanese position, Tall suggests a small detachment of men to perform a flanking maneuver on the bunker to capture it. Among the men to volunteer for the mission are Pvts. Witt, Doll, and Bell. Captain Gaff is given command of the detachment, and they proceed up the hill toward the bunker. A fierce battle ensues, but ultimately the American forces are victorious, and the hill is captured. For their efforts, the men are given a week's leave, though they find little joy in the respite in the fighting. While the company is bivouacked, Staros is relieved of his command by Tall, who deems him too soft for the pressures of combat and suggests that he apply for reassignment and become a lawyer in the JAG Corps in Washington, D.C. During this time, Bell receives a letter from his wife, informing him that she has fallen in love with another man and seeks a divorce. Witt, meanwhile, comes across some of the locals and notices that they have grown distant and distrustful of outsiders, and regularly quarrel with each other. The company is sent on patrol up a river under the command of Lieutenant Band. Witt, along with Cpl. Fife, and Pvt. Coombs, scout upriver and encounter an advancing Japanese column. As they attempt to retreat, Coombs is wounded. Witt draws away the Japanese to buy time for Fife, but Witt is encircled by one of their squads. The Japanese demand Witt surrender, but he raises his rifle and is killed. His body is buried by his squadmates, including a visibly grieving Sgt. Welsh. The company soon receives a new commander, Captain Bosche. They are relieved of duty and evacuated from Guadalcanal by a waiting LCT. ## Cast Beyond these numerous top-billed cast, the ensemble included appearances in smaller roles by many other well-known actors, including Kirk Acevedo, Penny Allen, Mark Boone Junior, Matt Doran, Don Harvey, Danny Hoch, Thomas Jane, Miranda Otto, Donal Logue, and Nick Stahl. Lukas Haas, Bill Pullman and Mickey Rourke were also part of the film, but their scenes were ultimately cut. ## Production ### Screenplay New York-based producer Bobby Geisler first approached Malick in 1978 and asked him to direct a film adaptation of David Rabe's play In the Boom Boom Room. Malick declined the offer, but instead discussed the idea of a film about the life of Joseph Merrick. Once word got out about David Lynch's film of The Elephant Man, he shelved the idea. In 1988, Geisler and John Roberdeau met with Malick in Paris about writing and directing a movie based on D. M. Thomas' 1981 novel The White Hotel. Malick declined, but told them that he would be willing instead to write either an adaptation of Molière's Tartuffe, or of James Jones' The Thin Red Line. The producers chose the latter and paid Malick $250,000 to write a screenplay. Malick began adapting The Thin Red Line on January 1, 1989. Five months later, the producers received his first draft, which was 300 pages long. In 1990, Malick met with James Jones' widow Gloria and Jones' daughter Kaylie about adapting The Thin Red Line into a film. The producers spent a lot of time talking with Malick about his vision of the film. Geisler said, > Malick's Guadalcanal would be a Paradise Lost, an Eden, raped by the green poison, as Terry used to call it, of war. Much of the violence was to be portrayed indirectly. A soldier is shot, but rather than showing a Spielbergian bloody face we see a tree explode, the shredded vegetation, and a gorgeous bird with a broken wing flying out of a tree. Malick spent years working on other projects, including a stage production of Sansho the Bailiff and a script known as The English-Speaker, spending $2 million of the producers' money, half of which for writing. According to an article in Entertainment Weekly, the producers gained Malick's confidence by "catering to his every whim," providing him with obscure research material, including a book titled Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, an audiotape of Kodō's Heartbeat Drummers of Japan, information on the Navajo code talkers recruited by the United States Marine Corps, making his travel plans, and helping the director and his wife Michele get a mortgage for their Paris apartment. By January 1995, Geisler and Roberdeau were broke and pressured Malick to decide which project he would complete. They approached Malick's former agent, Mike Medavoy, who was setting up his own production company, Phoenix Pictures, and he agreed to give them $100,000 to start work on The Thin Red Line. Medavoy had a deal with Sony Pictures and Malick began scouting locations in Panama and Costa Rica before settling on the rain forests of northern Australia. In April 1997, three months before filming, Sony pulled the plug while crews were building the sets in Queensland, because new studio chairman John Calley did not think Malick could make his movie with the proposed $52 million budget. Malick traveled to Los Angeles with Medavoy to pitch the project to various studios. 20th Century Fox agreed to put up $39 million of the budget with the stipulation that Malick cast five movie stars from a list of 10 who were interested. Pioneer Films, a Japanese company, contributed $8 million to the budget, and Phoenix Pictures added $3 million. ### Casting Casting for the film became a hot topic. When Sean Penn met Malick, he told him, "Give me a dollar and tell me where to show up." Scripts were also sent to Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall and Tom Cruise. In 1995, once word went out that Malick was making another movie after many years, numerous actors approached him, flooding the casting directors until they had to announce they wouldn't be accepting more requests. Some A-list actors including Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Gary Oldman, and George Clooney offered to work for a fraction and some even offered to work for free. Bruce Willis even went as far as offering to pay for first-class tickets for the casting crew, to get a few lines for the movie. At Medavoy's home in 1995, Malick staged a reading with Martin Sheen delivering the screen directions, and Kevin Costner, Will Patton, Peter Berg, Lukas Haas, and Dermot Mulroney playing the main roles. In June of that year, a five-day workshop was scheduled at Medavoy's with Pitt dropping by, and culminating with Malick putting on the soundtrack of Where Eagles Dare and playing Japanese taiko drums. Malick met with an interested Johnny Depp about the project at the Book Soup Bistro on the Sunset Strip. Edward Norton flew out to Austin and met Malick, who had been impressed by the actor's screen test for Primal Fear. Matthew McConaughey reportedly took a day off filming A Time to Kill to see Malick. Others followed, including William Baldwin, Edward Burns, Josh Hartnett, Crispin Glover, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stephen Dorff, and Leonardo DiCaprio; the last of these flew up from the Mexico set of Romeo + Juliet to meet Malick at the American Airlines lounge in the Austin airport. Before the casting was finalized, Nicolas Cage had lunch with Malick in Hollywood in February 1996. Malick went off to scout locations and tried calling Cage that summer only to find out that his phone number had been disconnected. Tom Sizemore, however, was offered a more substantial role in Saving Private Ryan and, when he could not contact Malick for several days, decided to do Steven Spielberg's film instead. Actors Bill Pullman, Mickey Rourke, and Lukas Haas filmed scenes for the movie but were cut from the final film due to time constraints. Publicity stills of Pullman (as Sgt. MacTae, in a scene opposite Brody and Chaplin) can be seen online, Haas is pictured in the booklet of the CD soundtrack, and one of Rourke's scenes was restored for the Criterion Blu-Ray/DVD release of the film. Malick wrote a part specifically for Oldman, but the character was eventually scrapped before production began due to too many characters being in the film. He was later thanked in the credits along with Lukas, Viggo Mortensen, Sheen, Rourke, Pullman and Jason Patric. James Caviezel, who was cast as Private Witt, credits Malick's casting of him as the turning point in his career. ### Principal photography Cinematographer John Toll began talking to Malick in August 1996 several times over the phone about the film. Toll met Malick in September of the same year and was asked to do the film in the beginning of 1997. Malick and Toll began location scouting in February 1997 and started principal photography in June of that year. Pre-production went slowly. Weeks before filming began, Malick told Geisler and Roberdeau not to show up in Australia where the film was being made, ostensibly because George Stevens Jr. would be the on-location producer supporting line producer Grant Hill. Malick told them that they had upset the studio for refusing to give up above-the-title production credit to Stevens. He did not tell them that in 1996 he had a clause inserted in his contract barring the producers from the set. Geisler and Roberdeau were mystified about this behavior; Geisler told Entertainment Weekly, "I didn't think he was capable of betrayal of this magnitude." Malick and Toll shot for 100 days in Australia using Panavision cameras and lenses, 24 days in the Solomon Islands and three days in the United States. They scouted the historic battlefields on Guadalcanal and shot footage, but health concerns over malaria limited filming to daylight hours only. Logistics were also difficult to shoot the entire film there: As director of photography John Toll put it, "It's still a bit difficult to get on and off the island, and we had some scenes that involved 200 or 300 extras. We would have had to bring everybody to Guadalcanal, and financially it just didn't make sense." The Thin Red Line was filmed predominantly in the Daintree Rainforest and on Bramston Beach, both in north Queensland, Australia. Filming also took place on Dancer Mountain, which had such rough terrain that trailers and production trucks could not make it up the hill. A base camp was set up and roads carved out of the mountain. Transporting 250 actors and 200 crew members up the hill took two hours. Filming took place in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California near Santa Catalina Island. Malick's unconventional filming techniques included shooting part of a scene during a bright, sunny morning only to finish it weeks later at sunset. He made a habit of pointing the camera away during an action sequence and focus on a parrot, a tree branch or other fauna. Malick's reputation and working methods commanded great respect among the actors, with both Woody Harrelson and John Savage staying on for an extra month after they finished all of their scenes just to watch him at work. ### Post-production Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas and Mickey Rourke performed but their scenes were eventually cut. Billy Bob Thornton recorded narration that was scrapped. Martin Sheen and Viggo Mortensen participated in readthroughs of the script and are thanked in the end credits. Editor Leslie Jones was on location for five months and rarely saw Malick, who left her to her own devices. After principal photography wrapped, she came back with a five-hour first cut and spent seven months editing, with Thornton contributing three hours of narrative voice-over material. It was at this point that editor Billy Weber joined and they spent 13 months in post-production and the last four months mixing the film, using four Avid machines with a fifth added at one point. Malick edited the footage one reel at a time with the sound off while listening to a Green Day CD. There were no preview screenings but several in-house ones, the largest for marketing executives which was attended by 15 people. The editors faced the challenge of blending footage of veteran actors with less-experienced ones, integrating the many cameos, and the voice-overs. According to Jones, "Malick removed scenes with dialogue whenever possible, with the final film varying greatly from the original concept." Four months after principal photography, Malick invited Toll to a rough-cut screening of the film. In December 1998, Toll did the first color correction at the lab prior to the film's release in North America. The editing resulted in many of the well-known cast members being on screen for only a brief period. John Travolta and George Clooney's appearances are little more than cameos, yet Clooney's name appears prominently in the marketing of the movie. The unfinished film was screened for the New York press in December 1998 and Adrien Brody attended a screening to find that his originally significant role, "to carry the movie", as he put it, had been reduced to two lines and approximately five minutes of screen time. Malick was upset that the studio screened his unfinished version for critics and Penn ended up helping him in the editing room, shaping the final version. Malick spent three more months and cut 45 additional minutes from the film. The director refused to subject his film to test screenings before delivering his final cut. After Geisler and Roberdeau told their story to Vanity Fair magazine, Medavoy's attorneys declared them in breach of contract and threatened to remove their names from the film unless they agreed to do no future interviews until after the Academy Awards. ## Music The film score was composed by Hans Zimmer, with additional music from John Powell. The album was nominated for Best Dramatic Score at the 71st Academy Awards. It was Hans Zimmer's fifth Oscar nomination as a composer, but he lost out to Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful (music by Nicola Piovani). The album was released by RCA Victor and conducted by Gavin Greenaway. Among the music not written by Zimmer which appears in the film is In Paradisum from Requiem by Gabriel Fauré and the opening minutes of The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives. Zimmer wrote several hours of music, and an abundance of different themes, before Malick started to shoot the film. The director played the music on the set, while filming, to get himself, and the rest of the crew and actors in the right frame of mind. The official soundtrack features tracks that were not used on the film and some tracks from the film are not found on the CD. The film features several pieces of Melanesian choral music sung by the Choir of All Saints in Honiara and the Melanesian Brotherhood in Tabalia, only one of which is featured on the soundtrack. However, another soundtrack was released containing several tracks from the choirs, titled Melanesian Choirs: The Blessed Islands – Chants from the Thin Red Line, which has since gone out of circulation. This album was re-released by La-La Land Records as part of a special edition in 2019. ## Reception ### Box office The Thin Red Line was given a limited release on December 25, 1998, in five theaters where it grossed $282,534 on its opening weekend. The film was given a wide release on January 15, 1999, in 1,528 theaters where it grossed $9.7 million during its opening weekend. The film earned $98,126,565 at the worldwide box office. ### Critical reception On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Thin Red Line holds an approval rating of 80% based on 107 reviews, and an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Thin Red Line is a daringly philosophical World War II film with an enormous cast of eager stars." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. Gene Siskel described The Thin Red Line as the "finest contemporary war film I've seen, supplanting Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan from earlier this year, or even Oliver Stone's Platoon from 1986." A more subdued Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four, saying that it felt confused and unfinished. He wrote, "The movie's schizophrenia keeps it from greatness (this film has no firm idea of what it is about), but doesn't make it bad. It is, in fact, sort of fascinating... The battle scenes themselves are masterful, in creating a sense of the geography of a particular hill, the way it is defended by Japanese bunkers, the ways in which the American soldiers attempt to take it ... Actors like Sean Penn, John Cusack, Jim Caviezel and Ben Chaplin find the perfect tone for scenes of a few seconds or a minute, and then are dropped before a rhythm can be established." In his review for Time, Richard Corliss wrote, "Some films deal in plot truth; this one expresses emotional truth, the heart's search for saving wisdom, in some of the most luscious imagery since Malick's last film, the 1978 Days of Heaven." Mike Clark of USA Today gave the film four out of four stars. Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post wrote, "The Thin Red Line is a movie about creation growing out of destruction, about love where you'd least expect to find it and about angels – especially the fallen kind – who just happen to be men." Andrew Johnston of Time Out New York wrote: "Like Malick's previous efforts – Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978) – Line is a film of incredible beauty. However, the atmosphere created by John Toll's breathtaking cinematography and Hans Zimmer's powerful score is occasionally compromised. The parade of cameos (John Travolta, George Clooney, Woody Harrelson and John Cusack briefly appear) is somewhat distracting, and the fact that Bell and Witt both have Appalachian accents sometimes makes the characters hard to differentiate. Yet, even though it's confusing at times (and perhaps a little long), Line is still a film of rare substance and power." Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B−" in his review for Entertainment Weekly and wrote, "The Thin Red Line could, I think, turn out to be this season's Beloved, a movie too paralyzingly high-minded to connect with audiences." In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin called it "intermittently brilliant" and wrote, "The heart-piercing moments that punctuate its rambling are glimpses of what a tighter film might have been." In a special episode of Siskel and Ebert, guest host Martin Scorsese selected The Thin Red Line as the second best film of the 1990s behind The Horse Thief. ### Accolades Time magazine ranked Malick's film \#6 on their Best of 1998 Cinema list. Jonathan Rosenbaum, film critic for the Chicago Reader, ranked Malick's film as his second favorite film of 1999. ## Home media On September 28, 2010, The Criterion Collection released a special edition of The Thin Red Line on DVD and Blu-ray with a new, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by Terrence Malick and cinematographer John Toll. The release was met with positive reviews. ## In popular culture ### Music Various lines of dialogue have been sampled from the movie. "This Great Evil" - Sampled in "Have You Passed Through This Night?" by post-rock band Explosions in the Sky, released in 2001. - Sampled in "Eye for an Eye" by electronic music act UNKLE, released in 2003. "Are You Righteous?" - Sampled in "Eye for an Eye" by electronic music act UNKLE, released in 2003. "Worldly Perspective" - Sampled in "Red Line" by Drum & Bass musicians Fierce and Break. "Dark Water" - Sampled in "Imagination" by electronic music musician Sven Weissmen [de] - Sampled in "Dark Waters" by MFG "I Feel Sorry For You Kid" - Sampled in "Taco DE Macque" by ambient music duo The Dead Texan

Regina Margherita-class battleship

Pre-dreadnought battleship class of the Italian Royal Navy

The Regina Margherita class was a class of two battleships built for the Italian Regia Marina between 1898 and 1905. The class comprised two ships: Regina Margherita and Benedetto Brin. The ships were designed by the latter's namesake, Benedetto Brin, who died before the ships were completed. They were armed with a main battery of four 12 in (305 mm) guns and could steam at a speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). Both ships saw extensive service with the Italian fleet for the first decade of their careers. They saw action in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, where they participated in the seizure of Cyrenaica in North Africa and operations in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. They were reduced to training ships by World War I, and both ships were lost with heavy death tolls during the conflict. Benedetto Brin exploded in Brindisi in September 1915, and Regina Margherita struck a mine and sank in December 1916. ## Design After the negative experience with the preceding Ammiraglio di Saint Bon class, which were too weak to engage foreign battleships, and too slow to catch cruisers, the Italian navy wanted a new battleship that returned to a larger, more effective size. In particular, they wanted to be able to challenge the new Habsburg-class battleships being built in neighboring Austria-Hungary. They returned to the 12-inch (305 mm) gun that was standard in most other navies of the day, but sacrificed armor protection to achieve high speed. As such, the ships represented a hybrid type that merged the firepower of the slow battleships and the speed of a cruiser. Benedetto Brin initially wanted to arm the ships with only two of the 12-inch guns and twelve 8 in (203 mm) guns, but after his death, Admiral Ruggero Alfredo Micheli altered the design to double the number of 12-inch guns, at the expense of eight of the medium-caliber pieces. ### General characteristics and machinery The Regina Margherita-class ships were 130 meters (430 ft) long at the waterline and 138.65 m (454.9 ft) long overall. They had a beam of 23.84 m (78.2 ft); Regina Margherita had a draft of 8.81 m (28.9 ft), while Benedetto Brin drew slightly more, at 9 m (30 ft). They displaced 13,215 long tons (13,427 t) at normal loading and at full combat load, Regina Margherita displaced 14,093 long tons (14,319 t) while Benedetto Brin, slightly heavier, displaced 14,737 long tons (14,973 t). Their hulls were equipped with a double bottom. The vessels had a fairly large superstructure, which included an unusual pair of conning towers with bridges, one forward and one aft. The ships were built with a ram bow and had a raised forecastle deck. They had two masts, both with fighting tops; the foremast was located directly behind the forward conning tower and bridge. The ships' crew varied over the course of their careers, ranging from 812 to 900 officers and enlisted men. The ships' propulsion system consisted of two triple-expansion steam engines, which drove a pair of screw propellers. Steam for the engines was provided by twenty-eight coal-fired water-tube Niclausse boilers in Regina Margherita. Benedetto Brin meanwhile was equipped with the same number of Belleville boilers. The boilers were vented into three funnels, two of which were placed side by side. The lead ship's engines were rated at 21,790 indicated horsepower (16,250 kW), while Benedetto Brin's were slightly less efficient, at 20,475 ihp (15,268 kW). The two ships had a top speed of 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) and a range of approximately 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph). ### Armament and armor The ships were armed with a main battery of four 12 in (305 mm) 40-caliber guns placed in two twin gun turrets, one forward and one aft. They were also equipped with a secondary battery of four 8 in (203 mm) 40-cal. guns in casemates in the superstructure at the corners, two firing forward and two astern. The ships carried a tertiary battery of twelve 6 in (152 mm) 40-cal. guns, also in casemates in the side of the hull. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of twenty 3 in (76 mm) 40-cal. guns. The ships also carried a pair of 47 mm (1.9 in) guns, two 37 mm (1.5 in) guns, and two 10 mm (0.39 in) Maxim guns. The Regina Margherita-class battleships were also equipped with four 17.7 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes placed in the hull below the waterline. The ships of the Regina Margherita class were protected with Harvey steel manufactured in Terni. The main belt was 6 in (152 mm) thick, and the deck was 3.1 in (79 mm) thick. The conning tower and the casemate guns were also protected by 6 in of armor plating. The main battery guns had stronger armor protection, at 8 in (203 mm) thick. Coal was used extensively in the protection scheme, including a layer intended to protect the ships' internals from underwater damage. ## Ships of the class ## Service history Both Regina Margherita and Benedetto Brin served in the active duty squadron for the first few years of their careers, and participated in the peacetime routine of fleet training. Regina Margherita frequently served as the fleet flagship before the completion of the new Regina Elena-class battleships. On 29 September 1911, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire, starting the Italo-Turkish War. The two ships saw action during the war in the 3rd Division in the 2nd Squadron. Benedetto Brin took part in the attack on Tripoli in October 1911, and both were involved in the campaign to seize Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Italy initially remained neutral during World War I, but by 1915, had been convinced by the Triple Entente to enter the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Both the Italians and Austro-Hungarians adopted a cautious fleet policy in the confined waters of the Adriatic Sea, and so the two Regina Margherita-class battleships did not see action. Benedetto Brin served as a training ship based in Brindisi until she was destroyed in an internal explosion in the harbor on 27 September 1915 with heavy loss of life; 454 men of the ship's crew died in the explosion. Regina Margherita, also serving as a training ship, served for somewhat longer, until she struck a mine laid by the German submarine SM UC-14 on the night of 11–12 December 1916. Some 675 men were killed in the sinking.

Born Under a Bad Sign

1967 compilation album by Albert King

Born Under a Bad Sign is the second compilation album by American blues musician Albert King, released in August 1967 by Stax Records. It features eleven electric blues songs that were recorded from March 1966 to June 1967, throughout five different sessions. King played with two in-house bands: Booker T. & the M.G.'s and the Memphis Horns. Although the album failed to reach any music chart, it did receive positive reviews from music critics and is often cited as one of the greatest blues albums ever made. Born Under a Bad Sign influenced many guitarists, including Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Born Under a Bad Sign has been recognized by several music institutions, and has been inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, and the National Recording Registry. ## Recording and music In 1966, King signed with the Memphis-based label Stax Records. The 43-year-old musician had already recorded music for other labels, but outside of his 1961 song "Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong", he had yet to find any commercial success. Throughout five sessions from March 1966 to June 1967, King recorded several songs at Stax Studios with two in-house bands: Booker T. & the M.G.'s and the Memphis Horns. Although Jim Stewart is credited as the producer, trumpeter Wayne Jackson said Steve Cropper and Al Jackson Jr. ran the recording sessions. Many of the songs recorded during these sessions were released as singles, and in August 1967, the singles were compiled and released as King's debut album with Stax, titled Born Under a Bad Sign. Born Under a Bad Sign is an electric blues album, with influences of soul and funk. The album's music comprises simple chord progressions, which Jackson noted was due to inexperience. "We didn't know how to play it any better\!" said Jackson. King played primarily on the three highest guitar strings and only used a select few phrases throughout the album. In the liner notes for the 2002 reissue of Born Under a Bad Sign, critic Michael Point wrote how King was able to distinguish his guitar play despite only using a few phrases: "His simple but subtle reconfigurations were accomplished through inflections, emphasis, and timing, not via sprinting through scales." The sharp guitar sound heard throughout the album can be partially attributed to King's unorthodox style of play. King was left-handed, but chose to play a right-handed Gibson Flying V and not restring it. King pulled strings from above instead of pushing from below, the standard string bending technique. As a result, he was able to bend several strings simultaneously, which allowed for multi-timbral phrasing. When asked about King's style of play, Jackson said: "Albert's guitar was always out of tune with everything else, but he was such a strong man he would just bend the notes back in\!" Side one of Born Under a Bad Sign features six short songs, which are all under three minutes long. Side two features longer, more ballad-like songs. "Personal Manager" in particular contains one of the few guitar solos on the album. Arguably the most famous song from Born Under a Bad Sign is the album's title track, which was written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones. Bell wanted to write a song about astrology and came up with an unconventional ten-bar guitar line (as opposed to eight-bar and twelve-bar blues) during a jam session. Music historian Rob Bowman called "Born Under a Bad Sign" "one of the most smokingly intense blues recordings of the modern era". ## Release and reception Born Under a Bad Sign was released in August 1967 by Stax Records. It failed to reach any music chart, although three songs from the album—"Laundromat Blues" (1966), "Born Under a Bad Sign", and "Crosscut Saw" (both 1967)—did reach the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. Rob Bowman believes this was because the rhythm and blues market emphasized 45 rpm singles as opposed to albums. A critic from Billboard magazine awarded the album a "Special Merit Pick" label, and wrote: "Albert King has a way with the blues, a realistic, soulful style which hits the mark as all 11 cuts in his latest Stax album demonstrate." Born Under a Bad Sign was reissued in 2013 by Stax and Concord Records. The reissue features remastered versions of every song from the original release, as well as four alternative versions, one untitled instrumental piece, and additional liner notes. Neil Kelly of PopMatters felt the additional song was enough to warrant a repurchase, and highlighted the instrumental piece. Kelly said: "Booker T and the MG's never sounded better, even on a one-off jam that was never supposed to be issued." The album was reissued on April 21, 2023, remastered for new formats. ### Legacy Decades after its release, Born Under a Bad Sign's status continues to grow, and it is now considered one of the greatest blues albums ever made. The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide gave Born Under a Bad Sign a perfect score, where author David McGee described it as "a blues monument". Leland Rucker echoed McGee's remark in the MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide book, writing "King's Stax debut Born Under a Bad Sign is an undisputed classic." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic highlighted the musicianship between King and the M.G.'s, and wrote: "it's astounding how strong this catalog of songs is". Erlwine noted how influential the guitar play on the album was. "[King] unleashed a torrent of blistering guitar runs that were profoundly influential, not just in blues, but in rock & roll". Journalist Sean McDevitt agreed with this statement, and wrote "Born Under a Bad Sign directly influenced legions of guitar players who studied its every subtlety and nuance". Among these guitarists are Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, most of whom covered songs from Born Under a Bad Sign. Clapton copied the guitar solo from "Oh, Pretty Woman" for his band Cream's song "Strange Brew", and Cream covered "Born Under a Bad Sign" for their 1968 album Wheels of Fire. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band also covered "Born Under a Bad Sign" for the 1967 album The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw. Born Under a Bad Sign has been recognized by several music institutions as an influential album. It has been inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame, and the National Recording Registry. The 2002 reissue received a Blues Music Award for "Historical Blues Album of the Year". In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked Born Under a Bad Sign at number 491 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The list states: "King's first album for the Stax label combines his hard, unflashy guitar playing with the sleek sound of the label's house band, Booker T. and the MG's." Michael Point believes Born Under a Bad Sign was critical to the modernization of blues music, and catapulted King into mainstream popularity. King went from playing on the Chitlin' Circuit as a relatively unknown musician, to large rock arenas such as the Fillmore and Fillmore East. These performances attracted both black and white audience members, including a large following of hippie fans. ## Track listing Track listing taken from the 1967 vinyl release of Born Under a Bad Sign. ## Personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of Born Under a Bad Sign. - Albert King – lead guitar, vocals - Booker T. Jones – keyboards, organ, piano - Isaac Hayes – keyboards, piano - Steve Cropper – rhythm guitar - Donald Dunn – bass guitar - Al Jackson Jr. – drums - Wayne Jackson – trumpet - Andrew Love – tenor saxophone - Joe Arnold – baritone saxophone, flute

Simon of Southwell

13th-century English priest and canon lawyer

Simon of Southwell was a medieval English canon lawyer and canon who became treasurer of the cathedral chapter of Lichfield Cathedral. He served in the household of Hubert Walter, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1193 to 1205. Pope Celestine III appointed Simon as a papal judge-delegate, and Simon also served Walter in Rome on two legal cases. A number of the glosses on a late-twelfth-century copy of Gratian's Decretum are ascribed to Simon. ## Early career Simon was treasurer of the cathedral chapter in 1203. He also held a prebend at Lichfield until 1209. Previously he had been a lecturer in canon law at Bologna, Paris and at Oxford. In Paris, Simon argued a case before Peter the Chanter that dealt with papal mandates, and his arguments won over Peter to his side of the discussion. While at Oxford, Simon, along with John of Tynemouth, Honorius of Kent, and possibly Nicholas de Aquila are the first securely attested lecturers on law known for Oxford. Simon may also have studied canon law at Bologna. ## Service to Hubert Walter Simon served in the household of Hubert Walter, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1193 to 1205. Simon served along with other canon lawyers including John of Tynemouth and Honorius of Kent. He had previously been with the household of Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, transferring to Walter's household about 1195. Pope Celestine III appointed Simon as a papal judge-delegate, and Simon also served Walter in Rome on two legal cases. In 1202, while Walter was on the continent, Simon was named as administrator of the diocese of Canterbury during the archbishop's absence. In 1203, Thomas of Marlborough, who was a monk of Evesham Abbey, pleaded a case for Evesham before Archbishop Walter, and later, in his chronicle, he noted that Simon, John of Tynemouth, and Honorius, all canon lawyers from the archbishop's household, sided with the abbey. He also described the three men as magistri mei in scholis. Surviving evidence shows that Simon and John frequently found themselves on opposing sides of cases, which suggests a rivalry between the two over their expositions of canon law. Thomas appears to have studied under Simon, John and Honorius at Oxford. One of the cases that Simon pleaded for the archbishop was Walter's case against Gerald of Wales, who had been elected to the Bishopric of St David's in Wales. Walter opposed Gerald's appointment, and Simon, along with John of Tynemouth and another canon lawyer, were sent to Rome to argue Walter's case against Gerald. ## Teachings Like John of Tynemouth, a number of the glosses on a late-twelfth-century copy of Gratian's Decretum are ascribed to Simon. These take the form of notes from his lectures that were later added to the margins of copies of the Decretum. This combined work is now at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge University, catalogued as manuscript (MS) 283/676. Another set of student notes from his lectures, this time entitled Quaestiones, survives as part of British Library MS Royal E.VII. This work includes lecture notes not only from Simon's classes, but from John and Nicholas' as well.

Afraflacilla braunsi

Species of spider

Afraflacilla braunsi is a species of jumping spider in the genus Afraflacilla. First found in South Africa, the spider was subsequently observed living in Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, although it is likely to have a wider distribution. First described in 1903 by George and Elizabeth Peckham, it was originally allocated to the genus Pseudicius with the name Pseudicius braunsii. After being renamed Icius braunsi in 1987, it was finally given its current name by Jerzy Prószyński in 2017. Pseudicius tripunctatus, now called Afraflacilla tripunctatus, is a synonym. A small to medium-sized spider, Afraflacilla braunsi has a carapace that is between 1.7 and 1.9 mm (0.07 and 0.07 in) long and an abdomen 2.2 and 3.2 mm (0.09 and 0.13 in) long. The carapace is brown, sometimes with yellow sides. The abdomen is light brown or fawn with lighter yellow patches. It has large brown front legs, the remainder generally yellow and less robust. It makes noises by rubbing its forelegs against small hairs under its eyes. The copulatory organs are distinctive for the species. The male has a characteristically bulbous palpal bulb and a single long projection, or apophysis, extending from the palpal tibia. The female has very long and coiled insemination ducts that lead to large spermathecae. ## Taxonomy Afraflacilla braunsi is a jumping spider that was first described by George and Elizabeth Peckham in 1903. The holotype was found by Dr Brauns. They allocated it to the genus Pseudicius with the name Pseudicius braunsii. First circumscribed by Eugène Simon in 1885, the genus Pseudicius has a name that is related to two Greek words that can be translated false and honest. In the 1980s, it was noted that there were many similarities between species in Pseudicius and others in the genus Icius. Indeed, Ekaterina Andreeva, Stefania Hęciak and Prószyński had looked to combine the genera in 1984. The two have similar spermathecal structure but work by Wayne Maddison in 1987 demonstrated that they have sufficiently different DNA to be considered different genera. In the specific case of Pseudicius braunsii, however, there was sufficient similarity between the species and those in Icius that Jerzy Prószyński moved the species to that genus with the name Icius braunsi in that year. In 2016, Prószyński moved the species to the genus Afraflacilla on the basis of the shape of the copulatory organs, and the species finally gained the name by which it is now known. It was one of more than 40 species that were transferred between the two genera at the time. Afraflacilla had in 1993 been reinstated by Marek Zabka, having been absorbed into the genus Pseudicius based on the similarity between the genera. Afraflacilla had originally been circumscribed by Lucien Betland and Jacques Millot in 1941. The genus had been made a member of the tribe Heliophaninae, which is ubiquitous across most continents of the world. Wayne Maddison renamed the monotypic tribe Chrysillini in 2015. The tribe is a member of the clade Saltafresia within the subfamily Salticoida. In 2017, Prószyński allocated the genus to the Pseudiciines group of genera, which he named after the genus Pseudicius. They can be distinguished from other jumping spiders by their flattened and elongated body and characteristic colour patterns. ### Synonyms Since it was first described, the spider has been synonymised with other species names. In 1989, Prószyński described a new species that he named Pseudicius tripunctatus based on an example found in Saudi Arabia. He noted that it had different copulatory organs to Pseudicius bipunctatus, Pseudicius tamaricis and Pseudicius wadis, but did not give a comparison to P. braunsi. In 1996, Wanda Wesołowska identified an example of the species in Saudi Arabia. Based on similarities between this male and a study of the related Afraflacilla arabica, she named that species as a synonym of P. braunsi. In 2005, Dmitri Logunov and Mehrdad Zamanpoore separated A. arabica from P. braunsi on the basis of the structure of the spiders' copulatory organs. While recognising difficulties with this, including the fact that they did not have access to a male and female found together, they saw sufficient difference between the examples they did have access to, particularly the female, to make A. arabica its own species again. They also proposed that P. tripunctatus be synonymised with Pseudicius spiniger. Two years later, Wesołowska and Antonius van Harten rejected this relationship with P. spiniger and synonymised P. tripunctatus with P. braunsi on the basis of the male's copulatory organs. In 2017, Prószyński moved P. tripunctatus to the new genus, renaming it Afraflacilla tripunctata respectively. Afraflacilla tripunctatus is recognised as a synonym for Afraflacilla braunsi. ## Description Afraflacilla braunsi is a small to medium-sized slender and long spider with unique physical features. The male of the species has a carapace that is between 1.8 and 1.9 mm (0.07 and 0.07 in) long and typically 1.3 mm (0.05 in) wide. It is flat and elongated with a clearly visible fovea. There are two black patches, long brown bristles and thin grey hairs on the eye field and black rings and white scales around the eyes. There is a white band that crosses the spiders' face, or clypeus. The top is brown, occasionally with orange sides. It has a white band that thins towards the back. The sides have white hairs and the underside of the carapace, or sternum, is light brown. The spider has mouthparts consisting of dark brown chelicerae, light brown labium and pale tips on the otherwise brown maxilae. The spider has stridulatory apparatus that include short hairs situated under the eyes. The male spider's abdomen is between 2.2 and 2.4 mm (0.09 and 0.09 in) long and 1.1 and 1.2 mm (0.04 and 0.05 in) wide. It is a brown elongated oval. Some examples are light brown with a vague brownish line across the front and a large darker rear area. Others have a brownish pattern with four lighter patches in the middle and eight large lighter patches to the sides. It is covered in long brown and grey hairs. The underside is greyish-yellow. The spinnerets are brown. The legs are generally yellow apart from the first pair, which are larger, more robust and brown. They all have long brown hairs. The pedipalps are also brown. A key feature of the male is the shape of the palpal bulb, which is very bulbous with a large prominent lobe. It has a very long thin embolus that curves out from the bottom of the bulb. The tibia has a single long and sharp projection, or apophysis. The female is very similar to the male. The carapace is roughly the same size, between 1.7 and 1.9 mm (0.07 and 0.07 in) long and 1.1 and 1.3 mm (0.04 and 0.05 in) wide, and the abdomen is larger, between 2.7 and 3.2 mm (0.11 and 0.13 in) long and typically 1.5 mm (0.06 in) wide. The female carapace looks externally like the male but lighter. In contrast, the abdomen is fawn with a pattern of yellowish patches that is more pronounced than the male. Like the male, the female spider rubs its front legs against a row of fine hairs located under the eyes to create sounds. The rear, towards the spinnerets, is much darker. The pedipalps are yellow and have a dense covering of long white hairs. The copulatory organs are, again, distinctive. There are two pockets located close to each other to the front of the epigyne. The copulatory openings lead to long coiled insemination ducts and unusually large spermathecae, or receptacles. There are also long accessory glands. ### Similar spiders The species is similar to others in the genus, many of which were also previously allocated to the genus Pseudicius. In fact, the similarity between this species, then termed Pseudicius braunsii, and Afraflacilla bamakoi was one of the reasons given for synonymising the two genera. It can be distinguished by its copulatory organs. It differs from Afraflacilla altera in the shape of its palpal bulb and for morphology of its apophysis. It is similar to Afraflacilla asorotica in having a triangular lateral protuberance on its palpal bulb, but it is larger in this species. It differs from Afraflacilla bamakoi in its longer embolus, the structure of the tegular apophysis and the position of the bulge on the tegulum. ## Distribution and habitat Afraflacilla braunsi lives in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Although relatively rare, it is thought that the species is widely distributed. The first example was found in Willowmore, which is now in Eastern Cape, South Africa. The first example to be found outside South Africa was discovered in the Repetek Biosphere State Reserve in Turkmenistan in 1980. Logunov, who identified the sample as an example of the species noted the huge gap between these finds and attributed it to the poor understanding of jumping spiders. Other examples were also noted in Asia. The example from Saudi Arabia originally called Pseudisius tripunctatus was a female first found in Ash-Sharaʼiʽ in 1978. The species has been seen across Yemen, thriving in the Dhamar, Sanaa, Taiz Governorates. It has been discovered living near the cities of Sanaa and Taiz, and in the Al Manar District, near a village called Hammam 'Ali, the first example being found in 1997. The first specimen to be seen in the United Arab Emirates was described in 2020. It had been found in Al Wathba Wetland Reserve in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

1981 Peach Bowl (January)

The 1980 (season) Peach Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game between the Hurricanes from the University of Miami and the Gobblers from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia on January 2, 1981. The game was the final contest of the 1980 NCAA Division I-A football season for both teams, and ended in a 20–10 victory for Miami. Another game by the same name followed the 1981 NCAA Division I-A football season and was played in December, 1981. Miami finished the regular season with an 8–3 record, including wins over Florida State and Florida. Facing Miami was a familiar post-season opponent-Virginia Tech, whom the Hurricanes had played in the 1966 Liberty Bowl, Tech's last bowl appearance prior to the Peach Bowl. Tech was awarded a bid to the Peach Bowl as a reward for finishing 8–3 during the regular season, a record that included wins over nationally ranked teams such as the Clemson Tigers and the Virginia Cavaliers. The game kicked off at 3:00 p.m. EST under sunny skies and in temperatures of 46 °F (8 °C). Unlike the 1966 Liberty Bowl, in which Virginia Tech scored first, it was Miami who dominated the game's early going. The Hurricanes scored a touchdown on the first drive of the game and tacked on another touchdown early in the second quarter. Tech was held scoreless in the early going, thanks to two Miami interceptions at the goal line as Virginia Tech was threatening to score. Late in the second quarter, Tech was finally able to get on the scoreboard with a field goal, but at halftime, the Miami Hurricanes led 14–3. After halftime, the Gobblers threatened Miami for the first time all game. Virginia Tech mounted an 80-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown, cutting Miami's lead to 14–10. But the Hurricanes' defense clamped down on any further offensive attempts by Virginia Tech and denied the Gobblers more points. Miami added two field goals: one in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter that finally put the game out of reach for Virginia Tech. Miami's win was its first bowl victory since the 1966 Liberty Bowl, which also featured a Hurricane victory over Virginia Tech. ## Team selection ### Miami The Miami Hurricanes came into the 1980 college football season after a 5–6 season in 1979 under head coach Howard Schnellenberger. During that season, the team was nicknamed the "Jet Lag Kids" after they traveled an NCAA-record 28,000 miles (45,000 km), including a trip to the Mirage Bowl in Tokyo, Japan. While impressive, the season wasn't as successful as hoped, and Schnellenberger began his second season as coach hoping to improve upon the 5–6 effort despite what was the toughest schedule—in terms of opponents' winning percentage—in the country. Miami got off to a good start doing just that as it raced out to four consecutive wins to begin the season, including a victory over nationally ranked rival No. 9 Florida State. On October 11, however, Miami traveled to South Bend, Indiana, to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and suffered its first loss of the season to the undefeated Irish, who would go on to be ranked No. 1 in the country. This defeat was followed in succession by two others, but the Hurricanes were able to stop the slide on November 8 with a homecoming win over East Carolina. Miami added two more wins before the end of the season, and brought the regular season to a close with an overall record of 8–3. ### Virginia Tech The Virginia Tech Gobblers, like Miami, entered the 1980 season after accumulating a 5–6 record in 1979. Though the Gobblers traveled far less than Miami, they also hoped to improve upon their losing record. Tech was coached by Bill Dooley, who was entering his third season as head coach. Like Schnellenberger, he got his team off to a fast start. In the season opener, Tech traveled to North Carolina to face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Wake Forest had attended the Tangerine Bowl the previous year and was favored in the game against Tech. Despite those facts, the Gobblers won, 16–7. Virginia Tech won its first four games of the regular season before falling to the nationally ranked Clemson Tigers on October 4. Tech recovered from the loss, defeating Rhode Island, then Virginia before a then-state record crowd of 52,000 people, but lost a second game, to Richmond on October 25. The Gobblers split their final three games of the regular season, winning two and losing one, and finished with a regular season record of 8–3. Tech's 6–0 record at Lane Stadium—its home stadium—was the best in school history. Tech's selection by the Peach Bowl was announced in the locker room following the team's final regular season game. The Peach Bowl representative present was mobbed by celebrating players chanting "Peach Bowl\! Peach Bowl\!" The representative later said, "I've never seen a wilder celebration." ## Pregame buildup ### Miami offense The Miami Hurricanes entered the Peach Bowl with a record-breaking offense that set the school mark for the most accumulated yards in school history with a total offensive mark of 3,756 yards. Leading the aerial portion of the Miami offense was sophomore quarterback Jim Kelly, who completed 109 of 206 passes for 1,519 yards, 11 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. Kelly's 11 touchdowns tied the Miami record for most touchdowns in a season at that time. Kelly's favorite receiver was wide receiver Larry Brodsky, who caught 33 passes for 570 yards and three touchdowns during the regular season. One of Brodsky's touchdowns came on an 81-yard reception that tied the longest pass reception in the history of Miami football to that point. The Hurricanes' ground offense was led by running back Smokey Roan, who carried the ball 152 times for 669 yards and five touchdowns. Roan was assisted by an able offensive line. Miami offensive tackle John Canei was named as an honorable mention to the Associated Press All-America team, which recognizes the best college football players in the country. ### Miami defense Miami's defense shut out one opponent, and held six other opponents to single touchdowns or field goals. Middle guard Jim Burt was one of the Hurricanes' defensive leaders, recovering four fumbles in a single game during the regular season. In recognition of this and other performances, Burt was named to the Associated Press All-America list. Also recognized was defensive back Fred Marion, who was named an honorable mention to the All-America list. Marion intercepted seven passes during the regular season, tying him for second in Miami history for the most interceptions in a season. ### Virginia Tech offense Throughout the regular season, Virginia Tech's offense was led by running back Cyrus Lawrence, who accumulated what was then a school record of 1,221 yards during the regular season. He also set a record for most carries by a Tech player in a season with 271. Tech quarterback Steve Casey was called the "key man in the Tech offense." Casey was Tech's starting quarterback and completed 97 of 176 passes during the regular season for 1,119 yards and 13 touchdowns. At the time, he ranked second among Tech's career passing leaders, and was considered to be an offensive threat. Casey's favorite target was wide receiver Sidney Snell, who caught a Tech-record eight touchdown receptions during the regular season. Snell accounted for 568 yards on 43 receptions of all types. Tight end Rob Purdham only caught seven passes during the regular season, but four of the catches were for touchdowns. ### Virginia Tech defense The Tech defense was ranked among the top five in the country during the regular season, and set a school record for fewest points allowed during an 11-game regular season. Tech permitted just 109 points during the season, and allowed only 11 touchdowns in 11 games. The leading tackler on the Tech defense was freshman linebacker Ashley Lee, who accumulated 95 tackles during the regular season. Lee was one of two freshman linebackers for the Gobblers during their record-breaking defensive season. Virginia Tech's defense also featured Robert Brown, who accumulated 10 tackles, including two quarterback sacks, in the Gobblers' regular-season finale against the Virginia Military Institute. Tech head coach Bill Dooley lobbied in vain for Brown's inclusion in the annual All-America list recording the best college football players in the country, saying, "Robert Brown is an All-American football player ... but because he was a transfer student, he received no preseason buildup. ... I guarantee the people who have seen him know he's an All-American." Brown finished the regular season with 61 tackles, broke up four passes, and recovered three fumbles. ## Game summary The 1981 Peach Bowl kicked off at 3 p.m. EST on January 2, 1981, at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia in front of a crowd estimated at 45,384 people. More than 14,000 of those present were estimated to be fans of Virginia Tech. Weather at kickoff was sunny, with a temperature of 46 °F (8 °C) and a north-northwest wind estimated at 14 miles per hour (23 km/h). The game was televised nationally on CBS, with Curt Gowdy, Hank Stram, and Frank Gleiber serving as the announcers for the television broadcast. William Parkinson was the referee, Robert Aebersold was the umpire, and the linesman was Richard Farina. Miami won the traditional pregame coin toss used to decide first possession and elected to receive the ball to begin the game. ### First quarter After the Virginia Tech kickoff and a short return, Miami began the first drive of the game at its 32-yard line. The game's first play was an incomplete pass from Miami quarterback Jim Kelly. After a one-yard rush, Kelly completed his first pass of the game, an 18-yard toss that drove Miami to the Tech 49-yard line and gave the Hurricanes a first down. Miami then committed a 15-yard penalty, pushing the Hurricanes back into their side of the field. On the second play after the penalty, Kelly completed a 29-yard pass that gave Miami a first down. The Hurricanes were further aided by a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty against Virginia Tech, giving Miami a first down at the Tech 20-yard line. From there, it took Miami just three plays to score a touchdown, the final play being a 15-yard pass from Kelly to Larry Brodsky. With 12:37 remaining in the quarter, Miami took a 7–0 lead. Following Miami's post-touchdown kickoff, Virginia Tech began its first offensive possession of the game at its 24-yard line. A three-yard rush from fullback Scott Dovel was followed by two rushes from Tech's Cyrus Lawrence: one for eight yards and a second for 17 more. These drove Tech into Miami territory and gave the Gobblers a first down. Once there, however, Miami's defense stiffened and Tech was forced to punt. Miami recovered the ball at its 12-yard line, and the Hurricanes began their second possession of the game. Fullback Chris Hobbs and running back Smokey Roan alternated carries, picking up yardage and first downs before entering Virginia Tech territory. On the Hurricanes' first play on Tech's side of the field, however, Miami committed two penalties, pushing the Hurricanes back 20 yards. Following the penalties, Miami was unable to pick up a first down and punted back to the Gobblers. Tech recovered the punt at its 30-yard line and began its second possession. Lawrence rushed for five yards, and Miami committed a five-yard offsides penalty, giving Tech a first down by penalty. Dovel and Lawrence then combined for another first down after two plays. Tech was unable to gain another first down and punted the ball away. Attempting to field the ball, Miami's Fred Marion fumbled the ball, which was recovered by a Tech defender at the Miami 25-yard line. Despite beginning with excellent field position, Tech was unable to score. On the first play after the fumble recovery, Tech attempted to run a trick play involving a pass by Lawrence. The pass was intercepted by a Miami defender at the Hurricanes' one-yard line, and Miami's offense returned to the field. From their one-yard line, the Hurricanes ran a short rush up the middle, then Kelly connected on a 28-yard pass to tight end Mark Cooper for a first down. Three short rushes by fullback Speedy Neal resulted in 12 yards and a first down. With time running out in the quarter, Kelly attempted and completed a 27-yard pass to wide receiver Rocky Belk, driving the Hurricanes to the Tech 30-yard line and bringing the quarter to an end. Miami led, 7–0 at the end of the first quarter. ### Second quarter Miami began the second quarter in possession of the ball and facing a first down at the Virginia Tech 30-yard line. From there, it took Miami just four plays to score. Roan ran for seven yards, Kelly completed an 11-yard pass, threw an incomplete pass, then Hobbs ran 12 yards for the touchdown. The score and following extra point gave Miami a 14–0 lead with 13:47 remaining before halftime. Virginia Tech received the post-touchdown kickoff and was promptly penalized 10 yards for an illegal block during the kickoff. Despite the initial setback, Tech made good the penalty with two passes from quarterback Steve Casey. After gaining one first down, the Gobblers gained several more with a combination of passes from Casey and rushes from Lawrence. Tech drove into Miami territory and penetrated the Hurricanes' red zone, in the process gaining a first down after facing a fourth down near midfield. Attempting to pass for a touchdown, however, Casey threw an interception at the goal line to a Miami defender. The Hurricanes thus again denied Tech a scoring opportunity and the Miami offense began anew. The Hurricanes picked up a first down on one rush each from Hobbs and Roan, but were unable to gain another. After a Miami punt, Tech returned to offense from its 46-yard line. Casey picked up a first down on a pass, then gained another after a seven-yard scramble that followed a three-yard rush by Lawrence. Lawrence then gained a first down on his own after rushing for nine yards and five yards, driving the Gobblers to the Miami 15-yard line in the process. After entering the Miami red zone, however, Tech was unable to gain a first down and Casey was sacked for a loss of 13 yards. Facing a fourth down and needing 20 yards for a first down, Tech coach Bill Dooley sent in kicker Dennis Laury to attempt a 42-yard field goal. The kick was successful, and with 29 seconds left in the first half, Tech cut Miami's lead to 14–3. Miami was penalized 15 yards for roughing the kicker during the field goal attempt, allowing Tech to kick off from the Miami 45-yard line following the score. Instead of kicking off to Miami, Tech attempted an onside kick, which would allow Tech to retain possession if the ball was recovered by the kicking team after traveling 10 yards from the point at which it was kicked. The ball did not travel the needed 10 yards, however, and Miami began offense at its 37-yard line, where the ball rolled out of bounds. On Miami's first play after the kick, Kelly attempted a long pass into Tech territory, but the ball was intercepted by Tech's Mike Schamus at the Gobblers' 12-yard line. With just 21 seconds remaining in the first half, Tech attempted to gain quick yardage in an effort to close within field goal distance. Though Lawrence picked up 15 yards and a first with a rush, the Gobblers were unable to enter the Miami side of the field before time expired. At the end of the first half, Miami still held a 14–3 lead. ### Third quarter Because Miami received the ball to begin the game, Virginia Tech received the ball to begin the second half. After Miami's kickoff and a touchback, Tech began the first possession of the second half at its 20-yard line. The Gobblers picked up a quick first down off a rush each by Lawrence, Dovel, and Casey. Lawrence picked up another with two rushes that resulted in 13 yards and drove the Gobblers to their 44-yard line. There, Casey completed his longest pass of the game – a 42-yard throw to tight end Rob Purdham – that gave Tech a first down at the Miami 14-yard line. Tech continued to drive, picking up short yardage with multiple rushes. The Gobblers suffered a near-disaster when Lawrence fumbled the ball, but Tech retained possession when the ball rolled out of bounds at the one-yard line. Two plays after the fumble, Lawrence vaulted over the goal line for Tech's first and only touchdown of the game. Following the extra point, Tech cut Miami's lead to 14–10 with 8:52 remaining in the quarter. Following the Tech kickoff, Miami began a drive at its 20-yard line and went three and out. Following the Hurricanes' punt, Tech's offense began work at its 22-yard line. Despite having a chance to take the lead with a successful drive, the Gobblers also went three and out, punting back to Miami and allowing the Hurricanes to begin a possession at their 33-yard line. This possession was more successful than Miami's first of the second half. Kelly ran for four yards, then completed a six-yard pass for a first down. Tech committed a 15-yard grabbing-the-facemask penalty, and Kelly completed a 15-yard pass that pushed the Miami offense to the Tech 22-yard line. Young picked up 12 yards and a first down with a rush to the left, but Kelly was sacked for a loss of 13 yards, negating the gain. Unable to gain another first down or a touchdown, Miami was forced to settle for a field goal attempt. The 31-yard attempt was good, and Miami expanded its lead to 17–10 with 29 seconds remaining in the quarter. Tech received Miami's kickoff for a touchback, and the Gobblers' offense began work at the Tech 20-yard line. Lawrence ran for six yards, and time ran out in the quarter. With one quarter remaining, Miami held a 17–10 lead. ### Fourth quarter Tech began the fourth quarter in possession of the ball and facing a second down at its 26-yard line. Despite needing just another four yards for a first down, Tech was unable to gain the needed yardage and was forced to punt. During the kick, Miami was penalized five yards, and began its first possession of the fourth quarter at its 18-yard line after the penalty. Kelly completed an 18-yard pass for a first down, but Miami was unable to gain another. After punting to Tech, the Gobblers were likewise unable to gain a first down and went three and out after committing a delay of game penalty. Tech's punt was short, and Miami began a possession at the Tech 41-yard line. The Hurricanes picked up a first down with two rushes by Roan for a total of 14 yards. Despite further short gains by Roan, the Hurricanes were stopped short by the Tech defense and were unable to gain another. Miami sent in kicker Dan Miller, who kicked a 37-yard field goal to give Miami a 20–10 lead with 6:27 remaining in the game. Tech received Miami's post-score kickoff needing to score quickly in order to have a chance to have a second opportunity on offense – needed because Tech was now two scores behind. Tech returned the kickoff to the 24-yard line but were penalized 12 yards for an illegal block. Casey passed for an eight-yard gain and ran for three yards for a first down. After that gain, things went against the Gobblers. Casey was penalized 15 yards for intentional grounding, and Tech was unable to gain another first down. The Gobblers punted, and Miami took over on offense at its 46-yard line. In possession of the lead, Miami began to run out the clock, executing multiple rushing plays in succession in order to force the game clock to continue to count down. Tech's defense forced a stop, but because Miami punted the ball with just 2:20 remaining in the game, there was little chance that Tech would be able to make up the needed two scores. Tech received the ball at its 16-yard line, and Casey completed a quick 14-yard pass to Purdham for a first down. But Tech was unable to gain another first down, and after four plays were stopped short, Tech turned the ball over to Miami after Casey threw an incomplete pass on fourth down. Miami received the ball with 1:24 remaining and ran a series of inconsequential plays to draw down the clock and bring the game to an end. Miami earned the win, 20–10. ## Statistical summary In recognition of their performances during the Peach Bowl, Miami quarterback Jim Kelly and nose guard Jim Burt were named the game's offensive and defensive most valuable players of the game, respectively. Kelly finished the game having completed 11 of his 22 pass attempts for 179 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Burt, the other MVP, accumulated nine tackles—the second-most of any player in the game—including seven unassisted tackles and one tackle for loss. Virginia Tech running back Cyrus Lawrence finished the game with 27 carries for 137 rushing yards and a touchdown. The 27 carries remain the most ever recorded by a single Virginia Tech player in a bowl game. Tech quarterback Steve Casey led the Gobblers in passing yardage, completing nine of his 23 pass attempts for 119 yards and one interception. The Hurricanes' ground offense was led by Smokey Roan, who carried the ball 16 times for 86 yards. Second to Roan for Miami was Chris Hobbs, who contributed 66 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. Hurricanes wide receiver Larry Brodsky finished with four catches for 80 yards and a touchdown. Miami turned the ball over four times during the course of the game. Tech's 80-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter remains tied for the longest ever recorded by a Tech offense during a bowl game. Conversely, the 99-yard drive allowed to Miami remains the longest scoring drive Tech's defense has ever allowed in a bowl game. On defense, Virginia Tech linebacker Ashley Lee's 15 tackles remains the most ever recorded by a Tech defender in a bowl game. Three Tech players were tied for second on the team with eight tackles. Behind defensive MVP Burt, Miami had one player with eight tackles and two with seven. Fred Marion, one of the Hurricanes with seven tackles, also intercepted a Tech pass and broke up another pass. ## Postgame effects In exchange for their participation, each team received $663,389. Miami's win brought the Hurricanes to a final record of 9–3 for the 1980 college football season. Likewise, the loss dropped Virginia Tech to a final record of 8–4. Miami's win also was its first bowl-game victory since a similar win over Tech in the 1966 Liberty Bowl. The 1980 Peach Bowl victory is sometimes cited as the turning point in the Miami football program, as the Hurricanes went 9–2 and 7–4 over the next two season before participating in the 1984 Orange Bowl, the championship game of the 1983 college football season. Tech also participated in a 1984 bowl game; the 1984 Independence Bowl, which followed the 1984 college football season. The Gobblers did not win a bowl game until the 1986 Peach Bowl; however, the game had lasting effects on Virginia Tech's football recruiting efforts. Eventual star players Bruce Smith and Jesse Penn signed letters of intent with Virginia Tech following the game. Miami had a handful of players selected in the 1981 NFL draft: Cornerback John Swain was picked with the 101st overall selection, Jim Joiner with the 263rd pick, and Pat Walker with the 290th pick. Miami quarterback Jim Kelly, a sophomore during the 1981 Peach Bowl, was selected in the first round of the 1983 NFL draft and went on to become a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his performance during 10 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. In 2002, Kelly was named to the Peach Bowl Hall of Fame in honor of his performance in the 1980 game. ## Later aftermath Miami and Virginia Tech would both be charter members of the Big East Conference's football league in 1991, and in 2004, both schools moved to the Atlantic Coast Conference – which now has a tie-in for what is now called the Chick-Fil A Bowl. ## See also - Miami–Virginia Tech football rivalry

Glacier National Park (Canada)

National park in British Columbia

Glacier National Park is part of a system of 43 parks and park reserves across Canada, and one of seven national parks in British Columbia. Established in 1886, the park encompasses 1,349 km² (521 sq mi), and includes a portion of the Selkirk Mountains, which are part of the larger grouping of mountains, the Columbia Mountains. It also contains the Rogers Pass National Historic Site. The park's history is closely tied to two primary Canadian transportation routes, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), completed in 1885, and the Trans-Canada Highway, completed in 1963. Rogers Pass in the centre of the park eluded explorers until 1881. The railway brought with it tourism, the establishment of Glacier National Park and the construction of a popular alpine hotel. The heavy winter snows and steep, avalanche-prone valleys of the park have been a major obstacle to transportation, necessitating much railway engineering and avalanche control measures. The park contains high peaks, large, active glaciers, and one of Canada's largest cave systems. Its dense forests support populations of large mammals, birds, and alpine species. The region is noted for its heavy snowfall. The park has an extensive network of trails, three campgrounds, and four backcountry huts and cabins. Due to the major transportation routes that bisect it, Glacier National Park sees large numbers of visitors. ## History The Selkirk Mountains were first noted by Europeans when explorer David Thompson of the North West Company skirted around them on the Columbia River in 1811. He named them Nelson's Mountains, after Lord Horatio Nelson, but they were later renamed after an executive for the rival Hudson's Bay Company, Lord Thomas Douglas Selkirk. Finding a pass through the Selkirks became a priority after construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway began. Completion of the railway was a condition of the Colony of British Columbia upon entering Canadian Confederation in 1867. In 1865, Canadian Pacific Surveyor Walter Moberly led an expedition up the Illecillewaet River (which he named, using the Okanangan word for "swift water"). Despite recently discovering Eagle Pass through the nearby Monashees, Moberly failed to find a pass through the Selkirks after getting sidetracked in the Tangier Creek drainage. His party refused to explore further due to the lateness of the season, and Moberly was forced to retreat. ### Rogers Pass An expedition led by Major Albert Bowman Rogers up the Illecillewaet discovered a viable pass in 1881. Rogers was awarded a five thousand dollar prize for locating a route through the mountains. In 1885, the CPR constructed a line through Rogers Pass and the following year trains were travelling west to the Pacific for the first time in Canada. The federal government and the CPR quickly realized the tourism potential of the mountainous, heavily glaciated area. Following a trip by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and his wife Agnes through the Rockies on the newly completed Trancontinental Railroad, he returned to Ottawa inspired, and led the creation of Glacier and Yoho National Parks, both established on October 10, 1886. They were the second and third national parks in the country, after Banff, a year earlier. ### Glacier House The grade of the railway approaching Rogers Pass was too steep to allow for dining cars on the trains, so the CPR built a hotel west of the pass in 1886. This added to a collection of CPR-owned hotels across Canada, including Mount Stephen House in Yoho National Park, built in the same year and with the same floor plan. Glacier House, located near the terminus of the Illecillewaet Glacier (called the Great Glacier at the time), became a centre for tourism, mountaineering, glaciology, and photography in the Selkirks. The hotel was expanded in 1905 and 1911. It was considered one of western Canada's premier tourist destinations at the turn of the twentieth century. The hotel attracted alpinists from around the world. Owing to its elevation, climbers could be in the high alpine within hours of leaving their room. In 1899, the CPR contracted the services of several Swiss guides to assist the less mountain-savvy tourists through the high country. Throughout the Glacier House period, many first ascents were made on peaks within the park. The hotel also attracted naturalists and scientists keen to study the mountain environment. Mary Vaux Walcott and her brothers, George and William Vaux, visited the area many times, and began the first scientific studies of the Illecillewaet Glacier. ### Mountaineering Glacier House is considered "the first center (sic) of alpinism" in North America by American Alpine Club historian William Lowell Putnam. It saw an influx of European and American professional climbers in its first two decades of operation. William Spotswood Green was the first European climber to make note of the excellent climbing possibilities of peaks near the CPR line. Green and Henry Swanzy made the first recorded ascents of major peaks in the summer of 1888, climbing Mount Bonney and Green's Peak. Harold Topham, a British climber, made many first ascents in 1890 including Mount Fox; he later joined with Henry Forster, and two Swiss climbers, Emil Huber and Carl Sulzer to explore the southern peaks of the park. Huber and Sulzer also claimed the prized first ascent of the dramatic Mount Sir Donald. Arthur Oliver Wheeler, a cartographer, climber, and founding member of the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC), came to Glacier House in 1901. This started a thirty-year relationship with the northern Selkirks, which saw Wheeler map the region, publish large reference works on its geography, and explore much of the park's terrain. An ACC hut near the Illecillewaet campground bears his name, as well as a peak and a pass. Professor Charles Ernest Fay, first president of the American Alpine Club, after visiting the park in the 1890s, publicized it in the club's magazine. By the 1900s, almost all of the park's prominent peaks had seen human tracks. ### Connaught Tunnel and the Trans-Canada Highway After its first winter in operation in 1886, it became clear to the CPR that the heavy snows of Rogers Pass were going to be a serious challenge. Extensive snow sheds were built to shelter the rails from frequent avalanches. These wood sheds became a fire hazard in the summer months, so a separate summer track was built. In 1910, while clearing one slide, another avalanche came down Avalanche Mountain, killing 62 men. More than half the workers killed in the slide were of Japanese descent. In all, two hundred railway employees were killed between 1886 and 1916. In 1912, the CPR admitted defeat and started the construction of an eight-kilometre tunnel under the pass and Mount Macdonald. The Connaught Tunnel opened in 1916. The new tunnel bypassed Glacier House's siding, and the resulting lack of rail passengers spelled the end for the once-popular hotel. It was closed in 1925, and torn down four years later. The park saw few visitors besides campers from the Alpine Club of Canada's summer camps for the next thirty years. Until this point, automobile travellers crossing the Columbia Mountains had to use the circuitous Big Bend Highway, which followed the upper reaches of the Columbia River north in a large loop. With the planned inundation of much of that valley by hydro projects outlined in the Columbia River Treaty, a new highway route was needed. In 1963, the Trans-Canada Highway was built through Rogers Pass, bringing tourists back to the park in large numbers. Parks Canada built several new campgrounds and expanded the trail system. ## Geography The park covers the northern part of the Selkirk Mountains, a sub-range of the Columbia Mountains. It contains numerous glaciers and large, swift waterways. The park is bisected by two major transportation routes, the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. The nearest towns are Revelstoke to the west, and Golden to the east. ### Mountains The Columbia Mountains rise from the plateaus of the Central Interior and extend eastward to the Rocky Mountain Trench. Geologically distinct from the nearby Rockies, the range is divided into four sub-ranges: the Cariboos, Monashees, Selkirks, and the Purcells. Glacier encompasses a portion of the northern Selkirks and a narrow strip of the northern Purcells. The topography of the park varies between rounded mountains and ridges in the east, north, and west, and sharp, steep-sided peaks in the central and southern regions. A.O. Wheeler measured many of the park's mountains in 1901 and 1902 using a complex system of fixed points and photographs. In the early 20th century, the area was referred to as the "Canadian Alps". Most names are from historical figures, including explorers, surveyors, mountaineers, and railway and Hudson's Bay Company executives. #### Major peaks and ranges The highest point in the park is Mount Dawson, at 3,377 metres (11,079 ft). The precipitous Mount Sir Donald stands at 3,284 metres (10,774 ft), Mount Macdonald at 2,883 metres (9,459 ft), Mount McNicoll at 2,610 metres (8,560 ft), and Mount Abbott at 2,465 metres (8,087 ft). Peaks of the Hermit Range, the Bonney and Bostock Groups, the Van Horne Range, Purity Range and the Dawson Range, all lie wholly or in part within the park, including Uto Peak at 2,927 metres (9,603 ft) in the Sir Donald Range. ### Glaciers The park has 131 glaciers over 0.05 square kilometres (0.019 sq mi) in size, covering 133 square kilometres (51 sq mi) of the park. Throughout its history, North America has seen cycles of glaciation, where ice sheets advanced and retreated across the terrain. The last glacial period ended about 12,000 years ago, before which all but the highest peaks of the park were covered in ice. The movements of these rivers of ice formed the steep-sided, U-shaped valleys of the park. They also rounded the lesser peaks; ranges in the west of the park show this effect. The glaciers in the park are on whole shrinking and retreating; they are also some of the most studied glaciers in North America. The glaciers of the park have been dramatically reduced in size in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Precise measurements of glacial areas started with the Vaux family and A.O. Wheeler in the 1900s. Modern measurements using satellite imagery began with Simon Ommaney's work in the 1980s. Regular inventories of the park’s glaciers have been performed since, with the latest collating data up to 2011. The most recent inventory noted a reduction of 19.4 square kilometres (7.5 sq mi) of glacial surface area from 2000 to 2011. Due to its location near the highway and railway, the Illecillewaet Glacier is the most visited and photographed. Formerly known as the Great Glacier, it was a major tourist attraction during the Glacier House period from 1886 to 1925. The glacier's terminus, formerly a short walk from the Glacier House site, has retreated far up the mountainside. The névé of the glacier spreads far to the south, also spawning the Geikie Glacier. Most of the large glacial features are south of the Trans-Canada corridor. Other large features include the Deville, Dawson, Asulkan, Bishops, Black, Duncan, Grand, and Avalanche. The park's glaciers have a variety of appearances, with high altitude features smooth and uniform, cracked and riddled with crevasses on the slopes, and black with debris on the valley bottoms. In summer, many of the glaciers take on a red tint; this is the result of a variety of snow algae known as watermelon snow. ### Rivers All watercourses in the park are part of the Columbia River drainage basin. Park rivers are swift-running and glacially-fed, and have helped carve out the steep valleys and canyons. They carry much silt and rocky debris with them, and often have a milky white appearance. In the summer months, these rivers have noticeable diurnal cycles; they run high in the afternoons as the snow and ice melt is at its peak, then drop considerably with lower nighttime temperatures. The major rivers are the Illecillewaet, the Beaver, and the headwaters of the Incomappleux and Duncan Rivers. Large creeks and brooks include Mountain, Cougar (which runs underground through the Nakimu Caves), and Battle. The Beaver and Illecillewaet flood occasionally; 1983 and 2012 saw flooding damage to the highway and railway. ## Geology The geology of the northern Selkirks reveals the tremendous tectonic changes that have shaped the terrain of western North America. Like much of British Columbia, the region was first studied by the prolific surveyor and geologist Dr. George Mercer Dawson in 1890. Topographical maps were first produced by A.O. Wheeler in the early 1900s, and in the 1970s, Wheeler's grandson, Dr. John Wheeler, conducted an extensive geological survey from land and air. From Rogers Pass, layers of quartzite and slate are visible, revealing the fact that the range was part of a large, silty continental shelf 600 million years ago. 185 million years ago, successive plate movements from the west began to crumple and compress this material, driving some of it deep underground, and some into the heights of the Selkirks. Lime from coral and other organic life was compressed into limestone, which is seen in the Cougar Brook area. Veins of marble are present in the metamorphic rock of the high peaks. Although erosion and the effects of the glaciers are constantly grinding down the mountain peaks, the pressure of the underlying rock continues to drive them upward. Geologists have classed the rocks of the Columbia Mountains into groups, several of which appear in the northern Selkirks. The slates are in the Horsethief Creek and Lardeau groups, quartzite is in the Hamill group, limestone is part of the Badshot Formation, while the metamorphic rocks are classed in the Shuswap Metamorphic Complex. ### Caves The limestone strata in the park is subject to water erosion by Cougar Brook, a process that has formed the Nakimu Caves. First discovered in 1907, and originally named the Caves of Cheops, then Deutchmann Caves, this 6-kilometre (3.7 mi) long cave system is one of the largest in Canada. The limestone is broken down and softened by carbonic acid in the brook's water. The water also contains pulverised rock from glacial processes, which serve to further etch and cut new passages in the rock. The caves contain a large concentration of a rare substance known as moonmilk - this is a suspension of calcium carbonate kept intact by bacteria. Due to its sensitive nature, and damage done to cave environments by early tourists, Parks Canada has closed the caves to the general public. Access by organized groups and experienced speleologists is allowed with a permit. ## Ecology Glacier National Park covers a range of habitats, from lush temperate rainforest in the western valleys, to inhospitable ice- and rock-covered alpine areas, to drier fir and pine forests on the eastern boundary. Four of British Columbia's biogeoclimatic zones are found within the park: Interior cedar/hemlock, Engelmann spruce/subalpine fir, Interior Douglas-fir in the eastern extremities, and alpine tundra at high elevations. Parks Canada characterizes these zones as "rainforest, snow forest, and no forest". Animal life in the park ranges from large mammals like caribou and grizzly bear to bird species such as Steller's jay and the golden eagle. ### Flora The valleys on the western side of the park support dense wet forests, with a thick understory. The widest valleys, such as the Illecillewaet, contain a rare wetlands environment, featuring skunk cabbage and water hemlock. Outside of the wetlands, the lower valleys are covered by Western Red cedar, western white pine, western hemlock, Interior douglas fir, and white birch. Ground species include devil's club, blueberries, liverwort, and fern species. At middle elevations, the subalpine zone appears. This forest has Engelmann spruce, mountain hemlock, and subalpine fir. The understory is thick here with rhododendron and berry species, as well as deep beds of moss and lichens. At higher elevations, this forest opens up to meadows and slide chutes, which are covered in a lush growth of grasses, herbaceous shrubs, and alpine wildflowers. Parks botanists and others have identified 546 species of flowering plants in the park. Late July to mid-September see an impressive display of alpine blooms. The alpine meadows continue into the harsh alpine tundra zone, where poor soil, heavy snowfall, cold temperatures, and a very short growing season discourage all but the hardiest sedge grasses, heathers, and lichens. ### Fauna Glacier's rich forests support a large wildlife population, which Parks staff monitor regularly. There are fifty-three mammal species found within the park. Bears dominate the snow zone; the berry-rich avalanche slides provide an important food source for both black and grizzly species. They spend the winters in deep dens hibernating. Other predators include the timber wolf, coyote, red fox, wolverine, cougar, and lynx. Mountain goats are the most common ungulates in Glacier National Park; a 1985 study counted 300 in the high peaks and valleys of the park. Caribou migrate through certain park valleys, while elk, mule and white-tailed deer can be found throughout. The deep snows of winter drive most ungulates out of the park into the lower elevations of the nearby Rocky Mountain Trench and Columbia valleys. Moose are seen in the park on rare occasions. Several species of squirrels are found in the lower forests, and alpine mammals include pika, hoary marmots, and martens. Glacier has 235 observed bird species, but the majority are migratory and only seen in the summer months. The 30 species who are year-round residents include woodpeckers, golden eagles, owls, ravens, Steller's jays, and golden-crowned kinglets. Unpredictable explosions of pine siskins, sometimes reaching hundreds of thousands in number, will appear and stay year round, but be gone the next year. American dippers feed in the many waterfalls and cascades of the park. ## Climate Located within the Interior Wetbelt, precipitation is a major environmental factor in the area. The park straddles two prevalent weather systems, with warmer, wetter air from the Pacific meeting the colder, drier air of continental weather systems. The moist air is driven to higher elevations by the mass of the Columbia Mountains. The result is frequent rain and snowstorms, especially during winter months. The mean annual precipitation in subalpine areas is 1.995 metres (6 ft 6.5 in) This contributes to the large icefields and glaciers that cover much of the park's high elevations. Rogers Pass can receive up to 17 metres (56 ft) of snow over the course of a winter. The eastern edge of the park, along the Purcells, is in the rain shadow and is relatively drier. The area can see wide variations in temperature and weather due to the extreme topography. Winter temperatures in the Selkirks are moderate compared to similar elevations in the Rockies to the east, with summer average highs reaching the high teens Celsius. Rogers Pass has a subarctic climate (Dfc) or what might be called a subalpine climate with short but mild and rainy summers and long, cold, and extremely snowy winters. Precipitation is heavy and very reliable year round and peaks during the month of January. ### Avalanche control Maintaining the Trans-Canada Highway through the snowy Rogers Pass is a constant battle. Parks Canada works with provincial highways crews and the Canadian Armed Forces to keep the highway open as much as possible. Parks staff play both a research and prevention role by monitoring snowpack levels and predicting avalanche probability, as well as working with the Canadian Forces to trigger controlled avalanches. The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery operate 105mm Howitzer cannons, based at circular gun positions along the highway. The highway is closed to traffic, shells are fired at trigger points identified by Parks forecasters, and smaller, more controlled avalanches are started. ## Facilities Although the park sees over four million visitors each year, the majority are only passing through on the Trans-Canada Highway. About 15% stop to use park facilities. Of the visitors who experience the park from outside their vehicles, two-thirds are from outside of Canada. There are 140 kilometres (87 mi) of established hiking trails in the park. The Parks Canada administration and Rogers Pass Discovery Centre are located at Rogers Pass. The interpretive program for Glacier and Mount Revelstoke National Parks is based at the centre. It includes a theatre, an exhibit hall with railway models, natural history displays and wildlife specimens, and a bookstore. There are three campgrounds in the park. Illecillewaet is the largest, with two smaller campgrounds located at Loop Brook and Sir Donald. There are also five designated backcountry camping areas. Parks and the Alpine Club of Canada maintain four alpine huts and cabins for backcountry users. The Wheeler Hut is the oldest and largest, and is located near the Illecillewaet camping area. The Asulkan hut sits at 2,100 metres (6,900 ft) on the Asulkan Pass, the Sapphire Col hut is a basic shelter near The Dome, and the Glacier Circle cabin in the Beaver River valley is a base for travelling in the southern areas of the park. None of the camping facilities in the park are maintained during winter months. ## See also - Glacier National Park (U.S.) - List of National Parks of Canada - National Parks of Canada

The Sleeping Girl of Turville

British sleeper

Ellen Sadler (15 May 1859 – after 1901), sometimes called The Sleeping Girl of Turville, was a resident of Turville, a small village in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. In 1871, aged eleven, she purportedly fell asleep and did not wake for nine years. The case attracted international attention from newspapers, medical professionals and the public. Born to a large, impoverished family of farm workers, Ellen was sent to work as a nursemaid at the age of eleven. Soon afterwards, she began suffering periods of drowsiness and was referred to a local hospital. After four months, her condition was declared incurable, and she was sent home. Two days later, Ellen had a series of seizures and—her mother claimed—fell into a deep sleep from which she could not be roused. Ellen became a tourist attraction for the village, and her family made considerable money from visitors' donations. As the years progressed with no sign of Ellen's waking, speculation grew that her illness was either a hoax or caused by her mother, an issue that was never resolved. In late 1880, soon after her mother's death, Ellen awoke. She later married and had at least five children. ## Background Ellen Sadler was born on 15 May 1859 to Ann and William Sadler, who lived in the small village of Turville, Buckinghamshire. The Sadlers were a large, impoverished family consisting mainly of farmhands; Ellen, the youngest child, shared her home with her eleven siblings. Ellen's father died while she was an infant; Ann Sadler subsequently married Thomas Frewen. ## Illness ### Initial symptoms In 1870, aged eleven, Ellen began work as a nursemaid in nearby Marlow, but she began suffering periods of somnolence and her employment was terminated. She was subsequently attended by a local doctor, Henry Hayman F.R.C.S., from nearby Stokenchurch. Ellen had been suffering for 13 weeks from "glandular swellings" or an abscess on the back of her head, and symptoms consistent with a spinal disease. The family did not have much money, so the parish vicar, The Reverend Studholme, asked Hayman to secure Ellen's admission to a local hospital, where her condition worsened. Ellen stayed at the hospital for 18 weeks before being "discharged as incurable" in March 1871. ### Fall into unconsciousness According to Ellen's mother, upon the girl's return home on a rickety cart, she began to feel drowsy and had several seizures. Hayman states that it was two days after her discharge that the seizures occurred. He visited Ellen at her home, where he was told that the previous night, 17 March, Ellen had endured a series of such attacks, after which she turned to lie "on her left side, with her hand under her head, and the lower extremities drawn upwards". It was in this position that—her mother maintained—Ellen remained for the duration of her sleep. Hayman visited Ellen many times over the next few years and he later said that he "never found her otherwise". Ellen became something of a tourist attraction for Turville. She was visited by journalists, medical professionals, religious personnel and the "plain curious" from across the country, many of whom donated money to Ellen's family to be allowed to see her. Some paid to take cuts of Ellen's hair, until the "supply" began to run out. A Bucks Free Press journalist recounted his visit: > Her breathing was regular and natural, the skin soft and the body warm, as in a healthy subject; the pulse rather fast. The hands were small and thin, but the fingers quite flexible; the body somewhat emaciated; the feet and legs like those of a dead child, almost ice cold ... the aspect of her features was pleasant, more so than might be expected under the circumstances ... her eyes and cheeks were sunken, and the appearance was that of death ... but although there was no colour on her cheeks, the paleness was not that heavy hue which betokens death. A correspondent from The Daily Telegraph visited Ellen about 22 months after she fell ill. He wrote: > The girl's face is by no means cadaverous. There is flesh on the cheeks, which have a pinkish tint, and there is some colour in the thin lips. The eyes are calmly closed, as though in healthy sleep. I ventured to raise one of the lids and touch the eye beneath ... but there was not even a quivering of the eyelash. ... The girl's [hand] was quite warm and moist, and the finger nails were neatly trimmed. The fingers are not the least bit stiffened ... It is not a skeleton hand, neither are any of the girl's limbs so emaciated as, under the extraordinary circumstances alleged, might be expected. ... The child's body is very thin as compared with her limbs. ... There is not much substance in her flesh, however; it is soft and flabby ... [Her feet were] almost ice-cold. ... As regards the child's breathing, it is so feeble that it is almost impossible to detect it; you cannot feel it by holding the cheek to her mouth, and the only faintest flutter is felt when the hand is laid over the region of the heart. By March 1873, Ellen was believed to be suffering from starvation. At first, she had largely subsisted on port, tea and milk, given three times per day. After about 15 months—while her mother was attempting to administer arrowroot—Ellen's jaw locked closed. Subsequently, according to Hayman, she was fed "wine, gruel and other things" using the "spout of a toy teapot inserted between two broken teeth". The Daily Telegraph journalist expanded on Ellen's feeding: "The feeding implements stand on a little table by the side of the stump bedstead, and, at first sight, give you the idea that they are toys placed there to attract her attention should she, by a merciful termination of her trance, presently awake to life. The toys in question are two tiny 'teapots', each not much larger than a full-sized walnut and holding four small teaspoonfuls. One of these is filled with port wine, and the other with milk ... this quantity of liquid nourishment ... cannot weigh more than half an ounce ..." At this time, it was considered "manifestly out of the question to think of moving her". How the family dealt with Ellen's passing of urine and faeces is unclear, but in 1880, Hayman said that Ann Frewen told him that no bowel movements had occurred for five years, and that approximately every four days "a somewhat large amount would pass from the bladder". ### Scepticism Some visitors were sceptical of Ellen's illness and attempted to uncover the alleged ruse through methods such as stabbing her with pins, to no effect. The Bucks Free Press journalist was suspicious of Ann's practice of making visitors wait before seeing Ellen. Some neighbours were also "deeply sceptical", as Ellen's family was making a "healthy profit" from her illness. During summers, the family was taking as much as £2 per week (£ as of ). Others said they sometimes saw Ellen sitting by her window at night. Ann consented to "fair tests", but further suspicions were raised because medical personnel were not allowed to remain for too long, and Ann did not want Ellen to be moved to a hospital. Nor was Ellen listed as an invalid during the 1871 census. Hayman said that Ann was reluctant to allow handling of her daughter by medical personnel because they often concealed sharp objects with which to "test [Ellen's] powers of feeling". Her parents had also "strenuously opposed" Hayman's recommendation to run an electric current through Ellen's sleeping body. Much speculation appeared in the press as to the cause of Ellen's illness; some linked the case to that of Sarah Jacob, a girl from Wales who, her parents claimed, was able to survive without nourishment, through divine intervention. Sarah died of starvation in 1869, and her parents were subsequently convicted of manslaughter. A journalist for The Observer commented, "It is to be hoped that [Sarah's case] is known in the obscure village of Turville, where—we are asked to believe—a fresh case of miraculous trance has taken place. ... [Ellen's case] very much ... incites suspicion of deliberate imposture." One correspondent to The Times wrote, "It is by widespread publicity that such cases are multiplied, and it is difficult to overstate the harm thus done. These impostures exist through a morbid love of sympathy on the part of the children, or from the gains that accrue to the parents. Once begun, they soon pass into real disease." Another said the "ridiculous mystery" could be resolved if only Ellen were transferred, over her mother's continued objections, to a London hospital, a sentiment echoed by many. Claims that Ellen was suffering from a form of catalepsy—a condition at the time considered "so rare that not one physician in a thousand has so much as seen a single case of it"—were also disregarded as unlikely, as was any thought of religious ecstasy. Nevertheless, Hayman affirmed, "every effort [had] been made to discover the deception, if any, but without effect." The Home Secretary and local Magistrate corresponded about the case but the law was powerless to interfere, because despite accepting donations, Ellen's family never asked for money outright, and she "was not represented as a 'fasting girl'", as Sarah Jacob had been. The Daily Telegraph journalist said, "[Ann Frewen]'s manner is that of a perfectly honest woman who would be too glad if her child could be restored to consciousness." He spoke to neighbours, none of whom indicated anything other than trust in Ellen's parents and Hayman, and claimed that the family was receiving no money from Ellen's illness, although the latter point is contradicted by Hayman and others. The journalist concluded, "I have no medical knowledge, and [am] unqualified to give an opinion beyond what is justified by close observation of the ordinary kind. I went to Turville prepared to find an imposture. I have returned—puzzled." ### Recovery Ann Frewen died in May 1880. The inquest into her death was held at the nearby Bull and Butcher public house, presided over by the county coroner, Frederick Charsley. Part of the inquest's remit was to consider the matter of Ellen's subsequent care. Thomas Frewen was reported as being "quite evasive" when the coroner asked him how Ellen was fed, and although Hayman testified to reaffirm his stance that Ellen's illness was genuine, Reverend Studholme was less certain. However, he could not offer any evidence to this effect, even though he had made several unannounced visits to Ellen's home. Charsley concluded that Thomas could not look after Ellen, as his job left him absent from their home all day, and that the other members of the household would be too busy with its upkeep. Therefore, he turned Ellen's care over to her married sisters, Elizabeth Stacey and Grace Blackall, both of whom lived in Turville. The cause of Ann's death was found to be oedema of the heart, from which she had been suffering for many years. Five months later, Ellen awoke; by November, she had "fully recovered". By this time, Ellen was twenty-one and claimed to remember nothing of the previous nine years. She otherwise suffered few long-term effects, save for slightly stunted growth and a "weak eye". ## Later life and legacy In 1886, Ellen married Mark Blackall in nearby Fawley. In the censuses of 1891 and 1901, the pair are listed as living in Barkham and Caversham, respectively. They had five children: Ann (b. 1888), Elizabeth or Mable (b. 1889), Gladys (b. 1890), Sydney (b. 1896) and Gertrude (b. 1898). Ellen and Mark appear in the 1911 census together with Sydney and Gertrude, all living in Lower Caversham. The census also records that they had six children, one of which had died. The case of Ellen Sadler has remained a part of local folklore, spawning tales of witchcraft and rumours of royal attention in Turville. The Sadler family home became known as "Sleepy Cottage", and was used for filming of the BBC situation comedy The Vicar of Dibley. No clear cause has ever been ascribed for Ellen's condition; modern diagnoses might include narcolepsy, or deliberate drugging, and the possibility that it was a hoax cannot be discounted. An embellished account of the story can be found in the 1973 collection Witchcraft in the Thames Valley by Tony Barham. ## See also - Kleine–Levin syndrome - Münchausen syndrome by proxy

Lady of the Forest

Book by Jennifer Roberson

Lady of the Forest: A Novel of Sherwood is a 1992 historical fiction novel by American author Jennifer Roberson. A re-telling of the Robin Hood legend from the perspective of twelve characters associated with the legend, the story centers around English noblewoman Lady Marian FitzWalter's encounters with Lord Robert of Locksley and his scheming rival the Sheriff of Nottingham amid the backdrop of Prince John's schemes – he aims to increase his own wealth and power at the expense of post-Conquest England and his brother, King Richard. Roberson wrote her novel as a prequel to the known legend. Understanding that Robin Hood lacked a single origin story, she decided to create an original narrative that depicted how "seven very different people from a rigidly stratified social structure came to join together to fight the inequities of medieval England." Roberson spent a year researching and writing the story, and sought to combine fact and legend in developing the motivations for certain characters. The novel was published in September 1992 by Zebra Books, with a cover designed by illustrator Anne Yvonne Gilbert. Lady of the Forest received generally positive reviews, and has been analyzed by Robin Hood scholar Stephen Thomas Knight, who observed that Roberson's Marian is a "strong woman" who helps Robert, a traumatized veteran of the Crusades, adjust to his life in England; Knight connects this to the "post-Vietnam" mood that existed when the novel was written. Roberson released a sequel, Lady of Sherwood, in 1999. ## Plot summary The story begins in the spring of 1194 in the English county of Nottinghamshire. Lady Marian FitzWalter attends a festival held at Huntington Castle by the Earl of Huntington, who wishes to honour the return of his only surviving heir, Lord Robert of Locksley, from the Crusades. Marian seeks an audience with Robert to learn the manner of her Crusader father's death the previous year, as Robert was a witness. The reserved, mentally scarred Robert reacts strongly, having flashbacks to Sir Hugh's violent murder at the hands of Saracens. He informs her that Hugh wished for Marian to marry William DeLacey, the harsh and scheming Sheriff of Nottingham, to her dismay. DeLacey knows naught of her father's last wishes, but intends to make her marry him anyway. Prince John arrives at the festival unexpectedly with plans: he states his wish to ally himself with the Earl by marrying Robert to his bastard daughter Joanna, and also approaches DeLacey about raising more taxes ostensibly to be sent to ransom John's brother, King Richard. In truth, John wishes to keep the revenue for himself and maintain his brother's imprisonment. Soon after, Marian is reluctantly manipulated into accompanying the Sheriff to attend a market at Nottingham Castle. There, she is kidnapped by the prisoner William "Scarlet" Scathlocke, an enraged man imprisoned for killing four Norman soldiers, and is taken into the depths of nearby Sherwood Forest. Lord Robert, who was taught how to navigate the massive forest as a youth, secretly tracks Scarlet and is able to secure Marian's release. While accompanying Marian back to her modest manor, Ravenskeep, Robert falls ill from a fever. Marian gradually wears down the mental wall he had built up in captivity by the Saracens, and after his recovery at Ravenskeep, they consummate their relationship soon after she refuses DeLacey's offer of marriage. Robert returns to Huntington, along the way besting outlaws such as Adam Bell and Will Scarlet at a contest of archery. He encounters his father and several other prominent noblemen, and is told they wish for him to marry Joanna to mislead Prince John about their intentions to thwart his grabs for power. Robert refuses. Meanwhile, Marian barely avoids being forced to marry DeLacey, and only escapes with the help of the kind Friar Tuck and the Sheriff's seneschal Guy de Gisbourne, who is infatuated with her. She flees to Huntington Castle; the Earl is displeased with his son's disobedience and their liaison, causing Marian and Robert to travel to the small village of Locksley, his namesake and holding. Robert endeavours to steal the funds needed for King Richard's ransom, and begins robbing the rich with the help of Sherwood's outlaws, whom he has gradually befriended. At the same time, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard's mother, is working to raise the ransom through more legal methods: by taxing clergy and laymen for a quarter of the value of their property, confiscating the gold and silver treasures of the churches, and imposing scutage and carucage taxes. Back in the small village of Locksley, Marian is captured and sent to the Sheriff's dungeon, where she is given an ultimatum: marry DeLacey or find herself charged with witchcraft. She is rescued by Robert, who arrives with his friends to free her. Just as they are about to be arrested by a wrathful Prince John, whose money has been stolen by the outlaws, King Richard arrives unexpectedly, allowing Robert and his associates to escape. ## Development American author Jennifer Roberson was known for writing fantasy novels before she moved into historical fiction, a genre new to her. She noted, "One thing I'd always wanted to try –another ‘someday’ dream – was a big, sprawling, mainstream historical epic." She proposed to her literary agent that she write a reinterpretation of the Robin Hood legend from the perspective of Maid Marian. Roberson understood that her rendition was not a "recounting" of the original story, because "there is none"; rather, Lady of the Forest was "purely [her] own concoction." Describing the novel as a prequel, the author explained, "I wanted very much to write the story of how the legend came to be; the tale of how seven very different people from a rigidly stratified social structure came to join together to fight the inequities of medieval England. To me, the key was logic—I interwove historical fact with the fantasy of the classic legend, and developed my own interpretation of how things came to be. I wanted to come to know all of these people; to climb inside their heads and learn what motivated them to do what they did." It took Roberson a year to research and write the novel. She credited as resource materials J. C. Holt's Robin Hood, Maurice Keen's The Outlaws of Sherwood, The Ballads of Robin Hood, Elizabeth Hallam's The Plantagenet Chronicles, W. L. Warren's King John, as well as the works of Frances and Joseph Gies. In a 2007 interview, Roberson stated that writing the story was "extremely challenging" because she employs the viewpoints of twelve main characters – Marian, Lord Robert, DeLacey, Sir Guy de Gisbourne, the Earl of Huntington, Eleanor DeLacey (the Sheriff's plain, scheming daughter), Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, the minstrel Alan of the Dales (whom becomes an outlaw after being falsely accused of rape), the simple boy Much, the moneylender Abraham the Jew (who Robert uses to raise money for the ransom), and the shepherd turned reluctant outlaw Little John. Roberson believed that this experience made her a better writer. Roberson has spoken of the difficulties of writing medieval women, particularly because so many contemporary authors are accused of giving their characters "anachronistic independence of thought and feminist leanings." The author acknowledged that with Eleanor DeLacey, an invented character, she "tread[s] close to the boundaries" but believes Eleanor is a reflection of women of "loose morals", who indeed existed in the 1190s. Roberson continued, "I choose to believe an Eleanor might well have looked to sexual dalliance as a means of seeking freedom of choice in an age when women had very little." Conversely, Marian, Roberson wrote, "is a truer product of her times, shaped by the ordinary responsibilities and expectations of a medieval woman." Marian only gains the strength and freedom to love after the loss of her good reputation as a captive in Sherwood Forest. ## Analysis Stephen Thomas Knight, a scholar on Robin Hood, has written extensively on Roberson's "interesting" perspective of the legend. According to him, Lady of the Forest was another in a long line of contemporary stories that has elevated Marian to "hero status". He connects this to a corresponding "weakening" of Robin in Roberson's story, noting that there is a relationship between the novel's "post-Vietnam" date and its story, with Robin rendered as a "battleweary veteran returning from the Crusades" in a "traumatized state." Knight continues that "it is evident that Roberson is using the post-Vietnam mood as the basis for her weakening of Robin to permit a 'strong woman' presentation of Marion." Roberson's Marian is made "an independent and intelligent woman who helps Lord Robin, traumatised by the crusades, re-establish himself both as a man and a leader of resistance." In an article published in the Journal of Gender Studies, Jane Tolmie stated that Lady of the Forest was another in a long line of contemporary fantasy novels that depicted women having to endure acts of rape, violence, and oppression as "aspects of a continuum rather than as isolated difficulties" – Marian for instance is subjected to abductions and attempted forced marriage. Tolmie added that in the context of Roberson's book, Marian is praised as "extraordinary" only within the "oppressive, gender-based" criteria promoted by the patriarchal Norman society. After Marian wields a quarterstaff to attack another, Robert compares the lady to a man, namely her father – both "had met adversity with the same determination, the same intensity." ## Release and reception Lady of the Forest was published in September 1992 by New York City-based Zebra Books, with cover art by Anne Yvonne Gilbert. A Japanese translation was released in 1994, while a German edition was published in 2003. Roberson stated in a March 2007 interview that "various options" had been taken for adapting the book but added that this was true of many other works. In 1999, she followed the novel with the sequel Lady of Sherwood, which depicts the effects of King Richard's death: the outlaws are persecuted anew by the Sheriff, while the Earl works against John in favor of Arthur of Brittany. Lady of the Forest has received generally positive reviews, with Stephen Knight deeming it a "highly effective novel." The Library Journal lauded Roberson for thoroughly researching the story and yet not overwhelming readers with facts, and predicted the book would be popular in the wake of the 1991 feature film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The Journal continued that the author's "personal touches create a delightful historical novel with traditional romantic overtones. The writing is so colorful and active that it is difficult to put the book down." Publishers Weekly praised the novel for its "lively storytelling and pacing", which helped make it "an enjoyable, almost creditable recasting of the Robin Hood legend as historical fiction." The book's romance, the reviewer added, "works beautifully, capturing in the tale of Robin and Marian the terrifying bliss of first love. A diverting, delightful book from a most promising talent." However, Publishers Weekly included some criticisms, opining that Robert of Locksley and Marian "are unlikely to have been as naive as Roberson depicts them." ## See also - List of historical novels - Robin Hood in popular culture

Prinzip Hoffnung

Traditional climbing route in Austria

Prinzip Hoffnung (in English: Principle Hope or Principle of Hope), is a 40-metre (130 ft) long traditional climbing route on a thin crack up a conglomerate rock slab on the "Bürs plate cliff" () overlooking the village of Bürs in Vorarlberg, Austria. The route was greenpointed by Austrian climber Beat Kammerlander [de] in 2009, and was one of the earliest traditional climbing routes to be graded at 5.14 R (American), 8b/+ (French), X/X+ (UIAA), or E9-E10 (British); it is still considered one of the hardest traditional climbing routes in the world. ## History The blank south-facing black conglomerate slab on the "Bürs plate cliff" that overlooks the village of Bürs in Vorarlberg, had been known to climbers in the region as a possible project. In 1997, Austrian climber Marco Wasina made the first redpoint (i.e. after several failed attempts, the first free ascent without falling during that ascent) of the lower part of the route up the length of the first 25-metre (82 ft) thin crack that splits the face, which he did as a bolted sport climb. A few months later, his friend Beat Kammerlander [de] repeated Wasina's route, and then made the difficult moves to extend the route rightwards into another set of even smaller fissure cracks through an almost blank featureless section of 6 metres (20 ft) to create an even harder 40-metre (130 ft) sport climb that he graded at 8b/8b+ (French). In 2009, Kammerlander removed the bolts (called greenpointing) and spent several months training and mentally preparing himself (and admitting to sleepless nights worrying about the falls), to reclimb it as a traditional route. During his attempts, he took several 15-metre (49 ft) falls from its crux onto small wires below. In September 2009, Kammerlander, aged 50, made the first free ascent (FFA) of Prinzip Hoffnung as a traditional climb. He said: "The Burs Face has always fascinated me. The climb is very particular and uses tiny edges and footholds. If you try it too often you bloody your fingers and wear through the rubber on your shoes. It's a hell of a battle." In March 2014, Austrian climber Barbara Zangerl made the fifth overall free ascent and the first female free ascent (FFFA) of the route. Even a decade after Kammerlander's first ascent, the route had only recorded its tenth ascent, and in 2023, the route is still ranked as one of the hardest traditional climbing routes in the world. ## Route The route is described as a mix of a crack climb and of a slab climb. The first section is the 25-metre (82 ft) thin finger-crack protected by small cams and wires that eventually peters out. The crux is the transition right across the slab and upwards for another 6 metres (20 ft) to get to a second, very narrow crack, around 9m long, which leads to the top. The crux is described as crimpy and unprotected, and there is a long distance — known in climbing as a runout — to the last point of climbing protection (i.e. being the micro-wire inserted at the top of the first crack). Falls at the crux are intimidating, with an added danger that if the last micro-wire breaks, the fall can be over 15–20 metres (49–66 ft) in length. ## Legacy The Prinzip Hoffnung route is considered a classic crack/slab traditional climb and an important testpiece, with subsequent repeat climbs of Prinzip Hoffnung being closely followed and recorded in the climbing media. Both British climber Maddy Cope, and American climber Anna Hazelnutt, said that it was a dream-climb. Hazelnutt called it "a perfect mix of crack and slab – although it was definitely more cracky than I anticipated". The route is an important part of Beat Kammerlender's legacy, who was one of Europe's strongest rock climbers in the 1990s, and who made the first-ever ascents of multi-pitch routes at the grade of and of . Kammerlander remarked in 2009 that the climb had "an equal significance in my personal development" as his other major climbing projects that had also required him to develop himself. ## Ascents Prinzip Hoffnung has been ascended by (first ten ascents): - 1st. Beat Kammerlander [de] in September 2009. - 2nd. Alex Luger in December 2009. - 3rd. Jacopo Larcher in February 2014. - 4th. Fabian Buhl [de] in March 2014. - 5th. Barbara Zangerl in March 2014. - 6th. Christian Bindhammer [de] in April 2014. - 7th. Michael Gunsilius in February 2018. - 8th. Nemuel Feurle, aged 16, in April 2018. - 9th. Michi Wohlleben [de] in March 2019. - 10th. Nadine Wallner [de] in March 2019. First female free ascents (FFFA) were: - 1st. Barbara Zangerl in March 2014. - 2nd. Nadine Wallner [de] in March 2019. - 3rd. Madeleine Cope in April 2019. - 4th. Lena Marie Müller in February 2020. - 5th. Luisa Deubzer in March 2022. - 6th. Anna Hazelnutt in March 2023. - 7th. Iris Bielli in March 2024. ## See also - Indian Face, British E9-graded traditional climbing route from 1986 - Separate Reality, American 5.12a-graded traditional climbing route from 1978 - Cobra Crack, American 5.14b-graded traditional climbing route from 2006

New Jersey Route 57

State highway in Warren County, New Jersey, US

Route 57 is a state highway located in Warren County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It runs 21.10 mi (33.96 km) from an interchange with U.S. Route 22 (US 22) in Lopatcong Township to an intersection with Route 182 and County Route 517 (CR 517) in Hackettstown. The route passes through mostly rural areas of farmland and mountains in Warren County. It also passes through Washington, where Route 57 crosses Route 31. The route is designated a scenic byway, the Warren Heritage Scenic Byway, by the state of New Jersey due to the physical environments it passes through as well as from historical sites along the way such as the Morris Canal. The current alignment of Route 57 was designated as a part of pre-1927 Route 12 in 1917. In 1927, Route 24 was designated along this route between the Phillipsburg area and Penwell in Mansfield Township while a spur of Route 24 called Route S24 replaced pre-1927 Route 12 between Penwell and US 46 in Hackettstown. When New Jersey renumbered its state highways in 1953, the portion of Route S24 between Penwell and CR 517 in Hackettstown became a part of Route 24 to complete a gap in that route while Route S24 north of there became Route 57. A never-built segment of Route 57 running from the intersection of Route 24 and Route 57 to US 46 east of Hackettstown was legislated in 1965. Around 1970, Route 57 was designated along Route 24 west of Hackettstown while the portion of Route 57 in Hackettstown became Route 182. ## Route description Route 57 begins at an interchange with US 22 in Lopatcong Township, where the only movements possible here between the two highways are westbound Route 57 to westbound US 22 and vice versa. The road heads to the east on the Morris and Essex Turnpike, a two-lane undivided road. The route heads through a mix of businesses and farm fields, with the Washington Secondary rail line that is owned by Norfolk Southern and operated by the Dover and Delaware River Railroad paralleling the road to the south. The railroad line eventually runs farther to the south of Route 57 before the route crosses County Route 519 (Uniontown Road). Past this intersection, the road heads northeast through farmland within the Pohatcong Creek valley, situated between Pohatcong Mountain to the south and Scotts Mountain to the north. It enters Greenwich Township, where the route crosses County Route 637 (Liberty Road/North Main Street) before passing through residential areas. Route 57 heads into farmland with intermittent residences, crossing into Franklin Township. The route continues to New Village, where residences become more dense. A short distance after the intersection with County Route 633 (Edison Road), Route 57 heads back into farm fields. The road reaches the residential community of Broadway, where it comes to a junction with County Route 643 (Asbury Broadway Road). Route 57 continues through agricultural areas with more residences and businesses, crossing into Washington Township, where it intersects County Route 648 (Little Philadelphia Road) and County Route 623 (Brass Castle Road). Past this intersection, Route 57 enters Washington Borough, where it becomes Washington Avenue. Here, the road passes residences and businesses before heading into the commercial downtown of Washington. It crosses Route 31 and heads under a Dover and Delaware River Railroad line, passing through a mix of residences, businesses, and industrial establishments. It crosses back into Washington Township, where Route 57 becomes the Morris and Essex Turnpike again, crossing over the Washington Secondary rail line before intersecting County Route 630 (Washburn Avenue) and County Route 651 (McCullough Road) in Port Colden. From here, the road heads east into a mix of agricultural and residential areas with some businesses, entering Mansfield Township. Here, the route is known as the Admiral John D. Bulkeley Memorial Highway, named after Vice Admiral John D. Bulkeley, a United States Navy officer who served in World War II. In Mansfield Township, the road passes through the residential community of Anderson and intersects County Route 632 (Anderson Road) and County Route 629 (Port Murray Road). From here, Route 57 turns northeast and parallels the Musconetcong River, heading through wooded areas around Upper Pohatcong Mountain with some farmland. In Stephensburg, the road passes through a wooded residential region and intersects County Route 652 (Watters Road). Past this intersection, the road continues alongside the wooded Musconetcong River, with residential and commercial development increasing past the Hazen Road intersection. Route 57 enters Hackettstown, where it becomes the Morris and Essex Turnpike before coming to its terminus at an intersection with the southern terminus of Route 182 and County Route 517, which continues south from this intersection as well as north along Route 182. From milepost 2.07 (3.33 km) to its eastern terminus, Route 57 is designated a scenic byway, the Warren Heritage Scenic Byway, by the state of New Jersey due to its mountain and valley scenery, historic districts, and the adjacent Morris Canal, which was built in 1831 and had the greatest elevation change among all canals across the world. ## History The present-day alignment of Route 57 west of Penwell was built as a part of the Washington Turnpike, chartered in 1806 to run from Morristown to Phillipsburg. This road was later signed as part of the William Penn Highway in 1916, running from New York City to Pittsburgh. The whole of what is now Route 57 was legislated as a part of pre-1927 Route 12, a route that was designated to run from Paterson west to Phillipsburg in 1917. A one-mile (1.6 km) stretch of the road in Franklin Township was the first concrete road built in New Jersey, having been constructed in 1912. The concrete was supplied by Thomas Edison's Portland cement company and some of the original concrete is still in use on the road today. In the 1927 New Jersey state highway renumbering, this portion of pre-1927 Route 12 west of Penwell in Mansfield Township was legislated as a part of Route 24, a route that was to run from Phillipsburg to Newark, while the portion between Penwell and U.S. Route 46 in Hackettstown was designated as Route S24, a spur of Route 24. The portion of Route S24 between Penwell and County Route 517 in the southern part of Hackettstown (Route 57’s current eastern terminus) became part of mainline Route 24 in the 1953 New Jersey state highway renumbering in order to complete the gap that existed in that route between Penwell and Long Valley. The portion of Route S24 from this point north to U.S. Route 46 was designated as Route 57. In 1965, a portion of Route 57 was designated to bypass Hackettstown, running from its intersection with Route 24 to U.S. Route 46 east of Hackettstown; this was never built. Around 1970, Route 24 west of Hackettstown became part of Route 57 while the portion of Route 57 that had existed between Route 24 and U.S. Route 46 was designated Route 182. In the 2000s, the New Jersey Department of Transportation worked with communities along Route 57 to create a land use and transportation plan for the area surrounding the route, as part of their Future In Transportation plan. By Joint Resolution No. 5, approved August 13, 1997, the New Jersey Legislature designated Route 57 as the Admiral John D. Bulkeley Memorial Highway. Vice Admiral John D. Bulkeley, a decorated naval hero of World War II and the Korean War, grew up in Mansfield Township and was a graduate of Hackettstown High School. ## Major intersections |} ## See also - -

BR Standard Class 8

One-off three-cylinder 4-6-2 locomotive

The BR Standard Class 8 was a class of a single 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive designed by Robert Riddles for use by British Railways. Only the prototype was constructed, which was christened the name Duke of Gloucester. Constructed at Crewe Works in 1954, the Duke, as it is popularly known, was a replacement for the destroyed LMS Princess Royal Class locomotive number 46202 Princess Anne, which was involved in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash of 1952. The Duke was based on the BR Standard Class 7 Britannia design. It incorporated three sets of modified Caprotti valve gear, relatively new to British locomotive engineering and more efficient than Walschaerts or Stephenson valve gear. The Duke was regarded as a failure by locomotive crews due to its poor steaming characteristics and its heavy fuel consumption. Trials undertaken by British Railways also returned negative feedback, reporting problems with the poor draughting of the locomotive which resulted in difficulty adhering to the timetables. The result was an operational period of only eight years. This unique locomotive was saved from being scrapped at Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales when it was purchased by a group of railway enthusiasts who restored it from scrapyard to as-built condition in 13 years. Since then, modifications have been made to the original design, resulting in one of the most efficient and powerful steam locomotives ever to run in Britain. As a result, the Duke of Gloucester could frequently be seen on the mainline around Britain. As of 2024, the locomotive is being overhauled to return it to operational condition. ## Background Riddles had frequently argued the case for the inclusion of a Standard Class 8 Pacific into the standard range of locomotives being introduced by British Railways. However, these proposals were rejected by the Railway Executive on the grounds of cost in attempting to develop a form of steam motive power that was not necessarily required for use on Britain's railways, as there were enough Standard Class 7 Britannia locomotives already available for use. However, opportunity came out of adversity when the short-lived rebuild of the LMS Turbomotive, 46202 Princess Anne, was destroyed in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail disaster of 1952. A gap now existed in the roster for locomotives with 8P power classification, of which the demand was high for the efficient operation of heavy expresses on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston and Scotland. This presented Riddles with the perfect opportunity to press the case for his new design, a prototype of which was duly authorised for construction. ## Design details At first, Riddles wished to develop an enlarged version of his Standard Class 7 Britannias, as the design still featured a two-cylinder layout. However, the size of the cylinders in order to achieve the 8P power classification would have put the design over the British loading gauge limit and so a reluctant reversion to the three-cylinder layout ensued. This reluctance was born from experience with the Gresley Pacifics, whose conjugated valve gear was difficult to maintain due to the location of the middle cylinder between the frames. Therefore, an alternative type of valve gear had to be found. The valve gear that was settled upon was a rotary cam-driven form of Caprotti valve gear, developed by Heenan & Froude with poppet valves. This was based on Italian locomotive practice and allowed precise control of steam admission to the cylinders while improving exhaust flow and boiler draughting characteristics when compared to the more conventional Walschaerts and Stephenson valve gear. On paper this created a free-steaming, hard-working locomotive capable of hauling heavy loads over long distances but, in practice, fundamental design errors and undetected deviations from the drawings made during construction combined to prevent the locomotive from achieving its expected performance during British Railways ownership. The main problem was known even when the locomotive was under construction, as Mr. L.T. Daniels, the representative of the British Caprotti company, recommended the use of the Kylchap blastpipe, which could have coped with the fierce exhaust blasts experienced with the Caprotti system. A standard double chimney of the Swindon type had already been fabricated in order to cut costs and it had been installed in the smokebox supposedly before Riddles could do anything about it. As a result, the locomotive suffered due to the choke area of both chimney and blastpipe being much too small for the pressure created by the exhaust, leading to poor draughting. Further problems regarding the firebox of the locomotive were only discovered during restoration, including a poorly dimensioned ashpan and dampers that were again too small, strangling the fire of air when operating at speed. Further, British Railways "Modernisation Plan" was already under development concurrent with the construction of 71000 raising other questions. Following experience of occasional cracks appearing near the spring brackets of the Britannias and Clans, a substantial rearrangement took place in this area that resulted in the locomotive riding on three cast steel "sub-frames" carrying the ten front-most spring brackets and lengthened spring brackets behind the rear driven axle. Perhaps remarkably, these were not integrated into a cast combined sub-frame/pony truck pivot stretcher, the pony truck pivot stretcher being a fabrication. Had the planned batch of further smaller Pacifics been built, they would have been fitted with this arrangement. ## Construction history The opportunity to create an entire batch of locomotives within the 8P category was declined by the Railway Executive. It had been said this was because the design process had been highly expensive and complex, so that when the locomotive emerged from Crewe Works in 1954, such thoughts were inappropriate, especially with the advent of the 1955 Modernisation Plan. As a result, 71000 remained the solitary member of a proposed class of Standard 8P locomotives. ### Naming the locomotive Upon emerging from Crewe Works in 1954, the locomotive was named Duke of Gloucester prior to entering revenue-earning service. Had further locomotives been constructed, they would have belonged to the Duke Class, standing alongside the sister locomotives of the Britannia and Clan Classes. Since then, the locomotive has colloquially been referred to by steam enthusiasts and crews as the Duke. ## Operational details The Duke was highly unpopular with crews, who regarded it as something of a liability due to its poor steam production. Inefficiencies caused by the problems regarding the draughting abilities and firebox design meant that no further examples were constructed. The fact that no effort was made to rectify these problems indicates the change in policy regarding steam locomotives, with the Modernisation Plan entering circulation as the "Duke" entered service. Based for its entire working life at Crewe North depot, the locomotive was utilised in hauling boat trains on the undemanding North Wales Coast Line between Crewe and Holyhead. All of this culminated in the locomotive having a short service life of only eight years, being withdrawn from service in 1962. The reputation of the locomotive amongst its crews as being a poor steamer was eventually to disappear – but only after it was rescued from the scrapyard during 1974. ## Livery and numbering The livery of the "Duke" was a continuation of the British Railways standard class practice. The class was given the power classification 8P. Following on from the 'Britannias', the "Duke" was numbered under the British Railways standard numbering system in the 71xxx series. The "Duke" was given the number 71000, and featured brass nameplates with a black background, located on the smoke deflectors. ## Preservation After withdrawal, the "Duke" was initially selected for the National Collection, though it was later decided that only the cylinder arrangement was of interest. One of the outside cylinders was removed for display at the Science Museum; the other was removed to restore balance in readiness for scrapping. The locomotive was purchased by Dai Woodham, though it was initially sent to the wrong scrapyard. After retrieval, the "Duke" languished for many years in Woodham Brothers scrapyard at Barry Island, South Wales, before enthusiasts purchased the locomotive in 1974, forming the Duke of Gloucester Steam Locomotive Trust. Restoration began in earnest, though with many components missing, the most expensive of which being the Caprotti valve gear, it took 13 years of effort on the part of enthusiasts, with assistance in the guise of sponsorships from industry, to return the locomotive to near as-built condition. One of the very few compromises made was replacing the previous steel cylinders with spheroidal graphite iron. Two significant construction errors were discovered during restoration: - The chimney was too small compared with other locomotives of similar size, resulting in poor boiler draughting at times of high steam demand. - The firebed (grate) air inlet dampers had not been built to the drawings; they were too small, resulting in poor air supply and inefficient combustion. These errors were corrected and the opportunity taken to incorporate some other improvements, including the previously recommended Kylchap exhaust system, which has finally unlocked the locomotive's true potential as a powerful express passenger locomotive. When the "Duke" was first allowed to haul a full load on the main line, it became immediately obvious that the boiler was now producing steam at a more efficient rate and that the reborn "Duke" was unrecognisable from the failure that was experienced under British Railways ownership. With these modifications, the "Duke" is now one of the most powerful steam locomotives ever to run on Britain's railways, past or present (the LMS Coronation Class Pacifics held that title under British Railways auspices - the three cylinder "Duke" never actually achieved the 3000 cylinder horse power figure that was recorded by the four cylinder Princess Coronation Class); ironically, it is now more powerful than not only the English Electric Type 4 diesel locomotives which replaced it directly in service, but also the type 4 and 5 diesel locomotives built to replace the earlier diesels. In the 1995 "Shap trials" (30 Sep to 3 October) 71000 broke the record for the fastest northbound ascent and achieved the highest EDHP figures during the event, its average over the Shap ascent was 2300 and peak 2803. The Duchess of Hamilton (46229) generated EDHP figures of 2150 and 2343 respectively. The A4 Sir Nigel Gresley (60007) suffered from poor coal and possible leaking tubes so only made EDHP figures of 1671 (average) and 1812 (peak). In preservation, the "Duke" had held an impeccable operational record for reliability; however on 9 June 2007, the engine operated a railtour from Preston to Carlisle returning via Settle, where, for operational reasons, the locomotive's start position was changed to Carnforth. Little over 30 miles (48 km) into the journey, the locomotive was stopped at Penrith with leaking tubes in the firebox and removed from the train. The engine was then withdrawn for repairs before a return to service in January 2008. As the locomotive now bears little mechanical resemblance to that which operated under British Railways, it has also been used as a test bed, incorporating several other modifications and innovations. These are intended to investigate how much further the locomotive's performance can be enhanced, therefore raising speculation surrounding the capabilities of an entire batch of Standard class 8 "Pacifics" had history been different. In 2012, the locomotive was pulled from service as its boiler ticket expired. After many setbacks, the locomotive's boiler was fired up and tested in late 2023. As of 2024, the locomotive is in its final stage of being overhauled to return it to operational condition and is expected to be operational sometime in 2024. ## Models A ready to run model in O scale, produced by Ace Trains, was released in Summer 2019. Built to coarse scale standards, these apply mainly to the wheels rather than the model more generally. Uniquely, the model has a representation of working Caprotti valve gear The only well documented construction of working live steam scale Duke of Gloucester models in Model Engineer magazine was by Denis Evans of Blackpool in England. Beginning in the 1966, and using original British Railways and Associated Locomotive Equipment (a subsidiary of Heenan & Froude) drawings, Denis built three Dukes each complete with fully working Caprotti valve gear, first in 71⁄4 inch gauge, and then 5 inch and 31⁄2 inch gauges. The 71⁄4 inch gauge Duke won awards at the 48th Model Engineer Exhibition in 1979, as did his 31⁄2 inch gauge locomotive at the 61st Model Engineer Exhibition in 1992.

Eidos Interactive

British video game publisher

Eidos Interactive Limited (formerly Domark Limited) was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Among its notable franchises were Championship Manager, Deus Ex, Hitman, Thief, and Tomb Raider. Domark was founded by Mark Strachan and Dominic Wheatley in 1984. In 1995, it was acquired by software company Eidos. Ian Livingstone, who held a stake in Domark, became executive chairman of Eidos and held various roles including creative director. Eidos took over U.S. Gold in 1996, which included developer Core Design, and merged its operations including Domark, which created publishing subsidiary Eidos Interactive. The company acquired Crystal Dynamics in 1998, and owned numerous other assets. In 2005, parent Eidos was taken over by games publisher SCi. The combined company, SCi Entertainment Group, which was briefly renamed Eidos, was itself taken over by Square Enix in 2009. Square Enix completed the merger with Eidos Interactive, absorbing it primarily into group company Square Enix Limited in November 2009 (also known as Square Enix Europe). Eidos executive Phil Rogers stayed with the company as Square Enix Europe CEO and became CEO of Americas and Europe in 2013 along with other executives. In August 2022, games holding company Embracer Group completed its acquisition of studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal and intellectual properties Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Thief among other assets. Rogers joined Embracer and formed an operative group called CDE Entertainment. ## History ### Founding of publisher Domark (1984–1994) Domark was founded by Mark Strachan and Dominic Wheatley in 1984. For Christmas 1983, Wheatley (the grandson of the writer Dennis Wheatley) had visited his family, where he saw his brother play The Heroes of Karn on a newly purchased Commodore 64. He was impressed with the game and felt that ordinary people, not just those who worked with computers professionally, would start acquiring computers and games for them. When he returned to his London job as a junior account executive at a small advertising agency, he spoke to Strachan, his colleague, and floated the idea of setting up a company to publish games from third-party developers. Strachan initially declined but later saw that many retailers in the city had sold out of ZX Spectrum models, which he felt signaled great interest in video games. Strachan and Wheatley, then aged 24, subsequently quit their jobs and founded Domark, using a portmanteau of their first names for the company. To design the adventure game Eureka\!, they hired the Hungarian developer Andromedia, and brought in Ian Livingstone as its writer. Strachan and Wheatley further devised a competition in which a telephone number would be shown upon completing the game, and the first person to call it would win . Through friends, family, and other acquaintances, they raised , more than enough to finance the project. Domark released the game later in 1984, marketing it through Concept Marketing, another firm set up by Strachan and Wheatley. Impressed with the company's operations, Livingstone invested in Domark. Eureka\! sold 15,000 copies. Domark were unsure what project to pursue next; Strachan and Wheatley had a contact in the estate of Ian Fleming and approached them with the idea of producing a video game based on James Bond. In 1985, Domark obtained a licence to A View to a Kill. Despite delays caused by scope creep, the eponymous game was released later in 1985 and was "actually quite successful", according to Wheatley. Domark found further success with computer conversions of board games: Trivial Pursuit was becoming increasingly popular, so Domark got into contact with games publisher Leisure Genius, which had found success with board game conversions. Leisure Genius was skeptical about a conversion of Trivial Pursuit, and Domark hired Oxford Digital Enterprises to develop it instead. Released in 1986, the Trivial Pursuit sold roughly 2 million copies. The success allowed Domark to move into proper offices and hire more employees. Domark released further Trivial Pursuit and James Bond games in the years following. The company also got into arcade game conversions in 1987 when Wheatley, alone at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, encountered Manlio Allegra, an agent for companies including Atari Games. Allegra wanted Domark to produce conversions for as many games as possible but Wheatley claimed that the company had only to spend. Allegra then went through a list of games to be licensed at low prices and Wheatley stopped him when he mentioned the Star Wars trilogy of games. They agreed on a license for Wheatley's claimed budget. To have the games developed, Domark brought a German programmer to England, who had previously developed Star Wars for Amiga. Domark released its versions later in 1987, and they became so successful that the first royalty cheque paid to Atari Games two months later amounted to . Impressed with this return, Atari Games hired Domark as the exclusive partner for computer conversions of arcade games. With sufficient funds, the company published various games through the rest of the 1980s. It set up an internal development team, The Kremlin, within its Putney headquarters in 1990 and expanded to 20 employees by 1992. In the same year, Livingstone joined Domark's board as an investor, while Wheatley moved with his wife and two children to the US to better manage the company's American contacts. A US subsidiary for Domark was formally established in Silicon Valley in 1993. ### Takeover and transformation into Eidos Interactive (1994–2005) In 1994, Strachan and Wheatley encountered Charles Cornwall, chairman of Eidos, a company that developed video compression software for systems like the Acorn Archimedes. Domark was struggling on the business side and Eidos had no sales at that time, so the two companies agreed to a reverse merger takeover. Domark was merged with Eidos, with Domark's operations aligned as a subsidiary of the newer Eidos. The deal was announced in September 1995 as an acquisition of Domark (alongside developers Simis and Big Red Software) by Eidos for . The new company was floated on the London Stock Exchange as Eidos that year. Livingstone became executive chairman and Strachan left Domark in that year. On 31 May 1996, Simis and Big Red Software were merged into Domark. Eidos took over CentreGold in April 1996 for . CentreGold consisted of distributor CentreSoft and publisher U.S. Gold, which included development subsidiaries Core Design and Silicon Dreams Studio. Eidos Interactive's first major title was soon to be released Tomb Raider by Core Design, which CentreGold had itself acquired two years prior. Silicon Dreams Studio was re-acquired by its founder, Geoff Brown, through newly founded Geoff Brown Holdings (later Kaboom Studios), on 16 December that year. In 1997, Wheatley left the company to move back to Britain and focus on other projects. Opticom entered into an agreement with Eidos to develop storage devices, with both companies holding shares in each other. Eidos acquired developer Crystal Dynamics in September 1998. In 1999, Eidos acquired a 51% stake in Ion Storm, in exchange for advances to the developers, and a stake in web portal company Maximum Holdings. Eidos founder Stephen B. Streater resigned as director in June and went on to found Forbidden Technologies. The following year Eidos CEO Cornwall left the company to focus on technology and mining interests and was succeeded by former COO Michael McGarvey. A publicised takeover bid from Infogrames Entertainment failed to materialize in October 2000. In January 2002, Eidos established label Fresh Games for games localised from Japan, with titles including Mister Mosquito, Mad Maestro\! and Legaia 2: Duel Saga. Livingstone stepped down as chairman and became creative director in September 2002. In 2003, Eidos founded Beautiful Game Studios inside their headquarters, which continued its Championship Manager series after splitting with previous developer Sports Interactive. In March 2004, Eidos acquired Danish developer IO Interactive, which was developing published title Hitman: Contracts. Ion Storm was closed in February 2005. On 21 March 2005, Eidos received a takeover bid from Elevation Partners, a private equity firm owned by former Electronic Arts president John Riccitiello. This takeover valued the company at , and would inject in order to keep the company from bankruptcy in the short term. Elevation stated it plans to take Eidos private for some years to focus on game creation and release schedules, and its offer was initially recommended by Eidos' board. ### Parent Eidos taken over by SCi (2005–2009) On 22 March 2005, Eidos plc received a second takeover bid from games publisher SCi. The bid was for , and tabled a restructuring plan to cut from annual costs. To fund this takeover, SCi proposed to sell worth of stock. In late April, Elevation Partners formally withdrew its offer, leaving the way clear for SCi. SCi's takeover was finalized on 16 May 2005, with SCi merging itself into Eidos Interactive's parent SCi Entertainment Group. Livingstone was the only returning board member and became product acquisition director. Core Design pitched a Tomb Raider remake for the game's 10th anniversary to SCi/Eidos in 2005. Former studio manager Gavin Rummery stated in 2015 that SCi loved the project, but Crystal Dynamics had their own demo, which then convinced SCi to cancel Core's project (Tomb Raider: Anniversary). In May 2006, Rebellion Developments acquired Core Designs' assets and staff, while the Core brand and intellectual property, including Tomb Raider, remained with SCi. In December 2006, Warner Bros. licensed classic properties to SCi, while investing for 10.3% of SCi shares. In 2007, SCi acquired a number of new studios for its New Media division: mobile phone developer Rockpool Games, along with its two sister companies Ironstone Partners and SoGoPlay, Morpheme, and gaming portal Bluefish Media. Majesco Entertainment signed a distribution deal for eight games with SCi in April 2007. In November 2007, SCi opened a new studio in Montreal, Quebec, which was later named Eidos-Montréal and developed a new game in the Deus Ex franchise. On 4 September 2007, SCi stated that they had been approached with possible offers for the company. By January 2008, the offer talks had halted. The share price dropped by over 50% and shareholders called for the resignation of key personnel, including CEO Jane Cavanagh, over this issue as well as delays to key titles. On 18 January 2008, Cavanagh and management team left the company. Jürgen Goeldner was as appointed as interim COO that month. In April 2008, newly appointed CEO Phil Rogers, a former Electronic Arts executive, stated they want to be a "leaner and fitter company", as well as "studio-led". They moved "certain functions" from the United Kingdom to Quebec, Canada, partially due to economic advantages offered by Montreal's government. SCi subsidiary Pivotal Games was closed in July. Koch Media acquired Proein, SCi's Spanish distribution division, in July 2008. During SCi 2008 financial report, losses were at , which Rogers stated were due to the reconstructing plans. On 19 September 2008, SCi opened a Shanghai-based studio, Eidos Shanghai, consisting of a small team to build up relations in Asia. In 2008, SCi set up an entity, which later became Square Enix London Studios headed by Lee Singleton in their Wimbledon headquarters. In December 2008, SCi rebranded as Eidos. Rockpool Games and Eidos Hungary (formerly Mithis Entertainment) were closed in 2009, among other cuts. ### SCi/Eidos taken over by and absorbed into Square Enix (2009) In February 2009, Square Enix reached an agreement to purchase Eidos plc for , pending shareholder approval, with an initial aim of completing the takeover on 6 May 2009. The offer was backed by majority stakeholder Warner Bros. The date was brought forward, and Square Enix took over Eidos on 22 April 2009. Square Enix initially stated that it would let Eidos remain structured as it was at the time of its takeover. In July 2009, it announced that it would merge Eidos into Square Enix, which created a new entity, tentatively titled Square Enix Europe and described as a business unit representing sales and marketing offices in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Eidos' US operations were merged with Square Enix Incorporated, headed by John Yamamoto. The merger was completed on 10 November 2009 with the company Square Enix Limited organized under Square Enix Europe. Square Enix Europe under Rogers continued to managed its own studios. Livingstone became Life President. ## Games published ## Legacy ### Square Enix divisions - Square Enix External Studios, originally Square Enix London Studios and founded by Eidos in 2008. Responsible for working with third-party developers on Batman: Arkham Asylum, Just Cause, Sleeping Dogs, Life Is Strange and Outriders. - Square Enix Collective, founded in 2014. Label working with independent developers, originally potentially offering Eidos IPs to developers. ### Studios and related IPs acquired by Embracer (2022) In May 2022, Square Enix announced it would sell several of Square Enix Limited's assets to Embracer Group for . These included development studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal, and intellectual properties such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain alongside "50 back-catalogue games", with the deal expected to be completed in the second quarter of Embracer's financial year. Embracer announced that the subsidiaries and IPs would form as their 12th operative group, under the leadership of Phil Rogers, and was later given the name of CDE (Crystal Dynamics - Eidos) Entertainment. Square Enix's activities will continue to include publishing games from third-party studios including Outriders, Life Is Strange and Just Cause. On 20 May 2022, Embracer stated it sees potential in sequels, remakes and remasters. The deal was completed on 26 August 2022. In November 2022, Embracer shut down Square Enix Montréal and transferred Eidos-Shanghai to Gearbox Entertainment as Gearbox Studio Shanghai. ### Studios ## See also - Stephen B. Streater - Kuju

Mu wave

Electrical activity in the part of the brain controlling voluntary movement

The sensorimotor mu rhythm, also known as mu wave, comb or wicket rhythms or arciform rhythms, are synchronized patterns of electrical activity involving large numbers of neurons, probably of the pyramidal type, in the part of the brain that controls voluntary movement. These patterns as measured by electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), or electrocorticography (ECoG), repeat at a frequency of 7.5–12.5 (and primarily 9–11) Hz, and are most prominent when the body is physically at rest. Unlike the alpha wave, which occurs at a similar frequency over the resting visual cortex at the back of the scalp, the mu rhythm is found over the motor cortex, in a band approximately from ear to ear. People suppress mu rhythms when they perform motor actions or, with practice, when they visualize performing motor actions. This suppression is called desynchronization of the wave because EEG wave forms are caused by large numbers of neurons firing in synchrony. The mu rhythm is even suppressed when one observes another person performing a motor action or an abstract motion with biological characteristics. Researchers such as V. S. Ramachandran and colleagues have suggested that this is a sign that the mirror neuron system is involved in mu rhythm suppression, although others disagree. The mu rhythm is of interest to a variety of scholars. Scientists who study neural development are interested in the details of the development of the mu rhythm in infancy and childhood and its role in learning. Since a group of researchers believe that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is strongly influenced by an altered mirror neuron system and that mu rhythm suppression is a downstream indication of mirror neuron activity, many of these scientists have kindled a more popular interest in investigating the mu wave in people with ASD. Assorted investigators are also in the process of using mu rhythms to develop a new technology: the brain–computer interface (BCI). With the emergence of BCI systems, clinicians hope to give the severely physically disabled population new methods of communication and a means to manipulate and navigate their environments. ## Mirror neurons The mirror neuron system consists of a class of neurons that was first studied in the 1990s in macaque monkeys. Studies have found sets of neurons that fire when these monkeys perform simple tasks and also when the monkeys view others performing the same simple tasks. This suggests they play a role in mapping others' movements into the brain without actually physically performing the movements. These sets of neurons are called mirror neurons and together make up the mirror neuron system. Mu waves are suppressed when these neurons fire, a phenomenon which allows researchers to study mirror neuron activity in humans. There is evidence that mirror neurons exist in humans as well as in non-human animals. The right fusiform gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, right anterior parietal cortex, and left inferior frontal gyrus are of particular interest. Some researchers believe that mu wave suppression can be a consequence of mirror neuron activity throughout the brain, and represents a higher-level integrative processing of mirror neuron activity. Tests in both monkeys (using invasive measuring techniques) and humans (using EEG and fMRI) have found that these mirror neurons not only fire during basic motor tasks, but also have components that deal with intention. There is evidence of an important role for mirror neurons in humans, and mu waves may represent a high level coordination of those mirror neurons. ## Development A fruitful conceptualization of mu waves in pediatric use is that mu wave suppression is a representation of activity going on in the world, and is detectable in the frontal and parietal networks. A resting oscillation becomes suppressed during the observation of sensory information such as sounds or sights, usually within the frontoparietal (motor) cortical region. The mu wave is detectable during infancy as early as four to six months, when the peak frequency the wave reaches can be as low as 5.4 Hz. There is a rapid increase in peak frequency in the first year of life, and by age two frequency typically reaches 7.5 Hz. The peak frequency of the mu wave increases with age until maturation into adulthood, when it reaches its final and stable frequency of 8–13 Hz. These varying frequencies are measured as activity around the central sulcus, within the Rolandic cortex. Mu waves are thought to be indicative of an infant’s developing ability to imitate. This is important because the ability to imitate plays a vital role in the development of motor skills, tool use, and understanding causal information through social interaction. Mimicking is integral in the development of social skills and understanding nonverbal cues. Causal relationships can be made through social learning without requiring experience firsthand. In action execution, mu waves are present in both infants and adults before and after the execution of a motor task and its accompanying desynchronization. While executing a goal-oriented action, however, infants exhibit a higher degree of desynchronization than do adults. Just as with an action execution, during action observation infants’ mu waves not only show a desynchronization, but show a desynchronization greater in degree than the one evidenced in adults. This tendency for changes in degree of desynchronization, rather than actual changes in frequency, becomes the measure for mu wave development throughout adulthood, although the most changes take place during the first year of life. Understanding the mechanisms that are shared between action perception and execution in the earliest years of life has implications for language development. Learning and understanding through social interaction comes from imitating movements as well as vowel sounds. Sharing the experience of attending to an object or event with another person can be a powerful force in the development of language. ### Autism Autism is a disorder that is associated with social and communicative deficits. A single cause of autism has not been identified, but the mu wave and mirror neuron system have been studied specifically for their role in the disorder. In a typically developing individual, the mirror neuron system responds when they either watch someone perform a task or perform the task themself. In individuals with autism, mirror neurons become active (and consequently mu waves are suppressed) only when the individual performs the task themself. This finding has led some scientists, notably V. S. Ramachandran and colleagues, to view autism as disordered understanding of other individuals' intentions and goals due to problems with the mirror neuron system. This deficiency would explain the difficulty people with autism have in communicating with and understanding others. While most studies of the mirror neuron system and mu waves in people with autism have focused on simple motor tasks, some scientists speculate that these tests can be expanded to show that problems with the mirror neuron system underlie overarching cognitive and social deficits. fMRI activation magnitudes in the inferior frontal gyrus increase with age in people with autism, but not in typically developing individuals. Furthermore, greater activation was associated with greater amounts of eye contact and better social functioning. Scientists believe the inferior frontal gyrus is one of the main neural correlates with the mirror neuron system in humans and is often related to deficits associated with autism. These findings suggest that the mirror neuron system may not be non-functional in individuals with autism, but simply abnormal in its development. This information is significant to the present discussion because mu waves may be integrating different areas of mirror neuron activity in the brain. Other studies have assessed attempts to consciously stimulate the mirror neuron system and suppress mu waves using neurofeedback (a type of biofeedback given through computers that analyze real time recordings of brain activity, in this case EEGs of mu waves). This type of therapy is still in its early phases of implementation for individuals with autism, and has conflicting forecasts for success. ## Brain–computer interfaces Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) are a developing technology that clinicians hope will one day bring more independence and agency to the severely physically disabled. This technology has the potential to help include people with near-total or total paralysis, such as those with tetraplegia (quadriplegia) or advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); BCIs are intended to help them to communicate or even move objects such as motorized wheelchairs, neuroprostheses, or robotic grasping tools. Few of these technologies are currently in regular use by people with disabilities, but a diverse array are in development at an experimental level. One type of BCI uses event-related desynchronization (ERD) of the mu wave in order to control the computer. This method of monitoring brain activity takes advantage of the fact that when a group of neurons is at rest they tend to fire in synchrony with each other. When a participant is cued to imagine movement (an "event"), the resulting desynchronization (the group of neurons that was firing in synchronous waves now firing in complex and individualized patterns) can be reliably detected and analyzed by a computer. Users of such an interface are trained in visualizing movements, typically of the foot, hand, and/or tongue, which are each in different locations on the cortical homunculus and thus distinguishable by an electroencephalograph (EEG) or electrocorticograph (ECoG) recording of electrical activity over the motor cortex. In this method, computers monitor for a typical pattern of mu wave ERD contralateral to the visualized movement combined with event-related synchronization (ERS) in the surrounding tissue. This paired pattern intensifies with training, and the training increasingly takes the form of games, some of which utilize virtual reality. Some researchers have found that the feedback from virtual reality games is particularly effective in giving the user tools to improve control of his or her mu wave patterns. The ERD method can be combined with one or more other methods of monitoring the brain's electrical activity to create hybrid BCIs, which often offer more flexibility than a BCI that uses any single monitoring method. ## History Mu waves have been studied since the 1930s, and are referred to as the wicket rhythm because the rounded EEG waves resemble croquet wickets. In 1950, Henri Gastaut and his coworkers reported desynchronization of these waves not only during active movements of their subjects, but also while the subjects observed actions executed by someone else. These results were later confirmed by additional research groups, including a study using subdural electrode grids in epileptic patients. The latter study showed mu suppression while the patients observed moving body parts in somatic areas of the cortex that corresponded to the body part moved by the actor. Further studies have shown that the mu waves can also be desynchronized by imagining actions and by passively viewing point-light biological motion. ## See also ### Brain waves - Delta wave – (0.5 – 4 Hz) - Theta wave – (4 – 7 Hz) - Alpha wave – (8 – 12 Hz) - Mu wave – (8 – 13 Hz) - SMR wave – (12.5 – 15.5 Hz) - Beta wave – (12.5 – 30 Hz) - Gamma wave – (25 – 140 Hz)

After This

2006 novel by Alice McDermott

After This is a 2006 novel by award-winning American author Alice McDermott. The novel follows a working-class American family who reside on Long Island, New York and their four children, who are enduring their own experiences during the times of the sexual revolution. It is set during the mid-20th century, a time after the end of World War II, through to the presidency of Richard Nixon. The book received many positive reviews from critics, often commenting on the writing styles of McDermott. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette commented that the storyline is "sophisticated in design, spare like an elegant entrée at a fine restaurant." The book was highlighted among the 100 Notable Books of the Year of The New York Times. ## About the author Alice McDermott was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 27, 1953. In 1975, McDermott received her B.A. from the State University of New York and her M.A from the University of New Hampshire in 1978. She began writing at an early stage in her life, although her first novel, A Bigamists' Daughter, was not published until 1982. In 1987, McDermott was a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award for her novels, several of which had been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize or winners of the National Book Award. ## Content The book is set on Long Island, New York, shortly after the ending of World War II. Mary Rose, a lonely, thirty-year-old woman with the responsibility of looking after her father and brother, leaves Church on an April day in the 1940s. She goes to a Schrafft's outlet and becomes acquainted with a man there ordering food. When she sees him there the next day, the pair begin dating and eventually marry. Together, they have four children. Their first three children, Jacob, Michael, and Annie live with their parents in an Irish-Catholic community on Long Island. Their fourth child, Clare, is delivered by a neighbor of the family in the lounge of their house as a hurricane is heading towards the Eastern Seaboard. The book follows the family through the 1960s and 1970s, as the children enter adolescence and discover themselves during the changing times of the 1960s and the Sexual Revolution. The Keane children, on entering early adulthood, begin to break away from their family and religious backgrounds. Jacob, the eldest child, serves in Vietnam and is killed in the French trenches. Michael moves away from Long Island and goes to study in a college in northern New York, but later turns to sex and drugs. Meanwhile, Annie, the bookworm of the family, leaves to study in England, but quickly changes her plans after meeting a man on a bus whom she likes. Clare, the youngest, returns from a summer vacation to her former Catholic high school, showing a changed personality and increased self-confidence. ## Reception The Washington Post commented that "in After This there is no excess, no look-at-me pyrotechnics in her prose; with the mastery of a poet, she distills the life of the Keanes to its essence." A review by The Chicago Tribune noted that "It is hard to know how to start piling on the praise for this gripping, poignant book. It would seem there is no technique of fiction McDermott has not mastered. Like the masters, she makes it look effortless." Writing for the New York City-circulated The Wall Street Journal, Kate Flatley LaVoie praised the book, praised the book, writing: "Through sharp, funny, heartbreaking and breathtaking vignettes, Ms. McDermott conveys the family's evolution (and America's too) — from John and Mary's first meeting at a diner in postwar New York City through the children's traditional Catholic school youth in the 1950s to the inevitable turbulence of the 1960s." USA Today wrote "McDermott's prose is stunning yet emotionally cool," adding: "While it fails as a cohesive novel, After This shines in its small moments, much like a story collection." Entertainment Weekly described it as a "lovely needlepoint of a novel." The Economist reviewed the book positively, writing "After This is more than a book about an influential time in history and its effect on those living through it. In its portrayal of the emotions that hold people and families together—the loyalties and frustrations, the sorrows and joys—this quietly unusual novel is ultimately about what it is to be human." ## See also - Irish-Americans

Pekarangan

Type of home garden developed in Indonesia

Pekarangan () is a type of tropical home garden developed in Indonesia, mainly in Java. Pekarangans typically contain plants, while some possess animals (including farmed fish, ruminants, poultry, and wild animals) and structures such as pens and bird cages. The gardens yield food for subsistence and income, and plants for ornamental use. Along with their subsistence and commercial uses, they are used for social interactions and yield sharing and provide materials for cultural ceremonies and religious practices. Some pekarangans are made, maintained, and spatially arranged according to local values. Home gardens of this kind may have existed for several thousand years, but their first mention is found in a Javanese chronicle that was written in 860 AD. In 2010, around 103,000 square kilometers (40,000 sq mi) of Indonesian land were used for gardens of this sort. The sustainability and social roles of pekarangans have been threatened by mass urbanization and land fragmentation, which are the factors of decreasing land dwelling area on average. The decrease is consequently followed by loss of plant diversity within the gardens. Additionally, some owners deliberately reduce the plant diversity to optimize yields for commercial purposes. Problems such as pest outbreaks and a rise in household debts have appeared due to the degraded sustainability of the gardens. Throughout the history of Java, pekarangans have been of little interest to the governments that have ruled the island due to their minimal susceptibility to yield extraction. In the 2010s, they have gained the attention of the Indonesian government implemented through P2KP (Percepatan Penganekaragaman Konsumsi Pangan), a program focused on urban and peri-urban areas that aims to optimize production with a sustainable approach. ## Definition In Indonesian, pekarangan can be translated as "land that surrounds a house", "a house's yard", or "plotted land for house construction". However, the term is widely used in scientific literature, specifically in agroforestry and environmental topics, to mean "home gardens". The word pekarangan may be derived from karang, which means "perennial crops". Scholars offer various definitions of the term "pekarangan". According to Sajogyo, it is a plot adjacent to a house, used part-time. Totok Mardikanto and Sri Sutami define it as a plot surrounding a house; most of its kind are fenced, and usually planted with dense plants with various annual and perennial plants for daily and commercial use. Euis Novitasari considers "pekarangan" to be a form of land use: a system of small-scale additional food production by members and a family, that is also an ecosystem with a densely layered canopy. Further, she describes it as having a clear boundary and containing elements such as the owner's house, a kitchen, a pen, and fences. Simatupang and Suryana argue that it is hard to define "pekarangan" clearly, since its role can vary as a form of farmland to a homestead plot. Rahu et al. interpret "pekarangan" as, specifically, a Javanese home garden. ## Elements ### Plants A pekarangan generally consists of annual and perennial plants combined; they can be harvested daily or seasonally. Some perennials such as melinjo (Gnetum gnemon) produce leaves consistently. Some other perennials such as coconut, jackfruit, banana, and salak produce fruit all year round. Other perennials' fruiting periods are limited: for example, the semarang guava (Syzygium aqueum) fruits from April to June, mangoes fruit during July and August, and durians (Durio zibethinus) from June to September. Perennials are more common than annuals in pekarangans throughout regions where rice fields account for more than 40 percent of land area; elsewhere the situation is reversed, and annuals are more common, though if labor is in short supply, perennials are again favored. Trees are one of the most common components of home gardens, contributing to the image of Indonesian countryside with houses less visible than the "dense, forest mimics" of pekarangans. In Sundanese pekarangans, ornamental plants, and crops such as cloves, oranges, and mangoes are frequently planted in the front patch, as these are valuable plants that homeowners want to keep an eye on. Starchy crops, medicinal plants, and cash crops are more frequent in the front and back plots, and less in the side plots. Coffee might be used as a hedge in the side and back yards; ornamental plants might have a similar function in front yards. Vegetables are habitually grown in front and side areas to be exposed to light, as tall trees are rare in those areas. Trees with large canopies might be planted in front yards, providing shade for children. Coconuts, fruit trees, and tall trees whose woods are used for construction are planted in back gardens to avoid damage to the house when any of them falls due to a storm. Most plants propagate without intentional human intervention—this natural process is called janteun ku anjeun in Sundanese—due to seed scattering by birds, mammals, or humans after they eat. Because of this, no clear spatial arrangement is found in Sundanese back gardens. Plants in Javanese and Sundanese pekarangans, among them annual plants cultivated in the dry season (e.g. eggplants), are habitually grown near water sources such as fish ponds, open sewage ditches, and wells. Plants that need high levels of nutrients, such as banana, mango, jackfruit, and other fruit plants, are planted close to garbage dumps. Meanwhile, crops frequently harvested for cooking, such as chili peppers, lengkuas, lemongrass, and tomatoes, are planted near the kitchen. Pekarangans in Borneo contain lower amounts of exotic species, compared to pekarangans in other regions of Indonesia. Many of its plants are native to Borneo. Among the plants in Bornean pekarangans that are considered economically and ecologically crucial are durians (Durio zibethinus, Durio kutejensis), jackfruits (Artocarpus heterophyllus), langsat (Lansium domesticum), and rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum). ### Animals Some owners of pekarangans keep livestock and poultry (traditionally chickens, goats, and sheep), usually in a household pen. Animals are usually allowed to roam around the gardens, village areas, and traditional markets to find food on their own. They are penned at night and are usually given additional feed. Other common domestic animals kept in pekarangans are fishes in ponds and songbirds (e.g. zebra dove, Geopelia striata), which are kept in cages on bamboo poles. The economic status of pekarangan owners plays a role in livestock ownership; lower-class owners tend to own several chickens whereas middle-class owners might have a goat or a sheep, and wealthier owners may own several cows or water buffaloes. Livestock manure acts as an organic fertilizer for the gardens via composting, and sometimes a nutritional source for pond fishes. Productive fish ponds are common in Sundanese traditional pekarangans. The fishes are fed with kitchen waste supplemented by animal and human waste. Villagers avoid the domestic use of fish pond water and instead use water from higher-ground water pipes. The gardens may have a high diversity of soil fauna. According to Widyastuti, the soil fauna diversity in the gardens is suggested to be higher than that of teak forests. The diversity might be caused by the vegetation, which protects soil fauna from direct sunshine, especially in the dry season. Otto Soemarwoto and Gordon Conway accounted that the gardens are also believed to be "a good habitat" for reptiles and amphibians. There are different findings in relation to wild birds. A high diversity of birds, including legally protected species, within the gardens were recorded in a West Java research while another study in Jambi suggests individual pekarangans are not effective as a means to conserve bird communities. This is because of the edge effects of their irregular shapes, their frequent disturbance, and their proximity to roads and houses. The pekarangans used for the Jambi study had unusually low levels of plant diversity, which may account for the results. Despite this, the gardens apparently still attract birds due to their food resources. A similar finding was repeated in a separate West Java study, indicating children shoot birds in the gardens and take their eggs while adults kill or chase them due to the perception of them as pests. ## Ecology Plant diversity in pekarangans arises from complex interactions between several factors that are not fully understood. These include environmental stability, the tropical climate that is favorable to plant growth, and their close proximity to the owners' domestic activities. Other natural factors are size, temperature decrease due to elevation, precipitation, and climatic events like El Niño. Anthropological factors include individual preferences and market proximity. The diversity of plants aids individual plants to adapt to a changing environment, helping them survive in the long term. The biodiversity in the multi-layered system also helps to optimize solar energy and carbon harvesting, cool the domestic climate, protect the soil from erosion, and accommodate habitats for wild plants and animals. The genetic diversity also gives protection from the effects of pests and diseases. As an example, the abundance of insectivorous birds in the gardens helps control pests, helping the garden remain productive. While on per individual basis pekarangans store only small amounts of carbon due to their size, on per area basis they hold an amount of carbon that is similar to primary or secondary forests, and greatly surpassing Imperata grasslands and fallow lands. ### Natural factors Plant diversity in pekarangans tends to increase as their size increases. Diversity of crop species, however, might reach a plateau in very large gardens. Larger pekarangans have a lower density of crop species because of more constant cultivation patterns. A pekarangan smaller than 100 square meters (1,100 sq ft) is insufficient for plant diversity and crop production. Some plant types, such as trees higher than 10 meters (33 ft), spice plants, and industrial crops are almost completely absent in gardens of 100 square meters (1,100 sq ft) or less. Home gardens in Java tend to be smaller; the majority of them are smaller than 200 square meters (2,200 sq ft), as suggested by a report from 2004. Meanwhile, similar gardens in other Indonesian islands tend to be larger. Their average size is estimated to be 2,500 square meters (27,000 sq ft); a few reach the size of 3 hectares (320,000 sq ft). Pekarangans at high altitudes tend to have a smaller size, increased density of plants, and a smaller range of plant diversity. As altitude increases, temperature decreases, limiting plant diversity. Coconuts and fruit trees tend to develop better in lower-altitude pekarangans while vegetables tend to grow better at higher altitudes. Pekarangans with better access to water—either by climate or by proximity to water resources—are able to facilitate annual crop cultivation. Those in West Java, when observed, perform better in accommodating plant diversity when the wet season occurs than in the dry season. The climatic conditions of Java enable the consistent growth of annual plants in its pekarangans, even in parts of East Java where the climate is drier. Canopy in those gardens functions as a protection from intense raindrops. Most of their plants' heights are less than a meter, slowing down raindrops when they hit the soil. Leaf litter also helps protecting the soil against erosion. The role of plant canopies in consistently producing organic litter is believed to be more important in reducing erosion than its direct speed-reducing effects on raindrops. Nevertheless, gardens are less effective than natural forests in erosion reduction. ### Human impact Harvesting of rice—the dominant staple of Indonesia—influences the use of pekarangans in some ways. Production in the gardens decreases during rice-harvesting season but peaks during the rest of the year. Lower-income villagers benefit from the consistent productivity of starch crops in the gardens, especially in a period of food shortage pre-rice harvest or after a failed rice harvest by drought. Settlement dynamics affect pekarangans in various ways. Expansion of settlements to new lands, caused by population growth, is the cause of the wide presence of food crops in newly made pekarangans. People who resettled via the Indonesian transmigration program might support plant diversity in the gardens in the places they migrate to. Plant species brought by internal migrants need to adapt well to the local environment. Commercialization, fragmentation, and urbanization are major hazards to pekarangans' plant diversity. These change the organic cycles within the gardens, threatening their ecological sustainability. Commercialization requires a systemic change of crop planting. To optimize and produce more crops, a pekarangan's owner must specialize in its crops, making a small number of crops dominate the garden. Some owners turn them into monoculture gardens. Fragmentation stems from the traditional system of inheritance. Consequences from the reduction of plant diversity include the loss of canopy structures and organic litter, resulting in less protection of the gardens' soil; loss of pest-control agents, increasing the use of pesticides; loss of production stability; loss of nutrients' diversity; and the disappearance of yields-sharing culture. Despite urbanization's negative effect in reducing their plant diversity, it increases that of the ornamental plants. A case study of home gardens in Napu Valley, Central Sulawesi, shows that the decrease in soil protection is caused by insufficient soil fertility management, regular weeding and waste burning, dumping waste in garbage pits instead of using it for compost, and spread of inorganic waste. The decrease of soil fertility worsens the decrease of crop diversity in the gardens. ## Uses ### Subsistence Products from pekarangans have multiple uses; for example, a coconut tree can provide food, oil, fuel, and building materials, and also be used in rituals and ceremonies. The gardens' plants are known for their products' nutritional benefits and diversity. While rice is low in vitamins A and C, products from the gardens offer an abundance of them. Pekarangans with more perennial crops tend to create more carbohydrates and proteins, and those with more annual plants tend to create more portions of vitamin A. Pekarangans also act as a source of firewood and building materials. Lower-income families tend to consume more leafy vegetables than wealthier families, due to their consistent availability and low price. Low-income families also favor bigger use of fuel sources from the gardens. Pekarangans in villages act as subsistence systems for families rather than an income source. In areas such as Gunung Kidul, food-producing uses of the gardens are more dominant than crop fields due to soil erosion in these regions. ### Commercial In urban and suburban areas, major fruit production centers, and tourist destination regions, pekarangans tend to act as an income generator. Income from the gardens is mostly from perennial crops. Good market access stimulates the cultivation of commercial crops within the gardens. Other factors that influence their economic significance are their area and the demand for a particular crop. According to a 1991 article, the poor cultivate subsistence plants in their pekarangans with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, while the rich tend to plant more ornamental plants and cash crops with higher economic value. An article from 2006 also concludes that the importance of commercial plants increases with owners' wealth. A study in Sriharjo, Yogyakarta Special Region, concludes that poorer pekarangan owners orient toward commercial uses while richer owners orient toward subsistence uses. Ann Stoler argued that as a rural family acquire more area of rice field, garden use becomes less intense, up until the family-owned rice field reach around 2,000 square meters (22,000 sq ft), the minimal size typically needed to feed one family. Past this point, garden use starts to increase. ### Other uses The buruan (Sundanese for "front yard"), part of a Sundanese pekarangan, is used as a children's playground and adults' gathering place. Integrated with local customs and philosophies such as rukun and tri-hita-karana, the gardens aid other social interactions such as yield-sharing, ceremonies, and religious activities. Especially in urban areas, pekarangans also function as aesthetic ornaments of a house, mainly the front yard. ## Sociology and economy Pekarangans are mainly developed by women. Forms of such gardens in matriarchal tribes and societies, e.g. Minangkabau, Aceh, and communities in the 1960s Central Java, are more developed than in tribes that tend to be patriarchal, e.g. Batak. For the same reason, matriarchal culture around the gardens started to develop, such as the requirement for the permission of a landowner's wife before selling a plot of land they own—this happens in cities like Tegal. A female-led household would orient their use of the gardens toward household needs. In Madura, however, home gardens are described as the domain of men. Nevertheless, a pekarangan in general, regardless of the culture, is considered a responsibility of the entire family, including their offspring and the offspring's families. The men prepare the land prior to home garden use, plant tree crops, and sell the garden's crops, while women plant annual crops. In a 2004 report, Javanese pekarangans are suggested to have higher net income-per-area than rice fields. The same report argued that the cost of the Javanese gardens' production is lower than that of rice fields. People who focus on the gardens' production instead of rice fields may gain better yields than their counterparts. Poor villagers, however, tend not to concentrate efforts toward the gardens; maintenance of the gardens as a sole income source would require the use of high-risk, high-reward crops, more intensive care, and income would be vulnerable to market fluctuations. Maintenance of diverse cash crops is more intense than that of rice fields and the intensity would make the villagers' gardening schedule less adaptable to rice farming activities. In some cases, people are allowed to build houses in the pekarangans of others in exchange for doing work for the land owners. The gardens, however, tend to have a low demand for labor, offering minimal labor opportunities. ## Culture The philosophy of living harmoniously, referred to as rukun, is followed by the Javanese and Sundanese; offering yields from pekarangans to others is believed to be the medium of such culture. This can be done by offering its products to their neighbors, for example during events such as births, deaths, weddings, and cultural events like the Javanese new year and the Mawlid (observance of the birthday of Muhammad). Some offer their products to cure diseases or to protect owners from dangers. Their products are also given during daily life, especially in rural areas. A rural pekarangan owner usually allows others to enter it for any practical reason: taking dead wood for fuel, pulling water from a well for their own use, or even taking its crops, though permission might be restricted or denied if the owner has only a limited yield for his or her own consumption. Requests to take products from the gardens for religious or medicinal purposes are rarely or never denied, but since some people believe asking permission to take medicinal plants in a pekarangan is taboo, they may also be taken without explicit permission. Javanese culture interpreted the gardens as pepek ing karang—"a complete design". It can also be interpreted as pepek teng karangan, which according to the anthropologist Oekan Abdoellah, is a way of thinking, indicating agricultural practices within the gardens are a consequence of thinking about the ways to use their produce and satisfy their needs from them. The words within the pepek teng karangan phrase can also be translated individually: pepek means 'complete', teng means 'on', while karangan means 'idea'. This is similar to the Sundanese breakdown of the word pekarangan: pe- is a prefix that means 'place', karang means 'idea', and the combination of these can be loosely translated as 'a place to create ideas'. Javanese culture, however, takes offense at the gardens' comparison with forests due to the low social value of forest in the culture. Wayang puppet plays depict forests as "places where wild animals and evil spirits reign" and its clearing, which is done only by men who are believed to have spiritual powers, is viewed as a respectable deed. The backyard of a Sundanese homestead is described as supados sungkur (to be unseen by others). Associations of plants in Javanese pekarangans tend to be more complex than those in Sundanese pekarangans. In Javanese gardens, owners also tend to cultivate medicinal plants (jamu) while the Sundanese tend to grow vegetables and ornamental plants. The Sundanese language has names for each part of a pekarangan. The front yard is called buruan, a space for a garden shed, ornamental plants, fruit trees, a children's playground, benches, and crop-drying. The side yard (pipir) is used for wood trees, crops, medicinal herbs, a fish pond, well, and a bathroom. The side yard is also a space for cloth-dying. The back yard (kebon) is used to cultivate vegetable plants, spice plants, an animal pent, and industrial plants. Pekarangans in Lampung have their own elements; alongside plants are feet-washing places used before entering into a house's veranda (gakhang hadap), a rice-storage room (walai), an outdoor kitchenette or kitchen, a firewood-storage place, and livestock barn. The front yard is called tengahbah/terambah/beruan, the side yard is kebik/kakebik, and the back yard is kudan/juyu/kebon. Balinese pekarangans are influenced by the philosophy of tri-hita-karana that divides spaces into parahyangan (top, head, pure), pawongan (middle, body, neutral), and palemahan (below, feet, impure). The parahyangan area of a Balinese pekarangan faces Mount Agung, which is regarded as a sacred place (prajan) to pray (sanggah). Plants with flowers and leaves that are regularly picked and used for Balinese Hinduism liturgical purposes are planted in the parahyangan area. The pawongan area is planted with regular flowers, fruits, and leaves. The palemahan area is planted with fruits, stems, leaves, and tubers. Balinese back yards, which are known in Tabanan and Karangasem as teba, are used as a place to cultivate crops and keep livestock for subsistence, commercial, and religious use as offerings. The Balinese further developed beliefs about what plants should and should not be planted in various parts of their pekarangans, following the teachings from the Taru Premana manuscript. As an example, nerium and bougainvillea are believed to emit positive auras while planted in the parahyangan/sanggah area of a pekarangan while negative auras are believed to appear if they are planted in front of the bale daja, a building specifically placed in the north part of a dwelling. Taneyan, a Madurese kind of pekarangan, is used to dry crops and for traditional rituals and family ceremonies. Taneyan is a part of the traditional dwelling system of taneyan lanjhang–a multiple-family household, whose spatial composition is laid out according to the bappa, babbhu, guru, rato (father, mother, teacher, leader) philosophy that shows the order of respected figures in the Madurese culture. Pekarangans of other ethnic groups in Indonesia have other names, including passiring and terampak benua in Buginese culture, as well as tarampak and pa'palakan in Torajan culture. Pekarangans are also integrated in local, community-level agroforestry systems, such as kaleka in Dayak households of Borneo. ## History and development By 1902, pekarangans occupied 378,000 hectares (1,460 sq mi) of land in Java, and the area increased to 1,417,000 hectares (5,470 sq mi) in 1937 and 1,612,568 hectares (6,226.16 sq mi) in 1986. In 2000, they occupied about 1,736,000 hectares (6,700 sq mi). Indonesia as a whole had 5,132,000 hectares (19,810 sq mi) of such gardens. The number peaked at about 10,300,000 hectares (40,000 sq mi) in 2010. Central Java is considered the pekarangans' center of origin, according to Oekan Abdoellah et al.; the gardens later spread to East Java in the twelfth century. Soemarwoto and Conway proposed that early forms of pekarangan date back to several thousand years ago but the first-known record of them is a Javanese charter from 860. During the Dutch colonial era, pekarangans were referred to as erfcultuur. In the eighteenth century, Javanese pekarangans had already so influenced West Java that they had partly replaced talun (a local form of mixed gardens) there. Since pekarangans contain many species, which mature at different times throughout the year, it has been difficult for governments throughout Javanese history to tax them systematically. In 1990, this difficulty caused the Indonesian government to forbid the reduction of rice fields in favor of pekarangans. Such difficulty might have helped the gardens to become more complex over time. Despite that, past governments still tried to tax the gardens. ### Effects of economic and population growth in the late 20th century Since the 1970s, Indonesia had observed economic growth rooted in the Indonesian government's five-year development plans (Repelita), which were launched in 1969. The economic growth helped increase the numbers of middle-class and upper-class families, resulting in better life and higher demand for quality products, including fruits and vegetables. Pekarangans in urban, suburban, and main fruit production areas adapted its efforts to increase their products' quality but this resulted in a reduction of biological diversity in the gardens, leading to an increased vulnerability to pests and plant diseases. Some disease outbreaks in commercial pekarangans occurred in the 1980s and the 1990s, such as the citrus greening disease that damaged many mandarin orange trees and the spread of the pathogenic fungi Phyllosticta, which affected almost 20% of clove trees in West Java. This vulnerability also affected their owners' economic and social conditions; owners became more susceptible to debt, the sharing culture in traditional commercial pekarangans vanished, and the poor enjoyed fewer rights from them. ### Government programs The Indonesian government launched a campaign in October 1951, namely Karang Kitri, which aimed to persuade communities to plant trees in their home gardens and other types of land. There was no incentive given in the campaign. The campaign ended in 1960. Use of pekarangans was included in a program by the Indonesian government in 1991 under a program called Diversifikasi Pangan dan Gizi ("Food and Nutrition Diversification"). Since the early 2010s, the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, runs a pekarangan development program named Percepatan Penganekaragaman Konsumsi Pangan (P2KP, "Acceleration on Food Diversification") that is focused in urban and semi-urban areas. The program applies its agenda to a concept named Kawasan Rumah Pangan Lestari (KRPL; "Sustainable Food Houses Region"). P2KP was begun under the Indonesian Presidential Regulation No. 22 Year 2009. There is also an urban women-focused program named Gerakan Perempuan untuk Optimalisasi Pekarangan (GPOP; "Women's Movement for Pekarangan Optimization"). In addition to the national programs, some regions of Indonesia have implemented their own pekarangan use programs. The government of East Java launched a program called Rumah Hijau ("Green House") in 2010. The provincial government later collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture to improve upon the Rumah Hijau program based on KRPL prototypes in Pacitan, making a new program named Rumah Hijau Plus-Plus.

Typhoon Babs (1998)

Pacific typhoon in 1998

Typhoon Babs, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Loleng, was a powerful typhoon that struck the Philippines days after Typhoon Zeb hit the same area. The seventh typhoon of the inactive 1998 Pacific typhoon season, Babs formed on October 14 between the Philippines and Guam. The storm moved westward initially, failing to intensify initially due to the outflow from Typhoon Zeb to the northwest. Babs slowed and briefly turned to the south before advancing to the northwest, whereupon it rapidly intensified into a strong typhoon. On October 20, the official Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) estimated peak 10‐minute winds of 155 km/h (96 mph), while the unofficial Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) estimated peak 1‐minute winds of 250 km/h (160 mph), making Babs an unofficial super typhoon. The storm struck the Philippine island of Catanduanes at that intensity and weakened slightly before hitting Luzon. Babs turned northward once in the South China Sea, later weakening due to unfavorable conditions and transitioning into an extratropical cyclone on October 27 in the Taiwan Strait. Damage was heaviest where Babs first made landfall along the Philippine island of Catanduanes. Torrential rainfall rose waters by 9 m (30 ft) along a river, which inundated houses up to their roofs. Heavy rainfall affected much of Luzon and the northern Philippines, causing widespread flooding and landslides that isolated towns. Strong winds, peaking at 260 km/h (160 mph) in Virac, Catanduanes, left widespread areas without power. There was also heavy crop damage, with 222,882 tonnes of rice destroyed. Babs damaged or destroyed 403,623 houses in the Philippines, with overall damage estimated at ₱6.787 billion (Philippine peso, $159 million United States dollars); the typhoon also killed 303 people. Later, the storm's high waves injured surfers in Hong Kong. Heavy rainfall affected Fujian, causing ¥280 million (Chinese yuan, US$58 million) in damage and five deaths. Torrential rainfall in Taiwan, reaching 1,306 mm (51.4 in) in Yilan City, flooded towns and caused landslides; there were three deaths on the island. The remnants later affected the Japanese island of Okinawa with rainfall and high waves. ## Meteorological history A tropical disturbance developed east-southeast of Guam on October 11, just four days after Typhoon Zeb originated in the same area. The American-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a tropical cyclone formation alert on October 12, indicating development was imminent. However, the system did not develop into a tropical depression until 06:00 UTC on October 14, based on analysis from the Japan Meteorological Agency – the official warning center for the western Pacific Ocean. Three hours later, the JTWC began tracking the system as Tropical Depression 20W. At that time, the storm had moved south of Guam and was passing north of Palau. The nascent depression moved generally westward toward the Philippines. Initially, development was hindered by the outflow from Typhoon Zeb, which had struck Luzon and was moving northward. However, the depression was able to intensify into a tropical storm on October 15, at which time the JTWC named it Babs. Later that day, the storm reached 1‐minute winds of 85 km/h (53 mph), and it entered the area of responsibility of PAGASA – the Philippine weather agency – which gave it the local name Loleng. On October 17, a tropical upper tropospheric trough to the northeast weakened the subtropical ridge, causing Babs to slow and drift to the south; the same trough restricted outflow, causing the circulation to become exposed from the convection. The trough weakened and the shear decreased on October 18, allowing the storm to restrengthen. On October 19, a ship in the proximity of Babs reported 10‐minute winds of 96 km/h (60 mph), indicating that the storm was intensifying. At 00:00 UTC that day, the JTWC upgraded the storm to typhoon status, and the JMA followed suit 18 hours later. Babs rapidly intensified subsequently as it developed a well-defined eye 15 km (9.3 mi) in diameter. At 12:00 UTC on October 20, the JMA assessed that the typhoon reached peak 10‐minute winds of 155 km/h (96 mph), while the JTWC estimated peak 1‐minute winds of 250 km/h (160 mph), making Babs an unofficial super typhoon. The gale-force winds extended 335 km (208 mi) northeast from the center, while the strongest winds extended 75 km (47 mi) from the eye. Around the time of peak intensity, Babs made landfall on the Philippine island of Catanduanes, where a weather station recorded a minimum barometric pressure of 928 mbar (27.4 inHg) in Virac. However, the official lowest pressure from the JMA was 940 mbar (28 inHg). The winds decreased slightly as Babs moved across Catanduanes, although it soon moved over open waters into Lamon Bay, where it struck Polillo Island. According to the JTWC, Babs had weakened to winds of 175 km/h (109 mph) on October 22 before quickly re-intensifying to winds of 215 km/h (134 mph) as it approached Luzon. At 18:00 UTC on October 22, Babs made landfall on Luzon about 45 km (28 mi) south of Baler, or 185 km (115 mi) south of where Zeb struck only eight days prior. The typhoon weakened further while crossing central Luzon, and it passed about 75 km (47 mi) north of Metro Manila before emerging into the South China Sea on October 23. By that time, the JMA had downgraded Babs to a tropical storm, although the agency soon re-upgraded the storm to typhoon status. For several days, Babs remained at the same intensity, sporting an eye with a wide area of gale-force winds. A trough gradually steered the storm toward the north, weakening the ridge. The same trough caused an increase in wind shear that led to Babs weakening. The storm reached its westernmost point on October 25 – about 275 km (171 mi) southeast of Hong Kong. Turning northeastward into the Taiwan Strait, even stronger wind shear caused Babs to fall apart, and the storm weakened into a tropical depression just off the southeast coast of China. On October 27, the JMA declared Babs as extratropical. The remnants accelerated to the northeast, passing south of Kyushu before dissipating on October 30. ## Preparations Shortly after Babs entered the PAGASA area of responsibility, government workers began closely tracking the storm and warned residents to be prepared. PAGASA issued a Public Storm Warning Signal \#4 for Catanduanes, with lower warnings issued throughout Luzon and the Visayas. Metro Manila was placed under Public Storm Warning Signal \#3 on October 22. In Catanduanes, evacuees utilized public schools as an emergency shelter, although many rode out the storm in their homes. The storm halted ferry service throughout the region, stranding thousands. Many residents in Samar slept in buses and cars for two days due to the cancellations. Bus service to the region was also halted. The stock and currency exchanges were closed during the storm. Officials advised residents in Metro Manila to remain indoors; government buildings and schools were closed, while Ninoy Aquino International Airport halted all domestic flights. In addition, 14 international flights were canceled. Manila South Harbor also kept all boats at port. Across the Philippines, Babs forced about 400,000 people to leave their houses. Many families waited to evacuate until the onslaught of the strongest winds, resulting in additional casualties. The Hong Kong Observatory issued a warning signal \#3 due to the storm's threat to the territory on October 24. Beaches closed during the storms, and fishing boats were forced to remain at port. Several airports in Taiwan were closed. Two Russian ships were forced to ride out the storm in Xiamen. ## Impact ### Philippines When Babs moved over Catanduanes, the weather station at Virac recorded wind gusts of 260 km/h (160 mph). In Daet, Camarines Norte, near the typhoon's final Philippine landfall, sustained winds reached 129 km/h (80 mph), with gusts to 185 km/h (115 mph). Farther north in Luzon, Babs produced gusts of 192 km/h (119 mph) in Baler, Aurora. The typhoon also dropped torrential rainfall that caused flooding and landslides. On Mount Pinatubo, the rains resulted in a 1.5 m (4.9 ft) high landslide consisting of volcanic material, although nearby rivers at flood stage contained it. Workers at the Ambuklao and Binga dams had to release waters after the storm, which flooded rice fields and fish ponds along the Agno River. Elsewhere, heightened rivers in Camarines Sur flooded 24 towns. Five towns in Rizal province were flooded along a lake, including about 70% of the city of Angono. Flooding also affected portions of Manila. Just like Typhoon Zeb days earlier, Babs was very destructive to the Philippines, mostly throughout Luzon and into the Visayas. In Catanduanes where it first struck, several hours of torrential rainfall in the hills caused the Bato River to rise 9 m (30 ft), which reached as high as the houses' roofs in some areas. Most houses lost their roofs and many had damage to walls, with furniture and other property drenched. About 80% of the buildings in the city of Virac were destroyed, and winds were strong enough to knock air conditioners out of windows. There was an island-wide power outage after high seas washed away a power generating barge. On Masbate, a landslide collapsed the entrance of a gold mining cave, with 14 of the 25 member crew rescued. High waves destroyed 125 homes in Catbalogan on Samar Island, while three fishermen required rescue. Along its path through the Philippines, the high winds caused widespread power outages for several days. Many roads and highways were flooded for days or blocked by landslides, and several bridges were wrecked. In the Bicol Region of southern Luzon, the storm knocked over many coconut trees, and flooding damaged about 88,000 ha (220,000 acres) of rice fields in Nueva Ecija. Nationwide, the storm destroyed 222,882 tonnes of rice. Agriculture damage was estimated at ₱2.3 billion (Philippine pesos, $54 million United States dollars). Overall, Babs destroyed 96,581 houses and damaged another 307,042, leaving about 130,000 people homeless. There were 303 deaths in the country with another 751 injured, mostly in the Bicol Region. This included 71 deaths in Catanduanes and 41 in Camarines Sur. Most of the deaths were related to landslides, flooding, electrocutions, snakebites, and cleanup accidents. In Catanduanes, residents dug mass graves due to the high number of fatalities. Total damage was estimated at ₱6.787 billion (PHP, US$159 million), which as of 2011 was the 9th costliest typhoon in the Philippines and the 5th costliest at the time. ### Elsewhere Due to the interaction between the monsoon and the storm, Babs produced gusty winds across Hong Kong, with a peak gust of 121 km/h (75 mph) recorded at two locations. The mountainous peak of Tate's Cairn recorded the highest sustained wind of 87 km/h (54 mph). The winds were strong enough to knock down trees and damage scaffolding. Beaches were closed during the storm's passage, and boats rode out the storm at port. Precipitation from the typhoon fell over three days, reaching 85 mm (3.3 in). Five surfers required rescues amid high seas, with a peak storm surge of 0.91 m (3.0 ft). There were 14 injuries related to Babs in the territory. The dissipating remnants of Babs interacted with the winter monsoon to drop heavy rainfall on Taiwan, particularly in the northern and eastern portions of the island. Yilan City recorded 1,306 mm (51.4 in) over three days, and Hualien City recorded 949 mm (37.4 in). One station recorded 508 mm (20.0 in) of rainfall in 24 hours. This led to flooding in eastern Taiwan, reaching waist-deep heights in some locations, which forced hundreds to leave their home. The rains also caused landslides that isolated villages, and a swollen Keelung River cut off two towns east of Taipei. The storm killed three people on the island, including a fishermen swept away by high waves, and a couple buried under a landslide. Across the Taiwan Strait, Babs killed five people and injured three others in the Chinese province of Fujian. In Zhangzhou, the storm damaged or destroyed 124 boats. Heavy rainfall destroyed 1,461 homes or greenhouses, with damage estimated at ¥280 million (Chinese yuan, US$58 million). Damage was concentrated in Fujian, with little effects reported in neighboring Jiangxi or Guangdong. The remnants also brought rainfall to southern Japan, including Okinawa, where precipitation reached 172 mm (6.8 in) in Yonagunijima. The same station recorded winds of 43 km/h (27 mph). High waves flooded a portion of Route 58 on Okinawa, damaging three vehicles and flooding 28 buildings. The storm also caused one landslide on the island. ## Aftermath A few days after Babs struck the Philippines, then-Philippine president Joseph Estrada declared four provinces as a state of calamity and ordered the release of ₱200 million (PHP) in emergency funds. Estrada later released an additional ₱50 million (PHP) specifically for Catanduanes, as well as ₱10,000 sent to the family of each storm fatality. The Philippine Navy sent rubber boats to Bato, Catanduanes to help with relief there. The president ordered agencies to work together to respond to the disaster and for his Trade Secretary to watch for price gouging. However, food prices tripled following Babs and Zeb, especially after roads were blocked from agriculture areas, and ferries from unaffected areas were unable to travel due to the storm. After Babs passed the hardest hit areas, workers were initially unable to distribute food and medicine due to ferry service being halted. Many provinces and islands were isolated after the storm, necessitating helicopter travel to be reached by national aid workers. The Department of Public Works and Highways worked quickly to clear the landslides and reopen closed roads. The country's National Food Authority provided about 73,000 sacks of rice to storm victims, and the country planned to import 300,000 tonnes of rice to overcome the lost crops. The Philippine Red Cross deployed search and rescue teams, as well as distributing food and coffee to 35,500 people. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement launched a global request for assistance worth about $2.2 million to help 240,000 people. ## See also - Tropical cyclones in 1998 - Typhoon Irma (1981) - Typhoon Vera (1983) - Typhoon Ruby (1988) - Typhoon Nanmadol (2004) - Typhoon Rammasun (2014) - Typhoon Man-yi (2024)

U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky

1984 concert film by U2

U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky is a concert film by Irish rock band U2. It was recorded on 5 June 1983 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, United States, on the group's War Tour. Originally released in 1984 on videocassette, U2 Live at Red Rocks was the band's first video release. It accompanied a 1983 live album entitled Under a Blood Red Sky, on which two tracks from the film appear. The video was directed by Gavin Taylor and produced by Rick Wurpel and Doug Stewart. The film was arranged by U2 management to showcase the band's live act and to promote them to American audiences. It depicts the band's performance at Red Rocks on a rain-soaked evening. The concert was almost cancelled because of the inclement weather, but the band had invested in the filming with Island Records and concert promoter Barry Fey and wished to proceed with the gig. The rain and the torch-lit atmosphere of the surroundings made U2's performance dramatic. Segments of U2 Live at Red Rocks were shown in regular rotation on MTV, and were also broadcast on other television networks. Critics praised the concert and the video, and it subsequently became a best-seller. The video, along with Under a Blood Red Sky, helped establish U2's reputation as remarkable live performers and boosted Red Rocks' stature as a live venue. A remastered edition of U2 Live at Red Rocks was released on DVD in September 2008 with previously unreleased tracks, coinciding with a remastered edition of Under a Blood Red Sky. Rolling Stone selected the film's performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" as one of the "50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll". ## Production ### Planning and organization In 1981, U2 were on their Boy Tour to promote their debut album, Boy. Following their 11 May concert at Rainbow Music Hall in Denver, concert promoter Chuck Morris took the band to the nearby Red Rocks Amphitheatre—a natural amphitheatre located between sandstone cliffs in the Rocky Mountains. Bassist Adam Clayton said, "From the moment we saw it, we were thinking, 'Some day we will play here'. It was very photogenic." U2's manager Paul McGuinness had long wanted to film the group for a concert video to highlight their success as a live act and to promote them to American audiences still unfamiliar with the Irish band. Concert promoter Barry Fey, who presented U2's shows in the southwestern United States, saw the group's potential and successfully lobbied for them to perform at Red Rocks. In early 1983, McGuinness contacted Malcolm Gerrie, producer of the British television series The Tube, about shooting a video of U2 at Red Rocks and possibly featuring it on The Tube. Gerrie initially assumed McGuinness was interested in creating a video of a single song; however, McGuinness was hoping to create an hour-long special. Because The Tube was not a "one-band show", Gerrie said he would have to sell the idea to Channel 4 television, but McGuinness insisted on giving Gerrie the rights to the video and letting Channel 4 broadcast the video without payment. Filming costs were estimated at , which included the illumination of the cliffs, a mobile sound recording unit, and a helicopter to film aerial footage. With U2 only able to invest $30,000, Fey agreed to help finance the project, along with Island Records. A joint production company called "U2 at Red Rocks Associates" was subsequently established to fund the filming; the three parties split costs and shared profits from television rights and video sales. The radio rights were sold to American radio network NBC for inclusion in its concert series The Source. Throughout the United States leg of their War Tour, U2 filled venues with capacities similar to that of Red Rocks, leading the band to anticipate that the filming would take place before a sold-out audience and that the concert's revenues would help to offset production costs. Fey's corporation, Feyline Productions, coordinated with his production company, TTS, to manage the videotaping. Director Gavin Taylor and Gerrie were selected as director and production associate, respectively. It was Taylor's first visit to the United States, and it was the first time he filmed a major outdoor rock concert. Local producers Rick Wurpel and Doug Stewart were also on the staff. Taylor's and McGuinness' original plans were to feature the video on The Tube, but trade unions objected to their limited representation on the concert crew. However, a compromise was reached, allowing 15 minutes of the concert to be broadcast on The Tube. ### Weather challenges and preparations The group's Red Rocks concert was scheduled for 5 June 1983, but poor weather that day threatened to cancel the show. Torrential rain soaked the area, and flash flood warnings were issued. The weather made it difficult for the crew members to transport the band's gear and video equipment through the mountains to the amphitheatre. The conditions also caused many technical problems for the filming and concert crews, hampering stage construction and endangering the safety of those setting up lighting and sound equipment. Crew members used squeegees to keep rain away from the wires, although the assistant of recording engineer Randy Ezratty still received an electrical shock while setting up a lighting truss. Between 15 and 20 fans were already camped out in the venue's front rows early in the morning, and lead singer Bono accommodated them by serving coffee and tea. The Alarm and Divinyls cancelled their opening sets for safety reasons, and many fans thought the entire concert had been cancelled. The show was scheduled for 6:00 p.m., and the band had until 1:00 p.m. to decide whether to move the concert elsewhere or risk the weather worsening, which could have necessitated a cancellation. U2 and McGuinness thought that too much money had been invested to abort the concert, and they sympathised with the fans who had travelled to the venue in the poor weather. Accordingly, they decided to proceed with the concert as planned. Many of the crew were not in agreement and wanted to walk off the set. Ezratty said: "The guys from the American sound company were not at all enamored with being out with this band. I can remember them saying, 'Oh, we could be out with Asia right now\!' So they decided to pull the plug on it. They said, 'It's a matter of safety. We're going to pull the system down and we're not going to do it.'" McGuinness dissuaded the crew with an impromptu speech, a moment on which Ezratty recollected: "Paul called everybody down into the bowels of Red Rocks where they fed everybody. It was cold and raining and everybody was shivering, and Paul made a speech, saying in no uncertain terms that we were going to proceed as one, that the band's entire livelihood was riding on this, and that this was one of the most pivotal moments in their career. He said that if it were deemed that this show was in any way possible to happen, it was going to happen, and it was not going to be tolerated that anybody would do anything but add their effort to a successful and positive outcome. I just stood there and went, 'This is so cool. This is like a general rallying the troops.'" Bono informed the fans waiting outside the venue that the show would be general admission, and told everyone to get as close to the stage as possible, regardless of the seating assignment on their tickets. Fey wanted to cancel the show but was flying to Denver from the US Festival in California with Morris when the decision to continue was made. After arriving in Denver, Fey called the amphitheatre asking to where the concert was being moved, unaware that the band had decided to proceed with the show. Guitarist the Edge said that when Fey learned of the group's decision, he could not believe it. The Edge said, "I don't think he'd ever heard anything quite so crazy in his life, going on with an outdoor show in the worst kind of weather, rain and wind in the mountains. He thought we'd lost our minds completely." Bono went on the radio that day to confirm that the Red Rocks concert was still taking place, and to promote a concert that the band planned for the following night at the CU Events Center to accommodate fans who were unable to attend the Red Rocks show. Clayton said during the band's radio interviews, "We know it's raining now but we're sure it won't be when the show starts, so please come." Two hours before the concert, the downpour subsided and settled into a misty drizzle. The 9,000-person venue had sold out, but because of the inclement weather, only about 4,400 fans attended. ### Filming and post-production Taylor had a crew of six camera operators, comprising three Denver cinematographers and three others that he brought. Due to the thick fog and heavy rain on the night of the concert, very little aerial footage was suitable for the final edit. Although two "master angle" cameras on tripods provided wide and overview shots, most of the camera operators filmed with hand-held cameras. Much of the concert footage contains red streaks, which was caused by the cameras' tube sensors when they were pointed directly at light sources. This prompted a notice on the future home video release informing viewers that the coloured lines in the footage "are a result of special lighting effects, and are not caused by a tape defect or your equipment". The weather was cold enough that steam was coming out of the band members' mouths, and the Edge had difficulty playing guitar because his hands felt "frozen stiff". Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. believes the weather contributed a dramatic atmosphere to the concert. Reduced attendance at the event was largely obscured in the concert footage by the thick mist that filled the air that evening, as well as strategic shots of the crowd. Having seen Bono's interactions with an audience at a show in Gateshead years earlier, Taylor decided to have a thrust built at the front of the Red Rocks stage to reduce the gap between the audience and Bono, and to allow him to be surrounded by fans on three sides. Sound mixing was managed by Steve Lillywhite, who produced U2's first three studio albums. Ezratty's recording company, Effanel Music, was hired to provide their portable multitrack recording system. Before U2 took the stage, Fey introduced the concert, making a reference to Bob Dylan's live album Hard Rain. The concert itself featured 18 songs, with a set list identical to that of several previous shows on the tour. "Out of Control" opened the 14-song main set, which concluded with "Gloria". A four-song encore followed, with "40" being the final song performed. The band played songs from the tour's supporting album War (1983), as well as material from their first two albums, Boy (1980) and October (1981). "Party Girl"—a B-side from the single "A Celebration" (1982), and the non-album single "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" (1980) were played during the encore. During the song "The Electric Co.", Bono left the stage and climbed up a lighting rig to display a white flag. In a 2004 interview, the Edge said that Bono "scared the shit out of [him]" by climbing onto the rig and risking electrocution by the live wires in close proximity. Bono said "good night" to the crowd on nearly a half a dozen occasions so that the post-production crew would have several choices of songs with which to end the film. Backstage, the band members were disappointed that the crowd did not initially chant "how long to sing this song?" after the band had left the stage following the final song, "40", which had become a tradition. However, tour manager Dennis Sheehan hid underneath the crowd barrier and began singing the refrain into a microphone without being asked. Eventually, the crowd joined in; the film was edited to disguise the fact that the singing was organised. The day after the concert, Taylor went into the video editing suite to prepare a promotional video and a rough edit of the concert, while Lillywhite mixed the sound at Caribou Ranch. Ultimately, Taylor completed two separate edits of the concert: the first was an hour-long version for a planned but cancelled UK television broadcast that was instead released on VHS; the second version was the full concert. ## Release ### Broadcasts and initial home video The concert was first broadcast on 8, 9 and 10 July 1983 on NBC's radio network The Source under the title War Is Declared. The broadcast was sponsored by Budweiser and the United States Army, and was distributed to radio stations on two LP records, which included the full concert minus "I Threw A Brick Through A Window" and "A Day Without Me". Twelve of the concert's songs were later broadcast on American television network Showtime, and nine songs were broadcast on MTV. The film's performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" became the song's music video; Malcolm Gerrie, Rick Wurpel and Paul McGuinness were credited as producers. In June 1986, the video was one of 10 concert films aired on television stations throughout the US as part of a series of music specials presented by the Coors Brewing Company and Radio Vision International. The concert has also been broadcast on VH1 and affiliates of the Public Broadcasting Service. The Red Rocks film was screened at the CMJ Music Marathon in October 1983 to promote U2's companion live mini-LP Under a Blood Red Sky, which was released the following month. The mini-LP, whose name was later used as a subtitle for the concert film, features eight live songs from the War Tour, two of which ("Gloria" and "Party Girl") were taken from the Red Rocks concert; the other tracks were taken from performances in Boston and West Germany, as U2 thought they were "more developed performances". U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky was U2's first home video release, and it was initially issued on VHS and Betamax by MCA Home Video in July 1984, followed by a LaserDisc release from Pony Video for Japan. The video recording was re-released in August 1986 by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, followed by a LaserDisc release from RCA/Columbia and Image Entertainment in 1988, and two additional VHS re-releases by Virgin Video in 1987 and PolyGram in 1991. The image of Bono atop the lighting rig during his performance of "The Electric Co." was used as the cover of the video with the text Under a Blood Red Sky. The film begins with a brief montage that includes an interview with U2, preparations being made by the concert crew and reactions by anxious fans. The Clannad song "Theme from Harry's Game", which was played after many of U2's shows at the time, is heard in the film's opening montage and during the end credits. The film's subtitle "Under a Blood Red Sky", also the title of the companion live album, originates from a lyric in "New Year's Day". This lyric is not sung in the film; instead Bono sang "under a thundercloud and rain", in reference to the weather conditions. During the band's performance of "Cry / The Electric Co.", Bono sang excerpts of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns". The band failed to get permission or to pay the appropriate licensing and royalty fees to use the song. Initial pressings of U2 Live at Red Rocks, and the accompanying live album—which contains a different performance of the song from August 1983—featured "Send in the Clowns". U2 were forced to pay US$50,000 in an out-of-court settlement. The initial release of the video was 55 minutes long and featured 13 songs from the film, including "Cry / The Electric Co.", which was omitted from the track listing for legal reasons related to the excerpt of "Send in the Clowns". Recordings of "Twilight" and "An Cat Dubh" from the concert were featured on U2's single "Sweetest Thing" in 1998. In 2004, the concert recording of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" appeared on the compilation album Carved in Stone Vol. 2: Live at Red Rocks, a charity record to raise funds for the "Preserve the Rocks Fund", which aimed to renovate and preserve Red Rocks Park. Following the release of the official concert recordings, video and audio bootleg recordings circulated that featured the entirety of the band's performance. ### DVD re-release and streaming In 2005, after Rick Wurpel re-opened his production business, he realised that neither he nor TTS had the master tapes in their inventory and feared that they had been lost. He discovered the Denver City Council possessed the tapes among an inventory of 164 recordings. A former employee of Wurpel had been storing the tapes and intended to dispose of them unless the city was interested. The city had paid her $3,000 for the storage costs and took possession of the tapes. Legal proceedings subsequently ensued to return the tapes to Wurpel and U2. Barry Fey later signed paperwork for a future DVD release at U2's request. U2 Live at Red Rocks was re-released on 30 September 2008 on DVD by Interscope Records, Island Records, and Universal Music Enterprises. The "2008 Edition" of the film was remastered, and the audio remastering was directed by the Edge. The DVD features several tracks that were previously unreleased, extending the film from 55 to 82 minutes. "Cry / The Electric Co." was included on the video's track listing; the performance was edited to remove the excerpt of "Send in the Clowns" that was present on the previous videocassette and LaserDisc releases. The editing-out of the song created a continuity error in the video; the previous versions showed Bono climbing the lighting rig and singing. The new edition removes that sequence, resulting in Bono leaving the stage and appearing on top of the lighting rig in the following shot. The remastered DVD also features a version of "Two Hearts Beat as One" that was edited to remove an excerpt of "Let's Twist Again". The only song performed at the concert that does not appear in the remastered film is "I Fall Down"—played between "Cry / The Electric Co." and "October"—which was omitted because of a camera malfunction. The DVD features a PCM stereo soundtrack, 5.1 surround sound mixes in Dolby Digital and DTS sound, and an audio commentary by director Gavin Taylor. The re-release of the film coincided with the release of a remastered version of its companion live album, Under a Blood Red Sky. These re-releases were available separately or bundled together in a CD/DVD deluxe package. The liner notes for the film re-release were written by music critic Anthony DeCurtis. Remastered versions of U2's first three albums—Boy, October, and War—had been released earlier in 2008, and a box set with the three albums and an open slot for the deluxe version of Under a Blood Red Sky was sold exclusively by Amazon.com. On 15 March 2021, U2 announced a concert broadcast series called "The Virtual Road" in partnership with YouTube, by which four of the group's past concert films were remastered and streamed on the band's official YouTube channel for 48 hours each. Live at Red Rocks began streaming on 25 March, with a pre-recorded performance by Irish rock band Fontaines D.C. serving as an "opening act". To coincide with the broadcast event, a four-track EP of songs from Live at Red Rocks was released to streaming services and digital stores. ## Reception ### Critical reaction Both the concert and the U2 Live at Red Rocks video received positive reviews from critics. In a review of the show, G. Brown of The Denver Post wrote, "A lot of things had to go so wrong for U2's show at Red Rocks Amphitheater ... to come off so right." Jon Pareles of The New York Times praised the film, saying, "The setting lent even more urgency to U2's hypercharged songs about apocalypse, pacifism and existential terror". Pareles said, "Although there are a few too many exaggerated camera angles, the tape captures U2's earnest intensity." A review in the Philadelphia Daily News described the camerawork as "artful" and praised the visuals of the concert and the natural surroundings. Louis Meredith of Stereo Review said that the video captured the group in "absolutely splendid form" and that "Musically, it's about as impressive as they come" with "inventive and passionately felt" instrumental performances. He said that Bono "accomplishes the nearly impossible—turning a typical Nuremberg Rally-scaled outdoor concert into something that seems almost intimate." Meredith criticised the cinematography as "unimaginative, made-for-MTV camera work" and judged that the soundtrack was not as good as the EP. Neal Hall of The Sun said the band "prove[d] why it was named by Record magazine as the top live act of 1983" and that they performed with a "vigor and vitality that is entrancing to witness, even on a small screen". He found the sound "surprisingly clean and crisp" but noted the red trails were a visual problem. Perry Seibert of Allmovie gave the film four-and-a-half stars, praising the band's performance and the venue's role in the concert, saying, "the historic Red Rocks venue provides a stirring backdrop for the band's sweeping sound". Following the release of the DVD in 2008, Record Collector stated that "25 years on, [U2 Live at Red Rocks has] lost none of its power". Brian Boyd of The Irish Times was impressed by the band's performance considering they were drawing from just three albums of material and lacked the "computerised wizardry that makes U2 shows now such extravaganzas", adding, "what most impresses here is how full-on the concert is as the band give it socks during a rain-lashed evening". Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald called the concert one of the moments in U2's history that showed their "ability to connect with and move an audience at a time when artifice and pomposity were rampant". He was fascinated that the "rain and fog that marks the Red Rocks show, and made the mythology even more potent, almost led to its cancellation". Mark Brown of the Rocky Mountain News recalled that the video is "still a thrilling performance, raw but polished, passionate and sincere". Andrew Gilstrap of PopMatters gave the remastered version of the film a rating of 8 out of 10, stating, "It's rare that a band can totally transform a scene—especially one with a stage show that boasts charisma as its only special effect—but it's not hyperbole to say that U2 put on a dominating, flawless-despite-mistakes performance. This is the one that put U2 on the map." In its review of the remastered version of Under a Blood Red Sky, online magazine Pitchfork said, "when the group performed at Red Rocks on a rainy June night, with lit torches above a panoramic skyline, the venue provided an ideal backdrop for U2's literally flag-waving music, with everything—earth, wind, fire—in place to maximise and heighten the drama of the moment and the songs." Christina Sursky of the McClatchy-Tribune News Service said, "The DVD glows with the energy of U2's performances", and she called the rendition of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" the film's highlight. Randy Pitman of Video Librarian called the performance a "blistering 17-song set full of early material now rarely played aside from the hits 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and 'New Year's Day'". He added that although casual fans may only recognise the aforementioned hits, "the faithful will be thrilled with this classic concert". James Wigney of The Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Herald Sun gave the DVD a score of 5 out of 5, praising the film's concert, but stated that the "footage is still on the fuzzy side". Sam Kelton of The Advertiser said the DVD's audio commentary was very informative, but criticised the picture quality, stating, "even the remastered version looks like it was shot on a mobile phone". ### Commercial performance In November 1984, the video was nominated for the Best Long Form award at Billboard magazine's Video Music Conference and the performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was nominated for the Best Concert Performance award. When Billboard debuted the Top Music Videocassettes chart (later renamed Top Music Videos) in the 30 March 1985 issue, U2 Live at Red Rocks ranked at number seven. The video was included in the year-end Top Music Videocassettes charts for 1985 and 1987. Following the 2008 DVD release, the video re-entered the chart for the first time since 1989, reaching number 3. Overall, U2 Live at Red Rocks spent 152 weeks on the Top Music Videocassettes/Top Music Videos chart. In April 1985, the video appeared on Billboard's Top Videocassette Sales chart at number 29, and remained on the chart for 14 weeks. Billboard attributed the late increase in the video's sales to U2's sold-out Unforgettable Fire Tour, and called it "a textbook example of a group's current status having a direct influence on video sales". ## Legacy U2's Red Rocks concert is often cited as a watershed moment in their history that established their reputation as an exceptional live act. In the liner notes of the remastered version of the film, music journalist Anthony DeCurtis wrote, "this concert set goals for U2 that might have daunted any other young band. But in the shadow of their wild ambitions at Red Rocks, these four boys met, once again, the men of their future, and became who they would become." In 1999, Entertainment Weekly ranked the show 40th on its list of "The 100 Greatest Moments in Rock Music", saying that "the mystic, against-all-odds performance... was a spiritual and commercial breakthrough" that "transformed U2 from college-radio underdogs into A-list rock heroes". In 2004, Rolling Stone called the band's performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from the film one of the "50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll". The magazine said, "[t]he sight of Bono singing the anti-violence anthem 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' while waving a white flag through crimson mist (created by a combination of wet weather, hot lights and the illumination of those crags) became the defining image of U2's warrior-rock spirit and—shown in heavy rotation on MTV—broke the band nationwide." Director Gavin Taylor said that the video "kick-started their career" and "fired them like a rocket into the sky". A 2005 industry poll of "The World's Greatest Gigs" ranked U2's Red Rocks show the 8th-greatest in rock history. In 2009, Relix named it the 24th-best concert since 1959. The Denver Post said the concert affirmed Red Rocks Amphitheatre's status as a premier outdoor venue. Rocky Mountain News said that the concert was "[e]asily one of the most famous, acclaimed concerts of the 1980s (if not all time)", and that people who have visited the Amphitheatre ever since have been disappointed to learn that the pyres are not part of the venue and were only used for the U2 concert. Music biographer Dave Thompson said the concert "transformed U2 ... into a very successful rock band", and that without U2, "Red Rocks would be just another smartly lit amphitheater". In 2003, U2 were inducted into the Red Rocks Hall of Fame, which is on display in the venue's visitor center; the amphitheatre's official website states that U2's performance "paved the way for other great artists such as Stevie Nicks, the Moody Blues, John Tesh and Neil Young to record live concert videos at Red Rocks, and helped the Amphitheatre gain its reputation as one of the premier venues in the world". In June 2007, a U2 tribute band named Under a Blood Red Sky performed a note-for-note recreation of U2's performance at Red Rocks. That same week, the City of Denver unsuccessfully tried to persuade U2 to return to Red Rocks. During the PopMart Tour in 1997, Bono stated that because of low ticket sales for their Denver concert at Mile High Stadium, a return to the more intimate Red Rocks setting held appeal. However, in a 2008 interview, Barry Fey said that he had questioned U2 about performing at Red Rocks again, to which they replied, "Absolutely not". On both occasions, Fey said that U2 could never top their original performance and that returning to Red Rocks would be "foolish" and "a no-win situation" for the group. ## Track listing - Original release 1. "Surrender" 2. "Seconds" 3. "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" [sic] 4. "Cry" / "The Electric Co." 5. "October" 6. "New Year's Day" 7. "I Threw a Brick" [sic] 8. "A Day Without Me" 9. "Gloria" 10. "Party Girl" 11. "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" 12. "I Will Follow" 13. "40" - 2008 edition (DVD) 1. "Out of Control" 2. "Twilight" 3. "An Cat Dubh" / "Into the Heart" 4. "Surrender" 5. "Two Hearts Beat as One" 6. "Seconds" 7. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" 8. "Cry" / "The Electric Co." 9. "October" 10. "New Year's Day" 11. "I Threw a Brick Through a Window" 12. "A Day Without Me" 13. "Gloria" 14. "Party Girl" 15. "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" 16. "I Will Follow" 17. "40" ## Personnel U2 - Bono – lead vocals, guitar on "A Day Without Me" - The Edge – guitar, piano, backing vocals, lap steel guitar on "Surrender", bass guitar on "40", co-lead vocals on "Seconds" - Adam Clayton – bass guitar, guitar on "40", backing vocals on "I Will Follow", "Twilight" and "Out of Control" - Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, backing vocals Film crew - Malcolm Gerrie – production associate - Paul McGuinness for U2 at Red Rocks Associates – executive producer - Doug Stewart – producer - Gavin Taylor – director - Rick Wurpel – producer ## Charts ### Weekly charts ### Year-end charts

John Rowan (Kentucky politician)

American politician, Kentucky (1773–1843)

John Rowan (July 12, 1773 – July 13, 1843) was a 19th-century politician and jurist from the U.S. state of Kentucky. Rowan's family moved from Pennsylvania to the Kentucky frontier when he was young. From there, they moved to Bardstown, Kentucky, where Rowan studied law with former Kentucky Attorney General George Nicholas. He was a representative to the state constitutional convention of 1799, but his promising political career was almost derailed when he killed a man in a duel stemming from a drunken dispute during a game of cards. Although public sentiment was against him, a judge found insufficient evidence against him to convict him of murder. In 1804, Governor Christopher Greenup appointed Rowan Secretary of State, and he went on to serve in the Kentucky House of Representatives and the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1819, Rowan was appointed to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, serving until his resignation 1821. He was again elected to the state legislature in 1823. With the state reeling from the Panic of 1819, Rowan became the leader of a group of legislators dedicated to enacting laws favorable to the state's large debtor class. He believed the will of the people was sovereign and roundly denounced the Court of Appeals for striking down debt relief legislation as unconstitutional. He led the effort to impeach the offending justices, and when that effort failed, spearheaded a movement to abolish the court entirely and replace it with a new one, touching off the Old Court – New Court controversy. New Court partisans in the legislature elected Rowan to the U.S. Senate in 1824. During his term, the nascent Whig Party ascended to power in the state legislature, and at the expiration of his term in 1831, the Whigs replaced him with party founder Henry Clay. After his term in the Senate, Rowan returned to Kentucky, where he served as the first president of the Louisville Medical Institute and the Kentucky Historical Society. In 1840, he was appointed to a commission to prosecute land claims of U.S. citizens against the Republic of Mexico, but resigned his commission in 1842 because of failing health. He died July 13, 1843, and was buried on the grounds of Federal Hill, his estate in Bardstown. According to tradition, Stephen Collins Foster, a distant relative of Rowan's, was inspired to write the ballad My Old Kentucky Home after a visit to Federal Hill in 1852, but later historians have been unable to conclude whether or not Foster ever visited the mansion at all. The mansion is now owned by the state of Kentucky and forms the centerpiece of My Old Kentucky Home State Park. ## Early life and family John Rowan was born July 12, 1773, near York in the Province of Pennsylvania. He was third of five children born to Captain William and Sarah Elizabeth "Eliza" (Cooper) Rowan. His siblings included two older brothers – Andrew and Stephen – and two younger sisters – Elizabeth and Alice. Captain Rowan served in the 4th York Battery during the Revolutionary War, and after the war, he was elected to three consecutive terms as sheriff of York County. Having exhausted most of his resources in Pennsylvania helping establish the new United States government, Captain Rowan decided to move the family to the western frontier, where he hoped to start fresh and rebuild his fortune. On October 10, 1783, the Rowans and five other families embarked on a flat bottomed boat near Redstone Creek and began their journey down the Monongahela River toward the Falls of the Ohio. The travelers expected the journey to last a few days at most, but ice along the river slowed the journey, and a lack of provisions exacerbated the delays. Three of the families disembarked near what is now Maysville, Kentucky; the Rowans would later learn that most of these settlers were killed by Indians. The remaining settlers continued downriver, reaching Louisville, Kentucky, on March 10, 1783. In April 1784, the Rowans and five other families set out for a tract of land on the Long Falls of the Green River that Rowan had purchased before leaving Pennsylvania. The party arrived on May 11, 1784, and constructed a fort which they dubbed Fort Vienna. The fort, then located approximately 100 miles from the nearest white settlement, is the present-day town of Calhoun. The settlers at Fort Vienna frequently clashed with the Shawnee who used the area as a hunting ground. The Rowans would remain at Fort Vienna for six years. Concerned for the education of his children, Captain Rowan moved the family to Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1790. There, John Rowan began his education under Dr. James Priestly at Salem Academy. Salem Academy was, at the time, considered one of the best educational institutions in the west. Among Rowan's classmates at the Academy were future U.S. Attorney General Felix Grundy, future U.S. Senator John Pope, future U.S. District Attorney Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, and future Kentucky state senator John Allen. Rowan and Grundy were members of a debating society called the Bardstown Pleiades which may have been an outgrowth of Salem Academy. Other notable members of the society included future Florida Governor William Pope Duval, future U.S. Postmaster General and Kentucky Governor Charles A. Wickliffe, and future Kentucky Senator Benjamin Hardin. Completing his studies in 1793, Rowan moved to Lexington, Kentucky, and read law under former Kentucky Attorney General George Nicholas. He was admitted to the bar in May 1795 and commenced practice in Louisville. Rowan struggled financially during his early years as a lawyer. Nelson County judge Atkinson Hill took an interest in Rowan, furnishing him with money to expand his law library and taking him as a business partner. In order to earn some money, Rowan accepted an appointment as a public prosecutor, but after securing a felony conviction against a young man in his first case, he was so troubled that he resigned the office and resolved never again to play the role of prosecutor. For the remainder of his career, he always represented defendants. An advocate of education, Rowan allowed several prominent young law students to study in his office, including future U.S. Treasury Secretary James Guthrie, future Supreme Court Justice John McKinley, and future Kentucky Governor Lazarus W. Powell. Rowan married Anne Lytle on October 29, 1794. She was the daughter of Captain William Lytle, one of the early settlers of Cincinnati, Ohio, and by this marriage Rowan became the uncle of Ohio congressman Robert Todd Lytle. Rowan and his wife – who he affectionately nicknamed "Nancy" – had nine children: Eliza Cooper (Rowan) Harney, Mary Jane (Rowan) Steele, William Lytle Rowan, Atkinson Hill Rowan, John Rowan Jr., Josephine Daviess (Rowan) Clark, Ann (Rowan) Buchanan, Alice Douglass (Rowan) Shaw Wakefield, and Elizabeth (Rowan) Hughes. Atkinson Hill Rowan served as an emissary to Spain for President Andrew Jackson. John Rowan Jr. was appointed U.S. Chargé d'Affaires to Naples by President James K. Polk, serving from 1848 to 1849. Ann Rowan married Joseph Rodes Buchanan, a noted physician of Covington, Kentucky. In 1795, Rowan began construction of Federal Hill, his family estate, on land that his father-in-law gave him as a wedding present. Due to limited financial resources, the time required to import building materials from the east, and the craftsmanship required to construct the large home, the mansion was not completed until 1818. After a fire destroyed the log cabin in which the Rowans lived in 1812, they moved into the part of the mansion that was completed, and continued to live there while construction on the rest of the house was finished. Federal Hill was once believed to be the first brick house constructed in the state of Kentucky, but more modern sources give the designation to the William Whitley House, also known as Sportsman's Hill, which was completed in 1794 near Crab Orchard, Kentucky. Rowan owned slaves. He identified with the Democratic-Republican Party and espoused the Jeffersonian principles of limited government and individual liberty. He was chosen to represent Nelson County at the constitutional convention held at Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1799 to draft the second Kentucky Constitution. As a delegate, he advocated the supremacy of the legislative branch over the executive and judicial branches, which he believed provided ordinary citizens a greater role in state government. The constitution adopted by the convention abolished the use of electors to choose the governor and state senators, providing for the direct election of these officers instead. ## Duel with Dr. James Chambers Rowan was known throughout his life as an avid gamester. On January 29, 1801, Rowan joined Dr. James Chambers and three other men for a game of cards at Duncan McLean's Tavern in Bardstown. After several beers and games of whist, Chambers suggested playing Vingt-et-un for money instead. Rowan had determined not to gamble during this session of gaming, but impaired by the alcohol, he agreed. After a few hands, an argument broke out between Chambers and Rowan. The exact nature of the argument is not known. Some accounts claim it was over who was better able to speak Latin and Greek; others suggest that general insults were exchanged between the two men. A brief scuffle followed the disagreement. How the matter escalated to a duel is also the subject of some uncertainty. In his biography of Benjamin Hardin, Lucious P. Little recounts that Chambers immediately challenged Rowan to a duel. According to Little, Rowan, embarrassed at his behavior, refused the challenge and repeatedly apologized for his actions, but Chambers was insistent on the duel and continued hurling insults of growing severity at Rowan until Rowan accepted the challenge. A letter from George M. Bibb, published a year after the event and reprinted in 1912 in the Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, claims that Chambers' challenge was issued through a letter delivered to Rowan by Chambers' friend, Major John Bullock, on January 31, 1801. Bibb claims that he and Rowan had, after the night of the incident, gone to nearby Bullitt County on business, that Rowan had returned first, and that Rowan showed Bibb the letter upon his return on February 1. Bullock served as Chambers' second for the duel; Bibb acted as second for Rowan. According to Bibb, he and Bullock met on February 1 to discuss the parameters for the duel. Bullock proposed that the matter be dropped, but Bibb insisted that Chambers would have to retract his challenge, to which Bullock would not consent. The duel was held February 3, 1801, near Bardstown. Both combatants missed with their first shots. Both men fired again, and Rowan's second shot struck Chambers, wounding him severely. (Bibb's account says that Chambers was struck in the left side; other accounts state that the shot hit Chambers in the chest.) Rowan then offered his carriage to take Chambers to town for medical attention, and Chambers asked that Rowan not be prosecuted. Despite medical aid, Chambers died the following day. Public sentiment was against Rowan in the matter of his duel with Chambers. Soon after the duel, friends of Chambers formed a posse and rode toward Rowan's house. Rowan concocted a ruse whereby he dressed a family slave in his coat and hat and sent him riding from the house on horseback. The posse was fooled into thinking the slave was Rowan and gave chase, but the slave escaped and Rowan's life was spared as well. Days later, the owner of the land where the duel had taken place swore out a warrant for Rowan's arrest for murder. Some accounts hold that, as Commonwealth's Attorney, Rowan's friend Felix Grundy would have been responsible for prosecuting the case against Rowan and that Grundy resigned the position to avoid prosecuting his friend. Grundy's biographer, John Roderick Heller, admits that this was possible, although no evidence exists to confirm it. Heller also points out that Grundy was Commonwealth's Attorney not in Nelson County (the location of Bardstown), but in neighboring Washington County at the time. Joseph Hamilton Daveiss and Colonel William Allen served as counsel for Rowan. The judge opined that there was insufficient evidence to send the case to a grand jury, and Rowan was released. ## Secretary of State and early legislative career Shortly after his duel with Chambers, Rowan moved to Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital. In 1802, he was one of 32 men who signed a pledge to bring James Madison to Transylvania University as superintendent. This action began a long relationship between Rowan and Transylvania, and the university presented him with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1823. Governor Christopher Greenup appointed Rowan Secretary of State in 1804. He served until 1806, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He represented Kentucky's Third District (which included Bardstown) during the Tenth Congress from March 4, 1807, to March 3, 1809, even though he did not reside in that district at the time. The first major congressional debate in which Rowan participated was over the election of William McCreery as representative from Baltimore, Maryland. Joshua Barney, McCreery's opponent in the election, claimed that McCreery did not meet a requirement in the Maryland Constitution that a representative live in the district from which he was elected for twelve months prior to the election. McCreery admitted that he had moved from Baltimore to the country prior to the election but claimed that he still owned his home in Baltimore and lived there during the winter months. A resolution was introduced to declare McCreery the duly elected representative from Baltimore, and an amendment was added to clarify that the grounds upon which the resolution was based were that McCreery had not abandoned his Baltimore home. Despite his support for states' rights, Rowan opposed the amendment because he felt that state sovereignty was only made possible by national sovereignty and that the national legislature had the right to declare a state law unconstitutional. By giving another reason for declaring McCreery duly elected, Rowan felt this issue would be obscured. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 92–8, and the resolution to declare McCreery duly elected passed 89–18. Also during the first session of the Tenth Congress, Rowan proposed that a congressional committee be formed to investigate accusations against General James Wilkinson that, in 1788, he took money from the government of Spain in exchange for efforts to separate Kentucky from Virginia and unite it with Spain rather than the United States. Aaron Burr had been accused of working with Wilkinson in the so-called Spanish Conspiracy, and when Burr had approached Rowan in 1806 to solicit his services in defending Burr against the charges, Rowan had declined because he believed Burr to be guilty. Rowan's proposal to form an investigative committee against Wilkinson failed, but he succeeded in gaining approval for a committee to investigate federal judge Harry Innes' purported role in the Conspiracy. Rowan was appointed to the committee and delivered its report April 19, 1808; the report stated that the committee could find no evidence of wrongdoing by Innes. Rowan was not as active during the second session of the Tenth Congress, introducing no legislation and making no major speeches. Newly elected Kentucky Senator John Pope observed in a letter to a friend that the Democratic-Republicans in Congress disliked Rowan and were disappointed in his speaking and debating ability. He opined that Rowan's attempt to investigate Wilkinson had been a slap at party founder Thomas Jefferson (then in his second term as president), under whom Wilkinson was serving as Commanding General of the United States Army. Pope went on to write that, although Rowan personally cited no party affiliation, he was claimed by the Federalist caucus in the House. In studying Rowan's short tenure in the House, historian Stephen Fackler observed that "Rowan adhered more rigidly to the precepts of Jeffersonian republicanism than Jefferson himself, for the president compromised his principles in the national interest." Fackler observed that Rowan often disagreed with Jefferson as president, and that as a result, some historians labeled him a Federalist, a designation Fackler felt was in error. After his tenure in Congress, Rowan was elected to represent Nelson County in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1813 to 1817. In 1817, the House debated a resolution instructing Governor Gabriel Slaughter to negotiate with the governors of Indiana and Ohio to secure passage of legislation requiring citizens of those states to return fugitive slaves. Representative James G. Birney vigorously opposed the resolution, and it was defeated. The pro-slavery members of the House then rallied behind Rowan's leadership to pass a substitute resolution which softened the most objectionable language but retained the call for fugitive slave legislation in Indiana and Ohio. ## Legislative interim and service on the Court of Appeals Rowan often found himself in demand as an orator and host. In February 1818, he was chosen to eulogize his close friend, George Rogers Clark. In June 1819, the citizens of Louisville chose him as their official host for a visiting party that included James Monroe and Andrew Jackson. In May 1825, he was one of thirteen men chosen by the citizens of Louisville to organize a reception for a visit by the Marquis de Lafayette. Rowan was appointed as a judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1819. During his time as a justice, he delivered a notable opinion opposing the constitutionality of chartering of the Second Bank of the United States. He also opined that the General Assembly was within its rightful powers to enact a tax on the Bank. In the case of McCulloch v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a contradictory opinion. Dissatisfied with the confinement of service on the bench, Rowan resigned from the court in 1821. Though his service was brief, he was referred to as "Judge Rowan" for the rest of his life. While Rowan was still a justice of the Court of Appeals, the General Assembly chose him and John J. Crittenden as commissioners to resolve a border dispute with Tennessee. The dispute had arisen from an erroneous survey of the border line conducted by Dr. Thomas Walker years earlier. Walker's line deviated northward from the intended line (36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude) by some twelve miles by the time it reached the Tennessee River. The Tennessee commissioners, Felix Grundy and William L. Brown, proposed that, because it had been accepted for so long, the Walker line be observed as far west as the Tennessee River, with Kentucky being compensated with a more southerly line between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. Crittenden was inclined to accept this proposal with some minor adjustments, but Rowan insisted that Tennessee honor the statutory border of 36 degrees, 30 minutes north. The Tennessee commissioners refused to submit to arbitration in the matter, and Rowan and Crittenden delivered separate reports to the Kentucky legislature. The legislature adopted Crittenden's report; Rowan then resigned as commissioner and was replaced by Robert Trimble. Thereafter, the commissioners quickly agreed to a slightly modified version of the Tennessee proposal. In 1823, the state legislature chose Rowan and Henry Clay to represent the defendant in a second rehearing of Green v. Biddle before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, which involved the constitutionality of laws passed by the General Assembly relating to land titles granted in Kentucky when the state was still a part of Virginia, was of interest to the legislature. The Supreme Court, however, refused the second rehearing, letting stand their previous opinion that Kentucky's laws were in violation of the compact of separation from Virginia. ## Old Court – New Court controversy Due to the Panic of 1819, many citizens in Kentucky fell deep into debt and began petitioning the legislature for help. The state's politicians split into two factions. Those who advocated for measures that were more favorable to debtors were dubbed the Relief faction while those who insisted on sound money principles and the strict adherence to the obligation of contracts were called the Anti-Relief faction. In 1820, a pro-relief measure passed the General Assembly providing debtors a one-year stay on the collection of their debts if the creditor would accept payment in devalued notes issued by the Bank of the Commonwealth or a two-year stay if the creditor demanded payment in sound money. Two separate circuit courts found the law unconstitutional in the cases of Williams v. Blair and Lapsley v. Brashear. Meanwhile, Rowan, who espoused the Relief position, was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1822 representing Jefferson and Oldham counties. He immediately became the leader of the Relief faction in the House. When Relief partisans decided to appeal Williams and Lapsley to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which was at the time the court of last resort in the state, Rowan was chosen to argue the appeal before the court alongside George M. Bibb and Lieutenant Governor William T. Barry. Their efforts failed, however, as the Court found the measure unconstitutional, upholding the decisions of the lower courts. On December 10, 1823, Rowan presented resolutions condemning the Court's decision to the legislature. The twenty-six page preamble to the resolutions laid out the Relief faction's reasoning upon the subject of debt relief and legislative supremacy. The preamble and resolutions were adopted in the House by a vote of 56–40. The offending judges – two of whom had been Rowan's colleagues during his service on the Court – were summoned before the legislature to defend their decisions later in December. Following their appearance, Rowan introduced a measure to remove them from office; the vote in the House was 56–40 in favor of the measure, but this fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to remove the judges. The Relief faction then introduced legislation to repeal the law that originally created the Court of Appeals, then replace the abolished court with a new court. Anti-Relief partisans decried the measure as blatantly unconstitutional. Rowan was the chief defender of the measure, and after his impassioned speech on the night of December 24, 1824, it passed by simple majority. In November 1824, Rowan heavily revised the preamble and resolutions he presented in the previous legislative session. These revised documents effectively formed the faction's platform for the upcoming elections. Rowan's role in the Old Court – New Court controversy strained his relationship with his former friend, Benjamin Hardin. Hardin and Rowan had once been so close that Hardin named one of his sons "Rowan" in his colleague's honor. After the controversy, Hardin insisted that friends and family refer to Rowan Hardin as "Ben", but few people other than Hardin himself adopted the new name. ## Service in the U.S. Senate As a result of the 1824 elections, the Relief faction gained a 22–16 majority in the state Senate and a 61–39 majority in the House. The pro-Relief majority in the state Senate subsequently elected Rowan to the U.S. Senate, which had the inadvertent effect of weakening the faction's cause in the House by removing its leader there. Rowan served in the Senate from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1831. During the Twenty-first Congress, he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. On April 10, 1826, Rowan sponsored an amendment to legislation to reorganize the federal judiciary that would have required seven justices to concur with a decision in order to strike down a law as unconstitutional. The amendment, which ultimately failed, was offered in the aftermath of a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States declaring an occupying claimant law to be unconstitutional; Rowan personally disagreed with the Court's decision. Rowan offered another amendment providing that ministers of the federal courts would be subject to state laws when carrying out the decisions of the federal courts. After a month of debate, the entire bill was tabled. An ally of Senator Richard Mentor Johnson, who was a primary voice against the practice of debt imprisonment, Rowan made a notable speech denouncing the practice on the Senate floor in 1828. A consistent opponent of internal improvements and tariffs, even those that would benefit his own constituents, he voted against a measure allocating federal funds for the construction of a road connecting the cities of Lexington and Maysville. The vote was ill-received by the people of the state, and Rowan's popularity took a significant hit. When the bill was re-introduced in the next congressional session, Rowan voted for it only after receiving significant pressure from the state legislature to do so. The bill passed in this session, but newly elected president Andrew Jackson vetoed it. In the state legislative elections of 1830, the ascendent Whig Party gained control of both houses of the General Assembly. Rowan's strict adherence to Jeffersonian democracy and leadership of the New Court faction during the court controversy of the 1820s had put him at odds with Whig founder Henry Clay. By this time, however, not even Rowan's fellow Democrats endorsed his re-election. Henry Clay was elected instead. ## Later life and legacy After his service in the Senate, Rowan returned to Kentucky, dividing his time between Louisville and Bardstown. During an epidemic of cholera that spread through Bardstown in 1833, three of Rowan's children (William, Atkinson, and Mary Jane) died. The spouses of William and Mary Jane also died of cholera, as did Mary Jane's daughter, and Rowan's sister Elizabeth and her husband. Aid from Bishop Joseph Flaget and a group of nuns who traveled to Federal Hill during the epidemic probably spared the life of Rowan's orphaned granddaughter, Eliza Rowan Harney. In 1836, Rowan and two other men founded the Louisville Medical Institute, the forerunner of the University of Louisville medical school. The next year, Rowan was chosen as the school's first president, serving in that capacity until 1842. He also served as the first president of the Kentucky Historical Society from 1838 until his death. In his last act of public service, in 1839 Rowan was appointed as a commissioner to adjust land claims of U.S. citizens against the Republic of Mexico. During an adjournment of the commission in 1842, Rowan returned to Kentucky to visit relatives. While there, he fell ill and was unable to return to Washington, D.C.; consequently, he resigned his commission. Rowan died July 13, 1843. He was interred in the family burial ground at Federal Hill. In his will, Rowan specified that no marker should be placed over his grave, noting that his parents' graves had no markers, and he did not want to be honored above his parents. Several years later, members of his family placed a marker over his grave, despite his wishes. According to legend, the marker frequently tumbles from its base, purportedly a manifestation of Rowan haunting his grave. Cousin of the Rowan family, Stephen Collins Foster, was inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin to write his ballad My Old Kentucky Home. The song was not associated with Federal Hill until after the Civil War, and Stephen likely never visited the site, as attested by his biographers such as John Tasker Howard, William Austin, Ken Emerson, and JoAnne O’Connell. The mansion remained in the possession of Judge Rowan's family until 1922, when his granddaughter, Madge (Rowan) Frost, sold it to the state of Kentucky to be preserved as a state shrine. Today, it is a part of My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown. In 1856, the Kentucky General Assembly created a new county from parts of Fleming and Morgan counties and named it Rowan County in Rowan's honor.

Legal disputes over the Harry Potter series

Since first coming to wide notice in the late 1990s, the Harry Potter book series by J. K. Rowling has been the subject of a number of legal disputes. Rowling, her various publishers and Time Warner, the owner of the rights to the Harry Potter films, have taken numerous legal actions to protect their copyrights, and also have fielded accusations of copyright theft themselves. The worldwide popularity of the Harry Potter series has led to the appearance of a number of locally-produced, unauthorised sequels and other derivative works, leading to efforts to ban or contain them. While these legal proceedings have countered a number of cases of outright piracy, other attempts have targeted not-for-profit endeavours and have been criticised. Another area of legal dispute involves a series of injunctions obtained by Rowling and her publishers to prohibit anyone from distributing or reading her books before their official release dates. The sweeping powers of these injunctions have sometimes drawn criticism from civil liberties and free speech campaigners and led to debates over the "right to read". One of these injunctions was used in an unrelated trespassing case as precedent supporting the issuing of an injunction against a John Doe. Outside these controversies, a number of particular incidents related to Harry Potter have also led, or almost led, to legal action. In 2005, a man was sentenced to four years in prison after firing a replica gun at a journalist during a staged deal for stolen copies of an unreleased Harry Potter novel, and attempting to blackmail the publisher with threats of releasing secrets from the book. Then in 2007 Bloomsbury Publishing contemplated legal action against the supermarket chain Asda for libel after the company accused them of overpricing the final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. ## Allegations of copyright and trademark infringement against Rowling ### Nancy Stouffer In 1999, American author Nancy Kathleen Stouffer alleged copyright and trademark infringement by Rowling of her 1984 works The Legend of Rah and the Muggles () and Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly. The primary basis for Stouffer's case rested in her own purported invention of the word "Muggles", the name of a race of mutant humanoids in The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, and Larry Potter, the title character of a series of activity booklets for children. Larry Potter, like Harry Potter, is a bespectacled boy with dark hair, though he is not a character in The Legend of Rah and the Muggles. Stouffer also drew a number of other comparisons, such as a castle on a lake, a receiving room and wooden doors. Portions of Rah were originally published in booklet form in 1986 by Ande Publishing Company, a company founded by Stouffer together with a group of friends and family. Ande Publishing filed for bankruptcy in September 1987 without selling any of its booklets in the United States or elsewhere. Rowling has stated that she first visited the United States in 1998. Rowling, along with Scholastic Press (her American publisher) and Warner Bros. (holders of the series' film rights), pre-empted Stouffer in 2002 with a suit of their own seeking a declaratory judgment that they had not infringed on any of Stouffer's works. The court found in Rowling's favour, granting summary judgment and holding that "no reasonable juror could find a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the two parties' works". During the course of the trial, it was held that Rowling proved "by clear and convincing evidence, that Stouffer has perpetrated a fraud on the Court through her submission of fraudulent documents as well as through her untruthful testimony", including changing pages years after the fact to retroactively insert the word "muggle". Her case was dismissed with prejudice and she was fined $50,000 for her "pattern of intentional bad faith conduct" in relation to her employment of fraudulent submissions, as well as being ordered to pay a portion of the plaintiffs' legal fees. Stouffer appealed the decision in 2004, but in 2005 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling. In 2006 she stated on her website that she was planning to republish her books and was entertaining the possibility of another lawsuit against Warner Bros., J. K. Rowling and Scholastic Press. The Legend of Rah and the Muggles is out of print. In early 2001, it was published by Thurman House, LLC, a Maryland publishing company. Thurman House, formed by Ottenheimer Publishers to republish the works of Nancy Stouffer, was closed when Ottenheimer ceased operations in 2002 after filing for bankruptcy. Stouffer later asserted that any copies of the book published by Thurman House are unauthorized because the publisher failed to honour its contractual obligations to her. ### The Wyrd Sisters In 2005, Warner Bros. offered CAD$5,000 (later CAD$50,000) to the Canadian folk band the Wyrd Sisters for the rights to use their name in the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Rowling had written a scene in the novel in which a band called the Weird Sisters appeared at a school dance, and the group owned the rights to the name in Canada. However, the offer was declined, and instead the band undertook a legal action against Warner Bros., as well as Jarvis Cocker of Pulp and Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway of Radiohead, who were to play the band in the film. All plans to use the name in the movie were later abandoned. Despite that decision, the Canadian band filed a CAD$40-million ($39 million) lawsuit against Warner in Ontario court. In connection with the lawsuit, the band brought an interlocutory injunction hoping to prevent the release of the film. The injunction application was dismissed. The entire suit was dismissed in November 2005. In June 2006, an Ontario judge decreed that the band pay Warner Bros. CAD$140,000 in legal costs, describing their lawsuit as "highly intrusive". The group stated that they planned to appeal the decision. Jarvis Cocker initially wished to release an album of "Weird Sisters"-themed music with collaborators including Franz Ferdinand, Jack White and Iggy Pop, but the project was dropped as a result of the lawsuit. The Wyrd Sisters reported death threats from irate Harry Potter fans. As of March 2010, the lawsuit has been settled out of court, the details sealed. ### Adrian Jacobs In June 2009, the estate of Adrian Jacobs, a children's author who died in 1997, sued Rowling's publishers, Bloomsbury, for £500 million, accusing her of having plagiarised "substantial parts" of his work in writing the novel Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In a statement, Jacobs's family claimed that a scene in Goblet of Fire was substantially similar to Jacobs's book The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: Livid Land. > Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures. They also launched a joint suit against Rowling and her publishers. Bloomsbury countered with a statement of its own, saying that "This claim is without merit and will be defended vigorously," and that Rowling "had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004, almost seven years after the publication of the first Harry Potter book." The Jacobs estate, driven by his son and grandson, have published a website with details and excerpts from the book, according to the Toronto Star. In July 2010, the estate filed suit against Rowling's American publisher, Scholastic, demanding that the company burn all copies of Goblet of Fire. On 6 January 2011, the US lawsuit against Scholastic was dismissed. The judge in the case stated that there was not enough similarity between the two books to make a case for plagiarism. In the UK courts, on 21 March 2011, Paul Allen, a trustee of the Jacobs estate, was ordered to pay as security to the court 65% of the costs faced by Bloomsbury and Rowling, amounting to over £1.5million, to avoid the claim being struck out. It was reported in The Bookseller that Paul Allen has appealed against paying this sum. As a condition of the appeal, he paid £50,000 to the court in May 2011. The claim was formally struck out in July 2011 after the deadline for Allen's initial payment was missed. ## International publications In 2002, an unauthorised Chinese-language sequel titled Harry Potter and Bao Zoulong (Chinese: Simplified: 哈利波特与豹走龙, Traditional: 哈利波特與豹走龍, Hanyu Pinyin: Hālì Bōtè yǔ Bào Zǒulóng) appeared for sale in the People's Republic of China. (In English-language media this was mistranslated as Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon.) According to translated excerpts, the book principally consists of the text of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, but with most names changed to those of Harry Potter characters. The book was quickly recognised by media outlets as a fake. Rowling and Warner Bros. took steps to stop its distribution. Copies were briefly distributed around the world, including e-book copies traded on the Internet. In November 2002, the Bashu Publishing House, in the southwestern city of Chengdu, agreed to pay a £1,600 fine and publish an apology in China's Legal Times for printing and distributing the novel. As of 2007, the identity of the anonymous author had not been discovered. The opening of Harry Potter and Bao Zoulong, translated into English, was included in several news articles. As of 2007, it is estimated that there are fifteen million copies of fraudulent Harry Potter novels circulating in China, among them titles such as Harry Potter and the Porcelain Doll (otherwise known as Harry Potter and Ciwawa), Harry Potter and the Filler of Big, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Relative Prince, and Harry Potter and the Golden Armor. In 2007, Rowling's agents, the Christopher Little Literary Agency, began to discuss the possibility of legal proceedings concerning a fake version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that appeared in China ten days before the actual book's publication. In 2003, legal pressure from Harry Potters publishers led an Indian publisher to stop publication of Harry Potter in Calcutta by Uttam Ghosh; a work in which Harry meets figures from Bengali literature. The case was settled out of court. Also in 2003, courts in the Netherlands prevented the distribution of a Dutch translation of Tanya Grotter and the Magical Double Bass, the first of Dmitri Yemets' popular Russian series about a female apprentice wizard. Rowling and her publishers sued, arguing that the Grotter books violate copyright law. Yemets and his original Moscow-based publishers, Eksmo, argued that the books constitute a parody, permitted under copyright. The Dutch courts ruled that the books did not constitute parody and thus were not allowed to be sold in the Netherlands. Later that year, as the Dutch translation Tanja Grotter en de magische contrabas was still legal in Belgium, the Flemish publishers Roularta Books decided to print 1,000 copies (and no more) in order to let people decide whether it was plagiarism, hoping that under those circumstances Rowling and her publishers would not sue. Rowling did not sue, and the book, which Dutch people could buy by postal order from another Flemish publisher, Boekhandel VanIn, soon sold out. The books continue to be published in Russia and have spawned several sequels. In August 2008, Warner Bros. filed a lawsuit against production company Mirchi Movies due to the similarity of the title of their Bollywood film Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors to the Harry Potter film series. Mirchi Movies CEO Munish Purii claimed there is very little similarity between Hari Puttar and any elements in the Harry Potter franchise, and explained that Hari is a popular Indian name, while "puttar" means "son" in Punjabi, although Indian versions of Harry Potter also translate Harry's name to Hari Puttar. The film was delayed until late September. Warner Bros. claimed that the title was confusing, but Mirchi Movies claimed they registered the name in 2005. On 24 September 2008, the court in Delhi rejected Warner Bros.' claim, saying that Harry Potter readers were sufficiently able to distinguish between the two works. They also accused Warner Bros. of delaying the action, since they were aware of the film as far back as 2005. ## Other accusations of infringement In 2000, in the lead-up to the release of the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; Warner Bros., the film's distributor, sent a series of letters to owners of Harry Potter fansites, demanding that, to protect their copyright, they hand over their domain names. The action resulted in negative publicity for the company when the 15-year-old webmaster of the British fansite harrypotterguide.co.uk was reduced to tears by what were described by her father as unnecessary bully tactics. Eventually the corporation backed down in the face of media opposition and declared that, as the site was non-commercial, it did not violate the trademark. In their May 2004 issue, the US Army publication The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, which instructs soldiers on how to maintain their equipment, featured a spoof comic based on Harry Potter, featuring a character named Topper who resided at Mogmarts School under Professor Rumbledore. The publication received notice from Rowling's lawyers that the comics breached copyright, though the magazine's editor, Ken Crunk, claimed that no violation had taken place, as "[t]he drawings do not look like any of the characters from Harry Potter". After a discussion with Rowling's representatives, the magazine agreed not to use the characters again. In 2004, Rowling and Time Warner launched legal actions against bazee.com, now the Indian branch of the online auction site eBay. The site had hosted illegally created e-books of Harry Potter, which Rowling had never agreed to be published. In 2005, Rowling warned her fans on her website that various "signed" Harry Potter memorabilia appearing for sale on eBay did not in fact use her signature. She urged her fans to protest eBay to prevent other children from being swindled. In 2007, Rowling launched lawsuits against a number of users of the site, obtaining a series of stay orders preventing them from selling her work. However eBay claimed that in her dealings with the media, Rowling had falsely claimed that her injunctions had been against eBay itself. In June 2007, eBay filed papers with the Delhi High Court, alleging that Rowling had caused them "immense humiliation and harassment". The High Court circumvented the application, claiming that it could not make such a judgment until the case went to trial. In October 2007, Warner Bros. sued a group constructing a façade during a Hindu religious festival in the Indian city of Kolkata for ₹2 million (US$24,000), claiming that they had erected a giant replica of Harry Potter's school, Hogwarts, without their permission. Initial reports stated that, as the effort was not for profit, it did not violate Rowling's copyright. The Associated Press claimed that the High Court of Delhi, where the petition was filed, allowed the organisers to carry on with the temporary construction with an order that the structure had to be dismantled after the festival was over and that the court refused to impose any compensation on the basis that the organisers were involved in a "non-profit making enterprise". However, these statements were later retracted: the court had in fact ruled in favour of Warner Bros., but no fine had been ordered, and Warner Bros. claimed that they had only requested a fine because such action was necessary under Indian law. In November 2007, Rowling discussed the case on her website, listing the rumours that she had targeted a non-profit organisation as "Toxic" and saying, "The defendants were not religious charities, and theirs was not a religious celebration. On the contrary, it was a large-scale, commercial, sponsored event involving corporations that included a major Indian high street bank. The event was, however, set up while a Hindu festival was going on ... The court ruled that Warner Bros. rights had indeed been infringed, and that events such as the one in question would need Warner Bros.' permission in the future. The court also restrained all the defendants from any future events infringing Warner Bros. rights." On 31 October 2007, Warner Bros. and Rowling sued Michigan-based publishing firm RDR Books to block the publication of a 400-page book version of the Harry Potter Lexicon, an online reference guide to her work. Rowling, who previously had a good relationship with Lexicon owner Steve Vander Ark, reiterated on her website that she plans to write a Harry Potter encyclopedia, and that the publication of a similar book before her own would hurt the proceeds of the official encyclopedia, which she plans to give to charity. A judge later barred publication of the book in any form until the case was resolved. In their suit, Rowling's lawyers also asserted that, as the book describes itself as a print facsimile of the Harry Potter Lexicon website, it would publish excerpts from the novels and stills from the films without offering sufficient "transformative" material to be considered a separate work. The trial concluded on 17 April 2008. On 8 September 2008, the judge ruled in her favour, claiming that the book would violate the terms of fair use. In December 2008, a modified (and shorter) version of Vander Ark's Lexicon was approved for publication and was released 16 January 2009 as The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction. In November 2007, The Scotsman reported that Rowling had threatened legal action against American computer programmer G. Norman Lippert for allegedly violating her intellectual property rights by producing and publishing the online novel James Potter and the Hall of Elders' Crossing, an unofficial and unauthorised continuation of the Harry Potter series. Written as a fan fiction project for Lippert's wife and sons, the novel is set eighteen years after the end of the last official instalment in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and describes the adventures of Harry Potter's son, James Sirius Potter, during his first year at Hogwarts. A specialist in intellectual property law at Strathclyde University commented that, "If an insubstantial character from a novel is taken and built up by another author in a new story, that can be a defence against copyright infringements." However, after Lippert offered Rowling an advance copy of the novel, Rowling dismissed her threat and said she supported the novel and any others like it. Lippert subsequently produced a sequel, James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper. After the novel first appeared online in early November 2007, some Harry Potter fans on the Internet initially speculated that the site might be part of an elaborate viral marketing campaign for an official continuation or spinoff of Harry Potter, one either written or at least approved by Rowling herself. On 9 November 2007, Rowling's agent Neil Blair denied that Rowling was in any way involved with the purported project, and Warner Bros., the studio which owns the rights to the Harry Potter film series, denied that the novel was in any way connected to the official Harry Potter franchise. ## Legal injunctions Rowling and her publishers have brought a series of legal injunctions to ensure the books' secrecy before their launch. These injunctions have drawn criticism from civil liberties campaigners over their potentially sweeping powers over individual freedoms. In 2003, in an attempt to maintain secrecy over the impending release of the fifth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling and her publishers sought and received a groundbreaking injunction against "the person or persons who has or have physical possession of a copy of the said book or any part thereof without the consent of the Claimants". The ruling obtained, for the first time in British law, an injunction against unnamed or unknown individuals; before then, injunctions could only be obtained against named individuals. Lawyers Winterbothams noted that, "The new Harry Potter style injunction could be used if you expected a demonstration or trespass to take place, but which had not yet begun, so long as you could find a description for the people expected which the Court was satisfied identified 'those who are included and those who are not'". The "Potter injunction" was later used against a camp of Roma travellers. In 2006, pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline employed the injunction against anonymous animal rights campaigners who had sent threatening letters to their investors. The series garnered more controversy in 2005 with the release of the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when a Real Canadian Superstore grocery store accidentally sold several copies before the authorised release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court of British Columbia prohibiting the purchasers from reading the books in their possession. A comment by a media lawyer that "there is no human right to read" led to a debate in the public sphere about whether free access to information was a human right. Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, said in response, "The copyright law claim was particularly puzzling. While copyright law does provide copyright owners with a basket of exclusive rights, the right to prohibit reading is not among them. In fact, copyright law has very little to say about what people can do with a book once they have purchased it." Free-speech activist Richard Stallman posted a statement on his blog calling for a boycott until the publisher issued an apology to the public. Solicitors Fraser Milner and Casgrain, who represented Raincoast and formulated the legal argument for the embargo, have rebutted this, saying that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies only to the government, not to private litigation, and does not offer any protection of the right to read in any case, and the innocent purchasers of the Harry Potter book had no more right to read it than if they had come into possession of someone's secret diary. In 2007, Scholastic Corporation threatened legal action against two booksellers, Levy Home Entertainment and DeepDiscount.com, for selling copies of the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, before its release date of 21 July. In an official statement, Scholastic appealed "to the Harry Potter fans who bought their books from DeepDiscount.com and may receive copies early requesting that they keep the packages hidden until midnight on 21 July." Customers who agreed not to read the book received a special Harry Potter t-shirt and a $50 coupon for Scholastic's online store. ## Blackmail In June 2005, Aaron Lambert, a security guard at a book distribution centre in Corby, Northamptonshire, England, stole a number of pages from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince six weeks before its intended publication date. He was arrested a day later after negotiations to sell them to John Askill, a journalist from The Sun, turned violent. Lambert reportedly fired a shot from his imitation Walther PPK pistol, but Askill was unharmed. At his trial the following October, Lambert pleaded guilty to threatening Askill and to attempting to blackmail Harry Potter'''s publishers, Bloomsbury. In January 2006, Lambert was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. In November 2011, in her testimony before the Leveson Inquiry, Rowling said that the Sun had attempted to "blackmail" her into a photo-op in return for returning the stolen manuscript. ## Accusation of libel In July 2007, a dispute arose between Harry Potters British publisher, Bloomsbury, and Asda, a British supermarket chain owned by the US corporation Wal-Mart. On 15 July, a week before the release of the final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Asda issued a press release accusing Bloomsbury of unfairly fixing their prices. Asda spokesman Peter Pritchard claimed that Bloomsbury was "holding children to ransom" and that, "[i]t seems like Bloomsbury need to do a quid-ditch as they have sent their prices up north on the Hogwarts Express. By setting the recommended retail price at this level can only be seen [sic] as blatant profiteering on their part." Pritchard went on to say that Asda was acting to "champion the right of young readers", and that the recommended retail price was "twice the average child's pocket money and £5 more than the average children's bestseller". Asda had planned to sell the book as a loss leader at £8.87, or half Bloomsbury's recommended retail price of £17.99 and below the wholesale price of £9.89. Two days later, Bloomsbury responded that the claims were "potentially libellous" and that: > Asda's latest attempt to draw attention to themselves involves trying to leap on the Harry Potter bandwagon. This is just another example of their repeated efforts of appearing as Robin Hood in the face of controversy about their worldwide group, which would suggest they are perceived as more akin to the Sheriff of Nottingham. Loss leaders were invented by supermarkets and have nothing to do with Bloomsbury Publishing or Harry Potter and we deeply regret having been dragged into their price-wars. Bloomsbury stated that the price hike of £1 from the previous Harry Potter novel was due to it having been printed on recycled paper. "There is a price to be paid by the consumer for environmental best practice", a Bloomsbury spokeswoman said. Bloomsbury CEO Nigel Newton said, "[They have] unleashed a very disingenuous, self-interested attack on us. This is complete nonsense and all they're doing is grandstanding as they've done on the price of aspirin and bread. They try to turn it into a big deal as though it's a moral crusade for them, but it's nothing of the kind." That same day, Bloomsbury cancelled all Asda's orders of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, or roughly 500,000 copies, citing unpaid bills from the company totalling £38,000 for unauthorised returns of the sixth Harry Potter book. "The two matters are completely unrelated", said a Bloomsbury spokeswoman, "We decided today that we couldn't risk having arrears with anybody." The dispute had been "going on a while – going on for weeks actually." Asda responded that Bloomsbury owed them £122,000 ("for pulping and for other book trade issues and work we have done for them") and that, as one company spokesman claimed, "It just seems funny that after we expose the potty Potter price hike, Bloomsbury are trying everything they can to stop kids getting hold of Harry Potter at a price they can afford." Asda paid the bill within hours, and claimed that Bloomsbury would be in breach of contract if it did not allow the store to sell its books. However, Bloomsbury claimed that the block on Asda's orders was still in place as, "Unfortunately, we've now had to initiate a significant libel claim against them. That matter will have to be dealt with. If they want their 500,000 books, they'll have to come and make peace with us ... It could be good news for all their disappointed customers, because they don't have to go to a soulless Asda shed to buy their book and they can share the magic of Harry Potter at an independent or specialist bookstore instead." Upon receipt of Bloomsbury's legal letter, Asda responded that, "There is nothing defamatory in our press release. Everything there is factual. It is a commentary on how we see things." Said another Asda spokesperson, "If they don't supply us with the books, it will have a massive implication and [be] a breach of contract – but I don't think they will do that." Later that day, however, Asda released a statement retracting its original comment: "We apologise unreservedly to Bloomsbury for [our] press release dated 15 July and withdraw our statement. We look forward to a good relationship with Bloomsbury going forward, including selling the latest Harry Potter book from 00:01 am BST on Saturday 21 July and many other Bloomsbury books in the future". In response, Bloomsbury lifted the block and Asda was allowed to sell its books. The original press release was then expunged. The rationale behind Asda's initial press release remains uncertain. Neill Denny, commentator for thebookseller.com, opined that "the whole episode has the whiff of a badly-conceived PR stunt by ill-briefed senior executives at Asda out of touch with the subtleties of the book world." Ralph Baxter of Publishing News concurred: "For Asda ... it may be seen as mission accomplished, a high-risk strategy to maximise publicity for its Harry Potter'' offer rewarded with television, radio, Internet and newspaper coverage. And the association of Asda with low prices has no doubt been entrenched in a few more minds."

Montacute House

Late Elizabethan mansion in Somerset, UK

Montacute House is a late Elizabethan mansion in Montacute, South Somerset, England. An example of English architecture created during a period that was moving from the medieval Gothic to the more classically-inspired Renaissance style, Montacute is one of the few prodigy houses to have survived almost unchanged from the Elizabethan era. The house has been designated as a Grade I listed building, and its gardens are also listed at the highest grade on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. Designed by an unknown architect, possibly the mason William Arnold, the three-storey mansion, constructed of the local Ham Hill stone, was built in about 1598 for Sir Edward Phelips, a lawyer and politician who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1604 until 1611, and subsequently Master of the Rolls from 1611 until his death in 1614. He was the prosecutor in the trial of the Gunpowder Plotters. Phelips' descendants occupied the house until the early 20th century. For a brief period, the house was let to tenants, one of whom was Lord Curzon, who lived at the house with his mistress, the novelist Elinor Glyn. The house narrowly escaped demolition in the early 20th century, when it was valued for scrap at just under £6,000. In 1931, Montacute was acquired by the National Trust. One of the earliest of the Trust's acquisitions, the house came empty of its contents, and without the endowment the Trust subsequently required, its then secretary, James Lees-Milne describing it as an "empty and rather embarrassing white elephant". The east front of the house, the intended principal façade, is distinguished by its Dutch gables. The original approach would have been far more impressive than is seen today; the east façade faced onto a large entrance court and the two remaining pavilions flanked a large gatehouse which was later demolished. This entrance court and gatehouse were approached through an even larger outer court. The courts were however not fortified, but bordered by ornate balustrading which, with the ogee roofs of the pavilions, are in reality follies, an ornamental and domestic acknowledgement of the fortified courts and approaches found in earlier medieval English manors and castles. Montacute's Long Gallery, the longest in England, serves as an outpost of the National Portrait Gallery displaying a range of historical portraits. The house and its gardens have been a filming location for several films and a setting for television costume dramas and literary adaptations. It was visited by over 183,000 people in 2019-2020. ## History Montacute House was built in about 1598 by Sir Edward Phelips, whose family had lived in the Montacute area since at least 1460, first as yeomen farmers before rising in status. The site was bought from the Cluniac Montacute Priory by Thomas Phelips and passed to his grandson, also called Thomas, who started planning the house, but died before it was built and left the completion of the work to his son Edward. Edward Phelips was a lawyer who had been in Parliament since 1584. He was knighted in 1603 and a year later became Speaker of the House. James I appointed him Master of the Rolls and Chancellor to his son and heir Henry, Prince of Wales. Phelips remained at the hub of English political life, and his legal skills were employed when he became opening prosecutor during the trial of the Gunpowder Plotters. Sir Edward's choice of architect is unknown, although it has been attributed to the mason William Arnold, who was responsible for the designs of Cranborne Manor and Wadham College, Oxford, and had worked at Dunster Castle, also in Somerset. Dunster has architectural motifs similar to those found at Montacute. Phelips chose as the site for his new mansion a spot close by the existing house, built by his father. The date work commenced is undocumented, but is generally thought to be c. 1598/9, based on dates on a fireplace and in stained glass within the house. The date 1601, engraved above a doorcase, is considered to be the date of completion. Sir Edward Phelips died in 1614, leaving his family wealthy and landed; he was succeeded by his son, Sir Robert Phelips, who represented various West Country constituencies in Parliament. Robert Phelips has the distinction of being arrested at Montacute. A staunch Protestant, he was subsequently imprisoned in the Tower of London as a result of his opposition to the "Spanish Match" between the Prince of Wales and a Catholic Spanish Infanta. The family's fame and notoriety were to be short-lived. Subsequent generations settled down in Somerset to live the lives of county gentry, representing Somerset in Parliament and when necessary following occupations in the army and the church. This peaceful existence was jolted when the estate was inherited by William Phelips (1823–89), who in his early days made many improvements and renovations to Montacute. He was responsible for the Base Court, a low service range adjoining the south side of the mansion. and the restoration of the Great Chamber, which he transformed into a library. Later, he was to become insane; an addicted gambler, he was eventually incarcerated for his own good. Sadly for his family, this was after he had gambled away the family fortune and vast tracts of the Montacute Estate. In 1875, when his son William Phelips (1846–1919) took control of the estate, agricultural rents from what remained of the mortgaged estate were low, and the house was a drain on limited resources. Selling the family silver and artworks delayed the inevitable by a few years, but in 1911 the family were forced to let the house, for an annual sum of £650, and move out. The Phelipses never returned. By 1915, the original tenant, Robert Davidson, had departed and the house was let to George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston. A later tenant was the American writer Henry Lane Eno, who died at the house in 1928. The house was never to be a private residence again. It was offered for sale in 1929, and at a time when many country houses were being demolished was given a scrap value of £5,882. With the exception of the Phelips family portraits, the historic contents and furnishing were disposed of, and the house, an empty shell, remained on the market for two years. Finally, in 1931, the house was sold to the philanthropist Ernest Cook, who presented it to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and from that Society, it passed to the National Trust. It was one of the Trust's first great houses. The following year, in 1932, it opened to the public for the first time. Bare of furnishing and without sufficient funds to maintain it, James Lees-Milne, the secretary of the Trust's country house committee, described the mansion as an "empty and rather embarrassing white elephant". During the Second World War, Montacute was requisitioned by the army, and American soldiers were billeted in the surrounding parkland before the Normandy landings. The house became a Grade I Listed Building on 19 April 1961, and the grounds were entered into the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England on 1 June 1984. ## Architecture Built in what came to be considered the English Renaissance style, the east front, the intended principal façade, is distinguished by its Dutch gables decorated with clambering stone monkeys and other animals. Architecture during the early English Renaissance was far less formal than that of mainland Europe and drew from a greater selection of motifs both ancient and modern, with less emphasis placed on the strict observance of rules derived from antique architecture. This has led to an argument that the style was an evolution of Gothic rather than an innovation imported from Europe. This argument is evident at Montacute, where Gothic pinnacles, albeit obelisk in form, are combined with Renaissance gables, pediments, classical statuary, ogee roofs and windows appearing as bands of glass. This profusion of large, mullioned windows, an innovation of their day, gives the appearance that the principal façade is built entirely of glass; a similar fenestration was employed at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. However, despite the Dutch gables, a feature of the English Renaissance acquired as the style spread from France across the Low Countries to England, and the Gothic elements, much of the architectural influence is Italian. The windows of the second-floor Long Gallery are divided by niches containing statues, an Italian Renaissance feature exemplified at the Palazzo degli Uffizi in Florence (1560–81), which at Montacute depict the Nine Worthies dressed as Roman soldiers; the bay windows have shallow segmented pediments – a very early and primitive occurrence of this motif in England – while beneath the bay windows are curious circular hollows, probably intended for the reception of terracotta medallions, again emulating the palazzi of Florence. Such medallions were one of the Renaissance motifs introduced to English Gothic architecture when Henry VIII was rebuilding Hampton Court and supporting the claim that the English Renaissance was little more than Gothic architecture with Renaissance ornament. At Montacute, however, the Renaissance style is not confined to ornament, the house also has perfect symmetry. Paired stair towers stand in the angles between the main body of the house and the wings that project forward, a sign of modern symmetry in the plan of the house as well as its elevation, and a symptom of the times, in that the hall no longer had a "high end" of greater state. Montacute, like many Elizabethan mansions, is built in an 'E' shape, a much-used plan in this era. On the ground floor was the great hall, kitchens and pantries, on the upper floors, retiring rooms for the family and honoured guests. Over the centuries, the layout and use of rooms changed: drawing and dining rooms evolved on the ground floor. The original approach to the house would have been far more impressive than the picturesque approach today. The east front was then the entrance façade and faced onto a large entrance court. The two remaining pavilions flanked a large gatehouse; this long-demolished structure contained secondary lodgings. In turn, the entrance court and gatehouse were approached through a larger outer court. The courts were however not fortified, but bordered by ornate balustrading, which with the ogee roofs of the pavilions, which in reality were follies, were a purely ornamental and domestic acknowledgement of the fortified courts and approaches found in earlier medieval English manors and castles. As in all houses of the Elizabethan era, Montacute had no corridors: the rooms led directly from one to another. This changed in 1787 when stonework from a nearby mansion at Clifton Maybank (which was being partly demolished) was purchased by Edward Phelips (1725–97) and used to rebuild Montacute's west front. This provided a corridor giving privacy to the ground-floor rooms and first-floor bedrooms. Now, with the new frontage in place, the house was virtually turned around: the "Clifton Maybank" façade became the front entrance, and the impressive former front elevation now overlooked a lawn surrounded by flower borders, rather than the original entrance courtyard. The small pavilions with ogee domed roofs that flanked the demolished gatehouse remain. They may have been intended as banqueting houses, but by the 1630s were used as bedrooms. ## Interior ### Ground floor The addition of the Clifton Maybank corridor, built in the 18th century from stone obtained from another house then undergoing alteration, allowed the principal ground- and first-floor rooms to have some privacy from the servants' areas and linked the two staircases. It also allowed the house to be turned around by creating a new entrance façade facing west. The Great Hall, leading off from the corridor, was the most important communal eating and living room, but by the time Montacute was completed the traditional Great Hall was largely an anachronism. Such halls continued to be built, however, albeit as at Montacute on a smaller scale. For the first few years after its completion, the servants continued to dine in the hall, but the family and honoured guests now ate in the Great Chamber above. The hall now served as a room to receive and also for processions to commence to the grander rooms above. Leading off from the Great Hall are the family's private Drawing Room and Parlour. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, in a house such as Montacute, the Parlour was where the family would dine, possibly with some of their upper servants. It allowed them not only privacy from dining publicly in the hall but also less state and pomp than if dining in the Great Chamber above. Like its grander cousin above, the Parlour also had an adjoining principal bed chamber, now the Drawing Room, originally known as the White Chamber and later as the Round Parlour. As fashions and uses changed, and privacy from servants became desirable, like the later Baroque state apartments, these ground-floor rooms lost their original purpose and became a series of seemingly meaningless drawing rooms. The National Trust installed an incongruous 18th-century fireplace from Coleshill House in the Drawing Room in the mid-20th century. It is now furnished in 18th-century style. The room on the opposite side of the Clifton Maybank corridor from the Great Hall was originally two rooms comprising the "pannetry" (sic) and "buttery." In a large household the buttery and "pannetry" were part of the offices pertaining to the kitchen, and as at Montacute they were generally close to the Great Hall. The buttery was traditionally the place from which the yeoman of the buttery served beer and candles to those lower members of the household not entitled to drink wine. Montacute's buttery is typical, as it had a staircase to the beer cellar below. The "pannetry" was the room from which the yeoman of the pantry served bread. By the time of Montacute's completion, upper servants often dined and entertained visiting servants in the pantry. This layout was a medieval concept and later, as custom dictated that servants withdraw from the principal areas of the house, these rooms became used by the family as reception and private dining rooms. Eventually, in the early 20th century, Lord Curzon amalgamated the two rooms to create the grand, and socially necessary, dining room, which Montacute had lacked since the Great Chamber had been abandoned more than 100 years earlier. The Servant's Hall, from which a staircase in the bay window descends to the basement, became the servant's dining room at the beginning of the 18th century. Outside, the six Doric columns on the East Terrace originally had decorative finials, now replaced by lamps. ### First floor The first floor contains one of the grandest rooms in the house, the Library. The room was formerly known as the Great Chamber; in a 16th-century mansion, such as Montacute, this room was the epicentre of all ceremony and state: hence, its position at the head of the principal staircase, making it the finale of a processional route. Here, the most important guests would have been received, and where the Phelips dined formally with their guests and where musical entertainment and dancing would take place. The Great Chamber at Montacute contains the finest chimney-piece in the house; however, its classical statuary depicting nudes is long gone, victims of Victorian prudery. During the 18th century the room was shut up and used as a store and permitted to decay; this explains why in the 19th century it was completely restored in "Elizabethan style." The strapwork ceiling, panelling and bookcases all date from this period. The only original features remaining are the heraldic stained glass in the windows and the Portland stone chimney-piece. The room contains an ornate carved wooden porch; installed in the library in the 1830s, it was originally in the parlour below. At the head of the principal staircase, an Anteroom divides the former Great Chamber from what would have been the main bedroom. During the 19th century, this room was furnished as an armoury. The adjoining bedroom, the Garden Chamber, was used as a bedroom by Lord Curzon during the early 20th century, and as such was equipped with a plumbed bath hidden in a wardrobe, one of the few in the house. Further rooms on this floor include the Crimson Chamber, which together with its small adjoining dressing room formed one room accessed from the Great Chamber. Described in 1638 the "withdrawinge roome", it was used by the family to withdraw from the more public ceremonies held in the Great Chamber and also could be used to form a suite with the neighbouring bedroom, the Hall Chamber, when eminent guests were entertained in the house. The Hall Chamber was another of the principal bedrooms; the adjoining Crimson Chamber originally served as the Hall Chamber's "withdrawinge roome." as the room was described in 1638. As a suite, the rooms were intended to be accessed by a now-blocked door in the Great Chamber. In this way, if an extremely high ranking guest was being entertained, they would then take over the entire suite including the Great Chamber. Although Montacute was equipped for a visiting sovereign, by the time it was completed Elizabeth I was dead and the family's prominence was waning. The floor has numerous other smaller rooms. As elsewhere in the house their usage frequently changed according to the requirements of the mansion's occupants, and room names therefore often changed according to their use and decoration. ### Second floor A notable feature of the house is the 172-foot (52 m) second-floor Long Gallery, spanning the entire top floor of the house; it is the longest surviving long gallery in England. The gallery is lit by a continuous wall of glass on its eastern side while its length is extended by oriel windows at each end, which from the exterior appear to cling perilously to the wall, supported only by a small corbel to the masonry. Long galleries were a feature of large 16th- and 17th-century houses and had many purposes, from entertaining to exercising during inclement weather; the Phelips children would lead their ponies up these stairs to ride in the gallery. Today, it is used by the National Portrait Gallery to display part of its collection. Various former bedrooms lead from the Long Gallery, and like the gallery are now hung with paintings on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. The attic floor above the second floor, which is not open to the public, contains some garret rooms that would always have been secondary bedchambers. It is likely that in the 16th and 17th centuries they would have been occupied by the senior servants; the lower servants would have slept in any vacant corner or space on the ground or basement floors. ## Montacute House Gardens The gardens were well established by 1633, and by 1667 several walled gardens and courts had been added with established orchards. They were accompanied by stone gate lodges, which were removed in the 18th century. The north-east and south-east corners of the former entrance forecourt have pavilions with ogee domed roofs, oriel windows and obelisks. The latter two are motifs of the house itself. The garden planting, laid out within the former forecourt and in the slightly sunken grassed parterre square, was the work of Mrs Ellen Phelips, who lived at Montacute from the 1840s to her death in 1911, and her gardener, Mr Pridham, who had worked for her at Coker Court. The avenue of clipped yews that reinforces the slightly gappy mature avenue of trees stretching away from the outer walls of the former forecourt to end in fields, and the clipped yews that outline the grassed parterre date from that time, though the famous "melted" shape of the giant hedge was inspired by the effects of a freak snowfall in 1947. The sunken parterre garden design, with its Jacobean-style central fountain, designed by Robert Shekelton Balfour (1869–1942), is of 1894; Balfour's dated design is conserved in the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Mixed borders in the East court were replanted by Phyllis Reiss of Tintinhull in powerful hot colours when the earlier tender colour scheme laid down by Vita Sackville-West proved insipid to modern taste. There are around 106 hectares (260 acres) of parkland and 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of more formally laid out gardens. These are the remains of the 121 hectares (300 acres) of parkland that previously surrounded the house. ### Listing designations The gardens and parkland surrounding Montacute are listed, Grade I, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. The house itself is also listed at this, the highest, grade, as are the two pavilions and the gateway flanking the East forecourt. The South lodge is listed at the next highest grade, II\*. Other listed buildings on the estate, all designated Grade II, comprise: the New lodge and the Odcomb gate; the south-west and the north-west gates; the stables and the orangery adjacent to the house; and various architectural features in the gardens, including steps to the sunken garden, the pool and fountain in the North garden, a summer house restored by Lord Curzon, the North and East terraces, and two walled enclosures. ## Present day During the last quarter of the 20th century the gardens and grounds were restored and replanted. In 1975, London's National Portrait Gallery formed the first of its regional partnerships, a partnership that marries empty large antique spaces with the many paintings the gallery has insufficient space to display. This has seen Montacute's Long Gallery redecorated and restored and hung with an important collection of historical portraits from the reign of Henry VIII to that of Charles I. The house and grounds are open to the public. In 2019-2020, the National Trust recorded over 183,000 visitors. ## In popular culture The house and village have often featured as locations for films. Several scenes of the 1995 film version of Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility were filmed at Montacute, as were scenes from the 2004 film The Libertine. The house was used as Baskerville Hall for a version of The Hound of the Baskervilles filmed in 2000 for Canadian television. In May–June 2014 the house was used as one of the locations for the BBC's adaption of Hilary Mantel's novel, Wolf Hall. The Wallace and Gromit short film for 2012 is set at a house that seems to be based on Montacute House. The short was created in celebration of the National Trust and is titled "A Jubilee Bunt-A-Thon". The fictional location for the earlier Wallace and Gromit film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Tottington Hall, was also based on Montacute House. ## See also - List of National Trust properties in Somerset